MxMIndia

Tag: Amit Ray

  • The media agency biggies joined Network Advertising as Executive Directors. Don't miss a conversation they had with Pradyuman Maheshwari, MxMIndia Founder and Editor-in-Chief

    MxM Live with Harish Shriyan & Amit Ray

    By A Correspondent

     

    Harish Shriyan
    Amit Ray

    Media agency captains Harish Shriyan and Amit Ray have a candid conversation with MxMIndia founder and editor-in-chief Pradyuman Maheshwari.

    Shriyan was until earlier this year, Group CEO of the Omnicom Media Group. Prior to that he held leadership positions in MediaCom and has managed the portfolios of global giants like Renault, Nissan, HP, Volkswagen, Beiersdorf, Vivo, Sony Pictures, Johnson & Johnson among others and Indian biggies like Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra, Arvind Mills and Parle Agro. Ray has headed media agency operations at Mudra and Lintas Media Group, among others and worked with multinationals like Unilever and Nestle and Indian corporations like ITC and Reliance Jio. He has been the longest-serving Chairman of the Technical Committee at the MRUC and is a specialist in measurement science. Watch. Enjoy. Like.

     

     

     

  • While Shriyan was until recently Group CEO of Omnicom Media Group, Ray has headed the media function at Mudra and been a specialist in media measurement

    Media seniors Harish Shriyan & Amit Ray join Network Advertising as Exec Directors

    By A Correspondent

     

    Harish Shriyan
    Amit Ray

    Media agency biggies Harish Shriyan and Amit Ray have joined Network Advertising as Executive Directors. Shriyan was until recently Group CEO of Omnicom Media Group and has played a pivotal role in establishing Omnicom Media Group in India. Ray has headed the media function in Mudra, worked with Lintas Media Group and advised corporate players like Reliance Jio and ITC. He is also a specialist in media measurement.

     

    Speaking about the appointments, Vinod Nair, Managing Director, Network Advertising said: “We feel fortunate to induct someone like Harish with such invaluable experience in running a large, multifaceted media company. Harish understands deeply what it takes to build organizations. His perspectives and values, both on business and people, match ours. This is a welcome addition to Network. On the other hand, Amit is very passionate when it comes to finding the optimum solution for clients. He has an extremely analytical mind, fantastic at spotting trends and decoding the stories behind numbers. Amit always dwells on what makes sense for the business first. That perspective is going to prove a precious asset in our forward journey. These inclusions create a powerhouse of talent within Network. They allow us to design customised solutions for clients, regardless of investment side. They help us to truly provide an integrated, well rounded approach, when it comes to helping client’s grow their business” said Vinod.

     

    Commenting on the new role, Shriyan added: “I am really looking forward to working in a truly Indian, completely independent agency; not limited in its capacity to do the right thing by global dictats. I aim to assist Network in growing to its true potential. I am also excited with the opportunity to work closely with brand strategy and creative teams because I feel this integration can truly provide a competitive edge to the client’s business. I have been impressed with the rigour in Network’s approach and am eager to add my effort and contribution.”

     

    Added Ray: “I was drawn by Network’s process of talking ‘business first’. Their holistic approach resonated with my beliefs. There was a feet-on-the-ground demeanor and a willingness to be utterly candid with the client. I have always believed in focusing on how the solution proposed works for the client at a business level, and at Network, I feel there has been a meeting of minds.”

     

     

  • An analysis of television ratings data by Team Network Media led by Amit Ray and Priya Jacob

    Chill! Times are bad, but it’s not doomsday yet!

    Doomsday Clock
    This is a typical image for the Doomsday Clock. In the Indian circumstance, as this article underscores, the clock isn’t ticking 🙂

     

    By Amit Ray, Priya Jacob and Team Network Media

     

    A. Breaking Morale in the name of Breaking News

    A lot of words get devalued by abuse, ‘Breaking News’ is one of them. What is very painful is to see even the sectoral journalism, the advertising and media sector to be precise is no exception. It is commonsense that in a lockdown like situation while TV consumption will go up, given that economy has been badly affected, the advertising volume will not go up proportionately. In fact it may actually decline. And this is vanilla truth and not rocket science, but bad news nevertheless.

