Everest scores a hat-trick; picks up TOI, CNBC India & TCI

Last week was pretty eventful for Everest Brand Solutions as the agency successfully picked up three prestigious businesses – The Times of India, CNBC India and Transport Corporation of India (TCI).

Everest is working with The Times of India on three projects. While one is on a national scale, the other two are for the Delhi market. Rajeev Rakshit, branch head of Everest's Delhi office, says that it was the agency's sheer persistence that won it the business.

“The Times of India, on regular basis, keeps working with the Shop and K Factor on various projects. We also decided to give it a try and on our own accord, approached The Times of India.”

The efforts, of course, paid off. TOI decided to partner Everest for a project. “We were initially given only one project. However, our quality of interaction impressed the TOI management to such an extent that it decided to give us two more projects to work on. Certainly, our success at the Abbys has put us in the spotlight.”

Aniruddha Banerjee, the agency's COO, meanwhile, is pretty excited about winning the pitch for the CNBC programme -- Storyboard. “The channel had called the 18-20 top agencies for doing a creative for the programme's approaching fourth anniversary.”

The format of the pitch was simple, explains Banerjee. Each agency was given 10 minutes of presentation time and the judges' panel included Dalip Sehgal of HLL, Rajiv Dube of Tata Motors, Meenakshi Madhvani of Spatial Access Solutions, ad film-maker Prasoon Pandey and CNBC India anchor Anuradha Sengupta.

“We presented four scripts at the presentation. Out of which, two were liked by the panel. It was a great high to beat all the big names of the industry. What made the victory sweeter was that we won, despite the absence of our key creative professionals – Milind and Rajul Dhaimade,” Banerjee says.

Everest, it was learnt, has began work on the promo that will run on CNBC India for a month. “We are told that the recording of the pitch will also be telecast in a few weeks. Now, won't that be a fantastic thing to watch?”

The Transport Corporation of India (TCI) business came to Everest following another tough pitch. The company, which deals in express cargo, has a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore and has a presence across 2,000-plus cities. Agencies which fought for the business included JWT, Contract and Publicis.

The pitch was a protracted affair stretching over one-and-a-half months, involving strategy, creative and media presentations. Here Rakshit points out that the brief given by TCI officials was very clear and the 'most extensive' ever given.

“The size of the business is Rs 10-12 crore and we are primarily involved in building up the XPS brand in India. The campaign will start beginning July and will involve television and print,” Banerjee adds.

In addition to the XPS brand, Everest would also be handling TCI's soon-to-be-launched couriering business. In fact, the couriering venture would be launched under the XPS brand. So right from launching the courier service to creating the brand awareness, Everest would be partnering TCI at every stage.

But this is not where the story ends. TCI's 50th year of establishment is round the corner and Everest is going to orchestrate the build-up activity as a run-up to the event.

With new businesses and people coming to Everest, it almost seems that the agency has got another lease of life after the Abbys. © 2005 agencyfaqs!