MxMIndia

Category: HARD KNOCKS

Anil Thakraney’s view on adland, medialand and more

  • While India may still not be setting Cannes on fire, our creative directors do return with a decent number of trophies, writes Anil Thakraney.

    Anil Thakraney: Yes, We Cannes!

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    I have been to Cannes just once, and this was in the year 2000. To represent the ad mag I was editing at the time. I have many interesting memories of that trip, but the one that stands out is this: While I did run into quite a few eager desi ad men and women, India did not win a single award. In fact, the scenario was so bad, global ad gurus and the fest organizers would treat Indian journos with the same degree of respect as those from Eastern Europe. Okay, perhaps slightly better. And this made even a simple thing like obtaining interviews with the ad biggies a Herculean task.

     

    I am happy to discover that in the interim period a lot has changed. While India may still not be setting Cannes on fire, our creative directors do return with a decent number of trophies. This was inconceivable in the year 2000. I am particularly pleased that the Mumbai Mirror TV commercial scored a Gold. Not only because I have worked for that newspaper in the past, but also because I recall giving the ad very high marks in the review I did for mxmindia. This is a clear indication that the ad frat must take my ad reviews very seriously… the Cannes jury gets influenced by them, hehe.

     

    So then how did India turn the corner in the last decade? I would say there are three reasons: In the last few years, thanks to the economic boom and the efforts of some filmmakers (most specifically, Sir Danny Boyle), the India story has become interesting for the goras. They want to know more about us, we excite them now. This also means that the jury members now pay more attention to the Indian approach to advertising, they try hard to get our culture. Plus having more desi judges out there helps. All this then results in a better strike rate.

     

    Second, the quality of our ‘creamy layer’ work has gone up in the last ten years. And I use the phrase creamy layer because 90 per cent of the mass advertising continues to be bollocks, and this is the case with the rest of the world too. But we have significantly improved on our good work. I also think some of our creative directors and ad filmmakers are paying a lot more attention to execution, a very important reason behind our increasing medals tally.

     

    But most importantly, the clients have evolved in the last decade. Many of them want to push the envelope, they want to innovate; they don’t mind taking risks. This has naturally helped matters a lot. This was not the case in the past. Back in the bad old days, one was paid to do safe work, and risk takers used to be punished.

     

    Maybe I will visit Cannes next year, it’s the right time. Think I will be given as much bhav as the American and the Brit journos. 🙂

     

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    PS: Interesting blogpost on the biggest advertising lies. Lies that get bandied around so often, they become truths. Here’s exploding some popular myths.

    Link: http://adcontrarian.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/advertisings-5-biggest-lies.html

     

     

  • Net net: It's the traditional mind set that needs to change. A tall ask in an industry where some senior leaders pride themselves in not even trying to figure out how a basic internet tool like the social media works

    Anil Thakraney: Zero in digital work

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    So, once again we did miserably in the Cannes cyber awards category. Here’s mxmindia’s story on this subject, and I must say it is pretty depressing.

     

    http://www.mxmindia.com/2012/06/are-we-duhs-in-digital/

     

    I suspect the main reason we continue to languish in this field is the apathetic creative directors. Most large agency creative directors don’t get this new medium, and it appears to me they don’t even WANT to get it. Because we are a third world nation, for lakhs of people the television set is still an aspirational purchase. And, therefore, it is widely believed that it will take many years before the digital medium becomes truly relevant in India. This might be true, but that still doesn’t change the fact that the digital world is already at our door step… rather, it has walked right in… and many brands can benefit from it. And the winners will be those who move early.

     

    Another thing: If the traditional ad agencies continue to ignore this space and treat it as a ‘supplementary’ medium, they run the risk of losing this business to specialized tech solutions shops. Such boutique digital agencies are already sprouting, and before the sluggish large agencies get their act together, this part of the business will be lost to them. Perhaps forever. All the more reason the ad agencies need to act before it’s too late.

