Media insights firm Ormax Media has strengthened its research team to meet the growing needs of the business. Venugopal Bhamidipati has joined the firm as ‘Insights Head – Print, Radio & Branded Entertainment’.
Mr Venugopal comes with six years of research industry experience, having worked with IMRB International, Nielsen and Hansa Research Group. In his last assignment, he worked as Strategic Planning Director at Publicis Capital. He will be based out of Mumbai and will be reporting into Ormax Media’s CEO Shailesh Kapoor.
Speaking about Mr Venugopal’s appointment, Mr Kapoor said, “Our print and radio work has seen significant growth over the last two years. In the area of branded entertainment, we have been doing extensive work on evaluating the effectiveness of sponsorships and media associations for brand and their media agencies. With Venugopal’s diverse experience, we are ready to tap the true potential of these domains.”
Speaking about his new assignment, Mr Venugopal said, “Ormax Media offers the best of both the worlds, consumer insights and media expertise. I look forward to working with the team at Ormax in these exciting times for the media & entertainment industry.”
Ormax Media is conducting Ormax Trac20, the biggest syndicated research for IPL sponsorships evaluation this year, as a part of their branded entertainment initiatives.
Aditya Birla Money MyUniverse and moneycontrol.com have announced their strategic alliance to offer a state-of-the-art money management service to the customers of moneycontrol.com.
While Aditya Birla Money MyUniverse will get access to moneycontrol.com’s existing 1.9 million portfolio users, moneycontrol.com will get access to MyUniverse’s money management platform, giving its customers a complete and automated way of managing their finances. Through this alliance, the users of moneycontrol.com will now get a complete view of all their finances. This alliance additionally will also enable moneycontrol.com portfolio users to do their expense analysis from Aditya Birla Money MyUniverse and get portfolio advices powered by Aditya Birla Money Mart.
On the occasion, Sudhakar Ramasubramanian, CEO – Aditya Birla Money Mart & MD – Aditya Birla Money, said, “We are happy to be associated with moneycontrol.com, India’s leading financial portal. This exclusive alliance is our step forward to meet the growing need of Personal Finance Management in India. Through this opportunity we extend our services in making money management comprehensive and automated for all moneycontrol.com users.”
Lakshmi Narasimhan, CEO, Web18, said, “We have been constantly endeavouring to offer innovative and convenient services to our users. Our partnership with Aditya Birla Money MyUniverse marks the beginning of a relationship between two leading online business platforms whose focus is to make money management simpler, better organized and convenient to the users. We are sure that our existing and new users will rapidly adopt this platform.”
Hathway Cable & Datacom Limited has announced the appointment of K V Anand as President †Digital Platforms.
Mr Anand comes with rich and varied experience spanning 18 years in the media / pay television industry where he held senior positions in Star TV across Asia and Middle East regions, a short stint at BSkyB in the UK and a long stint at Tata Sky. His expertise straddles strategy, design, execution and delivery across all customer-facing functions relating to CRM, Products /Services management, Billing & Subscriber management, Consumer marketing, Field Services and IT.
Mr Anand was part of the core startâ€up team that launched Tata Sky’s DTH service and held the position of Chief Service Officer at Tata Sky prior to joining Hathway.
Jagdish Kumar, MD & CE0 Hathway, said, “We are very excited with the opportunities and challenges that will come our way during our transition from a wholesale business to a retail consumer business.We welcome K V Anand who will be part of the core senior management team at Hathway and will work across functions to develop strategies for Revenue Enhancement, Subscriber management, CRM capability and leveraging our infrastructure across Cable and Broadband platforms to introduce new products, services and enhancing customer experience as we begin our journey to be a customer-centric organization.”
HomeShop18, the 24-hour home shopping channel from the Network18 group, is celebrating five years of existence. Started in 2008, HomeShop18 boasts of reaching out to more than 17 million households across the country.
Commenting on the, Sundeep Malhotra, Founder and CEO, HomeShop18, said “HomeShop18 was started as a mere concept with a belief that electronic shopping will offer a transformational experience and enrich the lives of millions of consumers in India. In these five years, we have been able to successfully establish the virtual retail industry and HomeShop18 is perceived as the largest and most trusted shopping provider in the country.”
