MxMIndia

Tag: CVL Srinivas

  • PK, as Prasanth Kumar is better known, will take up the CEO role with immediate effect

    Prasanth Kumar takes over as GroupM CEO

    By A Correspondent

     

    GroupM Asia Pacific announced the elevation of GroupM South Asia COO, Prasanth Kumar, to CEO. Sam Singh is leaving the GroupM CEO role in a little over a year after taking charge. While Singh will leave GroupM at the end of June. PK, as Prasanth Kumar is better known, will take up the CEO role with immediate effect.

     

    Said Mark Patterson, CEO, GroupM Asia Pacific: “PK has performed to the highest levels for 15 years in GroupM and agency leadership roles. He is uniquely and perfectly positioned to take on the CEO role, working closely with myself and CVL Srinivas (our WPP Country Manager), our local leadership team, clients and media partners. We have ambitious plans to continue to leading growth in the market as we help our clients fulfil their ambitions. It’s an exciting time for India, and the region and the future is bright. PK has been very much a part of our success to date and will be in the years to come in his new role. I’d like to thank Sam for his hard work and leadership and wish him all the best in his new role. No doubt, we will work closely with him and his new team in the future.”

     

    Added Srinivas: “PK has contributed immensely to the success of GroupM in India and South Asia through the various roles he has enjoyed since joining us back in 2004. His passion for the business, never say die attitude and a strong commitment to our clients and partners have earned him a great deal of respect across the board. I have enjoyed working with him and am excited to see him lead GroupM South Asia. I’d like to thank Sam for his leadership and wish him the very best”.

     

    Said Sam Singh: “Heartiest congratulations to PK on his promotion. It has been an absolute privilege working with GroupM this last one year. The friends that I have made, are friends for life. First hand I’ve seen the excellence and passion that the GroupM people bring to work every day; and the bonds that they have with their clients and the passion for their brands. I wish GroupM all the success. To ensure a smooth transition, PK and I will be closely working together.”

     

    And this is what PK said on his new role: “I am humbled at the opportunity to take on the CEO role for GroupM in one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing markets in the world. When it comes to advertising and media, India has made its mark on the global stage and success with our consumers is of vital importance to some of the world’s biggest advertisers.  It’s been thrilling to be with GroupM as we’ve led the way and there is much more to come”

     

     

  • WPP’s ‘Date with Data’ summit throws up interesting facets on how numbers can be crunched for profit

    Will Data be the Annadata of the future?

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    We all know that data is the future of the marketing services business. The immediate future at least. And those who want to maximise on things now, even the present.

     

    Marketing services conglomerate WPP organised its first ever ‘Date with Data’ Summit on Tuesday with a galaxy of marketing gods and its own star-studded network.

     

    The idea was to exchange ideas and insights on data-driven marketing and the use of technology across marketing solutions. Keynote speakers and masterclass presenters emphasised the evolving role of data and its profound influence on the industry across all sectors. And thereby of course underscore its expertise with all things data.

    Speaking on the relevance of Audience Planning: A Journey or a Destination, Gauravjeet Singh, Head of Media South Asia, Hindustan Unilever, said, “It is a great experience to attend industry forums like this which really discuss the cutting-edge work that is happening around data. It is important to validate what one believes which helps during discussions with panellists and eventually leads to the right direction.”

     

    Addressing the growing need for marketeers and thought leaders in the industry to efficiently utilise the power of data, CVL Srinivas, Country Manager WPP India, said: “WPP strongly believes in driving collaboration amongst various stakeholders of the industry and this event is our attempt to create a platform for sharing different perspectives on how data is helping reshape marketing and businesses. As responsible users of data, we strive to enable thought-provoking discussions around important themes. We witnessed great participation from our clients, partners and colleagues.”

     

    The Summit opened with masterclasses on Data Visualisation-To Drive Data Adoption and Data Driven Thinking; Building A Data Driven Organisation; Unlocking the True Potential of Mobile Data; Data Privacy and Responsibility and Connecting Data (Data Integration) and Generating Targeted Insights (Data Analysis). These sessions were conducted by experts from Google Cloud, InMobi, Kantar and Data Alliance.

     

    The afternoon saw panel discussions on topics such as Decoding The Consumer: Fundamentals to Future, that addressed advancements in insights, research and analytics; Connected Commerce: Decoding The Last Mile, which highlighted how data and analytics are being leveraged to bridge the gaps in commerce. Audience Planning: A Journey Or A Destination touched upon innovative approaches of using data whilst Data As A Source of Creative Inspiration explored how data can be used to inspire creative content and communication planning.

     

    Speakers and participants from companies such as Vodafone, ITC, Pepperfry, Hindustan Unilever, Ford India, Google, InMobi and Nykaa were amongst those that delivered key presentations and business insights.

