Dentsu to make the Splash

The agency has won the pitch following a creative and strategy presentation round

In mid-December last year, afaqs! reported that Maruti had called for a creative pitch amongst its roster agencies for its new small car, Splash.

Dentsu Creative Impact, one of the roster agencies of Maruti Suzuki in India, has now been appointed as the creative partner for the advertising duties for the car. The agency made it against the other three roster agencies – Lowe, Capital Advertising and Hakuhodo Percept.

Dentsu Creative Impact won the business following a round of creative and strategic presentations. Talking about selecting Dentsu, Shashank Srivastava, chief general manager, marketing, Maruti Suzuki India gives afaqs! the three reasons why Dentsu was chosen.

“First, their creative idea was strong – they presented a larger picture on the brand, rather than limiting it simply to the product idea. The agency also has an international exposure in terms of creative standards. Finally, its work on Zen Estilo is good,” he says.

Besides, it is learnt that Maruti wanted to align one more brand with Dentsu as it was the only agency in the Maruti roster to have a single Maruti brand – Zen Estilo. Of the other roster agencies, Hakuhodo Percept handles Maruti 800, WagonR, Grand Vitara Escudo and the recently launched A-Star. Lowe handles SX4, Omni, Alto, Swift Dzire and Versa. Capital handles Swift and Maruti's corporate account.

There are indications that the Splash might be called the Ritz in India. Srivastava reveals that the car will be launched in India by the next financial year. It hit the roads of Europe last year, and was introduced in Japan two months ago.

The small car segment in India is sizzling at the moment. While Maruti's A-Star and Hyundai's i20 are among the recent launches, Honda's first small car, Jazz, and the Fiat Grande Punto are eagerly awaited.

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