Aqua ‘strips’ Ogilvy of Straps

Following a multi-agency pitch, Aqua Communications has bagged the creative duties for Straps, the Oswal Group’s retail lingerie chain

Aqua Communication, a communication and design firm established a year and a half ago, has bagged the creative duties for the Oswal Group’s chain of women’s innerwear retail stores, called Straps.

Ogilvy was the incumbent agency. Aqua won the lingerie business through a multi-agency pitch called in June. Seven agencies participated in the pitch: Ogilvy, Rediffusion DY&R, Kitchen Gardens, Oxygen, Pencil, Diametric and Aqua.

An Oswal insider says on condition of anonymity, “O&M’s deliverables were not on time and also not up to our standards. During the pitch, Aqua came up with a focused presentation and a clear line of thought that ran parallel to our plans.”

Aqua claims to have come up with a presentation that did not follow the clichéd path for lingerie communication. Anil Madan, director, Aqua Communications, says, “We saw Straps as not just a lingerie brand, but a retail store. The focus was to bring forward its qualities such as large changing rooms and privacy. Also, our approach does not include the use of sexy advertising for Straps just because it is a lingerie brand.”

The media mix for Straps will be slightly different from the previous year. This time, Straps will experiment more with online modes as well as outdoor. Print will be used as well.

The client refused to divulge the advertising spends, but claims it will be higher than in previous years, when the spends were around Rs 5 crore. Oswal also plans to launch India’s largest lingerie store in South Extension, New Delhi, in another two months.

Anil Madan (left)
and Varun Arora

For the uninitiated, Straps is a multi-brand retail outlet of the Oswal Group, a textile conglomerate in India. The intimate wear retail outlets were launched in December 2004 as the first ever specialised stores in the country and were then known as Sensa. At present, there are 18 Straps stores in the country.

For the record, Aqua was founded by Varun Arora and Anil Madan. Both are advertising professionals, each with 17 years of experience. Madan has worked in advertising agencies such as Rediffusion DY&R, Lintas, Mudra, and Ogilvy (where he spent 10 years). He is a graduate from the National Institute of Design, and was an executive creative director on Airtel at Rediffusion DY&R before he left the agency to set up Aqua Communications.

Arora has worked for clients such as General Motors, Victoria’s Secret, NIIT, Hyatt, Microsoft, GSK, Las Vegas Tourism, Sony and ‘The Times of India’. He studied film direction at the American Film Institute’s Center for Advanced Film and Television Studies. The institute ranks as the top film school in the United States. Prior to setting up Aqua Communications, he was working as executive creative director for Innocean Worldwide India.

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