Category: THE ANCHOR

By Nitin Mantri, CEO, Avian Media

 

Somebody asked me the other day will you have a PR business in the next 10 years? My answer was no – definitely not one similar to what we have today.

 

Reinvention is the name of the game in a cut-throat, competitive world. The PR industry, often dismissed as a business of fluff, realizes this survival mantra more than any sector. There are roughly around 8,000 PR agencies in this country. Imagine the number of press releases sent to newspaper offices. No wonder most end up in trash bins. Newspapers can’t be blamed for not getting excited about our client’s activities, but we have to ensure that the key messages reach the target audience. So, high time we change the way the industry works.

 

Imagine for a moment a world where PR professionals can circumvent traditional media altogether – take the clients’ messages directly to the consumer and engage with them without third-party endorsements. In today’s world you can’t just shout at people about your brand, you have to engage with them cleverly. Why can’t we create our own videos and text-based digital content on behalf of clients and connect with consumers on social media platforms? We don’t need to depend on advertising or television companies for that.

 

PR agencies are already utilising social media platforms and the interactivity they offer consumers. The time has come to go full throttle. Danny Rogers, editor of PR Week, aptly summed up the situation when he said, “The age of advertising is dead – when you built these big expensive campaigns and expected people to buy your product. In order to engage with large groups of consumers you have to create a different type of content. There’s this idea that PR is the medium for the age of dialogue and social media.” Bang on! You can these days run an entire PR campaign on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Frankly, who has the time to read lengthy articles about products, launches and events. People are on the go and they get all their information from the web, which can be accessed on mobiles. PR professionals need to understand that the mobile has changed the way we consume information. There is this exciting, technological boom happening out there, with smartphones, iPads and mobile applications spoiling consumers with options. According to research firm Gartner, the worldwide sale of mobile phones declined 2.3 per cent to 419 million units in the second quarter of 2012, but smartphone sales, which accounted for 36.7 per cent of total mobile phone sales, grew 42.7 per cent in the second quarter of this year.

 

PR agencies cannot afford to ignore this tech revolution. It would be naïve to restrict ourselves to writing boring press releases, tearing our hair over story pegs to sell the client’s products or persuading journalists to attend news conferences when consumers are on a different information-gathering level. India may not have as many smartphone users as the US (over 100 million at last count), but the number is rising in urban centres. Then there are tablet users. In fact, smartphones and tablets are the current media consumption devices. A smartphone user spends more time surfing the web, visiting blog destinations and browsing social media accounts like Facebook, Twitters, Instagram, Pinterest and other mobile apps than making phone calls and sending text messages! That’s a veritable treasure trove for PR pros to not only reach out to consumers, but also engage with them through high-quality content, visually-appealing images and entertaining videos.

 

To believe that we can do without traditional media in India is utopia. Clients will need the third-party endorsement of newspapers and channels. But, the fact remains that the PR industry in India will go through the change and to cut through the clutter, social platforms will be the utilised more and more. We have to use this opportunity to raise the bar and do something different and exciting.

 

By Vijay Subramaniam, Executive Director, Kids Network, DisneyUTV

 

Kids today have gone from being just ‘influencers’ to playing the role of ‘active consultants’ to parents on most household purchase decisions, be it automobiles or real estate to content that is being watched on television.

 

Kids speak and parents listen without prejudice, mirroring a significant opportunity for kids-led family entertainment.

 

Disney is committed to building a family entertainment brand in India and is consciously focused on showcasing memorable stories and wonderful characters that are locally relevant, wrapped with engaging experiences, all of which appeal to the entire family through strong emotional connections.

 

Disney Channel has kept the creative momentum going to effectively tap the opportunity in this space. Our efforts have been led by record-breaking successes in the locally produced fiction space with family comedies in the kids’ genre, original animation and Disney movies. Shows such as Best of Luck Nikki and Suite Life of Karan and Kabir have performed incredibly well for us – immediately and dramatically improving performance of Disney Channel and reinforcing the vision that we have had of kids-led family entertainment in India. Disney Channel is the only channel in the kids’ space thus far to have touched the 200 GRP mark propelled by these successes.

