By A Correspondent
He had wanted Life OK to be the No 1 Hindi GEC within the next six months. It could well happen, but only he has put in his papers as Business Head of Life OK. Since July this year, he was also holding additional charge of youth channel, Channel V.
Although there is no official intimation, it is reliably learnt that Mr Thakur was joining a movie studio at a senior position. He is still serving notice and will be with Star India till February 2015.
By A Correspondent
Concept Communication announced it has acquired a majority stake in Liqvd Asia, an experiential digital marketing company. With this, the two founding members of Liqvd Asia – Arnab Mitra and Zubin Nalawalla along with their team of 28 will become an integrated part of the Concept Group driving the digital mandate in the country and select markets in Asia.
Liqvd Asia started operations in 2013. Its clients include Celkon Mobile, Axis Bank, Benetton, LifeCell, Lonely Planet, Sennheiser, Kalpataru, Glanbia plc and Adidas Originals. The company is head quartered in Mumbai and has a presence in Singapore as well.
Commenting on the acquisition, Vivek Suchanti, Chairman and Managing Director, Concept Communication, said: “This acquisition consolidates our position in the digital space. Arnab is experienced at establishing operational excellence within diverse new age marketing techniques, translating conceptual models into specific growth strategies, and planning and executing multi-faceted national and regional advertising campaigns. His expertise will help us create a bouquet of offerings to our clients across various Group entities. With the addition of Liqvd Asia, we are taking another step in helping our clients ‘get digitally right’. We are delighted to welcome Arnab and his team to be an integral part of Concept family.”
Before starting up, Arnab Mitra worked as National Director for Starcom Mediavest Group and prior to that he has worked with Havas Media, where he was heading the agency in South Asia.
Sharing his views on the merger, Mr Mitra said: “We’re very excited to become a part of the Concept Group. Concept is recognized as a formidable brand in the country and Vivek has been one of most respected names in the Indian advertising and related services industry. With this merger we will soon emerge to be the leaders in providing digital experiential solutions in the country and region.”
By A Correspondent
Lowe Lintas Bangalore has rolled out new campaign for Flipkart. The campaign titled ‘Iss Mein Hai Kisi Ki Khushi’ aims to bring alive the magical moments that emanate by shopping on the Flipkart mobile app.
The campaign kicks off with a couple of stories about how shopping on the Flipkart Mobile app can help fulfil small wishes, in an instant. The idea was to not just appeal at an intellectual level but also on an emotional level by representing real life events, where app shopping triumphs over web and offline shopping.
Commenting on the initiative, Shoumyan Biswas, Senior Director – Marketing, Flipkart, said, “Mobile is the future for e-commerce. We believe that the instant connect and convenience afforded by a mobile experience is unparalleled. Based on our customer feedback on how the mobile app has made life easier for them – we wanted to explore this aspect through our new campaign and create active consideration by seeding a deep emotional bond. For a generation living on the mobile, we are positive that these ads will have an instant connect with them.”
Commenting on the same, GV Krishnan, Executive Director, Lowe Lintas Bangalore, said, “Brand Flipkart means lot to us and the entire team has put in tremendous effort to bring this first campaign alive. The campaign dwells on a powerful emotion – the joy of fulfilling someone’s wish – and has a universal appeal. The Flipkart Mobile app allows one to access a range of products anytime,anywhere and ‘Make Any Wish’ for your near and dear ones come true. I believe this has been brought alive in an engaging manner by the team.”
The creative brief given to the agency was to come up with an interesting way to showcase how shopping in India is changing and how mobile shopping apps are fast becoming the key to on-the-go shopping today.
The first film shows how the Flipkart mobile app helps bring a smile on a little girl’s face who was upset as she couldn’t participate in a dance. Seeing the little girl upset, her cousin orders the dress through the Flipkart shopping app, which instantly brightens up her mood.
In the second film, while at a friend’s wedding, a girl realizes that she has lost her luggage. The protagonist overhears her distress call and uses the app instantly to solve her problem by ordering something to wear at the wedding. This small gesture sparks off a strong chemistry between the two.
Highlighting the creative standpoint taken by the team, Rajesh Ramaswamy, Group Creative Director, Lowe Lintas Bangalore said, “The brief was a great guide for us to arrive at this communication. Creatively, the task was to present the role of the mobile app in everyday life. To arrive at an interesting yet relatable context was our biggest challenge. And unlike other categories, the possibilities of situations where this could play out were many. ‘Which one to pick?’ is a good place to be in. It’s great fun when observations and insights stemming from our own lives can be used.”