     

    It is also true that most of the senior ad agency leaders are old worlders and they are finding it difficult to connect with this medium. Their lives begin and end with the 30 second TVC. That’s all right, and they can continue to focus on TV commercials. But as long as they make sure their creative departments are packed with young ‘techno-creatives’, and these blokes are on the job from the very first client briefing. This would naturally lead to upping the staff budget, but this is an investment that will pay off in the long run. Just as when television started booming in India, ad agencies were compelled to start out a specialized films department, exactly that’s what needs to be done now.

     

    Net net: It’s the traditional mind set that needs to change. A tall ask in an industry where some senior leaders pride themselves in not even trying to figure out how a basic internet tool like the social media works. Check for yourself how many of them are on Twitter and Facebook and you’ll know what I mean.

     

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    PS: Must watch: Repellent Radio. Brilliant stuff. This is a good example of Brazil’s super advertising talent. And also why that nation always does marvelously at Cannes.

     

    Link: http://www.canneslions.com/work/2012/radio/

     

     

  • Personally speaking, I am all ready for the future. I have decided to start a specialized scam ads shop. Which to me sounds like a really lucrative business

    Anil Thakraney: Channel V: A wasted opportunity

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Channel V has announced they are giving up music for good, and it will be all about youth entertainment from hereon. My first reaction: ‘So what’s new, guys?’ Because whenever I have made the mistake of dropping by at Channel V, I have never spotted a music video, only some mindless trash involving screaming and yelping kids.

     

    Channel V has been around for nearly two decades, and I must say they have struggled badly in terms of the content mix, from the start. From music to comic promos (remember Quick Gun Murugan?) to juvenile reality shows… they’ve been trying to pull all sorts of stunts, with the hope that something will get the Indian youth hooked. This hasn’t worked. Channel V has remained a very small player in the STAR bouquet, and every other year there are murmurs of a shut down.

     

    The core problem, in my books, has been lack of focus. As programming heads and CEOs changed over the years, each one added new confusion to the proceedings. With the result that today, all these years later, Channel V stands for nothing really to the youth segment. It’s become like that proverbial dhobi ka kutta… na ghar ka na ghat ka. This is bad news for any brand, leave alone a television channel operating in a very saturated market.

     

    Anyways, they seem to have finally decided it’s going to be all about entertainment content, whatever that means. But it appears to be good bye to music for sure. Let’s see how this pans out in terms of actual programming, though going by past records, this is likely to be 24X7 nonsense stuff.

     

    When I look back, there appears to be one very important trick that Channel V missed. And it’s cost them heavily. They should have positioned the brand as THE Bollywood music channel from the very start. Hindi film songs are always popular in this nation (the local pop and rock bands are sidey shows anyway). And the channel, being an early starter, could have owned this genre, leaving no place for those who came in later, such as Sony Mix, Mastii, and others. Channel V could have become Bollywood’s official music station. This would have translated into loyal viewership and a lot of ad revenue.

     

    But instead of that, they opted for retarded reality shows, and today they are neither here nor there. Channel V should consider itself lucky its parent has very, very deep pockets.

     

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    PS: Harvey Nichols recently ran this outdoor campaign inLondon. The idea is totally sensational and many locals found it to be deeply offensive. But the damage was done before it could get pulled. Wonder when we’ll see such stuff in India. And wonder how the hockey loving ACP Vasant Dhoble would react. 🙂

     

    Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. He is Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own.

     

     

     

  • In my belief, that answer lies inside the marketing office of Cadbury India, the company that enjoys a 70 per cent market share in this category

    Anil Thakraney: How ads helped chocolates treble sales

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Read an interesting story in The Times of India. It reported that chocolate consumption has trebled in India, not in the last 30 years, but in the last seven years alone! This is a huge rate of growth in any product category, and by any stretch of imagination.

     

    So, then what happened? Has India suddenly developed a sweet tooth? Can’t be that, because mithais and other sweetmeats have been part of our tradition and eating habits for centuries together. There must be another explanation. TOI’s story seems to link the growth in choc consumption to the rising income levels in this country. I find this link a bit tenuous. Because rising income usually translates into increased expenditure on consumer durables and other high ticket items, those that import some degree of status to a person’s life. How on earth does a bar of chocolate fit in this scenario? It’s a low cost impulse purchase product, much like all other sweets and snacks. So the answer lies elsewhere.

