Category: MAM

Dentsu to manage Canon India’s creative biz

MUMBAI: Creative agency Dentsu Marcom will be in charge of all campaigns for Canon India for the year 2012.

Confirming the news to indiantelevision.com, a spokesperson from the agency informed that Dentsu will be in charge of ATL and BTL activities while Allied Media holds the media mandate.

The company has two agencies on its roster – Dentsu and Percept/H, the spokesperson said Percept/H handled the campaigns last year.

The company is yet to decide the agency for its digital cameras business.

In 2004, Dentsu Marcom won the creative account for Canon India. The incumbent agency at the time was Rediffusion Y&R.

Canon India is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Canon Singapore and was launched in India on 2007. The company has products like digital copiers, multi-functional peripherals, fax machines, inkjet and laser printers, scanners, all-in-ones, digital cameras, digital camcorders, dye sub photo printers and multimedia projectors, semiconductors, card printers, and cable ID printers.

February 10, 2012
Bajaj Discover to ride on Ogilvy’s campaign

MUMBAI: Bajaj Auto‘s Discover the commuter master brand has come out with a new campaign that is conceptualised and executed by Ogilvy Mumbai.

Bajaj Auto president – motorcycle business K Srinivas said, “The Brand Discover has done well clocking 110,000 numbers per month but we need to take it to the next level. Auto brands have been talking about mileage and maintenance for years. Today, these parameters might not help drive preference. Consumers see them as generics and want a better drive-feel, even from commuter bike offerings. Millions of Discover riders find their ride exciting with power at the fingertips for an amazing ride feel. We wanted the new communication to reflect that clearly. “

The campaign will stress on the power and thrill of riding the bike.

Ogilvy NCD Abhijit Avasthi added: “What distinguishes the Discover from other bikes in that segment is the power and thrill it offers the rider. It‘s this compelling proposition the film and the baseline ‘Chalta nahin, Daudta hain‘ aims to capture, in a tongue-in-cheek way. I think the idea is unique in that it is a testimonial by those who don‘t have the product they really wish they had. It takes a light-hearted dig at those with the ‘chalta hai‘ attitude in life”.

The film was shot by Vinil Mathews of Footcandles Films.

February 10, 2012
Skoda’s Rapid fights the entry sedan segment with a new campaign

MUMBAI: Skoda Auto India has launched a new ad campaign for Skoda Rapid.

Titled ‘Big Fat Indian Wedding’, the campaign encapsulated the proposition of ‘Being Thoughtful’.

Revolving around the Indian wedding, the campaign has been conceptualised by Saatchi & Saatchi. The media agency working on the account is Mediacom.

Skoda Auto India and member of the board – sales and marketing brand head Thomas Kuehl said, “At Skoda we believe that a car is much more than a mere product. It is an extension of an individual and this insight has helped us arrived at the positioning ‘Built to be Thoughtful’. We used the backdrop of Indian wedding in our campaign to demonstrate the emotional connect between a family and a car. The Skoda Rapid embodies that sentiment with its ‘Simply Clever solutions’ and product values at various occasions during the wedding. Since a wedding for an Indian family is valuable, emotional and a grand occasion, it is a perfect fit to partake in the celebrations with the Skoda Rapid – Family Car of the year 2011.”

Skoda Rapid is fighting in the entry level sedan segment. Director Sam Ahmad has created a film that underlines the fact that the Skoda Rapid is as “sensible” as it is “stylish”.

Saatchi & Saatchi chief creative officer Ramanuj Shastry said, “To dramatise the ‘thoughtfulness‘ of Skoda Rapid, we chose the big, fat Indian wedding, the torture test for any car. It‘s the only time where not just the badge value of the car, but its work horse like qualities also matter. A car for the Indian wedding has to be spacious, comfortable, dependable and economical.”

February 10, 2012
Majestic MRSS launches India outfit; Panchal to head

MUMBAI: Global multi-country market research agency and business intelligence unit, Majestic MRSS, has launched MRSS India to service Indian clients‘ market research requirements both in India, and outside the country.

The company has brought on board Sarang Panchal as MRSS India chief mentor and co-founder. Having more than two decades of experience in market research, he was Nielsen MD, Asia-Pacific, between 2007 and 2008.

The new outfit in India will look to capitalise on technologies for insight, developed by Majestic MRSS and its partners in the US, Europe, and Japan.

“MRSS India will offer Indian marketers local access to the best of breed technology to generate consumer insights,” the company said.

The company‘s aim is to be the biggest local independent agency by the end of the decade.

