Promising more Oxygen for brands

Things seem to be looking up for the three-year-old creative boutique Oxygen Communications in Delhi. Recently, the agency won two major accounts "" Havell's energy saving products and Crab Tree switches and bath fittings.

While Havell's is a Rs 8 crore business, CrabTree is expected to spend Rs 3 crore on media. For the two accounts, the small agency has churned out seven television commercials that will go on air from October 1.

Besides these two, Oxygen has also won the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) accounts for Auto and Defence Expos 2006 and will be launching a premium range of cutlery 'Forks & Spoons' (F&S) for Magpie and a fashion brand 'Girl Forever' for an export house. The agency has also won some agricultural malls and hospitality business in Lucknow.

The Oxygen team is kicked as it got to make television commercials after a gap of three years. The last TVCs it made were for Amar Ujala and My Space (modular furniture) in 2002.

"TVCs are hard to come by," admits Tarun Das, Oxygen's director, "because they are quite expensive considering the production cost followed by media costs involved."

Set up by advertising professionals, Das, Aniruddh Mukherjee and Raj Supe, the 22-people strong agency claims creative to be its sole forte.

Promising its clients a "good supply of Oxygen" in terms of oodles of creativity to "help their brands breathe better" the agency has been trying to find its feet amidst big advertising companies offering 360 degree solutions.

Das is quick to add that TVCs may have eluded them but there's never been a dearth of work. "We launched 'My Space' for Century Laminating Company, Mother's Pride pre-nursery and more recently the organic food brand '24 Lettered Mantra' for Hyderabad-based Shreestha Foods."

Aniruddh Mukherjee, director communication designs who's also an avid painter and photographer, says that the agency's office is more of a 'creative workshop' as the directors dabble in music, film-making, interior designing, writing lyrics, poems and screenplays.

Supe, who has done the English translation of songs and screenplay for Swades, is currently writing a film Kagaz ki Nayyia for Ashutosh Gowarikar.

Both Mukherjee and Das are trained photographers and plan to hold a photo exhibition soon. Oxygen also boasts of an in-house film club which conducts film shows every Saturday.

At the moment Oxygen appears comfortable with its handful of clients. Nevertheless, it is aiming at a geometrical progression instead of organic growth in the future. Says Manav Sadhwani, business director, "Although our last year's creative billings was Rs 1.5 crore, we're gunning for Rs 2.5 crore this year.