The campaign has been launched across major television channels and will be played suitably on multiple digital platforms as well.
Team Credits –
Agency – Lowe Lintas Bangalore
Client – Flipkart
Creative – Arun Iyer,Rajesh Ramaswamy, UjjwalKabra, Indrasish Mukherjee, Adarsh Atal
Business – GV Krishnan, Anand Narayan, Kunal Madhavdas, Pritika Gupta, Sandhya Subramaniam
Planning – S Subramanyeswar, Vishal Nicholas
Producer – Curious Films
Director – Vivek Kakkad
Twenty-fourteen will be remembered for long because of two things, the general elections and the upsurge we saw in e-commerce. But if you were to remove these, I don’t think adspends have gone up dramatically. There is a lot of noise about ‘achche din’ but we haven’t seen any real change on the ground. In our business, the FMCG sector is the true indicator of performance and these companies are not reporting a big turnaround. I know it takes time after a new government settles in, but the fact is it hasn’t happened so far. The trends in e-commerce indicate that the upsurge will continue through the next year but if FMCG revenues don’t improve and they don’t start spending, then we could be in trouble.
Digital has been a big talking point of the year but I think we are far away from a big breakthrough. It will grow at a particular pace. So consumers may adapt to it but advertising will take some more time. I have always believed that collective consumption of media is in our DNA, and purchase decisions still happen collectively in India as opposed to the western world where decisions are mostly individualistic. This difference is because of our culture. Our society is very outwardly-directed, unlike the US, which is an inwardly-directed society. When it comes to consumption and spends, societies and culture matter a lot. For instance, television viewing in our country is still perceived as a family thing. So while personalisation has happened with devices, the family still remains in our DNA. In fact the whole Hindu ethos is made up of the family and the principle of collectivity. And that’s not going to go away. Devices will help you, they are mere enablers. But our ethos, psychology and culture are not going to change.
There has been a tremendous increase in numbers as far as the internet penetration and users go, and I believe India is the second biggest user of Facebook today. But have you ever wondered why is India such a big Facebook user country? That is because Facebook stands for a collective consciousness and it is the same as our ethos. As a country, the penetration of Facebook is higher because Facebook is an example of connected-ness. That culture is not going to change in a hurry. It will happen, with a lot of internalisation, but it will take time. At this point of time, it will all be collective.
As for the talk of 2014 being the year of digital innovation, I think we haven’t scratched the surface yet. I think we have a long way to go for us to say that this is the year of digital innovation in India. India is a very strong content country, one of the few countries in the world where original content is done. In my mind, while creativity will stay, digital is just a format. A lot of people are experimenting with content but the truth remains that digital spends are still at 8 or 9 per cent of the overall spends.
Digital is also a mindset. In our mindset, the transition to digital has happened, it may not reflect in terms of numbers and volumes. But as far as mindsets go, at least we are talking digital. It’s probably the fashionable thing to do or even the right thing to do but I’m not sure whether the numbers justify. Television and print are still very big in this country.
Today, to get into digital, you have to make investments in people, for the right kind of talent, which is expensive. It’s a huge investment. We are making the investments and hoping that the returns will come.
As for the next year, the situation on the ground is not good but there is collective hope.
The forthcoming ICC Cricket World Cup will bring some hope of being a trigger to growth in ad spends. It’s all about activity around events. Cricket is a big sport in India and World Cup come once in four years. I see some advantages, it may not be as dramatic as last time because it was in India then but still, the World Cup is big enough.
Reports indicate that the global economy is expected to improve and therefore global adspends will improve. Hope is what drives the economy, hope is what drives the stockmarket, hope is what drives sentiment, this is the hope for India and why should I go against that hope. But we have to be slightly cautious. We are hoping that with the new government and with their will to improve things, things should improve. It all depends on the budget. If the government can push through the budget, they can do a lot of stuff otherwise there is trouble.
What I see as a challenge for myself is to ensure that our clients do well. I am not sure that it’ll be dramatic. But I feel if we can consolidate in the next year in spite of what everyone is saying, that’ll be a big achievement. If we can sustain, if we can just do what we have done in 2014, it should be alright.
Shashi Sinha spoke to Shruti Pushkarna on the sidelines of The Advertising Club’s Media Review 2014 held last Thursday (Dec 18) in Gurgaon. A version of this appeared in the December 22 issue of ‘dna of brands’
By Pritha Mitra Dasgupta
Shiv Sethuraman, chief executive officer at Percept One, has quit just six months after taking over the job. “Something really exciting and challenging has come up that I wish to pursue,” said Mr Sethuraman, who was CEO at TBWA India Group before joining Percept earlier this year. “Percept was a short but enjoyable journey,” he said. Percept One is the integrated marketing and communications division of the company.
