By A Correspondent
In a growing trend within the Indian advertising industry, creative talent and clients are making a focused move towards smaller agency set-ups. The latest to make the move are Kapil Batra, Subrato Mehta and Abhishek Dey who have joined Eleven Brandworks as senior creative directors.
Prateek Bhardwaj, Founder Director, Eleven Brandworks, said: “Adding depth to the talent pool has been a priority for us. These additions are another step towards building a robust creative organization.”
For Kapil Batra, who has been Creative Director (copy) McCann Delhi for close to 5 years, “the move to Eleven Brandworks is an exciting challenge. With the freedom the small set-up offers, comes the responsibility of winning and managing substantially-sized businesses while producing outstanding creative products.”
In his decade long experience Mr Batra has handled the Perfetti portfolio (Chlor-mint, Big Babol, Happydent & Alpenliebe) and worked on General Motors, Greenlam Laminates, yatra.com, Usha Fans, among others. His work has been applauded by the jury of Clio, Cannes, The One Show, Adfest, Fab Awards, Spikes, The Work, Goafest and MirchiKaan.
While clients appreciate the direct interface and attention from leading creative/planning resources, the creative think tanks enjoy the flexibility these outfits offer. Commenting on his recent move, Subrato Mehta said: “Smaller set-ups are bringing like-minded people together and offering greater freedom of thought as well as a relief from mundane systems.”
Mr Mehta moved to Eleven Brandworks after a 4 year stint with Dentsu. In his 22 years in the industry, he has worked with agencies like Ogilvy & Mather, Lintas, JWT and Triton. Winner of many prestigious international awards, he has worked on brands like Canon, Honda, J&J, ICICI, Reid and Taylor, SAB TV, Kinetic, HDFC and  Manchester United Cafe, to name a few.
Abhishek Dey moved from Lowe Lintas, Mumbai to Eleven Brandworks. Mr Dey has been in advertising for the last 11 years.  Having worked in Rediffusion DY&R, McCann Eriksson and Publicis before his stint at Lintas, he has worked on brands like Tata Tea, ICICI Prudential, Bajaj Motors and Lifebuoy. On the way he picked up a few awards at Indian shows like ABBY, Goa fest and some international shows like Clio and Adfest (Pattaya).
Welcoming the new team aboard, Sampada Chaudhari, COO, Eleven Brandworks said: “Increasingly clients’ businesses are moving faster and getting more demanding. There is a shift in preference to independent agencies, as they are fleet footed and create fresh work. Our new creative talent will help create a dynamic creative pool to manage and acquire exciting businesses.”
Seconding her view, Vivek Suchanti, Partner, Eleven Brandworks added: “The independents have been able to attract some very good talent, with open structures, great work environment and partnership/ownership models (more like the consulting firms), they have become true brand custodians taking on the onus of performance of their work.”
Also Sambit Mishra, currently Senior Creative Director (copy) at Eleven Brandworks, Delhi moved to Mumbai to partner Abhishek Dey and Aneesh Jaisinghani, currently Senior Creative Director (art) Eleven Brandworks, Delhi will team up with Kapil Batra.
Eleven Brandworks is a full-service creative agency based out of Mumbai and Gurgaon. Some of the clients the agency handles are Tata Mutual Fund, Big FM, Star Plus, Times Group, Nokia Maps(Navteq), NDTV Goodtimes, Modi Ilva (Artic Vodka), Archies, Hallmark, and Homex India.
