MxMIndia

Tag: V Narayanan

  • Nag will work out of the agency's Bengaluru office and will report to Chief Growth Officer V Narayanan

    Motivator appoints Upali Nag as National Head-Insights & Innovation

    By A Correspondent

     

    Upali Nag

    GroupM agency Motivator has appointed Upali Nag as National Head – Insights and Innovation. Upali will work out of the agency’s Bengaluru office and will report to V Narayanan, Chief Growth Officer, Motivator. Her role will involve providing strategic business solutions and data-driven insights to Motivator’s growing client base besides building the business and project consulting practice.

     

    Speaking on the new addition to the team, Rabe Iyer, MD, Motivator said, “In the last couple of years, we have been fast-tracking our journey to build a strong client business performance framework and product. Upali has fantastic experience to build sustainable strategies to deliver to broader client conversations.”

     

    On her new assignment, Nag added, “I am extremely excited and happy to join Motivator- India. GroupM has always been ahead of the industry in terms of its vision and commitment towards building knowledge and people assets which are geared for the future. This, combined with the fact that most of the Motivator clients are intrinsically Indian clients, makes the journey even more interesting and exciting. This is my second stint at GroupM, and in many ways, feels no less than a homecoming.”

     

  • Zahid Shaikh joins Motivator from United Breweries

    Zahid Shaikh joins Motivator to head its South Operations

    By A Correspondent

     

    Motivator has appointed Zahid Shaikh, Ex CMO Pantaloons as Head of its South Operations.In this role, he will focus on three key areas – building a comprehensive product portfolio, drive growth and enhance capability in Data, CRM, retail, marcom effectiveness and business performance.

     

    Commenting on the new appointment, V. Narayanan, Chief Growth Officer, Motivator said, “Over the last year, we have focused on bringing in the brightest and most diverse talent into Motivator, with a vision to deliver solutions that drive clients, business performance and growth. We have created a team of partners who work closely with clients on not only their core media and advertising opportunities, but also delve deeper to understand and contribute positively by addressing their business challenges. Zahid, who comes with a wider business and marcom experience, is the fifth key hire over the last six months.”

     

    Speaking on his new role, Zahid Shaikh said, “What excited me the most about this opportunity is Motivator’s client centricity and performance orientation. Enabled with a strong foundation from GroupM, and access to domain expertise in media and marketing, Motivator has a proven record of accomplishment to drive our clients’ business in a unique way. I look forward to working with our brilliant team and roster of clients in the South.”

     

    Zahid Shaikh joins Motivator from United Breweries, where he was responsible for Data Analytics to primarily optimize business results for the company. Prior to the aforementioned role, Zahid was CMO, Pantaloons, where he transformed the brand, which was initially perceived as a male brand to a unisex brand. He worked closely with Pantaloons stakeholders and Kishore Biyani’s Future Group, to build a fashion image for the brand. Under Zahid’s leadership, Pantaloons marched past a turnover of Rs 1000 crores (100 stores) from a turnover of Rs. 100 crores (11 stores).

     

  • He has also been appointed as the General Manager for Motivator, North

    Rajiv Khurana joins Motivator as National Head, Business Development and Partnerships

    By A Correspondent

     

    Motivator has appointed Rajiv Khurana as the National Head of Business Development and Partnerships. In this role, he will actively work to build business development programs and identify strategic business verticals and categories that Motivator local offices can take forward.

     

    With over 19 years of experience across business, advertising and media, Rajiv also joins Motivator as the General Manager for the Northern region. In his previous role as a Client Leader at Maxus, he was successful in leading a portfolio of brands such as Paytm, Unicharm, Max Bupa, TV Today group, Air France and Nikon.

     

    At Motivator, he will report to Rabe Iyer, MD and V.Narayanan, Chief Growth Officer for the roles of National Head and General Manager respectively.

     

    Commenting on the recent developments, Rabe Iyer, MD, Motivator said, “Motivator leanings are towards delivering the business performance for our clients, Rajiv fits that line of thinking very well both, with his varied experience and his ability to lead change. We are looking forward to his addition on the team.”

