MxMIndia

Category: NEWS

  • The site itself has been trying to tell advertisers that if they want scale, they'll have to shell out the hard cash for offerings like "sponsored stories", not to be confused with "sponsored ads"

    Can Facebook, the marketer’s online best friend ever become its ace salesman?

    By Delshad Irani & Ravi Balakrishnan

     

    In 2009, Facebook terminated the ‘Whopper Sacrifice’, Burger King’s social experiment cum marketing activation. Created by Crispin Porter Bogusky, the campaign’s premise was the more ties you sever the closer you get to your BK Whopper. The application as it turned out was a whopping success.

     

    Within a week 200,000 ‘friends’ were virtually burned out of existence from various lists. Facebook couldn’t handle the loss of those hard-earned friendships. Burger King, on the other hand, proved the point it set out to make – Americans sure do love their burgers. That same year, Swedish furniture giant Ikea spent practically nothing to create a campaign to promote its newest store.

     

    The agency Forsman & Bodenfors created a new Facebook account for the manager at the store in the city of Malmo and posted catalogue pictures of furnished rooms.

     

    Users could win furniture and other items in the photos if they beat their friends to the punch. All they needed to do was tag the pieces with their names first. Needless to say the prospect of first-to-tag-wins drove Facebookians crazy. The campaign was hassle-free, cheap and effective, just like the Scandinavian furniture it was advertising.

     

    Fast-forward to a few weeks ago. General Motors, the world’s fourth-largest advertiser and spender of $3.9 billion globally on advertising in 2010, haunted by questions related to effectiveness and ROI, pulled out its pretty penny, all $10 million of it, from Facebook’s paid-ad kitty just days before the social network’s stock went public.

     

    In addition to that sum, the automaker spends a reported $30 million on content creation for social media. These examples make Baccarat-crystal clear what we know already – you don’t have to pay big to make an impact via social media.

     

    In India, most marketers love talking about the worth of a campaign by the number of fans, or likes received on the most recent post. But even they are starting to ask a tricky question: what’s the real worth of their campaigns on Facebook? Worth more than a burger, eh?

     

    The site itself has been trying to tell advertisers that no longer will mere presence and innovative social media campaigns cut it. If they want scale, they’ll have to shell out the hard cash for offerings like “sponsored stories”, not to be confused with “sponsored ads”.

     

    For instance, products like Reach Generator guarantee that posts by a brand stand to be seen by 75 per cent of its fans every month or an estimated 50 per cent every week. Non users of the tool will have to settle for an average of only 16 per cent of fans viewing posts on a weekly basis. Not everyone’s buying though, believing that compelling content will win any day of the week.

     

    Anuradha Aggarwal, senior VP, brand communication and insights, Vodafone India said: “Since having high engagement scores is our goal, we focus on creating content on our Facebook page rather than on advertising. We focus on creating posts and apps to enable our 3.2 million fans to create conversations and experiences around the brand.”

     

    PepsiCo’s approach is to use a combination of both, posts/promotions on brand pages and display advertising. One of the cola maker’s prominent campaigns on the site was ‘Meet Messi in Miami’ where fans had to complete a series of tasks to win a chance to meet The Atomic Flea.

     

    During the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, Pepsi launched an online progamme as part of the ‘Change the Game’ campaign where fans could win a dream trip across the country for all India matches. The latter initiative was listed as one of the 19 best campaigns in the world by Facebook on their success stories blog, the only Indian effort to feature on the page.

     

    According to Homi Battiwalla, category director – colas, hydration and mango based beverages, PepsiCo India, it is too early to give a conclusive opinion on new advertising properties like sponsored stories and other offers. So the bottom line when it comes to the marketing on the social network is the game hasn’t quite changed. “The primary focus remains on organic content as we believe it results in better consumer connect,” said Mr Battiwalla.

     

    For automakers like Mahindra & Mahindra, Facebook is good for what it was born to do in the first place. Well, that and to spy on “old acquaintances”. According to Vivek Nayer, senior VP, marketing, automotive division, Mahindra & Mahindra: “Rather than looking at Facebook for advertising reach, we’ve leveraged it for what the platform is inherently good at; building communities. Today at 5 million, we are the largest automotive community on Facebook in India”

     

    In the case of Unilever, the company moved from almost accidentally stumbling on the power of the site – after noting a lot of action on its first Cornetto Luv Reels page long after the promotion was over – to it being a key pillar to the launch of Fruttare, its new range for the summer. Sapan Sharma, general manager – ice creams, Hindustan Unilever, said: “There’s an advertiser login where you get all the details. In the first 10 days of launch, 1.2 lakh fans signed up and there were 1.2 to 1.5 lakh conversations.”

     

    Arch-rival P&G is not lagging either. According to a company spokesperson: “In just less than two months, we have over 690,000 fans for our Thank You, Mom campaign. This makes it the largest, most engaged-with Thank You, Mom community globally.” For the launch of Olay’s premium skin care range, Olay Regenerist, a Facebook waiting list was created, with both fashion journalists and consumers signing up for an exclusive trial on the site; in less than three weeks, over 11,400 people had registered.

     

    But as the eight-year-old Facebook enters a new league as a listed company, it needs to, and rather urgently, scale its revenues to sync with its audience. Minute, often ineffective, right-rail ads aren’t exactly a juicy bone to dangle in front of existing and potential advertisers; thus the introduction of premium ads and better placement.

     

    According to Siddhart Rao, CEO of digital agency Webchutney, the sweet spot between organic and paid promotion is the one that will yield maximum benefit to brands looking to extract value from social media marketing platforms like Facebook. “One cannot work without the other,” he said.

