More piling into India seems to be in Omnicom's future. The company's TBWA division is getting ready to strengthen its presence in India by launching five new divisions or um, buying them. The major focus would be on areas such as lead generation, events, promotions, direct marketing, retail channel development and management, activation and audience development. The first shop to land their will most certainly be Agency.com.

“We are looking at possible acquisitions for retail activation and event management to start with,” Keith Smith, president (international), TBWA Group told Business Standard.

TBWA India has brought Shiv Sethuraman on board from Ogilvy Paris as the chief executive officer to oversee operations of both TBWA and Tequila brands in India. Shiv will be a guiding hand for Tequila what has a had a rough time in India thus far.

Meanwhile, Omnicom shop BBDO has selected two new CDs for the shop: Sandipan Bhattacharya and Manoj Deb as executive creative directors. Both men worked at Grey Delhi before joining the team. The move is expected to be followed a placement for a CEO.

Apparently, the creative staff at TBWA/Chiat Day NY has dwindled to about 7 people. SEVEN. A pittance, considering how much work still must be done there. The remaining creatives must be reduced to zombies at this point.

Kinda can't blame Ian Reichenthal and Scott Vitrone for bailing. Apparently, they got a sweet offer over at Y&R. Word is, they're going to be the go-to dudes for the network.

They need a crazy campaign in London? Send Ian & Scott! Problem in Sydney? Ian & Scott to the rescue.

That's the plan for them anyway. And who wouldn't want a gig like that?

Ian Reichenthal and Scott Vitrone have left TBWA/Chiat/Day/NY for Y&R. The pair is known for their Skittles and Starburst work, which we personally love. You know, Y&R better produce some groundbreaking working this coming year after stealing all these creative types including Tony Granger from Saatchi.

Vitrone told Creativity Online, who broke the story, that:

"We met [Y&R Global CEO] Hamish McLennan in Cannes last year and we just got to talking to him, and he just followed up. We had quite a few meetings with him. It was clear when he hired Tony, and from our conversations, he is 100 percent committed to great creative work."

And the poaching isn't over yet. Hamish told the magazine that:

"I think you'll see more hires across the globe. We've taken a view about where we want to take the business and we want to be known for doing brilliant work for all the mediums. This is just the beginning."

This is just the beginning of Y&R attempting to rebuild their agency. Lots of folks have taken a person from here, another from there to great success. Looking for a new gig? Call Hamish. We hear they're paying top dollar.

Meanwhile, why don't they just close TBWA\C\D New York? Isaac Silverglate and Jeff Anderson bailed last week for Droga5. Tony's gone. Now, these two and let's not forget that just last month, TBWA\Chiat\Day New York executive creative director Gerry Graf became chief creative officer of Saatchi & Saatchi's [source]. Note to TBWA: dudes... take his name off your website, yeah? Meanwhile, somewhere Kevin Roberts is just seething that he didn't snag Reichental and Vitrone, too.

Corey Mitchell, President of the New York office of T\C\D must have concocted an ulcer by now. Are there any creatives left in the TBWA\C\D NY office? The agency still has some bigwigs though. They recently hired Shane Ankeney from Doner to assume the new role of executive director of audience planning. He's probably wondering if he made the right decision. Executive Director Strategy, Suzanne Powers, who is in charge of new business, should be you know... doing her job or alternatively, looking for an exit strategy. She might be thinking to herself right now - "I never should of left California." Jamie Gallo, managing director, who was saddled with the Sprint account in 2006, is probably taking it all in stride. He's seen worse and done a good job for Absolut lately.

Sigh. Seriously... can you imagine the email Mitchell is going to send to staffers tomorrow? Classic.

More: b>Is W+K Is Flirting With Apple Beneath Chiat's Nose?

TBWA\C\D client Embassy Suites has gone up for review. The shop has been the AOR for the hotel chain since 1998. Yeah. Move on Embassy.
TBWA\C\D and the Tequila are expected to defend says AdWeak.

Embassy Suites is a Hilton brand. Hilton is handled by Young & Rubicam and DraftFCB holds Doubletree, Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites. Why DraftFCB is holding onto three accounts each valued around or above $20M is beyond us. Maybe Blackstone, who bought the whole Hilton chain last year, will shift their business around, too. Seriously... have you ever even heard of a Homewood suite?

Disruptunes is the latest and properly best idea to come out of TBWA in some time. The program allows musicians from within the side shop to upload their tracks to a server. Currently, there are over 100 songs in the database for employees to share, enjoy and rate.

See? This is good. This is an agency showing some love for its staffers. Okay, admittedly, we're stretching this whole Valentine's Day thing a little far on this one, but hell... it's still awesome.

We'd love to hear some of the tunes. If you're one of the 50 plus bands who have uploaded a track to Disruptunes and are looking to get some play, contact us at agencyspy at mediabistro dot com. We could do one a day or something like that.

AdFreak has a link to song by TBWA hit sensation, The Generators. Get it here.

... Jeff Anderson and Isaac Silvergate from TBWA/Chiat/Day New York for their Mars 'Combos - what your mom would feed you if you mom was a man' campaign, which won 2 Gold and 4 Silver Bullets in TV and Radio. The pair will also be taking home $20,000.

Interestingly, in a statement, jury chairman Jeremy Craigen, ECD DDB London, said that: "You may notice that some of the usual suspects from recent awards shows may not have done quiet so well here. This was intentional." He went on to write: "So any work that we felt was created solely to in awards was downgraded."

Don't you wish the Lions had the same foresight?

Other winners include:
2007 Student YoungGuns of the year - Nate Virnig, Jesse Snyder, and Rene Delgado from Miami Ad School Minneapolis for their concept for Red Bull.

2007 Creative Brief Winner - Kiran Bhanushali and Sandip Vane from Mudra Communications, India.

2007 Agency Of The Year - TBWA/Chiat/Day

2007 Network Of The Year - DDB Worldwide