MxMIndia

Category: NEWS

  • The #Summerland tweet-up brought together Twitter influencers at a pre-determined venue and screened the first episode of the series to them.

    Zapak engages with Twitter Influencers to premier Summerland

    By A Correspondent

     

    Zapak Solutions, the social media arm of Zapak Digital Entertainment, recently invited about 50 twitter influencers in Mumbai (who had a cumulative reach of over 3.5 lakh followers) and engaged with them through a phygital activity (physical activation with a digital mechanism to it) that was called Summerland Tweetup. The activity was thoughtfully designed and executed to create a buzz for the India premier of Big CBS Love channel’s new show, Summerland. The objective of the tweet-up was to engage viewers and amplify the social media presence of the show, which resulted in #Summerland trending at No. 4 nationally within 3 hours of commencement of the activity.

     

    Summerland Tweet-up: the event:

    Zapak Solutions invited close to 65 top influencers on Twitter to be a part of the Summerland Tweet-up through a unique Twitter invite designed for the event. This was followed by three personalized Twitter reminders sent to each invite with RSVPs. Upon reaching the venue, while the invites were being greeted physically by the teams at Zapak Solutions and at Big CBS Love, there were “welcome” messages sent to each invite on their twitter accounts as well. The event kickstarted with the exclusive screening of the first episode of the new show ‘SummerLand.’ This was followed by a small contest; the questions of the contest were based on the episode, the characters and the storyline. Post this, the guests were requested to write a brief review on their twitter pages – called the ‘Tweeview’.

     

    The Reach:

    The tweet-up was instrumental in propagating the show and creating a buzz on social media. The @BIGCBSLOVE Twitter handle added more than 200 new followers within 3 hours during the campaign. The campaign reached out to over 3.5 lakh Twitter followers with 1736 tweets, 497 re-tweets and total mentions of 226. The #Summerland trended at number 4 in India and in Mumbai at different intervals. All this on the day of the IPL final!

     

    Commenting on the success of the tweet-up, Rahul Avasthy, Head – Digital Strategy and SMM Business, Zapak Digital Entertainment said, “Social Media is rapidly becoming an integral medium to reach the target group. For Big CBS Love’s new show Summerland, we decided to leverage Twitter extensively and create an Influencer Outreach program via tweet-up inviting 65 Twitter influencers. With the influencers tweeting consistently, we reached out to 3.5 lakh Twitter followers which resulted in #Summerland trending at No. 4 in India as well as Mumbai. To entertain the Twitter influencers and add an element of fun to the event, we also organised a karaoke session along with some funky props which influencers took pictures with and shared on Twitter.”

     

    Anand Chakravarthy

    Anand Chakravarthy, Business Head for Big CBS Network, said, “Big CBS Love brought Summerland to the Indian audiences for the first time. In order to create a strong presence for the show, we partnered with Zapak Solutions to engage viewers with a unique tweetup event. The activity was instrumental in building hype around the premier of the show, along with engaging viewers and Twitter influencers in contests to enhance social media presence. We are extremely happy with the outcome of the event and the response the show has received across India.”

     

  • A new global study has heralded the 'New Normal for News' as digital media hits the mainstream in newsrooms and editorial offices.

    Digital is new normal for newsrooms: Oriella study

    By A Correspondent

     

    The full digital tool-set is now in use in newsrooms and editorial offices around the world – with far-reaching implications for the public relations industry, the latest Oriella Digital Journalism Study has found. The journalism study was done by Oriella and its partners across the world including Candour Communications, which did the survey for India. A ‘digital first’ policy, breaking news online as it happens, is in place at over a third of the media titles surveyed with use of mobile apps, in-house produced video, and social media as a news source all on the rise.

     

    The Oriella Digital Journalism Study, based on a survey of almost 550 journalists from 15 countries including India and spanning Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, tracks how digital technology is impacting how news is gathered and published around the world.

