9X Media has elevated Pawan Jailkhani to the position of Chief Revenue Officer and Punit Pandey to the position of Executive Vice President. The 9X Media Group has been on a high growth trajectory since 2011, adding 5 music channels to its network, besides the Group’s flagship music channel – 9XM.
In his new role, Pawan Jailkhani will be responsible for all forms of revenue across the existing six music television channels operated by the 9X Media Group. He will also be in charge of revenue for all future launches by 9X Media.
Punit Pandey, in his new role as Executive Vice President, will be responsible for the new business initiatives by the Network and would also continue to head the business aspect of the existing six music channels.
Axis Bank has shifted its media business to MediaVest Worldwide, part of the Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG). MediaVest would handle the business from its Mumbai office. The account was earlier with Madison Media. The mandate covers media planning and buying for all Axis Bank campaigns and is effective August 1. This win adds to the long list of new business wins for Starcom MediaVest Group in the last year that include like Aircel, Dabur, Novartis, Supermax, Zee Learn, Sterling Holidays etc. SMG has been strengthening the MediaVest brand across Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru and will soon announce a few senior management hires.
Confirming this development, Manisha Lath Gupta, CMO, Axis Bank says “While evaluating, we realized SMG has robust planning tools which will help us integrate across different mediums. With their Human Experience Strategy and approach, we believe, they are well poised to handle the media challenges lying in front of Axis Bank for the future”.
Said Malli CR, CEO, SMG India, “Axis Bank is a blue chip client and we are honored and delighted to have them on board. They have an exciting brand vision and we look forward to delivering their goals with SMG’s future focused media product that is predicated on Insights & Analytics, Digital and Content”.
Religare Enterprises Ltd. has appointed Scarecrow Communications as its creative agency for its corporate brand. The account will be handled out of Scarecrow’s Mumbai office. The incumbent on the account was Ogilvy, Delhi.
This win represents a deepening of the Scarecrow Communications’ relationship with the Religare group. Scarecrow already handles Religare Broking, Religare Health Insurance and Religare Macquarie.
Subhrangshu Neogi, Director, Branding and Communications, Religare, said, “As a group we have had a long standing partnership with Scarecrow. The team has consistently delivered high quality and path breaking creative work across all product lines assigned to them so far. We have now decided to enlarge the scope of their mandate to include some key corporate assignments as well . We look forward to continue working with them.”
Raghu Bhat, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications,  added, “Religare was Scarecrow’s first client. It’s fair to say that Scarecrow came into existence because of Religare. It’s very satisfying to note that since KILB, we have maintained our standards of creative excellence on this brand and have been rewarded with this very significant assignment.”
Manish Bhatt, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications,said, “Religare is a brand very dear to our hearts as we we have had a long and mutually rewarding association, that goes beyond professional ties. We thank Subhrangshu and his team for once again reposing trust in Scarecrow.”
Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) is one of India’s leading financial services group. Religare offers a wide array of services including broking, insurance, asset management, lending solutions, investment banking and wealth management. With a network of over 2,200 business centres across 550 plus locations, and more than a million clients, REL enjoys a dominant presence in the Indian financial services space.
Britannia has launched Bourbon Cappuccino biscuits. And the key ingredient, also the USP, is the coffee flavour. Nothing really exciting about this, but the advertiser has used a cool consumer insight and this helps inspire good creative work.
What they have done is to give ‘coffee’ a sexual touch. As in, after a date, when the guy is dropping his partner home, and if he’s really lucky, the girl invites him in for a cup of coffee. Naturally, this is less about coffee and more about some rocking fun on the couch.
The TVC plays on this angle, adds in a little twist, and the ad works out pretty nicely. What is just another biscuit brand now gets wings, and along the way the coffee USP gets suitably highlighted. Mission accomplished.
Yes, good work. The young gen, at who Britannia Bourbon Cappuccino is targeted at, will connect with this stuff. It’s simple, entertaining and effective. And most importantly, the product attribute is smoothly communicated, without ramming it down our throats. A good example of how critical consumer insight is to the advertising business.
Rating: (On a scale of 1-5): 3.5. Good insight. Entertaining ad.
Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company, has launched Airtel Super Singer 7, aimed to entertain music lovers of Andhra Pradesh. The launch took place in the presence of Sharlin Thayil, CEO – Bharti Airtel, Andhra Pradesh along with the jury members of the show, singers Sunitha and Kouslaya along with lyricist Chandra Bose.
Airtel Super Singer 7 – The Spicy Series brings famous singers to a common platform. There will be 2 teams in this series – Warriors and Chargers and the show will have the singers showcasing a variety of music genres.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Thayli said: “Airtel has always taken the lead in associating with events, shows and initiatives that showcases the talent of today’s youth. It gives us immense pleasure to be associated with this youthful and entertaining show. We would like to wish the participants all the very best for a fantastic show.”
Airtel Super Singer 7 – The Spicy Series will be aired every Wednesday on Maa TV.
Let’s cut TV news a little flak. What! Did I really just say that? The story of “baby Mahi” who fell into an abandoned borewell on her birthday last week but could not be rescued for almost five days is a made-for-TV story. Most newspapers would have reduced the story to a brief, if they carried it at all. Human life or in this unfortunate case death means very little in Indian newspapers unless it concerns high net worth individuals or happens in large numbers. Here also the concern is relative: for a Mumbai newspaper a bus that falls into a ravine and kills 50 of a marriage party in Bihar means less than an accident on the Mumbai-Pune expressway which kills 15. Geography and proximity carry more weight than the idea of death itself.
TV news, however, challenges these assumptions made by the print media. While some may find TV’s attention to baby Mahi excessive or indeed point out that people fall into wells all the time, they are missing the point. Newspapers belong to the old, fatalistic India, where you took everything in your stride because life taught you that horrible things happen to everyone and especially to poor people. TV belongs to New India and as we learn every night, India always wants to know.
And some questions, we must admit, need to be answered. There is no reason why people should regularly die because they accidentally fall into wells. There is no reason why we should not insist that safety protocols be put in place to prevent such accidents. There is no reason why local officials are not pulled up for being callous.
Even if the hyperbole and hysteria generated by TV reporters and anchors can be vastly annoying, it does not mean that the reason they are having fits is not genuine. It took every bit of fortitude I could muster at midnight to listen to Arnab Goswami’s impassioned outburst against apathy and indifference (Wimbledon means I cannot get to TV news before midnight, yes I have no life and thank god I don’t watch football!) but behind all the bluster – there was a point.
The trick for TV now is not to let this baby Mahi case turn into a real-life version of Peepli Live. They have to continue with the campaign they have begun so that they do not become as cynical as print journalists. It may be a tall order, but they started it.
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I greatly admire Pakistanis who appear on Indian TV news discussions about terrorism. It takes great courage to withstand all that solid evidence against them and continue selling their government’s line. And they seem to be quite happy to do it. I do not get to watch Pak TV any more so I do not know if Indians appear on panel discussions to get pilloried. Does anyone know?
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Football has taken over our newspapers. It is now emerging as cricket’s biggest competitor. We all know that Indian football does not generate any interest at all (somewhat like Indian hockey) but every FIFA tournament brings the lives of others to a standstill.
The test I suppose is when cricket (with India playing) and football tournaments happen at the same time. Who do you think will win? Or will we then know whether sports pages are just lazy or have some top class brains involved in the planning?
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The Times of India in its little debate section on the edit page has gone for and against on the use of the term “Bollywood”. It’s an old argument and an amusing one. We all know that the term is derogatory and was coined in the 1970s with that in mind. We also know that as long as the Hindi film industry continues to make song and dance potboilers, the term will continue to stick. No one calls Shyam Benegal or his oeuvre “Bollywood” so we all know the difference. TOI could have suggested options like “Goregaon”, since that’s where so many films are made and that’s how Hollywood got its name. Any takers?
