Category: MAM

MUMBAI: The 6th edition of the Outdoor Advertising Convention will be held on 11 and 12 June in Mumbai.

The convention, conceptualised on the theme “from Fragmentation to fraternity???”, will focus on the imperative need for everyone in the industry to get together and work in concert for the growth and development of the industry. 
 
Says project head, OAC & publisher VJ Media works Vasant Jante, “The fragmented nature of the OOH business in India has been one of the biggest impediments to the development of the medium as a whole. The ‘each person for himself‘ approach has so far meant that the medium has never been able to achieve its warranted status as an industry, define and implement industry-wide standards or present one representative face to address operational and regulatory issues.”

“But of late, efforts from the IOAA (Indian Outdoor Advertisers Association) and the DOAA (Delhi Outdoor Advertisers Association), for example, have demonstrated that together the industry can achieve much more than when pursuing individualistic agendas. OAC 2010 will discuss, again, the advantages of a united industry, define the issues that can only be resolved with a cohesive approach and develop a concerted agenda for the future,” he adds. 
 
The two-day event will culminate with the Outdoor Advertising Awards. One significant change in the awards module has been the decision to drop the Poster category.

“The creative part of the awards, the other being the media awards, follows a classification by product and service categories rather than by OOH format or application,” says Jante.
 
“Posters are the only format-defined category and even as an OOH format, posters hardly have a presence in the Indian OOH landscape and hence, the decision to drop the category as a whole. If posters as a format were to evolve and become a significant part of the OOH portfolio, then the creative efforts in that format can be accommodated within the existing product/service categorisation,” Jante adds.

The creative as well as the media categories at OAA will have their own jury that will be finalised and announced soon.

MUMBAI: Proximity London has been appointed – subject to contract – to a new BBC contract to handle TV Licensing‘s direct marketing, printing and fulfilment services for the UK pubcaster for the next five years. 
 
The contract will apply to the main direct marketing activity conducted by TV Licensing, including reminder letters and licence distribution.

It also includes fulfilment of digital communications, which are increasingly used to help lower the cost of collection.

The re-appointment concludes a rigorous procurement process that began in May 2009. 
 
BBC head of sales and marketing for TV Licensing Peter Kirk says, “We are pleased to be able to reappoint Proximity to handle this large and complex contract, which will save the BBC ?20 million over the five-year term.

“During the course of a very thorough bid process, the team demonstrated best practice quality control processes and a high standard of value for the licence payer.”
 
Proximity, which bid with Orchestra Group Ltd as their print services provider, will continue to work alongside a number of agencies contracted by the BBC to deliver integrated communications services for TV Licensing.

These include AMV BBDO (advertising), Fishburn Hedges Boys Williams Ltd (public relations) and PHD (media planning).
 

MUMBAI: Sachin Tendulkar has been named a United Nations Environment Programme goodwill ambassador.

The appointment has been made by UNEP executive director Achim Steiner in Mumbai.
 
Tendulkar has been a strong supporter of the work of the UN, having lent his voice to a Unicef campaign in India, raising awareness about the importance of personal hygiene.

Steiner describes Sachin Tendulkar as a role model to both the young and the old. 
 
Says Steiner, “I am sure that his character, personal integrity, intellect and profile will catalyse widespread environmental action, focusing on 2010 as the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity. Sachin will work with UNEP to raise awareness and the level of global and grassroots response to the loss of the planet’s biological diversity including animals and plants.”
 
Adds Tendulkar, “I view this designation as a challenge and an honour. Being part of the effort to save the planet is an immense undertaking but it is a challenge I am ready to undertake. Working with UNEP and cricket fans across the globe, I am in good company. Together we can do it.”
 

MUMBAI: Percept has roped in four sponsors for the fifth edition of the Commonwealth Boxing Championship, which is being telecast on Doordarshan.
 
While XXX had come on board earlier, the new additions are DLF, Siyaram and ONGC.
 
Says Percept joint MD Shailendra Singh, “We feel boxing has potential. However, the Indian media has to support it. Only then will the sport grow in terms of awareness and appeal. If news channels and other media outlets are serious about wanting India to become a sporting nation, then they should cover this event. Each day 20 minutes of footage will be given to the news channels.”

The event, which lasts till 17 March, has drawn in 100 boxers from 14 countries.
 

MUMBAI: In a bid to attain maximum brand visibility, Havells will launch a three-series television commercial which will be aired only during the third season of the DLF Indian Premier League.
 
The company has released the first commercial in the series today. It will be visible during the first five days of the tourney.

Says Havells marketing head Vijay Narayanan, “We will release the second commercial in the series five days from now and the third will follow 10 days from now.”
 
“The commercials will only see an IPL launch because the game will help us in captivating maximum eyeballs,” he adds.

Additionally, Narayanan notes, the commercials will be further supported by shop-based and retail oriented bustle to create a direct consumer connect. 
 
