Life isn’t so beautiful for Universal McCann these days

You win some and you lose some – goes an old adage. That sums up the first five months of 2005 for Universal McCann. If the agency bagged the media duties of Intel on account of a global realignment recently, it lost the plum Rs 80-crore TVS Motors account early this year too. In the cut-throat media business, not only can the agency afford to be philosophical over the losses, it has got to defend the General Motors business and compete for a slice of action at cosmetics major L’Oreal over the coming weeks.

Life, clearly, isn’t all wine and cheese for Universal McCann.

The agency had been handling the General Motors business for the past three years. Since the contract is about to expire shortly, the client has called for a fresh pitch. The business is worth Rs 40 crore, and the pitch is likely to start by the end of May.

As for L’Oreal, another client serviced by Universal, the business has come under review. According to industry sources, incumbent Universal McCann and challenger Zenith Optimedia are in the race for the approximately Rs 30-35-crore account.

The L’Oreal pitch is part of an international review process kicked off by the Paris-based beauty products maker. Participants include its club agencies Universal and Zenith Optimedia.

The latter, incidentally, bagged the planning and buying assignment of the Maybelline product line from Initiative Media in the US last month. This comes in addition to the Garnier range that the agency handles in America. Universal, on the other hand, handles the mother brand L’Oreal Paris.

Chintamani Rao, president of Universal McCann in India, is pragmatic about this cycle of winning and losing accounts. “It is part of the game,” he says. “Defending a current business, especially, in the case of media, is difficult because you are dealing with reality – as in the incumbent agency’s performance versus the promise made by a contender.”

Some of Universal’s existing clients include Dabur, Madura Garments, VSNL, Microsoft J&J (the agency handles planning for non-baby products of J&J including Savlon, Band-Aid, Stayfree etc) and, of course, Nestle.

Nestle, incidentally, has been the subject of intense speculation in recent months owing to the global realignment of the business from Universal McCann to rivals MindShare and Zenith Optimedia last year.

It is unclear when the transition will happen here in India, though Rao asserts that the movement of business essentially covers the FMCG major’s top 10-12 markets.

© 2005 agencyfaqs!