rmg david, Delhi, gets Asahi Glass and Indiatimes

It's great going for rmg david, Delhi. In just two-and-a-half months, the WPP-owned agency has grown from a mere Rs 3-crore to a Rs 16-crore branch today. Close on the heels of new business wins like Daawat Basmati Rice, Tang (powdered soft drink) and India Bulls (share trading intermediary), it has won the Asahi India Safety Glass (AISG, makers of automotive and architectural glasses) and the Indiatimes' advertising accounts.

While, the AISG business came its way following a four-way pitch, Indiatimes' move to consolidate its business with rmg david was the result of an ‘internal decision'. "What gives us pride is the fact that we were competing (for AISG) with the biggest names around - McCann and Leo Burnett," says Rajiv Agarwal, country manager, rmg david.

The AISG advertising business was with HTA for over a year before it moved to rmg david. Information available with agencyfaqs! indicates, HTA was not asked to defend the business; agency insiders reveal HTA was not even informed of the pitch. While the business was with HTA, the size of the account was not of much significance anyway.

According to company sources, the need to advertise did not arise till recently as AISG was only into automotive glasses. Being an industrial product, it thrived on relationship management and ground-level activities. It was only when the Japanese partner acquired Floatglass and the company got into the architectural glasses market, that it began to seriously think about advertising. The reason? In the architectural glasses market, AISG was in direct competition with Modi Guard and St Gobain.

On its part, rmg david is quite content with the estimated Rs 4 crore to Rs 6 crore AISG business. The advertising account also includes the Windshield Experts brand of Shield Autoglass, an auto-glass repair and replacement company and subsidiary of AISG.

With Modi Guard and St Gobain upping the ante, AISG now feels a clear need to rework its communication plans. Even at the time of the pitch, the brief was to suggest ways to embark on a brand building exercise to establish Asahi as the corporate brand, and Asahi Automotive, Asahi Architectural, Asahi Colour Glass as sub-brands. "With that as the brief, we presented a creative and a strategy pitch," says Subrato Chakraborty, head, rmg david, Delhi. Citing the reasons why AISG decided to align its business with rmg david, a company spokesperson, says, "What rmg david presented was exactly what we had in our minds about Asahi."

While rmg david is still working on the broad outlines of the strategy, what is clear is that the advertising is going to be television-driven.

On its part, Indiatimes brass says it is thrilled to be associated with an agency that is part of the O&M network. "Besides rmg david, the Indiatimes business was earlier split among three more agencies. The Times Group portal decided to align itself with rmg david as it wanted to be associated with a creative outfit," says Upen Rai, vice-president, sales & marketing, Times Internet Ltd.

This gain is the culmination of the process set in motion last year when rmg david, Mumbai, made its first presentation before Indiatimes. On the basis of that presentation rmg david had bagged the advertising account of Indiatimes email. When the marketing department of Indiatimes shifted to Delhi, the business moved to rmg david, Delhi. The three other agencies on the account were - McCann-Erickson, which had the Indiatimes messenger account, Mudra Communications, which was handling the news portal and Joint & Arms, which was doing some promotional work.

Post realignment, rmg david has got the bulk of the business, while McCann-Erickson would also be associated with the account, says the company. In this case, rmg david's task is to envelope the "…people who are young at heart". Elaborating, rmg david' Chakraborty says both tactical and brand-led advertising would be leveraged to reach out to the target audience. And most of the advertising will be print-driven. © 2002 agencyfaqs!