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  • Nokia, TATA top; Anna pips Sachin, Salman and Amitabh as the most trusted personality

    Nokia, Tata star in India’s most trusted brands report

    By A Correspondent

    Trust Research Advisory, the authority on the measurement of Trust among brands, is out with the Brand Trust Report 2012, the much anticipated results of India’s Most Trusted Brands.

     

    The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2012 (BTR 2012), lists India’s 1,000 Most Trusted Brands even though it studied over 17,000. The report is the result of a comprehensive primary research conducted on 61 components of trust – a proprietary tool of Trust Research Advisory. The research was conducted with 2,718 ‘influencer’ respondents from 15 cities, generating more than 2 million data-points from 12,000 hours of research.

     

    The research was done on salaried SEC A population as they have more engagement with people and brands. Other detailed parameter of the audience chosen for the survey also exists. According to Mr. N Chandramouli, CEO of Trust Research Advisory, rigorous back checks were done to eliminate any anomalies that might appear in the survey and the parameters were set very high for the research.

     

    He said, that according to an AC Nielsen report, $1 trillion was spent on communication last year… Considering the huge amount of money, it is of paramount importance that the money is used correctly. Mr. Chandramauli said that even though the top positions have not drastically changed over the last year, yet the trust index pattern has changed. In 2011 report, the top two brands had the trust index equivalent to the next 65 brands. However, this figure has dropped down to the next 6 brands in 2012 report. This means that the gap between the top players is decreasing and in the upcoming years one can see a drastic turn around.

     

    Talking about research methodology Mr Chandramauli said “If you want to focus on trust, we can’t focus on trust but the ingredients of trust… The survey studies such 100 trust metrics in extraordinary details.” The three components of trust are the tactile, the vicarious and the imagined concepts of trust.

     

    Nokia and Tata retained their first and second positions as India’s top two Trusted Brands this year. Sony, the Japanese electronics leader, slipped to fifth position, outranked by the two aggressive Korean chaebols, LG at 3rd position and Samsung at 4th position. Maruti Suzuki improved its position by one notch and is India’s 6th Most Trusted Brand this year. Bajaj, ranked 7th, is a new entrant this year in the Top 10 (last year it was ranked 12th); LIC and Airtel’s positions are unchanged from last year at 8th and 9th rank respectively. Reliance slipped to 10th Most Trusted Brand this year (from sixth last year).

     

    Among 22 personalities listed among in BTR 2012, Anna Hazare has gained the nation’s trust ahead of Sachin Tendulkar, Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan, featured in that order. Most Trusted leaders in some other categories are Armani in Branded Fashion, DLF in Construction, NIIT in Education, ONGC in Energy, PVR in Entertainment, Pepsi in F&B, Dabur in Healthcare, Taj Hotels in Hospitality, Google in Internet, ACC in Manufacturing, Thomas Cook in Services, Being Human in Social Sector, Hewlett Packard in Technology, and Air India in Airlines.

     

    Mr Chandramouli, said: “In life, without trust, there is nothing. Each time a human engages with anything, the basis for all decisions is trust. Be it brands, other humans, or just ideas, one will react to them on the basis of the trust it generates. Last year was tumultuous for several brands, but those which focused on trust, have gained market-share, revenues and profits. On the other hand, the brands which have focused only on the latter, have invariably lost both. Focus on building trust and all else will follow automatically.”

     

    Anand Mahindra, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra, has elaborated on Trust is Everything concept for the Mahindra brand in the report: “No great secret lies behind the highly-trusted Mahindra brand. Consistent delivery against every promise is the single biggest driver of trust for our brand. Apart from this, factors like high quality products and services, adherence to highest standards of corporate governance, the very high integrity of the leaders who run the company and adherence to a set of values in conducting business have helped the Mahindra brand earn the trust of all its stakeholders.”

     

    The report, priced at Rs10,000, is available exclusively at TRA offices.

     

  • TV is an extremely expensive business and most news channels would not have gone overboard on Anna’s campaign if there was no promise of gains – present or in the future. Who put up the money for the coverage, asks Sanjay Kapoor.