     

    This year’s study – the sixth – provides evidence of wholesale changes in how publications gather and communicate stories. This year’s study further found a quarter of the journalists surveyed often prepare multiple versions of the same story as it develops, while a fifth said that ‘citizen journalism’ now carries as much credibility in their organization, as mainstream reporting.

     

    Digital media is also shaping publications’ revenue models. The proportion of respondents saying their outlet has a mobile app has nearly doubled over the past two years to 40 percent. In addition, use of premium apps to monetise content has increased by a third since 2012.

     

    Robin Grainger, Director of the Oriella PR Network, said, “Our study suggests 2013 is a watershed year for the world’s media. The growing interest in ‘digital first’ reporting, video, real-time news, mobile content and citizen journalism all exemplify what we’re calling the ‘New Normal for News.’

     

    “If these trends accelerate, there are some potentially game-changing ramifications for media and communicators alike. First, touch-screen interfaces will open up new possibilities for story-telling. One example could be interactive graphics (or digi-graphics) which blend high design and big data to enable readers to navigate their own path through stories.”

     

    He added, “Second, we may see a polarisation of journalistic output. At one end, short, tweet-like news updates will provide near real-time coverage of events in print and on video, optimised for small screens. At the other end, we may see much longer-form feature and investigative pieces. ‘Shorter but quicker’ journalism could also afford media brands greater prominence – and consequently greater traffic – in search rankings, news readers and ‘social news aggregator’ apps such as Flipboard and Pulse News.”

     

    Sanjay Bose, Executive Director, Candour Communications, said, “The survey in India threw up interesting trends that have emerged in the Indian media. Digitization of news and the availability of social media platforms have drastically reduced dependence on conventional news gathering sources. With the increasing use of smart phones in India, access to real time news is only a click away.”

     

    The study finds that journalists are using social media for news gathering, but continue to place an emphasis on trusted sources and pre-existing relationships. For example, 51 percent of journalists said they source news stories from microblogs such as Twitter and Weibo, but only when the source behind them is already known to them. When the source is unknown, their use by journalists halved to 25 percent. By contrast, 59 percent of respondents said they sourced their news from ‘conversations with industry insiders.’

     

     

    The sources most trusted by journalists were academics and other experts, who were trusted by 70 percent of journalists; technical experts in companies (trusted by 63 percent) and analysts (trusted by 49 percent). Company CEOs were trusted by only 41 percent and actually distrusted by one journalist in eight. The least trusted individuals were politicians, PR officers, heads of marketing and community managers – all of whom were distrusted than trusted by journalists. (See chart)

     

     

    Despite all the changes occuring within newsrooms, the study found journalists remain upbeat about their jobs. Thirty four percent said they believed digital media had improved the quality of journalism over the past two years. However, the digital model is creating headaches for many of them – almost a third (32 percent) agreed that they are finding it harder to keep abreast of events on social media.

     

  • Ad industry veteran, wildlife conservationist and a broadcast industry consultant Arrow Sinha Roy passed away on June 11

    Industry veteran Arrow Sinha Roy passes away

    By A Correspondent

     

    Veteran advertising professional Arobinda ‘Arrow’ Sinha Roy passed away on Tuesday, June 11.

     

    Mr Roy has had a long and illustrious career in media, most of which was spent in advertising. After his education at Mumbai’s St Xavier’s College (1961), he worked with Ogilvy and Mather for seven years. He was then with Sista’s Advertising for nine years (1971-80) and was Chairman and Managing Director of Countour Advertising from 1980 to 1996. He joined Star India (News Television India Ltd) as Senior Vice-President (1997-2000).

     

    For the last few years he has been Governing Board Member of the Vanishing Herds Foundation, a conservation NGO. “My other interest area is wildlife conservation — particularly the Asiatic Lion and the Tiger. I would be keen to work with NGO’s which believ they have a practical program to ensure their survival,” he writes in his LinkedIn profile, from where the above information and photograph hav been sourced.

     

  • SAB, which runs Mastiii, Dabangg and Dhamaal channels has joined others in the show of no-confidence in the prevailing television viewership measurement system in the country.

