Category: MARKETING

  • Godrej Group moves PR mandate to Adfactors

    By A Correspondent

     

    The USD 4.5 billion Godrej Group has awarded its public relations mandate to Adfactors PR through a multi-consultancy pitch process.

     

    The responsibilities involve enhancing the Godrej Group’s corporate reputation and PR across  its business entities namely, Godrej Industries Limited, Godrej Consumer Products Limited, Godrej Properties Limited, Godrej Nature’s Basket, Godrej Appliances, Godrej Agrovet, Godrej Locking Solutions and Systems, Godrej Security Solutions, Godrej Interio and all the B2B SBU’s under Godrej and Boyce.

     

    Tanya Dubash, Chief Brand Officer, Godrej Group, said, “This is an important milestone in our communications journey. In line with our 2020 vision, we have laid down a significant foundation for growth across our businesses. I firmly believe PR and communications have a critical role to play in shaping an appropriate stakeholder perception that is conducive for us to achieve our business objectives. Adfactors PR’s ability to service large conglomerates, research orientation and diverse capabilities within the PR field was noteworthy and I look forward to some brilliant work together, going forward.”

     

    Sujit Patil, Vice President and Head Corporate Communications, Godrej Industries Limited and Associate Companies said, “Adfactors PR was selected through a robust multi-level, multi-consultancy pitch involving seven large firms. The selection panel drawn from across the Godrej businesses appreciated the firm’s understanding of our Group’s corporate reputation and PR needs. On the operations front, we were particularly impressed with the innovative servicing team structure recommended by Adfactors PR that includes specialists in account planning, research, analytics, as well as a national media relations coordinator. I feel this will ensure that our PR is more strategic and impactful.”

     

    Madan Bahal, Co-founder and Managing Director of Adfactors PR, said, “It is our privilege to work with a highly respected Indian conglomerate such as Godrej. Through its diverse offerings, the Group touches the lives of 600 million Indians every day and thereby presents unique communication opportunities. We are confident that we will deliver on the trust placed in us.”

     

    About Godrej Group

    Established in 1897, the Godrej Group has its roots in India’s Swadeshi movement. Our founder, Ardeshir Godrej, lawyer-turned-serial entrepreneur failed with a few businesses, before he struck gold with the locks business that you know today.  One of India’s most trusted brands, with revenues close to USD 4.5 billion, Godrej enjoys the patronage of over 600 million Indians across our consumer goods, real estate, appliances, agri and many other businesses. You think of Godrej as such an integral part of India that you may be surprised to know that over 25 per cent of our business is done overseas.

     

    We promise Godrejites a culture of tough love; take serious bets on them and differentiate basis performance. We also understand that our team members play multi-faceted roles and so, we strongly encourage them to explore their whole selves. Our canvas is growing. In fact, our Vision for 2020 is to be 10 times the size we were in 2010. We truly believe that while our amazing past distinguishes us, we are only as good as what we do next.

     

    About Adfactors

    Adfactors PR is India’s largest public relations firm. With a staff of over 500 professionals in four Asian countries, the firm serves more than 280 retained clients, including some of the largest corporations and financial institutions – both Indian and multinational.

     

    The firm has several market-leading practices such as corporate reputation, capital market communications, and issues and crisis. With 18 offices, Adfactors PR has the largest network of owned offices in India.

     

    It is a member of PROI Worldwide, the largest global partnership of independent public relations firms.

     

    For further information, please contact:

    Sujit Patil / Deepti Shetty

    Godrej Industries Limited and Associate Companies                                                    

    Mob: +91- 9930654976 / +91-9819836003

    Email: sujit.patil@godrejinds.com / Deepti.shetty@godrejinds.com

     

    Aditya Chatterjee

    Adfactors PR

    Mob: +91-9167008700

    Email: aditya.chatterjee@adfactorspr.com

     

  • Cartrade.com showcases its wide choice of used cars in new TVC

    By A Correspondent

     

    CarTrade.com has come up with another creative campaign that showcases the abundant selection of cars being offered to its customers. Created by Madison BMB, the TVC positions CarTrade.com as the one-stop shop for all your used car buying needs, thus reiterating the core message of its earlier ad, ‘Car Hai Lena, CarTrade Hai Na’.

