Lee to get more oomph, shifts from Grey to Vyas Giannetti Creative

The relationship between denim labels and their agencies seems to be in for a spin.

After Levi's, it's Lee. But while Levi's has called for a pitch (as reported in our story Top agencies slug it out for Levi's, Dockers in Bangalore, January 22), its competitor Lee has already changed shop. It has awarded the Rs 5-crore Lee brand to creative hotshop Vyas Giannetti Creative. The account moves from Grey Worldwide India. For the record, the media duties of Arvind Brands remain with Grey's media division Mediacom.

For Arvind Brands Ltd, this is the second major change in a row, right after the shift of the Arrow account to Alok Nanda and Company (reported by agencyfaqs! in the story ANC adds Arrow's creative account to its quiver, January 9). Confirming the move, Darshan Mehta, president, Arvind Brands, said, "We have decided to take the Lee brand from Grey and give it to Preeti. The decision was made recently." For the record, Grey has created the Lee Multi Count campaign, which is running currently. According to Mehta, the need to inject oomph in the brand was the reason for the shift.

"If you notice in parties and in the hip and happening dos, jeans is an integral part of dressing. We needed a creative person who was into ‘consuming fashion'. If you know Preeti, then you'll know that she is very clued in herself and part of the fashion scene herself. Apart from this, as my ex-colleague in Grey (Mehta was chief financial officer at Grey when he left the agency a year back), she has worked on fashion brands such as Lakme and Flying Machine. So I know her potential and her ability to be with it. There was no multi-agency scene; we just decided to give her the brand and the brief was to inject oomph, which is what Lee is all about," he said.

Here it is interesting to know why Mehta decided to award two of his happening brands to two hotshops. To this, he responded, "The answer is imbedded in your question. The reason is Alok has actually built the Arrow brand when he was with Grey. So it has gone back to him as we know his ability and his knowledge of the brand. As for Preeti, I know her ability to work on such labels." For the record, Lee has been rated the Best Jeans Brand in a poll conducted by trade journal Images recently.

With this move, Grey has been left with only three of the Arvind brands, namely, Excalibur, Bay Island and Mega Mart. Among the other brands in the Arvind Brands stable, Lowe handles Flying Machine and Ruggers while ANC handles Wrangler and Arrow. © 2003 agencyfaqs!