Sunburn 2009 dates announced: DJ Buuren, Roger Sanchez to headline

For 2009, the festival organised by PDM will be held from December 27-29, 2009 and headlined by reigning world’s No. 1 DJ Armin van Buuren spinning the table along with DJ Roger Sanchez and other acts. Announcing the dates, Percept’s Joint MD, Shailendra Singh said, ''Two years down the line, we understand the significance of the product. When we started out in 2007, we had the product, in the second year we offered the 'experience', and now we are in the process of creating a brand for the festival like the Glastonbury in UK. This year's festival is expected to attract up to 70,000 people and will also have sporting events, food stalls and Sunburn merchandise in addition to the dance and music".

''The festival was voted the best live event in the country last year, and is listed as one of the top ones in the world. Last year, post 26/11 also, the festival was not cancelled. Not out of insensitivity, but to show that life must go on,'' said Singh.

Lalit Modi approves the biopic

IPL chief Lalit Modi gave his approval to Percept Picture Company (PPC) for a “fictional biopic” on his life.

“I had a meeting with him (Modi) in Mumbai and he was very excited that he’s committed for the film. It’s a fictional biopic like Guru on Dhirubhai Ambani,” Jt. MD, Percept Ltd., Shailendra Singh said. “Titled ‘The Commissioner’, the script of the biopic is being written by Shridhar Raghavan and is under development... other than the lead, casting won’t be much of an issue,” he added.

Sanjay Ghodawat Group forays into entertainment with Percept Picture Company

The Sanjay Ghodawat Group announced its foray into the entertainment space with Percept Picture Company with an investment of Rs 100 crore. As the group marks its initiation with the release of the movie ‘Jail’, which is a Madhur Bhandarkar film, the investment will be made within the span of the next three years' time.

“Percept has always focused on creating quality content, and we are extremely pleased to have The Ghodawat Group partner with us to create path breaking content. This association marks the coming up of two other projects as well. There is Priyadarshan’s ‘Bum Bum Bhole’ and Chandrakant Kulkarni's ‘Carry on Pandu’ in the offing. Both are expected to hit cinemas in early 2010," said Shailendra Singh, Joint Managing Director, Percept Limited.

P9 Integrated completes 5 years, eyes 175% YOY growth next year too

P9 Integrated, the movie marketing company offering 360-degree entertainment marketing solutions, turned five recently. Bullish about the company’s growth, Maneesh Mathur, COO, P9 Integrated, affirmed, “It’s been a dream journey for us. We’ve grown 175 per cent year-on-year. Our target is to grow 175 per cent next year too. 2009 has been a good year for us. Despite so much talk about recession, we weren’t heavily impacted. Our significant milestones include our content division. We are taking up movie contracts exclusively. We changed our model in case of brand entertainment. We are among the top three activation division agencies.”

PDM India managed Force India ‘Speed Nights’ across 7 cities

The ground activities for Force India F1 team were managed and executed by PDM India, a division of Percept Ltd. The events were held on racing Sundays in 14 pubs across 7 cities, and are expected to continue next season too. Pubs in Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai were selected for this activity. An initiative by Radio City, it has offered India’s only Formula One team the right platform to engage with F1 racing fans in India.

Percept OOH executes the Tata Motors Land Rover campaign

Percept-Out-Of-Home executed the Tata Motors latest brand Land Rover campaign in Mumbai. The targeted prime locales were JJ Flyover, Juhu, Cadbury Junction and Bandra ROB. The campaign lasted for 15 days and achieved wide coverage.

Allied Media eyes growth upwards of Rs. 1,500 crore in 2010

Allied Media is quite bullish about the coming year, with its COO, Shripad Kulkarni, stating, “We are targeting growth upwards of Rs 1,500 crore next year. We expect to close the current financial year at Rs 1,000 crore in March-April 2010. We started off FY09-10 with a bang, where we bagged BSNL, Future Group and Panasonic. We added business worth Rs 400 crore in one stroke. Last year, we broke even. We want to double our business in 18 months with a solid team, processes and system.”

He further added, “With our Engagement Planning Process (EPP) model, we aim to address various stages of planning in the communication process through a suite of tools like ‘Market Place’ which gives an overview of the dynamic market, and ‘Brand Map’ which shows the current and future roadmap for the brand. The ‘Media Map’ tool helps in creating three dimensional models in search for communication platforms, while the ‘Evaluation Matrix’ helps in the engagement rating point.”