Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: Oil company Chevron has launched a new global ad campaign, We Agree.

The campaign highlights the common ground Chevron shares with people around the world on key energy issues. It also describes the actions the company takes in producing energy responsibly and in supporting the communities where it operates.

Chevron VP of Policy, Government and Public Affairs Rhonda Zygocki says, “We hear what people say about oil companies – that they should develop renewables, support communities, create jobs and protect the environment – and the fact is, we agree.

“This campaign demonstrates our values as a company and the greater value we provide in meeting the world’s demand for energy. There is a lot of common ground on energy issues if we take the time to find it” 

The campaign includes a series of print ads and 30-second TV spots that focus on five main themes:

* Growth and Jobs – Demonstrating Chevron’s strong reinvestment of profits into energy development, local economies and job creation.
* Renewable Energy – Describing Chevron’s leadership in the development of renewable energy and the promotion of energy efficiency.
* Technology – Showcasing the advanced technologies Chevron is investing in to find new energy and work cleaner, smarter and safer.
* Small Business – Highlighting Chevron’s support of small businesses and supply chains around the world.
* Community Development – Emphasizing the partnerships and programs Chevron is involved in to support health, education and socioeconomic development in the communities where it operates.

The ads feature declarative statements about the oil industry that are designed to illustrate the mutual agreement between Chevron and its partners. They also describe the actions Chevron is taking to advance these important issues. The statements are accompanied by the text ‘We Agree‘ and signatures from both a Chevron employee and, in most instances, a Chevron partner.

Some of the partners include The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which works with Chevron to address global health issues; Teach For America, which partners with Chevron to provide innovative solutions to education challenges; and Weyerhaeuser, which works with Chevron in a joint venture to develop advanced biofuels from nonfood sources.

The television spots include a Chevron employee and a citizen expressing their opinions about the industry. As the advertisement unfolds, their perspectives converge in agreement, reinforcing the ‘We Agree‘ message.

The print images were shot by photographer Steve McCurry, who has created images for National Geographic and other international publications. Glory Road director James Gartner shot and directed the television commercials.

MUMBAI: Mudra Max has bagged four out of the nine awards won in all by the Indian agencies at the 25th Annual MAA Worldwide Globes 2010 held in Washington DC, USA.

The other winning Indian agencies are JWT, Solutions Digitas, Jagran Solutions and Accentiv‘.

Mudra Max CEO Pratap Bose said, “I am absolutely delighted that we have won big for India. These wins vindicate that at a worldwide level Mudra Max competes with the very best as an experiential and engagement agency.”

Mudra Max bagged a Globe in the Best Activity Generating Brand Volume category for its work for 7UP: The Lemon Army.

Mudra Max also won a silver for the ‘Mumbai Smiles‘ campaign – the world‘s largest oral care marathon – in the Best Trade Marketing, Retail Specific or Channel Specific campaign category. This campaign is also recognized for setting a world record – verified by the Guinness Book of Records.

In addition to this, Mudra Max won two Orders of Merit; one for the Best Sponsorship or Tie-in campaign category for ‘The Film God Speaks on India‘s Biggest Religion‘. This promotion saw Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan giving live cricket commentary as the popular character, Auro (from the movie PAA), during the India-Sri Lanka T20 match.

The second Order of Merit was won for ‘Aircel – History in the making‘ in the Best Small Budget campaign category.
Mudra Max chief strategy officer Anurag Gupta said, “These wins take our tally to 77 awards this year. We hope that we will reach the magical number of 100 by the time we finish the year. Globes are always special because you compete with the best in the world and I am happy that we have contributed significantly in giving India some reason to cheer! “

Meanwhile, JWT Mumbai took home a bronze award in the Best Cause or Charity Marketing Campaign category for its ‘Street to School‘ campaign for client Balwadi Night School.

