MxMIndia

Category: BTL BAATEIN

  • While ATL is important to build the brand’s consumer connect, BTL is an equally important avenue for us to reach our partners, influencers and customers, says Ram Mehrotra, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Decorative Paints at Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited in BTL Baatein, powered by VISCOMM

    BTL Baatein: Ram Mehrotra, Kansai Nerolac Paints… Powered by VISCOMM

    Ram Mehrotra has been with Kansai Nerolac since 1998 and brings with him over two decades of sectoral experience in the sales and marketing domain. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering and an MBA in Marketing from Kanpur University.  Ram Mehrotra is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Decorative Paints at Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited.

     

    We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Santosh Jangid speaking to Ram Mehrotra about Below The Line (BTL) advertising, focus of the company and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    The decorative paint industry has traditionally been a low to quasi involvement category. Consumers consult painters, contractors and dealers throughout the paint selection and home painting  execution process. Hence while ATL is important to build the brand’s consumer connect, BTL is an equally important avenue for us to reach our partners, influencers and customers.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    Painters or contactors and Dealers make up the ‘influencer network’ in the paint industry. They advise consumers on suitability of a product, spends and even colour choices. Therefore, every aspect and  detail of our offering from product attributes and innovations to pricing needs to be communicated clearly to them. Painters due to the nature of their work are often travelling, making it difficult to get in touch with many of them at one time. Here, activations like product demonstrations at dealer outlets or van activations help us communicate with them better, with the additional benefit of reaching non metros and even the remote parts of the country.

     

    Paint is not the final product as far as the consumer is concerned. The application process is as important if not more important than selecting the right product and colour. BTL activities with influencers like painters helps us build brand recall while improving service quality through painter training workshops and skill building sessions making it  a win-win for all involved. We also reach out to dealers through specially convened meets to address their concerns and gather feedback at regular intervals.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    Our investments in marketing initiatives continue to grow and BTL forms a significant chunk of the marketing mix.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We choose to go with a variety of dedicated BTL agencies depending on the activity and region

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    Not necessarily. Depending upon the business objectives and the medium role in the mix, each initiative’s (whether ATL or BTL) success  is  judged basis a predefined metric.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    Depending on the type of BTL activity the metrics differ. Attributes like increase in enquiry, attending trainings, brand interactions, participation of dealers in initiatives are some of the popular metrics.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your views on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    Consolidating ones presence in the consumers mind is important across categories. Especially in the paint industry where there is extremely high involvement during the painting cycle and low involvement at other times. Brands need to ensure sufficient visibility and establish a multitude of consumer touch points. ATL and BTL go hand in hand in these scenarios to complete the cycle and build on each other. Hence it is not fair to say either ATL or BTL will by itself achieve a brand’s goal. A great instance of this is the roll out of a new product like we did with Excel Mica Marble this year in September. We leveraged our tie up with the Gujarat Lions and an out of the box approach in the TVC storyline to establish the proposition ‘Mica ki Shakti, Marble ki Shaan’ for the first time in India. This was accompanied by print ads and hoardings pan India.   On the BTL front, innovative Point of Sale collaterals and displays helped strengthened the connect and built recall linking the TVC to the product and colour selection tools.   All these worked together to build consumer and influencer recall giving the brand a push across platforms.

     

  • BTL is very important to us because real estate is a very touch-and-feel industry and consumers want to go, touch and feel the property, says Prasun Kumar, Head-Marketing at Magicbricks.com in this edition of BTL Baatein, powered by VISCOMM

    BTL Baatein: Prasun Kumar, Magicbricks … Powered by VISCOMM

    With over 17 years of experience across advertising, retail and the telecom sectors, Prasun Kumar is a seasoned marketing professional, brand expert, blogger, technology enthusiast and an entrepreneur at heart. With previous experience from working with Levis, Sony and Reliance Communication, he is currently Head – Marketing at Magicbricks.com We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Santosh Jangid speaking to Prasun Kumar about Below The Line (BTL) advertising for real estate sector, focus of the company and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL.

     

     

    In the real estate sector, how would you say have marketers adopted the concept of experiential marketing to its actual potential?

