Weekend Wrap: 12 August 2016

BRANDS and MARKETING

 

Brand-comm launches e-learning platform Brand Academy

 

brand-comm has announced the launch of brandacademy.in, an online platform for education and training offering courses in Brand Management, Advertising Management and Market Research. The curriculum of the first programme on Brand Management has been designed by branding veteran and author Ramanujam Sridhar, founder and CEO, brand-comm, who will also teach the course. 

 

Sridhar said, “A well known brand commands more revenue, higher market share and easy acceptance from consumers as compared to a lesser known brand. With this realisation more and more organisations are focusing on building strong brand equity in market. But the ever-increasing competition is making it a challenge for marketers. Therefore this program will help marketing professionals and brand practitioners in enhancing their overall marketing understanding, application and processes. Entrepreneurs (budding as well as seasoned) will learn to build a strong brand from scratch using the right blend of marketing mix appealing to their audiences.”

 

Each course will run for 12 weeks, with online classes aided by reading materials and email, Skype or teleconference interactions.  

 

Life Health Foods ropes in Brett Lee as brand ambassador

 

Life Health Foods, a player in the health beverage segment, has launched a product that under the brand name ‘Almond Fresh’. It has roped in Brett Lee as brand ambassador for the same.

 

Amazon.in’s ‘used’ books store

 

Tapping into a huge and hitherto untapped segment, Amazon.in has launched a dedicated ‘used’ books store. The books on the Amazon Used Books store come from sellers who have undertaken to list and sell only genuine products – similar to other sellers on the platform. Used books are graded by sellers as Used - Like New, Used - Good and Used - Acceptable based on their condition.  This information is visible to every customer at the time of purchase. 

 

ADVERTISING 

 

Dentsu Aegis Network rebrands creative agencies

 

Dentsu Aegis Network has rebranded three of its creative agencies. Dentsu Communications will now be known as Dentsu India, Dentsu Marcom will now be known as Dentsu One and Dentsu Creative Impact will now be known as Dentsu Impact. There are no changes to Taproot Dentsu and Dentsu Webchutney.

 

Ashish Bhasin, chairman and CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network, India and South Asia, said, that the new nomenclature is ‘a first step towards expanding and reinforcing the global and regional services we provide our clients in India’.

 

IBD bags Morisons Baby Dreams

 

IBD has won the integrated creative mandate for Morisons Baby Dreams following a multi-agency pitch.

 

JL Morison, the parent company has been in the baby care, personal care and healthcare segments for over 80 years. Morisons Baby Dreams, the baby care segment of JL Morison, serves the needs of babies up to two years of age. 

 

Tata Sky turns 10, ropes in Big B to wish consumers

 

Tata Sky completed a decade of operations this month and has rolled out special offers for subscribers to celebrate the same. A film conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather has gone on air to mark the celebrations and attendant offers to existing subscribers. It features Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan.

Harit Nagpal, MD and CEO, Tata Sky, said, “We couldn’t have celebrated this milestone without involving our subscribers, who have been at the core of our journey through the decade. Our celebratory offerings are just our way of conveying to our subscribers that Tata Sky ensures they get the best of world class entertainment viewing in abundance.”

 

MEDIA

 

Mindshare and Culture Machine partner for ‘Content Lab’

 

Mindshare has announced a partnership with Culture Machine to launch ‘Content Lab’ as part of their Content+ division. This gives access to Mindshare’s clients to Culture Machine’s ‘big data content platform Intelligence Machine (IM), and its programmatic content tool Video Machine (VM). The agency will also have access to the Culture Machines’ other offerings.

 

Vh1 and Seagrams 100 Pipers collaborate with Robin Hood Army for Mission 500k

 

This Independence Day, a host of startups, musicians, and the Robin Hood Army, a volunteer-based organisation that works to get surplus food from restaurants to the less fortunate in cities across Pakistan and India, have joined hands for an initiative titled #Mission500k. It will seek to mobilise students, startups, families, and corporate offices to work in concert and serve meals to 5,00,000 less fortunate people on both sides of the border on Independence Day – August 14/ 15 in Pakistan/India respectively. 

 

Startups who have come on board are Uber, Zomato, Snapdeal, Oyo, Grofers, Inshorts, Roposo, InMobi and Pressplay. Music TV channel Vh1 has brought together artistes Farhan Akhtar, Uday Benegal and Vishal Dadlani to create an anthem in support of the initiative: 

Helios Media to handle BTVi’s ad sales

 

Business Broadcast Network’s (BBNPL) has announced that Helios Media will manage ad sales for its channel BTVi. The 24-hour TV channel was rebranded from Bloomberg TV India to BTVi on 1 August 2016, and announced the appointment of Monica Tata as COO shortly thereafter. 

 

MY FM launches in Rajkot

 

After launching in Hisar and Karnal last month, My FM, the radio brand of Dainik Bhaskar group, has launched a station in Rajkot. The launch happened on 7 August and is the third channel from the network in Gujarat after Ahmedabad and Surat.

 

DIGITAL

 

Indigo iStrat bags Bikanervala Foods

 

Indigo iStrat has been appointed as Bikanervala’s digital partner for two of its brands: multi cuisine restaurant cum sweets outlet chain Bikanervala, and packaged snacks brand Bikano. The agency bagged the account following a multi-agency pitch and will handle both digital creative and media duties, besides social media.

 

Mindshift wins Ulric de Varens India’s digital duties

 

French perfume company Ulric de Varens (UDV) has assigned its digital duties to Mindshift Interactive. The brand is currently distributed in India through Baccarose Perfumes and Beauty Products.