Lay’s, the potato chips brand from FritoLay India, recently embarked on a mega consumer engagement programme, called ‘Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour’. The campaign is aimed at getting Lay’s its next potato chips flavour from the Indian consumer.
At a time when most marketers across the globe, more so financial institutions, are either struggling to stay afloat or thinking of new ways of cutting costs, ING Bank is going the whole hog by investing in brand building and advertising in India.
The current economic environment has not dampened spirits in Asia as Asians remain optimistic about the future despite growing uncertainties. This and other observations on the hopes and aspirations of people in 16 countries across the Asia Pacific region are highlighted in Grey Group Asia Pacific’s ‘Eye on Asia’ study for 2009.
BV Rao laments the media’s inability or unwillingness to look within and course correct in some cases. While freedom of the press is important in any democracy, this freedom comes with a lot of responsibilities and requires the media to be inward-looking and self-policing. This, however, was overlooked at times either due to lazy and shortcut journalism or to make money by cheating the reader and subverting democracy itself.
The second edition of the India Sports Marketing Forum (ISMF) took place in the Capital on October 30, 2009. The day-long Forum saw experts discuss that monies would be where the eyeballs are, and that while India will grow beyond cricket, cricket is here to stay. The exchaneg4media Group event was held in association with T10 Gully Cricket and powered by TAM Sports.
Rukin Kizilbash, GM, Taj TV India (Ten Sports) has put in his papers after having served with the channel since its inception in April 2002. When queried as to his next move, Kizilbash refused to divulges much besides saying, “all will be made clear soon”. Unconfirmed sources said that it was within the sports media space, however, no further details are currently available.
“Creatively, India would be in the top five because we now have a very good team there. The agency has been gaining critical mass that we did not have before, and many other roadblocks are out of the way. Even as TBWA\Worldwide, we are focussing and supporting the offices in India in a much stronger way and it is needed. So, you can rest assured that you would be seeing and hearing a lot from India in the days to come,” says John Hunt, Worldwide Creative Director, TBWA\Worldwide.
ZenithOptimedia India has been assigned Swarovski’s Asia-Pacific media planning and buying account as part of a global alignment. Sources close to the development have pegged the account size at Rs 5-10 crore. The account was awarded without a pitch on the basis of ZenithOptimedia’s relationship with the client in Europe.
After spending more than two years at Contract Advertising, Manish Bhatt, Senior VP and ECD, has put in his papers and is serving his notice period till November-end. While Bhatt will be pursuing his political dreams in his home state of Gujarat, it seems Contract Advertising is in no hurry to find his replacement.
It appears that notices and orders are becoming a regular affair with Colors. Following the notifications from the I&B Ministry and a notice sent earlier by TV Vision, the Indian Motion Pictures Production Association (IMPAA), too, has sent a notice to the channel over the participation of Raju Srivastava as a housemate in ‘Bigg Boss - 3’. At the core of the issue is TV Vision’s concern that Srivastava, who has been signed as the brand ambassador and mascot of its forthcoming channel Mastiii, would not be able to fulfil the commitments that he has made towards this channel.