Ashwini Gangal
Advertising

Orchard Advertising wins creative mandate for WaterHealth India

The win is the result of a multi-agency pitch that saw the participation of JWT Mindset, Mudra, Bates, Rediffusion-Y&R, Orchard Advertising, Euro RSCG, Ogilvy and TBWA.

Hyderabad-based WaterHealth India, a social enterprise in the community water space, has concluded its creative pitch. Orchard Advertising (Leo Burnett's sister concern) has been awarded the creative mandate for this account. The agency's Bengaluru branch will handle the business.

Commenting on the win, Thomas Xavier, chairman and national creative director, Orchard Advertising, says, "This is a great achievement for the agency. I think we were able to immerse ourselves completely into the category, and consumers, which led to a thorough understanding of the business.”

Anish Daryani, vice president and branch head, Orchard Bengaluru, adds, "What’s more exciting than the win is the opportunity to do work that is real, where we see many case studies in the making. This has displayed that 'HumanKind', the proprietary planning tool of the Leo Burnett Group helps create winning insights."

The acquisition comes on the back of a multi-agency pitch process that was held in Hyderabad. afaqs! had carried a report in February announcing the pitch. The overall advertising spends are around Rs 10 crore.

Orchard Advertising wins creative mandate for WaterHealth India
The strategy-led pitch saw the participation of JWT, Mudra, Bates, Rediffusion-Y&R, Orchard Advertising, Euro RSCG, Ogilvy India and TBWA. Of these, the agencies that made it to the final round include TBWA, JWT Mindset, Bates and Orchard.

The pitch comprised three rounds and the presentations took place last month. The agencies were evaluated on several criteria, including their understanding of the research methodology used to address the brand's problem statement, understanding of basic consumer behaviour, ability to determine a differentiated position for brand WaterHealth and the ability to create a positioning statement for the mineral water product Dr. Water, amongst several other parameters.

Orchard Advertising wins creative mandate for WaterHealth India
The winning agency's mandate will be to help WaterHealth develop campaigns to increase the adoption of safe water practices from 20 per cent to 45 per cent. "Also, the agency will work very closely with WaterHealth to deliver the brand promise across all consumer touch-points," informs Arup Bansal, head, marketing, WaterHealth International. Orchard will also be required to take care of the media mandate for the brand.

The upcoming ad campaign is scheduled to break next month. The media mix will be activation-led and will primarily exploit BTL (below-the-line) and print media channels. "We will focus heavily on marketing in the next two years to develop the brand in rural markets where we are present. The growth phase will come after that," says Bansal.

WaterHealth International is a US-based company that provides innovative business solutions in places plagued with the lack of safe, clean and affordable water. The company specialises in water purification, consumer service, rural marketing and social entrepreneurship. It provides de-centralised, scalable, safe and affordable water solutions to underserved communities throughout the world.

WaterHealth India is a 100 per cent subsidiary of WaterHealth International Inc. Besides India, the parent company has operations in Bangladesh, Ghana and the Philippines.

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com