Senior marketer and until recently head of the media vertical at all business units of Bharti Airtel, Arun Sharma has moved to IPG Mediabrands as Vice President.
Confirming that Mr Sharma had joined the leading media agency conglomerate on Monday in New Delhi. Shashi Sinha, CEO of IPG Mediabrands, said that he will be working on a group role. “Arun has been at senior positions in the industry and we are glad to have him on board,† Mr Sinha said.
A member of various industry bodies, Mr Sharma has a career spanning across 17 years, the last decade of which was spent with Airtel and before that with the IPG Mediabrands group for six-and-a-half years. “It’s a homecoming of sorts for me,† Mr Sharma said while adding that he is looking forward to the new responsibilities at IPG.
The private sector Yes Bank has inked a multi-year deal with the Hockey India League (HIL) commencing with the 2014 season.
Announcing the deal, HIL Chairman, Dr Narinder Batra, said: “HIL had a terrific start last year and we are certain with YES BANK on board, it will benefit both the League and our millions of followers around the world.” The other brand partners that HIL has are Hero MotoCorp and Airtel.
Said Rana Kapoor, Managing Director & CEO, Yes Bankj: “We are extremely pleased to associate with the Hockey India League. Through our dedicated sports banking proposition, we are also committed to provide a robust financial infrastructure to support sports through customised banking solutions for various hockey associations, teams as well as players.”
In the inaugural season, 70 top domestic players including the Indian national side as well as 50 international players who are part of the national squads of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Netherlands, Germany, Malaysia, Spain, and Argentina played for the five franchise teams.
Good fun TV campaign from Airtel. Totally single-minded and very entertaining. It’s a simple little promise: Videos on the mobile for just one buck. What I like about the ads (I have watched three, all very cool) is that they concentrate only on the one rupee per video offer, and yet keep the laughs going.
In one ad, a cab driver doesn’t have one rupee change. Our dude, the passenger, won’t let the buck go, and demands that the cabbie give him the money. The smart cabbie plays a song on his mobile, which he has got hold of from Airtel for just, yes, one rupee. The other two commercials are equally funny. A tapori with his one rupee coin stuck inside a weighing machine. And a control freak mom with her one rupee ‘shagun’.
The real strength of this campaign, apart from the sharp focus, lies in the casting and the dialogues. Superb choice of models, they look the sort of folks who would get mighty angsty over one rupee. This is a good lesson for all creative people, on how careful casting can lift a commercial big-time. The copywriter has done a good job too, these are conversations from real life. In fact, I know such maha stingy people, plenty of them, trust my rotten luck!
Rating: (On a scale of 1-5): 3.5 Fun communication for a mundane promise.
Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. He is also Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views of the writer are his own.
While Airtel has been making the right noise with its ‘Jo Tera Hai, Woh Mera Hai’ campaign, is it moving towards saturation? Arun Sharma, Vice President Marketing, Head Media & Rural at Bharti Airtel Limited, speaks to MxMIndia about this and other issues.
01. Is the ‘Jo Tera Hai, Wo Mera Hai’ not reaching a point of saturation, though it remains the clutter-breaking communication from Airtel?
No, I do not think so. The whole campaign is only a few months old. The campaign is around the theme of friendship and there are different renditions of it. So when ‘Har friend zaroori hai’ campaign was ongoing, we actually cut it short even when it was early to do that. The ‘friendship’ theme will remain, but every year or so we will bring out new renditions so that there is no boredom.
02. Digital’s role in the media pie for Airtel is increasing. How is it leading to innovation in advertising on this medium?
Digital and creativity or innovation are synonymous for me. I do not see any difference. Digital, however, is not a linear medium; people have the control of skipping your ad at any point of time. Hence, creative is very inherent to this medium. The medium, with technology seeping in, allows you to do so many things, which is not the case with so many other media. Attention span here is less when compared to others such as outdoor or television.
