National digital radio station BBC Asian Network launches its biggest marketing campaign to date from next week across television, radio and online. Dubbed: The New Sound of Asian Britain, it launches on Monday 4th February and profiles the Network’s passion for the best in Asian music and culture.

The TV trail, to be shown on BBC TV, creates a new musical soundtrack from many shorter musical scenes layered and looped together. It mixes modern influences like drummers and DJs with more traditional Asian sounds and instruments including Bollywood singing.

The campaign consists of: 1 x 30sec TV brand trail; 2 x 10 second TV appointment to listen trails; online game where you can ‘Mix your own desi track’; onliner banner campaign; and radio trails. It will feature award winning Bobby Friction, Hip Hop turntablist, DJ Kayper, rapper Mumzy and Bhangra singer H Dhami.

A.G. Barr has appointed ethnic marketing agency The Marketing Effect to handle its in-store brand promotions of its premium water brand Strathmore Water. The company was chosen because of their experience in results driven promotions within the ethnic communities. A £2million above and below the line marketing campaign has been planned to focus on the wholesale industry.

Ethnic marketing agency The Marketing Effect has successfully retained an account in a 3 way pitch which it will be managing for Media Trust in association with Voluntary Arts England.

It will work on a new nationwide campaign called Up for Arts which aims to encourage participation in voluntary arts and crafts activities within ethnic communities, disabled and unemployed groups. The Marketing Effect has been working with Media Trust since late 2006 to increase awareness of volunteering opportunities within key groups who are at risk of social exclusion.

Music and a real-life story are being used to improve the levels of awareness of hepatitis C among the South Asian community.

The ‘My Story’ CD has been created by the Department of Health’s FaCe It hepatitis C awareness campaign and features music from some of the world’s hottest Asian artists, including Kamaal Khan, Hadiqa Kiani and Adnan Sami. The tracks surround a frank interview by top TV health presenter Yasmin Qureshi with Shabana Begum, a Pakistani woman who recounts her experience with hepatitis C, a virus which affects the liver. The CD also features advice from healthcare professionals about transmission routes and available treatment.

Although hepatitis C can affect anyone from any background, there is emerging evidence that the prevalence within the South Asian community in this country may be higher than in the general population.

Kapil Raina has moved from Zee TV UK to Aproxis Plc. He was senior manager for air-time sales at Zee and has now become head of media and merchandising sales. Aproxis Plc, through its subsidiary company Acks, has an agreement with the Middle Eastern entertainment brand Rotana to distribute their content and channels in Europe.

The British Heart Foundation’s “30 a Day” campaign South Asian launch event, took place last week. The campaign aims to encourage people over 50 to take 30 minutes of physical activity every day, and this event was specifically for people from South Asian communities. It was a 30 minute dancing session, with Channi Singh, celebrity singer, helping to launch the event.

Mrs Lopa Patel, founder of the Asian lifestyle portal Redhotcurry.com, has become the first Indian woman to be elected as a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) - the world’s largest professional body of marketing, with 50,000 members worldwide.

CIM has 1905 fellows with women making up about 10% of this group. Fellowship of the Institute is conferred upon members with a proven track record of expertise in marketing at the most senior level. Lopa, who has been a CIM member since 1990, attained the Institute’s Diploma in Marketing in 1991, became a Chartered Member in 1998 and has worked in marketing throughout her career.

Ms Patel, who is of Gujarati descent, said: “Like most young Asians at the time, I chose to study a science degree to please my parents. Although my first job was with ICI, a company that manufactured chemicals, I sought a role in marketing from the outset.” She then left ICI to start her own venture, a business-to-business direct marketing services company.