Tag: The Anchor

By Bobby Pawar, Chief Creative Officer, JWT India

I think that there is no one idea that can bring about a change in advertising. In fact, that, I think, is part of the trouble – that we are looking at one big idea to bring about a change, whereas one has to look at a suite of solutions that can help us in doing our business better.

Everybody has an opinion on what is wrong with the advertising business today, and ready with a cure, but I think it’s this mindset we need to change. We need to have a holistic view of the situation we find ourselves in today.

We need to understand that the world around us is rapidly changing and there is a need to adapt to these changes at a similar pace at which it is changing. Like with technology being liberated there is a need to come out with client centric solutions using advances in technology.

If we are able to adapt to the changing consumer culture and technology, we might be able to deliver more value to our clients.

By Mitrajit Bhattacharya, President & Publisher, Chitralekha Group

Print is thriving in India and will continue to do well in the near and distant future. India is a complex market and often “one formula fits all” does not work here. However, there are some learnings, which if applied as needed, could make the medium take maximum advantage in future.

• Learn from Bollywood to contemporize: Do you recall Amitabh in Lal Badshah or Govinda’s yellow pants? Bollywood, in the 80s, was exactly what the thinking class abhorred. It did things to cater to mass through single-screen theatres. With multiplexization, Bollywood has gone through a sea change in how it shoots, edits, promotes (both AV and print) and finally uses its PR machinery. Print medium needs to contemporize and go beyond. Even the small-town readers expect the best both in terms of content and production, and I am sure the regional biggies are geared to take up this challenge of the hinterland.
• Customize: Print has this amazing quality of customization which TV does not. Eventually, there will be technology to deliver customized products to key audiences. And even before customization, one needs to know the reader beyond his/ her SEC/ MHI and other demographics.
• Growth in literacy: The world example does not work here at all. Most of the western world is 100% literate whereas large parts of India still gains substantially in literacy in the coming two decades or so. This will continuously add newer readers in the hinterland. Regional media will reap the rewards even more.
• India resides in Tier II and III cities: Look at the growth of India in smaller towns. They are adding more consumers than the metros for most product categories. Traditionally catered to by TV, these markets can be effectively reached by local editions/ splits tailor made for them.
• Growth in luxury market: India is booming. The next decade will belong to growth of the luxury brands’ market in India. No one covers luxury better than print. Still concentrated in the metros and largely capitalised on by the English press, this trend will also move to the Top 10 cities in the near future. The print medium is all geared up to take maximum advantage of this boom.

By Sanjay Pareek, President, Percept Out of Home

In these tough economic times, for every rupee a brand manager spends, they want to know how much have they received back from the media in terms of sales or brand recall depending on the objective of the camping.

The out of home industry in India requires systematic improvement to become a media of choice, used across the industry category. Honestly, I don’t think there is a big idea required to propel the industry in the growth phase. Everything required is common sense.

All media gives a ROI for the money brands invest in them, except outdoor and therefore it is a must that the industry stakeholders should invest in a measurement index, which will offers ROI to the brands. This will help brand managers and media managers to justify the investment in outdoor media.

Second common sense, is that Outdoor media should be looked as an independent media, and not an extension of TV or Print for creative strategy. The brands who have used a different creative strategy for outdoor has gained far better results from this media than the brands which have used the creative strategy that are an extension of their creative strategy from TV and Press.

Once these issues are addressed then we can look at technology in outdoor, which will allow a dialogue with the consumers, instead of the current monologue form of communication. This could be a “BIG IDEA” which will offer wow factor to the brands, but the hygiene factor has to be addressed first and sooner than later.

By Keertan Adyanthaya, Managing Director, Fox International Channels India

Technology, ever-evolving, has brought about a radical change in our lives. Every activity, inane or important, is governed by technology, giving us limitless choices. Perpetually time-starved, we prefer to pick up our tablets or smart-phones to access information instead of reading the newspapers or quickly record our favorite shows to watch at a time convenient to us. What’s more, with increased internet penetration consumers have access to their choice of content at the click of a button.

