NEW DELHI: JWT India, Bangalore office, seems to have hit the purple patch.

Continuing with its winning spree, JWT has won the creative account of Hindustan Lever's Knorr Annapurna range of cooking aids. This win follows the creative business of Levi's Strauss India, won in the recent past.

"Knorr Annapurna range has been allotted to JWT Bangalore. There was no pitch for this account. This was in accordance with the international alignment of the Knorr brand with JWT Worldwide. We will be handling the range of Knorr Annapurna brands here which includes the brands that were earlier handled by FCB-Ulka," said JWT senior vice president and general manager, Dhunji Wadia. The media business will be handled by Fulcrum.
In the past, Unilever, Hindustan Lever's parent company, had acquired Best Foods. Through this acquisition, Unilever added Hellmann's, Skippy, Mazola, Entenmanns's and Knorr product lines in its roster.

According to Wadia, the mandate includes mass media advertising including television, press, outdoor and below the line activities like launch conferences, direct mail, collaterals, salesman contests etc. "The brief from the client was to recommend a complete strategy and refreshingly striking creative to launch a new range of cooking aids in the Indian market," said Wadia.

"The size of the account is yet to be finalized. The first television commercial and other mass media is scheduled to break in May this year," said Wadia.

For the record, Annapurna brand is handled by another WPP Group agency, Oglivy & Mather.

For JWT Bangalore office, Knorr account is another big win in addition to the Levi's Strauss business, which includes work on Levi's, Dockers and Sykes. "JWT, Bangalore was awarded the Docker's business in addition to the Levi's and Sykes accounts. The client has cited JWT's superior strategic understanding and creative quality as the reasons for this business being awarded to it," said Wadia. The media business of Levi's Strauss was allotted to MindShare following JWT's win.