Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: Rasna International has moved to a new positioning, shifting from ‘I love you‘ Rasna for years to ‘Shararat ek ghoont‘.

The fruit drink brand has chosen Big FM Mumbai as the prime medium to launch its latest offering, Rasna Fruitplus. 
 
Rasna International CMD Piruz Khambatta says, “As per our media agency, Media Directions, today Big FM is a very popular radio station of Mumbai and has the maximum number of listeners to reach out to our target group. We, therefore, selected Big FM as the station for Mumbai, because of its effectiveness. Radio is the perfect medium to reach out to certain segments of the society. With everyone tuned to radio, it plays a very critical role in the media plan and cannot be ignored. We are using a mix of radio and TV for optimal mileage and reach.”

The brand has come on board with an innovative and creative month long campaign that promises to break the clutter, reach its audiences and create the mind-share for the product. The media campaign has been planned by Media Direction.
 
Big FM regional head west Saurabh Doshi, “We are very proud to have Rasna choose us as their partners. The effectiveness of radio is tremendous and we are happy to see more and more advertisers use it effectively to their advantage. This campaign, although recently launched has already created in-roads and interest amongst its target group. We are confident that the new messaging will come through clearly through this campaign, penetrating further into the households in Mumbai.”
 
The month long campaign, which has only recently launched, has high spot intensity, airing an innovatively woven 45 second messaging talking about Rasna Fruitplus, which can be prepared in just five seconds.
 

MUMBAI: Luminous Power Technologies has appointed Meridian (an Ogilvy Group agency) as its new creative agency following a multi-agency pitch. 
 
The company, which specialises in home inverter & UPS segment, plans to spend Rs 400 million on marketing this fiscal. The budget will be allocated across television, print, outdoor and BTL activities.
 
Said Luminous Power Technologies president – marketing and sales Sushil S Matey, “We were particularly impressed with Meridian‘s acumen and understanding of the brand and the market. The agency has the expertise and the desired capabilities. I‘m sure they will help us take our brand to newer heights.”
 
Luminous Power Technologies is currently working on a television commercial along with Meridian and plans to air it from 30 April onwards.

Said Meridian executive creative director Rensil D‘Silva, “Luminous has a dynamic product range and our task would be to build the category, as well as the product, and form an emotional bond with the customers.”

MUMBAI: Online travel company Yatra.com has launched a new advertisement campaign, “Go See the World”, targeting the young international travelers between the age group of 21 and 30.

With this campaign, Yatra.com dons a completely new look by introducing an animated character ‘joy‘. 
 
A series of five TVCs has been conceptualized to be aired on HBO, Star Movies, CNN IBN, CNBC Network 18, Star News, Sony Pictures, Times Now, National Geographic, Times Now, Discovery Channel and NDTV 24×7. 
 
Said Yatra.com head of marketing and strategic relations Pratik Mazumder, “Yatra.com is a youthful and unique brand, which offers best travel experience bundled with reliability and security – the core requirements of today‘s young travelers. To communicate the brand salience in the most innovative way possible, we have adopted the animated route this time that will reach out to the existing customers and will also attract the attention of the potential customers.”

MUMBAI: Generally cricket and Bollywood compete fiercely with each other for viewers attention. However with ESPN Star Sports’ (ESS) campaign for the Twenty20 World Cup, they have become bedfellows.

The broadcaster has tied up with the film Housefull. This is the third time that ESS has joined hands with Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, following Mujhse Shaadi Karoge and Heyy Babyy. The film and the Twenty20 World Cup start on 30 April. 
 
Two TVCs have been created. In one of them, the stars of the film – Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta and Riteish Deshmukh – are cheering the Indian team when it does well and exclaiming in disappointment when mistakes are made on the field. In the end they utter the campaign’s tagline which is ‘Josh Badega Jab World Cup Mein Desh Ladega’.

Explaining the concept of the campaign, ESS senior director marketing Nirmal Dayani notes that when Indian cricketers fight for the nation, passion rises and hits the roof. The campaign talks about this fight for pride. It is different from the campaign done for last year’s Twenty20 World Cup which was more combative in nature because India was defending the title.
 
When asked about why the campaign was being released a little over two weeks before the start of the event, Dayani notes that the aim was to have an intense burst closer to the property and drive fan affinity. The advantage is that there is no need to build awareness about the property per se. He concedes that the hype being generated by the IPL both on and off the field will mean that ESS has a task on its hands in terms of getting viewers’ attention. “Our focus will be on building fan engagement. We are doing above and below the line activities.”
 
Apart from print and radio, the cinema halls and malls will also be used. The broadcaster will air spots in cinema halls and also run a contest. “This could send winners to the West Indies. The modalities are being finalised and sponsors will be roped in for this,” Dayani says.
 

MUMBAI: Wynn Telecom, the company which recently forayed into the mobile handset market through ‘Wynncom‘, has roped in Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan as brand ambassador. 
 
