Category: MAM

The F50i is the fifth generation of the F50 family and is the first football boot with a single-layer upper, the new SprintSkin. The SprintSkin envelops the player’s foot like a second skin. The synthetic material is both supple and water-repellent and always provides a perfect fit. The single-layer SprintSkin further reduces the weight of the boot without compromising on the stability that is so crucial for the footballer.

Soccer player Lionel Messi, who has already tested the F50i for several weeks in training, says, “I have never felt so good in new football boots. The extremely thin shell allows me to play to my full potential on the pitch. Perfect contact with the ball is essential for me”.

Other players endorsing the F50i in addition to Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona) and Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal FC) include: David Villa (Valencia CF), Samir Nasri (Arsenal FC), Arjen Robben and Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid), Salomon Kalou and Ashley Cole (Chelsea FC), Lukas Podolski (FC Bayern Munich), Johan Vonlanthen (Red Bull Salzburg), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham Hotspur) and Steven Pienaar (Everton FC).

Fewer entries from delegates and low sponsorship deals have caused the organisers of the convention to call off the edition.

The conference, which was supposed to be held in Macau, China from 5-6 November, aimed at providing platform to advertisers, agencies, media owners and suppliers to keep a tab on the latest developments in the out-of-home (OOH) media industry.

Said OOH Media Convention Asia Pacific head – liaison and operation Thomas Ang said, “Though the OOH convention was promoted among media industries across APac region, there were fewer entries from delegates. Also, the event could not manage to get many sponsors, due to which the convention was canceled.”

“There were fewer entries from India too, and there are no talks happening to hold the convention again,” added Ang.

Next in line stand the Bachchan clan, with daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan taking the third slot and Amitabh Bachchan grabbing the fourth.

While Tendulkar takes second top-of-the-mind brand post when it comes to cricketers, it‘s Sania Mirza who tops the charts when all the other sports besides cricket is considered.

Brand Smriti Irani, meanwhile, continues to rule the ‘all India celeb power list‘ when it comes to television stars in the Hindi speaking market while Rakesh Roshan leads the director‘s score board.

“Our study also reveals the top 10 celebrities in the Hindi speaking market. Here too, Dhoni tops the list while Shah Rukh Khan ranks second. Big B comes third, followed by Akshay Kumar, Aishwarya Rai and Katrina Kaif. Hrithik, Yuvraj, Sachin and Aamir are also part of the list,” says PTM CEO Manish Porwal.

With the endorsement market pegged at approximately Rs 10 billion, CelebTrack aims to trail celebrity perceptions amongst masses that would help advertisers choose the right brand fit for their products and services.

According to Hansa Research MD Ashok Das, the research was conducted on the basis of five parameters – ‘popularity‘, ‘persuasive power‘, ‘image attributes (personality)‘, ‘media presence‘ and ‘over exposure‘.

Says Das, “The second round of the bi-annual study was conducted over a period of six months starting April 2009, across 39 cities with 12,000-plus respondents. Approximately 400 celebrities from the national, regional and local favourite list were shortlisted from the arena of cine entertainment, cricket, other sports, music and television.”

The joint body has also performed a study for the southern region to find that Dhoni, Aishwarya and SRK top the favourite chart in Karnataka.

“Currently, we have nine clients on board. They are Tata Indicom, Pepsico, ING Vysya, Cadbury, Airtel, Vodafone, Hindustan Unilever, 9Wins, United Spirits and Pepsi,” adds Hansa Research associate VP Vineet Sodhani.

The study will be available to consumers on a subscription basis, the price of which stays at Rs 1.08 million.

As per the deal, Sky Media, the ad sales arm of BSkyB will represent Discovery as its airtime advertising sales agent in UK across its portfolio of 13 channels, including the Discovery Channel, DMAX, Discovery Real Time, Discovery Home and Health and Animal Planet.

The company also announced bringing an end to their year long legal dispute over a revenue sharing agreement that ends in December.

The four year advertising contract worth at Rs 3.71 billion starts from January 2010.

In the past one year, the 82-year-old private sector bank, has adopted a three-pronged approach towards its transformation into a new age high growth bank. These include launch of innovative products and services, creation of a nationwide footprint and evolving a strong brand communication for its diverse customer base.

As part of its new mandate, O&M will help the bank to design and implement a comprehensive go-to market communication approach, which will reflect the new philosophy and approach of the brand -“Dhanalakshmi Bank”.

The agency will also aid help the bank to create an entirely new customer experience and to incorporate a young and contemporary look across all customer touch-points.

Added Ogilvy and Mather executive chairman and creative director -South Asia Piyush Pandey, “Dhanalakshmi is a bank with tremendous heritage and value systems. I look forward to a wonderful journey to make Dhanalakshmi a top-of-the-line national institution.”

The creative works for the bank will kick off by the end of the year, informs O&M SVP Ashish Malhotra.

Meanwhile, Dhanalakshmi Bank is still scouting for media partners.

“We are still talking to various agencies and will be finalising the partner soon,” says Mehra.

MUMBAI: The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) has conferred Madison World chairman and managing director Sam Balsara with the AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award.

The award will be presented to Balsara on 13 November in Mumbai for his “outstanding contribution and development of professionalism” in the advertising industry in India.

There was no pitch involved and the account will be headed by Ogilvy Mumbai vice president Prakash Nair.

The incumbent agency for Westside was Publicis Ambience.

Confirming the development, TapRoot chief creative officer Santosh Padhi said, “Yes, we have bagged the creative mandate for the channels. The account size is pegged between Rs 250-300 million.”

The eight-month-old company is a joint venture between Santosh Padhi and Agnello Dias.

Meanwhile, Hitesh Jain, previously at O&M, has been appointed as senior copy writer and Aditya Anupkumar, who was previously with JWT, joins as senior account executive. In addition, Sunil Nair, who was earlier with Nielsen, joins as national IT head.

Additionally, as reported earlier, Kalyan Chellapalli joined from Contract as head of disruption and Gayatri Gogate from Leo Burnett joined as VP account management.

Said TBWA West COO Madan Mohan, “The arrival of these new people is part of a conscious plan to bring in fresh blood, especially so in the creative function. They all bring with them varied skills and learning from different agencies that we hope will work to the benefit of TBWA India and its clients. More importantly they bring with them new energy and zeal – this can only make us stronger as time goes by.”

Added Group CD, TBWA Mumbai Ashit Desai, “As it is our endeavor to constantly improve output, it is important that we have the right team to achieve this. With the new additions to the team, I am confident that we are getting closer to that perfect team which will help us deliver great work.”

Avers Mahesh Motwani VP LMG Kolkata, “The Srei account is pegged at Rs 100 million. As part of the new mandate, we will explore ground activations, TV and Internet for the business. We will also be using a lot of niche publications to reach out to the target audience.

Meanwhile, the Amrit Fresh Milk account will launch other variants including paneer and curd after launching its milk variant.

“It is very challenging to work on the Amrit Fresh Milk account as we will be competing with other established dairy players in the market,” adds Motwani. Lowe will handle the creative duties for Amrit Fresh Milk.

Additionally, LMG Chennai has bagged the media account of Royal Sundaram General Insurance in a multi-agency pitch. The account size is approximately Rs 100 million.