OC yet to appoint media buying agency for CWG

The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee has failed to appoint a media buying agency till date.

With barely a month to go for the event, the OC is yet to brief its creative agency JWT to design the Games campaign. “The campaign is not yet ready as the Organising Committee has not briefed us,” said Rohit Ohri, managing partner, JWT.

The bids for the media agency were invited in July and were supposed to have been finalised by August. Around 15 agencies had participated in the bid, including some big companies like Lintas, Dentsu, Motivator (Group M) and Mudra.

Media duties have been estimated at around Rs 25 crore. Agencies believe that the way things are going, the OC might not appoint a media agency to design a campaign.

According to one of the bidding companies, the OC does not want to make this decision fearing it may give rise to some other controversy. “There has been a lot of negative publicity around the Games ...a communication exercise is of little relevance. In such a scenario, it is unlikely that the government would like to create a hype around the Games,” said a media buyer, who did not wish to be identified.

Without disclosing any time frame, Lalit Bhanot, secretary general of the OC, said, “We will release the campaign... It will happen.” Even if the organisers were to appoint an agency now, it would be difficult for them to deliver immediately. “The festive season is upon us. There is a huge paucity of good outdoor locations and a lot of them are tied up for long-term deals. Unless the government gives a diktat that all outdoor vehicles be made available to the Games it will be very difficult,” said Sudha Natrajan, president and chief operating officer, Lintas Media Group.