Lavazza, Italy’s No. 1 coffee brand and a major player in the Indian coffee market, has announced the appointment of R Shivashankar as Director - South Asia and Sanjay Coutinho as Chief Executive Officer, Barista Coffee Company Ltd, India, with immediate effect.
Football frenzy is building up with the FIFA World Cup set to kick off in less than a week’ time. Joining this bandwagon is 9XM, the channel which showcases Bollywood music. The channel has unveiled a new football anthem that features the 9XM dudes – Bade-Chote, Bheegi Billi, Betel Nuts and Badshah Bhai – playing football.
Chennai-based UF Media, which publishes Tamil daily ‘Tamil Sudar’, has launched a lifestyle and music channel, UFX. The multi-lingual channel will cater to Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu as well as Hindi audiences. However, the medium of communication will be English.
The idea is the crux for any ad agency and what better than to unshackle creativity in one’s agency. Keeping this in mind, Contract Advertising held its annual initiative – ‘Let’s make a difference’ – on June 4, 2010. In its second year, the initiative focussed on creating new ideas for ‘digital’ across mediums by Contract’s internal officials.
One of the biggest media pitches of 2010, Airtel, has finally announced its media partner. And it doesn’t come as a surprise to many that Madison Media has retained the business. Madison Media will handle not just the media duties, but also the out-of-home and digital for Airtel. There were six agencies in the fray. Industry estimates peg the business to be in the vicinity of Rs 350 crore.
“If you want to be present in every minute in the lives of the consumers, then digital is the way to do that. Digital is so overwhelmingly present right now that it is difficult for somebody to reject that. Having said this, television, too, it is going to have a great year in 2010 and 2011. I do see the trend continuing and I see that the embracement is far more widespread now than it was a year ago,” says Maria-Luisa Francoli, Global CEO, MPG.