     

    So what does the so-called media journalism do?
    It publishes a banner headline which sounds like doomsday: Breaking News: Corona impacts advertising badly 38% increase in viewership but 27% drop. Most people who can do simple arithmetic will read this as a 65% negative swing and most likely get depressed

     

    In the table below, Team Network Media has attempted to present the same data in a lesser depressing way, to tell you that please don’t treat every news headline as life vs. death battle. Rather search for the truth. And, honestly speaking, if this stimulates many to think and analyse the data in a less violent way, our job would be done

    a. In 203 Channels which account for 38% of the current week’s viewership, the advertising volume has grown by 61% on an average over the past week

    b. In 112 Channels which account for 25% of the current week’s viewership, the advertising volume has declined by 15% on an average over the past week

    c. In 253 Channels which account for 36% of the current week’s viewership, has declined by 55% on an average over the past week

     

    B. Some viewership highlights

    1. Viewership of Dangal, the No 1 channel in Wk9 drops by 18% and but the ad volume drop is far more severe at 80%

    2. Viewership of the sleeping giant DD grows by 7224% (yes 7224%) but the corresponding ad volume grows by 80% only. DD is now the new hero

    3. A close look at the Hindi GECs reveal that the all the frontline GECs such as Zee, Colors etc have lost the viewership while the second line GECs like Colors Rishtey, Zee Anmol and Sony Pal which are airing reruns of old favourite programme have grown in leaps and bounds. The main channels seem to be losing viewership since the audience could be moving to news and movie channels since there is no new content except reruns

    4. South Kids channels viewership has grown by 135%  except for Malayalam Kids channels which has hardly registered any growth in their viewership

     

    C. While on viewership and ad volume the team quickly looked at some No 1 Channels in their own language and Genre (Hindi & English) if the growth/decline across parameters like Reach, Engagement (Time spent/week in minutes), Overall GRP/GVT and finally the advertising volume (in seconds) to understand the situation affecting each in the same way. We don’t wish to bias you by our comment but will encourage the reader to form his/her own view. Most of us are used to looking at the end result hence we decided to share the changes only on parameters which lead to GRP rather than the GRP itself.

     

    Language Genre Reach Time Spent Ad Volume Channel
    Hindi Movies 18 49 -56 Sony Max
    Music 21 6 -62 Zing
    News 90 57 -16 Aajtak
    GEC 7 -23 -80 Dangal
    English Movies 84 36 -38 Star Movies
    News 84 66 31 Republic TV

     

     

  • The keynote speaker, Amit Ray, Founder Partner, Media First set the tone for the discussions of the day by delving into the current trends in the industry

    Experts discuss the Future Media Landscape at Media Management Conclave by SIMC, Pune

    By A Correspondent

     

    Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication (PG), Pune hosted its annual Media Management Conclave on September 6, 2015. A part of the ‘Inspire Series,’ which is a series of lectures and events that celebrate the completion of 25 glorious years of academic excellence at SIMC, this event brought together some of the finest minds of the industry to discuss the theme ‘Navigating the Future Media Landscape.’

     

    The speakers comprised eminent industry experts like Tanmay Mohanty, MD, Performics, Resultrix, Anil Fernandes, Associate Publisher, India Today, Atrayee Chakraborty, Managing CP Media Business, RedFuse Communications, MEC, Paritosh Joshi, Board of Governors, Media Research Users Council (MRUC), Ankit Desai, Head of Media & Digital Marketing, Marico India, Romil Ramgarhia, Chief Business Officer, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), Mallikarjun Das, CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group, and Vanita Keswani, COO, Madison Media Sigma.

     

    The keynote speaker, Amit Ray, Founder Partner, Media First set the tone for the discussions of the day by delving into the current trends in the industry. The pervasive nature of digital and the growing power of the mobile phone emerged as some of the key insights from his talk. “There is a lot of work happening on mobile, which will make it the next big thing for advertising.” Elaborating on the importance of brands he said, “Today, brands are deciding the enterprise’s wealth. You (students) are here to support the creation of brands, because it is brands who create value”

     

    This interaction with the students was followed by the first panel discussion which included personalities such as Tanmay Mohanty, Anil Fernandes, and Atrayee Chakraborty. This panel deliberated on the topic ‘Drivers of Growth for Media Businesses.’ Building upon the trend highlighted by Amit Ray in his speech, Anil Fernandes said, “Digital is going to be the key driver of change as it reshapes the consumer’s purchase journey, and it will be aided by content and context.” Taking this discussion further, Atrayee Chakraborty said, “Create, optimize, promote, measure and analyze the content”. Based on her observation of the current consumer, Atrayee put forth a very interesting take on digital, “I do not consider digital to be a media. It is a behaviour.”

     

    Tanmay Mohanty spoke about the changing platforms for reaching consumers. Emphasising it further, he said, “Tech companies are investing big time in understanding the consumer journey and behaviour.” Shedding light on the synergy between media and content, Anil Fernandes said, “Content is king. If media owners understand the relationship of their content with the media, they will definitely inch closer to change and growth.”

     

    This first panel was followed by a showcase wherein the second year MBA students from the Media Management cohort devised a ‘Tool Innovation’ for media agencies that could help them serve clients better. This showcase witnessed five teams presenting their creations before a panel of judges, comprising Romil Ramgarhia, Paritosh Joshi and Ankit Desai. These innovative ideas ranged from an influencer measurement tool, to testing the ability of content to go viral, as well as measurement of multiple screen usage. The winning team brought before the judges a tool that could comprehensively measure OOH advertising using GPS-enabled technology, while a team that created an application to digitally track radio listenership came a close second.

