MxMIndia

Tag: Bang in the Middle

  • The agency has already started work and campaign announcing new initiatives will be out soon, notes a communique

    BITM bags DLF Saket account

    By A Correspondent

     

    Bang in the Middle has been awarded the strategic and mainline communication duties for lifestyle mall DLF Place Saket, New Delhi after a review. The agency has already started work and campaign announcing new initiatives will be out soon, notes a communique.

     

    Bang in the Middle has been tasked to further the image of the brand and become the preferred destination for the discerning shoppers across NCR. A month-long fashion shopping festival called Weaves of India is already on at the Mall and the campaign will break soon.

     

    Naresh Gupta

    Speaking on the win, Naresh Gupta Managing Partner and CSO, Bang in the Middle said: “DLF Place Saket is a prestigious brand to work with. As an agency we have a very good understanding of fashion and lifestyle segments. DLF Place Saket is a place where patrons come to shop for the latest trends, nah enjoy the latest in food and entertainment, our task will be keep the brand current and desirable.”

     

  • Govind Agarwal will be branch head for Mumbai

    Bang in the Middle enters Mumbai

    By A Correspondent

     

    Bang in the Middle, the five-year-old communications agency led by Prathap Suthan and Naresh Gupta, has announced its entry into the Mumbai market. It already has presence in Chicago and New York, other than the headquarters in Gurugram. The agency has aggressive plans for Mumbai and already has clients in the city.

     

    Commenting on the expansion, Prathap Suthan, Managing Partner, Bang in the Middle, said: “There is no city like Mumbai that buys great work. And no better city that allows for merit to come through. For us being in Mumbai was always the way forward, and while we have been low key until now, it’s time we opened a bottle of champagne officially.”

     

    Added Naresh Gupta, CSO and Managing Partner: “Mumbai is the capital of advertising and it needs an agency like ours with expertise across domains. We have a proven offering that merges insights with craft and technology, and we are looking at Mumbai to grow in the city.”

     

    Govind Agarwal

    Bang in the Middle, has appointed Govind Agarwal as the branch head for Mumbai. Agarwal has over 13 years of experience and started his career in retail banking with HDFC Bank, before moving to work with agencies like Euro RSCG, Saints & Warriors and JWT. He has cross-industry experience of working on brands like Skoda, FIAT, HDFC Bank, Godrej, Kellogg’s, DainikBhaskar, Danone, SAB TV, Lotus Herbals, CavinKare etc.

     

    Said Agarwal: “I am excited to be able to lead Bang in the Middle, for one of its most challenging markets and hopes to be able to deliver value and revenues to the outfit.”

     

    Bang in the Middle works with clients like IndiaMart, Dulux Paints, INOX, VNL, DLF, Healthians, GMR, JSW, and The Times of India among others

     

  • Bang in the Middle has created the new identity for Healthians along with the consumer appeal

    Bang in the Middle unveils brand identity for Healthians.com

    By A Correspondent

     

    Co founded by Deepak Sahni and Anuj Mittal, Healthians.com is among the biggest health test @ home service. Healthians employs state-of-the-art 300 touchpoints technology for assuring quality collection and testing across its tightly controlled network of labs and hundreds of full-time phlebotomists.

     

    The company was incubated by Healthstart in November 2014, followed by a seed round investment in 2015 by YouWeCan, the investment arm of an iconic survivor, champion and cricket legend Yuvraj Singh who is the face of Healthians. Healthians has been awarded Indian E-retail Awards’15 and Leader’s Awards’15 in Healthcare.

     

    Bang in the Middle has created the new identity for Healthians along with the consumer appeal. The new logo uses the universal symbol of medical diagnostic care, the stethoscope. The shape of heart builds in the care and trust that the brand represents. The brand’s promise of accuracy in test results is also captured as a part of the identity.

     

    Said Sahni:  “Healthians is a forward looking diagnostic brand, we have invested in medical technologies that help in home collection, reduce pain in blood test and deliver accurate results at better than the market prices. For us the new identity is our commitment to better diagnostic test experience and more accurate test results.”

