ITV

Category: Marketing

  • Candid Marketing rechristens trade & retail marketing div

    MUMBAI: Candid Marketing, a strategic brand activation agency, is looking at scaling up its to operations pan India and has rechristened its trade marketing business to UBIQ Trade Marketing as part of its expansion strategy.


    Formerly known as Integrated Trade Marketing, the division will also adorn a refreshed identity and logo.
     
    The division was earlier jointly owned by Candid Marketing and IMSG. The change in identity of ITM was put into process following the management buyout of Candid Marketing from IMSG earlier this year.


    With the renaming of the division, the company aims at positioning UBIQ Trade Marketing as “a leading trade marketing agency, helping clients achieve availability and visibility everyday, everywhere.”
     
    While Riyaz Sayed has been roped into the division as AVP west and south India, Pradeep Thakur is AVP north and east India.


    Says Candid Marketing founder and MD Atul S Nath, “We have had a vision of creating a specialised division that caters to the needs of marketers employing trade marketing. With UBIQ we will ensure that our clients continue to receive services that set future benchmarks for the industry.”


    He further stated, “With this new identity, we wish to build the brand across its networks of presence, clients and the trade marketing fraternity, for the services it offers. While we had a strong presence in the north and west zones, we are now looking to scale up operations pan India, including increasing our team size by 100 per cent over the next one year.” 
     
    The services provided by UBIQ include channel sales, feet-on-street, channel incentivisation and loyalty programmes, mystery shoppers programmes, in-shop promoter programmes, merchandising programmes (soft and hard), POS/POP production (Soft & Hard), shop-in-shop (designing and implementation), brand shops (designing and implementation), and retail and trade audits.
    The business has already been servicing and supporting clients like Samsung, Toshiba, Videocon, Diageo, Pepsi, Cadbury, Max New York Life and LG.
     

  • Allied Media appoints Priya Iyer as biz director – South

    MUMBAI: Allied Media, the media planning, evaluation and buying arm of Percept, has appointed Priya Iyer as business director for its South office.
     
    Iyer will report to Allied Media VP PM Balakrishna and will look after the media business across the south region, prominently in Bangalore and Chennai.


    Earlier, Iyer was director at Catalyst, a unit of Havas Media.
     
    Said Iyer, “This move is challenging and different, as along with everyday functional responsibilities of the office, delivery of a strong strategic product and client relationships will be a priority. Allied is a growing agency and offers a wide canvas, where many integrated services can be incorporated for holistic planning.”
     
    Iyer was also associated with companies like Starcom and Maxus, handling clients in Mumbai and Bangalore from across industries such as automobiles, retail, banking, IT and FMCG. 

  • MTS to initiate national campaign including TVC’s after Mumbai rollout

    BANGALORE: Sistema Shyam Telesrvices Limited’s (SSTL) mobile telephony services brand MTS will initiate a mass media communications campaign, including TVC’s across all major national GEC, music and news channels after the roll out of its mobility services in Mumbai by the end of this year. This was revealed to www.indiantelevision.com by SSTL General Manager – Marketing (Brand and communication) Prasun Kumar at Bangalore on the sidelines of a press conference to announce the launch of MTS CDMA services in Karnataka today. The brand also unveiled a new logo in Bangalore today.


    “In a market that is cluttered, we know that we have to spend money to be heard. Once we complete a rollout in a big circle like Mumbai, we will definitely go in for TVC’s on national GEC’s, supplemented by ads on music, news and other channels. This is about the time that our TVC campaign in Karnataka will also start – this too will be across major local GEC channels and some popular local music channels,” added Kumar
     
    “When we rolled out services in Tamil Nadu, we had a multimedia campaign across the state on local, print, outdoor, radio and regional television in that state. We are on regional television channels and local radio stations in the other southern state circle that we are also present in – Kerala. We are planning a similar campaign for Karnataka shortly. We are also planning an on-line campaign,” further added Kumar.


    Reportedly, for Tamil Nadu and Kerala the mobile telephony player had signed bundled deals with major media players such as the Sun Network and Asianet for their radio and television networks. The brand is in talks with radio stations across Karnataka.
     
