Date-wise News

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has appointed Amitabh Khosla as Country Director for India to oversee all its initiatives in the growing India market. Khosla joins IATA from the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), where he served as Executive Director since its formation. Prior to FIA, Khosla was with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), where he held various appointments, including Regional Director for Eastern India and Chief Representative in Singapore.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 9:58 AM

Guruji.com, India’s Internet search engine, has appointed Soma Biswas as Vice-President, Marketing. Biswas would be responsible for all marketing initiatives with specific focus on customer acquisition. She has over 12 years’ experience in the consumer marketing domain. Prior to joining Guruji.com, Biswas had spent eight years in Silicon Valley, California, developing and marketing Internet-based services. After doing her MBA from IIM, Bangalore, Biswas began her career with Leo Burnett in Mumbai in Client Servicing for Heinz, Singapore Tourism Bureau. She then moved to GE as Brand Manager, and then to Indya.com, which was her first foray into the online space. Biswas joined Indya in the very early days as Product Manager. She worked with many of the top web properties like Yahoo, AT&T, Tickle (now part of Monster.com). She was there for over five years till iVillage was acquired by NBC in 2006. She then worked as a consultant with a few start-ups in the Bay Area, before returning to I

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 9:57 AM

Nortel has made Ravi Chauhan its Global Multimedia Applications Leader. He was earlier Managing Director of Nortel India. In his new position, Chauhan would now be responsible for providing strategic direction for the Multimedia Applications business at Nortel globally. Hitesh Lokhandwala replaces Chauhan as the new Managing Director for Nortel India, moving up from his previous role as leader of several major accounts in the country. Chauhan will continue to be based in Bangalore and retain strong links with local customers and partners. Lokhandwala is based in Mumbai.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 9:56 AM

IndianOil has name Sri Kumar as Executive Director, Corporate Communications, Branding and Planning. Prior to this, Kumar was General Manger for Corporate Communication, Branding. In his new role, Kumar will continue to supervise his previous role with additional responsibilities for planning. Kumar has been with the organisation for several years. He will report to G C Daga, Head of Marketing, Indian Oil Corporation.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 9:54 AM

DDB Mudra, the second agency of Mudra Communications, has hired Priya S, Creative Director, Grey Chennai. She will oversee the Lipton and Johnson & Johnson accounts at the agency and report to Jagdish Acharya, Executive Creative Director, DDB Mudra. Priya has 10 years’ experience in the advertising industry. She began her career in 1998 as a trainee with a Chennai-based agency called Profad. Later, she moved to Watermarks as a junior writer, four years later she moved out as senior writer. Following that, she did a short stint at TBWA. She has also done short stints at Fountainhead and Euro RSCG, where she worked as Copy Supervisor and Creative Supervisor, respectively. She joined Grey in 2006 as Group Head and was promoted as Associate Creative Director, and later, Creative Director while there.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 9:53 AM

Sandipan Bhattacharya and Manoj Deb have joined BBDO India’s Delhi office from Grey, where they were Senior Creative Directors. Bhattacharya and Deb will partner Josy Paul and the BBDO senior management team to set up a robust creative offering for BBDO India. Bhattacharya and Deb have been creative partners for 11 years with stints at Saatchi & Saatchi, Enterprise Nexus and Grey. Their work over the years includes campaigns for Hyundai Santro, Accent, Chevrolet, BPCL, Haier, Maruti Wagon R, Aviva Life Insurance, OCM Suitings, Suzlon, Wrigley’s Doublemint and the more recent Orbit White.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 9:51 AM

ORLANDO, Fla. (AdAge.com) -- Google isn't getting into the ad agency business, the search behemoth's President of Advertising and Commerce Tim Armstrong, said today at the American Association of Advertising Agencies' annual Media Conference and Trade Show.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 7:00 AM

Haier Appliances India, the wholly owned subsidiary of China-based global consumer durable firm Haier Group Corp (HGC), is planning to acquire Indian brands.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 6:59 AM

