Here was the chance to run for your city. We were involved with this event thru and thru. Although we came in little late into this event we ensured that all sponsors involved termed this event a success. The base line of the marathon is very interesting "The Pride you gain is worth the Pain", definitely the pain we went thru was rewarded with the all-round appreciations. We did achieve many first times with this event including AIR FM being the channel partner. For all further information and details please check
This was the most fun filled activity we had ever done with corporate clientele of ours. We had to execute three short films with Novellites and just assisting them. We did spend the same amount of time or even lesser but saw these budding Quentin Tarantino's and Mani Ratnam's in all the three groups we worked with. We heard that one of the three movies is being used for training purposes and the other to introduce Novell to new clients worldwide. Way to go, we plan to carry this out in other clients because once you get behind the lens you get damn creative.
Especially for you was a specially designed training programme for the Airtel's executives and agents. This was conducted for the broadband and fixed land line division earlier known as Touchtel. The training concentrated on imparting the soft skills development such as Shaping personal presentation, Polishing presentation skills, Voice modulations, Communication skills (inter, intra & group), Listening skills, Body language (for showrooms), Telephone etiquettes (brushed up other office etiquettes), Customer handling, Relationship building, Time management, Team building & team work, Doctors suggestions & actions were covered with an elaborate feedback session.
The post event feedback session did reveal that more than 72%+24% wanted the training to be held every quarter and will strongly recommend this to all their colleagues. 30% liked the facilitator's effectiveness, 30% liked all the activities, 20% liked the programme structure, 13% liked everything and 7% found their missing self confidence.
The last semester of MCA is when you start preparing for your interviews. Their un-preparedness to face interviews. This training effectively manipulated their perception of interviews into pleasant dreams. The right attitude was fed into the participants making them more confident to face interviews.
Tools like mock interviews and presentation exercises were used extensively to get them into the habit. All the 30 participants gave their positive feedback about the effectiveness of the training programme. Its very rare that we get 100% positive feedback from our training porgramme participants.
On 12 January 2004, President George Bush announced next steps in the Strategic Partnership with India initiated in November 2001, when he and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee committed India and the United States to strengthening bilateral cooperation in several areas. The next steps in implementing the shared vision include "ways to enhance cooperation in peaceful uses of space technology," and "steps to create the appropriate environment for successful high technology commerce."
To address those issues, both governments have agreed to hold a joint conference in Bangalore, India, 21-25 June 2004. This event will be the first serious bilateral engagement about space cooperation between India and the United States although the history of cooperation in space activities between the two countries dates back 40 years. The launching of NASA-supplied Nike-Apache scientific sounding rockets from the Indian Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Site in November 1963 was the first in a series of cooperative launchings that extended for about a decade.
The GSDI Association is an inclusive organization of organizations, agencies, firms, and individuals from around the world. The purpose of the organization is to promote international cooperation and collaboration in support of local, national and international spatial data infrastructure developments that will allow nations to better address social, economic, and environmental issues of pressing importance.
The conference concentrates on global trends and policy issues which concern the development and sustenance of the GSDI markets. This conference was held in Bangalore between January 30 to February 4, 2004.
Are sexualities a "hush-hush" topic in South Asia even as discourses of sexualities and gender influence and shape our lives? Numerous components of development including sexuality rights, the prevention of child sexual abuse, increasing access to resources including information, education and health care are today influenced by sexuality discourses. So how do we pull together these conversations, which often seem at cross-purposes?
An attempt is being made by two Bangalore-based non-government organisations, the Dharani Trust and Swabhava Trust, through the Second International Conference on Sexualities, Masculinities and Cultures in South Asia. The conference will be held at the Urban Health Research and Training Institute, Malleswaram between 9 and 12 June 2004. The first Conference was initiated in Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia by Dr Sanjay Srivastava, post-colonial scholar and author of Sexual Sites and Seminal Attitudes.
Over 40 non-government organisations, a dozen educational institutions from across the world and 150 individuals are coming together at this conference, which aims at connecting academia and grassroots knowledge in the area of sexualities and masculinities.
