ITV

Category: Media and Advertising

  • WPP’s Landor acquires majority stake in UK motion design studio

    WPP’s Landor acquires majority stake in UK motion design studio

    MUMBAI: WPP’s strategic brand consulting and design firm Landor has acquired a majority stake in the UK based motion design studio ManvsMachine.

     

    ManvsMachine is based in London and has worked on a range of global campaigns for clients that include Nike, Microsoft, Honda and Audi, as well as identity campaigns for broadcasters such as Channel 4, Discovery, NBC Universal and ITV2.

     

    The acquisition is part of an ongoing strategy at Landor to broaden its creative capabilities, in this instance in screen-based and multi-channel branding.

     

    ManvsMachine’s unaudited revenue for the year ended 31 May, 2015 was ?3.4 million, with gross assets of ?1.9 million as at the same date. 

     

    This acquisition continues WPP’s strategy of developing its services in fast-growing and important sectors and markets.

  • Pepperfry gets festive with clutter-breaking Diwali campaign

    Pepperfry gets festive with clutter-breaking Diwali campaign

    MUMBAI: For one of India’s premier festivals Diwali, Pepperfry has planned an ad campaign with a clutter-breaking message that builds on this Diwali spirit.

     

    The campaign has been conceptualised by L&K Saatchi & Saatchi. The ad builds on the communication that unlike the transactional nature of every day interactions, in this festive season people have an opportunity to reflect on their behaviours and actions and their relationships with others.

     

    Pepperfry used this insight to showcase that people can undertake ‘good actions’ to form an emotional bridge with others.

     

    The coming together of the festive social context along with the individual transformation becomes a powerful catalyst for good action, which is what Pepperfry captures in the message “Iss Diwali Kuch Badal Ke Dekhiye.” The brand associates with the communication as a key enabler of good actions, thereby altering relationships positively.

     

    The TV campaign is live across a bouquet of English infotainment, entertainment, movies, and lifestyle channels, select Hindi HD general entertainment channels (GECs) as well as some regional channels.

     

    The message is also supported by in-cinema advertising across the top seven cities and outdoor in top four markets. It will also be propagated across the digital and social platforms like Google, YouTube and Facebook.

     

    Pepperfry’s earlier campaigns have stressed on rational benefits like quality products and service level standards of free & efficient delivery and assembly along with the other core category triggers. Now, Pepperfry is establishing the emotional benefits of the transformation that its products can bring to people’s lives.

     

    Talking about the TVC, L&K Saatchi and Saatchi executive creative director Kartik Smetacek said, “Diwali seemed like the perfect occasion for pepperfry.com to widen its ambit of communication and own a larger brand idea. That’s where the ‘Iss Diwali, kuch badal ke dekhiye’ campaign was born. The films seek to reinvent the role of furniture, which is not traditionally seen as a gifting item. By design, the stories are subtle and warm, keeping away from the dhoom and dhamaka of typical Diwali advertising, to instead capture the spirit of the festival.”

     

    The storyline is inspired by real life situations that will encourage people to introspect and experience how shift in attitudes and thinking can lead us to make a difference via the ad’s core message.

     

    L&K Saatchi & Saatchi senior vice president Debarjyo Nandi added, “This Diwali, Pepperfry has made a change. And its message is just that, ‘to make a change’ by reaching out to someone and spreading the happiness. In these TVCs we have used furniture as the trigger for this change.”

     

    Pepperfry chief marketing officer Kashyap Vadapalli said, “In the past 18-24 months, brand Pepperfry has grown significantly and established itself as the number one destination for furniture and other home products in the country. We are now in a position to move beyond communicating just the features of a great furniture product or experience to establish Pepperfry as an agent of transformation. We’ve tapped into the Diwali festive spirit to make an appeal to the consumers to: ‘Iss Diwali Kuch Badal Ke Dekhiye.’”

     

    Vadapalli further added, “We really want consumers to make a change and connect with the goodness within themselves, something that they don’t do in their busy daily routines, and then extend that connect to the brand because of the key role it can play in how this life enhancement can be manifested.”

  • Mullen Lowe Lintas India’s Joseph George given additional duties for South & SE Asia

    Mullen Lowe Lintas India’s Joseph George given additional duties for South & SE Asia

    MUMBAI: Lowe veteran Joseph George, who is currently Mullen Lowe Lintas Group India group CEO has been given the additional responsibility to South & Southeast Asia regions. 

