Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Leo Burnett has appointed Nitin Pradhan as executive creative director to handle the Uninor account.
 
Based in Delhi, Pradhan will report to national creative director KV Sridhar.

“Uninor is the 14th player in the telecom sector and it primarily targets the youth in the smaller towns in the 18 to the late 20 age bracket. The company is at a very early stage and is ready to take strides to create a distinct brand communication to reaching out to its consumers.” 
 
Prior to this appointment, Pradhan was associate creative director at Ogilvy Mumbai where he spent five and a half years and handled clients like were Tata Sky, Tata Sky Plus, CEAT tyres, Bru coffee and Bank of India. 
 
With nine years of experience, Pradhan began his advertising career at Mudra Ahmedabad.

MUMBAI: Shingar Group, a 50-year-old in the cosmetic industry, has roped in Percept/H to handle its creative duties.

The group‘s product portfolio contains the popular kumkum, sindoor and kajal brand Shingar, and the popular cosmetic brand Tips & Toes. 
 
Percept/H will be responsible for re-energizing both the brands, Shingar and Tips & Toes. Currently, the brand Shingar caters to the lower and middle segment but it hopes to build a premium image for itself with new product lines under the Tips & Toes brand umbrella.
 
Said Shingar MD Hemant Topiwala., “We look forward to some path-breaking creative and strategic inputs from the agency. At Shingar we are focused on product innovation and hence need to enrich our marketing and brand through equally innovative promotional techniques.”
 
Tips & Toes has a large market share in Southern and Eastern India. With the intention to expand its market share and gain acceptance in the Western and Northern markets of the country, the brand is making an attempt to connect to its well dispersed target audience.

MUMBAI: Ace Metrix, which provides real time television advertising analytics in the US, has formed a strategic partnership with WPP to provide marketers with fast access to in-market television advertising performance metrics and insights.

In addition, WPP Digital is making a strategic investment in Ace Metrix and WPP company Millward Brown North America CEO Mary Ann Packo will join the Ace Metrix board of directors.
 
Under the terms of the new partnership, Ace Metrix will work with WPP companies including those within Kantar, WPP’s consumer insight network. This collaboration will result in the marketing of Ace Metrix syndicated products to clients of WPP companies and the development of new tools and approaches to help marketers increase the effectiveness of their advertising and marketing investments.

The Ace Metrix syndicated software service, first launched in June 2009, features the Ace Score, a patent-pending measurement of television advertising creative effectiveness. The service provides standardized metrics that enable advertisers to quickly and easily benchmark ads within their own brands and against the competition.
 
WPP joins previous investors Leapfrog Ventures, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Palomar Ventures.

WPP Digital CEO Mark Read says, “Our clients are looking for quick turn around and additional competitive intelligence in today’s fast-changing marketing environment, and we are delighted to be working with Ace Metrix to respond to this market demand. This partnership continues our strategy of combining third-party data sets with our own for the maximum benefit of clients.”
 
Key elements of the strategic partnership will include:

Expanded distribution of Ace Metrix data and software to clients

Joint approaches for mutual clients to develop enhanced television advertising measurement solutions

Joint development of technologies and insight, including integration of Kantar and Ace Metrix technology, data and products

Sharing of marketing insights and best practices
Ann Packo says, “Ace Metrix has developed a unique and innovative approach to measuring consumer response to competitive ads within 24 to 48 hours of launch. We look forward to working with Ace Metrix to provide this information to clients, develop new applications, and integrate their syndicated products into our suite of solutions.”

Ace Metrix CEO Peter Daboll says, “This partnership enables us to vastly accelerate our go-to-market readiness and reach. WPP, and specifically Kantar, brings a wealth of product know-how, market knowledge and customer insights to us and we look forward to exposing WPP teams and clients to the transformative power of Ace Metrix. Together we can deliver a powerful combination to clients looking to improve their marketing and overall television advertising ROI.”
 

MUMBAI: A B Jewels has appointed Triton Communications, Ahmedabad as its creative agency. The size of the account is estimated to be Rs 50 million. Ochre Revival is the incumbent agency. 
 
