MUMBAI: Maxus Asia-Pacific regional CEO Ajit Varghese announced the joining of Kishan Kumar M S as Maxus Vietnam managing director.
He comes in from Maxus India’s Bangalore office and was also leading the Maxus Kerala and Hyderabad operations.
Kumar joins as replacement to Rose Huskey, who joined the Maxus APAC team as client leadership head for the region.
Maxus Vietnam GroupM CEO Jacob Kvist said, “The Vietnam media industry is evolving very rapidly and is turning into a market that attracts and develops the very best talent both locally and from overseas. This is once again evident both through Rose’s well deserved promotion to Maxus APAC client leader and the fact key talents such as Kishan see GroupM and Maxus Vietnam as the obvious next career step. I am very happy Kishan has decided to take on the challenge. His calm and friendly personality, senior leadership skills and established network within Maxus and GroupM organisations will allow him to hit the ground running. Rose and our entire Maxus team have done an outstanding job for our clients these last few years and I’m confident Kishan is exactly the sort of team player needed to take it to the next level.”
An alumnus of Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA), Kumar has 12+ years of experience in strategic planning, business development, trading, new media and talent management.
In his various roles at Maxus India, he was instrumental in creating business-impacting work for clients like Titan Company, Britannia, Tata Global Beverages, Google India, Wipro Consumer Care etc. He has been a part of the Maxus India Management Committee since 2014; also a part of the GroupM Aspire training community since 2008.
His new role will allow him to work with GroupM Vietnam CEO Jacob Kvist and will be leading the digital transformation for clients in the market, bringing the power of GroupM capabilities in driving the change in thinking, media product and doing it in the most efficient & effective way.
Maxus increasingly is looking at driving ‘planning of consumer actions’ as its central vision by bring the voice of consumer central to its business and meshing together the data and content skills.
Commenting on his appointment, Kumar added, “Vietnam is a true reflection of today’s fast changing media & consumer landscape. GroupM has been pioneering change in Vietnam and I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to start this exciting new innings of my career. Maxus Vietnam has done remarkably well under Rose’s leadership and I look forward to consolidate further and help our clients succeed by leading them into change. While doing so, I’m equally looking forward to working with my wonderful colleagues at Maxus & GroupM Vietnam.”
Varghese said, “Kishan is an excellent candidate to lead this market as he has demonstrated in various previous roles in India. His people skills combined with great passion for building clients business and knowledge of media industry is something that will help us in the next phase of growth in Vietnam. Am happy that we are able to time and again give successful career options within the group for star performers and Kishan certainly meets that criteria.”
MUMBAI: Vietnam’s satellite television operator VSTV/K+ has named J. Walter Thompson as its creative agency of record in Vietnam after a recently concluded multi-agency pitch.
VSTV/K+ is a joint venture between state-owned VTV and Canal+ Overseas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canal+ Group of France.
A total of three agencies were invited for this pitch, which was overseen by VSTV/K+ team from Vietnam and representatives from Canal+ Overseas.
K+ entered the Vietnam market in 2009 as a DTH pioneer with exclusive English Premier League content. Since then it has garnered a subscriber base of more than 800,000.
By using direct to home and advanced technologies, K+ brings quality national level satellite TV service to Vietnamese households via SD and HD set-top-boxes at competitive prices, offering 4 K+ premium and exclusive channels, up to 130 SD channels and 10 HD channels across genres: sports, movies, general entertainment, news, music, and documentaries.
VSTV/K+ COO and CFO Frederic Berardi said, “Whilst K+ has made a name in the Vietnam television space, our brand now needs to take the high ground as an entertainment hub for Vietnamese homes via exclusive, premium content. JWT demonstrated to us strong understanding of the big picture, the road map and they combined that with an entrepreneurial mentality, so essential as we seek to drive change in a fast evolving market.”
As part of the restage program, K+ has been enriching the content on its four exclusive channels with key investments in 2015. This includes strategic partnerships with leading film studios, BHD (Vietnam) and CJ (Korea) to beam latest Vietnamese movies into Vietnamese homes, only few months after their release in cinema. Another one is the exclusive acquisition of ATP World Tour series for the next three seasons (2016/2017/2018) which has just been announced.
