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Tag: IAA

  • Megha Tata (MD Discovery South Asia) was elected Vice President

    IAA re-elects Punit Goenka as its President

    By A Correspondent

     

    The International Advertising Association (IAA) has re-elected Zee Entertainment MD and CEO Punit Goenka as its President. Megha Tata (MD Discovery South Asia) was elected Vice President. The other office bearers are Jaideep Gandhi (Secretary), Pradeep Dwivedi (Treasurer) and Ramesh Narayan Immediate Past President.

     

    The members elected to the Managing Committee are: Anant Goenka (Indian Express Group) Abhishek Karnani (Free Press Journal) Janak Sarda (Deshdoot) MV Shreyams Kumar (Mathrubhumi Group) and I. Venkat (Eenadu Group)

     

    Said Goenka: “IAA will continue to invest its time and energy in addressing key industry level interests, in order to enhance the overall professional ecosystem. As one team, we will continue to roll out our Intellectual Properties, with an enhanced focus on regional markets. As an institution, we will also continue to play an important role in espousing cause related initiatives, which are in line with our ethos of “what’s good, is good for business. It has been a wonderful experience serving such an esteemed institution and I look forward to working closely with its members for the second term. I shall continue to seek their support and co-operation and wish them all the very best.”

     

     

  • The participants were from Malaysia, India, China, Taiwan , Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Indonesia

    AFAA & IAA host Fasttrack, a Leadership Development Programme

    By A Campaign

     

    The Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA) and the International Advertising Association (IAA) concluded the seventh edition of Fasttrack, a three-day leadership programme for young professionals in Kuala Lumpur from September 11 to 13 2019. The participants were from Malaysia, India, China, Taiwan , Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

     

    Said Pradeep Guha of the Advertising Council of India (ACI): “I am delighted that Fasttrack has come so far. The feedback from all our nominees from India has been superb. I am also happy to note that they are advancing steadily in their professional lives and contributing gainfully to our industry. The ACI, which has as its members the IAA (India Chapter), AAAI, Advertising Club and IBF has been sponsoring six delegates for an all-expenses-paid experience in the programme for the last several years. We believe it is our investment in our industry and the returns are showing now. We conduct a national search for these six delegates and this year the entire search and short-listing was handled by media veteran Paritosh Joshi. We are happy to continue backing Fasttrack and wish it spreads from Malaysia, where it is being run now, to India as well”.

     

    Added Bharat Avalani, Chief Knowledge Officer of the AFAA and the pioneer of the programme: “We are incredibly heartened by the breakthroughs. We continually receive positive feedback from the human resources department of the participants, and we are pleased to witness their ability to engage in higher-level conversations and take greater responsibility in their work. The advertising and marketing  industry is challenged like never before; trust and credibility is diminishing, therefore this is a critical time for us to raise leaders with the right attitudes to seek solutions,”.

     

     

  • The IndIAA awards would be presented on August 26 in Mumbai

    Suresh Narayanan is Jury Chair at IndIAA Awards

    By A Correspondent

     

    The India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) has announced the jury for the IndIAA Awards on 7th August 2019 in Mumbai.

     

    Said IndIAA Awards Committee, Chairman, Abhishek Karnani: “The IndIAA awards are unique on two aspects. We ensure that only hardworking advertising that have gone throught the rigor of a brief and are backed by budgets are placed before the jury. Secondly, the jury members are all very senior advertisers who judge real advertising every day. We are delighted that Suresh Narayanan, Chairman, Nestle, has agreed to Chair this senior jury for the second consecutive year.”

     

    The jury members include: Eric Braganza, President, Haier Appliances India Pvt Ltd; Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO, Lodha Group; Raamdeo Agrawal, Founder, Motilal Oswal Group; Neil George , MD, Nivea India; Marzin Shroff, MD & CEO , Eureka Forbes; Vikas Agnihotri, Head, Google India and Sangeeta Pendurkar, CEO-Pantaloons, Aditya Birla Group

     

    The IndIAA awards would be presented on the 26th August at the ITC Grand Maratha Hotel, Sahar, Mumbai.

     

     

  • IAA Leadership Awards inducts Kaushik Roy into the IAA Hall of Fame and recongises industry leaders and CMOs

    IAA India conducts leadership awards

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    The India chapter of the International Advertising Association inducted veteran mediaperson Kaushik Roy into the IAA Hall of Fame. Roy was recognised at the sevent edition of the annual IAA Leadership Awards held in Mumbai on Friday.

