Pitch march issue 2014

The Face of Marketing

Volume XI | Issue 3 | March 2014

` 75

LUCKY 2013 Buoyant 2014

Market expected to grow 16.8%, riding on the back of Lok Sabha and State assembly elections

Presents

Powered by

Pitch | Sep-Oct 2013

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HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF. COLUMN ANNURAG BATRA THIS TIME, DON’T MISS IT.

The untold story of India's political drama witnessed over the last 40 years. pm

Har Hindustani Ka Channel 6 26 82

| February | February Pitch 2014 Pitch March2014 2014

INSIDE

COVER STORY

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Pitch Volume XI, Issue-3 March, 2014

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Editor & Director Director President

Annurag Batra Amit Agnihotri Nawal Ahuja Sunil Kumar

EDITORIAL TEAM

Consulting Editor

Vinod Behl

Deputy Editor

Rashi Bisaria

Senior Correspondent

Gunjan Verma

Correspondents

Kanika Mehrotra Ankur Gaurav Devansh Sharma

Senior Art Director

Shamsad Shaikh

Senior Graphic Designer

Joby Mathew

Photographers

Vilas Kalgutkar (Mumbai) Suresh Gola (Noida)

AD SALES

Rajat Thareja Abdulla M Mazumder Varnikaa jain Sneha Walke

9810134435 9871609348 9769153087 9845541143

0FFICES

NEW DELHI: Shop No. 32, 33 south Ettn. Part-I, Om vihar, Uttam Nagar, New Delhi 110 059

32 PRINT Print Continues its Dominance

36 TELEVISION Advertising spends expected to grow in 2014

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

VIEWS

Bengaluru: Flat No. 1,062, 1st Floor, 2nd Cross, 6th Main Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Indira Nagar, Bengaluru - 560 038

Avinash Pandey Chief Revenue Officer & COO, ABP News

VIEWS Vinod Sharma (Delhi) - 9999447209 vinod@exchange4media.com

“If we manage to form a stable government, we can grow at an even better rate”

Anandan Nair (Mumbai) - 9819445200 anair@exchange4media.com

Arunabh Das Sharma President, Bennett Coleman and Company

CIRCULATION/DISTRIBUTION

“Television industry will continue to flourish”

Rahul Johri Senior VP and General Manager, South Asia at Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific

“Advertisers need to engage better to remain relevant”

On News-stands ` 75 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, E-53, Sector-7 Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 An exchange4media Publication

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News Channels, can do better if they learn from GECs

“The growth in newspapers has been skewed towards regional language dailies” Supriyo Sinha VP, Bengali Dailies, Anandabazar Patrika & Ebela, ABP Pvt. Ltd.

Uday Shankar CEO, Star India

“Digital media is not a threat for TV advertising” Raj Nayak CEO, Colors

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Pitch | February 2014

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INSIDE

INTERNET

CINEMA

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From Successful to Significant

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Cinema advertising needs to mature

VIEWS “Digital Platforms have become a crucial part of the advertising mix”

VIEWS “Cinema Advertising-a crucial media to stay connected with the audience”

Ramesh Kumar Head, ESPNcricinfo and Digital Media, India

Viral Oza Director Marketing, Nokia India

“Digital blindfolds need to come off”

CASE STUDY

Madhavan Narayanan Senior Editor and Tech Columnist

“Internet is positioned to bring in a new set of advertisers”

CEAT & MTV revive the love for biking

Pratik Mazumder VP & Head Marketing, Times Internet

RADIO

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Exceeding Expectations

Is exclusivity a boon or a bane for

ITALIAN

VIEWS “Report too optimistic.... and also too conservative!”

Prashant Pandey Executive Director & CEO, Radio Mirchi

“Digital is a key and critical area for us” Nisha Narayanan COO, 93.5 Red FM

OUTDOOR 54 Medium Needs to Reinvent Itself VIEWS “High Impact Digital billboards are the future” Junaid Shaikh MD, RoshanSpace Brandcom

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Luxury brands face an uphill task as they enter the Indian market but have devised unique ways to market their exclusivity

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INTERVIEWS Sam Pitroda | Chairman, National Innovation Council

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K Prem Kumar | CEO of Eastern Condiments Private Ltd.

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Kofi Amoo Gottfried | Global Communications Director, Bacardi Rums

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Vaasu Gavarasana | Yahoo’s APAC Business Marketing Head

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Ravi Bharadwaj | Executive Director, India Marketing Dell

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COLUMNS Prof. Smitha Sarma Ranganathan | Strategic Branding & Marketing Management

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Ankur Kalra | CEO, Vibgyor Brand Services

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Vinish Kathuria | Chief Operating Office, Digital Quotient

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Philippe Paget | CEO, International Epica Awards

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Jaideep Shergill | CEO, MSLGROUP in India

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Annurag Batra | Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, Pitch Magazine

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Corrigendum: This is regarding the interview of Anisha Motwani that appeared in the February 2014 issue of Pitch. The correct name of the company is Max Life Insurance and the logo used has also changed . The usage of old name and logo is deeply regretted.

Pitch | March 2014

Pitch | February 2014

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LAUNCHPAD

Gadgets & Gizmos ORIFLAME

SHORT FORMATS

Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo and NotePRO

The Product: Oriflame India in their continual strive to provide laudable, superior products, has re-launched its much appreciated face cream range under Optimals.

The Product:

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. unveiled the new Samsung NotePRO tablet series, equipped with innovative and meaningful technology along with The Galaxy Tab3 Grand Neo, a sleek and light-weight tablet.

Sporting two powerful devices – the Galaxy Tab3 Neo and Galaxy NotePRO, Samsung’s Galaxy tablet portfolio redefines what a tablet can do.

USP: For the first time on Android tablets, users can share anything on their screen as well as starting a WebEx meeting from contact list. Samsung e-Meeting provides collaboration capabilities by giving users the ability to share content during a meeting without having to access a central server or network.

Specifications: The Samsung Galaxy NotePRO present the world’s first 12.2-inch WQXGA Widescreen (16:10) display, offering crystal clear resolution (2560x1600) with more than 4 million pixels, making it an ideal platform for every type of content creation and consumption.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab3 Neo is a mid-segment device with an attractive, slim and light design. The Galaxy Tab3 Neo has a 7-inch display with 600 x 1024 pixels and it measures 193x117x9.7mm and weighs 310gm.

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Optimals Range

USP: The new range boasts of Lingon 50:50 that provide 53 per cent more effective results. Lingon 50:50 is an unprecedented formula that shields one’s skin from environmental stress and works towards ensuring lighter skin tone and healthier skin.

The device is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and packs 1GB of RAM. It comes with 8GB internal storage expandable via microSD card, and sports a 2MP rear camera. The new Galaxy Tab3 Neo runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS as connectivity options. There is a 3G variant available as well.

Background: Founded in 1967, Oriflame is a beauty company selling directly in more than 60 countries. Its wide portfolio of Swedish, nature-inspired, innovative beauty products is marketed through approximately 3 million in-

Background: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in technology, opening new possibilities for people everywhere. Through relentless innovation and discovery, Samsung is transforming the world of TVs, smartphones, tablets, PCs, cameras, home appliances, printers, LTE systems, medical devices, semiconductors and LED solutions. Samsung employs 286,000 people across 80 countries with annual sales of US$216.7 billion. 

dependent Oriflame Consultants, generating annual sales of around €1.5 billion. Respect for people and nature underlies Oriflame’s operating principles and is reflected in its social and environmental policies. Oriflame supports numerous charities worldwide and is a Co-founder of the World Childhood Foundation. Oriflame Cosmetics is listed on the Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchange. 

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Pitch | March 2014

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LAUNCHPAD SPACIO

Space Management The Product: With a small idea, a room can look beautiful while making full use of the space. Hence a simple thing like partition can also create wonders in the room if it doubles up as an object of interest. This time SPACIO has unveiled an exclusive collection of partitions which looks innovative and serves as a useful element for space management.

USP: The collection of partitions available in SPACIO is a collection from all over the world.

Specifications: Inspired by contemporary art, geometric patterns , theme partitions come in a wide range of colours. These partitions are anything but boring.

Made specifically keeping in mind the modern taste and needs.

Background: SPACIO is a part of S. T. Unicom. The brand is the frontrunner in internationally established luxurious and designer range of furniture & accessories that are personally handpicked by our team on each quarterly visit aboard. The range of products which are sourced from all over the world and now favorite with corporate, celebrities, NRI’s and all those who have a certain eclectic taste in all things that set about a certain air of sophistication in their interior. 

PARLE

Hide and Seek Black Bourbon Crème Sandwich The Product: Parle Products presents a new and renewed version of the highly popular Bourbon with Hide and Seek Black Bourbon Crème Sandwich. Available in two flavors – Vanilla and Chocolate, the brand positions the biscuits as premium and Generation Next in the crème category.

USP: Carrying the ‘Hide & Seek’ brand lineage, the biscuits come in attractive dark coco shells that sandwich rich creams in Chocolate and Vanilla.

Specifications: The packaging complements these rich flavors with its contemporary design, simple and clean graphics in regal purple for the vanilla and rich brown for the chocolate. Hide and Seek Black Bourbon Crème Sandwich is available across India in pack size of 100 gms and priced at Rs. 25.00.

Background: Parle Products has been India’s largest manufac-

turer of biscuits and confectionery for over 80 years. Makers of the world’s largest selling biscuit, Parle-G, and a host of other very popular brands, the Parle name symbolizes quality, nutrition and great taste. With a reach spanning even to the remotest villages of India, the company has definitely come a very long way since its inception. Many of the Parle products – biscuits or confectioneries, are market leaders in their category and have won acclaim at the Monde Selection, since 1971. With a 40% share of the total biscuit market and a 15% share of the total confectionary market in India, Parle has grown to become a multi-million dollar company. Compiled by Gunjan Verma -gunjan.verma@exchange4media.com

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Pitch | March 2014

Pitch | March 2014

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BUZZ

Campaigns tVC

Bachatey Raho!

SnaPDEaL.COM

Creative Agency: Draft FCB Ulka Story: The TVC tells the story of a family’s discovery of fashion on Snapdeal. It features their domestic help complaining about their constant online shopping that has resulted in the vast collection of clothes. From the daughter and mother’s collection of suits and dupattas to the son’s sportswear to the father’s changed fashion sense, she blames them all on

tV

iODEx uLtraGEL

Rationale: Family Fashion is probably one of the largest business spaces in the online retail space. Being the largest online marketplace, it is an appropriate time for the brand to talk about the

category in a quirky, clutter breaking way using not your usual fashionable anorexic models. With almost all online shopping sites offering more or less the same in terms of products and prices, the advertising we see is more or less the same. The ones who stand out are those who have a distinct tone of voice.

And, this was a challenge! It is a simple and true idea that resonates with our audience. 

Iodex UltraGel apnao, dil se muskurao

Creative Agency: Leo Burnett Story: A badminton player at an international tournament is fighting severe muscular pain to stand strong on the ground, her smashes making the country proud as she wins the match and stands victorious.

But instead of tasting her victory, she sits back to bury her face in a towel, trying to hide her pain. When she lifts her face, it is covered by a mask with a huge smile as she carries on interacting with the media and her fans. The smiling mask continues to hide her pain from the world. But Saina decides to unmask herself by curing the pain and reaches into her kit bag. Iodex UltraGel comes to her rescue as the voiceover describes that Diclofenac in Iodex UltraGel is absorbed 90 per cent faster

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their online shopping habit. The destination is then unveiled - www.snapdeal. com. The film ends with the help asking for a raise, given the savings on buying from the portal.

through the skin as compared to the most prescribed pain gel. It then reduces internal inflammation in the muscles, providing effective relief from pain. The TVC ends with Saina accompanied by hundreds of women throwing away their mask and saying “Iodex UltraGel apnao, dil se muskurao” (Try Iodex UltraGel and smile whole-heartedly).

Rationale: People often experience severe muscular pain in their day-to-day lives but choose to hide it from their loved ones behind a smile. Iodex UltraGel lets you take this mask off by reducing the internal inflammation of the muscles and providing effective relief from pain. And the fact that women are putting up a brave face in dayto-day life to hide pain is a human truth that connects with everyone.

Pitch | March 2014

Pitch | March 2014

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BUZZ TVC TVC

Maruti Suzuki - CELERIO

Max Life Insurance

Aapke Sachche Advisors

Life takes a Leap

Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Mather

Creative Agency: Publicis Capital Story: The film opens with a red Celerio shown on the road. Soon, the car comes to a halt at a traffic intersection. The occupants of the car comprising a young family have a conversation while the car is waiting at the signal. As the signal turns green, the man shifts the gear into motion and holds his wife’s hand as the car moves ahead. The TVC then showcases a blue Celerio occupied by four young executives while the super

reads ‘CICO styling’ and ‘Best in class 23.1 kmpl –Auto gear shift and manual.’

The film ends with other happy occupants of Celerios shown with the voice over saying, “The all new Maruti Suzuki Celerio- India’s first auto gear shift. No more changing gears and stressing about mileage. Life takes a leap.”

Rationale: The aim of the TVC is to highlight the new way of driving.

Indian customers are often stuck in traffic jams and the stop-and-go jams are tiresome. The new Celerio with the Auto Gear Shift technology brings back the pleasure of driving. The TVC highlights how easy it is to drive the Celerio even in crowded traffic conditions.

Story: The TVC focuses on the quality of services delivered by agent advisors of Max Life Insurance. Here a woman agent is seen sitting in a beauty salon when her phone rings. As she reaches out to pick up the phone, a devil appears and tries to stop her from doing so as it is a Sunday. However, the agent answers the phone and speaks to the customer who wants to enquire about the procedure for change of address.

The devil continues to distract the agent,

Form IV Place of Publication : Periodicity of this Publication : Printer :

Nationality : Address : Publisher : Nationality : Editor : Nationality : Address :

Noida Monthly All Time Offset Printers, E-53, Sector-7, NOIDA – 201301, UP Indian B-20, Sector-57, NOIDA – 201301, UP Mr. Annurag Batra Indian Mr Amit Agnihotri Indian B-20, Sector-57, NOIDA – 201301, UP

Name and address of individuals who own the Publication and partners or shareholders holding more than one percent of the total capital: Owner: M/S Adsert Web Solutions Pvt. Ltd. B-20, Sector-57, NOIDA – 201301, UP. Shareholders Holding More Than One Percent of the total Capital of the owner Company: 1. Mr Annurag Batra, R-282, GK-I, New Delhi - 110 048 2. Mr Nawal Ahuja, C-2/2533, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi-110 070 3. Mr Amit Agnihotri, B-57, Sector-72, Noida- 201 301, UP 4. Mr Shushil Pandit, 1A/49, Ashok Vihar, Phase-I, New Delhi-110 052 5. Ms Mona Jain, E-159, GK-III, Masjid Moth, New Delhi-110 048 6. Hive Communications Pvt. Ltd, 1, Nizamuddin East, New Delhi-110 014 I, Annurag Batra, hereby declare that the particulars given above are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Sd Annurag Batra

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while the agent advisor asks the customer send the papers to Max Life Insurance and volunteers to take it forward from him. The TVC highlights the extent to which Max Life agents are committed to their clients and reflects their eagerness to make themselves available whenever needed.

Rationale: Through this campaign Max Life Insurance has taken the brand philosophy of “Sachchi Advice” to the next level by highlighting their commitment towards the customers. The Agent-Devil format has worked wonders for the brand in last campaigns and this time again, with the freshness brought in by lady devil and agent and new situations, it brings the smile back on audience’s faces and an even deeper trust in the brand.

Compiled by Gunjan Verma -gunjan.verma@exchange4media.com

Pitch | March 2014

Pitch | February 2013

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CASE STUDY: AXIS BANK

AXIS BANK’s TH YOU Account Launch

By Devansh Sharma Background: Established in 1993, Axis Bank was one of the few private banks that began its operations in 1994. Axis Bank is the third largest private sector bank in India and offers a wide portfolio of financial services. The bank has a wide outreach with more than 2,200 branches and 12,000 ATM’s present across the country. The Bank also has its presence overseas with offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Colombo, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi.

Challenge: Axis Bank wanted to create a desire among the youth for a product they did not want, in a category they did not relate to and for a brand they did not care about. Considering that more than half of the country’s population consisted of youth, Axis Bank set its mind to winning them over. But it was no easy task.

