ITV

Tag: ropes

  • Synovate sets up customer loyalty vertical; ropes in Jatar

    MUMBAI: Synovate has appointed Jairaj Jatar to head its Customer Loyalty practice. Jatar comes with the mandate to set up a separate customer loyalty vertical for the company.

    Jatar moves from AC Nielsen ORG Marg where he was director, client service and head of Automotive and Financial Services research.

    Synovate recently launched its global customer loyalty practice, Synovate Symmetrics in the Indian marketplace; the founder of this state-of-the-art tool, Dr. Lawrence A. Crosby recently addressed top honchos from the corporate world at seminars in New Delhi and Mumbai.

    Jatar says, “Synovate customer loyalty tools will definitely provide companies’ out-of-box solutions; in customer retention and loyalty. Our global experience will help transcend sectors and expand the scope to new upcoming sectors. The vertical will also provide expertise in the areas of mystery shopping, stakeholder satisfaction studies, among others to the Indian clientele.”

    “Synovate will tap into its existing clients across auto, banking and financial services, hospitality and durable; also extend the scope to IT and ITES sector, among others,” he added.

    He has worked extensively in customer satisfaction and brand equity related projects and is also credited with handling the Nepal operations of Marg. He has 16 years of work experience in market research.
     

  • Zee Sports ropes in John Helm & Russell Osman as commentators

    MUMBAI: Zee Sports has signed one of England’s top football voices John Helm and former England international football player Russell Osman as commentator and co-commentator respectively for the 27th edition of the Federation Cup, to be played at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Margao in Goa starting 19 October.

    Helm, one of Europe’s top football commentators for the last 25 years, has covered several World Cups and European Championships. In a career spanning two decades, he has commentated on about 2000 football matches. In his long career he has worked with ITV, the top commercial channel in the UK and Channel Five, the newest mass distribution channel in the United Kingdom, states an official release.

    Osman is an ex-England international footballer, capped on eleven occasions. He played over 800 top-level games for Ipswich Town, Leicester City, Southampton and Bristol City. At Ipswich he was a member of the team that won the UEFA Cup in 1981 and came runners up, in what is now called the Premier league, in 1980/81 and 1981/82. In the past he has managed Bristol City and Cardiff City. In the past he has worked as media commentator with Sky Sports, Eurosport, ITV, Channel 5 and BBC5.

    Zee Sports COO Gary Lovejoy said, “We are delighted to welcome John and Russell to the Zee Sports commentary panel for Federation Cup. They bring with them vast experience of covering and playing in the best of international football from around the world. They will add a lot of value in providing a perspective to the world-class coverage of Federation Cup.” He further added, “Our coverage will also involve more cameras, more replays, a new graphic look and interactive.”

    Zee Sports is undertaking a multi media marketing and promotional campaign across the country to popularise the football among the masses. As part of the campaign several below the line activities including road shows, pub screening, football kiosks etc are being undertaken in several cities to popularise the football.

    To promote the Federation Cup a special section on Indian football has been created on Zee Sports website www.zeesports.co.in. This section provides soccer fans with the latest team news, match scores, statistics and player profiles, as well as exclusive player interviews and photo galleries. There will be interactive sections, which will include chat rooms, video clips of matches, online games, wallpapers and ring tones, the release adds.

  • SS Music schedules 2005 events calendar; ropes in HLL

    MUMBAI: The Chennai-based South Indian music channel SS Music will unveil its 2005 calendar year for events with VJ Factor in September. The channel will commence the second edition of the Voice Hunt contest in November.

    SS Music has also associated with Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) as telecast partner of the Go-cart race, which the FMCG major is organising in Tamil Nadu next month.
     
     

    The first round of the VJ hunt event VJ Factor will be held in six major Southern towns: Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Vizag, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi. Three contestants from each region will be selected for the final showdown which will be held in Chennai. SS Music is spending approximately Rs 6.5 million on the event.

    “The VJ Factor event will be completed in a span of 40 days. Out of the 21 contestants, we will select six winners. Three of the existing SS Music VJs will be replaced with the top three winners,” SS Music president B D Ramesh Babu told indiantelevision.com.
     
     

    In another important development for the channel this year, HLL has come on board as advertiser for the first time, according to Babu. The company is planning major promotional initiatives for its toiletry brand Rexona in Chennai and is organising a Go-cart race in seven Tamil Nadu towns in September as part of the promotions.

    “HLL wanted to associate with us for an on-ground event set in Tamil Nadu as it is intensifying its efforts to promote its Rexona brand in the state,” says Babu.

