Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: In a bid to propagate its “Life‘s Good” proposition, LG Electronics is launching a new ad campaign that has been created by Y&R, Mindshare and LG One. 
 
The campaign aims to make an attempt to make technology more accessible to consumers. 
 
The television commercials will promote the Infinia range of LCD‘s with their full LED technology, which are also 3D-ready.

MUMBAI: The top 10 shows on the Hindi general entertainment channels have skid 8.8 per cent during the IPL playing window as compared to the two-week earlier period, though some have taken a milder knock than the others.

The GEC genre share has seen a bigger tumble, falling by 12.35 per cent, from a 56 per cent share before the IPL (28 February-13 March period) to 49.08 per cent during-IPL period (14 March-17 April), according to Tam data for C&S 4+, Hindi-speaking market.
 
The two shows that have lost the most in this GEC-IPL tug-of-war are Colors’ Balika Vadhu and Star Plus’ Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai. While Balika Vadhu has seen a fall of 26.68 per cent ( 4.9 TVR to 3.6 TVR), Yeh Rishta… has slid by 25.2 per cent (6.8 TVR to 5.1 TVR).

On the contrary, the show that has actually pulled up Star Plus’ GRP grades is Pratigya, featuring a 31 per cent rise during the IPL period.
 
Zee TV, on the other hand, has seen a positive IPL period with Dance India Dance-2 showcasing a 15.38 per cent upswing during its two-day runs (Friday-Saturday) while Jhansi Ki Rani has lost out by a mere 4 per cent (4 TVR – 3.8 TVR).

Says a top channel executive on condition of anonymity, “It has been a positive IPL for Zee TV. The channel that has witnessed a bigger fall is Colors with Balika Vadhu losing its leadership position at the 8 pm slot. Star Plus has actually remained stable, while Zee has moved up consistently.”
 
While there has surely been an IPL impact on the GEC audience viewership, advertising volumes across the general entertainment space have not faced the blow. What has come down is the advertising rates for some of the entertainment shows.

Explains a top executive from a media agency, “Since last two months, channels are on an absolute high as the inventories remain full house. Yes, due to the IPL the ad rates may have gone down a little, but broadcasters anyway were prepared for this waft and have devised their own strategies to minimise the overall impact.”
 

MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League (IPL) may have entered murky waters, but television audiences are unconcerned as they stay glued to their TV sets with the third season almost coming to a close.
 
The 10 matches played between 11 April-17 April have fetced an average TVR of 4.03. Leading the ratings turf is the match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals, played on 11 April, that got a TVR of 5.9. 
 
The last 53 IPL matches have a got a rating of 4.5 compared with 4.7 in the first season and 4.0 last year, according to Tam data. 
 
The IPL has managed a cummulative reach of 138 million this year compared with 100 million in the first year and 121 million in the second year.

MUMBAI: Kangna Ranaut is brand ambassador for Alcatel Ice3, a product launched in the Indian market by Alcatel Mobile in association with Ice Mobile Network Systems. 
 
Ranaut fits into the brand as she is trendy, stylish and has a youth image.

Kangna Ranaut says, “ICE is a young, hip, cool and stylish phone. I love its distinctive look, and believe it offers great features. It is priced very affordably, and I‘m sure it will be a very popular phone in the market. ”
 
The phone is priced at Rs 7,000. Says ICE Mobile Network Systems director M.S.Malik, “Together with TCT Mobile, we are launching five new Alcatel handset models in the next three months. We seek to establish a presence of at least a million handsets within a span of six months in the Indian market”.

MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a format that changed the way cricket was viewed by many, so it does not come as a surprise when online social media goes buzzing about it.

Now with the League coming to a close, it is interesting to see how the buzz has shifted amongst teams and players in the past one month. The analysis has been undertaken by Nielsen using Nielsen Online BuzzMetrics, which measured online posts in message boards, blogs, discussion groups and micro blogs (Twitter) across all cricket following countries. 
 
In the last two weeks, the focus of social media users has shifted from cricket, and they have discussed Shashi Tharoor and Lalit Modi even more than the two most discussed players online- Tendulkar and Dhoni. The sentiments were negative for both Tharoor and Modi initially. However, in the last couple of days brand Tharoor seems to have recovered marginally, while Modi continues to be perceived negatively in social media.

At the beginning of the League, Kolkata Knight Riders were the most discussed team online, but as the season comes to a close Mumbai Indians have gone ahead of Kolkata Knight Riders in online buzz. Deccan Chargers is the third highest discussed team, followed by Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore at fourth and fifth spot respectively.

Amongst players, Ricky Ponting, who was the most discussed player online prior to the League has been replaced by Sachin Tendulkar in the current season. Sachin is followed by M S Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Shane Warne and Rahul Dravid.
 
Nielsen Online associate director Karthik Nagarajan says, “Contrary to our hypothesis, it seems that on field performance does matter when it comes to online buzz volume. Discussions revolving around Mumbai Indians, Sachin, and Dhoni are a clear indication of the same. Having said that, the controversy between Tharoor and Modi is so dominant that even players like Sachin and Dhoni have been overshadowed by it despite their performance.”

MUMBAI: Manchester United has stayed as the most valuable football club in the world for the sixth time in a row despite facing an erosion due to a troubled economy.

Forbes has valued the club that has iconic players like Wayne Rooney at $1.84 billion, down from $1.87 billion a year ago. 
 
Real Madrid takes the second spot, according to the Forbes list, followed by Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, AC Milan, Juventus, Chelsea, and Inter Milan.

The top 20 clubs have an average enterprise value of $632 million, down from $691 million a year ago. The 8.5 per cent decline equates to a $1.2 billion aggregate loss in value.