     

    In my belief, that answer lies inside the marketing office of Cadbury India, the company that enjoys a 70 per cent market share in this category. All those years and efforts the chocolate major has invested in expanding the market in India, to make their brands attractive to the adult segment, have paid off big-time. And Cadbury’s rivals have benefited in the process, too. This is the key reason behind the booming choc market.

     

    Some of you may not know this, but as recently as 20 years ago, chocolates used to be targetted only at kids, and this imagery of the product totally alienated the vast adult population. In the year 1992 if you dared to consume a Cadbury Dairy Milk bar in a public place, you ran the risk of being scoffed at for ‘shamelessly eating a bachchon ka product’. And in just twenty years the market has turned on its head.

     

    And this has been achieved by Cadbury purely on the power of advertising. It took some years, but the results are showing now, and how! The Cadbury commercials have won many awards over the years but their biggest victory has been that they turned the fortunes of the entire category. Cadbury India has shown the world the magic you can do when your strategy is innovative and when the creative work shines. The trebling of the choc market in India is the victory of advertising alone.

     

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    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI7Oq8y-jXA[/youtube]

    PS: This is why I am so looking forward to watching The Newsroom, the latest, hottest American TV serial. Am excited not just as a viewer, but also as a journalist. It’s high time the media looked at its own self. This is gonna be something else, going by this kickass capsule. Must watch.

     

  • Spend some money on content & design, not a new logo, Anil Thakraney urges Archies as he's surprised that people still buy the cheesy trash in card shops.

    Anil Thakraney: To Archies. With love

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Makers of Archies greeting cards have made a sensational announcement: They have a brand new logo! Wow! Can’t wait to hit their store! Am sure there’s a stampede out there!!

     

    Just kidding, of course. If there’s one product category that continues to disappoint me, it’s these festive cards, a category in which Archies is the market leader. These cards have got stuck in time, the design is the same old boring eighties stuff, and the messages seem to be written by juvenile delinquents and/or a group of really bored housewives. Each time I’ve dropped by at the Archies outlet, I have struggled very, very hard to find one single witty and sparkling card. It’s always the same rubbish: ‘Dear Husband, you mean the world to me, I will love you for the rest of my life.’ ‘Dear Mother, you are the best mom in the world, you make me happy.’ And this nonsense relentlessly goes on.

     

    Isn’t it amazing that people continue to buy this cheesy trash? Especially in these days of e-cards and social media? Why does it happen? The answer is quite simple, and it’s this human quirk that has helped Archies thrive despite years of staggering mediocrity. People, especially women, like the personal touch of a hard copy card, they don’t much care for the e-card. They appreciate the fact that someone they love made the effort and spent the time to buy them a special card. So what if the card itself sucks, that’s not really important. The gesture is.

     

    And it is this human quirk which has helped the card maker amass a lot of money without ever ploughing some back into improving the product. Thing is, I wonder how long this affection for a hard copy card last. As the generation changes, many Indians would smoothly switch to the internet for greeting each other, and be quite happy using that medium. And that would mean a quiet death for Archies cards.

     

    Dear Archies, there are enough very talented designers and writers in this nation. Please loosen your purse strings and spend some money on content and design. That alone will assure a future for you. A cosmetic logo change certainly won’t.

     

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    PS: Don’t we often land up on a page that does not exist? When that damned ‘404 ERROR’ warning springs up? Well, some designers have decided to sex up that dull and un-inviting page. And the results are great fun. So much better to spend energies on this than indulge in fake ads to win awards.

    Link: http://www.topdesignmag.com/30-awesome-404-error-page-designs/

     

     

  • It’s clear that not many lessons have been learnt from the past, and that the news channels are busy making the same goof ups. It’s back to alarm-raising and hysteria

    Anil Thakraney: Hysterical news channels

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    On Wednesday noon I got a serious jolt. Was in the middle of some work, and during the quick lunch break I switched on the TV to check if there was any khabar on the heavy downpour in Mumbai. What I saw instead made the food plate drop out of my hands. All the news channels were going ballistic over the discovery of a ‘suspicious looking’ object inside a Lokhandwala Complex (Mumbai) mall. Even as the police was busy sussing that mysterious object, it was being freely referred to as a ‘suspected bomb threat’. In fact, close-up shots of the damn thing were being flashed.