     

    The TVC presents six dogs named Speedy, Seth Ji, Cookie, Goga, Paris and Bosco who are happily riding in their favorite cars. The film shows Speedy cruising in his Fast car, Seth Ji relaxing in his Luxury Car, Cookie and Goga driving their Large and Small cars. This is followed by Paris in her stylish car and Bosco enjoying his Naughty Car ride. The TVC informs the car buyers about the comprehensive and largest selection of used and new cars available at CarTrade.com.

     

    Bharath Sastry, Business Head – Consumer, said, “Our latest TV ad campaign highlights one of the key differentiating features of CarTrade.com. We wanted to showcase that we have the widest choice of used cars in an interesting way. In our earlier creative, we used dogs as the key characters and consumers found the concept endearing and hence we have carried it forward in this TVC as well.”

     

    Raj Nair

    Raj Nair, Chief Creative Officer, Madison BMB said, “After the success of the recent campaign, we looked to see how we could refresh the franchise. The result is this commercial that looks to entertain and help CarTrade.com to differentiate itself in the online car sales segment. The core message is the same, with the Lakhon used cars and Hazaaron certified cars taking centre stage, but with a fresher, more captivating and engaging idea and execution.”

     

    The TVC of one of India’s largest auto classified platform highlights that it has over 1,65,000 used car listings including thousands of certified cars that come with free warranty for buyers. Furthermore, the convenience and comfort of buying a car through CarTrade.com is perfectly reflected in the tagline, ‘Car Hai Lena, CarTrade Hai Na’ (If you have to buy a car, you can count on CarTrade). Initially the ad will air on television through popular English, Hindi and regional channels.

     

  • Scotch-Brite unveils campaign to promote Scrub Pad

    By A Correspondent

     

    Scotch-Brite has unveiled a new campaign to re-launch its, a unique wave shapedscrubber with the power of stain cutters.

     

    In a low involvement category with very little perceived differentiation, where many small players with similar looking green pads exist, it was important to communicate the superiority of Scotch-Brite scrub pad. Hence the agency’s starting point was to identify the one singular benefit and elevate it. An enormous amount of research, showed us that this key benefitis its long life.

     

    The TVC is an exaggerated and humorous twist to how Scotch-Brite acquired its quality of long life. ‘The Legend of Scotch-Brite’ depicts a woman washing utensils when an old man comes and asks her for some water. The old man then transforms into a divine beingand pleased with the woman’s generosity of spirit, asks her what boon she’d like. The woman wishes for long life. But while granting the boon,the divine being gets distracted and the ray of light from his palm instead hits the scrub pad near her, the scrub pad turning into Scotch-Brite scrub pad – with really long life.

     

    Ram Jayaraman, Executive Creative Director, GREY group Bangalore says:“Scotch-Brite Scrub Pad is not just the category leader, but is the category itself. It’s the only scrub pad with Stain Cutters – innovative Alox particles that treat dirt like dirt. This pad lasts so much longer than other me-too green pads that it feels like a divine miracle. The film is a respectful – albeit entertaining – attempt to demystify the legend.”

     

    Sanjit Satapathy, Country Business Leader, Consumer Business Group, 3M says: “We have a superior product. Scotch-Brite Scrub Pad, with stain cutters and unique s-shape has a really long life. We needed an interesting way to communicate this benefit and our agency, GREY, brought this out quite beautifully with their funny, quirky script that all of us liked.  The result – a very interesting TVC communicating the product benefit in a way that is unique to this category.”

     

  • #DontCallJustInstall, says foodpanda

    By A Correspondent

     

    Foodpanda is all set to kick-start its latest ad series to turn the spotlight on mobile app ordering.The ad campaign has been conceptualised by Percept India. Produced by HOUSEFULL MOVIES and directed by SharatKatariya of Dum LagaKeHaisha fame, the TVC reflects the ease of ordering food with a few taps on one’s phone. Reinforcing the message of the ad film, the visuals rightly capture the tagline “Don’t Call,JustInstall”

     

    The six week long campaign has rolled out already and will span through radio ads, mall activations and corporate activation programs.

