Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: Ogilvy India’s former top boss and advertising legend SR Mani Ayer died today morning at the age of 74, after a brief illness.

Popularly known as Mani, Ayer was born on 5 September 1935. He joined Ogilvy in 1958, then SH Benson, as a copywriter and was with the company for 36 years before he hung his boots in 1994.
 
 
During his tenure at Ogilvy, he spent two years in Ogilvy Australia, prior to taking over the reins as MD in 1973. He was only 38 years old when he took on the role of Ogilvy India MD from Padubidri Sarma.

Ogilvy South Asia executive chairman and creative director Piyush Pandey said, “This is the end of an era, as one of the leading lights of Ogilvy India is no more with us. He was the one who laid the foundation of the Ogilvy of the 70s and beyond. His presence will be missed by the industry of which he was one of the architects. At a personal level, his teachings will continue to inspire me and a lot of people who have worked with him, for him or heard of him. Salaam Mr Ayer!”
 
Ayer is credited with laying the foundations of modern Ogilvy in India. He brought a high level of strategic thinking and business orientation into the advertising thinking process. He created a new wave that has today become the mantra of account handling/client servicing professionals in Ogilvy and ex Ogilvyites – always put the client first.

David Ogilvy described Ayer as, “The most outstanding individual in the Ogilvy Network.”

Ogilvy issued a statement today, praising Ayer for all his dedication for the company. As per Ogilvy, he (Ayer) invested hugely in training – time and money. He would actually take time out to sit and observe a session being conducted by a new trainer to ensure they got it right.

He took enormous pride in the successes of his people and applauded as much as he provided constructive criticism on performances, reaching out to his people when they faltered. He was very particular about celebrating successes. He had an amazing capacity to learn constantly from varied sources and get to the heart of any issue, responding instantly and in a very systematic manner and form. Behind his tough, disciplinarian manner, Ayer was a man with a heart of gold.

Late Suresh Mullick had described Ayer: “Mani was, and always will be, a gifted all rounder. As well as being MD India, of a very fine agency, is a philosopher, raconteur, political analyst, economist, a film and music buff. A Gary Sobers, if you know what I mean.”
 
After retirement, he moved to his hometown Chennai. Among other accolades that Ayer won, the most recent was the Hall of Fame by AAAI.

Ogilvy India and South Asia co-executive chairman and COO SN Rane said, “I will remember Ayer who started in Ogilvy as a copy person and reached a commanding height through his thorough professionalism, burning passion and doubtless dedication for the advertising profession and for Ogilvy India. He dominated the Indian advertising scene for over three decades and went on to become a legend in his lifetime. I had the privilege of working with him closely and the learning from him is an invaluable treasure.”

Saddened by the news, WPP country head Ranjan Kapur comments, “Ayer‘s biggest strength was the ability to make every piece of work ‘word perfect‘. Despite not being a banker, he owned one of the sharpest financial minds that I have had the opportunity to work with. When he retired from Ogilvy, he left me an agency with an extremely healthy balance sheet which enabled me as his successor, to do many things that I was able to do. He was meticulous and tidy at work, a superb client servicing man and people within Ogilvy as well as outside were in awe of him. I was associated with him from 1996 until the day I retired. I gained a very healthy respect for him.”

Ayer is survived by his wife, daughter and son. The funeral will be held tomorrow.

MUMBAI: Allied Media, the media planning, evaluation and buying arm of Percept, has bagged the media duties of Lovely Professional University (LPU) in a multi-agency pitch.

The account size is pegged at Rs 200 million.
 
Allied Media will be tasked with all media planning and buying responsibilities for LPU. This will include planning and executing LPU’s media campaign. 
 
LPU assistant director Aman Mittal said, “We went ahead with Allied Media because of their strategic planning and 360 degree implementation coupled with the media buying practices. We realised Allied Media understands LPU‘s brand specific requirements and is capable of delivering the desired results corresponding to the brand equity enjoyed by the university.”
 
