You read about this in The Economic Times already, now read it here.Mindshare India has bagged accounts aggregating over Rs 700 crore in new business for the agency in the last four months. The new accounts include the digital mandate for Snapdeal, media mandate for PayU, Saavn, Practo, Housing.com, NewsHunt, Novi Digital Entertainment, TTK Skore to name a few.
Speaking on the new account wins, Prasanth Kumar, CEO, Mindshare South Asia said in a statement, “We begin 2015 on a very promising note as Mindshare consolidates its leadership position in the market by adding several blue-chip clients especially in the ecommerce and digital industry. We are channelising our services and talent towards frameworks and tools that include adaptive and real- time marketing, giving our clients the edge in an ever evolving media market- The Loop at Mindshare is one such example. Mindshare also includes a full-service digital and social media agency to ensure seamless planning across all media for brand campaigns.†Mr Kumar took charge as CEO of Mindshare South Asia on March 1 from Ravi Rao who was designated Leader, South Asia.
Leading media marketing services conglomerate GroupM released its biannual advertising expenditure futures report This Year Next Year (TYNY), forecasting India’s advertising investment to reach an estimated Rs 48,977 crore in 2015. This represents a growth of 12.6% for the calendar year 2015 over the corresponding period in 2014.
As per GroupM the adspending was Rs 43,490 crore for the calendar year 2014, an increase by 12.5% over 2013. This growth was attributed to the heavy adspending due to the General and State Elections and industry categories like ecommerce and telecom.The FMCG sector, which contributes to nearly a third of the AdEx, had a steady year, growing broadly in line with the industry average.
CVL Srinivas
Said CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia, “With a new government coming to power, the negative sentiment has lifted but there is still some bit of caution amongst advertisers.We continue to operate in the same zone as last year at an overall level. Digital, TV and Cinema are expected to be the high growth media channels. We are seeing a lot more confidence amongst local businesses to invest in brand building than before. This is a positive sign for the industry. Penetration of smartphones coupled with the popularity of online video is making FMCG spend more on digital. Another trend is the emergence of categories like e-commerce and the increased competition in telecom both of which are aiding the growth of traditional media channels including Print and TV apart from digita.l”
E-commerce is expected to lead the charge in 2015 in terms of ad spend growth although from a relatively smaller base than more established categories, according to GroupM’s forecast. There is increased competition in this sector and no dearth of funding. FMCG, Auto and Telecom are expected to do better than the previous year. More multinational entrants under single brand retail are likely to add to ADEX spending in the retail category. The recent rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of India will stimulate the banking sector, reactions of which are evident on a buoyant stock market. This year will possibly see a number of IPOs as there is a sense of stability in policy and investors are willing to take more risks. The market will also see higher spends from the Central Government as they showcase their new initiatives.
Prasanth Kumar
Added Prasanth Kumar, Managing Partner, Central Trading Group, GroupM South Asia and CEO-designate Mindshare South Asia: “Over the last few years, Indian media has been in a state of change. The next three to five years will be about embracing technology, which will allow both advertisers and media owners to customize distribution to a premium niche audience with very nominal margin of error. In 2015, programmatic buying will see an impetus, as all media in the future will see automation, backed by smart data and analytics.”
As per GroupM’s in-depth research of the Indian media industry, digital media continues to show the maximum growth with 37% in 2015. Digital has been growing at an average rate of 35% over the last two of years. This year within digital media Video, Mobile and Social will be the biggest growth drivers.
Television shows a higher growth percentage in 2015 compared to last year with 16 percent. TV channels will especially be bullish with cross media integration via their own digital platforms. The big ticket event this year is the ICC Cricket World Cup in February and March, with scope for programming and advertising innovation during the tournament.
Even with pressures on advertising revenues, the print medium shows an increase by 5.2% as against the 2014 estimate of 7.6%; however print magazines continue to be on the decline, as several are looking at digital delivery mechanisms.
The surprise element in the media mix has been cinema advertising which finally closed 2014 with a 25% increase. This year too, GroupM estimates this media category to grow at 20%, as multiplex chains consolidate, leading to a more organised and accountable environment. With technology fuelling exhibition and distribution, especially in smaller towns, consumers will get a better viewing experience.
