THE BIG BRAND THEORY

`100

Volume 13 | Issue 02 | January 2019

THE BIG BRAND THEORY Top Marketing Initiatives of 2018

HUMARI SUCCESS KA FORMULA Bollywood hits spanning 55+ years At Shemaroo, we have cracked the formula for great Bollywood content. Today, we have something special for every Indian with 1900+ Bollywood films leading to over one billion combined views on our Bollywood YouTube channels. So, come and experience the best of Indian entertainment.

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B O L LY W O O D

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MUSIC

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REGIONAL |

KIDS

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DEVOTION

#MARTECHINDIA2019

Announcing INDIA 2019

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 15, 2019 LE MÉRIDIEN GURGAON, DELHI NCR

USING

TECH FOR ROI

The exchange4media Group’s MarTech India 2019 seeks to demystify MarTech by bringing together all the concerned stakeholders to put forth their view and debate on the key issues surrounding MarTech and the way forward

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Simran Sabherwal: +91 992 0910 690 | simran.sabherwal@exchange4media.com Gaurav Vadhera: +91 981 81895 04 | gaurav.vadhera@exchange4media.com FOR PARTNERSHIPS, PLEASE CONTACT: Runa Sinha (National Business Head): +91 9810497903 | runa.sinha@exchange4media.com Ashish Kudalkar (Regional Manager-West): +91 9820541742 | ashish.kudalkar@exchange4media.com Sneha Walke (VP Special Projects & South Head): +91 9845541143 | sneha@exchange4media.com Nikhil Tandon (Regional Manager – North): +91 9999700906 | nikhil.tandon@exchange4media.com Music Community Partner

Trade Media Partners

www.futureplay.in

Business Media Partner

COVER STORY

January 2019

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Annurag Batra Director Amit Agnihotri Director Nawal Ahuja EDITORIAL TEAM

Executive Editor Ekta Makan Correspondents Smriti Mishra Anam Khan Contributor Simran Sabherwal

DESIGN TEAM

Art Director

Shivaji Sengupta

Senior Graphic Designer

Joby Mathew

Photographers Ashish Chawla (Mumbai)

Suresh Gola (Noida) Cover Design

30

CHARTING THE BEST MARKETING INITIATIVES OF

2018

Striking the Brand Sentiment Right

Shivaji Sengupta

AD SALES Runa Sinha (National Business Head) runa.sinha@exchange4media.com - 9810497903

Sneha Walke (VP Special Projects & South Head) sneha@exchange4media.com - 9845541143 Ashish Kudalkar (Regional Manager West - Sales & Business Development) ashish.kudalkar@exchange4media.com - 9820541742

0FFICES

NEW DELHI: B-47, Ground Floor, Defence Colony, New Delhi -110 024 NOIDA: B-20, I-Floor, Sector-57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Phone: (0120) 4007700 Mumbai: 301, Kakad Bhavan, 3rd Floor, 11th Street, Bandra (W), Mumbai - 400 050 Phone: (022) 2640 3303/09/14/16 Bengaluru: # 18, 3rd B Cross, Domlur II Stage, Bangalore 560071 CIRCULATION/DISTRIBUTION

Vinod Sharma (Delhi) - 9999447209 vinod@exchange4media.com Anandan Nair (Mumbai) - 9819445200 anair@exchange4media.com On News-stands ` 100/www.pitchonnet.com Printed and published by Annurag Batra on behalf of Adsert Web Solutions Pvt Ltd B-20, I-Floor, Sector-57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Printed at All Time Offset Printers, F-406, Sector-63 Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201 307 An exchange4media Publication

4 | PITCH | January 2019

BRAND CONNECT

THE ESSENCE OF MOBILIZING POTENTIALS

24

In eight years, Xiaomi has grown from another phone marker to taking the electronic and mobile world by a storm from revenues there to exceed $2 billion for 2017—doubling from last year. Now they have added Smart TV’s to Ecosystem accessories to its wide offerings RETAIL

‘SPRING’-ING TO THE TOP

62

K Madhavan, Managing Director of Peps Industries took over a sick manufacturing plant in 2006 and turned it around. “The Mattress Man of India”, as he is called, is confident of more than doubling his revenues and crossing the Rs 1,000 crore mark in two years.

CYNOSURE

REINVENTING THE ESSENTIALS OF

AYURVEDA

14

When it comes to Ayurveda, there are few brands quite as authentic or as easily recognizable as Medimix

FEATURE

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITIES LIFESTYLE

THE

PERENNIAL EVENTS

66

08

From fashion and electronics to FMCG, brands across industries are now taking the digital route to engage consumers like never before.

MARKET APP STORE 20 GADGETS 12

Some key brands in the Live Entertainment industry are changing the conversation around events market and doing it in style. The grandeur of events hosted in the country is beyond imagination

ACROSS THE GLOBE 50 RAPIDFIRE 74 January 2019 | PITCH | 5

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S NOTE

BRANDS’ TRUMP CARD DR. ANNURAG BATRA Chairman & Editor-in-Chief abatra@exchange4media.com @anuragbatrayo www.facebook.com/anuragbatrayo

M

arketing Initiatives in past years was all about strategic thinking and decision-making, inspiring, mentoring, coaching and guiding change. Perhaps it still is all of this, with the last assuming priority.

After all, the use of media plays a vital role in defining the purpose and values of the brand.

The year end witnessed some of the radical ways of marketing, starting from majors in the food market.

Britannia Industries completed its 100 years and launched a campaign called ‘Tu Sau Saal Jiyega’ with a view to thank heterogeneous consumers in a country like India for its success. Reliance Jio crossed 250 million subscribers mark within mere 25 months of commencement, creating a landmark in the history of telecommunication services.

2018 also had one of the most significant mergers in the form of acquisition of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Health India by Hindustan Unilever Limited announced. The startup sector didn’t fall back and had Swiggy, food delivery platform raising $1 billion in a fresh round of funding led by Naspers, making its valuation swell to $3.3 billion.

Many major brands dived into the sea of opportunities that content had to offer. More brands experimented with content marketing than ever before. In this issue, our key focus has been on marketing campaigns that have set an exemplary performance in terms of reach, feedback and the kind of consumer engagement they have generated.

While evaluating many marketing initiatives, we noticed that marketers today keep the consumer sentiment to be the focal point. Brands these days keep consumer health or bringing change in the society with a personal touch to top their list and hence it helps them craft a successful marketing plan and leave their footprints in consumers’ mind.

In addition to the best marketing initiatives, we have also incorporated reports and studies including the ‘State of marketing’ Report by Salesforce as well as ‘One Consumer, Many Interactions’ report by BCG-CII. I hope you find reading the issue a pleasure.

6 | PITCH | January 2019

T W I T T E R AT I

NOV-DEC January 2019 2018 | PITCH | 7

FEATURE

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITIES From fashion and electronics to FMCG, brands across industries are now taking the digital route to engage consumers like never before 8 | PITCH | January 2019

BY SMRITI MISHRA

O

ver 120 million people are expected to shop online in 2018, and this number is expected to shoot up to 175 million by 2020, says a report by the IBEF. Further, the Indian e-commerce market is expected to surpass the US to become the second largest e-commerce market in the world by 2034. Eyeing the potential of the growing e-commerce market in India are not just the Indian brands but global brands too, as they turn towards e-commerce platforms to effectively reach out to the Indian consumers.

With e-commerce platforms gaining increasing popularity amongst Tier II and Tier III cities (it is expected that Tier II cities alone will have 50 million online shoppers by 2018 end), this tie-up also benefits a particular brand in getting

the appropriate visibility, reach and responses in real-time even in the most remote areas.

E-commerce Giants lead!

‘Discounts, Cashbacks, No Cost EMI on products, Exclusive Launches, Guaranteed delivery’-you think of it, and they have it! For the ever deal-hunting consumer, e-commerce giants are nothing less than a ‘feast’ these days. What’s also relevant is that this particular ‘feast’ is not an annual celebration. This celebration extends throughout the year and is, therefore, engaging the Indian consumers like never before. So much so that, a recent report by Barclays indicated that Amazon India and Flipkart are on a similar run rate of $11.2 billion in gross merchandise value for fiscal 2019.

More Sectors Going Online The growing popularity of e-commerce platforms has forced brands across sectors to make a foray on the digital front as part of their marketing efforts. Apart from fashion, electronics and lifestyle segment, FMCG majors have also taken to e-commerce platforms to launch the new section of their brands. Recently, ITC Limited tied-up with online grocery player Bigbasket to launch four new variants of its instant noodle brand Yippee. Similarly, Mondelez India announced a strategic partnership with Amazon.in to set up India’s first Virtual Chocolate and Sweet Store. In a recent interview,

THE INDIAN E-COMMERCE MARKET IS EXPECTED TO SURPASS THE US TO BECOME THE SECOND LARGEST E-COMMERCE MARKET IN THE WORLD BY 2034.

FEATURE

Abhishek Ahluwalia, e-commerce lead, Mondelez India had also said that the company is hopeful of globally achieving an ambitious target to generate $1 billion in e-commerce revenue by 2020.

Retail is one segment that has seen a significant growth rate through its presence online.

A Global brand like Adidas, which enjoy a good acceptance amongst the Indian consumer, has also seen its e-commerce business account for nearly 25 per cent of the total turnover of the brand in the country.

online presence which includes www.baggit.com and other e-commerce platforms.”

The flip side to the rising popularity of e-commerce platforms on part of the brands, however, is the possibility of being overshadowed by the presence of a large number of players in a category. This is where the positioning of a brand

Talking about how online marketing has helped brands overcome the challenges of reaching out to consumers, Atul Garg, Head of Marketing, Baggit added, “Consumer engagement through online marketing has turned out to be a great opportunity for brands from various sectors. Earlier retail was a brick and mortar business and reaching to small towns was difficult. However, the maximum amount of business came from small towns only.

The business challenge was to

“FOR US, WE CAN SAY THAT ABOUT 25 % OF OUR SALES ARE DRIVEN FROM OUR ONLINE PRESENCE WHICH INCLUDES WWW.BAGGIT. COM AND OTHER E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS.”

understand the consumer across geographies and cater to their requirements at the product level and accordingly market the brand.” Adding further about the contribution of e-commerce platforms towards the overall sales of Baggit, Garg said, “For us, we can say that about 25 % of our sales are driven from our

plays a crucial role in shaping the journey of the brand. Speaking about how the brand Baggit has made its presence felt across social media platforms, Garg added, “We have positioned Baggit as #PutItOnTheTable across all digital platforms through our affiliation with fashion and youth icon Shraddha Kapoor. The

10 | PITCH | January 2019

campaign seeks to give a strong voice to the insight from our audiences and gives them space and tools to express themselves.

The innovative multimedia campaign launch has helped us create a positive recall for the brand and keep up with the fast pace global social trends like gender discrimination. the entire branding happens through this theme across the digital ecosystem.”

Content Remains King What also holds utmost importance when it comes to engaging the digital audiences today is, content.

Today, consumers want active conversations, community building and expect their brands to understand them and engage with them on a real-time basis.

Talking about how content plays a crucial role in building an instant connect with the audiences and the relevance of social media tools in establishing the same, Vikas Agarwal, General Manager, OnePlus India added, “We classify various channels available to communicate with different groups. Over the past few years, Instagram has emerged as one of the most engaging platforms where we find people who are interested in ‘Shot on OnePlus’ pictures.

We curate the images shared by our community and feature them on our channel, which is instant gratification for them.

So, there is a vast engagement that we see on the platform.

Similarly, youtube plays an essential role since video as a format has turned out to be the most immersive way of engaging audiences. We use it extensively for communicating a particular message about the brand and building up a community event. Recently, we had a community event on Diwali in the Netherlands. We are very proud of it considering the kind of response that came in, with people across the world coming to Amsterdam to celebrate Diwali with us. Likewise, we created another video on section 377, which is another form of content that gathered colossal attention.

It is important to have content that resonates with the brand.”

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B O L LY W O O D

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REGIONAL |

KIDS

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DEVOTION

GADGETS

WONDERS OF GADGETS WALK A MILE, COUNT YOUR STEPS IN A WHILE! THANKS TO PUMA

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ver thought of keeping a check of your footsteps while walking? Thanks to technology, today we have inbuilt step tracker in our phones and watches.

But ostentatiously checking your phone or watch every five minutes is also a pain. PUMA has got the solution for this as they have reissued their nerdiest shoe ever, the RS- Computer.

The RS Computer was among the early stumbling steps of the personal computer era, which was born in 1986 and will be reborn in 2018.

The reissued RS Computer (RS stands for “running system,”) launched on 13th December at Puma stores in London, Berlin and Tokyo, as well as a few other retailers. The 86 pairs of these tech savvy shoes have Bluetooth instead of cable and inside the unit is an accelerometer that should more accurately measure steps and distance. It stores up to 30 days of data and gets charge via micro USB.

GET ROLLR MINI FOR YOUR CAR’S BETTER HEALTH

R

ollr Mini is an in-vehicle diagnostics device to keep you updated on whatever happens under the umbrella. To add on, it helps in improving your cars’ health, by telling you how well you drive, and how you can drive better It can be plugged in cars and provides cutting-edge features and offers an easy way for car owners to stay in touch with their vehicles. Apart from being a GPS-tracking device, it also helps in monitoring engine health and performance data, geo-fencing, updates on battery voltages, fuel levels and cooling temperatures, preventive alerts on critical performance issues, tracks incidents of overspeeding, engine idling, sudden brakes and acceleration.

Rollr Mini is a plug-and-play device; it plugs into the OBD-port of the car, and once activated, the Rollr Mini sends Live Tracking, Alerts and Car Health updates to the user via the Rollr App (available for download from Play Store & App Store). It is currently available to buy from Amazon and Flipkart and is priced at Rs. 6,499.

FOSSIL TREATS IT’S INDIAN CUSTOMERS WITH NEW RANGE OF SMART WATCHES BEFORE THE NEW YEAR’S EVE-

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he fourth generation of Fossil Watches Venture HR and Explorist HR are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 and run on Wear OS by Google. Both watches offer heart -rate tracking and GPS support. They have claimed a battery life of over 24 hours. They are priced between Rs 19,995Rs 21,995.

12 | PITCH | January 2019

INDIA GETS IT’S FIRST 10GB RAM PHONE! ALL PRAISES TO ONE PLUS 6

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ne plus 6t surprises it’s Indian customers with One Plus 6T McLaren Edition which was launched on 12th December at an event held in Mumbai.

The USP of the smartphone is 10GB of RAM, though there are also some other highlights to take on the competition. It comes with OnePlus’ new fast charging tech that it calls Warp Charge 30. As you would expect, the rear panel of the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition features the signature McLaren Papaya Orange colour that wraps around the bottom edge of

THERE ARE DRONES, THEN THERE ARE MULTIROTOR DRONES! THANKS TO TECHNOLOGY!

PHONE WITH BENEFITS! HUAWEI P SMART (2019) WITH DUAL REAR CAMERAS, DEWDROP DISPLAY LAUNCHED

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s jetpacks might be little unsafe, a nice drone ride is a next thing we all are looking forward to. Lift Aircraft is the latest to make a play for the passenger multirotor market, theoretical as it is, and its craft is a sleek little thing with some interesting design choices to make it suitable for laypeople to “pilot.”

The Austin-based company just took the wraps off the Hexa, the 18-rotorcraft it intends to make available for short recreational flights. It just flew for the first time last month, and could be taking passengers aloft as early as next year.

The Hexa is considerably more lightweight than the aircraft. Lift’s focus isn’t on transport, which is a phenomenally complicated problem both in terms of regulation and engineering. Instead, it wants to make the experience of flying in a giant drone available for thrill-seekers with a bit of pocket money.

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uawei P Smart (2019) smartphone has finally been launched, after being listed online. The smartphone is seen sporting a dewdropshaped notch, a dual camera setup aligned vertically, a rear fingerprint scanner, and a 3,400mAh battery. Earlier this month, the Huawei P Smart (2019) was listed on a French website with sale pegged for January 2019.

