Novartis hands $16 million Voltaren Emulgel account to Starcom in China

The media account for the over-the-counter (OTC) anti-inflammatory gel brand is reportedly worth $110 million yuan (US$16.1 million) in annualised billings. There was no incumbent for the account hitherto. Novartis’ estimated US$600 million global media business is currently handled by MEC.

Starcom Beijing is set to take on media planning and buying duties to help drive sales of the pain-relief gel across China. According to sources close to the review, agencies were evaluated on “creative and strategic” recommendations and the Publicis Groupe agency was picked for its “clearly communicated media solutions that are performance driven”.

Of the three OTC drugs by Novartis that are currently available in the Chinese market, Voltaren Emulgel still leads in sales and the pharmaceutical giant is keen to expand its local business by releasing over 20 OTC drugs by 2011.

Novartis had previously said it aims to quintuple sales in China to become one of the top-five firms in the domestic OTC drugs market by 2014.

The Swiss firm is planning to sell 200 million yuan ($29 million) worth of OTC products this year and would be looking at sales of 1 billion yuan ($146 million) in five years' time to make China its second-largest market in the world after the U.S.