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Category: MAM

  • Cannes Lions honours Ikea with advertiser of the year award

    Cannes Lions honours Ikea with advertiser of the year award

    MUMBAI: Swedish home furnishing retail company, IKEA, will receive the prestigious Advertiser of the Year Award at the 58th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, to be held on 19-25 June.

    The trophy will be presented to IKEA Group global retail manager and VP Noel Wijsmans, during the Film, Film Craft, Titanium and Integrated and Creative Effectiveness Lions on 25 June.

    “This important accolade is presented to advertisers who have distinguished themselves for inspiring innovative marketing of their products and who embrace and encourage the creative work produced by their agencies,”an official statement from Cannes Lions said.

    Working with a number of different agencies, IKEA has encouraged creative, unconventional and humorous advertising to raise awareness of their brand and drive people to enter their stores.

    Maintaining their marketing strategy, which is based around their business idea of offering a wide range of home furnishing products, the company has been able to localise its global target market and create advertising campaigns that vary significantly across territories. IKEA aimed to adapt to unique marketing conditions and cultural sensibilities of each country.

    Cannes Lions CEO Philip Thomas added, “IKEA‘s approach to its marketing and communications, with its decentralised structure and strong relationships with many different kinds of agencies, has been hugely successful over many years. We congratulate both IKEA and its many agencies across many countries on this well-deserved honour.”

    Since winning their first Cannes Lion in 1991, IKEA ads have gone on to win 50 Lions across all categories, including the Film Grand Prix in 2003 for ‘Lamp‘ and a Titanium Lion in 2010 for ‘Facebook Showroom‘.

    Wijsmans commented, “I am honoured to receive this award on behalf of IKEA. It is a great recognition of IKEA advertising that speaks to all of us who want to have a functional and beautiful home. We want to inspire people to fulfill needs and dreams in their everyday life at home. And we want to do that with a smile.”

    IKEA is named as an acronym comprising the initials of the founder‘s name, the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd), and his home parish (Agunnaryd, in Sm?land, South Sweden).

  • AME: Ogilvy wins three gold

    AME: Ogilvy wins three gold

    MUMBAI: Indian agencies were placed well at the 9th edition of Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards, with all the 19 shortlists being on the winning side.

    While Ogilvy won top honours with three gold, BBDO India took home one gold.

    Ogilvy & Mather‘s ‘BlackBerry boys‘ won gold in the category of best insights/strategic thinking; its ‘how we sold chocolate bars equaling more than 2.5 times the Great Wall‘ and ‘how ringing the bell can reduce violence against women‘ were recognised  in best insights / strategic thinking group.

    The agency also won three silvers and one bronze.

    BBDO India‘s ‘W.A.L.S. – women against lazy stubble‘ campaign was omnipresent.

    This project won five awards in different categories, with one gold, one silver and three bronze awards.

    It won a gold metal in the category of best marketing campaign for national brand development.

    Mindshare India‘s ‘use mobile save paper‘ campaign won two metals with a silver in most effective use of interactive marketing category and one bronze given in the most effective use of eco/green marketing group.

    The evening‘s most celebrated, Platinum award, went to Clemenger BBDO & Proximity, Melbourne for its campaign called ‘how hiding a restaurant proved that Yellow Pages worked better than ever – The Hidden Pizza Restaurant‘. The project was executed for Sensis – Yellow Pages Australia.

     
    Winners 2011:
    Gold BlackBerry Boys Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai Vodafone Essar Most effective use of advertising
    Gold How we sold chocolate bars equaling more than 2.5 times the Great Wall Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai Cadbury Kraft India Best insights / strategic thinking
    Gold How ringing the bell can reduce violence against women Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai Breakthrough: bring human rights home Best insights / strategic thinking
    Gold W.A.L.S. – Women Against Lazy Stubble BBDO India P&G Best marketing campaign for national brand development
    Silver Pulsar & Stunting: Creating India‘s best selling sports bike Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai Bajaj Auto Best sustained success
    Silver Dove – Damage Expert Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai Unilever India Best sustained success
    Silver Project Swasthya Chetna Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Hindustan Unilever Most effective use of sponsorship and event marketing
    Silver W.A.L.S. – Women Against Lazy Stubble BBDO India P&G Best integrated marketing campaign
    Silver Use Mobile Save Paper Mindshare India Idea Cellular Most effective use of interactive marketing
    Bronze How we sold chocolate bars equaling more than 2.5 times the Great Wall Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai Cadbury India Best integrated marketing campaign
    Bronze W.A.L.S. – Women Against Lazy Stubble BBDO India P&G Most effective use of public relations
    Bronze W.A.L.S. – Women Against Lazy Stubble BBDO India P&G Best insights / strategic thinking
    Bronze W.A.L.S. – Women Against Lazy Stubble BBDO India P&G Best ideas
    Bronze German Engineering Made in India DDB Mudra Volkswagen India Most effective use of advertising
    Bronze This Beauty Never Sleeps Mindshare India Hindustan Unilever Best brand loyalty marketing campaign
    Bronze German Engineering Made in India DDB Mudra Volkswagen India Best insights / strategic thinking
    Bronze Save our Tigers Dentsu Communications Aircel, India Most effective use of eco / green marketing
    Bronze Use Mobile Save Paper Mindshare India Idea Cellular Most effective use of eco / green marketing
    Bronze Siemens Ecovatives RK SWAMY Media Group Siemen, India Most effective use of eco / green marketing
  • Le?la Bekhti is new face amongst L’Oréal Paris spokespersons