JWT also won an Order of Merit in the Best Brand Awareness and Trial Campaign category for ‘Kellogg‘s Special K – Be Special‘.
Solutions Digitas bagged a bronze for its ‘HP-Original Beats‘ in the Best Use of Direct Marketing and CRM in a Promotion Campaign category, whereas Jagran Solutions won an Order of Merit for ‘Internet Explorer 8 – Explore Your Way‘.

Accentiv‘ India also won an Order of Merit in the Best Activity Generating Short or Long Term Brand Loyalty category for ‘Indian Oil Xtra Power Programme‘.

MUMBAI: UTV Global Broadcasting (UGBL) has appointed Kunal Mukherjee as marketing head for its youth entertainment channel UTV Bindass.

The position was lying vacant after Bindass AVP and marketing head Kanika Saxena quit last week.

Mukherjee is already marketing head of UTV World Movies, UTV Movies and UTV Action. He will take on the responsibility of UTV Bindass in addition to his current portfolio.

UTV Bindass business head Nikhil Gandhi said, “We are delighted to announce that Mukherjee will take on the role of marketing head for brand Bindass. Mukherjee brings with him tremendous passion; energy and substantial experience and will take Brand Bindass to a whole new level! I wish him all the success.”

In his new role, Mukherjee would be overseeing all marketing activities for the brand with a focus on marketing, including TV, events, web, PR, mobile and on air promotion.
 

MUMBAI: Water, a strategic business unit of Mudra India, has recently bagged five accounts in the areas of brand strategy, identity design, brand architecture & environment design.

The companies that have engaged Water are (HPCL Mittal Energy Limited) HMEL, Novartis, Reliance Infrastructure, Jafra and Vaibhav Empire.

Water will be creating the identity and behavior guideline for the product brand of HMEL, which is a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Mittal Energy Investment Private Ltd, Singapore.

Water will also do branding for the transport services of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.

The agency has been commissioned to interpret the brand to design the space and experience for the Jafra India‘s headquarter at Delhi.

Water will be conducting a brand strategy and architecture exercise on Novartis‘ brand – Calcium Sandoz.

Water has been engaged as a brand partner for Vaibhav Empire to help the company expand its base across the country.

Water chief strategist and head Ashish Mishra said, “Water is an upstream partner in the Mudra Group‘s Inventive Brand Solutions value chain. We create brands and advertising communicates them. And creating a brand is about creating a culture. Branding is all about business opportunities, architecture, resources and competencies on the inside; product & services, communication, engagement and experience on the outside. Overall, we create a business bases for brands, frame-work it, and create its multi-sensorial expression; and contrary to the myth about branding taking a long time to deliver results, we are confident of our strategies and designs making a difference.”

MUMBAI: Madras Cements has appointed Percept Out of Home, Rural Vertical, as their outdoor activity partner to promote their brand – ‘Ramco’ across South India.

The campaign was launched on a pilot basis in the first week of September across various districts of Chennai, and will culminate by end November after covering different regions of Tamil Nadu.

Percept Out of Home business head – rural Rajesh Amla said, ”The appointment of Percept Out of Home, Rural Vertical as the agency to promote the brand ‘Ramco’ from the house of Madras Cements, once again proves the fact that Percept Out of Home, Rural Vertical stands above all other agencies in the rural domain when it comes to experience, expertise and the bandwidth. We have taken one step forward towards providing 360° service with complete creative solutions for Ramco.”

The entire campaign which has been conceptualized and strategized by Percept Out of Home – Rural vertical will be carried out in 3 phases. In the first phase, pre-publicity activity will take place through branded mobile van units, retail branding, in shop branding, gate arches and other visibility mediums including signages, leaflets, danglers, posters and kiosks.

In the second phase, a ‘Mystery Shopper’ contest will be announced and in the third phase, the Mystery Shopper’s name will be declared after a Lucky Draw.

Apart from increasing brand visibility, Percept Out of Home, Rural Vertical, will also be reaching out and motivating the dealer network with loyalty programmes.

BANGALORE: Britannia Industries Limited (Britannia) announced the launch of a new snacking product ‘Time Pass’ in the Bangalore market. The company has planned an aggressive campaign across television, radio, outdoor and digital mediums.

