MxMIndia

Category: MEDIA

  • The ad illustrates how their business can grow from local to national by selling on the platform

    ShopClues unveils ad directed towards merchants

    By A Correspondent

     

    ShopClues has unveiled its new TV ad campaign, targetted at merchants across the nation. Conceptualised and created by Enormous Brands, Mumbai, the TVC aptly highlights the benefits of selling on the platform with its high reach and immense popularity. It makes a robust call-to-action and encourages local merchants to become national-level sellers by signing up on the site.

     

    Radhika Aggarwal, Co-Founder and Chief Business officer at ShopClues.com said, “Our new TV merchant ad campaign aims at bringing new sellers on board, on a journey of mutual growth at a stellar pace. India is a land of traders with innumerable small businesses across the country with wide variety of great products. They are however, rarely able to expand beyond their immediate geographical area because of the high distribution costs and other impediments. With this campaign, we aim to show them how they can achieve the pride of being national sellers and also help them discover the ease of selling online.”

     

    “Shopclues has a reach that cuts across geographies and across socio economic profiles. With crores of people shopping at the platform every month, it is the best way for a manufacturer or trader of quality goods to in an instant expand his footprint of operations. Shopclues with its easy registrations also makes it simple for people to access this vast set of consumers. The commercial highlights the fact that a particular trader may not have a footprint that would go beyond his immediate vicinity. However with shopclues.com, the entire country is viably his playground.” said Ashish Khazanchi, Managing Partner at Enormous Brands.

     

    The ad film opens with a young boy breaking a lamp with his cricket bat, followed by a dog, a heavy breeze, an angry wife, a careless maid and several other regular occurrences causing lamps in different homes to shatter. The next shot focusses on a shopkeeper in a small town who ends up selling all his lamp shades within seconds. The Voice Over highlights how he has achieved this success: Dhanda khulke muskurayega jab woh shopclues.com pe aayega. (Your business will shine when it is listed on ShopClues). This is followed by appearances of several small traders on screen who witness quick turnarounds of their business. Eventually we find out that all of them are actually operating out of the ShopClues website and this is how they are so successful.

     

    The TVC is specifically in a mix of Hindi and English with a very light-hearted character to appeal to the local merchant. Its tone is direct and conversational to engage effectively with its target audience. The target group comprises smaller businessmen across geographies in India who are selling low-ticket items, unstructured product categories, regional products that are unique and highly sought-after and those who have scale of production but not adequate reach. The objective is to show them that ShopClues.com offers a hassle-free on-boarding process and will enable them to sell in the 25,000 cities it serves and to its over 50 million monthly visitors.

     

  • He is one of the young, dynamic, entrepreneurial and well rounded professionals in the area of management education in general and marketing in particular

    Dr Atish Chattopadhyay is new MICA dean

    By A Correspondent

     

    Atish Chattopadhyay

    MICA has announced the appointment of Dr. Atish Chattopadhyay as the new Dean of the institute. Dr. Atish joins from S P Jain Institute of Management & Research, where he was a Professor of Marketing and Deputy Director in-charge of the 2-year PGDM (MBA). He is one of the young, dynamic, entrepreneurial and well rounded professionals in the area of management education in general and marketing in particular.

     

    Dr. Atish successfully led the flagship two-year PGDM Program of SPJIMR for over five years. Over those five years, increased enrolment, maintained 100 per cent placements, expanded international student exchange, restructured curriculum, transitioned to semester system, enhanced alumni engagement, and submitted the program for accreditation by AACSB. Dr. Atish was instrumental in the launch of ‘Global Fast Track’, where all 240 participants enrolled in the programme undertake advance specialisation courses and projects in partnering top US B-Schools (Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Darden and Purdue).

     

    Dr. Atish played a key role in bringing innovations (like introduction of ‘Business Consulting Projects’ in 1st Year and introducing a minor specialisation in ‘Consulting’) and restructuring (introduction of semester system divided into clusters) the flagship 2 Year PGDM (MBA) program of SPJIMR as Deputy Director.