     

    And here are pointers from what the various panellists said:

     

    Panel 1: Decoding the Consumer: Fundamentals to Future

     

    Siddharth Banerjee – Executive Vice President of Brand and Marketing, Vodafone

    Data signals help to pick up on consumer behaviour. Data collection can be harnessed in days and weeks rather than months and years. Facebook analytics is used to understand consumer behaviour, it is important for marketeers to harness the information. Future models will have evolve. I would rather use two or three word acronyms over artificial intelligence. Some fundamentals don’t change.

     

    Tushar Vyas- Chief Strategy Officer, GroupM South Asia

    Miniscule part that buys ITC product will be open to understand consumer behaviour

    Machine and data is augmenting the human mind to make the decision.

     

    Shuvadip Banerjee – Vice President of Marketing Services, ITC limited

    Data is being collected, curated mined on a daily basis. Bringing this data together is a challenge. End-to-end perspective gives a richer view. Quantum has increased.

    Data will help us predict consumer behaviour. Data is supplementing something critical. Never loose contact with your consumers.

     

    Panel 2: Connected Commerce: Decoding the last mile.

     

    Vikas Agnihotri – Country Director, India Sales, Google India.

    Certain weather conditions leads to how the food ordering habits change

    Helped a client on-board payments identified catchments areas where merchants will come on board. Omnichannels is going to stay it is a big part. Eg: Maruti has more than 700 dealers in the country. 9-10 customers watch a video before buying a car. It is a yearly study done by Google. There is a very strong correlation that shows customers are able to see and buy products from the store. The customers are now more informed about the car before they purchase it.

     

    Kashyap Vadapalli – Chief Marketing’s Officer Pepperfry

    Control marketplace, partly how we sell it to our merchants. Data what we use is consumer behaviour. What kind of patterns lead to a completion.

    Buying behaviour is important. Life time value. Then we know category of consumers we have to tap on. Browsing behaviour, gives us an idea of what to do

     

    Sanjay Suri, Chief Technology Officer, Nykaa

    We save all data (click, search) earlier we used to do base level analysis. Ability to look at the cohorts who have come on week by week.

    Use different Market strategy. Breaking the cohort into a granulated level, figuring each segment and personalising it.

     

    Panel 3: Audience Planning: A Journey or a Destination.

     

    Gaurav Jeet Singh – Head of Media South Asia Unilever

    It is all sophisticated marketing. Purchase decision is important.

    Performance marketing is confused with Audience marketing

    Looking at large data structure which don’t talk to each other.

    How does our data marry 2nd party data and how does 2nd party marry 3rd and complement the other.

    You need to go after data that is most recent or refreshed every month. A lot of data set ups are not recent.

     

    Vasuta Agarwal- VP and GM, South Asia InMobi

    Becomes critical with partners and shares. No one solution to fit different markets.

    Define relevant signal and sources

    In the non-economic world you don’t have a single view of their customers which is a problem. Sometimes we take data we take at face value. We don’t know how many times it is refreshed and how recent it is. Another challenge is authentic data. And needing teams to check the data.

     

    Rahul Gautam- VP of Marketing Ford India

    Small share in the Indian context of 5%. People are going against others opinions to buy Ford cars. Taking those signals to target my audience that’s success. It will help all advertisers to be sharp on the money.

     

    Kartik Sharma – CEO South Asia, Wavemaker

    Cohorts of people are being able to identified through audience planning. Initially audience planning was more like demographic planning, now it has become sharper. Look at the consumer take signals and build something of it.

    Recency of data is important. How do you make meaning out of signals is difficult. If you don’t have the resources and people it is task to do.

    Audience planning is a Process

     

    Panel 4: Data As A Source of Creative Inspiration

    Aditya Swamy – Head of Agency Partnership Google

    Looked at data from audience POV. A strong idea laid across the tool, you are sure to win the market. Mass brands can bunch users by their spending techniques and their behaviour. 2015, YouTube had two YouTubers who had million subscribers now in 2018 there 400 solo native Youtubers who have a million subscribers. These people have looked at data analyst and constantly reading comments.

    Looking for tickets while traveling is something MakeMyTrip would tap onto but Samsonite is tapping on those queries.

     

    Kainaz Karmakar – Group Creative Director, Ogilvy

    Campaign creativity for awareness – Savlon Swast campaign.

    Target audience children. By simple data point of washing hands, we have reached 2.3million children. We carried out a project where children in villages were given chalk to write with and once done it was used as handwash under water. This data point has made a difference.

     

    Deepshikha Dharmaraj – Chief Business Growth Officer, Genesis Burson-Marsteller

    It is the biggest challenge to combine data and creativity. Data is pure info unless you can create a story with it. A great campaign is built when it starts with your assumption, thought and then with the data and add a layer of how it work with the audience. Data+ creativity= Magic. It is about storytelling. Influencers are what driving the storytelling technique. Some people don’t want to engage with influencers because of payment. But engaging with them creates a better story telling method. And it also reaches the audience faster.

