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Living Media hands TV channel account to TBWA Anthem
TBWA Anthem, Delhi, has won the advertising account of TV Today’s soon-to-be-launched TV channel, Aaj Tak, by virtue of some “brilliant and insightful work” done by the agency’s media head
agencyfaqs! News Bureau
NEW DELHI, November 14
TBWA Anthem, Delhi, has won the advertising account of the soon-to-be-launched TV channel, Aaj Tak - the 24-hour news and current affairs offering from TV Today, of the Living Media Group. As reported in sections of the press, the channel is scheduled for launch sometime early next month.
The account has fallen in TBWA Anthem's lap after quite a few vigorous rounds of pitching by frontline agencies. In fact, unconfirmed reports put the number of agencies that were in the fray at close to a dozen, though no names were mentioned. Anthem too was involved in two rounds of pitching - strategy and creative - before it was officially appointed as the agency two weeks ago. Incidentally, the advertising account of Living Media's flagship brand, India Today, is with RK Swamy/BBDO, while Triton is the custodian of the Business Today account.
"We had a couple of rounds of discussions with the client and came up with a strategy that appealed to them," remarks Sanjeev Kotnala, general manager, TBWA Anthem. Of course, the agency is not revealing what this strategy is. "Given the TV channel market, we wouldn't like to divulge the specifics. Let it suffice to say that it is possibly the best mix for a media account," says Kotnala.
Of the many reasons Kotnala attributes to Anthem winning the account, one happens to be Executive Media Director Gopinath Menon's media insights. "The work done by Gopi on media was brilliant. Not only did he analyze the numbers, he also gave a peek into consumer mentality and psyche… some of which was even new to the client. This certainly helped win the account."
While the exact size of the account is not available, rough estimates value it at close to Rs 5 crore for a three-month period - which partially explains why the pitch was so fiercely contested. Work on the account has commenced and "should be visible around the time of the launch", says Kotnala, without revealing much.
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