Sumita Vaid
Media

OMS wins Rs 15-crore media planning duties of Dabur oral care

The media buying duties continue to be executed by Dabur’s in-house agency Adbur

In a significant development, Optimum Media Solutions (OMS) has been awarded the media planning duties for Dabur's oral care range, which includes Dabur Lal Dant Manjan powder, Binaca and the recently launched Dabur Lal paste. There was no pitch prior to this alignment. Dabur reviewed its empanelled creative agencies and decided to align media planning duties for Dabur oral care with the agency (or affiliate media agency) "most appropriate". The media buying, of course, continues to be executed by Dabur's in-house agency Adbur.

OMS refuses to divulge the size of the business. Gita Ram, head, Delhi operations of OMS, says, "The budget will be appropriate to fight giants such as Colgate Palmolive and Levers in the marketplace." Industry sources say the account would be worth Rs 15 crore or thereabouts.

By appointing OMS, Dabur, in a way, has made an exception this time. For the first time, the media planning duties would be handled by an agency that may not be working on the creative duties of a particular brand. So far, the arrangement between Dabur and its seven agencies - McCann-Erickson, Bates, Contract, Mudra, O&M, Lowe and Dhar & Hoon - has been that each of these agencies handled both the creative and media planning duties of the particular brands assigned to them.

For instance, Mudra handles the creatives for Vatika hair oil, Pudin Hara, Pudin Hara G, Hajmola Candy and some other OTC brands, and, by default, OMS works on the media planning for these brands. From now on, however, OMS will be in charge of planning the media for brands whose creative duties may be vested with one of the other agencies on Dabur's roster.

For the newly appointed media planning agency, the road ahead is beset with challenges. Dabur has recently launched the paste version of its popular Dabur Lal Dant Manjan, without tampering with its characteristic red colour. While the agency informs that the launch of Dabur Lal paste has been encouraging, what the new paste has to do now is challenge the consumer mindset of associating toothpastes with the colour white, to make a sizeable dent in the market.

OMS plans to combat this mindset situation with some clever media solutions in its arsenal and prompt white toothpaste users to switch over. © 2003 agencyfaqs!

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