Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: After the innovative and widely appreciated ‘Talking Newspaper’ campaign for the new premium entry level sedan, Volkswagen has launched the 360 degree marketing campaign.

The German car maker company’s campaign for Vento effectively reflects its “Best in Class” positioning, through its communication route “tears of perfection”.

Volkswagen Group Sales India head marketing – Volkswagen Passenger Cars Lutz Kothe said, “At Volkswagen our aim has been to break away from the communication clutter by being innovative and refreshing in the way we narrate our story to the customer while ensuring the intended core message is intact. In this campaign, we have brought our engineers’ feelings towards the Vento to establish its Best in Class features.” 

The TVC, launched today, highlight the fact that the Vento has been crafted by engineers in the Volkswagen plant in Chakan, Pune, with “passion at every stage of manufacturing, culminating into a perfect car for the customers, that it is hard to let go.”

The campaign will be running across television channels, print, online, digital and out of home media to establish awareness about the Vento until mid-November 2010, the company said.

MUMBAI: Videocon d2h today announced the launch of a new advertising campaign for its satellite LCDs. The campaign, which features superstar Abhishek Bachchan, revolves around the tag line “Thodi soch badal ke dekho,” encouraging consumers to take a serious look at the cutting-edge innovation in LCD technology keeping aside all biases.

The TVC captures Abhishek Bachchan entering a showroom and getting mesmerized by the new Satellite LCD and in the process gets locked inside the showroom for the night. On finding out that he has no way out, Abhishek chooses to spend the night with the satellite LCD that has caught his fancy by now. The ad ends with the showroom manager finding out his mistake the next morning when he opens the showroom and instead gets thanked by Abhishek for ‘opening his eyes’ to the new innovation.

Said Videocon Group CMO, consumer electronics & home appliances business, Jaideep Rathore, “Through the advertisement we want to highlight the uniqueness of the product – an LCD with an integrated in-built set-top-box which does not require any external connections, allowing the homemaker to preserve the aesthetics of her home.Abhishek Bachchan imparts mass appeal, and infuses dynamism and contemporariness into the ad.”

The concept, ideated by McCann Erickson, will be on air from this week and is expected to be on till November. The campaign is spread across all mediums including television, radio, print and outdoor. The TVC will be aired on general entertainment, news and movie channels.

BANGALORE: Bangalore-based United Telecoms Group’s joint venture partner Teleworld United (Teleworld) announced the South India launch of 8 entry level models of WIWO brand mobiles in Bangalore. The national roll out is expected over the next three months, besides which UTL plans to bring in additional models, including smart phones.
 
The company plans to spend around Rs 1.25 billion over the next three years towards marketing and creating brand awareness. “This year, we have planned marketing spends of around Rs 250 million, around Rs 450 million next year and the balance the year after”, revealed Teleworld executive director T C Sudhir.
 
WIWO mobiles will have the tag line ‘the new hello‘.

“We will be present on television, the print media, radio and outdoor. We are working out the strategies about the channels and the specific media we will be present on as with our media partners Satrcom,” Sudhir said.
 
Creative agency ‘Water’ handles the creative duties for WIWO.

In 1995 UTL had promoted JT Mobiles (JTM), the first mobile services operator in South India in Bangalore. JTM was later merged with Bharati Telecom which provides Airtel services in Karnataka.

MUMBAI: Bigg Boss under Salman Khan has got bigger. The three-hour debut episode of the fourth edition on 3 October clocked an average TVR of 6 in the three HSM Metros (Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai), a new high so far as openings go.

The other data is equally startling. Bigg Boss 4 touched a peak TVR of 9.15 at 10.04 pm while the time spent on the show stood at 55 minutes and the reach at 20.3 per cent, a substantial increase over the previous year.

Season three of the show, where Amitabh Bachchan had donned the hat of ‘Pop Philosopher’, had a time spent of 47 minutes and a TVR of 5.4 in the HSM Metros.

As per Tam data for HSM metros, Bigg Boss season one (on Sony entertainment TV) had clocked an opening TVR of 3.61. The subsequent seasons on Colors saw a debut rating ranging from a 2.79 TVR (with Shilpa Shetty) to 5.42 (Bachchan) and now 6.01.

