Bates Loses Carrier Aircon Account To Grey Worldwide

Bates India, Delhi has lost the Rs 8-9 crore Carrier Aircon advertising account to Grey Worldwide, Delhi. This comes as a blow to Bates which held the account for the past 7-8 years.

Grey Worldwide, which is targeting a Rs 280 crore turnover this financial year, will be handling Carrier Aircon's advertising business with effect from 2002. For Grey Worldwide in Delhi, the account is a full service one. Mediacom, Grey's media wing will be the agency-of-record (AOR) for the account.

Grey's director, account planning, Naresh Gupta said: "We expect to break the new campaign by mid-February 2002." According to industry sources, the pitch for Carrier was a well contested one with incumbent Bates, Grey Worldwide, McCann-Erickson and Everest in the fray.

Carrier Aircon is a Rs 450 crore American company which enjoys a 30 per cent share in the Indian AC market. However, this year it lost out to LG in the home AC segment. Carrier entered India in 1988 with Contract as its advertising agency. It is expected to rev up its activities to grow its marketshare in 2002.