Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Global market research company Synovate has made a senior appointment and promoted a key staff.

The company has promoted Tamer El Naggar to the position of chief executive for the Mena region, while announcing the appointment of Klaus Paur as Synovate Motoresearch MD in Greater China and Korea.
 
Paur will be joining Synovate on 1 January 2011 from TNS. Based in Shanghai, Paur will be responsible for leading automotive market research in Synovate Greater China and Korea.

Paur brings over 20 years of experience in marketing and market research, of which 15 years have been spent specifically in the automotive industry.

“Having Paur joining Synovate is one of the strategic moves of the upcoming structure for Greater China. He is going to be one of the key members of our senior management team,” said Synovate Greater China CEO Eliza Wong said. “He has proven record in the North Asia region and his international expertise will be a priceless addition to our automotive research business in Greater China and Korea.”
 
Meanwhile, Naggar, who was managing director for Synovate North Africa before this elevation, has been with Synovate since 1993. He began his career with Synovate in the Middle East, managing key client accounts for the Arabian Peninsula. He was then promoted to country manager of Synovate Morocco (1996-1999) and then became country manager of Synovate Egypt (2000-2006).

He has over 17 years of experience in market research for top client accounts including overall research design, championing key research solutions and overall strategy and business development. His research experience also spans various sectors across the Middle East and North Africa regions including FMCG, telecom, real estate, automotive, tourism and aviation, financial, consumer electronics, healthcare, and social and developmental research.
 
“Tamer’s vast research experience across sectors in the Middle East and North Africa make him the natural choice to lead our business units in these regions,” said Synovate CEO for Geographies Michael Spedding. “His knowledge and experience in this area and our focus on the Middle East and North Africa business will provide value to our clients in this important region and accordingly enable us to continue the growth trajectory in this region and globally.”

All of these changes will seamlessly service Synovate’s clients doing research projects in these regions as well as maximise the company’s continued growth opportunities.
 

MUMBAI: Kwan, the entertainment and marketing agency, has roped in Preeta Sukhtankar to spearhead celebrity and entertainment initiatives including celebrity management.

Sukhtankar comes with over 13 years of experience and knowledge in the fields of luxury, brands and fashion. She started her career at The Sunday Observer in 1996 serving as editor of their youth supplement. She was the part of the “earliest” teams of India‘s first ever fashion magazine – Elle.
 
Kwan MD Anirban Blah said, “As an organisation that is just a year old in the entertainment and media industry, it is essential for us to forge relations with like-minded individuals with the vision and the capability to drive the agency. Preeta‘s skillset, her network and her goodwill in the industry matched the level of expertise that KWAN was looking for to spearhead our entertainment businesses.”
 
Sukhtankar has also served as director at MTV India and launched properties such as the Lycra Style Awards and shows such as MTV Style Check, Loveline, Big Picture, Select and Most Wanted. She was also Business Head – Fashion at Percept D‘Mark. 
 
Under her leadership and direction, the division acquired rights to FDCI Fashion Week and executed properties such as Pantene Elite Model Look, Mrs India World ‘04 and Mrs World ‘04. As VP and publisher of the Apricot Group of magazines, she sustained magazines such as Seventeen and L‘Officiel.
 

MUMBAI: Brooke Bond is relaunching Red Label via a new advertising campaign in October and will be using a Bollywood celebrity for the first time as its brand ambassador.

Anupam Kher has been roped in for the ad campaign that will attempt to highlight the benefits of consuming tea.
 
Red Label will seek to educate the consumers and bust the age old myths of tea being unhealthy, by focusing on how flavonoids contribute to the overall wellbeing of the family.
 
Red Label Tea comprises a fine blend of tea leaves which are responsible for it’s great taste and colour. The rich flavonoids help in improving the blood circulation which is vital in maintaining the family‘s health.

The new ad had been first broadcast on television on the 1st of October and is currently on-air. 
 
Hindustan Unilever Ltd category head-beverages Arun Srinivas said: “Kher endorses healthy habits and diet which fit in with Red Label’s positioning.”

Kher was the brand’s first choice, as he is a veteran in the film industry and a committed family man, with well maintained fitness levels over the years.

