Devina Joshi
Advertising

Vibrant Media, Cartwheel Creatives win United Stock Exchange

Ad spends are expected to be in the region of Rs 10-15 crore

United Stock Exchange (USE), the soon to be launched stock exchange which will deal in sophisticated financial products such as currency and interest rate derivatives, has some aggressive plans to become a major player in India. Among the first of these plans is the appointment of a creative and media agency, following rigorous pitch processes. Vibrant Media and Cartwheel Creatives have been assigned the media and creative mandate, respectively, for USE.

Vibrant Media, Cartwheel Creatives win United Stock Exchange
The creative pitch involved other agencies such as JWT, McCann Erickson, RK Swamy/BBDO, Cartwheel Creatives and Leo Burnett, out of which RK Swamy/BBDO and Cartwheel were shortlisted for the final round. The media pitch involved MEC, ZenithOptimedia and Lodestar Universal, apart from Vibrant. As is known, Vibrant is Reliance Industries' media AOR.

According to sources, ad spends for the launch phase are expected to be around Rs 10-15 crore. A majority of this budget will be allocated to advertising on business news channels (Hindi and English) on television, followed by outdoor, print and digital media. Television and outdoor shall be the brand-builders, while print shall be used specifically as a product information dissemination medium. Digital media is an obvious 'Yes', as most of USE's TG - those in the financial space - are trading online all the time.

TS Narayanasami, CEO and MD, United Stock Exchange, tells afaqs!, "Vibrant and Cartwheel presented before our board and we liked their competitive pricing mixed with qualitative inputs. Besides, we were looking for ideas from fresh blood, and we found that ingenuity in these two agencies."

Vibrant Media, Cartwheel Creatives win United Stock Exchange
D Ramakrishna, aka Ramki, executive director, Cartwheel Creatives, says, "The financial market in India is opening up and India is becoming more a part of the global financial market with each passing day. With USE, we deal in a new, sophisticated category such as currency futures trading, among other things."

Nikhil Dave, director, Vibrant Media, states, "The media strategy presented by us was liked by the client. We look forward to working on a new brand launch in an exciting category."

Supported by 21 private sector banks, United Stock Exchange also has BSE as one of its chief strategic partners. With time, United Stock Exchange has aspirations to become India's most preferred stock exchange, providing a range of financial instruments for diverse market participants to trade on and manage their risks efficiently. USE particularly hopes to drive currency futures trading, a nascent category introduced in India in 2008. Currently, NSE and MCX are the two current large players in this space.

The primary communication task for USE will be to reach its core TG - people in the financial space such as brokers, banks, exporters/importers, etc - and then look at expanding the market and even target the common man. The task will be two-fold: to not only build USE as a preferred trading platform, but to also grow the category as a whole, particularly for relatively newer concepts such as currency futures trading. There shall be particular stress on category education (as this market is not very well understood), to help consumers understand that they can hedge their currency risks. A USE spokesperson says that as the launch phase is perhaps the best time to build a brand, USE will go the whole hog to keep curiosity and interest generated around itself.

The USE launch is slated on September 20, 2010. The pre-launch campaign is likely to break soon, and shall revolve around the thought, 'Currency has a new home'. But the launch phase shall involve the use of another punch line.

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