Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Kids out of home (Kooh), a company providing international standard, professional sports training to children, and a fully integrated outdoor gaming programme for corporate, community and their family, has announced the appointment of Shrikant Hazare as its CMO.

Hazare, an industry veteran with over 2 decades of marketing experience, will lead Kooh‘s marketing efforts for their sports (KoohSports) and events (Fun @ Field) divisions.

Set up in April 2011, Kooh‘s mission is to deliver sports training of international standards and provide an out of home experience through their outdoor games for schools, communities, workplaces et all.

Moreover their exclusive partnerships with international bodies like Off Limits Corporate Events ltd. (UK- based sports event company that own and operates the props and games show spun out from the popular BBC ‘It‘s a Knockout‘) and Indian tie-ups like Underdog Sports Solutions (manages sports activities in schools & colleges in India), has given them a headway in the industry.

Hazare will be responsible for introducing the concept of sports development utilising disruptive marketing ideas through unconventional mediums to its core audiences. He will drive the marketing strategy and brand management functions including brand communication, brand design, sports marketing, offline and social media marketing.

Kooh co-founder and chairman Susir Kumar said, “Kooh is a fledgling organization with a clear aim to rekindle love for the outdoor in the lives of kids, parents and communities. Shrikant is a passionate professional with deep marketing experiences spanning consumer, entertainment and B2B segments, and we found in him the right qualities to drive Kooh‘s marketing function. Given his proven leadership skills, sharp business acumen and track record in building brands; we look forward to leveraging Shrikant‘s skills in achieving our mission.”

MUMBAI: Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) has promoted Anand Badami to group MD of its Malaysia office. This is in addition to his current responsibilities as regional business development director for Nestle.

Anand will shift base from Singapore to Malaysia and take over the position from Andre Nair later this month. Prior to this, Badami was Ogilvy & Mather, Indonesia country head.

Anand will oversee the growth and development of the Malaysian office as well as partner with the agency‘s key clients which include Maxis, Nestle, MAS, Shell, IBM, Guinness, BAT, Coke, Goodyear and Pizza Hut.

“We are delighted that Anand has accepted this new challenge and are grateful to Andre for his commitment to strengthening the agency during his two-year tenure. Malaysia is key to our Southeast Asia growth strategy and an agency we‘ll continue to invest in,” said Ogilvy & Mather ASEAN Regional Director and president, Ogilvy Action, Asia Pacific John Goodman.

Badami had joined Ogilvy in India where he played an instrumental role in launching Dove. During his 15-year career with the network, he has worked across multiple Asian markets on clients portfolios that include Unilever‘s Dove and Ponds, Nestlé‘s MILO and UPS.

MUMBAI: As a part of its strategic media planning, MTV India has appointed Aegis Media‘s Vizeum India as its media agency. This appointment will follow the channel‘s aggressive growth plans for the coming years.

Confirming the appointment of Vizeum India, MTV India channel head Aditya Swamy said, “Our audience is everywhere and yet nowhere, and to catch them we need to use non-traditional techniques and constantly innovate with new media and platforms. The team at Vizeum shares the hunger to experiment and their approach to media planning is very fresh and is driven by a keen sense of consumer understanding. Together, we have exciting times ahead of us.”

Vizeum India, a media agency that operates in 55 countries, will now handle MTV‘s media planning and execution across electronic, print and online media. In addition to media buying and planning, Vizeum will also support MTV India‘s digital and marketing initiatives.

Vizeum managing director Indian sub-continent S Yesudas said, “We are delighted at this opportunity. I believe this is truly another feather on the cap of Vizeum in establishing each of our clients is indeed our ambassadors. Had it not been for a satisfactory reference from Nickelodeon, I don‘t think this discussion would even have begun. We are aware of our responsibilities and will do all that‘s needed to be done to ensure MTV rocks in the country. This business will be handled out of our Mumbai office.”

MTV has been responsible for various programming innovations and formats. In recent times, MTV has been in news for its innovative marketing campaigns across Coke Studio@MTV and StuntMania-Underground.

