Indosat caves in to pitch fee demands

Rumours abound of several agencies pulling out of the review in protest at Indosat’s reluctance to pay the Rp25 million (US$2,700) fee required of large advertisers.

But the telco giant conceded and is expected to pay the fee to all seven pitching agencies. The pitch field now includes DDB, which handles much of Indosat’s above-the-line advertising, Leo Burnett/Arc, which handles PR, Matari, Ogilvy & Mather, McCann Erickson, Grey and Octovate. JWT Adforce has withdrawn due to conflict with its account for pre-paid service SimPati, which is part of Indosat rival Telkomsel.

Lulut Asmoro, the agency’s president director, said: “Initially, Indosat looked at the possibility of us forming a separate agency for this account, but we realised that it would breach the contract with our existing SimPati client.”