Paras: Contract gets Set Wet; ‘Moov’es to Mudra

The flagship brand, Moov, is part of the other brands that Mudra handles. Most of the work will be handled out of Delhi

Paras Pharmaceuticals has recently reshuffled its creative duties. Two brands D’Cold and RingGuard were recently moved from Triton to Saints & Warriors – a agency floated by Pushpinder Singh. Now, continuing the changes, two more brands from the Paras stable have moved on. Paras’ flagship brand, Moov, will be handled by Mudra while the deodorant brand, Set Wet, will be handled by Contract Delhi.

Although there was no formal pitch process, a couple of agencies were invited to make presentations, following which the decision was taken.

The size of the account could not be ascertained.

Mudra handles a majority of the Paras brands, including Borosoft, Krack cream, Dermicool, Livon and Recova. Thus currently, there are three agencies on the Paras roster. Media buying is handled internally.

Triton was the custodian for these four Paras brands for nearly 18 years. In an earlier report, when afaqs! spoke to Munawer Syed of Triton, he said that the management changes at Paras were behind the review and reallocation of the creative duties for the brands.

However, Paras has a different take. Jignesh Shah, general manager, marketing, Paras Pharmaceuticals, says, “The decision to review the duties was made much before the change in management. Work was suffering and Triton was given time, but nothing came out of it.

“We were looking for fresh thinking, new ideas and a better strategy, which is why the review came about.”

Ajay Rawal, category head, Paras Pharmaceuticals, speaking about the plans for Moov, says, “We have been observing competition and will soon come out with a strategy accordingly.” The pain reliever has been low on advertising for quite a while.

Similarly, Set Wet, too, has been low on visibility. The last campaign for Set Wet Zatak was a spoof on its competition, Axe Deodorant.

When afaqs! asked Shah on the results of this campaign, his reply was a half-hearted one, “Oh - Okay!”

Presently, Set Wet is in the process of consolidation. The brand was launched with a range of styling gels and soon branched out into deodorants, shampoos and even fairness creams.

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According to sources, the next Set Wet campaign should be out in a few weeks.

Originally, Paras was a family run business of the Ahmedabad based Patel brothers, Girish Patel and Darshan Patel, who are still part of the management. In April 2008, Actis, a private equity (PE) firm, took over Paras Pharmaceuticals by buying 60 per cent of the company’s stake. The PE firm also brought aboard a new chief executive officer.