Said Wynn Telecom co-founder and chairman Rakesh Malhotra, “We believe that the association is a perfect match between Saif‘s personality and what we stand for as a brand. We are glad to sign him as he is admired, aggressive and extremely popular within the youth.”
 
Added Khan, “I admire the brand‘s attitude and style and relate to it closely as it is refreshingly trendy and fast.” 
 
Wynn Telecom will launch its Wynncom brand of handsets in May this year and aims to be listed among the top three Indian handsets brands within the next one year.

MUMBAI: The ratings of Indian Premier League (IPL) 3.0 continue to hold firm as the event moves towards the climax stage. 
 
The average TVR of the last 43 matches is 4.6 compared with 4.7 and 4.1 in the first and second seasons respectively, according to Tam data.
 
The 10 matches played from 4 April-10 April managed an average TVR of 4.3. Three matches crossed a TVR of five, including the contest between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings on 6 April that fetched a TVR of 5.58.
 
The event has managed a cummulative reach of 135 million compared with 97 million in the first season and 117 million in the second season.
 

MUMBAI: The Indian ad market is on a swift recovery course and is set to grow at 9 per cent this year, leaving behind its slow crawl in 2009, as television and print see a strong rebound.

Upgrading its forecast for India, ZenithOptimedia said Wednesday television would accelerate to 11-12 per cent growth this year, compared to a 6 per cent growth in the earlier year.

Print will see a 7-8 per cent annual growth through to 2012, pacing up from a 5 per cent growth in 2009.

“Having consistently outperformed the economy as a whole for years, the ad market slowed to just 1 per cent growth in 2009. Recovery has been swift, however, and we forecast 9 per cent growth in 2010,” the study said.

Fuelling the ad growth in the television segment will be the spread of digital TV and new advertising opportunities such as sponsorship of new ‘larger than life‘ entertainment formats.

Sports will also drive growth in television advertising, partly due to the success of the Indian Premier League (IPL). “This trend is likely to continue as India hosts the Commonwealth Games this year,” the study said.

Television broadcasters, however, feel the sector is poised to grow faster than ZenithOptimedia‘s forecast.

“The television segment should post an ad growth of over 15 per cent. This will be a watershed year as television will overtake print in absolute terms. The economy is on a sound growth path and intense competition among the FMCG companies is leading to a correction of ad rates. Other categories are opening up and we see a strong rebound in the financial sector. IPOs (initial public offering) have been lined up. Hindi general entertainment channels have become much stronger and are not being affected by big-ticket items,” said Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd chief revenue officer and head niche channels Joy Chakraborthy. 
 
Star India is also bullish on the ad growth in 2010. Said Star India president, ad sales Kevin Vaz, “The ad spend on television is expected to grow at a minimum of 15-20 per cent this year. And the growth will be witnessed across categories. While FMCG will show a sharp upward ad spend, the advent of new telecom players and handset manufacturers will boost the growth further. Financial investment advertising will also show a comeback.”

ZenithOptimedia scripts a healthy picture for print as well. “India is one of the few large markets where newspaper advertising continues to grow. Rising literacy levels and improved distribution in the regions are steadily improving newspapers‘ reach. Magazines suffered a sharp fall in ad expenditure in 2009, though part of this fall may be ascribed to the fact that the indirect advertising and sponsorship option most consumer magazines now offer are not being picked up in the monitored ad expenditure figures,” the study pointed out.
 
Internet advertising in India remains low in reach but high in opportunity. Growth is being driven by the spread of the mobile internet and the youth culture of social media. Large corporations now value the opportunities offered by the media, and are investing more time and money. Thus, Internet advertising is expected to grow at about 25 per cent annually for the coming three years.

Global ad expenditure forecast

Zenith Optimedia expects global ad expenditure to grow by 2.2 per cent in 2010, up from the 0.9 per cent growth that it had predicted in December.

This is the agency‘s second upgrade in a row, stating a 1.3 percentage point improvement this time as compared to a 0.4 point improvement in December.

It has also upgraded its forecasts for the next two years, though not so dramatically. The agency predicts 4.1 per cent growth in 2011, up from 3.9 per cent, and 5.3 per cent in 2012, up from 4.8 per cent. According to Zenith Optimedia, this pattern of recovery is normal as after the previous two recessions, it took three years of progressive recovery for the global ad market to return to normal growth.

After suffering a deep 12.1 per cent decline in 2009, the developed markets (which are defined as North America, Western Europe and Japan) are stabilising, with occasional signs of surprising strength.

The study states that the UK‘s television market, which has been shrinking since 2005, was up 7 per cent in Q1 2010, and will be up at least 16 per cent in Q2. In the US, network radio is up about 20 per cent for the first half of 2010, with strong support from retail (which has nearly doubled its spend year on year).

Since the beginning of 2010, Spain‘s TV market has managed to absorb a 20 per cent reduction in capacity, after advertising was removed from all public channels, with little to no reduction in expenditure. At the moment these represent isolated pockets of recovery, but they demonstrate that advertisers are becoming more willing to take advantage of good opportunities when they arise.

