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  • The public relations business has been attracting plenty of foreign capital, but it needs smart ideas

    [PR Channel] Life after Niira Radia: PR needs good PR (and smart ideas)

    By Ullekh NP, Kausik Datta and Malini Goyal

     

    In the end, Niira Radia’s exit from the public relations (PR) business came in a flurry of press releases. It was just the way she would have liked it – no ungainly media scoop to quell, no unruly mob of television crews to wriggle her way of out of (and she has faced a lot of these in the last year or so), and finally, no probing questions to handle.

     

    Her laconic public statement was followed by far more effusive press releases from the Tata Group and Reliance – the country’s largest corporate houses and the anchor clients of the agency Radia founded exactly 10 years ago, Vaishnavi.

     

    Radia often subordinated “her personal and family interests in favour of her clients’ priorities,”,said Tata Group chairman Mr Ratan Tata in a release. RIL has agreed to place some 30 Vaishnavi executives in its internal communications team. And soon, in what a senior executive of a Mumbai-based company describes as a “somewhat late face-saving bid”, Tatas announced Vaishnavi’s PR replacement: Rediffusion and Edelman.

     

    Ms Radia’s decision to shut down Vaishnavi and its other subsidiaries like Neucom brings to close a chapter which marked Radia’s rise from your average behind-the-scenes publicist to national recognition and most would agree, infamy.

     

    But it is also a chapter that the fast-growing Indian PR industry would like to forget in a hurry. After all, it is not often that a publicist gets so much publicity and that too for the wrong reasons.

     

    Earning a Bad Name

    So was Radiagate, as it became known, a loss of face for corporates or for the PR industry? Opinions vary but many PR executives, perhaps not surprisingly, claim that the scandal was a worse reflection on PR. The scandal unfortunately made Ms Radia the de facto public face of PR, at least for a while. A senior executive at a Mumbai-based conglomerate rues that in the case of ms Radia, corporates let PR folks “dominate” them.

     

    Industry insiders claim Ms Radia distorted the way PR is practiced. “Unethical lobbying got disguised as PR. And the industry as a whole suffered. There is suddenly an overhanging cloud of suspicion,” says one.

     

    Another longtime practitioner says the alleged involvement Ms of Radia in the scandals did not surprise the Indian PR industry. “Rather, the industry is saddened by the way corporate big guns showered praise on the lobbyist when she shut down her outfit, Vaishnavi.” A Delhi PR executive says his company decided not to pick up accounts of people with tainted reputations, one of them being former McKinsey chief and former Goldman Sachs board member Mr Rajat Gupta. ET on Sunday couldn’t independently verify the claim. Not everyone is so pessimistic though. Mr Robin Banerjee, chief finance officer of Suzlon Energy, doesn’t think the “Radiagate” was a negative for PR.

     

    Long Road Ahead

    But in spite of Radiagate and its resulting “loss of face”, the 20-year-old industry is growing rapidly. Assocham expects the PR industry to grow around 30% annually – four times faster than the growth in developed markets. “PR as a business can only go up, simply because conflicts in society grow,” says Mr Madan Bahal, managing director at Adfactors Public Relations, India’s largest PR agency according to The Holmes Group, a global tracker.

     

    PR veteran Mr Dilip Cherian, founder, Perfect Relations, says PR is destined for huge growth because there are “extraordinary levels of interest in matters corporate, and so the flow of information and its management are crucial”. Mr Arun Sudhaman, partner and managing editor of The Holmes Report values the industry at $200 million. Others peg it at Rs 500 crore.

     

    Edelman chief Mr Robert Holdheim calls the Indian scenario a “perfect storm” that will result in a fast-track growth for the PR industry which, according to industry figures, employs 30,000-40,000 people across nearly 2,000 big, medium and small firms. He adds, “We see episodes like Radia’s everywhere.” A PR professional who has worked across continents and cultures, Mr Holdheim should know.

     

    Corporate Fights Drive PR Expansion

    Indian PR has come a long way since the early ’90s when liberalisation led to the birth of Indian PR. The PR industry’s growth was also fuelled by the growing ambitions of Indian corporates and increasing competition between Indian companies to capture public mind space. A long-time industry watcher recalls that PR professionals shed their tags as mere ‘couriers’ of press releases and began planting stories in the media when a Mumbai-based corporate house shared information of financial difficulties of its rival with the media in the ’90s.

     

    PR firms also played their part during the corporate wars of the ’90s. In fact, when British American Tobacco (BAT) tried to take over ITC, a newspaper ran a story with a headline “Good vs Perfect”, referring to the two public relations firms that represented the tobacco companies: Good Relations and Perfect Relations. In 2004, when the Ambani brothers fell out, much of the battle over the Reliance empire was fought through the media. But there’s a twist here. Much of the ammo came directly from the two rival groups. It was after the battle was over that outsiders doing big PR jobs matured as an idea, at least with one of the two rival groups.

