MxMIndia

Author: mxmadmin

  • The primary objective of the campaign was to create consciousness about the launch of the services of Muthoot FinCorp in Bhopal and Indore.

    Percept OOH executes state launch for Muthoot FinCorp in MP

    By a Correspondent

     

    Percept Out-of-Home (OOH) is executing OOH state launch for Muthoot FinCorp in select cities in Madhya Pradesh. The execution period of the activity commenced from January 26 for a duration of 20 days. The activity was emphasised in tier 2 cities, namely in Bhopal and Indore.

     

    The primary objective of the campaign was to create consciousness about the launch of the services of Muthoot FinCorp in Bhopal and Indore. Besides increasing awareness for the brand, there was a requirement to attract a wider base of eye balls at local markets, bus stand, railway stations, airports, commercial and high traffic zones. Another target was to gain a foothold in the new markets and consolidate the brand’s presence.

     

    The launch campaign was executed for a better geographical coverage, garnering brand visibility with finesse. Rajneesh Bahl, Head -Outdoor, Percept Out of Home said, “This is a classic case for outdoor launch. Bhopal and Indore have not seen such a high impact launch since a long time. The operation was well-crafted, on lines of any telecom brand, but at a nominal spend. Creatives was specially adapted for each city and in accordance with every media.

     

    A spokesperson from Muthoot FinCorp said, “The message in the out-of-home advertising has effectively echoed our state launch in Madhya Pradesh. The strategic locations were specifically selected in accordance with the target audience.”

     

    Muthoot FinCorp Limited, the flagship company of the Muthoot Pappachan Group, has 1400+ branches and offers products and services like Gold Loans, Money Transfer, Forex Services and other Investment Solutions.

     

  • Nair, who was head of sourcing for the £9.7-billion British retailer in South Asia and director of buying operations for India, takes charge as managing director

    Marks & Spencer appoints Venu Nair as India Ops head

    By Sarah Jacob

     

    Apparel and home products retailer Marks and Spencer’s has appointed Venu Nair as head of its India operations, replacing CEO Martin Jones who is moving back to the parent company.

     

    Nair takes charge as managing director, the London-headquartered company said. Sources said Jones was moving back for personal reasons. Nair was head of sourcing for the £9.7-billion British retailer in South Asia and director of buying operations for India.

     

    M&S operates in India through Marks & Spencer Reliance India, a joint venture with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, selling clothes and home décor but not its food products. It has 24 outlets across the country.

     

    “Unlike an expatriate, Nair would have stronger understanding of the Indian market and his being involved directly in sourcing will play to his strength,” said a senior executive of a rival firm.

     

    M&S has been to work towards sourcing 70per cent of its merchandise from India and Jones had been driving this change.

     

    “While other international companies look at India as an interesting and emerging market, M&S clearly specifies India as a market of importance,” said Devangshu Dutta, chief executive of management consultancy Third Eyesight.

     

     

    Source: The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

  • Microsoft Advertising hosted Rich Media Rocks 2012, which was held in New Delhi with a focus on how to make it easier for brands to launch digital ad campaigns at scale while also giving creatives new and powerful canvases on which to tell their stories.

    @Microsoft seminar: Creative storytelling via rich media

     

    By Shruti Pushkarna

     

    At the Rich Media Rocks seminar this year, the focus was on making it easier for brands to launch digital ad campaigns at scale while also giving creatives new and powerful canvases upon which they can tell their stories.

     

    Neville Taraporewalla

    The seminar, hosted by Microsoft Advertising, was held in the capital on March 1 at The Westin Gurgaon. Mr Neville Taraporewalla, Country Director, Advertising and Online, Microsoft India welcomed the delegates to the seminar.

     

    Speakers at the event shared examples and case studies of brands to highlight the new experiences that rich media advertising has in store, if applied with the right balance with content. An underlying issue that was pointed out in the sessions was an obvious ‘disconnect’ between advertisers and consumers. Mr Pushkar Sane, Co-Founder & CEO, Converginations Ventures Limited said, “There is a language of convenience that people are communicating in, whether it’s codes or emoticons… there is an obvious disconnect between the way we communicate as people and the way advertising is communicating with us.”

     

    Pushkar Sane

    Mr Trevor Yeats, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft Advertising reinforced Mr Sane’s point by stressing on the need for marketers to build an emotional connect with their consumers. Marketers, he said, “…need to fulfil the brand promise by creative storytelling, and rich media advertising can enable them to do so.”

     

    As was highlighed at the recent ad:tech 2012, the issue here as well seemed to be the need for marketers to accept reality as it is today and try to connect with the consumer in a way that is not completely disruptive. Content, and speaking of rich media, is not just being created by brands; even consumers are becoming curators for brands. Mr Sane said, “Rich media is not only in the hands of the advertisers and marketers, it’s a tool that is available to your consumers, it’s equally a weapon in their hands, probably more lethal in their hands than yours.” So there is a need to strike a balance between content and rich media advertising so that the user feels that he/she has a choice to ‘engage’.”

