Category: Marketing

The Body Shop appoints Dia Mirza as brand ambassador

MUMBAI: Actress Dia Mirza has been named the brand ambassador of Britain-based personal care products retailer The Body Shop.

This is the first time the beauty brand has appointed a celebrity to endorse their products in India.

“This is a real honor for me and I am very excited to be associated with this wonderful and inspiring brand. I was later told by the company that the ingredients come from The Body Shop Community Fair Trade program which benefits a number of women and supports them in their livelihood. This really touched me and I love the way The Body Shop tries to benefit human communities in every possible way”, reflects Dia.

The Body Shop Asia Pacific managing director David Smith says, “India is one of the fastest growing markets for The Body Shop. To reach out to new customers we are adapting ourselves in every way ethically possible.

Smith also said that it is the right time to create awareness about the brand, which is known for it‘s eco-friendly product range.

A 100-per cent subsidiary of French cosmetics giant L‘Oreal, The Body Shop was introduced in India four years back and today has around 65 stores in 25 cities.

May 4, 2011
Publicis Capital appoints Lavanya Anirudh Verma as vice-president

MUMBAI: Publicis Capital has appointed Lavanya Anirudh Verma as its vice-president.

Based in Delhi, Verma will report to Publicis Capital Delhi executive vice-president and branch head Ashutosh Sawhney.

Verma will be handling agency‘s two businesses – Nestle and United Biscuits businesses.

Publicis Capital Delhi executive vice-president Ashutosh Sawhney said, “The Nestle and United Biscuits relation

ships are among the stronger relationships for Publicis not just in India but globally. It becomes imperative for us to constantly infuse and refresh these accounts with the best talent available. In Lavanya, we have found the right pedigree and passion to spearhead the hugely successful brands in their businesses.”Verma moves in from Ogilvy & Mather, where she was client servicing director and independent business director.

Verma started her career with IB&W communications and after nearly one year, she moved to Percept Hakuhodo. A year and a half later she moved to Ogilvy & Mather.

In her 12-year stint at O&M, Verma worked on brands such as Dabur, Perfetti Van Melle India, Mint and Dupont.

On her appointment at Publicis Capital, Verma, said, “I am excited about the opportunity at Publicis and their philosophy of contagious ideas that change the conversation. Of course, getting a chance to head the Nestle business is what sealed the deal.”

May 4, 2011
Brandscapes Worldwide unveils ‘Winning Insights’

MUMBAI: Brandscapes Worldwide, a global marketing consulting company, has announced the launch of a new global discipline that has been crafted to provide profitable growth strategies for its clients across 40 countries around the world.

Titled ‘Winning Insights™‘, this system is delivered through a suite of specialized consulting practices in marketing domains such as: Marketing Data Mining, Marketing Science, Marketing Dashboards, Strategy Maps and Global MR.

Brandscapes Worldwide has partnered with organisations across the globe to deliver benefits of Winning Insights. Through its partnership with Singapore based Design Bridge, a global branding firm, it helps in delivering packaging, corporate identity and retail identity solutions for clients in India. Its partnership with Europe based Healthy Marketing Team helps sharpen branding strategies for health related categories. Brandscapes own strategy planning practice, Strategy Maps, provides marketing and brand consulting services to clients in the SME sector.

Brandscapes Worldwide chairman, MD Pranesh Misra said, “Successful marketing is all about insights. There is no shortage of marketing data – but the real need is to convert data into insights that would help shape profitable growth strategies. That‘s why, we have been passionate about developing a process that would deliver Winning Insights™ to our clients around the world.”

Carlsberg Breweries International Insights Manager Anders Nyberg said, “Brandscapes is an important partner for Carlsberg. They help us understand local market developments, as well as regional channel trends – and offers knowledgeable and prompt support when needed”.

The Winning Insights protocol has been designed for four industry sectors – consumer goods and services, shopper and retail, healthcare and banking & financial. A senior team of consultants with accumulated experience of over 250 years of domain expertise in these sectors deliver thought leadership and consulting guidance.

Citibank MD North America and Global Strategy Ravi Parmeswar said, “I have seen Brandscapes Worldwide grow from its inception, few years back, into a powerful marketing insights and analytic organization. Brandscapes has partnered us on multiple fronts: top management KPI reports, customer segmentation analysis, competition analysis, dashboards with interactive capabilities for what-if planning, global market research audits and knowledge management systems. I am impressed by their “can do” attitude to tackle challenges and go that extra mile to deliver effective solutions”.

