The Hindu Business Line : AAAI

Today the Advertising Agencies Association of India conducts its AGM and Srinivasan Swamy will take on its stewardship for another year. All the best, Mr Swamy. We wish you well.

Some of the agency heads who will be elected unopposed to the Executive Committee include Colvyn Harris of JWT and Madhukar Kamath of Mudra. Best of luck to all the incoming committee members. They have a hectic Diamond Jubilee year ahead.

A little bird reveals that the pre-AGM papers indicate that some old worthies who had graced the committee for many years have chosen to give way to new blood. It seems that Anil Kapoor of FCB Ulka and Prem Mehta of Lowe are among the heavyweights (no pun intended) who might not be seen on the executive committee of the AAAI this year.

Old timers tell us that these two gentlemen, who have been very active in AAAI affairs, join two other active seniors Goutam Rakshit and Krishan Premnarayen who chose to opt out of the Committee last year. And, we wonder why Ramesh Narayan has regretted his inability to serve on the Committee despite being nominated unopposed. One had almost got accustomed to expect these same names on the committee of the AAAI. Well, it might be a sign of the changing times in the industry. One keenly looks forward to seeing who the new entrants are. And since Prem Mehta may not be there as Vice-President, who will?

AAAI seminar

Today will see Andrew Robertson, CEO, BBDO Worldwide, delivering the inaugural address at the first AAAI Diamond Jubilee Seminar. Tomorrow will be the full-day event where speakers such as Ranjan Kapur, C.K. Ranganathan of CavinKare and Sen Gupta of Café Coffee Day will deliberate along with media stalwarts N. Ram of The Hindu, Peter Mukherjea of Star and agency types like Sorab Mistry (imported all the way from Singapore), Shanta Kumar and Madhukar Kamath. Sounds interesting. We will give you a ringside view soon.

New media launches

HT off and running

By now, Hindustan Times must be shedding a lot of light on Mumbai and Mumbaikars. The launch on July 14 ends a lot of speculation and many postponements that have plagued the entry of this newspaper into Mumbai.

Piyush Pandey and his merry men who masterminded the advertising campaign for the newspaper's launch will now have to sit back and see if the desired results have been achieved or not.

At Re 1 per day (the subscription drive included a cash-back scheme), I would subscribe for the newspaper. At those rates you can't really go wrong and in any case the raddi value would be more than my outflow.

DNA on June 30

DNA has, of course, postponed its 21st launch date to July 30th. Rediffusion is the agency orchestrating this launch. It is quite amazing to think about the amount of pre-publicity DNA has managed to generate. Every move of even the branch assistant is carefully released to portals that need information to fill up a page on a daily basis. On the other hand, HT has been almost reticent in its approach.

Desperate ...

As Star TV kicks off its new show, Desperate Housewives, that has evidently taken the US by storm, we bring you an interesting statistic. Desperate Housewives is the No. 1 show in the US among women aged 18-34.

Something you might expect, I am sure. Interestingly, it is also the No.1 show among men aged 18-34. Goes to prove that men seem to be as desperate as women to know about Desperate Housewives. Reminds me of Femina that claimed that 49 per cent of its readership was male. Cosmopolitan, I am sure, is read by as many men as women. Wonder how many women read Man's World.

Sweet results

Media planners get an unplanned bonus each time a readership survey is released. To celebrate its NRS figures, Business World sent them a box of chocolates with the legend "To know how fast the competition melted away, just put one of these in your mouth." Well, the results of success are sweet indeed.

Business Standard, on the other hand, would not agree. It feels the NRS has done it a great injustice, and many people seem to agree.

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