EYE-CATCHING STUFF

DEFINING MOMENTSGerson da Cunha

MOBILE ADVERTISING The Right Connect 36

IRS Q2 Decoding the Figures 42

ZEE A Different Handle 48

RADIO High Notes, Low Notes 61

The grand man of Indian advertising speaks.

5234

VOLKSWAGENCore-Thought AdvertisingThe new TVC promotes just the mother brand.

12

PROFILEDeepesh Jha Lowe Delhi’s creative head on his ‘accidental’ career.

AAMIR KHAN

30

28

September 1-15, 2010 `50Volume 1, Issue 17

On screen and even off it, he is a brand and movie marketer’s delight. What makes the actor a failsafe option?[��]

DEPENDABLE

News Innovation Awards (NIA) 2010 by afaqs! recognised some of the path-breaking initiatives that aim to help take the news business into the future.

AFAQS! EVENTSEYE-CATCHING STUFF

EDITORIAL

5afaqs! Reporter, September 1-15, 2 0 1 0

Volume 1, Issue 17This fortnight...Much has been said about Aamir Khan’s marketing acumen. Accolades like ‘Marketing

Genius’ and ‘Uncrowned King of Marketing’ have been oft-used to describe him.

This is the second time in 18 months that afaqs!Reporter (it was called The Brand Reporter then) has put Khan on the cover. The last time around it was prompted by the huge marketing machinery that rolled out when Ghajini was released in 2008 - and Khan’s role in it (the marketing exercise, not the movie).

3 Idiots followed last year and became a blockbuster. Again reams were written about Khan’s unerring sense of how best to push a product and convince the consumer. Nothing more could be said, right? Wrong. Khan still had something up his sleeve.

In both the above instances, there was an underlying safety net in the fact that the movies had Khan acting in them. “So what if the marketing fails, people will come to see him anyway,” was the thought in the makers’ minds. Then, for most of last month, Khan did something that made people sit up again.

Peepli Live was a small-budget film. It had a cast that was labelled non-cast even as the cameras started rolling. It had a first-time director who was yet to prove herself. And it was dealing with a subject that hardly anybody thought would interest the multiplex goers. There was a small factor of interest though - it was produced by Aamir Khan Productions.

That was enough. As Khan rolled up his sleeves and started promoting Peepli Live - in India and abroad - you just sat back and watched the smoke. The movie achieved more than what anyone had bargained for.

We find out, from the many people, both in the advertising and film industry, who know or have worked with Khan, why they think he is such a bankable brand. And how this man - who gets to choose his movie and the brand that he wants to endorse - forges that elusive affinity with his target audience.

DEFINING MOMENTSGerson da Cunha

MOBILE ADVERTISING The Right Connect 36

IRS Q2 Decoding the Figures 42

ZEE A Different Handle 48

RADIO High Notes, Low Notes 61

The grand man of Indian advertising speaks.

5234

VOLKSWAGENCore-Thought AdvertisingThe new TVC promotes just the mother brand.

12

PROFILEDeepesh Jha Lowe Delhi’s creative head on his ‘accidental’ career.

AAMIR KHAN

30

28

September 1-15, 2010 `50Volume 1, Issue 17

On screen and even off it, he is a brand and movie marketer’s delight. What makes the actor a failsafe option?[��]

DEPENDABLE

News Innovation Awards (NIA) 2010 by afaqs! recognised some of the path-breaking initiatives that aim to help take the news business into the future.

AFAQS! EVENTSEYE-CATCHING STUFF

EDITOR Sreekant Khandekar

PUBLISHER Prasanna Singh

SENIOR LAYOUT ARTISTVinay Dominic

LOGISTICSRajesh Kanwal

ADVERTISING ENQUIRIESHansika Koli, (0120) 4077834 4077837 Noida

Varun Mohan, (022) 40429702-5 Mumbai

Neeraj Ranjan, 09886846842 Bangalore

[email protected]

Marketing OfficeB-3, First Floor, Sector-4, Noida-201301.

Tel: (0120) 4077800.

Mumbai501-502, Makani Center, 5th Floor,

Off Linking Road, Bandra (W),

Mumbai - 400050

Tel: +91-22-40429 709 - 712

BangaloreS-1, New Bridge Corporate Centre,

777 D, 100 ft Road, Indira Nagar,

Bangalore - 560038, India

Subscription EnquiriesGarima Agnihotri, (0120) 4077837

[email protected]

Printed, published, and owned by

Prasanna Singh, Publisher,

at 7-A/13,

Ch. Ratan Singh Complex,

Jawala Heri Market, Paschim Vihar,

New Delhi-110 063.

