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Tag: Neeraj Roy

  • The Corporate Social Crusader award is conferred on a Corporate which has excelled in any form of CSR activity in the last calendar year

    IAA extends entry deadline for Corporate Social Crusader Award

    By A Correspondent

     

    The last date for receiving entries for the International Advertising Association (IAA) Corporate Social Crusader Award has been extended to February 28th 2015.

     

    The Corporate Social Crusader award is conferred on a Corporate which has excelled in any form of CSR activity in the last calendar year. The CSR could be in any area of the Corporate’s choice and is judged on the basis of its scale, relevance, and impact.

     

    Srinivasan Swamy, President, IAA India Chapter & Vice President – Development, IAA Asia Pacific said, “We introduced the IAA Corporate Social Crusader Award as a part of our prestigious Olive Crown Awards last year. The response was amazing. Over 53 large corporates sent in their entries. The award was ultimately shared by Hindustan Unilever and Mathrubhumi Group of newspapers.”

     

    Neeraj Roy, Chairman, Olive Crown Awards Committee, IAA India Chapter, added, “Last’s years award ceremony was special. We had Amitabh Bachchan and Maneka Gandhi with us along with the entire communications industry. This award is for a company that takes a justifiable pride in its CSR activity over the last year. It includes any CSR activity from improving life skills to recycling to healthcare and education and of course the environment.”

     

    The Olive Crown Awards are run as a cause and there is no entry fee.

     

  • The Call for Entries has been good but many agencies have requested an extension of the deadline

    Entry deadline for Olive Crown Awards extended to Feb 15th

    By A Correspondent

     

    Neeraj Roy

    The India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) has announced deadline extension of the Olive Crown Awards that salute excellence in communicating sustainability.

     

    Neeraj Roy, Chairman, Olive Crown Awards Committee said, “The response to the Call for Entries has been good but many agencies have requested an extension of the deadline, and so we have extended the last date to receive entries to February 15th 2015.”

     

     

    Srinivasan K Swamy

    IAA President Srinivasan Swamy said, “The Olive Crown awards are our contribution to Planet Earth. They are run as a cause and we do not charge any entry fee. The awards ceremony is also an exclusive “invite-only” show. Last year Sri Amitabh Bachchan was the Chief Guest and Smt Maneka Gandhi received the Green Crusader Award. Further, Hindustan Unilever and Mathrubhumi Group of Newspapers shared the Corporate Social Crusader Award and McCann World Group bagged the Agency of the year award.”

     

  • He already serves on the IAA Global Board as Vice President – Development, IAA Asia Pacific

    Srinivasan Swamy re-elected President of IAA in India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Srinivasan K Swamy

    Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman of R K Swamy Hansa Group was elected President of IAA for the third consecutive term at the Annual General Body Meeting. He already serves on the IAA Global Board as Vice President – Development, IAA Asia Pacific.

     

    Neeraj Roy of Hungama, Monica Tata of HBO and Jaideep Gandhi of Jaya Advertising were also re-elected Vice President, Honorary Secretary and Treasurer respectively the year for 2014-15.

     

    The other members elected into the Managing Committee were – Abhishek Karnani of The Free Press Journal, Vishakha Singh of Aurora Comms, Manish Advani of Mahindra SSG, Janak Sarda of Deshdoot, CVL Srinivas of Group M, Avinash Pandey of ABP News, M. V. Shreyams Kumar of Mathrubhumi, Partho Dasgupta of BARC, Bhaskar Das of Zee Media and Rajesh Kejriwal of Kyoorius.

     

    In addition, the following would serve in the Committee as invited members for the year 2014-15: Pradeep Guha, Pheroza Bilimoria, Sam Balsara, Kaushik Roy, Raj Nayak, Ramesh Narayan, M G Parameswaran, Neville Taraporewalla, Gayatri Yadav, Anita Nayyar, Pradeep Dwivedi, Anand Sankeshwar, Sunil Lulla and Punitha Arumugam. “A few more have been invited and their names will be announced after they accept our invitation”, said Srinivasan Swamy.

