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Tag: Vodafone

  • Vodafone and Rockstand join hands to create a new digital reading revolution in India

    Vodafone and Rockstand join hands to create a new digital reading revolution in India

    MUMBAI: Vodafone, one of India’s leading telecommunications services provider, has announced its tie-up with Rockstand, one of India’s leading eBook and eMagazine application.

    This tie-up heralds a new chapter in the digital reading industry of the country. With this development, Rockstand has become the first eBook and eMagazine application that would include easy payment through Vodafone and thus reaching out to millions of users across the country.

    On the association, Rockstand Digital CEO Praveen Rajpal exclaimed, “Rockstand’s tie-up with Vodafone will further strengthen our relationship with them as well as with our users. We are receiving wonderful reviews for our application and recently we have crossed a mark of 50,000 downloads, which shows the growing popularity of digital reading in India. With Vodafone’s support, we will be reaching to urban as well as rural areas of the country on a strong network. We are sure this association will bear rich dividends for both Vodafone & Rockstand”

    There will be exclusive subscription option for Vodafone users where they can purchase books and magazines at Rs 7 per day.

    Apart from this Vodafone users will also have access to choose from the gamut of books and magazines of their choices, with just a click of a button from Rockstand – eBook/eMagazine collection like regional content, lifestyle, entertainment, computer, children magazine, computer books, celeb magazines and many more categories.

  • Ogilvy ‘Made For’ Vodafone network campaign

    Ogilvy ‘Made For’ Vodafone network campaign

    MUMBAI: Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai office has created a new campaign for the telecom giant Vodafone.

    The campaign focuses on the network as it is the single biggest driver of brand choice and the reason for customers exiting from a brand. Hence, communicating ‘network credentials‘ in an evocative and engaging manner, has been a constant endeavor of all telecom brands.

    The agency has created a 360 degree campaign that reinforces the network‘s superiority among the users of the Vodafone network and among other operators and gets them to switch to Vodafone through charming slice of life stories.

    Keeping this insight in mind that the true test of a good network is its wide reach – availability of a signal at unlikely places, the agency zeroed in on the ‘Made For‘ proposition. The Vodafone network delivers on multiple things that one does in their day to day life.

    In the initial phase of market development, Vodafone had decided to focus its communication activities around Vodafone‘s excellent network and connectivity. Hence the agency came up with the tag line, “Wherever you go, our network follows” for the campaign, wherein the pug represented Vodafone‘s network. The campaign made the brand synonymous to an omnipresent network and gave it the stature of a constant companion.

    The next round of Network communication happened last year and the focus of the communication was shifted to ‘quality through connectivity and voice clarity‘ establishing the superiority of the Vodafone network.

    The current campaign will be an extensive 360 degree campaign that will be led by television. The ‘Made For‘ proposition will also be extended contextually in print, outdoor, digital, radio and on-ground.

  • Vodafone India secures the ‘title sponsorship’ for inaugural Indian badminton league 2013

    Vodafone India secures the ‘title sponsorship’ for inaugural Indian badminton league 2013

    Bangalore: In one of the most anticipated statements of the high-impact Indian Badminton League, it was announced today that Vodafone India, India’s leading telecommunications service providers will be the ‘Title Sponsors’ for Indian Badminton League (IBL) 2013.

    Speaking on the association, Vivek Mathur, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India said, “Vodafone has a strong association with sport in India. We see a great initiative in the Indian Badminton League. Badminton is a sport that most Indians associate with and we see this as a paradigm shift in the sports entertainment industry. Vodafone India intends to make the best out of this association.”

    Speaking on the association, Mr Ashish Chadha, CEO, Sporty Solutionz, the ‘Commercial Partner’ for IBL, said, “It’s a matter of pride for Indian Badminton League today that Vodafone India has decided to promote the League and this association will take BAI and Sporty Solutionz’s attempt to promote badminton in India to the next level. With its unparalleled reputation for world-class services and pioneering telecom supremacy, Vodafone India’s support will be a key factor to the success of IBL. Keeping in mind Vodafone India’s past association with sports, it gives us the confidence that they will even guide us with their valuable experience through this foray.”

    Speaking on this occasion, Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta, Badminton Association of India President & MP said, “We welcome Vodafone to the IBL family. We look forward to a strong and successful association and their presence will add goodwill to the League.”

    The $1-million Indian Badminton League is set to launch on August 14, 2013, with some high-voltage action expected between Krrish Delhi Smashers and Pune Pistons. The 2013 IBL will feature six franchises and will run for 18 days. Each franchise will host a two-day leg and the League will showcase a grand total of 90 matches, providing broadcasters and in-stadia spectators with more than 100 hours of LIVE “family entertainment” on STAR Sports 2 & ESPN. The matches will be held during late afternoon and evening to coincide with prime time television and providing a convenient time for the stadium audience. The LIVE IN-stadia entertainment, combined with high-octane on-court action is expected to further hook viewers onto this new adrenalin packed LIVE family entertainment format attracting a much younger fan base, which also includes women and children.

    The top four franchises in the League will clash in the semi-finals and the winners will meet in the grand final on August 31, which will be played in Mumbai, for the richest prize money tournament in badminton till now.

  • Vodafone India offers free Twitter access for three months

    Vodafone India offers free Twitter access for three months

    MUMBAI: Vodafone India is offering its prepaid and postpaid mobile subscribers free Twitter access for a period of three months starting today (29 July).

    Under the promotion, users will be able to access mobile.twitter.com or the Twitter Android app without incurring any data charges on the Vodafone network. The operator clarifies that access to mobile.twitter.com would be free only when the subscriber uses the native or default browser.

    It also adds that “the Eligible Subscriber would only be charged for connection setup, at 10p/10KB on 2G all circles except Uttar Pradesh (West), Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka and 2p/10KB on 3G and 2G in Uttar Pradesh (West), Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka in case he/she is subscribed to Pay As You Go Tariff at Prevailing Pack Tariff in case he/she has subscribed to any of the Vodafone India Mobile Internet Packs.”

    Free Twitter access is available only when the subscriber sets the APN to ‘www’ in the Internet data settings on the phone. The offer is not available to BlackBerry users.

    Vodafone is also running advertisement messages within the Android Twitter app showing promotional messages under individual tweets and pop-up messages when one tries to compose a tweet.

    It’s not the first time an Indian telecom operator has tied up with Twitter to offer free access. In April, Reliance Communications had also tied up with Twitter to offer a “Twitter Access” program for three months, wherein it offered its GSM subscribers access to Twitter’s mobile website and app without levying any extra data consumption charges.

  • Vodafone inks € 7.7 billion deal with KDG

    Vodafone inks € 7.7 billion deal with KDG

    MUMBAI: Germany‘s largest cable-TV platform, Kabel Deutschland, is set to be taken over by mobile telco giant Vodafone in a deal worth € 7.7 billion ($10.1 billion).

    [Click and drag to move] Liberty Global, which owns Germany‘s Unity Media, had also been eyeing KDG, which has about 7.6 million TV subscribers in Germany. The transaction values KDG at € 87 per share. Its combination with Vodafone, which has 32.4 million mobile customers in the country, will create a company with € 11.5 billion in German revenues.

    Vodafone predicts a strong growth potential for KDG, particularly with multi-service bundles-existing Vodafone customers can be cross-sold KDG‘s broadband, fixed telephony and TV offerings, while KDG subs can be cross-sold Vodafone‘s mobile offerings.

    “German consumer and business demand for fast broadband and data services continues to grow substantially as customers increasingly access TV, fixed and mobile broadband services from multiple devices in the home and [Click and drag to move] workplace and on the move,” said Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao. “The combination of Vodafone Germany and Kabel Deutschland will greatly enhance our offerings in response to those needs and is consistent with Vodafone‘s broader strategy of providing unified communications services. The transaction announced today-which the management and supervisory boards of Kabel Deutschland intend to recommend to their shareholders-will lead to the creation of an operator with significant competitive scale, attractive operating and capital investment efficiencies and a combined management team with expertise across all communications segments and technologies.”

    Following the transaction, KDG management will be responsible for the combined consumer fixed-line business throughout Germany and for creating the single product platforms for TV, broadband and fixed telephony, out of the existing headquarters in Unterföhring. The platform‘s CEO Adrian V Hammerstein, will be invited to join the management board of Vodafone Germany.

    Hammerstein commented, “Kabel Deutschland has evolved into one of the most dynamic players in the sector. Its high-performance infrastructure and successful strategy makes it ideally placed to continue returning above-average growth in a rapidly changing market. Kabel Deutschland and Vodafone are an ideal fit. Together, we have the opportunity to become Germany‘s leading telecommunications and television provider and to create what for the German market is a unique, winning combination of fixed line and mobile communications.”

