Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: Betting big on its new reality show Mahayatra… Rishton Ka Anokha Safar, Star Plus has kicked off aggressive marketing initiatives for the show.

Targeting to tap audiences in the 4-40 age groups, the religious adventure format is being promoted extensively across the radio and mobile platforms. 
 
Says Said Star India EVP marketing Anupam Vasudev, “While 15 per cent of our marketing budget is skewed towards radio, we are also using mobile and digital extensively.”

“We have bought approximately 20-25 spots a day on radio channels such as Big FM, Radio City, Red FM, Fever and Radio One in our target markets which include Mumbai, Delhi, UP & Gujarat. The 10 day radio campaign will also include engagement through listener interactivity, contests & mentions,” he adds. 
 
As part of the digital initiative, extensive banner campaigns have been put up on travel sites like yatra.com and indianrailways.

The marketing of the show will remain high across Star‘s network channels. “We are using close to 600 secondages across star network,” Vasudev avers. The show is also being advertised heavily on Aaj Tak, Star News, India TV, Zoom, MTV and B4U.
 
Mahayatra…Rishton Ka Anokha Safar is replacing Shraddha in the 7 pm slot. The show will be telecast from Monday to Friday.

Commenting on the choice of discontinuing Shraddha, Vasudev says, “A spiritual adventure reality show will be more exciting and interesting from a viewer‘s point of view and since the two shows are very similar to each other – both of them are about taking your parents to a pilgrimage – we felt it made more sense to discontinue Shraddha.”
 

MUMBAI: US broadcaster truTV will be part of the ad lineup for CBS’ broadcast of the Super Bowl. truTV’s first Super Bowl ad will feature one of the NFL’s most popular players, Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
 
The event takes place next month. truTV programming includes original series that focus on giving viewers access to places and situations they can’t normally experience. The network’s Super Bowl spot will highlight an addition to truTV’s lineup: NFL Full Contact, a behind-the-scenes look at professional football that debuts on 8 February 2010, the day following the Super Bowl. The ad is scheduled to appear in the second quarter of the game, prior to the two-minute warning.
truTV was known as Court TV before being rebranded in 2008.
 
truTV/In Session executive VP, GM Marc Juris says, “Clearly, truTV has arrived and has enjoyed great success in attracting a new, younger audience. Having an ad in the Super Bowl gives the network the biggest possible platform to show viewers and the advertising community that truTV has emerged as a major player in television.” 
 
truTV’s ad will focus on Polamalu, one of the NFL’s top safeties. Since the 2005 season, Polamalu has earned two Super Bowl rings. He was also chosen for five-straight Pro Bowls from 2005-2009.

MUMBAI: In the wake of a multi-agency pitch, IDFC (Infrastructure Development Finance Company) has roped in TBWAIndia as its new creative partner. 
 
The size of the account is pegged to be in the region of Rs 150 million. 
 
Apart from TBWA, the other agencies contending for the account include Lowe Lintas, McCann Erickson and Rediffusion Y&R. 
 
Said TBWAIndia Group CEO Shiv Sethuraman, “This is a challenging and exciting category and IDFC MF is looking to do things very ‘disruptively‘, which suits us just fine.”
 

MUMBAI: Six Inches Communications, an integrated brand communication agency, has announced mid level management appointments to strengthen its creative and account management team. The company has appointed Reshma Basankar as head – art, Zohara Kapadia as head – copy and Saket Vaishnav as business head.

Says Six Inches Communication founder & managing director Pravin Shah, “Keeping in sync with our growth pursuits for this year, it was necessary to have a well experienced team in place to lead certain verticals. I‘m positive we have found a good match with Reshma, Zohara and Saket to enable us to continue ahead.”
 
Basankar has spent 12 years in advertising at the Times Group and Network Advertising where she has handled brands such as Jet Airways, Cipla, HDFC Ergo, IDBI Bank, Anchor and Thomas Cook. 
 
Zohara Kapadia has worked with advertising firms such as Quadrant, Percept/H, Umbrella and Beehive Communications over the past nine years. She has worked on a diverse portfolio of brand such as Kenstar, Tourism Malaysia, Star Cruises and Reliance Industries. 
 
