Wednesday, January 9, 2013

From here on, We’re the men in yellow...

On April 10, 2012, we set out to spend a day at From Here On (FHO) Communications’ New Delhi office. Since it commenced operations barely an year back and boasted of a core team comprising of five top ad industry veterans, FHO seemed to be an interesting agency to explore. At the outset, we had decidedly mixed feelings. After all, a Sultanpur (situated between Mehrauli & Gurgaon) address for a creative agency does not elicit the best of expectations. Situated on the lane across pillar #18 & 19 of Sultanpur Metro station, the office built on plot no. 352 appeared to be a quiet place. A single storied building painted in red, with a black gate and an in-house temple (which could be viewed from outside) greeted us. At 10:30 am in the morning, the office appeared fairly deserted. Once in the reception bay, our opinions quickly changed. The place seemed to be pleasant and gave the impression that people generally have a lot of fun working here. As we sat waiting, the team started trickling in, and the atmosphere was soon abuzz with vibrant hues of creativity.

The beginning of 2011 was a clear sign of pleasant tidings for Dentsu in the Indian advertising industry. The Japan-based agency’s Indian subsidiary had surpassed billings of Rs.12 billion. Considering that operations had started in 2003 from an apartment in New Delhi, the leadership team, which comprised of Sandeep Goyal, Gullu Sen and Rajesh Aggarwal, had done a commendable job. However, fate had markedly different plans. In February, Goyal sold his 26% stake to Dentsu Inc. and decided to leave. Gullu Sen as Executive Vice Chairman & Chief Creative Officer and Rajesh Aggarwal as Group president appeared to be strong totem poles of the organisation. And then suddenly, a slew of resignations hit the agency hard in April 2011. Partho Maitra (Senior VP, Dentsu Marcom) and Nitin Suri (NCD, Dentsu Marcom) quit followed by Sen, Aggarwal and Shivanand Mohanty (NCD, Dentsu Communication).

However, given Sen’s and Aggarwal’s career trajectories, their resignations shouldn’t have come as a surprise. After all, they had acquired a reputation of setting up shop from scratch, making a world class agency out of the project and then moving on to the next big thing. But three more crucial people putting in their papers was definitely a blow and a little odd. In the media, they confirmed their exits, but did not give further details. It was only on May 18, 2011 that the rabbit came out of the hat. A new ad agency FHO was born with Sen & Aggarwal as Managing Partners, Mohanty & Suri as Creative Partners and Maitra as the Client Partner.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
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