MUMBAI: India is soon expected to overtake the U.S. as the world’s second-largest smartphone market after China. Smartphone shipments in India grew 18% last year, compared with just 3% globally.
In a significant move, Team ZTE, powered by Publicis Media and Publicis Communications, has bagged the entire media planning and buying mandate of ZTE Mobile. ZTE plans to launch a whole range of new products in India.
In the pitching process which started early this year, Publicis trumped agencies such as Madison Media, GroupM and IPG Mediabrands to pocket the contract which, some industry state, is worth around Rs 202 crore per year.
ZTE Corporation is a Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and Systems Company and also the world’s leading mobile phone manufacturer. The company has made several Android smartphones and tablets. While the company mainly sells products under the ZTE brand, it is also an original equipment manufacturer (OEM). One of ZTE’s recent mobile launches is the Hawkeye. The smartphone was launched in January 2017.
Publicis Media co Performics.Resultrix MD Mayoori Kango said, “ZTE is an ambitious, high-tech, result oriented company, operating in a space that is dynamic and exciting. We will further fuel their expansion plans, by helping them forge deep connections with consumers, across all the right touch-points and platforms. Our strong play in areas such as technology, data, content, and analytics coupled with powerful tools and rich consumer insights led to us bagging this business. In the past few months, as a group, we have made significant investments in machine-learning and artificial intelligence, and this has further enhanced our offering. We will harness all our experience in the telecommunications sector to drive market share for ZTE.”
ZTE CMO Sachin Batra said, “We are excited to have found a strategic partner that shares our enthusiasm and vision for the brand and offers the best of both qualitative and quantitative thinking. Team ZTE impressed us early on with their strong, highly differentiated offering and compelling live ROI proposition. They are focused on the entire customer journey, generating real-time strategies and returns on media and marketing investments. Team ZTE comes with extraordinary analytical and media targeting capabilities. Their passion, vision and dedication made them the right partner for our growth plans. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership.”