ITV

Category: MAM

  • Sony to give VAIO a Rs 500 mn marketing push

    Sony to give VAIO a Rs 500 mn marketing push

    MUMBAI: Sony India will be spending Rs 500 million on marketing its popular laptop brand VAIO as it pushes for a doubling in sales this year.

    Sony will launch a new campaign, “More Colour. More Style”, with its brand ambassador Kareena Kapoor. It has allocated Rs 250 million for this campaign, leaving the other half to be spent on other promotional activities.

    The brand campaign will be supported with above-the-line (ATL) and below-the-line (BTL) activities, including print and television commercial, Web, PR, cinema and shop-front.

    Sony India MD Masaru Tamagawa said, “VAIO contributes 20 per cent to the total sales revenue of Sony India and, hence, is a very important part of our business. This year, our objective is to ensure that we offer a VAIO to meet the lifestyle requirements of every customer. We have an exciting product line-up of 62 models, a robust distribution network of 1500 outlets and heavy marketing investment of Rs 500 million to reach our business target of 500,000 units this year.”
     
    Last year, Sony sold 250,000 units of VAIO and achieved a market share of 15 per cent. The company targets a 20 per cent share this year.

    Kapoor said, “The essence of this new campaign is uniqueness, so there is VAIO to suit every style and speak every mood.”

    Sony said it has a favourable record of Kapoor-led VAIO campaigns, doubling the sales of VAIO both the times. She was seen in 2009 (‘Size Zero’ campaign) and 2010 (VAIO E ‘Go Vivid’ campaign).

    “The campaign is all about making a lifestyle statement and with Kapoor as the face of this campaign, we hope it will resonate well with our customers,”Tamagawa said.
    Sony boasts of a laptop product line-up of 62 models, available in 16 different colours.

    Sony is also ramping up its distribution network. “The distribution network will see an increase of about 700 outlets, raising the count to 1500 this year from 800 in the previous year. The company will also open 30 exclusive VAIO flagship stores this year, taking the total number to 50 as a dedicated VAIO channel,” said Tamagawa.

  • Digitas India appoints Saugata Bagchi as Mumbai head

    Digitas India appoints Saugata Bagchi as Mumbai head

    MUMBAI: Digital marketing agency, Digitas India, has appointed Saugata Bagchi as the agency‘s new vice-president.

    Bagchi will also head the Mumbai office and will report to Digitas India president Kanika Mathur.

    Bagchi moves in from Tribal DDB India. His mandate as VP and head of Mumbai will be to consolidate and grow the Digitas India‘s portfolio in the CRM business while making fresh inroads in the digital marketing and branding arena. 
     
    Mathur said, “We are excited about the decade of brand management experience that Saugata brings to the team. With his cross-functional exposure across a great mix of brands and categories – from FMCG and healthcare to telecom and auto – we will be able to further strengthen our client portfolio.”

    With nearly a decade of experience, Bagchi has worked on both sides. He has worked with companies such as Sanofi-Aventis, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and agencies including Sudler & Hennessey and JWT.

    Bagchi has worked across 20 different key brands and categories involving sales and marketing campaigns in the traditional and new media arms of the business.  

  • Rediffusion – Y & R Chennai wins creative mandate for TVS Srichakra

    MUMBAI: Rediffusion – Y & R Chennai has won the creative mandate for TVS Srichakra Limited, manufacturers of TVS Tyres and Eurogrip brand in the 2 and 3 wheeler categories.


    The mandate was awarded following a multi-agency pitch.


    Rediffusion – Y & R COO-South and East Amitava Sinha said that the agency is in the process of bolstering its Chennai set-up and hopes to become more aggressive in the coming months.
     
    “We are delighted to have this significant new business win in Chennai and it is all the more satisfying because it was won after a competitive pitch”, Sinha added.


    TVS Srichakra VP-domestic businesses M Sivasubramannian said, “While we found Rediff‘s approach to be most aligned to our own thinking on the brand at this point in time, their suggested creative solutions were refreshingly different and should take the brand to the next level.”


    The Madurai-based TVS Srichakra is a major player in the two and three wheeler segment and is the OE vendor to all the leading 2 & 3 wheeler manufacturers.


    Rediffusion – Y & R, Chennai, handles clients such as ITC Classmate, Colour Crew and Paperkraft, Cholam MS General Insurance, Lotte India Corporation and Cavinkare.
     

