According to industry sources, JWT, Lowe, Leo Burnett and Ogilvy & Mather have made their first round of presentations and a shortlist is expected to be revealed soon.
Rediff, which handles Bharti's Airtel account, has not been invited to pitch.
As Bharti will be entering the Indian retail space in collaboration with US retail giant Wal-Mart, the agencies in the running have been asked to build their presentations around the 'low price' and 'wide range of products' pillars, which will be the USP of the retail major.
The Bharti Group and Wal-Mart are planning to use three separate brand names in India for three different store formats - hypermarts, super markets and small neighbourhood stores.
"It's only logical that we call the cash-and-carry format Bharti-Wal-Mart, as it's a joint-venture between the two companies. The Bharti-owned front-end retail stores and the franchisee-owned neighbourhood stores will carry two different names. It makes sense to operate under three different names, but nothing has been finalised as yet," Bharti Group chairman Sunil Mittal had said in a release last month.
There continues to be intense speculation on whether the Wal-Mart name will be used in India, given the political controversy over FDI in retail.
