Crayons Advertising floats 5 specialist agencies on its silver jubilee

Crayons becomes purely creative agency backed by Melon Media, Amber Out of Home, Ultra Violet Digital and Jade Events.

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | July 6, 2011

Crayons – India's largest independent ad agency is celebrating its silver anniversary with some restructuring and a complete image makeover. The agency now has a new logo, full of colour and energy – depicting a stylish and cohesive organization with a multitude of ideas. Coinciding with Silver Jubilee, Managing Director of Crayons, Kunal Lalani announced the launch of five specialist agencies, all integrated under 'CRAYONS COMMUNICATIONS GROUP'. These agencies are Melon Media, Amber Out of Home, Ultra Violet Digital and Jade Events; and 'Crayons', now becomes a purely creative agency.

Elaborating on the reason for this, Lalani says, “Industry dynamics and expectations of clients have led to this restructuring. Each of these agencies will be a stand-alone brand, fully equipped with specialised resources and infrastructure to deliver focused communication solutions.”  This essentially means that Crayons' clients will have five different specialist agencies working on their brands, yet will be integrated under Crayons Communication Group.

“Each of these specialist agencies will have a separate CEO to spearhead operations. For instance, MELON, our Media specialist agency now has a renowned media personality, Gopinath Menon, as Co-founder and CEO,” added Lalani.

Gopinath Menon has over two decades of experience in all aspects of the media discipline, be it Planning, Strategy, Buying and Execution. His journey has taken him through ABP, DDB Mudra, Lowe Lintas, Leo Burnett and TBWA. He has worked closely on a host of consumer, service and corporate brands. He is published regularly as a columnist in various business and trade magazines.

On the occasion, Gopi says, “Melon will bring out the nuances and sensitivity of media delivery in making the message compelling to consumers.  In this process, we will attempt to distill the traits of the medium, the message and the messenger. These are often confused from a communication perspective, and as a result the brand performance suffers.”

Set up in 1986 in a basement in Delhi by Kunal Lalani, Crayons Advertising has covered a lot of ground in its remarkable 25- year journey. While the last two decades saw most advertising agencies being mopped up by large multinational networks, Crayons resisted being bought out and emerged as 'India's largest Independent agency'. What started on a very modest scale with just 3 people in a small office now has over 200 people, spread over seven offices across India. It's perhaps the only agency to have its own office overseas, in Dubai.

Crayons shot into fame, when it bagged the prestigious account for the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections, in a pitch that saw the biggest names from the Indian ad industry participating. What made the win significant is the fact that till that point Crayons had been the agency for BJP, the main rival of Congress. “That win confirmed our capabilities as a professional ad agency and reinforced our client's belief in us,” says Ranjan Bargotra, President, Crayons Advertisng.

Incidentally Crayons has handled as many as 12 election campaign mandates so far, more than any other agency in the country, and has also worked for Akali Dal and Samajwadi Party, apart from Congress and BJP.

Winning the Congress account was not an isolated event; even earlier, Crayons had pitched and won big ticket assignments like Kerala Tourism, Incredible India and Fortis Healthcare against some of the best agencies. The agency handles some blue chip PSU accounts like Air India, Indian Oil, Indian Railways, Powergrid, BSNL, MTNL and so on.

In an industry which is known for shifting loyalties, both from consumers as well as clients, Crayons has nurtured some well known brands for over a decade. BABA, Kohinoor Basmati Rice, Kajaria Tiles, Gulf Oil, Fortis Hospitals, ITC Fortune Hotels… are some of the brands that have a long standing relationship with Crayons.

Talking about the agency's growth, Lalani says, “Crayons has grown consistently at a rate higher than the industry's average, and its capitalised billings for the year 2009-10 were over Rs 250 crores. Not content with being India's largest agency, Kunal Lalani is now aiming to take Crayons to among India's top ten ad agencies within the next three years, and he has plans up his sleeve that should soon be revealed.

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