Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: The Advertising Club Bangalore‘s (Ad club) Big Bang Awards 2010 has named Dentsu Communications as the agency of the year.

In the meantime, Titan Industries has bagged the client of the year award while Maxus has walked away with the best media agency of the year. 
 
The award for Ad Club Media Campaign of the year was shared by Mindshare for IBM and Maxus for Titan Industries and the Ayaz Peerbhoy Multimedia Campaign of the year award was shared by Dentsu Communication for Aircel and ING Vysya Bank. The film production house of the year was Nirvana Films.
 
Dentsu Communications‘ Sangeeta Velegar and Samson Samuel were adjudged the best copywriter of the year and art director of the year respectively.
 
 
Said The Advertising Club Bangalore president Malavika Harita, “This year, The Advertising Club, Bangalore‘s Big Bang awards saw 37 agencies and 138 clients submitting 600 pieces of creative work to vie for the 155 awards.”

BANGALORE: The judging process for the Advertising Club Bangalore’s (Ad club) Big Bang Awards 2010 has concluded.

Ad club President Malavika Harita informs, “We had a very balanced jury of senior professionals with representation from creative, account management, digital, media, PR and clients. The quality of work was definitely of higher quality than last year. Obviously, the recession brings out the best in all of us! What was also very heartening was to see a lot of first time entrants who gave established agencies quite a run for their money.” 
 
This year’s jury includes MAA Bozell creative director Sadeeqa Peerbhoy; Why Axis creative head Niranjan Natrajan; Celcius 100 CEO S Ghosh, brand strategist Anand Narasimaha; The Scribble creative head and partner Francisco Saldhana; filmmaker and advertising personality Mumbai Anand Kurien and Hortune Media head Sandeep Tarkas.

Claims Ad club executive director Arvind Kumar, “The panel of 15 judges spent a whole grueling day judging the entries from over 37 organisations, which participated in Big Bang 2010. The entries came from large, medium sized and small creative agencies, media agencies, digital agencies, radio stations, event companies, film production houses and clients participating across nine groups and 51 categories.”
 
“Some large Bangalore based clients like Titan, Fastrack, ING Vysya, UB, Aircel and United Spirits participated this year after an absence of a few years through their agencies like O&M, JWT and Lowe which made things more exciting,” added Harita.

According to an Ad Club release, the five major awards were keenly contested –these include the Ad Agency of the Year, Media Agency of the Year, Client of the Year, Art Director of the Year, Copywriter of the Year and the Ayaz Peerbhoy Multimedia Campaign of the Year for a creative agency. 
 
The Awards will be given away at the Big Bang Awards night on Friday 26 February at the Karnataka Lawn Tennis Association Stadium in Cubbon Park, Bangalore.

MUMBAI: Navia Asia, the out of home specialist network, has appointed Aman Chaudhary as national client services director on the Uninor business. Chaudhary was till recently the deputy general manager at Percept Out of Home. He will be based in New Delhi and report to Navia Asia chief operating officer Gourav Tandon. 
 
In his new capacity, Chaudhary will lead the Uninor business, managing all the out-of- home advertising for the telecom brand. Navia Asia had won the Uninor out of home business in late 2009. The telecom brand has launched in eight circles and is eyeing a pan India presence.
 
Aman Chaudhry joins Navia Asia with 15 years of experience. In the last seven years, he has been with Selvel, Portland and Platinum before his stint with Percept Out Of Home (OOH) media business.

MUMBAI: Shah Rukh Khan and his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders have decided to indefinitely put on hold their deal with Lux Cozy.

This came after protests in Kolkata over the involvement of one of the company‘s promotor’s in the suicide of a 30-year-old computer graphics teacher Rizwanur Rahman.
 
Lux Cozy was to get into a licensing and merchandising deal. An open letter protesting the decision has been written to Shah Rukh Khan from the city‘s prominent social activist Mudar Patherya and wife Shalini objecting to the team‘s association with Todi.

The letter noted that Shah Rukh Khan‘s brand stands for the following positive attributes: meritocracy, fairness, hard work and patriotism. However there was a dilution by his team‘s association with individuals viewed as morally suspect (until they are proved innocent). “Please reconsider this decision. There is still time,” the letter said.
 
At a press conference organised by Kolkata’s Konscience Keepers (KKK), a platform created to protest against the deal, Gameplan director Jeet Banerjee made a surprise entry to announce the decision to put the deal on hold. Gameplan is the event management agency handling KKR.
Banerjee said that the deal was being put on hold till all issues were resolved and the sensitivities of the aggrieved were addressed.
 
