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  • The book is a celebration of the man who went from prodigy to phenomenon, after debuting as an international superstar when he was just 16

    The Hindu releases book on Sachin Tendulkar

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sachin Tendulkar rang in his 39th birthday at Mohali on April 24 by releasing the book Sachin: Tribute to a Legend – a collector’s edition compiled by The Hindu.

     

    The book is a celebration of the man who went from prodigy to phenomenon, after debuting as an international superstar when he was just 16. The book catalogues Sachin’s incredible journey fromManchesterto Mirpur. It strives to convey the sparkle of the moment as it was recorded, so older readers can experience the delight of nostalgia, and younger ones, the excitement of discovery.

     

    The book is more than just a narrative of the man who achieved a hundred hundreds – it is also a window into the mind of one of cricket’s greatest personalities. It includes freewheeling interviews, and interactions that happened after major milestones such as the ones after 100 tests and after 20 years of international cricket. Sachin is engaging, honest and interesting in each of these interviews. The book also has a statistics section and an essay on Tendulkar, the brand.

     

    Arun Anant, CEO of The Hindu Group of Publications said: “This book is our tribute to his unparalleled contribution to the game”. As a part of the team working on this project Suresh Srinivasan, VP-Advt stated: “Sachin is a source of inspiration to millions of people across the globe and is India’s pride. We trust Sachin’s fans and readers at large will find it as exciting and interesting as we did when we were putting it together.”

     

    Speaking at the release function, Sachin Tendulkar expressed his gratitude to The Hindu: “Readingvarious articles and opinions (in The Hindu) has played an important role in my career. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for putting this book together in a matter of a few weeks. It’s a mammoth effort and thank you very much.”

     

  • Mindshare brought to life the new Lays proposition of 'Pal Banaye Magical' through an interactive augmented reality activity

    Mindshare makes thousands experience Lays Magic with Saif

    By A Correspondent

     

    Imagine being in a television commercial of a major brand like Lays with a superstar like Saif Ali Khan with thousands others. Imagine all your friends liking and sharing the YouTube video of that commercial on Facebook.

     

    That’s exactly what Mindshare set out to do when they brought to life experientially the new Lays proposition of ‘Pal Banaye Magical’ through an interactive augmented reality activity. Augmented Reality adds new dimensions by letting users discover emerging technology whilst enhancing brand awareness through virtual reality game play within their own everyday life environment.

     

    A first inIndia, in terms of scale, the activity saw thousands of consumers dancing  virtually with the Lays brand ambassador Saif Ali Khan and saw their own projection in the ‘Pal Banaye Magical’ commercial on a giant screen – across several malls in Delhi and Chandigarh- making their moment truly magical!

     

    The Mindshare Dialect and Digital teams worked on the campaign in handling the activation and its digital amplification respectively. The icing on the cake was the consumer videos of the AR activity, made viral on social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook by Mindshare Digital.

     

    Speaking about the concept, Rahul Thappa, Client Leader for Mindshare North India, said: “Augmented reality campaigns are an effective means of effectively engaging with the audience. This campaign provided an unforgettable experience for people present at the malls. The activation has helped us bring alive Lays new ‘Pal Banaye Magical’ proposition for consumers, the essence of the proposition being that Lays makes every moment magical!”

     

    The Augmented Reality experience was organized atNew Delhiand Gurgaon whereby more than a thousand consumers engaged with Lays and Saif. Such experiences provided the brand with the chance of interacting with consumers in an original manner.

     

    As a follow up, Lays is now engaging its consumers with another campaign fashioned around the IPL. Six big hitting cricketers have created six distinct flavours, and consumers have to associate the right cricketer with the right flavor. The entire engagement titled “Guess Whose Flavor” is driving participation to laysguesswhoseflavor.com

     

    Mindshare is a global media and marketing services network with billings in excess of $27.8 billion (source: RECMA). The network consists of 114 offices in 82 countries throughout the North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific, each dedicated to forging competitive marketing advantage for businesses and their brands.  Mindshare is a member of WPP, the world’s leading communications service group with $84.2bn in billings (source: RECMA), and is part of GroupM, the world’s leading full service media investment management operation, which was created by WPP Group to oversee its assets in this sector.

