MxMIndia doesn’t normally have an edition on Saturdays. With reason. Â Many in our business are shut on Shaniwaars. However, this Saturday is special. It’s the day after Pranabda is going to present the Union Budget.
Although Union Budgets typically don’t care too much about the media and entertainment sector, we expect some sops this year. We will be there with the analyses.
So, sleep well on Saturday morning. But wake up to the MxMIndia’s Morning After Budget Special.
By Shramana Ganguly Mehta
Televisions and washing machines brand Onida is poking rivals such as LG, Voltas and Daikin through a new ad campaign as it seeks to regain share in the country’s Rs 35,000-crore durables and electronics market.
“The idea is to provoke consumers to look out for products that are best for them rather than falling for brand names,” says Vipul Mathur, marketing VP at Mirc Electronics, which own brand Onida. Some advertising experts, however, feel it’s a desperate move and that such comparative advertising may not work.
Onida launched its print campaign last week and TV commercials will soon be aired. It has earmarked Rs 100 crore for the campaign. One of the print advertisements says, “Let LG and Voltas debate who’s Number 2. Onida is Number 1 in AC innovations.”
Another says, “Open your eyes. Are you buying any brand or a brand that actually cools,” complete with specifications of comparable AC models from LG and Daikin. While FMCG, auto and aviation companies use such comparative advertisements, it is being used in the durables space perhaps for the first time.
Mr Mathur says Onida will roll out similar campaigns for its LCD, LED, washing machine and microwave ranges to establish itself as a brand that provides innovative and powerful products with substantial price advantages over competition.
“We are competitive and have innovative products to offer. So we are not scared of the rivals hitting back,” he says.
When contacted, LG refused to comment on Onida’s move.
Mr Abhijit Avasthi, national creative director at O&M India, which worked on Onida’s campaign, says, “We’re not accusing anyone or hitting below the belt. We are just stating the facts.”
Onida, like other homegrown brands such as Videocon, Godrej and Voltas, is trying hard to regain its durables market share lost to Korean rivals LG and Samsung in the 1990s.
While Samsung and LG together have 34% share in ACs and 45% each in refrigerators and semi-automatic washing machines, their shares in some categories dipped last year due to tough competition from Indian and Japanese rivals. Samsung’s share in the AC market, for example, dipped to 11% in 2011 from 19% in the previous year, while that of LG slid to 23% from 28%. Voltas, at the same period, jumped to 17% from 12%.
In the colour TV segment, Videocon is on the heels of market leader LG, pushing Samsung to the third position.
Onida says it is the fourth largest air-conditioner brand in the country with 10% share in the market, fifth in washing machines with 8% share, and sixth in flat panel TVs with 6% share.
Some experts, however, are not impressed by Onida’s new campaign. Mr Sudarshan Banerjee, business development director at DDBMudra, sees it generating little excitement among consumers. “The campaign is sad in the way it is done. It is not a nice ad,” he says, adding comparative advertising has not done well in recent times.
Triton Communications’ Mr Sanjay Chakraborty says, “While it’s easy to look at a competitor and poke holes in its product or services, it’s harder, but definitely more valuable, to plug the holes in one’s own offering and build real competitive advantages.” He says comparative advertisement helps consumers make informed choices provided it does not misrepresent the facts.
Not so long ago, the advertising space saw war of words between detergent brands Uniliver’s Rin and P&G’s Tide war and health drink brands GSK’s Horlicks and Heinz’s Complan.
The most brazen comparative advertising was perhaps the Jet-Kingfisher campaigns. When Jet Airways embarked on a campaign to announce: “We have changed”, Kingfisher hit back with a hoarding right besides Jet’s to proclaim: “We made them change.” The duo fought literally on one of most busiest crossroads of Mumbai in 2007.
Source:The Economic Times
Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
By A Correspondent
Moneycontrol.com recently launched its Budget 2012 campaign Rock the Sabha, which shows some well-known political personalities hitting the high notes.