     

    Other awards presented were Media Agency Leader of the Year to Prasanth Kumar, GroupM; IAA TV Anchor of the Year to Rahul Kanwal of the India Today Group, IAA Media Person of the Year to Sanjay Gupta, Star India and IAA Media Game Changer of the Year to Virendra Gupta  and Umang Bedi of  Dailyhunt.

     

    Also recognised in the evening were a variety of industry leaders. See List below

     

    Said Punit Goenka, President, IAA India, MD & CEO, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd: “The IAA India Chapter has been working relentlessly to enhance the stature of our marquee properties to enrich them with engaging and thought provoking conversations, and celebrate the commendable work being done by leaders across sectors. The 7th  edition of the IAA Leadership Awards was one such exceptional evening that celebrated and applauded true leaders who have positively contributed to the economy, changed the landscape of the M&E industry and created global brands. The support received from the guests present at the event reinforces our commitment to keep working towards creating initiatives that benefit the M&E industry.”

     

    Added Dr Bhaskar Das, Group President, Republic TV, Co-Chairperson of IAA Leadership Awards: “ IAA Leadership Awards is a humble attempt to honour industry doyens in the fields of Marketing, Advertising and Media, who have made enormous professional contributions and delivered business success to their companies. Because only we know the challenges, the hardships, the dilemma of ethics, the sacrifices and the tough decisions that go into making a leader – to stand tall, to stand true.”

     

    A panel discussion was moderated by CVL Srinivas, Country Manager-WPP India, on “Platform is critical. Content be dammed” with panellists from across the media ecosystem: Punit Misra, CEO- Domestic Broadcast Business, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., Sameer Nair, CEO-Applause Entertainment, Nandini Dias, CEO-Lodestar UM, and  Pooja Jauhari, CEO –The Glitch. The panelists discussed how content, platform and the consumer are interlinked and how content and platform is a function of time and how data driven insights are helpful in generating timely content.

     

    Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman and World President IAA, who was also present on the occasion, said: “We can now trace the progress of Chapters geographically”. The second being to promote education across.

     

    In his acceptance speech, Kaushik Roy who is President Brand Strategy & Marketing Communication at Reliance Industries Limited, said: “It is a great honour that doesn’t come easy, especially from IAA that has been a global body for 80 years. One must keep the fire in the belly alive: To Grow – Stay Hungry”.

     


    Winner List – 7th Edition of the IAA Leadership Awards 2019

  • No entry fee; mainline ad campaigns with film released April 2018 to March 2019 eligible

    Nominations open for IndIAA Awards Tamil

    By A Correspondent

     

    The International Advertising Association (IAA) has announced the launch of the IndIAA Regional Awards – Tamil to honour remarkable creative advertising in the Tamil Nadu market.

     

    Nominations are now invited for the IndIAA Awards Regional – Tamil, for mainline advertising campaigns released between April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019 targeting Tamil Nadu customers, in English (brands from the region only) and Tamil.

     

    There is no entry fee and shortlisted campaigns will be evaluated by a high-profile jury.  The award ceremony will be held in Chennai on June 14, 2019.

     

     

  • The Chairman and World President of the International Advertising Association (IAA) speaks on the mega-event and his plans for IAA

    India can be proud of staging IAA World Congress: Srinivasan K Swamy

     

    Impossible is not a word that you’ll ever find in the books of Srinivasan K Swamy, Chairman and World President of the International Advertising Association (IAA). Hardly had the IAA World Congress at Kochi got over, he was busy working on plans for the next few projects. And of course achieving his dreams for IAA across the world.

    The Chairman of the RK Swamy Hansa Group, Swamy took on the global charge in October. A quick chat with

    Srinivasan K Swamy on the success of the IAA World Congress and what’s next on the IAA calendar. A slightly shorter variant of this interview appeared as part of a pull-out published with Business Standard today, March 12. Compiled by MxMIndia. Published and conceived by The Resource 24×7

     

    You had set yourself near-impossible targets for the IAA World Congress. Now that the Congress is over, and the feedback received indicates that it was very successful, what are your own thoughts? Are you happy with what you set out to achieve?

