Campaign India Agency Report Card: MPG

Type of agency: Media
Company ownership: Havas
Key personnel: Anita Nayyar, CEO, Mohit Joshi,VP North, Jyoti Bansal, ED West and South, Jeffery Crasto, chief buying officer
Accounts won: VLCC, Carlsberg Beer, A.O.Smith, Ishta Hotels,   Manpower, Business Bhaskar, Tarz Lifestyle, DLF Pramerica (insurance), V&S Broadcasting, Ministry of Tourism (intl. business)
Accounts lost: Dr. Batra’s Clinic

While it may take a while before MPG can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with older industry heavyweights, the agency in India has been going from strength to strength, especially in the last year when it posted a 100% growth in revenues.

This, despite having lost one of their biggest accounts Dell, because of a global alignment with WPP. The agency has Reckitt Benckiser to give it a much needed back-bone but MPG has decided to grow organically and pitched for and bagged new businesses locally including Business Bhaskar and DLF Pramerica.
Rising to the market asking, MPG India has already launched Havas Entertainment in the space of branded content, Havas Sports in the space of Sports Marketing, Media Contacts in the space of Digital and interactive new media, Catalyst for strategy and econometric modelling and MPG Active for outdoor and activation solutions.

The agency also took up a global study across nine markets, one of them being India. The study was undertaken to understand the consumer’s sentiments on the issue of climate change and suggested the kind of communication to be adopted in the future regarding the issue of climate change.

Campaign Score: 6

How MPG rates itself: 9

Almost 250 crores worth of new biz has been added making us cross the 500 crore mark across all offerings and all locations. Last year we posted 100% growth in revenues. Business retention has been a key factor in our growth as well, as we’ve not lost any business other than a globally aligned one which obviously was not in our control. We’ve been constantly in the news for good reasons, new biz wins, new people joining, new divisions being launched, only agency to globally do a Climate Change study, speaking at various public forums, etc. Clear indication of the health of the agency and and the zest to move on. We are very well respected in the industry and a people seek a lot of opinion on various aspects of advertising, communication and media from us. Trust this should qualify us for the score.