Maitri bags Safe Scrypt, GRT Hotel account

The Maitri Advertising brass is very happy these days. The Chennai-headquartered agency has picked up two prestigious advertising accounts recently that could make the bigger agencies in the region turn green with envy. First it bagged the plum Safe Scrypt Ltd (a division of Satyam Infoway or Sify) account in August. This was followed up more recently with the GRT Group of Hotels and Resorts account in Chennai.

Safe Scrypt, launched earlier this year, is the sole franchisee for VeriSign in India and is the country's first license certifying authority for digital certificates. "In short, this is meant for anyone who is using the electronic media for any kind of transaction and we provide Digital Signature Certificates, the equivalent of electronic passports. These allow unique identification of individuals and signing of electronic transactions, giving them the same legal status as a physical signature," explains Urmez Daver, marketing services manager, Safe Scrypt.

This market offers tremendous potential as transactions over the electronic media is increasing. The company is addressing a national audience, as it happens to be the sole franchisee of VeriSign at this point in time. The Safe Scrypt initiative was started in the year 2000, but received its clearance from the Ministry of Information & Technology only this year. K Dashrathraman, who until June this year was with RPG's MusicWorld venture as its CEO, heads this division.

"We are going to handle the brand's advertising on a national scale. Our task is to come up with some quick redesigns for their logo, brochures and creatives and I guess we've proved pretty nimble. This is a big account for us as it is in a segment that has a huge potential. The advertising will focus largely on print and is potentially worth Rs 1 crore," Sajan Abraham, managing director, Maitri, told agencyfaqs!. "We had heard about Maitri's reputation for out-of-the-box thinking. Having worked with them I can say they are very good in their servicing abilities and are able to deliver good results quickly," added Daver.

The other big win for Maitri in recent times is the GRT Group of Hotels and Resorts, which moved from TBWAAnthem, Chennai. This account, according to market sources, is pegged at Rs 1 crore. Abraham said besides incumbent TBWAAnthem another local agency Fortune was invited to pitch for the business when it was put up for review some time back.

The GRT Group has two hotels in Chennai - the Radisson GRT (which is a joint venture with the international chain) in the premium end and GRT Grand Days, which is a business hotel in the mid-market segment. The GRT Group has also taken over ITDC's Temple Bay property in Tamil Nadu and is working at relaunching it in a new avatar. "The work on GRT account will be city-specific as food festivals and events being promoted by the city hotels are on the rise," said Abraham.

These two accounts are critical additions to the agency's billing which stood at Rs 10 crore in March 2002. Some of the other prestigious accounts handled by the agency are BPL Mobile (in Tamil Nadu and Kerala), AVT Tea brands, Matrubhumi group of publications, V-Guard brand of voltage stabilisers, Tourism Ministry of Malay and Dhiraaga Co (a telecom company based in Maldives). © 2002 agencyfaqs!