 

Today, along with creative content, it’s extremely essential to take television out of the box and create simple yet unforgettable engagements for consumers, which take their favourite narratives forward to build a memorable experience, emotional connections for everyone in the family including kids, parents and grandparents. And this is precisely what has been at the heart of our brand philosophy. Our most recent campaign, Disney Channel’s Jet Set Go, is an example. The campaign saw an unprecedented 6 million entries from all parts of the country, took a plane full of kids and their families to Disneyland, giving them a lifetime full of magical memories, and culminated with a first-of-its kind billboard in the sky – the first ever Disney branded aircraft in the country.

 

By Rahat Beri, Chief Operating Officer, Percept Profile

 

I think digital media is a game changer and will continue to be, not only in the PR industry but in overall Marketing & Communication space.

 

With the communications convergence and technology innovation, PR is pushed forward at a faster pace than ever before. Everybody knows how social media is impacting today’s communications landscape. It is at the heart of companies’ public relations and marketing initiatives. Increasingly firms are leveraging social media to get an edge, generate Media Coverage and improve brand sentiments. Indian Businesses are embracing this new-age medium. Marketers and brands are increasing the advertising spend on digital platforms to reach out to all relevant brand stakeholders.

 

I strongly feel the success in Public Relations lies in integrating social media into a larger PR strategy. Social media is becoming a vital, fully integrated part of PR. It will be essential to understand the digital marketing space effects. I foresee the dramatic growth of digital communications within the PR Industry in the coming years. PR just isn’t about business-to-journalist anymore, it’s about consumers, friends, fans, followers – everyone! It’s a two-way communication and engagement now. It’s all about the relationships and flow of information. Search and social media optimization are keys for the future.

 

Digital media and the social channels provides instantaneous communication power, this allows PR pros to stay ahead of the curve and provide more value to sales and marketing efforts like never before. Social media will continue to define PR. Measurement and strategic communications will be other top areas where more effort will be seen in the near future. The speed at which information, good or bad, travels in the online world today, strongly indicate towards the importance of monitoring and engaging with consumers greater than ever before.

 

Social media has changed the way we communicate. Whether you’re tweet-crazy, technophobe or addicted to Facebook, everyone will agree that Twitter makes newsworthy stories into headlines much before journalists sit down to pen them for traditional media. Everyone from Amitabh Bachchan to Shashi Tharoor to Anand Mahindra are able to update an avid fan base of followers at the click of a button. Today widely available user-generated content not only benefited brands immensely but introduces a level of consumer engagement that was impossible earlier.

 

But let me caution, social media is not a one-size-fits-all solution. A social media campaign might work for a majority of demographics but might not yield the desired results unless combined with other media channels as part of a cohesive and integrated communications plan.

 

I think, in the coming years public relations and social media will continue to become more intertwined as marketing and communication channels. Public relations agencies must adapt to social media trends and must learn the power of social networking to stay competitive.

 

By Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director, iProspectCommunicate2

 

One Big Idea? CMOs realizing that it is not about digital marketing any more and that India has now transitioned into a digital age.

 

I believe it is no longer about the reach of the internet – with about 32 million PANcard holders and 120 million internet users, the connected individuals control a lion’s share of the disposable income of the country. In less than three years the number of internet users is expected to reach 400 million.

 

The connected individuals are already spending more of their leisure time on the internet when compared to TV, radio and print. However, marketers continue to allocate a majority of their budgets to conventional media – I believe the primary reason for this is because most CMOs think digital marketing is only useful for customer acquisition.
The realization that we are now living in a digital age, and that digital delivers branding, community creation, information dissemination and consumer trends, is happening fast amongst the CXOs of India. This is demonstrated by the fact that I have met more promoters, CMOs and CEOs of large enterprises in the last two years than the first 13 years of my digital journey. Digital evangelists such as I are now getting more time with people who wield the power to move the needle.

