Category: MAM

MUMBAI: LifeCell India strategic communications campaign wins again following regional campaign of the year win at PR Week Asia awards

Hanmer MS&L India, part of MS&LGroup, has been awarded a “Stevie Distinguished Honoree” medal in the Communications or PR Campaign of the Year- Marketing and Consumer Services category by the International Business Awards. The agency has bagged the honour for its campaign to overcome Indian cultural taboos and build the LifeCell brand. 
 
Earlier, the campaign had secured top honours at last year‘s Asia Pacific PR Week awards with regional product development campaign of the year in the general consumer awards category.

Nicknamed Stevie for the Greek word “crowned,” Stevie Distinguished Honorees were selected from more than 1,700 entries received from organizations and individuals in over 40 countries. The LifeCell brand campaign was awarded honoree status after two rounds of judging by global professionals.
 
LifeCell International is the first and largest private cord blood stem cell bank and stem cell solutions provider in India which facilitates the cryogenic preservation of umbilical cord blood stem cells. Hanmer MS&L successfully positioned LifeCell as the most preferred and reliable brand in India that provides comprehensive stem cells solutions. Hanmer MS&L was responsible for formulating and implementing various creative stakeholder engagement programmes, complimented by a strong media visibility campaign across a diverse and multicultural Indian society. Customer “connect” programmes such as “Future mom 2009” – a ramp walk for pregnant women and free antenatal workshops – is an example of how the agency helped to establish a strong association between the brand and the target audience. 
 
Said Hanmer MS&L India CEO Jaideep Shergill, “In healthcare, a PR agency‘s role is not restricted to media management but extends to helping organisations in understanding and creating demand among consumers, communicating effectively with the medical community about products, services and technological advances, developing and articulating policy and developing crisis and issues management strategies. Over the years, Hanmer MS&L has focused on creating a strong consumer healthcare practice which has consistently worked at raising the bar in the way we service our clients, with the objective of adding value to every facet of the communications effort. It indeed is a moment of pride and joy for us to win this accolade at the International Business Awards. We congratulate the team for their performance and aspire to soar higher in the days to come.”

MUMBAI: The Government of Gabon has assigned its creative duties to Euro RSCG following a multi-agency pitch.

According to industry sources, the size of the account is pegged at approximately Rs 18-20 crores. 
 
Initially, Euro RSCG will launch the campaign across the European countries, Malaysia and China.
 
“The campaign will be internationally launched around 16 August with a major thrust on ATL activities and will later break in India sometime in October,” says Euro RSCG VP – client services Sheel Saket. 
 
With this campaign, Government of Gabon aims to draw the attention of investors in developed nations towards various SEZ projects waiting to be flagged off in Gabon.

MUMBAI: Madison Media Plus COO Praveen Sharma has put in his papers, ending his six-year stint with the company.

Sharma will be replaced by Ashish Singru who comes in from Microsoft, USA. Singru will be responsible for handling the Airtel account which was earlier handled by Sharma. 
 
Sharma‘s next stop is likely to be Google, according to multiple sources in the industry.
 
While Sharma confirmed the development to Indiantelevision.com, he denied commenting on speculations of his joining Google in Singapore.
 
Prior to joining Madison, Sharma was with Mediaedge: CIA. He has also worked with Rediffusion Y&R, Initiative Media and Zenith Media.

Singru, meanwhile, is an IIT Kanpur graduate with an MBA from University of IOWA with 14 years of experience in marketing, media and analytics.

At Microsoft, Redmond, Singru spent six years at corporate marketing group looking after strategic media planning, campaign evaluation and business analytics.

Says Madison Media Group CEO Punitha Arumugam, “I am happy to have Ashish in my team and I am sure he will bring fresh thinking and fresh approach based on his experience in US, which will help us take Airtel to the next level of success.”

MUMBAI: Global marketing services company Carlson Marketing has expanded its footprints into India with the launch of its first office in the country in Mumbai on the strength of its relationship with Kingfisher Airlines.
 
Said Carlson Marketing Asia Pacific MD Nik Laming, “This office opening is especially important for loyalty marketers in this region of the world. A local presence is critical to serve local clients. Our launch team of 10 – which we expect to grow rapidly – demonstrates our commitment to the region and gives us the perfect blend of the best local talent supported by international knowledge and experts throughout our global network.”

Added Kingfisher Airlines VP guest loyalty Anshu Sarin, “We have worked with Carlson Marketing, continuing to develop and differentiate the King Club programme in India for the last 12 months. We continuously strive to deliver the best for our guests and King Club is a key vehicle for us. Carlson Marketing‘s deep and international loyalty and airline expertise made them a natural choice as a partner for Kingfisher.” 
 
