By A Correspondent
Senior journalist and head of content operations at Reliance Communications passed away in Pune on Thursday evening.
While he earned his stripes as an investigative journalist at The Indian Express in his early 1980s and ’90s, Dhar has worked with The Economic Times, India Today, Hindustan Times before transitioning to television heading news and current affairs at IndusInd Media and then Editor at etc network and later Zee News.
He has worked with Reliance since 2002.
 By A Correspondent
Reliance Communications has announced a new partnership with Facebook to offer free data access to a few websites to Reliance customers through Internet.org. Internet.org provides access to popular websites and services with zero data charges in order to make it easier for people to access the Internet, across both the 2G & 3G platforms.
To start with, these services will be available for Reliance customers in the telecom circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The goal is to extend the services to the rest of the country in a phased manner, and gradually add more services and websites.
Gurdeep Singh, Chief Executive Officer, Consumer Business, Reliance Communications, said: “We are delighted to announce the launch of Internet.org services in India. Through this partnership with Facebook, we aim to increase Internet inclusion and encourage more Indians to go online. This partnership will not only accelerate Internet penetration in India, it will also open new socio-economic opportunities to users in fields like education, information and commerce.â€
Chris Daniels, Vice-President of Internet.org at Facebook, said: “Today, we’re excited to make the Internet available to millions of people in India through the launch of Internet.org and free basic services with Reliance. This is a big step forward in our efforts to connect everyone in India to the Internet, and to help people discover new tools and information that can create more jobs and opportunities.â€
The launch of Internet.org helps overcome the data access barrier in customers’ minds, by offering them a set of websites which Reliance customers can access without any data charges.
By A Correspondent
Milestone Media, a division of Milestone Brandcom has won the OOH media mandate for Reliance Communication following a multi-agency pitch attended by seven large OOH agencies, that lasted over three rounds. Milestone Media will handle pan-India OOH media duties for the business. The agency triumphed over others on account of their comprehensive and inventive approach on creative thinking, category understanding strength, micro planning and efficient buying strength.
Speaking on the alliance, Gurdeep Singh, CEO, Consumer Business, Reliance Communications Ltd, said, “Milestone Brandcom had a sound understanding of our business issues that we face in a dynamic category. Their pursuit for perfection, and professional attitude were appealing to RCOM while making the decision.”
Nabendu Bhatacharyya, Founder & MD Milestone Brandcom Group said, “This is a noteworthy achievement for us at Milestone Media. Reliance is one of the biggest players in the Communications industry with a unparalleled legacy, offer us challenge to partner them in renewed strategy for future time. We look forward to working with the team and help them push boundaries by creating cutting edge work & contribute to R Com’s growth story”
By A Correspondent
Reliance Communications has announced a partnership with Twitter in India to launch a first-of-its-kind bundled prepaid plan ‘Reliance Twitter Access Pack’ for all Reliance GSM subscribers in the country. Through this partnership, Reliance Communications becomes the first telecom operator in the country to partner with Twitter in India on the new ‘Twitter Access’ program. Reliance GSM prepaid customers across the country can now follow friends, family, news, cricket, entertainment and all their interests with unlimited Twitter access without paying any extra data consumption charges.
Reliance GSM prepaid subscribers can now receive live updates and express their reactions on every ball bowled through their tweets during this T20 cricketing season with unlimited Twitter access across the country. ‘Reliance Twitter Access Pack’ is a promotional offer for a period of 90 days during this T20 cricketing season which comes bundled for all new Reliance GSM prepaid subscribers with unlimited Twitter access without paying any extra data consumption charges. Subscribers may connect to “Twitter Access” by simply visiting twitter.com or mobile.twitter.com on their Reliance GSM prepaid device.
As part of the new “Twitter Access” program, Twitter has customized the Twitter app wherein every customer who has subscribed to the ‘Reliance Twitter Access Pack’ will be able to view a message on the header and footer of the app mentioning Twitter is free of charge with Reliance Mobile. This Twitter app will pop up a message of additional data consumption charges only if any Reliance GSM prepaid subscriber chooses to visit an external link while browsing updates on Twitter.