Said executive director-triton Ahmedabad Mahesh Manjawala, “A B Jewels has given us the complete responsibility and freedom to work on the brand. The brand ‘A B Jewels‘ has created a strong mind space of the target group and the challenge is now to enhance it further.”
 
Added A B Jewels owner Manoj Soni, “We wish to convert our vision into a reality and succeed not just in terms of business but in making A B Jewels a National reputed brand.”
 

MUMBAI: Saturday‘s US-Ghana match on broadcaster ABC, which resulted in a 2-1 US loss in extra time and eliminated the Americans from the tournament, is the most-watched Fifa World Cup game among households and viewers in the US.

The 2.5 hour match window averaged an 8.2 rating, 9.4 million households, and 14.9 million viewers, based on fast nationals.
 
The US-Ghana game ranks as the most-watched Men‘s World Cup game ever, with only the 1999 Women‘s Final (US-China) averaging more households and viewers for a soccer game (11.3 million households and 17.9 million viewers).

Additionally, the match ranks as the third highest-rated Men‘s World Cup game on record, behind two matches in 1994 – 9.3 rating (US-Brazil, Quarterfinal, 7/4/94) and 9.5 rating (Italy-Brazil, Final, 7/17/94). The 1999 Women‘s World Cup Final (US-China) also delivered an 11.4 rating.

The US-Ghana match represents increases of 11 per cent in ratings (vs. 7.4) and 13 per cent in viewership (versus 13.1 million) from the US-England World Cup game on 12 June which ended in a 1-1 draw.
 
The entire three-hour telecast – including 30 minutes of pre-match coverage – delivered a 7.5 household rating, 8.6 million households, and 13.5 million viewers.

San Diego was the top market for the match delivering a 15.4 rating. San Diego was also the top market for all three previous US matches – vs. England (11.5, ABC), vs. Slovenia (8.5, ESPN) and vs. Algeria (8.9, ESPN). Rounding out the top 10 for Saturday‘s match were Washington, D.C. (13.8), San Francisco (13.3), Cincinnati (12.9), Las Vegas (11.7), Austin (11.4), Columbus, Ohio (10.6), Norfolk, Va. (10.6), Seattle-Tacoma (10.6) and West Palm Beach (10.5). 
 
Also, ESPN‘s Uruguay-South Korea Round of 16 match on Saturday morning delivered a 2.5 coverage rating (2.2 US rating), 2.5 million households, and 3.2 million viewers.

Through 50 games of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, the ESPN networks (ESPN/ESPN2/ABC) are averaging a 1.8 US rating, 2 million households, and 2 million viewers. The rating is up 48 per cent from 2006 (1.2), while household impressions are up 54 per cent (from 1.3 milion) and viewers are up 60 per cent (from 1.7 million).

Now that America is out it remains to be sen what kind of viewership the rest of the tournament gets.

MUMBAI: India ended its winning run at Cannes with a tally of 17 metals, the last one coming from Ogilvy in the form of a silver Lion in the Film category.

The end show paled in comparison with last year’s kitty of 25 metals and 23 metals in 2008, prompting criticism that agencies in India need to improve their creative craft.
 
The solitary silver out of the five shortlisted entries was produced by Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai for its Bell Bajao campaigns – Software Engineer and Bus Driver against domestic violence for Breakthrough Trust. The campaigns were based on true stories of people who joined the movement against domestic violence.
 
Fevicol Moustache (Moochhwali campaign) for Pidilite Industries (Ogilvy Mumbai) and LMN campaigns titled Tummy and Water Hose (Creativeland Asia) were the other final shortlists from India. 
 
The Grand Prix winner in Film turned out to be a classic television commercial that broke the barriers between mediums. The ‘man your man could smell like’ campaign for Old Spice was “a game changer for the brand.”
 

MUMBAI: As players continue to set their goals in South Africa, India is keeping its soccer interests alive. The championship has seen a surge in reach over the previous 2006 edition but the ratings have dipped..

The Fifa World Cup 2010 is 26-match old and has already reached out to 42.1 million viewers in the country, taking an absolute 50 per cent jump in the eyeballs it had snatched during its 2006 version.

