The Hindu Business Line : Madison acquires TeamWorks, forays into in-film advertising

The foray is being enabled by its acquisition of TeamWorks fp&e (film promotion & events), which will now be called Madison Teamworks fp&e or MATES, in short. The new company will have an authorised share capital of Rs 1 crore, according to a Madison press release.

TeamWorks, set up by Ms Darshana Goradia and Mr Sooraj Bhalla, currently has over Rs 3 crore worth of business in hand. Some of its 14 clients are LML, Frito-Lay, Reebok and Castrol. It's also working on films such as AB Corp's Virudh and Creative Eye's Aabra-ka-Daabra.

The release says TeamWorks had managed to get Shah Rukh Khan to wear Levis jeans with Reebok shoes and have a cup of coffee at Café Coffee Day and a pizza at Pizza hut in the film Main Hoon Naa.

Similarly, in Kyun Ho Gaya Naa, Vivek Oberoi, who is shown as a rally enthusiast, wears an overall with the logos of Mitsubishi Lancer, Castrol, Ceat and Coffee Day.

The press release quotes Mr Sam Balsara, Chairman & MD, Madison Communications: "The high cost of conventional media accompanied by the growing clutter has made in-film advertising an exciting and viable opportunity. On the other hand producers who are also constantly under pressure of making more lavish productions and then finding ways and means of meeting such expenditure are now more open to commercial exploitation of their properties."

MATES will be Madison's seventh specialised unit. Ms Goradia will be CEO and Mr Bhalla Director-Content of the organisation.