Given that both CVL Srinivas, CEO GroupM South Asia and Prasanth ‘PK’ Kumar, Managing Partner, Central Trading Group, GroupM South Asia and CEO-designate Mindshare South Asia were busy with the presentation of the ‘This Year Next Year’ report, they preferred to not speak on the latter’s appointment to the top job. But since PK will also report into Gowthaman Ragothaman (better known as GMan), COO of Mindshare Asia Pacific, Pradyuman Maheshwari spoke to GMan in Singapore and requested him to respond to a few questions via email.
It’s been three years since you moved out from direct responsibility of South Asia. From a regional perspective, what are the broad challenges facing the India office?
We have to treat India/South Asia as a region. No other market/office in the world has so many offices. We have Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Lahore, Dhaka and Colombo. While all other markets are structured for a “one office leadershipâ€, as we have expanded and grown across offices, our “speed to market†was significantly tested in the last few years – this is an internal dynamic. As an industry, I realised, when I moved out into the region, India is very inclusive and try to do/invent all things inside when a lot of best practice can be just replicated or brought into the country. I also realised that the talent drain from India to the region, has sort of depleted some good quality talent in the country. So Structure, Talent and Innovation – are the three broad challenges.
Prasanth Kumar is a seasoned GroupM hand. What are the specific targets you have for him?
Pretty much the above 3 points. And you will see some of these happening quite fast and quick.
In your statement on PK’s appointment, you speak about getting leadership talent from within the group. But, don’t you think that for achieving something out-of-the-box or hat ke, as they say in India, you need to bring in talent from the outside?
Totally agree with you. We continue to diversify out talent pool at all levels – and the constant churn in the industry helps us to manage this, especially when you flip it as an opportunity instead of a problem. Almost all the recruitments we have made in Mindshare in the past 2-3 years are external talent. And at the same time, if you look at the challenges that I have mentioned in the first point, our considered view is to groom local talent to leadership positions as they come with tremendous insights of the organisational issues. It is  a considered choice…but not necessarily a permanent choice for all the times.
The poster of the Aamir Khan film PK was the first thing that came to our minds when one of the A&M media’s favourite sources alerted us of the winds of change that were blowing across the GroupM South Asia headquarters in North Mumbai.
Expectedly, the otherwise very responsive dramatis personae clammed up. Calls and text messages received no reply. Whatsapp messages got those two blue ticks, but not even the ‘typing’ indicator in response. But while we were sure of the news, we couldn’t carry it without a confirmation. So it waited from Wednesday to Thursday to the weekend.
There were also other things that were also grabbing our attention.
Prasanth KumarRavi Rao
And then on Sunday evening, our inbox alert beeped. The message curiously asked us to embargo the news till 9pm. The news confirmed our earlier info: Leading media agency network Mindshare has appointed Prasanth Kumar as CEO, South Asia. He will take charge with effect from March 1, 2015. Ravi Rao, who is currently CEO, will be transitioning into a new role within GroupM, the details of which are to be announced soon.
Kumar or PK, as he’s known in the fraternity, is currently Head of WPP-owned GroupM’s Central Trading Group and a member of the South Asia Executive Committee. As Mindshare South Asia leader, he will report into CVL Srinivas, CEO GroupM South Asia and Gowthaman Ragothaman, COO of Mindshare Asia Pacific. And who takes over from him, we asked the GroupM spokesperson. There are no names yet, but last year Jai Lala and Sidharth Parashar were elevated in the CTG team.
Meanwhile, this is what Srinivas on the announcement: “Prasanth was a unanimous choice for this role. In the past 10 years, he has played a stellar role in ensuring GroupM’s scale is leveraged to maximise value for our clients. I’d like to thank Ravi Rao for his contribution and wish him the very best in his new role within the network.”
And here’s what Ragothaman (better known as GMan) commented on the change: “Ravi has done a fantastic job in growing our business in India in the last three years. India is at the inflexion point on digital, content, analytics, e-commerce and measurement and in Prasanth we have a seasoned veteran to lead Mindshare to the next level. And I am particularly happy that we continue to groom and grow talent from our larger GroupM ecosystem with diverse talent and experience to leadership positions, which speaks highly about our talent in the market place. In the past 10 years Prasanth Kumar has done a tremendous job scaling up GroupM’s CTG practice in South Asia, and developing strategic partnerships for GroupM that contribute to the successes of all GroupM agencies.”
