Cheil India, already one of India’s Top 5 advertising and marketing communications agencies, has been growing its business aggressively over recent months. Closely following a number of business wins (including mandates for brands such as Timex and adidas) and a string of awards at creative festivals, Cheil has just been named as the Creative Agency on Record by health insurance giant Apollo Munich. The account, which was most recently with JWT India, was awarded to Cheil after a multi-agency pitch. Commenting on the development, Shiv Sethuraman, Cheil’s Group President for South-West Asia stated: “I am absolutely delighted to share that we will be partnering Apollo Munich as their communication agency.They are one of the most trusted and respected companies in the financial services industry. Cheil India has been on a hot-streak and we’ve been gathering momentum over the past few months. We look forward to creating some truly inspired and creative work for the brand in the days ahead.” Added Kundan Joshee, Senior Vice President-Integrated Services at Cheil India: “We are extremely excited about working on Apollo Munich. This win allows us, as their creative partners, a lot of scope to create powerful and compelling brand communication. We are also putting together an integrated team structure for Apollo Munich that will enable us to create effective solutions that work across and beyond the conventional boundaries of medium. ” The agency will be servicing the account from its South-West Asia regional headquarters in Gurgaon. They will be assembling an integrated team with specialists from ATL, Digital, Social along with Strategic Planning to provide the brand with effective solutions.
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The entry process for EEMAX Global 2015 awards are now open at http://www.eemaxglobal.com/ as EEMA through EEMAX Global aims to celebrate and honor the best events and experiential marketing projects from India and around the world. Interestingly, for the first time, entry for EEMAX Global 2015 are open to both EEMA and non-EEMA members from across the globe and applications are expected from agencies in India, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and USA. In the latest development for EEMAX Global 2015, Sabbas Joseph, President EEMA, shared the winner determination process for the honor. The process will involve processing the award entries through: Shortlisting byScreening Jury headed by Michael Menezes, EEMA – Patron and including domain experts from amongst the EEMA NEC. Voting by the International Jury of Experts(weightage 75% of voting to determine winners from the shortlist) Voting by Jury of Peers (weightage 25% of voting to determine winners from the shortlist) The winner determination process will choose the winners in 27 categories that span entertainment events, social events, sporting events, weddings, exhibitions, digital marketing, CSR initiatives and government events. The EEMA NEC would adjudicate over entries for Education Programs in India. Jury mentoring duties will be fulfilled by EEMA NEC members, Sameer Tobaccowalla, Atul Nath and Sushma Gaikwad and hence the agencies led by them will not be participating in the EEMAX GLOBAL The rates for the application process are mentioned below. It is to be noted that the timelines set by the Awards Management Team are sacrosanct. Members Non-members Opening of entries 10 August 2015 10 August 2015 Early bird submissions for awards before EOD 17 Aug 2015 Rs. 5700 Rs. 8550 Closing of entries 25 August 2015 25 August 2015 Entry fee for awards between 18 – 25 Aug 2015 Rs. 6840 Rs. 9690 The EEMAX GLOBAL Awards are scheduled for 20 September 2015 at the Taj Lands End Mumbai, India and would be preceded by the EEMAX GLOBAL Conclave on Sept 19th and 20th at the same venue. The participation fee details to attend the event/s in the table below: Members Non-members Early bird participation fee for the full day – before 25 Aug 2015 Rs. 7000 Rs. 10000 Early bird participation fee for the award night – before 25 Aug 2015 Rs. 4000 Rs. 6000 Participation fee for the full day – after 25 Aug 2015 Rs. 8500 Rs. 12000 Participation fee for the award night – after 25 Aug 2015 Rs. 5000 Rs. 7500 To know about EEMAX Global award categories-http://everythingexperiential.com/eemax-global-2015-announces-award-categories-calls-for-entries/ If you have any suggestions, recommendations or concerns, connect with priya@eemaindia.com orsunil.mehra@eemaindia.com
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Rashi Entertainment emerged as a winner in the multi agency pitch & bid process by Delhi Tourism & Transportation Development Corporation to win the rights to conceptualize, execute & manage Swaraj Parv in Delhi from 14th – 16th Aug 2015 at Central Park, Connaught Place. Swaraj Parv will be a celebration of the 69th year of India’s independence and aims to capture masses with multifold cultural programs throughout the day and wide array of entertainment in the evening. The event will be inaugurated on the 14th Aug by the Hon’ble minister of Law, Arts & Culture Sri Kapil Mishra & chaired by Hon’ble Chief Minister of Delhi, Sri. Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Sri. Manish Sisodia. Entertainment during the day will comprise of Kavi Sammelan, Bands & DJ while the evening capsule will have artists like Sonu Niigaam/ Sunidhi Chauhan, Ghazal Mushayra’s etc. Speaking about bagging the prestigious event, Rajeev Jain, Director, Rashi Entertainment says, “There is indeed a feeling of euphoria and pride in the team. Our pitch was driven by concept & creativity which set us apart from our co bidders” Speaking about the Logistics, he further elaborated “The logistical intervention required for an event of such a scale is put in perspective when you consider that we are expecting a footfall of about 2,00,000 people and an area of 5,00,000 Sq. ft. is to be fabricated on the theme of ‘Independence Struggle’ of India. All aspects of this event are being managed and executed by Rashi Entertainment, right from planning and celebrities to venue management, F&B and other logistics.
