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Vittal has put in his papers which would effect from January 20, 2012, to pursue opportunities outside Unilever”, said sources.

Hemant Bakshi, who is presently the Executive Director-Sales and Customer Development, will be the new Executive Director – Home & Personal Care.

The Board places on record its appreciation for the contribution made by Vittal, as Gopal Vittal has played a significant role in the growth of the Hindustan Unilever’s Home and Personal Care business.

Vittal has worked both in India and Asia for Unilever for over 18 years. He has also served as the Marketing Director at Bharti Airtel, leading the Marketing and Distribution strategy for the group. He rejoined the Company in July 2008 as the Executive Director for Home & Personal Care business. Vittal is an alumnus of Madras Christian College and has completed his MBA from IIM, Kolkata.

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From jokes, fillers, stand up comedy acts to humorous excerpts from sitcoms — Comedy FM on Airtel will offer its listeners a host of fun filled content to choose from. This is a first-of-its-kind service innovation that will empower mobile users with the ability to get the radio experience on their devices – anytime, anywhere. Airtel mobile customers can now dial 52747 to subscribe to Comedy FM and start getting their daily doze of humour from Comedy Circus, FIR, Office-Office, Lapatagunj. Rangeela Raju and much more!

Commenting on this launch, Ramesh Menon, CEO, Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa, Bharti Airtel said, “At Airtel, it is our constant endeavour to deliver products and services that are innovative, affordable and relevant for our customers. The launch of Comedy FM on Airtel is another step from Airtel towards bringing to our customers what they enjoy the most.”
Comedy FM on Airtel is available at Rs 2/day and 2paise/sec browsing charges.

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Commenting on the launch of the new HFZ viral campaign, Bharat Bambawale (Director – Global Brand, Bharti Airtel) said, “The youthful rendition of Airtel’s ‘har friend zaroori hai, yaar’ campaign and its accompanying foot tapping friendship anthem have resonated well with people of all age groups and backgrounds – much like the brand itself. Given the theme itself, focusing on the discerning online audience was a natural choice for us. With this in mind, Airtel earlier launched an online campaign that encouraged everyone to create unique friend types on Facebook which received a whopping 65,000 entries in a span of days. We have now chosen the most interesting friend tags of this crowd sourced lot (like ‘Status Update fried, Activist Friend, Dhinchak friend’, ‘Filmi Friend’, ‘Chipkoo Friend’ and ‘Proxy Friend’) to create new HFZ online viral videos. These videos will follow the increasingly popular global trend of ‘Gamification’ to encourage viewers to spread the word on these evocative videos that bring alive ways in which friends touch different aspect of our lives”. The original HFZ soundtrack is now also available in more fun and fresh through new interpretations in laavni, bhangra, hip-hop, folk etc.

An interesting trend that depicts the way the current generation consumes and accesses information, Gamification is an infusion of gaming techniques and unique story telling that makes discovery content more fun and engaging. As part of this ‘Gamification’ led initiative by Airtel, everyone keen on watching these videos will need to visit www.youtube.com/airtel and will then be provided interesting cues, by responding correctly to which, they will be able to ‘unlock’ video levels and gradually move ahead watch all videos. Tagging others and sharing these videos on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ will allow viewers to gather points on the leaderboard. And then finally you can upload your own friend type video in order to win a Nokia Lumia 800 and a trip to Ibiza, Spain to party with your friends as the grand prize.

As a complete deviation from traditional media strategy, Airtel will release these videos on the web starting 4th January 2012, for the online audience for view and share. Watch out for more HFZ viral videos that Airtel will release in the coming weeks.

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Dnyanada has 15 years of experience in media, working with media agencies like Lodestar and ZenithOptimedia and on the advertiser side, driving the media mandate for advertisers like Hindustan Unilever, Marico and ICICI Prulife.

Says Punitha Arumugam, Group CEO, Madison Media, “Dnyanada is definitely going to be a great asset for us. Her experience spanning agency and client media functions is hopefully going to bring a holistic perspective to our services.”