Launched 16 years ago as a music channel, Star India’s Channel V is now turning into a full-fledged youth entertainment channel. Starting July 1, V will stop airing music programmes in India and focus on fiction and non-fiction shows. The reason: “Over the last two years, there has been an explosion of ‘music only’ channels, but everyone’s playing identical playlists,” says Prem Kamath, executive vice-president and general manager at Channel V. “In order to grow as a channel and as a brand, it has always been critical to have an offering that is unique in our competitive space,” he adds on being quizzed on the decision.
Many experts feel that it was bound to happen as more and more channels try to mould themselves to stay connected with what their target audience wants. But there many questions arise: could this mean the beginning of the end of music on TV? What is the future of music genre? Where is it headed?
The beginning
The scene for Indian music channels was set with the launch of MTV in the early 90s. Soon after, Channel V was launched in 1994, and since then there has been no looking back.
The launch of these music channels also led to a boom in international as well as Indie pop culture. However, it was shortlived and Bollywood music took over, and the two channels, along with many other launched afterwards, started playing popular filmi songs. But over a period of time, these two channels moved beyond playing only music with shows like Roadies, Splitsvilla and Dare 2 Date.
Hemant Kenkre
According to music columnist Narendra Kusnur, somewhere down the line for these channels, music took a backseat: “I’m sure any channel would do thorough research while trying to change their gameplan. So, if a music channel shifting towards being a youth entertainment channel is proved beneficial – for viewership as well as revenue – then it wouldn’t harm them to take such a step.”
He’s not alone in voicing this. Even Hemant Kenkre, a former music channel professional and a corporate and brand communications veteran, feels that channels are now branding themselves differently to reach out to their TG. He, however, does blame the availability of music on various platforms – radio, cellphones, laptops, iPods – as the reason for this shift. “Today, the youth is moving towards reality shows and they want it from the channels meant for them. As for music, they get their share of it from other mediums too.”
Luke Kenny
Former VJ, musician, actor and 9XO programming head Luke Kenny, on the other hand, feels that the channel (Channel V) decided to shift long back and has been moving slowly towards it, but there are still many who want music on television. “If music was dead on TV, then how would you explain other new music channels cropping up and doing well too?”
He added: “Having said that, I do believe that with more channels showcasing Bollywood songs, music channels have lost their niche and have just became promotional channels. Therefore, if a channel decides to change colours, it might work. And you never know, Star India might come up with a new music channel called Music OK.”
Industry talk
If one takes a look at various channels, be it music or a GEC, they will find that, there is a great deal of music in some or the other. We have music trailers/songs aired across all channels. Award shows, too, have musical performances and talent shows like Saregama, Indian Idol, DID and even celeb dance show Jhalak Dikhla Jaa are high on ratings.
Mohit Joshi
Therefore, according to media planners, the existence of specialised music channels is a difficult game. “Today, unfortunately for the masses in India, music equals to Bollywood. This is the challenge. This was not the case in the ’90s when there were a lot of private music albums that were launched -Silk Route et al, and the music channels were used for their amplification. So, there was something more than Bollywood, which is not the case today. In the current scenario, if music channels do not experiment with music or the content, then there is a fear that they will dilute their relevance over a period of time,” says Mohit Joshi, managing director, MPG India.
Adds Carat Media India’s senior VP Himanka Das: “Channel V’s decision to discontinue music is a welcome change and would offer interesting opportunities to build engagement content with the youth, considering the very little content that is available to them in entertainment beyond music. Music as a genre gets 6-7 per cent share in the youth segment of viewers with Channel V contributing 24 per cent to this share amongst 20+ channels. Channel V vacating this space is someone else’s gain!”
Punit Pandey
Meanwhile, other music channels aren’t perturbed and are waiting to see how the channel is accepted in its new avatar. As per TAM (CS4+, All India market), there has been a consistent growth in the music genre. In 2007, the genre share of music channels was 2.02 per cent whereas in 2012 (till week 24) the share has grown to 3.62 per cent.
Punit Pandey, senior VP and business head, 9X Media Group, agreed with Mr Das and added: “Music has, and will continue to, work on television. It is close to a Rs360-370 crore industry (in the HSM belt) and growing. More and more people are ‘watching’ music, so there is nothing to worry about for music channels at large.”
