O&M sets up separate division for sports marketing
Ogilvy & Mather has set up Ogilvy Sport, a separate division that will handle sports marketing and communication. The new division would focus on sports marketing consultancy, property representation and sales, licensing and merchandising, new media and event management.

According to the company, "Ogilvy Sports will be a professionally run sports' marketing outfit.

Being part of the Ogilvy network gives it access to cutting-edge marketing tools and the expertise of new media in the digital space. Fusing the Ogilvy Sports expertise with this know-how allows the usage of new platforms for innovative activations."

Ogilvy Sport would be headed by Prashant Singh, who has worked with companies like Cricketnext.com, Nimbus, Fosters, Lowe Lintas (Octagaon) and Fresh Brew Communications.

Motorola, Tata Tele to market Motorazr V3c
Motorola India and Tata Teleservices have entered into an agreement to jointly market the MOTORAZR V3c handsets in the Indian market. Tata Teleservices has bundled the handset with two tariff plans — the Max Plan and the Awesome Twosome Plan. The Motorazr V3c will be available in two colours — pearl grey and orchid pink — with matching Bluetooth headsets.

The Max Plan comes with the Motorola handset at Rs14,500 and offers features like zero rentals for 999 days, 10,000 free local minutes for Tata to Tata calls, 1,000 local and national SMSs free to any phone.

The Awesome Twosome Plan offers two handsets for Rs25,000 making it suitable for couples.

The plan comes with free lifetime local calls and SMSs between two phones bought under this scheme.

The Motorazr V3c has a 1.3-mega pixel camera, enables internet downloads and supports MP3 ring tones with 72 polyphonic speaker sound.

Reliance Comm cuts international calling rates
Reliance Communications has slashed international long distance telephone rates by up to 66 per cent to destinations like Australia and New Zealand. All calls to the US, Canada and South-East Asia will cost Rs4.50 a minute; and all calls to Gulf countries would be Rs8 a minute.

Calls to UK landlines and mobiles will cost Rs6 a minute and Rs8 a minute, respectively.

Tariffs to Australia and New Zealand have been lowered to Rs6 per minute from Rs18 a minute. All these rates are available on the Reliance Global Call Card.

Blue Star ties up with Italian co for supermarket refrigeration
Blue Star is gearing up to take advantage of the increasing opportunities in retail segment. It has tied up with Italian company ISA for providing a range of supermarket and food refrigeration solutions. Blue Star will be responsible for sales, installation and after sales service of the commercial refrigeration products, which will be co-branded as Blue Star ISA.

According to the company, "Organised retail in the form of supermarkets and convenience stores will bring about a massive transformation in the way food products are procured, stored and sold in India. With huge investments announced by companies like Reliance, Fortune, Bhartis and Tatas, Blue Star is gearing up to tackle the emerging supermarket opportunities.''

The company has estimated the potential of the supermarket refrigeration business at nearly Rs100 crore, and expects the industry to ramp up in the next few years. Italian company ISA manufactures retail refrigeration products and its customers include leading supermarkets in Europe such as Carrefour, Spar and Ahold. Initially, the ISA products will be imported and sold under the Blue Star ISA brand but subsequently there are plans to manufacture the range in India.

Blue Star is also looking at entering into alliances with European companies in the area of bulk storages.

VIP to increase focus on hard luggage
VIP Industries is planning to expand its hard luggage portfolio which constitutes only 20 per cent of VIP's product portfolio.

Growth in the hard luggage segment has remained stagnant due to the fact that soft luggage is lighter and easy to use and also because the variety of offerings in hard luggage is limited because it is difficult to make different designs.

VIP now wants to offer more variety to hard luggage with new designs and more colours. The first lot of this new range will be available by October in Europe. VIP aims to become the number two player in the global luggage industry. At present, Samsonite is the clear leader with a 20 per cent market share. VIP's share is about 6 per cent.

VIP has just finalised an agreement for distribution of Carlton in France and has recently started distribution in South Africa as well.

Union Bank positions FD scheme against NSC
Union Bank is offering its new fixed deposit scheme Union Double at the same rates offered by National Savings certificates. Union Bank's new FD will enable depositors to double their allocations in 8 years 9 months.

The rate of interest offered is 8 per cent per annum with an annualised yield of 11.43 per cent. The offer is available till July 31.

MTV India changes tack: goes from music to brand solutions
MTV is resurrecting itself. And from being a pure music channel it will begin offering 360-degree brand solutions. The company has already reduced commercials time on its various channels by 30 per cent this year and will reduce it further in the months to come.

The channel plans to offer advertisers more touch points to reach their target audience.

