Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: Television is the best form to create demands and Web to fulfill them, making the combination a multi-billion dollar industry.

These were the words of Cimarron Digital (the digital marketing and interactive division of The Cimarron Group) SVP Jon Simon, who was speaking at PromaxBDA on ‘Digital — The Next Big Thing‘.

While creating a digital campaign, Simon said, one needs to keep the following things in perspective: narrowcast — targeting a specific group and narrowing down the approach as much as possible; integrate — integrating all the digital mediums,such as Facebook, Twitter, tablets and gaming.

As digital marketers one needs to continue innovating and the tactics shouldn‘t be just about interactivity with the consumer but also hyper-interactivity. 
 
Talking about the success of the movie, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Simon demonstrated how an effective digital marketing can directly impact movie‘s box office performance. The movie already had 5.5 million fans on Facebook, 275,000 Twitter followers, 58 million video views on YouTube and a total of 152 million trailer views across mediums.

These numbers in the virtual world resulted in the second biggest opening at the box office for any movie ever.

Speaking with Indiantelevision.com Simon said, “House-wives and teen girls are the greatest fan of Twilight book and movies. Besides them, we went after the book readers and they did the rest of our job.”

At the conference, Simon laid down the latest digital trends: apps, interactive TV, 3D, tablets, digital advertising, gaming and transmedia and cross-platform He mentioned, “Transmedia is a new term and not very easy to define. It can be something, which is a brand communication, but not in the form of ad.”

Moreover, this year 23 3D movies were released in Hollywood, which is more than double that of last year. 
 
Simon also mentioned the five principals essential for a digital marketer: digital mission, planning, create, innovate and engage. “To start anything new, one need to have a digital mission; planning is very important, because you don‘t want to mix-up your message and the brand value should be kept in mind. Engaging is very important: it is not just important to engage the audience but also to make them come back for more”, he elaborated.

On understanding social media, Simon noted, “The strategy is to understand the fans and we can do that by marketing intelligence, social listening and fanthrapology and we should be aware of the digital topography to target the customer. Digital has become eat, pray and tech.”

Talking to Indiantelevision.com Simon noted that the campaign they created for the movie Inception attracted 24 million hits for the trailer in just the first 24 hours. Another campaign he spoke about was the one created for the movie, The Dark Knight. In this campaign, mobile phones hidden in a cake were sent to a few people. And they were asked to make a call on a specific number and were asked, “Why so serious?”

Simon concluded, “Take advertising personally, ideate, innovate, be passionate and create the future.”

MUMBAI: Integrated brand communications agency, Six Inches Communication, has won the brand communication mandate of bullion traders, RiddiSiddhi Bullions (RSBL).

No pitch process took place prior to RSBL choosing Six Inches Communication as its creative partner.

The agency has already begun work on the group‘s latest product line that will be launched in the coming weeks.
 
 
RSBL director Mukesh Kothari said, “Six Inches Communications displayed tremendous passion right from the onset, understood our group and its products well. That was one of the primary reasons we chose to partner with them. We knew we had made the right choice when we experienced their innovative ideas first-hand.”
 
Six Inches Communication CEO and MD Pravin Shah added, “We are thrilled. The promoters at RSBL are big on ideas and innovation. Their faith in us will further drive us to create inspirational and memorable work for them.”

The creative strategy will involve a media mix of outdoor, electronic, digital and direct activation.
 

MUMBAI: United States is better than any other country when it comes to marketing products, says Crest Animation Studios chief executive officer A K Madhavan.

Madhavan was speaking at the PromaxBDA conference on opening the doors for Indian Animation in the intensely competitive and demanding CGI products and services global market.

Citing the examples of brands such as IBM, HP, Apple, Microsoft, McDonalds and Pizza Hut, Madhavan said that when it comes to building and marketing brands, no one does it better than US. “Hollywood is another example”, he said.
 
