Ingersoll Rand, a brand that creates comfortable, sustainable and efficient environments, as part of its corporate social responsibility initiative is providing infrastructure support to Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme and the Aaganwadi centers in urban and semi urban areas of Ahmedabad. At a function held in collaboration with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and Naisargik Trust, Amar Kaul, Territory Vice President and Business Head – India, Middle East and South Africa, Ingersoll Rand distributed cooking gas stoves to Aanganwadi centers. The function was held in Naroda, Ahmedabad. The function was graced by dignitaries like Gautambhai Shah, Mayor, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Pramodaben Sutariya, Deputy Mayor, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Nandaniben Pandya, Chairman ICDS, Rajeshwariben Panchal, Deputy Chairman ICDS, Siddharth Khatri, Deputy Municipal Commissioner North zone, Parag Shah, Assistant Municipal Commissioner North zone , Dr.Bhavin Solanki , Medical Officer of Health , Dr.Bhavin Joshi, Additional Medical Officer of Health, Dr.Bharat Bodat , Programme Officer, from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation; Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and District Administration. Commenting on the Program, Amar Kaul, Territory Vice President and Business Head – India, Middle East and South Africa Ingersoll Rand India said, “As an organization, we continue our commitment as good corporate citizens and believe that advancing the quality of life requires taking an active role in addressing the social issues impacting our company and communities. We believe Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) can play a strong role in creation of social infrastructure and our association with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and Naisargik Trust is a step ahead towards creating social value for economically disadvantaged sections and delivery of quality public services. This partnership also furthers our endeavor to provide healthcare and nutritional facilities to help children and women from disadvantaged backgrounds lead a healthy life”. The joint program rolled out in association with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and Naisargik Trust, will be aimed at children of 0-6 years of age and pregnant and lactating mothers who gather at the Aaganwadi centers for midday meals and other services. Ingersoll Rand India will work closely with Naisargik Trust to provide gas stoves to 665 Aanganwadi centers located in the urban and semi urban areas of Ahmedabad under the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation with the aim to reduce their malnutrition. “We are delighted to collaborate with Ingersoll Rand for this noble project. That will help improve the health status of the beneficiaries and lay a foundation for their psychological and physical development”, shared by Dr. Mayur Joshi, Director, Naisagrik & Udgam Trust. The ICDS Scheme and AMC aims at providing services to pre-school children in an integrated manner to ensure proper growth and development of children in urban slum and slum like areas. The ICDS programme today runs a total of 2046 Aanganwadis in slum and slum like areas and covers 152000 children in Aanganwadis of Ahmedabad urban area. The scheme looks to improve the nutritional and health status of children in age group of 0-6 years. It also lays foundation of proper psychological, physical and social development of the child in order to reduce incidents of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout to achieve effective coordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development. The scheme further enhances the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.
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The conservation and promotion of India’s art and cultural heritage is very close to HCL’s heart. To this end, HCL has been organizing HCL Concerts for over 17 years, dedicated to identifying, evolving and promoting talent rooted in the glorious heritage of Indian classical performing arts. Concerts under the umbrella of HCL Concerts are organized in Delhi NCR and Chennai across various venues every month throughout the year. These concerts are free to attend and are enriched by the presence of luminaries in the field of Indian classical performing arts. Over the years, HCL Concerts has evolved into a unique platform for the exceptionally talented veterans as well as upcoming artists – be it dancers, vocalists or instrumentalists. Over 350+ artists have graced this platform and have contributed towards reinvigorating the Indian classical performing arts. While there have been spellbinding performances by legends such as Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, HCL Concerts has also provided a platform for the rare genres of performing arts like Dhrupad, Rudra Veena and Gaudiya Nritya to name a few. Ravi Iyer is a unique guitar mentor, composer and one of the most respected guitar players in the independent music industry. He began his musical journey by learning the tabla during his childhood and later in his teens took up the guitar, and there’s been no looking back since then. It has been over 3 decades that he has given countless live performances with his earlier rock bands. He has released 4 albums in the rock / fusion genres, currently tours with his World Fusion Project across India & internationally, plays as a guitar player for live concerts / studio sessions and scores music for commercial projects. He has performed with some of the biggest names in the fusion music genre like Dr. L Subramaniam, Ustad Fazal Qureshi, Padma Bhushan Shri Vikku Vinayakram, Shri Sivamani and Pandit Ravi Chary. Venue: The Apparel House, Epicentre, Gurgaon Day and Time: 4th March, 7p.m. onwards
