Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group, a division of Publicis Groupe‘s operating unit VivaKi, is in the process of strengthening its teams.

The marketing communications company has started by making several appointments and changes to its Delhi team.
 
Executive director India — North Tarun Nigam will now spearhead SMG’s business impact division nationally. This division will focus on process optimisation.

Also, Deepak Sharma returns to Starcom as general manager and will be responsible for non Samsung businesses at the Delhi office. 
 
Sharma had a five year stint with Starcom earlier. He has worked at Maxus and most recently Dentsu. He will report to Nigam.

There have been a few other senior appointments on Starcom’s team Samsung. Sulina Menon has been hired as executive director, while Girish Upadhyay comes on board as general manager.

Menon has previously worked at Cheil, Carat, Zee Group and Contract. Upadhyay moves from Starcom Mumbai. 
 
In addition to the above, Anita Bose joins VivaKi Exchange as senior vice president and will be the SMG buying lead.

Bose was most recently with GroupM and has over a decade’s experience in media buying and client management.
 

MUMBAI: After a long time, Star Plus and Colors, the top two channels of the Hindi general entertainment genre, are in close fight.

As per Tam data for the week ended 26 March, the gap between the two is just 19 GRPs (gross rating points). And this time it‘s not movies or special events but fiction shows that have taken Colors nearer to the genre leader.
 
During the week under review, Colors gained 15 GRPs to close the week at 272 GRPs, while Star Plus lost 13 GRPs to take its tally to 291 GRPs.

Colors’ 10 pm show Uttaran (5.9 TVR) and 8.30 pm show Laagi Tujhse Lagan (5.6 TVR) became the top rated shows for the week, occupying first and second space in the charts; they displaced Zee TV’s Pavitra Rishta (5.2 TVR) and Star Plus’ Saathiya Saath Nibhana (5 TVR).
 
Meanwhile, Zee TV and Sony Entertainment Television lost maximum GRPs during the week (21 and 24 respectively), but continued to retain their third and fourth positions with 186 and 159 GRPs respectively.

Sab saw no change and remained with 136 GRPs on fifth place, while Imagine TV did add eight GRPs to close the week with 81 points.
 
Star One closed the week with 30 GRPs, down six points from last week, while Sahara One lost two points to end with 25 GRPs.
 

MUMBAI: Rajasthan Royals, the IPL franchise that was under the BCCI scanner for alleged violation of shareholding norms, is eyeing a revenue growth of 25 per cent even as it has stitched deals with 16 sponsors and partners.

In the last edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rajasthan Royals had 10 sponsors and partners.

The new partners include Supertech builders, Mitashi Electronics and Arihunt Developers. The companies who have renewed their contracts include HDFC Life, TCS, Amity University, Puma, Kingfisher, Royal Challenge and Wrigleys.

Says Rajasthan Royals CMO Raghu Iyer, “We are looking at a 25 per cent revenue growth this year. We have widened our sponsorship pool and are also close to signing our lead sponsor. This is a new company that has not been involved with the IPL before. We are happy that companies have stuck with us through trying times.”

While some sponsorship deals are multi-year in nature, others are for a year.
 
Rajasthan Royals has inked a promotional deal with Barista, the coffee chain. “This is a marketing tie up. They will offer Royal Coffee. They will also serve Lavassa in our hospitality area,” says Iyer.
 
The World Cup has put a spoke in terms of the amount of marketing that franchises can do with players and sponsors ahead of IPL 4.0. “The key is to work around this. We know that doing too much activity before the IPL starts might not be a good thing, given that there is less than a week between the World Cup getting over and the IPL starting,” says Iyer.

Rajasthan Royals will be doing activities with players and sponsors during the IPL when there are free days and in a non intrusive manner. “We have to be smart in terms of managing this. The good news is that viewers are aware of the IPL and what it represents. So viewership will not be an issue. The deals we are doing shows that companies have faith in Rajasthan Royals. There are more deals in the pipeline,” avers Iyer.
 
Recently, the franchise conducted a sports seminar in association with Amity University and TCS in Jaipur. It also organised a charity cricket match featuring Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra. “Jaipur did not host any World Cup match. So fans are hungry for cricket there. We are excited about the IPL which starts for us on 12 April,” says Iyer.

