MxMIndia

Tag: brand activation

  • 57 per cent of the surveyed respondents feel that the share of the total marketing spends attributed to BTL activities is expected to grow around 10 per cent

    EEMA-E&Y report predicts 25% growth for Event & Activations in 2 years

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Indian event and activation industry in the organized sector is expected to grow at an average rate of 25 per cent from its current size of Rs2,800 crore to Rs4,375 crore in 2013-14. Out of Home (OOH) and radio segments are said to be one of the key growth drivers of the event industry over the last three years. The next phase of growth in activations is expected to come from ruralIndiaas the metros are said to have reached a saturation point; hence the need to tap the large consumer base in the rural belt. These are some of the findings from the EEMA (Event & Entertainment Management Association) and E&Y (Ernst & Young) white paper on the ‘The Business of Experience – The Indian Events and Activations Industry’.

     

    In addition to these findings, 57 per cent of the surveyed respondents are of the opinion that the share of the total marketing spends attributed to BTL (Below the Line) activities (including events and activation) is expected to grow around 10 per cent over the next two to three years to reach nearly 20 per cent of the total marketing spends. The respondents also believe that on the road ahead, profit margins of the events and activation companies will grow at an average of around 15 per cent.

     

    The respondents were also asked to list five most critical issues they expect to face over the next few years. Inadequate event infrastructure; Talent acquisition and retention; Poor image/ Lack of transparency; High competition levels and Inability to demonstrate ROI’s were the top five issues that were a cause of concern for the respondents.

     

    In conversation with MxMIndia, Brian Tellis, President, EEMA talked about the two areas of growth for the event and activation industry in the near future. According to Mr Tellis, the unorganized part of the industry is estimated to be as large as the organised sector, if not larger: “The industry will grow from two areas. First, the industry will start getting a larger share of the existing marketing pie. The existing marketing budget of the brand is estimated to grow by 10 per cent as far as experiential marketing is concerned. The second area of growth will come from the bits of the unorganized sector which will become organized. So yes, it is time for high growth.”

     

    On the takeaways for the industry from the white paper, Mr Tellis said that the industry should first start developing its own Intellectual Properties (IP’s) because the ROI on Intellectual Properties is very high. He also pointed out the need to develop a calculation matrix and ROI matrix as this would enable marketers to confidently spend more money on BTL or experiential marketing.

     

    Talking about the challenges and opportunities for events and activation industry in the long run, Mr Tellis said: “There is a need to convert the unorganized sector into organized sector and the to develop Intellectual Properties (IP) because that will ensure sustainable revenues in the long run.”

     

    MxMIndia also spoke to other industry players and marketer for their views on the challenges and opportunities facing the event and activation industry and its effectiveness in brand building.

     

    According to Mr Girish KJ, vice president-Wizcraft International, over the years as the economy expanded rapidly, so did the need for brand activation, and experiential marketing has become a key value driver in the marketing mix: “In certain sectors, we find that  experiential marketing is what delivers high value to brands. We find a lot of first time clients simply being overwhelmed by the value they derive from investing in brand activation. Eventually, brands that invest in creating meaningful experiences will have a much better reason to be in the customers’ consideration set. In terms of engagement with communities, branded experiences deliver the best return on investment. We have seen that branded events and activation delivers among the highest return with a carefully thought out strategy and a well planned and executed branded experience.”

     

    On the challenges and opportunities facing the events and activation industry, Mr Girish KJ said that investing in and creating experiential marketing professionals for tomorrow; and attracting and retaining the best and the brightest talent will always be a challenge. “To today’s digitized, desensitised, over-communicated customer, the power of the brands experience cannot be over-emphasised. Globally, customers are shunning main stream, talk-down communications and clamouring to be involved with their brands. That is the opportunity for our industry to embrace.”

     

    Yogesh Nambiar, Head, Events Operations, TransStadia felt that events and activations industry is expected to grow in the future, but the real growth is however expected only post January 2013: “Currently we are witnessing a downslide from the event management side of the business, because most of the marketers are more or less looking at the Intellectual Property (IP) side of the business and not the event management companies or agency. Today marketers are looking at events and activations as an extension of their marketing arm, so you have to have good ideas to increase ROI’s for brands. From an ROI basis, I believe activation or BTL plays a large role for marketer or brands.”

     

    Kamal Nandi, Executive Vice President (Marketing and Sales), Godrej Appliances observed: “With more and more brands give experiential experience to consumers, I believe events and activations are only going to increase because that allows consumers to experience the products. Yes, marketers are spending more on activations. But, if you compare ATL and BTL spends, you will find that BTL spends have been constantly increasing over the years, and more money is being spent on experiential marketing. In our industry, events and activations are gaining momentum; however more and more spends are increasingly shifting towards BTL activities. So we definitely see this as an effective way of connecting with consumers and therefore as an industry we are spending more in this area.”

     

  • Spurred by brand activation spends, such non-advertising spends, called below-the-line (BTL), are gaining share over advertising spends at several leading consumer companies

    HUL, LG etc look beyond regular advtg

    By Bhanu Pande & Ratna Bhushan

     

    PepsiCo is organising seven-a-side soccer tournaments in neighbourhoods, LG is showcasing its durables in residential complexes, Cadbury is standing outside super markets with its cookies, Hindustan Unilever is standing with a shampoo to assess the state of your scalp… These are some of the biggest companies, with hefty advertising budgets. Yet, to market their wares, they are increasingly looking beyond conventional, passive advertising and spending more on marketing activities where the connect with the target consumer is active and direct.

