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Perfetti Van Melle India has appointed Isobar, Aegis Media Group's digital marketing agency to handle the re-launch of its corporate website – www.perfettivanmelle.in.  The idea is to give the website a more youthful, informative and interactive interface, and provide significant details on the company and the brands in its portfolio like Alpenliebe, Mentos, Chlormint, Happydent, Mentos, Big Babol, Center Fresh and others. Additionally, Isobar will also manage the social media duties for the brand. Sameer Suneja, MD, Perfetti Van Melle India commented, “The online medium is one of the most frequent places that people go to both for seeking and sharing information. Giving appropriate information and providing a platform for conversations on our brands is important. We felt Isobar was the right partner for this very important project of creating and managing our digital identity.” “We are very pleased to welcome Perfetti to the Aegis Media India fam

Bates141 has created a new TVC for the new Fiat Punto 93 hp. The TVC for the new 93 hp Fiat Punto opens with a shot in the basement parking where three thieves are shown trying to open the Punto. Out of the three one is at work (trying to open the Punto), while the other two are waiting for him to open it. After this the owner of the car is shown approaching the car. Seeing this the other two back off and run away. The owner gets to the car and instead of showing anger, asks the thief if needs help in opening the car. He goes on to show the car off to the thief by showing him the unique features of the car. He then makes the thief sit next to him and takes him for a drive around the parking lot during which he introduces him to the Blu & Me techonolgy present in the Punto, by calling the cops on his phone and playing it on loudspeaker via the speakers present in the car. The TVC is produced by Bang Bang Films and directed by Nic and Sune. Roopak Saluja, mana

Mutual Fund player DSP BlackRock has decided to split its creative business between Lowe and Taproot India. JWT is the incumbent on the brand. Talking about the decision to split the creative mandate between Lowe and Taproot India, a company spokesperson told Campaign India, "It seemed like it was time to look at a fresh perspective on the brand. So we invited six agencies to take part in the pitch, that included the incumbent JWT. The ideas that Lowe and Taproot presented seemed more in line with the communication objectives that we have set out for the brand."

Onads has won the creative mandate for Indiabulls Securities, one of the largest stock brokerage firms in the country. Talking to Campaign India, Jignesh Maniar, co-founder, Onads said, "We presented a new way to look at the category, which appealed to the client.  Our understanding of the category, coupled with the creative execution that we presented was what worked in our favour." The agency is currently working on a new campaign for the brand, which should break in October this year, and will include television, print, outdoor and radio.

AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes will join David Jones, global CEO of Havas Worldwide and Euro RSCG Worldwide, at Spikes Asia for an unmissable start to the seminar programme. Admired for his innovative ideas and flair for growing businesses, Fernandes is often cited as Asia’s answer to Richard Branson. In a session called 'Making a difference', Fernandes joins Jones to discuss how creative and business communities in Asia can effect positive change and why doing good is ultimately good for business. They will also talk about the importance of activating young people globally. Each of the six jury chairs will also address delegates in a president's addr ess. The jury chairs include BBDO's David Lubars, R/GA's Bob Greenberg, AKQA's Rei Inamoto, Arc's Bill Rosen, Dentsu's Akira Kagami and Naked founder Jon Wilkins. Akira Kagami, executive advisor and global executive creative advisor of Dentsu, has been confirmed to be presen

Leo Burnett Group has appointed Kalyan Ram Challapalli as account planning director in Singapore. Challapalli was most recently with TBWA India where he was the planning head for the Mumbai office and the national head of Disruption in India.    With experience on both the agency and client sides, Challapalli also had a stint with Diageo before joining JWT (Contract) India as a planning director.   In his new role at Leo Burnett, Challapalli will report to Saurabh Varma, chief strategy officer in Singapore. His duties will cover UOB among other account

