Campaign India Agency Report Card 2011: Zenith Optimedia

Type of agency: Media

Ownership: Publicis Groupe

Key personnel: Satyajit Sen, CEO, Roopam Garg, COO, Navin Khemka, Sanjoy Chakrowarthy (managing partners),YogienderJain,EVP,RajatGhandhi, senior VP - Performics, Arabinda Ghosh, EVP - strategic resource group, Dalaip Daniel,VP – Newcast

Accounts won: Reckitt Benckiser / Paras,Toshiba, Honda Siel, Indiabull, Suzlon, Microsoft, Olx, Unicharm, Greenlam, Plan India

Accounts lost: Videocon

On the business front, ZenithOptimedia (ZO) has continued its good run this year as well with new account wins of Reckitt Benckiser,Toshiba and Honda Siel, among others.And, it also managed to retain most of its key accounts barring Videocon. This year, the agency announced the appointments of7Roopam Garg, Sanjoy Chakrowarthy,Arabinda Ghosh and Dalaip Daniel, while CSO of the agency Raghavendra Subramanian moved on.

In May 2011,the agency also introduced research arms such as Ninah and Touchpoints ROI Tracker, and has reportedly planned to launch its other specialist research arms in the coming months.The agency launched its performance marketing agency, Performics in India this year.
Though the agency has managed to add big businesses, the jury feels the work done for them is not too visible.The agency has not managed to win much at awards platform too, besides an Emvie for Aviva. 
How Campaign India rates the agency: 7

How Zenith Optimedia rates itself: 9
By offering marketers what they want most (increased ROI) has resulted in our best year ever with billings growth of US $180 million. Major wins, for this year, include international clients such as Reckitt Benckiser,Toshiba and Honda as well as local clients such as Indiabulls and Suzlon.
Ultimately the recognition we crave most is from our clients for helping them to deliver against their business results. In order to get our staff to truly focus on adding value to our client’s business, we introduced the ZO Shrest (Excellence) Awards in May 2011.These awards are split into various categories and are judged by our senior clients, as well as media owners.They have proved to be highly motivational to our staff and have also succeeded in getting them to think more creatively without losing perspective of what delivers client ROI. Externally the awards have also been applauded as an innovative initiative by several trade press publications.Whilst most of our awards have been on the client judged ZO Shrest Awards, we also picked up an Emvie for Aviva this year.