BANGALORE: United Spirits Limited (USL) announced Kevin Pietersen as brand ambassador for Scotch whisky brand Whyte & Mackay.
Pietersen is supposed to be a connoisseur of scotch and single malts
Whyte & Mackay is a team sponsor of the IPL team, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The team features some of the world‘s best players including Pietersen, Mark Boucher, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Jacques Kallis.
MUMBAI: Lowe Lintas has bagged the creative duties of Nirulas India, beating other agencies like Saatchi& Saatchi, M&C Saatchi and T.A.G. Ideation in the contest.
Under the alliance, Lowe Lintas will be responsible for Nirula India‘s brand communication including strategic planning and brand launches.
The business will be headed by Lowe Lintas executive director Naveen Gaur. “We are really excited to partner with Nirula‘s India. Our philosophy of high value ideas has merited us the challenge to recreate a new brand image for Nirulas. It is an exciting category and it‘s a massive opportunity for the brand,” he says.
Adds Nirulas India VP marketing Vinayak Shourie, “We are very confident that through our association with Lowe Lintas and their expertise we will be able to not only strengthen the Nirula brand image but create a distinctive identity for the brand. This is a very important phase in the brands evolution and we intent to bring about a number of significant changes over the coming months. With the Lintas strength behind us we are sure that this phase is going to turn the brand into an even stronger entity.”
MUMBAI: In the wake of a multi-agency pitch, Leo Burnett Delhi has won the creative duties of Kohler India.
The agency was awarded the duties after two rounds of selection meetings.
Says Leo Burnett chairman and CEO Arvind Sharma, “Yes, we have bagged the Kohler India business.”
This is the first time Kohler has got on board a creative agency.
“Kohler is truly a global brand with a heritage of being an innovator in the category. Their wide range of stylish, superior performance products provides us the perfect platform for making it as admired a brand in India as it is globally,” says Leo Burnett executive director Samir Gangahar.
Kohler India president Vikas Gupta says, “We are happy to appoint Leo Burnett as our creative agency. Leo Burnett is known for its ability to aptly partner with brands and provide unique creative solutions that help brands in creating a space in the minds of the customers.”
Headquartered in the United States, Kohler deals in manufacturing kitchen and bath products, engines and power generation systems, cabinetry, tile and home interiors.
The brand entered the India market in 2006 with the launch of bathroom products including toilets, lavatories, faucets, bathtubs, whirlpools and showers and is headquartered in Gurgaon.
MUMBAI: Kurl-On has rolled out Teenz collection, bed linens exclusively designed for the new generation.
Said Kurlon director marketing and sales G.Sivaram, ” Teenz collection, that has been specially developed and designed for the go-getting stylish Indian youth, focuses on intensity and the power of various cocktail colour combinations that bring out the temperament of a cheerful, vibrant and chic youngster. The new trendy collection emphasises our commitment to keep innovating.”
This new Kurl-on collection exhibits a mix of fun-loving style featuring an eccentric combination of bold and colorful hues, cultivated to the teens. Priced at Rs 1450, the ‘Teenz Collection‘ is available in five designs.
MUMBAI: Theme Ventures, the diversified brand management firm, is on a growth trajectory and plans to have a 100-city operation within three years.
The company at present provides below the line (BTL) marketing solutions to clients in 25 cities including Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Ahamdabad, Surat, Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Ranchi, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Siliguri, Indore and Bhopal.
“BTL marketing is still at a very nascent stage in India, but now advertisers have started to shift to this. The main reason is that the television medium has become very fragmented,” Theme Ventures CEO Rajan Guha tells indiantelevision.com.
Theme Ventures spans across 12 BTL marketing and branding services which takes care of the entire marketing need. The company takes care of B2B marketing, consumer scheming, product promotion, retail promotion, cross promotional sales, direct to corporate employee sales, customer relation management, strategic alliances, dealer motivation and sales incentive schemes.
“In developed countries, advertisers spend almost equally on ATL (above the line) and BTL marketing. India will see a great change and we are prepared for that. From 25 city operations today, we plan to cover 100 cities across India in the next three years,” Guha adds.
Theme Ventures claims that over the years, several companies have outsourced their sales and marketing functions to them, a trend unknown in India until recently.
MUMBAI: Contract Advertising has roped in Kumar Subramaniam as executive vice president for its Mumbai office.
As part of his new mandate, Subramaniam will also be responsible for the agency‘s digital division, iContract.
Said Subramaniam, “Contract has been traditional and creative in its strategic thinking process and I plan to take this trend forward to explore newer opportunities for the agency.”
MUMBAI: Premier sports, entertainment and media company IMG Worldwide has announced that it has signed rising Romanian tennis star, Sorana Cirstea, as a client.
