Campaign India Agency Report Card: Leo Burnett

Type of agency: Advertising
Company ownership: Publicis
Key personnel: Arvind Sharma, chairman & CEO, Nitish Mukherjee, MD, K V Sridhar, NCD
Accounts won: Reliance Globalcom, Tata Capital, Delhi Daredevils and Hindustan Petroleum, Big TV (with Mudra), Express Group, Elder Pharmaceuticals (male grooming products), Asia Pacific Breweries
Accounts lost:GoaFest ’08, SAB TV

2008 has been a year Leo Burnett will remember for a long time. And for all the right reasons. Creatively, Leo Burnett outshone most other agencies, save JWT, and boasted of an impressive metal haul from key creative shows. The campaign that Leo Burnett created for Luxor Highlighters, in which the body copy is highlighted in a way that it showcases iconic characters (Che, Charlie, Hitler) as well as the one for P&G’s Tide saw it bag awards from Abbys, One Show, New York Festival, Adfest and D&AD and India’s first Cyber Lion from Cannes.
Leo Burnett India rounded up the year effectively by being been chosen the Global Agency of the Year from 94 offices in 86 countries across the Leo Burnett network. The consideration for being rated as a Bright Star requires each market to have met its financial and business goals and to have delivered creative breakthroughs. New businesses were led by big local wins: Tata AIG, IPL Delhi Daredevils, Express Group, HPCL and Big TV.
Burnett’s work that stands out in 2008 includes a Thums Up film with Akshay Kumar performing high-speed racing stunts in narrow alleys of Malaysia.; “Where is the pulp” for Minute Maid and  ‘Shake shake’ for McDonalds also made a mark.
The agency saw some key people leave including Santosh Padhi, national head and creative director, Leo Burnett. Karl Gomes, the ECD at Arc Worldwide (Leo’s digital arm) who got the agency a Cyber Lion at Cannes also hopped over to Rediffusion Y&R as NCD, digital; while Kaustav Das, new business director, South Asia, quit too. Sambit Mohanty took over Brand Planet Elephant’s ECD post.  
New joinees included: Rupesh Kashyap who came in as ECD from Everest and Sachin Bavkar who was appointed as ECD for Leo Burnett’s design cell.
Campaign Score: 8

How LEO BURNETT rates itself: 8
2007-08 was a great year for Leo Burnett India. We grew by 20% with new business additions like Reliance Globalcom, Tata Capital, Delhi Daredevils and Hindustan Petroleum. We brought home a slew of awards from Cannes, One Show, New York Festival, Adfest and D&AD amongst others. We brought home India’s first Cyber Lion from Cannes. Our employee satisfaction scores have surged ahead to 85%, making LB India one of the best places in the network to work in. And to top all this, we were adjudged the best Leo Burnett agency and awarded the Agency of The Year 2008 across the 94 offices of Leo Burnett Worldwide. Anyway you look at it; it was a great year for Leo Burnett India.