MxMIndia

Tag: Varghese Chandy

  • Mathrubhumi, Malayala Manorama and Times of India to welcome brand owners

    Leading newspapers collaborate for Onam shopping

    By Our Staff

     

    Leading newspapers Mathrubhumi, Malayala Manorama and The Times of India have announced a collaboration to create mass awareness for Onam festivities

     

    Commenting on this initiative, M V Shreyams Kumar, Managing Director, Mathrubhumi Group said: “Healthy competition in the marketplace will always stay, so is the opportunity to collaborate meaningfully if the purpose is right.  I’m grateful to Malayala Manorama and Times of India for finding merit in the proposition and readily accepting the same too.  It is a great pleasure to be working together. Business owners are excited about the opportunities in the market and consumers are waiting to grab their products and services, evident from our daily ad volumes.”

     

    Added Varghese Chandy, Vice President -Marketing & Advertising Sales, Malayala Manorama: “This is indeed a great initiative.  Onam is the beginning of the festival seasons in the country. Past few Onams were washed out due to floods, Covid etc. This year fortunately the markets are opened and am sure will be the most opportune time for marketers to leverage the Pent up demand and the Onam sentiments.  Who else knows this better than the leading print players in Kerala and that is what this collaboration is all about.”

     

    Said Partha P Sinha, President – Response, The Times Group: “Onam is a celebration of togetherness. In the true spirit of Onam, we are happy to join hands with Mathrubhumi and Malayala Manorama for ushering in positivity and change this festive season. We are glad to see that Malayalis have left the past behind and are ready to welcome businesses with zeal and warmth. Happy Onam!”

     

    The campaign will run across media assets of these three groups for the next few days.

     

  • If the 11.1% bucked estimates of last year, Sam Balsara's forecast has everyone raising a toast

    Say Cheers! Madison predicts 16.8% adspend growth in 2014

     

    By Johnson Napier

     

    With so much being reported and analysed about how the oncoming Lok Sabha elections would benefit or harm the prospects of the economy, there is one section of the trade for whom the election year indeed holds good stead. Going by the growth projections that the election season are expected to bring in 2014, the media advertising business in India is in for a big surprise if numbers revealed in a recent report are anything to go by.

     

    According to growth projections released by the Pitch Madison Media Advertising Outlook 2014 report in Mumbai yesterday, the advertising revenues are expected to grow by a robust 16.8 per cent in 2014 at Rs 37,216 crores. This is a sharp rise from the healthy 11.1 per cent that was reported by the industry in 2013. In fact the growth in 2013 is much more then the benchmarked figure of 7.4 per cent that was initially predicted by the report.

     

    Presenting the numbers to the fraternity in Mumbai, Sam Balsara, Chairman and Managing Director, of leading media services conglomerate Madison World said that the time to be cautious – which was the state that the industry was in for much of 2013 – was almost over and that the year ahead would be even more fulfilling with growth projected in the range of 16.8 per cent.  The report was presented by Madison World in conjunction with the exchange4media group’s Pitch magazine.

     

    “It is great to be clocking a growth rate in double digits, which has come as a boon to the industry that was stuck in clouds of uncertainty given the economic downturn that was witnessed for much of last year,” affirmed Mr Balsara. “Compared to 2012 that registered revenues to the tune of Rs 28,694 crore, the year 2013 reported numbers equalling Rs 31,877 crore, growing by 11.1 per cent. In fact 2014 would outperform the previous year and would register an estimated growth of 16.8 per cent, with revenues totalling Rs 37,216 crore,” said Mr Balsara, beaming.

     

    According to Mr Balsara, the core factor that would bring in the growth for the industry would be the Lok Sabha and the state Assembly elections scheduled for 2014. This would also include spendings by individual political candidates that would be investing money in reaching out to the masses.

     

    Presenting a medium-wise break-up to the gathering, Mr Balsara said that like last year, this year too belonged to Print that emerged as the numero uno medium. Advertisers took a liking to the medium as it reported a growth of 10 per cent with revenues equalling Rs 13,167 crore. This was largely due to increased advertising by sectors such as FMCG that contributed by 12.3 per cent to the overall ad pie (replacing Auto from the top spot) and Auto that contributed around 11.7 per cent. Education though saw a decline to 9.71 per cent versus 10.6 per cent share registered last year.