     

  • Launches country-wide promotions through on-ground music concerts, live events and public-engagement activities

    beStylish.com ropes in ‘EKA’ as ambassadors

    By A Correspondent

     

    beStylish.com has roped in the upcoming music band ‘EKA’ as brand ambassadors for their online shoe store. With this association, beStylish has launched the first phase of its ‘Friends of beStylish’ program that encourages partners across various walks of life to connect with the online brand.

     

    As the ambassadors of beStylish, EKA will play a key role in creating a brand connect with beStylish.com’s customers and prospects with its highly energetic performances, in various concerts held in music festivals, college fests, corporate events, radio and television shows, clubs, pubs, and so on across the country. Specially composed beStylish jingles will be played as part of these concerts. The brand promotion would be further amplified in the online space through co-promotion on beStylish.com’s online store, online music channels, vignettes, and others.

     

    Speaking about the beStylish brand value and its association with EKA, Shailen Amin, Co-Founder and CEO, beStylish.com, said: “Given our strong marketing focus emphasizing on brand awareness and building a loyal consumer base, we have associated with EKA under our ‘Friends of beStylish program’. EKA’s eclectic, original and contemporary music syncs perfectly with our own approach towards our customers and fans. With this partnership, we are confident of creating real-time public engagement opportunities for the brand, moving beyond a virtual-only space”.

     

    Conferred with ArtistAloud Awards 2011 for the ‘Best Group’, the renowned band ‘EKA’ comprises of Benjamine ‘Benny’ Pinto on Keyboards, Hitesh ‘Rikki’ Madan on guitars and vocals and Lokesh Madan on vocals and bass. The seasoned musicians forming Eka and have performed at over 2,000 concerts in 15 countries and have recorded over 100 songs in various capacities.

     

    Commenting on the occasion, EKA said: “We are excited to be chosen as the face of this youthful brand. beStylish.com aptly reflects the attributes of today’s youth and we are proud to take the brand from the virtual space to their real audience. Through this association, we hope to take our music to new audiences and hope we can help our audiences put their best foot forward with beStylish.com’s ever-growing list of top of the line fashion products. We look forward to growing with the brand and hope that our association with the brand grows stronger in the years to come”.

     

    beStylish.com isIndia’s largest online shoe retailer with the largest range of international, high street and popular footwear brands. It offers its customers an exceptional online shopping experience with over 130 brands and 4,600 styles in shoes catering to men, women and children. beStylish.com was launched in May 2011 under the umbrella of the Smile Group, which has consistently created trusted digital and ecommerce assets, business ideas and entrepreneurs in the digital space.

     

    Eka has performed at prestigious events including The Times of India Earth Care Awards, United Nations Initiative for Women & Children’s Health, International Film Festival of India (Goa), Finale of Bengaluru Habba, Chivas Studio Spotlight & The Great Indian October Fest, among others. Eka calls its music genre ‘Swatantra Rock’ – music beyond music, time and boundaries. Eka delivers a unique experience by blending its originals with selected classic rock, sufi and popular Hindi / Bollywood music.

     

  • Ensuring a "must carry" clause for all TV channels and putting an end to their regulatory pricing wherein TRAI mandates the price that viewers pay for every channel, are also critical to revive the sick TV broadcasting industry

    Govt can plug revenue leakage by banning carriage fees, says broadcasting industry

    By A Correspondent

     

    Industry sources have said that banning carriage fees in the new digitisation of cable distribution regime w.e.f July 1 is necessary to ensure that government can plug the huge revenue leakage upwards of Rs10,000 crore annually due to cable companies levying huge carriage fees and grossly under-declaring their subscriber base.

     

    Moreover, ensuring a “must carry” clause for all TV channels and putting an end to their regulatory pricing wherein TRAI mandates the price that viewers pay for every channel, are also critical to revive the sick TV broadcasting industry, which continues to reel under the triple burden of usurious carriage fees, regulated tariffs for their channels as well as getting a fraction of their due subscriber revenues.

     

    At present, over nine-tenths of TV channels are in the red and are unable to invest in quality programming, while many smaller/niche channels with big-ticket pedigrees – Imagine TV being the latest – have had to shut down.

     

    Another fallout of these distorted industry practices has been that potential new export avenues have closed, because India is not able to export television formats and finished content – while other industries like software, music and animation (which do not suffer such a usurious regulatory/industry scenario) have been big-ticket forex earners for over a decade.