     

    George will report to Mullen Lowe Group global CEO Alex Leikikh.

     

    George said, “I’m absolutely thrilled by the challenge of taking on an additional leadership role within the APAC region for the Mullen Lowe Group. Having worked within the network for over two decades, I clearly love the spirit: distinctive, entrepreneurial, collaborative and creative.”

     

    George has been with the Lowe network for 24 years – joining Lintas Mumbai in 1991 and spending the next 15 years between the Mumbai and Bangalore offices. He took over as the head of the Unilever business in 2006, and successfully led the growth of that business and a few specialist marketing services divisions until his appointment as deputy CEO in June 2010, and subsequently as CEO in January 2011.

     

    Leikikh added, “Joe is exactly the leader we need as part of our hugely dynamic Asia operation – he is a seasoned professional with a proven track record of growth. A key component of his role will focus on tapping into the resources of the robust India operation that he has built up in order to develop our hyperbundled offering across the Southeast Asia markets.”

     

    George added, “I’m absolutely thrilled by the challenge of taking on an additional leadership role within the APAC region for the Mullen Lowe Group. Having worked within the network for over two decades, I clearly love the spirit: distinctive, entrepreneurial, collaborative and creative.”

  • Zirca Digital Solutions eyes expansion in SE & North Asia

    Zirca Digital Solutions eyes expansion in SE & North Asia

    MUMBAI: Aidem’s digital brand solutions arm Zirca Digital Solutions is planning to expand in the Southeast Asia and North Asia regions.

     

    The agency has set shop in Singapore in order to cater to their clientele in the region and has appointed Sukesh Singh as consultant – sales and business development. Singh will be based out of Singapore.

     

    With an aim to create a strong international presence, plans are also afoot to set shop in the Middle East and in Europe during the company’s next expansion phase.

     

    Additionally, in order to further strengthen their services to clients, a major tech acquisition is on the cards for Zirca Digital Solutions.

     

    Having worked with companies like Microsoft Advertising to The Economist, Outbrain amongst others in the digital media space, Zirca will be leveraging its experience to bring its services to clients across the globe.

     

    Singh, who has experience in sales, business development and partner management during his previous stints at Phunware Inc. and BBC Worldwide, will provide considerable advantage to Zirca’s extensive partner and client base in the Southeast Asia and North Asia regions. He will be actively involved in building local teams for these markets. Some key personnel from the India team will also be given the opportunity to international exposure.

     

    “The business environment certainly won’t be identical to that in India. However, the fact that Southeast Asia and North Asia are more developed markets, works in our favour. Establishing our business here will be less of a challenge as compared to what it would be for a similar company looking to expand into India. Our expertise in digital media sales and operations brought from the years of experience in the Indian market combined with the localised knowledge that Sukesh brings in will enable us to systemize the expansion process and provide a suite of services that are specific to this region,” said Zirca Digital Solutions CEO and director Neena Dasgupta.

     

    “Geographic expansion is a clear & powerful way to drive growth. Our clients need a global service and a global perspective. Asia is diverse. A ‘one size fits all’ approach to asset monetisation does not work – we recognise this and hence plan to have offices setup across locations in order to be more in sync with these market differences. We are looking to build a strong team focused solely on our international expansion,” added Zirca Digital Solutions managing director Karan Kumar Gupta.

     

    The company recently updated its brand identity. The new brand identity and logo convey the energy and the vigour with which they aim to address the new markets and new opportunities.

  • Arré to launch provocative docu-reality series on gender-swap

    Arré to launch provocative docu-reality series on gender-swap

    MUMBAI: Come January 2016 and the Indian digital landscape is poised to get a new player Arré, which is the brainchild of media veteran Ronnie Screwvala and his A-Team B Saikumar and Ajay Chacko.

    The Arré digital media brand housed under UDigital, has already chalked up its content strategy and is looking at disrupting the Indian digital ecosystem by launching the first digital reality series. The provocative docu-reality series, which is based on the Israeli format Re-Gender distributed by Armoza Formats, gives men and women a chance to experience life as the opposite gender.

    While Arré has not yet zeroed in on the title of the show in India, it will begin shooting the series in two – three weeks’ time at Chhatarpur in Delhi.