    No impact of AAAI, ISA statement. SAB pulls out of TAM subscription

    By A Correspondent

     

    To those who thought that broadcasters would back down after the apex bodies of advertisers (ISA) and ad agencies (AAAI) issued their statement endorsing the need to continue with the existing currency of television measurement administered by TAM, the move from Sri Adhikari Brothers (SAB) to pull out its subscription from TAM is a setback.

     

    SAB, which runs music channel Mastiii and regional entertainment channels Dabangg and Dhamaal, has joined MSM, Times TV and NDTV in the show of no-confidence in the prevailing television viewership measurement system in the country.

     

    Confirming the news, Mr Markand Adhikari, Vice-chairman and Managing Director of the SAB said he was pulling out given the reasons that are well-known.

     

    When asked on what his gameplan would be given that measurement numbers from a BARC-appointed system would be at least a year away, the issue will be discussed jointly with other channels.

     

    Meanwhile, a broadcaster who wished to stay anonymous is hopeful that there will be a settlement to the problem. “Losing out on subscriptions will impact TAM’s operations and hence it will surely provide a solution. And broadcasters too can’t live without measurement for too long.” The senior channel executive also indicated that while the IBF has issued an advisory last week, it may adopt a less offensive stance now.

     

  • With Narendra Modi heading the BJP's 2014 elections campaign, we ask a few industry leaders on whether Brand BJP (with Brand NaMo) can work the magic

    Can the NaMo magic work for the BJP?

     

    By Johnson Napier

     

    The Congress party in India may have been doing all it can to stay away from the negative noises created by Opposition. Led largely by the BJP, the foes from the other end are leaving no stone unturned in making sure that the Congress faces its toughest test yet as the country heads into election mode in 2014.

     

    While this may have been a daunting task until five years ago, led by the man of the moment, Narendra Modi, the BJP is set to face the task ahead. After silencing his critics and assuring his huge fan following that he has what it takes to rule the country with an iron fist, the NaMo chant has been growing louder as the days pass.

     

    The immediate impact of his appointment as head of the BJP’s election offensive was the resignation of party leader LK Advani and the consequent withdrawal of the same. But with news of infighting and internal differences being the order of the day, the picture may not be as rosy as it seems. MxMIndia spoke to a few professionals who have been associated with image-enhancing initiatives or track the way politics is run in the country and presents the viewpoints.

     

    Sushil Pandit

    Sushil Pandit, Director & CEO of Hive Communications, which has done campaigns for the party in the past, sounded optimistic as he said that Narendra Modi has today emerged as a locomotive for the BJP; the engine for the party’s growth and acceptance. “He represents the best of BJP – its potential, its performance and credibility. He brings a lot of incremental approval to BJP’s existing support base. So brand Modi complements brand BJP and is all set to propel it much further from where it is today,” he said.

     

    Highlighting the game-changing dynamics being witnessed, Mr Pandit asserted, “Today, a whole host of key determinants have changed in Indian politics including the way the youth of today perceive the leadership, their aspiration, their demand, their definition of what kind of a leader they expect…it has risen far above from the earlier narrow consideration of dynasty, caste, etc and has focussed more on the performance aspect and what is possible. Narendra Modi therefore has emerged as a huge force in converting such aspirations into approval and work for the party.”

     

    According to him, with a year left before the elections in 2014 there is a great deal of hope and a lot of fervour amongst the masses – factors that should see the party through in the 2014 elections.

     

    Sanjay Mehta

    Sanjay Mehta, Founder & Joint CEO, Social Wavelength, put forth a prudent outlook for the party as he said that the happenings at BJP are a natural outcome of a major change. He affirmed, “It was always suspected to be a challenge for Narendra Modi to move into top position, and be the party’s PM candidate, given his legacy in Gujarat, from 2002. That over the years, he has managed to create a change in the manner in which he is perceived and reached a point where the party sees their best hope in projecting him as their leader, is a huge achievement.” Adding further he said, “In the face of this, to enable the change from the old to the new, and one which is largely acceptable within the party, still has its share of friction, and the Advani resignation etc. are a part of that. All these are an integral part of Indian politics and I do not believe that these impact the party’s brand image to a large extent. It is unlike major corruption or other scandals that have plagued parties too in recent days! More importantly, this has happened several months before the elections,” he reiterated.

