Coca-Cola has retained its media mandate for India with LodestarUM. The IPG Media brands flagship media agency has been working on the cola giant since 2010. That the media AOR was on a pitch was well-known with five agencies in the running for the business.
According to reports received, other than Lodestar UM, GroupM, Madison, Starcom and Dentsu were active in the pitch. In the final decision-making GroupM, Madison and Lodestar UM were in the fray.
The account is being spearheaded by Anamika Mehta, CEO, Global Clients at IPG Mediabrands and according to industry estimate is estimated to have a size of Rs 350-400crore.
Media agency major IPG Mediabrands has dressed up its top deck with three elevations. Nandini Dias, till now COO, Lodestar UM, will now lead the agency as its CEO and will be based in Mumbai. New Delhi-based Anamika Mehta, the second COO of Lodestar UM, is the new CEO of Initiative. Amar Deep Singh has been elevated to the post of CEO, MAP (short for Mediabrands Audience Platform), comprising Reprise and Interactive Avenues. He was, till now, CEO of Interactive Avenues. With this announcement, the four entities of IPG Mediabrands in India have independent chief executives. The fourth arm – Business Programming Network or BPN has Suresh Balakrishna as CEO.
Said a visibly elated Shashi Sinha, “When I became CEO of IPG Mediabrands, it was decided that for the first six months I would double act, as the CEO of IPG as well as Lodestar. In Initiative while we had senior level resources there was no CEO. Though we have made announcement of our CEOs now, they have been running the organisations for quite some time now.”
IPG Mediabrands formally entered India in March 2012. Media agencies Lodestar UM, Initiative, BPN, Reprise, Interactive Avenues, Magna Intelligence and the outdoor business are part of the global media agency conglomerate. Sinha took the responsibility of the CEO of the holding company in October last year.
Nandini Dias:Â volume and intensity of external demands will increase manifold
On how it feels to be elevated to the role of CEO:
It’s a proud moment for me. It is not very often that a person remains steady in one organisation and moves up the rank right to the top. I joined the organization 18 years back and never imagined one day I would head it. Since I have always felt tremendous loyalty for the firm and share great camaraderie with my colleagues, it looks like an exciting prospect.
On the new responsibilities:
As a COO, I was focused on the internal operations and the day-to-day business needs. With the CEO role, I am aware that the volume and intensity of external demands will increase manifold. Whether it is international, industry groups, or as a brand ambassador of the agency, the interaction with the outside community will contribute to a large part of my responsibilities. I will have to be able to manage the dual roles of being both inside- and outside-focused.
On equation with clients - will they change?:
Clients like Mahindra, Amul, Nerolac, Wipro, Zodiac and Tata have been with me all of the 18 years and my relationship with these clients run really deep. In fact in all these organizations, the heads are also people who have risen alongside me and are now in a pivotal role. So I will do all I can to not let the equation change. On the back of my clients, I have found my victories so it is important for me to keep their confidence. There are also clients, I have met socially or in client agency parties but I have not worked alongside. I need to earn their confidence. The heartening fact is that the top 15 leaders who are custodian to these businesses have been with Lodestar UM over 7-8 years. Therefore, there would be a sense of continuity with them. Having said that, I am also aware that there will be time and knowledge limitations and I need to build in far more efficiency in everything I do.
On the challenge of leading a large multi-city team:
That is a big challenge. All CEOs are quasi HR heads. Thankfully, I have watched Mr Anil Kapoor and Shashi managing large teams with great elan. The group has the most steady teams among advertising and media agencies.
I am alive to the fact that the external pressures tugging one away from day-to-day operations and the limitation of time may take away my awareness and the pulse off the youngsters. And it will feel strange not to know what subordinates are up to.
However, I believe that, over a period of time, the culture that we have built makes us contiguous and brings us on the same wavelength. So it doesn’t matter which city or where one operates from – the response and behaviour is based on the same principles.
Immediate action points on agenda:
I think the first thing to do is internalize that going forward I can no longer be involved in all decisions as Lodestar UM is a large organization. To run the organization efficiently, I will need to articulate and communicate a clearly understood strategy, give definite guidelines on the processes and structures and take forward the defined values and attitudes.
