Voltas India has appointed Lintas Media Group to take care of its media duties. The account is estimated to be worth Rs. 40 crore. Earlier, the account was handled by MPG India (the media agency of Havas Group).

Sudha Natrajan, president and chief operating officer, Lintas Media Group spoke about the win, “Our team is a good mix of brand and communication strategists. Our recommendations seemed holistic and robust to the company. Our aggressive stance for the company helped us win the account.”

She further added, “”While Voltas is one of the more popular brands, we found that it was losing out on mindshare among emerging consumers.”

Pradeep Bakshi, senior vice president and deputy COO, Voltas said, “The brand has been through challenging times. Having launched a new range of 50 exciting room airconditioners, keeping in mind the market’s heterogeneous nature, the brand is keenly looking at capitalizing through a blend of innovative solutions in media to woo every customer segment. We found a good partner who will walk this journey with us, in Lintas Media Group.”

V S Mani, senior vice president and general manager – Lintas Media Group, Delhi also added, “The kind of in-depth work on consumer and market segmentation that was presented to the client was highly appreciated.”

Lintas Group has launched Karishma Initiative, a new media service entity in order to globally align their businesses across various countries. This is Lintas third initiative after LMG and Aaren Initiative. Karishma Initiative will be headed by N P Sathyamurthy, who is also LMG’s COO.

KI has been operational since September 1, 2009 and has begun with a client size of more than Rs 500 crore. It is already serving brands like Samsonite, Revlon, Austrian Airways, Qatar Airways, Computer Associates, Sharp Electronics, Four Seasons and Geodesic and Bombay Dyeing.

Speaking about their latest business, Lintas Media Group’s Chairman and CEO, Lynn de Souza, who would also be overall in charge of KI, said, “The thought process behind launching another media service agency brand, in addition to Lintas Media Group, was very clear to us. We have a large and strong base of home grown blue chip businesses. We now need to expand our offering to clients who work with a global template. Though not key to the character of KI, this does help avoid conflict that global businesses may have with our legacy accounts”.