Campaign India Agency Report Card: Bates 141

Type of agency: Advertising
Company ownership: WPP
Key personnel: Sonal Dabral, chairman, Sandeep Pathak, CEO, Manosh Mukherjee, COO, Dheeraj Sinha,CSO, Vijay Singh, MD, 141 Sercon
Accounts won: Dabur Uveda, Maa (Cavin Care), Max BUPA, Virgin Mobile (OOH), Apollo Hospitals, Win Medicare, Aerotropolis, TVS Motors (new project), Viacom 18’s Colors and MTV, Green Valley Industries, LaOpala
Accounts lost: Family Credit, Global Academic

By the end of 2008, CEO Subhash Kamath was on his way to BBH and ECD Rajeev Raja had joined DDB Mudra. Sandeep Pathak came in as CEO. Work on Virgin Mobile, Tata AIG and Fiat Linea has been noticeable. Bates won the OOH duties for Virgin Mobile, the creative business for Uveda, Dabur’s range of high-end fairness creams; Max BUPA; Apollo Hospitals; Win Medicare and Aerotropolis and TVS Motors’ new motor-cycle account.

Bates got Leo Burnett’s Russell Barrett as ECD for Mumbai; Vijay Jacob, put in his papers to join Grey.Alok Kumar Ghosh and  Ashok Vidyasagar, quit the agency. Virgin Mobile has been the agency’s badge of honour, winning silver at the AME Awards and a Bronze at Jay Chiat Awards this year.

Campaign Score: 8
 

How BATES 141 rates itself: 8

Like everybody else , the slowdown affected us and one of our largest clients was a part of the meltdown. Even with this setback we will meet our projected numbers and deliver on the committed margins. We are now reaching the optimum mix of the right talent, right clients, right engagement and work .There is a new leadership in place nationally as well as in our key offices. We have continued the category defining work on Virgin which won us many accolades nationally and internationally. It was our best show in the local Goafest awards as well as at Cannes. Our thought leadership on this brand also got recognised at the Asian Marketing Effectiveness awards as well as an award at the prestigious Jay Chiat Awards. Our work on Fiat also was one of the most differentiated pieces of work done in the automotive category and helps us re-launch the brand in a fresh manner to bring it back into the consideration set of automotive buyers. Our work on current brands like Tata-AIG Life recently has also produced some discontinuous results for the brand. The year also has seen us pick up some key new businesses, TVS Motors, WinMedicare, Dabur Uveda, La Opala, etc, while we continue to strengthen our relationships on our current businesses. Our mantra is simple “Take care of the product and everything else is a by-product.”