     

    S Yesudas, managing director – Indian subcontinent, Vizeum, said: “I do not think all marketers know what to expect from the medium. The hurry to be on to the bandwagon gets them there. The fact that Facebook offers free advertising inventory for brands to test the medium gets overlooked. In my opinion, the medium can be successfully used to build relationships with the consumers.

     

    Targeting can be done based on profile information, relationship status, interest or based on certain words in profiles or status messages. But the truth is the brand communication will always compete with the updates, videos, etc from friends.”

     

    Indeed, it’s complicated; the relationship between advertisers and Facebook. Especially when one moves from the fluffy world of engagement to hard sales. Many retailers in the West like JC Penney, Gamestop and Gap pulled the shutters on their stores on Facebook this February.

     

    Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer – founder – MD, BC Web Wise said: “Ironically Wade

    Gerten, the founder of 8thBridge – the flower store that was responsible for the coinage of the term F-commerce as it was the first to open shop on Facebook for 1,800 Flowers – has admitted that sales never really materialised for their first or other F-outlets, adding that F-commerce deserved an F. Given the fact that F-commerce (Facebook commerce) has failed in the west for retailers, it appears that Facebook would be an engagement vehicle. Peer recommendation and product ratings are not integrated. Should it launch a brand intelligence tool which can be used by consumers – which exposes peer comments and recommendations that can be accessed by the FB community – then the ball game will change.”

     

    Venkat Mallik – president, Tribal DDB & Rapp India says Facebook’s ability to deliver sales impact has been a bit of a mixed bag: “There need to be more strong case studies demonstrating the sales or brand impact from the use of Facebook led engagement.”

     

    However while Facebook may not itself be a platform to sell it can impact sales according to some of its satisfied customers. Unilever’s Mr Sharma for instance believes there’s a definite co-relation between high levels of engagement and products sold.

     

    According to Carlton D’Silva, chief creative officer, Hungama Digital Media, “Opinions of family and friends matter when making purchase decisions decisions and Facebook activity will provide a lot of data to consumers, which can be leveraged in places where they make these decisions, causing a significant, if not direct impact on purchase behaviour.”

     

    “GM is slashing its advertising budgets by $ 2 billion, of this only $10 million or 0.5 per cent was on Facebook. They have also announced they won’t advertise on Super Bowl, either. Further, what should be noted is that GM has 8 million fans already. I am sure that they are going to continue with the engagement plans for acquired fans. It would be foolish to assume anything beyond, or assume Facebook has failed for GM, it would be just that advertising further is currently not the best bet in its media plan,” said Ms Aiyer

     

    The users of Facebook both on the agency and the marketer side each have their wishlist ready.

     

    “The analytics are available at a lag of 7 to 15 days; I’m sure it can come earlier. I’m sure there will be a time when we can talk to people from a specific city or market,” said Mr Sharma

     

    “They are hugely data rich. If in some way they get to using some of the data millions of people put in their hands on a minute to minute basis, sky will be the limit for them.This will surely come in with resistance from the users, unless they persuade them. They have to walk this path very carefully,” added Mr Yesudas.

     

    Most brands have a clear agenda from marketing spends on social media platforms like Facebook – greater outreach among target audiences through personalised interaction and engagement, leading to higher impact on conversions and sales.

     

    “It’s a perfectly reasonable expectation from a social communication platform with 900 million members,” said Mr Rao of Webchutney, “but whether brands invest enough thought, time, resources and action to engage audiences meaningfully is another question.” And one helluva question it is. Because for every whopper of a Scandinavian success story, there are at least a dozen marketing campaigns that have fallen flat on their face. So, ask not what you can do on Facebook but what Facebook can do for you.

     

    Source: The Economic Times
    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

  • Firstpost.com has come up with its first ever campaign on television. The new TVC braces the viewer to the reality that newspapers and the planet are under siege.

    Contract creates a cliche-free TVC for FirstPost

    By A Correspondent

     

    Firstpost.com, a digital newsroom and an advocate of ‘participation’ accompanying the breaking news process has debuted a new campaign with a television commercial which is set to change the way the world perceives news, or rather newspapers.

     

    While habits suggest people are moving to the internet more often to seek news, the perception of reading news is still dominated by ‘the morning newspaper’, which does provide news, but effectively a day late.

     

    The new campaign for Firstpost.com, devised by Contract Advertising, depicts what Firstpost is set out to achieve was simply to reach out to a larger audience. In the one year of its existence, digital natives had already taken a liking to this newsroom on the web and spurred the level of participation by actively engaging with Firstpost on a regular basis. However, the challenge was to take Firstpost to internet users who still thought of the ‘morning newspaper’, whenever they thought of ‘news’. The objective was to get people turn to Firstpost.com for their dose of news and opinion on the web or any mobile medium for that matter.

     

    Explaining Firstpost’s commitment to digital journalism, Durga Raghunath, VP Products and Exec News Producer, Firstpost said: “The news has moved beyond a static newspaper. The idea was to make readers entirely rethink their view of news as-it-happens. Therefore, the lines around reading news a day late. Contract, of course, has taken this spirit and made a stunning ad, whose concept is adorable.”