Saket Vaishnav brings with him an extensive experience in strategizing and business development. Vaishnav, over the years, has worked with Mudra, Percept/H and Concept Communications. He has handled brands such as Bajaj Allianz, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, Air Deccan and JK Cement.
 

MUMBAI: Panasonic has announced its partnership with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and will be spending Rs 142.5 million over three years to promote the sport in India.

Panasonic has signed an MoU with AIFF. Says AIFF president Praful Patel, “We will be getting Rs 47.5 million each over the next three years with this contract, which will give us more flexibility with our international fixtures.”
 
Panasonic has a big presence in international football. “Their association with the national team will boost the sport in the country. This is also a crucial juncture for Indian football as we are heading towards the Asian Cup in 2011,” says Patel. 
 
Panasonic India CEO Daizo Ito adds, “Panasonic has been a strong supporter and endorser of football in Thailand and is delighted to extend this association to All India Football Federation. We are confident that this association will take football to newer heights.” 
 
Football is the second most popular sport in the country after cricket. Says Patel, “I understand that we have to do a lot to improve the standard of the game and it is going to be a long haul. But we are confident we will be able to do that, what with the young generation following European leagues with such enthusiasm. We have to work around our domestic circuit for that”.
 

MUMBAI: She made a mark as an astute media professional at Lodestar Universal, Starcom, JWT and in the business intelligence unit of Ananda Bazar Patrika. Now Arpita Menon has penned a book on her profession. The book was officially released by her former boss Shashi Sinha at the Crossword store on 15 January in Mumbai. Published by McGraw Hill and titled Media Planning & Buying, Principles and Practices in the Indian context, the book is a must read for anyone with the slightest interest in this esoteric profession. The book begins with a segment which introduces the environment, the roles within a media agency, the structures of a media gency, and follows it up with a chapter on metrics relating to TV and print and others on media strategy, defining target groups, market prioritization, media weights, media mix decisions, scheduling, building a plan, evaluating media buys, the buying process, plan implementation, budget setting and the solutions approach.   Through this she covers the entire gamut of the media process, and that too with specific reference to the Indian context. She also offers practical advice like: “An approach of treating media partners as only suppliers and using the size of the client’s business as a bludgeon to beat down the rates is an extremely short sighted approach. …A good buyer should never approach a buy from a superior postion. A mature buyer ensures that the deal is done in a fashion which does not come at the cost of media partner’s interests- a classical win-win deal.” Something which all in Indian media know, but, something that very few media practitioners follow. Getting a better rate/10 second spot is primarily what drives buyers in India today, especially in tough times.   Menon has brought in all the knowledge and her years of practical experience while writing her book. Hence it is peppered with examples, samples, cases, problems and solutions related to what happens in the real media planning and buying world. So the book can serve as more than an academic learning tool for industry executives who want an insight into the media professional’s mind. However, its greater good comes from the fact that it fills a long standing vacuum for a text book on media planning and buying relevant to India. Normally, students in the scores of media training institutes that have come up recently have to rely on the practical experience of industry professionals who double up partime teachers to learn about the media profession. Now students can use Menon’s tome as an additional reference resource.   The book was written in a time where there was one major GEC leader in Star Plus; Colors had just popped up on the media horizon. Since Colors has succeeded, the media environment has multiplied in its complexity and planning and buying in a teeming with competition market has become that much more challenging. Guess one will have to wait for the next edition for Menon to give her perspective on that. Definitely worth a buy. (Media Panning and Buying – Principle and Practices in the Indian Context, Author, Arpita Menon, pages 345, Published by Tata McGraw Hill, price Rs 495)

MUMBAI: Pune-based dairy company Parag Milk Foods is ready to don a new visual identity.

Also, supported by a new communication strategy, the company will launch its new cheese brand, GO, on a pan India basis.
 
Parag Milk Foods chairman Devendra Shah said, “We have been moving from basic dairy products like ghee and milk to value-added products like dahi and fruit & dahi which have been very well received in the market. With the commissioning of our state-of-art cheese plant, we are now ready with a delectable range of cheese never before offered to the Indian consumer.”
 
Bangalore-based Scion, a brand incubation agency, has been working closely with the company on the branding, visual identity, packaging and launch of the new range of products.

