The Advertising Club will be organizing its popular annual event, Media Review on Tuesday, 21stJuly, 2015 at 6pm at the Imperial Hall, 8th Floor, Palladium Hotel, Lower Parel, Mumbai.
The speakers who have agreed to make a presentation and later be a part of the panel discussion are Shashi Sinha, Meenakshi Menon, Punitha Arumugam and Pradeep Dwivedi. The title of the talk is “Is anyone listening? : How did the Ad and Media industry combat the challenge of continuous partial attention of audiences.â€
The evening will also witness a presentation on AdAsia 2015, Taipei to be held from Sunday, 22ndNovember, 2015 to Wednesday, 25th November, 2015 at the Marriott Hotel, Taipei by a delegation that will be flown in from Taipei.
The Presenting Sponsor for the event is Colors and is powered by Dainik Bhaskar.
Union ministers Smriti Irani and Kiren Rijiju, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, AAP leaders Kumar Vishwas and Alka Lamba, Congress leaders Deepender Singh Hooda and Mausam Noor, and Apna Dal MP Anupriya Patel are in the running as youth icons nominated for second edition of the India TV Yuva Awards to be presented on April 18 in New Delhi.
The India TV Yuva awards are presented to youth icons who have demonstrated exemplary leadership in their respective fields. The awards are in six categories: politics, sports, music, films, television and business. The awards were instituted in 2013 to honour the most promising young faces of the nation.
In the sports category, those in the running among men include Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan (all cricketers) and Vijay Kumar (Olympian shooter), while among women, it’s:  Saina Nehwal (badminton), Deepika Pallikal (squash), P V Sindhu (badminton) and Geeta Phogat (wrestler) in the nominations.
Among Bollywood youth icons, those nominated include Arjun Kapoor, Siddharth Malhotra, Sushant Singh Rajput and Varun Dhawan in the male category, while Anushka Sharma, Sonam Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha and Parineeti Chopra have been nominated among female actors
In the small screen category, Mohit Raina, Gautam Gulati, Rajat Tokas and Ashish Sharma have been nominated among male actors, Digangana Suryavanshi, Drashti Dhami, Pooja Gaur and Sanaya Irani figure among female TV actors nominated as youth icons.
Singers Arijit Singh, Javed Ali, Benny Dayal, Joi Barua and Papon have been nominated in music category (male), while Shilpa Rao, Kanika Kapoor, Monali Thakur and Palak Muchhal have been nominated as female icons in music.
In the business section, Rahul Sharma (Micromax), Kunal Behl (Snapdeal), Bhavish Aggarwal (Ola!) and Peyush Bansal (Lenskart) have been nominated among male icons while Avani Davda (Tata Starbucks), Priya Nair (Hindustan Unilever), Neha Kirpal (India Art Fair) and Radhika Ghai Aggarwal (ShopClues) are in the running in female category.
The nominations have been made through a stringent process involving recommendations by the editorial board, followed by a stratified research by a research partner C-Voter and subsequently decided upon by a jury led by Sarod maestro Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan.  The jury included adman-lyricist Prasoon Joshi, Vandana Luthra, Prof Pushpesh Pant and India TV Chairman and Editor-in-ChiefRajat Sharma.
Speaking on the awards, Ritu Dhawan, Managing Director & CEO of India TV said: “Yuva Awards is a humble attempt by India TV to encourage the spirit of excellence and inspire fellow Indians.â€
The event will be executed by Wizcraft International. Dainik Bhaskar and Pioneer Publicity corporation are partners to the initiative that is sponsored by Vimal Pan Masala, Dr Ortho and No Scars.
Indian companies are increasingly roping in specialists to manage their whistle-blowing mechanisms at a time when employees don’t hesitate to vent out their frustrations on social networking sites or to rush to regulators in case of a suspected fraud or an irregularity.
While the Companies Act makes it mandatory for the listed firms to have a whistle-blowing mechanism, some companies such as Tata Steel, Ranbaxy Laboratories and DB Corp have gone a step ahead to hire the UK-based InTouch MCS to attend their whistle blowers through a specialised BPO facility in Bengaluru.
“As Indian companies aspire to go global, whistle blowing is something they cannot afford to ignore. While setting up call centres inside the company do work, but it’s not as effective and a whistle blower may not always get the confidence to report to them, on a fear of being identified,†said John Wilson, managing director at In-Touch, which has set up independent whistle-blowing mechanisms for about 15 Indian firms.