Carlson Marketing‘s Mumbai office delivers a full suite of services in support of loyalty and relationship building programmes including programme design, creative and digital marketing services, rewards and operations, technology services and decision science.

Said Carlson Marketing Worldwide president and CEO Jeff Balagna, “India is a key strategic focus for both Carlson Marketing and our parent company Groupe Aeroplan. Our expansion to India is a testament to the global demand for services that build stronger relationships and maximize the value customers deliver for our clients.” 
 
Some of the brands that Carlson Marketing works with include Coca-Cola, Qantas, Procter & Gamble, Oracle, Exxon Mobil and RBS. The loyalty management company has offices in 16 countries including the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, the UK, Canada and now India.

NEW DELHI: The Government has categorically said that it does not at this stage propose to set up any committee to screen advertisements before their telecast.
 
This is despite the recent directives relating to surrogate advertisements or limiting the advertisements to the extent that they did not interfere with the programmes.
 
Certain safeguards are provided by Rule 7(4) of the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994 and the Government takes action when any violation is brought to its attention.
 
The Rules, however, provide for action against the TV channel and not the advertising companies or product manufacturers.

MUMBAI: After savouring the “All Izz Well” spike so as to command the third spot in the Hindi GEC space with 270 GRPs, Sony Entertainment Television is back to stay put as the fourth channel in the slice.

Sony, which had touched a new eight-year high on the back of 91.7 GRPs it mobilized from the blockbuster 3 Idiots, could not hold on to its third rank and shed 89 points to get dislodged by Zee TV which pocketed 253 GRPs for the week ended 7 August.
 
The channel, however, is betting big on the finale build-up and the finale itself of Indian Idol to fetch the next spike as it prepares to get its mega show Kaun Banega Crorepati 4 with Amitabh Bachchan as host in October.

Sony is also launching Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Karega on 16 August and the Boogie Woogie finale this Friday.

For Sony, it is old-wine CID that has once again topped the GRP chart with 66 GRPs, according to Tam data for the week ended 7 August. 
 
Its Indian Idol and Aahat-4 that have come in as the next biggest GRP donors to Sony. Indian Idol has attracted 27 GRPs (23 GRPs previous week) and Aahat 16 GRPs (15 GRPs previous week). Indian Idol-5 (Monday-Thur 9 pm) averaged 2.8 TVR (2.4 TVR) while for Aahat the weekday half-hour strip (Mon-Thu 10.30 pm) averaged 1.0 (1.0 TVR) and the weekend one-hour bi-weekly episodes (Fri-Sat 11 pm) averaged 0.8 TVR (1.1 TVR).

“While we know that the spike last week came in from 3 Idiots, it should also be noted that the channel has grown from the 162 GRPs that it had registered the week before when the movie was still to be aired. This means our other fiction and non-fiction properties are on a growth track,” says Sony Entertainment Television business head Ajit Thakur. 
 
While Godh Bharai (Mon-Thur 7.30 pm) averaged 0.2 TVR (0.2 TVR in previous week), Baat Humari Pakki Hai (Mon-Thur 8.30 pm) averaged 0.6 TVR (0.6 TVR). The one-hour episode on Monday at 8 pm rated 0.6 TVR. Comedy Circus Ke Superstar (Fri-Sat 9 pm), meanwhile, is at 2.5 TVR (2.7 TVR in previous week).

Meanwhile, Sony‘s sister channel Sab has garnered 119 GRPs, up from the 89 points it mopped up in the previous week. The channel‘s Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah made it to the top 10 shows of the week with a TVR of 4.28, a remarkable position to be in.

Hindi GEC genre leader Star Plus (338 GRPs) has seen a 27 GRP decline over last week that has largely come from the weekend day parts – weekend movies (-13) and weekend original programming (-7).

Colors, on the other hand, has gained 17 GRPs over the previous week to score 306 GRPs. The day parts that have increased are: weekday prime (13 GRPs), Weekend movies (10) and Weekend others (4). The dayparts that saw a decrease have been Weekday Afternoon (-2), Weekend Original (-3) and Weekday others (-5).

The channel showed six movies during the week. Raavan (Sun 8 pm) rated a 2.3 TVR; Ajab Prem ki Gajab Kahani (Sat 6.30 pm) rated 1.8 (three breaks of less than a minute); Haseena Maan Jayegi (Sun 11.30 am) 0.9; Kites (Sat 4.30 pm) 0.9 (the movie ran breakless); Tapori Wanted (Telugu movie Pokhri -Dubbed) (Fri 4 pm) 0.7 TVR and Baghban (Sun 4.30 pm) 0.7 TVR.