To mark its fifth anniversary, HomeShop18 has announced a promotional offer titled ‘Shopping Shaan Se’. Starting April 5 through May 5, 2013, there will be five daily prizes which will include a gold coin, a mobilephone, a watch, a hand blender and a gift voucher worth Rs 1000. In addition, there’s one Honda City and four Maruti Altos cars to be won in this month-long celebration.
Online job portal CareerBuilder India has awarded the Digital AOR to Havas Media. Havas Media has been awarded the duties after competing with all the major online digital agencies that were also keen on getting CareerBuilder India on board. The multi-agency pitch reportedly last over two months.
Premlesh Machama
Said Premlesh Machama, Managing Director, CareerBuilder, “We decided to appoint Havas Media after careful consideration as their response to our brief and strong experience within the category confirmed them as the best partner moving forward.”
Anita Nayyar
Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media, India and South Asia, added: “It was a very tough but a ‘well-organized’ pitch with practically all the leading agencies in the fray. We are extremely proud to have won the business and are looking forward to being their true partners for mutual growth. ”
Anurag Bhatnagar
Said Anurag Bhatnagar, Head Digital, Havas Media: “CareerBuilder is a crucial win for us as it establishes our capabilities and credentials across every single service line of the digital ecosystem.”
The newly rebranded Havas Media Group includes all of Havas’ media agencies, consisting of Havas Media and Arena Media.
Goafest 2013 saw agencies, big and small, make a beeline with their coveted entries at the Zuri White Sands in Goa. The hope was that the absence of the number one agency would lead to high possibility of others winning some metal at the festival. To everyone’s surprise, the number of entries that were submitted at the festival was the maximum ever entered so far.
While the deserving entries across categories were awarded their share of merit at the festival, it was not just the teams from agencies who were rejoicing at the wins. They were joined in spirit and body by clients who were as excited in seeing their brand make an impact in the marketplace.
While clients now acknowledge the uniqueness that the forum offers and make it a point to attend the festival, there is still not enough done from their end in recognizing the efforts put in by the workforce across agencies. Sensing an opportunity, print major Dainik Bhaskar Group showed its appreciation by unveiling the second edition of their much-appreciated work, Mosaic at Goafest.
Through Mosaic, the Dainik Bhaskar Group lends recognition to and establishes a platform for creative agencies to showcase their best print work. Grander than its previous edition, Mosaic 2012 features 121 print campaigns across 105 brands from 31 top agencies. This number is significantly higher than the first edition where works by 70 brands created by 23 leading creative agencies in India was curated by the Dainik Bhaskar group. In fact, this year is more special as it features additional inclusion of select regional print work and the personal favourites section wherein industry experts offer their insight on what makes a print ad work.
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Highlighting the experience witnessed in compiling the second edition, Sanjeev Kotnala, VP – Brand & Marketing, Dainik Bhaskar Group said, “The second edition has more campaigns and brands in it. And yes, this time we do see a decent inclusion of regional – language work too. Also, the favourites have been picked by a mix of seniors from marketing and media.”
Mr Kotnala added, “The entries featured in the book are by invitation only. We have, in consultation with our partner Afaqs, invited large agencies well-known for their creative to submit their work – agencies that have in the past won awards.”
The book features creatives handpicked by creative heads across agencies. While each agency has submitted 5 entries, an exception has been made with DDB Mudra that sent 12 campaigns. Said Mr Kotnala on this decision, “The team looking through the entries found that all the entries submitted by them should be included for their excellence. Dropping any one would have been wrong in this case.”
As was the case with the first edition, the second edition also contains a section – A different point of view – which sees seven industry heads select their favourites among the lot. Manish Vyas of VIP industries, Manisha Lath Gupta of Axis Bank, Santosh Desai of Future Brands, CVL Srinivas of Group M, Lara Balsara of Madison World, Mallikarjundas CR of Starcom Mediavest and Shripad Kulkarni of Allied Media have all presented their favourites from the list.
The book was unveiled on the sidelines of Goafest along with the Dainik Bhaskar-sponsored IAA Debates by media industry captains: Prasoon Joshi, Vikram Sakhuja, Partha Sinha, Monica Tata, Anupriya Acharya, and Srinivasan Swamy. Industry stalwarts like Sam Balsara, Shashi Sinha, Nakul Chopra, Jishnu Sen, Alok Lal, Sanjay Naik, Bobby Pawar and KV Sridhar among others were present too.
