It's happy new year for Happy, bags 3 new accounts!

2011 has barely dawned on us and Happy Creative Services already has reasons to celebrate. Upping the ante from last year's wins of Diesel and Timberland, Happy is looking well on the way forward this year by winning three new accounts. Their extra efforts through the month of December has paid off huge dividends by bagging the creative duties for Papa John's Pizza, Flipkart.com and Myntra.com -- all in the space of one week.

Papa John's, the third largest pizza chain in the world, has been in India for 3 years and was brought in by JIP Fashion and Restaurant Group. In an effort to change the game with extensive expansion plans, Papa John's Pizza is looking at moving from 25 to 100 outlets. Happy was called in for a strategic pitch and won the account with the help of their credentials and a comprehensive strategy presentation that outlined primary way-points for the year ahead.

Faisal Jawad, Chairman of Jawad Business Group as well as Om Pizzas & Eats India Private Limited said: "As we embark on a speedy and exciting expansion programme which will see us open almost 100 restaurants across India over the next few years including Papa John's Pizza, Chili's and The Great Kabab Factory, we realized our brands needed original, unique and creative exposures in all our markets. Happy ' which is more an Idea Shop than an advertising agency, seemed the right partner. We are looking forward to working with Happy."

The main task now at hand for Happy is to increase the awareness of the brand in India where Pizza Hut and Dominos are still the front-runners.

Flipkart.com was a much more competitive account to win, and Happy came up trumps in a multi-agency pitch that involved agencies like Lowe and JWT. Flipkart, a 3-year old e-commerce startup from Bangalore, initially sold books and has now expanded their offerings to music, movies, games and mobile phones. They look forward to adding even more verticals in the near future. Happy's aim with Flipkart.com will be to increase awareness about the brand. This will involve above-the-line advertising consisting primarily of TVC, Print, Digital and Outdoor. Post the rolling out of the new campaign, Flipkart.com looks to grow their revenues by three times by end of the year.

"Flipkart as startup brand/service has been built entirely by word-of-mouth," explained Sachin Bansal, the CEO of Flipkart. "It's our service that has led people to recommend us to others. A move from that 'buzz culture' to a mass media campaign is a big shift for us, and we wanted an agency that understands these nuances. Happy's thought process and articulation not only impressed us, but also challenged some of our existing assumptions. What also resonated with us is perhaps the work culture/ethic (Happy and Flipkart are both 3 year old "startups" founded by two people). We saw Happy as the closest fit to our company."

For bagging the Myntra.com business, Happy had to see off the likes of Ogilvy with a complete creative and strategy presentation. Myntra, currently operating as an on-demand personalization e-commerce portal, sells t-shirts, sports jerseys, mugs, bags, drinkware, watches, etc. "We wanted some one who understood and appreciated e-commerce and also the nuances of lifestyle consumption in the Indian market. Happy fitted the bill perfectly," quoted Mukesh Bansal, CEO of Myntra.

Myntra currently holds 50% of the market in customizable goods, and the main challenge for Happy will be to aid Myntra.com in their transformation into an online lifestyle destination and to triple the number of daily transactions.

"We couldn't have asked for more. 2010 was a year of consolidation for us, winning these 3 accounts over a week definitely set the right tone for 2011 at Happy. We are really excited about our entry into the food and dotcom category. We look forward to doing some really good work that will deliver the expected results for each of our new clients. We thank Myntra.com, Flipkart.com and Papa John's pizza for confidently placing their bets on us." Said Kartik Iyer & Praveen Das in response to the wins.

With three new accounts in their kitty, the year 2011 definitely seems to be a busy year for Happy.