    Newswatch: Sanjay Kapoor on Team Anna & the fast co

    By Sanjay Kapoor

     

    In January 2011, Anna Hazare was virtually unknown to Delhi’s self obsessed middle class. A year later, after he had unleashed a tumult against the government by sitting on a fast till the central government appointed an all powerful Jan Lokpal or ombudsman against corruption, and controlled all the headlines of the national media, Hazare is slowly slipping away from prime time news. What he and his verbose bunch of supporters have to figure out in the coming days is: what do you do when the gaze of the TV cameras shifts? How do you get them to look at you again?

     

    These questions must be surely gnawing at an ailing Anna Hazare as he strenuously pedals on his stationary exercise bike to regain his health and also find a way out from this dead end. He must be wondering what really went wrong at his “fast fest” at MMRDA grounds of Mumbai, where he did not get the kind of fawning and gushy support of the people as he got in Delhi. Not only were the crowds thin, even the TV news channels, unlike in the past, refused to bloat their numbers. Delhi, surely, seemed a distant memory. What really went wrong for the anti-corruption movement that seemed to threaten the stability of UPA government?

     

    Operating under the rubric of “India against Corruption’, Anna Hazare’s movement was crafted like the Arab Spring. The main pillars of his campaign were the media and the urban middle class. Interestingly, Team Anna seemed to follow the template put together by Belgrade-based Centre for Applied Non-violent Action and Strategies (www.canvasopedia.org), which seeks to provide consultancy to protests around the world. CANVAS takes the credit for training and supporting civil society activists in countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Myanmar, amongst many other countries, for organising protests. CANVAS recommends non-violent interventions like fasts and suggests the use of media to disseminate a message that the “people see that there is something is wrong, and they are willing to do something about it”. Funded by US-based entities, much of the advice listed on its website finds an echo in what has been witnessed in the country in the last few months.

     

    CANVAS suggestions are usually meant for authoritarian regimes where press is under state control and the only way to reach out to the masses is through social media like Facebook and Twitter; there is no such problem in India. In a noisy and chaotic democracy like ours with hundreds of privately owned news channels following each other’s “breaking news”, this was much easier. Team Anna and its patrons had to get one big media organisation on their side and rest was easy. Call them partners in a conspiracy hatched by patrons of Anna Hazare or a simple display of good reflexes in spotting a big story, the Bennett Coleman group showed great enthusiasm in building the narrative of how “a Gandhian left his village to save the republic from the corrupt”. In the cacophony and melee of TV news reporting there is no clarity of who ” broke the Anna Story” when he descended on Delhi to fast at Jantar Mantar last April, but it was a matter of time when all news channels went overboard in their coverage of his event. Clever camera angles plus filling up the TV screens of small snapshots of people assembling at different places helped in creating crowds when few existed. Truth was manipulated to build a feverish demand for the appointment of an unelected Lokpal to save the country from rampaging pindaris. It is quite unclear how media organisations may have benefited from wall-to-wall coverage of Anna Hazare’s fast at Jantar Mantar and later at the capital’s Ramlila Maidan, but news channel did not seem shy in expending their resources on it. Statistics show that there were 5592 pro-Anna and only 62 anti-Anna segments in the Jantar Mantar coverage. During the Ramlila ground fast it perhaps got worse. TV channels were unhesitatingly and unashamedly uncritical of the movement.

     

    Television coverage is an extremely expensive business and most of the news channels would not have gone overboard in hysterically reporting on Anna’s campaign if there was no promise of gains – present or in the future. Who put up the money for the coverage of the campaign? There were rumours that a colossal corpus was created in Bangalore to fund the anti-corruption campaign. Hence Team Anna showed great reluctance to campaign against the disgraced former BJP chief minister BS Yeddyurappa of Karnataka. Rumours also abound that due to the high financial stakes the Anna story was pushed more by managers and editors than by reporters. Some of the reporters covering the fast were even heard complaining that they were under pressure to make the “Gandhian’s” agitation look pretty.

     

    Pains were taken to make the movement look non-political, but it became clear at Ramlila Maidan and later that the spine to the movement was provided by the front organisations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Crowds and news coverage is seldom spontaneous. It takes a lot of effort to get people out for protests. Contractors are used to ferry crowds for the rallies and PR companies are deployed to organise press coverage. On both counts RSS front organisations display great competence. They have enormous capacity to bring in their supporters and also organise favourable media support. Earlier anti-corruption agitations, like the one led by Jayaprakash Narayan in the ’70s and later by VP Singh in the ’80s succeeded due to the support extended by the RSS.