     

    While Firstpost.com has its dedicated following, the task was to migrate newspaper readers to Firstpost, explained Ravi Deshpande, Chief Creative Officer, Contract Advertising: “We wanted to get regular newspaper readers interested in the Firstpost. And we needed to do that in the most persuasive and effective way since reading a newspaper first thing in the morning is a hard habit to beat.We also wanted to avoid cliches such as our reporting is better or unbiased etc when we planned the communication. We focus on the fact that you not only help protect our only planet  when you consume news in digital platform but you also help yourself get the news as it happens. You don’t really have to wait for 24 hours to learn about the news”.

     

    Mapping out the approach, he said: “We were pretty sure that once they were there, the product itself would hook them. After all, Firstpost is a truly international news product from Indiathat has not been an offshoot of a traditional newspaper attempting to replicate itself online.

     

    Right from the word go, it has been designed to cater to the needs of people on the move. It enables a dialogue, not a monologue. Challenging newspapers would have to be done at a poetic level. Thus, the direction we’ve taken in the film is to display the terrible loss of trees that the planet goes through. We wanted to cue how people could read news fast on Firstpost.com without hurting the planet. While personally I feel reading a newspaper in the morning is rather romantic, the shift to digital is inevitable.”

     

    On aspects of execution he added “We wanted the execution of the film to serve up total honesty, total reality… that’s why we showed nothing fictional when it came to the process of deforestation, whereby trees get cut, transformed into pulp and ultimately into newspapers that serve up news that’s already a day old. The music we chose was an authentic country/folk song, that helped us present irony in an entertaining way, it kept the drama going till the commercial makes its statement about exhorting you to move to the digital platform.”

     

    TVC Credits
    Chief Creative Officer: Ravi Deshpande
    Creative Director: Ravi Deshpande
    Copywriter: Ravi Deshpande & Sahar
    Art Director: Ravi Deshpande & Salil Sojwal
    Account Management: Arjun Sengupta ,Anish and Namrata
    Production House: Day Dreamers
    Director: Bosco
    Producer: Deepti & Kautul
    Agency producer: Ketaki Guhagarkar

     

     

  • With Airtel’s entry, mobile advertising will get the much-needed fillip and advertisers a better medium for targeted selling

    Dial ‘M’ for Mobile & Money!

     

    By Tuhina Anand

     

    Bharti Airtel’s foray into mobile advertising or m-advertising opens up immense possibility in this space for a country likeIndiawhere mobile penetration is much higher than internet. Also the hand held device is something personal which many have the habit of checking frequently, hence the assurance that if a message is sent, the chances of it getting noticed is much higher.

     

    There are players who have been trying to explore this territory for a while but the limitation has been that they are all third party players and would need support of a telco. With Airtel’s entry, this space will get the much needed fillip and advertisers a better medium of targeted advertising.

     

    Airtel, being a leading telecom player, has the advantage of huge database and they can facilitate a targeted and customized communication for potential consumers. Mohit Beotra, Head, Emerging Business, Bharti Airtel Ltd, said: “Our perspective on mobile advertising is straight forward. We can help in targeting the right kind of customers based on the analytics. We have access to data that can help in increasing the effectiveness of a campaign. There is an opportunity for the marketers and our customers and we can help in facilitating that dialogue to reach to the right kind of people.”

     

    He added: “While we would like to open eyes to the kind of opportunity that m-advertising has for the marketers, we would also like to help them in constructing effective campaigns for them on this platform.”

     

    Airtel has a three-year deal with Mogae Digital, a company owned co-owned by Sandeep and Tanya Goyal, to be its sole and exclusive monetization partner. They will sell advertising solutions on behalf of Airtel and also drive marketing reach for the telecom giant. While it is estimated that mobile advertising will grow by more than 40 per cent in the next few years inIndia, Mr Beotra stated that these are merely figures floating around and one can’t surely put a number to it. However, he is sure that Airtel’s revenue from this venture would be significant in the coming years.

     

    A recent example of m-advertising is the launch of Life OK channel by Star which allowed the channel to target the viewers just hours before the launch as the message flashed on their screens when one finished their call thus helping in targeting the right consumers in the right place.

     

    Giving his take on Airtel’s move, V Balasubramanium, Chief Knowledge Officer & Director, Rainman Consulting, said: “It will be a catalyst for growth rather than re-defining m-advertising. It will help the m-advertising category to grow as telco companies can use the rich consumer behaviour insights they possess for an effective connect. As the effectiveness grow through their ablility to target the right consumer with the right message, then naturally more brands would flock in to this medium. This, I see, is a good start and I am sure the same will be explored by more companies. But the secret of success is how well you use your consumer intelligence from the existing data. Innovative analytics will thus play a big role for its success and that will be heart to success! As companies latch on to that then success is near the corner.”

     

    Sharon Aneja, Director, Earned Innovation & Business Head West, SMG Digital pointed out that for any one who is into the business of brand building, the real handicap is lack of information. If one has data, then half the battle is already won. She said: “Today, there is a need to get people interested at various points of purchase funnel and the communication should not stop once he or she reaches the shop floor. M-advertising can help in getting people more interested in the product even before the purchase decision is made. By taking a lead, Airtel has taken the industry leader position and set a precedent for others to follow in quality messaging and point advertising.”

     

    Ms Aneja feels that the move will open new doors, however the challenge is how one finds interesting ways to use that data. Having worked in theUKusing mobile advertising, she pointed that while the data protection rules are stringent there, the brands have used m-advertising to explore personalized messaging and targeted reach. She added: “I think in India, since it’s still the beginning of mobile advertising, one has seen a limitation in terms of offering which usually revolves around the WAP service. This however will change as technology comes into play. Also as the purchase funnel has changed, brands need to have several touch points to let the consumer experience and know more on the product. Something like location advertising would help on the mobile platform.”

