Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: Vizeum India has appointed Josraj Arakkal as general manager for the West region.

Prior to this, Arakkal was associate director – media services at Triton Communications. 
 
Says Vizeum MD Indian sub-continent S Yesudas, “I‘m happy to have Josraj leading our operation in the Western region. With Harit and Sreekanth leading our operations in North and South respectively, our first phase leadership team is fully in place. Arakkal will make a difference to Vizeum as well as our clients/brands. Vizeum is a well collaborated operation with no boundaries. Hence, all our clients/brands will get the expertise of our entire senior management.” 
 
Arakkal has approximately 23 years of experience in the media industry and has worked across India and the Middle East. In his advertising career, Arakkal has worked with agencies such as Rediffusion, Mudra Communications, Karishma Advertising, Enterprise Nexus Communications, Dynamic Advertising (Jeddah) and Mindshare (Baharain). 
 
well in Delhi,” said VP of India Value Fund, Prateek Roongta.

MUMBAI: Percept Talent Management (PTM) chief operating officer Vinita Bangard has put in her papers. Currently serving her notice period, Bangard will be with the company till February-end.
 
At PTM, Bangard was responsible for personality and brand sync, enhancing the brand recall and communications.

Bangard has been associated with the Percept Group for around 15 years. She has been part of the core team right from the initiation of PTM in 2007.
 
Prior to her appointment as PTM COO, Bangard was Percept D’Mark vice president, celebrity management services.
 
To her credit, Bangard has handled careers of eminent personalities across different fields including sports, Indian cinema and television.

MUMBAI: Following a multi-agency pitch, Vizeum India has been appointed as the media agency for iPlayup cricket, the trading name of Revo Content Services, a mobile entertainment business.

The size of the account is expected to be in the region of Rs 200 million. 
 
Said iPlayUp marketing head Kalyan Kumar said, “We found Vizeum to be proactive in their approach. They offer fresh thinking and their senior management is very involved in our business. Considering this, we knew we couldn‘t have chosen a better partner to work with.”
 
Vizeum plans to make specific and tangible contributions to grow the iPlayUP business in India.

Said Vizeum MD Indian sub continent S Yesudas says, “This business will be handled out of our Delhi office under the leadership of GM – North Harit Pant.”
 
Playup, operating in the UK, Australia and Japan, recently launched its operations in India with plans of making it a global hub for the company.
 

MUMBAI: Following a multi-agency pitch, Bangalore-based advertising agency Happy has bagged the creative duties for Diesel for the India market.

The global fashion label will enter the Indian market through a joint venture with Reliance Brands and will be known as Diesel Fashion India Reliance.
 
The agency has already started work on the brand and is working on the launch plans for Diesel‘s foray in the Indian market.

Says Happy co-founders & directors Kartik Iyer and Praveen Das, “It‘s been a dream to work on Diesel from the day we knew of the brand. Its even more encouraging to know that our ideas matched the tone and energy of the brand, as it stands today.” 
 
Says Reliance Brands CEO Darshan Mehta, “In Happy, we found creative partners who best understand and resonate the Diesel DNA. What we love the most about them is their freshness of approach.” 
 
In India, Diesel will be launched over spring/summer 2010. The campaign promises to be entertaining through its “untypical” messaging.
 

NEW DELHI: Stepping up its efforts towards consumer awareness, the Department of Consumer Affairs commissioned video spots of 30-second duration on various consumer related issues for telecast through Doordarshan and satellite channels during 2009.

In addition, special programmes were telecast on Lok Sabha TV to highlight the issues relating to consumer awareness. Issues pertaining to rural and remote areas have been given prominence in various advertisement spots.

Video spots produced in regional languages of North Eastern states on various consumer-related issues were telecast through Doordarshan Kendras of North Eastern states to ensure that the message reached out in the local language.
 
In an innovative move, the department printed messages on railway tickets as well as utility bills such as electricity bills and on railway reservation charts. This publicity was carried not only in Hindi and English languages but almost in all the regional languages so as to reach out to all consumers in their respective languages.

