VIP, the largest luggage brand in Asia has called for a pitch next month. The winning agency would handle creative duties for brands under the VIP umbrella, including Coupe, Nuovo and Aristrocrat. The account size is estimated at Rs.23 crore.

Lowe is the current creative agency for VIP and will not participate in the pitching process next month. Agencies pitching for the brand include Leo Burnett, McCann Erickson, Saatchi & Saatchi and BBH.

Lowe had won the account four years ago after pitching for Alpha, one of brands under VIP. In 2007, Alpha was discontinued and so was the advertising campaign.

The latest development had been signing Shahid Kapoor as the brand ambassador, which were followed by two television commercials.

India’s leading business house, Future Group has decided to offer a treat to the retail consumers. The company is set to launch 10 -15 private labels in its various categories. The Future Group aims to develop its well performing brands from private labels and make them a cash cow in their own category.

Future Group owned Big Bazaar will launch a breakfast cereal range under its private brand, Tasty Treat. The product will be available in variants such as corn flake, plain cornflakes, chocolate and honey flavour.

“Our endeavor is to develop the brands as any other FMCG product. Since they don’t carry the crutches of Food Bazaar, it will help in developing the market for these products,” Mr. Devendra Chawla, Head, Private Brands, Future Group told the media.
He also added, “We will be shortly launching noodles, jams and toothpaste from our private label portfolio. The breakfast cereal is a category that is on an uptick and usually sells through an organized retail environment. We will be retailing the products through our various formats,” he said.

According to analysts, private labels account for nearly 30 per cent in FMCG category and 25 per cent in the personal category for Future Group. As the margins are 20% excess in private label markets for retailers, more and more companies will be attracted to this opportunity.

Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication (SIMC) is organizing FootPrints ’09, a series of Media seminars encompassing the various aspects of the media relating to Advertising, Audio Visual, Journalism and Public Relations.

This 10 year old event will be conducted in 23 Indian cities and at 2 international cities. The seminar is a day-long event that will comprise of interaction between students and the pioneers of the media. The youth is our primary target audience.

The theme for FootPrints ’09 this year is:
1. The Green Battle
2. Media: Past, Present, And The Future

The title sponsors for the Event are Education Times and Reliance BigTV, which will ensure wide spread coverage of the event by the largest media house in the country and also by other news conglomerates.

All the participants will get a participation certificate from the Symbiosis International University and there also will be a SNAP help desk to clear all your Snap doubts!

The Essentials

Where: Rangsharda Auditorium (Bandra West), Mumbai
When: November 15, 2009
Time: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

The confirmed guest speakers list

Mr. Arijit SenGupta, President, Oglivy PR Worldwide
Mr. Ashish Bhushan, General Manager, Brand Activation, TOI
Dr. Chandra Krishnamurthy, Acting Vice Chancellor, Mumbai University
Mr. Goldin Quadros, World Wide Fund for Nature
Mr. Joel Pannikot, Co-Founder & CEO, Athena India
Mr. Mark Robinson, Model/Choreographer
Mr. Neeil, RJ, Red FM
Mr. N. Chandramouli, CEO, Blue Lotus Communications
Mr. Prahlad Kakkar, CEO, Genesis
Mr. Pritish Nandy, Founder, PNC
Mr. Rahul Alvares, Author/Herpatologist
Dr. Rashneh Pardiwala, Founder, Centre for Environment Research and Education
Mr. Roshan Abbas, Founder, Encompass
Mr. Saurabh Shukla, Director/Actor/Writer
Mr. Shashank Verma, CEO, Clean Star Trust
Mr. Suman Shrivastava, CEO, Euro RSCG
Dr. Ujjwal Kumar Chowdhury, Director, Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication
Mr. Vineet Malhotra, Anchor, Neo Sports
Mr. Viraf Pocha, Founder, Landmark Events

Besides, they have two live performances: (a) Singer Raghav Sachar (b) Theatre Group Utopia!

Original post here

More after the event

Mumbai Footprints, 15th November, 2009 was a success. With four separate panel discussions (Environment, New Media, Corporate and Entertainment) coupled with a play from Theatre Group ‘Utopia’ and a grand performance by singer/composer Raghav Sachar, the event was poised to win over the audience.

The event saw a turnout of around a fifteen hundred plus strong crowd. Students and youngsters from different backgrounds (Zoology to New Media) thronged the gates of Rangsharda Auditorium at 8am in the morning!

The event was inaugurated by Professor Ujjwal Kumar Chowdhury, Dean SIU (Symbiosis International University) and Director SIMC (Symbiosis International University) with the lighting of the holy samai. The panel included Prof. Dr Chandra Krishnamurthy, Vice Chancellor SNDT Women’s University and Acting VC, Mumbai University along with other eminent academicians.

The environmental panel included Mr. Shashank Verma, CEO, Clean Star Trust, Mr. Rahul Alvares, Author/Herpatologist and Dr. Rashneh Pardiwala, Founder, Centre for Environment Research and Education. They discussed many important facets related to environmental conservation, like how the very laws set in place to protect the wildlife end up endangering the animals because they alienate the masses from Mother Nature.

The New Media Panel comprised of Mr. Suman Srivastava, CEO, Euro RSCG-Future of New Media, Mr. Joel Pannikot, Co-Founder and CEO of Athena India, Mr. M.P Singh and Vidyut Kodagi, both eminent Film-makers.

The session was concluded by Mr. Prahlad Kakkar, CEO, Genesis. The topic of discussion was ‘Are the agencies focusing on awards or ROI’s?’

