MxMIndia

Category: COLUMNS

  • The Zee Networks' WION has so far eschewed the usual TV news route and concentrated on news itself, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: WION – Less breathless so far

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Thanks to satellite television (or is it just mainly Tata Sky?), anyone tired of the nightly fisticuffs on primetime news, can switch to the tranquil and focused “foreign” news channels now available, many of which may be government PR machines but are still soothing. NHK World from Japan will give you local news as well as informative wildlife documentaries and snippets about Japanese culture (also a lot of Shinzo Abe). France 24 and TVMonde (wonderful to see it again after a hiatus) mix news with features and, especially TVMonde, with serials. DW from Germany has a strong focus on world news. And so on. Sometimes they can be a bit like Doordarshan of the old days but more stylish.

     

    None of them are full of the sensationalist anger of that marks our main news channels in any language. The exception seems to be the World is One Network (WION), started by the Zee network. WION has so far eschewed the usual TV news route and concentrated on news itself. It shows focuses more on one-on-one interviews rather than 20-member panel discussions. The “world” part is evident in the attention given to world news and the varied accents of its anchors. Most of the news seems to be from agency feeds. However, it is also easy to watch and less breathless and senseless than many of its kin.

     

    Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha TV of course remain the grown-up person’s news channels and therefore it is largely unsurprising that the nightly escapades of Arnab Goswami and his band of merry “open debaters” rule the ratings. We know that the inner child throwing a tantrum is the best role model for news television in our times. On Thursday night, news anchors were breathing fire about some Aam Aadmi Party MLA having sex or some such – I must confess I could not conjure up enough interest in this matter. The discussion on Rajya Sabha TV anchored by Arfa Khanum on the implications of the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Tatas and the Singur land acquisition was far more interesting and perhaps significant than politicians having sex. At any rate, land acquisition is likely to have more impact and affect more people. You can tell that I am really old.

     

    **

     

    Is it worth questioning whether too much attention is being given to the Aam Aadmi Party and its government in Delhi? Its everyday problems cannot be of great significance to the whole of India, surely. The Delhi-centric view of life, especially when it comes to its municipal problems, is not really that entertaining or informative. And since distance has been reduced by communication, it is unfair to saddle the whole of India with the doings or travails of one city government.

     

    **

     

    Most of the media – and in this I count myself as well – was enraged by marathon runner OP Jaisha’s accusations against the athletic federation and her own coach that not enough water was provided to her during the Olympics. The most noisy debate was of course on Times Now where Goswami and his chosen guests went to town, attacking the athletics federation and coming up with proof that the runner had been badly treated.

     

    Sadly, it now turns out that the poor runner had overstated the case and that there was enough water provided by the organisers along the whole route. No apologies will be forthcoming of course but for those interested, the Indian Express has done an excellent series on how some athletes could not even match their qualification times when they competed in Rio.

     

  • Rahul Kishore gets up, close and very personal with Jaskaran Singh Kapany, Vice President, Marketing at Paytm

    Selfie with RK | Jaskaran Singh Kapany, Paytm

    By Rahul Kishore

     

    It is extremely difficult to get Jaskaran Singh Kapany for a meeting. He works extremely hard and his time is blocked days in advance. However, this time he was offered an interesting session of rapid fire questions and he gave in easily. He’s both funny and serious at the same time and his mind is always ticking. I began by asking him

    What’s your biggest strength?

    Self-Belief. If you believe in yourself, nothing can come in the way of you getting what you want. Sounds simplistic. But it works.

    What’s your biggest weakness then?

    Impatience. I wish could be a better listener. I tend to expect people to get to the point sooner.

    Favourite CEO?

    Steve Jobs. Legendary product passion. Stellar foresight. Brutal execution. All these are killer qualities in a leader.

    Hardwork or luck?

    Hardwork. Always. Luck is boring and doesn’t work. Plus, I have never been lucky!

    How would you like to live your life all over again?

    I wouldn’t. I am happy as I am and that’s an honest answer

    If a movie were to be made about your life who would you like  to play you?

    Al Pacino for sure! He keeps it real, understated but delivers an emphatic punch when it matters and would play me well

    On a scale of 1-10 how weird are you?

    3.63 he answers dead pan

    Four words that describe you?

    Die-hard Optimist. Driven.  Fair. Funny.

    What are your superpowers?

    I can multi-task a serious quantity of work, with precision. Be it at work or home. Or both!

    How often do you destress?

    I learnt this very early in life –  life goes on, come what may.  So stress shouldn’t be given too much importance. It just adds an unwanted unproductive dimension to ones life. I find switching off easy. Spending time with Ira, our young daughter, is the best way for me to unwind.

    Dream job?

    Anything that would pay me for travelling the world 10 months out of 12. On second thoughts, I’d do it for free.

    If Bill Gates gave you 10 million US dollars to change something what would it be?

    Try and improve the apathy we show towards fellow beings.  I mean, just today there was a story about a father having to carry his 12-year-old son on his shoulders to three different hospitals in broad daylight and not making it. How this can happen in this day and age flummoxes me.

    Rate RK as an interviewer.

