MxMIndia

Tag: CVL Srinivas

  • While taking on the role of Country Manager for WPP in India, he will stay on as head of  GroupM South Asia

    CVL Srinivas to helm WPP India

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    It’s a Diwali announcement that has caused much.

    WPP, the world’s largest communications services group and also the biggest in India, has announced the appointment of CVL Srinivas at Country Manager of WPP India. He takes over from Ranjan Kapur, in addition to his responsibilities as head of GroupM

    South Asia. Kapur will continue as Chairman of WPP India, helping Srini, as Srinivas is better known in the fraternity, and focusing on his schools (including the ISDI WPP School of Communication in India) and foundation initiatives.

    “Horizontality is WPP’s number one strategic objective and Srini’s additional role in India will be to ensure that WPP works together as effectively as possible to provide clients with effective and efficient solutions,” the communique notes. This quote has also been attributed to WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell in some media.

    Srini took charge of GroupM South Asia as CEO in January 2013, taking over from Vikram Sakhuja, now Group CEO, Madison Media and OOH. Sakhuja had taken on a global role of CEO, Maxus Worldwide (now merged with MEC to form Wavemaker).

    A media industry veteran of over 20 years having done his mechanical engineering from BITS Pilani and an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur, Srini spent most of his career with GroupM/WPP where he helped incubate India’s first media agency ‘HTA Fulcrum’ in 1995 when Hindustan Unilever awarded the media AOR to HTA (now JWT). Srini later led the setting up ‘Maxus’ in India and helped grow it in a very short span of time into one of the leading agency brands in the country. He was made the Asia-Pacific CEO of Maxus in 2006. Srini has also held leadership positions in Madison, Starcom and The Times of India group.

    So what’s got Srini the top job? For one, Srini championed a transformation program at GroupM South Asia to make it a future-ready organisation. Under his leadership GroupM has won a record number of new businesses, incubated several path breaking initiatives in digital, mobile, content, data analytics, talent management and won numerous prestigious awards making India one of the most successful GroupM operations globally.

    Well, that’s what the communique tells us. What insiders and industry biggies tell us that Srini has been quietly aggressive and led the Sorrell agenda of making his various media businesses future-ready. Which he did very efficiently at GroupM.

    Sorrell, like captains of other leading media services networks, has underscored the need for collaboration and integration across WPP’s various arms in India and across the world. “Srini achieved this with much success within GroupM too,” says a former GroupM senior employee, adding: “Remember, leading the various arms of GroupM is also a challenging ask, but Srini did that successfully.”

    A senior employee of a rival network said that one of the highlights of Srini’s success is that he has allowed his CEOs to flourish, but also kept ensuring that the GroupM brand gets more dominant. A CEO of a media company told MxMIndia that it was thanks to Srini’s backing that BARC could be up and running in super quick time. Remember, TAM is a jv with Nielsen and Sorrell would’ve obviously liked to protect his business interests by keeping TAM active on television viewership measurement.

    In fact that appeared to be the sentiment for a while, until Srini is said to have emphatically backed BARC. His role with with other industry bodies like the AAAI, RSCI, ABC and MRUC have also been praised by peers. He is also a founder member of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) in India, and is active in industry conferences and events.

    In India, WPP companies (including associates) generate revenues of US$600million with 15,000 people, and it will be Srini’s agenda to ensure that all elements of the business work in unison. WPP also owns large agencies/networks like Ogilvy, JWT, Kantar, Genesis Burson-Marsteller amongst others.

    A question that has been asked is that while Ranjan Kapur was exceedingly senior in the system when he took charge of WPP as Country Manager, will other senior CEOs in WPP India companies like Piyush Pandey, Tarun Rai, Preeti Reddy agree to work under Srini’s leadership? According to what some insiders and a former WPP/GroupM biggie told us, that Srini is perhaps the best person for the job. He has hands into various businesses already and will hence help achieve the horizontality, and by his very nature and temperament, he will not come in the way of various group companies at all.

    But the clincher was what one WPP hand who is now in a global position said: “Does anyone have a choice? The media business is going through interesting, yet tough times. Digital is going to dominate us, though we don’t really know how. It is critical that even a successful network like WPP ensures that its various companies do not work in silos.”

    Indeed.

  • Star India and Vodafone crowned Client of the Year as Madison-Asian Paints win Grand Emvies

    GroupM agencies top Emvies leaderboard

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    It was what one would call a Kodak moment. As the leaderboards were being announced by emcee Brian Tellis, it was evident that the crown of the Agency of the Year could well rest on the all-new head of the recently established Wavemaker agency, set up by the merging of Maxus and MEC. Or of course the good oi’ Mindshare, winner of the crown for some 10 times thus far. The suspense grew when it was Madison that bagged the Grand Emvie, and not the two GroupM agencies.

     

    On the stage when the winner was being announced were Sam Balsara, Shashi Sinha, Vikram Sakhuja and CVL Srinivas. For Srinivas, as CEO, GroupM South Asia, it’s never an easy task when one sibling is  pitted against the other. It’s like the Williams sisters competing with each other on centre court.