    They are accepting it in a big way. The more you see around, you see developers putting up experiential homes and centres all over the place because at the end of the day with supply overshooting demand, every developer is in the hands for every single consumer and they want to create different creations and that different creation comes largely across by giving a real-life experiences. The footfall at a developer’s site where the project is being executed is very limited and therefore for a real estate developer to enhance his reach and saliency as well as engage and create differentiation, BTL becomes a very important field. So to that extend we see a lot of that happening but largely it’s done by big builders and developers who have deep pockets. Mid to small level developers are not into this at this point of time but there is a prime need on their part as well because everyone wants to be different. Everyone wants to showcase projects in full glory because traditional channels have limited opportunities. To that extent, it becomes very important and for brands like us who are an online real estate website, it is also very pertinent for us to create such experiences and create such differentiations because at the end of the day the consumer who is of a very high value category and has a high purchase item wants to be well-informed and for us to be able to enable that to happen we also keep creating such experiences for them.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    BTL is very important to us because real estate is a very touch-and-feel industry and consumers want to go, touch and feel the property. So it’s very important therefore to create stimulation for consumers where they can get probably as close to the house that they are looking for as possible. The closest is obviously to visit the site but from a marketing perspective, BTL allows us an opportunity. For instance, we have just last week, opened India’s first real estate experience centre in Mumbai. This experience centre is built on the Magicbricks Western Express Highway metro station where there is a captive footfall of over one lakh commuters every day. On the platform, we have built a 400 sq cm experience centre. Using technology, one can actually see the property that you might be looking for buy, sell, rent, etc., in a new light altogether and with more immersive experience which is otherwise not possible to deliver. Creating such stimulations in real life for consumers is very important especially in real estate business where it is a high ticket purchase item and high involvement activity and that’s why consumers want a lot of assurance before they take a decision and therefore the more the human touch, the better.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    Apart from the experience centres, we keep doing activities on ground. Some of them are in malls and multiplexes where the captive footfall is huge. The main motive is to at the end of the day to create and help consumers find and close their decisions with a more informed and immerse way and that’s why whatever opportunities we get in terms of creating real time experience at captive footfall area we continuously do.
    Magicbricks does regular consumer connect activities as part of its strategy to bring enhanced real estate experiences to its users. It has recently launched India’s First real estate Experience Centre in Mumbai. Located strategically at one of the busiest metro station in Mumbai, Magicbricks Western Express Highway Station, the centre is a never-before-seen innovation in  the category. Using technologies like Virtual reality, Augmented Reality, large interactive screens and video chat , the centre elevates the property search experience of intenders and delivers never before seen consumer engagement. The thought behind the centre is to give potential home buyers an opportunity to get over the hardships associated with property search. In true BTL fashion, it gives the brand ‘Thought Leadership’ in the category.  Apart from this, magicbricks.com keeps organising events like Real Estate Dialogues with the Developers / Builders. Normal Mall / Multiplex activities are staple part of the marketing initiatives at magicbricks.com.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    We do not quote the exact spends per se but between ATL and BTL we spend around 30% BTL and 70% on ATL but within BTL if we do some specific initiative like the magic bricks experience centre then that kind of twists the percentage ration but these are once in a while activity.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    Mostly the activities are done through BTL agencies because traditional media or creative agencies are not equipped with on ground activation team and the BTL agencies being specialist in that field bring in a lot of value on the table which otherwise probably would not come so for most of the activities including large scale activities we do it with BTL agencies.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    I wouldn’t say in terms of results but the inherent benefit or strength of BTL is that you can through a fleet on data capture, lead capture, etc., you can show some tangible ROI on the investment which through ATL unless you are doing digital where ROI is something that you can measure which otherwise on traditional ATL is not possible. So BTL does have that advantage if your activity in terms of capturing dats, leads and database leads you to a better ROI.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    The success of a BTL campaign depends on the objective with which you are doing it. There are BTL campaigns which are done purely on a brand engagement purposes and there are BTL campaigns which are done largely to capture data and lead. These are two different kinds of BTL campaigns but in both the cases, in terms of looking at an indicator to identify whether the campaign had been successful or not the metric would be different for both. For a lead generation activity or a sales support activity, the indicator becomes their database or lead generation from that activity. The activities that we do which are purely on brand engagement there you end up capturing a lot of feedback and it can be used further. So it does not directly impact salience per se because there are no touch measure at this point of time which tell you what saliency it delivers but about sales, unless you are closing sales at the BTL venue you will not be able to… and most of the times sales are not allowed because most of the BTL campaigns happen in a pre-defined area like a mall or a multiplex or some crowded market area where you are not allowed to sell. You can engage, you can capture lead but you cannot sell. Sales and salience are not something that you can merely measure out of a BTL campaign but the consumer feedback about the brand and brand attributes is something that you can capture as well as for sales support campaign or lead generation campaign which ends up generating a lot of leads which transitions into potential sales indicators. That comes close to sales as an indicator but it is not pure sales.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your views on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I don’t think ATL vs BTL is the point. It’s about which channel or medium suits your objective at that point of time better. I have seen brands which have launched complete proposition on BTL largely because the proposition demanded a one to one consumer interaction or reaching out to a captive set of audiences which was not possible through ATL. I have seen brands using BTL largely as a standalone channel of reaching out to consumers and launching as well. That’s also possible but at the end of the day it all depends on the objective that you are carrying and how BTL or ATL or digital any of the channels in your strategy. I don’t think any force-fitting also helps. The inherent advantage of BTL is that because you are generating experiences, none of those experiences can become very engaging content for digital media, especially for social and therefore a lot of integration that can happen during a BTL activity and a lot of brands presently are doing that. BTL in terms of cost, a good event will cost as much as a full page ad on leading daily. So in terms of cost there is almost a parity.

     

  • BTL campaigns are a very effective source of feedback and research, says Ramesh Chauhan, Chairman and Managing Director at Bisleri International Private Limited in this edition of BTL Baatein, powered by VISCOMM

    BTL Baatein: Ramesh Chauhan, Bisleri International… Powered by VISCOMM

    With a career spanning of around 52 years, Ramesh Chauhan, the man behind cola giant Thums Up and popular mineral water brand “Bisleri” holds a double major in Mechanical Engineering and Business Management. At the age of 27, he took the bold step of introducing bottled mineral water to the Indian market, at a time when buying it was unheard of. In this edition of ‘BTL Baatein’ which which is powered by VISCOMM, Santosh Jangid gets the views of Ramesh Chauhan, Chairman and Managing Director at Bisleri International Private Limited on Below The Line (BTL) advertising, the focus of the company and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL… it is indeed an honour to have one of India’s most celebrated entrepreneur as part of the BTL Baatein series..

