Manu Khanna has joined Hungama Digital as Senior Manager - Online and Integrated Media. He moves from Out of Home Media (India) Pvt Ltd, where he was Manager - Ad-Sales. Prior to OOH Media, Khanna had worked with Meow FM (part of the India Today Group) for six months and also The Times of India (timesjobs.com) for a little over one year. He had also worked as Senior Territory Manager with India Today for a year.
Pankaj Sharma has been promoted as Head of Corporate Relations & Branding at Rai Business School (Rai Foundation). Prior to this elevation, Sharma was GM, Marketing. In his new role, Sharma will be taking care of placements, corporate communication, corporate events, corporate training programmes, management development programmes, and student training, besides all marketing activities to promote Rai Business School as a Brand. The school will be launching the ‘RBS Corporate Connect’ in October 2009, which is a monthly newsletter containing corporate news and personal experiences and learning by management professionals.
Shormistha Mukherjee has put in her papers as Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi, and is currently serving her last few days at the agency. Mukherjee is partnering with two other associates, Suhas Parab and Shubho Basu, to launch a new agency called Rickshaw. Mukherjee has close to 15 years’ experience in advertising, having worked with Saatchi & Saatchi, JWT, Lowe, Leo Burnett and Mudra. Parab, her art partner at Saatchi, has close to 17 years’ experience in the advertising industry, having worked across categories like paints, financial services, food and consumer durables.
Sheena Saji has quit DNA as Marketing Head. She had been with the newspaper before it launched in July 2005. At DNA, she had done stints in both sales and marketing. Prior to DNA, Saji had spent 17 years with the Times Group, where she worked with the magazines during most of her tenure there. She had also briefly looked after the broadsheet for two years. Saji had handled new launches such as Femina Girl, and also launched Femina in different languages – Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi.
KB Vinod, ECD, Leo Burnett, has put in his papers. He moves to Mudra as Creative Head. He was with Leo Burnett for six years and had handled brands like Thums Up and Bajaj. Prior to that, he was Creative Director at Publicis Ambience. Vinod began his career with Lintas, where he spent six years. At Mudra, he will be reporting to Bobby Pawar.
Yahoo! has embarked on a massive global brand campaign, which kicked off in the US on September 28, 2009. Sporting the new tagline ‘It’s Y!ou’, the campaign rolls out in India and the UK on October 5. In India, Yahoo!’s campaign will see the Internet and mobile also play a crucial role.
Not long ago, NDTV Imagine helped Rakhi Sawant find a suitable boy. Imagine has now decided that while Rakhi’s marriage can wait, she needs urgent training in minding babies and has devised the show ‘Pati, Patni aur Woh’. But hearing the distressed baby’s cries, one wonders where the activists crying hoarse over ‘Balika Vadhu’ and ‘Sach Ka Saamna’ are, asks BV Rao.
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 currently handled by Madison Media.
“The success of a communication campaign is gauged by its accessibility, viewership, relevance, and understanding by the target audience. In designing a communication, an accurate media vehicle not only helps us connect to a specific group of audience, but also helps us in identifying the gap between the present lifestyle and the aspirational life space of the target audience, while an impressive creative helps us bridge this gap,” says Sanjay Tripathy, Executive VP & Head – Marketing, HDFC Standard Life Insurance.
UAE-based telecom operator Etisalat Telecom (Emirates Telecommunications) has decided on its media and creative partners. Lintas Media Group’s third media service brand, Karishma Initiative, has been assigned its media duties, while MRM Worldwide, the digital arm of McCann Worldgroup, has bagged the creative mandate. The account size is estimated in the region of Rs 400 crore.
Planforme.com, an online food and beverage (dining) portal catering to a diverse range of clientele, is diversifying into the print space with the launch of its magazine ‘Food and Nightlife’. The magazine is set to hit newsstands in Delhi and Mumbai in the first week if October 2009. The monthly magazine is priced at Rs 30.