The five richest teams (Manchester United, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich) earned $556 million, an operating margin of 24 per cent. 
 
The five poorest teams (Newcastle United, Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Olympique Marseille, Werder Bremen) lost a combined $54 million on revenues of $778 million, the report said.

Forbes has valued the football clubs based on income streams such as broadcast rights, sponsorship and sales of tickets and merchandise.

The 20-team list includes six clubs from the English Premiere League. 
 
The Top 10 Clubs

MUMBAI: Sony Entertainment Television (SET) is all ready to launch the fifth season of its flagship property, Indian Idol, on 26 April.

The channel is pumping Rs 100 million to market the reality show and has roped in Amul, Nokia, Tata Docomo, Suzuki, Piramal Pharmaceuticals, Parle Agro and Tata Motors as show sponsors. 
 
The fifth season is jointly produced by format co-owners Fremantle Media India and Wizcraft. It will be aired from Monday to Thursday at 9 pm. Altogether, a total of 35 episodes will be screened including the finals.

The promotional activities will remain high across the Hindi speaking market (HSM). Apart from SET‘s own network, the channel has booked 6000 TV spots across 14 television channels.
 
Says SET marketing head Danish Khan, “The marketing of the show is being conducted in phases. While the first phase focused on spreading awareness about the auditions that was held in different parts of the country, the second phase will involve a lot of experiential marketing to get in more and more people to sample the show.”

The channel has tied up with Radio Mirchi as the show‘s radio partner. As part of its out-of-home initiative, Set has booked around 800 hoardings in 11 cities across Indian.

SET has priced a 10-second ad spot for Rs 250, 000, added a channel source.
 
Says SET programming head Ajay Bhalwankar, “Indian Idol 5 will showcase the inspirational and emotional stories of people. It will give the flavor of our vast country, showcase great singing talent and unique characters. We have made it to a weekly format so that people can follow their favourite
characters more closely and immerse themselves in the Indian Idol experience.”

The new season will be judged by Anu Malik, Salim Merchant, and Sunidhi Chauhan and will be hosted by Abhijeet Sawant and Prajakta Shukre.

Says FremantleMedia India MD SK Raj Barua, “By tapping into the international and creative expertise of Fremantle Media‘s global network, we expect the new season to showcase everything that has made Idols one of the world‘s most inspiring brands.”

MUMBAI: In a bid to expand its footprint into the southern market, Lowe Lintas has set foot in Kerala to set up a fully functional office in Kochi.

Lowe Lintas president Sujit Nair will oversee the Kerala operations and businesses in the region. The office will also cater to the businesses in Trivandrum and Kozhikode.
 
Said Lowe Lintas India CEO Charles Cadell, “With an increasing number of Kerala brands targeting the national and international markets, it is an opportunity for us to offer our international brand building expertise to companies in such an expansionist mode.”

“To give such clients the dedication they will need, Lowe Lintas is establishing local representation to support such brand development. Estimated business in Kerala is to the tune of Rs 1000 million and we hope to get a strong foothold in this state soon,” Cadell added. 
 
The agency plans to bring national and international learning, experience and exposure to businesses in retail, government and ayurveda. The agency will bring in marketing consulting capabilities in a bid to help create power brands through high value ideas. 
 
The agency will open its innings with Kochi based Mayden Pharma.

MUMBAI: Wynn Telecom, which recently announced its foray into the mobile handset business under the ‘Wynncom‘ brand, has appointed Dentsu Creative Impact as its creative agency, while Karishma Initiative and Alliance Advertising are appointed as media agencies.

Said Wynn Telecom Ltd managing director Arvind R Vohra, “We are pleased to have Dentsu, Karishma Initiative and Alliance as our creative and media planning partners because of their extensive understanding of the corporate and strategic requirements of the business. The agencies experience in the telecom space is a perfect fit with our communication objectives.”
 
The agencies were finalized through a multi level pitching process among four agencies under each category. The media business would be largely driven by Karishma Initiative while special activations and properties related to sports would be done by Alliance Advertising.

“Wynn Telecom will launch a 360 degree integrated campaign across media vehicles capitalising on the recently signed Bollywood celebrity. The objective is to do traditional things differently and to break the clutter” said Wynn Telecom head marketing Naved Chaudhary.
 
He further adds that the marketing budget for the current fiscal would be in excess of Rs 300 million spread across television, print, outdoors and online media platforms.

Said Karishma Initiative CEO N P Sathyamurthy, “Wynncom requires radical solutions, given their market complexion and high decibel competition. Karishma Initiative is looking forward to being a true partner by offering differentiated customer engagement solutions.”
 

MUMBAI: Colors marketing head Rameet Arora, who was part of the original team set up in April 2008, has resigned.

Arora, who is serving his three-month notice period, is set to join McDonald’s as senior director.
 
Arora spearheaded the marketing of the channel that churned out several popular shows including Balika Vadhu, Khatron ke Khiladi and Bigg Boss. He had an important role to play as Colors swiftly climbed to leadership position in the Hindi general entertainment channel space.
 
Colors CEO and Viacom18 COO Rajesh Kamat said, “Over the last 20 months, Arora’s passion and experience has not only driven Colors to become one of the most recalled brands in a short span of time but also helped position many of its shows uniquely in the entertainment space.” He further added, “As he moves on to a fresh challenge, I wish him all the luck.” 
 
Arora added, “The last two years when I have been associated with Colors have been a period of immense professional and personal growth for me. I was privileged to have had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest minds in Indian television. The work itself has been extremely exciting and together we have achieved a lot.”