Nikhil Gandhi
Similarly, the view from UTV Bindass which started out as a Youth Entertainment Channel (YEC) and has been a pioneer in the segment is that though in the recent past music channels, especially MTV and Channel V, have started shifting focus from music to fictional and non-fictional shows, there is no reason for sleepless nights. “We have an advantage over other channels entering the YEC genre as we have already created a connect with the TG,” says Nikhil Gandhi, Disney UTV Executive Director – Youth Channels, Media Networks. And adds an alert: “So, I would like to tell other channels entering the YEC genre to work on their strategies well.”
Apprehensive marketers?
The change in positioning is due to the feeling that youngsters now have a strong spending power. And, hence, are targeted by various brands more than ever before. TV forms a core part of advertisement for these brands as youngsters also spend a lot of time in front of the television sets.
Simeran Bhasin
But what happens to youth brands if a channel changes its content strategy? According to the various marketing heads, the apprehensions will emerge if the channel isn’t clear about the shift and isn’t able to help a brand reach its TG.
“If the TG of a brand matches that of the channel, it won’t matter if they decide to change over a period of time. However, if there is a shift in TG then a brand would think twice before advertising on that channel,” says Simeran Bhasin, head – Marketing and Retail, Fastrack.
Harkirat Singh
MTV’s latest show Sound Trippin was partnered by Woodland because the brand feels that youth oriented channels helps them reach their TG. However, the brand is clear that it get associated with channels or shows only if it feels there is a connect between the brand and the viewers. “Like any other brand, while media planning, the TG of a certain channel is important for us. We look for shows which are able to reach and connect with our TG. So, if a channel changes its content plan, we will want to go through their new strategy to figure out where do we figure and how it can benefit us,” says Harkirat Singh, MD, Woodland.
Will the shift work?
According to the industry professionals, the change in content plan by a channel is done after a lot of research and only time can decide if it will work in its favour or not. However, they believe that a channel should remain true to its philosophy because otherwise it will lose its identify as well.
Samyak Chakrabarty
Expanding on it, Samyak Chakrabarty, MD, Electronic Youth Media Group and Chief Youth Marketer, DDB Mudra Group believes that ‘youth’ is a very misunderstood word and youngsters cannot be defined in one category as all depends on the exposure and the background one comes from. “In their perception to become ‘youth’ channels, they are getting muddled up and don’t know where they are headed. Today, a youngster cannot associate MTV or Channel V with anything like they do for other brands. For instance, technology means iPad, connectivity means Blackberry etc. I think music channels should have remained with what they started as, instead of losing their identify to gain more TRPs. Such moves will only lead to their downfall, in the long term.”
From being largely optimistic to one predicting a downfall, we received mixed reactions to the proposed change in Channel V’s identity. However, one thing is clear, no matter what Star India decides, there will be many who will wait to see what this mean for them and the genre, at large.
Ramesh Tainwala believes that “women kindergarten teachers tend to be more confident mothers.” As analogies go, this one may border on the stretched but what the chairman of Planet Retail is attempting to convey is that retailers like him can pick up learnings by partnering with marquee brands, and then use them to boldly build labels of their own.
Planet Retail, which has brought brands like Debenhams, Acceorize, Nautica and Next into the country, has begun flying solo with handbags brand Lavie. It’s not the only domestic retailer following a learn-and-launch strategy.
DLF Retail, which has tied up with brands such as Claire’s and DKNY, launched in-house home decor chain Pure Home + Living a year ago. It is now set to flag off another format called Pure Kitchen Studio by November. Or take Lalit Kishore, master franchisee of sports footwear brand Lotto in India, who has launched his own brand of footwear called Globalite. And then there’s Devyani International, a franchisee for Pizza Hut, KFC and Costa Coffee in India, which has introduced South Indian fast-food chain Vaango independently.
“It is easy to open outlets on your own. But international partnerships help in understanding the economics, food preferences and processes for standardised delivery,” said Virag Joshi, president & CEO, Devyani International.
