Aidem’s recently launched digital brand solutions arm Zirca has appointed Anand Thakur as National Sales Head.
Mr Thakur comes with more than 8 years’ experience in the digital media space. He will be heading the sales function for Zirca Digital Solutions and will also look into data and technology partnerships and sales strategy.
Before joining Zirca, he was Account Manager for BBC Worldwide and earlier with Star India’s interactive division.
Speaking on his new responsibility, Mr Thakur said: “On the back of rising internet penetration and content consumption, the online advertising market has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian Media. With its distinct product differentiation, Zirca will add value to brands through engagement.”
Neena Dasgupta
Said Neena Dasgupta, Senior VP, Zirca: “We are extremely excited to have Anand on board, as a part of our leadership team to spearhead the Sales function. He comes with a rich experience in the digital medium and we are confident that his addition will strengthen our leadership team.”
As a policy, MxMIndia does not link editorial coverage to business relationships. So even though we have concerns on the Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI] policies on media partnerships for its events, our coverage of the trade body’s reports and events continues.
And now that we are done with the disclaimer, here’s the main info: the IAMAI’s annual India Digital Summit will be held on February 6 and 7 with ‘Digital First’ as the theme of this year’s edition. If you thought that ‘Digital First’ would mean a lot of discussion on journalistic content, then the list of speakers doesn’t indicate that. The fourth edition of the India Digital Awards will be held on the evening of February 7.
One of the key sessions in the Summit’s eighth edition is ‘Taking Digital Companies Public: The Journey & Its Learning’. The session will have Sanjeev Bhikchandani of Info Edge, Deep Kalra of MakeMyTrip, VSS Mani of JustDial and Suresh Reddy of Ybrant Digital discussing the merits of digital companies going public and response from public at large.
The India Digital Summit 2014 will kickstart with IAMAI Chairman and Managing Director, Google India, Rajan Anandan delivering the welcome address followed by keynotes by Ajit Balakrishnan – Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Rediff.com and Chairman Emeritus – IAMAI and the often-on-News-TV Baijayant Panda, MP.
For BARC chairman and Zee Entertainment MD and CEO Punit Goenka, the announcement of Mediametrie as the technology partner and the signing of the Letter of Intent in Mumbai is a big step towards the new audience measurement regime. Ditto for Benoit Cassagne. Mediametrie’s Executive Director of audience measurement and Senior Vice President for whom entering a large market like India is a significant recognition of its captabilities. Soon after making the announcement, both Messrs Goenka and Cassagne took time out to speak with Shobhana Nair
Technology & cost were factors in choosing Mediametrie: Punit GoenkaIn a sense, the future of the broadcast sector depends a lot on the decision to select Mediametrie as BARC’s technology vendor. Are you fully convinced about the path chosen?
The first and foremost is that fact that it is a far more advanced technology that Mediametrie has brought to us. Apart from the watermarking solution that they are using, it is an open source technology. And any PC-based technology is far better and cheaper than a propriety system. Â Other than technology, cost too was a factor in choosing Mediametrie. The entire process of audience rating is broken into three different stages and no one stage can go to another vendor. This in itself brings in checks and balances on who does what.
With so many parties involved, will it not complicate things?
Yes, it will complicate, but that’s part of life if you want a robust system to come in. We see the same happening in the UK which is a large market. I don’t see any reason why we can’t make it happen here.
TAM says it was appointed jointly by the three bodies – IBF, AAAI, ISA – for audience measurement. These three associations are also statekholders of BARC. Why do you think nothing can go wrong even now?
I am not sure whether TAM was officially appointed by all three bodies. We can go wrong however we have to work very hard. We have taken solutions after studying the models adopted by several countries. Our core proposition is based on the UK-model of BARB where you outsource it to three to four agencies so that no single agency controls the entire process and there is complete transparency.
Do you think you will be able to meet all your deadlines that you have set for BARC?
I am very confident that we will meet the deadlines.
Journey might be difficult but I know we will succeed: Benoit CassaigneThe technology you have has been adapted in stable markets like France. Do you think India is ready for this kind of a system?
