Rediffusion, Delhi, adds two new accounts

Rediffusion-DY&R, Delhi, has picked up two new accounts recently - Priya Village Roadshow (PVR) and No Marks (an Ozone Ayurvedics brand). The two pitches, won in the last 30 days, will bring in an additional billing of Rs 5 crore to the New Delhi branch of Rediffusion-DY&R. PVR, a chain of Cineplexes, shifted its advertising account from Mudra; while Ozone Ayurvedics' No Marks brand didn't have an agency working on it in the last six months.

Confirming the development, Charles Berley Jenarius, senior vice-president, Rediffusion Delhi, told agencyfaqs!, "Both the accounts were won against stiff competition and the whole thing matured in the last one month." While he was unwilling to comment on the exact size of each of these accounts, a market source indicated, "PVR would be the second largest advertising spender in Delhi, next to the Cokes and Pepsis of the world. Their average annual spends would be in the region of Rs 2 to Rs 3 crore."

The pitch for PVR happened in early March. Vivek Bahl, head of marketing, PVR Cinema, has an interesting anecdote on the pitch. It seems PVR had invited two agencies for a presentation and the brief was to broadbase its earlier ads - and present PVR not as a Friday ad but a brand. However, after the Rediffusion presentation, PVR decided there was simply no need to meet another agency. "We thought nobody could show the amount of speed and innovativeness that Rediff displayed. To begin with, they had invited us to go over to the Rediff office for the presentation. The invite itself was in the form of a kit. Then they used each floor of the Rediff office building as one of the PVR auditoriums. The whole experience took us by surprise - so much so that we decided not to take presentation from the other agency we invited initially."

Regarding the task before the agency, Berley said the thrust would be to spearhead PVR's plan of rolling out nationally. Bahl indicated that apart from its multiplexes in Delhi (located at Saket, Vasant Vihar, Narayana and Vikas Puri), PVR plans to open one more multiplex in Gurgaon (Haryana) this year and follow it up by foraying in Mumbai in 2003.

The No Marks account came Rediff's way following a six-way pitch. While the names of these agencies are not known, Neeta Agarwal, general manager, sales and marketing, Ozone Ayurvedics said, "These were some of the top agencies of the day and the entire process of selecting the agency took us two months. What we liked about Rediff was the fact that they were brief, and to-the-point, and were able to explain the product proposition in a single sentence."

Agarwal also said that the brand was earlier handled by Contract Advertising. "For some internal reasons, we decided to do the advertising in-house - which we had been doing for the past five/six months. From now, Rediff will work with us on a fee basis." She also indicated that Zenith Media was handling the media planning and releases part of the business till now and the company hopes to continue with the arrangement. "Creative will be Rediff's responsibility and media will remain with Zenith. I think the arrangement will prove to be in the brand's favour."

Till March, No Marks was available in one variant. Now it is available in two variants - one for oily skin and the other for normal skin. "We would have more new and innovative products over the next one year or so and we plan to work with more than one agency for our extended portfolio of brands," Agarwal added. © 2002 agencyfaqs!