Senior editor Omar Qureshi has joined Viiking Media and Entertainment Group as Chief Creative Officer and Business Head. A seasoned print journalist, Qureshi has pioneered the digital and television entertainment news space in the last two decades.
Sachiin J Joshi
Viiking, an entertainment and media conglomerate with business entrepreneur, filmmaker, actor, Sachiin J Joshi as its Chairman, is part of a business group with varied businesses like alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, spas and health products, gymnasiums, spring and mineral water, tissues and sports (he has a significant shareholding in star cricket enterprise CCL apart from owning the team ‘Telugu Warriors’). Joshi recently forayed into luxury hotels by bringing Planet Hollywood hotel to Goa. Viiking is also producer of big ticket films like the Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer ‘Jazbaa’ and Ram Gopal Verma’s next, ‘The Secret’ among others.
With Qureshi on board as CCO, the Group now enters growing digital media and creative content market. Â A former editor of Stardust magazine, Entertainment Editor of Indiatimes.com and Editor-in-Chief of Zoom where his reviews show won awards.
Jaisurya Das: 10 Takeaways from the IAA Silver Jubilee Summit
By Jaisurya Das
The largest media and advertising Summit Kerala has ever hosted came to a close with lots of plaudits for its organisers. Here’s a doggy bag of takeaways from IAA India’s Silver Jubilee Summit
1. Brands are made by People, says Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India
2. The next big star will not be from Films & Television. He/She will undoubtedly be from the Digital World: Shah Rukh Khan
3. Focus on Solutions. Take that extra step. Don’t give up: Sachin Tendulkar
4. Advertising needs a new business model. A new world order is where you make money because you do good. Today’s marketing is about co-creation; tomorrow’s marketing is about co-action . Cindy Gallop, Founder and former Chair of BBH, USA and founder of the MakeLoveNotPorn, New York
5. Put your best in what you do and people reach out themselves to work for you: Ritesh Agarwal, 21-year-old founder of OYO Rooms
6. Think of relevance instead of disruption. Online Companies will have limited Reach. Only one can become #1: Fernando Ortiz-Ehmann, Senior Strategist, Saffron Brand Consultants, Madrid
7. Social is set to disrupt all that we believed is gospel in marketing . All the four Ps are set to be disrupted But social media cannot make your brand better: Simon Kemp, Regional Managing Director, We Are Social, Singapore
8. It’s not easy for an Indian company to build globally acceptable brands. Understanding the equity of tradition is critical: Sanjiv Puri, President FMCG, ITC Ltd
9. Engagement and conversation is the essence of a social network like Twitter: Parminder Singh, Managing Director, Twitter (South East Asia/ India/ MENA).
10. Content is no longer about newspapers and magazines. It’s about creating properties that are exclusive. It’s important to be in the Content Business and not the Advertising Business: Rahul Welde, Vice President – Media, Unilever Asia, Africa, Middle East, Turkey & Russia
This article first appeared in dna of brands dated September 7, 2015
Sanjeev Kotnala: Mini-AdAsia, only much better!
By Sanjeev Kotnala
The International Advertising Association India Chapter’s Silver Jubilee Summit ended at Kochi with a bang. It was almost like a mini-AdAsia, but with much better content. All sessions were rich in content and context. They referred often to global examples, but the talks were tailored to the Indian experience and relevance.
The tempo was set on the inaugural day by a much-appreciated session by Amitabh Kant, on Branding India. The format — banking on keynote speakers to deliver precise and focussed content, rather than have a panel discussion — was a huge success. A 50:50 mix of Indian and foreign speakers delivered engaging messages on ‘What’s coming next’, which was the theme of the summit.
The presentations that brought the house to attention were ‘Make your own change- designing the future you want’ by Cindy Gallop, founder of MakeLoveNotPorn; ‘Technology as an Aggregator’, by Parminder Singh, MD Twitter (SE Asia/India/MENA); ‘How programmatic works’ by Michel de Rjik, CEO Xasis Asia pacific and ‘Meet the Champion Disruptor’, a conversation with Ritesh Agarwal, Founder of OYO Rooms.
One must make special mention of Ralph Simon, Chairman and CEO, Mobilium Global Group who incorporated local nuances and current Indian topics (even delivered in Hindi) while speaking on ‘What’s coming next to brands and products through Mobile’.
In India, three things work the best: Cinema, cricket and politics/religion. The summit had elements of all three with sessions by Shah Rukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev.
