Category: MAM

MUMBAI: In the wake of a multi-agency pitch, RK Swamy BBDO Delhi has won the creative duties of Lloyd Group‘s consumer electronics business.
 
Commenting on the win, RK Swamy BBDO president North Ajit Shah says, “We are excited to be working with Lloyd. Our goal is to help them carve out a rightful place in the Indian market against the major foreign brands.”
 
The challenge for the different agencies is not only to familiarise the consumers with the brand ‘Lloyd‘ but also to help them understand the new products. RK Swamy BBDO scored over the other agencies in terms of the understanding of the product category and creatives. The agency‘s presentation included a 360 degree communication concept that will be adopted by Lloyd in due course of time. 
 
The group, already offering LCDs and ACs, is planning to expand its product portfolio with several new lifestyle products including mix of household utility items and kitchen appliances.

MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group has launched a new out-of-home agency ‘Vector‘.

Headquartered in Mumbai, the agency will operate as a division of Starcom MediaVest Group with operations in all the metros.

Navia Asia CEO India Sanjay Shah will take up additional responsibility as Vector CEO. The agency has appointed Sriram Iyer as COO. Iyer will be supported by India head (North & East) Abhishek Singh and India head (West & South) Rakesh Srivastav.
 
Meanwhile, sister agency Navia Asia, which manages the OOH needs of clients of all VivaKi media brands in India as well as its own AOR clients, will continue to operate independently.

Starcom MediaVest Group CEO South Asia Ravi Kiran says, “The OOH industry is gaining momentum after seeing some difficult times in the past one year. Despite the difficult period, Navia Asia had a steady growth. Inspired by this, we decided to create a brand new unit, with its own vision, leadership and operating processes. Vector will be the newest entrant and will start with a team of 15 professionals and two clients.”
 
“The OOH industry with new technologies and international tools for measurement among other modern frameworks is bound to take great leaps in the way brands advertise,” says Shah.

Adds Iyer, “With Vector we are creating a new approach to the way OOH business is done in the country. We will offer clients a 360 degree experiential solution and stay ahead of the curve by being agile and state of the art.”
 
Vector will collaborate with Navia in several areas aimed at bringing greater transparency and accountability to OOH and Ambient Marketing as a discipline and enhancing return on client investment and objectives.

These include customisation and application of international tools and best practices, development of India specific planning and measurement frameworks, import and application of new OOH display and production technologies, development and licensing of IP based ideas and structured assets and technology enabled near-real time monitoring & tracking systems and management dashboards.
 

MUMBAI: O&M Bangalore group creative director Malvika Mehra and group creative director and creative head Amit Akali have put in their papers.

Currently serving their notice period, Mehra and Akali will be with the company till the end of March.
 
Confirming the development, Mehra says, “I have been with O&M for the last 16 years and it‘s time to move from the comfort zone and explore new opportunities.”
 
So where are they headed? “Akali and I will be moving out together and also moving into a new company as a team. We are still evaluating the different options and haven’t zeroed in on anything as of now,” says Mehra.
 
Mehra and Akali who were previously in O&M Mumbai moved to the agency’s Bangalore office in 2006. They have worked in accounts including Titan, Lenovo, Allen Solly and State Bank of India.

Mehra joined O&M in 1994 and Akali in 2004.

BANGALORE: The Advertising Club Bangalore’s annual ‘The Big Bang Awards‘ will be held on 26 February.

Adclub President and Saatchi and Saatchi Focus CEO Malavika R Harita says, “We have done some rationalization of categories for entries. The agencies will vie with each other for 180 awards in all three awards, bronze, silver and gold for each category, spread over 60 categories over nine groups.” 
 
“This year we have strengthened the digital group by introducing more sub-categories to cover online campaigns, Digital campaigns for web and mobile, viral marketing and social media campaigns,” she adds. 
 
Apart from the 180 awards in the fray, there are the top five awards for top art director, top copywriter, top agency, top advertiser and media agency of the year awards which are decided by a point tally system among the award winners.
 
The Adclub has called for entries for creative and media work done by the agencies from 1 January to 31 December 2009. The last date for receiving the entries is 5 February 2010.

For the third year in a row, The Times of India Group is the presenting sponsor of the awards.
 

MUMBAI: Pearls and its associates have announced that Australian pace bowler Bret Lee is its new brand ambassador.
 
Lee will be helping the Pearls Corporate in the fields of infrastructure, media and tourism to spruce up its growth initiatives and enhancing the zeal and perfection in its corporate image.

Pearls director Jyoti Narayan said, “We are highly obliged and elated to have Brett Lee as brand ambassador for Pearls and its associates companies. This association has been worked out after constructive deliberations and strategic discussions for uplifting the marketing front and providing an unified identify to the brand pearls.”
 
Lee says, “It is indeed a privilege to be associated as an ambassador of major brands with Pearls. I have always had a very close affinity with a senior management of Pearls and I find it really enjoyable to put my spirit of perfection and Pearls vision of golden growth together. I am sure that coming to Pearls family will take us mutually to new heights in growth, quality and image of the corporate.”
 
Pearls has emerged as a business conglomerate over the last 15 years and have diversified in various activities which have been planned strategically, promise, future growth and bright prospects. Pearls presence in the infrastructure sector has been tremendous and it involves enormous, premium and prestigious prospects. A number of its projects are going to take off pan India. Pearls adds that it has carved its identity for itself that depicts zests for creating quality products of world-class standards.