Nickelodeon, part of the Viacom18 group, was already being serviced by Vizeum India.

MUMBAI: Aneil Deepak, who was senior vice-president, innovation and integration, has been promoted as Mudra Max head of ideas.

Talking about his promotion, Deepak said, “Earlier, my creative role was subjected to TV and films but now with a lot of advertising avenues coming out where ideas can come out of anywhere, I have been made media agnostic. My roles would be varied and I will have to set ideas to as many as 16 units in Mudra Max.”

Deepak‘s line of concentration will be sports, promotion, events, rural marketing and out of home (OOH). “In short, now there will be a lot of non-traditional media I will be associated with,” he said.

Deepak, who has been with Mudra Max since the last ten years, specialises in sales promotions, events, rural marketing and out of home communications.

MUMBAI: The amount of time spent watching linear commercial TV channels in the UK during January to June 2011 increased to a new record for the period, Thinkbox announced.

The average TV viewer in the UK watched 18 hours, 9 minutes of commercial linear TV a week (2 hours, 35 minutes a day) during the first six months of 2011, according to new figures from the Broadcasters‘ Audience Research Board (Barb). This is an increase of 48 minutes a week (7 minutes a day) on the same period in 2010, and an increase of 1 hour, 47 minutes a week (15 minutes a day) on the five-year average for the period.

The latest Barb figures show that commercial TV accounted for 64 per cent of viewing during the first six months of the year, up from 62 per cent in the same period last year.

Fuelled by the popularity of commercial channels, total TV viewing (including BBC channels) increased slightly during the first six months of the year. The average person watched a total of 28 hours, 21 minutes a week (4 hours, 3 minutes a day) of linear TV. This is an increase of six minutes a week (51 seconds a day) on the same period in 2010. This marginal increase suggests that total linear TV viewing is now stabilising after a sustained period of record growth, as predicted by Thinkbox earlier this year. Total linear TV viewing has increased by 2 hours, 43 minutes a week (24 minutes a day) in the last five years.

Reasons for continued strength of linear TV: The continued growth underlines the primacy of the live TV schedule. It has been fuelled by a number of factors that have created a ‘drive to live‘ for TV viewing. These include:

•Social media galvanising audiences around watching and sharing TV ‘live‘ via a second screen (75 per cent of those with broadband and digital TV have ‘two-screened‘, according to Thinkbox/Decipher research);

•Increased risk of ‘spoilers‘ via social media making live viewing imperative;

•Increased choice of TV content as digital switchover reaches 93.1 per cent of households;

•New TV technologies, such as digital recorders and HDTV, which enhance the TV experience and magnetise viewers to the TV set;

•On-demand TV encouraging more linear TV viewing (89% of on-demand TV is to catch-up with linear TV, according to Thinkbox/Decipher research);

•The economic and weather climates in the UK;
•BARB‘s updated TV measurement system, launched in January 2010, which more accurately captures viewing via second TV sets and ‘catch-up‘ TV viewed on TV sets within seven days of broadcast.

Barb‘s figures do not include TV viewed on devices other than TV sets nor time-shifted or on-demand TV viewed more than 7 days after transmission. It does not currently measure this additional viewing as part of its normal standards, but has been separately monitoring viewing on devices other than TV sets since 2005. Its data suggests that there is an additional one per cent of TV viewing via other devices, two per cent for 16-24 year olds. Barb recently announced its intention to begin measuring TV viewing via other devices later in the year.

Time-shifted viewing: According to Barb, non-live, ‘time-shifted‘ viewing accounted for nine per cent of the UK‘s TV consumption during January to June 2011. This has increased from 7.1 per cent in the same period in 2010.

In households that own digital television recorders (47 per cent of households), such as Sky+ or Freeview+, average timeshifting represented 14.7 per cent of total viewing. This figure has increased from 13.7 per cent in the same period last year.

