BBDO India has strengthened its presence in India with Josy Paul coming in as Chairman and National Creative Director. Prior to this,
‘People’ magazine, a Time Inc. product, which is being brought to India by Outlook Group, has roped in Saira Menezes as Editor. Meneze
Buongiorno (Hong Kong) Ltd, a global leader in digital mobile entertainment including Mobile VAS and digital marketing services, has appointed Satish Kejriwal as COO, India Branch office. Prior to Buongiorno, he was working as COO with Air2Web India. At Buongiorno, Kejriwal would focus on building the organization and reinforcing Buongiorno’s presence as a VAS market leader in the booming Indian mobile services market. Kejriwal brings with him 19 years of experience in the telecom industry. He has been associated with renowned brands like BPL, Alcatel, Airtel and Data Access.
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), which represents more than 500 companies across the mobile ecosystem, has appointed AdMob's European MD Russell Buckley to the position of Vice-Chairman of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) chapter. He replaces dotMobi's CEO, Neil Edwards. Buckley, also a MobHappy blogger and current EMEA board member, was unanimously chosen as Vice-Chairman. Buckley will be playing an active role in fulfilling MMA’s charter to build a sustainable ecosystem for the mobile marketing industry in the EMEA region.
Centrum has appointed Rahul Rege as CEO-Retail Operations. Rege was earlier Business Head, Retail, BRICS Securities Ltd. He has diversified experience in securities markets operations in India. Before joining BRICS, he was Sr. VP at Sharekhan, the retail arm of SSKI. He spent most of his career at Sharekhan, shaping the growth plan of the innovative business model of the company. His previous assignments included ASK Raymond James & Associates, DSP Merrill Lynch, N.H. Securities, and Market Analysis and Consumer Research Organization (MACRO).
CNN has beefed up its Indian editorial operations as well assigned a Chennai correspondent. Sara Sidner, currently of KTVU-TV in San Francisco/Oakland, will be the network’s New Delhi-based international correspondent starting in January 2008 while Liz Neisloss, a former CNN senior producer, will be based in Chennai. Sidner comes to CNN having been the weekend news anchor for KTVU as well as being a field reporter, where she won a number of awards. With more than 12 years of experience, Sidner has also worked in a number of other TV news markets in Texas, Florida and Missouri. Neisloss, who is going to Chennai, was with CNN from 1990 to 2006. In this new position, Neisloss will cover not just the southern part of India but also support the CNN bureau in New Delhi.
Hindi movie channel FILMY has appointed Nilesh Bhanushali as National Ad Sales Head. Prior to this, Bhanushali was Regional Head, Ad Sales - West & South for the channel. He has been a seasoned media sales professional with a career spanning more than 12 years. He has worked with industry majors like Dainik Bhaskar and Indian Express, before joining FILMY in May 2006.
Coinciding with the Suvarna Karnataka celebrations, Kannada TV channel Suvarna is set to present a music reality show, ‘Confident Star Singer’, in association with the Confident Group. The reality show is about the younger generation and their journey to stardom.
Anil Kumble, India’s Test captain, is proving to be an able leader in the ongoing Test series against Pakistan, so much so that he has been retained Test captain for the forthcoming Australia series. ING Vysya hopes to bank on this dependability by signing on Kumble as its brand associate.
Filling in key positions, B4U Network has appointed Alkesh Kanani as Business Head of India operations, while Sanjay Agarwal has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer for B4U Network globally.
Delhi University’s Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) conducted its 31st Annual Convention on December 2 this year, with the theme ‘Vision India – Sustaining the Dawn of Opportunity’. The convention brought forth the thoughts and experiences of eminent personalities from the corporate world and policymakers.
BBC World Service Trust has launched a contest ‘Jo Bola Wohi Sikander’, to stimulate conversation among men about any taboo topic. The contest will take place in the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
Who wouldn’t want to know what the future holds for him or her. While not actually forecasting personal fortunes, JWT has sought to throw some light on 10 trends in the near future. According to JWT’s report, blue would replace green as the environmental movement’s color du jour, while radical transparency would be the new generation gap.
Bindass, the GEC from GenX (a UTV Software Communications company), is seeing some changes in its operations already. Zarina Mehta, CEO, GenX, stated that she was happy with the progress made by both Bindass and Bindass Movies so far, but at the same time informed that some content changes were in the pipeline for Bindass, in addition to some marketing initiatives.
Numbers may have already put 9XM as the top player among Hindi music channels, but as far as advertisers are concerned, 9XM will see action only now with clients like Nestle and Turner. On the other hand, 9X has added HUL as one of its clients. Even as HUL hasn’t come as a Club INX member, the corporate major has signed a three-year deal with 9X.
AB Mauri India Pvt. Ltd, a division of Associated British Foods (ABF) Plc, UK, has awarded the creative duties for its ‘Bread for Life’ campaign to Rediffusion DYR Chennai. The pitch saw the participation of 23 agencies from across the country. The size of the business is estimated to be in the region of Rs 3 crore.
Synovate India has elevated Director Paru Minocha to Executive Director and will report to Tim Balbirnie, Synovate’s CEO for South Asia. The company’s previous leader in India, Alok Shanker, will be on leave until April 2008. He has expressed his desire to take up a new role within Synovate on his return.
Sumit Roy, Founder Director of Univbrands, has joined Northpoint as Director-Brand Communications, and is looking forward to starting many new programmes at the institute.
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