Printed at Paras Offset Pvt. Ltd.,

C-176, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase I,

New Delhi 110 028.

LICENSING & MERCHANDISINGOut of the BoxCID and Chhota Bheem are set to move beyond TV.

POINTS OF VIEWThe Pricing StrategyIs slashing cover prices the most effective way of tackling competition?

24

38DOMINO’SDelivering CultureUsing song and dance to connect with the audience.

14

PEPSI MAXFriendship BondIts first TVC shows a bunch of friends getting what they want.

PLUSKIT KATAnimated Breaks 12

BRITANNIA TIGERRoaring Away 16

L&T MUTUAL FUNDSNot Just Promises 18

CADBURY DAIRY MILK ECLAIRSPsychedelic Experience 20

TATA SKYA Class Apart 24

MCDONALD’STreated Well 26

CAMPAIGN TRAILNew Campaigns 58

50

SHOPPERS STOPLooking BackShowcasing 19 years of the brand’s communication.

M Venkatesh

36CONTENTS

The second round table con-ference by afaqs! Events discussed the challenges

faced in marketing telecom. The conference was moderated by Anirban Chaudhuri, V-P, strategic planning, Dentsu Communications and saw panellists such as Ritesh Ghoshal, head, marketing com-munication, Tata Docomo; Neeraj Sanan, marketing head, MCCS; Arun Sharma, DGM, marketing and head, media, Airtel; and Mohit Joshi, executive director, North, MPG.

Hitting the nail on the head, Chaudhuri explained how telecom is one of the biggest and the most cluttered category in the country today, with different operators, con-tent providers, countless value added services and handset manufacturers vying for the customer’s attention . He questioned, “In such a scenario, how does a marketer talk to the tar-get group without confusing him?”

Ghoshal responded by address-ing one of the major concerns of a customer - handset or service compatibility and discussed how, in some markets abroad, hand-sets and services are bundled to avoid inconvenience. Joshi of MPG observed that the right communica-tion is missing from the category. “Consumers are not really aware of the possibilities of mobile telephony as the communication is not explor-ing aspects other than the price point,” he declared.

Agreeing with Joshi,

Sharma said that communication is a problem faced by all. He added that network and service will always be the key differentiators in the cat-egory and the operator who delivers on these grounds will be able to woo the maximum customers.

Sanan noted there are two types of users in the country - the takers of the cheapest services and handsets and the jazzy consumers who want access to the best of services. “While the operators would like to keep the volumes churning for the first set of users, innovation should be the priority for the second lot of users,” he added.

Next, Chaudhuri asked the panel whether 3G will be the game chang-er in mobile telephony and how fast the new technology will impact the industry. Sharma opined that the change will be visible only after a few years when 3G will become affordable and that is when the rural customer will come into the picture.

User generated content on mobile and its popularity amongst the youth was the next topic of dis-cussion. Sanan revealed that 3-5 per cent of the content on STAR News is shot on high end mobile phones.

Taking the debate further, Joshi explained how the mobile phone and web are the next big sources of news from where news channels and newspapers pick up the leads. “With new technology, the news business model can be transformed and con-tent will be richer,” Sanan added.

‘‘A lot of games we develop... do not sell in India because users cannot download these. It is as if we have Ferraris but not the highways.’’

VISHAL GONDAL, CEO, UTV INDIAGAMES, ON THE PROBLEMS FACED BY THE GAMING INDUSTRY DUE TO THE UNAVAILABILITY OF 3G, IN BUSINESS TODAY.

ROUND TABLE CONFERENCE

QUOTE OF THE FORTNIGHT

Hidesign> The brand is eyeing to make it big in airport retailing. Recently, it launched an exclusive store at Kochi International Airport spread over an area of 450 sq.ft. By the end of this year, the company plans to open an exclusive store at Bangalore International Airport. Apart from 50 exclusive brand outlets (EBOs), the brand is present in major multi-brand outlets.

Clean & Clear> The teen skincare brand has joined hands with the Times of India group for the Clean & Clear Times Fresh Face 2010, a talent hunt that gives aspiring teens a chance to showcase their confidence and become famous. The brand further aims to generate buzz by support-ing the campaign through on-ground promotions, mall and cinema activations, product sampling and multiple spots on television. The contest will cover around 110 colleges in six metros.

