Category: MAM

MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has appointed Ogilvy & Mather as the advertising and media agency for World Cup 2011, setting the stage for the marquee event in India.   
 
The size of the account is not firmed up yet. Said Ogilvy senior VP and head of planning – new media Kunal Jeswani, “We haven‘t finalised on the size of the account yet. The figure of Rs 2.5 billion is wrong. The ICC is currently busy with the T20 World Cup. Once the tourney comes to an end, we will sit together to finalise the budget and planning process.”

The other agencies that Ogilvy Mumbai pitted against to win the account were JWT, McCann Erickson, Havas, Grey Worldwide and Publicis.
 
Ogilvy will be handling the account across all the three co-host countries for the game – India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. While executive chairman Piyush Pandey will lead the team in the South Asia region, national creative directors Rajiv Rao and Abhijeet Avasthi will take care of the creatives.
 
It is pertinent to note here that Ogilvy has been responsible for the 360 degree campaign for the third season of the Indian Premier League.

MUMBAI: R K Swamy Hansa has appointed Tyronne Devdros as vice president, Hansa Outdoor. He will report to Hansa Outdoor CEO Surojoy Banerjee.

Prior to this, Devdros was VP – OOH at Integrid Media Pvt Ltd. 
 
Said Tyronne, “I am happy to be part of an organisation where intelligence and integrity are a tradition and these qualities have been consistently exhibited to customers time and again. The R K Swamy Hansa group has been successful in creating strong relationships with its clients over the years and we will continue with this tradition.”
 
Adds Surojoy Banerjee, “Having worked in senior positions, Tyronne possesses an in depth knowledge of the OOH space. He is well equipped to lead and grow the business and Hansa Outdoor will definitely gain from his experience and competence.”
 
Tyronne has also worked with Portland India Outdoor Advertising (A WPP Group company), Leo Burnett and Reliance Communications.
 

MUMBAI: Spice has appointed Ogilvy as its new creative agency for Spice Mobiles – its mobility businesses of handsets & devices, Spice Hotspot – telecom retail and Spice Digital – mobile VAS.

The appointment followed a multi-agency pitch involving agencies such as Lowe Lintas, FCBDraft / Ulka, Publicis, Bates 141, Everest, Capital and the incumbent agency Contract. The pitch process was kicked off in end-February and was concluded by mid-April.
 
Spice has been going through a transformational phase after the brand was refreshed by a London-based agency The Brand Union (TBU), in early 2009, defining a new manifesto and strategic direction. The thrust has since been to reinvigorate the brand in a market cluttered by the advent of new players. Thus, Spice decided to identify a partner with a deep understanding of market dynamics and to help the brand move to a higher growth trajectory.

Speaking on the development, Spice Global group president – global brand & marketing Vivek Bali, “We are very happy to be working with Ogilvy as our creative and strategic communications partner. The appointment of Ogilvy comes after a rigorous process which included evaluation of key communications metrics. We will continue to make substantial investments in our brand and focus on our essence of smart thinking, the core of our DNA.” .
 
“I firmly believe that in our partnership, Ogilvy we will be able to leverage their strengths in strategic ideation, strong creative and market-wide impact,” Bali added.

Adds Ogilvy India executive chairman & creative director South Asia Piyush Pandey, “We are happy to partner with a growing brand such as Spice, in which we see the potential of becoming a leading brand in the country, not just in its category. We are confident that we would be able to provide the depth of strategic and creative support to take the brand forward to the highest levels of value and equity.”

MUMBAI: Bajaj Finserv, the financial services arm of the Bajaj Group, has adorned a new logo that encompasses the group company‘s business activities as well as project growth.

The new version will hold the current Bajaj logo and style intact above with a new 3D seal of the letters B and F, making the financial services part a distinct standout. 
 
While the blue colour in the logo will stand for confidence, strength and ambition of the company, the blue ball will symbolize the globe, with a primary focus on India.

The new logo has been crafted by Indi Design creative director and CEO Sudhir Sharma. 
 
Says Bajaj Finserv Ltd MD Sanjiv Bajaj, “Across our running business, you will see advertising across all mediums, which would also include websites, including our own.”

Meanwhile the company is also planning to enter the wealth management business in the second-quarter of 2010. 
 
“The new business plans of the company are in tune with their overall dream of becoming a complete financial services company. They also hope to someday start a bank as well. As of now the company is debt free and has cash reserves of up to Rs 9000 million. They are considering getting into the wealth management business with Allianz, subject to the legal conditions and procedures,” Bajaj informs.

The company is hoping that once it takes off in these new lines, it will be able to integrate and make all people associated with any of the Bajaj brands part of the financial services business.
 

