Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: After winning the Visa account in November; OMD has now bagged the media duties of Danone.
 
According to a source close to the development, the account size is around Rs 120-150 million and will be handled out of OMD’s Delhi office.
 
OMD officials, however, refused to comment.
 
Danone, known for brands such as Volvic, Activia and Actimel, is entering the Indian market.

MUMBAI: Vyas Giannetti Creative (VGC), specializing in design and communications, has bagged the creative mandate of Borosil Glassworks wherein the agency will develop a new brand corporate identity and devise a strategic communication plan for the company. 
 
According to industry estimates, the size of the account is pegged to be in the region of Rs 100 million. 
 
Said VGC CEO and chief creative officer Preeti Vyas, “VGC is working to create strategic creative solutions for the brand communication across media using a specific set of design methodologies.”
 
VGC has launched a bouquet of specialist international design and communication verticals in association with global specialists in varied domains from Holland, the US and the UK.
 

MUMBAI: The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has floated a tender inviting bids from parties for Title Sponsorship and/or in stadia advertising for the tri nation ODI series between India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and also for the two match Test series between India and Sri Lanka in January 2010.

The BCB will announce the floor price on 5 December.
 
The ODI series will see seven matches being played. The event will air on Neo Cricket.

A party may bid for all the rights or bid for separate rights. There are two packages for the in-stadia advertising rights. 
 
One involves naming rights to the Bowling Ends, four mid wicket Pitch Mats and Boundary Rope. The other involves 24 perimeter/ground boards, Midwalls/ second tier branding and Floodlight Tower branding.

The BCB says that it has developed a detailed schedule for bid which includes a draft copy of the sponsorship rights agreement. This can be obtained by paying $500 for overseas organisations and BDT 35,000 for local oprganisations. This amount is non refundable. 
 
Bids have to be submitted on 7 December. The BCB has reserved the right to cancel or amend the entire bidding process at any stage and to reject any or all the bids without providing any reason.

MUMBAI: BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking) has awarded for three years the advertising rights to Bright Outdoor for its entire fleet of buses.
 
Bright Outdoor, which had been trying to bag the rights for the last nine years, will have to pay Rs 1.23 billion for the period 2010 to 2013. 
 
“We won the tender with a total bid amount of Rs 1.23 billion for three years. We will also get an extension of one year. We have the rights of 4605 single-decker buses and 125 double-decker buses,” says Bright Outdoor CMD Yogesh Lakhani.
 
Prior to this, Pioneer Publicity handled the ad rights for BEST’s buses for the last seven years.

Others who participated in the tender included Pioneer Publicity, Jagran Engage, Gold Mine Advertising, Sambhaav Media and Rajdeep Buildcon.

MUMBAI: 63336 (formerly known as AQA 63336), a UK-based text question and answer service, is set to launch a Christmas marketing campaign on 30 November with its first television advert as it seeks to acquire new customers and increase question volume.

The advert, “I am one of the 63336” has been developed and produced using an innovative creative process started in September 2009. Eschewing the traditional advertising pitch approach, 63336 ran a competition that saw 17 teams of creative directors presenting ideas based on the brief – to get customers to text questions to 63336. 
 
Said 63336 CEO Colly Myers, “Our challenge has always been how to effectively market a number, 63336, to an audience which compels them to text a question. For the last two years, we‘ve followed the traditional method of developing ideas by going through pitch processes, and putting on retainer a number of the most ‘creative‘ agencies in the UK. Not only has this been very expensive and time consuming, but we‘ve never achieved a satisfactory result.”
 
Rather than focusing on user generated content, the 63336 creative competition only focused on experienced UK creative talent. Similar to processes used by venture capital companies, the concept was to get as many teams as possible to submit ideas, from a very tight brief, from which a winning concept could be selected.

The competition was developed with Goodstuff communications, who are also responsible for managing the media buying. The Gallery Network was employed to run the competition, and then manage, develop, and produce the final television advert. The 63336 advert competition took three weeks, the eventual winners being ‘Tim & Michael‘ with their advert idea ‘I am one of the 63336‘.
 
“The Gallery Network were pivotal in the creation of our TV advert. They were able to bring teams of senior advertising executives to work on creative ideas for us, and once we‘d picked a winner, the Gallery managed the whole process of getting directors and producers to deliver a TV advert on a tight budget and timescale,” commented Colly Myers. “The team has created an exceptional advert and we‘re confident that this will attract large numbers of new customers.”

