N. Shatrujeet
Advertising

Balsara appoints JWT for Promise, Meswak; McCann gets household products

Balsara Hygiene Products has awarded JWT India with the creative duties of its flagship toothpaste brand Promise, and herbal toothpaste brand Meswak

Balsara Hygiene Products (BHP) has awarded JWT India with the creative duties of its flagship toothpaste brand Promise, and herbal toothpaste brand Meswak. In a related move, the company has aligned the creative duties of its entire household products portfolio - consisting of Odomos (mosquito repellant), Odopic (dishwashing detergent), Odonil (moth repellant) and SaniFresh (sanitary-ware cleaner) - with McCann-Erickson India. In addition to the new wins, McCann continues to handle the advertising for Balsara's other herbal toothpaste brand, Babool.

Although neither the client nor JWT was available for comment, agencyfaqs! has gathered from sources in the know that the latest alignment comes in the wake of a multi-agency pitch held over a month ago. Details pertaining to the pitch are not available, however.

Interestingly, both the toothpaste brands that have been awarded to JWT (Promise and Meswak) were previously with O&M India. However, with O&M winning the Close-up account (which was with JWT), both Promise and Meswak went up for a pitch. In fact, agencyfaqs! sources point out that in the Balsara pitch, the category experience gained while working on Close-up worked hugely in JWT's favour.

All that category experience will be called for, once JWT starts work on the two brands it has won. For industry watchers estimate that in the Rs 2,000-crore oral care market, Promise, Meswak and Babool together command a market share of just 5 to 6 per cent. In comparison, Colgate-Palmolive (Colgate and its many variants) has over 50-per cent market share, Hindustan Lever (Pepsodent and Close-up) has a share of 30 per cent or thereabouts, while new entrant Anchor has notched up a 7-per cent share.

Of the three Balsara brands, Babool and Meswak account for much of BHP's toothpaste sales - which is not surprising considering the two have also been the more advertised brands. Astonishingly, flagship brand Promise - which once enjoyed a double-digit market share - has not been seen in mainline media for years now (it makes getting a fix on the size of JWT's current win really tough), although variant Promise Gel was advertised briefly just after its launch some two years ago.

With media reports suggesting that BHP is giving shape to Promise's relaunch, it remains to be seen how much promise the brand and its advertising holds… © 2003 agencyfaqs!

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