JWT Vietnam CEO Saby Mishra, who led the pitch effort, added, “For J. Walter Thompson this is a real honor to work with the country’s premier broadcasting venture. We are excited about the opportunity to work with the VSTV/K+ team and pioneer a true premiumization inflection-point in a broadcast market where free-to-air analogue terrestrial has been the norm for long.”
“The challenges of digital switchover will however vary significantly across ASEAN region, depending on market conditions. In case of Vietnam, its 23 million TV households in a population of 90 million, is showing an appetite for quality content so we believe that there is now headroom for creating a mass-premium segment via exclusive content, smart value propositions, branding and creativity,” Mishra said.
Mumbai: Starting with the Effie India 2014 to the recently concluded Campaign South Asia Agency of the Year awards, Mullen Lowe Lintas Group India has won a total of 75 honours last night, making it the most awarded agency in India in 2015. All the 75 awards were won either for market/campaign effectiveness, or on overall agency performance.
The awards list this year includes the group’s performance at Warc Prize for Asian Strategy, where it won a grand prix, a gold, a silver and a bronze. The year culminated for the agency with a fine performance at the Campaign Asia Agency of the Year awards show where it was declared the ‘Best Creative Agency of the Year’, the Best New Business Development Team of the Year, Best Strategic/Brand Planner of the Year and Best Account Person of the Year.
Commenting on the agency’s strong performance on the awards front, Mullen Lowe Lintas India Group CEO, Joseph George said, “It’s been a milestone year for us in India. We are glad to have ended the year on the same high that we started with. All this recognition is a result of all our key people putting up their hands, wanting to be counted and bringing value to the table. And this happened only because everyone thought of themselves as key stakeholders of the company. ”
Adding his views on the agency’s achievement Lowe Lintas India CCO Arun Iyer said, “I’m proud of the consistency with which each of our offices has churned out some great work across a large and diverse client set. Our work has excelled on a portfolio that’s a combination of classical and progressive brands, from young upstarts to large market leaders. 2015 serves as a reminder of how setting the bar high is an everyday pursuit, and how successful teams are greater than the individuals.”
Mullen Lintas India chairman and CCO Amer Jaleel added, “The best barometer of our work being appreciated is when it manages to bring about a shift in perception and thought among the people. That’s what we achieved with few of our brands that went on to redefine the way a campaign should be approached, and which ended up winning awards that were unique in nature. Special accolades for Indian brands such as Havells, Tata Tea and the others were something that no agency had ever received before, and we are proud to have set a trend by being the first.”
Adding his views on the agency’s achievement Lowe Lintas India CCO Arun Iyer said, “I’m proud of the consistency with which each of our offices has churned out some great work across a large and diverse client set. Our work has excelled on a portfolio that’s a combination of classical and progressive brands, from young upstarts to large market leaders. 2015 serves as a reminder of how setting the bar high is an everyday pursuit, and how successful teams are greater than the individuals.”
Mullen Lintas India chairman and CCO Amer Jaleel added, “The best barometer of our work being appreciated is when it manages to bring about a shift in perception and thought among the people. That’s what we achieved with few of our brands that went on to redefine the way a campaign should be approached, and which ended up winning awards that were unique in nature. Special accolades for Indian brands such as Havells, Tata Tea and the others were something that no agency had ever received before, and we are proud to have set a trend by being the first.”
MUMBAI: Isobar has promoted Maciek Nowicki to chief creative officer of Isobar South East Asia & India, a newly created role, overseeing 13 Isobar locations across nine countries.
Nowicki will relocate from Isobar Poland and will report to Isobar APAC MD Sven Huberts.
Nowicki will be responsible for enhancing and integrating the creative teams, increasing the agency creative output and acting as the creative lead on multi-market pitches. Bolstering the creative leadership line-up is a critical step in strengthening Isobar’s Brand Commerce offering and driving the business forward across the region. Nowicki also joins Isobar’s Global Creative Excellence Council, chaired by Isobar EMEA chief creative officer Nick Bailey.
