Asianet’s popular reality show ‘Idea Star Singer’ has garnered high TRP scores for the channel in its finale event. As claimed by the channel and supported by TAM figures, the event broke the TV rating records and has become the most watched event ever telecast on Malayalam television.
The US-India Business Council has announced the appointment of Shailesh Rao, Managing Director, Google India, to its Board of Directors. The US-India Business Council is a premier business advocacy organisation comprising top-tier US and Indian companies whose aim is to deepen two-way trade and strengthen commercial ties.
The sixth Mirchi Kaan Awards winners were announced in Mumbai on the evening of May 8, 2009. McCann Erickson walked away with Agency of the Year award, bagging 21 awards, including ‘Copywriter of the Year’ award. Leo Burnett won 14 awards, while Mudra bagged eight awards, including the ‘Crystal Award’.
Leo Burnett India has bagged a Silver Pencil for its entry titled ‘Luxor Highlighters – Innovation’ for Luxor Highlighters in the One Show Interactive – Campaign category. Earlier in the week, Leo Burnett had also won a Pencil in the One Show Design awards, where India had won six Pencils in all.
Magazines have continued to see a decline in readership in IRS 2009 Round 1. Among English magazines, not a single publication has shown growth. India Today leads the pack. Hindi magazines face even bigger declines. Saras Salil is placed No. 1 here. Among language magazines, Vanitha is in the lead.
There are no major surprises or upsets in the IRS Round 1 2009 data released by MRUC on May 8, 2009. Dainik Jagran continues as the No. 1 Hindi daily with an Average Issue Readership (AIR) of 16,072,000, while The Times of India maintains its lead among the English dailies with an AIR of 6,866,000.
“India is a one-trade pony nation when it comes to sports, and that is cricket, as we all know. Cricket is so huge, and the amount of money that it attracts, I feel, there are very few sports in the world that fortunate. It is a big challenge to attract advertising and marketing to any other sport,” points out Marcus Luer, Group CEO, Total Sports Asia
Starcom IP has brought in Yuzdi Badhniwalla for the newly-created position of General Manager for India. Based in Mumbai, Badhniwalla will lead Starcom IP teams across India. He will report to Ravi Kiran, CEO South Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group, and Pushkar Sane, Chief Digital Officer, North & South Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group. This is a second senior level appointment in less than 30 days after Starcom IP moved Suyesh Shankar from Singapore to India as National Strategy Director. Badhniwalla moves from Mauj.com, where he headed the consumer marketing and gaming business. He brings over 10 years of experience spanning media and digital. He had previously worked at Rediff.com and Times Internet before getting himself a second MBA from the prestigious Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Manisha Tripathi has been appointed as President, Miditech Pvt Ltd. In this role, Tripathi will be responsible for production, programming and business operations of Miditech’s projects and ventures. Tripathi is an accomplished professional in the media industry and has been involved with significant projects in the media and entertainment sector. She brings to Miditech close to 15 years of experience in planning, developing and managing business and strategy across media, entertainment and business organisations. Tripathi had most recently served as Station Director with Big FM, handling Delhi and Goa stations. She has also had a successful stint with STAR Television Network and was part of the core team that launched STAR DTH (Tata Sky) besides being involved in designing the programme mix, strategising, developing and promoting programmes for Star Plus.
Solutions | Digitas has appointed Sarabjit Singh as Business Director - Industrial & Consumer Durable sector. He will be based in the corporate office located in Delhi and will report to Vikram Alva, Senior Vice President. Singh joins Solutions | Digitas from MRM WorldWide (McCann World Group), where he was Account Director. He has also worked with companies like Air Sahara and Maruti Udyog prior to MRM World Wide, and has more than seven years of work experience in this industry. He has worked with clients like Hero Honda, Microsoft, Nestle and Exxon Mobil. The biggest client he had handled was Exxon Mobil, a Fortune No. 2 company and was instrumental in bringing all the digital work in India from APAC region.