By Our Staff
Beyond Key has appointed Abilash Balan as Head of Marketing and Communication.
Commenting on the new appointment, Piyush Goel, CEO of Beyond Key, said: “Abilash brings rich experience in areas from purpose articulation and global brand building and sales enablement, and we are thrilled to welcome him to our leadership team.
By Our Staff
HDFC Life has released six films for the #ClickKaroInsureKaro campaign that focus on different life stages of an individual.
Speaking on the campaign, Vishal Subharwal – Head-Marketing, Digital Business & E-commerce, HDFC Life said: “Over the last one year consumers have been purchasing most products online. However, the idea of purchasing life insurance online is yet to become popular. It has been our endeavor to convey the benefits of buying life insurance online. There is a wide range of life insurance products that are designed to meet the life stage needs of every individual. These can be purchased via the digital platform in a convenient manner. We hope to be able to drive this message through our latest campaign.”
The campaign was ideated by creative agency partner Logicserve Digital. Providing further insight about the campaign, Manesh Swamy, Vice President – Creative, Social, PR & Marcom at Logicserve Digital, said: “After the success of the Buy Online campaign, we wanted to move the consumer from interest to intent via deep-diving more on the plans and the features of the products. Last time the stories revolved around the lockdown phase this time we planned it around the Festive season and unlock phase.”
By Our Staff
Marketing agency Efficacy Worldwide has bagged the mandate for communication services of EeVe India, an Electric vehicle company with a legacy of over 81 years in the automotive business.
The responsibilities of the agency will include Creative Communication, Media (Traditional and Digital) Social Media Management and Performance marketing.
Said Harsh Vardhan Didwania, Co-founder & Director, EeVe India: “We are extremely happy to partner with Efficacy Worldwide as our marketing communication agency as their inhouse digital capabilities will help us build awareness for EeVe India much faster. With the growing consciousness among the Indian consumer about ecological sustainability and environment protection, we see a lot of changes taking place in the electric automobile market in the country in the times to come. This association provides Efficacy Worldwide with an opportunity to establish EeVe India as the market leader in the two-wheeler Electric automobile category, a status it is truly worthy of.”
Added Vishnu Sharma, Founder & CEO, Efficacy Worldwide: “With our unique offering that cuts down the time and resources a client has to spend on managing its various marketing functions, we plan to launch EeVe India, one of the largest brand in the electric two-wheeler category, as most cost effective but extremely premium brand for the consumer. At the same time, we will also help EeVe India to cash in on the popularity it has already gained because of offering utility, style, simplicity and comfort in one package.”
By Shripad Kulkarni
The current ‘scam’ on TV Ratings is suddenly primetime news, topic of newspaper editorials and has of course rattled the advertising and marketing industry a little. I want to look at this as a marketing communications industry event. For clarity, I will not be looking into the ethics of news journalism or the stance news channels have taken on India’s political affairs. These are very different discussions.
So, let’s look at the ‘event’ from three standpoints in the marcom ecosystem viz the research science behind it, the users of this data and the direct stakeholders in the event.
We will look at the research science behind it and its challenges and their implications. Next we look at the relevance and role in decision-making of this data for users. And thirdly, we will look at the direct stakeholders in play, the TV channels and the external regulatory system. We will logically examine the implications of this event from each standpoint.
THE RESEARCH SCIENCE STANDPOINT
At the heart of the science (statistics) of a measurement system like BARC is a statistician’s nightmare. Let me elaborate on this nightmare. There are, as is often said ‘Many Indias’ from the rural land labourers to the Zoomers (born between 1997 and 2012). To cover these audience segments, the consumer classification system (which by the way, already needs a refresh) used by current research defines elaborately 12 segments.
In reality, this number is now multiplied manifold by the digital-led fragmentation of consumer video habits. It is impossible to be able to afford the sample size required to handle each of these segments adequately. It would take easily 10-15 times the current expenditure on research. This is the statistician’s nightmare I am referring to. Naturally the scope and coverage of any audience measurement system will need to be restricted.
The current system, broadly speaking, compromises on the upscale audiences and focuses where Big Advertising Monies reside viz Mass Viewership Categories like General Entertainment Channels and Cricket. Hence even a relatively big viewership category like Hindi News gets a lower representation in sample. English News is quite unrepresented. This just cannot change anytime soon – surely not because of this event.