The channel plans to achieve this through advertising deals and PR stunts, partnerships with FM radio stations, client-led events, road shows and music events.

The company is currently working with media agencies to offer a 360-degree branding solution to the advertisers, which would be branded as Viacom Brand Solutions. Hence MTV's focus from now on would be on branded content. Company officials said MTV's `M' can stand for anything (music, masti) that is key to the life of the youth, the `M' would also stand for marketing, as brand-building would be a key focus of the company.

Hyundai Motor to launch new corporate campaign
Hyundai Motor India is launching a new corporate campaign in a bid enhance its image, especially in the luxury segment. The campaign will break in mid-October just before major festivals such as Diwali commence.

A strategic research analysis conducted by the company revealed that in the entry-level segments such as the D (Elantra) and D plus (Sonata) segments, the brand has a low recall. Hence, it took the decision to launch a corporate campaign.

The campaign will showcase the company's strengths in premium segments prominently.

The campaign will focus on the company's corporate image with emphasis on features such as engine technology enhancements, safety standards, and steady product innovations that Hyundai is globally known for.

Analysts said that the campaign could boost the brand's presence in the country and help gain market share with the existing range of cars and forthcoming product launches.

PFA amendment gives a bad taste to confectionery makers
A proposed amendment to the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) rules is giving confectionery makers a bad taste in the mouth. According to the amendment, confectionery makers have to compulsorily declare the ingredients, nutritional and other product information on any package label with surface area exceeding 10-square cm.

At present, the PFA Rule 32, dealing with packaging and labelling of food, specifically exempts packs containing confectionery weighing 20gm or less from listing ingredients or declaring the month and year of manufacture and period up to which it is `best for consumption'.

Similarly, the Standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged Commodities) rules do not apply to packs where the net weight of the product is 20 gm or less. These exemptions have proved useful for confectionery manufacturers, who retail 90 per cent of their products in individual packs of 3-5 gm at price points starting at 25 paise.

Detailed label declarations are printed only on the 450-500gm multi-piece packages that confectionery makers supply to retailers, who then dispense their 100-150 pieces on an individual count basis.

In the individual count a pack, only the brand name is mentioned. Under the confectionary classification, a short address of the manufacturer and presence of flavours and colours also need to mentioned said industry officials.

However, the government plans to amend Rule 32 by moving from a weight-based to a surface area-based package-labelling norm, with the minimum cut-off set at 10-square cm, against the existing 20gm. The amendment is expected to be notified shortly.

The statutory declarations to be printed on the label surface that exceeds 10-square cm includes list of ingredients in descending order of their weight or volume, energy and protein content, allergenic or hypersensitive substances and also details regarding manufacturing and expiry dates, lot / code / batch number, net weight, maximum retail price, and so on.

Officials said the twist-wrapped or pillow-packed sweets sold as individual counts have a display area of 10-20 square cm.

Prescribing a cut-off of 10-square cm is arbitrary and impossible to meet, spokesman for confectioners say

India Post, DuPont launch waterproof envelopes
India Post has launched water proof and tear resistant envelopes for the first time ever. The envelopes have been developed in partnership with DuPont, just in time for the festival of Raksha Bandhan.

According to Dupont these envelopes would be able to withstand wear and tear of handling and also the adverse weather conditions during this season much better than ordinary envelopes. The envelopes have been priced at Rs 5 each. DuPont has the capacity to produce two-three lakh envelopes on a daily basis. DuPont is also in talks with other retail chains to sell the envelope.

Lamborghini launches two models in India
Italian luxury sports car maker Lamborghini has entered India with the launch of two models — Gallardo and Murcielago. While the compact, two-seater Gallardo will sport a price tag of Rs1.65 crore, its convertible variant Gallardo Spyder will cost Rs1.85 crore. The two-seater, two-door coupe Murcielago sports a Rs 3-crore price-tag.

According to the company the Indian economy is growing and so is the list billionaires and millionaires in the country, which makes it an attractive and important market for the company. The company hopes to sell as many as 50-60 cars per year in the country.

Instead of setting up a direct representative office in a country (except in case of Japan), the company prefers to enter markets through the dealership route. In India, it has entered into a tie-up with Satya Bagla's Exclusive Motors, which besides Delhi, is likely to start a new dealership in Mumbai by this year-end.

Springer offers e-books
Book publisher Springer Science+ Business Media has launched digitised version of its scientific, technical and medical books. Researchers and students can access more than 10,000 books in electronic format through Springer India, the Indian arm of the global publishing company. The e-books, available in both PDF and HTML formats, are fully searchable and can be downloaded and printed. Libraries can purchase a complete annual package of all Springer titles or purchase one or more of the 12 distinct subject categories.