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  • The software is targeted for mainly advertisers, media planners and celebrities firms to help them which attribute of a celeb suits a brand/product the most

    Ormax to help brands pick right face with Celebritix

    By A Correspondent

     

    How many times you have watched an advertisement and wondered ‘how is this celeb relevant for the brand?’ And if you are from other side, ‘which celeb will suit my brand?’

     

    Now you can stop worrying and wondering, Ormax Media has come up with a new product, Celebritix – a celebrity evaluation software – which will make it all simple.

     

    The celebrity evaluation software allows brands to evaluate and select the best celebrities for endorsements and film tie-ups, based on the fit between the brand and the celebrity.

     

    According to the study done by the organisation, almost 16 per cent of the television advertisements feature celebrities. “It is important to know who the ‘right’ celebrity for a brand is and what he/she can do for it. A correct candidate not only helps to differentiate the brand but also builds visibility and drives sales,” said Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media while launching Celebritix.

     

    The software is targeted for mainly advertisers, media planners and celebrities firms to help them which attribute of a celeb suits a brand/product the most. As per the research done by Ormax, there are 20 most common attributes which can help in the process of finding the right face for a brand. Some of the attributes in the Celebritix list are vivacious, adventurous, bold, righteous and youthful.

     

    The software will allow the users to create a brand profile by assigning weights to different attributes that best describe the desired personality of the brand. Based on the brand profile, the software will recommend celebrities that best fit the brand, using a proprietary metric called the OCX (Ormax Celebritix) Score.

     

    The OCX Score can also be used for selection of films for associations, based on the fit between the star cast and the brand. Additionally, subscribers will have access to two other modules – Stars India Loves (SIL) and Box Office Forecast – that will allow them to take informed decisions on film tie-ups.

     

    SIL is Ormax Media’s monthly star popularity research product running since November 2010. In Box Office Forecast, the users will get an indicative estimate of the likely opening day performance of the film at the domestic box office, based on campaign tracking, category trends and normative data. The forecast will be available up to 12 months before the release of the film.

     

    Celebritix currently features a total of 36 celebrities from Bollywood and cricket. Every quarter, up to 10 new celebrities will be added to the tracking, based on market trends, box office and cricket performance. The research covers 4,000 respondents every quarter, across 20 attributes, in the target group of 18-44 yrs., SEC ABC, across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Lucknow.

     

  • ID8Labs has hired key senior executives in a bid to build its leadership team and focus on new business opportunities

    ID8Labs embellishes top deck to grow

    By A Correspondent

     

    ID8Labs, a full service digital strategy, marketing & technology services company has hired key senior executives in a bid to build its leadership team and focus on new business opportunities across diverse industry segments.

     

    The company has appointed Jaitrali Jhanjariya as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), who will be responsible for managing all client mandates and lead teams of client servicing & media (display, search & social) including business development.

     

    This is her second stint at ID8Labs. She has over 15years of experience and has worked with companies such as Pinstorm, & Brand portrait – Digital, Geodesic & LBi.

     

    Ms Jhanjariya said: “I am delighted to return to ID8Labs, a team of highly passionate digital natives who have a sound understanding of the medium. The marketing landscape now is shifting focus from traditional to the digital medium and with experience in this space, we will take this company to the next level.”

     

    ID8Labs has brought Abhishek Verma on board as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). He has 14 years of marketing, communication, digital & start-up experience. At Star TV, he was AVP-Affiliate Marketing, and he was responsible driving marketing for HD, Analog & DTH platforms including new initiatives such as ASL HD activation & partnerships. He has worked in strategic marketing roles at Discovery channel & Sony SAB.

     

    Mr Verma said: “The digital business has now matured from the heady days of the dotcom boom and consumer trends are largely dictated by online channels. ID8Labs is poised to demystify this changing digital universe and with experience in strategic marketing using consumer insights across brands and start-ups, I am excited to help our clients navigate this new world.”

     

    Amit Tripathi, Founder & Managing Director, ID8Labs said: “With Abhishek and Jaitrali’s appointments, ID8Labs is building a sound leadership pipeline that will drive the future growth of the company. With Abhishek’s experience in the client side, we will build excellence in client engagement and strategy and Jaitrali is a veteran in the digital agency space across client categories, she will help us create robust delivery platform across clients and opportunities to grow existing and new businesses.”

