Zee Interactive Learning Systems Ltd, the multimedia education subsidiary of Zee Telefilms, is currently in the middle of a major drive to increase awareness around its Zed Career Academy.

The initiative is part of the increased activity being witnessed in ZILS after the twin appointments recently of promoter Subhash Chandra‘s son Amit Goenka as managing director and Dilip Mahapatra as COO. As director of learning centers, Mahapatra has been instrumental in expanding Zed Career Academy from 156 centres to a 300-plus strong nationwide ground network of comprehensive learning network consisting of learning web portals, multimedia and the print, supported by a network of learning centres, equipped with interactive learning, across South Asia with the capability to address a variety of learning needs, an official release states. While Mahapatra handles day-to-day operations, Goenka‘s brief is to drive the business of ZILS, official sources say.

And in what is termed as a long-term relationship, ad agency SSC&B has been assigned the task of handling press publicity. The main focus is on print campaigns, which are being done through inserts in newspapers. Zee organises which paper and on what date they will appear while SSC&B provides the design. The agency is positioning Zed Career Academy as a "unique interactive computer learning institute" with the tagline - Classrooms of the future.

ZILS is also concentrating on below the line activities. For example, it is organising seminars in colleges. They also run show reels in cinemas, both in the suburbs and in the city. Touch screen kiosks have also been set up in some locations. The possibility of hoardings in important city locations is also being studied, the sources say. On the television front ZILS is regularly being promoted on through the Zee bouquet.

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), which on 24 August is launching a campaign to increase confidence in Indian advertising on television and print media, can well cope with the expected increase in public complaints, chairman Sam Balsara says.

The ASCI is going all out to increase consumer awareness about advertisements and the ASCI‘s role in industry. "Lie and you shall be answerable to ASCI," is the new credo being adopted and will feature very prominently on all their advertisements.

With this form of redressal available to the consumer, would not the number of complaints go up substantially? And would the ASCI be able to cope? Judging from past experience, though complaints will generally increase, many are common ones so the existing machinery already in place will be able to cope, Balsara says.

The 30-second ad will not be the usual grind of models trying to convince you that whatever they are selling is all that you require to achieve Nirvana in your poor life. The new campaign is targeted at customers asking them get proactive with their complaints about misleading advertisements.

The campaign will feature well-known consumer activist Priya ‘Rajani‘ Tendulkar, who will exhort consumers not to take things lying down and voice their complaints if they come across dishonest, misleading or indecent advertisements.

The necessary mechanisms to see that the consumer is protected have been put in place already. The ASCI print ad reads: "If an ad is wrong, we will set it right. If an ad is indecent, misleading or dishonest, we will set it right."

The commercial is expected to air on all Hindi television channels at timings to be to be fixed with respective channels, with regional channels to follow suit in different languages by the middle of next month. Sony, Zee and Star have already agreed to air the ad.

When contacted, Sandeep Goyal, group CEO (broadcasting) Zee Telefilms, said: "We will definitely put up the ad wherever we can. If there is a gap available in prime time slot, we will definitely plug in the ad. After all its for everyone‘s good."

Conceived by Madison Creative and produced by Kuttu Chatterji of Hi-Class films, the film has been provided free of cost to the council. Complaints from consumers protesting have seen a big decline from over the past few years but intra industry complaints have seen a steep rise where rival agencies keep each other on their toes in the ever-increasing competitive scenario of today. Approximately 150 complaints are received by the ASCI council in a year with around 85 per cent being resolved with the errant advertiser making the necessary changes to the misleading ads.

This forum has been available for quite some time but the common man is unaware of its existence and the manner to approach the problems he /she faces.

ASCI is a non-profit organisation, with members comprising of the media itself. There are four broad-based categories which have four elected members (professionals from the advertisement industry) to form a board. Upon receiving complaints the errant advertiser is informed about the situation with advice to get the necessary changes implemented.

Hopefully the consumer will benefit with better quality products with this campaign .

Just under three months after Zee Telefilms chairman Subhash Chandra announced he was looking to induct an international media major as strategic partner, the field for possible choices has narrowed to three likely players.

Of the three names that are being mentioned, the most likely party that will take a stake is Liberty Media Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T which also holds major stakes in Discovery Communications and Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corporation, merchant banking sources say. Two other names - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc (MGM), which already has an association with Zee in Zee MGM, Zee TV‘s rechristened English movie channel, and Viacom, whose Nickelodeon is distributed by the Zee Group MSO Siticable, have also been mentioned as strong possibilities.

What Chandra‘s holding will be when and if Liberty buys into Zee will be interesting to watch. There are reports circulating that Chandra would be willing to bring down his holding in Zee to 26 per cent, which is partly the reason why the scrip has been witnessing heightened activity over the last few days.

The search for a partner for Zee is being managed by UBS Warburg in Mumbai.

The Hallmark Channel, using the platform of the popular programmes like Sesame Street, Scholastic Clifford and Caillou on its Kids Block, has teamed up with well-known publishing house Scholastic India Ltd to organise in-school educational workshops for children in over 600 schools in India.

Branded "Hallmark Kids @ School", this activity, which recently kicked off in Mumbai, will over the next six months cover schools in the five key metro cities and 15 mini metro cities in India, according to a company release.

Commenting on the launch of these new initiatives, Terence Yau, VP and Managing Director Asia Pacific said: "These shows promise to take kids across the country on fantastic, magical new adventures every day of the week. Viewer feedback reaffirmed our belief that Hallmark is best suited in providing programming for kids and is viewed as a natural extension to our core brand values - the values of Life, Love and Learning."

The Kids Block is a morning and afternoon block of children‘s programming and has recently launched a dual English and Hindi feed. The Kids Block airs 7 - 8 am in the mornings and 4 - 6 pm in the evenings on the Hallmark Channel. Sesame Street, the world‘s number 1 rated programme for kids, airs daily at 7 am, weekdays at 4pm and weekends at 11 pm; Scholastic Clifford airs every weekday at 5 pm while Caillou airs every day at 5:30 pm, the release states.