SSC&B Lintas wins Rs 10-crore creative duties of Akai

In an uncontested pitch, SSC&B Lintas has been awarded the creative duties of Akai, which was earlier handled by iB&W. The size of the account is estimated at Rs10 crore. While SSC&B Lintas will handle the creative duties, the media duties will continue to be executed by the company directly.

Elaborating on the task before the newly appointed agency, Basant Pande, COO, Akai Consumer Electronics India, says, "In India, Akai is positioned as a value-for-money brand. The task for SSC&B Lintas is to build a strong thematic image to justify Akai's international pedigree and highlight the technical superiority of its products."

The agency has already sprung into action. Talking to agencyfaqs!, Ajay Chandwani, president, SSC&B Lintas, says, "An interim promotion campaign has been released. In the promotion, titled the "Akai sureshot 4 offer", the consumer gets a scratch card with four scratch options. Every scratch option has an assured gift inside. The gift ranges from an enamelware set to a Maruti 800. The offer has reportedly taken off well." While the print campaign is already on, a television campaign is slated to break soon.

Akai Consumer Electronics India was launched as a 30:70 joint venture between Akai Electric Company, Japan, and the Dhoots of the Videocon Group. Akai got into this joint venture as part of its global strategy of forging alignments with local behemoths in the major markets around the world.

Earlier, Akai products were manufactured and sold in India by Mulchandani-family controlled Baron International. Akai Electronics terminated its partnership with Baron, after the latter tied up with another Japanese company, Aiwa.

With the Dhoots as its India partner, Akai is looking at a big push in the colour television market. The Indian market for CTVs stands at 7.2 million units annually, with sales of Rs 7,000 crore. Akai has a market share of 5 per cent in value. Currently, Akai markets CTVs (Black Belt, Ninja and Sumo), audios, refrigerators and DVD players in India. A series of technologically advanced products are slated for launch in India. These include plasma panels, LCD TVs and projection TVs.

The company has recently launched TV-DVD, a combination of a 21-inch flat TV with and a DVD player, positioned as a mini home theatre system and a 1,700-wt PMPO television, which is positioned as a stereo system with a picture tube attached. © 2003 agencyfaqs!