The OAA (Outdoor Advertising Awards) 2008 is slated to be held on June 27-28. As in the past three years, the fourth edition of OAA would be held under the aegis of OAC 2008 and would recognise and honour the best creatives, agencies, media planners, media owners and printers that leverage the potential of outdoor advertising.
The IAMAI Mobile VAS 2008 conference gave an opportunity to mobile VAS providers to ask service providers to improve their basic telephony services, including network connectivity, so that consumers could get the best user experiences on their mobile phones. They felt that only if service providers became more serious about VAS would connectivity services improve.
Xpert Media Technology launched Mensxpert.com, a free online magazine for men. The magazine is targeted at the modern, professional male in the 20-36 age group. It aims to tackle men’s issues that go well beyond sports and stocks. The magazine uses reader suggestions as the driving force behind its content, which is updated daily.
Religare Enterprises Ltd and Vistaar Entertainment Ventures have jointly launched Vistaar Religare Film Fund, touted as India’s first film fund. The Fund, which would be close-ended in nature with a lock-in period of five years, is expected to have a corpus of approximately Rs 200 crore in the first round.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a consultation paper on restructuring of cable TV services, which will initiate an appropriate regulatory framework to enable the orderly growth of the cable TV sector. TRAI has sought opinion of stakeholders on the issues provided in the paper by April 2, 2008.
Delhi-based DBase4Media has been awarded the premier cinema advertising contract by BSNL. DBase4Media is a media services and solution company providing transit advertising, in-film promos, in-programme promos, global networking and media management services to its specialised client set in banking, insurance, telecom sectors.
Vyas Giannetti Creative (VGC) has promoted Anjan Roy as COO following the exit of Atul Hegde. He was earlier heading VGC’s North operations and was responsible for the agency's rapid growth in the Delhi NCR region since 2005.
PerceptH has been assigned the creative duties of the detergent powder brands of Fena Pvt Ltd. Fena is also planning to venture into household and personal care products in the next three months. PerceptH will be handling the advertising for these soon-to-be-launched brands as well. The account size has been pegged at upwards of Rs 12 crore.
G Srinath has put in his papers as Chief Operating Officer at Club FM, Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Company’s FM radio venture. He is all set to start his own advertising agency, called Hammer India. The agency is set to commence operations from April 1.
Perspectrum Consultancy, the integrated marketing communication (IMC) arm of Percept, has embarked on an ambitious expansion plan, setting up branch offices in Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune. Perspectrum has also roped in Debroto Roy as General Manager to oversee its North and East operations.
Mudra Mumbai has bagged the creative duties of Akruti City Ltd, a real estate brand, following a multi-agency pitch, which was called a couple of months back. An official from the agency informed that the campaign was expected to roll out within 60 days. The campaign targets both commercial and residential clients.
JWT India has won the multi-agency bidding process for the Commonwealth Games, which will be held in Delhi in 2010. The account size is pegged at Rs 300 crore spread over three years. Billed as the biggest ever multi-sports event held in India, the Commonwealth Games will be held under the aegis of the Commonwealth Games Federation, Government of India.
Mudra has won the creative account and Optimum Media Solutions, the media duties, of United Educational Institutes Global (UEI Global) following a multi-agency pitch. UEI Global is a brand owned by Berggruen Education Pvt Ltd, which is a part of Berggruen Holdings, New York. The account size is pegged in the region of Rs 8-10 crore.
MJ Akbar, Editor-in-Chief, The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle, has just brought to an end another glorious chapter in an illustrious career. It had been known for a while that he may be parting ways with Chairman T Venkattram Reddy. Finally, MJ, as he is fondly known among his friends and colleagues, demitted office on March 2, 2008, with a touching farewell note to his colleagues.
Viacom18 has quickened the pace for launching its Hindi general entertainment channel, and the core team is in place already, with the exception of the marketing head. The latest senior appointment is that of Karthik Lakshminarayan, who comes in as Head of Business Planning and Strategy.
The broadcast media is set to see a new addition with Reliance ADAG planning to join the fray. Not only has the Group assigned the additional task of establishing the broadcast operations to Tarun Katial, COO, Big FM, appointments for the television venture have begun in all earnest. One of the first to join is Yogesh Manwani as Head of Marketing.
P&G India wrapped up the pitch process for its media business on March 3 and 4, 2008. It may be recalled that P&G had called for a media review after a period of seven years. Insiders informed that an unusual aspect of the pitch was that MediaCom and Madison might have joined hands to pitch for the business. The pitch may mean realignment of duties among P&G India’s roster agencies – Madison, Starcom, MediaCom and Carat.
“Everybody seems to be talking from the advertisers’ point of view. But it should be looked at from the consumers’ point of view. People need to be comfortable with a particular station… We are still not seeing big retailers coming to advertise on radio. I don’t think this category has grown. I think this industry needs to be made more relevant to people.”
LINOpinion is rapidly moving towards a systems and knowledge driven approach. In the world of high clutter, high competition and technological parity, it is the idea, and the level of engagement and loyalty that differentiates. Customised solutions rather than standard transactions will mark a key turning point. Measurement and accountability will be the buzzwords of tomorrow.