With the mention of BPO's and also the term customer the only thing which comes to our mind is BPO's. Accenture is is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills, and technologies to help clients improve their performance.
Our task was to train them with the many facia's of communication starting from when to say hello till the time they say have a nice day. The huge intake of employees makes it slightly difficult to give them on the house training and with growing number of intake of CCE (Call Center Executives). Our Accent Training was imparted with two of our partners from the American Embassy from Chennai and was widely accepted. The induction to the training of Communication and Soft Skills were done with the usual dosage of Drama and Movement therapy. The toughest part was when we had more than 30 people in one group and giving them individual attention. All in all this worked out to be our best case study when it comes to a combination of soft skills and communication training.
Our objectives at the days end were: Grammar, Breathing exercises, Pronunciations, Tough letters and words, Tongue twisters & Spoken manners (Gender/verb confusion)
With DELL and their C & B level executives we had additional challenge of inducting them to the concept of why should they listen to their clients (laptop division) and how important is the carefully drafted script by their in-house communication department.
With the mind set of the employees its difficult to put them into other culture which they are not exposed to and also adapt them to be adequate leaders to their teams. This was done with a carefully planned program with heavy references to anthropology and psychology. The basic objective of leadership skills were achieved to 70% with this group of people.
The Methodology used was the age old AIDA (Attention, Information, Desire & Actualisation) theory of Marketing, which makes this our best case study of leadership/communication training.
The effort of Drama Therapy in our training programs and our continuing work with different theatre companies (check out otherwise for more on this) aimed at attracting audience of substance to the theatres, are aimed at promoting and protecting the most ancient performing art form THEATER.
Challenge: People consider theatre is a waste of time and money in the modern world of movies/radio and television.
Communication Tool: Media, Outdoor publicity, PR, Pamphlets, Leaflets and bulk e mailing
This was our first chance to work in an educational institution after our first ever educational exercise in as teaching faculty in NMKRV College for Women teaching Journalism. Our challenge was different here since our students were no more the obedient ones who came to class to understand and learn what they wanted. We had classes for kids from five to ten and boy it was not funny.
The fact that the kids do not like the language the induction to the program was to enthuse them to learn the language. Starting from its rich history till how sweet it sounds was tried. This was very educative for our future training and teaching programs and laid very sound foundation to understanding - understanding.
With the influx of un seen corporate culture the Manju's and Manjula's of India changed into these super hero's who forgot their roots. But luckily they have realised the gravity of the situation and have come forward to break the barrier they created for themselves.
There would be lot of adventure suspense and mystery surrounding every OMP we conduct since each of them is an experience by itself. Would like to mention few of the activities which were conducted for some of the OMP's - River Rafting, Triathlons, River Crossings, Safari's etc. Yes one of the few things we love to do. Here work = pure fun.
Same intro as above to even this topic. Its very strange how classmates from same college working in same department of a company would not invite each other for their weddings. So if this is the type of intra personal interaction then we all know what is going to happen to that department.
Team building (also leadership) according to us is very close to psychological therapy. That is the reason we employ Drama Therapy into our exercises. Also by doing this we too achieve tremendous intra personal betterments. This is one proven method of team boosters if done in the right way. Since the factor of therapy is involved in wrong hands this could be really fatal to the person/teams moral abilities. We use international standard methodology and ensure that no errs happen during our theoretical team building exercises.
We enjoy ourselves doing some physical exercises like plank walk, breaking the pot and other text book ones mixing them healthily with our indigenously developed exercises involves the participating teams both physically and mentally, stimulating them towards the objective of our exercises.
Pundit Ravishankar and Anoushka Show
SPIC MACAY (Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture) has been striving, for more than 25 years, to inculcate in the youth, a sense of appreciation for the rich cultural heritage of our country. Each year it organises more than 1000 concerts in educational institutions in more than 150 cities all over India. The Foundation has been formed to take SPIC MACAY beyond schools and colleges and also to raise funds and increase publicity.
