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  • A comparison of potential gainers and losers in the government’s move to open up retail for FDI reveals that 122 million consumers set to gain while only 40 million traders could get affected

    Stark stats: 40 mn traders may gain, 122 mn consumers could lose if retail FDI is trashed

    By Smriti Seth

     

    The consumer is not king, apparently. The hullabaloo over easing foreign investment norms in multi-brand retail is centered on the notional loss to a fraction of traders in the country and the consumer has been passed over.

    A comparison of potential gainers and losers in the government’s move to open up the country’s $450 billion (over Rs 20 lakh crore) retail segment to foreign direct investment (FDI) reveals that while a section of 40 million traders are likely to be affected by competition from organised modern retail, about 122 million consumers stand to benefit from it.

    Some experts say FDI debate underplays the importance of consumers in an economy.

    “We must not forget that consumers are the most important part of our economy today. They will also be the biggest gainers from FDI in retail, thereby benefiting the entire country,” said Mr Akash Gupt, executive director at PWC.

    The government on Thursday allowed 51% FDI in multi-brand retail, but restricted it to cities with population in excess of one million. It also raised FDI in single brand to 100%. As per the 2011 census, consumers in the 53 most populated cities of the country add up to over 122 million. In contrast, the numbers of people connected with retailing in the country is about 40 million, according to several estimates.

    In big cities, the number of people working in the retail sector is likely to be lot less.

    Buyers are expected to benefit the most from the increased competition in the retail industry in terms of prices and quality. “Competition will push prices down and improve quality of products,” Mr Gupt said.

    Despite the apparent benefit to consumers, some political parties and state chief ministers have come out strongly against the government move. Eleven states have said they will not allow supermarket chains to set up shop. On Monday, the parliament was adjourned because of the uproar.

    The opposition could restrict access for foreign retailers such as Walmart and Tesco to only about 25 big cities.

    Experts debunk the entire notion of FDI-funded modern retail causing a widespread loss of jobs in the unorganised sector, or the ‘kirana’ segment.

    “Since foreign retailers are only being allowed in large cities, it should not have an impact on employment, most of which comes from smaller cities,” said Mr Mathew Joseph, co-author of the report ‘Impact of Organized Retailing on the Unorganized Sector’ published by ICRIER, a think tank.

    “It might have some effect on profitability of small retailers in the beginning, but they will have enough time to brace themselves for entry of foreign players and will recoup quickly”, the report says.

    There are other stakeholders as well who stand to benefit.

    As per the FDI policy approved by the cabinet, the foreign retail outlets have to necessarily source 30% of their raw materials from Indian micro and small enterprises.

    The policy mandates a minimum of $100 million worth of investments, of which at least 50% has to be in back-end infrastructure, most of which will be in rural areas that will fuel employment growth there.

    “Employment opportunities will be created from the need for front-end retail staff; improved supply chains will generate more jobs and sourcing goods from small industries will help in job creation as well,” said Mr Paresh Parekh, partner, retail and consumer product sector, Ernst and Young.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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

  • MediaVest Worldwide has bagged the SuperMax business

    MediaVest Worldwide bags SuperMax business

    By A Correspondent

     

    MediaVest Worldwide has won the SuperMax media account and will handle for the latter media planning and buying across all media. The business was won in a multi-agency pitch that was conducted earlier this month. MediaVest will handle this business from their Mumbai office with immediate effect.

     

    Confirming the development, MediaVest VP in Mumbai Dinesh Rathore said, “We are delighted to have won the SuperMax business and are looking forward to partnering them. This has been a good year for our agency. We are looking forward to building on this momentum in the coming year.”

     

    Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) has recently has picked up over 14 new businesses in the past few months from their Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore offices including most recently the Aircel TV and Digital business.

  • From household names to forgotten history: Story of India's grand old brands such as Binaca, Dalda & Moti Soaps

    Binaca, Dalda, Moti… Kahaan Gaye Woh Brands!

    By Bhanu Pande & Ratna Bhushan

     

    There was a sense of deja vu when, earlier this month, Titan Industries acquired Swiss heritage brand Favre Leuba for 13.8 crore. “The brand Favre Leuba has been dormant, we intend to revive the brand in India,” explained Mr Harish Bhatt, COO of Titan, India’s largest watchmaker. The 1960s and 1970s were the glory days of the 274-year-old brand, and it even sold in India for about five decades till the early-1980s, a recall that Titan now wants to capitalise on. If it succeeds, it will be a rare instance of an Indian company acquiring an old, but flagging, brand and giving it new life.

     

    In the last two decades, for example, Bunge didn’t manage that turnaround with Dalda. Neither did Dabur with Binaca, or Hindustan Lever with Hamam and Moti. The reasons are many: the new owners did not want to, or failed to, or had a change of plans. “It’s unfortunate that a lot of companies acquire brands and then don’t know what to do with them,” says Mr Ramesh Chauhan, chairman of Parle Bisleri. In 1994, Chauhan sold five aerated-drink brands-Thums Up, Gold Spot, Limca and Citra and Rim-Zim-to Coca-Cola, only to see them mostly being left to drift or die.

     

    Another drifter is Dalda, the iconic vanaspati brand that was a market leader till the 1980s. In 2003, when US agri and foods company Bunge bought Dalda from Hindustan Unilever for 90 crore, the brand had travelled the arc from being the proxy for its product category to a marginal existence. Bunge’s reason for the buy- a toehold in a new market-could have put Dalda back in the reckoning.

     

    The company tried, but the cooking-medium market had shifted — from only unhealthy vanaspati in the 1970s and 1980s to healthier refined oils. Bunge India did not respond to an email. A senior brand professional, who handled a cooking oil brand in the early-2000s but did not want to be identified, says Bunge was essentially a commodity player and lacked the “marketing mindset” to revive Dalda. “The company launched refined oil variants under Dalda, but it was too late, too little,” he says.

