M&C Saatchi grabs two new businesses

Creative agency M&C Saatchi has bagged the creative duties for two new businesses – Apollo Tyres and Glitz Cinemas, Stargaze Entertainment’s cinema brand. Both accounts were won after multi-agency pitches.

Talking about the wins, Kamal Oberoi, managing director, M&C Saatchi, says, “In the three years that M&C Saatchi has been in India, we have strategically tried to work with the most dynamic of companies. Apollo Tyres and Glitz Cinemas present two exciting and fast-paced opportunities for us to expand into different categories of business.”

According to an exclusive report by afaqs! last year, Apollo had called for a pitch after the end of its relationship with JWT. JWT had worked on the brand for three years – it won the account in 2004. Before that, Everest Brand Solutions handled the brand for a year. Publicis was the creative custodian before that.

Stargaze Entertainment is the new film exhibition business funded by Capital18, the private equity arm of Network18. Stargaze is looking at starting a chain of multiplexes all over the country under the brand name, Glitz Cinemas, which will include cinemas, food courts and entertainment zones.

Sarbvir Singh, managing director, Capital18, reveals that currently, Stargaze has a single screen multiplex in New Friend’s Colony in New Delhi. M&C Saatchi has partnered Stargaze in the development of the brand and collateral from scratch. Singh says there will be no national advertising and the brand will be more of a local product for now.