India is ready for the change. We have met the people at BARC several times and we think these people are very qualified about audience measurement and they know exactly what they want to achieve. They have a clear roadmap. My belief is that the journey might be difficult but I know we will succeed
Is the watermark technology really the best way to measure television audiences?
Watermarking is very precise and I am very confident in our technology. Watermarking is very precise for time-shifting audience and to make difference between a live and time shifting edition. This is beneficial for new screen measurements. I think it will work well here in India.
Did you study the current Indian television audience measurement system. Being an outsider, did you study the current TV measurement system? What are the loopholes in them?
This is not an easy question and I am not a specialist. I don’t know the situation here but I do know there are complaints. I don’t know whether it is a question of governance, size of panels or technology. I can’t say really what was wrong. I am too new and too far from this market. But I have a lot of respect for them.
Are there any peculiarities about India for the development of a measurement system? Do you think it’s tougher to administer one here in India than it’s in your home market France?
Media measurement is a small world and the Indian situation is not-so-special. TV ratings systems are very comparable from country to country. The technology is comparable but the size of the market is not. Likewise, the local channels cannot be compared. Clearly, the Indian demand and market conditions are not difficult.
The announcement: BARC signs deal with Mediametrie, a joint industry body in FranceBARC announced the formal tie-up with Mediametrie of France for some key technology services and licensing for the proposed television audience measurement system. Mediametrie is the Joint Industry body in France, operating the TV, Internet and Radio currency ratings systems, engaged in multimedia audience research for the last 25 years. They have been designing and developing their own TV metering systems for 15 years.
They are pioneers in the development and usage of watermarking technology in audience research and have been using this successfully for the last seven years. This technology is used in 3 currency markets : France, Morocco and the Netherlands.
Under the arrangement, Mediametrie will provide technological knowhow and licenses to BARC to use their TV metering system and also help BARC procure its own metering hardware.
Speaking about the same, Punit Goenka, Chairman, BARC said “I am delighted at this association with Mediametrie. Our Technical Committee and the Management had scouted the global marketplace for suitable technology and we are happy with our choice. We will take a quantum jump in technology for audience measurement in the country with this.”
Benoit Cassaigne, Senior Vice President, Mediametrie said “We are very happy and proud of BARC’s confidence in our solutions and expertise. We are thrilled to bring our know-how on such a TV market and share it with BARC a company very similar to us in its DNA. We are sharing a lot already in term of philosophy and vision and I am sure we will go far together”
We had received an alert on Friday that Network18 was to make an “important announcement on Monday”. Given that there has been some significant news coming from the premier news media group over the last few months, we pushed aside all our appointments. And issued a ‘Red Alert’ in our newsroom.
On Sunday (yesterday), we visited ibnlive.com to get our news updates only to find the homepage taken over by news18.com. The website had been launched. Regulars at ibnlive.com are familiar with news18 as it has been beta-ing on ibnlive for a while.
And then we received this release from Network18 this morning announcing the launch of the online news website from Network18: News18.com. Billed as India’s first web, mobile and tablet service to focus on news at the state and city level.
News18.com draws on the local newsgathering expertise of the ETV network of news channels, whose Hindi services cover these seven states. Highlighting the importance of local news, Lakshmi Narasimhan CEO, Web18 said, “News18 is a completely fresh approach to covering news online. With Internet penetration and smartphones users galloping in Tier2 and 3 towns, it is important to provide a convenient platform to consume news.”
Arunava Sinha, Head, IBNLive.com and News18.com is confident that readers will enjoy the interactive user-experience of the site. “News18.com will give readers a totally fresh and unique content experience.”
Meanwhile, the Red Alert in our newsroom has been called off. Enjoy the day, the boss just ordered.
A little less than three years after the highly visible launch of Firstpost.com, the online news destination from the Network18 group, has launched www.firstbiz.com, a standalone business news and views site. Network18 already has moneycontrol and the Forbes India websites amongst its business-y web news offerings.
We are not sure whether we would agree with Mr Jagannathan’s comment on mainstream media has been slow. On the contrary – one of the charges against the television media specifically and even the newspapers in recent years – is that they’ve been exceedingly belligerent. The group’s subsidiary runs CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBN-Lokmat, and one can be sure that editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai has a different view on the slow responsiveness. The news media genre has in fact grown in the last two years. But, of course, the internet access numbers have increased too which is why web destinations like Firstpost.com and MxMIndia have benefitted.
