Starcom bags Rs 100-crore media mandate for upGrad

Starcom India, part of Publicis Media India, will be driving the media strategy and buying of Ronnie Screwvala’s online education venture upGrad.

upGrad is in the process of charting out an ambitious branding and communication roadmap. The first phase in this roadmap is a Rs 100 crore marketing campaign targeted pan India across tier 1 and tier 2 cities, and across online and offline media. The media efforts would be directed to drive awareness and preference for upGrad.

upGrad had appointed GroupM’s agency Essence for its integrated media duties last year. However, Upgrad confirmed with BestMediaInfo.com that Starcom will be the media agency of record for the brand.

Rathi Gangappa

Rathi Gangappa, CEO of Starcom India, said, “We are elated at winning the media mandate of the leader in the online education space. upGrad was impressed with our strong, differentiated approach to planning, especially in the area of television, where we will look to drive significant and measurable ROI. The Starcom Human Experience (HX) premise and messaging, as well as our rich analytics and tech capabilities will bring in a huge impact for upGrad on their media investments.”

upGrad Co-founder and MD Mayank Kumar said, “Online as a category is growing at a fast pace. Our campaign round the year in 2020 is to create larger awareness in the working professionals' group on the urgency of constant learning, what we at upGrad call LifeLong Learning.  We decided to partner with Starcom since their team stood out with their data-centric approach and ability to deliver on core business KPIs. They were able to demonstrate an effective, integrated approach to planning where all media is used to grow both short-term and long-term prospects.”

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