ICI Paints signs up Kareena Kapoor

With an eye on further fuelling growth in the Indian market, leading global paints company ICI has roped in Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor to endorse its 'Colour Futures' campaign while popular director Karan Johar will direct the actor in the advertisement to be produced by Shah Rukh Khan's production house, Red Chillies Entertainment.

"India is amongst the top ten global markets which are prime growth drivers for us. We are expecting significant growth from this market and hence are increasing our investments here," ICI Paints Chief Marketing Officer Kerris Bright told reporters here.

She said the investments would be in marketing, brand building, innovation and communication, adding the parent company has asked the Indian subsidiary ICI India to scale up targets. She, however, declined to comment on the exact amount of investments.

ICI India Marketing Head (Paints Division) Hina Nagarajan said the company has roped in Kareena Kapoor to endorse its Colour Futures, a campaign predicting colour trends for the upcoming season.

"We have been spending about 9-10 per cent of our turnover on advertising campaigns. This time a big chunk will be going to the Colour Futures 2007," she said adding the advertising campaign featuring Kapoor would be directed by Karan Johar and produced by Khan's production house Red Chillies.

Nagarajan said the company, which clocked a sales of Rs 675 crore last year, has been growing over 20 per cent year-on-year and expected to continue to do so.

Nagarajan said ICI's Colour Future, which was launched in 2005 has picked up significantly in terms of sales. "In 2005 our Colour Futures range contributed just about 1 per cent to total sales. This year it is contributing about 15 per cent and we expect to further increase it," she added.

ICI, for which designers Varun Bahl and Poonam Bhagat endorse its products, has also tied up with the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) to conduct workshops on colour trends.

"This is the beginning of a relationship. From next year FDCI will call international expert to conduct programmes on colour exclusively for apparels," FDCI Chairperson Rathi Vinay Jha said.

The programme would be held twice a year, one around November for the Spring-Summer and another in June-July for the fall-winter season, she added.

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