  • IPL 6 sponsors benefit significantly; Pepsi gets highest recall: Ormax Trac20

    MUMBAI: The sponsors of the sixth edition of Indian Premiere League (IPL) are to benefit significantly from the tournament, Pepsi being the bigger gainer, Ormax Trac20 report stated.

    The findings of the pre-phase of Ormax Trac20, a syndicated research being conducted by media insights firm Ormax Media, revealed that Pepsi seems to have the ball out of the park even before the tournament started.

    As per the findings, the average number of sponsors recalled at an unaided level per respondent stood at a healthy 3.2, more than double compared to previous years.

    Title sponsors Pepsi contributed significantly to this performance, with an unaided recall of 82 per cent even before the tournament started. DLF, the title sponsors till last year, scored less than 50 per cent on recall in the previous seasons of IPL.

    Other sponsors with high unaided recall are Vodafone (37 per cent) and franchise sponsors Nokia (32 per cent).

    Ormax Media CEO Shailesh Kapoor said, “This phase of the research was conducted in the fortnight leading upto the start of IPL 6. Such high recall levels are indicative of the strong association a brand like Pepsi has managed to build with the tournament, despite this being their first year of association. It is evident that the brand fit between Pepsi and the IPL has worked this year.”

    The Ormax Trac20 research is being conducted across 11 cities, in three phases, with a total sample size of 9,000: Pre-phase before the IPL started, mid-phase during the IPL and post-phase at the end of the tournament. The findings of the pre-phase have been released for the subscribers.

  • Console gaming dominance to reduce gradually in India

    Console gaming dominance to reduce gradually in India

    MUMBAI: Console continues to be the largest segment of the Indian gaming market. However, the Ficci KPMG report notes that its dominance is expected to reduce gradually as mobile gaming gains significance.

    While growth rates of 28 per cent were forecast over 2011- 2012, actual growth came in at 8 per cent primarily due to overall sluggishness in the economy impacting both unit sales and attach ratios. The growth was also impacted by sluggishness in ad rates and significant inventory overhang in the internet gaming space.

    Growth estimates for the console market have been further moderated going forward. This is primarily due to the fact that Sony‘s PS2 console is expected to be phased out in India this year and upsides from attach growth in PSP, PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 sales will only partially offset PS2 sales. A fall in software sales earlier associated with PS2 consoles will also impact the market.

    Consequently, the overall market is likely to grow at a 19 per cent CAGR to reach Rs 19 billion by 2017. For the console segment, a lot will depend on how the PS4 launch fares in India and how quickly the gaming experience on mobiles and tablets comes closer.
    Overall the gaming industry in India grew 16 per cent over last year and is expected to grow at a 22 per cent CAGR to reach Rs 42 bn by 2017.

    Mobile Gaming: This category continued to see sustained growth in smartphone and tablet device penetration, and regular uptake of gaming content.

    IAMAI estimates that nearly 50 per cent of mobile users regularly access gaming content. Although telecom operators such as Vodafone are increasingly recognising the importance of developing a vibrant gaming ecosystem on-deck and are rationalising revenue share terms (now offer 70 per cent revenue shares to several large publishers), the off-deck segment is expected to eclipse the on-deck segment in value terms by 2014.

    Monetisation currently remains a challenge for Indian publishers, as the majority of game downloads are ad-funded. However, given that most Indian smartphone users have access to content published by global content providers and the fact that the gaming universe is highly fragmented, the spend gets spread across a large number of developers and private publishers.

    PC and TV Gaming: The PC gaming market grew nominally over this period consistent with last year‘s report. It is not expected to be a significant contributor to growth over the coming years.

    While the TV gaming is a relatively small market, the segment holds some potential for growth going forward as digital cable operators attempt to offer compelling value added services to curb erosion in subscribers with the onset of mandatory digitisation. This is, however, expected to be largely a lower income audience.

    Set top device functionality, currently a major bottleneck to delivery of quality gaming content, is also expected to improve over time, allowing providers to transmit richer, interactive content.

  • Multi Screen Media eyes strong ad rev growth from IPL

    MUMBAI: Multi Screen Media‘s (MSM) strategy of reducing ad rates for the sixth edition of the IPL appears to be paying off. It has already roped in nine sponsors and is looking for two more. For its wrap around show ‘Extraaa Innings‘, it has also got in seven sponsors compared to six last year.