     

    At the Ramlila ground there was plenty of evidence of the presence of RSS front organisations, but most of the media outlets were reluctant to talk about it. The camera and the focus remained on a fasting Anna Hazare and his lieutenants like Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, rather than those who were baying for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Sonia Gandhi’s heads. The ground was full of posters and hoardings to show how corrupt and anti-national the Congress party was. Team Anna and its supporters used the democratic space to demand an entity that was not only against the Constitution but also fascist in character. Quite evidently, such a demand met the approval of those who hate politics and want India to become a hard state.

     

    Anna Hazare became the darling for many of those around the country that saw politics and Parliament as a waste of time. And the way the visual media backed him and his call, it seemed only a question of time before the country got their version of Jan Lokpal, which would have been accountable to none.

     

    Lack of firmness and conviction displayed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his ministers in handling the agitation contributed in reinforcing this impression. Besides the TV channels, newspapers too gave the impression that the Ramlila ground was India’s Tahrir moment and the government would have to give way on the Jan Lokpal bill. Times of India carried a banner headline suggesting it to be another “August Kranti”. Hindi newspapers also went hysterical. Their reporting was little different from the kind on display when the Babri Masjid was brought down by hysterical mobs in Ayodhya many years ago. There were only very few publications that did not go overboard and were critical of the undemocratic noises and demands that were being made from Ramlila ground.

     

    Parliament acquitted itself through reasoned debate and conveying the sense of the house on the Lokpal issue allowing Anna Hazare to end his fast.

     

    Subsequent media scrutiny, both by foreign and national media, showed Anna Hazare and his team members in their true colours. Hazare was really a village tyrant who believed in tying the drunk to trees if they consumed alcohol. He also believed in giving capital punishment to those who were found guilty of corruption.

     

    Kiran Bedi was discovered to be fudging travel bills on many of her visits. There were also allegations that were brought out by the media about short-changing the Delhi Police on the issue of providing computer education to the children of constables. Arvind Kejriwal, the brain behind the movement, too, was found to have messed up in a showdown with his previous employer, the income tax department.

     

    As the true picture of these crusaders came out in the open, the government, it seems got into the act and began to reach out to some media houses. It is not clear what quid pro quos were worked out, but when Hazare sat in Mumbai, there was a sea-change in the gaze of the cameras and the way his fast was reported. For a movement that drew strength from crowds and media coverage feeding on each other, Mumbai was a big dampener. Worse, Anna, who looked a champion in Delhi, fasting for almost a fortnight, could not last more than a day. All the rumours about how electrolytes sustained him in Delhi returned when his fast collapsed.

     

    Team Anna claims to be at the crossroad of their movement. Their cluelessness and confusion would deepen if the Congress party does well in the assembly elections. And if it does not, then they will be back on the streets claiming victory in their defeat. This time, though, there would be no ambivalence about whom Anna is hunting with.

     

    Sanjay Kapoor is the Editor of Delhi based Hardnews Magazine.

     

  • A film should have a unique storyline or a powerful narrative or a moderate direction, or a mix bag of all, says Vipin Dhyani.

    The Anchor: Vipin Dhyani on the 5 films he wishes he had directed

    By Vipin Dhyani

     

    I don’t smoke, I don’t booze, and movies are my only poison. I am quite callous in my selection for a film. I don’t watch a film twice even if I like it to the core. I believe a good film must have the ability to leave that mark in my mind; otherwise it’s a waste of time. And while judging, I believe a film should have either a unique storyline or a powerful narrative or a moderate direction, or a mix bag of all.

     

    Though my list of must-watch movies is endless, here are some of the finest ones:

     

    #1 Kolya (Czech)

    This won academy awards in 1996 for best foreign film. The film is about a small kid named Kolya and his innocence transforming an aimless old man. The kid is forced to live with the protagonist, and ironically they don’t speak the same language. One speaks Czech and the other Russian. The storyline, the fabric of the film is very simple but the way it’s been portrayed is awesome. It’s sensitive and very languid, but heart-wrenching in the end. I saw ti in ’97, but it seems really fresh in my mind. Directed by Jan Sverak, loved by all.

