Campaign India Agency Report Card: Rediffusion Y&R

Type of agency: Advertising

Company ownership: WPP

Key personnel: Diwan Arun Nanda, chairman, Mahesh Chauhan, group CEO, Minakshi Achan, Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, chief creative officers

Accounts won: Tata Nano, HDFC Home Loans, Rasna, Arrow, Au Bon Pain

Accounts lost: None

Overall, an average year for Rediffusion Y&R. Inspite of losing Ramanuj Shastry to Saatchi & Saatchi towards the end of the year, the agency kept the momentum going, by bringing in Minakshi Achan to partner Sagar (Mahabaleshwarkar) in the role of chief creative officer. In spite of the internal transition, work for Airtel has been consistent so the transition has been seamless. Steady work for Airtel has kept the buzz alive.

Towards the end of the year, the agency announced its brand new client-centric approach: 1Rediffusion. With this new approach, the agency aims to put together a consolidated approach when making a business case for clients. While moves such as these may be dismissed by some as old wine in a new bottle, only time will tell how differentiated the new offering is likely to be.

Airtel, Eveready Ultima batteries, Sleepwell are brands that have kept the agency busy. They  also brought in new talent; Wunderman has Leroy Alvares as its president, R Balasubramaniam as head – CRM strategy and Nikhil Bhagwat as branch head for Bangalore, while Radha Roy was appointed as head, Delhi and national business development head for Rediffusion Y&R PR.

The significant appointments in the creative department are Ajay Naqvi joining as national business head for Airtel and Chraneeta Mann as creative head. A fair share of key people have left Rediffusion this year as well. Wasim Basir quit recently as the group executive vice president, post a stint that lasted a little above one year. Rohit Misra too, called it quits while he was the president. Karl Gomes, national creative director, quit the agency’s digital division towards the end of the year, as did Ramaswaroop Gopalan, the division’s national business head. The agency won the launch mandate for Tata Nano, a part of the Marico portfolio, HDFC Home Loans, Rasna, Arrow  and Tata Steel.

Campaign Score: 8

How REDIFFUSION Y&R rates itself: 8

2009 has been a tumultuous year for the entire industry. At Rediffusion-Y&R, we saw an opportunity in this gloomy environment and focused ourselves on accelerating and closing the reinvention agenda we had embarked upon. Key highlights for that are :

-Brand conversations – our trademarked approach

to client requirements

-Collaboration

-Restructuring the entire eco system including job descriptions.

-Refinement of our horizontally deployed digital capabilities.

-Building up our design offering.

-Consolidation of our PR and Media practices.