Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Committed to the National Geographic Society’s endeavour to promote conservation, exploration and education, National Geographic Channel presents the Green Conclave – a national platform to discuss, debate and determine the path forward for the planet next month in New Delhi.

Arctic Holdings, a firm focussed on climate change mitigation, energy efficiency, social venture and sustainability, is the content and knowledge partner for the conclave and is supported by the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable development.
 
The Green Conclave will consist of panel discussions on India’s position on the relevant issues related to environment & conservation. It will bring together India’s political, business and corporate leaders, conservationists and celebrities, under one roof for the first time to discuss the future of our planet and our role going forward.

The Green Conclave will also showcase India’s Eco Heroes. Eco Heroes is an initiative by Nat Geo to acknowledge and stage the extraordinary work that ordinary people across the country are undertaking to make a difference to our planet. These Eco-Heroes will be recognized and awarded at the Conclave.
 
Nat Geo is on a nationwide hunt to find these Eco Heroes. The registration for the Eco Heroes has started. The selection criterion for the applicants is measured on varied parameters that include the uniqueness of the initiative undertaken, duration of its operations, the actual product or service, its measurability and lastly its growth story.

Interested participants can log on to www.natgeotv.co.in/green to register. Along with the application form the participants will also need to post a brief statement of purpose for the initiative undertaken.
 
The participants can send in their entries latest by 31 August. The best five shortlisted entries across the country will be awarded at the Green Conclave in New Delhi.
 

MUMBAI: Digital marketing company Ignitee Digital Solutions is eyeing a 30-40 per cent revenue growth in 2010.

The agency, which has already seen an over 20 per cent growth in the first half of the year, had earned an 18-20 per cent revenue growth in 2009.
 
Says Ignitee Digital Solutions COO Shankar B, “With the advent of recession, when television, print and radio became expensive media platforms, advertisers actually began to embrace digital because it was cheaper and was more target-focused. And, from an eight category client list last year, we have already grown to about 17-18 categories this year.”

The categories which have primarily fuelled the growth are retail, FMCG, pharma, consumer durables and media & entertainment.
 
“While tourism, media & entertainment and banking & finance are the largest revenue contributors to our business, education as a category is also showing a lot of traction,” says Shankar.

And now, with the festive season peeping around the corner, Ignitee is optimistic of adding 18-20 more clients in the next six months. 
 
Shankar says, “Government has already introduced mini laptops which are extremely cheap that increases the number of end consumers that will now be able to access internet. The 3G option also makes the Indian universe extremely user friendly. And with 20 million users now on Facebook and growing, the medium is only getting more vialble and exciting for advertisers to participate.”
 

MUMBAI: Maxus has roped in V Narayanan as general manager (GM) for its Delhi office. He will share the responsibility with Mausumi Kar in Delhi office.
 
Prior to this, Narayanan was with Carat Singapore where he was GM. Some of the key businesses that he has worked on include Nokia and ANZ. He was also responsible for new business at the organisation.
 
With over 15 yers of experience, some of the other brands that he has worked on include P&G, Coke, J&J and Unilever business.

MUMBAI: The ‘All izz Well‘ message from 3 Idiots, Bollywood‘s biggest blockbuster at the box office, seems to have rubbed off on Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) Sony Entertainment Television as well.

The Aamir Khan movie took Sony to an eight-year high as it grabbed 270 GRPs for the week ended 31 July, gaining a mammoth 108 points from the trailing week, and moved to the third rank in the Hindi GEC ratings game.

3 Idiots clocked an average TVR of 10.9, a record rating for any movie over eight years, as it raced past popular soaps to become the top-rated show across the GEC space for the week. The closest rival, Pavitra Rishta, earned 5.7 TVR, a glaring gap that is rare in today‘s highly competitive and fragmented GEC space.