     

    Industry players say Dalda now has a share of about 2% in refined oils, where the leader is Fortune of Adani group (13%) and brands of Ruchi Soya (10%). In vanaspati, Dalda is still among the top brands with 12% share, but the segment itself has shrunk significantly.

     

    A worse fate has befallen Binaca, an oral care brand whose popularity in the 1970s and 1980s was next to that of only Colgate, and which was also a prefix to a much-loved radio programme, Binaca Geetmala. Binaca has faded to near oblivion in the subsequent two decades. Dabur bought it from Reckitt Benckiser in 1996 — for “less than 1 crore” according to an official at Dabur who was involved with the deal — with the intention of reviving it to ride into the white toothpowder segment.

     

    Dabur failed in that product diversification because the category was stagnant and margins thin, and it withdrew.  Mr Sunil Duggal, CEO of Dabur, calls Binaca’s acquisition a “gamble that did not pay off”. “Sometimes, when a brand is available at a throwaway price, you don’t think twice about picking it up,” he says. “We bought Binaca hoping to leverage it in some way, but it didn’t work.”

     

    Following an organisational restructuring, Dabur decided to focus on brands that had some herbal association. Binaca, not being one of them, languished. Mr Duggal says Dabur put the brand for sale, but found no takers at the designated price of 25 crore. It is still present in Dabur’s portfolio as a toothbrush brand; Mr Duggal declined to reveal Binaca’s contribution to its revenues, but says it has helped the company recover its acquisition price.

     

    Mr Viren Razdan, managing director of Interbrand India, a global brand consultancy, says the value in an acquired brand can be broken into four parts: its equity (what it promises); its culture (how the previous owner honoured that promise); its infrastructure (distribution, marketing and sales); and the visual expression of its identity (advertising). “How it ‘fits’ into the future ambition of the acquiring company is what dictates how it is cultivated, or destroyed, for a larger good,” he says.

     

    Killing competing brands by buying them was one flank of Coca-Cola’s entry strategy. While Dalda and Binaca were neglected and dying before they found new buyers, Mr Ramesh Chauhan’s array of aerated drinks were market leaders when Coca-Cola bought them in 1994. Between them, Thums Up, Gold Spot, Limca, Citra and Rim-Zim had a 70% share.

     

    Coca-Cola wanted to kill Thums Up and Gold Spot to give its own competing brands — Coke and Fanta — greater space to grow. But such was the popularity of Thums Up, it has always remained Coca-Cola’s largest selling brand in India despite poor marketing support in the initial years.

     

    Conceding its strength, the company re-launched Thums Up, making actor Akshay Kumar as its face. Today, according to market research firm Nielsen, Thums Up remains the country’s largest aerated drink with a share of about 15% of the 13,000 crore category.

     

    Thums Up made its own story, but Gold Spot and Citra (citrus drink) could not. A former Coca-Cola India executive says the company let those two brands die a natural death to give life to its competing global brands — Fanta and Sprite, respectively.

     

    Coca-Cola did not respond at length to a questionnaire on its thinking behind these four brands. “As for Gold Spot, we are the owners of the trademark, but do not share future plans for our brands,” was all a company spokesperson offered by way of explanation. “They seem to have no attachment to the brands,” says Mr Chauhan about Coca-Cola’s approach to Gold Spot and Citra. He feels even Limca has been not marketed to its full potential.

     

    For acquirers, more than emotional attachments, such brand buys acquisitions are about business strategy. For example, says Mr Prathish Nair, brand consultant at Bangalore-based Transcend Brand Consulting: “When the acquired brands are regional, the companies deliberately don’t take the brands national so they can block regional rivals.”

     

    It’s what PepsiCo India has done with Uncle Chipps, which was the largest selling potato chips brand in India till 2000. PepsiCo acquired it from Amrit Agro in 2000 to drive its own growth in snack foods.

     

    But PepsiCo also had its flagship snack-food brand, Lays, to push. So, while it markets Lays aggressively, Uncle Chipps is distributed in select states, primarily Northern ones, to combat smaller brands. Similarly, Hindustan Unilever has ploughed Hamam, once a national brand of repute, on regional duty. Clearly, more than the brand, it’s about the business.

     

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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

  • The challenges for Pix are on two grounds: one is to be No 1 in the category emphatically and convincingly, beating both Star Movies and Movies Now, and then to ensure profitability and growth quarter after quarter, year after year.

    The Pix plan for genre leadership

    By Rishi Vora

     

    Sony Pix, the English movie channel from the Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd (MSM) bouquet is, with aggressive content acquisition and marketing strategy, looking to push its channel share up in a bid to get to the top league. Where competition is quite intense between Star Movies and Movies Now. This year, the channel shifted its focus from its positioning – ‘We Tell Stories’, to ‘Hollywood is Here’. The strategic tie-up with Sony Pictures Entertainment has given enough strength to the channel as far as content is concerned. The deal was finalised in 2010, which means starting 2011, Pix has done enough on the programming bit to enter the much-desired Hollywood mainstream space.

     

    Commenting on the progress of Sony Pix, Executive Vice President and Business Head, Mr Sunder Aaron said, “The channel has delivered great results over the last couple of years. Today, we’re a consistent major player in the category. We have been fortunate to achieve our goals in terms of ratings, reach and distribution. The channel’s new library from Sony Pictures Entertainment, which includes some of the finest titles and  block busters have delivered great numbers.” Elaborating on the channel’s content efforts, Programming Head, Mr Amogh Dusad, said, “This year, we premiered six to seven movies every month, all blockbuster films. And that helped us improve our overall ranking in the category.”

     

    The channel saw yet another big change in 2011 – on the packaging and presentation aspects. Himmat Butalia, Marketing Head, Pix, said, “We consciously tried to look at the younger audience and see how we could engage them in various ways. As for promoting our titles, every movie has a different kind of a marketing angle to it.”