By simple deduction, the low sample size genres like News, stand to get massive ‘benefit’ with a slight tweaking of data. And since this is linked to the Revenues directly, every once in a while, it leads to a shot at gaming the system by some players. The current event is alleged to be this gaming of the system.
A good research system has adequate checks and balances, without which it can’t exist. The current system does have all these and more. So, what will happen to the research science of BARC after a fresh look? It may, at best, need a few more checks and balances. That’s about it. In effect nothing much will change from a Research Science standpoint.
THE USER STANDPOINT
Typically, a Media Planner is the key user of TV Viewership data and in close consultation with the Brand Manager, takes decisions on Channel selection. The user is concerned about lower representation in the sample for Genres and Target Groups she/he is interested in for the Brand/s handled. Where the sample size is lower, the user finds other logical data points to estimate the relevance or popularity of Media. One way is statistical ‘normalisation’ (average over a period is the simplest example). Other ways are content analysis, specialised surveys, social media analysis and listening. Most of the users are experienced and use TV on an ongoing basis, and also have adequate past experience to rely on. In the case of Hindi News, such additional logic-based datapoints are used for validation while for significantly lower sample size situations like say English News; they could get a higher weightage.
The Logical data points are even more important for the user when there is any consistent, significant change in the channel pecking order, like the rise of Republic TV Network in the recent past. And this change in ranking order of channels keeps happening every once in a while. Yes, sometimes due to fieldwork manipulation attempt, as is the allegation in the current case in point.
If there is some kind of manipulation, which is missed by the checks and balances of BARC, it somehow always shows up in the logical data points. So the experienced users does own adjustment for it. By and large, gains from such a manipulation are temporary and can’t beat both these systems for a long time, is the industry experience.
The current scam, and the plausible manipulation as a reason behind it, is pretty much what the experienced expert users have seen and handled a few times. Over and above what BARC will do to crosscheck and validate the news genre viewership, the user needs to take a rigorous fresh look at the logical data points. And needn’t do anything more. So, again there will be no real change in the Users day-to-day life.
THE DIRECT STAKEHOLDERS
The media being measured are the biggest stakeholders here. In this case, however, there are also ‘external’ stakeholders due to the positions taken by News media vis a vis prevailing Political affairs. The outside stakeholders, by definition, will be involved for a temporary period. So when the dust settles, we will be left with only internal stakeholders.
Now let’s look at the channels. As a rule, if Channel A shows better numbers, and Channel B doesn’t, both will take opposing positions, no matter what. Given the checks and balances of the BARC system, at worst, a Channel or two might be guilty of manipulation. Since BARC is an Industry body, there will mostly be a technical committee, which will probe impartially. If there indeed is a malpractice not captured by the existing checks and balances system, a newer better system has to be in place with action against the Media concerned. If despite the corrections, the pecking order remains, nothing changes.
So, here again we pretty much arrive at the Nullity!
Full Disclosure: I have been a user of all Media Research since the days of scientific calculators, and also served on various Technical Committees of BARC and MRUC
*The concept of Nullity:
I have drawn from linear algebra the concept of Nullity, a vector with all Zero values. I would define Nullity in Marcom as an event, which is a necessity, forced upon the ecosystem by an external stimulus trigger. Such an event seemingly affects various stakeholders in the ecosystem. But, in the end, whichever standpoint you choose, there is no gain or loss for anyone in the ecosystem. In other words it’s a ‘Nullity’.
By Siddhartha Mukherjee
“Why do you want to take up a job in PR Industry?’, a common question a lot of us ask while interviewing candidates. Pronto comes a common answer: “ …because I like meeting people.†For those who find this response completely normal and healthy, I don’t want to comment any further. This particular column is not for them. However, for those who find this to be a wrong signal or symptom, my response will be – Let’s Talk!
Till recent times, interviewing candidates used to be a harrowing experience. The various audio and visual symptoms/ signals candidates from PR Agencies, Corporate Communications etc would display have often made me wonder if our Industry’s so called talent pool will be spelling its doomsday.