May 4, 2011
IMG, WPP join forces for global licensing collaboration

MUMBAI: Communications services group WPP and IMG Worldwide, the global sports, fashion and media company, have announced a worldwide partnership to collaborate in offering consumer products licensing and merchandising services.

As part of the multi-year agreement, WPP and IMG will establish a joint team and share resources to offer and provide licensing services to clients from WPP‘s portfolio of agencies.

WPP CEO Martin Sorrell commented, “More than ever, licensing is emerging as one of the new creative ways of developing brands and sales. It is a capability we see as increasingly important to our clients. We wanted to offer this important discipline in a global execution and with the market leader – that is IMG. In our view, there could be no better partner to help us achieve our goals in this area.”

IMG‘s Sports and Entertainment Group president George Pyne said, “WPP‘s agencies have an impressive roster of clients coupled with the brand knowledge and consumer insights that come from years of experience working with them. We believe that our global execution capability and specialized expertise in the licensing business coupled with their deep-rooted knowledge and relationships with certain client companies can yield some very beneficial and successful partnerships. This is a really natural collaboration that was waiting to happen.”

Executives from the WPP-IMG partnership will be meeting with advertisers who have expressed interest in developing brand licensing programmes or who have potential to do so.

The new WPP venture is an additive unit to IMG Licensing‘s existing operations and the latter will continue to serve existing and new clients without change.

May 4, 2011
MRUC, MRSI unveil new SEC grading system

MUMBAI: The Media Research Users’ Council (MRUC) and the Market Research Society of India (MRSI) have unveiled a new Socio-Economic Classification (SEC) system.

The new system will replace the previous one crafted in the mid-1980s.

The formulation of the new SEC system has largely been done using the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) database. The developmental work has also used IMRB’s ‘Household Panel’ data.

The decision to revisit the SEC grading system was initiated over five years ago by MRUC and MRSI.

MRUC chairman and Tata Teleservices corporate monitoring president Lloyd Mathias said, “In 2006, extensive research and inputs from industry experts had thrown up a burning need to revisit the classification system, given that the market environment, as also consumer profiles, preferences and attitudes had undergone a sea-change over the last three decades.”

The findings led to the setting up of a core team to work on putting together a new SEC system that would reflect the standing of Indian households.

The new system classifies Indian households by using two parameters — educational qualifications of the chief wage owner in the household; and the number of assets owned (out of a pre-specified list of 11 assets). Based on these two parameters, each household will be classified in one of 12 SEC groups — A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, C1, C2, D1, D2, E1, E2 and E3. These 12 groups are applicable to both urban and rural India.

The top-most new SEC class A1 comprises 0.5 per cent of all Indian households. Nearly 2 per cent of urban households and less than 0.1 per cent of rural households belong to the new SEC A1. More than half of all SEC A1 households reside in the top six Indian cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

At the other end of the spectrum, the bottom-most new SEC class E3 comprises 10 per cent of all Indian households. Only 2 per cent of urban households and 13 per cent of rural households belong to new SEC E3. Nearly 93 per cent of all SEC E3 households are in rural India.

A committee representing both MRUC and MRSI had identified some key requirements for the development of a new SEC System:

The new SEC system needed to be more discriminating, with sharper identification of the upper-most segment of the society;
The new system needed to continue to be easy to administer; and There needed to be a common classification for urban and rural India

IMRB International president Thomas Puliyel said: “The new Socio-Economic Classification system is the culmination of many years of hard work by some of the best brains in the industry. With the growth of the economy and of small towns and rural, it has become imperative to look at a single system for both urban and rural India.”

Praveen Tripathi, who has been involved with the development of the new system, said, “Given that the new SEC system classifies households on parameters different from the old system, it will not be proper to compare the old SEC classes with their equivalent ones from the new SEC — even if the two carry the same alphanumeric tags e.g., class A1 of the new SEC system should not be confused with class A1 of the old system. Indeed, New SEC A1 is more homogenous, owns more assets, and is more affluent than old SEC A1.”

May 4, 2011
MPG launches mobile marketing arm MOBEXT

MUMBAI: Havas Media’s flagship brand, MPG India, has launched its mobile marketing brand Mobext in Asia with India being chosen one of the first markets for the roll out.

As part of the launch the agency has also made three senior appointments: Arnav Neel Ghosh joins as general manager for South Asia, while Ashutosh S Srivastava is appointed as the business director and Rahul Shinde as senior business executive. The team in India is also expected to expand in the next few months.