    In Re-Gender  six men and women will explore their own nature and the other gender ‘s as well. The series is modeled on a psychological-social experiment, dealing with the essence of the male and female experience, through the other gender’s eyes . The show is a daring social experiment that breaks down the rules of gender perception and challenges society-defined gender stereotypes. In the series, men will become women and the women, men. Through their assignments out in the real world as well as through dynamics with each other in the house, where they will live cut off from the world for a month, the contestants will discover certain not-so-obvious truths about the opposite sex.

    The six participants will undergo intense gender training as well as emotional and physical transformations. Each participant will make a personal journey on the show to better understand themselves and their relationships.

    Armoza Formats founder and CEO Avi Armoza said, “We’re extremely excited about this venture with Arré and to see Re-Gender become the flagship series for this fresh new platform. The issues that the show deals with not only make for riveting viewing but also provoke important discussions in our society.”

    UDigital co-founder and managing director B. Sai Kumar added, “We are hoping to break new ground with a show like Re-Gender on digital media, in India. The definition of gender roles and expectations are evolving everyday and is a much talked about and debated subject in India. We wish to bring our lens to the topic through a first of its kind entertainment series with elements of drama, reality, emotion, new experiences with social learnings all rolled into one.”

  • Mullen Lowe Lintas Group bags Grand Prix at Warc for Idea

    Mullen Lowe Lintas Group bags Grand Prix at Warc for Idea

    MUMBAI: Idea’s Cellular’s ‘No Ullu Banoing’ ad campaign by Mullen Lowe Lintas Group has won the $5,000 Grand Prix at the WARC Prizefor Asian Strategy awards.

     

    All of its three shortlisted entries won multiple laurels at the awards leading the India and South Asian leg.

     

    ‘Idea Cellular: The fool-proof internet service’ won a Grand Prix, a Gold and also picked up a cash prize of $5000, making it a second year in a row.

     

    Of the other two shortlists, ‘Havells: A woman is not a home appliance’ won silver and Local Hero Special Award cash prize of $1000 while ‘Tata Tea: From packaged good to packaging good’ won a bronze award at the event.

     

    Lowe Lintas national planning director S Subramanyeswar said, “It is amazing to see our work being appreciated on a world renowned stage like WARC. This consistent recognition amplifies and glorifies our belief in creating authentic and relevant work that works in the marketplace. We carried on from our excellent standing last year where we won both the Grand Prix and also the first Special Prize ever. We thank the jury for bestowing this honour once again on us. We hope to keep raising the bar.”

     

    The Warc Prize for Asian Strategy is the annual competition to find the region’s best strategic case studies. Into its fifth year, the free-to-enter Prize is Asia’s leading showcase for incisive strategic thinking in marketing, with a $10,000 prize fund for winning papers. The 2015 edition of the awards event was held in Mumbai on 29 October, 2015 and attended by prominent advertising and marketing professionals.

     

    This year, a total of 39 entries were shortlisted with more than half of these coming from India. With 21 case studies, entries from India made up for a chunk of the total while China/Hong Kong and Singapore each contributed four entries and the Philippines three. Overall, the award platform received more than 130 entries from across the Asia Pacific region and the shortlists came from eight markets and from a mix of major networks and local independent agencies.

  • GroupM & Google’s Grand Diwali Mela gets AskMe Bazaar as title sponsor

    GroupM & Google’s Grand Diwali Mela gets AskMe Bazaar as title sponsor

    MUMBAI: Making the online Diwali festival initiative bigger and better this year, GroupM with along with Google has roped in AskMeBazaar.com as its new title sponsor.

     

    Brands that renewed their partnership with the Grand Diwali Mela this year are Lakme, Horlicks, Kurkure and Hungama.com, whereas Eno and Godrej Securities have come on board as the new partners.

     

    Last year, the Grand Diwali Mela received over 5.5 million visitors in a course of 30 days. Over 125,000 hours were spent browsing various online stalls in the mela. These stalls included products, food items, pooja needs, gaming and entertainment. The Grand Diwali Mela emerged as the largest online sampling platform for brands wherein over 150,000 samples were shipped across India, with 70 per cent sample orders going to Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. The samples ranged from make-up, skincare and household products.

