Other media agencies such as Carat, Initiative Media, Madison Media and MediaCom had participated in the pitch. This win now consolidates strategic planning, buying and implementation for the entire brand portfolio with MindShare. Creative work for various brands in the portfolio continues to be handled by JWT, O&M, Grey and Enterprise Nexus.

A press release quotes GSK Consumer Healthcare MD Nick Massey as saying: "We chose MindShare, as their proposition showed good understanding of our business. Apart from intelligent and innovative thinking, their passion was unequalled. We're looking forward to a very productive partnership."

"We are thrilled to extend our relationship with GSK," says MindShare India MD Ashutosh Srivastava."Our task is to help grow GSK's business, by applying our consumer insights and proprietary research and tools. Our proposal to GSK was very focused on innovative solutions which were developed out of these insights. By integrating below the line promotions and micro marketing with GSK's mass media campaigns, we demonstrated a true competitive edge," he adds.

MindShare's ATG team, led by V Balasubramanium, has done some path breaking work in the Indian market in the recent past, for targeting, budgeting and media mix, using econometric modeling and data mining techniques, and this will help deliver significant improvement in the RoI, claim MindShare officials who presented to the client.

MindShare's relationship with GSK has been expanding in the recent past. It was appointed the AoR for the Middle East in late 2001, followed by China in December 2002.

MindShare, launched in 2001, is part of WPP Marketing Communications, India's largest media investment management group with billings in excess of Rs16 billion. MindShare Delhi is one of five offices across India providing media planning, buying & research services. Specialist services are provided through its Advanced Techniques Group, M Digital, Media Consumer Insights Group, BroadMind & WPP Outdoor.

Part of the WPP Group, one of the world's largest communications services companies, MindShare has 70 offices in 51 countries throughout the USA, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific.