Campaign India Agency Report Card: O&M

Type of agency: Advertising
Company ownership: WPP
Key personnel: Piyush Pandey, executive chairman, SN Rane, co-executive chairman and COO, India and South Asia; Madhukar Sabnavis, country head- discovery and planning, regional director- thought leadership, Rajiv Rao; Abhijit Avasthi, national creative directors
Accounts won: Tata Sky DTH, Manipal University, Mother Dairy, Usha Electricals, Anchor Toothpaste, Bharati Cements, Dhanalakshmi Bank, Trent Ltd,  
Religare, Titan Fastrack Eye Wear, IBM Smart Business, Unilever Digital Beauty Portal, Sprite Eurasia assignment, Air Asia, Christian Dior, Johnson Controls,  Merck, Elder Pharma
Accounts lost: Neo Sports, Tata Housing, Parryware, Axis Bank

The restructuring in the agency’s top creative management was a significant move, a signal that Piyush Pandey was handing over the reins to the then executive creative directors, Abhijit Avasthi and Rajiv Rao.
At the Media Agency of the Year awards, the Mumbai office won in the India and sub-continent office category, a testament to Hephzibah Pathak’s competence. There have been no senior level exits, and no significant business losses. Global Ogilvy chairman and CEO, Shelly Lazarus prioritised retention of key talent as a critical task in India.  O&M was consistent at the award shows, this year, with a metal tally of 50, including  eight Golds and 17 Silvers. At Cannes, O&M scored 19 points and also performed well at Spikes Asia, Media magazine’s Agency of the Year awards, Adfest and The One Show.  Their  work for Zoozoos was the most talked about campaign in 2009. The end of the year saw O&M create Fevicol’s Moochwali campaign.  2009 also saw the agency turning out steady work for other brands in its kitty like Cadbury India, Sprite, Dove, Max New York Life Insurance, The Economist and Fanta.

Campaign Score: 9
 
How O&M rates itself: 9

We continued to be recognised in the industry for creativity and effectiveness.  The Vodafone Zoozoos has been the breakthrough creative idea of the year. Our biggest tribute was Vodafone India being named the Marketer of the Year by Brand Equity. Our Mumbai office was recognized as the best in India and South Asia at the Media Agency of the Year Awards. Kapil Arora  won the runner up in the category Account/Biz Development Person of the Year. We are proud of the Eurasia Sprite assignment from Coca Cola, and the business assignment from IBM. We opened three key revenue streams- Ogilvy Earth, Ogilvy Health and Ogilvy Retail and have begun to restructure our PR division.  A satisfying year. There is always scope to do more- and a gap just provides the motivation to go ahead.