FICCI Frames 2008, the annual convention of the media and entertainment (M&E) industry gets underway in Mumbai from March 25, 2008. The three-day event will cover the entire gamut of M&E like films, TV, radio, digital entertainment, animation, gaming, visual effects, etc. The inaugural session would see Minister for Information and Broadcasting, PR Dasmunsi, release the FICCI-PWC report on the M&E industry.  more...

With AAAI and the Ad Club coming together this year for a single advertising festival, the industry is all agog with excitement over GoaFest 2008. However, Lowe and McCann Erickson have stayed away from GoaFest this year. Would their absence make any difference or would the Festival go ahead with all the gaiety and business of advertising associated with it? exchange4media asks ad honchos.  more...

Lintas Media Group has bagged the media duties of Business Standard. The campaign kickstarted with the launch of first the Hindi business newspaper in the country, supported by a multimedia campaign in February 2008. Lowe has been given the creative mandate for the newspaper.  more...

Himanshu Shekhar, GM, MindShare Fulcrum, has decided to move on from the organisation after a stint of over seven years. No official comments were available at the time of filing the report. Details of his next destination were not known either. Sources close to the development informed that Shekhar had already put in his papers.  more...

Tatva PR, the PR firm promoted by Adfactors PR in which Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd holds a stake, started its operations from March 24 in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. The agency has appointed Shekhar Ghosh as its CEO. Ghosh would be assisted by Chief Operating Officer Mehul Mehta.  more...

Aditya Atri, Senior VP & General Manager, India, MRM Worldwide & Momentum Worldwide, is set to join Reliance Retail by early April. In Reliance he would be based in Mumbai and report to Muralidhara Kadaba, CEO of the Membership, Finance and Travel (MFT) vertical.  more...

Big FM has intensified its marketing activities and has plans to spend upwards of Rs 25 crore on its various properties during 2008. The ‘Sing with Sonu’ contest, which is currently on air, would have a sizeable share of the marketing budget. The station has also lined up various other activities spread through the year.  more...

Optimum Media Solutions (OMS), the independent media arm of the Mudra Group, has been appointed to handle the integrated media duties of ZipCash, a mobile payment service that provides an SMS-based payment mechanism. The win comes following a multi-agency pitch.  more...

PB Ramaswamy, Station Head, Big FM Chennai, has been elevated as Cluster Head of the FM station for Tamil Nadu. In his new role, Ramaswamy would manage the day-to-day functions of the Chennai station besides looking after the Pondicherry station along with the other stations to be launched in Tamil Nadu post-Phase III of licensing.  more...

Commemorating the spirit of Olympics, Coca-Cola India on March 24 announced six environment champions who would run with the Olympic Torch in Delhi on April 17, 2008. The select group of Olympic torchbearers would include Aamir Khan and Dr Kiran Bedi, among others.  more...

The cricketer declared ‘Man of the Series’ at the ICL championship can look forward to some more added glitter apart from the trophy. The Gitanjali Group has unveiled a diamond-studded cricket ball that would be presented to the ‘Man of the Series’ of the Edelweiss 20s Challenge.  more...

Bangalore Environment Trust and Rediffusion DYR have come together to garner public support for World Forestry Day through an innovative concept, engaging ‘Rudaalis’ or professional mourners from Rajasthan to mourn the ‘death’ of a tree.  more...

BEIJING (AdAge.com) -- Despite censorship issues, the battle for China's exploding online-video-sharing market is intensifying with the announcement this month that MySpace is forming an exclusive partnership with a leading local YouTube-like player called Youku. They are creating a video channel at myspace.youku.com, where users can upload videos to the channel and watch Youku content.  more...