     

    “The real opportunity also lies with the untapped reach which m-advertising can open up. This will give brands and marketers unprecedented reach to communicate to rural consumers which hitherto has been a challenge,” concluded Ms Aneja.

     

    Airtel’s m-advertising will be in compliance with TRAI regulation and would not reach those who have opted for DND. As Mr Beotra pointed that their customer base is huge and those on DND is not such a big number, hence in no way would those numbers affect the reach of Airtel’s m-advertising. However, the move has definitely opened up a new channel for advertisers who are pressed in today’s time to grab the attention of their consumers, both existing and potential in the cluttered market.

    Imaging: Rafiq (images: Microsoft Clipart)

     

  • Ex-Google industry veteran charged with leading Havas Digital’s search responsibilities

    Havas Digital names Alan Boughen SVP Global Search Director

    By A Correspondent

     

    Havas Digital, the umbrella group that manages all of Havas Media’s digital assets, including interactive media group Media Contacts, mobile marketing specialist Mobext, and creative interactive network Archibald Ingall Stretton, amongst others, announced that ex-Google advertising Search expert, Alan Boughen has been named SVP, Global Search Director, effective immediately.

     

    Based in London, and reporting directly to Rob Griffin, EVP Global Director of Product Development, Mr Boughen is charged with managing and developing the Search product within the agency. Mr Boughen will be managing Havas Digital’s search partners and building stronger relationships with the agency’s global clients, with a strong focus on continued development of search services and teams.

     

    Mr Boughen joins Havas Digital from Google where he was a Global Agency Business Leader. He was responsible for managing Google’s strategy and relationships with some of the world’s largest media and advertising agency networks.

    Prior to joining Google in March 2008, Mr Boughen spent over 7 years in senior search marketing roles at WPP companies in the UK and US. Mr Boughen launched and led the US operations of NeoSearch@Ogilvy, the search marketing division of Ogilvy’s digital and direct media global network, where he managed a large team of search marketing experts running SEM campaigns for Ogilvy’s Fortune 1000 clients.

     

    Before working in search marketing, Mr Boughen held positions with AIG and Whirlpool where he gained a background in information technology, business analysis and project management.

     

    “The search landscape is evolving at an extremely fast pace and advertisers are demanding more sophisticated solutions in order to stay relevant. In order to meet the needs and requirements of our clients, we need best in class tools and the most knowledgeable professionals. We have known Alan for a long time, and we are convinced he will add a new level of strategic leadership to the team, and will help define our Search capabilities going forward,” said Mr Griffin.

    Mr Boughen added: “I look forward to becoming a part of the Havas Digital team. By combining my search experience with the advanced search capabilities of Havas Digital, I will ensure all of our clients get the results they’ve come to expect.”

  • The two will produce 'Sitaara,' a reality TV search for South India's next top actress

    Mahesh Bhupathi’s GloboSport now into Reality TV

    By Sangeetha Kandavel

     

    Photon Kathaas Productions, a movie production company in which Oscar winner AR Rahman and film director Gautham Menon are advisors, is foraying into TV content and has tied up with tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi’s GloboSport for the same.

     

    The two will produce ‘Sitaara,’ a reality TV search for South India’s next top actress. The show will be produced in all four South Indian languages (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam).

     

    This was stated in a Photon Kathaas statement released on LSE’s AIM exchange, where it is listed. The statement quoted the company’s CEO Venkat Somasundaram as saying, “It is a clear example of our stated objective of producing and exploiting a diverse portfolio of South Indian content across multiple formats and languages.””

     

    The production for this show is expected to start in second half of 2012 and would go live in early 2013. India is estimated to have about 200 million TV households, roughly a third of which are based in South India.

     

    Photon Kathaas Production is the brainchild of Tamil film director Gautham Vasudev Menon and has music director AR Rahman as a creative advisor. The company also has producer Michael Rosenberg as its chairman. It was established in 2009.

     

    Source: The Economic Times
    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • Following its new mandate, the Executive Committee of AFAA has planned out a slew of initiatives that would be rolled out in the months ahead

    AFAA plans new initiatives in the region

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA) held their first executive committee meeting atKuala Lumpuron May 22. The newly elected chairman of AFAA Pradeep Guha said: “There was a sense of purpose and urgency at the meeting.” Following its new mandate, the Executive Committee of AFAA has planned out a slew of initiatives that would be rolled out in the months ahead.

     

    The first one is a skills re-orientation initiative that would be held in September inKuala Lumpurwhere young professionals would be exposed to a program that has been carefully crafted keeping in mind the needs of the profession. The Advertising Council of India (ACI) which representsIndiaon the AFAA International Council would be setting in motion a process to send three young professionals representing advertising, media and marketing respectively to attend this program.

     

    There would be a master class conducted by senior professionals with 30 students from countries all overAsia. This would provide a unique cross-cultural flavour to the program which would benefit the participants enormously.

     

  • NCAER MasterCard Worldwide Index of Business Confidence Study reflects stability in business sentiments and cautious outlook of the business sector

    Rise in Business Confidence Index after 5 quarters

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Business Confidence Index in Indiais showing signs of improvement after five consecutive quarters in March 2012 according to the latest NCAER (National Council of Applied Economic Research) MasterCard Worldwide Index of Business Confidence. The 80th NCAER MasterCard Worldwide Index of Business Confidence is based on a survey which measures business confidence on four indicators.