     

    Adding to the same, V.Narayanan, Chief Growth Officer, Motivator said, “It’s great to have someone of Rajiv’s caliber on board. We value his sense of initiative, business thinking and his rich skills set, which will help transforming our product offering to our clients.”

     

    Speaking on his new role, Rajiv Khurana said, “Motivator is one of the fastest growing agencies within GroupM and I am excited to be joining this team and collaborating with some of media industry’s finest minds to achieve greater heights for Motivator. The company values of being agile, curious, enterprising and resilient completely resonates with me.”

     

    Prior to joining Maxus, Rajiv has worked as the Vice President, MEA at Dentsu. He has also been a part of Grey Worldwide (MC) as the Regional Planning Director, MENA and Mindshare as the Business Director. Some of the other major accounts he has handled in the course of his career include Airtel, Nokia, Honda, Pepsi Foods and Maruti Suzuki.

     

  • Vijayant will be responsible for forging new alliances in addition to implementing world partnership programmes of GroupM

    Motivator appoints Vijayant Dhaka

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vijayant Dhaka

    Motivator has appointed Vijayant Dhaka as National Head of Digital Trading. His role will involve streamlining digital channel planning strategies and integrating new trading platforms and practices, besides leading the trading desk for clients.

    Dhaka joins Motivator from Ignitee Digital which is now a part of New Digital, Singapore, where he was involved in driving business growth by tapping into performance media clients. He has also been an early stage team member at Octane, and founding team member at Policybazaar. At Policy Bazaar, he set up a customer facing team while at Octane, he was the business head and drove international expansion into South East Asia, Middle East & South Africa.

    Commenting on his new role, Dhaka said, “With ever growing digital and mobile penetration in India, we are up for challenging yet exciting times ahead, next 3-5 years will revolutionize the media industry. Motivator thinks alike and is well poised to move at a faster pace than the industry, with investments in right technologies and people. I’m looking forward to this journey.”

     

    V.Narayanan

    Dhaka will be based out of Gurgaon and will report into V.Narayanan, Chief Growth Officer.

     

    Speaking on this development, V.Narayanan said, “Motivator has restructured its digital offering to put new media at the centre of the agency’s offering. Vijayant’s appointment is part of Motivator’s plan to accelerate & enhance the value through better trading and partnership practices. He would play a pivotal role in driving digital efficiencies by cloning best in class processes of GroupM and forging new partnerships that transcends our innovative digital offering to our clients.”

     

  • The account will be managed by the Maxus New Delhi team

    Getit opts for Maxus

    By a correspondent

     

    Maxus has won the media planning duties for askme.com and askmebazaar.com. Getit Infomedia owns a portfolio of brands operating in both online and offline properties with brands including ASKME, ASKMEBAZAAR, FREEADS & YELLOWPAGES across Indian online search, deals, marketplace and classified industry.

     

    The account will be managed by the Maxus New Delhi team.

     

    ASKME is being launched as a next generation mobile app for consumption across local search, marketplace, classified and deals. It is platform agnostic and allows consumption across Voice (04444444444, ten times four), Mobile (APP n WAP) and Online. It has also executed some industry defining product partnerships such as with WECHAT.

     

    Manav Sethi, Marketing Head, Getit Infomedia said “Our determination to lead the online search, deals, marketplace & classified space with clutter breaking marketing activities also drives us to ensure we work with the best of the agency to deliver on the ambition. After careful evaluation, we decided on Maxus, as it was able to bring in consumer experience beyond traditional communications.”

     

    V. Narayanan, General Manager, Maxus New Delhi said “We are thrilled to partner Getit Infomedia. Their brands focuses on strategic thinking & smart innovations when it comes to communications solutions. This very much aligns with the Maxus way of working. We look forward to contributing to their success & work towards building the portfolio of brands in a fiercely contested market place.”

