Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Maxus has bagged the media duties of L‘Oreal India following a multi-agency pitch that also included incumbent agency Lodestar, Madison and ZenithOptimedia. 
 
According to industry sources, the size of the account is estimated to be in the region of Rs 1.3-1.5 billion.
 
As part of its new mandate, Maxus will handle the print, television and radio media spends for the company while Lodestar UM will continue to handle the digital medium.
 
The out-of-home business, however, will not be handled by any of the two.
 

MUMBAI: Maurizio Vitale has been named Oprah Winfrey Network (Own) senior VP, marketing.

The announcement was made by Own CEO Christina Norman to whom he will report.
 
In this new position, Vitale will be responsible for all on-air and off-air marketing and promotional opportunities for the network, as well as the brand position and identity of Own which launches on 1 January 2011.

Norman says, “Maurizio has done a phenomenal job for the Discovery Networks internationally, providing creative messaging and a fresh and relevant perspective. I know he will be a strong member of my team, and look forward to tapping into his extensive knowledge as we launch Own.”
 
Vitale joins Own from Discovery Networks Europe, Middle East and Africa where he was senior vice president, marketing communications. He was responsible for directing all elements of the brand expression to over 100 markets in 25 different languages, and developing locally compelling campaigns throughout EMEA to increase brand franchise and brand equity.

Vitale will join Own after a transition from Discovery Europe.
 
Own is a JV between Harpo and Discovery. It will be a multi-platform media company designed to entertain, inform, and inspire people to live their best lives.

Own will debut in approximately 80 million homes, on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel. The venture also will include the digital platform, Oprah.com.
 

MUMBAI: R K Swamy BBDO has bagged the creative duties for Valvoline Engine Oils.

The win comes close on the heels of the Rage Mobiles and LIC Nomura creative and media mandates bagged by the agency last month. 
 
Set up in India in 1998, Valvoline Cummins is a JV between Ashland Inc. USA and Cummins Sales & Services (India), a wholly owned subsidiary of Cummins India. Valvoline Engine Oils is one of India‘s fastest growing lubricant brands.

R K Swamy BBDO competed against agencies such as Draft FCB and Capital Advertising to win this medium-sized business.
 
Said R K Swamy BBDO senior partner Sunil Kukreti, ‘Our creative ideas and strategy made a strong connect with the client‘s expectations and we are confident of strengthening and growing the Valvoline brand.‘

Added Valvoline AVP marketing Sandeep Singla, “We are impressed with their depth of strategic thinking and the width of creative ideas blended with their enthusiasm to handle the business.”
 
R K Swamy BBDO would be handling brands across all product categories for Valvoline and is currently developing an integrated campaign for the company.
 

MUMBAI: French car manufacturer Renault has finalised on Law & Kenneth as its creative agency in India.

The account size, according to industry estimates, is Rs 600 million.
 
In a tough multi-agency fight, that saw the likes of Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis Ambience in the final lap, Renault decided that its brand, looking for an independent identity in India after divorcing from its joint venture partner Mahindra & Mahindra, would best be under the hands of Law & Kenneth.

Incidentally, Publicis handles Renault’s advertisement duties worldwide.
 
Law & Kenneth, which had lost the Skoda business, would be handling the new account from its Chennai branch.

Renault will seek to promote the mother brand as well as its individual car brands through integrated ad campaigns. 
 
The automobile major plans to launch five car models in India by 2013, including a compact car and a luxury sedan.

Renault will be firming up its media agency soon.
 

MUMBAI: Nothing is as simple, commonly agreed and indisputable as CPRP (cost per rating point). Often it is the final clincher for a pitch and the sole aim for all to target and deliver. However, despite being almost a universal matrix to measure, marketers believe that other measurement formats have to be developed to understand the effectiveness of below-the-line activities.

While above 50 per cent of investments for brand building is made towards above-the-line activities, advertisers are making 40-45 per cent of their marketing budget in other forms of media to create consumer experiences. 
 
Addressing the audiences at the Percept Business Conclave, ITC head of brands and business development GK Suresh said: “Advertisers are becoming more and more conscious about the impact that below-the-line bustle create for the brand; their fixation with CPRPs will come down. Thus, there has to be a matrix system developed to measure the effectiveness of such non-traditional platforms.”

