Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Global market research firm Synovate has elevated Scott Miller to North America CEO. In his new capacity, Miller will be responsible for managing Synovate’s US and Canada business units.

Miller will replace Robert Skolnick, who will remain with Synovate as president of Industry Sectors North America, based in New York. Skolnick will also take on the additional role of assessing acquisition opportunities for Synovate across the globe.
 
Prior to the elevation, Miller was serving as managing director of global client relationships for Synovate. Earlier, he also has served as CEO of Synovate Motoresearch, the global automotive division of Synovate.
 
Synovate Global CEO Robert Philpott said, “Miller has been responsible for driving our business with many of our top clients in North America and across the globe, and has played a key role in getting our business on track over the last several months.”
 
Miller, who has over 22 years of market research experience, has conducted and overseen research projects in more than 40 countries during his career, spending several years in project management, methodological design, focus group moderation and strategic consulting. He began his career in market surveys at Saturn Corporation and also spent 12 years with Motoresearch, an automotive market research firm, where he was vice president and partner until Motoresearch was acquired by Synovate (then Aegis Research) in 2000.

MUMBAI: Bates141 Delhi has appointed Sambit Mohanty as executive creative director.

Prior to this, he was heading the creative function department at advertising and design firm, Brand Planet Elephant. 
 
Says Bates 141 CEO Sandeep Pathak, “He will work closely with Bates 141 Delhi EVP Vaasu Gavarsana to make the agency a destination for brands looking for real change in the North India market.”

Adds Bates 141 CEO Sandeep Pathak, “He will work closely with Bates 141 Delhi EVP Vaasu Gavarsana to make the agency a destination for brands looking for real change in the North India market.”
 
Mohanty has around ten years of experience in advertising and has worked with agencies like Euro RSCG, Lowe, Publicis, Vyas Giannetti Creative (VGC) and Leo Burnett.

Mohanty said, “It‘s a very exciting time to be at Bates and I‘m looking forward to be part of the action. The team here is young and keen to create great work and I‘m coming on board to partner them in this process.” 
 
Mohanty has worked on brands including Reckitt-Benckiser, Perfetti, Intel, MSN, Tanishq, Britannia, Nestle (Maggi), HP, ABN Amro, Indian Express, BBC World, Park Hotels and Religare.

MUMBAI: Hindustan Times has appointed Equus Red Cell as the creative partner for its tutorial center brand, ‘Studymate‘.
 
While Equus Red Cell CEO Swapan Seth confirmed on the win, he refused to comment on the business account size. 
 
Hindustan Times has partnered with MT Educare for the ‘Studymate‘ initiative. To begin with, Hindustan Times has rolled out four ‘Studymate‘ centers in the NCR region.

MUMBAI: Bates141 has roped in Kaizad Pardiwalla as executive vice president for its Mumbai office.

In his new capacity, Pardiwalla will be responsible for handling the agency‘s key accounts including Virgin Mobile, TVS, Fiat, Tata AIG, Pfizer, Hindustan Lever and ICICI Bank Credit Cards. 
 
Said Bates 141 chairman and regional executive creative director Sonal Dabral, “In Pardiwalla we found a perfect amalgamation of a good sensitive leader as well as someone who was passionate about putting good work out.”
 
Said Pardiwalla, “Bates141 has a clear vision for the future and I look forward to being an integral part of the team to fulfill that vision.”
 
Pardiwalla has 15 years of experience in the field of advertising and has worked with agencies like Lowe Lintas and Ogilvy and Mather (O&M).
 

MUMBAI: ITC‘s education and stationery products brand Classmate has launched its new television campaign, featuring cricketer Yuvraj Singh and actor Soha Ali Khan. 
 
Conceptualised by Rediffusion Y&R (Chennai), the TVC talks about a young person‘s imagination that goes beyond just academics and has the power to come up with new thoughts that could change the world.
 
The TVC, which will also be executed across cinema and online, has been directed by Shujaat Saudagar of Ramesh Deo Productions.
 

MUMBAI: Big Live, Reliance Media World‘s experiential marketing arm, has roped in Sameet Sharma as regional head-West. 
 
In his new role, Sharma will head Big Events, a part of Big Live, and report to Reliance Media World national head BTL Navneeth Mohan.

Sharma will be responsible for augmenting the business in the western region through growing the corporate clientele base, by building a strong backend team and increasing the assortment of services provided under the events and below-the-line (BTL) space. 
 