  • IOCL empanels five agencies for North India

    MUMBAI: State-run oil firm, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), has empanelled five agencies to cover the Northern region following a multi-agency pitch.


    The five agencies are Crayons, Goldmine, Adwit, Square Communications and Mode Advertising. Initially the duration for the agencies will be one year, which can then be extended for another year.


    IOCL has empanelled these agencies primarily to insert various ads in newspapers such as tender notices, vendor registration and awards of tenders in the region.
     
    The public sector company faces tough competition from its two Fortune 500 companies, Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).


    Meanwhile, HPCL is looking for new agencies to be empanelled for a period of three years.

  • O&M bags creative biz of Taco Bell

    O&M bags creative biz of Taco Bell

    MUMBAI: Yum! Restaurants India, which has a chain of restaurants and eating joints, Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell under its banner, has assigned the creative duties of Taco Bell to Ogilvy and Mather India.

    O&M now has the creative mandate for two of Yum‘s brands — KFC and Taco Bell.

    Until now JWT India handled the Taco Bell account. Though the agency still retains the Pizza Hut brand.
     
    There was no pitch involved and the account will be handled out of O&M‘s Delhi office.

    Ogilvy and Mather India group president North and East Sanjay Thappar said, “We have been handling the KFC business. The client has given us the Taco account based on the work we did for KFC.”

  • Ad challenges for FM radio in Phase-III

    Ad challenges for FM radio in Phase-III

    MUMBAI: The new FM radio policy will speed up growth but the pie will not expand enough to make the sector profitable unless the bids are pursued within rational limits, experts said.

    The private FM radio sector, sized at around Rs 10 billion, is expected to grow at 30-35 per cent due to Phase-III expansion as new towns surface and stations broadcast differentiated content in metros.

    “The industry is currently growing at 20-22 per cent. After the new stations launch, the industry should see at least 30-35 per cent growth year-on-year,” Entertainment Network India Ltd (ENIL) CEO and executive director Prashant Panday said.
     
    FM radio stations will be able to tap local advertisers and widen their advertising base but the rates will be under pressure.

    “The new frequencies will be in smaller towns and the rates will be much lower,” Panday said.

    Media agencies do not see a major boost in the sector‘s revenues as in the small towns ad rates could be even as low as Rs 75 per 10 seconds.

    “The increase in revenue will come from local retailers and also at the cost of All India Radio. Also, a lot will depend on how the players manage to monetise on the differentiated content they create with their multiple frequencies in the metros,” the chief executive of a media agency said.

    Law & Kenneth India CEO and managing partner Anil Nair thinks the changes will be very gradual. “Radio is largely used as an announcement and remainder medium. Every marketer assigns certain objectives to various mediums. A case in point — print is good to announce offers and promotions for local retail brands, while television is largely used to spread brand values and messages, because its an audio/video medium. Radio, on the other hand, is just an audio one. I doubt the overall equation will change,” Nair said.

    With more players coming in as the geography spreads, the radio ad pie will further get sliced.

    “The competition will increase. Clients will now have more choices and so will the customers,” averred Nair.

    RK Swamy Media Group president Chintamani Rao is of the view that regional and local players will be at a great advantage. “The advent of a new medium is always great news,” he asserted.

    TBWAIndia MD Nirmalya Sen believes the radio medium, which has always been considered as passive and secondary, is now going to change with expanded reach.

    “The medium can become more interactive and can be used best when communicating regionally. Traditionally the medium has been used by retail and real estate entities to reach out to the local audiences. But not we might see even big national brands getting aggressive on this front,” Sen affirmed.

    Radio always has been a highly cost-effective medium, helping brands to communicate with their target audiences at a very local level.

    “The decision will benefit the outdoor media to a great extent as now there will be more players who would like to promote their brands through outdoor advertising. So I am really happy”, asserted OAP India CEO Abhijit Sengupta.

  • IDBI retains Maxus as media partner; Mudra Max wins OOH biz

    IDBI retains Maxus as media partner; Mudra Max wins OOH biz

    MUMBAI: IDBI Group has retained Maxus India as its media partner and assigned Mudra Max the Outdoor, below the line (BTL), direct and digital duties.

    Maxus managing director Ajit Varghese confirmed the business retention of the IDBI account to Indiantelevision.com.

    Mudra Max said it won the account following a multi-agency pitch. The account will be handled out of the agency‘s Mumbai office. 
     
    The pitch for the Outdoor business was called in March and was part of the tender which IDBI Bank floats every three years, as per applicable government guidelines.