     

  • Hema Malik: Vice-President, Lodestar UM

    (Experience: 16 years)

    Since she was indecisive about her career of choice, Malik opted for Psychology Honours from Delhi University as it was not only a subject of her interest, but would have also helped in any field that she chose later. Fascinated by the ad world, she opted for a diploma course in Advertising and PR and in 1995 entered the world of advertising with little knowledge of media. Her journey began in the industry with four months of training at Lintas Media.

     

    From then on, Hema Malik has spent over 16 years in the industry, and most of these years are with her current agency, Lodestar UM. She manages both media panning /buying, content integrations for clients like TTL, Coke, MasterCard, Whirlpool, HCL, Metlife, etc. She did do a brief detour to TME to handle their Airtel planning business but she was called back by UM.

     

    Recounting her highpoint, Malik said that it came with her client Tata Docomo. It was for this brand that they truly managed to own a unique mindspace among the youth which is not just a target segment but 2/3rd of nation’s population. “We truly imbibed the brand essence of ‘Do the New’ in media and there was nothing USUAL, nothing common and nothing expected in the media launch. We changed the rules of the game from defining the role of each medium to the way they were consumed. The brand was a success with highest new subscriber gain, creating a community of Docomites! And we guys had awards and lots of fun,” she reminisces.

     

    Another highpoint for Hema Malik was Coke Studio. Says Malik: “I was proud to be a member of the team launching this music platform in India. One of the biggest learning opportunities for me driving not just media partnership but also content partnership, consumer engagement initiatives, etc. Excitedly look forward to the next season.”

     

    Apart from a professional stint, Malik is also a trained painter. She finds anything from a blank sheet of paper to a plain wall very stimulating. Hema Malik is happily married and is mother to two kids.

     

  • The consumer goods companies said the next few quarters could be challenging if the monsoon is weak and the rupee continues to fall

    HUL, Dabur & Colgate Q1 sales up 20%, next few Qs challenging

    By A Correspondent

     

    Consumer goods companies Hindustan Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive and Dabur said the next few quarters could be challenging if the monsoon is weak and the rupee continues to fall after reporting about 20 per cent jump in their first quarter sales.

     

    Hindustan Unilever, the country’s largest consumer goods company, whose presence in a range of daily consumption items such as soaps, shampoos and food makes its performance a good proxy for consumer sentiment, said it has not seen any evidence yet of customers trading down for cheaper products but delayed monsoon, weak rupee and volatile raw-material prices remain a concern.

     

    “When we look into the medium term, we believe that the growth drivers for FMCG are really positive,” said R Sridhar, chief financial officer at Hindustan Unilever. “But when we look at the next 2-3 quarters, clearly there are few challenges-the final shape of how monsoon distribution happens, rupee has depreciated quite significantly and inflation continues to be at a very high level,” he said.

     

    Dabur CEO Sunil Duggal too said: “As of now, we have not witnessed any slowdown in rural consumption, but there could be some amount of demand contraction this (July-September) quarter.”

     

    HUL’s total income rose 20 per cent to Rs6,378.7 crore in the April-June quarter from Rs5,323.6 crore in the year-ago period, outperforming the broader FMCG industry that grew 16 per cent during the quarter. Profit after tax before exceptional items at the Indian unit of Anglo-Dutch Unilever rose 48 per cent to Rs855 crore in the three months to June. Exceptional items included sale of properties worth Rs607 crore.

     

    The company said it was able to increase its operating profit margins by 180 basis points. Its cost of goods sold during the period was 200 basis points lower than in the year-ago period.

     

    During the quarter, HUL’s sales of soaps and detergents-its largest business segment-rose 24 per cent to Rs3,163.05 crore, helped mainly by price increases. Double-digit volume growth drove up sales of personal care products by 17per cent  to Rs1,847.08 crore, while beverages sales were 7per cent  higher at Rs654.07 crore. New launches in brands such as Kwality Walls helped its packaged foods business grow 17 per cent to Rs436.98 crore.

     

    What pleased analysts the most about the results was the companies’ sustainable volume growth. HUL, Dabur and Colgate-Palmolive grew their volumes between 9-12 per cent as the makers of daily household products sold more goods despite increasing prices. “Across companies, margins have expanded and ad spends increased too. With sales of premium products growing, there isn’t even first signs of slowdown yet,” said Anand Mour of Ambit Capital. Colgate-Palmolive reported a 17 per cent jump in first quarter profit at Rs117 crore, while its sales grew 20 per cent at Rs736 crore. “In an inflationary environment, the company’s continuing efforts and focussed programs to enhance efficiencies and reduce costs continue to yield strong, positive results, helping to maintain margin and fund investments in building and strengthening brand equity and the business,” Colgate said in a statement. The company said prudent price increases and cost management helped it maintain its strong gross margin.