Even among the three metros, it was Delhi which topped with a 8.5 TVR, followed by Mumbai (5.8 TVR) and Kolkata (2.8 TVR). 
 
Said Colors programming head Ashvini Yardi, “The encouraging mid-week Tam rating of 6 is a testimony to the show‘s popularity. With Salman Khan as the host and an exciting mix of contestants, the show offers double fun… both inside and outside the house. Viewers can look forward to more surprises and excitement on the show in the coming days.”
 
Sustaining such high ratings is the challenge. “The curiosity of finding out the final contestants of the show always helps in grabbing eyeballs for the debut show. However, subsequently, the ratings go down. This is the pattern you will see every season,” a media observer said on condition of anonymity. 
 
The Salman Khan anchored show, however, trailed behind Priyanka Chopra-hosted Fear Factor – Khataron Ke Khiladi x3, which had garnered a TVR of 6.9 on the debut day in the same demographic.

A possible reason behind the lower ratings of Bigg Boss 4 compared to KKK3 can be attributed to the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games against which the show was pitted, a media analyst said.
 

MUMBAI: Amid the dirt and muck of scams, the Commonwealth Games has deliveerd in ratings.

11.6 million viewers in the Metros tuned in to the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games across DD National and DD Sports.

Tam data c&s4+ across six Metros shows that 7.4 million viewers watched the show on DD National while the remaining came from DD Sports on 3 October.
 
By comparison in 2006, only 4.1 million viewers had tuned in for the event which took place in Melbourne. This time the ceremony got a rating of 1.63 on DD National and 1.03 on DD Sports. In 2006, the ceermony got a rating of 1.16 on DD National and 0.01 on DD Sports.
 
The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in 2008 was watched by 7.8 million viewers across the two channels. The ad volume has also shot up. An hour‘s worth of ads was aired during this year‘s Commonwealth Games opening ceremony compared to 20 minutes inn 2006. During the Olympic Games opening ceremony in 2008, 40 minutes worth of ads aired.
 
With all this, it is not surprising that some companies are looking to take part through on air spots. Pepsi and Dabur are said to be evaluating opportunities especially for the closing ceermony.

LG and Samsung, however, are not taking part. For LG the budget has already been fixed while a Samsung spokesperson says that the company is more interested in the Olympic Games and Asian Games.

A sports marketing expert expresses dissatisfaction at how the ads have been managed. “A long interval of 10 minutes runs the danger of putting viewers off. It spoils the viewing experience. Also as of now, I have not seen any private companies advertising beyond the on-ground sponsors like Tisco. They got some airtime. Apart from that, companies like Indian Railways have been seen. The question is whether they want to advertise or if they have been made to do so by the Government,” he said.

It is not just on-air though where the event is doing well. Online from 3-5 October, the Commonwealth Games site had over 4.2 million unique visitors, with over 30 million page views. With the gold tally rising everyday, so is the record number of visitors on the Commonwealth Games website.

The site, www.cwgdelhi2010.org, aims to be a one stop digital destination for all information for the world event. The site highlights and facilitates key information in the most effective and seamless manner for all its visitors. The traffic on the site has already gone up and this number is expected to grow more with each passing day event.
 

MUMBAI: Ignitee Digital Solutions added a new account to its kitty, grabbing Leaping Windows, an online library exclusively for comic books.
 
Ignitee will be responsible for all the online marketing duties for Leaping Windows.
 
Ignitee Digital Solutions will make available online services to Leaping Windows in a manner in which user experience is made easy and convenient. The website works on a simple 3 step process – become a member, place an order for the book you want from the catalogue available online, and the book will be delivered to you within 24 hours.
 
Ignitee Digital Solutions COO Shankar B commented, “With the talents back at Ignitee, we ensure that our clients are well-positioned in the online space, which in turn will add value to their business.”

MUMBAI: Wealth Management company The ASK group has announced the appointment of MEC as their media partner for all the businesses under the group.

ASK Group head marketing Salil Vaidya said, “MEC with its excellent track record and all round capabilities is the right partner for our business needs. Given the challenges we face in reaching our prospects who are some of India’s richest individuals and families, we needed a partner who can also offer unconventional and media neutral customer engagement solutions.”
 
The company offers a range of Wealth Management solutions including wealth advisory, portfolio management, real estate advisory and investment advisory services.
 
