Category: MAM

MUMBAI: As London 2012 prepares to mark one year to go to the Paralympic Games, the London 2012 Paralympic mascot Mandeville graced the silver screen alongside Olympic mascot Wenlock, as ‘Wenlock and Mandeville‘s Out of a Rainbow‘ comes to the cinemas.

The film was shown at Odeon Cinemas. The short animation, cut especially for the big screen, showed how Mandeville and Wenlock are created from the last two drops of steel from the Olympic Stadium and then follows their journey as they continue on their sporting adventure across the UK, inspiring young people to take up sport.

The story for the film was written by British author Michael Morpurgo and also features narration by English theatre, film, and television actor Jim Broadbent. Animated versions of British Paralympic and Olympic athletes Ellie Simmonds, Mandip Sehmi, Tom Daley and Phillips Idowu, also make an appearance and the sound track to the film is composed by British award-winning composer Thomas Hewitt Jones.

The film was shown on 373 screens in more than 100 Odeon Cinemas in the UK before selected family movies including Harry Potter 7.2, Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Spy Kids 4D, The Smurfs, Mr Popper‘s Penguins, Arrietty, Zookeeper and Horrid Henry.

‘Wenlock and Mandeville‘s Out of a Rainbow‘ was one of three films exclusively shown at Odeon Cinemas during the lead up to the Games. The two new films will be released in November 2011 and May 2012.

Locog chair, Seb Coe said, “Our mascots were created to engage and excite young people in sport. These films will bring the mascots‘ experiences of meeting new people and trying new sports to thousands of young people visiting cinemas across the UK. Through their journey Wenlock and Mandeville will help inspire kids to strive to be the best they can be.”

Wenlock and Mandeville are proving to be a hit with young people. The dynamic duo appear on learning resources available to teachers through the London 2012 Education programme ‘Get Set‘ and the costume characters have together made over 200 appearances across the UK.

People have ‘customised‘ their own version of the mascots as just one of the interactive mascot games on the mascot website and 23,700 people follow Wenlock and Mandeville on Twitter and Facebook. The mascots feature on over 25 per cent of official London 2012 products.

MUMBAI: Mobile advertising company Blyk has promoted its chief commercial officer Eric Kip as the company‘s chief executive, replacing co-founder Pekka Ala-Pietila.

Ala-Pietila will continue as chairman, overseeing Kip. Before joining Blyk in 2009, Kip held executive management positions at two media agencies: IPG‘s Initiative and WPP‘s MediaCom.

Blyk started in 2007 as a telecom operator in Britain, renting network from larger carriers and offering customers free calls in exchange for advertisements.

Blyk partners with Everything Everywhere in the UK and with Aircel in India, where Blyk focuses on the youth segment of 16-29. The company said it has more than one million clients each in Britain and India.

With mobile advertising and marketing being one of the hottest growth areas at the moment, many new opportunities are arising.

Advertising companies and operators are keenly observing companies such as Blyk as mobile advertising opens up new revenue streams. The mammoth size of over four billion mobile users presents exciting prospects for an advertiser.

MUMBAI: Television advertising had the greatest impact on consumer behaviour in 2011, according to a Deloitte report.

The UK’s appreciation of television advertising continues to go from strength to strength, with 58 per cent of respondents ranking it among the top three most influential advertising formats.

Since 2009 the TV ad has been consistently rated by respondents as the ad type with the most impact.

Newspapers were the second most influential with 15 per cent of respondents; magazines were in joint third place at 14 per cent alongside solicited emails.

In contrast, banner adverts polled poorly again in 2011 (4 per cent), online video adverts also underwhelmed (3 per cent) and adverts or sponsored links on Internet search engines failed to capture consumers’ imaginations (3 per cent).

The survey of 4,000 UK citizens was done on behalf of the Edinburgh International Television Festival, which takes place between 26 – 28 August.

Popularity of television advertising with the young:

Television advertising’s appeal, consistent with previous years, is strongest amongst young respondents, with 18-24 year olds rating television advertising’s impact the highest at 69 per cent, an increase from 63 per cent in 2010.

Over a third (38 per cent) of those aged over 55 consider that no form of advertising has an impact on them, compared to only 9 per cent amongst 18-24 year olds.

