N. Shatrujeet
Advertising

TBWAAnthem, Pressman, Headstart in IBP panel

TBWAAnthem, Pressman Advertising and Headstart Advertising have been empanelled by IBP Ltd to handle the company’s flagship lube brand, IBP Red

Following a 13-agency pitch held in end-June, TBWAAnthem, Pressman Advertising and Headstart Advertising have been empanelled by IBP Ltd to handle the advertising for the company's flagship lube brand, IBP Red. The account, valued at Rs 3 crore in annualized billing, was with Pressman earlier.

"Yes, we have just received a notification to this effect," Anant Rangaswami, associate vice-president, TBWAAnthem, confirmed the news to agencyfaqs!. "The account is being serviced out of our Mumbai office, but if the situation demands, we will set up a liaison office in Kolkata (the client is based in that city)." He adds that the implication of this development is that, "all three empanelled agencies will be briefed by the client on every exercise, and the best recommendation will be commissioned for creative."

As far as Anthem is concerned, the interesting thing about this win is that it would now service two lube brands - IBP Red and Servo, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd's (IOCL) flagship brand. However, this is not entirely surprising, considering IOCL picked up a 33.58-per cent strategic stake in IBP Ltd some three months ago. This, in turn, was a corollary to the Government's disinvestment initiative that saw more than half-a-dozen national and international oil corporations (including IOCL, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, Reliance Petroleum and Kuwait Petroleum) making financial bids for the oil marketing company.

"We will continue to work on Servo," Rangaswami informs. "In fact, prior to this pitch, we had to give a written declaration that we would not handle any other lube brand other than these two." For the record, Anthem, Headstart and SSC&B are on IOCL's panel for its lube and LPG (Indane) brands. It might also be recalled that in April this year, IOCL empanelled seven agencies (Grey Worldwide, Euro RSCG, Ushak Kaal, Publicis India, Enterprise Nexus, Crayons and Interact Vision) which would be involved in creating corporate branding strategies for IOCL.

"For Anthem, this empanelment has a lot of significance as it demonstrates that we have been able to stretch the equity we have gained from working on Servo," Rangaswami says proudly. The agency, in fact, has a lot to be proud of. In the last month or so, it has picked up the Swatch account in Delhi (which now moves to the agency's Mumbai office) and the BPL Mobile business for the Maharashtra and Goa circles. "Yes, Anthem is in overdrive," smiles Rangaswami. © 2002 agencyfaqs!

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