Category: MAM

MUMBAI: This year, 11 October shall not just be a day to celebrate the birthday of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan but will also witness the legend himself taking charge as host of the fourth edition of Kaun Banega Crorepati.

Betting big on this new flagship property, Sony is pumping in Rs 120 million to market the game-based reality show as it eyes to earn revenues worth Rs 1 billion from the property.
 
The channel has already roped in seven sponsors and is looking at adding one more. Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that Cadbury and Idea had been roped in as presenting sponsors of KBC 4.

Meanwhile, the rest of the five sponsors have come on board as associate partners and are namely Axis Bank, LG, Tata Motors, Sony Bravia and Videocon. “Almost 80-90 per cent of our ad inventory is already locked and we are now close to sealing a deal with the eighth sponsor,” informs Multi Screen Media president network sales, licensing and telephony Rohit Gupta. 
 
As far as the marketing of the show is concerned, the activity has been divided into four phases and remains high across the Hindi speaking markets (HSM).

While the first phase has been about establishing Sony‘s association with KBC and Amitabh Bachchan, the second deals with the “India Plays KBC” thought. This phase was aggressively promoted across print and witnessed approximately 5 million people registering for the show.

Says SET marketing head Danish Khan, “Playing on the insight ‘pursuit of knowledge is rewarding‘, the third phase took up 3000 spots across 39 TV channels and 7000 spots on cable across India. Also, we partnered with the film Dabangg wherein wherever the movie was played, two promos of KBC were tagged into it.”

And now, as KBC enters the launch phase, Sony has designed a 15-day countdown campaign for the show that will be carried out extensively across TV, print and out-of-home.
 
“We have booked 10,000 spots across 39 channels, of which 3500 spots are on Sony network. The other channels include the news, kids, youth, Bollywood, regional, movie and music genre channels,” Khan says.

The channel has also booked 20,000 spots across 35 cities on radio while the OOH campaign will see a 15 city plan (HSM and metros). Overall, there will be over 500 hoardings put up nationwide of which 100 plus hoardings will be placed in Mumbai.

“The launch day, that is 11 October, will also see a big print campaign in approximately 35 top newspapers including English, Hindi and regional,” says Khan.

Meanwhile, in order to ensure strong consumer connect, Sony will use digital to create muscular presence. “However, it‘s TV, print and out-of-home in the ratio of 20:25:25 that form the major chunk of our marketing mix. The rest will be digital and BTL. Also, BTL activities will show up only after the launch,” Khan explains.

MUMBAI: With two of the three Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises faring better than last year, the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 on Star Cricket is showing better results.
 
64 million viewers have tuned in for the first 13 matches compared to 54 million viewers last time around. The average TVR was 1.48 compared to 1.17 last year, according to Tam data c&s4+.
 
This time around, four matches crossed a TVR of 2, three of which featured the Mumbai Indians. The highest rating was for a match between the Mumbai Indians and South Australia Redbacks that got a TVR of 2.66 on 14 September. A match between the Chennai Super Kings and vic5toria Bushrangers on 18 September got a TVR of 2.01.
 
Now that two Indian teams have reached the semi finals, one can expect the ratings to push upwards further.
 

MUMBAI: Tiger Gate Entertainment is beefing up its sales and marketing team with two new appointments.

The company has appointed Alexis Kwong Alvarez as VP sales and marketing and Sorel Roget as senior manager. Both will be based in the company’s Hong Kong headquarters. 
 
Alvarez will be reporting to Tiger Gate Entertainment CEO William Pfeiffer. He will oversee all sales, distribution and marketing operations for Tiger Gate, specifically for its two new pay television channels, KIX and Thrill, available across Asia.

Pfeiffer said, “We are delighted to welcome Alvarez into the Tiger Gate family. His background in Asia’s entertainment industry is very diverse, spanning from business development and marketing to content production. His extensive experience and understanding in all aspects of the business makes him an ideal appointment and a key member of our team as we develop Tiger Gate’s businesses throughout Asia.”
 
