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  • Suresh Srinivasan believes there is no alternative to the IRS – and it doesn't need one.

    The Anchor: Suresh Srinivasan on 5 reasons IRS is an effective measurement tool

    By Suresh Srinivasan

     

    #1 The only indicator. Currently IRS is the de facto gold standard for measurement of newspapers and magazines. IRS is based on continuous study with fairly large data base. More importantly there is no other indicator and it is the standard used by the industry.

     

    #2 It’s not about just absolute numbers, but also gives the trend of the industry over the years. The trends are a valuable resource for media planners, publications and advertisers. These are not volatile numbers but have been slow and steady indicators of changes in the industry. This gives a meaningful picture of what’s happening in the industry.

     

    #3 Considering that we are a large nation, IRS proves to be a cost-effective, valid and timely method of assessment of consumption of media. The sheer magnitude and scale of collecting and collating this data involves lot of work but IRS makes this possible and a valid data is available its users.

     

    #4 Besides the readership data available on frequency and demographics, IRS has become a vital source of comprehensive information. It has become a repository of data that can provide information on various other parameters like intent to purchase.

     

    #5 With technology coming in IRS is poised to become much more robust and will take research to higher level. It is a continuous journey to present better data to its users.

     

    Suresh  Srinivasan is the Vice President (Advt) of The Hindu Group of Publications.

  • This is the first time that Rajalakshmi Institutions will be partnering Aircel Chennai Open, and it has signed a two-year contract till 2013

    Rajalakshmi Institutions official knowledge partner for Aircel Chennai Open 2012

    By A Correspondent

     

    Technical education group Rajalakshmi Institutions has announced its association with the upcoming Aircel Chennai Open as the “Official Knowledge Partner”.

     

    The 17th edition of the $450,000 Aircel Chennai Open, operated and organised by IMG Reliance and India’s only and South Asia’s premier ATP World Tour Open 250 event, will be held from January 2 to 8, 2012. The tournament will see in action a star-studded performance by Indian and international players.

     

    This is the first time that Rajalakshmi Institutions will be partnering Aircel Chennai Open and it has signed a two-year contract till 2013.

     

    Commenting on the association, M Abhay Shankar, chief operating officer, Rajalakshmi Institutions said: “We are very excited to associate with India’s prestigious ATP tournament and strongly believe that this association will add to our credibility and help us connect with our target audience. Rajalakshmi Institutions looks forward for a promising journey by associating with a tournament which has garnered tremendous interest in the country, especially among the youth.

     

    A representative from IMG Reliance said: “We are pleased to welcome on board, Rajalakshmi Institutions. Aircel Chennai Open has proven to be an ideal platform of executing a tournament which mutually maximises benefits and aides our partners to meet their goals.”

     

  • Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers the morning after

    Anna’s RSS links and TV’s outrage

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    As was expected, the India-Australia Boxing Day Test match has started dominating TV news bulletins. This is not to suggest that Anna Hazare and the anti-corruption movement will be replaced by cricket – shame on me for even hinting at that – but it does mean that TV producers will have to do some juggling.

     

    However there is a chance that if anything controversial happens on the field, well… This is after all an India-Australia series and judging from a quick peek that I had this morning, the crowds are in…

     

    Newspapers, of course, do not have the same problems. They have the space and the wisdom gained through reflection and time to pick and choose. Cricket will find its place, as will Hazare and a whole lot of other stuff.

     

    * * *

     

    I was fascinated to see that NewsX chose to broadcast Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve live, from various services across India. Equally, to watch the Queen of England’s Christmas message on Al-Jazeera. This could be addressing niche audiences or a refusal to patronise viewers by segmenting them into tight demographic categories as determined by a marketing department.

     

    * * *

     

    Nai Duniya carried a story this weekend about Anna Hazare’s links to the RSS with proof of his association with Nanaji Deshmukh and a joint collaboration they did on village affairs. This, naturally enough, outraged TV anchors. Even the NewsX anchor – the channel is affiliated to the newspaper – found that he had to practically interrogate the editor of Nai Duniya on this ‘sacrilegious’ story. Like so many print journalists, the editor was unrepentant and unfazed. His story was not based on allegation but on fact.

