Ambuja Cements has entrusted Ketchum Sampark with its PR mandate following a closely contested multi-agency pitch. Ketchum Sampark will be responsible for implementing Ambuja Cement’s integrated public relations campaign which includes brand communication, sustainability communication and corporate social image build-up, whilst supporting company’s marketing promotional activities in key metros and tier 2/3 towns in India.
Ajay Sharma, Managing Partner, Ketchum Sampark, said, “Ambuja Cements is a classic example of a successful commodity branding. We are truly excited at the opportunity to create breakthrough communication for Ambuja Cement. With the added advantage of our team’s expertise in the cement industry, we are confident to support their business objectives with our insight-driven strategies.”
Bibek Chattopadhyay, Head, Corporate Communications at Ambuja Cement, remarked, “We are pleased to have Ketchum Sampark as our public relations partner.”
MK Venu has resigned his post as Managing Editor of Financial Express. Currently serving his notice period, he is heading to The Hindu from May-end as Executive Editor, Delhi.
Mr Venu, who had joined FE in October 2009, confirmed the news and said, “I will be looking after The Hindu’s expansion in the North.”
Responsible for over 10 editions of FE across the country, he was in charge of the overall editorial management and other administrative aspects of the newspaper. Mr Venu has been a journalist for close to three decades and has previously worked in various capacities at The Economic Times, Hindustan Times, Business Standard, The Statesman and Patriot.
MxMIndia invited Anant Rangaswami, editor, Storyboard (the CNBC-TV18 show) and senior editor, Firstpost to analyse the Leo Burnett-Tata Salt Lite radio spots controversy
By Anant Rangaswami
In an embarrassing development, Leo Burnett withdrew two award-winning Tata Salt Lite radio spots from the Abby Awards on instructions from the client.
Leo Burnett’s Arvind Sharma confirmed the decision to withdraw in a letter to ShashiSinha, chairman of the Awards Governing Council
The letter reads as follows:
Dear Shashi
I know that there was some debate at the AGC about two Tata Salt Lite radio spots submitted by us. I recused myself from this debate and the AGC decided to award the spots. Today a website alluded to this debate with unnecessary insinuations. Â We do not want any unwarranted insinuations about one of our prestigious clients and brands to continue. We request AGC to treat these two spots as withdrawn from our side
Thanking you
Arvind Sharma
Chairman & CEO India Subcontinent
Tata Chemicals made the following statement in explanation.
“It is unfortunate that our agency has been under the cloud of controversy regarding their recent Abby’s awards based on work done on our brand. The entire award submission process is one initiated and entirely managed by the agency; our role as a client was limited to approval of the creative. As a client, we were not aware of all the other technical requirements and subsequent process of submission criteria etc. As soon as the inconsistencies were brought to our attention, and upon further enquiry, we concluded that it would be appropriate for the agency to return the award to the organizers. We regret this incident which only strengthens our resolve for and commitment to strict adherence to standards.”
The Tata statement is consistent with the values that brand Tata represents and upholds. After all, the overall Tata brand was ranked, in March 2013, as the world’s 39th most valuable brand and had a combined brand valuation of USD 18.23 billion (http://www.financialexpress.com/news/tcs-in-5bn-brand-value-club-tata-group/1082935).
The crux of the situation, put simply, is this: Tata Chemicals was not aware that they were party to scam advertising.
Arvind Sharma protests too much when he says, “Today a website alluded to this debate with unnecessary insinuations. Â We do not want any unwarranted insinuations.”
The allusion to the debate (in MxMIndia) was necessary and the insinuations were completely warranted.
At Goafest, when the spots in question were debated, it was because the auditors found them to be not quite kosher, which resulted in their being disqualified because the client confirmation that accompanied the entries said that the campaign was created only for entry to awards. Upon rejection, Leo Burnett convinced the client to send a second letter (one which conformed to the needs of an award entry) which sparked the debate. When the “AGC decided to award the spots”, it was by no way a unanimous decision; it was a divided house with many feeling that the entries should be thrown out.
The incident is similar to the Ford Figo ad, where the client did not quite understand the way advertising awards function and the implications of scam ads. The Ford Figo saga resulted in the resignation of JWT’s creative head Bobby Pawar and others (http://www.firstpost.com/business/senior-jwt-executive-resigns-over-controversial-ford-ad-676825.html).
The Leo Burnett climb-down coming immediately in the wake of the Ford Figo ads will end up doing yeoman service to those in the anti-scam advertising camp. Clients like Tata Chemicals will now be aware of the significance and implication of advertising awards shows and of scams – and will think many times before they clear dodgy campaigns and ads.
