Nestle India moves packaged milk biz to O&M

Benefiting from global alignment, O&M India has won one part of the advertising account of Nestle India from Mudra Communications. The agency has netted the chilled dairy products part of the business, which constitutes packaged dahi, lassi, yogurt and butter, apart from UHT (ultra-high temperature) milk. The last, which is essentially dispensed in tetrapacks, is easily recognized by the brand name Nestle Milk, and its derivatives, Nestle Slim and Nestle Pure Milk.

Confirming the development, Nishi Suri, executive director & head of Mumbai office, O&M India, told agencyfaqs! that the account had, indeed, moved to the agency. She does acknowledge that the global alignment of Nestle's chilled dairy products with O&M "played a role in this to a great extent", but adds that the agency still had to make presentations to Nestle India. "During the presentations, we had people from the Ogilvy network down here to add their learnings from global markets, and we puffed it up with our understanding of the domestic food market and what drives food habits locally," she reveals. "I think the presentations went some way in establishing comfort levels."

Interestingly, the move cannot really be termed as ‘a loss' for Mudra - for two reasons. Firstly, the move has been imminent for quite some time now. In fact, two years ago, there had been muted talk of the account moving to Publicis India, once Publicis (another Nestle agency) beefed up its India operations. And this speculation gained strength after Nestle India awarded Publicis India its mineral water brand, Pure Life. So, the fact that Nestle India has finally moved the account to one of its globally aligned agencies comes as no real surprise. (For the record, two of Nestle's milk-based accounts - condensed milk brand, Milkmaid, and milk food drink, Milo - stay with Mudra.)

The other reason for Mudra not having to feel too bad about the loss has to do with spends on the account. This part of the Nestle business hasn't been contributing hugely to Mudra's annualized billing - industry sources estimate past spends to be in the vicinity of just Rs 2-3 crore. The facts bear out, more or less, when viewed against the advertising that products in this cluster have been exposed to. Apart from Nestle Milk, very little mainstream advertising has happened on any of the products. And even in the case of Nestle Milk, the television commercial for the brand - featuring Nausheen Sardar Ali of Kkusum fame - was aired very selectively across C&S channels. Mudra, evidently, hasn't forfeited a money pit.

Without really commenting upon exact spends, Suri puts it all in perspective when she remarks, "The science of spends depends on the market and the category, and the market (for tetrapacked milk) is still nascent in this country. What I can say is that Nestle is very thorough in what it is doing, and wants to do it right. Nestle believes in expanding the market at a certain pace, and we at O&M would love to grow with them." © 2003 agencyfaqs!