     

    Industry sources said that TV channels collectively paid at least Rs3,500 crore last fiscal to cable companies and distributors as carriage and placement fees, of which news channels alone paid at least Rs1,500 crore. These carriage fees turned many profitable TV channels immediately into the red, thus denying the government a large income tax earning opportunity upwards of Rs1,000 crore per year.

     

    According to another industry estimate, given the estimated subscription revenues of all MSOs/LCOs in the country, the government has lost about Rs5,950 crore over the five-year period from 2006 to 2011 in service tax alone by reason of under-declaration while the evasion of income tax is about Rs17,413 crore over the five-year period 2006 to 2011; and loss of entertainment tax by states is in addition to that amount.

     

    Additionally, TRAI had, itself mentioned in a March 2010 paper that “there is evidence of tax evasion in the cable industry…the last publicly available CBEC report of 2005-06 shows only Rs75 crore of service tax being collected from the industry on a base of 68 million subscribers paying an average of Rs165 per month, the estimated service tax collection from analog cable should be in the range of Rs1,400 crore per annum”.

     

    Another estimate – from HSBC for 2011 – says that the government lost around Rs1,380 crore last year in entertainment and service taxes alone due to cable companies under-declaring their subscriber base by as much as four-fifths. This estimate assumed the potential revenue to government at Rs1,725.90 crore given a Rs165 ARPU for 67 million analog pay TV households and entertainment tax at Rs20 per household along with 12 per cent service tax.

     

    But because only 20 per cent or 13 million households are disclosed, the actual revenues collated were estimated to be only Rs 345 crore even as TV channels lost out on the bulk of their subscriber fees. These practices have ensured that India now has a cash-rich last mile; India already has the third-largest TV distribution industry in the world where viewers can and are willing to pay for content – borne out by the fact that pay TV penetration is as much as 80 per cent in India, which is amongst the highest in the world.

     

    On the contrary, TV channels, who actually create the content, get less than a fifth of what viewers actually pay the cable companies. However, broadcasters say that the only opportunity to correct these distortions and ensure that TV channels do not continue to close due to extraneous factors, lies in the digitisation of cable distribution, for which the government is currently putting together relevant rules.

     

    Under this, it will be mandatory for all viewers to get a digital set-top box and for operators to distribute channels in a digital and addressable format. This will give viewers a wider choice of channels with better viewing quality. In fact, digitisation is now being seen as the game changer for the entire Indian TV industry as it will also significantly benefit distributors the multisystem operators – (MSOs) and local cable operators (LCOs) – whose paying base will improve even further.

     

    In this regard, Dr Prannoy Roy, chairman, NDTV told ET, that “digitisation of cable distribution is a major step towards making India’s media achieve truly global quality”. However, Rajat Sharma, chairman, India TV, pointed out that digitisation will be “meaningless unless all channels are made available to the consumer and he is given the power to make a choice”.

     

    He told ET that this can be done “only if it is mandatory for the cable operators to carry all channels and ensure that set-top boxes have the capability to carry more than 500 channels” and added that the government must curb any effort to create an artificial scarcity at the head end or in the box in carrying the channels.

     

    Pointing to the other issue of price controls on TV channels, Uday Shankar, president, Indian Broadcasting Federation, told ET: “IBF has always believed that channel pricing should be kept under regulatory forbearance and market forces should be allowed to discover channel valuations. Internationally, apart from countries like China or Taiwan, there are no instances of government regulating the pricing of channels. Freedom in pricing is essential for channels to offer best in class, quality programming. In the absence of this freedom, broadcasters are compelled to somehow match spiraling input costs with regulated prices thereby running the risk of compromising quality”.

     

    He added that there is enough competition in every genre to “remove any fears of exorbitant pricing”, given that the consumer has a choice between multiple DTH platforms and cable operators and “as a result of that, we have seen that the ARPUs have been flat to down”.

     

    Source: The Economic Times
    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • The report has also said that with Hollywood already contributing 10-12 per cent of the overall box-office revenue in India, the Indian film industry will witness an accelerated growth

    Indian film trade to benefit from partnering Hollywood: E&Y

    By Nandini Raghavendra

     

    India’s film industry will benefit from an increased collaboration with Hollywood in the areas of film entertainment, education, VFX and tourism, according to Ernst & Young in a report issued for an initiative launched by the LA Film Council.

     

    The report, ‘Film Industry in India: New horizons’, has also said that with Hollywood already contributing Rs850 crore to Rs900 crore, or 10-12 per cent of the overall box-office revenue in India, the Indian film industry will witness an accelerated growth than competition from countries like China, Japan, Russia and Brazil.