     

    Added Mittal:  “We wanted the identity to clearly spell out what we do, and yet stand out from the individual path labs. Our approach to name was to take the overall heath stance. By adding the Stethoscope and the promise of accuracy, we are building a meaningful promise to our consumers. Our relationship with Yuvraj allows us to link our brand story with his to motivate consumers to get themselves tested and stay fit.”

     

    Said Manoj Deb, ECD, Bang in the Middle: “Healthians gave us a challenging task to define the identity. We had to build the identity with values of care, expertise and accuracy. We used a bold typeface to depict confidence and a universally known symbol of health care to build our identity.”

     

  • The task for Bang in the Middle is to ensure the brand gets the traction it is seeking

    Bang in the Middle appointed creative partner for Au Bon Pain

    By A Correspondent

     

    Au Bon Pain is a bakery café chain with 24 cafes across Kolkata, Bangalore and Gurgaon. Au Bon Pain’s offerings include soups, salads, sandwiches, sweet and savory bakery, beverages, and has just introduced a host of new innovative dishes like Croi-Mosa, Conewich and Keema Kouign Amann.

     

    Au Bon pain called for a review of its communication duties as it is aggressively looking at growing in the country. Bang in the Middle was awarded the business after review that included many well established names from the Advertising Industry. The incumbent agency was L&K Satchi and Satchi.

     

    Manish Tandon, CEO, Au Bon Pain said “We are at a new and exciting phase of growth and are expanding both our offering and reach for which we needed a creative communication partner that could work closely with us to make this happen. Bang in the Middle brought in strategic clarity and backed it with truly out of the box creative execution. The task for Bang in the Middle is to ensure the brand gets the traction it is seeking.”

     

    Naresh Gupta, Managing Partner, Bang in the Middle said “It is a matter of tremendous pride to win Au Bon Pain. The brand has a very interesting approach and we feel that with its time we fell in love with what Au Bon Pain has to offer.”

     

  • Featuring their brand ambassador Irrfan Khan, the campaign connects entrepreneurs to their dreams and aspirations

    IndiaMART unveils ‘India ki Khoj’ campaign celebrating Indian entrepreneurship

    By A Correspondent

     

    IndiaMART is set to seal its position as the enabler of business growth with its new brand campaign – ‘India ki Khoj’. The new campaign featuring Irrfan Khan will establish its value proposition of a business facilitator of India, by being the platform that powers the ‘Khoj’ for growth, success, ambitions and legacy.

     

    “It feels great to be associated with this brand and its campaigns that have been inspirational to millions of entrepreneurs as well as the buyers in fulfilling their needs, be it business or personal. Through this campaign, I am sure that it will generate a strong impact and encourage enterprising people across the country to come forward and put their ideas into action,” said Irrfan Khan, India’s critically and globally acclaimed Cine Star.

     

    Speaking of the campaign, Sumit Bedi, Vice President, IndiaMART said, “India’s economic prosperity is fuelled by millions of small & medium sized entrepreneurs. We give them the platform to grow and act as an enabler that they can trust. Through this campaign, we will be celebrating the spirit of enterprises found across the length and breadth of India. Thus, we have summed it up as ‘Khoj’, for everything that they are looking for in life. We don’t just connect markets with opportunity; we connect individuals with their ambitions.”

     

    The campaign has been crafted by ‘Bang in the Middle’ and was shot in Mumbai. Prathap Suthan, CCO and Managing Partner, Bang in the Middle said “Every entrepreneur and every businessman starts his or her journey to follow a dream. The innate search and thirst to achieve a target, reach a landmark, and build an enterprise worthy of the dream in their minds. Our country is full of legends of people who have started small and made global successes, and those stories and surnames are driving forces for a country that’s now woken up.  They are inspiration to those searching for their own footprints to leave behind. This campaign is a tribute to that entrepreneurial spirit, as much as the earthiness of Irrfan adds realness to the grit of these people”

     

    The campaign kick-started with a tweet by Irrfan Khan and will also be amplified through his other digital platforms.