     

    Dabur reported 21 per cent jump in April-June sales at Rs1,461.9 crore, while net profit increased 17 per cent year-on-year to Rs149.4 crore, riding on categories like health supplements, shampoos and food. Faster network expansion in rural markets too helped the firm drive sales. Dabur CEO Duggal said the company was forecasting double-digit growth over the next two quarters although there could be some slowdown in demand.

     

    Source: The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • Anil Thakraney gets the Mumbai Mirror editor-in-chief to speak out like no Times of India group editor has ever done before

    Our battle is to out-think TOI: Meenal Baghel

     

    Meenal Baghel is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Mirror, the nation’s most sprightly newspaper. Mumbai Mirror was launched seven years ago, and today the paper has editions in Pune, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. A part of the Times group, Mumbai Mirror boasts of a fantastic circulation of nearly 600,000 copies, and it’s become the city’s favourite compact paper.

     

    Meenal relives the journey with us, and speaks candidly about the many challenges she’s faced along the way. We also discuss her first book, ‘Death in Mumbai’, which received wide critical acclaim.

     

    I did a stint with Mumbai Mirror some years ago, and this gave me a chance to watch her in action. Meenal can be a demanding editor, she can be impatient, she can be tough. While these qualities don’t endear her to some, they have played a huge part in her success. I have to say she’s the most passionate editor I have worked with.

     

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    It’s been seven years editing Mirror. How’s the journey been? Tell me the highs and the lows.

    The high obviously has been to see the paper become an important part of Bombay. We have been successful in forging an emotional connect with the readers, which is very important. We get an enormous number of people calling in with stories. And we’ve routinely broken a lot of stories, so those are the big highs. The low is that the paper is still a bit inconsistent. You know, when we started the paper, it used to be called Mumbai Error. I wish we had a cleaner start in terms of the paper being more finished. But it’s been a sort of work in progress. We have learnt a number of journalistic lessons along the way because the market has changed, the reader has changed. For instance, when we were at Mid-Day, you could get away with a lot of things. But in this day and age, you can’t.

     

    Give me an example

    Like sometimes when, just to break the monotony, you put an entertainment story on the front page, there is a backlash. People now expect a more serious newspaper, it’s something different from what I had envisaged. But that’s also because there’s so much of entertainment everywhere that people don’t want more of it.

     

    One story you regret

    We ran the FIR of the TISS girl who was raped. That was a mistake. Because the details in the FIR were very graphic on what had transpired. And you realize that you may have ended up titillating. I regret that story, we got terrible feedback for it and we apologized for it.

     

    “I don’t think journalism offers enough challenges to the really bright people any longer.”

    I still see a number of typos in Mirror. Is this an un-lickable problem?

    I think there is a very real problem with journalism today, and it’s not only limited to Mirror. The problem is that the deskies is a disappearing breed. And it’s going to be a big challenge over the next few years. Also, there are very real problems we are facing, and these are going to change the profession drastically. It’s so rare to find people who want to come into journalism because they want to be journalists. For example, when you ask people, ‘Who edited this copy?’. Invariably the response will be: ‘I looked at it/I glanced at it/I skimmed through it.’ Another thing is I don’t think journalism offers enough challenges to the really bright people any longer. There is an attrition problem across aboard. People want to try out various things. When you and I were growing up, it was about sticking to a profession, a career path, and that no longer holds true. People now have the advantage of taking breaks, taking gap years, studying, etc. The journalism hours don’t allow too much of a personal life. And I think HR, owners, publishers, editors need to take all these things into account.

     

    Is the passion for journalism diminishing in young India?

    I think the important thing now is personal growth and personal life. That has taken precedence over wanting to change the country.

     

    What was Vineet Jain’s brief to you when you signed up for Mirror?

    His brief was very clear. He said it should be a smart paper and that it should be different from the Times of India. And because it’s a compact size, there are elements of a tabloid that you can incorporate. In fact, when we started the paper, there were a lot of conflicting opinions, so I was a little tentative in the beginning. And then one day he called me and asked why was I so tentative. He said, “I have given you this brief, just stick to it. And don’t be apologetic about it.” So that was wonderful.

     

    You think this country is ready for a Brit style tabloid?