     

    His current research interest is in the area of ‘Retail Shopper Marketing’. He has studied shopper behaviour in general trade retail covering South East Asia and Latin America. As a researcher and consultant he has advised the top management of MNCs in the areas of shopper marketing. One of his major consulting assignments was to develop the shopper marketing template for Johnson & Johnson, Asia Pacific.

     

    He has been actively publishing and has presented papers in number of international conferences and published in various journals of repute. His research on emerging trends in Indian retail resulted in the paper titled “India’s Emerging Retail Systems: Coexistence of Tradition with Modernity” and was published in the Journal of Macro marketing.

     

    Commenting on his appointment, Dr. Atish said “There are very few management institutions in India which are mission driven, well-differentiated and have a governance structure which is professional, with a global vision. MICA has the advantage of having all three in place. Globally, organisations across industries, today are seeking leaders who are customer-centric and yet can effectively communicate to all stakeholders and not only to customers. MICA is the only institution today which is poised to provide cutting-edge education to build ‘leadership through customer-centricity and communication’. For me, MICA is in alignment with what I believe in.”

     

    President & Director Nagesh Rao noted, “Dr. Atish joining MICA adds a layer of excellence in design thinking, a keen business acumen connecting practice with theory, and a leader in strategic marketing.  MICA is now geared, along with the existing expertise, to march towards its 2020 vision of making it a global leader in strategic marketing and communication. We are delighted to have Atish be a part of the MICA family.”

     

  • It's an important gatekeeping lesson for not just the folks at BCCL, but in every newsroom in the country. Watch that classified ad before it's published!

    Mother-of-all-slip-ups as Mumbai Mirror publishes matrimonial ad praising ‘Hindu’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Given that we aren’t quite in the market for either a groom or a bride, we normally give the matrimonial ads in the various papers a miss. But when we were alerted about it later in the evening, we couldn’t help laughing out loud. Well, actually it was more of rolling on the floor laughing out loud. Or ROFLOL, in whatsapp-ese.

     

    So there was this matrimonial ad on Page 39 of Mumbai Mirror yesterday (Sunday, June 7), under the Cosmpolitan sub-headed. It started with:  “WANTED: Groom who reads The Hindu.”

     

    It was okay until then, but it later became evident that someone in the Times of India classified sales room has been had. Read this: “Because The Hindu reports the truth. The writing is crisp and brilliant.”

     

    It was clear that this is someone from a rival publication’s dirty tricks department. We’ve heard that the winds of change are blowing at the Mount Road MahaVishnu (as the Hindu is known, given its HQ is located on Mount Road in Chennai and it’s revered much by readers and all constituents), but we are not sure if the Hindu could take a joke to this level.

     

    Or it could be some other competitor, who will now use this as a testimony of the standards that it follows.

     

    Or it could be from someone within the system out to crucify and embarrass the biggie heading the matrimonials department.But the last line in that ad is what will really hurt Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited hard, and make everyone in that organisation hand his/her head in shame. “And they read their ads before they post them.”

     

    Read the entire ad again: “WANTED: Groom who reads The Hindu. Because The Hindu reports the truth. The writing is crisp and brilliant. And they read their ads before they post them.”

     

    In Bambaiyya, in the typical ‘tapori language of Mumbai’, one would say: “Poora, khol diya, bhai”. Or “Ijjat ka royal falooda banayaa”. Indeed.

     

    An important gatekeeping lesson for not just the folks at BCCL, but in every newsroom in the country. Watch that classified ad before  it’s published!

     

    Meanwhile, even though ideally some heads ought to roll for what’s happened, we would urge the BCCL management to handle this with care. And if you are going to sack/transfer the juniormost employee for this, ensure that his/her biggest boss also gets the same treatment.

     

    Uff, did we say a bit too much? Kya?

  • Office & Gentleman is an oft-used cliché but it is one I would still use to best describe Mike. I always felt the title was originally coined for him, and it fit him like a well-cut Saville Row suit, writes Anil Thakraney

    Anil Thakraney on Mike Khanna: An encounter in the loo

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    The entire industry is aware of Mike Khanna’s stunning success, of how he ably captained HTA’s ship and fast forwarded the agency’s revenues to staggering heights, making it India’s largest and most profitable ad agency by a fair margin. So I will desist from replaying the numbers game. This post is more about my take on the man, having worked at HTA in the mid nineties for over four years (my longest stint at an ad agency).