                                                 3 Idiots‘ Highpoints  
 

Source: Sony

 
 
3 Idiots has earned 91.7 GRPs, accounting for 34 per cent of Sony‘s overall tally in the week.

“It (270 GRPs) is an eight-year high for Sony. The best part is that our six prime time shows have grown. The shows have rallied around the big event of 3 Idiots,” says Sony Entertainment Television business head Ajit Thakur.

Sony‘s flagship show CID fetched an average TVR of 3.6 for the week (2.6 TVR in the trailing week), mopping up 84 GRPs, or 31 per cent of Sony‘s week‘s tally.
 
 
Indian Idol-5 (Mon-Thur 9 pm) has averaged 2.4 TVR (1.9 TVR) for the week while Comedy Circus Ke Superstar (Fri-Sat 9 pm) is at 2.7 TVR (2.5 TVR). The weekday half-hour strip of Aahat-4 (Mon-Thu 10.30 pm) averaged 1.0 TVR (1.1 TVR previous week), its weekend one-hour biweekly episodes (Fri-Sat 11pm) averaged 1.1 TVR (1 TVR previous week).

Sony‘s spike in ratings has come after a long hard battle to rebuild the channel that saw 200 GRPs way back in 2005. A programming overhaul, introduction of YRF properties and revival of old properties like CID began to pay dividends as the channel moved up from 80 GRPs to 180 GRPs in a year‘s time. The channel hovered around the 150-GRP range as it planned for its next phase of growth.

So will Sony be able to sustain the GRP spike?

“We know that we got a huge spike from 3 Idiots. But the general trend is positive. We are building up the Indian Idol finale week from Monday to Sunday. The event will take place on 15 August. The Boogie Woogie finale is also coming. We will also get back the new season of Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Karega, beginning 16 August. And then we have KBC coming up,” says Thakur.

Some media agency executives believe the spike in Sony‘s GRPs to 270 is driven mainly by 3 Idiots.
 
 
Says Zenith Optimedia Sr VP Navin Khemka, “The spike is based on an event. And until KBC is able to do to Sony what it did to Star Plus, the channel will stabilise to its old numbers.”

So will the top three battle now expand to top four? Says Lintas Media group associate VP Radhika, “It is too pre mature to deduct anything right now. No conclusions can be drawn until a 2-3 week wait.”

Meanwhile, GEC leader Star Plus has seen a 42 GRP (365 GRPs) increase over last week. The growth has come from weekend original programming, weekday primetime, weekend movies and weekday afternoon.

Second in command, Colors has dropped by 23 GRPs (289 GRPs) over the previous week. The fall primarily came from weekday primetime (-9 points) and weekend original (-19 points).

Zee TV slipped to the fourth position but its GRPs remained stable at 227, according to Tam data.
 

MUMBAI: Four-time National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Dwight Howard, of the Orlando Magic, will travel to India from 10 to 14 August to participate in a series of basketball events in Bangalore and Delhi to further the growth of basketball and the NBA in the world’s second-largest nation.
 
Among his activities in India, Howard will train with India’s Senior Men’s National Basketball Team; conduct coaching and player clinics for Mahindra NBA Challenge participants, the NBA’s first community league in India; launch NBA Jam, an interactive fan basketball event; and attend the launch of the first two NBA shops opening within adidas stores in Bangalore and Delhi.

Howard says, “The game of basketball has been so good to me and I am excited to go to India on behalf of the NBA. Basketball is a global game and I love that the NBA is bringing the fun and excitement to fans around the world and introducing young athletes to the sport.”
 
The Mahindra NBA Challenge, the league’s first-ever community-based basketball league in India, launched in Mumbai, Bangalore and Ludhiana this summer and attracted participants including top players from each city.
On 11 August, Howard will make an appearance at the league in Bangalore where he will meet the participants and conduct basketball clinics for both the players and coaches.
 
Howard will train with India’s Senior Men’s National Basketball Team at the Sri Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore on 10 and 11 August to help them prepare for the International Basketball Federation’s (Fiba) 16th Asian Games which takes place in China this November.