    Frankly, during the last few days prior to the Congress, it all came together. Of course the speakers were done and dusted well in advance. A few cancellations in speakers were always expected and we had some options that we exercised, without compromising on what we set out to do. The only reason we settled for Grand Hyatt Lulu Convention Centre in Kochi was because only this venue could host a capacity of 2500 delegates in India, that too in style. Our target for participation at the Congress was set at 2500, the full capacity, and we exceeded that too thanks to the enormous support we received from Kerala delegates.  We also felt the evenings is what would make the event memorable and these were executed to perfection. All our international delegates were overawed by the scale and the grandeur of the event, and India can certainly be proud of staging this spectacular international event in India.

     

    And we now hear that the next IAA World Congress is in St Petersburg, Russia next year. How will you better the really high benchmark that you’ve set with Kochi?

    St Petersburg is a beautiful city with many palaces and historical monuments. It  starts off with that advantage straightaway. The event is going to be conducted in late May 2020, when the sun never sets. It will be a new experience for many delegates during these ‘white nights’. Further, it will be more easily accessible from many European cities, so more international delegates will be a natural consequence. And last but not the least, the Governor of St Petersburg, the City Administration and the Federal Russian Government are fully backing the Congress and are very keen to ensure that the event will be a world-beater in both content and entertainment. We have already formed a committee of experienced people to finalise all details and I am sure the St Petersburg Congress will in no way fall short of the benchmark we have set for ourselves in Kochi.

     

    Pre-event, you had mentioned that the real work on the Congress happened only in the last six-odd months. Given that all of you amongst the key organisers have other businesses to look into, what were the challenges that you faced?

    The actual work for the Congress started well over 18 months ago. Many of the speakers were finalised well in advance. As is always the case, the momentum builds in the last few months when strong marketing efforts are put in for delegates to sign up. When we are organising an important event like the World Congress, our business demands do take the backseat. And fortunately, none of the core committee members complained in this regard and tirelessly plugged along.

     

    The IAA World Congress in India is just a one-off event. Do you have plans to harness the momentum that the IAA franchise gained in India over the next few months?

    We have many good global events coming up. We will have the Africa Rising conference taking place in May 2019 at Accra, Ghana. In June, we will be in Cannes, France having our own leadership sessions. In October, we plan on our third edition of the IAA Global Conference in Bucharest on Creativity4Better. There are couple of other things on the anvil which will be announced once the plans/dates are finalised. Events apart, we are putting enormous emphasis on Education. We have already accredited 44 institutions on marketing/ advertising courses and we want to provide active support to them, apart from expanding our accredited institutions base to twice that large over the next two years.

     

    The IAA is of course a lot more than the World Congress, and in your presentation at the opening ceremony, you spoke about the work that you intend undertaking in the field of digital privacy? It’s a huge ask given the extent of intrusion that has taken place. What are your specific plans?

    Privacy in the digital world is a matter of concern for everyone. No wonder the governments of various countries are stepping in to protect their Citizens. IAA believes that over-regulation may not necessarily be in the interest of the consumer, because it could impair on the efficacy of well-targeted communication. As a strong promoter and defender of advertising self-regulation, IAA is of the view that a strong data privacy regulation would actually act against the interest of the consumers. Advertising after all is a major source for economic growth. It promotes competition, thereby innovation, improves product quality, promotes choice, reduces prices. Excessive privacy laws would make targeted advertising difficult making the cost of advertising very high impacting on all the benefits of advertising listed.  With 43% of the global advertising budget going to digital, regressive privacy laws will change the business of advertising as we know it. IAA is therefore trying to speak to all the stakeholders – advertisers, agencies, media, digital companies, technology companies etc – to hopefully arrive at a self-regulation code we all can subscribe to and also develop a mechanism to oversee this. The response from the people I have reached out to has been overwhelming and I am sure many of what we need to do, will be based on further consultation with multiple stakeholders. As they say, watch this space!

     

    The India chapter has been super-active ever since you helmed it. Do we see you inspire other country chapters to also become as active as the India chapter?

    IAA Chapters are only as active as the leaders leading them. And another ingredient that is needed for this is the quantity of members. Our focus at IAA will be on both these fronts. We have already made some changes in our by-laws which will aid in membership-building. We have put in place some guidelines to check the health of the Chapters. And we do want to get Chapters to adopt certain common events from the vast repertoire of events we have in many of our Chapters. We have some distance to cover in this but I can say the journey has begun!

