Mumbai: MEC, a leading media and planning agency and a founding partner of Group M, (www.mecglobal.com) recently orchestrated an innovative Twitter based engagement to bring alive Citibank?s ?Dil V/s Bill? no-extra-cost EMI campaign. Citibank became the first advertiser in India to use skyvertising, in conjunction with social media to boost its festive campaign season. Differently shaped Helium clouds were released into the sky at two prominent malls in Delhi and Mumbai in exchange for tweets from customers during the Diwali weekend.

The twitter fuelled activity coined as "Tweet a cloud, Dil Se" was aimed at gauging peoples? sentiments on how they would like to splurge during the festive season. MEC took on the Twitter platform to trigger a high decibel consumer interaction for "Tweet a cloud, Dil Se". To ensure engagement and participation, ?skyvertising? was used, which meant differently shaped clouds made of helium wasreleased into the sky. The clouds were powered by consumer tweets using the hashtag #Dilvsbill. Mall goers were instantly drawn to tweet with the hashtag #dilvsbill, for more clouds. Heart-shaped clouds were the most requested, lingering in the air for several hours. Radio, facebook and live streaming on the net were used as means to amplify the event to a larger set of audience The campaign was aimed at promoting Citibank?s EMI offering on credit cards, whichwas an effective proposition for consumers who struggled between the choices of purchasing totheir heartsdesire vis-?-vis their affordability.

"Tweet a cloud, Dil Se" campaign?s was acknowledged as a sterling success given that #dilvsbillhashtag was trending on Twitter for over 53 hours continuously. The campaign posts on Citibank India?s Facebook page reaching out to more than 4.1 million users.With this campaign, EMI sales on Citibank India credit cards for the festive season this year more than doubled that of last year?s festive period.

Commenting on the activity, Mr T Gangadhar Managing Director, MEC India said "We are very proud of this integrated innovation. Not only did this bring to life to consumers? tweets outside Twitter, it also served as an interesting way to measure shopping sentiment leading up to Diwali."

"Citibank offered EMIs at no extra cost at over 500 merchant outlets, enabling customers to make big-ticket purchases during the festive season. We adopted new-age mediums like Skyvertsing, Twitter and Facebook to create excitement amongst the upwardly mobile and socially networked consumers. This campaign was conceptualized & crafted taking into account the straddling of consumer journeys across online and offline spaces" said Sanjeev Kapur, Chief Marketing Officer, Citibank India.

MUMBAI: Aaj Tak, the leading Hindi News Channel for 12 years, part of the TV Today Network, has announced its very first edition of Agenda Aaj Tak. Scheduled on 6th & 7th December in New Delhi, Agenda Aaj Tak aims at providing the greatest platform to debate the issues that matter to the nation in its own language- Hindi. It is the World?s biggest Hindi heartland summit for leaders from all walks of life to address a large number of critical national issues. The underlying theme of Agenda Aaj Tak ?India Maange More? is set to compel the decision makers to ponder over some of the key issues pertaining to our nation and draw a clear road map for emerging India.

Ever since its inception Aaj Tak has been on the forefront of setting agenda on national issues and get more holistic insights on the issues. The summit will bring more than 40 biggest personalities from India & abroad on a single platform together. During each of the sessions, these thought leaders and newsmakers will share their insight and perspective and will try to lay the foundation for India?s Future.

Delhi is going to be a witness to a host of eminent personalities for the two days in December.

Leading political leaders, social activists, cricketers, celebrities, authors & bureaucrats such as: Sushil Kumar Shinde, Kapil Sibbal, Kamal Nath, Manish Tewari, Sachin Pilot, Rajiv Shukla, Digvijay Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Shiela Dixit, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Nitish Kumar, Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Baba Ramdev, Aamir Khan, Kajol, Madhuri Dixit, Randeep Hooda, Sakshi Tanwar, Sameer Soni, Kapil Dev, Saurav Ganguly, Wasim Akram, Mohammad Azharuddin, Waqar Younis, Imraan Khan ? Chairman Tehrik-e-insaaf & former Cricketer, Subrata Roy Sahara, Chetan Bhagat, Anuja chauhan, Javed Akhtar, Ali Zafar & Kailash Kher will be participating at ?Agenda Aaj Tak?. Commenting on the new initiative of Aaj Tak, Ashish Bagga, CEO, India Today Group said, ?It is a matter of great pride for all of us to announce the first edition of Agenda Aaj Tak. It?s a big platform where leading personalities from the country and abroad will debate on national issues. Aaj Tak has been a pioneer and with Agenda Aaj Tak, it will be a step forward in engaging with topics that concern Indian masses the most?.

The conclave will consist of discussions & Q&A sessions by prominent political leaders, cricketers, bollywood celebrities, authors & bureaucrats on issues as diverse as politics, youth, social media, democracy, development, Bhasha, cross-border terrorism, regionalism, economic reforms, social issues, India-Pakistan relation and popular culture.

New Delhi: Doordarshan will telecast live several sports events over the next few days on its Sports channel.

The National Ranking Table Championships which commenced today will be telecast live tomorrow and 1 December as well from 9.00 am to 7.00 pm.

The 27th edition of thePune International Marathon will be covered live on 2 Dece,ber from 7.00 am to 10.30 am.

The JK NATIONAL Racing Championship will be shown live on the same day from 1.00 pm to 5.00 pm.

