Nivea 100 Years Celebration - My Skin Lounge

As NIVEA India continues its 100th year celebrations, the pace of consumer engagement goes one notch above. With a company built on Skin, NIVEA believes skin is vital and is the mirror to our soul. And the NIVEA My Skin Lounge Activation across Major Metros showcases the journey and it’s expertise on skincare.


NIVEA has signed up international star Rihanna as the voice of its 100 year celebration. The song ‘California King Bed’ accompanies the NIVEA anniversary campaign internationally. With the NIVEA MY Skin Moment Contest which forms a part of the NIVEA My Skin Lounge Activation, consumers will get an opportunity to meet Rihanna perform live at Hamburg, Germany. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter also communicate the My Skin Moment Contest to mobilize superstar Rihanna’s vast fan community.



NIVEA believes that every skin has its own story, the first time you held a loved one’s hand or the first time you felt your baby’s cheeks. Share your cherished skin moment and particiapte in the NIVEA My Skin Moments Contest and you could win:



· Tickets to see RIHANNA live in concert in Germany*



· Opportunity to feature in a special NIVEA My Skin Moments series in COSMOPOLITAN magazine – India



*Terms & Conditions apply



Bangalore will witnesses 100 year journey celebration at the NIVEA My Skin Lounge in Garuda Mall starting 14th October and 16th October. Kannada Actress Priyanka Upendra will also be present at the Nivea Skin Lounge. Other interesting aspects to the NIVEA My Skin Lounge is the unique psychological survey done internationally among 8,000 people from across the globe to understand the psychological interrelationships between biography, character and skin condition.



You too can discover the Language of Skin today, come indulge in a:



· Free NIVEA Skin Analysis



· Free NIVEA Skin Personality Test



· Free NIVEA Skin Lounge Services

For millions around the world, the trusted NIVEA brand has been a staple part of their household and their fondest memories. Since 1911, Skin continues to inspire NIVEA; fuelling skincare feats like pioneering the first ever stable cream, body lotion, deodorant with caring properties, Sun Protection Factor standard (SPF)& HYDRA IQ an intelligent 24H+ moisturizer –amongst others. NIVEA 100 YEARS OF SKINCARE – FOR LIFE.

India's Largest Social Network SMS GupShup Expands Leadership Team, Adds New Locations, Multiplies Reach

India’s largest social network and group messaging provider, SMS GupShup, announces the addition of two senior executives: Ravi Sundararajan as vice president of marketing, and Samir Parekh as vice president of human resources. The two bring four decades of marketing, sales and human resource experience, as well as expertise in product management and training. The company has met its goal to double headcount for 2011, with over one-hundred new employees company-wide. SMS GupShup has also opened five new offices across India in order to meet demand from its advertiser and user base.



SMS GupShup now has over 50 million users, outpacing both Twitter and Facebook in India. To meet the demands of its growing audience, GupShup has doubled its in-house staff this year, going from 100 employees in 2010 to 200 this year. The majority of SMS GupShup employees come from premium engineering and business institutes like IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) and IIM (Indian Institute of Management) and bring strong domain knowledge and experience.


As the company’s new vice president of marketing, Ravi Sundararajan brings over twenty years of experience in product management, development, sales and marketing to his new position at SMS GupShup. Sundararajan has entrepreneurial and blue chip business experience across his previous roles as an executive at Symantec, CEO at Cloud Services Start up, GM at Akamai, VP at Palm and Engagement Manager at McKinsey and Company. Sundararajan, an engineer by trade, earned his M.B.A at Harvard University. He will lead the company’s global marketing efforts including product, solution, channel and consumer marketing, branding, corporate communications and operations. Sundararajan is routinely invited to speak at industry/ media events.


“GupShup is transforming India in ways only dreamed about before, and I’m excited to connect our social media innovations with businesses and consumers around the world,” said Sundararajan


Samir Parekh is a chartered accountant by trade and also ran his own mutual fund distribution company, which he sold. He then became a full time trainer at Kotak Life Insurance. He has been a HR consultant since then, serving several clients before joining GupShup. In his new role as vice president of HR, Parekh will be responsible for growing and retaining the ace team at SMS GupShup (what is the ‘ace team’? pls add sentence to clarify).

Parekh looks forward to the possibilities for growth at SMS GupShup and said, “Great organizations are defined by great people. It’s my job to find them. As our user base grows, we must meet the demand with brilliant and passionate minds.”


SMS GupShup also announces the opening of seven new offices across India in order to meet demand from its advertiser and user base. SMS GupShup previously had five offices in India; the addition of seven new offices gives the company more equal distribution throughout all regions of India. The new locations are: Kochi, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur. The company already had offices in Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai, with headquarters in Mumbai.