InTouch has 40 people working at its Bangalore facility to deal with whistle blowers who either call on the hotline or mail them. These complaints are then forwarded to the concerned to the senior official in the company who may or may not investigate the matter. InTouch has tied up with Ernst and Young recently where the latter could take up the investigation in the frauds in case the company wants them to do so.
Girish Agarwal
“We wanted to boost employee confidence, so we decided to include a multi-channel option for whistle blowers. The employees were provided with several options, which range across a 24×7 hotline, website reporting and email,†said Girish Agarwal, director at DB Group.
According to industry insiders, hiring is the toughest part for the specialists as convincing the whistleblower to share all the details may not be easy. Psychiatrists and trained councillors are in demand to handle nervous whistle blowers.
Industry trackers say that often Indian companies have been looking to just “tick the box†by setting up whistle blowing mechanisms in house. Insiders say that many Indian companies tend to get worried about the whistleblowers and often don’t want the allegations to backfire on the company.
“Often Indian companies are worried that if a proper whistle blowing mechanism is set up it can backfire on them. However, the risk of having none is worse, as the whistleblowers can then go to regulators or take it to the social networking platforms,†said a senior official who is currently investigating a whistle blowing case in a multinational based in India. In the case, initiated after a whistle blower had shot emails alleging fraud, the investigations are now being carried out by one of the big four audit firms, the person said.
Globally, independent whistleblowing firms get about 2.4 complaints per 1,000 employees. While 50% of the total complaints are made on phone, the remaining are made through email and a miniscule 5% through post.
“It is tough to say how many of the concerns raised by the whistle blowers are genuine. But companies tend to investigate the more serious ones, especially around sexual harassment and fraud or bribery allegations,†said Arpinder Singh, partner and national leader, fraud investigation & dispute services (FIDS), EY India.
Research says that about 60% of the whistle-blowing complaints are about HR issues like sexual harassment and about 10% are about corporate governance issues. Going ahead, it is expected that even Sebi may have to set up a whistleblowing mechanism.
Dainik Bhaskar has awarded Ogilvy the creative duties for its brand Dainik Bhaskar. With a single state presence till the year 1997, the brand has aggressively expanded its footprint across 14 states in India since then; the most recent launch being in the state of Bihar in January 2014. Today, Brand Bhaskar is a leader in print readership operating in the highest growth markets in India, being an integral part of daily lives of 19.8 million readers.
As the new partner, the creative agency will be responsible for all creative communications which will be rolled out under the brand. Ogilvy will focus significantly on building strategic pillars for the brand’s communication and articulating it’s positioning to Brand Bhaskar’s relevant audiences across the country.
Girish Agarwal
On aligning with Ogilvy as the brand’s creative partner, Girish Agarwal, Director, Dainik Bhaskar commented “Brand Bhaskar has come a long way and we constantly ask ourselves ‘what next and where do we take the organisation and the brand’. We welcome Ogilvy on board as they bring with them their expertise and strong repute of building sustainable brands. The Bhaskar way of journalism has always believed in ‘kendra mein pathak – putting the reader first’ and is highly trusted for its unbiased, objective coverage. As our partners the Ogilvy team plays an immensely significant role in integrating our values and philosophy in their creative approach that will resonate with our audiences in a way that they continue to take pride in associating with the Bhaskar Brand.â€
Following the successful series of the first-ever conceptualized Unmetro events in three cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru in 2013, Dainik Bhaskar’s Unmetro conference made its first stop in Bengaluru this year.
The conference evoked even stronger interests and participations from Bengaluru’s marketing and corporate community, demonstrating an increasing attentiveness to the potential and in growing number of markets beyond the Indian metros.
Delivering the keynote address, P Krishna Kumar, Executive Director & General Manager, Consumer and Small Business, Dell India shared interesting insights on the way the Unmetros of India are rapidly catching up with metros in terms of consumer tastes, preferences, spending capacity and demand of goods and services. He stressed on the fact that for Dell, these markets are increasingly offering a stronger ROI even than their metro counterparts, which he characterised as “over marketedâ€.
That the going is not always smooth was elaborated by Dr. Ashwin Naik, CEO and Co-founder, Vaatsalya, a chain of low cost hospitals in the Unmetro cities of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Thus, while Vaatsalaya has grown and been serving these cities well, the pricing concerns reflected in the cost of soaring real estate in these cities as well as issues like relatively lesser medical insurance cover, remains a challenge for the chain to expand faster.
