Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, a US based organisation dedicated towards connecting marketers at a common platform, has announced the launch of CMO Asia. The CMO Asia is brought in India by Dr R L Bhatia who is also the founder of World brand Congress and Asia Retail platforms.

The aim of the council is to provide guidance, vision and leadership to marketing professionals and the marketing industry.
 
The CMO Asia (India Chapter) has been structured as-

Bhaskar Das of Times group as national president

Alok Bharadwaj of Canon as president (north region)

Prasad Bagri of Intel as president (south region)

Sanjay Behl of Reliance Communications as president (west region)
 
Said Canon India SVP and CMO Asia president-north region Bhardwaj, “With this, the marketing fraternity in India will see a new pattern of collaborations within highly competitive world. The members will now be able to share ideas, global best practices, address concerns and find solutions to business challenges at a common platform. This is an encouraging step towards the future of this industry.” 
 
“Through this network, we hope to generate high level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and peer networking amongst decision makers across industry segments,” he further added.
 

MUMBAI: Last month, Nielsen had reported that Nike ‘ambushed‘ its way into the World Cup conversation by producing a popular soccer-themed ad that spread virally across the online community.

The company‘s efforts in the days and weeks leading up to the World Cup pushed its competitor and official tournament partner Adidas into the background of online conversations.
 
Since the start of the opening kickoff, though, Adidas has reasserted itself at the top of World Cup brand dialogue. When looking at the top 10 official sponsors and their major competitors, a follow-up study by NM Incite, a Nielsen McKinsey Company, found that in the first two weeks of the tournament Adidas overtook Nike as the top brand. Adidas buzz accounted for 25.1 per cent share of World Cup buzz online compared to 14.4 per cent before the event. Nike, meanwhile, dropped from 30.2 per cent to 19.4 per cent.

Part of Adidas‘ increased buzz levels were due to discussions around the controversial official ball of the World Cup – the Jabulani. For the week ending 13 June, which included the first three days of the tournament, the ball accounted for eight per cent of all English-language messages related to the World Cup.

Nielsen executive VP of digital strategy Pete Blackshaw says, “Half the game in buzz is fanning the flames. The Adidas football Facebook page, for instance, is now up to over a million fans and they are dropping new content several times a day, all while the average post is generating upwards of 100 comments. At the end of the day, brands need to keep the buzz ball in the air as long as possible – sponsored or otherwise.”
 
Budweiser, too, overcame a pre-tournament ambush from Carlsberg to assert itself as the most highly buzzed beer brand tied to the World Cup. Buzz share for the official beer of the World Cup climbed to 4.9 per cent as it overtook Carlsberg, whose share fell to 2.4 per cent.

Other official sponsors who enjoyed a noticeable increase in World Cup buzz included Hyundai/Kia (from 2.4 to 4.7 per cent) and McDonald‘s (2.8 to 4.2 per cent). The overall share of buzz for the 10 official World Cup partners/sponsors increased from 52 to 66 per cent since the start of the tournament.
 
Blackshaw says, “Sponsorship still matters, but it‘s far from a ‘conversational‘ guarantee. For big events like the World Cup and Olympics, you can always expect a modest ‘echo effect‘ from any level of paid or sponsorship investment, but that‘s just the foot in the door. The rest really depends on variables like timing, creativity, controversy, and a combination of brand readiness and agility.”

The NM Incite follow-up study compared the share of online buzz between World Cup sponsors and their major competitors in relation to the World Cup in the run up to the event (month-long period ending June 6th) and during the first two weeks of the tournament (11th -25th June). English language World Cup-related messages on blogs, message boards, groups, video and image sites – including Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter – were monitored for the study.

Highest share of online World Cup buzz in first two weeks

MUMBAI: Religare Enterprises, a diversified financial services company, has appointed Scarecrow Communications as the creative agency for Religare Arts Initiative.

Religare Arts Initiative Limited, a subsidiary of Religare Enterprises Limited, is a corporate supported arts organization. 
 
Raghu Bhat and Manish Bhatt, founder directors of Scarecrow Communications, have prior experience in handling the Religare brand. During their stint at Contract Advertising they handled the account for Aegon Religare Life Insurance and came up with the KILB campaign. They also won the pitch for handling the Religare Macquarie account in February 2010 and have been handling it since.
 
