Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Goldmine Advertising, which is in process of broadening its service offerings portfolio, has partnered with WPP’s digital marketing agency Quasar to extend digital services to its clients.

The company said that this strategic alliance will “harness and capitalise the strength of both Goldmine and Quasar in their respective domains.”
 
Goldmine boasts a vast array of clientele ranging from PSUs like MTNL, BSNL and Western Railways to international clients like CIBA Vision and G-Data antivirus solutions.

Quasar, as the digital arm of Goldmine Advertising, will manage all aspects of digital communication for the clients of Goldmine, which would include account planning, strategy development, media buying, creative development and new initiatives in the online space.

Quasar will draw synergies from its team across India to service the clients of Goldmine. 
 
Goldmine Advertising MD Madan Singla said, “Goldmine Advertising is committed to delivering 360 degrees communication services to its esteemed clients. Our new initiatives in the field of media, BTL etc have met with good response and success. Our strategic alliance with Quasar will now bring on board expertise in online and digital services which we are sure will be beneficial to our clientele.”
 
“We are excited about the partnership of service offering through Goldmine”, said Quasar business head – west Moneka Khurana. “Today, a client is keen on hiring a full service agency to drive both offline and online integration to meets its communication objectives. This partnership has opened up new avenues for both the agencies.”
 

NEW DELHI : In a bid to reach out to youth consumers, Lenovo India has launched a new multi-city campaign that will offer a sneak peek into its latest range of notebooks/desktops.

Called ‘Fun-on-Wheels‘, the campaign, undertaken in association with Intel, has been initiated in Bangalore and will move on to Hyderabad during the month. 
 
As part of the initiative, a road show will be conducted across various locations within these two cities. A mobile van with Lenovo’s new ‘Fun’ brand positioning will showcase the brand‘s latest range of flagship consumer products across key vicinities in these cities.

The Lenovo ‘Fun-on-Wheels‘ will cover most parts of the city with different routes each day. 
 
Consumers can view the company‘s latest TV commercials and select product videos, enabling them to relate to Lenovo’s fun proposition, and get their queries answered and make spot booking of a particular product they want to purchase.

To propagate the concept of ‘Fun’ amongst consumers, Lenovo will organise various contests based on the concept of fun, thereby offering the audience an opportunity to win exciting goodies. 
 
Said Lenovo India VP HSB (Home and SMB) Alex Li, “We are enhancing our focus on the young Indian consumer with our ‘Get closer to consumers’ strategy. The primary objective of this campaign is to engage with our consumers at a closer level and deepen brand connect. This campaign will provide consumers a ‘touch and feel‘ of Lenovo’s new range of products that are packed with a multitude of features complementing fun. Through this campaign, we also intend to fortify our relationship with our channel partners and regional distributors and increase our sales.”

MUMBAI: Below-the-line marketing firm Theme Ventures has launched an SME marketing cell. To begin with, the division has inked a distribution and marketing deal with Delhi-based BCC cement and Kolkata-based Mahalaxmi TMT bar for establishing BCC‘s entire cement and TMT bar‘s distribution channel across Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Bihar and Jharkhand.

For BCC cement, Theme Ventures aims to devise a massive rural marketing drive attempting to penetrate into small towns and kasbas across Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan to encash on the growing demand for cement for housing as opposed to the traditional mud hut concept.
 
Meanwhile, the company has already begun appointing retailers for BCC cement and Mahalaxmi and is managing its day to day sales operations.

Says Theme Ventures CEO Rajan Guha, “We hold a mandate to establish micro-level distribution for both the brands at small towns, villages and kasbas. These mid size brands are fighting for market share amidst established biggies who however have not made an attempt to go to town with one lakh population.” 
 
The launch strategy of both these infrastructure product brands is two fold: First, penetration and second, outreach.

Theme Ventures has started appointing dealers of TMT bars and cements across the smaller towns. Alongside, Theme Ventures has started tying up with panchayat pradhans in different villages to make them recommend cement as an alternate to mud brick houses.

In the meantime, BCC cement shall provide Theme Ventures a couple of mobile vans with audio visual and trained housing construction experts to visit every village where it has appointed dealers to advice villagers on usage of cement and make them understand the difference between various qualities of cement. 
 
Additionally, an extensive shop level visual merchandising programme has been devised for both BCC cement and Mahalaxmi across North India and Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand based on the footprint of the respective brands.

Said Guha, ” Distribution and channel sales is a very complicated affair . Its also the nerve center for product marketing. With manpower cost spiraling, regional SMEs are finding it extremely difficult to retain and procure specialized distribution professionals. Theme Ventures is trying to fill in this void with a large pool of high quality trained professionals on its payroll, to set up and manage the day to day micro level product distribution for various companies across the country.”

MUMBAI: Aegon Religare Life Insurance has launched its new campaign that plays on the proposition, “uncertain world, certain solution”. 
 
Crafted by Ogilvy & Mather, the three films have been shot by Prakash Varma of Nirvana Films. The creative team is led by executive creative director Anup Chitnis while the team comprises creative director Anuraag Khandelwal and associate creative director Satish De‘sa. 
 
The campaign will see a heavy TV burst supported by a five-six pan India campaign. There will be more than 5,000 TV spots and will have presence in all genres that include news, GEC, regional, movies and music.
 

MUMBAI: Maxus has bagged the media duties of L‘Oreal India following a multi-agency pitch that also included incumbent agency Lodestar, Madison and ZenithOptimedia. 
 
According to industry sources, the size of the account is estimated to be in the region of Rs 1.3-1.5 billion.
 
As part of its new mandate, Maxus will handle the print, television and radio media spends for the company while Lodestar UM will continue to handle the digital medium.
 
The out-of-home business, however, will not be handled by any of the two.
 

