Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Brand activation agency Candid Marketing has adorned a new logo and brand identity to reinvent its corporate image.

In its new avatar, the company is looking to grow beyond BTL by using creative innovation as a central tool.
 
 
The new logo of the brand has a formation of ‘dot-holes‘ or circles designed organically to form a square into the new identity signifying the flow of creativity and innovation through the delivery of logic and execution excellence. The dot-holes in the company‘s new logo also signify the new dimension to Candid – helping its clients activate their consumers across all media and not just BTL.

Said Candid Marketing co-founder and MD Atul S Nath, “The business of brand activation in India is coming of age, and brand activators are making their presence felt as partners for clients‘ brands.” 
 
“Our image and branding makeover reflects the growth that the overall business segment and specifically Candid Marketing is going through. We constantly adapt and evolve with the business environment and our client needs. And so our brand and logo will be used in a way that is kinetic and adaptive across collateral from our website to visiting cards and stationery, from signage to email signatures,” Nath adds.
 
 

MUMBAI: Rediffusion Y&R has roped in Shubho Sengupta as creative head, digital.

Prior to this, Sengupta was with Interactive Avenues as national creative director. 
 
With approximately 15 years of experience, Sengupta has also worked with agencies such as Contract, JWT, Leo Burnett and Ogilvy. 
 
Some of the brands on which he has worked include Sony, Sony and Travelocity.com.

MUMBAI: Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has roped in Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif as the new brand ambassador for Lux‘s new variant, Lux Purple Lotus & Cream. 
  
Says HUL VP – home care & skin cleansing Sudhanshu Vats, “Lux, over the years, has always been known for introducing exciting innovative variants for its consumers and here‘s another such variant which is sure to appeal to consumers with its unique purple colour and sensuous aroma. We look forward to this variant becoming a favourite amongst consumers across India.”

The FMCG major has also launched a new television campaign featuring Kaif that has been directed by Marco. The music score for the campaign has been composed by the trio, Shankar Ehsaan Loy.
 
 
Says Katrina Kaif said, “I join the legendary Lux beauty brigade, and only hope that my association with the brand grows stronger in the years to come.”

MUMBAI: Punj Lloyd, which provides integrated design, engineering, procurement, construction and project management services in the energy and infrastructure sectors, has launched its 2010 campaign, ‘Done. The Punj Lloyd Way‘.
 
The campaign has been conceptualised by Singapore-based as agency, C2 Design. The media mix has national as well as international print and outdoor. 
 
As part of its first ad campaign targeting the Indian subcontinent, Punj Lloyd has rolled out a series of print ads. For outdoor, the company is targeting locations like bus shelters in New Delhi, Changi Airport Immigration – North and South Trivision and Delhi International Airport – Departure (after Immigration).
 
To cater to the international audience, the print campaign will be published in the Economist (ME & Africa), Meed (ME), ENR, Pipe Line & Gas Journal, Business Today and Business World. 

MUMBAI: Viewership for the Vancouver Olympics has swelled to 174 million on NBC Universal, three million more than the 2006 Winter Games event, according to data available from Nielsen. The 25.2 million average viewers through 12 nights of the Vancouver Games is the most for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics since the tabloid-fueled Lillehammer Games which attracted an audience of 39.4 million, according to data available from Nielsen. It is also 20 per cent higher than the average viewership of the 2006 Winter Games through 12 nights.
 
The event has now surpassed 20 million viewers in primetime each night thus far. Tuesday night‘s coverage drew 21.3 million viewers on a night that faced a two-hour episode of the juggernaut, American Idol on Fox, as well as an episode of Lost on ABC.

On the comparable night during the last Winter Olympics in 2006, American Idol had an advantage of 7.5 million viewers going head-to-head with the Olympics (30.2 – 22.7 million viewers from 8-10 p.m.).
 
The ratings provide five learnings from the event:

1. The Olympics is a huge cultural event.
46 per cent of Olympic viewers changed their typical routine to watch the Olympics. 63 per cent stayed up longer than usual to watch, resulting in 42 per cent being more tired than normal. 35 per cent of viewers cried or became teary-eyed while watching (25 per cent among men).

Big event TV programming is bigger now more than ever.
More than half of all Americans have watched the Vancouver Olympics on the networks of NBC (174 million). That‘s 24 per cent more viewers than watched the entire 2009 season of American Idol (140 million for 39 separate telecasts).
 
The Olympics remains as a positive family viewing experience.
77 per cent of parents say they use the Olympics to teach their kids values.

There is tremendous growth in younger viewers.
Gains from youth categories far exceed growth in older demos. Viewing among the 18-24 age group is up 46 per cent and viewing among older teens (15-17) is up 34 per cent (compared to viewing for Torino Games).

People are looking for a share cultural experience in a fractionalised media world.
There aren‘t many experiences that let people share an event in such great numbers. 63 per cent of Olympics viewers say, My friends and I enjoy talking about these Olympics. (source: Knowledge Networks.

MUMBAI: YouTube, which will be streaming live the third edition of the Indian Premier League, has roped in six sponsors so far.

The value of the deals are in the range of Rs 30-40 million, industry sources say.
 
Videocon has come on board, the sources add. The company is also an on-air co-presenting sponsor with Max.
 