On the response that the book has managed to elicit so far, Mr Kotnala said, “The second edition has been appreciated and we had enough people at Goafest coming and asking for it. It is too early, but last year we had more than 8,500 downloads and more than 4,500 copies distributed. We expect the second edition to obviously fare better.”
In fact Mr Kotnala and team are already brainstorming on what the third edition of the book should look like. On his expectations from agencies for the third edition he said, “Agencies qualify themselves for it. And we do not have any preference or bias but hopefully we would see more work being produced in languages.”
And it’s no surprise where the third edition of the book will be launched. Asserted Mr Kotnala, “We shall, like this year, bring out Mosaic III before or during Goafest.”
MxMIndia presents glimpses of some of the creatives shortlisted by experts…
Manish Vyas
Vice President – Marketing, VIP Industries Ltd.
“A great initiative to bring together some of the best work in the industry. I am sure it will inspire many greater campaigns in the future.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
Manisha Lath Gupta
Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Axis Bank
“This book is a great study, as there is so much to learn from this collection of print ads. Many of them inspire marketers to think differently and take more risky decisions on creative.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
Santosh Desai
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Future Brands Ltd.
“Its a good initiative but needs more real work to become truly meaningful.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
CVL Srinivas
Chief Executive Officer – South Asia, GroupM
“Hats off to Dainik Bhaskar for continuing this initiative. This compilation is adequate proof that print as a medium can be as effective as any other.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
Lara Balsara
Executive Director, Madison World
“Great idea to further the cause of print. Can become a collector’s item.”
Shripad Kulkarni
Chief Executive Officer, Percept Media”An excellent initiative which can probably be taken to a higher plane and level to address the serious concern of lack of support to print from ‘creatives’ in a more holistic manner.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
Text and images published with permission of the Dainik Bhaskar group. The e-book can be downloaded from http://www.bhaskar.com/mosaic/
Sportswear brand Adidas has signed up Mahela Jayawardene, captain of the Delhi Daredevils cricket team, as brand ambassador. To kickstart this partnership, he will be part of Adidas’ latest digital and retail campaign for the IPL, ‘Lose the heat, keep the fire’, based on Adidas’ new apparel range, ClimaCool+.
Mr Jayawardene said, “I am excited and raring to step on the field in the three stripes. Adidas supports some the greatest athletes in the world today and have continued to develop revolutionary products to help cricketers like me outperform. The ClimaCool+ technology in the New Delhi Daredevils team jersey certainly brings the cool, the minute you put it on, and I am all in to face the heat this season.”
Tushar Goculdas, Brand Director, Adidas India said, “Jayawardene is one of the greatest cricketers of the current era- a natural leader, a fantastic batsman and an outstanding fielder. He has had a tremendous impact on the game, making Sri Lanka a dominant force in world cricket. We are excited to support him with our incredible sportswear innovations and believe this partnership will empower him further to deliver match-winning performances.”
Summer holidays are nearing and when the heat is scorching down, parents insist that children stay indoors and avoid sunburn. Indoor options are generally surfing or watching TV. With viewer ratings set to rise, are children’s entertainment channels ready to woo and retain their target audience?
Yes, is the unanimous response from the channels, which are ready to battle it out to stay ahead of each other.
Content is the prime focus
From new shows to latest seasons and marathons of popular shows, the channels’ strategy is all chalked out.
Nina Elavia Jaipuria
“We have enough content – new and old – ready to keep our audience engaged in their spare time. Apart from launching new shows like Pakdam Pakdai and launching new seasons of our hit shows like Chotu-Patlu, we also plan to have a back-to-back marathons of our favourite shows,” says Nina Jaipuria, EVP & Business Head – Kids Cluster, Viacom18.
Krishna Desai
Cartoon Network and POGO too have lined-up new shows and movies. “On Cartoon Network, we will be airing new seasons of existing popular shows such as Roll No 21 and Oggy and the Cockroaches. There will be a focus on movies as well with several premieres such as Batu Gaiden on the channel. On Pogo, we have several new movie premieres including those of Chhota Bheem and Mighty Raju,” says Krishna Desai, Sr. Director & Network Head – Kids, South Asia, Turner International India.