     

     

    Srinivas put his hand on his eyes, as Tellis was set to unveil the Agency of the Year winner. Mindshare is the old warhorse and hence deserved to win, but for the all-new player Wavemaker, it would’ve been the perfect beginning.

     

    Adjudged by a jury of around 211 industry leaders through intensive judging sessions across the country, Emvies 2017 saw over 816 entries. Note the entire Publicis Groupe’s media and digital agencies stayed away from the awards given the global decision to be off all awards for a year.

     

    The Client of the Year which has seen Hindustan Unilever bagging the title comfortably over the last few years saw joint winners in Star India and Vodafone. Interestingly Star India works with Mindshare and Vodafone is with Wavemaker. The marketing heads of both commended the excellent partnership with their agencies as a contributor to their winning the title.

     

    Meanwhile, there was much happiness for both Prasanth Kumar, CEO of Mindshare and Kartik Sharma, CEO of Wavemaker.  For, even though Sharma’s team did not clinch the title, it went back home with a clear indicator to the world that it’s a significant force to reckon wit.

     

    Speaking about the changing dynamics of campaigns and the importance of being relevant, Punitha Arumugam, 2017 Awards Chairman for EMVIEs, said, “India has been at the forefront of many ingenious campaigns that showcase high effectiveness and the Emvies remain committed to recognising such outstanding communication stories. Being one of the most trusted and coveted awards in the category, the Emvies continue to scale with increased participation and representation from across industry stakeholders.” Arumugam has been spearheading the Emvies for five years now.

     

    Elaborating on the scale and the entries, Partha Sinha, 2017 Awards Co-Chairman for Emvies said, “The Emvies 2017 has successfully contributed towards recognizing high impact media campaigns that have made a difference. It continues to be one of the most coveted awards within the industry.”   For Sinha, who confessed that he wasn’t exposed to the Emvies much thus far because the awards event is out of bounds for creative agencies, co-chairing Emvies 2017 has been an enriching experience.

     

    In his welcome address on Emvies night (Friday, October 13), Vikram Sakhuja, President of The Advertising Club said: “In its 17th year now, the EMVIEs has continued to grow in scale and strength, emerging as the gold standard amongst media awards. With a jury consisting of over 211 distinguished industry leaders from across the country, this has been a transparent process to select transformational work.  We are engaging with some top global content sites to showcase the best of our archives to the world.

     

    Colors was presenting sponsor yet again for Emvies 2017, as MTV, Rishtey Cineplex and Republic TV powered the event.

     

    EMVIE 2017 CLIENT OF THE YEAR TALLY

    EMVIE 2017 RESULTS

  • The mandate entails building and strengthening the brand’s digital presence through strategic insights and unique solutions that engage consumers

    FoxyMoron & Motivator win creative & digital mandate for Hooq

    By A Correspondent

     

    Following a multi-agency pitch, video-on-demand service Hooq, appointed FoxyMoron and Motivator as its creative and digital agencies respectively.

     

    Said Salil Kapoor, Managing Director, Hooq India:”We are thrilled to have FoxyMoron and Motivator onboard as our creative and digital agencies. Being a digital brand ourselves, we believe that these partnerships will helps us stand differentiated in the consumer mind space through innovative campaigns. We are looking ahead to create and execute successful campaigns for Hooq”.

     

    Added Rabe Iyer, Managing Director of Motivator: “VOD services have paved the way the Indian audience consumes content across platforms. We are glad to partner with one of the best VOD service platforms in the world. We are excited about the possibilities of blending different creative minds to deliver results that continue to propel Hooq’s growth journey in India.”

     

    Speaking about the association with Hooq, CVL Srinivas, South Asia CEO of GroupM said, “The VOD service has seen tremendous growth across Asian markets and with their foray in India, we hope that we can help them capture the attention of their target audience with our innovative solutions. We hope that we can extend this association further.”

     

    Said Pratik Gupta, Co-founder, FoxyMoron: ”The win is significant for us for three reasons. Firstly, we have been openly talking about the blurred lines between mainline and digital. This win sets us in high-gear to bridge the ever so dwindling gap between the two. Secondly, the VOD segment is creating tsunamis. We have always liked to be at the center of such creative explosions. The content offered by the brand motivates our teams to do some path-breaking creative work. Lastly, it consolidates the new business wins that we at FoxyMoron North have had and validates the hard-work put in by Prachi Bali and team.”

  • T Gangadhar to head Essence in India & North Asia. Anand Chakravarthy to be MD, Essence India

    Kartik Sharma to head new Maxus-MEC entity

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    GroupM has announced the leadership structure for the proposed Maxus-MEC merged entity (codenamed ‘NewCo’) in India and South Asia as also for the digitally-led agency Essence in South and North Asia.

     

    As speculated in a report on MxMIndia a few weeks back, Tim Castree, Global CEO of MEC and CEO of “NewCo”has named Kartik Sharma as Managing Director of the new media, content and technology agency in India and South Asia when it launches in January 2018. Sharma has been Managing Director of Maxus South Asia since 2014 and in that time, has led the agency to outstanding new business growth and success.

