Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: Radio Mirchi has appointed Shamik Talukder to head its national activations. This is Talukder‘s second stint with the company.
 
Said Talukder.”I am very happy to be back with Radio Mirchi for which I was part of the launch team. I have proudly seen it grow and expand. The challenges now are different and I look forward to taking the Mirchi Activation business to a different level.”
 
Prior to this, Talukder has launched and managed VIA OOH as co-promoter.He has over 13 years of experience and has worked across sections of media namely TV, radio, outdoor and Internet.
 
Under his guidance, Times OOH bagged advertising rights for the airports in Delhi and Mumbai. Talukder was also responsible for after sales for West and East during his stint at SET India.

MUMBAI: NS Publicity, an out-of-home (OOH) agency based out of Jaipur has bagged the advertising rights of civil structures of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). This is for a period of eight years for the route between RK Ashram to Dwarka.
 
The win was following a multi-agency pitch with Proactive, Pioneer Publicity, Big Street and Prithvi Associates participating.
 
This procurement adds to the inventory base of skywalks, gantries, display towers, designer unipoles and benches which NS Publicity already owns in Rajasthan.

MUMBAI: MTV is making an entry into the lifestyle segment with the launch of a range of ‘MTV‘ and ‘Roadies‘ eyewear.

For this line of business activity, MTV has entered into a three-year licensing agreement with Aureole Inspecs.

The MTV range of eyewear will be launched under the brand – ‘Framed by MTV‘ and will comprise designs and models that are not only ‘chic and cool‘ but also contain design and packaging elements that are uniquely MTV.

While the sunglasses will be available starting next week, the spectacles‘ range will be launched in the first quarter of 2010.
 
“We want our presence across the maximum categories that today falls within the youth‘s demand preview,” avers Viacom18 VP Consumer Products & Communications Sandeep Dahiya. “Eyewear is much more than just glasses; they define style, attitude and are a fashion statement. With this partnership, we are launching MTV and Roadies special sunglasses as well as spectacles.”

Priced between Rs 1,200 to 3,000, the sunglasses will be available at all the conventional as well as big retails stores. “Demographically, we are targeting the top 50 towns in India for our eyewear products. And given our partner Aureole‘s reach, it won‘t be a problem,” Dahiya affirms.
 
The drive will be to expand the market which is currently dominated by the organised sector. Says Dahiya, “There are lots of known sunglass brands but not spectacle brands. Being a need-based industry, it is sized at around Rs 20 billion. However, only 10-15 per cent is under the organised sector, thereby revealing a huge potential to tap. Also, consumers are opting for multiple and designer spectacles, which opens up the market.”
 
Aureole Inspecs India is a joint venture company responsible for the business operations of Inspecs in the Indian sub-continent. The company specialises in eyewear across the spectrum with brands like FCUK, CAT, Speedo, Austin Reed, Mayhem & Manish Arora.
 

MUMBAI: K&V Media, an IMC agency, has bagged the media mandate for Networth Direct. The account size is pegged at approximately Rs 40 million.
 
“Our sound understanding in the financial space is the reason for winning this account. We will be handling media planning, buying and strategy for Networth Direct,” says K&V Media director Dheeraj Vashisht.
 
“We will have a 360 degree approach with a major thrust on above-the-line (ATL) activities, starting from December. Below the line (BTL), including customer contact programmes, will also start soon,” adds Vashisht.
 
The campaign will run for six months.

MUMBAI: citizen dentsu, Dentsu India‘s specialised division for social communications, has bagged the creative and media duties for the Government of Delhi‘s campaign against child exploitation, ‘Time for Change‘. 
 
The campaign is a joint venture between the Department of Women and Child Development, Labour Department and the Government of NCT of Delhi.
 
As part of this association, citizen dentsu has conceived and developed a 360 degree multimedia social welfare campaign to create awareness about children‘s rights in general and against child labour in particular. 
 
Dentsu India chairman Sandeep Goyal said, “Targeted at employers and the public at large, ‘Time for Change‘ strives to generate mass empathy, inspiring citizens to become a change agent and curb child exploitation. Given citizen dentsu‘s expertise in the realm of social communication, we are delighted to work closely with the Government of Delhi towards making Delhi, a city free of child labour.”

MUMBAI: After posting a major downfall last season, the second round of IRS 2009 suggests that total readership in India is again on an upswing.

While the Times of India leads the English dailies herd with a total readership of 13.53 million in round 2 (3.34 million in 2008 R2), Dainik Jagran reigns the rooster with 54.79 million of the total readership among Hindi dailies.
 
Apart from ToI, the other English dailies that have registered growth are Deccan Chronicle with a total readership of 2.91 million in R2 (2.82 million in 2008 R2) and DNA with 1.53 million of the total readership pie as against 1.34 million in 2008 R2.