Not to forget the mega-evening at Bolgatty Palace by Mathrabhumi. It was a provided a rich experience of Kerala culture, street cuisine and hospitality. Kudos to the IAA team for arranging lovely hotel packages and a reasonable delegation fee structure that ensured a lot of regular people – including students from Kerala — could attend. It was a pleasant surprise to find most of the sessions sticking to the time limit.
If I rank the summit a nine out of 10, rather than give it full marks, there are three reasons for it. First, because of the lack of effective Wifi access. Second, for cutting short many talks on Day 3 only to allow Arnab Goswami a lengthy session on ‘Why I chose to disrupt TV News’, which was already covered at Goafest. And third, for not inviting me to the Chill Room! 🙂
Sanjeev Kotnala is a senior media and marketing/brand strategy consultant. This article first appeared in dna of brands dated September 7, 2015
Two strikingly contrasting events highlighted the week that was. On Sunday, the season finale episode of TVF Pitchers went online. During the week that followed, BARC India conducted roadshows to share more information on rural ratings. I have written about both these topics here over the last few weeks, but their proximity in time is fascinating, even though it is purely coincidental.
TVF Pitchers achieved a major milestone by featuring on the IMDB Top 250 TV shows charts, where it is currently ranked no. 38, ahead of Friends, Dexter, House Of Cards, and the likes. The show has also received considerable, some would say disproportionate, attention from online media. One such article (by Quartz India) is headlined “How an Internet show on startups delivered a stinging blow to Indian TVâ€.
TVF Pitchers has watershed qualities to it, a lot more than its predecessor Permanent Roommates. The latter was a romcom, and while it differed from our regular television fare, it was not entirely unfamiliar, especially if you have seen some of the many Bollywood romcoms over the last decade.
But TVF Pitchers enters an area Indian entertainment has never been able to capture authentically – the corporate world. Barring an odd Rocket Singh, most films that have dabbled in this world have caricaturised it, none less than one that was called “Corporate†itself (in which a management trainee gets a cabin to herself, of a size that most CEOs would be envious of). In our TV serials, we hardly see offices anyway, and work is just an excuse to get the men out of the house.
TVF Pitchers manages to bring an authenticity of portrayal, in turn getting the appreciation of a fairly large corporate population of India, across industries. It is corporate but not elitist. It also does not have the shackles of censorship (or self-censorship) around it. It is just intelligent fun.
At about 2 million views per episode, the numbers speak for themselves. But the perspective of mass vs. niche should not be lost here. 2 million is less than 10% of the viewership of an episode of a typical hit Hindi TV show. And these are shows that have hundreds (often thousands) of episodes. We are talking of different degrees altogether.
But the 10% mark may just be the first step in a journey that the ‘parallel TV movement’ may have to make over the next five years. I say “TV†because that’s really what it will compete against. We would need more companies like TVFs and more shows in more genres to grow the market. There are a few others that already exist, but they lack the belief and confidence that shines through TVF Pitchers.
Our mainstream television couldn’t possibly care less about these developments. The rural ratings are round the corner, and the gap between the two worlds is bound to widen. But if the 10% number grows to even 20% over the next year or two, more advertisers, especially those targeting the bigger cities, will begin to evaluate their options. It’s “our kind of TV†after all.
But lest we should get carried away, every online show will not be a TVF Pitchers. And therein lies the real problem, the one of scalability.
Let’s see what the future has in store. Besides, of course, Permanent Roommates Season 2.
World Rugby has announced the appointment of Sony Six as Rugby World Cup 2015 rights holding broadcaster.
In a major boost for the visibility and development of rugby in a market where participation has grown by 33 per cent since 2011, Sony Six and Sont Kix will screen all 48 matches exclusively live along with daily highlights of all the action from rugby’s showcase event.
World Rugby Chief Executive Officer Brett Gosper said: “Rugby is on the rise in India and we are delighted to have secured such a strong platform for Rugby World Cup 2015 to reach new audiences across India and inspire the next generation of players and fans.
