Contract bags creative duties of Sugar Free

The agency's Mumbai office will service the Ahmedabad-based brand.

Contract Advertising has been appointed as the creative agency for Sugar Free, the sweetener brand by Zydus Wellness. The agency's Mumbai office will service the business, which it won after a multi-agency pitch. Rediffusion-Y&R was the incumbent agency on the brand.

As per the creative mandate, Contract will look after Sugar Free's sub brands - Gold, Natura and Herbvia - and its low calorie beverage, Sugar Free D'lite. It will support the brand with creative strategy across all media including TV, radio, digital, out of home and print.

Contract will begin working on the account from January, 2014.

Elkana Ezekiel, managing director, Zydus Wellness, says, "Contract's track record of being a strategic and creative partner to big consumer brands, coupled with the passion, strategic inputs and creativity exhibited during the pitch, makes us believe that they are the right partner to help us take Sugar Free to the next level."

On his part, Ayesha Ghosh, office head, Contract Mumbai, says that Sugar Free poses a tremendous opportunity as the category is nascent and holds much potential in an increasingly fitness savvy and well-being-conscious India. "We will take advantage of our strong integrated offering to help Sugar Free make the most of this opportunity," he states. Besides Sugar Free, Contract has won the accounts of Star Plus and RNA Builders, this year.

Zydus Wellness is the consumer products arm of Zydus Cadila Pharma Group, which is based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Sugar Free is the company's flagship brand. Earlier this year, the brand partnered with Havmor Ice Cream to offer low calorie or 'Sugar Free' ice creams.

Contract is a member of the JWT/WPP network. It has offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru and boasts of more than 250 employees. In the last few weeks, the agency has promoted and hired new talent to strengthen its Mumbai creative team. Some of the brands the agency has in its kitty are Asian Paints, Britannia, CNBC-TV18, Dabur ,Dominos , EPIC , Edelweiss, Firstpost.com , Godrej, HSBC, Jaypee Associates, JK Tyres, Kraft-Cadbury (Mondelez) , Microsoft , Moneycontrol.com, NIIT, Provogue, Revlon, STAR Network, Sahara Group, Shoppers Stop, Shell, Ten Sports, Tokio Life Insurance, Tata TeleServices and USL.