While the industry is fixated on what the merged Omnicom-IPG entity would look like in the near future, one of the agencies under the Omnicom umbrella is quietly working on strengthening its foundation, forging partnerships through a sharp focus on business outcomes, with its much celebrated ‘challenger’ mindset.
The agency in India has time and again demonstrated work rooted in very clear human insight, be it for Skoda, Acko or Audi. Eileen Ooi, CEO, APAC at PHD who was recently in India says “Monaz (Todywalla) has built a great culture here and I can feel the energy, and passion just by being here. Even the clients are singing praises of the agency, so from a regional perspective, these are always great market visits.” Some of PHD’s long standing clients in India include HP, Volkswagen Group, Eicher Motors (Royal Enfield), HSBC etc.
The year 2024 has been a good indicator for how far PHD has come in India. The COMvergence rankings for the year placed it in the list of top three media agencies on the basis of new business wins, even as the first half of 2024 saw PHD topping the same list. Some of the accounts won by the agency in India recently include Atomberg, OpenAI, Watertec India etc. It has certainly kept up the momentum even though the H1 2025 COMvergence report saw the agency drop to fourth place in India with an estimated new business wins amounting to $14 million.
Monaz Todywalla, CEO, India at PHD says, “When I joined, the biggest challenge was being invited for a pitch. The first two years were just about ensuring that we were focused on our product, refining it, sharpening it, so that we were actually invited for a lot of pitches. Our pitches today, are uniquely PHD, deeply rooted in business intelligence. Also, keeping our existing clients happy helped pass the word around to be considered in diverse markets, because they became our biggest evangelists. So TRRs (Total Relationship Reviews) are very important from a new business standpoint. We are exceedingly particular about our client’s business and only hire people who have a high level of curiosity because we believe it will take us to the next level of change.”
Talking about the biggest differentiator when compared to its sister agency, OMD; Eileen Ooi, CEO, APAC at PHD who has in the past led the OMG network in Malaysia says, “Our strategic capabilities form the core DNA of PHD—an agency that always ‘thought’ before they ‘bought’. We are bringing people, data and capabilities together in line with our global positioning of ‘intelligence connected’. OMD is strong when it comes to media scale. OMD talks about creativity in media, we at PHD do the same but from the lens of effectiveness and strategy.”
PHD which recently celebrated its 12th anniversary in India has prided itself on constantly challenging the status quo, even as they have gradually moved up the leadership ladder. Todywalla says, “We are no longer a challenger brand per se, definitely not when it comes to scale. We have moved up significantly when it comes to numbers. But we have retained our challenger mindset that ensures we don’t fall in love with a particular way of doing things.”
Q] Eileen, Tony Harradine the APAC CEO of OMG said that you have a great talent for identifying strategic opportunities. What strategic opportunities has India presented and how is PHD tapping it?
Eileen: India is one of the fastest growing economies in the global ecosystem. The pace of change, the cultural diversity and capabilities of the talent in this market is phenomenal. India plays a pivotal role in driving the growth, in both APAC region as well as the global arena. I play this role of balancing what I believe is global strength and platform capabilities, while also driving support for local markets from a bottom-up perspective, taking local cultural relevance, local data and local capabilities into account. I understand the diversity in Asia, every sub region in Asia has different economies and we need to make sense of how it works for each one of them.
Q] Where does the India market rank within APAC for PHD?
Eileen: India would be in the top three, from a PHD perspective. The first two from the point of view of building scale would be China and Australia-New Zealand. From a growth perspective, India is phenomenally growing to become one of the top markets.
Q] Tell us about the new business wins and overall growth for PHD this far in 2025?
Monaz: It has been a phenomenal year for us, with almost over 50% jump in new business wins in India this year.
Eileen: Overall, we are seeing an estimated double- digit growth over 2024 in India
Q] While talent and ability have no gender-related boundaries, what does having two powerful women in top leadership roles add up on an agency level at PHD, especially when we have seen networks in India where all agencies are led by men?
Eileen: From an Omnicom perspective, we’ve always been very gender neutral in everything that we do, from our policies to our environment enabling our top talent, which includes women, to rise up the ranks. We just look at ourselves as honest, capable leaders, who can have bold, courageous conversations. One strength that women possess is the ability to lead with empathy. Even then, I wouldn’t say there are specific policies for women, it’s completely neutral.
Monaz: Meritocracy ranks very high for us, with that approach we have created organisations that attract great talent. We’re lucky that a lot of this great talent happens to be women. And kudos to that, may our tribe thrive. We, at Omnicom also have fabulous male leaders, who are great advocates and partners of the work that we do— be it Kartik (Sharma) or Tony (Harradine). There’s no unhealthy competition here, only great support from our male counterparts. That ensures a culture where women genuinely feel respected and heard, opening themselves up to the idea of leadership roles, far more than they do elsewhere. In fact, Omnicom has had a great history of women leaders, even before I came on board. There are examples of great women leaders who started their journey in advertising. It was a very different ad world back then, because it seemed like women had equal ownership in decisions that were being taken. It was one of the reasons why I joined the industry.