Anamika Mehta:Â Doing and scaling things quickly is critical
On how it feels to be elevated to the role of CEO:
Exhilarating but also overwhelming!
On the new responsibilities:
Responsibilities and more! A critical task early on is to establish priorities and leverage the opportunity to reset Initiative’s rhythm to the requirements of future.
It will be as much about driving a shared vision and agenda with teams and client partners. Eventually isn’t it all about driving teams, driving clients’Â business and driving the P&L?
On equation with clients - will they change?:
All of us at IPG Mediabrands have been ingrained over years with the importance of building and strengthening client relationships at the back of product quality and throughput. We have an enviable track record of the most long-term client relationships in the industry - right from Maruti, Sony, MRF at Initiative or Amul, Tata Group, Microsoft, Wipro, Mahindra in Lodestar UM.
So it will be a dual theme of ‘give clients what they want’ and ‘business like thinking’! And like in any business today, it will be as much about a hands-on approach with clients and rolling up my sleeves. Doing and scaling things quickly is critical.
On the challenge of leading a large multi-city team:
As I mentioned, it is all about prioritizing, driving a shared goal and managing across cities, across clients, across teams in a strategic fashion. I am quite confident our strong second rung of established leaders across cities and our value laden theme will make the journey exciting. And most importantly an open and inclusive culture will help navigate challenges if any.
Immediate action points on agenda:
A Barefoot Run in a FBDS way - Fast, Brave, Decisive, Simple. In today’s challenged business environment we will have to be bold, fast-moving with greater and purposeful speed, tough-minded and responsible businesspeople to stay ahead of the game.
IPG Mediabrands believes strongly in the power of brands to build a better world. Brands matter most when they are aligned with a larger purpose and we are going to be committed to that vision in the long run.
And last leveraging the strength, scale and clout of IPG Mediabrands India to Initiative’s advantage.
Mediaah! Are disclaimers enough to pass off paid content?
Readers expect the content in the newspaper to be published based on the decision of the editor, and not an advertiser paying for it, writes Pradyuman Maheshwari. Read more…
Paid content such as Medianet has gained much ground. Despite flak from different quarters, it appears that buyers are still willing to pay for space that resembled news and features. And readers may never know the difference. More media houses have begun indulging in paid content, but surely that does not make it right?
We ask industry folks to weigh in with their views.
Arun Anant, CEO, The Hindu Group of Publications
People may not know that some newspapers carry paid-for articles, and some people do not care either. That does not make it right. If an article is paid for by an advertiser, it should be made clear that there is an interested party that has paid for it.
Ranjona Banerji in ‘Freaking News’
::Â Medianet mars an otherwise trendsetting paper
::Â Not too late for TOI to correct practices
Santosh Desai, MD, Future Brands
Globally, it has become a phenomenon where sponsors pay for news. There needs to exist a clear difference between journalism and an act of promotion. If not kept separate, the line of demarcation will blur between the two. However, what is more dangerous is that when news is influenced by a transaction. Many do not care about Page 3, so if you have paid for it, it does not matter. The issue arises about hard news, when you do not know who has paid for it. MediaNet in itself not a wrong thing as long as you are announcing it who is paying for it. For instance, if you are reporting about a policy being announced and you do know which political party or a corporate house has paid for it. What is a much bigger issue is the corporate ownership of the media houses. There has to be a divide between news and advertisement: and how do you tell it? How do you divide ownership and journalism: and do you – that is more serious threat than MediaNet, in my opinion. The bigger point is about trusting the ‘news’.
Bharat Kapadia, Chairman, Whatuwant Solutions, and Founder at ideas@bharatkapadia.com
Using Medianet is completely unethical – whether readers do not seem to notice it or whether they do not care. There are two parts to it: the publisher and the readers. The publisher has been doing it for a much longer time than visible, especially at the time of elections. The readers, unless told, would not know which news is being paid and which is not. When, it all began, Bombay Times used to mention with a small symbol that it is paid news. Now even that is gone. People buy or consume news media trusting for a fair perspective. Now, if this perspective can be influenced, it is definitely not fair.
