Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Starwood Hotels & Resorts has appointed Starcom Worldwide as its media partner in India.

Starcom will initially look at print and out-of-home to build the brand in the country. “We will later approach television as a medium,” says a senior executive on condition of anonymity.

This is for the first time that the compnay has engaged a media agency to handle its duties. 
 
Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels and resorts with the following brands: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, Four Points by Sheraton, W, Le Méridien and the recently announced Aloft and Element.
 
Said Starcom Worldwide executive director – India-North Tarun Deep Kumar, “Starwood is a leading player in the world of hospitality. Managing its media investments in India is a matter of immense prestige for us. We are happy about the fact that they have chosen to partner with us in achieving their marketing goals. It will be a good experience for the team working on the Starwood brands as they expand in various markets.”

MUMBAI: Mudra North & East, a unit of Mudra India, has appointed Nikhlesh Jhingan as group director – brand communications.

Jhingan will be working out of the Delhi office and will handle the HBO, Wrigley and Philips accounts. He will report to Mudra North & East EVP and head Ajay Naqvi.
 
 Prior to this, Jhingan was Nestle account director at Publicis.

Said Naqvi, “Nikhlesh has a fantastic mix of advertising and marketing experience nationally and internationally. His perspective and experience will help Mudra Delhi deliver even more value to the key client relationship on Philips, Wrigley and HBO.”
 
Jhingan brings with him over a decade of experience working on brands such as Nestle India, Parle Foods – Smoothies and Melody, Marico Mealmaker Soya, Royal Enfield‘s Thunderbird and Electra Models, Ambi Pur Car Perfumes and Radio City in Mumbai and Delhi.
 
Some of the agencies that Jhingan has worked with include Percept/H, Grey Worldwide and Relationship Marketing Group (O&M).

MUMBAI: Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai has crafted a new television commercial for Anchor Health & Beauty Care‘s toothpaste variant, Anchor White. 
 
Produced by Corcoise Films, the TVC has been directed by Prasoon Pandey.

Said Anchor Health & Beauty Care MD Sanjay Shah, “In a market that was slicing the propositions into infinite permutations and combinations, we decided to get back to the basics – strong teeth.”
 
Added Ogilvy & Mather India NCD Abhijit Avasthi, “Besides talking about the product we wanted to up the imagery of Anchor toothpastes. Toothpastes have by and large done formulaic advertising. Neither the client nor we believe that there is a prescribed way of doing communication for oral care products. Our attempt was to do a nice fun commercial which is entertaining and rooted in a product benefit, set in a relevant context like eating. We believe the proposition of ‘Daant fit toh life fit‘ will ring true with everybody and it‘s a platform that is vastly extendable.”

MUMBAI: For Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, October is going to be an auspicious birth month this year as it will mark his re-entry into television as anchor of the famous game show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, that he so successfully hosted a decade back.

Sony Entertainment Television is still toying with the idea of whether it should launch the show on 11 October, coinciding with the Big B‘s birthday. The Hindi general entertainment channel has, however, decided to display the fourth season of Kaun Banega Crorepati in October and place it in the primetime band.
 
KBC4 will run for 36 episodes. “The show is going to launch in October. We haven‘t finalised the date of its debut airing,” says Multi Screen Media president network sales, licensing and telephony Rohit Gupta.

Sony has already roped in four sponsors. Idea, it is learnt, is the telecom partner and is paying around Rs 120 million for the sponsorship deal. The partnership is based on a revenue-share arrangement for SMS‘ and IVRs.

Cadbury is a presenting sponsor and will be coughing out Rs 120 million, industry sources say. 
 
While declining to reveal any specifics, Gupta admits that the broadcaster has already signed up four sponsors.
Sony is in negotiations with FMCG major HUL.

“We are looking for a total of eight sponsors, out of which two will be co-presenting. Sponsors will take up around 60 per cent of inventory. Our aim is to integrate each sponsor in the show and we are looking at ways to do this. A lifeline could be given to a sponsor. However, there has to be a fit with the brand. It cannot be done arbitrarily,” Gupta says.
 
Sony is betting on the fact that KBC is returning after two years on indian television. “There will be an appetite for KBC4 from viewers and advertisers. We expect to close out sponsorship deals by the end of the month,” says Gupta. 

