Category: MAM

MUMBAI: SpiceJet is all geared up to launch its first set of television commercials in a bid to expand its brand awareness nationwide.

Come 25 January, the airline company will roll out a set of five commercials across various Hindi and English channels including news, infotainment and movie channels.
 
SpiceJet has earmarked its television advertising budget at approximately Rs 8-10 crores for the next 12 months with an aim to “cut through the clutter in the current television advertising”.

Says SpiceJet SVP and head marketing Anish Srikrishna, “The five-film campaign has been conceptualized by Contract Advertising and produced by Bappaditya Roy Productions. Though we are still to finalise on the number of spots across various channels, we are looking at a 500 GRP plus coverage across the television network.” 
 
The five-film campaign uses a ‘reverse testimonial‘ route to drive home the benefits described of the airline. It positions SpiceJet as an airline that cares for its customers and offers an enhanced flying experience wherein low fare is defined as high value. The campaign line is on the “Get more when you fly SpiceJet” theme, earlier executed on print and outdoor media.
 
Commenting on the new brand campaign, SpiceJet CEO Sanjay Aggarwal said, “With these new campaigns and the first one on the television, we will be in a position to bring to life the value proposition that passengers will experience when they fly with us.”

BANGALORE: Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) announced the launch of its small commercial vehicle (SCV) ‘Mahindra Gio’ (‘Gio’) for the southern states in Bangalore today.

The Gio had been launched north of the Vindhya’s a couple of months ago and a TVC created by Interface with the tagline ‘Jeeyo Naye Andaaz Main’ has been on air on some of the national GECs and news channels since then.
 
“We are targeting a mass segment. Our media plans for the south are being finalized right now, and the dubbing of the TVC that has been released on the national channels into the southern regional languages is complete. Over the next 5-7 days, we expect to complete the initial deliveries of ‘Gio’ to all our dealer outlets in the south. We will ask the channels to start running our TVC’s then,” informed M&M Senior Vice President of Sales and Customer Care, Automotive sector Arun Malhotra.

Company sources revealed that the some of the channels on which ad spots would be booked include the Sun group’s GEC and movie channels in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, TV9 group’s southern regional news channels, some of the channels of ETV in the southern states and Asianet in Kerala.
 
“The south is a big market for light commercial vehicles – it contributes 40 per cent to the national sales pie, and we wanted to be very sure about the availability of the vehicle in all the four states before we launched it, hence the delayed launch,” revealed Malhotra.

The ‘Gio’ is a new category creator, says Malhotra. M&M is targeting the buyers from the mini-truck segment which has an estimated annual national market size of 110,000 units and the three wheeler commercial carrier segment which has an annual national market size of 68,000 units. M&M’s current manufacturing capacity for the ‘Gio’ is 30,000 units per annum.
 
Media buying for the M&M ‘Gio’ is done through Lodestar.
 

MUMBAI: Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) India has firmed up the empanelment of its agencies following a multi-agency pitch. 
 
With LIC reviewing its ad agencies every two years, the empanelment of the agencies is for a period of two years.
 
Earlier, the incumbent agencies were RK Swamy, Mudra and DraftFCB+Ulka. 
 
Currently, LIC functions with 2048 branch offices, 100 divisional offices and seven zonal offices.

MUMBAI: The Nielsen Company has partnered with Northpoint Centre of Learning has launched a ‘Certificate Course in Marketing Research‘ at the post graduate level.
 
The course offers an intensive 11-month certificate programme with the first batch commencing in June 2010. The course will be a mix of theory sessions, which will be held at the Northpoint campus at Khandala, and extensive hands-on projects and internships with The Nielsen Company. 
 
Industry professionals from Nielsen and other reputed companies will share knowledge through guest lecture sessions. On successful completion of the course, students will have the opportunity for placement with The Nielsen Company across Asia Pacific, India, Middle East, and Africa. 
 
Said The Nielsen Company South Asia MD Partha Rakshit, “While the MBA courses impart a basic knowledge of marketing research, this programme will bring in the rigor of specialised training in marketing research.”
 

MUMBAI: In the wake of a multi-agency pitch, S Kumars Nationwide Ltd has appointed Law & Kenneth to handle the creative duties for its new brand, World Player.

As per industry sources, the account size is pegged at Rs 300 million for one year. 
 
Says Law & Kenneth India CEO and managing partner Anil Nair, “We will initially roll out the brand in the southern region and then reach pan India in the next 100-120 days.”
 
While television will be used as the prime medium to spread brand awareness, activation and on-ground will form a major chunk of the brand building strategy. 
 
S Kumars Nationwide is one of India‘s leading textile and apparel companies, with expertise in multi-fibre manufacturing. The company has extended its presence in multiple product categories from fabrics to apparels and home textiles across price ranges.

MUMBAI: Carat Media has roped in Rajni Menon as associate vice president for its Mumbai office.

Prior to this, Menon was with ZenithOptimedia as director. 
 
In her new capacity, Menon will report into Carat India managing director Kartik Iyer and play a major role in further improving the strategic investment planning for the entire agency.

