Ogilvy bags Federal Bank's advertising account

New Delhi: Federal Bank, one of India's oldest private sector banks, is changing its advertising agency after 20 years. The bank, which worked with Mudra Communications over the last two decades, called for a creative pitch a few months ago.

While Mudra, Lowe Lintas and Ogilvy & Mather O&M) reached the final round of the pitch process, it is O&M that walked away with the Rs 50 crore creative account. Company insiders disclosed that the bank has signed a 10-year contract with O&M.

"For all these years we have been doing product specific campaigns and this is the first time we are doing a brand film and therefore needed a fresh spin to our communication strategy," said Abraham Koshy, chairman, Federal Bank. While Koshy declined to comment on the advertising budget, sources said that till 2013 the bank's annual ad budget was Rs 20 crore and was raised to Rs 50 crore in 2014.

This is primarily because Federal Bank is looking to expand its communication ambit from Kerala to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Punjab. "Therefore the advertising budget has gone up significantly," said a source. Piyush Pandey, executive chairman, O&M, said: "We are delighted to be working with Federal Bank and I went for the pitch myself. It's a bank that's largely based out of Kerala and now their expanding to other states."

An email sent to Madhukar Kamath, group CEO and MD at DDB Mudra Group, did not elicit a response at the time of going to press. On the new ads that the bank will unveil in July, Koshy said that the bank's research showed that its tagline "Your perfect banking partner" still resonates with consumers.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.