MUMBAI: Maurizio Vitale has been named Oprah Winfrey Network (Own) senior VP, marketing.

The announcement was made by Own CEO Christina Norman to whom he will report.
 
In this new position, Vitale will be responsible for all on-air and off-air marketing and promotional opportunities for the network, as well as the brand position and identity of Own which launches on 1 January 2011.

Norman says, “Maurizio has done a phenomenal job for the Discovery Networks internationally, providing creative messaging and a fresh and relevant perspective. I know he will be a strong member of my team, and look forward to tapping into his extensive knowledge as we launch Own.”
 
Vitale joins Own from Discovery Networks Europe, Middle East and Africa where he was senior vice president, marketing communications. He was responsible for directing all elements of the brand expression to over 100 markets in 25 different languages, and developing locally compelling campaigns throughout EMEA to increase brand franchise and brand equity.

Vitale will join Own after a transition from Discovery Europe.
 
Own is a JV between Harpo and Discovery. It will be a multi-platform media company designed to entertain, inform, and inspire people to live their best lives.

Own will debut in approximately 80 million homes, on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel. The venture also will include the digital platform, Oprah.com.
 

MUMBAI: R K Swamy BBDO has bagged the creative duties for Valvoline Engine Oils.

The win comes close on the heels of the Rage Mobiles and LIC Nomura creative and media mandates bagged by the agency last month. 
 
Set up in India in 1998, Valvoline Cummins is a JV between Ashland Inc. USA and Cummins Sales & Services (India), a wholly owned subsidiary of Cummins India. Valvoline Engine Oils is one of India‘s fastest growing lubricant brands.

R K Swamy BBDO competed against agencies such as Draft FCB and Capital Advertising to win this medium-sized business.
 
Said R K Swamy BBDO senior partner Sunil Kukreti, ‘Our creative ideas and strategy made a strong connect with the client‘s expectations and we are confident of strengthening and growing the Valvoline brand.‘

Added Valvoline AVP marketing Sandeep Singla, “We are impressed with their depth of strategic thinking and the width of creative ideas blended with their enthusiasm to handle the business.”
 
R K Swamy BBDO would be handling brands across all product categories for Valvoline and is currently developing an integrated campaign for the company.
 

MUMBAI: French car manufacturer Renault has finalised on Law & Kenneth as its creative agency in India.

The account size, according to industry estimates, is Rs 600 million.
 
In a tough multi-agency fight, that saw the likes of Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis Ambience in the final lap, Renault decided that its brand, looking for an independent identity in India after divorcing from its joint venture partner Mahindra & Mahindra, would best be under the hands of Law & Kenneth.

Incidentally, Publicis handles Renault’s advertisement duties worldwide.
 
Law & Kenneth, which had lost the Skoda business, would be handling the new account from its Chennai branch.

Renault will seek to promote the mother brand as well as its individual car brands through integrated ad campaigns. 
 
The automobile major plans to launch five car models in India by 2013, including a compact car and a luxury sedan.

Renault will be firming up its media agency soon.
 

MUMBAI: Nothing is as simple, commonly agreed and indisputable as CPRP (cost per rating point). Often it is the final clincher for a pitch and the sole aim for all to target and deliver. However, despite being almost a universal matrix to measure, marketers believe that other measurement formats have to be developed to understand the effectiveness of below-the-line activities.

While above 50 per cent of investments for brand building is made towards above-the-line activities, advertisers are making 40-45 per cent of their marketing budget in other forms of media to create consumer experiences. 
 
Addressing the audiences at the Percept Business Conclave, ITC head of brands and business development GK Suresh said: “Advertisers are becoming more and more conscious about the impact that below-the-line bustle create for the brand; their fixation with CPRPs will come down. Thus, there has to be a matrix system developed to measure the effectiveness of such non-traditional platforms.”

According to OMD India MD Jasmin Sohrabji, advertisers‘ dependence on CPRP is slowly diminishing as they are looking at a matrix beyond rates. “Today, with the evolution of consumers in the Indian market, advertisers are looking at getting more strategic thinking from the agency on the table than just rates,” she said.
 
Backing Sohrabji statement, Pidilite Industries president – marketing and sales services Praveen Tripathi noted that the CPRP obsession is more because of a sense of insecurity and with new measuring methods for other difference mediums, the story will become more about deriving values rather than driving costs. 
 
According to ICICI Bank Joint GM Ronita Mitra, in order to create more effectiveness for brands amongst consumers, advertisers and marketers have to take a single window view of the consumer rather than a product view.

“Word of mouth will also play a very critical role in acquiring and retaining customers while social media will help generate brand conversations,” said Mitra.
 

MUMBAI: The duet between Spain and Holland in the final of the soccer World Cup was watched by a record 6.1 million viewers across the six metros, surpassing the last edition in 2006 by a wide margin.

The rating at 4.16 TVR was higher than the previous matches but trailed behind the 2006 final between Italy and France. According to Tam data for the six metros, the 2006 final had lured in 3.9 million viewers and fetched a rating of 5.6 TVR.
 
The two semi finals and third place match got an average TVR of 2.04 across the six metros. By comparison, the two semi-finals and the third place match got a TVR of 1.85 in 2006.
 
 In the metros, the event got a cummulative reach of 32.6 million viewers compared to 16.2 million in 2006. The average TVR for the event was 1.33 compared to 1.63 in 2006.

On the advertising front, the top categories this time were Cellular Phones Cellular Phone Service, DTH Service Providers, Two Wheelers and Non Aerated Soft Drink.

The top advertisers were Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Nokia, Samsung and Hero Honda.
 
 
The top brands were Vodafone Cellular Phone Service, Nokia E72 Hero Honda Karizma Zmr, Airtel Digital Tv and Airtel Cellular Phone Service.