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Contract Advertising whisks away Honda biz; Kinetic's course undecided
Kinetic Italian scooter, which was with Contract, is yet to decide its future course of action
Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), Honda’s wholly-owned subsidiary in India, has awarded its creative duties to Contract Advertising, while the media business has gone to The Media Edge.
The creative account was won in a three-way pitch with Triton Communications, defending agency Dentsu Marcom, and, of course, Contract, in the fray.
Though Honda executives were not available for comments, sources close to the development confirmed the news, and said that the size of the account was in the region of Rs 10 crore.
At the time of presentations, Honda was open to the possibility of splitting the business between two agencies. However, as it turned out to be, the entire business was consolidated with one agency.
Surely this is good news for Contract, especially when NIIT, another prestigious business of Contract, is under review.
Contract has won the entire Honda Motorcycle portfolio, which includes Honda Activa and Honda Dio, the auto geared scooter, Honda Eterno 4-Stroke geared scooter and Honda Unicorn, the 150cc motorcycle that offers a mono-shock suspension. Besides these, Contract also gets the corporate part of the business.
Now the big question is if Contract has Honda, what happens to Kinetic's Italian range of scooters that, at least till a few weeks ago, was with Contract Mumbai. Sources in the know assure that Contract has given up the Kinetic scooter business.
So, if Contract does not have Kinetic anymore, then which is the agency which has the business, or is likely to win? Sullaja Firodia Motwani, joint managing director, Kinetic Engineering, told agencyfaqs! that the company is evaluating the option of an alternative agency proposed by the Thompson Group. However, she also mentioned that the final course of action would get decided today.
Now considering for a moment that Kinetic decides otherwise, then two possibilities emerge. First, the business may go to Grey Worldwide, Kinetic's roster agency. And second, Kinetic may decide to call for a fresh review. The exact nature of the outcome will be clearer as the day progresses. © 2005 agencyfaqs!