Axis Bank was planning to launch a savings account product for youngsters, with features like customized card designs, an intuitive mobile app, deals and offers via partner establishments.

Traditionally, banking has never targeted young consumers; it is something which is associated with parents and family.

Youngsters have little knowledge and no interest in what a bank has to say. Their view of banks is formed by the numerous sales-calls, trying to sell them loans/ cards/ insurance, which are usually of no interest to them. They are usually detached from

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Axis Bank wanted to create a desire among the youth for a product they did not want, in a category they did not relate to and for a brand they did not care about banking activities. Axis Bank had an uphill task ahead.

Whatever little consideration they had for the category, was reserved for brands like HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. Axis Bank as a brand was nowhere in the reckoning in their minds.

Objective: With the YOUTH Account launch, the initial business objective was to achieve 1,00,000 new sign-ups for the

Axis Bank YOUTH Account in six months with a limited media investment of INR 60, 00,000 (Cost in advertising per acquisition = INR 60).

The Big Idea: It’s All about YOU! The idea was to create a product that would interact with the youth in their language: • Customized Debit Cards– Though the concept of customized cards

Pitch | March February 2014 2014

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•

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was not new but taking a step ahead, Axis Bank made the debit card unique, the way youngsters customize their phone-skins and tattoos, to make sure theirs was one-of-a-kind. With Axis Bank YOUTH account, young consumers could do the same to their card.

Intuitive Mobile App – For youngsters, a mobile phone is not just a communicating device; it is a constant companion, entertainer and a lifestyle enabler. Considering the affinity of youth towards mobile, Axis Bank created a special mobile app, which facilitated banking transactions on smartphones. It also allowed them to check their account balance, recharge mobile phones, transfer money to a friend’s YOUTH Account without visiting a branch.

Pull money from parent’s linked Axis Bank Account

–With the YOUTH Account, the young customers could pull money from their parent’s linked Axis Bank Account using the YOUTH Mobile App. Parents could set a monthly limit on the amount of money their kid could pull out from their account.

Great offers on the YOUTH Debit Card – The youth likes to shop smart. The YOUTH Account offered

Pitch | February 2013

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CASE STUDY: AXIS BANK them the best deals at their favorite hangout destinations that included movies, apparel, mobile recharges.

Execution: The youth today is always online. Among all media vehicles, internet is most popular among them. It has approximately 43% reach in the given target group, which is higher than that of radio and cinema. Social networking clearly stood out with 95% of the youth using a social media site at least once every day.

Given the reach of digital among youth and the limited budgets at hand, Axis Bank decided to structure its entire media strategy on the digital platform. The strategy

Engage with customers on DIGITAL Go beyond traditional media formats on digital – Introduce gamification : The product needed a campaign to communicate with the target group in an innovative way. To achieve this, Axis Bank came up with the idea and used gamification in the financial services industry in India.

Creating an Information Destination – the YOUTH Account Microsite Axis Bank created a special micro site for the YOUTH Account (www.axisbank. com/YOU) - which acted as the central repository of all information on

•

•

Mobile fund transfers became WTF (Whoever Transfers Funds needs only mobile numbers); Card design gallery became GTG (Go To Gallery and design your card); and so on.

Create your YOUTH Card – a Do-ItYourself Facebook application The Customize your card feature was brought to life with this Facebook app that allowed YOU, the user, to design your own card. YOU could upload your favorite picture, add effects and create your YOUTH Card design. And if YOU wanted that card for real, all YOU had to do was walk in to the nearest Axis Bank branch with a soft copy of the same and get the design on your YOUTH Account Debit Card.

Add on-ground legs to the campaign to strengthen engagement Axis Bank partnered with Mood Indigo, a popular college festival, that gave youngsters a chance to experience the YOUTH Account. Special Wi-Fi enabled YOUTH Account zones were created.

The concept was further extended on ground by taking it to Sir JJ School of Arts in Mumbai. Here, students from various disciplines were given the opportunity to showcase their idea of the YOUTH Card. Over 150 students participated.

Image Courtsey: AXIS Bank

revolved around the following: Introduce the product on DIGITAL The product was first introduced to the Axis Bank fan base on Facebook. It highlighted the key features of the new product in a manner that was different than any of the existing communication being carried out by the bank – both visually and in terms of style of communicating. This phase lasted for a week before the other elements of the campaign started to kick in.

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the product and the campaign. While it looked completely different from a regular bank website, the brand felt it was essential to establish a connect with the audience.

Even the manner in which features of the account were communicated borrowed from the language of the youth.

• Pulling money online from their parents’ account became OMG (Online Money Gets pulled);

Promote the product on DIGITAL Axis Bank continued to drive awareness through consistent communication on the Axis Bank Facebook community and targeted mailers. The media plan delivered over 8.8 million ad impressions and over 76,000 clicks reaching out to a large segment of the target group.

Results: The campaign reached a total of over 2.2 million users on Facebook, and generated over 30,000 likes. The sales target was exceeded by 44 percent and the 100,000 milestone was achieved in just three months. n -devansh.sharma@exchange4media.com Pitch | March February 2014 2014

COLUMN The Great

INDIAN ELECTORAL CAMPAIGNS From Pointless Promises to ‘attempted’ Value Proposition Prof. Smitha Sarma Ranganathan

Strategic Branding & Marketing Management

sarma.smitha@gmail.com

Personal branding of party chieftains seems to be the only significant point of difference that can lead to competitive positioning

Pitch | March 2014

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ver the last decade despite the internet explosion election campaigns have never been so closely followed en masse as much as it is today. This could be partly owing to the concerted effort by political parties to connect with both the masses and the classes using an array of interesting touch points. With promotional levers ranging from social media to on-street activations, political marketing finally finds its wings in the India.

Here are some amusing promotional tactics embraced by the Indian political camps.

Trigger a Revolution with Guerrilla Warfare Guerrilla warfare characterised by a small group of armed commoners engaged in warfare seems a perfect parallel to describe Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) modus to engage in India’s neo-political battle. Despite being a geographically a small region to conquer, Delhi representing the epicentre of power and politics seemed a strategic target to take on. Besides, AAP’s winning the high-visibility Delhi polls magnified its stature and standing manifold to a large nation desperately seeking change.

Furthermore, AAP’s combat strategy at the

electoral battlefield to ambush its opponents in their own territory is a combination of sharp strategy and smart tactics, both hallmarks of guerrilla warfare. AAP’s strategic pitch stuck to their key proposition of zero tolerance to corruption and uncompromised governance, a distinct positioning they crafted and carefully defended in every touch point with the voter.

AAP’s clever tactics is palpable in the way the electoral manifesto carpet bombed across the capital for both the masses and the classes.

Piggy backing on auto rickshaws, the message was driven home to every aam aadmi desperately seeking a fresh whiff of leadership.

The vision of a corruption free India resonated to distant shores via social media platforms that got earnest voters to even fly back to their constituency in time to ink their support for AAP. However, the proof of the pudding is in eating it; thus great promotion sans delivery raises questions on your very existence. Thus, even to sustain AAP needs a continual reconnaissance of the electoral field. It is critical that the party keeps itself nimble and agile both at the same time. For a party that emerged to be the common man’s hope to an uncommon life, AAP’s ability to pick up citizen sentiments

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COLUMN and make swift turnarounds in terms of strategy and execution will decide its destiny. Lest the war-cry against corruption ends up as just another muted attempt at mutiny!

Tête-à-tête over Tea With political parties having overlapping electoral manifestos, personal branding of party chieftains seems to be the only significant point of difference that can lead to competitive positioning. However, in the electoral turf, crafting a personal brand persona is somewhat tricky for it should effectively differentiate the leader from opposition candidates while ensuring integration of the leader’s brand persona with that of the political party’s vision. Brand Narendra Modi (NaMo) the prime ministerial candidate of BJP worked around the tenets of personal branding by pitching as the provider of progressive governance as his unique attribute that seamlessly blended into his vision of a Resurgent and Resilient India. While this compelling positioning created waves of support in social media, and in pre-electoral rallies, what was obviously amiss was the platform to bond with the common man via sweet nothings! The Chai Pe Charcha campaign that followed the Chai-wala dig by competition seems to be a boon in disguise indeed for brand NaMo. The campaign is seen as an uber cool move to achieve connect with commoners in the most unpresumptuous way.

In our minds Chai is synonymous with

awakening, while Chai-wala is symbolic of a hard working, heart-rending lad. Charcha on the other hand is reflective of an invitation for a conversation with emphasis on listening rather than a monologish delivery –often a hallmark of electoral communication. Thus, Chai Pe Charcha translates into an invite for all to bond over conversations at accessible points that could lead to awakening of an entire genre of citizensthe commoners! Furthermore, the campaign could also help rebrand NaMo as a leader who embraces all with no biases on caste, creed or religion. Last but not the least, Chai Pe Charcha campaign could be the last nail on the coffin against the mighty ruling rival by competitively positioning Brand NaMo as the hard-working boy with a humble past rising just through meritocracy to a generation that is beginning to spurn aristocracy. A classic case study on how to turn competitions’ bite to your advantageous high-decibel byte!

Testimonials sans a Soul Nothings more believable than testimonials provided they spell reality. Congress party’s promotional strategy seems to be resting largely on publicising ‘seemingly’ successful governance schemes using a range of citizen rather citizen-looking actors’ testimonials. Result – screenplay that looks staged and expressions that lack a soul, quite failing to hit the right chord. Adding to its woes, the continually large advertising spends on television despite the disastrous interview of Rahul Gandhi on national television seems a thoroughly avoidable promotional-sin! Besides social media presence of some of its more technology suave leaders, abysmally low social media quotient of the party as a whole seems overt in the congress camp. With neither the script nor the direction going right, the campaign strategy seems all gooey in the congress camp.

The Finish line Whatever the poll results, awakening of political parties to the concept of integrating their promotional endeavours is a refreshing one. So whether it is the Broom, Lotus or the Hand, symbols that would bask in newly found glory, the campaigns this election season mark early strides of political marketing in India that is more about value propositions and not just pointless promises! n

The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pitch

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Pitch | March 2014

INTERVIEW Sam PITRoda

“Digital offers just as much potential to marketers as it does to consumers” A

development thinker, policy maker, telecom inventor and entrepreneur Sam Pitroda dons many hats. Having spent four decades in Information and Communication Technology, he is a leading campaigner in helping bridge the global digital divide. After driving India’s technology and telecommunications revolution in the 1980s he is at the forefront of the several national development initiatives. Kanika Mehrotra from Pitch spoke to Sam Pitroda, Chairman, National Innovation Council, about the future of mobile marketing, and how the digital platform can be used by PSUs to bring about changes in the society. Some excerpts: The drastic growth in mobile has led to the growth of advertising and

Pitch 2014 Pitch || April February March 2014 2014

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INTERVIEW Sam PITRoda marketing on mobile. Marketers have realized its potential. How do you see this trend growing?

Smart phones have become part of people’s lives and smart phones are not just phones anymore. Nowadays, people have access to music, games, calendar through the smart phone. With the advent of applications, the whole scenario of the mobile world has changed. The success of mobile applications and mobile marketing depends on one important aspect which is local connect. The local language should be used to reach mobile users in different parts of the country. Another very specific requirement is that information that users get should be very specific to their needs. A piece of information that could be useful to one person may not be of any use to another. A youngster with interest in music would like to get information about the latest album but may not be interested in getting information about insurance or other sectors which are of not interest to him.

A trend that will be seen in coming years would be localization of applications. Localization not only means the use of local language but also local requirements. The content used has to be local and relevant.

A matter of great concern is that nowadays a lot of applications and games on mobiles are gimmicks and a waste of resources of companies producing them, companies marketing them and time of the users using it. The mobile is a very strong device and it should be used to its best for generating awareness.

You invented the electronic diary and now after so many years the scheduler applications on mobiles are synchronized with social media. How do you see the digital world growing and what will be its effects on marketing.

Digital marketing is unquestionably growing and a large consumer base is present on social media.

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A trend that will be seen in coming years is localization of applications. Localization not only means the use of local language but also local requirements One of the most interesting things about digital marketing is that it is faster, more adaptable, realistic, so it is not surprising that once the technology became available we began to move quickly into the digital age. The good news is that digital offers just as much potential to marketers as it does to consumers. Today, as a nation of a connected billion, a first in the history of the world, we need to leverage emerging technologies, including social media, to help alleviate the enormous problem of poverty. The aim is to create products, wealth and jobs with social conscience and social benefits.

The economic slowdown is an opportunity to innovate, and the aim is to find a good regional champion. The result will be path-breaking.

Digital marketing is unquestionably growing and a large consumer base is present on social media

You are an advisor to the United Nations.

These organizations are very active on digital platforms. Do you think the public sector organizations in the country can have marketing strategies revolving around social media? How successful will these strategies be for the PSUs? I am chairing a panel in the United Nations called M (obile)-powering which discusses empowerment with mobile devices and services .Mobile devices and services, which have seen remarkable growth worldwide, have the potential to make users powerful in remote and developing areas as well as trigger development and economic activity.

In line with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and principles of the information society, the M-Powering acInitiative is the result of a series of ITU ac tivities aimed at expanding and enhancing telecommunication services with a focus on the developing world. M-Powering Development is planned to serve as an international, multi-stakeholder platform that seeks to influence the ubiquity of mobile technology beyond basic communication. The launch of the M-Powering initiative by ITU is very timely and innovative.

Political Parties today are also very active on various social meme mardia. How will social media mar keting by political parties affect the 2014 general elections? imSocial media has become an im sceportant part of the political sce nario .The political parties are using efit. Social media seems to have an ef fect. But what needs to be analyzed is how effective social media is in tier 1 and tier2 cities. The effect of social media on the elections would differ from one city to the other. n -kanika.mehrotra@exchange4media.com

Pitch | March 2014

Pitch | February 2014

21

FEATURE ITALIAN LUXURY BRANDS

Is exclusivity a boon or a bane for

ITALIAN

in India?

Luxury brands face an uphill task as they enter the Indian market but have devised unique ways to market their exclusivity

By Kanika Mehrotra

A

ccording to a study conducted in 2013 by Assocham and Yes Bank, despite continued global economic slowdown, the luxury market in India is expected to grow at 25 per cent and to touch 15 billion dollars ( 80,325 crores) by 2015. It is quite evident that Luxury brands are playing a role in the Indian economy and the Indian market has become more appealing for international luxury brands.

The arrival of international brands in India started in a big way in the early 90s when Lacoste (French) entered India. This was shortly followed by the Italian brand ‘United Colors of Benet-

22

ton’. While small and sporadic imports were carried out by retailers in Delhi & Mumbai in the mid 90s, the first organized franchise arrangement was made by Blues Clothing Company Ltd for ‘Versace Collection’ and ‘Corneliani’ in 2005. The Emporio mall came up in 2007-2008 and ushered in a plethora of luxury fashion brands. Ever since, Italians brands like Roberto Cavalli, Missoni, Emilio Pucci have entered India much to the delight of fashionistas who once had to shop from foreign shores to satiate their hunger for designer labels.

But the luxury market has expanded in India and a new clientele has emerged. The Indian consumer

Pitch | March 2014

has become more discerning due to increased exposure to the world over the years. Frequent travel has served as an eye-opener giving rise to a consumer who knows exactly what he wants. Luxury consumers in India now include young professionals and businesspersons.

What are the specific challenges that are faced by luxury brands when they enter Indian markets? The challenges can be best understood by the brands and people who have been associated with the entry of these brands in India.

Luxury Connect is one of the first few groups that have been instrumental in bringing luxury brands like Gianni Versace, Versace Collection, Versace Home, Corneliani, John Smedley, Ferre, Cadini to India. To understand better the challenges faced by the brands, Pitch spoke to Abhay Gupta, CEO, Luxury Connect, who explained, “Lack of environmentally suitable retail spaces is one of the biggest challenges faced by brands. Selling luxury brands requires a particular type of ambience, neighborhood and above all atmosphere. Lack of such a retail space is a huge challenge. Such space is restricted to DLF Emporio in Delhi, Palladium in Mumbai and UB city in Bangalore.” He further stressed, “These spaces firstly do not have any leftover spaces and if at all there are some exits, the rentals sought are unimaginably high. This has resulted in some of the brands operating from five star hotel lobbies, which may not really attract the traffic any of the spaces mentioned above do.”