The first event organised by them in Bangalore was a concert by Bharat Ratna, Pandit Ravi Shankar and his daughter, Anoushka at Chowdiah memorial hall on 27th March 2003, followed by 'Santoor Virasat', a concert by Padmavibhushan Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and his son, Rahul, on the 18th of July 2003 at Chowdiah
Memorial Hall.
For all those who came in to the show it was evident that the organization was quite contemporary and different. We had made detailed arrangements for seating and also strict entry points for ticket holders. The effort put in organizing any event of such scale is definitely a challenge which we welcome with open arms.
Event Coordination with SPIC MACAY
KHOJ INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS' WORKSHOP
6th to 21st December, 2003, Bangalore
KHOJ International Artists Association, New Delhi, an artist-led, autonomous and open-ended umbrella organization, registered as a society in 1997, is organizing a high profile international event - KHOJ 2003, in Bangalore with the active participation of the local artist community with support from Srishti school of Art, Design and Technology.
KHOJ came to Bangalore for the first time and we being the core group of organizers had more than one cup of tea in each hand. Building on the success of KHOJ 2002 in Mysore (the first KHOJ event in the south), the artist community of Bangalore has once again taken initiative to organise KHOJ 2003.
This seventh international KHOJ event in India, being held for the first time in Bangalore, brought twenty four immensely talented mid career artists from across India and other countries to work together and produce innovative and creative works of art in various media. This two week workshop of artistic and cultural exchange among the international and the Indian artists, working together on a single platform to produce works of art and conducting outreach programs in local communities, will culminate in an Open Day exhibition of the creative works of art, with special viewings for the sponsors and the general public of Bangalore.
If you look close enough in this picture of the video installation of Dagmar and Martin from Germany you should be able to see Sathish Posing!
Client: Hindustan Lever Limited
Role: Event coordination
Brand: A1 Super Tea
Event: A1 Super Veeron Ke Veer
The 'A1 Super Veeron Ke Veer Kabaddi Tournament - 2002' began July 16, 2002 till Aug 13th 2002. The Mumbai City Team who beat the Indian Kabaddi Team was crowned as the A1 Super Veeron Ke Veer - 2002. This event went as a land mark event of grand scale into Limca Book of Records.
The will to challenge arises when an opportunity is provided to prove one's mettle. The tournament provides the ideal foundation for the rural teams to build their confidence and showcase their fervor at an event of such a large nature. This is the first time that the district teams from Maharashtra were pitted against the mighty Indian team.
The National Kabaddi team is the reigning world champion and took on and played against the four zonal finalists. This was truly an opportunity for the many talented players from Maharashtra to take on the might of the world champions. The action packed tournament was at its height during the Challenge between the zonal winners and the Indian Kabaddi Team. These challenge matches decided the A1 Super Veeron ke Veer.
The Tournament proved to be an exciting and fun filled extravaganza given the nature of the sport in the state and the sheer size of it bringing together the best teams of the state in one single tournament.
The tournament began on the 16th of July 2002 with knockout matches amongst 28 teams from various districts of Maharashtra. The state had been divided into four zones namely Vidarbha, Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada and Western Maharashtra. The zones consisted of six teams each apart from Marathwada and Vidarbha, which consisted of eight teams each. The winners from each zone played against the Indian Kabaddi Team at the district headquarters.Kabaddi is by far the most popular sport in Maharashtra and spans an origin of over a thousand years. A sport which involves a steady and alert mind coupled with physical agility and strength is popular in many countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Japan and Malaysia apart from India.
The A1 Super Veeron Ke Veer Kabaddi Challenge - 2002 being held in Maharashtra completed the initial qualifying round of matches and entered the second round to decide the zonal winners. The qualifying round witnessed a number of exciting matches with strong teams representing Sangli, Parbhani, Thane, Bombay, Akola, Nagpur, etc.