Explaining the campaign, Lowe Lintas Chairman and Chief Creative Officer R Balki said,, ”The attempt with Time Pass was to introduce an exciting offering in Britannia’s snacking portfolio of delectables for the youth- a brand that is an anti-thesis to the mindless rat race. It is dismissive, indifferent, irreverent – a way of life.”

“Time Pass participates in the banter of youth. It understands the pointlessness of committing to something that fuels their minds and makes ‘doing nothing’ a legitimate option,” explained Balki.

Around 26 TVC clips have been produced by Red Ice and directed by Balki. “We’ll have four to six ads on air initially and then release more as and when required,” revealed Britannia VP and COO Neeraj Chandra.

Initially, the TVC’s will be on a few selected Kannada and national channels and then the national roll-out of the product will follow over the next three to nine months, Britannia has not yet frozen the budget for the campaign.

For the Bangalore campaign, the company has roped in Kannada music director and singer Gurukiran to compose an ‘Ultimate Time Pass Track’. Gurukiran used Bangalore youth to contribute to the track through a contest on Big FM Bangalore which saw over 25,0000 words defining ‘Time Pass’. The selected candidates who contributed the catchiest words were awarded with a cash prize and their contributory words were used in the songs.

With Time Pass, Britannia is vying for a chunk of the estimated Rs.60 billion organised snacking market in the country. The market is growing at double digits annually, according to Britannia.

NEW DELHI: The Mudra Group has launched its corporate ‘Wap Site’, conceptualised and developed by Tribal DDB India, the Group’s digital marketing and communications agency.

This Wap site will now be accessible through the ubiquitous camera on all smart phones – by pointing at the QR codes, the information encoded will be the profiles of the executive board members. It will also be possible to further navigate into the Mudra Group and its four agency network. 
 
A QR Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smart phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background.

The Group has also launched a Social Media Hub, wherein its social media presence has been aggregated to just one URL – giving the audience the convenience similar to that of a control panel or dashboard. This will help the group reach out to the younger audience (consumers of tomorrow) on the social media and gain greater insights and understanding about them.

In addition to this, the Mudra Group website has been created with the objective of facilitating a two way communication with the audience. An intuitive ‘Search Tool’ will empower the visitor to pin point the crawler to the desired information source while having simultaneous access to all information available on the group. The website is also accessible from the Wap site and from the ‘social media hub’ and vice versa. The result is a smooth flow of information accessibility across different technology touch-points. 
 
Commenting on this innovative tool, Tribal DDB India President Max Hegerman said, “Business has always been about the effective transfer of information. Technology has the means to distribute that information in ways that are more meaningful and conducive to the way people live and work today – which is inherently more social. Tribal DDB India has developed a set of world-class communication tools for the Mudra Group that fully leverages the power of the digital space.”
 
Added Group CEO & MD Madhukar Kamath, “Tribal DDB India has come up with not just a comprehensive new website for the Mudra Group but have also enabled us through the ‘social media hub‘, to tap into the growing importance of the social Media. I am thrilled with their QR code and WAP solutions. Understanding technology, harnessing the social media and embracing innovation underlines the Mudra Group‘s commitment of inventive brand solutions.”

MUMBAI: Madison Media has grabbed the creative duties of ITC Ltd following a multi-agency pitch that also saw Mudra Max, Starcom, MEC and incumbent Lintas Media Group combat for the same. 

Though no official conformation came forth while filing the report, industry sources peg the account size to be above Rs 4 billion.

As part of its new mandate, Madison Media will start working on the entire ITC portfolio across all media platforms (except outdoor), beginning 1 January, 2011.

ITC has presence in cigarettes, hotels, paperboards and specialty papers, packaging, agri-business, packaged foods and confectionery, information technology, branded apparel, personal care, stationery, safety matches and other FMCG products.