     

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    BTL advertising is more of one-to-one interaction with the consumers and gives them hands-on experience with a product or a service. BTL is precisely targeted for active engagement; once a consumer experiences a brand it helps develop a relationship with the brand thereby indirectly generating leads. It is of key significance to all our brands; and presently we are focusing more on BTL for our soft drinks range – Bisleri POP. It is important that the consumers try our products and become a repeat buyer. So far the response has been very encouraging for all the four variants – Spyci, Pina Colada, Limonata and Fonzo.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    Bisleri is presently involved more in BTL activities in terms of mall activations, canter activities, sampling at select locations where we can touch base with our consumers. We also associate with events which go in sync with our products’ positioning so that we reach our target audience. We also talk to our consumers regularly via social media and digital activities and engage them through contests and rewards.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    FMCG remains the most dominant sector in terms of ATL expenditures. Bisleri has had several successful ATL campaigns in the past such as Veri Veri Extraordinari, Play Safe, Stay Protected, Kiss to Drink; these campaigns were very effective and are still remembered by the consumers. However, since a couple of years, we are taking a different approach and concentrating more on BTL activities which help us to get valuable insights by consumer interactions. Nevertheless ATL is not completely ruled out.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    BTL activities are usually conducted via agencies who have the right expertise to execute such activities, with inputs from our existing creative media agencies. Some activities are also conceptualised and executed independently by us.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    BTL activities give you an opportunity to connect with your target audience and convert them into potential customers if you are able to create the right brand experience. It can certainly give you potential leads thereby enhancing sales; in our experience generally sales promotions give immediate results.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    BTL activities are primarily conducted to drive brand awareness among the target audience and create strong relationship between brand and consumer. BTL campaigns are also a very effective source of feedback and research.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your views on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    ATL and BTL has their own pros and cons. While ATL activities create imagery around the brand, BTL gives relevant feedback and interaction opportunities with the consumers. Hence there needs to be the right balance between the two; we believe both ATL and BTL go hand in hand.

     

  • Since the brand has been youth-centric we associate with numerous colleges and youth events to appease our target audience, says Deepika Singh, Director – Marketing Communications, Gionee India in this edition of BTL Baatein, powered by VISCOMM

    BTL Baatein: Deepika Singh, Gionee India… Powered by VISCOMM

    As Director – Marketing Communications, Deepika Singh is the official spokesperson and head of Corporate Communications & Public Affairs at Gionee India. She has over 16 years of diverse experience in the field of communications and branding, and is an integral part of the core Corporate Strategy team at Gionee India. In this edition of ‘BTL Baatein’ which which is powered by VISCOMM, Santosh Jangid gets the views of Deepika Singh on Below The Line (BTL) advertising, the focus of the company and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL at this hyperactive cellular devices company.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    We need to look at a 360-degree view in terms of reaching out to our consumers and reminding them about our presence and product lineup. We prioritise our basket of ATL and BTL activities to create awareness about our services offered to our consumers.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    There are various BTL activities that we focus on. Since the brand has been youth-centric we associate with numerous colleges and youth events to appease our target audience. Parallel to these we also undertake retail display and promotional activities, neighbourhood market branding, shop and market signage which sets us apart from our competition by creating a look and feel that is unique to the business.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    Both are essential advertising techniques for a brand and hence it reflects in marketing spends for ATL and BTL on equal platforms.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    Our existing creative media agency is for major executions for our brand. For small scale projects we use our local vendors who have been aligned to our local team to get the activities rolling to achieve maximum output.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    In terms of generating results from consumers and in B2B both ATL and BTL prove to be inevitable for our brand if planned and executed properly. Hence both are required to ensure recall, awareness, affinity and experience.  However, human factor, preparation time or training needs mean that BTL has a higher lead time.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    To measure the performance of a BTL activity we look at the ROI as the benchmark to record Incremental sales accomplished against the money spent of a new product sampling.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your views on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    Different brands perceive differently when it comes to fragmented markets. However, after a certain extent, a mix of both will always be more productive and practical as they both help build a consumer and influencer recall giving the brand a push across platforms.ATL and BTL conjointly ensure sufficient visibility and establish a multitude of consumer touchpoints.

     

  • BTL activities helps target customers to touch and feel the product and have the live experience of the brand, says Sanjeev Wadhwa, Executive Vice President – Marketing & Sales at Livpure in this edition of BTL Baatein, powered by VISCOMM

    BTL Baatein: Sanjeev Wadhwa, Livpure… Powered by VISCOMM

    A mechanical engineer from Nagpur University and an MBA from Centre for Management Development, Sanjeev Wadhwa has a career spanning over 24 years and has domestic and international expertise in spearheading and managing business operations and marketing strategies. With previous experience from working at Fisher and Paykel Appliances, Fedders Lloyd, Electrolux Kelvinator and Dr. Morepen Ltd, Sanjeev Wadhwa is currently the Executive Vice President – Marketing & Sales at Livpure. We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Santosh Jangid speaking to Sanjeev Wadhwa about Below The Line (BTL) advertising for water purifier sector, focus of the company and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL.