 

Many of iProspectCommunicate2’s partners are already allocating more than 40% of their total marketing budgets to digital, and I believe that the same is expected with enterprises which are still using digital for only acquiring customers online. And I believe that all infrastructure needed for the digital tipping point has been laid, the only change required is the shift for CXOs of India onto digital.

 

By Anil Machado, Associate Vice President – National Programming, Radio One

 

It’s the age of customized content. Everyone accepts this in the online space – using data available online, users are profiled to the littlest detail and then offered content. The concept of customized content has existed from as long as radio has been around. The industry however, has clearly forgotten the basics of radio; it’s a one to one medium and not one to one billion medium.

 

Audiences differ from place to place. What works in Mumbai rarely works in any other city. The one big idea that is the game changer is differentiated products. Keeping the audience in mind, we must offer differentiation in the product, not only from a network point of view, but from city to city.

 

Advertisers look for a vehicle that has a well-defined audience irrespective of the data from any research software. There is a huge network of players fighting for the largest share of the listener pie, or the bottom of the pyramid. There are five or more large media players fighting for 60% of the pyramid. The middle part of the pyramid has over 30% of well defined listeners and the only way to target them is by being different. Our research indicated that listeners were bored with what they heard on radio and hence we decided to take the plunge. While everyone in Bangalore had moved into the Kannada space, we took our station into Bollywood, and we saw tremendous success.

 

Keeping ‘being different’ in mind, we decided to redefine the radio industry in India. Our Mumbai and Delhi stations went International; in Kolkata and Ahmedabad we played Bollywood retro and in Chennai we became a 100% listener request station.

 

We look back at Bangalore as the place where it all began. Now everyone looks at us as the stations, that has a well-defined listenership and has achieved success by offering a product that is different, yet relevant to our audience. Our content is unique, yet appealing to a large share of the listeners. Mind you, being different is not “niche” it’s purely “Mass — with well-defined listeners.”

 

By Sameer Ganapathy, Executive Director, Movie Channels and Channel Distribution, DisneyUTV

 

Today’s television industry is in a constant state of flux and is working towards designing and delivering programmes that meet audiences’ demands. Audience viewing habits have dramatically changed – never before has TV viewing been so personal. There is a complete shift in consumer expectations and audiences are looking for greater personalization and customization of content on television.

 

In a continuous effort to adapt to ever-changing needs, broadcasters are focusing on genre-specific programming, tailoring their profile to reflect the uniqueness and density of audience tastes. This transparency has resulted in an outburst of channels spanning several genres like sports, food, comedy, action kids, lifestyle, youth and many more. Like all television genres, action has carved a niche for itself. The action genre is among the most exciting film genres in the world and has recently seen a flurry of launches. National and regional media conglomerates either have entered or have plans to venture into the genre. Despite the fragmentation that has happened in the entertainment world, this is one genre which continues to garner GRPs and viewership as it cuts across all barriers and appeals to all kinds of audiences.

 

The future of Indian television is going to be in niches; the more you can offer options which target a certain psychographic of the target audience, the more it is actually going to find appeal. As India moves towards digitization, the pay revenue model will become a part of the mainstream model, resulting in an influx of genre-specific channels.

 

By Josy Paul, Chairman & NCD, BBDO India

 

India pulls in different directions. Fragmented by religion, disintegrated by language. Nations within a nation. But within this enormous diversity, we seek unity. Our separation makes us want to connect even more. And so we search for platforms and opportunities that unify, ideas that give us identity, allow us to feel one.

 

Cricket is one such idea. In India cricket is not a sport, it’s our unification symbol. It’s our nationality. It gives us common language.

 

Bollywood is another big idea. It’s our mother tongue. We can all understand it. We love it because it binds us. Bollywood icons become larger than life not because they are born great, but because we thrust greatness upon them – in our desperate need to find gods that all of us can believe in.

 

The third idea that unifies the nation is advertising.

 

Advertising in India is more than about pushing brands, it plays a bigger role than that. It is the nation’s glue. ‘Hamara Bajaj’ was the surrogate national anthem when it broke new ground in the early nineties. It was our idea of India. It helped us forget our differences.

