Category: MAM

MUMBAI: The Indian Boxing Federation (IBF) has got XXX Energy Drink as the title sponsor for the fifth Commonwealth Boxing Championship 2010. 
 
The fifth Commonwealth Boxing Championships will be held at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi from 10-18 March 2010.

The championship will see 140 boxers and 130 bouts from 17 countries. All major Commonwealth boxing nations like England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Kenya, Samoa, Singapore, Canada (TBC) and India will be participating in this championship. Indian boxers such as Vijender Singh, Akhil Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Nanao Singh and Suranjay Singh will be contending for India.
 
Percept was recently appointed as the marketing agent for Indian Boxing Federation for four years till 2014.

As marketing partner, Percept will be primarily responsible to promote Indian boxing talents. They will also promote the Indian Series of Boxing which would take off after the World Series of Boxing scheduled this year. Besides, it will also play an integral part in bringing bilateral, tri-nation and other international boxing events to India.
 
Percept joint MD Shailendra Singh said, “In India, sports still takes a back seat and does not get the needed recognition and applause. It’s good to see XXX Energy Drink take keen interest in supporting and partnering with Commonwealth Boxing Championship.

“As the marketing agent of IBF we will go all out to promote this sport in India and take it to another level by making it as popular as cricket or tennis,” Singh added.

The Common Wealth Boxing Championship is being supported by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the Organising Committee of Commonwealth Games and Sports Authority of India (SAI).

MUMBAI: Rediffusion Y&R has roped in Rachana Dharia as head digital (West and South). She will be based out of Mumbai and will report to Rediffusion Y&R EVP Nisha Singhania.
 
Says Singhania, “We have divided the digital division into two separate teams, one in Mumbai and the other in Delhi. While Dharia will be heading the Mumbai division, Kiran Dhillon, who joined the agency six months ago, will head the Delhi division and look after the North and East markets. Both of them will be responsible for getting in and delivering complete digital solutions to advertisers in their respective regions.”
 
Dharia was with Tribal DDB India prior to this appointment. She has around 14 years of experience in digital media space and worked on brands that include Volkswagen, Idea Cellular and Times of India.
 

MUMBAI:Publicis India has appointed Anirban Mozumdar as senior vice president planning for North and East.
 
Based out of Gurgaon, Mozumdar will replace Neeraj Gupta. He will be reporting to Publicis India CEO Hemant Misra.
 
“Contagious conversations about brands have pulled me towards Publicis,” says Mozumdar.
 
Prior to this, Mozumdar was with DDB Mudra for close to 15 months. Mozumdar started his career at Rediffusion Y&R and then he moved to Leo Burnett where he was working for close to a decade.

He has worked on brands including Bajaj Auto and P &G including Tide, Rejoice and Whisper.
 

MUMBAI: LG Electronics India has roped in John Abraham, Genelia D‘Souza and Abhay Deol as brand ambassadors for LG mobile phones in India.

LGEIL business group marketing head mobile communications Sudhin Mathur says, “
LG Mobiles will now deliver energised experiences in an unordinary way. As part of our overall strategy to reposition LG Mobiles as a youthful brand, the brand ambassadors‘ will help us relating with our consumers.” 
 
As brand ambassadors, John Abraham, Genelia D‘Souza and Abhay Deol will play a key role creating connect for the brand with the consumers.

Deol says, “I always stand for what I believe, be it professional or personal life. Brand LG has always been a personal favourite. These phones come with the perfect bundle of offerings that any youngster would want and is a perfect fit with me!”
 
“I love the networking concept in LG phones. The new range of LG phones makes it extremely convenient by offering whatever one needs and nothing which we don‘t,” says John Abraham.

“LG mobile phones are trendy, stylish, funky and chic; just the way I am. It is an honour to be associated with LG mobile phones. The mobile phones are so conveniently designed that it makes it user friendly and simple to operate,” avers Genelia D‘Souza
 
LG has planned an aggressive multi-media campaign covering television, radio, outdoor, cinema and internet which will be supplemented by print ads released during strategic periods.

The first campaign will break in the first quarter of 2010. LG Mobiles will be targeting to gain double digits among the young Indian consumers.
 

MUMBAI: Russell Barrett has put in his papers at Bates 141 as executive creative director to join BBH India. Officials at BBH India, however, refused to comment on the development.
 
As part of his new mandate, Barrett will working closely with BBH India managing partner Priti Nair.
 
Barrett was with Bates 141 for about one year and was associated with brands including Radio City, Virgin Mobile and Tata AIG.
 
Barrett has worked with agencies including Leo Burnett, O&M and Rediffusion DY&R.

MUMBAI: Manish Porwal, former Percept Talent Management (PTM) CEO, has bought a controlling stake in HR and talent solutions company Alchemist.

Having quit PTM in January, Porwal will move into a new role as managing director of Alchemist. He is also an advisor in communications, on the board of a large infrastructure company.
 
