Marching Ants bags Fun Cinemas

The incumbent agency for Fun Cinemas is Everest Brand Solutions and the media duties continue to lie with Madison

Marching Ants has bagged the creative duties for Fun Republic. The incumbent agency was Everest Brand Solutions and the media duties continue to lie with Madison. Industry sources peg the size of the business in the region of Rs 4-5 crore.

Fun Cinemas are multiplexes owned by E-City Ventures. They are present at 14 locations in 11 cities with 50 screens. E-City Ventures also owns Fun Republic, which is based on the mall format and is suitable for larger cities. The format of Fun Republic includes food courts, fine dining restaurants, departmental stores, hypermarkets, music and gift shops and other direct retail activities, along with multiple cinema screens. There are currently only four Fun Republics in the country, located in Mumbai (Andheri), Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Chandigarh.

Marching Ants will be promoting both Fun Cinemas and Fun Republic. Shirish Handa, senior vice-president, marketing, Fun Cinemas, says, “Marching Ants was handling the Fun Republic business before we appointed Everest a year ago. Everest made all efforts to communicate our brand, but maybe there was no marriage of minds, so we moved on. It’s very important to differentiate your brand as all players in the multiplex category tend to appear the same to the consumer. Emphasising the unique services of Fun Cinemas, Marching Ants went beyond physical touch and feel and touched upon the emotional factors that had a deep connect with our target consumers.”

Shirish Handa

Neeraja Sharma, business head, Marching Ants, remarks, “Fun Republic was looking for differentiation of their brand from other competitors in the same business. We were able to formulate a strategy, complemented by a suitable creative, to highlight the different experience Fun Republic could offer to consumers if they looked at it as a destination point.”

The media plan will include both below-the-line-activities and the use of traditional media, except television. It’s still undecided when the first print campaign will be out. Initiators such as ground activation activities have already started for the brand.

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