     

    In his outgoing President’s address, Srinivasan Swamy said that the year that went by was an active one, where 32 events were organised by IAA India. Some of these included two IAA Debates, four IAA Conversations, five IAA Mentorship Webinars, six Knowledge Seminars, three IAA Young Turks Forum events and other marquee events like the IAA Olive Crown Awards and the IAA Leadership Awards. There were a few other special ones like the IAA Retrospect & Prospects events in Gurgaon and Mumbai and the IAA Mentorship Programme. The year was off to a terrific start on 30th September 2013 with the IAA Platinum Jubilee Global Marketing Summit where the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate and CM of Gujarat the Hon’ble Shri Narendra Modi delivering his valedictory address on his vision of Brand India.

     

    IAA India will be celebrating its Silver Jubilee year in 2014-15. “We have identified at least 20 different platforms to peg our events for the coming year. We have a very good committee and I wouldn’t be surprised if we have more than 52 events during the year”, said Srinivasan Swamy. Commented Pradeep Guha, Area Director, IAA Asia Pacific, “IAA India is already seen as the most active industry body in India as well as in the IAA world. With the plans that are made for 2014-15, I have no doubt that this will be the best year ever and would set a new benchmark”.

     

  • The event saw a turnout of around 200-odd marketing enthusiasts learn about future marketing trends, understanding consumer behaviour, the mix of social and mobile media among a host of other topics

    Mobile marketers discuss trends & future at IAMAI Summit

    By Sneha Johari

     

    The number of connected Indians is also going to exceed the English newspaper circulation in India by ten times and will exceed the English speaking population in India by 1.5 times. These and a variety of other facts and figures were discussed and deliberated on at the Mobile Marketing Summit 2014, organised by the trade association IAMAI at the Hyatt Regency in Mumbai on Wednesday. The event saw a turnout of around 200-odd marketing enthusiasts learn about future marketing trends, understanding consumer behaviour, the mix of social and mobile media among a host of other topics.

     

    Rajesh Jain

    Rajesh Jain, Chief People Officer of netCORE Solutions spoke about the integration of marketing and technology which is already upon us (and is slowly merging). Tushar Vyas, Managing Partner Interaction of GroupM South Asia took some stand-out numbers and presented them in the context of the Indian online population.Talking about the next 100 million users (the upcoming generation as well as people who are converting to smartphones), in the near future, the number of connected Indians is going to be larger than the US population. India is the world’s second largest online user base. He also gave the stats on the number of connected Indians exceeding English newspaper circulation cited earlier. Mr Vyas added that the tolerance for delay (in any service) is decreasing as the information gap closes in and more and more things become available to a consumer faster. “The mobile web is increasingly becoming visual and discoverability is now social,” said Mr Vyas.

     

    Neeraj Roy

    Neeraj Roy, MD and CEO of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment stressed on the statistics of mobile consumers. “79% of smartphone owners are also smartphone shoppers. The Asia Pacific region will have the largest in B2C e-commerce in the near future,” said Mr Roy. Content is consumed across devices and people want a uniform experience across devices. The CEO of Proscape Services, Michele Raspone demonstrated how Proscape helped in cutting costs and enabling technology for their clients.

     

     

     

    Nishant Rao

    In the midst of all marketing talks, Nishant Rao, MD, LinkedIn India spoke about how mobile could be leveraged to become more productive professionals. He stressed on the importance of having a simple app for your business which worked efficiently and delivered the content or service. “Mobile is a mindset,” said Mr Rao. It should not be viewed as a technology separate from our lives. When asked by an audience member whether it would be best to have an all in one app, a mix of Facebook and LinkedIn, Nishant said that although that would be a nice idea, people prefer to keep their personal and professional lives separate.

     

    As the Summit progressed, a session on Marketing APPeal: Nuances of Mobile App Marketing discussed important aspects of investing in apps, best methods for a marketer to retain users on the app, native ads, how to use push notifications effectively while increasing consumer engagement and how to prevent overexposure of information. Rohan Tyagi, Digital Product Head of ABP News, said that push notifications helped in increasing their user engagement fourfold. This led to higher consumption of news. “You need to study your app as well as its users carefully. We segregated our users based on their engagement (high or low engagement) and delivered notifications accordingly,” Mr Tyagi said.