     

    A slightly shorter variant of this interview appeared as part of a pull-out published with Business Standard today, March 12. Compiled by MxMIndia. Published and conceived by The Resource 24×7

     

     

  • Paul Polman, Mark Pritchard, Piyush Pandey, Jacques Seguela, others shine on the second day of the IAA World Congress

    Biz with Purpose on Day 2 @ IAA-WC

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    The second day of the 44th edition of the IAA World Congress organised by the International Advertising Association (IAA) saw several star speakers addressing a packed audience of professionals, practitioners, academics and students. The joint themes of ‘Brand Dharma’ and ‘Tech for Good’ were what everyone spoke on or discussed.

     

    It was also time for felicitations and awards. Yusuf Ali, Chairman and Owner, Lulu Group, was felicitated by Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman & World President, International Advertising Association. In his speech, keeping with the theme of the conference, Ali reiterated to all the marketing and communications stakeholders to act responsibly towards the society and stay true to their business values.

     

    The IAA Golden Compass Awards were conferred to Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer, Procter & Gamble and Andrew Robertson, President & CEO, BBDO Worldwide. The IAA Inspire Champion Awards was conferred to Raj Nayak, senior media professional and former Chief Operating Officer at Viacom18. The IAA Inspire Honorary Life Member Award was conferred to Ranil De Silva from Sri Lanka.

     

    In the first session of the day, Paul Polman, President of the ICC, Chairman of the B-Team and Vice-Chair of the UN Global Compact. CEO Unilever made a passionate plea to companies to run their businesses by heart, because he felt that businesses can’t succeed in a society that fails.

     

    Polman stated that value and trust are two important elements for a company. However, currently, trust is low in the industry because of fake news, frauds, unethical employment practices, sexual harassment etc, he said.

     

    As advertisers, we should look and hear from a consumer’s viewpoint since consumers judge us by what we do, not by what we say, Polman said, adding: “You cannot run business with freedom without responsibility. If we don’t protect it, we won’t have a future.  Partnership is important to work on sustainable growth. A partnership, which is for a common good. Putting other’s interests before ours is very important because although we have the resources to help the society, all we are missing is human will power. Tech has connected us better with people, but has also given us loneliness.” He ended his speech by urging the audience: “If you belong to 2% of population, think about 98% population and live responsibly.”

     

    Next up was Simon Kahn of Google APAC on the Future of Digital Immersion. According to Kahn, the next wave of technology will assist us, augment our experience and will help us accelerate things we need to get done.

     

    The digital tech has started to help us in all practical areas, most progress which we have seen is in the area of speech recognition. We are now up to near human quality in speech recognition.  In India recently, we worked with Flipkart when wanted to add the experience of haggling for the big billion day sales and it the result was many millions interaction with the tool with average time of engagement for min 6 minutes. Communication is also about gesture and nonverbal cues, hence we are training computers to replicate the same hence breaking down physical world barriers

     

    This was followed by a panel discussion. Tom Doctoroff, Business Leader and Global Brand Builder on Derisk the future in conversation with Michael McQueen, Trend forecaster and Author and Tim Reid, Comedy Writer and Innovation Expert. Said Reid: “Best ideas come as jokes make your thinking as funny as possible. What makes is laugh are two things, first is the truth (as it is relatable) and the second is surprise, we experience, when something doesn’t quite fit in in the normal trend. Truth with the twist is the biggest thing that make us laugh. In an idea session, if we can get people to say something which has point of truth with an element of surprise and you will probably see a genius idea there somewhere and hence there is a science behind it creativity works better with humour.

     

    Mcqueen, who has done a lot of work with millennials on what are they thinking and what are they looking at, shared his insights on decoding the millennial mindset and how one can bridge gaps. There are 34% millennial population in India, which is very important numerically and economically as they will enter spending peak by 2026. McQueen advised the marketers to market their products through them and not to them.

     

    There was much anticipation for the session of Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer, Procter & Gamble. After screening the latest ad campaign from his company in India, Pritchard started the conversation with the proposition of ‘What if brand could be force for good and a force growth’. He emphasised on living the brand’s purpose and not just talk about it. He stressed on the need of brands to align themselves with a purpose. He covered three major problems faced in the business diaspora; Gender Equality, Sustainability and Technology.

