Euro RSCG pips SSC&B; rides away with Hero Puch

Euro RSCG rides away with the Rs 7-10 crore Hero Puch-moped and scooterette account. The incumbent agency was SSC&B

All is fair in love, war and pitches! Or, at least, gate-crashing is. On Tuesday, Euro RSCG rode away with the Rs 7-10 crore Hero Puch moped and scooterette account. The incumbent agency was SSC&B. On January 12, five agencies were invited to pitch for the Hero Puch account - Rediffusion, R K Swamy/ BBDO, iB&W, Chadha Dhar Hoon and Headstart. Euro RSCG never even figured in the list.

Hero Puch never considered Euro RSCG because the agency's Mumbai branch has been servicing the Kinetic account for some time now. "How can two competing brands be serviced by the same agency?" explained Shubhendu Ranjan Deb, assistant general manager, marketing, Hero Puch. But, much to the chagrin of the agencies in the fray, Hero Puch went with Euro. No surprises. Hero Puch sources indicate that the agency might be giving up the Kinetic account soon, given the growing strain in the client-agency relationship.

Post the realignment, Euro RSCG will handle three Hero Puch moped brands - Shakti, Turbosport and Shaktiman. Under Hero Puch scooterettes too there are three brands - EZ, Teenz and Winner.

But then, why did Euro choose to knock on an unwelcome door? There were two reasons. First, giving up Kinetic would have meant giving up its sole automotive client. Second, Euro RSCG was being pigeonholed as a ‘techy' agency because its roster was dominated by dotcoms. So, when the agency learnt that the Hero Puch account was up for grabs, Euro arrived at the scene all armed, though, by that time, two rounds of the pitch were already over. At the end of the exercise, Hero called Euro to make another presentation and finally awarded the account to it.

Sanjeev Roy, director, Euro RSCG, said, "Last year we spent close to Rs 2 crore on research alone. This helped us draw the profiles of consumers of various product categories. For the moped and scooterette segment, we investigated nine markets including Rajapalayam in the Madurai district (Tamil Nadu), Mandya in Karnataka in the south, Jaipur, Chandigargh etc in the north. The findings showed that while the scooterette market was booming, the market for mopeds was shrinking. Our strategy for the pitch was worked out accordingly."

However, he was evasive about the advertising strategy for the agency's new acquisitions. All he would say was, "we are looking at expanding the moped market." For the scooterettes, Sanjeev said, "It's a challenger strategy. The competitors in the scooterettes segment are TVS, Bajaj and Kinetic. While we don't want to be part of the top three, we will create an independent identity for Hero Puch."

Incidentally, the incumbent agency SSC&B, which had serviced the Hero Puch account for a year and a half, was not invited for the pitch. An agency insider told agencyfaqs!, "We don't consider this to be a loss. We have been graciously compensated with Hyundai Santro. In any case, Hero is known to flirt with agencies."

Indeed. Hero Puch, which was launched in 1989, first took on Mudra to service the account. Within two months it moved the brand to HTA. In 1994, the account was cleaved into mopeds and scooterettes. The mopeds part went to Percept, while the scooterretes went to National. Enterprise Nexus and FS appeared on the scene in 1997. FS got the moped account and the Enterprise Nexus the scooterette. Within a year, HTA won back the scooterettes account and mopeds went to TBWA Anthem. In 1999, Hero Puch united the two accounts under SSC&B.

Shubhendu defended his case by saying, "We do not change agencies because we enjoy doing that. It is an equally painful experience for us to take a decision like this. It is detrimental to our growth. We have been forced to seek change because agencies have failed to deliver. The same happened with SSC&B. Our objective of business and theirs was not in sync. And thus we decided to part ways. With Euro RSCG we are looking for a long innings."

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