     

    There has been 42 per cent increase in the number of Hollywood movies shot in India between 2010 and 2011, and that number is expected to grow, the report said. At least five big-ticket Hollywood productions, including the next James Bond, will be shot in India, while Fox is looking at two more films.

     

    The Indian film industry is projected to grow from $3.2 billion in 2010 to $5 billion by 2014 at a CAGR of 14.1 per cent. With close to a 1,000 films produced a year, India’s filmed entertainment industry is the largest in the world coupled with its theatrical admissions at around $3 billion.

     

    A greater collaboration between India and US will result in increased film tourism, cultural and technological exchanges and boosting local talent, and most importantly serve as a showcase on the global stage for India art, culture, history and talent. Perhaps, this is a beginning of a revolution similar to the one we witnessed in the IT industry at the beginning of this millennia,” Rakesh Jariwala, partner and segment champion, filmed entertainment at E&Y, said.

     

    According to estimates, there are more than 40 major domestic VFX companies catering to domestic and international clients. Currently, India accounts for only around 10 per cent of the total animation and VFX outsourcing pie. However, there is room for growth and the amount of work coming to India from Hollywood is on the rise.

     

    Of late, the VFX industry has been shifting toward higher-end assignments. India has well developed post-production facilities available at low cost. A foreign producer who comes to shoot in India can complete his entire movie here, from shooting to post production to cut costs. Industry players are also tying up with film and entertainment companies on dedicated projects.

     

    As far as India’s travel and tourism industry goes, it contributed $1.7 trillion (or 2.8 per cent of the global GDP), which is expected to rise to 4.2 per cent ($2.9 trillion) by 2021. Furthermore, investments in the global travel and tourism industry are expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.4 per cent to reach $1.5trillion by 2021 from $0.6 trillion in 2010.

     

    Many US states such as California, New York, Michigan, Nevada and Utah offer incentives to film and television production companies from India. Canada also offers incentives to producers of film, television, animation and visual effects from India and has attracted many Bollywood producers, who have shot movies in the country.

     

    Source: The Economic Times
    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • Star India will launch Movies OK, its second Hindi movie channel, on May 6. Other than promos on Satymev Jayate, a week-long World TV Premiere will happen from May 28

    Star to launch Movies OK channel on May 6

    By A Correspondent

     

    The offices of Star India are buzzing for more reasons that one. On May 6, not only is perhaps the biggest ever TV show on Indian TV being launched in the form of Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate, but the network is also introducing to the world its second Hindi movie channel, Movies OK.

     

    Star has confirmed the news of the launch and test signals are on. So how will it be different from Star Gold? It will be part of the Life OK suite, and reinforce family viewing and togetherness.

     

    The channel is going to exploit the library it bought from Viacom 18 and starting May 28, it will have a week-long World TV Premiere… so a new film every day at primetime.

     

    The channel will be headed by Star Gold general manager Hemal Jhaveri.

     

  • The much awaited TRAI order on tariffs is out paving the way for the digitisation regime in metros starting July 1

    TRAI issues tariff order for cable TV

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued the Tariff Order and Interconnection Regulations for the Digital Addressable Cable TV Systems late yesterday.

     

    While the Tariff Order has been issued as an amendment to the existing Tariff Order for addressable systems, the Interconnection Regulation is comprehensive one for the Digital Addressable Cable TV Systems.

     

    As per the communiqué, here are the salient features:

     

    1. All channels (pay and free-to air) to be offered on a-la-carte basis to subscribers.

     

    2. There will be a Basic Service Tier (BST) consisting of a minimum of 100 free-to air (FTA) channels comprising at least 5 channels of each genre namely news and current affairs, infotainment, sports, kids, music, lifestyle, movies and general entertainment in Hindi, English and regional language of the concerned region. 18 channels of Public Broadcaster and Lok Sabha channel will also form the part of the BST. While Multi-system Operator (MSO) has to offer the Basic Service Tier, it is not obligatory for subscriber to subscribe to the BST. Instead subscriber can form his own package of a maximum of 100 FTA channels.

    In either case the MSO cannot charge the subscriber more than Rs100 per month.

     

    3. It shall be open to the subscriber to subscribe to the BST or one or more FTA channels or one or more Pay channels or bouquets offered by MSO or any combination of these.

