Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Only recently did Publicis Ambience elevate president and chief operating officer Aniruddha Banerjee and national creative director Ashish Khazanchi to chairperson and vice-chairperson respectively. 
 
And now, extending this top management restructuring exercise, the agency has introduced a few more senior level structural changes. 
 
While Publicis India has upped current president and COO Hemant Misra to agency CEO, former TBWA executive Madan Mohan has joined the agency as executive vice president for Mumbai. 
 
Informs Publicis South Asia CEO Nakul Chopra, “Mohan replaces Dipika Narayan in Mumbai.”

Prior to this, Mohan was TBWA India
 

MUMBAI: Creative and integrated brand communication agency Six Inches Communication has been roped in by Kenya-based IT company Craft Silicon and Klear, a Middle Eastern company, for devising and implementing rebranding strategies for the respective companies.

This is the second time in past two years that Six Inches has been contracted for projects from offshore clients. Last year, Six Inches did a complete rebranding for an IT firm, Technology Associates, based in East Africa and Middle East.
 
For Craft Silicon, Six Inches will study, rebrand the company and recreate all communication materials for external and internal purposes.

Said Craft Silicon director marketing Rakshit Bolhar, “I was impressed with the brand transformation they carried out for another company here and decided to go ahead with them. The energy and holistic solution they bring on table is at par to international standards. I am sure we have made the right choice by choosing them.”
 
For Klear Water, Six Inches will repackage the brand and create a fresh new identity as well as create brand communication for the same along with an interactive microsite for the product. 
 
Said Six Inches founder & managing director Pravin Shah, “2010 looks promising for us. The team is very excited to explore and execute projects targeting a different market altogether. A lot of responsibility is attached to this. However, keeping in mind the seamless execution of our last engagement, I am confident that this will be another case study in our portfolio. With these projects in hand, we are now planning to set up a liaison office in Kenya and Dubai for future businesses.”
 

MUMBAI: Lodestar Universal Delhi has won the media duties of Population Service International of India (PSI), Omron Healthcare and Verisign. All the three companies are based out of Delhi.

Lodestar Universal COO Anamika Mehta says, “We ended 2009 with Tata Docomo business and have begun 2010 with three new business.”
 
The PSI business was bagged post a multi-agency pitch. In addition to Lodestar, agencies including Dentsu, Carat India, Maxus and ZenithOptimedia participated in the pitch. The account size is pegged at Rs 100 million.

Set up in 1988, PSI has programmes under HIV/AIDS, family planning and proper nutrition. It addresses other social problems to achieve positive behaviour.
 
 
Meanwhile, the other two business, Omron Healthcare and Verisign, were won without any formal pitch process. The combined account size for the two businesses is pegged at Rs 150-180 million.
 
Omron Healthcare, a subsidiary of Omron Corporation, is a marketer and distributor of medical, home healthcare, and wellness products. Verisign is a provider of Internet infrastructure services for the digital world.
 

MUMBAI: Grey India national creative director (NCD) Shalini Dam has put in her papers. Dam was based out of the Delhi office.

Confirming the news, Dam says, “After being with the company for over a decade now, it’s time for me to move on.”
 
Currently serving her notice period, Dam will be in the company till mid-February.
 
In 2008, Dam was elevated as national creative director, replacing Priti Nair. Prior to this, she was executive creative director South East Asia.
 
Dam has also worked with agencies including TBWA, Contract and Leo Burnett. She has handled brands including Dominos, Hindustan Times, Revlon and Medimix.
 

MUMBAI: Home appliance company Whirlpool India has announced its association with Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kings X1 Punjab as a sponsor and the cooling partner.
 
Whirlpool says that its association with the team is a reflection of its belief in team work and winning attitude. Kings XI Punjab reflects a perfect synergy between its brand attributes and the values of team work, confidence and optimism that the team imbibes

Whirlpool India MD Arvind Uppal said, “The Indian Premier League is the most eagerly anticipated event in the sporting calendar of the sub-continent. It is a huge draw for both national and international cricket fans. We are very excited to be an integral part of the tournament through our association with Kings XI Punjab, which is an excellent platform to connect with our customers.”

Kings XI Punjab CEO Anil Srivatsa said, “We are thrilled to partner with Whirlpool .They are dynamic and share the same passion like us to promote cricket. Through this association we are hoping to bring an enthralling season that brings Cricketainment to the general public and some interesting promotions specially for our fans. We will indeed be energised further with our Cooling Partner-Whirpool. We will need them as we turn up the heat.”
 
Whirlpool India will run a number of promotions during the tournament. As co-sponsors, Whirlpool will have the logo branded on the team‘s jerseys and also have significant in-stadia presence during Kings XI Punjab matches in the form of board branding, placards, branding on cheer leader podium and seats in designated stand.

Whirlpool India VP sales, marketing and exports Shahzad Akhtar says, “We have recently launched a new range of air conditioners and have some new refrigerator launches planned as well, and the association with the third season of the Indian Premier League will help us roll out a series of exciting activities across the country”.

The company is planning to offer an opportunity to its customers to interact with the members of the Kings XI Punjab team through a number of activations, which will be launched in the near future.
 
