OAC (Outdoor Advertising Convention) 2012, the 8th edition of India's premier Convention, Awards and Expo event for the OOH advertising industry, will be held on 8-9th June 2012 at the Hotel Renaissance, Powai, Mumbai. The theme for this year's event is Disrupt the Status Quo and is an attempt to bring renewed focus to issues that continue to be obstacles to the medium achieving its true potential as a communication medium.

Rohit Samarth has joined DDB MudraMax as Senior Vice President. He heads the operations of Terra, its rural marketing agency. Rohit comes from Percept Out of Home, where he was the business head of its rural vertical responsible for all its communication and marketing strategies.

In an exclusive partnership and a first of its kind event, ING Life Insurance joined hands with Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (Namma Metro) for an innovative marketing initiative named ‘Life in a Metro’.

Ranjan Kapur has agreed with the Regional Management of bates Asia to step into the role of Chairman Bates India. It will be in addition to his current role as Country Head, WPP, India.

Madhukar Kamath, Group CEO and MD DDB Mudra Group announced today that the restructuring of the Mudra Group is complete and shared a slew of changes in responsibility of his ‘A’ team, pursuant to the Group’s integration with Omnicom and DDB Worldwide.

Raj Associates, Lucknow based Media Owner Company has obtained the rights for advertisements on Automatic Public Address System for next 6 years by Northern- Eastern Railway.

Mudra West, a SBU of Mudra India, has won the Lonely Planet guides [and digital media account] after a multi-agency pitch. There is no incumbent agency as Lonely Planet recently established operations in India to develop its first locally produced guides for Indian travellers.

Madhukar Kamath, the Group CEO and MD of the DDB Mudra Group has announced the appointment of Sonal Dabral as the Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of the DDB Mudra Group.

Application-orientated and innovative lighting solutions are in the focal point of the fair performance in Frankfurt. The luminaire manufacturer invites you to this year’s Light + Building in Frankfurt: Besides the core themes of LED technology and energy efficiency, visitors can expect a number of interesting product novelties and exciting lighting scenes on the openly designed stand.

DDB Mudra Group announced the entry of TracyLocke, one of the world’s most awarded shopper marketing agencies into India. TracyLocke, part of the DDB Worldwide Network, will fit into the DDB Mudra Group in partnership with MudraMax, India’s leading integrated engagement and experiential marketing agency.

HyperCITY Retail (India) Ltd recently appointed Darshana Shah as the Business Head for Marketing, Visual Merchandising, Loyalty and Space on Hire. She shall play an important role to build HyperCITY as a brand that presents the customer with the best ‘international shopping experience’ and is a value driven hypermarket in the consumer’s mind.

American quick service restaurant chain Quiznos will set up over 150 outlets in North and West India within the next five years. Quiznos has entered into a master franchise agreement with Delhi-based restaurant management company Sub-One Hospitality Services to open outlets across states like Punjab, Delhi/NCR, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra, the company said in a press release.

For the first time, Visa payment cards will be sold in kirana outlets to enable those without cards make electronic payments for travel tickets, utility payments and shopping. The US-based payment company has tied up with DCB Bank which has appointed Itz cash as a business correspondent which will distribute cards across 40,000 shops in 2,500 centres.

Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, a part of the Aditya Birla Group, recently launched its new premium retail format `Planet Fashion Grande.’ Driving the growth of its Planet Fashion retail format, the company opened its first Planet Fashion Grande store at 100 ft Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore.