Category: Marketing

Averred Kumar, “Creative being a crucial part of any successful campaign, it becomes all the more important in regards to activations as we try to reach people in less obvious and more unique methods. With Nair joining Candid, we can be assured that we shall begin setting higher benchmarks in activations going forward.”

Said Nair, “In a crowded market, it makes more sense to out-think the competition than waste resources trying to out-perform them. Candid has been regularly creating campaigns which redefine innovations in the activations space. My brief here in one simple word – Elevate.”

Prior to joining Candid, Nair was Dentsu Communications Delhi creative group head and worked on brands including Aircel, Yamaha, Panasonic, Incredible India, DLF and NACO.

“I am looking forward to being back in the buzz and excitement of a new media agency on the prowl, and am of the belief that the combination of our worldwide network and tools and indigenous relationships will help us bring in early success,” says Karwal.

Lintas Media Group chairman and CEO Lynn de Souza says, “Karishma Initiative has been launched primarily to expand our offering to clients who work with a global template. The agency is headquartered at Mumbai, and has set up an office in Gurgaon. As of now, there are no plans to expand beyond these two centres in the first year.”

Prior to this, Karwal worked with Initiative Media, Ogilvy, Zenith Optimedia, Reckitts, Spatial Access and R3.

The 360 degree campaign created by JWT is aimed at presenting Kurkure as the antidote to an excessive dose of sweets.

Said JWT SVP Sonia Bhatnagar, “We have created a complete 360 degree campaign to involve and engage the target group by promoting the concept of ‘Muh Kurkure Karo‘.

“This integrated communication strategy will be rolled out to augment customer‘s experience of celebration this Diwali. It will be a multimedia campaign involving television, print, radio, online and outdoor activation.”

The first TVC that centers on the celebration of Diwali shows an irritated neighbour behaving very sweetly with teenagers who have just shot a firecracker in his house.

In yet another first, Kurkure brand ambassador Juhi Chawla plays a male character for the first time (she plays a North Indian man) and brings to life this excessively sweet mannerism, the only antidote of which is Kurkure.

While the Congress is investing Rs 26.4 million on television to build brand awareness, for print it is spending Rs 13.6 million.

Says K&V Media director Dheeraj Vashisht, “While 66 per cent of the media account is skewed towards television, the balance 34 per cent will rest for print.”

While the television campaign will be on English, Hindi and Marathi news channels along with Marathi GECs, for print, it will be only on Lokmat, promoted by Congress MP Vijay Darda.

On television, out of the allocated 66 per cent, 15 per cent will be towards Hindi news channels, 11 per cent towards English news channels, 34 per cent will be for the Marathi news channels and the remaining 40 per cent will be for Marathi GECs (general entertainment channels).

“For the campaign, we will focus on the primetime strategy to capture attention of the entire family. While the campaign buzz will remain low in the beginning, there will be a major spike in the last 4-5 days of the 11-day campaign,” she adds.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) has appointed Crayons Advertising to handle creative duties for the political party.

The state assembly elections are scheduled for 13 October.

The company decided to continue with Roshan as he has a high recall value of being known as Hide & Seek‘s ambassador. Roshan has a strong connect with the consumers.

The television campaign (TVC) that is on air across TV channels shows Roshan dancing and recommending consumers to try the new brand.

Propagating the idea that ‘Bigg Boss is watching everyone’, the campaign includes an 89 city press plan and targets 70 cities in the Hindi speaking market (HSM) with print, radio, out-of home and on-ground activation.

Says Colors marketing head Rameet Arora, “Through this marketing campaign, our aim is to take the show to the viewers and engage them without intruding into their private lives.”

As part of its out-of-home activity, 1500 hoardings have been put up pan India. In Mumbai and Delhi, the channel is planning to put up specially-designed hoardings, which will capture images of commuters from different cameras and show them on the hoardings in real time.

In Mumbai, the promotion campaign will also see 250,000 dabbawalas (tiffin carriers) wearing Bigg Boss masks, while commuters at local stations will hear some announcements adorning the Bigg Boss voice.

Colors has also partnered with Barista for special Bigg Boss meals and Big Bazar outlets for different promotional offers.

Meanwhile, Big FM is the radio partner while IBN7 is the news partner. The channel has also booked spots on 10 different channels to promote the show.

The Bigg Boss TV campaign comprises nine promos shot by Morse Code Productions with Amitabh Bachchan in locations including Singapore and Khopoli near Mumbai.

“The TV campaign is a perfect marriage between two brands – Amitabh Bachchan with Bigg Boss,” says Arora.

Additionally, the channel will engage viewers with flash-mobs across the country. “Idea of flash mobs is never heard of in India. You may find people with Bigg Boss eyes surrounding you, suddenly, in places like bus stand and coffee shops. The message is that Bigg Boss is watching everything,” avers Arora.

The channel will also unveil a microsite dedicated to Bigg Boss 3 on the launch day. For the previous season, such a microsite had got 20 million pageviews and this time the channel is expecting the number double.

“The online response for Bigg Boss 2 was great with 20 million page views. This time we are expecting approximately 45 million page views on the site,” Arora adds.

Colors will also exploit the digital platform. It will release Bigg Boss content on mobile such as ringtones and wallpapers. Also, in the offering will be uncut versions and mobi-sodes of the show. Also 35 million SMSes will be send across operators, announcing the start of Bigg Boss.

“Modest growth is forecast for 2010, with the World Cup expected to benefit the market, however a recovery is not forecast to be properly underway until 2011,” Carat said.

Talking about the UK market, Carat predicts that its ad market will slump by 12 per cent as against its previous forecast of 7.1 per cent. While television advertising will fall by 12 per cent too this year, radio will fall by 12.6 per cent and outdoor by 12.2 per cent.

The new report also states that newspapers and magazines have been hit the hardest, down 20.3 per cent and 16.3 per cent respectively.

Currently, the handsets marketed in the country will be manufactured in the UAE. “As part of the company‘s integral vision to supply our mobiles in the subcontinent, we intend to set up a manufacturing base in India too,” he added.

Said Madhavan, “The single-most important fact that convinced me to endorse this product was the amount of research and development that has gone into the making of these phones. I will be involved in all the marketing communications activities of Spark and also play a role as decided mutually in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs in India.”

The mobiles will be categorised into three segments, based upon features to cater to every Indian consumers needs. While toughness is the central theme, the lowest priced mobile is the basic model which would be followed by the feature packed medium range and a high end set which will be positioned as a life style product. The new range of handsets will launch before end of 2009 in India.

Said Gini and Jony India CEO Prakash Lakhani, “We are honoured to partner with Puma as their design and quality will be a success in the Indian market where kidswear retail is a rapidly growing category.”

The Puma kid‘s collection for autumn/winter 2009 is priced from Rs 399 onwards and includes a range of apparel, footwear and accessories for kids aged 4-14 years.

Puma India MD Rajiv Mehta said, “Collaborating with Gini and Jony will further expand Puma‘s ability to move into a new space, escalating our reach.”