    Wily

     

    Rahul Kishore

    Rahul Kishore is an entrepreneur-turned-media professional-turned-media entrepreneur. And he’s pretty professional. If he’s not posting messages on Facebook, he’s messaging posts on Facebook. He plays badminton in the morning, gyms and swims and loves sinful shakes twice a day. Once married, always shy, is a father of two and a husband of one. Lives in Delhi. Is Managing Director, Taurus Infomedia

     

  • If you look at the biggest hits in the last three years (2014-16), the corporate studios take the lion's share, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor:Film studios in trouble:Let myths be told

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    It’s been a tough week for the Hindi film industry. Stories regarding certain film studios closing or significantly slowing down their operations have been doing the rounds of the media. The Economic Times did two separate pieces, one of Disney India and then one on Balaji.

     

    These news stories triggered off “analysis” tweets and articles, none worse than the one published by The Quint two days ago. This particular article has been doing the rounds of social media and Whatsapp groups. It has even got the endorsement of some fringes of the film industry.

     

    The discourse that has been built over the last week, as a result, is highly misleading and dramatised. Let facts not come in the way of a good story, they say. Bollywood often uses that principle in its storytelling. Here though, it is at the receiving end.

     

    To begin with, the Disney India and Balaji stories are only connected by thing – their chance timing of being within a week. The two organisations could not be more different from each other. And the reasons behind their latest business decisions are entirely unrelated too.

     

    Yet, it’s been made out to be a trend. And the conclusions drawn have been extremely worrying. That people with MBA should not head studios. That you cannot run a film business using financial acumen and business analytics. That film business is so different from FMCGs that no conventional marketing rules apply to it.

     

    Bollywood has been known to promote stereotypes in its films over decades. But these stereotypes about the Hindi film industry, a consumer business at the end of the day, are being promoted by a new age digital media, not some 80s Bollywood frozen in time and space.

     

    If one goes by the piece in The Quint, written by someone the publication calls an “insider”, the only quality a film business CEO in India needs is a gut that can tell you whether a film will do a certain business or not. Everything else is irrelevant. And if you are an MBA or have business skills of any kind, you are almost certain not to be “creative”. What a terrible stereotype to promote, when a whole range of research is focusing how the left brain and the right brain complement each other to bring the best out of an individual.

     

    If you look at the biggest hits in the last three years (2014-16), the corporate studios take the lion’s share. 2015, in particular, stands out, with the top 7 hits all coming from corporate studios, involving Eros (three), Viacom, Fox Star, Disney and Sony (one each). The story is no different if you go back year on year for the last decade. There’s that fallacious counter-argument that for about 50% of these studio-backed hits, the IP is not with the studio. As if acquisition is not a legitimate business model here!

     

    Today, YRF is being hailed for Sultan and Dum Laga Ke Haisha. If this was two years ago, they would have been panned for Daawat-e-Ishq and Kill Dil, if a case had to be built against them. And when there is no explanation, such as Piku, an out-and-out studio-backed film becoming a huge hit, you take the gossip route, suggesting that the studio head did not believe in the film. Of course, no names are taken and no one speaks on record.

     

    Is everything right with the Hindi film business? Of course not. The business has been stagnant and the consumers need more than what is being served to them currently. As an organization that has brought in consumer data in the industry over the last eight years, we have seen ample cases where the lack of (and often resistance to) business analytics and consumer knowledge leads to wrong decisions being taken. But the current line of media discourse actually, and dangerously, suggests that the industry doesn’t need anything of that nature at all. It just needs some people with an abstract superpower to predict a hit at the get go.

     

    Bollywood is not going bust. Indians will not stop watching films because X studio shuts down or because Y studio slows down its operations for some time. The industry will evolve. Like any industry does. Like the telecom industry is likely to, after what has happened in the last 24 hours.

     

    Bollywood needs the right focus to sort its business model out, one that’s heavily star-dependent and is begging for a correction. And ill-informed media coverage and hyperbole is not going to help its cause in this pursuit.

     

  • Almost everyone I know struggles to get down to work without the deadline looming, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: The brain just doesn’t work without a deadline!

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    How do we deal with the problem of deadlines? When I started working in journalism, I used to do my subbing in the day and writing at night. Those were the days of typewriters so you often did multiple rewrites and wasted a lot of paper. Also I worked in magazines for seven years which meant each story was about 3000 words long! After your third rewrite various editors went through your copy, slashed and ripped it apart so the final product came after several trees had been chopped down. It was difficult therefore to start writing just before deadline. Or, perhaps I was just more disciplined in my youth!

     

    Years of working in a newspaper corrupted me. Now I find it impossible to write until I have reached deadline. The rush is everything; the brain does not work without it. For the past four years, I have had two deadlines to meet on Tuesdays. This column by about 11-ish in the am and for Mid-day, for which I was allowed leeway until 6 pm. There have been times I confess when I only sent that one by 5.55pm.

     

    Now Mid-Day has thrown me a googly and asked me to deliver the column at 11 am on Tuesday. That’s impossible because it would clash with this one. Any sensible person would write the Mid-Day column on Monday. So, imagining myself to be sensible, I tried that for three weeks. Opened the laptop on Monday evening, fiddled around on Facebook liking random photographs of cats and children, checked some fights on Twitter, outraged about this and that, saved a Word document with the relevant name, wrote a couple of lines, deleted them, changed the subject and gave up after half an hour.

