Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: In the wake of a multi-agency pitch, Maruti Suzuki has signed Denstu Creative Impact as its creative partner for its newly-launched multi purpose vehicle (MPV), ‘Eeco‘.

“The size of the account is close to Rs 300 million for a year,” informs Maruti Suzuki chief general manager marketing Shashank Srivastava. 
 
Backed with their national and international resources, Denstu Creative Impact showcased a powerful understanding of the product during the pitching along with new and innovative ideas. “We, thus, went for Denstu as our creative partner,” says Srivastava. 
 
Apart from Denstu Creative Impact, the other agencies that pitched for the account included Capital, Creative Impact, Percept Hakuhodo and Lowe Lintas.

Says Srivastava, “The campaign is a 360 degree plan that includes print, TVC, OOH and the internet. While the print ad is already out, the television campaign (TVC) will be launched next week.”
 
Lintas Media Group is the media agency for Maruti Suzuki.
 

MUMBAI: The Advertising Standards Council Of India (ASCI) is in the process of reviewing the Tata Sky complaint against competition brand Airtel Digital TV‘s “Dil Titli” commercials.

As per the Tata Sky grievance registered with ASCI, the advertisements are mislading since viewers are led to believe that Airtel Digital TV has superior picture quality because of MPEG4 or DVBS2. 
 
However, Tata Sky states that the claims are to be held in falsehood as MPEG technology is only used for compressing a large number of channels within a given bandwidth.

Says Tata Sky chief marketing officer Vikram Mehra, “While MPEG 4 is definitely superior to MPEG 2, 8it has nothing to do with picture quality. The technology is only used for compressing a large number of channels within a given bandwidth.” 
 
In December 2009, Tata Sky had registered its grievance against the ads, considered by the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC).

The letter from Tata Sky to ASCI informed that while the first ad, where Saif hunts down his childhood friend, has stopped airing from 30 September across all 89 channels (national nad regional channels, all genre), the second ad featuring a TV reporter is still running on cricket matches. 
 
The CCC decided to uphold the complaint as the advertisement breached chapter 1.4 of the ASCI code. The code states that advertisements shall neither distort facts nor mislead the consumer by means of implications or omissions. Advertisements shall not contain statements or visual presentation which directly or by implication or by omission or by ambiguity or by exaggeration are likely to mislead the consumer about the product advertised or the advertiser or about any other product or advertiser.

MUMBAI: In the wake of a multi-agency pitch, Mudra West has bagged the creative and media duties of Mexus Education, an education innovations enterprise from the Bilakhia Group.

This is the first time that Mexus Education has roped in an agency. According to industry sources, the account size is pegged at Rs 60 million for a year.
 
“Mexus Education is driven by the passion to create an educational model that can create an outstanding learning experience for the users. We saw the same passion being shared by Mudra. Their understanding of our objectives clearly tilted the scales in their favour. We are hopeful that this association will create the ‘Iken’ brand as a global leader in the space of education innovations,” says Mexus Education director marketing Saurabh Saxena.
 
Mudra West EVP Arijit Ray adds, “What Mexus Education is seeking to accomplish is really fascinating. Innovative and interactive learning techniques can really take the quality of education to the next level. We look forward to working closely with the brand team to create a communication plan that complements the initiative.”
 
Mudra West‘s key wins in the recent past include Inorbit Malls, World Gold Council, Femina and Filmfare. The agency also executed campaigns for Big Bazaar, Economic Times and Lavasa.

MUMBAI: Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) have weathered the recessionary storm and will be posting an ad revenue growth of 24 per cent this fiscal, according to a senior executive of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel).

Sports broadcasters failed to crack into the Hindi GEC space despite being blessed with a heavy load of cricket content. “Hindi GECs will end up with an ad revenue of Rs 24 billion in FY‘10, up from Rs 19.34 billion a year ago. Cricket under-delivered this year and failed to eat into the GEC market,” says Zeel chief revenue officer Joy Chakraborthy.
 
The downturn in the market also led advertisers to turn to GECs as they provided safer options of deliveries, Chakraborthy adds.

Another factor fuelling the growth is the rise of Colors, the entertainment channel from the Viacom18 stable. Industry sources say Colors has the potential of ending the fiscal at Rs 6 billion as it has overturned Star Plus to grab the No. 1 spot during the course of the year.
 
“Colors has more than compensated for the losses that could have come from the leading channels whose GRPs (gross rating points) dropped. The knock out of 9X also did not take monies away from the GECs,” says the head of a leading broadcasting company.

Some media analysts are more cautious in their estimates. According to one estimate, the ad revenue pie is expected to grow to Rs 23 billion in FY‘10, up 18 per cent from the year-ago period.
 
Chakraborthy expects the GECs to clock faster growth in the next fiscal with the expansion of the Tam panel into smaller towns and the improvement in the ad economy. “In these new markets, GECs are more accepted and consumed,” he avers.
 

MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Co, CNN and MTV are among the companies that created the maximum social media buzz last year, reveals the latest study by Vitrue.

Vitrue‘s composite index comes from an analysis of online conversations on a number of social networks, blogs, micro-blogs and photo and video sharing sites. The company said that it established the ranking to bring credibility to the space and illustrates to marketers how much interest engulfs their brands.
 