LinOpinion, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Aloft, Four Points by Sheraton Hotels, account win, public relations news, news, Kavita Lakhani, social media LinOpinion has been appointed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., as its communications partner for Aloft Hotels and Four Points by Sheraton Hotels in India. Starwood currently has 26 hotels in its India portfolio under the Aloft, Westin, Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, Luxury Collection and Le Méridien brands. Aimed at Generation Y, Aloft is "Starwood’s design-led, social-experience hotel brand", according to an agency release. Aloft began its operations in India this year with two properties in Chennai and Bangalore.Four Points by Sheraton has two properties operational in Navi Mumbai and Jaipur. Plans include the launch of two more properties in Pune and Vishakhapatnam in October this year. Commenting on the appointment, Kavita Lakhani, president, LinOpinion, said, “The Sta

The TBWA\Ignitee combine has bagged two new digital assignments for Visa and Style Spa. Shiv Sethuraman, group chief executive officer, TBWA India, said, “I am pleased at the start we have made. We were confident we had found the right model to take to market and it is nice to see this belief being validated by clients." Atul Hegde, chief executive officer, Ignitee, said, “This is a great start to our partnership. We now look forward to jointly creating some great work for these brands. Must say I'm very impressed to see the TBWA\ team investing so much time in educating their clients on the opportunities the digital landscape offers to brands. This will lead into many more such success for our combine."      

Law & Kenneth has brought in Anbu Chezhian to be their Chennai branch director. Prior to this assignment, Chezhian was client servicing director at Interface Communications in Chennai. Chezhian was with Law & Kenneth in an earlier stint, and Anil Nair, chief executive officer and managing partner at the agency, is happy to have him back on board and behind the wheel of the newly-won Renault business. “What we’ve seen is, even when Anbu was at FCB, his strength is the ability to build very deep client relationships. It is this reputation that we hope he will bring to Renault,” he said. The Chennai office will be set up with Renault being its largest account as of now; Nair said expansion plans will be in the offing soon. Chezhian said, “Right from seeing the office space to setting it up and getting the right team, it’s got the challenge of a start-up. I need to do all kinds of work and get my hands dirty, which is quite exciting.”

Condé Nast publication GQ has launched its online portal and a dedicated application for BlackBerry smartphones. GQ India’s online portal GQindia.com will carry daily stories, news, videos, polls and blogs targeted at the affluent Indian man. Additionally, available on all BlackBerry models, the GQ application for BlackBerry smartphones will offer customised content based on the user’s choice between ‘perfect guy’, ‘bachelor boy’, ‘doting father’ or ‘married but game’. Each section will feature content, tips and fashion advice. The application can be downloaded for free from BlackBerry App World and also at app.GQIndia.com Alex Kuruvilla, managing director, Condé Nast India, commented “The GQ Blackberry application launch is an important milestone for us and an exciting one as this is a world-first from India. The GQ BB app together with the website and the magazine makes GQ a powerful multi-platform brand, the only one of its kind in the affluent men’s

Mumbai PepsiCo India has launched their newest brand of cola, 'Pepsi Max' in India. For the launch of this soft drink, JWT's Delhi office has conceptualised a new TVC. Positioned as the drink that provides extra fizz with no sugar, the tagline used in the new campaign is 'Maximum Kick, No Sugar'. The Indian TVC is an adaptation of the Pepsi Max TVC aired internationally. The “Interview” is set in an office where one of the candidates being interviewed suddenly behaves in an erratic and unexpected manner proclaiming he is being tortured by the boss interviewing him. His situation as he exits the boss’ office petrifies the other hopeful candidates and convinces them to leave the office premises. One candidate remains seated who is still waiting to be interviewed and given the lack of competition gets selected. His friend had masterminded the whole interview situation to eliminate the competition and help him secure the job. The TVC ends

