Equus Snares Philips Brand Strategy Head

Equus, the advertising agency charting out a high-tech growth path through e-initiatives, has roped in Kaushik Roy, head, brand strategy, Philips India Ltd. Roy will take over as chief executive officer (CEO) of Equus.

The sprawling list of marketing gurus associated with the Seth brothers, Swapan and Suhel also include S M Datta, Gurcharan Das and Shunu Sen.

Brand.com Ltd, the holding company, has S M Datta as its chairman and Suhel Seth as its vice chairman. While Roy takes over as the CEO Equus, Swapan Seth will continue as the deputy CEO.

Brand.com Ltd has Brainquiver.com, the advertising and marketing portal and Equus under its umbrella. Swapan explained, "The idea is to offer our clients a whole gamut of services and we will endeavour to achieve a Rs 100 crore turnover by the end of this fiscal year."

 

Brandquiver's first venture happens to be with Philips. Brandquiver would provide net research to the consumer electronics company at shared costs. Both Philips and Brandquiver would split the cost for research being done by the latter, Philips for the analysis and proprietary understanding for the consumer durables section.

As per the association Brandquiver.com would also provide a gateway to the Philips site. The first 2,000 consumer feedback on Brandquiver.com would be rewarded with free cordless headphones provided by Philips.

Equus on the other hand has taken a major move to get out of the commission system and will henceforth charge clients a flat creative fee.

The agency will now aim to provide advertising for its clients making a foray in the e-world, with a clear accent towards creativity.

Equus's surfeit of clients include Coca Cola, The Park, Benetton, Harvest Gold, Darjeeling Planters' Association, Eveready, Duncans, ITC, Polar, ABP, Duncans Gleneagles, ARAL, Baidyanath, Apeejay Surrendra Group and others.

The agency has designed Apeejay's first business to consumer (B2C) online tea boutique, teastall.com. Equus has also got the mandate to embellish the group's other vortals that are in the offing.