Ambience Publicis wins Reliance IndiaCall, Webworld and more

When Saatchi & Saatchi was awarded Reliance IndiaMobile's pre-paid and post-paid businesses, the future portfolio of Ambience Publicis and incumbent Mudra (the other two shortlisted agencies) remained undecided. This was because the management was yet to take a call on the distribution of its various businesses between the two agencies.

The suspense is, at least, partially over now as Ambience Publicis has just been awarded the Reliance IndiaCall business, the corporate business of Reliance Infocomm, along with the company's enterprise business which include Webworld and PCO.

With the Reliance Infocomm business portfolios of Saatchi & Saatchi and now, Ambience Publicis clearly defined, one cannot help but wonder what Mudra will be handling now. Reliance Infocomm's marketing head Kaushik Roy could not be contacted for his comments. Perhaps, in the days to come, Reliance will dispel the clouds of confusion.

Meanwhile at Ambience Publicis, the agency's COO Subhash Kamath says, "This is a very prestigious win for us. At the moment, we are being briefed by the company." The agency, incidentally, was involved with the launch of Reliance Infocomm's pre-paid services in August.

Since the marketing objectives of the future communication are yet to be spelt out by Reliance, Kamath could not share specific information. And for the same reason, he was unable to give an idea about the size of the business too.

What Kamath could share at this stage was the media mix and the approach for the future campaigns. "For Reliance IndiaCall, we are targeting those Indians residing in countries such as the US and Canada. The communication would involve a combination of below-the-line and above the line," informs Kamath.

For those not in the know, Reliance IndiaCall - an international long distance calling service to India - is marketed by Reliance Communications International Inc (an affiliate company of Reliance Infocomm), based at Delaware in the US.

The campaign, therefore, would be only visible in the international markets. For businesses such as Webworld and PCO, the communication would employ a multimedia approach targeted at the Indian customer.

Kamath also mentioned that Ambience Publicis would be extending its creative services for brand related work as well.

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