    No. Though it’s very interesting because everybody is trying to incorporate the tabloid elements, but you can’t be openly unabashed about it. We are not ready for it. For instance, look at the responses Dr Vatsa’s column gets.

     

    Guess it’s a tightrope walk. You want to be tabloidy, and still have to be aware the nation isn’t ready

    Yes. Sometimes in the newsroom we think we can do a story, but when we see the backlash the next day, we start being more careful by censoring ourselves.

     

    And the problem is if you play safe and cut down on controversy, you get dangerously close to the TOI

    Yes. So what we try and do is this: I always say our competition is the Times of India. Because we go with the TOI. Now the TOI has massive width, they do like sixty stories at an average. So our battle is to out-think the TOI, in the sense that ‘this is what they will do, so let’s do something different’. We can get away with some naughty things that they can’t.

     

    Lots of court cases?

    Actually they’ve come down, ever since we’ve become safer. (Smiles.) But there’s also a lot of frivolous litigation, which is easily dealt with.

     

    More editions in the offing?

    At the moment, no.

     

    And for Mumbai Mirror, are you still as hands-on as ever?

    See, I am out for lunch with you! (Laughs) But yes, I like being hands-on. There are times when I can breathe down people’s necks. But I am trying to back off a little now that we have a very competent senior team. I also realize that people should be given more space, but it’s difficult. (Laughs.)

     

    “The TOI has lots of products that come with it, but everyone doesn’t necessarily read all of them, right?”

    Meenal, the perception is that Mirror benefits a lot from being the TOI’s free paper. Without that advantage, your circulation would be nowhere close.

    I am lucky and I won’t question my luck. We have a great readership, thanks to the TOI. But then you have to capitalize on that luck, you still have to deliver a good product. The TOI has lots of products that come with it, but everyone doesn’t necessarily read all of them, right?

     

    If you were a standalone paper, how much circulation do you think you’d lose?

    I guess we’d retain 60%. Because Mirror has become a genuine commuter’s paper. You have to travel in the train to see how many people carry it. It started off as a guilty pleasure, which people didn’t want to acknowledge they were reading, but they were all reading. But over time it has also become a lively paper. And that can’t be said about too many other papers in town. And people like that.

     

    Would you say Mid-Day was your training ground?

    Absolutely. I had always worked with broadsheets before that – Pioneer, Asian Age and The Indian Express. So when I joined Mid-Day, for a while it was like, where the hell have I landed? This is not how journalism is done. For the first six months I had no idea what I was doing. But I was in a senior job and I was getting paid an X amount, and I must tell you I HATE giving up. And then one day I went for a walk and said to myself the paper won’t change because of me, there was a reason why this paper was so beloved in Bombay. And that was the Eureka moment for me. I decided to try and understand it rather than look down upon it. And that changed things. I must say I learnt a lot from Aakar Patel (the then editor of Mid-Day). I learnt a lot from what the paper did on Page 1 and on headlining.

     

    One Indian print editor you most admire.

    I owe everything I learnt in journalism to MJ Akbar. About writing, about making pages, about what not to do, etc.

     

    It’s been seven years at Mirror. Don’t you feel the itch? Isn’t it tiring to do the same thing day in and day out?

    I keep wondering why nobody else offers me a job! I am joking, of course. Which is why doing the book was wonderful for me. It gave me a chance to step back and follow a story that had been fascinating me. And it was extended journalism. I have always felt when the number of days you feel bad about what you do exceeds the number of days you feel good, you should quit. I haven’t reached there. And there’s always something exciting happening.

     

    Being a hard-edged journalist, how do you reconcile with something like Medianet?

    That’s easy, because we don’t have Medianet in Mirror.

     

    But it’s there in your group.

    It doesn’t affect my life, so I don’t care about it.

     

    You aren’t asked to carry plugs?

    No. And it’s one of the things that has pleasantly surprised me. They have maintained the Chinese wall from the start.

     

    They have left you alone?

    Yes. And there’s another reason. Mirror is a small paper in the group, so it’s not necessarily the focus. We are a small cog in comparison.

     

    Have you ever been asked to drop a story?

    (Pauses) Not drop a story. I think what one learns over a period of time is that you have to pick your battles. I’ll give you an example: If there’s an entertainment story which is coming right ahead of the Filmfare awards, where somebody is going to be performing, and I have a damaging story on that person, would I delay it by a few days? Yes, I would.

     

    There used to be intense rivalry between the Independent and the TOI. Is it the same with you?