     

    In a scenario where the advertisers and marketers think of consumers as numbers that need to be hunted and targeted, thinking from the consumer’s perspective it feels like being in jail where one is trapped with excessive communication. Today consumers don’t want to be treated like targets, so brands need to understand user behaviour.

     

    To engage their consumers, Mr Sane said that brands indulge in stunts that they believe will get them the numbers. However, Mr Sane added, “Brands need to understand the difference between stunts and magic. Stunts will get you the clicks but magic will get you customers.” Brands, he said, need to ‘play the host’ rather than think ‘it’s my message to you’ when they are engaging customers.

     

    The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) launched an initiative called ‘Rising Stars’ where they chose six creative ideas as solutions to digital advertising. And as part of Microsoft Advertising’s commitment to rich media, said Mr Trevor Yeats, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft Advertising, “Microsoft Advertising was one of the first publishers to adopt all six IAB Rising Star Solutions in the U.S., implementing five of them already in Asia.” These six star solutions are Filmstrip, Billboard, Pushdown, Sidekick, Slider and Portrait.

     

    Filmstrip, said Mr Yeats, “…is a powerful canvas for all industries and across all continents. It enables creative storytelling, guiding consumers through a purchase funnel where they go from awareness to interest, to desire and intent and finally maybe to loyalty.”

     

    Mr Yeats also shared some tips on building an engaging Filmstrip. He said, “It’s important that the filmstrip tells a story. Image galleries and videos can help tell the story better. And finally make the Filmstrip social, invite the customer to be a voice of your brand.”

     

    While we talk of engaging and building an emotional connect with users, ROI and performance metrics still hold importance to continue with select digital campaigns. IAB Research shows that Rising Star ads have increased both exposure time and interaction rates by 90 percent. Mr Trevor Yeats, citing IAB research, said, “Users prefer Rising Star ads, they thought they were well designed and more engaging than most ads online. Rising Star ads positively added to the experience boosting performance.”

     

    But how does one know if these Rising Star solutions will continue to ‘click’ with the consumers? Will they become redundant like the pop-ups? Mr Yeats seemed extremely positive of the Rising Star solutions as he felt that as long as the right balance with content is reached, rich media will only add to the experience of a user.

     

    Mr Farshad Family, Managing Director, Nielsen Media, shared that online still remains only 4 percent of the total advertising pie in India, but he added that the share is growing rapidly. Adding on, Oded Lida Greiss, Vice President for Emerging Markets, MediaMind said, “India ad spend is low compared to global, but the trend is on an increase in opportunities with rich media.”

     

    Mr Pushkar Sane, Co-Founder & CEO, Converginations Ventures Limited also said that although there is a lot of ‘noise’ out there, brands still need to create noise for themselves. He said, “The objective is to out-shout the competitor and to do that, interrupting people and breaking their privacy becomes a must. This is a trend that digital is slowly adapting and borrowing from television.”

     

    But since there is a constant migration that takes place at the consumers’ end, brands need to understand that people are not loyal to a platform, they are only loyal to content. They are even beginning to trust the ‘unknown’. So, as Mr Sane said at the beginning of the seminar, marketers first need to address the ‘disconnect’ between them and the consumers, which probably exists because of excessive pressure on delivering quarterly results. He said, “No one is looking at long-term building, it is almost like as soon as we put on our agency or brand hats, we leave our brains outside. There is no shortcut in this business. Brands need to learn, practice and evolve.”

     

  • Sports team of GroupM ESP worked closely with Mindshare in this initiative that helped Bridgestone secure title sponsorship

    Mindshare & GroupM ESP help Bridgestone secure title sponsorship of WS Hockey

    By A Correspondent

     

    Bridgestone, the world’s largest tyre company, has come on board as the ‘Title Sponsor’ of World Series Hockey (WSH), the biggest hockey league in the world. Mindshare is Bridgestone’s media agency and brings on board strategic approach to Bridgestone’s brand communication objectives. GroupM ESP (Entertainment, Sports and Partnership) is a specialist unit of GroupM offering consultancy in the business of Entertainment and Sports. Sports team of GroupM ESP worked closely with Mindshare in this initiative that helped Bridgestone secure title sponsorship of the prestigious and one of its kind ‘Bridgestone World Series Hockey’.

     

    The Bridgestone World Series Hockey tournament will be held from February 29 to April 2 and will involve 200 leading Indian and International players who will showcase their talent in 59 matches and vie for the biggest prize money hockey tournament in the world. The 8 venues for the inaugural edition of the league are Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Jalandhar, Mumbai and Pune.