The latest moneycontrol.com commercial, which is currently on the air, has set the ball rolling for moneycontrol.com’s Budget 2012 campaign. With key politicians like P Chidambaram, M Karunanidhi, Mamata Banerjee and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee playing guitars and jiving to the beats of rock music, the rock concert effect introduces the Budget 2012 coverage on moneycontrol.com in an unexpected way.
The bold punchline, ‘Budget Comes Alive’, brings to life the brand’s rather sober attitude and creates the right amount of curiosity towards the newly incorporated interactive elements like poll, debates, slideshows, online chats, LIVE blogging and videos on  moneycontrol.com’s budget page, said a release from the company.
Commenting on the campaign, Lakshmi Narasimhan, CEO, Web 18, said, “Apart from communicating that moneycontrol.com presents the biggest Budget coverage online, one of the key objectives of this campaign was to give a fresh perspective to moneycontrol.com and reach out to new users.â€
Ravi Deshpande, Chief Creative Officer, Contract Advertising, said, “Moneycontrol.com is the undisputed No.1 financial portal of the nation. It has redefined the way finance is presented and consumed in today’s day and age. Which is why we thought its communication too has to make a bold, emphatic statement. If the Budget campaign is disruptive, it’s only to mirror what the brand is actually doing in the marketplace.â€
Kaushik Roy Senior Creative Director & AVP, Contract Advertising said, “It’s absolutely eye-opening! The way in which moneycontrol.com is taking the boredom out of the Budget presentation. The ‘Rock the Sabha’ campaign is an attempt to make that point loud and clear. We hope it will attract newer, younger audiences, in addition to exciting millions of existing users.â€
The ad can be viewed at http://t.in.com/budget2012.
By A Correspondent
Dentsu Creative Impact, Dentsu India’s full-service advertising agency, has bagged the creative duties for Tetra Pak, the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company.
Tetra Pak India delivers aseptic packaging material and processing, packaging and distribution solutions to the Indian food processing industry. Their customers include leading players, both national and regional, from the private sector as well as the dairy cooperatives. Tetra Pak works in close partnership with the food processing industry to promote consumer and key stakeholder awareness on the importance of aseptically processed and packaged foods, and how they provide benefits of food safety, consumer wellness and environment sustainability.
Rohit Ohri, Executive Chairman, Dentsu India Group said, “We are delighted to partner Tetra Pak in India. The communication opportunity which Tetra Pak offers Dentsu India is very exciting and clearly beyond conventional media. We’re looking at communication across every touch point in the packaged milk and beverage ecosystem. This communication approach is at the heart of Dentsu’s offering in India.”
“Past communication from Tetra Pak has focused on the key message of how Tetra Pak aseptic technology best protects foods like milk and juices. Our plans are to continue strengthening communication around the Tetra Pak credentials and around our brand promise ‘protects what’s good’”, said Jaideep Gokhale, Communications & Environment Director, Tetra Pak South Asia Markets.
On the choice of Dentsu Creative Impact Jaideep added, “With this premise in mind, we were looking at how the communication task could be addressed with a fresh perspective without losing focus of the imperative to remain consistent and true to our brand personality. With our new agency partner Dentsu Creative Impact, we are now in the process of developing our 2012 campaign which will explore communication channels beyond the conventional. Our media buying will continue to be handled by Carat.”
By A Correspondent
As many as seven Indian entries are among the 89 finalists announced in the world’s premier competition for marketing newsmedia brands by the International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA) on Tuesday.
Of the 89 marketing campaigns from 66 newsmedia companies in 23 countries selected as finalists for the INMA Awards 2012 competition by a global panel of judges. In India, there are seven finalists from five newsmedia companies for the INMA World Congress May 6-8 in Los Angeles.
According to the INMA site, from these finalists, 30 first-place recipients across three audience groups will be announced Tuesday evening, May 8, at the conclusion of the INMA World Congress at the JW Marriott/LA Live in Los Angeles.