     

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    BTL activities give a company/Brand to focus on one–to–one communication with the target audience. This is an important tool to increase brand awareness among the target customer. Below the line promotions ensures the recall of the brand and at the same time helps us highlighting the features, USPs and lot of the information of the product. BTL activities helps target customers to touch and feel the product and have the live experience of the brand. BTL activities have benefits like consumer engagement, interactivity and measurability.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion? 

    At Livpure, we undertake swell of BTL activities like hoardings, exhibitions, sponsorship activities, road shows, demo vans, vehicle branding, Point of Sale displays and price promotions. These activities are specific and targeted to end users profile and need.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    As both ATL & BTL are important for Livpure, the % split  between the two will be -  ATL (60%) & BTL (40%)

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We have specific agencies who executes the various BTL activities. The creative are designed by our on board creative agency and the same is executed through specialised BTL agencies.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL? 

    As BTL activities are more targeted and action-oriented, quantifying results become easy. One can get specific leads through these activities and follow it later. Specially in B2B, wherein the results are more effective doing BTL activities.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    At Livpure, the success of any BTL campaign is measured on the leads that we receive during the activity. And later how much has it resulted in conversions and recommendations.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your views on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    A new launch entirely through BTL activities require a lot of effort and it takes some time. On the other hand, ATL activities give you a quick recall and helps in brand saliency. So if the brand has luxury of time, then BTL activities give them opportunity to interact with the customers directly and gain their confidence. It also helps them in knowing if they are missing out on anything or any Value Proposition needs  some improvement. This can easily get corrected through specific BTL campaigns.

     

  • Point of purchase and BTL are the key marketing drivers for United Spirits both on trade and off trade, says Nitesh Chhapru, Head of Marketing for luxury and premium core portfolio of United Spirits

    BTL Baatein: Nitesh Chhapru, United Spirits India… Powered by VISCOMM

    With 16 years of experience spanning across commercial, brand marketing, category management and new product development, Nitesh Chhapru joined Diageo in 2006 and was responsible for brand marketing on the Johnnie Walker portfolio.  In 2010, he moved to the Diageo South East Asia business in his innovation role, managing markets like Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines, where he led the creation of the Ready-To-Drink Innovation pipeline and turnaround of Smirnoff ICE.  Nitesh Chhapru is the Head of Marketing for the luxury and premium core portfolio of United Spirits (USL), a Diageo group company. We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Santosh Jangid speaking to Nitesh Chhapru about Below The Line (BTL) advertising for Distilled Spirits, challenges, government regulations and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    Point of purchase and BTL are the key marketing drivers for United Spirits both on trade and off trade as it helps to maximise visibility.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    The two major channels explored for various BTL activities are On trade and Off Trade. Under On trade various outlets, keys accounts are targeted, where the brand extends price and product discounts, merchandise and various offers to the consumers. The brand also partners with these outlets exclusively organising a brand specific event at the venue. One such activity is “Art of Blending”. An interactive tasting session between the guests as the Diageo brand ambassador takes his guests through the journey of blending various scotch, whiskeys. Under off trade various price and product discounts are given to consumers at the retail outlets specially during the festive season.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL? 

    Our spends are equally divided between ATL and BTL.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    In the designing of a campaign, multiple agencies are involved and we use the expertise of both BTL and the existing creative/media agency we have on board.

     

    Since there are various rules and regulations attached with promotion or displaying alcohol publicly in India, how challenging is it to advertise and market spirits in public spaces since alcoholic brands are only allowed to advertise and market in pubs and clubs?

    As mentioned earlier, due to government regulations, we majorly explore the BTL route. The brand believes in responsible advertising and ensure that all rules and regulations set out by the government are complied with, thereby restricting all advertising and marketing activities to pubs and clubs.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    As both these are two very different way of communication, we don’t have any research backing us to say that one is more effective or successful than the other. Especially the kind of communication that goes out through these channels in terms of alcohol is very varied and hence we can’t attribute that one is better than the other.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    Diageo follows an extremely robust M&E [Monitoring and Evaluation] mechanism for any activation that takes place. Depending on the scale of the campaign, M&E is designed, which differs from case to case. As globally the brand follows the next generation marketing principles we use tools like top line, market share, mind measures and spent awareness are taken into consideration to measure the success of a campaign. Apart from this we also track brand equity scores across all our brands, and the basic movement of these various measures in a campaign give us the success rate of the same.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your views on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    We ensure that all our brand activations are undertaken in a holistic manner through all channels of communication ensuring that our message reaches all our consumers, not alienating BTL or ATL. We prefer communication through targeted traditional and digital media as opposed to broadcast media of ATL. Given the rising media costs we do see an increased spend towards BTL in comparison to ATL.