     

    Very oddly, after that – and including in Monday’s papers – the story was presented as a Congress allegation on Hazare and was sourced to a tweet by Hazare-baiter Digvijay Singh.

     

    Is this journalistic laziness or a reluctance to credit Nai Duniya? After all, whoever looked for Singh’s tweet could just have easily have Googled Nai Duniya!

     

  • A good section of the English language media has often gone out of its way to prop up the Shiv Sena, writes Vidyadhar Date.

    Newswatch: Vidyadhar Date on the Thackerays and the English media

    By Vidyadhar Date

     

    There are several dimensions to the way the Shiv Sena looks at the media. I was present at the launch of the party’s mouthpiece Saamna in 1989. Bal Thackeray, the Sena chief, declared quite clearly that the Congress had made money in the municipal corporation in Mumbai for all these years and now they are going to do that.

     

    That was the ideological framework in which their mouthpiece was launched. Uddhav Thackeray had not arrived on the scene then. But now the Sena has launched his son, Aditya as well. The Sena now gets respectability from various quarters.

     

    The recent full page write-up, in what can be termed as ‘paid news format’, praised the Shiv Sena’s performance in the civic body in a ‘Response Connect initiative’ in Maharashtra Times on December 21. The feature can be seen as virtually the launch of the campaign for the civic elections in February 2012.

     

    What takes the cake is the projection of Aditya Thackeray as a youth leader whose efforts gave a roof to poor municipal students to study for their examinations. Night-time study centres were started in 16 municipal schools because of his alleged efforts. The credit is also been given to the Yuva Sena which he heads.

     

    Now a team from the civic body will also inspect sanitary facilities in civic schools, again thanks to the young man’s virtual directive to the municipal standing committee.

     

    A good section of the English language media has often gone out of its way to prop up the Shiv Sena. I have seen this from close quarters in The Times of India where I worked for over 30 years.

     

    A senior executive of the paper claimed that it was because of the Shiv Sena that Hindus in Mumbai were saved, post Babri Masjid demolition riots. Maharashtra Times, headed for many years by Govind Talwalkar, an erstwhile follower of MN Roy, has changed considerably in the last few years. Its editor, Bharatkumar Raut, went on to become a Shiv Sena MP. After this, he ceased to be the editor but remained as editorial adviser to the TOI group.

     

    A Hindustan Times Media Marketing Initiative of December 22 gave full page coverage to the Shiv Sena for providing allegedly ultra-modern health facilities. The page is full of pictures of Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sainiks and medical equipment. All credit is given to Mr Thackeray.

     

    Ironically, Uddhav Thackeray released CDs of the historic daily Maratha earlier this month at a function organised by his family. Maratha, now defunct, was a roaring voice for ordinary, poor people during the Samyukta Maharashtra agitation in the 1950s. It was fairly left-wing and its famous editor, litterateur Acharya Atre, was often accused by the Sena in the past of being a Communist sympathiser. Atre and Uddhav’s grandfather, Prabodhankar Thackeray, were at loggerheads and indulged in much mud-slinging in the media in the late 1950s. It is said that the term Shiv Sena was actually coined by Atre though he had quite a different kind of Sena in mind.

     

    The Atre family deserves credit for preserving the paper for posterity in digital form. Even large media groups with huge resources have failed to preserve their history in this way. The TOI, which claims to be the world’s largest selling daily, has not democratised its content, and one has to pay high fees to see a single page of the microfilm content of the paper.

     

    Curiously, the Atre family was approached by the Congress party, the Sena and the Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, for preservation of Maratha’s old files, according to Meena Deshpande, daughter of Acharya Atre and author of a Marathi novel on the Samyukta Maharashtra agitation.

     

    Interestingly, Narayan Rane, a former Shiv Sena chief minister, and now Congress minister, used his Marathi daily Prahar (assault) to attack the media calling it “dirty media”. “Dirty picture, dirty media” is the headline of the front page signed article by Narayan Rane on December 22. He was incensed by the electronic media’s coverage of legislators when they went to see Dirty Picture at a theatre inNagpurduring the legislature session there. The media had no right to intrude on the privacy of the legislators, he claimed.

