MxMIndia

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  • The elected members are Sharif D Rangnekar, CEO & Director, Integral PR, for the post of President; Nikhil Dey, President, Public Relations, Genesis Burson Marsteller, as Vice President and Shivraj Parshad, Principal, The PRactice, as Secretary

    PRCAI elects new mancom

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI), the apex body of communications and public relations consultancies, at its Annual General Meeting, elected a new management committee and support chapter heads.

     

    The elected members are Sharif D Rangnekar, CEO & Director, Integral PR, for the post of President; Nikhil Dey, President, Public Relations, Genesis Burson Marsteller, as Vice President and Shivraj Parshad, Principal, The PRactice, as Secretary.

     

    As part of its National outreach, the regional chapter heads elected are Ajay Lamba, COO, Integral PR as Chairperson, North; Shane Jacob, The PRactice as Chairperson, South; Madhuri Sen, MD, Waggener Edstrom as Chairperson, West and Basav Bhattacharya, Strategic Consultant, Integral PR as Chairperson, East.

     

    Mr Rangnekar, the newly elected President said: “PRCAI is committed to its mission: to build and enhance benchmarks relevant to our business including the areas of Knowledge, Ethics and Expertise.” Setting the tone for the two years ahead of the new Management Committee, the President said that PRCAI intends to focus on talent at one level as well as create platforms that recognize quality of work done by the industry so as to showcase the best work done by our industry.”

     

    PRCAI has been representing the industry for over 11 years. During the many years it has organized different forums, taken up a variety of issues and engaged with multiple stakeholders for distinct purposes. In the past year, PRCAI aligned with EPACA to set norms for government engagement aimed at a higher level of transparency.

     

    Public Relations Consultants Association of India is a trade association set up in October 2001 that represents India’s public relations consultancy sector while providing a forum for Government, public bodies, industry associations, trade and others to confer with public relations consultants as a body.

     

  • Customers can now learn to speak fluent English within the comfort of their homes

    Airtel DTH launches iEnglish

    By A Correspondent

     

    Airtel Digital TV, the DTH service by Bharti Airtel announced the launch of its new interactive service, iEnglish to help customer hone their English speaking skills within the comfort of their homes.  These English language tutorials are based on an audio-visual format with animated characters and quizzes for easy comprehension.

     

    Priced at Rs30/month Airtel Digital TV subscribers can now avail the benefits of this offering by simply pressing the iTV button on their remote control.

     

    Commenting on the launch,  Shashi Arora, CEO- DTH/ Media, Bharti Airtel, said: “Interactive services on  digital TV platforms are not merely value added services but ‘infotainment plus’. Our new interactive service, iEnglish will enable customers become skilled at day-to-day spoken English by enhancing their learning through entertaining, yet educational activities.”

     

    Powered by Hungama, South Asia’s leading digital entertainment company, and Aptech, a pioneer in providing education and training, iEnglish would help consumers understand specific scenarios and commonly used English expressions for daily communication. Apart from teaching correct pronunciations of words, it would also help customers learn new words and phrases, proper grammar usage and an opportunity to gauge their competencies.

     

    Ninad Karpe, MD & CEO, Aptech Ltd said: “With India poised to emerge as one of the successful player in the field of mEducation, we are excited to launch our first mEducation offerings on Airtel Digital TV”.

     

    Neeraj Roy, MD & CEO, Hungama added: “The DTH platform is emerging as a new tool for more interactive forms of entertainment and learning. We will continue to innovate and create products with ease of access for our consumers.”

     

    Besides iEnglish, Airtel Digital TV currently offers several interactive services such as iExam, iKidsworld, iDarshan, iRadio and iFasal.

     

    Airtel digital TV – the DTH service from Bharti Airtel – has over 7.2 million customers and is one of the leading national level DTH service in the country. Airtel has also HD services to its portfolio.

     

  • Launched in July 2011 at Mehboob Studio, Live from the Console provides emerging music bands an alternative platform to showcase talent and for music fans to discover new music

    Live from the Console goes national with 9XO

    By A Correspondent

     

    Live from the Console, a Day 1 (Sony Music Independent) and Oranjuice Entertainment initiative has now got a national platform on the international Music channel, 9XO.

     

    Shridhar Subramaniam, President – Sony Music EntertainmentIndia&Middle Eastexplained: “What began as a humble exercise to present new bands with an alternative platform that brings about music discovery has now gone national. We’re thrilled to partner with 9XO to promote musicians and independent music to an all new level. Going beyond Mumbai, this year Console edition will also be launched in Kolkata and a few other cities.”

