O&M advertising agency tops 6th year in a row

MUMBAI: Extending its domination over the Indian advertising industry, premier ad agency O&M India has once again emerged as India���s most admired Creative Agency as per the latest Brand Equity Ad Agency Reckoner ��� the annual ranking of the nation���s most admired ad agencies, media agencies, influential people and creative directors. The creative powerhouse has held on to the No 1 spot for the sixth time in as many years, and this year too, it has topped in virtually every parameter it was evaluated against.

In addition, O&M has the privilege of having its chairman Piyush Pandey once again take pole position in the Most Influential People and Hottest Creative Directors power lists. Even as O&M continues to rule the charts, a new No 2 has emerged in the 2008 Reckoner. JWT India, riding on the back of an impressive year of growth and creative success, has returned to the second place ��� a position it held in 2003 and 2004, before ceding ground to rivals in the past three years. In fact, there���s been a reshuffle in the No 3, No 4 and No 5 positions as well. Lowe, which was at No 5 last year, has risen to No 3.

McCann Erickson, which occupied the third position last year, has dropped to No 5. And last year���s No 2, Mudra Communications, has slipped two ranks to settle at No 4. The ranking of media agencies, however, has seen some interesting movements. Living out the continuing tug-of-war between Madison and Mindshare, the latter, which was placed second last year, has usurped the No 1 position from the former this year. Starcom holds on to the third rank, and ZenithOptimedia is at No 4.

Allied Media debuts in ���top 5 media agency��� list


There is a new name at No 5, though ��� Allied Media, the 18-month-old media services outfit of the Percept Group, debuts in the Top 5.While O&M���s Pandey heads the Most Influential People list, McCann���s Prasoon Joshi, Madison���s Sam Balsara, JWT���s outgoing creative head Agnello Dias and Lowe���s R Balakrishnan (Balki) take the subsequent four positions. Interestingly, Mudra Group���s creative head Bobby Pawar has debuted in this list at No 8.

Also, this is the first time in the Reckoner���s six-year history that four media agency professionals ��� Balsara, Lintas Media���s Lynn de Souza, GroupM���s Vikram Sakhuja and Starcom���s Ravi Kiran ��� find themselves in this elite Top 20 list. Heading the list of India���s Best Ad Production Houses is Corcoise Films ��� a first for the production house. Black Magic takes the No 2 spot, Equinox Films is placed third, while MAD Films comes fourth. Last year���s No 1, Nirvana Films, is at No 5 this year.

And among the top Creative Directors are McCann���s Joshi (No 2), JWT���s Dias (No 3), Lowe���s Balki (No 4) and O&M���s Abhijit Avasthi (No 5). New entrants in this Top 20 list include Rediffusion Y&R���s Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar and Ramanuj Shastry, and Ambience Publicis��� Ashish Khazanchi.

The 2008 Reckoner, for the first time, has three new verticals ��� Top Digital Agencies, Top Design Agencies and Top Brand Promotion Companies. Webchutney and Hungama take the No 1 and No 2 positions in the Digital Agencies, Ray + Keshavan and Elephant Design are the No 1 and No 2 among Design Agencies. Candid Marketing and Solutions Integrated are placed first and second among Brand Promotion Companies.

This year���s Reckoner is packed with loads of information and analyses. For all that and more, turn to the copy of the Brand Equity Ad Agency Reckoner (metro edition only) that���s come with today���s ET.