     

     

  • The Summit will decode the evolving, data-driven marketing landscape via all verticals of the industry, by bringing together WPP’s talent, partners, and clients

    WPP India to host its first ever Data Summit

    By A Correspondent

     

    WPP India, alongside WPP’s Data Alliance, will host ‘Date with Data’, a first-ever Data Summit,on October 16, 2018 at the ISDI – WPP School of Communication in Mumbai. This one-day summit will bring together WPP leaders, partners, and clients, to discuss how to drive success in today’s market by leveraging consumer, marketing, and communication data.

     

    Said CVL Srinivas, WPP India Country Manager: “We are excited to bring this summit to the market at a time where rapid developments in data and technology are causing shifts in consumer behaviours and content consumption. This summit will provide a learning experience for our agencies, partners, and brands; to enable further innovation, collaboration and growth. By looking ahead to future challenges together, we can push for and create new successes for our industry and partners alike.”

     

    “The emerging Indian consumer is culturally rich and digitally savvy. They desire authenticity and are aspirational. They watch ‘Dhadak’, listen to Lady Gaga, debate politics – all while doing Drake’s Keke Challenge,” said Anas Ghazi, CEO of WPP’s Data Alliance. “Date with Data uncovers opportunities for us to leverage our arsenal of data driven capabilities, helping brands demystify and connect with a complex audience, in a way that is real, lasting, and scalable”.

     

     

  • Both WPP & Rediff appear to be happy to work without each other

    Will Rediff resurrect itself post WPP, Dentsu exit?

    By A Correspondent

     

    Before you say we are being too harsh, because you resurrect only those who are dead, well, you know we don’t mean that. But, yes, the agency has been pretty down in the dumps, and as one insider told us, that few in the younger set of CMOs takes the agency too seriously.

     

    And this for an agency that has done some stellar work. Created Brand Airtel for instance. Has done some awesome work for various clients, over the years.

     

    Rediff’s rise and rise also saw its downfall. Perhaps a wrong choice of captains, perhaps a tough jv with WPP with the then CEO Martin Sorrell making life tough for Rediff co-founder and bossman Arun Nanda by reportedly pulling out key clients. In the recent past, the agency’s cash registers were ringing thanks to the prized contract with the Tatas to handle the group’s PR activities. But it lost that business too earlier this year.

     

    So as MxM reported on May 22 (http://www.mxmindia.com/2018/05/is-arun-nanda-buying-wpp-stake-in-rediffusion/), Rediffusion has exited the WPP-owned Y&R and Dentsu partnerships and has chosen to go independent again. Our sources tell us the money paid to WPP was peanuts (less than Rs 5 crore) and both left the room with a Phew!.

     

    Nanda is happy to go independent all over again, and WPP country manager CVL Srinivas delighted that he can bring in Y&R solo to Indian shores.

     

    Rediff founders Arun Nanda and Ajit Balakrishan have bought back the 40% shares held in their company by Y&R (26.7%) and Dentsu (13.3%).

     

    In a joint statement, Nanda and Balakrishnan said: “Forty-five years back, we started Rediffusion with the vision of creating a passionate and bold agency that would take ownership of its clients and their work; with the promise of creating dynamic, fearless and category-busting work. As communication is undergoing a revolution in this hyper-connected and technology-oriented world, it’s time Rediffusion rode this new wave with a new freedom, zeal and passion. We believe we will be able to deploy a variety of digital tools and creative styles more swiftly, if Rediffusion is on its own.“

     

    The communications group will now comprise Rediffusion, Rediffusion Direct, Everest Brand Solutions, Rediffusion Healthcare Communications and Rediff.com.

     

    In a release, WPP said its companies Sudler, Wunderman and Y&R, which operated as joint venture agencies with Rediffusion, will be developed as wholly-owned agencies, with WPP selling its stakes in the current Rediffusion joint ventures. There will be no change to Wunderman’s existing India businesses.

     

    Said Srinivas: “India is a key growth region for us and we have a well-defined road map and vision for what we would like to achieve here. WPP is home to some of the best marketing talent in this country and our plan is to steer our agencies to stay ahead of the curve – in terms of both market and client needs, by providing the best-in-class offerings.”

     

    Rediffusion’s recent wins include SBI, Tata 150 years mandate, Liebherr & Tata Trusts. The agency also continues to handle Tata Sons, Tata Motors, Parle, TVS Tyres, Taj, L&T Realty, Godfrey Philips, Eveready, HPCL, Audi, GSK, Danone, Sun Pharma, to name a few.

     

    The agency has had a change of guard in the recent past. As reported by MxMIndia (http://www.mxmindia.com/2018/06/rahul-jauhari-navonil-chatterjee-to-take-charge-at-rediffusion-yr-everest-as-dhunji-wadia-to-retire-in-august/ ), Rahul Jauhari and Navonil Chatterjee have taken charge as Joint Presidents. Dhunji Wadia who was to retire as President of the group this month, left last month, in an exit that was reportedly not very amicable.