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Beach activations are a sure shot way to create memorable experiences for any brand. Just think about it, people are in a good mood, they want to loosen up and unwind with a lively attitude and any brand that will help its prospective customers achieve that is going to be a winner at the end of the day. However the difficulty of successfully carrying out a beach activation lies in its execution. The challenges range from sudden downpour, licensing hassles to the last minute constraints that just crop up out of nowhere. Hence, to help all our readers’ better plan and execute a beach activation the next time, we at EE are listing down 4 handy hacks to help you better execute beach activations. 1-Plan ahead of time Most beach activations require a variety of permits ranging from security licenses to beach clearance clauses. Thus, it is always better to plan your beach activation much ahead of its time and comply with all the government legalities. In case you are not getting all the licenses for a particular activity, the advance planning will help you in tweaking your beach activity accordingly to fit the bill. Because let’s face it last minute battle against the government authorities is every event organizers nightmare. 2- Use beach as a backdrop Beach activations not necessarily mean a longer and more exhausting sampling process. Beaches can also be used as experiential touch points to create good creative set ups to attract the audiences. A beverage brand can create a convertible party area for people on the beach while a technology driven brand can try creating a social media booth with live streaming and add a technical element to elevate ordinary beach games. With beach at the backdrop and the added advantage of the audience in good mood, there is nothing that a brand cannot achieve. 3-Use minimum to create the maximum impact A reason why most beach activations in India have failed miserably is because the brand marketers of the country believe in the philosophy of bigger is better. They insist on creating larger than life experience for their prospective customers even on beaches. However, marketers need to understand that on a beach the best experience that you can make available to your target group is one that involves the minimum of elements. Very few consumers want a beach to be turned into a discotheque today, if they wanted a discotheque, they could have gone one instead. A successful beach activation should aim at elevating the beach experience of the customers and not manipulating or fabricating it. 4-Flexible concept Though beach as an experiential venue offers a lot of creative opportunities for event planners to play around with but it is always better to have a flexible concept while designing a beach activation. It also very important that elements of the overall activation are tangible, waterproof and mobile so that incase of any contingency they can be moved or relocated. Having flexible concepts are always better as they can be tweaked according to ones need on a beach otherwise in the absence or failure of any of the elements the overall concept of the execution might just fall apart.
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Automobile brands thrive on selling experiences. While some brands in the market sell themselves by offering their prospective customers dreamy experiences that they will have, a majority others market themselves by offering free test drives. And even though the last two decades have noticed a phenomenal shift in the innovations seen on the technological front of the automobiles, what has remained unchanged all these years is the same marketing strategy of offering free test drives. It is indeed true that almost all automobile brands follow the same marketing strategy these days. They invest heavily in ATL campaigns but when it comes to BTL engagements the only options available are either mall activations or test drives. What brand marketers of the industry do not realize today is the fact that since all brands follow the same strategy to cater to the same target audiences; they are not even giving their brands a reason to stand out differently from their competition. Thus it is high time that automobile brand marketers do away with the conventional test drive experience offering and rather innovate on the BTL front to spell success and establish a distinguished identity for their brands. Citing an example from a truly immersive and successful automobile engagement, In New York in 2011, Fiat hosted an event to reintroduce its brand in America after nearly three decades. The brand hosted a pop-up gallery during the New York International Auto Show, and then, months later, the car maker organized a large consumer campaign that brought a fleet of cars to Times Square and used an enormous screen to create an urban drive-in movie experience. The concept for the activation combined American culture of theaters and Times Square and the campaign was a huge success and brought Fiat as a brand back in the minds and hearts of consumers. Similarly, in 2013, Lincoln Motor Company hosted an 11-city Hello Again marketing tour centered on its new product MKZ. The program included a series of experiences for drivers to see their home cities from behind the wheel of the cars. In each city, guests signed up online for a tour time, then checked in at a venue known as the Hello Again Hub. They could then choose a car to drive or be chauffeured for a tour, led by a brand rep in a front car that provided directions by way of walkie-talkies in each car. In india too, Tata Motors took an initiative of organizing the T1 Truck Racing Championship. The experiential event not only garnered high sales figures but it has also resulted in Tata Motors successfully establishing itself as the most reputed automobile brand in the country. However such initiatives are a rare sight in the country as marketers of the domain today are hesitant to truly go all out in the race of experiential. Yes, it is an understandable fact that no car purchases are ever made without a hands on experience but automobile marketers today should also realize that there are more innovative and creative ways to showcase the features of their products. As it is often said, one cannot expect to be a winner among the dogs if they are running in the rat race similarly to establish their brand as the most successful ones brand marketers need to experience and engage their potential customers in more unique ways than the conventional methods.
