Zen Mobiles, a Teleecare India Pvt Ltd company, is all set to enter the Indian mobile handset market and has chosen Bates 141 as its creative agency. The account size has been estimated in the region of Rs 25-30 crore. Madison and Saatchi & Saatchi were the other agencies vying for the business.
The North Eastern Railway has invited tenders under the ‘two-packet’ system for sole advertising rights through vinyl wrapping on the exteriors of the Pushpak Superfast train (Lucknow-Mumbai-CST-Lucknow). The tender closes on June 30.
Reebok has been present in India for 15 years now, and in this time has successfully moved from being a sports brand to a fitness and lifestyle brand. With its new philosophy of ‘Ree’, the brand is now looking to re-energise its India strategy and widen its consumer base in the country.
Lavasa Corporation has upped the ante and earmarked an advertising budget upwards of Rs 40 crore. Mudra has been roped in as the creative agency, while Mudra MAX is handling the media duties. Being developed by Hindustan Construction Company in Pune district, Lavasa is touted as India’s first hill city.
Intensifying its focus on smartphones, Samsung India Electronics has launched two new handsets in this category – Samsung Wave and Samsung Galaxy S. The company is fortifying the new launches by allocating 5-6 per cent of its marketing budget. This is the first time that Samsung has released a mobile phone on its proprietary ‘open’ mobile platform ‘bada’.
TBWA\India has been busy beefing up its Delhi team. Close on the heels of Rajesh Kochhar being elevated to Vice President in charge of the Delhi operations, the agency has hired two senior creative talents – Tarvinderjit Singh and Rishi Chanana.
In the hugely complex and complicated marketplace, we no longer have a choice – it’s either differentiate or sink. Segmentation studies are invaluable as they help us peel another layer of the consumer onion and help us understand the drivers of consumer behaviour, says Arpita Menon.
Will soccer fever match the cricket craze in the country? The first five matches of the ongoing FIFA World Cup in South Africa have seen sluggish ratings. However, as favourites surge ahead, media planners are confident that ratings would pick up by 20-30 per cent in the coming days.
The Advertising Agencies Association of India is facing one of its biggest challenges, and the bone of contention is the controversial Reckitt Benckiser media pitch. Even though AAAI has stated that given the clauses, no agency should participate in the pitch, it is understood that there are at least four agencies that have been in conversations with the client.
<p align=justify>Right now most of the media agencies have the same business model, and also the media service brands are facing a perception problem, wherein they have not grown in the last 10 years in terms of how they have been perceived. Media teams need to bring back on-ground learning to their strategic thinking. There is need to make the thinking process more relevant and with an ear to the ground.