He will then travel to Delhi on Aug. 13 and 14 to launch the second consecutive NBA Jam, the league’s traveling fan event in India that features interactive basketball activities. Howard will meet with fans and teach fundamental basketball skills to youth.

Howard will be on hand to launch the first-ever NBA shops to open within adidas stores in India. He will interact with fans and help introduce them to the most comprehensive assortment of NBA apparel and footwear in the country. The shops will open on Brigade Road in Bangalore on 10 August and in the Ambience Mall in Gurgaon on 14 August.

NEW DELHI: The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), a unit of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, tops the list with arrears of Rs 66.71 million among 45 agencies owing over Rs 100,000 to All India Radio.

A total of Rs 997.37 million was owed to Doordarshan by 23 defaulting agencies as on 31 March this year.
 
Doordarshan collectively earned a revenue of Rs 1.43 billion for the first quarter of FY’11 while All India Radio earned Rs 447.83 million in the same period.
 
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting CM Jatua said Doordarshan had posted a revenue of Rs 10 billion while AIR‘s income stood at Rs 2.49 billion for the fiscal ended March 2010 which included Rs 385.9 million which was not commercial revenue.
 
The revenue for Doordarshan has stayed flat at Rs 8.18 billion from 2006-07 to 2008-09. The earnings of AIR stood at Rs 2.33 billion during this period.
 

MUMBAI: Britannia Industries is launching a new television commercial for its biscuit brand Tiger Glucose in a bid to gain higher share of mind and gain consumers in new territories.

The commercial is based on the child and mother relationship and her angst when her child steps out of the house on an empty stomach. 
 
Created by Lowe Lintas & Partners, the creative depicts a real life situation in a school where hunger gets the better of this kid who cannot take a long speech on India‘s progress and shows the guts to speak out and question the very basic…khali pet pe India tiger kaise banega?
 
Loaded with the energy of ‘Tiger‘, the brand promises no empty stomach and India‘s progress.

Madison is the media agency.
 

MUMBAI: Reliance Communications has appointed OMD and MEC to handle its media account, following a multi-agency pitch.

The size of the account is pegged at upwards of Rs 4 billion that will be split between the two agencies. 
 
While OMD will handle the wireless data and DTH part of the business, the wireless part including voice and 3G will be taken care of by MEC.
 
The other agencies that contested for this account are incumbent agency Mudra Max and MediaCom.

MUMBAI: 9XM, the Bollywood music channel, has entered into a two-year deal with Kids Media India (KMI) to create a full licensing and merchandising programme around the channel’s popular animated characters – Bade-Chote and Bheegi Billi.

The channel is planning to roll out products ranging from apparels, accessories, back to school products, stationery and toys and games.

9XM will be paid a commission on the sales of the products.
 
INX Media EVP Sales Pawan Jailkhani said, “Bade-Chote and Bheegi Billi have become icons in their own right and are the preferred brand endorsers for several prestigious advertisers on 9XM. We think it’s time now for these characters to come out of TV screens and closer to their fans through platforms, such as retail, mobile, internet, etc. We plan to build the L&M business which has a huge potential in India, given the rising popularity of character based licensing.”
 
KMI CEO Rajiv Sangari added, “The characters on 9XM have been very successful in connecting with the viewers and have a huge fan following. With this affiliation in mind, we aim to capitalise on the existing popularity of the characters and build a robust, long term, sustainable brand programme around Bade-Chote and Bheegi Billi.”

MUMBAI: Mates, the entertainment arm of Madison World, has signed a Rs 1 billion deal with John Abraham for three years wherein Mates will handle the Bollywood actor‘s account. 
 
Under this minimum guarantee partnership, Mates will exclusively handle the actor‘s endorsements, appearances, events, licensing, television tie ups and marketing representation.
 
John currently represents a host of brands including Garnier for Men, LG mobile phones, Yamaha bikes and Castrol engine oil.
 
Madison World is a 22 – year – old diversified communication group, with 20 units across nine specialised functions in advertising, media, out-of-home, pr, rural, retail, entertainment, mobile and sports.