    MSM president network sales, licensing and telephony Rohit Gupta said, “We reduced our rates by 10 per cent. This has helped old clients return and we have also got new companies on board. We have managed to get into new conversations. In a slowdown economy, advertisers want minimum risk. We are looking for a revenue increase of at least 25-30 per cent. So far we have sold around 70 per cent and there are still three more weeks to go for the tournament to start. The plan is to hold back 15-20 per cent and sell it at a higher rate once the event starts.”

    The co-presenting sponsors are Pepsi and Vodafone. The seven associate sponsors are Tata Photon, Samsung Mobile, Panasonic, Havells, Usha Appliances, Karbonn Tablets and Godrej.

    “We are looking for two more associate sponsors since there is a healthy demand. We are happy that our strategy has resulted in Samsung and Godrej coming back. Panasonic and Usha Appliances have come on board for the first time.”

    As far as â€?Extraaa Innings‘ is concerned, MSM has got Amul, eBay, Titan, Nivea, Renault, V Guard and Nestle as sponsors for the IPL. It has sold packages like fall of wickets which has been taken by Luminous, and action replay which has been taken by ACC and Amity. There are also several spot buyers with whom MSM has done deals with including Coca-Cola, Parle Agro, Marico, Nikon, Sony India, Berger Paints, ibibo.com and Airtel.

    “The IPL‘s reach has seen a steady growth. If you look at other recent series like India versus Pakistan, it disappointed with the ratings being much less than what was expected by the industry. With Six having a Hindi feed, IPL advertisers will get even more reach. Our marketing campaign has started. Pepsi is also doing a lot of activation. The BCCI is marketing the property. All of this is creating a lot of buzz in the market. The opening ceremony in Kolkata should set the tone for the event,” Gupta said.

    Vivaki Exchange CEO Mona Jain said that MSM should make Rs. 1.5 billion extra this year as their inventory would get sold out. “I expect the IPL to garner around Rs 8.5 billion this year compared to Rs 7 billion last time. A lot of youth and male focussed brands have come on board. What is seen is that Hindi GECs and Hindi news channels lose share during the event. Males watch those genres less when the IPL is on. So clients try to make up for that. Nobody is splurging. It is just that some companies feel that the IPL is a necessary platform to be on. Others who have less marketing outlay are more conservative. Brand visibility is the main reason to be on the IPL. Companies will use the IPL as a platform to launch new products. For a company like Pepsi, this isthe period where their product is consumed heavily.”

    Gupta, however, expects MSM to rake in around Rs 10 billion this year.

    LodestarUN CEO Shashi Sinha said that it is not just the rate reduction that has seen clients come on board. “The environment is also different. There is no World Cup this time around unlike 2011. Also companies have put their marketing plans in place. The channel will do well.”

  • Y&R acquires majority stake in Turkish creative digital agency C-Section

    MUMBAI: WPP‘s wholly-owned operating company Y&R, the global marketing communications network, has acquired a majority stake in the creative digital advertising agency based in Istanbul, Turkey CS Reklam Hizmetleri Sanayi Ve Ticaret A.?ž. (trading as “C-Section”).

    Founded in 2004, C-Section specialises in creating microsites, apps, digital campaigns and video production/virals for the Turkish market.

    The agency employs approximately 40 people and clients include Coca-Cola, Vodafone, and TEB BNP Paribas.

    C-Section‘s unaudited revenues for the year ended 31 December 2012 were TRY 7.5 million, with gross assets as at the same date of TRY 3 million.

    The agency will retain its distinct independent identity and will not be merged with Y&R Istanbul.

  • Vodafone moves HC against DoT order of auction of its 900 MHz

    Vodafone moves HC against DoT order of auction of its 900 MHz

    NEW DELHI: Even as the government is preparing to auction the remaining 2G spectrum, Vodafone has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court challenging the Telecommunication Department‘s action of putting its 900 MHz spectrum to auction.

    The petition has opposed the auction as it had applied for licence extension which is pending with the Department. Vodafone said that it had in December 2012 sought extension of its licence period for Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata circles which are coming up for renewal in November 2014.

    Even when these applications for renewal were pending, the DoT went ahead to announce the auction of 900 MHz spectrum, Vodafone said. The extension of auction was sought under clause 4.1 of the licence agreement under which government can extend the period of licence for further 10 years, Vodafone said. It sought a fair and reasonable extension as per the rules.
     
    Vodafone contended that the action of DoT to auction its existing licenses is arbitrary and against the provisions of policy and licence and also disruptive against public interest.