The Tata Salt ads are by no means the only scam ads to have entered and won at the Abby’s this year – but Leo Burnett, in this instance, has been outed.
By Arrangement with Firstpost.com where this first appeared (link: http://www.firstpost.com/living/why-leo-burnett-withdrew-suspect-ads-for-tata-salt-from-awards-691368.html).
It’s like what happens when the winner of the 100-metre dash fails the dope test. Sad comparison, but that’s what could happen if the Goafest Awards Governing Council (AGC) decides to accept Leo Burnett’s written request that its two radio spots be withdrawn. The withdrawal would mean loss of one gold and one silver each in the radio and radio craft categories. A gold for Lingo India may also be eliminated as it was for one of the spots.
Prasoon Joshi
Although Prasoon Joshi, the McCann Worldgroup President South Asia wasn’t available for comment as he’s indisposed, MxMIndia learns that there is a sense of jubilation in the McCann camp. It may be noted that the AGC does not issue rankings on the basis of metals won. However, if the scores were to be tabulated in the Olympic style of scoring with the Grand Prix being the highest grade of awards, the following will be the rankings).
Media insights firm Ormax Media has strengthened its research team to meet the growing needs of the business. Venugopal Bhamidipati has joined the firm as ‘Insights Head – Print, Radio & Branded Entertainment’.
Mr Venugopal comes with six years of research industry experience, having worked with IMRB International, Nielsen and Hansa Research Group. In his last assignment, he worked as Strategic Planning Director at Publicis Capital. He will be based out of Mumbai and will be reporting into Ormax Media’s CEO Shailesh Kapoor.
Speaking about Mr Venugopal’s appointment, Mr Kapoor said, “Our print and radio work has seen significant growth over the last two years. In the area of branded entertainment, we have been doing extensive work on evaluating the effectiveness of sponsorships and media associations for brand and their media agencies. With Venugopal’s diverse experience, we are ready to tap the true potential of these domains.”
Speaking about his new assignment, Mr Venugopal said, “Ormax Media offers the best of both the worlds, consumer insights and media expertise. I look forward to working with the team at Ormax in these exciting times for the media & entertainment industry.”
Ormax Media is conducting Ormax Trac20, the biggest syndicated research for IPL sponsorships evaluation this year, as a part of their branded entertainment initiatives.
Aditya Birla Money MyUniverse and moneycontrol.com have announced their strategic alliance to offer a state-of-the-art money management service to the customers of moneycontrol.com.
While Aditya Birla Money MyUniverse will get access to moneycontrol.com’s existing 1.9 million portfolio users, moneycontrol.com will get access to MyUniverse’s money management platform, giving its customers a complete and automated way of managing their finances. Through this alliance, the users of moneycontrol.com will now get a complete view of all their finances. This alliance additionally will also enable moneycontrol.com portfolio users to do their expense analysis from Aditya Birla Money MyUniverse and get portfolio advices powered by Aditya Birla Money Mart.
On the occasion, Sudhakar Ramasubramanian, CEO – Aditya Birla Money Mart & MD – Aditya Birla Money, said, “We are happy to be associated with moneycontrol.com, India’s leading financial portal. This exclusive alliance is our step forward to meet the growing need of Personal Finance Management in India. Through this opportunity we extend our services in making money management comprehensive and automated for all moneycontrol.com users.”
Lakshmi Narasimhan, CEO, Web18, said, “We have been constantly endeavouring to offer innovative and convenient services to our users. Our partnership with Aditya Birla Money MyUniverse marks the beginning of a relationship between two leading online business platforms whose focus is to make money management simpler, better organized and convenient to the users. We are sure that our existing and new users will rapidly adopt this platform.”
Hathway Cable & Datacom Limited has announced the appointment of K V Anand as President †Digital Platforms.
Mr Anand comes with rich and varied experience spanning 18 years in the media / pay television industry where he held senior positions in Star TV across Asia and Middle East regions, a short stint at BSkyB in the UK and a long stint at Tata Sky. His expertise straddles strategy, design, execution and delivery across all customer-facing functions relating to CRM, Products /Services management, Billing & Subscriber management, Consumer marketing, Field Services and IT.
Mr Anand was part of the core startâ€up team that launched Tata Sky’s DTH service and held the position of Chief Service Officer at Tata Sky prior to joining Hathway.
