Axis Bank to continue with Lowe Lintas

The bank authorities have decided to retain the creative services of Lowe Lintas after checking out several other agencies.

Last month, afaqs! reported that Axis Bank was checking out several well-established ad agencies in Mumbai. After conducting what is popularly known as a 'credential round', a process that usually signals the start of a creative pitch, the bank authorities seem to have folded up the exercise.

Highly-placed sources in the ad industry inform that for now, the creative mandate for Axis Bank will continue to lie with Lowe Lintas. The agency has been handling the creative duties for this account since September 2009.

afaqs! has learnt from one of the agencies approached that after seeking the basic credentials of around five-to-six top agencies, all the agencies contacted were thanked for sharing their details and were intimated that Lowe Lintas will continue to stay on board for the time being. "The reason given for seeking such credentials and information was to get a feel of what is happening in the market in general, and the category in particular. It was apparently just to stay tuned into the kind of brands that other agencies are working upon nowadays," says a senior-level official from a top ad agency, on grounds of anonymity.

Prior to Lowe Lintas, the mandate for the brand was with Ogilvy's sister concern, Meridian Communications.

It may be noted that in May 2010, Lowe Lintas created an ad campaign for Axis Bank that positioned the brand as a 'solution provider', that is, one which always has a solution for every problem faced by its customers. The campaign ran across TV, BTL (below the line), and outdoor media channels.

In 2007, on the back of a major re-branding activity, UTI Bank was officially re-named Axis Bank. This was done by Meridian Communications, its creative agency at the time. The bank's new avatar was presented with a campaign that featured identical-looking people or objects to convey that nothing, but the name of the brand had undergone a change.