ITV

Category: Marketing

  • Bharat Kapadia takes over as Bhaskar Group ED

    MUMBAI: Bharat Kapadia, executive director of Divya Bhaskar, has been appointed as the executive director of the entire Bhaskar Group. The appointment comes in the wake of the Group’s expansion through new ventures in the form of additional magazines and new initiatives coming from I Media Corporation Limited (IMCL).

    Kapadia’s role would make him responsible for not only Divya Bhaskar, but also Dainik Bhaskar and magazines like Aha! Zindagi and Bal Bhaskar in Hindi and Saurashtra Samachar in Gujarati. Two more Hindi publications are on the cards – a career magazine and a women’s magazine.

    “I joined Divya Bhaskar in 2005 and my mandate was largely to turn around the fortunes of the company, which we successfully managed to do so. I’m hopeful of carrying the same growth forward,” said Kapadia, about his appointment which is effective immediately.

    Kapadia has also been spearheading the ‘Vote For Taj’ campaign as chairman of IMCL, wherein they have won marketing rights for a campaign being created to promote Taj Mahal as one of the ‘New Seven Wonders of the World’. He elaborated, “The campaign for the Taj will only get more aggressive and we’ll be shortly unveiling the official song for the same.”

  • Pantaloon wears passion this World Cup

    MUMBAI: Keeping World Cup fervour in mind, Pantaloon has launched Passion Wear, a specially designed range of World Cup apparel and accessories. Pantaloon Retail India is the sole retail for ICC World Cup merchandise in India. These rights allow Pantaloon to use Dazzler, the ICC World Cup mascot as well as to design, manufacture, distribute and market the World Cup Cricket 2003 merchandise.
     

     
    The apparel range includes Replica T-shirts (exact replica of T-shirts worn by Sachin Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag and Saurav Ganguly and others from the Indian cricket team), Message T-shirts (having amusing anecdotes of cricket & films, one-line jokes on cricket etc.), Dazzler T-shirts (Officials Mascot of the ICC World Cup), sweatshirts, sweat pants, track pants, socks and select designs for ladies like short tops etc.

    The accessories range includes bats – memorabilia, crazy balls, stress relief balls, key chains, Dazzler key chains- Flat & 3 D Caps Ties-with ICC logo. Hankies, mugs etc. also form part of Pantaloons ICC collection, which have the image of the mascot printed on them. The apparel and accessories are available at all Pantaloon Retail outlets.

    Director, Pantaloon Retail India Rakesh Biyani said, “ The two things Indians are most passionate about are films and cricket. Cricket is not a game in India it is a religion hence our World Cup range is known Passion Wear. We have chosen the World Cup to launch our cricket accessories and apparels. The range caters not only to children and men but also to women.”

    Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited has over 15 superstores in the country.

  • GroupM unveils celebrity branding study ‘CelebZ’

    MUMBAI: GroupM the media investment management arm of the WPP Group launched its comprehensive study on celebrity endorsement called CelebZ which allows marketers to identify celebrities who have the strongest appeal and are the best fit with a particular brand.

    The study was conducted by IMRB on a sample size of 2800 across 14 cities between October and December 2006. For the first study, CelebZ zeroed in on 86 celebrities and 140 brands. This will be continually updated over the next six months.

    In his presentation at the press conference, GroupM COO South Asia Vikram Sakhuja explained that CelebZ is based on the Millward Brown study of celebrities which creates a persona of the celebrity in terms of 12 negative and positive traits. It also measures the overall size and nature of the relationship that consumers have with a celebrity and goes on to create his or her equity pyramid. Based on this, the study calculates the mScore of each celebrity and classifies them into Platinum, Gold and Silver categories.

    Sakhuja added, “With over 250 crores being pumped into celebrity endorsement by marketers annually, it is high time we brought some accountability to celebrity management. CelebZ is a scientific research tool that helps our clients understand why a particular brand needs a certain kind of celebrity.”

    He also clarified that at present it is the five Platinum celebs which constitute about 40 percent of the industry’s current celebrity endorsement value. “This means that there is a large untapped resource of celebs out there who can also be potential fits for medium and low end brands,” says Sakhuja.

