Campaign India Agency Report Card: Creativeland Asia

Type of agency: Advertising
Company ownership: Independent
Key personnel: Sajan Raj Kurup, chairman and chief creative officer, Vikram Gaikwad, partner and executive creative director 
Accounts won: JM Financial, John Distilleries and Cholayil’s Medimix and Cuticura
Accounts lost: None

Creativeland Asia has been working hard to position itself more as a marketing solutions agency than as an ad agency. The agency launched Parle Agro’s lemon drink LMN, its snack food range Hippo and John Distilleries. The agency created some distinctive packaging for Hippo. The Mumbai office was tasked with the launch of JDL’s two alcohol brands – Salute Vodka and Mont Castle Brandy – apart from JDL’s existing whisky brand, Original Choice.The agency won JM Financial,  Cholayil’s Medimix and Cuticura. Creativeland’s south foray last year has not brought forth much in terms of new business.  Quadrant’s Paul Menacherry was brought on board for the south.Parle’s fruit juice brand Saint, which Creativeland created the packaging and communication for, saw a national rollout, with a TV campaign. 2009 also saw Creativeland launching Youngcreative.org, a student arm that attempts to build a community of enterprising students from diverse backgrounds such as B-schools, design schools and graduate colleges. Well intentioned, no doubt, and we are hoping to hear more about that one. The agency had a nominal outing at the award shows this year, bagging two finalist nominations in The One Show’s Design category, two finalists in The One Show, three entries in the D&AD’s 2009 In-Book and although the agency was shortlisted at Spikes Asia, these did not convert into any wins at the first Spikes Asia awards held in Singapore this year.

Campaign Score: 7
 

How Creativeland Asia rates itself: 7

The number of brands we handle went up. The number of brands who are curious to work with us went up. The numbers for our brands went up. The number of people in our office went up. The number of people who want to be in our office went up. The number of awards on our shelves went up. The number of good days at work went up. The number of good pieces of work went up. The number of work from Creativeland showcased in the One Show, D&Ad and Shots mag went up. Our experience went up. The number of hours in our day went down. It must be the downturn.
When we look back at the year, the good outnumbers the not-so-good. Creativeland has grown. Creativeland has matured. Another year. Thank you 2009.