     

    #2 13 Tzameti (French)

    You wouldn’t like a phone call or a person disturbing you while watching this dramatic crime thriller written and directed by Gela Babluani. It gripped me well and left with a hangover. The story is about a naïve man who finds an invitation meant for somebody else. His quest and curiosity makes him an unfortunate 13th player in a game of death. The best part is that it is based on true events of a survivor of the actual game. If you are not watching it on a pirated DVD, you can treat yourself with the bonus feature real interview of the survivor of this notorious underground game from Europe.

    It’s a 2006 film but intentionally treated in black and white. It is stark, honest, bold, very real and enigmatic.

     

    #3 Love Me If You Dare (French)

    ‘Unthinkable’ is the word to describe this mad roller coaster rom com, written and directed by Yann Samuell. The storyline is simply unique. Our protagonist couple are childhood friends and all they do is play an odd game to challenge each other for daring and outrageous stunts. And they continue to do this even when they become adults. Very intriguingly, the fact gets unfolded that their game is nothing but a device to hide the truth that they are truly meant for each another. It is the maddest film I have ever seen, I can say.

    It bends all the rules of a romantic film, it boasts more energy and wicked humour than mushy moments. It’s worth watching even if you don’t like romantic movies.

     

    #4 Swindled (Spanish)

    It’s a con drama written and directed by Miguel Bardem, a fantastically woven plot to swindle a hefty sum by a group of conmen. The narrative is engagingly beautiful, and the plot is flawless. Unlike regular Hollywood con dramas, protagonist here has a very calm and down-to-earth approach to his schemes and execution. That makes him a lovable and believable character in the film. The fabrication is of the real, ‘I know these guys’ type. Most of the ideas leave even the audience outguessed, and that’s the real beauty.

     

    #5 Scoop (English)

    It’s a hilarious comedy with elements of fantasy and mystery, written and directed by master craftsman Woody Allen. Scarlett Johansson as a journalist student looking out for a scoop about an aristocrat who is a suspected serial killer. She gets the signal about his moves from a dead journalist (played by Woody himself). If you are a Woody Allen fan, you will get everything from him in this movie. The surrealism, the wisecracks, his monologues, the dark comedy and real insights. A film like this can be enjoyed more with friends. Worth giving a shot!

     

    Vipin Dhyani is Founder & Chief Creative Director, Thoughtshop Advertising & Film Productions Pvt Ltd.

     

  • Why should we suffer because a few sods wanna have street fun, and are desperate for their 'athletic' frames to be featured on Page 3?

    Anil Thakraney: How the marathon has become an an outdoor Page 3 bash

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    I am no fan of celeb parties. The last one I went for, I think, was when the twin towers of New York City were still around. And I loathe them because I consider such soirees to be a total waste of time. The whole ‘networking’ bit is bollocks, I immediately trash all the visiting cards that get doled out, and I suspect so do others. But, people have the right to party, so let them do it. It’s a free country and people have enough free time to kill, so that’s cool.

     

    However, the one big party I cannot deal with and strongly condemn is that Great Outdoor Bash called the Marathon. Where a bunch of publicity hungry celebs and a whole lot of wannabes and wastrels collect and make a mess of our Sunday, as all sorts of traffic restrictions come into play. Last Sunday, because of the Mumbai Marathon, I had to cancel my plans of visiting South Mumbai on work. And that’s so damn unfair, why should we suffer because a few sods wanna have street fun, and are desperate for their ‘athletic’ frames to be featured on Page 3?

     

    Here’s why I think the event sucks:

    Hundreds of people claim to run for hundreds of charities. No one really remembers or even knows what charities these are, and more importantly, if the money really makes it into the right places. There are zero checks and balances on this, so the whole charity bit sounds very dubious.

     

    Over 90 percent of the hangers-on arrive for potential star-gazing. They have no interest in either running or in charity. All they do is create street nuisance.

     

    The kind of money that claims to be generated at the Marathon, it’s loose change really for sprinters like Ambani, Mahindra and Mallya. These very loaded gentlemen can so easily donate hugely to charity without creating a public spectacle, if they wanted to. But then, how will they get their hot bods on to Page 3?