     

    Steering the discussion to one of the most important phenomena in the industry today, the second panel brought together experts such as Paritosh Joshi, Ankit Desai, Romil Ramgarhia and Mallikarjun Das to discuss the topic, ‘The New face of Media Research & Analytics.’ Paritosh Joshi opened the floor for the second panel discussion by emphasizing the importance of understanding one’s audience. “It is not enough to know who my audience is, but also why my audience is what it is.”

     

    The panel deliberated extensively on the adequate and efficient usage of data by media.  “There’s a conflict between the mental model and the mathematical model. This is the conflict that all media planners face. Out of the 35-40,000 crore industry that we have, 55% is driven by gut feel.The same people who are willing to use gut feel for television, suddenly want nuclear-physics-level mathematics for digital,” said Mallikarjun Das The panelists unanimously voted for a platform-agnostic audience measurement tool to overcome the ‘tyranny of relative error’ as stated by Mallikarjun Das.

     

    After the engaging conversation moderated by Mr Joshi, the conclave continued into the final panel discussion, that explored the topic ‘Talent Management: Changing Roles and Skillsets.’ The panelists included Mallikarjun Das and Vanita Keswani. On being asked for her views on the requirement of talent in the industry today, Vanita expressed, “We recommend the freshers to have an understanding of the basics of digital. Training of a structured kind is important, but on-the-job training is what you need in media. Today, a lot of what you’re learning here at SIMC and your internships is great.” In addition to this, Mallikarjun Das pointed out that future media professionals must ideally be planners, with a deep understanding of the industry, in order to bridge the gaps. He stressed on the fact that if students are trained in the worldview of media, they will be ready to work from day one.

     

    The event lent the students a fresh perspective of the media management industry. The aspiring media managers had an opportunity to understand the multiple facets of this dynamic industry that would be instrumental in their careers.

     

  • A Q&A with the former MRUC TechCom chair + Comment: Worries for broadcasters, when publishers hailed IRS, likely outcome of INS-MRUC meeting

    Don’t reject new IRS, correct it: Amit Ray

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sometime in the afternoon today (Feb 3), the Indian Newspaper Society is meeting the top brass of the Media Research Users Council for a discussion on the new Indian Readers Suvey findings . On Friday, 18-odd publishers issued a joint statement. The basic message: “We, the leading newspapers of the country, condemn the newly published Indian Readership Survey (IRS 2013) in the strongest possible terms.  The survey is riddled with shocking anomalies, which defy logic and common sense. They also grossly contradict audited circulation figures (ABC), of long standing. We also strongly ask RSCI and MRUC, the conductors of the Indian Readership Survey, to withdraw the results of IRS Q4 2013 immediately and  as well as put a stop to all future editions of this survey, as their continued publication will cause irreparable injury to the reputation of established publications like ours.”

     

    According to the information available to MxMIndia, a senior INS officebearer wrote to the MRUC saying that members of the apex body of newspaper publishers will pull their subscriptions if the new IRS findings weren’t disbanded.”

     

    The print media ecosystem is divided on what should be done with the new IRS. While many publishers have damned the findings and pushing for it to be dumped in the scrapyard, there are a fair number of media agency professionals and advertisers who believe that the media research findings must be honoured.

     

     

    MxMIndia Comment: Post IRS, worries for broadcasters * When publishers hailed IRS * Likely outcome of INS-MRUC meeting

    By A Correspondent

     

    Guess who should be most worried after the IRS 2013 survey findings that were out last week? The entire broadcast ecosystem of course, especially the folks at BARC. While the monsieurs at tech vendor Mediametrie and the yet-unappointed panel manager may mouth a few ouis, nons or whatever, the knives and suparis will surely be out if there’s any dramatic changes from the present.

     

    Let’s look at a few hypothetical scenarios.

    Scenario 1: Sony is Hindi GEC #1, ratings of the #1 GECs drops 100 GRPs

    Scenario 2: India News turns #1. The current leaders fall by the wayside

    Scenario 3: In Tamil, Pudhu Yugam becomes GEC #1

     

    These are of course just scenarios, but if the results of the IRS 2013 out last week are an indicator, they aren’t impossible to happen. It’s going to be a change of methodology, a change of vendor (possibly not fully if TAM is selected as panel manager), a change of philosophy and an all-new Technical Committee ensuring the processes are followed and the system is robust. And above all: BARC with a chairman from the industry, a CEO and his secretariat and a techcom that has reps of a broadcaster, media agency and advertiser.

