Creativeland Asia, Parle Agro likely to part ways

MUMBAI: Advertising agency Creativeland Asia (CLA) is apparently on the verge of losing the Parle Agro business, an account that it has handled since it was founded in 2006. Several senior executives ET spoke to; including employees of both companies indicated that Parle Agro has decided to move all its brands, including Bailley, Hippo and the recently launched Café Cuba. According to a senior advertising executive with a rival agency, agencies have been invited to pitch for the Appy Fizz account, which was with Grey before Parle Agro shifted it to CLA.
Sajan Raj Kurup, the founder and creative chairman of Creativeland Asia, is married to Nadia Chauhan, JMD & CMO of Parle Agro. When contacted by ET, both Kurup and Chauhan denied that the accounts were being moved. In his response to ET, Kurup said, "Creativeland continues to handle all Parle Agro brands."

In her email response, Chauhan said, "Kindly note that as on date, our brands are still with CLA. We do however have some interestingly new assignments running parallel (as always is the case with an FMCG) with some international and domestic firms of considerable repute." Chauhan also added that Parle Agro flagship Frooti is being revamped, and "therefore we have hired an international design agency."

OMD continues to be the media agency of Parle Agro, although Jasmin Sohrabji, Managing Director at OMD, did not respond to the calls or messages sent by ET regarding Parle Agro accounts.

Although CLA was formed primarily with the Appy Fizz account from Grey and Frooti account from Everest, it quickly added Audi, Café Coffee Day, MTS and several others to its portfolio. While it lost the Audi account in 2014, a top official said, "The agency is likely to get a major account from the Godrej stable which is currently with Mudra."