WPP Media Wins The India Media Mandate For Daawat

WPP Media has been appointed integrated media partner for Daawat, the flagship rice brand of LT Foods, covering the mandate in India.

Agency: WPP Media
Client: LT Foods Limited, present in over 85 countries
Brand: Daawat
Scope: end-to-end media strategy, planning, buying and activation
Spokespeople: Ritesh Sud, CMO India and Far East, LT Foods; Priti Murthy, President Client Solutions, WPP Media South Asia

The Third Daawat Decision In Seven Weeks

This one is worth reading alongside what came before it. On 30 July, BBDO India won the integrated creative mandate for Daawat. On 6 August, LT Foods named Chef Ranveer Brar as brand ambassador. Now the media sits with WPP Media.

Three appointments in under two months is not routine housekeeping. It is a brand rebuilding its entire marketing apparatus at once, and it means the creative agency, the media agency and the face all begin work with no shared history on the business.

BBDO And WPP Media Sit In Different Houses

The structural detail is that BBDO sits inside Omnicom and WPP Media inside WPP. Both mandates are described as integrated, which in practice means each is integrated within its own discipline rather than with the other.

Splitting creative and media across holding companies is the norm rather than the exception, and it is a defensible choice: it keeps each pitch competitive on its own merits and avoids the discount-for-bundling trap. The cost is coordination, and it lands on the client. LT Foods now owns the seam between the idea and the buy, and that seam is where campaign timing and message consistency usually slip.

What Both Sides Said

Sud framed the appointment around growth ambitions in India and the need for stronger consumer connections. Murthy's statement leaned on the technology:

"The future of marketing lies in connected experiences powered by data, technology, and deep audience understanding. We are delighted to partner with LT Foods to build an integrated media ecosystem that brings together strategic planning, AI-powered capabilities, and precision execution."

Rice is a category where the media question is genuinely hard rather than boilerplate. Basmati is bought largely on brand trust and price, the purchase is infrequent, and the buyer is often not the person who cooks. Working out where that decision is actually influenced is a real planning problem, and it is a more interesting brief than the language around it suggests.