McCann-Erickson wins the creative duties for Barclays Bank

Following a multi-agency pitch, McCann-Erickson has bagged the creative duties for Barclays Bank (of UK origin). Although Barclays Bank has a few branches in India (in towns near Bengaluru and Chennai), it didn’t want to launch a communication plan till it spread its network nationally. McCann-Erickson is the first creative agency Barclays Bank has partnered with in India. The size of the business is estimated to be Rs 15 crore. The media duties have gone to GroupM’s Motivator.

“Accordingly,” Joshi continues, “we will chalk out a suitable strategy for the brand in India, keeping in mind its core brand values, of which ‘trust’ is one.”

As Barclays is a new entrant in the Indian banking industry, it is learnt that the launch campaign will be executed in phases. The first phase will involve an initial awareness drive through the use of outdoor. So far, Barclays has ventured into corporate banking in India, but it is learnt that, pretty soon, it will also launch retail banking nationally, which will reflect in its communication. At present, Barclays Bank is busy putting together its team in India; Sameer Bhatia of HDFC Bank was roped in recently.

This is not the first time McCann is working on a bank’s business. It has looked after the UTI Bank business earlier and, a few years ago, it handled the HSBC business as well.

For the record, Barclays is a UK-based financial services group with an international presence in Europe, the US, Africa and Asia. It is engaged primarily in banking, investment banking and investment management. Barclays has been operating for more than 300 years and it has 25 million customers and 118,000 employees in over 60 countries.

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