“We look forward to working in partnership with Sony Six to showcase Rugby, its character-building values and spirit of entertainment and enjoyment to record audiences within an exciting rugby growth market.â€
Prasana Krishnan
Prasana Krishnan, Business Head, Sony Six and Sont Kix commented: ‘‘The Rugby World Cup is seen as one of the most prestigious competitions in the global sporting calendar and we are proud to have this celebrated event in our bouquet of international content. Rugby as a sport is growing at a consistent clip and with that it’s our primary aim to raise our viewer experience to the next level. The raw nature of the sport will appeal to both our loyal and bench viewers alike.â€
World Rugby Head of Commercial, Broadcast and Marketing Murray Barnett added: “Working with the leading sports broadcaster in India underlines the Rugby World Cups global significance and adds to the record breaking roster of international broadcasters that will be taking the Rugby World Cup to the largest audience ever.â€
Rugby World Cup 2015 kicks off with hosts England versus Fiji at Twickenham on September 18, beginning a six-week event played across 13 iconic venues the length and breadth of England and Cardiff, culminating in the final at Twickenham on October 31.
Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication (PG), Pune hosted its annual Media Management Conclave on September 6, 2015. A part of the ‘Inspire Series,’ which is a series of lectures and events that celebrate the completion of 25 glorious years of academic excellence at SIMC, this event brought together some of the finest minds of the industry to discuss the theme ‘Navigating the Future Media Landscape.’
The speakers comprised eminent industry experts like Tanmay Mohanty, MD, Performics, Resultrix, Anil Fernandes, Associate Publisher, India Today, Atrayee Chakraborty, Managing CP Media Business, RedFuse Communications, MEC, Paritosh Joshi, Board of Governors, Media Research Users Council (MRUC), Ankit Desai, Head of Media & Digital Marketing, Marico India, Romil Ramgarhia, Chief Business Officer, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), Mallikarjun Das, CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group, and Vanita Keswani, COO, Madison Media Sigma.
The keynote speaker, Amit Ray, Founder Partner, Media First set the tone for the discussions of the day by delving into the current trends in the industry. The pervasive nature of digital and the growing power of the mobile phone emerged as some of the key insights from his talk. “There is a lot of work happening on mobile, which will make it the next big thing for advertising.†Elaborating on the importance of brands he said, “Today, brands are deciding the enterprise’s wealth. You (students) are here to support the creation of brands, because it is brands who create valueâ€
This interaction with the students was followed by the first panel discussion which included personalities such as Tanmay Mohanty, Anil Fernandes, and Atrayee Chakraborty. This panel deliberated on the topic ‘Drivers of Growth for Media Businesses.’ Building upon the trend highlighted by Amit Ray in his speech, Anil Fernandes said, “Digital is going to be the key driver of change as it reshapes the consumer’s purchase journey, and it will be aided by content and context.†Taking this discussion further, Atrayee Chakraborty said, “Create, optimize, promote, measure and analyze the contentâ€. Based on her observation of the current consumer, Atrayee put forth a very interesting take on digital, “I do not consider digital to be a media. It is a behaviour.â€
Tanmay Mohanty spoke about the changing platforms for reaching consumers. Emphasising it further, he said, “Tech companies are investing big time in understanding the consumer journey and behaviour.†Shedding light on the synergy between media and content, Anil Fernandes said, “Content is king. If media owners understand the relationship of their content with the media, they will definitely inch closer to change and growth.â€
This first panel was followed by a showcase wherein the second year MBA students from the Media Management cohort devised a ‘Tool Innovation’ for media agencies that could help them serve clients better. This showcase witnessed five teams presenting their creations before a panel of judges, comprising Romil Ramgarhia, Paritosh Joshi and Ankit Desai. These innovative ideas ranged from an influencer measurement tool, to testing the ability of content to go viral, as well as measurement of multiple screen usage. The winning team brought before the judges a tool that could comprehensively measure OOH advertising using GPS-enabled technology, while a team that created an application to digitally track radio listenership came a close second.
Steering the discussion to one of the most important phenomena in the industry today, the second panel brought together experts such as Paritosh Joshi, Ankit Desai, Romil Ramgarhia and Mallikarjun Das to discuss the topic, ‘The New face of Media Research & Analytics.’ Paritosh Joshi opened the floor for the second panel discussion by emphasizing the importance of understanding one’s audience. “It is not enough to know who my audience is, but also why my audience is what it is.”
The panel deliberated extensively on the adequate and efficient usage of data by media. “There’s a conflict between the mental model and the mathematical model. This is the conflict that all media planners face. Out of the 35-40,000 crore industry that we have, 55% is driven by gut feel.The same people who are willing to use gut feel for television, suddenly want nuclear-physics-level mathematics for digital,” said Mallikarjun Das The panelists unanimously voted for a platform-agnostic audience measurement tool to overcome the ‘tyranny of relative error’ as stated by Mallikarjun Das.