MUMBAI: Big CBS Networks, the joint venture between Reliance Broadcast Network Limited and CBS Studios International, has given Argentina-based Steinbranding Design Studios the creative mandate for its three channels – Big CBS Prime, Big CBS Spark and Big CBS Love.

Steinbranding, which beat two other contestants, will be working with Big CBS on designing the individual identities, logos and promotional rushes for the three channels. 
 
Steinbranding Design Studios is known for its creative services to some of the major communication groups across Europe, Asia, US Hispanic and Latin America. Its assignments in India began in 2007, when together with CSAI Airport they took charge of the overall branding image of Mumbai’s international terminal. In addition to it, the agency is known for the work on channels like Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, Travel & Living, MTV and VH1.
 
Big CBS Networks business head Aparnaa Pande said, “Steinbranding has a great design sense. Their presentation stood out and it is what we were looking for. The whole excercise has taken around three months. The aim is to create a look that has not been seen before on Indian television. Big CBS Spark will have a young, sexy and funky look and feel. The aim will be to reflect tha attitude of today‘s youth.
 
“Big CBS Love‘s look will aim to connect on an emotional level while not being too mushy. It will be soft, playful. The aim will be to appeal to a woman‘s heart. Big CBS Prime was harder given that there are already other English GEC players in the market. We want the channel‘s look to be distinctive. The aim is to be dynamic, contemporary, vibrant and sophisticated.”

MUMBAI: Amit Ahluwalia has joined Ogilvy & Mather as vice president of the account management team in Delhi. 
 
O&M Delhi president Sanjay Thapar confirmed this to Indiantelevision.com

Ahluwalia was previously associated with implementing the same responsibility at McCann Ericksson. 
 
At Ogilvy, however, he would be in charge of handling different accounts like Coco-Cola, besides a variety of other prestigious brands. 
 
Ahluwalia’s superior would be Sudhir Sahni, revealed Thapar.
 

MUMBAI: The prospect of seeing an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise winning the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 cup was enough for the cricket fans to hook on to Star Cricket and Star Sports.

And as the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai SuperKings triumphed in the second edition of the series, viewers also drove in to watch the climax.
 
Tam data c&s4+ shows that the final, in which CSK beat the Warriors, got a TVR of 3.3. No other match of the series managed to touch a rating of even 3 TVR.

The ratings look impressive when compared to the final of the first season, which had fetched a TVR of just 1.33.

Even the average TVR of all the matches saw a jump to 1.45 compared to 1.06 last year. Also, 77 million viewers tuned in during the second season, as against 65 million viewers last year.
 
This time the two semi finals and final averaged 1.98 TVR compared to 1.18 TVR last year.

The viewership patteren remained male dominated, with 64.4 per cent of viewers being males this time. SEC C,D, and E accounted for 54.6 per cent of the viewership, according to Tam data.
 

MUMBAI: The International Rugby Board has today announced that HSBC has been appointed the first ever title sponsor of the IRB Sevens World Series.

The announcement represents a further boost for Rugby Sevens as the sport marks the one-year anniversary of being voted onto the Olympic Games programme, starting with the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
 
Under the five-year deal, HSBC has been awarded title naming rights to the IRB Series, which comprises tournaments in Dubai, South Africa, New Zealand, the US, Australia, Hong Kong, England and Scotland. The Series will now be known as the HSBC Sevens World Series and will begin with the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens on 3 December.

International Rugby Board president Bernard Lapasset said, “These are very exciting times for our Sport and this deal will benefit Rugby at all levels. The appointment of a market leader in the banking industry as title sponsor of the IRB Sevens World Series further enhances Rugby Sevens’ prominent stature as an Olympic sport with significant prestige and attraction within the global marketplace.”
 
HSBC Holdings group head of sponsorship Giles Morgan says, “HSBC has a long standing heritage in Rugby, and is excited about investing in such a thriving area of the Game. The addition of the HSBC Sevens World Series to HSBC’s current international Rugby portfolio will allow the bank to further engage with its customers and staff around the world. Through our continued investment in the grassroots level of the Game, which will be expanded to include Rugby Sevens, HSBC will be at the forefront of encouraging even more people to watch and play the sport.”
 