     

    Totally panicked, I frantically got onto the phone to alert family members who live in the vicinity (and am sure many people did ditto), and then rushed back to the television set. Suddenly, instead of the bomb threat, all the news channels were hectically ‘breaking news’ on the Indian cricket team’s selection for the up-coming Sri Lanka ODI series! And I was like: Arre, bomb ka kya hua, behenji?

     

    I had to strain my eyes to read the fast moving ticker. Which, very quietly, indicated that it was only a false alarm. Meanwhile, of course, many weak hearted sods (like me) had to endure a great deal of stress. Now this is worrying. It’s clear that not many lessons have been learnt from the past, and that the news channels are busy making the same goof ups. It’s back to alarm-raising and hysteria. (Also, I later discovered this led to intense rumour mongering all over the city.)

     

    Guys and gals, it’s simple, really. No ‘God Particle’ science, see? Maybe we should hold the news till some sort of an official statement is made by the cops? Maybe the media needs to let the investigators do the initial work in peace, that of determining what the ‘suspicious looking’ object is? So that people don’t needlessly panic. And most importantly, the same old disturbing question: What public service is being served by such ultra hurried, speculative reporting? Correct, the answer is none.

     

    Frankly, I really don’t know if and when we’ll get our act together on terror coverage. I guess our news channels simply cannot resist going live at the very first hint of terror. In which case, there’s no hope at all. Keep your pace maker on stand-by.

     

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    PS: Hahaha. Really enjoyed this series of comic strips on the advertising life. Hit this link only if you belong to the crazy world of advertising, because only then you’ll be able connect with these situations. Yep, we ad buggers have lived each one of these moments! Awesome stuff.

     

    Link: http://theawesomeworld.tumblr.com/archive

     

  • The 'boutique' agency will now have a lot more moolah in its kitty to play around with. So that's the good news. The bad news however is the agency has lost its independence

    Anil Thakraney: BBH must remain the black sheep

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    So, Sir John Hegarty has sold out his cult hot shop to the Publicis Group. The latter already owned a substantial stake in BBH, but now it’s a complete buy-out. How this acquisition will impact the future of BBH, only time will tell. It will all depend on how the new parent handles the adopted baby.

     

    BBH definitely gains from the acquisition in terms of financial muscle power. The ’boutique’ agency will now have a lot more moolah in its kitty to play around with. So that’s the good news. The bad news however is the agency has lost its independence. How much ever Publicis claims they will leave BBH alone to carve its own future, the ground reality is that as people change, as leadership changes, and as egos clash, this reassurance can change too. When push comes to shove, the ultimate power lies with the man who signs the pay cheque. That’s the new reality BBH now wakes up to.

     

    There’s another, larger issue to worry about: Sir John Hegarty and his partners will have run into serious personal money with this acquisition. Good for them, and they do deserve every penny of it. But it’s also a fact that Hegarty isn’t getting any younger, and BBH could come under a cloud when he retires to his farmhouse. Which is likely to happen pretty soon, within the next two years to be precise. As long as the Big Man is around, the Publicis suits will resist the temptation to interfere. Once he’s gone, it’s anybody’s guess how things will pan out. Suffice to say this: BBH, in its new avatar, won’t find it as easy to attract hot creative talent as it did till yesterday. It’s a pucca family member now.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZtDqpdvy7s[/youtube]

    Publicis’s best bet is to allow BBH to maintain Hegarty’s famed ideology, even after Hegarty walks into the sunset: ‘When the world zigs, zag.’ They poke their neck into this and try to tweak it; BBH will immediately lose its magic and turn into just another ad agency. And that would be a pity.

     

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    PS: Heineken’s new ad. It’s a simple idea: ‘The perfect beer calls for the perfect bar.’ But the magic has been created by the art director and the production designer. A good example of how superb art direction can really lift a film. I feel like a Heineken already!

     

     

  • To be taken seriously in India, I need to work for a foreign publication. That's the irony of our existence

    Anil Thakraney: Oye, ‘Time’ mein job milega?