Said Religare Enterprises director – brand and corporate communications Subhrangshu Neogi, “With their knowledge of the art realm and also their passion for the field of advertising, we are sure that Raghu, Manish, Arunava and their entire team would help us in taking Religare Arts Initiative to greater heights.”

Added Scarecrow Communications founder director Manish Bhatt, “Religare Arts Initiative is an exciting win for us as it is a mix of both arts and commerce. The brand exposure will primarily be through select print, direct to consumer initiative and tactical BTL (below-the-line) initiatives.”
 
Meanwhile, Ogilvy & Mather will continue to be the group creative agency for the rest of the Religare Group accounts which include equity and commodity broking, gold, investment banking and asset management.
 

MUMBAI: Ferrero Group has appointed OMD India as the media agency for its entire portfolio. This includes Ferrero Rocher, Tic-Tac, Nutella and Kinder Joy.
 
The account was earlier handled by Starcom Worldwide. Grey India is the creative agency. 
 
Some of the other clients that has recently fallen into the OMD India kitty are Hindustan Pencils Ltd, Cotton World, Parryware Roca, Multi Screen Media, Diesel and Danone.
 

MUMBAI: Spikes Asia Advertising Festival, which celebrates creative excellence in advertising and communications, has announced that a co-operation agreement has been made with The Confederation of Asian Advertising Agency Associations (Caaa).
 
With more than 40 per cent of the world‘s total population and 20 per cent of total world advertising expenditure, Asia has grown into a large economic region with increasing importance. As such, the role of the Caaaa, which joins together the efforts of advertising associations in Asian region, is to shape the future of the Asian advertising agencies and through them, aims to be a catalyst to grow the advertising business itself. 
 
Caaaa chairman Srinivasan Swamy says, “Asia has a long history with diversified rich cultural backgrounds. The Spikes Asia Advertising Festival is an event that highlights this richness by showcasing the best talent and work Asia produces as well as offering great inspiration and networking to those who attend; as such the Caaaa is delighted to fully support Spikes Asia which will impact on how the industry in the region evolves.”

MUMBAI: Amul ranks as the top Indian brand for the second consecutive year and improves its overall brand status in the Asia Pacific region.

Media Magazine also ranks Amul as the top dairy brand, ahead of leading food and dairy brands of the Asia Pacific region like Kraft, Dutch Lady, Dumex, Walls, Anchor, Magnolia and Everyday. 
 
Amul is the 73rd Best Brand in the overall ranking of Top 1000 brands of Asia-Pacific, compared to its 83rd position in 2009. The ranking is based on a consumer survey conducted by research agency TNS in Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

There is no other “Indian” brand in the list of Top 1000 brands ahead of Amul (73). The other Indian brands ranked as per the survey are Kingfisher (140), ICICI Bank (182), State Bank of India (226) and Tata (256) to name a few. 
 
As per the rankings published for India Market, the top four out of the top five brands are MNCs – Sony, LG , Samsung and Google. Amul precedes Google in this ranking. The Indian consumers, thus, have given Amul a top rank in the Food and FMCG category.

Asia Pacific‘s Top 1000 brand listing is based on a proprietary survey by Media Magazine sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. Ten markets were included in the seventh year of survey: Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. 
 
Research Agency TNS interviewed people aged 15-64 years old across the 10 countries. Two questions were asked to determine the best brands in each of the 12 major product/service categories. The questions were pertaining to the best and second best brand that would come to the respondent‘s mind for a particular product/service category. The definition of best was one the respondent would trust the most or the one that had the best reputation in the product/service category.

The survey reaffirms the faith Indian customers have in the Amul Brand and also the fact that a brand created by India can feature among the top brands globally.
 

MUMBAI: The Media Research Users Council (MRUC) has elected Tata Teleservices president & chief marketing officer Lloyd Mathis as the new chairman. Lloyd takes over from Andrey Purushottam who resigned from the post.

The MRUC chair is rotated every two years. Purushottam had to cut short his term as chairman as he moved on from the advertisers‘ constituency post his resignation from Mahindra & Mahindra, where he was CEO of Mumbai Mantra.
 