The announcement also said, “The INMA Awards 2012 competition judging was completed recently by 24 industry expert judges from media companies, advertising agencies, trade magazines, and more. Judges came from the Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Oman, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States.â€
Earl J Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA, said, “Almost all of the finalists were multi-media in nature aiming to motivate cross-platform subscription sales, integrated advertising solutions, and hybrid print/digital products.â€
Indian Finalists for the INMA Awards competition:
(under each of the 10 categories, there were three sub-categories of under 75k, 75-300k, above 300k)
Category 1: Marketing Campaign With the Best Results
Over 300,000
Category 3: New Brand/Product/Audience Development
Over 300,000
Category 5: Marketing Solutions for Advertising Clients
75,000-300,000
Category 6: Digital Audience Usage and Engagement
Over 300,000
Category 9: Print Single-Copy Sales
Over 300,000
Category 10: Public Relations and Community Service
75,000-300,000
Read more and check the complete list of 89 finalists at: http://www.inma.org/blogs/main/post.cfm/89-top-marketing-campaigns-named-finalists-in-inma-awards-2012-competition#ixzz1p1VpGNoJ
By Pradyuman Maheshwari
#1 This is my 11th FICCI Frames. Must say I had lost count of when the event was launched, except when I learnt yesterday that’s it’s the thirteenth edition of the event. If I remember right, I have missed out on just two years. So, couldn’t not make it this year.
#2 This is the only time I visit the the Marriott property at Powai. The Renaissance is a great hotel and I quite prefer it to other convention hotels like Taj Palace in Delhi or Leela at Gurgaon, but three days of the trek here are enough for the whole year!
#3 I can’t do without meeting my Frames friends. Yes, I don’t meet them for the rest of the year… these days I chat with some over Facebook or BBM, but nothing like meeting in the lobby at Frames.
#4 Star-gazing! Thanks to the fact that Yash Chopra is chairperson of the entertainment committee and now with Karan Johar as co-chair, one can’t not find the big stars around. Last year, we had Vidya Balan pre-Dirty Picture. Now, we have Vidya Balan post-Dirty Picture. Ooh, la, la!
#5 There is some serious discussion on digitization and with the presence of all stakeholders – the I&B secretary and the TRAI chairman, the key broadcasters and the distribution biggies, we couldn’t have had a better platform now that the sunset date in metro is a few weeks away
#6 I enjoy Uday Shankar’s keynotes. The industry couldn’t have asked for a better champion. Given that his group is also into films in the country and his own background in news and print, there are few who have a more well-rounded view.
#7 I am also looking forward to the session with all the legal eagles though I am unsure whether the time allotted will be sufficient for a reasonable discussion. Perhaps next year, there should be a day-long discussion with the law-wallahs.
#8 Even though MxMIndia is a media partner and there’s no denying the fact that Frames is the premier event of India’s M&E sector, I have also been critical of a few of the earlier editions. It would get boring and I have seen no real merit in some of the deliberations. I have found media captains snooze and wish I had taken pictures of them. But I see that there is an attempt to get some new names in.
#9 I really like Rajiv Makhni of NDTV and I’m going to try and attend all the sessions moderated by him. In fact I wonder he was only called for three of the sessions… why not all?
#10 Clinch deals, exchange cards and pleasantries and promise to meet. Now that I am in an entrepreneurial mode, all of this assumes much importance.
#11 And for the 11th reason why I am going to be at FICCI Frames this year: Be happy that you are part of the media and entertainment business. Okay, folks in other industry sectors may not think much of us and crib about our work – our newspapers, magazines, channels, films… whatever – but they can’t do without us.
The views expressed here are my own, and not necessarily those of MxMIndia.com and my colleagues.
By Anil Thakraney
Okay, so I have ‘upgraded’ to 94.3 Radio One and have chucked all my CDs into the Arabian Sea. Spending time in the car, despite Mumbai’s horrendous traffic conditions, has become fun once again. And I must say the RJs don’t ramble much, and the music collection is superb. A good mix of new stuff and retro. So far so good.
