General Motors is reviewing its media duties in India. Industry sources peg the business in the vicinity of Rs 100 crore. It is understood that GM is reviewing its media business in various other markets as well. In India, the business is handled by Madison Media.
“Effectiveness of PR can be best measured by perception audits with key stakeholders of clients. PR needs to keep pace with the changes in media. Given the emergence of social and digital media and citizen publishers, clients would need to increasingly move to campaigns which integrate both offline and online initiatives,” says Atul Ahluwalia, President – India, Corporate Voice Weber Shandwick.
India is set to see a new mobile handset player Spark Mobile from UAE’s Spark Group of Companies. The company, which announced its India foray on September 30, 2009, is in the process of finalising its creative and media agency to support its launch.
After a stint of over seven years, Pearl Uppal has put in her papers at Yahoo! India as Director – Sales. It is understood that Uppal is set to take on the entrepreneurial route, and would be joining an online retail venture as CEO & Co-Founder. Sources familiar with the development informed that Uppal had resigned last week, and is serving her notice period at present.
IMRB International was adjudged the ‘MR Agency of the Year’ at the 19th annual seminar of the Market Research Society of India (MRSI). IMRB has bagged this title for the fourth successive time and is said to be the only MR agency in the country to have bagged this title since the inception of this Award in 2005.
Taking forward its brand trait of giving a platform to ‘public opinion’, the Lokmat Group, is putting together a Freedom Wall that is designed to give the public a platform to voice their views on various developments. The e-wall, as Lokmat Group’s Director Bharat Kapadia calls it, can be accessed through Lokmatwall.com. The site would be open to all audiences and would be an on-going initiative from the Lokmat Group.
Earlier this month, there was a significant change in the Aegis Media APAC structure, when the agency announced that Patrick Stahle, CEO, Aegis Media APAC, had decided to retire from the industry to pursue a non-executive career. The development would be effective from the second quarter of 2010. exchange4media engages Stahle in an exclusive conversation on India and his future plans.
The ‘Indian’ qualification is perhaps not required any more. World over, the builders of business – that is, both clients and their agencies – have tough challenges, mandates and some compulsions. Ideally, both groups need to keep their eye on the ball (read brand) at all times. Engaging and enduring brands get built when both these groups excel at their respective jobs
The challenge for any new brand is to establish itself in a cluttered environment and amongst brands that are well entrenched in the consumer’s mind. While one can look at rationalising spends, one should not switch off the engine as it will become more difficult to revive it when the economy picks up. Also, a key point to note is that in the current scenario, a brand can demand a greater bang for its buck. A brand can get good deals from most media houses, which helps them reach the same audience, but at a lesser cost.