N. Shatrujeet
Advertising

O&M wins Parle Monaco Bites account in three-way pitch

Confectionary major Parle Products has appointed O&M to handle the creative duties of Monaco Bites, a soon-to-be-launched brand of cheeselings

Confectionary major Parle Products Ltd has appointed club agency O&M to handle the creative duties of Monaco Bites - a soon-to-be-launched brand of ‘cheeselings/bites' - following a long-drawn pitch that also involved Grey Worldwide and roster agency, Everest Integrated Communications. Nishi Suri, executive director & head of Mumbai office, O&M India, confirmed the news to agencyfaqs!. "We have been put in charge of devising the communication for Monaco Bites," she said. She reveals that the first round of pitching for the brand happened way back in April this year. "Subsequently, we went through two more rounds of pitching, and have finally landed the business."

Monaco Bites is essentially a sub-brand of Parle's flagship salt cracker brand, Monaco, and is, in a way, a new avatar of Cheeselings, another Parle brand which has since been discontinued. In fact, the Cheeselings brand was brought under the Monaco portfolio a couple of years ago, and its relaunch as Monaco Bites is clearly an attempt to extend the Monaco brand franchise into new, emerging snacking segments. "Monaco Bites will be promoted as a sub-brand of Monaco, but the brand will enjoy advertising and marketing support independent of the mother brand," says Suri. "The idea is to make Monaco Bites a significant contributor to the umbrella Monaco brand." She does not, however, divulge the size of spends. "Being at a launch stage, I really can't say… but this much I can tell. It is a medium-sized account."

For the record, the Monaco Bites win does not in any way impact equations in the advertising account of mother brand Monaco. That business stays with Everest, which also handles the creative duties of Parle's flagship glucose biscuit, Parle-G. (As an interesting aside, the US-based Bakery Manufacturers Association has rated Parle-G as the world's largest-selling glucose biscuit brand.) For Ogilvy, however, Monaco Bites constitutes the fourth Parle brand in its account portfolio - the other three being Krackjack, Hide & Seek and Fun Centre.

Naturally, Suri is quite excited with the win. "We've got the positioning and the creative in place, and we're waiting to roll out the campaign," she says, revealing that the brand's launch is due by the end of the year. What that positioning and creative is, she won't say. "It's something interesting, but I cannot talk about it now. Monaco Bites is not a biscuit or a cookie or a wafer. We are actually creating a new ‘bites' segment with this brand. All I can say is that we've been careful in keeping Monaco Bites in the architecture of the mother brand. You'll have to wait for the campaign to break and see for yourself." © 2003 agencyfaqs!

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com