     

    “The Movie Club, one of our major properties, has done well. We’re at 15,000 members now from 4000 a few months back. The reason it’s such a fantastic property is that it allows viewers to watch movies absolutely free of cost. The channel’s marketing efforts include a mix of offline and online (Facebook brand page and YouTube, Webisodes etc) campaigns.

     

    With a host of programming and marketing initiatives, Mr Aaron referred to how Sony Pix beat HBO in the ratings game, in 36 out of 47 weeks.”Ratings of the past quarter shows that Pix has upped its market share to 19 per cent as compared to HBO which stands at 14 per cent (source: TAM, CS 15 +, 6 metros, SEC AB, Week 27-39).”

     

    For the next quarter, we want to take Pix into the leadership position. While we have been No1 in the category, and have been No 1 in every market from time to time, we want to be in that position on a more consistent basis. The performance of the channel over the past 18 months has shown that this is achievable. The growing response from our fans has overwhelmed us. The future also holds a lot more big titles premiering on the channel. We will do our best as a channel and as a brand to continue innovating, surprising and delighting our audience.”

     

    The Movies Now- Star Movies tussle; Opportunity Sony Pix
    The launch of Movies Now shook up the line-up a bit. One week after launch, the channel managed to grab the No 2 position. This, as experts view, happened at the back of a huge distribution push, investment on content – acquiring a few big-ticket movies, and then the strategy to repeat those titles on a regular basis. What Movies Now success did, is broad-based the category, so from 60 GRPs, the category of English movies has increased to about 75 GRPs. However, the channel did begin to see a dip with Star Movies catching up. Mr Dusad remarked, “Movies Now being beaten by Star Movies is an indication that sustaining leadership is a challenge if you’re not investing in content on a regular basis, acquiring new titles, doing premiers etc.” In the last six months, Mr Dusad pointed out that Pix beat HBO in 23 weeks, and that they’re looking at taking on the top two players with a host of new initiatives in 2012 (TAM CS 15 +, SEC AB, 6 metros). The idea is to first get to channel share of 20 per cent.

     

    The challenges for Pix are on two grounds: one is to be No 1 in the category emphatically and convincingly, beating both Star Movies and Movies Now, and then to ensure profitability and growth quarter after quarter, year after year.

     

    Another challenge as Mr Aaron pointed out will be to increase the number of advertisers on the channel, and help generate higher revenues, thus leading to higher budgets in acquiring bigger and better titles. On how well has the channel done in the past one year revenue wise, Mr Dusad said, “I can’t share the numbers, all I can say is that we’ve been growing at a decent rate. Clients are happy to spend more with us. Every year, our range of advertisers is increasing and the money spent by them on the channel is also increasing. And we’re seeing a lot more stability in our growth.”

     

    Digitisation will bring in subscription revenues – a big opportunity, now that the ordinance is passed by the government. The category growth, which is about 30 per cent, the channel will do well to achieve similar growth. There’s a lot to be done for Pix to be No 1. Who knows what’s in the offing. Zee Studio is behind Pix, though with a much lesser share. Coming from the Zee stable, one cannot write the channel off.

  • With Bobby Pawar at the helm, CEO Colvyn Harris hopes to see JWT India achieve greater creative focus

    Raising the Bar: Colvyn on JWT with Bobby

     

    By Johnson Napier

     

    The last few days have witnessed media and advertising circles going gaga over news of a restructuring exercise at JWT and the surprise coronation of Bobby Pawar as the Chief Creative Officer & Managing Partner, alongside the elevation of three of its key ECDS to the post of NCD – Swati Bhattacharya, Tista Sen and Senthil Kumar. But what has kept the industry guessing is the swiftness with which this transformation has been carried about and who from JWT is responsible for this smooth makeover.

     

    MxM India meets the man who has effected the change – Colvyn J Harris, CEO, JWT India. In a detailed conversation, Mr Harris reveals the new creative direction that the agency will root for with the coming in of Bobby Pawar, the unmatched experience that would be delivered to clients and how he could get back to serving the industry with the easing of the creative function at JWT. Excerpts:

     

    Q: Apart from the CCO and NCD level restructuring exercise, have there been any other senior-level elevations at JWT?

    The restructuring exercise where creative is concerned is over. We have Bobby Pawar as Chief Creative Officer; he will be supported by three NCDs comprising Swati Bhattacharya in Delhi, Tista Sen in Mumbai and Senthil Kumar in the South. There are a set of ECDs who would work in partnership with the above team. There won’t be any replacements as such where the earlier ECD posts are concerned.

     

    Q: Were there any other candidates you considered other than Bobby Pawar, including any international contenders?

    We did consider international candidates but we were very clear that we needed somebody who had roots in India, who understands the country in which we operate – the nuances and sensibilities of India. As for Bobby, he has international experience, having worked in BBDO and Ogilvy in the US. So that’s the best of both the worlds that one could ask for.

     

    Q: Was it a long chase to get Bobby Pawar take up the offer at JWT?

    It was not a chase actually; it was fairly mutual. We felt that he had the right qualities to lead and help us deliver on a vision which is to be the very best in what we do.

     

    Q: Knowing Bobby’s liking towards working for an indigenously-run agency like Mudra (before Omnicom buying out a majority stake), what was the differentiating factor that convinced him to take up an offer at the WPP-run agency?