    Le?la Bekhti is new face amongst L’Oréal Paris spokespersons

    BANGALORE: French female actor Le?la Bekhti, who has just been named ‘Most Promising Actress’ at the Cesar awards 2011, today joined the family of L’Oréal Paris spokespersons.

    Le?la joins the L’Oréal Paris family as a Spokeswoman, joining Aishwarya Rai, Sonam Kapoor, Beyoncé Knowles, Rachel Weiz, Gwen Stefani, Frieda Pinto, Jane Fonda, Aimee Mullins, Jennifer Lopez, Ines de la Fressange, Laetitia Casta and Patrick Dempsey.

    “Le?la’s beauty is both captivating and moving. Her charisma and her strong personality make her the perfect L’Oréal Spokeswoman,” says L’Oréal Paris global brand president Cyril Chapuy.

    Bekhti began a career in cinema in front of the camera for Kim Shapiron in the movie ‘Sheitan’ in 2005, alongside Vincent Cassel. Her performance stood out, and she soon began to receive roles in a variety of movies.

    In 2005, she played the role of Le?la in the TV movie ‘Harkis’. In 2006, she was given the role of Zarka in the movie ‘Paris Je T’aime’.

    For her role in the film ‘Tout Ce Qui Brille‘. Bekhti was named ‘Most Promising Actress’ by the French cinema industry at the 2011 Cesar awards.
     

     

  • SeaChange unveils advanced ad platform

    MUMBAI: US software company SeaChange International has announced its new generation SeaChange Infusion Advanced Ad Platform to help video operators manage centralised ad operations and scale to 150,000 insertable channels and millions of ad assets.


    The platform‘s foundation is the new SeaChange Infusion Linear Ad Server, shipping later this year, which enables linear ad insertion in an open plug-and-play environment.
     
     
    The company says that the platform represents the transformation of its spot advertising insertion solution, scales to support operators‘ migration to consolidated regional and national ad systems that are managed from increasingly web-centric and virtualised datacenters. The new software platform improves performance by an order of magnitude in several critical areas of operator need:
     
     
    Software and server scalability to serve up to 150,000 ad-insertable television channels from a single datacenter location for distributed or centralised operations.
    Ad libraries scaling to greater than five million advertising assets in a single advertising insertion system.
    Implementation of standards including SCTE-130 to enable the shift toward increasingly mixed best-of-breed technology environments.
    Real-time, on-the-fly system configuration and upgrades to eliminate operational down time and optimize service innovation and revenue generation as needed.
    Overall simplification and automation of ad operations and problem resolution through web-based, open source management, monitoring and configuration tools – eliminating the need for intensive paper trails and specialized operator skills.
     
     
    SeaChange International GM disruptive technology and monetisation Malcolm Stanley said, “Operators are turning the headend model into a vastly more flexible and scalable datacenter reality with technologies that are increasingly web-based, virtualized and distributed. We created Infusion with enterprise-class functionality to enable this generational shift in the foundation of the linear advertising insertion business, while leveraging the Spot technology already in use by our global customer base.”


    Advancements in Server and Content Distribution Network (CDN) Technology:
    The Infusion platform can incorporate SeaChange‘s flash memory streamer line-up to optimize channel scalability, providing 2,500 video streams in a compact two-rack unit footprint and up to 5,000 streams in the future. These products also propel throughput performance with 100GB interface cards, far surpassing current 2GB ad server threshold. Open standards in the platform enable operators to integrate their deployed third-party ad servers.


    SeaChange Infusion for Linear Advertising will integrate with a variety of CDN and distributed storage solutions. When integrated with the SeaChange Universal Media Library, SeaChange‘s scalable content storage and distribution platform, SeaChange Infusion for Linear Advertising will provide a cost-efficient platform for the ingest, storage, distribution, propagation and playout of advertising assets.


