Category: MAM

NEW DELHI: Samsung India Electronics has been signed as the sponsor of the Indian Contingent to the 16th Asian Games being held at Guangzhou, China between November 12 and 27, 2010.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Samsung and the Indian Olympic Association to this effect today. In addition to supporting the Indian Contingent to the Asian Games, Samsung will also be providing Scholarships to ten top ranking players across individual sporting disciplines to support their training expenses, akin to the ‘Olympic Ratna Programme’ the company had carried out for the 2004 Athens and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
 
Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi and Samsung South West Asia president and CEO JS Shin signed the MoU in the presence of International Olympic Committee secretary general, IOA and member Raja Randhir Singh along with senior functionaries from IOA and Samsung. 
 
Speaking on the occasion, Shin said, “The success that we received with our ‘Olympic Ratna Programme’ in the 2008 Beijing Olympics has encouraged us to extend the scholarship programme for the Asian Games as well. And this year, we have increased the number of individual players getting support to 10 for the period leading upto the Asian Games.”

Samsung will be the ‘official partner’ for the Indian Contingent to the 16th Asian Games in the consumer electronics /IT and Telecom categories. Samsung Electronics, the parent Company of Samsung India, is the ‘prestige partner’ of the 16th Asian Games.
 
Samsung India’s association with the Indian Olympic Association commenced with the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games and ever since the Company has supported the Indian Contingent to the Y2000 Sydney Olympics, Y2002 Busan Asian Games, the Y2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The individual Gold medal winner at the Beijing Olympics , Abhinav Bindra was a ‘Samsung Olympic Ratna’. “It has been our continuous endeavour to bring alive the pride and spirit of the Asian Games for our Indian consumers. Over the coming few months, we will continue to organize Asian Games related events in India to build interest and support for the Asian Games and the Indian team.” Shin added.

MUMBAI: Mudra Connext, a unit of Mudra Max (integrated communications planning & implementation), has been assigned the media mandate for the hotel and air ticket booking website, Travelguru.

The size of the account is estimated to be at an upwards of Rs 100 million and will be handled out of the Mumbai office.
 
Says Travelguru AVP-marketing Praveen Meloth, “We look forward to Mudra Connext bringing in innovative thinking and a strategic direction to the brand. We are confident that Connext, with their category experience and capabilities across all media formats, will help us optimally spread our message and reach out to our customers across the country.”
 
Travelguru offers access to more than 4,000 hotels across 350 cities in India and over 72,000 hotels worldwide
 
Adds Mudra Connext EVP & Country Head Manas Mishra, “This is an exciting category. Building awareness and identity for Travelguru would be a major task. We need to create a distinct identity for the brand as all travel portals are often dedicated to flight bookings.”

MUMBAI: The Raj Nayak-promoted Aidem Ventures has bagged another client: the Anurradha Prasad-promoted BAG Films & Media. BAG has outsourced its entire ad sales function for its two channels News24 and E24, and 10 radio stations under Radio Dhamaal to Aidem.

The three channels operate under different BAG subsidiaries: E24 under BAG Glamour, News24 under BAG News Line and Radio Dhamaal under BAG Infotainment.Market estimates are that they generated ad sales revenues of Rs 480 million in the year ended 31 March 2010. 

Anurradha Prasad

 

Confirming the agreement between the two, Prasad said that BAG Films expects Aidem to write substantially higher ad revenues than 2010. Aidem director Vikas Khanchandani too confirmed the development, saying that he was confident that Prasad’s expectations would be met.

Aidem Venture handles ad sales for Sahara One, Filmy and Firangi, MSN, Mi Marathi, NDTV Profit, NDTV India, NDTV 24X7 and NDTV Good Times. Estimates are that Aidem would be billing close to Rs 5 billion annually for all these clients.

Prasad said that the most of ad sales team at BAG Films had been absorbed within Aidem Ventures. Director sales Sanjeev Kalia had been given additional responsibility and re-designated as director revenue at BAG Films. 

Raj Nayak

 
 

Adds Khanchandani: “We have been working on generating higher efficiencies from BAG Films’ ad sales operations, streamlining process and the endeavour is to take ad rates up too. We are also consulting them on other fronts too as we have our own experience in the news space from the sales perspective over the past several years.”

He added that BAG was going to invest in distribution to ensure better availability of the channel. “With all this in place, we are confident we will do well,” he said.

Overall BAG Films reported a total income of Rs 607 million in the year ended 31 March 2009 with a profit after tax of Rs 15 million.

The BAG Films share closed at Rs 15.75 on the BSE on late Friday.

MUMBAI: Zenith Optimedia‘s optimistic report about the growth of the Indian TV ad market has been backed by a study from UK researcher Informa Media & Telecoms. The Informa study says that the Indian TV ad market grew 9.5 per cent to $1.06 bn, whereas China grew 9 per cent year on year to $4 billion.
 