    The agency will be responsible for handling its various sectors which includes IDBI Bank Ltd, IDBI Capital Management Services, IDBI Intech and IDBI Assets Management.

    Mudra Max CEO Pratap Bose said, “It‘s a significant win for us and I am happy with the way we are moving ahead. We look forward to IDBI Bank Group bringing innovative thinking and a strategic direction to the brand.”

    Mudra Max-OOH president Mandeep Malhotra added, “IDBI Bank has shown faith in who we are and what we bring to the table. We are positive this partnership will be mutually beneficial. We hope to rise to the challenges offered by the brand, in terms of path-breaking and innovative methods of reaching the TG.”

  • Scarecrow wins Core Projects & Technologies biz

    MUMBAI: Global education company, Core Projects & Technologies, has appointed Scarecrow Communications as its advertising solutions agency.


    Scarecrow will handle all aspects of Core‘s communication including creative, strategy, design, activation and media. There was no pitch process involved.


    Scarecrow Communications founder director Raghu Bhat says, “Education is one of the fastest growing sectors in the Indian economy. Core is the most cutting edge education company in India. Working with a market leader like Core is an opportunity to address multiple target audiences in India and abroad, with an array of exciting strategic and creative solutions.”
     
    The official spokesperson from Core Projects & Techologies also confirmed this development.


    Scarecrow Communications founder director Manish Bhatt added, “Education is one of the most meaningful category to work on. It is more like associating with a cause when we are associating with Core Brand. Coincidently, parents of all 3 of us (me, Raghu and Joy ) being teachers, working on Core going to be special and dear to our hearts. Another reason for us being proud regarding this association is Core‘s international client list, which includes the world most respected entities like US & UK Governments, NASA and Oxford University.”


    Scarecrow handles clients such as BPCL, Religare, Future Capital and Nestle.
     

  • BBC Worldwide to represent Lonelyplanet.com ad sales

    BBC Worldwide to represent Lonelyplanet.com ad sales

    MUMBAI: BBC Advertising, the global ad sales department of BBC Worldwide, will now represent lonelyplanet.com in all global territories, following Australasian and US deals to sell its online advertising inventory.

    The move comes as Lonely Planet achieved good traffic to lonelyplanet.com in June attracting 87 million unique users, a year on year rise of 62 per cent.

    Lonely Planet was previously represented by Travel Ad Network in the US and AD2One for Australia and New Zealand.

    Lonely Planet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BBC Worldwide, which has managed the travel brand’s UK online sales since August 2009.

    Lonely Planet MD digital Dominic Rowell said, “Bringing Lonely Planet together with BBC Advertising‘s team maximises the synergies between our two organisations and comes at an ideal time when Lonely Planet is poised for its next digital growth phase.”

    BBC Worldwide Australia‘s regional director of ad sales Scott Hamilton said, “It has always been our intention to represent Lonely Planet in the critical territories of Australia and New Zealand. The brand is in great shape and I look forward to building on its success. The integration of these two fantastic properties considerably strengthens our advertising brand proposition in this region.”

    The BBC Advertising team is responsible for international sales across its multi-screen portfolio including television, online, mobile and apps.

  • EG! Communications wins Growel’s 101 mall’s creative duties

    EG! Communications wins Growel’s 101 mall’s creative duties

    MUMBAI: Marketing agency, Everything Goes! Communications has bagged the creative duties of Growel Group‘s mall, Growel‘s 101.

    The agency will work on strategies on both annual and periodical basis.

    The agency will look after the communication strategy of the mall including above-the-line (ATL), below-the-line (BTL) and outdoor advertising.

    Besides, it will also develop creative communication forms for promotions and brand communications for the mall‘s service and marketing initiatives.

    Everything Goes! Communications chief creative guardian Vijay Dewan said, “EG! Comm dons its experiential marketing hat to be able to conceptualise advertising, brand and activations solutions to meet the many challenges of a mall. We will be working closely with the mall team to create a distinctive creative plan for the mall.”

    Growel‘s 101 VP Santosh Pandey said, “We are confident that they will understand the essence of our brand and will correctly and precisely communicate that with our target audience to help build a connect. Growel‘s 101 Mall looks forward to working as a team with EG! Comm to roll out its communication drive.”

    “Our strategy is to understand the strengths of the property and leverage its unique features, including its grand European-style architecture, to create a winning communication that connects at multiple levels, finally resulting in increased footfalls, spends and loyalty,” explained Dewan