Network Advertising bags Rs 20 crore SOTC account

Saatchi & Saatchi was the incumbent agency. The media duties continue to lie with Maxus. The size of the business is estimated to be Rs 20 crore

The creative duties of SOTC, the outbound travel division of Kuoni India, have slipped into Network Advertising’s kitty. There was no formal pitch called for this business, but a few agencies were reviewed on a one-on-one basis. The media duties continue to be handled as before by Maxus.

Senior SOTC executives say that the company plans an annual advertising spend of Rs 20 crore.

Recently, SOTC articulated a new brand philosophy, ‘Expect More’. The idea is to position the brand among customers as a travel operator that provides more value, superior customer service and high quality.

Sunil Gupta, chief operating officer, SOTC, provides a reason for the change in the custody of the brand. “Network Advertising provided a shared vision and future direction, which was very much in line with our philosophy of ‘Expect More’,” Gupta says.

Vinod Nair, managing director, Network Advertising, says, “Most of the emphasis will be on print along with the other conventional advertising media, though the media mix for the business is still to be worked out in detail.”

For the record, SOTC has a distribution network comprising more than 116 sales outlets and 3,500 premium travel agents, all retailing the SOTC range of products across India.

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