MxMIndia

Category: NEWS

  • Vistaprint India has appointed Carat Media Services as its media agency. Vistaprint's India foray is part of its strategy to enter new markets in Asia. This business will be handled out of Carat's Mumbai office.

    Carat Media wins Vistaprint AOR

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vistaprint India has appointed Carat Media Services as its media agency. Vistaprint is an online provider of professional marketing and gifting products, for SMBs and self-employed professionals, which offers consumers a whole new range of high-quality customized products. Already well established in this space across US, Europe, and Australia, Vistaprint’s India foray is part of its strategy to enter new markets in Asia. This business will be handled out of Carat’s Mumbai office.

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Bipin Narang, Director Marketing, Vistaprint India, said, “India is a significant market opportunity for us with its rapidly increasing internet penetration and huge base of small businesses as well as a large consumer base under the age of 25 years that is net-savvy. We understand that India is an extremely cost-conscious market, and with our remarkable technology backbone, Vistaprint not only offers an amazing price-quality proposition, but will drive a fundamental change in the way small businesses and consumers will order printed products and services in India. We are happy to partner with Carat Media Services for our business challenges.”

     

    Himanka Das

    Commenting on the win, Himanka Das, Sr Vice President, Carat Media Services said, “It’s a special win for us as we will be part of the Vistaprint growth plans in India. The team at Carat is very excited to design Integrated Media Ecosystems for Vistaprint’s business challenges in India. It gives us an opportunity to go beyond looking at people just as a demograhic and instead deliver media solutions based on consumer’s relationship with different media, the brand and the way printing business exists in India.”

     

  • Rahul Johri to head pan-regional Ad Sales and Southeast Asia Revenue.

    Rahul Johri elevated at Discovery Networks, gets additional regional role

    By A Correspondent

     

    Rahul Johri

    Discovery Networks International (DNI) has announced an expanded role for Rahul Johri as Senior Vice President and General Manager, South Asia and Head of Revenue, Pan-Regional Ad Sales and Southeast Asia. It has also named Arjan Hoekstra as the new head of the Asia-Pacific region, effective September 1. The announcements were made by Mark Hollinger, President and CEO of DNI.

     

    Mr Johri, previously General Manager, South Asia, has taken on additional responsibilities in this newly created role. As Senior Vice President and General Manager, South Asia and Head of Revenue, Pan-Regional Ad Sales and Southeast Asia, Johri will now manage the advertising sales and solutions deals for the pan-regional business as well as focus on distribution and growing local ad sales for Southeast Asia. He joined DNAP in June 2001 in the ad sales division. Since then, he has been promoted through the organization to his previous role of Senior Vice President and General Manager of South Asia where he spearheaded the operations and overall growth strategy of DNAP’s portfolio in those countries.  He was also responsible for revenue generation, portfolio expansion, affiliate partnerships, viewership, content creation and talent management, and he pioneered localization strategy and the launch of multiple language feeds across brands. Most recently, Mr Johri oversaw the successful launch of Discovery Kids, a distinct channel promising to ignite imagination of over 370 million children in India.

     

    Mr Hollinger stated, “Rahul has built a very successful Indian business for us during his time with Discovery. I am delighted that he will bring his expertise to the Southeast Asia business and pan-regional sales efforts as he takes on this expanded role.”

     

    As President and Managing Director of Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific (DNAP), Mr Hoekstra will be responsible for developing the overall strategies for DNAP’s business to drive revenue across ad and affiliate sales, build the portfolio’s core brands and look for partnerships to drive the content and profile of DNAP within the region. He will be based out of the Singapore office, DNI’s hub for the Asia-Pacific region. His move to DNAP is another step that will continue to strengthen the relationship between Discovery and Eurosport as the two companies develop wider synergies in the Asia-Pacific region.