     

    Said Castree: “We’re creating a brand new billion-dollar revenue media, content and technology agency, dubbed ‘NewCo’ for now. With such ambition, comes a need for brilliant talent to lead and inspire, and so today’s news is very exciting for us. Under Kartik’s leadership, I am confident that we will have the right team in place to truly make NewCo a formidable future-facing agency in India and South Asia.” Sharma will report to GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas and Castree.

     

    Following GroupM’s recent commitment to adding offline media capabilities, an expanded geographic footprint and an influx of talent to the agency, Christian Juhl, Global CEO of Essence, a global digital-first agency, has announced that T Gangadhar, current Managing Director of MEC South Asia, will transition into the new role of Chairman of India and Managing Director of North Asia, Essence. Gangadhar will report into Kyoko Matsushita, CEO of Essence APAC. He will continue to be based in Mumbai.

     

    Meanwhile, Anand Chakravarthy, who has served as Managing Partner at Maxus India since 2015, will be transitioning into the role of Managing Director of Essence India. Chakravarthy will report into both Gangadhar and Matsushita and will work closely with the regional leadership in his new role.

     

    Both Gangadhar and Chakravarthy will assume their new roles by January 2018. The Essence teams will be strongly supported by the GroupM network as they look to expand their presence in market.  Said Christian Juhl: “India is such an important market for so many of our clients whose business challenges we work tirelessly to solve.  Essence has built its credibility on being a data-centric agency that infuses technology and measurement across all media.  We’re excited to expand our geographic footprint and apply our unique approach for our global clients looking for relevance in India.  Gangadhar and Anand are experienced leaders who will help expand our presence.”

     

  • The GroupM Chief Talent Officer responds to questions on the full-pager inserted by the agency to attract diverse talent

    Diversity will help GroupM grow as an organisation: Rohit Suri

    On Wednesday (May 24), GroupM took newspaper readers by surprise with a front-page advertisement in business daily ‘Mint’. While it’s not uncommon to find ads on Page 1, this one was special because it was inserted by media agency conglomerate, it was an appointment ad and it was an ad inviting talent as diverse as anthropologists, musicians and coders (see image).

     

    While broadbasing its scope and activity to beyond tradition media buying and planning has been part of what GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas has been telling us over the years, the ad actually puts into action what Srinivas has speaking about. We spoke to a few people from diverse backgrounds on whether they would like to join GroupM given the clarion call. The reaction was mixed, but the sentiment was that one needed more details on what the job would entail if the attempt is to get high performers from amongst the talented to apply. “For one, we don’t know too much about GroupM. But now that you’ve told us, it looks very interesting. As a young musician with what I think will be a very bright future ahead of me, the draw to this kind of a creative job has to be significant to pull me into making music a secondary vocation.” A student with a psychology major from a liberal arts college said the proposition was attractive and he would consult his parents and apply.

    We asked GroupM a few questions given the ad and this is what Chief Talent Officer Rohit Suri responded via email.

     

    What was the rationale behind the ad – in terms of attracting a very diverse set of background… musicians included?

    Over the last few years we have diversified our talent pool to keep up with what our business will need in the future and are just intensifying the pace of this change.

     

    Given the ad as an indicator of the profile of people you are looking to hire, what would you say will GroupM as an organisation be?

    GroupM India is a digitally charged, data-centric marketing services conglomerate. With our seven agencies and specialty services, GroupM India gives clients the advantage of global operation and learnings, along with local expertise and market insight. With our investment in data, technology and diverse talent, GroupM India aims to shape the future and transform challenges into opportunities for our clients.

     

    The general perception of a media agency network is that it’s involved with media buying, planning… crunching numbers, offering media innovations. So what’s the GroupM 2020 going to be like?

    The industry is changing rapidly and the landscape evolving at a pace faster than ever seen before due to evolution of technology and we are nimble to imbibe this change and have worked tirelessly to transform our business to adapt to these changes.

     

    While traditional media agency employees may have had a certain affinity to their profession and hence the organisation, but isn’t there a risk of “outsiders” not having the same kind of loyalty to the business and the organisation?

    We do not believe this is true. Diversity will only help us grow as an organistaion, it will fuel collective insight and lateral thinking within GroupM India. In today’s media environment collaboration and open source is paramount and loyalty towards the profession will come when people get to do great cutting edge work which they are passionate about and are rewarded fairly.

     

  • The three-day annual congregation of advertising, media and marketing professionals starts in Goa today

    Goafest, again!

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    It’s Goafest time. To the world outside, the advertising industry is a bundle of contradictions. Small in size, but loud in voice. Fiercely competitive, but always united. Well, almost.

     

    One arm of the world’s largest conglomerates WPP finds the Abby awards a no-no. That’s Ogilvy. In fact its supremo – Piyush Pandey – once said that the his team members saw no value in them, in fact they are strewn all over their cabins. Another arm of the same WPP is a fierce believer in the awards. In fact J Walter Thompson has been #1 over the last few years in the final tally of the creative awards. And before we go on and on here, we must add that GroupM, the media investments arm of WPP is not only an active participant in the Media Abby, but its CEO for South Asia – CVL Srinivas – is also an active member of the organising committee.