YouTube has also closed deals with several other companies including the likes of Hero Honda, HSBC, Samsung, Videocon and HUL. YouTube is looking at netting 10 sponsors for the event.
 
As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, HP was the first company to sign up with YouTube.
 

MUMBAI: The Advertising Club Bangalore‘s (Ad club) Big Bang Awards 2010 has named Dentsu Communications as the agency of the year.

In the meantime, Titan Industries has bagged the client of the year award while Maxus has walked away with the best media agency of the year. 
 
The award for Ad Club Media Campaign of the year was shared by Mindshare for IBM and Maxus for Titan Industries and the Ayaz Peerbhoy Multimedia Campaign of the year award was shared by Dentsu Communication for Aircel and ING Vysya Bank. The film production house of the year was Nirvana Films.
 
Dentsu Communications‘ Sangeeta Velegar and Samson Samuel were adjudged the best copywriter of the year and art director of the year respectively.
 
 
Said The Advertising Club Bangalore president Malavika Harita, “This year, The Advertising Club, Bangalore‘s Big Bang awards saw 37 agencies and 138 clients submitting 600 pieces of creative work to vie for the 155 awards.”

BANGALORE: The judging process for the Advertising Club Bangalore’s (Ad club) Big Bang Awards 2010 has concluded.

Ad club President Malavika Harita informs, “We had a very balanced jury of senior professionals with representation from creative, account management, digital, media, PR and clients. The quality of work was definitely of higher quality than last year. Obviously, the recession brings out the best in all of us! What was also very heartening was to see a lot of first time entrants who gave established agencies quite a run for their money.” 
 
This year’s jury includes MAA Bozell creative director Sadeeqa Peerbhoy; Why Axis creative head Niranjan Natrajan; Celcius 100 CEO S Ghosh, brand strategist Anand Narasimaha; The Scribble creative head and partner Francisco Saldhana; filmmaker and advertising personality Mumbai Anand Kurien and Hortune Media head Sandeep Tarkas.

Claims Ad club executive director Arvind Kumar, “The panel of 15 judges spent a whole grueling day judging the entries from over 37 organisations, which participated in Big Bang 2010. The entries came from large, medium sized and small creative agencies, media agencies, digital agencies, radio stations, event companies, film production houses and clients participating across nine groups and 51 categories.”
 
“Some large Bangalore based clients like Titan, Fastrack, ING Vysya, UB, Aircel and United Spirits participated this year after an absence of a few years through their agencies like O&M, JWT and Lowe which made things more exciting,” added Harita.

According to an Ad Club release, the five major awards were keenly contested –these include the Ad Agency of the Year, Media Agency of the Year, Client of the Year, Art Director of the Year, Copywriter of the Year and the Ayaz Peerbhoy Multimedia Campaign of the Year for a creative agency. 
 
The Awards will be given away at the Big Bang Awards night on Friday 26 February at the Karnataka Lawn Tennis Association Stadium in Cubbon Park, Bangalore.

MUMBAI: Navia Asia, the out of home specialist network, has appointed Aman Chaudhary as national client services director on the Uninor business. Chaudhary was till recently the deputy general manager at Percept Out of Home. He will be based in New Delhi and report to Navia Asia chief operating officer Gourav Tandon. 
 
In his new capacity, Chaudhary will lead the Uninor business, managing all the out-of- home advertising for the telecom brand. Navia Asia had won the Uninor out of home business in late 2009. The telecom brand has launched in eight circles and is eyeing a pan India presence.
 
Aman Chaudhry joins Navia Asia with 15 years of experience. In the last seven years, he has been with Selvel, Portland and Platinum before his stint with Percept Out Of Home (OOH) media business.

MUMBAI: Shah Rukh Khan and his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders have decided to indefinitely put on hold their deal with Lux Cozy.

This came after protests in Kolkata over the involvement of one of the company‘s promotor’s in the suicide of a 30-year-old computer graphics teacher Rizwanur Rahman.
 
Lux Cozy was to get into a licensing and merchandising deal. An open letter protesting the decision has been written to Shah Rukh Khan from the city‘s prominent social activist Mudar Patherya and wife Shalini objecting to the team‘s association with Todi.

The letter noted that Shah Rukh Khan‘s brand stands for the following positive attributes: meritocracy, fairness, hard work and patriotism. However there was a dilution by his team‘s association with individuals viewed as morally suspect (until they are proved innocent). “Please reconsider this decision. There is still time,” the letter said.
 
At a press conference organised by Kolkata’s Konscience Keepers (KKK), a platform created to protest against the deal, Gameplan director Jeet Banerjee made a surprise entry to announce the decision to put the deal on hold. Gameplan is the event management agency handling KKR.
Banerjee said that the deal was being put on hold till all issues were resolved and the sensitivities of the aggrieved were addressed.
 
The frozen deal pertains to merchandising inside the stadium for home matches and around the stadium, as well as Lux branding on the players’ trousers and other advertising. Signages that were already up across the city would be taken off as soon as possible. Some fan gear T-shirts had already been produced, but future production would be stalled.

Banerjee clarified that the decision was by the KKR management, not SRK. The statement was conveyed on behalf of Lux Industries as well.