More ads being viewed at normal speed: Commercial TV‘s increased viewing has also lead to an increase in the number of TV ads viewed. Commercial impacts (the number of ads viewed at normal speed) during January to June 2011 were up by 4.7 per cent on the same period last year, and have grown by 22.1 per cent over the last five years to a new record high. The average viewer watched 47 ads a day during the first six months of 2011 compared to 45 ads during the same period last year, adding up to 2.7 billion TV ads seen at normal speed every day in the UK.

Thinkbox MD Lindsey Clay said, “We‘ve been saying for a while that linear TV viewing couldn‘t keep breaking records forever and that it had to stabilise at some point. It appears that this is now happening – although, within this, commercial TV is still growing a little, which is great news for advertisers and a testament to the choice and quality it offers. On-demand TV is expanding total TV by adding to this stable linear base. What is clear is that every new technology that joins TV – from connected TV sets to social media – is making it even more enjoyable for viewers and even more effective for advertisers.”

MUMBAI: Even as Balika Vadhu retains its position as the top fiction show on Hindi general entertainment channels, its protagonist Anandi goes up the popularity charts to become the most favourite character on television.

Anandi returns to the No.1 position after almost 10 months, according to media research and consulting firm Ormax Media’s quarterly study Characters India Loves (CIL). The show Balika Vadhu airs on Colors.

Anandi had occupied the numero uno position since the inception of CIL in August 2009 till its fifth edition in September 2010. Since then, the show had seen a fall in the ratings, which also resulted in Anandi’s losing her stature.

Meanwhile, Ram Kapoor, the male protagonist of Sony Entertainment Television’s Bade Achhe Lagte Hain, has occupied the fifth place.

Jethalal (Sab’s Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma) and Akshara (Star plus, Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai) are at No 2 and 3 respectively. Priya from Bade Achhe Lagte Hain is at No 10.

This eight track of the study was conducted during July this year. The interviews were conducted among 3,477 respondents in six cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Indore and Jalandhar, females and males in the 15-44 age group, SEC ABC, Ormax Media said.

The report lists the top fiction and non-fiction characters across gender, age, SEC and market segments. Further, a section of the report illustrates reasons for likeability of the top characters.

MUMBAI: Japanese media and advertising group Dentsu has acquired London-based online advertising exchange Adjug for an undisclosed amount.

Adjug investor Tomorrow Focus has sold 35.86 per cent to Dentsu while retaining 20 per cent in the ad exchange company. In 2009 Tomorrow Focus had increased its holding in Adjug to 56 per cent.

Dentsu is looking to strengthen its New York-headquartered digital technology division IgnitionOne and has given it an 80 per cent stake of AdJug.

Adjug was founded in 2007 by former Gumtree and eBay senior executive Michael Stephanblome and co-founder of pay-per-click ad pioneer Espotting Satish Jayakumar. The company will continue to be run by its founders

The acquisition by Dentsu, which also holds a stake in French advertising giant Publicis Groupe, is just another move by the Japanese advertising giant, as it looks to strengthen its digital capabilities.

Earlier, Dentsu acquired Steak Digital in June, another London-based digital agency network. Also, in January, it bought out Dusseldorf-based digital creative agency Social Thinkers.

Dentsu and US marketing services giant Omnicom have been considered as the front-runners to buy-out UK-based media buying business Aegis Media, if the sale comes up.

MUMBAI: Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI), part of the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group, has renewed its endorsement contract only with Yuvraj Singh, leaving out Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma.

The company said that currently it is going ahead only with Singh and is confident that “the brand will continue to derive from the association with ace cricketer Yuvraj Singh”.

The contract with the four Indian cricketers was originally signed in 2009 for a period of two years.

Aditya Birla Group CMO — financial services Ajay Kakar said, “Yuvraj Singh, who has been our brand ambassador for the last two years, has been through rewarding as well as testing times in his recent past and resonates the brand philosophy of ‘Jab Tak Balla Chalta Hain, Thaat Chalte Hai Warna‘.

Singh adds,” Am hoping that through my continued partnership with Birla Sun Life Insurance, I will be able to help spread this message across to many more individuals and help make a difference in their life.”