N. Shatrujeet
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Contract picks up Godrej shaving products, three ZEE channels

The agency has won the creative duties for Godrej Shaving Cream and Shaving Gel, as well as the creative accounts of ZEE MGM, ZEE English and ZEE Music

Contract Advertising's Mumbai office has won the creative duties for Godrej Shaving Cream and Godrej Shaving Gel, the shaving product brands from the Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) stable. The agency has also added the creative accounts of three ZEE channels - ZEE MGM, ZEE English and ZEE Music - to its portfolio. For the record, the media AOR for both Godrej and ZEE is with Madison Media.

agencyfaqs! has learnt Contract was awarded the Godrej businesses following a pitch held in the last week of March. "We were invited to pitch for the business, and it was a comprehensive presentation - strategy, creative, in-shop merchandise…" reveals Rajiv Sabnis, senior vice-president, Contract Advertising. agencyfaqs! has not been able to ascertain the identities of the other agencies that were in the fray. While the Godrej Shaving Cream account moves from Madison Creative, Godrej Shaving Gel is a new account, with the brand still in the process of being introduced in the market.

For Contract, winning Godrej's shaving products account is critical, as it marks the agency's entry into the GCPL roster. Contract now shares the GCPL-creative-agency platform with Mudra Communications (which handles the bulk of Godrej's soap and hair colour brands) and Orchard Advertising (which primarily looks after the Cinthol brand). Naturally, Sabnis is pretty pleased with the way things have turned out. "They liked our strategic direction on the brands, especially the Shaving Gel promise of ‘changes your image instantly'," he says, singling out reasons for winning the business. "The creative work was also appreciated. We had given equal focus to both the Shaving Cream and Shaving Gel brands in our presentation, and that went down well with the marketing team."

Speaking about the communication objectives on the two brands, Sabnis says, "There is a clear need to attract younger male users into the Godrej fold, since the Godrej Shaving Cream user is of a slightly older profile." He is, however, confident that the new gel offering will rise to the challenge. "Godrej Shaving Gel will not only fulfill this task but also help contemporize the Godrej image in shaving applications," he says.

According to conservative estimates, the domestic market for shaving creams, gels and foams is pegged at Rs 150 crore. And as per market data, among the branded players, Colgate-Palmolive (the Palmolive brand) is the market leader - although the unorganized market continues to have the largest slice of the pie, primarily due to the extensive use of hard shaving rounds in many parts of semi-urban and rural India. Godrej, Procter & Gamble (Old Spice), Hindustan Lever (Denim, and now Axe) and Gillette are the other branded players who compete closely for mind and market share. "We would be looking at getting a bigger market share with the introduction of Godrej Shaving Gel," says Sabnis. "While Godrej Shaving Cream will need to build on its core, and create a larger loyal base of users. Cream will have to expand the category, and also upgrade people from the shaving rounds that they use."

Commenting upon the ZEE MGM, ZEE English and ZEE Music wins, Sabnis reveals that the businesses were won on the back of a credentials presentation. "I think what won us these accounts was our capabilities, our team and our creative standards," he adds proudly. Incidentally, Sabnis does not reveal information pertaining to the financials of either win. While he maintains that the agency is not in a position to disclose billing figures on ZEE, vis-à-vis Godrej, he says, "Since we are the creative agency, the media figures are not accessible to us yet." © 2003 agencyfaqs!

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