Category: Marketing

MUMBAI: Beverage and soft drink major, Pepsi has announced a major ad and promotional campaign titled ‘What‘s Your Way‘.

The campaign is aimed to engage 30 million youth on the internet and 250 million youth on their mobiles.

The new media campaign aimed at youngsters and called ‘Youngistaan‘ claims to be a conversation between the youngsters and Pepsi in a fun environment.

The integrated marketing campaign ‘What‘s Your Way‘ will be spread across print, TV, radio and digital platforms in 13 cities namely Delhi & NCR, Chandigarh, Patiala, Kota, Lucknow, Kanpur, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin, Manipal, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.

Says Meridian executive creative director Rensil D‘Silva, “The team at Meridian came up with a creative execution which in a very light hearted manner explodes the myth that, ‘most men find their mother‘s cooking tastier than their wives‘. The protagonist after much soul searching garners up the courage to admit that his wife‘s food tastes better than the one his mother cooks. Thanks to Ruchi. All the renditions of this idea keep the conflict going.”

Adds Meridian senior creative director Harshad Sharma, “We believe ‘Jo sach hain voh sach hain‘ is a highly extendable property. Not only does it lend itself across to various renditions over time but also across media. One will soon see this idea explode across not just convention media but also internet micro sites and in the in-programme space.”

In this new position, Hasker will direct strategy and development of Nielsen’s media products and services, including measurement of television, online, and mobile media as well as the company’s ongoing innovation around cross-media measurement.

Hasker says, “I look forward to working with media companies and advertisers using the breadth of Nielsen’s assets to better plan and measure media across the Internet, TV, and mobile, and to enhance the direct relationships between marketers and consumers that will optimise advertising investments.”

Hasker will also oversee Advertiser Solutions, a new business unit to help advertisers deliver the right messages to the right consumers, and improve marketing effectiveness and return on investment. In this respect, Hasker will work closely with Alan Gould and Ken Orkin, co-CEOs of Nielsen IAG, who will head Advertiser Solutions.

Avers Nielsen CEO David Calhoun, “We are extremely pleased to add a leader of Steve Hasker’s caliber to guide our product efforts across media and advertiser services. This appointment, as well as the creation of Advertiser Solutions, is a significant next step in Nielsen’s continued delivery of insights into the connected consumer.”

Playing on the theme “110 million people network”, the campaign is targeted at all age groups, place groups and the sec A category.

Rediffusion Y&R is the creative agency for Airtel while Madison is the media partner.

To increase brand relevance, the company has also introduced a new logo to metaphorically bring alive the “people network” proposition.

The business will be handled out of the the agency‘s Mumbai and Delhi offices.

Dhir Global chairman and MD M K Dhir, “We were in the process of identifying a brand custodian for Giovani and Vizeum was referred to us by media partners. Vizeum‘s thinking is fresh, their experience is deep and their passion is immense. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial business association with Vizeum India.”

Said Vizeum India MD S Yesudas, “As the brand custodian, our responsibility will be to ensure that Giovani engages as many current and potential consumers as possible in a captive manner, using the available resources with prudence.”

Prior to this, both were associate creative directors at Ogilvy Bengaluru. While Ravikumar was working with the art department, Jacob was into copywriting.

With this appointment, both Ravikumar C and Manoj Jacob will work closely with VP creative Delhi Mani Jayaram and will report to Euro RSCG India chief creative officer Satbir Singh.

Says Singh, “The two have done some good works and can help cater to the needs of the exciting assignments and important clientele of the agency.”

While some of the accounts on which Ravikumar has worked on include BSNL, Vijaya Bank, Jive Fruit Drink, Van Heusen, V Dot and Knorr Soup, Jacob has worked on clients such as Knock Out, Tiffany‘s, Nilgiris Supermarket, Himalaya, AMD, Shell and Kerala Ayurveda Pharmacy.

The collaboration in developing a consistent and cohesive message for worldwide use follows the adoption last year of a universal National Geographic Channel logo and on-air look, along with an increase in global programming co-productions.

“Live Curious” was developed after a worldwide consumer research conducted to identify common values that reflect the essence of the National Geographic brand promise. The tagline aims to resonate and translate effectively across regions in Europe, Australia, Asia, Latin America and the United States.