A panel comprising Sudhakar Rao, Director- Branding, ICFAI, Bhaskar Choudhari, Director- Marketing, Lenevo, Srinivasan KA, Co-founder, Strategy, Business Development and Marketing, Amagi Media Labs, Meenal Lall, DGM Business Development, AMC Cookware and Peter Suresh, Head- BIU, DB Corp delved deeply into issues including differences between these markets vis-a-vis metros, the challenges of connecting effectively with consumers here and more.
A unique perspective from the design side was added in a special Q&A session Arvind Hegde, Managing Director and Director-Consulting, Ray+Keshavan participated in. Among other things, he stressed that rather than differences, tastes were actually converging overall, which would mean a lowering of marketing costs when Dainik Bhaskar’s Unmetro Event Attracts Intense Participation it comes to selling in these markets.
Eminent city-based marketers, Sonia Serrao, Chief Manager, Media Planning and Buying, Tata Global Beverages and GK Suresh, GM- Brands, Foods Business, ITC, Sanchayeeta Verma, Managing Partner, Maxus South India and South Asia, and Rajendra Khare, Co-founder and CMD, Surewaves mediatech took up the impact of media reach in the Unmetro markets and the categories which are growing.
Touching upon each and every media option, from print to mobile, the panel engaged in a lively discussion with the audience on the merits and weaknesses of each.
Rounding off the sessions was Anustup Datta, COO, Vertebrand, Bengaluru, who shared insightful quantitative data and research driven facts about these critical new markets for corporate India. Kaacon Sethi, Chief Corporate Marketing Officer, DB Corp, stressed on the consistent need for planners and marketers to ask more questions about these critical markets, where she believed there was a clear need for quality inputs, a key reason for the Unmetro initiative to be conceived by DB Corp.
The conference was attended by over 170 delegates comprising leading noteworthy professionals from media, marketing and advertising communities in Bengaluru. Reflecting the entrepreneurial spirit of the city the event also attracted a fair share of start-up founders seeking insights.
Dainik Bhaskar has announced the induction of YC Agarwal as part of the core editorial team of the Bihar and Jharkhand editions. Agarwal has joined the Group as Managing Editor of Bihar and Jharkhand. His appointment reflects the Group’s constant endeavors to enhance the editorial content and bring in more freshness and a new appeal in the publication. This appointment will further strengthen the leadership team of Dainik Bhaskar in Jharkhand, particularly of the recently launched Patna edition.
Agarwal brings with him 42 years of extensive experience in the Indian media industry. Prior to joining Dainik Bhaskar, Agarwal was overall in-charge of Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd in leadership roles for states of Bihar, Jharkhand & UP.
R Swaminathan, Regional Chief Corporate Officer of Bihar & Jharkhand said, “We are delighted to have Mr. Agarwal in our team. His appointment brings a certain sense of reassurance with it, as our core operations in Bihar & Jharkhand are now in his able and immensely experienced hands. Also, his encyclopedic knowledge on our industry has always been revered and is highly sought-after by media houses and industry bodies alike. We now stand to benefit not only from his proven editorial expertise, but also from his valuable counsel on building the ‘Brand Dainik Bhaskar’ in Bihar & Jharkhand.”
The Dainik Bhaskar group has been taking a lead on publishing the top creative work in advertising over the last few years. The third edition of the book called ‘Mosaic 2014′ is set to be published as the group is now commencing entry processes for the volume.
The second edition of Mosaic showcased the best of print ads of 105 brands created by over 31 leading creative agencies in India, while the first edition featured over 70 brands of print campaigns by 25 leading agencies.
Commenting on Mosaic’ third edition, Girish Agarwaal, Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group said: “This endeavor was launched by Dainik Bhaskar with the aim to showcase in a single collection, the great work being done in India in print advertising, while we have mostly referred to global compilations.”
Added Sanjeev Kotnala, Vice President and National Head, Marcom, Dainik Bhaskar who is leading the effort: “It has been a real pleasure to see Mosaic establishing itself and growing to become a reference point for some of India’s best print creatives, and evolve from being more than just a celebration of the best print work. For us at Dainik Bhaskar, it is our significant endeavor to highlight the Indian talent within agencies and inspire them to do even better”.
Punjab National Bank CMD K R Kamath felicitated by Union HRD Minister Dr M Mangapati Pallam Raju as Dainik Bhaskar group chairman Ramesh Agarwal (left) looks on
The fifth edition of the India Pride Awards, instituted by Dainik Bhaskar Group in 2009 to acknowledge excellence in public sector units (PSUs), was held in Delhi last week (December19).