 

That’s the power of what we do. Advertising helps us confirm our Indianness, gives meaning to our identity and offers Indians common ground.

 

Which is why some campaigns spread faster than others. Tata Tea’s ‘Jaago Re’, or TOI’s ‘Lead India’, or Asian Paint’s ‘Har ghar kuch kehta hai’, or Alpenliebe’s ‘Lagey Raho’. Campaigns that give us speech. That help us find common phrases, popular lingo, jokes and gossip, and create common action. Like Gillette’s ‘Women Against Lazy Stubble’ and Aviva’s ‘Book Wall of Education’. Songs like ‘Har ek friend zaroori hota hai’ are played over and over again, because they reiterate our nationality. They bring us closer.
Advertising, like cricket and Bollywood, serves a larger purpose. Our national identity and unity depends on it.

 

By Niloufer Dundh, Founder of Ventes Dundh (formerly Sr Vice-President & Head, Integrated Media, Hungama Digital)

 

Every medium has a role to play. I have been lucky to have worked across print, radio, television, out of home and digital. This diverse exposure has taught me that it’s very important to understand the role your medium can play to truly get the maximum for your client/brand.

 

As for the ‘One Big Idea’, I think mobile is the medium to focus on. And why not? That’s the only medium we give our 100% to. It’s the only medium we consume solo. I would bet on mobile as it allows us to reach where Unilever can’t distribute and where SBI can’t possibly open a branch, we have for a long time discussed how TV s penetration in rural India is still abysmal.

 

So what must a mobile plan endeavour to provide a client/brand:

• Ability to micro target an area, vicinity or a location

• Ability to elicit consumption as its possibly the last screen a consumer will interact with before purchase

 

The one big idea that mobile needs besides the two unique properties listed above (which only a mobile plan can provide) is some “awe” content experience, that’s something that television provides in India. If we can come up with a large content property that is sustainable and with a celebrity then mobile advertising will find a new high amongst marketers as this will lend talkability to mobile advertising which is currently missing – the wow factor can only be provided by content.

 

Here at Hungama, we took baby steps with Mobisur – a digital reality hunt using the mobile IVR platform as a means to allow anyone with talent to just pick up the phone and sing with renowned singer Shankar Mahadevan. This is the just the beginning and I am sure in the years to follow there will be many more… Possibly a MasterChef on mobile!!

 

By Kunal Mukherjee, Director Marketing, UTV and Bindass Networks

 

Increation is a concept I came across some time ago when I read a book by the renowned author Jerone Boschma. His latest book, ‘Generation Einstein, smarter, faster and socially more aware’, led to significant media hype in The Netherlands. He specializes in communication strategies targeting children, adolescents and families. In 1998, he co-founded Bureau Keesie, which has built up an impressive track record of finding solutions for organizations (profit or non-profit) who want to really get in touch with today’s young people.

 

Bindass over the years has created in-depth understanding of the Indian youth and has used this expertise to contribute to the Indian edition of this book, Generation Einstein, which was launched late last year.

 

The book throws light on new-age communication techniques and the one that I firmly believe can be the needle mover in youth communication is ‘Increation’. It’s a method of creating concepts together with your target audience; it involves thinking up and creating solutions across a variety of areas, such as new products, concepts or methods of communication, together with the consumer – the real fans – under the guidance of experts.

 

Increation involves putting many ideas to test, then trying to use the reactions to narrow down or further fine-tune the ideas. The researcher will look for overlaps on what connects to solutions, leading to that one big insight that results in that one big idea. Young people are aptly suited to working with increation projects as they are extremely creative and dynamic, due to the globalized world around them throwing out information in abundance, which the young minds absorb. Increation signifies moving away from the good old suggestion box, in which people could post their ideas and which was a cheap mechanism for a company to come up with new products without the costs of involving their own R&D department.