“The nascent Indian cheese customer has had very few brand choices or a range to choose from. The GO cheese brand is targeted at the ‘today‘s generation‘ families, who are now taking to international lifestyle and cuisine” said Scion MD Ramesh Rao. 
 
The campaign involves a brand-led TV execution and intensive tasting and demo activities with consumers.
 

MUMBAI: The escalating chatter surrounding Super Bowl XLIV in the US is not just about the teams competing for the 2010 championship.

The TV commercials that will appear during the game are also the subject of discussion and speculation. And participating advertisers will once again be confronted with the difficult question of whether the Super Bowl is a smart marketing investment or a wasted use of the budget.

TNS Media Intelligence has again combed through its database to report on the past 20 years of Super Bowl advertising. From 1990 through 2009, the Super Bowl game has generated $2.17 billion of network sales from a total of 210 different advertisers and more than 1,400 commercial messages.
 
TNS Media Intelligence president Mark Nesbitt says, “The Super Bowl remains a singular event for engaging the broadest number of consumers at one time. Because it is viewed live and experienced by a majority of the country at the same time, a commercial presence on the broadcast has great significance and impact for a brand, making each not so much a brand message as a brand event. It is why a presence on the broadcast lends itself so effectively to an integrated marketing effort.”

TNS Media Intelligence senior VP research Jon Swallen says, “As an advertising event, the Super Bowl has evolved beyond a vehicle for presenting expensive, stand-alone commercial spots that seek to entertain viewers and generate awareness.

“Increasingly, in-game spots are being supplemented by elaborate integrated communications programs that attempt to drive traffic online or in-store, generate positive social media discussion, incorporate public relations effort and ultimately achieve a strong ROI.”

Top Five Super Bowl Advertisers : The top five Super Bowl advertisers of the past 20 years have spent $783 million on advertising during the game, accounting for 36 per cent of total advertising revenue. Anheuser-Busch and PepsiCo, which have appeared in every game during this period, lead the pack, followed by General Motors, Walt Disney and Time Warner.

 

Rank Advertiser No. of Years With Ads In Game Ad Spend ($ millions) 1 Anheuser-Busch 20 $ 311.8 2 PepsiCo 20 $ 254.2 3 General Motors 15 $ 80.5 4 Walt Disney 10 $ 71.6 5 Time Warner 12 $ 64.8 Although Pepsi soft drinks will not be advertised in this year’s game, ending a 23-year streak, the Pepsi parent company will still be represented by its Frito-Lay snack food division. General Motors will be absent from the game for the second year in a row. Prior to dropping out in 2009, GM had advertised in 11 of the previous 12 Super Bowls. The Price of Advertising : The cost of a 30-second advertisement in the Super Bowl has more than quadrupled in the past 20 years and reached $3 million in 2009. The recessionary environment is expected to yield lower pricing for the 2010 game, with CBS reportedly selling 30-second units for between $2.5 and $2.8 million. The amount paid by individual marketers will vary depending on where the ad runs in the game, how much commercial time is purchased and whether the advertiser opts for a larger package that includes spots in the pre-game and/or post-game coverage.

First Time Advertisers: Since 2005, the annual Super Bowl ad lineup has had between 30 and 35 different companies. First-time advertisers are accounting for 20-25 per cent of the ad roster. The ad time vacated by such long-time sponsors as FedEx, General Motors and Pepsi is being taken over by other companies eager for the recognition and brand-building opportunity of the Super Bowl stage.

The first-time advertisers in the 2009 game were Cash4Gold.com, Castrol, Denny’s, Teleflora and Vizio. For the 2010 contest, the rookie lineup is expected to include Electronic Arts and HomeAway, among others.

Top Super Bowl Advertising Categories : What kinds of products are most frequently advertised on the Super Bowl? The popular perception is that beer, soft drinks and autos are the prime ad categories, given their annual presence in the game.

Actually, the leader by dollar value is promotional advertising from the network itself. In a typical Super Bowl, 15-20 per cent of all commercial time is a plug by the network for its own programming. In 2009, the value of this air time exceeded $42 million.

“The Super Bowl offers the host network an attractive platform to promote its upcoming programming and try to build an audience. In deciding how much ad time to keep for itself, the network has to assess the trade-off between giving up current revenue in the game versus building future revenue from its other programming,” added Swallen.