MUMBAI: With an expanded focus in the digital space, The Media Edge (TME), Rediffusion Y&R‘s media planning arm, has appointed Uma Sivakumar as national digital head.

Sivakumar joins TME from Tribal DDB (Mudra Group) where she was heading online media for the last four years. 
 
Said TME president Divya Radhakrishnan, “With the evolution of media consumption, digital has become a key focus area across the portfolio of brands that we manage. So far, we were working with external partners to deliver digital solutions. However, we felt the need to get the expertise in-house and with Uma leading this role I am confident that our digital solutions are going to live up to TME‘s brand promise of delivering OTX (Opportunity to Experience) through our process of market contact planning.” 
 
Sivakumar has also worked with Interactions, the interactive division of GroupM and has handled the digital business of a wide range of clients such as Times Business Solutions, Reliance group, LIC, Citibank, Volkswagon, HSBC and Godrej. 
 
Says Sivakumar, “What excites me is the opportunity to work with the diverse and interesting bouquet of clients of the group. My responsibility will be to provide a digital media orientation within the agency as well as to all our clients.”
 

MUMBAI: Colors, which had lost its leadership position in the Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) space during the IPL window, has zoomed back to the top due to a strong weekend revival.

The Viacom18 channel is leading the flock with 288 gross rating points (GRPs), as per Tam data for the week ended 2 May.

Star Plus, which had snatched the position from Colors during the IPL, is a close second with 286 GRPs.

Zee TV is also not far behind with 279 GRPs in its kitty (See table).

Week Channel (ratings in GRPs) 2010 Colors Star Plus Zee TV Wk 10 310 316 301 Wk 11 339 335 241 Wk 12 291 315 252 Wk 13 281 314 257 Wk 14 278 325 275 Wk 15 258 319 260 Wk 16 268 317 268 Wk 17 276 298 284 Wk 18 288 286 279

Source: Tam, C&S 4+, HSM

 

The absence of a strong weekend property primarily led to Colors‘ slide during the IPL tourney.

“When Colors launched Bingo National Nights, the first episode got good ratings because of the novelty and curiosity factor. However, it bombed and the channel was not having any good property during the weekends,” a media observer comments.

Another factor that weighed against Colors during the IPL window is its relatively stronger pull among male and urban audiences, compared to Star Plus and Zee TV. These set of audiences were also IPL watchers, some media analysts say.

 

Click here to zoom

Among the top three channels, only Colors has gained GRP numbers post IPL. The next rung of channels – Sony Entertainment TV (Set), Imagine TV, Sab and Star One – have seen a rise in audience share.
 
 
After the IPL, Colors‘ recently launched kids dance reality show Chak Dhoom Dhoom is expected to fill the weekend void.

However, Balika Vadhu, one of the main fiction properties of Colors, is losing ground. The show, which was leading the charts in week ended 6 March with a 6.5 TVR, has come down gradually to 3.3 TVR in week ended 1 May. At the same time slot, Zee TV’s Jhansi Ki Rani has marched up the ladder to 4.2 TVR.

Says Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd COO –national channels and Zee TV business head Nitin Vaidya, “We are pleased to note that Jhansi Ki Rani has worked so well as a show. In times when the idea of historical shows was discouraged, Zee TV took the initiative to make a difference with Jhansi Ki Rani. It is heartening to know that our conviction in the concept of the show has borne fruit.”

Colors’ other properties like Uttaran and Laado are maintaining their ratings, but Bairi Piya has gone down.
 
 
A new concern for Colors could be the fact that it is trailing behind Star Plus and Zee TV in ratings for non-film programming. As per Tam data for the week ended 1 May, Colors clocked 245 GRPs from non-film programmes, while Star Plus bagged 282 GRPs and Zee TV 261 GRPs.

Colors more than made up with 43 GRPs that it collected from movies aired during the week; Zee TV, in comparison, got 18 while Star Plus had to contend with four GRPs.

“We have to wait for the picture to get clear as after 45 days of IPL, the flirting audience is yet to come back to the channels. The coming weeks will be interesting to observe,” says a media analyst.

Meanwhile, a peep into the other GECs: Set clocked 175 GRPs in the week (from earlier week‘s 147 GRPs), getting back its male audiences, while Imagine TV (104 GRPs), Sab (80 GRPs) and Star One (40 GRPs) also added a few GRPs.
 

MUMBAI: Coca-Cola is celebrating the countdown to the 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa by encouraging people around the world to take part in what it claims to be the longest-ever online goal celebration.

The ‘Longest Celebration‘ competition will offer fans the opportunity to win prizes, including tickets to 2010 Fifa World Cup matches.
 