Anamika Mehta, COO, Lodestar UM
My personal point of view is, for a newspaper or any other medium, there are different and more questions about paid content. It happens globally in various forms but of course, it is not a good practice. A lot of brands and advertisers have jumped on this wagon, yes, but as a responsible media one should know where to draw the line. If one considers Page 3, where you can pay to get featured, it is all for entertainment. So one does not seem to mind. The moment it starts entering news or motivate political, business or economic sentiment, then it is a problem.
One can see that business pages also carry small snippets or news that might sway the reader into investing in a particular stock, or to create impact. Some of the brands do MediaNet for promotion. However, a line needs to be drawn. The reader should not be misled, and motivated information should be kept under check.
Continuing with the feature we carried on July 2 (Link: http://www.mxmindia.com/2012/07/the-half-year-that-was/), we bring in more views from the industry on the six months gone by. This half-yearly report card is again a mixed bag – while some have had an excellent run, others had few hitches on the way. Here’s bringing views from some leading players of the industry.
Broadcasting:
Rohit Gupta
Rohit Gupta, President, Sony Entertainment Television
So far, it’s been an excellent year for Sony network. And I’m sure it’s been same for the industry, at large. The industry is still growing and there have been no cuts in spends. People are still putting their money in the medium. I’m sure there is no gloom surrounding this industry. Even the 2008 slowdown didn’t affect us. So, there is nothing to worry about too.
Sunil Lulla
Sunil Lulla, MD and CEO, Times Television Network
I would say, it has been testing six months for the broadcast industry. The biggest set-back has been the extension of the digitization implementation. The IBF ran a very good campaign for it but since MSOs couldn’t fulfill the requirements, unfortunately it has to be postponed. My advice to the ministry now would be to take strict actions and make sure the new deadline is met. It is important for the industry since it will shape the industry and help us understand it better too.
By and large, important events in the broadcast industry like IPL, Indian Idol did well and a new show like Satyamev Jayate was launched. However, there is still a gap between how a show performs and what the viewers really want. Hence, I think TAM needs to be more clear and needs to increase its sample size too.
But what really shocked the industry was the new adult timings and ‘A’ restrictions on television. What happened with Dirty Picture’s telecast was regrettable. Nevertheless, after the self regulation imposed by various channels – news and GECs – the quality of content has improved.
As from the business point of view, from January till April, it was good; but May onwards the marketers have had a watchful attitude. It might not impact the industry at large, but a certain sections might get affected. Also, given the current economic climate, one will have to keep a very watchful eye for the near future.
The last six months have been eventful for the broadcast industry. First it was the whole discussion regarding digitization – from notifications to it finally getting delayed. Hopefully, the new deadline will be met as it is positive for the broadcast industry. Also, the new advertising guidelines set by TRAI will make sure that the market doesn’t get diluted.  Such moves will only benefit the industry and help it grow.
However, there has been a slowdown in ad sales and revenue generation. Everyone knows what happened during an event like IPL. It is a slow phase right now, but the costs of purchasing rights are still high. So, it won’t be wrong to say that testing times are ahead.
K Sriram
K Sriram, GM, Vijay TV
The last 6 months in the Tamil GEC space has seen a dramatic change in programming. KBC travelled into Tamil Nadu and with actor Suriya donning the role of anchor. The barrier between the big screen and television was truly breached for the first time. KBC Tamil ensured that prime time television in TN was redefined, as it not only cut across audiences, but also surged ahead of the power cuts and the IPL fever and eroded into SUN TV’s prime time shares. Vijay TV saw a growth of 41 per cent in the year in a market which was otherwise declining. Content came to the fore.
Tamil television also saw the movie acquisition game being taken to another level with Nanban, the hit Tamil adaptation of 3 idiots, being screened within 100 Days on Vijay TV. Another path breaker given that A+ titles before were insulated for a year. Loud and clear in the Tamil GE space – the game just got bigger and in the last 6 months there was only one player playing the game. Competition is sure playing catch up.
