MxMIndia

Tag: content

  • Harsh Deep Chhabra, Ajay Mehta, Nikhil Mayne and Samraat Kakkar to take on new leadership roles

    Mindshare India announces key leadership changes

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mindshare has announced a major rejig of leadership roles in line with the agency’s efforts to stay adaptive, agile and innovative.

     

    Harsh Deep Chhabra takes on the role of Senior Vice President, Mindshare Fulcrum with immediate effect. In his last five years in the company, Chhabra has played a key role in the growth of Team Fulcrum at Mindshare. He has also played a critical role in managing the strategic digital mandate.

     

    As Mindshare re-orients its business around the pillars of “Acceleration”, “Outcomes” and a “Refreshed Neo”, there have been key changes in the leadership of its Content+ practice and Neo India as well, notes a communique.

     

    Ajay Mehta moves to the role of Senior Vice President, Content+. In his new role, Mehta will take on national responsibilities for Entertainment & Sports (ESP), Branded Content, Music & IP Creation along with the Experiential Marketing practice. His responsibilities also include South Asia Content+ mandate for Unilever.

     

    Nikhil Mayne has been designated Vice President, Content+. His responsibilities include developing the Social Media practice and driving the creation of Agile content that powers performance marketing. He will also drive the ESP and Branded Content practice for m/SIX India.

     

    Samraat Kakkar, who has driven the digital practice for Mindshare North and East, will take on the role of Vice President, Neo India. Neo is an expert in Performance Marketing globally and partners Mindshare in driving integrated solutions for clients across Brand & Demand.

     

    Speaking on the development, Amin Lakhani, COO, Mindshare South Asia said: “We at Mindshare strive to keep our clients ahead of the curve and our people agile and integrated. All these leaders have proven their abilities to deliver desired outcomes and beyond even in challenging situations. I am positive that the new structure will help us achieve maximum impact for our clients and create more value for our teams”

     

    Added MA Parthasarathy, CEO, Mindshare South Asia: “As the industry is staring at unexpected times, it is imperative for us as an agency to be future-ready. We are delighted to have such experienced leaders within the agency, who are future-focused and skilled to deliver disruptive business thinking for our clients.”

     

     

  • In Week 3 of our Friday announcements: an all-new channel on television content. A new weekly column by Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO of Ormax Media. Also, the second of our MxM Mondays will be on what ails media education (and not on TAM).

    Week 3 Announcement: Starting Aug 8: New channel on Content & Column by Shailesh Kapoor

    It’s Week 3 of our announcement on Fridays.

     

    And the first of these is on an all-new channel on our site – on Television Content. Since we launched last year, we’ve felt the need for one and have also received several requests to carry programming-related information and stories . However, since we concentrate more on the business of media, we have not been able to do justice to several stories on television content. It’s unfortunate because while distribution and marketing dynamics are critical, it’s content that finally drives viewership and the moolah. Also, we already have channels exclusively for journalism and radio on MxMIndia…

     

    So, starting next Thursday (Wednesday, August 8), look forward to our channel on TV Content.

     

    We are also proud to announce that Shailesh Kapoor, co-founder and CEO, Ormax Media will write a column on television starting on Aug 8.  Watch out for it!

     

    Meanwhile, given the controversy that is raging on television measurement, we’ve decided to put off our MxM Mondays discussion on why everyone loves to damn TAM. Instead, we will focus on an issue that concerns us all: What ails Media Education.  We will speak to a cross-section of people in the industry. If you would like to share your views, please email us at editor@mxmindia.com with the ‘MxM Mondays #2’ in the subject line.

     

  • Ranjona Banerji writes about a grouse. Either spewing venom or tongue-in-cheek

    Ranjona Banerji: Irritating ads that irritate

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Am stepping on a few toes here and other people’s territory but then wothehell. As much news as you watch on TV (or as much TV that you watch, be honest) you’re forced to watch as much advertising as content.

     

    And sometimes it’s fun (like Hari Sadu and naukri.com) or even the poor chappie who thinks he’s eating chicken, but it turns out to be a doggie. Or Fastrack’s funny series on the risqué side with Genelia D’Souza and Virat Kohli. Or even the Flipkart ads where children play adults.

     

    But what does one make of Priyanka Chopra squirming about on the ground to a song that does not match the bizarre dance she does as she tells us she hates the “chip chip”. All that happens for Garnier is that most people throw up and switch channels.

     

    Through the telecast of Wimbledon on Star Sports you get to hear that “amazing Thailand always amazes”. Well, duh, couldn’t they think of another word? Or has someone done Thailand tourism in?

     

    The Kelloggs ads with that vastly annoying mother who does something as simple as throw a few almonds on a bowl of cereal and pretends she’s invented sliced bread is anodyne as such ads normally are.