     

    But the real fillip for the PR industry came when the global PR firms started looking at India. Ms Prema Sagar, founder, Genesis Burson-Marsteller, recalls that a decade ago, foreign PR firms weren’t interested in India. But as India’s growth story gained global favour, international PR firms made a beeline for India. “They realised they needed to be represented in this country and understand how media operates here and got into affiliations.”

     

    Mr NS Rajan, MD at Ketchum Sampark, which was formed after Ketchum picked up majority stake in Sampark PR last year, says in his experience, a global partnership maximises opportunities for an Indian firm and together the partners can service their clients better.

     

    WPP unit Burson-Marsteller bought out Genesis PR in 2005. Other foreign PR firms that made their Indian foray include Publicis, Weber Shandwick, Ketchum, Ogilvy & Mather, Fleishman Hillard, and Edelman. According to The Holmes Report, expansion of digital and social media in the Asia-Pacific belt has led to PR thriving in the region. Ms Sagar cites a plethora of reasons for such alliances: “Some entrepreneurs feel that they have grown the company up to a point they wanted and they would like to cash out and do something else or retire from working life; others felt threatened by international PR firms because of the international experience, strategic value and depth of domain knowledge they bring to the client.”

     

    A Cultural Change?

    Mr Sudhaman, however, argues that the talk of a consolidation in the industry thanks to the influx of companies from elsewhere is premature. “Small firms stand a great chance of survival if they are good and focused, and there are many,” he says.

     

    Besides, he adds, it is not just the local firms, but MNCs, too, that have many lessons in business and practice to learn. “Entry of foreign firms may lift overall standards, but handling India’s complexities isn’t easy,” he says emphasising that there is a lot that MNCs can pick up from Indian firms that follow best international practices.

     

    Adfactors’ Mr Bahal expects local players to have an edge over foreign companies. Adfactors is one of two big PR houses still wholly owned by local entrepreneurs. The other one is Mr Cherian’s Perfect Relations. In fact, not all foreign forays into the country were tales of success. For instance, College Hill of London has shut operations and the joint venture between Vaishnavi and Financial Dynamics did not last.

     

    One question that most industry executives were unwilling to talk on record was: will the entry of MNCs reduce unethical lobbying? Unlikely, says an executive. After all, these are part of big groups that are successful in countries with a high rate of corruption such as Italy and Russia.

     

    Plus, they are all highly focused on results, rather than the process of achieving them, argues a Mumbai-based PR professional, asking not to be named. Radias will continue to thrive in the industry, but in different names, contends the communication head of a large metal company who also asked not to be identified.

     

    Cheque Please

    One constant gripe that practitioners of this spit-and-polish art has is that they don’t get paid enough by the clients they service. In India, most clients work with PR agencies on a retainer fee basis. In the West, PR companies get paid like lawyers and software code houses – on a billed hour basis.

     

    In India, agencies get retainer fees-there’s no standard fee-per-head ratio, which makes over-servicing a very real scenario, say industry seniors, who also talk about proliferation of agencies and under-cutting.

     

    Industry insiders say employees also need to be paid much more to ensure that agencies are able to attract and retain talent. “Remuneration for mid-level and entry-level staff, concedes a top official of a Delhi-based PR firm, requesting anonymity, has to go up much more.

     

    It’s a growing area of concern for the industry. “The most important issue which the industry should address is that of talent shortage. The industry should invest in creating talent with a view to meeting the ever-increasing market,” says Mr Sunil Gautam, founder chairman of Hanmer & Partners who sold out his company to MSL group three years ago. Cherian puts the percentage shortfall in talent at top-level management in India’s PR firms at 70%.

     

    Beyond Traditional Media

    With the growth of social media, the very business of PR is undergoing a sea change. Ms Surekha Pillai, an independent communications consultant, talks of an old school versus new school of PR. The old school is obsessed with the media and focuses on the number of newspaper clippings or video clips. That’s media relations, not PR, say many young PR executives, who seem to chaff at the limitations of the old model.

     

    What is the new school? “I call it integrated communication,” says Ms Pillai, adding that PR must work hand in hand with companies to build brand equity across media platforms from traditional media to the virtual worlds of Twitter and Facebook.

     

    Genesis’ Ms Sagar agrees that multiple stakeholders are involved here. “With integrated communications becoming a reality, corporations don’t care where the Big Idea comes from – advertising, public relations, digital or any other area of the marketing communication mix,” says Ms Sagar.