MUMBAI: Saatchi & Saatchi executive creative director (ECD) Delhi Titus Upputuru has quit the agency.

Confirming the news to Indiantelevision.com, Upputuru said: “I have resigned and am currently serving my notice period, which ends somewhere in the middle of April.”
 
Upputuru, however, did not reveal where his next destination would be. “it will be announced soon,” he said.

After starting his career with Madhyam DMB&B (now, Publicis India) in the copy department, Upputuru moved to Trikaya Grey (now Grey Worldwide). Following a brief stint there, he moved to TBWA India (then TBWA Anthem) where he worked for five years, before joining Delhi-based Ushak Kaal.
 
Following a short spell at Ushak Kaal, Upputuru joined Ogilvy India in 2003, and worked there till early 2009–before quitting as senior creative director.
 
After quitting Ogilvy, Upputuru moved to Dentsu as creative head, Dentsu Marcom. He quit the agency in February 2010 and then had joined Saatchi & Saatchi as executive creative director.
 

MUMBAI: Euro RSCG has bagged the creative mandate of soon-to-be launched product range of liquor company Beam Global Spirits & Wine.
 
The size of the account is pegged at around Rs 200 million.

The mandate was awarded without any formal pitch being involved.
 
According to Indian advertising laws, liquor brands cannot advertise directly. So the campaign for the brand will involve surrogate ads and various below-the-line (BTL) activities.
 
ZenithOptimedia is handling the media planning and buying for Beam Global Spirits & Wine.

The company may launch its new range by the end of the third quarter this year.

MUMBAI: Sports footwear maker Nike has announced the launch of “Yards,” its next Nike Cricket TV spot.

The spot makes its world premiere on 30 March on ESPN and on the Nike India YouTube Page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgOR1Xwxvyw.

The spot will also air on Star Sports, Star Cricket and
http://www.Facebook.com/nikecricket.
 
The new ad brings to life the ‘Just Do It‘ attitude that exists throughout street cricket across India. It seamlessly captures the relationship between the raw street-style of cricket played by youth all over India and the bold, best-of-class cricket played by Team India itself.

The 60 spots will premier today during the semi-final play between India and Pakistan.
 
The ad takes the viewer on a visual journey by bringing to light the spirit and the passion of the game while showcasing the connection between the two styles of play. At center stage of “Yards” are the heroes of street cricket: the local youth who live and claim their 22 yards all over India.

Yards offers an interplay of scenes that shows how the game feeds off the street and how the street feeds off the game. The spot opens with a neighborhood kid preparing to bowl. Anticipation builds as images of kids in different settings cut seamlessly to athletes from Team India preparing for a match.
 
Crowds hang on to every ball bowled and every swing. Quickly switching from gully cricket play to match play, there is intensity of the game that is felt on the streets, on
terraces, and in the stadiums, from the fans to the players, uniting them all.

The ad includes Team India athletes Zaheer Khan, Virat
Kohli, S.Sreesanth, M.S. Dhoni, and Yuvraj Singh.

By depicting how both street cricketers and national team athletes create their own stadiums wherever they choose to chart out their 22 yards, “Yards” expands the story told by athletes in Nike’s previous “Bleed Blue Athlete Pledge” TV spot launched last week during the quarter final play.

The ad is not just about cricket but rather cricket in India, distinctive from the rest of the world. In India, cricket unites everyone.

Nike India marketing director Sanjay Gangopadhyay said, “Cricket is more than just a sport in India. It’s more than just about runs scored or games won, It is a unifying force that represents dreams fulfilled and barriers broken. Nike’s new “Yards” captures this idea by creating an authentic visual link from the young cricket crazy kids to the sport’s elite athletes. The ad is yet another milestone in Nike’s deep connection to cricket in India and we are confident that it will stir the emotions of ‘Bleed Blue’.”

Yards features a soundtrack inspired by the very sounds that surround the street game in India. Composer and co-founder of Blue Frog Sound Lab, Dhruv Ghanekar, scored the original musical composition. By utilising both social and broadcast media, “Yards” will reach millions of India’s devoted cricket fans and allow them to share their passion for the sport and team.

The ad was directed by Omri Cohen (Hello Robot Films) with creative direction by Senthil Kumar of JWT.