Pearls as a business conglomeration has interests in infrastructure, media, agriculture, hospitality and retail.

MUMBAI: Kolkata-based McNroe Chemicals has roped in Maxus to handle its media account. 
 
The size of the account is estimated to be in the region of Rs 150-200 million. 
 
As part of its new mandate, Maxus will work along with McNroe‘s internal media buying and Future Brands which also works closely as consultants for McNroe‘s brands.
 
McNroe Chemicals is the manufacturer of the Wild Stone brand of deodarants.
 

MUMBAI: Barclaycard, which is part of Barclays Global Retail Banking division, has launched the sequel to its waterslide commercial.

The new ad tells the story of an even more adventurous and innovative commute to work – on a rollercoaster. The 60 second rollercoaster ride brings to life Barclaycard’s mission of making its customers’ (both retailers and consumers) lives easier through contactless payment technology.
 
Rollercoaster takes forward the successful features of Waterslide, using a story of one character’s journey to work to promote the ease of using a Barclaycard. The advert begins with the character standing at the lift doors of his apartment block when a rollercoaster pulls up and takes him on a wonderfully smooth and liberating journey high above the clutter and congestion of the city below, only slowing slightly when he makes a contactless payment at the bakery en route to work.

Filmed in New York and Hollywood, the rollercoaster advert has been the most technical and complicated shoot to date in Barclaycard’s celebrated history of advertising. Utilising a real rollercoaster cart and 40 ft of working track, the ad also features the first use of the ’Spidercam’ in an advert since the camera was developed to film parts of the ’Spiderman’ movies and complex CGI to help create a realistic vision of a rollercoaster weaving in and out of the city’s skyscrapers.
 
The four-week campaign launched online on YouTube and Barclaycard’s Facebook page on 22 January with a 60-second advert and aired on television for the first time two days later. A 40-second version was introduced after the first week. The TV activity is part of a wider campaign that will include online adverts and a social media campaign set to reach more than 10 million people using the Barclaycard Facebook page as a hub for all new information about the commercial.

Following on from the success of the Waterslide iPhone game, Barclaycard will launch a Rollercoaster download game later in the year.

Contactless payment technology was pioneered by Barclaycard in the UK in 2007 with the launch of Barclaycard OnePulse. Now, all Platinum, Gold and Classic Barclaycards are issued with contactless technology and over five million are in circulation in the UK. Over 20,000 retailers now accept contactless payments throughout the UK.
 
Created by leading advertising agency BBH and directed by Nicolai Fuglsig, the commercial is designed to bring to life Barclaycard’s vision of a world where payments are simple and stress free.

Barclaycard head of advertising and content Paul Troy says, “The success of our waterslide advert was absolutely fantastic and we have built upon that with ’Rollercoaster’ which is another great metaphor for how Barclaycard makes payment so simple for our customers. It again breaks boundaries for Barclaycard and is the most technically advanced commercial we have ever filmed.”

MUMBAI: Chennai-based Parryware Roca has awarded its media duties to OMD.

The account size is pegged at Rs 180-200 million and there was no pitch process involved.
 
Mindshare was servicing the sanitaryware company that houses products under the brand names Parryware and Roca.
 
Meanwhile, O&M and BBDO are handling the creative duties of Parryware and Roca respectively.
 
Parryware Roca will invest heavily on the medium of television followed by print, outdoor and digital.
 

MUMBAI: Castrol has continued to strengthen its position in football by signing a partnership with Uefa to sponsor the Euro 2012 tournament, which will be jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine.

The new agreement awards the global lubricants company a worldwide rights package for the duration of the Uefa Euro 2012 tournament.

As sponsor of the event, Castrol will continue to use their analysis, technology and innovation to provide insights into winning performances and add value for football fans across the globe.

The brand will build on a successful Uefa Euro 2008 sponsorship, for which it created the Castrol Index – a system that uses highly accurate playercam technology to objectively analyse and compare the performance of each and every player throughout the tournament.
 
The announcement bolsters the company’s current portfolio of football sponsorships, which includes the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa and the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil, and a comprehensive ambassador roster including Cristiano Ronaldo and Ars?ne Wenger.

Castrol will begin its activation programme for Uefa Euro 2012 around the draw on 7 February 2010 by launching the Castrol Predictor, a tool that measures team and player performance to predict which teams will ultimately qualify for the final sixteen.
 
 
Castrol global ambassador Ars?ne Wenger says, “The Castrol Index brought a new dimension to analysing player performances during EURO 2008. For the first time, fans were able to objectively monitor and compare how players were performing, giving them a new and interesting viewpoint. I look forward to seeing the Castrol Index develop for EURO 2012.”
 
Says Castrol senior VP for Lubricants, Mike Johnson, “European football is amongst the strongest in the world, with an appeal that reaches far beyond the continent, so we’re delighted to be able to continue our long term commitment to football with this new association.”
 

MUMBAI: Former BBH India executive producer Anuraag A Fulay has joined Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC) as VP marketing & business development.
 
Confirming the development PNC chairman Pritish Nandy says, “Fulay has assumed office and will be reporting to PNC CEO Pallab Bhattacharya. He will be based out of Mumbai”.
 
In the past, Fulay has worked with agencies like Concept Advertising Dubai and Percept India.