     

    Presenting his stance on the impact being created on brand BJP, Mr Mehta highlighted, “What I hope is that the short-term impact on the BJP brand will not affect the longer term prospects. Assuming that the necessary compromises are made within the party, and thereafter, as a whole, the party is willing to position Modi as their leader, unanimously, that is a strong plank for the party to take forth, into the 2014 elections.” But sounding a word of caution, Mr Mehta said that with LK Advani taking back his resignation, “the only fear is that closer to the elections, he doesn’t again raise his ambitions for the PM position, and create a ruckus then. If that happens, it will hurt BJP much more than the current hiccup.”

     

    Harish Bijoor

    Not holding back his thoughts, brand consultant Harish Bijoor of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. was forthright as he said, “I do believe brand BJP is hit for sure. The hit is seen clearly in television footage of the leaders of the party and their really overtly saddened faces. This is not good for morale.” However, Mr Bijoor does believe that this is a temporary setback. “The party will bounce back with vigour after the dust settles and the old guard has given way to the new. Modi is a brand man in reality. He is a very savvy leader who uses every modern tool there is in branding. I do believe he will revive the morale for sure.”

     

    Knowing what it takes for a brand to enhance its image offering, Sridhar Kondiparthi, Chief Creative Officer – India Sub Continent of Leo Burnett asserted that everything that is happening within the BJP and RSS, including a sulking Advani, will only benefit the BJP and Narendra Modi. But sounding a caution, Mr Kondiparthi said, “A reluctant old guard will have no sympathy with the younger voters; India wants a younger and more ambitious leadership.”

     

    Naresh Gupta

    While it is still early days, there is a lot at stake for brand BJP for it to win back the confidence of the masses. It could begin by getting its basics about branding itself right. As Naresh Gupta, Managing Partner, Bang in the Middle, asserts, “Elections and political branding are a bit different from usual brands and consumers do consume them differently. The perceptions are transient and a lot depends on how the competition plays the game. Currently it is affecting the brand. The controversy is not adding to the appeal of BJP. What matters now is what does the market do?”

     

    As for the way ahead for the party, Mr Gupta affirms, “The elections are still some time away and we can’t say what may happen by then, though going by what’s happening now it will strengthen the brand in a small core but weaken in large potential audience.”

     

    Mr Gupta may be critical of the party’s success as yet but for the ardent believers of brand NaMo, also the driving force behind brand BJP as of now, the moment certainly seems to be favourable for it to make an impression in the minds of the people.

     

  • That the ad agency has designated, informed people and institutional memory is only one of its advantages over a crowd. The other is that if you make bad decisions you can always blame the agency and fire it. You can't fire a crowd, says Chintamani Rao

    Guest Column by Chintamani Rao: No safety in numbers with Crowdsourcing

    By Chintamani Rao

     

    ‘Unilever to boost reliance on crowdsourcing with eYeka’ – News item

     

    “[Lowe] have created a very strong creative vehicle that’s extremely well defined and portable. But their work has created a problem for them, because it makes Peperami the obvious candidate for crowdsourcing.” That’s how a Unilever London spokesperson explained it when, two years ago, the company fired the advertising agency on Peperami, in favour of crowdsourcing.

     

    Some compliment! Can you see the agency head calling in the Peperami team? “Folks, I’ve just returned from lunch with John Client. Peperami is tracking superbly on every parameter. You’ve created one of those rare great brand properties that will stay with the brand for many, many years. Unilever have paid you the ultimate compliment: we’re fired. From now the public will make the ads.

     

    “Jean, pop the bubbly. I’m proud of you guys. You are our A Team, and here’s an A Team challenge for you. I am assigning you to our biggest Unilever brand: get fired on it within the year. A special Christmas bonus if you make it. Cheers, and more power to your elbow.”