The other challenge mentioned by him was regarding regulations, “Regulatory is-

sues related to FDI / duties / various other statutory regulations are a bottleneck.

While FDI has been theoretically allowed in single brand retail, add on clauses like 30 per cent sourcing from Indian SME’s is a major deterrent. Luxury brands find it extremely difficult or impossible to meet this condition mainly because most brands’ USP revolves around the com-

“Price point is one of the biggest challenges faced by luxury brands” Rahul Mishra Indian Designer

petitive advantage of its country of origin.

Other issues like high import duties, different taxation structures across different states are irritants in developing this market.”

Those who best understand the problems faced by Italian brands are people who understand both the Indian and Italian markets. One such is Indian designer Rahul Mishra, who recently brought India laurels in the fashion world by becoming the first Indian designer ever to win the International Woolmark Prize (IWP) in Milan. Rahul explained about the the challenge faced by Italian brands saying, “Price point is one of the biggest challenges faced by luxury brands. The Indian consumer’s mentality is driven by occasional dressing. People don’t mind shelling out extra money when they have an occasion like a wedding in the family or other such occasions.” But he also added that the market for accessories like bags, sun glasses was growing faster as compared to the apparel.

Most luxury brands come with their exclusive offering and signature. They may all try to target the same customer and compete amongst themselves but they

Frequent travel has served as an eyeopener giving rise to a consumer who knows exactly what he wants

Pitch | Mach 2014

23

FEATURE ITALIAN LUXURY BRANDS are all unique in their own right. They have advantages of heritage and technology and do not compete with Indian brands. Roasie Virq Ahluwalia, Director, Marketing for Canali answered the query about competition saying, “Canali, known for its fine tailoring, elegance and style in men’s luxury fashion is 100 per cent madein-Italy. The brand has made quality, the bespoke tradition and ‘Made in Italy’ its essential characteristic, in almost 80 years in the business. Besides, it is one label and one brand. It does not have diffusion lines.

In this sense, Canali doesn’t have any real competition in India. However, brands like Zegna, Corneliani, Tom Ford and Hugo Boss are also operating in the same seg-

ment.” Where Canali might be recognizing the existence of competition, Furla’s Director of Marketing Mansi Mehta denied having any competition saying, “Furla is an established women’s accessories brand with a strong made- in- Italy tag. From the design to the craftsmanship, everything is manufactured in Italy; hence there is no clear competition for the brand.”

How difficult is it to market the Italian luxury brands in India? Mansi shared the marketing plans of Furla and said “Furla is currently following the International marketing guidelines but going forward for India we will focus on Bollywood and Red Carpet Dressing.” Talking about marketing plans of Canali, Roasie said “We have always been focused on our clients and try to build a long lasting relationship with each of them. For this reason we have constantly

24

Most luxury brands try to target the same customer and compete amongst themselves but they are all unique in their own right offered high service standards to offer a luxury experience to the customers.” She further added “To promote the Su Misura service (Made-to-Measure), we usually organize seasonal events in our boutiques.

We personally invite our existing and loyal customers while we try to attract new ones with dedicated shop windows and sometimes with specific advertising.” For the high-end luxury brands, the other efficient marketing medium has been fashion magazines that reach the target consumers.

“Canali doesn’t have any real competition in India. Brands like Zegna, Tom Ford and Hugo Boss are also operating in the same segment” Roasie Virq Ahluwalia Director, Marketing Canali

Each brand has its own unique expansion plans. Canali entered India in 2004 by opening its first store in Mumbai. Canali has in total 6 standalone stores in Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. Canali is opening the 7th store in Kolkata next month. Furla entered the India market in 2012. The brand is soon opening stores in Delhi and Calcutta.

The Indian market is attracting luxury brands and this is reciprocated by the brands as they create some ‘indianized’

products. Fashion brands like Hermes for example introduced a limited range of Sarees.

Canali introduced bandgalas and Nehru jackets. Christian Louboutin introduced an Indian range suitable for the wedding market. Judith Leiber offers innovative bags and clutches shaped after Indian deities like The Ganesha etc. On being asked how important this Indianisation is for luxury brands entering the Indian market, Saba Ali, Indian Senior Associate, Fondazione Atlagamma, said, “Brands are inspired by the nature of the market in which they are spreading their presence. It’s always good to compliment the market the brands are expanding in.” The companies usually come up with limited collections to attract customers as well as to compliment and pay tribute to the market they are getting a good response from.  -kanika.mehrotra@exchange4media.com

Pitch | March 2014

CASE STUDY MAHINDRA CENTURO DIGITAL LAUNCH

A campaign that played on curiosity

By Ankur Gaurav Agency: WAT Consult Background: The Mahindra Centuro was ought to be a feature heavy commuter two wheeler in the 100cc segment.

A segment that was already dominated by brands such as Bajaj , Hero and Honda.

The aim was not only to reveal the bike but also to showcase its features in an innovative format. Their TG ranged from the ages of 18 to 25 in Metro, Tier1 and 2 cities, all with a sizeable amount of internet penetration. The usage of digital media was still unexplored by the brand and to buzz platforms such as the website, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Vine & Instagram to launch the Mahindra Centuro in order to be where their TG was, experimented for the first time by Mahindra.

Objective: Their objective was to create awareness in the target consumer market and build credibility in order to facilitate early adoption and sales for the Mahindra Centuro. The aim was not only to reveal the bike but also to showcase its features in an innovative format.

Execution:

The Mahindra Centuro Launch campaign was devised around a staggered approach with buzz platforms such as the website, Facebook, Twitter,

Youtube, Vine & Instagram. An end to end social and digital media strategy was put in place which also included six online and social games for the brand website and the Mahindra Motorcycles’ Facebook page. An innovative banner ad campaign was launched on MSN and Yahoo & Times of India iPad App which helped users learn about the features of the Centuro. They were the first in the industry to use Vine as a medium to promote a contest giving away XBOX and Samsung Tablets.

Results: These platforms were used to build curiosity around the bike as well as collect fan feedback and queries. They

Pitch | March 2014

were engaged using male driven content, product associated teasers as well as expert views and reviews. Live Webcast of the product launch via Website and Social Media helped them reach the fans directly on the day of the launch. Approximately 20,000 fans viewed the Live Webcast.

They got 2.5 lakh video views for their TV Ad in a matter of 2 days even before it went live on television. Premiering on Digital Leads to reach out to end consumers directly gave them an opportunity to interact with them and increase purchase intent for the brand even before the product launched. Total Leads online during the pre-launch phase over 7000. ď Ž -ankur.gaurav@exchange4media.com

25

INTERVIEW K Prem Kumar

“Expansion of distribution and innovation in products will be our focus in 2014” I

t’s a story waiting to be told and holds a lesson in determination and smart marketing. Eastern Condiments, the flagship company of the Eastern Group was carved out of one man’s dreams. It has won the best exporter award from the government for branded curry powder for more than 15 years in a row. The Eastern Trading Company was established in 1968 in Kerala and has grown into a 400 crore business house whose products are available throughout India and exported outside it too. Deepa Balasubranian of exchange4media caught up with K Prem Kumar, the CEO of Eastern Condiments Private Ltd to find out about the spice market in India, the growth curve of Eastern Condiments and its innovations to stay relevant over the years. Having worked with global brands before joining Eastern Condiments, Kumar brings 30 years of experience to a company, which understands the changing preferences of consumers and keeps pace with them.

26

Pitch | March 2014

How has the spice market grown in India?

What has been the growth rate?

India is a very peculiar market where every household uses between 700 to 1000 grams of spices on a daily basis. Processed and unprocessed spices put together will grow in line with the population growth. The packaged/ processed products market is growing at 20 per cent year on year. In the early years, Eastern focussed on the Kerala market and has a 60 to 70 per cent market share. We have been growing about 10 per cent in volume, because Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the most penetrated markets, hence growth is slower than the rest of the country. But there is scope for further penetration.

Smaller markets are adopting packaged products faster than the rest of the markets.

With the gradual decline of the domestic help culture, there is an increased dependence on packaged goods. The small packs revolution is facilitating growth. Pricing and convenience are the drivers for this growth. Today the Spice market is estimated at Rs 40000 cr in India and the packaged/ processed segment is estimated to be around 15 per cent of the same.

You started from a small town called Adimali. How has the journey been?

We are a 30 year old company and it was Mr. Meeran, the visionary, who saw an opportunity for selling packaged products. At a very young age, he started a trading business and dealing in commodities. He launched packaged powdered spices. We can take the credit of having introduced packaged products in the state and growing it to this stature. There were two factors that helped the company at that stage to develop the organisation. It was the quality of products and their distribution.

An understanding of what people wanted

Pitch | Mach 2014

helped in deciding the price and the pack size.

In those days, distribution was a major challenge in Kerala. But the Eastern group figured out a good distribution model. One of the key success factors is the disciplined last mile coverage.

We kept growing organically district after district. We also expanded to the Gulf as we realised that a Malayalee using Eastern spices in Kerala is likely to buy Eastern spices in the Gulf and vice versa. That’s how we embarked on our journey into the international market.

Today we cover around 5 Lakh outlets in India and the international markets.

Mr. Meeran started out by setting up a stationary shop, then went on to distribute bathing bars, detergents, batteries, confectionary and coffee powder. What made him launch Eastern spices ?

As a distribution house, we also represented a spice company and as a consumer Mr. Meeran and his family were not happy with the products and that’s where he saw the opportunity.

Within a very short span of time he acquired equity around his own surroundings. Adimali, the place where we are based is among the hills, so distribution was a huge challenge. At that point in time, the Eastern Trading Company as it was known then, managed to reach out to almost all outlets as it was the only distribution house. That gave it an edge in the market.

What has been your marketing strategy for Eastern Condiments? What are the recent initiatives undertaken by Eastern Group?

Smaller markets are adopting packaged products faster.

With the gradual decline of the domestic help culture, there is an increased dependence on packaged goods

27

INTERVIEW K Prem Kumar

High quality products, distributed through a well oiled distribution network, at the right pricing, and in good packaging over the years, has helped in building equity. A fast handling of complaints in the trade or with consumers has helped it strengthen it. Over the years, we have acquired a very strong bond with the retailers, as they are the ones who can influence the consumers. We accept cash from retailers so the retailer does not buy more than what he needs for a week.. This helps rotation of investment and maintains freshness of the product. These are some of the factors that helped us build a strong consumer base. All these put together add value to the whole marketing proposition.

Your flagship product is spices. Which are the other categories you are involved in?

In the food segment, we sell breakdfast solutions like the Rice Powders for Idlis, Dosas, Appams and Puttu. We also sell a wide range of Pickles, selected packaged whole seeds, raw spices like Tamarind,

Asafoetida etc.

As a group, we have Eastern Tyres, mattresses under the brand name Sunidra, Eastern Aqua Mineral water, King Richard Shirts as separate companies.

Which countries are you present in? Are there any plans to reach out to the other states in India?

We are currently available in the Gulf countries, US, UK , Australia and in some other countries as well In India we are distributing in over 11 states including Karnataka, TN, AP, UP, Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi, MP, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

How does innovation of products create an impact on the consumer?

From a marketing and consumer perspective what has helped us is the development of recipes and packaging , and maintaining the quality of the products. We had a technological advantage in this business. We have one of the most modern laboratories, probably unparalleled in the industry. We have got certifications of NABL, BRC, ISO 22000 and HSCCP. So, our ability to test the products is also unique which forms a part of our innovation.

The traditional Malayalee cuisine is going to dwindle over time There is an emergence of a new generation Malayalee or South Indian taste . We created a product called Instant Rasam, which focuses on convenience and contemporarisng a recipe which is an innovation and it has been quickly accepted in the market. Realisation of insights such as need for faster or convenient cooking is the root of innovation for us.

How have you differentiated the product in the other markets such as Chennai and Bangalore, as there are players like Shakti and Aachi which are popular?

In business, competition means local play-

ers. But these local players do not have the technology and the scale of distribution. We have learnt how to deal with competition.

The taste that is created for different markets is what matters. Creating different product blends is perhaps the way to reach out to different households.

We haven’t seen Eastern Condiments catching on in the Tamil Nadu market. What are your plans to get accepted in the market? Is Aachi or Shakti a threat to Eastern in anyway?

It is a matter of prioritisation about where to invest in comparison to what returns are expected. There are markets where there is more opportunity and which will enable faster growth.

How well have you been using Digital and Mobile?

Of late we have created a presence on Facebook. To connect to the consumers it is important to create a conversation online and we have started this already. We are progressing in the digital medium.

Eastern has been winning the best exporter award from the government for branded curry powder for 15 years in a row. What has led to this commendable achievement?

I think it’s because of the quality we provide to our consumers. You have to pass various tests to be able to export to other countries. We have consistently been clearing tests and we have stood out in all the markets. A loyal distribution network helps grow the business in the international markets.

What is the channel you focus on for marketing? Is it traditional or digital?

When we started out, we even used wall paintings. Gradually, as TV medium picked up we started investing into TV advertising. We are a prudent investor in above the line media. We also advertise in the Gulf. We have advertised in women’s magazines also. 70 per cent investment is in TV advertising and 30 per cent in other mediums.

What are your focus areas for 2014?

The focus for 2014 would be on expansion of distribution and new product development. We are now planning to introduce new products for Non Malayalees. n -deepae4m@gmail.com

28

Pitch | March 2014

PRESENTS

4

y fetch r t s u d n i lp the e h l meet l i o t w s h n g o u i o t Elec l it be en l i w t u r cent? b e s p r e 8 . b 6 1 m nu rate of d e t or the c f e j e l o t r t p a e b th nternal i e h t l l i 2014? n i How w p u e p a ad pie sh Pitch | March 2014

29

LUCKY 2013

By SAM BALSARA

2

013 was a year of a slowing economy that showed no signs of recovery. Economic growth rate hit a new low of 4.5% in the fiscal year 2012-2013. High inflation, corruption scams and economic slowdown were some of the highlights of the year.

The watchword for 2013 in last year’s predictions was CAUTIOUS. It was best not to be too optimistic about the media spends considering how the economy was bottoming out with very few signs of recovery. The pre-

diction for the growth of the media advertising industry for 2013 was 7.4 % and its a relief to know that the actual growth was higher at 11.1%. 13, they say is Lucky for some and that’s what it turned out to be for the advertising industry!

Print has again emerged as the biggest contributor to the total advertising pie. It superseded TV and widened the gap. It is the largest contributor at 41.3% with TV trailing behind at 39%.

Sam Balsara Chairman & MD, Madison World

18% 28%

Projected Growth

18% 10%

18% 16.8%

18% 11.1% 18% 5.2%

0

GROWTH %

18% -9%

YEARLY SPENDS 2009 ` 19,470 Cr

30

2010 ` 24,898 Cr

2011 ` 27,282 Cr

2012 ` 28,694 Cr

2013 ` 31,877 Cr

2014 ` 37,216 Cr

Pitch | March 2014

PRESENTS

4

9.6%

How the Ad Pie split in 2013 Print continued to remain the biggest shareholder in 2013, TV lost its share marginally, to digital

Many advertisers tried to counter the slowdown with increased advertising. Sectors like FMCG, Telecom and Auto increased overall advertising spend. Print spends that contributed substantially to the overall growth, were fuelled by FMCG, Auto and Real Estate.

There was a lot of action in the Television space, too.

Television grew at the rate of 8.2% against the projection of 6% despite the self-imposed regulation by TV channels given the impending Ad Cap of 10+2. Digitisation gathered momentum during the year with the Government backing it. The year was characterised by many spats in the TV industry, between broadcasters, agencies and advertisers, notably suspension of Ratings during Digitisation, Gross Vs Net Billing ,Broadcasters withdrawing subscription to TAM and finally voluntary imposition by some broadcasters of the 12 minute ad cap per hour Frequent panel change in TAM led to inconsistency in ratings. BARC, the industry’s own alternative ratings system, also gathered momentum. The year saw a number of new channels including channels like Romedy Now from Times Television, Zee Anmol and & Pictures among others.