Armed with a strong marketing strategy, American animated films are creating big revenues worldwide, Madhavan said. “In 2010, American box office generated $10 billion out of which, $3 billion were generated by animated movies alone. This is not happening anywhere else.”

At another session during the conference Trollback + Company president and creative director Jakob Trollback showed ads and promos, which he said, communicate emotionally.

To communicate emotionally, the ads need to have synchronisation thinking, making, creativity and strategy, Trollback said.

Trollback further revealed that getting attention of the audience in the crowd is very important. He said, “You can’t reach someone’s heart with noise. With noise you can get the brain of your audience, but not the heart.”
 
Speaking further on communicating emotionally, Trollback said one should remove what’s not there in the story. He said, “We should simplify the story by adding, clarity, honesty, heart and humour.”

Talking about timeline pressures from the client, Trollback said one should make the client understand that a project created in two weeks will be better than what is created in two days. “One has to educate the client about this”, he joked.

Also, at the conference, Canal+ (Channel Plus in French) creative director Olivier Schaack showed his selected pieces of creative promos and ads. He demonstrated how he, along with the English advertising agency Devilfish, rebranded the Canal+ channels in 2009.

Schaack said, “For nearly 20 years, Canal+ had almost no competitor in the French pay TV market. The equation “No competition = No pressure” allowed Canal+ to live comfortably (5 millions subscribers) with only very basic communications: print ads but no TV ads, simple on air
trailers and only one change of graphic identity between 1984 and 2009. But, we had to adapt and keep at pace with the fast changing market.”

In this rebranding process, the French premium pay television channel developed award-winning creative image and on air campaigns in 2009, and revealed a new on air identity.

Schaack went on to show various videos created for the promotion of shows on the channel.

MUMBAI: Aegis Group’s market research arm, Synovate, has appointed Shreya Baksi Sen to lead its specialist customer experience practice in India.

Sen, who has close to 20 years of work experience, moves in from Market Probe where, as branch director, she was involved in bringing revenues and managing day-to-day operations of Delhi.
 
Synovate executive director Paru Minocha said that Sen will actively leverage opportunities with the clients across sectors, particularly in those in packaged goods, automotive, consumer durables and financial services.
 
Sen’s other posts included key roles in strategic market research at IMRB International, Research International Jakarta, AC Nielsen ORG-MARG, Mudra Communications and IIM Ahmedabad.
 
Synovate global head of customer experience John Carroll III said, “As the world’s largest specialist customer experience research practice, we are overjoyed at having such a well-known expert as Shreya lead our Synovate Customer Experience team in India.”
 

MUMBAI: Ogilvy & Mather India has bagged creative duties of MIRC Electronics’ consumer electronics brand, Onida.

The account size is estimated to be approximately Rs 1 billion.
 
McCann Erickson was the incumbent agency.

On winning the account, Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai president Hephzibah Pathak said: “We are very proud to have the opportunity to partner them in taking the brand to even greater heights. They have been trendsetters in advertising, and it promises to be an exciting journey.”
 
Mindshare handles the media planning and buying for MIRC Electronics.
 

MUMBAI: IMG Licensing, a division of global sports, fashion and media company IMG Worldwide, has signed the family of legendary basketball coach John R. Wooden for licensing and endorsements.

Following an extremely competitive process, IMG Licensing was selected by the family to manage endorsement, licensing and media opportunities.

IMG represents the “right of publicity” of John Wooden including his name, voice, likeness, image, and signature. Additionally, the family has a surplus of videos, photos and other rare mementos that will be used in a unique collectible programme.
 
Beyond his unparalleled success at UCLA where he was beloved by his former players, Wooden‘s legacy and philosophy towards teaching, motivating, and leading is forever embodied in his Pyramid of Success, that will forever serve as a teaching platform for children, athletes and coaches of all ages.

