Abhishek Chanda
Media

Lodestar retains media duties for Tata Teleservices

The agency has retained the media buying and planning business for the brand

Lodestar Universal has retained the Tata Teleservices account. The agency will be responsible for the media buying and planning functions for the brand. It won the account, estimated to be worth Rs 150 crore, following a multi agency pitch involving two more agencies, Zenith Optimedia and The Media Edge (TME). The pitch was called for in December 2008.

Lodestar Universal has been working on the account since 2005. The ad spends of the brand in 2005 were in the region of Rs 50 crore, say sources. Before Lodestar, the account was handled by TME.

Lodestar retains media duties for Tata Teleservices
Lodestar retains media duties for Tata Teleservices
Lodestar will identify, evaluate and advocate appropriate propositions and media properties, keeping in mind the target markets, target segments and the overall brand positioning. It will help the brand choose the right media mix, the media of communication, and new age media such as online and digital to maximise impact and optimise costs.

Confirming the development, Lloyd Mathias, chief marketing officer, Tata Teleservices Limited, says, “We opted for Lodestar as our agency basically for two reasons. First, we have had a very long and fruitful relationship with the agency since 2005. Second, they had some fresh and innovative ideas to offer when it came to brand TTSL.”

Shashi Sinha, chief executive officer, Lodestar Media, adds in an official release, “We are delighted to be part of the TTSL team once again and I'm sure we will take TTSL to greater heights together.”

One may recall that TTSL had awarded its GSM business, a joint venture between Tata Teleservices and DoCoMo of Japan, to DraftFCB Ulka around the beginning of this month. The brand, which will be handled from Delhi, has been tentatively named Tata GSM. The media duties for the account will also be handled by Lodestar Universal.

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