Maximize bags Hero Honda AOR

Hero Honda Motors Ltd, which describes itself as the world's largest two-wheeler company on its corporate website (based on its performance in the year 2001), has appointed WPP Group company Maximize India to handle its media duties. The size of the company's AOR business is estimated at Rs 100 crore - and includes spends across media (TV, print, radio) for the entire Hero Honda range of brands and services.

Interestingly, this is the first time Hero Honda has consolidated its media business with any media agency. Maximize bagged the account "after meeting Hero Honda's expectation levels in the last one year", reads the email message from Maximize to agencyfaqs!. Elaborating on the reason for awarding the business to Maximize, Atul Sobti, senior vice-president, sales and marketing, Hero Honda, said, "They won the business through sheer perseverance, commitment and deep understanding of our requirements. They showed the strength of their size and made significant impact in all our media investments."

Giving details of the realignment, Pradeep Saxena, DGM, marketing, Hero Honda, said, "We have been working with two media agencies for the past one year - Carat and Maximize - though the media duties were not divided in terms of specific brands. We assigned duties on a case-to-case and sometimes on a rate-to-rate basis. Though we have tremendous confidence on the capabilities of both the agencies, we decided to consolidate the business with one. There was no pitch; this was completely an internal decision."

For the record, Hero Honda's creative duties are split between three agencies. While Publicis handles the services, spare parts and the environment part of the business, Percept is in charge of brands Passion and Ambition. On its part, JWT handles the company's largest selling brand Splendour, apart from a new brand Don, which was launched last year to replace Joy.

Commenting on the win, Bashab Sarkar, managing director, Maximize, said, "It's our passion to provide value additions to brands with smart and efficient media solutions. This helped us further our relationship with Hero Honda." WPP Media Asia Pacific chairman John Steedman added, "For Maximize India, which is the largest Maximize office in the region, it is a great win." Indeed, the account would be the largest for Maximize across India.© 2003 agencyfaqs!