Type of agency: Advertising
Company ownership WPP
Key personnel:Nirvik Singh, chairman and CEO, Grey Group Asia Pacific, Shalini Dam, national creative director, Grey Group, Jishnu Sen, head,
Mumbai branch
Accounts won: Haier, Fairever, Jindal SAW, Meridian Mobile, Millennium Spire, National Insurance Company
Accounts lost: Gujarat Tourism, Raj TV, SREI, Suzuki Motorcycle, My FM
With Priti Nair’s exit from Grey after barely a few months at the agency, it’s safe to say that things didn’t look particularly creative-friendly at the WPP shop. A few months down the line, though, with a new national creative director and a restructuring in place after the G2-Ramms acquisition, the agency looks like it has sorted out domestic issues. With the G2-Rams tie-up, Grey is scaling up its marketing services division in a big way and has indicated that they might look at more acquisitions if the opportunity rears its head. Post his elevation to the role of chairman and CEO, Grey Group, Asia Pacific, Singh has indicated that a restructuring is in order. The rumour mills worked overtime with before and after the exit of Priti Nair suggesting more departures, but Singh has done an admirable job of keeping the flock together.
The healthiest trend is that of account wins across disciplines and across offices. Grey now would look back at 2008 with a sense of great satisfaction.
Campaign Score: 7
How GREY GROUP INDIA rates itself: 7
A very exciting year at GREY group, India, starting with a strategic acquisition of Rams Relationships. Grey impressed this year in markets like Bangalore and Kolkata by picking up a string of new clients from a range of sectors. Clients like Britannia added Britannia Actimind and Healthy Breadspreads. 3M added Post-its and Scotch Tape to the Grey Bangalore portfolio.
G2 Interactive added Infosys to its roster of clients. Grey PR won its first global brand, BlackBerry and had a successful launch of the BlackBerry Bold. One cannot forget the most talked about event of the year The IPL, and Grey PR worked on the communication for the Rajasthan Royals, the winning team even though considered the under dogs in the beginning of the tournament and no media wanted to talk about the team.
Shalini Dam came on board as national creative director. Mangesh Someshwar re joined the agency as senior creative director after a short break. Christabelle Howie joined Grey as branch head in Chennai. Grey did lose some good people like Naresh Gupta, head of planning and Sarita Srikant – branch head Chennai.
Grey was happy to be part of the Indian contingency of awards won at Cannes this year. The agency picked up a bronze for its incredible work on Incredible India, Taj Campaign.