     

    “We are excited to have Arjan join our executive team,” said Mr Hollinger. “His strong management skills, his affiliate and sales experience and his deep relationships in the region will serve us very well as we look to expand our already successful business there further. Throughout his career at Eurosport, he was always looking for ways to innovate and develop new service offerings to his clients, and I look forward to his bringing this kind of ingenuity to Discovery’s portfolio in the marketplace.”

     

    Mr Hoekstra joins DNAP from Eurosport where he has been Managing Director of Eurosport Asia-Pacific Ltd. and Eurosportnews Distribution Ltd. Asia-Pacific, based in Hong Kong, since 2005.  In this role, he was responsible for the development and oversight of the entire Eurosport Asia-Pacific business, including Eurosport/Eurosportnews/Eurosport.com, which spans 19 countries. Under his leadership, Eurosport Asia-Pacific became one of the best-known sports media brands in the region.

     

    Having worked at Eurosport since 1994, Mr Hoekstra held several key positions within the organization including Director of Business Development Eurosport S.A. based in Paris, France; Managing Director Eurosport Television AB, based in Stockholm, Sweden; and Deputy Managing Director British Eurosport based in London, England.  During his tenure throughout Europe, Hoekstra was responsible for key business milestones including the launches of British Eurosport, Eurosportnews across Asia-Pacific, South America and Africa, and Eurosport Mobile.

     

  • Gold loan company Muthoot Finance Ltd, the flagship company of The Muthoot Group, has rolled out a new advertising campaign.

    Muthoot Finance launches new ad campaign, ‘Prarthana’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Gold loan company Muthoot Finance Ltd, the flagship company of The Muthoot Group, has rolled out a new advertising campaign, ‘Prarthana’, with the tag line ‘Sapney aapke, prarthana hamari’ that means ‘your aspirations, our inspirations’.

     

    Conceptualized by the Delhi team of Grey Worldwide, the core objective of this campaign was to present Muthoot Finance as a company that goes beyond just the five minutes that a customer spends while making a transaction in a branch, into the company with a heart. In other words, when Muthoot Finance provides a gold loan to a customer, the customer is always given that loan by Muthoot Finance from the heart and with a prayer that whatever the customer wishes for comes true or gets fulfilled.

     

    Alexander George Muthoot, Director, The Muthoot Group, said, “In today’s day of a transactional relationship between the marketer and the consumer, it was imperative for us to bring out the essence of our company – our essence of trust, of care and of being inclusive. As market leaders and competing at the same time with multiple competitors, it was important for us to differentiate ourselves. The product that we offer is the same but our philosophy is not. The new campaign talks not just about the fact that ‘we give gold loans for anything you need’ but talks about that we care about your dreams and when we give you a gold loan, we pray that the dream that you have seen comes true, essentially bringing forward the core thought of a loan with a heart.”

     

    Amit Akali, National Creative Director & EVP, Grey India, said, “When we met the client for the pitch briefing, we realized that while most ‘Gold Loan’ companies were transactional and atypical moneylenders, almost Shylock like, Muthoot was clearly different. They came from the philosophy that when a client comes to you to pledge his gold, he’s come to you because of a problem, a need or a dream and they were there to find a solution. We did a ‘mystery shopper’ exercise to validate the same and realized that Muthoot employees actually behaved differently; they seemed more concerned about your problems, went out of their way to help, were polite and were ingrained with small ‘human’ practices, like handing out money only with their right hand. We were then ‘clear’ that we need a route that would allow us to bring alive these ‘intangibles’. That’s where the thought of Muthoot employees ‘praying’ for their clients dreams to be realized came from. When it came to the film, we wanted to keep it simple and ‘real’, with ‘real’ characters and show what they actually took loans for.”

     

    To give the six-week campaign a holistic approach, Muthoot Finance has devised a 360-degree marketing campaign that includes Electronic, Print, Radio, Digital, Outdoor etc. The ad will be aired and published across India in local languages.

