LG Electronics India has consolidated its consumer electronics and IT advertising businesses with Lowe. Previously the business was split between McCann-Erickson and Lowe.
Bank of Baroda has consolidated its media duties with Lodestar Media, effective January 1, 2006. The account is pegged at Rs 40 crore.
Red FM, one of the top three private FM operations in the country, is no more a part of the India Today Group as of January 3, 2006. Red FM has been sold to a consortium of business groups comprising NDTV News, Malaysia-based Astro, and Value Labs. Early Wednesday morning, editors in the India Today Group were informed of this development.
Goodlass Nerolac Paints Ltd and Walt Disney Company (India) have come together to paint the kids’ imagination with Nerolac Disney Emulsion. The new Nerolac Disney wall paints are being positioned as paints that help ‘bring your kids dreams alive’ through wall designs that tell a story.
The visit of global brand ambassador and former ‘James Bond’, Pierce Brosnan, and the Space Odyssey has helped Swatch Group’s brand, Omega, post 30-35 per cent growth in India in 2005. The advertising spend for the brand in India is set to be increased proportionately with the increase in the turnover.
Just a year after entering the Rs 20,000 crore durables market, the promoters of Anchor-Daewoo Industries are understood to have approached heavyweights like LG, Samsung and Onida to buy the Daewoo brand and its manufacturing facilities in India.
After the legendary Amitabh Bachchan’s services for BPL, it is now the turn of Sachin Tendulkar to be the brand ambassador for the newly-minted Sanyo-BPL joint venture. According to industry grapevine, the deal has been inked and is expected to announced soon.
Irrespective of how hard sports channels try to develop other properties to yield numbers, cricket is the name of the game for the Indian audience. The magic of the property is evident further with Zee Sports taking the leadership spot in the final three weeks of 2005. However, despite no cricket, Ten Sports has managed to maintain a decent graph in the genre.
To explain his argument about the dog eat dog situation, Deepak Segal, EVP, Content & Communication, STAR India, mentions that Sony and Zee were not bothered about STAR Plus and didn’t take even STAR One seriously. “We have seen what has happened in that case,” he says.
RAK Ceramics, a global leader in high quality floor and wall tiles, has appointed Interface Communications to manage its advertising business and Lodestar for its media duties.
STAR Network might have taken time in bringing the second season of KBC, but with their other successful property – ‘The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’ – the channel has wasted no time. The second season is set to launch in February 2006 and Clinic All Clear has returned as title sponsor.
BBC Worldwide Holdings has invested Rs 31.8 crore in Radio Mid Day West (India) Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Mid Day Multimedia Ltd, the Bombay Stock Exchange was informed on Tuesday.
Pramath Sinha, a former McKinsey partner and former dean of Indian School Business, will replace Aniruddha Lahiri as MD of ABP Group. Lahiri, who had put in his papers in October last year, is set to join The Chatterjee Group as President from January 16, 2006.
It has been almost a year since P&G acquired Gillette and changes in the media responsibilities are coming to the fore now. The media buying duties of Gillette, which are at present with MindShare, will be moved to Madison Media, effective February 2006.
Currently, Times Now is a show reel of the various properties that it has planned for its launch. The ‘barker launch’ will help the channel to test the nuances of the channel, creating viewer awareness at the same time.
Crayons Advertising has bagged the creative and media duties of the Incredible Jammu and Kashmir campaign in a multi-agency pitch that saw many agencies in the fray for the account. The account size is pegged at Rs 3 crore. Leo Burnett and Crayons were agencies shortlisted for the final round of the pitch.
CricInfo, a well-known name in online cricket publishing, is venturing into print with the launch of Cricinfo magazine, a monthly title that hits the newsstands on January 4, 2006. Primarily aimed at an Indian readership – both in India and overseas – Cricinfo magazine is published by the Infomedia group.
Though CNN-IBN made a rather quiet launch last month, the intention going forward is definitely not to remain quiet. In order to quickly build the CNN-IBN brand, it has appointed MindShare as its media agency.
Zee Business has conceived a summit titled ‘India Ahead’ with the idea of setting the economic agenda of the government in the New Year. The event is slated to take place in Mumbai on January 6.