     

    Office & Gentleman is an oft-used cliché but it is one I would still use to best describe Mike. I always felt the title was originally coined for him, and it fit him like a well-cut Saville Row suit. Polite to a fault, always calm and unflappable, always well-dressed, always well-mannered, Mike was a Classy guy with a capital C. I would in fact go on to suggest he was a dream CEO for any organization, not just an ad agency. Even if his mind was loaded with stress (can happen when you run a 1000 crore rupee outfit in the service sector), he never showed it. When he was invited to take a look at big campaigns just before the work left for the client’s office, even if he thought the stuff sucked, he would only gently say: ‘It’s interesting but perhaps needs a little sexing up. Good work, guys.’ And then he would casually walk out of the room. And we would quickly get back to the drawing board, aware that the big boss had just pissed all over our work, in his uniquely classy way.

     

    If there is one weak spot in Mike’s legacy, it’s that he did not encourage creativity to flourish in his agency. Under his stewardship, the power center was located in the suits’ cabins, and that’s where the final shots were fired from. While that environment was frustrating for a creative person (and I include myself), beyond a point, it is difficult to argue with success. And Mike’s strategy was hugely successful, the agency was growing furiously, the clients were happy and the perks enjoyed by all of us were cool. So no one really complained, except for the usual bitching we creative people do at pubs after hours. Conveniently forgetting that the one-week free holiday we had just enjoyed at Sun City in South Africa was courtesy HTA’s financial might. Mike was well aware that the ‘creative types’ like to crib, so he never took it seriously. He concentrated on what he was best at: Make HTA bigger, richer, more prosperous. And he was phenomenally successful at that.

     

    As a young writer at the agency, I was in awe of the man. Despite the fact that he always appeared cool and cheerful, many of us would feel intimidated in his presence. He was the big daddy after all, the big daddy who said very little and signed the very big cheques. And because he said little, one felt even more intimidated.

     

    I recall the team on Ford’s launch in India was putting together the auto giant’s show at Pragati Maidan. Naturally a very prestigious issue for the company and the agency. The local Delhi fabricator was running desperately behind schedule and the firang executives from Ford, used to a planned life, were getting stressed out. As a writer, in charge of only the audio visual matter, I would watch from the sidelines and enjoy the tamasha, as the client team would periodically pull up the client service executives. However just two days before the grand opening, and with completion nowhere in sight, we were informed that Mike will be arriving on the Big Day. And that got me personally fired-up. Although it wasn’t really my job, I took the fabricating company’s main man aside, and told him exactly these words: ‘Saale, tum corrupt, lazy Dilliwaalon ne bahut chutiya bana liya, ab ek baat barabar sun le. Agar tune jaldi kam khatam nahin kiya, mein Bombaywala tereko teri gali mein aakar pitega. Tune hamari izzat nahin rakhi toh mein teri bhi loot loonga. Yeh promise yaad rakh.’ The stunned man tried to hit back but was wisely advised by his colleague to back off. After this the work went on all day, all night, at super speed, and we had a fabulous launch. And later me and the Delhi fabricator shook hands. It wasn’t personal, after all.

     

    Mike Khanna did that to you. You didn’t want to let him down. Not because you could get fired, but because you simply didn’t want to let him down. He was that kind of a CEO.

     

    Another memory is my first meeting with him, in the year 1994. I had just been transferred from HTA’s Bangalore office to its Bombay office, and was still floundering around, trying to find my way, to fit in. I still recall that noon when I was peeing in the office loo, and Mike arrived to relieve himself, and used the urinal right next to mine, although all the other urinals were vacant. Being completely in awe of the man, and having only seen his pictures in newspapers and magazines, I froze midway, unsure of how to react, how to feel. I nervously looked in his direction, and as if sensing my discomfort, Mike turned to me, smiled and said. ‘Hi Anil. Welcome to Bombay, hope you have a great time in the creative department.’

