Sumita Vaid
Media

Hyundai puts Rs 60-crore AOR under review

The agencies in the fray include incumbent Zenith Media, Media Planning Group, Madison Media, Mediacom and Optimedia

Hyundai Motors India (HMI) has put its Rs 60-core media business under review. According to information available with agencyfaqs!, besides defending agency Zenith Media, the other agencies gunning for the business are Media Planning Group, Madison, Mediacom and Optimedia. The creative duties of HMI's various brands continue to be serviced by the designated agencies under the following arrangement. Sports utility vehicle Terracan is with Grey Worldwide, which also services Accent. Sonata, the luxury sedan, is with Ambience Publicis. Santro, the flagship brand of HMI, continues to be with Saatchi & Saatchi. The entire portfolio is handled by the respective agency branches in Delhi.

It seems the whole purpose of calling for a pitch is to identify interesting insights on the business that was being serviced by Zenith Media for the past six-odd years. And unless the presentations are "substantially superior", the account "may not be shifted from Zenith after all".

This move follows a series of developments at HMI this year. The company launched Terracan in August 2003, following it up with the relaunch of Santro in a new avatar - Santro Xing - and moving Sonata to Ambience Publicis.

Alongside these developments, HMI logged dramatically improves sales for Santro and Accent over the previous calendar year. Between January and October 2003, HMI recorded sales of 81,459 units of Santro. The number of units sold in the same period last year was 69,918. Accent sold 3,541 more units over calendar year 2002 (16,687 units). The sale of Sonata, however, has dipped this calendar year. Between January and October this year, the company sold 1,148 units as against 1,953 sold between January and October 2002. Terracan has sold 128 units since its launch in August. © 2003 agencyfaqs!

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com