“Our initial assignment will be to help Kang Shi Fu [the brand’s Chinese name] to communicate two specific flavour offerings,” said Saatchi & Saatchi Taiwan’s account director, Skye Wong.
Master Kong’s parent company, Tingyi Holdings, is the dominant instant noodle maker in China, It is listed in Hong Kong and run mainly by Taiwanese, though it has no branch in Taiwan. Instead Tingyi is represented by Wei Chuan, the island’s oldest food company.
In Taiwan, the market share of Kang Shi Fu is a distant second to that of rival Uni-President’s brands. Uni-President owns the 7-Eleven chain, which markets its own noodle brands.
Saatchis Taiwan would not reveal which Kang Shi Fu flavours are included in the assignment. Nor would it discuss the size of the account.
Taiwan adspend for Kang Shi Fu is believed to have been NT$20 million (US$0.6 million) in 2006, most of it TV, but that sum declined by half last year.