Maharashtra Congress looks for advertising firm to run its poll campaign

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Congress is scouting for a creative agency to handle the party’s advertising campaign for the forthcoming assembly elections in the state. Several local agencies and two major network ad firms, JWT and Havas, have presented proposals to the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee in the past two months, said three people involved with the pitch.

The account is estimated to be worth Rs 35-40 crore, said one of the people. Both Havas and JWT declined to comment. But a top executive at Havas said the agency’s media division led the presentations. “We worked with the MPCC even during the Lok Sabha polls and that time they had briefed us informally about the assembly elections as well,” this person said.

The agency that gets the contract will have to in turn appoint a local advertising firm in Mumbai from a list given by the party to carry out some of the creative work, the Havas executive said. The pitch is being supervised locally with minimal interference from the party’s top leaders in Delhi.

A JWT executive said the party has given a sketchy brief on the proposed campaign. “They have a cookie-cutter approach and don’t want to go beyond what they have already done in the past.” The Election Commission hasn’t announced the poll dates yet.

He said the MPCC will run the campaign for 3-4 weeks prior to the polls, which will be held later this year. Since the Election Commission has yet to announce the poll dates, the campaign launch and timeline haven’t been finalised.

The last assembly polls in Maharashtra were held in 2009 and Crayons handled the advertising and marketing duties of the MPCC at the time, including media planning.