All matches were held as scheduled barring a few delays owing to rain. True to the spirit of the game, spectators turned up in large numbers to see their favorite teams battle for the A1 Super 'Veeron Ke Veer' title. The battle reached its peak between Aug 8th and Aug 13th where the The national Kabaddi team challenged the zonal winners.
Client: Kingfisher
Role: Event coordination
Brand: Kingfisher Beer
Event: Kingfisher Corporate Futsal 5’s – 2003
“Kingfisher Corporate 5’s”, the country’s first national level corporate five-a-side football tournament gets bigger in 2004! Following a successful inaugural edition across five cities, in 2003 this year the tournament travels to two more destinations providing many more companies with an opportunity to play ball in their hometowns.
Along with Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai, this year Chennai and Cochin shall also witness Kingfisher Corporate 5’s action live! Watch this space closely for details. This football event was held at the KSFA Stadium on October 2-5, 2002. ANZ IT beat Jet Airways 3-1 in the final played at the Bangalore Football Stadium on October 5 to lift the Kingfisher Corporate Football 5’s Trophy. This time the entire event went on line keeping in mind the requests from the participating IT companies. Starting from Ties till Ranking was all listed out on the web page which was widely welcomed by the participants.
The teams in the fray included ANZ IT, Biocon A, Biocon B, Ernst & Young, First Ring India, GE India, Healthscribe India Ltd., Hotel Merlin International, Hughes Software Systems Ltd., i2 Technologies, Infosys Technologies, Intel, Jet Airways, Kingfisher, Life Style, Lucent Technologies, Madura Garments, Motorola, Novell Software, Orbit-e Technologies, Philips Software, PSI Data Systems, SAP Labs, Sasken Communications, Siemens, Sonata Software, Spice Telecom, Synopsys Software, Taj Residency, TNT, Torry Harris Business solutions and Yokogawa Bluestar.
There was a special attraction linked with a cause in this edition of the Kingfisher Corporate 5’s Football tournament - an exhibition match between Celebrity v/s CEO teams. The team of CEOs beat the Celebrities team 6-3. The proceeds of the exhibition match around Rs. 8000/- was presented to “Christel House India”, at the prize distribution dinner at “Opium”.
Lipton Merchants Cup
Client: Hindustan Lever Limited
Role: Event coordination
Brand: Lipton Iced Tea
Event: Merchants Cup – 2003
The Merchants Cup began in the year 1992 by a few sports-minded executives to bring corporates to compete in multi discipline sports, and over the years has grown in terms of participation and enthusiasm. The name 'Merchants Cup' draws inspiration from the sporting encounter started by the British in the 1850s where the merchants of East India Company got together for team games. Now the Merchant's Cup is also held annually at the Calcutta Cricket & Football Club (CC & FC) and the Bombay Gym.
The Lipton Merchants Cup 2003 was held at Hotel Guestline, Hosur Road on 8, 9 and 15 March 2003. Over 450 participants from over 37 corporates competed for top honours in eleven disciplines. The Merchant's Cup Carnival and Dinner found the participants and their guests dance, wine and dine in celebration of corporate camaraderie. This year the added attraction was a high profile fashion show showcasing the Kingfisher Line featuring top models. These festivities were preceded by the prize distribution ceremony. The events for the eleventh edition of the Merchants Cup were squash, tennis, table tennis, badminton, triathlon, tug-of-war, ladies' throw-ball, sports quiz, artificial wall climbing and top seed pentathlon (for senior executives).
Client: Verifone India
Project Objective: Technology Popularising Through Media
Objective: Selling Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machines
Communication Tools: PR & Direct Marketing (DM)
Target: Direct: All possible card (plastic money) usage outlets
Indirect: Banks & General public
Challenge: Targeted customers using free Manual or EDC machines provided by the banks.
