Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Yatra.com has appointed TBWA as its new creative partner. Rediffusion Y&R is the incumbent agency.
 
According to industry sources, the size of the account is pegged at Rs 150-200 million.
 
It was in 2006 when the online travel company launched in India and associated with Everest Brand Solutions and Mudra Connext as its creative agency and media partner respectively. 
 
And later in 2009, Yatra.com roped in Rediffusion Y&R as its creative partner.

MUMBAI: Fox International Channels (FIC) has appointed Debarpita Banerjee as VP marketing for Fox International Channels in India.

Banerjee will be responsible for the marketing and communication initiatives of National Geographic Channel, Fox History and Entertainment, Baby TV, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Adventure, Nat Geo Music and National Geographic Channel HD.
 
She comes with 14 years of experience with ad majors like BBDO, Leo Burnett and JWT, where she had spearheaded accounts for brands like Horlicks, ICI Dulux, Coca Cola, GSK and SBI.
 
She said, “I am very pleased to join the Fox International Channels family in India at this stage and will aim at strengthening the existing brands in the Indian subcontinent. While advertising has been full of challenges and excitement, brand building subsumes advertising and hopefully will throw up a new set of challenges. I am eagerly looking forward to this new role.”
 
Adds FIC MD Keertan Adyanthaya, “Debarpita comes with a rich experience of working on the strategy for diverse international brands and under her leadership we are confident that our brands across the channels will strengthen even further.”

MUMBAI: Malaysian airline AirAsia is ramping up the momentum of its real people, real stories brand campaign with the statement, “We want to make you a star!”

AirAsia launched a major branding campaign called ‘Real People, Real Stories‘ early this month, which is a kick-start towards celebrating its 100 millionth guest flown.
 
AirAsia chief executive officer Azran Osman Rani told indiantelevision.com that around $ 5 million would be spent on publicity.
 
The airline marketing manager Steven Lee revealed that while the publicity in north India will be through online and print, the airline may take to hoardings and other outlets in south India.
 
AirAsia regional commercial head Kathleen Tan said, “We thought it would be fun to feature our guests for our Real People, Real Stories campaign, as they are the ones who helped put AirAsia on the map and to achieve the significant milestone of 100,000,000 guests flown. 100,000,000 is not just a number but a collection of real people with real stories to tell about how AirAsia has changed their lives.”
 

MUMBAI: Adani Township and Real Estate Co, part of the Adani Group, has appointed Grey India to handle its creative mandate following a multi-agency pitch.
 
According to industry sources, the size of the account is pegged at around Rs 150 million.

The other agencies that pitched for the account include Mudra Group and Triton Communications.
 
Said Grey VP and branch head Hari Krishnan, “The campaign will primarily focus on print, online and activation. Television is not required at this point. We plan to break the campaign with the next month.”

The campaign will begin with the launch of Gujarat’s largest township spread across 572 acres in Ahmedabad.
 
Recently, Grey Mumbai bagged the fashion brand Killer Jeans and Reliance Telecommunications accounts.The other clients in its kitty include Bharti Axa Life & General Insurance, Britannia, Dabur, Deutsche Bank, Ferrero Group, Godrej Sara Lee, GSK Consumer Healthcare, ITC, Parle, P&G, Suzlon, United Spirits Ltd andWyeth and 3M.
 

NEW DELHI: Actress and television presenter Mandira Bedi is the new face of Bodycare lingerie which has become the first lingerie brand to get an Indian face to promote itself.
 
Bodycare has introduced various innovations for the first time in India. It was the first brand to introduce Procian printed panties and also developed the latest international technology of seamless lingerie in India. 
 
Speaking on the occasion, Bedi said, “Indian women consumers are becoming more cautious these days in choosing lingerie, which is in effect helping the growth of branded lingerie in India. Bodycare is a cute, girly and fun brand. It‘s an exciting opportunity for me because I get to put my own input into the brand – that‘s the main reason I agreed to do it. The collection ranges from comfortable, yet stylish innerwear, easy wear to sensuous lingerie.”
 
Bodycare Creations MD Sanjay Dawar said, “With factors like growing number of working women, changing fashion trends, rising information level and media exposure, and the foray of famous foreign brands in the Indian market, Indian women have become more conscious about the range of brands that should fill their wardrobes. The old practice of stacking lingerie in a corner of wardrobe no longer exists in the modern age. Rather, the taste of women related to their undergarments has reached new heights and it will not be a hyperbole to say that it has become a fashion statement. In recent times men’s innerwear industry has seen a plethora of celebrity endorsement from the biggest leading names in Bollywood, but Bodycare is the first in the women’s innerwear segment to do so.”

BANGALORE: Bangalore-based real estate developer Fortuna Projects (Fortuna) announced Bollywood actor and television host Jackie Shroff as brand ambassador for its Fortuna Center Park (FCP) project in Bangalore.