     

    Launched in July 2011 at Mehboob Studio, Live from the Console provides emerging music bands an alternative platform to showcase talent and for music fans to discover new music. These emerging bands will get an opportunity to showcase their talent on a national television channel through this association with 9XO.

     

    Speaking of the association Mr. Luke Kenny, Programming Head for 9XO said: “We are delighted to be associated with Live from the Console, which highlights the independent music talent inIndia. This association with the event will bring to the fore talented artists out there playing original music and give them the national recognition that their music merits.”

     

    Mr. Owen Roncon, Managing Director – Oranjuice Entertainment said: “It’s great news for artists as they usually don’t get any national recognition, and with our association with 9XO, we are sure thousands of people will be able to appreciate indie artists and their music”

     

    Live from the Console is a collaborative effort between Day 1 – a Sony Music Independent and Oranjuice Entertainment. It aims to gives new bands and fresh music talent an alternative platform that puts music first while bringing together like-minded people.

     

  • Airtel joins ICICI in Millward Brown's BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study Brown

    ICICI Bank ahead of Pepsi, Airtel beats Siemens, Sony in Top 100 Global Brands rankings

    By A Correspondent

     

    Bharti Airtel has joined an elite club of global brands by making it to this year’s BrandZTop 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list by WPP firm Millward Brown. ICICI is the only other Indian brand in this group.

     

    With an overall ranking of 63 (brand value: $ 12.7 billion) and 71 (brand value: $11.5 billion) respectively, ICICI and Airtel have been ranked ahead of top global brands such as Citi (82), Sony (86), MTN (88), China Telecom (90) and Volkswagen (96).  ICICI is in fact ahead of even Pepsi which ranks at #67.

     

    The BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study is conducted annually by leading global research firm Millward Brown. It is the only brand valuation that takes into account what people think about the brands they buy along with rigorous analysis of financial data, market valuations, analyst reports and risk profiles. The ranking is arrived through a continuous in-depth quantitative research on a category-by-category and a country-by-country basis. The research covers some 2 million consumers and more than 50,000 brands in over 30 countries.

     

  • The seventh edition of Indian Radio Forum (IRF) discussed quite a lot of issues on the strength and opportunities of radio, the road ahead for the medium, especially with FM Phase III expansion

    Takeaways from IRF 2012 (+Vdo)

    By A Correspondent

     

    The seventh edition of Indian Radio Forum (IRF) discussed quite a lot of issues on the strength and opportunities of radio, the road ahead for the medium, especially with FM Phase III expansion, how to maximize radio’s assets and how to gain share of market spend; the use of social media and monetizing it and much more. MxMIndia spoke to couple of industry veterans on their takeaways from the IRF 2012.

     

    Mr Premjeet Sodhi, COO, Lintas Media Group:

    One major takeaway with which I am going back is that while there are issues on how radio is performing commercially, there are certainly people who are passionate about the medium, and therefore, there are a lot of possibilities on how to do well on radio.

     

    The second major takeaway is the use of social media and radio, we had never thought of a subject as such. Radio has a lot of potential to work along with social media and be commercially successful as well.

     

    Third, I don’t think we are doing enough for radio, overall as an industry. There is, however, a lot of scope for improvement in this area.

     

    Mr B Surender, Senior Vice President, and National Sales Head, Red FM:

    I think the RAB (Radio Advertising Bureau) style of evangalising the medium is needed because UK’s RAB is so active in not only the developed markets like the UK, but it is also quite active in developing markets like South Africa.

     

    InIndia, probably, this kind of promotional activity is required for radio as a medium, because in India FM radio started very late and it did not get enough time before social media and the online or digital media arrived. Therefore, I believe there is a different need for a RAB kind of body which promotes radio.

     

    Mr Vinay Bhatia, Customer Care Associate and Senior Vice President – Marketing, Shoppers Stop:

    I think each industry within radio should develop its own tools, and this is really important in judging the input-output in efficacy because I am not chasing radio just for reach, OTS or number of impressions. Radio, as a channel, is a response medium and so it must deliver much beyond intermediary variables, it must deliver final business variables and I think radio can do that. However, it depends on how well a radio channel partners with a client, wherein the client is also willing to share some amount of data and information and a radio channel is also willing to partner it and jointly experimenting which works for all of us.