    Since October 2008, when it commenced operations, MTS has rolled out its mobility services in Rajasthan, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Kolkata, West Bengal, and Kerala circles and in Karnataka circle today. Harayana, Mumbai, Maharashtra and Goa circles are next within this years and Andhra Pradesh with the first half of next year according to SSTL President and CEO Vsevolod Rozanov.
     
    Saatchi and Saatchi handle the creative duties and MPG the media buying for MTS.


    SSTL is a joint venture company between Sistema {LSE-SSA} of Russia and the Shyam Group of India. It has spectrum in all the 22 circles across the country. SSTL has tied with Mobile TeleSystems OJSC of Russia to bring in the MTS telecom brand to India.
     

  • Saatchi & Saatchi VP Anand Siva quits

    MUMBAI: Anand Siva, Saatchi & Saatchi vice-president and branch head, Mumbai has put in his papers.


    Confirming the development, Siva said, “I am currently serving my notice period. I have a couple of offers in hand. But wherever I work in the near future, my focus will be on BTL activities.”
    Siva has approximately 17 years of experience in mainstream advertising and over five years in BTL. 
     
    He joined Saatchi & Saatchi Solutions, the specialised arm of offering 360-degree below-the-line communication solutions, in 2007 as vice-president. Later, moved on to replace Arjit Ray as Saatchi & Saatchi vice president. 
     
    Prior to joing the agency, Siva was COO at Akshara Advertising.


    Among the various brands that Siva has worked on include Intel, Nortel, Fresh & Honest Café and Indian Airlines.

  • Primesite East appoints Ranjit Banerjee as group account director

    MUMBAI: Primesite, Mudra Group‘s specialist out-of-home communications unit, has appointed Ranjit Banerjee as group account director for its Kolkata office. Prior to this, Banerjee was senior manager at Outdoor Advertising Professionals (a joint venture of Rediffusion YR between Selvel Vantage Group). 
     
    Primesite senior vice president Mandeep Malhotra, “I am happy to have Ranjit on board. He will head Primesite Kolkata as well as be involved in opening doors for all other business like Kidstuff, Celcius, Ten Integrated and Terra. I am confident that his experience in the Calcutta and east markets will surely take Primesite Kolkata to the next level of professional excellence.”
     
    Banerjee has over 12 years of professional experience and has handled clients such as Aircel, Maruti, Airtel, Bacardi, PSI and USL. He started his career with Sight, a local Outdoor Advertising media owner in 1997. Thereafter, in 2001 he moved to Ogilvy & Mather where he supervised the execution of various campaigns as well as tracked the outdoor media campaign for competition.

  • Bajaj Allianz launches new campaign for child insurance plans

    MUMBAI: Insurance service provider Bajaj Allianz has launched a new advertising campaign for its child insurance plans.
     
    Targeted at parents, the campaign aims at bringing out the importance of planning and, thus, securing the future of one‘s child. 
     
    Created by M&C Saatchi, the campaign that is being held across various media platforms including TV, print and out-of-home will run till November-end. 
     
    Says Bajaj Allianz marketing head Akshay Mehrotra, “The unique idea behind the campaign is direct communication. It focuses on direct messaging.”


    Meanwhile, Maxus has the media mandate for Bajaj Allianz.
     

  • HUL repeats roadblock on Star channels







    MUMBAI: FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) is once again hosting a roadblock across all the Star network channels.













    The ad exclusivity on the Star channels will be on 29 October. Lux will occupy centre stage, replacing Lifebuoy that HUL promoted last time.




    Unlike last time, the HUL brands will also block out other ads on Star‘s south-language channels including Asianet.


    “HUL will pack its 20 brands in this roadblock strategy. The payout to Star could be around Rs 80-90 million,” a source tells Indiantelevision.com.


    Earlier, HUL had also conducted a similar roadblock across 25 Zee Network channels. Though approached, Zee did not want to upset its other advertising clients.


    Says Zee Entertainment Enterprises chief revenue officer Joy Chakraborty, “We were approached by HUL this time as well. We are open to the concept of roadblock advertising, but do not agree to have it on a monthly frequency as it would upset our other clients. We see it as a good strategy only on a quarterly basis.”


    In a recession-hit market when advertisers are heavily cautious on their spends, conducting roadblocks seems to be the new innovation to gain optimum brand exposure. For the broadcasters, it also provides an excellent opportunity to bring in advertising premium.


