Yahoo has issued a statement asserting that talks with Microsoft about a potential transaction are kaput. It said that numerous meetings and conversations about a full or partial acquisition have concluded.
Microsoft has tied up with mobile VAS company mobile2win to take their advertising campaign onto the wireless space. This is Microsoft’s first major mobile campaign and it has integrated a variety of mobile marketing tools, including SMS, WAP and Advergaming.
The recently released TVCs for Parle 20-20 butter cookies cut a long story short and get straight to the point, very much like the T20 format of cricket. Everest Brand Solutions is the creative agency, while Vipin Dhyani is the creative director. Code Red has produced the film, while Gajraj Rao is the director.
The Advertising Club Madras is holding its first Gyan Series in Chennai on June 13. The Club has invited all its members for a special screening of ‘Shots’, which would showcase the best of European and South African commercials. Shots would be presented by Lowe Chennai and sponsored by The Hindu.
Global market research company Synovate has launched its customer experience practice, which would partner with companies aiming to develop more profitable relationships with customers. Synovate Customer Experience includes the company’s capabilities in a number of areas.
NDTV Profit and Reliance Money are jointly relaunching investment show ‘Money Mantra’ in a new avatar. In its first run, telecast of the show was stopped at the end of 2007. ‘Money Mantra’ will now premiere on NDTV Profit on June 20 at 7.30 pm and will air on Fridays, with repeat telecast on Sundays at 12.30 pm.
It’s been a bonanza time for mobile phone users as fierce competition has seen all the major service providers in India like Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, BSNL, Spice, Tata Indicom, and even the recently launched Virgin Mobile, slash tariff rates or offer attractive schemes. exchange4media takes a look at the market trends.
Viacom18’s soon-to-be-launched Hindi GEC Colors has embarked on an adrenalin-packed promo for its driver property ‘Fear Factor - Khatron Ke Khiladi’, which features Bollywood’s original ‘khiladi’ Akshay Kumar as the host. The concept has been conceived by Colors’ creative agency Rediffusion DY&R and shot by Kunal Kapoor of AdFilmswala.
‘Wish karo, Dish karo’ pleads SRK, even as Tata Sky claims to make life ‘Jhinga La La’. With DTH operators on a promotion frenzy and reducing subscription rates, where does this leave the neighbourhood cablewallah? exchange4media takes a look.
Male clothing brand Arrow, which had called for a pitch some time back in Bangalore, has decided to continue with its existing agency Alok Nanda & Co (ANC). The pitch was called soon after Arrow’s campaign ‘When you know’ broke in print few months back. Amid much speculation, it is now known from sources close to the development that ANC will very much continue to handle the business of Arrow.
The new regulations proposed by BMC appear to satisfy the first condition of being well researched and have been announced only after widespread consultations with media owners and users. Mumbai media owners have welcomed the same, and are sure that this would be the first welcome step in making the outdoor advertising environment in the metro healthier than ever before. Now, all await the implementation of the same in an unbiased manner.
The DLF IPL T20 has scored a rating of 10.7 in the C&S 15+ target audience. Industry leaders have stated time and again that the Indian Premier League (IPL) has seen unprecedented success. The ratings of the final match reiterate this. The metros have seen double-digit ratings, and the Rajasthan market has seen a TRP of 9-plus.
Marketing communications group Aegis Group Plc on June 12 announced the acquisition of Communicate2 in India. Following the acquisition, Carat will offer search in India as part of communications planning, while Isobar will start building digital capabilities along with Communicate2 for the Indian market.
Harjeet Chhabra has quit WWM as General Manager, Marketing. He was handling Filmfare and Femina. Chhabra has nine years of industry experience, of which he spent two years in WWM, the BCCL-BBC joint venture for magazines. Prior to this stint, he was with Tata Indicom as Product Head for out-of-home Internet access. Currently, he is serving his notice period. He is yet to disclose his next destination.
Virgin Atlantic Airways has appointed Michael Burke as General Manager - India. Prior to this, Burke had served as Country Manager with Virgin Atlantic Airways in China. He has been with the airline for nearly 13 years now.
Nokia India has appointed Suresh Vedula as Head of Business Mobility. Prior to joining Nokia, Vedula was with British Telecom India as Head-Business Development. He has also worked with IT/ telecom companies like Motorola (Networks), IBM and Wipro.
Naina Toor Singh has joined NEO Sports Broadcast as Head of On-air Promotions for its two channels, NEO Cricket and NEO Sports. Prior to this, Singh has worked across different genres in television like Sahara One (GEC), kids’ channel Hungama and news channel STAR News, among others.
Rupesh Kashyap has joined Leo Burnett Mumbai as Creative Director. Kashyap moves from Everest, where he had a one-year stint. At Leo Burnett, Kashyap will handle the agency’s plum portfolios such as HDFC, Standard Life Insurance and Sony Entertainment Television. Other accounts, too, will come under his ambit, though he refrained from disclosing about them at this stage. Kashyap forayed into advertising in 1999 with Publicis India (then Maadhyam). Since then, he has worked with Rediffusion DY&R, Lowe Lintas, Mudra and Everest.
Genesis Advertising has appointed Shouvik Gupta as the new ECD for its Mumbai branch. Gupta was earlier Creative Director at Grey Worldwide. He has more than a decade’s experience in the advertising industry. Gupta began his career with Percept Mumbai in 1994. After a stint with Genesis Kolkata, he moved to JWT. Later, he moved to Bates David Enterprise (now Bates 141), after which he joined Grey Kolkata. Subsequently, he shifted to Grey’s Dhaka office, and finally to its Mumbai office, spending a total of six years at Grey.