MxMIndia

Tag: Sam Balsara

  • The IPG Mediabrands agency was #1 followed by DentsuWebchutney at #2. Jagran was #1 in Publisher Abby

    Lodestar is Media Agency of the Year 2018

     

    By A Corrrespondent

     

    Lodestar UM was numerouno at the Media Abby Awards presented on Day 1 of Goafest 2018. The agency bagged four Golds, three each of Silver and Bronze metals. Dentsu Webchutney came second with four metals. Followed by Wavemaker and Mindshare India. A total of 38 metals were awarded in the Media Abby.

     

    Earlier on Thursday, Goafest 2018 kicked off with a packed hall at the industry conclave. The thirteenth edition of Goafest also sees the conduct of the 50th edition of the Abby Awards.

     

    Also presented were the Publisher Abby where Jagran Prakashan was numerouno with five metals, followed by Times Of India with two metals.

     

    Speaking about Abby Awards, Vikram Sakhuja, President – The Advertising Club said: “It’s been 50 years since the first Abby Awards were handed out. That is 50 years of unfaltering dedication to identifying, shortlisting and felicitating creative excellence in the industry. Over the years the awards went through a lot of changes. So, we spoke to heads of agencies, to industry leaders and more importantly, to the young creative workforce out there are came up with two key changes to the awards this year. The changes include the rationalization of categories to stay relevant to today’s young and dynamic creative geniuses and the formation of a Master Jury made up of industry masters to guarantee effectiveness. And it gives me immense pleasure to see the industry not only embracing these changes with open arms but also supporting us in our endeavor to keep improving the quality of the awards being handed out.”

     

    Added Ajay Kakar, Vice President of The Advertising Club and Chairman – Awards Governing Council said, “For Abby Awards 2018, it was our mission to co-create the awards with the help, inputs and participation of our industry; starting from the stalwarts but not forgetting the youngsters. And what we see today is an outcome of that courtesy the participation of stalwarts who inspire and set the standards of creativity for our industry.”

     

    Goafest 2018 has attracted a registration of over 2000 delegates. At the Abby Awards, a total of 3033 entries came in. In the Media Abby, there were a total of 660 entries from 57 agencies. The number of entries was down from 1100 that came in last year.

     

    Said Sam Balsara, who chaired the Media Abby: “The entries highlighted ability to co-create solution with clients and work in tandem with multi-media context and campaigns – jointly with Radio, Outdoors and Digital, even TV in certain instances.A lot of entries showcased the significant efforts of publishers towards CSR, Societal connect and social impact in the their work. As many as 57 agencies entered 660 pieces of work of which a total of 38 awards have been given across 32 distinct pieces of work.”

     

    On what worked for the winners, Balsara said: “Most award winning work looks at Strategy, Idea, Execution and Results. I dare say that at the Abbys which celebrates creativity there is relatively more focus given on the Idea. The ideas that stood out included using the brand very cleverly in content (three cases), using the medium innovatively (Display, Cinema), Use of Technology in Traditional Mediums (OOH Ambient and Print), Clever integration of Content with Social, Actionable use of Big data, and just some simple cute ideas that work.”

     

    And this is what Pradeep Dwivedi, who chaired the Publisher Abby said: “For the Publisher’s awards, the experience was very interesting as we had almost the same number of entries as last year, while the categories had reduced. This led to an engaging screening by an eminent jury balanced across geography, language and industry leadership. The merits of entries and the creative quotient of the campaign became supreme criterion almost naturally.The entries clearly showcased the vibrancy of print medium and its endeavour to evolve with time.For me, one of the things that stood out was the quality of work and clear recognition that many other publishers are also doing great work on the ground, but somehow don’t pitch it at Abbys. A few of the like-minded jurors have agreed to take up this cause and help build an even more widespread entrant base for next year via roadshows, and celebrate the print industry in India which is growing and thriving, clearly bucking the global trend.”

     

     

  • Chhibber has worked on both sides of the PR fence with over 22 years of experience

    Madhu Chhibber joins Madison PR as CEO

    By A Correspondent

     

    Madison Public Relations has just announced the appointment of Madhu Chhibber as its CEO. Madhu will be based in the agency’s Mumbai office. Chhibber takes over from Paresh Chaudhry who left the agency after a five-year stint as CEO.