     

    What about the age-old charge that PR is all about spin? Mr Cherian says that there is no getting away from the fact that there an element of spin in PR, which is ultimately about management of an organisation or a person’s image. Pillai notes that none of the big brands or names became big brands overnight. “There is great public relations behind all of them, and there is nothing wrong with it.”

     

    Bringing in more transparency to lobbying could be part of a solution, contends Mr Cherian. One of the early movers in Indian PR, Mr Cherian expects globalisation to be a major catalyst for PR in the years to come, for both local and foreign companies. “After all every company wants its appropriate share of shout,” he says. But, for the moment, what PR needs is good PR, and a really loud holler at that.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2011, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

  • Just a little more than six months to go before the metros kick out analog as the Lok Sabha passed the Digitization Bill yesterday

    The sunset gets closer…

     

    By A Correspondent

     

     

    The Lok Sabha has passed the much-awaited Bill for digitization of Cable TV in India with the assurance that cable operators will not be harmed from the proposed move. The digitization sunset date for the four metros is June 2012. For complete digitization of cable sector in cities with population of more than one million, the date is March 30, 2013, all urban areas by September 30, 2014, and the entire country by December 31 2014.

     

    Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said that the move to convert Analog TV into Digital will bring India on par with other countries like US, Britain, Korea and Taiwan.

     

    As a matter of fact, digitization of TV will bring subscription revenues for broadcasters and of course the elimination of carriage fees from the broadcast ecosystem – something which, as experts believe, would eventually happen as complete digitization would set in. As for now, carriage fees is one big challenge all broadcasters are facing. Industry estimates suggest that roughly 20 per cent of a channel’s cost account for carriage fees. As per the new regime, all satellite channels will be beamed to houses through set-top-boxes.

     

    While most members supported the Bill, a few raised their voices against content being broadcast on some channels and the unjustifiable hike in the cable rates. Soni assured Cable operators that the move will not render them jobless, and that the government’s major concern was the viewers’ interest. She said that an enabling provision had put in place to the effect that only Rs 200,000 to Rs 300,000 would be needed by cable operators to move to digitisation.

     

    On the prices of set-top-boxes, she said, “The prices of set-top-boxes will fall. These will be available on installments and rent. Also, viewers don’t have to take a whole bouquet of channels. TRAI will impose a tariff capping for subscribing to channels.” She also said that digitization would provide consumers a la carte selection of channels and video-on-demand among other things.

     

    She added that the Headend-in-the-sky (HITS), which had so far failed, would take off with greater investments

     

    The ordinance was passed earlier this year to meet the deadline set for full digitization by December 31, 2014. The government will complete the process in four phases starting with metros.

     

    The Bill will now go to the Rajya Sabha for passing and then go to the President for her assent after which it becomes law. Mr Dinyar Contractor, Editor-in-chief, SCATMAG, is of the opinion that it is only a matter of time before Rajya Sabha will pass the bill.

     

    According to Mr Devendra Parulekar, Partner & Segment Champion – TV Distribution Ernst & Young, the development is a positive one as this will lead to transparency in the entire system while creating a win-win situation for every stakeholder. “Digitisation will provide customers with wider choices, better signal quality, HD content and niche content tailored to suit niche audiences.”

     

    Whether there will be an effect on pricing, he said, “With hyper-competition, I don’t think price points will rise significantly; they will more so be determined by the market forces. ”

     

    On what it means to MSOs, Mr Parulekar said that MSOs focus will shift from B2B to B2C. However, due to the short implementation time-frame, he said that MSOs are likely to lose round one of the battle to DTH players, who have already invested in mature back-end systems. She also said that there were punitive clauses against cable operators, MSOs or DTH operators who failed to show the must-carry channels, including the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV channels.

     

    “The jury is still out on how the sector would fare in the medium to long term, as digital cable+broadband has some inherent technological advantages over DTH, as well as the advantage of personalised service that cable offers to end-subscibers. These service enhancements will need infusion of large funds and hence the sector may see some transactions (M&A activity). With increased transparency in collection of subscription fees as well as tax collection, broadcasters can de-risk their revenue streams versus advertising revenue that they are presently overly dependent upon,” he added.

     

    Big story image: Fotocorp

  • The former US ambassador to India is part of the teams providing strategic counsel to international companies and governments entering global markets and expanding overseas

    Tim Roemer joins APCO Worldwide as senior VP

    By A Correspondent

     

    Tim Roemer, formerUSambassador toIndiahas joined APCO Worldwide as senior vice president. Announcing the progression, Founder and CEO Margery Kraus said that Roemer will also serve as a member of APCO’s Global Political Strategies (GPS) and International Advisory Council (IAC) groups, providing strategic counsel to international companies and governments entering global markets and expanding overseas.