MUMBAI: The Hindi GEC space never fails to play its little rumble-tumble match with every passing week, at least within the top-three gang.

It was only last week that Zee TV had managed to knock out Colors and grab the second spot after a ten-week wait. And just a week later, Colors has once again regained the position.
 
The win for Colors has come with an additional 36 GRPs (gross rating points) from its previous week‘s tally of 255 GRPs.

As part of its programming strategy, the channel had crafted a highpoint in its 10 pm property, Uttaran, which resulted in the death of one of the key characters. The 15 July episode, which showed the death sequence, clocked a peak TVR of 8.4, helping the channel to raise its bar. 
 
Meanwhile, Zee TV once again fell back to its third spot as it shed 13 GRPs and closed the week with 252 GRPS. This is the third time in the year that the channel has failed to stick on to its position.

So why did the channel fail to stick on to the second spot?

Says Zee TV marketing head Akash Chawla, “Overall, we refrain from gimmicks. Last week‘s spike was not from any special episode or a big movie or a break-free primetime or movie. We do not react to the ratings and change the storyline of the shows. It moves as natural progression.” 
 
Meanwhile, Star Plus maintained its lead with 356 GRPs (previous week 343). It added 13 GRPs, mainly on the back of IIFA Awards aired on 11 July, which clocked a 4.9 TVR.

MUMBAI: Radio One, which is strengthening its ‘music specialisation‘ proposition, has appointed Starcom and Vivaki as its buying and planning agencies following a multi agency pitch.

The radio station has also launched a nationwide multimedia campaign focuses on the ‘listener centric‘ property ‘Play Your Music Day‘ where listeners will physically visit the stations in seven cities and play their favourite 13 songs. The media spend for this campaign will be approximately Rs 100 million. 
 
The first of these activities is on 28 July and will be launched on air by an Unplugged Full concert of Shankar Ehsaan Loy.

The television campaign for ‘Play Your Music Day‘ is lead by five films that depict the station promise of ‘maximum music‘ in an entertaining fashion. A further six films already shot, will be revealed slowly to talk about other interesting music led features of the ‘music station‘. All the films showcase the camaraderie of the brand ambassadors Shankar Ehsaan Loy.
 
As part of the print campaign initiative, dailies are being used tactically closer to the ‘play your music‘ days in the metros to highlight immediacy. The print publications being used are those from the Mid-Day and ToI group mostly and regional publications.

Outdoor and on-ground promotions are happening in all seven cities to select the listeners who will play their favourite songs on ‘play your music day‘. Various locations in the cities are being used to promote the concept using Radio One‘s POM POM girls who dance to 94.3 Radio One‘s anthem song ‘aao apna gaana bajao‘ which has been composed and performed by Shankar Ehsaan Loy. The on ground campaign is also supported by bus backs.
 
The Radio One anthem song by Shankar Ehsaan Loy has been used as a hook to invite intrigue as regards to play your music day. The download banners are visible on various b2b sites. This digital partner for Radio One is 2ergo. To increase mobile involvement, Radio One has also launched ‘song alerts‘ on sms to keep the buzz high at the time of this campaign

Said Radio One MD Vineet Singh Hukmani, “Our business strategy is one of ‘music specialisation‘ and we want to prove that in a sea of generic radio stations.”

Added national head – marketing Shyju Varkey, “We want our listeners to be involved with all aspects of our product‘s attributes. The campaign aims to heighten this in an ‘uncluttered radio brand space‘. We timed this to allow our Rs 100 million of media spend to work very hard.”
 

MUMBAI: Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has pulled the plug on a television ad from Bajaj Allianz for danger of misleading consumers.

ASCI‘s Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) has also pulled up Godrej Sara Lee and Aswini Homeo and Ayurvedic Products for their TVCs and instructed modifications in them.

Upholding consumer complaints, ASCI has taken action on three TVCs – Aswini Homeo Arnica Hair Oil, Bajaj Allianz Shield Plus and Good Knight Aerosol of Godrej Sara Lee.
 
The Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance TVC has been barred from airing the commercial on TV in its existing form. These advertisements were found to be in violation of Chapter 4.1(d), 4.1 (e) and 3.2 (b) of the ASCI Advertising Code.