     

    Each year the predictable happens. A broke Kenyan or a broke Nigerian wins the bounty prize. Because these are the only dudes who can run, as everyone else wants to simply party. Fine. As long as these boys use the money for the right purposes. And don’t end up in the back alleys of Juhu peddling you know what.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILxjxfB4zNk[/youtube]

    Net Net: Guys and gals, please do this tamasha inside Brabourne stadium. The sponsors will still get their mileage, the Africans will still win, you will still get media coverage and a chance to show off. And the rest of us can continue with our routine lives. Thank you!

     

    ***

     

    PS: Brilliant public service ad from the British Heart Foundation. Making the act of reviving victims of cardiac arrest look not just a simple, but a fun thing to do. See, you don’t need to run street marathons if you want to do good work. Doing an ad like this goes miles in changing lives.

     

  • Yawny soaps, tepid Hitchcock, but a riveting Javed Akhtar.

    Gouri Dange: A Random Harvest

    By Gouri Dange

     

    I honestly tried, the other day, to watch a random Hindi soap. I first hid the remote, so that I was not tempted to shout in Marathi “shyaa kay rubbish” and switch channels. So I hung in there. While I watched the crumpled drama unfolding, I also noticed the way they put together a sequence even now, in most soap opera shoots. Which is that most of the actors have no idea what the script is or what episode they’re shooting for. The director or eighth assistant director is put in charge of extracting (yes, like toothpaste from a finished tube) reaction shots from one actor. The seventh assistant director is getting another actor to deliver lines, of course without anyone in front of him/her to give appropriate reactions. “Sab editing mey ho jaygega” is the assurance that is given. And there you are, watching the results – just a series of close-ups and chopped up shots that are supposed to make up a scene.

     

    Anyway, all this is old hat, and the one soap that I used to watch that looked like real people and real situations and real interiors (Ladies Special) and good composite shots with several actors actually in the same frame, was summarily pulled off the air a while ago, reconfirming that I live in a bubble.

     

    So then I took hold of the remote again, and pressed the ‘i’ button on it – i for information about this particular soap. Here is the information provided by the channel, and now you tell me, does this not merit jumping to the next channel:  ‘Vijay stops Jay from being reckless and she realizes that Moniya will eventually hurt Uday’s ego. Uday threatens Moniya into coming for a drive. Moniya is getting bored and is expected to spot Akash.’  (I swear I am not making this up – including the first confusing ‘she’ in reference to said Vijay and Jay.) All I could say was huh? and switch channels.

     

    There was Alfred Hitchcock Presents on FX. I watched a full episode, and I may be committing a big crime here by saying this, but it was rather boring and flat. This is the second one that I watched, and I was disappointed for the second time. There were simpleton-set-ups, trite dialogues, and predictable endings. To top it all, Hitch himself appears at the end, and where earlier he would add a grim note and send more shivers down your spine, in these episodes he further dilutes the effect by making some joke about the episode or the victim. No fun… whatever happened to the episodes that would leave you so frozen in fear that you would not dare put your foot off the sofa to get to your bedroom, when it was done?  But of course I loved the lighting, the B&W faces, the Classic American diction that was different from today’s American mumble.

     

    On I wandered randomly, without much hope, to be rewarded at 7.30 pm by Classic Legends on Z Classic. Javed Akhtar talks about some of the greats of Hindi Cinema (this time it was Bimal Roy). And what a raconteur he is. I am told he speaks from memory and not a written script at all, and I believe it. Firstly it is such a pleasure to hear good Hindi (after a day of listening to the chuckleheads on FM Radio in your car speaking the idiot-version of ‘chat-pata’ Hindi). And then there are his insights, the stories, and those little particular things that he points the viewer towards, before showing a small clip that illustrates his point. It is as if he shows you that one pivot of the entire film that he is talking about, that one crucial well-oiled piece of machinery, on which that film rides. You have been up until then unconscious of it, but what he tells you about it and the clip that he chooses to show – they give you that ‘aha’ moment; you recognize why you have been so involved and moved by that particular part.  For instance, he spoke about the forlon foghorn of the boat scene in Bandini, and when the clip is played, you say to yourself, ‘of course, I know how this sound makes me feel whenever I have seen it!’ A programme like this sets off your own memories and associations, as all legends must and do.

