O&M bags Manipal Education

The size of the business is estimated to be Rs 6-8 crore

The Manipal Group has appointed O&M as the advertising agency for Manipal Education. The size of the business is around Rs 6-8 crore. This is the first time that Manipal Education has been consolidated with one single agency; so far, agencies such as Orchard and Dentsu had been doing the advertising for various facets of Manipal Education on a project basis.

The pitch process involved around six agencies, out of which three (including O&M) were short-listed for the final round. O&M emerged the winner.

O&M has never worked on an education brand before, which made the win all the more attractive for it. Prateek Srivastava, group president, O&M, South, says, “Earlier, ad agencies didn’t eye the education industry in the light that they do today. And this is largely due to the education industry becoming more mass day by day.” While, earlier, only rich students were the core TG for educational institutes, more and more parents are aspiring to obtain the best education for their children. “This makes the TG wider and the advertising even more exciting,” Srivastava says.

The media mix will involve mass media (including television), apart from below-the-line activities such as events, road shows and seminars, particularly in schools. “Schools are a high catchment area for us as this is where students decide which college to attend,” Srivastava remarks.

Anand Sudarshan, group president, Manipal Education, reveals that Manipal Education will go in for a complete revamp in terms of its communication. “We believe in the concept of lifelong learning,” he says. “In the immediate future, we would like to bring our commitment to high quality education to an increasing ambit, including vocational education. In O&M, we believe we have found a partner who will help us realise that goal.”

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