     

    Agency: Grey Worldwide, Delhi

    Client: Muthoot Finance

    Client Team: Avinav Chaubey, Neha Verma

    Agency Team: National creative Directors: Malvika Mehra & Amit Akali

    Creative Directors: Amit Shankar, Uddalak Gupta & Vishnu Srivastav

    Account Management: Dip Sengupta, Sanghamitra Chakraborty, Aditya Pare & Abhishek Kumar

    Account Planning: Dheeraj Sinha & Divyapratap Mehta

    Films: Samir Chadha & Sharad Shinde

    Production House: Native Films

    Director: Shirsha Guha Thakurta

    Producer: Prithvi Raj Luthra

     

  • Dentsu will take charge of creative and media for Mandom's Gatsby range of men's grooming products

    Dentsu bags creative and media duties of Mandom’s Gatsby

    By A Correspondent

     

    Dentsu Creative Impact and Dentsu Media have together bagged the creative and the media duties  of Mandom Corporation’s Gatsby range of men’s grooming products.

     

    Mandom Corporation (India) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan-based Mandom Corporation that is engaged in manufacturing and selling men’s and women’s cosmetics. Mandom offers its products under the brand names Gatsby, Pucelle and F&F among others. The company is also engaged in the provision of insurance agency and building management service through its subsidiary. The Company operates its business mainly in Japan, Indonesia, and other countries and districts in Southeast Asia.

     

    On entering India and expanding the presence of the hair grooming brand in India, Takayuki Enomoto, Marketing Head, Mandom India, “We are all very excited about launching Gatsby Water Gloss in India and starting our marketing activities in full swing with our brand ambassador Varun Dhawan. We plan to cultivate a ‘Hair Styling culture’ in India. We are looking forward to influencing young men through Varun and expect this association to boost the brand’s visibility in India with the help of our creative partner Dentsu Creative Impact.”

     

    After bagging the creative duties from the cosmetics and personal care products company, Tadashi Urashima, Chief Operating Officer, Dentsu Media said, “Partnering Mandom in the challenge to effectively access and engage with the trend-setting Indian youth, is both exciting and exacting work for Dentsu Media. It is an honour and pleasure to work with Mandom in communicating the emotion and passion of the Gatsby brand in this country, using an integrated Dentsu approach, with a cut-through campaign to deliver significant ROI.”

     

    On getting the creative duties for the brand, Junichi Minohara, Chief Operating Officer, Dentsu Creative Impact said, “Excited, ecstatic and enthusiastic. It is a huge opportunity for us to partner a company such as Mandom Corporation in making a strong brand like Gatsby an even stronger player in the Indian market. The strength of this brand is immense in all countries where it is present, and we look forward to giving it the same stature in India as well.”

     

  • Big RTL Thrill, the Reliance Broadcast Network and RTL Group jv, has announced its English feed which is set to launch with much fanfare (and a Rs 5 crore promotional budget) on June 12

    Big RTL Thrill now in Hindi and English

    By A Correspondent

     

    Big RTL Thrill, the joint venture channel between Reliance Broadcast Network and the RTL Group, has announced its English feed, beginning Wednesday, June 12 across key Hindi-speaking markets. Targeted at the 15-44, SEC Males, the channel will now be available in dual feeds of Hindi and English.

     

    Commenting on the addition of the dual feed, Tarun Katial, CEO, Reliance Big Network, told MxMIndia: “We are also very excited about launching the English feed for BIG RTL Thrill which is seeing excellent traction amongst male audiences. We are confident of our channel mix, both on the English as well as the regional side, which are poised to optimize from digitization, as we steadily expand our presence across the 1mn+ markets.”

     

    Added Sunil Kumaran, Business Head, Regional TV, Reliance Broadcast Network, “With this latest development we intend to emulate the same success that we have achieved in Hindi-speaking markets. We have chosen the content as per our viewers’ penchants and preferences and are confident it will work. With the dual feed, variety of new shows in the offing, and Phase II of DAS being implemented, we are confident that Big RTL Thrill will find an enhanced relevant male audience base, proving to be the best possible choice for marketers wanting to reach out to this desirable audience.”

