Starcom bags Rs 10-cr Voltas media account

Starcom Delhi has won the media business of Voltas, the well-known air-conditioning and engineering company from the Tata group. The other agencies in the fray were Carat, MPG and ZenithOptimedia. The Voltas pitch was called in December 2004.

This is Starcom's maiden Tata business. The account, which is pegged in the region of Rs 10 crore, was earlier with The Media Edge (TME).

Confirming this development, an enthused Anita Nayyar, executive director, Starcom Worldwide-North Operations, says, “Pitching for Voltas has been an excellent experience and winning the business has been even better one, especially when the competition was tough. We are happy to be partnering with a client that is so professional.”

Explaining the reason behind giving the business to Starcom, Rajesh Jain, general manager, Voltas, says, "We found Starcom to have a team with strategic focus apart from its ability to get better deals from the media. This led us to decide on Starcom."

Starcom Delhi has been on a steady growth curve since 2003; that year, the business grew by 147 per cent. In 2004, the agency registered a 50 per cent growth. In these two years, the agency won a host of media AOR businesses, and also a couple of full service businesses with its creative partner Leo Burnett.

The biggest being the Congress campaign for Aam Admi, where Starcom Delhi was intrumental in highlighting the campaign.

The list of AOR clients spans clients like Ricoh printers, DLF, Lambency face packs, Genus invertors, Modi Colorbar, Corning contact lenses and full service clients like Tetrapak, GAIL, Aircel. These businesses have contributed in maintaining a healthy bottom line for Starcom Delhi.

Back to the Voltas business, TME, for the record, used to service the entire Tata group's Rs 200-crore buying account since 2002. As is known, the portfolio has been disintegrating since June last year.

Voltas, thus, becomes the latest Tata company, to have switched agencies. A snapshot of Tata group companies and the media agencies servicing them: Tata Steel (MindShare), Tata AIG (Madison), Titan (Maxus), Tata Indicom (Lodestar), Trent (Lodestar), TCS (Lodestar), Tata Mutual Funds (Lodestar). The Tata Motors story is a bit complex: Maxus services Tata Sumo and Safari; Lodestar is in charge of Indigo, Indica and Marina; while TME handles the buses and trucks business.

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