     

     

  • V Narayanan will be reporting into Rabinder Thirumurthy, MD, Motivator and will be based in New Delhi

    Motivator appoints V Narayanan as Chief Growth Officer

    By A Correspondent

     

    Motivator has announced the appointment of V Narayanan as the new Chief Growth Officer. He will be reporting into Rabinder Thirumurthy, Managing Director, Motivator and will be based in New Delhi. In his new role, Narayanan will lead the next phase of growth for Motivator, with an emphasis on the specialist practices of the agency. He will be responsible for driving strategy for the north region and new business development nationally.

     

    Expressing his sentiments, Rabe Iyer, Managing Director, Motivator said, “I am delighted to have Narayanan on the Motivator team. I have known him to be the strong, silent commander, who with his strategic thinking and clear dedication inspires the team to deliver their very best. I have often heard very high praise from clients about his working style and I am sure Narayanan will help Motivator in our endeavor to build competitive brands out of Indian businesses.”

     

    Prior to the promotion, Narayanan was the General Manager, North, Maxus. Under his leadership Maxus not only won several new businesses but created some breakthrough work for their existing clients. As a strong growth driver for the agency, he instilled the PACE philosophy across his team members and strived to create great value for his clients and team alike.

     

     

  • Maxus New Delhi has won the media investment mandate for Paytm, widely regarded as the country's largest mobile commerce platform

    Maxus wins media mandate for Paytm

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leading media agency Maxus has won the media investment mandate for Paytm, widely regarded as the country’s largest mobile commerce platform. The business will be managed by Maxus, New Delhi.

     

    Paytm started with mobile recharge and utility bill payments and today it offers a full marketplace to consumers on its mobile apps. Paytm has over 12 million registered users. In a short span of time, Paytm has scaled to more than 7 Million orders per month.

     

    Said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm, said: “Maxus has come on board to help us with our media investments and planning. What impressed us about the team at Maxus is their simple, effective and to the point approach with focus on a lot of new media vehicles and initiatives such as content, experiential etc. We look forward to working closely with the team.”

     

    Said V Narayanan, General Manager, Maxus New Delhi, “We are truly delighted with the win and look forward to creating a long term partnership with Paytm and One97communication. Mobile commerce and marketing is the future, and Paytm is pioneering several products and services in the field. We currently envisage an integrated strategy using our global proprietary Relationship Media Framework to create a deeper engagement with targeted consumers using smart media solutions.”

     

  • With GEC viewership patterns changing, prime time looks over its shoulder and channels are targeting the 7-8pm slot with specific programming.

    7pm, the New prime time

     

    By Ritu Midha

     

    Once upon a time in Hindi GEC, 8 to 10 PM was known as prime time. Then happened Kahin To Hoga and Kaahin Kissii Roz (both on Star Plus), and prime time viewership extended up to 11 pm. The interesting thing here was that while 10 to 10.30 pm slot was viewed across HSM, 10.30 to 11 was largely metro centric. And today, the slot is used for more mature stories like Maryada Lekin Kab Tak.

     

    Interestingly, channels have now realised that older children and teenagers are not watching that much television any more – and there really is no requirement for shows tailored specifically for them in the 7 to 8 pm slot. Enter Saathiya – and now 7-8 pm has become an integral part of prime time television viewing. Star Plus successfully proved yet once again that Saas Bahu still works – and good scheduling too can be an excellent programming innovation. More on prime time expansion in a minute.

     

    Another interesting phenomenon one notices these days is that shows are not killed in too much of a hurry – shows that stop being TVR-garners are nudged, and shifted to another time slot preferably in the afternoon – two very recent examples are Na Anaa Iss Desh Lado and Laagi Tujhse Lagan. Elucidates Dinesh Vyas, Business Head, MEC Global, India, “Channels try out possible routes before killing the programme. And as a strategy they try putting programmes between two good performing programmes hoping for viewers to move on to this programme too.”