“‘Live Curious‘ is at the heart of National Geographic‘s DNA, and the National
Geographic brand is one of the most familiar and powerful global brands, transcending borders and cultures,” said Haslingden. “And with the National Geographic Channels continuing to increase momentum worldwide, it has become increasingly important to create a common voice that would resonate in every language, while at the same time leaving space for each region to maximize local relevance.”

“Live Curious” will be the basis for a global brand campaign, currently in production, that will promote the network, its programming and talent. The campaign will first be introduced in the India, United States and Netherlands and will eventually reach 315 million homes in 166 countries.

In addition to fully produced spots of varying length, the toolkit will include core elements around which each region can add local footage, talent, messaging and non-traditional tactics to build diverse campaigns for their specific audiences. To continue the process of global collaboration and collective inspiration, these localised campaigns will be shared with all other regions as the basis for ongoing generations of the campaign worldwide. The National Geographic Channels in Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, Spain, Turkey, U.K. and the United States are expected to be the first to create local campaigns bridging off the central global concept.

The brand campaign will promote key programming as well as talent from shows shared around the world, including Sean Riley (World‘s Toughest Fixes), Cesar Millan (Dog Whisperer), John Garcia (DogTown), Chris Fischer (Expedition Great White), Batso and Johnny O (Rescue Ink Unleashed) and Zeb Hogan (Hooked).

The tagline will be reflected in a full range of consumer and trade advertising platforms, including broadcast, print, outdoor and digital. Ad sales extensions are also in development, along with digital consumer touch points such as a microsite, social networking applications and games.

NGCI EVP creative and marketing Rafael Sandor and NGC US EVP marketing Kiera Hynninen jointly oversaw the development of the tagline and brand campaign. Italian production company Mercurio Film and creative consultant Patrizio Marini were commissioned to execute the primary 60 and 30 second brand spots; US-based Click 3X is creating program-centric extensions for the global campaign and various other extensions are being produced internally.

“‘Live curious‘” is about exploration, pioneering and questioning, which captures National Geographic‘s shared spirit,” added Sandor. “The campaign aims to connect on a human level so no matter what country you live in or language you speak, this message to ‘Live Curious‘ hits close to home.”

Said Starcom Worldwide COO – South Asia Sandeep Lakhina, “As we focus on our growth in the South with renewed zest, Bangalore is a significant and important market for us. We are extremely happy to have Sriram join us to head the Bangalore office. He comes with a proven track of growing businesses and managing relationships with clients and teams. I am confident that his skills, capabilities and experience will be an asset to the organization, and I am looking forward to working with him and double the size of our Bangalore office in the next 12 months.”

With approximately 14 years of experience in the advertising industry, Sharma has gained hands on knowledge in strategic brand building, consumer and digital marketing, media planning and buying.

Said Sriram Sharma, “I‘m sure that working at Starcom Bangalore and leading business development and managing existing clients will be an interesting challenge.”

Before Starcom, Sharma was with OnMobile Global. He has also worked with GroupM as general manager for Maxus in Bangalore.

DDB Mudra Group head Sandeep Vij said, “Michael brings with him a unique skill set and intrinsic understanding of brands, markets and consumers. I am certain that our brands here will benefit greatly from the insights and passion he brings to this position and we are delighted to welcome him on board.”

Follett, a graduate from Oxford University with approximately 10 years of experience in the advertising industry, has worked on brands such as Philips, Epson, Hasbro, Oxfam, Novartis and Weetabix.

Follett began his planning career at DDB London where he worked for seven years before moving to Tribal DDB in New York.

“What drew me to DDB India was Sandeep Vij‘s vision to build the agency of the future. We have strong and diverse set of talents to draw from; we have great clients; we have massive opportunities. It‘s a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am really looking forward to making it happen,” said Follett.

Lintas Media Group chairman and CEO Lynn de Souza said, “We are consciously bringing in different disciplines into the agency. Bosco‘s diverse background in advertising, financial communication, education and unit management will lend a lot of width to our contribution in addressing the challenges our clients face.”

In his new position, D‘Mello will co-ordinate with LMG‘s president and COO NP Sathyamurthy to carry out the Mumbai operations.

D‘Mello said, “The non-traditional media space is growing exponentially and we would like to develop and drive brand properties for our clients in these areas as well. This will provide us a platform to offer greater value to our clients. I am keen to bring a wider marketing and business perspective to media planning, buying and execution, which will enable us to partner clients more effectively in all-round brand development.”

D‘Mello brings in 20 years of experience and has worked in areas such business development and marketing and communications across multiple sectors including advertising, retail, education and financial services.