     

    Veer Chand Bothra, Chief Innovation Officer of netCORE Solutions said that looking at the app as content was necessary. He also mentioned that content is the king. His advice to marketers using apps? “Integrate all your information channels- voice (call), SMS, push notifications and email. As a marketer, take an omni-channel approach where the experience remains uniform across platforms,” Mr Bothra replied. Jay Jain, Director and Co-Founder of m-AdCall Digital Media, an app which lets you earn incentives for watching ads, said, borrowing from experience, “Give points to your consumers to bring them back to your app.”

     

    Nitish Tipnis, the ‘old-school’ Director of Marketing & Sales, Hover Automobile India neatly demonstrated Nissan’s social-only approach to the launch of its SUV, the Terrano and the phenomenal results they got from this medium last year. Nitish elaborated on how the customer is interested is knowing how technology works for them, that as marketers we should not bombard them with high-end tech specs but rather simplify and explain. In his research, he found that 95% of automobile-buying prospects research online before making a decision to purchase an automobile. “Create conversation, ensure quick responses, use multiple channels to engage with customers,” Mr Tipnis suggested.

     

    Rajiv Dingra

    The last plenary session explored the symbiosis between Mobile Marketing and Social Media. Rajiv Dingra, Founder and CEO, WATConsult, talked about using the right kind of content for social and differentiating correctly between the print, TV and online, especially social media.

     

    Snehi Mehta, Head – Client Solutions, Facebook India said, “Brands must have a voice on social platforms. Facebook is not just a social media platform, it is a mass media platform. We have to simplify planning metrics. Planning metrics have changed. It’s not about a 30 second advertisement anymore. The need of the hour is optimum reach.”

     

    Different case studies were also presented towards the end of the Summit.

     

  • 800+ audience witnessed senior film-makers Mahesh Bhatt and Stuart Sender participate in a discussion

    IAA Young Turks forum discusses ‘How Cinema influences Culture and Marketing’

    By A Correspondent

     

    The International Convention Hall at the iconic Bombay Stock Exchange towers played host to the second edition of the IAA Young Turks Forum on Tuesday, August 6. Well-known film-makers Mahesh Bhatt and Stuart Sender participated in a discussion that was moderated by Hungama Digital Media MD and CEO Neeraj Roy. The topic of the discussion was ‘How Cinema influences Culture and Marketing’.

     

    “The question is how we can put some star power and thinking in terms of how we market media, culture and ideas – to work for some other issues and causes that will make people think and make an impact in meaningful ways,” said Stuart Sender.

     

    Mahesh Bhatt

    Director and Producer Mahesh Bhatt said, “Having believed that movies do not influence human nature and bring any change, I discovered that some movies that came from my heart did have a significant impact on the lives of people; therefore, it had an impact on culture.”

     

    The evening ended with well-known singer and musician Joi Barua regaling the audience with his foot-tapping songs.

     

    Srinivasan Swamy

    Welcoming the gathering and speakers, Srinivasan K. Swamy, President, IAA India Chapter & Vice President, Development, Asia/Pacific region of IAA, said, “Young Turks Forum initiative attempts to bring global captains face-to-face with the youth so that they can get first-hand knowledge on issues that concern us all.”

     

    “Given our strong connect with the youth, HBO is delighted to be associated with the Young Turks Forum, an excellent thought exchange platform for future leaders,” said Monica Tata, Managing Director HBO South Asia, Presenting Partner of the IAA Young Turks Forum.

     

    “The response to this edition of the IAA Young Turks Forum was phenomenal with an audience of over 800 people. We promise to come back with an equally enriching Young Turks Forum event in two months,” added Manish Advani, Head, Marketing and Public Relations, Mahindra Special Services Group, and Chair of the IAA Young Turks Forum series.

     

  • The financial year 2013-14 ended with hope for the economy, but how was it for media industry stakeholders. We spoke to some and asked them to look ahead

    Last Year, This Year

     

    By Shobhana Nair

     

    The financial Year 2013-14 may have ended with some optimism given the forthcoming elections, but was the year good for the advertising and marketing services sector? We spoke to a few industry leaders to get their views about the same and also asked them to look ahead.

