Pankaj Mridul of RKSwamy/BBDO quits; joins Contract as Delhi chief

Pankaj Mridul, earlier senior vice-president and executive national creative director, RKSwamy/BBDO, has joined the Delhi branch of Contract Advertising as senior vice-president, a slot that remained vacant after Mohit Hira quit the agency to join The Times Of India in July. Confirming this development, Colvyn J Harris, president, Contract Advertising, said, "Pankaj was the ideal candidate for us. While he has been a creative head, he also has tremendous experience in running offices. Given this background, Mridul will have the responsibility and authority to carry through his decisions as Delhi head."

Mridul's mandate is to grow and nurture the business with Contract, Delhi, with key focus on the creative output. Talking about his brief, Mridul, says, "Both Colvyn and Contract want Contract to be a creative force to reckon with and rival anybody in the market. Thus the focus at Contract's Delhi office is to ensure superior delivery of strategies and creatives to its clients." This does not translate into aggressive pitching for businesses. "My approach to bottomlines is a little unconventional. My belief is that good work is the way to be profitable," adds Mridul.

For Mridul, the decision to quit RKSwamy/BDDO was prompted by the simple need to "explore more". "I had informed Shekhar Swamy of my decision to move on. I must say that he is one of the finest people that I have worked with, who has a great advertising and marketing brain. He indeed is a gentleman," says Mridul.

Mridul launched his career in advertising with Sobhagya, a Mumbai-based financial advertising agency, in the year 1985. In 1987, he joined Mudra Communications as trainee copywriter. It was in Mudra, while undergoing the residential trainee programme, that Mridul met up with Ramki (D Ramakrishna, head of creative, JWT, Mumbai) and Balki (R Balakrishnan, executive creative director, Lowe). After working at Mudra for close to six years, Mridul joined Karishma, the sister of the agency of Lintas (now Lowe) as associate creative director. He was there for a year and then moved to Enterprise in Bangalore to head the creative team. In 1994 Mridul was back in Mumbai and for nearly for four years he ran a creative boutique called Forefront. The agency had clients such as Mother's Recipe, Kalaniketan, children's readymade garments brand Jinny & Johnny.

Unfortunately, Forefront had to shut shop because of client outstandings. "It was terrible but at the same time I must say it was a great learning experience. We had a great deal of fun at Forefront." After Forefront, Mridul joined RKSwamy/BBDO, where for nearly 20 months he doubled up as the head of the Delhi branch and the creative head. "I was practically living out of a suitcase, shuttling from one city to the other, till of course we found the right candidate."

His resignation comes in a space of two months of agency COO Sunil Gupta's departure. No one has been shortlisted yet to replace Mridul. When RKSwamy/BBDO was contacted, sources said that the agency is in the process of "evaluating people and the person may not be based in Delhi after all". © 2003 agencyfaqs!