While ‘Jugaad/Fixing’, unfortunately though, still continues to be the core ideology behind certain clients hiring PR services, the good news, however, is that a large part of the client set have started gathering around he the need to build brands, nothing short of it. To meet such expectations, PR firms have started attracting “Quality, Well qualified and Humble†talent pool – specifically those who understand brands. Those who do not believe that meeting people or journalists is the mainstay of this business. Those who understand that Public Relations is all about Input, Output and a final Outcome. And that this business requires research and a very systematic measurement/ appraisal system.
Our PR firms are trying their best to take a positive U-turn, as fast as possible. They are doing everything possible to attract and sustain them with rigorous training processes. They are making it clear to their teams that client servicing is no longer meeting, fixing or just a press release exercise. In short, life is not going to be the same!
Dassera 2015 marks our Industry’s beginning of the victory march over the following ten evils or hurdles that was stopping our professionals transform from jugaadus/ fixers to brand-building partners:
1. Agency Professionals have started Reaching Client Meetings on Time: There was a time when the Client Servicing teams of PR Firms were (ill) reputed to never reach on time. Despite pre-decided meeting schedule, clients (corporate communications and its internal customers) have been kept waiting for the (grand) agency team to reach the meeting venue at their own leisure and convenient time. Today, amazing examples of punctuality are being displayed by teams across Agencies.
2. Agency team is well-prepared for the meeting: For most of the agencies and their team members, the answer to the core question of why the client is doing PR remained a grey area. More so, no one wanted to know the answer. Attendance in meetings was a customary formality. Preparations through research, Asking the right questions, Presenting a scientific plan, etc was a rarity. Today, however, client servicing teams are coming well-prepared. They are asking the right questions, working out a crisp brief, and clearly working out the blocks of Input, Output and Outcome. They know that they have to move the cheese and that they are accountable towards an objective!
3. Agency team is geared up to meet CXOs: As a continuation from the above, PR firms are getting more reasons and opportunities to meet the CXOs. Earlier, owing to their typical traits of punctuality and (lack of) preparedness, the corporate communications team wasn’t so sure of introducing the agency to his/ her internal CXO customers. Today, that hesitation is slowly fading away.
4. Agencies are opening up to working with External & Neutral PR Research & Measurement firms: There was a time, when external and neutral PR research and measurement firms were considered as Roman agents by many PR firms. Today, that thought process is drastically fading away. They are opening up to working with such firms not only towards various possibilities of research but also in terms of getting their client work measured and audited.
5. Clients allocating higher budgets to PR Tool: That paid media (ads and sponsorships) have started delivering declining ROIs is becoming an increasingly known fact. No wonder then, CXOs are being forced to depend equally (if not more) on Earned Media/PR initiatives. Monies are being allocated accordingly. A down-the-line beneficiary of this should be the PR Agency talent pool.
6. Corp Comm gaining importance over Marcom: Generally speaking, at one point of time, PR industry was known as the product launch machinery. Marcom used to rule the roost. In today’s Reputation Economy, CorpComm and corporate brand is taking centre stage. PR Firms and their talent pool are having to transition accordingly.
7. Clients are preparing detailed, scientific briefs for PR Agency Teams: Yes, the flipside of all this is that CorpComm teams are getting better and timely briefs from internal CXOs. This, relatively better, brief is bring passed on to their agencies for better ideation and implementation.
8. Clients hiring and firing of Agencies becoming more stringent: Gone are the days when PR agencies would cakewalk into a new client business with just a credentials presentation. So is the case with clients firing agencies. Recruitment of an agency and firing it is no longer that easy. Stringent metrics are being worked out for entry and exit into a client’s life.
9. Industry Events and Awards cropping up slowly to acknowledge talent: An average of two-three PR/Corporate Communication award functions are being held each year to highlight work done by Agencies and specific team members.
10. Course Curriculum & Recruitment process being revamped across Institutes: That a fresher will have spent making news clippings dockets during the first six months (to a year) of his/ her career in a PR agency or CorpComm department is breaking down, though slowly. No wonder, course curriculums, quality of faculty and guest lectures are seeing a drastic change.
The march towards victory has started. The army of PR professionals are proactively carrying the torch of doing PR for PR. Their audio and visual touchpoints of PR professionals are reflecting thought, sophistication, poise and above all, humility.
The industry has realised there was a Ravana with sins. Now, they themselves are out there to destroy it.
Siddhartha Mukherjee is a senior PR industry professional and currently Senior Vice President, Eikona – Earned Media Planning, Audit and Advisory. The views expressed here are his own.