     

  • When it's about pinpoint marketing or reaching the exact audience BTL is a more sure shot avenue than ATL, says Anil Bhamre, is currently General Manager – Marketing at Ariston Thermo India Pvt Ltd in this edition of BTL Baatein, powered by VISCOMM

    BTL Baatein: Anil Bhamre, Ariston Thermo… Powered by VISCOMM

    With a Master’s degree in sales and marketing from the Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA), Pune and a Bachelor of Engineering in Production from BharatiVidyapeeth, Anil Bhamre brings with him 14 years of experience across brands like Franke Faber India, Tata Autocomnp GY Batteries, The Alchemists Ark and Mahindra &Mahindra, Bhamre, is currently General Manager – Marketing at Ariston Thermo India Private Limited. We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Santosh Jangid speaking to Anil Bhamre about Below The Line (BTL) advertising, the focus of the company in terms of the type of promotions and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?
    BTL plays equally important role in our strategic marketing plan. It gives a pinpoint reach to stakeholders/target audience who are critical for our business so be it channels partners, influencers or end consumers.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    We use BTL as both strategic as well as tactical tools in select marketplaces as and when needed. Main pillars for our BTL activations are in shop branding, outside brand visibility measures, on ground activations, influencer meets, exhibitions, demonstrations etc.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    Approx.60:40

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    There are many BTL elements and each has its own pros and cons to do directly or through implementing agency. Elements which are very strategic and core with lesser volumes, we prefer to do it on our own (to have direct control) but mass BTL elements spread across the country we prefer to do it through execution partners. All our creatives are still done through creative agency.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

    Yes, when it’s about pinpoint marketing or reaching the exact audience BTL is a more sure shot avenue than ATL.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    For us BTL is all about execution, placement, visibility & reach. It’s about visibility share / counter share when it comes to dealer led BTL activates. So it means its success is also upon how well a brand is placed visibly in that particular town/area/counter vis-à-vis competition. BTL in many cases is also measures on leads generated, sales pipeline created etc. e.g. Exhibitions, channel partner meets, local activations etc.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your views on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    Yes many organisations have started working on same but many of these are ahead of curve when it comes to penetration level of the product/service category they operate in and also scales at which they operate (marketing investments in absolute rupees).

     

    For a category like us with less than 6% penetration and industry which is less than US$0.5 bn scale is an issue. For a diverse and larger spread country like India for any brand to cover through BTL effectively is very expensive. One needs to be focused, prioritise and put in investment in different stages over a longer horizon to make it a success. But definitely yes in long term for many organizations BTL will be more fruitful and directly measurable investment rather than ATL when it comes to new launches.

     

  • In the future, the pie of BTL will increase while ATL will keep shrinking, says Manoj Nair, Vice President and Head of Marketing at FCM Travel Solutions in BTL Baatein, powered by VISCOMM

    BTL Baatein: Manoj Nair, FCM Travel Solutions… Powered by VISCOMM

    With a management degree from Mumbai Unversity, an executive programme in leadership and management from IIM Kolkata and an International MBA from Marketing Week plus a career spanning over 16 years in the travel industry, Manoj Nair has worked in leadership positions in various travel companies. With prior work experience from Thomas Cook and Kuoni, Manoj Nair is currently Vice President and Head of Marketing at Flight Centre Travel Group’s India subsidiary. We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Santosh Jangid speaking to Manoj Nair about Below The Line (BTL) advertising for Travel sector, focus of the company and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL.


     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    BTL is very integral for Flight Centre Travel Group in India. We own various iconic brands such as FCM, the second largest corporate travel player in India. Flight Shop, one of the fastest growing travel retail brand with footprints all across India. Corporate Traveller, the only corporate travel brand in India catering specifically to SME segment. Travelmoney.in our foreign exchange brand which caters to wholesale as well as retail requirement through online and offline channels.

    As you can see we cater to people across various categories and while we have a focused approach for all our b2b engagements (read BTL) in our retail promotion we lean heavily on BTL to engage with the right customers and more than 52% of our sales would be a manifestation of reaching out to a known audience and making them aware of the latest offering through various BTL activities

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    We focus a lot on customer and corporate roadshows, networking evenings, targeted mailers and SMS as well as topical events to engage, educate and influence the end customers. Ours is a very ROI driven marketing outfit and to ensure maximum bang for our buck we ensure we take part in events which are response driven and generates leads at an optimum cost. We are continuously benchmarking our activities, events, mailers and measure each promotion on its merits and metrics. The holy grail for us is the COA and while its not apparent in all activities, we definitely look at cost per query and qualify the event as worth the effort of participation or not.. Typical cost of generating a query through a print ad which is a response driven ad the cost would be Rs 900 to Rs.1500 depending on what product we advertise. The same product if we go into a BTL activation wherein if we do a neighbourhood activation, focused targeted emailers or a digital campaign where it is targeted at people who are looking out for a particular holiday the cost comes down drastically to Rs 250-300.

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    The overall marketing budget across all brands is around INR 6 crore of which BTL will contribute to 25% of the spends.

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We normally do it on our own or through an agency which specializes in BTL activation. Our past experience makes us believe that that existing creative and media agency while they are very good at mass media communication when it comes to handling BTL, it’s a different animal and you need to be very nimble on ground and come up with activities which engage or intrigue and open channels to having a conversation.