Vijay Subramaniam
Disney-UTV isn’t far behind as well, “We believe in telling great stories so one can look forward to great shows and movies from our kitty,” says Vijay Subramaniam, Executive Director, Kids Network, Disney-UTV.
Fight it out in the digital space
The networks don’t want to leave any loose ends and hence want to tap every opportunity available to reach out to their TG. Across channels and networks, high level of engagement across all platforms including, TV, online and on-ground is being planned as more and more children/youth spend their time online.
The Viacom18 network plans to do on-ground marketing activities like Party with Ninja and have contests like the one where plan to send a winner to watch the Manchester United game at the Old Trafford.
After last year’s Jet Set Go, Disney-UTV is launching a second season of the contest soon to engage their viewers.
With contests like ‘Fun in the Sun’ and ‘Bheem ka Badaa Party’, Turner aims to provide the ultimate entertainment experience across our channels. Each contest will have an online leg as well.
Growth of animation
The Indian animation industry which has seen tremendous growth in the past few years is slowly but steadily gaining the recognition it deserves feel the channels heads.
The Indian animation industry which was estimated to have been around Rs 1,100 crore in the year 2006, is expected to grow at a rate of 22 percent to reach Rs 5,400 crore at the end of 2014, feels Mr Desai.
“The industry is vibrant and there is no dearth of ideas. Sure, it has its challenges but there is a focus to overcome most of them rather than giving up. And it is this attitude which will take us a long way and make us one of major players globally someday,” says Mr Subramaniam optimistically.
From collaborations with international studios and merchandising, the Indian animation industry has come a long way from just outsourcing. “We are no longer a sunrise industry. And with customised content in demand there is only scope of growth, growth and growth,” says Ms Jaipuria enthusiastically.
Former Ogilvy honcho R Sridhar, now a popular Business Innovation Coach, is working on an iPhone and iPad application that will help generate ideas at all times.
“The beta version will be ready by next month,” Mr Sridhar said, adding the app will “help people get ideas anytime, anywhere… no more mental blocks, no more frustrations.” And how will that happen? “It will tickle your brain and help you think differently.”
The app will be available from next month at a small price. “I will fix the final price soon. It is an affordable price. What is more 5% of the sales revenue will go to a foundation to help build creative thinking and problem solving skills in young kids,” Mr Sridhar said.
Mr Sridhar has spent a little over 25 years at Ogilvy (1975-2000) where he has held various positions: Principal Consultant – Ogilvy Consulting, Director – Integrated Marketing Communication, Director – Head of Ogilvy Mumbai, President – O&M Direct, Chairman, Ogilvy & Mather Direct (Ogilvy One) and Vice President, Ogilvy & Mather, Bengaluru.
Those interested can mail Mr Sridhar at vijisri@ideasrs.com and he will send an advance intimation when it will be available at the app store.
Also Read: Â How to get ideas (& climb the corp ladder)
Rediff.com, online provider of news, information, communication, entertainment and shopping services, has announced enhancements to its Rediff News App service, which will now bring news from over 30,000 Indian and International sources to users for free just by downloading the Rediff news app.
Apart from the latest news on Rediff.com, this new app from Rediff also aggregates news from top news sources such as Reuters, The New York Times, Washington Post, The Times of India, The Economic Times, and The Hindu, among others.
Ajit Balakrishnan, Chairman and CEO, Rediff.com said, “The Indian mobile internet user base is expected to grow exponentially on the back of initiatives by the Government of India and leading Indian telecom service providers. Our launch of the Rediff News app that can work on almost all mobile phones provides users with better access to worldwide news and enhances search functionality. This is part of our continued strategy of enhancing our offerings to improve the Rediff user experience and positions Rediff to take advantage of future growth opportunities.”
Rediff has enabled multiple versions of the app for mobile devices ranging from latest versions of iOS, BlackBerry, Windows 8, and Android, to feature phones using the classical Java and Symbian operating systems. Each version is designed to provide the best user experience on the respective operating system and provides aggregated news content from multiple sources.