TBWA has won the creative duties for online portal, Yatra.com following a multi-agency pitch. Prior to TBWA the Delhi office for Rediffusion Y&R handled the account. Commenting on the win, Nirmalya Sen, managing director, TBWA India, said, "We are delighted to get this opportunity to help strengthen brand Yatra.com. To grow exponentially you need to look beyond the sameness in a category and think disruptively. And that is perhaps more true of this category than any other. We are looking forward to using Disruption and Media Arts to help take the brand and the category beyond just online ticketing to the rich space of travel." Pratik Mazumder, head marketing & strategic relations, Yatra.com, added, "We were looking for a partner who would think out of the box and in TBWA we saw a partner whose disruptive thinking and creative approach will leverage Yatra.com as a brand and create differentiated propositions and value in the clutter

Studio18, the film production and distribution arm of Viacom18, has announced the appointment of Vikram Malhotra as their chief operating officer. He will be responsible for driving growth and profitability at Studio18. Malhotra joins Studio18 from Balaji Telefilms, where as the chief operating officer, he was responsible for the business strategy and profitable growth of their motion pictures business. Prior to that, he was the head of worldwide marketing of Kingfisher Airlines.

Anuja Chauhan, executive creative director and VP, JWT has put in her papers at the agency. It is learnt that Chauhan, who has been associated with the WPP agency since almost the beginning of her advertising career, had been contemplating the move for quite sometime but had been persuaded to stay back until now. Chauhan was not available for comment while filing this story, but sources close to the development have confirmed the move. Chauhan joined JWT Delhi as a copy trainee in 1993, after beginning her advertising career with RK Swamy BBDO as a copy trainee. Chauhan has been behind some of the most memorable campaigns for Pepsi, including the 'Nothing official about it' campaign, 'Oye Bubbly,' 'Ye dil maange more' and 'Mera number kab aayega' among others. It is not known where Chauhan is headed. Updates to follow.

Criesse Communications, a public relations and brand strategy firm, has been appointed as PR counsel to FranklinCovey South Asia (FCSA). FranklinCovey is a firm that helps companies grow by increasing the power of their workforce to focus in executing their business priorities. Their clients includeFortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies. The account will be handled by Dennis Taraporewala (pictured) and his team. Criesse has been in India for close to 5 years now and has a client list that includes Mid-Day, o2 Vodka, Alcatel and Radio One. Commenting on the development, Dennis Taraporewala, director, Criesse Communications, said, “It’s an honour to be charged with the responsibility for representing such a stellar international brand such as Franklin Covey. Criesse believes in delivering effective communication strategies firmly rooted in the brand. Our growth is purely based on word of mouth recommendations from happy clients, and is a testament to the ser

Airtel digital TV, the direct-to-home (DTH) service from Bharti Airtel, has added five new channels to its bouquet, taking its total tally to 215. The new channels include PTC Chakde (Punjabi music), Zee 24 Taas (Marathi news), Saam TV (Marathi general entertainment), Zee Chattisgarh (Hindi news) and Zee Classic (Hindi movie). The DTH company has also added National Geographic channel’s Telugu feed to its offering. Bharti Airtel CMO – DTH Sugato Banerji said, “The latest additions to our channel portfolio are part of our endeavour to incorporate customer preferences across genres and categories. One of the key reasons for Airtel digital TV’s proliferation into the mass markets has been our focus on localisation-entertainment for customers in their favourite language, genre. ‘My Entertainment in My Language’ is a proposition that is helping us establish the richness, width of our offerings in TV households that look forward to a blend of national and regional content in any part o

The augmentation of the capacity of the country’s only free direct-to-home platform DD Direct Plus to 97 channels will cost Rs 554.3 million. The augmentation in the first phase will be completed on 31 March 2011. The plan is to increase DD Direct Plus’ capacity to 200 by the end of the financial year 2011-12. The platform currently has a capacity of 59 channels while it presently beams 57 TV channels, apart from 21 channels of All India Radio. The TV channels include 21 Doordarshan channels. Earlier, Doordarshan Director General Aruna Sharma told indiantelevision.com that DD was just awaiting the clearance as it was ready with the infrastructure. DD sources told indiantelevision.com that around 90 television channels by 82 applicants are in the queue for being uploaded on DD Direct Plus. These include some foreign channels. The oldest of these applications was made on 7 March 2007 while the latest was made on 12 April this year. Apart from many other channels, some of th

