Under the new arrangement, MindShare will play a key facilitating role alongside the company's brand teams and creative advertising agencies for HLL's new Communication Channel Planning Process. This process aims at establishing the most effective combination of marketing vehicles for its brands.

Till now, HLL's strategic media planning assignment was split between different agencies. The Agency of Record responsibility for traditional media buying was handled by HTA's Fulcrum, while Outdoor and Rural Media was handled by Ogilvy & Mather - both of which are WPP group companies.

According to a company release, consolidation of media planning and buying does not lead to any change in HLL's creative agency assignments. The creative agencies will continue to do the creative work for their respective accounts.

According to HLL chairman MS Banga: "HLL is focussing its marketing efforts behind fewer, larger brands. Our move to a consolidated media assignment reinforces HLL's commitment to simplify and focus its marketing investment for maximum returns. This consolidated approach will improve the productivity for our leading brands."

According to HLL head of strategic services KS Srinivasa Murty: "The communication channel landscape continues to grow and fragment, creating an increasingly large and complex planning environment. Our goal was to make our significant investment in brand communications work harder.

Consolidation will provide a seamless linkage as we move from broad marketing communications mix planning, through strategic media planning to tactical implementation." MindShare, which was launched in September 1997 as a global concept with the goal of pooling the media planning, implementation and research operations of JWT (HTA in India) and Ogilvy into a single client resource, offers services in traditional and non-traditional areas.

HLL, which started the media review in October 2000, will implement the consolidation of media resources in a phased manner to give the media agency adequate time to establish its new organisation. The transition is expected to be completed in the next few months.

Agencies react on expected lines
The move to appoint MindShare for HLL's media planning and buying would positively benefit HTA and Ogilvy & Mather, while at the same time pinch Lowe Lintas & Partners, whose Initiative Media lost out in the pitch for the coveted account.

For one, HTA's Fulcrum which was earlier handling the media buying account of Levers would be merged into MindShare.

According to HTA CEO Mike Khanna, "We are happy to be reappointed to handle the business. In a competitive pitch, we won this account. We have been handling this account for some years now. And we are glad that Unilever has considered us appropriate to reappoint. Fulcrum will be merged into this operation now."

When contacted, Lowe Lintas & Partners managing director Prem Mehta, said: "It is Lever's decision, and my comment is not called for. Lintas was not in any case handling the Lever media buying. We will continue to handle media buying and planning for our other 130 clients."

According to Ogilvy & Mather managing director Ranjan Kapur: "I am absolutely delighted with this assignment. This is a mandate given to MindShare which is a combined media operation of Thompsons and Ogilvy."