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    TIME mag has termed our Prime Minister an ‘Underachiever’. I completely disagree with this description, it is much too kind. The truth is, and every sane Indian would agree, MMS has been a total flop show since he became PM once again in 2009. His government failed the country on every single parameter, and in particular, his team has damaged India’s growth story. Anyway, enough has been said on Manmohan Singh’s stellar performance, so I won’t delve on that.

     

    What got me interested is the impact of TIME’s cover story in India. Both, the politicians and the media got their knickers in a twist discussing this article threadbare. Almost as if the final report card had arrived from the Big Boss. As if what the goras, located thousands of miles away from the action, think of our PM is the gospel truth.

     

    All sorts of insinuations are being flung around. Some people suggest it’s a marketing gimmick from TIME mag to boost its circulation in India. One Left leader claimed it’s a conspiracy hatched by America to put MMS under pressure so that they can launch new businesses in India! And of course, the netas are busy hurling dirt at each other. As the BJP leaders gloat over the article, the Congresswallahs are firing back with: ‘Hello, but they were harsher on Atal Bihari Vajpayee!’

     

    However, what hurt me the most in this tamasha is that various Indian columnists and speakers have been dissing Manmohan Singh’s policies for a long time, but no one takes them seriously. It’s as if what India thinks about India does not matter. Quite obviously, after over six decades of independence, our colonial hangover hasn’t gone. No wonder then that some top industrialists from India happily meet the foreign press, while desi journos don’t even get a response to interview requests.

     

    My conclusion: To be taken seriously in India, I need to work for a foreign publication. That’s the irony of our existence. Therefore I am busy preparing my CV afresh, and will soon be knocking on the doors of gora editors. Jai Hind!

     

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    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMfSGt6rHos[/youtube]

    PS: Glad this utterly charming ad from Chipotle won the Grand Prix at Cannes. My most favourite commercial of last year. Superb idea backed by terrific animation. It’s all soul, and it makes you think where we are headed. The film is particularly relevant in India, where we have lost our way in the mad ambition to be an industrialized nation. And yes, Coldplay’s haunting track, ‘The Scientist’, works wonderfully out here.

     

  • I doubt if the show has made any impact on the nation. Because every Sunday, a new issue is being raked up, the one discussed a few weeks ago gets erased

    Anil Thakraney: Satyamev Jayate: Handkerchief entertainment

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Okay, the nation’s most expensive and the most-hyped TV show is drawing to a close. In a few weeks from now Satyamev Jayate will be history (there may or may not be a sequel). In fact, host Aamir Khan’s already moved on to what he does and what he knows best: Making movies. The hero’s strutting around in his ‘Dhoom 3’ look these days. It’s a good time to do an appraisal, and I have three large points to make.

     

    The ratings of SJ have been disappointing. It reported an okayish 4 when the show began, but in recent times the TVR points have dipped to about 3. And that is sad. This means India isn’t really euphoric over a TV show that discusses serious public issues. Dance reality shows enjoy better ratings. We can’t blame this on the channel or the producer. And this is also the reason I doubt they’ll put out another season.

     

    I also doubt if the show has made any impact on the nation. And I had expressed this concern when I first wrote about SJ. Because every Sunday, a new issue is being raked up, the one discussed a few weeks ago gets erased from the memory. In that sense, SJ has ended up becoming what I call ‘handkerchief entertainment’. Weep a bit and then discuss where to step out for lunch. This also tells me entertainment channels cannot change this nation. News channels can, but they have other problems which we’ll discuss another day.

     

    The onus then falls on the star host to keep the pressure going on the various issues he’s brought up. The only reason SJ even scores a TVR of 4 is Aamir Khan. Take him out of the equation and it will earn less than 0.5 points. It’s his charisma that drives the show. Which is why if Aamir doesn’t keep the fires burning, no one else will. But obviously the actor won’t and can’t do this. He has many other fishes to fry, and in any case his involvement in public causes in the past has been at a superficial level. So there’s no reason to believe it will be any different this time.

