Bates CHI & Partners wins creative mandate for Kumar Properties

The development is in sync with the company's upcoming projects in urban Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Kumar Properties, a Pune-based premium real estate developer, has handed its creative duties to Bates CHI & Partners.

The development is in sync with the company's upcoming projects in Maharashtra and Karnataka. For starters, the agency will handle Kumar Properties' Pune project. Titled 'Megapolis', it is a 150-acre IT park, located in Hinjewadi and is in close proximity to several technology companies.

As per the press note sent by the agency, the team will create a distinct brand promise and marketing strategy for the company and focus on making the brand more relevant to its customers. For now, the mandate involves brand communication across print and out of home platforms.

Lending a category perspective, Manish Jain, managing director, Kumar Properties, says, "The real estate scenario in India is changing rapidly and so is the communication with customers. The partnership with Bates will help us better engage with our customers and facilitate the creation of a distinct niche." The plan, he adds, is to address the changing customer profile and capitalise trends in the marketplace.

According to Sanjay Thapar, chief executive officer, Bates CHI & Partners, this win is a good opportunity for his team to work on the real estate sector, a first for the agency.

Bates entered India in 1999 by taking over Clarion. It may be recalled that Bates Asia recently, got into a joint venture with CHI & Partners that led to the current name, Bates CHI & Partners. Though Bates CHI & Partners was formed in November 2012, the agency's new identity in its entirety was rolled out in February, this year. This rebranding came about not too long after the agency changed its name from Bates 141 to just Bates (Bates India in the country), last year.

Among the agency's recently won accounts are General Insurance Council and Integriti, an apparel brand from the house of Kewal Kiran Clothing (KKCL).

Founded by K H Oswal on August 15, 1966, Kumar Properties, initially, catered to the rental segment. Over the years, the group diversified into construction of branded apartments (1970s), high-rise buildings and bungalow projects (1980s) and luxurious, mega complexes (1990s). Around 2000, Kumar Properties diversified into IT parks and commercial buildings, with a strategic shift towards large townships and commercial malls.

The group boasts an annual sales figure of over one million square feet.