     

  • Bang in the Middle has already started work on the identity and campaign for the launch

    The agency came first! Chicken major SH Group catches Bang in the Middle for retail venture

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hyderabad-based chicken breeder SH Group has brought in Bang in the Middle on board with the aim of creating a world-class brand of foods. Set up in 1978, SH Group has ambitious growth plans that includes setting up retail brand in the foods business.

     

    SH Group’s upcoming retail venture will start with a range of chilled, processed and packaged chicken and over a period of time will also have eggs, fresh veggies and goats. The launch is slated towards the early part of 2016. Bang in the Middle has already started work on the identity and campaign for the launch. As a part of buildup to the launch SH Group engaged with the top B Schools of India through a case study competition called StirFry Challenge.

    (www.stirfrychallenge.com)

     

    Said Sambit Chakraborty, CSO, SH Group: “Basic Foods is a very large category in India and as the leading breeder of chicken, we want to bring to our audience a brand of world class quality and experience. Bang in the Middle has been tasked with the creation of brand. As we prepare to launch our retail venture of chilled, processed and packaged chicken we reached out to the brightest minds in business schools to seek how the young upcoming managers will approach the issue. Response to StirFry tells us that we are on the right path”.

     

    Naresh Gupta

    Bang in the Middle, the Gurgaon-based communication agency has won the mandate after extensive review by SH Group. Said Naresh Gupta, Managing Partner: “SH Group’s new retail venture is a bold move from a home grown successful corporation to enter the retail market. We are thrilled with the mandate. We are confident that the new brand that is created will challenge the best of the brands globally and will create space for itself”

     

  • Bang in the Middle will help the brand craft a distinct identity on the web for its audience across the globe

    Bang in the Middle nets digital mandate of Mahindra Comviva

    By A Correspondent

     

    Bang in the Middle has been appointed by Mahindra Comviva, the global leaders in providing mobility solutions, to handle its digital presence.

     

    Bang in the Middle will lead the digital marketing program to elevate the brand image through an integrated marketing communications strategy, including digital, corporate, trade and consumer public relations, while driving reputation across the globe. Bang in the Middle will help the brand craft a distinct identity on the web for its audience across the globe.

     

    Rajat Dayal

    Rajat Dayal, Head of Marketing at Mahindra Comviva commented, “Mahindra Comviva is a recognized brand in the mobility space. As we continue to grow our business across the globe, it’s critical that we create a meaningful and relevant digital experience. Our offerings are focused to a global audience and this audience is digitally connected. Bang in the Middle is the perfect partner to help us become more relevant to our existing and prospect customers, and remain at the forefront of the digital ecosystem, across all channels.”

     

    Prathap Suthan

    Prathap Suthan, CCO and Managing Partner of Bang in the Middle said, “Mahindra Comviva is a global brand and we are delighted to partner them in their quest to expand globally. Building expertise of Mahindra Comviva is a key task and we are happy to partner them.”

     

  • Bang in the Middle has been brought on board to create the entire communication campaign for the brand

    Little brings Bang in the Middle on board

    By A Correspondent

     

    Little is the new hyperlocal live deals app that is being rolled out across India.

    Little is a part of the new online to offline service market place business where the offline merchants can harness the power of online medium to increase traction, footfall and fulfillment.

     

    Little will have thousands of deals live at any given moment from a variety of merchants that include restaurants, salons, spas, movie halls, hotels, gyms, weekend getaways and likes of such. Because the deals are live, and on app, Little will build a sense of urgency to avail of the deals. Little at this time is already live in major cities of India with thousands of merchants live on the app.

     

    Bang in the Middle has been brought on board to create the entire communication campaign for the brand. Little has very aggressive plans to scale and build traction and will be leveraging a host of mediums ranging from offline to online. The campaign is likely to break soon in selected cities

     

    “Little will open up a host of new opportunities for local merchants, it will make their business more customer centric, and this needs a new way of thinking on the brand. Bang in the Middle is working with us to make little very powerful” said Manish Chopra, MD and Founder Little.

     

    Naresh Gupta

    “Little is a very interesting concept. Little has to create a category for itself. We are delighted to be on board. The campaign for Little will definitely not be little.” said Naresh Gupta, Managing Partner, Bang in the Middle

     

  • Creative captains Prathap Suthan, Bobby Pawar and Abhijit Avasthi on whether the dismal performance by India at Cannes Lions is a need for worry

    Are we making too much of our dismal showing at Cannes?

     

    India’s performance at the Cannes Lions this year left much to be desired. Being dubbed the worst ever – with just 13 metals in our kitty – the dismal showing has sparked debates about whether the advertising industry really has quality talent, or should we not make too much of deal of events like the Lions? Three creative gurus weigh in what might have gone wrong and whether we should care at all.

     

    Bobby Pawar

    Director and Chief Creative Officer – South Asia, Publicis Worldwide

     

    Frankly Cannes doesn’t matter. Not to our creativity. Certainly not to our business. Why? Our clients don’t care much about it. Our consumers, not at all. So the question is why we should we give a rat’s derriere? Why are we acting like our momma died and beating our chests in loud mourning? Cannes is a pissing contest and we pissed shorter. Today’s India doesn’t like that. And we shouldn’t. Many have argued that our limp performance was because our work isn’t creative enough. Maybe. But I venture we stepped onto the field pads, gloves and carrying a bat, when the world was playing soccer. The game has changed. If you take a look at our entries, I’ll smack my face with a cold pomfret if most of them weren’t in print, outdoor, design and craft. Old world categories, where the old world still plays a stronger game. (Don’t think so? How many Grand Prix’s has India won in them? There.)

     

    Now, should we change because we want to win awards? That’d be stupid. But the reality is we must, before clients and consumers force us to. If that means we win big at Cannes, great. If not, so be it.

     

    Prathap Suthan

    Managing Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Bang In The Middle

     

    There are a couple of reasons why I think we fell short. And I don’t think it an upsetting issue. There are things that we need to consider. The winning countries and the entries operate in spaces that are perhaps very difficult for us to match. The markets require a whole new wedge to drive noticeability, and at least for regular mainstream work, we operate below par. Those are media media-saturated markets, and more importantly creative saturated audiences. It’s a norm for them to do work and expect work that breaks a whole lot of glass ceilings. Our markets and audiences are still tottering around the mofussil of average communication. We don’t need to be creative for the sake of creative. No one has the extra moolah to ply and try to see if completely lateral ideas deliver market efficiency. We are still dealing with entertaining narratives and well crafted advertising pieces. Besides, the tech quotient at play is very far ahead in those competitive markets. There are specialised shops that drive tech ideas and integrate them backwards into communication and creative ideas. It’s a whole new dynamic and our industry infrastructure is not equipped to think or even deliver those solutions or ideas. This gulch is only going to widen. I would rather we focus on what we know best, and work in areas that we can hone to surpass existing levels. And thankfully, there are a lot of categories where we can truly dominate. We need to look our strengths and desist from getting into waters that we can’t cross. It is also important to calibrate the calibre of creative buyers. Truly how of our clients at the senior senior-most levels will push agencies to break every mould. And honestly how many them really know how to evaluate ideas and open up budgets for the greater glory of creative at global festivals?

     

    Abhijit Avasthi

    Founder, Sideways (ex-NCD, Ogilvy)

     

    I believe India’s showing at Cannes this year is a temporary blip in a long good run. It is also a reflection and a consequence of a few issues, which can be debated. In certain categories like print/design/promo/digital etc our work is not as cutting edge as the rest of the world. On the one hand, we can try and push that, but then it cannot be at the expense of compromising on its relevance to our markets. That’s a double-edged sword. When it comes to categories like film and radio, where I believe our best work is done, we do have an unfortunate handicap – a lack of awareness and appreciation of our culture, language, social structures and such. No matter how well somebody translates these, the magic of the nuances is lost on the international jurors. As a parallel example, imagine somebody trying to explain the impact of ‘Kitney aadmi they?’ to a film jury? On paper it sounds like the most pedestrian dialogue ever written. There is no way on earth any jury will consider that dialogue a masterpiece. C’est la vie. Our celebrities are not known, our relationships are different…just too many such gaps.