     

    I have only one crib (or perhaps three) about this programme. Why such a generic and vague sounding title ‘Classic Legends’? Why the cold set which looks like Javed Akhtar has been plucked out of his own sitting room and placed in some large desolate half-warehouse  half-disco during off hours?  And lastly, you have to listen to the programme at a fairly high volume (prompting others around you to smirk about you going deaf etc) because the last three words of each sentence are simply not audible, or are severely shortened/eaten up. Given that Javed Akhtar’s every word counts, I feel slightly cheated.

     

  • In an attempt to provideDelhiwith an opportunity to review their favourite restaurants, Justeat.in, in association with IFB, launched Restaurant Rumble

    Case Study: Justeat.in’s campaign to attract foodies

    By A Correspondent

     

    Campaign: Restaurant Rumble

     

    Client: JustEat.in

     

    Agency: Mutual PR

     

    Aims and Objectives: To provide the foodies in Delhi NCR a platform to pick the best restaurant

     

    The Background:

    JustEat.in is world’s largest online food ordering portal, which makes it easy for foodies to order food and book tables online. Also the fact that umpteen restaurants are coming up, which provides the customers with a wide variety, is a good development. However, the customers are now in a bother to pick the ones that are actually good. JustEat.in thereby provides a platform to the foodies to voice their opinion about the restaurants they like, and help fellow foodies separate the best from the rest.

     

    Strategic Insights:

    Justeat.in is an aggregator of the rather fragmented restaurant industry inIndia. Along with providing the users with a convenient, reliable network for ordering food and booking tables, Justeat.in strives to provide customers reviews and ratings, given by fellow customers, about various restaurants. In an attempt to provideDelhiwith an opportunity to rate and review their favourite restaurants, Justeat.in, in association with IFB, has launched Restaurant Rumble.

     

    Challenges and impediments:

     

    Initially the struggle was to incentivize the customers to vote.

     

    Solution:

    The customers were offered exclusive discounts at their favourite restaurants as incentives to vote.

     

    Result:

    There was an overwhelming response for the campaign with 1 lakh+ votes received so far.

     

    Learnings:

    We are extremely happy with the responses received till now. And we are looking at  making this campaign an annual one henceforth.

  • Oberoi Mall hosts the biggest brand shopping extravaganza

    50 Brands @ 50 % off sale back in town

    By A Correspondent
    Oberoi Mall, one of Mumbai’s leading retail malls, will be hosting the second ‘50 Brands @ 50 % off’ sale on January 18. This sale will have over 60 leading national and international luxury brands offering flat 50 per cent off for one day.

    The brands participating in the sale are Accessorize, Nike, Adidas, Reebok, United Colors of Benetton, Chemistry, FIFA, Kazo, Levi’s, Cream Center, Allen Solly, Biba, Forever New and other leading lifestyle and food brands.

     

    Oberoi Mall is the first mall in the country to come up with a unique sale format like this, the first season of which was held in July last year. Similar trends are prevalent in the Dubaishopping festival and malls in Hong Kong.

    Commenting on this, Nirzar Jain, vice president – Oberoi Mall said: “After the success of the first ever 50 Brands @ 50 % sale, we are extremely happy to present the second season. Oberoi Mall has always striven to offer its patrons an enhanced shopping experience and this season we have more than 60 leading brands on flat 50% flat discount for one day. Our retailers too are looking forward to this event as the last 50:50 sale saw the overall sales figures shoot up by 300 per cent and foot falls increasing by almost 200 per cent on a weekday. In fact few brands like Central, Bombay High and FIFA did the highest ever sales in the city in a single day.”

    The 50 Brands @ 50 % sale has been clubbed up with ‘Women’s Wednesday’, which is Oberoi Mall’s existing property exclusively for women, making it a double bonanza for shoppers.

     

  • NCT Data Wk 1 ’12

     

    Source: News Content Track – A service of TAM Media Research Pvt. Ltd
    Channels: Aaj Tak, CNN IBN, Headlines Today, IBN 7, India TV, NDTV 24/7, NDTV India, Star News, Times Now, News 24 & Zee News
    Period: Wk 1 – Jan 1 to Jan 7, 2012
    Note : Analysis is based on the Telecast duration

     

     

    About TAM Media Research

     

    TAM is a joint venture between Nielsen Company & Kantar Media Research. Besides measuring TV Viewership, TAM also monitors Advertising Expenditure of Television, Print & Radio through its division AdEx India. Since 2004, it extended its presence in the PR Measurement & Analysis space for Corporate/Marketing Clients by setting up a separate division Eikona PR Measurement.