     

    No inspiration was my excuse. But I knew the truth. It was impossible to write so far ahead of the deadline. My mind just refused to cooperate. So now I have to wake up a little earlier than usual on Tuesday morning and get to work.

     

    I can only pat myself on the back that I am not as bad as some colleagues who kept editions waiting and the press on hold as they finished their columns: The joys of being editor in the days before the media was corporatised! But almost everyone I know struggles to get down to work without the deadline looming. Every newsroom I have been in has tried to grapple with this problem. Meetings have been held, deadlines fixed, work timings changed…

     

    But everyone knows the truth. Getting a journal to print is a finely tuned process but there are plenty of loopholes. If advertising matter has not come in for a page, you get a little leeway. The order in which pages have to be released gives you leeway. The section into which your page falls gives you leeway. And in these little gaps, great genius work may emerge!

     

    And then there are all those little lies… When I was editor of Sunday Mid-Day years ago, there were many complaints from every department that the editorial deadlines were delaying the paper. A management consultant, full of all kinds of the then latest Japanese management jargon, had been hired to streamline processes and he was put on my case. We had weekly meetings with editorial, marketing, pre-production, press, distribution and circulation.

     

    Unfortunately for every department but editorial, it turned out that they had added 45 minutes to their timeframes to cover up their own mistakes, thus cutting into editorial time. At the end of this three-month exercise, I managed to get our editorial deadlines extended by one hour, and more if there was a serious newsbreak!

     

    So how long do you think I’m going to keep waking up early on a Tuesday morning?

     

  • The audience now firmly believes no news media is unbiased, writes Sanjeev Kotnala

    Sanjeev Kotnala: News Media Credibility at Stake

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    There is not much to substantiate, but I fear news media credibility in the second most trusted nation* has taken a beating. It may be just at the edge, ready to give politicians a run for bias and distrust.

     

    Social media is surely (not suddenly) becoming the media of trust. Word-of-Mouth (WOM) was always more credible. Belief on reviews and photos by actual consumers on travel, food and other site are loud examples of impact. It is not without issues, and cross-checks are definitely advised. Nevertheless, the personal touch and trust with the sources help push the trust factor.

     

    I have been talking to people on the subject, and there is a constant voice that is getting amplified with time. We have passed or are at the tipping point. The audience now firmly believes no news media is unbiased. No media is fearless. No one is interested or has the courage to speak and bring out the truth. The era when news was objective, impartial, fair and balanced are over. News now is created, supported, sponsored, bought, biased, tweaked, skewed and saturated with unidirectional presentation. May be the level of trust in news media is as low as that for advertising that gets featured.

     

    When I listen to statements like these, I get confused, where does the bias lie? Who is really biased? Why is this distrust so dominant? Is it that most of the news is not fitting into the audience approval pattern? The audience attitudinally now suspects every statement unless it is Google-verified. May be, it is just a cumulative result of numerous incidences where trust has been misplaced. The tectonic pressure has been building for long. The day is not far, when distrust could be so dominating that trust will remain alive only as a research parameter.

     

    Everyone amongst the fickle-minded easily-swayed audience has his or her favourite… depending on which part of the country one resides in…  Unfortunately, many of the news channels are referred as comedy channels. Some of the newspapers, including few large setups and brands are termed rags. Salacious reporting, extortion cases, exposes of recorded conversation, unjustified leaks, women insensitive reporting, unqualified silence or hunt of people and parties and many more cases have been catalytic in erosion of trust. That should worry us. The trust in them has already hit rock bottom.

     

    On the other hand, when questioned, people quote journalists, writers, presenters and columnists. They are the ones audiences trust. That too a time when ‘presstitute’ as a term has been gaining currency, social media seem to have taken up the job of the citizen watchdog and amplified voice. This is not a new phenomenon. The only difference is that earlier trust in these individuals coexisted with trust on the titles.

     

    Today, in the fight of eyeballs and time before the audience, high decibel media trials and laughable breaking news happen with higher frequency. On the other side, a lot many stories lose their stream and are allowed to die on the sidelines due to lack of interest, follow-up or non-transparent decisions and pressures. Most of the journalists today seem to be in need for a refresher course in norms of journalistic conduct.

     

    While we are on this subject, we must understand the audience tendency to distort, delete and generalise. Their get a distinct unreasonable comfort in creating patterns of acceptable standards and biases. So, just smile, compare with your own list and move on.

     

    These uncertainties are acceptable in the era of sharply polarised reactions. The media is also suspect for having lost the courage to speak out or amplify a particular vice. Currently, media is happy with deliberately presenting stories in stinking neutrality, expecting the audience to triangulate with other sources.

     

    The strong voices earlier generation has grown up to erupts at puzzling rarity. Sadly, even newspapers known for their dabang expression are losing ther sheen for failing to take the stories to their logical end. The voyeuristic audience is seeking new highs and suffers from short-term memory and inability of prolonged orgasm over really investigative news.

     

    Hence, it is not surprising that only a handful of media brands makes to a ‘Most Trusted Brand’ list. Even if the fieldwork area and market size skew of the field work was corrected, I am not sure how many of the strong major newspapers would have made to the list.