     

    Chhibber has worked on both sides of the PR fence with over 22 years of experience including a decade-plus at Good Relations, around eight years at the Al Tayer group in Dubai

     

    tenures with Indian and international corporations. She was CEO at Perfect Relations from November 2014 to April 2017 and her LinkedIn profile notes she has been a Council Member with the GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc.).

     

    Said Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison World, on the appointment:, “Whilst thanking Paresh Chaudhry for his committed stint of leading Madison PR for five years, I am delighted to have Madhu lead our very capable and experienced team as CEO of Madison PR. Amsure Madhu’s rich experience will add a lot of value to our clients’ PR plans.”

     

    Added Chhibber on joining Madison PR: “I’m excited to join Madison PR and look forward to partnering the immensely talented team at the Agency in delivering on our brand promise to our clients. I’m confident that as a team we will continue to enhance the knowledge assets of the agency, supporting clients with effective and compelling brand messaging.”

     

     

  • India is fast establishing itself as a strong potential market in the future world of marketing & advertising

    4th CII Marketing & Brand Conclave held in Ahmedabad

    By A Correspondent

     

    The fourth CII Marketing & Brand Conclave was held in Ahmedabad with marketers and brand leaders from across the industry verticals, discussing and sharing experiences on the nuances of new age communication, technology-enabled ‘TECHNO cating” across genres of product services.

     

    Elaborating further, Piruz Khambatta, Deputy Chairman – CII Western Region and CMD, Rasna Pvt Ltd, said, “Brand extensions are flourishing for a number of reasons. More and more companies today, realize that one of their most valuable assets is the brand and not just their tangible assets and has a multiplier effect on your valuation. A strong brand commands loyalty, emotions, preference and associative powers, which are hard to duplicate by the competition. The brand is the USP for many products today.”

     

    In his inaugural comments, Sam Balsara, Managing Director, Madison World & Madison Communication, said:“A right story, right content, right medium, right partner, right category, right time, right pricing, and right controls makes a successful model. The opportunities in content marketing are limitless. We have only seen a trailer in India.’

     

    Some of the keynote speakers included Kiran Khalap from Chlorophyll, Senjam Raj Sekhar from Flipkart, Jayen Mehta from Amul India, Anirudh Pandita from Pocket Aces, Devasis Chattopadyay from Adfactors, Amit Doshi from Divya Bhaskar, Siddharth Desmukh and Falguni Vasavada Oza from MICA, Glen Dsouza from MSLGroup and Chandan Nath from Ideas2Brands.

     

     

  • Star India and Vodafone crowned Client of the Year as Madison-Asian Paints win Grand Emvies

    GroupM agencies top Emvies leaderboard

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    It was what one would call a Kodak moment. As the leaderboards were being announced by emcee Brian Tellis, it was evident that the crown of the Agency of the Year could well rest on the all-new head of the recently established Wavemaker agency, set up by the merging of Maxus and MEC. Or of course the good oi’ Mindshare, winner of the crown for some 10 times thus far. The suspense grew when it was Madison that bagged the Grand Emvie, and not the two GroupM agencies.

     

    On the stage when the winner was being announced were Sam Balsara, Shashi Sinha, Vikram Sakhuja and CVL Srinivas. For Srinivas, as CEO, GroupM South Asia, it’s never an easy task when one sibling is  pitted against the other. It’s like the Williams sisters competing with each other on centre court.

     

     

    Srinivas put his hand on his eyes, as Tellis was set to unveil the Agency of the Year winner. Mindshare is the old warhorse and hence deserved to win, but for the all-new player Wavemaker, it would’ve been the perfect beginning.

     

    Adjudged by a jury of around 211 industry leaders through intensive judging sessions across the country, Emvies 2017 saw over 816 entries. Note the entire Publicis Groupe’s media and digital agencies stayed away from the awards given the global decision to be off all awards for a year.

     

    The Client of the Year which has seen Hindustan Unilever bagging the title comfortably over the last few years saw joint winners in Star India and Vodafone. Interestingly Star India works with Mindshare and Vodafone is with Wavemaker. The marketing heads of both commended the excellent partnership with their agencies as a contributor to their winning the title.

     

    Meanwhile, there was much happiness for both Prasanth Kumar, CEO of Mindshare and Kartik Sharma, CEO of Wavemaker.  For, even though Sharma’s team did not clinch the title, it went back home with a clear indicator to the world that it’s a significant force to reckon wit.