     

    In 2007, the joint venture introduced RAM (Radio Audio Measurement) service to track Radio Listenership for the Indian Radio Broadcast Industry. In year 2009, TAM launched a division, called TAM Sports that specializes in monitoring Sports Sponsorship ROI.

     

    TAM Media Research’s objective is to fuel media insights that will drive the growth of the Indian Media Industry.

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers

    Media frenzy over VK Singh’s age

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    On Monday night, I really thought the world had come to an end, what with India’s army chief suing the government over his date of birth. At least, that’s what I understood from Times Now, Newsx and a random sampling of Hindi channels. NDTV had move on to Pakistan to look at their own crisis, with the military playing its usually stellar role of villain cum hero.

     

    But by Tuesday morning, oddly, India was no longer at the brink of some terrible crisis. Yes, the army chief’s problems were headlined everywhere and while newspapers found his court action unprecedented, they were not concerned that India was at some crossroads or the other. The issue is undoubtedly serious but TV likes to see everything as a catastrophe or a victory and this attitude can cloud real issues.

     

    From my point of view, the big story was the ASER report about the tragic state of rural education in India (I confess that column for Mid-Day tomorrow is about this). The report made to the front pages of most newspapers but the attitude of the Times of India, I found most intriguing. A single column on page 1 spent half the space talking about how this report wasn’t the biggest as it claimed to be – as if that was the main point of the exercise. One inside report was about a possible education ombudsman and the other about enrolment of girls being up. Compared to this meagre sampling, DNA, Indian Express, Hindustan Times focused on the revelation that class 5 students cannot even read class 2 textbooks.

     

    * * *

     

    The Times of India was the only paper (only?) to carry the story of the possibility of writer Salman Rushdie not attending the Jaipur Literary Fest because of security concerns raised by the government after some hardline Muslim groups objected to his presence. TV is all over this story now and judging from the latest “source” news, the government may well be changing its mind.

     

    The lack of commitment to freedom of speech and expression from our government agencies remains a worry. The attempts to muzzle Google and Facebook have also got plenty of newspaper space.

     

    * * *

     

    The Indian Express had its fifth Ramnath Goenka Awards for journalistic Excellence in Delhi on Monday. Vice-president Hamid Ansari said that “watchdog journalism” is “vibrant journalism”. He also pointed to the more pertinent problem – that the slow corporatisation of the media has led to falling standards. “The slow erosion of the institution of the editor in Indian media organisations is a reality. When media space and media products are treated solely in terms of revenue maximisation strategies, editors end up giving way to marketing departments.”

     

    The cat is out of the bag as far as the media is concerned and we need to address this issue more seriously than we have so far, no matter how many EMIs will suffer as a result.

     

    Press council chairman Markandey Katju couldn’t resist a little dig about the poor intellectual level of most media people but that still is the lesser problem. Ansari’s diagnosis is more apt.

     

    * * *

     

    One suspects that MS Dhoni must be thanking army chief VK Singh for taking him off headline news!

  • Wins awards for Mildred Pierce, Game of Thrones and Enlightened at the 69th Golden Globes.

    HBO wins 3 Golden Globes

    By A Correspondent

     

    HBO recorded three wins at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards for Mildred Pierce, Game of Thrones and Enlightened. The award ceremony took place on January 15 in Los Angeles.

     

    Kate Winslet won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for Mildred Pierce. Mildred Pierce is the story of a proud single mother struggling to earn her daughter’s love during the Great Depression in middle-classLos Angeles. The five-part miniseries, produced in association with MGM and directed by Oscar nominee Todd Haynes, was adapted from the story by James M Cain’s 1941 novel of the same name.

     

    Peter Dinklage won Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for Game of Thrones. This epic HBO Original fantasy series is based on George R.R. Martin’s best-selling ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ books. It traces the struggle for the Iron Throne where kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords and honest men… all will play the Game of Thrones.

     

    Both Mildred Pierce and Game of Thrones premiered in 2011 on HBO India.

