Emirates Airline calls for a pitch

In a significant development, the India office of Emirates Airline, which is based in Mumbai, has called for a pitch to decide on an agency partner for its Rs 10-crore advertising account. agencyfaqs! learns that four agencies have already made two rounds of presentations over May and July. These agencies are Ogilvy & Mather, Grey Worldwide, Everest Integrated Communications and Lowe.

For the record, Dubai-based Emirates Airline is one of the fastest growing airlines in the world and has received more than 200 international awards for excellence since its launch in 1985.

What is most interesting about the pitch is that the new agency will not only look after the communication needs of the airline in India, but would be responsible for the entire West Asia Pacific rim (WAP). Which means the advertising interests of the company in the four countries of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will come under the aegis of that one Indian agency that Emirates decides to partner with.

It is learnt that the four agencies went in for a round of credentials presentation in May. In the third week of July, top officials from the company based in the WAP rim converged in Mumbai to check out the strategy presentations of these four hopefuls. Agency sources say it might take a month for the company to decide on its agency partner given the logistics of the process involved. Whatever be the date, it would certainly be a prestigious account for the new agency, given the spread of the business.

Globally, Emirates Airline works with around 60 shops across various regions and with this move, it is apparent, the company is looking to leverage the benefits of a consolidated business in the Asian region. What is also noteworthy is the fact that all the four agencies that have been invited for the pitch have strong media affiliates in the country. It can be safely inferred, the company is looking to award both the creative and the media duties to the same agency network. © 2003 agencyfaqs!