Now, the smartphone’s exact availability has also been announced by Huawei. The Huawei P Smart (2019) runs on EMUI 9 based on Android 9 Pie.

The phone will be available from January 10 for mass consumption and is estimated to be around Rs 20,300.

NOKIA’S NEW YEAR’S GIFT FOR IT’S CUSTOMERS

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okia 9 PureView, leaked multiple times with a penta-lens camera setup, is now tipped to launch in the last week of January. A render hinting at the launch schedule of the Nokia 9 PureView has been leaked by a Russian tipster who uses the Nokia aNew Twitter account. The render shows an image that matches the recent concept image of the Nokia 9. Further, it shows “one month” in the text, suggesting the launch date somewhere in the last week of January. The Nokia 9 was previously found to have a notch-less display and as many as five camera sensors.

It is also likely to carry a Zeiss logo alongside the PureView branding.

the device, fading into the black glass panel at the back. The back panel is touted to be based on McLaren’s groundbreaking carbon fibre that was featured on all McLaren cars since 1981.

10GB RAM is notably higher than the regular 8GB RAM/ 256GB storage Midnight Black variant of the regular OnePlus 6T that was launched at GBP 579 (roughly Rs. 52,500).

However, the new model has 10GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage.

In India, the current top variant (8GB/ 256GB) is priced at Rs. 45,999, and thus the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition price in India is priced around Rs. 50,999.

SAMSUNG INDICATES NEW YEAR PLANS MIGHT EXTEND IT’S ARM INTO FOLDABLE DRONE GENRE

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amsung is planning to enter the drone market. According to a report, the South Korean tech giant is working on a foldable drone that will include features like a camera, gyroscope, accelerometer, and a barometer. There is no word on when this drone will be released for mass consumption, but the company does seem to be serious about the drone market as it has gotten as many as five drone-related patents this year alone.

The metamorphosis-capable flying machine would, according to the image and descriptions included with the patent, be able to change the position of its propellers to enable different flight modes, as well as to hide the propellers and their arms away to make the drone more portable. The device would be controllable with any smartphone or other connected smart device, which presumably means that it will be able to connect via a number of protocols, including Wi-Fi at the very least.

January 2019 | PITCH | 13

CYNOSURE

REINVENTING THE ESSENTIALS OF

AYURVEDA

14 | PITCH | January 2019

When it comes to Ayurveda, there are few brands quite as authentic or as easily recognizable as Medimix

BY EKTA MAKAN

I

t hails back in its serendipitous beginning from the kitchen of Dr VP Sidhan, an Ayurveda practitioner, who rendered his services as an employee of the Indian Railways. It was in 1969 when Dr Sidhans home remedy with a sharp acumen for business led to the development of the iconic green bar of soap.

Ayurveda for generations. As a result of Dr Sidhans expertise, he picked an ancient palm leaf manuscript and enriched it with modern ingredients and production techniques to create the most contemporary Ayurvedic solution for complete skin care.

The soap consisted of various ayurvedic oils and other homemade products which he used to treat people with several skin ailments. Given the popularity of the bar and buoyed by the confidence that his fellow friends bestowed, he set up his manufacturing unit in a small rented building in Perambur, Chennai, with just one employee, and registered as Cholayil Private Limited.

BEGINNING OF AN ERA

The group today is amongst Kerala’s most famous and respected Ayurvedic families, which has been practicing

As they say, the future is not what you dream, but what you make. Dr Sidhans sharp acumen for business has made Medimix a household name.

The Indian consumer market for once offered a product with 18 powerful Ayurvedic herbal ingredients to ease their struggle against disorders and maintain healthy, glowing skin at an affordable price. This pristine formulation, later on, became the basis of creating various other Ayurvedic skin care products in Cholayil.

January 2019 | PITCH | 15

CYNOSURE Cholayil group of companies has now diversified its businesses into FMCG personal care, Ayurvedic Pharma products and Ayurvedic Treatment and Care services and Medimix, Cuticura and Krishna Thulasi are the premium brands under its kitty.

The one aspect which differentiates Medimix from the rest is that it has been created to stimulate every pore in our body and nourish, protect and refresh the same. The popularity of the soap can be understood well with it becoming the world leader in Ayurvedic Soaps. The range of products under the brand Medimix has redefined and revolutionized the way people view “Ayurveda” and Ayurvedic personal care

saw normalcy returning. During his initial years, he took charge of the south market and started the factory in Madhavaram a year later. The year 2007 saw a division regarding responsibilities – with Sidhan’s son Pradeep Cholayil taking over operations in North India.

Dr Anoop was the Managing Director of AVA Group, Cholayil Private Limited, the parent company that produces and markets Medimix soap.

Back then, hand-rooted wheels were used to mix the ingredients and the soap was poured into moulds and left to mature. The employees suggested innovative ways to cut the mould into plates and bars by designing machinery that worked through hand-

rotated wheels. Even the stamping process, the most accident-prone, was tweaked for safety purpose.

Cholayil Group has been known amongst the peers to put a lot of efforts and investments in R&D and product development to producing an innovative range of personal products under various categories.

As the company is embarking on a platform to market such products to a broader group of consumers and broader geographies, it is evident it has to face intense competition from MNC behemoths.

In such a scenario, Medimix sustains itself if it can carve a unique and less emulative space

products, the brand is now available in 30 countries.

Being the leader in the Ayurvedic Soap Category and the most trusted Ayurvedic brand, in 2012, it took the next step by extending. The early advertisement for Medimix, in the 70s, carried the tagline, ‘Doctors Prescribe,’ that vouched for the genuineness of the product.

However, things took a turn in the 80s when a significant strike crippled production, following which the unit remained shut for two years.

ROOTING UP It was in 1983, with Dr AV Anoop (Dr VP Sidhan’s son-in-law) taking a charge that Medimix

16 | PITCH | January 2019

CHOLAYIL GROUP HAS BEEN KNOWN AMONGST THE PEERS TO PUT A LOT OF EFFORTS AND INVESTMENTS IN R&D AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT WITH A VIEW TO PRODUCE INNOVATIVE RANGE OF PERSONAL PRODUCTS UNDER VARIOUS CATEGORIES

the new age young consumer’s and making it an indispensable part of their skin care regime and later on becoming “part of their personal lives itself”.

in the personal care segment.

With “Ayurveda” becoming more popular and relevant to personal care needs, Cholayil has the best opportunity to become a world ambassador for authentic Ayurvedic personal care products.

OPTIMIZING STRENGTHS With Ayurvedic excellence at its disposal, their primary objective is to make Ayurvedic products and Medimix more relevant to

The core challenge faced

by Medimix is that there are no new trials taking place for Medimix from the younger target audience, in today’s time the brand’s growth is currently fueled by an increase in consumption of its loyal consumer base only.

The challenge is to drive the category of Ayurveda, and intuitively identifying and communicating credible reasons for young people to derive their own functional and emotional advantages by becoming a Medimix consumer.

The best marketing tool that works wonders for Medimix was built on word of mouth. This tradition goes back in the early ‘80s, Dr Sidhan would meet his doctor friends after work, asking them to recommend the soap.

Later he tried to convince the chemists to keep his products in shops. He even took it to fairs and festivals to familiarize the product with the people.

Till the 1980’s all ads for the brand were conceptualized by an in-house ad agency.

They decided to work with a new team for fresh ideas and filmed an ad titled, ‘AdhuellamMaranthidunga’ (which means forget everything else in Tamil). The group claims that it saw a 100% increase in sales of the product after that ad film.

AS MORE PLAYERS MAKE A FORAY INTO THE AYURVEDIC SEGMENT, WE DO NOT SEE THEM AS A DIRECT COMPETITION SINCE THE OVERALL IMPACT IS MUCH BIGGER. NOT ONLY ARE THE NEW ENTRANTS GENERATING A MASS APPEAL, BUT THERE IS SUDDEN BOOM IN THE ATTENTION OF THE CONSUMERS TOWARDS THE AYURVEDA SEGMENT WHICH IS ONLY GOING TO GROW IN THE FUTURE. Pradeep Cholayil

Chariman & Managing Director Cholayil Private Limited

January 2019 | PITCH | 17

CYNOSURE

ENCHANTING GROWTH 2019 proudly marks 50 years of Medimix. The brand was launched in 1969 and in the last 50 years has grown from a soap brand manufactured in a garage in Chennai to a global brand with a presence in over 30 countries worldwide.

DRIVING FORCES OF BRAND MEDIMIX •

It is Ayurvedic and Natural

•

It is Trustworthy

•

It is Assured Protection

Like many other brands, once you become the pioneer of your industry, it’s difficult to trace the growth further. Being the leader in the Ayurvedic Soap Category, it’s evident that, for Medimix to grow further, it has to appeal to the younger consumers and extend its range to include other personal care categories.

To facilitate this initiative, Medimix had to a spread a fresh new wave to its target audience.

In July 2012, Medimix came out with new and contemporary packaging for the entire soap product range, which was accompanied by a high decibel marketing campaign. Couple of months later, Medimix introduced its Face Wash variant.

As of 2018, the following is Medimix’s portfolio:

DOMESTIC (INDIA MARKET): • Soaps – 4 variants (18 Herb, Natural Glycerine, Sandal and Turmeric) • Face Wash – 9 variants (6 available in the market and 3 to be launched by December 2018)

18 | PITCH | January 2019

THE OVER 50-YEAR OLD BRAND’S NEW AGE SHOPPERS ARE MOSTLY FROM THE YOUNG GENERATION IN INDIA, WHICH HAS SHIFTED TO AYURVEDIC PRODUCTS EXPORT MARKET: • Soaps – 5 variants • Face Wash – 4 variants (with another 5 ready to be launched) • Body Wash – 3 variants (with 3 more ready to be launched) • Shampoo • Intimate Hygiene Wash for Women • Gel Moisturiser The brand has always been known for its unconventional style of brainstorming the marketing strategies, every month; the company receives ideas from all workers, across its numerous factories in south India. An inhouse team studies these ideas, which is allocated a separate fund for experiments and trials. If the trial is successful, the company implements the idea across its units.

IN COMPETITIVE TIMES When we talk about competition, the group has never taken a back seat. Mr Cholayil was quoted in a recent interview saying, companies like Patanjali and Sri Sri Ayurveda operate under a very different model. “They are

a single mother brand covering all categories. While we may compete in a few categories, we do not see them as direct competition. We are pleased with our focus, and we do not feel that we should jump into new markets and diversify vastly just because there are aggressive players like HUL, Patanjali etc.”

He also thinks, the entry of big players like Patanjali has helped generate mass appeal for Ayurveda and has drawn a lot of attention to the segment.

The over 50-year old brand’s new age shoppers are mostly from the young generation in India, which has shifted to ayurvedic products and want a more natural product for their daily lifestyle, says Cholayil. “The consumers are far more informed and know what he/she has to buy and have an eye for detail.

They prefer reading labels and prefer quality. For such new age consumers, it is important to have a right value proposition,” he adds.

Medimix has added various products under brand Medimix and also acquired a few others.

“We have already made a foray into the facewash category in the domestic market, which is gearing up for some action this year.

Going forward, we may also look at other categories like hair care and body wash, both categories where we are already present overseas,” said Cholayil.

Cholayil is currently a Rs. 200 crore company right now, and is targeting a turnover of Rs. 300 core for the coming fiscal year.

As far as marketing is concerned Cholayil is planning to spend close to 15% in 2018-19 and will be present across traditional media, digital and local activations driving conversions at the outlet level, says Cholayil, signing off.

APP STORE

WHAT YOU GOT IN YOUR

MOBILE?

SAY HELLO TO YOUR INSTAGRAM FRIENDS

GOOGLE SHAKES HANDS WITH ONE OF INDIA’S MOST POPULAR TRAIN TRACKING APP-

I

I

nstagram launches walkie-talkie voice messaging.

Since typing may take too long to convey a message, voice notes are much more comfortable and convenient. Instagram has once more provided the best to its customer with its walkie-talkie feature.

Users can hold down the microphone button to record a short voice message that appears in the chat as an audio waveform that recipients can then listen to at their leisure.

Voice messages are up to oneminute long, stay permanently listenable rather than disappearing and work in oneon-one and group chats on iOS and Android. The feature offers an off-camera asynchronous alternative to the video calling feature Instagram released in June.

20 | PITCH | January 2019

t seems like Google is gearing up in the Indian market as it acquires one of the popular transportation apps, ‘Where Is My Train’.

The app claims to have 10 million users as it provides the commuters to track down the arrival and departure of trains as well as buying tickets. Currently, the app works on Android, offline or with poor connectivity and supports eight languages. It is revealed by VC-backed companies like RailYatri and iXigo.

The deal is roughly estimated to be around $30-$40 millions.

However, no particular figures have been confirmed by the google.

CISCO MAKES THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

A

pp maker turned music social network Smule has raised funding of $20 million from Times Bridge, the global investments and partnerships arm of The Times Group. The “strategic investment” comes as Smule looks to expand its footprint in India, currently the second largest of the app maker’s international markets. Times Bridge will guide Smule to help engage with the country’s multilingual music culture where it will be responsible for community building, collaborations with top artists, targeted regional programs and advertising.

This deal is the third investment by Times Bridge this year and is part of the company’s plan to expand its existing investment portfolio of consumer tech companies.categories, in addition to tags.

HUMARA DIVINE FORMULA Devotional content of over 6000 hours from 400+ shrines At Shemaroo, we have been blessed by the formula for great devotional content. Today, we have something special for every Indian with live streams from shrines, devotional songs, discourses and documentaries.

So, join us for an enlightened experience.

shemarooent.com

B O L LY W O O D

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MUSIC

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REGIONAL |

KIDS

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DEVOTION

APP STORE

TWITTER ADDS SOME GLITTER WITH NEW SPARKLE BUTTON FOR IT’S USERS TO HIDE THE ALGORITHMIC FEED

OATH IS ALL SET TO REBRAND AND REVAMP ITSELF; CONFIRMS VERIZON

A

year and a half after giving birth to Oath, Verizon’s officially rebranding its media group as Verizon Media Group. A spokesperson for the company confirmed that an official Verizon Media Group logo is launching alongside the official rebranding on January 8.

Verizon had most recently assessed the Oath brand at $4.8 billion; the write-off meant Verizon valued Oath — including Yahoo.com and AOL.com and subsidiaries like HuffPost, MSN.com and TechCrunch — at just $200 million on paper.

Verizon paid $4.4 billion for AOL in 2015 and $4.5 billion for Yahoo in 2017.

The Oath was supposed to be its big push into web-driven advertising, but the business never took off. It reported $1.8 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2018, which ended Sept. 30, well short of a course that would hit its stated goal of generating $10 billion a year in revenue.

GOOD NEWS FOR WALMART USERS

T

witter is giving users the ability to easily switch between seeing the latest tweets first and seeing the company’s algorithmically chosen “Top Tweets” when they open the app.

The feature is already available for IOS users and is expected to roll out the same for android and desktop users by January. The algorithmic timeline is probably a better business move for Twitter, something that will ensure that more casual users can get a more encapsulated experience when they open the app rather than a hodgepodge snapshot of their followers’ thoughts.

The company has explicitly said that the “Top Tweets” feature has increased both engagement and conversations on the app.

22 | PITCH | January 2019

H

ayneedle, the home furnishings retailer that joined Walmart by way of acquisition by Jet back in 2016, is now serving as the testing grounds for Walmart’s own in-house visual search technology.

Built in collaboration between Hayneedle and Walmart Labs, the new technology has been slowly scaling up on Hayneedle throughout the year.

Hayneedle had been offering visual search on its mobile app since 2017, but it was doing so at launch only through a partnership with third-party vendor Slyce.

To use the feature, customers take an image of a piece of furniture they like by snapping a photo in someone’s picture or in a retail showroom, for example, or even taking a photo of a page in a magazine. The app then uses that image to find similar products from Hayneedle.com — much like how visual search works on other sites, like Pinterest or Google Shopping.