Alvarez comes with over 15 years of experience in the entertainment industry, including nine years of strategic marketing and business development at Sony Music Asia. He was pivotal in the set up of Sony Music’s digital music strategies in the region in the late 90s. He then transitioned to the TV business as director music, talent and artist relations at the Star Group and eventually headed Channel [V]’s headquarters in Hong Kong.

Prior to Tiger Gate, he was the programme director at Next TV in Taiwan, working closely with NEXTmedia’s founder Jimmy Lai to develop variety and entertainment shows for the new channels.
 
“I am honoured to join Tiger Gate’s dynamic management team, whose members have such unparalleled experience. I am looking forward to growing with the company and being part of the success of the channels across Asia, bringing Asian viewers the genres of entertainment they love,” Alvarez said.

Prior to joining Tiger Gate, Roget was director of revenue management at W Hong Kong. She comes with over 10 years of experience in strategic management and sales and marketing in the hotel industry into the role.

Pfeiffer commented, “Breadth of knowledge and experience combined with her enthusiasm makes her an immense asset to the team. We look forward to the benefits of her diverse background as we continue to expand throughout the region.”
 

MUMBAI: With India and Australia set to lock horns once again from 1 October, Neo Cricket has roped in five sponsors.
 
Tata DoCoMo and Sony Bravia have come on board as co-presenting sponsors for the series that involves two Tests and three ODIs.
 
Future Bazaar, Lava Mobiles and Tata Manza have come on board as associate sponsors, said a company official, while declining to comment on the advertising rates that the broadcaster would be charging.

Industry sources, however, said Neo is quoting Rs 375,000-400,000 per 10-second spot for the ODIs. For the Test matches, the ad rates are in the region of Rs 100,000-120,000.
 
“This is the festive season and companies are looking for visibility. The entry level rates are, however, high,” said a media buyer who did not want his name to be revealed.

The ratings of ODIs and Test matches have generally come down over the last four years while the reach has gone up. “That means that CPRPs are under a certain amount of pressure,” the media buyer added.

MUMBAI: Amid a strong rebound in the economy, the Mudra Group, an integrated marketing communications outfit, is eyeing a 20 per cent growth in its capital billings this year.

Mudra had posted a 10-12 per cent growth as its billings touched Rs 20 billion in FY‘10 in a tough market, said a senior executive of the company.

The 30-year-old agency recently changed its logo, perspective and website as part of its rebranding exercise. 
 
Says Mudra Group MD and CEO Madhukar Kamath, “It was definitely a much more touch market last year and the growth pace was slower. The market is much more robust today and we can see spends across both mass media and non mass media platforms growing.”

Kamath expects the growth in billings to come from existing as well as new and prospective clients. “While FMCG has been spending well, automobile, financial and educational companies have also begun to increase their spends on brand building. We anticipate our growth to come in from various categories,” he said.
 
Mudra will expand its focus to emerging market verticals like wellness, youth, retail and rural.
 
Mudra aims to dominate the brand solutions value chain based on key pillars of cultural branding, communication and engagement & experience. Integrating new media with traditional, it intends to go to new markets. “This could be to either to forge relationships with global network clients or small town entrepreneurs in India,” said Kamath.

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Ever heard of a product talking to the readers in its print advert? Well, this is exactly what Volkswagen‘s latest variant Vento does in the 21 September editions of The Times Of India and The Hindu: it lends a voice to a medium that has none.

In its newest marketing attempt to introduce its premium entry level sedan in India, Volkswagen has taken the aid of the talking newspapers to reach out to its potential buyers.

Volkswagen has partnered with the TOI and The Hindu for a nationwide communication strategy wherein whenever the reader opens the newspaper, a voice speaks to him about the car manufacturer‘s latest variant in India. A light-sensitive chip is attached to the page announcing the arrival of a perfectly engineered car by Volkswagen.

Says Volkswagen Group Sales India head marketing Lutz Kothe, “With this campaign, our aim was to get the awareness of prospective customers for our new Vento launch and drive traffic to our dealers‘ showroom. This approach has converted a static medium to a dynamic one. The idea directly co-relates to one of our brand propositions which is innovation.”
 