The only problem is the bloody ads. Most of them are sick, boring and nerve-wracking to hear. And each ad enjoys high frequency because radio is an inexpensive medium. Imagine what a downer it is to listen to rubbish in the middle of Coldplay and U2. This is like a tapori waiter on duty at the Zodiac Grille. Doesn’t work. So who’s at fault here, can we blame the radio station? Ideally, 94.3 should be picky about the sort of ads they broadcast, so that the overall ambience of the station doesn’t get screwed. They cannot disown the ads completely. But private FM radio stations are bleeding in India, so we really can’t blame them for lapping up whatever ads they can get their hands on. They have to survive, no? So I guess the station can be forgiven.
What cannot be forgiven is the sad quality of the radio ads. I cannot understand why, after all these years, agency creative directors don’t get this fantastic medium. At a very low cost, one can produce award winning work in this space. With no dependence on visuals, the listeners’ imagination can be fired, they can be left to fit in their own images. And how very tantalizing that can be! I suspect the key reason radio advertising continues to languish is that the entire attention of the ad agencies is focused on TV commercials. And perhaps radio spots are still being written by bored copy trainees, who must be treating it as a chore rather than as a creative challenge.
| [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG3JPvH3tO0[/youtube] |
Come on, dear Creative Directors. It’s a fab medium and a huge opportunity. Don’t waste it. And I would also appeal to the clients not to accept garbage scripts. They must put pressure on their agencies to come up with sparkling radio spots. Even if the spots cost less, money is being spent on them, so they better be paisa vasool. If the brand managers quietly accept mediocrity, then that’s what will be dished out to them.
***
PS: Haha. Armani shows you how to tip the room service staff. I strongly suggest you don’t try this out in a desi five star hotel. The consequences can be grievous!
By Ranjona Banerji
Living in big cities, you accept the privileges given to you with an entitled sense of arrogance. Yes, we have pubs everywhere in Mumbai, dear Virginia, and women can walk out at any time without fear of being raped.
But this grouse is not about that. It’s about trying to read a newspaper in non-big city India. The past three weeks in Dehra Dun mean that all the news in the English newspapers are between 24 and 48 hours old and given the pace at which TV spews out the stuff, completely outdated. Internet facilities in the capital of Uttarakhand – and I am stationed a few km above Dehra Dun – have improved considerably. This means that by the time you get The Times of India, The Hindustan Times or The Hindu in your hands, your only interest in the front page is which paper has given more importance to which news.
I understand all the compulsions which newspapers face about printing and travelling times and the costs incurred in transportation. But there has to be a better way of dealing with “dak†or “mofussil†editions than methods used decades ago. In fact, just a decade ago when I was with The Times of India in Ahmedabad, we were aware of the problems faced by our readers in Vadodara and Surat and pushed the management to look closely at the logistics.
The most amusing newspaper which we get here is The Asian Age, which really is a day old since it’s the Delhi edition. With it, you play the game to see which front page item is completely redundant.
A little more respect for readers may not be such a bad thing, perhaps.
By Anil Thakraney
This one might possibly be the worst TV commercial on air right now. Everything’s gone wrong out here. The Appy Fizz ad involves some very trite banter between actor Saif Ali Khan and his pals, as they lounge somewhere. The drink, which has come alive, adds in its two bits of nonsense. I am not even going to describe this ad, that’s too boring a task. Please watch it for yourself.
| [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWVoq1ePqx0[/youtube] |
Where do I begin? Saif Ali Khan? What’s the point of casting a middle aged angry actor for a ‘buddy hang out’ drink? How does he fit in? Next. Since the ad is entirely conversation based and nothing else happens aside from that, wit and sharp humour become key ingredients. To say the commercial is so-not-funny would be a mild statement. Truth be told, I haven’t heard such silly, juvenile banter amongst junior school kids. If the copywriter is weak on humour, he/she must avoid that route like the plague. The exchange between the various characters didn’t just bore me, it made me squirm. And of course, no one tells us what makes Appy Fizz a special drink. That it talks utter rubbish is all we know.