     

    Ashish Bhasin, Chairman India & CEO South East Asia, Aegis Group plc:

    Last year was a brilliant year for us, because it was the first year that we managed to bring Dentsu and Aegis together to form the DAN Network. We saw a lot of growth in digital, out-of-home, retail and so on. We were happy that our growth rate was two-and-a-half times more than the market growth rate and we managed to gain a lot of market share, etc. For us, it was a good year and it has set the pace for the following year. We are looking forward to more growth as we’ve gathered momentum on the basis of the growth that we had in the past few months. As a model, we have one P&L across the country so nobody is driving to sell just TV or Print to the client. We do whatever is required for the brand as nobody has an agenda. That’s giving us a huge competitive edge in the market. The idea is to give to benefit of specialization to the client.”

     

    Nagesh Alai, Chairman, Draftfcb Group India:

    “I would say advertising is inextricably linked to the macro and micro economic environment. Considering that India’s GDP growth for FY 2013-14 is expected to be sub-5 percent, the advertising industry’s growth would be in the range of 5 to 6 percent at best. FCB Ulka Group’s growth would be about 6-7%. Overall, it has been a challenging year for the industry. Given the general elections and a sort of policy and execution vacuum till the new government gets in place and that the macro-economic indicators are still in the caution mode, my personal view is FY 2014-15 is going to be no different than the previous year. There is an air of exuberance and over expectation, which may not materialise in the current year.  Note that even a country goes through economic cycles and the worst is not over yet for the Indian economy. Q 4 of the 2014-15 may show some pick-up trends.”

     

    Ashok Venkatramani, Chief Executive Officer, MCCS

    It’s a mixed bag as the first half was not good at all due to recession, slowing down of economy, the fear of ad cap getting implemented. The first half was not very good but the second half was marginally better than the first half because of the elections. Overall it has been an average year.

     

    FY 14-15 will augur well if there’s a stable or a strong government. With a Fractured mandate comes uncertainty and then I expect it to be bad.

     

    Suresh Srinivasan, Vice President (Advt), The Hindu Group:

    It was a good year for the print industry which fared better than television on an overall basis with reference to revenues. Despite subdued economic conditions coupled with low growth, high inflation and with Forex volatility the industry performed well. The growth was more or less in line with the growth projected, largely contributed by significant growths from Realty, FMCG, Retail and Consumer Durables.  Auto, Education and BFSI verticals fared lower than expectations. Rising incomes and infrastructure development in tier2/3 towns saw several retail brands expand their store presence coupled with ad expenditures.

     

    It will be one of the best years for print. AdEx on elections alone will be significant with the rupee getting stronger, stock markets hitting an all time high and with the hope of a stable and better government the economic growth will be higher leading to optimism and higher spends in print advertising.

     

    Auto and BFSI are looking poised for a revival. We are already seeing good volumes in our Tamil daily indicating there is room for good language publications and the trend should continue.”

     

    Asheesh Chatterjee, Chief Financial Officer, RBNL

    For the TV market, the growth has not been strong. The 12-minute ad cap & LC1 ratings added a lot of pressure on the TV broadcasting company. But the good news was on the digitization front as there was rapid progress. Hence, clearly it was a mixed year. With respect to our channel, Big Magic has grown steadily and there are a lot of good things that we are expecting from this year like the ad cap which will help a large number of channels as the advertising money will be spread across them including the smaller ones who otherwise were not getting inventory.”

     

    Alok Jalan, Managing Director, Laqshya Media Group:

    “It was generally a mixed year. While the year started on a good note and the first quarter was very good, things slowed down in the next two quarters and then bounced back again in the last quarter. Overall the industry growth was about 8-10%. For Laqshya Media Group, revenue- wise it was a mixed year where some verticals and markets showed very high growth while some fared below expectations. That aside, we have looked at new areas to expand our footprint in terms of media ownership.

     

    I feel 2014-15 will be a turnaround year for advertising and marketing industry. I believe that we will see early signs of revival from the first quarter itself and second half of the year is likely to be substantially better. Also industries like BFSI, Auto and Real Estate who were less active in the current financial year will become more active in the coming year by putting more media investments on the table. What I am also looking forward to seeing is the growth of digital OOH advertising in India… it is quickly becoming crucial to the transitioning media ecosystem.”

