Ashwini Gangal
Advertising

TBWA Chennai wins The New Indian Express' creative mandate

The win is the result of a multi-agency creative pitch held in Chennai.

The multi-agency creative pitch for the newspaper brand The New Indian Express has reached a conclusion. The account has moved to TBWA India's Chennai branch. The pitch process had been underway in Chennai for the past few months.

The New Indian Express is a part of the Chennai-based Express Publications (Madurai), formerly known as Indian Express (Madurai).

TBWA Chennai wins The New Indian Express' creative mandate
For the past year-and-a-half, the creative duties for the account have been handled by WOC, a Chennai-based creative agency, as well as some other local agencies, primarily on a project basis. Before that, the company has worked with Mudra and TBWA.

There has been no change on the media agency front. For the past two years, the media planning/buying and data validation mandate has been with M Consult, a GroupM agency. Prior to this, the account was with Starcom Chennai.

Commenting on the development, V Natarajan, vice-president, marketing, The New Indian Express Group, says, "The New Indian Express is on a path of growth and in this phase, we feel that TBWA's disruptive thinking and its creative approach will give our brand the necessary thrust to not only consolidate our position, but also grow exponentially."

Commenting on the acquisition, NirmalyaSen, managing director, TBWA India, says, "Nothing excites us more than an opportunity to work on a challenger brand. We are looking forward to help the brand reach its next level of growth in the southern markets, and in Orissa."

The agency plans to execute a 'Media Arts' plan, one that identifies how the brand should behave across various touchpoints.

It may be noted that in April, Sunday Standard -- an offering from The New Indian Express Group in the weekly newspaper category -- was re-launched in Delhi. The creative mandate for this brand lies with The Hive.

For the record, Express Publications (Madurai) Limited was founded by the Late RamnathGoenka, along with other companies in the Indian Express Group.

Incorporated in 1959, the company now forms a part of the Express (Madurai) Group that is owned and managed by Manoj Kumar Sonthalia, the grandson of RamnathGoenka.

The Express (Madurai) Group is an independent group, publishing newspapers and periodicals in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Delhi, and in the union territories of Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Enam, and Lakshadweep. It publishes newspapers and periodicals in English, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.

The company's publications include dailies such as The New Indian Express in English (the southern editions of The Indian Express were renamed 'The New Indian Express' in December 1998),Dinamani in Tamil, and Kannada Prabhain Kannada.

Additionally, the company publishes magazines such as Cinema Express (a Tamil fortnightly), Samakalika Malayalam Varika (a Malayalam weekly), and All that Glitters, a B2B publication that caters to the jewellery industry.

The New Indian Express is a well-established brand in South India and Orissa, and is ranked as the eighth largest English daily with a readership of 1.5 million (as per IRS Q4 data). Well known journalist and media personality PrabhuChawla has recently joined the group as its editorial director.

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