     

    The writer is a veteran journalist.

     

  • The channel plans to expand viewer base and up market share by 25% in the next three quarters

    UTV Action gets set for growth

     

    By Rishi Vora

     

    This January will see UTV group’s Hindi movie action channel UTV Action’s second anniversary. The channel was launched in January 2010 with an aggressive marketing and distribution push. The TG was predominantly male in the age group of 15 years and above.

     

    The channel’s plan was to cash in on the increasing popularity of action films, primarily Hollywood films for an audience that preferred Hindi viewing as against English. The company had conducted a preliminary research prior to the launch of the channel which stated that out of 10 movies watched, seven to eight are action films.

     

    So UTV Action offered English films dubbed in Hindi. As a result, the trend picked up and many other players, including other entertainment channels, started doing the same.

     

    Sameer Ganapathy

    The channel has grown in the last two years and is currently clocking between 40-50 GRPs in the male set. This viewership, as claimed by Business Head Mr Sameer Ganapathy, is scattered across markets in India. “In the initial phases, we expected more viewership from a select few markets. But, quite surprising we noticed that the viewership was coming from all the Hindi speaking markets in India. The channel surpassed our expectation as far as ratings were concerned. Apart from the metros, we saw a lot of traction from markets like Gujarat, UP, MP etc. And that’s how we started to build our viewership,” he said.

     

    On their major rivals in the TV space, he said, “We mostly look at the Hindi movie belt as competition. But if you take the male audience, there are multiple genres that come to mind. If you look at the market, and it is fairly large, we’re bigger than the infotainment set, we’re bigger than any Hindi news channel.”

     

    For the past one year, the channel has tied up with international studios; the biggest of the lot is the tie up with Warner Brothers. These international tie-ups helped the channel to significantly reduce the window gap between the telecast of a movie on an English movie channel and its dubbed version on UTV Action.

     

    Manasi Sapre

    Programming head Manasi Sapre explained the viewership pattern: “Though we see a fair degree of viewership on the weekends, if you look at the overall numbers, they’re quite evenly spread.”

     

    Recently, the channel underwent a revamp, with a new tagline: “Home of the Warriors”. Ms Sapre believes the new look is on the lines of the titles acquired by the channel: “It is a more modern, high-tech and a sci-fi kind of a look which goes well with our TG.”

     

    It may be recalled that a Telugu version of the channel was launched in July this year. This is a clear indication that regional is the way to go in the future. UGBL CEO MK Anand has been quoted stating that the channel will look to expand its offering in Malayalam and Bengali.

     

    However, Mr Ganapathy said, “Our immediate task at hand is to build our viewership. We have seen the channel make good progress, and now is the time to further expand our base in the existing markets before launching or expanding our offering to other languages.”

     

    The channel, in the next three quarters, will look to increase its market share by 25 per cent. If that does happen, UTV Action will leap forward into the 60 GRPs bracket (CS 15 + Hindi Speaking Markets). The strategy, as Mr Ganapathy explained, is to justify investments made on content acquisition and marketing activities in the next three quarters. “In the next three quarters, our aim is to consolidate and build our position.” He added, “UTV Action will become the single largest non-sport male viewership destination in the country.”

     

    After two years in the business, new look, more titles, the plan to expand to regional markets (the channel’s conscious call to start with the southern belt with Telugu), what’s in store next year? It’s a wait and watch affair.

     

  • New Year events in Delhi may get jeopardized due to issuance of legal notices by PPL to defaulting hotels and pubs for not securing licenses for public performances

    Pay up or face the music, PPL tells major hotels & pubs

    By A Correspondent

     

    The city may fall short of venues to welcome the New Year this time as the Phonographic Performance Ltd. (PPL) has served notices to many well-known hotels and pubs. These legal notices have been issued to venues that have not paid the requisite music license fee to play music at their year-end events. PPL plans to initiate strict legal action against defaulters in case the license fee is paid ahead of their planned events. The following hotels have been given interim injunction by the Delhi High Court: Radisson Blu Hotel, Paschim Vihar, Hype at Shangri-La Hotel, QBA, Sheraton Hotel, Hilton Hotel, Double Tree Hilton, ChalChitra, Crowne Plaza, Wyndham Hotel, Club Sirocco, Nautica, Play Lounge Bar, 3 Stories, The Glassy Junction, Hang Out, Club Headquarters, Pritampura. PPL has issued notices to all prominent places which have failed to pay music license fee across the country.