After the engaging conversation moderated by Mr Joshi, the conclave continued into the final panel discussion, that explored the topic ‘Talent Management: Changing Roles and Skillsets.’ The panelists included Mallikarjun Das and Vanita Keswani. On being asked for her views on the requirement of talent in the industry today, Vanita expressed, “We recommend the freshers to have an understanding of the basics of digital. Training of a structured kind is important, but on-the-job training is what you need in media. Today, a lot of what you’re learning here at SIMC and your internships is great.†In addition to this, Mallikarjun Das pointed out that future media professionals must ideally be planners, with a deep understanding of the industry, in order to bridge the gaps. He stressed on the fact that if students are trained in the worldview of media, they will be ready to work from day one.
The event lent the students a fresh perspective of the media management industry. The aspiring media managers had an opportunity to understand the multiple facets of this dynamic industry that would be instrumental in their careers.
I have criticised The Week That Wasn’t, the news parody show headlined by Cyrus Broacha and Kunal Vijaykar, several times in these columns. My main grouses were that their jokes were getting tired and they seemed to be swinging to the right – cutting back that is on criticism of Narendra Modi as both prime ministerial hopeful and now prime minister.
But I have to concede that their take-off on Arnab Goswami’s primetime debates is superb. Last week, we dealt of course with the Sheena Bora murder case with Broacha as Goswami yelling at his own panellists, waving papers and solving the case. My best bit however was the attention to detail: the Times Now “Burning Question†and the computer-generated flames that run across the screen in case viewers are too stupid to understand what “Burning Question†means. The Week That Wasn’t was spot on here. And yes, they did make a little gentle fun of the prime minister too…
**
While on Times Now, you have to commend their audacity. On and on they go, pretending that they are the chief investigators in the Sheena Bora murder case. More like the chief instigators. On Tuesday morning, the screen scrolls proudly declared that Times Now was “the only channel to confront key playersâ€. Really? Is that their job? If they are inside the investigation rooms, then they might as well broadcast that live as well. Wouldn’t we like to see Arnab Goswami competing with Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria on who can ask the best questions? Why let down your loyal viewership like this? The Nation Wants to Know!
**
The main competition to Times Now in the give-me-the-credit-for-everything game is India Today television where its chief anchors almost behaved as if they solved the One Rank One Pension standoff all by themselves. So dear boys, if you were actually at the negotiating table with the retired armed forces personnel and the government, why so coy? Come out and admit it and take all the credit. If you weren’t there, stop pretending that you are responsible, with your breaking news claims via Twitter.
It’s reached a stage with TV news where channels are overjoyed that they managed to type out a sentence of “breaking news†two seconds before they others. Now if only they were as happy when they manage to do that without spelling or grammatical errors…
**
I always wonder though how the two cheerleaders for the government on India Today TV deal with their So Sorry cartoon series which continues to make biting fun of all politicians, the esteemed members of the government included. Must be so hard to swallow…
**
Delhi journalism circles are all abuzz with the news that the senior journalist behind the anonymous Twitter handle @LutyensInsider will soon be revealed. The handle was in trouble after journalist Swati Chaturvedi not only reported it for vicious, personal abuse but also filed a police case. The Delhi police commissioner confirmed on Monday that the person had been identified and “strictest action†would soon be taken.
Chaturvedi was very brave because usually women just ignore troll attacks. But she felt this one went too far, accusing her of stalking a politician for sex. Not unexpectedly, the main support that @LutyensInsider got was from a rightwing blogger.
Chaturvedi is wisely not taking the name and shame route but we will soon know who it is, as soon as the police act.
**
The big news of the last week was that The Hindu is launching a Mumbai edition at last. And the editor of this new paper will be a good friend and current editor of Mid-Day, Sachin Kalbag. Congratulations to both!