The actor was present at the event and confirmed that he has booked a flat at FCP.
 
The project consists of 252 apartments in North Bangalore which will bring in estimated revenue of Rs 1 billion for Fortuna. The realtor also announced that it plans to launch two other projects in Bangalore that will bring in revenues of an additional Rs 3 billion.
 
“We typically spend around 1 per cent of the turnover towards brand building and marketing for each project,” revealed Fortuna director S V Rajesh Kumar. “This is mainly on outdoor and print, but are now planning some TVC slots on certain news channels such as Times Now and NDTV for FCP,” added Kumar.
 
Axis Advertising handles the creative and media buying duties for Fortuna.

MUMBAI: Tata Teleservices has roped in DraftFCB Ulka to handle the creative mandate of its Tata Indicom and Walky businesses. Meanwhile, Contract Advertising has retained the Tata Photon business, confirm company sources. 
 
Until now, Contract Advertising handled the Tata Teleservices‘ CDMA business – Tata Indicom and Tata Photon while DraftFCB Ulka handled TTML and GSM (Docomo).
 
Lodestar Universal continues as the media agency.

MUMBAI: LifeCell India strategic communications campaign wins again following regional campaign of the year win at PR Week Asia awards

Hanmer MS&L India, part of MS&LGroup, has been awarded a “Stevie Distinguished Honoree” medal in the Communications or PR Campaign of the Year- Marketing and Consumer Services category by the International Business Awards. The agency has bagged the honour for its campaign to overcome Indian cultural taboos and build the LifeCell brand. 
 
Earlier, the campaign had secured top honours at last year‘s Asia Pacific PR Week awards with regional product development campaign of the year in the general consumer awards category.

Nicknamed Stevie for the Greek word “crowned,” Stevie Distinguished Honorees were selected from more than 1,700 entries received from organizations and individuals in over 40 countries. The LifeCell brand campaign was awarded honoree status after two rounds of judging by global professionals.
 
LifeCell International is the first and largest private cord blood stem cell bank and stem cell solutions provider in India which facilitates the cryogenic preservation of umbilical cord blood stem cells. Hanmer MS&L successfully positioned LifeCell as the most preferred and reliable brand in India that provides comprehensive stem cells solutions. Hanmer MS&L was responsible for formulating and implementing various creative stakeholder engagement programmes, complimented by a strong media visibility campaign across a diverse and multicultural Indian society. Customer “connect” programmes such as “Future mom 2009” – a ramp walk for pregnant women and free antenatal workshops – is an example of how the agency helped to establish a strong association between the brand and the target audience. 
 
Said Hanmer MS&L India CEO Jaideep Shergill, “In healthcare, a PR agency‘s role is not restricted to media management but extends to helping organisations in understanding and creating demand among consumers, communicating effectively with the medical community about products, services and technological advances, developing and articulating policy and developing crisis and issues management strategies. Over the years, Hanmer MS&L has focused on creating a strong consumer healthcare practice which has consistently worked at raising the bar in the way we service our clients, with the objective of adding value to every facet of the communications effort. It indeed is a moment of pride and joy for us to win this accolade at the International Business Awards. We congratulate the team for their performance and aspire to soar higher in the days to come.”

MUMBAI: The Government of Gabon has assigned its creative duties to Euro RSCG following a multi-agency pitch.

According to industry sources, the size of the account is pegged at approximately Rs 18-20 crores. 
 
Initially, Euro RSCG will launch the campaign across the European countries, Malaysia and China.
 
“The campaign will be internationally launched around 16 August with a major thrust on ATL activities and will later break in India sometime in October,” says Euro RSCG VP – client services Sheel Saket. 
 
With this campaign, Government of Gabon aims to draw the attention of investors in developed nations towards various SEZ projects waiting to be flagged off in Gabon.

MUMBAI: Madison Media Plus COO Praveen Sharma has put in his papers, ending his six-year stint with the company.

Sharma will be replaced by Ashish Singru who comes in from Microsoft, USA. Singru will be responsible for handling the Airtel account which was earlier handled by Sharma. 
 
Sharma‘s next stop is likely to be Google, according to multiple sources in the industry.
 
While Sharma confirmed the development to Indiantelevision.com, he denied commenting on speculations of his joining Google in Singapore.
 
Prior to joining Madison, Sharma was with Mediaedge: CIA. He has also worked with Rediffusion Y&R, Initiative Media and Zenith Media.

Singru, meanwhile, is an IIT Kanpur graduate with an MBA from University of IOWA with 14 years of experience in marketing, media and analytics.

At Microsoft, Redmond, Singru spent six years at corporate marketing group looking after strategic media planning, campaign evaluation and business analytics.

Says Madison Media Group CEO Punitha Arumugam, “I am happy to have Ashish in my team and I am sure he will bring fresh thinking and fresh approach based on his experience in US, which will help us take Airtel to the next level of success.”