     

    “Tim brings a strong background in international trade and investment, education policy and national security,” said Kraus. “We are very pleased that he’s joined our team, and we know he’ll be an integral resource to clients who are looking to create partnerships and business opportunities across growing markets throughout the world.”

     

    “I am pleased that Ambassador Roemer and I will have continued opportunities to collaborate through our work with APCO,” said Lalit Mansingh, IAC and GPS member, who served earlier as Indian ambassador to theUSand as high commissioner to theUnited Kingdom. “I have dedicated my career to promotingIndiaand its role in the global marketplace, and I look forward to partnering with Tim and other senior counsellors to help clients better develop corporate strategies, achieve successful market entry, and identify specific policy and communication challenges.”

     

    In broadening and deepening the US-India partnership, Ambassador Roemer led one ofAmerica’s largest diplomatic missions. Under the leadership of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he oversaw the implementation of several key policies and initiatives, including increasing cooperation, technology transfer and commercial sales in the defence and space industries; signing the Counterterrorism Cooperation Initiative to further expand cooperation in areas such as intelligence and homeland security, money laundering and terrorist financing; and assisting India on its Global Center for Nuclear Energy Partnership. He also emphasized commerce and exports, helping moveIndiafromAmerica’s 25th-largest trading partner to 12th.

     

    “Tim is well-known in Washington as a problem-solver who encourages collaboration and cooperation – valuable traits given the current political environment and the importance of the challenges we face,” said Don Riegle, formerUSsenator and chairman of APCO’s government relations team. “It will be a privilege to work with Tim in his new role.”

     

    “Tim’s experience in effectively identifying and enhancing shared values between India and the US will be crucial as APCO’s operations in India continue to expand,” said Sukanti Ghosh, managing director of APCO in India.

     

    Prior to his diplomatic appointment, Ambassador Roemer served for 12 years in the US House of Representatives. He was a member of the 9/11 Commission and one of the first members of Congress to advocate for a more dynamic and entrepreneurial Department of Homeland Security.

  • The awards, initiated in 1994, promise to be a grand celebration of the glory, success and grandeur of Indian cinema

    Colors acquires rights to telecast Screen Awards

    By A Correspondent

     

    Colors, the general entertainment channel from Viacom 18 has announced its collaboration with Screen to telecast the 18th Edition of Screen Awards, a property that has been associated with Star Plus for the past 11 years. Initiated in 1994, the Screen Awards were instilled to recognise upcoming talent and professional excellence in Indian Cinema.

     

    The awards will be telecast on Colors and promise to be a grand celebration of the glory, success and grandeur of Indian cinema. The Awards celebrate achievement and excellence in over 30 categories that cover the entire sweep of film-making in Hindi and Marathi.

     

    Commenting on the acquisition of the Screen Awards, Colors CEO Mr Raj Nayak said: “Screen Awards is one of the most popular and recognised award functions in the Indian film industry’s calendar and we are extremely proud to be associated with it. It has been our constant endeavour to make Colors the one-stop entertainment hub for our audiences by bringing to them excellence in terms of shows, events and movies and through the acquisition of this property we hope to achieve just that.”

     

    Mr Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, The Express Group said: “The Screen awards set the bar for excellence in Indian cinema because it embodies the fundamental principles of the Express Group: credibility and independence. Cinema is bristling with talent, and these awards applaud and celebrate this creative upsurge.”

     

    The awards follow a rigorous two-step screening process that includes a Screen

     

    SelectionAcademy. Its members, among the finest professionals in the industry, send their recommendations to a select Screen Jury which is not bound by these. Previous jury chairpersons include Ramesh Sippy, Amol Palekar, Jeetendra, Asha Parekh, Shatrughan Sinha, Waheeda Rehman among others.

     

  • It comes as no surprise that the list is dominated by the oil and gas sector, led by Indian Oil Corporation, Reliance Industries, and Bharat Petroleum Corporation

    Fortune India brings out its top 500 ranking

    By A Correspondent

     

    Fortune India magazine has released the Fortune 500 India list for 2011 with its December issue. It comes as no surprise that the list is dominated by the oil and gas sector, led by Indian Oil Corporation, Reliance Industries, and Bharat Petroleum Corporation.

     

    The banking sector seems to have dropped in rankings, with the top two lenders, SBI (ranked 4) and ICICI Bank (12), slipping in 2011. Twenty eight of 46 banks have fallen in rankings; only 15 have gone up. The gainers are automobile firms and their ancillary suppliers. The government continues to play a big role in business, with a total of 82 government-owned companies on this year’s list.