03. Digital ROI: Much appreciated yet criticized. What do you think?
ROI is getting measured. We are in the eCommerce platform and can actually track our ROI to the last decimal. But it so happens that the more the data is re-routable, the more you want. More questions are raised when there is data. In terms of outdoor, there is no data but no questions are raised. I believe the problem is the part of the solution and vice versa.
04. Which is showing more digital growth penetration: Rural or Urban?
Rural.
05. Going forward, what can be expected from Airtel on the digital platform?
It’s too early to say. But whatever we do, it will be core to the brand idea and it will be available to those audiences. What we do has to be relevant to their language, to their needs and for the devices they have. For instance, in rural areas we cannot create communication on smartphones because there the device penetration is different.
Since consumers are already exposed to various anti-virus options for their smartphones McAfee joined hands with Airtel to promote their mobile security application, with the challenge being to create an acceptance for McAfee Mobile Security.
For this, Realm Media, an integrated media agency of the Indraksh Group, strategized, designed and executed a three-day out-of-home activation programme at the Airtel Campus in Gurgaon. The objective was to create a buzz for the launch of McAfee’s Mobile Security Application with basic features for all Airtel subscribers with smartphones.
Savio A
Savio A, Sr Manager, Client Servicing, Realm Media Solutions Private Limited; said, “For this campaign Realm created the ‘smart protection for your smartphone’ concept which was promoted using a BTL + Digital approach. From designing of the creatives to strategizing & executing the entire plan we worked closely with both brands to ensure that the launch not only creates an impact from a brand perspective however also generates an amplified brand recall. We launched our show stealer ‘Coot Coot’ the latest YouTube sensation and the face of the campaign who is smart, cool, friendly, fun-loving, confident, happy and free from worries because he always feels protected, whether he is on the go or in whatever he does. We encourage people to see this MMS mascot as their ‘new best friend’ in whose company they will always feel secure & protected.”
Krishita Motwani
Krishita Motwani, Marketing Manager-India, Consumer Mobile Small Business Division, McAfee, said, “Having worked with Realm in the past and knowing the passion and commitment they bring to the table, they were our preferred agency. Realm Media functions more like an extended arm of our marketing team. They understood our tonality and got their plan in action for the activation, which was a success and garnered us the expected ROI.”
Yuvraj Agarwal
Yuvraj Agarwal, Co-Founder and Group CEO, Indraksh Media & Realm Media Solutions Pvt Limited, said, “Today clients are constantly striving to use innovative ways of engaging with the TG. With Krishita’s support and guidance, the team at Realm worked tirelessly to create an out of the world experience that actively brought the brand message to life and allowed the TG to have a lasting impression. Coot-Coot as a concept is absolutely great and can be carried forward in an engaging manner and successfully used across media platforms.”
Vserv.mobi, a global mobile advertising network, has launched AudiencePro that boasts of being first-of-its kind platform that presents a game changing opportunity for the entire mobile ecosystem, including Telecom providers, Advertisers, Publishers & App Developers. This launch makes Vserv.mobi the first Mobile Ad Network in the world to roll out an offering that combines its scale & audience, with telcos, to offer unprecedented audience targeting opportunities to advertisers.
The Vserv.mobi AudiencePro platform allows advertisers targeting based on demographics, spending power, network usage, location, content relevance and device specific data, to reach the right audience. The AudiencePro platform will allow advertisers to reach mobile subscribers with highly relevant ads, displayed on multiple inventory sources across the Vserv.mobi network, including 20,000+ Apps powered by its AppWrapper technology, enabling targeted advertising at a massive scale. The platform will include support for all creative formats, including rich media formats such as Full Screen Ads, Video and HTLM5 interactive ads.
As part of the launch, the company also announced that it has signed up Airtel as its first telco partner for this revolutionary platform. Dippak Khurana, CEO & Co-Founder, Vserv.mobi said, “AudiencePro is the world’s first platform that brings together the power of mobile ad networks with credible user data from telcos, to enable unprecedented levels of audience targeting for advertisers. After the revolutionary AppWrapper monetization platform, this is our second game changing technology, that will unlock tremendous value across the entire mobile ecosystem. Given our understanding and presence across emerging markets, we are already working towards rolling out the AudiencePro platform with partners across the globe.”