     

    So the way I look at it…if a piece of work wins at Cannes it is surely world class but if it doesn’t…that does not mean it is not. So we should not get overly dejected by this year’s show.

     

    Let’s all just focus on doing exceptional, original work for the man on the street in India.

     

  • He will along with Manoj Deb, the other ECD, and will look after the creative output of the Gurgaon-based agency

    Anirban Sen joins Bang In The Middle as ECD

    By A Correspondent

     

    Anirbhan sen

    Anirban Sen has joined Bang In The Middle as the Executive Creative Director. He will along with Manoj Deb, the other ECD, and will look after the creative output of the Gurgaon-based agency.

     

    Anirban has over 20 years in advertising and has worked in agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, Grey, McCann, and TBWA. His work spans across almost every category for many blue chip clients – Hyundai, Samsung, Nestle, Coca Cola, Maruti, adidas, SBI Credit Cards,  ITC, Pedigree and Perfetti.

     

    In 2010, he was ranked 13th most creative person in India by Creative Brief Asia. He has won a Silver at Cannes Lions and numerous other awards including at Adfest Asia and Goafest.

     

    His critical work includes repositioning Coca Cola’s corporate vision in India. Coca Cola re-introduced themselves as a company that doesn’t sell colas but celebrates little moments of joy – symbolically defined by the effervescent bubbles inside the bottle: ‘Little drops of joy.’ He also spearheaded Pedigree’s transition of image from a dog food company to a dog loving company. This shift in perception helped the brand grow by leaps and bounds.

     

    In his last assignment he was the Creative Chief of Iris India, leading their creative duties in the integrated marketing arena.

     

    Prathap Suthan
    Naresh Gupta

    Prathap Suthan – Managing Partner and CCO, said “I have worked with Anirban a while ago, and I have always maintained that he is a special talent. I haven’t met too many people who think like him. He is an original. I have had the pleasure to work along with him on Hyundai, Samsung, and SBI Cards. He is a fantastic writer – print and film, has a brilliant sense of humour, and is completely fluent in the digital space. I am absolutely thrilled that he is with us now, as a leader, as a partner, as a thinker, and as someone committed to help us run further.”

     

    Naresh Gupta Managing Partner and CSO, Bang in the Middle said “Anirban adds to solidity of our offering. We constantly strive to merge the traditional with new age to drive greater bang for advertising buck. Anirban’ expertise will add immensely to what we have to offer to all our clients.”

     

  • CVL Srinivas, Vivek Sharma, Prathap Suthan & Sanjeev Kotnala on the Cup and the advertiser interest

    Will out-of-form India dampen adspends on W’Cup?

     

    Much interest in the Cup, but only dampener is India’s form

    Some of the brands who are probably fence-sitters today are only wondering what the form of the India team will be

     

    By CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia

     

    We see a lot of interest in the World Cup this year. One of the reasons for this is that it is a once-in -four-years event. But I think there seems to be a lot of innovation coming in to the World Cup product. Whether it is in terms of the number of languages it is going to be telecast in, or the kind of programming and advertising innovations that are available, and the fact that a lot of viewership is going to be on digital and there is also going to be a lot of interplay between digital and TV even when someone is watching the match on TV makes it very interesting for brands, for advertisers, for agencies to come up interesting campaign ideas and innovations. So there is definitely a lot of interest in the World Cup.

     

    The only dampener at the moment is India’s form. I only hope that picks up. This does have an impact on advertising to an extent. While overall the sentiment is still positive towards the World Cup. I think all the big sponsorship has been lined up. A lot of brands are also excited with the innovation possibilities on the World Cup, therefore they have also come in. I think some of the brands who are probably fence-sitters today are only wondering what the form of the India team will be, and whether they would be able to afford the scale of investment required, so if actually all goes well and India perform well in the first few matches, it could be a complete sell-out.

     

     

    It is the biggest aggregation of consumers possible

    The cricket format allows frequent short breaks making it apt for advertisers to be present creating impact and high brand recall.

