Yatra.com moves out of Everest; likely to fall into Dentsu’s kitty

Yatra.com was spending close to Rs 6 crore on advertising till last year. Industry sources estimate that the company is likely to increase its advertising budget to Rs 8-10 crore now because of increased competition

Yatra.com has moved its creative duties away from Everest Brand Solutions. The reason is the exodus of top executives from the agency.

Yatra.com moves out of Everest; likely to fall into Dentsu’s kitty

Dhruv Shringi

Dhruv Shringi, founder and executive director, Yatra.com, revealed that the company has withdrawn its creative duties from Everest Brand Solutions and was currently in the process of evaluating probable replacements. “In the recent past, Everest Brand Solutions has lost many key professionals, and we were finding it difficult to coordinate with the new team on our brand functions.”

In the last few months, Everest Brand Solutions has lost its top management team. First, it was Mahesh Chauhan (former president) who was moved to the sister agency, Rediffusion DY&R, as president. Then Aniruddha Banerjee, COO, quit the agency. He was followed by Anant Pal Singh, branch head, Delhi. Among other senior professionals to have quit the agency are national planning head Sourabh Mishra, ACDs Ravinder Siwach and Ashish Rehi, and Saurabh Tara from client servicing.

agencyfaqs! has learnt that the business is likely to move to Dentsu Marcom, the agency to which Singh, the former branch head of Everest, Delhi, has moved. Sources close to the development have also told agencyfaqs! that Dentsu has already started working on the business. Though no agreement has been signed, one is likely to be formalised soon.

Till last year, Yatra.com was spending about Rs 6 crore on its advertising. Sources estimate that the company will probably increase its advertising budget this year because of increased competition. It is likely to spend in the region of Rs 8-10 crore. Other players in the category that are advertising aggressively include Makemytrip.com, Travelguru, Cleartrip.com and Travelocity.

Optimum Media Solutions (OMS) continues to handle the media part of the business.

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