rubecon corners a slew of new accounts in Chennai

This year has begun on a high note for Chennai-based advertising agency rubecon, which has not just won the top honours at the CavinKare Reality Show hosted by Madras Ad Club last week, but has scored a few points by bagging a slew of new businesses in Chennai.

To begin with, it has bagged RPG's pre-paid mobile service Wings, which was handled by Lowe since its launch. The second business to come its way is an older women's innerwear brand Angel Form. The third, another women's wear brand, is called Maybell. Last but not the least, it will work on GTN Yarn, one of the largest yarn manufacturers in the country (on a retainer basis). These new accounts, put together, are expected to add around Rs 4 crore to the agency's billings.

"All of these happened recently, and around the same time. These have come our way on the back of our reputation as a creative agency. To underscore our strength, the RPG Wings account was won in a multi-agency pitch involving JWT and incumbent Lowe. We are already handling RPG's post-paid service and the client was confident of our ability," Alexander ‘Zach' Zachariah, director, rubecon, told agencyfaqs!.

Clearly, Zach is not averse to handling lesser-known brands or the so-called ‘smaller' accounts. The motto at the agency being, any account that brings in revenue is welcome.

While RPG Wings is the biggest among the new wins, the agency is also looking at Angel Form with sharp interest as the brand is remembered by many Indian women as one of the oldest innerwear labels - thus commanding its own band of loyalists. Femina Products, the company which markets the brand Angel Form, is looking to rejuvenate the brand and position is as a contemporary brand for today's women. The other women's wear account in its kitty, Maybell, is a Chennai-based company, which is looking aggressively at expansion in the southern markets of India. Besides the south, the brand is currently available in some parts of Maharashtra.

The agency is unwilling to talk about the strategy it hopes to chalk out for these brands. "We have just done some tactical work for Wings, but the campaign is yet to break in mass media. The campaigns for the other brands are being worked upon and most of them will use print and outdoor media," is all he would say.

Besides these accounts, the other high point at rubecon in recent times has been the win at the CavinKare Reality Show, hosted by the Madras Ad Club. rubecon bagged the winner's mantle by making a presentation for CavinKare's haircare brand Kanya (a hair colourant targeted at SEC B, C women), and walked away with a cash prize of Rs 30,000.

In an interactive and humourous presentation that included impersonations of politician Laloo Prasad Yadav and film personality Kamalahasan, rubecon managed to floor the panel of judges, which included the likes of CK Ranganathan, managing director, CavinKare, KS Ramesh, CEO, CavinKare, and Mani Iyer, former head of O&M India. © 2003 agencyfaqs!