When VeriFone found out that there is a huge untapped market for their EDC machines they initiated a selling campaign. Our work started with market research to validate the assumption of market analysts. The second phase was selling the product directly without advertising assistance. The direct mailer tool used technology as its main message. EDC technology was conveyed in the mailers and reading material with simple language and attractive pictures for the common shop owner. Tie-ups with banking giants like Citibank and Standard Chattered for their loyal customer base. Early bird schemes were combined with highlighting advantages of EDC against the traditional manual data capture machines. PR campaign in electronic and print media with the same message supported the sales campaign. Success stories and case studies of EDC prevailing over manual machines were used extensively for subsequent DM and PR messages. This increased the sales by 40%. We also achieved better understanding of an EDC by end user.
Client: www.notakid.com
Project Objective: Attracting teens and tweens to the web page
Target:: Target age group 10 - 20 (Indirect: Advertisers)
Challenge: Relatively new media channel of web pages and web illiterate target age group
Communication Tool: Web site
This web page with angel investors needed to get into the most popular children segment for their future plans in India. The web site was created and designed to attract kids. Our focus was to ensure that the web page was interactive and attractive. Interaction with children started with data mining and data capture through bulk e-mails and free e mail through the website. Demonstrations of the web page through a CD in all schools attracted many children to visit the web page and a huge database was created for the promoters of the web page.
Project: Launch Of Music World Second Outlet In Bangalore
Objective: Popularising Shopping Galore Music Stores
Target: Customers
Challenge: Saturated markets who needed different themes to generate a simple walk in
Communication Tool: DM's, Posters, Advertisements and PR
Our main responsibilities for this event included hosting, Media Management, Guest Relations, Itinerary of the event, Selection of event management company and coordination of whole event. The greatest challenge was to manage the whole event in a short time. The client signed us on after ditching another agency who were little too expensive for them. We totally had only about 20 days to execute the whole promotion for the campaign.
Project: Freddy Mercury's Family Visit To Mumbai - 1999
Objective: Achieve mileage to FedEx who sponsored the whole crew who flew down from UK as a company which caters to entire family.
Target: Brand building audience
Challenge: Limited scope of FedEx to be in lime light
Communication Tool: DM's, Venue branding and media communication
On one of Freddy's birthdays the British Council at Mumbai decided to invite Freddy's Mother and Sister to India to have a re union with the land where he was born and brought up. Our responsibilities were Media Management, Co-ordination with different agencies and companies include and most important of all Guest Relations. The design of DM's and Invites were specially designated so that there was FedEx prominently mentioned. We even ensured that each of the official communication, which went out, had the logo. This meant lot of liaison with the British Counsil, different PR and Advertising firms involved in the promotion. Even the interviews of the visiting guests had mention of FedEx.
EPSON - Jeremy Spencer Show In Bangalore - 2000
Objective: Making the most of it since it was an international tie up by Epson & image building of CEO
Target: Jaaz lovers and SOHO computer users
Challenge: Brand recall with the cultural event
Communication Tool: Invites, DM's, Posters, Website and Advertisements
Like all consumer durable companies even Epson wanted to give themselves some publicity as an entertainer of audiences with this Fleetwood Mac giant Jeremy Spencer. The good will soon became a big logistical nightmare which we as the agency had to handle.
With media management we had to coordinate with the agency doing the promotional materials. Emphasis to Epson and its cultural inclination was base less since it was more of a good gesture exercise. Our task as per the client was concerned was smooth co-ordination with different sponsors and prominent spaces to have Epson Logo including the stage other than the prints on invites, mailers and advertisements.
This was our first full time effort into cultural and entertainment events! Really memorable one!!
Bacardi - Bacardi Blasts & Salsa's - 2000 & 2001
Objective: To highlight the brand recall and recognition
Target: End consumers (us!!!)
Challenge: Limited advertising scope
Communication Tools: DM's, Teasers, Posters, Invite, Website, PR and brand hype
Apart from Hosting, Media Management, Guest Relations, Itinerary of the event, Selection of event management company and coordination of whole event the major task was to get the whole thing running all round city. Whole town was turned on with teasers and posters. All the hangouts were flooded with surprise invites to the party. With the success of the blasts from last two years (2002 & 2003) now they are planning to sell the tickets. It has now been branded as the most happening party in town. Bacardi is even contemplating making it twice a year. It is now so popular that Smirnoff has risen to the occasion with its own version of blast, which also is entertaining the party hungry Bangalore crowd.
