MUMBAI: Is 59 years a good age to be given a face lift and a new lease on life? Most of us would answer in the affirmative. Even the management of the Rediffusion owned Everest Integrated Communications said da-da to this. After a long drawn-out surgery, the agency has re-emerged with a spanking new face- Everest Brand Solutions (EBS).

Its leitmotif: going beyond the regular creative brief and becoming a custodian of brands, hence fulfilling all brand objectives, says a press release. EBS will have its hq in Mumbai with a branch in New Delhi and a representation in Bangalore.

 
 
Says EBS chairman Arun Nanda: "It has been a great year for Everest, beginning with the new management catapulting it to be the second most creative agency at the Abby Awards. I see in them a bunch of mavericks who have a vision with the passion, talent and energy to actualise it. Everest today is geared to define the next paradigm in the evolution of the communication business."

And what is that? EBS president Mahesh Chauhan explains. Says he: "Retrofitting an ad campaign as a panacea for all marketing ills just doesn't work. Now more than ever before, clients need partners to help resolve their marketing problems. Identifying brand problems first and then delivering media-independent solutions is what the client seeks and Everest is geared to just that. Or else, the likes of brand consultants are circling above to carve out their pound of flesh from our industry."

The agency has designed a new structure where there are 'idea initiators', 'idea leaders' and 'idea managers' replacing the whole system of client servicing, planning and creative terms in the agency.

EBS COO Anirudda Banerjee points out that the agency is doing away with the traditional agency functional roles of client servicing, planning and creative. "There is no reason for these obsolete roles to continue. We are revamping our entire organisation to align with the way we arrive at solutions. Silo-type watertight departments are passé, in fact, they are dysfunctional. What works far better are cross-functional teams working at what they do best."

In simple language this means that EBS will set up teams handling one or more brand depending on each of their requirements. Within each team, ad professionals will in all likelihood be multitasking donning different hats, depending on their capability and aptitude. "The traditional roles will blur. Our focus is on offering clients effective brand solutions and bringing in the skills of the entire team for one goal, that is success," say EBS executive creative director Milind Dhaimade.

The new sobriquet apart, the EBS management has also done away with the familiar mountain peaks in a circle Everest logo. The new corporate identity essentially consists of a squiggle or as the agency puts it - three continuos loops. The looped line is set on a yellow backdrop; yellow signifying; 'bringing - light into darkness, warmth to the cold, health wealth and happiness and youth to the old'.

Interestingly, the agency has also allowed every employee to add to the bare basic identity by giving it their own character. So, every individual will carry their personalised logo on their card and stationary giving the logo their own interpretation of what it stands for.

 
 
Says Dhaimade,"We are re-emerging with a child's perspective. We are empowering our people at a fundamental level to bring about the revolution that we are looking at."

 
 
EBS execs in its previous avatar had been known for the pirate costumes they used to wear at the various award functions. And in fact the agency had positioned itself as the pirates' agency. With a new vessel to sail in and new clothes, will we see them at their rapacious best, pillaging the brand terrain? While the EBS team is sanguine that it will, only Long John Silver knows!