     

    By Vivek Sharma, CMO, Pidilite Industries Ltd

     

    Cricket is a not just a sport in India, but is in fact a religion, which no one can refute. Not only is the ICC Cricket World Cup the premier flagship tournament of the ICC that comes only once in four years, this year India are the defending Champions, which means higher level of engagement from audiences in India and Indian diaspora. Given this context, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 is the right opportunity for our brands to reach out to a large consumer base.

     

    Furthermore, with large number of TV viewers in the country watching the last edition of the World Cup, it is the biggest aggregation of consumers possible. This year, the ICC Cricket World Cup will be broadcast in six different languages making it even larger. The cricket format allows frequent short breaks making it apt for advertisers to be present creating impact and high brand recall. Viewers will get an opportunity to see two of our new TVCs for Fevikwik and Dr. Fixit during this World Cup. Thus we believe that the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 will be an ideal platform for us to create both awareness and connect for the brands with our end consumer across the key target regions.

     

    The unpredictable format of the ODI game makes it more exciting and keeps audience engaged, overall we believe that the ICC World Cup will prove once again to be a win-win situation for all advertisers. Pidilite has supported the game of cricket for long time and will continue to support our boys and the spirit of sportsmanship.

     

     

    Has the magic diminished?

    One great match, one killer performance, one massive win, one boost of hardcore patriotism and heroics, and Indian blood will get to pump again.

     

    By Prathap Suthan

     

    The fact is that the boys in blue, are now more black and blue. Considering that they been blown to the outback in Australia. They seem to be unfocussed. As though there’s a sort of ennui in the team. A lackadaisical attitude.

     

    Nowhere close to what they were when they won the Cup last time around. Worse, very much contrary to the advertising that’s going around featuring the team, they seem to be determined to do everything to give the Cup back.

     

    As a viewer, currently I just don’t feel being inspired to watch. I am all but looking forward to the World Cup. Somehow I am as listless as the team itself. I have no hope, no faith, no conviction in the team.

     

    The problem is that this listlessness is contagious. It comes from the team and affects all of us. All viewers and advertisers. Unfortunately, the team’s motivation, and the team’s resolve, and the team’s body language etc. have all been in the dumps. They haven’t been able to fire any adrenaline back to us.

     

    More importantly, there’s been an overdose of cricket. As a nation we are up to our gills with this game, and sadly, the plentitude is boring. Don’t forget there’s IPL soon after, and there’s just no end to this. I suppose the specialness of the game has waned and much like everything that’s profuse, even the magic of cricket has diminished.

     

    From an advertising perspective, I think regardless of our team, this is great and rich advertising opportunity for brands. In terms of the numbers, million would watch even if India isn’t playing.

     

    This is a game that doesn’t need to be explained to the masses. All of us know the game. And all of us are experts. Including large numbers of our women.

     

    I certainly would advise clients to be part of this. I am sensing a lot of clients are timid and tepid about spending money on this tournament. It is not a bad place to be in, even if we aren’t playing. At some level, we appreciate good cricket and we are fans of the game.

     

    However, everything might change. One great match, one killer performance, one massive win, one boost of hardcore patriotism and heroics, and Indian blood will get to pump again. All it takes is the return of victory and passion into the team, and the wind will fill our sails again.

     

    And at that time, it would be a scramble for slots and spots. Best to hope for a miracle, and be part of this tournament early.

     

    At the end of the day, none of us are anti-cricket, or anti-blue, or anti-anything. As a nation, this is one of the very limited areas of physical excellence that we have the ability and talent to win and dominate. We are poor losers. And poorer patriots.

     

    We are fickle as a nation, and especially when there’s no heart in the team, we give up on the team as quickly as we rally behind them.

     

    Prathap Suthan is Managing Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Bang In The Middle

     

     

    IPL is any day a better bet for brands!

    World Cup 2015 is unpredictable. Not for which team would win but for marketers, brands and the media

     

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    The Indian Premier League or Cricket World Cup is a choice or problem for a few brands. You either have money to splurge on both tournaments or you don’t. Those who have money either have a campaign to run or they don’t. And brands with money and campaign, it is only the rate and ROI issue. ROI can never be guaranteed and remains a gamble. So, if you have the money and a campaign and need to advertise during these times you may want need to look at it differently.