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

    Yes BTL is a great way of engaging with customers and also more focused and in that sense effective than ATL. For eg we know a large chunk of our customer base have club membership and lot of prestigious club members are our potential customers. So when we launched our Flight Shop Ahmedabad store, we did a purely BTL activation to announce our entry. It was Dassera time and it’s by far the biggest festival & navratri garbas are huge there. We partnered with one of the oldest and biggest club Karnavati and put out our signature big red cushions. We got Thai masseurs to give feet acupressure to people who came to our stall after a tiring evening of playing Dandiya.  While people were sitting there and relaxing in the chairs of the flight market area, we literally had them by their leg J our sales team would go and talk with them, talk about Flight Shop and find out their interest in travel. Needless to say we got lot of queries and sales too. With B2B BTL is our first port of call for customer connect and it always delivers if done through the right forum. When it comes to consumer activity, while we will use mass market to announce an offer or product we will still go the BTL way to generate and get the queries. BTL goes hand in hand with ATL for some of the products where we go out and do a mix of both to ensure we get desired result.

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    The various metrics we consider to qualify a BTL campaign as successful are

    1)   The quality of queries generated

    2)   The total queries generated and percentage conversions

    3)   The quality of engagement

     

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your views on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    There are products which warrant only BTL launch and if it’s done in a very interesting way, yes why not! We did it for our Ahmedabad store launch and its doing well for us, without much of ATL support.

    Yes, I have no doubt in my mind the right way to go is the BTL route and while ATL is the preferred route for PAN India launch where you need to inform a large segment of TG, when it comes to specific/ niche products and areas you will have focused BTL activations.

  • The beauty of digital advertising and BTL is that, everything is measurable, and we can choose the targeting to reach the right audience, says AbhayMokal of Vertozin this edition of BTL Baatein, powered by VISCOMM

    BTL Baatein: Abhay Mokal, Vertoz… Powered by VISCOMM

    An infotech and management graduate, AbhayMokal has five years of experience in the media industry and a rich B2B experience in marketing of industrial products from working with brands like Kingfisher Group – United Breweries Limited, timescity.com, carwale.com and Alfaa UV. Mokal is currently Marketing Manager at Vertoz, a leading programmatic company that offers and monetising solutions to advertisers. We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Santosh Jangid speaking to AbhayMokal about Below The Line (BTL) advertising, the focus of the company in terms of the type of promotions and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    Vertoz is a complete advertising and monetisation suite, where our receiving audience is mostly B2B businesses, brands and agencies. Targeting such people with ATL mediums like radio, TV, print, or outdoor is very difficult. The messaging and communication is purely B2B, hence BTL mediums are preferred to reach the target audience. To target the audience at a micro level, Vertoz prefers BTL mediums more because of the results, reports and ease of calculating ROI.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    Vertoz prefers BTL advertising to connect to the customers. We participate in over 8-10 well known industry relevant events and exhibitions across the globe to develop new relations and touch base with old customers. Exhibitions are an excellent platform to showcase your technology and services to the right audience as people attending the exhibitions are there to understand and know more about the industry’s latest trends. Vertoz highly relies on digital marketing for branding activities. Emailers and monthly newsletters work best to connect with our subscribers regularly. You can inform your customers about the latest offers and share company updates by sending them emailers. People love to hear from the company they are associated with.

    Vertoz uses its own RTB enabled programmatic self-serve platform along with biddable media and paid social media to generate quality leads and brand awareness. Promoting a video or a highly engaging display advertisement is the best way to generate brand recall. We like to share our ideas and knowledge through blogs and social media. Vertoz as a thought leader believes in keeping its audience updated about the industry trends, latest changes in the market and new technology.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    Vertoz majorly spends on programmatic digital advertising and trade shows in BTL. The beauty of digital advertising and BTL is that, everything is measurable, and we can choose the targeting to reach the right audience. Generating business leads and brand awareness with ATL is a little challenging compared to BTL.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    As one of the leading programmatic advertising companies, Vertoz suggests clients to consider expert BTL agencies as they know the latest trends in the market. Considering the current digital era, advertising companies are coming up with new technology and innovations in the advertising industry. Programmatic, header bidding, innovative & engaging ad formats are trending in the market, and only an expert agency can leverage these mediums and vehicles to give best results to customers.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    ATL always has had an upper hand when it comes to generating brand awareness. However, having said that, with ATL, it is challenging to track or calculate the effectiveness of the advertisement. You might end up generating lesser buzz or brand awareness, if ATL mediums are used for very short duration or with low budgets. It is always suggested to use ATL mediums only when you have very high budgets and want to run campaigns all the time. BTL advertising mediums are precisely targeted and because of that it is very easy to track the spending and results. In most of the BTL mediums, you get reports and data about the campaigns in real-time; whereas in ATL activities you can track campaign reach and ROI only after completion of the campaign. If any BTL campaign is not yielding results as per your goals, you can always optimise the campaigns as per the data collected in real-time.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    Major advantage with most of the BTL campaigns is that, it is data driven. Consider a tradeshow or a mall-activation campaign, it is easy to calculate the footfall and the ROI. With BTL activities, the advertiser is always sure about reaching the right audiences. Success of BTL activities depend on various factors. Calculating reach of your advertising communication can help you to understand brand reach. Customer interactions such as footfall to the stall, clicks, likes and comments on the ad, can tell how good your marketing communication and ad copy is. Tracking your returning customers can help you understand the brand’s loyal customers. Like all advertising mediums, success of BTL campaigns is highly dependent on the sales team. Unlike ATL campaigns, customers’ interaction or connect with BTL is very limited. The sales team must connect to the customers through calls, emails or messages before the customer misses to recall the brand.