Helios Media, the speciality services company for the broadcast sector, expanded its services to now also include digital media monetisation and the venture begins with bagging the mandate of representing Sanjeevkapoorkhazana
Helios will work in embedding brand’s messaging within the content of the channel which claims to be the largest non-Bollywood YouTube channel in India, generating over 85 million views per month.
Sanjeev Kapoor
Speaking on the assignment, Chef Sanjeev Kapoor said, “Sanjeevkapoor.com was one of the first websites to make its presence in the country. Being a pioneer in the space, it is quite evident that our YouTube channel has garnered a huge subscriber base of 2.7 lakh. Our popular videos generate as much as 1mn+ plus views. This therefore becomes a great destination for brands to not only reach a large consumer base but also to capture the most appropriate mind-space. Helios Media has been partnering us on monetising FoodFood for a year now and I believe in their understanding of the space and the skill to position brands in the right environment which will help SanjeevKapoorKhazana realise its full potential in terms of revenue maximization”.
Divya Radhakrishnan
Commenting on the win, Divya Radhakrishnan, MD of Helios Media, said: “Helios Media’s focus is on selling brands and not just commodities by appropriate positioning and working with brand custodians to provide seamless solutions that go beyond regular commercial advertising. We strongly believe that TV has grown beyond just providing reach and its content has the Power to Influence.Therefore it is important for commercial messaging to chase the content irrespective of the screen it comes on. It’s because of this approach that the SanjeevKapoorKhazana mandate came our way and we are delighted to be entrusted with this responsibility by Chef Sanjeev Kapoor”.
Helios Media has augmented its existing team with a central digital team in Mumbai under Kirtan Mankad who has earlier worked with UTV, Zoom and Hungama.
Today (Feb 4) is social networking platform Facebook celebrates its 10th anniversary. The site went live on February 4, 2004 in founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard University dorm room, and since then has grown to become a global service with more 1.2 billion monthly active users.
Said Zuckerberg on the occasion: Â “It’s been an incredible journey so far, and I’m so grateful to be a part of it. It’s been amazing to see how people have used Facebook to build a real community and help each other in so many ways. In the next decade, we have the opportunity and responsibility to connect everyone and to keep serving the community as best we can.”
Take a look at the pages above on the site today and the way it was around 2004-05. Plus timelines, milestones and vital stats.
The announcement was made WPP’s Stream digital unconference being held in Jaipur. Former CEO of Forbes India Gurmit Singh will be the new Managing Director for Yahoo India. As MD, Mr Singh will oversee the internet giant’s business in the country and responsible for its growth. He will report to Yvonne Chang, VP & Head of India and South East Asia at Yahoo. The position of MD at Yahoo India was vacant since Arun Tadanki resigned last year.
With over 20 years of experience, Mr Singh brings with him a deep understanding of the M&E sector in India..
Commenting on the appointment, Yvonne Chang, VP & Head of India and South East Asia, Yahoo said, “Gurmit comes to Yahoo with a strong track record of delivering growth. His understanding of users and advertisers will be a great asset for Yahoo as we bring a number of product innovations to India. Yahoo is a loved brand in India, and we are very happy to have a leader of Gurmit’s caliber leading the team.”
Mr Singh, who starts his assignment with Yahoo today, said “An Internet industry pioneer, Yahoo is now at a very exciting point in its journey. It truly reflects the energy and spirit of the world’s largest startup. Working together with an extraordinary team in India and colleagues across the world, I am looking forward to unlocking the full potential of Yahoo products and services in India.”
During his career Gurmit has held leadership roles across Consumer Products, Music & Entertainment and Media sectors, working for companies such as Sony Music, Hindustan Times, India Today Group, Rajshri Media, Marico Industries and most recently at Network 18 where he worked until yesterday.
Although there is no official statement from Network18 on who will replace Mr Singh, it is rumoured that Anil Unyal, COO – Network18 Media and Head TV18 Media Operations will hold additional charge of the magazine.