     

    Askmebazaar.com will be offering a host of deals at the Grand Diwali Mela with discounts on home appliances, mobile phones, fashion apparels, home décor and personal care products.

     

    For the spiritually inclined, this year the ‘Grand Diwali Mela’ has the option of offering prayers and receiving ‘prasad’ from a number of temples across India. As Diwali is also about greeting loved ones, the Grand Diwali Mela will also offer the facility to send online festive greetings showing your ‘namkeen’ side with fun greeting cards from Kurkure.

     

    Talking about the sponsorship, Askmebazaar digital strategy group CMO and head Manav Sethi said, “We are excited to be the presenting sponsor of Grand Diwali Mela 2015. One of its kind virtual mela; one stop destination for entertainment, best deals and best brands in the biggest festive season of India. A truly immersive experience in one destination for consumers. This year look forward to the BIG deals everyday delivered at your doorstep. From furniture to fashion, AskmeBazaar has curated the best deals to ensure every home lights up this Diwali. Askme Group looks forward to India joining us on the GDM, 2015; the biggest mela of the year!”

     

    On the second season of the Grand Diwali Mela, GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas said, “After the success of the Grand Diwali Mela in year one, we are excited to bring the online festival back again this year. We have a new naming partner on board AskMe.com as well and a range of new brands and products for consumers to choose from.”

     

    Speaking about the reach of the festival, Srinivas added, “With GDM, we were able to create a great platform for consumers to come and sample products and interact with brands. Last year we saw a clear spike in terms of mobile usage to access the Grand Diwali Mela. With a clear focus on taking the festival to not just metros, but also tier 2 and 3 towns, where the mobile phone is their window to the world, GroupM and our partners are integrating traditional print, TV and radio with mobile and digital marketing.”

     

    “Grand Diwali Mela organised by GroupM emerged as India’s largest online brand activation initiative during the festival season last year and surpassed any offline brand activation initiative in the country. As more and more consumer products companies embrace the Internet to drive sampling and consumer engagement, we’re delighted to partner Group M to scale this initiative further and help brands make the most of the opportunity online,” asserted Google SEA & India director agency business Punitha Arumugam.

     

    Hungama.com, has come back on board as one of the partners of the ‘Grand Diwali Mela’. Last year Hungamam.com gave users access to films from its  Indian and International movies catalogue. Users could also create a Grand Diwali Mela playlist of popular Bollywood numbers. This year, Hungama.com brings on board ‘Hungama Play’ – its premium video on demand (VOD) service via the Grand Diwali Mela 2015.

     

    Besides this, the Grand Diwali Mela is also running contests with prizes to be won.

  • SintecMedia acquires Broadway Systems, eyes expansion in ad sector

    SintecMedia acquires Broadway Systems, eyes expansion in ad sector

    NEW DELHI: Broadway Systems, a provider of broadcast management solutions, has been acquired by SintecMedia.

     

    Broadway Systems manages several billion dollars in advertising revenues across news, sports, music, and entertainment networks for customers in the media industry, including three of the Top 15 rated cable television networks in the United States.

     

    “We are excited about the addition of Broadway Systems to the SintecMedia family and look forward to bringing our two companies together. With its technology leadership and extensive industry experience, Broadway fits seamlessly into the SintecMedia portfolio,” said SintecMedia CEO Amotz Yarden. 

     

    “The media industry is changing and it requires an experienced partner and strong technology to navigate the complexity of new channels, new advertising methods and new business models. Our strategy is to use the best people and systems to deliver that to the market,” Yarden added.

     

    “We recently launched OnBoard, a TV sell side platform (SSP) that gives networks the tools they need to control their Linear and Digital advertising inventory. Integrating OnBoard with Broadway Systems’ innovative solutions will provide Broadway customers a path to enhance their business, particularly in the growing category of digital, programmatic solutions,” he said.

     

    “The acquisition of Broadway Systems will contribute to the further expansion of SintecMedia in the US. We will continue to invest in and support the Broadway Systems products, as well as leverage our expanded portfolio to offer Broadway’s customers exciting new solutions. We will integrate Broadway into the wider SintecMedia product suite, providing all our customers with enhanced technology offerings and superior customer service. We are looking forward to having Broadway join the SintecMedia team,” said SintecMedia Americas president Amir Lavi. 