     

    Vipul Pradhan, CEO, PPL said: “New Year parties attract people promising them a good time through a combination of entertainment, food and beverage. A significant component of the sum charged from the customers is for music. Therefore, the music companies whose sound recording is regularly used have a right towards claiming their due because their product is also getting consumed.”

     

    Any performance of Indian or even international music, in public places or commercial establishments such as hotels & resorts, restaurants, bars, pubs, discotheques, cruise liners, cinema halls, shops, offices, and so on, rendered without first having obtained a licence from PPL constitutes an infringement of Copyright under the Copyright Act,  1957. Under the statutory sanction of section 35 in the Indian Copyright Act, playing commercial music in public without paying the requisite license fee is an offence liable to contempt of court. Section 35 grants exclusivity to PPL to issue licenses to hotels/ pubs for playing music during the events in their respective premises. The tariff for the same is calculated on the basis of the number of hours the music is to be played and the number of people expected to attend the event.

     

    “Musical nights and customized New year events rake in huge revenues for organizers. A year ending event cannot be imagined without music! Yet, when it comes to paying for the commercial use of music, the event organizers chose to evade the license fee,” said Mr. Sowmya Chowdhury, Country Head, PPL.

     

    Mr Avinash D’Souza, National Sales Manager, PPL feels: “Music labels have complete authority over the sound recordings and using them without a proper license can bring the events & parties to a standstill. People should also act proactively and check with their chosen properties to avoid a last minute inconvenience or embarrassment. To prevent such situations, this year we have expanded our operations to a National Campaign in all major cities.”

     

    Every year pubs/ hotels target revenues with customized New Year packages but are reluctant to pay a nominal license fee (which varies depending on the number of hours for which the music is played) to PPL. Thus, flouting the norms and eating into the royalties of the music labels. DJs, too, need to abide by PPL guidelines if they continue to play music without paying the license fees.

     

     

     

  • Direct marketing of artifacts can make for a money-making venture

    Online artifacts store makes good money

    By Amit Kumar

     

    Pallavi Singh Keshri believes that people should give wing to their dreams. Little wonder then that she has named her labour of love Eyass, which translates to falconry, wherein the young ones of a falcon are taken from the nest for training. There is another reason she chose the name – falconry is a near extinct art form in the Middle East, and art is what Eyass is all about.

     

    A two-year-old online store, Eyass showcases craftwork from all over the world. All the pieces are either hand-crafted, unique or endangered, and eco-friendly. This effort has enabled the creation of a platform, which connects artisans directly with the consumers, bypassing middlemen and margins.

     

    The road to entrepreneurship has been a circuitous one, but Ms Keshri was sure she would have her own business some day. After graduating from Delhi University in 1996, she picked up a post graduate diploma in marketing and joined a media house. Subsequently, she worked for Naukri.com for about two-and-a-half years. Then, in 2006, Ms Keshri quit her job as marketing manager at Dale Carnegie Training in Mumbai to pursue a one-year MBA degree in general management and international business. She worked in Dubai for a year and it was on her return to India in December 2008 that Keshri felt ready to start her own venture. “The time was right. I had gained enough experience in the field, had made the right contacts, and shored up adequate savings to start on my own,” says the 36-year-old.

     

    Over the next year, she worked on the idea, got the legal documents needed for the venture (export-import licence) and developed the website design. Finally, in December 2009, the company was launched with a seed capital of Rs 4.5 lakh, which mainly covered the expense for the website and inventory. In the initial months, Ms Keshri hired people on a freelance/part-time basis, her residence in Delhi serving as office to save on expenses.