Says Porwal, “The huge role of people in our industry and the ironic lack of investment in them, always boggled me. Where my MNC jobs gave me respect for processes and roles in an organisation, Percept prepared me in relating with the power of individuals, the needs of top end celeb talent and for thinking like an entrepreneur. Bringing these learning together, I am determined to make Alchemist the leader in talent solutions, in the entertainment, media and communication industry.

We shall start with value adding in the verticals of MARS [Marketing, Advertising (Creative and media), Research and Ad-Sales]. I believe the relationships and skills I have developed over the last 15 years will allow me to set a world class company which shall finally be run by people who work in it and are not just employees but stake-holders. Alchemist will also allow me the width to look at other avenues that I have also wanted to be a part of.”
 
Adds Alchemist founder and COO Anujita Jain: “The team at Alchemist is glad that we now have a leader and strategic driver to give shape to our dreams. We are already excelling in the area of Executive search and vocational education & training, and given Manish’s ability to incubate and execute big plans, we would be talking bigger scale and scope. I am personally excited because Manish has been my mentor early in life and I look up to him for his integrity and passion and ability to give quality product to his clients.”

While Anujita will continue to be at the helm of affairs, Porwal will play the role of a mentor and chief strategist and also have time to pursue other consulting engagements in his individual capacity.
 
Alchemist is expanding its team and offices. The company announced appointments of Sweta Jhaveri as associate managing consultant and Nidhi Thakkar, Sumita Kevalramani and Jigna Upadhyay as senior consultants.

Outside Mumbai, Alchemist will have offices/affiliates in Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Singapore and London.

Porwal was earlier MD of Starcom India. After his MBA at NMIMS, he started his career at FCB Ulka and has also worked with BBC World, Everest and Vijay TV. At PTM, he briefly held an additional portfolio as CEO of Bollywood Corporation. He created CelebTrackTM, which measures celeb power across genres.
 

MUMBAI: With the hockey World Cup kicking off on 28 February, Ten Sports has sold 75 per cent of inventory.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) chief revenue officer Joy Chakraborty says that Nokia, Coca-Cola, Seagrams, Musli Power and TVS Srichakra Tyres have come on board as associate sponsors.
 
“We are holding back 25 per cent of inventory which we will sell at a higher rate. We will price it at Rs 50,000 per 10 seconds. For the India versus Pakistan match the rate is double,” adds Chakraborty.

As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, Hero Honda is the title sponsor while MTS Mobile is a co-presenting sponsor. 
 
A media buyer notes that associating with this event is more about the values of a sport that is the country‘s national sport as opposed to watching TRPs. “Over the years many advertisers have stayed away from hockey. Now that the World Cup is in India, some brands look at this event as being a good association. It is about national pride.”

The viewership for the hockey World Cup is expected to come more from the mini metros and smaller cities like Pune and Ludhiana as opposed to the major ones.

“That is why ratings may not give you an accurate picture. Hero Honda sells more products in the smaller cities. They also talk of national pride in their campaigns. So this event is a perfect fit for them. Nokia and Coca-Cola address the youth. They want an event that is good, clean fun. The hockey World Cup fits the bill. I expect that males and youth will tune into this event the most,” says the media buyer.

MUMBAI: UltraTech Cement has renewed its sponsorship agreement with the Indian Premier league (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals.   
Through this association, UltraTech will be the official team sponsor of the Jaipur-based IPL team.
 
UltraTech Cement business head OP Puranmalka said, “The coming together of the two brands, UltraTech Cement and Rajasthan Royals, is the bringing together of two champions. Both are champions in their respective domains. Both are leaders and victorious, and are a perfect match. UltraTech has had a long association with Indian Cricket and we are extremely proud to be associated with Rajasthan Royals.”
 

MUMBAI: The period for December 2009 saw a total of nine ads come under the scanner, reveals the latest report from The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). While one ad out of the nine was withdrawn, four underwent modification.

The ad that was withdrawn is that of Telemart Shopping Network for its Saptarishi Sri Panchmukhi Hanuman Kavach brand.
 
According to the report, the ad claims that the brand has supernatural qualities of providing energy and fending off all problems related to health, wealth and wisdom. As per CCC, the claims of the product were not substantiated, and thus the TVC has been withdrawn. Since the claims of the product were not corroborated, the commercial was withdrawn. 
 
Meanwhile, the ads that underwent modification are those of Novartis India Ltd for its Otrivin Nasal Spray TVC, The Unicharm India Pvt Ltd ad for Mamy Poko Pants diapers and the Airtel Digital TV ad.
 
The ads that were not upheld by CCC are Red Bull India, Orion Appliances for Spectrawide Water Purification System, Dabur Uveda Fairness Cream and Nutra Skyn Care for its Toppik Hair Building Fibers.