MUMBAI: Mudra Group makes another ‘big move’, literally, this month. Earlier this year, when Mudra turned 30, the Group promised it was entering an era of change. In its 30th year, the Group has already implemented a number of changes, an important one being the brand identity change in September. And now comes the official opening of Mudra House.

Mudra House, an eight-story building is home to over 450 Mudraites across Mumbai, under one roof. This the agency says further enhances its philosophy of creative collaboration across units.

Mudra House is situated opposite the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai. The building has 2 levels of basement valet parking with a capacity of 120 cars. These parking areas have also been provided with electrical points to provide for recharging battery operated cars in the future.

Though a modern building, the interiors of Mudra House follow a contemporary-traditional route. As soon as one enters the lobby, one is greeted with a detailed depiction of life today in traditional ‘Warli’. This style of art appears through each of the floors in
different forms. The Warli art on each floor/room expresses the ambience in that particular space.

In the work space, the simple triangle-and-dots figures vividly capture daily activities at the work-stations. The meeting and conference rooms on each floor are named after popular community places, across the country – Jantar Mantar, College Street, Chor Bazaar, Ganga Ghaat, Howrah Bridge

and Dhobi Ghaat, the Warli form incorporated here, depicts the ambience in the respective rooms. Warli style of art is also seen in the upholstery, signages and floor coverings on every floor. The art infuses the spirit of community through-out the building.

Mudra House has technology that includes 1 gigabit IP Telephony, full blown Unified Communications (UC), Video Conferencing (VC), Audio Visual (AV) equipments, access control system, CCTV and Intelligent Building Management System (IBMS), where the control system is a computerized, intelligent network of electronics, designed to monitor and control the mechanical and lighting systems of the building. Apart from this, the Mudra Group has implemented various energy conservation features.

Commenting on the inauguration, Mudra Group Group CEO, MD Madhukar Kamath said, “It is a proud milestone for us. Mudra House is not just our HQ, it is a home for over 450 Mudraites in Mumbai, an exciting work-place bustling with warmth, creative energy and innovative ideas. A perfect launching platform for the next Decade of growth through Inventive Brand Solutions for our clients.”

MUMBAI: Video and rich media mobile advertising network iVdopia has announced that its publishing revenues increased by 250 per cent since the beginning of the year.

The company, which claims of serving more than one billion ad requests on a growing network of more than 15,000 publisher and app sites, provides eCPMs (effective cost per thousand impressions) that it says are 166 per cent higher than the industry average, allowing iPhone and Android app developers to cash-in on advertising revenues.

Along with premium brand advertisers across categories like entertainment, automobiles, consumer goods, food and beverage, iVdopia provides publishers with 100 per cent fill rates, which it claims outnumbers the industry average of 40 per cent.

iVdopia attributes this growth to the range of video and rich media ad formats launched from Future5, the first HTML5 ad-authoring tool and V5, the first HTML5 video advertising platform. Together, they have provided app developers with a sustainable source of advertising revenue and a single solution to monetise their applications across devices including iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android, the company said.

iPhone game app developer AppStar Games has been in iVdopia’s ad network for more than six months, and has since then monetised four of its gaming apps on the network, witnessing a double digit increase in earnings since then.

AppStar Games CEO Garry Kitchen said, “Our partnership with iVdopia is a great asset, and we have been able to successfully monetise each one of our gaming apps on their network. We’ve experienced eCPMs with them, along with easy SDK integration, intuitive reporting tools and a variety of video and rich media ad formats to work with. It’s a mutually beneficial business opportunity for both developers and brand advertisers, and we anticipate doubling our revenues in the near future.”

iVdopia COO Chhavi Upadhyay added, “We’re glad that in just over a year, iVdopia has yielded a growth of 250 per cent in revenues for app developers and publishers.

“iVdopia is committed to helping app developers and publishers build strong revenue streams and monetise content. As we continue to innovate and launch new video ad formats, and provide even higher eCPMs, iVdopia’s ad network is focused on opening doors to thousands of Android and iPhone app developers to take advantage of our unique monetisation capabilities.”