Mahendra Swarup, ex-CEO of Indiatimes, and currently Advisor in the Private Treaties Division of The Times of India Group, has decided to call it quits in September this year. He is learnt to have taken significant stakes in a few online solutions companies.
Organisers of CLIO Awards 2006 have announced winners in all competitions except Television and Radio. The lone Indian winner in results announced May 15 at Miami is a JWT entry, which won Bronze for a Single (in Print) for work on Levi’s Slim Jeans. The agency is learnt to have won another Bronze for Slim in the Television (Craft) competition, results of which are to be announced on the evening of May 16.
Hindustan Lever's (HLL) '05 annual report reveals a company that is getting back on its feet after a few years of troubled times. While the results for '05 have given enough indication of this, a perusal of its '05 annual report only reinforces it further.
SEraja Technologies has unveiled ‘The EventWeb’, www.seraja.com. With the site -- a combination of an EventBlog and a Wiki of events -- users can experience events through multimedia from anywhere.
Computer and videogame magazine SKOAR! has announced that India’s biggest Gaming event, SKOAR! 2006, would be held from July 7 to 9, 2006, at the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bangalore.
Saregama India has come out with a music video featuring India’s first fully animated 3D item girl, ‘Lady Chatterjee’. A music album with nine songs, all of which revolve around the mobile or Internet space, will be on offer soon.
LIC’s website www.licindia.com has won the prestigious People’s Voice Award in the Insurance category at the 10th Annual Webby Awards. LIC’s is the only website from India to feature in the winner’s category this year.
Sachin Tendulkar will be the brand ambassador for Reynolds. The batting maestro has signed a three-year deal with the company for TV and print ads. Reynolds will also engage the icon with co-branded retail outlets ‘Writesites’.
Sharif Rangnekar, CEO, Integral PR, has been elected Vice-President of the Asia Pacific Region of Public Relations Organization International.
Bank of India has decided on six agencies to take care of its creative business. The six empanelled agencies include Imageads, Interpublicity, Pressman, Mudra, O&M and Rediffusion Financials.
Balaji Telefilms is entering ad films and corporate films production. It has hired Kalpana Ravi to look after this venture.
Nimbus Communications will launch three India-facing 24-hour sports pay TV channels between October 2006 and September 2007. Significantly, Nimbus raised Rs 135 crore (US$ 30 million) of fresh capital last week
PR firm Percept Profile has bagged nine new accounts recently. The new business wins add up to Rs 5-6 million in billings.
The BBC World Service has said, in an annual report on global radio listenership, that ‘A ban by local regulators in India on local FM stations carrying news from foreign broadcasters have resulted in a drop of over 12 mn listeners between 1995 and 2002’.