Maxus wins Essar corporate account worth Rs 35 cr
Maxus has added more business from the Essar Group to its kitty. As is known, Essar was a Maxus client for the erstwhile Essar SpaceTel business, and in 2006, Starcom Worldwide won the Essar Retail Telecom, which is the mobile stores division of the group. Essar now is in aggressive mode again, and is looking at releasing communication for its corporate business. Maxus has won this bid. The account size is estimated at around Rs 35 crore.
MindShare reboots to move towards 100 per cent accountability
MindShare India has begun to see the changes of the restructuring that the agency had recently announced at the global level. Some of its key clients like PepsiCo, ICICI and United Breweries are already seeing formation of units like Business Planning, Inventions and Exchange, stitched together by Client Leaders. MindShare officials explain that this new line of thinking is in sync with the value chain that the agency is offering to its clients, and will help it move towards 100 per cent accountability.
Percept on a growth spurt; to raise Rs 1,500 cr through IPO, private equity and debt
Percept Ltd has drawn up an ambitious expansion plan for all its key areas of business as well as scaling up its content and IPR businesses. In order to fund future growth, Percept plans to raise Rs 1,500 crore through private equity, IPO and debt. The company is planning an IPO in the second half of this year.
New agencies for Birla Sun Life’s creative roster
Birla Sun Life Financial Services has been scouting for agencies to handle the creative duties of its three verticals. Though official comments were not available, sources informed that Birla Sun Life had added JWT on its roster, and that Bates David Enterprise might be also bagging a share of the creative duties.
Flashed Yesterday: Lynn de Souza elevated to Chairman and CEO, Lintas Media Group
Interpublic Group’s Lowe Worldwide has one more announcement to make for the core team of its India operations. Long time Lintas India executive Lynn de Souza has been promoted to Chairman and CEO of Lintas Media Group (LMG). de Souza would continue to be based in Mumbai, and her new position is effective from May 2008.
Saatchi Direct is now Saatchi & Saatchi Focus
The Lovemarks focus for Saatchi & Saatchi continues, and the agency has decided to rename its direct marketing division, Saatchi Direct, as Saatchi & Saatchi Focus. Company officials state that the idea is to move towards being an “ideas company”.
Cannes Lions 2008: Sudhir Sharma on Design Lions jury
The 55th Cannes Lions Festival is offering 10 award sections in 2008, including the newly-introduced Design Lions. Sudhir Sharma, Founding Director & Principal Designer, Elephant Strategy + Design, has been selected to be part of the jury for Design Lions.
NavDunia announces arrival in Bhopal with a slew of outdoor ads
NavDunia, the Hindi daily from NaiDunia Media, has forayed into the Bhopal market with a print run of 130,000 copies. The paper has embarked on an extensive promotional blitz, involving mostly outdoor advertising and some radio advertising, to announce its Bhopal launch.
Radio One launches in Pune; August deadline for all metros
Radio One is increasing its footprint in the western region. The station already has operations in Ahmedabad and Mumbai, and from May 12, 2008, Pune has been added to its fold. Vineet Singh Hukmani, CEO, Radio One, said that with this, Radio One has completed its presence in the western markets.
mobile2win powers Pizza Hut’s first mobile campaign
Pizza Hut has embarked on its first mobile campaign that utilises various elements of the mobile marketing ecosystem, including SMS, SMS contextual advertising, WAP advertising and a customised WAP site. Powering this six-city campaign is mobile2win.
Hindi
GECs – 11 channels too many?
The Hindi general entertainment channels’ (GEC) genre continues
to be the largest scorer on audience aggregation, and the
heaviest consumer of advertisers’ monies. If 2004 was about
news, 2005 was about kids and 2006 was the focus on regional
channels, then the year 2007 had already begun to challenge
the status quo in the Hindi GEC segment. And clearly, 2008
is the year of the Hindi GECs.
‘You
need specialist production talent for the different types
of media, not specialist agencies’ The Publicis Group had recently decided to re-brand Solutions,
the India and Singapore-based marketing services arm of the
Group, as Solutions|Digitas. This merger with Solutions in
India marks Digitas’ entry in this market. Alan Rutherford,
CEO, Digitas Global in this conversation with impact
said that one key factor that is driving the change in consumers
is the digital phenomenon.
India
is the regional hub for the revamped BBC World News
BBC World is out with the old; the new is BBC World News.
In a significant re-branding exercise, BBC World News has
replaced BBC World. BBC World News officials explained that
the new name stems from audience research revealing that BBC
World News is more effective in conveying the company’s content
services, which over the years has moved towards its current
focus of news and programming.