     

    Lastly, will Y&R enter India? We aren’t a hundred percent sure yet, but don’t be surprised if it does in a hurry. For now, the list of its Asia offices doesn’t include India: https://www.yr.com/locations#asia. But we are told it will be back soon.

     

    As for Rediff, Nanda and Balakrishnan will need to be doing loads of interesting work and get many more clients to stay in the reckoning.

     

     

     

  • Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Media India, was elected Vice-President of the Association

    Ashish Bhasin elected President of AAAI

    By A Correspondent

     

    Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network Media India Pvt Ltd has been elected as the President of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for the year 2018-2019 at its Annual General Body Meeting held yesterday.

     

    Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Media India, was elected Vice-President of the Association.

     

    Other members of the Executive Committee are CVL Srinivas, Group M; Kalyan Sarkar, Standard Publicity Pvt Ltd; Kunal Lalani, Crayons Advertising Ltd; Pranav Premnarayen, Prem Associates Advertising & Marketing. Immediate Past President, Nakul Chopra will be the ex-officio member of the new AAAI Executive Committee.

     

    Said Bhasin: “It is an honour and privilege for me to be elected as the President of AAAI, a position that has been occupied in the past by some of the biggest stalwarts of our industry. I will endeavour to promote the interests of the advertising industry to the best of my abilities and make AAAI a stronger Association. We will also endeavour to ensure that the Association continues to successfully represent the interest of Advertising Agencies in this era of rapidly changing times. I take this opportunity to thank Nakul Chopra, from whom I have learnt a lot. He maintained such high standards as President that it will be a tough act to follow.”

     

    Added outgoing President Nakul Chopra: “I have been privileged to lead AAAI for two years – my sincere thanks to all my fellow members for their support. Hearty congratulations to Ashish on his election as President. He is not only a key influencer in our industry but also a AAAI veteran. I am sure that AAAI will only grow from strength to strength under his tutelage.”

     

     

  • Other jury members include CVL Srinivas, Country Manager, WPP India; Harsh Goenka, Chairman, RPG Enterprises; Agnello Dias, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Taproot Dentsu; Naveen Chopra, Sr. Advisor, TPG Capital; Raj Nayak, COO, Viacom18 and Dilip Cherian, Founding Partner & Group Chairman, Perfect Relations.

    Ad Club’s Marquees 2018 on Aug 29. Sanjiv Mehta to head jury

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club has announced the second edition of ‘Marquees’, the now-annual award that awards brands for excellence in marketing and brand-building. Sanjiv Mehta, CEO & MD, Hindustan Unilever Limited & Executive Vice President, Unilever South Asia, will continue to be Jury President for Marquees 2018. The awards event will be held in Mumbai on August 29.

     

    The other jury members include CVL Srinivas, Country Manager, WPP India; Harsh Goenka, Chairman, RPG Enterprises; Agnello Dias, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Taproot Dentsu; Naveen Chopra, Sr. Advisor, TPG Capital; Raj Nayak, COO, Viacom18 and Dilip Cherian, Founding Partner & Group Chairman, Perfect Relations.

     

    Vikram Sakhuja

    Speaking about the awards, Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, media and OOH, Madison Communications & President, The Advertising Club said: “The Ad Club launched the Marquees in 2017 to celebrate Excellence in Marketing. In its second year, we are happy to have the same stellar jury chaired by Unilever’s Sanjiv Mehta deciding on this year’s laurels. The Ad Club sets the gold standard for excellence in Creativity through Abbys, Effectiveness through EFFIES, Media through EMVIES and now Marketers through Marquees. Stay tuned to see the winners in each category and the Special Awards on August 29.”

     

    Partho Dasgupta

    Added Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India and Chairman, Marquees 2018: “Marquees has been able to carve out a niche for itself and I am glad to be a part of this journey. After a successful debut edition last year, I am looking forward to some great entries this year. As they say, an award is as good as its Jury and in this case the Jury can’t get better than this. The Jury with its years of experience and wisdom will be able to recognise the extra-ordinary work done by marketers over the past one year,”

     

     

  • The case study is authored by Prof Anand Narasimhan and Transformation Project Manager Ivy Buche.

    GroupM India’s transformation journey is a case study at IMD Biz School, Switzerland

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leading management institute IMD Business School, Lausanne in Switzerland has created a case study on the digital transformation journey of GroupM India..The case study is authored by Prof Anand Narasimhan and Transformation Project Manager Ivy Buche.

