Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri, which is commonly referred to as ‘TBZ’, has moved its advertising business to Dentsu Marcom Mumbai. The account, worth Rs 4 crore, was earlier with Everest Advertising.
Outlook has completed 10 years, and at a function to commemorate the occasion, its Editor-in-Chief Vinod Mehta didn’t go down memory lane, but commented on the current media scenario, with pinpricks at rivals, politicians and the culture of breaking news.
Bargain season is over folks. After more than 20 months of a go-go sale season, everything from cars to air tickets, home loans to durables, hotels to mobile services are getting costlier. Companies are cutting discounts and raising prices for the first time in months as input costs start to bite hard.
Rasna, the soft drink concentrate giant with 97 per cent volume share in the country, has entered the fruit juice segment with Juc Fit. The product will be rolled out across India in 200 ml and 1000 ml tetra-packs, priced competitively lower than the existing offerings in the segment.
Regardless of whether journey by trains has become any better or safer, booking railway tickets is definitely becoming less arduous. After the success of Internet bookings, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has now facilitated booking railway tickets via SMS.
Leading Swiss watch company, Swatch Group, has launched its jewel in the crown – Breguet – in Indian market. The watches that will be available in India range from Classique (Rs 7 lakh) to Reine De Naples (Rs 7.9 lakh) to Classique Grande Complication (Rs 1.2 crore).
In a move designed to unite its websites worldwide, Unilever has begun to roll out a new unified online identity, which reflects the company’s mission ‘to add vitality to life’. The new Unilever logo is made up of 25 icons representing the company’s different business aspects ranging from palm trees, fish and flowers to tea, hair and spoons.
The Central Board of Excise and Customs has proposed a 10 per cent service tax on advertisement space in the print and visual media and has decided to bring money changers in the ambit of the tax.
Delhi-based Senior Group, which has interests in real estate and media, is set to launch a Hindi music channel in November, 2005. This will be the second TV channel from the Group, which had launched S1 – a Delhi and NCR centric news channel – a few months back.
Mohit Hira, who was heading brand development for The Economic Times and Navbharat Times, was appointed as Indiatimes Vice-President, Marketing, about two weeks ago. He will be heading the advertising and marketing initiatives across all channels of Indiatimes and also the Net Carrot loyalty programme.
Zee News Editor Alka Saxena has been made the advisor to Laxmi Narain Goel, Director, Zee News Group. Confirming this to exchange4media, Goel said that no decision had been taken as to who her successor would be. Alka Saxena, who has long been associated with Zee News, has been suffering a throat ailment and has been advised for a voice-rest.
Following closely on the heels of NRS 2005, the numbers for IRS 2005 R-2 have just been announced, bringing cheer to Hindi publications once again. Topping the list is Dainik Jagran with a readership of 191,74,000. Among magazines, Saras Salil, with a readership of 7,366,000, takes the top slot.
Dentsu India has entered into a partnership with Evernew Concepts, the fifth largest advertising agency in Pakistan. With this alliance, Dentsu seeks to provide seamless services for integrated communications to its diverse set of clients across the border.
The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2005 Round 2 throws interesting factors about media reach and growth in India. In addition, the top line shows an increase in literacy and a falling readership in the upper SECs. Language readership trends show an increase in Tamil readership and drop in Malayalam.
The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) R-2, 2005 has thrown some clear leaders in specific markets. The Mumbai market sees reigning king The Times of India rule some more, giving the publication a 5 per cent growth. Delhi sees growth for Hindustan Times, where it is the number one player.
“With the intensive penetration of the Internet, computers, credit cards, drop in broadband rates, online shopping has moved from being restricted to a certain section of the society to the larger population. Now, even middle class people can think of shopping online because people have come to trust it, they find it convenient and secure… We started out with the mindset that we are in the business of e-commerce and then realised that we are actually in the business of changing people’s habits.”