Asianet Communications, which operates a bouquet of channels such as Jewel Box, Medley and Asianet Cable Vision, is all set to launch a Kannada entertainment channel. Sam Sundar has been roped in as COO.
Rajesh Mathew has joined Contract Chennai as Vice-president and Branch Manager. He replaces Bimal Nair who recently quit Contract and joined as EVP, Rediffusion DY&R, Mumbai. In his last assignment, he was heading the Chennai operations of Rediffusion DY&R and Wunderman.
Leveraging solid performances by operating units across all geographies and marketing disciplines, WPP Group reported a 15 percent increase in 2006 pre-tax profit to $1.26 billion on a 10 percent revenue rise to nearly $11 billion, compared to the previous 12 months.
At a time when global coffee retail giants such as Starbucks, Illycafe's `Espressamente' among others have lined up at the doorsteps of the Indian market, the home grown retailers Café Coffee Day (CCD) and Barista are looking at expanding their overseas operations even while increasing their footprints here.
Lifebuoy which had associated with the recent movie ‘Krrish’ provided a chance for ten of its contest winners to meet the star of the film, Hrithik Roshan. The brand believes that as the story of the movie revolves around ‘protection’, which even the brand stands for, there is a ‘brand fit’ in this association.
The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) has announced the dates for the ninth international film festival in Mumbai this year. STAR India and Adlabs are sponsoring the event.
Exploring the depths of branding in the continent, Grey Worldwide has launched its consumer survey, ‘Eye on Asia 2007: Consumerism and Communications’. The survey tries to explore what Asians want from brands, marketing and marketers.
Pantaloons has tied up with Femina Miss India, and for the next three years the pageant will be called ‘Pantaloons Femina Miss India’. It replaces Pond’s which was the main sponsor since 2004.
There was a 30 per cent rise in Telecom sector print ad volumes in 2006 over the previous year. Telecommunication Services took the highest 75 per cent share of Print ad volumes. While Q1 saw maximum advertising by Telecom sector in 2006, the maximum share of ad volumes was garnered by publications from South zone. Reliance Communications was the top telecom advertiser in Print in 2006.
A comprehensive brand campaign has been launched by JWT for Mirinda Sorbet, which is a unique drink that combines the tangy taste of Mirinda with ice cream like smoothness.
The Pondicherry-based fashion label and leather accessory manufacturer Hidesign is keen to give an added thrust to its advertising in international markets by appointing small local agencies for those markets which it plans to enter.
As the FM radio reaches out to 91 more cities in the second phase, 2007 is expected to be the year of the radio. Biggies like Radio Mirchi, Big FM, Adlabs Radio, Radio City, Radio One, etc. are in the process of rolling out new stations.
DTH satellite TV operator TataSky has approached the Delhi High Court, alleging that Sun TV was violating the regulations of TRAI.
Following the complains received, ASCI’s Consumer Complaints Council brought the recently aired Neo Sports ads on India–West Indies series under the scanner, and has not found the ads ‘racist’. One treatment of the five made was found ‘offensive’.
Week four has some good news for KBC-SRK with the numbers staying with in the expected figures. The two-hour Valentine Day special has brought some relief with the special throwing almost a rating of 10.
It is the marriage of accountability and creativity for FCB Ulka with the coming together of FCB and US based Draft Worldwide. The agency’s vision for India would continue to be strategy focus, being media neutral and providing marketing communication solutions to clients.
Having come out of the shadows of creative agencies, media agencies still have some way to go before they can command the same brand recall that their creative partners do. Leading lights from the media agencies speak their mind on where they stand.