Huberts said, “Maciek is one of those people who has the dexterity, stamina and drive to create a high performance creative culture. He understands how brands are currently being built for todays convergent world. Everyone is really excited to work closely with Maciek to help deliver borderless, game changing ideas that help solve our clients business challenges.”
Nowicki added, “I love the vast and amazingly multi-layered Asian culture and people, so I am doubly excited to get started in this new role. We have some great talent in Isobar in Asia and I look forward to working alongside them to produce work that makes a difference.”
Prior to his promotion, Nowicki was managing creative director for the 300+ strong team at Isobar Poland, looking after brands including P&G, GM, Disney and Arla Foods. In addition, he oversaw the creative output across multiple Dentsu Aegis Network agencies in Poland.
During his tenure, Isobar Poland entered the elite club of the best integrated agencies in the country, winning over 60 major international, regional and domestic awards and merits.
Yuri Drabent has been promoted to Isobar Poland creative director.
Nowicki was previously a creative director in Procter & Gamble Poland, and prior to that he worked for Grey Group, JWT, Havas, McCann and spent a year in Moscow, working as Creative Director for FCB.
MUMBAI Cafe TC and the digital agency from the Dentsu Aegis Network – Dentsu Webchutney have created Liquor Ticker, claiming it to be the world’s first ad ticker on the popular messenger WhatsApp.
Cafe TC, earlier known as Turquoise Cottage, was on the lookout for a low-budget campaign to promote its makeover to target mainly its patrons. Executed by Dentsu Webchutney Innovation Lab, Liquor Ticker converted Cafe TC’s status into a running ticker and the profile pics into ever-changing Graphics Interchange Formats (GIFs) to show a vast variety of content – from its brand new logo to the new menu and a host of offers. Users could send a screenshot of an offer they liked to avail of it at the bar.
“Our brief was clear to the agency. Promote our revamp in a way never done before, but of course, with a limited budget!” revealed Cafe TC founder Gaurab Soral. He added, “When the agency told me that they planned to use WhatsApp, I was a little sceptical since WhatsApp doesn’t offer any official ad space! And we’re not the kind of brand that would spam its users.”
Dentsu Webchutney Innovation Lab CCT Gurbaksh Singh said, “We were toying with this idea for quite some time now, but were looking for that perfect match. With a little play of technology, read that as modifying WhatsApp’s API (Application Program Interface), we created an ad space on a medium that doesn’t have any! Liquor Ticker might just open the floodgates of advertising on WhatsApp.”
Last year, Cafe TC along with Dentsu Webchutney came up with the award-winning Happy Hours Rewind where users could turn back time and extend the happy hours by tweeting more and more.
MUMBAI: Even as Gen Z with its short attention span skips through advertisements, jumping from channel to channel between breaks, there are some ads that are hard to ignore — be it for their peppy jingles, catchy tag lines or cool visuals.
And then there are those, which not only touch us but leave us rattled and questioning. The recently released campaign by Anouk starring Radhika Apte is of the latter kind. Conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather, the TVC talks about an issue we hardly hear ourselves addressing, even though it affects us pretty much uniformly throughout the country. That being the discrimination in workplace against expecting women.
The ad showcases Radhika Apte as an independent woman working as a senior architect who misses her chance of being promoted in a well known architectural firm, by virtue of her pregnancy. In spite of being reassured that her performance isn’t being questioned, Apte is met with strong views on how pregnancy can be a disadvantage at the workplace. The ad concludes with Apte raising a voice against the discrimination and moving on to start her own thing.
Anouk’s third chapter in ‘Bold Is Beautiful’ definitely treads away from the convention, into uncharted territories.
This isn’t the first time that advertising fraternity has tried its hand at a non cliche plot line for a campaign concept and broken stereotypes. Off late there has been a steep raise in campaigns with embedded social messages. Be it edgy and progressive storytelling that talk of non binary relationships, modern take on marriages and womanhood, or openly discussing Taboo subjects like sexual health and freedom.