     

    The witty ads showcase the nightmarish the food ordering process can get via phone. Bad connections, wrong addresses, late deliveries and limited options are some problems that customers can combat while booking through the app. The ads further leverages its mascot- the Panda, playfully to add the required spunk.

     

    Saurabh Kochhar CEO(India) and CBO (Global), foodpanda said, “Our constant endeavor at foodpanda is to curb food ordering ruckus in India. Through the TVCs, we aim to capture the value additions that our services bring to the customer via our app. The availability of an app like ours, not only nicks down the cumbersome task of searching for phone numbers and ordering, but also provide the ease of choosing from a slew of options as per one’s taste and needs”.

     

    S. Suresh, Senior Vice President, Percept said “foodpanda wanted to reinforce itself as the go-to place for customers primarily for the diverse options they offer and for the convenience of ordering. To achieve the same, we have tried to create fun commercials through some everyday situations that all foodies will relate to. At a time when we rely on technology for everything, there’s no reason why we should resort to obsolete ways for ordering food.”

     

    Available on iOS, Windows phone and Android, the foodpanda mobile app promises convenience, speed and fuss-free food ordering and delivery. The new TVC urges customers to download the app now and satiate one’s hunger pangs in a jiffy.

     

  • Saina Nehwal outpaces Sania Mirza & Mary Kom in top female sports endorser race

    By Ratna Bhushan

     

    Kellogg, the world’s largest breakfast cereal maker, has signed badminton player Saina Nehwal to an endorsement deal pegged at close to Rs 1.5 crore, two people aware of the development said.

     

    The two-year deal makes Nehwal – the world No. 2 in women’s singles — the highest paid female sports endorser in the country ahead of tennis player Sania Mirza and boxer Mary Kom.

     

    A Kellogg India spokesperson confirmed the association with Nehwal but declined to give details of the deal. Darshan Machdar, director at Spoment Ventures, the sports marketing firm that represents Nehwal, was unavailable for comment.

     

    “Kellogg is looking for a repositioning exercise with Saina… the advertising is likely to break next month,” one of the persons quoted earlier said.

     

    The 25-year-old already has endorsement deals for Yonex, Bajaj Nomarks cream, Iodex pain reliever, Indian Overseas Bank and the Sahara group, which, sources said, were signed for least 20% less.

     

    Vinit Karnik, national director, sports and live events at GroupM ESP, the sports marketing division of media buying group GroupM, said, “In the current scenario, Saina is the highest paid woman sportsperson in the country. Sania Mirza’s endorsement fee used to be the highest till about five years back. But Saina has been far more visible on the circuit, which is what brands look for.”

     

    Nehwal had topped the women’s world ranking list in March this year. Some talent managers, however, believe that Nehwal has remained under-marketed when it comes to endorsement fee. Also, the gap between what male and female sports persons earn outside of the sports arena remains wide.

     

    According to industry executives, cricket captain MS Dhoni charges upwards of Rs 10 crore for brand endorsement while Virat Kohli’s fee is Rs 5-6 crore. However, endorsement rates can vary as they depend, to a large extent, on the relationship the celebrity has with the brand.

     

    Talent management firm Kwan’s promoter Anirban Das said, “It’s a reflection of the popularity of the sport rather than a function of gender.

     

    The reach of cricket still hugely overshadows any other sport in India.” He pointed out that in Bollywood, the gap between what men and women earn has seen a lot of correction over the recent past. “Someone like Deepika Padukone earns a lot more than many other popular actors now,” he said.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2015, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • HolidayIQ.com launches mobile-only holidays marketplace

    By A Correspondent

     

    HolidayIQ has launched the mobile-only vacations marketplace ‘Holidays’, dedicated to activity based leisure travel. The marketplace , incorporated within the HolidayIQ android mobile app, showcases 1000 plus activity based packages and allows travellers to customize their holiday using various filters including: budget, duration, vacation type and activity. The app also provides comprehensive itinerary details within each listed holiday package. The feature has various options ranging from day-activities of just 1 hour to offbeat, all-inclusive holiday packages of up to 15 days, with prices from Rs. 100 to Rs. 1.6 lakhs.