     

    If the idea itself is strange, the outcome is bizarre. Unilever received 1,185 entries and selected not one but two submissions (Both of which came from laid-off advertising professionals: a copywriter from London and a former creative director from Germany. So much for the crowd.), and announced that they would combine the two ideas to make the new campaign. “We’re certain the two ideas will be a successful campaign,” said the Peperami marketing manager. That, from the company which taught us that every advertisement must be based on a “Single Selling Idea” – the first of the ten Unilever Principles of Great Advertising.

     

    Whether Unilever’s winning Advertiser of the Year at Cannes that year was because of Peperami or despite it we don’t know.

     

    Meanwhile, Kraft Foods in Australia crowdsourced the name for the new cheese variant of its iconic bread spread Vegemite, and chose – hold your breath – iSnack 2.0.

     

    “The name Vegemite iSnack 2.0 was chosen based on its personal call to action, relevance to snacking (I snack, get it?), and clear identification of a new and different Vegemite (2.0, wow!) to the original,” said a Kraft spokesperson. “We believe these three components completely encapsulate the new brand.” Consumers didn’t, apparently. Following a furore, Kraft rather tamely put out a list for people to choose from, and equally tamely changed the name to a blase Vegemite Cheesybite.

     

    Around the same time Frito-Lay in India sought ideas for new flavours of chips. To the credit of Frito-Lay it must be said that they weren’t chintzy – on the contrary, they generously spent more than they might have had they done conventional market research instead. For four shortlisted flavours they awarded a prize of Rs 5 lakh each – a total of Rs 20 lakh or over US$ 40,000, way more than Unilever London paid to get a new idea for Peperami. The prize for the ultimate winner was Rs 50 lakh (over US$ 100,000) and 1 percent of sales revenue.

     

    Frito-Lay were truly generous, but in any event, what they did was essentially to solicit consumer opinion on a new product, which might otherwise have been done by conventional market research. But meanwhile other marketers like GE, General Mills, Pepsi, Dell and Starbucks have been seeking everything from product and service ideas to, reportedly, inputs on agency selection and media placement.

     

    Crowdsourcing shops have come up which will brief the crowd and filter the solutions, as Idea Bounty did for Peperami. That’s awfully interesting. Suppose one day Lowe had told Unilever London, “You’ll be delighted to know we’ve increased the creative strength on your business. We’ve fired your entire creative team. Now, instead of being limited to a handful of people under our roof, we’ll put our briefs on your brands out on the Internet and get ideas from hundreds, if not thousands.” Might they have saved the Peperami account? I don’t know about you, but I can’t see a delighted client congratulating the agency on its farsighted initiative.

     

    Now Unilever has taken a big step in the direction of crowdsourcing, saying, “A key role for us as marketers is to create magic and to excite people with innovative ideas.” I always thought a key role for marketers and related professionals was to actually develop the ideas that create the magic, but perhaps I’m wrong.

     

    Proponents of crowdsourcing cite the ‘wisdom of crowds’, propounded by Surowiecki in his book of the same name. “I don’t think people realize how powerful the crowd can be when engaged on working on a good idea,” says one. Perhaps, but this is not the crowd working on a good idea; it is a multitude of individuals independently developing ideas. They’re not building on each other’s thoughts; there’s no cross-fertilization of thinking.

     

    Diversity, independence and decentralization are three of the four “elements required to form a wise crowd” that Surowiecki lists: “Diversity and independence are important because the best collective decisions are the product of disagreement and contest, not consensus or compromise.” But 1,185 responses to a brief from perhaps as many people working independently of each other do not constitute collective thinking, and are not the product of disagreement and contest.

     

    Surowiecki’s fourth element is aggregation: in this context, the marketing management of the company deciding – singly, collectively or sequentially – among the shortlisted submissions. So it is finally down to the quality of decision-making. If you decide on iSnack 2.0, it doesn’t matter whether the submissions come from the crowd through a crowdsourcing agency, or from known people through an advertising agency.

