Category: MAM

MUMBAI: ZenithOptimedia has won the Rs 1 billion worth Toshiba corporate branding account after a multi-agency pitch that also involved agencies such as Madison Media, Dentsu Media and Percept’s media arm, Allied Media.
 
The media duties of Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corporation’s Indian subsidiary were until now handled by Allied Media.

ZenithOptimedia will now handle the media duties of all Toshiba products including, laptops, LCD TV and home appliances.
 
With ZenithOptimedia on-board, the company is expected to intensify its marketing tactics in the face of growing competition from players such as Samsung, LG, Dell, for various product categories.
 
In 2010, Toshiba, the manufacturer and marketer of electrical  products, replaced Bollywood actress Vidya Balan with cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar as the brand ambassador of the company. Ever since, the company has been conducting an extensive cross-product campaign with the key message of ‘Quality, Technology, Design.’

MUMBAI: Khatron Ke Khiladi – Torchaar (KKK4) has emerged as the winner in a closely fought battle of reality shows that have flooded the Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs), post IPL.

As per TAM data for week ended 4 June (C&S, 4+ years, HSM), KKK4, launched on 3 June, opened with a 2.97 TVR.

The daredevil reality show, aired Friday-Saturday in the 9 pm slot, tgarnered an average TVR of 2.64 during its debut week. However, it got tough competition by X Factor India, the newly acquired singing reality show format, on Sony Entertainment Television and Zee TV‘s Saregamapa Li‘l Champs. 
 
Debuting on Sony Entertainment Television, X Factor opened with a TVR of 2.14. In the first week, it was aired everyday in the 9 pm slot, and the average remained at 2.13 TVR. From 10 June, the show will shift to Friday-Saturday, 9 pm band.

Meanwhile, Li‘l Champs (Zee TV), on 10 pm slot (Friday-Saturday) opened with a 2.7 TVR and averaged with 2.6 TVR.

Also, Imagine TV‘s flagship reality series Swayamvar, which is in its third season and is titled Ratan Ka Rishta, got a 1.6 TVR opening and averaged 1.3 TVR for the week.

Meanwhile, Sony‘s “biggest fiction launch” Bade Acche lagte Hain opened with a 1.35 TVR in the Monday-Thursday 10.30 pm slot and averaged with a 1.52 TVR in its debut week.
Colors‘ new fiction Hamari Saas Leela, in Monday-Friday 7 pm band, opened with 1.2 TVR and clocked an average TVR of 1 during the week. 
 
A look on the Hindi GECs overall chart: Star Plus added 7 GRPs (gross rating points) during the week to end with 290 on top, while Colors added 15 GRPs to its last week tally and remained at No. 2 with 245 GRPs.

Moreover, this week Sony Entertainment with 181 GRPs (+12 GRPs) and Zee TV with 183 GRPs (addition of 2 GRPs this week), came too close for comfort.

Sab is strong at No. 5 with 147 GRPs, an increment of 19 GRPs over the previous week and Imagine added 15 to its tally to close the week with 85 GRPs.

Star One and Sahara One lost 3 and 5 GRPs respectively during the week and were at 37 and 27 GRPs.

MUMBAI: Advertising agencies in India, which have not built scale, are in danger of being badly bruised from a new rule that comes into force from 1 July.

The gravity of the situation runs deep into the heart of the advertising business, prompting reactions from across the industry that huge cash flow requirement could lead to the closure of small and medium-sized agencies.

The culprit is the new Point of Taxation Rules 2011 under Service Tax that require advertising agencies to pay the tax as soon as the invoice is raised (or services are completed), irrespective of payment collection. Also, service tax must be paid within 14 days of providing service.

There are around 1,000 ad agencies registered under Indian Newspaper Society (INS), out of which 960 run small and medium-sized operations. 
 
Leo Burnett CEO Arvind Sharma said, “Smaller vendors or agencies depend completely on their payments from clients to pay-off their debts and taxes. Huge cash flow requirement may lead to closure of medium and small agencies.”

That may be an exaggeration but it has made the ad agencies act collectively. The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), the apex body of advertising agencies in the country, has set up a core five-member team to deal with the repercussions of the POT rules.
 
The team comprises Madison World chairman and MD Sam Balsara, AAAI president Nagesh Alai, Aegis Group chairman India and CEO South East Asia Ashish Bhasin, Group M CEO South Asia Vikram Sakhuja and Lodestar Universal India CEO Shashi Sinha.

Representatives of the ad industry will be meeting the government officials on Friday to discuss this burning topic.

Balsara is aghast with the proposed changes. “Earlier the payment of service tax was linked to actual collection of service tax for the services provided. Now the agencies are expected to pay 10.3 per cent service tax even before receiving the payments,” he said.
 