     

    Roshan Abbas, Managing Director, Encompass Events:

    2013 has been a good year for us! We focussed on new business development and got on board brands as diverse as Datsun, Fortis, GVK, Eicher, Samsung etc. Encompass has remained a leader in the business. I asked about 20 agency members of the Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) and most have said the year saw a lot more competition and no growth. Those who focussed on internal cost management or capability building have improved margins while the ones who have invested in IPs over the long term are hoping for a profitable return soon. There were multiple new arena-based events and detonation festivals from EDM to Wellness, etc. but the jury is out on spend versus return.”

     

    Neeraj Roy, MD and CEO, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd:

    “FY 14 has been one of the most challenging years for the VAS economy in India because of the implementation of the TRAI directive which was initiated back in     FY 13 and had a subsequent implementation in July 13. Therefore in the back of that, across the board there would have been very vast erosion. Around the same time, telecom companies were grappling with challenges of cancelling licenses to overall costs going up in this way. It’s really been one of the difficult challenging years. As a company which has been the leader in the industry, we had to experience it the same way. Fortunately for us, there are other areas where we focussed like the gaming industry & the international markets. It’s been a tough year but has only made us more determined & gritty. I don’t see the market turning in an extremely positive territory immediately in the coming financial year. I believe the first 6 months will be extremely crucial as the new government comes into power. It is important to know what will be their outlook towards the telecom economy as it needs a lot of policy driven direction. If that is done then I think it will set the pace for the growth phase in the next couple of years. In FY 15, I would say I am cautiously optimistic about FY 15.”

     

    Jaideep Shergill, CEO, HANMER MSL

    We follow a calendar year for global reporting so that’s January to December, 2013. The year was good for us and we grew. In fact the first two months of 2014 have also started on a good note. In my assessment, the industry grew at about 10 percent overall.

     

     

     

    Sabyasachi Mitter, Managing Director, Interface Business Solutions (I) Pvt. Ltd:

    “I think overall 2013-14 was a tough year for the industry. The rising dollar, political paralysis and an overall depressed sentiment led to a lot of cautious approach by marketers. A lot of independent digital agencies got acquired in the last financial year continuing the trend of consolidation. On an average my estimation of growth for the digital industry would be in the range of 20%. For ibs, the last year has been good with a turnover growing 90% YOY. We have been aggressively investing in talent, research and development hence profit growths have been more modest.

     

    The initial trends point towards a great year ahead. The dollar has dropped below the psychological Rs 60 mark. There is a belief that if the elections result in a decisive and stable government at the centre, overall economic outlook would be extremely positive. On the back of the last two years of caution, this could lead to a 30-40% growth in the digital industry. We at ibs are also extremely bullish about 2014-15.”

     

  • The session on ‘Monetization Opportunities in the Multiscreen World’ sought to throw light on how the ecosystem was witnessing an interesting shift in revenue-sharing models and how companies could monetize effectively during these challenging times

    #FF14 Day 2: Need to monetize big in a multi-platform era

    By A Correspondent

     

    There’s a lot that is being said on how the advent of technology has revolutionized the M&E ecosystem. With the emergence of newer technologies and players offering these services, it becomes a challenge to find a balance in providing technology with creativity and content. The session on ‘Monetization Opportunities in the Multiscreen World’ sought to throw light on how the ecosystem was witnessing an interesting shift in revenue-sharing models and how companies could monetize effectively during these challenging times.

     

    The panelists included Sam Balsara, Chairman & MD, Madison World; Satyan Gajwani, CEO, Times Internet Panel; Chakrapani Gollapali, General Manager, Consumer Channels Group, Microsoft India; Neeraj Roy, MD & CEO, Hungama Digital Media; Rishi Jaitly, India Market Director, Twitter; Nikhil Naik, Head – Director, Global Content and Distribution, Vuclip; Karan Bedi, Founder & CEO, Tutorific! and Ramki Sankaranarayanan, CEO, Prime Focus who moderated the session.