Alliances can provide the domestic partners with a slew of insights across the entire retailing process. Rohit Aggarwal, promoter of Lite Bite Foods, which started as a franchise for Subway, gives an example. “One takes for granted that the freezer or chiller is cold, but (working with an) international brand teaches you that the temperature needs to be checked every 30 minutes.” Lite Bite is now a Rs100 crore operation running not just Subway outlets but home-grown chains like Punjab Grill and Street Foods of India.
International partnerships also help build a sophisticated team with focused skill sets. “Skills that the management feels can be leveraged without an additional cost to build their own brand in parallel with the primary brands,” said Gaurav Marya, president of Franchise India Holdings, which helps brands partner franchisees in India.
There are plenty of synergies that can be availed of from sharing support functions and the supply chain. Economies of scale come into the picture on the advertising front, distribution, hiring and office space, too.
Devyani International, for instance, has a common production unit or commissary in Gurgaon for brands across its portfolio. And Mr Kishore’s Globalite rides on the wholesale supply chain that is used to retail Lotto across multi-brand stores.
Companies say that in the initial stages having international brands in the kitty helps with prospective trade partners. “A foreign partner carries a lot of weight,” said Mr Aggarwal.
Kanchan Lall, associate VP at management consulting firm Tecnova, likens this trend to the development of private labels by retailers. “Once you grasp the understanding of a business, you look for avenues with higher margins and decision-making flexibility,” she said.
The domestic brand builders rule out potential conflicts of interest, pointing out that the local labels typically operate in a different market segment. “Globalite would not matter to Lotto as the two cater to different price segments,” Mr Kishore explained. While Lotto retails at Rs2, 300 a pair on an average, Globalite is priced around Rs1,500 a pair.
The seven-store handbags chain Lavie gains by being bundled with international brands in Planet Retail’s portfolio. “At the same time, Lavie also helps refine the strategy for the premium and super-premium brands in the portfolio and supports them with assurance of higher footfalls when negotiating with a mall,” said Mr Tainwala.
Starbucks Coffee Co and its Indian joint venture partner Tata Group have plans to open around 40 stores by December, half of those in hotels and the rest in high-street malls, a person with the direct knowledge of the plans said.
The person said the 50:50 joint venture, Tata Starbucks, has so far lined up 14 properties in malls and high streets in the New Delhi capital region, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai and will make its India debut in September or October from the commercial capital, Mumbai.
The firm will adopt a cluster approach to simultaneously open three to four outlets in each city they initially go to. Mumbai will be followed by the National Capital Region, Bangalore and Chennai. The properties finalised in hotels include the Ambassador and President hotels under the Vivanta by Taj label, a contemporary luxury chain just notch below the super luxury Taj brand of the Tata group.
“We are looking at both Tata properties as well as non-Tata properties and will focus on how we can become part of the local community where we do business,” a Starbucks spokesperson said in an e-mail reply. The alliance is also in talks with non-Tata hotel chains such as Marriott Hotels to open their outlets.
The joint venture will invest Rs100-150 crore this year alone and has a total budget of $100 million (around Rs 550 crore) to invest in India in the next two to three years, the person familiar with the plan said.
He added that the Seattle-based coffee chain – the largest in the world – will manage the business and source many of its staff from the Tata-owned Taj Hotels. All the stores in the initial stage will have a combination of the lounge as well as takeaway facilities, he said.
Starbucks operates more than 17,000 stores in almost 60 countries. The coffee titan has been exploring possibilities to enter India for many years. Earlier it had made an abortive attempt to foray into India before it called off a joint venture involving its Indonesian franchise and Kishore Biyani of the Future Group. In 2007, the joint venture withdrew its foreign investment proposal with the Indian government without citing any reason.
Now, Starbucks is back with a new partner and is bullish on India, a country with one of the lowest rate of coffee per capita consumption in the world.
Local chain Cafe Coffee Day and global chains such as Barista Lavazza, Costa Coffee and Gloria Jeans are among others currently operating around 2,000 outlets in the country.
Industry estimates that the Rs 1,000 crore coffee-through branded outlets sector is growing at an annual rate of 20 per cent. “I don’t see Starbucks as a competition… I see them as a player who will make drinking coffee through outlets a routine business,” said Virag Joshi, chief executive of Devyani International, which operates more than 100 Costa Coffee stores in India.