Commenting on the launch of ‘Reliance Twitter Access Pack,’ Nilanjan Mukherjee, Wireless – Chief Revenue Officer, Reliance Communications Limited said, “We are delighted to be the first operator to partner with Twitter in India on Twitter Access and offer the first of its kind unlimited Twitter access on our superior network. Our partnership with Twitter in India further strengthens our offering on the social media platform and is in line with our continuous efforts to offer innovative products with incredible affordability for our customers. We are confident that the launch of ‘Reliance Twitter Access Pack’ with unlimited usage of Twitter without any extra data consumption charges is set to provide a compelling new experience to our customers using Smartphones for accessing social media across the country on our network. We are hoping this offer to trigger a significant shift of cricket enthusiasts using Smartphones to our superior network.”
“We are pleased to partner with Reliance Communications to offer its subscribers a unique opportunity to use Twitter to follow the people and organizations they care about. Whether it’s hearing the latest news, connecting with cricket stars in real time, or laughing at the day’s best jokes, it’s all possible on Twitter in India,” said Jana Messerschmidt, Vice President, Business Development and Platform, Twitter Inc.
By Anil Thakraney
Ok, so it looks like Reliance took my advice for their mobile phone ads; or at least they took all the dissing in social media very seriously. For their latest commercial on ‘unlimited plans’ featuring Bollywood girl Anushka Sharma and her boyfriend, they have toned things down.
Regular readers will recall that in my review for the Reliance 3G Tab commercial, I had expressed anger over the treatment of the ad. Ms Sharma was seen freely insulting her boyfriend and making him feel like a total loser. My concern was the impact of such loutish behaviour on the brand’s image. To me, spunky is cool, offensive is not.
| [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhx0W35XOMk[/youtube] |
Well, in the new ad, the team seems to have done course correction. The boyfriend (who uses a rival brand) can’t believe Ms Sharma lands up with such a low bill, he thinks she’s using the phone as a showpiece. So he takes up the challenge and abuses the lady’s phone. He makes many STD calls, sends out many text messages and generally has fun with the applications. But the bill remains the same, much to Ms Sharma’s amusement. And so gets introduced the Reliance plan.
Now this is fine. The girl goes one-up on her man, but isn’t abusive or crass. She wins but without being a bitch. This makes for a pleasant ad, and it still delivers the message effectively. This is the way to carry forward this campaign. Hope Reliance has left all the nastiness behind.
Rating: (On a scale of 1-5): 3. Better approach, fun treatment
By A Correspondent
Rajendra Gupta has joined Mogae Media as Chief Value Officer from Reliance Communications. Mr Gupta will be based at Mogae’s Gurgaon headquarters.
Mr Gupta started his career at Dunlop where he worked across different geographies. He then spent a few years at Wipro in their Lighting Division. In 1994, he moved to Rediffusion DY&R as national head of Business Development. His first big win at Team Rediff was a small company that had won a license to launch cellular services in Delhi- Bharti. Brand Airtel was soon born
“Those were the best days of my professional life. I got to work closely with the Mittal brothers and enjoyed every moment of launching a brand that one day would become a world beater”, he said.
Mr Gupta moved to Reliance Communications and spent the last 10 years there in a broad variety of functions. “Moving to Mogae is like home-coming. I have worked with Sandeep Goyal for many years and his new venture really excited me. So here I am,” said Mr Gupta.
“Guptaji (as he is popularly called) is a veteran of both mobile and of advertising. It is a rare combination. And that is what makes him a really valuable asset on any team,” said Tanya Goyal, Director of Mogae Media. “We look forward to Guptaji carving out a new business out of creating customer value and delight through options on hi-value brands”.
Mogae Media is the exclusive partner of Airtel, for monetization of all its mAdvertising assets, including mCouponing and mCommerce.
Mogae Media was launched by Sandeep Goyal, former JV partner of Dentsu India in October 2011.