MEC Mumbai and Bengaluru Managing Partner, GM Manjiri Kamat says, “It’s a real pleasure to have a prestigious brand like ASK on our client roster. The company has aggressive growth plans for the future and we look forward to adding value through our unique Active Engagement approach. We look forward to exciting times ahead”.
 
With four offices across India employing over 130 people, MEC’s clients include: LG Electronics, Colgate, Reliance Communications, Nivea India, Mercedes Benz, Zee Network and HDFC Standard Life Insurance.

MUMBAI: G M Pens International, a licensee of Reynolds, France, has launched a new television campaign with four new commercials for the Reynolds Trimax Pens featuring Sachin Tendulkar.

One of these would be broadcast nationally. 
 
The TVC has been conceptualised by Karishma Advertising and has been produced and directed by Bappaditya Roy Pictures, Mumbai. It has been shot in a manner the youth can easily identify with.
 
The commercial revolves around a young student topper who receives an award for his excellence in academics by Tendulkar and reveals Reynolds Trimax as the core contributor. To this Tendulkar retorts – “The more you write, the better you remember.” Reynolds Trimax pen has been clearly depicted as a new mantra to produce maximum results in academics.
 
Said GM Pens assistant general manager marketing B Karthik, “The association with the brand ambassador, Sachin Tendulkar, is favorable as he is an ideal youth icon. The campaign addresses youth’s biggest challenge of having to produce maximum results all the time.”

Reynolds Trimax offers 3 times more writing with a micro-tip in comparison to a regular pen. It is available at the price of Rs 35 per pen.
 

MUMBAI: Mudra Connext, a part of Mudra Max (the Integrated Engagement and Experiential Agency), has been selected to handle the media mandate for Eastern Spices.

The size of the business is estimated to be over Rs 100 million and will be handled out of the Kochi office.
 
Eastern Condiments vice-chairman and CEO Navas Meeran says, “Eastern as a spices, seasonings & ready to cook brand, has a unique distribution & a strong retail presence with an equally strong equity amongst the consumers. To build on & to enhance the brand equity, Eastern has decided to partner with Mudra Max to provide brand Eastern, the right mix of marketing communication & media vehicles”.

Eastern Condiments (ECPL) started originally as a family-managed business and has since transformed into a professionally-run company operating throughout the length and breadth of the country. 
 
Currently, ECPL sells packaged spices (pure and mixed), seasoning products, dessert & snack mixes, ready to cook staple food that have a 12 per cent share of the organized spice market brands. Eastern has also made profit each year, through the last decade and grown at 25 per cent in the last 3 yearrs.
 
Mudra Connext executive VP, country head Manas Mishra says, “Eastern has shown faith in who we are and what we bring to the table. We are confident this partnership will be mutually beneficial. Over the past year, we have had major wins across offices, and this win tells us we are doing many things right.”

MUMBAI: Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor has been appointed as the brand ambassador of Mahindra Two Wheelers’ PowerScooter range, which includes Rodeo, Duro and Flyte.

Kapoor will soon feature in a 360 degree multimedia campaign, encompassing print, electronic and online media. The first campaign will be for the Mahindra Rodeo which will appear later this month. 
 
“We are delighted to have Kareena on board as brand ambassador for our entire range of PowerScooters. She has a strong connect with the youth, who are inspired by her hard work, discipline and natural acting talent,” said Mahindra & Mahindra president two wheeler sector and group executive board member Anoop Mathur.

“My experience with Mahindra Scooters dates back to two years ago, when I rode a Mahindra PowerScooter in 3 Idiots as Pia. Mahindra is a strong, well reputed brand and is known for its customer centric approach. I am delighted to be working with Mahindra Two Wheelers,” Kapoor said. 
 
The two wheeler sector of Mahindra aims to design and market a full range of scooters and motorcycles for the Indian and global markets, thus establishing a robust and end-to-end two-wheeler business,” the company said in a release.

Mahindra Two Wheelers sells 0.15 million units of PowerScooter range in the last 12 months.
 
Recently, Mahindra Two Wheelers announced entry into the motorcycle segment with the launch of Mahindra Stallio and Mahindra Mojo. Aamir Khan is the brand ambassador for Mahindra Stallio.