OLX.in names Lowe Lintas as creative partner

In March, OLX.in parted ways with Saatchi, its creative agency. However, ITSA still continues to work on the brand as an innovation agency.

Online classifieds site OLX.in has appointed Lowe Lintas as its creative partner in a multi-agency pitch. Lowe Lintas' Delhi division will handle the account. In March, OLX.in parted ways with Saatchi, which was its creative agency. However, ITSA still continues to work on the brand as an innovation agency.

As a part of the mandate, Lowe Lintas will create engaging communications that cater to the further development of such categories while strengthening the message that people can now sell their pre-owned stuff easily on OLX.

Amarjit Singh Batra, CEO, OLX India, says, "The initial TV ads and messaging of 'Sab Kuch Bikta Hai' and 'OLX pe bech de' has witnessed positive mass appeal resulting in immense brand recall and a clear user preference for the brand. Building up from here, we want to take this notion a step further to fortify OLX's brand equity and humanise the brand. Having weighed all the proposals and looking at the best fit, we chose Lowe Lintas for its 'Populist' creativity, its focus on business results and its understanding of our brand. We are confident that Lowe Lintas will be able to help us fulfil our objectives."

Amer Jaleel, national creative director, Lowe Lintas, states, "OLX is an extremely dynamic and exciting brand. The most interesting thing about OLX is that it's a completely new category with challenges of changing human behaviour. There will be opportunities to crack new insights, and therefore the brand would allow us to introduce absolutely fresh communication."

Commenting on the win, Naveen Gaur, president, Lowe Lintas, states, "We are exceptionally excited to partner with OLX.in. OLX is at the forefront of a genuine consumer revolution in the Indian online space by creating a new selling culture that sees value in almost everything. OLX was seeking creative excellence based on strong strategic thinking and I think we as Lowe Lintas delivered to that. We look forward to partnering it in creating bigger, better and bolder creative work based on a distinctive brand promise."

Last month, the brand carried out brand integration with the latest movie, Ghanchakkar. In 2012, OLX.in was visible on the communication circuit through a TV campaign that attempted to translate the portal's tagline, 'Where buyers meet sellers'. The campaign targeted urban, affluent, middle and upper middle class consumers.

With its parent company in Argentina, OLX was launched in India in 2006. In 2009, OLX raised $5 million from Indian venture capital fund Nexus India Capital. OLX competes with classifieds portals such as Quikr, Sulekha and HTClassifieds. Besides, South African media group Naspers took a stake in OLX in August 2010. OLX is used in more than 90 countries and 40 languages.

In 2011, it launched its first TV campaign that resulted in 2.4 times growth in traffic for the classifieds website. Today, India is the second biggest market for OLX worldwide, after Brazil. Recently, Naspers closed down its Indian classifieds platform TradusAds.in and merged it with OLX India.