The figures in the table below tell the story. These are for Week 1 of 2014 and Week 52 of 2013 as per measurement agency TAM. However, the information we have received is not from TAM, but from a friendly subscriber. So, please do verify these numbers before making all-important decisions.
| Viewership in million | |||
| Channel | Week 1 | Week 52 | |
| Star Plus |
647 |
606 |
|
| Colors |
522 |
527 |
|
| Zee TV |
449 |
431 |
|
| Sab |
361 |
330 |
|
| Life OK |
323 |
324 |
|
| Sony (SET) |
266 |
272 |
|
By A Correspondent
Bharti AXA General Insurance has launched a viral communication campaign on the internet around the theme of Lifestyle Protection which underlines the need for a critical illness insurance cover.
Seven videos have been developed that narrate the predicaments of ordinary people who suffer from critical illnesses and are forced to work while they are ill, owing to the financial commitments.
Commenting on the campaign, Dr Amarnath Ananthanarayanan, MD and CEO, Bharti AXA General Insurance said, “Innovation is one of the core values on which our company is built and we are constantly looking at new perspectives, methods and approaches when it comes to any aspect of business, service, product development, delivery etc.  With this viral communication campaign, we aim to increase awareness about health insurance and help the aam aadmi choose the right health insurance policy.†The company also launched a television commercial centred around the working patient last month.
The digital campaign was created by Publicis iStrat while the TVCs are by Publicis Ambience.
By A Correspondent
Sony Six has acquired the broadcast rights to the New Zealand (NZ) vs India cricket series. The series will be held in NZ from January 19 to February 18, 2014. The 30-day tour starts with five ODIs followed by two Test Matches. Given the time difference, the coverage start timings are 6.30am for ODIs and 3.30am for Tests.
Commenting on this acquisition, N P Singh, CEO, MSM said, “We are delighted to partner New Zealand Cricket as the official broadcaster to this series. With this acquisition, we are staying true to our objective of delivering high octane sporting events.”
Prasana Krishnan, Business Head, Sony Six, said‎, “Both New Zealand and India play exciting brand of cricket and we are thrilled to be the exclusive partner to this promising series.”
The ODIs are scheduled on Jan 19, 22, 25, 28 and 31 and the Test start dates are Feb 6 and 14. While the coverage for all the ODIs starts at 6.30am, each day of the two Tests starts at 3.30am.
By A Correspondent
The Dainik Bhaskar group has been taking a lead on publishing the top creative work in advertising over the last few years. The third edition of the book called ‘Mosaic 2014′ is set to be published as the group is now commencing entry processes for the volume.
The second edition of Mosaic showcased the best of print ads of 105 brands created by over 31 leading creative agencies in India, while the first edition featured over 70 brands of print campaigns by 25 leading agencies.
Commenting on Mosaic’ third edition, Girish Agarwaal, Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group said: “This endeavor was launched by Dainik Bhaskar with the aim to showcase in a single collection, the great work being done in India in print advertising, while we have mostly referred to global compilations.”
Added Sanjeev Kotnala, Vice President and National Head, Marcom, Dainik Bhaskar who is leading the effort: “It has been a real pleasure to see Mosaic establishing itself and growing to become a reference point for some of India’s best print creatives, and evolve from being more than just a celebration of the best print work. For us at Dainik Bhaskar, it is our significant endeavor to highlight the Indian talent within agencies and inspire them to do even better”.
By A Correspondent
VServ, a popular mobile advertising facilitator, has come up with an interesting infographic on in its ‘Developer Survey 2013’ where 1500 app developers were surveyed.
According to VServ, the global mobile ecosystem has grown “immensely” in the last few years. Adds a communiqué: “Mobile App development is a thriving industry with huge scope for aspiring developers. Every single day brings news that reflects interesting mobile technology breakthroughs that propels app development opportunities to the next level. Smartphones have brought with them smarter consumers, who have adopted apps to become integral part of their lifestyle. Considering that many developers have been able to innovate across mobile devices and operating systems to create entrepreneurial avenues which has scaled their business faster. This opens up great opportunities for developers to build great products that can reshape the way people use technology. However, developing such apps is a herculean task for the developers, where they have to figure out ways to integrate crucial app developed lifecycle services such as ad monetization, analytics, bug tracking and in-app purchases.”
By A Correspondent
As the date for the 2013 edition of the Indian Effie gets closer, the Advertising Club has released the details of the 177 case studies shortlisted for Round 2 of the judging held in Mumbai and Delhi.
The Effie 2013 awards night will now be held on Friday, January 17 at the Taj Lands End and not January 15 at the Turf Club as announced earlier.
By A Correspondent
Platinum Media, a part of Madison Media Group, has started 2014 with a bang by winning the account of Lafarge India in Kolkata in a multi-agency pitch. The other agencies that participated in the pitch are Mindshare, Dentsu and incumbent agency Havas. Lafarge’s mediaspend is estimated to be pretty sizeable and will grow substantially over the next year looking at its expanded market in North India. The account will be handled out of the Kolkata office.
Commenting on this development, Aniruddha Sinha, Assistant Vice President, Lafarge India, said, “Madison Media has extensive understanding of the Indian media scenario and their approach and innovative media solutions will enable us to drive impactful media presence across our audience segments. ”
Says Basabdatta Chowdhuri, CEO, Platinum Media, “We are delighted with this new win and are confident that we can add strategic value in making the Lafarge brand, a household name across the country.”
By A Correspondent
92.7 Big FM was awared ‘Best Radio Station’ at the 20th Lions Club Gold Awards in Mumbai last week.
Commenting on the receipt of the award, Ashwin Padmanabhan, Business Head – of the 45-station radio network said: “We feel proud to be ‘Best Radio Station’ in Mumbai and extend our heartfelt gratitude to Lions Club and to our loyal listeners who have contributed to our success. We look forward to continuing to offer our listeners some of the most lucrative shows and path breaking content in 2014.”
