It’s not the first time that this has been done, but that it is happening in an election year is important to note. The TRAI and government have gone forward with the implementation of the New Tariff Order-led regime for distribution of TV signals.
There are contradictory reports on this, but some numbers suggest that only 10 per cent of the TV viewing universe has switched to the new world. While it’s 10 per cent now, the number is bound to grow and there will be many homes which could even be TV signal-less. Unlikely, but possible.
In this scenario, where there the viewership is going to be impacted, so will the measurement. Hence, Indian Society of Advertisers, the apex body of advertisers, and minority part-owner of joint industry body BARC India (Broadcast Audience Research Council) has advised its constituents to not factor in the new ratings that come in until viewership stabilises. While six weeks is the duration mentioned, this could well be more.
It may not impact buying decisions much, but for news television which is sprucing up its act and upping the ante in the run-up to the elections, it’s a dampener. Republic.Bharat, whose viewership numbers are expected next week, may not be impacted much since its free to air, but then as viewers decide on what they want, there’s always some uncertainty. Rivals who are not free to air can always say that comparisons or claims of leadership will not be right.
BARC, by the way, is not going to stop measuring watermarked channels. It will continue to do so and release ratings, as always.
Meanwhile, please access the PDF below for the ISA advisory.
ISA Advisory to all members regarding TRAI NTO and way forward
Madison Media has announced that it has won the Marico Media AOR in a competitive multi-agency pitch. Madison Media will be responsible for all media including Digital and will handle the account from April 1, 2019. It may be recalled Marico has been with Madison Media for 14 years from 2003. Then, in a pitch supervised by ATK, Madison Media had lost the account to Lodestar UM. This year the account went again on pitch.
Said Vikram Sakhuja, Partner & Group CEO Madison Media & OOH: “We are absolutely delighted to win back the prestigious Marico account. We are confident that we will be their true business partner and substantially contribute to their growth story. We are happy that Marico evaluated our cutting edge Digital expertise and found us as the right fitâ€.
Added Koshy George, Chief Marketing Officer, Marico Limited: “We look forward to this partnership with Madison Media. The agency brings in an expert team whose creative ideas and approach resonate with our ethos. It is critical to have a team combining creativity, expertise and execution excellence in today’s fragmented media landscape to drive value.â€
GroupM has announced that it is consolidating the reporting and analysis of its commercial and business development data with COMvergence. COMvergence is an independent, international research company collecting and analysing data from the global marketing services groups and the marketplace.  This, according to reports, means a goodbye to RECMA, the longstanding agency analysing media agency business and growth.
Said Elizabeth McCune, Global Chief Growth Officer at GroupM: “COMvergence has taken an open approach to building its methodology and partnerships for data collection and tabulation, giving us the confidence that when we share data from their benchmark reports to clients and their pitch consultants, it is the most accurate and validated view of the size and scope of our business and competitive set across the globe. Our industry truly needs a focus on accuracy and transparency in this area,â€
According to COMvergence’s most recent global billings and market share reports, GroupM is the number one media investment group for 2018, with $45B of cumulative billings and 28.8 percent market share (based on the total billings for the big 6 groups). In addition, three of GroupM’s agencies – Mindshare, Wavemaker and MediaCom – are in the top 10 rankings for global media agencies.
All figures based on November 2018 COMvergence Reporting and represents figures within the top six global holding companies only.
Said Olivier Gauthier, Founder of COMvergence: “GroupM has been an extraordinary client partner. They, along with the major holding company media groups, have worked with COMvergence since our founding to develop accurate methodologies and a collection of local and global reports that provide true insight into agencies and their performance across the globe.â€. Gauthier worked with RECMA until March 2016 and set up COMvergence a month later.
All reads lead to Kochi for India’s marketing services and media fraternity as the country plays host to some of the biggest names in the business. For the three-day IAA World Congress being held from February 20 to 22.
From Mukesh Ambani, the Congress’s chairman of the governing council and Reliance Industries CMD and Unilever’s Paul Polman to actor Amitabh Bachchan and tennis great Andre Agassi… they are all set to be there. IAA has announced an impressive line-up of 40-odd speakers for the three day, each of which will see an evening entertainment event. On Day 1, Mathrubhumi has a cultural evening – with the lights, sounds and taste of Kerala. On Day 2, there is a fashion evening with Manish Malhotra and Lubna Adams helming what’s going to happen on the ramp and on Day 3, there’s a Bollywood night.
IAA Global President Srinivasan K Swamy is gung-ho about the conference and says: “Whoever is not coming is likely to miss out on some great content.â€
Work on the IAA World Congress has been on for around a year. Adds Swamy: “We’ve been working for 7-9 months now. Before that we’ve been planning for another 6 months. So, it’s been more than a year now. But, the last seven months has been serious engagement.â€
Swamy has some leading professionals as part of the Governing Council as well as the Steering Committee.
