Category: MAM

MUMBAI: New-Jersey-based Bradford Licensing is fortifying its India presence via a joint venture with Franchise India Group to launch its global brands such as Marilyn Monroe and Beverly Hills Love in the country.

The joint venture, Bradford License India (BLI), will also tap new clients in India. It will offer integrated licensing solution services to both licensors and licensees and devise licensing strategies.
 
Global licensing agency Bradford will bring to the JV its existing clients that include Pepsi, 7 UP, Mountain Dew, The Wannabes starring Savvy, King Kong and Zorro. Franchise India has clients like HCL, MGF, Quality Walls, Tata, Gitanjali, HSBC, Levis, JK Tyres, Lakme, D‘damas, Adidas, Euro Kidz, The Apollo Clinic, Shiv Khera and Harbhajan Singh.

The JV will seek to develop the rapidly growing brand licensing market in India. BLI will act as a global agency and explore non-conventional licensing opportunities in India by capitalizing on the intellectual insight of Bradford Licensing.
 
Says Bradford Licensing president Michelle Minieri “India is a country filled with opportunities for licensing, and ready for significant expansion. As a byproduct of globalization, increased competition and industrialization, licensing is becoming critical to the success of business growth. I am confident that this synergistic relationship now known as Bradford License India is the ideal match that will generate some very exciting business opportunities.”

BLI has initiated the process of building the infrastructure with critical team members working throughout India to acclimate the local team to the world of licensing.
 
Says Franchise India Group president Gaurav Marya, “Bradford License India is perfectly geared to expand into diverse spheres of licensing in India. Its working parameters are primed by deriving licensing models as per the global standards and their integration with local marketing and networking strengths.”

Bradford License India aims to focus on comprehensive licensing programmes, including the design, development, and management of the acquired licensing property.
 

MUMBAI: Digital and direct marketing agency OgilvyOne Asia-Pacific has appointed Jerry Smith as its new regional president. Smith will be based in Hong Kong and will also join the OgilvyOne Worldwide Board. His new role takes effect immediately.

In his new role, Smith will oversee the OgilvyOne operations in 12 local markets across the region. This will involve oversight of all aspects of the OgilvyOne business, which includes a consulting division, digital labs (in Singapore and China), the digital media operation, Neo@Ogilvy, which will continue to be run by Neo@Ogilvy‘s Asia president Susana Tsui and a large number of digital and direct marketing specialists. 
 
The current OgilvyOne Asia president Kent Wertime will now take on the role of chairman of OgilvyOne Asia while he continues his current responsibilities as Ogilvy Japan president.

Smith is a long-term Ogilvy Asia veteran, having worked previously as COO of OgilvyOne Asia and more recently as chairman of Ogilvy‘s Red Works operations.
 
Said Ogilvy & Mather Asia chairman Tim Isaac, “Jerry has made many significant contributions to Ogilvy over several years. He is both an Ogilvy thought leader as well as an important commercial leader of our business.”

Ogilvy & Mather Asia CEO Paul Heath noted that Smith is the perfect pick to lead OgilvyOne Asia since the group‘s growth will come from ongoing expansion of its capabilities in new areas of the business. “Jerry has a mission to ensure that OgilvyOne extends its market leadership position at a time when clients are increasing their digital marketing commitments – and need informed agency guidance on the most effective ways to connect with Asian consumers.”

Smith‘s appointment comes at an important time for OgilvyOne Asia. The regional network continues to expand its operations in the region in-line with the growth of digital marketing, analytics, and offshoring demands from clients. 
 
Kent Wertime commented, “I am happy that Jerry is taking on leadership of the OgilvyOne Asia, as I know he will drive the next chapter of OgilvyOne‘s growth in Asia. In the coming several months, OgilvyOne will continue to have more news to share as it expands in areas such as digital consulting, digital production, mobile, and other areas of client need.”

MUMBAI: Chennai-based real estate company Hygrevar Estates and Hearth has appointed Ignitee Digital Solutions for its search engine marketing services.
 
Said Hygrevar Estates and Hearth MD Sivakumar, “We were looking for an agency which would understand the core functionality of our business and not just any usual online media agency. Ignitee fits the bill and we are happy to have them on board as our official online media marketing agency.”
 
Said Ignitee Digital Solutions COO Shankar, “Since inception, we have always worked on campaigns that have added value to customers. It is this history that has helped us in gaining the trust of reputed names from the industry. We are certain that with the talent and minds back at Ignitee, we will see these wins increasing even further-more.”