    Finally, as part of the overall end-to-end value proposition from ingest to insertion of advertising assets into placement opportunities, the SeaChange Infusion platform integrates with SeaChange AdFlow, a scalable, automated workflow system for asset ingest, manipulation and management.

  • LB‘s Ganesh Nayak and Greeshma Jos win AAAI-Cannes Young Lions competition

    LB‘s Ganesh Nayak and Greeshma Jos win AAAI-Cannes Young Lions competition

    MUMBAI: Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and The Times Group have proclaimed the winners for AAAI-Cannes Young Lions Creative Competition 2011.

    Leo Burnett Mumbai‘s art director Ganesh Nayak and copywriter Greeshma Jos will be participating as the official team from India for the International Young Lions Creative Competition in June 2011 to be held in Cannes.

    The winners were chosen from amidst a total of 165 entries, received for the competition themed — ‘Don‘t Bribe. Follow Rules‘.

    There was a two-phased judging process and the jury had names such as BBDO India chairman and NCD Josy Paul; and JWT, Mumbai senior VP and ECD, creative head Tista Sen.

    The Times Group, the official festival representatives of Cannes in India, will sponsor the wining team‘s trip to Cannes.

    Announcing the result convener of the competition, Vinod Nair said: “The Times Group and AAAI are giving a rare opportunity to young creatives in India to participate in Cannes Lions and compete with the very best young talent in the world.”

  • MPG wins Swiss brand Victorinox’s media duties

    MPG wins Swiss brand Victorinox’s media duties

    MUMBAI: Havas Media’s flagship brand, MPG India, has won the media duties for Swiss brand Victorinox, which offers products such as pocket multi-tools, fine cutlery, time-pieces and travel gear.

    The account is estimated to be worth around Rs 100 million.

    MPG was appointed the media agency on record following a multi-agency pitch that also involved a GroupM agency and the incumbent RK Swamy.

    Victorinox’s products are inspired by the ingenuity of the Original Swiss Army Knife and the brand currently has a network of more than 600 retailers in India.

    Victorinox India MD Anish Goel said: “We felt the MPG approach was thorough and insightful. Their strategic thinking, drive and passion gave us the confidence to believe that this will be a successful partnership. Victorinox stands for reliability, innovation and functionality and we know that with this extremely enthusiastic team, we will be able to communicate our message loud and clear.”

    Havas Media CEO South Asia Anita Nayyar added: “MPG is delighted to be partnering with Victorinox. As an agency we found many synergies with Victorinox’s management, their brand values and approach towards media planning and buying. In them we have found a client, who appreciates strategic rigour and innovation as much as we do.”

  • Pix expands ‘Movie Club’ brand building initiative

    Pix expands ‘Movie Club’ brand building initiative

    MUMBAI: English movie channel Pix started its ‘Movie Club‘ brand building initiative eight months back. The aim was to build a connect with college students by offering them films to see theatrically at a low cost of Rs 30. Now the channel is looking to grow the initiative by offering free screenings.

    Pix marketing head Himmat Butalia said that membership has grown from 500 to 3000 members. “We received a great response from the student community for the Pix Movie Club. As a channel we have decided to take this association further by making all the screenings free. This initiative is our way of giving back to our young members who have supported the Pix Movie Club. The Pix Movie Club is a brand building initiative. Movie viewing habits on television are formed at this age. Our aim is to catch the movie viewing audience when they are young.”

    Pix screens one to two movies a month, with a focus on action oriented fare. Its partner is PVR and it does the initiative in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

    “We are looking to take the Movie Club initiative to more cities in the coming months. To create awareness about the Movie Club initiative, we use on-air promos as well as Facebook and SMS,” said Butalia.

    To be a member at Pix Movie Club college students can register online with www.pixtelevision.com. On applying, a unique membership number will be sent to the applicants via email which needs to shown at the multiplex.

     

  • PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi to be keynote speaker at AdAsia 2011

    PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi to be keynote speaker at AdAsia 2011

    MUMBAI: C has said that PepsiCo chairperson and CEO Indra Nooyi will be the Keynote Speaker at the Congress to be held in New Delhi from 31 October – 03 November.

    Nooyi will share her pool of knowledge and experience, as well as discuss new challenges that could shape the future of global business and economies. More than 25 other speakers from around the globe are expected to share their perspective on the evolving dynamics in business and marketing at AdAsia 2011.

    AdAsia returns to India after eight years. In 2003, the AdAsia congress was hosted in Jaipur and was widely regarded as a landmark in the history of the Congress. AdAsia seeks to comprehensively explore all aspects of the theme Uncertainty: The New Certainty.