     

    Speaking about the changing dynamics of campaigns and the importance of being relevant, Punitha Arumugam, 2017 Awards Chairman for EMVIEs, said, “India has been at the forefront of many ingenious campaigns that showcase high effectiveness and the Emvies remain committed to recognising such outstanding communication stories. Being one of the most trusted and coveted awards in the category, the Emvies continue to scale with increased participation and representation from across industry stakeholders.” Arumugam has been spearheading the Emvies for five years now.

     

    Elaborating on the scale and the entries, Partha Sinha, 2017 Awards Co-Chairman for Emvies said, “The Emvies 2017 has successfully contributed towards recognizing high impact media campaigns that have made a difference. It continues to be one of the most coveted awards within the industry.”   For Sinha, who confessed that he wasn’t exposed to the Emvies much thus far because the awards event is out of bounds for creative agencies, co-chairing Emvies 2017 has been an enriching experience.

     

    In his welcome address on Emvies night (Friday, October 13), Vikram Sakhuja, President of The Advertising Club said: “In its 17th year now, the EMVIEs has continued to grow in scale and strength, emerging as the gold standard amongst media awards. With a jury consisting of over 211 distinguished industry leaders from across the country, this has been a transparent process to select transformational work.  We are engaging with some top global content sites to showcase the best of our archives to the world.

     

    Colors was presenting sponsor yet again for Emvies 2017, as MTV, Rishtey Cineplex and Republic TV powered the event.

     

    EMVIE 2017 CLIENT OF THE YEAR TALLY

    EMVIE 2017 RESULTS

  • The Jiyo Parsi Scheme launched on September 24 2013 is backed by the Government of India’s minority affairs ministry

    Don’t have one-child-itis. Phase 2 of ‘Jiyo Parsi’ campaign asks community youth to get married & have kids

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Parzor Foundation and Madison BMB along with Bombay Parsi Panchayat, TISS, Mumbai and Federation of Zoroastrian Anjumans of India launched the “Jiyo Parsi” Phase-II campaign.

     

    Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi released the campaign on Saturday. The first phase of the Jiyo Parsi Scheme was launched in September 2013 by the government to reverse the decline in the Parsi population by adopting scientific medical protocols and structured interventions, to stabilize and increase the population of Parsis in India.

     

    Said Dr Shernaz Cama, the prime mover of the scheme: “As we enter our next phase, we look ahead to carry the community with us, old and young, to think outside the box and be the pioneers in reviving a community; let us know that every step we take can make a difference.”

     

    Whilst Phase I of the campaign created by Sam Balsara and Madison World focused on awareness of Jiyo Parsi and sensitising the community and its youngsters to the issues in a tone of voice that ensured virability of the campaign, Phase 2 consists of 12 ads and is focused more on trying to persuade young Parsis to get married and have children for a better balance to their own life.

     

    Added Raj Nair, CEO and CEO of Madison BMB, the agency behind the creative execution of the campaign: “After the huge success of the deliberately tongue-in-cheek [Phase 1] print campaign, we have created a new rendition. We have continued to focus on issues especially relevant and meaningful, like togetherness, the importance of family, that having children is joyful and doesn’t come in the way of life at all, that there is no positive outcome to choosing to be alone and so on. The hope is that the issues touched upon will clearly resonate with young Parsi people in a completely positive manner.”

     

  • The unit is headed by Sunny Vohra, who joined the agency seven months ago from GroupM with teams in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru

    Madison World launches experiential marketing unit Madison Turnt

    By A Correspondent

     

    Madison World has announced the official launch of its experiential unit – Madison Turnt. Turnt is an oft-used word by millennialsto describe the feeling when someone is excessively excited or is high on life.

     

    The unit is headed by Sunny Vohra, who joined the agency seven months ago from GroupM with teams in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. The unit will provide 360* integrated plans with strategic and research-based insights to effectively bring together brands and their target audience through flawless execution.

     

    The unit focuses on events, activations, exhibitions and field marketing and will be a part of Madison Out-of-Home group.

     

    The Unit has already worked with a large number of prestigious clients likes Vivo, Nissan, Britannia, Michelin, Reebok, Roca, LinkedIn, Marico, LG, Philips, Kohler, JSW, Toyota, Raymond, Renault, Asian Paints, Dabur, CNBC, Godrej,Pidilite, Tata Motors andCroma.

