Team LG: The fear of ambush marketing

Eyeball-hungry advertisers are rubbing their palms at the prospect of World Cup frenzy. But the Cup's global partners, Pepsi, LG, Hero Honda and South Africa Airlines, which have paid $30 million (Rs 147 crore) each for sponsorship rights upto 2007, are looking a trifle tense.

Not for lack of back-up money-LG's Cup budget alone is Rs 40 crore-but the fact that the spend aimed at Indian audiences is expected to top Rs 500 crore. ''The response has been great so far, and I am sure the World Cup will be a sellout,'' enthuses Rohit Gupta, Executive VP (Sales and Revenue Management), set India, the channel with the telecast rights. Its strategy, as earlier, is to extend the average viewing time by running filler shows that also engage female interest.

What sponsors fear is that their big budgets remain vulnerable to sharp attacks of guerrilla wit, as happened to Coke with Pepsi's 'Nothing Official...' in 1996. ''We plan to use our rights as sponsors,'' says Ganesh Mahalingam, gm (Marketing), LG, which worries about the rival's 'Team Samsung' campaign. Pepsi must worry about Coke endorsers, and Hero Honda about TVS' Sachin appeal.

-Vinod Mahanta

TRACKING
Slippery Chairs
Corporate India's winter migration claims CEOs and executives alike.

H. Ramanathan: Moving to greener pastures

Who's moving the cheese at Kelloggs India? In September, when Managing Director R.C. Venkateish moved on to Tokyo, it was business as usual. But now within months, his successor Navneet Saluja has apparently quit to join-yes, yes-Reliance Infocomm as consumer head in Delhi. All this when with Cheez-it they finally had a brand that was beginning to smell success-some estimate that the brand is already worth Rs 70 crore.

On the tech front: If the grapevine is true, Nirmal Jain, Vice chairman and ceo of Silverline Technologies, is on his way out. That's quick considering the ex-Tata Infotech md only took up the position only in August this year.

Action is picking up at Dubai-based Landmark group, which operates the Lifestyle chain in India. Head of India operations H. Ramanathan has moved across to the UK operations. The group already had a presence in the UK in Ciro Citterio, a men's apparel retail chain with 127 stores across UK, that it bought over a year ago. From what we hear there is another brand acquisition happening in the UK. Meanwhile, Indian operations, which are in an expansion mode after the opening of the latest store in Gurgaon, will now be headed by S. Kumar who comes in from the group's Dubai operations. Meanwhile, the disquiet at HLL continues. From what we hear, some eight to 10 exits are on the anvil. Not the kind of turnover growth HLL needs at this time.

-Seema Shukla

C-DOT
All Dotty At 18
Telecom whizzboy Sam Pitroda's baby has turned 18. And it is not too young to die.

C-DoT headquarters: Pack-up time?

Set up in 1984 as a telecom brain-tank for the government, the Centre for Development of Telematics (c-dot) soaks up about Rs 80-100 crore every year from the Indian exchequer. Finally, someone in the government is asking: why?

Private technology is here, and c-dot isn't helping the country communicate any better. Helping a set of public-sector bodies stay nice and cosy with each other, it may well be, though. c-dot is a research body that designs switches and other transmission equipment, to be made by companies such as ITI, and sold to captive buyers such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).

It is time to snap the chain. The institution has outlived its utility. Not to worry, c-dot's top-brass seems to say. In a recent brainstorm with founder-mentor Sam Pitroda, they have worked out an alternative strategy. ''We have decided that product research and development needs to be more commercially oriented,'' says c-dot's Executive Director N.K. Mangla.

Laudable thought. But then, why bother being a government body? And if the dirty P word is out of the question, why not wind up the show? The private sector could do with all the technical talent.

-Vandana Gombar