    Expectedly the highest scores are raked in by Bollywood and sport stars, especially cricket stars. But the study also throws forth some interesting insights. For example, some stars who have been out of the limelight still carry residual power. While explaining this, Sakhuja mentioned the example of “leading divas in Bollywood.” Aishwarya Rai and Rani Mukherjee claimed the first two slots. But the third slot came as a surprise. Juhi Chawla is obviously the masses favourite although she may not be part of the Bollywood numbers game anymore.

    While the study has included regional celebrities from the South as well, another pleasant surprise is economist Amartya Sen. The study has so far not included any international celebrities in the study although Hollywood actor Richard Gere and Australian cricket stars Brett Lee, Shane Warne and Glenn Mcgrath have endorsed brands in India.

    What about a study like this encouraging celebrity endorsements where none is necessary? Sakhuja says, “Advertisers and marketing heads are constantly on the look out for celebrities to drive their brands. We can’t deny that they do sell. However the research tries to break through this clutter of often repeated celebrities and get the marketers to look at the gold and silver categories which may help brands target more focused audiences. Taking them as brand endorsers would address the brand’s need far more effectively than going by mass perception and picking the platinum listers.”

    The study sampler presented at the press conference shows how an intangible emotion like ‘firmness’ is associated with celebrities like Mona Singh, Smriti Irani and Preity Zinta. For a brand that cannot afford a Preity Zinta, there is no paucity of alternatives.

    The study was championed by GroupM’s Insights division.

  • Whirlpool creates a `Sensation’

    MUMBAI: Home appliances major Whirlpool has launched a loading washing machine – ‘Sensation’.

    Whirlpool Sensation, a front-loading washing machine offers a best wash performance with 20 per cent lower water consumption and its stainwash function can help remove 10 stubborn stains – tea, coffee, ketchup, pickle, shoe polish, red sand, blood, milk, chocolate and curry.

    Whirlpool India VP marketing Shantanu Dasgupta said, “Our endeavour has always been to understand our consumers and cater to their needs. On studying the market, we noticed that, consumer were facing a problem in removing stains from their clothes. Stains like coffee, pickle, shoe polish, blood, milk, chocolate and curry marks, were the most difficult stains to get rid off.

    “Hence, we saw a need to launch a washing machine with a special stainwash function that can help remove 10 stubborn stains. Another highlighted feature of ‘Sensation’ is that it consumes less water.

  • CBS, Chevrolet to create a multi-platform ad challenge around the Superbowl

    MUMBAI: US broadcaster CBS and car brand Chevrolet have joined forces to create a multi-platform event about the final stages in the “Chevy Super Bowl College Ad Challenge.

    The campaign includes reality webisodes to be featured on CBS.com, a presence in CBS’s primetime special Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 2007 where the winning team from the Challenge will be announced, and culminates with the winning commercial airing during the Network’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLI on 4 February 2007.

    As part of the challenge Chevy has given students the chance to compete for the opportunity to have their idea for a Chevy ad produced for the 2007 Super Bowl which is one of the most coveted advertising spots on television with, on average, 90 million viewers tuning in to watch.
    Chevrolet GM Ed Peper says, “Consumer-generated ads, in the age of the Internet and YouTube, have truly come front and center. Chevy is proud to be a leader in this area. We were thrilled to host the finalists in Detroit and are eager to share what we taught them and what they taught us that weekend with the public through this partnership with CBS”.

    “TMarketers are looking to creatively engage audiences across multiple platforms, and this deal accomplishes that through online components, network television sponsorship and viewer interaction,” said Jo Ann Ross, President, CBS Network Sales. “This is a unique package that taps into many different audiences while delivering great value for the client, and is an exciting way to engage both viewers and advertisers.”

    The online component of the campaign is comprised of eight Chevy-sponsored webisodes which premiere on 22 January 2007 on CBS.com. The webisodes will take viewers behind the scenes of the challenge, in which more than 820 college teams registered for the opportunity to have their ad concept made into one of Chevrolet’s Super Bowl commercials.

    The webisodes, produced by Juma Entertainment, will range from three to eight minutes in length, and follow the five finalist teams as they travel from their hometowns to Detroit to make “the pitch.” The webisodes will show them driving the Chevy vehicles featured in their ads — the Aveo, Cobalt, Equinox, and HHR, refining their presentations with Chevy’s advertising agency Campbell-Ewald, and presenting their ad concepts to Chevy executives.

