Zee News has announced the support of more celebrities for its month-long ‘India First’ campaign, including Salman Khan, Baichung Bhutia, Priyanka Chopra, and Shahid Kapur. The channel intends to promote this campaign across all mediums, which is aimed at spreading the message of unity in the country.
UTV Software Communications has appointed Sanjay Purohit, Executive Director – Marketing, Cadbury India and Head of Chocolate Category in Asia, to its Board as independent and Non-Executive Director. Rob Gilby, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Disney-ABC International Television, Asia-Pacific, also joins the UTV Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director.
Prime Focus has announced changes to its senior management in line with a strengthening and restructuring exercise of its leadership team. The company has appointed Ramki Sankaranarayanan as President and CEO of Prime Focus Technologies, and Bhaarath Sundar as CEO - VFX, Prime Focus India. Also joining the India team is Naresh Malik in the role of CEO - Film. Malik was formerly CEO of Pixion. All three would report to Namit Malhotra, Founder and MD, Prime Focus Ltd.
Samir Miglani has quit McCann Erickson Delhi as Group Business Director. He is set to join Unitech Wireless as Head - Brand. At Unitech, his responsibilities include putting together an exciting and high-impact launch of the Unitech Telenor brand in India. At McCann, Miglani was handling accounts like Metlife, Microsoft and Nescafé. Miglani, who began his career in advertising with Interact Vision Delhi, has also worked on clients like Compaq Presario, JK Tyres, Hitachi, Videocon, Tata Lucent, Yamaha and Mother Dairy during his career. He has also been associated with agencies like DraftFCB+Ulka, Mudra, Everest Brand Solutions and Cheil.
Ronald D’Mello has put in his papers as Managing Director and CEO at Maya Entertainment Ltd. He is currently serving his notice period. At Maya Entertainment, D’Mello has been responsible for restructuring the company and substantially growing its turnover. D’Mello had joined Maya in 2007 from UTV Software Communications, where he was CEO. He was also designated COO of UTV during his stint there.
UTV New Media Ltd has beefed up its senior team with two appointments. Zaki Ansari has been appointed as Chief Product and Technology Officer, while Subhash R Ghosh comes in as Vice President – Mobile. Both will be reporting to Manish Agarwal, CEO, UTV New Media.
In a bid to be the undisputed number uno Hindi GEC, Viacom 18’s Colors has launched an all-new offensive: megastar Amitabh Bachchan is roped in to turn pop philosopher with Season 3 of reality show ‘Bigg Boss’. CEO Rajesh Kamat tight-lipped on ad rates premium and marketing budgets.
Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) on Friday celebrated moving into its new office, The Hive, at Mumbai’s Kanjurmarg (West) area, from its prior location in Parel. The new ‘The Hive’ will see the entire Starcom units under on roof and seat over 150 employees.
“India is a genuinely free and liberal democracy, which simply means that the news media has to be free and has to go according to its own code of conduct. If India has to remain a free democracy, then the news media has to remain free and has to regulate itself. Nobody can come and tell it what to do,” says Raghav Bahl, Managing Director, Network18 Group.
Lodestar Universal Chennai has had a busy time these last five months, starting April 2009. The agency has added quite a few big ticket accounts to its kitty in this period, including Indian Terrain, Scholl, Style Spa and Inbisco. The cumulative size of the four wins is upwards of Rs 40 crore. All the wins came following multi-agency pitches.