     

    4. In case subscriber chooses Pay channel(s) with or without FTA channel(s) the MSO can fix a minimum monthly subscription not exceeding Rs150. If the total value of the channels/ bouquets opted by the subscriber exceeds Rs150 then actual subscription charges has to be paid.

     

    5. The basic purpose of digitisation is to ensure ample choice to the consumer as well as to enable him to budget his subscription according to his paying capacity. Accordingly, the Authority has mandated MSOs to carry a minimum of 500 channels from 1.1.2013. However, keeping in view that the smaller MSOs having less than 25000 subscribers may need some additional time for building the capacity, they have been given time up to 1.4.2013. Besides, to ensure that the consumer is not adversely affected, the Authority has prescribed that every MSO should have a minimum capacity to carry 200 channels from July 1, 2012. Authority expects that all the MSOs operating in areas of Phase-II onwards to take suitable measures to enhance the channel carrying capacity to 500 channels.

     

    6. Only those MSOs that have the requisite capacity, as mentioned above, can invoke ‘must provide’ clause. The broadcasters shall not provide their channels to MSOs who have channel carrying capacity of less than 200 channels immediately and less than 500 channels from 1.1.2013 or 1.4.2013 in case of smaller MSOs.

     

    7. The Broadcaster would enjoy ‘must carry’ provision from 1.1.2013 or 1.4.2013 as the case may be, for Hindi, English and channels in the regional language of the concerned area.

     

    8. The provision relating to amount charged by broadcaster to MSO remains unchanged. They can charge a maximum of 42 per cent of the rate, they charge in the non-addressable systems.

     

    9. The Authority has addressed the issue relating to the Carriage Fee. Keeping in view the fact that substantial investment for implementation of Digital Addressable Cable TV Systems is made by the MSO and the cost involved in carriage of channels, the Authority has decided that every MSO may fix the Carriage Fee. However, it should be published in the Reference Interconnect Offer and applied in a uniform, non-discriminatory and transparent manner. The Carriage Fee cannot be revised upward for a minimum of 2 years. The Authority would intervene in case it is felt that the Carriage Fee is unreasonable.

     

    10. The MSOs can fix the retail tariff and also package and price offerings. However, the sum of the a-la-carte rates of channels, forming part of a bouquet, shall not exceed 1.5 times the rate of the bouquet. Further, the a-la-carte rate of any channel shall not exceed 3 times the average channel rate of the bouquet.

     

    11. The July 2010 Tariff Order provides that the revenue share between the MSO and LCO shall be based on mutual negotiations. The Authority has now prescribed that in case the mutual negotiations fail, the revenue share shall be in the ratio of 55:45 (MSO: LCO) for BST or FTA channels. The revenue share for Pay channels or bouquet of Pay channels with or without FTA channels shall be in the ratio of 65:35 (MSO: LCO).

     

    12. Implementation of Digital Addressable Cable TV Systems will lead to better choice to consumers, variety and quality of content, adequate revenue to stakeholders and healthy environment for the industry in addition to bringing in transparency in the business transactions and subscriber base. It would also ensure that the Government receives the due revenue.

     

    Details of the Interconnection Regulations and Tariff Order are available on TRAI website: www.trai.gov.in.

     

  • I wonder how many Indians would recognize the international football stars, since the sport is not really famous in India

    Debrief: Pepsi: Not really a game changer

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    It must have cost Pepsi a bomb to hire the services of football stars like Lampard, Torres and Drogba. Not to speak of expensive desi cricketers like Dhoni and Kohli. But does it work? Hmm, am not so sure.

     

    Pepsi continues with its ‘Change the game’ theme this summer. When they first broke with this idea it was quite refreshing in terms of the execution. But am afraid its losing fizz as the idea gets extended. Perhaps it has to do with the way they are extending it. In the new TVC, the football stars play football with a cricket ball.

     

    And there’s a ‘fun’ exchange between the cricketers and the footballers, as the two games collide.

     

    Here are the problems with this commercial: I wonder how many Indians would recognize the international football stars, since the sport is not really famous in India. Perhaps some uber urban lads will, but Pepsi is a mass brand. Which then makes one question the heavy expenditure. Also, the marriage of the two games is clumsily done and the treatment is very predictable. And this directly hits the entertainment value of the ad. The script had to be very spunky and very surprising for it to work. Lastly, the brand has been forced into the situation in a very, let’s just say, unsmart manner. They simply had to find a cool way to make Pepsi an intrinsic part of the storyline.

