Bharti ropes in Ogilvy for African safari

Telecom major Bharti Airtel today said it has appointed Ogilvy Africa to provide brand building services for its African operations.

Ogilvy Africa will guide Airtel's long-term brand building across the African continent and provide overall creative direction, and media planning and buying for Airtel's African businesses, besides executing campaigns in each of its African markets, Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

However, the company did not disclose the account size, or its marketing and brand-building expenditure for its African operations.

Ogilvy Africa was previously engaged with Zain for planning and media buying across Africa.

Bharti Airtel completed the acquisition of Zain's mobile operations spread over 15 countries across Africa, on June 8. Airtel expects to launch its own brand in these 15 countries by October-end.

Ogilvy Africa, a part of the global marketing communications services group WPP, has set up a specialist pan-African business unit called Team Airtel. This unit will be exclusively deliver integrated marketing services-- advertising, media buying, market research and public relations-- to Airtel across the continent with its existing network of offices, it said.

"We are delighted to be partnering Ogilvy Africa in our endeavour to take the Airtel brand deep into the heart of every market we operate in. We believe we have the right partner to successfully take forward our brand strategy," Bharti Airtel International Chief Executive Manoj Kholi said.

Team Airtel will also include The Brand Union, who will be responsible for brand migration, Millward Brown for market research, along with Hill & Knowlton and Ogilvy PR for all public relations across all markets. "Team Airtel's role will be to bring the Airtel brand to life in every one of its African markets, and we have brought together a very strong integrated marketing team which is dedicated to this task. This deal represents a further significant step forward for Ogilvy and Scangroup in Africa," Ogilvy Group Global Chief Executive Miles Young said.