After ITC, JWT adds Tamilnad Mercantile Bank to its kitty

Close on the heels of its Bangalore branch winning the chewing gum business of ITC, JWT’s Chennai branch has bagged the Tamilnad Mercantile Bank account. JWT’s Chennai has acquired five new businesses over the last three-four months.

Confirming the latest win, Rajesh Gangwani, Senior VP, JWT Bangalore, said, “Our Chennai branch has just been signed on by the Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) as their creative agency. Since they turn 90 this year, they are looking to revamp their corporate identity, and also as a communication exercise for individual stakeholders as well as corporate entities. The Bank is strong in the trade and commerce segment and wants to strengthen its presence across the country. There were 4-5 agencies in the running, but we bagged the account.”

Meanwhile, JWT Chennai has also beefed up its team with the appointment of Priya S as AVP and Senior Creative Director in March this year. Priya has been in the industry for close to 14 years, with her longest stint at Grey Chennai. JWT is her comeback innings. She was part of the team that won a Silver at Cannes Lions in 2007 for the TCI campaign.

Commenting on the biggest challenge when she took over, Priya said, “After the movement of the Ford account to Delhi, people were wondering ‘what next?’. So, it was critical to appoint someone who could bring in new talent and fresh creative energy into the branch. I believe in leading from the front and tell my team to look at every brief as a new brief. We also went all out to new businesses.”

The branch has got a new team in place over the last two months with three new Creative Directors – Vinod Kumar from Lowe and Antony Sunil from Leo Burnett for Art, and E Prakash from One Point Size for Copy. “We have a fresh infusion of young talent and the team is raring to go. Recently, Brand Equity featured Arjun Nalapat, our Creative Supervisor, in the ‘Hot Young Creatives’ list. In May this year, our branch was awarded ‘Agency of the Year’ at the Tamizh Awards. The industry can expect to see a lot of creative work from our team in the coming months,” Priya affirmed.

The new accounts won over the last 3-4 months include Apollo Hospitals, Everonn Education, Star Vijay, RmKV Silks, and Jainsons of Viveks’ retail chain. Everonn Education, an educational company established in 1987, started out as Systems International and is listed on the BSE as well as the NSE. It provides vocational training as well as virtual learning solutions. RmKV Silks was founded in 1924 and is famous for its unique silk sarees such as the Reversible Saree and the 50,000 colours’ saree. It is also the first ISO 9001:2000 certified silk saree manufacturer in India. The Vivek Group, established in 1965, is India’s largest consumer electronics and home appliances retail chain. It has three retail brands – Viveks’, Jainsons, and Premier. The group acquired Jainsons in the year 1999.

Of the five new accounts, the agency’s first ad campaign was for RmKV Silks to celebrate 87 years of the saree brand. They came up with the tagline: ‘What kind of bride are you?’ for their bridal wear collection. This was followed by promotions for the Aadi season. New TVCs for Navaratri can be seen by mid-September.

For Apollo Hospitals, the focus of the campaign will be the cardiac unit. Priya said, “The ad campaign for the cardiac unit will be a landmark initiative and will be pan-India. We have completed all the work on it and will soon begin with the promotions.” As for the deal with the TMB, though the dates and the plan have not yet been finalised, the campaign will take off sometime later this year.

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