    At the conclusion of VJ Factor, SS Music will kick off its popular event the SS Music Voice Hunt in November this year. “Our 2004 edition of the talent hunt had been a great success. The winners have released their video album apart from featuring in a Malayalam movie,” says Babu.
     

  • Neo Sports ropes in Perfetti as first sponsor for BCCI series

    MUMBAI: Neo Sports has announced that Perfetti Van Melle has been signed on as the first anchor broadcast sponsor for the BCCI cricket that is being played in India till 2010. Neo Sports will telecast the series live.

    Confirming the deal, Neo Sports Broadcast Pvt Ltd chief executive officer Shashi Kalathil said, “We are delighted to announce Perfetti as our 1st Anchor Sponsor. They are brand prolific, aggressive and creative marketers. We see this as significant market expansion activity outside the sectors that have traditionally invested large amounts in a sustained fashion on Cricket. The value that Perfetti evidently saw in our anchor construct went a long way in their coming on board.”
    In addition, Neo Sports is looking at freezing for anchor partners across two single-sector companies and two multi sector or corporate entities. In exchange for the commitment, Neo plans to not only offer spots but also allow them to be associated with branded properties – such as extra cover, man of the match, turning point, master blaster and fall of wickets among others, informs an official release.

    Kalathil also acknowledged the contribution of the media agency Maxus in shepherding this media deal to productive conclusion. “Media agencies have traditionally tended to bulk discount big buys, this however, is simply not the anchor construct, which is less deal based and more value enhancing, it took foresight and understanding to break the rules.”

    Maxus India MD Ajit Varghese said, “We, at Maxus, are always open to explore and discover new ways of building win-win partnership between client and media owners. Probably a first of its kind in the last decade, we have taken a forward position on media buy for the next 4 years. This we believe will help not only counter but also take advantage of the changing media landscape. We also believe that this would help brands realize scale of India cricket in advance and use it in a more strategic sense.”

    Perfetti Van Melle head marketing Sameer Suneja said, “Cricket has always been a strategic investment for us and this partnership will help us take a long term stake in what is possibly the most effective media vehicle in India – International Cricket played by India at home. With this tie up we hope to build creative brand associations and properties on Cricket on a sustained basis.”

  • Zee ropes in investment banker to spearhead convergence division

    MUMBAI: Zee Telefilms Limited (ZTL) is beefing up its convergence division. The company has appointed London-based investment banker Neil Chakravarthy as senior V-P business strategy and convergence.
     

    ZTL has identified multiple focus areas like content, strategy and technology to strengthen the division. Based out of Mumbai, Chakravarthy is overseeing the content and strategy part.

    Speaking on the significance of convergence in the network’s business, ZTL CEO Pradeep Guha says that the division has been given the status of a third revenue stream.

    “Convergence is becoming a big stream of revenue. Right now, we are basically concentrating on telephony, including the mobile technology. In the next phase, we will be bringing in more platforms,” he says.
     
     

    As reported by indiantelevision.com earlier, Zee Network is betting big on the wireless segment. It has aggressive plans to explore the technology to drive interactive viewership. Apart from upgrading its mobile interactive technology with rich media content like mobile videos and imageries, the network has plans to launch a mobile based interactive service that will address public grievances.

  • Rexona deo ropes in Preity Zinta as brand ambassador

    MUMBAI: Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) has roped in Bollywood actress Preity Zinta as the brand ambassador for Rexona roll on deo.

    The FMCG major has also changed the positioning of the product from a “fragrance category” to health and hygiene. Says Lakme Lever vice president Anil Chopra, “A larger awareness needs to be built around the roll on deo product as against the aerosol sprays. Rexona has decided to look at the health and hygiene category instead of limiting itself to merely a smell good product.”

    Chopra also revealed that although a market leader globally, the brand category itself was in a very nascent stage in India at Rs 1.78 billion.

    Rexona deo fetched HUL Rs 220 million in 2006 and the plan is to grow it to a Rs 1-5 billion brand. This will be fuelled by an increase from 3.5 million to 20 million users.

    “We are aiming for a 70 per cent growth in this market for 2007”, he added.

    The Rexona roll on deo is available in two editions- Free spirit for women and Ice Cool for men. The television commercials for the product will launch on 1 March alongside a print ad campaign followed by danglers, posters and standees. The marketing campaign will also concentrate on mall shelves rather than small local shops.

    The body copy for the deo reads ‘who will you meet next’ followed by ‘Be Ready’ as its tagline.
    HUL will launch a major marketing drive around the product to boost the brand salience of Rexona deo. Says HUL deo’s marketing manager Shubhranshu Singh, “Apart from the television commercial featuring Zinta, the campaign will involve on ground activity like direct sampling and a contest which allows a lucky winner to enjoy a movie date with Preity.

