Madison World wins Levis' integrated media and PR biz

Madison World has won the integrated media and PR account of Levi Strauss & Company. In what Sam Balsara, chairman, Madison World, describes as a first for the agency, Madison will be handling the denim brand's media, PR, outdoor, BTL and celebrity entertainment portfolio through each of its specialized units.
Balsara said, "This is the first time that we are offering an integrated service to a client. The attempt is to offer to Levis the best of both worlds, integration and specialization. I am sure we will face some challenges, but we are confident that we will overcome them."

Shumone Jaya Chatterjee, managing director, Levi Strauss (India) said, "We have been marketing to the youth and young adults in India for the last 14 years and have reached a stage where our brands are well distributed and strongly positioned as category leaders. The challenge now is to expand the size of each of our segments through reaching our target audience effectively, consistently and inspiring them with compelling messages. We believe that Madison, with their well integrated services and their almost proprietary passion will be a strong and strategic partner to have in building new communication and media paradigms appropriate for the youth in the 21st century in India.

Balsara, while admitting that the attempt at offering such an integrated offering was a challenging one, added, "This was an attempt to give them a highly specialized service, but routed through a common service, being integrated in that sense, in my view, would be a compromise. We are not trying to do that. We are looking at ensuring that what the client gets is the original quality service from each of the units like Madison PR, Madison Media, outdoor etc."

Balsara was of the view that Levi's was most likely to use the PR discipline the most.