Close on the heels of the Neo Sports win, Maxus India has now added the media duties of Kerala-based Manappuram Finance to its kitty. The business was hitherto handled by Lintas Media Group. Manappuram Finance had recently appointed Nethra Advertising as its creative agency.
Following its success in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Sydney, the Google Creative Sandbox is coming to India. The Google Creative Sandbox was designed to spark the imagination of agencies by immersing them in a highly unique and creative environment that showcases some of the best uses of Google products.
Micromax, an Indian telecom (hardware) company, has taken up the title sponsorship for the entire Indian cricketing season from May 2010. Micromax made its debut in sports marketing at a time when ace player Sachin Tendulkar made history by scoring a double century.
Launched in 1958 in India, CEAT Tyres has been able to hold its own over the years. Having established itself in the consumers’ minds for years with its tagline ‘Born Tough’, the tyre manufacturer has now gone all contemporary and adopted a new logo, which means the good old ‘rhino’ has trotted off somewhere. Interestingly, CEAT is now more associated with its popular CEAT Cricket Ratings.
After having unveiled a new brand identity, NewsX, soon to be IMN News (Independent Media Network), has appointed MPG as its media agency of record. MPG won the business after a multi-agency pitch, which commenced a few months back. IMN News officials have confirmed the development to exchange4media.
Dhunji Wadia, Senior Vice President and Managing Partner, JWT Mumbai, has put in his papers. Wadia has confirmed the news to exchange4media, but refrained from revealing his next destination, saying that he was considering the various options. Meanwhile, it is not known who is replacing Wadia at JWT.
Recession has forced PR consultancies to get their houses in order, and evolve or they will be in deep trouble. PR agencies have today ‘evolved’ by quickly bringing their teams up to speed on social media to ensure they were reaching both online and offline audiences in their consultancy. PR is no longer about just media placements,” points out Jaideep Shergill, CEO, Hanmer Ms&L India.
SapientNitro, part of Sapient and the largest independent interactive marketing services firm in the world, has been appointed as digital agency of record by Chrysler Group LLC. SapientNitro will oversee the interactive duties for the Chrysler Group brands that include Chrysler, Dodge, Ram Truck, and Jeep.
Chennai-based Ramco Systems, part of the Ramco Group, has appointed Mindshare and Ogilvy as its media and creative agencies, respectively. Both wins were preceded by multi-agency pitches. According to industry sources, the advertising spends would be substantial as Ramco was charting out global expansion plans. Fountainhead Chennai is the incumbent creative agency on the account.
Close on the heels of finalising Lowe Lintas as its creative partner, Nirula’s is now on the lookout for a media agency. The incumbent on the business is Jobra, which has been working with Nirula’s for several years. While it is learnt that several agencies have participated in the media pitch, specifics couldn’t be ascertained at time of filing the report.
In a twist in the NewsX/ Independent Media Network (IMN) News story, India TV has issued a legal notice to INX News Pvt Ltd over renaming NewsX as IMN News. The notice says that the proposed name is ‘strikingly similar’ to lndependent Media Pvt Ltd and lndependent News Service Pvt Ltd, the company that runs 24-hour news channel India TV.
Earlier this month, CavinKare moved out of the AoR (agency of record) system and decided to award its business to agencies on project wise basis. Similar examples were seen last year as well with TVS Motors and Bajaj Allianz. How does this system work out and what’s the future of project-based work models? Are they the preferred modus operandi or is the client losing out on the long-term benefits? exchange4media takes on the debate.