N Padmakumar has joined Everest Brand Solutions’ Mumbai office as Creative Head. He is replacing Prateek Bhardwaj who was earlier heading the department. He has moved in from Lowe Mumbai.
Just when we were getting used to it, the page view has been declared dead. There are many reasons for its passing, having to do with how web pages are now made and how web content is now distributed. But there is one seismic implication to this - in media, mass is over. Size doesn't matter.
It has always been a boyzone, but car marketing is now getting a taste of girl spice. Top car companies like Maruti, General Motors, Hyundai and M&M are offering everything from specialised loan packages to easy servicing offers and women-friendly features to target the lady of the house.
Maheshwari Advertising, a Madhya Pradesh-based 35-year old OOH agency, has recently bagged the sole rights for displaying ads on Star City buses in Jabalpur. A tender was floated by Jabalpur City Transport Services Ltd, which controls these buses, and Maheshwari Advertising emerged the winner with a bid amount of Rs 1.5 crore.
There was no significant change in print ad volumes of Consumer Durables in 2006. South zone publications garnered the highest 34 per cent share of ad volumes of Consumer Durables last year. October saw a huge spike in the number of ads. While LG Electronics topped advertising in Consumer Durables in Print in 2006, Samsung AirConditioners had the maximum share of innovative ad layouts.
STAR has announced the return of Karan Johar on television with his weekly celebrity chat show ‘Koffee with Karan’. Starting February 11, 2007, the season of the show would be simulcast on STAR One as well as STAR World.
Business Standard is launching its print edition in Bhubaneshwar from January 22, thus becoming the first business daily to be printed from Bhubaneshwar. This will be Business Standard’s 12th edition.
Mudra has effected top-level changes to strengthen its Mumbai team. Aniruddha ‘Onni’ Banerjee, who quit Everest Brand Solutions late last year as COO, is joining as President, Mudra Mumbai. Meanwhile, Jude Fernandes, President, Mudra Mumbai, is being elevated as Executive Director.
Radharani Mitra, Executive Creative Director with Bates Enterprise, has put in her papers. She is slated to join BBC World Service Trust as Creative Director. Mitra has been with Bates for the last seven years.
Meritus Analytics, a WPP data analytics consultancy company, has appointed Deena Lawrence as partner based in Singapore and George Yang Yong as associate partner in Beijing. The move is towards strengthening Meritus’ presence in the Asian region.
Usha Kaal Communications has just launched a uniquely-named new agency – UK007 – which will specialise in innovative marketing concepts for brands in movies and other forms of promotions besides regular advertising. Its spectrum of activities would include in-film, around film, television programming and new mediums of entertainment.
Ashok Sengupta, Chief Financial Officer, GroupM South Asia, has been given the additional responsibility of handling the South East Asian region. Sengupta’s portfolio, which currently includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, now gets expanded to include Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Neo Sports will exclusively telecast the India-West Indies Pepsi Cup cricket series starting Sunday, January 21, 2007. There will also be a Hindi feed for the same airing on Neo Sports Plus. The channel has also announced launch of pre-, mid- and post-cricket show ‘Extra Cover’ featuring some of the games’ biggest stalwarts.
Hardly has the Pepsi Cup series begun, but Neo Sports and Doordarshan are already caught in a tussle over the telecast rights of the series with neither ready to blink first. The public broadcaster wants to telecast the Hindi feed of the series which will be shown on Neo Sports Plus.
With more and more brands willing to associate themselves with movies or even use some sort of product placement in them, P9 Integrated is smiling its way to the bank. According to Navin Shah, CEO, P9 Integrated, the entertainment marketing industry was growing at a quick pace and was poised to be a Rs 800 crore market by 2010.
Their resignations are now official. Peter Mukerjea and Sameer Nair, the two people who have been credited with STAR’s leadership for over six years in the Indian television space, have called it quits and gearing up to give STAR a tough time with their planned ventures. So, who takes over STAR India? What happens to their teams? What went wrong?