Campaign India Agency Report Card: Percept/H

Type of agency Advertising
Company ownership Hakuhodo Inc and Percept Ltd. (They each own 50% )

Key personnel Ajay Chandwani, executive director, Prabhakar Mundkur, CEO, Iqbal Raj, national creative director
Accounts won Bajaj Allianz Capital Shield, Force India, SBI Mutual Fund, MTNL
Accounts lost None

There has been a lot of shuffling this year at Percept/H at the human resource level. The restructuring exercise included the elevation of Prabhakar Mundkur to chief executive level, the induction of Ajay Chandwani to the board of directors and the appointment of Iqbal Raj as national creative director. Dilip Marathe joined as the creative head for the Mumbai office.
In terms of work, this year’s key highlight is  the recently released  corporate campaign for Bharti which was a part of the rebranding exercise that Bharti Group had undergone.
The agency also recently won a part of the Bajaj Allianz business from TBWA,  launching  the Capital Shield brand. It also won  Vijay Mallya’s Force India, SBI Mutual Fund and MTNL amongst others.
The going has been steady, but, apart from the Bajaj Allianz business, the agency has made no great strides.  Percept/H is no longer a young agency and, hopefully, Mundkur’s elevation will see a new focus on new business development.
Campaign Score: 6

How PERCEPT/H rates itself: 8
Percept H made significant strides in 2008.  Besides attracting some of the best talent in the industry in creative, strategy and general management, Percept H had its most aggressive year for new business.  Well known names like Bajaj Allianz, SBI Mutual Funds, Bharti Enterprises, Kingfisher Airlines-Force India, Edelweiss Capital and global FMCG brands like Yardley amongst a host of other blue chip brands made their way to the agency.  Many of these accounts were won with the top ten agencies in the pitch making it a serious contender for the top brands.
Better strategy, better creative, and better 360 degree solutions is what attracted most of the clients. Some new work that caught everyone’s eye was the new Siyarams  TVC with Dhoni with its 20 year theme - ‘Coming home to Siyarams’. The new Bharti corporate TVC also made its mark along with the Capital Shield TVC from Bajaj Allianz.