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Lets face it. Life is fast. City life is chaotic. Work is stressful. Even a walk in the park comes with its own share of worries. So amidst all the drama, on a bright clear day when one is allowed to feel like a part of a group, working together, in the same direction and simultaneously contributing towards a noble cause, it can trigger some pretty overwhelming emotions. And when there are emotions, know that brands are not far behind. Fitness events are becoming hugely popular in the country. It is endearing to see increasing number of cities being mobilized each year. Thousands of people are enrolling to run marathons for fitness and also contribute towards charitable causes in the bargain. As a result of the increasing lifestyle related illnesses people are becoming more aware about the need for fitness and so marathons allow them a platform to engage in the cheapest, most natural and effective form of exercise- running. Taking inspiration from the London Marathon, Procam, awarded the ‘Best Sports Event Management Company’ at the India Sports Award ‘13 initiated the Mumbai Marathon in the year 2004. Standard Chartered Bank, already associated with several marathons across the world, immediately joined hands with them as the title sponsor. In its 11th edition this year the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon engages upto 40,000 participants and raises close to 20 Crore for charity. Bruno Goveas, Director Media Relations at Procam says, “Mumbai Marathon is acclaimed as the biggest fitness event in India. Mumbai is a very vibrant city, people like to get down to the streets, the energy here is spectacular. SCMM has harnessed this energy and channeled it towards inculcating a health and fitness culture. Though the event is organized and managed by Procam, it is often accredited to Standard Chartered. The brand can lay claim to have turned Mumbai into a fitter city. People’s lives have been touched. More lives have been changed with the money raised for charity. This has resulted in tremendous brand value which is incalculable”. The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon offers $250,000 as prize money and will flag off on 19 January, 2014. Procam also organizes the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon and the Tata Consultancy World 10K Bangalore. The Pune International Marathon is another prominent fitness event held annually, scheduled for 1 December this year. Running in its 28th year, this year’s edition named ‘Run for Mother’ aims to create awareness for the cause of women empowerment. KyaZoonga has come on board as the official ticketing partner. On its association with the marathon, Arpita Majumdar, COO KyaZoonga, comments,”The Pune International Marathon is a highly prestigious event and we are very excited to be associated as its ticketing partner. The event is a natural extension of our customer offering, giving them access to top international events in the sporting calendar. Premier events like these give KyaZoonga an opportunity be visible amongst a mass audience globally.” Winners stand to win a total sum of Rs 50 Lakh as prize money from the event. This year Pune will play host to another marathon where participation would be restricted only to women. The Pinkathon, claimed as the first 10 Km run exclusively for women, will be held on 17 November 2013 in the city of Pune. The money raised from the event would go towards creating awareness against breast cancer. Adidas has jumped on board as one of the prominent sponsors of the event while Former Miss India, Gul Panag, has been announced the Event Ambassador. Reema Sanghavi, Managing Director, Maximus MICE & Media Solutions quoted, “I believe we as a populace should do whatever it takes to raise awareness about breast cancer and keep it at bay. Running addresses most of the top 10 ways to help prevent breast cancer, not only promoting well-being but also raising immunity levels and improving health to help fight diseases like cancer. Maximus is proud of Pinkathon as our leading Intellectual Property working towards a noble cause.” If running a marathon is not exciting enough then perhaps you could look at an alternative in Tour De India- an International cycling carnival to be held across Mumbai, Jaipur and New Delhi from 15 December to 22 December 2013. In its second year, the event organized by Total Sports Asia, a premier sports management agency within Asia, will see more than 6000 cycling enthusiasts and 15+ international cycling teams ride for glory and lend their support to charity. Charity Aid Foundation is the philanthropic partner for