Category: Marketing

Says Google spokesperson, “We are delighted to announce Nikhil Rungta as head of marketing for Google India. Nikhil will be based out of our Bangalore office and will be responsible for driving the strategy and execution of all marketing efforts to support Google’s sales verticals, products and partnerships in India.”

“With over 12 years of experience in sales and marketing, Rungta brings on board the combination of industry knowledge and thorough understanding of the consumer market in India,” he adds.

Earlier, Rungta was also associated with McCann Erikson as client servicing director, Shaw Wallace & Company as product manager and Dhar & Hoon Communications as account director.

In a bid to provide a brand identity to the product offering, the company has roped in Amitabh Bachchan to help build awareness for Max Vijay.

Says Max New York Life chief marketing officer Anisha Motwani, “Since Max Vijay targets more than 100 million underserved people, spread evenly across rural and urban markets, a key challenge for us was to develop a compelling brand proposition that the underserved segment across the country could identify with, irrespective of geographies, or the rural / urban divide. The brand proposition also needed to create a call-for-action to move the consumer out of inertia and start saving today for a more financially secure future tomorrow.”

“Superstar Amitabh Bachchan is the prefect ambassador to help build awareness and trust for Max Vijay. He enjoys a very credible patriarchal image, signifies ‘Vijay‘ over difficult real life situations and cuts across geographic and cultural boundaries”, Motwani adds.

The new proposition will be brought to life via a 360-degree high intensity marketing campaign encompassing print, radio, TV and outdoors. The campaign will also comprise below-the-line and CSR initiatives.

Ogilvy & Mather executive chairman and creative director -South Asia, “Max Vijay is meant to be a movement, a creator of hope and optimism among the underserved masses. Max Vijay will help the common man to achieve his dream – ‘aukaat par vijay‘, as every little rupee saved helps him to rise up in hierarchy.”

Designed by Ogilvy & Mather, the new campaign focuses on personalisation and also looks at letting existing and new users know as Yahoo can help people navigate all their services and information online. The campaign will also launch the new tools that look at aiding users customise Yahoo products such as Yahoo.com.

Said Yahoo! EVP and chief marketing officer Elisa Steele, “This is much more than an advertising campaign. It‘s about how Yahoo! delivers its promise to the market in everything that it does. Our brand strategy shows our commitment to delivering personally relevant online experiences.”

The company will use online, cable TV, radio, print and outdoor for spreading its new campaign awareness.

“Sethi is a veteran in the Indian communications and mediascape and it‘s great to have him on board Team Dentsu in India. His diverse experience across disciplines of communications is of tremendous value and we see him lead Dentsu Marcom to great heights,” said Aggarwal.

A marketing communications specialist, Sethi has extensive experience in the marketing communications and publishing industries. He has successfully built new country operations and new competencies from inception to implementation. He has helped build operations in the Indian sub-continent for large global marketing communication companies such as Wunderman, McCann Relationship Marketing.

His strength has been his leadership and people skills. In recognition of his contribution in the field of integrated communications, Sethi was invited as a Lions Jury member to the 50th Cannes Advertising Festival.

Sethi is a graduate in Economics and a post-graduate in Management studies. He also completed his Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School in 2005.

Stepping into the vice chairman‘s position, meanwhile, is Lokmat Group director Bharat Kapadia.

With the new elections, the most urgent mandate of the governing council now will be to achieve a single currency for the readership survey.

Says Purushottam, “Our immediate agenda will be to lead to a successful merger of the IRS and NRS. We will also look at ensuring that across media, be it internet, radio and out-of-home, far more robust research will come out that will be cost effective and useful for the industry. Our approach will be to engage all stakeholders to contribute both their ideas and their money to make this possible.”

Earlier in August, the MRUC and National Readership Studies Council (NRSC) had passed the relevant resolutions at their respective Governing Council meetings to support the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) and the National Readership Survey (NRS) merger that could set the tone for a single currency in India.

MRUC has been set up by agencies, advertisers and media houses to determine and conduct research required for the assessment of various media for advertising. NRSC, on the other hand, has been constituted by INS, AAAI and ABC for the purpose of carrying out readership surveys in India.

Facebook, which has 300 million users, will conduct polls of the display ads it runs and provide that data to Nielsen. The research agency will then package this for advertisers.

The product, Nielsen Brand Lift, will help Facebook convince advertisers that display ads on the network work.

With expected revenue of $500 million in 2009, Facebook lags way behind Google and Yahoo. Search engine operators are able to display the effectiveness of ads, something which Facebook advertisers are unable to quantify.

“Over the next few months we will be giving a series of high-level presentations to agencies telling them how the characters and other properties could be leveraged to sell products,” said Warner Bros MD consumer products Australia Preston Lewis to News.com.au.

“Warner Bros looks at the full spectrum of consumers from newborns all the way up to grandma,” he added.

The company is looking at marketers to license the characters for brands including sweets and cereals.

The luggage manufacturer has designed an exclusive Main Aurr Mrs Khanna signature line of products. On purchasing the new line, customers would be entitled to participate in the contest.

As part of the contest, VIP customers can get the opportunity to meet Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Sohail Khan.

Other prizes include tickets to the premiere show to music CDs autographed by the stars and other accessories. The contest ends 5 October and would run at all VIP exclusive stores in the country.

Said VIP Industries MD Sudhir Jatia, “It is our constant endeavour to provide our customers with a differential and best-in-class shopping experience to make every VIP purchase special.

“We are happy to associate with Main Aurr Mrs Khanna, which will give our valued customers a chance to meet and interact with their Bollywood stars.”

Averred Sohail Khan, Producer of Main Aurr Mrs Khanna, “We are happy to associate with a successful and fashionable brand like VIP for Main Aurr Mrs Khanna.

“The threshold of the film is very urban and chic and the entire star cast lends itself to the same. We look forward to a great response from all VIP customers throughout India to the contest.”

As part of his new mandate, Sabnis will focus on growing the agency, building a team and look to partner Indian clients who can benefit from the global network of DDB.

Said DDB Mudra Group CEO Sandeep Vij, “With Rajiv‘s experience in growing large established offices as well as start ups, the connect is perfect.”

Added Sabnis, “The DDB Mudra partnership is led by local knowledge, experience and expertise of Mudra in India over the past three decades. My principal task in India will be to mirror the creative reputation and brand stewardship of DDB in India.”

Sabnis has approximately 23 years of experience in the advertising industry. He has worked with four multinational agencies and has handled sectors such FMCG, consumer durables, media & entertainment, automobiles and retail. The key brands he worked for include P&G Healthcare, Lakme, Cadbury, Shaw Wallace, Mahindra & Mahindra – Tractors, JK Tyres, HSBC Bank, Singapore Airlines and Asian Paints.