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The media part of the business has gone to Starcom
Online travel company MakeMytrip.com has appointed Leo Burnett, Delhi, as its creative partner. As reported earlier by agencyfaqs! Bates Worldwide, Enterprise Nexus and Leo Burnett were in the fray. The media part of the business has gone to Starcom.
Talking about what swung the decision in Leo Burnett's favour, Sachin Bhatia, co-founder & chief marketing officer, MakeMytrip.com says, “The team at Leo Burnett went to great lengths to understand the category. Their presentation was backed by research and sound strategy.”
Indeed, the Delhi office of Leo Burnett is quite excited about the win. Shedding some light on the task at hand, Ali Imran, senior vice-president, Leo Burnett, says, “Working on the account is going to be a very interesting experience. Our objective is to communicate why this form of travelling is better than the existing one, and how it is unique.”
MakeMytrip.com (MMT), which has been offering online bookings for flights, hotels, vacations and car-rentals to and in India to the non-resident Indian (NRI) community till now through its offices in New York and Sydney, has now trained its eyes on Indian residents.
The company has aggressive plans of tapping the Indian travel and tourism industry. To that end, Leo Burnett's involvement with MakeMytrip.com is right from launching it in India to creating its brand positioning.
MakeMytrip.com sees tremendous business potential in India. “India is a rapidly growing travel and tourism destination. At a turnover of $13 billion, travel and tourism currently amount to 5 per cent of India’s GDP and represents 5.6 per cent of all employment. WTTC has ranked India as the second fastest growing T&T economy in the world, growing at 8.8 per cent over the next 10 years,” explains Bhatia.
Juxtaposing this market reality with the fact that the top five travel agencies control a combined market share of approximately 18 per cent – clearly shows there is enough room for another player.
MakeMytrip.com plans to target both outbound and domestic leisure travel segments, while consolidating its leadership position in the NRI market. “The company plans to achieve this by using technology and the Internet, addressing both the domestic and outbound travel market from India by packaging travel intelligently and offering 'off-the-shelf’, pre-configured travel packages, besides air, hotel, car transfers and sightseeing. In addition, the company will also offer customised travel consultancy and services to the discerning traveler albeit at a higher cost,” enumerated Bhatia.
MMT, which was founded in April 2000, receives half a million visitors each month and serviced close to 20,000 customers last year.
© 2005 agencyfaqs!