epages News [Advertising Agencies, February 2004]

• Marketing industry catering to non-white communities in UK
• LG to spend about Rs 50 cr on cricket related events
• Liberty to invest Rs 30 crore
• New Zealand Tourism campaign wins Pata Award
• Back to Advertising Agencies Archives

Marketing industry catering to non-white communities in UK

Feb 10, 2004: The Asian and black communities in Britain have disposable incomes worth 32bn pound, and the mainstream advertising industry is slowly recognising this. The number of advertising campaigns using ethnic minority actors trebled last year as the marketing industry woke up to the power of the ‘brown pound’ — the purchasing power of the non-white communities. One of the most visible black figures is Halifax’s Howard Brown, but NatWest and KFC campaigns have also recently featured Asian or black actors. In January ‘03, only 2% of campaigns featured black and Asian people, but that rose to 7% by November last year, according to the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).

The IPA said ethnic minorities had more disposable income than ever before. Peugeot is another advertiser that turned its attention to the brown pound, using an Indian to help attract Asian buyers for its 206 model. The IPA said it had been campaigning to encourage advertisers to include ethnic minorities in campaigns in the same way it had pushed the ‘pink pound’ or ‘grey pound’. Anjna Raheja, managing director of Media Moguls, a marketing group that helps brands reach ethnic minority consumers, said advertising agencies still had to be more inclusive when creating campaigns. The institute is also trying to encourage more people from ethnic backgrounds to consider a career in marketing. At present, only 4% of employees at marketing companies are from ethnic backgrounds and 70% of that total work in supporting roles, rather than the more glamorous creative field.

LG to spend about Rs 50 cr on cricket related events

Feb 18, 2004: New Delhi: LG Electronics said it plans to spend close to Rs 50 crore on cricket related activities this year by acquiring title sponsorship rights of some matches and on advertising around these events. The company has already bagged title sponsorship of the Champions Trophy for $5 million. It plans to spend about Rs three crore on the India-Australia series, a senior company official said here.

Asked what was the company's gameplan for the upcoming Indo-Pak series, Marketing Head at LGEIL Anil Arora said "we will spend at least Rs six crore on this series, as advertisers on Ten Sports. But we are also planning other events to mark this historic series". He said the Australia-India series to be played in the country between October and December this year will see LG spending about Rs eight crore on ads, promotions etc. LG also announced the launch of a new range of fully automatic washing machines between five and seven kg capacity.

Liberty to invest Rs 30 crore

Feb 20, 2004: New Delhi: The Rs 250-crore Liberty Shoes will open its first six-concept store during the forthcoming Lakme India Fashion Week (April 29-May 5). 'Revolutions'—the concept store in its first phase will open in Mumbai followed by Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. There will be 24 such stores operating by the end of 2006. The store will be owned by Liberty Retail Revolutions Ltd, a subsidiary of Liberty shoes limited in which Liberty Shoes will hold the majority 51% stake. The company is in talks with some of the Malls located across Delhi and Gurgaon and depending upon the availability of space and location, the final decision will be taken. For advertising and promotions, Liberty has hired some of the known faces like Sushma Reddy and Carol Gracious who will feature in the forthcoming advertising campaign. Montage is the advertising agency for Liberty. Liberty also plans to increase its ad spends by 15% this year. Last year the company had spend Rs 12 crores on advertising and media, most of which had gone to TV. The latest commercial is of 90 seconds duration, one amongst the lengthier TV commercials in recent times.

New Zealand Tourism campaign wins Pata Award

Feb 27, 2004: New Zealand Tourism’s ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ global marketing campaign has won the top ‘2004 Grand Award for Marketing’ from international tourism and travel organisation Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata),. The Website www.newzealand.com and the ad posters, part of the same campaign, have also won the gold awards.

New Zealand Tourism’s chief executive George Hickton attributed the award to consistent campaign as he says, “Getting an award like this from our international peers shows that our marketing work is of top international standard. But even better, the award helps profile not only the campaign, but New Zealand among the members of Pata, and other tourism organisations throughout the world.” The winning campaigns were selected from over 332 Gold Award entries by panels of international experts in each category. The awards are open to Pata and Pata chapter members only. The winners will receive their awards during the 53rd Pata Annual Conference in Jeju Island, Korea in April this year.