Majestic MRSS co-founder, president Raj Sharma said, “Panchal‘s appointment will have a huge impact. With the kind of knowledge of the Indian market that he has, he will help us provide a lot of value to our Indian clients. The formation of the Indian arm will help us gain sizeable market share.”

Majestic MRSS has a presence in over 18 countries.

February 10, 2012
Mahindra to launch ad campaign for new Xylo

BANGALORE: Automobile major Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (Mahindra) will be launching a new campaign, including TVCs’, over the next few days for its upgraded SUV Xylo. The earlier version of the Xylo was launched in January 2009.

“There will be two parts of the campaign – the first TVC and other initiatives will be to announce the new Xylo and the second one that will follow a few weeks later will talk about the product,” said Mahindra Automotive division’s VP of Sales & Marketing Vijay Nakra at the launch of the vehicle in Bangalore.

Initially the new Xylo will be launched in select major towns and cities in the country and then rolled out across the rest of India.

“At present we will be on news, sports, some GECs’, channels such as Discovery and NGC. We plan to go to regional channels after about 4 to 6 weeks once the all India launch has been completed,” revealed Nakra to http://indiantelevision.com.

Nakra could not reveal the amount that Mahindra would spend on the new Xylo campaign, but said that it would be adequate.

The two TVCs’ showcased by Mahindra today at the launch of the new Xylo featured ace photographer Atul Kasbekar with some models. The print and the dealership outlet creatives will also feature Kasbekar and some of the models that have posed for him.

Interface, which handled the earlier Xylo creative duties, will continue to do so for the new Xylo. Lodestar Universal handles the media buying for the new Xylo.

February 9, 2012
Shoppers Stop to up ad spends to Rs 500 mn next fiscal

BANGALORE: Fashion and lifestyle large format department store chain Shoppers Stop plans to spend around Rs 500 million towards marketing and communications.

This fiscal the chain has planned spends of Rs 450 million. The thrust will be mainly through online social media, newsprint and some outdoor, revealed Shoppers Stop Ltd customer care associate and marketing director Govid Shirkande to www.indiantelevision.com.

Shirkande was in Bangalore for the launch of the brand’s 50th store in India and its sixth store in Bangalore. Shoppers Stop is also looking at television for mass media communication.

Over the next two years Shoppers Stop plans to increase the store count to around 65 at the rate of about eight stores per year as well as enter tier-2 towns in India. It has planned spends of Rs 2.5 billion towards expansion. At present it is present in 22 cities and towns in the country.

Overall across the various retail formats such as HomeStop, Crossword Book Store, Mothercare & Early Learning Centre and Hpercity, the group has around four million square feet of retail space. Over the next two years this will go up to about five million square feet.

Shoppers Stop also is targeting the woman consumer since the business for women oriented products has been going up.

“Once we enter the smaller towns and cities over the next two years, we plan to use television for mass media communications. At present, we create the awareness across the newsprint in the cities and towns that we are present in for a better connect with our customers,” revealed Shirkande further.

Shoppers Stop has a huge fan following on facebook with the number of fans nearing two million. “Over the next few days, we should cross the two million fan mark on facebook,” said Shirkande. The brand is also present across 200 bill boards in the towns that it has outlets.

Contract Advertising looks after the creative work and Maxus the media buying for Shoppers Stop.

February 9, 2012
Avantgarde eyes growth markets, sets foot in India

MUMBAI: Avantgarde, a Munich-based communications agency, is setting foot in India as it seeks to focus on fast-growing emerging markets with slowdown impacting the most matured economies.

The agency is opening its first India office in Delhi on 14 February and its 12th globally.

The Indian operations will be looked after by Avantgarde India MD Isabelle-Jasmin Roth.

After the launches in Brazil, Russia and China, the opening of Avantgarde India will complete the company‘s BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) strategy.

The agency already runs offices in London, Paris, Vienna and the Middle East.

According to an official communiqué, the completion of the agency‘s presence in all BRIC states emphasises on its global engagement with target groups and brands and creating outstanding experiences in its mission of ‘creating fans‘.

Avantgarde CEO and founder Martin Schnaack said, “Avantgarde strongly believes in the fast and sustainably growing Indian market. We see great opportunities for us, adding perfectly to our dynamic global expansion.”

Roth added, “India has become a leader in the global business world. The market has a great potential and is of prime importance to us. We are excited to start our Indian operations.”

Founded in 1985, Avantgarde is a global communications agency with a focus on experiential marketing. With over 400 employees at 16 locations around the globe, Avantgarde creates brand experiences.

February 9, 2012
Concept revamps as Spiider Digital Hub

MUMBAI: Concept Group has revamped its digital arm, Concept Digital.