The world around us has undergone a massive revolution. The TV hardware that consumers use is quite advanced with micro-computers that can adjust the picture quality, level the sound and allow you to access the web straight from your TV set. The distribution mechanism has changed – from analogue to digital – and now gives you a wealth of information about the exact programme that you are watching. New-age set-top boxes allow you to pause, rewind and forward live television. They allow you to set up recording for entire series of shows that you like. At the same time, the television universe has also exploded with 700+ channels vying for the attention of the viewers. Broadcast companies are making efforts to cater to changing audience interests and desires by providing close to bespoke channel offerings – regional TV in more and more languages, golf channels, wildlife channels, action movie channels, education channels, etc etc.

However, one area where there has not been much technological advancement is the area of audience measurement. We still depend on the 9,000 people-meter homes to tell us what people are watching. This data is still delivered to its end-users on a weekly basis. Both the sample size and the frequency of reporting are woefully inadequate.

Why can’t we install a tracking chip in every set-top box which can report viewership data? There are an estimated six million boxes that will be deployed in the next 12 months; even if we get the tracking chips into 1% of these boxes, its 60,000 boxes that will give us the data. That’s six times the current sample size.

A key aspect that can help fill the gap between content and viewer interest is a robust measurement mechanism. By using the technology in the STB, we could bring back the data from each television set to the tracking agency; it could prove to be an effective and accurate means of measurement. This would be a more robust measurement mechanism than the 9,000 people-meter boxes that we depend on today. What finally goes on air is largely dependent on the research data that comes from measurement agencies, and a technology like this might just be the next big thing that revolutionizes the process of designing content according to consumer interest. In addition, it will also help advertisers to have sharp focus and decide their media spends as per what their core TG is watching. Technology can help us to improve measurement in the broadcast industry, but are we willing to embrace it?

By Ashwani Singla, MD & CEO, PSB, South Asia

PR’s biggest challenge through the years has been its ability to link its impact to the success of the business or even to the change of public perception, the heart of its value proposition. An invaluable management tool used to create preference has been commoditized. The game changer for PR would be to find the answer to its most significant challenge: How does public relations become an invaluable management tool for the CEO?

I believe the answer to this lies in what I call “the science of persuasion”. We need to put this to work. Let’s break it down. Preference is created when people make a choice consistently for a company, its product or service in comparison to others, which means that they have been persuaded to act in preference to the peers. How does this persuasion happen? Rarely have PR professionals focussed on understanding why and how people they want to persuade make choices?

How often do we have answers to some crucial questions and by any means these are not exhaustive. What’s important to our stakeholders? What are their concerns? What do they think? What do they feel? What will make them change their mind? What do we need to do? What do we need to say? What are their trusted sources of information? Who do they look for advice? What and Who would they follow?

This is where Science comes in, the science of public opinion. The science of human behaviour and the science of communication. Sadly, PR has neither studied nor invested in the science and is today paying the price for it. It’s ironic that the founding fathers of the profession were behavioural scientists.

Persuasion is a combination of actions of a company supported by communications. PR has for too long focussed on communications and has little or no role in how the company acts or behaves. I say this from my experience at Penn Schoen Berland (PSB). We have introduced these concepts at PSB to our clients and the response has been very encouraging.

PR needs new a new approach, rooted in science to win hearts and minds.

By Dr. Subho Ray, President, Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)

The big idea that can change the internet business in India is providing affordable broadband access to rural India. However, it is not the idea itself that is important, but its implementation. The digital future is being built as we speak. The government is committed to spending Rs 20,000 crores in reaching true broadband connection to all the 2.5 lakh panchayats through a fibre optic backbone. Usually, people are ignorant or sceptical of such government projects, but I am personally very bullish about this one. Even if half the project is completed within the next two years, we will have broadband connection reaching more than a lakh village panchayats.

This will be like handing over a livelihood tool to the usually infrastructure-poor areas and similar to teaching a person how to catch a fish. Of course, initially the adoption will be slow at first, then there will be self-discovery of the potential of the internet, and then there will be the special India jugaad!

