Anant Rangaswami with Piyush Pandey. Photograph from Rangaswami’s Facebook page
It’s no secret that Anant Rangaswami was one of Ogilvy big boss Piyush Pandey’s closest friends and supporters. He was associated with the two books written by the Ogilvy Chief Creative Officer Worldwide and Executive Chairman India. In fact, in the just-released Open House, Rangaswami’s name figures as co-author.
“I have lost a very close friend, a partner and a confidante,” Pandey told MxMIndia on Tuesday morning, adding: “The industry has lost a supporter and an objective commentator.”
It’s always good been our attempt to pin down our Wizard with Words for a direct answer. Though it can be very difficult, since he’s always so geo-politically and socialy correct. But we are at it nevertheless, and for a change he responded with names. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the May 25 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.
Q. Since you watch IPLs so closely, which of the ads in the 2022 edition have you found most striking? And effective?
A. I can share my personal favorites as it drew my attention. I can’t comment on their effectiveness though. Here are the ads which Iiked:: Yeh ab normal hai: IPL promo advertisement, Cadbury’s thanking ground staff, Cred ads, Dream 11 series of ads and the Jaguar light launch ad. The treatment in all these advertisements are striking for sure.
HiveMinds, a Bengaluru-based online marketing strategy and services firm, and a unit of Madison World, a digital agency, has won the digital marketing mandate for Rupeek, gold finance company, following a multi-agency pitch.
Said a spokesperson of Rupeek: “Rupeek is the first brand that has digitized the entire process of obtaining secured credit against gold holdings, allowing users to get instant credit from the comfort of their homes. As we continue to grow and unlock gold backed credit for a billion Indians, digital marketing will play an important role in driving this momentum further via tech-led gold monetization (GoMon) in over 120 cities across the country. We are happy to partner with HiveMinds in this digital led growth.”
Added Deepti Bhadauria, Chief Strategy Officer, HiveMinds: “Gold asset loan is a $2 Trillion opportunity in India. There is a massive consumer segment looking for access to cheap capital and monetization of gold assets that can be unlocked using digital marketing effectively. I am happy that we will be partnering Rupeek, in scaling and building India’s largest digital asset-backed fin-tech platform.”
Tyroo Technologies, an Asia-Pacific adtech platform, announces partnership with Activision Blizzard Media to bring its programmatic advertising inventory to India. This partnership will open up opportunities for brands across regions to utilize in-gaming advertising and connect with players in a fan-first integrated advertising experience across mobile gaming.
Said Akshay Mathur, Chief Revenue Officer, Tyroo Technologies: “Gaming as an industry is growing at an exponential rate. It’s set to become the next entertainment hub and entry point into the metaverse; this has consequently bumped up the growth of users and revenue per user across emerging markets. Brand’s need to focus on gaming platforms to capture immersive and quality audiences. We know that brands are looking to acquire engaged audiences and players are responsive to advertising efforts by brands.”
Added Alex Kinzig, Director of Demand Partnerships at Activision Blizzard Media: “We are excited to work with Tyroo as our preferred partner to drive value into the in-game advertising ecosystem for Activision Blizzard Media. Tyroo has incredible experience and understand our player-first ad formats well.”
Zee has announced signing of the global media rights’ contract with UAE’s T20 League. The League will air exclusively on Zee’s linear channels and its OTT platform Zee5, in India and across the world. UAE’s T20 League is a professional cricket tournament comprising 6 teams competing in a 34-match competition, including – Reliance Industries Limited, Adani Sportsline, Kolkata Knight Riders, Lancer Capital, GMR Group and Capri Global.
Said Khalid Al Zarooni, Chairman UAE’s T20 League: “Nothing can be more satisfying than to have a credible broadcast partner like ZEE associated with the League. I am thankful to both Punit Goenka, MD & CEO and Rahul Johri, President – Business South Asia at Zee for having faith in this League and to grow into a commercially successful enterprise. It is further a matter of delight that Zee has decided to re-enter sports broadcast with UAE’s T20 League being the first media rights acquisition. We are very confident that ZEE has the strength of viewership to take our League to unmatched levels.”
Added Rahul Johri, President – Business, South Asia, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited: “At Zee, we are delighted to be the official global media rights holder of UAE’s T20 League. We believe that the League, which is already attracting globally, the biggest cricket stars and team franchisees, will provide fantastic cricket and entertainment to viewers across the world. Zee is committed to use the strength of its platforms to take UAE’s T20 League to audiences in India and across the globe.”