     

    Said Sam Balsara, Chairman & Managing Director, Madison World:“I am delighted that under the leadership of Sunny Vohra, Madison Turnt has got off to a great start. More and more clients are discovering the power of experiential marketing, so our timing for the launch of Turnt is most appropriate.”

     

    Added Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO Madison Media & OOH:”Experiencing a brand is one of the most immersive forms of brand engagement. I am excited to be launching Madison Turnt – Our New Age Experience Company which combines the Physical with Digital, Data and Social. Sunny Vohra who leads Turnt is a transformational marketer and in a short time has built some exciting experiences for Brands”.

     

    Said Vohra:“We started a new journey under our new identity “TurnT” six months back with a young and dynamic team. We are now truly off the block, having created meaningful experiences for a host of brands and we are truly excited about the future. It has been a privilege working under the mentorship of Sam and Vikram as they push the envelope and bring out the best in us as a Unit.”

     

  • Q&A with the Madison World Chairman

    Sorry to know about ITC, but we won our fair share of accounts: Sam Balsara

    Sam Balsara

     

    The news of the loss of a client in advertising is big, not just for the agency that has bagged the account, but also for the incumbent that has seen the exit of a relationship. And whilst an official communique came in from Maxus, we thought it would be good to do a Q&A with Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison World, on his sentiments on the loss of the ITC business. Normally, any business leader would hesitate doing it, but not when it’s Balsara. Always very candid, and not one to shy away from facing what may appear to uncomfortable questions from Pradyuman Maheshwari. Read on….

    Question: How do you view the exit of ITC? Your comments on what you think could have led to the account moving out? (Since ITC is a homegrown FMCG, one can’t even attribute it on an international realignment.)

    Sam Balsara (SB): We are of course sorry to know that we will be losing the ITC account. We cannot comment on what could have led to the account moving out, because as a policy we do not comment on client relationships. ITC continues to be one of our valuable clients at Madison PR.

    Interestingly, Madison recently bagged Titan, an account held by Maxus. Would you say these movements (and account swaps, if we can call them) are part of the game? Is that the way things work in the advertising world?

    SB:Unfortunately, yes that’s the way things work in our advertising world. That is what makes our world so exciting and challenging. It’s a sign of the new VUCA (Volatile, Ambiguous, Complex, Uncertain) world we live in. It’s interesting to see that recently of the three large accounts that came up for pitch – Maruti, Titan and ITC, none of the incumbent agencies retained their accounts. We won our fair share of accounts at play, having won the prestigious Titan/Tanishq account.

    Given that ITC was a significant business, will this impact in [your] staffing?

    SB: We have some vacancies across offices and also need people to handle the new businesses we have won, so our endeavour will be  to accommodate as many people as we can.

    There is talk on the street on how the ITC exit is going to severely impact the Madison stature in the Indian media agency scene. Your comments and a word to naysayers/detractors.

    SB: In the last 12 months, Madison Media has won the media mandate of 21 new clients, which include some large ones like BJP election campaign in UP and Uttarakhand, Ministry of Petroleum,  Dixcy Scott undergarments, Times Jobs, RBL Bank and National Basketball Association (NBA – US) and Titan/Tanishq amongst many others.

    Madison Media now handles the media mandate for over 80 media clients. Our decision, a few years ago to not restrict ourselves to only large clients, but to include some medium sized ones, has as you can see paid rich dividends and de-risked our business considerably.

    Vikram[Sakhuja] has done a good job of attracting and bringing in our roster almost 35 new clients in the last two years. Lara [BalsaraVajifdar] continues to do a good job of growing Madison World, which across its 11 units now handles over 450 clients. And we continue to hold a 26% stake in Mediacom that handles P&G and many other clients.

    So, the talk is mildly amusing. But, as they say, “Only the paranoid survive”, so I take it seriously.

     

  • Will the AdEx in 2017 be Rs 61204 cr as per GroupM or Rs 56,152 cr as per Madison & did we cross the Rs 50,000 cr mark in 2016, asks Indrani Sen

    What is the real size of Indian Ad Industry?

     

    By Indrani Sen

    Last week was exciting for the advertising and media industry as the two major reports on industry Adex were released on two consecutive days. GroupM released its ‘This Year Next Year’(TYNY) 2017 report on February 14 followed by the release of ‘Pitch Madison Advertising Report’(PMAR) 2017 by Madison on February 15. In the last few days, both the reports have been published and analysed in the business newspapers and websites, leaving hardly any scope for adding any comment on the same.