     

    Backed by the success in Uttar Pradesh, the channel has also recently announced its foray into the key markets of Mumbai and Delhi and now reaching over 17 mn households across the country. With the dual feed, the channel hopes to reach 29 million male audiences of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Maharashtra 1Mn+, Gujarat 1Mn+ , Rajashthan 1 Mn+, Madhya Pradesh 1 Mn+, Bihar 1 Mn+, Jharkhand 1 Mn+, Haryana 1 Mn+, Punjab 1 Mn+, West Bengal 1 Mn+ and Uttar Pradesh 1Mn+.

     

    The English feed of Big RTL Thrill will see a major launch across media. The promotional budget is said to be in the vicinity of Rs 5 crore, this includes advertising on RBNL channels and radio stations. Big RTL Thrill is available across DTH and Digital platforms of Reliance Digital TV, Digicable, Siti Cable, In cable, Hathway Digital, 7 Star Cable, JPR Global Satellite, Star Broadband and others.

     

  • Introducing a new weekly column titled 'PR, etc' by Chicago, US-based public relations professional Amith Prabhu

    New weekly column ‘PR, etc’ by Amith Prabhu: To new beginnings!

    Introducing a new weekly column titled ‘PR, etc’ by Chicago-based public relations professional Amith Prabhu

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    It’s summer and it’s the season of awards. That’s when people can make travel plans, look at the year gone by and plan for new beginnings. It’s that time when I make the new beginning as a columnist on the invitation of the Editor of the media outlet you are reading. Public Relations as a profession is coming into its own in India with two awards for the business, with at least two credible conferences for the community and with two portals dedicated to Indian news and views that interests fellow professionals.

     

    Writing a weekly column should be fun but it won’t be easy. I took up the challenge because our profession needs these platforms to exchange ideas. You, as a reader can contribute in two ways – sharing ideas for forthcoming columns and commenting on the columns with a point of view. And yes, two words you will never see in these columns are ‘industry’ and ‘agency’, other than in this paragraph for the first and last time. Because in our profession these don’t exist as of now. For the first column I wanted to focus on how the last decade has witnessed three major milestones for the profession and how fortunate I have been to be part of these historic times.

     

    Firstly, a new group of individuals began to flow into the business in the form of natives that will eventually replace the immigrants. Given the advent of media institutes offering robust courses at the under graduate and post graduate level a new breed of professionals began to emerge at the dawn of the new millennium. Until then a large number of pioneers moved from into Public Relations from varied disciplines including but not limited to Publishing, Marketing, Advertising, Journalism and even Hoteliering. This is great for the cause of the profession as people get grounding in theory at these institutes that some smartly apply to the practical world.

     

    Secondly, almost all the major Public Relations firms headquartered in Europe and the United States have made inroads in one of the fastest growing economies either by starting up from scratch or by acquiring existing firms. This is great for professionals as it gives instant access to global knowledge and best practices, transfers across the world and opportunities to interact with colleagues from across the world thus changing the rules of the game entirely. I joined an Indian PR firm in 2004 after a rigorous campus recruitment process. When I moved on in 2007 the firm was international by virtue of being acquired.

     

    Third and lastly, several senior communications professionals have made their way into boards and found a seat at the table, thus giving the art and science of public relations its due. This to me is the hallmark of the last decade and something that needs to become a rule rather than an exception. That will happen only when we are able to show value we bring to a business in terms of strategic thinking and innovative tactics.

     

    I have set myself a target of writing about 500 words (not more) each week and will stick to it. Here’s to new beginnings as I await your suggestions for future columns and points of view on this one.

     

    Amith Prabhu is the founder of The PRomise Foundation which organises PRAXIS – the annual summit for PR & Corp Comm professionals in India. During the day he is a full-time employee at a leading Public Relations firm in their Chicago office. He spent the first eight years of his post-graduation career in India and is in the US for two years, of which he has completed 18 months. Views expressed here are the author’s own and don’t represent those of his past, present or future employer.