     

    India does not suffer from direct corporate ownership of media as some of the other countries. Yet, commercialisation and advertising dependency have impacted the way a journalist now dreams and delivers. And sometime you worry that the dreams and ambitions of a journalist are as pure or polluted as the river Ganga. Subhash Chandra of the Zee group (one of the brands on the ‘Most Trusted Brand’ list ) has been raising the issue of funding and transparency in media ownership. No one seems to be interested in taking it to logical end.

     

    The news industry is not a case of lack of talent or funds. However, I suspect that there is a definitive inertia amongst industry stakeholders to push the agenda. I would believe that most newspapers take their credibility seriously. They have been touchy about it. It is one thing that they cherish. I know, while trying to reinvent and rejuvenate themselves, many media news brands have been experimenting with strategies to regain the lost sheen of trust. Is that not like locking the barn after the horse has bolted?

     

    Thankfully, audiences have a growing list of independent news sources accessible on the internet. The trust needle has shifted, and it now points in favour of social media. To regain the fast eroding trust, the news media needs to be careful of the tonality of content and more so not be willing to sell space in the guise of sponsored item or native advertising.

     

    • In 2015, India moved up to second most trusted nation in 27 ranked nations. An Edelman report carried PM Narendra Modi picture on the cover. The ring of six trusted nations was completed by UAE (84% Trust), India (79% Trust), Indonesia (78% Trust), China! (75% Trust), Singapore (65% Trust) and Netherland (64% Trust) as per the measurement scale.

    ……………………………..

    With 28 years of corporate experience, Sanjeev Kotnala is founder of Intradia World, a brand, marketing and management advisory. His focus area includes Ideation and Innovation; he also conducts specialised workshops like IDEAHarvest, Liberate and InNoWait. For soft skill training, he follows SHIFT (Specific High-Intensity Frequent training), a process of continuous training with frequent shorter sessions. Email sanjeev@intradia.in tweet @s_kotnala web: www.intradia.in www.sanjeevkotnala.com.

     

  • Is there nothing else in life except BJP versus Congress versus AAP, asks Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Time for TV journos to ‘reset’ their idea of news

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    This is probably just me, but a time seems to be approaching when TV journalists in India will need to “reset” their idea of what constitutes “news”. Right now, everything is seen as a pro-wrestling match. The announcer gets the audience all excited and then spokespersons from Indian political parties enter the arena and start bashing each other. It serves no purpose other than gross entertainment and even that has started to pall.

     

    How many people actually watch these “primetime debates” for their news content? And where is the news in them? Each spokesperson defends their top leader and implies, insinuates or openly abuses leaders of other parties. We know all this. Thanks to TV news for exposing the extreme pettiness of our politicians. Lesson absorbed. We’ve got it now. Move on.

     

    On Thursday night, Bhupendra Chaubey on CNN-News18 had a one-on-one interview with Muzaffar Baig of the PDP, in coalition with the BJP in Jammu & Kashmir. It was a good interview in that Baig was actually allowed to speak and made some interesting points. Chaubey did not try to show off that he knew more than Baig. And, at least you could understand what he was saying without getting distracted by 9000 people yelling, putting their hands up and/or sneering around him. It is almost impossible to concentrate on what the main feature is, if the screen is constantly twitching with extraneous matter.

     

    On NDTV, an inordinate amount of time was spent on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s run-in with some women of the BJP’s Mahila Wing in Punjab. We understand that most news channels are based in Delhi and that both India Against Corruption and the Aam Aadmi Party were carefully nurtured by TV journalists until they turned against them, but is it necessary to follow every move of Kejriwal’s so assiduously? Nothing that extraordinary happened in this so-called “attack” by an opposing party.

     

    What was really annoying was while this “single column” news was getting airtime, the news scrolling below was that BJP president Amit Shah’s meeting in Gujarat was disrupted by members of the Patidar movement and supporters of Patel leader, Hardik Patel. Chairs were chucked around from what we could see (I would have thought that would have been a good fit for the pro-wrestling idea of news). However, we could not understand a word of what the reporter at the site was saying, so we were left with half a story if that. (Does TV not have editors?)

     

    Back then to the obsession with Kejriwal. Sometimes you have to agree with accusations that Delhi-based journalists are, well, obsessed with Delhi. Notice how much coverage we get of V Narayanasamy or K Chandrashekhar Rao or Laxmikant Parsekar or Okram Ibobi Singh, to name just a few. Some of these are chief ministers of full states, not just trumped up Union Territories.

     

    Increasingly, news television is starting to resemble those old Films Division news bulletins we were forced to watch at the movies in the 1970s. And then this minister said this and that minister did that. Where is the science news? The health news? The environment news? The business news (business news channels mainly discuss the stock markets and finance so no luck there)? Is there nothing else in life except BJP versus Congress versus AAP?

     

    Okay, end of diatribe. I write this in hope that some journalist somewhere in TV’s LaLaland will start looking up the meaning of “news”.

     

  • Whether the show goes on to be a success will only be known with time but at a campaign level, Naamkaran's launch has been one of the best fiction campaigns in a long time, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: Naamkaran: A campaign that bucks the trend

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    After what seems like ages, there’s something the core Hindi GEC viewer is truly excited about. The credit for ending the lull goes to Star Plus’ upcoming fiction show Naamkaran.