Dr. M. Mangapati Pallam Raju, Union Minister for Human Resource Development was the Chief Guest, Dr. Harak Singh Rawat, Minister of Agriculture, Medical Education & Soldier Welfare in Uttarakhand, was the Guest of Honour and Dr. Charan Das Mahant, Minister of State of Agriculture and Rajeev Shukla, Minister of State Planning and Parliamentary Affairs, were special guests at the event.
The award, which is highly regarded, was judged by meticulous evaluation by jury supported by analysis by ICRAÂ as Knowledge Partners.
In his address Dr. M. Mangapati Pallam Raju emphasised ,”PSUs play a vital role in the making of the nation. Where everything in the nation is affected by what happens in another part of the world, PSUs have been playing a stabilising role.”
Said Ramesh Chandra Agarwal, Chairman, Dainik Bhaskar Group in his address: “Ours is a large nation- whatever is happening- whatever  changes are happening – are more apparent in the Tier-II and Tier-III towns. PSU have a lot role to play in the stability of these markets as they are the prime employment provider in these markets. These towns and changes therein define the country.”
The highlight of evening was the felicitation of K R Kamath, CMD, Punjab National Bank with the Lifetime achievement award.
The Dainik Bhaskar group has announced ‘Brain Hunt 2- Challenge your Imagination’ your Imagination as a nationwide initiative to stimulate and encourage the imagination of young minds to a new high of free and constructive thinking.
Said Vinay Maheshwari, Vice-President, Sales and Market Development, Dainik Bhaskar group: “As an organisation, innovation and new thinking continues to be one of the key pillars of our growth. The youth have always been one of our key audiences with we whom we truly enjoy engaging with. What better way to harness and nurture the potential of this huge force and align it with our philosophy of innovation and change!”
“We truly believe that Brain Hunt 2 will be another wonderful experience for students and the school community at large while also being a welcoming stress buster”. In 2010, the DB Group created the Bhaskar Champs Club to provide a creative platform to students to interact with other students on a common ground of exciting activities to foster intellect, acumen and brainpower. The Club now has about 10 lakh student members and 4,500 partner schools across the group’s geographical spread.
Sunil Mutreja, Executive Director at Amar Ujala has decided to move on. He confirmed the development to MxMIndia. However, his next destination is still unknown, though industry sources tell us he’s mulling entrepreneurial as well as job options.
Having joined the company in 2007 as President, Marketing; he was elevated to as ED in 2011. Prior to joining Amar Ujala, he was the CEO of Advertising International Corporation LLC (ADINC) Y&R for a year in Muscat. He began his career, which spans over three decades, with The Times of India in 1989. He was associated with the company for four years. He also became AVP at Times TV for a year. He has also worked with Dainik Bhaskar, and as CEO with Channel Nine Entertainment as well.
Goafest 2013 saw agencies, big and small, make a beeline with their coveted entries at the Zuri White Sands in Goa. The hope was that the absence of the number one agency would lead to high possibility of others winning some metal at the festival. To everyone’s surprise, the number of entries that were submitted at the festival was the maximum ever entered so far.
While the deserving entries across categories were awarded their share of merit at the festival, it was not just the teams from agencies who were rejoicing at the wins. They were joined in spirit and body by clients who were as excited in seeing their brand make an impact in the marketplace.
While clients now acknowledge the uniqueness that the forum offers and make it a point to attend the festival, there is still not enough done from their end in recognizing the efforts put in by the workforce across agencies. Sensing an opportunity, print major Dainik Bhaskar Group showed its appreciation by unveiling the second edition of their much-appreciated work, Mosaic at Goafest.
Through Mosaic, the Dainik Bhaskar Group lends recognition to and establishes a platform for creative agencies to showcase their best print work. Grander than its previous edition, Mosaic 2012 features 121 print campaigns across 105 brands from 31 top agencies. This number is significantly higher than the first edition where works by 70 brands created by 23 leading creative agencies in India was curated by the Dainik Bhaskar group. In fact, this year is more special as it features additional inclusion of select regional print work and the personal favourites section wherein industry experts offer their insight on what makes a print ad work.
