Top advertising companies have shown interest in the pre-bidding stage in building image of the Delhi Government as the Arvind Kejriwal Government is soon going to hire a private firm for image makeover of the city Government.
The bids for the consultancy firms are likely to be opened on April 18.
According to sources, among other top bidders for the project are said to be Pritish Nandy Communications, Prahlad Kakkar Advertising Agency, Dilip Cherian’s Perfect Relations, Wizcraft, Goldmine Advertising, FCB Ulka, Pinstorm and the HTA.
Sources said if a leading professional company takes charge of the Government’s publicity, it would definitely help in popularising Government’s image by highlighting its achievements, policies and schemes.
The main objective of the firm will be to handle media affairs, engage citizens effectively in a two-way communication with the administration and to hold periodic stakeholder consultation for proper feedback in formulating policies and schemes.
Once finalised, the firm will be required to communicate with different media verticals through its pool of experts. Also, the firm will be required to have a team of consultants comprising communication expert as team leader, communication adviser, digital and social media expert, editorial and content expert and media management expert.
Besides the consultation firm, the Government has already started looking for two senior Information Officers and four Information Officers to handle day-to-day affairs of the media.
Sources said top companies in the media domain have approached the AAP Government as it has already earmarked about Rs 200 crore for publicity for the current fiscal year.
This may be one of the reasons that top advertisement agencies are keen to work with the AAP Government in Delhi, said sources.
The Government had first earmarked Rs 526 crore for publicity in the last fiscal. later, it reduced the Budget to Rs 400 crore and subsequently brought it down further to Rs 370 crore. The Government was finally able to spend about Rs 100 crore in the last fiscal year.
Sources said Pritish Nandy Communications is being run by Pritish Nandy, well known poet and journalist. It was one of the first media and entertainment companies to go public in 2000, when it listed on India’s two best known stock exchanges, the BSE and the NSE, where it is among the few listed stocks in the sector.
The company has grown consistently over years of its existence.
Similarly, Prahlad Kakkar’s advertisement company is well known in the field of advertising and Kakkar himself is a known face in advertisement best known for his work on the famous Pepsi TV commercial with Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar.
Same way, Wizcraft, with a depth of expertise in experiential marketing, boasts of having in its client portfolio more than 500 leading MNCs and corporate houses, including Microsoft, IBM, Zee TV, Bacardi, Audi, Standard Chartered, Wipro, Redbull, Adidas and many more. Wizcraft’s in-house brands include the IIFA, GiMA, StarGuild Awards and Kingdom of Dreams. The company has successfully conceptualised, organised and executed large scale events such as the Opening and Closing ceremonies at the 19th Commonwealth Games, 50 years of Independence Day Celebrations and Opening Ceremony at the Hannover Messe (2015).
Dilip Cherian’s Perfect Relations, an image management and communication firm born and brought up in South Asia, too has an innate and immaculate understanding of the region, its preferences and needs. Strengthened by a seamless integrated network across the region and strong relationships with the main influencers and cross-media platforms, Perfect Relations can best help the Government to reach out to maximum people.
At Goldmine Advertising, the company practises ‘walk the extra mile to make clients smile’. And Pinstorm is a digital advertising firm headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in New Delhi, Bangalore, Singapore, Kuala lumpur, Zurich and Santa Clara. It was founded in 2004 and ranks amongst the leading digital advertising firms in the world.