     

  • Rudolf Fernando, former All India President of Navabharat Group, has been appointed as National Head of the recently expanded four regional sales divisions of outdoor agency Global Advertisers.

    Rudolf Fernando is National Sales Head of Global Advertisers

    By A Correspondent

     

    Rudolf Fernando

    Rudolf Fernando, former All India President of Navabharat Group, has been appointed as National Head of the recently expanded four regional sales divisions of outdoor agency Global Advertisers. He will report to Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Global Advertisers. His core responsibility involves strategizing, designing, execution and media planning of outdoor campaign executed across the country.

     

    Mr Fernando has over 20 years of experience in the media industry. He started his career with Free Press Journal in Mumbai. National publications like Dainik Bhaskar and comedy TV channel Sab TV were also part of his career graph. Later he joined Navabharat Media Solutions to head their sales department.

     

    Mr Fernando says, “My role has widened with challenges and opportunities. Through my skills and understanding of the media industry, I am confident of expanding the client portfolio of Global in the coming season.”

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Mr Gupta said, “Rudolf will leverage our presence across four regions and he will also be assisting the team leaders in pitching new clients. His expertise and experience will bring out innovation, fresh approach and better execution at a larger scale.”

     

  • Vivek Khanna moves from Mint to Hindi Business, and K Venkataramani joins Mint from Bharti Walmart.

    HT Media announces new business heads for Hindustan & Mint

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vivek Khanna

    Vivek Khanna, who successfully spearheaded the Mint and ‘Ad for Equity’ businesses for the past few years, will now take on the leadership role of Head, Hindi Business at Hindustan Times.

     

    K Venkataramani has joined as the new Business Head of Mint, moving from Bharti Walmart where he was Vice President Hardlines and Home Entertainment.

     

    Mr Khanna will be reporting to Benoy Roychowdhury, Executive Director, HT Media Ltd, and Mr Venkataramani will be reporting to Rajiv Verma, CEO, HT Media Ltd.

     

  • Star Sports has announced the acquisition of TV rights for the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil 2013, and will also offer live coverage of Wimbledon, ICC Champions Trophy, Formula One Grand Prix events and the US Open Golf Championship, among others.

    Star Sports unveils sports bonanza in June

    By A Correspondent

     

    Star Sports has announced an array of sporting events across its network of SD and HD channels all through the month of June. With the biggest event in the ICC calendar – the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 – already underway in England, the network has also announced the acquisition of the TV rights for the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 which kicks off from June 15 in Brazil.

     

    The third week of the month will also see the Championships at Wimbledon live and exclusive on the network. The sports broadcaster will showcase thrilling motor-racing action from the British and Canadian Formula One Grand Prixraces and the Moto GP. The month will be rounded off with live action from the FIFA Asian Football Qualifiers and the much awaited golf major – the 2013 US Open Golf Championship.

     

    The FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013, to be played from June 15 to 30, brings together the strongest international teams in world football to play in Brazil, one year ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

     

    Vijay Rajput

    Vijay Rajput, Chief Operating Officer, ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd, said, “We are incredibly proud and happy to present this mouth-watering array of premium sporting content in the month of June. With such premium sporting action across sporting genres, our aim is to take the viewership of sports to a whole new level – be it through our quality of talent, look and feel of the presentation or through innovative production-led enhancements which help in creating an immersive experience for sports fans.”

     

  • MFG Labs, a mathematics think tank specialising in digital strategy, data science and mathematical research, will join the Havas Media Group.

    Havas Media Group acquires MFG Labs

    By A Correspondent

     

    MFG Labs, a mathematics think tank specialising in digital strategy, data science and mathematical research, will join the Havas Media Group.

