Havas wins Voltas AC media account
The account size is around Rs 40-50 crore. The incumbent agency is Lintas
BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | January 21, 2013
Havas Media has won the hotly-contested Voltas air-conditioners media business, according to sources close to the development. The account size is around Rs 40-50 crore. The sources inform that in the final stages, it was a race between Havas and IPG. The incumbent agency on the account is Lintas, which is now a part of IPG.
BestMediaInfo had reported on January 10, 2013, that Voltas had gone through an exhaustive two rounds of presentations for its room air-conditioners media business. All the media heavyweights – GroupM, Madison, Havas, Aegis and IPG – participated in the pitch.
Incumbent Lintas was in the race through its new avatar, IPG. Interestingly, Lintas had won the Voltas AC business in early 2010. Before Lintas, MPG, a Havas entity, was handling media for the company.
It is reliably learnt that Voltas wanted a more innovative media approach – in contrast to a conventional television-driven media plan – in view of the fact that its mainline air-conditioner business has achieved a strong brand repositioning after Meridian/Ogilvy & Mather took over the creative business in end-December 2011.
In a statement issued a day after the news was broken by BestMediaInfo.com, Anita Nayyar, CEO Havas Media, India and South Asia, said, “We are delighted to have Voltas as a part of our portfolio yet once again. It was a very tough but a well-organised pitch with practically all the leading agencies in the fray. I am delighted that we have been able to demonstrate our capabilities through our insights and category understanding. I believe our extremely focused and well integrated effort made us win the business. While it is a great brand to be associated with, more importantly, they are a wonderful client to work with. This prestigious win is yet another very important milestone in Havas Media India's ambitious growth plans.”
Pradeep Bakshi, Chief Operating Officer, UBBG, Voltas, commented on the selection of Havas Media, “We are happy to announce that Havas Media has been appointed as our media agency for our Room AC and other Unitary Products business. During the multi-agency pitch we were impressed by their capability to look beyond seasonality and traditional media. Their understanding of the category from a regional perspective was also very accurate. We look forward to working closely with them in our next phase of growth in the coming years.”