Leo Burnett gains Rs 8-crore Kellogg's Cheez-it account

Bcom3-group agency Leo Burnett has acquired the advertising business of Cheez-it, Kellogg's India's soon-to-be-launched ‘cheese snack' brand. While Burnett's Mumbai office will service the creative part of the Rs 8-crore account, its media arm Starcom India will handle the media part of the business.

Speaking about the development, Arvind Sharma, managing director, Leo Burnett India, told agencyfaqs!, "As a company, in India, Kellogg's has traditionally been into cereals and biscuits. Cheez-it marks the company's entry in the ‘savoury snacks' segment in India, and, clearly, their interest is to make a big brand out of it." He adds that the account came Burnett's way not through a pitch, but "rather a presentation and a showcasing of Leo Burnett's credentials".

Interestingly, in India, HTA handles both Kellogg's breakfast cereal business (Kellogg's Chocos and Kellogg's ‘regular') and biscuit business (Kellogg's Komplete). When quizzed about why the client chose to align Cheez-it with Burnett rather than HTA, Sharma replied, "Cheese snackers is a completely different category, with a very different set of values to the categories being handled by HTA. This required a new agency with an innovative approach."

Another interesting fact is that recently, Kellogg's consolidated its entire US business with Leo Burnett. Asked if the Cheez-it account had come Burnett's way because of the US realignment, Sharma said, "Outside the US, typically, Kellogg's uses one of the two agencies - Leo Burnett or JWT - on a market-to-market basis."

Commenting on the basic communication strategy for the brand, Sharma says, "Cheez-it is the first packaged snack with real cheese, and it delivers a really ‘cheesy' experience. The communication strategy presents the ‘cheesiness' of Cheez-it in a wacky manner, which is likely to create top-of-mind recall for the brand."

He admits that the job is quite challenging. "When you include traditional Indian snacks, the snack market in India is highly competitive and fragmented. Our challenge is to generate high trials for Cheez-it, and quickly make it the top-of-mind and preferred snack for teens and ‘tweens'." However, he believes the brand has a basic differentiator which should do the trick - "Cheese… as simple as that."

"The launch of a new product is always full of challenges and opportunities," he adds. "We are working on a campaign that will do justice to the cheese snacker's range." The multi-media campaign for Cheez-it's launch is expected to break sometime early next month. Sharma, however, doesn't reveal anything about the creative idea. "It is too early to comment on that," he says. "But watch this space!" © 2002 agencyfaqs!