CCI RAIDS, AI THREATS: INDIAN ADVERTISING GASPS FOR AIR

Clients splurge on celebrities, but creative agencies face cost-cutting, risking survival

- SANDEEP GOYAL

The CCI ‘raids’ on India’s top media agencies have dominated the headlines in the past couple of weeks. Agency head-honchos are in silent mode. The AAAI meanwhile has put out a ‘Competition Advisory’ that interestingly states that member agencies must continue to conduct their business ‘independently’.

They must continue to ensure there is no formal/informal communication between members on the way independent businesses are conducted. Members have been requested not to discuss (via any mechanism: email, WhatsApp, documents, any informal, or formal meetings), any commercially sensitive information, including the prices or pricing strategies, market allocation (e.g., territories, customers), output restrictions or quotas, pitches or tender collusion or terms of sale, remuneration, discounts, or credit terms.

Members were also advised to exit WhatsApp groups and cease communication with each other, effective immediately. Besides, communication among members regarding business matters, AAAI says, must not occur via WhatsApp, either individually or collectively or through other means.