The frozen deal pertains to merchandising inside the stadium for home matches and around the stadium, as well as Lux branding on the players’ trousers and other advertising. Signages that were already up across the city would be taken off as soon as possible. Some fan gear T-shirts had already been produced, but future production would be stalled.

Banerjee clarified that the decision was by the KKR management, not SRK. The statement was conveyed on behalf of Lux Industries as well.
 

MUMBAI: With the sixth season of Desperate Housewives kicking off on Friday at 10 pm, English GEC Star World is doing marketing activities around it.
 
Promo spots have been purchased on music channels, lifestyle channels and English news channels apart from the regular on-air promotion across a few channels on the Star network. The theme of the campaign is ‘Never underestimate a housewife‘.

In the sixth season, rivalry between the characters grows as each seeks to fulfill her agenda. The spots see the characters wearing battle gear to convey the message that this time around there will be more dramatic tension. 
 
On the print side there will be an ad in next month‘s edition of Vogue. The broadcaster will also be running a contest in association with Garnier. Garnier Gift Hampers will be given away. The broadcaster has also tied up with Anita Dongre‘s Fashion Store. Shopping bags have been branded with the logo of the channel and the show.
 
On the online front, the broadcaster is using Orkut, Twitter and Facebook to connect with fans of the show. Updates of the show will be provided. Star World also has a microsite for the show where wallpapers among other things will be available.

Star is also gearing up for the Oscar Awards. It has done a tie up with PVR. Standees have been put up to educate movie buffs about the nominees and why they have ben nominated.

The Oscar Awards will air live on 8 March at 6:30 am on Star Movies.

MUMBAI: IndusInd Bank is set to unveil its new advertising campaign, a series of three ads, to communicate its services to consumers such as mobile alerts, online payments and ready2use savings account kit.

Media Direction is the media agency for this ad campaign. The ad campaign is in Hinglish and will be released in regional languages on all regional channels. The estimated media spends for the TV campaign is Rs 50 million.

The ad campaign, which will go on air on 26 February 2010, features Omi Vaidya (Chatur of 3 Idiots fame) and Shruti Seth (TV actress of Comedy Circus & Ristey.com fame). 
 
RK Swamy BBDO, New Delhi, is the creative agency for the campaign. The campaign has been conceptualised by RK Swamy creative director PS Mann and the script has been put to light by Ankur Suman, creative group head of the agency.

Directed by Imtiaz Ali, the ad campaign targets customers from across age groups and genders. The thought behind the campaign is to use subtle humour to highlight IndusInd Bank‘s services, designed to make banking a hassle-free and pleasurable experience.

Says IndusInd Bank MD & CEO Romesh Sobti, “This ad campaign takes ahead our initiative to reposition IndusInd Bank as a young, energetic and responsive brand. This year is going to be the year of brand building for IndusInd Bank and we will witness consistent campaigns and other branding initiatives talking about product and service innovations. IndusInd Bank aims to transform into a bank for the rising Indian, imbibing values of confidence, progression and dynamism.”
 
The three TV commercials show how Omi Vaidya and Shruti Seth, who play a young married couple (Mr & Mrs Chowgle), respond to each other during their day to day conversations. Each conversation between the two is humorous and ends with a focused message about one of the services which is offered by the bank. Each situation is a metaphor to communicate the service proposition.

Says IndusInd Bank head-consumer banking Sumant Kathpalia, “The new advertising campaign focuses on our customer friendly services like mobile alerts, online payments and ready2use savings account kit. All ads, in addition to the humour, are giving the core message of IndusInd Bank‘s commitment to provide a world- class banking experience.”
 
IndusInd Bank has been aggressive in its brand building programme since last year. As a part of the brand building exercise, the bank has taken many initiatives for connecting up with customers and enhancing the visibility quotient.

Says IndusInd Bank head – marketing Mohit Ganju, “This ad campaign is built on strong consumer insights and each of the situations depicted in the ads are a slice of life and extremely relatable. The choice of casting and humour will definitely help us break the clutter and create some disruptive communication. We had chosen Imtiaz Ali to direct the ad films and he has done full justice to the endeavour. Omi and Shruti really got into the characters and did a great job. IndusInd Bank as a brand will get more recall and mileage from this ad campaign.”
 

MUMBAI: Mercedes-Benz India has appointed Mediaedge:cia (MEC) as its new agency of record. 
 