    As usual there is a difference between the two projections, this time it is of around Rs 5000 crore. The biannual report on advertising expenditure TYNY 2017 has forecast India’s advertising investment to reach an estimated Rs 61,204 crore in 2017 based on a growth rate of 10% over 2016. On the other hand, PMAR 2017 has projected a growth of 13.5% in 2017 over 2016 and has estimated the size of the industry to reach Rs 56,152 crore.

    According to Sam Balsara, AdEx dropped by Rs 1650 crore in the last two months of 2016 after demonetisation and as a result, the industry adspends narrowly missed the mark of crossing Rs 50,000 crore. On the other hand, the GroupM report, Indian advertising industry clocked Rs 49,758 crore in 2015 and crossed the Rs 50,000 crore mark comfortably in 2016 by scoring Rs 55,671 crores. Madison estimated Indian adspends as Rs 43,991 crores in 2015, Rs 49,480 in 2016 and has projected Rs 56,152 crore in 2017. The difference, between the two sets of estimates, has been hovering between Rs 5000 to Rs 6000 crore, which is not a small amount.

    If we compare the two sets of estimates by medium, we find that the major difference lies in the estimates of TV advertising expenditure, which is bit surprising as TV AdEx is very well-documented. Is there a difference in the way the two estimates are drawn up which leads to a gap of almost Rs 6000 crores between the estimated TV advertising expenditures?

     

    PMAR has shown more favourable estimates for Print and Outdoor than TYNY, while TYNY estimates for Radio and Cinema are higher than the estimates of PMAO. It is interesting to note that for Digital medium, the two estimates ran neck-and-neck for 2016 and are quite close for 2017.

    GroupM Report mentions that Media Adex reported do not include:

    • TV – special inventory like astons, L-bands, tickers, etc
    • Print – tender notices, appointments, classifieds/ matrimonial
    • Radio – activation spends
    • Digital – ad spends by SME segment
    • Outdoor – wall painting

    The above leads us to conclude that the numbers shown in the TYNY for the above five media would be actually higher than their estimations, particularly for Radio, where activation/ events tied up with digital has become a major source of earning for the FM radio stations.

    The Pitch Madison Advertising Report does not mention about the ad expenditures which are not covered in the report, but we can assume that Madison also has not covered the above expenditures which are not included in Media AdEx in their report.

    So, what is the real size of the Indian Ad Industry? Are we yet to cross the Rs 50,000 crore mark or did we cross it last year?

     

    Indrani Sen is a media services veteran, having worked with JWT, later Mindshare and then with Emami. In recent years, she is an independent consultant and academic. She is Adjunct Professor incharge of the Media Management programme at the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own.

     

  • A quick chat with the GroupM South Asia CEO and MadisonWorld Chairman on the adspend forecast by their respective agency networks

    Quick chat with CVL Srinivas & Sam Balsara on the adspend forecast by GroupM & Madison World respectively

     

    A quick chat with CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia and Sam Balsara, Chairman, MadisonWorld on the adspend forecast by their respective agency networks

     

    Writing has been on the wall on digital: CVL SrinivasTaking time off a string of interviews after the presentation of the TYNY report on Monday,  CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia spoke with PradyumanMaheshwari on whether the adspend forecast portends ‘achche din’ for A&M-land

     

    It’s the type of question we love to ask you: given the forecast of 10% AdEx growth in 2017, would you say it’s achche din or good days for the industry?

    In the current circumstances I would say good days, because of all the gloom doom projections going around in the media for a while… actually 10% is not a bad number.

     

    In October when we met last around Diwali, it was somewhere around 14%, and which now got from 10 to 12%, what would you have anticipated the growth this year to be?

    Well, it is such a dynamic world that nothing is a constant today. Everything from global commodity prices, to petroleum prices, to local economic political factors, to sectoral factors, to media-related factors. I mean there are just too many variables one is juggling with these days, so I don’t think any study or any estimate, can be a one-time number. We obviously have to keep looking at the numbers, and revisiting the hypothesis may be every quarter going forward, giving the kind of change going on.

     

    Would you think the numbers could possibly change after the UP election results?