    The business world is currently at an inflection point witnessing a realignment of global economic leadership. In the 19th Century, the world looked to the West for innovation and progress. In the 21st. century, everyone‘s attention is riveted on Asia.

    As everyone pays attention to the ad industry in Asia, AdAsia 2011 will aim to provide a ready platform to chronicle change of a significant magnitude and provide a glimpse of the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

    The prolific agenda of AdAsia 2011 will comprise over 15 sessions aimed at exploring the business ecosystem and understanding the nature of disruption to effectively address pertinent concerns.

    Chairman of the organising committee AdAsia 2011 and Group CEO and MD – Mudra Group Madhukar Kamath said, “AdAsia2011 is honoured to welcome Indra Nooyi to AdAsia 2011. Pepsi has been at the fore-front of several marketing innovations as well and having Indra Nooyi address the congress will help us gain from her global experience, as well as unique perspective of the Indian and Asian markets, in terms of interesting insights on how the future of our industry is expected to take shape.”

     

  • Publicis to acquire US digital agency for $575 mn

    Publicis to acquire US digital agency for $575 mn

    MUMBAI: Publicis, the world‘s number three advertising group, has agreed to acquire U.S.-based Rosetta Marketing Group for at least $575 million to enhance its digital and interactive marketing service offerings.

    The French company‘s buyout further underlines the growing importance of web display advertising, as Internet video and social media continue to rise.

    Publicis targets to increase its revenue derived from digital (28 per cent in 2010) to 35 per cent over the next three years, the company asserts.
     
    This transaction occurs as the most recent ZenithOptimedia forecasts (April 2011) predict that the Internet will overtake newspapers to become the world‘s second-largest advertising medium in 2013.

    Under the terms of the agreement, in addition to the initial transaction value, Rosetta‘s manager-shareholders could receive a potential deferred payment in 2014 based on the agency‘s performance in 2011 – 2013, Publicis said.

    Princeton-based Rosetta, will become part of Publicis‘s VivaKi digital arm and is expected to have an annual revenue of nearly $250 million in 2011.

    Rosetta will operate as an autonomous, stand-alone brand within Publicis Groupe under the leadership of Rosetta‘s founder and CEO Chris Kuenne, who will remain at the head of the agency, reporting to Publicis Groupe COO Jean-Yves Naouri.
     
    Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Maurice Levy commented, “The acquisition of Rosetta is a key next step in our strategy to become the ‘human, all digital agency group. With Rosetta, we aim to enrich our digital knowledge, our capabilities in technology, marketing consulting, and digital strategy, and the creativity we offer to clients and advertisers. This is consistent with our commitment to anticipate and meet their needs in the rapidly-evolving advertising and marketing services landscape.”

    The addition of Rosetta to Publicis‘ other digital businesses — which include Digitas, Razorfish and Publicis Modem – will bring Publicis Groupe‘s annual revenue derived from digital activity to more than 30 per cent, the company added.
     
    Kuenne added, “We recognise that in order to achieve our long term business and geographic growth potential, we need the reach and resources of a global group, and we are particularly proud to be joining one of the most advanced digital communications groups in the world.”

    The transaction is expected to close during the second or third quarter of 2011, and is subject to customary closing conditions, including clearance under the United States Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.

  • BPCL empanels Law & Kenneth in new team of 4

    BPCL empanels Law & Kenneth in new team of 4

    MUMBAI: Law & Kenneth (L&K), an independent brand communications agency, has bagged the creative duties of state-run oil firm, Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), along with the three incumbent agencies — Lowe Lintas, Saatchi & Saatchi and Euro RSCG.

    The account size is pegged at Rs 500 million a year. This amount will be divided amongst the four agencies. The size of the share, however, is not fixed.

    BPCL, one of the oldest public sector petroleum and refining organisations in India, calls for a creative pitch every three years. This year, 14 agencies participated in the pitch process.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, L&K CEO Anil Sadasivan Nair said, “We are extremely pleased to be selected among such a tough competition.”

    The four agencies are expected to provide the Fortune 500 company with comprehensive support in the areas of advertising and communication.

    The company that is engaged in downstream petroleum sector, which consists of refining and marketing activities, is endorsed by Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Formula One driver for Hispania racing team Narain Karthikeyan.

    Dhoni promotes premium petrol brand Speed and lubricants brand Mak Lubricants. Narain also endorses premium petrol brand Speed.

    Recently, UK creative agency L&K was hired by Hero Honda to create a brand identity for the company, after it parted ways with the 27-year-old partner Honda Motor. Also, Sanjiv Goenka, younger son of Rama Prasad Goenka, is creating a new corporate identity for his share of the RPG Group and has assigned the rebranding job to the agency.