Earlier, the incumbent agency for the account was Media Direction, the media services arm of RK Swamy BBDO. 
 
It was Mercedes-Benz that introduced the luxury car segment in India and currently is engaged in local production of Mercedes-Benz cars, making available imported Mercedes-Benz cars, commercial vehicle operations, global sourcing of auto components, and captive automotive technology research and development.

MUMBAI: Lowe Lintas Delhi executive director Mohit Beotra has called it a day.

According to industry sources, he is all set to join Airtel as head North circle, his second innings in the telecom company where he was working as VP marketing.
 
Beotra was with Lowe Lintas since February 2004. 
 
He also was Lintas India general manager for more than a decade before joining Airtel.

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) is rejigging its ad sales structure to take care of its wide network of channels as it presses for sustainable growth amid a modest economic rebound.

As part of the restructuring exercise, Zeel will have a sales structure that will divide along ‘network‘ and ‘non-network‘ handling of its pool of advertisers. The changes will be effective 2 March.
 
“The two heads will be competing for the inventory and properties. This restructuring will be in sync with our corporate focus of reigning over single-channel networks. We want preferred treatment for our basket of channels and it will be a win-win situation for us as well as our advertisers,” Zeel chief revenue officer Joy Chakraborthy tells Indiantelevision.com.

The ‘network‘ approach will spread across Zeel‘s 40 clients that account for 40 per cent of the broadcasting company‘s revenues. The roster excludes some of the top advertisers like Hindustan Unilever LTd (HUL) and is selected not as per value.
 
The team of 30, nursing the 40 clients, will be headed by Jitesh Rajdeo. “The 40 clients are randomly picked and are not necessarily our top 40 advertisers. The hybrid structure will enable Zeel to not only ensure channel focus but also facilitate key account management as well as provide the flexibility to leverage the network strength,” says Chakraborthy.

The ‘non-network‘ ad sales activity will reach out to over 300 clients and be handled by a frontline battery of 200 people. “The restructuring will promote competition, push higher ad rates and help us control markets,” avers Chakraborthy.

Zeel‘s sports business will fall under Rahul Shaw. He will also have to manage the ad sales of Zee Café and Zee Studio. Zee Sports will be kept out of the network selling.
 
“All the big properties will be handled by Rajdeo and Shaw to ensure maximum revenue exploitation,” says Chakraborthy.

For non-network selling, Priyanka Datta will have under her belt Zee TV, Zee Bangla, Akash Bangla, Zee Smile and ETC Punjabi. Ashish Sehgal gets Zee Cinema, Zee Premiere, Zee Action, Zee Classic, Zee Talkies, Zee Marathi, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada, Zee Jagran and Zee Salaam. ETC, Zing and Trendz will be with Anurag Bedi.

“The new hybrid structure will also create specialised competencies; facilitate knowledge-based solution selling leading to better positioning of the sales team; provide better service to clients; synergise inter-channel sales efforts; and will help the company to get under the skin of the client‘s business thereby enhancing our UFP (unique feeling proposition) and in turn result in inorganic growth,” Chakraborthy says.
 

BANGALORE: Auto giant General Motors (GM) is planning to spend close to Rs 1 billion towards media promotions for the Indian subcontinent.

The company aims to earmark 10 per cent of this towards online digital medium and mobile promotions, says GM India director of marketing Gaurav Gupta.
 
GM India will spend around Rs 65 million over a four-week television campaign for its D segment Chevrolet Cruze Automatic (Cruze AT), which GM India launched in Bangalore today. The company has booked around 300-400 spots per day on news and business channels and some general entertainment channels, inform company sources.

General Motors is targeting the young Indian male for Cruze AT and has also planned a viral online campaign with two audio visuals. It is also looking at working with portals and verticals such as gaadi.com, redfiff.com, carwale.com and yahoo as part of its marketing initiative.
 
“We want our print ads to focus on our products, that’s why unlike others, our print ads are clean and crisp and carry a picture of the product and very little text or other decorations,” said Gupta while informing that print ads for the Cruze AT will be released shortly.

All the three audio visuals, one TVC and the online viral audio visuals have been created by W+K. Media buying is done by Madison.
 
Over the past two years, the company has ramped up the number of its dealerships from 100 to 203. Now, it plans to up this number to 300 by the end of this year. The company also plans to close this calendar year with more than double the number of its pre-owned car outlets under the brand name Chevrolet-OK to 70 from the current 33.