     

  • Findings also show professionals in the legal industry are the least likely to have checked everything off their to-do list by the end of a workday

    63% Indian pros maintain a to-do list: LinkedIn

    By A Correspondent

     

    LinkedIn, the professional network with over 14 million members in India , released data about professionals and their daily to-do lists. The study examined how professionals in different industries tackle tasks planned for a given workday; the differences between men and women’s to-do list habits; and global insights on where professionals keep to-do lists and what gets in the way of completing them.

     

    LinkedIn surveyed more than 6,500 professionals globally and over 400 in India . The study revealed that among the countries in which the survey was conducted, India ranked sixth in maintaining to-do lists. Out of the India n professionals that were surveyed, 63 per cent reported that they frequently keep a to-do list. This matches the global average, as 63 per cent of all survey respondents reported that they frequently keep a to-do list. Globally, seventy-one per cent of women say they frequently keep to-do lists. Only 60 per cent of men say they frequently keep to-do lists.

     

    In India , 45 per cent of respondents said that they jot down their to-do lists by hand, while 48 per cent said they create them electronically. Globally however 50 per cent of those who jot down to-do lists do so by hand, while 45 per cent create them electronically. The remaining five per cent reported storing their lists in alternative places, like “In my mind only,” “Piles of files,” or other locations like whiteboards or chalkboards.

     

    The study showed that the likelihood that a professional will complete their to-do list varied by industry. Globally, professionals in agriculture claim to be the most productive, with 83 per cent of agriculture professionals stating they regularly fulfill most or all of their planned tasks. Professionals in the legal industry had the lowest completion rate on their daily plans, with 66 per cent of respondents accomplishing most or all tasks.

     

    Art industry professionals (40 per cent) agreed the most with this statement, “I tend to be distracted easily.” Agriculture industry professionals agreed the least with that statement; only 18 per cent of professionals in the agriculture industry are easily distracted.

     

    When it comes to checking the boxes on their to-do lists, only 11 per cent of professionals globally reported accomplishing all of the tasks they plan to do in a given workday. Survey respondents pointed to unplanned tasks (such as unscheduled phone calls, emails and meetings) as primary cause for not completing all items on their to-do lists. In India , 45 per cent of professionals reported splitting their workday equally between planned and unplanned tasks. At 38 per cent, India had the fourth-highest percentage of survey respondents who spent most of their day on planned tasks.

     

    “As professionals, we constantly attempt to plan our day at work in the most effective manner. While surprise phone calls, meetings and other unplanned tasks usually make it difficult to adhere to a to-do list, professionals can rely on the intelligence gathered on LinkedIn to work smarter,” said Hari V. Krishnan, Country Manager, LinkedIn India . “Individuals from every industry can benefit from LinkedIn’s simplified solutions to achieve work-goals while being time-efficient. Even while on the move, professionals can use LinkedIn’s mobile applications to strike off tasks from their to-do-lists.”

     

    Follow these “to-dos” to save time in your workday and cross more tasks off the list:

     

    1. Make meetings more efficient

    Check out meeting participants’ LinkedIn Profiles ahead of time to get a sense for what they bring to the table. Past experience and specific skills of your meeting cohorts could come in handy to creatively solve a problem — thereby keeping your meeting time to a minimum.

     

    2. Crowd source your challenge

    Use LinkedIn Answers and LinkedIn Groups to tap into the wisdom of your LinkedIn network or the rest of the 161 million LinkedIn members. By posing questions and starting discussions you’ll be able to assemble solutions in record time.

     

    3. Get up to speed in an instant

    Rather than visiting various news sources each morning, get your daily news fix in one place via LinkedIn Today. Customize LinkedIn Today so you get news that’s relevant to you and your clients. Access LinkedIn Today from your desk, iPad or phone by downloading LinkedIn Mobile.

     

     

  • The campaign is conceptualised and implemented by Creativeland Asia

    Hippo’s ‘Indian Food League’ for cricket fans

    By A Correspondent

     

    The ‘Indian Food League’ is an online activity in which Hippo asks T-20 fans to support their regional teams by supporting their regional dishes. The campaign is conceptualised and implemented by Creativeland Asia.

     

    The campaign is a crowd-sourced activity that caters to the cricket fan’s love for snacking and eating, while they watch their teams fight it out. The IFL ultimately hopes to tap into every Indian’s latent desire to voice their humorous opinions. Talking cricket online has become engrained in every cricket lover’s match-day rituals. And by bringing food to this already heated and opinionated mix, Hippo has hit on a very successful recipe.