This process in the next three to four years will change the face of the internet and also the face of rural India. The former will change because new content and services will have to be designed for a completely new market, the latter will change because commerce and information will be available at the tip of the finger. With that, empowerment and inclusion will not be far behind.

By Madhukar Sabnavis, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy and Mather, India

The One Big Idea that will be a game-changer will be in the digital space. Digital has transformed the business world, and it’s going to change the way brand-building will be done in future. We are just waiting for the tipping point.

There are already over 800 million mobile handsets and over 150 million internet users. That’s enough hardware for software to be developed on. Print brought in the era of information in advertising, television drove emotional affinity. Digital will drive engagement – the highest level of brand connection.

Whether through mobile applications or social networks or retail activations, digital is at the cusp of breaking free. All that is required is the creative firepower and ideas to emerge to show clients the way – give them the confidence to back it. It will then make branding a two-way conversation from the one-way communication that most advertising has been during the television era. It will necessitate new metrics of measurement and a mindset change from mass market thinking to more segmented, focused and targeting marketing. It will mean that marketers will have the opportunity to address both consumers and shoppers which traditional media didn’t enable.

What final form it will take, one can’t tell today. There are exciting times ahead.

By Ravi Rao, Leader, South Asia, Mindshare

The one big idea that will change the face of the newspaper industry in the coming years will be the effective use of ‘couponing’.

Most newspapers have not exploited this successfully in India. Imagine a situation where the regional newspapers offer coupons 52 weeks a year, whose total value is 4x of the newspaper subscription. It is value for money for readers, great opportunity for trial build for brands, and this will kickstart the emergence of a new back-end industry to manage redemptions. Advertisers will also get to see which publication really ‘performs’ and can get a lot more data into the ultimate decision-maker to buy their products.

The second big idea in the internet era will be the use of ‘paywalls’ – a few publications didn’t succeed with the revenue models as the final readership determines the success of any subscription or ad model. With TV digitization, imagine if there is a single aggregator like Zite in India offering news or specific titles online across multiple genres!. Exciting times for the ad industry to look at content generation that is relevant and appropriate and will surely be the money-spinner. Nothing excites me as much as the convergence of media.

By Srikant Sastri, Country Chair, VivaKi India

It’s actually two ideas that need to work in tandem, to transform the digital space in India. We’re late by a few years with both these ideas, but the time has come. As soon as service providers expand the reach of broadband, the numbers will explode. Simultaneously, low-cost smart phones, supported by an eco-system of multilingual content, will do for digital what regional TV has done in traditional space.

Indian consumers, even at the bottom of the pyramid, have the innate ability to adapt to new technologies and devices as long as it’s affordable, accessible and delivers value.

Desktop internet and browsers have not met these criteria, and this has limited digital growth.

However, I would bet that the same consumer will lap up content delivered via easy-to-use multilingual apps on affordable smartphones. This will set off a flood of activity and revenues with respect to smartphones, content creation and ad formats, as well as a flurry of start-ups with smart business models.

All of us have often wondered why India’s massive base of more than 800 million mobile phones does not translate into ARPUs for service providers, or viable advertising platforms for marketers. Broadband access, coupled with multilingual content, has the ability to make this a reality.

By Harrish M Bhatia, CEO, 94.3 MY FM

The potential of radio as an advertising medium is by far the most underutilized in the country. Given a level playing field, radio has the potential to garner 8-10% of the advertising pie, which is a global norm in developed markets. However, with short-sighted policies, long delays in phase III and the lack of credible wholesome measurement tools, the medium has not been able to compete ably with other media vehicles. Many professionals still include radio in their plans at the last moment to highlight the probability of their idea being campaignable. Moreover, media spends are not proportionately allocated to radio even though it has outgrown other media in time spent, especially in non-metro markets.

At this crucial juncture, radio players now need to combine forces, taking this challenge head-on to showcase the strengths that the medium has to offer and how radio can provide superior value to advertisers.