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Dabur Vatika, the personal care brand from the house of Dabur, worked towards safeguarding the dignity of women at the Magh Mela this year by setting up safe changing rooms for women pilgrims at three Ganga Ghats at the mela, also known as the Mini Kumbh. Dabur Vatika Shampoo installed the changing rooms to safeguard the dignity of women at the pilgrimage and to give them a safe and secure place to change. To connect with women pilgrims and direct them to these Dabur Vatika Changing Rooms, female volunteers were positioned at different locations at the ghats. A volunteer was also placed near the changing room, offering women Dabur Vatika shampoo sachets. Ms. Tiny Sengupta, Category Head – Shampoos & Post Wash, said, “Every year, millions of pilgrims visit the various Ghats during such melas. At such places, women usually face difficulty in finding an enclosed place for changing clothes. Dabur Vatika, as a brand, has always stood for women’s dignity and this initiative was planned to provide the comfort and convenience to women pilgrims and help safeguard their dignity and their privacy. These Changing Rooms were equipped with a mirror, combs, lights, table and a chair.” Commenting on the association Mr. Vineet Mittal, Business Head – Rural, 92.7 BIG FM said, “We are extremely glad to announce our association with Dabur during this year’s Magh Mela. We have been associated with Dabur for over three years now creating success stories with initiatives like Hajmola Chatpata No.1, BIG Junior RJ and Mele ka BIG Star. With this tie-up, we are extending our support to this unique initiative and contributing towards safeguarding women’s safety and convenience at a touch point with relevance”.
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Healthy feels awesome and can be hard to achieve, but one step at a time and you’re still ahead of the ones on the couch. Exercise is therapeutic – it helps not just one’s body but also one’s mind. It gets the good hormones pumping, the sweat flowing and your whole-being glowing. You don’t have to train for a marathon or get 6-pack abs or even try to be size zero to show off you’re fit, fitness just means something you do today for which you’d be thankful tomorrow! In an attempt to stimulate this ‘stay healthy’ attitude in people, Time of Sports has recently launched their new intellectual property called the Indian Fitness Festival. Mr. Yashraj Singh, the Founder & CEO of Time Of Sports tells us that after running many a marathons to check how far you can run, racing on cycles, climbing mountains and trekking, here is the chance to prove how fit you are! A feather in Delhi’s cap, and targeting age groups from 7 to 70, the one day fitness festival inviting people from all walks of life to participate and enjoy different levels of fitness and fun!! “In its first chapter, with the theme of fitness and dividing all activities under Showcase, Fitlympics and Funzone, the event is here to make people sweat it out and bring out the fittest best in them!”-he adds. Commenting further Vishesh Sehgal, Head of Events at Time Of Sports elaborates, “the festival aims to go beyond the trend and towards a revolution. Time Of Sports wants to take forward the spirit of fitness in every home, make anyone and everyone get fit, make them go the extra mile for a fitter lifestyle and want to make people aware about healthy living!” Also, for the first time ever, giving an Olympic like experience to the city, the festival seeks to celebrate sports than just promote fitness. In a land of so many lost sports and so much talent that is still untapped, the festival ensures there is something for everyone! And what’s more! There is also a kid’s getaway to fitness! Offering compelling reasons for parents to encourage their kids at the KidsZone, parents and hosts alike appreciate the wide range of sports and activities introduced to young minds and bodies. In most cases, children receive their own equipment, and everything is age appropriate, so everyone stays involved and safe at all times! The event would be held in a world-class venue in the capital, that will surely add to the fun and the fervor needed in the event! And afterwards, groove to pulsating music, get some awesome food, participate in unique contests and fun activities and much more. More details about the Indian Fitness Festival will be released shortly.