The ‘Longest Celebration’ extends the global marketing campaign by Coca-Cola that includes advertising that features the iconic goal celebration by Roger Milla, the African footballer whose corner flag dance at the 1990 FIFA World Cup encouraged a new generation of football moves. The digital campaign invites fans to film and upload their own goal celebrations to YouTube.com/Coca-Cola or celebrations.coca-cola.com.

In the build-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Coca-Cola will run a series of mini-competitions for people who upload their celebrations with categories including ‘Most African Celebration’, ‘Happiest Celebration’and ‘Funniest Celebration’. 
 
The best participating fans can expect their efforts to be rewarded. Ten grand prize packages will be up for grabs offering football fans the chance to win three big-screen televisions and seven exclusive VIP experience packages that include flights, accommodation and 2010 FIFA World Cup match tickets.

Coca Cola group director, worldwide sports and entertainment marketing Emmanuel Seuge says, “The ‘Longest Celebration’ is the most ambitious attempt to connect fans across all continents together online to celebrate the vibrancy and rhythm of Africa and the FIFA World Cup even if they are not in the stadium — although some lucky fans will win that experience.”
 
The Coca-Cola ‘Longest Celebration’, designed by integrated marketing agency SapientNitro, is a key online element of the Company’s sponsorship of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

BANGALORE: Titan Industries Limited (Titan) has launched the Raga carnival across India and has also launched a TVC, created by Ogilvy, to spread brand awareness. 
 
Titan Raga is the feminine range from Titan with a wide range of watches having exclusive designs crafted with floral motifs, studded crystals, enamel motifs and kundan work. 
 
The company has also devised a muti-media strategy to create direct consumer connect. 
 
Titan has 300 plus World of Titan showrooms across the country and has plans to add another fifty by the end of the current fiscal, according to company sources.
 

MUMBAI: 92.7 Big FM, the radio arm of Reliance Media World, has launched its latest television commercial to promote its show BIG 30 Countdown, endorsed by Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan.

The commercial centers around the BIG 30 Countdown, BIG FM‘s daily national evening drive show, which air‘s across 36 stations in the network. 
 
The TVC shows Hrithik, after a tired day of shooting, retire in his car, turn on the radio and tunes in to Big 30 Countdown. . With music from the soon-to-release film Kites playing in the background, Hrithik asks audiences to tune into the show just like he does each evening. The television commercial concludes with an extremely relaxed Hrithik, enjoying a comfortable stretch, having recharged at the end of the day. 
 
Says Big FM VP – marketing Anand Chakravarthy, “FM and Bollywood have a symbiotic relationship, growing off each other. A lot has been done in the past between the two, but it has all largely remained on radio only. We found the synergy between Kites and our Big 30 Countdown show worked excellently and therefore, decided to create a television campaign vs just staying on radio.”
 

MUMBAI: The Hindustan Times Media Group‘s strong readership performance in the first quarter of 2010 may prove to be the ideal platform for its proposed Rs 3 billion IPO.

The recently released IRS Q1 figures shows that HT‘s English daily Hindustan Times, Hindi daily Hindustan and business daily Mint have all grown substantially in readership, across various corners of the country. 
 
Hindustan Times Media Group has putperformed the market in each of these segments. While HT has added 120000 readers over the trailing quarter to close, Hindustan has increased its readership by 578000. Mint has also seen growth to remain as the No 2 business daily at 158000.

Hindustan Times has once again stayed ahead of The Times Of India to remain as the No 1 newspaper in Delhi and the NCR region. According to the 2010 Q1 IRS report, HT has 3.24 million readers in Delhi compared to TOI‘s base of 3.21 million.
 
However, HT is still behind TOI in Mumbai and the All-India market. While HT‘s total readership is 6.26 million, TOI is far ahead at 13.5 million despite a fall in readership for the quarter.

In Mumbai, HT is 538000, up from 503000, while TOI is in a formidable position with a readership base of 1.67 million (from 1.59 million).

Hindustan maintains its number three position in terms of All-India Readership (AIR) and total readership and continues to be the fastest growing Hindi newspaper in the country. While still a fair bit behind Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar, the Hindustan has increased its AIR to 99.1 million readers. On the other hand, Dainik Jagran only showed an increase of 217000 in AIR. 
 
In UP and Uttarakhand, Hindustan is now the fastest growing daily with 12 per cent growth in readership.

Mint, on the other hand, has further consolidated its position as the No 2 business paper in the country. It has shown a growth of 62 per cent in Mumbai, and also remains the No 1 read business paper in Bangalore. With its share in key markets like Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi at 24 per cent, with the number three paper at 6 per cent, their current second position in terms of AIR for a business paper remains well intact.