Disney, which in 2008 ranked fourth, jumped to second place in Vitrue‘s ranking, while CNN dropped from second to third. MTV moved up to fourth from eighth a year ago.

For the second year running, iPhone set the social media pace. Rounding out the top 10, the NBA is fifth followed by iTunes, Wii, Appel, Xbox and Nike. 
 
Said Vitrue CEO Reggie Bradford in a statement, “Congratulations to the 100 brands who made the list and the many other who did not, but are also pushing the envelope and opening up their brands to become even more social.

“2009 was the year social media become part of the marketing mix and 2010 will prove to be an even more exciting year as marketers of all types innovate and allow more consumer interaction with their brands and assets.”
 
Other media and telecommunications companies that earned a spot on Vitrue‘s 2009 list are Sony, ESPN, CBS, ABC, Turner, Verizon, Fox News, NBC, Sprint, AT&T, VH1, Hulu and Comcast.
 

MUMBAI: In the wake of a multi agency pitch, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) has roped in Mediaedge: cia (MEC) as its media partner.
 
Sources from Zeel confirm that the account size is pegged at Rs 500 million.
 
Meanwhile, incumbent agency Madison Media will continue to handle the media duties of the Essel Group.

MUMBAI: Mumbai-based Bounce Enterprises is foraying into the Indian toy market in the next two to three months and thus, in a bid to expand its brand presence, has roped in Palasa Creative House as its creative partner.

According to sources close to the development, the size of the account is pegged to be in the region of Rs 20-30 million. 
 
Bounce Enterprises will debut in the toy market with the ‘My‘ brand, donning the tagline, ‘its only for me‘ and will initially target preschoolers aged 2-5 years.

Says Bounce Enterprises director marketing Quamar Ahmad, “We will also be launching gaming consoles in the first phase. Both the products will hit the Indian market in the next two months two months under the ‘My‘ brand. The prices will be set at Rs 99 and upwards. We will also be looking at tying up with International companies for product distribution.” 
 
As part of its new mandate, Palasa, the brand communication agency, will design the brand logo and packaging for Bounce‘s toy range and will also conduct on ground activation for the same.

Says Palasa Creative House founder and creative director Sandeep Bomble, “The campaign will be designed on the theme ‘each child is unique‘ and to substantiate the same each product will have different colours to match up with a child‘s individuality.”

“The first television commercial will be rolled out in the second half of 2010,” adds Bomble.
 
The campaign will predominantly target urban mothers aged 25-40 years in the SEC A, B+ and B cities.

“We want to be big in the category and grow the category too and making the category grow, demands a perception change,” says Bomble.

According to industry estimates, the Indian toy market is currently pegged at approximately Rs 12 billion and is expected to grow at 15-20 per cent in 2010.
 

MUMBAI: Following a multi agency pitch, Publicis Ambience has bagged the creative duties for JK Helene Curtis.

According to sources close to the development, the size of the account will be pegged in the region of Rs 100-150 million.
 
Apart from Publicis Ambience, the other agencies contending for the account included Rediffusion Y&R, Contract Advertising and Network Advertising.
 
As per sources, the first campaign for the account would be launched during the Indian Premier League (IPL).
 
However, despite continuous attempts, Publicis Ambience president and chief operating officer Anirudhha Banerjee remained unavailable for comment.

MediaVest, a division of the Starcom MediaVest Group, is JK Helene Curtis‘s media partner.

MUMBAI: Partho Sengupta has put in his papers at Iris as creative director.

Confirming the development, Sengupta said, “Currently, I am not joining any company as I plan to complete a few projects at hand.” 
 
In 2008, Sengupta partnered Kenneth Augustine to join Iris.
 
Prior to that, Sengupta was with BBDO India where he was primarily looking after the 7Up business.
 
With approximately 15 years of experience in advertising, Sengupta has also worked with agencies such as Bates 141, Mudra, Saatchi & Saatchi, Euro RSCG, Cheil Communications and Dentsu Marcom.

MUMBAI: Idea Cellular has launched a new television campaign under its ‘What An Idea Sirji‘ series.

Conceptualized by Lowe Lintas, the new campaign plays around the theme, ‘use mobile, save paper‘.
 
Says Idea Cellular chief marketing officer Pradeep Shrivastava, “The new campaign positions mobile as an idea to eliminate huge wastage of paper. It is led by a TVC which will be followed by out-of-home, print, radio and ground activation. The promotions will be active for three months in both rural and urban markets to create the right impact.” 
 
The TVC revolves around protagonist Abhishek Bachchan, the lone surviving tree in a forest cut down to feed paper mills. He falls upon the idea of how mobile phone could be used as a replacement for paper, thus, negating the need to indiscriminately cut trees and consequently save the environment. 
 
Says Lowe Lintas creative director Ashwin Varkey, “This is the sixth in the ‘What an Idea Sirji‘ campaign. The theme focuses on an idea which impacts people at large. In the ad, we try to provide a telephony solution for problems which appear to be complex in nature, but at the end isn‘t complex. The advertisement revolves around how by the use of mobile phones, trees can be saved which is the need of the hour.”