Around 30 major issues were taken up as part of the print advertisements and more than 12,000 insertions were given in the newspapers. Advertisements were released to more than 400 newspapers including national as well as regional dailies through DAVP.
 
The department in consultation with the Department of Posts has disseminated consumer awareness messages through Meghdoot Post cards to reach far-flung rural areas including North East States. Calendars displaying messages on the various issues relevant to consumers were displayed in the network of more than 1,55,000 post offices throughout the country. Similar initiatives were taken for displaying posters on consumer awareness in the network of more than 25,000 Post Offices in the urban areas.

Apart from the issues that are directly relevant to the role of the department such as ISI, Hallmark, labelling, MRP, weights and measures, a major initiative has been taken wherein issues that have come into focus on account of new emerging areas such as telecom, real estate, credit cards, financial products and pharmaceuticals have been taken through the print advertisement either through joint campaigns with these departments or after joint consultations with these departments.
 
Publicity was also mounted on various issues of consumer interests such as real estate, education, medicines, banking sector and telecommunications through the outdoor publicity mediums.

MUMBAI: Chrysler Group LLC has launched a new corporate advertising campaign, designed to reach out to consumers as well as the company‘s suppliers and partners.
 
The new corporate campaign, “Coming Home,” has been created and produced by the Chrysler brand‘s advertising agency of record, Fallon. It is scheduled to air during the bowl games as well as the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram brand web sites.
 
Said Chrysler Group LLC head of marketing Olivier Francois, “The ad tells a story of Chrysler products bringing home loved ones throughout the years and our commitment to continuing to bring them home. It was important to tell this story during the holiday season because it is a time when families come together.”
 
The ad features a driver bringing home a leather travel bag throughout the years in various Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles. The travel bag symbolizes the continuation of life with all Chrysler Group brands and is the string that ties the entire story together. While various Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles are featured throughout, the ad begins with a 1930‘s Chrysler Airflow and ends with a 2010 Chrysler 300 sedan.

MUMBAI: Star World, the English general entertainment channel (GEC) from Star India, is set to launch the third season of Ugly Betty, come 1 January.

Targeting the younger demographic, the one-hour show will be telecast from Monday to Friday at 10 pm.
 
Says Star World VP-programming Jyotsna Viriyala, “The show will replace the fifth season of Desperate Housewives. Once the season for Ugly Betty gets over, we will get Desperate Housewives back onto the slot with its sixth season.”

As part of the marketing initiative, the channel has tied up with Elle, the leading fashion magazine in India. As a part of the partnership, the channel is running a contest to find the Betty Of Elle wherein one winner will get the chance to intern at Elle and win a cash reward of Rs 50,000.
 
Earlier, an Ugly Betty cutout was placed in agencies wherein people could get themselves clicked with Ugly Betty and frame their pictures to be placed on their tables.

Those who opt to get themselves clicked automatically qualify to be a part of a lucky draw. Five lucky winners per agency get and vouchers worth Rs 1000. The activity was carried out in 11 media buying agencies across Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

Internet activities were initiated through SMOs; the Star World page on Facebook, Orkut and Twitter was populated with Ugly Betty related updates. Blogs were also created and one blogger given a wildcard entry to intern with Elle. This is apart from the microsite created for ‘The Star World Betty of Elle contest‘.

MUMBAI: BBDO India, which was set up in 2007 under the leadership of chairman & national creative director Josy Paul (who was later joined by CEO Ajai Jhala), yesterday got the go-ahead from India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to formalize its setup.

Under the approval, R K Swamy BBDO has been permitted to induct foreign equity amounting to Rs 12.75 million from BBDO Worldwide into its wholly-owned subsidiary BBDO India. Following this, BBDO India will operate as a separate private limited company.

RK Swamy BBDO group CEO Shekar Swamy says that the process of changing BBDO India from a wholly-owned subsidiary into a new company is currently on and it will become functional as a private limited organization by the end of the first quarter of 2010.
 
