Dentsu Creative Impact on-board to handle creative duties for upcoming Maruti Kizashi

Dentsu Creative Impact has been brought on-board to handle the creative duties for the upcoming sports sedan, Kizashi from the Maruti Suzuki stable. Following a pitch process involving the roster agencies - Lowe, Dentsu and Publicis Capital, Dentsu Creative Impact has been appointed to handle the brand. Since this car marks Maruti Suzuki's foray into the luxury sedan segment in India, company officials declined from estimating the advertising spends for the same. 

Confirming the development, Shashank Shrivastava, chief general manager - marketing, Maruti Suzuki, said, “Based on our internal panel's evaluation of the pitch from the three roster agencies, we decided to award the ATL and BTL duties to Dentsu. Since we have not yet announced the timing of release of the car in this market, we cannot comment on the launch of the advertising campaign as well.” 

On the winning pitch presented for the business, Junichi Minohara, Vice President and Executive Director, Dentsu Creative Impact, said, “The pitch presented by us was a comprehensive roadmap towards launching and sustaining the brand in times to come. It covered varied aspects when it came to launching Kizashi successfully in the luxury sedan segment.” 

“Given the fact that with the Kizashi, Maruti Suzuki is making its first foray into the luxury sedan market which has completely different market dynamics from the compact car market. Our strategy was a showcase of our understanding of the complexities and dynamics of this market along with offering end to end solutions in overcoming the challenges and threats of the Luxury sedan market. Also, our approach covered  proposing a distinct and sustainable positioning for the brand in the segment,” he elaborated.  

Minohara added, “Apart from the above, our key focus was to give Maruti Suzuki an all-round solution of not just strategy and creative but a comprehensive brand management approach towards the brand as true communication partners.”

The media duties will be handled by Lintas Media Group, which is Maruti Suzuki's AOR. The company unveiled the car for the Indian market at the Auto Expo 2010 in Delhi.