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Ambience wins HDFC Mutual Funds; adds Rs 20 crore in new business
Apart from the creative duties of HDFC Mutual Funds, the agency has also won the accounts of Welspun, Atmosphere and some developmental brands from Marico
In the wake of a multi-agency pitch held last week, Ambience-Publicis has acquired the creative duties of HDFC Mutual Funds. The account, estimated to be worth Rs 5 crore in annualized billing, moves from Saatchi & Saatchi India. Confirming the news to agencyfaqs!, Subhash Kamath, COO, Ambience-Publicis, said, "Yes, we have won the HDFC Mutual Funds account. The business was awarded to us early this week." agencyfaqs! has gathered that the strategy-cum-creative pitch was attended by some four or five agencies, although the identities of the rest of the contestants are not known.
The HDFC win isn't the only thing that has brought joy to Ambience. Over the past month or so, the agency has added three more businesses to its portfolio - Welspun (furnishings and ‘home textiles'), Atmosphere (the retail showroom brand of Bangalore-based silk and silk blended fabric manufacturer and exporter Himatsingka Seide) and a couple of developmental brands from Marico Industries. "Apart from the Marico brands that constitute organic growth, all the new business wins we have had have come on the back of competitive pitches," Kamath says. "Put together, these new acquisitions should give us incremental billing of roughly Rs 20 crore. And this is not including (Hyundai) Sonata and Playwin."
Citing confidentiality, the agency chooses not to talk about the developmental brands from Marico. However, vis-à-vis Welspun and Atmosphere, Elsie Nanji, vice-chairman & chief creative officer, Ambience-Publicis, reveals that work on the two lifestyle brands is in a very advanced stage, and "should break in mainline media pretty soon. The Bangalore launch of Atmosphere has just happened, while their first retail store will open in Mumbai in the coming week or so. So you should see work on that any time now. On the other hand, the outdoor campaign for Welspun is ready to break as well. We have done some very exciting work on the two brands, and I am sure it'll get noticed," she says. © 2003 agencyfaqs!