Leo Burnett adds businesses to Dabur, Bharti portfolio

The disappointment that had set in at Leo Burnett's Delhi office in the wake of Coca-Cola shifting its marketing operations to Mumbai is fast dissipating. The agency has just added a whole lot of new businesses from Dabur to its portfolio, apart from gaining a crucial - though long-term - account of telecommunications specialist Bharti.

Talking to agencyfaqs! about Dabur, Anisha Motwani, vice-president, Leo Burnett, revealed that the agency has been entrusted with the communication of the entire OTC range of Dabur's healthcare products division. "Leo Burnett shall now onwards handle the advertising for Dabur's headache balm, backache ointment (Nopane), Itchcare and all the ethical Ayurvedic formulations that would eventually go OTC," Motwani explained.

It may be noted that currently, the three most prominent brands being marketed by Dabur Healthcare Products (DHCP) are Dabur Chyawanprash, Pudin Hara and Hajmola. While Leo Burnett already handles the Chyawanprash account, Mudra Communications has the Pudin Hara and Hajmola businesses. And even though the new businesses that Leo Burnett has just won are small in comparison to the above three, the fact is that as and when these brands go national, their spends could be quite significant. This is based on the inference that at that stage, Dabur would, at the very least, have to match the spends of its competitors.

At the national level, Dabur's headache balm would be competing with Zandu and Amrutanjan, both of which are estimated to have spends in the vicinity of Rs 2-3 crore. In the backache relief segment, Nopane (a brand which Dabur has bought over from Sanat Industries) would have to fight the likes of Iodex and Moov, who spend approximately Rs 5-6 crore each, annually. And although Itchcare (which is slated to take on Itchguard) is in a relatively low-spends category, it too could make a sizeable contribution to the coffers. And there is no telling what kind of monies Dabur would invest in its ethical-turned-OTC brands. All in all, it can be construed that Leo Burnett has added billing in the vicinity of Rs 10 crore (in the long run) from the Dabur wins.

Vis-à-vis Bharti, Leo Burnett has been awarded the group's planned long-distance telephony account - that is, the pre-paid STD cards business. "The new venture - Bharti Telesonic - is slated for launch this financial year," Motwani reveals. "But, of course, it is subject to all sorts of regulations. If all goes well, the phased launch will happen this year itself." Here too, it is difficult to put a finger on the size of the account, but given Bharti's record, the budget should do a lot swell the agency's bottomline.

Incidentally, both gains (Dabur and Bharti) happened for Leo Burnett without any pitch. And Motwani is quite pleased with the way things have worked out for Leo Burnett over the past 10 days. "These are very good examples of healthy organic growth," she said. "It's a function of how the agency has been handling both clients." For the record, Leo Burnett is in charge of Bharti's cellular cash card account, Magic.

"The good thing for us was that the loss (Coke's move to Mumbai) and the gain happened at the same time. People here are suddenly charged up once again, with lots of new portfolios. In many ways these wins have offset the Coke disappointment," Motwani says happily.

© 2001 agencyfaqs!