Deloitte media partner James Bates said, “Television advertising has continued to go from strength to strength in 2011. This can be attributed to television excelling at brand building and raising awareness and audiences are appreciative of television advertising, with younger viewers being television adverts’ strongest supporters.

“Television adverts’ number one ranking is due to many actors including high production values for many television adverts and the fact that the UK public spends a quarter of its waking hours watching television.”

PVRs and television advertising:

In 2011, Personal Video Recorder (PVR) penetration is forecast to exceed 50 per cent for the first time. As PVRs reach into the majority of UK homes, its actual impact
on advertising has been largely counter to initial expectations. The ad-skipping forecast has come true only as far as PVR owners’ perceptions are concerned. 51 per cent of viewers with access to a PVR reported that they always fast forward through the adverts at maximum speed.

However, TV advertising is being consumed in greater
quantities than ever before, with an estimated 47 adverts per person viewed daily in the first half of 2011, up from 33 in the first half of 2002.

Deloitte/GfK‘s research also shows how the PVR may be changing the value of the position in an advertising break. Almost half of all PVR owners “always” (20 per cent) or “frequently” (27 per cent) stop fast-forwarding adverts when the programme’s sponsorship appears. 80% of 25-34 year-olds stop fast-forwarding through ads at some point if they see an advert or trailer that interests them.

Bates added, “In cases where all advertising is fast-forwarded, there can still be an impact from advertising as viewers’ recognition of just a single image from the advertisement can aid recall.”

When respondents were asked what would encourage them to watch the entire advertising break, they cited shorter advertising breaks (50 per cent), more memorable advertisements (29 per cent), advertising that focuses on one theme, such as cars or food (6 per cet), or personalised advertisements (11 per cent).

Future challenges:

In the future, the audiovisual impact of adverts should increase. If brief and memorable, they can be consumed dozens of times without wearying the audience.

New forms of television ads will emerge, including the revival of interactive adverts and the arrival of targeted adverts. The industry will need to ensure that it evaluates the true potential and likely investment of each new advertising
format before taking major strategic decisions or projecting major new revenue streams.

Relevance of the traditional television ad:

Almost three quarters (73 per cent) of the respondents who were most likely to pay attention to a video advert broadcast on television, were most likely to pay attention to a standard length advert shown on television. An extra long advert (more than 30 seconds) was only chosen by one in five (18 per cent). Sponsorship messages played around a programme were only chosen by 9 per cent.

Video ads: Of those who are most likely to pay attention to video adverts online, 64 per cent prefer online video adverts shown before they start watching a programme/video online, compared to adverts shown at the end of the programme (6 per cent).

TV ads most widely remembered: When respondents were asked to think of the advertising campaign they considered to be most memorable in 2011, 80 per cent ranked television highest followed by cinema at three per cent.

MUMBAI: Advertising industry watchdog, Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci), is introducing a new procedure that will seek to provide a speedy resolution to intra industry complaints.

The Fast Track Complaints Council (FTCC), a 14-member panel nominated from the existing 21 Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) members, will be responsible for adjudicating the fast track complaints.

According to the new process that comes into effect from 1 September, any advertiser category Asci member company can lodge a complaint against an ad of another advertiser category member company.

Asci said that the whole process from receiving the complaint to the decision of the FTCC is expected to take no more than seven working days.

Consequently, the office of the secretary general of Asci will reach out to the advertiser complained against, within one working day of receiving the complaint, asking for a written response and to be present along with the complainant for appearance before the FTCC.

On the fourth working day from the date of sending the complaint communication to the advertiser, the FTCC will be responsible for adjudicating the matter.

The secretary general will communicate the decision of the FTCC to the parties concerned. If the complaint is upheld, then the advertiser will have to communicate the decision to withdraw the ad to the media concerned within two working days from notification of the FTCC‘s decision.

The fast track procedure will be reviewed by the Asci board for a period of four to six months of its commencement. Basis the results and experience, the secretary general and the FTCC will make recommendations to the Asci Board for making appropriate amendments, if any, to the Fast Track Procedure.

Asci secretary general Alan Collaco said, “With the introduction of the Fast Track procedure, Asci aims to provide a platform for member advertisers to quickly resolve intra industry complaints against ads through industry self regulation process instead of seeking expensive court litigation. ASCI has a rigorous Advertising Code and effective complaint redressal process that has withstood the test of time as its CCC, consisting of eminent persons from various walks of life, independently goes into the merits of every complaint.”