Capturing the liberal smattering of fashion, tradition, form and colour is Discovery Travel & Living’s new series ‘Adventures of the Ladies Tailor’, which premieres on March 16. A quirky exploration of fashion, lifestyle and design in the context of modern India, the series is narrated and presented by one of India’s best known style gurus, Manish Arora.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Mar 7, 2008 6:55 AM

Bigadda.com, the social networking site of Reliance Entertainment, will now offer its users the option of communicating in eight Indian languages – Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Mar 7, 2008 6:55 AM

Google has introduced new payment options for its AdWords service in the country. The new options include payment by cheque, demand draft and net banking, along with the existing credit card option.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Mar 7, 2008 6:54 AM

Mobile TV service in India is growing with a potential market size that will touch $360 million in 2008, this was revealed by a survey on ‘Mobile TV in India’, which was conducted by Springboard Research, an IT market research and advisory firm.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 6:53 AM

After consolidating its position in the market the whole of 2007, Haier Appliances is now reinforcing its product offerings in India with the launch of several air-conditioner models. The company has earmarked Rs 22 crore for its marketing and communication plans for the next two months and would be rolling out its nationwide campaign soon.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 6:51 AM

‘She takes care of herself... She’s ahead of her time... She’s always a woman to me…’, thus crooned Billy Joel, singing paeans to ‘woman’. In today’s world, where every occasion or relationship is marked by a special day (Rose Day anyone?), International Woman’s Day on March 8 assumes a special significance. And FM stations are out to celebrate the day with special programmes, music, contests, interviews and talk shows.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 6:51 AM

With the winters fast receding and people bracing for another hot summer, air-conditioner manufacturers are becoming active, launching new models and embarking on high decibel promotional campaigns. Players like Voltas, Videocon, LG, Samsung and Haier share their marketing plans for the season ahead with exchange4media.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 6:49 AM

February 2008 brought much cheer to Candid Communication as the Kolkata-based PR agency added five new accounts across categories like lifestyle, corporate, and education to its portfolio in one month.

exchange4media Kolkata Bureau Mar 7, 2008 6:48 AM

R3, an independent marketing consultancy, has announced its plans to set up an office in India to provide marketers and agencies consulting support on best practice in process and compensation. The office would be led by Amita Karwal, Senior VP at Zenith Media, in Delhi as Managing Partner.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 6:47 AM

Changing seasons, accompanied by fluctuating temperature, bring on scores of ailments, sore throat being one of the most common. The market is full of over-the-counter throat soothers. To stand out amid the clutter, Cadbury India Ltd has launched a new marketing campaign for its mint brand Halls and has used humour as a differentiating plank.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Mar 7, 2008 6:47 AM

Sakaal Group of Newspapers is strengthening its product portfolio with an English daily, Sakaal Times, which is slated for launch in April. To be launched from Pune, Dilip Padgaonkar is the Editorial Director for the newspaper, while A N Sen is its Editor-in-Chief. The price of the newspaper has not been decided on yet.

Vinod Behl Mar 7, 2008 6:46 AM

FICCI Frames, the annual convention of the entertainment industry is back. As in the previous years, FICCI Frames 2008 will be held in Mumbai from March 25-27. This year, the event will have Switzerland as the partner country, given the number of Bollywood films shot in that country.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Mar 7, 2008 6:45 AM

exchange4media Conclave 2008 is all set to bring burning issues that impact the various domains of the industry such as TV, radio, print, digital under the scanner. The Conclave kicks off in Delhi on March 11, followed by Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata on subsequent dates in March. NDTV Media is the Presenting Sponsor for this mega event.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Mar 7, 2008 6:44 AM

It is not a business for the faint-hearted. Here, one has to go through a lot of highs and lows of the business; mainly lows initially, and a few highs. It involves a lot of attention to detail, so one has to be all charged up all the time and be nimble-footed. While identification of your target audience is very critical, you also have to remember that one should be able to monetise from the product because if you are not able to get your money from the advertiser or the subscriber, then you won't be able to sustain yourself in the long run. So, it's a roller-coaster ride and we here at UTV are enjoying every bit of it.

e4m Desk Mar 7, 2008 12:00 AM