     

    Mumbai has remained the natural home of India Inc. despite the growth of other cities. Over a third of companies, 177 to be precise, are headquartered in the financial capital. This is followed by Delhi and its suburbs, which hosts 111 corporate head offices. Surprisingly, Kolkata continues to be a major corporate city with 38 Fortune India 500 companies, ahead of IT capital Bangalore (25 headquarters) and Chennai with 34. Pune, Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad are far behind, home to 22, 19, and 17 firms respectively.

     

    Mr D N Mukerjea, Editor, Fortune India Magazine, said: “The Fortune India 500 is a celebration of the size and might of Indian companies. Over the last year, the 500 largest corporations have grown sales by 21.5%; the median growth has been even higher, at about 25%. There also appears to be a fair degree of churn—there are 57 new companies, around 11% of the list. That’s always a good sign because it indicates that the laggards are being replaced by smarter and hungrier companies. The good news, however, is that many of the Fortune India 500 companies are now beginning to shape the world’s opinion of India for the better. And they may just be doing a better job than their Chinese counterparts.”

     

    Commenting on the release of the second Fortune India 500 list, Mr Pavan Varshnei, President – English Magazines, ABP said: “We are extremely proud to present this impressive second edition of the Indian Fortune 500 list. Most of the companies have managed to retain their top- positions. They have contributed towards the growth of India’s GDP and the economy. It is almost every organisation’s goal to be listed in Fortune 500 list, which is regarded as a benchmark of business excellence. I would like to congratulate all the companies and organizations who have made a cut in the list this year and wish them a successful year ahead”.

     

    The Fortune India 500, published by Fortune India magazine is an annual list compiled on the basis of latest sales and gross revenue figures. It ranks the top 500 Indian companies (publicly and privately-held companies for which revenues are publicly available) by their gross revenue after adjustments. For a sense of perspective, the special issue also features China’s 500 largest corporations as well as a list of the 75 largest corporations of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries.

     

    Other individual data points include year on year change on total revenues; net operating income; profits; assets; net worth; profit as percentage of revenues, assets and net worth; dividend; and total salaries.

     

    The issue also ranks top players across different sectors including airlines, automobiles, banking, cement, consumer durables, pharmaceuticals, FMCG, infrastructure and development, media, oil and gas, power, real estate, retail and telecommunications among others.

     

    The top ranking companies of Fortune 500 India list are:

    1.       Indian Oil Corporation

    2.       Reliance Industries

    3.       Bharat Petroleum

    4.       State Bank of India

    5.       Hindustan Petroleum

    6.       Tata Motors

    7.       Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)

    8.       Tata Steel

    9.       Hindalco Industries

    10.   Coal India

    11.   National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)

    12.   ICICI Bank

    13.   Bharti Airtel

    14.   Larsen & Toubro

    15.   Essar Oil

    16.   Steel Authority of India (SAIL)

    17.   Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL)

    18.   Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL)

    19.   Maruti Suzuki Inida

    20.   TCS

     

  • Mr Malhotra will be responsible for developing the overall brand and communication strategy for the business and implementation rollout across the stations

    Big FM appoints Vivek Malhotra as head of marketing

    By A Correspondent

     

    Reliance Broadcast Network Limited (RBNL), on Tuesday, announced the appointment of Mr Vivek Malhotra as Head, Marketing for its radio brand, BIG FM. Mr Malhotra will be responsible for developing the overall brand and communication strategy for the business and implementation rollout across the stations. He will be closely associated with the product, operations and revenue teams.

     

    Speaking about his new role, the immediate challenges and the shift to a new medium altogether in an email interaction with MxMIndia, Mr Vivek Malhotra stated: “Radio, as a medium, appeals very differently and does indeed have a connect with the audience at a very personal and emotional level and it is amongst the most inclusive media formats in the country.”

     

    “Accordingly, the challenge to truly differentiate and connect more closely with the audience is distinctly different. The leadership position enjoyed by the network added to the fact that radio is welcoming the most interesting times ahead, made this an opportunity very few would miss” he added.

     

    In a prepared statement, Reliance Broadcast Network stated: “We are delighted to have Mr Vivek Malhotra on board. He brings with him vast experience across marketing, media research, trade management, sales support, AFP solutions, distribution and corporate strategy. With a strong understanding of business and tremendous creativity, we are confident Vivek Malhotra will play a key role in leading the team to continue the development and growth of the radio business.”