Q] The media landscape is getting increasingly fragmented. From the perspective of spends, is having expertise in executing cross channel campaigns a boon for bigger media agencies, as it could become a complex web for those who don’t have the capability to navigate all of it?
Monaz: It’s not like a big boon for some and bane for others. But the marketing environment is definitely growing more complex. What some of the large agencies bring to the table is robust measurement, which in a way helps you integrate a lot more touch points and marketing avenues in a more consolidated way. It also means that you have to be supremely agile to be able to pivot as fast as things are changing in marketing. I don’t think it really has to do with scale, but more to do with mindset in that sense.
Q] Measurability is a huge challenge today especially with no uniform measurement system for the fastest growing medium- digital. How are you navigating that?
Monaz: Digital is a huge landscape and they’re all figuring out how to measure it. We follow a principle called ‘test and learn’ for the new touch points that emerge rapidly. India as a market is so dynamic when it comes to measurement, that you will always find a tool, a team or framework that helps you measure what the client is experimenting with.
Eileen: To further explain the model Monaz was referring to, we have the ability to adjust and curate new ways of measurement for clients by not taking one model alone. It’s one of our superpowers. Additionally, as a holding company, we have marketing certifications — in Meta, Google, TikTok — across markets. From an India perspective, we have one of the biggest analytics teams.
Q] Some big clients like GCPL have launched media planning platforms called MASH- for Media Allocation and Spends Harmonisation. How will that impact media agencies’ business in the long run?
Monaz: We don’t think in-housing is a threat because those clients are having much richer conversations with us that are not just execution based. From a long-term value and profitability standpoint, these are far more impactful conversations than them just trying to figure out their spot on a platform. It is a complementary model and my sense is that it’s probably the need of the hour for some larger clients. We support our clients in what’s best for their organisations and in selecting the operating structures that suit them. But nothing is ever permanent. We believe that models will again evolve after a few years.
Eileen: With experience and frameworks, we support our clients with in-housing. For example, HP is one of our clients that has started this in-housing journey and we were part of that conversation in the boardroom with them for months in advance. We built the transformation and support plan for them. In fact, the first phase of their in-housing story comprised PHD employees. We’ve done this a few times across markets—basically help them set up the technology etc, let them leverage our talent capabilities first and then over time just phase out. Not surprisingly, clients have been rather appreciative of us. We’ve got the experience and because of that we don’t feel threatened because at the end of it, do you want to have a battle around the execution or an elevated conversation in the boardroom with senior clients.?
Q] What about threat from consultancies and tech companies. Companies like Accenture are yet to spread their wings in advertising in India, but when they do, how will it affect your business?
Monaz: The agency business and the service we are offering to clients is transforming in a big way, which is why even tech consultancies are moving into the agency business. We are no longer an executing arm for our clients. CMOs are asking for far more accountable business relationships from their agencies. As that is the North Star, I will face the same competition from tech companies or consultancies moving into the agency business as what I would face from any other ad agency.
Q] With Omnicom-IPG merger coming into the picture, what efficiencies are you looking forward to utilising from the IPG suite?
Eileen: IPG has interesting data strength from an Acxiom perspective. We on the other hand have Omni, which is globally built, but locally powered, designed and customised, which has established partnerships with various data players. Omni already uses generative AI. What would be really exciting is the power and the enhancement with Acxiom data which will help take us to the next level. IPG has its own strengths from a talent perspective and client repertoire, together it would be a great synergy to have in terms of growth and elevation.
Q] While the merger may take several months to go through, what are the efficiencies that you’re adding on a PHD level that are needed immediately?
Eileen: There are still three markets where we are waiting for regulatory board approval. While there is internal work that we are all prepping for, at this juncture, we are still behaving as two different entities. From a PHD perspective, our strength remains in communications planning. With data technology capabilities, we are moving forward with a focus on generative AI.
Q] The demand for new skills like programmatic buying, AI prompters, retail/ ecommerce media, data science is growing. What percentage of your new hires are in these verticals as opposed to the traditional ones?
Monaz: We definitely are focused on that hiring. But it is not taking precedence over others.
Eileen: A year ago, would you have thought that we need to have AI engineers in the organisation. Today, we are prioritising to understand if the existing talent capabilities can shift to take on a new role, minor pivots like performance marketing experts who can become retail commerce experts or content folks who can become creator oriented.
