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Category: MAM

  • ICC to begin sale of sponsorship rights

    MUMBAI: Having locked in $ 1.1 billion dollars from the sale of telecast rights, the International Cricket Council will soon start the sales process for sponsorship rights to ICC events over the next eight years, including the World Cup in 2015.

    The period includes 18 ICC tournaments with two ICC Cricket World Cups, in Asia (2011) and Australasia (2015), and a minimum of three ICC Champions Trophy tournaments.

    Also included are the first two ICC Twenty20 World Championships, in South Africa (2007) and England (2009), the latter taking place in the ICC’s centenary year.
    The ICC intends to enter negotiations with prospective sponsors with a view to concluding agreements during the first half of 2007.

    Chief executive officer Malcolm Speed said: “The ICC’s executive board began this process in April of last year when it confirmed the venues for ICC events from the second half of 2007 to the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup.
    “With those events and a broadcasting agreement to cover them in place, we are now in a position to go to market to obtain the best possible partners for cricket.

    “For the first time the ICC is able to offer one major event every year and the quality and variety of those events and the fact they span the globe mean they represent exceptional value for sponsors.
    “Live telecasts will be supported by an integrated promotion plan for major events and for the sport. It all means that companies have never had a bigger and more prestigious opportunity in cricket.”

    The ICC has already sold its broadcast rights for the period with ESPN Star Sports in December named as its Global Media and Production Partner in a agreement worth $ 1.1 billion.

    ICC Events 2007 – 2015

    2007    Cricket World Cup    March/April    March/April West Indies*
    Twenty20 World Championship    September    South Africa
    2008    U/19 Cricket World Cup    February    Malaysia
    Champions Trophy    September    Pakistan
    2009    Women’s Cricket World Cup    March    Australia
    ICC Trophy    April    UAE
    Twenty20 World Championship    June    England
    2010    U/19 Cricket World Cup    February    Kenya
    Champions Trophy    March/April    West Indies
    World Cricket League    TBC    The Netherlands
    2011    Cricket World Cup    February/March    Bangladesh/India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka
    2012    U/19 Cricket World Cup    July    Canada
    Champions Trophy/Twenty20 World Championship    September    Sri Lanka
    2013    Women’s Cricket World Cup    February    India
    Champions Trophy/Twenty20 World Championship    TBC    TBC
    2014    Champions Trophy/Twenty20 World Championship    April    Bangladesh
    U/19 Cricket World Cup    February/March    UAE
    World Cricket League    TBC    TBC
    2015    Cricket World Cup    February/March    Australia/New Zealand

    * broadcast and sponsorship rights for this event owned by News Corp Owned Global Cricket Corporation.

  • ESS plugs football presenters in Singapore

    MUMBAI: ESPN STAR Sports took to the streets in Singapore this week with an outdoor campaign featuring their English sports news presenters on wholly painted buses.

    John Dykes
    The campaign features John Dykes, host of ESS’ football news and highlights programmes; David Basheer, host of ESS’ UEFA sports news coverage; and Jason Dasey and Bethan Evans, presenters of SportsCenter Asia.

    The three-month campaign aims to establish the sports network’s most recognizable presenters as the sports experts who deliver the latest news to its audience in Singapore. Design was created by Litt Lindden Design & Associates led by Creative Director Suvajit Das.

  • E&Y expands marketing & advertising risk services with media audit unit

    MUMBAI: Ernst & Young LLP, has expanded its marketing and advertising risk services (MARS) practice through the launch of its media performance auditing unit.

    An official statement issued by the company states that with the establishment of the unit, Ernst & Young will offer a holistic approach to managing risk in marketing and advertising initiatives by providing advertisers with an objective, independent review of media delivery performance, agency contracts and compliance, review of advertiser business processes and related controls all under one roof.

    According to Ernst & Young LLP, MARS practice global director Kenneth Fakler, Ernst & Young created this service after recognizing the need that advertisers have for an independent verification of their media spend and understanding that there are many risks involved, including compliance risk, operational and financial risk and strategic risk. While media performance audits are common in Europe, they have become increasingly prevalent in the United States.

    “Unlike the Super Bowl, where there is no question whether an advertiser’s ad ran because almost everyone is watching, the majority of advertising, whether broadcast, print, or online, doesn’t typically have that kind of universal exposure. Therefore, advertisers may not know if their ad ran, ran correctly, and if the advertiser received the value it paid for,” said Fakler.

    “Media and advertising spend can account for significant direct costs for a company. We already perform agency contract compliance and process and control reviews for our advertiser clients, so it was important that we also include one of the biggest areas of marketing spend and risk — media performance auditing — to our service offering. Now an advertiser can come to our firm to get a comprehensive media audit that can help determine operational effectiveness and mitigate the risks involved.”

