Apollo Hospitals short-lists O&M, Lowe

Apollo Hospital Enterprises, which has more than 37 hospitals to its name, is looking for an agency to help communicate its services better.

The first round of presentations, strategy and creative-led happened sometime last week and the agencies that participated included McCann-Erickson, Mudra, O&M and Lowe. The last two agencies have been short-listed for the account.

The presentations revolved around Apollo’s current positioning in the healthcare arena, and the nature of communication in future, with regard to preventive healthcare.

A clear indication has not been given in terms of spends but the account could be anywhere in the region of Rs 5-7 crore. agencyfaqs! has been told that a second round of presentations would occur in the coming days, but an exact date has not been fixed yet.

As per media reports, Apollo Hospitals, in 2002, had set aside Rs 4 crore on preventive healthcare communication and in marketing its clinics better. The ad spends have been significantly enhanced since.

When contacted, Ratan Jalan, CEO, Apollo Hospital Enterprises declined to comment.

India is the most touted healthcare destination for countries such as South-East Asia, Middle East, Africa, Mauritius, Tanzania, Bangladesh and Yemen with 12 per cent patient inflow from developing countries.

The company doesn’t just have a reputation in India, but its fame spreads outside India as well. It has partnerships with hospitals in Kuwait, Sri Lanka and Nigeria.

Apollo is steadily making progress in the field of medical tourism and developing methodologies to attract foreign patients. The first international Apollo Health and Lifestyle Ltd (AHLL) clinic was opened at Doha just this year. The move is another initiative in developing medical tourism because these international clinics will be telemedicine and information centers in international markets.

In the brand building arena, the healthcare major has taken on steps such as entering into a

a tie-up with Sita, to launch a jointly developed project, Sita Care, which will market hospitals packages abroad

Apollo Hospitals has the distinction of being given the highest ratings by accredition agencies like ISO and Crisil. © 2005 agencyfaqs!