The health of agencies could further weaken as the service tax payment would be even on bad debts. While the government seeks to advance collection of service tax, there is no provision to adjust excess service tax collected. There is no provision for adjustments of bad debts or settlement based on re-negotiated price.

“The new “Point of Taxation Rules 2011″ doesn‘t differentiate between various service providers. How can one equate an on-off service provider of service (pandal contractor or beauty parlour owner) to that of business-to-business service providers with long-term contracts,” AAAI has said in an open letter to the government.

Sharma cautions, “It is a huge challenge for agencies. We don‘t have goods that we can secure. In a business already working under marginal margins, additional taxes will be debilitating.”

Sharma said that the agencies will get penalised from all sides. Everyone attached with the advertising sector will be affected including the printers and stationary providers as their bill payments will be delayed. He pointed out that this tax arrangement would work well for funded businesses, but would prove to be completely disruptive for the advertising sector.

The new provisions would force the agencies to look for bank credit, which, if obtained, can go up to 20 per cent of an agency‘s total revenue.

Bhasin fears that these provisions “will encourage malpractices” and affirmed that “the rule is not implementable”.

MediaCom MD Debraj Tripathy said given the fact that agencies work on such thin margins, the new rules are very difficult to comply with, because of the time needed to bill the clients.

Law & Kenneth India CEO and managing partner Anil Nair noted that if this rule is implemented, the training and development programmes will be the first to get affected.

A senior industry official said he is skeptical of the industry‘s ability to influence the government decision, “Creative guys are at the end of the money chain and no one seems to be taking them seriously. This will be the first time that the industry would be able to influence the government‘s decision, if it happens.”

Noticeably, the industry honchos unanimously agreed on one point: the government‘s inability to understand the peculiarities of the advertising sector.
 

MUMBAI: Sony Ericsson has announced that world number one women tennis player, Caroline Wozniacki, has renewed and extended her role as a global Sony Ericsson brand ambassador to support its Xperia smartphone portfolio.

The Danish tennis star has signed a deal that will extend her partnership with Sony Ericsson to 2013.

The off-court agreement expands the Wozniacki sponsorship from Danish-only to a worldwide contract. The endorsement renewal and extension will build on Sony Ericsson‘s long-term sponsorship of Wozniacki which began in 2007.
 
Sony Ericsson plans to leverage its partnership with Caroline Wozniacki across all of its tennis programmes, integrating her into marketing initiatives for its Xperia smartphone portfolio. This includes television advertising in select international markets, and expands her reach in digital and social media platforms. Caroline‘s image will be used in advertising and general promotional material and she will be involved in events for Sony Ericsson.

Wozniacki will wear the official Sony Ericsson WTA logo on her on-court attire and will also be involved in Sony Ericsson‘s new web-based TV show Xperia Hot Shots, which began in March this year.
 
Sony Ericsson Xperia Hot Shots follows the lives of six tennis players from the WTA as they travel the world on tour, helping them to realise their dreams by giving them exclusive access to the worlds of music, film, gaming and fashion. At the end of the year, the player that has generated the most support on Facebook will win a Sony Ericsson support deal. Wozniacki will be incorporated into video content with the Xperia Hot Shots as one of the big stars on the WTA.

Sony Ericsson adds that it has been a long-term sponsor of women‘s tennis as partner of the Women‘s Tennis Association since 2005 and as current sponsor of Maria Sharapova.
 
Sony Ericsson VP head of global marketing partnerships Stephan Croix said, “As the established world number one, Caroline embodies all of the characteristics we look for in a brand ambassador – she is active, ambitious, optimistic and always connected. This renewed agreement will help Sony Ericsson reach new audiences and expand awareness of the Xperia smartphone portfolio, through a number of marketing activities, including her growing presence in social media and participation in off court initiatives like the Xperia Hot Shots programme.”
 

MUMBAI: Media research and consulting firm Ormax Media has launched YoBuzz!, a new weekly tracking tool to measure the awareness of reality shows amongst youth channel audiences.

YoBuzz! will track unaided and total awareness for upcoming and recently launched reality shows across youth channels such as MTV, Channel [V] and UTV Bindass, as well as Hindi general entertainment channels like Star Plus, Colors, Zee TV, Sony, Imagine and others.
 
Speaking about YoBuzz!, Ormax Media CEO and Co-founder Shailesh Kapoor said, “For more than two years now, Hindi GECs have been using our GEC awareness tracking product Showbuzz for key marketing decisions in the pre-launch phase of new fiction and non-fiction shows. YoBuzz! is an extension of the same idea. We will track the specific audience segment – viewers of youth channels.”
 
The company says that the data generated can be used to track performance of launch campaigns of new reality shows, and to take corrective action in the areas of creative and media strategy. “While it is primarily designed for the youth channels, even the GECs will find it useful to track their big ticket reality shows like Bigg Boss and Kaun Banega Crorepati amongst the core audiences of the youth genre,” Kapoor added.
 
