Rediffusion, JWT in final lap for Sulekha.com business

Euro RSCG, O&M and Orchard were in the fray for the business, which is estimated to be Rs 8-10 crore. The media pitch is also expected to conclude soon

Sulekha.com, the social networking site targeting NRIs, is finalising its creative agency; Rediffusion DY&R (Bangalore) and JWT (Chennai) have been short-listed for the final round. Euro RSCG, O&M and Orchard were in the fray for the business.

Four media agencies – MindShare, Interactions, OMS and TME – took part in the media pitch, and two of these have been short-listed. A decision on both pitches is expected soon.

In addition to the offline creative and media agencies, Sulekha.com is also on the lookout for a separate online agency, a pitch that is still in its early stages. Sulekha.com has planned an ad spend of Rs 8-10 crore for the coming year.

Rediffusion, JWT in final lap for Sulekha.com business

B Sridhar

Says B Sridhar, director, global brand and marketing, Sulekha.com, “While Sulekha.com is a well-known brand abroad, particularly with NRIs residing in the US and Canada, it has hardly any brand presence in India, even though the product is very active here.” So, Sulekha.com wants to devote its energies to promoting its product in India.

The site was started in 1998 by a US-based NRI, Satya Prabhakar (who runs it as its CEO and founder), to help NRIs network and connect efficiently. It delves into three verticals mainly – social networking and blogging, online classifieds and local searches (called Sulekha Yellow Pages). The company set up offices in India only a year and a half ago. Since then, the brand has become quite popular down South, particularly in IT-hub Bangalore and in Chennai. “It is time to focus on all the six metros now as a majority of the online traffic resides here,” says Sridhar. Out of these, Mumbai and Delhi will be the key focus markets for the next two years.

Apart from creating a brand presence, the main job for the agencies that will come aboard will be to position Sulekha.com effectively. “Right now, that’s a grey area for us,” says Sridhar. “Sulekha has a defused identity and we’d like to erase the fuzz in people’s minds and make the brand stand for one single thing.” However, Sridhar declined to elaborate any further.

The media mix will include television, radio, press and outdoor, apart from online activities.

For the record, Sulekha.com is part of Migliore Web Solutions. It is based in Austin, Texas. It gets 80 per cent of its traffic from NRIs and focuses on areas such as blogs, groups, networking, online yellow pages, online classifieds, real estate and travel.

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