  • Havas Media bags Clovia’s Rs 30 crore integrated media mandate

    Havas Media bags Clovia’s Rs 30 crore integrated media mandate

    MUMBAI: After recently pocketing the integrated media mandate of HolidayIQ.com, Havas Media Group India has now won the integrated media mandate of lingerie and nightwear brand Clovia in a multi-agency pitch.

     

    The account size is estimated to above Rs 30 crore. Clovia recently raised a round of funding from IvyCap Ventures.

     

    Havas will chart Clovia’s brand map with traditional as well as digital and mobile duties from their New Delhi office.

     

    Havas Media Group India and South Asia CEO Anita Nayyar said, “Clovia is a young lingerie brand with a niche e-commerce play backed by an omni-channel strategy. Lingerie domain is now gaining momentum in India but will be the next wave. Clovia is placed in a very interesting category with huge growth potential. We are confident that our digital at the core strategy will drive a lot of meaningful visibility for the brand. We look forward to partnering with them to scale in India.”

     

    Clovia CEO and co-founder Pankaj Vermani added, “We are enroute to scale Clovia as the number one lingerie and nightwear brand in India as well as looking at global markets. Havas Media was in sync with our brand vision as well as our customer first fundamentals. Their experience, strategic brand approach, knowledge of the e-commerce domain and nuances of new age businesses makes them perfect partners.”

     

    “Havas Media’s unique traditional and digital offering based on brand and customer dynamics is perfectly suited to connect with and delightfully engage the Clovia woman encouraging a closer relationship with the brand. We are very glad to add yet another client, with a major online focus, to our portfolio. As India goes online and media gets more integrated Havas Media will be at the forefront servicing both clients and their customers to make happy informed choices,” explained Havas Media Group-India MD Mohit Joshi.

  • Publicis & Orange launch venture capital fund for start-ups

    Publicis & Orange launch venture capital fund for start-ups

    MUMBAI: Orange chairman and CEO Stephane Richard and Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Maurice Levy along with Gerhard Cromme, have signed a letter of intent with a view to creating a European multi-corporate venture capital fund – IrisNext – on a global scale for start-ups.

     

    The letter was signed on the occasion of Franco-German conference on digital at the Elysee Palace.

     

    The goal of IrisNext is to become one of Europe’s leading venture capital funds through funding from major international groups of French, German and international origins, as well as from institutional investors.

     

    IrisNext will mainly invest in European start-ups to help fund their growth, not just in the early stages but all throughout the phases of growth. The fund will focus its investments in entities involved in all aspects of corporate digital transformation. Among the start-ups concerned, IrisNext will be funding pure players, but also new business models built around digital technology, as well as new tools and technologies taking on the challenge of this transformation (e.g. big data, cloud, artificial intelligence, digital innovations, robots, etc.).

     

    The fund will be managed by Iris Capital, assisted by German VC fund Capnamic, with an initial closing scheduled in 2016.

     

    To ensure the success of this venture, Publicis Groupe and Orange have committed to provide additional funding of €75 million each. With the support of Cromme, who has joined this project in a personal capacity and will sit on the Supervisory Board of Iris Capital, they will use their networks and influence to convince other German, French and European groups to invest in IrisNext, in order to endow the fund with the required dimension while optimizing opportunities for European start-ups. Institutional investors will also be invited to invest. Furthermore, public bodies in the field of corporate financing in France and Germany will also be solicited for additional funding to ensure the fund reaches the critical mass it needs.

     

    In view of the very active presence of the large Anglo-Saxon and Asian venture capital funds, the parties involved in this agreement consider it indispensable to leverage the Franco-German axis in order to bolster the European venture capital sufficiently for it to support start-ups, particularly in the later stages of growth, and in doing so, to help anchor them in Europe.

     

    The IrisNext project is a follow-up to the Orange Publicis Ventures funds, which were launched in 2012 and contributed some €300 million to the funding of the French and European digital ecosystem. These funds, which are also managed by Iris Capital, have helped promote the emergence of an innovative, multi-corporate investment model that is mutually beneficial to both parties: the start-ups receiving funding and the groups who learn from these innovations. Close to 60 start-ups have received funding from Orange Publicis Ventures, including firms such as Netatmo in the IoT (Internet of Things), Talend (software), Scality (high capacity storage), Adjust (mobile analytics) and Mister Auto (e-commerce).