Interface Communication and Lodestar UM walk away with Sulekha.com

The classifieds site had called for a pitch in Chennai in August 2011 for a complete creative solutions provider that works both in the space of traditional, as well as non-traditional media.

The classifieds portal Sulekha.com has assigned its creative duties to Interface Communication, while Lodestar UM has won the media duties. The company had called for a multi-agency pitch in Chennai, where it is headquartered, in August 2011.

The size of the business, however, could not be obtained at the time of filing this report, but it is said to be substantially high.

Senior officials in the agency have confirmed the news to afaqs!, on grounds of anonymity.

This is the first time that the portal, mainly known for classifieds, has called for a creative, as well as media pitch. Prior to this, Sulekha.com worked with both creative agencies such as JWT, as well as media agencies on project basis.

The company has not launched any television or print campaign in the past two years. The last campaign launched was a digital one, in 2009 by JWT. Now that its hunt for agencies is complete, it appears that the portal plans to make a comeback in advertising.

In 2008, Sulekha.com spent Rs 12 crore in brand-building exercises at the time of expanding its presence to 20 Tier II and Tier III cities.

For the record, Sulekha.com is an interactive mobile and internet platform that connects Indians worldwide through a portfolio of services including classifieds, yellow pages business search, events, and social media reviews and participation. As per the company's website, it serves a growing online and mobile member base of 6.2 million in more than 50 cities in India and in the US, and elsewhere.

Some of the assets of the site include listing of general classifieds, yellow pages business listings in India, and a large number of small-to-medium business advertisers in the online and mobile space.

The site claims that it derives its revenues in India through a 'performance guaranteed' response model. The company, in its official website claims that its target user audience is more than 300-million strong, and the target SMB customer base is more than four million.