     

    World Cup 2015 is unpredictable. Not for which team would win but for marketers, brands and the media. Success here depends on audience interest, viewership, viewer’s empathy and apathy towards the team. Oh yes, the die-hard will watch anything, but the deciders are the real consumers; the fringe audience that makes the numbers advertiser look at. Match timings are big spoiler for them. We can expect non-India matches to be completely blanketed. Unfortunately, such matches form a large percentage of the tournament. The main sponsor get these ineffective buys as a package helping them show lower ER.  Non-sponsor brands try avoiding them but are served as no-option as channel has to square off the investment.

    IF (a capital, bold IF) India plays well in the 1st final (India Vs. Pak) it could change the whole game. We as a nation are currently feeling low entering WC15 after a series of losses. Cricket is suffering from lack of empathy and viewers apathy.

     

    On these qualitative counts itself IPL outscores WC-15 with a high percentage of your real TG hooked on to every match.

     

    Srini or No-Srini, 12 or 8 teams, ball-tampering or fixed matches nothing changes the ground rule; IPL is a festival, a mela, a tamasha we all enjoy with a spicy tadka of regionalisation. IPL demands less of your time, give you much to discuss and is much more fun. It is realignment of interest, supports and stars. The audience loves this cut-throat high intensity not giving an inch of attitude. They smile, so can the channel and the advertisers. The patriotic feeling is understated or completely dead and that makes team losing a bit more manageable for the viewer.

     

    I firmly believe that even a low WC-15 performance by the Indian team will fail to dampen the IPL spirit. Good or near decent show will help IPL. In gambling terms, with IPL you hold the royal run. IPL is always a new beginning. With auctions, there is always a new team under every banner. It has a clearly differentiated taste and flavour.

     

    On the other hand, the hard focus on TV impact in these tournaments creates blinkers and brands end up underutilising or missing opportunities with other media. Radio and hoarding are good bets. In WC, by the time newspapers share the result of a match, the audience would be watching the next day’s match.  But if you want to add regionalised tadka in IPL making it exciting for your brand, go talk to your print guy and be pleasantly surprised with the ideas they have.

     

    Sanjeev Kotnala is Head Catalyst at Intradia and believes the best way forward for an organisation is to enhance the potential of  internal teams instead of depending on external resources. He is a management- marketing-media consultant and also conducts specialised workshops in the area of ‘Harvesting and Liberating Ideas’ and Innovation.  To contact email netkot@yahoo.com or tweet at s_kotnala visit www.intradia.in  www.sanjeevkotnala.com. The views expressed here are his own.

     

     

     

  • The agency has turned two. There is happiness over the way business has been. A candid Q&A with founder captains Prathap Suthan & Naresh Gupta

    The Bang in the Middle theory: Interview with Prathap Suthan & Naresh Gupta

     

    Two years back, Prathap Suthan and Naresh Gupta and a few other professionals announced the formation of an agency with a difference: Bang in the Middle. Like its name, the proposition was meant to be ‘hat ke’, a lot of which came with the way the philosophy of its founders. MxMIndia has been tracking the agency right from the day it was launched, chronicling its every high, and every new client acquisition.

     

    As it completed two years last week, we posed a few questions to Messrs Suthan and Gupta including one on something that many have been talking for a while: that it’s a good target for an acquisition.

     

    The interview:

     

    01. The first two years can be good fun, but the trials and tribulations could also be many. Ask us. We had many, many highs. And many, many lows too. How has been your journey? Banged more or got banged more?

    Banged, we more than survived the first two years, and we survived to the plan we had written. We won many business, did some exciting work, won some industry accolades. To do a design project from Rolex was more than prestige, we learnt how exacting the Swiss can be, the Swiss learnt how detailed Indians can be. We won Dulux in a hard fought pitch with biggies just when we started,  Veen Waters gave us a global mandate, we won Zee News in a competitive pitch and as the second year came to an end we won Jabong in a dead heat against the largest of agencies.  Today we have a robust set of clients and some very exciting conversations with a set of large clients

     

    02. Do you find that the world around you has also changed in these two years and hence people are more inclined towards your kind of creative work?

