Lowe boosts Delhi creative team

In the last 10 days or so Lowe (Delhi) has pitched for a host of new advertising accounts and it's expecting some sure-fire wins. In fact it made a presentation to the Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit for a government ad on VAT on Tuesday.

Apollo Hospital is yet another business it's pitched for and is hoping for it to fall in its lap. More recently, it won the communications business for Interglobe's proposed airline and the Indian Army campaign.

It was probably in anticipation of this growing business in the city that the agency has revamped its creative department in Delhi. Last fortnight, it moved its Mumbai-based creative director Brijesh Jacob to Delhi with the brief to bring about a visible difference in the quality of creatives.

Some time back, two senior executive creative directors -- one each from Mumbai and Bangalore -- were jointly given the charge of handling seven creative teams in the Capital.

So Priti Nair, one of the three executive creative directors in Mumbai and Rahul Sengupta from Bangalore now spend 50 per cent of their time in Delhi overseeing the creative done out of Delhi in addition to their responsibilities back home.

"We needed senior people to strengthen the creative teams here. This was the best arrangement as most senior executives are unwilling to move permanently," explains Mohit Beotra, executive vice-president, heading Lowe's Delhi office.

Beotra claims clients in Delhi now have easy access to Nair and Sengupta. "Senior people provide right execution to innovative creatives," says Nair.

Incidentally, the much-talked about Greenply ad of the Sikh kid recalling his previous birth was created by Nair along with her team in Delhi after she took over. Besides Greenply, Nair's team is currently handling LG, Maruti, Joyco and Woodland accounts among others.

With Delhi fast catching up with Mumbai on the ad scene, the creative barriers between the two metros seem to have blurred.

"At the end of the day, what a client asks for is a good solution to his problem. Whether it's done by the creative in Mumbai or Delhi is not his concern," says Brijesh Jacob.