Rupert Murdoch's Wish List

Rupert Murdoch is having talks with the jain family over a strategic partnership. The most aggressive media group times of india is being eyed by the most aggressive media tycoon of the world. Rupert Murdoch is said to have almost ownership 40% of world media and the walstreet journal takeover most recently has proved that the man has a long wish list.
There is alot of buzz in the market as to what these two companies can do together. Though according to the strict norms of foreign investment of only 26% and mandatory to have a local editor makes print media an unattrative option but seeing the stregth of times of india its too tempting to let go.
Times of india has been in the indian market for past 200 years and circulation of 6,40,000 and vast product protfolio starting from print to website. It has a tie up with BBC for the magazine content for the bestsellers like Femina and Filmfare.
Murdoch today is 77 year old and has not much time to leave a mark on the south asia as he has done in Australia, UK and USA but his son James is surely to take the legacy ahead in the 21st century. The industry analyst over rule the fact that the two media groups can create a monopoly as there are more than 200 morden print houses in the country and times of india still struggles to have a connect with the local crowd.
The fact that murdoch has been applying dirty tactics for getting the media groups through influence in the political front and surely a democratic country like india cannot accept foriegn invasion in the most democratic english daily of the country

Coca-Cola and Hirthik celeberating new ad

FromAdvertisement Jo Chaho Ho Jaye and Life Ho To Aisi to the oh-so-popular Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola to Thande ka Tadka to Piyo Sar Utha Ke, and now the latest, Jashn Mana Le, Coca-Cola has come a long way in positioning itself in the hearts and hands of the Indian consumer.

With the onset of summer, Coca-Cola has launched its new campaign, Jashn Mana Le, which features Bollywood’s blue-eyed boy, Hrithik Roshan, as a mysterious stranger.
Youngsters hit food street that's shut Hrithik works his 'magic' with Coke Riot of colours and food followsA food and drink celebrationHrithik has the last sipLights out Jashn Mana LeThe ad starts with a group of youngsters making their way late at night to a street full of small eating places. They are hungry and disappointed when they see that everything is shut. Just then, they spot Hrithik Roshan. He picks up a bottle of Coke and lightly runs a bottle opener over it making a tinkling sound, which causes all the little street lights to light up. A male voice sings in the background, “Ghazab ki shaam hai yaaron, mile hai hum matwaale, waqt na yeh rukta hai, aaj tu jashn mana le.” As Roshan pops open the bottle of Coca-Cola, the entire street lights up, much to the surprise of the youngsters. He tosses Coke bottles to each of them and they pop them open. We now see a riot of colour and action, with all the stalls buzzing and street food like pav bhaji, samosas, paneer tikka, puris, jalebis being cooked all around. The tempo of the song quickens and the youngsters enjoy their food along with their Cokes. But just as their bottles are emptied, the lights start shutting down. Roshan takes his last sip, and the last lights are switched off and the tempo of the score slows down as the lyrics, “Waqt na yeh rukta hai, aaj tu jashn mana le”, are repeated. Content with their little celebration, and still wondering who the mystery man was, the youngsters move on.The campaign was conceptualised by McCann-Erickson and directed by Sabal Singh Shekhawat of Big Picture Company. Based on the theme, Jashn Mana Le, the campaign has been designed to showcase the magical force of Coca-Cola, which energises even the regular things in life and provides a reason for togetherness and celebration. The campaign focuses on how a bottle of Coca-Cola infuses fun, enjoyment and exhilaration into its consumer’s life.Ashish Chakravarty, creative chief, Delhi, McCann-Erickson, says the ad started out as a tactical idea and not as a themed commercial. It wasn’t meant to be a replacement for Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola. He says, “Worldwide, Coke and food go hand in hand. We wanted to promote this idea of food with Coke and also connect with the youth. The insight was that youngsters frequent these ‘khau gallis’, like the ‘paranthe wali gali’ in Delhi. After a party, or a late night, they do not go to big places, but these small food pockets and streets. Each city has its own popular street food hangout. It’s not a new phenomenon, it’s been happening for years.”Literally translated, Jashn Mana Le means ‘Let’s Celebrate’. “This could also be interpreted as Coke, food and friends create a magical and energetic experience, which is a celebration of sorts,” says Chakravarty.To create a celebratory feeling, a Sufiyana background music score was composed by Ram Sampath, penned by Chakravarty himself, and sung by Kirti Sagathia and Mandeep.Chakravarty shares that one of the lines in the song originally read, “Khudi ko kar hawale (Surrender yourself)”, but was replaced with “Mile hai hum matwale (We carefree people have come together)” to reach out to a mass audience.