Ramana Gogula, CEO of SYBASE - 1998
Objective: To position the company as young and happening with its CEO portrayed as brand ambassador
Target: Potential employees and current Sybase employees
Challenge: Getting him to play at a public platform and highlighting it
Communication Tool: Organising a live show
Ramana Gogula was a musician by choice. With his special inclinations and his band he had made an impact in his US office. With month long planning, we decided to present him as a musician. The journey started with his first concert at a Round Table function in Taj ended up in him directing music for some super hit Telugu movies. The effort in promoting him at V and MTV was real fun and out of the way since we used to handle his company as an IT client. Thanks to this wonderful concept of Goglua we really made him a front-page celebrity at Bangalore's music scene.
Though critics parry him, Ramana Gogula’s music is rage among youth. With just four films, he created sensation in Telugu film music. He had introduced new sounds to Telugu Cinema. His compositions are a bit fast to old ears but gels well with youth. Unlike conventional music directors, he is not on the spree of signing films. He gives just what he thinks that his body would go rolling over the tune. Get ready for rock and roll with this soft and gentleman.
Coke - Aamir Khans visits Bangalore to Endorse Coke - 2000
Objective: Create hype over his visit to Bangalore
Target: Teens and tweens
Challenge: Managing a huge celebrity and inviting other local Celebrities to make it into real front-page news
Communication Tool: Invites, PR, Advertising and DM's
It was one of our first ventures with Coke as a client and had to prove our wroth as a communications agency to retain the client. With special monitoring from Delhi the whole thing flew past and was considered as success by coke. The venue Mega Bowl was stormed with teenagers wanting to touch and feel Aamir Khan and inviting the local Celebrities added colour and masala to the event. The invite was designed with special inputs from Aamir Khans office and was copied down on to posters and direct mailers. The overall smile of Coke guys after the event and then the letter from their office extending the contract was real reward for the day night work we did for this event.
TTF, Mumbai - Travel and Tourism Fair - 2000
Objective: Create full house on all four days
Target: Attract general public and pre event campaign to attract more customers to invest in stalls at the fair
Challenge: Too many fairs in Bangalore
Communication Tool: DM, Outdoor publicity, PR
The client here was very to the point and was clear about what he wanted. The need for good PR for such an event was little diminishing at that time since the very fact that the press conference specially the interaction did not go too well. Then came the thrust on other publicity vehicles like the DM’s, Calling etc. Organising all these was a tough call in very short time. But the amount of people who came in for the fair was satisfactory to the participants and to the clients.
Britannia - Britannia Champs - 2001
Objective: Popularising Britannia Tiger Brand
Target: Tweens (Children below age of 15)
Challenge: Portraying the event as a socio environmental exercise
Communication Tool: PR and Placed Articles and case studies
Tie up with Save The Tiger campaign, which was hitting highs at that moment and collecting over lakh signatures from children all over the country. These scrolls were displayed in all major cities and it was
concluded in Bangalore. The city was pained with posters and banners talking about how Tiger = Forest = Us and many programmes were run at schools. The scrolls were displayed in RBNMS grounds (police permission to this event was a real bottle neck!!). Children from all over the state participated in this rally and the same was officially entered in Limca Book as the highest number of signatures by this age group for any campaign.
Satyam Infoway - Launch of Satyam ISP in Karnataka - 1998
Objective: To popularise a relatively unknown concept of ISP (those days) to general buyers
Target: Regular home PC user in Karnataka
Challenge: Language, saleability versus the huge advantage of VSNL in terms of reach and also costing.
Communication Tool: PR, DM, Advertising and Road shows
With the ISP word just waking up the Satyam venture was actually branded as foolish from others in the field. But to all its competitors surprise they fared very well. With literature running in local language and with limited support the collaterals were the most pains taking part of the whole exercise.