There were several rebranding initiatives that also took place. Sony TV got a brand new look that made it modern and distinctive. Sony Pix unveiled a new logo and so did India TV. Radio grew dramatically by 18% against the projected rate of 4%, on the back of higher inventory being sold across

Pitch | March 2014

The market is expected to grow by 16.8% in 2014 and the biggest contributor of this growth, estimated at over 5000 Cr will be the upcoming Lok Sabha and state elections stations. Regulation on the way? A lot of this revenue came from smaller towns .

Whilst the new year has begun slow , we expect 2014 to be one of the best years of recent times The market is expected to grow by 16.8% in 2014 and the biggest contributor of this growth, estimated at over 5000 crores will be the upcoming Lok Sabha and 4 major state elections where political parties should spend upto half of this amount. With greater pressure on parties and individual candidates to win , we expect more and more will resort to advertising in , print, TV and Outdoor in a big way, to improve their chances at the sweepstakes. We expect TV to grow well because of increased penetration of digitisation, Ad Cap regulation which is likely to be enforced formally and which will lead to rate increases because of restricted supply. Also many new channel launches are expected once the licences are issued post the Loksabha elections, from existing Networks.

Print has shown immense promise and this year we expect regional dailies to continue their onward march and grow at a faster rate at the expense of English Dailies.

Radio is expected to grow by another 15%. Consolidation within radio will take place due to the expected phase 3 auction rollout. Digital will continue to grow stronger and smaller and new advertisers are expected to enter Search. The Outdoor medium is set to grow by 8.2% on the back of elections. But Cinema will surprisingly grow by a mere 7.2 %. Time for the medium to reinvent itself for the advertiser.

All in all, the year 2014 looks a lot more promising and with the elections round the corner, the second quarter promises to be quite exciting.ď Ž

31

PRINT Continues its Dominance 18% 30% 18% 17%

118% 0%

18% 10% 18% 4%

Projected Growth

0 (% GROWTH) In 2014 Print is expected to grow by 17 per cent and projected to clock a revenue of around

18% -20%

INR 15, 405 Cr. YEARLY SPENDS 2009 ` 8,073 Cr 32

2010 ` 10,487 Cr

2011 ` 11,509 Cr

2012 ` 11,970 Cr

2013 ` 13, 167 Cr

2014 ` 15,405 Cr

Pitch | March 2014

PRESENTS

4

P

rint will continue to sustain its dominance as far as reach, distribution and popularity is concerned making it the most favored marketing medium in the country.

For the past three years Print has sustained its dominance, despite growing competition in the entire advertisement space available for marketers. It continues to hold its ground for the third consecutive year.

In a neck to neck fight for the ad pie, Print has superseded Television by over 2.3 per cent in 2013 with the exact contribution being 41.3 per cent.

Compared to TV, Print media has grown by 10 per cent. Dailies have grown by 10.6 per cent and Magazines by 5 per cent. Hindi Dailies, which till date have been trailing their English counterparts in terms of revenue, have now surged ahead of them.

In 2014 Print is expected to grow by 17 per cent compared to only 4.0 per cent in 2012 , expected to clock a revenue of around INR 15405 Cr. 

` 1,262 Cr Magazines 9.58%

Dailies Vs Magazines in 2013 Dailies 90.42 % ` 11, 905 Cr

Pitch | March 2014

Categories fond of Print Print

FMCG replaced AUTO from the First spot 2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Alcoholic Beverages

0.3

0.2

0.2

0.1

0.1

Auto

7.8

7.1

9.8

11.4

11.7

BFSI

7.9

8.7

6.7

6.7

6.0

Clothing/Fashion/Jewellery

5.5

5.3

6.5

7.1

6.1

Corporate

3.0

3.0

2.8

2.2

1.7

Education

17.3

14.6

10.6

10.6

9.7

FMCG HH

2.5

2.6

3.1

4.1

4.9

FMCG Impulse

0.6

0.4

0.3

0.4

0.6

FMCG Personal Care

4.1

4.4

5.5

5.8

6.8

HH Durables

5.3

5.3

5.7

4.9

3.9

Media

2.2

2.2

1.5

1.4

1.4

Real Estate & Home Improvement 6.5

8.0

8.4

8.6

8.7

Retail

5.8

5.8

5.6

5.8

5.7

Telecom/Internet/DTH

5.4

6.3

4.7

4.1

4.6

Travel & Tourism

3.5

2.5

2.8

2.3

1.9

Others

22.5

23.6

25.7

24.4

26.1

• FMCG continued to increase its spend from 10.3 per cent in 2012 to 12.3 per cent , emerging as the biggest contributor to the total ad spends in 2013 replacing Auto from the first spot. Auto’s contribution was 11.7 Per cent2 per cent.

• Education lost its share and the ad spends slipped from 10.6 per cent in 2012 to 9.71 per cent in 2013. Clothing and Apparel brands lost their share in print’s ad spend as their contribution went down from 7.1 per cent in 2012 to 6.1 per cent in 2013.

Magazine moves at a steady pace.

Magazines which went against the projection in 2012 by growing at a steady pace of 4.5 per cent in 2012 have again grown at a steady pace of 5 per cent in 2013 and projections suggest a similar growth pattern of 5 per cent in 2014 as well.

33

PRINT

VIEWS ARUNABH DAS SHARMA

“If we manage to form a stable government, we can grow at an even better rate” Arunabh Das Sharma President, Bennett Coleman and Company

A

s suggested by Pitch Madison Report, the growth is expected to be 16.8 per cent, which I believe is aggressive. I would love to believe that the industry is growing at such a pace but it is definitely beyond what we are expecting. It is definitely an aggressive growth that has been predicted. Rs 5000 Crore is a substantial amount of inflow but as of now I am not seeing such a huge number of advertisements coming in. It may come in as elections come close, but elections as always, eventually turn out to be a booster for the media industry. The growth of regional is slowly picking up pace in the country and the primary reason for this is deeper penetration strategy of almost all advertisers. The English dailies will grow primarily due to their pricing figures. At the end of the year, advertiser, investor and consumer confidence in the market will show some results and growth but that entirely depends on the stability of the government. If we manage to form a stable government, we can grow at an even better rate. With an unstable government, the economy will continue to suffer and a lack of investor confidence might not result in such a growth rate. 

34

Pitch | March 2014

VIEWS SUPRIYO SINHA

PRESENTS

4

“The growth in newspapers has been skewed towards regional language dailies” Supriyo Sinha

VP, Bengali Dailies, Anandabazar Patrika & Ebela, ABP Pvt. Ltd.

T

he future of newspapers is being seriously debated worldwide. In the west newspaper circulation has dropped by 13 per cent in North America, 0.8 per cent in Latin America, and 25 per cent in Europe over the last 5 years. However, Asia is still holding on. In fact, newspaper circulation in Asia has grown by 9.8 per cent over the last 5 years. In India, newspaper circulation has grown by over 15 per cent annually in the last 5 years.

The growth in newspapers in India has been skewed towards regional language dailies. For example over 2006 to 2012, readership of language dailies has grown by about 25 million followed by readership of Hindi dailies that have increased by 18 million even as English dailies’ readership show a growth of a mere 3 million.

There are 3 underlying drivers behind this trend.

1. Tier 2 , tier 3 towns have far greater penetration of local languages than English : The Indian economy is witnessing the emergence of new economic centers of consumption. So far the country’s metros and tier-I cities were the investment hot- spots. However, the focus is now shifting to the tier 2

Pitch | March 2014

and tier 3 cities that are experiencing rapid urbanization and fuelling India’s future growth. Since the penetration of English is much less in these areas, the people here first get educated in their mother-tongue. This factor has directly and positively led to the growth in circulation of regional dailies. For example Anandabazar Patrika, the leading Bengali daily in West Bengal has a readership of about 6 million per day, more than half of which comes from locations beyond Calcutta.

2. Regional language newspapers have a much stronger ability to customize local news than their national/English counterparts: The regional papers have several editions for a particular state and attempt to increase the reader engagement.

For example Malayala Manorama, a leading Malayalam daily with over 2 million circulation in India has twelve editions in Kerela itself and four outside Kerela. Anandabazar Patrika has 13 different editions customized for different districts. Regional papers aim at providing localized news for the readers and this is where they have a competitive edge over English dailies.

3. Advertisers are increasingly betting on tier 2, tier 3 markets for future

growth, thus completing a positive cycle: Tier 2 and tier 3 cities are emerging as attractive markets due to their heightened affluence and a consumerist outlook. The desires to experience superior lifestyles and own global brands are creating opportunities for both national and international brands to establish a presence in these hitherto untapped markets. Owing to this the advertisers also see a huge potential in advertising in the leading regional dailies. Added to this ‘demand’ from advertisers, is the fact that the regional newspaper industry is generally quite concentrated with the top 2-3 players accounting for 70-80 per cent of market share. This allows the market leaders to garner enough revenue for their sustenance.

However, regional dailies need to stay on top of the game since challenges will remain. There will remain a general trend amongst the young generation to move away from reading local languages to English – keeping in mind the better use of English for studies, jobs, and locational flexibility. If regional papers are to continue to prosper, they must answer one central question: How to sustain and grow the use and love for the respective regional languages amongst the next generation? 

35

TELEVISION

Advertising spends

expected to grow in 2014 T

he Television spends have grown at the rate of 8.2% against the projection of 6% in 2013 and this surprising growth is expected to continue in 2014. Digitisation of television channels is on in full swing. The transition has proved to be beneficial for consumers due to the various value added services and broadband. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has declared that that there would be complete transition to Digital Cable Television

18% 24%

Projected Growth 18% 9%

18% 2%

18% 15%

18% 8.2%

18% 0%

GROWTH %

0

YEARLY SPENDS 2009 ` 8,492 Cr

36

2010 ` 10,530 Cr

2011 ` 11,478 Cr

2012 ` 11,478 Cr

2013 ` 12,419 Cr

2014 ` 14,282Cr

Pitch | March 2014

PRESENTS

4

Which genres got what?

in India by 2014. This digitisation process has led to increased spending on Niche Dispersion % Growth % Channels, SD and HD channels and local (2012/2011) (2013/2012) 2013 advertising options due to split runs across Row Labels channels. The proliferation of channels Hin GEC 28 -2 10.9 from existing bouquets will increase invenHin News 8 4 3.3 tory availability at higher rates. The Ad Cap TN CS 7 14 12.5 regulation which is likely to be enforced formally will have an inflationary effect on Eng News 6 -3 -7.9 TV rates. TV Spends are projected to go Info 4 12 -7.0 up to Rs 14282 crore from Rs 12419 crore 4 20 15.4 in 2013. The Growth Index moves up from Kids 8.2 per cent in 2013 to a projected growth Hin Mov 6 -20 23.7 of 15.0 per cent in 2014. TV’s percentage 4 -2 8 contribution to the total ad spend has been Mah CS Ben CS 3 -1 -5.3 projected at 38.4 per cent in 2014.

TV’s growth of 8.2 per cent for 2013 was Ker CS 2 9 17.1 2.2 per cent more than the projected rate of 4 -23 19.9 6 per cent. The total revenue calculated was Sports INR 12419 Cr in 2013 and is expected to Kan CS 4 9 18.1 grow by 15 per cent in 2014.

Other Reg 4 15 5.7 Though the growth seems to be healthy Eng Mov 3 5 4.5 enough for the TV industry, increasing popularity of Internet is likely to cut down Music 2 13 25.7 the share of TV in the overall spends. TV’s Eng Ent 3 40 1.1 contribution in 2011 was 42.1 per cent DD 2 -8 2.6 which dipped sharply to 40.0 per cent in • Hindi Movies and Music remained the 2012 and went further down to 39 per cent in 2013. Outlook 2014 projects another fall favourite among advertisers. in the share of TV to 38.4 per cent.  •

Alcoholic Beverages

BFSI

Corporate

Media

Retail

English news and Infotainment genres dipped down in their growth trajectory

Categories losing interest in Television •

Out of 15 categories, 7 of them have shown a dip in the growth rate implying that advertisers are losing interest in Television based advertisements.

•

Media, Retail, Alcoholic Beverages and Corporates have registered a negative growth of ad spends in TV in 2013 and only FMCG has emerged as the driver of growth.

-9.5% -17% -22.3%

-15%

-26.5% Pitch | March 2014

37

TELEVISION

VIEWS AVINASH PANDEY

NEWS CHANNELS can do better if they learn from GECs

P

rediction, projection, outlook are reflection of our ancient urge to do future telling and try and make patterns of our random behavior. As human beings and businesses, many decisions are taken based on such analytics and Pitch Madison Advertising Outlook certainly determines and guides many decisions taken by the advertising industry.

Considering its importance and stature, it receives a very high degree of attention and naturally so.

I am in no position to question the data presented and I would like to talk about it only in the sense of a social scientist who observes a society’s economic behavior and secondly as a seasoned Media sales professional. I would look at it purely from the

prism of my practical and difficult world.

I am not so convinced about the level of growth for TV. I think it has stretched optimism. Elections attract eyeballs. Probably this is the only time when my colleagues in the agency and clients offices start increasing their percentage share of gut feel in their buying matrix . They consciously start believing that this time everyone is watching news. Frankly, I believe the majority of population

Majority of population watch news on a daily basis and spends sizable time on it throughout the year

Avinash Pandey

Chief Revenue Officer & COO, ABP News

watch news on a daily basis and spends sizable time doing so, throughout the year.

However this general element of positivity around news gets a bit complicated by the fact that there are just too many news channels catering to national and regional languages. In many geographies they are struggling to get attention of the same set of advertisers. Shortsightedness, which often is the case of many news channels will result into bloating of inventory in smaller channels at their existing rates. Over all this would

38

Pitch | March 2014

PRESENTS

4

make an impact of 1-2 per cent The smart and big players in this genre are to watch out for. They are creating unique and distinctive programming, thus charging a premium. They are also offering huge and impactful eyeballs, making news, making news makers and may significantly impact fence sitting voters to take informed decisions, resulting in high viewership and premium over existing spot rates. This would definitely help the growth at over 20 per cent between March and May. Like last year, this year too, the festival period is coinciding with State Elections. This would see an overall growth of about 15 per cent between September and November .

The other months are highly unpredictable. One thing that all projections have discounted completely is the probability of a weak co-alition or third front coming into power . The economy may go for non-revival and this new-normal may continue. In a situation when Inventory is already optimized, the rest of the month would see almost negligible growth.

If a very strong government emerges, we will see a strong investment in infrastructure and the financial sector and that could be a boon for the news business. If news channels manage their business well they may end up doing a steady 10-15 per cent growth every month, September onwards.

To sum it up, I don’t see a 10-14

-26.5%

Pitch | March 2014

Emergence of strong government will see strong investment in infrastruture that could be a boon for news business

per cent growth in this genre. But I think it’s a good growth estimate and PITCH Madison has very sound logic in arriving at the overall figure, considering GEC and Sports would see huge growth too.

News channels can actually do

much better if they learn from GECs by limiting the inventory, and rationalizing pricing. It would help all, as Sam pointed out, resulting in a higher yield for the channel, a better engaged viewer, and a much better ROI for the client.

But alas, intellectuals rarely agree!.

39

TELEVISION

VIEWS RAHUL JOHRI

“Television industry will continue to flourish”

T

elevision remains the biggest contributor to advertising pie and is undoubtedly the biggest entertainment medium with its wide reach. The rising wave of digitisation will help in broadening the television industry. Programming to viewers with diverse needs will remain a formidable task for broadcasters. Channels will have to consistently innovate to thrive in this new order and will lead to increase in demand for specialised channels and new genres.

The Indian television industry is currently undergoing a transformation. Ad cap is a new reality for every broadcaster. I am sure television companies will revive their business plans and proposition accordingly. The broadcasters would still deliver maximum value to their advertisers and stakeholders alike.

India is a young country and there is immense drive amongst the viewers for inspirational programming. Television screen would remain a dominant player for years to come. We are yet to see any robust model for media on internet. There is no denial that there is an increase of small screen and portable devices, but the online medium has so far not become a strong business. I believe that television industry will continue to flourish. 