The Nielsen Company> T.A. Pai Management Institute, a B-school is all set to host the 2010 edition of BrandScan, an annual market research fair in association with The Nielsen Company. BrandScan aims to give its students experiential learning by exposing them to live projects from reputed cor-porates in a ‘town mela’ like surrounding.

Sponsored by��

BrandScan - the annual market research fair aims to give its students experi-mental learning.

Fastrack> Fashion accessories brand Fastrack is aiming to be a `1000-crore brand in three years’ time. The company, which has 36 exclusive stores across the country, plans to have 100 stores by March 2011. The company is targeting a turnover of over `450 crore for the current fiscal and plans to introduce few more branded accessories, including footwear, jewellery, cellphones and caps under the brand.

Coca-Cola> The beverage giant has made its foray into the diary segment with the launch of its latest innovation- Maaza Milky Delite - a blend of mangoes and milk developed for the Indian palate. As part of the phased launch, the product is first being made available to consumers in Kolkata followed by a nation-wide launch later this year. The new offering is available in 200 ml slim tetra pack at `15. Over the next two months, Maaza Milky Delite would be retailed across 3,000 outlets in Kolkata.

The brand is present in 50 exclusive brand outlets and multi-brand outlets.

Wynn Telecom> The com-pany has entered into an exclusive agreement with a free SMS service application provider - 160by2.com. As part of this, Wynncom mobile phones will have a pre installed mobile application developed by160by2.com, enabling mobile phone users to send free SMSes to any mobile in India, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines.

BSE and Google> Asia’s oldest stock exchange has tied up with Google for cashing in on the latest advertise-ment garnering tool - that is through website ads related to the content on the page. This means that ads could be of financial products when quotes are searched for banking stocks and of mobile phones for telecom stock pages. The BSE is experimenting with this revenue model after similar steps were taken by global exchanges like the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.

��

Wyncomm users will now be able to send free SMSes to users in various countries.

6 afaqs! Reporter, September 1-15, 2 0 1 0

MARK

ETIN

G

From left: Ghoshal, Sharma, Chaudhuri, Joshi and Sanan

SUSH

IL K

UMAR


Reliance Broadcast Network and CBS Studios have entered into a JV which will

launch three English entertainment channels in India to begin with.

Reliance Broadcast Network (part of the ADA Group) and CBS Studios International (part of CBS Corporation) shook hands officially at a press announcement recentlyto form a new entity which will be called Big-CBS Network.

The nature of the joint venture is such that CBS and RBNL (through its subsidiary) will act as sharehold-ers and each will have 50 per cent equity interest in the JV, Big-CBS.

To begin with, Big-CBS will launch an English entertainment channel called Big-CBS Prime. This channel will be launched in the fourth quarter (October-December). And this will be followed with the launch of two more English enter-tainment channels targeted at the youth and women. These will be called Big-CBS Spark and Big-CBS Love, respectively and will target the upward-ly mobile population of India.

The JV promises to offer audiences imme-diate access to the new and current CBS programmes such as Hawaii Five-0, The Defenders, Blue Bloods, NCIS, Survivor, CSI, 90210, America’s Next Top Model and Entertainment Tonight. The channels will also have access to 70,000 hours of content from CBS’ programme library, which includes properties such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Frasier and Everybody Loves Raymond.

Besides, Big-CBS will acquire content from other production stu-dios while also looking at producing

content in India. Big-CBS will have the first access to all the

CBS offerings.Tarun Katial, chief executive

officer, Reliance Broadcast Network, says, “This is truly a landmark moment not just for us but the entire Reliance ADA Group, with our first step into the television broadcasting space. We are confident that our deep understanding of the Indian consumer’s entertainment requirement and advertiser needs, coupled with CBS’ reputation for creating superior content, will offer unmatched and pioneering enter-tainment to audiences in India.”

Armando Nuñez, president, CBS Studios International, says, “The vast programming, production and media resources of our two

companies position us extremely well to serve the audience and advertisers. This alli-ance has the potential for amazing synergies and new opportuni-ties for our companies in one of the world’s most dynamic media markets.”

Aparna Pande, head, Big-CBS, says, “While Big-CBS Prime will be a premium English entertainment chan-nel, the other two, Big-CBS Spark and Big-CBC Love, will be category creators with

distinct programming.”The Big-CBS network will

exploit the synergies of RBN’s multi-media presence and an inte-grated sales offering. Synergies will be availed across Reliance ADAG platforms which include Big TV, Reliance Digicable, Big Synergy, Big Productions and Big Pictures.