its Delhi leg and pledges raised from the campaign will go towards charity for underprivileged specially-able people. R. Ramakrishnan, Director Sales and Business Development, Total Sports Asia, says, “Given the congestion due to traffic in cities today, Tour De India is a fantastic opportunity for cycling enthusiasts to not only be able to cycle but cycle towards a noble cause. We are very happy to have Godrej Eon as our title sponsor as the event sees a definite connect in its brand philosophy of producing energy efficient products. Garnier is also onboard as one of the prominent sponsors while John Abraham has been announced the Event Ambassador as of earlier this month.” For a detailed list of all the running events across the country you can refer to the following link: http://indiarunning.com/marathon-calendar-2013.html
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‘Experience the next movement’ – more than just a tagline for BMW, it’s the start of a world changing experience. The only brand with a sound logo, BMW recently launched its BMW 3 series in India in a stunning event. Making use of the magic of 3D projection mapping, the Showtime Group managed to effectively and dramatically portray the fact that the 3 series is a sixth generation car and, therefore, one with a long lineage of evolution. In another award winning event, they dug up 60 feet below the earth in a crater spread over 32 acres, they pushed all boundaries and successfully delivered a ten obstacle track for the test drive that showcased every feature of the car. Bottomline, the 28-40 year old males they were targeting were impressed and how. Understanding the psychology of their target group and giving them an experience that stimulated all the senses, BMW managed to more than convince the men who wish to move into the luxury car segment and are extremely particular about the brands they would like to associate with. An experience that leaves an impact seems to be the right ingredient for increasing brand value and converting consumers. The amount of hard work that goes into creating that one spectacular ‘WOW’ moment that makes you want to jump from your seats and get your hands on the object of your desires is unimaginable. “the most important factor that we need to keep in mind while carrying out these events is the force of nature – unpredictable and the most disastrous”, says Aman from The Showtime Group. “The award winning event BMW Xperience 2011 faced the biggest downpour in 56 years. As if creating the magic 60 feet below the ground wasn’t enough, our team had to put up with the downpour and drain out the water from the ground that had formed into a lake.”, says Aman. Now the point we are trying to make here is that the brands go through so much to execute that one event that creates the magic and catches the customers’ imagination beyond their expectations. How a car is made to climb vertically as if gravity was never an issue on this planet is unimaginable, all this to get the customers into believing in the brand and ultimately of course increase sales. BMW, Volvo and Audi, you name it, they’ve done it, and even won international level awards for the same. Pushing the envelope every time to give the customers that experience and create an event that manages to get the right response. If you’ve seen any of the top action movies over the last 3-4 years Audi has been positioning itself as the new standard for desirable luxury. Audi wasn’t yet doing any straight up comparisons, but they certainly had been earning a bunch of “cool” on our emotional rolodexes. It seems like Audi has decided to cash in some of that earned equity and ratchet things up a bit. There is a reason how Audi has masterfully equated their brand with contemporary luxury and while placing Mercedes in the old luxury position. It’s been fun to watch the process unfold over the last few years. Cars are emotional purchases by default, but the feelings that the new Audi’s evoke make one’s heart beat faster, and they seem to be making people want to see if they can fit one into their budget. Not everyone that buys cars understands what really goes on to build the mean machines and the intricacies involved with what’s going on there. What really gets our attention is how these brands portray their brands to us. Truth be told, if Mercedes wants to impress the young, fast and restless, they’ve got to buck up their game. They have some of the finest automobiles on the road – they’re styling, handling, everything is brilliant – yet they haven’t been telling us about it. So until then, let’s shine the spotlight on the right places and get people’s hearts racing again.
