Devina Joshi
Advertising

Livon, Recova move from Mudra to Cut The Crap

Cut The Crap has won the creative duties for Paras Pharma's brands, Livon and Recova, following a multi-agency pitch. Both brands are to be revamped soon

Cut The Crap, the agency started by ex-Mudra man, Jagdish Acharya in January 2009, has won the creative duties for two brands from Paras Pharmaceuticals - Livon and Recova.

There was a creative pitch originally for Livon alone, but following Cut The Crap's presentation, Recova too was awarded to the agency. Both brands were earlier with Mudra. The combined ad spends on Livon and Recova are estimated to be around Rs 20 crore, according to industry estimates.

With the appointment of Cut The Crap (CTC), Paras Pharma now has four creative agencies on its roster - the other three are Mudra, which continues to handle Dermicool and Eclipse; Contract, which is in charge of the SetWet range; and Saints and Warriors, which handles Zatak. The media duties for all Paras Pharma brands are handled in-house.

Livon, Recova move from Mudra to Cut The Crap
Livon, Recova move from Mudra to Cut The Crap
Says Jignesh Shah, vice-president, marketing, Paras Pharmaceuticals, "We want to establish a firm foothold in the market with these two brands, and wanted fresh thinking on the same. The challenge for both these brands is essentially to grow the category."

Confirming the win, Jagdish Acharya, founder and creative head, Cut The Crap, says, "Paras Pharmaceuticals is known for its strong, strategic, planning-led brands. Our approach was simple: we explained how the best planning can be done by creative people, and then explained our points of view on the two brands."

Livon has not been too active on the advertising front for the last few years, despite a huge splash when it was launched around eight years ago. Primarily, the brand suffers from the fact that the category of silky potions has low recognition in India.

If one were to look at the category of post-shampoo hair products, Livon enjoyed good times during its launch. Competition was limited to Silk & Shine, and the category of conditioners too, was rather inactive. However, with time, conditioners caught the consumer's fancy. Competition within the liquid hair potions category also heated up with the entry of more players, and Livon lost its footing somewhat.

The attempt now would be two-fold: to address the challenge of people not using post- shampoo products as much as they should -- namely, category expansion; and to counter conditioners, which are eating into Livon's share.

As far as Recova is concerned, the brand is all set to be revamped under the new avatar of 'Recova 360'. As a brand in the anti-ageing category, Recova has had to fight international giants such as Olay and Pond's Age Miracle, both of which launched in India with much fanfare and a whole range of products, as opposed to Recova, which had only one cream.

Under the new name, Recova 360, three new products would be launched -- under-eye gel, night cream and day cream -- in addition to the traditional cream. The attempt is to reposition the brand as one that provides holistic care and skin rejuvenation for those with mature skin, as opposed to just one cream meant for age-defiance. The basket of products being launched, along with the advertising revamp, should also help establish a firm foothold in the wake of competing international giants ruling the roost.

"Anti-ageing is a top-end, premium category, and Recova has had to bear with the fact that it doesn't have the kind of international mileage some others in the category do," says Acharya. "But that also makes this brand the dark horse. We need to ensure that our consumer benefits are so fantastic that we won't need international imagery."

The plan is to target the same SEC A woman who is targeted by global giants. Further, international brands have been using BTL activities aggressively to reach out to their TG, and Paras hopes to do its own bit by using television and other media, along with BTL activities.

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