Saatchi, which will be handling Vita Green Tea and Pure Distilled Water until year end, will be replaced by a two agencies. DDB has since been awarded two accounts - Cha T Din tea and Gor Yin Hai fruit juice. The search is on for the second agency.
Vitasoy sales and marketing director, Nigel Oakes, said the proliferation of new Vita brands had prompted the change. Saatchi has been its agency for the past three years. "Each of our lines requires a different focus.
When you form a close relationship with an agency, the tendency is for similar ideas to be produced. That's okay for one product range but not if you have six or seven major brands with the prospects of new ones being introduced over the next few years, Oakes said.
DDB won the tea brief in a pitch against Saatchi and was later given the juice assignment. A major campaign for Cha T Din tea will roll out next week. Oakes said that the key considerations in agency selection were creativity and market expansion strategy.
Vitasoy spends in excess of US$7 million a year on its communications.
The company saw its after-tax profit tumble 40 per cent to HK$78.7 million in the year ended March 2002.