     

    People expect more from brands, he said. They want the brand to take a stand on the social issues. 9 out of 10 consumers want brands to live with their values, they want brands to take stand. In sustainability there is a difference between what people say and do. 67% of the population talks about sustainability but only 30% of them actually act on it. Sustainable goals are equally good for the growth of the brands, he sai. He spoke about how P&G is doing its bit by using technology is work on a product that can eliminate need of water in cleaning,

     

    “I urge to reduce renew and recycle water, energy and waste. It will be nice if all brands can come together.”

     

    Later, Chris Tung , CMO, Alibaba, spoke about the Alibaba model and how it has built for itself an ecosystem for brand-builiding. Mark D’Arcy, VP of Global Business Marketing and Chief Creative Officer, Facebook was in conversation with Hungama founder and digital pioneer Neeraj Roy. India is the second-largest market for Facebook. D’Arcy asked mainstream brands to be always being interesting and relevant in reference to content marketing. The journey from attention to action is interesting, he said. All touchpoints in the journey should be engaging and seemless. FB is deeply committed to innovation too. We have curiosity of constantly learning as an organisation is important. It helps in growing the business and help improve the culture.

     

    The following session had Rahul Welde, EVP Digital Transformation, Unilever and Lindsay Pattison, Chief Client Officer, WPP in a chat with Ralph Simon.

     

    The biggest change in marketing and technology sector is speed, Welde said. The results are quick which enables faster changes meeting the needs. Apart from technology, the most important assets in marketing are skills and talent. To make a greater impact, one needs to have a skilful leadership and talent pool in the organisation.

     

    Said Pattison: Disruption is affecting everybody and every brand. India has a 14% ad spent growth which is highest in the world, making it the most potential market for the advertisers.

     

    After some serious business truths, the audience witnessed an extremely engaging session by Jacques Seguela, Co-Founder of RSCG & Vice President of Havas Media where Seguela underscored the need for storytelling and emotions to not get disconnected in our pursuit of technology.Seguela, who was celebrating his 85th birthday on Thursday, receive a standing ovation. His session was followed by that of Ed Pank of Warc who spoke on ‘Tech for Good, Innovating for Social Impact’.

     

    The final session of the day was by Ogilvy Chief Creative Officer and celebrate adperson Piyush Pandey offered a perspective on ‘Brand Dharma’ that made people sit up and take notice. “A lot of people spoke about sustainability, climate change and everything. I would like to draw your attention to sustainability of human emotions that are under threat in the digital world… Sustainability in environment is to make life longer but sustainability in relationships is to love and enjoy life.”

     

    The evening entertainment for the day was interestingly titled ‘Fashion & Flavours of India’. After a day packed with high energy session, the winding down was well-deserved.

     

     

  • The International Advertising Association World Congress to be held at Kochi next month

    IAA out to promote awareness about Diabetic Retinopathy in India

    By A Correspondent

     

    International Advertising Association (IAA) in association with the All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS) is providing a platform for all advertising and marketing professionals in India to showcase their creativity for a cause during the upcoming International Advertising Association World Congress in Kochi next month. IAA is inviting entries for creating a campaign to drive awareness on Diabetic Retinopathy. This national health initiative is titled EYE4Future and is conceptualised by IAA in partnership with All India Ophthalmological society.

     

    Said Punit Goenka President IAA (India Chapter): “The ethos behind the campaign is that IAA has always believed that communication should be a force for good. The India Chapter has an excellent track record of supporting good societal causes.”

     

    Added Dr S. Natarajan, President-Elect of the AIOS: “The diabetes pandemic is sweeping across the country. There are 62 million people with diabetes in India and another 77 million people estimated to be pre-diabetic. These and all those who have not yet been diagnosed as diabetic are facing grave risk, including those of Diabetic Retinopathy and hence there is a need to build mass awareness about this issue. I am glad the IAA is supporting this much needed initiative.”

     

    The campaign will be judged by a jury for creativity and simplicity. IAA will support the winning team to produce the campaign, and invite two members of the team to Kochi. The campaign will be unveiled in the presence of renowned speakers and celebrities at the IAA World Congress on February 22. The last day to send in entries is January 28, 2019.