    The challenge then goes primetime in CBS’ annual Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 2007 special which airs on 2, February. The winning team of the Chevy College Challenge will be revealed during the special and viewers will be able to see more behind the scenes footage of the competition. Chevy is the exclusive automotive sponsor of the special.

    And two days after the winning team is revealed — their concept will be seen by roughly 90 million viewers during one of the commercials Chevy has created for Super Bowl XLI.

    The final two webisodes, showing the actual process of the making of the commercial, as well as other behind-the-scenes footage from the competition, will air following the primetime show and Super Bowl, on CBS.com.

  • Euro RSCG Worldwide named the Global Agency for 2006

    MUMBAI: Euro RSCG Worldwide, integrated marketing communications agency, has been recognised as the best global agency in the industry by two leading advertising trade publications – Advertising Age in the United States and Campaign in the United Kingdom.

     
    Advertising Age announced that Euro RSCG Worldwide is the 2006 Global Agency of the Year. The agency was selected based on several criteria, including international business growth, thought leadership and innovation by agency management, and creative and effective marketing campaigns for their clients.
    Last month, Campaign selected Euro RSCG Worldwide as its choice for Advertising Network of the Year, also highlighting the agency’s strong leadership by its senior management, and impressive streak of new business wins around the world, informs an official release.

     
    “2006 was a terrific year for the agency and it is extremely gratifying to be recognised by the media on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Euro RSCG Worldwide Global CEO David Jones. “We believe that it’s possible for an agency to be both truly global and highly creative and I think these accolades are support for that point of view.”

     
    In the past 18 months, Euro RSCG Worldwide has experienced $3 billion in new business growth in the form of competitive new business pitches and existing business expansions.

    The fall 2005 win of the global Jaguar account started off a winning streak for Euro RSCG, which included the global accounts for Veolia, Reckitt Benckiser, and Sanofi-Aventis, as well as EDF Energy in France, Alcatel-Lucent, Danone, Disney Theme Parks, LG, Harley Davidson, and Dell. The Benefiber (Novartis) and Vivendi accounts both expanded as well, adds the release.

    Jones added, “I would especially like to thank all of our clients, as the awards are a reflection of the work we’ve done in partnership, and our staff of 11,000 around the world for their dedication and commitment.”

  • TV Ad Indx offers 50 per cent discounts for new pitches

    MUMBAI: TV Ad Indx has launched New BIz Discounts, a service under which ad agencies can avail of upto 50 per cent discounts to acquire competitive TV commercials & press ads. These discounts would be offered to ad agencies pitching for new businesses. Typically, clients rarely pay ad agencies to make their presentations and agencies absorb all expenses for pitches.

    TV Ad Indx claims to be the country’s largest and most professional creative monitoring service and it covers the largest number of TV Indian channels & publications for every new ad released. It also monitors 52 countries across the globe and provides 11 types of services to over 600 clients and ad agencies.

    The discounts offered would be higher on larger orders for digitised ads (instead of the conventional hard copies). Agencies are encouraged to order CD ROMs with digitised copies of TVCs in the MPEG format (which can be played by Windows MediaPlayer). Press ads are digitised in the JPEG format (and can be viewed in Internet Explorer or any other web-browser software).

    The service and discounts cover Indian, Pan-Asian and international ads under 20 product groups including foods, beverages, durables, telecom.

    The digitised ads are delivered with software to archive the ads. This software dramatically improves in-house archiving systems and creates a central warehouse for all reference ad material. It facilitates easy and instant location of ads by brand, product, date, size, headline, language, agency, client. Users can instantly view digitised TVCs & press ads. The system also ensures ads once acquired are never misplaced.

  • US ad spend up 4.6 per cent in 2006

    MUMBAI: Ad spending for 2006 in the US rose 4.6 per cent over the same period last year due to gains across major media.









    Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the ad intelligence service of Nielsen has released preliminary figures.




    Ad spending increased in most reported media. This was led by Internet (35 per cent), the top 100 Spot TV markets (9.1 per cent), Spanish-Language TV (8.1 per cent) and Outdoor (8.1 per cent).


    Growth in a number of media remained flat or slightly down over last including B2B magazines, Coupons, smaller Spot TV markets, Network Radio, and Local Newspaper.