The company has also confirmed that its AppWrapper platform has become more powerful and will now enable premium AudiencePro ads in the same one-click approach. The AudiencePro platform will also benefit mobile internet users, who will get relevant ads aligned with their consumption needs. As a global company, Vserv.mobi upholds high standards of user privacy, and will offer consumers the flexibility to opt out of these targeted AudiencePro ads completely.
Rohit Verma, VP, Telecom, Vserv.mobi, said, “Telcos, especially in emerging markets, have been looking for Mobile Advertising opportunities in today’s ‘app’ified world, and advertisers are always seeking richer audience profile insights, thus the AudiencePro platform provides a powerful solution to both these challenges, while delivering higher monetization to our publisher and developer partners. AudiencePro offers telcos a unique innovative approach to mobile advertising and help move forward the mobile ecosystem.”
Indian music service Saavn has announced the launch of its new advertisement platform, Impact. This platform enables brands to identify, connect and engage with its 10.5 million users in India and across the globe.
Impact is an innovative approach to digital and mobile advertising that gives brands 100 percent share-of-voice. Using Impact, brands get complete and exclusive access to all advertisement units on the Saavn web site and mobile apps for a set time period. These include Custom Skin, Web Display, Web Audio, Mobile Spotlight, Mobile Display, and Mobile Audio. Impact is a powerful model that allows brands to build positive associations with their products and services through music. The model has proven to create strong brand awareness, shape brand preferences and increase purchase consideration through undivided mindshare of listeners of Saavn across platforms.
“In India, we all know that music plays an integral and meaningful part in every individual’s life. Impact is a powerful solution that enables the advertisers to build an emotional connection with their target audience during a passionate, social and engaging musical experience,” Vinodh Bhat, co-founder and CEO of Saavn, said. “The Saavn Impact model is based around engagement, curation and social sharing rather than the archaic click-through. Brands are able to measure ROI in meaningful ways, such as increases in perception, awareness, recall and purchase intent. The byproduct of our strong focus on the consumer experience is helping brands grow their businesses.”
Some of the major brands utilizing Saavn to reach million of engaged users in India include: Samsung, Lay’s, Pantene, Pepsi, Nokia, Vodafone, Airtel, Hyundai, Domino’s Pizza, 7Up, Nielsen, MakeMyTrip, Max NewYork Life, Google Plus, Nokia, Vanish, Groupon, Intel and several others.
Saavn delivers a comprehensive catalogue of Bollywood, Indian and regional South Asian music, licensed from more than 200 content providers. Saavn users can search, browse, and play a catalog of more than 1 million tracks; create and save their own playlists; and share their music tastes seamlessly via Facebook.
Bindass is all set to introduce its brand new daily show – Video Wars powered by Airtel. For the first time on television Bindass is introducing an entirely new format that provides the contestants a big ticket to fame! With Video Wars, each of the contestants will be able to maintain a video dairy of their best candid moments… So it’s time to blog more and rest less with Video Wars, tapping the young and restless the show offers a sneak peek into the lives of five Young, Restless and bindass individuals!
Expressing their thoughts on television, these funny, crazy youngsters will video blog their way into your television screens. The show will center around the lives of these individuals with a day-to-day video blog shot by themselves of the ‘happenings’ in their lives! These 5 contestants that will compete with each other to entertain you, and only if they succeed in holding your attention will they get to stay on show. The cards are in your hands as viewers! Jo tikega, wo jeetega!
Every week, the least popular contestant will be voted off. The voting will happen across social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Viewers will get an opportunity to eliminate these individuals if their entertainment quotient lowers. The popularity of the contestant on the social media space and through the missed calls mechanism will determine the fate of each contestant on a weekly basis. The more number of ‘likes’, chances are that the contestant gets to stay longer. Whoever manages to stay the longest will win the ultimate battle of fame!