     

    Commenting on this engaging activity, Nadia Chauhan, Joint Managing Director and CMO Parle Agro said: “With so many people conversing on social sites, Hippo has created the Indian Food League as a medium to interact with and engage its consumers on the social media platform during the cricket season. Today, social media is one of the most influential and emerging channels of communication. Hippo’s previous campaign on Twitter to track inventory was a huge success. This further encouraged Parle Agro to engage interactively with its consumers on the same platform,” she added.

     

    Commenting on the campaign, Anu Joseph, Executive Creative Director, Creativeland Asia, said, “Hippo is constantly looking for opportunities to talk about food. He, in fact, looks at the world only in terms of hunger and food. So, a ‘Mumbai Vs Bangalore’ match for Hippo is a match between Pav Bhaji and Masala Dosa. So, whoever wins, at the end of the day, hunger loses.”

     

    The IFL comprises nine regional teams symbolized by the region’s most popular dishes, with Chennai being represented by ‘Idli Sambhar’, Mumbai by ‘Pav Bhaji’ and Delhi by ‘Papdi Chaat’. Other dishes include ‘Kanda Poha’, ‘Aloo Paratha’, ‘Daal Baati’, ‘Masala Dosa’, ‘Roshogolla’, ‘Dum Biryani’, representing the regions Pune, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderab adrespectively.

     

    The home of the activity is www.hippofighthunger.com/ifl, a microsite where Hippo puts up a ‘Today’s Special’ poster daily, giving his unique and quirky take on the day’s food match-up.

     

    Over the last 40 days, the activity has received a tremendous response. Hippo has chosen a winner for every match and most winners have been already sent their Hippo Bean Bags.

     

    This is not the first time Hippo and Creativeland are conducting a crowd-sourced campaign on social media. Last year’s inventory tracking campaign, Plan-T has already set a high benchmark for the brand. In fact, the launch of the activity became a trending topic on Twitter and other social networks, nationwide.

     

     

  • In his new role, Mr Chandra will have end to end responsibility of finance and related operational aspects of Radio business

    Prateek Chandra appointed CFO @ Fever FM

    By A Correspondent

     

    Prateek Chandra has been appointed as CFO, Fever 104 FM. Mr Chandra has spent more than 4 years with HT Media and in his last role as Senior Financial Strategist, he has been instrumental in adding value on various strategic initiatives and successfully driving several projects including IPO of HMVL. Mr Chandra will be replacing Ritesh Handa who, after 18 months of tenure as CFO, Fever, has decided to move on to pursue other opportunities.

     

    Prior to joining HT, Mr Chandra had spent almost 6 years with KPMG and EXL handling different aspects of Finance function. In his new role, Mr Chandra will report to Harshad Jain, Business Head, Radio with a functional reporting to Piyush Gupta, Group CFO. He will be a part of the Leadership Team of Radio Business, and have end-to-end responsibility of finance and related operational aspects of Radio business.

     

  • The second edition will highlight the cause of anti piracy and is being supported by music industry bodies, producers and leading artistes

    BIG Bangla Music Awards 2012 unveils jury and awards list

    From the MxMInfodesk

     

    Reliance Broadcast Network Limited’s BIG Live and its radio arm 92.7 BIG FM announced the jury for the BIG Bangla Music Awards 2012 which include veteran singers Nirmala Misra and Banasree Sengupta, music director Kalyan Sen Barat, music arranger Rocket Mondol, Programming Head of Dhoom Music Channel, Srijit Halder and acclaimed Actor Arpita Chatterjee.

     

    The lineup this year will have 16 Trophies and a Lifetime Achievement Award. 14 popular categories will be nominated by the jury and decided by listeners through a multi media voting campaign. The balance awards will be conferred by the jury directly.

     

    Apart from celebrating the resurgence of Bangla music and recognizing the best work of 2011, a key initiative will be to highlight the message of anti-piracy to music lovers and build awareness to stop the menace. This effort is being supported by the government of India recognized- Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) as well as leading production houses.

     

    A special anti piracy theme song is being composed by leading rocker and Cactus frontman Siddhartha Shankar Ray which will be sung for the live on the stage during BIG Bangla Music Awards. The resurgence of popular Bangla music and its huge impact on Tollywood is best exemplified by the works and rise of the phenomena called Jeet Gannguli. It is with this in mind that 92.7 BIG FM has chosen him to be the Face of the Award 2012. The Award is being supported by Exide Invatubular  and Mashal Mustard Oil.

     

    The news and content published in reports crediting MxMInfodesk are mostly unverified and based on press releases and communiques sent by organizations and/or individuals either directly or through their PR agents.