     

    Prior to joining Reliance Broadcast Network, Mr Malhotra was the senior Vice President – Marketing, PR and Research at Bloomberg UTV. He played an integral role in setting up the entire marketing system and repositioning the product to new brand values, along with the additional responsibilities of distribution planning and coordination. Vivek Malhotra also worked with STAR News Network, wherein he is said to have not only led their trade engagement and research unit but also acquired valuable experience around regional products like STAR Majha.

  • The host plays mediator at times, completely at ease with himself and his guests, and never harangues. Gouri Dange is very taken with Mr Eye Candy's show

    Gouri Dange: Surprise! The non-Simipering talk show

    By Gouri Dange

     

    I quite like Love to Hate You (Star World 7pm). There, I’ve said it – I actually like something on Indian television. And no, it’s not only about the eye-candy host chap. His cuteness helps, but there’s more to it than just that. I find him a relaxed non-badgery host, almost old-world if I can use that expression, in the way he totally avoids the two syndromes that afflict most Indian TV hosts – which are: a) insufferable peacock preening, b) equally insufferable toadying-to-the- guest.

     

    In Love to Hate You (what’s with the ugly title lettering, though?), the host brings on a celebrity guest and an ordinary guest who dislikes the celebrity. The ordinary one gets a chance to speak his/her mind about why they don’t like the person’s work; and what really works about this is that they come up with pretty incisive, convincing and articulate stuff about the celeb that they don’t like. The other nice thing is that the celeb takes all this on board, and defends him/herself pretty ably. And yet, the makers of this show avoid the temptation of letting it all descend into a slanging match (a la TV debates) where the two participants circle each other with low growls, fangs exposed and hackles rising.

     

    The two people, and their host (the dishy one) actually talk, no one shouts, and the camera doesn’t subtly go into those ‘kill, kill, kill’ kind of angles used to cover wrestling matches. For the first time, I see people not interrupting each other, and actually looking interested in the other’s viewpoint, absorbing it, and then replying instead of rubbishing the point.

     

    The host plays mediator at times, completely at ease with himself and his guests, and never harangues. Mercifully, there is no Simipering, I mean simpering, and no Daah-ling-ing of anyone. If he knows the celeb guest well, the host makes that clear in a fairly matter-of-fact way, rather than using that as a chance to create an instant club of ‘us’ness. I like it!

     

    The format allows the ‘hater’ to first mouth-off at the ‘hatee’, without actually facing the hatee. And with very specific reasons (not just ‘your books suck’ or ‘your singing is awful’, but with examples of the suckiness or tunelessness.) The two are then put together, and the hatee manfully (personfully) sits through some of the criticism. Obviously the hatee too is either chosen for his/her maturity, and does not pout and say provocative or defensive stuff back. The hater is sometimes drawn into trying his/her hand at what the hatee does, and sportingly admits that it is hard work! And yet the whole thing doesn’t seem overly rigged in any direction.

     

    There should be a new genre-label coined for shows in which the celeb is put in the dock… it’s not just a talk show, it’s a ‘talk your way out of this’ kind of show, right?

     

    What is astounding about Love to Hate You, so far, is that one actually sees both guests backing down and shifting positions gracefully at times. The host is not invested in making anyone feel horrible, and has not developed cutting-off and putting-down or cosying-up into a fine art.

     

    (Contrast this with the ‘debates’ in which it’s usually Delhi Harpies versus Mumbai Sharpies, all conducted by Ms Hector or Mr Harangue, and you’ll know why I am so taken with this new show.)

     

    And Tears In The Kitchen

    On another note, did I say earlier that I find the combo of food and tears and runny noses on MasterChef (Indian and Oz) unpleasant? Well, that was tame stuff, apparently, now that MasterChef USA is here, with bleeped out words from judges, clanging of garbage pails in which not-good preparations are hurled, and many of the contestants probably back to bedwetting at nights. So now tears, snot and bladder malfunction too, in the kitchen… Please, spare me the drama and let me go next door and have a masala dosa.

     

    There is a new amusing sign that MasterChef is creating a whole new downstream market of buy-buy-buying Indian consumers: People who can’t cook or usually have someone cooking their meals, are suddenly re-doing their kitchens into replicas of the MasterChef sets. There’s wall-to-wall buff steel everywhere, six- and eight-burner stove tops, industrial-sized ovens, knives and choppers with which you can fell a buffalo. Words like claypot, tureen, coulis, hop, are being bandied about with eager-sophistication.

     

    I recently visited one such home, and sat watching a hapless chicken going round and round on a giant rotisserie, stubbornly refusing to get cooked. The host-cook, a man who can’t fry an egg, watched grimly on, while his wife wistfully fingered the take-away menu of the kabab-korner down the road. On my way home, I stopped at the bhurji cartwallah and had the best, made in minutes on a dented tava atop an old biscuit tin.

