Dentsu has been appointed to lead brand strategy, creative development and integrated campaigns for a cluster of Lotte confectionery brands in India, including Choco Pie, Pepero, and the Joee & Toffee range, with the agency’s first work under the mandate centred on a new campaign for Pepero. The win gives Dentsu control over positioning for a set of snack brands looking to deepen their footprint in India’s competitive confectionery market.
A Bigger Push Into India’s Snacking Market
India’s packaged snacks and confectionery category has grown steadily as urban consumption patterns shift toward Western-style snacking occasions, creating an opening for international brands like Pepero and Choco Pie to compete against entrenched domestic players. Lotte’s decision to consolidate creative and strategy duties for multiple brands under a single agency mandate suggests a push for more coordinated brand-building across its India portfolio, rather than running each product line as an independent marketing effort.
Pepero, the biscuit-stick brand best known elsewhere in Asia for its associated “Pepero Day” gifting tradition, has a smaller but growing footprint in India, where confectionery marketing increasingly leans on festival tie-ins, gifting occasions and social-media-native content formats to build cultural relevance quickly.
What the Mandate Covers
Under the new arrangement, Dentsu will handle brand strategy and integrated campaign development across the named brands, spanning traditional and digital channels. Agency executives have indicated the initial Pepero campaign will lean into culturally resonant storytelling designed to build brand recall among younger Indian consumers, a demographic that international snack brands have found can be won or lost quickly based on how well campaigns integrate with short-form video and social platforms popular in the market.
Industry watchers note that international confectionery brands entering India typically face two challenges: building category awareness for products unfamiliar to Indian consumers, and competing on price and distribution against domestic snack manufacturers with deep retail penetration. A strong creative mandate alone will not solve distribution challenges, but a coordinated campaign across multiple brands can help build shelf recognition faster than fragmented, brand-by-brand marketing efforts.
Why the Win Matters for Dentsu
For Dentsu, the mandate adds to a growing roster of India-based brand accounts as global holding companies compete for market share in one of the world’s fastest-growing advertising markets. India’s ad spend has continued to climb as more multinational consumer brands treat the country as a priority growth market rather than a secondary one, intensifying competition among agency networks for mandates spanning strategy, creative and media.
Confectionery and snacking mandates in particular have become a competitive battleground among agencies, given the category’s reliance on frequent campaign refreshes, festival-tied promotions, and influencer-driven content — all areas where agencies can demonstrate measurable engagement metrics to justify retaining and expanding client relationships.
What Comes Next
The success of the initial Pepero campaign will likely determine how quickly Dentsu can expand its remit across Lotte’s other India-based brand lines. Marketing analysts will be watching engagement and sales-lift data from the campaign’s early phases as an indicator of whether the consolidated agency approach delivers the coordinated brand growth Lotte is aiming for in one of its key emerging markets.
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