     

    And I thought the man didn’t know who I was. Or what I did for a living. But that was Mike. Understated, but sharp. Cool, but in control. Low key, but totally clued in.

     

    RIP.

     

    Anil Thakraney, a former ad professional, is a senior journalist and commentator

     

  • The firm is now focusing on driving growth and new acquisitions through mass media brand building activities

    MediaCom bags mydala media account

    By A Correspondent

     

    Close on the heels of winning SAB Miller from Starcom, MediaCom has won the mydala.com media business following a closely fought pitch against IPG’s Lodestar. mydala is the largest online and mobile coupon and discount marketing platform site in India, and is now focusing on driving growth and new acquisitions through mass media brand building activities.

     

    Commenting on the win, Anisha Singh, Co-Founder & CEO, mydala, said, “We are happy to announce this association. mydala is growing at a phenomenal pace and working with MediaCom will help in pushing the boundaries and reaching out to our customer base in innovative and creative ways.”

     

    Says Niti Kumar, General Manager, MediaCom Delhi, who led the pitch “Ecommerce is the buzziest category on media today, and working with a unique model like mydala will be a great learning experience for the team. We are super excited!”

     

     

     

  • An initiative where mountain bikers and local villagers came together to save the mountain

    Interface unveils campaign to ‘Save the Mountain’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Interface Communications along with Fuji Bikes has created a campaign to save the mountains, which are a rich source of natural resources. Mountain bikers and local villagers came together to execute this bold idea – they built a temple on the mountain. Both of them share a common love for the mountains – one for their love of the extreme terrain it provides and the other because of the spiritual meaning a mountain holds.

     

    Unfortunately, in many rural parts of India, the surrounding mountains are being destroyed for their natural resources and to make space for new industrial developments. The stone that is mined from the mountains is used for road building and other infrastructure activities. And the space created by mining out the mountains is used for commercial or residential purposes. The most affected are the poor villagers and tribes who not only live in the vicinity of the mountains but also worship them.

     

    In a country like India where religion is a super-sensitive issue, no one would dare to break a temple. And one cannot destroy the mountain without destroying or damaging the temple. Hence the mountain is saved!

     

  • The inner details of the land border agreement with Bangladesh were left to newspaper columnists and to channels like Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV to discuss, notes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Should the media highlight or ignore the PM’s comments in Bangladesh?

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian for 20 years, stepped down at the end of May. In that time, newspaper – in keeping with its formidable reputation – has held politicians and governments to public scrutiny. In recent times, The Guardian has exposed the nexus between the media and politicians in the phone-hacking scandal and also carried Edward Snowden’s revelations about government snooping. Rusbridger considers The Guardian’s powerful presence in the digital space one of his triumphs. He steps down as editor but continues to stand up as an influential voice and an inspiration to all journalists. An evening spent listening to him at the Mumbai Press Club a couple of years ago was revelatory and educative as he shared his insights and the lessons he had learned in a charming and self-deprecatory manner.

     

    The Guardian now has Katherine Viner as editor and Rusbridger heads the Scott Trust which runs the Guardian.

     

    This is his farewell piece to readers:

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/29/farewell-readers-alan-rusbridger-on-leaving-the-guardian

     

    **

     

    The prime minister’s visit to Bangladesh was a success with the signing of some very important agreements between the two nations. Yes, it is true that much of the groundwork had been done by the previous government but it is also true that government is a continuous process.

     

    So has the media failed in its duty by its coverage of the PM’s trip next door? First, there was blanket broadcasting by all news channels and constant bombarding on Twitter about every single prime ministerial activity down to the vegetarian meal he was served. The inner details of the agreement were left to newspaper columnists and to channels like Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV to discuss.

     

    Our private TV channels got caught up in Narendra Modi’s needless remark about Sheikh Hasina, the Bangladesh PM, having zero tolerance for terrorism, “despite being a woman”. Or Modi’s observation that he or India and Bangladesh deserved a Nobel prize for the land border agreement.

     

    Here’s the conundrum: If you ignore such comments, are you then airbrushing over the prime minister’s errors? Do these comments not deserve to be highlighted? But if you do discuss them, are you ignoring the larger picture and indulging in nit-picking?