The largest media and advertising Summit Kerala has ever hosted came to a close with lots of plaudits for its organisers. Here’s a doggy bag of takeaways from IAA India’s Silver Jubilee Summit
1. Brands are made by People, says Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India
2. The next big star will not be from Films & Television. He/She will undoubtedly be from the Digital World: Shah Rukh Khan
3. Focus on Solutions. Take that extra step. Don’t give up: Sachin Tendulkar
4. Advertising needs a new business model. A new world order is where you make money because you do good. Today’s marketing is about co-creation; tomorrow’s marketing is about co-action . Cindy Gallop, Founder and former Chair of BBH, USA and founder of the MakeLoveNotPorn, New York
5. Put your best in what you do and people reach out themselves to work for you: Ritesh Agarwal, 21-year-old founder of OYO Rooms
6. Think of relevance instead of disruption. Online Companies will have limited Reach. Only one can become #1: Fernando Ortiz-Ehmann, Senior Strategist, Saffron Brand Consultants, Madrid
7. Social is set to disrupt all that we believed is gospel in marketing . All the four Ps are set to be disrupted But social media cannot make your brand better: Simon Kemp, Regional Managing Director, We Are Social, Singapore
8. It’s not easy for an Indian company to build globally acceptable brands. Understanding the equity of tradition is critical: Sanjiv Puri, President FMCG, ITC Ltd
9. Engagement and conversation is the essence of a social network like Twitter: Parminder Singh, Managing Director, Twitter (South East Asia/ India/ MENA).
10. Content is no longer about newspapers and magazines. It’s about creating properties that are exclusive. It’s important to be in the Content Business and not the Advertising Business: Rahul Welde, Vice President – Media, Unilever Asia, Africa, Middle East, Turkey & Russia
This article first appeared in dna of brands dated September 7, 2015
In a bid to attract well-thought-through investments into the growing out-of-home category of ambient media, Ambient OOH has designed and launched a new path breaking research tool to drive away the advertisers’ woes. Ambient OOH, the ambient media agency under Dentsu Aegis Network’s Posterscope umbrella, has invested a substantial amount toward the crafting and development of this new research matrix.
Ambient media is all about capturing captive audiences who spend considerable amount of their leisure time at various active locations such as gyms, coffee shops, multiplexes, clubs, salons and shopping malls. Therefore, in a bid to develop the new tool, Ambient OOH took the help of Dentsu Aegis Network’s proprietary research study – the Outdoor Consumer Survey (OCS) that aided in analysing the target audience touch-points.
Ambit Analyser, the new tool, is India’s only fool proof ambient media planning mechanism that helps craft a rationalized multi touch-point plan across more than 24 dwell time locations that house captive audiences. Also, given Ambit Analyser’s system design, the plans can be fashioned within much lesser time and with more accuracy.
As part of the development process of Ambit Analyser, Ambient OOH graded each property across the various touch points on multiple factors including footfalls, trade density, ticket pricing and thus, arrived at a visibility index. It is important to note here that the tool has been linked to the OCS, which has a sample size of 12,000 respondents. It has also incorporated the data for 24 touch-points across metros, mini metros and tier 2 cities.
Ashish Bhasin, ‎Chairman & CEO South Asia Dentsu Aegis Network, Chairman Posterscope and psLive – Asia Pacific said, “Posterscope’s Ambient OOH has done pioneering work in developing Ambient Analyser. Ambient media is becoming extremely important and has very little research and tools available. So, in keeping with Dentsu Aegis Network’s leadership status in OOH, we felt that the time was right to make this large investment in a proprietary tool, the only one of its kind in India.â€
Haresh Nayak, ‎Regional Director, Posterscope Asia Pacific. & Managing Director, Posterscope Group India said, “Ambient OOH is the future and, with the growth of digital and technology in this space, it will lead to accountable and engaging communication with the consumer in a relaxed mind frame. Ambit Analyser is one such initiative to give our clients a first of its kind, accountable and impactful campaign, leading to physical and digital engagement.â€
Deepak Kumar, Vice President, Ambient OOH, “Currently, ambient media in India is extremely fragmented and diverse in nature. And with no comparative data to fall back on, each media owner claims to be the best. Simultaneously, advertisers are constantly pressing on media effectiveness and efficient ROI. Hence, there was a need for transparency and accountability for advertisers to have trust on the ambient media touch-points.â€
India.com has announced the launch of iReach; an innovative Data Management Platform with 40 million unique users powered by first party cookie data. With its unique data management platform, iReach collects, organizes and activates valuable audience data from India.com group websites across the web and mobile platforms. iReach aims to create specific audience segments with its rich first party cookie data, so that advertisers get guaranteed audience targeting for their media campaigns on the IWPL network.