EN REPRENEURSHIP 31st January-1st February 2019 India International Centre New Delhi

Celebrating India's Women Entrepreneurs of Today and the Rising Stars of Tomorrow

India’s first woman to enter the Unicorn Club Radhika Aggarwal Co-founder, ShopClues

Priyanka Gill

CEO & Founder, Popxo

Founder of India’s largest digital community for women that reaches 39 million users every month with over 300 million monthly engaged content views

Kanika Tekriwal Founder, JetSetGo

Flying high in the Indian aviation space

For Speaking Opportunity and Sponsorship, Please Contact : Chetan Mehra | chetan.mehra@businessworld.in | +91 9811702464 Sheetal Kharka | sheetal@businessworld.in | +91 9820154340 Radhika Wahi | radhika@businessworld.in | +91 8527826373

Tamanna Dhamija

Co-founder, Baby Destination

Co-Founder of India’s most engaged community reaching out to 12 million pregnant women and moms monthly and driving 0.6 Million monthly conversations.

BRAND CONNECT

THE ESSENCE OF MOBILIZING POTENTIALS In eight years, Xiaomi has grown from another phone marker to taking the electronic and mobile world by a storm from revenues there to exceed $2 billion for 2017— doubling from last year. Now they have added Smart TV’s to Ecosystem accessories to its wide offerings

24 | PITCH | January 2019

BY EKTA MAKAN

T

he e-commerce boom has sparked an unlikely telecommunication revolution: Launching mobile handsets in a flash sale is like digging the gold mines, and Xiaomi is sitting on the mother lode. The Chinese phone maker Xiaomi was founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Lei Jun based on the vision “innovation for everyone”.

edge technology, Xiaomi creates remarkable hardware, software, and Internet services for Mi fans. The brands’ focus has always been on incorporating the feedback that they receive directly from the users of Mi and Redmi smartphones, Mi TVs and set-top boxes, Mi routers, and Mi Ecosystem products including smart home products, wearable’s and other accessories.

India has grown to be the second-largest smartphone base after China, though if we go by the data, India has only 300 million users against China’s 710 million. The Chinese mobile market is said to be saturating these days and, hence many Chinese players are more inclined towards the growth percentages of the Indian sub-continent.

With a 41% market share in the smart wearable device market, Chinese electronics company Xiaomi dominates the segment in India, according to a market report by International Data Corporation (IDC). Xiaomi’s Mi band 3 fitness tracker, which was launched in India at the end of September, has quickly become India’s most significant selling smart wearable product, the report said.

BUILDING TRUST With the view to increase the accessibility of high-quality products built with cutting-

The research firm also pointed out that offline shipments accounted for 36.2% of the overall wearable market in India

January 2019 | PITCH | 25

BRAND CONNECT during the quarter, up from 24.3% share in the previous quarter. IDC said that offline shipments are expected to go up in the coming quarters. New brands like Fossil, Titan from India have primarily focused their sales via offline retail channels, while even online brands like Xiaomi and GOQii are also increasingly focusing on offline retail to increase their presence and to add new customers.

“The newly launched Mi band 3 became the most shipped wearable product ever in the history of wearables in India,” the IDC report said. In the third quarter of 2018, Xiaomi maintained its leadership in the market for the 5th consecutive quarter with a 41% market share.

With a presence in over 30 countries and regions, Xiaomi is expanding its footprint across the world to become a global brand. In a recent interview

by Mr Manu Kumar Jain, 36, head Xiaomi India & global vice president was heard quoting “We’ve been able to bring highend, high-quality products and make them affordable. Phones with similar specs—for the price ranges that we offer—will cost double with a competitor.”

26 | PITCH | January 2019

Xiaomi has now announced its third manufacturing plant in India and the first facility only for power banks. This manufacturing plant is in partnership with Hipad Technology spread across 2.3 lakh square feet. With the timing of this announcement Xiaomi is also playing a more significant part for one of the most important initiatives of the government - ‘Make in India’.

Right from a huge start to now, Xiaomi has had a smooth ride in India. Xiaomi is now the second largest smartphone vendor in India and IDC has ranked Xiaomi India as the number one smartphone brand in India in Q3 2017. Closely held Xiaomi may still sell three times as many phones in China, but India is its best hope for gains that might, at last, unlock its IPO opportunity.

NUMBER GAME The company was founded by eight partners in the year 2010 and was funded by a Singapore based investment group called Temasek Holdings and Chinese venture capitalists called IDG Capital along with Qiming Venture Partners. They were one of the first companies that were endorsed by core mobile

companies, Qualcomm. Xiaomi continues to use their processors for their devices even today. One of the first devices that came out of Xiaomi was Mi2. This was the first device that featured the revolutionary and famous Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. The device sold close to 10 million units within the first 11 months of its inception, thus allowing Xiaomi to gain a foothold in markets such as Australia, United States, Europe and New Zealand.

The brand also made sure that they were in pace with the government initiatives led by the government of the country of operation. With Make In India being Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s growth plan for the nation, Xiaomi took the front seat in joining hands for the same. Riding high on the success and the impetus from ‘make in India’, the Chinese technology firm is setting up of three more smartphone plants in India. It also announced setting up of its first surface mount technology plant for local manufacturing of printed circuit board assembly units in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, in partnership with Foxconn. The company wants its global smartphone component makers to set up base in India, in

Source: IDC WW Wearable Tracker, Q1 2017 Notes: - The “Company” represents the current parent company (or holding company) for all brands owned and operated as subsidiary

AS THE BRAND ENTERED THE INDIAN MARKET, IT FOUND THAT 70 PER CENT OF THE MOBILE MARKET WAS IN STORES. FOLLOWING THE LEAGUE, XIAOMI HAD SET UP 600 SERVICE CENTRES, JOINED HANDS WITH 650 RETAILERS AND OPENED SEVEN MI HOME CENTRES.

what is likely to bring as much as $2.5 billion of investment while creating 50,000 jobs.

RULING THE MARKET SHARE Xiaomi took China by storm with its $100 to $300 phones. Online selling cut costs and reached customers directly. Xiaomi has been one of the niche brands which have extensively explored the online domain. As the brand entered the Indian market, it found that 70 per cent of the mobile market was in stores.

Following the league, Xiaomi had set up 600 service centres, joined hands with 650 retailers and opened seven Mi Home centres. In a recent advancement in the same fashion, the brand tied up with Kishore Biyani’s Future Retail to sell its two most successful models at Big Bazaar outlets starting from the festive quarter.

“Through Mi stores, we have

exclusive Xiaomi outlets targeting rural India, which is tier-3 markets and beyond. Recently, in a single day, we launched 500 stores in rural markets across the country,” Xiaomi India chief operating officer Muralikrishnan B was quoted in an interview.

Even in the China market, Xiaomi has 200 stores and is looking forward to adding 200 more to his kitty by the end of 2020. This initiative has even shown results, as the offline sales in China grew significantly in 2017, and in the second quarter, Xiaomi overtook Apple as the fourthlargest phone shipper in China.

As per the latest interview of Manu Kumar Jain, the broad aspiration of Lei Jun is that he would like to invest in about 100 companies in India, give or take, collectively becoming a strong portfolio of mobile tech and services businesses over the next five years. If you think about it, 100 companies and a billion dollars mean an average of $10 million per company, which makes it a realistic aspiration.

January 2019 | PITCH | 27

INTERVIEW

India is an exceptionally important market in Xiaomi’s expansion plan and the brand now aims to expand the market share by huge numbers in the country in next couple of years. In conversation with Anuj Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Xiaomi India, we talk about the how the brand has successfully marketed itself in the country.

India has become the largest growing market for Xiaomi, What makes you so upbeat about the Indian market?

We started in India as an onlineonly brand in 2014. At the time, the smartphone market was filled with more than 300 smartphone brands who were heavily offline based. We disrupted the smartphone market with our online approach strategy and unconventional marketing measures driven by our Mi Fans’ word of mouth promotion, and social media engagement techniques.

28 | PITCH | January 2019

Today we are the no. 1 smartphone brand in the country, with a presence in both online and offline markets. We have also grown to become the no. 1 smart TV brand in India this year. We have been able to do so due to our brand philosophy that drives us – Innovation for all. We believe in offering innovative products of high quality and best specs to all at truly honest pricing.

Through Xiaomi, consumers all over India can now proudly own and enjoy the latest technology without having to shell out exorbitant amounts of money.

We always believe in acting like a local company is any market we operate in, with global standard.

In India as well, our commitment towards the country regarding building a service network, manufacturing capabilities and sales network.

We have also received immense love from Mi Fans in India who have helped us achieve the current position, contributing towards the company’s success.

Also, we have also implemented several unconventional marketing techniques ranging from our brand marketing initiatives like Naya Note and Kiska Bajaa inspired from real-life, local insights; to our Guinness World Record achievement of building the largest light mosaic (logo) depicting our Mi logo made out of 9,690 light bulbs.

The Guinness World Record achievement commemorated the love and support of all our Mi Fans who have led us to succeed.

All these factors help us being so upbeat and excited about the Indian market and hence, all our innovations are always centered around the requirements of Mi Fans.

Measuring an investment’s success is a challenge in this space. How do you create a credible way to measure impact?

With most businesses, one can measure the impact of these businesses by the number of consumer lives that have positively been impacted by them. It is both thrilling and humbling to find that our products have been the reason for many consumers in India to access smart technology

and enjoy a smarter lifestyle easily. In Q3 alone, Xiaomi shipped a whopping 11.7 million smartphones while becoming the no.1 smartphone brand for the fifth quarter again (IDC Q3 report).

The volumes themselves are a testament of the growing love for the brand in India. Not just that, even people who work in our manufacturing plants are getting impacted by their association with Xiaomi. One such case study is of Kamala Kumari is available on youtube.

This year, Xiaomi marked over 15 million monthly active Mi Fans in India, which again highlights the growing rate of success the brand has achieved in India so far.

In addition, our recently launched marketing campaign – Kiska Bajaa was also inspired by local insights which showcased how our signature ringtone resonates with audience of all backgrounds, highlighting the prominent presence of the brand across India. This has been possible because we as a brand continue to prioritize the needs of our Mi Fans and consumers and ensure that we sincerely design and deliver incredible products at truly honest pricing to all.

exponentially in the country in just 4 years of operations.

We started in 2014 as a small player. Today Xiaomi is the number one smartphone brand in the country with a market share of 27.3% (IDC, Q2 2018).

We continue to dominate the market for 5 consecutive quarters. Currently, we are present on online platforms such as Mi.com, Amazon, Flipkart and multiple offline channels as well.

We have expanded our offline reach and, today we have more than 50 Mi Homes, 500+ Mi stores and 4000+ preferred partner stores.

Although the online segment has grown immensely in India, nearly 70% of the Indian market is still heavily offline based.

We aim to further expand our offline footprint in the country, with a presence in not just the metro cities, but also across tier 2, tier 3 and below cities.

In addition, we will continue to focus on offering a truly innovative product portfolio to our consumers. Xiaomi is more than just a smartphone brand, and therefore, you will find diverse range offerings from us which include smart ecosystem products, as well as internet services (e.g. MIUI, Mi Music, Mi Video, etc.).

What kind of returns from the Indian sub-continent are you looking at?

How does the brand build harmony between Xiaomi’s purpose and India’s goals?

India is an essential market for Xiaomi, and we have grown

INDIA AS A MARKET HAS SEVERAL CONSUMERS WHO ARE PRETTY INFORMED WITH TECHNOLOGY UPDATES, AND ARE ALSO KEEN TO SEEK THE BEST EXPERIENCE AT A VALUE-FORMONEY PRICE.

Since the time it was founded

by Lei Jun in 2010, Xiaomi’s aim has always been to provide innovative technology to all, at truly honest pricing. And this philosophy applies entirely to India too. Xiaomi in India is a truly Indian company at heart, wherein it is run by local talent, and products, as well as operations, are localized to best fit the needs of Mi Fans and consumers in India. India as a market has several consumers who are pretty informed with technology updates, and are also keen to seek the best experience at a value-formoney price. This helps us strike a chord because through Xiaomi, consumers can access great products which are high quality, innovative yet available at honest pricing.

January 2019 | PITCH | 29

COVER STORY

CHARTING THE INITIATIVES OF Striking the Brand Sentiment Right For decades now, marketing initiatives have captured the imagination of people across the world. Consumers look at good marketing campaigns with admiration and awe and discuss their sartorial choices and lifestyles animatedly every time they come up for discussion

BY EKTA MAKAN

F

or decades now, marketing initiatives have captured the imagination of people across the world. Consumers look at good marketing campaigns with admiration and awe and discuss their sartorial choices and lifestyles animatedly every time they come up for discussion.

One of the most crucial aspects of any effective marketing strategy is its ability to reach the target audience. However, this is often easier said than done. Even experienced marketers make the mistake of not identifying who their audience is before they release an ad or start a campaign, which can significantly lower the return on investment (ROI) of any marketing channel.

Thus, the foundation of a successful marketing strategy is marketing research. The Indian marketing industry has evolved from being a small-scale business to a full-fledged sector.

Throughout the years, there have been several moments when a brand has successfully

30 | PITCH | January 2019

BEST MARKETING 2018

January 2019 | PITCH | 31

COVER STORY

captured the hearts and minds of consumers worldwide with a smart campaign or a significant initiative. Tracking down the last year, some product brands did their due diligence on social media by birthing an identity that today needs no introduction as reported.

Nowadays, you can’t enter the fall without hearing, seeing, and definitely PSL in some form or another.

With a strong backing coming from the Government of India, the advertising and marketing industry expenditure is likely to increase in the financial sector, driven by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) policies which could result in a more favorable business environment. Also, proposed licenses for new banks and better market sentiments render the advertising and marketing industry in India a fertile space.

As an observed fact, everybody knows that millennials glued to their smartphones couldn’t care less about your direct response marketing efforts, right? It will not be correct to say that all millennials prefer mail over digital because that would be another broad generalization -- but we do know that a significant majority of them (77%, to be exact) pay attention to direct mail advertising. And the biggest surprise may be that millennials’ affinity for mail, in general, surpasses that of other generations. They are more likely to scan their mail and more likely to take time to read it and to show it to others.

As brands seek to create campaigns for the digital marketing platforms that wow and turn heads, it is with a view of building a brand moment that stands out and turns out to be the single biggest achievement that a company can reach for. When the brand hits the mark with its customers with a creative campaign strategy, the marketers feel the love from the consumer, and the results can be astounding.

Below, PITCH Editorial Team weigh in on the best brand moments of 2018 and what exactly made them notable.

Here is what they had to say:

32 | PITCH | January 2019

BRITANNIA 100 years & counting

A

lot of known brands in the country launched their marketing campaigns to either focus on their new products or for a healthy brand building practice. A brand as old and as known as Britannia, launched a truly multimedia campaign marking its centenary year with an aim to connect with the very heterogeneous set of audiences that its brands cater to.

The marketing campaign consisted of 10 film TVC series, a long format film for digital and social media, print, Radio and OOH which helped the brand avail opportunities to capitalize on.

TV CAMPAIGN

Britannia being a household brand, highlighting 100 years through a strong marketing

campaign quickly became its need. Picking up the simplicity of a commonly used phase Tu sau saal jiyega’ (You are going to live to 100 years!), the campaign aimed at thanking a heterogeneous country like India with a concept based on the thought that when you think of someone/something and if it arrives, the instant reaction you have is ‘Tu sau saal jiyega’.

With short stories catering to the day to day working of any household, Britannia depicted how it has become a prominent name in the market. Each clip takes a simple situation and

highlights the bond between a customer and the product.

The campaign also builds the symphony of Britannia through its diverse product range and the various roles that the brand plays in its consumers’ lives.

Speaking about the TV Campaign Ali Harris Shere, VP Marketing said “Being part of every Indian household is an honor and this multimedia campaign illustrates our gratitude to the millions of Indians who wake up every day to dip a Britannia biscuit into their chai, and reach out for our products through various parts of the day.

The 100-year campaign is our way of acknowledging the secret ingredient of our success – our consumers.”