     

    Around this time, Ms Keshri also realised that she had to narrow down her business focus if she wanted to succeed in the sector, while remaining true to the concept of direct marketing. “The point of starting Eyaas was to ensure that we get to work directly with artistes and craftsmen. I realised that if we tried expanding too soon, I would have had to compromise on that aspect, which I wasn’t comfortable with,” says Ms Keshri. Today, Eyaas works with many partners, including All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association, an African associate and a Cambodian one. The repertoire includes toys, home accessories, pottery, stationery and jewellery.

     

    Eyaas has raked in revenue of about Rs 3.5 lakh in the past year and is expected to breakeven in the next six months. The venture currently employs four people, including Ms Keshri. Although she hasn’t been able to pay herself a salary yet, she hopes that this will be rectified in the coming year. Meanwhile, she has managed to keep herself going financially by helping aspiring candidates prepare for GMAT exams in various institutes. However, she is sure that Eyaas is destined to soar.Future plans? “We need to work on reaching out a little more to the artistes in south India,” she says.

  • MxMIndia's Code of Ethics prevents it from carrying illegally-procured content

    Why MxMIndia isn’t bringing you detailed IRS data

    The answer to this question is simple: because the MRUC doesn’t want us to. When we posed a few questions based on the toplines we received, the director-general responded: “The Council is of the view that no further data / analysis to be shared with non-subscribers”.

     

    The MRUC wants the media tracking the IRS to pay up and subscribe. Hansa Research has been asked to not give us the dump (as it would a few quarters back). The reason: apparently there are publications who don’t want to subscribe because they’ll find them on MxMIndia or elsewhere.

     

    We don’t quite agree with this standpoint, but since these are the rules, we will abide by them. The MxMIndia Code of Ethics prevents us from publishing any content that’s illegally procured. And even though a few other websites have indeed carried detailed data, since our discussions with MRUC haven’t concluded, we will not carry.

     

    We believe that by sharing some of the broad numbers with the trade/niche media, the MRUC will only build an appetite for what lies within its data. Quite like the way TAM does for its television rating figures.

     

    In Q2 (2011), like some other trade sites, MxMIndia relied on certain media agencies/professionals for the data. We weren’t aware of MRUC’s diktat on the issue. But now that we are, we’ve stayed away.

     

    We haven’t even carried press releases from media companies. While we trust them, since there is no way to verify the data, we decided to pass these, explaining our predicament.

     

    So, dear reader. Your site is still on the ball with news that’s relevant, but our Code of Ethics determine the way we conduct ourselves. We will, hopefully, have stitched up a way in which we can bring you the real thing in the right way.

     

     

    -Pradyuman Maheshwari

    Editor-in-Chief and CEO

    MxMIndia

  • Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers the morning after

    How HC took the wind out of our channels’ sails

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The Bombay High Court sort of took the wind out of the sails of not just the Anna Hazare movement, but also our excitable TV channels. Suddenly, their high-pitched pro-Hazare campaigns had to deal with a court questioning the motives of this save-India hysteria.

     

    The best way out was to just sidestep the issue, so Times Now went further into the reservation issue, plus an interview with Justice JS Verma who supports it, Headlines Today dwelt on the court a bit but concentrated on the now-tedious arguments between India Against Corruption activists and others, NDTV interviewed Arvind Kejriwal and so on.

     

    The newspapers, however, did not restrain themselves, except perhaps The Times of India, whose headline on Saturday was a staid: “Allowing agitation may be akin to meddling with House affairs: HC”. Compare this with Hindustan Times: “After HC snub, Anna blames team” or The Telegraph,Calcutta: “Team Anna gets a lesson in democracy” or Deccan Chronicle,Hyderabad: “Team Anna earns sharp rebuke from Bombay High Court”. Mid-Day, surprisingly, did not have it on the front page. It was, after all, a Mumbai story.

     

    The Bombay High Court indeed pointed out that it could not grant concessions to the movement as it was not convinced that this was a people’s movement and an endorsement by the court would be tantamount to the judiciary interfering with Parliamentary procedure.

