Chhavi Tyagi
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Nivea looks for its princesses for Miss India

The personal care brand is holding auditions for Nivea Visage Princess, who gets a wild card entry into the Pantaloons Femina Miss India contest next year

Nivea is giving a never before chance to all girls who aspire to be Miss India through a first ever wild card entry into the pageant. The personal care brand, which is also the associate sponsor (beauty and skin care) for the Pantaloons Femina Miss India 2009, has launched a search to find the girl who could be its wild card entry into the contest.

Speaking to afaqs!, Soma Ghosh, marketing director, Nivea, says, “The idea was jointly conceptualised by MEC Access and our team and it sounded like a very good opportunity to leverage our association with the pageant.”

The contest has been launched for the three pageants hosted by Pantaloons Femina Miss India, one national and two newly launched regional events. Pantaloons Femina Miss India South and Pantaloons Femina Miss India East have been launched for the first time.

Nivea looks for its princesses for Miss India
Rajneesh Chaturvedi, national director, MEC Access, says, “This is the first time ever that Miss India is allowing wild card entries to the three pageants and working on the idea with our client turned out to be very fruitful.”

MEC Access is holding a series of auditions for the personal care brand as a part of the contest. The auditions have the usual rounds such as ramp walk and Q&A rounds among others, and are being conducted by representatives from Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd., Nivea and a celebrity judge. The winner of the Nivea Visage Princess title gains an entry among the 25-29 finalists running for the Pantaloons Femina Miss India 2009 title.

While the event to select the Miss India South is already over (the winner, incidentally, was the Nivea Visage Princess, Faith Pandey), the auditions for the other two pageants will be held in January and February, 2009. The auditions for the wild card entries for Miss India East will be held in Kolkata. Delhi and Mumbai, among some other cities, are the venues for auditions for the national pageant.

The auditions for the Nivea Visage Princess South were held in Bengaluru. Ghosh says that the response to the contest was very favourable and the experience proved to be a very exciting one.

The promotions for the contest are running in the print, radio and outdoor media, along with some college level activations. While mediaedge:cia is the media agency of Nivea, the agency's division, MEC Access, was launched in India in April 2008.

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