Campaign India Agency Report Card: OMD

Type of agency: Media
Company ownership: Omnicom
Key personnel: Jasmin Sorabji, managing director, Harish Shriyan, managing partner
Accounts won: HP, Nissan Motors, Danone, Virgin Atlantic
Accounts lost: None

In a year which, most agency chiefs would admit, has been largely about keeping their heads low and weathering the recession, OMD has been bullish about focussing on globally aligned businesses that they could grab in India. Jasmin Sohrabji, MD, OMD India won in the Agency head of the Year –National category at the recently concluded Media Agency of the Year awards, and that’s a testament to Sohrabji and her team’s determined performance in the year that’s coming to a close.
Among global wins, HP and Nissan Motors were significant .There was also Virgin Atlantic. While there has been some speculation about the agency eyeing globally aligned businesses which aren’t yet in its kitty in India, such news has, to date, remained speculatory. Henkel, Warner Brothers, Dhara and Gems & Jewellery, Johnson & Johnson, Parle Agro were some of the other businesses added to its fold. There was no business lost. OMD started its Delhi operations, on the back of the HP win. It hired Ashish Bhatnagar from mediaedge:cia to head the operations in the capital. It also brought on board Madison’s Satish Nair and Ritesh Dutt from Zenith Optimedia (ZO) as business directors.
Considering the age of the agency in India, there are any number of non-conflict categories that OMD could attack if the brands are unhappy with the incumbent agency. Look out for a more aggressive OMD next year.

Campaign Score: 9
 
How OMD rates itself: 10

OMD has had a perfect run this year. Big new business wins - HP, Henkel, Nissan, Visa, Virgin Atlantic, and Danone, gave the Agency a blue chip roster(added as they were to the existing business of J&J, Intel, Parle Agro, GE, Standard Chartered Bank, Ambuja and more). 2009 has been a year of aggressive growth for India. OMD India has made 6 key hires. Gita Ram – head, South (Bengaluru & Chennai); Ashish Bhatnagar – head, Delhi; Praveen Kumar – head, strategy planning & analytics; Jyoti Kumar Bansal – head, new business development; Vivek Mhaskar – GM, finance who will support CFO Choodamani Parameswaran in the finance function; Anupama Singh – strategic planning lead, Bangalore. The launch of 2 new divisions – OMD Digital and OMD Metrics rounds up the client offering. OMD Insight too grew from a one-man operation to a full-fledged unit. International accolades and recognition came its way too -  Agency Innovator of 2009 by Internationalist Magazine, UK and Agency head of the Year- National 2009 by Media magazine for Jasmin Sohrabji, and Media Planner of the year nomination for Mamatha Morvankar, again the only one from India. The Acuvue Hydration Expert campaign on mobile won the Silver in the Digital Innovation Awards of The Internationalist, UK.