Says Mohan, “I am confident that Sharma will bring great value to the organisation. As we offer the experiential marketing experience to clients, we are happy to have someone with the experience and passion of Sameet lead the team and the business to the next level.” 
 
Prior to this, Sharma has been associated with Aditya Birla Group-Cement Division, Idea Cellular, Piramal Healthcare, ICICI Prudential, HSBC, UTI Mutual Funds and was involved in handling their national and international events.

MUMBAI: Credit card major Visa, the preferred card of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, has announced an extension of its first-ever global Fifa-themed marketing campaign – Go Fans.

The global campaign, which originally debuted in Latin America in 2009, includes television, print and out-of-home advertisements, usage promotions, experiential offers for cardholders and merchant discounts.
 
Go Fans was developed to connect with football fans worldwide to drive preference for and usage of Visa products, promote Visa‘s association with the 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa and reinforce the ways in which Visa enhances the fan‘s Fifa World Cup experience. Today, 78 markets throughout the world are activating Visa Fifa-themed marketing programmes with over 200 clients.

Utilising the flexibility of the ‘More people go with Visa‘ campaign, advertising creative from the Go Fans campaign will be customised and will appear in 30 markets around the world to strengthen the campaign‘s relevance in those regions. In addition to Go Fans, customised advertising extensions of the campaign will utilise Go Football and Go [Country] (e.g. Go Brazil) taglines.
 
Visa CMO Antonio Lucio says, “Football fans are unlike any other sports fans in the world. We‘ve created a campaign that captures these fans‘ inspirational passion for the game, taps into their nationalistic pride and reminds them how Visa can help enhance their experience.”

The Go Fans campaign celebrates the common love that all fans have for football and creative executions featuring the colours of the national flags of each of the 32 qualifying countries. The campaign reinforces the ways that Visa enables fans to express their true colours in support of their teams by offering an easier way to pay, their Visa card.
 
Television Advertising and Customisation:
Localised versions of Visa‘s Anthem commercial, which debuted the week of 1 March 2010 in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, shows footage of fans throughout the world expressing an array of emotions while viewing football matches.

The creative execution is overlaid with the colours of individual national flags and follows the natural progression of anticipation, tension, joy and heartache displayed by football fans during a match. The spot illustrates how fans are divided by their passion for their favorite teams but united in a shared love of football.

The soundtrack to Anthem is an original composition written by South Africans Nonkululeko and Philisiwe Moya called Stand as One, Unite and is performed by the Agape Children‘s Choir.

First documented in the film We Are Together, the Agape Children‘s Choir is made up of children from the Agape Orphanage in Durban, South Africa who find hope in song. In February, Visa made a donation of $150,000 to benefit the Agape Children‘s Choir and assist with the children‘s school fees, education costs and the orphanage‘s administrative costs. Anthem was directed by Jake Scott, the son of Ridley Scott.

Cardholder Experiences and Usage Promotions : A core component of Visa‘s Fifa‘s sponsorship is developing cardholder programmes internationally to enhance the fan‘s football experience through once-in-a-lifetime experiences and usage promotions.

For the 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa, Visa has created the Go 2010 Football Experience to provide fans with unique access and once-in-a-lifetime experiences which include a pre-match Stadium Tour, viewing the team warm-up by the pitch, and a half-time pitch-side tour. More than 500 “Go 2010 Football Experiences” have been offered to Visa cardholders worldwide.

Visa has also introduced customisable usage promotions in core markets that provide Visa cardholders with the chance to win tickets to the 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa every time they use their Visa cards.

FIFA World Cup Sponsorship Activation :
In the lead up to the Fifa World Cup, Visa provides financial institutions and merchant partners throughout the world with Fifa-themed creative and marketing materials to enhance their card-marketing efforts, help drive business and achieve corporate brand objectives.

Visa is one of six global Fifa partners with exclusive global category rights through 2014, and is the preferred card for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In recognition of Visa‘s sponsorship of the 2010 Fifa World Cup South AfricaTM, Visa credit, debit and prepaid cards are the only payment cards accepted, along with cash, at all Fifa stadiums and the Onsite Stadium Merchandise Booths.

The partnership provides Visa with global rights in the Financial Services product category to all Fifa World Cup activities that may be activated by financial institution clients and merchant partners. Visa‘s Fifa sponsorship includes the rights to the 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa, the Fifa Women‘s World Cup Germany 2011 and the 2014 Fifa World Cup Brazil.
 

