Campaign India Agency Report Card: Motivator

Type of agency: Media

Company ownership: WPP

Key personnel: Vikram Sakhuja, CEO, Group M, South Asia, Rajul Kulshreshtha, MD, Sundeep Sharma, GM Delhi

Accounts won: Yatra.com, Honda Jazz, Mahuaa TV( Mahuaa Entertainment, Mahuaa News, Pragya TV), Olive Notebooks, Talwalkars Gymnasium, Bank Of India, Union Bank of India, Monsanto Holdings

Accounts lost: Amara Raja Batteries

Motivator has been winning  accounts of late and picked up some sizeable pieces of business this year, the main prize being the Honda Jazz account that it won following a multi-agency pitch. That it was able to out-win Dentsu Media that handles all other Honda accounts was commendable. It also bagged the business of Yatra.com, an online travel portal, based on its strategic insights about the segment.

A lean agency with offices in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai, Motivator prides itself in low attrition rates.

Overall, a disappointing year for the agency with nothing out of the ordinary.

Campaign Score: 7

How MOTIVATOR rates itself: 6.5

The year began on a good note, but the ending has disappointed.  We did extremely well in Delhi.  We grew the Havells business, tried to get out of the general feeling of gloominess with some success, picked up the Honda Jazz account as well as Yatra.com. Lost a few business pitches. Guess we did not want to work@1% or share rates.  In the course of the year we realized that the positioning of the ‘Agency for Emerging Corporates’ was an apt one and one that we will pursue with more zeal in 2010.

Historically, Mumbai which has been the driving force did not perform as well as we had planned, but I guess this was an exceptional year. The really good part was that our attrition rate was close to zero with only Partha leaving us. But as people in HR will tell you, this has been an exceptional year!