Marketers:
Harkirat Singh
Harkirat Singh, MD, Woodland
The overall market in the branded retail segment has been seeing growth. The biggest change that one sees in this segment is that now the growth comes from smaller towns. In the earlier phase, the growth came from metros; and if one ventured into smaller towns in branded retail say a decade back, most likely, things would not fall in place. Now the risk factor in venturing into the smaller towns is much less and there are many players in branded retail who are turning towards these cities knowing that growth opportunity lies there.
For Woodland, last six months have seen steady growth and we intend to open 60 stores this year, though the rider is to expand but be selective. The market, I would say, has been slow. But that is the trend I would say during a particular time of the year where each year business is slow and picks up only later. As for retail, I think the market is vibrant and the sector has been seeing activity and is slated to see increased activity with FDI in retail being relaxed.
Vikas Jain
Vikas Jain, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Micromax
For the mobile phone industry there has been no concern about consumption, as the demand for new sets continues to be on rise. The change being that now the customers are well-educated on the mobile sets they want to buy and with change in technology there have been change in the preference on the type of mobile sets. The key, therefore, is to recognize and anticipate the product in demand and meet the needs of consumers. The players need to create a roadmap of the products to be launched rather than get carried away by technological changes. Keep an eye on the changing trends and tweak the launches accordingly.
On the flip side, the devaluation of rupee has put pressure on the margins and Micromax being a player that vouches for being cost effective will not yield to increasing prices of the phone sets. As for following any trend on cost cutting on the marketing and communications front, we have not done any. We continue to be associated with Bollywood and Cricket and would associate if any good opportunity came to us.
Media Agencies:
PM Balakrishna
PM Balakrishna, COO – Allied Media
I think the months of April-May were on par but June was not so great. The feeling is that of a slowdown for sure. But an advertising perspective there is cause for worry. It’s a reflection of the economy not looking good in the past few months with petrol prices seeing a hike, inflation seeing a rise and other such factors. These factors play a part in the way media spends pan out.
Where television is concerned there were some properties that did well like the Euro Cup recently and also the IPL before that, but then there are signs of slowdown with advertisers not being too keen to be associated with properties and also with the rates coming down. With Print, which sees ads from sectors like Real Estate and so on, there was a sudden upsurge that was seen in June with most property dealers advertising a lot in dailies and magazines. But that may be a sheer sign of desperation because transactions are not really happening or consumers are not really picking up stocks. There has not been a surge from other sectors as well and they are treading cautiously. So if one were to do a quarter to quarter analysis, one would see that there has been a decline in April-June this year compared to the same quarter last year.
As for the revival, what I have observed recently is that clients have been drawing up plans which they might want to unveil soon, probably around the festival season. But I think overall, the growth will meander along in the next quarter also. Probably the last four months of this year may turn out to be good but whether it is enough to offset the slow-burn over the first six months – I am not too sure.
Anamika Mehta
Anamika Mehta, COO – Lodestar Universal
Although we are six months into the year, I do not think the industry will record the original projections that were forecasted. We are just into the first quarter and therefore we cannot conclude much but overall some categories are seeing a slowdown. Sectors like real estate and finance have seen a slowdown in the spends but FMCG companies are yet to go slow. They are playing a cautious game though.
Also, much of the growth is also the result of the current economic conditions which do not look good at the moment. But it will not be all gloom and doom as is being witnessed in Europe but it will also not be a great story as was being propounded forIndia. Also, one cannot predict the exact figure beyond a point but the approach is going to be that of caution.
Sundeep Nagpal
Sundeep Nagpal, MD, Stratagem Media
I would say the media industry in India is already feeling the effects of the economic gloom that has been in the works for some time now. From what I have been given to understand the first quarter of this fiscal has been reasonably difficult. In fact nothing can be said about the trend that will emerge in the next six months as there is some amount of scepticism in the industry. Unfortunately, in our industry fluctuations are happening faster than what we have witnessed before – whether up or down. It takes a lot of deeper understanding and attention to details if one has to figure out what the current media scenario correlates to. Frankly, even I do not have an answer to that. It’s very easy to say that it is dependent on the overall global or Indian outlook but that is too macro a view to attribute to. If I was a media planner, I would be looking at ways to look out for the early signals and accordingly find out the relevant methods to adopt. Overall, the industry may just about see a decline in its growth numbers for 2012 than what was originally anticipated.