     

     

  • The advertising and marketing services veteran will take charge as IAA Global Chairman & World President today

    Ati Sundar! Srinivasan Swamy to be IAA Big Boss

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    It appears to be an Indian summer in Europe this year. In June, creative gurus Piyush and Prasoon Pandey were awarded the highest honour at the Cannes International Festiveal of Creativity, and now Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman of the R K Swamy Hansa Group will take over as the Chairman and World President of the illustrious International Advertising Association (IAA), the first Indian ever to do so.

     

    Sundar, as he is called by his friends, will lead a team of 25 Executive Committee members from a host of countries including USA, UK, Austria, Italy, Poland, Ghana, UAE, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Netherlands, Kuwait, Iran, Nepal and India. He takes over from senior advertising professional Felix Tataru from Romania today (October 4, 2018) at an event to be held in Bucharest.

     

    The International Advertising Association is an 80-year old institution and considered the most prestigious advertising body of its kind in the world. The IAA is acknowledged as the world’s most influential network of marketing and communication leaders, aimed at representing the common interests of all the disciplines across the full spectrum of marketing communications – from advertisers to media companies to agencies to direct marketing firms, as well as individual practitioners. Its activities involve professional development of marketing communication practitioners, protecting freedom of commercial speech, advertising self-regulation, protecting consumer interest, training and education.

     

    In 2016, Swamy was accorded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Advertising Agencies Association of India.

     

    As Chairman of R K Swamy Hansa, his professional interests currently include Creative & Media Advertising, Interactive & Digital Advertising, Health Care Communications, Social & Rural Sector, Communication, Human Resources Communication, Marketing Analytics, Market Research, Events & Activation, Retail Identity, Public Relations, Continuing Medical Education, Global Language work etc.

     

    Swamy has been active in various industry bodies working towards the growth and development of the Advertising industry. He was President of AAAI for three consecutive terms (2004 – 2007) and continues to take active interest in the activities of AAAI. He has been Chairman of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), and a Board Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations. Swamy was also President of All India Management Association during 2008-09.  He was the President of The Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry (2008-10), Madras Management Association (2001-02) and the Advertising Club, Madras (1988-89).

     

    He had a superactive tenure as President of the India Chapter of International Advertising Association and was also elected Senior Vice President of International Advertising Association, the global body. The list goes on and on.

     

    Swamy is actively involved with socially relevant institutions such as a 220-bed, multi-discipline tertiary care, Hindu Mission Hospital at Chennai catering to the urban poor and the surrounding rural areas; Chairman of Valluvar Gurukulam School Society which runs  a school for 2800 poor students, primarily girls and Vice President of National Boys and Girls Education Society, a premium education institution in Central Chennai which runs three reputed schools.  He is also Chairman of Vidyadhanam and Annadhanam Trust, a Vedic Padasala of Sri Ahobila Mutt and Trustee in the Consumers Association of India and Concert.

     

     

  • In the second of the extracts from IAA’s ‘The Gutenberg Galaxy’, Nandini Dias looks at reasons why print still rules in our country

    Why print in India is defying the global trend…

     

     

    By Nandini Dias

     

    Nandini Dias

    It is by now a pretty well-established finding that the typically argumentative Indian rarely conforms to global marketing norms. That’s the reason many multinationals have had to change the global narrative to suit the Indian mindset.

     

    Companies like Unilever, McDonalds, Kellogg’s, Maggi have had to make fundamental changes in their pitch to the local market. Native clothing, for instance, is fairly mainstream as are investment patterns which, unlike the rest of the world, stays largely within fixed deposits and gold with pension and insurance battling weak penetration most of the time.

     

    Print media, it seems, is another case in point. Where it seems to be on a downward trajectory globally but in India it seems to be holding steady albeit with the growth rate declining to around 7 or 8%. While the change is inevitable, in typical Indian complexity, the change in the system will be more covert, with stealth and over time. But it’s interesting to assess why we are defying the global trend.

     

    1. Rising literacy level is probably the highest growth driver. The maximum growth is in the six Hindi-speaking states of UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh where half of India’s lower literacy (48.12) lived. In addition, the unrelenting thrust and effort put in by newspaper brand in these states has borne fruit.