     

    Commenting on the case study, CVL Srinivas, Country Manager WPP India and CEO, GroupM South Asia said: “It is an honour to be recognized by the world of academia and become a part of the IMD curriculum. In late 2012, the advertising and communications industry was challenged by digital disruption. As our business underwent metamorphosis, a critical part of the journey is taking the human capital into confidence and preparing them to work in a future-ready organisation. Along with the technology aspects of transformation, at GroupM India we successfully leveraged the talent dimension in implementing digital transformation. The case study will help other companies navigate their own transformation initiatives in a dynamic market.”

     

    Added Prof Narasimhan: “I have taught the GroupM India case to different audiences. What is striking for our participants is the care and diligence that GroupM paid to the human dimension of digital transformation – the need to incorporate millennial voices and the imperative to train talented individuals to beef up their technology skills. GroupM India provides a great example for other companies to use digital disruption as an opportunity rather than a threat.”

     

     

  • Integrating analytical capabilities from across the company, Kantar Analytics Practice will combine the ​an understanding of consumers with a​n ​analytics toolkit

    Kantar​ ​& GroupM combine analytics teams to launch Kantar Analytics Practice

    By A Correspondent​

     

    Kantar, WPP’s data investment management division, ​has announced the launch of a new global analytics practice that unlocks deeper insights to fuel business growth.​ ​Integrating analytical capabilities from across the company, Kantar Analytics Practice will combine the ​an understanding of consumers with a​n ​analytics toolkit. In India, WPP has combined the Analytics teams from Kantar and GroupM to form one combined practice.

     

    Kantar Analytics Practice ​will ​offer capabilities across five areas of expertise:

    :: Brand and Media ROI: Maximising value creation from brand and media investments, by balancing short-term sales performance with long-term brand valuation and profitability.

     

    :: Customer Analytics: Making the right operational and strategic investment decisions in customer experience and loyalty marketing, to maximise the value of each and every customer relationship.

     

    :: Segmentation and Activation: Targeting your highest potential customers and prospects with personalised content, to drive profitable growth with maximum efficiency.

     

    :: Innovation Analytics: Optimising your customer-led innovation lifecycle for long-term growth, from spotting new trends before your competitors, to optimising the profitability of your product launches.

     

    :: Retail and Shopper Analytics: Maximising the commercial return from your investments in sales, retail and e-commerce via optimising decision-making in channel choice, assortment, promotions and pricing.

     

    Discussing the launch, Eric Salama, CEO Kantar, ​said:​ ​“Less than half (44%) of advertisers believe they have the right, actionable data. Clients feel data rich but insights poor and impact short. Kantar is unique in having the most complete view of consumers across the entire demand cycle: the way they live, feel, shop, watch and post. Combining our insights with data from across any client’s organisation can unlock deeper insights that fuel growth. “

     

    ​Added CVL Srinivas, Country Manager WPP India & CEO GroupM South Asia​: “The new practice addresses the clients’ ask for data driven transformation for better ROI from marketing investments in the digital era. GroupM and Kantar have been working closely together in India, co-creating services for our clients. The launch of the Kantar Analytics practice is another step in this direction and demonstrates the ability of our group to come together to provide enhanced value for clients”.

     

    ​Said ​Preeti Reddy, CEO Kantar South Asia​: ​The practice formalises the connected journey with GroupM in bringing data driven products to the markets like Campaign Watch (for during campaign ROI management) and consulting services on TV audience measurement data. Proprietary assets like SAAS platform ‘Athena’(built in India) will offer marketers a predictive and near real time opportunity to add up to 20% improvement in ROI from marketing investments including those in e-commerce.And, in Sunder Muthuraman, who will take over as CEO APAC & Global Chief Client Officer, we have a great leader for the practice’.

     

     

  • Meanwhile, CVL Srinivas who transitions fully to Country Manager, WPP India

    Sameer Singh is CEO, GroupM South Asia

     

    GroupM has announced the appointment of Sameer ‘Sam’ Singh as CEO of its South Asia operations. Singh will lead the continued development of GroupM’s data-centric enablement for its agencies as they deliver competitive advantage to clients with digital leadership and content. Based in Gurugram starting in July, Singh will report to CVL Srinivas, Country Manager, WPP India and Mark Patterson, CEO, GroupM Asia Pacific.

     

    Singh joins GroupM from Google India where he was Director- Sales, responsible for the agency business. He was earlier based at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California where he worked on measurement, brand consulting, insights and product solutions. In a career spanning over 25 years across various geographies including India, China, UK, USA, and the Middle East, Singh, an alumnus of IIM Calcutta, worked across brand management, marketing services, media, forecasting ROI and research, sales and procurement at Gillette, P&G, GSK and Google. Prior to Google, he was VP, Global Media at GSK where he led their global pitch, set up the global media team and embedded digital excellence.

     

    Srinivas has been CEO for GroupM South Asia since January 2013. In October 2017, he was given the additional responsibility of Country Manager for WPP India. He will now transition fully to his WPP role.