     

    They include overall economic conditions six months from now, financial position of firms six months from now, investment climate and level of current capacity utilization. All four indicators carry equal weight. The Index is released every quarter.

     

    The Business Confidence Index (BCI) increased by 7.7 per cent over the previous quarter to 134.9 points from 125.2 points in January 2012. The rise in the Index indicates an increase in the investor confidence and expectation, irrespective of a global slump and high inflation rates. The Index also registered improvement in business environment for the first time since January 2011.

     

    The study reflects stability in business sentiments and cautious outlook of the business sector. This change in business sentiments is backed by a number of changes that have taken place on both domestic and global front during the last quarter of FY 2011/12. While moderation in economic growth rates persisted, inflation rate also moderated and the food grain harvest in 2011-12 has been at a record level.

     

    “NCAER MasterCard Worldwide Index of Business Confidence shows some significant changes in the economy during the quarter ending March 2012. After a dip in 2011, the index showed positive business sentiments during this time period. In light of the current challenging economic environment, the next quarter index will be worth watching. The study continues to provide great insights on the key factors that affect the business and political environment in India.” said TV Seshadri, Division President,South Asiaand Country President India, MasterCard Worldwide.

     

    “It’s encouraging to see how the economy is recovering from the slump. The investors are regaining confidence and there is a positive outlook which has impacted this quarters result,” noted Dr. Shashanka Bhide, Senior Research Counselor, NCAER.

     

    An analysis of the four indicators revealed an improvement in three out of four components of BCI over the previous quarter. Among the three, the largest improvement is in the case of present investment climate.

     

    The survey focuses on trends within firm-specific business outlook indicators and also includes a Political Confidence Index (PCI) and a special section on Expectations and Evaluation of Union Budget 2012-13. The latest survey was conducted in March 2012 and received 528 responses. The data was collected through personal interviews and questionnaires sent to a diverse range of businesses across various regions inIndia. The Index and its accompanying report do not represent MasterCard financial performance.

     

    Sector wise, analysis of BCI, revealed a marked improvement across all major sectors except consumer non-durables sector. Four of five major sectors of the economy reveal improvement in business sentiments. The consumer non-durables sector shows a decline where BCI slipped 4.8 per cent from 142.7 in January 2012 to 135.8 now.

     

    An improvement in business sentiments is seen in the present round of survey, the highest optimism level being registered by firms in intermediate sector where BCI has jumped up by 14.5 per cent followed by services sector (134.5), capital goods sector (138.6) and consumer durables sector (135.8) with 7.2 per cent, 6 per cent and 4.2 per cent growth, respectively. Although business sentiments in consumer non-durables sector show decline, at the same time it exhibits the second most optimistic BCI among all sectors after capital goods sector.

     

    According to the findings, business sentiments across all the regions reflect fair degree of uniformity in perceptions. Among four regions, three have registered improvement in business sentiments in the present survey. North has registered the highest improvement while South shows marginal fall over the previous quarter. Overall, the survey reflects improved business sentiments in all regions except South where although the present situation has improved, firms are still not sure about changes in the short run future.

     

    On the whole, expectations with respect to overall economic conditions and to some extent financial position seem to remain the main issues of concern for the firms, especially in North and South.

     

    The survey reveals a divergence in the perceptions between private sector and public sector firms on the one hand and smaller and larger firms on the other. There is a sharp increase in BCI for larger firms than smaller ones. Similarly, private sector firms show higher optimism while public sector firms show a decline.

     

    The disaggregation of firms by ownership type reveals heterogeneity in the perceptions between public and private sector firms. The study reveals that while public sector firms show decline in the business sentiments, private sector firms showed an improvement. An improvement in overall BCI is mainly contributed by private sector firms as public sector firms reflect weak confidence.

     

    Firms in the manufacturing sectors reflect expectations of greater improvement in domestic sales and production level as compared to firms in services sector along with improved profits over the next six months. The survey results also reveal expectations of higher input costs per unit of output such as for raw materials, labour, and electricity, in the short run. The ex-factory prices are also likely to increase. The survey also points towards improvement in employment conditions and higher wage rates for labour in the next six months. Given the expectations of higher sales and production by manufacturing firms, inventories are also expected to build up.

     

    The latest survey has a special section on Expectations and Evaluation of Union Budget 201213. This study is aimed at capturing the expectations and impact of tax proposals made in budget 2012/13 on business sectors activities.

     

    While majority of the respondents expected corporate tax to remain unchanged in the budget proposals, an equal proportion of respondents expected corporate tax rates to decrease or increase. More than 37 per cent anticipated excise duty would increase. In general, while there were apprehensions of increase in tax rates, there was also an expectation that the budget would reduce the tax burden. Post-budget it is found that significant proportion of firms report adverse effect of tax proposals. Only about 30 per cent of the respondents reported corporate tax rate proposal in the budget as satisfactory. The findings suggest that the business sector perhaps was expecting measures to boost investment and demand more directly and these may not have been realised.

     

    Following two mild improvements in the previous quarters, the current round of BES in the latest survey results shows a decline in Political Confidence Index (PCI). The index has declined by 4.6 per cent from 86.9 in January 2012 to 82.9 in April 2012.

     

    Nonetheless, the index still remains above its level recorded in July 2011. At regional level, two regions show fall in political confidence while the other two show improvement. Similarly, among sectors, two have registered a fall in PCI in April 2012 while the remaining three still hold up the optimism level.