     

    Then there’s the MullenLowe Lintas Group. The diktat of its former chairman R Balki of not participating in the Abby is still followed, but in the past we’ve had integral parts of the same group participating actively. In fact two years back, Pickle Lintas even won the Grand Prix for its campaign for Dabur.

     

    There are some other agencies which don’t participate in the Abby. Some because their bosses don’t like creative awards in India, some because they don’t have enough good work to send which will hence put them twenty first in the pecking order. Even some hole-in-the-wall digital or out-of-home agency in the boondocks.

     

    Be that as it may, the 12th edition of Goafest, which starts today, is said to be the biggest ever held thus far. And as Organising Committee chair Ashish Bhasin told us, it’s a full house. Though we don’t have the final numbers of registered delegates as there are always some spot registrations and opt-outs at the last min.

     

    We asked MxMIndia columnist Sanjeev Kotnala for his list of favourite speakers, and this is, as he also wrote in this column on Wednesday, his list: Hemant Malik (ITC), Acharya Balkrishna ( Patanjali), Ishita Katyal (Youngest Ted speaker), Gaur Gopal Das (Spiritual Guru), Miss Malini Agarwal (the blogger), Geeta and Babita Pogat (Going to be crowd favourites), Eric Cruz (ECD AKQA), Claus Stangl (IG Creative Shop), Vivian Richards (Cricket), Juhi Kalia (Facebook), Laura Ries and Sanjay Dutt.

     

    We agree with most of the names. But Sanju baba? Well, Kotnala clarified to us, Baba comes last in the list of names which are in order of priority.

     

    The awards start in right earnest from Day 1 with the Media Awards, though the big night is the last with the key creative awards.

     

    Keep tracking the MxMIndia coverage of Goafest starting today. Enjoy

     

     

     

  • The GroupM agency lost the Rs 250 Titan account to Madison in Feb, but this is a big win

    Maxus wins ITC from Madison

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Early in February this year, GroupM agency Maxus lost the Rs 250-odd crore account to Madison. And now it has got back and grabbed the coveted Rs 550+ homegrown cigarettes-to-hotels-to-food products conglomerate ITC Limited from Madison.

     

    As has been known, the account has been bagged in a fiercely contested pitch with five contenders in fray: Madison, GroupM (Maxus), IPG Mediabrands (Lodestar UM), Dentsu Aegis Network (Carat) and Publicis Media.Madison had bagged the ITC account in 2010.

     

    In the last lap, it’s said that other than Madison, Maxus and IPG were in the fray. ITC officials are reported to have visited the Maxus and IPG offices for detailed discussions and an evaluation.

     

    Like it was done with Madison in 2010, Maxus will also set up ‘Team ITC’ a dedicated team to service the business.

     

    The Media AOR will move to Maxus with effect from April 1. According to information received, Madison was informed of the move last week.

     

    Said Kartik Sharma MD of Maxus, South Asia: “We are excited and humbled to be chosen by ITC to be their media partner. We have huge respect and admiration for ITC in the way they have built their business and brands. We are confident that through our consistent investments behind cutting edge tools and a diversified talent pool across data, digital and content we will help deliver competitive edge to ITC for their future growth”

     

    Added CVL Srinivas CEO GroupM, South Asia: “We are delighted to be chosen by ITC as their media agency partner. This win comes as a huge recognition that we are on the right path as far as future proofing our business is concerned in an otherwise highly commoditised media industry. The investments we have made in talent, technology and data are helping us keep our clients ahead of the curve. We look forward to partnering ITC on its next phase of growth”.

     

    Over the years, GroupM as a whole and Maxus specifically have upgraded themselves in technology-led solutions. Last year,  ‘Maxus Kaleidoscope’, a mood-based planning tool was launched. This is Maxus India’s second initiative on behavioural mapping, the first being Moribus, a behavioural sciences lab by a media agency.

     

    Maxus also launched ‘Mesh’, a marketing command centre and dialogue engine, in partnership with Singapore-headquartered social media marketing firm Vocanic. Last year, the agency partnered with Bengaluru-based IoTBLR for pervasive computing. Then there is innovation technology consulting unit ‘Maxus Metalworks’ which is now in the country.

     

    ITC Limited is headquartered in Kolkata, with five diversified business segments: Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Hotels, Paperboards and Packaging, Agri Business & Information Technology. The pitch was for the entire media mandate of the company across categories, for both urban and rural markets.

     

    While operations for ITC are generally done from Kolkata, Bengaluru and Mumbai, it is rumoured that it is likely that part of the ITC’s business operations may relocate to Mumbai in the near future.

     

  • Will the AdEx in 2017 be Rs 61204 cr as per GroupM or Rs 56,152 cr as per Madison & did we cross the Rs 50,000 cr mark in 2016, asks Indrani Sen

    What is the real size of Indian Ad Industry?