Facebook recently launched a trending section which is visible on the top right hand side of the homepage for its web visitors (not currently available on Mobile)
Since this is a major change on the homepage and seems to compete with Twitter’s trending topics it has generated interest amongst marketers. So what does trending mean for us marketers and can we use it to our advantage?
Here is my take:
1. First, what is trending?
It’s a personalized lists of the most mentioned words and phrases at the current time with short explanations of why each is blowing up. A click-through leads to a Page of mentions by friends, Pages, and public posts by anyone who lets people “Follow†them.
2. What is this ‘Explanation’ feature which Facebook is talking about?
Facebook's explanation features details why a particular topic is trending
The challenge with Twitter trends is that a lot of times one is not clear why exactly something is trending on Twitter but the explanation bit on Facebook clarifies that thus stoking a user’s interest and hopefully for Facebook getting more clickthroughs.
Compare the two trends on the same day.
Facebook explanation makes it clear why a certain topic is trending.
3. Is Facebook personalizing trends based on a user’s interests?
Facebook claims “Topics are personalized based on things you’re interested in and what is trending across Facebook overall.†However I haven’t seen this till now.
A quick analysis of trends basis what I have been seeing on my profile over the last two days:
Day 1:
I have hardly liked any sports page and am as uninterested in Microsoft as Justin Beiber (had to clarify the latter). Even on my friends list, there are hardly any people who are talking about Jai Ho the day the trend appeared . In fact more people on my list spoke about it the next day but its not trending then.
Day 2
No one on my list is talking about ‘Celebrity Cricket League’ or ‘Li Na’. On ‘Republic day’ there are definitely a bunch of posts by friends or pages I like but that is still on second place for me.
So it appears that Facebook seems to take a more macroscopic view of trends, looking at the region (like Twitter-which shows trends on the city level) but nothing seemingly at an individual level.
4. How are the algorithms different -Facebook vs Twitter trending?
Facebook Trending aggregates the headlines of the day, while Twitter Trending Topics check the pulse of the moment. Â With Trend on internet being something very’ in the moment’, I think in the current avatar more users are would go for the latter than the former.
5. So can we as marketers use promoted trends?
Twitter has this feature but Facebook is yet to announce anything like that.
Even in the near future, I don’t think Facebook trends will directly be used as a revenue source at least not until Facebook gets the product right via various iterations.
It’s something which seems to be done to:
1. Build further engagement and clickthroughs via the users and get them to spend more time on the site
2. Serve Facebook’s objective of being the ultimate news destination (remember Facebook is currently the largest medium in the world.Bigger than any newspaper or TV channel… ever!)
3. By capturing current consumer interest Facebook could drive more real time marketing/advertising. Real Time is the goldmine which most advertisers are trying to target.This could probably help them in that direction.
6. Can we as brands tap in at all?
 Apart from brands which are involved in the highly topical stuff like movies, cricket, politics or current events I see this having little benefit to marketers in its current avatar.
So if you are promoting a new movie which will get mass traction on a specific day or a politician gets talked about a lot on a given day the trending features makes what’s popular more popular , but no it currently can’t make something which people would hardly be interested in trend.
For example, Akshay Kumar’s new movie ‘Holiday’ probably reached out to a much larger audience since it was trending across the home page of millions of people who logged onto Facebook yesterday in India. On the other hand, over the last two weeks this was one of the few movies which was trending. Parineeta Chopra started trending post the release of her movie when her performance was appreciated and not like this case when the trailer/movie was released. (Since obviously an ‘Akshay Kumar’ release has more interest to begin with)
7. Does that mean we should # everything and talk about current events?
 No,definitely not!
The challenge for Facebook is that most users do not make their profile public or allow everyone to follow them. Thus typically brand pages and a few users (usually celebrities) are the only ones which will be visible when we click on a trend. This would mean brands or celebrities which talk about current news will have more clicks.
CCL has no conversations from my friends list or pages I like
Brands can definitely talk more about current events and post news but hopefully most social media agencies won’t be dumb enough to do that.Since:
1. They will end up alienating their current user base by appearing more of a news site rather than what the brand is about
2. Even if they do that they will end up competing with news sites & may not even appear on the first page which completely defeats the purpose.
8.Given Facebook’s popularity in India, will this launch pose a bigger challenge for Twitter in India?