Rahul Johri

Senior Vice President and General Manager, South Asia at Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific

40

Pitch | March 2014

VIEWS UDAY SHANKAR

PRESENTS

4

“Advertisers need to engage better to remain relevant�

T

he media and entertainment industry has once again proved its value as an economic engine by registering a growth of more than twice the national GDP. It was definitely heartening to see television surpassing its growth expectations for 2013, in a year marked by the advent of an inelastic inventory regime. This only reaffirms my belief that television as a communicating medium for advertisers continues to hold immense value. The digital opportunity is here for everyone to see as the segment continues to register strong year on year growth now contributing almost 10% of the total advertising pie.

However, what is interesting to note in this country is that, while we have added a new medium like digital, print continues to remain just as significant even today. Advertisers need to use this opportunity to be able to engage better and in a seamless fashion with their consumers across these delivery pipes in order to stay relevant. With digitization spreading across the country, television will continue to grow and so will digital, spearheaded by increasing mobile and internet penetration. I hope that the industry is able to surpass its expected growth rate for 2014, just as it has this year.

However, what is interesting to note in this country is that, while we have added a new medium like digital, print continues to remain just as significant even today.

Advertisers need to use this opportunity to be able to engage better and in a seamless fashion with their consumers across these delivery pipes in order to stay relevant. With digitization spreading across the country, television will continue to grow and so will digital, spearheaded by increasing mobile and internet penetration. I hope that the industry is able to surpass its expected growth rate for 2014, just as it has this year. ď Ž

Uday Shankar

CEO, Star India

Pitch | March 2014

41

TELEVISION

VIEWS RAJ NAYAK

“Digital media is not a threat for TV advertising” F

ragmentation and over supply of airtime has hampered the advertising growth for broadcasters. With the implementation of the 12 minute ad inventory, Advertising rates are bound to go up . In the next 2-3 year horizon, I am convinced TV will grow at a much faster pace than print.

We, as broadcasters have still not seen the full impact of digitisation in the form of either a fair share of reduction in carriage fees or subscription revenues. Given that we are a responsible broadcaster and intend to follow the guidelines set by the regulator, we believe that to stay on course and in order to meet the revenue objectives, we are left with no option but to increase ad rates.

The spend on digital is negligible..The base being very low, in percentage terms growth looks good. Even though I am a very big believer in digital media, I do not see advertising on the internet in India as a threat to TV at-least for the next 5 years. 

Raj Nayak CEO, Colors

42

Pitch | March 2014

PRESENTS

4

Pitch | March 2014

43

INTERNET

From

Successful to Significant

18% 50% 18% 46%

18% 49%

18% 50%

The digital medium will pull in a total of INR 3950 Cr in 2014 which is INR 900 Cr more than 2013’s 3050 Cr.

0

18% 32.4%

18% 29.5%

GROWTH %

YEARLY SPENDS 2009 ` 703 Cr 44

2010 ` 1,030 Cr

2011 ` 1,535 Cr

2012 ` 2,303 Cr

2013 ` 3,050 Cr

2014 ` 3,950 Cr

Pitch | March 2014

PRESENTS

4

I

nternet has proved its potential to engage, penetrate, make real time sales and show the ROI which has been every marketer’s dream. Marketers are increasingly relying on the Internet to woo the consumer who has become a digital native.

The digital medium is projected to grow by 29.5 per cent in the year 2014, the highest growth projection among all sectors of this industry. Advertisers have realized the significance of this medium due to a number of factors which are projected to bring in INR 3950 Cr in 2014. But while it is the highest growth projection among all media, the projection has slipped by 2.5 per cent compared to last year where the digital spends grew at a rate of 32.4 per cent.

Growth subsides

The growth was around 50 per cent from 2009 till 2012, but last year it dropped down to 32.4 per cent and this year Pitch Madison Outlook 2014 projects the growth in advertising spend to be around 29.5 per cent.

The digital medium will pull in a total of INR 3950 Cr in 2014 which is INR 900 Cr more than 2013’s 3050 Cr. Internet’s share in the total ad pie will mount to 10.6 per cent. The share is consistently increasing as most of the marketers have realized the effectiveness of this medium and its potential to show returns has resulted in its share showing a consistent increase over the years. It grew from 5.6 per cent in 2011, touched 8 per cent in 2012, 9.6 per cent in 2013 and Outlook 2014 projects it to be 10.6 per cent.

Biting into the shares of other media The rise of the digital medium is not a very good sign for the other media . Television and Outdoor will see a depreciation in their share and an increase of Internet’s pie by 1 per cent of the total ad spends across media comes from Television and Outdoor.

Due to the ongoing economic slowdown, marketers have scrutinized each and every Pitch | March 2014

penny spent and Internet being a ROI medium is becoming the preferred choice for them. The outlook for 2014 projects Internet’s total ad spend going up by 1 per cent from 9.6 in 2013 to 10.6 in 2014. Television’s share will go further

An increase of Internet’s pie by 1 per cent of the total ad spends across media comes from Television and Outdoor. down from 39 per cent in 2013 to 38.4 per cent in 2014. Outdoor’s share is expected to go down from 6.2 per cent in 2013 to 5.7 per cent in 2014.

Internet’s increasing share in the list has disturbed the entire tally in the last 3 years. In 2012 Internet displaced Outdoor from the number three spot as Internet’s share increased from 5.6 per cent in 2011 to 8 per cent in 2012. It also bit into Television’s share which reduced from 42.1 per cent in 2011 to 40.0 per cent in 2012.

Outlook 2014

Advertisers will pump in almost 3950 Cr in 2014 and it will grow at a brisk pace of 29.5 per cent. The growth is expected from FMCG, Auto and Banking sectors which are relying heavily on the Internet.

Both search and display advertisements will grow in 2014, especially search based advertisement which will add INR 1800 Cr in 2014 compared to INR 1250 Cr in 2013. Display based advertisement will continue to have an upper hand as it is expected to contribute INR 2150 Cr in 2014 compared to INR 1800 Cr in 2013. Internet’s growth of INR 900 Cr will mostly come from the growth of Search based advertisement which is expected to contribute INR 550 Cr and display based advertisements will add INR 350 Cr to the overall growth of INR 900 Cr. 

45

INTERNET

VIEWS RAMESH KUMAR

“Digital Platforms have become a crucial part of the advertising mix” Ramesh Kumar

Head, ESPNcricinfo and Digital Media, India

T

Brands like Renault, Samsung, Idea Cellular, HUL and others are recognizing the power of these digital and mobile platforms early and embracing them successfully

46

he results from the Pitch Madison Media Advertising Outlook 2014 indicate continued strength in the overall Indian advertising market. One important conclusion that jumps out to me, although it is not surprising, is the fact that digital platforms are no longer areas of with great “potential” but have become an absolutely crucial part of the advertising mix. This will only continue to increase.

An increasing number of consumers are connected all day, every day via digital and mobile devices. They form uniquely personal connections with these devices, and their expectation is for content to come to them. This presents a huge opportunity for marketers. It also means that new kinds of content and products – digital video and mobile apps for example – are increasing in value. For a brand like ESPNcricinfo, these realities mix with the passionate connection people have to sport. This makes it a very exciting time for us. It has opened great opportunities to work in collaboration with blue-chip advertisers in ways that deliver bespoke solutions and product associations and hence be part of the consumer’s immersive content experience.

This we believe delivers a far more impactful connection for the brand with the target consumer and as a solution offers a more efficient return on investment.

It is not just about cricket but growth in other sports like football and hockey means there is great potential to make early strides towards creating content & destinations for a sports-crazy youth audience on digital media. Brands like Renault, Samsung, Idea Cellular, HUL and others are recognizing the power of these digital and mobile platforms early and embracing them successfully – making digital media plans a key part of their advertising strategy. This matters more now than ever before. The strong, trusted brands that make personal connections with them through channels that are part of the consumers content experience will win. 

Pitch | March 2014

VIEWS MADHAVAN NARAYANAN

PRESENTS

4

“Digital blindfolds

need to come off” T

here is a problem in the industry when the person who signs a cheque and the person who collects it are both faced with a profound technological change. The natural response is for them is to pretend nothing happened – or at least not make a song and dance about it. After all, you can’t be rocking a boat that is doing pretty well.

That could be one reason why digital advertising is not growing even faster than it is now. According to the Pitch Madison Media advertising outlook for 2014, digital “will continue to grow strongly” after a 32% surge – with search taking a 51.5% jump.

But the “strongly” part in this could be an understatement, when you consider that Rs 5,000 smartphones and tablets are here already.

Just take a look at the Airtel campaign (Rs 1 video) or the Idea ad (No ullu banaoing) – and we know that telcos are now ready to spread the digital gospel to the bottom of the pyramid the way shampoo makers once sold their stuff in little sachets. Can digital advertisers fail to see the opportunity in this?

Madhavan Narayanan

Telcos are now ready to spread the digital gospel to the bottom of the pyramid the way shampoo makers once sold their stuff in little sachets With TRP doddering , IRS discredited by many and NRS dead, TV and print advertising have a scoreboard problem, while digital and Internet have sophisticated measurement systems.

What is perhaps needed is a serious consensus at the industry level that the new paradigm is here and old equations based on relationships and handshakes need to give way to methodical opportunities that digital ads provide.

Last but not the least, don’t write off magazines yet. If they are growing slower than projected, it is simply because they have not seen the huge opportunity they can leverage in the digital space – yet. Digital adaptation of magazine content can be done at dramatically lower costs. 

Senior Editor and Tech Columnist

Pitch | March 2014

47

INTERNET

VIEWS PRATIK MAZUMDER

“Internet is positioned to bring in a new set of advertisers”

M

arketers’ new love From playing second fiddle to becoming a part of conventional marketing methods, internet marketing has gradually crept in to assume an important place in brands’ marketing blueprint.

There are currently 205 million internet users in India which are expected to grow to 350 million by 2015. Also, the digital advertising spends in India are expected to grow significantly by 35 per cent in 2014.

The expanding penetration and improved understanding of the medium have led agencies and marketers to increasingly invest time in understanding how they can create more value from the digital medium in their marketing mix.

What are you searching for?

As far as search is concerned, user search habits are evolving very quickly. Internet is well positioned to bring a new set of advertisers on board and India will soon be the ‘Internet & Mobile first advertising market’. Search will comprise maximum share of spends – to the tune of 35-40 percent followed by display which should be 25-30 per cent of all online advertising spends.

What’s on display?

Highly engaging rich multimedia ads and various new video ad formats are ruling the roost in the display advertising space. Online video viewing like Box TV is becoming increasingly popular, with increasing demand for high-quality engaging videos and we are witnessing content

48

producers coming forward to put their content online.

National or Local More ad dollars are migrating online and markets are consolidating as advertisers spend money in fewer places. Indian news site like The Times of India attract substantial share of visitors from abroad and ET(The Economic Times) has the highest traction and engagement from users across the globe.

The Social Quotient In this age, social is not merely a set of relationships between people, it’s a means by which people get things done – sharing conversation, consuming content, asking questions. The social strategy of brands is to create meaningful social relationships around interests owing to which the count of active companies on social media is slated to exceed 80 per cent in 2014. Spends on social media and mobile are pegged to go up 40-45 per cent with 86 per cent of internet users visiting social media sites and 75 per cent online users being less than 35 years indicating a young demographic inclination.

Innovation he digital platform today offers a variety of options to advertisers to achieve their objectives. In terms of innovation from creative execution standpoint, there is no limit to what is possible on the web like Remarketing, True View Ads, Click to call

Pratik Mazumder,

VP & Head Marketing, Times Internet

ads, custom audience, real time bidding and Media ads Outlook With attributes like enhanced ¬ flexibility, scalability and measurable results in real time as well as cost-effectiveness and better targeting, the pool of digital immigrants is growing fast. Internet as a medium seems to be on a high ride as conversations shift from ‘Why should I advertise on mobile or build a mobile website?’ to ‘How do I get started?’ Specific ad campaigns and mobile applications will be devised by marketers to scale up reach by engaging customers in their choice of focused medium. Additionally, a lot of new users coming on internet are seeking information in the language of their choice which is giving rise to vernacular portals in Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali etc. We are going to see many more language destinations like blogs which are expected to grow by 40 per cent in 2014. 

Pitch | March 2014

PRESENTS

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RADIO

Exceeding Expectations

18% 30%

18% 18%

Projected Growth 18% 15%

18% 3%

18% 2%

18% 3%

0 GROWTH %

YEARLY SPENDS 2009 ` 681 Cr

50

2010 ` 885 Cr

2011 ` 903 Cr

2012 ` 930 Cr

2013 ` 1,097 Cr

2014

` 1,262 Cr Pitch | March 2014

PRESENTS

4

B

eating all the projections Radio emerged with a healthy growth of 17.96 per cent in 2013. Looking at the growing faith of advertisers in this medium, the outlook projects 15.04 per cent growth in 2014 with the total ad spends adding up to INR 1262 Cr compared to INR 1097 Cr in 2013.

Categories bullish on Radio

Radio’s turnaround this year is primarily due to elections and is expected to remain a significant medium to reach out to the interiors and smaller towns of India. The Pitch Madison Outlook 2013 projected a growth of 4 per cent while the actual growth registered was 17.96 per cent. The total ad spends which were projected to be INR 967 Cr crossed the expectations by INR 130 Cr.

The Pitch Madison Outlook 2013 projected a growth of 4 per cent while the actual growth registered was 17.96 per cent Growth reaches double digits After 2010, Radio was far from reaching the double digit growth rate and kept on hovering between 2 per cent in 2011, 3 per cent in 2012 but in 2013 the growth rate finally scaled up to 17.96 per cent and is expected to continue like this and register another successful year with almost 15.04 per cent of y-o-y growth rate.

Radio’s turnaround this year is primarily due to elections and is expected to remain a significant medium to reach out to the interiors and smaller towns of India Pitch | March 2014

•

Most of the FMCG companies looking to penetrate into the Indian markets will rely heavily on Radio this year.

•

FMCG emerge as the biggest contributor to the Radio industry, with their ad spends mounting up to INR 513.7 Cr.

•

FMCG’s contribution was 13.27 per cent followed by Real Estate sector contributing close to 11.77 per cent in 2013.

FMCG 13.27% REAL ESTATE 11.77%

OTHERS 59.06%

BFSI 8.32% TE LE 7.5 COM 9%

Categorywise Contribution in 2013

Pie estimates

Over the years, Radio’s share in the total ad spends has remained consistently around 3.2 per cent. Outlook 2013 projected a dip in its share from 3.2 per cent in 2012 to 3.1 per cent in 2013 while actual figures suggested an increase in the ad pie by 0.2 per cent which elevated its share to 3.4 per cent in 2013. The projections for 2014 expects Radio to sustain its ad share at 3.4 per cent amidst a heavy growth projected for internet. 

51

RADIO

VIEWS PRASHANT PANDEY

“Report too optimistic.... and also too conservative!”

Prashant Pandey Executive Director & CEO, Radio Mirchi

C

lassmate, India’s leading education & stationery brand by ITC, believes that each child is unique. Inspired by this belief, the company and Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM launched season 6 of ‘Classmate Spell Bee 2014’ last month. The theme for this year is ‘Every child is unique and so is every word’ and centres around Classmate’s brand philosophy of celebrating uniqueness.

Classmate Spell Bee 2014 provides an appropriate platform for students to identify their strengths and achieve recognition for their unique spelling skills. The innovatively crafted competition attempts to bring forth the most talented spellers from Indian schools as they showcase their mastery of words and spellings.

The spelling extravaganza, has travelled to more than 750 schools in 27 cities and reached out to more than 2, 50,000 students from standards 5 to 9. Students from around India have participated online at www.classmatespellbee.in in one of the most exhilarating experiences, crafted specially for them.

The top 16 participants of the competition also get to showcase their skills on national television on The Discovery Channel, Discovery Kids and Discovery Tamil. The winner will be announced on Monday by Mr. Chand Das, Chief Executive, ITC Classmate & Mr. Hitesh Sharma, COO, Radio Mirchi. Do let us know if you would like to meet them on Monday to understand the idea behind the campaign, overall feedback, success rate, responsible marketing to children and how they are a part of large consumer engagement activities. 

