O&M makes headway into Bajaj Auto; wins Pulsar

By winning the estimated Rs 3-crore Bajaj Pulsar account, O&M, Mumbai, has gained entry into the agency roster of two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto

O&M, Mumbai, has just found another reason to uncork the bubbly. The agency has won the advertising account of Pulsar - Bajaj Auto's soon-to-be-launched, 150 cc-plus motorcycle - marking an entry into the agency roster of the big-spending, Pune-based two-wheeler giant.

"Bajaj Auto has placed its faith on us, and it's for us to deliver," a visibly thrilled Piyush Pandey, group president & national creative director, O&M, told agencyfaqs!. "Bajaj is a great company to work with, and their track record on creative is admirable. Plus they have wonderful people out there. I'm looking forward to this one."

As it transpires, approximately a month-and-a-half ago, Bajaj invited three agencies - O&M, Ambience D'Arcy and Leo Burnett - to make strategy and creative presentations for the brand. "Being a brand new bike, the brief from the client was pretty simple - establish the brand in the market," said Mahesh Chauhan, vice-president, O&M. Without going into details, he added, "The job was to create a distinct identity for the brand in the market."

Incidentally, Leo Burnett currently handles Bajaj's entire motorcycle portfolio, including the 4S Champion, the Boxer, the Caliber, the Aspire and the Eliminator. According to agencyfaqs! sources, Leo Burnett went an extra mile to win the account - and retain its hold over the motorcycle portfolio. The agency is believed to have made three sets of presentations, one each from its Mumbai and Delhi offices, and one from second agency Orchard Advertising. For the record, Lowe Lintas & Partners handles Bajaj Auto's scooter and scooterette portfolios, while Quadrant Communications has the M80 Major brand.

The Pulsar, scheduled for launch by the yearend, is the first motorcycle from the Bajaj stable not to wear the ‘Kawasaki' label. The bike - to be launched in two variants of 150 cc and 180 cc - is in direct competition with the Hero Honda CBZ and the Suzuki Fiero, both in terms of tech-specs and target-group appeal. Of course, the task for O&M wouldn't be as simple as that. Despite the slowdown in the economy, the motorcycle market is buoyant, and almost all the players have launched - or are lining up - attractive goodies for the biking enthusiast. Which means that creating brand salience through advertising will be uppermost in everyone's agenda. "The market is so dynamic, there's lots of opportunity to do good work," Pandey rubs his hands in anticipation.

Although the size of the Pulsar account is not available - "Everything is so premature, we really have no idea," Chauhan insists - going by category spends, Bajaj's average spend levels and the fact that Pulsar is a new brand, an allocation of Rs 3-4 crore for advertising is a reasonable estimate. While Chauhan does not reveal anything about the launch strategy, he assures that work on the brand should be visible "fairly soon."

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