The spurt in these two countries‘ spends enabled the Asia Pacific region to edge ahead of Western Europe in terms of TV ad spend for the first time. The Asia Pac region‘s figure totted up to $27.9 billion as against west Europe‘s $26.7 billion. Informa had expected A-Pac to do the trick by 2012, but the region bested the research outfit‘s estimates. The US, says Informa, is the world‘s largest TV ad region with spends of $38.9 billion.
 
Going forward, Informa has predicted that, the US TV ad market will be worth $47bn by 2015. Asia Pacific will be second at $34.4bn with Western Europe still trailing at $33.6bn. The total TV ad market will be worth $141 billion at that time.
 
The Informa study also crystalball gazed for 2010 with net TV worldwide advertising expenditure expected to grow 3.7 per cent to $116 billion. India is predicted to increase to the tune of 10 per cent while China will see a 12 per cent rise. South Africa which is hosting the World Cup soccer next month will perk up 15 per cent, with Turkey and Vietnam keeping pace, Argentina is expected to rise 16 per cent.

Informa has forecast that some nations will degrow in 2010. Amongst these figure the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece (no surprises here!!!), Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Puerto Rico, Romania and Taiwan.
 

MUMBAI: Six Inches Communication, the five-year-old integrated brand communication agency, is slowly but steadily growing in muscle as it is pushes for more than Rs 150 million revenue target this fiscal.

Founder and managing director Pravin Shah who looks at 2010 as the next level for Six Inches, says, “We witnessed a 72 per cent growth in FY 08 – 09 and now we have a target goal of more than 100 per cent with our group turnover touching more than 150 million.” 
 
Shah reveals that while the agency‘s current clients have doubled their spends over last year, they have won new pitches too. “The year kicked off with some new accounts like Anagram, a big creative project from Craft Silicon, an IT firm based out of East Africa and RSBL (Riddhi Siddhi Bullion Limited),” reveals Shah.

Six Inches has also recently bagged the entire rebranding exercise for KLEAR water, a packaged water brand in the Middle East and Technology Associates, an IT leader in Middle East and East Africa. 
 
Says Shah, “To achieve our revenue target for the year, our strategy will be to expand our global footprint and focus on East Africa. We will also focus on the current businesses and acquire new clients by assembling a core businesses development team.”

The agency intends to begin operations in East Africa, with a set of client already in kitty.

“We aim to build the operations brick by brick with aggressive networking and adding more clients from this area. We are already in talks with some large resort owners, hotels, IT and FMCG brands. I am expecting a significant contribution of revenue from these upcoming regions,” Shah avers.
 
The other area that the agency will hub on for generating revenues will be rural activation. “We are in talks with an agency who will partner us as a JV for our new rural venture,” he reveals.

The agency is also looking at bagging new clients across categories such as finance, real estate, technology products, accessories and lifestyle.

Says Shah, “These categories are bound to show good growth and eventually good investments on branding and marketing.”

As far as media vehicles are concerned, Shah foresees a healthy spend on TV. The other areas where spends will be directed significantly will be digital, below-the-line activations and direct marketing, Shah opines.
 

MUMBAI: US broadcaster Fox has extended its two-year partnership with Innerscope Research through which the network provides advertising clients with biometric engagement measures for on-air and cross-platform promotions.

It has introduced a new Innerscope model for understanding advertising and content effectiveness in an evolving media landscape. Innerscope’s Brand Immersion Model, introduced at MediaPost’s Digital Out-of-Home Forum, is a new framework based on the unconscious measures of emotion using biometrics, neuroscience and eye tracking. These are the foundations of an advertising research programme that Innerscope designed for FOX.
 
The broadcaster says that this model will not only provide advertisers with clearer insights and the tools to further evaluate the effectiveness of their creative placement in content, but will also provide the advertising industry with enhanced understanding of the unique roles of television and digital media in brand equity creation and conversion.

Fox president of sales Jon Nesvig says, “We’ve seen repeated confirmation through various ROI measures that television’s role in building brands and influencing other media is unequaled. With Innerscope, we hope to take our knowledge and the industry’s understanding of the science behind consumers’ connection to media and brands further, and in the process, work with our clients to plan and utilize television and cross-platform promotions to their best effect.”
 
Innerscope’s Brand Immersion Model has been developed from four years of research into how consumers interact with content on different platforms. The model accounts for the complex intersection of environment, content engagement, screen size, platform approach and flexibility, as well as how these factors affect the creation of emotional connections to brands.

Fox has commissioned an industry-level study that leverages the model to examine the role of unconscious emotional response in branded entertainment, product integrations and creative optimisation across platforms.
 
Innerscope CEO and Chief Scientist Dr. Carl Marci says, “We’re excited to work with Fox to expand this framework, which helps to explain the complex media world in which we live on a conscious and unconscious level.”
 

MUMBAI: Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) has signed a license agreement with the England Football Association (The FA) to become the official England telco licensee in Malaysia. 
 
The partnership with The FA has been brokered by sports marketing agency, Total Sports Asia (TSA). The deal enables TM to have the exclusive use of the England crest and England player imagery in the telco category in Malaysia until the end of 2010. 
 