     

    The judges said, “How is country’s interest involved? We are a democratic set up. We have elected a government. Wouldn’t your agitation interfere in the functioning of Parliament? The bill will be debated in Parliament where our elected representatives will plead our case.”

     

    Mani Shankar Aiyar was quick to point out that the point made by the court was too sophisticated for Anna Hazare’s followers to understand! Interestingly, Anna Hazare and his followers were sensible enough to refrain from attacking the court for being anti-people or anti-democracy.

     

    The flip-flop on accepting donations by Anna Hazare (first no and now that they need the money, yes) was also downplayed by The Times of India but not by others.

     

    Hindustan Times also carries a story about how an anti-Jan Lokpal agitation is now going on at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan, with activists, celebrities and journalists taking part. Perhaps this is democracy at work? Agitations against agitations?

     

    * * *

    Three edit pages pieces were well worth reading on Saturday morning. Jay Panda, MP, argued cogently for small “tweaks” in our current Parliamentary system to make it more up-to-date, while dismissing arguments for a change to the presidential system in The Times of India.

     

    Ramchandra Guha, historian, talked about how exasperated he has been in 2011 by Anna Hazare and his followers, the BJP and the government in Hindustan Times.

     

    And the piece de resistance was by Shekhar Gupta, editor of Indian Express, on the caste dynamics in corruption cases inIndia. He makes a compelling argument for the way in which the system is loaded against lower castes and religious minorities, in corruption and criminal cases – with examples. He also points out that our upper castes and classes are the most prejudiced section of society.

     

    Thought-provoking and definitely a must-read.

     

  • This partnership will focus on conducting specialized agent training workshops on Canada

    Thomas Cook India’s Centre of Learning tie up with Canadian Tourism Commission

    By A Correspondent

     

    With its aim of providing effective and exceptional educational programmes for the travel and tourism industry, Thomas Cook (India) Limited’s educational division, Centre of Learning, has announced an agreement with the Canadian Tourism Commission. This partnership will focus on conducting specialized agent training workshops onCanada.

     

    Canada, known for its incredible geographical diversity, historical sites and national parks, is best positioned to cater to the evolving needs of the Indian traveller.

     

    Centre of Learning is an initiative from Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. (TCIL) to develop talent for the organization as well as for the industry. TCIL is the largest integrated travel and travel-related financial services company in the country.

     

    Under the norms of this partnership, Centre of Learning has already trained travel agents from Ahmedabad and Pune. A series of workshops will also be conducted in Tier I and Tier II cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata on destination Canada by 2012.

     

    Commenting on this association, Dr D Prasanth Nair, President & Head, Human Resources and Financial Services, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. said: “Thomas Cook (India) Limited’s Centre of Learning is an authority in tourism education today. Introducing Canada as a new destination to our training programmes reiterates our commitment towards travel agents and tour operators, ensuring that they are well informed and effectively equipped to manage today’s discerning customer expectations.”

     

    The Canadian Tourism Commission,Canada’s national tourism marketing organization with a vision to inspire the world to explore Canada, has been working very closely with the travel fraternity inIndiato promote the destination. Speaking on this initiative, Mr. Derek Galpin, Managing DirectorIndia & China, Canadian Tourism Commission said: “We are delighted to have Thomas Cook’s Centre of Learning as partner in our initiatives to create awareness of Canada as the premier destination inIndia. It is imperative that the selling teams have adequate and authentic knowledge on Canada. By giving them the confidence in selling the destination to their customers, Thomas Cook Centre of Learning’s initiative in supporting the travel trades’ efforts in selling Canada as a destination is most welcome and appreciated.”

     

  • 2011 has been a year to make us believe 'the smaller, the better'. Independent agencies fair well as the founder brings in loads of experience

    Independents rule adland in 2011

     

    By Shubhangi Mehta

     

    Looking at 2011 and how well the independent agencies have performed this year, it can be said that this has been the year of independence for the independents who have managed to attract some big ticket clients.