Coke World Card Campaign - 2000
Client: Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd.
Objective: To sell the customer loyalty cards to TA
Target: Youth, Coke freak, casual drinker, budget drinker and collectors
Challenge: To promote the card at a very low budget spend for promotions
Communication Tool: Live show, PR, Ads, DM, Posters, Hoardings, Truck backs
The novelty concept of a customer retainer/database maintaining programme launched to assist the sales of the lesser-known products. With the benefits of discounts at popular places selling it to the usual audience was not a problem. But to convince or to convert a customer who drinks coke because its given to him at the store, this method proved better than many others tried out by Coke.
Nike - Multimedia Magazines - 2001
Objective: Value added feature for end users
Target: Current and potential Nike Shoe customers
Challenge: Communication
Tool: CD-ROM
Nike in India soon realised the information thirst and decided to initiate free user manual and information on Nike technology and forthcoming products on interactive CDs. This project was designed and operated for deriving optimum mileage from tech savvy consumers. Interactive softwares were used to involve the normal CD browser with the product. We were involved in the project starting from sourcing the CDs to choosing the right technology to be highlighted and written in common mans language. This was quite popular with the consumers and the cost factor crippled Nike from going back to the printed manuals than the CD ones.
Miss India Anne Thomas's Lion club endorsement 1998
When Anne became from sweet next door girl to Miss India, she also was instantly active in the social circles. She also became a brand ambassador for the Lions Club activities in terms of the elaborate eye care program. Lions did put her through to us to achieve publicity using her current stature.
She was widely interviewed in news papers and also in electronic media. Her every visit to the eye hospitals patronised by Lions was highlighted in media. This effort did not take much effort from our side because she was a darling of lenses. Her smile instantly took the photographers to her stride and a picture and story was confirmed with every media talking/visiting her.
Nike Nelamakkada Family Hockey Tournament 2001
This is the best program which we conducted for Nike. When Nike decided to come in a big way into this family culture of Coorg, the Scotland of India, the first question was how would we do so many things. The sheer task of steering all the media to this venue was mind boggling. But the grand ness of the event took all in its stride and it was a grand success.
Kodagu is also the hockey hotbed of Karnataka, having produced such illustrious players as B. P. Govinda, M. P. Ganesh, B. K. Subramani, A. B. Subbaiah, K. K. Poonacha, C. S. Poonacha, Jagadish Ponnappa, Len Ayyappa, and Amar Ayyamma.
The Nike Nellamakkada Cup hockey tournament, held in the tiny town of Ammathi in Kodagu from from April 20 to May 13, recently entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest family tournament in the world.
Every year, the tournament takes on a different name and is held in a different town, based on the family that is organizing it. The tournament committee has already identified hosts among Kodava families till 2010.
This family tournament dates back to 1997, when Pandanda Kuttappa and his brother thought of having a common platform where all the Kodavas could come together and play the game they love most. The tournament has grown rapidly in size from its early beginning, as seen from the table below:
Each team is made up of members of only one, blood-related family. Women can also participate; they have the choice of representing either their paternal side or maternal side. The tourney has brought together fractured families, and helped bury ancient animosities. Uncles, cousins, brothers and nephews who otherwise barely see each other are now part of a team effort. Many of them work in cities like Bangalore, Chennai or Delhi; they time their annual vacation to coincide with the tourney which is the talking point for months together.
On the eve of this year's final, Kodagu, the birthplace of the holy river Kaveri, hosted a cultural evening comprising Ummathat, Peeleatt, Bolakatt and Polakkuatt dances. Each dance symbolised the rich Kodava culture and their ever-lasting love for Kaveri.
Representatives from Guinness were present to witness this unique tournament. The final was held between the Cheppudira and Koothanda families. Spectators started occupying their seats two hours before the title clash, held at the Ammathi High School ground. All sport-loving people of the Kodava community were there to show their undying passion for hockey. Koothanda beat Cheppudira 3-1 to win a hat-trick of hockey titles.
