Agencies in race to bag Dunkin Donuts' creative mandate

The creative pitch is underway in Delhi.

Jubilant FoodWorks, which launched global brand Dunkin Donuts (DD) in India in 2012, is scouting for a creative agency. The process is still underway in Delhi, confirm highly placed sources to afaqs!.

The pitch started with five to six participating agencies and now three leading agencies are battling to bag the creative mandate. Black Swan Life, Mumbai is the incumbent agency on the account.

Dunkin' Donuts is part of the US-based Dunkin' brand launched in 1950 to offer coffee and baked products. It has presence in 30 countries with 10,000 outlets and is operated on a franchise basis.

Almost two years after entering the Indian market, the brand has set up 21 stores in northern India and has presence in cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Patiala and Dehradun. It will soon launch its first store in Mumbai. The company aims to set up around 100 stores by 2017, as per media reports.

Dunkin' Donuts is positioned as a 'food café', occupying the sweet spot between cafés and quick service restaurants. It serves a wide range of doughnuts, coffee, fruit milkshakes, smoothies, tea as well as sandwiches.

In India, it faces competition from doughnut chain Mad Over Donut (MOD). The Singapore-based chain is owned by the Mirah Group and Himesh Foods, the master franchisees for the brand for the Indian sub-continent and South Asia. It has more than 46 stores in India with a strong foothold in Delhi & NCR, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. Other brands which are often touted as DD's competition include global coffee chain Starbucks and Krispy Crème, which has a tie up with Dubai-based Landmark Group.