Needless to mention, every time an unconventional ad is released, it not only sparks conversations over the internet, it also leaves a viral trail of debates. Something Sideways co-founder Abhijit Avasthi finds smart but easy way of advertising.
Though courting controversy for the sake of it doesn’t fit well with BBH India CEO Subhash Kamath either, he is all in for talking about issues that take us out of comfort zone if “the content of the ad should be strategically relevant to the brand it is talking about. If it’s relevant and connects with people, even though it may piss off a few, it’s totally worth it to take up the challenge,” he shares.
Given the buzz around the latest Anouk ad, Indiantelevision.com compiled a list of ten advertisements that broke stereotypes in recent times after speaking to several creatives in the industry. Here’s the list, though not in any particular order:
Anouk: Bold is Beautiful : Radhika Apte
The latest Anouk ad is simple and handles the issue directly instead of going for the ‘hinted’ approach. Not going deeper into the dos and don’ts of handling an issue like pregnant working women, and if the advertisement has done justice to it, it definitely starts a conversation on a topic we seldom shed light upon, even though there are many who are directly or indirectly affected by it,
Airtel, Boss
This Airtel ad that came out in 2014 sparked quite a controversy and left a trail of subsequent online debates amongst netizen. The advertisement showcased a modern day couple who work in the same company, with the wife being the husband’s boss. In office she asks him to work late and finish his pending work, while at home she reaches early to cook up a storm for her husband in the kitchen. While breaking a stereotype of work pay imbalance in India, the advertisement no doubt sent a confusing message. Going beyond the debate of the ‘right kind of message,’ this ad is still remembered for being different and addressing a non ‘black and white’ situation on gender equality.
Remarriage: Tanishq
Perhaps the most celebrated of them all when it comes to path breaking ideas, is the Tanishq jewellery advertisement that came out in 2013.
While the setting of a wedding with the bride donning shiny jewellery doesn’t seem anything original for a jewellery brand, the narrative throws viewers a googly as we see the would be bride addressed as ‘mama’ by a little girl. Captioning it as ‘a wedding to remember’ this ad film conceived by Lowe Lintas and Partners not only opened up conversation on remarriage. It also changed its perception from being a social stigma to a glamorous affair.
The Seatbelt Crew:
Sometimes a simple message needs to be delivered with a powerful impact, and that’s exactly what Ogilvy and Mather did for VithU’s public service initiative on road safety norms. This two-minute video shot at a traffic light in Mumbai went viral, garnering more than 3.4 million views on YouTube.
What makes the advertisement even more unique is that unlike most advertisements featuring transgenders, this one doesn’t ridicule them or weep over their pathos of everyday survival. Here, the transgender women we see on camera are means to an end, just like several celebrities or good looking models who are cast in advertisements to draw attention from a relevant target group.
Do The Rex:
At a time when condom ads are heavily layered with sexual innuendos, and cryptic ways of depicting sexual tension, Durex’s ‘Do the Rex’ campaign came as a breath of fresh air. It’s in your face and honest. And starts a much needed conversation amongst the youth, which directly affects their sexual health. And who better to spearhead the youth campaign than Bollywood actor and youth icon Ranvir Singh, known for his unapologetic attitude.
Add some catchy music and groovy visuals to the mix and you have the perfect concoction to sell condoms to the youth and 40 plus alike. Directed by Karan Kapadia, no sooner did the video release than it went viral across multiple digital platform, and giving rise to a long sustaining campaign.
Meglow: Fairness cream for men
If you are one of those who are tired of watching advertisements that put being fair as an essential for succeeding in life, be it women or men, you probably cheered Emraan Hashmi for delivering the punch line in this ad film. Shot like any other typical male fairness cream ad, the story follows your typical underdog, trying for a job and losing his ‘glow’ as he stresses over it.
Enter Emraan Hashmi with the solution to all his troubles: a fairness cream that will return his lost glow and lead him at the path of success… or not. The ad film ends with the anti-climatic disclaimer that fairness creams don’t land you job, but credentials do, even if you are dark.
