Category: MAM

Playing on the theme ‘Beauty kare hairan, jeb par bhi asaan‘, the TVC has been conceptualised by Publicis Ambience.

Directed by Anand Iyer, the TVC revolves around a small town jethani who is visiting her parents for a wedding in the house. She gets shunted out into a neighbour‘s house to stay, while her ‘devrani‘ is given a hotel room to stay. The neighbour‘s house is painted with Nerolac Beauty Emulsion . The jethani is delighted and compares it with her devrani‘s hotel room.

Nerolac and Publicis Ambience retained the old Nerolac corporate jingle in order to drive brand recall.

Says Sab business head Anooj Kapoor, “The first phase of the campaign was rolled out in October last year which established Sab as a linear family comedy channel. This year the attempt is to reinstate the brand positioning in the consumer‘s mind.”

“The idea is not only to create unique positioning for the channel and bring in more audiences but also to take the campaign to the next level,” he adds.

Kapoor, however, declined to comment on the amount that Sab has earmarked towards this campaign.

Sab has booked 5000 TV spots for promoting the initiative. While the campaign‘s frequency will remain high across Sony‘s network channels, it will also be promoted across all Hindi news channels, movie channels such as Zee Cinema and UTV Movies and kids channels such as Nick and Cartoon Network.

The channel has also partnered with regional channels in Punjab and Orissa as part of the brand promotion initiative.

Conceptualised by Pickle Advertising, the television campaign features family members across different age groups busy all through the day. But they meet up and have fun together at night while watching Sab. The TVC has been directed by Rahul Johri.

“We are also the associate sponsors of Straight Drive on Ten Sports and will be actively visible during the India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand Series on the channel,” avers Kapoor.

While television remains the preferred medium to build the channel‘s brand positioning, Sab will also exploit other media platforms like print, radio, digital and outdoor to support the brand-building process.

As part of its outdoor initiative, the channel has booked around 10,000 digital screens across the Hindi speaking market (HSM). These include screens at Café Coffee Day, McDonald‘s and Mumbai‘s Best buses and local railway stations. The campaign will also have presence in multiplexes with cinema spots, standees and backlit boxes.

The brand campaign will be backed by four animation films, each of 55 seconds, with the tagline ‘Asli Sazaa Kissi Ko Kabhie Bhi Mil Sakti Hai par Asli Mazaa Sab ke Ssath Aata Hai‘. The films will go on air in October this year.

Recently, as part of the activity, Sab launched the radio property, ‘Sab Ke Damaadji‘, in association with Fever FM and Radio Mirchi. “Currently, the frequency of the radio property is five times a day but we plan to double the frequency as part of the campaign,” says Kapoor.

According to a source, the channel may also soon associate with Red FM, which will host its radio property along with the other two stations.

MUMBAI: Cricket Victoria has announced Dheeraj and East Coast (DEC) as partner of the Victorian Bushrangers and VicSpirit for the next three years.

DEC is a part of the Wadhawan Group which undertakes real estate project development internationally with 20 projects worth $1.7 billion lined up in the UAE and will be soon announcing its projects in Australia, particularly in Melbourne, Victoria.

NRI developer Dheeraj Wadhawan, said that his company, DEC, can see tremendous benefits in being associated with two of Australia’s leading cricket teams.

“DEC understands the popularity of the game of cricket, across boundaries in most parts of the world. The T20 format of cricket – which is fast paced and exciting – has gathered immense popularity recently, especially amongst the younger generation.

“The Victorian Bushrangers is a team that holds lots of promise and rank very high on the international circuit. DEC has expansion plans in established markets like UK, Australia and New Zealand – where cricket has an excellent following and associating with such a popular game is the right way to reach out to our target audience” he says.

Cricket Victoria CEO Tony Dodemaide says, “DEC is a renowned and rapidly growing company with whom we’re thrilled to be in partnership.

“They’re looking to expand throughout Australia, especially in Victoria, while we’re looking to capitalise on our presence in India for the upcoming Champions League Twenty20.”