    Not rivalry, but there is great competition. When the TOI does something, and we’ve missed it, I give my reporters hell. And I am sure JoJo (Jaideep Bose) does the same when we get something.

     

    “Mid-Day killed itself. And I feel really bad. I feel bad that what was such a robust paper is no longer that.”

    You’ve pretty much killed Mid-Day. Feels good?

    The paper killed itself. And I feel really bad. I feel bad that what was such a robust paper is no longer that. We all worked very hard out there. We worked our asses off at Mid-Day and we used to take great pride in the paper being so robust, that it was second only to the TOI.

     

    What would you do if you were editing Mid-Day today?

    I’ll bring in more energy. What’s going for Mirror despite the inconsistency is that it’s never dull. And dullness in journalism is a cardinal error. Especially if you are a tabloid.

     

    Let’s shift to your book, ‘Death in Mumbai’. Does Meenal think Maria Susairaj got away lightly?

    I must tell you I ended up liking her quite a bit. I feel that she is a manipulative woman and that she may be a tease. But that’s not a crime, there are a lot of women like that out there. Did she kill or abet the killing? I don’t think so. She was in love with Emile Jerome, she really wanted to marry him. But he wasn’t committing to her. When he killed this guy, it was, in her mind, like his commitment to her.

     

    When you started writing, was there something you had decided you won’t do in the book?

    The only thing I told myself is to not be judgmental. Because someone else’s idea of morality could be different from mine. Like, I started out with a certain view of Maria but it became something else.

     

    In fact, that was the only criticism I read about the book. As a journalist, readers expected you give us your own view. Perhaps as the epilogue.

    There were genuine difficulties. Something happened in a room where there were only three people. One guy is dead and two are in jail. There is only so much information I had. And I genuinely did not want to play judge.

     

    You have always kept a very low profile. Marketing the book must have been tough.

    (Laughs.) It was! It was terrible. The only time you would see me on television was on things that were related to the book. Otherwise I wouldn’t be caught dead going on TV.

     

    Any more books coming up?

    I would like to write more books, but I love this job too much. Ideally I’d like to do both. But I haven’t thought of another subject so far. Might be interesting to write fiction.

     

    Would you like to edit the TOI?

    No. I think it would be fun to edit a broadsheet, but I don’t think I am ready to edit the Times. It’s the biggest paper in the country, it requires a greater understanding of business, politics… and I don’t think I am ready for it. Also, it requires certain people skills which I perhaps don’t have.

     

    Don’t rate yourself high on people skills?

    I think I am very good. But I need to be more patient. I can be impatient and that’s a serious shortcoming.

     

    You are 43. Don’t want to marry?

    It’s too late now (Laughs).

     

    Is it important to be single to edit a high pressure daily? Is it a price one pays?

    Sure. It’s a price a lot of women, more than men, have to pay for any high pressure job. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a fact. I may have been married, but it would have been very difficult with children.

     

    Photographs: Fotocorp

     

  • In a bid to support the cause of breast cancer awareness, Ogaan Cancer Foundation has created a new campaign with filmmaker, Zoya Akthar

    Ogaan Cancer Foundation creates a breast cancer awareness campaign

    By A Correspondent

     

    In a bid to support the cause of breast cancer awareness, Ogaan Cancer Foundation has created a new campaign with filmmaker, Zoya Akthar, who has directed, scripted and conceptualized a Public Service Announcement (PSA) titled “Because My World Is Not The Same”. The PSA has ‘men’ talking about the ‘women’ in their lives and what they mean to them. The PSA gives all a unique opportunity to journey into the rarely-seen softer and emotional sides of Bollywood’s prominent actors.

     

    The campaign stars Abhay Deol, Arjun Rampal, Farhan Akhtar, Ranbir Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor get candid pledging their support to the cause along with Zoya. In the PSA, the actors talk about the women in their lives and sensitizing the viewers’ about women-related ailments like breast cancer. The campaign aims at being timeless in its overall look, and feel yet creating awareness about Breast Cancer in an outspoken manner.

     

    According to statistics, it is believed that ‘fear’ is the number one obstacle that keeps women from taking precautionary measures; and the presence of male celebrities will remind and urge women to take care of their health. Additionally, to spread the message that early detection is the strongest weapon in the fight against breast cancer.

