MUMBAI: The resounding tune of Louis Bank‘s "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" capturing the voices of India‘s best vocalists and celebrating the diversity of Indians is back after a hiatus of 26 years, only this time, in a completely new avatar. Brand Equity reminisces the past and gets you a first sneak peak of the new version.

How did that little roadside corner-shop grow up to be the big thing in the distribution world? The limelight now shifts from air conditioned malls to the extremely modest paan-bidi shop. Brand Equity explores the growth and expansion of these so-called ‘tapris‘ and chronicles their importance for the sale of cigarettes, shampoo sachets, confectionary, chocolates and mobile top-ups. 

The IPL fever is here again and how! Twice as big as before and back home in India. That is the thought behind the new marketing campaign that ushers the much awaited ‘Season 3‘. The official broadcaster Max is all out to capture that mood. Brand Equity takes a look at the 8 part series that will soon hit the tube and finds out what happened behind the scenes at the high profile IPL auctions

To stay abreast with all the latest trends, strategies and developments in the world of Marketing and Advertising, keep watching Brand Equity, only on ET NOW.

Brand Equity airs on ET NOW at the following times:
Wednesday, 20th January 2010: 07:30 pm & 10:30 pm
Saturday, 23rd January 2010: 10:30 am 02:30 pm & 10:00 pm
Sunday, 24th January 2010: 11:30 am, 2:00 pm & 09:00 pm, 11:00 pm
 

MUMBAI: Rediffusion Y&R appoints Seema Rajarathnam as General Manager, South, Rediffusion Y&R Public Relations. She will be working out of Rediffusion Y&R?s Bangalore office.

Divya Radhakrishnan, President, Public Relations, says, ?Seema is an experienced and highly motivated marketing communications professional, with a strong client servicing and business development background. In the course of her 11+ year?s career, she has secured, built-up and maintained corporate client relationships to meet business objectives.?

On her new appointment, Seema Rajarathnam, General Manager, Public Relations, South, says,? I am delighted to be a party of the Rediffusion Y&R Group. I look forward to working on building, managing and expanding the brand portfolio that Rediffusion Y& R PR has to offer.?

Seema has garnered good experience across different client verticals ? Corporate, Retail, Lifestyle, Beauty, IT, Health and Sports. Her last assignment was with Euro RSCG, where she was instrumental in setting up the Bangalore branch of Euro RSCG PR. She has worked with numerous brands including Lacoste, RPG Cellucom, Jockey, Pratt and Whitney to name a few.

MUMBAI: As the race to discover the Badshah of Music has begun, hold your breath as Badshah of Bollywood Shahrukh Khan along with Karan Johar will fire up the sets of Amul Music Ka Maha Muqqabla, by their remarkable presence this Saturday only on Star Plus. Known for his ever charming and flamboyant attitude, King Khan was so charged up that the entire shoot turned out to be a high voltage musical battle between Himesh? Warriors and Shreya?s Superstars. 

It?s a Shahrukh special episode as all the songs are going to be the evergreen numbers from his films. Viewers are in for a special treat as the powerhouse of energy Shahrukh Khan shakes a leg with all the contestants. Be it with Vineet when he sang ?Ishq Kamina?, or during the medley round with Himesh?s and Shreya?s team, the audience was bowled over to see King Khan himself perform all his popular signature steps.

To top it all, everyone present at the sets was shocked to see Shahrukh climb up on the table and dance to the tune of ?Deewangi Hai? and then the next moment open his shirt and flaunt his abs to the tune of ?Darde disco?. With performances that rocked the entire nation and Shahrukh Khan?s over the top efforts to make sure that his presence his worth every watch, do not forget to tune in to Amul Music Ka Maha Muqqabla, this Saturday, Jan 23rd only on Star Plus at 9 pm.

MUMBAI: Text 100 APAC announced several senior promotions and new appointments within its South Asia consulting organizations. Text 100‘s new management changes in Singapore, India and Malaysia reflect the agency‘s continued success and growth across Asia as well Text 100‘s leadership position in social media programs.

"With these new management appointments and promotions, Text 100 will continue to innovate in the creation and delivery of social and traditional media programs for our clients while providing exciting new experiences for our consultants," said Rowan Benecke, Regional Consultancy Director, Text 100 APAC. "Despite wrenching recent changes in our industry, we continue to invest in our people and their careers. These announcements underscore our ongoing commitment to building a strong people culture with a clear focus on talent development and career progression within the agency."

For Text 100 Singapore:

Marc Ha has been promoted to ASEAN Director effective February 1st, after a highly successful tenure as Managing Consultant of Text 100 Singapore. Marc will also assume APAC leadership of Lenovo, the agency‘s largest account within the region. This promotion is in recognition of Marc‘s impressive growth of the Singapore team and business as well as his desire to engage more in regional client consulting campaigns. Former ASEAN Director Anne Costello will focus on Text 100‘s new business and marketing activities across the region.