     

    Promos for Naamkaran went on-air in the second week of August, a month before the programme’s September 12 launch. In the four weeks of the campaign, this Mahesh Bhatt-helmed show has managed to cut through, with a strong emotional tug at the viewers’ heartstrings. On Ormax Showbuzz, it has tracked better than all female-targeted weekday fiction shows since 2011. In times, when viewer interest in new GEC content is seeing an alarming drop, Naamkaran has set this record by bucking the trend.

     

    Whether the show goes on to be a success will only be known with time. But at a campaign level, Naamkaran’s launch has been one of the best fiction campaigns in a long time. Relying on a child protagonist is not a new phenomenon, having been pioneered by Colors and then milked to death by most other channels. But in Naamkaran, the mother-daughter relationship and its associated challenges come across as deeply personal, than overbearingly social.

     

    However, if there was one thing that stands out in the Naamkaran campaign, it’s the use of music. The show has a complete soundtrack to boast of, involving some of the best Bollywood talent of the day. The music videos give the campaign a distinctive edge, standing out by breaking the template of a GEC launch promo that viewers by now are too familiar (and bored) with.

     

    It’s also a rare case when Bollywood’s involvement has worked for a GEC fiction show. In what clearly comes across as an interpretation of Zakhm with a gender switch (the daughter in Naamkaran was the son in Zakhm), Bhatt has lent not just his name but his experience and sensibility to the show. Whether that sensibility actually helps Naamkaran once it goes on air will be interesting to see. But it has helped the campaign in no small measure.

     

    Naamkaran replaces Diya Aur Baati Hum (DABH), the 2011 launch that ruled the roost for a large part of its five-year tenure. DABH has not been milked dry like some of the other long-running hit fiction shows over the last decade. By resisting the temptation to stretch a blockbuster show that’s still doing average ratings, Star Plus may have inspired some of its competitors to think differently too.

     

    The coming weeks will also see other action on the Hindi GEC front, particularly the launch of Bigg Boss 10 and Naagin 2. But for now, it’s time to welcome Naamkaran, a launch campaign that delivers by breaking a jaded template.

     

  • The digital era demands that the content is refreshed faster than it is consumed. In the process, creativity is taking a backseat, writes Sanjeev Kotnala

    Sanjeev Kotnala: Are you adding to the creative noise with unwanted, uninteresting, uninspiring crap?

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    It is not new that the monolithic marketing departments are crumbling, ever held tenderly by the omnipresent but not so omnipotent all-knowing marketing director. Fragmented media channels along with the emergence of multiple touch points have created a need for expert zones and pockets of specialisation. The ever-exploitable unsatisfied lust of an overtly voyeuristic customer has been pushing them to work at a feverish pace, like an assembly line producing template output. We know how the memory, association, attention span and engagement patience has been dropping through the generations.

     

    The digital era is placing immense pressure on real-time interaction; it demands that the content is refreshed faster than it is consumed. In the process, creativity is taking a backseat. The brand guidelines are suffocating. The ‘Crap-trap’ is now a reality. The marketing department has no alternative but to be aggressive.

     

    In this chaos, the experience being delivered has very tenuous links to strategy, insights, creative directions or brand ethos. The pressure to keep producing innovative content across multiple engagement points is making marketers, and associates shoot from the hip.

     

    ‘The idea can come from anywhere’ is not just a motivating statement. It is feverishly being practised. The smallest of buoyancy in an observation is known to be amplified as an experiment. The net result: the world is being littered with Crap-trapped-creative.

     

    It will need a very inward focused deep look for the brands to evaluate what they have been producing and serving to the market. Hopefully, it will lead to some awakening, maybe the cycle could be reversed.

     

    The multiple associates and their subfragmented niches have really smothered the idea of brand custodians. There is BTL custodian, ATL Custodian, Digital Custodian, Social Media Custodian, Media Custodians and the new tangents are created every year. Each of them is never fully clued to the brand history, ethos, strategic intent and future path. Moreover, they are incestuous and rigid in their development processes and implementation paths. Not surprising that we get non-synchronised ill-aligned impressions of brand intent.

     

    Maybe it is time to bring it all together. Creating a single entity may not be possible or advisable, but they need to be highly coordinated to help make the marketing drive more efficient and smooth. A new process path needs to be determined that will rein them together at the client or the associates level.

     

    It’s time that the real regionalisation of creative nuances and efforts is speeded up. The need to stand apart and preserve the regional identities, culture and nuance is strengthening among communities faster than the rate at which the global village is shrinking.

     

    The almost static media plans with cut-pasted star media cast need to be a lot more dynamic. This calls for continuous education and experimentation. Unfortunately, retainership constrained associates with thing margin to breath are at their wits end to find funds for it. The bigger associates have a bit of headway leveraging their scale. Nevertheless, they need to see the emerging market with new lens.

     

    The ‘do not fix until it is broken’ altitude to manage, and leverage insights will no longer work. The market and consumers are moving at a differential pace. The thinly PowerPoint defined boundaries of the core-primary-secondary target group, and constituencies are merging and getting redefined at a fast pace.

     

    In such a situation, the answers are tough to find.

