Campaign India Agency Report Card: Carat

Type of agency: Media

Company ownership: Aegis Media

Key personnel: Ashish Bhasin, chairman and CEO, Aegis Media, Kartik Iyer, MD, Haresh Nayak, head, Posterscope, Shamsuddin Jasani, head Isobar, Anand Bhadkamkar, CFO Aegis Media, Vidhu Sagar, GM Carat

Accounts won: Muthoot Group, BMW, Lerros Fashions, Air Asia, Tourism Australia

Accounts lost: Electrolux, Jyothi Laborataries

After a shaky 2007 that saw personnel leaving the agency and a messy annulment with Percept, Aegis, Carat’s parent has seen an encouraging year. Ashish Bhasin, after half a year of running India for Aegis Media may be feeling satisfied with what the agency has achieved. He had joined the agency, moving from Lowe after spending 20 years there, with an aim to grow Carat to its full potential and seems well on the way of doing just that.

The year started on a strong note vis-а-vis new businesses with Muthoot Group, BMW, Lerros Fashions, Air Asia and Tourism Australia topping a list of wins.  Reiterating its commitment to India, Carat (Aegis Media) stepped up its investment in India in 2008 while moving its sub regional headquarters to India.
Bhasin made some astute appointments beginning with Kartik Iyer, armed with 17 years of media industry experience, to head Carat India. The agency genuinely diversified, adding muscle to Carat as it brought in Posterscope, its OOH arm, and Isobar, the digital division, and took stake in Communicate2, a Mumbai-based search marketing agency. While Haresh Nayak, an OOH veteran, took over as GM Posterscope, Shamsuddin Jasani moved from Hungama to handle Isobar.

The media division of Carat also hired some senior professionals including, Vidhu Sagar who came in from Business Today, to beef up the support on the key businesses in Delhi.  In due course, the Head of HR, Birendra Raj and CFO, Anand Bhadkamkar were hired putting most of the top management in place.
There is plenty for Bhasin and Iyer to do in 2009. Starting with more visibility as it still remains little known compared to the behemoths of the media planning buying industry.

Campaign Score: 7

How CARAT rates itself: 9
We rate Carat a 9/10 as the network has:
1. Made the investments in the market ahead of the revenue thus reaffirming their faith in India.
2. The existing team was strengthened with the hiring of key people
3. Two new divisions were created and teams hired for them
4. All teams have in a very short time set up revenue streams through new business acquisitions which will sustain their operations
5. Posterscope has already opened offices in 10 cities.
6. Carat (Aegis Media) is therefore ready to leap ahead in the coming years.