By Anuka Roy
The annual PromaxBDA India conference started yesterday (May 11) at the Indian School of Design and Innovation (ISDI) in Mumbai. It was not just the regular conference with speakers airing their views. The event is divided into Day 1 devoted to Boot Camp sessions with parallel workshops conducted on branding and promo producing and the second day devoted to Master Class sessions and the awards.
Graeme Newell, President of 602 Communications, conducted the Branding workshop about ‘Best practices for recruiting new viewers’. It was an examples-packed workshop, where Newell, an emotional marketing specialist showed the attendees the strategies behind some of television’s most successful viewer expansions. He also spoke about how to showcase a brand within daily promotions. Newell explained how most people take the cliché route for promos and gave a presentation on some of the most common mistakes that producers make. He even showed some of the most creative work done by the Advertising industry. Speaking to MxMIndia about the branding scenario in India, Newell said, “What we have to do a better job here is, internationally, we got to be able to show those values that work here and in other countries as well. So, often what I think we have a tendency to do here is sort of take care of ourselves. But, if we brand with more archetypal emotions- big bold emotions- that are used by biggest advertisers, we will be able to have international appeal. Regardless of what country you are in, that will resonate wellâ€. His afternoon session was about ‘News Marketing: What’s working, what’s not and why’. Here he showed a research study done on the effectiveness of news marketing. It was an in-depth analysis of thousands of promos created by news organisations all over the world. He also made it interactive by asking the people about why people are attached to a certain brand and what would they do to keep the audience loyal to their organisation. “Engagement is the key. You are renting your audience’s attention, make it worth their time,†he said.
“Being a promo producer is an awesome thing. Promo producers are artists, they do everything. They are the most important but underappreciated people in the world of television,†said Rob Middleton, Vice President at Astro’s Network Presentation Content Group. Middleton conducted the Promo workshop, ‘What the hell am I doing?’.  His session dealt with mainly what exactly should be done and how it is done. Promos are the medium through which the word about something new is spread to inform the audiences. They are the first sneak peak that an audience gets of the new product or show, so the promo has to be engaging. The success of the company to some extent depends on the quality and the impact of the promo. “India is the most creative, expressive and incredible places I have ever seen promotions from. Honest to God, in all of Asia, some of the best works I have seen comes from here. I am a little embarrassed that I am the one, as a foreigner, is coming in and telling everyone how to do their jobs better. When I take Indian work and show it to people in the United States, they cannot believe how great it is, and not because of the special effect or style but because of the idea, script and the way it is done,† Middleton said about Indian promos.
Post-lunch, workshops were conducted on Marketing and Animation. The marketing workshop on ‘Marketing and Technology – the birth of a new age in media’ was taken by Fiona King, Marketing Director/Consultant, Grazia, Grace Publishing Australia. Today, marketers are challenged to develop brand creative and content stories that cut through, she said. But what they now have in addition is technology, offering exciting opportunities for personalisation, targeting unique audiences and creating communities around content. King, through various case studies tried to highlight the leading marketing campaigns and the use of technology available to us. The process of developing a brand campaign which can be perceived as complex technology in to simple communication was touched upon. Digital marketing and social channel for engagement were also some of the key highlights. “In every country it is a work-in-progress because digital channels change so much. As a marketer you just have to evolve. There is no set formula. It comes back to focusing on the consumer and understanding where the consumer is at in any point of time. It is about moving from traditional to digital marketing. The economy has changed from information economy to a connection economy to a sharing economy,†said King about the combination of marketing and technology.
The animation workshop on ‘Get shorty: snackableanimation’ was about short-form animation. It was conducted by Yoshiya Ayugai, Executive Producer, Animation, Turner International Asia Pacific. “Animation, because it is not a human person it relates to a wider audience or may be makes it easier to like than actual human being,†said Ayugai on animation being used for marketing. But shorter content is never easy to translate. Telling a complete story in just a minute or two and grabbing attention can be challenging. He highlighted the whole development process- from concept to script to screen. A few exercises were also done to help aspiring animators to understand the process.
The day ended with anticipation for the second day and the awards, both scheduled at the the Westin hotel in Mumbai.