     

    By Indrani Sen

    Last week was exciting for the advertising and media industry as the two major reports on industry Adex were released on two consecutive days. GroupM released its ‘This Year Next Year’(TYNY) 2017 report on February 14 followed by the release of ‘Pitch Madison Advertising Report’(PMAR) 2017 by Madison on February 15. In the last few days, both the reports have been published and analysed in the business newspapers and websites, leaving hardly any scope for adding any comment on the same.

    As usual there is a difference between the two projections, this time it is of around Rs 5000 crore. The biannual report on advertising expenditure TYNY 2017 has forecast India’s advertising investment to reach an estimated Rs 61,204 crore in 2017 based on a growth rate of 10% over 2016. On the other hand, PMAR 2017 has projected a growth of 13.5% in 2017 over 2016 and has estimated the size of the industry to reach Rs 56,152 crore.

    According to Sam Balsara, AdEx dropped by Rs 1650 crore in the last two months of 2016 after demonetisation and as a result, the industry adspends narrowly missed the mark of crossing Rs 50,000 crore. On the other hand, the GroupM report, Indian advertising industry clocked Rs 49,758 crore in 2015 and crossed the Rs 50,000 crore mark comfortably in 2016 by scoring Rs 55,671 crores. Madison estimated Indian adspends as Rs 43,991 crores in 2015, Rs 49,480 in 2016 and has projected Rs 56,152 crore in 2017. The difference, between the two sets of estimates, has been hovering between Rs 5000 to Rs 6000 crore, which is not a small amount.

    If we compare the two sets of estimates by medium, we find that the major difference lies in the estimates of TV advertising expenditure, which is bit surprising as TV AdEx is very well-documented. Is there a difference in the way the two estimates are drawn up which leads to a gap of almost Rs 6000 crores between the estimated TV advertising expenditures?

     

    PMAR has shown more favourable estimates for Print and Outdoor than TYNY, while TYNY estimates for Radio and Cinema are higher than the estimates of PMAO. It is interesting to note that for Digital medium, the two estimates ran neck-and-neck for 2016 and are quite close for 2017.

    GroupM Report mentions that Media Adex reported do not include:

    • TV – special inventory like astons, L-bands, tickers, etc
    • Print – tender notices, appointments, classifieds/ matrimonial
    • Radio – activation spends
    • Digital – ad spends by SME segment
    • Outdoor – wall painting

    The above leads us to conclude that the numbers shown in the TYNY for the above five media would be actually higher than their estimations, particularly for Radio, where activation/ events tied up with digital has become a major source of earning for the FM radio stations.

    The Pitch Madison Advertising Report does not mention about the ad expenditures which are not covered in the report, but we can assume that Madison also has not covered the above expenditures which are not included in Media AdEx in their report.

    So, what is the real size of the Indian Ad Industry? Are we yet to cross the Rs 50,000 crore mark or did we cross it last year?

     

    Indrani Sen is a media services veteran, having worked with JWT, later Mindshare and then with Emami. In recent years, she is an independent consultant and academic. She is Adjunct Professor incharge of the Media Management programme at the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own.

     

  • A quick chat with the GroupM South Asia CEO and MadisonWorld Chairman on the adspend forecast by their respective agency networks

    Quick chat with CVL Srinivas & Sam Balsara on the adspend forecast by GroupM & Madison World respectively

     

    A quick chat with CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia and Sam Balsara, Chairman, MadisonWorld on the adspend forecast by their respective agency networks

     

    Writing has been on the wall on digital: CVL SrinivasTaking time off a string of interviews after the presentation of the TYNY report on Monday,  CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia spoke with PradyumanMaheshwari on whether the adspend forecast portends ‘achche din’ for A&M-land

     

    It’s the type of question we love to ask you: given the forecast of 10% AdEx growth in 2017, would you say it’s achche din or good days for the industry?

    In the current circumstances I would say good days, because of all the gloom doom projections going around in the media for a while… actually 10% is not a bad number.

     

    In October when we met last around Diwali, it was somewhere around 14%, and which now got from 10 to 12%, what would you have anticipated the growth this year to be?

    Well, it is such a dynamic world that nothing is a constant today. Everything from global commodity prices, to petroleum prices, to local economic political factors, to sectoral factors, to media-related factors. I mean there are just too many variables one is juggling with these days, so I don’t think any study or any estimate, can be a one-time number. We obviously have to keep looking at the numbers, and revisiting the hypothesis may be every quarter going forward, giving the kind of change going on.

     

    Would you think the numbers could possibly change after the UP election results?

    I won’t want to commit on this particular event, but there is no denying the fact that these numbers could go up or down depending upon the various factors. Which is why TYNY as a study is done twice a year, the first time its basis estimates for the 12 months, and the second time we do it is in the middle of the year around July-August when we have the actual data for the first 6 months…

     

    Would you say the first few weekshave been fairly decent in terms of spends?

    The first month hasn’t been very good at all and we see this continuing till April. In fact the first quarter is going to be pretty tight, things are going to start picking up fully from April onwards, and that’s the way we built up the report.

     

    Post-demonetisation therehas been a bit of a scare for media owners with some publications shutting down, some publications shaving off lot of staff. Television has also been down in sales.What do you see is the environment for media owners? Given that you are predicting only a 10% growth, is that good tidings for them?