     

    On Singh’s appointment, CVL Srinivas, Country Manager, WPP India said: “When planning the leadership succession, we found in Sam the perfect candidate who could take GroupM South Asia to the next level. We have built a strong enabling environment for our agencies with data centricity, digital leadership and content services. Sam has a track record of driving change at organisations focused on media, technology, brands and ROI. I look forward to working with Sam who has been a client, a media partner and a friend for many years”.

     

    Commenting on his appointment, Mark Patterson, CEO GroupM Asia Pacific said: “Sam is a unique talent and a great business partner with a fantastic track record delivering growth for market-leading world-class businesses across the globe. He now joins another one, and we are excited, proud and pleased to welcome him to GroupM South Asia.”

     

    Speaking on his appointment, Singh said: “The India market is transitioning to the next level of media sophistication, with GroupM adroitly navigating this space for their clients, and along with their media partners. I am super excited to join the GroupM team on this wonderful journey, and I look forward to bringing to the table, my experiences built at Google, as a Marketer, and while working across emerging and developed markets. I look forward to contributing, and to learning from my colleagues, our clients, and our partners.”

     

     

  • Branded content is the first space the Effectiveness Lab will explore

    Wavemaker and Ogilvy launch Effectiveness Lab in India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Wavemaker has partnered with Ogilvy to create an Effectiveness Lab in India. This collaboration between the two WPP agencies will develop data-validated points of view on creating effective communications across consumer interaction platforms.

     

    Branded content is the first space the Effectiveness Lab will explore, probing how consumers respond to different content strategies, creative approaches and formats.

     

    As marketers increase spends on the creation and deployment of content, it is crucial to bring intelligence to what drives effectiveness in the content space.

     

    Said CVL Srinivas, Country Manager, WPP India and CEO, GroupM South Asia said: “At WPP, our focus is to provide Horizontality across our agencies and create a seamless structure to provide effective solutions. While we have a wide range of services on offer, the focus of our agencies is on creating efficient solutions to help our brand partners strengthen their engagement with the audience. Launching the Effectiveness Lab as a combined initiative by Wavemaker and Ogilvy is a great example of

     

    Added Kartik Sharma, Managing Director, South Asia -Wavemaker: “At Wavemaker, we connect media, content and technology to drive growth for clients and we understand how effective marketing can be.  By being able to better understand how content moves consumers to action along their purchase journeys, we’ll be able to help our clients to make informed decisions on how and when to create engaging content and therefore drive growth for them across their consumer journeys.”

     

    Said KunalJeswani, CEO, Ogilvy India: “The Effectiveness Lab will bring the best minds at Ogilvy and Wavemaker together to throw light on creative effectiveness across new age platforms. With digital communications across multiple platforms becoming core to any integrated campaign strategy, the industry needs new thinking on effectiveness. Ogilvy has always stood for Great Work That Works. The more informed we are, the better we will get at delivering creative effectiveness.”

     

  • Television will be the largest media, as Print growth declines with Digital leading the table with 30% growth

    GroupM forecasts AdEx to grow 13% in 2018

     

    By Rohit A

     

    GroupM, in its annual marketing forecast, predicts 13% growth (vs 10% in 2017) in India advertising expenditure (AdEx). The Indian AdEx in 2018 is estimated to be at INR 69,346 crore ($10.8 billion) compared to INR 61,263 crore ($9.6 billion) in 2017, as per This Year, Next Year (“TYNY”) report released by GroupM.

    As per economic experts, India is well poised with growth outlook of between 7.3% to 7.8% in 2018, giving India the fastest growing economy tag among developing countries. With demonetisation behind us and GST having implemented, a recovery in consumer demand and private investment is expected.

    “As consumer sentiment stabilizes and spending increases, we estimate 2018 to be a relatively better year from an ad spend perspective. Growth in digital media will continue to outstrip other media but unlike most markets”said CVL Srinivas, Country Manager, WPP India and CEO, GroupM South Asia.

    Between 2015 and 2017, Indian AdExgrew at a CAGR of 11% (expenditure of $9.4 billion in 2017 vs $7.7 billion in 2015), compared to World Ad spend, which grew at a CAGR of 3.5% in 2015-17.

     

    Digital continues its dominance

    While digital share of India AdEx is estimated to be ~18% in 2018 (vs 15.5% in 2017), however this space is expected to grow at a rate of 30% YoY (followed by cinema’s estimated growth of 20%). Digital witnessed the same growth rate in 2017 too.

    In 2018, AdEx in digital is estimated to be at INR 12,337 crore ($1.9 billion) compared to INR 9,490 crore ($1.5 billion) in 2017.

    GroupM estimates, Video advertising on digital is estimated to grow at 54%, as bandwidth improves and data and mobility device become more economical for the consumer.

    As digital becomes 18% of the overall advertising spends in India, measurement and transparency become paramount. Last year, GroupM globally led the conversation on measurement and transparency in digital media, and released viewability standards that are higher than those stipulated by the Media Rating Council in the US. In India too, GroupM is working with industry bodies, brands and publishers to adhere to a standard viewability index that would become integral to the digital ecosystem. Along with viewability, GroupM also held knowledge and training workshops for client teams, on mitigating ad fraud and assuring brand safety.