The FA head of business development Sean McAuliffe said, “The FA is very excited to be working in partnership with Telekom Malaysia in 2010 and looking forward to what we believe will be a successful relationship. TM’s work and commitment to football in Malaysia will help extend the appeal of the England team and gives us great belief that we can both truly engage with Malaysia’s football fans.” 
 
TSA group CEO Marcus Luer added, “We are proud to have brought together these two great entities in partnership. TSA’s commitment both to the rights holders and brands we represent is to find the right fit. This relationship exemplifies our ability to seek a great match-up that can be of mutual benefit.”

TSA is also looking for similar tie ups in India.

BANGALORE: In a bid to expand its brand presence across the booming luxury accessories market in India, William Penn is planning to launch 15 network stores by 2010 end.
 
William Penn – The World Pen Store, which recently opened its fourth outlet in Bangalore, is currently present in Delhi at The Select City Walk Saket and Indira Gandhi International Airport; in Mumbai at High Street Phoenix, Orbit Vashi and Domestic Airport and in Hyderabad at the domestic airport.
 
Apart from the exclusive tie-ups with Caran d’Ache and Sheaffer, William Penn also has the retail rights for luxury brands like Cartier, Conway Stewart, Cross, Faber Castell, Lamy, Porsche Design, Retro 51, Sailor, ST DuPont and Waterman. 
 
Willaim Penn recently brought to India, Caran d’Ache’s La Modernista, which is the second most expensive pen in the world.

MUMBAI: The Information & Broadcasting Ministry‘s initiative to set up a committee under Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra to review the Indian TV ratings system (run by AC Nielsen‘s offshoot TAM) in the country is not being looked at favourably by the industry.

Most advertising, marketing and media professionals indiantelevision.com spoke to said that the committee is not needed and the ratings issues should be left to the industry to deal with appropriately.

Leo Burnett chairman Arvind Sharma noted that the issue has been debated since quite some time. “It (ratings) is best left to the media and advertising fraternity as TRP is a currency which has been used by advertising agencies and there is nothing for the government to do here,” Sharma opined.
 
Times Television Network MD and CEO Sunil Lulla is also not clear on what the government wishes to achieve and what its objective is.

“I do not believe the government needs to get into reviewing TV ratings. The process of audience ratings measurement is best when independent. It is managed by businesses which have scale, expertise and independence,” Lulla said.

Meanwhile, he agreed on the need of collective feedback. “Broadcasters, including Prasar Bharati, advertisers, agencies, production houses et al, all participate in the subscription of the ratings measurement process and provide individual or collective feedback on a constant basis,” Lulla added.

However, he also hinted at the need of an industry body and the institution of another ratings system. “There is always scope to significantly enhance and improve the process. This should be done independently and perhaps competitive forces are best to induce such change,” he said.

TME president Divya Radhakrishnan pointed out that the committee does not have any member from media; that is those who actually pay for the TAM reports. “I do not know how much value these members will add to the media monitoring system. Also, what is the need to review the working of an independent body?” she asked.

She also pointed out that even if the government wants some regulation in the process, why only television. “Segments like print and outdoor are completely unregulated. If they (government) want to put a check on TV ratings, why not add print and outdoor also?” she questioned.
 
Meanwhile, contrary to the media and entertainment industry, Aegon Religare director- branding and communication Pradeep Pandey said that the government‘s move is a step in the right direction. “The government has been asking for broadcasters, advertisers and other stakeholders to think and act progressively. And the committee is also independent in nature with all the members being experts in their domain. So I see no harm in forming such a committee,” Pandey noted.

On the present ratings system, Pandey said, “We are genuinely interested in accurate data. Not that the current data is inaccurate, but if there is an independent committee which is working for more transparency and towards increasing the size, the step in such a direction is welcome.”
 
A broadcaster requesting anonymity admitted that “TAM data has been questioned in the past and sometimes there are allegations on the authenticity of data, and such a step can ensure clean research data.”

However, he also pointed out that for the committee to be effective, “it needs people from the industry who have knowledge and people who carry influence, rather than just bureaucrats.”

When asked for a comment, a Tam spokesperson said, “We are currently observing this and if need be, we will come back with an appropriate response.”

MUMBAI: Responding to the needs of the modern traveller, VIP has launched Superlite – a new range of lightweight strolly.

They have roped in Shazan Padamsee to promote VIP- Superlite.
 
VIP VP marketing Manish Vyas said, “VIP Superlite is a validation to our promise of offering thoughtful, stylish and innovative products for the Indian consumers. We are happy to announce that Shazan Padamsee is promoting Superlite. Shazan adds glamour and youth connect to the product.”

Padamsee said, “VIP is one of India’s most iconic brands and I am privileged that they have signed me. They believe in making thoughtful and innovative products and I am glad to be their ambassador since I associate myself with quality.”
 
The campaign creatively showcases a mix of utility, glamour and fantasy to catch the eye of the consumer.
 
VIP Superlite has a price tag that ranges from 4000 for a cabin bag and ends at 5400 and are available in two colours – Black and Red. The entire collection is available at a VIP lounges, leading department stores like Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop and other leading luggage outlets.