The company plans to invest Rs400 crore to add 400 more outlets in the next five years. “The market will keep evolving and will keep growing over the years,” he added.
Veen Spring Waters has appointed Bang in the Middle as its official communication partner. Bang in the Middle will help Veen enter newer luxury markets of Asia and also consolidate their already strong presence in European, Middle Eastern and Chinese markets. Bang in the Middle will henceforth be responsible for managing the brand’s health globally.
“I am thrilled to find a like-minded partner in Bang in the Middle. The market for premium water is growing rapidly, and this growth is a potent opportunity for a young brand like Veen. Together with their expertise, we would be looking at entering various new markets including India,” said Aman Gupta, Director, Veen Waters.
“For a world thirsty for gourmet experiences, Veen is an extremely special offering. I believe that we have been very fortunate to be considered as Veen’s global communication partner. At Bang in the Middle, our focus, work and thinking aren’t going to be limited by geography, and Veen is a brand that fits our plans to a brilliance,” said Prathap Suthan, Managing Partner, Bang in the Middle.
In what Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) calls as a game-changing product innovation, it has rolled out a fused TV + Web Optimizer across its entire organization in India.
This optimizer will sit within the TARDIIS suite – SMG’s proprietary optimizer. SMG India has been using the TARDIIS TV optimizer since 2006. The fused optimizer will allow every single media planner at SMG to evaluate plans fluidly between TV and digital. The optimizer runs on the local Television Audience Measurement (TAM) and Web Audience Measurement (WAM) datasets.India is one of the few markets where SMG has launched this product.
Malli CR, CEO, SMG India, said: “We are a future-forward agency and this is one of the several investments that we are making to improve decision-making on client investments and take businesses along the digital transition road. One senses that the growth of spends on digital should be faster than otherwise. There are several vehicles in digital whose reach is substantial and yet inertia and a lack of currency prevent investments. With this Optimizer, a planner can seamlessly build plan options between TV and digital. Every client’s biggest complaint is about how plans for different target audiences look the same. This product is one of several things that will help change that. We have been testing the product internally since March and are seeing paradigm changing results.”
“One of the biggest challenges in digital is increasing the share of spends of FMCG. Our experience on TARDIIS Web + TV from other markets on FMCG clients has shown that it can lead to a totally different worldview on digital and increase spends substantially. TARDIIS Web + TV is one of the first tools with scale in this market that can accelerate digital spends and investments,” he added.
Deeming this as a huge HR initiative, Puja Shah, Director Human Resources at SMG commented: “We want to enable all our planners to be digitally oriented. This is one of several steps in this direction SMG India has planned out in the next six months.”
LinkedIn, the professional network with over 15 million members in India, has appointed AL Jagannath as Head, trade marketing for India.
With over 18 years of experience in marketing, Mr Jagannath’s immediate focus will be to drive existing and new initiatives for LinkedIn’s Marketing Solutions and Hiring Solutions portfolios.
As part of LinkedIn India’s leadership team, he will be responsible for widening awareness about LinkedIn’s array of customized solutions that are available to advertisers and recruiters in the Indian market.
“Being the second-largest member base for LinkedIn, we see tremendous potential for growing our business in India. We have built a strong and viable platform for the business over the last two and a half years. Our focus, moving forward, will be to build off this platform and continue to give the best value to our advertisers and recruiters. Jagannath brings invaluable experience in building up large businesses and his addition to the India leadership team will help us accelerate our growth in the market, strengthen our operations and associate with even more businesses in India,” said Hari V Krishnan, Country Manager, LinkedIn India.
Based out of Bengaluru, Mr Jagannath joins LinkedIn from VMWare, where he was director, marketing for India and SAARC. Prior to VMWare, he also held leadership positions at some ofIndia’s largest IT companies like Satyam Computers, Reliance Infocomm and Mudra Communications. Having worked with these companies, Jagannath comes with holistic experience in business and consumer marketing.
LinkedIn India is headquartered in Mumbai with offices in New Delhi and Bengaluru.
By Anil Thakraney
By A Correspondent