     

    The correct answer would be one supposes to focus on both but when it comes to today’s Bollywoodised lowest-common-denominator thinking, drama has to win over content. We go back to all the research that tells us that no one reads edit pages anyway.

     

    **

     

    Rahul Desai, the film reviewer who quit Mumbai Mirror after the newspaper changed his rating for a film based on popular demand or some such excuse, has written this excellent piece on the plight of the film reviewer in these market-driven times. It is a sad commentary on how hard it is to remain fair or free when everything around you has succumbed to PR and market pressure. It also shows the scant respect that many newsrooms or managements have for individual points of view.

    http://scroll.in/article/732431/what-the-mumbai-mirror-critic-who-quit-over-altered-movie-ratings-has-to-say-about-reviewing

     

    **

     

    And while on Mumbai Mirror, The Hindu pulled a fast one on the paper by putting a little ad promoting itself into the Mirror’s classified sections. It’s not often that Indian media makes jokes like this…

  • With the stakes very high, the innovative brains that we have in the Indian media and entertainment sector have dreamed up a new strategy. Ensure that your channel figures in the EPG more than once

    Unfair or Fair Play? Reach & ratings drive channels to ask for multiple pushpoints on EPG

    By A Correspondent

     

    What do you do when you are launching an all-new channel or just wish to ramp up the reach of your existing network?

     

    Spend top dollars on distribution, of course.

     

    While quality content is important, the key factor in the popularity of a channel and ensuring good ratings for a channel is distribution (and hence availability).

     

    In the good old days, there was carriage fee. Pay the cable operators in sackfuls, and you are sure of your channel being carried in the prime band or alongside the leading channels.

     

    But with digitisation and EPGs getting on to our screens, the game has changed. While carriage fees have reduced, the EPG has made things a little complex. Yes,  you can always ask for good placement, but that’s not a sureshot way to rope in viewers. With the stakes very high, the innovative brains that we have in the Indian media and entertainment sector have dreamed up a new strategy. Ensure that your channel figures in the EPG more than once.

     

    Aur dikhao, aur dikhao!

     

    So, if you are an English news channel , while you’ll find your name amongst the news channels of that language, you can also get yourself among the GECs. Next to a Star Plus, Colors and Zee. How does this happen? Dollops of dosh, of course.

     

    Is it the right thing to do? No, it isn’t. Are the industry associations doing anything about it? No, they aren’t. Will the TRAI do something about? Most likely it will.

     

    The move has sent shockwaves in the industry, but the last mile cable companies are delighted that it’s one more source of revenues from reach-hungry channels as other channels are reportedly mulling a similar move. Said the head of one distribution firm on anonymity: “Yes, I have already been approached by some channels, and I have had to put my foot down in saying that we can’t corrupt the system.” Any more, we may add.

     

    There’s no stopping an all-new channel or a channel that is relaunching or attempting a fresh promotion strategy to have its name figure a dozen times in the EPG.

     

    A 10-plus-year-old channel attempted this recently on its relaunch, following the footsteps of another channel which had done this, albeit in a small way a few years back. The channel that did this earlier has reportedly done it again to counter its recently-recharged competition. MxMIndia has in its possession a list of headends where multiple pushpoints have been provided on the EPG. Needless to say, these are in zones that have maximum viewership for certain genres.

     

    An industry analyst we spoke to said the move is reprehensible and must be nipped in the bud asap. “While viewership and not reach is the variable that eventually matters, the proliferation is unhealthy and must be stopped.”

     

    A channel marketing executive however said there is no need for the TRAI or the industry bodies to step in. “Do you stop the promotion of a soap which is displayed in multiple locations at a supermarket? This is a legitimate marketing practice and it’s not that channels are breaking the law to do it.”

     

    Next is what? A channel-block on your EPGs?

     

  • The Meta Quality Barometer from Artemis Alliance delivers continuously updated data across global, pluri-media campaigns

    Meta Quality Barometer to assist in optimising investments for clients

    By A Correspondent

     

    To improve media inventory and campaign quality, Havas Media Group announced the launch of a unique Meta Quality Barometer, based on a comprehensive, inclusive approach to data. The Meta Quality Barometer from Artemis Alliance delivers continuously updated data across global, pluri-media campaigns, to share with all stakeholders (technology partners, media publishers and clients) to optimise investments.