Big Story image inspired by poster of the Raj Kumar Hirani film PK. Imaging by Rafiq, Poster courtesy: PK, the film, poster
By A Correspondent [summary updated, story was filed yesterday]
If you thought only politicians made for strange bedfellows, you mustn’t miss this. Over the last fortnight, leading English channel Times Now has been going to town with its promotions on Hindi news channel Aaj Tak. Nothing wrong with it. General entertainment channels often cross-promote teleserials on news channels, but in this case Aaj Tak has a sibling in Headlines Today which competes with Times Now.
On MxMIndia Tomorrow
Although every election is bigger than the previous ones, General Elections 2014 was by far the biggest for the media. These were the first general elections after the social media explosion. It was a ‘Made for Television’ election.
On Friday, May 16, we will not come to you with our regular mid-morning edition. However, we have a special offering for that day:
01. Livetweeting through the counting process. Our brand of commentary on the way the election results are being covered. Follow our Twitter handle: @mxmindia
02. A very special edition at 4pm that day. Special Columns by Ranjona Banerji, Shailesh Kapoor and Amith Prabhu. Plus Mediaah! Also, a lot more of news and reactions.
03. A Google Hangout on the election results at 4pm discussing the election coverage. To be aired live on YouTube and where you can interact with our guests.
Shailesh Kapoor
The stakes are big for Results Day or Friday, May 16. The Made-for-Television general elections of 2014 are destined to see a huge spike in viewership. “It has emerged as the most promoted date by far in our television history,” asserts Shailesh Kapoor, television insights specialist and CEO of Ormax Media, adding: “More than 20 news channels will fight a fierce battle on Results Day. The results of this battle within the battle may have a long-lasting impact on our news television economy.”
Prasanth Kumar
According to Prasanth Kumar, Managing Partner, South Asia, Central Trading Group of GroupM, advertising demand for May 16 has been on the rise. “Advertisers have shown keen interest in election as a property with most taking 4-8-week sponsorship deals. For sponsors, about 10-15 per cent of their campaign monies have been parked for the Results Day.”
“Inventory on news channels is flexible and especially on a day when we feel there would be a lot of breaking news with results and numbers being declared, it would be difficult to put a fix on the bookings,” added Mr Kumar.
Anita Nayyar
When asked whether her clients have chosen to advertise on news channels given the elections fever, Anita Nayyar, CEO of media Havas Media Group, India and South Asia said: “It is a once-in-five-years opportunity hence many of our clients are taking advantage of the same. This is a captive audience for brands like auto and liquor who typically target the male audience and has not been a deterrent.”
This time each party has been extremely aggressive in its marketing, says Nayyar. Eyeballs are expected to be on news. Even no IPL matches are scheduled for May 16 when cricket by itself is hot property in India. Â All the channels – regional, Hindi and English (in that order) will see a spike from their regular viewership.
And what kind of advertisers are making a beeline for news channels? “Elections tends to see a concentration of advertisers focused towards male audiences so does news. However, given the general elections, the female viewership is also better than the normal viewing of news channels,” Ms Nayyar said matter-of-factly.
GroupM has announced the promotion of two of their senior executives of the Central Trading Group (CTG). The company elevates Sidharth Parashar, as Head, Pricing & Investments, and Jai Lala, as Head, Trading & Partnerships. Both will report in to Prasanth Kumar, Managing Partner, CTG, South Asia.
Prior to his promotion, Mr Parashar was the Agency Buying Head for Maxus, for over five years, where he was a valued member of the leadership team, working on media mandates for brands such as Google, Nokia, Vodafone to name a few. In his new role, Mr Parashar will be responsible to facilitate and execute GroupM investment mandates across media. His key focus will be on the GroupM trading products that should continue to offer the edge to our clients. All the GroupM Agency Trading Heads and cluster heads will now report in to Sidharth.
Prior to Mr Lala’s elevation, he was the Agency Trading Head for Mindshare, where he worked on media mandates for clients such as Pepsi, GlaxoSmithkline, ICICI, Aditya Birla Group and Nike. Going forward Jai will be managing all trading mandates at GroupM. He will also be heading a team of all the heads across verticals: Proprietary media, DTH, Xaxis, Syndication, GME and Special projects and maximize value for our clients. He will also work closely with Sidharth and the agency trading heads on delivering the maximum ROI on media investments.
Speaking on the new structure, Prasanth Kumar said: “As we move into a growth phase largely driven by converging synergies across the group and driving client satisfaction it has become critical that we create more focus, especially in the area of media investment. With the development of new concepts of integrated media, merging traditional and digital media, we are also looking at reforming the way we plan our investments as a central hub. This new structure in our core function will deliver unparalleled client delight and value.”