     

    There are many organizations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your views on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    To create the right marketing mix, companies always go for the multi-channel marketing mix. Brands prefer to take the ‘ATL plus BTL’ approach. It helps companies to reach greater brand penetration which in turn improves brand recall. But as trends are changing, marketers are increasing their BTL and digital marketing budget. Considering consumer oriented brands, it is difficult for them to shift totally from ATL to BTL. For them ATL will always be preferred because of brand and product awareness power that it possesses. However, maximum brands are shifting from ATL to BTL simply because of the real-time results and targeting options.

     

  • Both ATL and BTL have their roles in the marketing mix and the brand should choose the right channel depending on their objectives, says Sachin Uppal, Marketing Director of RummyCircle.com

    BTL Baatein: Sachin Uppal, RummyCircle.com… Powered by VISCOMM

    After completing his engineering degree from Kurukshetra University, Sachin Uppal did an executive programme from IIM Calcutta as also a master’s in finance and maths (online course) from Harvard Business School. Uppal has close to 14 years of marketing experience, working in various roles in the fields of marketing and brand management in organisations such as Naseba, National Instruments, Wipro HealthCare and Wipro Technologies and is currently the Marketing Director of RummyCircle.com, a leading player offering social play games fully owned and operated by Play Games24x7 Pvt. Ltd.

    We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Santosh Jangid speaking to Sachin Uppal about Below The Line (BTL) advertising, the focus of the company in terms of the type of promotions and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    We believe it is important to connect with our consumers through multi-channel approach depending on their consumption patterns. The simple principles of advertising to remember are that the methods should be cost-effective and deliver high ROI. Both ATL and BTL form part of such a communication approach.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    Our brand is in the early stages of growth and we have tried few BTL activities like: touchscreens trials in malls and some event sponsorships among others. However, such experiments have been limited due to effective measurability.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    We have run few cost-effective experiments in BTL. Largely our spends are on digital media channels and some structured regional advertisements.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    Mostly, our experiments have been run directly by our in-house teams. However, we are always open to partner with the right agencies who have on ground foothold to execute such activities.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    The comparison is not apt here. The channel selection is primarily dependent on the objectives and segmentation. The BTL channels are sometimes quite  straightforward to measure and at other times somewhat of a challenge. For example, if I want to get a new audience to sample my food product, trying it out in a mall would make sense. However, if I want to get online traffic at scale, measuring the effectiveness of mall activations may not be that straight-forward. In my opinion, both ATL and BTL have their roles in the marketing mix and the brand should choose the right channel depending on their objectives.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    In words of the famous Australian born management consultant Peter Drucker, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” We apply this principle to all our marketing spends and the primary indicator is ROI on BTL marketing spends. As we evolve as a brand and build new methodologies and techniques to measure our BTL efforts, the success of such campaigns will come to the forefront.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your views on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL? 

    Each brand has its own way of understanding their target audience and coming up with techniques to reach their audiences in a profitable way. Different revenue models at different stages of business growth require different approaches to launch and measure effectiveness of returns on their investments. If a brand is able to almost entirely launch campaigns with outdoor and digital blitz and still achieve their business goals then it’s a fantastic outcome. It gives strong encouragement to new businesses and entrepreneurs entering the space and trying out such campaigns. With digital media on the rise, I see such strategies in early growth periods can be extremely useful.

     

  • BTL is absolutely necessary for the brand to engage with the audience on ground, says Abraham Alapatt, Chief Innovation Officer and Head – Marketing & Service Quality at Thomas Cook India Ltd

    BTL Baatein with Abraham Alapatt, Thomas Cook… Powered by VISCOMM

    A postgraduate in business administration from SCMS School of Business, Kerala, Abraham Alapatt has  over 20 years of professional experience at senior strategic levels from working with brands like Goldwire Communications, Ogilvy & Mather, Reliance Capital, Development Credit Bank and Future Generali India Life Insurance Company before joining Thomas Cook in October 2012. Alapatt is currently the Chief Innovation Officer and Head – Marketing & Service Quality at Thomas Cook India Ltd. We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Santosh Jangid speaking to Abraham Alapatt about Below The Line (BTL) advertising, the focus of the company in terms of the type of promotions and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    Yes, BTL is absolutely necessary for the brand to engage with the audience on ground. Apart from that it is one of the best ways to generate good quality leads (prospective customer) for active selling of the products and give a first-hand experience of the product. While ATL works well to create awareness and generate interest about the product / brand, if ably supported on ground with activations it helps ensure direct and last mile connect with the TG.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion? 

    We activate events across various customer touch-points on grounds comprising travel expositions, apartment and residential societies, corporate parks and companies, schools, malls and city centers among others.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL? 

    Currently, around 80% of our spendings is skewed towards ATL with BTL being around 20%

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency? 

