Paras Pharmaceuticals' personal care business moves to Cut the Crap

Cut the Crap will primarily handle brands such as Livon and the Set Wet range, along with others such as Recova, Zatak and Eclipse.

Cut the Crap (CTC) has won the creative duties for the personal care range of Paras Pharmaceuticals. The agency will primarily handle brands such as Livon and the Set Wet range, along with others such as Recova, Zatak and Eclipse.

Following the Reckitt Benckiser takeover of Paras Pharmaceuticals, a pitch for the Paras brands ensued. As reported by afaqs! last month, Euro RSCG India, Reckitt Benckiser's agency in the country, had won the healthcare portfolio of Paras Pharma. Media duties for the entire Paras range moved to ZenithOptimedia recently. Now, CTC's win of the personal care portfolio wraps up the entire Paras Pharma pitch process.

CTC had already been on Paras' roster, handling Livon and Recova, which it pried away from Mudra around a year ago.

To put things into perspective, four agencies were on the roster for Paras Pharma brands prior to the pitch: Mudra, which has handled brands such as Dermicool and Eclipse, Contract, which has taken care of the Set Wet range, Saints & Warriors, which has handled brands such as Zatak, and CTC, which took care of Livon and Recova.

"Reckitt wished to work with fewer agencies instead of a large bank of agencies, and now, CTC and Euro RSCG are our two creative agencies," says Jignesh Shah, vice-president, marketing for the Paras Pharmaceuticals portfolio, confirming the news to afaqs!.

On CTC's appointment, Shah says, "The agency has done some fantastic work on Livon, and on the back of that, we thought CTC was the most appropriate one to handle our personal care portfolio with fresh thinking."

Livon was facing troubled waters with conditioners being preferred over hair serums. CTC had executed a campaign that positioned the brand as one that could help women have smooth, manageable hair even on days they don't wash it, thereby increasing occasions for consumption -- a strategy that worked. Bearing this work in mind, it has now swung the entire portfolio in its favour.

Jagdish Acharya, founder, Cut the Crap, says, "This win means a lot, and it is essentially the Livon work over the last 10 months or so that helped us clinch the business. Primarily, we shall begin our new work with the Set Wet range and Livon."

As is known, in December 2010, Reckitt Benckiser of the UK announced its decision to buy out the Ahmedabad-based Paras Pharmaceuticals for Rs 3,260 crore.

For the record, the Reckitt Benckiser portfolio of brands include Lysol, Dettol, Vanish, Durex, Airwick, Mortein, Veet, Clearasil, and Strepsils, among others.