article on straps (oswal group)

Aqua Communication, a
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communication and design firm established a year and a half ago, has bagged the creative duties for the Oswal Group’s chain of women’s innerwear retail stores, called Straps. Ogilvy was the incumbent agency. Aqua won the lingerie business through a multi-agency pitch called in June. Seven agencies participated in the pitch: Ogilvy, Rediffusion DY&R, Kitchen Gardens, Oxygen, Pencil, Diametric and Aqua. An Oswal insider says on condition of anonymity, “O&M’s deliverables were not on time and also not up to our standards. During the pitch, Aqua came up with a focused presentation and a clear line of thought that ran parallel to our plans.”
Aqua claims to have come up with a presentation that did not follow the clichéd path for lingerie communication. Anil Madan, director, Aqua Communications, says, “We saw Straps as not just a lingerie brand, but a retail store. The focus was to bring forward its qualities such as large changing rooms and privacy. Also, our approach does not include the use of sexy advertising for Straps just because it is a lingerie brand.” The media mix for Straps will be slightly different from the previous year. This time, Straps will experiment more with online modes as well as outdoor. Print will be used as well. The client refused to divulge the advertising spends, but claims it will be higher than in previous years, when the spends were around Rs 5 crore. Oswal also plans to launch India’s largest lingerie store in South Extension, New Delhi, in another two months.
Anil Madan (left)and Varun Arora
For the uninitiated, Straps is a multi-brand retail outlet of the Oswal Group, a textile conglomerate in India. The intimate wear retail outlets were launched in December 2004 as the first ever specialised stores in the country and were then known as Sensa. At present, there are 18 Straps stores in the country.

http://www.afaqs.com/perl/news/story.html?sid=18541