The team that worked on the campaign from McCann include Rishi Agarwal, Tirtho Ghosh and Nakul Sharma from creative and Santa Dutta and Amit Ahluwalia from servicing.In the ad, Roshan, with his mysterious air, is almost like the Coke genie; no one knows where he’s come from. He joins fellow actor Aamir Khan, who has donned a myriad roles for the fizzy cola, as brand ambassador. Roshan first featured in Coke ads in 2000, after his hit debut movie, Kaho Naa… Pyar Hai. He also appeared in a Coca-Cola vignette which was done in association with Dhoom 2 in 2006. The actor was signed on as Coke’s official brand ambassador last year, says an official spokesperson. Going forward, the next campaign will feature Khan. Roshan may be the more youthful face of Coke, while Khan may represent the corporate image and profile of the company, but Coca-Cola India has not finalised these plans yet. Also, Jashn Mana Le may or may not be the way forward in future brand communications.The current communication plan includes mass media advertising on all leading television channels, complemented by out of home advertising, in the form of a special shoot featuring Roshan by ace photographer Dabboo Ratnani, in metros and Category A cities such as Chandigarh and Pune.

The outdoor communication will be all about taking the ‘jashn’ to the next level, by bringing together Coke and celebrations.On-ground initiatives like road shows and contests have also been planned across key markets. Initiatives on digital media such as the Internet and mobile have been planned as well.

Its all about money! Pepsi

Pepsi pays $12.5 mn to be official IPL drink
Pepsi will be the official beverage of the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) for five years and the deal with the soft drink giant has been struck at $12.5 million.
Well-placed sources in the IPL said only the eight franchise owners would benefit from the deal.
Pepsi, which has a long association with Indian cricket, has been the main sponsor of India's domestic tournaments for several years and has also been associated with the International Cricket Council (ICC) as its global sponsor.
A significant part of the deal is that the eight franchises - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Mohali, Hyderabad - will be the direct beneficiaries of the money accruing from the sponsorship.
'Pepsi will pay $2.5 million each year and, importantly, the entire income from this deal will go to the eight franchise owners,' according to the IPL sources who did not wish to be identified.
In other words, each franchisee stands richer by $312,500 per year.
The team owners benefiting from this deal are Mukesh Ambani's Reliance, which bought Mumbai team for $111.9 million, Deccan Chronicle (Hyderabad, $107.01 million), Vijay Mallya's UB Group (Bangalore, $106 million), India Cements (Chennai, $91 million), GMR Holdings (Delhi, $84 million), a consortium led by Preity Zinta (Mohali, $76 million), Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies (Kolkata, $75.09 million) and Emerging Media (Jaipur, $67 million).
The Twenty20 cricket tournament, comprising 59 matches, will be played over 45 days starting April 18. Matches will be telecast live on SET Max, which along with World Sports Group paid $1.026 billion to get the television rights for 10 year

Ads that made some eye balls head turn

And that’s the way the cookie crumbles! This line might remind you of Bruse almighty, but this line actually can be also associated to few prints ads you are about to see below. Print as an advertisement medium doesn’t have the flexibility of making our all senses engaged. It only attracts the eye balls through a visual that to fight for its importance in clutter of things where ever it might have got published.

This ad shows how the advertiser is resisting showing a picture of a hot super model to an animal picture. But this ad actually breaks the conventions and attracts people to think and read further. Thus the caption “Men, it’s not difficult to get their attention” and the body copy do wonders together for the advertiser.The second ad of the HOOKER is also on the same lines using very creatively the animals in place of attractive models.
There are many times loss of brand identity as the creative heads designing the ads are so obsessed with their own creation they forget the marketing aspect of the advertisement.
Thankfully the ad you are seeing doesn’t do that the message and the marketing aspects are creatively blended into one another.