Advertising:
Arvind Sharma
Arvind Sharma, Chairman, Indian Subcontinent, Leo Burnett
As the GDP numbers have been showing a slowdown, one can see that it is getting reflected in the advertising spends too. While at peak the advertising industry was showing a growth of 25 per cent, it would be somewhere around 7 per cent in the first half of 2012. At individual agency level, while we have seen a growth on 40 per cent in 2010 and 25 per cent in 2011, in the first half of 2012 we would see a growth of around 15 per cent. But I think at an individual agency level we still can manage fairly good growth as India has close to Rs35,000 crore advertising expenditure hence the need of the hour is to get aggressive and lay claim to the bigger pie from that budget. This will happen from organic growth from current clients to acquiring new businesses. This growth will also come from making our offering robust.
If one were to look at growth, then in our case, I would say that we have seen growth from our existing clients but growth from new clients or from new major initiatives have been significantly less. However, I would say that the mood currently is to be cautious.
PR:
NS Rajan
NS Rajan, Managing Director, Ketchum Sampark
While we have grown by about 20 per cent in the first half, we are witnessing headwinds gathering across various sectors which can in turn affect growth in these segments and consequently the PR business in the second half.
Also margins could be under pressure in the coming months as the increased cost of servicing may not be compensated by incremental revenues unless the economic environment changes significantly which can lift up sentiment.
In a country like India with numerous channels on air and where television watching is an obsession, it is vital for broadcasters and advertisers to know how well the channels and the various programmes on them fare. TAM, a joint venture between AC Nielson Research Services (Nielsen Company) & Kantar Market Research, was mandated by the broadcast and advertising industry to do exactly that. Over the last decade-and-a-half, TAM has been optimizing coverage of the growing TV audience across the country by increasing breadth (expanding to cover larger number of new markets) and depth (enable deeper level of analysis in existing data markets).
By the year end, the TAM Media Research plans to increase its sample size by nearly 2000 households. The present expansion is in alignment with the above thought process and is an attempt to bring insights on audience engagement with TV Content. “The current Indian broadcast landscape is dotted with some very different and complex influencing factors like the need to dive deep into untapped semi-urban/rural markets and the upcoming mandate of digitization,” says LV Krishnan, CEO, TAM Media Research.
He adds, “With digitization, we are already seeing increase in not only the channels entering the distribution pipe but also audiences trailing more content across newer genre of channels. As the long tail of unique content channels explode in 100% digital markets (Phase I being the Metros), TAM will be enhancing the sample size in these digital markets (Metros) to throw more light into audience consumption of these unique content channels. This enhancement will benefit micro targeting of viewer groups for not only broadcasters with their content but also advertisers interested in specific audience groups for their brand communication.”
Keeping this in mind, TAM will be taking a few steps. The first initiative being taken is to increase the panel size in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad totalling 650 homes. This will increase the SEC AB sample size in these metros by around 60%. All additional 650 homes will be recruited among C&S SEC AB homes.
But that’s not all. As part of the initiative, TAM will expand in the less than class I India markets too. In the annual January 2012 establish report, the fastest growth for digital TV platform continued to be from less than Class I towns (with population of less than one lakh) and semi-rural markets in the Hindi belt markets. “This affirmed our hunch of the need to beef up representation in the semi-rural markets. Since 2009, we have been covering Maharashtra in the ‘Less than Class I’ geographic stratum. To this stratum, we are now adding seven more states: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and UP. These will be reported as individual states except for Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh which will, as usual, be reported together as PHCHP,” adds Mr Krishnan. The increasing the sampling across these five new markets will be 1110.
With this expansion, TAM will practically complete covering the entire urban stratum for the Hindi Speaking Market group. This also means that TAM will now cross the 10,000 Peoplemeter deployment mark and will be add 63 more towns to the existing base number of (162) sample towns with this expansion. Now, it will cover 225 towns.
