Maruti awards MR Wagon to O&M

Automobile major Maruti Udyog has finally settled on an agency to handle MR Wagon, its upcoming brand. O&M, the chosen agency, will handle the creative duties for the launch of MR Wagon and other activities thereafter. The size of the business could not be ascertained, but with Maruti being a well-known automobile major in India, one can guess that the spends will be ‘very substantial’, as was indeed confirmed by a source close to the development.

As per media reports, the MR Wagon will eventually replace the Maruti Zen.

It may be recalled that in an earlier report, agencyfaqs! had broken the news about Maruti Udyog calling for a pitch for the MR Wagon. Several agencies were eager to bag the business, including frontrunner O&M, Lowe, Bates Enterprise and Capital Advertising.

For the record, Lowe, Capital and O&M are already on Maruti’s roster, each one of them handling different brands. The majority of Maruti Udyog’s portfolio is with Lowe, including Maruti Alto, Maruti Omni, Maruti Esteem and Maruti Versa. Maruti Baleno is handled by O&M and now it has MR Wagon as well. Maruti Swift is with Capital, while Wagon R and Maruti’s base model, the 800, are with Hakuhodo Percept.

The Lintas Media Group’s Initiative is the AOR on all the Maruti brands and it is learnt that the media duties for the MR Wagon will also fall to it.

MR Wagon is expected to be launched by the end of 2006, and the car will be priced at Rs 3-4 lakh.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!