MUMBAI: Reliance Big TV, the direct-to-home (DTH) service provider inder Reliance Communications, has announced a new festival offer for its high-definition (HD) cum advanced digital video recorder (DVR) product. In the new offer, Big TV HD is now available for Rs 4990, while the existing subscribers have to shell out Rs 4490 for the service. In May, the new service was launched for Rs 7,490. Big TV Sr VP Umesh Rao said, “At Big TV we always believe in giving exceptional value to our consumers. This festive season too, we plan to add that extra joy by offering India’s first high definition cum advanced digital video recorder at a special price of Rs 4990.” Big TV is also offering Star Plus and Nat Geo in HD for Rs 50 + taxes per month. Source: Indiantelevision.com

Iran took its case against the United States to the United Nations on Wednesday and strongly condemned the top U.S. military chief for saying military action remains a possibility if the country develops nuclear weapons. Iran's acting U.N. ambassador Eshagh Alehabib claimed in letters circulated to the secretary-general and presidents of the Security Council and General Assembly that Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other U.S. officials and lawmakers "threatened" to use military action under the "totally false" pretense that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Mullen said earlier this month that the U.S. military has a plan to attack Iran, although he thinks a military strike is probably a bad idea. Still, he said the risk of Iran developing a nuclear weapon is unacceptable and he reiterated that "the military option" remains on the table. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Wednesday that Iran

Britannia Tiger's new TVC, created by Lowe Lintas, finds a link between the biscuits and the progress of the nation. The ad features a school assembly where a politician is giving a speech on how kids are the future of the nation and can make it the "Tiger of the world". Hunger gets the better of a little kid, and he takes a packet of Britannia Tiger biscuits out of his pocket and starts to distribute it. When his teacher catches him, he demands loudly, "Khali pet se India tiger kaise banega [How will India become a tiger on an empty stomach]?" The politician agrees as the kid's voiceover extols the nutritional benefits of the biscuits. At the end, the kid asks the leader who India should beat - America or China. The politician then declares, "Ab India banega Tiger [Now India will become a tiger]." R Balakrishnan, chairman and chief creative officer of Lowe Lintas, said, "The message in the TVC is a simple one of 'If

A year after Scotland's release of the terminally ill Lockerbie bomber caused an uproar, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi is still stirring outrage simply by surviving. Loved ones of those killed in the 1988 jetliner bombing, who were told he would likely die within three months, feel betrayed. U.S. lawmakers are investigating whether oil giant BP pushed for his release from prison to get Libya's oil and are assailing Scotland for freeing him. Lockerbie is the wound that time can't seem to heal for almost everyone involved in the case. And with the anniversary Friday of al-Megrahi's release, the case is once again the window through which Libya is viewed. The North African nation, for years a pariah state under U.N. and U.S. sanctions for sponsoring terrorism, now seems to have nowhere to go but up — and is quietly rebuilding after decades of isolation. The circumstances surrounding al-Megrahi's release have "reinforced an idea that Libya is still somehow a place tha

WikiLeaks moved its servers from the U.S. to Sweden in 2007 to take advantage of laws protecting whistleblowers and a culture supportive of online mavericks. Sweden's support for Internet freedom has made it a base for cyberactivists ranging from a Chechen rebel site to the file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay. But even here, WikiLeaks may not be home free. The self-styled whistleblower, which has angered Washington by publishing leaked documents about U.S. military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, could present a strong test of how far Sweden is prepared to go to defend its freedom of expression. Swedish laws allow prosecutors to intervene against publication of material deemed harmful to national security. It's unclear whether that could also include the security of a friendly nation. The U.S. argues the secret documents risks the lives of coalition forces and Afghans helping them. Another question is whether there is political will in Sweden to go after WikiLeaks. The sit