Jagdish Kumar, MD & CE0 Hathway, said, “We are very excited with the opportunities and challenges that will come our way during our transition from a wholesale business to a retail consumer business.We welcome K V Anand who will be part of the core senior management team at Hathway and will work across functions to develop strategies for Revenue Enhancement, Subscriber management, CRM capability and leveraging our infrastructure across Cable and Broadband platforms to introduce new products, services and enhancing customer experience as we begin our journey to be a customer-centric organization.”
HomeShop18, the 24-hour home shopping channel from the Network18 group, is celebrating five years of existence. Started in 2008, HomeShop18 boasts of reaching out to more than 17 million households across the country.
Commenting on the, Sundeep Malhotra, Founder and CEO, HomeShop18, said “HomeShop18 was started as a mere concept with a belief that electronic shopping will offer a transformational experience and enrich the lives of millions of consumers in India. In these five years, we have been able to successfully establish the virtual retail industry and HomeShop18 is perceived as the largest and most trusted shopping provider in the country.”
To mark its fifth anniversary, HomeShop18 has announced a promotional offer titled ‘Shopping Shaan Se’. Starting April 5 through May 5, 2013, there will be five daily prizes which will include a gold coin, a mobilephone, a watch, a hand blender and a gift voucher worth Rs 1000. In addition, there’s one Honda City and four Maruti Altos cars to be won in this month-long celebration.
Online job portal CareerBuilder India has awarded the Digital AOR to Havas Media. Havas Media has been awarded the duties after competing with all the major online digital agencies that were also keen on getting CareerBuilder India on board. The multi-agency pitch reportedly last over two months.
Premlesh Machama
Said Premlesh Machama, Managing Director, CareerBuilder, “We decided to appoint Havas Media after careful consideration as their response to our brief and strong experience within the category confirmed them as the best partner moving forward.”
Anita Nayyar
Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media, India and South Asia, added: “It was a very tough but a ‘well-organized’ pitch with practically all the leading agencies in the fray. We are extremely proud to have won the business and are looking forward to being their true partners for mutual growth. ”
Anurag Bhatnagar
Said Anurag Bhatnagar, Head Digital, Havas Media: “CareerBuilder is a crucial win for us as it establishes our capabilities and credentials across every single service line of the digital ecosystem.”
The newly rebranded Havas Media Group includes all of Havas’ media agencies, consisting of Havas Media and Arena Media.
Goafest 2013 saw agencies, big and small, make a beeline with their coveted entries at the Zuri White Sands in Goa. The hope was that the absence of the number one agency would lead to high possibility of others winning some metal at the festival. To everyone’s surprise, the number of entries that were submitted at the festival was the maximum ever entered so far.
While the deserving entries across categories were awarded their share of merit at the festival, it was not just the teams from agencies who were rejoicing at the wins. They were joined in spirit and body by clients who were as excited in seeing their brand make an impact in the marketplace.
While clients now acknowledge the uniqueness that the forum offers and make it a point to attend the festival, there is still not enough done from their end in recognizing the efforts put in by the workforce across agencies. Sensing an opportunity, print major Dainik Bhaskar Group showed its appreciation by unveiling the second edition of their much-appreciated work, Mosaic at Goafest.
Through Mosaic, the Dainik Bhaskar Group lends recognition to and establishes a platform for creative agencies to showcase their best print work. Grander than its previous edition, Mosaic 2012 features 121 print campaigns across 105 brands from 31 top agencies. This number is significantly higher than the first edition where works by 70 brands created by 23 leading creative agencies in India was curated by the Dainik Bhaskar group. In fact, this year is more special as it features additional inclusion of select regional print work and the personal favourites section wherein industry experts offer their insight on what makes a print ad work.
Â
Highlighting the experience witnessed in compiling the second edition, Sanjeev Kotnala, VP – Brand & Marketing, Dainik Bhaskar Group said, “The second edition has more campaigns and brands in it. And yes, this time we do see a decent inclusion of regional – language work too. Also, the favourites have been picked by a mix of seniors from marketing and media.”
Mr Kotnala added, “The entries featured in the book are by invitation only. We have, in consultation with our partner Afaqs, invited large agencies well-known for their creative to submit their work – agencies that have in the past won awards.”
The book features creatives handpicked by creative heads across agencies. While each agency has submitted 5 entries, an exception has been made with DDB Mudra that sent 12 campaigns. Said Mr Kotnala on this decision, “The team looking through the entries found that all the entries submitted by them should be included for their excellence. Dropping any one would have been wrong in this case.”
