Are Private Treaties Here To Stay?
Media Companies are trading their ad inventory for equity in the companies big and small. How large will media for equity get?
PRAJJAL SAHA Action Construction Equipment Ltd (ACE) is a Faridabad-based company which manufactures 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 to. Business expansion has taken place by winning competitive bids and tenders. Other possibilities were hardly considered. In recent years, though, the company 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 over 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 effort - under the name Times Private Treaties (TPT) - has only been gathering greater momentum.

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