Not quite .The nature of the products (Their current definition of trends) is different. Facebook Trending aggregates the headlines of the day, while Twitter Trending Topics check the pulse of the moment.
Also since most content on Twitter is public and therefore I see opinions from people I know or have heard of (thus more personalization) whereas Facebook because of its privacy settings will be more restrictive & thus less personalized.
The trend for Facebook seems more in its goal of being a one stop news source rather than a brand medium. Brand messages will come up when Facebook as a news source is firmly established in the minds of the consumer.
And frankly considering the fact that it’s the largest platform in history seems quite possible, but definitely not now. Not this quarter or in the next six months. That’s all one can predict on the internet!
Saurabh Parmar is Founder, Brandlogist Communications (www.facebook.com/Brandlogist) and is a visiting faculty at Indian Institute of Mass Communications
A recent Gartner study in the US predicted that by 2015, 25 per cent of organisations will have a CDO and that the chief digital officer may be the most exciting strategic role in the decade ahead. While such statistics are often swept aside by Indian head honchos as a US reality, the wave may reach Indian shores faster than expected.
Though a relative late starter, digital has made swift inroads into the Indian marketplace. Brands are upping the ante on digital allocations. No Indian marketing head can have a conversation without talking about how serious they are about digital. They’ve even moved to saying “It’s not the wave of the future but what’s happening right now!” which is an improvement.
But where are all the CDOs then? Globally, organisations as diverse as Starbucks, Metropolitan Museum of Art, BBC Worldwide, Amnesty International are known to be already deploying the services of a CDO. While the title is yet to gain vogue, some companies are making a few non-cosmetic changes.
PepisCo tweaked its structure to make digital a strategic vertical reporting in directly to the head of marketing. Earlier, it resided with individual brands. Deepika Warrier, vice president – Po1 (Power of 1) marketing, PepsiCo India, is clear that digital needs to be incubated by the CMO as it requires focused mentoring to build interactions with other business functions. Their team is led by Rishi Dogra, who along with the digital mandate is involved with a unique concept called Pepsi Labs. He works with co-creators incubating, experimenting and testing new content ideas. PepsiCo claims to have doubled its digital budget from last year.
SBI Life has a business vertical to tap the potential of online sales of life insurance policies. Shares Chandramohan Mehra – country head – digital business, SBI Life Insurance, “Through the channel, it distributes products exclusively developed for online business, and has gained leadership position in direct-to-consumer sales.” He was formerly the VP and head of brand at SBI Life Insurance.
Jasmin Sohrabji
Jasmin Sohrabji, CEO India and South East Asia, OmnicomMediaGroup is convinced about the case for a CDO. The reason it hasn’t happened thus far is due to scale and scope. Even among the more digital aware, spends hover at about 10 per cent, offering little or less than threshold scale. As focus (and spends) move to digital platforms, the relevance for a CDO will come into play, she feels.
Adds Rishad Tobaccowala, Chairman, DigitasLbi and Razorfish, “CDOs should be the evangelist for ensuring the company remains relevant to changing behaviour. His role is important in the early years of digital to ensure a voice for tomorrow.” The case for a CDO becomes even stronger in a backdrop where digital budgets are increasing but cutting edge case studies are few and far between.
Most conversations hover around aggregating fans and likes on Facebook as also prerolls of campaigns on YouTube. But has the market reached a stage where the advent of a CDO is imminent? Or is this yet another instance of India leapfrogging a few stages of development, to create its own delivery-mechanisms?
At L’Oreal India, where the digital spends have been ramped by nearly 125 per cent over the last year, the function is embedded within respective brands. Satyaki Ghosh, director, consumer products division, L’Oreal India avers that they could eventually have a CDO, but he would service the entire company as against just the Consumer Product division.
The CDO role needs to have a larger platform to build the digital capability of the entire organisation and the digital business, according to Arjun Srivastava, consumer practice leader – India, Egon Zehnder.
Marico too is currently embracing a decentralised structure. Sameer Satpathy, EVP and business head, Marico India says, “The medium gives enormous flexibility in terms of engagement, creativity and speed.” All their brand managers are being trained and certified on using digital, in order to have an enabling ecosystem.