Ghosh moves in from Digital at Iris Nation, where he was executive vice-president and has previously worked in senior roles at Publicis Modem and Active Media Technology, a UK based mobile marketing company. Ashutosh was most recently the associate director of mobile marketing at ACL Wireless and has had stints at Mobile2Win and ConnectTurf.

Mobext, a network brand of Havas Media specialising in Mobile Marketing, is currently present in eight markets globally. The new brand is expected to strengthen the digital offerings of Havas Media, which currently has a digital media agency brand in Media Contacts.

Within this year, the brand is slated to be launched in China, Indonesia and Philippines and the company will look at both greenfield as well as partnership entry strategies.

Mobext will offer messaging services such as sms and download; mobile internet services like WAP consulting and development, mobile display, mobile search and proximity based services including LBS and mapping. It will also offer integration through reporting and analytics by Havas Digital’s campaign management platform.

The network agency currently handles a host of blue chip clients in different parts of the world including Nike, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Fanta, Kia, Volvo, BMW, Peugeot, Citroen, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, BBC, Dell and Sears.

Mobext Havas Media CEO Asia Pacific Vishnu Mohan said: “Asia presents an enormous potential in the mobile space with high levels of penetration, installed base and growth rates. All our clients have needs in this space and we want to ensure that as a media agency we are not neglecting such an important medium and one that will gain even more prominence in the future.

Mohan also said that mobile allows advertisers to reach their audience on a more engaged basis and Mobext will be helpful in this process.

“Mobext has been doing very well in other markets and we have been waiting for the right time and the right people to launch it in Asia. What better market to launch than India, which has whopping 790 million mobile users currently and is also a key market for the group in Asia Pacific region”, Mohan added.

Further enhancing the importance of Indian market, Mohan clarified that with 790 million mobile users, there was no better market in Asia to launch this product.

“Mobile offers advertisers an interesting media to reach their audience on a more engaged basis and the launch of Mobext will fulfil this need. We are looking launch the brand in China, Indonesia and Philippines within the year and will look at both greenfield as well as partnership entry strategies”, Mohan concluded.

Havas Media MPG CEO South Asia Anita Nayyar said: “Mobile marketing is gathering steam and it is the right time for us to offer specialised mobile marketing expertise to help our clients leverage this platform. In Arnav and Ashutosh we have identified the right candidates to take charge of Mobext. Arnav’s experience in successfully launching and managing agencies will be invaluable for us while Ashutosh’s hands on experience with cutting edge mobile campaigns will be a real asset for our clients.”

May 4, 2011
Mallikarjunadas CR is Starcom MediaVest Group India CEO

MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) has named Mallikarjunadas CR as its new chief executive officer.

Mallikarjunadas takes charge on 25 May and will be based in Mumbai and will be part of the Global Product Committee of SMV Group.

Mallikarjunadas will report to Starcom MediaVest Group India chairman and LiquidThread APAC MD CVL Srinivas.

The branch heads of Starcom Worldwide and MediaVest Worldwide as well as functional heads of SMG’s Insights & Research, Digital and Business Impact functions will report to Mallikarjunadas.

This will be Mallikarjunadas’ second innings with SMG. He had began his career with Starcom MediaVest Group and spent five years primarily on the media planning account of P&G.

Mallikarjunadas moves in from Madison Media, after a four-year stint. He was Madison Media Infinity chief operating officer and Madison Media Research Center director.

Prior to that, Mallikarjunadas was a member of the Simulations practice at Tata Interactive Systems.

Mallikarjunadas also handled advertising and research budget at Asian Paints, as its media and research manager.

Said CVL Srinivas, “In Malli, we have a young and dynamic leader with a strong product orientation and rich client management experience. He has seen the media business from different perspectives and has a very refreshing point of view about the business. We are eagerly looking forward to welcoming him on board and gaining from his experience and expertise.”

Mallikarjunadas said, “I have had the privilege of working at Starcom MediaVest Group in the past. I’m excited to be leading the company at which I started my career. As SMG India charts out a new growth path with Insights & Research, Digital and Content being at the core, I am looking forward to an interesting and challenging assignment.”

May 4, 2011
Hip Brands bags global licensing rights to Psyclops

MUMBAI: Hip Brands, the third party licensing banner within The Jim Henson Company, has acquired global licensing rights (excluding the Philippines) to Psyclops.