Instead of competing on price, there is a need to focus on creative hard selling of the medium’s unique strengths like customized communication to address local market needs and ‘radio properties’ that contribute significantly in brand building. It is also imperative to highlight programming innovations which seamlessly integrate the advertiser’s brand without compromising on the entertainment quotient ensuring that the communication remains relevant and engaging. Lastly, radio players need to come to consensus on adopting a common measurement tool that can support and verify the credibility that radio offers.

In a competitive category where higher salience in the consumer’s mind is of utmost importance, radio can play a critical role in occupying a dominant share of mind via higher frequency and faster turnaround time. Working together, the industry can present a stronger front and showcase the true potential of radio.

By N S Rajan, Managing Director, Ketchum Sampark

In a world in which society and business are largely based on the flow of information and ideas, PR professionals will have to gear themselves to the tectonic shift in the way PR in India will be practised in the coming years as we become one global community.

While organizations will need all the assistance to be able to effectively communicate in a world built on dialogue and transparency, the transition from a policy of being closed and communicating by press release, to building genuine human interactions and conversations which is the need of the hour, is far from easy. Guidelines and parameters need to be established and communicated, spokespersons need to be coached and technologies need to be implemented. Of all the professions, PR is better equipped to be able to do this effectively. Yet practitioners also need to extend their capabilities into new domains such as technology and new media besides analytics in order to be able to deliver on this.

The future of marketing as a whole lies with integration. Agencies that master the 360-degree approach to strategy, ensuring consistent messaging across all platforms including advertising, design, social media and traditional marketing activities, will be the leaders in their field. As the lines between traditional PR and advertising are blurring, a holistic approach is more vital than ever. PR practitioners need to represent themselves effectively, proving their ability to keep up with shifts in the industry.

The increasing importance of mobile and social networks mean that PR professionals must evolve their communications beyond the traditional press release and increase the channels through which they are delivered. With all these shifts in the methods and means of communication, the key to credibility is adopting and adapting to new ideas.

If PR practitioners are going to continue to work closely with their marketing brethren and generate significant results for their Organizations or clients, they need to get more comfortable with analytics.

The measurability of outcomes requires communicators to sharpen their analytical skills, because “big data” is here to stay, and it is strongly informing communications. Knowing how to organize and crunch data, correlate results and correctly interpret and apply data are core skills that enable communicators to turn the masses of data available to us into valuable business intelligence and ROI metrics.

The next few years will see organizations being forced to take the blinkers off and put money behind PR professionals who can get the word out to a wider canvas not only tactfully but more importantly with results. That will separate the men from the boys.

By Sandeep Sharma, President, R K Swamy Media Group

Currently, clients focus on maximising return on investments in media in terms of reach, frequency and GRPs. GRP becomes the currency for performance. And as long as the marketwise evaluation of a plan within the defined target group delivers those GRPs, the media agency is doing a good job.

Going forward, all this will change. Given the slowdown in the last five years, the fundamental insight learnt is “Trend is no longer your friend.” This means today’s business environment is complex and clients are facing new and unforeseen challenges. The heterogeneity in India makes their task further difficult. In this scenario, standalone solutions will not work and the client will seek all constituents to work towards achieving one common goal which will be linked to his business result, either in terms of sales growth or gain in market share, clearly defined at the outset with all partners as a common goal.

So what are the implications in the media context? The focus will shift from low rates to solutions. Solutions are agnostic to platforms or medium and in isolation or combined, whatever works best for the best solution will be the answer. Hence, creative idea synergy playing across all touchpoints and exposure for the viewer/reader will be superior; the further implication would be that creative and media agencies will have to work in unison.

Agency planners will have to think solutions and not medium, will have to understand the client’s business and not just the brand. There will be a higher level of interaction between agencies and clients living the eureka moment of “True partnership”. Agencies will be truly seen as partners and extension of clients’ marketing and business teams, and not agencies or vendors.

Last, but not the least, agency remuneration will be linked to the client’s market performance and achievement towards the goal, and here I pray the industry learns to play it right and not undermine itself like in the past and get their rightful share of the value they bring to the table. On this subject of remuneration, I pray that “Past trend no longer be your friend” for agencies.