GroupM’s Kinetic expected to land significant chunk of HUL’s OOH biz
It appears that Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) has decided on its OOH partners even as there was no confirmation coming from the agencies or the advertiser. HUL has been scouting for an agency to handle the out of home duties for all the brands under its portfolio. It is believed that the business is split between two agencies. GroupM’s Kinetic is said to be handling 85 pc of the business. The agency for the rest 15 pc couldn’t be verified at this stage.
The industry is abuzz with speculations that Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) has finally decided on the agencies that would handle its out-of-home (OOH) business. As is known, HUL has been shopping for an agency that would handle all the brands under the HUL portfolio for some time now. It is believed that HUL is bringing two OOH agencies on board. The chunk of the business – industry sources state 85 per cent – would be with GroupM’s Kinetic.
A second agency will handle the rest 15 per cent of the business. The details of the second agency could not be verified at the time of filing the report. Industry sources peg the business to be in the vicinity of Rs 50 crore, but are quick to add that since a part of the fiscal year has already passed away, the actual spends would be in the region of Rs 30 crore.
When contacted, Kinetic officials informed exchange4media that they had not heard from the client on the final decision. An industry source said, “There is no smoke without fire. The news is already out in the market that HUL has decided on its partners, including that the second agency is a non-WPP company.”
Ogilvy’s OOH arm Landscape has been handling this business for the last 10 years. It is believed that the agencies which took part in the pitch included Aaren Initiative, Mudra Max, GroupM’s Kinetic, and Navia Asia, the OOH specialist unit affiliated to the Publicis Group and Aegis Media’s Posterscope. A definitive list of agencies that participated could not be ascertained.
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