"The motorbike market is huge here with Honda having the majority share followed by Suzuki and Yamaha, said Yusca Ismail, Perwanal/D'Arcy managing director. He said Kymco aimed to increase its share from less than one to three per cent.
The Spike 120 ad campaign will highlight the bike's power, reliability and the fact Kymco is one of the few distributors providing a three-year manufacturer's warranty. Ismail expected the ads to appeal mostly to "students, up-and-coming managers, salesmen as well as families in rural areas".
Perwanal/D'Arcy won the 2.5 billion rupiah (US$283,000) account last month following a creative shoot-out against Ad Work Euro RSCG. There was no incumbent agency although Perwanal/D'Arcy did briefly work for Kymco in 1997 when the Taiwan company first entered the Indonesian market.
"D'Arcy used to work for Kymco in Taiwan which is why we originally got the Indonesia business in 1997. (But) then the Asian financial crisis came and the account never moved ahead, explained Ismail. He said the agency won the pitch because the client was already familiar with them.
"They were also impressed with our creative work and our strategic thinking. We did some research involving 30 to 40 interviews mostly with mechanics to discover what they knew about Kymco, and what they liked about a motorbike.
"We started by showing them a picture of the new bike and we later told them what the brand was to see their reaction. He said most assumed the motorcycle was Japanese and were surprised to hear it was Taiwanese.
Starcom is handling the media buying and planning for the campaign.