    I won’t want to commit on this particular event, but there is no denying the fact that these numbers could go up or down depending upon the various factors. Which is why TYNY as a study is done twice a year, the first time its basis estimates for the 12 months, and the second time we do it is in the middle of the year around July-August when we have the actual data for the first 6 months…

     

    Would you say the first few weekshave been fairly decent in terms of spends?

    The first month hasn’t been very good at all and we see this continuing till April. In fact the first quarter is going to be pretty tight, things are going to start picking up fully from April onwards, and that’s the way we built up the report.

     

    Post-demonetisation therehas been a bit of a scare for media owners with some publications shutting down, some publications shaving off lot of staff. Television has also been down in sales.What do you see is the environment for media owners? Given that you are predicting only a 10% growth, is that good tidings for them?

    I think the big story coming out of all this is that we are living in an age which is so dynamic and which is getting so, I would say, which is all converging towards digital so fast that organisations have to kind of somewhere let go completely off the rules of the past when it comes to doing business… I think the base of change is so rapid that sometimes we are not able to kind of make adjustments and we are forced to kind of take some very very massive decisions in a very short span of time. I think if organisations are more on the ball, look at reality and start taking hard calls more often, things won’t reach a state that they have reached today. For example, the writing has been on the wall that digital is going to eat over the shares of traditional media companies for some time now. It’s not a new development. I don’t think demonetisation has anything to do with it. The consumer has moved to digital many years ago for consumption of various kinds of content.

     

    Do you think people are using demonetisation as an excuse too…?

    To an extent, I think so. I think there are so many other factors which are at play and even in this day and age there are organisations whether it’s in the media sector or whether it’s in other sectors who are continuing to do well because I think they have just been better prepared. I think they have been able to futureproof their business a lot better. For example, in our own case, we diversified our revenue streams many years ago. Today, given the presence we have across areas like content, sports marketing,  data analytics actvations and so on, we haven’t really felt as much of an impact because of the slowdown of the media sector than perhaps some of the more traditional agencies. And I guess the same holds true for other organisation and other sectors as well.

     

    In terms of the overall numbers that you see, as per your predictions which sector of the industry has the brightest future?

    See, these things change almost year to year. This particular year we are looking at auto, we are looking at BFSI, we are looking at one part of Ecomm which is Ewallets. We are looking at the media sector and we are looking at the government sector –

     

    And FMCG continues to be around 27%-28%.

    FMCG’s  contribution to the total AdEx will still remain around 27% or so.

     

    One of the sectors which was not included in the entire study is the SME sector and that’s where the future of the country is and what’s where everybody is saying that the growth is in terms of advertising. If you were factored into that do you think your final numbers could have been little different?

    Infact we factored in the overall base of advertisers. So that would include the long tail or the SME sectors as you call them as well. In fact a lot of the digital growth is not only coming from the established players but…

     

    SMEs

    …The first-time advertisers. We are finding in the last couple of years, first-time advertisers moving straight to digital because the entry costs are low because they are able to target the consumers a lot better and also measure the return. We see them continuing in the short- to medium-term.

     

    		 2016 growth would’ve been 16% had there been no demonetisation: Sam BalsaraTalking to Labonita Ghosh on the sidelines of the Pitch Madison Advertising Report presentation, Madison World Chairman Sam Balsaraspoke on the dangers of depending too much (or only) on data, on e-commerce advertising and why he thinks the 13.5% growth is realistic

     

    Some might say your forecast of 13.5% growth of AdEx or adspends in the year 2017 is very optimistic, especially since we had GroupM telling us just yesterday that it estimates growth to be 10%. Your comments on how realistic the growth estimate is…

    Obviously we think it’s realistic otherwise we wouldn’t have put it up. Asyou’ve seen, last year, growth was very low, which has made us bring us forecast down. We do recognise that in the period from January to April, growth will below and that is whyour forecast is 13.5%, otherwise it would’ve been higher.

     

    Tsunami is an interesting way to describe the impact of demonetisation. Had demonetisation not happened, what would you say the growth would’ve been last year?

    The growth would’ve been 16%. And that is almost exactly what our prediction was in February 2015. It’s because the market de-grew by 8% in the months of November and December, that growth is down to 12.5%.

     

    Your forecast on digital touching 43% growth is in line with the way it’s been growing in the last five years. Why do you think it wasn’t impacted by demonetisation?

     

    Ofcourse it was. But digital also looks at leads, and search and all that stuff.Also, FMCG [advertising] is very low on digital, the lowest [of all media]. We’re not saying digital was not affected, but we’re saying that it was much less affected by demonetisation.

