Nimbooz bags sponsorship of King's XI Punjab

When Leading soft drink manufacturer, PepsiCo launched its non-carbonated packaged nimbu paani 'Nimbooz', under its brand 7Up in India it created a lot of hype in the market. To promote the product which claims to contain no artificial flavours and contains real lemon juice IPL2 was the best option in India. But after IPL2 shifted to South Africa the pre-planned promotional campaign was hit badly. The drink which is targeted at Indian tastes, finally grabbed the opportunity to become the official beverage sponsor of the IPL franchisee team Kings XI Punjab. It has also got the branding rights on the players’ uniform with the logo at the back.PepsiCo has drawn up an intensive consumer activation campaign to market Nimbooz. The 360 degree marketing communication plan will build awareness through multi-city launches and road shows, 3D activation, leveraging Out-of-Home (OOH) media, radio, press and outdoors. The on-ground initiatives will be supported by a TV commercial that reflects Nimbooz’s ‘Ekdum Asli Indian’ proposition.Besides, the company has also launched a marketing initiative ‘Nimbooz Highway Gadi’, in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal, offering consumers to buy scratch cards and win a trip to South Africa. So go grab your bottle, who knows may be you are the lucky one to fly South Africa !

Is "young" the undisputed flavour of the day?

Recently a headline grabbed my attention Sushmita Sen loses ad deal to Asin,the Ghajini fame. The perfect diva who was associated with Pantene for a longtime paved the way for young,pretty new face but no where as charismatic as Sush. It is not the case with Sushmita alone. List is very long. Pepsi khan was dropped from team pepsi, Ash Rai Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee and preity Zinta all lost their previous lucrative deals. On the cricket front too similar trends have been observed. Yesterday’s iconic players like Sourav, Dravid, Kumble and even genius Sachin have suffered in the hands of power of youth. In my opinion the reason behind this trend is:
• There is definite a point of saturation when a celeb endorses a brand for a long period of time in today’s novelty driven market
• Success is all that matters at the end of the day
• Youngistan is drooling over youth icon
People like change. They love to watch something fresh and exciting. The age of loyalty is over , it is the age of return on investment(ROI). Success is the mantra of money now. Dhoni’s dynamic leadership, success as captain as well as batsman has earned him endorsement of Rs. 300 crore. T20 players of our country have replaced the old faces in Indian cricket. Be it cricket or Bollywood expect the sponsors to keep pampering and pouring money on successful persons only. So Nestle dropping Rani for Trisha and Nakshtra Diamond sagging Aishwarya for Katrina Kaif is not at all a surprise. Youth is definitely in and here to stay on as long as they are successful but is it possible for them to retain the charm for long. Does a Yusuf Pathan or Praveen Kumar can ever match the charisma of Sachin or Shahrukh? Are they brand fit? Do they go with the profile of Pepsi? Is it that the marketer are following the trend just like a brainless follow-the herd mentality !!!

" Jai Ho" for The congress !!!

The Congress is ecstatic about "Jai Ho" the Oscar winning song by AR Rehman from the movie Slumdog Millionaire. With an eye of using it in its central election campaign for the 2009 polls, the Congress party has bought the rights of Jai Ho from T-Series for an undisclosed sum of money. Ignitee digital solution has created the video using the song jai ho showcasing the footage of computer revolution, Chandrayan, women empowerment and many policies implemented during the Congress regime. The video is considered as the most viewd video on orkut for the last month, having nearly 35,000 viewership. As general Election is nearing fast it is not just congress but all parties are opting for the digital and online media for campaigning. Political campaigns and advertisings were very much there,but this time they have metamorphed into a bigger scale. Every party is eyeing the 40 million online voter base. Youth generation is the voter base who spend maximum time on internet and online campaigning is the best way to reach them, because every vote counts. Digital media is the best way to reach maximum numbers of voters of different ages, races and communities. It is a very accountable medium which facilitates pin pointed targeted messaging with zero wastage. So if you are finding political party's election campaigns on social networking sites like orkut,facebook,myspace and metacafe, then it is nothing astray. INDIA IS SHINING !!!

Appy Fizz got new cousin Grappo Fizz

Recently I saw one of my friend sipping a new packaged carbonated drink, I asked him what was that and answer came lemon. Eyebrows raised suddenly.I checked that being curious and it was LMN from Parle Agro . when I hear Parle Agro the first thing come into mind is "frooti"(the largest contributor to parle agro’s sales) delicious mango drink,yummy ! Company’s other offerings include Appy fizz, saint (a juice brand), bailey mineral water and Parle-G (largest selling glucose biscuit in the world) and many more. But this summer Parle Agro is in a mood to capture as much share it can grab in soft drinks segment.Appy fizz got its new cousin Grappo fizz-a carbonated grape drink. After the huge success of appy fizz among the youth , the grappo fizz is also aimed at youth persona and is introduced as a “youthful rapper” and the cousin of the appy fizz character. So after apple its grapes now in the carbonated drink form. Certainly as the youth is moving away from the consumption of cold drinks being health conscious, this type of drinks are real alternative for them and Parle Agro is leaving no stone unturned to make it popular among the consumer.Parle Agro plans to tap into this segment through various activities including a television commercial, which will be on air this weekend. Grappo Fizz i am waiting for you.