     

    That the advertising agency has designated, informed people and institutional memory is only one of its advantages over a crowd. The other is that if you make bad decisions you can always blame the agency and fire it. You can’t fire a crowd.

     

    The writer is a Strategic Marketing and Media Consultant

     

  • Mindshare has announced the elevation of Amin Lakhani as Leader, Team Unilever South Asia. He will replace Anupriya Acharya who is moving on from the organization.

    Amin Lakhani to head Mindshare Fulcrum

    By A Correspondent

     

    Amin Lakhani

    Mindshare has announced the elevation of Amin Lakhani as Leader, Team Unilever South Asia. In his new role Amin Lakhani will head Fulcrum, a unit of Mindshare that manages the media planning and buying for the Unilever business in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He will replace Anupriya Acharya who is moving on from the organization reportedly for personal reasons.

    In his experience of over 15 years, Mr Lakhani has worked as a product manager with an Indian pharmaceutical company and in media agencies. In his stint with GroupM India, he handled various roles starting with Maxus as the Head of Trading for West region, moving on to GroupM as Trading head for West and then on to Mindshare where he played the architect of The Exchange function in 2008, finally leading up the Trading Lead for the Unilever business.

     

    Ravi Rao

    Announcing the appointment, Ravi Rao, Leader South Asia, Mindshare said, “Amin was our unanimous choice and we know he will turn a new chapter in Mindshare Fulcrum by raising media excellence in strategic planning and world class execution backed up with award winning innovations for Unilever. We wish Anupriya all the best and thank her for a short but great stint at Mindshare Fulcrum”.

     

    Commenting on his new role, Mr Lakhani said, “It is an exciting opportunity especially in challenging times. Mindshare Fulcrum has been a centre of excellence. I am looking forward to building on our strong base and continuing to provide delight to India’s most esteemed client, Unilever.”

     

  • Ratnakar Bharti has been appointed as GM & India sales head; Sandeep Sabharwal joins as global head, Delivery & Publisher Relationships.

    Tyroo strengthens its India leadership team

    By A Correspondent

     

    Multi-screen performance network Tyroo has announced the appointment of Ratnakar Bharti as the General Manager & India Sales Head and Sandeep Sabharwal as Global Head, Delivery & Publisher Relationships. The strategic restructuring of the corporate leadership team signals Tyroo’s renewed focus on the region geared towards product innovation and greater adoption of performance marketing.

     

    On the restructuring of the leadership team, Siddharth Puri, CEO, Tyroo Media, said, “Tyroo is on a strong growth path. We have ventured into international markets and expanded our product portfolio. In addition to our core leadership in Cost-Per-Sale and Cost-Per-Lead, we are the only network in India with exclusive focus on pay-for-performance model on mobile and video. We are aiming at a 100% growth in FY 2013-14; with such promising growth plans, we felt the need to strengthen our leadership team that could partner with us towards the desired future success. I am delighted to have both Ratnakar and Sandeep in my team and confident that their association will help us in making deeper inroads into the market.”

     

    Ratnakar Bharti, a veteran in the digital media domain, has over 15 yrs of experience having led and managed media planning, buying, campaign management, business development and ad sales for brands across business verticals. Most recently, he headed National Sales for Ideacts Innovations Pvt. Ltd for close to four years. Ratnakar has also been associated with organizations such as Rediff.com, Intercept technologies, Business Standard and Indiabulls.com.

     

    Sandeep Sabharwal, another industry veteran, has over 18 years of diversified experience in business functionalities that include sales, business development & marketing. He has had close to a decade long stint in the digital media domain with expertise in digital media planning and buying, display, SEM, SEO, Mobile/WAP marketing, ad servers & analytic tools. Prior to joining Tyroo, Sandeep held the role of Head, Digital Team – North at Maxus, GroupM. In the past, Sandeep has worked with Quasar Media, Cybermedia, NU-TECH and Flex Refrigeration in various roles.