 

This generation wants to be “in control” of what they see, read or do, whenever and wherever. They do this both actively and passively: actively by making their own content and passively by deciding for themselves what content they wish to see, do, or read at any given time. As communication specialists sometimes we continue to think from the standpoint of the technical possibilities of the machine, and leave the emotional context completely out of the equation.

 

India is one of the youngest nations in the world today. By the time you get to the end of this article it would have aged a little bit more in reverse; it would have become younger. The youth today have a sense of purpose and confidence that is far beyond their years. They are the masters of their own destiny, architects of their own ambition and at one with what they feel. A better world for them begins with a better understanding of oneself.

 

We at Bindass don’t claim to have all the answers, but we do have a roadmap to discovering and interpreting the youth of today and the world that has shaped them.

 

By S Yesudas, Managing Director – Indian, sub-continent, Vizeum

 

When I was asked for my perspective, the first question that crossed my mind is if there’s indeed such a line that divides something above and below in the consumer’s mind. Actually there isn’t one. We also have a new line now – ‘On’line. Each of these have different ways of being measured too, making it quite complicated for the advertisers. With increasing demands for accountability from the clients end, one of the biggest moves could be to look at the possibility of a common yardstick for measuring the impact of advertising across media. The below-the-line operators are more suited to do this considering the future of advertising – moving to mass to direct. The above-the-line focused operators will not find it easy to make changes considering the quantum of money invested through the current measurement mechanisms. This opens a door for people who are willing to invest and perhaps also learn through the process and emerge victorious.

 

By Ashwin Sashital, Vice-President, Business, Big RTL

 

Global television broadcasters have changed their programming to adapt to local needs and preferences in Asia, a surefire indicator of the glocalization of television broadcasting. It has made worldwide audiences available to the world’s leading broadcasters by tearing down barriers posed by time, space and national boundaries.

 

The development of ‘global television’ has prompted a theoretical paradigm shift in international communication research from imperialism to globalization.

 

Glocalization is actually borrowed from intersection of universalization (globalization) and particularization (localization). Globalization of television broadcasting is a two-way process involving ‘push’ and ‘pull’ exchanges of power between global and local players.

 

The conceptualization of glocalization is a two-way process involving push and pull or exchanges of power between global and local media giants.

 

Localization of programming content means a strategy adopted by companies to localise content in a stepwise approach. The language-by-language block approach or country-by-country approach seems to be the strategy to tackle the differences within a region.

 

Localization strategies in programming include broadcasting in the local language via dubbing or subtitling, rescheduling or repackaging programmes to suit local viewing preferences, buying materials from local studios and producing local programming through co-production or forming joint ventures with local sectors.

 

The future of globalization for most of the broadcasters depends a lot on programme localization. Rather than regarding globalization as a process that uniformly subverts local imperatives, it is a process of glocalization in which the local exercises influences in constituting the global.

 

So the degree of localization of content largely depends on the target audience, viewership base, popularity of channel and financial strength of the channel.

 

These challenges have initiated Global television broadcasters to adjust their programming strategies from rebroadcasting Western American versions of programmes in Asia to engaging in some form of local programming to suit each market’s taste. This is cultural or Media Imperialism.

 

So Going Glocal is the way.

 

By Anisha Motwani, Director and Chief Marketing Officer, Max Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

 

It is necessary that the broadcasters and advertisers work in tandem to create something that will steer the big game changer for FM Radio. The most important measure that will leapfrog the business of Radio if carefully thought and implemented is research.

 

“Research” is the word.

Research – To prove that the money spent is spent wisely. The stakeholders – Broadcasters, Advertisers and the Ministry should come together to create a fool-proof research system that will determine the rupee spent and listeners reached out to effectively.

 

Can we create a home grown research model with assistance from the best minds rather than waiting for the Western influence? Research can drive satisfaction, can drive confidence – which is at a low, can drive tangibility, can drive acceptance of the medium among regular and new advertisers.

 

Research is the dimension which needs focus from all the stakeholders, an aspect which is currently missing. These are some of the reasons on why it is important for this medium to grow and be a game changer in the future.

 

Accordingly, appropriate steps could be taken to shape the overall landscape of this growing medium.