)
Mumbai-based Taproot, led by creative duo Agnello Dias and Santosh Padhi, has surpassed heavyweights such as Ogilvy, McCann and JWT to emerge as the most awarded Indian ad agency in the 2012 edition of the Gunn Report. The latter is an annual compilation of the top advertising networks, advertisers and campaigns who have been winners at the most important ad industry award shows across the world.
Taproot leads the pack with a tally of 10 points - seven in film and three in a category called All Guns Blazing - in the country-specific league table for 2012. It is closely followed by Ogilvy at nine points and Leo Burnett with seven points respectively.
This is the second time in its four-year existence that Taproot has figured in the top three in the country-specific list of the Gunn Report. Two years ago, the creative agency made its debut at number three behind Ogilvy and JWT. At that time, it had a score of seven points, while Ogilvy led with a tally of nine points and JWT with eight points respectively.
“Certainly the win is significant for Taproot,” says Arvind Sharma, chairman of the Indian sub-continent at Leo Burnett, who has worked with both Dias and Padhi in the past. “Taproot leading the Gunn Report for India shows that it is not about size, but quality of work that counts.” With 33 people, Taproot is the smallest ad agency from India to emerge as the number one in the country-specific list of the Gunn Report.
Its rise to the top has been one of grit and gumption. At a time when agencies were still reeling under the after-effects of the financial meltdown in 2008, Dias and Padhi, who were both employed with top ad agencies (Dias with JWT and Padhi with Leo Burnett) decided to give up a life of safety and security for the rough and tumble of entrepreneurship. There were a few clients that backed them notably Bennett & Coleman, whom Dias had serviced as creative head while at JWT.
Within two years of setting up shop in 2009, Taproot had marquee clients such as PepsiCo and Bharti Airtel buying into its creative philosophy assigning the creative duties of their flagship brands to it. The agency did not disappoint doing some notable TV and outdoor work for Pepsi and Airtel demonstrating in the process that it was not a print specialist alone.
2012 saw Taproot emerging as the hot favourite at local award shows such as the Creative Abbies at the Goafest besides bagging gold at Cannes in June. By August, 51 per cent of the agency was acquired by Japanese giant Dentsu in a deal that was valued at over Rs 100 crore.
This year, Santosh Padhi, co-founder and chief creative officer, Taproot India, says the agency is pinning its hopes on work done for PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew besides campaigns executed for Bennett & Coleman. He admits the pressure to maintain its creative leadership has grown in the last one year. “The pressure to deliver good creative work is always there. That is what keeps us going,” he says.
Besides its own set of clients, Taproot is also working with Dentsu on the Tata-PepsiCo joint venture NourishCo. The campaign for the latter’s fortified water Tata Water Plus is expected to be rolled out shortly in Tamil Nadu.