Mumbai: POGO Amazing Kids Awards (PAKA) 2012 is back to felicitate India?s most talented kids for the ninth consecutive year. PAKA, India?s first kids? television awards ceremony, upholds the channel?s tradition of discovering, recognizing and celebrating, the amazingly talented kids across India across various categories including dance, music, sports, social service, etc.

This year?s 8 winners, selected from over thousands of entries, are par excellent in their respective fields
and were felicitated on November 16, 2012 by Monica Tata, General Manager, Entertainment Networks, South Asia, Turner International India Pvt. Ltd., Krishna Desai, Director, Content, South Asia, Turner International India and superhero Chhota Bheem in Mumbai.

PAKA 2012 winners have truly done India proud and continue to strive towards excellence:

Mumbai: The objective of the campaign was to target affluent individuals in the city Mumbai & Delhi, within the 35-54 age group in the SEC-A. The thought process was to use large format billboards at key locations in order to create the larger than life as well as experiential feel to potential travelers.

Given the brief Brandscope in consultation with the media agency OMD chose a varied mix of media like, Billboards/Gantries/Mall facades/Drop Downs/airport media comprising of the Travelators & Digital Screens.

The strategy was to go with the single minded focus on the evening drive time traffic in Mumbai starting from Marine Drive & going right through to Goregaon-Malad on the western suburbs & Chembur on the central suburbs; wherein Delhi was largely driven by Mall facades keeping the dynamics of the media availability in mind. Drop-downs in premium malls & prime locations at airports were also used strategically in order to reach out to potential travelers.

Speaking about the campaign Mr. Nishant Kashikar ? Country Manager, Tourism Australia said, ?The campaign was useful in showcasing key ?Best of Australia? experiences to our target audience in Mumbai and Delhi. The optimal selection of media locations using a suitable mix of outdoor advertising mediums enabled us to expose potential travelers to attractive visuals of tourism experiences in Australia thereby helping us create top-of-mind recall for Australia when choosing their next holiday destination.?

Mamatha Morvankar- Sr. Vice President OMD added, ?The potential tourists in Delhi & Mumbai were targeted through the extensive OOH plan panned out across prime locations to showcase the attractions of Australia & promote the land ?Down Under? as an exotic holiday destination. Brandscope also helped us target the festive season shoppers by giving us strategic and impactful locations inside & outside premium malls in both these cities.?

Speaking about the opportunity to execute this campaign Haresh Nayak MD- Posterscope Group said, ?We have enjoyed an engaging relationship with Tourism Australia and it is a brand that thrives on imagery and experience. As an agency we strongly believe that ambient out of home opportunities are best suited to establish this objective which was demonstrated in our media mix amply?

As part of the Posterscope group, Brandscope India which is now in its third year of operations handles close to 35 clients across categories such as FMCG, Hospitality, Finance, Automobiles, Real Estate and Lifestyle. Fabian Cowan- Vice president Brandscope India maintains that ?the consumption patterns in the out of home domain have changed along with the sensibilities of the evolved consumer. The drivers of this change lie largely in ambient opportunities like the ones we used for Tourism Australia which was a challenge and at the same time effective?.

For the record, Posterscope Group is a part of the Aegis Media India Group and comprises presence across Traditional OOH through Posterscope and Brandscope, Hyperspace (Retail, Digital OOH & Digital Retail),PSI (Airports and International campaigns) and Ambient OOH.

Mumbai: DY Works, India?s oldest and largest brand strategy and brand design firm bagged top honors at the recently concluded World Brand Congress, Packaging Awards Ceremony held on November 23, 2012 at Taj Lands End, Mumbai. The DY Works team walked away with a total of six awards across packaging, structure and retail design categories.

The World Brand Congress is the single largest rendezvous of the brains behind some of the world?s most successful and sought after brands. The congress is a meeting place for leaders from every sector and continent, bringing over 500 of the world?s branding and marketing elite under one roof. The summit saw executives from global brands and influential marketing organisations examining today?s critical business challenges. Conducted alongside the Congress, was the Packaging Leadership Awards that recognizes the role of packaging in a modern economy where DY Works swept the Packaging Awards Ceremony by winning six awards. The award submissions were judged by an independent jury comprising of branding and design thought leaders
from India, South East Asia and the rest of the world.

Commenting on the award wins, Alpana Parida, President, DY Works, said, "We?re thrilled to have won a prestigious industry award for our innovative packaging and design work for not one but six of our clients. Receiving the award is recognition of the caliber of talent we have as an agency and the consistent quality of work we deliver for our clients time and again.?

DY Works won awards across packaging, structure and retail design categories for Amul Ghee to reposition ghee as an everyday health requirement, Sadev to create modern ayurveda retail solution to showcase the brand USP, Lakme Skin care to drive brand imagery that competes with foreign payers in the category, Lakme retail to create a strong brand interface at retail touch points for Lakme, Taj Mahal to innovately use substrate and printing to create a stand out market leader and for Classic 21 to create disruptive structure that led to
share gain in the market.

In the last year, DY Works has worked with, and delivered great results for a wide range of brands within the FMCG, Cosmetics, Spirits and Personal Care categories, including Amul, Sadev, Lakme, Taj Mahal Tea, Hershey?s and Class 21 Vodka.

These awards are most coveted a month the top branding and design companies across India.