The market leader's choice of Rediffusion PR marks its first retainer appointment of a PR agency in nearly four years. Rajiv Sangwan, vice-president of Rediffusion PR, said, "The account (Archies) was handled by LinOpinion until about 2000, after which Archies did not have a retainer-based relationship with any single PR outfit."
Youhan Darrab Aria, COO of Archiesonline.com, said: "Our internal requirements over the last years were more project and activity-driven and we found value only in focused bouts of PR activity. However, currently we find that our PR efforts need to be consistent and sustained therefore we have partnered with Rediffusion for all PR-led brand communications."
Archies faced several protests against the celebration of Valentine's Day by political parties and nationalist organsations, which dubbed the occasion 'the glorified obscenity of the West'.
Sangwan added that while the Valentine's Day issue had been blown out of proportion, Rediffusion's brief was to build brand equity, and strengthen Archies' alignment with business partners.
"The entire situation around the protests has been blown out of proportion," said Sangwan.
"These sporadic instances have occurred due to misconceptions relating to the concept of Valentine's Day rather than being specific to any one company."
The agency has already implemented a crisis management module, to ensure an improved response time to such events.
Sangwan believes that the real challenge lies in successfully positioning the brand as the "social expression provider for every possible greeting and gifting occasion".
Archies is currently the market leader in the social expression industry, with more than 50 per cent of the Rs500 crore (US$113 million) market.
However, it faces increased competition from the Hallmark-backed Vintage Cards and Creation, along with SMS and internet greeting cards.
"The other challenge is to extend the brand equity onto newer platforms such as online greetings and MMS greetings," explained Sangwan.