This is a multiplatform product and online experience for tweens, teens and youngadults, featuring one-eyed characters that embrace the world of music, art, dance, and technology.

The agreement was announced by The Jim Henson Company senior VP of global consumer products Melissa Segal at. Psyclops was first introduced in 2009 in the form of a mobile application that allows consumers to create unique animations and music videos synced to their iPods.

Since then Psyclops creators, product developer Joy Kovaleski and creative director Jeff Muncy quickly leveraged the popularity of the app, introducing unique iPod and iPhone covers featuring the Psyclops characters, and a fully interactive web-based music and dance community.

Marketing and publicity support for the brand has included celebrity seeding at the 2011 Golden Globe Awards and a presence at the MacWorld show. Upcoming support includes a presence at Comic-Con in July.

New video shorts are being produced for the web and an active social media network campaign is in development. Under its global licensing contract, HIP Brands will seek to develop an extensive range of PSYCLOPS branded consumer products in key categories such as toys, designer plush,apparel, home furnishings, stationery, gifts, social expression, personal care, publishing, food and electronics.

Segal said, “In the two years since the creators first introduced Psyclops, teens and tweens have been engaging with these colorful, graphically appealing, one-eyed characters online, and as aunique and distinctive means for personalizing their iPods and iPhones. Psyclops is a fresh, iconic, interactive and immersive pop culture brand, and offers incredible opportunities to tap into the growing youth consumer base on a variety of levels.”

Psyclops creative director Jeff Muncy said, “We‘re so happy to be working with Hip. Having worked with the Henson team on other projects, I know first-hand of their ability to deliver a fully developed global licensing programme for Psyclops and we‘re just eager to get started.”

May 3, 2011
Tendulkar plays photographer for Canon’s new ad

MUMBAI: Percept/H, New Delhi‘s new television commercial for Canon IXUS HS features Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar as an avid photographer capturing the beauty of India‘s nights across the forts of Jodhpur to the peaks of Ladakh, all under low light and that without flash.

The 30-second TVC titled “India‘s Nights Made Beautiful” is currently on air in the DLF IPL matches.

With this TVC, Canon attempts to position its Canon IXUS HS as an ideal camera to shoot at night without using flash, without your pictures getting blurred and with utmost ease.

Canon India SVP Alok Bhardwaj said, “Low light photography has always been a challenging task for people. No wonder, the High Sensitivity technology in the IXUS HS cameras is a sure shot winner. The idea of “India‘s Nights made Beautiful” has a very strong emotional connect as memories stay with you forever and one never wants their priceless memories to come out hazy or blurred. Sachin‘s integration into the idea has been phenomenal, justifying his presence in a completely new avatar.”

The film has been shot by Adarsh Gupta of Nirvana Films, across terrains of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Haridwar and Ladakh.

Percept/H Delhi associate creative director Gaurav Bahl said, “The idea to capture India‘s beautiful nights came from a very strong insight that all of us have somewhere faced in real lives while capturing images in low light from our ordinary cameras. I am sure the TVC will strike a perfect chord with the audience.”

Tendulkar quipped, “Well, the idea is incredible as anyone who gets a chance to capture India‘s beautiful nights under low light with the new Canon IXUS, will be overwhelmed.”

May 3, 2011
McCann’s TAG Ideation bags F1 racing arena’s branding biz

MUMBAI: McCann Worldgroup’s creative agency TAG Ideation has won the branding duties of India‘s first F1 racing arena, introduced by Jaypee Group.

The account size is pegged at Rs 250-300 million.

The agency has also revealed the logo and the branding package designed for Jaypee Sports International’s (JPSI) 5.14 km long Buddh International Race Circuit.

MWG TAG VP and GM Himanshu Saxena said that though racing is about passion, speed and excitement, the agency hasn’t ignored the local sensibilities in branding solutions. He said that the tri-coloured heart shaped pneumonic attempts to amplify the ‘B‘, which not just stands for the name of the circuit but also ‘Bharat‘.

JPSI chairman Manoj Gaur added, “This is a unique and prestigious product, which strengthens India‘s ever growing global stature. And hence we were very clear that we needed a partner who will not just bring a world-class branding solution on the table but also build brand India with it. As soon as we saw the branding solution developed by our agency MWG TAG, we knew that we had the perfect answer.”

It may be noted that this track will host the inaugural Indian Grand Prix later this year.

May 3, 2011