     

    Commenting on this association Vaibhav Saraf – Bridgestone India’s General Manager Marketing & Sales said: “We have a legacy of associating with sports; we have been associating with various sports from Ice-Hockey to Formula 1 to the Moto-GP and Rugby in some nations. We started advertising in India last year and tied up with Mumbai Indians to begin with. Mindshare and GroupM ESP recommended WSH as an opportunity to us and helped us understand the media deliveries and valuation of the league”.

     

    “The sports genre has been integral to Bridgestone’s target audience and we needed a platform that would help build saliency for the brand”, said Anita Kotwani, Principal Partner – Client leadership Mindshare.

     

    Very bullish on Hockey as India’s National sport, Vinit Karnik, National Director, Entertainment, Sports & Live Events said: “Mindshare – GroupM ESP strategically approached the sponsorship of World Series Hockey by bringing alive Bridgestone’s brand objectives. We are hoping ‘Bridgestone World Series Hockey’ delivers high impact for the brand by increasing Bridgestone’s visibility and share of voice.

     

    Ms Kotwani added: “With this sponsorship Mindshare takes another small step in forging a partnership with hockey, but in fact a giant leap in propagating something other than cricket, yet getting entire focus, drive and visibility for our client. We are glad that by this sponsorship Bridgestone is reinforcing its commitment to its growth in India”.

     

    Bridgestone India Pvt. Ltd started its operations in 1996. In March 1998 with the setup of its manufacturing facility in Kheda, Madhya Pradesh, Bridgestone achieved its objective of running Indian manufactured Bridgestone tyres on Indian Roads.

     

    Mindshare is a global media and marketing services network with billings in excess of $27.8 billion (source: RECMA). The network consists of 114 offices in 82 countries throughout the North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific. Mindshare is a member of WPP, the world’s leading communications service group with $84.2bn in billings (source: RECMA), and is part of GroupM, the world’s leading full service media investment management operation, which was created by WPP Group to oversee its assets in this sector.

     

  • With 15% growth last year, Turkish Airlines is actively undertaking as many initiatives as possible to connect with its Indian customers.

    Turkish Airlines looks at India as a booming market

    By A Correspondent

     

    Turkish Airlines has been doing exceptionally well globally and has witnessed remarkable growth, especially in the last year. With Grey as their creative agency inIndiaand Perfect Relations handling their media relations, they are looking atIndiaas a booming market and have various marketing initiatives lined up.

     

    Turkish Airlines has played a vital role in increasing the ratio of the aviation industry ofTurkey. One of their key achievements in 2011 was being awarded ‘Best Airline Europe’, ‘Best Premium Economy Seats’ and ‘Best Airline Southern Europe’ by Skytrax. Their load factor has been as high as 75 per cent in 2011, even on the Indian routes.

     

    They have also acquired brand new aircrafts like B777-300ER equipped with GCS system and A330-300, with the latter being currently operational on the Indian routes. Turkish Airlines flew around 300,000 travellers on the Indian routes in 2011 and are expecting an even higher number in 2012.

     

    The TAAI Convention, being hosted byTurkeythis year, will be one of the biggest B2B initiatives undertaken by Turkish Airlines as they are among the main partners for the event.

     

    Apart from that, Turkish Airlines has engaged in several interesting marketing initiatives inIndiato reach out to its customers and familiarize them with both, Turkish Airlines and its multiple international destinations.

     

    Adnan Aykac, General Manager- Northern & Eastern India, Turkish Airlines, said: “We received great feedback from our previous promotional campaigns and would like to continue with such engagement programs and capitalize on them in the best way possible. This will ensure maximum visibility for Turkish Airlines among its target audience, thereby helping them discover our refined offers and services.”

     

    “Turkish Airlines believes in providing the best offers and facilities to its passengers and maintaining high standards of service. This has always been our prime focus and we believe that the brand and its services speak for itself. We also believe that competitions are healthy as they give you the zeal to further improve and enhance your quality. Hence, our superior and extraordinary services set us apart and help us maintain our top position,” he added.

     

    Also Turkish Airlines have now signed a Free Sale Codeshare Agreement with Air India (AI) after their previous blocked space codeshare agreement. The new agreement will allow both the airlines to market each other’s flights by their own code and flight numbers on a free sale basis.

     

    With effect from March 1, the revised agreement will allow TK passengers a seamless connection to AI-operated flights onHyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Amritsar routes.

     

    Turkish Airlines witnessed a 15 per cent growth in revenues last year and with the airlines doing so well in the Indian and international markets, sky is the limit for us.