Mr Sethuraman was brought in with the mandate to integrate all marketing and communications businesses of Percept. Sanjay Shukla, CEO at Percept Sports & Entertainment, will now have the additional task of handling Percept One. “Currently, Percept One needs integration and growth which he can handle till we recruit someone from the advertising industry to drive the business,” said Harindra Singh, founder, vice-president and managing director of Percept. Shukla has no advertising background.
Mr Sethuraman joined TBWA India in 2008 from Ogilvy Paris, where he was managing director since 2005. Before that he was vice-president at Ogilvy’s Mumbai office. Singh said Percept’s marketing communications business is growing faster than the industry average and “it needs a senior leader who can drive growth”.
He spends more time on building the company’s live business that owns five intellectual properties including electronic dance music festival Sunburn, because “in India there is no standard operating procedure for the IP business and therefore it requires an entrepreneurial approach and more time”.
Source:The Economic Times
Copyright © 2014, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Licensed to republish
By A Correspondent
It lost its Group CEO last fortnight, but it’s got a Group CFO in superquick time. The ITV Network has got on board Arun Aggrawal as the Group CFO. This is Mr Aggarwal’s second stint with the network, after he took for a short stint overseas for the launch of a 24×7 English News Channel. Prior to his overseas assignment, he was holding the same portfolio at ITV Network, for almost two years and was actively involved during the takeover of ‘NewsX’.
As part of his mandate, he will be overseeing all aspects of financial operations for the network. The ITV Network has recently had many senior members of its top deck populated by former IBN Network CxOs.
Welcoming Mr Aggarwal back, Kartikeya Sharma – Managing Director, ITV Network said, “The decades of experience that Arun brings with him is invaluable for ITV Network. We are positive that Arun’s strong financial leadership in the media and entertainment sector, and his skills and relationships will surely help the network reach the next level.”
On re-joining the network, Arun Aggarwal, said, “It gives me immense pleasure to be back with ITV Network. I am looking forward to an enriching experience again and I am confident to contribute to the growth of the network.”
On the occasion of X’mas 2014 so we asked some industry captains to tell us what goodies they would like Santa Claus to bring them this Dec 25. Interviews by Shobhana Nair here goes:
Srinivasan K Swamy, Chairman and Managing Director, RK Swamy BBDO
If I were to wish for something, then this would be double digit GDP growth of our economy in 2015!
M G Parameswaran, Member Management Board, FCB Ulka Advertising
I wish Santa Claus to bring to the advertising agency business a big bottle of confidence tonic! An elixir that will infuse everyone in our exciting world of advertising with extra courage, confidence and spirit; to believe in the industry, to believe in their own competence and contribution to the success of brands and most importantly a unshakeable faith in the greater purpose of advertising: to move consumers from their inertia, to keep the wheels of industry moving, to make the world a better place, one OTS/ one TRP at a time!
Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman and Creative Director, South Asia
Ogilvy & Mather India
I’d like Santa to distribute small and beautiful packets of wisdom for everybody in the industry.
Satyan Gajwani, CEO, Times Internet
New consumers are buying smartphones everyday, but for them to be useful, the cost of data needs to reduce. When users want to pay for something, it shouldn’t be as cumbersome as it is today.
Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO South Asia – Dentsu Aegis Network
If Santa Claus could meet with the Finance Minister and emphasize upon him that in the forthcoming budget he needs to give a sensible taxation regime, particularly with respect to service tax and VAT applicable on the advertising and marketing communications business, I think it will go a long way in helping our industry grow. A an industry, we want to show our creativity in the area of advertising and not in the area of creative accounting!
Prashant Panday, MD & CEO, ENIL
The one thing is that Phase-3 auctions get completed before March 31 and migration of 21 Phase-2 licences which are lapsing on March 31st happens on time.
Anirudh Dhoot, Director, Videocon
In line with our Prime Minister’s vision of “Make in Indiaâ€, we expect policies and infrastructural support for electronic components and panel manufacturing in India. India has the potential to become a global electronics manufacturing hub not only for internal consumption but also satiating global requirement.
Sanjay Mehta, Joint CEO, Social Wavelength
The one thing that I’d want Santa Claus to bring to our industry, would be Better Retainer Fees :) For all the hard work that the social media agencies do for clients, from strategy to execution, from creatives to media, from technology to ORM, we still don’t get adequate respect, reflected in terms of decent monthly retainer fees! As we get into 2015, I hope Santa Claus makes our clients acknowledge the role we play and compensate us better!
Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative Officer & Co-Founder, Taproot India
I’d want Santa to give us an emotional gift in the form of ‘unity within the industry’. We are fighting so much within ourselves and are even ready to kill each other for business. We are going from bad to worse now. There’s a long list of things that I am seeking from Santa but I definitely feel that people should follow ethics and morals. We need to make it a human industry. There’s just no humanity left and that’s a huge disconnect.
Arvind Sharma, former President, AAAI
There was a great deal of optimism and hope during BJP’s election campaign. And so far it has translated into foreign investment flowing into financial markets. But as far as the ground is concerned, things have to yet get better. We hope 2015 will bring strong growth in the economy for the overall business. Advertising industry depends on the client’s growing business, their budgets and spends. They have been really tight for the last two-and-a-half years. We hope that will change in the coming year.
By A Correspondent
Leading car portal cardekho.com has come up with a follow-up campaign titled ‘Mr. I Know’. Conceived by Linen Lintas, this new campaign comes on the back of the portal’s TV campaign ever that was aired during Diwali – a period when car buying and selling is at its peak.
In the film, there’s a character who boasts about knowing almost everything under the sun. His knowledge is razor-sharp, but has an annoying habit that cuts every conversation midway. Cardekho.com calls him,’Mr. I Know’.
However ‘Mr. I Know’ is blind when it comes to buying a car. Cardekho.com comes to his rescue with facts about cars so that he can make a rational decision.
Says LK Gupta, CMO, CarDekho: “After our first hard-working TV commercial that successfully took CarDekho to a wider audience, our task was to refresh communication with a continuing brand thought and value proposition. ‘Mr. I Know’ does just that – presenting the same proposition in an entertaining and memorable manner,with a sharp consumer insight.”
This new Car Dekho campaign has not only given birth to an interesting character called ‘Mr. I Know’, but also takes forward the earlier story of ‘sunona hi dekho’.
The launch campaign (with the thought ‘sunona hi dekho’) was based on the fact that people get advice about cars from all quarters, and yet they remain confused when they have to make a decision. “This new campaign takes that thought a step forward in an interesting manner,” says Jaideep Mahajan, ECD Linen Lintas.
Pranav Harihar, GCD, Linen Lintas, and writer of the campaign elaborates, “You find characters like ‘Mr. I Know’all around you. Sub-consciously, we use the phrase ‘I know’ in our daily conversation too. In the film ‘Mr. I Know’ does just that–interrupting others and completes their sentences.”
Credits:
Client: Cardekho.com
Agency: Linen Lintas, Delhi
ECD: Jaideep Mahajan
GCD: Pranav Harihar
Client Servicing: Sirish Gudibande, Shubhi Pandey
Production:Film Farm, Mumbai
By A Correspondent
Hungama.com has entered into a strategic partnership with Snapdeal, India’s largest online marketplace to offer digital entertainment content to its shoppers. The tie-up between the two leading digital entities will begin with an offer wherein shoppers on Snapdeal’s mobile app will get access to Hungama’s Premium PRO service free for a period of nine (9) weeks.
Hungama PRO, which is a paid premium subscription service, offers users HD quality music videos with the lyrics of songs, and can be accessed offline without any internet charges. It is also an ad-free app, which further makes for a hassle-free experience. The mobile app is available for download from the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store. After the first nine weeks, the service will later be made available to the users at a price of Rs 120 per month.
Both Snapdeal and Hungama have been focusing on expanding their leadership position by tapping into developing Tier-II markets. The recent update that brought transliteration features to Hungama’s Android app, made it one of the first India apps to be available in five languages – English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Punjabi – an ideal service for Snapdeal’s userbase that is spread across 5000 plus cities and towns in India.
Speaking on partnering with Snapdeal, Siddhartha Roy, CEO at Hungama.com, said: “With music and shopping being among the primary drivers of mobile internet consumption, our tie-up aims to offer users an enhanced value proposition. 2015 is likely to be a vital year for brands to out to Middle Bharat, and tie-ups like this will help our brands to attract a larger share of the consumer’s mind space.â€
“We at Snapdeal are focusing hugely on making sure our customers get a great shopping experience on our app. The partnership with Hungama brings shopping and music together, both are a way of life for Indian consumers. We want to encourage the growing love of apps by providing customers with what they love most –high quality uninterrupted music and awesome deals on the go,†commented Mr. Sandeep Komaravelly, SVP, Marketing at Snapdeal.com
By A Correspondent
Acknowledging their efforts and considering the thankless nature of the job, Google decided to celebrate the spirit of the delivery boys, the unsung heroes of the e-commerce ecosystem. A special gift in the form of a customised helmet with their name on it was delivered to the homes of these delivery boys.
