Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: Fortune Global 500 company Henkel has launched ‘Margo Nutri Care‘, a new version of its flagship brand Margo, and has roped in Bollywood actress Genelia D‘souza to endorse the brand. 
 
With Genelia to feature in the new commercials that will be aired on various TV channels from next week, the company is hoping that the young starlet‘s youth appeal will propel the new soap amongst the younger population.

Henkel India MD Jayant Singh said, “With Nutricare, our attempt is to make Margo more relevant to the younger population. We also believe that Genelia D‘souza is highly aspirational to the younger generation and therefore is a strong fit with the brand.”
 
Margo has been one of the reputed soap brands in India since the 1920‘s and with its latest product combines natural ingredients and oils to clean, nourish and refresh even better.

Genelia D‘souza said, “It‘s a pleasure to be associated with a brand like Margo that has stood the test of time and has been offering consumers the best in skin care.” 
 
The new Margo Nutri Care is priced at Rs 15 for 70 grams and Rs 18 for 95 grams and is available in all retail stores in the country.
 

MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) India has named Kaushik Chakravorty as group chief operating officer -out of home.

Chakravorty will now be responsible for managing operations of the group‘s out-of-home brands – Navia and Vector, in addition to his present role as Enhance executive director and country head.

Thus, while Chakravorty will continue to report to Starcom MediaVest Group CEO-South Asia Ravi Kiran, he will now also work closely with CEO-Navia and Vector Sanjay Shah. 
 
Speaking on the appointment, Ravi Kiran said, “Kaushik is one of the most mature managers in our business and leads a very dedicated and client focused team within Starcom MediaVest Group. His passion for product, people and process is well known and I am confident he will strengthen the managerial bandwidth substantially at Navia and Vector.”

Added Sanjay Shah, “As our business continues to grow rapidly in scale and scope, we feel that there is a need to further consolidate our out-of-home offering. Kaushik brings in nearly two decades of varied experience in the space of ambient media, retail and outdoor. He will be an asset to Navia and Vector.”
 
In this newly created position, Chakravorty will work closely with the teams at Navia and Vector across regions in developing a strong strategy, as well as delivering to clients‘ consistency in service and quality. He has over 16 years experience in sales, market development, client servicing and account management with senior and top management responsibilities, across media companies and MNC organisations. 
 
Speaking on this expanded new role within SMG India‘s OOH business, Chakravorty said, “I have already been working closely with Sanjay Shah on common clients under the guidance of Ravi Kiran. This new role helps in increasing the existing collaboration within our business and I look forward to the challenges it brings with it in addition to my role at Enhance.”

MUMBAI: Following a multi-agency pitch, Mudra Group has been awarded the creative and media duties for Kalpataru real estate. Mudra MAX (Integrated Communications Planning & Implementation) has been chosen to handle the media mandate while Mudra West will manage the creative duties for the brand.
 
Said Mudra West president Arijit Ray, “The Kalpataru group is known for the pioneering role it has played in developing the real estate market in the west. We look forward to working closely with the brand team to strengthen and consolidate the overall brand and the imagery. The two teams at Mudra West and Mudra MAX will work closely to chart out the overall direction for the brand.”
 
Added Mudra MAX Media president LS Krishnan, “We are looking forward to building the Kalpataru brand from a media perspective along with Mudra West. We will rise to the challenges offered by the real estate category in terms of path-breaking and innovative methods of reaching the consumer.”
 
Established in 1969 by the first generation entrepreneur, Mofatraj Munot, the Kalpataru Group is a 5000 member professionally managed conglomerate. The group has diverse interests in real estate development, power transmission, civil contracting & infrastructure development, integrated facility management services, logistics and warehousing services.

MUMBAI: Mudra MAX, Mudra Group‘s integrated communications planning and implementation agency, bagged an astounding 21 awards out of the total 35 at the Outdoor Advertising Convention (OAC) this year. The tally includes 9 golds and 6 silvers and six merit certificates.
 