     

    Presenting an insightful outlook, Sam Balsara highlighted how the television and mobile will be the only two mediums that will continue to be dominant in the future and how the interplay between the two would result in positive growth of the industry. Balsara said that while television continued to find favour with advertisers, they were gradually waking up to the medium of digital as well. “But advertisers need to be flexible about how the viewer’s see their ads; not just on television but across multiple screens.”

     

    Cautioning the audience, Balsara expressed discontent on how the older norm of doing business was seeing a shift that was not healthy. “The older model of doing advertising was 50-50; half from subscription and half from advertisers. But that has changed of late with more revenues coming from advertisers allowing them to have a greater say in content. It is important that we move back to the old model of 50-50 so that equilibrium is maintained and focus around content remains intact.”

     

    According to Neeraj Roy, it is not true that monetization in India is not up to the mark. “Around Rs 1500-2000 crore is still being directed towards content and that was a very positive sign. But he expressed worry as he said that the monetization exercise was being limited to certain mediums only. The way out is to have a balance in the advertising-transaction ratio, said Roy. With the shift to 4G being imminent, Roy urged content providers to focus on providing content that is high on value as consumers will be willing to pay more provided they get quality content.

     

    Providing a synopsis of his company, Rishi Jaitly said that more than 25 million users use twitter to discover content. Jaitly said that if companies concentrated on investing in value then the monetization will actually go up. “The world today is becoming mobile-first, so content providers needs to work on providing content that is of context and relevant. As a network, our focus would continue to be on fueling public conversation across multiple platforms,” affirmed Jaitly.

     

    Highlighting the scope and challenges faced by his company, Satyan Gajwani said that it was great to see the digital ecosystem in India thriving but the challenge is in delivering content that is high-quality because at the end the customer is going to pay for it. Talking about the issue of piracy facing his portal gaana.com, Gajwani said that the only way to overcome that was by offering such high-value and widespread offering that the user will be forced to come back for anything and everything got to do with music. This will indirectly bring down the number of users going to pirated websites to seek such services.

     

  • The webinar series has had both Indian and global industry stalwarts share their insights from the digital domain

    Neeraj Roy is guest at IAA webinar on March 5

    By a correspondent

     

    Neeraj Roy

    Neeraj Roy, Managing Director and CEO of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. will be the guest at the International Advertising Association (IAA) India Chapter’s next webinar series. The webinar is scheduled to take place on March 5, 2014 at 3 pm. (*Disclosure: MxMIndia is media partner of the IAA India Chapter webinar series)

     

     

    Srinivasan Swamy

    Srinivasan K. Swamy, President, IAA India Chapter & Vice President, Development Asia/Pacific region of IAA said, “This webinar series has had both Indian and global industry stalwarts share their insights from the digital domain. This will add more dimension to India’s online endeavours.”

     

    Abhishek Karnani, Director, Free Press Journal and Manish Advani, Head – Marketing and Public Relations, Mahindra Special Services Group, are co-chairing the IAA Webinar series.

     

    Abhishek Karnani

    “We have had some great speakers in IAA Webinar Series and Neeraj Roy our upcoming speaker, is the King of Digital. I am confident that the participants could learn how to become digital experts from this session”, said Advani.

     

    The hangout will be broadcast live on the YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/iaaindiachapter  on 5th March, 3pm IST.

     

  • While the contest is open to all, participants must 30 years of age or less as on March 31, 2014

    Green Hungama Contest back at IAA Olive Crown Awards

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Green Hungama Contest, set up by Hungama Digital with the International Association of Advertisers – India Chapter’s annual Olive Crown Awards will see winners being awarded on March 14.

     

    As per a communiqué: the Olive Crown Green Hungama Award 2013 will be given for eco-sensitive communication that creates awareness for planet Earth’s well-being & sustainability. The entry for ‘Green Hungama Contest’ must be an original piece of work. However, for the sake of budget and other constraints like time, the entry can be a ‘scratch’ film made with borrowed footage or material. What will be judged at this stage is the creative ‘big idea’ and not the execution brilliance.

