The Hindu Business Line : Ad agency Brand Portrait bags new accounts

The new accounts Brand Portrait has won are that of Apollo Hospital, Bangalore, and Everonn, which is in the business of virtual and technology-enabled learning solutions for schools, colleges and corporates.

The agency has been charged with providing end-to-end solutions that include structuring the company's various offerings and designing marketing solutions.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Raj Narain, co-founder, Brand Portrait, said the agency was different from others in that it offered clients the option of `paying for performance.'

Mode of payment

Along with its interactive/emerging media arm, Brand Portrait Digital, it lets clients pay it on the basis of leads generated through their Web sites or for meeting other goals, as the case may be. However, the mode of payment is left to the client - it could be media commission, it could be a retainer or the retainer plus the pay-for-performance model, Mr Narain said.

Brand Portrait's clients include iSoft, the Dhanus group's telecom, logistics and BPO services (which made it the first Indian agency to market an Indian company abroad), Verizon, and the Chennai-based Great Lakes Institute of Management and Chaitanya Group, builders and restaurateurs.

Eyeing expansion

The agency is also eyeing expanding its business in the US. On account of working with Dhanus' products in the US that include MPINGI, an Internet-protocol telephony service, and V-Tel, a calling card, Brand Portrait had to set up an office there. Referrals won it a couple of other businesses and it recently appointed a CEO for its US and Canada operations. It is negotiating with a dozen more prospective clients. "Now that we have an office there, we will look for more business. Hopefully, we will become a mainstream agency there," said Mr Narain.