CVL Srinivas
Which is as it should be says CVL Srinivas, CEO (South Asia), GroupM: “CMOs need to drive digital as part of their core job. Most advertisers still look at digital as a silo and struggle to integrate it into their mainstream plans.” However digital specialist Harshil Karia, cofounder, Foxy-Moron makes a case for digital having grown too big for a CMO’s mandate.
He says, “CMOs haven’t naturally taken to ‘digital thinking’ and ‘digital as an ecosystem’. It is difficult in a world where maintaining Share of Voice, pleasing brand ambassadors, coordinating to get the best out of various agencies and reporting to management and sales teams is a priority.”
A private sector bank claims that only 5 per cent of its business is coming from branches. The rest is from other channels that include digital: mobile and internet as well as telebanking. In such a scenario the medium is no more just for marketing or brand building but has a huge business implication as well. The biggest need for CMOs today is to adapt or otherwise provide for the digital landscape since it will emerge as a key component of marketing strategies.
Kent Wertime, COO, Ogilvy Asia Pacific, and co-author of DigiMarketing, believes “The CMO has to determine today how to integrate traditional means of marketing/channels with digital channels, the capture and use of data, and build new relationships with big digital media players/platforms.”
Digital gives insight in real time through social media and its endless streams of conversations and insights. Increasingly, it will be about harnessing this information. For instance, Dell has a chief listening officer, who “listens” to what consumers are saying and feeds these insights to the CMO. So whether as an adjunct to the CMO or his equal, a company serious about the future would do well to consider the CDO.
Times Internet (TIL), the digital arm of The Times of India group, has launched a travel portal HappyTrips.com.
HappyTrips attempts to be a platform helping users plan their next trip, discover amazing hotels and restaurants, things to do as well as providing them with fun facts all around the world.
“We are excited to announce the beta launch of our latest venture HappyTrips.com. HappyTrips is special because it feels like a magazine, but is powered by a robust backend data platform, storing millions of related data points. Upfront, the user sees easy-to-navigate cards with curated guides, itineraries and lists to help them find the best of a city they’re exploring,” said Satyan Gajwani, CEO of Times Internet.
HappyTrips intends to be the go-to destination in the travel category with curated travel advice and actionable-and up-to-date information to inspire readers. “Our featured lists and guides help filter through the noise and find the best places to stay, eat, party, or find something to do”, said Puneet Gupt, Business Head of HappyTrips.com
The site covers close to 200 Indian destinations as of now and another 100 destinations around the world.
Game4u, the specialist retailer of videogame products and the retail arm of Milestone Interactive Group has launched its new property – ‘Game4u PlayPad’. The property will mean parties for gamers where enthusiasts come together to enjoy the latest games. The first PlayPad Night took place on February 15, 2014 in Mumbai, with a turnout of 45 casual gamers.
Hosted by Game4u, the PlayPad gaming nights are designed with the objective of spreading the brand message of making gaming a primary medium of entertainment and recreation amongst the young adults. Game4u will host customized gaming parties, wherein a group of 20 gamers can come together at one place and play various single player or multiplayer games. The parties will be executed with specialized themes across different venues.
For the PlayPad Nights, Game4u has got on board energy drink ‘Red Bull’ and ‘Debonairs Pizza’ as brand partners.
Commenting on the launch of Game4u PlayPad, Jayont R Sharma, Chairman and CEO, Milestone Interactive Group said, “We are very excited to bring the Game4u PlayPad concept to our consumers. With this initiative we are looking to spread awareness about gaming and build an extensive gaming community across all age groups. We are hoping to interact with our consumers at a more personal level and are looking make gaming a cult phenomenon, like it is in some of the other countries.”
He further added, “We are starting Game4u PlayPad with Mumbai and will soon take it to other cities in the coming months.”
In a sense, the future of the broadcast sector depends a lot on the decision to select Mediametrie as BARC’s technology vendor. Are you fully convinced about the path chosen?
The technology you have has been adapted in stable markets like France. Do you think India is ready for this kind of a system?
Day 1:
Day 2
Times Internet (TIL), the digital arm of The Times of India group, has launched a travel portal HappyTrips.com.