     

    In marketing lingo, such on-the-ground events and promotions are called ‘brand activation’, and they generally form the largest chunk of a company’s non-advertising activities. Spurred by brand activation spends, such non-advertising spends, called below-the-line (BTL), are gaining share over advertising spends at several leading consumer companies.

     

    According to LK Gupta of LG Electronics, 60 per cent of the company’s marketing

    budget is going towards BTL activities, against 35-40 per cent three years ago. “With increasing choices, the consumer has become more discerning,” said Mr Gupta, vice president-marketing. “Therefore, ground activations are gaining traction due to the added impact they give beyond the media clutter.”

     

    Elsewhere, Homi Battiwalla, category director, PepsiCo India, labels the increase in his company’s BTL spends as “significant”. “Today, consumers have started saying, ‘show me something real’,” he added. In April, in its advertising, PepsiCo India switched from cricket to soccer, and launched a campaign, ‘change the game’.

     

    Alongside, it hit neighbourhoods with ‘T-20 Football’ – a seven-a-side, 20-minute soccer tourney. “We realised plain advertising wasn’t enough,” said Mr Battiwalla. “We wanted to build the idea, and create an experiential engagement that is grassroots with our target audience.”

     

    All this is translating into more business for firms like New Delhi-based Candid Marketing, which helps companies with their brand-activation strategies. Its managing director Atul S Nath says its business is growing 25 per cent a year. “Clients are questioning the delivery from plain advertising,” he said. “Delivery from brand activation is almost immediate, though the latter has its limitations.”

     

    Mr Nath predicts that, in the next five years, the split between BTL and ATL (above-the-line, or advertising) spends will be equal. Currently, companies spend more on mass-media advertising than on events and promotions. He, however, feels, advertising budgets will not fall in absolute terms, but more of the incremental allocation will be to BTL activities. “Overall spends on BTL will significantly rise as people begin to see its impact,” he said.

     

    Mr Gupta of LG agrees, and attributes it partly to the rise of online marketing and social media, which conveys details of a product quicker than conventional advertising. “The influencing touch points are shifting,” he said. “The customer comes armed with his own research. So, conversion with demo and explanation has become an area of great focus.”

     

    It’s also the current tight business environment, said brand consultant Harish Bijoor, who sees advertising symbolising ‘theme’ and BTL representing ‘sales’. In a tough market, cash flows are an imperative. “So, they are putting their big bucks on BTL, and money is certainly moving from theme to scheme,” he said.

     

    Mayank Shah of Parle Products says the idea is to engage with the consumer despite the higher costs. “In case of traditional advertising on television or print, cost per contact is very low,” said Mr Shah, group product manager. “BTL activation is costlier, but it’s the quality of engagement with the consumer that makes a lot of sense. He feels, it is very important to generate trials in food products, which is the company’s main product category. “Sometimes it’s necessary to make consumer sample your products,” said Mr Shah. “And where there’s a big rural and semi-urban opportunity, we need to go BTL.

     

    Dabur India too has been relying heavily on BTL activities in tier-II and tier-III towns. “With rural consumers increasingly moving towards branded products, just leveraging mainstream media is not enough to connect with them,” said George Angelo, executive director-sales, Dabur.

     

    The company has the Dabur Amla ‘banke dikhao rani pratiyogita’, a rural beauty and talent hunt where rural women are groomed by trained beauticians. Another of its recent BTL activity was the Dabur Gulabari Miss Rose glow contest – a regional model hunt from state capitals, with the eventual winner receiving a wildcard to the Femina Miss India contest. “A BTL initiative involving Vanya Mishra (a wildcard who was one of the winners at the Miss India contest) resulted in Dabur Gulabari reporting its highest ever monthly sales in April,” said Mr Angelo.

     

    Source: The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • Vibgyor started out as a generic event management services company and has transformed into one of the top activation agencies in the country with a pan-India presence

    Vibgyor Brand Services gets future-ready

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vibgyor Brand Services, a pioneer in brand activation services, has completed 10 years of operations. This not only signifies the coming of age of this specialized industry, but also reflects on its growing importance as a tool of marketing communications.

     

    Vibgyor started out as a generic event management services company and has transformed into one of the top activation agencies in the country with a pan-India presence. Vibgyor has 6 offices and a team of over 90 that support top-notch companies like HUL, Dabur India, Pepsi, Samsung, Flipkart, Toshiba and others for their brand activation strategies including events, exhibitions and on-ground consumer contact programmes.

     

    Ankur Kalra, founder and CEO of Vibgyor recalls that a decade ago he had to explain brand activation and experiential marketing services to his potential clients. Today, no marketing plan is complete without Brand Activation and every forward looking company ensures a healthy balance of ATL & BTL as part of their plan.

     

    The discussions are now more on strategy, on methods of targeting the specific customer profile, engaging them and ensuring that they experience the brand and convert into loyal consumers. “This is the reason that we are adopting a new corporate identity and business philosophy today. Our benchmark is going to be how involved we are as a team with the clients brand and how much excitement we can create around it”, he said.

     

    Today consumers, with the overload of information, are looking for exciting brand experience and Vibgyor is committed to delivering the same. The new philosophy “Involve > Excite” is based on the input output principle – to get involved in a brand to create excitement around it.

     

    The brand activation industry is estimated to be anywhere between Rs5000 – 6000 crore, growing at 15 – 20 per cent per year. Vibgyor clocked a growth rate of 25 per cent last year which is substantially higher than the industry average. “The twin focus on commitment and creativity has enabled us to reach this far and we hope that adding involvement and excitement as part of our service delivery will help our client and in turn enable us stay ahead of the industry and maintain our double digit rate of growth”, Mr Kalra added.