     

    Traditional media role in India

    Given diversity in India, Television continues to be the largest medium, with its contribution remaining ~ 45% share in 2018 (same as 2017) and will see a growth of 13% YoY. AdEx in TV is estimated to be at INR 31,596 crore ($4.9 billion) in 2018, compared to INR 27,961 crore ($4.4 billion) in 2017.

    Parliamentary elections in H1 2019 will stimulate advertising from the back half of 2018, says GroupM. Print will see a slight uptick in 2018 from the elections, with key markets in demand. The growth rate for newspapers is estimated at 4.2% with English papers growing slightly slower than Hindi and regional languages. However, print share of AdEx is expected to decrease from 29% in 2017 to 26.6% in 2018.

    Other media such as OOH will continue having a share of 4.9% in overall AdEx and is expected to witness a good traction of 15% growth from premium transit sites (vs 7% growth in 2017).

     

    Radio with a share of 4% in overall AdEx, is expected to grow at 15% in 2018 (vs 8% growth in 2017). This growth is predominantly due to the launch of new radio stations across the country

     

    Cinema will continue to grow at 20% in 2018, as the infrastructure investment made last year will attract a larger audience to theatres for a blockbuster experience. The share of Cinema although continues to be approx 1.2% of overall AdEx.

     

    Digital continues its dominance

    While digital share of India AdEx is estimated to be ~18% in 2018 (vs 15.5% in 2017), however this space is expected to grow at a rate of 30% YoY (followed by cinema’s estimated growth of 20%). Digital witnessed the same growth rate in 2017 too.

     

    Gamechangers

    As per GroupM, 3Vs will be the key drivers for consumption in 2018 – Video, Voice and Vernacular.

    Voice can have large impact on Indian consumers specially when voice enabled products can accept instructions in regional languages. Currently, the disruption is only at a high-level (Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri) and it will be interesting to see how Indian consumer and developers adapts to this new change.

    Esports will be a game changer in the sports space, says GroupM. The Olympic Council of Asia recently announced that it will include esports in the 2018 Asian Games and make it a medal sport in 2022.

     

    Indian ranking in Global AdEx

    India is among the top 5 global contributors of incremental AdEx in 2018 and has a share of 5% (vs 4.7% in 2015).

    India is set to become 10th largest adspends market in 2018 compared to 11th largest in 2017.

     

    Summary:

    :: The overall India AdEx in 2018 will grow by 13% (vs 10% in 2017)

    :: Digital will lead the growth with a 30% growth rate (~$1.9 Billion ad investment expected in 2018)

    :: Things to look out for – Consumption of video contents; platforms having Voice connectivity; regional contents; e-sports participation; OTT content

    :: India is a unique market where all media have headroom to grow.

    :: India is the fastest growing ad market in APAC and among the fastest  growing markets in the world (amongst Top 5 contributors of incremental AdEx in 2018).

     

    About TYNY:

    This Year, Next Year (“TYNY”) is part of GroupM’s media and marketing forecasting series drawn from data supplied by holding company WPP’s worldwide resources in advertising, public relations, market research, and specialist communications. The TYNY report is the most comprehensive understanding of the estimated media spends by advertisers in the current year. It also highlights some of the industry sectors that will have a major effect on advertising spends across media.

    TYNY 2018 PC presentation HANDOUT- 13218 – MM

     

  • It's an accolade that's for the truly well-deserving. And for the True Achiever of 2017 in the Indian Media, Advertising & Marketing arena

    It’s Arnab Goswami, Owner-Promoter & Editor-in-Chief, Republic TV

     

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari

     

    It’s D-Day. December 15, 2017. And since we don’t ‘conduct’ the award presentation offline, we aren’t dependant on venue availability and rates negotiations. Hence, we do the awards on a weekend, not a weekday… when the mood is just right. Celebrate if you are happy with the announcement, or just give us a pass. Or a few GRRRs.

     

    So how are we different from other awards?

     

    First, it’s not based on a survey. It’s not based on any industry poll. It’s based on a study conducted by us through the year. This makes the decision-making tougher, as we can’t pass the blame on to research. Or the collective view of the industry. Or of a jury.

     

    Second, it’s an A&M industry study. Agreed CEOs of big clients are important, but we are looking at CMOs and not CEOs of well-marketed organisations.

     

    Third, we look at performance through the year, and don’t base it on the highs of the last two quarters of a year which tend to influence any voting-based process at the yearend.

     

    Fourth, we give you a clear reason why we have chosen the winner

     

    Fifth, we are as sincere and honest about the awards as one can get. There were suggestions that we should make it an on-ground event. But then that comes with its own set of issues (and compulsions). We even had one large media group expressing its interest two years back. But we think it could’ve influenced our decision. Perhaps next year, with some more wisdom will happen in our blood streams.