Says Dnyanada Chaudhari, on her joining Madison, “I have worked closely with Punitha during my stint at Marico and Sam on many industry related issues. I am happy to be part of the Madison family and it is a privilege to be groomed under their leadership. I am looking forward to offering my experience to drive disruptive thinking, leverage scale and best practices for our clients.”

Madison Media Group is India’s foremost media agency handling media planning and buying for blue chip clients including Airtel, Godrej, Cadbury, ITC, General Motors, Marico, McDonald’s TVS, Britannia, Procter & Gamble, Asian Paints, Tata Tea, Shriram Transport Finance, Levis, SpiceJet, Axis Bank, Domino’s, Bharti Axa, MaxNewyork Life Insurance, Tata Salt, Acer, Dish TV, Imagine TV, Times Television Network, Indian Oil and many others. The gross billing of Madison Media is Rs. 3000 crores.

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Sushma has over 18 years of experience in Media planning and research having worked in companies like Carat, Mindshare Fulcrum, TME, Synovate. Her last stint was with Carat as Sr. Vice President. Across her career she has worked with clients like Unilever’s oral care and deodorant brands, Colgate, Britannia, Godrej Appliances, Heinz, Castrol, Viacom 18, ICICI Bank, Star Network, Shopper’s Stop, HDFC and many others. In her research role, she has been involved with media research, micro market planning softwares, various ad tracking studies and formulating customized research for various brands.

Says Punitha Arumugam, Group CEO, Madison Media, “I have interacted with Sushma at various industry forums in the past and found her perspective and inputs refreshing and concise. With Sushma becoming a Madisonite, I am delighted that we will now have her experience and inputs available to our portfolio of clients”

Says Sushma Jhaveri, on her joining Madison, “I am happy to be given an opportunity to be a part of the Madison family. Madison has interesting set of clients which is the exciting part of work. Hoping for a great new innings.”

Madison Media was in the news earlier this year for winning the coveted ITC media planning and buying AOR that it is currently handling through its unit CREST.

Madison Media is India’s foremost media agency handling media planning and buying for blue chip clients including Airtel, Godrej, Cadbury, ITC, General Motors, Marico, McDonald’s TVS, Britannia, Asian Paints, Tata Tea, Shriram Transport Finance, Levis, SpiceJet, Axis Bank, Domino’s, Bharti Axa, Max Newyork Life Insurance, Tata Salt, Acer, Dish TV, Imagine TV, Times Television Network, Indian Oil and many others. The gross billing of Madison Media is Rs. 3000 crores.

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Manev Mianwal, Head of Strategy, Wolff Olins, Dubai confirms the reports. Mainwal will be the lead strategist for the project. Commenting on the project Mianwal, says, “The brief is to re-energise and revitalize Hero Honda. We will be working on the new brand in its totality, covering brand architecture, name, mark and overall positioning.”

According to Mianwal brands are an integral part of the ecosystem they exist in. The philosophy of a brand is it needs to embrace and in turn influence the local canvas and culture. He says, “India has metamorphosed in the recent past, accentuating its role on the world stage. Hero Honda is an Indian icon and will continue to be the flag-bearer of the spirit of this new India.”

The sweet spot for the new Hero Honda brand will lie at a three way juncture which will depend on what is great about the company, what the customers want and what is missing in the world. Mainwal states that the new brand will merge the inherent strengths of Hero Honda, dialing these up to fill the existing and estimated cracks in the market and in doing so delivering the business aspiration.

Wolff Olins is a brand business. From London, New York and Dubai, they work strategically with ambitious organisations worldwide and have been part of the Omnicom Group since 2001. Some of their recent associations have been Tata Docomo, Airtel, Tata Group, Unilever and PwC, as well as many other companies across the world.

