The agency won the business in a multi-agency pitch; Grey Worldwide, Publicis Communications and DDB Mudra were the other agencies selected for the final round of presentations
Lowe Lintas has been assigned the creative duties for travel portal, Expedia.co.in, following a multi-agency pitch. Besides Lowe, Grey Worldwide, Publicis Communications and DDB Mudra were in the final race for the business. The account will be handled out of the agency's Delhi branch.
Confirming the development, Manmeet Ahluwalia, marketing head, Expedia.co.in says, "Besides considering the 360-degree ability of the agency, we also looked into how involved the senior management would be in the business; and of course, the financial viability also mattered."
Launched in 1996, Expedia Inc is the world's largest online travel company; and a NASDAQ S&P 500 Index company with annual gross bookings of more than US $21.8 billion.
Worldwide, the company's brands include 18 Expedia.com sites; more than 70 Hotels.com sites; agency hotel company, Venere.com; US discount travel site, Hotwire; corporate travel management company, Egencia; travel community, Trip Advisor Media Network; destination activities provider, ExpediaLocalExpert; luxury travel specialist, Classic Vacations; and China's second largest booking site, eLong.
Expedia.com has localised sites for travellers in the USA, India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Mexico and Japan.
Expedia.co.in is the localised website catering to Indian consumers since March 2008. The portal offers consumers with an inventory of hotel accommodation, flights and tourist attractions from across the world. It operates as part of Expedia Asia-Pacific, which is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.
The category in India is already dominated by players such as Makemytrip.com, Yatra.com and Cleartrip.com.
With a creative partner now on-board, Ahluwalia says that the company is ready for an official brand launch in the country. The 360-degree campaign planned ahead will be led by the online medium.
While refusing to comment on spends, Ahluwalia says that Expedia will make sure that spends are enough for Expedia to be counted among the premium brands in the country.