     

    Commenting on this latest campaign, Preeta Sukhtankar, Director, Elle Breast Cancer Campaign said: “Breast Cancer is a disease that affects many women and when diagnosed at an early stage is curable. We wanted to spread awareness of this very message. Zoya, an influential ‘woman’ and a skilled communicator, is not only an admired film director but is also a friend of the cause. She has beautifully brought out not only the message, but captured a myriad of emotions from normally contained superstars though this PSA.”

     

    On the public awareness campaign, Zoya Akhtar said: “Yes breast cancer afflicts women, but it’s not something I see as women’s issue. Cancer affects more than the patient, it affects every family member and loved one. It has no gender and therefore we need to take the message out to not just women but men as well. We need to open up dialogue and make it relevant and all right for men to ask the women in their lives if they have been checked recently.”

     

    The campaign will be on-air in the coming few days.

    Link: www.ebcc.in/film

     

     

  • Clients attend festivals like the Cannes Lions to spot inspiring ideas, particularly in the digital, social and mobile and media worlds

    Why CMOs needn’t feel guilty about going for Cannes Lions

    By Delshad Irani

     

    What does a chief marketing officer of a very large global company do when he wants to be proficient in Twitter? He asks the CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo to provide the best resource they possess for an intensive reverse mentoring session. According to Antonio Lucio, global chief marketing, strategy and development officer, Visa, it is critically important for him as the head of a global marketing organisation to be an expert on social media and be able to build the Visa brand on platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

     

    Interestingly, he has been a marketer for over 30 years and it is his first time at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the first time Visa has attended the festival as a company. The question then is why now? For starters, digital media has changed the rules of engagement. However, the cases of truly successful integration and application of digital media are few and generally set on loop. “The fact is that when people talk about social they keep using the same concepts and best cases, for instance, the Old Spice campaign. This means that there really isn’t a clearly articulated model,” said Mr Lucio.

     

    So clients like him attend festivals like the Cannes Lions to spot inspiring ideas, particularly in the digital, social and mobile and media worlds. Reasonable grounds for marketers to attend with teams of 5 to 15 senior management level employees.

     

    But, it wasn’t too long ago when if you were a client and you said you want to go to Cannes for the ad festival you might not have got permission from management to do so. However, it is due to the efforts of a few that has led to the institutionalisation of the client’s side of Cannes. Marketers like Mr Lucio can come with midsize teams and it’s no longer considered an indulgence. P&G, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Heineken, Kraft, GM, McDonald’s and Mars, among others are just a few of the big global marketers who were present at the 2012 Cannes Lions.

     

    Some have been attending longer than others. Like Joseph Tripodi, executive vice president and chief marketing and commercial officer, The Coca-Cola Company, who is particularly impressed with the attention the festival is receiving from media owners like Time Warner, in addition to growing participation numbers from clients as well as delegates from agencies. Keith Weed of Unilever, who has come to Cannes three years in a row and has been CMO for as many years said: “We have 15 people here this year and we do a combination of workshops, meeting our agency partners and recognising and acknowledging that creativity is great. In a cluttered media world, we need creativity to cut through.”

     

    So apart from networking and opportunities to meet all their concerned parties, old and some new, in the same place, at the same time, these marketers are on the look out for inspiring work from across the world. And set creative benchmarks wherever possible. According to Cyril Charzat, senior global brand director, Heineken: “It’s very much about stimulating our marketing people to be stronger when they evaluate work from creative agencies; to define what is progressive and inventive. Our key message is to stimulate inventiveness and that’s what we try to do.” And Cannes is a part of that story.

     

    On the Indian front, however, it is not yet a vital chapter. And Cannes remains the exclusive domain of adwallahs, with a light sprinkling of some regular clients like Mr Kakar of Aditya Birla Group, who has been attending the festival for over half a decade. Then there are first-timers like Mahindra & Mahindra. The company wanted to test French waters and therefore Vivek Nayer the company’s VP-marketing for the auto division attended the festival. But he left a tad disappointed and overwhelmed by the creative clutter. Other Indian marketers in attendance were Parle Agro (with Nadia Chauhan also a jury member), Dabur and Flipkart. Clearly, Indian marketers are grappling with the big question – to attend or not to attend? Meanwhile, clients from markets on our left and right, up and down, are strategising on ways to find the best creative result during the seven days spent in the Cote d’Azur.

     

    However, the challenge for most is to put all that inspiring work to actual use. And here’s how some intend to do it. “We are not going to come in like the advertising people who get inspiration and go back home to figure it out. We will have a very structured approach with sessions of inspiration followed by sessions of perspiration, daily.