    We use a hybrid model. If the task involves a large scale activation, we do consider an agency to execute it for us, but most times, our local sales teams execute it themselves on the ground in their respective locations.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL? 

    In the B2B space, direct engagement with the customer has always worked well for us. However, at times, it is supported with ATL communication in B2B media vehicles such as trade publications in order to build awareness for the brand.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign? 

    The number of footfalls (engagement with the brand / product) and queries generated during a particular activity/event is the primary measure of success for a BTL activity.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your views on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    The moment you supplement BTL with Outdoor and Digital blitz for any new product launch, it ceases to become a BTL-only launch. But it is a smart way to keep costs low and still manage to create some sort of an impact without spending millions of dollars on a mass media campaign. The only shortcoming of a pure BTL product launch could be scalability, because we can only reach out to a small set of people in the vicinity where the event / activation is being carried out. Hence there are limitations to BTL if you intend for a higher impact with a pan-India product launch.

     

  • Your demographic has to be very focused and only then you can select the activity, says Shirish Deshpande Chief Executive Officer of Pan India ParyatanPvt. Ltd in BTL Baatein… powered by VISCOMM

    BTL Baatein: Shirish Deshpande, Pan India Paryatan Pvt. Ltd… powered by VISCOMM

    With a vast industry career experience spanning over 33 years across varied sectors, Shirish Deshpande is a veteran in the entertainment and amusement industry. An association of more than 16 years with Pan India ParyatanPvt. Ltd (PIPPL) credits him with the launch of Water Kingdom, re-launch of EsselWorld and the brand’s extensions into hospitality and family entertainment centres with the launch of Downtown EsselWorld at Seasons Mall in Pune among other initiatives. Shirish Deshpande is Chief Executive Officer of PIPPL, a subsidiary of the Essel group. It owns and operates amusement park EsselWorldand Water Kingdom, a Theme Water Park.

     

    We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Santosh Jangid speaking to Shirish Deshpande about Below The Line (BTL) advertising, the focus of the company in terms of the type of promotions and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    BTL is very important for any marketing plan and we do a lot of activities on BTL platform.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion? 

    Nowadays we do BTL on a two-way platform – online and offline. We do events at corporate levels where we put a special EsselWorld entertainment week saying – come and buy EsselWorld ticket which will be valid for the next few months and most of discounts in different form in terms of maybe direct entry and some food discount vouchers. So we make overall package which looks very lucrative to them. So this is one of the parts of doing it. Second, we have around 10 small kiosks at all big malls in Pune and Mumbai. So there we continuously do some activities like promoting the product with price limitation so that is also a helping aid and third is a total specific program where we go to societies and take permission from their secretaries and put a booth there on Sundays. It may not turn into business then and there only but either they’ve seen or they have not seen it. There are only two types of people as far as EsselWorldis concerned. One generation has seen it, witnessed it, experienced it and one generation may not have heard it. So for them the awareness is created by going to the corporate societies and complexes.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL? 

    The ratio comes to around 30% – 70% where BTL is 30% and ATL is 70%. Sometimes it’s 20% sometimes it’s 30% but not 30% of the total spends. We are only talking about the media ATL spends. If you take that, our spend last year was Rs 7 crore into total advertising. Other than the other cost of creative, cost of making ad, cost of agency, and cost of BTL agency. I’m not calculating that but out of that but out of the BTL goes around 30% of that. Last year we spent around 2.25 and 4.75 Cr.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency? 

    I prefer to do it with the agency but not all the time but most of the time. We are making our internal teams as well whenever we do impart promotion and at the entry level when the consumer enters into the park and once they are inside the park. Once they come inside the park there is a lot of promotion with the price promotion, invitation promotion like play the games, etc. So whenever they’re in the park we do it internally but for societies and complexes we do it with BTL agencies.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL? 

    Yes, BTL spends are more specific but there are limitations to it. You can cover very few people so you can’t target a mass audience. Your demographic has to be very focused and only then you can select the activity but it gives you results. The cost is on the higher side but you get quick results with the BTL activity.  You don’t know and you can’t judge an ATL activity.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign? 

    If Rs. 200 or Rs. 300 is the cost of food, so we count it. We have school promotions, we have college promotions, we do promotions with Pepsi and we nearly notice all the promotions and then we count the redemption. What was the spend, how many coupons were distributed and what was the redemption? Is we say we sold 100 tickets and whether we get some additional benefit where someone will come with their friends, some with come with their parents. So we track all of those things. In this way we can track and measure it.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your views on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I treat digital as BTL where the reach is very high but it’s very direct, target selection. We can measure every single result and every single sold tickets, the likes, the dislikes. Digital is more measurable although anyone it is very expensive according to me. It’s not that cheap because you can’t get as good results at print but the focus is shifting towards digital. We never spend Rs 1crore on digital but last year we did spendRs 1 crore on digital….

    If I have a national product or national presence, there is nothing like ATL. There is no option when you have a broad spectrum of agency or broad demographic. In my case, yes, demographic of male-female age is 14 to 44. So age-wise it’s a very broad spectrum but currently considering the cost of satellite media I can’t afford to go national when my product is only at one place… otherwise, if you ask me, at any given time, I would love to go for a TV platform.