Speaking about the campaign, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer at Lowe Lintas Arun Iyer, said “The brief was to thank the entire country with a simple idea that would seem relatable no matter where you are from. All 10 films are slices of life that have

been picked from Britannia’s world. The challenge was to tell a brand’s story of completing 100 years and finding powerful emotions to connect with the consumers. But given how long Britannia has been a part of our lives, we found so many heartfelt moments to tell the story of a brand that has turned 100 because it’s always been there for its consumers. And the huge range of products that Britannia has given us the room to tell stories across all age groups to make sure that campaign would resonate strongly with everyone.”

DIGITAL NATIVES The brand kept the old-world charm alive adding flavors of the past, present and future through their digital film. They tried capturing a mélange of occasions across the century where one of their products has been integral to friendships, celebrations and togetherness.

From sharing biscuits in the classroom and cheering for a World Cup win to connecting in the selfie era and looking 10 years into the future, the film pays a warm tribute to the journey thus far and looks ahead.

Speaking about the digital film Ali Harris Shere, VP Marketing said, “We wanted to create a film that would evoke strong emotion around the bonds of friendship and how these relationships evolve just as India is evolving.

You see this through the parent, child relationships where we showcase how the current generation has a relationship that is a bit more playful and friendlike than previous generations.

The film seeks to illustrate how Britannia has, is and will be part of all friendships, whether starting at school or looking into the future where we are sharing snacks with our robot pals.”

“Friendship seemed like a theme worthy of a hundred years and Britannia’s role in fueling those precious moments was a great story to tell. We travelled through time in the film, with the set design and camera movement

January 2019 | PITCH | 33

COVER STORY

THE MARKET HOWEVER IS DOMINATED

BY BRITANNIA

& PARLE WHICH

ACCOUNT FOR

70 PER CENT OF

THE INDUSTRY’S

VOLUMES.

“IN VALUE TERMS,

BRITANNIA’S MARKET SHARE IN THE BISCUITS CATEGORY IS 33 PER CENT. 70 PER

designed to feel like the viewer was journeying through 100 years, revisiting one iconic friendship moment from each decade, until friendship comes back full circle with an interesting futuristic twist. From the parapet wall that fostered close friendships to the social wall that multiplied them, to walls breaking down at home, along with barriers, to make friends or family, this film is an endearing and insightful commentary on friendship even as it’s a journey through its timeline.” said Priya Shivakumar, Creative Head, JWT Bangalore.

NEW BRAND IDENTITY Elaborating on the new logo identity of Britannia, Ali Harris Shere, VP Marketing said “We have a 100 year heritage and wanted to be sure that we continued to reach every Indian household - to bring in a newness yet remain uniquely Britannia. We undertook extensive research to help us unlock how consumers viewed Britannia and found that consumers place our brand right in the middle of excitement and goodness. This helped inform

34 | PITCH | January 2019

our new brand proposition, designed within a framework that balances our heritage and provides a contemporary appeal to the brand. Designed under the premise that our products carry both excitement and goodness, we held on to our heritage red, made green a bit more vibrant and added in a new color yellow. The new logo identity also has great shelf throw, which is critical in our cluttered retail environment. As we look to emerge as a ‘Global total foods company’, this new logo is crafted to unbox Britannia and open it up to bright new horizons.”

CENT OF THE REVENUE OF THE COMPANY COMES FROM BISCUITS SEGMENT AND THE REMAINING 30 PER

CENT FROM OTHER NON-BISCUITS FOOD PRODUCTS”, Varun Berry in an Interview

JIO INTERACT -

Humane AI for the next billion internet users

H

oHow often have you wished you had a Genie of your own like Aladdin had? One who can give perfect answers to all the questions whenever

needed, anytime of the day from anywhere?. Like the precious Chirag as a medium to get Genie, here you have your phone.

In the same parlance, Reliance recently launched an elaborate marketing campaign to showcase its Jio Interact. The brand offers a virtual personality, offering twoway communication and with

a face for a humanly possible interaction.

When it comes to Reliance, we all raise our expectations.

The marketing campaign was completely focusing on driving loyalty towards Jio Interact which is the world’s first patented Artificial Intelligencebased video call platform service offering most original video calling interface with the consumers, which can also be customized whenever needed.

It extends humane interaction with the end consumer without compromising on the quality of the conversation. It is a marriage of technology with the marketing world.

The recent technological innovations in the form of mobile apps are great for brands in understanding the customer’s deep demands but lack personalization and humane interaction.

INDIA IS CURRENTLY THE SECOND LARGEST

TELECOMMUNICATION MARKET AND HAS THE SECOND HIGHEST NUMBER OF INTERNET USERS IN THE WORLD - IBEF JIO CROSSED

250 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS WITHIN 25 MONTHS FROM COMMENCEMENT OF SERVICES.

KEY PLAYERS

Jio Interact was used recently for the promotion of a new film, 102 Not Out, featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor. Bachchan’s bot was later followed by Ranbir Kapoor for the movie Sanju and Baba Ramdev for day-to-day yoga tips. According to Jio, an extraordinary number of people - 1.3 crore in all - conversed with

Bachchan’s Video Call Bot over the fortnight leading up to the film’s launch.

The idea of using chatbots grew from Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs); a must-have section on most websites. FAQs, as we know, is a place where answers to the most commonly asked questions relating to a website or the subject or

January 2019 | PITCH | 35

COVER STORY

business it deals with are put in one place. The list of questions is created based on the most common queries received by the company. The FAQs section takes some load off the folks at customer care.

While the idea of the chatbot has been around since long - the first, Eliza, was created by an MIT professor in 1966 - it has only taken off in the last ten years.

Its revival was sparked by an advanced chatbot created by the Chinese social media platform, WeChat, in 2009.

The textbook definition describes a ‘bot’ as an independent program which can interact with users and behave like a person. A user can type a query into a chat window and, based on an algorithm, the ‘bot’ responds by finding the most appropriate response available, basically born out of the FAQs. Jio claims that its Video Call Bot is an “innovation, that’s a first in the world”. No tech company has ever created an AI-based Video Call Bot, the brand states.

JioInteract is a patented AI-based brand engagement platform and as for the Video Call Bot, it mimics a human by creating vocalised responses. In the recent cases of interaction with the Video Call Bot, the conversations with Bachchan were both in Hindi and English.

The platform can be accessed from the MyJio application available on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

Jio emphasizes that for FAQs and chatbots, consumers need a certain level of comfort with technology. Even in the case of FAQs, the user is expected to use a search engine and type in a query, most often in English. As for chatbots, the user should have a particular instant messaging app installed on the phone or be able to find the chat box on a brand’s website to resolve queries.

In contrast, for the promotion of 102 Not Out, all the user had to do was dial 121 or 70000 70000 on a smartphone and start talking to Big B. Apart from Bachchan, JioInteract has launched a health and fitness Video Call Bot with Patanjali’s Baba Ramdev and another featuring actor Ranbir Kapoor for his movie Sanju.

36 | PITCH | January 2019

RELIANCE JIO INFOCOMM IS POISED TO RACE AHEAD OF VODAFONE IDEA AND BHARTI AIRTELNSE TO EMERGE AS INDIA’S

NO. 1 TELCO BY REVENUE SHARE AND

CUSTOMERS BY 2021 AND 2022, RESPECTIVELY,

-Brokerage Sanford C Bernstein said.

TELCOS’ RMS SHARES (JULY-SEPT)

JIO – RISE TO OVER

26%

Telco may reach 28% March 2019

AIRTEL – DIPS TO

30.9% VIL – DOWN

32.8% Powered with the ability to identify the emotion of the input query using multiple sources like facial expression from the camera and voice pitch helps in providing a more personalized video response to every query.

JioInteract represents a massive opportunity for marketers and brands in the form of interactive sessions with their celeb ambassadors, B2B & B2C customer care interactions (helplines), live sales pitches, product demos, 3D walkthroughs, virtual tours(think car showroom) and so much more! Thus understanding the customer mindset and influencing purchase decisions in real time.

Utility service providers, banking institutions, coaching classes, entertainment portals and many others are empowered to offer their services along with this unique support.

According to Jio, brands need a one time, 10-20 day effort and investment to create a Video Call

Source: Economic Times Bot. It can be updated from time to time - just like any website or app - to handle new information, queries and functionalities. It has self-learning capabilities wherein it learns from the millions of conversations to answer new types of queries.

More importantly, it is operating system agnostic - it doesn’t matter if the consumer uses Android or iOS. JioInteract also offers a video call facility for those brands or companies that want to get in touch with many people in multiple locations. It could be a company talking to consumers at a product launch, a training programme for a sales force or a CEO wanting to touch base with thousands of retailers.

Like Jio revolutionised data connectivity, JioInteract is revolutionising customer engagement by going back to the most natural and efficient form of engagement: come let’s get personal again!

BAJAJ ALLIANZ

Stay fit Stay Insured

B

ajaj Allianz came up with its health initiative as a part of its new marketing campaign this year. In an era of more and more fitness conscious people around, marketing initiatives taking the health road are gaining the much-needed fame in no time. As a result, when India planked to Bajaj Allianz Life’s #36SecPlankChallenge campaign in 2018, it got sports celebrity, corporate honchos, competition, almost everybody in meeting rooms to plank.

It grew to create new world record with 2,353 people successfully holding the abdominal plank position for 60 seconds, simultaneously.

The marketing strategy was supporting the launch of Bajaj Allianz Life Health Care Goal, a critical illness product covering 36 critical illnesses.

The challenge was simple - shoot a video holding plank for only 36 seconds and upload it using the hashtag (#36SecPlankChallenge) on any social media platform.

Participants could challenge friends and family to do the plank by tagging them on these videos. For every hashtag, the company contributed monetarily to Hrudaya Cure A Little Heart Foundation (Hrudaya

THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY IN INDIA IS EXPECTED TO REACH

US$ 280 BILLION BY 2020. LIFE INSURANCE

INDUSTRY IN THE COUNTRY IS EXPECTED TO GROW BY 12-15 PER CENT ANNUALLY FOR THE NEXT THREE TO FIVE YEARS.- IBEF Foundation), Hyderabadbased healthcare organisation dedicated to curing heart disorder of disadvantaged children. The campaign saw active participation from sports

stars including Saina Naiwal, Geeta Phogat and Deepa Malik, fitness enthusiasts, CEOs and several corporate leaders from all over India, during the last couple of months.

Towards this, Bajaj Allianz Life rolled out a 360-degree marketing campaign across TV channels in leading GEC, Regional, News, Movies Channels, Print Ads in leading publications and Outdoor in top eight towns.

The company also conducted several health check-up camps across 20 towns to educate the need for critical illness products and promote the fitness initiative.

Taking a step forward to motivate more people join the healthy living bandwagon, Bajaj Allianz Life culminated its very successful #36SecPlankChallenge campaign into a Plankathon movement. With the Plankathon initiative, the Company set a new

January 2019 | PITCH | 37

COVER STORY Guinness World Records for most number of people successfully holding the abdominal plank position, simultaneously, for an entire minute.

The new world record was set as 2353 people held the abdominal plank together at Pune’s AFMC Ground.

Chandramohan Mehra, Chief Marketing Officer, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, the person behind the design of the campaign, said, “The #36SecPlankChallenge was anchored on our product’s

MAJOR PRIVATE PLAYERS ARE ICICI LOMBARD, BAJAJ ALLIANZ, IFFCO TOKIO, HDFC ERGO, TATA-AIG, RELIANCE, CHOLAMANDALAM, ROYAL SUNDARAM AND OTHER REGIONAL INSURERS

Market Share in First Year Life Insurance Premiums (Apr-Oct 2018)

14.59% 4.57% 6.09% 6.87%

IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR, ICICI-LOMBARD WAS THE LEADER IN FY18 WITH A MARKET SHARE OF 8.2 PER CENT, FOLLOWED BY BAJAJ ALLIANZ AT 6.3 PER CENT.

67.88%

LIC HDFC Standard Life SBI Life Insurance ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Others

SOURCE: IBEF REPORT SOURCE: IBEF REPORT

Market share of major companies in terms of Gross Direct Premium collected (FY18) New India Insurance United India Insurance

15.1%

National Insurance company

40.5%

Total size: US$ 23.38 billion 6.3%

7.6%

11.5%

ICICI – Lombard Oriental Insurance Company Bajaj Allianz

10.9%

Others

8.2%

38 | PITCH | January 2019

SOURCE: IBEF REPORT

benefit of 36 critical illness coverage and engaged consumers meaningfully with the brand and product, while supporting a good cause. We believe good health is a pre-requisite to accomplishing Life Goals, and this campaign brought Indians closer towards healthy living.

The Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited campaign’s success encouraged us to take the initiative to a higher level and demonstrate the possibilities that exist when health goals are pursued with a reliable partner” Bollywood celebrity and fitness enthusiast, Shilpa Shetty Kundra championed the Plankathon event and was seen motivating and engaging the crowds that came for Bajaj Allianz Life’s Plankathon.

Participants from different walks of life came together for the event, and were exhilarated as they set a new Guinness World Records feat for ‘Most people holding the abdominal plank position’ together for one minute.

BOURNVITA No More Excuses

T

o promote their flagship product, the Bour]nivita health drink, the brand launched a marketing campaign “no more excuses”. It celebrates Progressive parenting; empowering moms to choose a healthy morning snack that their kids would love to eat.

After the health drink making a mark in its segment, bournvita is trying to establish itself well in the cookie category. Creating a market space, the brand emphasises on it being “Subah ka biscuit” and a healthy partner to milk. Packed with ProHealth Vitamins and rich in the signature chocolaty taste, the brand is

now taking this journey one step further by fostering progressive parenting, which has always been at the core of Bournvita’s communication. Their latest campaign ‘No More Excuses’ stems from real life insights when children resort to creative excuses to avoid eating anything that could be healthy.

Sudhanshu Nagpal, Head – Biscuits Category, Mondelez India said, “Since its launch in 2016, Bournvita Biscuits has provided an effective choice of delicious snacking enriched with the wholesome goodness of Bournvita, the drink Indian consumers have trusted for

MONDELEZ INDIA ENTERED THE BISCUIT CATEGORY IN 2011 WITH THE PREMIUM BRAND OREO, WHICH CURRENTLY HAS A SHARE OF 6 PER CENT (MS VAL NIELSEN YTD’17) IN CREAMS WHILE 15 PER CENT IN MT CREAMS.

MONDELEZ, WHICH SELLS BOURNVITA AND OREO BISCUITS IN INDIA, IS THE MARKET LEADER IN CHOCOLATES WHERE IT OFFERS A HOST OF OFFERINGS UNDER THE CADBURY BRAND.

decades. The latest campaign on Bournvita Biscuits appeals to all progressive mothers, who believe in collaborative parenting.

Since mornings are always hustled, leaving barely any time for kids to consume the right foods, Bournvita Biscuits will help moms provide the right start to their day giving them “no more excuse” to skip the morning snack.”

The TVC conceptualised

by Ogilvy India begins with a mother bringing in a glass of milk to her son just before he leaves for school. To avoid this, the boy instantly comes up with a creative excuse. His mother,

January 2019 | PITCH | 39

COVER STORY

RIBUTE T N O C S T BISCUI RORE

0C RS 8,00 FMCG TO THE Y INDUSTR

clearly familiar with her son’s antics, quickly reveals a plate with his favorite Bournvita Biscuits.

Upon seeing this, the boy realises what he has bargained away and immediately fixes the situation with another inventive excuse. As he grabs and relishes the yummy Bournvita Biscuits with a glass of milk, the mother is pleased that her son has started his day with a healthy and delicious snack.

“The campaign plays on the insight that kids are most innovative when they want to get out of something. One of the things all kids want to escape is a boring breakfast. The film is simple, relevant, charming and brings this insight to life.” said Harshad Rajadhyaksha & Kainaz Karmakar, Chief Creative Officers, Ogilvy India.

since belly fat puts your heart at risk. Through the film and campaign, Saffolalife created awareness of a lesser known fact, that the presence of belly fat increases heart risk. The video was launched across social media platforms - YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and OTT platforms like VOOT and HotStar complemented with print releases and on-ground activities

IS EXPECTED TO GROW BY 3% ANNUALLY TO EXCEED 34 MILLION TONNES BY 2030.