Sofy #Iamnotdown
Sometimes we fail to realise that age old customs and habits that come to us naturally, might actually be a projection of social stigma. Such is the case with using phrases like ‘I am down,’ ‘I have got my chums’ etc, instead of directly addressing the topic of menstrual period. Sanitary napkin brand Sofy almost waged a war with their #SofyConversations campaign that went viral earlier this year. The campaign showcased young women from different walks of life urging women to start using the word ‘Periods’ instead of cryptic aliases, and accept what is natural to them with dignity.
FastTrack: Come Out Of The Closet
Recently the advertising world has made a huge progress when it comes to addressing non-binary relationships and same sex couples. While some approach it in a hilarious or heavier tone, Fast Track’s ‘Come Out Of The Closet’ campaign gave it a witty and humourous touch. Without being loud mouth about it, the ad showcases two young women with edgy fashion sense come out a closet, literally! It doesn’t take a scientist to figure out what the metaphorical reference is made with the closet.
Shaadi.com: My Conditions Apply
When it comes to breaking stereotypes there is an endless scope to deliver in the wedding scene in India, which, though went digital ages ago with matrimonial sites like Shaadi.com and BharatMatromony, it hardly shed away the conservative notions attached to it. Naturally it falls behind the rapidly progressing lifestyle of millennials who respects a woman’s choice and preferences when it comes to marriage. Shaadi.com’s latest ad campaign shows its attempt to transition from being just a marriage consultancy portal to reflection of the wants and aspirations of the country’s youth.
Whisper: Touch The Pickle
Yet another campaign about breaking taboos surrounding women’s menstrual cycle, this one deals with the dozens of Dos and Don’ts that are imposed upon women by society restricting them during periods. Starting from restrictions on what to wear, to superstitions on touching pickle, there are a whole stack of baseless superstitions and restrictions that make the experience harder for women in our society. Whisper’s #TouchThePickle campaign shouts out to all women who are fed up of these taboos, to break away and break taboos. Developed by P&G India and BBDO India this campaign was not only struck a chord with millions of women within the country, was also lauded internationally by winning the Glass Lion Grand Prix at Cannes International Festival of Creativity.
While these advertisements grabbed our attention, there are plenty others that have strayed from the tried and tested formula and attempted something out of the box. The list goes on…
Indian advertisers can reach more than 200 million viewers worldwide on B4U Network and Zee Bangla across to US, Europe, Asia, GCC, Canada, Africa and Australia.
MUMBAI: Amagi has expanded its India ad network to key international markets like North America, Canada, Africa, Australia and Asia. Amagi will now offer an advertising platform to Indian advertisers with B4U Network and Zee Bangla in these international markets. The company’s move will now enable Indian advertisers to reach more than 200 million viewers on these channels.
The company’s ad network will be extended to Zee Bangla and the entire B4U network including B4U Movies, B4U Music, B4U Plus and B4U Aflam. This opens up doors for several brands within India to expand their advertising footprint across the globe in markets of their choice. While this will instantly help in expanding the consumer base of Indian brands, television networks will also benefit from increased ad revenues.
Amagi co-founder and head of global operations KA Srinivasan said, “Our endeavor is to serve as a global TV ad platform for brands within India, helping them to penetrate and capture international markets essential for business growth; and collaborating with widespread networks like B4U and Zee Bangla, who are our long-standing partners, allows us to do just that. Indian advertisers, who were earlier restricted to Indian audiences alone can now advertise worldwide and reap the benefits of global exposure. Amagi hopes to see more such partnerships with TV channels and continue to bring more Indian brands on board for international advertising.”
Amagi’s global ad network allows advertisers to target audiences across regions, while optimising ad budgets and increasing their return on investments. Advertisers can buy ad spots through Amagi across its international network and target consumers across markets.
MUMBAI: India, Indonesia and Philippines emerge as hot spots of ad spend growth as per ZenithOptimedia’s Advertising Expenditure Forecast of December 2015. These are the only three markets in which adspend is growing at double-digit annual rates . Between 2015 and 2018 the report estimates Philippines to expand by USD 1.2 billion dollars at growth rate of 13% a year, while’s India’s ad spends will increase to USD 3 billion also at 13% a year.
