ITSA to handle creative duties of Goibibo.com

Travel booking site Goibibo.com has appointed ITSA as its creative agency. No formal pitch process was conducted. An in-house team has been handling the creative mandate so far.

'Goibibo.com hain na' has been used as a catchphrase at the end of many of these recent ads. A cartoon character (a little boy) who spells out the benefits of the brand, across ads, has been used as a mascot of sorts.

Goibibo has also utilised the activation route to reach out to its consumers. Around April 2012, the brand team organised a special chauffeur-driven airport pick up for select passengers who had used Goibibo.com to book their tickets. The activation was conducted across Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru airports and went on for a month. It remains to be seen how ITSA will uplift the portal's creative product in the days ahead.

Goibibo.com is a part of the Ibibo Group, an e-commerce organisation from the stable of the MIH which is a subsidiary of South African media conglomerate Naspers. In India, the Ibibo Group is a joint venture between Naspers and China's internet company Tencent. The group was launched in India in 2007.

The aim of the Ibibo Group is to facilitate trusted transactions on the internet. Key portfolio organisations of the group include Goibibo.com (online travel), Tradus.com (online shopping), PayU.in (online payments) and Gaadi.com (auto classifieds).

Launched in September 2009, Goibibo.com caters to commuters looking for affordable travel deals and a simpler travel booking experience. The site enables travellers to buy air and bus tickets, hotels and holidays, and also has in place processes for rescheduling, cancellation and refunds. The site also offers travel solutions such as information on hotels, holidays, car hire services, and travel-related customer reviews and feedback.

A couple of years ago, Ibibo appointed Alliance Advertising as its media agency of record. The agency was brought in to manage the media duties for all verticals of Ibibo.

ITSA is a Mumbai-based agency that, in collaboration with Concept Communications, offers advertising, PR, digital and sports marketing capabilities. ITSA was founded in July 2012 by Emmanuel Upputuru, ex-national creative director, Publicis; Anirban Mozumdar, ex-national planning director, Publicis and Daniel Upputuru, ex-head of TAG McCann Delhi.

Interestingly, the acronym has no full form, yet.