Over the past decade, the Super Bowl has attracted a bevy of different movie studio, automotive and dot-com companies, making them the most populous and competitive ad categories.

Number of Super Bowl Advertisers By Category

Category	2000	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Auto Manufacturers	2	5	4	3	4	3
Dot-com	14	3	4	5	5	9
Motion Pictures	4	6	4	3	6	4

How Big is the Super Bowl Versus Other Sport Franchises? The Major League Baseball’s World Series and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship are two other high profile sporting events that attract significant interest from TV advertisers. But how do these compare to the Super Bowl in terms of ad spend?

The World Series is four to seven games. March Madness peaks with the semi-finals and championship on its final weekend, a total of three games. The Super Bowl, of course, is a single telecast. In recent years, the Super Bowl and World Series have been running neck and neck in total ad spending. In 2009, baseball pulled slightly ahead as the Fall Classic went to a sixth game for the first time since 2003.

Major Sporting Championships Network TV Ad Revenue ($ Million)

Year	Super Bowl Game	World Series	NCAA Basketball Men’s Final Four
2005	$158.4	$146.9 (4 games)	$142.2 (3 games)
2006	$162.5	$160.8 (5 games)	$154.7 (3 games)
2007	$151.5	$156.6 (4 games)	$168.4 (3 games)
2008	$182.3	$176.2 (5 games)	$177.9 (3 games)
2009	$213.0	$223.6 (6 games)	$163.2 (3 games)

MUMBAI: Star World, The English general enetertainment channel from the Star stable, is set to kick off the fifth season of Lost from 18 January onwards. The show will air from Monday to Thursday at 10 pm.
 
Star World India GM Keertan Adhyanthaya says that the broadcaster is doing a host of marketing activties to promote the show. Online is an important component. A full blown Lost microsite will be created where season 1-4 synopsis (catch up for previous four seasons), character sketches, interactive games and episodic updates will be available. There will also be discussion forums created on the site.

The Star World page on the online social networking site Facebook will be populated with information from the show. Lost wallpapers will also be available on these sites for download. The broadcaster will also buy ad space on Facebook to promote the microsite. 
 
Additionally, Lost postcards will be created online that can be sent to friends via Facebook. These postcards will also be available in Youth Hangouts like colleges and café coffee day‘s through cards4u.

Nickname Generator, an online ‘Sawyer’s nickname generator’, will be created where a fan can upload his/her name and get a nickname from the system. This is because the character of Sawyer from Lost is well known for giving nicknames to people.
 
As part of the on ground activation process, hoardings will be put up at prime locations in Mumbai and Delhi. Busbacks also have been created. Interesingly, the broadcaster is not using print for the Lost camapign. Adhyanthaya adds that the channel‘s marketing budget will go up by 35 per cent for the year. The fifth season marks the beginning of the end. On the show, six survivors get rescued off the mysterious island; But they all decide to go back to rescue the rest.

With only 34 original hours left until the final episode airs in 2010, Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun and Claire‘s son Aaron – otherwise known as the Oceanic 6 – have been rescued and continue to try and pick up the pieces of the lives they knew before the crash. But Jack and Ben must convince all of them to return to the island in order to save those left behind.

This will prove quite a feat to achieve since Jack is still wrestling with his addictions, Kate won‘t speak to Jack, Hurley is in a mental institution, Sayid is an assassin and Sun blames Jack for Jin‘s death when the freighter exploded. Adding to their worries is the fact that they also have to take the body of Jeremy Bentham – aka Locke – with them in order to make things right with the island. But locating the island may prove even more difficult since Ben moved it.
 

MUMBAI: In the wake of a multi-agency pitch, Law & Kenneth Kolkata has bagged the creative duties of Spencers‘ private label business.
 
Says Law & Kenneth Kolkata VP Jiten Bhagat, “Law & Kenneth will handle Spencers‘ retail food and non-food business along with the Smart Choice label. While there will not be much mass media campaign, a lot of in-store promotions will take place.”
 
According to industry sources, the other agencies that pitched for the account include Rediffusion DY&R and incumbent agency Grey Worldwide.
 
Meanwhile, a source in the agency informs that Law & Kenneth will also be handling Spencers‘ other projects that the company plans to launch in the coming months.