Campaign India Agency Report Card 2011: Grey Worldwide

Ownership: WPP

Key Personnel: Jishnu Sen, CEO and president, Grey India, Malvika Mehra, SVP & joint NCD, Grey India, Amit Akali, SVP and joint NCD, Grey India, Sudhir Nair, SVP and head, Grey Digital

Account won: Delhi: National Geographic Network, Honda Brio, Collage Group, Fuji Films, GlaxoSmithKline (Shopper Marketing), Crocin, Mankind Pharma;  Mumbai: ITC Ltd Lucky Strike, Parle Full Toss & Wafer, Wella Kolestint, Bajaj Allianz  (Batey Mumbai), S Kumars Belmonte; Bangalore: Machdar Sports i1 Super Series, Dell India; Chennai: Butterfly Home Appliances, New Generation Media; Digital: Volkswagen, Bajaj Allianz, Star TV, Just Dial, Cipla, Dell, CRY

Account lost: Britannia Dairy, Deccan Cargo (Bangalore), RMKV (Chennai), Fem & Oxy Bleach (Delhi), ONGC Ltd (Delhi), Deutsche Bank (Mumbai)

2011 was the year for the interesting work to begin on Reliance Communications (an account Grey won in 2010), and there was progress on that front with the 3G and Anushka-Rannvijay campaigns. The jury felt that there’s been some decent work on the brand which has certainly made a difference to the communication when compared with its last five years. Other work that made for some conversation was on brands like Honda Brio and Parle Full Toss. The agency also picked up a Bronze Lion for its work on P&G’s Downy brand. Kaizad Pardiwalla, Dip Sengupta, Uddalak Gupta, Navin Kansal, and Arindam Sarkar joined the agency, but the biggest people development was the announcement that Bindu Sethi, chief strategy planning officer, would be moving to JWT. With Jishnu Sen now in the president and CEO’s role and Amit Akali and Malvika Mehra continuing as NCDs, the jury looks forward to more talk-worthy work from the agency.
How Campaign India rates the agency: 7

How Grey rates itself: 8.5
2011 began with a BANG! Grey won the Honda Brio pitch. The rest of the year was a continuation of our staggering new biz momentum with many wins that included Nat Geo, Crocin, Dell.We chalked up our first ever medal at Cannes and an Effie for GSK.

Kaizad Pardiwalla , Uddalak Gupta and Arindam Sarkar joined our senior team. So after a year and a half, the turnaround was done. We had great people, we had won lots of businesses and awards and finally it was about the work. The Bharti AXA , Parle and the Reliance campaigns got people talking. The marketplace results were outstanding as well, Sensodyne turned out to be the best ever toothpaste launch ever. Clients are chuffed, money rolling in with Grey leading the WPP pack on all growth parameters, beginning of award wins. Life is real good at Grey.

​