Said NavinTalreja – President, Mumbai & Kolkata, Ogilvy India: “Brands with a social conscience and a sensitivity to the ecosystems that make them work are being preferred (loved) by consumers across the world. Google is one such brand which has led many such initiatives. #SpecialDelivery is a special gesture by Google for the delivery boys who bring parcels of happiness to homes in India.”
To encapsulate the entire activity, a short video which showcases the life of the delivery boy was commissioned.
The objective of this activity was to simply urge people to say, “Thank you”, to these heroes. And make it a #SpecialDelivery. The helmet was not just personalised but also visually designed to celebrate their journey.
Reasons Sandeep Menon, Director, Marketing, Google India: “The Great Online Shopping Festival (gosf) was a roaring success in 2014, with all partners seeing great engagements across product categories. We got a total of 1.4 crore visits to the site and the user engagement is up by 7 times compared to last year. All this was made possible due to collective efforts of all our partners. And this video is a small gesture to thank the unsung heroes who keep the wheels of this growing industry moving.
Added Sukesh Nayak, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy India: “Today, we all shop online and enjoy the comfort of it. But somewhere we forget to acknowledge the most important person in this – the delivery man. Our idea was to recognise them and thank these faceless people. The helmet was not just personalised but also designed to visually depict their amazing journey. The expression on their faces when we delivered this at their doorstep was just priceless. It made us realise, that a little thank you goes a long way.”
CREDITS
National Creative Director:Â Rajiv Rao
President, Mumbai & Kolkata:Â Navin Talreja
Executive Creative Director:Â Sukesh Nayak
Head of Planning, Mumbai:Â Kawal Shoor
Senior Creative Director: Talha Nazim, Manasi Kadne
Art Directors:Â Nobin Dutta, Noothan PR
Copywriter:Â Aratrika Rath
Business Head:Â Hitesh Patel
Account Management:Â Kunal Rasania, Madhavi Unni
Production House: @Asylum
Director:Â Raaj A Chakravarti
By A Correspondent
YuppTV has launched ‘Zee TV’ for the Singapore region.  With this move, YuppTV now delivers 200+ Indian TV Channels worldwide in 12 Indian languages, as Live TV, and 10 days of Catch-up TV along with unlimited movies from various production houses. The languages in the Singapore region include Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati and Kannada.
“Meeting the high demand for Indian television in Singapore, we are pleased to take Zee TV, one of India’s most popular channels to multitudes of TV viewers in the Singapore region. We are confident that the Indian diaspora in Singapore will be delighted to watch their favourite shows on Zee TV in the comfort of their home,” said Mr. Uday Reddy, CEO of YuppTV.
Sushruta Samanta, Zee TV’s Business Head – Asia Pacific, International Business  said, “With an aim to offer the finest entertainment to viewers in Singapore, we are excited to extend our partnership with YuppTV to offer Zee TV to subscribers in Singapore. We trust that viewers of South Asian content will enjoy the channels’ wide variety of offerings, created for different viewing segments.”
By A Correspondent
Mobile wallet firm MobiKwik has appointed Mrinal Sinha as Head of Strategy. Prior to this, Mr Sinha was Founder and Executive Director at Brattle Foods, a food supply chain solutions and logistics business. He was instrumental in raising $8 million in equity financing and growing revenues to $10 million. At MobiKwik, he will helm the strategic roadmap with the management, identifying key opportunities for talent and technology acquisition, fostering crucial alliances and kick starting new revenue lines within the company.
Said Bipin Preet Singh, Founder CEO, MobiKwik on the appointment: “Having established the MobiKwik brand as the leading mobile wallet in the country, we are now looking at strategic expansion and diversification. Mrinal will play a pivotal role in our further evolution thanks to his years of business development and corporate strategy experience across domains. We are pleased to have him on board.”
On his appointment, Mr Sinha said, “My objective will be to leverage my education and experience to chart out the expansion strategy for MobiKwik, form key partnerships with banks, device makers and other payments companies. I am also looking forward to identifying new business lines for MobiKwik and set the ball rolling for the same in the near future.”
Mr Sinha has a dual degree (Master’s and Bachelor’s in Technology) from the prestigious IIT-Madras. He also has an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He has worked with McKinsey & Company, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and EMC Corporation. The appointment comes soon after that of former MakeMyTrip Vice President, Technology, Virender Bisht as the Chief Technology Officer.