For the first time in its history the BBC has outsourced work abroad following a deal that will see workers in India dealing with BBC finances. The corporation has handed an £85m contract to process its expenses and pay for production staff and stars to outsourcing giant Xansa.
Mountain Dew is undergoing an extreme makeover, scrapping its 13-year-old "Do the Dew" theme and dumping its "extreme" positioning, which many now consider tired.
Yahoo needs to find its version 2.0. Though it has built a $5 billion-plus business with incredible reach, a diverse stable of services and strong revenue-growth rates by most media-company standards, Yahoo took a drubbing from investors following a drop in third-quarter profit and a warning that the fourth quarter would be weak too.
After a subdued start of Diwali sales, retail biggies raked in the moolah over the last seven days. Leading retailers, including the likes of Pantaloons, Westside, Wills Lifestyle, Ebony and even Landmark clocked close to 40-45% growth in sales during this period.
Videocon Industries Ltd, with its consortium partner Belgium-based holding company RHJ International, has inked a deal to acquire Daewoo Electronics Corporation, Korea's third largest electronics company, for about Rs 3,200 crore.
Siyaram Silk Mills has roped in Mahendra Singh Dhoni as its brand ambassador. The cricketer will endorse the Siyaram’s brand as well as MSD (Monday to Sunday Dressing), the new men’s apparel brand from the textile group.
Motion Pictures Association of India has come down heavily on DVD rental outlets following a court order. The Association has undertaken frequent raids to curb outlets without proper licenses.
National Geographic channel plans to bid adieu to this year with a brand news series called the ‘Inside Series’. The channel will launch the show in December. The ‘Inside Series’ will have specific blocks of one hour each bringing to the fore behind the scenes activities of various landmark events.
Multinational media company MIH India has appointed Dipan Bhattacharyya, former Senior Vice-president, Enterprise Solutions, Sify, as its Chief Technology Officer. He will be joining them from next week. Bhattacharyya will be a key driver for the technology driven company.
There was a 37 per cent growth in Skin Care Print advertising in Jan-Aug ’06 over Jan-Aug ’05. Fairness Creams garnered maximum 30 per cent share of the advertising, while Face Creams witnessed maximum growth in this period. Interestingly, Skin Care products were advertised more in West and North zone publications.
Lloyd Mathias, Marketing Director, Motorola India, says eventually the mobile handset will be an all-emcompassing device: it will help to pay bills, unlock the car and home, buy tickets and even serve as a personal ID. In India, the three most important marketing activities are to build an Indian face to the brand, reinforce the cool technology and have a strong retail presence.
Vijay TV is out to strengthen its weekday primetime viewing with the launch of a slew of new programmes after setting the ball rolling with ‘Hutch Kalakkapovathu Yaaru’, ‘Airtel Super Singer’ and the recently launched ‘Jodi No. 1’. The Tamil satellite channel is also planning to juggle some of its current serials for a better reach.
Exactly one year after venturing into the free neighbourhood newspaper genre in Anna Nagar, Chennai, The Times of India Group has launched another neighbourhood newspaper in Adayar, Chennai. The 12-page gloss-covered ‘hyper-local’ is a community tabloid exclusively for the people living in and around Adayar.
Sudhir Sahni, VP-Client Services at O&M Delhi, has been promoted as President, Client Services. He has been with the agency for the last 10 years.
Sercon, which specialises in providing a complete range of BTL activities to its clients, is on the lookout for agencies to enter into a strategic alliance. It is learnt from sources that 141 Worldwide, a through-the-line marketing services company, is among the agencies that Sercon is in talks with.
"The biggest challenge for the vernacular press is from the vernacular press itself and not from anywhere else. If you take a closer look, television is not faring that well… People have become bored of TV. Nowadays, people can’t watch any one channel for more than a few minutes… there is the same news in every channel being presented in the same way, why would people view the same news over and over again?"