TVS Motor AOR up for grabs

TVS Motor Company has put its Rs 60-crore AOR account up for review. Confirming the news to agencyfaqs!, Harish Krishnamachar, vice-president, marketing, TVS Motor, said, "We are looking at four media outfits at the moment." Among these are Lodestar, Madison Media and incumbent Universal McCann. However, Universal McCann sources insist, "It is a routine review," and that, "it was necessitated by the expiry of the earlier TVS-Universal McCann contract."

Universal McCann has handled the account for nearly two years now and during this phase has seen TVS Victor emerge as a second largest brand after Splendor in the 110-cc category. According to market sources, "After being perceived as a ‘solid company' with some ‘good brands', TVS is actually at a stage where it has a true-blue success story in Victor, which it wants to replicate for its other brands. In the process, it has gone around shuffling its brands among agencies and is now reviewing its AOR. This clearly means that it wants to focus sharp and put muscle behind each of its brands."

This aggressive body language has been only too visible in its recent advertising - especially after the company signed on ace cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to endorse Victor. The message is clear: TVS is no longer willing to be seen as a "nice brand lurking in the background."

Consider this. TVS shifted its Fiero brand in January this year from Saatchi & Saatchi to Orchard Advertising. Company insiders say this was done as it was largely felt that "Fiero was going nowhere" and "needed fresh thinking", especially while brands like Bajaj Pulsar were growing by leaps and bounds in the 150-cc category (and now in its new 180-cc variant). There are now moves to do a complete overhaul for the brand (Fiero) and give it a new look, besides introducing a new variant. Till now the bike has been known for its twin advantages of mileage and power.

The company is also working on completely overhauling Scooty (in the scooterette category) from a two-stroke to a four-stroke vehicle with spanking new looks. All reflective of the fact that the company is rearing to go. According to one source, "The company has always been a big spender. However, it is only now that it is getting aggressive. With Harish Krishnamachar at the helm of affairs, things are going to be very different with the company on the media front from now on."

For the record, the creative duties of TVS brands are distributed in the following manner. While McCann-Erickson handles TVS Max, Scooty and the corporate account, Saatchi & Saatchi handles Victor and Orchard has Fiero. © 2003 agencyfaqs!