McCann’s Prasoon Joshi may orchestrate Maggi re-launch

With Maggi noodles preparing for a comeback after clearing all court-mandated tests, Nestle India is reportedly roping in advertising veteran Prasoon Joshi to create the re-launch campaign.

While Publicis Worldwide remains Maggi's advertising agency, Nestle has hired McCann World Group to manage the new project as the noodle brand tries to make a reentry into the market four months after the company recalled it, according to an Economic Times report citing senior industry executives.

Joshi is the chief executive of McCann World Group India, a unit of global marketing firm McCann Erickson. This decision, the executives said, comes on the heels of the 100-year corporate campaign that McCann created for Nestle this year, which Joshi had penned.

The local unit of the Swiss company stopped all forms of advertising for the brand in June after the product was pulled out of retail. Maggi was also missing from its 100-year corporate campaign, though the brand name was visible in the ad film through the Maggi ketchup and magic masala range.

While it is not certain if Nestle had roped in any celebrity to be part of the campaign, the new advertising will revolve around trust and safety.

Prior to the ban, Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Preity Zinta were the brand ambassadors of Maggi. After the ban, a district court in Bihar directed police to register cases against two Nestle executives, Bachchan, Dixit and Zinta.

"Since the advertising of Maggi stopped, the contracts with these actors also stands canceled. When the product returns to the market, Nestle will have to revise its contracts with the former brand ambassadors if they are willing to come onboard," one executive said.

"While Publicis India is the agency on record for Maggi Noodles in India, we have been working with McCann India for some recent corporate projects," said a Nestle spokesperson without indicating if the agency will also handle the re-launch campaign.

According to another industry executive who spoke on condition of anonymity, ZenithOptimedia, the media planning and buying agency for Maggi, was earlier told to be ready with a relaunch strategy by December 2015 as Nestle was confident that the product would be back on the shelves by then.

Executives of the media agency will meet the Nestle team text week where they are expecting to get a new brief on the media strategies around the new campaign.

(Also see: Maggi noodles to be back, but not instantly)