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Gap, the classic American casual wear brand, is all set to arrive in Mumbai in true Mumbaikar style. Gap worked with Mumbai’s iconic dabbawalas to deliver a dabba to say #helloMumbai to some of the city’s most influential names, and personalities. Carrying branded dabbas, the dabbawalas made their way through the streets of the city to a wide section of influencers at their doorsteps. The dabbas had an invite to the Gap store launch along with an iconic Gap logo tee for the recipient. Kicking up a social storm, Gap’s Dabbawala activity has got Mumbaikars such as Ranveer Singh, Nishika Lulla, Anushka Manchanda, Shibani Dandekar, Karan Patel, Krystle D’Souza and Karanvir Bohra super excited about the store opening. The activity has resulted in almost 1,000 posts on Instagram & Twitter alone which garnered over 7.2 million impressions, in just 4 days. While Mumbaikars eagerly await the launch of Gap in their city, watch and enjoy this video showcasing the Dabbawala campaign: https://www.facebook.com/GapIndia/1714099955526871 The campaign has been executed by Toast Events
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Raising the bar of philanthropy, the eighth edition of the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon (ADHM) has surpassed all previous records to raise a total of INR 7.26 crores towards charity. This is a significant increase of almost 100% from last year and the highest ever funds raised in the history of ADHM, since the inception of the event in 2005. In only its second year of association, India Cares Foundation, the Philanthropy Partner through the combined efforts of Procam and the NGOs, the donors and the participants, along with the citizens of Delhi have responded magnanimously. With this contribution, the event has firmly placed itself as one that combines the spirit of sportsmanship with that of social empowerment. 70 companies, 110 corporate teams and 7008 individuals supporting over 100 NGOs, came forward to bring about a positive change and impact the lives of many. The philanthropic drive associated with all Procam International distance running events has one significant factor – transparency. Every year a docket is released which has all the facts of funds raised through the event, including featuring fundraising NGOs, individuals and companies. Shri Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi and Chief Patron of Airtel Delhi Half Marathon earlier speaking at the unveiling of Charity Docket, said “It was a privilege to be part of the Airtel delhi half marathon and it was heartening to see the spirit of the youth on that day. I am very happy that the event has raised record amount of money for charity. Coming from the NGO sector myself, I know how difficult it is to raise funds. It’s great to see ADHM is providing a good and transparent platform for NGOs raise funds. I would like to congratulate the NGOs for their great work and best of the luck for the next edition of ADHM”. Speaking on the occasion, Murray Culshaw, Chairman and Founder, India Cares Foundation, said, “India Cares is extremely pleased with the connect, engagement and response of the people of Delhi & NCR region towards the participating NGOs of the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2015. This platform is certainly increasing the confidence of individuals and companies to support a wide range of causes, which resulted in a record amount being raised this year.” An interesting aspect of the event is the Youth Cares category, which is aimed at encouraging young philanthropist and instills the act of giving from an early age. A Youth Cares team comprises of individuals/students in the age group of 12 years to 21 who commit to raise a minimum of INR 50,000 thousand as a team, through pledges for a charity or cause of their choice. The Youth Cares teams at ADHM have collectively raised INR 23,77,250 lakhs benefitting 5 NGOs. The funds raised by the runners will champion the causes of social service, youth vocational training, women and child empowerment, environment and animal welfare and many others. The spirit of philanthropy of the event lived up to and exceeded the standards set by preceding events organized by the proponents on Indian running, Procam International. In his concluding remarks, Vivek B Singh, Joint MD of Procam International, said, “The amounts raised for charity through the half marathon have increased tremendously and this year we have managed to break all records with a 100% increase in the funds contributed. The fact that the event has been able to make such a remarkable impact on society, year after year, is a testament to its ability to bring together the masses in support of various causes. This success would not have been possible without the support of the Delhi Government, city authorities, sponsors, our well-wishers and the runners who help make our dreams for this run a reality, every year.”
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Social media is a revolution and no one can deny its importance and impact especially among the youth bracket across the globe. Not only has the process of being virtually present changed the dynamics of human communication from its core but it has also completely revamped how TG of different brands now voice their opinions about it. As a result, more marketing spends by brands are seen shifting from traditional marketing mediums to online and digital engagement platforms. Events and activations are being organized in large numbers by brands across all categories today and all of them are aggressively trying to milk the benefits of social media by actively integrating it into it. But a lot of the times due to lack of innovation or knowledge social media marketers are not truly able to capitalize on its benefit and as a result they are left with half baked social media impressions for their events and experiences. In this regard, music festivals have a lot to teach social media marketers about using Twitter and YouTube to promote and leverage on attendee experience for events. To help extract some of these lessons, we looked at 4 major music festivals Supersonic, Sunburn, Coachella and Tomorrowland as we decode how do they use Twitter for live event impressions, Youtube as a pre and post cursor for the event and Facebook for amplification and extending event invitations. How do they use Twitter to ensure their event runs smoothly? How do they use YouTube for advertising?And how can they leverage Twitter engagement to identify the emotions their fans expressed before, during, and after the event? Youtube