     

    Naming no Names is the mid-week column where novelist, columnist and counsellor Gouri Dange presents her tongue-in-cheek view of our world. The views expressed here are her own.

  • TV debates? Better spend the time watching a reality show. A porn star any day for me over a narcissistic, gassy TV anchor

    Anil Thakraney: The TV gas chamber

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    It’s been a long time since I watched a TV debate. Because I found, much after a lot of torturous viewing, that it’s a huge waste of time. Might as well watch Bigg Boss 5. It’s far more interesting, at least the participants are fresh faces and they look glam too.

     

    Here are some reasons why TV debates suck big time on our news channels.

     

    1. The same dull and sleepy faces. The same spokespersons of various political parties hop from studio to studio each night. Each a big bore, and each clueless about his/her leader’s real agenda. And compelled to support any idiotic dictate from their bosses. If you are glued to your idiot box when people like Abhishek Singhvi, Chandan Mitra and that lady from BJP pontificate each evening, you badly need a life.

     

    2. Because news channel editors and their assistants are too lazy to make an effort to discover new voices, we are stuck with the same ‘experts’ each evening. Suhel Seth, Shobhaa De, Prahlad Kakkar, etc, are now telling us how to decode every news item. From terrorism to FDI in retail to the Kingfisher mess to harassment of women. In such a vast nation, is it so difficult to find new voices? And more importantly, voices of people we can trust and respect?

     

    3. The entire concept is fraudulent. Because the anchors deliberately pick people with extremely polarised views, the debate becomes an exchange of gas. Like a school boys’ discussion. No one ever concedes that the other guy may be making a valid point, even if he/she feels so. That admission will appear to be a sign of ‘surrender’ on a TV debate. So the participants keep yelping at one another rather than talking to one other. I particularly avoid watching debates on theBhopalgas tragedy. Because gassing levels shoot through the chimney on those days.

     

    4. The anchors, who are supposed to be neutral, almost always throw in their two bits, thus adulterating the show by injecting their own agendas and biases into the discussion. This murders the concept of a debate, reducing it to a charade. I have often noticed that the much celebrated, award winning anchors lose their patience with guest speakers whose views they don’t approve of. You call this a debate? I call it nautanki.

     

    Like I said, better spend the time watching a reality show. A porn star any day for me over a narcissistic, gassy TV anchor.

     

    ***

     

    PS: Everyone is appreciating Mr and Mrs Aamir Khan for going public with their surrogate baby. There is even talk of making the couple spokespersons for surrogate parenthood. Well, methinks we are giving the couple too much importance out here.

    Aamirbhai had NO option but to reveal the truth in the media. How else could he have explained the presence of a bachcha in the house, with missus having shown no signs of pregnancy? Trust some people to jump at making virtue out of necessity.

     

    Anil Thakraney is a Mumbai-based columnist and commentator and is a former adman and editor. He is Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own.

     

  • The much-awaited Effie Awards will recognize the best and most effective advertising of the year

    It’s the Effies tonight

    By Tuhina Anand

     

    The stage is set for Effie Awards 2011 which will be held at Race Course, Mahalaxmi in Mumbai, tonight. The awards are much respected and coveted as they recognize effective advertising – ie, an award for advertising that has worked in the market. The client of the year and agency of the year are the Effies most watched for.

     

    The Effies 2011 were different even in judging as there were four sessions altogether, three in round one including one in Delhi which was for the first time and then round two. It is learnt that there were 60 judges in round one and 20 in round two and out of this number 75 per cent comprised the clients’ side who were involved in judging. The plan is now to take Effies case studies, a popular segment, toDelhinext year.

     

    Ajay Kakar, Chairman Effie 2011 Committee and CMO – Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group, on what the fraternity should expect from the Effies tonight, said, “The judges have cast their votes. When 60 luminaries from the advertising and marketing fraternities put their collective minds together to evaluate the work that has worked in the market place, you can expect nothing short of the ‘best among the best’ to gain its rightful recognition.”

     

    Work that has rightfully left its mark in the sands of 2010-11 will be unveiled at the gala awards night.

     

    “Effie 2011 has a host of records/firsts, to its credit be it the number of entries received (300), the number of judges (60), the number of clients in the jury, the judging in Delhi and the number of agencies (20) that contributed to the short listed entries. I am sure we can expect a few more pleasant surprises at the awards night,” concluded Mr Kakar.

     

    Also read:

    All set for Effies on Dec 14

    http://www.mxmindia.com/2011/11/edging-towards-effies/

  • Young Guns 2011 announces the winners – India nets 3 bronze; 2 for Leo Burnett and 1 for Happy Creative.