Some of the clients that Ignitee handles include Ministry of Tourism, Tata Building India, Aircel, Reliance Life Insurance, Teach for India, Aviva life Insurance, Essar Steel Hypermart, Kidzee, Whirlpool, ITM, Dubai-based Continental Coffee and Babyshop.

MUMBAI: The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced that Red Bull has signed a four-year contract extension to remain the official energy drink partner to the England team until the end of summer 2013.
 
As part of the renewal, Red Bull, which first became an ECB partner in 2005, will supply the England team with products at all international matches.
 
In return, Red Bull will receive a range of sponsorship assets that includes in-ground advertising, ticketing and hospitality, branded drinks boxes around the boundary edge and product placement around international cricket stadia.

ECB head of sponsorship Mark Pearce says, “Red Bull is an established partner of the England cricket team and we are delighted it continues to see great benefit from its association with the team.”

MUMBAI: Starwood Hotels & Resorts has appointed Starcom Worldwide as its media partner in India.

Starcom will initially look at print and out-of-home to build the brand in the country. “We will later approach television as a medium,” says a senior executive on condition of anonymity.

This is for the first time that the compnay has engaged a media agency to handle its duties. 
 
Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels and resorts with the following brands: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, Four Points by Sheraton, W, Le Méridien and the recently announced Aloft and Element.
 
Said Starcom Worldwide executive director – India-North Tarun Deep Kumar, “Starwood is a leading player in the world of hospitality. Managing its media investments in India is a matter of immense prestige for us. We are happy about the fact that they have chosen to partner with us in achieving their marketing goals. It will be a good experience for the team working on the Starwood brands as they expand in various markets.”

MUMBAI: Mudra North & East, a unit of Mudra India, has appointed Nikhlesh Jhingan as group director – brand communications.

Jhingan will be working out of the Delhi office and will handle the HBO, Wrigley and Philips accounts. He will report to Mudra North & East EVP and head Ajay Naqvi.
 
 Prior to this, Jhingan was Nestle account director at Publicis.

Said Naqvi, “Nikhlesh has a fantastic mix of advertising and marketing experience nationally and internationally. His perspective and experience will help Mudra Delhi deliver even more value to the key client relationship on Philips, Wrigley and HBO.”
 
Jhingan brings with him over a decade of experience working on brands such as Nestle India, Parle Foods – Smoothies and Melody, Marico Mealmaker Soya, Royal Enfield‘s Thunderbird and Electra Models, Ambi Pur Car Perfumes and Radio City in Mumbai and Delhi.
 
Some of the agencies that Jhingan has worked with include Percept/H, Grey Worldwide and Relationship Marketing Group (O&M).

MUMBAI: Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai has crafted a new television commercial for Anchor Health & Beauty Care‘s toothpaste variant, Anchor White. 
 
Produced by Corcoise Films, the TVC has been directed by Prasoon Pandey.

Said Anchor Health & Beauty Care MD Sanjay Shah, “In a market that was slicing the propositions into infinite permutations and combinations, we decided to get back to the basics – strong teeth.”
 
Added Ogilvy & Mather India NCD Abhijit Avasthi, “Besides talking about the product we wanted to up the imagery of Anchor toothpastes. Toothpastes have by and large done formulaic advertising. Neither the client nor we believe that there is a prescribed way of doing communication for oral care products. Our attempt was to do a nice fun commercial which is entertaining and rooted in a product benefit, set in a relevant context like eating. We believe the proposition of ‘Daant fit toh life fit‘ will ring true with everybody and it‘s a platform that is vastly extendable.”

MUMBAI: For Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, October is going to be an auspicious birth month this year as it will mark his re-entry into television as anchor of the famous game show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, that he so successfully hosted a decade back.

Sony Entertainment Television is still toying with the idea of whether it should launch the show on 11 October, coinciding with the Big B‘s birthday. The Hindi general entertainment channel has, however, decided to display the fourth season of Kaun Banega Crorepati in October and place it in the primetime band.
 
KBC4 will run for 36 episodes. “The show is going to launch in October. We haven‘t finalised the date of its debut airing,” says Multi Screen Media president network sales, licensing and telephony Rohit Gupta.

