Impact focuses on the Advertising Agencies Association of India’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, ‘The Future of Advertising’. Read what Michael Birkin, Tony Wright, Piyush Pandey, Bruce Matchett, Vahid Mehrinfar, Rama Bijapurkar, Geeta Athreya, Stefan Engeseth, George Zacharias and Prahlad Kakkar have to say…
Various print-media related issues were discussed at the International Newspaper Marketing Association's (INMA) global forum held in Mumbai recently. Attendees included stalwarts such as Earl J. Wilkinson, Marti Buscaglia, Jan Wifstrand, Ross McPherson, Mark Challinor, Vineet Jain and Tariq Ansari amongst others.
While India has traditionally been a high margin market for FMCG companies, the situation has changed in the last few years. A prolonged downturn in the sector (now over), the introduction of 'two-for-one' schemes, the onset of price wars in some key segments, and the rising input costs have all combined to put pressure on the margins.
The much-touted affordability strategy that the cola majors pursued, and then soft pedalled, is now being consigned to flames. For the second time in the last one year, Pepsi and Coca-Cola are jacking up prices by 10-15%.
Mahindra & Mahindra, the $2.59 billion Indian automotive conglomerate, has signed a 51:49 joint venture with International Truck & Engine Corporation, USA, to manufacture trucks and buses in India. International Truck is the North American leader in medium and heavy trucks and buses.
Reuters, the global news and information company, has made its plans clear. It has said that it will invest about $4 million on a five-year India growth plan to enhance its financial product offerings into a market set to more than double over the next three years.
Surojit Sen has joined BEI Confluence as Creative Group Head. He moves from Rediffusion DY&R, Delhi, where he was Creative Supervisor.
Madhumita Chattopadhyay, who was till recently was General Manager, Bengali magazines, of the ABP Group, is set to take over as Editor of Sananda, the popular women-oriented Bengali fortnightly magazine from the group, according to reliable sources at ABP.
Newly launched advertising firm, M&C Saatchi India, has roped in Rupin Jayal, as its Strategic Planning Director. Jayal, was previously Vice-President and Head of Planning at JWT in Delhi.
The Bombay Management Association’s (BMA) seminar on ‘Winning the Marketing War’ began on November 17. The morning session of Day One saw interesting insights from the likes of Rama Bijapurkar, Prahlad Kakkar, Bijou Kurien, and Harsh Mariwala.
Kolkata-based Linc Pen and Plastics Ltd, which has established itself as one of the dominant players in the national writing instruments market, is in the process of re-evaluating its agency alignment and has called for a multi-agency pitch.
The first Asia Pacific Summit of World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) was recently held in Hong Kong. What was interesting to note was that issues, which other Asian Advertisers Federations faced, were very similar to those faced by advertisers in India – self regulation versus government regulation, appropriate and accurate media measurement, and media monopolies (leading to high media prices).
ADASIA 2005, the biennial event that sees Asian markets hosting one of the strongest B2B events, is all set to debut on November 20, 2005 with the inaugural dinner. The event, spanning from November 20 to 23, 2005 has been organised at Suntec City in Singapore this year and the biggest delegation is from India, with over 150 attendees.
The Government today notified that foreign investment, including foreign direct investment, non-resident Indians (NRI) and persons of Indian origin (PIO) investments and portfolio investments will be allowed up to 20 per cent equity in FM radio business.
With Kinetic Motors’ first Italjet scooter, Millennium, ready for launch in a fortnight, the next wave of excitement for agencies comes in the form of the impending creative pitch for Euro, another offering from the Kinetic stable. Kinetic Motors will invite agencies for this shortly.
Natalia, the Chennai-based womenswear brand, has entrusted its creative duties to Percept H, while Carat is expected to handle the media duties. The pitch process has been on since May this year, and at least two other agencies are said to have been in the fray.
Delivering the 4th Madhavrao Scindia Memorial Lecture, Virgin Atlantic Head Richard Branson spoke about branding, business and more. On building a successful brand, Branson observed, giving the example of his own brand, “You’ve got to believe in your brand than anything else in the world, then only others will take note of you.”
Lowe Worldwide’s top management is convinced that Lowe India has quite a lot that can be taken to the other Lowe offices. Tony Wright, CEO, Lowe Worldwide, expressed that one of the agendas of the Worldwide Board meeting, held in Mumbai from November 15 to 17, 2005, was to extend the Indian example to other markets.