     

    Law & Kenneth has excelled this year in terms of business wins, Anil Nair, CEO and Managing Partner, Law & Kenneth, said: “As an independent agency, we have everything and give appropriate solutions to our brand. Our services are not restricted to just creative campaigns for a brand. We can offer all that a bigger agency can do. The advantage that we have over them is that we focus on the task in hand without any bias. Bigger agencies need larger income, hence the client has to spend big. For us honesty and integrity are high currencies, hence we have the courage to call a spade, spade.”

     

    Most of the independent agencies these days let their work talk for them. Ideas@work won the creative mandates for Big Rock, Gelusil, Rustomji and managed seven awards at Goafest.

     

    Saints & Warriors and Scarecrow have done equally well and bagged some good businesses. Ditto with Creativeland Asia which has excelled.

     

    Mahesh Chauhan, Salt Brand Solutions, said: “In my opinion 2011 can actually be known as the year of independence for smaller agencies. Larger agencies offer infrastructure, whereas we, as independents, go to a client and say we’ll work for them, which a bigger agency cannot do. We partner with our clients and this has motivated the transition. As for me, working as a founder of an independent agency means being a player of the team and not the captain.”

     

    SALT has won the creative mandates for Kaya Skin Clinic, BSE and Big RTL this year.

     

    Early this year ‘Hum mein hai hero’ came across as a clutter breaker. Similarly Pepsi ‘Change the Game’ and the Airtel’s latest ‘Har friend Zaroori hota hai’ have made one feel that there is a change in the thought process of the client as well.

     

    Happy Creative, a creative boutique, managed to cull out a name for itself in terms of awards and has done some great work for Flipkart.

     

    Rahul Kansal, CMO, Bennett & Coleman, said: “As a client, we are looking for less of strategy and more of creative input, hence we want to deal directly with the creative person who is more readily available in smaller/independent agencies. We no longer want to work with middlemen. Second, if we are comfortable working with a particular individual, then we prefer working with him, it doesn’t really matter if it his own startup.”

     

    Agnello Dias, Taproot India said: “This year has been reasonably good for independent agencies. Clients are looking for a fresher take, hence they are moving towards agencies who can give them personalised service as they have lesser work.”

     

    It can be said that when we sell something, even if it is an idea, there has to be a personal touch. And that’s exactly what these boutique agencies are offering to their client. Right from suggesting a brand name to designing and packaging, a lot of these agencies are providing services beyond the creation of a brand communication for a brand.

     

    Sandeep Bomble, founder director, Palasa said: “The business we won this year was Iball mobile phones, Housefull Furniture and Rawwar Fashion. We also won 3 Goafest awards last year for different categories like Best Packaging, Best Art Direction and Best Direct Marketing Event. One-to-one client interaction, cost effective and lesser process driven are the primary reasons for survival of independent agencies. The people working in the agencies will come and go, but in a small set up, the head that drives remains forever. Which is why, a client enjoys personalised attention without losing out on quality in the long run”.

     

    The bigger agencies have always been big, but it is a striking fad to see that creativity more than anything is getting the utmost importance in India, just like it is in other countries.

     

    What we can figure out from the views of the experts is that in the end, it isn’t about being big or small, instead it’s more about being ingenious and impeccable.

     

     

  • Every week, Deepa Gahlot casts a critical eye over media reviews of Bollywood releases… in Reviewing the Reviews

    Reviewing the reviews: Don 2 is poor man’s Mission Impossible

    By Deepa Gahlot

     

    Don 2

    Key Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta,Om Puri, Kunal Kapoor, Boman Irani

    Directed by: Farhan Akhtar

    Produced by: Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Shahrukh Khan

    Written by: Farhan Akhtar, Ameet Mehta, Amrish Shah

     

     

    To confuse moviegoers again, Don 2 got madly mixed reviews with the highest rating being 4.5 and the lowest 1.5.  On an average, however, most reviewers gave it 2.5 and everyone agreed that Shahrukh Khan looked cool, the film was slick, the music was mediocre and it was a poor man’s Mission Impossible. Strictly for SRK devotees who, like good fans, don’t necessarily look for logic in his films. The way this film was promoted, logic is the last thing to look for in any case.

