Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Telecom company Idea Cellular has announced a multi-year sponsorship agreement with the current Indian Premier League (IPL) Champions, The Deccan Chargers of Hyderabad.

Idea Cellular, the pan-India mobile operator, will be the Principal Partner of Deccan Chargers, starting with the third edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 Cricket Tournament, scheduled to start from March 2010.

Idea claims to have over six million subscribers in the state of Andhra Pradesh. During the upcoming IPL 3 T-20 Tournament, all 27 players of team Deccan Chargers, along with the coach and support staff, will be seen sporting the Idea logo on the front of their jersey and trousers.

Team captain Adam Gilchrist, ace batsmen Andrew Symonds and Rohit Sharma, pace bowler Chaminda Vaas, and several other leading international players such as Ryan Harris, Dwyane Smith, Scott Styris, Kemar Roach and Fidel Edwards will wear Brand IDEA during all their sporting action during the forthcoming T20 championship.
 
Idea Cellular CMO Pradeep Shrivastava said, “The Cricket fever is rising and IPL 3 will only add more excitement to it, further electrifying the cricket frenzy nation. Going with our essential brand promise of bringing champion ideas through the power of mobility, we have partnered with the Champions of IPL, to offer cricket entertainment by the Deccan Chargers to our 60 million subscribers across the country.”
 
Idea will launch a range of value added services on Voice, SMS and WAP portal, for 60 million subscribers, across the country to bring them closer to the Deccan Chargers. Idea subscribers will get a chance to win tickets for the matches, autographed merchandise, participate in Meet & Greet with the players, download special player messages and many more interactions with Team Deccan Chargers.
 
Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures COO Dinesh Wadhwa said, “IPL is the most followed sporting event in the country. The success of Deccan Chargers in the last tournament has further increased the fan-following of the team. Our partnership with Idea Cellular will take the team to a higher plane of reach and visibility by connecting with millions of mobile consumers in the country. We hope to have a long-term, mutually beneficial association with Idea.”

Donning the Idea logo, Team Deccan Chargers will make its first outing at the opening match of IPL T20 tournament in Mumbai against Kolkata Knight Riders on 12 March at 8 pm.
 

MUMBAI: Vizeum India, part of the Aegis Media group, has won the media duties for Amrutanjan.
 
The size of the account is pegged at Rs 150 million. The account was previously handled by Media Direction, the social and rural communications group of RK Swamy BBDO.
 
Says Vizeum Media MD Indian subcontinent S Yesudas, “This is strategically a big win for us. We are committed to working with Amrutanjan as their extended brand management team and not just the media AOR. This business will be handled out of our Chennai office under the leadership of Vizeum South GM EM Sreeneelakandhan.”
 
Vizeum India handles brands such as ESSAR Group, Luxor/Parker, BSA Motors, Giovani and iPlayUp.
 

MUMBAI: Despite its poor on-field performance, the IndiaN Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders has signed up four more partners.

Kolkata Knight Riders CEO Joy Bhattacharya says that Videocon has come on board as the jersey sponsor. This is a corporate sponsorship and Videocon will have a presence on the leading arm and helmet. The energy drink Triple X has also come on board and has taken the back.
 
For merchandise, the franchise has tied up with Lux Cozy. The company will roll out co-branded T-shirts and the colour will change to purple from black and Gold. The franchise was looking at doing this last year but with the event shifting to South Africa, it did not become feasible.
 
The franchise has also done a promotional tie up with Fosters. Fosters does Art of Chilling parties and these will now be done in association with Shah Rukh Khan‘s team. This activity will start rolling out a few weeks before the event kicks off.
 
KKR, which has inked all fresh deals for a one-year period, is looking out for two more sponsors. Existing deals with the likes of Nokia (principal sponsor), Sprite (beverage partner), Tag Huer, Next and Reebok (kit) continue.
 

MUMBAI: Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are increasingly helping brands to create a viral impact on consumer purchase choices through word of mouth (WoM).

Citing an example while speaking at the The Mindshare Brand Equity Compass 2010 here today, Perfetti Van Melle India CEO Sameer Suneja said that a particular telecom company wasn‘t entertaining my friend‘s complaint. Irritated, he set his status message on Facebook against the telecom company. This was followed by some friends spreading similar status messages and the viral impact led the telecom firm to act in haste.

“In an hour‘s time, the telecom operator agreed to help and requested in changing the status message. Such is the power of social networking,” he said. 
 
According to marketers, WoM is fast catching up via the social networking sites with 70 per cent of Indians aged 15-34 age group. Also, about 60 per cent consumers trust and take purchasing decisions based on online discussions.

