SSC&B Lintas, which also handles TDV's flagship brand, Gilbey's Green Label whiskey, has been entrusted with creative responsibilities, and Initiative has the media AOR assignment.
Cult is a brand owned by Denmark's Cult Exports, which is produced in Germany and imported by TDV.
The brand uses the tagline 'Get 25 hours a day' and will be targeted at a young and upwardly mobile population in the 18 to 25-age segment at pubs, bars and gyms.
While 75 per cent of consumption is expected to be on-site, it will also be made available at selected higher-end outlets such as supermarkets as well as call centres in India's six largest cities.
The media budget for the current year is estimated at $330,000 and it will be focused on ground level promotion in pubs and bars, as well as an outdoor campaign. Deepak Roy, TDV president and MD, said: "Energy drinks can't be pushed through the mass media."
The creative brief for the agency is to position it as an energy drink that is fully natural, with communications focusing on its 'energy activator' proposition. Cult is being positioned as a healthy alternative not just to alcohol but also to other energy drinks.
Said Roy: "The target audience is the 'work hard and party hard' tribe who want to get more out of their time and will essentially substitute it for a mocktail or a juice at pubs and restaurants."
The company is forecasting sales of around 20,000 cases over the year.
For the calorie-conscious, TDV plans to launch a diet variant in the next two months.
Priced at a premium to existing competitors, the company is not expecting immediate profits in the first year of operations and aims to manufacture the drink in India once it reaches a critical level of sales of 10 million cases.
Global leader Red Bull dominates India's energy drink market, while Coca-Cola's Shock made a quiet exit.