Prasanth Kumar, CEO of Mindshare India and S Asia, says the agency is all set to become the melting pot where Data, Content, Digital and Technology blend, and further scale its growth momentum
Priyanka Mehra
Mindshare India has been in the news last year for all the right reasons, and even more so last week, with the agency being ranked the second-most awarded agency globally, according to the Gunn Report for Media 2016—a rarity for an Indian media agency.
According to the latest RECMA ratings, Mindshare owns 18.8 per cent of the market in India, which is almost double that of the next agency in rank.
Mindshare topped the qualitative RECMA with 21 points which made Mindshare the only agency being dominant in India.
The Indian agency made a clean sweep on the awards scene both globally and in India. Having won 250 awards last year (2016), which is quite a leap from 176 the previous year (2015), making Mindshare the most awarded agency in the country today.
“We are not in a stage of ticking boxes; we had some great hits and it has been very encouraging since it was across all forums. It has further enthused our teams across functions and strengthened their belief that our philosophy works in the market place,” shares Prasanth Kumar, CEO, Mindshare India and South Asia.
“We are certainly not hunting for a quantity of awards; our hunt is to do some fantastic work for clients and everything else is a derivative of that,” he clarifies.
Mindshare APAC also dominated the 2016 Asia Pacific new business leagues according to independent consulting firm R3. The agency had a sizable lead and nearly 50 per cent more revenue than the next closest competitor, according to R3.
In addition to topping Asia Pacific overall, Mindshare also took home the top spots in Thailand, India, and China.
Whilst the agency gained immense appreciation for its Grand Prix Glass Lion for its 6-Pack Band campaign for HUL's Brooke Bond Red Label at Cannes last year, making it the first media agency worldwide to win a Glass Grand Prix at Cannes, it quickly followed it up by bagging the 'Media Agency of the Year' title at Emvies, back home.
However, the question is: how is the agency equipped to maintain and scale this fast growth momentum?
“Speed is of essence to us, ‘the how’ we want to run is very clear, so our risk-taking ability is high and the team is empowered. Our internal orchestra has a very clear sense of direction and clarity. Our engagement with our own partners as a result of all this has grown multi-fold; they see a team who wants to do better for them,” shares Kumar.