    HUL had blocked advertising on Star and Zee network channels in September this year.


    MTV had also conducted a similar roadblock with Bingo on 1 April and with Cadbury on 1 July.




    Avers MTV India GM and SVP content and creative Ashish Patil, “MTV has been doing these stunts since 2003. We do not just roadblock but also create content to support the brands.”


    Elaborating further, he says, “On 1 July, we did the stunt with Cadbury, where we also created two promos for them with the theme ‘khush hai jamana aaj pahli tarikh hai’. The entire day was branded as ‘pay day’ on MTV. Cadbury even used our promos on other channels.”


    Earlier, in 2007, Hutch had conducted a network roadblock on Star to introduce its brand change to Vodafone.

  • Lay’s launches campaign to increase consumer engagement

    MUMBAI: Lay‘s, the potato chips brand from the PepsiCo India factory, has announced the launch of its latest consumer engagement campaign, “Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour”.


    “Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour” is an innovative engagement programme is aimed at getting Lay‘s its next potato chips flavour from the Indian consumer.


    The campaign will give consumers an opportunity to co-create the flavour they like on Lay‘s wherein the winner will receive prize money worth Rs 50,00,000 and 1 per cent of the sales turnover from the new flavour. The new flavour will be launched by the end of May 2010.


    In a bid to generate buzz around this new programme, Lay‘s has created a 360 degree marketing campaign with a major focus on television.


    Says PepsiCo India (Frito-Lay India division) marketing director Deepika Warrier, “Apart from TV, we will also exhibit our presence across outdoor, radio, mobile and the internet to create interactivity.” 
     
    The marketing campaign will run for an approximate eight-month period that will be divided into three phases.


    “The first phase will see the launch of a contest on 30 October that will ask consumers to send in their entries stating their favourite flavours and accompanying slogans. The next phase will be the judging round wherein four flavours will be shortlisted and the third phase will select the final winner,” Warrier adds. 
     
    The company will also host various on-ground activations to further enhance consumer brand engagement.


    The winners will be selected by a panel of judges headed by NDTV Good Times celebrity chef and anchor Aditya Bal. The other members on the panel include JWT Executive Creative Director and VP and author Anuja Chauhan and PepsiCo India director R&D Dr TSR Murali.
     

  • Abhishek & Aishwarya come together for new ‘Lux’ commercial

    MUMBAI: Lux, the soap brand that has been long associated with beauty and film stars, is bringing together Bollywood couple Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai for the first time ever on television in its new commercial for its relaunched products.


    Directed by Stephen Mead, the TVC has been produced by London-based ad film production house, Short Films.
     
     
    Said Hindustan Unilever VP, home care & skin cleansing Sudhanshu Vats, “Lux relaunch promises to give the consumers a never before luxurious bathing experience through a creamier lather leaving their skin soft and smooth. We have made improvements to every element of the mix – product, packaging and fragrance. Significant investment has gone into the product which contains ‘fragranced beauty oils‘.”
     
     
    He further stated, “All of this is being communicated to the consumers through a unique yet distinctly Lux campaign where we have Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan coming together for the very first time in an advertisement.”


    The Sufi inspired music score in the TVC has been composed by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy. The couple has been styled by fashion designer Aki Narula with make-up done by Mickey Contractor.
     
     
    Talking about her long standing association with Lux, Bollywood Diva, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan said, “I have been associated with Lux for past 10 years as a global brand ambassador. Shooting with Abhishek makes this ad all the more special as it‘s our first commercial together and we had a great time shooting for it.”

  • Pizza Hut appoints JWT Delhi to handle creative account

    MUMBAI: Pizza Hut has once again roped in JWT Delhi as its creative partner following a multi-agency pitch. The size of the account is pegged at approximately Rs 150 million.









    It is pertinent to note here that JWT Delhi has been associated with the account since last 10 years.




    JWT managing partner Rohit Ohri, “Pizza Hut is a brand that‘s very close to JWT‘s heart. It‘s a brand we‘ve launched in India and nurtured over the last 14 years. Our partnership has now emerged stronger than ever before and we look forward to scaling new heights of communication excellence.”