    In terms of a media mix we are divided equally between television and non television medium.”

    While the brand has stayed away from celebrity endorsement so far, Singh is “confident about Zinta lending a positive image to the product. She embodies ‘confidence, passion and active uninhibited lifestyle’ and our brand is also targeted at the SEC AB group which is always on the go.”

    The Rexona brand has been unable to beat stiff competition by deo sprays despite its relatively low price point at Rs 30 as against other deo sprays in the market which range from Rs 100- 150.The Rexona deo spray is priced at Rs 70.

    Rexona is a leading deo brand worldwide and is available in 90 countries. HUL claims it is the number one brand in over 40 countries in Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

  • Zee News ropes in Munish Makhija for election spoof

    MUMBAI: Zee News has roped in VJ turned actor Munish Makhija to play the lead role in its election special comedy spoof Vote for Chaudhary.

    Chaudhary, a character being played by Makhija will play pranks on election-related activities.

    Conceived, ideated and directed by Zee News senior producer Pankaj Shukla, Vote for Chaudhary is a show that will showcase harsh realties of today’s politics in a hilarious way.

    Says Zee News editor Alka Saxena, “We have been looking for an ideal actor for the show as the idea was hatched long before the elections were announced in the three states. In fact we have been working on the idea since the Maharastra election and in Munish Makhija we got all the nuances that were required for the character.”

    The concept: Chaudhary, the famous booth capturer of Mayhem in Haryana is hell bent to teach a lesson to all those politicians who have been using his services so far but denied his share of power in politics. Chaudhary is fighting for state assembly of Haryana in the programme. He plays a spoofs the big leaders and tries to prove his point to the voters as he is the only option left for them in the current scenario.

    Chaudhary runs his publicity campaign from a hide out in a cow shed located near a highway in Haryana and is aptly assisted by his close associate Mundu. As the election progresses, Chaudhary’s demand keeps on increasing. He gets calls for booth capturing from Bihar and Jharkhand as well, but his focus this time is only to get a seat for himself and win the majority with ‘buffalo trading’.

    Vote for Chaudhary will be aired 17 January to 4 February (Monday to Friday) on different time bands starting from 7 am to 10 pm on Zee News.

  • UNICEF ropes in Big B as goodwill ambassador

    UNICEF ropes in Big B as goodwill ambassador

    MUMBAI: UNICEF appointed Amitabh Bachchan as its international Goodwill Ambassador in a formal signing event with UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy.
    “Amitabh has the star power to illuminate the lives of the millions of children who are living in dire circumstances. We look forward to a long collaboration with him, and we feel honoured to have him as part of the UNICEF family,” said Bellamy.

     
     

    Bellamy appoints Amitabh Bachchan a UNICEF goodwill ambassador at UNICEF House Bachchan’s collaboration with UNICEF began in 2002 when a polio outbreak in northern India threatened to spread. His appearance in a series of award-winning television and radio commercials encouraging parents to take their children for vaccination against the crippling disease played an important role in saving lives.
    Following the devastating tsunami in December, Bachchan appeared in a public service announcement on behalf of the victims and reminded people of their collective duty to protect and care for children, especially in times of crisis.

     
     

    Bachchan addresses the gathering at the ceremony appointing him a UNICEF goodwill ambassador at UNICEF House with Bellamy. As a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, Bachchan’s special areas of focus will be polio eradication and HIV/AIDS. His role will include highlighting these issues with field visits, public appearances, and speaking out on behalf of children.
    Bachchan is joining a select company of other public figures who have stood up for children, from the first goodwill ambassador Danny Kaye appointed in 1954 to the legendary Audrey Hepburn to the present day champions for children, Sir Roger Moore, Harry Belafonte and singer Angelique Kidjo, to name a few.

     
     

    UNICEF goodwill ambassador Amitabh Bachchan presents a copy of his autobiography ‘To Be or Not To Be – Amitabh Bachchan’ to UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy
    UNICEF staff greeted Bachchan and his wife Jaya Bachchan to the UNICEF House in a traditional Indian welcome for honoured guests. He then met with Bellamy and later signed a letter of commitment for a two-year assignment with the agency.

    “I am thrilled to be named goodwill ambassador, this is a great honour for me. I truly hope I will be able to make a difference in children’s lives,” said Bachchan.

    Also present at the function were Amar Singh, Tina Ambani and Abhishek Bachchan.