     

    The problem, as many industrypersons told us, is not the process, but in the final numbers. These are after all IRS survey. As in the case of BARC, even the IRS saw representatives of all stakeholders actively participating in the processes.

     

    In fact on the day the IRS was launched in Mumbai in March 2013, Peter Suresh, the much respect research head (Head-Strategy) at the Dainik Bhaskar told MxMIndia:  “The entire process is automated, and that is incredible. Attempt to report individually on a far larger number of geographical units is also very heartening. District cut too has increased - hence the data can be analyzed at a far more granular level. Bulk of action of late has been in rest of India, beyond six metros and hence granular cut is extremely important. Data slicing at a deeper level, and multiple ways of presenting it, make far more sense. Readership numbers are the cornerstones of most media marketing and sales strategies - and the finer they can be cut, the more robust they are. And, of course, these will help in delivering better stories to the marketers.”

     

    Dainik Bhaskar is one of the signatories of the statement issued on Friday against the IRS. Interestingly, a day after the IRS was released - on January 29, to be precise -several newspapers front-paged their successful showing in the readership study. These include some of the signatories to the statement.

     

    The meeting between the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) and the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) at 2/2.30pm today is most likely going to end in a stalemate. It may be remembered the RSCI was formed by the MRUC and INS-sponsored National Readership Studies Council to govern  the new IRS. So the buck is clearly in the RSCI court. For the INS to damn the IRS is tough because its members had endorsed the process.

     

    The MRUC is being represented by Chairman Ravi Rao, TechCom chaiman Paritosh Joshi and Director General Shaswati Saradar. At the time of writing, one is not aware of who will represent the INS. But Hormasji Cama, a former head of the INS and MRUC and now chairperson of the RSCI, is travelling, the decision will need to be finally taken by him.

     

    According to the grapevine, the MRUC/RSCI has already written to Nielsen, asking the research agency to clear a few doubts. It’s possible that the new IRS findings will be put under suspension for a few weeks until the clarifications come in and Mr Cama is back.

     

    MxMIndia spoke with veteran media professional and former chairman of the MRUC Technical Committee Amit Ray for his views and to suggest the way forward of the mess.

     

    1. Is there really any anomaly as it is being made out to be? And if yes, why has it happened?

    a. There appears to be a lack of experience in the current dispensation vis-à-vis readership research. Instead of letting go of the previous experienced professionals, MRUC and RSCI should have engaged them more significantly given that the task was assigned to the same research agency that had failed earlier. If you remember, AC Nielsen was the agency which did the NRS in the past.

     

    b. The questions that are now rightly being asked are: Was Nielsen the right agency? Does it have the requisite experience for newspaper readership study in India? Did we forget that NRS had failed thanks to the same agency?

     

    c. I strongly believe that publishers ought to have got their own experts to validate Nielsen’s methods and later the results. How can the publishers let a body like new MRUC decide about their future knowing fully well that the real pillar of the earlier IRS was the research agency and the techcom together?

     

    d. One of the reasons why the print media rejected the NRS and opted for MRUC’s IRS was the concept of ‘continuous research’. So why was this junked overnight? It is very likely that the current people will defend this by asking for more time. This time the publisher would do well to have their own team of experts with experience and not just blindly trust the experience (or the lack of it) of the current technical committee and the research agency.

     

    e. Everyone inside MRUC would’ve known about what has happened historically. Even MRUC had a problem in the past when circumstances forced MRUC to choose a new agency NFO. This was the around 2000/2001. If my memory serves me right the new Agency took almost 3 years to complete the research. May be the current office bearers were not aware of this

     

    2. What are the next steps? Scrap IRS?

    a. Rejecting the new IRS will be a regressive decision. Instead of rejecting it, we should look at correcting it. If we reject it, we will be starved of another 15-18 months of data which will be counter-productive to publishers.

     

    b. Call the people from the earlier MRUC technical committee especially those who took it to another level because of which the INS agreed to team up with the MRUC. May be a good idea to urge the veteran Roda Mehta who set up the IRS to intervene and suggest changes. I will be happy to help too and possibly pull in a few others.

     

    c. Ask AC Nielsen to allow a detailed audit of their actual work. Invite some of the senior folks at Hansa Research Group to come in as professionals – and not representing Hansa – to offer their advice. They are clearly best suited to find the soft spots where mistakes are committed so that we don’t repeat them

     

    3. Both RSCI and MRUC are part-sponsored by print publishers. The officebearers of both bodies have publisher representatives. So is it right for the INS to now play Big Brother to decisions taken by its own members?

    For the sake of the industry and the entire print media sector, it’s important that IRS 2013 is salvaged. As I stated earlier, publishers will suffer the most if it’s scrapped. Media studies like that of KPMG, PwC etc make sectoral assumptions and projections based on these. I believe the entire sector shouldn’t suffer because of the mistakes of some.