    The MARS practice is made up of a network of professionals with experience in the marketing communications industry and related financial and operational processes, including: marketing and advertising finance, agency operations, creative production, media buying, promotions, project management, sponsorship, public relations, branded entertainment and talent. The practice has a global reach with a presence in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific, adds the release.

  • Swatch ushers in Valentines spirit with ‘Singles Party’

    MUMBAI: Deafening! Pounding! Lots of Jumping! These are a few words that come to mind when one thinks of last nights event at the popular discotheque Fire n’ Ice. The occasion was India’s ‘First Singles Party’ organised by Swiss watchmaker Swatch. The event will air today on In Mumbai.

    Explaining the logic behind the concept, Country Manager Swatch Group India G Kannan said that the party was an attempt to offer Mumbai’s youth an out of the box experience and get out of the mushy feeling that one associates with couples in love.

    Music spun by DJs blasted in one’s ears accompanied by innovative Swatch TVCs, which were aired, on a giant screen. New actress on the block Esha Deol put in an appearance to unveil a special Valentine’s watch ‘Aiming For Your Heart’. The watch features multi coloured hearts covering the numberless dial. The gold toned hour hands are meant to symbolise cupids love arrows.

    James Bond fans may recall that to celebrate the anniversary of the spy last year, the company had launched the James Bond Series of 20 watches each named after a Bond movie. Swatch was launched in India three years ago.

  • Motorola kicks off special offer across Motostores

    MUMBAI: Motorola Inc. has unveiled special mobile offers throughout the multi-city branded outlets called Motostores.


    Motorola has set up shops across India targeting key cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Pune. These Motostores will provide the consumers with new ways to personalise their handsets.


    The mobile offers include select bundles of Motorola handsets and accessories available only at these select stores.









    Motorola‘s mobile combo offer is available across some of the newest handsets including: Motorokr E6, Motoming A1200, Motokrzr K1, Motorizr Z3 and many more. Each can be bundled with select bluetooth accessories including the Snoop S9, P790 portable charger or the HT820, H350, or H500 headsets, states an official press release.


    Motorola mobile devices India, Sri Lanka and Nepal director sales Sudhir Agarwal said, “We‘re working hard to help Indian consumers enjoy their wireless experience and we‘re committed to offering the best possible choice to them. Through our mobile combo offers, visitors to India‘s Motostores will be treated to exciting mobility bundles for some of our most popular handsets.”




    Along with mobile accessories in the bundled offer, the Motostores also offer customized phone tattoos and wireless photo imaging services.

  • Bharat Kapadia takes over as Bhaskar Group ED

    MUMBAI: Bharat Kapadia, executive director of Divya Bhaskar, has been appointed as the executive director of the entire Bhaskar Group. The appointment comes in the wake of the Group’s expansion through new ventures in the form of additional magazines and new initiatives coming from I Media Corporation Limited (IMCL).

    Kapadia’s role would make him responsible for not only Divya Bhaskar, but also Dainik Bhaskar and magazines like Aha! Zindagi and Bal Bhaskar in Hindi and Saurashtra Samachar in Gujarati. Two more Hindi publications are on the cards – a career magazine and a women’s magazine.

    “I joined Divya Bhaskar in 2005 and my mandate was largely to turn around the fortunes of the company, which we successfully managed to do so. I’m hopeful of carrying the same growth forward,” said Kapadia, about his appointment which is effective immediately.

    Kapadia has also been spearheading the ‘Vote For Taj’ campaign as chairman of IMCL, wherein they have won marketing rights for a campaign being created to promote Taj Mahal as one of the ‘New Seven Wonders of the World’. He elaborated, “The campaign for the Taj will only get more aggressive and we’ll be shortly unveiling the official song for the same.”

  • Pantaloon wears passion this World Cup

    MUMBAI: Keeping World Cup fervour in mind, Pantaloon has launched Passion Wear, a specially designed range of World Cup apparel and accessories. Pantaloon Retail India is the sole retail for ICC World Cup merchandise in India. These rights allow Pantaloon to use Dazzler, the ICC World Cup mascot as well as to design, manufacture, distribute and market the World Cup Cricket 2003 merchandise.
     

     
    The apparel range includes Replica T-shirts (exact replica of T-shirts worn by Sachin Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag and Saurav Ganguly and others from the Indian cricket team), Message T-shirts (having amusing anecdotes of cricket & films, one-line jokes on cricket etc.), Dazzler T-shirts (Officials Mascot of the ICC World Cup), sweatshirts, sweat pants, track pants, socks and select designs for ladies like short tops etc.

