Campaign India Agency Report Card 2010: Interface

Type of agency: Advertising

Company ownership: IPG

Key personnel: Niteen Bhagwat, executive director and chief executive officer, Joe Thaliath, chief operating officer, Robby Mathew, national creative director, Shireen Cama, senior vice president 

Accounts won: United India Insurance, BNP Paribas Mutual Funds, MARG Corporate and Everonn Education 

Accounts lost: None reported

A solid year for Interface, where they retained their existing clients and grew organically with them. The big news was the launch of Mahindra’s foray into the biking segment (Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor featured in the campaigns for Mahindra Stallio and Rodeo respectively). Further business from Mahindra was added with the launch of Maximo. The agency lost their client servicing director in Chennai, Anbu Chezhian, who moved to head Law & Kenneth Chennai.  In February, Pratim Putatun and Nupur Banavalkar of Interface Communication Mumbai were declared winners in the Print category at the Dry Ideas Contest held by the Bhaskar Group. No other major creative recognition followed.

How Campaign India rates the agency: 8

How Interface rates itself: 8

An eventful year 2010 saw Interface Communications adding on new assignments from both existing and new clients. The year started off with the successful launch of ‘Maximo’, which marked Mahindra’s entry into the sub 1 ton cargo segment. This was followed by a new and highly visible campaign for the very successful Xylo.  The FMCG segment witnessed the launch of Sundrop Freshlite, a new variant from the ConAgra stable.  

Followed by the much awaited entry of Mahindra into the biking segment.The year saw Interface add over 15 new assignments and register a 20% growth winning mandates for United India Insurance, BNP Paribas Mutual Funds, MARG Corporate and Everonn Education, among others. Interface continued its focus on learning and value addition.

Arthi Basak who joined recently to head planning is piloting a new thrust in knowledge based communication development. This has resulted in the setting up of an automotive practice, as also a food practice. This coupled with several other initiatives has made Interface an agency that is focused on learning.Interface also has emerged as a solid Digital agency and possibly the only agency in the country to have combined the traditional and new media teams to give customers a genuine 360 degree experience. The Interface team is betting that going into the future Digital will become mainstream and treating it as specialist will only create sub optimal solutions. 

As Interface enters its 25th year, it has a rock solid roster of No. 1 clients and high growth for the past 3 years.