Kotak Mahindra Bank appoints O&M for creative duties

In the wake of a multi-agency pitch, O&M has won the creative account of newly constituted private sector bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank. "We have been handed the mandate of launching the bank in the country," Nishi Suri, executive director & head of Mumbai office, O&M India, confirmed to agencyfaqs!. For the record, Kotak Mahindra Bank - the latest entrant in the fast-growing private banking segment in India - came into being after the Reserve Bank of India recently issued non-banking financial company Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd (KMFL) a formal banking license.

Speaking about the pitch (details pertaining to the contenders for the account is not available, though it is believed that club agencies Grey Worldwide and Quadrant Communications were in the fray), Suri says, "The client brief to us was to come up with a positioning recommendation on how the bank's launch would be handled. It was essentially about competitive positioning and the creative that stemmed from that." She adds that "the creative solution was very high" in the client's assessment parameters.

Following this development, Kotak Mahindra's agency roster reads like this. The life insurance (OM Kotak) and mutual funds accounts are with Grey Worldwide, car loans (Kotak Mahindra Finance) is with Quadrant, while banking (Kotak Mahindra Bank) is now with O&M. And just last month, Madison Communications was appointed as Kotak Mahindra's AOR, and was vested with the entire media duties - valued at Rs 30 crore - of the group. Incidentally, O&M is working on the account on a fee-basis.

As far as O&M is concerned, Kotak Mahindra Bank constitutes the third big financial services account in its portfolio. The agency currently also handles SBI Life (life insurance) and Prudential ICICI (mutual funds). In fact, O&M also works on ICICI's NRI banking initiatives, and a couple of retail products (car loans, home loans etc) targeted at the domestic market. Suri, however, does not view this as a case of potential conflict. "What we are doing for Kotak Mahindra Bank is essentially building the bank's corporate image," she says. "The communication we'll be doing will be aimed at building consumer trust and consumer preference for the brand in the run-up to the launch of Kotak Mahindra Bank." She adds that before signing on the dotted line, O&M took "specific and separate clearances from SBI and ICICI, as we did not want to upset our existing clients, with whom we share a great relationship".

Undoubtedly, Suri is anticipating another great relationship with Kotak Mahindra. "Kotak has always believed in great creative, and from what I have seen, I am inclined to believe we are working with a very interesting and passionate client. We are very excited, and are looking forward to working on the account." © 2003 agencyfaqs!