    The accessories range includes bats – memorabilia, crazy balls, stress relief balls, key chains, Dazzler key chains- Flat & 3 D Caps Ties-with ICC logo. Hankies, mugs etc. also form part of Pantaloons ICC collection, which have the image of the mascot printed on them. The apparel and accessories are available at all Pantaloon Retail outlets.

    Director, Pantaloon Retail India Rakesh Biyani said, “ The two things Indians are most passionate about are films and cricket. Cricket is not a game in India it is a religion hence our World Cup range is known Passion Wear. We have chosen the World Cup to launch our cricket accessories and apparels. The range caters not only to children and men but also to women.”

    Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited has over 15 superstores in the country.

  • GroupM unveils celebrity branding study ‘CelebZ’

    MUMBAI: GroupM the media investment management arm of the WPP Group launched its comprehensive study on celebrity endorsement called CelebZ which allows marketers to identify celebrities who have the strongest appeal and are the best fit with a particular brand.

    The study was conducted by IMRB on a sample size of 2800 across 14 cities between October and December 2006. For the first study, CelebZ zeroed in on 86 celebrities and 140 brands. This will be continually updated over the next six months.

    In his presentation at the press conference, GroupM COO South Asia Vikram Sakhuja explained that CelebZ is based on the Millward Brown study of celebrities which creates a persona of the celebrity in terms of 12 negative and positive traits. It also measures the overall size and nature of the relationship that consumers have with a celebrity and goes on to create his or her equity pyramid. Based on this, the study calculates the mScore of each celebrity and classifies them into Platinum, Gold and Silver categories.

    Sakhuja added, “With over 250 crores being pumped into celebrity endorsement by marketers annually, it is high time we brought some accountability to celebrity management. CelebZ is a scientific research tool that helps our clients understand why a particular brand needs a certain kind of celebrity.”

    He also clarified that at present it is the five Platinum celebs which constitute about 40 percent of the industry’s current celebrity endorsement value. “This means that there is a large untapped resource of celebs out there who can also be potential fits for medium and low end brands,” says Sakhuja.

    Expectedly the highest scores are raked in by Bollywood and sport stars, especially cricket stars. But the study also throws forth some interesting insights. For example, some stars who have been out of the limelight still carry residual power. While explaining this, Sakhuja mentioned the example of “leading divas in Bollywood.” Aishwarya Rai and Rani Mukherjee claimed the first two slots. But the third slot came as a surprise. Juhi Chawla is obviously the masses favourite although she may not be part of the Bollywood numbers game anymore.

    While the study has included regional celebrities from the South as well, another pleasant surprise is economist Amartya Sen. The study has so far not included any international celebrities in the study although Hollywood actor Richard Gere and Australian cricket stars Brett Lee, Shane Warne and Glenn Mcgrath have endorsed brands in India.

    What about a study like this encouraging celebrity endorsements where none is necessary? Sakhuja says, “Advertisers and marketing heads are constantly on the look out for celebrities to drive their brands. We can’t deny that they do sell. However the research tries to break through this clutter of often repeated celebrities and get the marketers to look at the gold and silver categories which may help brands target more focused audiences. Taking them as brand endorsers would address the brand’s need far more effectively than going by mass perception and picking the platinum listers.”

    The study sampler presented at the press conference shows how an intangible emotion like ‘firmness’ is associated with celebrities like Mona Singh, Smriti Irani and Preity Zinta. For a brand that cannot afford a Preity Zinta, there is no paucity of alternatives.

    The study was championed by GroupM’s Insights division.

  • Whirlpool creates a `Sensation’

    MUMBAI: Home appliances major Whirlpool has launched a loading washing machine – ‘Sensation’.

    Whirlpool Sensation, a front-loading washing machine offers a best wash performance with 20 per cent lower water consumption and its stainwash function can help remove 10 stubborn stains – tea, coffee, ketchup, pickle, shoe polish, red sand, blood, milk, chocolate and curry.

    Whirlpool India VP marketing Shantanu Dasgupta said, “Our endeavour has always been to understand our consumers and cater to their needs. On studying the market, we noticed that, consumer were facing a problem in removing stains from their clothes. Stains like coffee, pickle, shoe polish, blood, milk, chocolate and curry marks, were the most difficult stains to get rid off.

    “Hence, we saw a need to launch a washing machine with a special stainwash function that can help remove 10 stubborn stains. Another highlighted feature of ‘Sensation’ is that it consumes less water.