    I think the big story coming out of all this is that we are living in an age which is so dynamic and which is getting so, I would say, which is all converging towards digital so fast that organisations have to kind of somewhere let go completely off the rules of the past when it comes to doing business… I think the base of change is so rapid that sometimes we are not able to kind of make adjustments and we are forced to kind of take some very very massive decisions in a very short span of time. I think if organisations are more on the ball, look at reality and start taking hard calls more often, things won’t reach a state that they have reached today. For example, the writing has been on the wall that digital is going to eat over the shares of traditional media companies for some time now. It’s not a new development. I don’t think demonetisation has anything to do with it. The consumer has moved to digital many years ago for consumption of various kinds of content.

     

    Do you think people are using demonetisation as an excuse too…?

    To an extent, I think so. I think there are so many other factors which are at play and even in this day and age there are organisations whether it’s in the media sector or whether it’s in other sectors who are continuing to do well because I think they have just been better prepared. I think they have been able to futureproof their business a lot better. For example, in our own case, we diversified our revenue streams many years ago. Today, given the presence we have across areas like content, sports marketing,  data analytics actvations and so on, we haven’t really felt as much of an impact because of the slowdown of the media sector than perhaps some of the more traditional agencies. And I guess the same holds true for other organisation and other sectors as well.

     

    In terms of the overall numbers that you see, as per your predictions which sector of the industry has the brightest future?

    See, these things change almost year to year. This particular year we are looking at auto, we are looking at BFSI, we are looking at one part of Ecomm which is Ewallets. We are looking at the media sector and we are looking at the government sector –

     

    And FMCG continues to be around 27%-28%.

    FMCG’s  contribution to the total AdEx will still remain around 27% or so.

     

    One of the sectors which was not included in the entire study is the SME sector and that’s where the future of the country is and what’s where everybody is saying that the growth is in terms of advertising. If you were factored into that do you think your final numbers could have been little different?

    Infact we factored in the overall base of advertisers. So that would include the long tail or the SME sectors as you call them as well. In fact a lot of the digital growth is not only coming from the established players but…

     

    SMEs

    …The first-time advertisers. We are finding in the last couple of years, first-time advertisers moving straight to digital because the entry costs are low because they are able to target the consumers a lot better and also measure the return. We see them continuing in the short- to medium-term.

     

    		 2016 growth would’ve been 16% had there been no demonetisation: Sam BalsaraTalking to Labonita Ghosh on the sidelines of the Pitch Madison Advertising Report presentation, Madison World Chairman Sam Balsaraspoke on the dangers of depending too much (or only) on data, on e-commerce advertising and why he thinks the 13.5% growth is realistic

     

    Some might say your forecast of 13.5% growth of AdEx or adspends in the year 2017 is very optimistic, especially since we had GroupM telling us just yesterday that it estimates growth to be 10%. Your comments on how realistic the growth estimate is…

    Obviously we think it’s realistic otherwise we wouldn’t have put it up. Asyou’ve seen, last year, growth was very low, which has made us bring us forecast down. We do recognise that in the period from January to April, growth will below and that is whyour forecast is 13.5%, otherwise it would’ve been higher.

     

    Tsunami is an interesting way to describe the impact of demonetisation. Had demonetisation not happened, what would you say the growth would’ve been last year?

    The growth would’ve been 16%. And that is almost exactly what our prediction was in February 2015. It’s because the market de-grew by 8% in the months of November and December, that growth is down to 12.5%.

     

    Your forecast on digital touching 43% growth is in line with the way it’s been growing in the last five years. Why do you think it wasn’t impacted by demonetisation?

     

    Ofcourse it was. But digital also looks at leads, and search and all that stuff.Also, FMCG [advertising] is very low on digital, the lowest [of all media]. We’re not saying digital was not affected, but we’re saying that it was much less affected by demonetisation.

     

    You have also said that January to April is going to be down. But this is also the time when we have elections. So no real impact of election spends?

    Assembly elections don’t pull in that much money. And I think that these elections, coming on the back of demonetisation, have been a bit of a dampener, if I may say so. I don’t think political parties were as flush with funds as they normally are. I think we are seeing a more conservative approach by most political parties in these elections

     

    ‘Don’t over-depend on media data to support business decisions. Use data as a guide and not as a crutch.’ Now that’s quite a statement from a media agency veteran who has been and led most industry forums. Do you really think there is too much dependence on data?

     

    What I meant to say was, don’t use data as a crutch. Don’t close your eyes and just blindly go by data. Use your common sense to question whether that data might be wrong or if it even makes sense. Take a holistic look at your plans, and don’t only say this is the data, so it must be like that, so let’s go with it.

    I think there is not enough lateral thinking bring applied to data. And I think a lot of plans are routine, andthey get mechanically done. There is a belief that as long as the GRPs and TRPs are met, I’ve donemy job. But it is possible, that despite all these being met, the brand doesn’t do well. And I think we’ve seen quite a few examples of that.