     

    It’s my responsibility during the week to ensure that Cannes becomes a truly business building program for us,” said Mr Lucio of Visa. In other words, for marketers to take Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity seriously there must be “enough perspiration to pay for the inspiration.”

     

    Fair enough.

     

    Source: The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

  • Mr Dey will be based at Ignitee’s Gurgaon office – managing the business across the offices of Ignitee in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai

    Ignitee appoints Ranjoy Dey as Chief Operating Officer

    Ranjoy Dey

    By A Correspondent

     

    Ignitee Digital Services, the digital marketing & media agencies, appointed Ranjoy Dey as Chief Operating Officer. Mr Dey will be based at Ignitee’s Gurgaon office – managing the business across the offices of Ignitee in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

     

    Mr Dey will be responsible for leading all aspects of marketing and operations for Ignitee, aligning the marketing strategy and brand positioning for the company’s growth in the fast evolving digital advertising industry. He will report to Atul Hegde, CEO, Ignitee.

     

    Mr Dey is a Sales & Marketing professional with 18+ years of experience; as Operations & Business Head in Agencies, he has handled & led large-scale Marketing campaign operations & project management – while managing large & diverse teams across the country. He had also taken up roles to set-up and lead e-Marketing & CRM functions from scratch in several IT & eLearning companies.

     

    Commenting on this development, Atul Hegde said: “Ranjoy joins Ignitee as we continue to expand, and offer our best practices to customers. We are very focused on bringing great value across our digital products and solutions, and Ranjoy’s appointment is central in helping us to achieve this. With his vast experience in successfully creating & delivering interactive marketing solutions and effectively managing diverse resources, he is the ideal person to help us achieve our growth goals and country-wide consolidation.”

     

    Mr Dey said: “I am excited to take up this role as the growth driver for Ignitee. Ignitee has been doing some amazing work for their clients and the time is right to expand the business when clients are looking at differentiated marketing solutions while enhancing their digital footprint.”

     

     

  • He will be responsible for managing Indigo Consulting's relationships and scaling up the digital business in the region

    Nitin Singh joins Indigo Consulting as biz head

    Nitin Singh

    By A Correspondent

     

    Digital agency Indigo Consulting has roped in Nitin Singh as Business Head, Delhi NCR. He will be responsible for managing Indigo Consulting’s relationships and scaling up the digital business in the region. Prior to this, Mr Singh was with Media2win, where he was responsible for Digital execution and New Business Development in North India.

     

    Speaking on the appointment, Vikas Tandon, MD, Indigo Consulting said: “While we have been present in the Delhi region for a while, we were missing strong leadership to drive our aggressive growth plans. Nitin’s valuable experience and relationship with customers will help us provide superlative digital marketing solutions to clients in the Delhi region.”

     

    Commenting on his decision to join Indio Consulting, Mr Singh said: “I have always admired Indigo Consulting’s work in the digital space, especially when it comes to their creative and technology capabilities. I hope to learn more about these and their integration with digital strategy while leveraging my experience to create new practices at Indigo Consulting.”

     

    Mr Singh is a post graduate in business administration from the School of Management Studies, New Delhi and has more than 9 years experience in sales and marketing. Besides Media2win, he has worked with Quasar Media, QAI India and Compare Infobase where his responsibilities ranged from new business development to sales to online digital media planning.

     

  • Crazeal enters cinemas for experiential marketing

    By A Correspondent

     

    Ankur Warikoo

    Crazeal.com ( India unit of Groupon Inc.US), a daily deals website has partnered with multiple cinema houses across India. The aim and objective is to offer a unique movie watching experience to Crazeal customers. The deal offered 50 per cent discount on the tickets along with a private screening to showcase Crazeal’s ‘Who Can Resist?’ campaign.

     

    Crazeal has rolled out a nationwide experiential marketing campaign to connect with consumers. The daily deals website partnered with multiple cinemas across nine cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Pune) for a special screening of the movie Batman – The Dark Knight Rises. Over 3,500 tickets were said to have been sold in just under 30 hours.

     

    To buy this deal, Crazeal subscribers had to log on to the site, buy the deal and the tickets were delivered at their doorstep. Besides the screening, the Crazeal team were said to have interacted with the consumers. Each individual who came for the screening is said to have received a memento. Multiple on-ground touch-points were also created to increase brand presence and engage with customers.

     

    Launched in April 2011, Crazeal.com was formerly called SoSasta.com. On November 2011, SoSasta was rebranded to Crazeal.com because the name SoSasta did not have a positive connotation with their high quality merchants.