BANGALORE: McDowell’s Celebration is launching the ‘Freestyle Friendzy’ contest to find India’s best freestyle footballer.

Betting big on the event, McDowell’s has planned to spend almost half of its annual brand-building budget on the property, reveal company sources.
 
As part of the initiative, a media campaign under the tagline ‘Jiyo Freestyle Dil Se’ (live with a freestyle heart) across print, television, radio, internet including social and community websites, outdoor, digital signage has been designed with creatives by Mudra. The media buying agency is Mindshare.
 
A TVC for promoting the contest will be aired across major national and regional channels, say sources.

The brand has brought in six of the top global 30 professional footballers to India and aims to take them across 21 cities in the country to engage and interact with local freestylers in India. 
 
The finale will be held on December 18, 2009 at Kolkata. 10-15 of the freestylers who garner the maximum online votes will take part in a two-day coaching camp conducted by the six international footballers for honing their skills. The final winner of the finale will receive a free ticket to one of the most sought after league matches in London along with other prizes.

“Freestyle Friendzy is a nationwide hunt that is encouraging amateur Indian freestylers to post their videos on www.freestylefriendzy.com to seek votes for their skills and help popularize the sport,” said United Spirits deputy president Ashok Capoor.

NDTV 24×7, indiatimes.com and Radio Mirchi are the television, online and radio partners for the event. DNA is the event manager.

MUMBAI: Vodafone Essar is back with the second innings of the Zoozoo TVC, starting 27 November.

Returning with a renewed focus on a fresh set of services on offer by Vodafone, the Zoozoo ad campaign will feature three new Zoozoo ads every week on television.
 
Said Vodafone Essar South chief executive officer K Sankara Narayanan, “The Zoozoos campaign resonated strongly with viewers in creating an emotional connect and communicating our various offerings. The Zoozoos are back again to tell viewers about our various innovative and customer-centric offerings in a simple and endearing manner.” 
 
Vodafone has kept the Zoozoo experience ongoing with campaigns running through diverse mediums catering to a wide audience. Social networking sites witnessed the success and popularity of the Zoozoos with Facebook garnering more than 300,000 Zoozoo fans. 
 
Post the initial campaign this summer, there were two viral Zoozoo campaigns unveiled around Independence Day and Diwali. Vodafone also recently launched Zoozoo merchandise with Shoppers Stop.

MUMBAI: Keen to engage with its current and potential customers through a fresh approach, Thomas Cook India (TCIL) has signed ZenithOptimedia and JWT as its media and creative partner respectively. 
 
While the media account is pegged to be in the region of Rs 200-250 million, the size of the creative account remains unknown. 
 
Both the agencies won the account following a multi-agency pitch. 
 
Said TCIL executive director travel businesses Rakshit Desai, “We decided to join hands with the two agencies as their credentials and proposals were aligned with our strategy. Both the agencies are now on-board and we are looking at several product launches and pioneering initiatives.”

MUMBAI: Star India has elevated Kevin Vaz to president, ad sales.Prior to this, Vaz was Star India advertising and sales executive vice president. 
 
Said Star India CEO Uday Shankar, “Yes, Vaz has been promoted to head the ad sales team as president.”
 
On being quizzed on who would be fitting into the boots of Vaz, Shankar said, “No one. The promotion will play as an enabler to handle his extended role within the company.”
 
In March 2004 Vaz had taken over as head of sales for the Star network.

MUMBAI: With a change in consumer perceptions and an increase in market competition, Hamdard has decided to re-invent the brand communication of its product, ‘Joshina‘. 
 
Earlier, targeted at youth professionals, the new communication will encapsulate a television commercial that will target the entire family with a special thrust on children. 
 
Conceptualized by JWT Kolkata and directed by Sharan Masand, the TVC will go on air from 27 November. CREO Films is the production house. 
 
The TVC is seen through the eyes of a young child whose imagination gets the better of him when he is haunted by loud cough, sneeze, or hears the clearing of the throat of mummies, statues and portraits. The mother is the interpreter of the child‘s fear ‘Sardi Khansi Wala Bhoot‘ and recommends a natural remedy that will act as a preventive shield from cough and cold.