According to OMD India MD Jasmin Sohrabji, advertisers‘ dependence on CPRP is slowly diminishing as they are looking at a matrix beyond rates. “Today, with the evolution of consumers in the Indian market, advertisers are looking at getting more strategic thinking from the agency on the table than just rates,” she said.
 
Backing Sohrabji statement, Pidilite Industries president – marketing and sales services Praveen Tripathi noted that the CPRP obsession is more because of a sense of insecurity and with new measuring methods for other difference mediums, the story will become more about deriving values rather than driving costs. 
 
According to ICICI Bank Joint GM Ronita Mitra, in order to create more effectiveness for brands amongst consumers, advertisers and marketers have to take a single window view of the consumer rather than a product view.

“Word of mouth will also play a very critical role in acquiring and retaining customers while social media will help generate brand conversations,” said Mitra.
 

MUMBAI: The duet between Spain and Holland in the final of the soccer World Cup was watched by a record 6.1 million viewers across the six metros, surpassing the last edition in 2006 by a wide margin.

The rating at 4.16 TVR was higher than the previous matches but trailed behind the 2006 final between Italy and France. According to Tam data for the six metros, the 2006 final had lured in 3.9 million viewers and fetched a rating of 5.6 TVR.
 
The two semi finals and third place match got an average TVR of 2.04 across the six metros. By comparison, the two semi-finals and the third place match got a TVR of 1.85 in 2006.
 
 In the metros, the event got a cummulative reach of 32.6 million viewers compared to 16.2 million in 2006. The average TVR for the event was 1.33 compared to 1.63 in 2006.

On the advertising front, the top categories this time were Cellular Phones Cellular Phone Service, DTH Service Providers, Two Wheelers and Non Aerated Soft Drink.

The top advertisers were Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Nokia, Samsung and Hero Honda.
 
 
The top brands were Vodafone Cellular Phone Service, Nokia E72 Hero Honda Karizma Zmr, Airtel Digital Tv and Airtel Cellular Phone Service.
 

MUMBAI: For 18 consecutive months, it has been a tough call with advertisers tightening their belts. The climate now seems to be improving. According to a recent study, global ad spend at rate-card values in the first quarter of 2010 increased by 12.5 per cent year-on-year totaling $110 billion, boosting the hopes of the global ad industry including India which posted a 34 per cent jump.

All regions posted positive growth in the quarter, with Latin America driving the biggest increase, up 48 per cent in ad spend compared to the first quarter of 2009, according to the latest Global AdView Pulse report from Nielsen.
 
 
Brazil, Mexico and Argentina posted the highest ad spend year-on-year increases in the first quarter (55 per cent, 43 per cent and 35 per cent respectively), followed by India (34 per cent) and Hong Kong (24 per cent).
Ad spend in the US, the world’s largest ad market, increased by four per cent year-on-year.

Nielsen deputy MD Michele Strazzera says, “After 18 consecutive tough months for advertising, we’ve finally hit positive territory and turned the corner, but these growth numbers are coming off a very weak base and are mostly based on rate-card figures. While a double-digit recovery is a promising sign, numbers are still considerably far from pre-recession levels and the dimension of the growth is indeed linked to the poor performance of the first half of 2009. Nevertheless, we’re seeing advertisers regain confidence again especially in financial services and automotive industries, which were two of the hardest hit sectors during the recession.”

Three of the world’s largest automotive companies are featured in the top ten advertisers in the first quarter. The Winter Olympics in and the run-up to the World Cup also provided a boost to global ad spend in the first quarter, but it is expected that the year will close flat or slightly positive in real terms.

Regionally, ad spend increased by 13 per cent in Asia Pacific.
 
 
“The growth of advertising is closely following the path of the post-recession boom. That said, it’s important to put these impressive growth numbers into context. The first quarter spend overall represent a more contained 16 per cent increase versus the pre-crisis 2008 numbers,” added Strazzera.

Globally, television attracted the largest share of advertising, up 16 per cent in the first quarter compared to the previous year. TV ad spend posted double-digit increases in every region. A review of previous recessions indicates that advertisers returned to TV as their main medium once ad spend was back on the cards since it allows them to be seen and heard by the widest audience.

“A return to television spend is another positive sign of recovery. If we exclude the Internet, which was the only medium to post growth last year, television has been the medium to lose the least and the first one to bounce back,” continued Strazzera.

Radio and newspaper ad spends rebounded with 10 per cent and nine per cent growth respectively. Meanwhile, magazine advertising remained flat on a global basis.
 