     

    Dominique Delport, Global Managing Director of Havas Media Group explains:

    “Confidence in data quality is a critical issue for our industry. The scale of fraudulent inventory generated by sophisticated ‘bots’ is extremely concerning and neither media vendors nor agencies are safe. We need to bring trust and clarity back for our clients. For these reasons Havas has invested in our best-in-class Artemis Alliance data platform for over a decade.

     

    Now it manages 100% of our online campaigns, harvesting over 300 billion secure and disaggregated data points each year and was recently awarded ISO27001 certification by Bureau Veritas. Its focus – to create an actionable measurement for viewability, brand protection, media inventory and campaign quality.

     

    “As a result, we are delighted to launch the first Meta Quality Barometer for our industry. Helping us to connect the dots of the most advanced tech providers, delivering a unique and systematic “meta” barometer on data integrity, security and brand safety. This will facilitate and boost our communications with media owners to increase the quality of inventory for our clients. I am extremely proud of the teams in Artemis Alliance who have formalised a systematic approach to challenging industry practices so that we can help to provide better business solutions for our clients and media partners,”  adds Dominique Delport.

     

    Leveraging its extensive experience in handling event level data, Artemis Alliance collects detailed and raw data from all of its technology partners (Adledge, Catchpoint, ClarityAd, Hub’Scan, WhiteOps, Integral Ad Science and Peer39/Sizmek). That data, at its most granular level, is used to analyse and score the quality of the media inventory by industry, by market and by media owner.

     

    Rob Griffin, EVP, Media Futures & Innovation, Havas Media Group summarises:

    “This is a win-win deal.  We can now pull in data from across all screens, technology companies and media partners to provide the first external, objective review of outcomes across the five critical areas of Compliance, Experience, Impact, Context and Traffic.  While we can’t guarantee 100% viewability or zero fraud, we can make a commitment to our clients and our publishers to improve the quality of inventory available and make the information clear and easy to activate.  The ultimate win, therefore, will be for clients, who will benefit from smarter solutions and cleaner data to drive investments and business decisions.”

     

  • PING Network and ONE Entertainment combine resources to offer interesting digital formats

    Ping Digital, One Network ink alliance

    By A Correspondent

     

    PING Digital Network has announced a strategic alliance with One Network Entertainment. As part of this alliance, PING Network & ONE are launching the first of its kind ‘The Creators Collective’ to provide creators everything to become successful publishers.

     

    ‘The Creators Collective’, is an initiative designed for creators to produce content, collaborate with other creators and more importantly learn the art to becoming a publisher. With regular workshops by experts, sessions by and for brands/advertisers and creators, this will become a vibrant content creation hub.ONE and PING now boast of about 10,000 sq ft of studio cum office space in the heart of Mumbai’s media district of Lower Parel with top-notch creative teams, state of the art equipment with live broadcast facilities, production facilities and edit suites along with all the resources that creators require to showcase their talent. Inpsired by the You Tube Spaces, The Creators Collective will enable Talent to hone their skils & collaborate with other talent to create break through content.

     

    Rajeshree Naik, Co-Founder & Director, PING Network, says “We are delighted to partner with ONE Network Entertainment to further strengthen our proposition of being a one-stop shop for the best digital video creators in India. This alliance is also a testimony of our own DNA as creators making us the preferred platform for the creator community. Through this partnership we also add the much sought after genre of comedy to our exisiting content making it more attractive for brands & advertisers. We now become a network of over 550 channels with close to 85million views a month bringing huge scale to the both creators & advertisers.”

     

    Abe Thomas, Co-Founder One Network, says “ONE Network with over 70 mn views and a distribution network across 20+ global video platforms, is very enthused with the synergies that we can jointly exploit with an MCN like PING Network. We believe that through this partnership we will be able to collaborate with brands/advertisers and provide them with opportunities to interact, collaborate with a wider range of creators.” Adds Suresh Menon, Co-founder One Network, “ We are a Talent First media company and believe that we will discover the new stars of tomorrow through ‘ The Creators Collective’.

