i-mint's creative and media duties up for review

Several sources close to the development have confirmed to afaqs! that customer rewards programme, i-mint has put up its creative as well as media mandate for review. i-mint has been founded by Loyalty Solutions and Research (LSRL).

Sources also inform that a recent change of management has prompted this review. Around five months back, i-mint was taken over by German company, Payback. Payback is the card business arm of Germany-based Loyalty Partner, which provides loyalty management solutions.

The incumbent media agency on the account is Mindshare.

The pitch, apparently, was called for soon after Diwali this year, around the second week of November. It is now in its second phase. A few agencies have been shortlisted for round two, which is slated to commence shortly. Though the names of all participating agencies could not be ascertained, afaqs! has learnt that OgilvyOne and Dentsu Communications are two of them. Sources reveal that the shortlisted agencies are yet to receive the brief for the second round.

For the record, i-mint is the brainchild of chief executive officer, Vijay Bobba. He initiated this system, so that one card could be used across a network of brands and local merchants to accumulate points. When consumers spend across different categories, the points earned get aggregated on a single card. Thus, the consumer can use i-mint in order to conveniently earn a lot of points, which eventually yield rewards.

Watch this space for more.