     

    The latest survey showed a drop in the ratings for seven of the eight components of PCI:

     

    Factors Mar – 12 Jan – 12
    Managing Overall Economic Growth 30.2 36.6
    Managing Government Finance 37.2 39.4
    Managing Inflation 18.8 22.3
    Managing Unemployment 18.8 12.7
    Managing Exchange Rate 28.3 28.5
    Managing Conducive Political Climate 19.9 20.4
    External Trade Negotiations (both bilateral /multilateral) 27.9 30.5
    Pushing the Economic Reforms Forward 26.0 26.7
    Political Confidence Index 82.9 86.9

     

    The present survey shows that ratings of political management of the economic issues have declined compared to the previous quarter. Unlike the last round, where three out of eight PCI components showed decline, the current round shows decline in seven out of eight components. The highest fall is reported in the case of managing overall economic growth by 6.4 points followed by managing inflation (3.5 points) and external trade negotiation (2.6 points).

     

    The survey results indicate that unlike BCI, which shows a decline in the consumer non-durables sector, the aggregate PCI in consumer nondurables, consumer durables and intermediates sectors witnessed an improvement of 5.5 points, 7.4 points and 5.1 points, respectively. The capital goods and services sectors witnessed decline by 19.1 points and 12.1 points respectively, indicating the aggregate PCI, which measures the overall confidence of business sector in the political management of economic policies, is not uniform across the manufacturing sectors.

     

    Region-wise results suggest that PCI declined for two regions North & South and improved for the other two regions East & West over the previous round. In North, responses declined from 91 per cent in the previous round to 82.3 per cent in the current round. Southern region recorded a considerable decline of 11.6 points during same period. Across all the regions, eastern and western regions continued to maintain the trend of improvement with an increase of 9.2 points and 1.2 points respectively.

     

    Out of the firms in five different sizes, two sizes witnessed improvement and the remaining showed a declining trend. The highest improvement is recorded in small firms indicating that small size firms are more optimistic in their assessment of political management of economic issues. Respondents in large size firms reported declining trend in PCI from 93.8 per cent to 85.4 per cent and from 109.9 per cent to 90.4 per cent, respectively from the previous round (January 2012) to the current round.

  • The size of the account is pegged at Rs25 crores. The client will be handled out of the DDB MudraMax office in Bangalore

    DDB MudraMax wins media mandate for Kalyan Silks

    By A Correspondent

     

    Kalyan Silks, one of Kerala’s biggest brands, has aligned its media mandate with DDB MudraMax. The coveted pitch saw multiple agencies participating. The size of the account is pegged at Rs25 crores. The client will be handled out of the DDB MudraMax office inBangalore.

     

    Commenting on aligning the media duties with DDB MudraMax, TS Pattabhiraman (aka Swami), Chairman & Managing Director, Kalyan Silks, said: “We are very happy to associate with DDB MudraMax as they are a well reputed agency and extremely trustworthy. Their client relationship is commendable. Most of the clients they are associated with have been so for a long time, which acts as a clear indication of their efficiency.  We hope to have a mutual and fruitful association.”

     

    On winning the account, Gopi Nair, AVP & Head, DDB MudraMax said: “We are immensely pleased to work with Kalyan Silks, who are one of the top players in the fast growing retail industry. Our team is committed to show the same consistency and results that has kept most of our clients delighted.”

     

     

  • The programme aims to encourage individuals with a business idea to come forward and connects them with relevant mentors and investors

    Eco Times launches The Power of Ideas 2012

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Economic Times brings back The Power of Ideas,India’s largest entrepreneurship development programme. It aims to encourage individuals with a business idea to come forward and connects them with relevant mentors and investors. The programme was first launched in 2009 when it received over 12,000 business ideas followed by over 16,000 the next year. This year, armed with a bigger corpus of funds, the initiative seeks to transform more business ideas into real businesses.

     

    Ravi Dhariwal, Chief Executive Officer – Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd said: “We at The Economic Times believe that the future of the Indian economy lies in the hands of young entrepreneurs. It is the energy and drive of these young people with an idea that will giveIndiaits next big leap. I am happy to say that The Power of Ideas initiative has provided critical impetus to many such ideas.”

     

    The programme is conducted by The Economic Times in partnership with the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India. DST brings to the programme its expertise and relationships in the entrepreneurial space as well as a corpus of Rs6.2 crore of guaranteed funds. The funds are open to all those with genuine innovation on their mind, regardless of whether they have just an idea or a fully functional start-up.

     

    Working alongside ET and DST is IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).CIIE is a leader in the field of mentoring, guiding and making business ideas investor-ready.

     

    The greatest value CIIE will add to The Power of Ideas will be by way of their wide network of mentors and investors who will evaluate every single business idea received as part of the programme. The most deserving ideas will be given personalized mentoring. In the last phase, entrepreneurs who make it to the final cut-off will be taken through a nine-day period of intensive mentoring by CIIE, as a residential programme at IIM Ahmedabad. This unique public-private-academia partnership remains in place in 2012 to drive the programme to new heights.

  • Come midnight, the 3 MCCS channels will switch the Star prefix to ABP. Nothing else will change, promises the ABP-Star jv CEO Ashok Venkatramani

    Only the logo will change: Venkatramani

     

    As the clock strikes 12 midnight, the logo on popular Hindi, Bengali and Marathi news channels Star News, Star Ananda and Star Majha will change. In fact as the communication from the channels has been emphasizing, save the brandname, nothing else will. Following the announcement of the discontinuation of the Star brand affiliation with MCCS (Media Content and Communications Pvt Ltd), the the Ananda Bazar Patrika and Star India jv, the three 24-hour channels will be rechristened. Star News to ABP News, Star Ananda to ABP Ananda and Star Majha to ABP Majha.