Examples from the music industry were taken up, and the changing pattern of music consumption was discussed. The panel also discussed ‘The Rise of Advertainment,’ where Advertising and Entertainment are integrated to lure the consumers.

Prahlad Kakkar began the session with a question, “What is Advertising All About?”

He went on to explain that advertising is nothing but storytelling, conveying your message to your target audience. However you need a strong, genuine and passionate, and yes an extremely well told content to make the difference. To have good content, you need to have a knowledge database. You need to do your research. He went on to add, “Today’s pornography becomes the literature for tomorrow.”

The second session began with a play from theatre group ‘UTOPIA.’ The play focused on diversity of Mumbai Life and how the diversity is the cement that unites the city. The play was well appreciated by the audience.

The corporate panel comprised of Mr. Chandramouli, CEO, Blue Lotus Communication, Mr. Arijit Sengupta, President, Oligvy PR Worldwide, Mr. Viraaf Pocha, owner of Landmark Events and Mr. Sumit Roy, UnivBrands. The panel discussed the effectiveness of Experiential Media and newer and alternative ways to handle brand communication. Gone is the ‘zamanaa’ of just word of mouth, it is word of mouse now!

The Entertainment Panel comprised Mr. Marc Robinson, Owner, Shoot Talent Management & Founder of Dubai Fashion Week.

Roshan Abbas said that the youth today has a very short attention span because of information overload and important information is lost in the process while Mr. Robinson used personal anecdotes to urge the youth to enjoy each and every moment of life because you never know when you might loose it! Communicate, position yourself, network and leverage yourself. Be humble, dedicated and you will get what you want from life. Keep at it, in spite of all the hardships was his message to the youth of India.

The day ended with a performance by Raghav Sachar, the recipient of the Young Communicator Award of the day!

Pics soon

Pitch, a monthly marketing, advertising and media magazine recently celebrated its sixth anniversary. The magazine was launched in October, 2003. As part of the celebrations, Pitch felicitated 28 brands in the Pitch India’s Top Marketers Awards 2009. The brands were ranked an awarded on the basis of their performance in the downturn year 2008-09.

Here is the list of the brands that overtook recession and stood against all odds:

1. Indian Premier League (IPL)

2. Google India

3. Vodafone India

4. Amul India

5. Nokia India

6. Hero Honda

7. Café Coffee Day

8. Idea Cellular

9. Honda Siel Cars India

10. Samsung India

11. Kingfisher Airlines

12. Tata Tea

13. Unique Identification Authority of India – Nandan Nilekani

14. Nestle India

15. Asian Paints

16. NDTV Group

17. Mc Donald’s India

18. The Times Group

19. HDFC Bank

20. Congress Party

21. Dominos Pizza

22. Hindustan Unilever

23. Reliance Mobile

24. Reckitt Benckiser

25. Dettol

26. Taj Group of Hotels

27. Bharti Airtel

28. ITC Foods / Dabur India

Fevicol, the flagship brand of Pidilite Industries recently celebrated 50 years of the brand’s existence. To celebrate the journey of the brand, O & M (the brains behind the Fevicol’s creative’s) designed an unusual campaign titled “Moochwali”. The commercial was promoted as the World’s Shortest Feature Film and was also premiered in Mumbai on November 12.

With campaigns like “Dam Laga Ke Haisha” and “Pakde rehna Chodna Nahi” in the past, Fevicol’s association with O & M has been a great hit. Speaking of their association, Abhijit Avasthi, NCD, Ogilvy, said, “It has been a magical journey for Fevicol. Today, the brand is a part of every Indian’s vocabulary, and the brand has endeared itself to the man on the street to such an extent that everyone has an idea for the next Fevicol ad in his pocket. You can’t beat that level of engagement.”

The commercial shows the life journey of a young girl, who is shown, getting dressed up by her family for a skit in their courtyard. She is playing a male character, and is therefore, provided with the mandatory fake moustache to complete the look. From here on, the girl is shown sporting the moustache, for the rest of her life. The inference, of course, is that the moustache was stuck on her face with the help of a little dab of Fevicol. So whether it is at her school, where her teacher is mildly shocked at her appearance, or at a distribution ceremony in her village, or even when she has grown older and poses in a studio for a picture with a cut-out male character (the photographer promptly interchanges the male cut-out with a female cut-out character, after seeing her moustache), she always sports the moustache. She is shown in various stages of her life; as a newly married bride, an eager mother, a middle aged woman, one nearing old age and the last, finally, on her death bed, all the while, sporting the moustache. Towards the end, as she breathes her last, the camera pans to show a nearby cubicle where a baby has just been born, albeit with a moustache, as a gesture towards the concept of reincarnation. The ad ends with the tagline of ’50 saal se champion.’ (A champion for 50 years)

In the past five decades, Fevicol campaigns have bagged more than 90 awards including Abby, Cannes, Clio, Asian Ad Awards and many more, courtesy O & M.

LinkedIn, the US based professional networking site recently appointed Hari V Krishnan as Country Manager, India. Krishnan will head the Indian operations by taking care of LinkedIn’s diverse business model comprised of user subscriptions, advertising sales and enterprise software licensing for the Indian market.

Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn said, “India is one of our fastest growing and most exciting opportunities.” He further added “Hari’s addition to the LinkedIn team will not only help us better serve our membership and customers on a local basis, but will also help accelerate our goal to connect the world’s professionals.”

Prior to this, Krishnan was working at My Space, India. He has also worked with Travelguru, Yahoo India and Cisco in the past.

Worldwide LinkedIn accounts for approx 52 million users, whereas India accounts for 3 million members. As of 2009, India is one of the fastest growing countries for LinkedIn.