The average TVR for the championship till now (11 June – 19 June), however, has been almost 30 per cent down over the previous season length, indicating an obvious dip in the interest levels as scorelines remained unflattering with most teams choosing the defensive strategy instead of the attacking one. The average TVR for the matches this year is 0.75 while that of the first 26 games of the 2006 tourney was 1.75 TVR.
 
It was the fight between Argentina and Nigeria that fetched the maximum average TVR with 1.64 ratings, but nevertheless failed to score higher than the 2006 Germany vs Costa Rica match that had averaged 2.29 TVR. (TAM C&S 4+, All India).

As reported earlier, the opening game between South Africa and Mexico got a cumulative reach of 10.8 million this time. In 2006, the inaugural match between Germany and Costa Rica had fetched a cumulative reach of 9 million.
 
 
Meanwhile, come what may, devotion for the game remains undeterred in the soccer-loving states of Assam, West Bengal and Kerala. While the average TVR for the game is the highest in Assam with 3.9 TVR, Bengal and Kerala have averaged 3.4 TVR and 3.3 TVR respectively.

The top advertising categories for the soccer cup championship this season are cellular phones, cellular phone service, two wheelers, DTH service providers, non aerated soft drinks, aerated soft drinks, automobiles, lubricants, spices and televisions.
 
Vodafone Essar, Bharti Airtel, Nokia Corporation, Hero Honda Motors, Samsung India Electronics, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Spice Mobiles, Micromax Informatics, Parle Agro and Coca-Cola are the top 10 advertisers.

The 10 brands advertising during the tourney are Vodafone Cellular Phone Service, Nokia E72, Hero Honda Karizma ZMR, Airtel Cellular Phone Service, Airtel Digital TV, Spice Video Phones, Coca Cola, Micromax Bling Q55, Samsung Corby Colours and Samsung Corby TV.

BANGALORE: Libra Interactive Learning (Libra) has planned an aggressive media campaign across newsprint, television, radio, internet, events and infrastructure up-gradation at various contact points to promote the English learning programme, SpeakToday.
 
The company plans to spend over Rs 150 million in the next 2-3 years to create brand awareness about the interactive learning solution.

Said Libra’s Head of Finance and Accounts Henry Amalraj, “By next week, we should have some print ads out, and once our interactive learning solutions for Hindi and Tamil are launched, we will also have a number of TVC spots on news channels like NDTV, Zee News, India Today. This will happen over the next six weeks.”
 
SpeakToday is a software product that can train people to improve oral English communications as well as help refine the English accent.

Libra MD Sunjay Aryan said, “2010 is expected to create 2 million jobs in the organized retail sector and around 2.3 million people could be needed by the BPO sector. Both these sectors require proficiency in English, an ability that is often absent amongst many high school and undergraduate youth.”
 
At present SpeakToday is being hawked through the franchisee route and through ‘30 Smart Centers’ in India. Libra plans to up this number to 3,000 by the end of this fiscal.
 

MUMBAI: LIC Nomura Mutual Fund has appointed RK Swamy BBDO as its new creative partner following a multi-agency pitch.

The other agencies that contended for this account include JWT, Mudra, Draftfcb Ulka, Dentsu and McCann.
 
Said RK Swamy BBDO President (West) & executive creative director Sangeetha N, “The campaigns will role out two months from now. Initially, we will focus on the launch of the entity and then move forward gradually.”
 
Meanwhile, it is Media Direction that has bagged media duties for the account. 
 
Japan-based Nomura had bought a 35 per cent stake in LIC Mutual Fund in 2009 and made its foray into the Indian market.

MUMBAI: Five entries from India have been shorted in the films category at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival this year. 
 
These include two entries from Ogilvy & Mather for Breakthrough Trust, titled ‘Software Engineer‘ and ‘Bus Driver‘ and one entry for Fevicol, titled ‘Moustache‘. 
 
Meanwhile, two entries of Creativeland Asia for Parle Agro – ‘Tummy‘ and ‘Waterhose‘ – have made it to the shortlist. 
 
While this year, India has sent 58 pieces of work for the Films Lions category, it was 50 entries that were sent last year.