Campaign India Agency Report Card: W+K

Type of agency: Advertising
Company ownership: Independent
Key personnel: V Sunil, executive creative director, Mohit Dhar Jayal, MD
Accounts won: Chevrolet (Cruze, new Beat ‘mini’ car, Captiva), eBay, Incredible India: global & US-specific campaign 2009, Nokia: global entry-segment (MFN) campaign
Accounts lost: None

While in the first year W+K India laid low focussing its energies and resources into stabilising and nurturing its cornerstone brand, Nokia, 2009 saw the agency step its foot on the pedal “pitch-wise”.
The agency bagged the fiercely contested account of Chevrolet Cruze and its mini car as well as the creative mandate for eBay in India.
For perhaps the world’s most celebrated ‘micronetwork’, this is just the right time to be in India. While it has been involved with an entire gamut of branding solutions for one of its first clients IndiGo, the agency released an unusual animated TVC to bring out the IndiGo experience based on real life instances of air travellers.
W+K India continues to invest in integration and attracts an influx of talent from various W+K offices worldwide. The coming year will see W+K’s work for Chevy’s new launches.
For Royal Enfield, the agency has created some clutter breaking work, which has been well-appreciated.  The agency launched their own art gallery towards the end of the year, in a bid to establish their credentials.
No big wins in the year, though has been a disappointment.

Campaign Score: 7
 
How W+K rates itself: 7.5

We’ve taken a big leap forward in Year Two. Infrastructure and key personnel are in place, and operating smoothly. Our multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary teams are adapting very well to the local context. The new office is beautiful and we just opened our art gallery a few weeks ago. Also, our W+K Racing team, sponsored by Nokia N97, came 9th in the x-treme category of the Raid de Himalaya (see http://twitter.com/WKRacing). At an ideological level, we’ve managed to preserve the integrity and quality of the work without any harmful medical side-effects. We’ve also strengthened our focus on experience design instead of getting overtly obsessed with TV spots. Best of all, we’re being approached by an increasing number of interesting brands that want to break away from the old school model. It’s not easy being a creative independent in this market, but here we are. ‘Always outnumbered. Never outgunned’.