     

    Hari Nair, Founder & CEO, HolidayIQ, said, “There are two major shifts in the way Indians plan holidays today. Over 70 per cent of holidays planned on HolidayIQ are through mobile devices. Secondly, we are moving from destination-led holidays to experience-led ones.  And so, we have aggregated the first ever mobile-only activity-led vacations marketplace. We have associated with some of the best players in the industry including Giftxoxo, Tushky, Exploita & Padharo to provide a vast range of experiential holidays for Indian travellers. People can also review all these holidays individually on the app helping other travellers plan better.”

     

    These vacations include over 1000 activities ranging from cycling to hiking, zorbing to river rafting, Bollywood inspired walks to culinary trails. They can suit varied budgets starting with holidays such as ‘6-hour Vineyard trail at Grover Zampa Vineyards in Nasik for Rs. 400’ to a ‘9-day holiday in the Andamans including swimming with elephants at Rs.1.6 lakh.’

     

  • 20:20 MSL wins multiple clients in H1 2015

    By A Correspondent

     

    20:20 MSL has announced a series of new business wins across India. Teams from 20:20 MSL across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai & Hyderabad collectively won 24 new business pitches over the past two quarters, demonstrating its creative and strategic leadership in delivering insight based integrated approach deigned to generate business impact for clients.

     

    Chetan Mahajan

    Commenting on the new business wins, Chetan Mahajan, Managing Director, 20:20 MSL & Co Managing Director MSLGROUP India, said: “Today brands need a strategic partner who can co-create and deliver effective result oriented campaigns. The investments we made in building integrated capabilities over the last couple of years have started to pay off. This, alongside our focus on building capabilities in research and insights makes us more relevant than ever, and the series of new wins stand as a testimony that more and more clients trust us to help them stay ahead of the curve”

     

    The wins include handling brands of Marico, Dimension Data, Swift Key, Saavn LLC etc.

     

  • Planet Fashion unveils its new brand identity

    By A Correspondent

     

    To cater to the discerning fashion tastes and preferences of the Indian men, Madura F&L has announced the refreshed look of Planet Fashion. The new look was unveiled by youth icon and Bollywood actor, Tiger Shroff at Taj Land’s End, Mumbai.

     

    Crafted on the principles of formals, fashion, fun and friends, Planet Fashion’s new brand identity is sauvé, fun & youth centric and symbolises infinite and endless possibilities of style and fashion in the life of the progressive Indian man. The new logo – The Infinity symbol, featuring in red & white with a black accent, epitomizes warmth in approach, purity of promise and masculinity.

     

    Planet Fashion in its new look offers a product range comprising of four handpicked collections  – Suitability, Linen Lounge, Classic Must Haves and All-day easy. Each collection has been designed to create easy wardrobe solutions for every occasion.

     

    Commenting on the launch of the new brand identity, Rahul Jhamb, Brand Head, Planet Fashion said, “We, at Planet Fashion have always believed that ‘Men deserve more’ and that philosophy is reflective in our new brand identity. The new look embarks Planet Fashion on a new journey that will add an accent, a new dimension to the infinite and endless possibilities of style and fashion in the life of an Indian man. The ethos of the new logo will also reflect in our new store design, which aims at creating an endless style experience”.

     

    He adds that this style experience will be further accentuated by the appointment of in house Fashion Advisors, that will reinforce the possibility of creating endless style options.

     

  • Leo Burnett leans on ‘Bhaag Bittoo Bhaag’ for Limca

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leo Burnett has launched a brand new campaign for Limca in a bid to establish the drink as the ultimate thirst quencher and gain market share in India’s highly competitive soft drink market. The campaign will also help the brand strengthen its popular Lime N Lemoni credential.

     

    Based on humour that is deeply rooted in an Indian cultural context, the new Limca campaign ‘Bhaag Bittoo Bhaag’ succeeds in creating a new language for the brand.