Jeremy Seow joins Text 100 Singapore from Yahoo where he was most recently South East Asia Communications Manager. As Senior Account Manager, Jeremy will lead several key accounts based in Singapore for the agency. Jeremy joined Text 100 on January 11th.

Marie Ong also joins the Singapore team as a Senior Account Manager. With more than eight years‘ experience, Marie has led corporate, consumer and social media campaigns for organisations such as Philips, Emerson, TNT and Qantas. She joins Text 100 on January 14th.

For Text 100 India:

Joshy Matthews, previously Managing Consultant of Text 100 South India and an eight-year Text 100 veteran, has been promoted to Vice President & Managing Consultant of Vox PR, an independent subsidiary of Text 100 India. Effective February 1st, Joshy will be responsible for the overall leadership, strategy and direction of Vox PR which has offices in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. Vox has also appointed four new account team members to its Delhi and Bangalore offices.

Suchita Ullal will take over as Managing Consultant of both Text 100 Bangalore and Chennai. A senior practitioner with more than 16 years experience in PR and communications, Suchita joined Text 100 on January 11th 2010 from Vaishnavi Corporate Communications where she was their Bangalore branch director.
For Text 100 Malaysia:

David Lian, based in the agency‘s Kuala Lumpur office has also been promoted to Social Media Strategist, ASEAN. Under the direction of Hong Kong-based Jeremy Woolf, Text 100‘s global social media lead, David will focus on developing social media and digital strategies and programmes for new and existing clients across ASEAN. To support this promotion a new Account Director will be joining the KL team as well as two further junior hires taking the office to 18 consultants.
 

MUMBAI: The multi faceted director, actor, writer and producer Mahesh Manjrekar needs no introduction. Enjoy the star donning many feathers in his cap in an exclusive interview with Nikhil Wagle, Editor, IBN-Lokmat in Great Bhet on Saturday, 16th January, 2010 at 9:30pm.

Mahesh Manjrekar began his spectacular acting career in 1984 with the Marathi play ?Aflatoon?, which paved way for him as an award winning producer with more plays like ?Dhyanimani?, ?Doctor Tumhisuddha? and ?Gidhade?, to name a few.

Filmfare award winning Marathi movie ?Aai? marked his transit to the film world. The other highlights of his film career as an actor have been films like Kaante and Slumdog Millionaire amongst the others. Apart from his milestone achievements, Mahesh will share his experience of making one of the biggest commercial hit of 2009, ?Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy?. This film with Mahesh in the lead role today enjoys cult status and has taken Marathi cinema to new heights.

Manjrekar will share his experience on making the critically acclaimed film Vaastav and his experience of working with Mr. Amitabh Bacchan on the sets of his film Viruddha.

Mahesh will also talk about his strong bonding with Marathi manoos and about the promising future of Marathi cinema.

Other engrossing aspects of the interview will include firm opinions of Mahesh on the much criticised and talked about Marathi movie ?Shikshanachya Aai cha Gho? and its controversial title.

So do tune into GREAT BHET on IBN-Lokmat on Saturday, 16th January 2010, at 9:30pm to hear the story of this star in his own words.

You can also watch the rerun of this ?Great Bhet? episode on Sunday i.e. 17th January 2010 @ 12:00 pm & 5:00 pm.
 

MUMBAI: It was an evening to remember for ZoOm India?s hottest destination for Bollywood content as Omar Qureshi eminent movie critic and host of popular programme- ?The ZoOm Review Show? which airs on ZoOm was awarded the title of ?Favorite Entertainment Editor-TV? at the prestigious 16th Lion?s Gold Awards 2010 held in Mumbai. Also, present and joining the celebration were the who?s who of the Bollywood, entertainment and lifestyle industry.

Competing in the category of television, Omar successfully managed to win the tough race against extremely strong contenders in the ?Favorite Editor-TV?. Commenting on the occasion, an extremely elated, Omar Qureshi said, ?It is a sheer delight to be acknowledged for my contribution to the television industry. I am extremely honored , humbled and elated to be a part of the Zoom family, an extension of my larger Times Group family. Of course, big thanks go out to all my fans and audience for their continuous support. I?m glad to be acknowledged by the Lions themselves.?

In its 16th year, the Lions Gold Awards being sponsored by M/S Ravi Group has been going from strength to strength with each passing year both in terms of participation as well as attendance. The glitterati and the cream ? de ? la ? cream from various walks of life, who are recognized and honored for outstanding contributions above and beyond the call of duty in their respective fields are associated with these awards. The awards presented are classified into three categories- Films, Television and General.