As was the case with the first edition, the second edition also contains a section – A different point of view – which sees seven industry heads select their favourites among the lot. Manish Vyas of VIP industries, Manisha Lath Gupta of Axis Bank, Santosh Desai of Future Brands, CVL Srinivas of Group M, Lara Balsara of Madison World, Mallikarjundas CR of Starcom Mediavest and Shripad Kulkarni of Allied Media have all presented their favourites from the list.
The book was unveiled on the sidelines of Goafest along with the Dainik Bhaskar-sponsored IAA Debates by media industry captains: Prasoon Joshi, Vikram Sakhuja, Partha Sinha, Monica Tata, Anupriya Acharya, and Srinivasan Swamy. Industry stalwarts like Sam Balsara, Shashi Sinha, Nakul Chopra, Jishnu Sen, Alok Lal, Sanjay Naik, Bobby Pawar and KV Sridhar among others were present too.
On the response that the book has managed to elicit so far, Mr Kotnala said, “The second edition has been appreciated and we had enough people at Goafest coming and asking for it. It is too early, but last year we had more than 8,500 downloads and more than 4,500 copies distributed. We expect the second edition to obviously fare better.”
In fact Mr Kotnala and team are already brainstorming on what the third edition of the book should look like. On his expectations from agencies for the third edition he said, “Agencies qualify themselves for it. And we do not have any preference or bias but hopefully we would see more work being produced in languages.”
And it’s no surprise where the third edition of the book will be launched. Asserted Mr Kotnala, “We shall, like this year, bring out Mosaic III before or during Goafest.”
MxMIndia presents glimpses of some of the creatives shortlisted by experts…
Manish Vyas
Vice President – Marketing, VIP Industries Ltd.
“A great initiative to bring together some of the best work in the industry. I am sure it will inspire many greater campaigns in the future.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
Manisha Lath Gupta
Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Axis Bank
“This book is a great study, as there is so much to learn from this collection of print ads. Many of them inspire marketers to think differently and take more risky decisions on creative.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
Santosh Desai
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Future Brands Ltd.
“Its a good initiative but needs more real work to become truly meaningful.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
CVL Srinivas
Chief Executive Officer – South Asia, GroupM
“Hats off to Dainik Bhaskar for continuing this initiative. This compilation is adequate proof that print as a medium can be as effective as any other.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
Lara Balsara
Executive Director, Madison World
“Great idea to further the cause of print. Can become a collector’s item.”
Shripad Kulkarni
Chief Executive Officer, Percept Media”An excellent initiative which can probably be taken to a higher plane and level to address the serious concern of lack of support to print from ‘creatives’ in a more holistic manner.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
Text and images published with permission of the Dainik Bhaskar group. The e-book can be downloaded from http://www.bhaskar.com/mosaic/
Pranvir Mann, erstwhile Head of Creative at R K Swamy BBDO (Delhi) since 2004 has joined Concept Communications as National Creative Director, with a mandate to focus on the group’s businesses in the northern region.
Sharing his vision for Concept, Mr Mann said, “Concept today is poised at a very important stage in its growth. While reinforcing its core strengths in corporate and financial advertising, it also seeks to enhance its brandbuilding and creative capabilities to meet the needs of other businesses. With substantial experience in the above areas, I see it as a perfect fit and a challenging opportunity.”
In his advertising career of over 25 years, Mr Mann has helmed creative teams at Clarion Advertising, Mudra Communications and R K Swamy BBDO. A literature post graduate from Delhi University, he has shaped brand communication across categories from Consumer Durables and Personal Care Products to Automobiles, Banking and Telecom Services. His work has been applauded by National and International Award juries that include Creative Artisits Guild (CAG), A&M and AAAI among others.
Marketing intelligence service Warc (www.warc.com), expects global advertising spend (based on 12 major markets) to increase by +3.0 percent at current prices in 2013 and by +5.4 percent in 2014, according to its latest International Ad Forecast.
If forecast inflation is taken into account, global adspend is expected to rise by just +0.6 percent this year and by +2.4 percent in 2014.
This follows estimated adspend growth of +3.8 percent at current prices in 2012. The predicted slowdown for 2013 is due to the absence of last year’s adspend boost from the Olympics and the US presidential election, alongside on-going concerns about the health of the global economy, particularly in relation to the eurozone debt crisis.
Forecast adspend growth in 2013, % change year-on-year Current prices
Constant 2005 prices*
Percentage point change vs November (current prices)
By Anant Rangaswami
HomeShop18, the 24-hour home shopping channel from the Network18 group, is celebrating five years of existence. Started in 2008, HomeShop18 boasts of reaching out to more than 17 million households across the country.