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Class, sophistication and art; add these three in a sentence with the word ‘wine’ in it, and you can never go wrong! Wine, as a drink, has been associated with a certain sense of elegance and chic; coupled with low awareness, has led to its slow penetration and low appreciation in the country. Besides, the government prevents any kind of mainstream advertising for alcohol in India, unlike the West, where wine has lenient regulations. But with the continual efforts of the market leaders who are realising the potential of this industry, it is increasingly being re-branded as a fun, youthful drink. One of the major pushes have been provided by way of live events and activations thus generating high footfall, recall value and thereby looking at wine appreciation as an experience, and not just-another-alcoholic-drink. Promoting experience, not the brand Sula Vineyards led this change with its flagship Sulafest held in the harvest season in January, which is an annual music festival. In its fifth edition in 2013, the 2-day musical bonanza attracted around 8,200 enthusiasts from all over the country. This event is held in the vineyard at Nasik annually, where the visitors are also exposed to the winery tour, grape stomping and tasting sessions. In its 2013 edition, the fest conducted almost 700 tours and tastings. The company takes its winery tours as a serious marketing agenda. “A challenge that we face in India is the lack of wine knowledge. India has a tradition in drinking whisky and beer and the consumers have a lot to learn. We put a lot of efforts in wine education including tastings and trainings. We have opened up our winery to visitors in 2005 and are expecting 2,00,000 visitors at our winery this year. Wine tourism has become another important marketing tool for us,” says Cecilia Oldne, Global Brand Ambassador, Sula Vineyards. On similar lines, another prominent name in the industry, the recently merged Grover-Zampa conducted its first wine festival in the harvest on 2013. Though there was a music festival, it wasn’t the main attraction of the event. Called the Great Grover Stomp, the festival concentrated more on wine cooking, tasting and appreciation. The organisers plan to include more attractions in the upcoming editions. Classy associations Apart from this, brand associations of wine can be seen regularly with golf tournaments, art exhibitions, derby and similar events. “Since there are so many restrictions around the promotion of alcohol brands, we have to rely on innovative marketing ideas to create brand awareness and engagement with our audiences. We carefully select events that match our brand sensibilities. For instance, we partnered with Dinner for Pricks, a supper theatre programme that was a huge success and allowed us to create brand engagement with the right target audience. This association was the perfect ambience for wine enthusiasts to enjoy a satirical theatre show. The interactive event was a great platform to further build a culture of excellence around Indian wines,” said Kapil Sekhri, Co promoter and Director, Fratelli Wines. All Things Nice, a company involved in appreciation of gastronomy and which offers consultancy to wine brands, has created an interesting concept of Wine Week to interact with consumers. This is a massive initiative to get people to experiment with wines from all over the world and pair them with cuisines. “We had in the August 2013 edition of Wine Week in Mumbai, 28 different restaurant partners that included restaurants such as Elipsis, San Qui, Olive, Koh, Vinoteca, Ming Yang, Vetro, India Jones to name a few,” says Nikhil Agarwal, Sommelier & Director – All Things Nice. Also, increasingly women are being considered a target group for wine companies who are now concentrating their efforts on targeted communication to this them. An interesting figure was released by winetourindia.com, which conduct wine tours in India; it said that 60 per cent of their tours were booked online by women. “One of the dramatic changes occurring in India today is an increase of women drinking wine. Wine consumption among women throughout India has increased in the last 5 years, especially in metros. Women will become a huge demographic in the future and are important target group for us,” added Oldne. The industry is seeing a growth rate of 25 per cent year-on-year, but still forms a small part of the overall alcoholic beverage industry in India. However, it is one of the fastest growing segments in the alcoholic beverages category. Coming up next: Wine tourism Wine tourism is not a new concept in the country. However, it is more of a factory tour than an experience to the visitors. Having realised this, the market leaders are revolutionising their efforts to promote wine tourism in a big way. Nasik, one of the major hubs of wine in India already has Sula and Grover Zampa wooing the visitors. Besides, Chauteau D’ori, Vallonne Vineyards, located at Dindori and Igatpuri respectively, and the York winery have plans to start wine tourism, converting their vineyards into a destination spot. Adds Sekhri, “Personalised trips to our 240 acre Fratelli vineyards offer a unique experience for consumers allowing them have a to first-hand experience the process of wine making. Fratelli also regularly hosts wine appreciation programs which allows guests to understand wines and aims to develop wine culture in India.” So will this open up the markets in the tier-II cities? “Even in second and third tier cities we are seeing an increase in the consumption of wine. In select rural areas, wine is also consumed, but it is a sweeter, high alcohol style of wine,” says Agarwal. Most wine marketers in the country have increasingly been focussing on distribution and promotional activities in the Tier II cities, thus making it an important market to explore for a product like wine. “Though our initial focus was the metros such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, we are now focusing our efforts to Tier-II cities in India. This is a potential market that is seeing significant income growth and employment diversity for the first time in its history. As it gets exposed, it will see enormous change in its employment patterns, consumption patterns, spending power and aspirations. It has enormous opportunity and hence I see there is a gradual acceptance of wine,” comments Oldne.
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