Campaign India Agency Report Card: Starcom MediaVest Group

Type of agency: Media
Company ownership: Publicis
Key personnel: Ravi Kiran, CEO, South Asia,  Sandeep Lakhina, COO, South Asia, Tarun Nigam, executive director, India – North, Nikhil Rangnekar, executive director, India-West, Narendra Lambara, GM, Sriram Sharma, GM – Bangalore, Dinesh Rathore, GM – West, Kaushik Chakravorty, Country Head, Enhance India, Sandip Bansal, Country Head, Xpanse India, Sanjay Shah, CEO—India, Navia, Mahesh Ranka, GM, Relay Worldwide, Rajesh Iyer, business director, The Bridge, Yuzdi Badhniwalla, GM, Starcom IP
Accounts won: Bajaj Sevashram, Abbot, Avon, BOA/ML, RIM, JKHC, Disney, Bank of India Paras Pharma,  
Eko, STel, Star CJ,Walt Disney Television
Accounts lost: Future Group, Tetra Pack, Wipro Consumer Care, Singapore Tourism Board, Aircel

 
New business was led by local accounts. New initiatives  included the launch of a sister brand, Mediavest Worldwide  with clients such as Cadila, Color Plus Fashions, Essar Retail.Dinesh Rathore, was appointed Mediavest’s head.
The agency saw the relocation of Suyesh Shankar as national strategy director of Starcom IP.  It also announced the appointment of Yuzdi Badhniwalla as GM for India. Other moves sawAshish Limaye moving from Navia to become  GM – marketing at Starcom Mediavest. Sandeep Lakhina was promoted as its chief operating officer for South Asia.
While this has, as acknoweldged by Starcom, been a tough and stable year, the Aircel picture remains foggy. Loss of their TV business would be a big blow.

Campaign Score: 7
 
How SMG rates itself: 7

This has been a year of sowing new seeds for us. We decided to slow down our new business activity and focused on consolidating our existing client relationships instead. This resolve motivated us to invest in several areas that would help us and our clients this year, and more importantly, in future.
India’s first twin studies of how consumers are responding to the slowdown –  SENTIMETER and SPENDRIFT, India becoming the 29th country to welcome MediaVest, a $11 billion network with 350+ clients worldwide, bringing Ninah Consulting to talk to clients on the business case for marketing, the formalization of StarWiz, a partnership with K J Somaiya Instutute in Mumbai to start a full time advanced program in Integrated Marketing Communications, running the SMG Digital Day program to digitize clients one at a time,  initiating Project Jumpstart to help start-ups build scale, getting nearly two dozen people trained to become leaders, winning accolades at the Festival of Media Awards, Valencia and at Cannes, taking Aircel national, growing the businesses of Samsung, Emirates, Heinz and Zydus Wellness, and winning exciting businesses such as Eko Financial Services and the Walt Disney Company – it has been a busy year for us at Starcom MediaVest Group India.
Something tells us 2010  will be different.