    Nielsen Monitor-Plus senior VP client strategy and product development management Brian Lane says, “Total US ad spending continues to grow, with the Internet, Spanish-Language and Outdoor leading the way..Outdoor advertising, considered a traditional media is showing renewed strength due in part to advances in digital technology, such as digital billboards.”










    Ad spending for the top 10 companies of 2006 reached $17.9 billion, remaining essentially flat from 2005, with just one per cent growth. Six of the 10 advertisers experienced growth. AT&T and Verizon, both telephone services companies, showed the greatest per cent growth at 44.4 per cent and 16.2 per cent respectively. A portion of this increase is due to merger and acquisition activity, and both companies greatly increased their spending in their Internet Service/Web Access business units.


    Offsetting these increases, two of the three automotive advertisers reduced ad spending. Specifically, GM spending was down 16 per cent and DaimlerChrysler decreased its ad spending by 6.1 per cent. Both Ford and Toyota continue to increase spending, and in particular on brands like Toyota Camry and Rav4, Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan.


    Johnson & Johnson cut back overall spending on a number of brands including Orthoevra and Ditropan.




    Spending for the 10 largest categories reached $45 billion in 2006, three per cent more than the same period last year. Most product categories have increased spending, with the exception of Credit Card Services (-6.9 per cent), Auto Dealerships (-3.5 per cent), and Automotive, comprised of Factory and Dealer Associations (-1.5 per cent).


    The Pharmaceutical industry was the fastest growing in terms of per cent increase over last year (14.9 per cent) and in terms of actual dollar increase ($719 million). Pfizer increased spending 32% ($158 million), while Merck and Sepracor each increased their budgets 40 per cent, $118 million and $95 million, respectively.


    Product Placement: Nielsen’s product placement service shows a decrease in the overall number of placements for primetime network programming with a total of 79,701 occurrences for 2006 compared to 102,793 occurrences for 2005. While the total number of occurrences is down, placements that combine an audio and visual mention have increased by 10 per cent. In 2006 there were 4,912 audio/visual combination occurrences compared to 4,456 in 2005.


    The Top 10 shows that featured product placements for 2006 accounted for 23,344 occurrences. General dramas (22,825 occurrences) replaced sitcoms (19,161 occurrences) as the number one programme type to feature brand integrations, due to the airing of more episodes for this type of program in 2006.


    American Idol featured 4,086 product placements, with more occurrences than any other program, a 17% increase over 2005. The Biggest Loser, not on the top ten list last year, ranked 4th with (2,478) occurrences. The Top 10 brands totaled 10,323 occurrences in 2006, a 13 per cent increase. Coca-Cola was the top brand, with 3,355 occurrences, a 19 per cent increase over 2005. Chef Revival Apparel placed second with 1,592 occurrences.


    The total number of occurrences for product placements decreased in 2006, and can be largely attributed to shifts in programming such as the airing of more dramas, which tend to carry less product placements than other program genres. However, placements that feature a combination of audio and visuals are rising indicating an increase in planned placements.

  • CNN hits the streets for marketing ‘Eye on India’

    NEW DELHI: In a unique marketing road show activity called ‘Express Yourself’, CNN branded vehicles are travelling around three Indian cities – Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore – encouraging youth to express their views on issues relevant to them.

    Coinciding with CNN’s week-long Eye on India: Generation Next, the innovative travelling exhibit is also distributing flyers that soliciting opinion on topics ranging from what it is like to be young in India today, the importance of religion, caste, arranged marriages, what makes the youth proud to be Indian.

    Eye on India: Generation Next is being promoted extensively through an aggressive, 360 degree marketing campaign, a press note from the channel says.

    It explains that with the aim of generating awareness and drive appointment viewing, the campaign includes a comprehensive mix of trade and consumer advertising, both in print and online; promotional television spots on CNN’s Asia Pacific and Europe/Middle East / Africa feeds; online consumer contests, etc.

    CNN’s Eye on India focusses on India’s growing youth population. More than half a billion people under the age of 25 or one in 12 people in the world is a young Indian, and CNN’s week of special programming trains the spotlight on this demographic. This edition of Eye on India will include a series of special programmes on CNN, along with highlights of Indian youth in various segments of life, in business, sports, industry, etc.

    The programme kicked off on 18 March, and the channel hopes this will provide CNN’s global audiences a comprehensive look at the country’s youth.