Shobhana Bhartia, Rajya Sabha MP and Vice-Chairperson and Editorial Director of HT Media Limited, has been elected as the new Chairperson of Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) for 2006-2007. She takes over from Kurush Grant.
In a bid to scale up its brand image and stem the erosion of its brand equity, the 150-year-old jeans brand Levi's is doing away with its current strategy of marketing through multi-brand outlets (MBOs) and will instead ramp up the number of its exclusive outlets across the country.
Brushing aside the `pesticide in colas' controversy, Coca-Cola has said it is investing $120 million (Rs 560 crore) more during the year in its Indian company Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) to grow the per capita consumption of its beverages.
The retail marts are seeing the unlikeliest of combinations. FMCG major Hindustan Lever has tied up with biscuit-maker Parle. Breakfast cereal biggie Kellogg is paired up with Amul.
Riding high on its expansion plans, Domino's Pizza is set to launch a major marketing drive to support its ‘Fun Meal For 4’, the newly introduced value for money combos for the family. Domino's, which has an annual marketing communication budget of Rs 20 crore, has earmarked a marketing spend of Rs 4 crore for this new promotion campaign.
The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) recently announced the details of the CASBAA TV Advertising Awards 2006 to recognise creative excellence in multi-channel television. The Awards ceremony will be the climax of the CASBAA Convention 2006 in Hong Kong from October 24-27, 2006.
Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division has announced a strategic tie-up with MTV Networks India, in which MTV will develop unique programming content for Xbox 360 across its three channels in India – MTV, Vh1 and Nick – thereby engaging, entertaining and educating gaming enthusiasts and the uninitiated across all age groups.
TRAI has finally come out with an order stipulating tariffs order for notified areas where CAS is to be implemented by December 31, 2006. The ceiling for the MRP fro any pay channel has been fixed at Rs 5.
Purnendu Bose, COO, Sahara One Television, has decided to call its quits after a 17-month stint. A replacement hasn’t been found yet. Sources inform that Seemanto Roy, who has just taken control of operations, would be directly involved with the channel now.
Close on the heels of Everest Delhi moving its office to Gurgaon, the agency now is looking at sprucing up its team. Satya Prakash joins as Client Services Director while Kumud Ghosal joins as Planning Director.
Himanshu Saxena, former Associate Vice-President at IMRB, is joining McCann Erickson as Vice-President and Business Director from September 1, 2006.
Led by the growing demand for popular mobile content, STAR has announced the launch of mobile audio entertainment called ‘STAR 7827 Voice’. The unique radio-like voice service will offer popular TV and movie content in an easy to access format with mobile jockeys presenting fresh and popular content every time consumers make a call.
Online gaming portal Contests2win has sold its Hong Kong-based wireless marketing operation M2W to Walt Disney Internet Group. However, the company said the acquisition will not impact the India operations of Mobile2win.
ICICI Bank has appointed Hanmer & Partners as its PR agency. The agency will service the account across all major networks and other territorial offices in small towns and cities spread across the length and breadth of the country.
In sync with Zee TV’s strategy to concentrate on day part to secure and grow its position in Hindi mass channels, a new 8.30 pm property, ‘Ghar ki Lakshmi Betiyann’, has been planned and a new marketing campaign for the 9-10 pm has been released.
Business publications have always shown mixed readership and the National Readership Survey (NRS) 2006 results are no different. In the case of dailies, The Economic Times has seen a dip, but continues to be the leader. Magazines, however, see a change in leadership with BusinessWorld scoring higher than Business Today.
<p align=justify>"I believe very strongly that as India moves forward with the young population we have, which is the aspirational population, there will be people who will move and say I don't want just saas-bahu, I want something which is more entertaining but informative. So, we will move to that space."