THE PACKAGED BRANDED EDIBLE OIL SECTOR IN RETAIL CURRENTLY ACCOUNTS FOR 40 PER CENT OF TOTAL EDIBLE OIL

Saffolalife World Heart Day Campaign 2018

S

40 | PITCH | January 2019

ACCORDING TO A REPORT BY RABO BANK,

INDIA’S VEGETABLE OIL CONSUMPTION

MARICO

affolalife, is a not-for-profit initiative by Marico Limited, on the back of its commitment to creating a ‘Heart Healthy India’ launched yet another impactful campaign on World Heart Day 2018. One of the most impactful marketing campaign ‘Dil ki haalat, pet se pakad’ was developed to build awareness and educate people on the impact of belly fat on heart health, thereby inspiring people to begin their journey towards a healthier heart and lifestyle.

The campaign kicked off with a digital film conceptualised

by McCann Mumbai. The film showed light-hearted moments of family and friends holding a dear one’s belly fat in jest, but in reality is no laughing matter

to amplify the message ‘pet pakad mein aaye, toh karo dil ka khayal shuru.’

Saffolalife also partnered with a team of cardiologists and nutritionists who provided various insights on this issue and recommend ways to improve one’s heart health.

These discussions were initiated on the same day in three cities – Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. They additionally collaborated with the dabba walas in Mumbai to distribute 1Lakh Saffolalife#DilPakadmeLao information pamphlets amongst households and offices to create awareness around the impact

CONSUMPTION,

“SAFFOLA IS A RS

1,000-CRORE BRAND,

CONTRIBUTING NEARLY 16% OF OUR SALES.”

- SAUGATA GUPTA, Managing Director at Marico.

WILL CONTINUE TO GROW BETWEEN 6-8 PER CENT ANNUALLY OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS.

of belly fat on heart health. To further spread awareness on this initiative, Saffolalife engaged with Twitter, Instagram and Facebook influencers to drive chatter on #DilPakadMeinLao. On World Heart Day, Saffolalife also released a research study on the ‘Impact of belly fat on heart health’ which highlighted some astonishing facts such as 67% Indians with belly fat are at heart risk, 83% Indians who are at heart risk due to belly fat do not consider belly fat to be a key reason for heart risk, 6 out of 10 Indians are at heart risk due to belly fat despite having normal weight and 63% Indians under 35 years are at heart risk due to belly fat.

PEPPERFRY Why Wait

P

epperfry.com, India’s known Furniture & Home Products marketplace has unveiled a marketing campaign to launch the pre-festive before Diwali calling it as “Why Wait For Diwali Sale”. Through this campaign, Pepperfry encouraged customers to gear up for the festive season in advance by shopping the sale and availing discounts of up to 50% off on just about everything on Pepperfry. Clearing all the stereotype, this initiative for not boosting sales through “Sale Days” was one of its kinds.

Diwali is typically seen as the time to refresh, renew and rejuvenate. Consumers tend to put-off their high-value purchases, like furniture, till Diwali to cash in on festive promotional offers and price offs. Pepperfry aims to tap these consumers, by giving them compelling reasons to shop now. The key message of this campaign revolves around driving interest to the “Why wait for Diwali Sale” and encourages consumers to shop for furniture and home products, right now.

The new campaign revisited the brand’s core consumer promise of always providing unbeatable value, through great prices and amazing discounts. As the category leader, Pepperfry has been passing on the benefits derived by working directly with

BY 2020, THE

FURNITURE INDUSTRY IS EXPECTED TO GROW TO $35 BILLION, AND THE ONLINE SECTION WILL BE WORTH $700

MILLION

- Source: Redseer Consulting report 2018

10,000 home and furniture manufacturers to the consumers, thereby acting as an ally in their purchase cycle.

As a brand that has been ahead of the curve with its standout marketing strategy and communication, the new television commercial takes a highly stylistic, grand Broadwayesque approach to spice up the furniture and homeware category in India.

The campaign comprises one creative execution with 30 and 15-second edits that will be aired across key television channels like Colors, Star Movies, Sony, Movies Now, etc., multiplexes across 5 cities, digital and social media. It has also been adapted for radio for top 5 markets.

The total outlay for the monthlong campaign is Rs. 12 crore and will reach 10 million Indian households.

The film conceptualized

by Law and Kenneth Saatchi and Saatchi, has a spirited, exaggerated vibe that is hard to miss. Not to forget the unique dramatic appeal and hummable jingle that compels consumers to act now instead of

procrastinating on big furniture purchases.

Delna Sethna, Chief Creative Officer, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi said, “We were asked for a clutter breaking film high on energy that ensured people wouldn’t wait until Diwali to buy new furniture... check, check and check.”

Talking about the latest campaign, Kashyap Vadapalli, Chief Marketing Officer, Pepperfry, said, “Pepperfry is known for single-handedly expanding the organised furniture category in India both online and offline. As consumers evolve beyond the hygiene factors like service and delivery we want to give them more reasons to shop by adding excitement to their furniture shopping experience with interesting designs, lots of variety and great value.

Therefore, the tone and manner of our new commercial is vibrant with a theatrical approach which is very different from Pepperfry’s previous campaigns. With this campaign we want to trigger interesting conversations around the brand and the category.”

PEPPERFRY CONTINUED TO SPARK A FEELING OF HOME UNVIELS, ‘DIWALI TOH SAB KE LIYE HAI’ CAMPAIGN PART II Pepperfry.com, India’s No.1 Furniture & Home Products marketplace unveiled the second television commercial in continuation to their, “Diwali Toh Sab KeLiye Hai” (Diwali is for everyone) campaign.

Pepperfry celebrates the festive spirit through this campaign by showcasing that it has something for every home, thus, sparking a feeling called home in consumers’ hearts.

Diwali is the time when celebrations are the order of the

January 2019 | PITCH | 41

COVER STORY

day. During this period homes become a focal point since there is a lot of gathering of people and extended festivities. Whether old or young, everyone celebrates the festival of light with equal zeal.

In the new television commercial, Pepperfry reinforces how with its wide range of designs, products, prices and styles it is a natural choice for customers who are houseproud and want to beautify their homes.

The focus of this communication is to call out that there are different types of consumers across every

INDIA’S FURNITURE SECTOR IS 90

PERCENT

UNORGANIZED. PEPPERFRY CLAIMS TO HAVE 60% OF THE ENTIRE MARKET SHARE FOR ONLINE

FURNITURE IN INDIA.

Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, etc. They are savouring festive delicacies while watching firecrackers in a distance, hence drawing a parallel to a quintessential Diwali celebration.

The little girl is then reeled back to reality by the voice of her parent who requests her to join the Diwali party organised in their home. This is when she reveals to her father that she is celebrating in her way with her toys. The TVC then concludes with the parent inviting his guests to continue the party in his daughter’s room.

To showcase how the concept of home transcends beyond age, gender, etc. Thus, effectively conveying Pepperfry’s brand message “Diwali toh sabki hai”.

The campaign will be promoted across a bouquet of English Entertainment, Movies, English Infotainment and select himdi HD/SD entertainment.

Also, it is being promoted across digital and social platforms like Google, YouTube, Facebook.

Talking about the latest campaign, Kashyap Vadapalli, Chief Marketing Officer, Pepperfry, said, “We strive to continue to spread the festive warmth through our second television commercial. We truly believe that our product offering caters to every consumer segment. The new campaign re-emphasizes on how as market leaders we can spark a feeling called home.”

ZEE TV

ChangeHerNot

Z

spectrum who have different needs, and therefore how home means different things for every individual. Pepperfry has something to offer to everyone thus, sparking a feeling called home which is in line to its festive marketing strategy.

42 | PITCH | January 2019

The television commercial has been conceptualised by Law and Kenneth Saatchi and Saatchi. It captures the spirit of celebration through a child’s imagination. It depicts a young girl hosting her small party with fictional characters like

ee TV’s content resonates with its core ethos - ‘Aaj Likhenge Kal’, celebrating the aspirations of the Indian middle class. In a recent marketing campaign, Zee TV, aimed to provide the Indian Middle Class with a spark to overcome personal & societal barriers and write their own stories of a brighter future with the broader objective of driving positive change in society, while entertaining viewers.

The campaign went hand in hand with this philosophy as the underlay, ZEE TV launched

Kaleerein. This show is set against the premise of the bustling, unorganised, underground marriage industry set in India, where the bride is akin to a broodmare who must be trained into being a thoroughbred to land the perfect groom. She is expected to fulfil a lengthy list of requisites that can empower her to be an “international” bahu, and in this pursuit of being a perfect wife or bahu to someone else, she ends up losing her individuality. This has been the reality of many Indian girls across the country.

Kaleerein is the story of Meera, a small-town girl from Punjab, who chooses to assert her individuality against the reality of bride grooming schools that are mushrooming all over the country; schools that impart training to young girls in a prescribed ‘curriculum’a bucket-list of must-have qualities for a bride to land the perfect groom. A free-spirited girl who wants to live life on her terms, Meera values her uniqueness and is in search of a suitor who will accept her for the person she truly is. She stands up for herself, asks the right questions and takes charge of her destiny by refusing to change for the sake of marriage.

This is a thread that will resonate with the vast majority of Indians and hence to bring this concept to life, ZEE TV created a thought-provoking marketing campaign to drive conversation & debate around the show Kaleerein & its main theme- the disconcerting reality of the way we go about the ‘business’ of marriages in our country.

Arranged marriages in India are increasingly taking the shape of a ‘marriage mart’ which runs like a bustling underground industry. To be ‘marriageable’, a woman must be a certain way.

There is a list of demands that are expected to be met. Some want a ‘gharelu’ bride, while others want a trophy-wife. For some fair skin is non-negotiable, while others will only look at girls who will give up on their careers after marriage.

The bride is expected to fulfil an extensive list of requisites that become the yardstick in determining if she will become an

ideal wife and bahu.

While on one hand Indian women are making progress in practically all spheres of life, marriage, one of the most important institutions in the life of the middle-class Indian woman, holds her back and pushes her in a world of stereotypes, unrealistic expectations, self-doubt & judgments.

To create a clutter breaking communication that triggered conversations around the show premise and the broader social issue at its core- unfair expectations from women to change them for the sake of marriage, thus setting a favorable context for the show launch.

To enable the audience to experience the starkness of the above mentioned harsh social reality, and nudge them to question status quo. Zee TV, in line with its philosophy “Aaj Likhenge Kal” wanted to create a social movement to question

these age-old middle-class barriers, without being preachy.

It launched a social experiment mysonikudi.com, India’s first web portal that helps one to find the perfect ‘madeto-order’ bride that would fulfill all the demands of the seeker.

The website objectified women by compartmentalizing them in multiple cringe-worthy segments like ‘Wonder Chef’, ‘Bachat Focused’, ‘Agyakari’, ‘Gharelu’, ‘Sansakari’, ‘NRI-Ready’ and ‘Fair Skin’ among other stereotypical tags which are associated with a ‘perfect’ Indian bride.

Since the idea was to mirror a harsh social reality in the most hard-hitting and objectionable way possible, in order to drive conversations around a social issue, the website was modelled along the lines of a typical e-commerce platform with features such as ‘Trending Brides’, ‘Top-Searched Categories’, ‘Bride-Guide’ (blog section), ‘Bride Profiles’, reviews and ratings on those profiles, as well as testimonials from people who has supposedly availed of the services of the website, and so forth.

To launch the fiction show Kaleerein, revolving around the core theme of how women in India are expected to change themselves for the sake of marriage, we launched a social experiment mysonikudi.com, India’s first website to find the perfect ‘made-to-order’ bride that would fulfil all the demands of the seeker.

The website objectified women by compartmentalizing them in multiple cringe-worthy segments like ‘Wonder Chef’, ‘Bachat Focused’, ‘Agyakari’, ‘Gharelu’, ‘Sansakari’, ‘NRIReady’ and ‘Fair Skin’ among other stereotypical tags which are associated with a ‘perfect’ Indian bride. We wanted people to experience the harshness of this stark social reality and so, the website was designed as a typical e-com portal. The sheer absurdity of commoditizing brides is what we wanted to highlight and generate conversations around, to set the context for the launch. MySoniKudi elicited precisely the kind of strong reactions it was supposed to, and sparked off a movement called #ChangeHerNot.

January 2019 | PITCH | 43

COVERCOLUMN NOTE GUEST

LET’S TALK INNOVATION AMIT SETHYA

HEAD MARKETING, SYSKA

N

ew technologies such as smart home appliances see rapid adoption among consumers. Today, through a single voice command you can control all the appliances of your home. Smart and innovative products such as smart doorbells, smart switches, smart IR, smart door sensors and others are all making consumers’ lives easier.

The second factor would be the ease of doing business environment in India, which has seen a significant improvement over the last few years. The Government of India has taken a number of initiatives across sectors to boost entrepreneurship, build new skills among employees as well as enabling businesses to expand further and thrive.

The last one has been a milestone year for us, and we have grown exponentially as a company. With our firm belief that constant innovation is key to success, we have been on an expansion spree, entering diverse industry segments – This year, we partnered with Biometronic Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) and Suyin Optronics, Corp. (Taiwan) to set up a first of its kind camera module manufacturing unit in Noida.

within the next year and plan to grow steadily year on year.

This year, we ventured into the wires & cables market. This is a very lucrative market, as postGST there have been a number of company exits from the unorganized sector. Interestingly, we have also roped in veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan as our brand ambassador for this segment.

Additionally, we also entered into a partnership with Tuya Smart, a global IoT platform to bring smart home capabilities in India. To transform every Indian household into a smart home, we have introduced wide range of smart home products such as

Brands need to bank on smart ideas, to build new and innovative products and solutions for consumers. New ideas could include either enhancing or substituting a business process to build proficiency and efficiency or by broadening the range or nature of existing products. This

smart doorbells, smart switches, smart IR, smart downlight / ceiling light, smart IP camera, smart wall-light, smart door sensors, smart plug, smart spike buster, smart weighing scale and Bluetooth bulb Array’. With an aim to reach two million homes

could also include developing upgraded products and solutions to cater to rapidly changing consumer needs. These factors will enable brands to stand out among their competition in a quickly evolving technologydriven world.

The third factor driving the growth of this industry is environmental sustainability.

We have been steadily enjoying the fruits of Mother Nature, through the exploitation of our natural resources. Citizens are increasingly becoming aware of this and are now adopting more energy efficient products such as LED lights which save up to 70% energy, as well as by investing in IoT’s connected devices.

In the smart home category, through our partnership with Tuya Smart, we are targeting overall revenue of 200 crores in the next financial year. Also, we will be investing 25 crores in marketing and R&D for us to be able to build this segment in India. According to a report by Statista, the smart home market in India is in a booming phase and is expected to hit 7.2% by 2022.