    However, not all press releases and requests are carried, and we take care to ensure that at least the source of the information recent is authentic.

    Requests for carrying communiques and intimations must be addressed to editor@mxmindia.com.

     

  • Introduces a unique mobile platform for advertisers to reach out to the right audience.. expects m-advertising to grow 40 percent

    Airtel forays into m-advtg, expects 40% growth

    By A Correspondent

     

    Bharti Airtel recently announced its strategic foray into the mobile advertising (m-advertising) segment in India. With this, Airtel will equip advertisers to connect with their potential customers in a targeted and personalized fashion via their mobile phones. The platform is designed to meet all the essential demands of advertisers such as inventory management, campaign management, reporting and analytics. As has been reported by MxMIndia in the past, Airtel has mandated Mogae Digital, a company owned co-owned by Sandeep & Tanya Goyal, former JV partners of Dentsu in India & the Middle East, to be its sole and exclusive monetization partner.

     

    Commenting on the development, K Srinivas, President – Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel, said: “We are excited to launch our mobile advertising platform. Personalization, sharp segmentation and contextualization are increasingly making this platform an exciting proposition for brands. With the mobile advertising market poised to grow by more than 40 per cent over the next few years, Airtel with its technology, scale and customer intelligence is placed uniquely to leverage this growing medium. Airtel’s m-advertising platform will enable advertisers to land their message in a simple, effective manner in an increasingly complex media environment.”

     

    Through Airtel’s m-Advertising platform, advertisers will be able to leverage multiple communications outlets and tools such as mobile internet (WAP), Messaging services and Airtel digital TV to engage their audiences. With this platform, companies can also extend their access to the rural audience with voice solutions.

     

  • The HD feed will be available from May 28 for analog and digital distributors

    Post-IPL, Sony goes HD

    By A Correspondent

     

    Viewers will now be able to watch their favourite shows on Sony Entertainment Television in pristine High Definition from May 28. The HD feed will be available for analog and digital distributors. It will be available on Tata Sky, Airtel, Dish TV and Videocon, covering almost all the current HD universe. Apart from this, it will also be available on Hathway, Seven Star & other key cable networks.

     

    NP Singh, COO, Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd said: “I am pleased to announce that our flagship channel Sony is all set to be broadcast in HD. Traditionally, SET Network has always embraced technological excellence and going HD is another step in that direction. Improving viewer delight is our aim and I am sure that our consumers will enjoy the enhanced viewer experience immensely.”

     

    Sneha Rajani, Senior Executive Vice President and Business Head, Sony Entertainment Television said: “As a channel that has always been a pioneer in its content offering for the TV audience at large, Sony will continue to keep its viewers in the forefront and be a leader in the marketplace. Going HD is a continuation of that focus and a very proud moment for us all.”

     

    The other channel already on HD in the MSM bouquet is SIX. The IPL is also broadcast in HD on Max.

     

    Sony Pictures Television (SPT) comprises Sony Entertainment Television (SET), one of India’s leading Hindi general entertainment television channels; MAX, India’s premium Hindi movies and special events channel, SAB; a family comedy entertainment channel; SIX,,a premier sports entertainment channel, PIX, the English movie channel and MIX a refreshing hindi music channel.

     

  • MeridianCommunications Mumbai office has just won the new business mandate for hungama.com and bollywoodhungama.com and the apps business

    Hungama, Bollywoodhungama mandate Meridian

    By A Correspondent

     

    Meridian Communications’ Mumbai office has just won the new business mandate for hungama.com and bollywoodhungama.com and the apps business.

     

    Speaking on this new business win, a very excited Samrat Bedi, Head of Office, Meridian said: “The Hungama win, on the back of the Vespa win, is once again a testimony to Meridian’s strength in blending strategic thought with effective and inspiring creative work. The relevant use of new-age media and ideas that won hands down on high cut-through and freshness is where Meridian scored. In Hungama, we have a brave client who inspired us to push ourselves harder. Eventually, it was the chemistry and passion on both sides that brought us together.”

     

    This was a multi agency pitch. The agencies that were in the running for this business were Metal Communication, Network Advertising, Interface and Brand Insights.

     

    Shashank Lanjekar, Vice President-Account Planning, Meridian said: “Hungama.com is a brand that is young, fun and futuristic. We hope to partner them in creating work that mirrors these values.”

     

    Mohit Ahuja, VP Client Servicing: “At Meridian, we believe in creating long term buzz platforms, as opposed to mere taglines. Given the digital youth space that Hungama operates in, this approach is a perfect fit.”