Pickle Advertising is now named Linen

Lintas has announced the launch of a new Gurgaon-based advertising agency, Linen. Linen, earlier known as Pickle, is based out of Gurgaon and has brands such as Dabur, Celkon, Volvo, Oppo, DLF, Frontier and Panasonic in its roster of clients.

Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Abhik Santara, executive vice president, Linen Advertising said “Why the change in name from Pickle to Linen? Market realities and expectations have changed, and we feel that Linen meets those expectations - adaptive, enterprising, nimble and contemporary. Going forward with those values, we see ourselves as a challenger brand, and, in turn seek to partner with, and grow challenger brands. Yes, we will be disruptive and innovative, but at our core we will deploy all the rigour and discipline that the Lintas Group is known for; and with complete access to the Group’s offerings, be it Digital, PR, Health, Activation or Design.”

_Firstbiz_spoke to Joseph George, CEO, Lowe Lintas to understand the philosophy behind the new name. He said, “‘Linen is clearly inspired from the fabric - pure, light, adaptive, contemporary and cool . Also, Linen aurally seems to sit quite well with the Lintas family.”

“The re-branding comes on the back of a re-assessment of the type of clients that Linen wants to partner and jointly succeed with. This also has implications on the type of people we hire and the culture we build and practice,” he added.

Said Jaideep Mahajan, executive creative director, Linen Advertising, “We are aware of the temptation that new agencies have of having to announce esoteric philosophies and mission statements. We are avoiding this - the only mission we have is to deliver market place success and client delight, and our philosophy, an unshakeable belief in upholding the integrity of our clients’ brands."

Santara and Mahajan have worked together at Rediffusion Y&R in the past, and have over 15 years of agency experience.

Speaking about the vision for the new agency George said, “Linen also has an alliance with Daiko Advertising Inc. I am hopeful this will help us partner some of the Japanese businesses that operate in India."

Said Fali Vakeel, vice chairman and COO, Lowe Lintas and Partners, “Abhik and Jaideep have done a terrific job so far. They have brought in energy and dynamism, and the clients and employees alike have noticed the change - on the work and in the culture. I am confident that the skill sets in Linen will very quickly make it a sharply defined, differentiated, relevant and disruptive force.”

When asked about the immediate task at hand for Santara and Mahajan, George said, “There is a growing momentum with respect to client engagement and quality of work.The obvious next step is to capitalize on this and engage with more challenger brands who either want to setup or scale up.”