MUMBAI: Newly-formed Purple Spinach Communications, owned by former Ignitee SVP Sandy Pinto, has entered into a pact to handle Niche Events & Promotions‘ creative work.
 
Says Niche Events owner Sylvester Chaves, “Our endeavour has always been to provide multiple solutions with a focused approach hence the collaboration adds value to our clients. We were on the lookout for the right partner to build on our strengths. And we have found that in Purple Spinach. Our core focus remains the same: events, activation and promotions.”
 
Added Pinto, “Niche Events and Promotions will be the perfect foil for our holistic approach to communication. Be it in terms of offering 360 degree solutions to clients, contributing to the strategic output and even complementing our creative efforts. It‘s a strategic tie up so it will move beyond revenue sharing to knowledge and talent. The idea is to leverage on each other‘s core competencies.”
 
Some brands that Niche has in its kitty include The Bayer Group of Companies in India, Tata Teleservices (Tata Indicom & Tata DoCoMo), Tata AIG Life, Siemens India, Force Motors (A Bajaj Group company), Roche Diagnostics India, Tata Steel Ltd., Nilkamal Plastics Ltd. (the furniture division), Sandoz India, DuPont India, Premier Automobiles, BOC India Ltd., Axis Bank, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Star Cruises India, ICICI Bank, Dow Chemicals and Nirmal Lifestyle.

MUMBAI: A few months after announcing their staregic partnership, the TBWA Ignitee entity has bagged several new digital assignments for a range of clients including Visa, Singapore Airlines, Apple and Style spa. The new businesses come in from Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. 
 
Said TBWA India Group CEO Shiv Sethuraman, “I am also glad that the range of assignments we have secured is wide – from integrated digital campaigns, to website creation to media planning and buying. We were confident we had found the right model to take to the market and it is nice to see this belief being validated by clients.”
 
The media campaign for Singapore Airlines would include promoting special weekend getaway offers to destinations like Singapore, Jakarta, Manila, Taipei and Beijing. Meanwhile, the assignment for Visa involves driving awareness for pre-paid cards which included the creation of a microsite.
 
Said Ignitee CEO Atul Hegde, “This is a great start to our partnership. We now look forward to jointly creating some great work for these brands. I‘m very impressed to see the TBWA team investing so much time in educating their clients on the opportunities the digital landscape offers to brands. This will lead into many more such success for our combine.”
 

MUMBAI: Marketing solutions company Manhattan Communications India has tapped Future Group president (customer strategy) and Future Media CEO Sandip Tarkas to join its board as an independent director.

A veteran of the media industry, Tarkas has worked as head of Mindshare Fulcrum and CEO of MPG and Media Direction in the past.
 
Says Manhattan Communications co-promoter and director Shantonu Aditya, “Sandip‘s vast knowledge and experience in media will help in guiding the company‘s growth strategy across the US, UK and India, especially in the marketing Solutions and Digital space.”

Adds Manhattan Communications founder Adris Chakraborty, “We look forward to Sandip‘s valuable ideas and suggestions to take the company ahead aggressively.”
 
Manhattan Communications has operations in the US, UK , Canada and India. MediaMorphosis LLC, a subsidiary company, is an advertising agency based out of New York and handles a large pool of global and Indian clients.

Manhattan Communications also has a majority stake in Ethnocast Inc, a company acquired from PayPod Inc that operates an ad network portal.
 
In India , the company focuses on brand building and marketing especially in the Below the Line areas – television production, promotions, events, exhibitions and Out of Home solutions. The company also operates in the digital space operating an ad network through entities – Manhattan Digital and EON India. The company has offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata and plans to start the Bangalore operations soon.
 

MUMBAI: JWT India has announced the appointment of Tarun Chauhan as the managing partner and SVP of JWT Mumbai. He rejoins the company on 23 August.

Chauhan will replace Dhunji S Wadia, who had quit recently.
 
Chauhan comes with an experience of over two decades in advertising. Prior to joining JWT, he was with Lowe for nine years.

In 2007, he joined Lowe Mumbai as VP and went on to become the executive director. In 2010, he was designated President of Lowe India, managing all businesses apart from Unilever. 
 
He was responsible for Lintas Production (content, production, marketing and talent management) and driving new business across the group.

Before joining Lowe, Chauhan was with JWT and was part of the team that set up Thompson Connect, now integrated within JWT.
 
Commenting on the appointment, JWT CEO Colvyn Harris said, “The wheel turns full circle for Tarun and we are glad that he has come back to the JWT family. Our search for finding the best talent continues. We recently announced Adrian Miller as CCO Delhi. Tarun‘s joining will greatly improve our professional bench-strength.”