The Pyramid has already been adapted into a children‘s book named Inch and Miles, The Journey to Success. “We are very excited to represent the Family of Coach Wooden,” said Daniel Siegel, vice president of Licensing. As a UCLA alum and long-time admirer of Coach Wooden, I‘m honoured to have the opportunity to work with his lovely family to preserve the Wooden brand and legacy.”

Renowned for his short, simple inspirational messages to his players, many fans and admirers view Wooden as a combination of Vince Lombardi, General Patton and John F. Kennedy.
 
IMG Licensing will seek opportunities in traditional sports licensing categories, including memorabilia and apparel, and will work closely with IMG College to explore synergies with UCLA to carry on Wooden‘s connection to its storied basketball heritage. It will also be developing the philosophies of Coach Wooden and his Pyramid of Success across film, television, and other forms of media.
 
Wooden led UCLA to 10 NCAA National Championships in a 12-year period, including an unprecedented seven consecutive titles from 1967 to 1973. In addition, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games and 38 consecutive NCAA Tournament Games. He was named national coach of the year six times.
 

MUMBAI: HDFC Life‘s advertising spend will stay flat this year as the insurance company seeks to turn profitable.

“This is the first year we are trying to become profitable and we are maintaining a similar ad spend as last year. New mediums have come like digital and OOH. We are looking to spend more judiciously and utilise a 360 degree approach to reallocate money,” HDFC Life executive VP marketing and direct channels Sanjay Tripathy told Indiantelevision.com.
 
HDFC Life ranks No. 4 among the top 10 advertisers in the category, according to ad volumes based on TAM Adex data for the year ended 31 December 2010. It has a 7 per cent share while LIC stays on the top with a 23 per cent share.

Tripathy said spends in the insurance category dropped by around 20 per cent during the economic downturn. TAM Adex data shows TV advertising of ‘Life Insurance‘ dropped by 5 per cent (ad volumes) in 2010 compared to the earlier year. 
 
“There are two kinds of companies. New companies are spending heavily. Some of the older players who want to go for a public listing and want to make marketing money work harder are keeping a check on their spending,” Tripathy said.

While 70 per cent of HDFC‘s marketing spend goes towards above the line, 50 per cent of this goes towards television.

“We are present in over 700 cities. Television offers a more cost effective reach and provides an emotional touch point. You can link the customer with your brand and emotional thought; you can explain your concept in a situation linked to his daily life. Print, radio and OOH play a support role. We have started using social media more to engage the youth,” explained Tripathy.

On television, HDFC uses news and sports for advertising as it fits into the 25-45 male target audience. “Apart from cricket, we do on-air sponsorship of Euro, Fifa World Cup and Wimbledon. We also spend on regional news and regional entertainment,” said Tripathy.
 

MUMBAI: Media conglomerate Zee Enterprises Entertainment Ltd (Zeel) will unveil on 19 June a new brand identity that will feature the network’s new logo, packaging and positioning.

Zeel has engaged more than one creative agency in designing the brand’s new positioning, according to a person close to the development.

The new brand identity will seek to define the role, essence, promise and personality of Zee TV, Zeel’s mother brand and flagship Hindi general entertainment channel.

The network has lined up a below-the-line (BTL) activity for viewers across the globe to be a central part of its new brand identity exercise.
 
Zee TV will mobilise millions of viewers from across the globe to make them participate in unveiling the logo in Mumbai.

“This is a never before done initiative. In India alone, we will be touching over a million viewers and few lucky viewers will be invited for the mega celebrations in Mumbai,” Zee said.

In India, viewers from Mumbai, Surat, Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Meerut, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Indore, Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Nagpur and Pune will be a part of the brand identity change.
 
 
“Traditionally, a Bollywood actor or any other superstar endorses a brand’s new identity.But Zeel considers its viewers to be an integral part of their growth since its inception. Zeel’s A-list celebrity is its viewer,” the company said.

The media duties of the agency is handled by Mediaedge:cia (MEC), while Draftfcb Ulka has the creative mandate.