52

Pitch | March 2014

VIEWS NISHA NARAYANAN PRESENTS

4

“Digital is a key and critical area for us” Nisha Narayanan COO, 93.5 Red FM

Much of it will also depend upon how key categories for radio like retail, real estate, FMCG, consumer durables and Auto grow

A

growth rate of 18 per cent on radio last year means we are on the right track. Of course, as mentioned this came on the back of all players expanding inventory especially during the festive season, the State elections and enhanced government spending. Next year is critical for radio and a 15 per cent growth rate for next year is a fair estimate though we expect this to be driven largely by Phase 3 auctions and we need to still see how they pan out. With the smaller stations giving higher growth rates, we expect to be aggressive players

Pitch | March 2014

in the Phase 3 auctions . Another factor is the Lok Sabha Elections, which we expect to be a key driver in achieving this growth rate. Much of it will also depend upon how key categories for radio like retail, real estate, FMCG, consumer durables and Auto grow. If these categories grow well then 15 per cent is definitely a doable target. Going forward, digital is a key and critical area for us . With Digital showing the strongest growth, we are innovating and also strengthening the offering further to give our customers bundled offerings. 

53

OUTDOOR

OUTDOOR Medium Needs to Reinvent Itself

18% 30%

The traditional Outdoor medium is lacking the advertiser’s confidence and advertisers are moving towards more lucrative channels Projected Growth 18% 8.4%

18% 8.2%

6.2% 18%

0 GROWTH % -19% 18%

` 1,419 Cr 54

The outlook for 2014 expects the Outdoor medium to grow by 8.2 per cent and bring in total ad spends of about INR 2138 Cr.

18% -7%

2010 ` 1,848 Cr

2011 ` 1,717 Cr

2012 ` 1,862 Cr

2013

2014

` 1,9 77 Cr

` 2,138 Cr

Pitch | March 2014

PRESENTS

4

empowered the medium enabling it to grow and sustain itself in the highly competitive advertisement sphere. Transit Media has grown at a brisk pace of 13.9 per cent surpassing the projected growth of 10 per cent in 2013. In 2013, Outdoor excluding Transit Media grew by nominal 3 per cent raising INR 13 Cr to last year’s projected figures of INR 1350 Cr. Transit Media is projected to grow by 10 per cent in 2014 piling up INR 675 Cr whereas the traditional Outdoor Media will grow at 7.3 per cent and is expected to contribute INR 1463 Cr. 

Transit Media vs Traditional Outdoor

Pitch | March 2014

(28 .9

)

4%

2012

Transit media empowers outdoor

Inclusion of Transit Media in Outlook from 2013 has made it clear that Transit Media has

%

)

Cr (68.42% 1463 )

614 Cr

(31 .0 6

)

Cr (68.94% 1363 )

675 Cr

%

Cr (71.06% 1323 )

The outlook for 2014 expects the Outdoor medium to grow by 8.2 per cent and bring in total ad spends of about INR 2138 Cr. Though Outdoor is growing at a steady pace, its share of the ad pie is expected to dip in 2014. Currently it is 6.2 per cent of the total ad spends but the increasing popularity of Internet will eat into the share of Outdoor and in 2014, its share is expected to decline to 5.7 per cent.

Experts suggest that the medium still holds out a good deal of hope and has potential.

The medium has evolved in malls and multiplexes. Brands want to engage with the consumers more than ever before. There are several opportunities that this medium can tap into and what is needed is the reinvention of the medium itself.

(31 .58

Outlook 2014

539 Cr

T

he rising share of Transit Media in the total advertisement space is expected to rise in the years to come as more infrastructure projects including Metro and Airports come up. The traditional Outdoor medium is lacking the advertiser’s confidence and advertisers are moving towards more lucrative channels like digital. Lack of innovation in the use of traditional Outdoor advertising has also resulted in the dipping share of the oldest advertisement medium in the country.

Outdoor had pulled in INR 1862 Cr in 2012 and was expected to gather INR 1943 Cr in 2013 but it surpassed its projection by INR 34 Cr and the total amounted to INR 1977 Cr in 2013. Outlook 2013 projected the growth of 4.35 per cent but advertisers showed faith in the medium and the growth rate amounted to 6.16 per cent.

Transit Media

2013 Traditional Outdoor 2014

55

OUTDOOR

VIEWS JUNAID SHAIKH

“High Impact Digital billboards are the future” I

t’s a fast changing world and consumer preferences are changing too. There can be seen a drastic change in their aspirations related to lifestyle, careers etc. The rise in population has given way to new suburbs and new media is finding ways to spread its

reach to one and all. Its a challenge to capture the attention of consumers and brands are jostling for eyeballs. OOH advertising is always on and visible and has a high recall value. It is one of the oldest forms of advertising but still has great impact. It’s a medium that is on 24x7, can captivate the consumer through strong visuals, resonating messages and engaging interactions too.

For some years now, there is a wave of innovation in this medium. Digital OOH is dynamic and easy to implement and serves the purpose of marketers . The magic of the moving image can be as impactful as it’s memorable. Mobile and Digital out of home are seeing greater integration. Yet another trend is

The future belongs to 3D Imaging, projection mapping, and interactive billboards that advertisers have started looking beyond the metros . While the metros are the drivers, brands are being created and recognised in tier II and tier III cities also. The integration of advertising with social media marketing will take advertising into a new dimension.

The new generation is totally in sync with technology and social media. The future belongs to 3D Imaging, projection mapping, and interactive billboards. We can look forward to more creative and eye-catching communication. 

Junaid Shaikh

MD, RoshanSpace Brandcom

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Pitch | March 2014

#14idma |

PRESENTS

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6 june 2014 th

Harit Nagpal Managing Director & CEO, Tata Sky Ltd

Jury Chairperson

Buckle Up Your Saddle!

The Biggest

Digital Media Awards is

Open for Entries!

Register now : http://www.exchange4media.com/idma2014 For more details, Please contact: Karishma Naqvi Suparnaa Chadda

(Delhi) (Delhi)

+91 9999658263 Event Curator

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Live Streaming Partners

For sponsorship opportunities, Please contact: Rajat Thareja Mansur Yusufzai Siddarth Padmanabhan sohini ghosh Sneha Walke

Pitch | March 2014

(Delhi) (Delhi) (Mumbai) (Mumbai) (Bengaluru)

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57

CINEMA

Cinema advertising needs to mature W

hile some brands have been able to use Cinema Advertising to their advantage, advertising needs to mature where cinema is concerned.

Cinema is yet to prove its mettle for advertisers. The fickle growth rate of 8 per cent in 2012, 10.4 per cent in 2013 and projected figures of 7.2 per cent in 2014 indicates how a lack of any measuring tool for Cinema Advertising can adversely affect the industry. It is still a safe bet to invest in films with a strong star cast but with only a handful of such films being released; marketers are left with small productions where the risk factor is quite high. In the past ten years, the share of cinema has crawled from 0.2 per cent in 2003 to 0.52 per cent in 2013. The most

15% 18%

18% 18%

Projected Growth 18% 8%

0

18% 10.4%

18% 7.2%

GROWTH %

YEARLY SPENDS 18% -20%

2009 ` 103 Cr 58

entertaining industry in the country could not even manage to match the projections for 2013 which was 0.54 per cent of the overall advertising spends. The outlook for 2014 is that this number will further dip to 0.48 per cent.

In the year 2013, advertisement spends invested in Indian Cinema was INR 167 Cr and as per the projections for 2014 this figure is going to remain almost stagnant , pulling in around INR 179 Cr. However Cinema’s association with brands has become more of a trend and branding which takes place along with the film’s promotions on TV and the Internet, is likely to create more impact, than by placing the brand within the film. ď Ž

In the year 2013, advertisement spends invested in Indian Cinema was INR 167 Cr and as per Pitch Madison Outlook 2014, this figure is going to remain almost stagnant, pulling in around INR 179 Cr. 2010 ` 118 Cr

2011 ` 140 Cr

2012 ` 151 Cr

2013 ` 167 Cr

2014 ` 179 Cr Pitch | March 2014

VIEWS VIRAL OZA

PRESENTS

4

“Cinema Advertising-a crucial media to stay connected with the audience” C

inema advertising is a key focus area for Nokia. We believe that this a crucial media to stay connected with our target audience. India’s film entertainment industry is the largest in the world in terms of the number of films produced and its theatrical admissions.

Nokia associated with the blockbuster ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’ last year to showcase its sleek & stylish Nokia Lumia 720. We have also tied up with other movies including Man of Steel, Chennai Express, Om Shaanti Om etc. We have associated and promoted our devices in different ways like giving a chance to our users to exclusively watch movie clips, promotion trailers etc.

This form of advertising can be very impactful with innovative ideas. The most unique way where cinema advertising can score over other mediums is the catchy audience factor. This offers a chance to the brands to get undivided attention in a peaceful atmosphere and helps in striking the right chord. Moreover, it gives a chance to reach our consumers in remote areas as well. The reach of Bollywood is huge and there is immense passion for Indian cinema across the world today.

Although Cinema advertising is at a nascent stage in the country currently, we see immense opportunity in this media in the coming years.

Cinema advertising isn’t structured too well, but due to the reach and impact of this medium, more and more companies are investing in this media and will continue to do so. 

Viral Oza

Director Marketing, Nokia India

Pitch | March 2014

59

INTERVIEW Kofi Amoo Gottfried

“Through the campaign we are trying to reveal the soul of Bacardi” Y

ears of passion and inspiration define brand Bacardi and its heritage can be traced back to the mid 19th century in Cuba. The brand’s latest worldwide campaign “Untameable Since 1862” showcases the grit and determination Bacardi stands for. The campaign is directed at millennials urging them to pursue their passion through advertisements that are gritty and real.

Ankur Gaurav of Pitch spoke to Kofi Amoo Gottfried, the Global Communications Director, Bacardi Rums about Bacardi’s attitude, the campaign and challenges faced in different international markets.: As a global communications director what have been the major challenges faced by you in different international markets?

How did you solve them?

Our major challenge has been to communicate our brand attitude in a way that is interesting to a millennial audience.

“BACARDÍ Untameable Since 1862” is our first unified approach across all product and marketing functions, and has the potential to be transformational for the brand.

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Pitch | March 2014

We’ve got all the ingredients—an epic family story that’s decadently retold and remastered for a modern audience, a proven excellence in our products and a commitment to preserve the legacy of our craft. Now all of this can be communicated consistently, boldly, proudly in a way we’ve never done before.

It represents a significant turning point for the brand. “Untameable Since 1862” gives us the campaign to tell some of our incredible stories; of rebuilding after the distillery fire of 1880; of surviving several earthquakes; of inviting Americans to Cuba to bathe in Bacardi rum during Prohibition; of thriving in spite of exile – going on to become the world’s most awarded rum and most awarded spirit.

“Untameable Since 1862” is designed to engage Millennial males between the age group of 21 to 29 years, who are coming of age in an uncertain risk-averse world; and to encourage them to pursue their passions no matter what – much like the Bac-

searched the campaign around the world to universally positive consumer feedback.

Bacardi’s global campaign “Untameable since 1862” is becoming big, it is about celebrating the spirit of Bacardi.

What is the brand’s objective behind this campaign?

BACARDI is a huge brand, but one that people don’t know much about. We felt there was an opportunity to reveal the soul; to communicate the story and the irrepressible spirit behind the brand – and thus connect with consumers in a new way, to an entirely different level. We believe that ‘BACARDI Untameable Since 1862’ will encourage people to pursue their passions no matter what – much like the BACARDI family did.

Tube among others, drawing nearly 25 per cent of India’s internet traffic. As a result, we saw impressions of more than 50 million in one day. The activity over delivered by over 20 per cent with a 100 per cent SOV on targeted sites.

We saw a phenomenal response on Facebook – more than 21,000likes, more than 1200 shares and more than 500 comments on the launch day.

“Untameable since 1862” is an integrated

BACARDI is a huge brand, but one that people don’t know much about. We felt there was an opportunity to reveal the soul ardí family did. Millennials are faced with a world of high unemployment, institutional breakdowns, environmental crises, etc., but they remain fiercely optimistic and believe they can make a difference. In this, they are also “Irrepressible Spirits”, so “Untameable Since 1862” enables BACARDI to connect with Millennials as one Irrepressible Spirit connects with the other.

What are the ways in which markets and consumers differ in different parts of the world? How does a global brand like Bacardi change its strategies to cater to the different consumers?

“Untameable Since 1862” celebrates a universal attitude; the bold pursuit of passion, unconstrained by convention, circumstance or expectation.

We’re confident that this attitude resonates everywhere – and in fact, we’ve re-

Pitch | Mach 2014

campaign. What are the key communication channels being used in this campaign?

The media mix for this campaign goes across print, digital, outdoor as well as TV. BACARDI Untameable Since 1862 will be supported by 30, 60, and 120-second TV advertisements. We have a TVC titled ‘Procession’ which tells the story of the BACARDI family through struggles to ultimate victory.

Filmed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ouro Preto, Brazil, the ad echoes the universal sentiment of today’s audiences that ‘True Passion Can’t Be Tamed’.

The campaign was launched with a first of its kind Digital Roadblock across India’s top 10 internet sites like ZigWheels, IndiaTimes, Gaana, Facebook and You-

The print ads are evocative in nature and will feature headlines such as, ‘We Remember Prohibition – It was a Blast;” “Some Men are Kicked Out of Bars – Others are Kicked Out of Countries;” and “Earthquakes, Fire, Exile, Prohibition – Sorry Fate, you Picked the Wrong Family.”

The television, digital and print ads embody the true determination that sustained the rum brand and helped it thrive. n -ankur.gaurav@exchange4media.com

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CASE STUDY CEAT MTV CHASE THE MONSOON

CEAT & MTV

revive the love for biking

By Devansh Sharma Agency/Media: MTV Background: Founded in Italy as CEAT Tyres by Virginio Bruni Tedeschi, the company established its manufacturing in India in 1958. Company’s Indian division is the flagship brand of RPG Enterprises. CEAT offers a wide range of tyres to all segments and enjoys a decent market share in the light truck & truck tyre market.

Biking is a passion for several consumers. Bikers across the country love to take to the roads but unfortunately the roads in India are considered unsafe and slippery, especially during the rains.

It was to be 21 days of extreme weather, adventure and an experience never to be forgotten 62

| March 2014 Pitch Pitch| February 2014

Keeping this in mind CEAT developed all season bike tyres which were ‘Monsoon Smart’ – equipped to handle the rains & the roads that deteriorate under wet conditions.

Challenge: The challenge was to reinstil confidence in bikers and make biking popular during the monsoons.

That’s when MTV came up with an idea. The campaign was called – CEAT MTV CHASE THE MONSOON! It was to be 21 days of extreme weather, adventure and an experience never to be forgotten.

The concept was to shortlist 4 teams of 2 friends each from the hundreds of entries received for the show. The teams had to travel from Pondicherry to Mumbai on a bike with no fixed route and they had to chase the monsoons! More Rain = More chances of Winning!

The team’s journey was highlighted in weekly vignettes which were aired on MTV asking viewers to follow them on the internet On social media-

Results:

•

•

•

•

•

•

Media Strategy: The first leg of CEAT MTV Chase The Monsoon campaign started with a call for entries across various social platforms of MTV India and CEAT Tyres. From more than 1200 entrants, 8 bikers were shortlisted for the journey starting from Pondicherry.

The concept of social currency was created especially for the show, where the amount of money received by the teams on a daily basis was directly proportional to their interactions on social networking sites. The participants had to rely on ‘social currency’ to fuel their trip. This promoted Chase the Monsoon on social media.

•

Participants uploaded pictures & shared updates on Twitter & Facebook.

Teams uploaded photographs on Instagram – Each team uploaded new videos from the trip everyday covering the highlights & tasks done each day.

Whatsapp voting was introduced where friends of the team members could vote for them by messaging a certain number with the team hashtags Team Hashtags across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram were measured and converted into points Video views on YouTube and website were also converted to points At the end of every day the team with the highest points would receive the maximum amount of cash for the next day.

•

•

• •

•

The Facebook community which started with the show’s inception grew to over 225000 likes by the end of the show.

The team videos & episodes garnered more than 5.4 Million views on YouTube & the Website The team hashtags received more than 45,000 interactions on Twitter More than 16,000 likes were witnessed on Instagram At the end of the trip, the entire journey of all 4 teams was broadcast on MTV as a 30 minutes show that ran for 4 weeks & reached out to an audience of 5.2 million across India.