However, there are some who feel that an increase of a sample size of 2000 is not enough. “From the current sample size of around 8000, an increase of around 2000 more does brings up the number, but considering the size of the country it’s not an ideal number to know the ‘correct’ pulse of the viewers,” feels Anamika Mehta, COO, Lodestar UM.
Agreeing with her, Tarun Katial, CEO, Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd., adds, “With the current sample size, it is very difficult to map the evolving choice of consumers. And right now TAM does not represent the digitalized packages. Therefore, until and unless it is done universally it won’t be able to ‘help’ like it should be. I would want TAM to look at their international counterparts to learn from them how they tackle the issues.”
Even Sunil Lulla, MD and CEO at Times Television Network believes it’s high time that TAM woke up and smelled the coffee. “We are delighted that finally the industry pressure has worked. Many broadcasters, including us, have been telling TAM about various issues which affect our rating process. So, we hope that this increase in sample size, though small but relevant, will benefit and mark a beginning of improvement and swift growth of the system.”
There are many who feel that the move by the TV audience measuring firm should be welcomed and shouldn’t be criticized. “We should understand what a tedious process it is. And over the years, TAM has been working to help the industry. TAM has been working with the over 8000 sample size for years now, so we should give them credit for increasing it. This move will not only increase the household numbers but also increase the cities which will make the sample more robust,” points out Anilkumar Sathiraju, Mudra Max Media, Head – South. As proposed, TAM has started preparing to implement both the initiatives in the full swing. Both the data cuts are targeted to be made available starting January 2013.
Mr Sathiraju adds, “However, there is no denying the fact that over 10,000 sample size for a country with over one billion population isn’t correct. And I hope and wish that this will lead to a quicker growth in the next level of the phase. It is a challenge and hopefully won’t take years.”
Mr Krishnan is of the view that the measures initiated will benefit broadcast. “Over the last three years, in our annual baseline (Establishment) study we conduct and release in Week 1 of January, we are witnessing a tremendous growth of Cable & Satellite TV and Digital TV platform penetration. This growth is fuelled by the growing aspiration to engage in multiple Content – Entertainment & Information, that these platforms are providing on a simple TV screen. In the Jan 2012 report, the fastest growth for Digital TV platform has come from less than Class I towns (with population of less than 100,000) and Semi Rural markets in the Hindi belt markets. Once access and engagement with multiple content happens, it is pertinent to measure the behaviour to help broadcasters, in particular, the regional language broadcasters for aligning content to these audiences. It also satisfies advertisers and nedia agencies needs as their need to target brand communications to consumers in these markets become a reality. Also, these new markets from TAM will give you a closer picture to the Rural India’s TV consumption habits in the Hindi heartland.”
Meanwhile, with the imminent digitization in the four Metros, Mr Krishnan explains that in a market in Mumbai and Delhi, with already 25% of the TAM panel and market digitized, his team and he are seeing new patterns of viewing settling in. “More viewers are glued to genres of their choice and landing straight on their favourite stations. Time spent with TV and within specific genres are increasing too. This will mean that there is enough scope for more channels to either get launched within the existing genres or new genres with Unique Content will launched soon in the new 100% digital era (given that creating access to the Content will be easy!). Tier packages will get formed and purchased by the potential viewers, thus sub-segmenting the audiences into more fractions! To capture these new behaviour trends, TAM is increasing the metro samples by almost 60% and in markets like Mumbai and Delhi, TAM is almost doubling the sample!! This will help broadcasters and bdvertisers to not only understand audience content consumption patterns but also target their programming and brand communications very well.”
So what next? The preparation to implement both the initiatives is in “full swing”. Both data cuts will be made available starting January 2013.Also, with an eye to aid the understanding of the digitization progress, TAM has initiated The TAM DASES (DAS Estimation Study) : A study focused on the Phase 1 markets (as notified by the I&B Ministry for DAS implementation). Wait for it!