Thanks are also due to title sponsor Nike who made the 2001 edition of this unique tournament possible - not a small task with 226 participating families, 12 matches a day, 4,068 players, 2003 goals, and a daily average of 15,000 spectators over the 24 days of the mega-tournament.
Nike "What Woman Want" Show 2001
For all of us who saw this fantastic movie around the Advertising industry of US and the mature romance of Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, the clients Nike and "No Games, Just Sport" is quite unforgettable. Nike did elaborate promotions all over the world with this movie.
Like wise in India too the promotions and festivities continued. We had to salvage database of celebrities and invite them for the show. Of course it included media from the features section with movie reviewers. The premiere show was in Galaxy or Shankar Nag Theater and to the pleasing smile on Nike, we did a good job of getting the sort of crowd they expected. Actually since the Marketing Manager handling this event was a lady we exactly knew what women want.
Nike Bhupati Tennis Village
This dream project of Mr. Krishna Bhupathy, is partly sponsored by Nike. Famous India tennis star Mahesh Bhupathy also hails from this village. Not to forget budding tennis stars like Rohan Bopanna, Sania Mirza and the likes. We had special media and promotional activities for activities in the village. We still cherish the concept of mini tennis for kids who were shorter than the tennis racket itself.
One of the Tennis Village’s main passions is the drive to spread a love of sports among people, and to encourage those who already love a game onto higher levels of involvement. From bringing the tennis aficionados together under one sky to putting the golf enthusiasts onto one stage, our ultimate aim is to grow sports and sports support in India. The membership is restricted to those who have a genuine interest in furthering this dream. Sports Village is a unique club of distinguished people from different fields. The membership is extremely exclusive, and members are screened minutely. The Club, in addition to offering the usual facilities of leisure and food that other clubs in the city do, has an impressive list of other features (listed below). It encourages like-minded individuals to enjoy the high-end sports facilities at the Tennis Village, through direct involvement or support.
Kishori Amonkar, Hindustani Vocalist 2004
She is the giant of Hindustani Music and one of the greatest musicians India has seen. When Chakra Entertainment decided to get her to Bangalore the decision of where the event should be held was started. We were involved in pin to pin of this event from booking the artist till ticket sales.
Entire campaign around this event including Radio, TV and even conceputalisation was done by us. Well the most difficult part was of Guest relations for all who knows the artist this is no big issue!!
Kishori Amonkar, widely considered the finest female vocalist of her generation, was bom in 1931, daughter of another great artist, Smt Mogubai Kurdikar. In her early years she absorbed the approach and repertoire of her distinguished mother's teacher Ustad Alladiya Khan. As her own style developed however she moved away from Alladiya Khan's "Jaipur gharana" style in some respects, and as a mature artist her approach is usually regarded as an individual, if not unique, varient of the Jaipur model.
Though her public image is sometimes dominated by perceptions of an uncompromising approach and unapproachability, the power and emotional appeal of her music has kept her in the forefront of classical music lovers' thoughts for many years.
Veena Sahasrabudhe, Hindustani Vocalist 2004
The second event for Chakra Entertainment. This time the strategy was changed and the event was held on a Thursday (brave decision) instead of a weekend. The tickets were also priced competently and we had a full house that day.
Veena Sahasrabudhe comes from a family of musicians. Her father, late Pundit Shankar Shripad Bodas, was a disciple of Pundit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar. Young Veena started her musical education with Kathak dance. She was initiated into Khayal singing by her father and her brother, late Pundit Kashinath Shankar Bodas. Padmashri Balwantrai Bhatt, late Pundit Vasant Thakar and late Pundit Gajananbua Joshi have also contributed to her education.
The style she has created for herself retains the fundamental values of Gwalior Gharana while borrowing somewhat from Kirana and Jaipur gharanas. The vidwans laud the authenticity of her music while most listeners are moved by its directness and intensity. Apart from Khayal, she is sought after for her rich repertoire of bhajans.