News 24, the umbrella brand of Bag Network, has launched its new digital platform: Podcast 24 – Awaaz Sabki. The podcast will cover news and stories on a variety of subjects including politics, Bollywood, crime, women, health, history, education and sports. It will also provide a platform to discuss and deliberate on a range of important and relevant social issues.
Said founder and CEO Anurradha Prasad: ” Podcast 24 – Awaaz Sabki will bridge the gap between news and our listeners by curating content that is current and relevant to our audience.”
Listeners can access the Podcast 24 through all major podcast apps such as Spotify, Amazon, Google etc. The channel can also be accessed through the News 24 website.
Jigsaw Brand Consultants has been mandated to create extension brands for the Prega News Portfolio by Mankind Pharma. This will include the strategic direction for the brand architecture, identity and packaging for the new brands.
Rutu Mody Kamdar
Said Rutu Mody Kamdar, Founder, Jigsaw Brand Consultants: “We are very happy to partner with Prega News for these new and exciting innovations in this category. We are bringing in our deep consumer insight skills that are being translated to identity and packaging design for this portfolio.”
Added Joy Chatterjee, General Manager, Sales & Marketing, Mankind Pharma: “The team at Jigsaw Brand Consultants brings with them an ocean of experience in this space. They understand the consumer as well as the science of design and communication: especially one that is as intimate as ours. I am delighted to have found partners in them and look forward to the value they bring to the Prega News table.”
Cred, the Bengaluru-based fintech company (Dreamplug Technologies) for Credit card payment promises its nine million-plus members points that can be redeemed against rewards. In a way, the customer not only earn rewards while buying things on a Credit card, but also when making Credit Card payment through Cred.
I have commented on Cred’s strategically quirky ads and clutter breaker creative devices. Personally, I was never a huge fan of Cred advertising and found it crazy. It did not really make sense, with hardly a real call for action and flogging the same message for too long.
With time, the advertising started making some sense. Cred advertising is impressive enough on focussed consistency. The message format has changed yet it has retained its basic flow and quirkiness. I can now appreciate the structure and the advertising a bit better, but am simply stumped with the scale and need.
Cred advertising is still about the rewards on Credit card payments. Other features like Expose Hidden Charges. Track Spends. Clear Bills, Free Credit reports and scores, referral programmes, Get Rewarded, Peer-to-peer lending or pay Rent are not promoted.
Cred – BOWLS OVER WITH RAVI SHASTRI
With the Ravi Shastri Cred ad, Cred seemed to have bridged a gap. The ad is all about the performer’s perception and image. Coming in towards the last leg of IPL, the timing is right. Being a country that focusses a lot on cricket, viewers relate to the act as Ravi Shastri and his passion for drinks is a joke shared too often.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=vLHpfulLcUE
The ad is humorous. It exploits the media image of Ravi Shastri. It has dialogues that one may find crazy and cheesy, but they are on the dot. And then Cred promising more fun than what Shastri is having. That is the week link.
‘Sattar minute for happy hours’, ‘I used to be a batsman, but for you, I can be a keeper’, ‘Waste mat karo yaar’ are spot-on. The timing perfect. Add to them my favourite: the poker-faced answer at the press conference, ‘Hate Talking to sports journalists’.
The Cred Ravi Shastri ad, like any other Cred quirky ad, is gaining views on YouTube. The small write-up under the ad on the Cred YouTube channel is equally interesting. Here it is.
As Ravi Shastri, I want to make it very clear that all my parties are invite-only. But I admire our youth and their potential, so if you’re able to do all of the following, you’re automatically on the guest list: (1) Open beer bottles with a bat. If you ask how, you’re already out. (2) Analyse footage from the party to see where drinks were wasted (3) Bartend 24×7(4) Carry an extra case of cough syrup at all times (5) Parallel park the bar-counter
If you make the cut, congratulations. You’re never going to remember another night in your life again. But if you don’t, cheer up: you can find an equally rewarding experience on Cred. All for paying your credit card bills. Believe me, I know what’s fun. To join me as a member, download the app.
What Next With Cred Ads
If Cred remains true to its advertising SOP, we can expect a series of ads in the format where the Celebrity may project their unwarranted images. Maybe Shashi Tharoor, Kangana, Chetan Bhagat, and Salman Khan could be good extensions to the series. Maybe the next series can pick trends with social media influencers. Hope it remains away from the region, religion, sex and politics – the four pointers that tilt the Smear Index for any communication.