The report expects the recovery to become more general as the year progresses, leading to overall growth next year. It forecasts a 0.8 per cent decline in developed-market ad expenditure in 2010, followed by 1.8 per cent growth in 2011. North America, having led the world into recession, will be last out, with a 1.5 per cent drop in ad expenditure in 2010, while Japan drops 0.7 per cent and Western Europe grows 0.4 per cent. 
 
Markets in the developing world (everywhere apart from North America, Western Europe and Japan) followed two very different paths in 2009. Many markets in Central and Eastern Europe suffered a very sharp drop in ad expenditure at the beginning of the year, when investors and advertisers were afraid that the financial crisis and drop in global demand would permanently damage these markets‘ prospects. Ad expenditure fell much faster here than in the developed world: across the whole of 2009 ad expenditure fell 23.1 per cent in Central & Eastern Europe, with drops as extreme as 42 per cent in Russia, 44 per cent in Latvia and 48 per cent in Ukraine.

“The fears of early 2009 have now largely receded, and we expect these markets to make up their lost ground quickly over the next few years. We forecast 5.7 per cent ad spend growth in Central and Eastern Europe in 2010, and 8.5 per cent in 2011,” the study said.

The rest of the developing world was more robust during the downturn. In 2009, ad expenditure grew 4.8 per cent in the Middle East, 0.4 per cent in Latin America and held steady in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan). Many markets in these regions continued to grow throughout the year, notably Lebanon (25.4 per cent), Indonesia (18.8 per cent), the Philippines (14.5 per cent), Argentina (12.7 per cent) and China (7.4 per cent). These growth rates demonstrate the fundamental health of these markets, which the agency expects to maintain similar performances over the next few years.

Other markets in these regions were not as resilient in the downturn and will not grow so quickly during the upturn, but most should comfortably outpace the developed markets. “Overall we forecast the Middle East to grow 4.7 per cent in 2010, Latin America to grow 9.3 per cent and Asia Pacific (again excluding Japan) to grow 10 per cent,” the study concluded.

MUMBAI: Miditech Private Limited and Global Agency have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at Cannes to strengthen their partnership.

Under the pact, Miditech will produce television shows for Indian broadcasters using the formats developed by Global Agency while the latter will distribute the formats developed by Miditech to international broadcasters. 
 
Said Miditech managing director Nivedith Alva, “Miditech has consistently focused on developing original formats and drama series for the domestic market, many of which have the potential to travel globally. The tie up with Global Agency, with whom we‘ve built a strong relationship in India with Perfect Bride, will give us access to some of the biggest and most controversial global formats for the Indian market, as well as create an additional distribution network for own home grown formats .” 
 
Added Global Agency CEO Izzet Pinto, “With the burgeoning television audiences we are extremely bullish about creating a significant mark in the global television market. We merge our expertise of developing diverse formats that creates rapid buzz with Miditech to gain maximum exposure in the Indian television.”
 

MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) and Hero Honda Motors have announced a three-year partnership. According to the deal, Hero Honda will become a global partner with a major presence at all ICC events. 
 
The deal will include the upcoming ICC World Twenty20, which takes place from 30 April to 16 May in the West Indies, and will run all the way to the end of 2012. This formal commitment follows Hero Honda’s successful involvement in the last three high-profile events staged by ICC in England (ICC World Twenty20 2009), South Africa (ICC Champions Trophy 2009) and New Zealand (ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2010).

The deal will position Hero Honda alongside existing global partners Reliance Mobile, LG Electronics and Pepsi and will include ICC events like the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, the ICC World Twenty20 2010 and 2012, the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2012 and the ICC World Cricket League Division 1 2010.
 
This agreement will entitle Hero Honda to exercise certain promotional, advertising, marketing and other commercial rights on a world-wide basis in connection with the events.

ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat says, “Hero Honda has already been a great supporter of cricket for many years and this deal is a great one for the game.” 
 
Hero Honda Motors MD, CEO Pawan Munjal says, “Hero Honda is all set to further strengthen its close to two decade-long association with cricket. It is a matter of great privilege and delight to once again be partnering the ICC as one of its global partners for all its international cricketing events.”
 

MUMBAI: McCain Foods (India), the Indian subsidiary of McCain Foods Canada, has appointed Leo Burnett as its creative partner following a multi-agency pitch.

The agency has been mandated to build awareness of the new brand in India by developing and implementing an integrated brand communication approach across all touch points.
 
Said McCain Foods India MD K S Narayanan, “We found a good strategic fit and decided to go with Leo Burnett in India. Leo Burnett won the multi agency pitch on the basis of their strong consumer insights and sound creative direction. We need to build the frozen foods category in India which would be accomplished over a period of time and have been working with Leo Burnett for the past few months in developing the brand strategy and communication plan.”
 
Said Leo Burnett executive director Samir Gangahar, “With McCain‘s diverse product categories for the Indian consumer and the prospect of building the frozen foods category in the country, we look forward to exciting times ahead.”