     

    In short, the ad lacks both, freshness and wit… the key ingredients of any Pepsi ad.

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 1. Game changed. Now change the ad.

     

  • Prathap Suthan announced on Monday that he is branching out from iYogi to float 'Bang in the Middle' as an independent agency

    Out with a Bang! Prathap Suthan, Naresh Gupta etc launch new agency

    By A Correspondent

     

    Prathap Suthan
    Naresh Gupta
    Viral Pandya
    Manoj Deb
    Sabu Paul

    It was one of the biggest news to have hit adland in March 2011 when Cheil Worldwide’s NCD Prathap Suthan quit his agency to join lesser-known direct-to-consumer remote tech support company iYogi as its Chief Creative Officer. It was seen as an unexpected move by the creative maverick who was responsible for creating some startling work for Cheil Worldwide in India. But after lying low-profile with its activities and having stayed away from the advertising glitz and glam for most part, Suthan (or Pat, as he is affectionately called) made an interesting announcement on Monday when he announced branching out from iYogi to float ‘Bang in the Middle’ as an independent agency.

     

    Started in early 2011, the division headed by Prathap Suthan was set up as the in-house branding, advertising and communication team at iYogi. The unit managed campaigns for the company, primarily leveraging digital media across North America, the United Kingdom, Middle East and Australia. After 12 months, and over 20 campaigns later, iYogi’s in-house agency is ready to step out and offer its services to a wider set of brands. The agency will now offer expertise in brand advisory, communication design and advertising to Indian and global corporations.

     

    To be based out of Gurgaon, the team line-up includes some of the best names in the business including Prathap Suthan, Naresh Gupta, Viral Pandya, Manoj Deb, and Sabu Paul. Speaking about the team, Naresh Gupta, Managing Partner, Bang in the Middle, said: “All the existing employees who worked in the branding department of iYogi are the founding members of BITM. Prathap is a creative leader of outstanding pedigree. I, myself, have worked for a spectrum of clients. Viral Pandya is a celebrated designer who has won every possible international accolade and Manoj Deb is a celebrated art director. Between the four of us we have over 100 years of experience across geographies. The team we have right now is the best that is in the business.”

     

    When asked on the funding pattern being adopted by the company, Gupta said: “There is an external investor who is helping us make the unit operate independently. Our approach is to marry the strengths of new media with the traditional roles of mass media. We have an industry tested model of working and we have real life experience of making it work for the brands.”

     

    In a statement to MxM India, Prathap Suthan, Managing Partner, Bang in the Middle, said: “Despite an overcrowded communication services market, India needs a new kind of communication agency. India is booming with opportunity. Increasingly Indian brands are spreading their wings to global opportunities and new age businesses are coming up all over the country bustling with enterprise, ambition and opportunity. There is an increasingly younger nation out there with global ambitions and enterprises are demanding better communication solutions.”

     

    On his decision to branch out from iYogi, he said: “Organized advertising is getting weaker and getting scattered across many areas, giving rise to independent agencies. We believe that Bang in the Middle comes with the right experience to exploit that opportunity.”

     

    The agency’s services span across brand advisory and campaign design and advertising across platforms and customer touch-points. Bang in the Middle will assist brands in establishing a deeper engagement with customers by creating an ecosystem from visual language to design guidelines and interaction across mediums. It will also assist brands create holistic communications approaches that will reduce dependency on traditional media and leverage digital to gain market share.

     

    As of now, the company just has a single client to boast of but are said to be in advanced talks with a few clients already. But that really may not be an issue for BITM, who have some experienced team that have bagged big clients in the past. What will now matter for the agency is to be seen as a new and small creative force to be reckoned with. Asserts Gupta: “We believe the age of independents is here. The biggest thing going for them is flat structure, focused delivery and hands-on experience of senior people.”

     

    That seems to be an assurance high on confidence and competency too. Given the run that small independents are having at the awards, a new addition will only make life for other agencies, especially the biggies, a tad more challenging. Only time will tell if BITM has it in them to challenge leadership norm and emerge a superior agency in the future.

     

  • For Cheil the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Y Duos was an ideal platform to carry forward the DNA of Galaxy Y and at the same time display the benefit of a Dual SIM Android phone

    New Samsung TVC from Cheil takes ‘Y’ smart to next level

    By A Correspondent

     

    Cheil’s latest television commercial promoting the Galaxy Y DUOS is an extension of the earlier campaign that drove preference for the Samsung Galaxy Y Smartphones and set the pace for Gen Y to make a shift from feature to smart phones.