Cred Clutter Breaking Communication Recipe.
Something must be right. Cred claims ( as of Oct 2021) a 700% increase in app downloads after the 2020 audition campaign featuring Madhuri Dixit, Govinda, Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan, Bappi Lahiri, and Anil Kapoor. And I was questioning – what the hell Cred was doing?
The next lot of communication has celebrities portraying images that you don’t associate with. The series featured Rahul Dravid, Jackie Shroff, Kumar Sanu, Venkatesh Prasad, Neeraj Chopra, and Kapil Dev. These were fun, and everyone had their favourite, with the Dravid ad being the most loved.
Then came the old era imagery with Karishma Kapoor in Nirma ad, Zee Antakshari with Renuka Shahane and Annu Kapoor, Sharma Ji-Gupta Ji, Shaan-Sonu Nigam song. I thought Cred was becoming too constrained with its own format and boundaries. And then it surprised us with Ravi Shastri ad that pushed me to rethink. The Ravi Shastri ad is fresh and one of the most enjoyable- but if it does anything to the business is a question mark. I will any day have the fun Ravi is having then go for the Fun of earning rewards by making Credit card payment on Cred.
Too Much Of Advertising!
That’s too many films in the last two-three years with not much to show in revenue other than valuation. So many celebrities and four format mutations. I may be bowled over with Cred Ravi Shastri for its timing and content. Still, I am stumped at the need and purpose of this considerable advertising.
Thanks to the advertising and some positive word of mouth, the brand enjoys a high recall and decent usage among Credit card users. However, the ad never made me want to check out or download the app. Maybe and hopefully, I am a minority. And perhaps the advertising is more cantered for VC, Investments and valuation.
Cred Not-so-Cred-ible Performance!
It is different when it comes to financials. Cred marketing spends outscore its revenue by huge multiples. It became a Unicorn within two years of launch, and the current expected valuation is around $6 Billion! And it behaved like one burning at a high rate.
Reports tell that Cred had a 95 cr total income and 88.6 revenue from operations in FY 21 (against 18.1 cr and 0.5 cr in FY 20), with total expenses at 619.4 cr and a loss of 523 cr in FY 21 (( against the expense of 3979 Cr and a loss of 361 cr in FY20)! Additionally, the marketing expenses themselves are pegged at 418 cr in FY21.
The brand seems to have launched or substantially grown products, including Cred Max, Cred Cash and Cred Travel which were not pushed aggressively with advertising.
One would here like to believe the founder Kunal Shah, statement: “At Cred, we are constantly working to enhance members’ experience to make it more engaging, frictionless and rewarding. With new design philosophy, gamified rewards constructs, best offers and high value jackpots, we are consolidating our message of rewarding the right financial decisions and the privileges that come by being a member of the Cred community.”
Will Cred Credibility get stronger in the future? We will have to wait and watch? Being Bowled by advertising is bad enough but getting stumped with financials is worse.
Dentsu India has announced that Sidharth Rao, CEO, DentsuMB Group India, will be leaving the business in December 2022. DentsuMB India will then come under the additional charge of Heeru Dingra, CEO, Isobar India group, supported by business leaders Ajit Devraj, Indrajeet Mookerjee and Harsh Shah. The new DentsuMB India leadership team will work with Rao through the transition, and in close partnership with Amit Wadhwa, CEO for the entirety of Dentsu’s Creative Service Line for India. It may be recalled, that Rao was MxMIndia Mediaperson of the Year 2019.
Said Amit Wadhwa, CEO, Dentsu Creative India: “Sid is not just a colleague. He is also a dear friend; our go-to mate. He has played an instrumental role in crafting Dentsu’s creative journey for India in partnership with some of our key talents who have now grown into powerful leaders; and that is invaluable. However, when he chose to discuss his new entrepreneurial ambitions with me, I realised how truly he wanted to do this. Sid has my wholehearted support on his next move. Meanwhile, what gives me great assurance is the fantastic set of leaders that he has mentored during this growth journey. They are already taking charge and delivering with confidence. Although I would miss catching up with Sid at office, our banters will continue beyond work. He deserves to choose a fresh path for his next milestone, and I am sure his next venture would be an innovative one. We truly wish him all the luck for this next big leap.”