By A Correspondent
The Paul Writer community of marketers released the findings of a research project sponsored by SAP on Customer Engagement. Based on a LinkedIn poll taken by over 600 senior marketers in India, the findings suggest that for Indian marketers, customer experience is emerging as a top priority.
The LinkedIn poll asked senior marketers in India where they believe customers would like them to invest their budgets in the coming year. The majority said clients would want them to spend on improved products/services (33 percent) and a “better experience overall” (43 percent). This suggests that the Indian marketers are clearly becoming more tuned into the importance of building a strong customer experience, before they venture into more sophisticated initiatives such as targeted offers and mobile access.
Commenting on the relevance of customer experience today, Rajesh Kumar, Head of Marketing, Indian Subcontinent, SAP, says, “Customer experience emerged as the top priority for CEOs in building and maintaining their competitive edge. Organizations need to address the customers’ journey with their brands holistically rather than trying to address it as a point problem. We are seeing innovative CMOs taking the lead and leveraging technology to understand, track and deliver the experience that customers expect.”
When Paul Writer spoke to Ganesh Vasudevan, CEO, indiaproperty.com, on the importance of customer engagement in his business today, he said: “The customer engagement challenge to my mind is to keep meaningfully conversing with your consumers- from when he or she is an early suspect right up to the post purchase servicing stage and beyond into the repeat purchase stage, and today’s technologies have created a rich milieu of new touch points both virtual and real for marketers to start these conversations.”
The respondents of the LinkedIn poll point out that best customer experience combines quality, relevant products and price. Also, they suggest that it’s time to give the customer better products, service and the best quality at an optimum cost. Some respondents pointed to technology’s role in providing compelling customer experiences, using analytics to unearth customer preferences and integrating systems to achieve consistency across all channels, including phone, web, mobile, instant messaging and in-store.
Survey respondents also indicated they are looking over the horizon at giving customers greater mobile access and improving targeted offers. Additionally, prevailing marketing techniques vary considerably from industry to industry. In business-to- business markets, for example, many companies need to build and maintain loyalty in their dealer network, and targeted offers greatly aid in that pursuit. “In the cement industry, companies do everything to make dealers loyal. For that, better targeted offers is the most suitable method,” said one respondent.
Said Jessie Paul, CEO of Paul Writer India, “Till recently the Indian customer was accustomed to lip service from brands. But rising prosperity and increased competition have given them a voice and businesses are becoming customer centric.”
By Peerzada Abrar
Canaan Partners, a multi-billion dollar global venture capital firm, has led a Rs 35-crore investment into Bengaluru-based digital media technology company SureWaves MediaTech. Existing investors, India Innovation Fund and Accel Partners, also participated in the round.
SureWaves which provides advertising technology to customers such as food company Nestle, healthcare products maker Johnson & Johnson and consumer goods company Hindustan Unilever will use the funds to hire talent, tap global markets and support innovation.
“We will be targeting several emerging and developed countries,” said SureWaves MD Rajendra Khare, who believes their technology is first of its kind, as even in developed markets like United States, an automated centralised solution for insertion and real-time monitoring of ads across multiple television channels is not available.
Source:The Economic Times
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By A Correspondent
Leading English general entertainment channel AXN India announced a content acquisition deal with CBS Studios International on Friday. AXN, which has been airing home CBS shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and NCIS: Los Angeles has now acquired five more shows, namely Elementary, Beauty and The Beast, Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-0 and Reckless.
The channel will have exclusive rights to air all episodes of the newly acquired shows from CBS Studios International starting this January, notes a communiqué.
Talking about the deal, Sunil Punjabi, Business Head, AXN India said, “The current deal with CBS Studios International has only strengthened our long-standing relationship with them. AXN has always been the home to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and NCIS: Los Angeles. The new shows will further add approx 100 hours of content airing close to the US every year. This deal is all set to strengthen the ever-expanding bouquet of AXN programming.”
By A Correspondent
Ajay Kakar, Chief Marketing Officer – Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group and head of Effie India has been appointed as Head of Jury at the Asia Pacific Effie.
The APAC Effie has announced the first two of the four heads of jury who will form the Judging Committee for its 2014 Awards. Mr Kakar and Ben Lightfoot, CEO, McCann Worldgroup Singapore are the two names announced.
On his appointment as a Head of Jury, Mr Kakar said: “Having chaired the Effie India Awards for the last three years, I am indeed honored to now be invited as a Head of Jury for the APAC awards. In recent years, the need and demand for work that works in the market place, have given the Effie award a pride of place on the shelves of both agencies and marketers. As a Head of Jury I do look forward to the exciting opportunity to review the most insightful and impactful campaigns from across the region.”
Said Mr Lightfood, who also helms the role of a committee member of the APAC Effie and is Chiarman of Effie Singapore: “We have seen so much great work come out of our region, both in terms of creativity as well as effectiveness. I am really excited to see how the strategies developed led to innovative integrated creative solutions. Strategies unique for Asia Pacific, that broke away from category norms and delivered exceptional results.”
Commenting on the appointments, Connie Chan, 2014 Awards Chairman said: “We’re delighted to welcome the Heads of Jury on board the Judging Committee. The rich experience and expertise of these heads make up a powerful composition for the judging committee, with a good mix of industry leaders from different backgrounds across APAC. We look forward to the great dynamics arising from the interaction and tapping on their perspectives in the judging sessions.”
Finalists will be announced in end of February 2014, with the Awards Gala set to take place in Singapore in April 2014. More info at www.apaceffie.com.