BBDO India has appointed Renilson Joseph as associate vice president for its Delhi office. Joseph will be responsible for two major accounts i.e. Aviva and Quaker Oats.Prior to this, Joseph was working as director strategic planning at Grey, Bangalore.

Joseph said, “My mandate at BBDO will be to take forward the agency’s business prospects. I have worked with several media agencies in multiple roles and this will help me execute my work profitably at BBDO.”

Joseph has 12 years of experience in the industry and has worked with agencies such as McCann Erickson, Ogilvy, Ad Inc Muscat, TBWA Chennai and Bates 141. In his decade long career, Joseph has worked on brands like Volvo, Allen Solly, Loop Mobile (BPL Mobile), Spencer’s, Timex, Titan, Hindustan Unilever, and MTV.

The 16th international children’s film festival will commence on November 14 at Hyderabad, celebrating the festival along with Children’s Day. Seventy films will be screened in the film festival.The films are classified in three main categories- international, Asian Panaroma and children’s world. The films have been shortlisted from 160 entries received from various countries including Iran, China, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, China and Sri Lanka.

Nandita Das, chairperson, Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI) added that the the film festival would also have debates, open forums and workshops on issues related to children’s movies. There will also be debates on how children are being used for television programmes including reality shows.

The film festival will also witness the felicitation of children who have achieved distinction in various fields at state and national level.

ZenithOptimedia, a fully owned media agency by Publicis Groupe has won Swarovski’s media rights for Asia-Pacific. The announcement comes from Swarovski, as part of its global alignment of creative and media agencies. The account was handed over to ZenithOptimedia without a pitch on the basis of their earlier relationships with the brand. Earlier Havas’ MPG was working on the account.

The agency will start working on the account from Jan 2010. Since 208, Swarovski has reduced the number its number of media agency partners worldwide in order to improve international coherence and media efficiency. The company has reduced the number of media agencies for the group from 14 to four in 2009.

“In order to continue the process of reducing the number of media agencies, we decided at the end of September to continue to work with only one partner – ZenithOptimedia,” Swarovski officials explained.

Mustang, the jeans wear and lifestyle Company has decided to enter the Indian markets. The move marks the company’s expansion plans in various countries and in line with its vertical-integration strategy. The Company has tied up with Shopper’s Stop for the venture. It has signed a cooperation agreement with Shopper’s Stop.

The company has collaborated with Shoppers Stop to operate through shop-in-shops, which are set to open in the metros in the coming months. The first shop-in-shop has already kick started at Hyderabad. The stores will inherit the concept of Mustang, popularized by a mix of wood-look elements and vintage-appearance furniture and rusty iron tables.

Mustang’s expansion plans focuses on the markets of India, China and Russia. The company wishes to expand in these markets with their concept of mono-brand stores.