IAA World Congress Website: https://www.iaaworldcongress.org/
FCB Interface has conceptualised the theme for Adfest 2019 Young Lotus contest, inviting ideas to end food wastage. The thought was to take up issues within the industry and further narrowing it down, to issues within our own agency. The communication shows ads being made from wasted food, urging for ideas to put an end to food wastage.
The ads have been completely made by the food wasted in leading advertising agencies where there is a huge kitchen space. FCB Interface collected all the food waste and then designed posters on a life size canvas. The production house McTolan Films collaborated with FCB to execute these posters.
Lending perspective, Robby Mathew, CCO, FCB Interface said: “The idea was simple – make a ‘food-wastage’ poster using the food wasted by advertising people, every day. The difficult part was rummaging through the waste bins of all the leading advertising agencies, carting away the food in mini trucks, then creating the 14 feet by 19 feet layouts with putrefying food, hanging from a crane to shoot the artwork, all the while shooing away the crows and dogs that were hell bent on eating the poster!â€
Speaking about the campaign, Rohit Ohri, Group Chairman & CEO, FCB India and Chairman, Young Lotus Selection Team at AAAI added: “This piece of work was not just a call for entries it was a call for behaviour change. The ‘personalisation’ of our communication helped shatter the ‘we don’t waste food’ illusion. Making the need to address this issue urgent and immediate.â€
The International Advertising Association (IAA) India Chapter announced the winners for its campaign in to build awareness of Diabetic Retinopathy in India.
The winning team is Rohan Joseph (Creative Director- Copy) and Vallabh Yeolekar (Creative Director-Art) at Madison BMB. Coming in second place was Neelam Lakhani (Creative Director- Copy) and Dhananjay Khotpal (Creative Director- Art).
This campaign, being planned along with the All India Opthalmology Association (AIOS) will be launched at the IAA World Congress in Kochi.
Said IAA (India Chapter) President Punit Goenka: “I am glad the elite jury consisting of Bobby Pawar, Raj Nair and Carlton D’Silva reached a consensus on the winning entry. We will now help produce it, fly the winning team to Kochi for the IAA World Congress and launch it there”.
Added Dr S Natarajan – President, AIOS:, “I am very happy that the communications industry is working to build awareness of how a simple test for diabetes can help prevent Diabetic Retinopathy and even possible blindness.â€
At a time when the advertising industry is trying to redefine itself, award shows also need to redefine their role. This is the philosophy behind the Gerety Awards that is designed to provide a global platform for talent and support initiatives that champion diversity in the creative industries.
Executive jury sessions will take place in London, Hamburg, New York, Mumbai, Paris, São Paulo, Stockholm, Beirut, Amsterdam and Sydney.
The confirmed jury includes: Rosie Arnold, former CCO, AMV BBDO;
Susan Credle, Global CCO, FCB; Nunu Ntshingila, Regional Director, Facebook Africa; Merlee Cruz-Jayme “Chairmom” and Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Jayme Syfu. Tista Sen, Regional Creative Director, JWT South Asia, is Brand Ambassador for the Gerety Awards.
Joe Brooks and LucÃa Ongay have more than 20 years combined experience working for advertising awards and believe it is time to do something different: “When we first started talking to key industry leaders about our ideas for the Gerety Awards, we were surprised by the passion and enthusiasm about this concept. This convinced us that what the industry needs now is a new kind of awards show.â€
Blink Digital has designed KFC Bucket Bae, a Valentine’s Day campaign that unites chicken lovers with the Bae of their dreams. In order to bring this idea to life, Blink helped create a robot designed to follow the consumer.
Talking about this campaign Rikki Agarwal, COO said: “‘People usually have mixed feelings about Valentine’s Day, so this year, KFC decided to play on fans’ love for chicken. We created Bucket Bae as the perfect embodiment of that – a bot with your favorite chicken = the perfect ae for Valentine’s Day. It not only has the classic KFC bucket, but it also works on sensors that allow the bot to match you stride for stride. The thought is simple: true love follows you back.’”
Added Moksh Chopra, CMO, KFC India said: “There is no love like the love of chicken! And if someone (or something) that follows you around with your favorite chicken isn’t true love, then what is? This Valentine’s Day we wanted to do something unique and add just a dash of (true) love to our consumer’s lives. So, here’s KFC Bucket Bae – a bundle, no, a bucket of love on wheels that follows you through thick and thin, promising to never leave your side. It is surely going to be a finger lickin’ good Valentine’s this year!â€
MSL has announced the appointment of Ashwin Dravid as Digital Lead, South of MSL India. He will report to Tushar Bajaj, National Digital Lead of MSL India. Dravid will lead the operations and business development in the South region and will work closely with teams to drive greater integration across the firm, to transform relationships with existing clients and win new ones.