According to Suneja, WoM works for rational purchases, there are different categories of rational purchases including food. “Buying food products are high on impulse and in such cases WoM plays the catalyst,” he says.
 
Author Chetan Bhagat is also of the opinion that WoM does the trick when there aren‘t sufficient marketing budgets. “If one is to attract a crowd for an event in a short notice, WoM is a very effective medium. But, it‘s effective when the news is fresh and ‘awesome‘. A marketing budget of Rs 500,000-7, 00,000 can buy a lot of space on the internet which can be effectively used.”
 
So how does WoM work as a marketing tool? Says FritoLay India CEO foods division & Pepsico India region president Gautham Mukkavilli, “A stressed consumer looks in for simplified choices. Before zeroing in on what to buy, the consumer makes sure he accesses his personal space that can be anything from dance class to a blog.”
 

MUMBAI: The utility derived from time has changed significantly in the last decade and will change even more in the next decade as very young people become consumers and buyers of brands.

Thus, marketers believe that brands have to do the unexpected to create and spread awareness and stickiness in the shortest time span possible.
 
“Gone are the Ramayan days when media planners would capture the maximum pie on the show and thus, get 80 per cent exposure. These are the days of optimizers as everyone is fighting for their share wherein consumers are spoilt with choices.,” said Colors CEO Rajesh Kamat, while speaking at the The Mindshare Brand Equity Compass 2010 held here today.

Kamat noted that with one thousand messages reaching consumers daily in various formats, marketers can no longer cut paste the winning template. 
 
“If a brand wants to grab attention, it has to be a showstopper in the very first instance today as there is no second chance given in this competent market,” he said.

However, Radio Mirch CEO Prashant Pandey noted that unlike other media platforms, radio still remains to be built as a conventional brand as the fundamentals of radio marketing stays unchanged. 
 
Panday further explained that brand building has to talk about the style and persona of the product and that has to be supplemented with right delivery and consistency.

Thus, according to Pandey, brand building can never take place in compressed time “but sales surely can.”
 

MUMBAI: Ogilvy India’s former top boss and advertising legend SR Mani Ayer died today morning at the age of 74, after a brief illness.

Popularly known as Mani, Ayer was born on 5 September 1935. He joined Ogilvy in 1958, then SH Benson, as a copywriter and was with the company for 36 years before he hung his boots in 1994.
 
 
During his tenure at Ogilvy, he spent two years in Ogilvy Australia, prior to taking over the reins as MD in 1973. He was only 38 years old when he took on the role of Ogilvy India MD from Padubidri Sarma.

Ogilvy South Asia executive chairman and creative director Piyush Pandey said, “This is the end of an era, as one of the leading lights of Ogilvy India is no more with us. He was the one who laid the foundation of the Ogilvy of the 70s and beyond. His presence will be missed by the industry of which he was one of the architects. At a personal level, his teachings will continue to inspire me and a lot of people who have worked with him, for him or heard of him. Salaam Mr Ayer!”
 
Ayer is credited with laying the foundations of modern Ogilvy in India. He brought a high level of strategic thinking and business orientation into the advertising thinking process. He created a new wave that has today become the mantra of account handling/client servicing professionals in Ogilvy and ex Ogilvyites – always put the client first.

David Ogilvy described Ayer as, “The most outstanding individual in the Ogilvy Network.”

Ogilvy issued a statement today, praising Ayer for all his dedication for the company. As per Ogilvy, he (Ayer) invested hugely in training – time and money. He would actually take time out to sit and observe a session being conducted by a new trainer to ensure they got it right.

He took enormous pride in the successes of his people and applauded as much as he provided constructive criticism on performances, reaching out to his people when they faltered. He was very particular about celebrating successes. He had an amazing capacity to learn constantly from varied sources and get to the heart of any issue, responding instantly and in a very systematic manner and form. Behind his tough, disciplinarian manner, Ayer was a man with a heart of gold.

Late Suresh Mullick had described Ayer: “Mani was, and always will be, a gifted all rounder. As well as being MD India, of a very fine agency, is a philosopher, raconteur, political analyst, economist, a film and music buff. A Gary Sobers, if you know what I mean.”
 
After retirement, he moved to his hometown Chennai. Among other accolades that Ayer won, the most recent was the Hall of Fame by AAAI.

Ogilvy India and South Asia co-executive chairman and COO SN Rane said, “I will remember Ayer who started in Ogilvy as a copy person and reached a commanding height through his thorough professionalism, burning passion and doubtless dedication for the advertising profession and for Ogilvy India. He dominated the Indian advertising scene for over three decades and went on to become a legend in his lifetime. I had the privilege of working with him closely and the learning from him is an invaluable treasure.”

