NEW DELHI: Maruti has been allotted its entire AOR business to Initiative Media. The annual ad spends of the recently listed company is estimated to be in the region of Rs 700 million.

The decision was confirmed to indiantelevision.com by a senior executive of Initiative Media. “Initiative Media has indeed won this account. It gives great satisfaction to us. I was part of the pitch and our product was far superior. It makes logical sense on client’s behalf as well to consolidate the entire business with us. We can also function and plan in a much better way,” said the executive.

Maruti took nearly five weeks to consolidate its entire business with Initiative Media. Initiative Media was handling the buying business for print, while Madison was looking after the buying for television.

Considering Madison’s performance in the recent past, in which the Indian agency’s strike rat against its counterpart has been fairly high, Initiative Media has all the reasons to be pleased.

“We were always confident. We have been associated with Maruti for more than four years now. We came up with innovative ideas and integrated marketing effort. I think that’s what worked in our favour,” he says.

Maruti will continue to have a slew of creative agencies - Hakuhodo Percept handles the flagship brands Maruti 800 and Zen; Lowe handles Alto, Baleno, Esteem, Omni and Versa; Capital Advertising handles the True Value (automobile finance) account as well as the corporate advertising and N2N (fleet management service) businesses of Maruti; and Contract is in charge of Grand Vitara besides WagonR