Added Rao: “Being acquired by Dentsu has, by far, been the most important milestone in Webchutney’s journey. It has been a great, great ride. Together, Dentsu India and Webchutney are miles ahead of where we started and there are absolutely no regrets. Post the acquisition, I have been around for a decade now and the credit for my journey here goes to the network’s leadership team. I would like to thank them dearly for making dentsu feel like home. Amit is a great leader and a fantastic comrade. He is the one to ensure that we get the best of opportunities. As I move on, I am glad that Dentsu Webchutney is at a point where it is at its best; and what I take with myself is a sense of immense pride of being associated with dentsu. For my journey ahead, I am exploring a few new ideas in the exciting space of the internet. The plan for it should be ready over the next couple of months.”
DB Corp Limited has bagged Gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards 2022 for its Bhopal edition in the Best Covid-19 related photography category.
Commenting on the recognition, Avnish Jain, State Editor, Madhya Pradesh said: “At Dainik Bhaskar, our editorial philosophy is ‘Kendra Mein Pathak’, and we believe the very reason for our existence is our reader’s trust in us. During the second wave of Covid, it was our bounden duty to investigate and report an apparent disconnect in the government’s data and the reality on the ground. Given the extant circumstances, this was undoubtedly fraught with risk – especially to the health of our staff. Our reporters visited and gathered data from local crematoriums and burial grounds, and in one such incident in Madhya Pradesh, the government had reported only 4 deaths, but 112 funerals were done as per Covid protocol and our photographer captured this heart wrenching picture at one of the crematoriums.”
Added Sanjeev Gupta, the photographer who took the picture (“Burning Pyres are not lying”: “It was a truly gut-wrenching sight when I visited the Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat crematorium ground at Bhopal on April 15, 2021. I still get goosebumps remembering the day. It was a surreal feeling to see more than 40 pyres burning on the cremation ground. But perhaps the most distressing feeling was looking at the fact that while some of the departed had their dear ones close by, albeit it in PPE Kits, a lot of the departed had absolutely no one as they took their final journey.”
Without any further comment, let’s read Dr Bhaskar Das’s response to the question in the May 26 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.
Q. There’s news that Hindustan Times (HT) Mumbai will have a new editor. Helming it will be Meenal Baghel along with whom you had successfully combated HT & DNA. Any tips to Meenal as she gets set to taken on her former employer?
A. This is a question which is skewed towards a red ocean strategy, which fundamentally offers a myopic definition of what one visualises as one’s served market. Secondly, strategies differ by context and time. Extrapolation of past episodes for forward journey is a sure recipe for failure.
The new captain of HT has to reassess the pitch, the new consumer who have evolved into a screen-agnostic consumption experience. So every media has to understand how to navigate in a complementary manner from the consumer’s media consumption habits. Finally, a deeper understanding of consumers’ dynamic change of tastes and preferences have to be taken into account for designing a differentiated offering. There is no deterministic path. It’s a sustained discovery in sync with audience affinity to the offered product in a platform-agnostic way. A blue ocean thinking help much better than get stymied by red ocean myopia.
MX Gold, the SVOD service of MX Player, has announced its annual subscription fee for users at Rs 299 for its flagship MX Gold Annual pack. The change comes into effect on Friday, May 27 onwards, putting an end to the current offer of Rs 199.
Said Abhishek Joshi, Business Head, SVOD, at MX Player: “With our new Annual Subscription fee at Rs 299, we are empowering our viewers to enjoy, and binge-watch the hit shows and movies ad-free at an affordable price of less than Rs 1 per day. It’s our effort to provide our viewers with a superlative user experience and ensure the most unique, engaging and entertaining content with zero interruptions and no ad breaks. Consumer centricity lies at the core of all that we do at MX, and we do everything to put the customer first.
It’s always good been our attempt to pin down our Wizard with Words for a direct answer. Though it can be very difficult, since he’s always so geo-politically and socialy correct. But we are at it nevertheless, and for a change he responded with names. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the May 25 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
News 24, the umbrella brand of Bag Network, has launched its new digital platform: Podcast 24 – Awaaz Sabki. The podcast will cover news and stories on a variety of subjects including politics, Bollywood, crime, women, health, history, education and sports. It will also provide a platform to discuss and deliberate on a range of important and relevant social issues.
Cred, the Bengaluru-based fintech company (Dreamplug Technologies) for Credit card payment promises its nine million-plus members points that can be redeemed against rewards. In a way, the customer not only earn rewards while buying things on a Credit card, but also when making Credit Card payment through Cred.
DB Corp Limited has bagged Gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards 2022 for its Bhopal edition in the Best Covid-19 related photography category.