Speaking on the appointment, Kartik Iyer says, “We are delighted to have Rajni on board. Her vast experience with special focus on buying would definitely prove to be a great asset to Carat. We see her playing a major role in further improving the Strategic Investment planning for the entire agency and specifically contributing to the business development efforts in Mumbai.”
 
Adds Menon, “Here, part of my mandate would be to combine buying with attracting new business efforts.”

An alumnus of Mica with over 10 years of work experience in media planning, buying and other functions, Menon was leading the buying for Unilever at Fulcrum before joining Zenith Optimedia. 
 
During her tenure at GroupM (CTG), she had been responsible for the strategic investments of brands like PepsiCo, Motorola, Castrol and Onida amongst other.

She has also worked other media agencies such as Lintas Media Group, McCann Erickson and Madison Communications wherein she was handling the planning and buying for brands like Maruti Suzuki, Coca Cola, Reckitt Benckiser, Gillette and Bacardi.
 
 

MUMBAI: Betting big on its new reality show Mahayatra… Rishton Ka Anokha Safar, Star Plus has kicked off aggressive marketing initiatives for the show.

Targeting to tap audiences in the 4-40 age groups, the religious adventure format is being promoted extensively across the radio and mobile platforms. 
 
Says Said Star India EVP marketing Anupam Vasudev, “While 15 per cent of our marketing budget is skewed towards radio, we are also using mobile and digital extensively.”

“We have bought approximately 20-25 spots a day on radio channels such as Big FM, Radio City, Red FM, Fever and Radio One in our target markets which include Mumbai, Delhi, UP & Gujarat. The 10 day radio campaign will also include engagement through listener interactivity, contests & mentions,” he adds. 
 
As part of the digital initiative, extensive banner campaigns have been put up on travel sites like yatra.com and indianrailways.

The marketing of the show will remain high across Star‘s network channels. “We are using close to 600 secondages across star network,” Vasudev avers. The show is also being advertised heavily on Aaj Tak, Star News, India TV, Zoom, MTV and B4U.
 
Mahayatra…Rishton Ka Anokha Safar is replacing Shraddha in the 7 pm slot. The show will be telecast from Monday to Friday.

Commenting on the choice of discontinuing Shraddha, Vasudev says, “A spiritual adventure reality show will be more exciting and interesting from a viewer‘s point of view and since the two shows are very similar to each other – both of them are about taking your parents to a pilgrimage – we felt it made more sense to discontinue Shraddha.”
 

MUMBAI: US broadcaster truTV will be part of the ad lineup for CBS’ broadcast of the Super Bowl. truTV’s first Super Bowl ad will feature one of the NFL’s most popular players, Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
 
The event takes place next month. truTV programming includes original series that focus on giving viewers access to places and situations they can’t normally experience. The network’s Super Bowl spot will highlight an addition to truTV’s lineup: NFL Full Contact, a behind-the-scenes look at professional football that debuts on 8 February 2010, the day following the Super Bowl. The ad is scheduled to appear in the second quarter of the game, prior to the two-minute warning.
truTV was known as Court TV before being rebranded in 2008.
 
truTV/In Session executive VP, GM Marc Juris says, “Clearly, truTV has arrived and has enjoyed great success in attracting a new, younger audience. Having an ad in the Super Bowl gives the network the biggest possible platform to show viewers and the advertising community that truTV has emerged as a major player in television.” 
 
truTV’s ad will focus on Polamalu, one of the NFL’s top safeties. Since the 2005 season, Polamalu has earned two Super Bowl rings. He was also chosen for five-straight Pro Bowls from 2005-2009.

MUMBAI: In the wake of a multi-agency pitch, IDFC (Infrastructure Development Finance Company) has roped in TBWAIndia as its new creative partner. 
 
The size of the account is pegged to be in the region of Rs 150 million. 
 
Apart from TBWA, the other agencies contending for the account include Lowe Lintas, McCann Erickson and Rediffusion Y&R. 
 
Said TBWAIndia Group CEO Shiv Sethuraman, “This is a challenging and exciting category and IDFC MF is looking to do things very ‘disruptively‘, which suits us just fine.”
 

MUMBAI: Six Inches Communications, an integrated brand communication agency, has announced mid level management appointments to strengthen its creative and account management team. The company has appointed Reshma Basankar as head – art, Zohara Kapadia as head – copy and Saket Vaishnav as business head.

Says Six Inches Communication founder & managing director Pravin Shah, “Keeping in sync with our growth pursuits for this year, it was necessary to have a well experienced team in place to lead certain verticals. I‘m positive we have found a good match with Reshma, Zohara and Saket to enable us to continue ahead.”
 
Basankar has spent 12 years in advertising at the Times Group and Network Advertising where she has handled brands such as Jet Airways, Cipla, HDFC Ergo, IDBI Bank, Anchor and Thomas Cook. 
 
Zohara Kapadia has worked with advertising firms such as Quadrant, Percept/H, Umbrella and Beehive Communications over the past nine years. She has worked on a diverse portfolio of brand such as Kenstar, Tourism Malaysia, Star Cruises and Reliance Industries. 
 
Saket Vaishnav brings with him an extensive experience in strategizing and business development. Vaishnav, over the years, has worked with Mudra, Percept/H and Concept Communications. He has handled brands such as Bajaj Allianz, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, Air Deccan and JK Cement.