TVS Electronics Limited (TVS-E) has appointed Pitchfork Partners Strategic Consulting as its new communication partner. Through this appointment, Pitchfork Partners will drive marketing communications for TVS-E, building and elevating awareness about the brand.
Commenting on the appointment, Jaideep Shergill, Co-Founder, Pitchfork Partners, said: “TVS Electronics has been pioneering innovative and cutting-edge solutions for decades now through an array of products and services. We are proud to work with this iconic brand and I am confident that our expertise in managing strategic communication for Indian as well as global businesses in the technology sector will play a role in helping them achieve their communication goals.”
Speaking on the appointment, Rangesh AB, Dy. GM, Marketing & Communications at TVS Electronics Limited added: “We are thrilled to have Pitchfork Partners as our marketing communications partner. Their passion for brand building coupled with their comprehensive and innovative approach led us to appointing the team to drive marketing and brand communications for TVS-E. We look forward to leveraging their expertise as our trusted partners as we navigate the dynamic business landscape.”
TVS Eurogrip, the two- and three-wheeler tyre brand, rolled out its new brand campaign – ‘Whistle Through Every Turn’- building on its association with Chennai Super Kings. The campaign includes a set of three new advertising films that accentuate the positioning of the brand as The Bike Tyre Specialist.
The films feature M S Dhoni as the main protagonist, narrating his gripping biking adventures to his teammates. The stories are woven with suspense and light-hearted humor, crafted to connect with the millennials.
Commenting on the new campaign, P Madhavan, EVP – Sales & Marketing, TVS Srichakra Limited, said: “Our last campaign ‘Tame The Turns’ was received well amongst our audience. We are happy to have woven this insight in an interesting way to create a set of #GrippingStories with CSK players. Apart from TV and Digital advertising, the campaign includes on-ground activations and channel partner programmes.”
TVS Eurogrip, manufacturers and exporters of two and three-wheeler tyres, has awarded its Brand & Communications mandate to Mumbai based Brand & Communications consultancy, Vector Brand Solutions.
Said Madhavan P, Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing TVS Srichakra: “The journey since the launch of our brand TVS Eurogrip has been an exciting one. On the distribution front, we have been steadily penetrating and growing market share. In collaboration with our Europe product development centre, we now have best-in-category range of quality tyres that cater to the needs of the new age millennial rider. We have already successfully worked with the team at Vector to create a differentiated brand communication and we are excited to turn this into a long-term partnership. Team Vector’s all-round capabilities fit well with our value of delivering consistent high performance. With our new partnership with IPL champions Chennai Super Kings in place to catapult our brand salience, we look forward to partner with Vector on strengthening brand.”
Added Joseph (Joe) George, Founder & CMD, Vector Brand Solutions: “Our working relationship with the team at TVS Eurogrip has been spectacular and we are thrilled to now work with them long term – building the brand, and growing the business. We passionately believe in TVS Eurogrip’s desire to become the market leader in terms of both performance and experience; and we will bring to bear all that we have, to fulfil their rightful ambition, which hereon is ours too.”
Kinnect has been awarded the digital mandate for TVS Raider. The agency has been working on some other TVS Motor’s brands like TVS StaR City+, TVS Sport and TVS Jupiter. Kinnect will be responsible for driving and delivering the overall social media campaigns of the brand. The mandate includes creative strategy and execution, social media management and online reputation management. The agency will also plan and execute performance focused media campaigns for the brand across all channels.
Commenting on this development, Aniruddha Haldar, Senior Vice President (Marketing) – Commuters, Corporate Brand & Dealer Transformation, TVS Motor Company, said: “TVS Raider is targeted at consumers who are digital natives and hence it will be a digital first brand. We intend to build a strong connect with our customers leveraging digital and social platforms and Kinnect will champion this effort with their deep understanding of the medium and our brand. TVS Raider is redefining the category benchmarks in terms of engagement and buzz and we are confident that the momentum will continue to grow.”
Blame it on the late player auctions that were held early this year or the match-fixing allegations that keeps cropping up intermittently or the fact that the General Elections may have taken the hype away from the greatest sporting spectacle coming out of India every year – the IPL. While IPL 6 was already making waves this time last year, the scenario is a little different in Twenty Fourteen with most team-owners still making last ditch attempts in getting their act together including enticing advertisers into partnering them afresh.
But whatever the challenges being presented, the tournament does promise to provide its dose of entertainment this year as well. To begin with, there would be only 60 matches being played this year with the tournament being staged in two phases including one in the UAE from April 16 to May 1 and the India leg that will be staged from May 2nd onwards. In fact broadcaster Multi Screen Media (MSM) is already making its presence felt and has managed to get a decent number of brands to endorse the event this year as well – the same number as IPL 6.