While Lowe Lintas is the creative agency for Havells, Motivator, a GroupM entity, is the media partner.
 

MUMBAI: Abhishek Verma has quit Neo Sports as head – marketing and communication.
 
Confirming the development to Indiantelevision.com, Verma said, “While my next destination will still be in the television broadcasting space, I am moving out of sports.”

Prior to this, Verma was head – marketing at SAB.

MUMBAI: Greenply Industries Limited has appointed McCann as its new creative partner for its decorative division. The agency will handle the account from its Delhi office.  
Prior to this, Grey was handling the company‘s decorative division. 
 
The size of the account is pegged at about Rs 80-100 million.

MUMBAI: Hygienic Research Institute (HRIPL) has assigned its media duties to Mediacom, following a multi-agency pitch. 
 
As part of its new mandate, Mediacom will handle the entire HRIPL portfolio which includes hair colours, hair oils, shampoos, skin care products, decorative cosmetics and shaving cream. 
 
The product variety is more than 20 in range and work under the brand names of Vasmol and Streax.

Says Mediacom general manager Ashwini Kamat, “Our performance on existing clients, strategic business inputs and innovative use of media is what got HRIPL to entrust their brands to Mediacom.”

The size of the account is pegged at Rs 200 million.

MUMBAI: While the wait has been long, Star Plus has once again returned to the top to regain its spot as the number one Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) for the week ended 27 February, as per the latest Tam data (HSM, C&S4+).

This has come after a gap of 22 weeks, a triumph that the channel had last witnessed in week 38 of 2009 with 281 GRPs. 
 
Riding high on the ratings of its weekday primetime programming, which has seen an 11-point rise over the previous week (130 GRPs, 7-11 pm), Star Plus managed to surge ahead of Colors (286 GRPs) with 300 GRPs.

The properties that have helped the channel elevate its score are Yeh Rishta (Monday-Friday 9.30 pm) and Bidaai (Monday-Friday 9 pm) with a peak TVR of 7.5 and 7.48 respectively. Pratigya (Mon-Fri 10.30 pm) and Behenein (Mon-Fri 8.30 pm) too contributed well to the channel‘s upward swing with peak TVRs of 3.8 and 3.6 respectively.
 
Says Star India EVP marketing Anupam Vasudev, “We do not think that leadership is a weekly game, and are committed to consistently creating great content. We are happy that Star Plus viewers love the current lineup of shows like Yeh Rishta, Bidaai and Sabki Ladli Bebo, while appreciating the new shows like Pratigya, Behnein and Sasural Genda Phool.”

“Clearly the rise in GRPs is based on our programming and not on a one-off event or movie, which is very encouraging, given the changes in existing content and new show launches etc,” he adds.

Meantime, while Colors remains stable on its weekday primetime (140 GRPs), its mild fall has come during the weekend viewing hours. The channel‘s weekend programming, which principally sees movies as the staple diet, failed for the week as Qurbaan (Sunday, 4pm) failed to attract audience attention. 
 
Thus overall, the movie genre contribution towards the channel, which otherwise remains high, has stood at only 22 points, down from the 37 points that it had registered in the previous week. Additionally, Colors has also seen a four-point downfall in its weekday afternoon programming (18 GRPs, Mon-Fri 1-3 pm) and a three-point downfall in its weekend original (7 GRPs).

As for Zee, it still remains the third in command with 246 GRPs (241 GRPs in previous week). The channel remained stable almost on all fronts as its weekday primetime, weekday afternoon, weekend original and movies stay put at 130 GRPs (133 GRPs in previous week), 14 GRPs (13 GRPs), 14 GRPs (14 GRPs) and 17 GRPs (17 GRPs) respectively.

Meanwhile, Sony Entertainment Television (Set) has seen a further fall in its scorecard as it pocketed 139 GRPs, down from its previous week‘s tally of 155 GRPs, while Imagine TV clocked 123 GRPs in the week, from 128 GRPs last week.

BANGALORE: The Advertising club of Cochin (Ad club Cochin) has called for entries for the third edition of its annual ‘Pepper Awards’. The awards function will be held at Kochi on 26 March, 2010.
 
The competition will be open to categories such as agency of the year award, advertiser of the year, art director of the year, copywriter of the year, special jury award, campaign of the year, press campaign, TV commercial, corporate AV, outdoor, radio, interactive – web-based, POP, direct mailer, photography, packaging, logo design, unpublished works, PR and promos.

The third edition of Pepper will also have an exclusive section for participants from Kerala: Jewellery, Real Estate, Textile, Hospitality and Ayurveda. The award winners would be presented with gold, silver and bronze awards and certificates. The Advertising Club Cochin is expecting over 1500 entries for the competition.
 
A three-member panel comprising Taproot CEO Agnelo Dias, Saatchi & Saatchi NCD Ramanuj Shastry and Rediffusion DY&R NCD Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar are the members of the jury for Pepper Awards 2010.