Cirstea, 20, holds two WTA titles and nine ITF titles and reached the quarter finals of the 2009 French Open and the Los Angeles Open.
Cirstea will be managed by Max Eisenbud and Ben Crandell. IMG senior VP Max Eisenbud says, “We are very pleased to have Sorana Cirstea as an IMG client. We believe Sorana has all the makings of a future Top 10 player. In addition to her outstanding tennis talents, her striking beauty, relaxed outgoing personality and intelligence gives her the opportunity to transcend tennis on a global basis.”
IMG Tennis head of global Fernando Soler says, “Sorana is one of the young sensations on the tennis scene today with enormous potential and we are thrilled she has chosen IMG to represent her. She clearly represents the next generation of tennis superstars who will be able to compete successfully on the world tennis stage.”
Following a successful junior career during which she was ranked number one on the Under 14 world rankings list in 2003, she won the 2005 German Junior Open (Grade 1), was a finalist in the 2006 Trofeo Bonfiglio, as well as the year-ending ITF Grade 1 juniors tournaments Eddie Herr International and Yucatan World Cup in 2005 and 2006, and in the Optus Nottinghill International in 2006.
In addition, she also had a junior doubles runner-up finish at 2007 Roland Garros. Sorana began her professional career in 2006.
In April 2007, she shocked tennis fans by coming out of relative obscurity to make the final of the Budapest Grand Prix as a qualifier, becoming the first Romanian player to reach a tour final since Ruxandra Dragomir in 2000. In 2008 in Tashkent, she won her first WTA tour title by defeating Sabine Lisicki in the final.
MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) and the hosts of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Australia and New Zealand are requesting proposals from companies interested in providing the brand identity for the flagship ICC event
The event will be played in February and March 2015 and co-hosted by Cricket Australia (CA) and New Zealand Cricket (NZC).
The ICC, along with CA and NZC, will all be involved in the development of the event brand identity and will liaise and consult with each other during that development phase to ensure the new identity has sufficient flexibility across the diverse range of touch points that will be required of the brand.
This request for proposals (RFP) is designed to attract applications from companies with extensive proven track record in design of sporting event identities, preferably on a global scale, and with a talented and experienced design team capable of committing itself to the project over an extended period of time.
Timelines for the development of the strategy and event brand design along with an in-depth description of the required services are available in the RFP. In the first instance, interested parties must submit their intent-to-submit letter with a cost estimate and brief summary of credentials.
The closing date is 21 May. No creative submission is required at this stage.
MUMBAI: Rediffusion-Y&R has split its wholly-owned subsidiary, Wunderman, into two distinct entities to segregate its domestic and international clients.
Said Wunderman Global CEO and chairman Daniel Morel, “Domestic and international clients don‘t have the same requirements and keeping their specific needs in mind, we are getting organized to match their expectations with the required skills and mindset within the two sister companies.”
Rediffusion-Wunderman (previously called Wunderman India) will focus on both domestic and global companies in India while Wunderman International will be dedicated to only the agency‘s global network clients.
With over 90 people in offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, Rediffusion-Wunderman will be headed by Leroy Alvares, based out of Mumbai.
Said Rediffusion-Wunderman president Leroy Alvares, “The Rediffusion-Wunderman name change comes at a perfect time in our scheme of things. We‘ve been working backstage to beef up our team of experts and set up strong hubs on the basis our offering of digital, data and direct solutions.”
Its key clients include Tata Motors, Kingfisher Airlines, Airtel, Birla Sun Life Insurance, Esprit, Accenture, TVS, ITBC, Allen Solly, Home Town and Which Right Choice.
Meanwhile, Wunderman International will be headed by Aditya Atri, based out of Delhi. Wunderman International has over 100 employees, with offices in Delhi and Chennai. Key clients include Microsoft, Nokia and Ford.
Said Rediffusion – Y&R Group CEO Mahesh Chauhan, “The new architecture of the Rediffusion Group is based around client‘s needs – of high-end specialisation as well high levels of collaboration. The new name best exemplifies this new reality.”
MUMBAI: BBH India has appointed Russell Barrett to head the creative team.
Prior to this, Barrett was executive creative director at Bates 141.
Barrett will join office on 22 April and will report to BBH India managing partner Priti Nair.
Says BBH managing director Subhash Kamath, “With the business growing exponentially, it was time to bring in a senior level official and hence, Barrett has been brought on board. He will work closely with Nair and will service the Indian creative team across all clients.”
With an experience of around 14 years, Barrett joined Bates 141 in January 2009. He has also been associated with Leo Burnett and Rediffusion DY &R.
Barrett has worked on brands like Virgin Mobile, Radio City and Fiat.