MUMBAI: eBay India, the online shopping and auctions website, has assigned its creative duties to Wieden+Kennedy following a multi-agency pitch. As part of its new mandate, Wieden+Kennedy will construct a 360 degree integrated campaign across television, print, radio, outdoor and digital, to be launched in the next quarter. Apart from exploiting traditional media, eBay India also plans to utilise online marketing in the next quarter. The company will launch a search engine marketing (SEM) and affiliate marketing campaign and opt for alliances to get more users to its site.
Category: Marketing
-
eBay India assigns creative duties to Wieden+Kennedy
-
Krishnan puts in his papers as Grey Bangalore VP, branch head
MUMBAI: Hari Krishnan, Grey Worldwide vice president and branch head – Bangalore, has put in his papers after a stint of over two years with the organisation.
With approximately 13 years of experience in the advertising industry, Krishnan‘s mandate at Grey Bangalore was to steer and maintain growth at the branch and also attract proficient advertising professionals.
Prior to joining Grey in 2007, Krishnan was with Stark Communications as managing director for Bangalore office.
-
Amitabh Bachchan is brand ambassador of Max Vijay
MUMBAI: What‘s in a name? Everything, if it is Amitabh Bachchan – even if it is used in his popular movies!
Life insurance company Max New York Life has appointed Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassador for Max Vijay, a brand targeted at providing financial inclusion to the underprivileged masses.
Reason? Bachchan has played several roles under the name ‘Vijay.‘
Says Max New York Life Insurance CEO & MD Rajesh Sud, “In a number of his earlier movies, Bachchan became synonymous with the name Vijay, a people‘s hero who fought for the cause of the common man by standing up for their rights. His appointment as the brand ambassador for Max Vijay is a rebirth of the old Vijay, who is today propagating the cause of small savings and financial inclusion for the underserved masses of the country.”
Max Vijay was launched in 2008 and has already provided financial inclusion to over 65,000 households.
“The appointment of Bachchan marks our next phase of expansion and we aim to touch over 10 million households in the next two years,” adds Sud.
-
Lowe Lintas bags Axis Bank’s creative duties
MUMBAI: Lowe Lintas has bagged the creative duties for Axis Bank, snatching it from the incumbent agency Meridian, Ogilvy‘s sister concern.
The account will be managed by LinFinance, a specialist arm formed by Lowe Lintas. This is the arm‘s first account.
When contacted, an official at Axis Bank declined to comment on the account movement
Axis Bank was previously known as UTI Bank.
-
Kansai Nerolac rolls out TVC for ‘Beauty’
MUMBAI: Kansai Nerolac has rolled out a new television campaign titled Jethani for its economy interior emulsion brand ‘Beauty‘.
Playing on the theme ‘Beauty kare hairan, jeb par bhi asaan‘, the TVC has been conceptualised by Publicis Ambience.
Directed by Anand Iyer, the TVC revolves around a small town jethani who is visiting her parents for a wedding in the house. She gets shunted out into a neighbour‘s house to stay, while her ‘devrani‘ is given a hotel room to stay. The neighbour‘s house is painted with Nerolac Beauty Emulsion . The jethani is delighted and compares it with her devrani‘s hotel room.
Nerolac and Publicis Ambience retained the old Nerolac corporate jingle in order to drive brand recall.
-
Sab brand campaign ready for phase II
MUMBAI: In an attempt to reinforce its brand proposition as a family comedy channel, Sab is gearing up to launch the second phase of its ‘Asli Mazaa Sab Ke Saath Aata Hai‘ campaign.
The channel is investing approximately Rs 40-50 million in the initiative that rolls out on 1 September and runs till 4 October.
Says Sab business head Anooj Kapoor, “The first phase of the campaign was rolled out in October last year which established Sab as a linear family comedy channel. This year the attempt is to reinstate the brand positioning in the consumer‘s mind.”
“The idea is not only to create unique positioning for the channel and bring in more audiences but also to take the campaign to the next level,” he adds.
Kapoor, however, declined to comment on the amount that Sab has earmarked towards this campaign.
Sab has booked 5000 TV spots for promoting the initiative. While the campaign‘s frequency will remain high across Sony‘s network channels, it will also be promoted across all Hindi news channels, movie channels such as Zee Cinema and UTV Movies and kids channels such as Nick and Cartoon Network.
The channel has also partnered with regional channels in Punjab and Orissa as part of the brand promotion initiative.
Conceptualised by Pickle Advertising, the television campaign features family members across different age groups busy all through the day. But they meet up and have fun together at night while watching Sab. The TVC has been directed by Rahul Johri.
“We are also the associate sponsors of Straight Drive on Ten Sports and will be actively visible during the India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand Series on the channel,” avers Kapoor.
While television remains the preferred medium to build the channel‘s brand positioning, Sab will also exploit other media platforms like print, radio, digital and outdoor to support the brand-building process.
As part of its outdoor initiative, the channel has booked around 10,000 digital screens across the Hindi speaking market (HSM). These include screens at Café Coffee Day, McDonald‘s and Mumbai‘s Best buses and local railway stations. The campaign will also have presence in multiplexes with cinema spots, standees and backlit boxes.
The brand campaign will be backed by four animation films, each of 55 seconds, with the tagline ‘Asli Sazaa Kissi Ko Kabhie Bhi Mil Sakti Hai par Asli Mazaa Sab ke Ssath Aata Hai‘. The films will go on air in October this year.