The other English dailies that have made it to the top ten list are The Hindu, The Telegraph, The Economic Times, The New Indian Express, Mid-Day and Mumbai Mirror. 
 
Amongst the Hindi dailies, Hindustan and Navbharat Times dailies have also revealed growth in total readership. While Hindustan‘s total readership has risen to 27.94 million in R2 (26.63 million 2008 R2), Navbharat Times has shown its total readership grow to 5.37 million in R2 (5.18 million in 2008 R2). The other publications that are part of the top ten list are Dainik Bhaskar, Amar Ujala, Rajasthan Patrika, Punjab Kesari, Aj, Prabhat Khabar, Nava Bharat (Mah/Chh).
 
Amongst the Bengali dailies, Ananda Bazar Patrika tops the chart with a total readership of 15.34 million in 2009 R2 (1.539 million in 2008 R2). This is followed by Bartaman (7.99 million in 2009 R2) and Sangbad Pratidin (3.96 million in 2009 R2).

While Lokmat (23.24 million in 2009 R2) is the top daily in the Marathi category, Eenadu is the top Telugu daily (14.66 million in 2009 R2).

MUMBAI: Media Research Users Council (MRUC) general manager Sabina Solomon has resigned. 
 
“Yes, I have put in my papers. I feel I have outgrown MRUC. The time has come for me to move on,” says Solomon.
 
Solomon will be with MRUC till the end of January, 2010.

So where is she headed? “I am taking things slowly. I haven’t yet started evaluating other options,” Solomon says.
 
MRUC and National Readership Studies Council (NRSC) are merging to come out with a common readership survey. While MRUC publishes the Indian Readership Survey (IRS), NRSC used to come out with the National Readership Survey (NRS).

MUMBAI: Mauj Mobile has joined forces with mobile advertising and multimedia solutions provider Mobixell to deliver services in mobile advertising.

The partnership will offer a commercial and technological package for managing operators‘ advertising inventories for global and local brands in India. This will include creative work, campaign planning and execution, media management, inventory management, ad serving and ad delivery via various digital and mobile channels.
 
Mauj Mobile CEO Manoj Dawane said, “The mobile advertising opportunities are huge in the Indian market which now has 420 million mobile subscribers. We are looking to capitalise on this with a cutting edge solution that will ensure we can manage the advertising inventory of operators as effectively as possible.”

Mobixell and Mauj Mobile will work together on a number of immediate opportunities to deliver interactive above the line, below the line and through the line integrated campaigns. 
 
“Mobile advertising is an area in which operators and brands work together to achieve effective advertising and higher RoI (Return on investment), which is precisely what this partnership will deliver,” added Mobixell AVP mobile advertising Eran Hertzmann.

MUMBAI: India-based ad network Ozone Media Solutions has launched ‘Eva‘, an ad channel platform that aims to reach out to Indian women online.

Says Ozone Media founder and CEO Kiran Gopinath, “One-fourth of the net surfers comprise urban women which makes a very powerful and untapped segment for any marketer. With about 80 per cent of the purchase decisions made by women, we hope that marketers can capitalise on the advantage of ‘Eva‘ and maximise their reach to garner a high return on their online marketing spends.” 
 
Covering three channels, ‘Eva‘ will help brands reach audiences in contextually relevant environments. 
 
Ozone Media has aggregated women centric inventory and segmented it into Eva – Fashion, Eva – Home and Eva – Health, collating sites which focus on fashion, style and accessories; family, cooking, parenting and children; health, hygiene, nutrition and exercise respectively. The channel includes sites like IndusLadies, IndiaParenting, SanjeevKapoor.com and Evesindia.com.
 
Ozone Media intends to build on the existing cluster of publishers under this channel and increase the reach to 8 million by the end of June 2010.

MUMBAI: ITC Limited Foods Division has launched a new television communication for its hot chilly variant, Red Chilli Bijli.

Directed by Ayappa, the film has been was produced by Footcandles.
 
The Red Chilli Bijli communication is set in an apartment balcony where a young guy is seen pacifying his irate girlfriend who has been waiting for him to turn up for their balcony date. 
 
As the story progresses, the guy tries various tactics to calm her down by gestures and compliments. Finally when he gets her to smile, he takes the opportunity to ask her to blow him a kiss.
 
After a momentary show of reluctance, she finally blows one towards him, which he happily tucks into his shirt pocket. The film reaches its climax when the bewildered expression on the girl‘s face reveals that the guy‘s shirt is actually on fire. The girl looks down at the packet of chips in her hand which she has been munching on and the flavour Bingo Red Chilli Bijli is revealed.