rmg david retains Asahi India Glass account, but...

In an unusual arrangement between an agency and a client, rmg david has been retained by Asahi India Glass to handle its creative duties for a period of three months. In case you are wondering, yes, there was a full-fledged multi-agency pitch which had Enterprise Nexus, Contract Advertising, Ambience D'Arcy, Madison Communications, Grey Worldwide and defending agency rmg david in the running for the estimated Rs 4-crore business. Interestingly, the company has decided to put rmg david under a ‘test' period. As far as the AOR is concerned, it continues to be handled by Universal McCann.

While the reasons for such an arrangement are not clear, sources say the company will "closely evaluate the performance of rmg david" during this period. At the end of the three-month period, one of the two things will happen. Either rmg david will successfully retain the business or the company will fall back on its "back-up list" of three agencies that have been shortlisted on the basis of the current pitch. agencyfaqs! has learnt that the three shortlisted agencies are Enterprise Nexus, Contract Advertising and Grey Worldwide. In short, if rmg david were to lose the business after three months, Asahi will call for a second round of presentation in which Enterprise Nexus, Contract Advertising and Grey Worldwide will take a shot at the business.

Coming back to the current round of presentations, the six agencies in the fray were asked to make a creative-cum-strategy presentation. The brief was to examine the strategy proposed by the company and recommend a ‘different route' or explain why the proposed one is fine.

rmg david has taken to this arrangement in a positive manner. Talking to agencyfaqs!, Subrato Chakraborty, general manager and vice president, rmg david, Delhi, said, "It was an open pitch, and at the end, the client decided to retain us. This gives tremendous joy and confidence." But what about the three-month clause? "We respect the client's decision," says Chakraborty.

Guess, we'll have to wait for another three months to hear of a more "permanent" arrangement… © 2003 agencyfaqs!