Before you begin to extend invitations, sell tickets or try to hard sell your event, creating a video of what your event is going to be like is a must. It is the basic human nature that it responds better to audio visual mediums rather than just fancy texts. Hence, if you want to generate a pre-event buzz than an event video on Youtube is a must to have your target audience hooked. All 4 music festivals mentioned have used videos as an active part of their marketing efforts and the results have paid off hugely for them. As an example, Tomorrowland, got 37.4 million views and over 250,000 likes on their promotional video, as of this posting. That’s 10X as many views as Sziget, Coachella, EDC, EXIT, Lollapalooza, and Bonnaroo combined. Suburn ’15 released not only a precursor video for their festival but they also released at least 1 video for every single day of the event in progress as a result of which organizers were able to draw large crowds till the very last minute of the event. They released an early bird teaser, artist interaction videos and so much more as a result of which the 2015th edition of the festival managed to draw in their highest footfall ever. TWITTER A lot of times people feel that Twitter and Facebook are pretty similar to each other and the only difference between them is that one allows only 140 character space updates while the other allows you to post longer status. What brands and social media executives do not understand is that Twitter is one of the best avenues for broadcasting constant and timely information about practicalities while Facebook is a connecting tool for people mainly and constant information flow is not its asset. Music festivals like Coachella and VH1 Supersonic have realized this important fact and lets have a look at how have they used twitter during their events. nikhil chinapa As seen not only have the event organizers used Twitter to share logistical information but they have also used it to live share the tweets of streaming sites and also to share the latest updates from ground zero. It is also important to note that these music festivals have a separate social media team that keeps the audience engaged and engrossed throughout the event by live replying to their tweets and also sharing the highlights and activation zone details as soon as they occur. In an interesting example Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas wasn’t monitoring their Twitter feeds as a result of which huge chaos regarding the festival spread on social media and many prospective attendees of the festival did not attend the festival as a last minute decision. It has to be remembered that social media has a thriving pulse which should not be neglected. You should not have a social media strategy if you cannot follow it through as a half baked will do more bad for the brand or event. HASHTAGS Many event organizers have very little idea if their event is being talked about or not because they create twitter and facebook handles for their event and feel if someone has to mention their event name is a discussion they would tag the same. Event marketers should understand that creating a unique hashtag for your event is utmost essential to see the live impressions your event is creating on the internet. Facebook understood the importance of hashtags and hence introduced the technology as a result of which all major music festivals engage in live discussions with fans through the one unique hashtag. While creating a hashtag it is important to ensure that it is unique and not related to any other personality, brand or event. It is also integral to float the hashtag much before the event so that the audiences has a clear idea of it and can use it to connect with fellow fans and organizers whenever they want. So as you can see each music festival has a system of using social media for its benefit and their crystal clear strategy of how are they going to use social media and online before they actually begin using it plays a key role in their success. Much like these festivals, event organizers and brand marketers too should keep the above takeaways in mind and create an all encompassing social media strategy for themselves.
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Mrs. India Dubai International got three beautiful women crowned on 19th February at Le Meridian, Dubai. It was a beauty contest unique in the world of pageantry, a family-oriented competition, designed to promote today’s married women, their accomplishments, and commitment to the family and their marriage. Produced by Carnival Media the show also provided an opportunity to showcase the contestants their fashion style, as well as offered them the chance to share their values during the week of activities leading up to the event. The Mrs. International series began 24 years ago, in Atlanta, Georgia, US. It was developed under higher standards than other pageant systems, with the aim to showcase women aged 21 to 56 years, who are married at least six months and a resident of the state or a citizen of the country they represent. The contest is separated into three rounds. The first is the Interview Competition, which contributes 50% of the contestant’s overall score. Next is the Evening Gown round, valued at 25%, in which candidates are accompanied by their husbands. The remaining 25% is attributed to a Fitness Wear contest. Each contestant has the opportunity to select a cause of her choice that she has spent the year promoting. In keeping with the family spirit of the pageant, the winner got crowned by her husband. The winners of Mrs India Dubai internal 2016, 2nd Runner up Shweta Domingo, 1st Runner up Priya Jethani and Mrs India Dubai International 2016 winner Is Priyanka Mehrotra. The winners were appreciative for receiving the significant award which boosts their confidence and inspiration to realize their dreams and the chance to become Mrs India Dubai International 2016. Since it was an family oriented talent show, their kids too were overwhelmed seeing their mommys at the stage. The show featured celebrity judges such as Bollywood Actress and now producer, also winner of Asia Pacific Dia Mirza, Gagan Sharma, Director Carnival Group, Fashion entrepreneur and Designer Manali Jagtap, TV Actress and also one of the Miss Dubai finalist Sukirti Kandpal and Radio host Tarun. “The Mrs India International series is about empowering married women and giving them a platform to promote the things they care about – everything from the family to health and fashion,” – Gagan Sharma, Director (Carnival Group).
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