    I think where JWT is concerned, we may be global and affiliated to WPP but we are finally rooted in India. If you trace the lineage of JWT India, it is actually Hindustan Thompson Associates (HTA). We have not shed any of the institutional attributes that JWT or HTA was built on. So I think that foundation continues and we are as Indian or as global as a client would want us to be. For creativity to flourish and thrive and do well, you need a platform. JWT has some large and reputed clients. We work with the leaders in every category so the work you do is going to get visible. So it’s an opportunity that presents itself to all of us who work for JWT. And for talent, what more can you hope for other than the set of clients that we have? We work with the best known Indian clients and we work with the world’s most admired brands, whether it is Nike or Pepsi…

     

    Q: How has the industry reacted to the nomination of Bobby Pawar? Moreover, what has been Sir Martin Sorrell’s reaction to the appointment?

    Sir Martin Sorrell and Bob Jeffrey (Worldwide Chairman and CEO, JWT) are very happy with the decision. They realize that I also need a partner to carry forward this responsibility. JWT is a big ship, we have been suit-led for too long. So this gives us a nice balance.

     

    Q: Yes, don’t you think the agency has been suit-led for a while now?

    That’s not how you should look at it because we have eight ECDs, because our scale of operations is large – in Delhi we have around 380 people. So if you were to compare you’ll understand that wherever we operate we are completely full-service; all skills operate in all offices. We just didn’t have somebody to drive the creative agenda for us with a greater focus. That’s because when you run businesses or lead an agency on a management framework you take your eyes off the ball on a greater platform. So Bobby’s going to play that role.

     

    Q: Having being suit-led for some time, would you then agree that the agency did witness a creative slump post the going away of senior resources like Agnello Dias and Josy Paul?

    Not at all. Whatever talk you hear is all loose talk. When people don’t know then there is talk but finally the success of a company is derived by how our brands perform in the marketplace – which is a great success as all of them are leaders. The success of an agency is how our people perform – again, all of them have done extremely well, and finally, where success is concerned there are financial benchmarks and there are creative benchmarks and we have been very consistent in winning. Senthil is an international award winner, the Mumbai office is the most awarded agency… so you have got all the success stories that you need.

     

    Q: How would you also react to the claim that your former creative heads took along some clients with them after they quit JWT?

    They didn’t take clients as such; they took projects along with them. We still have over 200 clients; we can’t be a hundred percent of every client all the time. I am sure a client chose to exercise his judgment on an idea which will help his business. We definitely respect that and welcome it. In both cases, they got something good so I am happy.

     

    Q: Coming back to Bobby Pawar, what would be expected out of him? What’s his mandate as CCO?

    Firstly, he has a team – he has NCDs, ECDs and a team of about 300 people in creative. So he’s gonna have to set an agenda for creative. That means there will be a vision and a purpose that we want to go back to. And after that it is actually how do you achieve those objectives – how do you deliver on that vision, how do you execute that vision, how do you get the work to look better… So that’s the agenda that he would be riding on.

     

    Q: Do you expect Bobby to get his set of clients from Mudra to JWT or wish such a natural progression to occur given his stature at Mudra?

    We are not looking at that. In our gameplan, Bobby fits extremely well and our strategy is to improve the work, change the benchmark, create new standards…and that’s what we are doing.

     

    Q: So while Bobby gets to set a new creative agenda, do you see a creative shift coming about at JWT?

    As I said, our agency has been very successful. What we will do is that we will jointly set a vision, and as a team we will have to work jointly on delivering on that vision.

     

    Q: Would Bobby lend his expertise to other domains under JWT like digital, activation, public relations, direct marketing, etc…?

    Yes, of course. We talk about idea-centricity – the idea at the centre based on a brand and how you seamlessly use every touchpoint to the audiences identified. So it’s a one seamless idea which we will try and make it a big platform idea.

     

    Q: With Bobby at the helm, will the focus now be on reclaiming the ‘most awarded agency’ tag – that was his claim to fame at Mudra, making it the most awarded agency in recent years?

    If you look at our work, we are all over the place. Now with Bobby at the helm, we want to raise the bar and improve our standards. We want to be recognized firstly at an Indian platform, we want to be recognized globally and we definitely want to improve our body of work. But all said and done, it is not about winning awards; it is also important that the work we do for clients is effective and successful for them in the market. That’s priority No 1. If that work goes on to win awards then that’s fantastic. So it’s actually an and/and rather than an either/or.

     

    Q: Any new verticals being planned for take-off?

    Nothing as such. We have design, digital, Thomson Social, Encompass… so we are not looking at anything else right now. But digital is something that we are looking at going forward with and that’s why we have hired Max Hegerman.

     

    Q: Moving on to you, how would your responsibilities change, going forward? Is there anything that has been planned for you?

    I think my responsibilities will reduce, hopefully, because I have been on a treadmill and a rollercoaster at the same time last year. Hopefully this new change will give me some breathing time…

     

    Q:…It could also allow you to get back to serving the industry and catering to several issues like you did while you were the Chairperson of Goafest.

    I used to be involved on a big scale earlier but I have cut it down as it takes away a lot of your time, but it’s important for us industry leaders to be a part of the industry; to engage with people who make it what it is today so that this industry, firstly, is successful. On an overall basis, it’s industry definitely for me; it is what you give back as well. And also the network as well; we are a global company, and that is also equally important for me to look after.

     

    Q: Lastly, if you were to set a goalpost for JWT in 2012, what would that be?

    I think if by the end of 2012, we are able to do good work on our key clients and that is acknowledged by clients first, and then maybe awards as the second parameter, I think that will be a great step forward.

  • The Government’s decision to allow FDI in retail has opened up possibilities for international retail giants who till now have been waiting in the sidelines.

    IKEA, Carrefour welcome FDI

    By Tuhina Anand

     

    The Government’s decision to allow FDI in retail has opened up possibilities for international retail giants who till now have been waiting in the sidelines. While Indian politicians are busy either batting for FDI or opposing it vehemently, the international biggies are playing safe and watching their step before making any decision.

     

    IKEA, the international home products company that has been clear that it will only enter India when 100% FDI will be allowed now seems to have crossed that hurdle. With Indian government allowing 100% FDI in single brand retail, it clears way for the Swedish furniture giant to make its presence in India.