     

  • Olive Crowns, the first and only awards in the country that celebrate excellence in communicating sustainability, to be presented

    Adland turns green tomorrow with Olive Crowns

    By A Correspondent

     

    The India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) will present the Olive Crown awards for excellence in Green advertising on March 3 at a glittering function to be held at the Taj Lands End, Mumbai.

     

    These are the first and only awards in the country that celebrate excellence in communicating sustainability.

     

    The event will see a heady mix of creativity, entertainment, a touch of seriousness, a dash of Bollywood and some of the biggest names in the advertising, marketing and media industry walking the “green carpet”.

     

    The Guests of Honor at the function will be Kajol and Nita Ambani, chairperson Reliance Foundation.

    A special Green Crusader award will be presented to Dr. Rajendra Pachauri who won the Nobel Prize as Chairman IPCC.

     

    “The response from the industry has really warmed my heart” said Kaushik Roy, President IAA. “Everyone seems to have adopted these awards as their own cause and have been spontaneous in consenting to be with us at the function. In just its second year, the Olive Crowns will be the most happening and meaningful event in our industry.”

    Olive Crowns will be presented to winners in 14 categories who were judged by a panel of judges that included some of the most respected creative names in the business.

    9XM is the title partner of this event.

  • All those affected have tried to pick up the pieces, and are attempting to re-build their lives. As far as the process of criminal justice goes, that's already in the courts. Which is why I failed to understand the media's desperation to re-live 2002.

    Anil Thakraney: Media ODed on the Gujarat riots

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    The whole of this week the media has been going ballistic on the 10th anniversary of the Gujarat riots. Almost as if each media brand competed with another on who can paint a gorier picture. As a result, a whole lot of skeletons tumbled out of ‘secular’ India’s cupboard and many unhealed wounds got exposed all over again. We have to wonder if this carpet coverage of the riots was such a good idea after all.

     

    I suppose the greatest human tragedy of all time must be the one that happened after the nation’s partition. A million people died and many more were displaced. But because there was no media madness at the time, that catastrophe has been pretty much wiped off from our collective memory. In fact, even the Bombay riots of 1992/93 don’t get much attention any more, again because there was no media madness at the time. This has allowed people to get on with their lives. As a generation changes, the Mumbai riots will also be a closed chapter.

     

    But the Gujarat riots happened in full glare of the media, so there is plenty of pictorial and written matter to fall back on. And this is where I think our media needed to exercise restraint. Because while the intentions may have been noble, nothing good can come from re-exposing deep injuries.

     

    So we re-lived the rapes, the burnings, the lootings, the killings… we were given a ball-by-ball replay and not just highlights, to use a cricketing metaphor. For the sake of the nation, I sincerely hope that the negative emotions didn’t get re-ignited all over again. All those affected have tried to pick up the pieces, and are attempting to re-build their lives. As far as the process of criminal justice goes, that’s already in the courts. Which is why I failed to understand the media’s desperation to re-live 2002.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDpwoRlPiKk[/youtube]

    Bottom-line: The Indian media, particularly the news channels, learnt some hard lessons post the 26/11 goof ups, on how terror attacks need to be covered. It’s time some amount of introspection is also done on how anniversaries of riots and terror need to be remembered.

     

    ***

     

    PS: Yes, not all stars appear on the screen. A touching and extraordinary idea from Diet Coke. This is one international commercial that can so easily be replicated for Bollywood. What are they waiting for?

     

     

     

  • The Bottom-Line Analytics CEO promises to find solutions to measure impact of marketing spends

    We are the dashboard for the client’s car: Michael Wolfe

     

     

    By Tuhina Anand

     

    Michael Wolfe, the CEO of Bottom-Line Analytics, has been successfully providing solutions to his clients to measure the impact of their marketing spends and thereby help them increase revenues. The point being that while the marketing budget remains the same, the revenues increase because of the valuable insight that the analytics team comes out with for their clients. Wolfe who is also a Senior Director, Consulting and Analytics at BBDO Atlanta as well as on the advisory board of Bengaluru based Rainman Consulting was in India for the first time recently and met up with MxMIndia to share how he and his team have been working on helping clients gain maximum on their ROIs.

     

    Q: How does Bottom-Line Analytics help clients in getting the maximum out of a client’s marketing budget?

    We look at any commercial enterprises and a very large part of their expense is on marketing and sales. Traditionally there has not been any means to understand what results that investment generates. What I do is develop mathematical models which directly link each and every marketing activity that a company undertakes – be it TV, radio, outdoor, online, distribution or availability of products. These are what we call drivers of the business. One of the things that my work does is that it challenges the idea that marketing is an expense; it is an income- and revenue-generating activity that companies engage in and we simply derive the means to measure that. In developing that we can also measure a means to recommend how companies can improve the performance of their marketing investments by spending the available funds in a much more effective fashion.

     

    Q: How do you perceive the Indian market and do you think that with growth also comes the pressure to maximize ROI?