According to Kothe, the idea is based on musical greeting cards which have been given life in the form of a talking newspaper along with the partners Mediacom who took care of the right positioning and DDB Mudra who developed the creative concept.

Elaborating on the creative concept of talking paper, Mudra Group chief creative officer Bobby Pawar says, “Volkswagen is a brand that is about innovation for everyone. That applies to everything, even the advertising. This innovation came from the idea of giving the passion of the engineers who build the Vento a voice in a medium that has none. Our instinct said that it would be super cool to have a talking print advert and believed that if we were excited by the idea other people will as well.” 
 
Adds DDB India president Rajiv Sabnis, “Volkswagen India believes in bringing innovation to the masses and this belief extends beyond the products they create, into everything they do. DDB Mudra believes that creativity is the most powerful force in business that creates TalkValue, influences social communities and drives results. The Volkswagen Vento talking newspaper ad in Times of India/ Hindu, is a confluence of these beliefs. It is one of the most discussed and blogged topics and the most searched subject amongst the online community. So it wasn‘t just the ad that did the talking but got its readers talking about it too!”

Volkswagen currently offers the Jetta and Passat, assembled in Aurangabad for the Indian consumers. Also available on sale is the New Beetle, the SUV Touareg, the Phaeton, the Polo and now the Vento.

The company will soon launch a 360 degree campaign for the Vento based upon its positioning ‘Best in Class.‘

When asked about the marketing challenges that India poses to the product category, Kothe says, “We believe India is “incredible”. Lot of ideas/innovation that would seem impossible in other markets can be done here in India. This country provides incredible opportunities to steer the brand in the right direction.”
 
Not to forget, it was sometime back when Volkswagen had captivated the readers of India‘s largest daily, The Times of India, with its ‘roadblock‘ and the Volkswagen Polo ‘Hole-in-the-paper‘ campaigns.

For the first time ever, a newspaper was blocked on a nationwide scale by a single advertiser across 16 editions. A total of 6.86 million readers were introduced to Volkswagen. Volkswagen was the No.1 searched term on Google India soon after the roadblock.

To launch its premium hatchback, Polo, Volkswagen had cut-outs in the shape of the car at the top of every page of The Times of India and a distinct feature of the car was detailed on each page.

MUMBAI: UTV Interactive, the digital arm of UTV and CafePress, the destination for user-designed apparel and gifts, have announced their endeavour to create and distribute exciting merchandise of John Abraham.

This merchandising business is an extension of UTV Interactive‘s recent foray into brand expansion of celebrities through digital platforms. 
 
Speaking on the launch of John‘s merchandise, UTV Interactive CEO Manish Agarwal said, “We have successfully launched John on web through his official website www.johnabraham.com and on mobile through Voice Blogs. Through our association with CafePress, we are now introducing exciting merchandising options, which are an extension of his personality. Along with T-shirts, we promise to bring a unique bouquet of innovative and stylish merchandise options.”
 
Personally managing the design of each T-shirt and overseeing the creative development of his shop, John‘s online store features stylish T-shirts that truly define his personality. T-shirts, featuring inspirational messages such as “Pain is Temporary Pride is Forever” and witty slogans like “I look like John Abraham,” are available for purchase now.
 
 
Avers CafePress vice president, marketing, Amy Maniatis, “We‘re thrilled to have John‘s shop on CafePress. At CafePress we love to support the creativity of artists worldwide and we‘re sure his fans will enjoy his expressive T-shirt designs.”
 

MUMBAI: Bloomberg UTV has roped in Manoj Menon as senior vice president ad sales.

In his new capacity, Menon will be based out of Mumbai and report directly to business head Deepak Lamba.
 
At Bloomberg UTV, Menon will be responsible for enhancing the channel‘s revenue, capitalising on the recent boost in programming and branding.

Prior to this, Menon was Star Movies & Star World head ad sales. 
 