     

    MCCS unveiled its new logos for the three channels and kicked off its communication campaign around the rebranding on May 7. The creative communication campaign was developed by Lowe Mumbai and the media buying plan was formulated by Mindshare. The aggressive communication campaign based on the theme, “Our Stars don’t change, our News does not change, only our Name changes”, was launched across media, on TV, Print, Radio, Outdoor and Internet to familiarize viewers and stakeholders about the new name and logo.

     

    Just hours ahead of the rebranding, MxMIndia spoke to Mr Ashok Venkatramani, CEO, MCCS on the acceptability levels of the new name, measures being undertaken to retain viewership and the road ahead for MCCS.

     

    What time will the change happen?

    Tonight. 12 midnight.

     

    Since you spoke to us the day the announcement was made to now, what are the reports that your front-facing sales and editorial forces bring you – in terms of acceptability of the name… especially for Star News to ABP News?

    So far the feedback has been positive and encouraging. If I were to divide the stakeholders into three parts – the viewers, the newsmakers and the media buyers and the trade, for the first segment which comprises viewers, the change has not happened. It’s going to happen from tomorrow. But since the time we announced, there has been no change in our ratings. We report daily news, and as long as it is the same set of people doing the same set of news in the same manner, I don’t expect much change there. The second constituent which is the newsmaker, there is absolutely no issue there because ABP is a very strong name in the newspaper and magazine industry. It’s been there for long and ABP has very strong news credentials. The third segment which is the trade and media buyers, feedback has been positive… virtually no problem with the large houses. There again, ABP is not a new name, everyone buys print so they know. So it has been positive, and it’s best manifested in the sales that have happened in the last couple of months. I am fairly confident that we will be able to pull this through comfortably.

     

    But the biggest component is the viewer, which is untested yet and that’s where the ratings come in.

    Frankly, unlike the entertainment media where your ratings are linked to some big property and the fate of the channel is linked to that property, in a news channel, where even before the name change there is a fair degree of clutter and poor differentiation. Over a period of time, each channel has established rating levels based on consistency of its content. And that consistency is driven by the way we report, the speed of reporting, the honesty, the faces or the anchors who come on our channel, the kind of programmes we have. Now those things don’t change, the reporting and the people are the same. To my mind, just a logo change in the corner doesn’t dramatically change impact of the news channel. And if you take the two regional channels, Ananda and Majha, they are clear market leaders, and there again nothing changes- the anchors are the same, reporting is the same, and the position of the channel in the EPG is the same.

     

    Any attempts to retain viewership… like contests et al? And any specific measures to retain advertisers? And for the distribution trade?

    No, we are not resorting to any short-term activity to garner quick eyeballs because our genre doesn’t subscribe to that. What we can potentially do is break big stories but there is already so much action happening. What we are doing is engaging with our trade, media buyers and distributors. We are having a series of meetings with them, small personalized interactions where we can chat and exchange views with them. It’s more of a personalized engagement with the constituents rather than any on-air activity for the viewer.

     

    Given that there is a change, are there any specific areas that you are changing in the new channels?

    It would be exactly the same and deliberately so. We just want to do one measure at a time, so at this point there is no change other than the name change. But as we progress into the new name and once the new name gets fully established, people start recognizing it, and then we will look at other measures like relaunching the channel, changing the look and feel etc.

     

    When is that likely to happen?

    Too early to say.

     

    Our columnists Anil Thakraney had commented that this is possibly a good occasion for changing some of the typical things that are common on Hindi channels, like over-sensationalizing etc. Are you thinking of doing that now?

    No, actually if you watch the channel, we have done that for the last one-and-a-half years now. This is a common misconception most people have because they don’t see Hindi news channels on a regular basis. This is a genre problem where we have a lingering perception. For example, I have got out of astrology for a year now, I don’t have a single programme on the channel which talks about astrology. It’s been more than a year-and-a-half since we got out of religion. Now we have not gone out on the rooftops and shouted about it but all these things we’ve already done. We have only hard-hitting news on our channel from 5pm to 10pm. And we’ve done this because we felt this is the right thing to do for a genre not because our name is changing. To my mind, in a news channel, these changes take time to notice.

     

    A programme like ‘Asar’ with Aamir Khan would’ve obviously started on Star News because it was a Star Plus show. Will the preferred partner status continue to exist even after June 1?

    Yes, in fact they are still our shareholders. Secondly, all such deals are purely on a commercial basis but obviously relationships were strong. In fact not many people know that Satyamev Jayate used to be a programme on Star News started by Uday Shankar when he used to be here. And we didn’t have a problem in them doing Satyamev Jayate, so the relationship continues. They continue to be our distribution partners, they continue to distribute our channels internationally.

     

    There is this news that Star might also exit the JV because they say it is not really worth their while to have a stake when they don’t have any say. Is that something that you have factored in?

    Actually I don’t want to comment on it because it’s a JV issue which only the JV partners can address. And I think it is best addressed by Star and ABP. But I guess any commercial investment by any investor has to be based on commercial returns. Now how an investor evaluates investment in the news business depends entirely on the investor.

     

    Have you done any brand studies or surveys on the acceptability levels of the new names?

    Yes, we have done research. A name change always has to be a combination of some research and some amount of strategy. One can’t entirely depend on research, it’s like naming a baby, where you look at the ‘granth sahib’ and pick up the alphabet and choose your name. So I think for us, given the fact that ABP is a serious player in the news business and they have long-term ambitions to be in news, including broadcast news, it did make sense to have a master brand which can be built going forward. So it was a combination of strategy and research.

