Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Goafest 2011, in alliance with the Indian chapter of International Advertising Association, will host the first ever Olive Crown Awards on 9 April.

Aimed at encouraging advertisers and marketers to communicate green messaging, the Olive Crown awards will recognise and promote responsible advertising.
Also, the awards seek to position marketing and advertising as a critical component of responsible economic growth. A starting point would be to recognise pioneering work in communication sustainability that is currently being done by some advertisers and encourage positive thinking on the issue.
 
Goafest 2011 chairperson Lynn deSouza said, “We aim to make Goafest 2011 a platform to promote the message of responsible advertising. The Olive Crown awards are a perfect fit to recognize and promote the campaigns which propagate this thought. We hope that this will be a catalyst for advertisers and agencies to adopt the green platform and create more innovative and informed campaigns.”

The awards will be open to all marketing company and agencies that have created and placed paid communication that advocated the sustainability message in the year 2010.
 
Goafest is India’s biggest advertising festival that offers a unique opportunity for all professionals in India to meet and celebrate the spirit of advertising. This year, Goafest will make a conscious effort in promoting clean and green advertising.
 

MUMBAI: Cheil Worldwide SW Asia has appointed Elvis Sequeira as national creative director.

Sequeira will be head of creative for SWA regional office of Cheil and work closely with Cheil’s global creative team.
 
“Elvis is recognised for his zeal and lucidity in delivering compelling, consistent and cross-pollinating brand experiences. I see him uniquely positioned to take Cheil to the next level, empower our creative squad and continue to strengthen our unique Idea Engineering process,” says Cheil Worldwide COO, SW Asia Alok Agrawal.

Sequeira, who is currently a director with Good Morning Films, has over 20 years of experience and has worked on various brands. 
 
He has also worked with Mudra, Interact-Vision and Lintas, where he became the youngest creative head of the agency’s second largest business – Bajaj.

Later, he moved on to Percept/H and then to JWT. 
 
Sequeira says, “I liked what Jae Kim (Cheil India MD), said when we met, that he wanted Cheil to be an ‘idea heaven’ over the next few years. It’s something I vibe with and I love the clarity of the vision. I know what a tremendous task Alok and his team have accomplished in creating, consolidating and getting Cheil to where it is today, so, in a way my job is to help evolve the agency, try new things. Alok and I both agree that fearlessness is going to drive the agency forward, that was reason enough to start off what I believe will be a beautiful partnership.”

MUMBAI: Advertisers are peeved that ESPN Star Sports (ESS) did not inform them about offering an ad clean feed on its high definition (HD) service for the cricket World Cup that is being carried by the DTH operators.
 
A media buyer says that there was lack of communication on both the part of the broadcaster and the advertisers. “Both are to be blamed. The broadcaster should have said that they are offering a clean feed on HD. Advertisers too should have been clear that ads should be there if it was an issue. At the moment digital forms a small part of the viewership.”
 
The buyer notes that in the future advertisers will have to be careful in the rates that they agree to pay. “While ESPN Star Sports has done ad clean feeds for HD in the past, nobody paid attention then. The Soccer World Cup is a smaller property compared to the cricket World Cup. Now HD has more visibility, which is why there is some concern. The impact, though, will not be much for this event. In the future, things could be different. So we will have to be careful.”
 
Another expert says that DTH is bit of a grey area at the moment when advertisers negotiate. There needs to be some clarity on this in terms of the reach that DTH gives.

ESS, however, justifies its stance. “This is the not the first time that we have offered a clean feed on HD. We did the same thing for the Soccer World Cup and the Champions League Twenty20,” says a spokesperson.

According to Lodestar Universal CEO Shashi Sinha, ESS will earn about Rs 6-7 billion of ad revenue from the World Cup.
 

NEW DELHI: Operational community radio stations have become entitled to empanelment with the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity for getting government advertisements.

Following this decision by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the DAVP has drawn up guidelines for these radio stations.
 
The CRS should have completed three months of continuous operation for a minimum of two hours broadcasting per day on the date of applying for empanelment.

The empanelment of CRS will be considered by DG, DAVP on case to case basis as and when an application is received.

The application shall be processed in accordance with the eligibility criteria laid down in the guidelines and a decision will be taken about the empanelment within 30 days from the date of receipt of complete application from the organisation.
 
The copy of Grant of Permission Agreement (GOPA) signed with the I&B Ministry, copy of valid Wireless Operating License (WOL) issued by WPC Wing of the Communication & IT Ministry, and a CD containing the content telecast for the last three months, apart from a self-certification by the head of CRS certifying that the CRS is functional and is continuously broadcasting at least two hours of programmes per day since last three months will be required for empanelment.

The spot rate for CRS empanelled with DAVP will be Rs 1 per second till further orders, though the guidelines say empanelment does not guarantee any business from DAVP.
 
Community Radio Stations will undertake in writing that DAVP approved rates accepted by them are their lowest rates and exclusive to DAVP; they can‘t be offered to any other agency. DAVP reserves the right to review empanelment rates if this condition is violated.

A channel may be debarred from getting government advertisements from DAVP if at any time it refuses to accept and carry advertisements issued by DAVP on behalf of the Ministries/Departments of the Central Government, public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies, on more than two occasions.
 

MUMBAI: Amrutanjan Health Care has signed an agreement with Siva‘s Soft Drink to buy its soft drink and fruit-based beverages business for Rs 262 million.

The acquisition will also include the transfer of the brand Fruitnik. 
 
Fruitnik, a pulp-based flavoured fruit drink, was established in 1958 and is a well known brand in South India. 
 
The maker of ayurvedic and allopathic, or mainstream, products is planning to grow its food and healthcare businesses beyond its home market in Tamil Nadu.