     

    And sixth, it’s about achievement in 2017 – in this calendar year (well not the entire year, but at least the 350-odd days that have preceded today). There are some who may have been super achievers the previous year, but have fallen short of our winner in 2017. Similarly, there are some A&M barons who have been doing splendid work through the years, but there has been someone else who has been more spectacular. We only look at achievements of the current year.

     

    So: the MxMIndiaMediaperson of the Year 2016 is an online award. It’s an accolade that’s for the truly well-deserving. And for the True Achiever of 2016 in the Indian Media, Advertising & Marketing arena.

     

    With the backgrounders done, here’s  how we went about our task.

     

    Wemaintain an online notebook that records important developments of the year. It’s a drill that ensures one can do recaps etc with ease.

     

    For the Mediaperson of the Year, one reviews names, quarter-wise. This helps that the choice of the award doesn’t suffer from the recency factor.

     

    We looked at various names. We couldn’t miss the achievements of the Zee group captains Punit and Amit Goenkaand Viacom18 Group CEO Sudhanshu Vats as they celebrated major milestones this year.

    We also looked at the Big 35 media entities. For, it takes a lot to ensure that it’s business as usual. We then got to our second shortlist where we decided to look at five shortlists. And this is what it was:

     

    1. Piyush Pandey: Getting the Lions of St Mark with brother Prasoonis, as we wrote the other day, a significant achievement.

    2. The Wire Co-founders – Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M K Venu: They’ve stood their ground in the very rough weather and have emerged as the biggest of the credible voices in journalism. Yes, more credible than most print badshashs.

    3. Uday Shankar: Star India Chairman and CEO Uday Shankar was elevated to President, 21st Century Fox, Asia. But the 21CF charge would be in addition to the Star India responsibilities. The year also saw Star bagging the IPL rights and perhaps for the first time ever getting its act together on the second channel – Star Bharat.

    4. CVL Srinivas: The GroupM CEO bagged the coveted ITC account along with a slew of others and some consolidation of the Indian operations. And then he was also made Country Manager India which is a significant capture of the faith WPP supremo Sir Martin Sorrell thinks of Srini

    5. And then our fifth shortlist…

     

    Ladies and Gentlemen, We have great pride in announcing that the 2017 MxMIndiaMediaperson of the Year Award goes to…

     

    Arnab Goswami, Owner and Editor-in-Chief, Republic World/TV

     

    Arnab Goswami

    Goswami quit Times Now last year and in superquick time he set up an all-new English news channel. Right from the start of this year, he has created a buzz in media circles about the channel’s launch. And his launch strategy was unique with videos released via digital media announcing that he’s coming soon

     

    This award goes to ArnabGoswami, the businessman and mediaperson. It’s not easy to launch a channel in some seven months, even if the decision to start anew would’ve been taken earlier.

     

    For the last eight-odd months, Republic TV has been the undisputed leader amongst English news channels. There have been attempts to undermine its rise by slicing of data in terms of age groups, time bands or select cities, but the lead of Republic over the others, Times Now in particular is definite.

     

    He has also led the channel’s drive to attract anchor advertisers with one-on-one meetings with a large number of them. He has of course also managed to line up a top deck of able hands in Vikas Khanchandani, Priya Mukherjee and Charu Thakur amongst others.

     

    The fact remains that Republic TV did take the dual LCN route to maximise reach in the early days as did a few others, but given the regulator’s intervention on the issue, the dual LCN route for upping connectivity has been stopped.

     

    There are allegations that Times Now and Republic TV have taken the landing route to boost viewership but we do not have evidence to prove both.

     

    While Times Now is still a significant force to reckon with, in terms of its content and presentation, it appears to be a poor cousin of Republic TV.

     

    But, given that the MxMIndiaMediaperson of the Year award is a qualitative award, it would be incorrect to mention that the nationalistic, pro-NarendraModi, pro-BJP biggies and hence the pro-BJP stance of Republic TV and Goswami in particular is a significant downer. While it’s not that there is no screaming and shouting on India Today or even NDTV in the recent past, Goswami takes the pitch to a new high every evening. We have had reservations about Goswami’s and Republic’s editorial stance. Yes, we do remember that he was very combative against Haryana Chief Minister M L Khattar after the unrest in the state some months back. He has taken on the BJP since launched, but these have been very few and far between.

     

    Perhaps there is reason for moderation. Perhaps there is reason to move away a bit from the debate formula and also include other news of the day in a little more detail.

     

    But for now, the formula is working wonders for Republic TV and its primary promoter and editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami.The viewing public, as is determined from the popularity of the channel, isn’t complaining.

     

    A truly deserving winner of the 2017MxMIndiaMediaperson of the Year Award. Taaliyaan!