     

  • The Emvies, the awards instituted by Ad Club in 2001 to recognize breakthrough innovations in Indian media, will be held on September 6.

    Emvies announced, with some tweaks

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Emvies, the premier media awards instituted by The Advertising Club in 2001, are completing 13 years. Celebrating breakthrough innovations in Indian media, Emvies recognizes and awards the most outstanding media initiatives developed over the year gone by. The awards ceremony this year will be held on September 6 at the Taj Lands End, Bandra, Mumbai at 6pm.

     

    The Emvies 2013 will retain the best practices of the past years including the online judging process initiated last year.

     

    The Emvies Committee at the Ad Club after co-opting the participation of media agencies and taking their suggestions on board in an Emvies Town Hall session has introduced the following changes this year.

     

    • Launching the first ever judging rounds in New Delhi in addition to Mumbai.
    • Recognition for the so far ‘unrecognized heroes’ of media agencies with the “Best Implementation Team of the Year” award.
    • Introduction of new sub-categories in Best Media Innovation-TV, Best Media Innovation-Print, Best Integrated Campaign and Best Use of Research.
    • Re-introduction of categories like Best Use of Sponsorship.
    • Announcing the Emvies 2013 date schedule in the entry form.

     

     

     

     

     

    Entrants may note that the brochure and entry form for the Emvie 2013 Awards can be downloaded from www.theadvertisingclub.net. The last date for submitting entries is July 8. More information is available from the Ad Club secretariat on 23894091 / 23810213.

     

  • There are press releases, and there are press releases. Then there is gibberish.

    Speaking of Which | The Importance of Being Coherent

    By Vidya Heble

     

    This is the story of a press release. Once upon a time someone wanted to send out an announcement. This can be done in various ways – fact-efficient and to the point; or laden with company info and logos in headers and footers but with enough information that the copy editor can relatively easily pull out a story after hacking away the extra foliage.

     

    Sometimes however, one sees releases that quite simply boggle the mind. There is one from an outdoor agency, which gives us nothing more than a handful of opinions and a sort of teaser to a story. One can do nothing with this.

     

    Then there was one that turned up and gripped my consciousness to the extent that only speaking about it in Speaking of Which can provide relief. Copy editors are used to prising out facts deeply buried under verbiage, but here the main fact, the story itself, wasn’t even there. We had to surmise what it was. The whole thing, even after three reads, sounded like inebriated thoughts that someone had, “creatively” perhaps, jotted down.

     

    We should not name the organization or any of the people – so I have given them generic names; the people are called by standard character names from Hindi films. This is how the release began, and how it ended, verbatim. Only the proper names have been changed, and identifying words replaced in square brackets. Read every word, and vow never to write like this.

     

    START

    “The definition of advertising and marketing is changing , o is the definition of mediums be it tvc, print or design, they have to blend in very well to push the brand in the new age market, each medium is depended on the other for the impact of the brand, that’s the reality today where design have started playing a major in India as well.

     

    Design is relatively new compared to other mediums in our country, brands have discovered the need of great design at every consumer interface, There is a great need of design and aesthetics while keeping the brand philosophy in mind in a clutter and massive market like ours.

     

    Company So-and-So has grown to be one of the upcoming [organizations] in India today, For last one year or so we have been toying around and have been taking good amount of [certain] projects and clients on board, only when we felt we are ready today to launch a new vertical we have decided to announced,  we have a great set up right sets of people from [one function] and [another function] as well,

     

    Raj who has recently joined Company So-and-So as [designation], will be involved in Company So-and-So’s Baby as well, as he has spend some time in [other functions] as well This will be fronted by Amit and Vijay along with Raj who will take care of the [Raj’s function].

     

    Like the philosophy of Company So-and-So in design too, Two or at least one, out of Three senior guys will be directly involved in the each and every thing that comes out of this unit.

     

    Company So-and-So’s Baby, a brand consultancy focused on multiplying your brand & business growth. Because what we define should keep your brand alive for years to come. Give your brand enough opportunities to leverage. With an eclectic mix of exciting experiences, nurture a loyal audience.

     

    From defining a path to growth to creating a name, nomenclature, verbal & visual language, packaging, tangible retail engagement and viral content for the virtual world. Company So-and-So’s Baby combines intuitive force to achieve objective growth. Applies behavioral insight to create a world of meaningful brand rituals. Grooms consumer communities for cultural action.

     

    Over the last few months of undercover existence; Company So-and-So’s Baby, has squared with strengths of [various brands and clients – one whose name was misspelled].”

    END

     

    The first two paragraphs sound like quotes that should be attributed to someone. What the actual announcement is, is never stated. All the sentences are disjointed, often incoherent. Two paragraphs from the end, it sounds like a pitch to a client instead of a news release.

     

    We don’t know what went wrong, but we hope something did. We hope this is not what the organization thinks is a press release.

     

  • TV18 & Viacom 18 too have withdrawn their subscription to TAM ratings, it is learnt. Reliable sources from the Network18 group inform MxMIndia about this decision.

    Now TV18 & Viacom 18 too withdraw subscription from TAM

    By A Correspondent

    TV18 and Viacom 18 too have withdrawn their subscription to TAM ratings, it is learnt. Reliable sources from the Network18 group informed MxMIndia about this decision.

    MSM (Sony), Times Television, NDTV and SAB had already withdrawn their subscriptions. TAM, a spokesperson said, was unaware of the development.

    Over the last week, there has been much discussion in the Indian broadcast industry on the issue of the television measurement service administered by TAM Media Research, a joint venture of Nielsen and Kantar Media, a WPP firm. Broadcaster body IBF issued an advisory last week urging its members to make their decisions.

    While the apex associations of advertisers and ad agencies – the ISA and AAAI scoffed at the suggestion that measurement should be done away even in the interim, earlier this week SAB and today (Friday, June 14) TV 18 and Viacom18 have gone ahead with the withdrawal of the subscription.

    Withdrawal of the subscription would of course not mean that TAM would stop even as around 80 percent of TAM’s revenues comes from the broadcast fraternity.

    According to a report on afaqs.com, Star India too has pulled out, though MxMIndia has not received any intimation of the same. The PR agency of Star India said it had not issued any communication on this.

    At the time of the writing, other leading networks – Zee Entertainment, Sun, Discovery, Reliance Broadcast etc were still subscribed to TAM’s weekly ratings.

  • FleishmanHillard (FH) has announced the promotion of Yusuf Hatia to the position of managing director, India.

    FleishmanHillard appoints Yusuf Hatia MD for India

    Yusuf Hatia

    By A Correspondent

     

    FleishmanHillard (FH) has announced the promotion of Yusuf Hatia to the position of managing director, India. Mr Hatia is a founding team member of FleishmanHillard in India and joined the firm in 2007 as the agency was entering the market with its first office in Mumbai.

     

    Mr Hatia is now responsible for overseeing all of the firm’s India offices. He will set the strategic direction for the agency while continuing to provide the high-level strategic communications counsel to corporations and organizations for which he is well-known.

     

    “Yusuf Hatia has been a cornerstone of FH in India,” said Lynne Anne Davis, FleishmanHillard’s Asia Pacific president. “He has been a key factor in tripling our offices, instrumental in finding and supporting an impressive and fast-growing portfolio of clients, and essential to the mentoring of a close-knit team of communications professionals. Over the past 12 months, he has won an impressive calling of new clients. He is the ideal candidate to take on the leadership mantle and take us into our next phase of growth.”

     

    Mr Hatia, based in Mumbai, was previously managing director of client service, India. Before that, he was the managing director of FH’s Mumbai office. He has provided strategic communications advice to a broad range of clients.

     

    He also heads the agency’s Majlis offering, a speciality service created to assist corporations looking to build and protect their reputation with the Muslim community. He brings an international perspective to all his engagements, having worked previously in the United Kingdom and the Middle East.