     

    But the winners of the most irritating ads have to be Reliance Foundation and Coca-Cola. Insensitivity seems to rule the Coca-Cola ad in which a group of not very well off (how do I say this politely?) children play cricket in some dusty desert scrub land as a voice over tells us poetically how they have no cricket bat, ball, stumps, the pavilion has no roof and so on and ends some poignant note about how this is not play but the call of the earth or something. Then Sachin Tendulkar with his strange new hairstyle drinks a Coke and says play on. The children and Tendulkar never meet and you get the feeling that the children cannot afford to drink Coca-Cola, certainly not one each.

     

    And there’s the Reliance Foundation. I’m not getting to the connection with the programme Satyamev Jayate. For one, the ad looks like a copy of the Vedanta ad, which claimed to be saving the lives of various village children with schools and food and making their dreams come true. The ad ran into as many problems as Vedanta does with its mining projects and the company’s attempt to redeem itself with this real or exaggerated NGO social work effort did not work.

     

    If indeed Nita Ambani is moving into social work, an ad that copies an already discredited ad is surely not the best vehicle. Also, the figures put up for the number of children fed or schooled or clothed is embarrassingly small for a company the size of Reliance. Even worse, Nita Ambani’s look is so carefully crafted that it looks just that. Also makes her ears look unnaturally large.

     

    Hidden persuasion is fine. But these are attempts at such blatant manipulation that they are not just exploitative, they may not even work.

     

    For those interested in advertising and how it works, try and catch The Gruen Transfer on the Australia Network or Youtube. Hosted by Australian comic Will Anderson, it is funny, incisive, intelligent and hard-hitting. And did I say funny?

     

    All right, I’ll watch the news from tomorrow.

     

  • Lots and lots of social networking site logos and lots and lots of URLs. Does this really help?

    Follow us at F-T-Y-B: Hareesh Tibrewala

    By Hareesh Tibrewala

     

    While on a business trip to Delhi last week.  I happened to find myself in the midst of a traffic jam (so what’s new?) and while patiently waiting for the car to start crawling, my eyes fell on a large advertising hoarding. It was a well-designed hoarding for a luxury brand with some superlative creatives and the company web URL printed in the lower left hand corner. While everything on this 200 square meter hoarding looked perfect, what triggered my discomfort were four small colourful boxes in the bottom right corner, preceded by the words “Follow us on”.

     

    The colourful boxes were the single character brand logos for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogger, and quite obviously the brand manager was trying to invite the reader to engage with the brand on these social networks. What I saw on this billboard is a representation of what one sees in others forms of communication as well. Lots and lots of social networking site logos and lots and lots of URLs. Does this really help?

     

    Here are my thoughts

     

    • Simply putting colourful boxes with logos of social networking sites (without the full brand URL eg www.facebook.com/yourbrand) does not add any value to your communication. If at all, it only contributes to promoting the brand value of that social networking site.
    • Putting a half a dozen URLs in a communication serves no purpose either. No one has time to visit a single URL or click on a single link, leave alone click on half a dozen links. When I see a communication which has lots “Follow us on ..” links, frankly it is a bit intimidating
    • Just because you ask someone to “Follow” you is no reason to believe that that person is actually going to follow you.

     

    So what should be done ?

     

    • Sure, social networking sites are now the default place where consumers engage with brands. Also the days when consumer went to content are over. Now content has to reach the consumer. Thus continuing the engagement with the consumer, from your bill board onto a social networking site makes all the sense
    • If your brand is present on multiple social networks, choose one where you think you have the best chance of building a community or engaging with the consumer. Promote just this one link. When the consumer reaches this page, you can always provide links to your other social media presence.
    • Display the link in full (www.Youtube.com/yourbrandname). Chance of a brand recall is much higher compared to just saying : Find us on YouTube
    • Finally if you are putting out a link, see if you can build in a strong call to action. Try to answer the question, “why should the consumer follow my link”. And use that answer to trigger a strong call to action.

     

    Hareesh Tibrewala is Joint CEO, Social Wavelength. You can engage with him socially at linkedin.com/in/hareeshtibrewala

     

  • The main difference that triggers all other differences between Internet radio and FM radio is the platform itself. The Internet lends more room for flexibility, cost saving and personalization says Anil Srivatsa

    [MxM Radiol]: 5 reasons why internet radio scores over traditional radio

    By Anil Srivatsa

     

    1. Internet radio offers more room:

    The main difference that triggers all other differences between Internet radio and FM radio is the platform itself. The Internet lends more room for flexibility, cost saving and personalization.

     

    2. Internet Radio offers a variety of choices in comparison to FM radio:

    This is true, particularly in the Indian context. FM stations tend to follow the beaten path for a variety of reasons, but to the consumer it just spells ‘boredom and monotony’. Radio can be classified broadly into mass radio and niche radio.

