JWT bags Bharti Retail's Rs 50 cr ad account

NEW DELHI; The increasing clutter in the retail environment has begun spilling over to the advertising front as well. Bharti Retail’s ad account, estimated at about Rs 50 crore, has been bagged by JWT. The account, which has been up for grabs since the Bharti Group announced ambitious plans for its retail venture backed by a $2.5-billion investment, saw a keenly-contested battle among five of the country’s leading agencies.

In addition to JWT, other agencies involved in the pitch included Lowe, O&M, Leo Burnett and McCann-Erickson. Sources said Bharti Retail had, in fact, invited the five agencies to pitch for the account about a month ago. JWT, Leo Burnett and McCann-Erickson were shortlisted, after which the mandate to handle the account was given to JWT.

In addition to advertising, JWT will also be in charge of overall brand building and store design, sources said. The Bharti Wal-Mart retail venture is expected to open its first store by March 2008, and plans to set up at least six stores by the end of next year.

Talking about the account, Rohit Ohri, managing partner, JWT India, said, “The retail category will provide us with a great opportunity to create powerful brand ideas that the consumers would like to spend time.’’ JWT’s biggest accounts include PepsiCo and Frito-Lay, Ford Motors, Hindustan Unilever, DeBeers, Kellogg’s, Levi’s, GlaxoSmithKline and Hero Honda.

Kishore Biyani’s Future Group had kicked off a high-decibel advertising in the retail space last year by getting two Bollywood stars, Bipasha Basu and Zayed Khan, to endorse the group’s fashion retail format, Pantaloons Fresh Fashion.