Campaign India Agency Report Card 2010: Lodestar UM

Type of agency  Media

Company ownership  IPG

Key personnel  Shashi Sinha, CEO, Nandini Dias, Anamika Mehta, COOs, Anjali Hegde, CEO, Reprise India

Accounts won  Coca-Cola, Tata Motors (SUVs), Mahindra Navistar, Virgin Mobile, Cipla, Omron Healthcare,BGG Group, Star Health Insurance, PopulationServices International, Air India, Abbott Nutrition,Dr. Scholl’s, Charcoal, Amira FoodsDigital - Aditya Birla Money Ltd,Aditya Birla Finance Ltd., Birla Sun Life Insurance,Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd, ING Vysya Bank, Tata AIG

Accounts lost L’Oreal offline

2010 again proved to be a good year for the agency, following its successful run in 2009. Even though the agency lost its long-standing partnership with L’Oreal, the agency managed to retain the digital side of the business. Moreover, the agency bagged large media-spender Coca-Cola, and also added Tata Motors (SUVs), Mahindra Navistar, Virgin Mobile, among others to its roster.Strengthening its digital offerings, the agency formalised its existing relation with Interactive Avenues for Interactive Universal to announce the new entity Reprise. Lodestar UM India had also released its global study ‘Magna Inflation Update’ to give advertisers a sense of inflation expectations on the media pricing outlook for 2010-2011.The agency was also not too far behind when it came to awards. The agency won three gold metals at Goafest 2010 and four golds and a silver metal for radio at Emvies 2010.Coca-Cola was a major addition to their kitty, with the brand shifting its business from Madison Media after an 11-year partnership. Overall, the agency had a great year with new businesses and awards in the kitty.

How Campaign India rates the agency: 9

How Lodestar UM rates itself: 8.5

2010 has been an electric and momentous year for us. Turbo charged new business chase and wins, a strong organic growth; a dazzling show at Spikes, Goa Fest and the Emvies. IPG Mediabrands partnership with Interactive Avenues was born with the announcement of Reprise India by IPG Chairman – Michael Roth @ Cannes to drive digital leadership, and loads of young & eclectic curious minds sum up 2010.Lodestar UM with its “Curious minds for Surprising results” culture dominated the gold rush at Goa Fest and Emvies in 2010 at the back of creative media strategies and cutting edge research across brands like Tata Nano, Tata Docomo, Tata Photon+, and Garnier amongst others. Tata Nano after the wins at Cannes and Spikes made a clean sweep at Goa Fest across categories. Tata Docomo too led the market with gold’s at Emvies for the most innovative use of radio with Station Docomo, the best media strategy and again the best use of branded content. In keeping with our tradition of being the most innovative agency in curious insights and research, Lodestar UM triumphed for its Sponsorship Evaluator; a tool to predict performance of television properties. Both TAM and RAM honors of the year came to us for Research and Tata Docomo.