     

    E-commerce, as we have seen, has hit the adspend bottomlines. Madison has its own share of e-commerce clients and one of these which has been a big budget advertiser. Do you expect it to go down or up?

    I think e-commerce spends are guided more by the penchant of the investors, and I think investors in e-commerce behave in a very erratic manner. So I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess on what e-commerce investors are thinking of, or will think tomorrow

     

     

  • India's advertising investment to reach an estimated Rs 61,204 crore in 2017 versus Rs 55671 crore last year

    GroupM estimates 10% AdEx growth in 2017

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Media services conglomerate GroupM released its biannual advertising expenditure futures report ‘This Year Next Year’ (TYNY) 2017 on Monday forecasting India’s advertising investment to reach an estimated Rs 61,204 crore in 2017. This represents a growth of 10% for the calendar year 2017 over the corresponding period in 2016.

     

    As per GroupM, the adspends in 2016 were Rs 55,671 crore. Even though the year began on a very optimistic note, the overall AdEx took a downturn due to lower than expected adspend growth from sectors like FMCG, traditional retail, telecom and sporadic spending in categories like Ecommerce. In the January-October period itself the Adex was growing at a lower trajectory than forecasted. Furthermore, demonetisation in the last quarter had a negative impact of about 2% on the total Adex in 2016.

     

    Speaking on the TYNY 2017 report, CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia said, “Despite a volatile 2016, we are estimating advertising expenditure growth at 10% in 2017. The first quarter will give a slow start to the year, with the market picking up from March-April, fueled by a stable recovery process post demonetization. Sectors that are contributing to this positive trajectory include Auto, Media and e-Wallets. In addition, Government and Political parties will increase spending with elections in several states this year.” Explaining the media scenario, he added. “Digital is leading the Adex growth with a 30% growth, while TV continues to be the largest medium in the mix. Print continues to grow at a stable rate of 4.5% and is still the second largest medium in the Adex.”

     

    Looking at the advertising industry worldwide, GroupM estimates the global advertising expenditure (AdEx) to grow by 4.4% and Asia-Pacific to grow by 6.3%. With an estimated adex growth of 10%, India remains one of the fastest growing ad markets globally. While 80% of incremental ad spend growth in major markets comes from digital media, in India the numbers are more evenly split betwen traditional and digital media. Digital media accounts for about 40% of the incremental ad spend growth.

     

    GroupM estimates the Digital Adex to grow by 30% in 2017 to Rs. 9,490 crores. The digital Adex is estimated to take a 15.5% share of the total Adex this year. There will be a high emphasis on viewability metrics and outcome based optimization. Ad spends will grow on OTT platforms, as internet speeds improve and catch up TV gains ground.

     

    2017 is estimated to be a modest year for newspapers with 4.5% growth. The increase in ad spends expected from print heavy sectors like Auto, BFSI, e-wallets will contribute to this growth. Vernacular and regional newspapers will see a higher growth rate.

     

    Television continues to be the largest medium contributing to the Adex with close to 45% share. This year, the growth rate for TV is 8%, with ‘Free To Air’ channels adding more inventory, and pure HD content gaining ground. The market will also see a consolidation of niche channels.

     

    While Radio is expected to grow at a little over 10%, there is scope for the medium to pick up as the Phase 3 rollout is completed in 2017. Higher growth is expected as stations will see the supply impact of the full year.

     

    Other media such as OOH will witness good traction from sectors addressing rural audience and premium niche audience. As per the trend in recent years, Cinema advertising will grow at a high double digit rate of 20%. Cinema consolidation has led to investments in infrastructure, this coupled with the growing acceptance of premium Indian and Hollywood content by advertisers augurs well for the medium.

     

  • GroupM exercised its right to acquire majority stake after eight years of the 2008 jv deal

    Exclusive: Sam Balsara on GroupM acquiring 76% in MediaCom India: In today’s world, you can be a partner and competitor to the same entity…

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sam Balsara

    In today’s world, you can be a partner and competitor to the same entity. That’s how MadisonWorld founder and chairman Sam Balsara sums up the new arrangement in the joint venture with GroupM on media agency MediaCom’s India operations.

     

    As per the original agreement, WPP’s GroupM reportedly had the right to acquire a majority stake after a period of eight years, which they just did.

     

    Earlier, Madison owned 51 per cent and GroupM 49 per cent. Now, GroupM has bought 25 per cent, making its total stake to 76 per cent. For Balsara and team, it’s matter of great pride that the jv was a success for the last eight years.

     

    And does this mean anything at all on possible ownership of mother ship Madison? “There’s no connection whatsoever,” Balsara laughed it off underscoring that this was a completely independent transaction.

    ~~

     

    At mid-morning on Tuesday, Balsara tweeted a clip from The Economic Times of last week where Madison Media had announced a tie-up with Bangladesh’s independent media agency Mediacom. Mediacom, the report noted, is part of Bangladesh’s industrial conglomerate Square Group and handles media planning and buying for Perfetti Van Melle, Asian Paints, Ispahani Group, Singer and some products categories of the parent company. As a part of the deal, Mediacom will have access to Madison Media’s tools and operating software.