    Laura Dern won Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series for her turn as Amy, a self-destructive health and beauty executive who has a very public workplace meltdown in Enlightened. The series is an offbeat HBO Original Series which follows Laura Dern’s Amy as she navigates an unconventional path between who she is, who she wants to be… and what everyone is willing to tolerate from her.

     

    HBO was launched in South Asia in September 2000, as a 24-hour English language movie channel.  HBO is the only English movie channel to feature cutting-edge award-winning original productions year on year. In 2011, HBO has won 19 Primetime Emmy awards already, which is maximum for any network.

     

  • Aradhana will have content taken from Kathakar and Morari Bapu, Kajal @ 9 will deal with issues and concerns ranging from relationships to career.

    Two new interactive programmes from MY FM Ahmedabad

    By A Correspondent

     

    On January 16, MY FM announced that it is all set to launch two new interactive programs – Aradhana and Kajal @ 9 – in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. These shows will have unique content with big names driving it.

     

    The show titled ‘Aradhana’ will be aired from 6 to 7 every morning in the spiritual time band and have content taken from Kathakar and Morari Bapu.

     

    Kajal @ 9, a show hosted by eminent Gujarati writer Kajal Oza Vaidya, will be aired from 9-12 pm, Mon – Fri. The show, going on air from January 16, will have Ms Oza Vaidya resolving issues and concerns, ranging from right from relationship to career. Ms Oza Vaidya’s first show will be based on Uttarayan, the kite flying festival ofGujaratand relationships.

     

    Harrish M Bhatia, CEO MY FM said: “We are committed to provide quality and innovative content to our listeners. We feel great that highly prominent and renowned personalities are extending their support to fulfill our commitment. The shows are interactive in terms of knowledge and entertainment.”

     

    MY FM, the radio business of DB Corp Ltd, took a bottom-up approach and started functioning from the Tier II cities of the country where the Bhaskar Group already had a stronghold. It set up its first station in Jaipur in 2006 and slowly expanded to 17 cities.

     

  • It is the first ever Indian shopping portal to deliver mobile devices directly from manufacturers to users.

    Nokia, Indiatimes join to launch NokiaShop

    By A Correspondent

     

    Nokia India in association with Indiatimes Shopping announced the launch of Nokia’s online store- NokiaShop, the first online shopping portal in India to deliver mobile devices directly from the manufacturer to the users.

     

    Nokia Shop will offer the entire portfolio of Nokia devices as well as accessories to the consumers at the convenience of online shopping.

     

    The association between the two leading organizations will serve as a game-changer in the growing Indian e-commerce space as users can now buy handsets directly from the manufacturer, without needing any dealer or reseller in between. For the online space this is an unprecedented initiative and will bring about a major shift in consumer behaviour in the mobile phone category.

     

    According to Viral Oza, Director- Marketing, Nokia India: “At Nokia, we have always invested ahead of the curve in setting up a formidable retail network. Today, as online shopping gains momentum, we are the first mobile handset company to set up a branded online store. Through our association with Indiatimes Shopping, we are confident that we will be able to offer a superior online shopping experience to our consumer by giving them an opportunity to buy directly from Nokia.”

     

    “This partnership is a step further in our aim to bring more offline brands to the online space. With our brand strength, resources, knowledge and credibility in the e-commerce space, we are confident of providing Nokia the right platform to connect with its users,” says Rishi Khiani, CEO, Times Internet Ltd.

     

    Regarding the tie up, Gautam Sinha, Director Technology & e-commerce head, Times Internet Ltd said: “We are pleased to partner with a top brand like Nokia and help them reach their online customers. We hope to witness strong synergistic growth capturing majority of online mobile handset market in the next few months.”

     

    Consumers can make purchases from Nokia.indiatimes.com, and payment options are through credit card or cash on delivery. Customers can also convert their payment amount into interest-free EMIs.

     

    The Nokia Shop offers the entire range of Nokia devices, including smartphones, dual SIM phones, touch and type, Qwerty, touchphones and value phones. The prices offered on the online store are Best Buy prices.

     

    A recent report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) revealed that India’s e-commerce market is growing at an average rate of 70 per cent annually, and has grown over 500 per cent in the past three years alone. Given the potential of e-commerce industry, Indiatimes and Nokia are confident of high growth in the mobile phone category within the next two quarters.