     

    When asked by MxMIndia to share his observations on the projections for the medium of Print, Varghese Chandy, Chief General Manager, Marketing, Advertising Sales, Malayala Manorama said that the growth was indeed a bullish one for the sector. “I am excited by the numbers that we have managed to throw up as a medium. The fact that we have still got the advertisers attention by being the number one medium of choice is a big thing.” Sharing further on what will drive the sector in 2014, he said that the Lok Sabha elections and the assembly elections that will take place in 2014 will bring in the necessary revenue growth that the medium is known for. But he had a word of caution for the magazine sector as he said that it would still be a task for magazines to contribute as much growth as newspapers too. “While niche and regional magazines will continue to deliver good growth, overall the magazine industry will still be challenged on the growth front.”

     

    Following the medium print closely was Television that recorded a growth of 8.2 per cent with revenues totalling Rs 12,410 crores. This was in sharp contrast to 2012 where the medium registered a zero per cent growth. Where sectoral contribution was concerned, Media, Retail, Alcoholic Beverages and Corporates registered a negative growth with only FMCG registering a positive growth for the medium. The medium is further expected to grow by 15 per cent in 2014.

     

    The next medium to vow the advertisers was Digital that has now become the third-most preferred medium for advertisers on a consistent basis. With revenues totalling Rs 3,050 crore the medium grew by a good 32.4 per cent and is expected to grow by 29.5 per cent in 2014 as well. Of this, display advertising will continue to have an upper hand compared to search with revenue numbers totalling to Rs 2,150 crore.

     

    Siddhartha Mukherjee, Category Director, Chocolate and Media, Cadbury India, Mondelez International was optimistic of the returns that the medium would deliver in 2014. Affirming to this writer, he said, “Going by the projections that were presented today and by the points bought up by panellists, there is no doubt that digital will continue to remain a go-to medium for many advertisers. That is what would be of importance to us too.”

     

    The mediums of Radio, Outdoor and Cinema combined accounted for the remainder 12-13 per cent of the ad chart with Radio accounting for revenues totalling Rs 1,097 crore (18 per cent growth), Outdoor clocking a growth of 6.2 per cent at Rs 1,977 crore and Cinema registering a growth of 10.4 per cent at Rs 167 crore.

     

    The evening also witnessed keynote addresses being delivered by dignitaries including Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej Group, Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India, and Girish Agarwal, Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group who presented a roadmap that the industry could adopt to change their business fortunes and also derive positive growth for the several mediums under Media.

     

  • The venerable Newsweek is going all-digital soon. Will the trend be seen in India too, or is it a flash in the pan?

    Could Indian mags go the Newsweek way?

     

    By Ananya Saha

     

    Newsweek, founded nearly eight decades ago, is moving to a digital-only product from 2013. According to editor-in-chief Tina Brown, it cost $42 million a year to manufacture, print, distribute, and manage the circulation of Newsweek.

     

    Newsweek is in the best position to go completely digital due to their strong online presence through Daily Beast. But the news has sounded an alarm bell for print magazines all around the world. As news becomes a 24/7 affair and people prefer online access, the readership of news magazines is on decline the world over. It is no wonder then that magazines are reaffirming their presence in the online space too. With Kindle usage on the rise, e-magazines are creating waves.

     

    Tarun Rai

    Even as Indian print industry continues to see new launches, the readership is on the decline (though a minor slide), as recorded by recent IRS figures. “I am not very surprised at the decision. I believe the issue for Newsweek is the nature of the magazine it is. As a result, the relevance of a weekly ‘news digest’ has diminished. It is not a question of print or digital – it is a question of the nature of some magazines that may not be as relevant today. The same cannot be said for lifestyle and special interest magazines,” opined Tarun Rai, President of the Association of Indian Magazines and CEO, Worldwide Media.

     

    Suggesting that print media still has a bright future, Paresh Nath, Editor and Publisher, Delhi Press said, “It is more of a failure of a publisher than the sunset of an industry. Printed books and material will continue to be relevant as they were in the last several hundred years.” Agreeing that the digital market for Newsweek may have matured earlier than the publishers expected, Pradeep Gupta, chairman and managing director of CyberMedia, said, “In the market they are operating in, digital is growing very rapidly and therefore Newsweek has moved in that direction.”

