HONG KONG: Market Catalyst International has scooped the HK$30 million (US$4 million) account of Chinese fast food operator
Cafe De Coral, which had about 15 agencies expressing interest in its
mid-year review.
The two-year-old marketing consultancy outgunned incumbent D'Arcy, which
had the account for the past three years, and McCann-Erickson Guangming,
according to Cafe's senior marketing manager Carmen Leung.
The move is effective this month and will see Market Catalyst handling
Cafe's creative and media briefs. "One of the important aspects in the
selection was the creative strategy. Market Catalyst was strong in this
area," she said.
Market Catalyst chief executive Conrad Chiu said Cafe provided a tight
pitch brief, which asked for alternative ways to build its brand. "Cafe
de Coral is not a market leader for no reason. It is receptive to new
marketing ideas and initiatives. It is ready to step out of the comfort
zone of a conventional advertising-dominated approach," said Chiu.
Despite the slowing economy, Cafe has been reinvesting in its product,
upgrading outlets and introducing new selections to its menu. Leung said
competition was intense in the fast food category, but this led Cafe to
innovate and improve rather than cut prices as its competitors had
done.
Cafe de Coral Holdings has so far managed to buck the economic downturn,
with a 15 per cent profit gain for the year ending March 31, 2001 over
the same period last year.
The higher than usual number of agencies expressing interest in the
pitch is seen as further evidence of the increasing sluggishness of the
local advertising market. "If times were normal, we would have had four
to five agencies at most pitching for an account of this size," a source
said.
The company eventually considered pitches from five agencies, before
shortlisting three for final selection.
