Grey wins Reliance Communications' creative mandate

DDB Mudra was the other agency eventually in the race for the business; the account size is estimated to be above Rs 200 crore

After a closely fought multi-agency pitch that was called earlier this year, Grey has bagged the creative duties for Reliance Communications' GSM and CDMA services, sources close to the development have confirmed.

Grey won the account over DDB Mudra, which was the other agency vying for the mandate. Earlier JWT too was one of the agencies shortlisted for the final round but eventually it narrowed down to the two agencies.

Officials at both Reliance Communications and Grey remained unavailable for comments.

Cartwheel Creative is the incumbent agency on the account. The size of the business is estimated to be over Rs 200 crore.

The development comes soon after the company awarded its media mandate to Optimum Media Direction (OMD) India and MEC. Mudra Max was the agency handling the duties prior to this.

With the category getting increasingly cluttered, Reliance Communications has laid much emphasis on communications in the recent past. Recently, Big TV, the DTH (direct to home) arm of the group, entered into a strategic partnership with the ad network start-up, Networkplay.in, to monetise its video on demand (pay per view) and interactive offerings.

The company also made quite a splash in 2009 while launching its GSM services and signing a massive three year deal with actor Hrithik Roshan as brand ambassador. Roshan featured in the Pied Piper commercial last year done by Cartwheel.