    In India, there is a fairly substantial middle class who obviously have a very significant amount of disposable income. Among the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries, growth is happening as far as businesses are concerned and the truth is that wherever there is growth there is also an interest in generating that growth which usually is achieved by marketing. Without any measurement yardstick for marketing, it’s like an automobile which doesn’t have a dashboard, hence one cannot get any reading of its performance. Simply put, we provide that dashboard to our clients for them to understand how well their marketing is performing.

     

    Q: In tough times, does the measurement aspect become much more significant? And how easy or difficult it is to convince clients to go for this kind of measurement?

    In the US the demand for talent in marketing analytics and demand for the skill exceeded supply even during the depth of the economic recession. So there has been no lack of opportunity to develop in this profession. We have seen from experience that in the US the demand emerged more during a weaker economic period. It’s when there is pressure on being more accountable with large investment that marketers become more conscious of how each and every penny is being spent and what kind of returns they are getting from it. We are able to quantify the impact of media and marketing and tell the clients what is working and what is not. Moreover, we can help identify aspects that are not working, be it any kind of product, communication, even sales issues or any other external factors, and help clients move their money from non-performing assets to those that will give higher growth. By this we have seen companies seeing an increase of 5-10 percent revenues without increasing their marketing budget. Also from our experience we have seen that companies that are developing at a fast pace is where we somewhat face a challenge to convince them that they need us.

     

    Q: In a market like India, which is not homogenous, do you think any yardstick of measurement can actually be applied?

    Our task is difficult in India as there is diverse set of people and preferences. Here, I think the measurement yardsticks become all the more important for marketers as it will give direction on how much their spend is actually reflecting on the revenue.

     

    Q: Does marketing analytics of your kind only help big spenders?

    Not necessarily. We have done this kind of marketing optimization modelling for clients with modest budgets. One of our clients was a zoo and we were able to tell them with the help of our mathematical models what kind of animal exhibits work for them, we even looked at external things like price of fuel and weather conditions that might lead to a fall in revenues. So our conclusions look at different aspects and come out with solutions that will help in growth.

    At the Coca Cola Company, where I worked earlier, we have even introduced new products based on our findings that have seen a rise in sales. We just finished an assignment for Coca Cola in Pakistan where we were able to tell them which, out of the six advertisements that they had come out with, was most effective. We have been able to help clients in driving their business even from the sales point of view. So there are different models that will suit different kinds of client.

     

  • Behold the Solitary Change-Maker as she charges into the Valley of Death – cannons to the left of her, to the left of her, to the left of her

    [MxM Journalism Review] Mamata, the lone change-maker

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Behold the lonely change-maker! She stands there victorious, having defeated the sinister dragon. She is righteous and she is also always right. But will that damn dragon let her do her job? In insidious and terrible ways, it hampers the change-maker’s progress.

     

    What option does Mamata Banerjee have but to blame the erstwhile Left Front government and its remnants for everything that goes wrong in West Bengal? Oh sorry, I think the state has a new name but it is so like the old one that I’ve forgotten it.

     

    So when infants die in a state hospital, you have to blame the Left Front government because the children were conceived during the Left’s reign. This is a little-known scientific fact which only the solitary change-maker has fully grasped. Your future is determined by where you were conceived (one more reason to blame your parents for whatever goes wrong in your life). Evidently, if you were conceived during a Left Front government’s rule, long life under someone else’s rule is inconceivable.

     

    Then there’s rape. This is an awful thing – but only if it really happens. What if every rape in West Bengal is actually a conspiracy by the Left to malign the Solitary Change-Maker (if the Left deserves upper/lower case, surely so does she)? Therefore, if a woman gets gang-raped after leaving a pub, not only does one have to discuss her antecedents, behaviour and so on but also make it clear that the rape was not on the victim but an attempt to victimise the Government of Change.

     

    Just after the Park Street Rape is the Burdwan Train Rape. This is even more conspiratorial. The so-called victim who claims to have been gang-raped in a train was a widow – whose now-deceased husband used to be a member of a Left party. If that is not an outright strategy to discredit the new government, then what is?

     

    If rape is not bad enough, there’s murder. A member of one of those Left parties is hacked to death allegedly by members of the Party of Change. Oh, come on. Even those aliens buried in America are more believable than this theory.

     

    The only possible taint on the Grand SC-M can come from the evil nephew who keeps going to botanical gardens after they’ve closed and demanding he be let in. Or driving on the wrong side of the road and then slapping a policeman who stops him. This nephew exists. But it is also possible that he will soon become a construct of the Communist imagination.

     

    Behold the Solitary Change-Maker as she charges into the Valley of Death – cannons to the left of her, to the left of her, to the left of her.