     

    Less than 10 hours after this tweet, came in this missive from the GroupM headquarters in north-west Mumbai: The media services network had announced that it will be acquiring a majority stake in MediaCom India.

     

    While MediaCom India will continue operating as an independent brand, the agency will have the advantage of access to GroupM’s global infrastructure. This acquisition continues WPP’s strategy of investing in fast growth markets, new media and digital, notes a commuique. The news on the Bangladesh tie-up and what happened closer home had of course no connection. Except the timing of Balsara’s tweet.

     

    Stephen Allan

    “The majority acquisition of MediaCom in India represents a significant evolution in one of the world’s fastest growing economies. As India becomes a very attractive business hub for global clients, we are confident our talented team in India will deliver exemplary growth and results for all stakeholders.” said, Stephen Allan, CEO, MediaCom Worldwide.

     

     

     

    CVL Srinivas

    Speaking on the acquisition, CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia said, “MediaCom India has won several prestigious clients, developed a strong digital presence and has delivered award-winning campaigns for clients. As a network, we have taken giant strides globally and in India towards a more Data and Tech-led core to our business. MediaCom India can harness our world-class media infrastructure to provide more value to its clients and people.”Interestingly, the Mediacom Bangaladesh tieup allows that agency to dig into Madison’s tools and infra.

     

    Flashback to April 2008 when Balsara announced with much fanfare that he had acquired 51 per cent stake in MediaCom India. And also the coveted P&G business. Over the last eight years, MediaCom India has established itself as one of the Top 5 media agencies in terms of market share (Source: RECMA ratings 2015). In 2016, WARC ranked MediaCom India’s Mumbai office as one of the top 10 media agencies in the world based on performance in effectiveness and strategy impact for its clients.Its client roster includes Proctor & Gamble, Tata DoCoMo, Future Group Retail, Shell, Dell, Makemytrip.com, SAB Miller, Subway, Bose,Vespa and Urban Ladder amongst others.

     

    Industry observers meanwhile don’t read too much into the development. Although Mediacom may technically have been owned by a majority by GroupM, over the last few years, GroupM is said to be representing its interests very actively. A scenario which Balsara says was fine given that it was all for the good of MediaCom.

     

  • The jv stays but MediaCom India will integrate further into the GroupM fold with this development

    GroupM acquires majority stake in MediaCom India

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    At mid-morning on Tuesday, Sam Balsara tweeted a clip from The Economic Times of last week where Madison Media had announced a tie-up with Bangladesh’s independent media agency Mediacom. Mediacom, the report noted, is part of Bangladesh’s industrial conglomerate Square Group and handles media planning and buying for Perfetti Van Melle, Asian Paints, Ispahani Group, Singer and some products categories of the parent company. As a part of the deal, Mediacom will have access to Madison Media’s tools and operating software.

     

    Less than 10 hours after this tweet, came in this missive from the GroupM headquarters in north-west Mumbai: The media services network had announced that it will be acquiring a majority stake in MediaCom India, a joint venture between GroupM India and Sam Balsara, the principal shareholder of the Madison Media group. While MediaCom India will continue operating as an independent brand, the agency will have the advantage of access to GroupM’s global infrastructure. This acquisition continues WPP’s strategy of investing in fast growth markets, new media and digital. The news on the Bangladesh tie-up and what happened closer home had of course no connection. Except the timing of Balsara’s tweet.

     

    “The majority acquisition of MediaCom in India represents a significant evolution in one of the world’s fastest growing economies. As India becomes a very attractive business hub for global clients, we are confident our talented team in India will deliver exemplary growth and results for all stakeholders.” said, Stephen Allan, CEO, MediaCom Worldwide.

     

    Speaking on the acquisition, CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia said, “MediaCom India has won several prestigious clients, developed a strong digital presence and has delivered award-winning campaigns for clients. As a network, we have taken giant strides globally and in India towards a more Data and Tech-led core to our business. MediaCom India can harness our world-class media infrastructure to provide more value to its clients and people.”Interestingly, the Mediacom Bangaladeshtieup allows that agency to dig into Madison’s tools and infra.

     

    Flashback to April 2008 when Balsara announced with much fanfare that he had acquired 51 per cent stake in MediaCom India. And also the coveted P&G business. Over the last eight years, MediaCom India has established itself as one of the Top 5 media agencies in terms of marketshare (Source: RECMA ratings 2015). In 2016, WARC ranked MediaCom India’s Mumbai office as one of the top 10 media agencies in the world based on performance in effectiveness and strategy impact for its clients.Its client roster includes Proctor & Gamble, Tata DoCoMo, Future Group Retail, Shell, Dell, Makemytrip.com, SAB Miller, Subway, Bose,Vespa and Urban Ladder amongst others.

     

    Industry observers meanwhile don’t read too much into the development. Although Mediacom may technically have been owned by a majority by GroupM, over the last few years, GroupM is said to be representing its interests very actively. And while MediaCom India ought to be part of the Madison Media, the two agencies have fought pitches including recently for Coca-Cola India.