StrawberryFrog seeks pond in India

In a poll last month, the readers of Adweek chose StrawberryFrog as the agency that would be the hottest agency in the United States in 2008. Almost at the same time came the announcement that StrawberryFrog New York had been appointed agency of record for the U.S. launch of the vehicles from the Mahindra stable -- the first Indian-built vehicles to hit the American market. Global Vehicles (the authorized U.S. importer of Mahindra) President Bill Goetze said StrawberryFrog was chosen as agency of record for its “outstanding insight, creative ability and proven track record of delivering effective advertising.” “There’s something very special about representing Mahindra, the innovative automotive brand, the first to enter the U.S. market from India,” said Scott Goodson, StrawberryFrog CEO. “It’s been no secret that we’ve wanted a major car account in the USA, and we look forward to our partnership with Global Vehicles and Mahindra.” Campaign India spoke to Scott Goodson on the Mahindra win, on his views on India and on the agency of the future and on Strawberry Frog’s plans for India.

What do you think led to Frog winning the Mahindra business (and please clarify, just the Scorpio, or all the Mahindra automobiles business)?
StrawberryFrog has been appointed to launch the Mahindra brand in the USA, we are responsible for all the automobiles not only the Scorpio.
I believe the people responsible for the decision to hire StrawberryFrog were very impressed with our famous work for the launch of the smart car as well as StrawberryFrog’s innovative work for Daimler Chrysler’s Mitsubishi Motors. Our four year relationship with this brand led to Mitsubishi becoming a very strong brand with a growing customer-base and its first profit in 30 years.

They also admired our Heineken work and the innovative convergence work for Asics Tiger sneakers, which are both famous and well known.
I also think they were very inspired by our unique approach to building brands which is an ‘outside-in’ strategic approach to building brands versus the traditional ‘inside-out’ approach. StrawberryFrog’s approach is about starting in the real world, understanding culture...and connecting social phenomena with the culture of the brand, which is like putting a surf board on a wave versus starting with the product, developing the brand, and targeting an age group...which is totally out of date in the new marketing world.