Added Allied media deputy GM Surbhi C Murthy, “We are proud to share LPU’s ‘Vision of building a Knowledge based Society’. With our association we will ensure that their vision and strengths are communicated to a much larger audience, ensuing acknowledgement of LPU’s professional eminence at the national platform.”
 

MUMBAI: Colors has announced the appointment of two new members in its sales team, signaling an aggressive push for augmenting revenues.

The channel has created two new posts – National Director, Property Sales and National Director, Client Servicing. While Pappan Majumdar has been roped in to be national director for property sales, the other post has gone to Shivani Raina Ghosh.
 
Both Majumdar and Ghosh will report into Colors National Sales Head Simran Hoon. “Both these appointments are in line with our aggressive revenue growth plans ahead,” Hoon said.

Majumdar brings with him 13 years of media ad-sales experience. At Colors, he will be focusing on client servicing of non fiction and big ticket shows like Fear Factor, Bigg Boss and IPL Entertainment, amongst others. 
 
Majumdar moves in from National Geographic & Fox Channels India, where he was serving as VP and heading the ad sales of the channels. Earlier, he had worked with Star India, MTV and the Times Group.

Meanwhile, Ghosh’s role will encompass handling brand innovations in advertiser funded programmes (AFP), thus helping advertisers with brand solutions that extend beyond the TVCs.
 
Ghosh comes with over 14 years of experience in advertising under her belt. She moves from FBC (Fact Based Communications) Media, where she was serving as head of media strategy & branded content. Earlier, she has worked with Lodestar, McCann and Mudra.

MUMBAI: In a bid to expand brand awareness, HDFC Standard Life has launched its new marketing campaign.

Said HDFC Standard Life EVP & head – marketing Sanjay Tripathy, “Though life insurance is ideally meant to secure one‘s family‘s future in the event of an unfortunate incident, it is still largely a one-time purchase and that too for the wrong reasons.
 
“According to an internal research, it was observed that only 65 per cent of the population has some sort form insurance with close to 81 per cent of them having a single policy only. The study further reveals that on an average, individuals in the family are often insured for as little as 3,50,000 of life cover, a sum that is grossly inadequate and clearly a pittance in today‘s day and age to sustain a family, should something unfortunate happen. This fact also definitely supports the claim that Indians pay one of the lowest insurance premiums in the whole world and subsequently have a very low coverage,” Tripathy added. 
 
Conceptualized and scripted by Leo Burnett, the new TVC has been directed by Anand Iyer from Ramesh Deo Productions. The company plans to take its new campaign through different platforms and intensify the brand experience. Apart from television, this film will be supported by other mediums such as print, radio, OOH, Internet, mobile, and on-ground initiatives.

The campaign sees two friends talking to each other, laid over, one of them travelling out of town on work. The conversation tries to bring about the realization, that to really ensure complete financial security of one‘s family forever, one needs to plan today.
 
Said Leo Burnett national creative director KV Sridhar, “After extensive research, we stumbled upon the insight that people tend to worry more about their family when they‘re travelling and ensure that they provide for their family‘s needs for as long as they‘re away. And we wondered, what if we were to make people think of life in the same way as they would when they‘re travelling.”
 

MUMBAI: After years of partnering with Microsoft, Facebook has decided to take over its own display advertising from the former. 
 
Microsoft Bing general manager Jon Tinter wrote on a company blog, “We made the mutual decision that Facebook would take over responsibility for selling display advertisements on its own site.” 
 
In 2007, Facebook had partnered with Microsoft and had invested about $240 million in the social networking site. The deal had also allowed Microsoft to exhibit a small percentage of ownership in Facebook and become the latter‘s exclusive advertising partner. 
 
Facebook will now once again center on its relationship with Microsoft wherein Microsoft will include more Bing features in a bid to help customers make faster and smarter decisions.