Recently, as part of the activity, Sab launched the radio property, ‘Sab Ke Damaadji‘, in association with Fever FM and Radio Mirchi. “Currently, the frequency of the radio property is five times a day but we plan to double the frequency as part of the campaign,” says Kapoor.
According to a source, the channel may also soon associate with Red FM, which will host its radio property along with the other two stations.
-
DEC in partnership with Bushrangers, Vicspirit
MUMBAI: Cricket Victoria has announced Dheeraj and East Coast (DEC) as partner of the Victorian Bushrangers and VicSpirit for the next three years.
The DEC Victorian Bushrangers will have the new sponsors’ name on their shirts in time for the upcoming Champions League Twenty20 tournament in India, while the DEC VicSpirit will compete in the expanded WNCL and new women’s domestic Twenty20 competition this season.
DEC is a part of the Wadhawan Group which undertakes real estate project development internationally with 20 projects worth $1.7 billion lined up in the UAE and will be soon announcing its projects in Australia, particularly in Melbourne, Victoria.
NRI developer Dheeraj Wadhawan, said that his company, DEC, can see tremendous benefits in being associated with two of Australia’s leading cricket teams.
“DEC understands the popularity of the game of cricket, across boundaries in most parts of the world. The T20 format of cricket – which is fast paced and exciting – has gathered immense popularity recently, especially amongst the younger generation.
“The Victorian Bushrangers is a team that holds lots of promise and rank very high on the international circuit. DEC has expansion plans in established markets like UK, Australia and New Zealand – where cricket has an excellent following and associating with such a popular game is the right way to reach out to our target audience” he says.
Cricket Victoria CEO Tony Dodemaide says, “DEC is a renowned and rapidly growing company with whom we’re thrilled to be in partnership.
“They’re looking to expand throughout Australia, especially in Victoria, while we’re looking to capitalise on our presence in India for the upcoming Champions League Twenty20.”
During the Champions League Twenty20 Victoria will be branded under the Dheeraj banner, but will revert to the DEC Victorian Bushrangers for all the domestic competitions.
-
Vodafone assigns OMD with $1.31 billion global contract
MUMBAI: OMD, a division of Omnicom, has bagged the $1.31 billion (?800 million) global media planning and buying contract for Vodafone.
The win gives a major blow to the world‘s largest advertising group WPP which was considered a strong frontrunner to win the deal as it entered into final negotiations over recent weeks.
The contract is believed to be the most high-profile deal for the taking in the advertising sector and combines Vodafone‘s media planning and buying account across 20 major markets including India.
The Vodafone-account win gives a major boost to OMD which was earlier handling the company‘s UK business. The agency had lost the business to Aegis-owned Carat at the beginning of the year.
The new contract will essentially look at the Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific markets while it will not cover the United States, France and South Africa.
-
Synovate elevates Robert Philpott to replace Adrian Chedore as global CEO
MUMBAI: Synovate (formerly Aegis Research), the Aegis-owned international market research company, has elevated Robert Philpott to global chief executive officer. Philpott will replace Adrian Chedore who has been in the post since 2001.
Chedore will retire on 1 September. However, he will continue on the Aegis board of directors till 2009-end and will also consult on specific projects for Aegis and Synovate.
Says Chedore, “It‘s been an incredible eight years. It‘s hard to believe that the Synovate name is only six years old. I think we can all be very proud of the growth and success we have achieved. I think it‘s fair to say we‘ve arrived and I can‘t think of a better, more capable leader than Robert to lead the company into its next phase.”
In his new role, Philpott will be responsible for overseeing the company‘s business unit profitability, business systems and processes, and quality control.
Prior to this, Philpott was Synovate chief operating officer. He is also a key member of the executive team that sets corporate strategy for the research company.
-
Bates 141 nominated for 2009 4A’s Jay Chiat planning awards
MUMBAI: Bates 141 India has been nominated for the 2009 4A‘s Jay Chiat Awards for its Virgin Mobile strategy- building a youth brand in a youthful country.
The Jay Chiat Awards are global awards recognising strategic excellence that is organised by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As).
46 finalists have been selected from 187 entries and Bates 141 is amongst the selected lot nominated in the category- Campaign for a new brand. The other cases short listed in this category are by CumminsNitro, Australia: Tourism Queensland (“The Best Job in the World”), JWT, New York: Schick (“Making a Private Buzz Public”), M&C Saatchi, London: Ladbrokes (“Forward Accountability”) and Olson, Minneapolis: Nike (‘Nike Bauer Hockey‘).
Says Bates 141 India chief strategy officer Dheeraj Sinha, “Virgin mobile campaign allowed us an opportunity to build a real youth brand in India. The brand cleverly exhorted the Indian youth to bypass sanctions. The idea was to be their partner in crime, rather than give them any kind of empowerment or liberation. For the first time perhaps, Indian television saw advertising whose storylines and protagonists were not all whitewashed in goodness.”
Says Virgin Mobile (India) chief marketing officer Prasad Narsimhan, “This nomination reinstates Virgin Mobile‘s strategic efforts in creating a distinct youth brand identity in a hyper-competitive telecom market that has giant, entrenched players. We are happy to have Bates 141 as our ad agency. The strategic thinking that they bring in our communication based on their understanding of our brand promise and the way the youth behave has been fundamental in establishing the Virgin Mobile brand in India. The results speak for themselves. With much smaller budgets than our competitors, we already enjoy 92 per cent awareness amongst youth as measured in a recent AC Nielsen survey.”