The division under managing director Kushal Sanghvi will be renamed as Spiider Digital Hub. Sanghvi has been handling the digital wing since a year now.

He said, “At Spiider we put the brand first. Keeping in mind the way people are consuming and spending large time spans on the Internet through PCs, laptops, mobile phones and other hand held devices our strategy would always revolve around ‘engagement’ with these audiences while creating a contextual environment and an interactive platform for the brand.

Today, we believe that there is no brand for which the enablement of technology and a consumer connect through this communication is a challenge and thus our endeavor would be to connect the dots and get the brand closer to the relevant consumer.”

The new team is already offering digital solutions for clients like Tata Mutual Fund, Religare, Barclays Bank, Commtel, AMD, Reebok, SBI, IOCL and Kumar Builders.

“We stand today in the midst of a media neutral environment. Digital dominance has been the reality of the advertising and marketing spaces across the world, for close to a decade now. As marketers, we’ve always kept our collective finger on the pulse of the consumer. In fact, in the last decade the consumer has really kept us on our toes. From developing digital services to specialist ORM, SEO and Online Strategy Planning strengths, we are constantly re-energising existing paradigms of communication,” Sanghvi added.

February 9, 2012
Dentsu wins Indo-Nissin Foods’ media mandate

MUMBAI: Dentsu India’s full service media agency Dentsu Media has been awarded the media duties for Indo-Nissin Foods, the Indian subsidiary of Japan-based Nissin Foods Holdings.

The account will be managed out of Bangalore. Incidentally, Dentsu Communications handles the creative duties for Indo-Nissin Foods out of Bangalore.

Dentsu Media will be in charge of the complete media planning and buying responsibilities from Indo-Nissin Foods including the brands Top Ramen and Cup Noodles. Recently the company’s flagship brand, Top Ramen, underwent a revamp in its bid to increase market share in the instant noodles category in India.

Indo-Nissin Foods GM sales and marketing MNVV Prasad said, “Dentsu Communications has been handling our creative duties for the last one year and have done a good job for us so far from a creative point of view. The category has witnessed a few major trends in the recent years and going ahead we feel that we could gain an advantage from a marketing standpoint by synergizing our creative and media together. The media strategy and planning presented was very well received by our team at Nissin and gave us a fresh perspective. Therefore Dentsu was the obvious choice, and we hope for a great future using this synergy”.

Dentsu Media CEO Divya Gupta said, “As we see it, true effectiveness of brand communication happens by harnessing collective media synergies seamlessly in real time. We are thankful to Indo-Nissin for recognizing our capabilities and awarding us this mandate. We look forward to partnering Indo-Nissin, using engagement metrics to blend and deploy channels, in our efforts to support their India objective, every which way!”

Dentsu Media India is part of Dentsu Media global network. The company has an armoury of proprietary tools and database such as Valcon, ContactPoint Management and D-VAST among others. This enables it to provide fully integrated, communication-without-lines solutions to clients to help them gather leadership in a cluttered market place.

February 9, 2012
Microsoft appoints Ybrant Digital as its sales house, Aidem

MUMBAI: Microsoft Corporation India today announced the appointment of Ybrant Digital Limited as the sales house for the cities outside Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore even as it plans to expand to Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Goa.

Microsoft Advertising’s existing sales partner, AIDEM Ventures, will continue to drive sales in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bangalore.

Microsoft India country director advertising and online Neville Taraporewalla said, “The growth of the Internet is enabling digital lifestyles at a pace never seen before and resultantly we today live in an era of consumption on the go and increasing online conversations. Interestingly, tier II cities are emerging as huge growth drivers and this presents an opportunity for us to enable businesses to engage with their audiences in an effective and interactive manner, like never before. Our tie up with Ybrant Digital is well positioned to help us in this direction, and we are excited about the opportunities ahead.”

Ybrant Digital chairman and CEO Suresh Reddy said, “Ybrant is delighted to provide businesses an option to advertise with premium media properties owned by Microsoft. Together with Microsoft we will ensure maximum ROI on the advertising rupee spent by our advertisers across the region.”

The digital advertising market has grown in the recent years crossing the $166 million mark in 2011 and is expected to reach $273 million by 2013, according to ZenithOptimedia in its July 2011 report. Internet is increasingly being consumed in smaller towns and cities. In fact, of India’s total Internet population of 112 million, non-metro cities account for approximately 68 per cent, according to IAMAI, I-Cube.

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in India, Ybrant Digital holds offices in 20 countries, including US, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Ukraine, Serbia, Israel, China, India, and Australia, and with representatives or partners in Spain, Greece and Netherlands.

February 9, 2012