MxMIndia

Tag: Bharti Airtel

  • 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.

     

  • Many now prefer young, unknown faces in their campaigns

    Brands like Mountain Dew, Airtel, ITC and others bypass celebrities for their campaigns

    By Sagar Malviya & Ratna Bhushan

     

    PepsiCo ended its association with top Bollywood actor Salman Khan to promote its lemon drink Mountain Dew on Tuesday.

     

    Its decision to part ways with the hottest star of the moment may have surprised some observers, but the beverages maker is the latest in a growing club of marketers becoming selective about using celebrities in their campaigns.

     

    Top telecom services provider Bharti Airtel, mobile phone and durables maker Samsung, leading retailer Future Group, watch firm Titan and hotels-to-consumer goods firm ITC have all either ended associations with celebrities or are using them for lesser number of commercials. Many now prefer young, unknown faces in their campaigns.

     

    “In some categories, youth are taking the lead as celebrities are not an embodiment for segments, especially technology, etc,” said Santosh Desai, CEO at  Future Brands.

     

    Last week, Future Group launched a campaign for Big Bazaar’s apparel business without cricketer MS Dhoni or Bollywood actress Asin who have been the supermarket’s brand ambassadors till recently. “While Dhoni and Asin worked well for us in the last two years, we didn’t renew their contract as we thought having regular faces could connect with today’s generation,” said Parwan Sardah, chief marketing officer of Future Group.

     

    Youngsters of below 25 years account for more than 54 per cent of the consumer base in India. The retailer, which is negotiating several divestment and fund-raising deals to pare debt of almost Rs7,800 crore, said its high debt has nothing to do with ending celebrity associations and that the company has spent more than Rs30 crore on the new Big Bazaar campaign.

     

    Titan too has ended its deal with actress Genelia D’Souza for its Fastrack brand. “Genelia’s contract expired last month and we mutually decided not to renew it as after marriage, it would be difficult in relating to college going kids,” said Ronnie Talati, VP and business head of Fastrack & new brands at Titan.

     

    “Even in case of Virat Kohli, we are rethinking as he has been busy with his cricket schedules but still haven’t decided anything yet,” he said.

     

    Overall, however, celebrity endorsements are on the rise. But when it comes to attracting younger generation, many companies now prefer campaigns without their big-ticket ambassadors.

     

    A case in point is Samsung, which uses Aamir Khan in campaigns for its Hero series of mobile phones, but not for Galaxy series. “The usage of the celebrity depends on the key message and the creative route that is used for a particular product,” Samsung CMO Rahul Saighal said. “In the case of the youth-oriented Galaxy series, we are focusing on the use of smartphone and the need to get ‘smart’. So we are using young models.”

     

    ITC, which has Sachin Tendulkar as brand ambassador, uses the master batsman only for a few variants of Sunfeast biscuits, which has close to 20 sub-brands. “Naturally, different sub-brands require different types of advertising,” said VL Rajesh, ITC’s foods division GM (marketing). ITC is using Sachin for Dream Cream and Milky Magic brands.

     

    Source: The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • Media planners say official broadcaster ESPN Star Sports hopes to earn Rs95-100 crore by selling advertisement spots during the 17-day event in July-August as well as related programmes

    Olympics countdown: Hero, Airtel etc flock to hockey on rising public interest

    By Ratna Bhushan & Meenakshi Verma Ambwani

     

    Indian marketers are joining the ‘Chak De India’ brigade going to London Olympics. A day after the Indian hockey team qualified for the Olympics in spectacular style, advertisers such as Hero MotoCorp, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone plan to associate with the team and the event while Coca-Cola and Samsung may look to cash in on their official partnerships for the event, say people involved in their media buying plans.

     

    Media planners say official broadcaster ESPN Star Sports hopes to earn Rs95-100 crore by selling advertisement spots during the 17-day event in July-August as well as related programmes that will be spread over five months starting March.

     

    This amount is several times more than Rs5-7 crore that Doordarshan had raked in during the Beijing Olympics in 2008, but experts say three factors will help ESPN Star Sports reach its revenue target.

     

    These are, Indian cricket team’s disastrous performance in recent times that has pushed the sport’s television viewership to new lows; the fact that the Olympics is being shown on a private channel for the first time, leading to aggressive marketing of the event; and, a strong revival in interest in hockey and other sports.

     

    “The hockey team qualifier has changed things. Many companies are now seeing the Olympics as an opportunity to cash in on their global partnerships,” said Navin Khemka, senior vice-president at media buying firm Zenith Optimedia, which buys media for Reckitt Benckiser.

     

    Advertisers game for London

    ESPN Software Executive VP Sanjay Kailash said there is significant interest among Indian brands to advertise on the Olympics. “With the Indian team qualifying for hockey, the interest and buzz around the Olympics among Indian viewers and advertisers will only increase,” he said.

     

    ESPN Star Sports plans to rope in eight partners for the event. Consumer electronics giant Samsung is the official partner of the Indian delegation to the London Olympics while dairy products brand Amul on Monday announced a deal to sponsor the Indian contingent.

     

    “The hockey team’s performance has added muscle to our sponsorship plans,” said RS Sodhi, managing director of Amul brand owner Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, which will provide Rs1 crore for athletes who have qualified for the London Olympics.

     

    A Samsung spokeswoman said the company is yet to work out the specifics of its Olympics campaign. The firm is supporting training expenses of six players. Two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp, the title sponsor for the Olympics qualifying tournament concluded in New Delhi on Sunday, is also expected to pick up broadcasting spots.

     

    Others such as telecom services providers Bharti Airtel and Vodafone too have evinced interest in associating with the Indian team, either on ground or on television, say media planners. Sahara Group, which renewed its five year sponsorship deal with Hockey India earlier this month, too may pitch in.

     

    Cricket’s loss helps

    In a strange turn of the wheel of fortune, the Indian hockey team, by merely qualifying for an event it had missed only once since the country’s Independence, has stolen the limelight from the national cricket team that won the World Cup less than a year ago.

     

    Television rating points for India’s ongoing series in Australia have plunged to less than 2, now that India has lost all the Test matches and is almost certain to finish last in the three-nation one-day international tournament.

     

    The downturn started in England last year, when the Indian team lost all its matches and meekly surrendered its top ranking in Tests to the host country. Yet, ESPN Star is expected to have earned about Rs300 crore in advertising revenues from the three-month Indian tour to Australia.

     

    “Family viewership for cricket has dropped and rates are now out of reach of certain brands,” says Shripad Kulkarni, chief executive officer of Allied Media, part of sports entertainment company Percept.

     

    Source: The Economic Times
    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved