According to TAM data for all India market in CS4+ category, for the first 14 matches – from March 12-20 – Mumbai emerged as the city that is most glued to IPL3 matches, followed by Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, and Bangalore. exchange4media speaks to media planners to get their views on whether the city factory has finally settled in during IPL.
Big FM, the radio arm of Reliance Media World Ltd., has announced the elevation of Soumen Ghosh Choudhury to National Business Head. Choudhury has been instrumental in shaping the growth and expansion of the radio station, being part of one of the initial team of people joining the company at the time of inception. In his new role, Choudhury will be responsible for all business aspects and the smooth functioning of the FM business across its 45 station network.
NDTV Ltd and NDTV Media Ltd, headed by Raj Nayak, are entering into a fresh arrangement that is beneficial to both organisations. Nayak and his team are setting up a separate new media company, called AIDEM Ventures Pvt Ltd. Under the new arrangement, NDTV will save substantially on costs and will have greater control of its sales operations while working very closely with Nayak’s new organisation.
In preparation for the summer season ahead, Parle Agro has introduced its iconic mango drink Frooti in no less than 18 new pack designs with 18 new Mangoticons. The new additions take the total number of Frooti Mangoticons to 21. This is part of the company’s long-term strategy and vision for the brand.
After five years of operations, Star One has decided to have a shift in its core TG. While earlier it used to have 18-year olds as its core TG, it now intends to shift its core TG to 23-year old viewers. Meanwhile, the channel is launching two shows – ‘Geet- Hui Sabse Parayi’ and ‘Rang Badalti Odhani’, which will cater to this TG.
M&C Saatchi India has announced the launch of its new brand design specialist company, ‘id’. Hemant Sapre, who was earlier with DMA Branding, will spearhead id, which will offer an entire spectrum of services from brand design strategy to design architecture and expression to design implementation.
From strengthening the Gold Flake Trademark at ITC Ltd to making Max New York Life one of the most trusted and admired life insurance brand in the country – Sumit Sehgal, Vice President - Marketing, Max New York Life Insurance Co Ltd, has been going from strength to strength. The GenNext Media Magnate is chosen by a committee comprising the exchange4media editorial team in consultation with Raj Nayak.
According to the latest RAM data from week 50 of 2009 to week 11 of 2010, in the SEC ABC 12+ category for the Delhi market, Radio Mirchi continues its lead, followed by Fever FM and AIR FM2 Gold. Interestingly, though the ratings of Mirchi saw a marginal decline, it dramatically picked up in the last two weeks.
Delhi as a metro is not big on graffiti. But lately, one sees its scrawl and the legend inscribed is worrying – Pro rich, anti poor, CWG sucks. The Commonwealth Games are barely 190 days away, but work on the stadiums is yet to be completed. Plus the Capital is a dug out zone with construction material strewn around and burdened by an inflating Games budget. Sandeep Bamzai wonders why most of the media is silent on such an important issue.
Purple Focus, a full service advertising and marketing communication solutions agency, has been aggressively fueling growth plans. The agency has roped in Arvind Pal Singh as National Creative Director. The appointment comes in the wake of a major restructuring programme that the agency had undergone recently.
Taking forward the philosophy of ‘what goes around comes around’, Craig Davis, CCO, Publicis Mojo, in an effort to accelerate that karma wheel, has launched ‘brandkarma.com’, a site aimed at being a social media-driven watchdog of brands like Toyota, Pepsi, Google, and many more. Davis shares more on this new initiative.
D&H Blurb has lined up some aggressive plans for 2010. The agency is eyeing a growth of 50 per cent this year. It also plans to open an office in Mumbai. These apart, D&H Blurb is also adopting a new mantra for this year, that of ‘bent thinking’. Ajit Hoon, MD & CEO, D&H Blurb, shares more on the agency’s plans.
The CII organised a full day discussion between the Indian broadcasters and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to discuss some aspects such as regulation and ratings that have been a cause for concern for the industry for some time now. The takeoff of the discussions was that the industry would finally get BARC (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Council) functional, and establish a co-regulation model with support from the MIB.