Mudra MAX won awards for a large variety of clients, including those from sectors in financial services, telecom, entertainment, media, automobiles, retail, hospitality and consumer durables. It won the Campaign of the Year award for its work on the Volkswagen launch campaign and Innovation of the Year award for the Aircel ‘Boat‘. It also swept the media plan category at the awards, winning media plan of the year – national for Aircel and media plan of the year – local for Aircel (Mumbai launch) and Hindustan Times (Mumbai).
 
Said Mudra Group MD & CEO Madhukar Kamath, “With every passing year, Mudra MAX has moved from strength to strength. After its fantastic showing at the ABBYs, it was delightful to witness Mudra MAX stamp its authority at the OAA awards as well. What is remarkable about Mudra MAX is its ability to produce collaborative work with partners within the group, co-creating unique solutions for every client.”
 
JWT won gold for the on Birla Global Finance Car Loans – Sliced Car campaign in the financial services category.

JCDecaux bagged a gold as the media owner of the year. Cartel Outdoor Advertising, Macromedia Digital Imaging and Kinetic‘s Poster Publicity also won a gold award each.
 

MUMBAI: Neo Cricket has sold 80 per cent of its inventory for the Asia Cup which kicks off tomorrow.
 
Neo Sports Broadcast executive VP ad revenue Raju Udupa says that five sponsors have come on-board. “We have HUL, Tata DoCoMo and Airtel DTH as co-presenters. Lemon Mobile and Tata Motors are associate sponsors. We have sold spots for Rs 225,000 per 10 seconds and are targetting revenues of Rs 1 billion.”

The target of Rs 1 billion looks highly ambitious and would be difficult to achieve, media analysts said. The soccer World Cup is currently going on and the TV viewership for the event in India is going to increase considerably from the previous World Cup.
 
Neo is holding back 10 per cent should India make it to the final. There are seven matches in total. “We also have spot buyers including Micromax, HCL, Perfetti, Nissan Auto, Godfrey Phillips, Piramal Healthcare and K Lakshmi Cement. This time a full strength Indian team is playing. So advertisers are confident on the event‘s delivery”.
 
Micromax is the ground title sponsor. The broadcaster has also roped in Tata Motors Manza, Seagrams Royal Stag and Yamaha as on-ground sponsors. The broadcaster is spending Rs 25 million on marketing activities, says Udupa.
 

MUMBAI: PromaxBDA, the global association for marketing, promotion and design professionals in the entertainment industry, has elevated two members of its board of directors to co-chairmen.

Warner Bros. Television group EVP and CMO Lisa Gregorian, and NBC Entertainment president of marketing Adam Stotsky have been elected to serve as PromaxBDA board of directors co-chairmen. 
 
PromaxBDA represents every major broadcast and cable television organization, many major radio, computer hardware and software corporations, internet and other emerging technology stakeholders, as well as top design, promotion and advertising agencies. Michael Benson, current PromaxBDA chairman of the board and ABC executive VP, marketing will be stepping down due to the completion of his term.

PromaxBDA president and CEO Jonathan Block-Verk says, “Lisa and Adam have both made significant contributions to PromaxBDA as board members, and as Co-Chairmen, they will bring a wealth of insight, expertise and energy that will help drive the organization to a dynamic future.

“The combined leadership of these two highly accomplished industry executives assures the positive growth and evolution of our organization.”
 
The board of directors oversees the annual budget, strategic planning of conferences, awards and year-round member services, and the development of long-term goals and organisational direction.

MUMBAI: eCommerce marketplace eBay India and apparel brand adidas are offering football fans a chance to own merchandise of Fifa World Cup teams.

eBay India will be the one stop destination for merchandise from teams like Germany, England, Argentina and Brazil. The official merchandise is available on eBay India on www.ebay.in.
 
eBay India director – marketing and product management Muralikrishnan B said, “With increasing viewership of International Football, the game has seen a tremendous growth in popularity amongst Indian youth. With the Fifa World Cup 2010, the game is extending its boundaries and is moving beyond the football ground and television, with the web becoming a new destination for live scores, team news and official merchandise.” 
 
This is a great opportunity for football enthusiasts to choose from a wide range of merchandise that include T-shirts, shorts, backpacks, water bottle sippers, footballs and caps belonging to some of the top teams participating in Fifa World Cup 2010.