Sony has already roped in four sponsors. Idea, it is learnt, is the telecom partner and is paying around Rs 120 million for the sponsorship deal. The partnership is based on a revenue-share arrangement for SMS‘ and IVRs.

Cadbury is a presenting sponsor and will be coughing out Rs 120 million, industry sources say. 
 
While declining to reveal any specifics, Gupta admits that the broadcaster has already signed up four sponsors.
Sony is in negotiations with FMCG major HUL.

“We are looking for a total of eight sponsors, out of which two will be co-presenting. Sponsors will take up around 60 per cent of inventory. Our aim is to integrate each sponsor in the show and we are looking at ways to do this. A lifeline could be given to a sponsor. However, there has to be a fit with the brand. It cannot be done arbitrarily,” Gupta says.
 
Sony is betting on the fact that KBC is returning after two years on indian television. “There will be an appetite for KBC4 from viewers and advertisers. We expect to close out sponsorship deals by the end of the month,” says Gupta. 

MUMBAI: The Hindi GEC space never fails to play its little rumble-tumble match with every passing week, at least within the top-three gang.

It was only last week that Zee TV had managed to knock out Colors and grab the second spot after a ten-week wait. And just a week later, Colors has once again regained the position.
 
The win for Colors has come with an additional 36 GRPs (gross rating points) from its previous week‘s tally of 255 GRPs.

As part of its programming strategy, the channel had crafted a highpoint in its 10 pm property, Uttaran, which resulted in the death of one of the key characters. The 15 July episode, which showed the death sequence, clocked a peak TVR of 8.4, helping the channel to raise its bar. 
 
Meanwhile, Zee TV once again fell back to its third spot as it shed 13 GRPs and closed the week with 252 GRPS. This is the third time in the year that the channel has failed to stick on to its position.

So why did the channel fail to stick on to the second spot?

Says Zee TV marketing head Akash Chawla, “Overall, we refrain from gimmicks. Last week‘s spike was not from any special episode or a big movie or a break-free primetime or movie. We do not react to the ratings and change the storyline of the shows. It moves as natural progression.” 
 
Meanwhile, Star Plus maintained its lead with 356 GRPs (previous week 343). It added 13 GRPs, mainly on the back of IIFA Awards aired on 11 July, which clocked a 4.9 TVR.

MUMBAI: Radio One, which is strengthening its ‘music specialisation‘ proposition, has appointed Starcom and Vivaki as its buying and planning agencies following a multi agency pitch.

The radio station has also launched a nationwide multimedia campaign focuses on the ‘listener centric‘ property ‘Play Your Music Day‘ where listeners will physically visit the stations in seven cities and play their favourite 13 songs. The media spend for this campaign will be approximately Rs 100 million. 
 
The first of these activities is on 28 July and will be launched on air by an Unplugged Full concert of Shankar Ehsaan Loy.

The television campaign for ‘Play Your Music Day‘ is lead by five films that depict the station promise of ‘maximum music‘ in an entertaining fashion. A further six films already shot, will be revealed slowly to talk about other interesting music led features of the ‘music station‘. All the films showcase the camaraderie of the brand ambassadors Shankar Ehsaan Loy.
 
As part of the print campaign initiative, dailies are being used tactically closer to the ‘play your music‘ days in the metros to highlight immediacy. The print publications being used are those from the Mid-Day and ToI group mostly and regional publications.

Outdoor and on-ground promotions are happening in all seven cities to select the listeners who will play their favourite songs on ‘play your music day‘. Various locations in the cities are being used to promote the concept using Radio One‘s POM POM girls who dance to 94.3 Radio One‘s anthem song ‘aao apna gaana bajao‘ which has been composed and performed by Shankar Ehsaan Loy. The on ground campaign is also supported by bus backs.
 
The Radio One anthem song by Shankar Ehsaan Loy has been used as a hook to invite intrigue as regards to play your music day. The download banners are visible on various b2b sites. This digital partner for Radio One is 2ergo. To increase mobile involvement, Radio One has also launched ‘song alerts‘ on sms to keep the buzz high at the time of this campaign

Said Radio One MD Vineet Singh Hukmani, “Our business strategy is one of ‘music specialisation‘ and we want to prove that in a sea of generic radio stations.”

Added national head – marketing Shyju Varkey, “We want our listeners to be involved with all aspects of our product‘s attributes. The campaign aims to heighten this in an ‘uncluttered radio brand space‘. We timed this to allow our Rs 100 million of media spend to work very hard.”