Orchard Advertising wins creative duties for via.com

Orchard Advertising has recently been awarded the creative mandate for the Bengaluru-headquartered online travel company via.com. The agency's Bengaluru branch will handle this account.

The media mandate has been handed to Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG).

"We're working on building a strong travel network connect," says the spokesperson, refusing to divulge more details on the upcoming media plan for the brand. However, he goes on to inform that the target group for the brand comprises travel partners (such as professional travel agents), and the customers of these travel partners (such as lay consumers and travellers).

Although the finer aspects of the advertising campaign such as the advertising spends, media mix, and the break-up of the media spends across communication platforms are yet to be finalised, the spokesperson conveys that the aim is to keep all conventional means at bay and do something different.

Founded in 2007, via.com currently boasts 20,000 travel partners across 2,400 cities and towns. For a year before it was incorporated as via.com, the company was known as flightraja.com.

via.com is a low-profile company and has steered clear of the media limelight since its inception. Unlike its competitors, the online travel portals such as Yatra.com, Cleartrip.com and Makemytrip.com, via.com is not a household name.

Will the two newly-appointed agencies play a role in changing this? Only time will tell.