Amit Misra
Said Amit Misra, CEO, MSL India: “We continue to fuel our digital and integrated growth by bringing in the best specialists to understand and cater to our client requirements. With Ashwin’s experience, we are confident of further strengthening our digital offerings in the South market. I am delighted to welcome Ashwin to the MSL India team and look forward delivering impactful integrated campaigns for our clients in South India.â€
Post a multi-agency pitch, Carnival Cinemas has chosen Mumbai-based social media agency, Little Monk Digital to handle the digital mandate of the cinemas chain.
Commenting on the latest development, Bishal Paul, CEO of Little Monk Digital said: “We’re happy to collaborate and come on board for to handle the digital duties for one of the biggest cinema chains in the country. We’re taking great efforts in expanding our roster beyond our strongholds in the entertainment industry and this is a step closer to that. With Carnival, we intend to completely change the idea of how content is consumed on social media when it comes to the multiplex business”.
The account will be handled from Little Monk Digital’s Mumbai office.
Three years back ‘Make My Trip’ (MMT) signed Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt as Brand Ambassador in a strategic move to connect with younger customers. The audience was intrigued, as the two have not done a movie together. Gully Boy will be the first movie for the pair. The audience has seen some brilliant, interesting, engaging and straightforward advertising.
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Ranveer – Alia: a Perfect MMT Choice.
The duo of Ranveer and Alia with their versatility and on-screen chemistry did justice to every possible freaky character the advertising agency served to them. The talented duo enacted a spectrum of roles with equal expertise. Each of the TVCs has an experimentative, adventurous, confident yet concerned and doubtful traveller as its mainstay.
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MAGICAL Engaging Creative
All the films represent a ‘Get to the point and present the advantage loud & clear in a memorable episode’ strategy by setting up a believable contextual situation. Be it about the awesome room, helpline, discount, pay at the hotel, zero cancelling, international food  or reminding the audience that MMT also makes hotel bookings.
Each of the TVC scripts is fantastic. The script leverages the brand ambassador pair chemistry and does justice to the crazy Ranveer and the big smiling, playful innocence of Alia Bhatt.
There has been no slag or hint of complacency in creative output even after so many episodic TVC. The client-agency team must be complimented for it. Â Here is the client-agency combination that knows how tough it is to deliver a higher degree of engagement once the benchmark is set. More importantly, a focussed client team has ensured a seamless migration of account from one agency to another, retaining the magic and playfulness.
https://youtu.be/In2dukXrtxw
The films have a template approach. There is a problem or a doubt followed by a smart solution ending with one-upmanship delivering the MMT advantage and an unforgettable lesson to the viewer.
How cool it would have been if the reel life could deliver on the real-life promise.
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Ranveer Alia Can’t Solve Service Delivery Issues.
Brand MMT must watch social media chatter. Â In the last few months, there has been a marked increase in MMT consumer complains on social media and reviews. Most of them deal with broken promises, missed reservations and non-transparent pricing. The overactive bots and resultant thread of communication have shaken the confidence and image of a caring company with consumers.
It’s a reality that very few travellers compliment excellent service delivery whereas the errors are over-amplified. A reality every service provider including MMT must face.
It does not matter if the ratio of service delivered and complaints are the same across service providers. The complaints consumers see and react to, are important. Being one of the largest in the field, the expectations are much higher. MMT needs to be the benchmark. It seems something is definitely slipping.
I personally had no problem with bookings and travel on MMT. But the recent hike in social chatter has shaken the confidence in even loyalist like me.
Meeting customer expectation is a hygiene requirement in a service brand. Frustrated customers have no option but to shift loyalties.  Saying sorry serves no purpose.  The urge to check other travel-hotel portals is too powerful, and Trivago has been fuelling it big-time. Something the client cannot leave on Ranveer-Alia team to playfully address.
On a lighter note, may be the social media can do with a compliment for excellent service delivery and not just crib. And that is not about MMT only.
Carat India has promoted Pramod PP to Senior Business Director, Carat – Kochi. With this announcement, Carat intends to strengthen its consumer focus and business solutions for the Kerala market. Pramod PP will report to Rajni Menon, CEO, Carat Media Brands.
Talking about Pramod’s elevation, Menon said: “Pramod will play a critical role in maintaining Carat’s unparalleled expertise in the brand servicing industry.  The need for a strong brand voice is imperative, due to increased competition and rapidly evolving market strategies.â€
Added Pramod PP: “I am looking forward to raise the bar further and focus on excellence in customer experience and service. I am also clear that Carat will soon become a single source solution for a vast array of prestigious brands across the South Market.â€
By Sanjeev Kotnala