Will Carat forfeit Max New York Life?

Delhi-based insurance company Max New York Life (MNYL) is scouting afresh for an agency to handle its Rs 10-crore media account. It's been just over a month that the account was handed to Mumbai-based media independent Carat.

A company insider revealed that MNYL brass met Mediacom honchos over a small presentation on Friday (March 30). "It wasn't a multi agency pitch. Grey was the only agency which was called over to discuss the media strategy with the MNYL bosses. For Mediacom (the media arm of Grey), MNYL would be prized account. They really came well prepared with the facts and figures and made a neat case for themselves," said the MNYL executive.

Incidentally, the creative part of the MNYL account too changed hands at the very outset. While it was assigned to O&M to start with, about a month back the account was realigned with Equus.

It emerged that Carat has done the media work for just one MNYL campaign till now. "Since Carat is not well represented in Delhi, we perceived a few problems in showcasing our products nationally. To put things into perspective, MYNL perceives India as a big market. While it has a lot at stake here, most of the other newly formed insurance JVs are already off the mark and are pushing their products quite aggressively. So we decided to get on with our act fast."

That may be the reason why MYNL preferred to keep this a small ‘inside affair' than go in for a formal, multi-agency pitch. Officially, however, MYNL executives refused to comment on the event. Grey executives who were involved in the MNYL presentation were away in Agra attending a SmithKline Beecham conference. So there was no confirmation from that side either.

In any case, the MYNL executive seemed to believe, "Mediacom has a strong case." According to him, the agency might be handed the account formally as early as this weekend. "Only the paperwork remains," he said.

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