Commenting on the new show, Nikhil Gandhi, Executive Director, Youth Channels, Media Networks Disney UTV, said “We are bringing User Generated Content to life on television for the first time in India. The show empowers the youth to showcase their talent and an opportunity to become famous as the most popular Video Star. This is a daily show format which will be extended online for viewers to interact with their favourite characters as they battle through their daily lives. This is the first daily reality show in the youth space.”
The new Airtel ad may seem a little inspired from the original and hence not as refreshing, but it has caught on with the youth, and guess that’s what matters.
Woman power at its best… in fact it may want you to sock those men where it hurts most. (Pssst: now would you really do what the women did if you were in your finery?)
Japanese advertising behemoth Dentsu has acquired a 51% stake in Taproot, arguably the most creative among the Indian independent advertising agencies.
Taproot's Agnello Dias (left) and Santosh Padhi (right) with Rohit Ohri of Dentsu (centre)
With several of the most popular recent campaigns like ‘Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hai’ and ‘Joh Tera Hai Woh Mera Hai’ for Airtel and ‘Change the Game’ for Pepsi under its belt, the five year old agency has seen a meteoric rise. It’s also won critical acclaim; the most recent being a Gold Lion at Cannes along with Ramesh Deo Productions for the ‘I Am Mumbai’ film for Mumbai Mirror, a newspaper from the Times Group, which also publishes The Economic Time
The managements at both Dentsu and Taproot declined to discuss the financial aspects of the arrangement. Industry observers estimate the initial upfront payout at Rs 60 crore with another Rs 80 crore expected in future earn-outs
In a global deal in July, Dentsu had paid $4.9 billion for British media buying group Aegis, valuing the company at 12 times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortisation.
The Economic Times had reported in June that Dentsu among other agency groups was speaking to Taproot about a possible acquisition. Says Rohit Ohri, executive chairman, Dentsu India group, who has previously worked with one of Taproot’s founders Agnello Dias at JWT: “They (Taproot’s co-founders & chief creative officers, Dias and Santosh Padhi) could have chosen anyone. What convinced them about Dentsu is that we are very entrepreneurial and evolving; and more willing to look at out of the box ways of working.”
Adds Dias: “We felt it was the right thing to do. Of all the conversations we had, we felt most comfortable with the equation we were sharing with Dentsu. Another reason cited is Dentsu’s global strengths in the digital medium and that it is currently the leading network in Asia.
Taproot will retain its identity and won’t be rebranded. Although Dentsu is a majority owner, management control of the agency continues to rest with Dias and Padhi. Dias says, “In terms of changes, there’s nothing in the pipeline. I think even Dentsu is saying ‘why should we upset a system that’s doing so well’?”
What the arrangement brings Taproot is integrated communication, superior execution abilities and a national network. As far as Dentsu is concerned, Taproot, says Ohri, “is really the creative firepower we needed in the group.” However, the firepower is not likely to be immediately applied to any of Dentsu’s current client relationships.
Both partners believe that Taproot will step in only when needed “on a case by case basis” according to Padhi. Interestingly enough, two of Taproot’s most productive client relationships have been with Airtel and Pepsi, brands that Ohri worked on in a previous stint at JWT. Ohri regards this as “a great bonus”, but he cites the talent of the two principals at Taproot and the chemistry with senior management at Dentsu as the main reasons for the merger.
Among a spate of recently launched creative-led independent agencies which include Creativeland Asia and Scarecrow Communications, Taproot has arguably been the most successful with several marquee campaigns to its name for Airtel, Pepsi and The Times Group.
The agency was founded in 2008 when Dias (then national creative director at JWT) decided to join forces with former colleague Santosh Padhi (executive creative director at Leo Burnett at the time). The 33 person strong agency has been particularly successful in wresting business from Dias’ former employer JWT, landing prestigious assignments from Pepsi and Airtel.