     

    InIndia, mass radio is pretty much the order of the day, but it leaves a lot of content-hungry people dissatisfied. Niche radio does not justify the investment from a business point of view, but presents a vibrant opportunity to internet radio operators, who for a lot less money can create and serve these niche content seekers with better quality content in a variety of genres.

     

    3. Content on Internet radio is more personalized; FM radio caters to collective choices of masses:

    Internet radio is more amenable to personalization at a micro-listener level, with the choice of content being delivered with accuracy according to the taste of the consumer, while FM radio is not as hospitable.

     

    Of course, Internet radio is a loosely used term that could mean content delivered via the Internet in a linear fashion (non-interactive just like FM) or as an on-demand service (interactive). Linear Internet radio makes available several choices of content differentiation in one place while FM radio is devoid of choice and is, within a specific urban or semi-urban dwelling, limited to the number of frequencies in that region. This makes Internet radio more interesting choice.

     

    4. The ability to influence opinion on topics and issues on a wider scale:

    FM inIndiagenerally reaches out to the least common denominator while throwing up some specific content catering to special interest. This generally happens when the channel is omni-present in that geographical location, which makes Internet radio look even more obscure. But in reality, Internet radio’s reach is well beyond what a single FM station can do with one channel, giving the flavour of programming more room to breathe and giving it the possibility of more substance and depth.

     

    However, nothing can compete with FM for super localization en masse …even if one can create and distribute a super local internet radio station.

     

    5. Internet radio offers broader spectrum of artists and more room to showcase talent:

    Historically NAB, who was then the lobby for AM radio operators, perceived FM radio to be a huge business threat. Today they have embraced it (FM) and are now perceiving the same threat coming from internet radio. Traditionally, on either side of theAtlantic, FM radio is in cahoots with the music labels where there is a carefully orchestrated promotion plan for the labels, sidelining air play for the unsigned bands leaving FM playing the same 20 top of the hour.

     

    InIndia, too, things are not very different. Large market-leading labels restrict FM radio to play more of their music to ensure constant promotion in exchange for favourable licensing terms resulting in the same disenfranchisement on un-signed quality content. This goes against free speech and violates the anti-competitive spirit of equal opportunity to succeed in business. So, both, from a business and talent perspective, Internet radio is totally unrestricted, allowing small label artists to showcase their talent in all kinds of music and non-music content and without gate keepers.

     

    Labels today see Internet radio as a threat but in reality it’s an opportunity to discover new talent, promote unconditionally and widen their repertoire. Given the right environment, FM radio would rebroadcast on the Internet in a heartbeat and this in itself tells the whole story.

     

    Mr Anil Srivatsa is the Co-Founder, CEO Venturenet Partners Pvt. Ltd. (promoters of Spot Radio and Radiowalla)

     

  • Everyone’s talking, most of which is meaningless chatter, but no one’s listening on the social media, feels Rohini Kapur

    The Anchor: 7 painful social media trends

    1. Idiotic “movements”:

    Social media is a place to hang out and chill with friends. And inane conversations are part of the mix. But some of these private conversations are going public and turning into hotly debated topics, communities and even “movements”. Like the WTF or “Women Take Forever” movement that has caught the fancy of over 31,000 men who have hit the “like” button because they think women take too long to get dressed.

     

    2. Contests… and some more contests:

    The Indian social media scene is exploding with contests of all kinds. Not much wrong with that, except that it’s become one of the few ways to draw attention. What’s worse, each contest seems exactly the same as the previous one. In a single day, I spotted three recipe contests on Facebook from different brands.

     

    3. Cloned content:

    Everyone’s talking about the same thing, whether it is Sachin’s pending century, Farhan Akhtar’s birthday or a certain song about soup boys. And then comes the copy-pasting of one-liners, jokes, images and videos. Facebook Walls and Twitter feeds are the new SMS, perhaps.

     

    4. Meaningless Twitter fights:

    Person A (usually a celeb) tweets something. Person B objects. Or Random Person sends hate tweets to celeb. Celeb responds with anger, sarcasm, close to a personal attack. Fight ensues. Enough said!

     

    5. Everyone’s talking, no one’s listening:

    Conversations, discussions, polls are all great ways to talk to fans and customers. But how about listening to them for a change? Bad product and service experiences abound, and they aren’t necessarily on the brand’s Facebook Page.

     

    6. Missing the brand story:

    For most brands, the only constant is to post “something”, with the brand’s voice, depth of content and messaging almost an afterthought. For instance, most media brands use social media only to post links to stories on their website, rather than encouraging debate and discussion or positioning the brand.