Indonesia is expected to show the biggest growth at 17 % a year, touching USD 4.1 billion.
Calling it Fast Track Asia bloc comprising of China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, the report further mentions that ad expenditure in Fast-track Asia will grow at 8.9% in 2015, and at an average rate of 8.4% a year between 2015 and 2018, down from 14.7% a year between 2009 and 2014.
Having said that, even with their growth rates slowing down China will continue to be one of the biggest contributor to the global ad spends which is estimated to reach USD 579 billion at a growth rate of 4.7 % by 2016. Between 2015 and 2018, China is expected to contribute 24 percent of the global ad expenditure only preceded by the US at 26 percent. The UK comes third, contributing 7%, and Indonesia fourth, contributing 5%. Not to mention, the top five of the ten biggest contributor to the global ad expenditure is expected to come from the Fast Track Asia countries, by 2018. Overall, rising markets will contribute 54% of additional ad expenditure between 2015 and 2018, and to increase their share of the global market from 37% to 39%.
“Growth of the global ad market is being driven by advances in technology, especially mobile and programmatic tech,” said Steve King, ZenithOptimedia Worldwide CEO Steve King. “But television remains by far the most important channel for brand communication, and online video, its digital offshoot, is increasing the audiovisual share of global display advertising.”
The report also singles out internet to become the most preferred medium of advertising with internet advertising command 36.6 per cent of global advertising, overtaking the current largest advertising medium, television by 2018. Looking at the ad market as a whole, television’s share peaked at 39.7% in 2012, and is estimated at 37.7% in 2015, before falling back to 34.8% by 2018.
The report highlights paid search as one of the key reasons for televisions loss of adspend share. Paid search is essentially a direct response channel (together with classified), while television is the pre-eminent brand awareness channel which is expected to remain so for many years to come. Television offers unparalleled capacity to build reach, while online video offers pinpoint targeting and the potential for personalisation of marketing messages. Both are powerful tools for establishing brand awareness and associations. As per the report, television will account for 44.7% of display expenditure in 2015, and 42.9% in 2018.
Within internet advertising, mobile advertising will emerge as the leading platform with it overtaking desktop and accounting for 50.2% of all internet advertising.
Mobile advertising will total USD 114 billion in 2018, up from USD 50 billion in 2015. Moreover, according to the report, mobile advertising is responsible for almost all of the growth in global adspend. The report forecasts it to grow at an average rate of 32% a year between 2015 and 2018, and to contribute 87% of all of the new ad money added to the global market during these years.
MUMBAI: Football fanatics in the country were overjoyed to hear the words “Namaste India” from their idol and one of the biggest names from the world of soccer Lionel Messi, as he made his maiden campaign address to the nation. After ruling over the hearts of millions of soccer fans across the globe, the champion has now set his eyes on India as the brand ambassador for Tata Motors for the brand’s #madeofgreat campaign.
This is also the football star’s first ever association with an Indian brand.
“I am very excited about my first association with an Indian brand and am extremely thrilled to be part of the Tata Motors family,” said Messi on his association with the brand.
Titled #MadeOfGreat, the campaign that took off few weeks ago created quite a buzz in the industry through powerful TVCs , digital advertising, and experiential marketing initiatives. The campaign’s ground activation organised by Wizcraft across multiple cities at malls and other popular public places were well appreciated.
Keeping all the fanfare aside, one can’t help but ask how relevant is Messi to Tata’s consumer base in India? Can a marketing campaign ride solely on the star player’s popularity without any relativity factor for the consumers? If sports were to be a moving factor, wouldn’t cricket and an Indian player fit the bill better for the brand’s India campaign?
While some may argue that the brand’s’ idea to get Messi onboard was to create a huge stir with their first ever celebrity association, Tata Motors, passenger vehicle business unit, marketing and communications – head, Delna Avari begs to differ.
According to her, the decision wasn’t single-mindedly led by Messi’s far reaching influence on the youth, but a well thought of strategy keeping India’s growing exposure to the game.
