Campaign India Agency Report Card 2010: BBH India

Type of agency: Advertising

Company ownership: 49% stake owned by Publicis Groupe

Key personnel: Partha Sinha, Subhash Kamath, managing partners, Rishit Mehta, finance director

Accounts won: Lakme Lever, Movies Now, L&T Insurance, Johnnie Walker, Captain Morgan Rum, Parachute Ayurvedic Hair Oil, World Gold Council

Accounts lost: Star CJ

Priti Nair’s  leaving the agency is the negative that BBH faces very early in their India challenge — a negative that they would rather not have had. Russell Barrett was already in place and his presence will soften the blow. BBH is a high-cost operation, and, in these two years, they must have hoped for more meaty accounts, especially big-spending auto, telecom or FMCG brands. More from Unilever  was certainly expected once the team and infrastructure were in place.

BBH has sensibly focused on servicing their clients and on new business pitches, so it was no great surprise to see not much done on the awards area, considering Sir John Hegarty’s anathema to scam advertising.

How Campaign India rates the agency: 7

How BBH rates itself: 7

For an agency only 12 months old, 2010 was a good year for us, both in terms of business growth and the kind of talent and brands that we could attract. Today, in less than two years, we’re 52 people strong with an enviable client list. Our work has been very effective in the market place, but we’re still working towards that piece of ‘Blacksheep’ work, so that we can eventually rate ourselves a perfect 10-on-10.