Maxus tops in new ad business

Top agencies JWT and Ogilvy are conspicuous by their absence from the list of agencies picking up the maximum business in 2006, even as those like Euro RSCG and Grey Worldwide have made a comeback.

A report prepared by Spatial Access Solutions, a media audit firm, said the WPP group's media buying outfit, Maxus, picked up the maximum business in 2006, with estimated gains in excess of Rs 380 crore (Rs 3.8 billion).

At least Rs 5,210 crore (Rs 52.1 billion) of advertising business was up for grabs in the year, an increase of 36.79 per cent over the previous year.

The figure included mega account movements like the estimated Rs 100-crore (Ts 1 billion) Nokia and Rs 200-crore (Rs 2 billion) Reckitt Benckiser deals, as well as new account wins like Tata Sky.

The volume of business movements during the year was high at 557 accounts, 35 per cent higher than in 2005.

"Roughly, 20 per cent of the volumes can be attributed to new advertisers," said Meenakshi Madhvani, managing partner, Spatial Access Solutions. This also means that the remaining 15 per cent of business was lost by agencies to rivals.

For instance, just the loss of the Nokia media buying business, estimated at Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion), put Zenith Optimedia second on the list of agencies losing the maximum business.

McCann Erickson reportedly saw a business churn of Rs 120 crore (Rs 1.2 billion). The losses included the LG account worth roughly Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) and Virgin Atlantic worth Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million).

Govind Pandey, senior vice-president and general manager, McCann Erickson, claimed that since the LG account movement took place in 2005, the actual figures for 2006 would be far less. However, Spatial Access executives said the movement of the LG account was reported only in January 2006.

There were also agencies with mixed fortunes. Starcom, the media buying agency from the Publicis group, inked contracts worth Rs 152 crore (Rs 1.52 billion) and lost business worth Rs 79 crore (Rs 790 million).

The wins included Kishore Biyani's Future Group and Essar group accounts, while the major losses were of Ultratech cement and durables company Sony India.

Similarly, Grey Worldwide won business worth Rs 109 crore (Rs 1.09 billion) and lost Rs 64 crore (Rs 640 million). The list included the likes of Ashok Creatives, ITDC's in-house creative wing, which came sixth on the list of the business gainers on the basis of the Incredible India tourism campaign.