     

    How active will ABP be, or will it be the same with you running the enterprise and ABP being on the board level?

    Nothing changes even on that front. Even now both the shareholders, Star and ABP continue to be the parents allowing MCCS to do its own thing. They were always available to be tapped, whenever we needed inputs. Any dealing with them is also at commercial terms. I don’t see any change in that.

     

    The campaign of the name change kicked off rather early, from the time you made the announcement… was it part of the original design or was it something which changed later?

    Obviously we saw it coming and we had a headstart of a month or so. A couple of months were good enough for us to churn out a campaign, so that’s how it was.

     

    Will see a more robust online presence of the MCCS channels now, including an English news website?

    If you look at our entire strategy, not just online, it is driven by a simple definition of who we are and what we are. We believe that we are not a television news company, we are a news content company. If we are a news content company, we should be platform-agnostic and we should be available on all platforms where a viewer might like to consume news. So we developed all these websites and developed 3G platforms, mobile downloads etc. so that we are available in all platforms. For us the allied platforms were not like profit centres, we were happy to get the revenue but at the same time we wanted to be present in all the platforms. The problem is that the online rights of Star News were international, which is why we didn’t get .in at that point of time. So we had to go with another name. Now going forward, our strategy remains the same.

     

    Any new channels coming up in the immediate future?

    We are working on newer options… frankly, it’s a question of the right timing. It is not related to this name change or the JV, it is an independent aspect which we in MCCS have been exploring and continue to explore. I would probably wait and watch because next six months are going to be a huge turning point. For example, if the entire digitization process goes on well as planned, it has a big impact on news channels and also our own company in terms of how we project the next five years. If the digitization process gets postponed or deferred then I will be a little more cautious. We do have plans but whether I press the button or not, I’ll probably wait and watch.

     

    Will it be organic or inorganic or both?

    It could be both, it’s a question of a right opportunity.

     

    Say, for instance, if a NewsX is available, would that be an option?

    I wouldn’t rule out anything but I would evaluate everything for the value it brings and how much it costs. If it makes business sense, why not. But it’s not as if we would be chasing any particular company or a set of channels or anything like that.

     

  • The task for Lintas is not only to build saliency for the brand but also to encourage a change in shopping habits for apparel and accessories

    LMG bags Yepme’s media duties

    By A Correspondent

     

    Online fashion brand Yepme has awarded its media planning and buying duties to Lintas Media Group. Yepme already has a line of men’s fashion wear and accessories and is launching the women’s wear line on May 30. The brand has signed leading Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut as its style ambassador. Yepme has over 1.1 million fans on Facebook, making it the largest fan base amongst Indian e-commerce sites.

     

    The task for Lintas is not only to build saliency for the brand but also to encourage a change in shopping habits for apparel and accessories. As Vivek Gaur, CEO at Yepme said: “Yepme is creating a category for itself. Unlike most other brands that are using the online route, Yepme has a non-metro focus and is creating a network of clients across the country. The role of media for such a challenge is extremely critical and requires a fine balance between mass reach and narrow targeting. We are glad to have Lintas Media Group partner us and give us very strong support in media as we nurture the brand further”.

     

    Suresh Balakrishna of Lintas Media Group was very enthusiastic about the addition of this new age business: “Yepme will go a long way in adding a young and futuristic character to the portfolio of brands that we work with. Fashion and e-tailing are both growth areas of the future and their media needs are extremely dynamic. We are very glad that the management of Yepme recognized our strengths and decided to partner with us for their future growth”. The account size is estimated at Rs30 Crores annually. This win comes soon after the recent wins at Lintas Media Group of Henkel,EdenCityand OCL.

     

  • It is the only Indian agency awarded by leading international social media competition in 2012

    Hanmer MSL wins Bees Award for eBay.in

    By A Correspondent

     

    MSLGroup India’s Hanmer MSL has been awarded ‘Best Social Customer Relations Management’ at the third edition of the prestigious Bees Awards for its social media engagement campaign of eBay India.

     

    The Bees Awards is the first international social media competition honouring communication and marketing professionals and judged campaigns from agencies and brands from across 40 countries.

     

    The eBay winning campaign – eBay India Wins with Social CRM – received the award for its creative customer engagement strategy that identified female consumers as brand evangelists and developed rich, visual talking-points to create a viral effect and foster brand loyalty. The agency also established a strong customer relationship management mechanism that focused on seamless integration of the user-facing CRM process on Facebook with eBay’s back-end processes to create a real-time response set-up.

     

    The award win follows MSLGroup Asia’s finalist nomination at the Bees Awards in 2011, for MSL China’s work with IKEA in the ‘Best use of Microblogging Platform’ and MSL Singapore’s nomination in the ‘best relationship with blogs’ category for feminine care brand Whisper, “Happy it’s Here!” social media campaign.

     

    Commenting on the win, Jaideep Shergill, CEO, Hanmer MSL, said: “I’m extremely proud of our social media team for notching up an impressive win at the Bees Awards this year, and for being the only agency from Indiato do so. This award acknowledges our industry – leading, best-in-country social media engagement expertise and creativity. We are truly proud to have been honoured in a competition that brings together brands and agencies from the communications industry across the world.”

     

    MSLGroup’s MSL Nordics also won the “Best Use of Alternative Tools” category with Ariel Fashion Shoot, undertaken in partnership with Saatchi & Saatchi.