    The world is changing at a pace faster than at least we can fathom. The largest of marketers are investing more in digital, the traditional agencies are not investing in that skill at all. We have experienced this in our conversations with many of the clients that they are willing to work across spectrum with one agency, it’s the agencies that are not ready to step up and play the role they could. Ideas have always been the currency of communication companies, and ideas have to go beyond TVC That does make brands more tuned to the kind of work we do

     

    03. For those who don’t know too much about BITM, how would you like to be described? Are you more creative-led, planning or strategy-led or just about everything and re-orient as per client needs?

    We are Mutant. We merge the traditional medium with new media. We are pure play digital agency for some of our clients, we are a conventional agency for some other of our clients. For a fees of our clients we are the only agency they use. We have more startup clients today than most agencies, and for each one of the startups: Diva’ni, Oxolloxo, Gyanshree School we are the only agency they have on board. From website to mobile app to mainstream advertising, we do it all for them

     

    04. How much of your work is traditional advertising and how much of it is digital and for BTL etc?

    We have stopped even looking at that divide, specially when the clients today are discussing the key words to target on web in the same vein as creating a campaign on TV. For a client we merged the social media with TV advertising, the brand trended on Twitter, saw a huge jump in traffic post the TV campaign and followed up the TV campaign with a social campaign. I don’t know where to slot a client like this. Most of the briefs we are working on today are mutant briefs

     

    05. Does it help being an Independent? Would you consider being acquired by a global network?

    It is absolutely fun being independent. Coming after many years of working for networks and waiting for decisions to be taken at some place in cyberworld, being independent is a big asset. More than us, its our brands that we work with will vouch for it. We are fast, we take decisions faster and add speed to their business strategy.

     

    On being acquired, we have been spoken with even before we turned one. Those conversations have only gained speed. There are more than one network speaking us, there are some non network brands speaking with us. Being a part of a network is not necessarily a bad thing, provided we can preserve the DNA of ours: of being feisty and of being quick on our feet

     

    06. What according to you has been the best work so far?

    I would like the clients to answer that. For us every piece of work we have put out from Veen to Rolex to Zee to Diva’ni to Vimal to Dulux to Freecultr to FabFurnish every piece of work we have done, we are proud of it. We strive hard to ensure that we put out a communication solution that will help the brand grow, beat competition, increase value or whatever else they may have briefed us. These two years have been the year of learning for us too. Today, we are doing things that we never did before, and there are challenges we faced without the support for a global network.

     

    07. One or two happenings in these two years where you would’ve told yourself the agency has arrived?

    First such moment was when Zee News consolidated more than one channel with us. Winning Jabong was second such moment when we realised we can stand up to the might of the large agencies. We actually feel that every new brand that brings us on board makes us believe that we are on our way. We have a client who has acknowledged that the best work on the brand ever done is from BITM, another said that they never realised that we were a startup, we never came across as one. Each one of such moments are moments that tell us that we are reaching the destination

     

    08. And one or two WTF moments? When you said why the hell did we get into this?

    More than one, almost every month. We lost a large brief only because the global system didn’t want to hire a home grown agency, we lost a brief because a Mumbai client didn’t want a Delhi agency. These are moments that tell us that we haven’t reached there, we are not established, we have to work hard and we have a long road ahead

     

    09. Do you think you could’ve been acquiring bigger clients (and hence bigger business) in the last two years?

    Yes and no. At one level its a good thing that we have a committed set of clients who work with us closely, some of them are large too, at another level we do feel we could have won larger brands. The latter is more a wish and in no way is to undermine the former. I think a few large clients are around the corner

     

    10. Any advertising that you think BITM should’ve been doing? And could’ve done better?

    The team has extensive experience across three categories with proven credentials: tourism, automobiles and cellphone handsets. Those are three categories where we would definitely like to have. In each of these categories we would have done better work than the work that is on air