“We have some of the best talent in the industry. Adding Ravi and Samir takes that to the next level and help us achieve our vision for everyone to be able to ‘GupShup’ – which means ‘chit chat’ in Hindi – on any mobile phone, even if they’re hundreds or thousands of miles away from each other. With these new hires, ‘GupShup’ is well on the road to becoming as common a word in English as yoga or kama sutra,” says SMS GupShup co-founder and CEO Beerud Sheth.

To learn more about SMS GupShup, please visit www.smsgupshup.com


About SMS Gupshup

SMS GupShup was created with the vision to create group messaging for all. The SMS GupShup platform enables the creation of large Mobile Communities and Reply-All Chat, a revolutionary product that allows people to use SMS for communication in smaller groups.

Launched in April 2007, SMS GupShup is a lifeline that connects 50 million Asians via mobile device. The network is a combination of nearly 5 million communities that share content on topics such as finance, entertainment, lifestyle, health, sports and technology. Founded by seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and incubated at the IIT Bombay Business Incubator, the company is funded by Charles River Ventures, Helion Ventures and Globespan Capital.

For more details visit http://www.smsgupshup.com/

Ramya, Fardeen Khan, Sharmila Mandre & Lisa Hayden Sizzle on the Runway at BPFT – Day 2

Moving Seagram’s Blenders Pride’s association with ‘Style’ a notch further, Pernod Ricard India has appointed Bollywood Diva and fashion icon Priyanka Chopra as the Brand Ambassador BLENDER’s PRIDE FASHION TOUR 2011.

Priyanka Chopra features in a multimedia campaign for BPFT shot stylishly in black & white by ace lens man Bharat Sikka. She will also scorch the ramp during the current edition. With an amplified media campaign, the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour is confident of setting the pace in the Indian fashion calendar once again.

On the association of Blenders Pride Fashion Tour with Priyanka Chopra, Bikram Basu, VP-Marketing, Pernod Ricard India said, “Priyanka is vivacious, confident, and brings an innate individual style. She is credible in the fashion space having been on ramp in her earlier days. Blenders Pride and Priyanka stand for the confident stylish and substantive Indian persona today.” He further added “Blenders Pride Fashion Tour, in its 7th edition, is a benchmark in the Indian fashion calendar. It extends across 6 cities and talks to consumers on style, design and skill; showcasing the finest in their profession.”

Miss Priyanka Chopra, Actress and Brand Ambassador of Blenders Pride Fashion Tour said, “Fashion is today a very intrinsic part of our everyday lives. In that spirit, I am very excited to be a part of the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour, which celebrates the grandeur of fashion and style and more importantly gives me an opportunity to promote creative freedom in fashion”.

The stars of this edition include Anand Kabra, Asmita Marwa, Gavin Miguel, Mandira Wirk, Neeta Lulla, Raakesh Agarvwal, Ramona Narang, Rina Dhaka, Rocky S, Rohit Gandhi & Rahul Khanna, Reynu Taandon, Vikram Phadnis and Wendell Rodricks. Blenders Pride Fashion Tour will have 50 shows, featuring these 13 designers across cities of Mumbai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

After a grand opening in Mumbai last weekend, the eagerly awaited fashion extravaganza is now being hosted in Bangalore at the Leela Palace featuring Asmita Marwa, Gavin Miguel, Ramona Narang and Vikram Phadnis on day 2 of BPFT.

Ramona’s Ibella label showcased ‘Ramona loves Resort and Ramona loves Couture’ collection. ‘Ramona loves Resort’, comprises of bold silhouettes in bright, vibrant colors and chain detailing, which can make one look glamorous all day long. ‘Ramona loves Couture’, revolves around a self-confident woman, who is comfortable with her own body and looks and embraces it with élan and the show stopper was none another than Actress Sharmila Mandre who is an epitome of these values.

The second show had Actress & Model Lisa Haydon walk the ramp for the edgy designer Gavin Miguel, showcasing his latest collection that is all about POWER from within. This entire collection speaks volumes of feline beauty with an edgy twist of asymmetric drama.

Asmita Marwa’s line ‘Metamorphosis’ is a complete change of form and structure, as if transformation by magic. Flower children of the 70's transformed into the retro chic brigade of the 80's. The process of transformation is always drawing back to the basics of day and night. The carefree spirit of the 70's evolved into the electrifying glamour of the 80's & 90’s. Actress Ramya showcased Asmita’s interpretation of this metamorphosis in a show-stopping outfit.

The Grand Finale for BPFT’s Bangalore edition featured Actor Fardeen Khan for Vikram Phadnis. Vikram’s collection is an amalgamation of soulful heritage with true urban influences. The collection celebrates the vivacious and buoyant spirits of artistic motifs on gentle fluid drapes in all earthy tones.

The Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2011 is supported by the best in the Industry- Alison Kanuga for choreography, Ambika Pillai for makeup and features only the finest runway models.