O&M consolidates Castrol; doubles account billing to Rs 30 crore

As part of a global realignment process currently underway across markets, Castrol has consolidated its advertising business in India with O&M, Mumbai. Following this development, O&M will handle the entire Castrol portfolio, including passenger car motor oils (PCMOs), two-wheeler oils and greases. For the record, Castrol's diesel engine oil (DEOs) account has been with O&M for the past year or so.

In addition to the oils and lubes accounts, the agency will also be in charge of the corporate communication for Castrol, the communication for the BP brand (internationally, BP bought over Castrol last year), and BP's DEO masterbrands. Meanwhile, the AOR account of Castrol has moved to MindShare. The consolidated account (oils and lubes, corporate and BP) is valued at close to Rs 30 crore.

Prior to the global alignment with O&M, the Castrol business was handled by different agencies across the world, although FCB had a significant chunk of the business in various markets. In India too, the PCMO, two-wheeler oils and greases accounts have moved to O&M from FCB-Ulka. Incidentally, agencyfaqs! has learnt that the incremental business from this movement has approximately doubled O&M's billing from Castrol - although there is no official confirmation of this.

When pressed for details, Mahesh Chauhan, vice-president, O&M, said, "These are early days… it really is too early to talk about the direction, strategic perspective on the brand. But I must say the agency is extremely excited by these developments, and is really looking forward to doing some great work on the business in the days to come."

agencyfaqs! has also gathered that vis-à-vis this account, O&M's Mumbai office will act as the hub for what is termed the IMESAA (India, Middle East, South Asia and Africa) region. Again, Chauhan doesn't reveal much. "Yes, such a development has happened, but the procedural work to implement this is still in process." © 2002 agencyfaqs!