Grey cedes Dainik Jagran to Mudra

Mudra, Delhi has bagged the estimated Rs 3.5-crore Dainik Jagran account. The account moved from Grey Worldwide (India), which had serviced the account for about a year. The account realignment process was a little different than usual. It seems Dainik Jagran approached Mudra on its own accord and the agency was more than willing to give it a shot. There were two other agencies that had their eyes set on the account - Euro RSCG and MAA Bozell - both of which approached the client. While Dainik Jagran's marketing executives "sat through" the Euro RSCG presentation, the publication brass sent a polite letter of refusal to MAA Bozell saying that it was "considering Mudra seriously".

How and why the account moved is an interesting story in itself. Alok Sanwal, brand manager, Dainik Jagran group of publications, told agencyfaqs! what while going through the daily news alert of agencyfaqs! on April 12, 2001, he came upon the news piece titled HT bids adieu to HTA, opts for Grey. "What disturbed us was the fact that Grey did not inform us that it had got the Hindustan Times account," says Sanwal.

The next thing Sanwal and his superior Shailesh Gupta (director, marketing and advertising, Dainik Jagran group of publications) did was call up Grey and ask for an explanation. "They said they've got the HT business for the city of Calcutta only," says Sanwal. "I asked the agency whether it would take up the HT business for the cities of Jaipur and Lucknow as well. Grey replied in the affirmative."

That was it. Dainik Jagran pulled out the account from Grey. "Look, Dainik Jagran has a strong presence in Lucknow, Jaipur, Patna, Jalandhar and Delhi, apart from Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. And we are competing with the Hindustan Times in the four major markets of Lucknow, Patna, Bhopal and Delhi. As we saw it, there might be a conflict of interest in future," explains Sanwal. However, Gupta maintains, "Despite this, our relationship with Grey is great. We are satisfied with Grey's work. In fact, the credit for the success of Sakhi (a monthly woman's magazine in Hindi) goes to Grey. The launch and positioning of Sakhi was fantastic but for tactical reasons we had to part ways."

For the record, Grey was Dainik Jagran's first agency. That was a decade back. But ever since it has been a roller coaster ride for Dainik Jagran. In 1997, the Dainik Jagran account went to Contract and remained with the agency for two years. Once again, in 1999 the publication decided to move the account. The agencies invited for the pitch were Mudra and O&M. Though the client went with O&M, it liked Mudra's suggested strategy for the launch of the Jalandhar edition during the pitch. O&M got the account (in September 1999) for two main reasons. Says Sanwal, "First, financial constraints. The estimated expenditure Mudra presented was beyond our means. Second, Mudra had the Business Standard account that time.'

Eight months on, Dainik Jagran was on the look out for an agency again. The reason? "The Delhi office (of O&M) did not seem as committed as Piyush Pandey (national creative director and group president O&M (India)) was when he came down with his colleague Kalpana Sathe (Kalpana Rao now, the agency's vice-president, media) from Mumbai to make a presentation." And that is when Grey came into the picture again. Grey got the account in May 2000 and lost it in May 2001. Now the account is with Mudra.

For the new agency the task is two-fold. First, to convince advertisers that Dainik Jagran has a strong presence not only in Uttar Pradesh but in the whole of north India. Second, to reposition Dainik Jagran in the consumers' mind as a multi-publications company - having magazines like Uday (a weekly general interest magazine), and Sakhi, besides the main newspaper and its supplements. A fresh campaign on Uday is slated to break in a month. For Dainik Jagran all promotional activities will be through direct mailing.

© 2001 agencyfaqs!