     

    While quite a bit of television slots are still sold based on GRPs, and many brands insist on prime time slots – there are a few which are keen to advertise on a specific show. what happens when these shows are moved from one time band to the other. Explains V Narayanan, General Manager , Maxus, Delhi, “This requires a deeper analysis of the new slot where the following parameters are taken into consideration in predicting the ratings which includes, Current viewership of the time slot, Whether the new slot is in prime time or non-prime time slot?, Ratings of competing programmes in the new slot, Promotion plan from the channel in promoting the specific programme slot etc.”

     

    Adds Mr Vyas, “The media planner analyses that time slot (over at-least 13 weeks) to which it has been shifted, to estimate drop or rise in viewership. Loaded with this data the planner/buying negotiate with the channel for better deal in rates proportionately to the drop percentage.”

     

    In place of these shows, in their previous time slot arrive new shows- which may or may not capture viewers’ attention – but this is a risk that channels have to take. It is after all about getting the desired eyeballs and audience acceptance.

     

    Moving back to the extended prime time, the 7 pm slot was made popular by Star’s Sathiya and 7.30 by Sasural Genda Phool on the same channel. However, now shows on Zee and Colors too are working well for their respective channels.

     

    A quick look at the delivery of this time slot:Star Plus: 

    Rank Date Day Start Time Programme TVR

    1

    		 25/10/2011 Tue

    19:00

    		 SAATHIYA SAATH NIBHANA

    4.3

    16

    		 27/10/2011 Thu

    19:30

    		 SASURAL GENDA PHOOL

    2.24

     
    Colors:

    Rank Date Day Start Time Programme TVR

    21

    		 25/10/2011 Tue

    19:32

    		 SASURAL SIMAR KA

    2

    87

    		 27/10/2011 Thu

    18:59

    		 HAVAN

    0.76
    Zee:

    Rank Date Day Start Time Programme TVR

    27

    		 24/10/2011 Mon

    19:30

    		 CHHOTI BAHU

    1.84

    70

    		 25/10/2011 Tue

    18:59

    		 EK NAYI CHOTI SI ZINDAGI

    0.89

     

    Target Group : CS 4 + Yrs ;

    For the week from 23/10/2011 to 29/10/2011

    Source: TAM peoplemeter system

     

    Havan, has, incidentally, not been able to do as well as anticipated yet. Says Mr Narayanan, “Saathiya is a popular programme and garners loyal viewership amongst the female viewers. Yes, with Havan being promoted aggressively by Colors, Saathiya viewership did drop during the first week of telecast which was expected. “

    While late night slots attracted metro audiences, the 7 pm to 8 pm slot has succeeded in attracting non metro audiences. States Mr Vyas, “I have always believed 7-8pm slots work best in non-metros where the audiences are home by that time.”

    Mr Narayanan, meanwhile elaborates that it is the mid-sized towns where this slot attracts maximum viewership, “ A closer look at Saathiya viewership across 8 weeks ( 2011, Wks: 33-40 & for the top channels only. Tg: All, AA, 15+, C&S.) indicates that 1 million + towns in Gujarat, Punjab/Haryana, UP, Rajasthan, MP procures higher ratings than 0.1-1million towns within each state respectively. As a comparison, the program ratings within the 1Million + towns of the above markets are relatively higher than Delhi & Mumbai ratings. “

    Interestingly the 7 to 8 pm slot is not doing well only in HSM but a similar trends can be observed in South markets as well. Explains Narayanan, “Within the 7-8 pm slot, the rest of AP and the rest of Karnataka performs better than Hyderabad and Bangalore respectively. Specific to TN, Sun TV programmes do well in 0.1-1 million towns than Chennai and 1 million+ towns.”

    Television always has options – programming experimentation, scheduling experimentation, changing the protagonist, the story line etc – and hence has the capability of being a step ahead of the curve. With three and a half hours of prime time – GEC don’t have much to worry – all they need is good characters. The next battle heating up is for the real prime time – 8  to 9 pm with all the channels bringing up new shows there.