     

  • Newspapers, magazines and TV channels accepting money to write good things about political candidates changes the goal posts.

    Anil Thakraney: News for sale

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Very recently, a publisher friend called to seek advice. And his question threw me off-balance. Because not only was the query alarming, I frankly had no ready answers. So I copped out, and left it all to his judgment. The question: “A few assembly election candidates have approached us, asking for favourable coverage. They are offering large sums of money in return. What should I do?”

     

    Since I knew that this particular friend was bleeding and needed some funding desperately, I simply replied with: “Man, it’s really up to you. If you are here to uphold the high standards of journalism, ask them to go fly a kite. But if you rationalize the situation in your mind, and conclude that if you refuse the offer and your rivals would lap it up, then you will be the only loser. In which case, go for it!”

     

    Quite honestly, I have no idea what the publisher eventually did. But speaking from a larger perspective, it’s becoming increasingly clear that paid news is here, and it’s here to stay. There was a time when elections would excite only the political class, as that would mean big moolah gains for the winners. These days, along with them, a section of the media feels ecstatic. For the same reasons.

     

    Corruption in the media isn’t really new. In the past, some journalists would accept alarm clocks and booze bottles from financial companies, and then write sweet words about their public issues. Now, of course, you can get your private party pics flashed in the Page 3 pages if you are ready to pick up the tab. We’ve learnt to live with these malpractices. But newspapers, magazines and TV channels accepting money to write good things about political candidates changes the goal posts. It’s clearly harmful to the nation’s future.

     

    So is there a way out of this mess? I am afraid not. During the 2009 general elections, a few cheating media brands got exposed. Maybe we’ll hear of more culprits after the recent assembly elections in some parts ofIndia. But soon everything will be forgotten. And it will be business as usual.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjYxE2VD7VE[/youtube]

    Yes, it pays to be in the media biz in modern times. If you won’t get support from advertisers, you can always tap into alternative revenue sources.

     

    Jai Hind!

     

    * * *

     

    PS: The context of the Fiat 500 Abarth ad is different, but this commercial is the kind of stuff Tata Nano ought to have done. A car you can take inside your home. Super positioning for a little gaadi. So much better than pitching it as the broke bugger’s vehicle.

     

  • Behind every great commercial is super strategy. Every week, MxMIndia will bring you the brief and the strat as given by the client and whatever else that went into creating a winning ad. AdStrat is compiled by Shubhangi Mehta.

    Ad Strat: Uninor’s ‘Baat baat mein recharge’

    Amod Dani, ECD, Leo Burnett

     

    1. Name of the Campaign: Uninor ‘Baat baat mein recharge’ campaign

     

    2. The Brief:

    India is a nation dominated by prepaid users. 93 per cent of the mobile services market in India is skewed in favour of the prepaid consumers. Uninor is a pre-paid brand that makes calling more affordable for the common man. The brief to the agency was to create a campaign that can show how Uninor recharges last longer in an entertaining and youthful manner.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5-JwiznxkQ[/youtube]

    3. Research insights

    Through our unique human kind approach we managed to tap into the inherent Indian desire for gossip.  As Indians, we love gossiping and just detest insufficient gossip or half information. This human need to know about the lives of others became a launch pad for our campaign.

     

    4. The thought process behind the creative:

    Uninor’s platform of ‘Pay less, talk more’ rides on affordable voice products and value-based prepaid plans. Our new campaign is rooted in the human desire for juicy conversations. However, the need for constant recharge can be an obstruction for the same. The coin dropping execution is an expression of the irritation that comes with constantly recharging. We used the coin dropping pneumonic synonymous with PCO phones of earlier days to effectively bring alive the pains of repeated recharge.

     

    5. Media vehicles chosen:

    The campaign is on air right now as Television is a vital cog in our media cycle. We have scheduled a 360 degree roll-out for this campaign including radio, outdoor, on-ground activation and in-store retail merchandising. We also have a digital plan in place to augment the penetration of the campaign.

     

    6. Key issues kept in mind while executing the ad:

    The penny literally dropped with the coin device and the freeze frame approach. It was, therefore, necessary to get the timing absolutely right in order to deliver a simple, clear product with a touch of humour.

     

    7. Does the treatment do justice to the brief?

    The treatment truly does justice to the fact that Uninor provides more value to the pre-paid user by showing how constant recharge keeps inhibiting juicy conversations.

     

    8. What is the differentiating factor about the ad?

    The insight behind the campaign and the coin-dropping execution technique is uniquely simple and relatable. The juicy gossip keeps everyone interested throughout the film.

     

    9. Market and client feedback:

    We have received some very positive feedback from the client’s side. The campaign has created a wave of excitement at the client’s end and the numbers are there to show it too. All in all, we see the thumbs are up and some really thrilling times ahead.