     

    The need to experiment and the willingness to learn from failures and move on will play an important role. It will need multiple centres of excellences across touchpoints. Alternatively, our efforts to reach across them may not help brand building.

     

    Moreover, there is enough pressure on the thinly sliced and fragmented marketing budget. The fund available for development and creative engagement across media is being compromised. In the process, many deserving and sometimes really critical research initiatives are getting buried or delayed.

     

    Ultimately, the brand is responsible for its own crap tower. The long-term brand perceptions are being sacrificed in a world where perception is stronger than reality, and the reality is adulterated with perceptions.

     

    I like this quote from Pritchard, P&G’s brand chief (in a Warc newsletter), which is also the foundation of this piece. He shares that when P&G internally analysed their work, ‘they concluded that as the world was getting louder and more complex, we were simply just adding to the noise’. He adds: ‘The people we serve are voting with their fingertips; they are saying that too much of our advertising is unwanted, uninteresting, uninspiring, therefore: ineffective,’

     

    I truly am able to sympathise with the current breed of marketers and their inbuilt inefficiencies.

     

    Trust me. The way to fight this ongoing battle is not too complicated.

     

    It is a question of exercising self-discipline, a promise not to accept mediocrity in creativity. It is far, far better for your TG to be exposed for shorter time to the right creative experience than to be exposed multiple times across c touch points with a crap-trapped content.

     

    Here is a humble request: take a pause, a deep breath, analyse your work, take that research call, build on insights and local understanding and say no to mediocrity. Your aim is not only to continue engaging your current and potential TG across multiple touch points, but to help all the horses (touch points) of the chariot ( Marketing initiative) run in a synchronised fashion.

     

    It is not just the best horse, but may the best charioteer wins. And if you are on the agency side, stop blaming the client for your weakness.

     

  • The media does not need to find answers; it needs to expose the problem and it needs to ask the questions, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: A question of national interest on Kashmir

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, appeared, for all practical purposes, as a model for a large corporation to advertise the launch of its new phone service. How has the media reacted to that? I have seen several jokes on social media. I have seen a few business articles on how the claims made by Reliance Jio are somewhat misleading. But on the propriety of the prime minister modelling for a private company there has been an almost ominous silence. Some official justification was made after social media asked the questions but propriety is different from technicality. A few editorials have been written questioning the PM’s decision but certainly no high-pitched TV news debates from all our bristling Ultra-Nationalists. I leave you with this question: suppose it was any other prime minister from any other party?

     

    **

     

    Several commentators from within Kashmir, writing about the turmoil in the Valley which has now been going on for two months, have mentioned the tenor of TV news anchors as one contributing factor to the anger and violence. The media however will do what the media will do, regardless of the consequences, but it bears asking whether ill-informed TV journalists bent only on their personal aggrandisement are serving any purpose here. The media does not need to find answers; it needs to expose the problem and it needs to ask the questions. Kashmir is too complicated to be seen merely through a patriotic prism. These TV journalists from our most patriotic news channels might perhaps like to ask themselves where the national interest lies. If indeed, they ever question themselves.

     

    On the issue of Kashmiri separatists – ever a subject to get TV’s blood boiling with rage – the ruling BJP government has recently come up with two contradictory statements. Jitendra Singh, who holds various portfolios, has said that the Indian government has to supply security to Kashmiri separatists to foil any possible assassination bids by Pakistan, which if successful will only give Pakistan more fodder to foment trouble in Kashmir. The Union Defence minister Manohar Parrikar has said that the security should be withdrawn.

     

    A prominent news anchor from one of the non-ultra-patriotic channels asked a BJP spokesperson about these two contradictory statements. His answer was “there is no regulated policy” on these statements. What does that mean? Is there no need for further questioning? Do the people of India not deserve to know why the Government of India has no “regulated policy” on the security for Kashmiri separatists? Did we get answers to these questions? Of course not. The BJP spokesperson wandered off somewhere else and that was the end of that.

     

    Incidentally, how many TV debates have you seen on the number of Indian fishermen now languishing in Pakistani jails? Evidently, patriotism cannot possibly stretch that far.

     

    **

     

    In the good news section, it is great to see that India’s Para Olympians are getting so much news coverage. I can I think safely say that this is the first time that these athletes are getting their due. It is also true that they have done extremely well in Rio and definitely a whole lot better than our Olympian athletes.

     

    And if you missed it, here is a shame-inducing story on what differently-abled athletes have to go through in India:

    http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/sport-others/spurred-by-jibe-16-yrs-ago-devendra-jhajharia-hurls-javelin-into-record-books-3031632/

     

  • The year 2016 is set to be one of the toughest years in the history of the Indian entertainment business. And that's true for all sectors of the business, barring radio, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: Need focus on content development for stable growth

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Unless we witness an unlikely, highly dramatic turnaround in the next three months, 2016 is set to be one of the toughest years in the history of the Indian entertainment business. And that’s true for all sectors of the business, barring radio.

     

    Television has struggled to cover new grounds this year. A handful of FTA channels launched during the year as a consequence of rural ratings released in October 2015. But there hasn’t been much else to shout about. Content remains stagnant, viewership is dipping or stagnant in most genres, and viewer dissatisfaction is on the rise.

