Lowe to handle the refurbished Maruti Baleno, the SX4

Industry sources peg the account in the region of Rs 10 crore, as much as Maruti spends on the communication for all its other brands

If sources are to be believed, the latest brand from the Maruti stable, SX4, which is the refurbished and rechristened Baleno, has moved to Lowe. However, the official document on this hasn’t been signed yet.

Lowe is on Maruti’s roster and handles its other brands such as the Omni, Alto, Esteem and Versa.

Two months ago, agencyfaqs! reported that Maruti Udyog was reviewing its roster agencies for the new brand. Besides Lowe, the other agencies on Maruti’s roster are O&M, Hakuhodo Percept and Capital Advertising.

Hakuhodo Percept handles the Maruti 800 and Wagon R, Capital has Swift, and O&M bagged the Zen Estilo recently.

It is also learnt that the company plans to spend around Rs 10 crore on advertising the SX4, at par with the spends on all its other brands.

Lowe to handle the refurbished Maruti Baleno, the SX4

Maruti’s decision to discontinue the Baleno brand is in keeping with the company’s strategy of bringing new models into the market. Since its launch in 1999, the Baleno was handled by Lowe. In 2005, the business was moved to O&M. Since then, only one round of a print campaign has been launched – in November 2005. It highlighted the car’s performance. There have been no television campaigns in this period.

Lintas Media Group’s Initiative is the AoR (agency of record) on the Maruti business.

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