     

    2. Unlike many western countries, the distribution mode for newspapers in India is 99% home delivery under a subscription model. The very fact that it reaches millions of homes, effortlessly and with amazing consistency has ensured that the habit does not wear off easily . In addition, while news reaches Indian homes in various formats, print has taken on a unique form of mass personalisation. FMCGs have started using newspapers with renewed thrust to roll out sampling and product trials. Auto brands like Tata have used print to distribute personalised augmented reality kits to push test drives. While DMPs are struggling with API and data onboarding, print has started using their databases intelligently to ensure that consumers and marketers can get connected. Print seems to have evolved into a hydra- headed combination of direct marketing, digital, print, sampling and even experiential. So change has come but in a muted form. Newspapers need to further enable connection between reader and ecommerce or purchase. If the lead generation through print proves to be a cost effective model the evolved version may stand to scrutiny.

     

    3. Print in India will also stand at an advantage for another four-five years as our internet consumption is predominantly in English and only 12% of the population actually read and understand English. Also, while 15 years back it was accepted that purchasing power and English-speaking consumers had a huge intersection, that is no longer true today. Regional ethnic groups like Haryana’s Gujjars and Jats have gained rapid affluence and their language of comfort is not English. The need to go beyond English is important and regional language newspapers are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that they partner the regional nouveau riche. While regional digital is also charged up it may take some years to catch up.

     

    4. While digital is supposed to ring the death knell of newspaper, the over saturation of fake news and unregulated citizen journalism has inadvertently brought renewed credibility to the print medium. And with television and digital posturing as sensational ‘breaking news’ media, newspapers have been forced to reposition themselves as offering in-depth analysis of news and current affairs which are well researched and validated. But the experience, visually rich, speed and convenience are aspects that need to be worked upon.

     

    So, while both sides will struggle to come out more victorious the challenges that need to be answered are two-fold.

     

    :: How to monetise e-paper. The equation between digital advertising revenues, cost per reader, paywall or not etc. hasn’t been very conducive to making the business profitable.

     

    :: The millennial youth has grown up using personalised screens. Will the newspaper printed format ever be relevant for them?

     

    Published with permission from the International Advertising Association (India Chapter).

     

     

  • The event will be held tomorrow, September 19, at the St. Regis Hotel, Mumbai

    IAA to launch collector’s item on power of print

    By A Correspondent

     

    The India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) will launch a coffee table book titled ‘The Gutenberg Galaxy’ on September 19, at the St Regis Hotel, Mumbai.

     

    Ramesh Narayan

    Said IAA India President Ramesh Narayan: “There is perception and there is reality. Our effort is to support and cater to all our constituents. Print as a medium is doing remarkably well in India. And this coffee table book shows how creative advertising agencies have been able to use the power of print to build brands for their advertisers. The case studies and the articles by leading marketers and media agency heads will form a unique collector’s item. Add to that the panel discussion by Ashish Bhasin, Santosh Padhi and Ajay Kakkar and the presentation by I. Venkat on the perspective of the Audit Bureau of Circulation and you have the perfect recipe for a great evening.”

     

    Abhishek Karnani

    Added Book Launch Committee Chairman and Mancom Member IAA and Director, Free Press Journal Abhishek Karnani: “This was been quite a remarkable journey. Reaching out to the creative community, compiling the 24 case studies, getting 14 top marketers and agency heads to contribute articles has been a very satisfying exercise. We are expecting a wide cross-section of advertisers, agency planners and buyers and media people to attend this launch. It will have something for everyone.”

     

     

  • It will be held at the ITC Maratha, Mumbai

    IAA IndIAA awards to be held on August 31

    By A Correspondent

     

    The India Chapter of International Advertising Association (IAA) will present its IndIAA awards to the co-creators of outstanding creative advertising on August 31 at the ITC Maratha.

     

    Suresh Narayanan, Chairman Nestle India, who chaired the jury that selected the winners has said that it was a welcome challenge to spend many productive hours sifting through the shortlist of 21 categories to arrive at the ultimate winners.

     

    Added Ramesh Narayan – President IAA: “This promises to be a memorable evening. Where else can you see advertisers sharing the stage with their advertising agencies and accepting awards for what we call real, hard-working advertising? And that’s not all. The jury, which comprised of senior advertisers have done their job. Now we look forward to them presenting some of these unique awards.”

     

    Said Pradeep Guha, Chairman – IndIAA awards Committee: “This constitutes work that has been made to a real brief, gone through the rigour of presentations to the client, and has been backed by money from the owners of the brands. And no effort is being spared to make the evening a treat for the senses. Everything from the opening audio visual to the little entertainment segment would be unique,” he added.