     

    Once again Samsung has created a buzz in the market by launching the Dual SIM Android phone – Galaxy Y Duos (GT-S6102), a touch-screen dual-SIM Smartphone. It has 3.14″ screen with QVGA resolution and an 832 MHz processor.

     

    For Cheil the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Y Duos was an ideal platform to carry forward the DNA of Galaxy Y and at the same time display the benefit of a Dual SIM Android phone.

     

    Speaking about this new commercial for the Galaxy Y series, Alok Agrawal, COO, Cheil Worldwide SW Asia said,  “Galaxy Y is a great franchise which we’ve built by riding on an insight where we have divided the world of tech into the have and have nots. Smartphones is the way forward in the mobile category and the market is in an exciting phase. This is the second campaign from Galaxy Y and we are looking ahead to more exciting work in this space.”

     

    Cheil’s communication clearly shows the protagonist with Samsung Galaxy Y Duos demarcating the world between the have and the have nots and the need to be smart and have a smart phone in life.

     

    The new TVC created for Samsung ‘s new smartphone is set in a cafe showing a young girl with the new Galaxy Y Duos putting an irritating loud mouthed character in his place. As before, the communication ends with the antagonists being teased with a simple question “Dual SIM hai aur samsrtphone bhi, lekin aap ke pass nahin hai…Uncle?”.

     

    India’s mobile phone market is witnessing exponential growth and the smartphone market has gained traction with every mobile handset manufacturer offering smartphones at various price points and service providers providing lucrative data plans to entice the consumer to use email, apps etc on their phones.

     

    In this growth story, Samsung mobile has emerged as the No. 1 Smartphone brand inIndia. Samsung’s positioning is no surprise as it understands the consumer and develops smartphones to cater to the needs of all types of users. In 2011, the Galaxy Y series were launched though a successful campaign of TVCs that clearly focused on the youth of today- confident and courageous to take up challenges and solve them in their own unique ways.

     

    This TVC is part of the line up of an exciting range of products where Cheil Worldwide is actively involved in building communication across 360-degree consumer touch points, that offer a high degree of excitement and creating buzz for the brand.

     

    Client: Samsung electronics India Limited

    Agency: Cheil Worldwide SW Asia

    Creative Team: Varun Arora, Dinkar Porwal, Vishal Sagar

    Client Servicing team: Srijeet Das, Soma Chatterjee, Shruti Nanda, Chandramouli Prasad

    Production House:Code Rd

    Directed by: Gajraj Rao

     

    Cheil Indiahas been on an aggressive growth plan over the last 2 years, almost doubling its size in its employee strength and billings. Significant expansion and growth has been seen particularly in BTL and Digital areas, making Cheil one of the largest fully integrated single agencies inIndia, executing some of the largest cross-functional integrated campaigns, providing 360°implementation across all facets of marketing services.

     

    Cheil Worldwide Inc is Korea’s largest and one of the world’s leading advertising groups. Cheil offers a full portfolio of marketing communications services including advertising, PR, sports marketing, exhibition and display production, and production of large-scale performance events. In 2011, Advertising Age ranked Cheil as the #11 largest creative agency in the world.

     

  • The youth are also bringing about a cultural change in terms of their influence in advertisements, films, music, television, web and others, says Aditya Swamy

    Aditya Swamy on 6 Gen X facts brands must know

    Aditya Swamy

    By Aditya Swamy

     

    Youth today are coming together to bring about social and cultural change

    Besides the social change, for instance the Meter Down campaign or the Anna Hazare’s anti corruption movement. The youth are also bringing about a cultural change in terms of their influence in advertisements, films, music, television, web  and others.

     

    The generation gap between parents and children is breaking down

    For this generation it is the family which is first over friends. In fact, young people today see their parents as role models and know that it is their parents who will stand by them in both good and bad times.

     

    Warm is the new cool for this generation.

    This is the generation which is in touch with their emotions as they want to make the world a better place, and they want to be a better person. This generation is also very quick to help those that seek their help whether it’s about finding a new home, a restaurant, a job and so on.

     

    This is truly an empowered generation

    Because most of them believe that they can bring about a change in the society or their country. Therefore for a brand to give the youth a platform where they are able to display their empowerment becomes a very powerful tool for brands to engage with their audience.