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has announced that it has secured a brand partnership for its global football documentary, How to Win the Fifa World Cup with Castrol.

The announcement was made by SPT chief creative officer and executive VP international production Mike Morley at the television trade event MipTV in Cannes.
 
The programme, on sale to broadcasters at MipTV, will include Fifa footage from World Cup tournaments over the past 20 years, exclusively commissioned research into the performances of national sides from a Dutch university, and is backed up by data from Castrol Performance Analysts including the Castrol Index which uses objective analysis of over 2,000 players and games to give deeper insight into winning performances of some of the world‘s best footballers.

In addition to the integration of the Castrol Index into the programme and brand visibility through “bumpers” at the start and end, the documentary will be available for viewing online on Castrol‘s dedicated football site: www.castrolfootball.com 
 
The brand partnership agreement was facilitated by branded entertainment sales agents, Krempelwood, working closely with Castrol‘s media agency, Mindshare, and SPT.

Morley said, “We are delighted to partner with Castrol, one of the world‘s leading brands, as we roll out this programming worldwide. With the Castrol Index, the scientific data and interviews and commentary from football experts, How to Win the Fifa World Cup is the perfect piece of signature programming for a broadcaster in the run up to the World Cup.”

Castrol Global brand director Des Johnson says, “Football is central to our sponsorship strategy alongside motorsport and our partnership with Sony Pictures Television is an exciting new development for our brand. We know that football fans everywhere will be fascinated by the information presented in How to Win the Fifa World Cup. We are thrilled to be associated with a global programming opportunity that uniquely offers a credible insight into the little known facts to winning performances within the ‘beautiful game‘.”

How To Win The Fifa World Cup examines the DMA – Defence, Midfield, Attack – of all 32 nations in the tournament and also produces quirky facts that could help their country win or lose the World Cup – fascinating data like how the colour of a keeper‘s jersey can influence his chance to save a penalty kick, why certain teams are more likely to score in extra time, which sides are most vulnerable at corners and who scores most from free kicks and open play.

With some painful home truths emerging, viewers will learn more about how France intercepts play so successfully, why England misses so many penalties, why Germans can out dribble Brazilians and why Ghana gets so many yellow cards.
 
In addition to the documentary, SPT is also selling the format, How to Win the Fifa World Cup at MipTV. The format is strippable as a series of talk shows before or during the tournament.
 

CAVELOSSIM: While new creativity is the language of future advertising, consumers trust other people‘s recommendations for their future consumptions, believes Mindshare global leader (invention) George Michaelides. 
 
“Thus, the internet that earlier could not compete with the broadcast spectrum, has become the most powerful medium of communication,” Michaelides said. 
 
He further noted that creativity is a heritage and fusion of sheer imagination and culture that needs to be reclaimed in a way that it was before for the contemporary world.

Also, advertisements need to possess a big idea. “It’s not about advertising, its about generating talkability for your brands. That is the approach to adopt for the new creativity,” he said. 
 
Elaborating on this, Ogilvy Digital Vice Chairman Jan Leth said, “Unless your advertisement contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the dark.”

MUMBAI: The successful return of the ZooZoos has earned Ogilvy and Mather and Nirvana one Grand Prix each for the Creative Abby at the Goafest this year in the integrated advertising and filmcraft category respectively.

It was during the second season of the Indian Premier League that Vodafone gave birth to ZooZoo, a special character created specifically to convey value-added service (Vas). 
 
Nirvana topped the honours in gold, bagging four metals for its work on Zoozoo “Stock Alerts” and “Facebook” (filmcraft, combined), Frooti (one each for editing and sound design) and Bajaj XCD 135 DTS-Si (editing).

The second in run for gold was, of course, Ogilvy and Mather, creators of the egg-faced Vodafone icons. O&M bagged three golds for Vodafone Zoozoo in the film single category, The Economist in the direct category and Vodafone Zoozoo again in the integrated advertising category.
 
This year around 4200 entries from 137 companies, including agencies, design studios and production houses, were received as compared to around 4400 entries last year. Though print and outdoor saw drops in entries as compared to those from last year – 840 to 752 entries and from 1148 to 964 respectively – they still made up the largest block of the entries. Printcraft, with 664 entries, had the third largest number of entries.
 
Digital category entries showed almost fivefold increase with 295 entries from 40 companies as opposed to 65 entries received last year. Google has been roped in as the digital awards sponsor. There were 233 entries from 21 production houses from filmcraft.