Katha Mediatix bags Mobile Plus brand

The retail brand aspires to have more than 200 stores pan-India by the end of 2012.

Katha Mediatix has won the creative and strategic brand consulting mandate for the Prabhat Telecom-promoted brand Mobile Plus. It is a retail store brand on the lines of Essar Group's The MobileStore, and will be a platform to showcase mobile handsets, accessories, DTH, and other telecom services. The retail brand aspires to have more than 200 stores pan-India by the end of 2012.

The company intends to spend 60 per cent of its media spends on electronic media, which will include a mix of TV and radio, of which, 20-25 per cent will be dedicated to print. The rest of the media budget will be utilised for digital media, outdoor, and on-ground activation.

The campaign budget at the time of the launch will be in the range of Rs 3-4 crore. It will subsequently increase, along with the expansion of the Mobile Plus stores across India.

Katha Mediatix will create the entire brand personality of the retail store, as well as visual merchandise for the brand.

Confirming the news to afaqs!, Aniruddha Pal, executive vice-president, strategic alliances, Katha Mediatix, tells afaqs! that the communication for the brand will revolve around driving traffic, as well as educate and create awareness about the store. "There will be enough experiential marketing executed for proper brand engagement, and strong ATL campaigns with communication regarding special services of the store. The campaign will commence in early 2012," says Pal.

Speaking about the new brand launch, Ranjeet Chaudhury, director, Mobile Plus, says, "Currently, we are setting up stores in Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra, with plans to have stores in major metros before the national communication plan gets initiated."

Mobile Plus will also cater and penetrate aggressively into rural segments. "We will aggressively set shops in rural India, as 65 per cent of the mobile handset sales are taking place in the rural catchment areas where aspirational levels for a fancy mobile and accessories is increasing constantly," adds Chaudhury.

Giving insights on the creative positioning of the brand, Pabitra Roy, chief creative officer, Katha Mediatix, says, "The creative positioning is such that consumers will always find something extra whenever they engage with the brand."

This is the third win in a month for the agency after winning the creative mandate for the energy drink brand Mad Croc, and the media mandate for the World Series Hockey team Bangalore Lions.