MUMBAI: VacationRental, a specialised website in the vacation rental industry, is launching a new advertising campaign this Super Bowl Sunday. The company is kicking off the campaign with a new commercial featuring Unitard, the semi-famous but always humorous superhero of the vacation rental industry.
 
In the ad, Unitard tirelessly fights for the happiness of travelers, and he will not rest until people learn the benefits of vacation rentals. Much like VacationRental.org, Unitard wants to help families have enjoyable vacations. To do so, he is working tirelessly on the front lines to keep people from staying in uncomfortable hotel rooms.
 
Says VacationRental.org. president and CEO John Romano, “We at VacationRental.org realize the many benefits that vacation rentals have over staying in a hotel or similar lodging while on vacation. It‘s our hope that this new commercial and ad campaign will bring this realization – as well as a few laughs – to our fellow travelers.”
 

MUMBAI: Prasanth Mohanachandran has put in his papers as OgilvyOne Worldwide & Neo@Ogilvy India executive director- digital services. 
 
Says Mohanachandran, “I consider myself extremely fortunate to have worked with two industry visionaries – Piyush Pandey and SN Rane. I have had a wonderful time working with some of the brightest and best talent in the industry. I know that I am leaving the team behind in very able hands.”
 
Mohanachandran has worked on brands such as Nokia, Vodafone, Unilver, IBM, HDFC Bank, Cadbury and American Express.

MUMBAI: Ogilvy & Mather‘s out-of-home (OOH) specialist agency Ogilvy Landscapes has won the outdoor media business of Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company for the second time in succession.
 
Landscapes won the account following a multi-agency pitch that included ten agencies. 
 
Says Ogilvy Landscapes country head Rajesh Badani, “As OOH was the primary media for the launch, the challenge was to work on a OOH strategy to induce the bank customers to the branches of these three banks, where they could get to purchase the insurance products, as these products were being sold only through bank branches of these three banks.”
 
Incidentally, Ogilvy Landscapes won this business in a multi-agency pitch for the first time in 2008, when Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company was planning to launch its insurance products.

MUMBAI: With the Hockey World Cup kicking off on 28 February, official broadcaster Ten Sports has roped in three sponsors.

Ten Sports has roped in Hero Honda as the title sponsor while Nokia and MTS Mobile are associate sponsors, according to Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) chief revenue officer Joy Chakraborthy.
 
Ten Sports, acquired recently by Zeel, aims to have at least eight sponsors. While not revealing any revenue figures, he says that spots have gone for Rs 35,000 per 10-second on an average.

Hero Honda is also the on-ground title sponsor for the event. In terms of marketing activities, Zee Sports CEO Atul Pande notes that spots featuring Virendra Sehwag, Priyanka Chopra and shooting champion Rathore are airing. The tagline is Phir Dil De Hockey Ko. It is a call to sports fans to support the national sport. It has an emotional connect and was conceived by Hero Honda.
 
One spot sees Sehwag saying that he will be sitting in the stands and cheering the team and chewing his fingernails in nervous anticipation.

In addition Zee will be supporting a couple of local hockey tournaments in Delhi and the North. There will be outdoor activity across 13 cities in the form of hoardings. This will serve as a call to action. Print in the form of syndicated columns and ads and radio also form a part of the campaign.
 
Zee will also be doing a 13-city road show which starts a week before the World Cup kicks off. This will be in the form of canter activity in cities like Pune, Patna and Chandigarh. A goal will be mounted on a canter and people have to kick the ball in the goal. Goodies will be handed out to winners. The broadcaster has also come out with a hockey shaped banner on the Noida tollway.
 

MUMBAI: Sab Miller has appointed Kavitha Bagga as head of national key account. She will be based out of Mumbai.
 
“I will be looking at Sab Miller‘s large format outlets, club and lounge. This role is a combination of my experiences in marketing and activation,” says Bagga.
 
Prior to this account, Bagga was Times OOH head of national key account. Before moving to Times OOH, she was Radio Mirchi national marketing head.