MAM
Hitachi goes global for ‘War of the Worlds’ with Spielberg, Cruise
MUMBAI: Hitachi has entered a partnership with Paramount Pictures for a worldwide promotional campaign surrounding the upcoming movie War of the Worlds, it was announced by Hitachi general manager consumer business group Kazuhiro Tachibana.
The most highly anticipated film of the summer, War of the Worlds, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise will hit the theaters worldwide on 29 June.
Hitachi’s promotional campaign, entitled ‘The Ultimate Visual Experience,’ marks the first step of Hitachi’s new marketing strategy incorporating its keyword “Glocal” and will include global advertising and marketing activities. In Japan in particular, various campaign activities are planned targeting the summer bonus sales period.
“Our ‘The Ultimate Visual Experience’ campaign is a perfect match between Spielberg and Cruise’s pursuit of the world’s best in film entertainment and Hitachi’s commitment to the highest picture quality through its digital consumer electronic products. We are thrilled that our high-quality products will not only be seen in the film, but will also be leveraged for a global promotion, ” said Tachibana
“We are proud to have broken new ground by partnering with Hitachi. This is Hitachi’s first foray into the branded entertainment space with a feature film,” said Paramount Pictures senior vice president Worldwide Marketing Partnerships Lisa DiMarzio. “Hitachi’s global promotion with War of the Worlds is a multi-tiered campaign that spans television, print, and online, and also includes several innovative consumer activation tactics that will be unveiled throughout the campaign,” she added.
The War of the Worlds partnership, led by the Consumer Business Group established in October, 2004, is the first of its kind for Hitachi. Previously, Hitachi advertising or promotion activities had been performed individually in each region (North America, Europe, China, and Asia) and country.
Hitachi’s approach to the War of the Worlds campaign is based upon a new marketing strategy using the keyword “Glocal,” a coined term combining “global” and “local,” and is designed to improve Hitachi’s consumer products business and strengthen its brand power on a global scale.
Paramount Pictures distributes the film in North America and UIP distributes in international markets, including Japan. ‘The Ultimate Visual Experience’ campaign will launch on 1 May with a groundbreaking convergence of entertainment and technology and continue through 31 August.
Hitachi’s summer campaign with War of the Worlds occurs during a period lacking any other events with worldwide appeal, such as the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics, so Hitachi will aggressively utilise the timeliness of ‘The Ultimate Visual Experience’ to increase sales of its plasma televisions.
The global partnership with War of the Worlds marks a new period for Hitachi regarding how they approach entertainment and marketing. Adopting a new method combining product placement, whereby Hitachi contributes the company’s products for use in films, and cross promotion, which supports and advertises the company or its products by utilising product images in films, Hitachi is aiming to not simply carry out conventional advertising activities for product exposure, but to provide news hooks, deliver messages to stakeholders, and improve its company image.
The company will gathered employees in charge of sales and marketing worldwide for a global marketing conference, which was held from 25 – 26 April in order to implement its marketing campaign worldwide.
War of the Worlds is a contemporary retelling of the H G Wells’ seminal classic, the sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it.
Brands
Boeing appoints Barun as head of FP&A for global engineering function
Seasoned finance leader to steer budgets and strategy across global centres
BENGALURU: Boeing’s finance cockpit has a new pilot, and he is no stranger to turbulence or transformation. Boeing has appointed Barun as head of FP&A for global engineering, placing him at the centre of financial strategy for its worldwide engineering and technology operations.
Based in Bengaluru, Barun steps into a role that is as expansive as it is critical. He will serve as the primary finance lead for Boeing’s Engineering and Technology Centers globally, working closely with executive leadership to shape financial decisions, manage complex budgets, and design scalable finance processes that support the company’s growing engineering footprint.
In a note announcing his move Barun said, “I’m excited to share that I’ve joined Boeing Global Engineering. This opportunity is incredibly meaningful to me not just from a professional standpoint, but also for what Boeing represents globally.” He added that he looks forward to contributing to an organisation that continues to shape the future of aerospace and innovation.
Barun’s mandate spans strategic financial leadership, operational oversight, and stakeholder engagement. From directing large-scale budgets and schedules to influencing long-term organisational goals, the role blends financial discipline with business foresight. He will also lead cross-functional teams and partner with finance colleagues worldwide to support engineering programmes across geographies, including India.
The appointment caps a long stint at Juniper Networks, where Barun spent over a decade, most recently as finance senior manager. There, he led FP&A for global product business units and G&A functions, driving budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning. He also played a key role in enterprise-wide transformation, including spearheading an Oracle to SAP ERP migration and building advanced analytics capabilities using tools such as Tableau and SAP Analytics Cloud.
His earlier career includes finance leadership roles at Sony India Software Centre, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and Mphasis, where he focused on financial planning, governance frameworks, and operational efficiency across global delivery centres.
A chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Barun brings nearly two decades of experience across financial planning, digital transformation, and analytics-led decision making.
His appointment comes at a time when global engineering operations are becoming increasingly complex and distributed, requiring sharper financial oversight and agile planning. With Barun at the helm of FP&A for engineering, Boeing appears to be tightening its financial playbook as it looks to scale innovation with discipline.