The contemporary tiled interface design, displays the latest news with images and a short description across popular categories such as Top News, World, Business, Sports, Cricket, and Entertainment. A user can tap on an image to get a summary of the news and a further tap takes him/her to the full article on the original news source. The easy-to-use search function enables users to search for news on any topic of interest and provides the ability to change the default manual setting to refresh the content at a frequency of their choice. The ‘Also read’ feature helps users discover more news as they browse related content. The app provides an offline access to previously downloaded news content even when the user is not connected to the internet, providing each user with a unique and differentiated news search and viewing experience.
English entertainment network Big CBS has unveiled an all-new packaging and logo for its marquee channel, Big CBS Prime. Following the introduction of Hindi feed on the channel, the revamped packaging aims to augment its reach through increased sampling among the Hindi-speaking male audiences across not only the country’s eight metros, but also the additional 38 cities that have recently adapted to Phase II of digitization.
Rochak Kohli
Big CBS Prime’s new packaging uses bright colours like magenta, red and purple, communicating the channel’s premium and aspirational positioning. Keeping the channel’s core target audience of SEC ABC 15+ male audiences, the new music bed for Big CBS Prime was created by Global Indian Music Award winning composer for 2013’s most-awarded song ‘Paani Da’ from Vicky Donor and 92.7 Big FM’s National Creative Head, Rochak Kohli.
Anand Chakravarthy
Elaborating on the new packaging of Big CBS Prime, Anand Chakravarthy, Business Head, Big CBS Networks, said, “Phase II of digitization has altered the dynamics of television viewing across India. The changing habits have enabled audience evolution – creating an opportunity for us to expand our reach in HSMs. The new packaging allows us to reach out to a wider set of audiences while creating mass appeal and maintaining the cutting-edge quality and the premium international look and feel synonymous with Big CBS Prime. The new colour palette makes for a young and vibrant look which is more relatable to our younger male audiences while creating a more exciting advertisement platform for our clients.”
Anand Mahindra, Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra was acknowledged as the NDTV Business Leader of the Year at the NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2012, held recently. The award was presented by Chief Guest Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission.
On receiving the award Mr Mahindra said, “Running away is never a successful strategy. You cannot simply run away abroad because you have a fear of the environment here. Time and again countries like South Korea and Japan have proven that you grow strong globally when you have a strong base in India.”
> N Chandrasekaran won the Business Visionary Award
> Mallika Srinivasan was the Business Thought Leader
> Most Inspiring Business Leader went to Kumar Mangalam Birla
> Samsung received the Dynamic Innovator of the Year Award
> Corporate Social Responsibility Awards went to Jubilant & TCS
> Wipro received the Award for Inclusion & Diversty
> John Abraham was declared Creative Entrepreneur of the Year
Winner of the Transformation Leader award Chanda Kochhar said, “In front of foreign and private banks, public sector banking has picked up a lot. Transformation is not done through one big step, it requires small steps to acquire it.”
Extensive research was carried out to determine the nominees and the winners under the guidance of leading names from the industry and business world on the jury, including Shanti Ekambaram, President, Corporate & Investment Banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank; T N Ninan, Editor & Publisher, Business Standard; Dorab R Sopariwala, Editorial Advisor, NDTV; Naina Lal Kidwai, Group General Manager & Country Head, HSBC India; Kalpana Morparia, CEO, J P Morgan India; Tarun Das, Former Chief Mentor, CII; Prannoy Roy, Executive Co-Chairperson, New Delhi Television Ltd; and Aunindyo Chakravarty, Senior Managing Editor, NDTV Profit.
Supertech was the presenting sponsor. Associate Partners included Monnet, Sensodyne, Xerox and Rodeo Drive; Innovation Partner was3M; the Construction Solutions Partner was JCB; Driven by Toyota Camry; Hospitality Partner was Hyatt Regency with Knowledge Partners Deloitte, BCF and Sattva for the Awards this year.
The winners of the NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2012Â were:
HomeShop18, the 24-hour home shopping channel from the Network18 group, is celebrating five years of existence. Started in 2008, HomeShop18 boasts of reaching out to more than 17 million households across the country.
Former Ogilvy honcho R Sridhar, now a popular Business Innovation Coach, is working on an iPhone and iPad application that will help generate ideas at all times.