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Highlighting the experience witnessed in compiling the second edition, Sanjeev Kotnala, VP – Brand & Marketing, Dainik Bhaskar Group said, “The second edition has more campaigns and brands in it. And yes, this time we do see a decent inclusion of regional – language work too. Also, the favourites have been picked by a mix of seniors from marketing and media.”
Mr Kotnala added, “The entries featured in the book are by invitation only. We have, in consultation with our partner Afaqs, invited large agencies well-known for their creative to submit their work – agencies that have in the past won awards.”
The book features creatives handpicked by creative heads across agencies. While each agency has submitted 5 entries, an exception has been made with DDB Mudra that sent 12 campaigns. Said Mr Kotnala on this decision, “The team looking through the entries found that all the entries submitted by them should be included for their excellence. Dropping any one would have been wrong in this case.”
As was the case with the first edition, the second edition also contains a section – A different point of view – which sees seven industry heads select their favourites among the lot. Manish Vyas of VIP industries, Manisha Lath Gupta of Axis Bank, Santosh Desai of Future Brands, CVL Srinivas of Group M, Lara Balsara of Madison World, Mallikarjundas CR of Starcom Mediavest and Shripad Kulkarni of Allied Media have all presented their favourites from the list.
The book was unveiled on the sidelines of Goafest along with the Dainik Bhaskar-sponsored IAA Debates by media industry captains: Prasoon Joshi, Vikram Sakhuja, Partha Sinha, Monica Tata, Anupriya Acharya, and Srinivasan Swamy. Industry stalwarts like Sam Balsara, Shashi Sinha, Nakul Chopra, Jishnu Sen, Alok Lal, Sanjay Naik, Bobby Pawar and KV Sridhar among others were present too.
On the response that the book has managed to elicit so far, Mr Kotnala said, “The second edition has been appreciated and we had enough people at Goafest coming and asking for it. It is too early, but last year we had more than 8,500 downloads and more than 4,500 copies distributed. We expect the second edition to obviously fare better.”
In fact Mr Kotnala and team are already brainstorming on what the third edition of the book should look like. On his expectations from agencies for the third edition he said, “Agencies qualify themselves for it. And we do not have any preference or bias but hopefully we would see more work being produced in languages.”
And it’s no surprise where the third edition of the book will be launched. Asserted Mr Kotnala, “We shall, like this year, bring out Mosaic III before or during Goafest.”
MxMIndia presents glimpses of some of the creatives shortlisted by experts…
Manish Vyas
Vice President – Marketing, VIP Industries Ltd.
“A great initiative to bring together some of the best work in the industry. I am sure it will inspire many greater campaigns in the future.”
Top 5 choices
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Manisha Lath Gupta
Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Axis Bank
“This book is a great study, as there is so much to learn from this collection of print ads. Many of them inspire marketers to think differently and take more risky decisions on creative.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
Santosh Desai
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Future Brands Ltd.
“Its a good initiative but needs more real work to become truly meaningful.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
CVL Srinivas
Chief Executive Officer – South Asia, GroupM
“Hats off to Dainik Bhaskar for continuing this initiative. This compilation is adequate proof that print as a medium can be as effective as any other.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
Lara Balsara
Executive Director, Madison World
“Great idea to further the cause of print. Can become a collector’s item.”
Shripad Kulkarni
Chief Executive Officer, Percept Media”An excellent initiative which can probably be taken to a higher plane and level to address the serious concern of lack of support to print from ‘creatives’ in a more holistic manner.”
Top 5 choices
Click on the image for larger view
Text and images published with permission of the Dainik Bhaskar group. The e-book can be downloaded from http://www.bhaskar.com/mosaic/
Dainik Bhaskar Group is all set to launch the second edition of its best-in-print ads – Mosaic.
The book will be unveiled on April 5 at the Dainik Bhaskar Group sponsored IAA debates in Goa. In recognition of the talent and massive creative potential that India has to offer, the group hopes that this book will be a reference point for all possibilities in the print category.
Bigger than its previous edition, Mosaic 2012 features 121 print campaigns across 105 brands from 31 top agencies. The insights section features senior industry members sharing their reasons for picking the featured advertisements.
This collector’s compilation is facilitated by afaqs! and supported by ABP News and Ad Club.
Union ministers Smriti Irani and Kiren Rijiju, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, AAP leaders Kumar Vishwas and Alka Lamba, Congress leaders Deepender Singh Hooda and Mausam Noor, and Apna Dal MP Anupriya Patel are in the running as youth icons nominated for second edition of the India TV Yuva Awards to be presented on April 18 in New Delhi.
