Brands
Baidu India to hold International university marketing competition
MUMBAI: Baidu’s India office today announced its participation in Baidu Inc.’s first International University Marketing Competition. The competition, which aims to empower the next generation of marketers, will be open to university students in India, China and Indonesia.The Indiaportion of the campaign will encourage local university students tocreateshort marketing videosfor a chance to intern at Baidu’s New Delhi office, and visit the company headquarters in Beijing.
The competition was formally announced at an opening ceremony in Beijing on 16 May. In addition to India, the competition willalso be open to students in China and Indonesia.“The Internet is changing the world quickly, and there’sa huge need for digital marketing talent,” said Baidu’s Educational Business Unit general manager Zhang Gao. “The International University Marketing Competition is a platform for all students to put their best foot forward and showcase their creative ideas”.
To participate in the India campaign, university students will first need to create a video on Baidu’s new video app Talebox. Outstanding videos will then be shared on Baidu’s app store MoboMarket and held to a public vote to select the final winners. The India competition will be held from August 1st to September 30th, 2016.
The Baidu India team plans to visitup to 100 universities across India duringAugust and September to raise awareness for the campaign and engage with local students. The planned visits will cover universities inmany major Indian cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Kanpur, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
For more information on how to take part in the competition, please follow the Baidu India Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/baiduindia/
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