Said Bloomberg UTV business head Deepak Lamba, “Manoj is vastly experienced in selling various genres of media, and has interacted with a cross section of clients. I‘m confident that under his leadership, we‘ll ensure that our adsales team is ‘best-in-class‘ and able to meet the challenges of the business news market.”

Added Menon, “Bloomberg UTV has shown a lot of promise in this highly competitive genre. I am very excited to be a part of such a young, vibrant and motivated environment. The channel is bustling with potential and I look forward to be a part of its phenomenal growth story.”
 
Manoj has over 17 years of experience in Advertising Sales of which he spent the last 11 years with STAR India with various channels across STAR NETWORK since August 1999 across offices.

MUMBAI: As was the case for the Uefa Euro 2008 soccer tourney, Intersport will be the Official Sports Shop of Licensed Products also at the Uefa Euro 2012 and 2016, following a signed agreement with Uefa and Adidas.

In more than 800 Intersport stores in over 20 countries, the company will install dedicated Uefa Euro areas. Furthermore, Intersport will be operating onsite sales in the stadia and Fan Zones exclusively.
 
The deal covers 20 European countries, including the respective host countries of Poland and Ukraine in 2012 and France in 2016. In addition, Intersport will exclusively operate the on-site sales of licensed products at the Uefa Euro 2012 and Uefa Euro 2016 stadia and the official Uefa Fan Zones.

As the Official Sports Shop of licensed products, Intersport will offer products in 800 stores across Europe during the event phase. Each store will have a dedicated area for selling the licensed products range. The first product range will be available in the host cities 18 months prior to the event.
 
Intersport International CEO Franz Julen says, “Football is and remains a key category of almost every Intersport store. The co-operation with Uefa and Adidas enables us to further differentiate from the competition and to continue strengthening our position as the world‘s biggest football retailer. Our distribution in 39 countries and dedicated sales areas in the stores will assist in marketing the Uefa Euro licensed products worldwide and to further promote the events. The onsite sales in the stadia will be of an outstanding quality as for the Uefa Euro 2008.”
 
Adidas chief sales officer Roland Auschel is seeing the close partnership with Intersport as a platform to achieve the set goals. “We are pleased to further intensify our strong collaboration with Intersport after a highly successful collaboration around the 2010 Fifa World Cup and Uefa Euro 2008. Adidas is the global market leader in the football category and Intersport with its wide reach and high competence is the right retail partner for us to successfully market our exciting innovations around the upcoming Uefa Euro 2012 and 2016,” says Auschel.

MUMBAI: Colors has launched a promotional music video for its upcoming reality show, Bigg Boss 4.

The unconventional music video features host of the show, Salman Khan, grooving with a bevy of beauties. The video will break on the channel tonight. 
 
This is the first time that the channel has launched an official music video of its show.

The video has been directed by film director Milan Luthria and has been choreographed by Pony Verma. The music has been rendered by composer duo Sajid-Wajid.

Wajid has also lent his voice to the track. Khan’s look for the video has been put together by his sister, Alvira Agnihotri, and fashion designer, Ashley Rebello.
 
Colors programming head Ashvini Yardi said, “Since the time we have announced Salman Khan as the host for Bigg Boss 4, we have witnessed unprecedented excitement and buzz amongst the viewers. Keeping in mind our promise of giving viewers ‘andar majaa aur baahar majedaar‘, we have released a series of entertaining promos and are releasing a music video for the first time. Viewers want more and more of Salman and till the show goes on air, we will keep them entertained with the music video and lots of other surprises.” 
 
Speaking about this initiative, Colors director- marketing Rajesh Iyer added, “Our marketing efforts around the show reflect the same kind of enthusiasm and innovation to further build curiosity around the show. For the first time we have launched a music video that will not only be showcased on our channel but also on other channels across genres. The idea was to create an unconventional musical to give our viewers a sneak peek of the show and a memorable experience. The video has everything that will create buzz and keep our viewers entertained till the show goes on air.”

The entire background setting of the video has a Moroccan look. The video has been created keeping in mind Salman’s bindaas and fun attitude and the various emotions contestants go through in the Bigg Boss house – hatred, jealousy and insecurity.