     

    The big gush came from koimoi.com’s Komal Nahata and his 4.5 stars. “Don 2 may not give the discerning audience a great high but it will be loved by those who like style, intrigue, suspense and attitude. It will score at the box-office and yield good profits to Reliance Entertainment (worldwide distributors). The producers, of course, have already made a huge profit by selling the worldwide rights and also by getting heavy subsidy from the German government. Business in big cities and multiplexes will be far better than in smaller towns and single-screen cinemas. The film will work wonders in the overseas circuit.”  Let’s see if his prophecies come out to be true.

     

    Nikhat Kazmi of Times of India, expectedly gave it 4 stars and raved, “Don 2 is a classic action/crime thriller that doesn’t let go, even for a moment. More importantly, the plot has been finely crafted, with every twist and turn falling into place like a complicated albeit neat little jigsaw.” But then, she usually raves.

     

    Slightly lower in the ratings game was Bollywood Hungama’s Taran Adarsh with 3.5. “Don 2 rides on star power and brand value. The film has a bland first hour, but the second half takes the film to another level. There’s no denying that a cohesive script would’ve made a world of a difference to the film, but the tremendous hype, star power and the lucrative period (Christmas and New Year celebrations) will make its investors reap a harvest.”

     

    DNA’s Aniruddha Guha goes with 3 stars and writes, “Characters say boring, random things to each other, there’s a pointlessly long dance sequence and the attempt at dialoguebaazi is laughable. What keeps Don 2 alive, then, is its pulsating action.”

     

    Surprisingly, India Today’s Kaveree Bamzai also gives it a generous 3 and writes, “The movie seems to have been made only to allow the actor to say and do all the things he ever wanted, be it a James Bond and Ethan Hunt rolled into one. What it does come across as finally is a Mission Impossible meets Abbas Mustan.”

     

    IBN Live’s Rajeev Masand gives it the more-or-less standard 2.5. “Don 2 is nicely shot, and there are moments where Shahrukh Khan is riveting. But that’s not enough to hold your interest for well over two hours…even the actor’s most loyal fans will find themselves yawning. I’m going with a generous two out of five for director Farhan Akhtar’s Don 2. Although packed with fast cars and bikes, this is one slow ride.”

     

    Aseem Chhabra writing in rediff.com: “For an action film with the central plot setting us up for a robbery inside a major bank, Don 2’s pacing is very slow. Coupled with that, the script explains everything to us step-by-step. And if anyone was paying attention, following the convoluted plot where Don always manages to sweet charm the morons at Interpol, in the last five minutes Akhtar sums up the film with a quick recap, revealing many more details that were never shown to us before.  It is an old fashioned gimmick to make the audience say “Wow, we were fooled!”

     

    Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express: “Don 2 needed an energized, crackling plot. What it has, in almost too much abundance, is SRK dripping dimpled coolth. But cool can only take you so far.”

     

    Piyali Dasgupta of NDTV.com writes: “There’s an easy way to describe Don2 without any spoilers. Think of great action flicks from the Lethal Weapon, Die Hard and MI4 series. Shake them up. Replace Nakatomi Plaza with Berlin’s leading bank and there it is – Don 2, a Bollywood take on great action flicks where Shahrukh wants to show that being a bad-ass is fun.”

     

    Shubha Shetty Saha of Mid-day was not impressed either. “There’s one thing that irks me the most in Bollywood action thrillers, and Don 2 carries the tradition. The smart moves by the characters is tediously explained again and again to show how the move was engineered, thereby diluting the whole effect. The audience is treated like a four-year-old brat, who doesn’t concentrate and forgets what has been told to him five minutes back. Subtlety is an art and moreover, we are not as dumb as you think. Wish the filmmakers instead concentrated on filling those gaping loopholes.”

     

    Finally, nailing it, Mayank Shekhar of Hindustan Times gives it 1.5 and says, “It (the first Don) was Vijay’s story. Salim-Javed’s tight script had a striking plot. The writers here have sub-plots. They continue to stretch and add thought to thought. The picture promises to never end. It gets hard to carry on with inane inventiveness, when you just couldn’t care less.”