So next time you like some print ad do judge its asthetic value too!

Pespi Co! Youngistan Meri Jana!

Youngistaan is an advertisement designed by JWT and is going straight to address the Gen-next the term Youngistaan sound different and also features two new actors Deepika and Ranbir along with the company’s long hold brand ambassador Mr SRK.
Soumitra Karnik vice president of JWT says the TVC Youngistaan is the expression given to individuality – the need to do one’s own thing. Both co-actors in the TVC have a huge fan fallowing and are surely adding to the brand building process. The commercial has been made in mind to capture the youth through a young lovers angle. Where the guy wants to come enter some how to girls room for pepsi and how he gets caught at the attempt. Further on we see how the guy not only saves himself but also gets what he wants. The whole idea clicks because of the TVC of young image and also the tag line Yeah Hai Youngistan Meri Jaan.

Punita Lal, executive director, marketing, PepsiCo India, says, “The Youngistaan idea captures the energy, excitement and irreverence of the young, confident India.”Hari Krishnan, vice-president, JWT, adds, “Youngistaan is a feeling that is racing through every youthful nerve in the country today. Brand Pepsi will simply tap this energy and help the youth express this emotion.”The ad is being supported by radio, outdoor, web and wireless media. The campaign will encourage contests, inviting youngsters to talk of what Youngistaan means to them. They may even be invited to create ads themselves on the Youngistaan concept

MOVIE MAGIC

Movie buffs in urban cities are increasingly logging on to the Net or using their mobiles to book movie tickets. On an average, players in the multiplex industry are selling 10-12% of the tickets through non-conventional channels like the Net and mobile phones. According to CII-AT Kearney report in 2006, Bollywood sold about 3.7 billion tickets. Industry players believe that the increase has largely been in 2007, and is likely to touch the 20%- mark by 2008-end.
Movie buffs in urban cities are increasingly logging on to the Net or using their mobiles to book movie tickets. On an average, players in the multiplex industry are selling 10-12% of the tickets through non-conventional channels like the Net and mobile phones. According to CII-AT Kearney report in 2006, Bollywood sold about 3.7 billion tickets. Industry players believe that the increase has largely been in 2007, and is likely to touch the 20%- mark by 2008-end.

Most multiplex players dub 2007 as a landmark year when alternative platforms for movie tickets emerged in a big way. Says PVR Cine Media CEO Gautam Dutta, “For a long time, online and mobile ticketing contributed just about 2-3% to our overall ticket sales. Currently, online ticketing alone contributes about 10-11% of our total sales.” Mr Dutta added that in certain urban cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad, online ticket sales contribute as high as 20-25%. “With customers fast shifting to mobiles to book movie tickets and open to options like kiosk ticketing, it will become a larger segment,” he said. Even when it comes to the cell phone, every multiplex player is trying to offer unique solutions to make ticket buying a hassle-free process. While Adlabs Cinemas is offering an unique software to sell tickets in a cashless and cardless manner, Inox Leisure has generated a short code through which consumers can book tickets by sending an sms. However, rural and semi-urban areas are yet to catch up with the new mediums. “In semi-urban and rural areas, online and mobile ticketing contribute as little as 2 % to our sales. However with the increase in cell phones users, we expect more customers to shift to this platform

One more THINK HATKE !!

Virgin's New TVC.....again creating vibes in the country.....the screen play starts of with a boy being caught by a police for speeding at a stop light. The boy calls for help to his dad and his dad instead of telling the police to leave his son, goes ahead and request him to take his son to the jail and also sound him of nicely. Hearing this the policewala gets emotional and lets the guy go.

Next we see that the person the police inspector spoke was actually one of his friend who saved the guys ass.

Again the TVC is focused on the youth and according to the creative director Rajeev Raja of David Bates agency. Ideating the commerial for virgin according to him are actually closely related to market study of the youth today which finds opportunities and smart ways and not is rebilious like the western counter parts with the goverment sanctions.

So far the mobile company is creating buzz!