The Fifa T-shirts and shorts range from between Rs 899 to Rs 2999. The Backpacks range from Rs 1999 to Rs 2099. The caps and water bottle sippers are between Rs 599 to Rs 699.
 

MUMBAI: Manappuram General Finance and Leasing Ltd has appointed Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar as brand ambassador.

Akshay will join other super stars of the South namely, Mohan Lal in Kerala, Puneet Rajkumar in Karnataka, Victor Venkatesh in Andhra Pradesh and “Chiyan” Vikram in Tamil Nadu.
 
Manappuram Finance is the first NBFC in Kerala to get a rating of A1+ from ICRA and a long term rating of LA+ from ICRA for its working capital limit of Rs 6 billion under BASEL II norms. Manappuram Finance has over 1100 branches across 15 states, a staff strength of over 8,000 people and customer base of over 6 lakhs.
 
According to Manappuram Finance V P Nandakumar chairman, Indian households own 20,000 tons of gold which amounts to two third of the country‘s GDP and the total size of mortgaged gold is 1500 tons. Manappuram Finance is managing over 26 tons of mortgaged gold assets. 
 
“A new regional approach to marketing of products will be made with more focus on regional communication strategy by having local dialogues to reach out the masses. These brand ambassadors will help us to connect and communicate Manappuram Brand values to its current and prospective users,” said Nandakumar.

MUMBAI: The Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) has announced the appointment of Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) as the exclusive licensing representative for all national competitions until 2013 including Uefa Euro 2012, which takes place in Poland and Ukraine. 
 
Uefa CEO David Taylor says, “Uefa is pleased to be able to continue its successful relationship with WBCP. As industry leaders creatively and at retail, they have proved an invaluable partner for previous events in 2004 and 2008 and we look forward to building on that momentum through 2013”.

Uefa and WBCP will work in tandem on creative programme developments, including mascot and art programmes. Additionally, they will jointly oversee the selection process to recruit new licensees and official retailers for all programs and national competitions. 
 
WBCP executive VP, GM Europe, Middle East and Africa Pilar Zulueta says, “WBCP is very proud of Uefa‘s choice and we are excited to be involved with such a prestigious project. It is our intention to bring football fans everywhere a collection of officially licensed products that is broad, creative, compelling and innovative in all aspects. We will also look to work with licensees and official retailers that align with this vision.”

MUMBAI: Nielsen and McKinsey have announced a global joint venture, NM Incite, to help leading companies harness the power of social media intelligence to drive superior business performance.

NM Incite gives companies the capabilities to better understand, value and take advantage of the rich insights made possible by social media.
 
M Incite looks to build upon social media and online brand metrics, consumer insights and real-time market intelligence of Nielsen BuzzMetrics to transform business operations including product development, marketing, communications and customer service. With the creation of this new venture, BuzzMetrics becomes wholly part of NM Incite.

Nielsen CEO David Calhoun says, “Our venture with McKinsey will extend our ability to help clients answer one of the central questions facing CEO’s, how to unleash the promise of social media,” said . “Our clients want to take full advantage of what is possible. NM Incite will fuse social media with the enterprise, creating new opportunities, efficiencies and competitive advantage.”

McKinsey is contributing client capability building and expertise in the areas of marketing and sales, organisation and service operations. McKinsey serves multiple clients and has developed proprietary knowledge and distinctive insights in areas such as digital marketing, marketing ROI, word-of-mouth marketing and consumer purchase behaviour.
 
NM Incite advises senior executives and delivers measurement, tools and new processes to drive organizational transformation. Working together with select pilot clients, NM Incite is developing its first three solution areas, expected to be available this fall. The initial areas of focus are measuring and improving marketing effectiveness, product launch optimization and customer service experience.

McKinsey global MD Dominic Barton says, “As our clients’ needs evolve, so our firm continuously innovates in the way we work.

“Social media is an increasingly critical issue for business leaders and an area of untapped opportunity for many of our clients. This joint venture will equip institutions with real-time insights to help their leaders drive better results.”
 
 
NM Incite will work with the expansive ecosystem of interactive, marketing and strategic communications firms and other technology and social media companies to implement client solutions, help shape future offerings and develop new metrics.