Prahlad Kakkar, Pritish Nandy, Dilip Cherian lead race for government’s PR contract

From leading ad man Prahlad Kakkar to journalist Pritish Nandy, PR man Dilip Cherian to leading event management company Wizcraft are reportedly among the top contenders pitching for the AAP government’s project to run a communications consultant firm. The main objective of the firm will be to handle media affairs, engage citizens effectively in a two-way communication with the administration and to hold periodic stakeholder consultations for proper feedback in formulating policies and schemes in the national capital. Among other top bidders for the project are said to be Goldmine Advertising, FCB Ulka, Pinstorm and HTA. The bids for the consultancy firm are likely to be opened on April 18.

The main objective of the government to hire media consultancy firm is to bring in more professionalism to highlight its key policies and schemes. Once finalised, the firm will be required to communicate with different media verticals through its pool of experts. The firm will also be required to have a team of consultants comprising communications expert as the team leader, communications adviser, digital and social media expert, editorial and content expert and media management expert. Besides the consultation firm, the government has already started looking for two senior information officers and four information officers to handle day-to-day affairs of the media.

A highly-placed source said that top companies in the media domain have approached the AAP government as it has already earmarked about '200 crore for publicity for the current fiscal.

A senior officer said that if a leading professional company takes charge of the government’s publicity, it would definitely help it in its complete makeover in the public domain. For instance, Mr Kakkar is a leading ad film director, best known for his work on the famous PepsiTV commercial with veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan and cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar. He is also the founder and main director for Genesis Film Productions, one of India’s leading production houses, established in 1977.

Similarly, Mr Nandy, well-known poet and journalist, has managed his company from its very inception. The Pritish Nandy Communications was one of the first media and entertainment companies to go public in 2000, when it listed on the BSE and the NSE, where it is among the few listed stocks in the sector.

Same way, Wizcraft, with a depth of expertise in experiential marketing, boasts of having in its client portfolio more than 500 leading MNCs and corporate houses, including Microsoft, IBM, Zee TV, Bacardi, Audi, Standard Chartered, Wipro, Redbull, Adidas and many more. Wizcraft’s in-house brands include the IIFA, GiMA, StarGuild Awards and Kingdom of Dreams. The company has successfully conceptualised, organised and executed largescale events such as the opening and closing ceremonies at the 19th Commonwealth Games, 50 years of Indian Independence Day celebrations and opening ceremony at the Hannover Messe (2015).

Mr Cherian’s Perfect Relations, an image management and communications firm born and brought up in South Asia, too has an innate understanding of the region, its preferences and needs.

At Goldmine Advertising, the company practises “walk the extra mile to make clients smile.” And Pinstorm is a digital advertising firm headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Zurich and Santa Clara.