ITC’s media account may soon be up for grabs

By Pritha Dasgupta
KOLKATA: Tobacco-to-consumer goods conglomerate ITC is likely to put its media account up for pitch soon as its contract with Madison World ends in December. ITC’s media spend is estimated at Rs 450 crore a year. Heads of media buying firms expect the pitch process to start in August.

The Kolkata-based company’s three-year contract with Madison World had expired in 2014 and the deal was extended for a year to December 2015.

“The incumbent agency always gets the first chance to defend the account and is usually given three months’ time to make a presentation,” said a top official at Madison Media. “We will start the work in August or September and eventually make the presentation. Following which the official pitch process will start towards the end of the year,” the person said.

Industry sources say ITC’s foods division spends Rs 200-250 crore in media, while the personal care division spends around Rs 100 crore. Other divisions such as stationery, Mangaldeep agarbatti and Wills Lifestyle spend about Rs 3-5 crore in media planning and buying.

“In its media mix, ITC has always been a television heavy company,” said the head of a leading media agency that plans to pitch for the account. “Only the stationary business is led by print ads. Except Bingo they don’t do much on the digital medium as well,” the person said. ITC last year had called for a multi-agency creative pitch for its personal care division that has brands such as Fiama Di Will, Vivel, Engage and Superia.

According to company sources, Contract India won the account. “They will primarily handle the skincare products from the portfolio,” said a top official in ITC. Sandeep Kaul, CEO of ITC’s personal care products business, said it had recently selected Contract “for creative development for one of the new development projects in the personal care products space”. he said. “There are no plans for a media pitch at this point of time,” he said.