Dhan Dhana Dhan appoints Triton, MindShare for online lottery

Dhan Dhana Dhan Infotainment, the online gaming company of the Forbes group (which, in turn, is owned by the Shapoorji Pallonji group), has appointed Triton Communications and MindShare to handle the creative and media duties for all the online lottery products that are to be launched under the Dhan Dhana Dhan brand. Confirming the appointment of the two agencies to agencyfaqs!, Rajan Kaicker, CEO, Dhan Dhana Dhan Infotainment, said, "While Triton is the exclusive creative agency for all our products, MindShare will be handling all our media requirements." Kaicker adds that both agencies were selected on the back of "very detailed pitches, involving a couple of rounds of presentations".

While details on the AOR part of the pitch are not available, agencyfaqs! has gathered that the creative pitch was a well-attended affair, with more than half a dozen agencies in the fray. Unconfirmed reports indicate that rmg david, Grey Worldwide, JWT India and iB&W had pitched for the business. While the size of the consolidated advertising account could not be ascertained, industry sources peg it at roughly Rs 50-60 crore. When quizzed about the reasons for selecting Triton and MindShare, Kaicker pithily replied, "Because they were the best. And we, as a company, believe in meritocracy."

Triton, for its part, believes that it was the creative that won it the deal. "The client told us that our creative was just great," says Ali Merchant, deputy managing director, Triton Communications, giving full credit to Renton D'Souza, the all-India creative head at the agency. "I also think that our recommendations were extremely strategic, as we made an effort to understand the business and the category. I think it was a combination of these two factors."

It goes without saying that the agency is cock-a-hoop. "Yes, we're all very charged up with this win, and we are going to work very hard to honour the confidence the client has vested in us," Merchant avers. "The client is a part of a strong group with tremendous transparency and integrity, and Dhan Dhana Dhan is a serious player in the online gaming category. It wants to be the leader in this business, and it's on us to help them take the leadership position."

Dhan Dhana Dhan is the fourth online lottery brand to make a foray into the domestic lottery business, which is valued at roughly Rs 50,000 crore (that's the size of the paper lottery market). Playwin (from the Rs 4,500-crore Essel Group) was the first entrant, and in a little over a year since its launch, the brand has built significant equity. Fortune (a Cairs-Essar Telecom venture) is scheduled to go online very soon, while announcements are awaited on Lalit Modi's online gaming venture. Vis-à-vis Dhan Dhana Dhan, Kaicker informs that the brand will be launched "by the end of this month". He reveals that the launch will encompass multiple products from the stables of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh and the Government of Meghalaya, "followed by a national rollout". © 2003 agencyfaqs!