UTI Mutual Funds may rejig advertising portfolio in April

UTI Mutual Funds may initiate a few changes in its advertising portfolio next month. This comes in the wake of a review kicked off by the company a few months ago. Currently, UTI’s creative business is in the custody of JWT. However, the company has been toying with the idea of going back to the agency club model – something it had renounced in June last year, when it consolidated its business with JWT.

Till then, the creative business, which is estimated to be in the region of Rs 35 crore, was distributed across a panel of agencies including FCB-Ulka, RK Swamy/BBDO, Adfactors, Apex, Concept Communications, Fortune and Goldmine.

In a hotly contested creative pitch in 2004, JWT beat the likes of Grey, Lowe and Leo Burnett India to bag the business.

But by 2004-end, it became clear that UTI was looking at a multi-agency model for its advertising needs.

Debashish Mohanty, vice-president, UTI Mutual Funds, says that the appointment of a single agency was more of an “experiment”. “Barring a few schemes, we did consolidate the bulk of the business with JWT. We are reviewing the situation though, and should look at a multi-agency platform in the new financial year.”

According to Mohanty, the company intends calling a few of its erstwhile club agencies for a brief in the first week of April. “There is no formal pitch as such,” he says. “We will decide accordingly.”

Plans are to have about three to four agencies on the panel.

© 2005 agencyfaqs!