The media account of Honda Cars will be now maintained by Motivator, one of GroupM's media agencies. According to the company’s senior officials, the volume of this account is calculated at more than Rs. 100 crore, including the digital media. Prior to Motivator, this account was maintained by ZenithOptimedia. Expressing her views on this move, the Assistant Vice-President (Marketing) at Honda Cars India, Anita Sharma was quoted as saying, "As part of our corporate governance rules, we call for a pitch every three years. And this time we had invited six agencies and had two rounds of pitch presentations. We asked agencies to present two case studies for Honda City and Amaze."
Sources said that the auto maker shortlisted 3 companies for this work, which include Madison and Zenith-Optimedia, besides Motivator. She further added, "Their (Motivator's) strategic inputs and understanding of the category is better." Anita also mentioned that a strategic shift can be seen at at Honda Cars India in terms of its media plans over the last 3 years. "Since we are now concentrating more on the mass segment and have expanded into several regions and cities, we have moved away from Hindi and English ads to regional ads and we convert our ads in at least nine to 10 regional languages. Even in the premium segment we have noticed that consumers like to read the ads in the language of their choice, especially in South India," she added.
On similar lines, the Managing Director of Motivator, Rabe Iyer said, "The brief that was given tested our media strategy, analysis and innovation skills apart from media implementation processes and buying." It must be noted that the auto maker’s creative duties are maintained by Dentsu and Soho Square. The digital business of the company is controlled by another GroupM agency, Blazer.