     

    You have also said that January to April is going to be down. But this is also the time when we have elections. So no real impact of election spends?

    Assembly elections don’t pull in that much money. And I think that these elections, coming on the back of demonetisation, have been a bit of a dampener, if I may say so. I don’t think political parties were as flush with funds as they normally are. I think we are seeing a more conservative approach by most political parties in these elections

     

    ‘Don’t over-depend on media data to support business decisions. Use data as a guide and not as a crutch.’ Now that’s quite a statement from a media agency veteran who has been and led most industry forums. Do you really think there is too much dependence on data?

     

    What I meant to say was, don’t use data as a crutch. Don’t close your eyes and just blindly go by data. Use your common sense to question whether that data might be wrong or if it even makes sense. Take a holistic look at your plans, and don’t only say this is the data, so it must be like that, so let’s go with it.

    I think there is not enough lateral thinking bring applied to data. And I think a lot of plans are routine, andthey get mechanically done. There is a belief that as long as the GRPs and TRPs are met, I’ve donemy job. But it is possible, that despite all these being met, the brand doesn’t do well. And I think we’ve seen quite a few examples of that.

     

    E-commerce, as we have seen, has hit the adspend bottomlines. Madison has its own share of e-commerce clients and one of these which has been a big budget advertiser. Do you expect it to go down or up?

    I think e-commerce spends are guided more by the penchant of the investors, and I think investors in e-commerce behave in a very erratic manner. So I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess on what e-commerce investors are thinking of, or will think tomorrow

     

     

  • GroupM exercised its right to acquire majority stake after eight years of the 2008 jv deal

    Exclusive: Sam Balsara on GroupM acquiring 76% in MediaCom India: In today’s world, you can be a partner and competitor to the same entity…

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sam Balsara

    In today’s world, you can be a partner and competitor to the same entity. That’s how MadisonWorld founder and chairman Sam Balsara sums up the new arrangement in the joint venture with GroupM on media agency MediaCom’s India operations.

     

    As per the original agreement, WPP’s GroupM reportedly had the right to acquire a majority stake after a period of eight years, which they just did.

     

    Earlier, Madison owned 51 per cent and GroupM 49 per cent. Now, GroupM has bought 25 per cent, making its total stake to 76 per cent. For Balsara and team, it’s matter of great pride that the jv was a success for the last eight years.

     

    And does this mean anything at all on possible ownership of mother ship Madison? “There’s no connection whatsoever,” Balsara laughed it off underscoring that this was a completely independent transaction.

    ~~

     

    At mid-morning on Tuesday, Balsara tweeted a clip from The Economic Times of last week where Madison Media had announced a tie-up with Bangladesh’s independent media agency Mediacom. Mediacom, the report noted, is part of Bangladesh’s industrial conglomerate Square Group and handles media planning and buying for Perfetti Van Melle, Asian Paints, Ispahani Group, Singer and some products categories of the parent company. As a part of the deal, Mediacom will have access to Madison Media’s tools and operating software.

     

    Less than 10 hours after this tweet, came in this missive from the GroupM headquarters in north-west Mumbai: The media services network had announced that it will be acquiring a majority stake in MediaCom India.

     

    While MediaCom India will continue operating as an independent brand, the agency will have the advantage of access to GroupM’s global infrastructure. This acquisition continues WPP’s strategy of investing in fast growth markets, new media and digital, notes a commuique. The news on the Bangladesh tie-up and what happened closer home had of course no connection. Except the timing of Balsara’s tweet.

     

    Stephen Allan

    “The majority acquisition of MediaCom in India represents a significant evolution in one of the world’s fastest growing economies. As India becomes a very attractive business hub for global clients, we are confident our talented team in India will deliver exemplary growth and results for all stakeholders.” said, Stephen Allan, CEO, MediaCom Worldwide.

     

     

     

    CVL Srinivas

    Speaking on the acquisition, CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia said, “MediaCom India has won several prestigious clients, developed a strong digital presence and has delivered award-winning campaigns for clients. As a network, we have taken giant strides globally and in India towards a more Data and Tech-led core to our business. MediaCom India can harness our world-class media infrastructure to provide more value to its clients and people.”Interestingly, the Mediacom Bangaladesh tieup allows that agency to dig into Madison’s tools and infra.