     

  • In this newly-created role, Gareth will work closely with Gerry Boyle, APAC Chairman

    ZO names Gareth Mulryan CEO for Southeast Asia

    By A Correspondent

     

    Gareth Mulran

    ZenithOptimedia announced the promotion of Gareth Mulryan, currently Head of Digital Asia Pacific, to CEO Southeast Asia.

     

    In this newly-created role, Gareth will work closely with Gerry Boyle, APAC Chairman, and the local market leaders to further develop ZenithOptimedia’s strong communications offering across the Southeast Asia region. Gareth will use his wealth of digital experience to transform and grow these markets over the coming years. He will be responsible of integrating digital specialists within market and will work closely with local and regional publishers and technology partners to create innovative solutions for clients.

     

    Gareth will also work with Felix Cartoux, Corporate Development Director, to build the ZenithOptimedia’s business in Southeast Asia through external growth opportunities on a local market basis.

     

    Gareth has been part of the ZenithOptimedia family for more than 10 years and has spent the last seven years in Asia. As well as leading ZenithOptimedia’s digital offering, he has been instrumental in the set-up of ZenithOptimedia’s performance arm, Performics across Asia Pacific.

     

    Over the last four years the Performics brand has grown significantly and now has 12 offices in the region with more than 300 members of staff. Gareth will continue to support in the growth of Performics in the role of Managing Partner, Asia Pacific.

     

    Announcing Gareth’s move, ZenithOptimedia’s Asia Pacific Chairman, Gerry Boyle said: “Gareth has done a simply brilliant job in building Performics across Asia. All our markets in SEA are in transformational mode, and Gareth’s digital nous and unswerving client focus will help our market leaders to deliver new solutions and success for our clients.

     

  • Da Vinci Media through Da Vinci Learning brings to India high quality knowledge programming

    Da Vinci Learning ready for India sojourn

    By A Correspondent

     

    Da Vinci Media, the parent organization for Da Vinci Learning – the fun educational television channel for the whole family, announced a 50:50 joint venture with The Quint for the channel’s much awaited launch in India and for a complete horizontal digital multimedia edutainment platform. The Quint is the digital venture founded by Raghav Bahl along with his wife, Ritu Kapur. Continuing with its commitment to provide the best in educational entertainment, the Da Vinci Media has associated with the popular digital content platform – The Quint, which provides a combination of compelling content, technology and distribution, coupled with high value digital journalism, storytelling, and advertising at scale.

     

    Da Vinci Media through Da Vinci Learning brings to India high quality knowledge programming that entertains and brings young minds of all ages together, celebrating the life long journey of learning. Da Vinci Learning targeted at 6 -12 year olds and their parents, is known for turning television watching from passive observation into a meaningful and fun experience. This helps children develop various skills during the early years, encouraging older viewers to keep asking questions and inviting families to take their learning journeys together.

     

    This association with The Quint will enable Da Vinci Learning to effectively amplify the channel’s presence across the country along with developing widespread and integrated relationships with leading media platforms and advertisers. This strategic move for developing the channel’s foothold in the Indian television and digital media industry just before its launch will definitely help in creating awareness about the meaningful and innovative content that the channel will offer to its Indian audience.

     

    Commenting on the launch Ferdinand Habsburg, Founder & CEO of Da Vinci Media said, “We are delighted to partner with Raghav Bahl and The Quint, a brand renowned for its strong digital media presence. We are confident that this engagement will definitely help us carve a strategic roadmap to increase visibility in the Indian market. We aim to provide innovative and engaging educational content to children helping them to think productively while simultaneously developing their thinking, reading and self -confidence skills through a meaningful and fun experience.”

     

    Raghav Bahl, Founder, The Quint, said, “While Da Vinci Media brings expertise in programming content, this JV helps us to further expand, drive synergies  and diversify our digital content portfolio. The Quint will aid consumers in accessing Da Vinci Media’s Da Vinci Learning channel’s content through our digital distribution capacity.”