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 and forging partnerships through a sharp focus on business outcomes — all while staying true to 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 sense of energy and passion just by being here. Even the clients are singing praises, 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), and HSBC, among others.
The year 2024 has been a strong indicator of how far PHD has come in India. The COMvergence rankings placed it among the top three media agencies based on new business wins, with the first half of 2024 seeing PHD topping the list. Some of the accounts recently won by the agency in India include Atomberg, OpenAI, and Watertec India. It has certainly kept up the momentum even though the H1 2025 COMvergence report saw the agency drop to fourth place in India with estimated new business wins amounting to $14 million.
Adding to that, 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 clients’ 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 it has moved up the leadership ladder. Todywalla adds, “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.”
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