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Tag: O&M Mumbai

  • O&M Mumbai bags creative duties of two DirecTV packages for South Asians in US

    MUMBAI: Ogilvy & Mather, which has long managed the creative duties of most of the Star India channels, is taking some of that expertise to the US.

    O&M Mumbai has been mandated to handle the creatives of the News Corp-owned DirecTV platform’s HindiDirect and CricketTicket packages, which essentially cater to the large ethnic South Asian community in the US. The online promotions will be handled by OgilvyOne and the mandate includes both online media and creative duties. OgilvyOne will handle creative and WPP owned Group M’s mOne will handle online media buying and planning. (In the US, BBDO New York is the creative agency for DirecTV.)

     

     

    An ad brandishing the Star channels on DirecTV featured on Rediff
    HindiDirect features Star One, Star Plus and Star News and the CricketTicket package, which is a part of the DirecTV WorldDirect service, will have 180 days of live international cricket from around the world. DirectTV has exclusive rights to some of the tours that involve countries like Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa and England.

    The CricketTicket proposition featured on www.timesofindia.com
    The other Indian channels that are available on DirecTV are Star Vijay, Aastha Channel, ETV Gujarati, ETV Bangla and ETV Telugu. DirecTV’s biggest rival in the US is EchoStar, which beams the various Zee channels and Sony.

     
     
    O&M Mumbai’s directive is to provide communication on two parallel platforms: (i) Hardcore information on various packages that DirecTV has to offer, and (ii) Driving the packaging through the content provided by the various channels. A mass media and online campaign for the same has recently been rolled out in the US.

    Speaking exclusively to Indiantelevision.com from the US, DirecTV senior manager international programming Anu Babber says, “We are looking at tapping the South Asian community in the US in a big way and we felt that since O&M Mumbai handles some of the Star Group channels in India, they would be most suitable as our agency as they understand the brand and the Indian consumer very well.”

     
     
    Babber further said that the initial promotions have already been rolled out in various media such as the print, outdoor, radio and Internet. Television too would be looked at, but at a later stage.
    Commenting on the “account win”, O&M Mumbai business director Meenakshi Bhalla says, “We were approached by DirecTV because they felt that we would be rightly suited as we work on the entertainment category in India. Also, as we handle Star Plus in India we understand the brand well.”

    OgilvyOne vice president and chief technology officer Prasanth Mohanachandran elaborates, “Our task is twofold — firstly, to convince people to shift to DTH from cable and secondly, to convince people to shift from existing DTH platforms to DirecTV.”

    He further added, “OgilvyOne has invested in research around the NRI (non resident Indian) and his/her online habits to help address the need to market to this base. It’s our strong belief that Indian agencies are best placed to understand and market to this base and Ogilvy, India serves this need. Also interesting is that the media mix, for marketing to the NRI, has always had a leaning towards the online media primarily because of the targetting offered, the lower costs and the high return on media investment.”
    With this move, DirecTV plans to strengthen the Star brand in the US, where people still look at Zee TV as the number one channel. The initial campaigns will be programme specific, which kick-started with the launch of Miilee. Consequently, new shows launched on the channels will also be promoted.

    DirecTV was launched in 1994 and was the first entertainment service in the US to deliver all digital-quality, multi-channel TV programming to an 18-inch satellite dish. It provides over 225 channels and delivers local television stations reaching more than 93 per cent of US television households. DirecTV is a unit of Hughes Electronics. Rupert Murdoch’s Fox has a 34 per cent stake in the company.

  • Giri to head O&M Mumbai as Suri moves to Shanghai

    MUMBAI: Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai is getting a new head with the current president Nishi Suri moving to Shanghai, China in September to take on the position of managing partner – International Clients.
    Ogilvy Activation country head J C Giri will head the Mumbai operations, with full responsibility for Ogilvy’s 360 services.

     

     
    Suri joined O&M in 1997 and headed O&M’s flagship Mumbai office in 2001. As president of O&M Mumbai, she led the city agency through the most challenging phase of the industry to deliver consistent top-line and bottom-line growth, states an official release. She has gained Indian and International recognition for the success of her leadership on Kodak and Goli ke Hamjoli, a US funded social marketing programme.
    Giri began his career with Ogilvy Chennai and consistently moved up since then. He introduced Outdoor Media AOR in the country way back in 1995, moved to Country Head Ogilvy Landscapes and then Country Head, Ogilvy Activation. He has played a key role in driving true 360 within the Activation units and strategically merging some of the Activation units with the WPP network in India, the release states. His leadership has helped Activation India showcase and export its learnings to International markets apart from consolidating Ogilvy’s position in India on key accounts like HLL, Hutch and more recently LG, it adds.

     
     
    Commenting on this new move, Giri said, “I look at this opportunity as a challenge and look forward to maximising the strengths of a great team built by Nishi over the last four years, to drive Ogilvy’s 360 capabilities. I also wish Nishi all the very best and feel certain that she will continue to do Ogilvy India proud.”
    O&M India chairman Piyush Pandey commented, “It is not only a reflection of the splendid job done by Nishi as the Head of the Bombay Office, but the impact she has made on the Ogilvy & Mather International fraternity at every forum. J.C. Giri, who has done a marvelous job with Ogilvy Activation, takes over from Nishi, to keep the flag flying, and infuse adrenalin in an office which sets its own standards.”

     
     
    Ogilvy CEO in South Asia John Goodman added, “This is the best vindication of the strengths of our organisation I can imagine. One of our heroes gets to display her skills in the challenging Chinese market – probably the most volatile in the world right now. Another demonstrates that when we talk 360, we mean it, moving from the amazing Activation division to head up the largest city unit in the country.”