     

    An IKEA spokesperson informed MxM India, “The IKEA Group welcomes the Indian Government’s decision to allow 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment for single brand retailers. We will now over the next few days look into the details of the decision and we expect to present more information shortly about our intention to establish retail operations. India is since long a strong and growing purchase market for IKEA.”

     

    IKEA has been looking towards India increasingly over the years to outsource its products including textiles and carpets and the country finds the retailers focus in its social initiatives. Looks like it’s not far when IKEA would announce its plan for India and be present in a market which is seen by many International retailers as crucial because of the changing dynamics and economy of the country. In fact, giants like Walmart is already present but in Cash & Carry business with a partnership with Bharti Enterprises. Tesco has strategic partnership with Tata Trent for back end and supplying for Tata’s Star Bazaar. French retailer Carrefour too has opened last year its cash and carry store in Seelampur area in Delhi.

     

    Carrefour’s statement on FDI in India stated, “Carrefour welcomes the Indian Government’s decision to allow up to 51% foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail. This legal evolution should contribute to modernise Indian food supply chain and to fight against food inflation for the benefit of Indian customers. It will also provide farmers and local SMEs with new outcomes and will more generally contribute to India’s economic development. Carrefour will remain attentive to the finalisation of this new regulation and continues the development of its cash and carry operations. Please note that we cannot give you any further elements.”

     

    The move is a welcome relief for the international biggies but it now remains to be seen how and when these giants make their entry into the front end of the business in India.

  • As Vinod Mehta, the editor of Outlook mag says, in our profession we must always remain spectators, and never try to become players. However tempting it is to dive into the arena.

    Anil Thakraney: Always the spectator. Never the player

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Quite saddened to hear that a fellow journo may have abetted the murder of crime reporter J Dey. Mind you, the allegations against her have still to be proved in the court of law, so we will know the facts only after the legal process is done.

     

    However, here’s a concern and let me first illustrate this with a little example. I had once gone to interview the Maharashtra Power Minister, armed with some tough questions on the frequent power outages in the state. He was already surrounded by 20 fawning reporters from the state’s vernacular press. And the mantri insisted I do the interview with all of them seated in the background. He said he had to rush to Pune for a meeting, and would not have the time to meet me separately. Yes, I had taken a prior appointment but these silly things don’t matter to netas. With not much choice in the matter, I agreed. And after each serious question, the minister would loudly guffaw and make fun, looking to his audiences for support. And yes, the reporters behaved like his cheerleaders, and would also laugh as he laughed. Of course, this didn’t matter to me at all, and I went on firing. This is because when I do an interview, it’s like making love, my entire attention is on the subject, and as Metallica sang, nothing else matters. But it doesn’t need too much intelligence to figure that the reporters had either sold out or were desperate to sell out. Or at the very least badly wanted to bond with the powerful man.

     

    The reason I share this incident is because, as Vinod Mehta, the editor of Outlook mag says, in our profession we must always remain spectators, and never try to become players. However tempting it is to dive into the arena. As Radiagate showed us, close proximity to power and pelf is seductive. It is very tempting to go heady and jump over to the other side. And delude yourself into believing you can do it too. Those who have fallen for this attraction have almost always burnt their fingers. It’s always a fatal attraction.

     

    No, we can’t bat like Sachin. We can’t act like Amitabh. We can’t be politicians. We can’t be underworld dons. We must remain who we are: Spectators. Whose only job is to observe, report, analyse, have a beer and go home.

     

    ***

     

    PS: Shekhar Gupta is a below-average interviewer on TV. His show on NDTV is a downer. But this one I watched shell shocked. Dear Ekta, plunging necklines DON’T work on all women. In your case, it literally makes for a dirty picture. Avoid.

     

    http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/walk-the-talk/walk-the-talk-with-ekta-kapoor/217039?hp

  • Every week, Deepa Gahlot reviews the reviews that film critics subject us to in print and on the Web.

    Reviewing the Reviews: Desi Boyz

    By Deepa Gahlot

     

    David Dhawan’s son Rohit Dhawan makes his debut with a film about two London-based, recession-hit dudes who become male escorts with a peculiar (for that profession) no sex policy.  Yet, bevies of semi-dressed writhing babes pay good money just to see them… dance and in one instance, play cards.  Really!

     

    The film with its mild dose of amusement and full on hokey-ness got between one-and-a-half to four stars-and as it usually happens, the audiences don’t know what to make of it.

     

    DNA’s Soumyadipta Banerjee gives if two-and-a-half stars and writes, quite aptly, “This film is a nightmare for the thinking audience. People who are used to world cinema, parallel cinema or intellectual cinema will squirm in their seats as some of the critics did when we were watching a press show of the film. But they are not the audience this film is looking for.”

     

    Rajeev Masand of IBNLive calls it a generic, indifferent comedy. “‘Desi Boyz’ borrows scenes from ‘The Full Monty’, ‘Back To School’, and ‘Fight Club’ even, but at its heart it’s not very different from Sajid Khan’s similarly unremarkable ‘Heyy Babyy’. Akshay Kumar and John Abraham perform earnestly and get a few moments to shine, but the gorgeous Deepika Padukone gets none. The greatest disservice, however, is done to Chitrangada Singh. Clothed in fancy designer togs, buried under pancake, and saddled with a thankless part, the actress is robbed of her smoldering presence, and homogenized into the mould of a typical Bollywood starlet.”

     

    Surprisingly, Komal Nahta gives it a generous four stars and writes, “The best part of the screenplay is that it treats the subject of recession, break-up of friendship, heartbreak, and family drama in a light-hearted manner and keeps the audience entertained throughout.”