     

    In conversation with MxMIndia, Mr Ankur Warikoo, CEO, Crazeal said: “During the month of November 2011, we went into a rebranding exercise very early into our lifecycle and we called ourselves Crazeal.com which is short for crazy deal. We wanted to position ourselves as a great site which had fantastic discounts and crazy deals, but at the same time never compromising on the quality of the deals.”

     

    The business model of Crazeal is purely based on transaction wherein it first provides free of cost visibility to its merchants on the Crazeal website for one day. In return Crazeal asks the company (or merchant) to create a good package for its customers. For instance, it could be a five star hotel offering a certain amount of discount for a buffet, which the daily deals website then displays on its website as ‘deal of the day’.

     

    Once the deal is up and live, it is followed up by sending newsletters and SMSes to all Crazeal subscribers. Thus only after a customer buys a deal online is Crazeal paid its marketing monies. “We don’t make any money before the merchant makes money, but at the same time we are putting our entire resources right from creation of the deal, to imaging, and how it is marketed and so on. We, therefore, make our money only once our deal is sold,” he explained.

     

    By the end of December, Crazeal is expected to launch its mobile app for consumption, according to Mr Warikoo, the time is right for India to experience mobile transaction. “Time is right for India to experience mobile. By the end of December, India should see the GroupOn Crazeal mobile apps being launched for consumption. In the US, for instance, mobile already accounts to almost 20 per cent of transactions a month. In India already without a mobile application or without a mobile friendly site, 5 per cent of our transactions are already happening through our mobile phones. India is seeing 3G users increasing day by day, so it is just a matter of time before we have that app which is already in our radar and we are working towards it.”

     

    Crazeal is said to be a business which is currently focused on three categories, namely local services, product categories and travel. The local services include the best hotels and restaurants in the city, the best spa, and so on. Within the local services, food and beverages category dominate and accounts for nearly 55 per cent to 60 per cent of the overall revenue generated. Local services therefore account for almost 40 per cent of its business; product category accounts for similar share and the rest is taken by travel.

     

  • It is a platform to connect with the Marketing Heads of India's Top Brands

    WATBlog announces CMO conference

    By A Correspondent

     

    With an aim to give marketing professionals key insights into digital media, WATBlog announced the Digital CMO Conference. The event will have top CMOs of the country come together to showcase case-studies that have witnessed ground breaking success in digital media. The conference will be held on August 31 in Mumbai.

     

    WATBlog’s Digital CMO conference will showcase insightful presentations by the biggest brands that have emerged as the thought leaders in the digital media space. The conference will cover all aspects of digital marketing, including the role of social media in Customer Service and how the digital platform can help build brand reputation. The delegates expected to attend the conference would be a mix of CEOs, entrepreneurs and marketing professionals.

     

    “Digital marketing in India has gained significant momentum over the past year. A lot of brands are now looking at social media as an integral part of their marketing mix. We have organized the Digital CMO Conference to help these brands understand the best practices and soak up valuable insights from those who have run successful campaigns in the digital space” said Rajiv Dingra, Founder and CEO, WATMedia.

     

    Key speakers at WATBlog Digital Marketing CMO conference will be: Krishnakumar P, Executive Director, Marketing, DELL; Virginia Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, IBM; Kavita Joshi, Head of Digital Marketing, HDFC Bank; Arun Nair, Head – Digital Marketing, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts; Dharini Mishra, Global Head of Brand, Suzlon Group

     

     

  • All the three shows will go on air from July 30

    Suvarna launches 3 fiction shows

    By A Correspondent

     

    Star Network’s Kannada General Entertainment channel Suvarna has launched three mega fiction shows Akashadeepa, Keladi Chennamma and Bhagyavantharu. All the three shows will go on air from July 30.

     

    On the launch, Anup Chandrashekaran, Business Head of Suvarna Channel said: “This is for the first time in the Kannada general entertainment that an established channel like ours has launched three mega fiction shows on the same day. These shows are very different from each other and I am sure that our viewers are going to enjoy them. All three shows appeal to the mass audiences and cater to the entire family”.

     

    Akashadeepa, Keladi Channamma and Bhagyavantharu are additions to the many popular shows offered by Suvarna Channel. Akashadeepa will go on air at 8pm followed by Keladi Chennamma at 8:30pm and Bhagyavantharu at 9pm, thus revamping the entire primetime slot.