Saddened by the news, WPP country head Ranjan Kapur comments, “Ayer‘s biggest strength was the ability to make every piece of work ‘word perfect‘. Despite not being a banker, he owned one of the sharpest financial minds that I have had the opportunity to work with. When he retired from Ogilvy, he left me an agency with an extremely healthy balance sheet which enabled me as his successor, to do many things that I was able to do. He was meticulous and tidy at work, a superb client servicing man and people within Ogilvy as well as outside were in awe of him. I was associated with him from 1996 until the day I retired. I gained a very healthy respect for him.”

Ayer is survived by his wife, daughter and son. The funeral will be held tomorrow.

MUMBAI: Allied Media, the media planning, evaluation and buying arm of Percept, has bagged the media duties of Lovely Professional University (LPU) in a multi-agency pitch.

The account size is pegged at Rs 200 million.
 
Allied Media will be tasked with all media planning and buying responsibilities for LPU. This will include planning and executing LPU’s media campaign. 
 
LPU assistant director Aman Mittal said, “We went ahead with Allied Media because of their strategic planning and 360 degree implementation coupled with the media buying practices. We realised Allied Media understands LPU‘s brand specific requirements and is capable of delivering the desired results corresponding to the brand equity enjoyed by the university.”
 
Added Allied media deputy GM Surbhi C Murthy, “We are proud to share LPU’s ‘Vision of building a Knowledge based Society’. With our association we will ensure that their vision and strengths are communicated to a much larger audience, ensuing acknowledgement of LPU’s professional eminence at the national platform.”
 

MUMBAI: Colors has announced the appointment of two new members in its sales team, signaling an aggressive push for augmenting revenues.

The channel has created two new posts – National Director, Property Sales and National Director, Client Servicing. While Pappan Majumdar has been roped in to be national director for property sales, the other post has gone to Shivani Raina Ghosh.
 
Both Majumdar and Ghosh will report into Colors National Sales Head Simran Hoon. “Both these appointments are in line with our aggressive revenue growth plans ahead,” Hoon said.

Majumdar brings with him 13 years of media ad-sales experience. At Colors, he will be focusing on client servicing of non fiction and big ticket shows like Fear Factor, Bigg Boss and IPL Entertainment, amongst others. 
 
Majumdar moves in from National Geographic & Fox Channels India, where he was serving as VP and heading the ad sales of the channels. Earlier, he had worked with Star India, MTV and the Times Group.

Meanwhile, Ghosh’s role will encompass handling brand innovations in advertiser funded programmes (AFP), thus helping advertisers with brand solutions that extend beyond the TVCs.
 
Ghosh comes with over 14 years of experience in advertising under her belt. She moves from FBC (Fact Based Communications) Media, where she was serving as head of media strategy & branded content. Earlier, she has worked with Lodestar, McCann and Mudra.

MUMBAI: In a bid to expand brand awareness, HDFC Standard Life has launched its new marketing campaign.

Said HDFC Standard Life EVP & head – marketing Sanjay Tripathy, “Though life insurance is ideally meant to secure one‘s family‘s future in the event of an unfortunate incident, it is still largely a one-time purchase and that too for the wrong reasons.
 
“According to an internal research, it was observed that only 65 per cent of the population has some sort form insurance with close to 81 per cent of them having a single policy only. The study further reveals that on an average, individuals in the family are often insured for as little as 3,50,000 of life cover, a sum that is grossly inadequate and clearly a pittance in today‘s day and age to sustain a family, should something unfortunate happen. This fact also definitely supports the claim that Indians pay one of the lowest insurance premiums in the whole world and subsequently have a very low coverage,” Tripathy added. 
 
Conceptualized and scripted by Leo Burnett, the new TVC has been directed by Anand Iyer from Ramesh Deo Productions. The company plans to take its new campaign through different platforms and intensify the brand experience. Apart from television, this film will be supported by other mediums such as print, radio, OOH, Internet, mobile, and on-ground initiatives.

The campaign sees two friends talking to each other, laid over, one of them travelling out of town on work. The conversation tries to bring about the realization, that to really ensure complete financial security of one‘s family forever, one needs to plan today.
 
Said Leo Burnett national creative director KV Sridhar, “After extensive research, we stumbled upon the insight that people tend to worry more about their family when they‘re travelling and ensure that they provide for their family‘s needs for as long as they‘re away. And we wondered, what if we were to make people think of life in the same way as they would when they‘re travelling.”