About a decade ago, we saw the emergence of Tulsi, Parvati and Kussum. Strong protagonists – but all of them set in more or less the same socio-cultural setting, grounded in traditions but fighting against the evil (another woman in most cases) trying to tear their families apart.
Cut to the present-day GEC. The protagonist is stronger, and differentiated. She is no longer just about pacifying the mother-in-law, and mothering her growing-up children. She is aware, educated, has a mind of her own, and she speaks it too. She has the spunk, and many a time, she takes the lead in decision-making. To put it simply, she does not wait for someone to save her, she is fully capable of doing the saving. And in between all this, she has a heart too, and dotes on her family.
There is a Pratigya fighting against the issues in her own house – a decision maker in Allahabad; there are working or aspiring-to-work women in quite a few soaps – among them Kuch Toh Log Kahenge set in Lucknow and Afsar Bitiya with a Bihar backdrop. There also is a Hitler Didi, where the protagonist, living in Delhi, is the master of the house, and of course Balika Vadhu and Diya Aur Baati Hum (both set in Rajasthan), which propagate women’s empowerment in the rural and semi-urban areas.
Is it an accurate reflection of the real Indian woman, or are these shows akin to the funhouse mirrors that exaggerate certain parts of our collective reality? Even if it does exaggerate the social consciousness, it definitely provides an example for those women whose staple diet of entertainment is still the Hindi GEC.
States Anamika Mehta, COO, Lodestar Universal: “Undoubtedly media, at an overall level, influences society and television has a huge role to play in that sense. While at some level, some shows and protagonists do play a role in sounding a wake-up call or instilling confidence, courage, and independence of thought, they thereby create followers or loyalists. However it’s more of media mirroring society on television essentially – witnessed for instance in the shift from ‘saas bahu’ soaps to the current lot.”
While the woman protagonists are bolder and more intelligent now, the socio-cultural cauldron from which they emerge varies from show to show. The reason, of course, is increase in purchasing power of women across middle India – Madhya Pradesh, not a favourite setting for television serials till some time ago, suddenly finds itself as the backdrop for a number of soaps. Is the appeal of these shows universal or does it appeal to audiences in a particular geography? States Nandini Dias: “The traditional shows like Uttaran and Balika Vadhu do find better resonance in smaller towns while the talk shows like Oprah Winfrey or Barkha Dutt show a skew towards metros. The shows which do well across all towns are usually love stories like Kuch Toh Log Kahenge.”
However, Shubha George, COO, MEC, South Asia, believes that in case the objective is to target a specific audience profile, a lot more needs to be done in this direction. She states: “Indian TV shows are fairly homogeneous and cater to a pan-India audience in most instances. I cannot think of any particular example that is more popular in metros because of a bolder woman character. Rather, this is a concept which is yet to be experimented on by Indian TV shows for mass audiences.”
Many of these shows depict subjects like second marriages, domestic violence and other women-centric issues, but do they manage to send a message across to society? As per Anamika Mehta: “Frankly it’s little to do with evoking social consciousness and more to do with experimentation with new audiences, new generation, different content and eventually eyeballs. While many of these shows initially kicked off with a social idea and an attempt to rouse audiences, eventually, given the eyeball battle, they turn more into trials and tribulations of a woman with plot twists and turns.”
There is a conscious attempt at creating a protagonist who wants to change the world, who would capture the attention and imagination of young women. Are these shows with the new realistic woman favoured by certain brands – or it is only TRPs that matter in the end? States Ms Dias: “Media planning is called a science and an art for exactly these reasons. Media planners do look at data , quantitative parameters. But finally when they take decisions they need to predict the future of how a show will do in the future. So the qualitative factors need to be considered too. In fact with the number of brand integrations that are done, it is detrimental to a brand if they do these brand integrations without understanding the content and relevance of the show.”
Ms Mehta too states that brands do look at the content of the show, however, many times the storyline changes in chase of TRPs. She says, “Only if the brand’s personality is in sync with the show do they look at doing show exclusive deals. Very often the shows digress/change/derail chasing eye balls which often could defeat the rationale for association.”
