Action Construction Equipment Ltd (ACE) is a Faridabad based company, which manufactures the mobile cranes used in construction. In its decade-long existence, the company has never really had a budget for advertising. Like most B2B companies, it never felt the need for advertising its ware. Business expansion was already taking place by winning competitive bids and tenders. Other possibilities were not in the frame of necessities.

In recent years, though, ACE has been advertising itself aggressively. Is this because of a change in its marketing approach or a change in its equity structure? Or is it both? The truth lies somewhere in between.

ACE is one of more than 200 – often little-known – companies that have taken to advertising in the last three to four years thanks to a most unusual initiative by India’s largest media company, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL). Begun about three years ago, the initiative, which is called Times Private Treaties (TPT), has been gathering ever greater momentum.

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