Bajaj Auto bets on deep agency partnerships, pushes back against in-housing and fragmentation

Pune: At a time when many marketers are aggressively in-housing capabilities and experimenting with fluid, project-based agency models, Bajaj Auto is taking a more deliberate and, in some ways, contrarian approach.

The company is doubling down on long-term agency partnerships, resisting the rush to build large in-house marketing teams, and calling for fewer, more accountable partners to steward its brands.

According to Sumeet Narang, President - Marketing, Bajaj Auto, the move away from agencies towards in-housing may not always be as strategic as it appears on the surface.

“I’m trying to resist in-housing,” Narang said, pointing out, “It’s easy to build an in-house design or social or analytics team, but what kind of career can I offer them long-term?”

Narang explained that Bajaj Auto does not see itself as a marketing services company. “I’m not an advertising agency or a marketing services company. I make and market two-wheelers. Two or three years down the line, will I get the best talent? Will I get fresh thinking and new practices?” he noted.

Instead of consolidating talent internally, Bajaj prefers to work with specialist partners and leverage the diversity of external thinking. Narang said he would rather “work with experts and build partnerships” than bring everything under one roof.

This thinking extends to how Bajaj Auto structures its agency relationships. The company has moved away from short-term, project-based engagements and instead works with agencies as long-term partners across media, creative, social, and influencer marketing.

Narang said that they do not work on project-based models and instead have agencies on board as long-term partners.

Bajaj Auto has maintained long-standing relationships with its media and creative agencies, viewing continuity as essential to building brands over time. Narang described these relationships not as vendor arrangements, but as partnerships in which both sides invest in each other.

“These are partnerships; we invest in them and work together,” he said.

However, as media and marketing have moved away from traditional mainline channels, Narang acknowledged that managing multiple agency partners has become more complex. With creative AORs, media agencies, social agencies, activation partners, and influencer agencies all playing a role, coordination is an ongoing challenge.

“One challenge we are actively grappling with is balancing engagement between our AORs, social agencies, activation agencies, and influencer agencies. As media moves away from classic mainline, it’s critical that all agencies are in sync,” he said. 

Despite the increasing need for specialisation, Narang said he remains philosophically inclined towards having fewer agencies involved with the brand. 

He said he comes from a more classical school of brand building and prefers fewer brand partners, adding, “I want fewer people holding the brand.”

Rather than expanding the agency roster, Bajaj Auto is pushing its mainline agencies to evolve and take on broader responsibilities. Narang believes that traditional creative agencies must move beyond films and print to stay relevant.

“That’s why we continuously push our mainline agencies to accelerate change and get deeper into new-age marketing,” he said.

He cited Bajaj’s work with Ogilvy as an example of how agency relationships are evolving. The agency’s involvement has extended beyond traditional advertising outputs to include on-ground activation and closer day-to-day collaboration with the marketing team.

“Ogilvy has been deeply involved, not just in films, but also on-ground. People from the agency were based in Pune, working shoulder to shoulder with us,” he shared with BestMediaInfo.com. 

This embedded model, Narang suggested, offers the benefits of in-housing, speed, proximity, and alignment, without the long-term talent and capability risks that come with building large internal teams.

“That’s the kind of partnership model we’re evolving. That’s where change needs to move faster,” observed Narang. 

While agencies remain central to Bajaj Auto’s marketing ecosystem, the company is also selective about how it engages with platforms, publishers, and larger media ecosystems. Narang said Bajaj is open to long-term partnerships with platforms and publishers, but only when there is a clear strategic fit.

“We are open to long-term partnerships with platforms, publishers, or ecosystems, but we won’t rush into it,” he said. “It has to be synergistic.”

He added that Bajaj Auto is not interested in partnerships that are limited to inventory access or short-term scale. “We are definitely open to partnerships that aid the entire marketing process,” Narang said, signalling that platforms and publishers need to bring more than reach to the table.

Across agencies, platforms, and publishers, Narang said the company looks for partners who can combine ideas with execution, emphasising the need for innovative thinking that genuinely connects with audiences as well as a clear commitment to delivering those ideas through strong execution.

As marketing models continue to evolve, Bajaj Auto’s approach reflects a belief that long-term brand building still requires deep relationships, shared accountability, and partners who are willing to adapt alongside the brand, rather than transactional arrangements or quick structural fixes.