MSM has inked deals with nine presenting and associate sponsors for the seventh season of IPL. The presenting sponsors include Vodafone and Karbonn Mobile who are estimated to have spent approximate Rs 50 crore while the associate sponsors comprise Amazon India, Havells, Perfetti, Marico and TVS all of whom fall under the Rs 25-30 crore cost bracket.
While MSM does seem to have made sufficient inroads with brands, what will eventually decide the success of the tournament is the average viewership ratings that it will throw at the end of the tournament. According to data shared last year, IPL managed to generate an average cumulative TVR of 3.1 in HSM markets and a rating of 3 in C&S 4+ all India. This was much lower than the 3.45 HSM average TVR it reported in 2012.
Ashish Bhasin
Anita Nayyar
Sharing his opinion on whether the tournament will live up to its hype or not, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network and Chairman Posterscope & psLive Asia Pacific, said: “I think the seventh season of the IPL will build up as the tournament progresses and be near normal towards the final stages. But it will have a slow start, compared to past years,” he affirmed.
Putting forth her views, Anita Nayyar, CEO- India & South Asia, Havas Media Group said, “IPL has always been an interesting event irrespective of the reasons. Across seasons it has delivered well whether in India or South Africa. Especially the last leg towards the finals has always been an advertiser’s delight with ratings upwards of 10.”
On what the current season will hold for the tournament, Ms Nayyar said, “The seventh season is generating a lot of interest inspite of the shift between UAE and India amongst advertisers who do view IPL as a mass reach medium. Moreover, while it is election time the interest in IPL still stands. This is further vindicated by an analysis of viewership of various genres during elections, which indicates that it does not have any major impact on sports (cricket) or GECs, however the Hindi news genre gains share. Given the situation, IPL holds its own and should continue to deliver viewership and hence interest and acceptability from advertisers.”
Perhaps the right indicator of how viewership could be bought back to the sport could be assessed from what Vinit Karnik, National Director, Sports & Live Events, GroupM ESP had to state in the SportzPower-GroupM joint report on the Sports Sponsorship report. Karnik had stated thus: “Even though the IPL is off to a rough start this year, in the long run accountability, better corporate governance, more transparency, are all good for not just the IPL, but the BCCI too.”
Another factor that will decide whether the tournament receives a positive response this year is the buzz that it will create from the online medium. This year, starsports.com has licensed the digital distribution rights for IPL 2014 from Times Internet. Starsports.com thus will be streaming video on demand on its portal and would not be played on Youtube like last year. With an aim to attract 20 million more users onto the digital platform, starsports.com will be looking at bettering the 2013 viewership numbers that were reported to be in the region of 200 million video views.
Thus, with the countdown to the greatest cricket spectacle only a few hours away, one can look forward to an average outing from the team and brands at the IPL this year. One only hopes that the match-fixing allegations do not make their presence felt yet again or the organisers will have to face additional bottlenecks next year as well. And possibly no ‘bulawa’ as well.
TVS Tyres has announced the launch of its new multimedia campaign in India. The ad brings out the importance of high performance and toughness of the tyres in an emotional setting as it shows an army jawan braving difficult terrains by riding on TVS Tyres to hand-deliver letters from home to his fellow compatriots.
This is the first time that TVS Tyres has adopted a different route to showcases the ruggedness and dependability elements of the brand. The campaign has been created by Rediffusion Y&R and will be promoted heavily on television, print, outdoor, radio, cinema and ambient media over the next two months.
The TVC begins with a rider sitting near the river side. As the rider moves ahead in his journey, he is shown negotiating his way through the treacherous path in the midst of gushing water – roads washed away, roads no more than dirt tracks and rubble, roads no decent driver would risk taking. The tyres act as his companion as he tries to negotiate through a particularly hazardous patch, where a landslide has occurred, weaving his way through boulders and riding on the absolute edge of the cliff, a steep drop barely an inch away.
As evening approaches, the rider reaches a hillside town where a few army men are stationed. The driver stops, removes his helmet and opens one of the sacks and delivers a letter to one of the men standing around him. The man takes it from him, emotion writ large on his face, as he notices it’s a letter from home. He is joined by others in reading their respective letters. The film ends with the tagline “Koi toh raasta zaroor niklega”.
The film has been created by Ananda Ray, NCD, Rediffusion while Lloyd Baptista is the Director of the film. Ravneet Mahajan is the producer of the film while 7 Films is the production house.