44 | PITCH | January 2019

JURY CHAIR DR. KIRAN KARNIK FORMER PRESIDENT NASSCOM

PRADEEP GUHA

DR. ANNURAG BATRA

ARIF MOHAMMAD KHAN

MANISH TEWARI

CHAIRMAN & EDITOR IN CHIEF BUSINESSWORLD & EXCHANGE4MEDIA GROUP

FORMER CABINET MINISTER THE UNION OF INDIA

FORMER UNION MINISTER OF STATE & MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING

BALBIR PUNJ

HK DUA

SUKUMAR RANGANATHAN EDITOR HT

COLUMNIST & FORMER MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

SENIOR JOURNALIST

SAMBIT PATRA

CVL SRINIVAS

PROBAL GHOSAL

DR. HIMADRI DAS

KULMEET BAWA

NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON BJP

COUNTRY MANAGER WPP INDIA

MANAGING DIRECTOR 9X MEDIA

INDIAN JOURNALIST & DIPLOMAT, FORMER MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT (RAJYA SABHA)

GHANSHYAM TIWARI

SHAZIA ILMI

National Spokesperson SP

SPOKESPERSON BJP

DEEPA GAHLOT

COLUMNIST, CRITIC AND AUTHOR

DIRECTOR AMAR UJALA

DIRECTOR GENERAL IMI

RAGHAV CHADHA

AMIT WADHWANI

NATIONAL TREASURER & NATIONAL SPOKEPERSON AAP

MD SAI ENTERPRISES

PARUL SONI

DEEPAK VERMA

MADAN BAHAL

FORMER CEO & MD OF AVIVA LIFE INSURANCE

CO – FOUNDER & MD ADFACTORS PR

CO - FOUNDER & MANAGING PARTNER TTC

SHRAVAN GARG

MANAGING DIRECTOR, INDIA & SOUTH ASIA ADOBE

SUBODH NARAIN AGRAWAL FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN EUROMAX CAPITAL

SUNIL ALAGH

FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN SKA ADVISORS

ALOK MEHTA (PADMASHREE) FORMER PRESIDENT EDITORS GUILD OF INDIA

SANJAY JHA NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

HARISH SHRIYAN CEO OMNICOM MEDIA GROUP

MORE NAMES TO BE ADDED...

Contact Details

Priyanka Bhadouria : priyanka.bhadouria@exchange4media.com | 9312634276 Sabita Verma : sabita.verma@exchange4media.com | 8585992950 Aditya Muvvala : aditya.muvvala@exchange4media.com | 8800821584 Shradha Srivastava : shradha.srivastava@exchange4media.com | 8750124702

For Partnerships, Please Contact: Runa Sinha - National Business Head | runa.sinha@exchange4media.com | +91 9810497903 Ashish Kudalkar | General Manager West-Sales & Business Development - ashish.kudalkar@exchange4media.com | +91 9820541742 Sneha Walke - VP Special Projects & South Head | sneha@exchange4media.com | +91 9845541143 Nikhil Tandon | Regional Manager - North - nikhil.tandon@exchange4media.com | +91 9999700906 TRADE MEDIA PARTNERS

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FEATURE

PROMISE AND PERIL IN THE CHANGING MEDIA INTERACTIONS

46 | PITCH | January Dec 20182019 Jan 2019

Today, the mobile phone as a “personal screen” has pushed India to more than a trillion unique interactions with dramatically unique expressions

BY EKTA MAKAN

T

he recent times in India have witnessed a significant growth in media consumption which is said to be way faster than the US and China. If strategists are to be believed then we are only getting started, there is still ample headroom to grow as penetration and device proliferation increases.

These trends will fundamentally change the way media houses of the future will look, along with multiple axis, including the content produced, relationships with advertisers and technology backbone and talent that drive the organization. In this report, we deep dive into the trends impacting this industry and what media houses, industry bodies and government need to do adjust to this evolving reality.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) unveiled the BCG-CII Report – ONE CONSUMER, MANY INTERACTIONS. Taking excerpts from the report, we underline how a media house of the future needs to adapt across key dimensions.

The report throws light on all the Indian media industry being strongly disrupted in past years.

This disruption is said to be a result of fundamental changes in terms of demographics and access in the country. The triggers include - growing affluence, higher electrification, a spurt in number of internet users, video-enabled devices and availability of highspeed internet.

A TRILLION UNIQUE INTERACTIONS Consumer expressions are exploding in line with choices.

January 2019 | PITCH | 47

FEATURE However the “what” changes dramatically. Content is still king and consumers choose long form vs short form, genres and content across screens with equal ease.

Analysis of consumer smartphone panel data showed that at one end the small screen had increased the frequency of interactions manifold (ranging from 4-8 times a day per consumer), the average length for most of these sessions is only 3-5 minutes (vs. 2.5 to 3 hours for TV and 20-30 minutes for print).

Hence the total touch points with consumers – across screens - have gone up 10X. This presents the opportunity conundrum. Content creators and marketers need to re-imagine their portfolios to capitalize on the full spectrum of these interactions.

INFLATION IN INDIA’S PER CAPITA MEDIA CONSUMPTION Total media consumption per capita in India has been growing at 9% over the past 6 years. At 4.6 hours of media consumption per capita per day, vs. China at 6.4 hours per capita per day and the US at 11.8 hours per capita per day, there is still headroom for growth.

Media consumption will continue to grow with growing affluence, higher electrification and rural penetration, higher literacy and greater device penetration.

“We believe this coexistence and multi-modal growth will continue in the foreseeable future.

While there might be a slowdown of growth in traditional media,

there is still a lot of headroom for growth given the penetration story is still playing out”, Mandeep Singh Kohli, Principal, The Boston Consulting Group

MASSIVE INVESTMENTS IN CONTENT Curated content is the key player these days which goes hand in hand with the viewer preferences.

As a result, traditional players as well as digital natives are making significant investments to build their content pipeline. Players like Netflix invest aggressively to match 3x the investment made by top players like Amazon Prime and Hulu.

Even the Indian players are not letting any stone unturned in creating or curating content.

Video players invested ~$4-5 Bn in 2017 which is 14% higher than their investment in 2016. Much of this investment is going behind “Hero” content which is 3-4X more expensive than traditional video.

OTT players across the industry are investing heavily in originals. In 2018, Amazon had planned release of 18 new original shows including some exclusives. Even Netflix,

WE BELIEVE THIS COEXISTENCE AND MULTIMODAL GROWTH WILL CONTINUE IN THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE. WHILE THERE MIGHT BE A SLOWDOWN OF GROWTH IN TRADITIONAL MEDIA, THERE IS STILL A LOT OF HEADROOM FOR GROWTH GIVEN THE PENETRATION STORY IS STILL PLAYING OUT Mandeep Singh Kohli, Principal, The Boston Consulting Group 48 | PITCH | January 2019

has shifted its strategy towards investing in some Hindi/regional content with the launch of Sacred Games.

Players should now think about few imperatives given investment scenario: • Rethink economic models as content becomes more expensive • Getting consumers to discover your content given clutter in market • Rethink strategy of what content works on OTT vs. TV.

THE UNIFIED CURRENCY CHALLENGE Audiences, globally and in India, are traversing seamlessly across screens. Digital media has also raised the bar on targeting much beyond the traditional axis of age, income proxies, city tier and gender. Measurement, however, has not kept pace. To stay consistent & unified in the promise to marketers, the industry needs a high-fidelity metric that provides de-duplicated audience measurement on content consumption across platforms.

This new-age vocabulary must also lend to behavioral data, going beyond demographic identifiers.

This end state however remains elusive in light of widely varying perspectives with which stakeholders are entering the discussion. The gap on even something as basic as what constitutes a view is wide and open not just between digital and traditional media but also across multiple digital natives.

For instance, some platforms count a video as a view only if it is watched for more than 30 seconds while others count a view in 5 second intervals.

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NEONS OOH AWARDS 2019

• Grab attention of media & marketing heads of leading brands on the jury board.

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• Be in news for your exceptional work by winning.

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GRAND JURY 2019

AMIT SETHIYA Head Marketing

PAWAN SONI Head Marketing & Programming

ARCHANA ASHISH BAJAJ AGGARWAL Head of Media and

BASANT RATHORE

BHAVANA MITTAL

GAJENDRA JANGID

GULBAHAR HARSHAVARDHAN TAURANI CHAUHAN

VP - Media

Marketing Alliance

Sr VP Strategy & Business Development

Regional Head of Media, Digital and Communications

VP-Marketing

Director Marketing & Business Head

Central Head of Marketing Shopping Malls

PRASHANT DESAI

RAMEET ARORA

RAHUL PANSARE

RAHUL MISHRA

SANDEEP SHUKLA

SONIA SERRAO

SRIDEEP KESAVAN

Media Head

COO - Digital Business

GM - Marketing

Head Marketing Communications & PR

Head Marketing & Communications

Global Media Lead & Head Marketing Procurement South Asia

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ACROSS THE GLOBE

GLOBAL MARKETING NEWS SWIGGY RAISES MEGA $1BN FUNDING LED BY NASPERS, NOW VALUED AT $3.3 BN

F

ood delivery platform Swiggy raised $1 billion in a funding round led by existing backer Naspers, in what is seen as the single largest financing round in the Indian food-tech industry. The round also saw participation from new backers including Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management in addition to existing investors like

DST Global, Meituan Dianping and Coatue. The funding round, marks Swiggy’s third for 2018 and largest to date and will see the valuation of the five-year-old Bengaluru-based startup swell to $3.3 billion.

INFOSYS APPOINTS AIRTEL’S NILANJAN ROY AS NEW CFO

S

oftware giant Infosys announced the appointment of Nilanjan Roy, a former executive of Bharti Airtel, as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The appointment will be effective March 1, 2019. Roy will take over from interim CFO Jayesh Sanghrajka, who will resume his responsibilities as Deputy CFO. Prior to his role in

Infosys, Roy had been associated with Airtel for 13 years and has also worked with global FMCG major Unilever, for 15 years.

PFIZER AND GSK TO MERGE CONSUMER HEALTH BUSINESSES

B

ritish pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and US- based Pfizer announced the merger of their consumer healthcare businesses in a joint venture with combined sales of $12.4 billion. GSK will own a majority stake of 68% in the business and the merger will result in splitting it into two parts- one focused on prescription drugs and vaccines, and the other for consumer health.

In December, GSK also

50 | PITCH | January 2019

bought Tesaro, a cancerfocused company based in the US for approximately $5.1 billion.

UDAY SHANKAR ELECTED AS VICE PRESIDENT OF FICCI FOR 2018-19

U

day Shankar has been elected as the Vice President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for 2018-19 at the conclusion of the 91st AGM of the apex industry chamber.

Shankar is currently the Chairman and CEO of Star India and President of 21st Century Fox, Asia. He is the first ever Indian media and entertainment executive to assume the leadership position in a national industry chamber like FICCI, which is also the oldest in the country.

LVMH TO BUY BELMOND LUXURY HOTEL GROUP FOR $3.2 BILLION

L

uxury goods maker Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy has agreed to buy Belmond, the owner of hotels including Venice’s landmark Cipriani, for $3.2 billion to increase its presence in upmarket hospitality.

LVMH, the firm behind fashion labels Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, already has hotels including the Cheval Blanc as well as Bvgalri hotels. Belmond owns or manages luxury hotels, river cruises properties and train services across 24 countries.

ACROSS THE GLOBE

MYNTRA CEO ANANTH NARAYANAN QUITS

M

yntra’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ananth Narayanan has resigned from his role, and his position will be abolished, according to media reports. The reports also mentioned that Flipkart executive Amar Nagaram has been tasked with heading Myntra. Apart from Narayanan, key executives from the organisation such as chief revenue officer Mithun Sundar and human resources head Manpreet Ratia have also resigned, as per the reports.

HUL ACQUIRES GSK CONSUMER HEALTH INDIA FOR RS 31,700 CRORE

H

industan Unilever has acquired GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Health India for Rs 31,700 crore. The deal is being touted as one of the country’s most significant in the consumer goods market. With this deal, HUL will now own iconic brands such as Horlicks and Boost.

The transaction is an all-equity merger with 4.39 shares of HUL being allotted for every share in GSK CH India.

RADIANT LIFE CARE BUYS 49.7% STAKE IN MAX HEALTHCARE

ZOMATO ENTERS THE EXPERIENTIAL EVENTS SPACE WITH ZOMALAND

F

amous food delivery firm Zomato recently announced its entry into experiential events segment with the launch of multi-city food and entertainment carnival, Zomaland. The carnival will initially be held across three cities in India - Delhi, Pune and Bengaluru, Zomato said in a statement. Zomaland will feature over 100 “hand-picked” eateries in every city that it is held in, and there will be eight food zones allowing people to taste the best of local and international cuisines.

OGILVY APPOINTS PIYUSH PANDEY AS ITS GLOBAL CCO

R

adiant Life Care, backed by global investment firm KKR has entered into a transaction whereby its shareholders will acquire a majority 49.7% stake in Max Healthcare Institute, a unit of Max India Limited. The healthcare business of Radiant Life Care will then merge with Max Healthcare.

Upon closing of the all-cash deal, Radiant promoter Abhay Soi will lead the combined company as its Chairman.

52 | PITCH | January 2019

P

iyush Pandey, current chairman of Ogilvy India, has been appointed as the agency’s next chief creative officer (CCO) Worldwide, replacing Tham Khai Meng.

Pandey will work in partnership with Ogilvy’s global chief executive John Seifert to oversee creative standards at the company from January 1, 2019.

MARK 27 & 28 JUNE 2019 ON YOUR CALENDAR TH

TH

GLIMPSES FROM 2018

#TechManch

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June 2019 Mumbai

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January 2019 | PITCH | 53 www.futureplay.in

REPORT

COMPREHENDING THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP Customer Experience, Personalization, Artificial Intelligence and Real-Time Engagements are the premises which will lead marketers across sectors in the years ahead

BY SMRITI MISHRA

T

he consumer today is more demanding than ever which is why every marketer seeks to prioritize ‘Customer Experience’ to establish a lasting relationship with him.

Recent research conducted by Salesforce, ‘State of Marketing’ 2018 revealed that ‘80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.’ So how do companies successfully implement a customer experience strategy in the digital age? By understanding the individual customer’s needs which comes through listening and engaging with the buyers on a real-time basis along with their digital touch point journey. The fact that delivering a personalized experience is central to a brands marketing strategy is also apparent from the findings of the report which concludes that ‘56% of high-performing marketers are actively mapping the customer journey across the

54 | PITCH | January 2019

company, compared to 42% of underperformers.’

Challenges tracking the Customer Journey Despite the growing need of delivering personalized offerings to the consumer, tracking the entire digital journey of the

84%

of customers say being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to winning their business”

Consumers

consumer has emerged as the biggest challenge faced across organizations. The research elaborates how multiple email addresses, social activity, web activity, e-commerce and pointof-sale transactions, and service engagements make piecing together a unified view of the individual customer easier said than done. Which is

54%

of high-performing marketing teams lead customer experience initiatives across the business

Business Byers Source: Salesforce Research

why Marketers expect their use of Data Management Platforms (DMPs) to increase by 64% by 2020.

Medlan Number of Data Sources Used by Marketing Organizations

Source: Salesforce Research

Driving Personalization through AI Personalization today leads to advocacy tomorrow. As consumers expect personalized offerings, marketers adoption of AI has grown by 44% since 2017, as per the Salesforce Research.

The findings also reveal that ‘Teams are increasingly turning to new technologies that help them engage in a more relevant manner. For example, 29% of marketers now use AI (up from 20% who used the technology extensively in 2017) through use cases as personalized email offers based on web browsing behavior.’ Further, ‘Forty-four per cent of marketers use connected devices (up from 29% who used them extensively in 2017), including the 32% with voice-activated personal assistants like Alexa and Siri in their kit of parts. Twentyfour per cent use virtual or augmented reality — such as apps that allow homebuyers to calculate mortgage costs by pointing their phone at a house or “try on” a shade of makeup without setting foot in a store.’

Engagement Equals Acknowledgement To be able to engage with the consumers on a real-time basis is a big challenge given the vast number of channels available for communication.

However, it is imperative to an organization’s sustenance and bringing about the desired ROI. The research concludes

that ‘Two-way engagement — in which marketers adjust strategy and tactics based on customer feedback — is now commonplace, and providing marketers with new insights to better engage their targets.

Fifty-two per cent of marketers adapt marketing strategy and tactics based on customer interactions.’

Real-Time and Two-Way Engagement Go Mainstream Percentage of Marketers Who Say the Following About Their Marketing Organization High Performers Moderate performers Underperformers

52%

We engage customers in real time across one or more marketing 33% channels 62%

54%

High Performers Moderate performers Underperformers

52%

We adapt marketing strategy and tactics based on customer interactions 57%

52% 50%

Source: Salesforce Research

January 2019 | PITCH | 55

REPORT

Decoding the Indian Marketer Marketers today are analyzing and understanding global trends and practices to stay relevant and keep up with the changing tastes and preferences of the everevolving consumer.