The sale of CEAT bike tyres grew by 30 per cent as against the same quarter last year. n -devansh.sharma@exchange4media.com

Execution: The team’s journey was highlighted in weekly vignettes which were aired on MTV asking viewers to follow them on the internet and the users were not exposed to the show in its 21 day duration.

| February | March 2014 Pitch 2013 Pitch

63

INTERVIEW VAASU GAVARASANA

“We want to inspire people’s daily habits” E

ver since Marissa Mayer’s takeover of Yahoo as its President and CEO in 2012, the internet giant has seen some major overhauling. Yahoo invested some $ 1 billion in 2013 on product development to improve existing products and launch new ones. Its business hinges on content and as Marketers in India begin to understand the importance of content marketing, Yahoo’s position will only start to strengthen. Rashi Bisaria of Pitch caught up with Vaasu Gavarasana, Yahoo’s APAC Business Marketing Head, to find out about the role of content marketing in today’s scenario and the role Yahoo is playing in facilitating content marketing.

Some excerpts: What is the need for content marketing in today’s times? Do people really understand its role?

The only way to do well on social media is to have a content strategy. A phenomenal amount of money is spent on search without having a destination for the audience. Your key words come from your content, so your content strategy has to be figured out well in advance.

Everyone is almost always online. But are brands always on? Brands need to keep the communication flowing. There should be no gaps in the communication.

Brands have to be on all the time, from the media point of view and their messaging point of view. You cannot have long absences from the flow of conversation. Also, anything done in silos is not useful. Integration is important in any content strategy.

64

The new avatar of content marketing as a discipline is just 3 years old so no brand has been able to perfect it yet. But there are some companies that are at the forefront of it. Yahoo is one of them. On the advertisers’ side there are 4 brands who do it very well. There is P&G, Unilever, Redbull, and Nike. Coke has stated that they are changing their philosophy from creative excellence to content excellence.

If you talk about mobile, it is like the wild west. It has not been conquered by anyone. It’s anyone’s game. In the digital arena, just because you are ahead doesn’t mean you’ll stay ahead. This decade will

tell us who’s ahead and who’s behind.

Marissa is making huge bets in mobile.

She’s making acquisitions aggressively almost every week. She has launched an array of mobile products. She is investing in publishing platforms like Tumblr which is a next generation publishing platform.

We have also launched 2 digital magazines, Yahoo tech and Yahoo food.

What does Yahoo stand for? What is its personality on today’s date?

Our stated mission since Marissa has come on board is- We want to be part of everyone’s daily habits. We want to inspire people’s daily habits. We want to give people something interesting every day.

What are the products?

On the consumer side, we are trying to inspire the 12 daily habits. We want to

On the consumer side, we are trying to inspire the 12 daily habits. We want to make each experience of your daily life better Pitch | March 2014

make each experience of your daily life better.

This includes your weather experience, your chat experience. On the ad product side, there is programmatic where we are making tremendous strides. We have a high customised content approach. Anyone who wants youth audience, creates brand pages on Tumblr. That is a huge product we have. Anyone who wants youth audience creates brand pages on Tumblr. Anyone into digital publishing needs to be doing two things very well, consumer products and ad products. Advertisers come to us because we have users. This is the reason for your revenue and this is what gets you the revenue.

What are these ad tools that Yahoo has come out with?

These tools help us target people according to preferences and demographic. We help advertisers deliver their message only to the people they want to target. We have very high consumer targeting capabilities that we offer. Ever since Marissa joined, our ad revenues have gone up.

In technology you have to bring about changes every day or you will be dead. She is successfully bringing about changes and launching new products.

Have the digital ad revenues been plummeting for Yahoo? Is that true?

That’s not true. Since Marissa has come on board it’s actually gone up. We have met Wall Street expectations. To recapitualte, Yahoo is into content publishing, mobile, digital magazines or communication products. You have to keep innovating in technology. We have enough talent pool to be able to do everything at the same time.

Where is India headed with respect to content marketing?

We have a very voracious reading and publishing culture in India. In that sense Yahoo is very well placed in India. Content is our mainstay. We can offer content marketing across all silos, so we can give you blogging as we have Tumblr, we can give you messaging as we have messenger, we can give you slide shows as we have Flicker. It augurs extremely well for Yahoo especially when marketers start to understand the importance of Content Marketing. Most companies don’t have such a horizontal spectrum like we do. We can truly give you a content marketing experience.  -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

Pitch | Mach 2014

65

a ss Gl

gh rou h T

The Loo

kin g

COLUMN

Ankur Kalra

CEO, Vibgyor Brand Services

ankur@vibgyor.in

Living in the age of

BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT I

t is no secret that audiences are beginning to tune off advertisements.

In a desperate attempt to shove two minutes of adverts down our throats, TV channels have found solace in a countdown to the return of the show you’re watching while Youtube has gone a step further by beginning almost every other video with an ad and throwing in a few more at regular intervals for good measure. More recently, it discovered that by doing away with the ‘Skip Ad’ button, Youtube could force people to watch advertisements and basically ruin a perfectly good video streaming experience to get brands to cough up more advertising rupees. Fighting a losing bat-

tle and faced with the prospect of waning viewer interest, brands might have found a way of restoring the balance by reversing the game and introducing branded entertainment.

The tables seem to have turned because instead of buying runtime between the shows, they are now vying for screen time during the show. Not being ones to discriminate, both – televised versions and live shows are getting a fair share of their attention and advertising budgets, ironically leading to some very meaningful brand associations. And we’re not talking product placements or sponsorships that stick out like a sore thumb but branding devices that are cleverly woven in without seeming

By doing away with the ‘Skip Ad’ button, Youtube could force people to watch advertisements

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Pitch | March 2014

obtrusive. They, in fact add to the entertainment. Marketers have suddenly discovered that they have a new challenge to live up to – being entertaining.

Karan Johar’s infamous rapid fire questions have a standard fixture in the ‘An idea that changed your life question’, a clever ploy by Idea Cellular to make place for their tagline in the show.

Gionee, the sponsors of GIMA awards had host Ranveer Singh go around the audience and complete the lyrics to ludicrous songs to win a Gionee

Pitch | March 2014

Gone are the days when good looking women and men could pose as promoters handset and going by the clamor for these phones – the move paid off.

Acting out on marketing’s newfound – “What’s better than an ad” principle, were also the Academy Awards this year. Those participating in experiential marketing surrounding the Academy Awards this year included banana republic, Fiat Chrysler, Grey Goose, L’Oreal, and two magazines, People and Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair had invited more than 120 bloggers and online reporters covering the Oscars to use branded work spaces outfitted with amenities like a media wall, a faux food truck and a vending machine powered by Twitter — i.e., giving away merchandise in exchange for posts that use sponsor hashtags and handles.

Branded entertainment seems to be a worldwide phenomenon today and brands are ready to churn out entertainment if that’s what it takes. Gone are the days when good looking women and men could pose as promoters and passing out samples of shampoo, snacks and deodorant. From being a peripheral marketing gimmick, playing second fiddle to the central ATL rollout,

branded entertainment has suddenly flung experiential marketing into the center of things.

Reaching people isn’t too difficult— the proliferation of media channels has more than taken care of that. The real challenge is connecting with people and this has compelled marketer media to take the entertainment route.

The concept works well on so many levels that it is of little wonder that brands are making a dash to be associated with properties that are entertaining. Hundreds of people using, endorsing and promoting a product offers a multi-sensory experience. A good case study would be Mountain Dew’s Xtreme Tour where Parkour stuntmen performed gravity defying stunts balancing on skateboards and bikes challenging people to overcome their fear. They were acting out on the very emotions Mountain Dew wanted its consumers to feel and everything being played out in front of their eyes was entertainment and marketing at its best. In a role reversal of sorts, even the most traditional experiential marketing campaigns are now high on entertainment value with musicians, dance troupes, international acts and games thrown in. Consumers have learnt how to sidestep the marketing blitzkrieg and the only way to win them over is through the guise of entertainment.

Instead of a promoter handing out free cola samples, there are now vending machines. Vending machines powered by Twitter, or the kinds made

by Coca Cola on Valentine’s Day that are visible only to couples walking by it.

The entertainment factor going up several notches seems to have everything working in its favor - the consumers are loving it, experiential marketers are getting more and more creative, and brands have found a fool-proof way to break through the din and creating space in the lives of their people.

The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pitch

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Pitch | March 2014

Pitch | March 2014

69

COLUMN Inside the World of Digital Marketing

Insights for the New Age CMO What strategies do luxury brands use to succeed online?

Vinish Kathuria

Chief Operating Office, Digital Quotient

vinishk@live.com

As the role of technology in Digital grows, the CMO needs to analyze and think how a brand can leverage mobile effectively 70

I

n the ever-changing digital landscape, the role of a CMO is also incessantly evolving and is getting complex demanding both inside and out-of-the-box thinking. The CMO is now required to understand the tools and technologies and work in integration with other departments.

At one end of the spectrum, you have the Board of Directors, CEOs, Business Heads all talking about the massive movement of people to digital & mobile, what the competitors and global counterparts are doing in this space and how CMOs squad is not doing enough to move the company & its brand on the digital wagon. While on the other end, you have people who work on such digital campaign on the go with limited budgets & intellectual capital, internal & external teams almost disconnected from the core businesses.

And amidst this internal story comes the huge revolutionary wave of buzz words like - big data, real time bidding, applications, marketing automation, messaging apps giving competition to Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn expanding, and India becoming the 3rd largest smartphone market, vernacular taking off on mobile big time, etc, etc.

So there you are - confused and starting to question, “Shall I just leave it for someone else to figure out this digital story and then jump on this wagon? Or shall I take controlled steps to do what’s right so we don’t miss the bus and get

left behind?” The decision is entirely yours. But do make an informed decision and that is what I am going to talk about here – some insights that will surely be handy for the New Age CMO in the fast developing digital world:

1 - SEO Integration: With the advent of 2014, Digital is not only about making a website and doing SEO (search engine optimization) for people to find your

Pitch | March 2014

brand. These are definitely a requisite but not the only thing that is required at this new age. SEOs now insist a need for integration with social and mobile marketing strategies for brands to drive more organic search results.

2 - Its a lot (but not all) about Mobile: Mobile evolution in India with 800 million plus users is a story that most of us are familiar with. What is interesting in last 12 months is the growing usage of internet on mobile, with mobile internet usage already exceeding desktop internet usage. India is already the 3rd largest Smartphone market globally and will hit number 2 this year, exceeding USA. Forbes estimates that by 2017, 87 per cent of connected device sales – a category which includes desktop-based PCs and laptops – will be Smartphones and tablets. So the CMO now needs to analyze and think how a brand can leverage mobile effectively. As the role of technology in Digital grows, the CMO needs to be able to interpret these developments and integrate both the

At the end, it’s all about your brand connecting with your customer, and if you are synchronizing all your tools to convey the same message there is greater resonance

Pitch | March 2014

technology and marketing divisions to work in synchronization and understand both sides.

3 - Digital Evolution is not a city centric phenomenon: leading ecommerce sites report 40 per cent - 45 per cent business from tier II & III towns.

Facebook’s 60 per cent plus user base in India is outside metros. Most of your rural audiences have a mobile phone.

So leverage digital for your SEC A, Sec B, SEC C audience, but the approach needs to be different and specific, rather than a share of the urban-centric marketing.

4- Social Networking revolution is here to stay: I was at a wedding couple of month ago and overheard an interesting conversation - a mid 40s lady talking to her nephew and asking him to get on a popular messaging app so they can stay connected regularly.

People now hardly write letters or even call on phone – it is now about being on the common social networking platform (Facebook, twitter, whatsapp, wechat etc,). If your audience is spending tangible awake hours on these platforms, shouldn’t your brand stay awake too? It is indeed time to wake up and realize that these platforms are now a part of people’s lives and are here to stay so why not invest that energy in making these platforms powerful carriers of brand message.

5- Videos, Virality and not just TV ads: World of digital is increasingly adopting videos as a means of spreading the message virally. From 6 sec vine videos on twitter to 30sec - 2 min infomercials on YouTube to 30min plus full content availability to live streaming - digital platforms offer a much wider choice of creativity, length and reach than TV. Videos consumption of significant proportion of Youth In is on a digital device and not on TV. Videos are definitely the next big thing! If you haven’t already realized the importance of engaging your target audiences you

are already lagging behind. And what can be more engaging than videos. Recently, we saw Instagram realizing the power of videos and starting Instagram videos and Facebook stunned its viewers with the recent flashback movie.

The possibilities are just endless!

6- Integrated Campaigns, more effective than isolated ones: At the end, it’s all about your brand connecting with your customer, and if you are synchronizing all your tools to convey the same message there is greater resonance. Integration of campaigns across multiple marketing mechanisms from TV, print ads, outdoor, mobile, social etc, generally has a higher effectiveness than any of them in isolation.

Having started my career in the traditional economy, to being a part of internet revolution witnessing this great mind-shift of consumers and brands.

I must confess that the change is not easy, but it’s exciting. But remember, it’s not easy for your competitors as well. They are also struggling and trying to figure things out. But the whole challenge is about who decodes the technology better and who figures out the landscape best.

So to sum it up, I would like to add: •

So embrace the digital ecosystem, don’t run away from it • Surround yourself with trusted advisors (internal, external) who know more than you do • Continue with controlled experimentation and calculated risks. While most of your activities may be heavily results oriented, it’s good to have some based on experimentation • Align with business objectives, draw the sandbox of operation but let the team loose - their creative flow and freedom of execution may lead to results that may surprise you!!

Welcomes to the digital wagon- remember to enjoy the ride! 

The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pitch

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BRAND JOURNEY PARLE-G

Lessons in LONGEVITY Parle-G remains healthy, nutritious and a market leader in the glucose biscuit category

By Devansh Sharma

T

he journey of Parle-G, a leading biscuit brand can be traced back to 1929, when Parle Products Private Limited Launched its first biscuit brand in British dominated India. When Parle started its operations in 1929 during World War-II, there were no biscuit companies except Britannia, which was owned by a British company then. Glaxo was another biscuit brand which was being imported during those days. Parle introduced its glucose biscuit brand Parle-G to fill this gap. It is now a popular brand worldwide.

The brand targets the masses and has a wide reach ranging from metros to the remotest and smallest of villages. It boasts of a market share of about 70 per cent in its category. Today Parle is not only a household brand but a trusted name in its category and is consumed by people from all age groups.

Parle Biscuits have been positioned as healthy and nutritious biscuits providing

Today Parle G is not only a household brand but a trusted name in its category and is consumed by people of all ages 72

intelligence and strength. Due to this positioning, it is not considered a teatime snack.

MILESTONES: In 1939, the efforts of the company to lead the Indian biscuit market began to take place, and the early 1950s may be considered as the formative years for the brand. Mid 70s observed the first evidence of Parle as it is today.

During the initial years, print ads highlighting the nutritional content were used to communicate with the target group.

In 1980s Parle released its ‘dadaji’ commercial with the jingle ‘Swaad bhare, Shakti bhare, Parle-G’ highlighting its nutritional factor. The Television Commercial (TVC) was quite successful and was used for over a period of 6 years.

Children are not only the major biscuit consumers but also dominate the decision made by their parents. Keeping in mind the psychographics of the mass audience, Parle strategically placed the brand closer to children.

In late 90s, Parle-G joined hands with the most popular Indian super hero from the tele-serial world -‘Shaktimaan’. Rid-

Pitch | March February 2014 2014

ing on the popularity of Shaktimaan the brand succeeded in communicating its benefits, and earned a place in the mind and hearts of young consumers.

In the initial years of the new millennium, Parle created an animated Mascot G-Man for the brand. The TVC, launched under this campaign, showed the animated superhero saving children from evil forces.

Later, in 2004 Parle repositioned the

Parle-G fulfils the need for low-price and good quality glucose biscuits for price sensitive consumers.

Parle-G is one of the most popular and oldest selling glucose biscuit brand in India.

Staying True to the 4 Ps

Parle-G has a very wide market reach. It is available to customers from big metropolitan cities to remotest and smallest of villages.