     

    Flashback to April 2008 when Balsara announced with much fanfare that he had acquired 51 per cent stake in MediaCom India. And also the coveted P&G business. Over the last eight years, MediaCom India has established itself as one of the Top 5 media agencies in terms of market share (Source: RECMA ratings 2015). In 2016, WARC ranked MediaCom India’s Mumbai office as one of the top 10 media agencies in the world based on performance in effectiveness and strategy impact for its clients.Its client roster includes Proctor & Gamble, Tata DoCoMo, Future Group Retail, Shell, Dell, Makemytrip.com, SAB Miller, Subway, Bose,Vespa and Urban Ladder amongst others.

     

    Industry observers meanwhile don’t read too much into the development. Although Mediacom may technically have been owned by a majority by GroupM, over the last few years, GroupM is said to be representing its interests very actively. A scenario which Balsara says was fine given that it was all for the good of MediaCom.

     

  • The jv stays but MediaCom India will integrate further into the GroupM fold with this development

    GroupM acquires majority stake in MediaCom India

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    At mid-morning on Tuesday, Sam Balsara tweeted a clip from The Economic Times of last week where Madison Media had announced a tie-up with Bangladesh’s independent media agency Mediacom. Mediacom, the report noted, is part of Bangladesh’s industrial conglomerate Square Group and handles media planning and buying for Perfetti Van Melle, Asian Paints, Ispahani Group, Singer and some products categories of the parent company. As a part of the deal, Mediacom will have access to Madison Media’s tools and operating software.

     

    Less than 10 hours after this tweet, came in this missive from the GroupM headquarters in north-west Mumbai: The media services network had announced that it will be acquiring a majority stake in MediaCom India, a joint venture between GroupM India and Sam Balsara, the principal shareholder of the Madison Media group. While MediaCom India will continue operating as an independent brand, the agency will have the advantage of access to GroupM’s global infrastructure. This acquisition continues WPP’s strategy of investing in fast growth markets, new media and digital. The news on the Bangladesh tie-up and what happened closer home had of course no connection. Except the timing of Balsara’s tweet.

     

    “The majority acquisition of MediaCom in India represents a significant evolution in one of the world’s fastest growing economies. As India becomes a very attractive business hub for global clients, we are confident our talented team in India will deliver exemplary growth and results for all stakeholders.” said, Stephen Allan, CEO, MediaCom Worldwide.

     

    Speaking on the acquisition, CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia said, “MediaCom India has won several prestigious clients, developed a strong digital presence and has delivered award-winning campaigns for clients. As a network, we have taken giant strides globally and in India towards a more Data and Tech-led core to our business. MediaCom India can harness our world-class media infrastructure to provide more value to its clients and people.”Interestingly, the Mediacom Bangaladeshtieup allows that agency to dig into Madison’s tools and infra.

     

    Flashback to April 2008 when Balsara announced with much fanfare that he had acquired 51 per cent stake in MediaCom India. And also the coveted P&G business. Over the last eight years, MediaCom India has established itself as one of the Top 5 media agencies in terms of marketshare (Source: RECMA ratings 2015). In 2016, WARC ranked MediaCom India’s Mumbai office as one of the top 10 media agencies in the world based on performance in effectiveness and strategy impact for its clients.Its client roster includes Proctor & Gamble, Tata DoCoMo, Future Group Retail, Shell, Dell, Makemytrip.com, SAB Miller, Subway, Bose,Vespa and Urban Ladder amongst others.

     

    Industry observers meanwhile don’t read too much into the development. Although Mediacom may technically have been owned by a majority by GroupM, over the last few years, GroupM is said to be representing its interests very actively. And while MediaCom India ought to be part of the Madison Media, the two agencies have fought pitches including recently for Coca-Cola India.

     

  • Madison which had successfully steered BJP's media spends for the 2014 general elections has bagged the mandate for the forthcoming UP, Punjab and Goa polls

    Madison to handle BJP’s poll spends in UP, Punjab & Goa

    By A Correspondent

     

    According to information we have received and as confirmed via Twitter by Chairman Sam Balsara, Madison Media has been mandated to handle the media planning and buying activity of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Goa elections that are scheduled for early 2017.

     

    The value of the account is said to be in the region of Rs 150-200 crore, though the number could see up to a 25 per cent increase or decrease in the last few weeks of the campaign.