     

  • In conversation with MxM India's Shruti Pushkarna, Sharif Rangnekar, CEO & Director, Integral PR advises future PR managers to be good journalists and have more sources than one when it comes to information-gathering.

    [PR] There’s nothing wrong in lobbying: Sharif Rangnekar

    Serving his second term as the President of PRCAI (Public Relations Consultants Association of India), Sharif Rangnekar, CEO & Director of Integral PR has over 20 years of experience in the fields of journalism, communication and publishing, having worked with organizations such as Penguin Books India, The Economic Times and The Pioneer. He attributes his knowledge and information gathering instincts to the experience he acquired working under senior journalists in the news business.

     

    In conversation with MxM India’s Shruti Pushkarna, Mr Rangnekar talks about his transition from a journalist to a communications professional, his views on lobbying and crisis management, on the negativity attached to public affairs, on the need for a united PR body and much more. Talking about social media, he felt that social media is just beginning to impact the PR business and there is a lot of unnecessary hype that is created around it. Excerpts:

     

    Q: Tell us a bit about your journey and work as the Director of Integral PR?

    A: The journey has been a little like the market, it’s had its ups and downs. One thing about PR is that if you stay connected with what’s happening around you, you constantly feel that you are learning something new. There’s always a newness attached to everything you do on a day to day basis because you are always dealing with the publics, you are always dealing with influencers such as the media, and the government.

     

    Q: Elaborate for us on the 360-degree approach of Integral PR and Focal Point Management.

    A: I think a lot of businesses we are seeing and a lot of change we are seeing is extremely new to India. What you are seeing today may already be old in the next two days, given the speed of technology and the impatience levels of a very young country. So in a scenario like that, your constant engagement with the different touch points that influence your business, makes focal point management – where we put the client in the centre and we look at all the constituencies around him that influence what he does, how he does it and how does he reach out to them ­- extremely important. So it’s a synchronized 360 degree approach where you are looking at government, communities, consumer groups, other pressure groups, chambers of commerce and the media. And we look at our communication outreach along all those parameters.

     

    Q: You have done extensive work in the area of public affairs management. How difficult you think it is for a communication professional to work in that area, given the systems in the country?

    A: I think there is a lot negativity attached to public affairs because people assume that public affairs is only government affairs but there is another element attached, which is advocacy. There is the other part of it where you are debating and discussing policy, you are discussing issues that are new to a nation. I don’t think public affairs is as difficult or as tedious as it is made out to be. I think there is a government out there, and there have been governments in the past who want to bring a certain amount of change, and in any democratic set-up there has to be a debate and there has to be a hearing of all the relevant voices. So in that sense, governments have made these efforts, things take longer than people would want them to but then that’s the nature of our democracy. I think problem arises when there isn’t transparency attached to the mandate that you are carrying out or if the benefits of a policy are limited to a very small group.

     

    Q: You started out as a journalist and moved into public relations later. How has the transition been for you?

    A: I have been pretty lucky in terms of the transition. I was part of a news and research firm when I moved out of mainstream journalism. My instinct for journalism hasn’t really changed, in the sense that my instinct for news and information hasn’t changed. I think that has helped me because I didn’t immediately take the first plunge into mainstream operational public relations but I had a period in between where I was consulting with Integral PR, so I got a better understanding of what a PR world does. And the training I had in journalism under some very senior journalists has helped me understand the importance of information and knowledge, which has become key to a lot of advice and counsel that one gives to a client.

     

    Q: Do you think PR can be more than mere press relations?

    A: It already is, and I think this impression of it being mere press relations comes from the press who only sees the PR agencies dishing out press releases or having press conferences or setting up one on one interviews. It’s the limited view that the media has of PR because that’s all they get to see, the rest of it is quite confidential. There is so much work that takes place in a PR agency, planning a brand, planning an advocacy drive, developing campaigns, doing marketing communications; there is so much of work that goes on behind the scenes including crisis communication. There is a lot more happening out there and I think if people need to know more about it, then the PR industry needs to talk a little bit more about it.

     

    Q: How critical do you think is crisis management to the communications business?

    A: I think it’s extremely critical. There are two parts of the business, one is building reputation and image, the other is protecting it. Crisis management is about protecting the image, it’s about protecting a business, its people, its operations, its investment. Crisis management is an extremely important part and, more so today, because there is a greater awareness level amongst the people, there are a lot of new issues out there. In a scenario like that, there is a lot of education that needs to take place.

    There are people being deprived of land, or people being moved out from places, there are people who are suddenly realizing that certain corporations may not be giving them what they are looking for, so they are taking to the streets and protesting, or going online and starting campaigns. So there are just so many situations that we are currently dealing with, and a lot of them are crisis related because it’s new to a business, it’s new to the external audience, it’s new to even the internal audience of an organization sometimes.