“Football is not only a global phenomenon but it is one of the fastest emerging sports in the country in terms of popularity. Currently, India has an approximate viewership of 80 million for football. With various researches conducted across fields to measure the impact of celebrity association on a brand, we realised that Indian celebrities are over exposed and were associated with multiple brands,” shares Avari, hereby nullifying any prospect of brand association with an Indian sporting celebrity.
She further adds, “We as a company wanted to connect with the younger audience (less than 35 years) especially in our domestic market and ‘cool’ is something that this age group loves to associate with. Messi is found cool across all age groups, his iconic stature and values inherent to him were just the perfect kind of amalgamation for us as a brand. He is a winner who is trustworthy, reliable, pioneering, simple and driven by self-belief, which is what is at the core of Tata Motors as well and hence he is the perfect match for us.”
Not to mention, with Indian Super League (ISL) second season going on, the campaign couldn’t have had a better head start.
Avari points out that the campaign has garnered a positive response from both consumers and stakeholders. “Besides trending on Twitter on the day of the campaign launch, we have received approximately 178 million impressions. As part of the campaign, fans were sent around the city through a series of clues, until they arrived at the final destination where the hidden letter stood,” she informs.
Backing the brand’s reason for changing their marketing strategy, Avari adds, “With an overall aggressive marketing strategy, we have always customised our marketing plans as per our products. Sub brands like Nano, Bolt, Zest, Safari and Indigo have their own strong individual identities. However the need to have a common link to bind these sub brands and to create a well-defined brand architecture for the company brought this campaign to life.”
When it comes the mediums used to propagate the brand message, Tata Motors hasn’t left any stone unturned for maximum impact and reach. “All the mediums that we have worked with have a different strategy, be it print, digital or mobile. Experiential marketing is another important leg of our campaign as we believe that on-ground activations create great impressions on people’s mind,” she voices.
Expanding further on their experiential marketing initiative, Avari says, “With Wizcraft on board to execute our BTL plans and DigitasLBi as our digital partners, we are working on a great mix and it will be showcased through this 360 degree campaign. which will comprise a series of innovative and compelling campaigns across mediums. For instance, a part of our BTL activation involves the implementation of augmented reality. With this, we gave our customers an exclusive chance to experience how getting a picture clicked with Lionel Messi would feel.”
Not only that. On 3 November, over 10 million customers of the brand were pleasantly surprised by getting a call from Messi himself, albeit a recorded message. The initiative was an integrated campaign with Truecaller. “We were thrilled to know that out of the 10 million calls made, approximately 9.8 million people received them. While #madeofgreat trended on Twitter on the day of the campaign launch, we also crossed over 300 million impressions across mediums in just two weeks,” shares Avari.
Given the football player’s high brand value, there’s natural curiosity on his signing amount for the campaign. “It is a two year contract. The cost is in line with what international celebrities are paid globally,” answers Avari when asked about the particulars of the contract.
As per Forbes’ list of highest-paid athletes in the world for 2015 Messi ranks 4th with a net earning of $22 million from his endorsements. In the light of this knowledge, it is safe to assume that a large pie of the brand’s marketing spends has gone into getting Messi on board.
MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has reached an agreement with the principal shareholders of creative agency ASPAC Creative Communications Inc based in Philippines to acquire a 70 per cent stake in the company, with an option in place that would allow expansion in steps to 100 per cent at a later date.
Founded in February 1975 as ASPAC Communicators Inc., ASPAC is a creative agency of long standing in the Philippines with both local and international major companies as its clients. The services provided range from the formulation of brand strategy to the provision of creative ideas for the mass media, digital and promotional advertising domains.
In its September 2015 worldwide advertising expenditure forecasts, the Dentsu Group’s media communications agency Carat announced that advertising expenditures in the Philippines grew 12.8 per cent in 2014 and are expected to continue to rise 10.2 per cent in 2015 and 12.3 per cent in 2016. The Philippines is the sixth-largest market in the Asia-Pacific region, after China, Japan, Australia, Korea and Indonesia.
