Dentsu, Kinnect, and Deloitte Among 13 Agencies in Contention
KRC TIMES Business Desk
MUMBAI / NEW DELHI
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has put its ₹12-crore integrated social media and digital communications mandate up for grabs, drawing 13 leading advertising, digital, and consulting agencies to its pre-bid meeting ahead of the November 6 submission deadline.
Issued by the central bank’s Department of Communication, the high-stakes tender spans a three-year period from April 1, 2027, to March 31, 2030. Major agencies participating in the pre-bid deliberations include Dentsu, Kinnect, Pivotroots, Deloitte, Crayons Advertising, and Percept, alongside other established digital communications firms.
Beyond Routine Posting: A 5-Minute Response Window
Moving far beyond routine account administration, the RBI’s brief outlines an intensive, round-the-clock digital command structure aimed at public awareness, financial literacy, and rapid crisis management.
Under the scope of work, the selected agency must deploy a dedicated 15-member team to manage 24×7 social listening, sentiment analysis, and Online Response Management (ORM) across X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit, blogs, online news portals, and messaging platforms.
One of the most stringent operational clauses in the tender is a five-minute response window, requiring the agency to issue first-level, pre-approved responses to queries and posts within five minutes.
Multilingual AI Tracking Across 15+ Regional Languages
To counter the rise of digital payment frauds and deepfake-driven misinformation, the central bank has mandated an AI-enabled monitoring apparatus capable of tracking both tagged and untagged mentions of the RBI and its leadership across English, Hindi, and at least 15 regional Indian languages.
The agency will be responsible for generating real-time security alerts on:
- Viral financial misinformation and banking rumours
- Impersonation profiles and fraudulent apps
- Online financial scams and defamatory content
Additionally, the winning bidder must build a custom workflow system with CERT-In audit clearances and provide dashboard access for up to 200 internal RBI users, factoring all third-party software licensing costs into its commercial bid.
Podcasts, Short-Form Video & High Eligibility Bar
On the creative and production front, the mandate requires fortnightly advance content calendars covering regional-language graphics, GIFs, and short-form videos. The agency will also execute end-to-end production for at least 36 podcast episodes (releasing one per month on the RBI’s official YouTube channel), with the central bank providing scripts, speakers, and venues while refusing to cap the number of creative revisions.
Reflecting the scale and security sensitivity of the account, the RBI has set a high financial threshold: bidding agencies must demonstrate a minimum average annual turnover of ₹70 crore across the last three financial years (FY 2023–24, 2024–25, and 2025–26).
The RBI pitch arrives amid a broader surge in central government and regulatory digital mandates, following recent tenders floated by the Department of Telecommunications (₹5.5 crore) and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (₹4 crore).
