Launch Van Heusen 'Corporate Cocktail' collection, establishing purple as the colour of the season for business wear shirts in an environment dominated by whites and pastels. A surprising, cheekily presented fashion message in a business news environment emphasised the break from conventional offerings and increased saliency of the colour purple. Business Standard, a key business daily, was used as the lead vehicle. A complete page was coloured purple with the ad. appearing alongside.

The campaign was extended to a leading news magazine, India Today. A teaser page coloured purple led to the double page ad. In another news magazine; Outlook, an editorial section was coloured purple and followed with an ad. The idea of colouring editorial sections to highlight the colour purple came from the media team. The execution involved negotiating with the media owners as the colouring of editorial section without paying for the whole space was a breakthrough idea. Separate creative units needed to be designed in keeping with different executions in the various publications. The Van Heusen Corporate Cocktail should win the award because it helped achieve a breakthrough for the client whereby a risky collection was sold out 100% without any discounting despite the tough market conditions.

The premium shirt category is cluttered, with twelve large well-established players and many smaller brands. The fashion industry is volatile, and any new collection has discounting of piled up stocks ranging from 20-25%; more so in the case of risky collections.

Van Heusen, positioned as the business-wear shirt, was launching purple as the colour of the season in a market led by whites and other pale colours. The ads. helped break the colour paradigm by presenting purple as the colour of business and news publications. Within the first two weeks of the campaign, the shirt displayed in the ad sold over 2.5 times the regular number for new collections for the client.

The idea of colouring editorial sections to highlight the colour purple came from the media team. The execution involved negotiating with the media owners as the colouring of editorial section without paying for the whole space was a breakthrough idea. Separate creative units needed to be designed in keeping with different executions in the various publications.