Hot Spot appoints OMS to handle its media duties

The telecom retail chain, Hot Spot, has chosen OMS to handle its media duties, which include media planning, buying and implementation. The size of the business is around Rs 20 crore

Telecom retail chain Hot Spot has appointed Optimum Media Solutions as its media agency. The media spend is estimated to be a minimum of Rs 20 crore. OMS will be responsible for media planning, buying and implementation.

No official pitch was involved. OMS handles the media business for Spice Mobiles, so Hot Spot asked it to do a presentation and selected it. Sanjeev Mahajan, chief executive officer, Hot Spot, says, "Hot Spot retail has around 300 stores across the country, which we intend to take up to 1,500 stores by the end of the year. Given our aggressive expansion and growth plans, we felt the need to partner with an agency which shared our passion and brought value to the table when it came to innovative thinking and strategic direction."

Speaking about the company's marketing strategy, Bipin Narang, vice-president, marketing, Hot Spot, says, "The consumer today will not walk a long distance to buy airtime solutions or a handset. The idea behind the expansion is to open a store near the consumer, while offering not just mobile handsets, but all kinds of accessories, including data cards, Bluetooth accessories, airtime solutions and products connected with the mobility arena like MP3, Xboxes, laptops or anything that enhances the mobility of the person."

Mahajan elaborates on the expansion plans, "The Indian consumer needs a better shopping experience in mobile retailing. A mobile phone is something that everybody wants to own today, and while working on this concept, we want the customer to have a wide range of choice before him through our retail stores. We are targeting specific communities as we want to be in every major town and every major market. The idea is to give the consumer a shopping experience in his own area."

Hot Spot appoints OMS to handle its media duties

Chandradeep Mitra

Narang adds, "We don't want to do single point transactions where a customer buys our products and never comes back. The idea is to build a relationship so that he comes back again, rather than just selling products. To achieve this, we will be doing a lot of thematic brand building campaigns. We want to touch the customer in as many ways as possible through TV campaigns, print media, radio, below the line and the Internet."

Chandradeep Mitra, president, OMS, says, "It feels wonderful when clients see media agencies as partners, rather than vendors. Hot Spot has aggressive expansion plans and it will be our endeavour to derive maximum bang for the buck in reaching audiences in newer markets."

OMS also handles the entire planning, buying and implementation business of Reliance ADAG, one of the largest AOR clients in the country. Hot Spot joins a roster of prestigious clients, which include ICI Paints, Spice Mobiles, HBO, Yatra.com, Amway, Panasonic, Disha Direct, Cera Sanitaryware, SBI, HPCL, Air India, Zenith Computers, MTDC, Ravissant, TTK, Sify, Jyothy Laboratories, RmKV Silks, Amrutanjan, MTV Networks, ACC Cements, Paragon and Shobha Developers.

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