Within three months of Prakash Ramchandani, then Zee Cinema’s Marketing Head, quitting, Shalini, the current Marketing Head of the channel has also put in her papers.
Adil Darukhanawala, well-known international automobile writer, founder and ex-editor of Overdrive magazine, has joined Next Gen Publishing Ltd. (NGPL), a Forbes Group and HDFC Ltd. joint venture. At Next Gen, he will be Chief Editor of Next Gen Automotive.
Consumer electronics major LGEIL is planning to expand the product portfolio for air conditioners by adding a 0.75-tonne split AC by September-end and a high-end 2.5-tonne high capacity split AC by January 2006. Also, there is a shift in focus from “value-for-money” to “money for value”.
Jason Dasey, a popular face on ESPN STAR Sports, sees the exclusive India focus of SportCentre as an exciting challenge. Production standards are what set ESPN and Star Sports apart from other sports networks broadcasting in India, he says.
India may not yet have a Tiger Woods, but golf enthusiasts and aficionados of premium footwear can adorn their feet with Ecco shoes worth Rs 26,999. The world’s second largest casual lifestyle footwear brand made its foray into the Indian market on July 14.
Red FM has struck a deal with T-Series and has acquired the music rights to play the latest popular songs from T-Series stable like <i>Dus, Paheli, Maine Pyar Kyo Kiya, Chanda Ki Doli, Yakeen</i>, and Lucky, among others.
Now anyone can be on air! This is what MTV India guns for with its plans to go interactive. The music channel is extending its claimed pioneering creativity to the digital world by a phase-wise launch of four new blocks of interactive programming on air in real-time.
Muggles are all excited about the sixth installment of J K Rowling’s magical saga of boy wizard Harry Potter. And to tap into that excitement, Café Coffee Day and Book Café have joined hands to brew magic for all customers on July 16, the day <i>Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince </i>is being launched the world over.
Barista Coffee Company has launched an exclusive sub-brand of premium cafés – Barista Crème. The company is planning to go on an expansion spree in a move to counter the competition expected from international coffee chain, Starbucks, which is slated to enter India soon.
“The health of a mall is about programming, progressive design, merchant education and owning the complete experience. Owning malls is not just about real estate and collecting rent, it’s about making a transformation from a landlord to a place-maker,” says world’s only retail anthropologist.
General entertainment channels in West Bengal are still faring better in terms of both channel share and television viewership ratings, with ETV Bangla emerging as the market leader, followed by Aakaash Bangla.
Vijay TV is all set to woo its audiences with a Tamil KBC2, starting with the Hindi version on August 5. Following the huge success of KBC, the channel wants to offer its audience their fair share of the show in a language that they are most comfortable with.
The first half of 2005 has seen some definite trends for the Hindi news channels. The news pie in the last four years sure has shot multi-fold, but a closer look in 2005 shows that this year, even as players increased, the news pie hasn’t.
The I&B Minister’s recent announcement of a proposed legislation making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share content with Prasar Bharti – especially sports and cricket – has triggered alarm bells among private broadcasters.
The first issue of HT has drawn mixed reactions for its content, but one thing it did manage is the buzz – the Salman Khan-Aishwarya Rai story on the front page. In the course of the day, the story was followed by almost all news channels and created a media frenzy.
Even as readers are eager to sample and test read the new papers flooding Mumbai, the ground realities of actual paper distribution, hawker demands, and their commissions will play an important role in what one reads and when.
<p align=justify>“There are a lot of changes I would like to bring about. But there is one thing that saddens me deeply. The whole concept of a good campaign has been reduced to making these ‘award winning’ ads. I wish agencies would realize that their job is not to create to win trophies but to service the client who is paying for it. A good ad is one that can be related to the brand, and literally contributes to the philosophy of the company.”