L’Oreal India has appointed Percept D’Mark (PDM) as the activation agency for two of its brands – L’Oreal Paris and Maybelline. PDM has signed a one-year contract with L’Oreal India.
The agency will begin with looking after the two brands’ existing weekly activation programmes, executed in retail stores and malls – Makeover activity for Maybelline and Beauty Studio for L’Oreal Paris. This is the first time that L’Oreal has appointed an activation agency on a retainer basis; the brand previously worked with different agencies for different regions.
PDM has already been executing some of the earlier activation programmes in North India. Now the contract will see the agency taking over responsibility for these programmes across India.
Sanjay Shukla, national head, promotions, PDM India, says, “We have always believed in working with our clients on a long-term basis. And instead of running after businesses every day, we plan to stick to the band of a few clients, as it is beneficial for both the parties involved. It is to increase this band that we suggested that L’Oreal try the retainership model with us, and they agreed.”
Anish Agarwal, assistant product development manager, L’Oreal says, “Though even regularly, any activation agency employed by us is for a minimum of nine months to a year, but this deal works better for us in a financial sense. We wanted an agency that will help us smooth out the operational difficulties of our activation programmes.”
Agarwal explained that although PDM has been signed on specifically to execute the ongoing weekly activations across retail stores and malls on a pan-India basis, the company will also look at other initiatives or ideas that the agency might come up with during the year.