     

    7. Lots of fans, no engagement:

    We all know Facebook brand pages with thousands or even lakhs of fans, but take a look beyond the numbers, and the community seems moribund. Very low or no engagement, silly comments and disinterested fans. Wonder what will take the page admins and brand managers to shake things up.

     

    Rohini Kapur works in social media and web strategy and runs a fashion blog

  • FM stations experiment with content to go beyond traditional programming and give listeners a differentiated experience.

    FM stations go for out-of-the-box content

    By Robin Thomas

     

    Often criticized for airing uniform content across channels, FM radio stations have already begun exploring content that goes beyond just regular Bollywood music. Unlike print, television or the internet, radio in India continues to be a highly regulated medium. Contents across various radio channels are restricted to music, though multiple frequencies if allowed by the government is likely to change this. News on FM radio has already been given a nod by the government of India, but not everyone in the industry is chuffed about this development as it restricts news to be sourced only via AIR (All India Radio).

     

    Nisha Narayanan

    Meanwhile, even as the ups and downs over restrictions continue, FM stations are leaving no stone unturned to offer their listeners out-of-the-box content, each station wanting to sound different from the other. Fever FM for instance, has a mythological show, ‘Ramayan’ with huge fanfare and ‘From Russia with Love’, an infotainment programme. Radio Mirchi airs ‘Sunday Suspense’ in Kolkata, wherein the RJ (Radio Jockey) narrates stories written by authors like Satyajit Ray, Saradindu Bandhopadhyay among many others. Red FM on the other hand initiated shows like ‘Red Arrest’ and ‘The Mental Show’ in Delhi and Mumbai respectively.

     

    Ms Nisha Narayanan, Senior VP Projects & Programming, Red FM said, “Red is known for innovative programming. In the present, the two most innovative program initiatives are ‘Red Arrest’ in Delhi and ‘The Mental Show’ in Mumbai with Suresh and Hoezay. The treatment of both is edgy, humorous, shocking, tongue-in-cheek, and the response has been phenomenal. They both have been the talking point of Delhi and Mumbai Stations respectively and have gained tremendous traction. The mails , calls , responses have been consistently pouring in – and it’s not a surprise!”

     

    Mr Sriram Kilambi, Marketing Head, Radio Mirchi stated, “Sunday Suspense is an amazing show in Kolkata. It is produced in-house by our Mirchi Team in Kolkata. The show has many firsts to its credit – being the first in its genre – and has been supremely well received. The show is targeted at the general Kolkata public who is afraid that the current generation will start to lose touch with Bengali literature. This show has been one of our biggest successes thus far.

     

    Sunil Kumar

    “Sunday Music Company on the other hand is a show in Mumbai that basically talks to those behind the music of the latest release. So, while you get a lot of movie reviews, this is a one-of-a-kind music review that tells you about the music, its makers etc. Sundays have been very strong for Radio Mirchi, largely thanks to innovative shows like the SMC.” he added.

     

    According to Mr Sunil Kumar, MD, Big River Radio, “FM stations have experimented a lot with music content, and they are doing a good job by offering differentiated content within music itself. Today listeners are able to identify their favourite FM stations and very soon there will be further differentiation in content, with or without regulations.”

     

    Ashish Pherwani

    Mr Ashish Pherwani, Associate Director, Media & Entertainment, Ernst & Young observed, “Content innovation in FM radio still has a long way to go, as currently every other FM station is plays popular music with little bits of innovation here and there. I believe content innovations will actually happen once multiple frequencies are allowed which is likely to happen in phase III.”

  • How do you keep viewers coming back to you in an arena that’s packed with channels and content?

    The Anchor: 7 ways to keep a viewer glued to your channel

    By Sunder Aaron

     

    #1 Assortment: A channel needs to offer a variety of content to viewers to keep them coming back.

     

    #2 Thematic: It is important to be a part of local festivals and important historic days which makes the viewers feel closer to the channel – for example Diwali or Independence Day.

     

    #3 Original: A viewer today is bombarded with numerous communications all the time – it is more important than ever create a clear differentiation amongst the category to enjoy top-of-mind status with the viewers.

     

    #4 Young and fresh: Any viewer, young or middle-aged, would like to watch a film which excites him/ her. The best way to this is to keep the appearance of the channel vibrant and fresh.

     

    #5 Beyond the television screen: Gone are the days when television channels just aired promos and hoped to keep viewers glued – the need of the hour is to create brand extension programs.

     

    #6 Avoid repetition: Repetition could result into losing a fair amount of eyeballs since there is a sense of disappointment if the viewer has already watched the content.

     

    #7 Surprise element: Surprise your viewer! Exceed your promise by delivering more than you promise.

     

    Sunder Aaron is Business Head, PIX.