The platform will empower advertisers to specifically target over 40 million users, categorized into 300 plus audience categories. The advertisers will be able to choose segments based on these specific pre-curated categories, iReach will also empower them to create custom audience segments to meet the unique targeting requirements of their brand. Â Some of the major audience segments are: computer & technology, food & beverages, travel, automobiles, sports, shopping, finance, business & money, health buffs etc.
Commenting on the launch of the platform, Sandeep Amar, Chief Operating Officer at India.com said, “The display revenues are moving into data across the world, first party cookie data is creating great value for clients. The current buying in India is happening at site level to reach desired target audiences, which is not a very scientific process. The first party cookie DMP is the best option as it allows you to target audiences, which are potential buyers of your products/services. Third party cookie data cannot be trusted as it does not have a clear source, high quality publisher DMPs are clearly the best options. iReach will allow advertisers to reach out to right target audiences on India.com sites, Google Display Network and FB exchange – so now target users rather than target sites.â€
A glimpse from the streetfood festival hosted by Mathrubhumi group on Day 2 of the Summit
By Jaisurya Das
Shah Rukh Khan, Mammooty, Sachin Tendulkar, Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev and earthy crooner Papon topped with pyrotechnics and Kappa – Meen Curry and you have glitz, glamour and intrigue like never before.
Kerala – God’s Own Country – played host last week to over 700 Delegates from all over the country at the Silver Jubilee Summit of the International Advertising Association India Chapter. An eclectic mix of international speakers, top-notch professionals, academicians and students did the audience proud at every session.
Srinivasan K Swamy, IAA India President, welcomed delegates while Faris Abouhamad, Global President and IAA chairman and Pradeep Guha, Summit Chairman & Area Director IAA Asia Pacific, gave their short and crisp Introductions to the Silver Jubilee Summit.
The sheer diverse plethora of eminent speakers (that includes the glam world) who spoke at the Summit rendered it Unique . Srinivasan Swamy and Pradeep Guha gushed about the immense response they got.
While Cindy Gallop (Founder & Former Chair of BBH, USA and founder of MakeLoveNotPorn ) explained the need of a new world order, Paul McCarthy, author of Online Gravity, outlined how gravity giants attracted huge investments . Undoubtedly a reality that was seconded by Abhay Pandey, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital. Simon Kemp, Regional MD, ‘We Are Social’, Singapore, was emphatic about how social will disrupt all the fundamentals of the marketing mix. We would imagine it already has, Simon. We are still trying to find the method in the madness called social!
That’s probably why Sanjiv Puri, President – FMCG, ITC Ltd, felt that building globally acceptable brands wasn’t easy. Understanding the equity of tradition is the essence, remarked Puri.
A meaty day met its match when the Mathrubhumi group took over the evening and ferried the entire lot of delegates to the boat jetty at Marine Drive. Half-hour later, the boats approached what seemed like an enchanted island. It was Bolgatty, resplendent with exquisite lights and the resonance of the unmistakeable ‘Chhenda , the Traditional Drum.
The overcast skies came alive with the startling pyrotechnics, much like the famed ‘ Trichur Pooram ‘ where neighbouring temples symbolically compete with each other using fireworks. This festival incidentally attracts visitors from across the globe. Â More often than once it is the fireworks and the majestic elephants that has the audience spellbound, year after year.
Malayalam film icon Mammooty stole everyone’s heart with his inimitable baritone intonation and sheer presence. Street food in Kerala has its own charm, and the Bolgatty Island came alive with food stalls , picklesellers and the like. All that was served was homecooked or made right there , making it even more authentic and rich in flavour and tradition. Shreyams Kumar of Mathrubhumi played a perfect host and ensured every one was taken care of well.
The third and final day of the Summit was a mixed bag of glamour, intrigue and emotion what with Sachin Tendulkar, Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, Arnab Goswami etc sharing their experiences and views on ‘What’s Coming Next’.
Tendulkar was his calm, composed self, in conversation with Prasoon Joshi. He talked about how a good advertisement could help him in addition to the brand and how he respected his father’s wishes and refused all tobacco and liquor ads. “Let the country talk about the past innings, you think about the next,” he said. ” Take that extra step, don’t give up” was his positive advise to all. The master blaster and Prasoon Joshi handed over the stage to the ever-charismatic spiritual leader Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev.
His deep voice and incisive views enthralled the audience. “Why create the ghost, fight with it most of your life, and then win over it,” remarked Vasudev. Â “Success is Joy. ” he said while advising the audience to be positive in life.