Talking about how consumers’ expectations can be addressed, Yashdeep Vaishnav, Regional Sales Director, Marketing Cloud, Salesforce India added, “Customer experience is the new marketing. In today’s connected world businesses are faced with rising expectations for personalization, an effective customer experience strategy integrated with effective marketing will drive a higher level of trust for your brand and hence more loyalty developing a deeper relationship with customers and your brand.”

Additionally, the research conducted by Salesforce revealed the following key insights about the Indian Marketera) 46% of marketers say marketing leads customer experience initiatives across their businesses (the highest among all other countries surveyed) b) 59% of marketers say they engage customers in real time across one or more marketing channel c) 54% of marketers report having a completely unified view of customer data sources.

At Fastrack, it’s always been our endeavour to be relevant to our audience in every way possible. Today, the youth are looking to create memories with unique experiences. So over the years, we have tied up with some of the largest bespoke music festivals across the country like Sunburn and Supersonic. We have even curated, a one of a kind event that’s a perfect mix of music and sports - The Fastrack Music Run. For a cult brand like Fastrack to be relevant always, it needs to be having the right amount of traditional and non-traditional ways to engage with our consumers.

Ayushman Chiranewala, Head of Product & Marketing – Fastrack, Titan Company Limited 56 | PITCH | Dec 2018- Jan 2019

Marketing sustains a growing influence on enhancing customers’ experiences with brands. As customer experience is becoming increasingly important, brands need to focus on optimizing this experience through various marketing concepts. This shift to a strong customer-centric market is forcing brands to develop personalized solutions that specifically address customers’ needs, thereby positively impacting their satisfaction, loyalty and sales.

Keeping this into consideration, marketers put customers at the centre of their marketing strategy and focus on improving the customer experience by embracing new technologies. At Philips, customer experience is at the heart of our marketing strategy.

We create a meaningful experience through engagement and are committed to improving our consumer’s lives through innovations and personalization. We have undertaken various marketing initiatives, one such initiative being, getting on-board brand ambassadors like Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli to increase brand awareness making consumers feel more connected with the brand. Regarding experiential marketing, we recently collaborated with Lakme Fashion Week, where we displayed EasyTouch Plus steamer for the consumers to understand and get a first-hand experience of using the product.

Gulbahar Taurani, Marketing Director, Philips Personal Health, Indian Subcontinent

Having an integrated view on the customer from various data sources helps in making a robust plan from a perspective of customizing the brand voice and sync it over different touch points.

Here the idea isn’t to spread thin rather to spread wisely. We’re a young brand and for us, it matters that we catch the customer when she quickly swaps over various media and speaks in a voice that is personalized for her. We believe that a customer considers us and engages with us when we provide a connected experience over a repetitive one.

Prachi Mohapatra, Marketing Head at fbb.

Dec 2018- Jan 2019 | PITCH | 57

TECH INTERVIEW

FIND YOUR DREAM CAR AT DROOM

BY ANAM KHAN

Technology has been advancing with time and so are the new consumers. As everybody has moved online, the quest of getting the best online has become the need.

Droom is India’s first and only online marketplace for buying and selling new and used automobiles. At over 65% of the automobile transactions market share online, Droom is the largest auto portal in India. Droom is the only fully transactional online platform enabling an end-to-end transaction between buyer and seller. Our Full Circle Trust Score, Buyer’s Protection, Orange Book Value, Droom History and Eco Inspection addresses all the buyers’ pain points and hassles involved in the stressful process of buying or selling a used vehicle. The platform offers a broad catalogue of vehicles and deals in all automobile categories - everything from bicycles to planes.

In an interaction with Pitch team, SANDEEP AGGARWAL, Founder, Droom shared his insights on the current online automobile marketplace.

58 | PITCH | January 2019

How did the idea of bringing automobile industry and technology together strike in your mind?

Droom is my second venture, I was a bit more methodical in choosing what I wanted to do after ShopClues. I came up with 52 ideas while being in Silicon Valley, each one of them I thought would make a billiondollar company in India. After comparing and filtering them, I was left with just two ideas and eventually, Droom made it to the final decision. At Droom, our objective is to address each and every possible pain point in buying and selling a used automobile in India. We are a digital marketplace for automobiles which is leveraging a tech-driven approach to address buyer/seller pain points and to enable end-to-end transactions through its platform.

We offer a comprehensive portfolio for new and used vehicles. We have successfully leveraged technology to conceptualize and roll out our ecosystem tools that can offer a better buying experience to our customers.

The ecosystem tools utilize the best of technology to meet the business objective of not only creating India’s largest online marketplace for automobiles but also providing end-to-end transaction platform to customers.

What algorithms do you look at Droom, when it comes to people using online services right now?

If we look at the algorithm of the used and new automobile industry, the automobiles’ category includes everything from two-wheelers, fourwheelers, trucks, and commercial vehicles to new and used vehicles, auto loans, insurance, and warranty. So, the entire automobile industry and ancillary services account for $180 billion annually, making India the 3rd largest market in the world after China and USA. Out of that $180 billion, roughly $30 billion is in services. So, $150 billion will be new and used including two-wheelers, four-wheelers, recreational and commercial vehicles.

Now if we see the pattern in the used vehicle industry, used cars and used two-wheelers would be roughly $60 billion.

For every new car, 1.5 used cars are sold in India. For every new two-wheeler, 1.8 used twowheelers are sold in India. The world’s best ratio is Germany, where for every new car, 3 used cars are sold. And second, best is USA, where for every new car, 2.6 used cars are sold. The worst ratio among the top 10 countries is China where for every new car

THE ENTIRE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY AND ANCILLARY SERVICES ACCOUNT FOR $180 BILLION ANNUALLY, MAKING INDIA THE 3RD LARGEST MARKET IN THE WORLD AFTER CHINA AND USA.

only 0.4 used cars are sold.

In terms of units, 3 million new cars and 4.5 million used cars are sold in India. 18 million new two-wheelers and roughly 27 million used two-wheelers are sold in India. So, we are talking about 45 million two-wheelers making India the largest twowheeler market and in terms of cars, the third largest auto market in the world.

Out of that $180 billion overall markets, roughly $1

billion is online. 50,000-60,000 cars are sold online in India and 100,000-120000 two-wheelers are sold online.

What measures do you take at Droom to keep it tech-oriented yet simple for your customers?

Ans. We are trying to solve all the existing and upcoming problems with the help of technology, AI and Machine learning. We always focus on our customer’s demands and problems they are facing in buying and selling a vehicle online and accordingly we develop the technology to counter them.

Being in automobile domain we experienced a big issue in getting the fair market price of a used vehicle, so we internally developed Orange book Value (OBV)India’s first and only algorithmic pricing engine where one has to just enter the make, model, trim and some

January 2019 | PITCH | 59

TECH INTERVIEW

necessary details of the vehicle and you get the fair market price of the vehicle in just 10 seconds. Similarly step by step we experienced a couple of other problems our customers were facing such as History of used vehicle was a bigger problem so we developed Droom history which contains the history of 200 crore vehicle available in the country, we have developed an app based auto inspection service called Droom ECO where our technician inspect a vehicle on 121 checkpoints and provide a comprehensive inspection report that also on your doorstep. We witnessed another big issue in used vehicle transaction which was a loan, so we developed a tool called Droom credit, where anyone can opt for the loan on a used vehicle. Droom credit is a completely tech-based tool and provides paper free loan approval in less than 30 seconds.

Congratulations on the launch OBV. Please tell us more about it and how it is leveraging droom’s market?

The process to determine the value of pre-owned vehicles has always been difficult as it was completely dependent on individual evaluation parameters without having a statistical or scientific perspective. However, with the launch of the unique online tool OBV, buyers and sellers can come to a conclusive consensus in terms of pricing.

OBV is India’s first and only

60 | PITCH | January 2019

SINCE WE LAUNCHED OBV, WE HAVE SEEN 247 MILLION+ PRICING QUERIES USING OBV, 10K+ AUTO DEALERS ACROSS INDIA ADOPTING IT, WE HAVE USED 7.8LAKH TRANSACTIONS WORTH APPROXIMATELY 7,730 CRORES TO VALIDATE OBV PRICING.

using OBV, 10k+ auto dealers across India adopting it, we have used 7.8Lakh transactions worth approximately 7,730 crores to validate OBV pricing.

OBV covers 50k+ products for cars, bikes, scooters, bicycles, and planes. OBV is available at Droom or as destination Website, iOS, and Android App, OBV Widget for 3rd party bloggers and a print edition.

algorithmic pricing engine to find out the fair market value of any used vehicle under 10 seconds for free. Orange Book Value (OBV) is a simple yet extremely technology and data sciencebased online tool to give users value of a used automobile under 10 seconds. With OBV, you never have to pull a number from the hat or guess a used vehicle pricing but a scientific way to know the fair market value. And the best part is OBV is completely free. Since we launched OBV, we have seen 247 million+ pricing queries

automobile industry through our proprietary innovations such as Orange Book Value, Droom History, Full Circle Trust Score and ECO app. These innovations have allowed us to improve the trust factor associated with buying and selling vehicles online and have heralded a pricing advantage to both buyers and sellers through advanced algorithms and data science. This adds great value to the end-user transactional experience and has served to differentiate us from the competition.

In the era of the tech-driven ecosystem, how would you differentiate droom from other platforms like cardekho?

At Droom, we are very passionate about bringing in greater trust in the buying and selling experience for any new or used automobile. What is unique about us is our focus on delivering end-to-end consumercentric automobile solutions through technology. We are offering a truly 21st-century experience within the Indian

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RETAIL

‘SPRING’-ING TO THE TOP K Madhavan, Managing Director of Peps Industries took over a sick manufacturing plant in 2006 and turned it around. “The Mattress Man of India”, as he is called, is confident of more than doubling his revenues and crossing the Rs 1,000 crore mark in two years

BY SIMRAN SABHERWAL

A

t the age of 55, most professionals, start planning on life post retirement. However, going against the tide, K Madhavan started his entrepreneurial journey at 55 when he took over Peps in 2006, after spending over 30 years “living, breathing, thinking mattresses.” Madhavan says that the industry was dominated by a tiny group of highly consolidated wholesalers with one or two major players around. “From the consumer’s end, I realized that good sleep is important to fuel and replenish and that is possible only if you have quality products available as an end consumer. To make that happen at a scale that I envisioned, I needed to take the Entrepreneurial path,” he says.

Today, a little over a decade later, the Managing Director of Peps Industries, Madhavan says, “Over a period of 12 years we have established ourselves as the India’s top-selling spring

62 | PITCH | January 2019

mattress brand with a CAGR growth rate of around 33%. In the year we started our operations, the company turnover was Rs 4 crore and today in 2018, Peps has a turnover of over Rs 300 crores.”

A Disruptive Start

Remembering how the journey started Madhavan says, “We cashed in on a golden opportunity and took over a sick manufacturing unit that was for sale and converted it into a profitable unit.” In a disruptive move, Peps then associated with Restonic USA - the fourth largest spring mattress brand in the world – and brought in spring mattress as a product category to the end consumer. This at a time when the Indian market was dominated by Coir & Foam mattresses and spring mattresses had a market share of less than 2% of the total mattress market.

In fact, in 2012, Peps signed a 25-year licensing agreement with Restonic.

Building Brand Peps

When Peps started, the industry norm then was to talk about the product and its benefit. However, the challenge for the new entrant to the industry was that it had a product – spring mattress, that customers were unaware of. A major challenge was educating the customer about spring mattresses when the traditional mindset for Indians was that only a firm mattress is good for sleep and Madhavan says he had to use a similar language as other brands, with the focus being on good sleep. However, soon other brands started emulating the messaging. Madhavan says, “It wasn’t long before the market caught up with us. And every player started talking about the need for great sleep. We lost the plot with our customer then. For the customer didn’t know who started talking about great sleep first. Was it Peps or some other brand? We weren’t

“WE IDEATED ON WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP? YOU WAKE UP REFRESHED. THAT INSIGHT BECAME OUR FOCUS OF KEY COMMUNICATION.”

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION’ HAS BEEN AT THE CORE OF THE BRAND AND THE ORGANIZATIONAL DNA.

making a difference to him; were fast losing out on our emotional connection and our product laden communication for great sleep was mirrored across several brand communications.”

This had the company going back to the drawing board and reflecting on how to connect with the consumer. “We ideated on what happens when you get a good night’s sleep? You wake up refreshed. That insight became our focus of key communication.

We utilized marketing tools to communicate and connect with this emotion. Of waking up refreshed. We found that given today’s lifestyle, an average adult sleeps less than seven hours a night. We felt the need to create awareness about sleep hygiene that led to the creation of the Peps campaign: ‘live the #pepslife”. Peps positioning now was focusing on the aftereffects of a good night’s sleep, i.e. waking up energized. He says, “At a time when other brand

campaigns spoke about sleeping well, our focus was to highlight the importance of waking up fresh. ‘Disruptive innovation’ has been at the core of the brand and the organizational DNA.” Madhavan also notes that the consumer has changed in the last three decades, from a disinterested to mildly interested, today’s consumer has evolved to be an informed buyer. What must also be kept in mind is the shelf life of the product - with some people changing their mattress once in 10 years, and the low priority given to the mattress, by consumers, when compared to other consumer durables and household products. He also points out that consumers are willing to compromise easily on the mattress quality if it doesn’t fit into their budget.

At Peps, the focus is on creating meaningful relationships and connecting on an emotional level with the consumers, employees and distributor

networks. Madhavan says, “The sense of belonging and connect has to be inclusive. This has to reflect in the core identity and values of the brand. You have to continuously be on top of every strategy and tactic that resonates these values.” He also candidly shares an example of how the brand recently dropped the ball in staying connected with the customer. “Our radio advertisement ran past the Diwali period with the tagline of ‘This Diwali Season’. We should know as a brand that while we timed our ATL in line with the festive season and connected with the joyful emotion of the customer, by continuing to play the advert post-Diwali, we didn’t keep pace with the changing emotions of the consumer. The consumer has moved on from the joyful emotion to that of other. While our communication stood still at the previous emotional pit-stop defying the brand focus when talking to the user base,” he says.

January 2019 | PITCH | 63

RETAIL

THE DREAM MAKERS

P

eps Industries recently announced its new brand positioning ‘DreamMakers’ and in line with its core brand philosophy to help Indians sleep better and as a part of a strategic brand repositioning exercise, the company released its latest #DreamMakers series.

The campaign highlights Peps’ proposition of a good night’s sleep as vital to chasing dreams. K. Madhavan, Managing Director, Peps Industries says, “Peps has led by example concerning disruptive innovation in the mattress category. With the new brand narrative, we seek to bring a fresh perspective in the spring mattress category via product innovations that will shift focus from great sleep to waking up refreshed with a purpose. Thereby, harnessing one’s ability to perform at their peak to chase and achieve their goals.”

Speaking on the insight behind the campaign he says, “The millennials have goals and ambition that drive them to dream of bigger things and with no fear whatsoever to chase their dreams. This resulted in our current brand position of being a #Dream Maker. We aspire to be that brand which gives wings to a consumer’s dreams as he wakes up from a refreshed sleep. Via our incremental product innovation and a 360-degree communication approach, we intend to take on the mandate of being DreamMakers as a brand platform. And connect in a way that allows the brand to go beyond the product and connect with the consumer’s emotions by speaking to his hopes, dreams, aspirations and anxieties.”

64 | PITCH | January 2019

Though mattresses as a product is a low involvement category, Peps’ vision is to move out of the bedroom as a mattress brand and move into homes and living spaces. To build a brand connect, Peps aims to reach its audience across all platforms, as and when they are ready to listen, be it during their daily commute to work or in between commercials when watching a movie, Social Media platform such as Facebook, Instagram and also hoardings, articles, write-ups etc.

Speaking of Digital, Peps and Flipkart recently entered into a partnership which gave the e-commerce company exclusive rights to sell Peps Industries’ products and its two allied brands Hypnos and Cirrus. With this, the company looks to conquer the online segment as well.