Apart from being the largest consumers of biscuits, kids also influence the decision of their parents. Realizing this philosophy, Parle has promoted and placed the brand closer to kids. brand and chose the appeal of wisdom; with the tagline ‘G maane Genius’, to promote the product. The campaign featured a series of TVC’s showing Parle-G eating kids outsmarting others.

In 2006-07, the positioning was changed to ‘Hindustan ki Taakat’, taking the brand to a bigger platform, but in early 2008, Parle-G resumed its ‘G for Genius’ positioning by tweaking it a little– ‘Do Genius’. The ad campaign fea-

Pitch | February March 2014 2013

tured Darsheel Safary and Aamir Khan, the chemistry between the duo from the movie ‘taare zameen par’ made the campaign more popular.

However, the core positioning of the brand remained ‘G maane Genius’ Today Parle-G is a household name primarily because of its positioning.

Many people view biscuits as snacks or teatime food, but Parle G has changed this perception. Today, Parle G is not

just seen as an accompaniment for tea but as a substitute for meals. The brand has not done much in terms of product innovation but due to different packaging it has been able to penetrate into the rural market. The product has been available in different packaging priced from Rupee 1 to Rs 25.

With a view to extend its earlier ‘G mane Genius’ campaign, Parle rolled out its latest campaign ‘Kal Ke Genius’.

The first phase of the campaign included the release of a teaser across the digital medium while in the second phase ‘Roko Mat Toko Mat’ TVC around the concept of ”Aao Banaye Kal ke Genius” was launched. The creative of the TVC

by Ogilvy and Mather was built around the thought that there is no bigger school than childhood and there is no better teacher than curiosity. The beautiful lyrics by Gulzar, a popular name in Hindi Cinema, and voice over by Piyush Mishra, added to the appeal.

Another iconic campaign by Parle-G was the testimonial campaign, where brand loyalists narrated their experiences. One of the popular TVCs under this campaign, narrated the story of a young boy and the girl ‘Tina’, on a rainy day and how Parle-G with cutting tea made his evening unforgettable.

The 80 year old iconic biscuit brand has been widely recognized for its quality and taste. Parle has been able to maintain low price for Parle-G throughout the years. With the advent of new players like Britannia Tiger, Sunfeast in the glucose segment, Parle G has tough competition to deal with but it still remains a leader among glucose biscuits.  -devansh.sharma@exchange4media.

73

INTERVIEW RAVI BHARADWAJ

“Everything we do at Dell has the customer at the heart of it” For a company that is primarily known as a technology solutions provider and a PC Maker, Dell has managed to make a successful foray into the Tablet market. The company launched a new brand “Dell Venue”, as part of its Tablet range at the start of the year.

It launched 4 Tablets, 2 with the Android platform and 2 with the Windows platform, thereby aiming at two essential markets in the country. From 160 exclusive stores in 70 cities Dell hopes to expand to 200 stores in a couple of months. The last one year has seen Dell focus on its marketing initiatives and the brand is all set to capture the top position in India, which is one of its top ten markets globally. Rashi Bisaria of Pitch spoke to Ravi Bharadwaj , Executive Director, India Marketing Dell, about the latest initiatives and key strengths of the brand.

Why is Dell focusing on the Tablet market?

We, at Dell have realised that consumers today want products that provide them the fun features along with connectivity to work.

Dell is focusing both Play and Work tablets which combine the attributes of both. Most IT professionals wish for enterprise mobility.

Corporates are moving towards the BYOD or Bring Your Own Device culture. They even provide an allowance for employees to buy devices which give them protocol for both work and play. That’s the unique aspect we are trying to provide. That’s an opportunity for us to explore. The other is the service aspect.

What is Dell’s overall objective?

Our objective is very clear. We want to take

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the leadership position including the Tablet category. We assume that Tablets are your essential companions which help you connect anywhere, anytime. At Dell we have focused on brand building in the last year. Everything we do at Dell has the customer at the heart of it. We provide technology to provide solutions. That’s how we built the personal achievement campaign.

What was the campaign all about?

We asked people to share their stories about how technology enabled them to achieve, how Dell helped them reach there. That campaign is the best example of social amplification. We created a microsite and received thousands of entries. The basic objective was to share the success stories of consumers who used technology in their personal or professional lives. This was open to all and people shared their stories and others benefited from it. For example, a baker used technology, shared it with others and a peer baker found something helpful from that information. The Dell microsite became a platform for sharing of such useful information. The “I can do kuch bhi” campaign was how we took it forward.

The TVC was another amplification of the “I can do spirit”. Yet another campaign was about “hinting a gift” during the festival season. Through that we connected with the youth on an emotional level. In

Every time we devise a solution it is with the customer at the heart of it.

We don’t provide technology for the sake of technology

We believe technology plays an important role in a child’s development.

Are you trying to connect more with the youth? Why has the youth become a target segment for Dell?

Yes. In the Dell world, India leads where Facebook followers are concerned. We have more than 1.5 million followers. We have tried to make the most of this traction on Facebook by coming up with programmes that provide greater scope for sharing. We have come up with a loyalty point programme. We are trying to make it a win win for the followers. This is how it happens. When you join, you like a certain upload, you share it with friends, get them to visit Facebook. This leads to accumulation of points which can be used to buy a device.

When we talk about Venue Tablets we are targeting consumers who are look-

We haven’t moved from our core purpose which is to deliver technology solutions that will enable people to grow and thrive that, one person left a hint about a gift.

We amplified it on the microsite and invited such people to share best hints. The best hint got an award. We did it all for the consumer who was looking for devices for computing.

We have also gone to the ground level of a school connect called the Dell Champ sometime back where we went to 20 cities. Education, empowerment and entertainment were the key themes.

Pitch | March Mach 2014 2014

ing upon a tablet as an add-on device.

So the primary focus of the campaign is on the youth of today. They are looking at something which connects with them and their lifestyle. Our focus is both the consumer and the commercial. We enjoy leadership in the PC category and now we want to become leaders in the Tablet category also.

Do you see the PC market share shrink-

ing with the popularity of Tablets?

The tablet is a plus one device. It doesn’t replace your PC. So while the PC remains the essential device, while travelling the Tablet becomes an essential companion.

Hence it won’t cannibalise the PC. What is the advantage Dell has over other brands? What is its cutting edge?

Last year was the first time Dell came up with 2 TV campaigns. We took the social media amplification to the next level. We connected with a larger number of youth consumers, straddling well between the online space and Above the Line activity.

We also had a whole range of products.

So there has been a lot of activity and the brand has emerged with renewed zest.

But what sets us apart is our core purpose. We haven’t moved from our core purpose which is to deliver technology solutions that will enable people to grow and thrive. It covers the student, consumer and the professional. Our edge is derived from our ability to listen well to our customers and keep him at the centre. Every time we devise a solution it is with the customer at the heart of it. We don’t provide technology for the sake of technology.

The service aspect of Dell is also very strong. There are several technology vendors but we offer a unique proposition in the way we service whether it is online or through our direct sales force or our retail partners or channel partners. We have a multi-prong approach of availability and flexibility and this approach is very unique to Dell. n -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

75

COLUMN The secrets of

digital luxury

What strategies do luxury brands use to succeed online?

Philippe Paget

CEO, International Epica Awards

paget@adforum.com

Luxury brands lure customers with craftsmanship, heritage and beauty: all things the digital world lacks.

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U

ntil recently, the luxury industry tended to be a bit snooty about the internet. Luxury brands lure customers with craftsmanship, heritage and beauty: all things the digital world lacks. If you don’t agree, just take a look at Google, Facebook and Twitter. They’re very useful, even addictive. But beautiful?

Not really. That’s because the internet was built by technologists, not artists.

Yet luxury brands no longer have a choice. They have to go digital, or face flagging sales. The emerging younger market grew up with the internet. And in developing economies, luxury retailers often have a limited physical presence. One of the reasons luxury brands have been rather slow to establish themselves in India is a lack of premium real estate – and subsequently high rental costs.

The British brand Burberry

is known for its enthusiastic embrace of the internet, in part thanks to its young designer Chris Bailey. Burberry made headlines by streaming its catwalk shows live over the internet; not only that, but viewers could click to buy the products they were ogling. So perhaps it’s no coin-

cidence that former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts is now heading to Apple – to run its online and physical stores.

Luxury brands are well aware of the power of the store environment. When you’re shopping in a palace, it seems logical to spend a fortune on a handbag. Luxury retailers call this “the emotional experi-

Pitch | March 2014

ence” of shopping. Clicking an image just doesn’t have the same allure.So how do you replicate that experience online?

Among the first people to insist that the Web and luxury could be friends was Natalie Massenet, the former Tatlerfashioneditor who launched online shopping site Net-a-Porter in 2000. Massenet cunningly designed her site to look more like a glossy magazine. She also realized that service was a key ingredient of the luxury experience: her goal was to make her customers cry with joy when they received one of her parcels.

But even after the beautiful packaging had been removed, Massenet made it absurdly easy to return items that didn’t fit.

Other luxury brands began to get the message. In 2007, Louis Vuitton took the unusual step

of hiring an advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, to revise its digital strategy. (Luxury brands tend to work with fashion photographers and freelance art directors rather than big Madison Avenue agencies, which they consider more appropriate for selling detergent.)

At first it looked as if O&M had come up with another print campaign: pictures of Catherine Deneuve and – more unusually – Mikhail Gorbechev posing with Louis Vuitton bags. But on

Pitch | March 2014

a website called “Journeys”, the celebrities described their favourite travel destinations, supported by audio-visual collages. In other words, viewers could embark on a virtual journey with a VIP companion. The project proved that online branded content could be compelling – and even rather lovely.

Since then, Vuitton has been admirably experimental in the digital field.

It recruited a team of bloggers to test its “soundwalks” – MP3 files in which actresses such as Gong Li

Burberry made headlines by streaming its catwalk shows live; viewers could also click to buy the products they were ogling and Joan Chen narratedstrolls around their native Beijing and Shanghai – and invited Foursquare users to “check in” at a revamped London store. Its site continues to feature sumptuous graphics and high quality video content.

For example, a trio of films currently showcases three different bags for men.

The films take viewers on a tour of

hotel rooms in Florence, Havana and Livingstone, inhabited by unseen people we might like to be: a film-maker, an oceanographer and a herbalist. Well, maybe not that last one. Anyway, by panning across the desirable objects in each room, including the bags, the films create a glamorous universe that we might like to be part of. Exactly like a flagship store.

The creative landscape has benefited from this shift of luxury brands into the

digital world: along with Vuitton, brands such as Cartier, Dior and Prada regularly diffuse high quality branded content online. Cartier’s award-winning “Odyssey” and the Prada film “A Therapy”, directed by Roman Polanski, are just two examples. They are far too long and languorous to be described as “commercials”.

To a certain extent, technology has caught up with the luxury brands’ desires: today, digital can be beautiful. And when it’s backed up with impeccable service, consumers of luxury goods may begin wondering if they need to leave home at all. 

The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pitch

77

COLUMN How Communication can help during a Crisis Jaideep Shergill

CEO, MSLGROUP in India jaideep.shergill@mslgroup.com

The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis’. One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger – but recognise the opportunity.

-John F Kennedy, late US President

E

ach crisis is a showcase of your business – are you an uncaring, poorly-run organisation or ethical and responsible?

It’s a tough business environment today, tougher than it’s ever been.

Not only has competition increased manifold, so has scrutiny. Furthermore, the number of stakeholders and the complexity of your relationship with

them have increased too.

Chances are, a crisis will hit at some stage and you will need to use communication as a tool to ensure it doesn’t balloon to unmanageable proportions and even to resolve it.

Information is the currency of our times and as communicators it is up to us to use it right to achieve business objectives.

Today, most marketing managers and corporate communications departments understand the need for crisis preparedness. Crisis communications plans are part of most public relations mandates too, and brands rely on their agencies to help them through tough times by reassuring stakeholders and ensuring the security of the brand.

The best time to deal with any crisis is when it hasn’t yet hit. Preparation is the key. Scenario planning, the crafting of standard operating procedures during crises, identification of the right spokespersons for each situation, the crafting of holding statements, etc, are

The best time to deal with any crisis is when it hasn’t yet hit.

Preparation is key!

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crisis, there can be no impediments to information flow.

Ensure the team has access to all the data it requires and keep your messaging consistent.

done well in advance. Key executives of the business are trained in communicating during crises and regular refreshers are held.

A few things to keep in mind: • Plan ahead: Think through the various crises that can hit your business. List them out. It doesn’t matter if the probability is low; if it’s possible, it goes on the list.

•

•

Speak up. Often: Be proactive.

Use your pre-crafted statements, ensure you communicate enough. Sporadic bursts of

information or clamming up will not help; they create a perception of guilt or a poor response mechanism. The more you communicate, the more you will be trusted.

Identify spokespersons and the core team: Ideally, the core communications team should include the CEO, the communication head, the seniormost representative from your PR agency and the head

•

Audience is king: Identify the right audiences – internal and external – early. This will help you craft your messages and identify the best way to reach out to them.

•

Social media can help: Often, news breaks on Twitter or another social platform. Make

of the department concerned.

Together, they need to come up with a plan for each crisis.

•

Smash barriers: During a

Pitch | March 2014

Remember, no crisis communication plan – however brilliant – can help you recover unless you’re willing to walk the talk on setting things right

sure you have experts monitoring social media and that you have early warning systems in place. Engage the people who matter during the crisis, if they’re on a social platform.

•

Take responsibility: Accept immediately that there is a problem and assert what you’re doing to resolve it. If you don’t have all the details immediately, say so and then make sure the information reaches those that need it as soon as possible.

Remember, no crisis communication plan – however brilliant – can help you recover unless you’re willing to walk the talk on setting things right.

Communicating often is not the same as moving quickly to clean up the oil spill caused by a faulty rig. However, your recovery effort will need to be communicated for your brand to retain stakeholders’ trust . Your company will need to say that it cares alongside showing that it does. n

The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pitch

79

COLUMN ANNURAG BATRA

All hopes pinned on 2014 T

Annurag Batra Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, Pitch Magazine abatra@exchange4media.com @anuragbatrayo www.facebook.com/anuragbatrayo

he Pitch Madison Media Advertising Report has set standards for the media advertising industry making it one of the most sought after reports about this extremely volatile and complex industry. I am glad to see the industry growing beyond our projections and a growth rate of 11.1 per cent during 2013, a slow year, is a reason to be hopeful about the future. The overall projected growth rate of 16.8 per cent for 2014 has just added to the expectations. Over the years, the report has served as a beacon for marketers and media planners and its projections have become a reliable source of information.

The report has thrown up interesting findings and we can notice how each medium is vying for the share of the ad pie. There have been some surprises too.

The growth rate of digital at 32.4 per cent has been the highest among all media. It gives us a clue about what lies ahead in the coming years. Television and print will continue to dominate the advertising industry but marketers are keen to find alternative media to reach out to their target audience.

Print growth rate was projected at a poor 4.7 per cent but again industry experts and findings of PMMAO 2014 suggest this figure to go up . In the coming months Print will emerge as the most significant medium during the time of elections. TV has shown a healthy

I am glad to see the industry growing beyond our projections and a growth rate of 11.1 per cent during 2013, is a reason to be hopeful about the future 80

growth this year, more than the projected figures of 6 per cent. This is again despite the slowdown of economy in the second half of the year and self imposed regulations by TV channels. Print and Television have remained important platforms for advertisers delivering on promises, providing great opportunities for creativity and have delivered some unimaginable experiences.

Despite the challenges faced by the traditional marketing media like Out of Home advertising, initiatives at Maha Kumbh and music festivals have actually worked wonders for brands.

Out of Home media has not grown at an encouraging rate which indicates that the time has come for outdoor agencies and brands integrate technology and research for the desired output.

Radio proved to be the most surprising of the lot with a growth rate of 18 per cent which is more than four times the projected rate of 4 per cent. The rural heartland of the country is the main reason behind this growth rate. I believe this is a lesson for all media owners who need to reach out to the rural masses during these difficult times.

The prediction for growth of media advertising in 2013 was 7.4 per cent but the actual growth turned out to be higher at 11.1 per cent.

Overall, the year ahead seems to hold promise for marketers. With 2014 being an election year, growth is also dependent on the upcoming Lok Sabha and State elections. ď Ž

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COLUMN ANNURAG BATRA

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