In addition, Mianwal expresses, “India is a strategic priority for us and for Omnicom as a whole. We look forward to working with companies in India, taking the business to international markets while consolidating at home. Our 46 years of experience working with global brands across the world gives us the solid platform to be their partner of choice” | By Vanessa Azavedo [vanessa(at)adgully.com]

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Commenting on the 3G launch in Mumbai, Atul Bindal, President – Mobile Services, Bharti airtel said, “Mumbai is the commercial and entertainment capital of India – and therefore at the leading edge of driving a paradigm shift from voice to data services. With the highest data penetration in India of over 20%, the city of Mumbai truly represents the data revolution story that our country is currently witnessing. As we bring the power of 3G to Mumbai today, we are confident that this launch will add impetus to the expansion of data services in India. Whether stuck in office, or on the move – all Mumbaikars can now experience airtel 3G services and enjoy high speed internet access and a host of other exciting services on their mobile devices”.

airtel 3G will allow customers to enjoy various other exciting service offerings including video calls, high speed internet and video capabilities on social networks. A wide range of LIVE and on-demand TV channels as well as shows are also available on airtel 3G Mobile TV at an affordable price of Rs. 40 for 20 minutes per week.

airtel customers in Mumbai can now go 3G and choose from airtel’s easy-to-understand 3G tariff plans. Crafted to prevent ‘bill shock’, airtel 3G plans are designed to help customers monitor their data consumption with personalised usage limits and alerts. airtel 3G customers can enjoy the benefits of 3G speeds on the device of their choice – be it their mobile handsets, laptops or tablets.

Already launched in the cities of Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Mysore, Manipal, Udipi, Jaipur and Delhi NCR– airtel will launch its 3G services in all 13 3G-license circles by March 2011. Having commenced the rollout of its 3G services a little over a month ago, airtel has already achieved the milestone figure of half a million 3G customers across India.

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Prachi earned immense popularity during her stint on Television which only augmented further with her big screen debut. She has garnered fans in all age groups across the country and UTV Interactive & Airtel bring these fans a chance to speak with her in person. She will talk about her upcoming projects, her passions, her likes and dislikes. It will be the real Prachi that her fans can discover on the day of the chat.

Interactive, the digital arm of UTV, & Airtel get your favorite celebrities close to you through the latter’s “Talk2Me” platform. Prachi Desai will get chatty with her fans and will answer their questions on 27th February, 2011 between 4:00pm and 5:00pm. You can now subscribe by dialing 50505 and ask Prachi all that you have been longing to know about her.

About this initiative, Prachi Desai said, “This is going to be my first ever direct interaction with my fans & I am super excited to be talking to them 1-0-1. My fans have just seen me on the big screen, but there I am playing a character, on my voice chat they will get to know the real me. I am looking forward to connect to them & know what they think of the real Prachi! ”

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As per the study, the top 5 brands recalled at an Unaided Level were Pepsi, Vodafone, Airtel, Lay’s and Reliance.

The 5 brands which scored the highest on Ad Likeability were – Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Silk, Pepsi, Vodafone, Hero Honda and Reebok.

Day After Cricket is an industry-wide syndicated study that measures the advertising effectiveness on cricket – World Cup 2011 & IPL 4. The track for the study is being conducted daily during the event, across 9 cities – Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. The TG for the study is 15-44 year olds, Males and Females, SEC AB.

The daily and weekly reports focus on TOM recall, Unaided Recall, Ad Likeability and Innovation Association Recall. The mid and end-tournament reports will focus on macro understanding and analysis of cricket advertising.

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Commenting on the exclusive partnership, Shireesh Joshi, CMO-Mobile Services, Bharti airtel said, “Today, we find customers increasingly rely on their mobile phones for almost everything they do – be it listening to music, watching videos or playing games. With the mobile device fast establishing itself as a preferred entertainment device for people across ages, airtel is committed towards improving the customer experience with innovative mobile service offerings and fresh content that help people enjoy different forms of entertainment. Today, we are proud to bring the Tees Maar Khan advantage to our customers across the country – getting them closer to their love for Bollywood and bringing them alive airtel’s brand promise of dil jo chahe, paas laaye.”

“airtel’s partnership with UTV Movies represents a promising conglomeration of telecom and Bollywood – one that will pave way for many of such strong industry partnerships in the future”, added Joshi.

Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO – UTV Motion Pictures said, “Tees Maar Khan is poised to be one of the biggest films of 2010 and our affiliation with airtel will further enhance the TMK experience and help us reach out to a large section of masses..We are confident that the TMK value added services from airtel will provide a unique interactive experience to our consumers”.