     

    The campaign looks at a scenario where the boy’s family has come to see the girl. The film juxtaposes the mother’s voice raving about dishes cooked by her daughter with the shots of her son running around to buy the same from the market. His journey from one shop to another and back home gives rise to an extreme thirst that can only be quenched by Limca.

     

    Raj Deepak Das

    Raj Deepak Das, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett India, said, “Limca has always been part of India’s quirks and traditions. With this campaign, we wanted to maintain that and take the communication to another level. The campaign – Bhaag Bittoo Bhaag – is special because it talks about the brand promise of ‘quenching thirst’ by using a strong local insight we all can relate to being Indians. In a situation of extreme physical stress and having to run from one place to the other in search for food, the protagonist finds his answer to thirst in Limca. The whole narrative is quirky, humourous and insanely Indian. It is a kind of film you would enjoy watching repeatedly; a great way to achieve a higher level of brand recall amongst the Indian consumers.”

     

    Amit Nandwani

    Amit Nandwani, Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett India, added, “When faced with situations of extreme heat and tiredness, nothing quenches your thirst like Limca. The new Limca campaign essentially conveys this point while integrating quirks rooted in Indian culture. The plot is not only relatable but also drives home the point in a light-hearted manner.” Limca plans to take its new campaign to consumers through digital and traditional media platforms to intensify the brand experience.

     

  • Lenovo redefines ‘cool quotient’ for the youth with Yoga laptops

    By A Correspondent

     

    Lenovo has announced the launch of next generation Yoga laptops. With a screen that offers a 360 degree swivel that goes from laptop to tablet mode in one smooth movement, HD screen, Dolby sound and intel core i7 processor, these laptops offer an ideal combination of innovative design and powerhouse performance. With prices starting as low as Rs. 30,490/-, Lenovo Yoga is an ideal choice for the youth of today.

     

    The TVC introducing the next generation of Yoga laptops shows a young girl in a café calmly working on her Yoga laptop, observes a few bikers enter and misbehave with the staff. She decides to teach them a lesson without having to let go off her Yoga. To our surprise she turns out to be a martial art pro and leaves the goons feeling pretty stupid. Her Yoga laptop twists and turns to her moves, helping her carry her cool all the way.

     

    Rajiv Rao, NCD Ogilvy added, “Geeks represent the new cool. Their technology is their style. The usual and mundane doesn’t appeal to them. They need something new, something flaunt worthy… they need to ‘carry their cool’. The Lenovo Yoga laptops offer them just that!”

     

    Talking about the campaign, Bhaskar Choudhuri, Director Marketing – Lenovo India said, “Lenovo’s philosophy of bringing accessible products with innovative technology and ground-breaking features gets further magnified with the next generation of Yoga laptops. These ultra-thin and light convertibles are packed with top of the line features … making it an ideal choice for the youth.”

     

  • RK Swamy unveils new campaign for Camlin

    By A Correspondent

     

    RK Swamy BBDO has unveiled its new TVC for Camlin. Camlin is the leader in colouring products and one such product is the Camel Oil Pastel. This can be used in the same way as crayons but offer a unique product benefit not available with crayons –the ability to mix two colours to get a completely new colour and shades that enables more lifelike drawing. The objective of the commercial is to bring home these benefits.

     

    The TVC shows a group of students in an art class who are amazed to discover that the painting made by one of their classmates is rich and very life like. On enquiring how this was done, their classmate makes use of this opportunity to get them do his project as the price for the answer. Once the deal is struck, he reveals that he has the ‘Mixing ka Magic’ using Camel Oil Pastels that offer the advantage of mixing two colours and creating a third one to make lifelike paintings. In the end, we see that the kids have using the oil pastel to create a drawing, which looked so real that it almost jumps off the page, startling the teacher who had come down to check on the commotion.

     

    Gautam Pandit, Sr. Partner & Executive Creative Director said, “With Camel Oil Pastels, the challenge was to create a compelling film based on very strong differentiator – that of the ability to a create a new colour with two or more different coloured oil pastels thereby making drawings more  lifelike. To communicate this effectively to kids, we coined the phrase ‘mixing ka magic’ and wove it into an engaging storyline which stayed true to the insight that children are overjoyed with the ability to create new things.”