     

    The predicament of the dawn of the digital era has been repeated often in the Indian context.

     

    “I am happy to say that magazines are already re-inventing themselves for the digital world. Abroad as well as in India. All our magazines are available in their digital versions. We are also aggressively developing various magazines’ apps and will be launching them soon. We see an opportunity in reaching a new younger audience through our digital initiatives,” said Mr Rai.

     

    Even while most magazines have moved towards digital and print versions simultaneously, the print version remains important for reaching the wider audience of readers and advertisers. Time magazine also has responded with their online version adaptable to any platform and any size, particularly for mobile reading. Varghese Chandy, Chief General Manager, Marketing Advertising Sales at Malayala Manorama said, “Reinventing needs to be done not only for news magazines, but every single product for its survival.”

     

    According to Anilkumar Sathiraju, AVP & Head, DDB MudraMax – Media, South, revenue will still come from print version since revenues from digital in India are still at a nascent stage, even though digital penetration is increasing rapidly. Going forward, he predicted that revenues will still be higher from offline magazines.

     

    Magazine have the most engaging format with the deepest touch points according to various international surveys. The growing numbers of tablets reassert the fact that this is the platform that gives the closest magazine-reading experience. Mr Chandy said, “However, monetizing the digital platform will be a greater challenge even for Newsweek.”

     

    While the industry believes that magazines should be ready for the digital era, Mr Nath holds an interesting view: “Magazines do not need to reinvent themselves due to the digital onslaught. Digital delivery of content is like delivering content in Times Square by shouting when hundreds of voices are simultaneously trying to convey the same or similar things. When crowds assembled in Tahrir Square, Cairo, it was thought that the digital media is a powerful weapon, as sentiments were whipped up not by newspapers but by digital media. What is the end result? Muslim Brotherhood that conveys thoughts through printed material ultimately got into power. Very little original content is created on digital media. It only copies and pastes and does so millions of times over. Magazines or print versions of newspapers do not know how to overcome the shouting match where noise and not seriousness is the basic currency. When the time of reckoning comes, people will have to go to the print version, and magazines and newspapers will remain relevant. Magazines have to find out how to outgrow the noise.”

     

    Delivery is still an issue – from readers visiting libraries in the past for content consumption, to wanting the content delivered to them. “Print brands have given up the will to fight and are trying to join the digital crowd that has weapons stolen from print itself. Yes, the world of delivery has changed, not consumption of content,” said Mr Nath.

     

    But with readers wanting immediate access to content, 24×7, digital is only going to grow. It is time that that magazines move faster towards the digital era, according to Mr. Sathiraju.

     

     

    The way forward

    “In India, spend on magazines continues to grow because of an increase in literacy, increase in disposal income and lower internet penetration. Therefore, Indian publishers are embracing digital formats. Print advertising is currently 10 times the digital advertising in India. Over the next five years, the penetration of digital will increase. And that is why CyberMedia has reoriented its strategy around creating of a media mesh,” predicted Mr Gupta.

     

    Mr Nath said that the question of digital versus print comes from the English-educated class in India. He said, “Long ago in India, content used to be created and consumed under the banyan tree. Now it is in front of a screen but the quality of this content is poor, one-way, where hundreds speak and no one listens. In India among the English educated there is a problem as this class cannot enjoy English content (is there any English Indian serials or English Indian movies or English Indian music?) whether in print or on digital media. This class keeps shouting that print is dying as it does not know how to ‘read’ in any language.”

     

    The view might hold true but the increased consumption of magazines on digital platforms cannot be ignored.

     

    “It’s anybody’s guess as to when the digital versions of magazines will become bigger than the printed ones. I firmly believe that the lifestyle and special-interest magazines space will continue to grow in both. It is the sunrise sector of Indian media. And both the print as well as the digital versions will grow, allowing our content to reach an even wider audience,” said Mr Rai.

     

    As Mr Chandy concluded, “The Indian print industry needs to be ready for the future. Currently online penetration is single-digit. This is likely to change in the near future, especially in the metros.” Thus, publishers need to be platform-agnostic and essentially become content managers. Their primary task will be to reach the audience through whichever platform is relevant.