The track will be conducted every week in four cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow and Bhopal – in the core audience segment of youth channels, i.e., 15-24 years SEC AB.

MUMBAI: Mudra West, an SBU of Mudra India, has appointed Amit Kekre as head, planning.

Kekre will oversee the planning function of some of the agency‘s biggest clients including Future Group, LIC, Godrej, Emirates, HCC, Lavasa, The Economic Times, Huawei, Femina and Philips-Electrolux.
 
Kekre has more than 13 years of planning experience under his belt. The last position he held was that of VP, strategic planning, McCann Erickson India.

Prior to that, Kekre was director planning at Grey Melbourne and area planning director at Grey Malaysia.

Mudra West president Arijit Ray says, “Amit embodies the perfect credentials required to give Mudra West the right impetus in the planning function. With Amit’s vast experience across categories as diverse as automotive, fashion, lifestyle, travel and tourism, financial services, FMCG, in various capacities, within india and outside, he is the right person to take the collaborative partnership across planning, creative and business management, to the next level.We are really looking forward to Amit playing a really active role in our quest to chart the next growth platform for Mudra West.”
 
Starting his advertising career with Ambience advertising in 1996, Kekre spent the first four years in account management working on the Marico account, thereafter moving to Lowe where he worked on the Unilever business before making the move to account planning in the year 2000.

Kekre has also worked in planning at JWT, Ogilvy and Everest in Mumbai and brings a wealth of experience over a wide range of markets and brands to the table.
 
Kekre adds, “The challenge for planners today is not just to find innovative and insightful ways of studying people and consumer culture but also to be able to project and transmit it in a way that it breaks the stereotype of planning being a silo style department and helps it mix and merge seamlessly in the creation of businesses and brands, especially to be seen as welcome partners in inspiring great creative work. I am excited to join Mudra and am hopeful that its collaborative, team driven culture will help planning be a force that comes from people, works with people but never comes in the way of people.”

MUMBAI: The year marks the coming together of two FMCG giants, PepsiCo India and Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL).

They announced the launch of Lipton Ice Tea in the Indian market. Lipton Ice Tea is made of tea leaves, real sugar, and natural fruity flavors that promise to refresh naturally. It is targeted at the 16–29 year urban affluent healthy hedonists- young-minded people who enjoy life but also understand the importance of healthier choices. 
 
PepsiCo India executive director – innovation Geetu Verma said, “Today’s urban young adults are looking for a drink that is delicious, but also healthier. Tea is a familiar and preferred beverage option in India and ice tea is fast gaining popularity amongst the young consumers. Lipton Ice Tea is a global product that offers a combination of great taste and refreshment on the go. We are confident that the product will resonate strongly with our target audience.”

HUL GM beverages Arun Srinivas said, “While tea drinking is an entrenched habit among the Indian consumers, the youth in India are looking at more contemporary formats and healthy offerings. Ice Tea ticks both the boxes and it can get the youth into the tea category. Lipton’s tea expertise coupled with its strong equity places it in the pole position to service this emerging consumer need. We strongly believe that PepsiCo’s strengths in QSRs and Hindustan Unilever’s strengths in MT and Family Grocer channels will help grow this nascent category.”

PepsiCo India has launched the Ready to Drink Lipton Ice Tea in the PET format in the Delhi NCR Region and the company plans to introduce the product in other markets across India in a phased manner.

Priced at Rs 25 for a 350 ml PET bottle, Lipton Ice Tea will be available in two variants: Green Tea in Mint and Lemon flavour and Black Tea in lemon flavour.
 
 
HUL is launching the PET bottle in Modern Trade in the top 28 cities across India. HUL will also be launching the product in the tetra and powder formats.

The powder will be priced at Rs 85 for the lemon variant and Rs 95 for the Mint and Lemon variant for 250g. Besides this there will also be a sampler pack priced at an introductory offer of Rs.15 in both the variants. The Tetrapack will be priced at an introductory offer of Rs.70 for the Black tea in lemon flavor and Rs.75 for the Green tea in Mint and Lemon flavor.

PepsiCo India and Hindustan Unilever have launched the product in India under Pepsi Lipton International, a 50:50 joint venture between Pepsi and Unilever to manufacture and markets Lipton Ice Tea variants in 67 countries.
 
 
With the launch of this ‘naturally refreshing’, ready to drink ice tea, PepsiCo India has further strengthened its health and wellness product portfolio along with other brands like Quaker Oats, Aliva, Nimbooz, Tropicana 100 per cent and the recently launched Lehar GlucoPlus.

The Lipton Ice Tea launch will be supported by a 360 degree marketing mix. Both the companies will drive trials there will be large scale experiential sampling across malls, multiplexes, corporates and colleges. In-store visibility will be driven through customised Lipton Ice Tea chillers.