     

    Saumitra Prasad, CMO-Kokuyo Camlin said, “The new TVC  has been developed to communicate the product concept of Camel Oil Pastel that this is a superior crayon which gives children the power to create new Colours by intermixing Colours, and hence create rich and true to life painting. This communication is in synergy with the brand positioning of making learning fun for children.”

     

     

    RK Swamy BBDO

  • Vi-John lathers up on shaving shares

     

    By Rajiv Singh

     

    Dapper, with not a hair out of place, Vimal Pande is perhaps an ideal brand ambassador for a company of which he is also the CEO. For the past decade, he’s been a loyal user of ‘Cobra’ deodorant, ‘Splash’ after-shave, ’22 degree’ talcum powder, even ‘BoroShield’ antiseptic cream, all brands of the little known Delhi-based personal care firm, Vi-John. He’s also one of thousands of consumers who annually consume almost 45 lakh kg of Vi-John’s shaving cream, in the process making it the largest label in this category. It’a also a category that’s conspicuous by the presence of a clutch of multinational brands from Axe (Hindustan Unilever) and Dettol (Reckitt Benckiser) to Old Spice and Gillette (Procter & Gamble).

     

    “In shaving cream, we are much bigger than Gillette in India, both in volume and value,” asserts 52-year-old Pande. And if being ahead of a global leader isn’t enough, he goes on to make another claim. “In fact, we are the largest selling shaving cream brand in the world.”

     

    According to the latest Nielsen MAT data sourced from industry officials, Vi-John’s volume market share in India stood at 29.2 per cent in May, over three times that of Dettol, almost four times that of Axe and over seven times that of Gillette.

     

    “Even if you put the next four brands together, they won’t be able to match our volume and value share in India,” affirms Pande, adding that the biggest plus for the brand has been its ‘affordability’ tag. Vi-John is available across 2.5 lakh retail outlets and at over 1 million other trading channels across the country. The brand makes over 15 lakh shaving cream packs every month, says Pande.

     

    An email sent to HUL and Reckitt Benckiser did not elicit any response.

     

    What the MNCs lose in volume, though, is being partially made up in value. Consider: Gillette’s 3.9 per cent volume gives it a close to double value share of 7 per cent; Axe 7.4 per cent volume converts into 12.9 per cent value share. It’s only in Vi-John’s case that its value share is less than the volume share. Pande grudgingly acknowledges the problem. “We are quite visible on TV. But our profitability is not as high as others.”

     

    Even as Vi-John continues with its aggressive intent to further widen its volume lead over its rivals, the price warrior has started working on a strategy to match its volume growth with value. “While the strategy till now was to scale first and reach a sound scale, now the plan is to convert volume into value. So now we will go in for the kill,” asserts Pande.

     

    The company is making improvements in packaging, quality and more importantly pricing, which would be crucial to push it ahead in the value trajectory. While in 2011, its 125 gram shaving cream pack was available for Rs 20, it now costs Rs 35.

     

    What has worked brilliantly for Vi-John has been the endorsement by Shah Rukh Khan. Celebrity endorsements has played a significant role in brand awareness, helping it make a rapid transition from a business to business brand to a business to consumer brand, explains Abraham Koshy, professor of marketing at IIM Ahmedabad. “Had it not been for the celebrity endorsement, the brand could not have pulled it through.”

     

    However, the most discerning element of the strategy that has worked in the favour of the brand is the choice of target segment. While brands like Gillette are targeted at the higher end of the market, Vi-John has chosen to target the mass segment. “This is an intelligent choice as this market has been waiting for a brand relevant to it,” adds Koshy.

     

    However, converting volume into value at a faster clip won’t be easy. It’s a brand game, which has to be played with finesse, says brand strategist Harish Bijoor. “One celebrity will not turn the tide for it. There are a lot more brand parameters that need to be addressed and tweaked.”

     

    The biggest problem for Vi-John, according to Bijoor, is that it has not invested in branding. “The product has worked, the brand has not. Not yet. What’s missing is brand imagery. And it needs to earn it fast.” Oui, John?

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2015, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish