The Goafest Organising Committee appears to have suffered another blow with the confirmation of the news that Chairman of the Organizing Committee Nakul Chopra has stepped aside from the position earlier this week.
Confirming the news to MxMIndia, Mr Chopra said the festival is still sometime away and his primary work of leading Publicis Worldwide in the region is taking a fair amount of time, it was tough for him to reconcile both.
Although Mr Chopra was unwilling to comment on the dates, as per information received by MxMIndia, it’s likely to that Goafest dates may get pushed to end-May to avoid a clash with the elections. “They should have ideally happened in the first week of April, but since they didn’t, the only option is to have it at the end of May. The next window is in October, when people get busy with the festival activity.”
At the time of writing it was still not known who will replace Mr Chopra, though there are naysayers that his decision is indicative of the growing disinterest in Goafest. “The total silence will only benefit the alternative D&AD-Kyoorius initiative.”
It’s the second week of February and no date has been announced for the 2014 edition Goafest , pointing to issues that the committee is facing on the dates. When MxMIndia called AAAI President Arvind Sharma late last month, he said he would announce them last week.
When MxMIndia asked an officebearer about the date, he replied in the same vein: The dates will be announced soon.
The reason for the delay is that the organizers want to avoid a clash with the general elections. But that an agency told us is not tenable as a reason because this is not the first time the elections have clashed with Goafest. “Do it in the last week of March or first week of April, and there will be no clash,” he said. “The question is do we have enough quality participants at the Creative Abby. And do we have enough sponsors coming in for the festival and the Industry Conclave.”
What MxMIndia has been told is that despite the absence of some of the top agencies, the event will be held. One of the dates mooted is April 28, but that too could clash with the polls, is the worry.
As has been reported, the London-based international not-for-profit D&AD has announced its intent to bring its awards with Kyoorius, a not-for-profit body which would conduct an annual design fest in Goa. TheKyoorius Awards are scheduled to be held around June 2014 in Mumbai, and the entries will be accepted with effect from March 20.
Entertainment Network India Limited (ENIL) has elevated Prashant Panday to the post of Managing Director & CEO with immediate effect. Erstwhile the Executive Director & CEO, Prashant is one of the most illustrious names in bringing in the radio revolution in India and strengthening Radio Mirchi’s presence both nationally and internationally.
In the new role, Prashant will continue to spearhead the team in maintaining Radio Mirchi’s leadership position in the country.
An Engineering graduate in Electronics & Communications and IIM Bangalore graduate, Prashant has been associated with the company since August 2000. Over the past 14 years Prashant has been able to take Radio Mirchi to an enviable position with revenues of Rs. 385 crores and a PAT of Rs. 84 crores in the 2013-14. Prashant has a total of 24 years of experience in industries ranging from Advertising, Banking, FMCG & Media. Prior to Radio Mirchi, Prashant has worked with Citibank, Pepsi, HUL, Mudra, Modi Revlon etc. His areas of strength include Marketing & Sales, Analytics & Strategy and People Management. He also served as a member of the Ministry of I&B’s committee on fighting Piracy. He is a speaker at various industry forums.
Talking about the development Mr. Prashant Panday said, “It feels good to be recognized by the Board! I’m lucky to have the best team in the media industry working alongside as colleagues. I’ve always believed that the best of radio is still to come and the next 5 years will be a fabulous ride for anyone seeking professional success.”
About Radio Mirchi:
Entertainment Network India Limited (ENIL), India’s leading private FM radio broadcaster, popularly known as Radio Mirchi, operates across 32 cities in the country. Launched in 2001, Radio Mirchi has the highest listenership across the country and a track record of developing innovative content, thus expanding and retaining its audiences and advertisers through the years. Radio Mirchi has delighted listeners and the industry with its exciting properties like the Purani Jeans Film Festival and the Mirchi Music Awards.
Radio Mirchi’s continuous innovations across different platforms like Visual Radio or Mirchi Mobile have been instrumental in gaining leadership in the private FM Radio industry. Radio Mirchi made its international foray with the launch of the brand in the UAE. From 1st Feb, 2012, Radio Mirchi can be heard in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain and is the first Indian radio brand to go international.
Pradeep Hejmadi, Senior Vice President at TAM Media, is set to join Zee Entertainment as Business Head of the flagship channel, Zee TV.
While his decade-odd stint at TAM – especially the S group which was engaged in the consulting operations of the measurement company – will ensure that he steers Zee TV to the top of the heap of general entertainment channels, Mr Hejmadi or Praddy, as he is known in the trade, is no newbie in broadcast. He has held key portfolios at Discovery, Nickelodeon and Turner Broadcasting.
At TAM, he reported to LV Krishnan. He is likely to take charge at Zee by mid-June, 2014
Videocon has shifted a part of its advertising account to Rediffusion Y&R as it tries to reposition its telecom, mobile handset and flat panel television business. The account size is pegged at upwards of Rs 150 crore. The mobile handset business was handled by McCann World-Group’s second agency TAG until three months ago. The rest of the account moved to Rediffusion Y&R last week.
Videocon has also appointed a small independent agency SHO to handle its home appliances business, which had been awarded to Mindset, a subsidiary of JWT last year. Videocon’s direct-to-home (DTH) business D2H will continue to be managed by Lowe Lintas. Confirming the development, Sunil Tandon, group chief marketing officer, Videocon, said that multiple agencies pitched for the account.
“We expected the agency to understand our products, market and consumer behaviour, so that we reach out to the right set of audience with relevant message. We observed team Rediffusion Y&R understood these requirements and the same was reflected in their proposal,” he said. Amitava Sinha, chief operating officer, Rediffusion Y&R said: “We have been pursuing and engaging with Videocon for a really long time and I believe our previous stint with LG helped us win the business. These are categories that are fast evolving and consequently the communication challenges will demand clutter breaking and innovative thinking.”
A mail sent to JWT received no response until the time of going to press, but Sanjay Nayak, president, McCann WorldGroup, who also heads TAG, acknowledged that they parted ways with Videocon “some time ago.” Videocon’s telecom business was not a part of this process, however.
The company has telecom licences in six circles. Though Videocon does not operate in any of the circles, it plans to launch 4G services by the end of 2014. Videocon’s pan-India telecom licenses were cancelled in February 2012, following which the company bid for seven circles during the auction in November 2012.The company is expected to launch a range of mobile handsets in the coming months, and a new campaign will be launched around Diwali said a source at the agency.
It’s been doing the rounds for a while. That post the elections, there would be a huge churn at leading media conglomerate Network18.
This one though is huuuuge. B Sai Kumar, Group CEO, has put in his papers. Having worked with the group for over 14 years and propelled it to the status it enjoys today, Sai has been part of all key ventures of the group. From business channel CNBC to the jv with Viacom, the partnership with A+E Networks, the formation of IndiaCast, the licensing deal with Forbes and the very ambitious digital foray. He was also on the board of the Group’s various joint ventures. In his role as Group CEO, Sai charted out the company’s business turnaround and return to profitability.
Raghav Bahl
Commenting on the development Raghav Bahl, Founder & Editor of Network18 said; It’s not easy to describe Sai’s role and contribution to the Group. He has been one of the key pillars of the Network18 story. I am truly privileged to have been able to work with someone like Sai who has, I daresay, given the prime of his life to the growth & development of our baby called Network18, right from the days when it was a fledgling single channel operation to its evolution as one of India’s largest and most diversified and respected media companies. But there comes a time in life when one takes a heed to one’s calling and wish Sai all the best for that.
Said Sai: “Network18 has been an extension of my family. I take with me very good memories and I will always cherish the time spent here. It has been a tremendous learning ground and I thank all my colleagues for the support, passion and hard work they brought to work every day. While all good things come to an end, I see it as a new beginning and I am positive and hopeful that Network18 scales new heights here on.”
Ajay Chacko
Meanwhile, it is learnt that Network 18 COO Ajay Chacko has also handed in his papers. There are rumours that IBN Editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai may also be leaving the organisation, though there is no confirmation of the same.
The Indian e-Commerce market as of December 2013 stood at INR 62,697 crore though only 25 million of over 231 million internet users transact online. And, security still emerges as the major issue for online transactions.
As per IAMAI, PCI & IMRB report the digital payments industry is expected to grow at a rate of 40 per cent to reach INR 120,120 crore by December 2014.
According to Asit Oberoi, Sr. President & COO – Yes Bank, “Though security is a concern for many, it is imperative to point out that the evolving and tech savvy customer today, is more confident transacting online. The digital payments industry is witnessing a steady growth and that goes on to show the acceptance of online transaction.” While global online utility bill payment hovers around 18 per cent, in India it is around 10 per cent.
Speaking at the 6th IAMAI National Conference on Digital Commerce, Ravi Sundarajan, Chief operating Officer – Webaroo said that China is set to be the world leader in e-Commerce in the next 18 months. “With over 240 million online shoppers, China is set to be the new leader in e-Commerce. In China 6 per cent of retail sales accounts for online shopping and has been growing at an exponential rate in the last ten years and compared to that only 1 per cent of retail sales accounts for online shopping in India.” According to him, “If India has to become a world leader in e-Commerce, mobile apps; sms marketing has to evolve.”
Speaking about engaging internet users in online retail, Nitin Bawankule, Director – e-Commerce & Online Classifieds, Google India, said, “When Google started GOSF in 2012, 50 per cent of the shoppers were first time buyers. In 2013 GOSF, 55 houses and 285 cars were sold with 40 per cent of the shoppers being women. This clearly shows how consumers are increasing spend on through the internet, though India is way behind when compared to other countries.”
In the US, there are 245 million internet users and 156 million online buyers, while China has 538 million internet users with 270 million online buyers. Closer home, Sri Lanka, with 3.2 million internet users, has 2 million online buyers and Australia, which is a similar economy to India, has 20 million internet users with 11 million online buyers. Unfortunately, India, with over 231 million internet users, has mere 25 million online buyers.
It’s been doing the rounds for a while, That Satyajit Sen and Navin Khemka are qutting ZenithOptimedia India and now the news has been confirmed by Anupriya Acharya, Group CEO ZenithOptimedia Group. “After putting in eight years with ZenithOptimedia, Satya has decided to embrace a new challenge. We thank him for all his contributions to ZO and wish him all the very best”. She also informed that Khemka, who has also been with the group for eight plus years, has put in his papers. “ZOG thanks him also for his contributions and wishes him well in his next assignment”
Anupriya Acharya
Meanwhile, Ms Acharya also announced the appointment of Dnyanada Chaudhari as Managing Partner, ZenithOptimedia India. Dnyanada will be incharge of trading and media management nationally and in this role, she will partner marketing teams to not just look at efficiencies but also leverage strategic alliances across media partners, in line with our Live ROI philosophy.
Says Ms Acharya: “Dnyanada brings with her the exact expertise needed for this role. Her diverse background across strategy, buying and media management as well as experience with large scale businesses, is especially suited to create and refresh our trading architecture and execution across all media including TV, Print, Radio, Digital, OOH, Experiential and other specialist services.”
Dnyanada Chaudhari
Ms Chaudhari joins from today (June 2) and will be based out of ZO’s Gurgaon Office. In her 18 years of work experience, she has gained expertise across diverse functions – strategic planning, buying, media management and has worked both on the agency as well as the client side. In her last role at Madison, she led its Mumbai office as COO and was responsible for driving excellence across units. She has also been at Lodestar and ZO in the past. Her client experience includes three of the most admired companies – ICICI Prudential, Marico and HUL. At HUL, as Head – Media services in India, she was amongst the top 40 media people in the Unilever world and was responsible for maximizing ROI and driving competitive advantage for India’s largest advertiser. Over the next few days and weeks, she will come across to meet you at your convenience.
Comments Ms Chaudhari: “Am excited to be back and strongly believe in ZenithOptimedia’s Live ROI principle and am very keen on partnering marketing teams to not just look at efficiencies but to also strategically leverage alliances to drive thought leadership and brand ROI”
Prasanna Kulkarni
Ms Acharya also confirmed the appointment of Prasanna Kulkarni, as Chief Creative Officer, ZenithOptimedia Group. He will be based out of Mumbai and in-charge of Creative and Content marketing solutions across ZenithOptimedia, Performics, Resultrix and Newcast. Said Ms Anupriya: “We are increasingly finding our clients requiring creative content solutions across not only online but even on integrated campaigns. Prasanna’s role is towards driving competitive edge in our product through superior integration of creative and content solutions. In fact as we move ahead, we will be looking at getting more and more diversified talent on board.
With over 16 years of experience in advertising, brand strategy, and digital media, Mr Kulkarni’s previous assignment saw him leading a creative team as Executive Creative Director at JWT – digital. Prior to that he was at OgilvyOne Worldwide India as Senior Creative Director – Digital; his experience also includes Rediff.com, Ogilvy Interactive and the E-learning domain. He has worked for clients like IBM, Diageo, Ceat, Cadbury, Vodafone, Vespa, Lenovo, HSBC, Tata Motors, Castrol, Star India, Perfetti Van Melle, Hindustan Unilever Ltd., British Airways, Starbucks, Godrej and won several accolades and awards.
Says Mr Kulkarni: “Great opportunity to work across the focus groups like performance based marketing, content led communication solutions, and integrated campaigns with ZenithOptimedia and its divisions, extremely glad to be part of such multidisciplinary team at ZOG. I look forward to taking the organization’s creative capabilities to the next level by elevating the bar for innovative content. I am confident we are on our way to making ZenithOptimedia, Performics, Resultrix and Newcast a stimulating place for creatives and patrons alike.”
Multi Screen Media (MSM) announced the launch of LIV Sports, a premier digital sports entertainment destination – www.LIVSports.in. The digital destination will present one-point access to the right mix of sports and entertainment innovatively across devices. Coming from the Sony Network, LIV Sports will target the avid sports fan as well as entertainment seekers.
LIV Sports is the official mobile and internet broadcaster for the 2014 FIFA World Cup starting 12th June 2014. LIV Sports will show both live and video-on-demand match content, with rich and informative statistics and analysis.
NP Singh
NP Singh, CEO, Multi Screen Media (MSM)commented, “The idea was to create a premier digital sports entertainment destination where we will offer quality content which is mass inclusive and not designed to cater only to ardent sports fans. We have attempted to redefine the way sporting content is presented and consumed. With LIV Sports we will attempt to keep every cross section of our consumers actively engaged through high quality interactive sports content with informative data and analytics.”
Nitesh Kripalani, Executive Vice-President – New Media, Business Development and Digital/Syndication at Sony Entertainment Network, reiterated, “LIV Sports is the first and only digital destination to offer a unique mix of live Sports, live statistics and engagement, thereby catering to multiple user groups and their preferences. With LIV Sports we are aiming to create a new category of “Sports Entertainment”. You can either watch the live match, with all the deep statistics overlaying the video, or you can just click a selfie in your team’s jersey using the Jerseyfy Me application. We have also brought back the digital avatar of the Player cards, combined with educating fans about the different athletes with – Pehchaan Kaun. The objective is to empower the Sports fan with deep statistics on video; as well as engage with the fence sitters.”
Over the next few months, viewers will be able to catch up with the widest range of sporting content, including Football, NBA, UFC, Tennis and Cricket on LIV Sports. The digital destination will offer live and exclusive video content along with a complete coverage of the latest sporting content present, across devices. Considering the fact that data and statistics makes sports interesting, LIV Sports makes available to its viewers the most comprehensive and in depth world-class sporting data and info- graphics. Consumers will be able to access content like details of individual players, performances of teams, rankings, comparisons, event charts and heat maps.
Consumer electrical and electronics company V-Guard has appointed RAPP India as its digital agency on record. RAPP India’s mandate will be to plan strategic initiatives for V-Guard on digital while managing its end-to-end digital and social media presence.
The account will be handled by RAPP India’s Gurgaon office.
V-Guard is synonymous with voltage stabilizers and has diversified to have a wide range of products like stabilizers for air conditioners, digital UPS, different kinds of heaters, pumps, cables, induction cook-top & fans. With over 250 distributors and service centres and more than 10,000 retailers serving the needs of over 50 million customers, V-Guard Industries is a household name in India.
On winning the account, Venkat Mallik, President, RAPP India, said, “What excites us about V-Guard is the team’s vision and leadership in the consumer electronics category. We’re absolutely thrilled to partner with them in their journey towards becoming a company with a highly diversified portfolio and national presence. Digital will play a huge role in this journey. The mandate for us is to make this category exciting for consumers. Digital can help us do this while we continue to build on V-Guard’s leadership position.”
Commenting on the association, Nandagopal Nair, Head – Corporate Communications, said, “V-Guard is in the process of building its digital ecosystem for the brand; it was important to align with an agency who understands the complexities and challenges of the brand as well as the environment we operate in. RAPP brings a sharp, insightful digital thinking which would help build the V-Guard brand in the digital space and partner us in this journey. RAPP was able to demonstrate their capability with a well thought through, cohesive strategy on what the brand needs to do in a laddered manner in the digital environment.”
Baskin Robbins has unveiled ‘The Big Chill’ campaign that has been executed by their creative agency, thoughtblurb.
Commenting on the campaign, Vinod Kunj, Managing Partner, thoughtblurb, said, “While most ice cream brands tend to build campaigns around the summer season, our intention was to up the ante and get Baskin Robbins to ‘own the season’ with its premium quality ice creams. ‘The Big Chill’ campaign has done just that. Keeping the core attributes of the brand in mind, the creative rendition exudes a sense of fun, coolness and charm. We consciously used the settings of a chilled out holiday to capture the mood of the season.”
With a new focus and strategic roadmap in place, Baskin Robbins is looking at deepening its reach across the Indian market. Although the category has become more competitive with new international players joining the race in the last few years, Baskin Robbins legacy in the Indian market is an added advantage to the company.
Adding to the new rise of the brand, Sanjay Coutinho, CEO Graviss Foods, said, “The key focus is to re-energize the brand and re-build its appeal in the market. I strongly believe the brand has tremendous potential and all it needs is intelligent communication to drive the right messages to our target audience. With thoughtblurb as our creative partners, I share a strong sense of confidence in their capability to help our brand move to the next level. Summer is a critical time of the year and every player in the category looks at getting the maximum traction.”
Adding further he said, “The focus for us this year was a bit different. We aimed to complement the joy of summer by enabling our customers to enjoy the season with our wide range of flavors and products. I am glad the campaign has boosted our performance in the market. Baskin Robbins enjoys a very strong brand preference and we will continue the innovation funnel to offer newer products and offerings to our discerning consumers.”
Rebecca Daniels & Rohan Mathew, students from Miami Ad School, Mumbai have been nominated in D&AD for their work ‘Chatty Charger’. They are the first students from India to be nominated in D&AD. The initiative received support from eminent industry personalities like Josy Paul, Rajiv Rao, Raj Deepak Das among others who took the time out to come and teach at the school.
Miami Ad School is the only international ad school in India with courses in Copy Writing, Art Direction and Digital Design. 50 per cent of the course time allows the student to study and intern in agencies globally.