    Leo Burnett bag two Young Guns bronzes

    By Shubhangi Mehta

     

    The winners for Young Gun Awards 2011 have been announced. Leo Burnett was awarded 2 Bronze Bullets and 2 Finalists, Happy Creative awarded one Bronze Bullet and Ogilvy&Mather managed 1 finalist, from India.

     

    Leo Burnett India has been awarded Bronze for Tide “Fold a Stain” Campaign in Art Direction categorty, team Ganesh Nayak, Amod Dani and a Bronze for Bajaj Irons “Fold Aide Box” Packaging in Design category,team Nadine Pereira, Zainab Karachiwala, Payal Juthani, Anirban Sanyal. Heinz “Sketchup” managed to be in the finalist category, team, Ganesh Nayak, Amod Dani.

     

    KV Sridhar aka Pops said, “it’s always good when young people are recognised since it is an assurance not just for the present but for a great future as well. We are happy that Leo Burnett worldwide has also won YoungGuns 2011 Network of the Year which proves that it is the agency encouraging the youth”.

     

    Ogilvy & Mather’s Anupama Sirsalewal, finalist for Unbearably Sour, Gun, Snake, Gullotine in the Illustration Campaigns category.

     

    Happy creative has been awarded Bronze Bullet.

     

    Agency Tally for India is as follows:

    Leo Burnett:                2 Bronzes + 2 Finalists

    Happy Creative:           1 Bronze

    Ogilvy:                             1 Finalist

  • According to the November edition of Characters Youth Loves (CYL) – Rannvijay from MTV Roadies is the most popular character among the youth. Rannvijay was at the No 1 position in the last track as well, which was conducted during June-July this year.

    Rannvijay, most popular non-fiction character among youth: Ormax Media

    By A Correspondent

     

    According to the November edition of Characters Youth Loves (CYL) – Rannvijay from MTV Roadies is the most popular character among the youth. Rannvijay was at the No 1 position in the last track as well, which was conducted during June-July this year.

     

    This track has seen two new entrants in the Top 5 of CYL – Amitabh Bachchan for Kaun Banega Crorepati at No 2 and Salman Khan for Bigg Boss 5 at No 3.

     

    Raghu of MTV Roadies has moved down to the No 4 position from No 2 in the last track. Hrithik Roshan continues to be at the No 5 as a host for Just Dance.

     

    Characters Youth Loves is a quarterly study done to track the favourite reality show characters (contestants, hosts and judges) among the youth, along with reasons for preference. The study was conducted among 1120 male and female respondents, 15-24 years, SEC AB, across four cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow and Bhopal.

     

    Ormax Media is a research and consulting firm specialising in the entertainment business. The company has also developed a series of proprietary research tools and syndicated products for the entertainment business.

  • Anil Nair on 6 things to keep in mind when hiring at mid-level in an advertising agency

    The Anchor: 6 things to remember when hiring mid-levels in an agency

    By Anil Nair

     

    I believe that these qualities are required at any level in our profession. While at senior level one would look at few more qualities and at junior there would be some less expectation, but largely these qualities are what I look for in an advertising professional.

     

    #1 Imagination: There has to be an ability to look beyond the obvious. Imagination is not just required for creatives but it’s a requirement for the industry. Our job poses challenges every day and if one is content to follow the prescribed method then there can be no growth. One has to have a rich and interesting imagination to build compelling communication.

     

    #2 Hunger: It is not just hunger to scale to the next level in the hierarchy. There has to be hunger for knowledge, insight and for better work. When a person believes that his appetite is satiated, that’s practically the end of his career. There has to be hunger to take things to the next level in all aspects of life.

     

    #3 Perspective: This is a rare quality among many people today. There is a tendency to follow things as they are given. Being perceptive helps in thinking beyond the obvious which is a requirement for everyone, be it creative, servicing or planning. This will be an important tool to help in growing the business.

     

    #4 Clarity: Whatever the point of view, if one has coherence in thought it will take a mid-level person to greater strengths. They are involved in building a communication platform for the client and there is a need to have logic and clarity in thinking to help the clients do better.

     

    #5 Emotional stability: By this I mean there has to be strength of character and ability to handle situation under duress. There is pressure from the person you report to, people whom you look up to and people who report in to you. I have seen many people crack under pressure and many times good talent become an emotional wreck. Again this is a rare quality and difficult to find in today’s times.

     

    #6 Anticipation skill: In this profession, if you do things now it will only lead to crushing you. You need to keep an eye on the ‘next’ and this can be developed by way of knowledge and interactivity with the industry. This is a complex world with cut-throat competition and the need is for the ability to anticipate and be prepared to face it.

     

    Anil Nair is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of Law & Kenneth.