MUMBAI: Lowe Lintas India has appointed Sabyasachi Mishra as its chief growth officer.

Says Lowe Worldwide CEO Michael Wall, “Sabyasachi has a wealth of client and business experience which he will bring to bear in this new role. We have ambitious targets for our Indian operations and a focus on business development will be important in helping to ensure that we meet them.”
 
Earlier, in the capacity of a regional business director located at Lowe Bangkok, Mishra set up and led the regional team structure of one of the fastest growing Unilever categories (Walls Ice Cream) in ten countries.

He also headed Lowe Vietnam for 3 years and played a key role on ground in the IPG initiative of combining McCann Erickson and Lowe brands into one entity. He also led the development and launch of Unilever‘s kids marketing initiative involving the creation of branded entertainment IP for global application. 
 
Avers Mishra, “India‘s domestic consumption-based growth story is unique among other developing markets of Asia and is all set to rapidly quadruple between 2006 and 2025. This means never before opportunities for branding and consumer engagement at unimaginable depth and scale. It‘s a great time to be here.”

Adds Lowe Lintas CEO Joseph George, “Our ambition at Lowe Lintas is to grow exponentially over the next three years and Sabyasachi‘s experience and competencies makes him an invaluable partner to me in driving this agenda.”
 
At Lowe & Partners, Mishra has managed brands such as Nestle, Coca-Cola, Maruti-Suzuki, Gillette, ITC, Mercedes Benz, including more than 10 years of partnership with Unilever across markets and categories.

In all, Mishra has nearly 20 years of multi-market experience leading teams, offices and clients across Lowe offices in Asia, spanning roles in international client management at regional level and office leadership at country level.
 

MUMBAI: Mobile social network RockeTalk has launched Cricket World Cup contests – ‘Cricket Vidhata’ and ‘Funny Commentator Contest’.

In ‘Cricket Vidhata’ users can participate by answering four questions about the current day match. Winners are selected randomly from the pool of entries with all the correct answers.
 
Others can share funny updates by taking part in ‘Funny Commentator Contest’. There are prizes being won each day, each hour from every corner of the country. To participate one can type RTALK from the mobile phone and send it to 56070.
 
RockeTalk also has live cricket communities. There are active discussions about the game, players, match, winning teams, schedule, personal views and much more are gaining popularity. Many cricket enthusiasts are sharing live updates direct from the stadium through voice and video feeds with other RockeTalkers.
 
RockeTalk’s also offers voice and video enabled features which allow users to share latest happenings in and around Cricket World Cup for free with their friends on any mobile or email by using the Free MMS! This can be availed across India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Central Africa, South Africa, U.K, U.S.A, Canada, Bangladesh, Sweden, Germany, Kuwait- and many other countries. RockeTalk is broadcasting the feed covered by the very own users games to RockeTalkers all over the world.

MUMBAI: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Kmart have announced that Kmart will be the exclusive presenting sponsor of all the WWE’s US live events throughout 2011.

The partnership encompasses promotional rights to WWE’s pop-culture extravaganza WrestleMania®, exposure at all WWE pay-per-view events and the more than 250 WWE live shows held in the U.S. throughout the year.

WrestleMania XXVII will be held on 3 April at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and is expected to draw approximately 70,000 fans from all 50 states in the US and around the world.
 
As the exclusive presenting sponsor of WWE’s Live Tour, Kmart will be incorporated into all promotional elements of the live events including marketing materials, tickets and digital platforms.

The partnership will also include in-program exposure, as well as :30 commercial units during WWE’s “Monday Night Raw®” on USA Network and “Friday Night SmackDown®” on Syfy. WWE will support the partnership by creating a microsite on WWE.com which will host several sweepstakes and exclusive offers; featuring ads in WWE Magazine and WWE event programmes ; and providing in-store appearances by WWE Superstars and Divas.
 
Kmart CMO Mark Snyder said, “Kmart is excited to expand its relationship with WWE. This partnership will allow our customers to engage with an exciting entertainment brand and enjoy exclusive offers and promotions throughout the year.”
 
WWE executive VP, marketing and sales Michelle D. Wilson said, “The partnership between WWE and Kmart is the perfect fit. The expsure Kmart will have across all of our platforms including live events, TV, pay-per-views, digital assets and talent appearances is certain to drive measurable business results.”

MUMBAI: The first 10 World Cup matches have fetched an average TVR of 2.06 compared to a rating of 2.04 in 2007, demonstrating that the current edition is putting up a stronger performance as the game is played in the Indian subcontinent.

The nail-biting World Cup encounter between Pakistan and Sri Lanka stands as the second most-watched match, trailing behind the India-Bangladesh opener.
 
The keenly fought contest got a peak TVR of 9.19 and an average rating of 3.28. 51 million viewers tuned in to watch that match, according to data from Tam Sports (c&s4+ all India).

The India-Bangladesh one-sided contest, in contrast, got a peak TVR of 12.2 and an average rating of 7.47 across the country.

“The trend shows that the India matches get higher ratings, even if the match is imbalanced. But overall, this World Cup is doing better than the previous one,” a media analyst said.
 
In the current World Cup, just two matches have failed to reach a TVR of 1 compared to four in 2007. Surprisingly, one of them was the Australia versus New Zealand encounter which only got a rating of 0.68.

However, it must be bourne in mind that the match started in the morning. Timing, undoubtedly, is key as can be seen from the fact that Bangladesh versus Ireland encounter, two weak teams, got a rating of 1; the match, played the same day, started at 2 pm.
 
According to Tam data, 29 million people tuned in for this match compared to 17 million people for the Australia versus New Zealand match.

Star cricket continues to fare better than Star Sports. The Pakistan-Sri lanka match saw 39 million viewers tuning in to Star Cricket compared to 19 million on Star Sports.