Rugby Sevens continues to go from strength to strength. For a fifth consecutive year, a record global audience switched on to Sevens in 2010. Television broadcast coverage of the eight-tournament 2009/10 Sevens World Series reached 141 countries across six continents, with 34 broadcasters showing action from the most competitive Series to date, won by Samoa for the first time in the Series’ 11-year history.

The Series also attracted record attendance figures with over 500,000 fans enjoying the event festival atmosphere.
 

MUMBAI: Candid Marketing, the strategic brand
activation agency, has ended the second quarter by winning activation campaigns for two new clients, Michelin Tyres and Oakley.

Candid Marketing provides their clients with a complete range of BTL, internet marketing, mobile marketing, radio, outdoor and print services.
 
In the campaign for Michelin that commenced last week, Candid will tour multiple cities to conduct road shows to ensure product / brand visibility until mid-October.
 
Candid has decided to capitalise on the CWG fever and promote Oakley (Luxottica Eye wear in India) in malls so as to showcase and demonstrate Oakley products to consumers.
 
Devika Sharma, VP (Client Servicing) says, “The last quarter has been significant for us at Candid, both in terms of winning new clients and adding new innovations to our campaigns. Our endeavor is to always create such campaigns where our clients get to engage meaningfully with their consumers and thus take advantage of a live medium.”
 
 

MUMBAI: MS&LGroup, the PR and Events networks, today announced the appointment of Gaurav Mishra as director of digital and social media for the Asia Region. He will be based in New Delhi.

Mishra served as CEO and co-founder of 2020Social, one of India‘s social media consulting firms. Previously, Mishra held senior marketing roles at Tata Group, led research on social media trends in the BRIC countries and has written several book chapters on the topic. His blog is recognized amongst the top 150 marketing blogs globally, as per the AdAge Power150 rankings.
 
Publicis Groupe announced last Friday the acquisition of a majority stake in 2020Social, which will be aligned under the newly established MS&LGroup India brand. In his regional role, Mishra will continue to work with 2020Social, as well as 20:20 MEDIA and Hanmer MS&L, the two other agencies under the MS&LGroup India brand.

Mishra will focus on building capability in social media marketing and online reputation management across all Asian offices. He will work closely with the director of digital for MS&LGroup Europe, and the MS&LGroup digital team in North America. 
 
Josh Shapiro, who served as Asia Director of Digital will work with Mishra and remain a senior counselor to clients. Mishra‘s role will include building external partnerships and collaborating with Publicis Groupe sister agencies such as VivaKi, Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis Worldwide.

MS&LGroup Asia has clients in digital communications in India, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo. This team has executed campaigns ranging from high-profile online crisis to consumer and community engagement and B2B programs for The Coca-Cola Company, Volkswagen, and Samsung. 
 
MS&LGroup Asia president Glenn Osaki remarked, “Our staff and clients are looking forward to learning from his insights and delivering campaigns with the greatest impact. With Gaurav‘s passion, our region will accelerate its plans over the next two years to achieve this ambitious goal.”

Mishra commented,” I look forward to helping our clients to benefit. Asia represents a fast growing group of social media users, and the imperative for brands to engage in and host social media conversations has never been stronger.”
 

MUMBAI: The brand Amul Macho has shifted its creative loyalties to Ogilvy India.

Confirming this to Indiantelevision.com, Ogilvy India national creative director Abhijit Avasthi said he will be in charge of the creative account.
 
The account size, however, could not be ascertained.

The advertising agency ‘Saints & Warriors’ was previously associated with The Amul Macho brand, since the year 2007.
 
The ads previously had drawn flak for being raunchy, vulgar and portraying women in a poor light. They violated Rule 7 (8) of the Advertising Code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 as they were provocative and crude.

The tag line at that time was ‘Amul Macho-Crafted for fantasies.’ The advertisements had been targeting the raw, rural, macho man and not the metro sexual, new-age male.
 
In an interview earlier with a leading national daily, Pushpinder Singh, the chairman of ‘Saints & Warriors’, had justified the advertisements by highlighting ‘a 104 per cent year-on-year growth for Amul Macho when the ads released and a 54 per cent growth for the entire portfolio of Amul Innerwear.’