Said MRUC vice chairman Bharat Kapadia, “Andrey has contributed immensely to MRUC for many years where he served as a board member, vice chairman and chairman. He has been extremely proactive, devoted and has driven the MRUC vision with passion.”

Adding further he said, “Media industry is passing through a very challenging yet interesting phase and we are looking forward to many enhancements in our offerings. Lloyd, a dynamic and experienced industry player, will accelerate the growth under his leadership”
 
Mathias has more than 20 years of experience and has been an active member in the MRUC Board. At Tata Teleservices he heads marketing, product management, business development, alliances and valued added services. He has earlier worked with Motorola & PepsiCo. 
 
Said Lloyd, “I look forward to making MRUC more relevant to advertisers, media planners, the broadcasting & publishing industry – with newer and enhanced offerings.”
 

MUMBAI: Star Health and Allied Insurance Company has appointed TBWAIndia as its creative agency. 
 
The size of the account is Rs 100 million, according to sources in knowledge of the transaction.
 
The other agencies that contended for the pitch include McCann Erickson, Draft FCB Ulka and incumbent Network Advertising.
 
Said TBWA India CEO Shiv Sethuraman, “We plan to launch the new campaign in the next eight weeks.”

Lodestar Universal is the company‘s media agency.

MUMBAI: Mercedes-Benz has announced its partnership with MaXposure Media Group to launch the Mercedes Magazine in India.

Mercedes Magazine will cover topics on various aspects like highend products and services, fashion, hobbies, holidays, communications and entertainment.

Apart from giving readers the latest updates on the brand, the magazine will cover the global lifestyle of the rich, the famous and the creative.
 
Besides these, sections on Mercedes-Benz history, heritage, production & future technology are incorporated for automobile aficionados.

With up to eight existing international editions already, the magazine now hits the Indian market through private circulation. Poised to serve as a coffee-table book, the magazine will look to target the young affluent section of society.

Published quarterly, the magazine will be circulated to the exclusive clientele of Mercedes-Benz in India and to the ever-growing group of people who aspire to be a part of the Mercedes-Benz family.

The international counterpart of this avant-garde magazine is published by Daimler AG. The magazine targets those who aspire to be a part of the Mercedes-Benz family.
 
Mercedes Benz India MD Dr. Wilfried Aulbur, said, “In the magazine, the readers will discover a vibrant cultural tapestry from all over the globe in its pages, covering celebrities, fashion, high-end living, exotic travel destinations, fine dining, art and the latest happenings from Mercedes-Benz and 30 per cent of the magazine will be dedicated to local content.”
 
MaXposure Media group CEO Prakash Johari said, “We are excited about publishing ‘Mercedes’ magazine in India. It is indeed, a privilege to be associated with a prestigious brand like Mercedes-Benz. We hope to strike a chord with all Mercedes-Benz customers with outstanding content in every issue.”

The Indian edition of the ‘Mercedes’ Magazine is for private circulation only and will be couriered complimentary to Mercedes-Benz customers in India. However, it will be open to external advertisers with whom the luxury carmaker shares a good synergy.

The initial print run will be 15,000 copies quarterly, which will be audited by BPA Worldwide, a leading global authority on printing audits. The magazine will also be available at dealerships as take-away for customers.
 

MUMBAI: Close on the heels of winning the INQ Mobile and IMN Media (News X) MPG has added yet another new business to its kitty. M3M India has awarded its media duties to MPG. The size of the business is estimated to be in excess of 200 million. 
 
M3M India Ltd offers innovative concepts and multi-dimensional realty solutions. Recently, the Golf Estate project of M3M was adjudged the ‘Best Upcoming Project of India‘ at the NRI Summit 2010 held at Dubai. 
 
Said M3M India president Kunal Banerji, “We found the MPG approach very thorough and insightful. Their strategic thinking, driven by MPG proprietary tools was in sync with our marketing objectives and requirements. Moreover, they have an extremely passionate and enthusiastic team which further made us choose them as our media partners”
 
Added Havas Media India & South Asia CEO Anita Nayyar, “We hope to create a power brand in the real estate category. With this win, MPG has further consolidated its position by adding media business in excess of Rs 500 million in the last few months.”