     

    This contest is open to all. The participant has to be 30 years of age or less as on March 31, 2014. The winning entries are awarded the Olive Crown and cash prizes worth Rs 1 lakh, that will be split between two winners — the Gold will have a cash prize of Rs 60,000, while the Silver is worth Rs 40,000. They will also get to showcase their work at Olive Crown Awards 2013 which will be held in Mumbai on 14th March 2014.

     

    Neeraj Roy

    Said Neeraj Roy, Managing Director and CEO Hungama Digital Media: “This is the fourth year we are partnering the IAA in this unique contest. It not only stokes the creative fires of young people and makes them conscious of a good cause, it also resonates with our audience and what we at Hungama are all about.”

     

    For details of sending in entries, log on to http://www.olivecrowngreenhungama.com/terms.html.

     

  • Get set for action with Jai and Veeru in free-to-play 'Sholay: Bullets of Justice' game

    As Sholay releases in 3D, Jai-Veeru come alive on games

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hungama Digital Media Entertainment and Gameshastra Solutions have brought alive the famed Jai and Veeru duo of the megahit Sholay in a free-to-play game created as the 3D version of the film is being released.

     

    ‘Sholay: Bullets of Justice’ will be a single player finite level-based side scroller game. The game will have a ‘wild west’ feel and would also portray the locales of Ramgarh as in the movie, with each character having its own stylized animations.

     

    Said Neeraj Roy, MD and CEO,Hungama Digital Media: “The concept of gaming has caught on across the world and is gaining rapid pace especially in the mobile and connected devices environment. The Sholay: Bullets of Justice Game is engaging and addictive for the average gaming enthusiast.”

     

    “Sholay 3D is looking and sounding awesome! We have taken three years to painstakingly restore this film to an impressive quality level for all to enjoy for decades to come! I am thrilled with the game as it has 12 levels and is a complex game both on mobiles and on all other platforms,” said Sascha Sippy, Chairman of Sholay Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.

     

    Take out the dacoits attacking Jai and Veeru in a moving goods train. Teach the dacoits lessons that are harassing the villagers for money. Assist in spreading around happiness and keeping the auspicious festival of Holi sacred. Unshackle Basanti (Hema Malini) from the jaws of the Gabbar Singh and balm the sadness of disconsolate Radha (Jaya Bhaduri) by bringing the maniac to justice.

     

     

  • Neeraj Roy was elected Vice President. Jaideep Gandhi and Monica Tata were re-elected as Treasurer and Secretary respectively for the year 2013-14

    Srinivasan Swamy re-elected President of IAA India Chapter

    By A Correspondent

     

    Srinivasan Swamy

    Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman & Managing Director of R K Swamy BBDO was re-elected President of India Chapter of International Advertising Association at the Annual General Meeting held in Mumbai on Wednesday, September 25.

     

    Neeraj Roy, MD and CEO of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, was elected Vice President. Jaideep Gandhi, Chairman, Jaya Advertising and Monica Tata, MD, HBO India were re-elected as Treasurer and Secretary respectively for the year 2013-14.

     

    Neeraj Roy

    “IAA India was on an over-drive in 2012-13 under the leadership of Srinivasan Swamy” said Pradeep Guha, VP & Area Director, Asia Pacific of IAA.

     

    Noted a communiqu̩: in the eleven months since the previous AGM, there were six major events РIAA Leadership Awards, IAA Seminar on Gender Sensitization, IAA Olive Crown Awards, IAA Knowledge seminar on Real Estate in a Digitized World, IAA-Kyoorius DigiYatra and the one scheduled on 30th September, IAA Platinum Jubilee РGlobal Marketing Summit. In addition, there were five IAA Debates and five IAA Mentorship Webinars Р16 industry defining events in 11 months.

     

    “I am happy I was at the helm at IAA when many new initiatives were planned and unfolded. I had a great team who executed much of these programmes with élan. As we move forward, our aim at IAA India is to be seen by IAA Global as the most vibrant of all IAA chapters worldwide. I am sure that recognition is not far,” said Srinivasan Swamy. Mr Swamy was co-opted onto the global IAA Board in May this year as Vice President- Development, Asia Pacific, as an acknowledgement of the initiatives that were undertaken in the first six months at the helm in India.