     

    Technology is equal to life

    The youth today are born into a world where iPhone, iPad, tablets and other mobile platforms are just part of their life. For brands to connect with the youth they must look at how their content can evolve around the four different environment i.e. television, mobile, web and the real life screen. Therefore bringing the four together to engage with the youth.

     

    This generation is already inspired

    So they are not looking at brands to inspire, but they want the brands to engage them. Gone are the days when a Shahrukh Khan is seen as an inspiration, today their role models are those people that brought about a change in their surroundings or country and so on. So brands must start having a two way conversation with their audience and once a brand initiates a two way dialogue that’s when it builds a connection with their audience.

     

    Aditya Swamy is EVP and Business Head – MTV India

     

  • It's Maharashtra & Gujarat Day today. We speak to select mediapersons and brand advisors on how the two high profile states are perceived

    So which scores higher – Brand Guj or Maha?

     

    By Shubhangi Mehta

     

    Maharashtra and Gujarat can be regarded as two of the most prosperous states of India. Where Maharashtra outshines in the industrial aspect and Bollywood Bling, Gujarat, the state of our father of nation, Mahatama Gandhi, is a state which has bounced back despite major natural calamity like the 2001 earthquake.

     

    Manish Bhatt

    In terms of promoting the state, Gujarat’s campaigns featuring the Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan are all over the media whereas we haven’t seen any such promotions from Maharashtra. The reason for this is the capital of Maharashtra – Mumbai – which is by itself is a matter of publicity for the state. Iconic names like Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar all belong to Maharashtra and there is also Bollywood.

     

    Says Manish Bhatt, Founder Director at Scarecrow Communications Ltd: “I think Gujarat is being branded well because its government has a strong political view and agenda. The spirit of Gujarat is like a phoenix, they have a never say die attitude. Where as Maharashtra lacks a strong political drive towards branding the state with no consistent political rule hence they lack uniformity in the political agenda”.

     

    Lloyd Mathias

    Lloyd Mathias, well-known marketer and until recently with Tata Tele, reasons: “It’s a recent trend that we are seeing states promoting themselves by focusing on campaigns. Gujarat has managed the total branding really well whereas Maharashtra has been left behind, not only in terms of brand building but also because it needs a 360-degree development approach. In my opinion,  bureaucrats must try and use the public money in developing the state and using these state days as an excuse to launch their development programmes.”

     

    Gujarat has over 50 million people (5 per cent of India’s population) and contributes 21 per cent of exports and 13 per cent of India’s industrial production. The state has the distinction of achieving the highest GDP over 11 per cent in the country. In Maharashtra, Mumbai became the gateway to India in many ways. Today, it is the business capital and the entertainment capital of the country.

     

    Bharat Kapadia

    According to veteran mediaperson Bharat Kapadia both Maharashtra and Gujarat progressed remarkably well though in recent times, Gujarat is “doing wonders in terms of progress due to the consistent and visionary leadership”. “The quality of leadership in Maharashtra has not been stable for quite sometime. Maharashtra does have a rich heritage but it’s losing edge due to unstable political system, bad infrastructure and so on. In my opinion there isn’t any limit to growth, but it requires great vision which the leaders in Gujarat are showing,” he adds.

     

    Though the terror attacks in Mumbai and the portrayal of the city in films like Slumdog Millionaire may have stained the image of Maharashtra, but the region and its people are known since the old days for their strength and valour. While the famous Salt March started in Gujarat, it may be argued that the culmination of the Freedom Movement occurred in Mumbai with the naval revolt (or the Bombay Mutiny), which, many say, was what got the British to finally decide to leave India.

     

    Sudarshan Banerjee

    Says Sudarshan Banerjee, Head, Mudra Ahmedabad and Director, NBD, DDB Mudra: “When we speak about brand building, Maharashtra has in the past, done campaigns promoting the state and so has Gujarat. Though in recent times, Maharashtra is low key on such activities. The reason for this can be that Maharashtra is a state which does not need to talk so much about itself, people anyway come here. Gujarat, on the other hand, has promoted itself so well in the recent past that not only tourism but also the number of investors investing here has increased. And the future only promises growth for the two states.”

     

    It is obvious that both the states are economically extremely important for the country. But whereas the Gujarat government is taking a stand and developing it by leaps and bounds, a similar effort and vision is needed for Maharashtra as well.