     

    The Hindi film industry is in its toughest phase in more than a decade, perhaps two decades. Revenues are stagnant and footfalls are dipping. Audiences are choosing to stay away from the theatres with escalating ticket prices and the content not matching up.

     

    But it’s the third sector that was expected to have a watershed year, and that’s not happened either. Original digital content, delivered via OTT platforms and YouTube, was tipped to take 2016 by storm, a sentiment that came in after the roaring success of web-series like TVF Pitchers and Permanent Roommates, and the rise of AIB, last year. But that’s not happened either. There is a lot more volume out there – more than 50 web-series launched this year – but the quality has been disappointing, and nothing has stood out enough to be called game-changing.

     

    Then there are broadcaster-backed OTT platforms that primarily run on television content or sports. Some of them have tried original content, but with no real success.

     

    Three different sectors, facing different challenges at different stages of their lifecycles. But there’s something common to these challenges: They all arise from an industry mindset that discourages content development. And I use the word development in the most specific sense of the word – nurturing an idea till it reaches the point where no more nurturing is needed.

     

    We seem to be in perpetual hurry. To announce, to launch, to make, to market. Content development should be the bedrock on which production and marketing are mounted. But that’s clearly not the case.

     

    Let’s take the film industry’s example first. The business is in an absolute tight spot. The business model is under question and audiences have to be wooed all over again. But if you track the trade news over the last week or two, there are announcements and more announcements. Some of these are about films releasing in end 2018, more than two years from today.

     

    While there’s nothing wrong in blocking the big holiday weekends in advance, most, if not all, projects announced for late 2017 and 2018 do not have a ready script as of today. There are high chances some of these projects will take off with content flaws arising due to lack of adequate development work. Yes, there are pockets in the film industry where content development is encouraged, but that accounts for less than a dozen films a year, too small to change the operating “rules” of the industry.

     

    In television, there’s a lot of development work before a show gets commissioned. That’s a culture the big channels have championed over the last two decades. But this work is typically centered around the first 3-6 months of the story. But running dailies past that period take up more than 80% of GEC prime time, and ongoing development work on them is negligible, if not entirely absent. There’s no nurturing, just breathless writing.

     

    The digital content sector is still evolving its culture. But there seems to some kind of a trigger-happy approach going around. Ideas are being greenlit on the strength of being edgy and not-for-TV. But a sector cannot define itself by exclusion for too long, can it? At some stage very soon, once the novelty dies down, consumer relevance, beyond “different from TV”, will play a role in how the sector evolves. Currently, a lot of development for original digital content seems to be happening with an inward approach that makes sweeping assumptions about the consumer. Because after all, they are “people like us”.

     

    Business model flaws can still be fixed. Cultural flaws can be tougher to fix. The rightful place content development deserves in the value chain must be given to it soon. The clock is ticking by, after all.

     

  • It seems that in this sort of a mindset, when war has to be decided on new channels, the question du jour is: how dare anyone conceive of peace, notes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Warmongering UnLtd

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    I spend much of my time on social media and even among my family and friends defending journalism and the behaviour of journalists. I take pains to explain that there is no such thing as “the media” in the sense that this is one entity that thinks and works alike and in tandem.

     

    But there are times when I fail completely and sadly, these times are usually when television news anchors dominate the discourse. So where are we now? Ever since the attack on Uri by Pakistani terrorists, either state or non-state actors, our esteemed TV news anchors have been frothing at the mouth, calling for war and more. If I was a Pakistani, I would be laughing my head off because I could see the biggest thorn in my side revealing its weaknesses and its ideas. In my limited understanding of both “the media”, geopolitics, diplomacy and even warfare, this nightly media warmongering does not seem like a wise policy. Irresponsible is the word that comes to mind.

     

    You would perhaps have thought that moustachioed retired army bigwigs would know better than to give away ideas and their emotions on national television or perhaps that phrase means nothing because satellite television combined with the internet means almost nothing is merely “national” any more.

     

    You might even imagine that TV news anchors would know better than to ask “What should our strategy against Pakistan be?” You would of course be wrong. “Our strategy” is only and only to have the loudest and most “patriotic” screaming match possible. I heard part of a long editorial comment from Rahul Shivshankar of NewsX the other night. His main target it seemed was not Pakistan or the terrorists it has nurtured. His main anger was directed at what he called “peaceniks”, a phrase I have not heard since the 1960s and 1970s when hippies ruled pop culture. I doubt that Shivshankar was either born or sentient at the time.

     

    It seems that in this sort of a mindset, when war has to be decided on new channels, the question du jour is: how dare anyone conceive of peace? How dare anyone decide that diplomacy had a place in international relations, how dare a “peacenik” even exist and not have his or bloodied disembodied head placed on a stake in the middle of the town square for all to be warned of the dangers of counselling against war? Why should medieval psychopaths in Game of Thrones have all the fun, eh?

     

    Yet, the role of Pakistan is apparently less important than that of “peaceniks”. Go figure. I mention Shivshankar but life has not been much different on any other news channel at night, including Times Now, the most patriotic of them all with due apologies to India Today TV. The aspects of the Uri attack that would conventionally call for journalism have barely been tackled on television but been left to newspapers. And in newspapers, strangely, there is Other News! How anti-national of them!