     

    His trade mag counterpart Taran Adarsh is uncharacteristicly harsh with two stars. “Desi Boyz is a lot of fun as the male protagonists take to pleasing their female clientele. The first hour, frankly, is akin to a roller coaster ride with lots of fascinating developments unfolding at a feverish pace. The best part is that a tinge of realism [economic crisis] has been injected to the plot, which makes the motives appear convincing on screen. In fact, it’s pretty evident that this is not a no-brainer rom-com. But it’s the second half that does a complete somersault.”

     

    Of course, three-and-a-half stars are expected from The Times Of India’s Nikhat Kazmi. She writes, “Desi Boyz goes beyond the fair sex. It makes everyone smile most of the while. The editing (Nitin Rokade) is seamless, bringing together the four principal actors’ individual charms into a collective space without crowding the canvas. To their credit every principal actor, and that includes Anupam Kher (playing Deepika Padukone’s zany dad) and Omi Vaidya (as her wimpy fiance) seems to get into the film’s vivacious frothy mood without letting the dark underbelly of the film be squandered in frivolity.”

     

    In Hindustan Times, Mayank Shekhar is unimpressed. “One unrelated song follows another. You wonder why producers don’t just release albums with starry music videos instead. Why bother with a willfully moronic movie attempting to string a soundtrack together. Songs survive. Films rarely do. Filmmakers themselves don’t care enough about the characters. Why should the audience, so what’s the point?”

     

    The Hindu’s Anuj Kumar writes, “The son of David Dhawan, who gave us some mindless comedies in the last decade before missing the trick, lives up to expectations. He has given us a sleek, upmarket version of what his father has been dishing out all these years. A cute orphan, a staple patriotic moment, a court-room climax and that at the end of the day, heroes can’t go morally wrong – it has all the chapters from Bollywood’s book of clichés but is packaged in the proverbial new bottle.”

     

    India Today’s Kaveree Bamzai’ gives it a zero rating and rants, “Two men become male escorts but because they’re good Indian boys they don’t do sex. Every supposed female fantasy of men dressed as Dhoni and Yuvraj, firefighters, Tom Cruise from Top Gun and police officers is addressed in a series of songs which see Akshay Kumar and John Abraham jiggle their pelvis and shake their butts. These are Bollywood superstars? Watch them behaving like porn stars, flaunting their chests and their lack of acting talent in an assault on sense and sensibility.”

     

    Shubhra Gupta goes with one star and sneers, “Dhawan Jr hasn’t learnt a lesson from Papa Dhawan on how to make you laugh in spite of you. He unleashes a Desi Boyz holding everything in spite. So a middle-aged star and another more than halfway there strip down and gyrate among equally underclothed women in song after song. The aforesaid Jerry (Kumar) and Nick (Abraham) are working as “male escorts”, you see, after recession took care of their jobs. Recession is a word that occurs most often in this film, followed closely by sex one way or the other. One of their rules, not surprisingly, is that they won’t sleep with these women. But then again, Jerry leaves a woman in the morning as she lovingly hands him a card saying “thanks for last night”.  Presumably he danced all night, around a bed?”

  • Lowe Lintas celebrates Tata Tea attempt to wake up India with the Soch Badlo campaign

    AdStrat: Tata Tea’s Soch Badlo

    The Campaign:  Tata Tea Soch Badlo campaign

    The Client: Tata Global Beverages Ltd.

    The Agency: Lowe Lintas

    The Brief:  On 25th anniversary of Tata Tea, we wanted to salute our nation and the woman who bought Tata Tea. But as luck would have it, we found our nation in the midst of many corruption related controversies. Scams coming out in the open and people responsible for them being put behind bars were having an adverse impact on the psyche of the nation. The masses were beginning to feel very negative. Negativity turned to frustrations as people took to the streets. Frustrations soon turned into scorn and sarcasm.

     

    Another one of our messages to fight corruption would just not have cut ice amidst this growing discontent. Yet another campaign crusading against corruption would get drowned in the already very shrill and negative sentiments around us. But it was our 25th anniversary. Something bold and new had to be done.

     

    Therefore, the new installment of our long running Jaago Re campaign does not just aim at awakening the nation, but also stresses that we think positively even as the nation is embroiled in many corruption related scams. After all, what good could we Indians see in all the scams that were coming out in the open?

     

    Any specific advisory from the client: Our previous Jaago Re campaigns had played their part in awakening the nation. The awakening was demonstrated by the open coverage and discussion on the various scams in the media and at an individual level. We knew that this open discussion was a good sign – the first step to solving a problem is to acknowledge that it exists. Instead of being swept under the carpet (as they had been so often in the past), issues were being discussed openly, and action was being taken against the guilty. However the man and woman on the street were simply overwhelmed by the number and scope of the scams, and focused on these instead of the bigger picture. We wanted to communicate that despite all the negativity caused by the scams, the impact they would have would be undeniably positive.

     

    Research insights: Consumers know and believe that anything worthwhile takes time and effort (e.g., in micro level matters like education, health, etc.). They however needed a strong parallel to connect it to macro issues around them – only then would they see the bigger picture.

     

    The thought process behind the creative: To focus on the cause (reduced tolerance towards lack of proper governance) and not the symptoms (increased coverage of scams in media and at an individual level)

     

    Media vehicles chosen: TVC, Print, Digital

     

    Key issues kept in mind while executing the ad: All this negativity needed to be reversed before it flowed deeper into our conscience. This was unconstructive and unflattering to a great nation like ours. This objective was squarely in the realms of our Jaago re campaign idea that had for long crusaded against corruption.

    Secondly, we needed to strengthen our connection with the woman who buys into our brand. We needed to portray her as a mature sensible and wise protagonist who is able to lift the shroud of negativity in our nation and clearly see that there was some good in it for all us. In the middle of uproar, hers had to emerge as the voice of reason.