ASCI observed that the Bajaj Alliance Shield Plus TVC compares the advantages of insurance products with fixed deposit scheme of banks, and hence, there is likelihood of the consumer being misled as a result of the comparison. Also, the advertisement unfairly denigrates bank FDs directly. Subsequently, the advertisement was withdrawn by the advertiser as instructed by the CCC.
 
The claims of the TVC of Aswini Homeo & Ayurvedic Products Ltd of “hair fall control in four months”, and “dandruff control in six months”, were not substantiated with clinical tests/trials reports. CCC, thus, instructed the TVC to be modified.

ASCI also instructed removal of objectionable portions from the Good Knight Aerosol TVC which shows a girl inhaling the mosquito repellent spray. This is a dangerous act and since the advertisement is shown on kids channels, the ad calls for a more stringent modification.
 
According to ASCI secretary-general Alan Collaco, “The numbers of complaints against misleading, dishonest and indecent ads have substantially increased over the months. Consumers are becoming more vigilant and aware about their rights and duties. After the Marketing Responsibly Seminar organised by ASCI, there is even more compliance by advertisers to the codes of ASCI. As of now, there is about 98 per cent adherence to the CCC decisions of ASCI.”

Complaints against the TVCs of Volkswagen AG, DLF IPL, Amul Macho, Sunfeast Dream Cream Biscuit, Kotak Insurance, Chevrolet Cruze, and Kumbhat Holograms were not upheld by the CCC as they were not substantiated.

MUMBAI: Taking a clue from the celebrity-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), ESPN Star Sports has appointed Amitabh Bachchan to build the brand equity of its Champions League T20 series.
 
Bachchan has already begun to shoot for the promotional films and stills for the event that will be held in South Africa this September. 
 
While talking about the ESPN-AB partnership, Bachchan wrote on his blog, “I have been signed on to endorse ESPN for the Champions League Cricket T20 tournament to be held in South Africa in September. And because of paucity of time we had to shoot all the promotional films and stills for print and short seconders for TV and dub it by the evening in order that they are able to release the publicity soon.”
 
He further added, “Thankfully it has all gone off well and I have just completed the dub for what we shot in the morning. But the rush and the speed with which it all had to be done was some kind of a marvel.”
 

MUMBAI: The Advertising Agencies Association of India has decided to confer the AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award 2010 to Ogilvy & Mather South Asia executive chairman & creative director Piyush Pandey.

The AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to an individual, based on the leadership of the industry as an individual, contribution towards advancement and professionalism in the industry and to set an example of personal integrity, values and ethics consistent with the standards expected.
 
Announcing the name of the winner, AAAI president and JWT CEO Colvyn Harris stated that “Pandey is indeed an inspiration to everyone and the most deserving recipient of this year‘s award.”

“Pandey has won so many personal accolades that the industry is justifiably proud to claim him as an icon of professionalism and creativity. He has been recognised by every industry body, both in India and globally. Notably in 2004 he became the first Asian to be the president of the Cannes Jury in 51 years of its history,” he said. 
 
Piyush Pandey became the national creative director of Ogilvy & Mather India in 1994 and was inducted to Ogilvy‘s worldwide board in 2006. He has also been named the most influential man in Indian advertising seven years in a row by The Economic Times.

Under his leadership, Ogilvy has become a creative powerhouse: It has been named India‘s most creative agency ten times in the last eleven years and has won twenty nine Lions. More recently, under his leadership, the Ogilvy & Mather creative team let loose the adorable Vodafone zoo zoos and set the country ablaze. It went on to capture every possible media space and imagination.
 
The award will be presented at a ceremony to be largely attended by leaders of the industry, and clients in Mumbai. The date of presentation of the Award will be announced shortly.
 

MUMBAI: Killer Jeans, the flagship brand of Kewal Kiran Clothing, has appointed Grey as its creative agency. The account will be handled from the agency‘s Mumbai office.
 
Said Grey VP and Mumbai head Hari Krishnan, “We are happy to have added a fashion brand like Killer to our portfolio. We will apply our learning on the youth segment and our integrated marketing skills to consolidate the equity for brand Killer amongst the youth.”
 
Added VP – marketing Sandeep Varma, “We were impressed by Grey‘s all-round skills. We look forward to some fresh new ideas that will take our brand to the next level.”