Lowe wins $2m Tata Infotech shootout

NEW DELHI: Lowe Lintas & Partners Worldwide has snatched the US$2 million Tata Infotech education services division account from Delhi-based Joint & Arms Communications.

The Interpublic group agency, which beat Euro RSCG, McCann-Erickson and Rediffusion DY&R in the final round, will build the Tata Infotech brand in India and a number of other Asian markets, including the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

There are also plans to enter China and South Korea - the company has started talks with four universities in China to pave the way for the establishment of operations on the mainland.

In India, the organisation, which has alliances with companies such as Sun, Microsoft, Oracle and IBM, plans to increase the number of centres in 27 major cities from 300 to 400 in the near future.

WPP's The Media Edge has the media agency of record business for the Tata group.

The media assignment was awarded in October last year when The Media Edge was appointed to handle media planning and buying for 14 of the conglomerate's 96 companies.

Tata Infotech - one of the leading information technologies companies in the Indian sub-continent, focusing on providing professional and career courses in the high-tech sector - took six months to select its creative agency.

Rahul Thapan, the company's head of education services, said: "We wanted an agency to bring in the strategic planning perspective and insights on consumer behaviour.

"As we have major plans to go abroad and tap into overseas markets, we needed an agency with an international presence and the expertise to handle expansion on a massive scale."