St Luke's picks up Iqara's broadband and CAS accounts

St Luke's India has won the advertising account of Iqara Telecom (British Gas' broadband and telecommunications business) in the wake of a two-way pitch that also involved Lowe. As per details available with agencyfaqs!, St Luke's has been entrusted with the job of building Iqara's broadband and CAS (Conditional Access System) businesses. The Iqara account was previously with TBWA India.

Anil Nair, senior vice-president, St Luke's India, confirmed the news of the win to this website. "The client invited us to pitch for the account in early May, and based on the pitch, we were awarded Iqara's broadband and CAS accounts." He adds that while the agency had been intimated about its appointment almost a month ago, "we were formally signed on two days ago. Work on the brand has been on for some time now."

For the record, British Gas had entered the Indian market with its broadband Internet service - branded Iqara - in end 2001. While Iqara broadband already has a strong presence in Gujarat (in the cities of Ahmedabad, Baroda and Surat), a phased launch in Mumbai is currently underway. And according to the industry, Iqara would have a significant national presence in a few months time. Also, now with a CAS regime - in one form or the other, sooner or later - becoming inevitable, Iqara is moving into the business in the capacity of a service provider/enabler by leveraging its technological know-how. Details of Iqara's initiatives in this sphere of activity are awaited, but talk of the company getting into strategic tie-ups with Motorola (for Set Top Boxes) and Citibank (for finance options) have been doing the rounds.

Nair, of course, declines from commenting on any of this beyond admitting that the agency's task lies in creating a strong differentiator for the Iqara brand. "We made our presentation to the team here, and we subsequently met the worldwide CEO," he says. "We are in agreement that St Luke's role in Iqara's India plans would range from brand consulting to consumer-level communication. We are working very closely with the client in all their initiatives to make Iqara a clearly differentiated proposition." While the account is estimated to be in the vicinity of Rs 5 crore, Nair clarifies that St Luke's is working on a fee basis. © 2003 agencyfaqs!