O&M perceived to be India's best agency, reveals ORG-Marg study

According to AgencyTrack 2001, ORG-Marg’s syndicated study on perceptions about Indian advertising agencies, O&M has emerged as India’s best advertising agency

According to the findings of AgencyTrack 2001 - ORG-Marg's syndicated study on perceptions about Indian advertising agencies - creative powerhouse O&M has emerged as India's best advertising agency. The agency heads the rankings in most parameters that were assessed (based on various classification groups), and has, in the process, replaced the country's biggest agency, HTA, in terms of ‘admiration quotient' - a function of positive perceptions.

Sharing parts of the inferred information from the study, Ranjan Kapur, managing director, Ogilvy & Mather India, points out that the agency has consistently improved its position over the past decade, and has leapfrogged into the lead with the latest study. "It's amazing how the agency has grown in perception terms since 1990," he tells agencyfaqs!.

AgencyTrack 2001 is, incidentally, the fifth such study undertaken by ORG-Marg - the previous studies were conducted in 1990, 1995, 1997 and 1999, respectively. The primary objectives of the study are determining: the factors that are considered critical by advertisers and employees of advertising agencies while evaluating advertising agencies; the perception of various agencies on each critical factor; and seeing how these perceptions have changed over the years.

The findings of AgencyTrack 2001 are the result of 450 structured interviews comprising 300 advertisers and 150 agency personnel, where respondents from the advertisers' side were a mix of people from senior and middle management, while agency personnel were made up of middle level executives in agencies. The survey, which was conducted in November last year, covered the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore.

For O&M, one of the most heartening aspects of the study is the ‘perceived Best Agency' ranking. The agency is perceived to be the best Indian agency by 34 per cent of all respondents (advertisers), a sizeable lead over HTA (19 per cent) and Lowe (9 per cent). "This is the first time that O&M has managed to overtake HTA on this parameter, since the first AgencyTrack study was conducted," says Kapur. Incidentally, O&M's ‘best agency' scores in the previous studies were 9 per cent, 8 per cent, 11 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively.

Another parameter where O&M has broken new ground (again by ousting HTA) is in the ‘perceived among Top Three' ranking. Fifty seven per cent of all advertisers surveyed believe O&M is worthy of being a Top Three agency. The corresponding figures for HTA and Lowe are 44 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively. Here too, Kapur points out that HTA had been occupying the top position in the past, although O&M's scores have been constantly improving with each study (25 per cent, 30 per cent, 41 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively).

Perhaps, the best measure of an agency's caliber is assessing how many advertisers who are not currently associated with the agency are willing to consider working with the agency in the future. (This also has a direct bearing on the agency's prospects for inorganic growth.) Again O&M can be pleased with the results - 59 per cent of non-O&M clients have shown an inclination to consider the agency. "And almost 67 per cent of policy makers in a non-O&M base are open to working with us," says Kapur.

Perceptions within the industry - especially as a suitable and desirable employer - are as important as advertiser's perceptions. O&M tops this ranking too, with 76 per cent of all agency executives voting the agency as ‘Good to work for'. O&M leads the charts even where a break-up has been made along client servicing, creative and media planning lines. 75 per cent of all creative people think O&M is a good employer, while 72 per cent of media planners think the same. Most interestingly, despite O&M being seen as a ‘creative agency', 81 per cent of all servicing folk believe the agency is a nice place to work.

All this is not to say that O&M doesn't have handicaps. For instance, among small and medium-sized spenders the agency enjoys relatively less confidence. Similarly, the agency is still weak in the eastern region of the country, where HTA still dominates. And although marketers of FMCGs and consumer durables broadly admire O&M, other marketers - especially those of services - still need to be won over.

Kapur, of course, is delighted with the results. "We have been marked ahead of everyone on every single criteria by advertisers and agency executives alike," he smiles. "Be it understanding the consumer, trust, long-term brand building, servicing, creative, 360-degree capabilities or general management. And the best part is, this is an impartial, syndicated study - not something paid by us. I think this is the best credentials presentation anyone could get. It's a worldview of O&M versus The Rest." © 2002 agencyfaqs!