Whirlpool India will run an ad campaign with the Kings X1 Punjab team icon Yuvraj Singh along with the company‘s brand ambassador and star couple Ajay-Kajol to endorse its new range of airconditioners. The company is planning to air the campaign during the same time as IPL matches.

Whirlpool India recently announced plans to augment its share in the AC segment. The company plans to capture 15 per cent market share by 2012 and treble sales by 2010. Whirlpool launched 44 new products in two sub-brands Mastermind Chrome and Mastermind Aviator. The new range with several features is aimed at giving a boost to Whirlpool in the AC category.

MUMBAI: Allied Media, the media planning, evaluation and buying arm of Percept Limited, has roped in Amol Mohandas as general manager.

He will be report to VP Allied Media PM Balakrishna and will be responsible for all aspects of the Future Group media business.
 
Prior to joining Allied Media, Mohandas was proprietor at Weave Through Communications, an agency specializing in on-ground and digital activations. 
 
Mohandas has extensive expertise in the arena of media planning and buying. During his ten years in the industry, Mohandas has also been associated with companies like MediaCom (Middle East), Starcom and Mindshare which entailed handling clients across industries such as automobiles, consumer durables, retail, banking and FMCG. 
 
Said Mohandas, “Allied Media is a great place to work where an integrated approach to communication planning is always at the helm of all plans. I‘m looking forward to combining my expertise on holistic planning with a team that is already equipped with the thought in their minds.”

MUMBAI: Parag Milk Foods, which functions under the brand name ‘Gowardhan‘, has assigned Carat Media with its media duties.

The size of the account is pegged between Rs 120 – 150 million. 
 
Says Parag Milk Foods VP marketing Rahul Akkara, “Carat‘s understanding of the category coupled with their integrated marketing solutions approach gave us the comfort of working with the team. The team is quite passionate and has high energy level that is important to us, given that our products are in the launch phase.” 
 
Adds Carat India MD Kartik Iyer, “We look forward to partnering the client in creating innovative media solutions that makes Go the first choice in processed milk products

BANGALORE: The late David Ogilvy founder of Ogilvy & Mather once said, “Titan is an international company which happens to be India.” Taking a step further into consumer experience and marketing of watches in India to another level altogether, Titan Industries Limited (Titan) today announced the launch of a ‘Titan Experience Zone’ at its ‘World ot Titan’ flagship store and in Hosur today to mark the 25th anniversary of the company’s birth.
 
 
“We started off with the idea of building a watch museum initially, but since a museum is static, we decided to set up the ‘Titan Experience Zone’. Based on the results at the Hosur ‘Titan Experience Zone’ initially, we may set up similar Zones in the four major metros in India,” informed Titan Managing Director Bhaskar Bhat.

The Titan Hosur plant where the ‘World of Titan’ Flagship store is located has around 200 walkin’s, many of them from abroad daily. Of these a large chunk of people also visit the flagship store and the conversion rates here are around 80 per cent, revealed Titan CEO Harish Bhat.
 
The ‘Titan Experience Zone’ is built around the theme of ‘Time’ and has five experiential areas: Immersion; Reflection; Engagement; Conversation; Delivery. In each of these five areas, visitors discover for themselves interesting facts about watches, relevant insights about time and details about Titan to enable the visitor to experience the essence of Titan through a ‘touch and feel’ experience.
 
Titan claims that it has 150 million consumers and is the fifth largest watch manufacturer in the world with expected manufacturing volumes of 11 million watches this year as compared to last year’s numbers of just under 10 million watches. The company claims to have the largest dealer network in the world with 10868 dealers across 26 countries.
 

MUMBAI: Bhautik Mithani has rejoined Rediffusion – Y&R as chief financial officer. Mithani had earlier been with the group as the CFO of TME, the media arm of Rediffusion – Y&R.

Said Rediffusion – Y&R group CEO Mahesh Chauhan, “Bhautik was a key contributor to the start of our journey to reinvent and it‘s heartening to see him return, geared to further our successes, now as part of the leadership team.”
 
Adds Mithani, “Being a part of the company previously, I am already acquainted with the operation and practices of Rediffusion – Y&R. I am, therefore, eager to handle this larger portfolio and help the company meet its goals and targets and continue its current success.” 
 
Mithani‘s last assignment was with Prana Studios where he was vice president, finance. Apart from introducing new systems and processes at Prana Studios, Mithani was also instrumental in the implementation of Forex Strategy to hedge against Forex fluctuations.
 
During his previous tenure with Rediffusion – Y&R, Mithani introduced uniform accounts coding systems in five centers across the country for consolidation of accounts and generation of consolidated MIS reports. Mithani has also worked with media planning group (Euro RSCG) and one of the leading internal Audit Firms – M/s Aneja Associates at Mumbai.
 

MUMBAI: Lintas India has been empanelled by the Income Tax department to handle its creative duties. The current empanelment is for a period of one year.
 
Says Lowe Lintas CEO Charles Cadell, “We are extremely happy with the empanelment and hope that we continue to do great work for the Income Tax department. This opportunity comes on the heels of our empanelment for DAVP and we look forward to more such opportunities with prestigious government organizations.”