     

    Net net: An average performer. A nice Sunday tear jerker. Even voyeuristic to some extent. But all those of us who believed SJ will change India got a might egg on the face. Just as Aamir hummed ‘Meri jaan meri jaan Sunday ke ande’ in the show’s promos.

     

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    PS: Here’s a respected TV producer saying that advertising is killing the television medium. Of course he makes valid points. However it’s tough to visualize a situation where TV is freed of these irritating ads. Unless subscribers are ready to pay a lot of money to broadcast stations. That’s never gonna happen. Also, if there were no ad breaks, what happens to the loo breaks? 🙂

     

    Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8227864.stm

     

  • The point is that it has always been a matter of doubt as to what a journalist must do when confronted with a live, unfolding tragedy

    Anil Thakraney: Aren’t journos human beings?

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Friday’s non-stop TV coverage of the Assam molestation incident reminded me of the horrific rape of a minor girl by a drunken man on a Mumbai local train. As seven people (including a journalist, who later filed the story) stood watching and did nothing. I recall having a drink that weekend with a friend, and after a few pegs we both declared we would have chucked the rapist from the moving train. Tabartop justice! Maybe it was the booze talking, but that’s not the point.

     

    The point is that it has always been a matter of doubt as to what a journalist must do when confronted with a live, unfolding tragedy. Should he or she intervene? Or should he or she stick to recording the incident, which is actually the job of a journalist. There are no easy answers to this one and even when there are, opinions are highly polarized. I put this question to acclaimed photographer Raghu Rai, who has shot many live tragedies in his lifetime.

     

    This was a part of the interview I did with him for GQ magazine. He is very clear on the issue: “If a person is dying, even if it’s a very close relative, I would first film it, and then see if I can save the person. If the issue concerns the nation, then I would like the nation to see it. And discover what kind of a nation we have become. We are not doctors or social workers, we are photographers. And our first duty is to take the picture and then do the rest.”

     

    Of course, there’s merit in what he says, and I suspect this must be the opinion of many journos. You have to tell the world about the horrific things going on, else there’s little possibility of change. But after having pondered over this matter for some time, I have reached the conclusion that we journalists have to be human beings first. In the place of the cameraman who filmed the girl being molested by so many perverts (and that is if the dude didn’t provoke the crime, as some people allege!), I would first call the cops, and then jump in to try and save the girl. And this is no hindsight herogiri, this is most certainly the right thing to do for any sensible human being.

     

    Later, I would tell the story and put out the images of the culprits. Isn’t that what really matters? Broadcasting footage of an unfortunate girl being traumatized serves no purpose beyond offering voyeuristic pleasure to some depraved souls. And if you have credibility on your side as a journalist, your readers and viewers will believe your version of things. Indeed that is what journalists must first try and accomplish: Credibility. Scoops and news breaks can wait.

     

    What happened with the young lass in Guwahati is appalling. But given our lax laws and weak law enforcement machinery, and given the general lack of ethics in this nation, such stuff will happen on our streets again and again. But this incident must serve as a reminder to journalists that being human must come above all else.

     

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    PS: Some of the most repugnant ads created across the world. What amazes me is not that they were created… creative minds can often be wicked… but that there are clients who agreed to run these. Wow
    http://inspirationmind.com/45-controversial-extreme-print-media-commercials/

    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    That critical factor is the only thing that will help the channel develop a distinctive identity. And if that doesn’t happen fast, it’s good bye to NewsX
    
			
    Anil Thakraney: NewsX needs the X. Very badly
    
			
    By Anil Thakraney
    

     
    

    No, I don’t watch NewsX. There are two reasons for this. For one, as far as the English news channels go, I have my plate full. With NDTV, Times Now and CNN-IBN. And that’s already more than I can handle. There is simply no appetite left for another ‘helping’. In addition, when I am in a particularly foul or salacious mood, I log into the Hindi news channels. Like India TV and Aaj Tak. And there’s no question of being able to deal with anything beyond this, as far as television news goes.
    

     
    

    Second, and more importantly, when I have accidentally dropped by at NewsX on the odd day when I am mindlessly surfing, I have noticed they have absolutely nothing new to offer. It’s just a bad copy of the leading English news channels, a poor me-too. So there’s been no motivation to go back.
    