    Thirdly, our nation’s aura had taken a bit of a beating. As a brand, we aimed at doing our bit at saluting the nation for all the other good things that were happening around us. Bruised as it was, we wanted to emphatically lend our moral support to our nation as it did battle against corruption.

     

    Does the treatment do justice to the brief?  Yes it does

     

    Differentiating factor: When tea wakes you up, Tata Tea awakens you.

     

    Market and client feedback and follow-ups: Initial reactions are extremely encouraging in the 3 weeks since campaign launch.

     

    Campaign credits

    Creative: R Balki, Amer Jaleel, Anaam Mishra

    Planning: Vikram Sathyanath, Gulshan Singh

    Account Management: GV Krishnan, Aejaz Khan, Rajiv Chatterjee, Kunal Madhavdas, Mainak Bag

    Production House: Chrome Pictures

    Director: Amit Sharma

  • If you think you've haven't had enough with the original, here are 9 variants of 'Why This Kolaveri' that's still a rage on You Tube and elsewhere.

    The Anchor: 9 variants of ‘Why This Kolaveri’ that have had YouTube afire!

    If you think you’ve haven’t had enough with the original, here are 9 variants of ‘Why This Kolaveri’ that are still a rage on You Tube and elsewhere.

     

    #1 First, the original in HD:

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR12Z8f1Dh8&feature=aso[/youtube]

    #2 Sharad Pawar slap version

     

    While we strongly condemn the attack on senior minister Sharad Pawar, what we have here is a variant that could well give the original a run for its money.

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIhQm6gcUCw&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

    #3 Gujarati Kolaveri

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEQ6N-rJmUA[/youtube]

    The Gujaratis on the social networks were particularly pleased that  their homegrown DJs and RJs came up with this static image verson:

     

    #4 Funny Kid

     

    We thought it wasn’t really funny, but judging by the ‘views’, this version too has had its followers

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoZivBhTNZ0&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

    #5 Female version

     

    Again, no great shakes, but yet again the song’s popularity is such that even a mediocre cover could get a reasonable following

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW6gSMXXtPY[/youtube]

    #6 Japanese dance

     

    You’ve got to see it to believe in what we said: anything with Kolaveri will get huge hits!

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfprwzgHDtE&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

    #7 Violin version

     

    Interesting version, but no great shakes.

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBdvjLDiT7o&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

    #8 Marathi Kolhapuri version

     

    The only reason why this makes it to this list is the bizarre heights people have been to in doing their Kolaveri versions

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_FjmF2K0cQ&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

    #9 Chipmunk Version

     

    Chipmunk versions are in, not just of Sheila Ki Jawani, but also Why This Kolaveri!

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvHMq1B_3Cc&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

    #10 Side step Mani

     

    Well, actually, you could be better off not viewing this.

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8uNjyxGgR4[/youtube]
    Nine-u variants-sa. Sa-sa-sa-saa. Not enough-u? Sorry, folks, after having watched so many of them, we couldn’t stop-u talking-u this way-u. Sob, sob!
  • That a journalist like Jigna Vora was arrested in the J Dey murder case brings us to a very sad pass, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Crime & Journalism

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The arrest of journalist Jigna Vora in the J Dey murder case is quite horrifying, anyway you look at it. That a journalist can be accused of instigating the underworld to kill another brings us to a very sad pass. While rumours of Vora’s involvement have been doing the rounds for a couple of months, the actual arrest itself is a shocker.

     

    It is pointless to speculate on guilt and innocence just yet and the media, which often takes arrests at face value initially and only asks questions later, has been very carefully following presumption of innocence route here. (If only it would do it at all times!)

     

    One thing is clear though: editors need to be more aware of what their crime reporters are up to and how far they push them to get a story. In 25 years in journalism and most of them in Mumbai, I cannot remember any crime story which invoked more than salacious reader interest. The best result might be the two very good movies made by director Ram Gopal Verma – Satya and Company. The close relationship between some journalists and the underworld is hardly an industry secret. Oswald Pereira’s novel, ‘Beyond the Newsroom’ should be a must-read for all young and budding crime reporters.

    The other problem here is the relationship between the police and reporters who often get carried away and see an arrest as surety of guilt – quite the opposite of the attitude in Vora’s case. It is another matter than so many accused get acquitted by the courts by lack of evidence. The media stands guilty on two counts here – one, for romanticising the underworld and two, for taking the police at face value.

    Young reporters are not to blame so much as their mentors are. The romantic idea of this all-powerful underworld which runs Mumbai is just that and it is far from the reality in today’s world. The days when Vardarajan Mudaliar, Haji Mastan, Karim Lala and later the Naiks, Dawood Ibrahim and so on ran Mumbai are long gone. Prohibition was lifted decades ago, smuggling was no longer as lucrative after liberalisation and after the slum rehab schemes started, land-grabbing was taken over by the state and the police. And as drug usage is (thankfully?) not as high in India as it could have been, we are still a conduit rather than a market profitable enough for the powerful South American cartels to get directly involved in. The famous underworld was reduced to normal criminal activities. There is no Al Capone like figure any more.

    But younger journalists, fed on the myths, get taken in. As editors themselves are getting younger, they get excited too. A little dip into history may not be a bad idea.

    As for the Vora and Dey case, it is curious and sad.

     

    **

     

    The slap received by Sharad Pawar led the media into some needless self-excoriation. Was it given too much importance? Did it blank out other important news? Should the media have followed the Katju directive and immediately focused on poverty and development issues instead? Blah blah blah.

    The fact is, the slap was news. And that is the job of the media: to give you the news. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves for being misunderstood, let us accept that we are the carriers of misery, sensation, death, depression and all the other strange, horrible and wonderful things that human beings do to each other and the world around us.

    Why get so defensive about it?

     

    **

    Talking of being defensive, Press Council chairman Markandey Katju’s piece trying to explain himself in today’s Times of India is quite amusing.