    So crisis management has become extremely important and if you are not aware, you don’t have that kind of experience, it’s going to be very difficult to give that kind of counsel or manage the situations for a client today.

     

    Q: How do you think social media is impacting the functioning of PR?

    A: I think social media is starting to impact and it’s not that it’s universally being adopted by the corporate world. I think what we need to understand is that social media at times is being drawn out of proportion in terms of its importance, because there is always an American influence there. That influence is coming from a society which is extremely wired up, a society which doesn’t engage that much with people. But we are dealing with India where there is so much of diversity, people behave differently, you still have very powerful mediums of communication which reach out to people whether it’s newspapers, or TV and more importantly, people still go out, people meet and people talk.

    So the need for the digital space is quite different and unique. Having said that, I think knowing what is happening out there, keeping your eyes on it is extremely important because still a large number of people are getting out there.

     

    Q: Coming back to Integral PR, what are the key areas of growth set for 2012?

    A: We are looking at advocacy, the digital space and definitely looking at the 360 degree approach, because we feel that there are more and more companies entering the Indian market or are going deep into the hinterland who will face different types of consumer groups, different types of consumption patterns, political environment, so a 360 approach is going to be extremely important for them when they want to do business in markets which they are pretty unfamiliar with.

     

    Q: What do you think of lobbying? Do you think past controversy has tainted the image of PR as an industry?

    A: There isn’t anything wrong in lobbying. It is used in a very negative sense and that might be because of the history that lobbying has had. Lobbying is influencing policy, today the media does it when they have debates, when they have knowledge platforms, when there are seminars and conferences held by chambers of commerce, that’s all forms of lobbying. Today a lot of corporate advertising that takes place is also part of lobbying.

    So I think there has to be a difference that people need to know and understand between fixing and influencing or creating a voice so that someone else can be heard on a policy. As far as the recent controversy is concerned, that did taint the image of the industry but I think the good thing of a lot of these kind of things that take place where the media is been bringing out issues about corruption and other related matters, is that it helps clean up the system.

     

    Q: What are your views on PR associations? Do you think a central body is critical in terms of representing the industry as a whole?

    A: It’s extremely important because the industry has to get together and address issues that the industry faces as a whole. This is not about business, it’s about industry at large. I think the association also needs to play a role in educating people, it has to play a role in giving a certain semblance of a structure to the industry, it has to play a role in benchmarking, so in that sense the association has to be there, to take these things out to the public, and also to reach out to the government because government is an active user of PR.

     

    Q: Advertising has a strong central body so it seems more united in that sense. But with PR where there are 3 to 4 bodies, it is not as united in that sense…what’s your view on that?

    A: I think there is only one PR industry association, it’s the PRCAI. You have another society which has to do with individuals working in the corporate sector, that’s more corporate communications, corporate affairs people, that’s very different from the consultancy business. So in that sense you do have two well-known bodies in this space. It does at times send out mixed messages but I think that’s why it’s important for the two to get together to not necessarily play as one but to have at least singular objectives out there. But I don’t think it’s creating a problem for the industry, just that at times people do get mixed up about who’s doing what but I don’t think that’s coming in the way of our objectives.

     

    Q: What are the critical areas that need attention in the PR industry today?

    A: I think benchmarking of standards of service, issues of integrity and most importantly it’s talent and the knowledge levels, I think those are two or three very key areas that most of our members are facing.

     

    Q: Where do you think ‘Brand India’ stands in today’s global scheme of things?

    A: Brand India is overstated. India growth story is not the China story where the government has taken the central role to bring change. Here change has come on through individual enterprises largely. So it’s not always been about public policy, and India the brand has suffered a bit over the last one year and half, assuming that there is a brand out there. There is this feeling that things don’t really move, there is a certain sense that you need a lot of patience and with other economies also crumbling at this point of time, people don’t necessarily have the same kind of patience, don’t have the same kind of funds, so in that sense the brand has suffered. But a fortunate thing that India has always had on its side is the fact that it’s a democracy, and that ultimately depending on how long you are willing to wait, things fall into place. People are beginning to understand that for a democracy like India which is extremely diverse, it requires that much more time for certain things to happen. So people are getting to know that and now they are making more informed decisions, more informed choices about doing business out here. So it’s a mixed situation right now, definitely the brand has taken a bit of a jolt in the last year and a half but that’s also because there have been no significant policy decisions for a long period of time.

     

    Q: Your word of advice for future PR managers…

    A: I think, just be informed. You have to love the joy of obtaining knowledge, being in the know and you have to be like a really good journalist. You need to have your information, you need to have more sources than one and you should have the ability to comprehend and express and you need to know tactfully how to manage people and work with people. Those are key to becoming a good PR executive, and more importantly, a good PR advisor.