By the way, they missed one little trick. What would have generated some laughs is if the angry middle aged actor punched the Appy Fizz bottle on its face. Boom! Chhote nawab is particularly good at these things. Had they done that, I would have given the ad a few stars. For sure.
Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 0. Humour falls flat.
By A Correspondent
Women’s lifestyle monthly Femina in conjunction with beauty products brand L’Oréal Paris has announced the launch of women’s awards property †the L’Oréal Paris Femina Women Awards 2012, in association with Rasvihar, to be held in Mumbai on March 22, 2012.
The first ever L’Oréal Paris Femina Woman Awards will celebrate and honour the most accomplished women in the fields of art, music, education, business, social activism and cinema for their talents, grace and ability to inspire. The jury includes names from photography, film and the corporate world such as Gayatri Ruia, Jatin Kampani, Nandita Mahtani, Nathalie Gerschtein, Priya Dutt, Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Tanya Chaitanya and Zeenat Aman will choose the winners across various categories.
Readers are also invited to vote for The Man We Love, The Woman We Love, and The Favourite Face of a Cause by visiting www.facebook.com/feminawoman. They can also participate in the L’Oréal Paris ‘Who’s worth it to you?’ contest by logging on to www.lorealparis.co.in. Commenting on the announcement, Tarun Rai, CEO, WWM said, “Indian women are making their mark in diverse fields including in the traditional male bastions. The L’Oréal Paris Femina Women Awards are both a celebration and a recognition of the achievements of Indian women in arts and entertainment as also science and business. Femina believes that the modern Indian woman can be all that she wants to be and these awards are a tribute to this belief. And we are very happy that L’Oréal Paris is our partner in this celebration.â€
Tanya Chaitanya, Editor, Femina said, “The firstâ€ever L’Oréal Paris Femina Women Awards set the spotlight on how much a woman can achieve if she believes in herself. Femina, having known the Indian woman for more than 50 years, hopes that the inspiring stories behind each of our winners will help our readers realise their own strength. To women power!â€
Nathalie Gerschtein, Director of L’Oréal Paris in India said, “Our legendary signature – “Because you’re worth it†– has empowered women over the past 40 years. These four timeless words are a reflection of women’s potential to express themselves. L’Oréal Paris is not just a leading beauty brand, but also a brand that embodies selfâ€confidence and empowerment. Today, being a L’Oréal Paris woman means being an individual with a charismatic personality, a determined outlook and a strong personality. We are happy to honor such women by partnering with Femina to host our first Women awards.â€
Readers can vote in the categories of Woman We Love; Man We Love; and Face of a Cause.
By A Correspondent
Ormax Media has announced the launch of the 3rd edition of its Cricket Advertising Recall & Effectiveness research – Day After Cricket (DAC), for brands advertising on IPL 5. DAC was launched in 2010 for IPL 3. In 2011, the research was conducted for IPL 4 and the Cricket World Cup.
Day After Cricket research has two components. The first one involves day-after tracking, available as bi-weekly syndicated reports to advertisers and media agencies over the seven-week long duration of the tournament. This phase of research will be conducted across the six metros, covering more than 2100 IPL viewers over the course of the tournament.
The second phase of DAC is post-event research customized to the brand’s requirements and target audience. In this phase, the impact of IPL on the brand’s equity will be determined, by measuring the difference in the performance of the brand on key attributes amongst viewers and non-viewers of the tournament. An advertiser can opt for either or both phases of the research, depending on its objectives.
Speaking about DAC, Shailesh Kapoor, CEO – Ormax Media, said, “From a research perspective, there are two key deliverables in big ticket cricket advertising – Recall & Equity Impact. Recall needs to be monitored to understand if the brand has managed to stand out in the clutter. Equity Impact is the long-term influence of the campaign, measured in a way that nullifies the role of all other media or promotions, thereby isolating the specific impact of IPL on the brand.â€