The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) has just completed its AGM, and with that, the election of its new office bearers. After being the President of the Association for three years, Srinivasan K Swamy, CEO, RK Swamy BBDO, has been succeeded by Mudra’s MD and CEO Madhukar Kamath. Colvyn Harris has been elected Vice President of the Association.
Nielsen Business Media and Outlook Group have joined hands to bring content from ‘Europa Star’, the influential watch magazine, and ‘Couture International Jeweler’ to India. The content from Europa Star and CIJ will be featured in Outlook Group’s new monthly lifestyle magazine ‘Envy’ and will be packaged with Outlook.
Piruz Khambatta, Chairman and Managing Director, Rasna Private Ltd, has been re-appointed as Chairman of CII National Committee on Food Processing for 2006-07, after two successful tenures in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007. The CII National Committee on Food Processing recognises the critical and important role that the food-processing sector plays in serving the economic growth of the country. Under his chairmanship, the committee also took up the ‘Food Safety and Standards Bill 2005, which sought a single regulator for standardised manufacturing, import, processing, distribution and sale of food products. Khambatta was awarded the prestigious ‘Dadabhai Naoroji Millennium Award’ 2003, in recognition of his achievement as Young Entrepreneur; among many other awards.
Tanla Solutions, a telecommunications software and services provider with operations in India and Europe, has announced the appointment of NV Subba Rao as CEO and President for Tanla Mobile Inc (USA), which is Tanla’s American subsidiary for mobile applications, m-commerce and interactive services. He will head the business and operations for Tanla Mobile in North and South America. Rao joins Tanla Mobile from Bharti Airtel Ltd where he last held the position of COO, where he had initially joined as VP-Sales and Marketing. He has over 20 years’ experience, working with blue chip telecommunications and FMCG brands including Bharti Mobile, Tata Tele, P&G and Agro Tech Foods Ltd.
Emirates Airlines has appointed Orhan Abbas as Vice President-India and Nepal. The decision was taken after Salem Obaidalla, who was formerly in-charge, was made Vice President-Commercial Operations, West Asia and Indian Ocean. Orhan has been with Emirates Airlines since 1998, and has helped increase its presence in various markets, while has also being instrumental in the progress of increased number of flights.
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ZenithOptimedia’s seminar on Measuring ROI for Profitable Communications saw a diverse mix of panel speak on the subject. The aim of the seminar was to make the audience aware that while trying to improve ROI for one’s marketing initiatives, a comprehensive approach is also required to measure the marketing effectiveness and outcome that one would derive from the same.
Zee Jagran will premiere ‘Bal Hanuman’, a 3-D animation film, on July 28. The film attempts to break the old theme of Hanuman’s contribution to Lord Ram’s victory in Lanka.
The online gaming industry in India is like a tyro that has tremendous potential not only to grow in its field but also make a mark in the respective industry world over. The industry is at a nascent stage and careful steps have to be taken to see that it grows in the manner in which it is estimated to.
Keeping in mind growing concerns over obesity, Nestle has launched a low-fat yogurt variant Nesvita Dahi with Probiotic. The company is relying heavily on print and conventional outdoor media rather than the TVC route for promoting its new product.
Samsung has recently unveiled the world’s slimmest mobile phones in metallic series -- D900i, E-840, and D-840. The company has also unveiled a new ad campaign in India, which has been designed by Cheil Communication. The desired consumer response is that the metal series phones are very stylish phones, and there is a sense of manliness in its design.
Value-added service provider Handygo, and Bollywood production company Tips, have entered into an exclusive partnership that will help both the players to leverage their strengths in content creation and content commercialisation.
The Tourism Ministry has launched a new e-commerce platform on its website www.incredibleindia.org. The platform has been jointly developed by the Tourism Ministry and Eviivo. The main objective of this platform is to facilitate small and medium entrepreneurs to be on the global network to promote and sell their product online without any committed investment.
Paris-based Publicis has effected some senior level changes in Asia. Matthew Godfrey has been appointed CEO of its Asian operations. He succeeds Guillaume Lévy -Lambert, Regional Chairman for over 10 years, Levy-Lambert will continue in the role of non-executive Chairman.
Anirban Sen has been roped in as Vice President-Creative for TBWA\India’s Delhi branch. Sen moves from McCann Erickson, Delhi, where he had headed the creative team as VP. He has worked on brands such as Happy Dent, Coca Cola, Nescafe, and General Motors, among others.
In a bid to continually beef its people power, McCann Erickson has made one more appointment. Contract’s Ashish Chakravarty is set to join McCann Erickson as the Creative Chief for its Delhi branch.
Global market research company Synovate has appointed senior market research professionals for its Delhi and Mumbai offices. Jaisy Desai would head qualitative research for Synovate India’s Western market; while Meeta Luthra has joined the company’s customer loyalty practice as Associate Director. Deepak Dasila joined as Senior Project Director-Quantitative in Mumbai. Sumit Arora has joined the Delhi office as Senior Project Director.
World Radio Network, a UK-based TV and radio transmission company, has concluded a deal with AirChord to make its 24x7 international news and current affairs radio channel available to Indian mobile users. This would be done via AirChord and its Juice Up mobile application.
Maruti Udyog Ltd is changing its name to Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. The name change was okayed by the Board of Directors at a meeting on July 26. However, the change is subject to approval by shareholders at the company’s AGM, and thereafter by the Registrar of Companies.
Big FM’s 100 chartbuster format in Delhi would include songs that have been ranked and rated among the top 100 songs in Delhi. The FM station would now focus on more Delhi-centric programmes that include talks on fashion and lifestyle; gadget and gizmos, celebrity interviews, etc.
"We are looking at growing further in different countries. We are looking at further strengthening our digital focus; we are already doing very well there, but we believe that this is the area that can do better with more focus_. Today, digital has great opportunities. It does not only mean the web, but it has become a medium that is working together with other media. Whether it is television, radio, cinema or print, all forms of media are moving towards digital, and the media landscape itself is changing."