     

    eom

  • Tom Doctoroff, JWT North Asia Area Director, Greater China CEO / JWT Shanghai, speaks to MxMIndia in this video interview

    Need to focus on consistency: Tom Doctoroff, JWT

    [youtube width=”300″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qvtd5T__QI[/youtube]

    By Tuhina Anand

    Video by Shruti Pushkarna

    Tom Doctoroff is a JWT man who has worked with the agency across geography. Having started his advertising career at Leo Burnett in Chicago he later moved to JWT. In 1994, he moved to Hong Kong as Regional Business Director for clients such as Pepsi, Philip Morris/Kraft and Citibank and then in ’98 to China as the Managing Director of JWT Shanghai. In 2002, he was appointed Northeast Asia Area Director (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea) and Greater China CEO. In 2008, he also assumed leadership of JWT Japan. Mr Doctoroff has played a key role in the growth of JWT in North Asia.

     

    Q: How do you see JWT based in the scheme of things in Asia today?

    I think that we have a lot to be proud of. JWT has an extremely cohesive management structure where all our goals and values are aligned, and I’m particularly proud of our creative community which is probably one of the jewels of our global network out here in Asia Pacific. I think we’ve got people who are proud of their own output in their own countries. One thing that I’ve always liked about JWT is that we are not cultural imperialists. I’ve never felt for example that because I’m in China, even 13 years ago, that I am on the other side of the world. We have a company culture that does respect individual idiosyncrasies and that’s very important to avoid this hegemonistic-macho advertising ethos. So, I am proud of JWT. We’ve certain things that we could do better, like digital where we’ve been a little bit slow, but I think we are catching up now. We are trying to bring into the agency an ethos of the need for digital to reinforce brand ideas. As for India, JWT in India is a powerhouse and it has a lot to be proud of. And I’m sure that it will overcome some of the frustrations of the past year because everybody knows it needs to be done.

     

    Q: How do you see JWT China in terms of creativity, going ahead?

    If this doesn’t get broadcast in China I’d be happy because I don’t want to appear arrogant where I live, but I think we set the standards of creativity in China. Honestly, we have a very stable management team and a very stable creative leadership team, and what that means is that we create an environment of safe self-expression within the agency as a whole. So we usually are the ones that are doing the firsts, we won the first Cannes Grand Prix, yes it was for print but it still didn’t happen by chance; it’s because we have a belief of what creativity is and how people work together in the agency and in collaboration with people outside the agency, even outside of China to develop engagement platforms. So I am very proud of our creative leadership. People call us the ‘temple of advertising’ and I think that’s because we’ve been so stable for such a long time. I’m not saying we don’t have weaknesses but creatively speaking, I think if you ask around, we tend to define a high ground to a certain extent.

     

    Q: What are the two things that you would advise to people in the industry which they could follow to get more ROIs?

    As soon as you bring in the ROIs, you bring in a different question altogether. So before we get to ROI, I think that one needs to always focus on consistency. A consistent brand idea, a consistent engagement idea that is genuinely media-neutral. I think the danger is that as we experiment with new forms of technologically-enabled engagement, we forget about the primacy of an idea. And if you start your media plan without having that idea clearly understood by all, then you have chaos. One thing that is critical in new markets is order, in consistency, in clarity of ideas or else people will tune you out. Nobody wants to figure out how the internet or how the digital app or the landing environment connects to the TV ad. So consistency is always key, and that will always require a high degree of conceptual craftsmanship. And the second thing about digital is that all digital is not the same. There is certain digital that is relevant to campaigns, there is certain digital that is relevant for customer relationship marketing, there is certain digital that is more transactional at the point of purchase; some of those belong inside the agency and then the big question is how you make sure that the entire agency is digital, but having a digital core centre of expertise as a heartbeat within the agency with some of that for outside the agency. So agencies need to know who they are first and then build their digital strategy based on that.

     

    Q: Talent is an issue; how much of an issue is it and how do you tackle it?

    It’s an issue at the most senior level. I find that the biggest issue for talent is that many senior people – and this is in China, I don’t think it’s the same in India – there is an abstract nature of advertising which makes people feel insecure. Chinese people want to have a sense of control over their destiny and they revere the concrete, and so what we often find happening is that people in their desire for control either start leading dysfunctional agencies, their own small agencies or they leave the industry altogether. So what we need to do is find ways to make a long-term career in advertising seem safe. Part of that is financial and frankly in China it’s not a problem, because once you get to be senior in China as a local person, the pay is quite respectable. But the real issue is making sure that you are providing a platform for senior management to stand up and feel confident on, and that requires a lot of persuasion and a lot of coaching as people come up to the ranks. On the junior level or the mid-level, it’s really a question of liberating their creative potential and making them feel that when they will open their mouth, they will be saying something that’ll be appreciated; and that gets into corporate culture and how you have an environment of dangerous silence, safe self-expression where proactivity is truly rewarded in a meritocratic sense. So advertising has to be very meritocratic and that’s something that’s not always compatible with traditional Chinese culture. But we make it quite meritocratic, so our attrition rate is much lower than the industry average is.

     

    Q: What do you think of Indian advertising in recent times; how do you think it has improved?

    I have been working with India tangentially for 17 years so there’s been huge progress. I think the progress first came on the production level. The change started around 10 or 12 years ago. I just noticed the ads didn’t look that cheap, the production values were pretty high. And now when I take a look at Indian advertising, I think that it is strong. It is very culturally rooted which is fine, as long as that culture is not gimmicky and it comes from cultural insight as opposed to just a celebration of anything Indian. So I personally think that strategically Indian advertising is very strong, execution has become better. I just think that the unfortunate thing is because of its proud confidence in the Indian identity, it’s not as accessible to many people around the world but it’s good, it’s made much progress.