     
    

    Within the above two reasons lie the key problems for this fledgling news channel. The English news channel market is saturated and very busy. Regular TV viewers have formed their individual loyalties, and it’s really tough for a late-comer to grab attention. No wonder NewsX has been languishing on the sidelines for four long years. And worse, because they have nothing fresh to offer, the channel will continue to languish.
    

     
    

    Now, to be fair to NewsX, the channel has seen enormous tumult since it was born. Friction within the senior management partners, ugly controversies and frequent change of ownership. Already placed in an extremely competitive market, this is not the kind of stuff they needed. The channel staffers should consider themselves fortunate the brand has survived thus far. And now, yet again, NewsX has a new owner: the ITV Group.
    

     
    

    I really can’t understand why ITV acquired the channel; it neither has the ratings nor the distribution. But their best bet now is to do one thing very quickly. Which is to get the X-factor injected into NewsX, the one and only ingredient that will help it survive. That critical factor is the only thing that will help the channel develop a distinctive identity. And if that doesn’t happen fast, it’s good bye to NewsX. And the saddest part is that no one will even notice when the channel’s gone.
    

     
    

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[youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eisbkQgY2Q[/youtube]

    
    

    

    PS: ‘Take the stage.’ A good campaign released by Adidas, especially for the UK market. This is not just to motivate the Brit athletes but also to create a buzz around the Olympic Games. Would have been nice if there was such an encouraging film produced for the Indian athletes. So that they don’t lose their passion even if Kalmadi lands up at the games to say a warm hello. 🙂
    

     
    

     
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Bottom-line: Yup, TRAI's proposal is autocratic and draconian. But if their new guideline does get implemented, the television medium will regain some of its lost sheen
    
			
    Anil Thakraney: Cap on TV ads harsh. but necessary
    
			
    By Anil Thakraney
    

     
    

    TRAI’s proposal to control television advertising does sound anti-free market at first glance. They have proposed 12-minutes per hour cap on ads. And also a ban on drop-downs and half-screen ads. Surely this is unacceptable. In an open market economy, marketers must be allowed to run their own commercial agendas, as long as no law is being broken. Just as all other media formats and most other businesses are allowed to. And I do see matters reaching the boiling point as the D-Day gets closer. Fair enough.
    

     
    

    Having said that, there is no doubt that TRAI’s new guidelines will vastly enrich the TV viewing experience. There are often too many ad breaks, and the Hindi news channels are particularly guilty of this. Many of us get scared of watching these channels more because of the breaks rather than the bhoot prets they regularly feature.
    

     
    

    And on some entertainment channels, the ad breaks are so long, leave alone No 1, you can actually manage No 2 inside one break! I know this example is crass, but you have to admit it’s quite relevant in this context. 🙂
    

     
    

    And of course, some of the sports channels have made a mockery of the TV screen. The way they splash live action with ads and commercial graphics, it’s like a naughty child has been let loose on canvas with a bucketful of paint. Half the fun of watching live action cricket has gone because of these sad gimmicks.
    

     
    

    TRAI’s proposal attempts to correct these things, and that’s a good thing. Also, because the ad rates will zoom up in the new regime, advertisers will be pickier about the programmes they choose, and will make sure they are focused. This will provide them with better return on investment. Today, on a very serious programme like Satyamev Jayate, one is bombarded with rubbish chaddi/baniyan ads. This makes no sense, neither as a marketer nor as a viewer.
    

     
    

    In addition, advertisers and their ad agencies will be compelled to get innovative on television. People will have to think beyond the classic 30 seconder, and as a creative person, I find that idea pretty challenging.
    

     
    

    Bottom-line: Yup, TRAI’s proposal is autocratic and draconian. They have no right to decide how private operators choose to make their money. I accept that point. But if their new guideline does get implemented, the television medium will regain some of its lost sheen. That, too, is a fact.
    

     
    

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    PS: Ah! Just another fun filled day in the ad world. It was like this a hundred years ago, and it’s still the same. And outsiders wonder why ad guys are often found inside watering holes. This is the key reason!