Viveat Susan Pinto
Media

Titan media pitch gets underway today

Tata AIG scheduled to follow suit on November 3

The city of Bangalore will see some hectic media activity today. Agencies Starcom, Maxus, Lodestar and Madison Media will pitch for the Rs 25-crore media planning and buying business of Titan Industries, the Tata Group company, which manufactures watches, clocks and branded jewellery.

The venue for the presentations is a five-star hotel and not the corporate office of Titan located at Airport Road, Bangalore, inform industry sources.

Incumbent buying agency The Media Edge (TME) is not part of the pitch process, though incumbent planning agency Maxus has been called to defend its business.

The pitch comes in the wake of the disintegration of the media buying portfolio of the Tata group a few months ago. Over two years ago, the group had consolidated its Rs 200-crore media buying account with TME. However, following the split and since June this year, individual group companies have been opting to go their own way.

Tata Motors, the first within the group to appoint a new set of agencies, opted to go with the media arms of its creative agencies O&M, FCB-Ulka and Rediffusion DY&R, who were in charge of planning.

Thus Tata Motors consolidated both media buying and planning with these agencies, who were Maxus, Lodestar and TME. The brands with each of these agencies include: Maxus - Tata Sumo and Safari (creative agency O&M), Lodestar - Tata Indigo, Indica and Marina (creative agency FCB-Ulka) and TME - buses and trucks business (creative agency Rediffusion).

Following Tata Motors' example, Tata Indicom (part of Tata Teleservices) and Trent (has retail outlets Westside and Hypermarket) too called for agency pitches. Both were lapped up by Lodestar. Now, it's the turn of Titan Industries.

Meanwhile, another Tata group company, insurance player Tata AIG is on the lookout for a new media partner, and the pitch, say sources, is slated for November 3.

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