     

    Founded in 2009 by a team of world renowned mathematicians, MFG Labs established itself as a leader in its field using advanced mathematics and algorithms to build decision support solutions that make sense of “Big Data”. The company’s teams of senior mathematical researchers are led by Pierre-Louis Lions – a Fields Medal holder, the highest recognized award for mathematics and Professor at the prestigious College de France – and Jean-Michel Lasry, Professor at the University Paris-Dauphine with a renowned career in quantitative finance. They have created and pioneered the development of the MFG “Mean Field Game” theory and its application to the world of finance and business. MFG Labs recent work includes the conception and implementation of Warner Bros France’s digital strategy, ‘My Warner’, their social relationship management programme.

     

    Dominique Delport, Global Managing Director of Havas Media Group, remarked, “As the data revolution continues there is no doubt that these guys are at the top of their field. Two years ago we identified their impressive capabilities in the social data world. The next stage for us was to make sure we were able to bring them into the group to reinforce our solid foundations in data… and this driving force to integrate data and content is paying off well. With the increasing importance of consumer engagement platforms pushing brands beyond traditional media, the two disciplines are totally interconnected. We were the first communications company to win an Emmy award for content creation and we are now the first communications company to move into the mathematics space. We are delighted that our genuine passion for data has won the support of two of the greatest mathematical minds in the business and their talented team. We have been working with the MFG teams for many months to expand and extend our leading data and content services to our clients around the world and the feedback we have had has been outstanding.”

     

    MFG co-founder Pierre-Louis Lions said, “We join the Havas Media Group at a unique moment where quantitative methodologies and Big Data analytics are becoming the key to media performance. For an intrinsically quantitative and programmatic spirited team like us these are exciting times.”

     

     

     

  • Integer is to create one-on-one contact programmes for Fujifilm's new brand, Instax.

    Integer Group wins Fujifilm shopper marketing mandate

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Integer Group India has announced its appointment by Fujifilm to handle the retail and shopper marketing mandate for its new brand, Instax.

     

    Based in Mumbai, Integer India will create a shopper experience through below-the-line marketing activities including retail, activation and one-on-one contact programs. The specialist agency will use spaces and touch points evolving around Instax.

     

    Instax is Fujifilm’s brand of instant still cameras and films, which come in two formats – the original ‘wide’ format, which produces an image approximately 60mm x 99mm in size, and a ‘mini’ 62mm x 46mm size picture.

     

    Ketan Desai, Managing Director of The Integer Group in India, explains, “Integer has been chosen to convert the affinity towards the brand into purchase of the product. It is imperative to understand the shopper consumer mindset before beginning that conversation.”

     

  • Web18, the digital content arm of Network18, has elevated Durga Raghunath to CEO of Firstpost.com. She was earlier VP, Product & Executive News Producer for Firstpost.

    Durga Raghunath elevated to CEO, Firstpost

    By A Correspondent

     

    Web18, the digital content arm of Network18, has strengthened its leadership structure by elevating Durga Raghunath to CEO of Firstpost.com. She was earlier VP, Product & Executive News Producer for Firstpost. This move is part of Web18’s progression towards a decentralized operating structure built around key strategic business units.

     

    Commenting on this development, Lakshmi Narasimhan, CEO, Web18 said, “Durga has been the force behind Firstpost.com that has made it one of the most influential news products in the country in a short span of two years. As the product enters its next phase of growth and monetization, it needs somebody with a deep understanding of digital news products and their business models to lead it. Durga fits the bill perfectly.”

     

    Speaking on her elevation, Durga Raghunath said, “I’ve sat in front of a computer in a newsroom for two years, building an evolving brand. To be given the opportunity to step back and look at it, in its entirety, is indeed very exciting.”

     

    Ms Raghunath has over ten years experience in publishing – both books and digital. She previously worked with the Wall Street Journal, Mint and HarperCollins in New York. She has an MBA from ISB and studied publishing at Columbia University. She joined Network18 two and a half years ago to conceptualize and launch firstpost.com.