     

    I am unaware if these news anchors are indeed “patriots” or anything else. I question their understanding of war and of international relations. I question their understanding of “covert” operations, given the way they talk about it so easily. I question their judgment calls. I question their knowledge about nuclear warfare. I question their ability to read, assimilate and assess.

     

    So far, thanks to news television, we have informed Pakistan that war is imminent, that diplomacy is wrong, that we are going to get involved in “covert” operations and “hybrid” warfare. In fact, I would reckon we have walked straight into Pakistan’s trap. If you look at it the other way, it suits someone high up in the Indian government to have this noise and distraction from whatever’s happening within India. Either way, then, news television is both the prey and the pawn.

     

    As I finish writing this, I hear someone on India Today TV say and through all this, “No one knows what is on Prime Minister Modi’s mind”!

     

    Although, you might suspect if you were me, it is the job of the journalist to find out what is on Prime Minister Modi’s mind. This is an admission then perhaps, of someone who is not a journalist? I only ask the question.

     

    And dare I use the word “irresponsible” again?

     

  • September 22 is just another day in the calendar. It is the 266th day of 2016. The new year is just 100 days away, writes Sanjeev Kotnala

    Sanjeev Kotnala: 101 days to the new year! Fire second cylinder on September 22… take the 100-day challenge

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    Let me take you back to the night of December 31, 2015 and January 1, 2016. You are most likely with friends enjoying the moment. You have plans and determination in your eyes. There are resolutions you have so cleverly crafted to leave no escape route open. You are after all a highly determined person. You know and you tell yourself, the first few days are tough. It takes 21 days to break a habit. It is this year of never. I must do. I will do. A few hours alter in the afternoon of the very first day; the urges surface, and the hard determination starts crumbling. Soon, in a week’s time, the regular template life makes a backdoor entry. The belief remains but inertia creeps in.

     

    It is natural. After all, you are a human being. This is a phenomenon that is perfectly normal and richly documented. You soon post-rationalised your lapse and rescheduled your commitment to a date and day, that will never come.

     

    It is fun until the time you meet someone who has kept the promises made to self. You admire and you kick yourself. I understand the commitment demonstrated by that friend is more painful than the lapsed plans of you. Such encounters have the capacity to create a minor blip in self-esteem; you are the wounded tiger with caged dreams. You make a halfhearted bid for glory, fully aware that you will fail again.

     

    A year is a long period of time. Mentally, you are not prepared for it. You are part of a generation that wants to do things fast. You know the importance of speed of thought and implementation. You want instant gratification and appreciation that are not faked.

     

    TRANSPORT YOURSELF TO TODAY.

    Here is that day, when you can give yourself a second cylinder charge. Rekindle your passion and go for it. Re-map your dream and take the 101-day charge. Ensure that on Jan 1, 2017 when you wake up, you don’t joke about resolutions are meant to be broken, but have self-confidence to pull through the demands you will be making on self.

     

    COME TO TIME ZERO. NOW AND HERE.

    Re-look at what you want to do. Pick ONE, only one thing. Keep the focus. Do not dilute your efforts. Do not overburden yourself. Do not create barriers and reasons for failure. Think of what all you can do to facilitate your success.

    Break the challenge into a manageable, meaningful and measureable unit of performance. Don’t look too far in the horizon. Set up a reward system for yourself. Success must be enjoyed. This reward must be something that is more important than the challenge itself. And set up yourself for a harsh penalty, a major negative deterrent, which will stop you from failing in your commitment.

     

    WHAT TO DO IN 100 DAYS?

    So, you are ready to try this challenge, and you are willing to sacrifice few things to be the winner. You have a problem. You are not sure, what you should aim for. What is that will be fulfilling enough? What that will inspire you later. What you can set up as a demonstration that 100-day challenge works?

    Here are few possible examples. I am sure you will find something better than these, which is in sync with your dreams and lifestyle.

    Write a 100-day story. Or even 100 articles. Meet 100 new people for one-on-one. Appreciate 100 people for their expertise. Sing in the shower for 100 days. Visit 100 friends. Delete 100 connections on Facebook, one connection at a time. So wicked. Visit 100 religious places in your city, the big or small, it does not matter. Look at 100 successful people’s life sketch and get your learning. Deep-dive into your life, get ready for autobiographical learning, relive 100 moments and decipher what they meant to you, take 100 photos, Break 100 patterns that are part of your life. Volunteer 100 hours of community service. Execute that award-winning creative idea that you failed to find sponsors last year.

    It is not to do something that you were anyway doing. For example, you should decide to share 100 motivational quote on your Tweet or Facebook, only if you were not already doing it. The 101-day challenge becomes interesting when you take something new and challenging. When you plan to break or create a passion or habit.

     

    ANNOUNCE YOUR CHALLENGE TO FRIENDS AND RELATIVES.

    Yes, a public announcement helps. Request them to help you to live your challenge. Make this set your influencers and watch keeper. Report to them. Talk to them about your challenge.

    Record your journey with a hastag #100daysof…….. on Twitter or Instagram. Give yourself small rewards during the period, say on 25th, 50th and 75th day. And then on the night of 31st December 2016, take a deep breath, compliment yourself and make a new beginning with a far more robust and aligned 100-day challenge.