On India’s wide-ranging social canvas, there are many Indias, and the psychographics change not only from New Delhi to Basti, but also from Defence Colony to Rohini. It is not easy to depict the myriad colours of the Indian woman. However, the effort is being made towards being progressive, covering a broader spectrum, and bringing to the fore social issues that women in particular face. Does it matter that it is for the sake of eyeballs, or to get more advertisers on board, if the issues are addressed in the end?
Even as High Definition (HD) television channels are entering the Indian market, blogs and social networks are already abuzz with talk of 3D channels coming soon, and how that will revolutionize the entire TV-viewing experience. MxMIndia took a closer look at these claims, to find out whether such a time is actually anywhere close at hand.
According to Ms Anamika Mehta, COO, Lodestar UM, “India is already an underleveraged and fragmented market and such innovations will definitely add to the monetary burden.  Indian consumers are yet to fully embrace HD, and 3D in that context is still years away. While some manufacturers have launched 3D products, we still do not have ample content. 3D content would mean significant investment in content cost and advertisers and viewers alike are unlikely to pay in the short run for the experience. Secondly, perhaps barring live sports there isn’t any genre that could see demand for 3D broadcasting. The other genre could be movies in theatres for an experience… Lastly, you need high quality content which lends to 3D viewing and strapped for budgets, very few production houses will bite.â€
But all said and done, the success of Mr James Cameron’s film Avatar in Indian theatres is enough proof that when you offer visually appealing content in 3D, people will flock to see it. Even so, such a number still remains way short of expectations for a market such as India to actually implement a 3D plan. If media analysts are to be believed, making 3D content for television is a very difficult job and the cost is too high to bear. Even today, many media houses use age-old technology for programming and non-35 mm cameras.
Interestingly, in the US a $14-billion, eight-year deal by ESPN with the National Football League (NFL) includes international rights and distribution of 3D content. This is despite the earlier reports that they might give up on 3D technology altogether. Several other broadcasting plans, internationally, for 3D broadcast of live baseball and basketball games are also on the anvil. MxMIndia’s efforts to reach ESPN-Star in India for their take on the issue failed to elicit any response.
Mr Dinesh Vyas, Business Head, MEC said that any talks of 3D technology coming into India in the current scheme of things is certainly a gimmick. He said, “HD and 3D televisions are already available in the market, but people are still apprehensive about it, especially, 3D. People get headaches when they see 3D content for extended periods. Such a technology is not going to take off any time soon in India. The Indian market is not very receptive to technology and it takes a long time to appropriate it… Cost of technology too is very high – and currently no advertiser will be interested in it, which implies that even media owners will have to drop any major 3D plan. However, there will always be small news here and there about 3D which might get everyone excited.â€
So is it a good idea for affluent Indians and the upcoming middle class to splash out on 3D television – which is touted as the technology of tomorrow? The answer is a plain simple – no. Or at least, not yet… After all, what use is a large sprawling 3D television in your living room without any 3D content to support it with? That is excluding a handful of 3D movie DVDs and Blu-Ray discs.
However, not all media planners are pessimistic towards the technology and some still see hope, however dim, for it. Mr Premjeet Sodhi, President, The Collaborative, Lintas Media Group, said, “High value, premium or luxury goods and services are not new to the India market and like any other such goods and services the 3D TV sector is also amenable to adoption and success. However, I don’t think I am qualified to comment on which consumer technology will be successfully adopted. Whether 3D TV will be adopted and when and whether it will be a viable business is something for the custodians of these businesses to dwell upon and work towards. But, as and when the penetration of the technology reaches a critical mass, I am sure the media and advertising services will equip themselves to support the technology.â€
There may well be a time in future when 3D channels and television will be in vogue, but apparently that time is not near. If analysts are to be believed, it will be a long while before demand meets technological advancements. However, India still remains an unpredictable market. It is the same country which discarded pager technology and yet usurped the mobile. To write off 3D technology’s viability in India could be presumptuous.
On how it feels to be elevated to the role of CEO:
On how it feels to be elevated to the role of CEO:
Arun Anant, CEO, The Hindu Group of Publications