This time I think Airtel has hit a miss: the “what’s mine is yours or what’s yours is mine or what’s mine is mine song” makes you reach for the mute button on your remote. I suppose all good things have to come to an end and Airtel did pretty well with its earlier songs about friendship and sharing. It is testament to good advertising that while I do not actually remember the songs, I do remember them as being listenable.
The grouchy old man as in Ranbir Kapoor for Tata Docomo has outrun its usefulness and is starting to grate. Sooner rather than later, their own customers are going to start thinking about how they’ve kept waiting on the phone, how the service slows down at the wrong time usually and the difficulty of trying to get a human on the line when you have a complaint…
Most people are now feeling the same way about Anushka Sharma, especially her of the Reliance 3G ad. Most feel that she’s too nasty. I feel the worst she can be accused of is grossly exaggerating Reliance’s service. I know it’s a script but perhaps Reliance (or its ad agency) might remember that people are not quite that stupid all the time. Speaking of which, why doesn’t that boyfriend just switch to the same service and end her smart-aleckyness? Maybe he likes her just the way she is? He seems to be a tolerant chap with a sense of humour. Or perhaps his service doesn’t have goons masquerading as bill collectors?
Car buyers although must be quite silly because the “caaaaaaaaar” ad is back. Nissan Sunny is it? I have only one question: whhhhhhyyyyyy? But then I remember the brand so maybe the brand has won but then if I ever buy a car it won’t be this one for sure because I don’t want to sound like a prime twit as I say, “Driver, caaaaaaaaaar le ke aana” to a lift full of strangers. At the very least, I would know the name of my own driver.
If I had to buy a car, it would be a Renault Fluence not because I like it or I know anything about cars but just so I could shut up my show-offy upstart host with his horrible American accent and his skin-crawl-worthy bragging about his things.
The winner of the ads I don’t understand category came in this morning papers (and not on television oddly enough) with Blackberry saying an asterisk had something to do with action. I’m not a Blackberry boy (or girl) and I have some other idea about the usefulness of asterisks, so I was at a complete loss. The ad ran over two pages but more space does not always aid comprehension.
Finally, I now firmly believe that the most irritating song of all is the inspirational one from Hero MotoCorp. All this hysterical urging of India to go has led to all the Indians coming back empty-handed from the Olympics. Trying to make money and tempting fate at the same time? All that you get is bad Karma!
Vikas Sharma has joined Mogae Media as head of Solutioning & Integration. “Mogae are trying out many new interesting things. The place is bursting with ideas and energy. I am glad to be part of this young-and-on-the-go organization,” said Mr Sharma.
“Mogae is looking at various opportunities in the digital and mobile ecosystems where Vikas’ experience will help us create solutions for clients and their brands,” said Tanya Goyal, welcoming Mr Sharma to Mogae.
Mr Sharma has experience in Information Technology across telecom and IT industries. Through the years, he has taken on additional and varied IT roles & responsibilities.
Prior to his current assignment, Mr Sharma was the VP Sales & Operations with Cocktail Mobile Technologys. Additionally he headed Cocktail’s IT operations and Technical Integration with service providers, as also B2C application innovation groups. He was part of the core team that developed strategic IT outsourcing deals with telecom operators.
Mogae Media is Airtel’s sole and exclusive partner for mAdvertising. The company was started in October 2011 by Sandeep & Tanya Goyal, erstwhile partners of Dentsu in India.
By Anil Thakraney
Indian music service Saavn has announced the launch of its new advertisement platform, Impact. This platform enables brands to identify, connect and engage with its 10.5 million users in India and across the globe.
By Ranjona Banerji
Vikas Sharma has joined Mogae Media as head of Solutioning & Integration. “Mogae are trying out many new interesting things. The place is bursting with ideas and energy. I am glad to be part of this young-and-on-the-go organization,” said Mr Sharma.