     

    The other members of the new Managing Committee are: Pradeep Guha, Pheroza Bilimoria, Kaushik Roy, Sam Balsara, Raj Nayak, Ramesh Narayan, M G Parameswaran, M V Shreyams Kumar, Kunal Lalani, Avinash Pandey, Arunabh Dassharma, Neville Taraporewalla, Partho Das Gupta, Rajesh Kejriwal and Abhishek Karnani, Manish Advani, Janak Sarda, Vishakha Singh, C V L Srinivas and Atit Mehta.

     

  • India cannot afford to be complacent in the digital era, concluded panelists at FICCI-Frames

    #Frames2013: ‘For digital to excel, freemium has to make way for pay’

    By A Correspondent

     

    The past two years have seen the digital ecosystem in India take off in a big way. Whether for the medium of mobile or web, the fast-paced growth sweeping this medium is making other developing economies around the world sit up and take notice.

     

    The session on ‘Digital content consumption: developing a robust paid ecosystem’ on day 2 at FICCI Frames saw panelists discuss the advantages, opportunities and challenges facing the medium. The panelists comprised, Neeraj Roy of Hungama Digital Media, Devraj Sanyal of Universal Music, Manish Agarwal of Reliance Entertainment – Digital, Sidhartha Roy of Hungama Digital and Boaz Ben Yaacov of Catch Media Inc.

     

     

    Neeraj Roy

    Neeraj Roy, CEO, Hungama Digital Media Enterprise started off by presenting a positive picture of the medium. He said, “India is today the third largest internet market in the world and is likely to be the second largest market with 600 million internet users in the next 3-4 years. The industry is adding about 5-6 million users every month and most of this is largely from the mobile device, especially smartphones that saw about 60 million new users this year. India will also be one of the rare nations that will transition from 2G to 4G this year. In India there was a single ecosystem that was created around the mobile which had got to do with micro-transactions. Unfortunately there are a lot of regulatory hurdles that are impeding the rapid growth of the sector. We are now at the cusp of moving away from voice to data consumption. What the industry needs to do is contemplate ways to develop an ecosystem that will bring in robust growth and provide an impetus for the industry to move forward swiftly.”

     

    Devraj Sanyal, MD, Universal Music said that it was exciting to see three ecosystems in digital co-existing well with each other. “It rarely can be seen in other parts of the world. For me, the death of voice is the beginning of a much bigger phenomenon – data. The entire future will ride on data. In a country as diverse as India there are two kinds of consumers – the first being pay consumers who are very few in number and the other kind of consumers being those who will pay for nothing and want everything free. As a content creator, I want to see a lot of this ecosystem thriving on the pay model. For me, having 1 million paid viewers is much more valuable than having 500 million viewers who are fence-sitters/pirates. The future will be pay along with value-added services.”

     

    Manish Agarwal

    Manish Agarwal, CEO, Reliance Digital said, “There’s no doubt on the huge impact that mobile will have on our lives. It is a device of the future and will be accessed for a host of things including content, gaming, etc. The market is very appealing and has just about taken off. I travel a lot around the world and have often heard things like if there are 20 million mobile users in Japan and if that economy is where it is today on that medium, imagine what potential the Indian market has which has more than 600 million mobile users and counting. While there is no doubt on the loyalty on behalf of the customer, we have to see how the medium will benefit the business across the formats that they will operate in.”

     

    According to Boaz Yaacov, CTO & Co-founder of Catch Media Inc, “The question we need to ask ourselves is whether we are still living in a world where a customer pays a dollar for a song when there are others who get it from Bit-torrent or even a youtube for free. If we are to sustain the technology or content we need to find practical solutions. We all know how the business of credit cards started about three decades ago and how they charged micropayments to give convenience and access to our money. Today one such player – Visa, is worth about $ 250 billion but the point is that we consumers do not know of these payments.” Adding further Boaz said, “What we are trying to do is build technologies to give people very convenient and mobile way to access their content. If we are able to deliver content to consumers where they are and at their convenience they won’t mind paying for it.”

     

    The panel went on to discuss the challenges confronting the medium and also how ‘pay’ would be a preferred model in the future compared to the model of ‘freemium’ that is currently what the players are taking a preference to.