Rahul Welde, Vice President-Media , Unilever Asia, Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Russia, was lucid in his talk focussed on the power of custom content. “Don’t be in the advertising business. Be in the content business,” he said with passion. Custom content is the future where speed is the new currency.
One also saw the likes of 21-year-old Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, OYO Rooms, in conversation with Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison. Sameer Nair, the man who brought Koun Banega Crorepati and Amitabh Bachhan to the small screen, and currently Group CEO, Balaji Telefilms, talked about how word of mouth is now word of social!
The Chief Minister of Kerala Oommen Chandy was all praise for the IAA for having brought the Summit to Kerala. This, Chandy said, was the largest advertising conference to be held in the State.
The Summit ended with Arnab Goswami talking about how his breed of journalism is disruptive. “You have to be like a pin prick for the society to change.” remarked the Newshour man.
Kerala will indeed a special place in many hearts, be it the Kappa and Meen Curry or the diverse energy that came together for this Summit.
The Top stories for Week 35, 2015 saw a High Profile Sheena Bora alleged murder case with former media owner Indrani  Mukerjea as one of the accused, along with the news based on demand of reservation by the Patel community in Gujarat. The Sheena Bora case was given a high priority in terms of coverage (26% of overall content), whereas the Patel reservation case received 6% share in coverage. This was determined by analysis done by the S-Group of TAM Media Research.
The PATEL Reservation was the prime focus in the beginning of Week 35, 2015. But, as soon as the Sheena Bora case saw the light of the day, news channels started covering it more heavily.
In Week 35, Hindi News Genre witnessed highest biewership on 25th and  26 August, where Patel Reservation case reached its peak and the Sheena Bora case news had just broken.
The Sheena Bora case was dedicated 30% duration and hence benefitted as it received 38% of all the viewership on English news channels, whereas on Hindi news channels, it was given 22% coverage and it received only 20% of all the viewership.
Sheena Bora case received a reach of 28%, whereas Patel reservation case received 24% sampling levels on the Hindi News Channels. (Hindi News – TG : CS 15+ ; Market : HSM)
News X and Times Now covered the Sheena Bora case most heavily. NDTV 24×7 on the other hand dedicated the least time to both the top stories with 23% duration as compared to the genre average of 34%, which slipped to 5th position in this week (from 3rd position in the last week)
Within the English news genre, Times Now gained maximum viewership on the coverage of the Sheena Bora News owing to the leading News Anchor – Arnab Goswami who contributed to 49% of the Viewership with reference to other Anchors on Times Now.
Considering the high interest levels shown by news channels in the Sheena Bora case it would be interesting to see if their focus remains unchanged in the coming week.
And while we are not having any major celebrations, it is important that we don’t forget this milestone.
On September 9, 2011, on the auspicious day of Onam, MxMIndia was born.
With a clear vision, but with dollops of idealism. We wanted to be a B2B media publication, but we didn’t want to link advertising with editorial content.
All our employees needed to agree to a set of Code of Ethics. Our columnists and staff reporters have always had a free hand to write whatever they wish to, as long as they are doing it with responsibility. And this MxMIndia vouches for.
Consequently, we have had to suffer a loss of revenue. Many advertisers blacked us out. Some still do.
Our response. Â We re-engineered ourselves. We don’t depend on advertisers for our bottomline.
In Year 2 and 3 of our operations we looked at syndicating our content to earn revenues. Some of the world’s largest media companies inked a pact with us to source our content. Because they trusted us. They know that we will not compromise on content just because a certain company is a regular advertiser. Yes, there have been occasions where we may have erred in our judgment, but it was not definitely not with revenues in mind.
We are profitable, month-on-month, but we are still paying back some old dues. So to those naysayers that you can’t run a business without compromising on content, here’s proof that it’s possible to do things the Right Way.
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We don’t want to blow our trumpets on this day. Though we would love to. And have some reason to do so.
We wish to rededicate ourselves to our readers. Yes, we need to take care of our stakeholders, we need to service and solicit advertisers, but our primary allegiance is to our Readers.
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Sincere thanks to all those who have been associated with MxMIndia since 2011. To our advertisers and benefactors who have believed in us. Thank you, each and every one of you!
By Jaisurya Das
By Sanjeev Kotnala
By Shailesh Kapoor
By Ranjona Banerji
