Madison Media awarded Hyundai's Rs 60-crore media duties

Last month, agencyfaqs! had reported that four media specialist agencies had made it to the final round of presentations for Hyundai Motor India's (HMI) prestigious - and chunky - media account. It may be recalled that Madison Media, Mediacom, Optimum Media Solutions and incumbent Zenith Media were the four in the fray for the Rs 60-crore account. A few days ago, informal discussions with Hyundai officials revealed that the company had narrowed down its choice to two - incumbent Zenith Media and challenger Madison Media.

As per a decision taken last evening, the business under consideration has been awarded to Madison Media.

HMI's decision to award its AOR to Madison brings to an end a three month-long agency review process, which, as it appears, was critical to the Korean auto major's business plans for 2004. The decision, incidentally, also terminates HMI's six-year association with Zenith Media. "Zenith has been our media agency since 1998. However, because of our aggressive business plans for 2004 - we plan to double our production this year - we needed a fresh perspective," Sanjeev Shukla, manager, marketing, HMI, encapsulates the reasons for shifting the account. Besides a ‘fresh perspective', the company also expects the newly appointed agency "to deliver an enhanced impact".

The shift in HMI's media duties, however, has no bearing on any of Hyundai's creative accounts - the various car brands from the Hyundai stable would continue to be serviced by their designated agencies. While sports utility vehicle Terracan and Accent are with Grey Worldwide, luxury sedan Sonata stays with Ambience Publicis, and flagship brand Santro with Saatchi & Saatchi.

Interestingly, HMI's decision to double production in 2004 comes close on the heels of a healthy growth in sales in 2003. Last year, HMI logged a dramatic upswing in sales of the Santro and the Accent over calendar year 2002. Between January and October 2003, HMI recorded sales of 81,459 units of the Santro (the number of units sold in the corresponding period in 2002 was 69,918), while the Accent sold 3,541 additional units over 2002 (16,687 units). Sales of the Sonata, however, dipped in 2003, with the company selling 1,148 units between January and October 2003 (as against the 1,953 units sold between January and October 2002). The high-end Terracan, which was launched in August last, has sold 128 units. © 2004 agencyfaqs!