I AM CONFIDENT THAT WE WILL CROSS RS 1,000 CRORE IN THE TWO YEARS. “Someone once asked me, ‘Who do you respect the most in the world?’, I replied that I respect myself as what I am today or will be tomorrow is because of me. This is the belief I have in myself, and I was always confident in achieving what I set out to do. This is the reason I have reached where I am today.” This statement in a way encapsulates the persona of K. Madhavan, Managing Director, Peps Industries.

His frequent use of metaphors as he recounts his life and decisions he made, makes one think that he could have also been a storyteller and a very good one at that. For example, when speaking of his years working as a professional, he says that he felt as a bonsai or a banyan tree planted in an earthen pot, today he sees himself as a tree growing in the forest, providing shade to many and doing good to the society. In a conversation with Pitch, Madhavan recounts the challenges

Seamless Communication Peps is also in the process of streamlining its communication, and making it seamless, across platforms to ensure that the user engagement is simple and clutter free. The coming year at Peps will see the firm integrate seamless messaging across all platforms of communication – right from the voice IVR to design, style, packaging, point of sale-online and offline-will all have same

consistent messaging.

On a final note, Madhavan says that today Peps is present not just in India but also in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal as well. He adds, “We have grown in size today with our current channel strength of 4000-member dealer network spread across India, with 140 company-owned and franchise based “Great Sleep Stores” - a concept of creating a bedroom

ambience to focus on the personalized buying of a mattress after experiencing its feel. Our distributor network is around 187, poised to increase the channel width dramatically in the coming fiscal. We diversified our product portfolio to Affordable Luxury, International Luxury and Ultra Luxury. This ensures that all the consumers have access to a quality sleep and wake up refreshed.”

What mattress suits me may not be good for you as my body structure and weight is different from you and you should select a mattress suited to your needs.

What happens now is that when you enter a multi-branded retail shop, you select a mattress based on the recommendation of the salesman, who in all likelihood will talk about a mattress that benefits him than the mattress that is best for your health. So, we have launched our ‘Great Sleep Stores where we showcase our entire range of products. We want a customer to come in, roll on the mattresses, feel them and then decide what mattress they want.

the decision to buy a mattress is made jointly by the husband and the wife.

We do look at other media and Print, but to be very frank newspapers are very expensive and an ad in the newspaper is only seen once.

What were some of the challenges you faced during the initial days?

First and foremost, consumers weren’t aware of the product.

Also, there was a belief that international products are too expensive and being a new brand, customers also wondered who the promoters behind the brand were? We also faced a challenge with the distribution channel, as many did not accept my product. Simple reason being that if they accepted my brand and started promoting it, they felt that the leading brands may not support them. Considering ours was a new product, there was a dilemma how much they could support us.

And to compound, the problem, the product category we represent does not have great user engagement at a social level. It is not like a mobile phone or a car that people can flaunt.

A mattress gets hidden in the bedroom under the bedsheet and is the last thing that people would show off in their bedroom.

Customer interaction with the direct product is limited on an ongoing basis. Also, when you are tired all you want to do is sleep and many do not bother with the quality of the mattress.

How do you then overcome this challenge with the consumer?

We are now working towards enhancing the aesthetic value and the emotional value for our product now. We have now started telling customers that a mattress is as important as the clothes you wear. Why, because a mattress is more personalised.

What is the media mix for your latest campaign, DreamMakers?

For the DreamMakers’ campaign, we are heavily using Television and Radio. We are using Radio mostly in the metros where the commute time is long and there is heavy traffic on the roads. On Television, we are mainly using General Entertainment Channels (GECs) which is seen by the entire family. This is because

You are very strong in the south…

Yes, 80% of our total revenue comes from the south. We are looking at expanding in the western markets. The fact is that the psyche of the customers in the western markets is very similar to those in the south. We feel that influencing customers here is easier than those in the east and north. We are present in these markets but are more focused on the west.

This year, we will cross Rs 475 crores and I am sure that two years from then, I will double my revenue and cross Rs 1,000 crores. We are growing at over 30% CAGR and my profitability (EBIDTA) is 12-13%. When the industry is growing at 10%, I am growing at 30% and I am confident that we will cross Rs 1,000 crore in two years.

January 2019 | PITCH | 65

LIFESTYLE

THE

PERENNIAL EVENTS

MARKET

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Some key brands in the Live Entertainment industry are changing the conversation around events market and doing it in style. The grandeur of events hosted in the country is beyond imagination

BY ANAM KHAN

T

oday the live entertainment industry is gaining immense popularity with events like Sunburn and Comic-Con getting repeated year-on-year. Event management today is more of creating an experience worth both money and time. All such events today are the right bend of technology, creative content and innovative ideas.

THE OUTLINER One can feel a fresh breeze of convergence keeping pace with the rapidly evolving media ecosystem.

To keep up with the newly shaping future, companies are re-envisioning every aspect of what they do and how they do it.

The most disruptive, forwardthinking companies are striving to create an integrated ecosystem suited to a consumer-driven dynamic – one in which social media and e-commerce are interlinked with the entertainment experience itself.

According to a report by IBEF, Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry grew at a CAGR of 10.90 per cent from FY17-18; and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.10 per cent to touch Rs 2,660.20 billion (US$ 39.68 billion) by FY23 from Rs 1,436.00 billion (US$ 22.28 billion) in FY18.

As they say, the Gen next is very informed these days, they are not the ones restricted to their ipads or television, but instead, they go out and dive into the luxury of an experiential market with events coming up almost every month.

POWER OF PRESENCE Year endings are the best time for the events business. This is the niche time of the year when brands put up their entire focus on planning around Christmas and New Years.

2018 witnessed some of the biggest names of the industry like Zee5, Kingfisher, Fastrack, Jack n Jones, Skybags, Spicejet, Magic Moments, Little Hearts, Captain Morgan, Havmore, ITC, Redbull to Sunburn, a Percept Intellectual Property, is Asia’s Premiere Electronic Dance Music (EDM) Festival, and is ranked amongst the world’s biggest music festivals.

For the love of DC and Marvel, audiences were showered with Comic-Con, a multigenre entertainment and comic convention held annually. Some brands that stole the show at the event were Swatch, Marvel Studios, Amazon Prime Video, Maruti Suzuki Arena, Sony Pix.

BY THE FACTS The events and activations industry in India is expected to cross Rs 10,000 crore mark by 2020-21, as per an EY-EEMA (Event and Entertainment Management Association) report.

The industry, which was at Rs 5,631 crore in 2016-17 overall, has been growing at a 16% CAGR, even overtaking the Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry, which is growing at 11-13% CAGR, the report ‘#Experience_Next’ said.

January 2019 | PITCH | 67

LIFESTYLE

THE EVENTS AND ACTIVATIONS INDUSTRY IN INDIA IS EXPECTED TO CROSS RS 10,000 CRORE MARK BY 2020-21, AS PER AN EY-EEMA (EVENT AND ENTERTAINMENT MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION) REPORT

Talking about the growth of events business in India and the growth of Live Music Industry, Saugato Bhowmik, Head, Live Viacom18 and Consumer Products, Viacom18 said, ‘‘The Live Music Scene has evolved exponentially with several music festivals and concerts spurring up in different parts of the country, programming a range of commercial and noncommercial but unique acts. As the country witnesses large and increasing digital consumption along with the rise of streaming services, discovering artists had become easier unlike a decade before when commercial acts dominated the market.’’

Briefing on non-commercial acts and events, Bhowmik added, ‘‘Now, we see a rise in noncommercial and new-age acts which is great for the music scene.

Audience and the change in their content consumption pattern have also encouraged several genres in the country. Today, the youth is not limiting itself to just Rock, Pop or EDM but wants to explore and enjoy the variety of music which is a driving factor in the evolution of live music scene in India.’’

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Further talking about collaboration between International Artists and how it has contributed to Sunburn’s growth, Karan Singh, CEO, Percept One, talked about the initial days how they had focussed on bringing down top international artists to India. ‘‘We have been accounted to bring some of the top artists across India. Some of the famous artists like Martin Garrix, Krewella and Dimitri Vegas have also made their debut in the country through Sunburn. Artists themselves enjoy performing here in India, because the atmosphere and vibes they experience in India is not comparable to anywhere else in the world. We have been fortunate enough to maintain the relationship between the artist and a fan that automatically creates a connection with the brand itself,’’ added Singh.

CRAFTED FOR ENTHUSIASTS Creative events other than live music are grabbing more eyeballs these days. Comic-Con India

is an excellent example of how the Indian market is adopting the culture and showbiz from the west. In its 8th edition of Comic-Con Delhi took place on 7th,8th,9th December 2018 and was a hit with its fan.

Talking about the yoy growth of the event, Jatin Varma, Founder, Comic Con India, said, ‘‘In 2011 at our first edition in Delhi (which was free to enter), we had about 5000 people show up. Last year, with 5 shows and multiple ancillary events, we hosted close to 2 Lac visitors combined. The growth has been phenomenal and this trend continues year on year.’’

Conceptualizing the event and how India Market has adapted it, Varma added, ‘‘I believe there are a lot of factors that worked for us, from timing to the unbelievable growth in social media and digital content over the past 7 years.

But most importantly, it’s been the uniqueness of the concept.

It’s an event unlike others and the fact it encompasses all of popular culture, that helps pull in all types of audiences be it comic book fans, co players, gamers, movie & television fans among others.’’

HITTING THE RIGHT ROAD As it is said, right marketing strategies and a handful of activities can build up the brand.

But in the case of such events it is necessary to have a considerate focus on the target group.

While Sunburn and Viacom’s Supersonic might be of interest for the people in their mid twenties, on the other hand Comic Con might interest people age certain limited age group. ‘‘While our festival happens once a year, we try to stay active and relevant in the minds of our TG through multiple extensions like Arcades, Club Nights, Campus, et al. These gigs act as our marketing pillars spread across the year. Beyond this, a fair chunk of our marketing campaign also includes campus ambassador program & campus activations through which we reach out to over 1000 colleges in India. Also apart from the conventional mediums like radio and television, we hugely rely on digital because it helps in engaging with our TG on a one-on-one basis,’’ said Bhowmik.

Talking about Sunburn’s journey since its inception and how it has been marketed to the right TG, Singh said, ‘‘we started our journey in year 2007 in Goa

as a very niche event which had a different concept. It became one of the best events in the world and we started noticing 50,000 crowd. After years of growth, we shifted our venue from Candolim to Vagator Beach as we needed a bigger venue.

Eventually, we have now moved to Pune and we are also getting the good response there.

Meanwhile, we have expanded our event in different formatsSunburn Arena, Sunburn Campus, Sunburn Pre-Festival and Sunburn reload in tier 2 & 3 cities. In year 2017 we did almost 73 shows which have now crossed over 100 events.’’

FUTURISTIC OUTLOOK Events like Comic-Con are internationally backed up and are often associated with movies for promotions, but here the question arises ‘Is India market gearing up for the same sooner in the near future?’

Further commenting on the same, Varma added, “Internationally, our sister event in New York – the one & only New York Comic Con, has previews and star-casts at the show. In India, we are slowly moving there and creating that space. Our market is still smaller and thus we do not have cast & crew of international

properties coming down. But over the past 7 years with partners such as Disney, WB &many others, fans in India have been able to get experiences similar to the ones at the international shows. With local content, we had Baahubali do something on these lines over the past few years, from cast members, to fan experiences, screenings & comic book collaborations. The Indian market is certainly moving in the same direction.’’

January 2019 | PITCH | 69

GALLERY

INDIAN MARKETING AWARDS & INDIA BRAND CONCLAVE 2018 The fifth edition of the exchange4media Indian Marketing Awards was held at Leela Ambience, Gurugram. The awards recognise the fact that marketing is critical for the organic growth of a business. The biggest award- Marketing Team of the Year at IMA- was bagged by Zee TV. The awards were preceded by the India Brand Conclave 2018, themed ‘Driving Business Growth through Marketing Effectiveness’, wherein industry veterans shared their gamechanging branding and marketing stories.

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1) Nawal Ahuja of exchange4media Group with Ashok Bhasin of Hero MotoCorp, Herjit S Bhalla of Hershey India, and the winners of the Marketing Team of the Year - ZEE TV 2) Ashok Bhasin of Hero MotoCorp 3) Vikas Mehta of PointNine Lintas, Anika Agarwal of Max Bupa Health Insurance, Dinesh Arora of Angel Broking, Prashant Verma of Grofers and Trupti Bhandari of GSK Consumer Healthcare 4) NS Satish of Haier India ( left) 5) Vikram Chopra of CARS24 with Partha Sinha of McCann Worldgroup 6) Avik Chattopadhyay of Expereal, Amit Sethiya of Syska Group, Ayushman Chiranewala of Fastrack, B Krishna Rao of Parle Products, Gulbahar Taurani of Philips India and Srinivas Rao of Lifestyle International 7) Rachana Panda of GE of South Asia 8) Shashi Sinha of IPG Mediabrands 9) Kiran Appachu & Harish Gowda of Asianet 10) Saurabh Gupta of BTVI 11) Ameet Kumar, Hardik Pahuja, Abhinav Seth, Aditya Arora of 9x Media 12) Oliver Mirza of Dr. Oetker India 13) Mehraj Dube of Zee Media 14) Ankita Paul, Ahmad Faraz, Sahil Gupta, Shibani Banerjee of Shemaroo Entertainment

January 2019 | PITCH | 71

GALLERY

SOUTH CONCLAVE The second edition of exchange4media group South Conclave was held in the beautiful city of Bengaluru on 30th November 2018. This year’s theme was one of the most discussed topics of the marketers ‘Emotional Connect and The Distracted Consumer’. Eminent marketers and industry leaders marked their presence as they discussed how they can leverage their brand’s popularity to create an emotional connect with the consumer.

Here are a few glimpses from this year’s conference.

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1) Vishaak Kumar, Chief Executive officer, Madura Fashion& Lifestyle, Lifestyle Brands.

2) Rohit Gothi, CEO, Hero Cycles 3) Kishankumar Shyamalan, MD, Wavemaker India; Pradeep Hejmadi, Group CEO, Aidem Ventures; Ritu Gupta, Director Marketing, Dell; Sanjeev Shukla, Group Chief Marketing Officer, Muthoot Pappachan Group; Mayuri Saika, Head Marketing, Roca; Mark Titus, GM – Marketing, Nippon Paints; Ritesh Ghosal, Chief Marketing Officer, Croma (Infiniti Retail Ltd); Anand Pathak, Director – Marketing, Netmeds

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4) Vaishali Verma, CEO, Initiative India; Rajkumar Paranthaman, Marketing Head, AirAsia India; Srinivasa Rao, Senior Vice President- Marketing, Lifestyle International; Simeran Bhasin, Cofounder, Brag; Vinod Hayagriv, Managing Director & Director, C. Krishniah Chetty Group of Jewellers; Sunay Bhasin, CMO, MTR 5) Prasanth Kumar, CEO, Mindshare (South Asia, Middle East and Africa) 6) K. Madhavan, Managing Director, Peps Industries 7) Pradeep Cholayil, CMD, Cholayil

January 2019 | PITCH | 73

RAPID FIRE

SRIVATS TS

VP Marekting, Swiggy

Favourite go-to app

Swiggy. I am a foodie and Swiggy en is my ideal app ev It’ . as a consumer s perhaps the most used app on my phone.

The Idea of a n perfect vacatio e great In one of th rlde wo cities of th w York, London, Ne ing the Paris. Walk ying the streets, enjo ading e, re local cuisin t hecking ou a lot and c es. the local sit

De-stressing after a long day at work I am a big sports buff. So maybe opening up the NBA app on my phone and checking out some NBA videos and sports videos.

If not a marketer, what would you be?

I enjoy sports and technology, so ng perhaps somethi n tio ec rs te in at the of games and ld technology is a fie ve ha ld that I wou . been interested in

Favourite forms of entertainment

74 | PITCH | January 2019

I love reading, music, watch a lot of TV shows and movies.

RNI NO: DELENG/2009/27694