eBay picks Avian Media for India PR duties

Market sources said that eBay India has hired Avian Media to handle its' PR work after a round of multi-agency pitching that began post Holi this year. Currently, eBay India’s PR is handled by Perfect Relations.

The agencies that had been invited to pitch were 20:20 MSL (20: 20 MSL handles a part of the work for eBay globally), Adfactors PR, Edelman, Genesis-Burson -Marsteller and Avian Media (for its' expertise in eCommerce –Avian has handled Jabong, Big Basket and Yatra.) Outgoing PR agency, Perfect Relations ,was also invited to pitch. 

For Avian the eBay India account follows other high profile account wins this year including BMW, Sesame Workshop and BlaBlaCar. According to sources, eBay India was looking at a national PR mandate minus social and digital marketing; the whole account is estimated at 40 lakh rupees per year. The mandate would cover PR duties in ten markets in India including the large metros as well as Tier 2 cities which house many of eBay India’s sellers.

The e-commerce market is one of the hottest sectors in India today seeing multi-million dollar deals. There are now several strong domestic players such as Flipkart and Snapdeal as well as large foreign investments. Earlier this year, Alibaba's Jack Ma bought a 25 % stake in Paytm.

The current eBay Head of Communications in India, Girish Huria, previously worked at Avian.