BATN Pitch: Agencies know fate this week

The winner of the multimillion Naira public relations pitch for British America Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) will likely be unveiled this week as the company is set to announce the agency that will handle its PR account.

A source from the company told BusinessDay last week that the outcome of the pitch will be made available this week. BATN is the producer of Benson & Hedges, Dunhill, St. Moritz, and Rothmans of cigarette brands.

It is not totally obvious who among the shortlisted finalists will clinch the account as both officials in BATN and shortlisted agencies keep information under wraps. But before this time, there have been movements to MediaCraft agency, one of the shortlisted agencies by what a source said could be officials from BATN to probably inspect the office.

In the last four weeks, a panel has been going through the submissions of the agencies in their presentations to arrive at the winner. CMC, another top PR agency, may have participated in the pitch indirectly as a source said that it was co-opted into the pitch by another agency. The source said that its submission was equally excellent.

Industry sources said that BATN and The Quadrant Company which handled the account for over seven years mutually decided to path ways on the account for their best interests.

In a report recently, Oluwasoromidayo George, director communications/head CSR of BATN confirmed that TQC was not sacked from the business. She said TQC’s performance was good listing a number of things the company requires from the new agency, and that will include the usual things like expertise, track record, appropriate structure.

The profile of MediaCraft, which already handles Star brand from the stable of Nigerian Breweries has been soaring in the recent time. The company recently added Diamond Bank to its kitty when it was relieved from TPT International last year.

On the other hand, the account would boost CMC’s profile if it wins the business.

Daniel Obi