 
“Though still negative, this is the best quarterly result registered for magazines since the second quarter of 2008. While still in decline, there is improvement compared to 18 months ago,” said Strazzera.

Looking outside the four major traditional media types, the Internet continued its positive trend, and closed the first quarter of the year with a 12 per cent ad spend increase versus the same quarter in 2009.

Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies—the top ad spenders in 2009—continued to be the largest spenders in the first quarter of 2010 (23 per cent) while automotive (19 per cent), financial services (17 per cent) and durables (16 per cent) rebounded in every region.

Within the FMCG sector, all categories posted growth of more than 20 per cent increases with Housekeeping Products and Cosmetics and Toiletries leading the growth (27.4 per cent and 25.6 per cent respectively), while Food and Drink followed closely behind. The FMCG categories together with Domestic appliances represent the top five categories for growth both in value and as a percentage change.

The world’s top FMCG manufacturers, Procter and Gamble and Unilever, were the world’s leading spenders on advertising in the first quarter.

MUMBAI: Leveraging on the accomplishment that it achieved through its happy price menu campaigns in recent years, McDonald‘s is ready to launch its new campaign that further highlights the message of ‘affordability‘.

Come 17 July, the campaign will be initiated with a television burst as there will be a carpet bombing for two hours across 10 channels. This will include GECs, music channels, sports channels and movie channels. 
 
The TV burst, comprising two commercials, will serve as a quick build up for the campaign that will be visible on television for 30-35 days.

The latest campaign idea hits on a novel way for young people to ‘bribe‘ themselves out of sticky situations in life “as the prices at McDonald‘s much loved burgers are so affordable!”

Said Leo Burnett advertising VP Samarjit Choudhry, “The Happy Price Menu platform has worked very well for McDonald‘s in the past, especially with India being a value driven market. We have leveraged this platform further with our new integrated campaign which drives the affordability aspect of McDonald‘s. The central idea revolves around the thought ‘You don‘t need to think twice when McDonalds has burgers at only Rs. 25‘. I think the new TVC will be clutter breaking and help further establish the Happy Price Menu products and the price points.” 
 
Added McDonald‘s India senior director – marketing Rameet Arora, “With McDonald‘s, globally and in India, value has always been a key offering. With this campaign we are re-enforcing our promise of everyday affordability and a fun place to be.”

Once the television initiative takes off, campaigns across other media platforms will hit off after a 10-day gap. McDonald‘s is planning for a nationwide visibility through out-of-home with a special thrust on Mumbai. The company is expected to put up over 100 hoardings in the city to attain campaign recognition. 
 
Radio will also be used to create brand recall and will be conducted on a city-on-city basis. The campaign will be leveraged across all radio channels in the morning and evening day parts.
 

MUMBAI: German vodka brand Wodka Gorbatschow has appointed Metaphor, the second agency from Triton Communications, to handle its creative duties for the Indian market.
 
As part of its new mandate, the agency will device a 360 degree campaign for the brand -part of the Allied Blenders & Distillers‘ portfolio – that will include TV, print, OOH, radio and digital.
 
The account was earlier handled by Alok Nanda & Company Communications. TME is the media agency.
 

MUMBAI: Sony India has retained Lintas Media Group as its media agency following a multi-agency pitch.

It may be recalled that in 2008, Lintas Media Group (LMG) had retained Sony India business following a pitch process at Asia level. 
 
The size of the account is pegged at over Rs 1 billion, according to industry sources.

The other agencies that had also contested for the account were Mindshare India and Madison Media. 
 
This summer, Sony India had again called for a pitch which saw participation by Mindshare, Madison along with Lintas Media Group.
 
To put things into perspective, LMG COO president Sudha Natrajan, “We had first won the account in India in mid-2006 and we are delighted to have continued our relationship with the brand. India being a key market, Sony India’s decision to continue with us comes as a huge recognition and reaffirmation of faith in the agency. The biggest revenue contributor of Sony India, which is Bravia Televisions, has become the largest selling brand in India today. Cybershot cameras have been a market leader now for years.”

Added Sony India marcom manager Divya Rao, “As part of the review, we evaluated many agencies and came to the conclusion that Lintas Media Group, the incumbent agency, had what it takes to best meet our requirements.”

The other accounts in the LMG kitty include the recently won Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded Urban Health Initiative along with ITC Ltd, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Bajaj Auto, MRF, Sony, UTI, Religare and Voltas.