During the Champions League Twenty20 Victoria will be branded under the Dheeraj banner, but will revert to the DEC Victorian Bushrangers for all the domestic competitions.

MUMBAI: OMD, a division of Omnicom, has bagged the $1.31 billion (?800 million) global media planning and buying contract for Vodafone.

The win gives a major blow to the world‘s largest advertising group WPP which was considered a strong frontrunner to win the deal as it entered into final negotiations over recent weeks.

Says Chedore, “It‘s been an incredible eight years. It‘s hard to believe that the Synovate name is only six years old. I think we can all be very proud of the growth and success we have achieved. I think it‘s fair to say we‘ve arrived and I can‘t think of a better, more capable leader than Robert to lead the company into its next phase.”

In his new role, Philpott will be responsible for overseeing the company‘s business unit profitability, business systems and processes, and quality control.

Prior to this, Philpott was Synovate chief operating officer. He is also a key member of the executive team that sets corporate strategy for the research company.

46 finalists have been selected from 187 entries and Bates 141 is amongst the selected lot nominated in the category- Campaign for a new brand. The other cases short listed in this category are by CumminsNitro, Australia: Tourism Queensland (“The Best Job in the World”), JWT, New York: Schick (“Making a Private Buzz Public”), M&C Saatchi, London: Ladbrokes (“Forward Accountability”) and Olson, Minneapolis: Nike (‘Nike Bauer Hockey‘).

Says Bates 141 India chief strategy officer Dheeraj Sinha, “Virgin mobile campaign allowed us an opportunity to build a real youth brand in India. The brand cleverly exhorted the Indian youth to bypass sanctions. The idea was to be their partner in crime, rather than give them any kind of empowerment or liberation. For the first time perhaps, Indian television saw advertising whose storylines and protagonists were not all whitewashed in goodness.”

Says Virgin Mobile (India) chief marketing officer Prasad Narsimhan, “This nomination reinstates Virgin Mobile‘s strategic efforts in creating a distinct youth brand identity in a hyper-competitive telecom market that has giant, entrenched players. We are happy to have Bates 141 as our ad agency. The strategic thinking that they bring in our communication based on their understanding of our brand promise and the way the youth behave has been fundamental in establishing the Virgin Mobile brand in India. The results speak for themselves. With much smaller budgets than our competitors, we already enjoy 92 per cent awareness amongst youth as measured in a recent AC Nielsen survey.”

MUMBAI: Max Bupa Health Insurance (MBHI), a joint venture between Max India and UK-based Bupa Group, has roped in Bates 141 to handle its creative account.
The agency won the account following a multi-agency pitch.

Max Bupa had called for a creative pitch approximately two months ago. It was looking at crafting a 360 campaign that would exploit all media platforms including print, television, OOH and Internet.

In his new role, Srivastava will oversee the entire Rediffusion – Y&R south operations including its offices in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Says Rediffusion – Y&R Group CEO Mahesh Chauhan, “Paritosh has the experience of working with the teams and clients in Bangalore as well as a keen understanding of Rediffusion – Y&R‘s future plans. This promotion was a natural progression of his current role and I‘m happy to offer the opportunity to him. I‘m sure he will make a great success of it.”

Adds Paritosh Srivastava, “In line with the Rediffusion approach, the focus will be to expand our engagement through an integrated offering in the region, and further build on our robust portfolio of brands.”

Paritosh has been with Rediffusion – Y&R, Bangalore since 2003. He rose through the ranks to head the Bangalore and Hyderabad operations in March 2007. He has worked on brands ranging from insurance and telecom to FMCG and lifestyle.

This newly introduced award looks at honouring and recognising advertisers who have marketed their products innovatively and who have also tried to introduce new communication initiatives.

Commenting on the win, festival chairman Terry Savage said, “Year on year we continue to see The Times of India pushing the boundaries. This is a brand that is not afraid to step beyond the line by encouraging creative thought and passion both in its readers as well as in its marketing and advertising campaigns and which, in doing so, gives a powerful resonance to its product.”

Jointly organised by Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival and UK-based publication company Haymarket Group, Spikes Asia 09 will be held in Singapore from 16 – 18 September.