Brief

BlackBerry Torch 9800, a much hyped touch smartphone from RIM, has disappointed company, specially at the cash book when it comes to sales numbers at first few days. Launched to compete with growing popularity of iPhone from Apple, BlackBerry Torch was expected to regain its lost grounds in North American market which does seem to accomplish by "Torch".

According to afaqs news, recently, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) had called for a pitch to appoint a creative partner for its pan-India campaign during the census. The biggest-ever census attempted in the history of mankind will enumerate the country's 1.2 billion population and classify Indian citizens according to their gender, religion, occupation and education.McCann Erickson, Mudra, JWT and DraftFCB Ulka are some of the agencies in the fray. The account size could not be ascertained so far, but considering the wide TG to be addressed, it is estimated to be sizable.

Airtel, is on the brink of ending its 15-year-long relationship with creative agency, Rediffusion - Y&R. Rediffusion has handled the brand since its inception in 1995, and has been with it through various ups and downs.According to afaqs the account is on its way to JWT India.Apparently senior officials at JWT,were unavailable for comment. Looks like Rediff is having real tough time with two blows in the same month. Its only last week they lost Colgate-palmolive to Bates !! Apparently, Airtel has been "dissatisfied" with Rediffusion for quite a while now, with talks of it threatening to move out of the agency doing the rounds in many an agency hallway.

According to a research which was published in the year 2008, smoking is killing nearly a million people a year in India, exacting a higher toll than previously thought, but allied problems are often different to those seen in the West. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows Indian smokers prefer traditional leaf-wrapped, hand-rolled "beedis" to manufactured filter brands, and are more likely to die of tuberculosis than cancer; and,they almost never quit.Smoking can cause enough damage to the lungs that the latent infection can no longer be contained, researchers said.As a result, tuberculosis is the most common cause of smoking-related deaths among Indian men. Also, smoking has a very harmful effect on the reproductive organs.

Nine Indian agencies bagged 21 awards in various categories at the Promotion Marketing Awards of Asia (PMAA) 2010 . Mudra Max, Jagran Solutions and JWT lead the pack with two golds each. The PMAA takes into account the idea,...

On Tuesday, Research in Motion (RIM) has officially launched its first ever smartphone "BlackBerry Torch". As expected Company has presented the new smartphone as an answer to Apple's iPhone and Samsumg's GalaxyS, lunched just few weeks back. BlackBerry Torch is loaded with OS 6.0, RIM's new mobile platform, which is having direct competition with Google's Android.

STAR CJ Alive has finally been launched after a long delay. Positioned as a premium home shopping channel, STAR CJ Alive is part of STAR CJ Network, which is a joint venture between STAR Group and South Korea's CJ...

Online travel company MakeMyTrip.com has planned to raise $100 Million from its upcoming IPO for which company has filed with U.S. capital market regulators. MakeMyTrip which will be listed under the NASDAQ with a symbol "MMYT",will offer an exit to the VC investors and promoters of the 10-year old company. Currently SAIF Partners ( VC ) owns 51.32% in MMT.

Finally the nominations of AdFest have been announced and the winners of ADFEST 2010 will be unveiled this week on www.adfest.com.Ten Indian creative agencies have been shortlisted at AdFest 2010, namely JWT, Ogilvy India, TapRoot India, Leo Burnett, Creativeland Asia, McCann Worldgroup, Rediffusion Y&R, BBDO India, Publicis Communications and Contract Advertising.

With steady growth of 30%, Info Edge (Nauki.com), has announced Net profit of $3.6 Million from Q2 operations ended on 30 June 2010, compared to $2.9 Million in corresponding quarter of the last fiscal year. Subsequently Total income has been raised by 17% to $16.5 Million compared to last corresponding quarter in 2009 which stood approximate $ 13.3 Million.