Adds Shekar: “The clearances have been under process for the past year or so. We believe that BBDO would like to scale up BBDO India, but it’s unlikely to happen in 2010. We have offices in Delhi and Mumbai and would like to consolidate them first.”

BBDO Worldwide will become a majority stake owner in BBDO India while RK Swamy BBDO will invest a significant amount to become a minority partner.
 
Says Swamy, “We needed BBDO India to function as a separate entity so that we could have multiple agencies from our stable operational in the market, thereby, increasing our overall market share. Thus, we decided to bring in a change in the investment pattern at BBDO India.” 

Swamy further reveals that BBDO India is doing well with accounts such as 7Up, Hewlett Packard’s Printing and Imaging Business, Gillette, Quaker Oats, Nimbooz, Aviva Life Insurance, Wrigley’s Doublemint and a new brand from Godrej. Some of its recent works include campaigns such as Aviva ‘Education Is insurance’, Quaker Oats’ ‘Mission to Make India Heart Healthy’, Nimbooz ‘Ekdum Asli Indian’, 7 Up ‘Mood Ko Do Lemon Ka Lift’ and Wrigley’s Doublemint ‘Front Foot Pe Chabao’.

MUMBAI: It’s looking at a brighter 2010. Mumbai-hqed Bright Outdoor Media is pushing for a 15-20 per cent revenue growth in the coming year.

The company expects 50 per cent of this revenue to come from its BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking) business, the advertising rights of which it acquired recently for the period 2010 to 2013.
 
Says Bright Outdoor CMD Yogesh Lakhani, “We had bid very aggressively for the BEST tender and won it through a Rs 1.23 billion bid for a three-year period (2010-2013). This includes 4605 single–decker buses and 125 double-decker buses.”

Earlier, the BEST advertising rights business was held by Pioneer Publicity which had paid Rs 700 million for the period 2004-2010 for approximately 3200 BEST buses.

Lakhani says the higher bid has forced him to revise advertising rates by 10-15 per cent. Elaborates Lakhani, “We need to do this to get a return on our investment. Currently, we service approximately 600 clients in Mumbai, out of which 150 are corporates while others are local players.”
 
The BEST contract, informs Lakhani, will kick start from 1 April 2010. Lakhani expects TV channel and programme advertising to account for a majority of the spaces (vacancies), followed by pan masala brands, Bollywood releases and the banking sector, not necessarily in that order.

“GECs are expected to contribute about 5 per cent of the total revenue coming from BEST,” he says.
 
According to a source in the company, while branding on the back panel of a BEST bus is priced at Rs 8,000 for a month, the left panel is priced at Rs 4,500 for a month. The right panel is priced at Rs 5,500 for a month and a full double decker bus is priced at Rs 65,000 a month.

Bright Outdoor Media, which presently operates in Mumbai, Goa and Pune, plans to barge into the Delhi outdoors in the next six months. It owns and operates around 1500 hoardings in Mumbai city, of which 85 per cent are occupied currently, claims Lakhani. Luck sure tends to favour Lakhani.
 

MUMBAI: HLL Lifecare, formerly known as Hindustan Latex, has appointed Lintas Media Group (LMG) as its media AOR, following a multi-agency pitch.
 
The size of the account is pegged to be in the region of Rs 50-60 million.

As part of its new mandate, LMG will handle the entire product portfolio for HLL Lifecare, including Moods, oral contraceptive pill brand Saheli, Crezendo, and Preventol.
 
“There were approximately 12 agencies contending for the account,” said HLL Lifecare AGM – product management Keraleeyan. “We found LMG‘s commercial proposal attractive, and thus went for it.”
 
It is pertinent to note here that the creative duties of HLL Lifecare‘s condom brand Moods are with RK Swamy BBDO while Publicis Ambience handles the creatives for its oral contraceptive pill brand Saheli.