GroupM’s Mindshare crowned South Asia Media Agency of the Year

Monday, 23 December 2013 01:27 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Mindshare topped a list of prestigious of media agencies vying for Campaign India magazine’s ‘South Asia Agency of the Year’ title. Contributing to the regional win, Mindshare Sri Lanka took the Bronze award in the Rest of South Asia category while Mindshare Bangladesh bagged the Silver and Mindshare India won the Gold in the India Media Agency of the Year category. The winners were announced before a gathering of industry representatives at the Four Seasons, Mumbai. It was a cross-continental win for the GroupM agency with the South East Asia Media Agency of the Year title also being awarded to Mindshare. Mindshare Malaysia and Vietnam took Gold while Thailand and Hong Kong took Silver and Singapore took the Bronze awards in their respective categories. Parent company GroupM shaped the market this year, taking the coveted Media Network of the Year award presented by UK’s Campaign magazine.

For 20 years, the Agency of the Year awards have recognised inspired leadership, management excellence, outstanding business performance and overall achievements in the advertising and communications industries. In a report announcing the victors, Campaign Magazine highlights the reasons why Mindshare prevailed: “In many ways, the GroupM agency is noticeably different. For one, only 50% of its business is now derived from conventional media planning and buying. Today, the media network describes itself as being in the business of ‘Adaptive Marketing’. “This requires a continual evolution to new markets, consumers and new media to create customised brand experiences. With a focus on big data, the agency is using real time fast-moving data to learn more about consumer behaviour, optimise channels, and adapt and refine plans in real time.” “Change at this scale is never easy, and for Mindshare it involved a comprehensive retraining of more than 100 traditional planners to plan in a screen agnostic manner in China. It restructured processes and systems to deliver simple POE plans. Essentially, the agency changed its composition to match its clients’ needs. “It required all staff to complete and pass a 40-hour digital training program. It worked with clients such as GSK, Kellogg’s and Land Rover on the integration of paid, owned and earned media and activating partnerships to give it a footprint and capabilities to reach and engage consumers. “Mindshare also rolled out a new global planning and operating system, the Original Thinking Framework. Its CEOs, MDs and discipline leaders created training materials, mandating its use on every pitch. It launched six new adaptive tools, including Connections Planner, which optimises all paid and owned media to drive earned. “All of that led to a stellar new business performance, as the agency won and retained more than $ 2 billion in billings in 12 months. During the year, Mindshare claims to have defended $ 1.6 billion of its billings and retained 95% of clients. Mindshare is the Media Network of the Year for breaking the mould of the traditional agency structure and rebuilding its foundations for the future.” GroupM COO Sabry Haniz explained: “Mindshare, as the leading agency under GroupM, remains the most awarded media independent agency in the country. In the past, having dominated the local award shows, awards in this nature demonstrates our recognition regionally. Campaign South Asia award is the second instance we have managed to walk away with a regional award following our success at the GoaFest early this year. “Our robust planning framework is instrumental in developing successful media neutral and 360 degree solutions constantly. This complements the unparalleled rate advantage we offer to our clients. We are indeed very fortunate to have a list of long standing clients and media partners who have been a pivotal part of our success.”