The JV will initially focus on the English general entertainment genre. RBN may also foray into Hindi language and regional language general entertainment channels in the future. The company may seek another partner for the same, an

‘‘With confidence returning and an increase in consumer and advertisement spends, the industry is looking to get back to its high growth trajectory.’’TIMMY S KANDHARI, LEADER (E&M PRACTICE), PWC INDIA, ON THE GROWTH OF INDIAN E&M INDUSTRY IN NEXT FIVE YEARS, IN FINANCIAL EXPRESS.

RELIANCE BROADCAST NETWORK


Sponsored by��

The Ranchi edition is the 49th edition of Dainik Bhaskar Group.

Spenta Multimedia> Spenta Multimedia recently launched a consumer jewellery magazine, titled Adorn. The bi-monthly magazine bears a cover price of `100. It is targeted at high net-worth individuals, who are established and aspiring consumers of the gem and jewellery industry’s high-end and high-fashion products. Adorn will have an initial print run of 20,000 copies, and an average of 112-128 pages per issue. The content will focus on jewellery and bejeweled accessories, such as watches.

AXN> For the last season of its series named 24, an American TV series produced by 20th Century Fox, AXN is doing things differently. Unlike the earlier seasons, AXN will feature this season with subtitles. This will be the first property on the channel to have subtitles and it will be exclusive to 24.

Outlook> The news magazine, Outlook, is looking at changing its existing tagline and will adopt a new one on its 15th anniversary in October. Since its launch in 1995, the magazine has sported the tagline ‘Weekly news magazine’. The group has invited advertisers and creative agencies to come up with a new tagline which is sharp, pithy, meaningful and conveys the brand image.

ICICI Bank> The traffic on icicibank.com increased by 40 per cent from 3.3 per cent unique users in June 2009 to more than 4.7 million unique users in June this year. According to the latest data released by the US based inter-net research firm comScore, about 20 million unique online users visited financial and business sites in June this year in India. As expected, 72 per cent of the visitors were male, mainly in the age group of 25-34 years.

Dainik Bhaskar Group> The Dainik Bhaskar Group has launched its first edition of Dainik Bhaskar in Jharkhand, beginning with the Ranchi edition. This is the 12th state the group has its footprints in, including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. It soon plans to expand further with the launch of Jamshedpur and Dhandbad editions.

Raghav Bahl> The book Superpower? The Amazing Race between China’s Hare and India’s Tortoise by media mag-nate Raghav Bahl provides insights about the two evolving Asian economies. CNBC-TV18, in association with CNN-IBN, recently launched Bahl’s debut book. The non-fiction book provides insights about the two evolving economies, India and China, who are in the race to become the next global superpower. It also explores whether India is ready for superpower status; or whether it needs to catch up with China in the game.

The book focuses on India and China, who are in the race to become the next global super-power.

��

MEDI

A

Bloomberg UTV> The business news channel Bloomberg UTV has unveiled its business reality show, The Pitch. The show will be a 10 episode series and is slated to go on air in October. The channel has tied up with a venture capital firm, Mumbai Angels, which will fund the winning idea. The show aims to fuel the spirit of entrepreneurship in India to make its financial growth more inclusive than it presently is.

AXN hopes to attract newer audiences to the channel with the show.

RBN may also foray into Hindi

and other regional language general

entertainment channels in the future.

> Mudra Group has won the creative duties for Huawei, the telecom solutions provider, following a multi-agency pitch process that involved two rounds of presentations. Mudra will handle both above-the-line and below-the-line communication. The ad spends are pegged at `200 crore for the next 18 months. A total of 12 agencies had initially participated in the pitch process of which the agencies shortlisted for the

subsequent rounds were TBWA/India, Bates 141, Lowe Lintas India, Ogilvy India, Saatchi & Saatchi and Percept/H, apart from Mudra.

> Indiabulls Securities, a part of the Indiabulls Group, has awarded its creative mandate to Onads Communications. The account size is pegged at around `10-15 crore. The business was won after a multi-agency pitch that involved at least two other agencies. The 360-degree campaign is expected to break in October and would involve television and large-scale print and outdoor promotions.

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) will soon introduce a new

set of advertising guidelines for the educational sector. The new advertising content guidelines will apply to ads of all educational institutions, coaching classes and educational programmes.

The draft of the guidelines has been put up for review, feedback and suggestions on ASCI’s official website. Based on the feedback received from the public and stakeholders concerned, the ASCI committee will finalise the guidelines and put it up for the ASCI board’s approval. After this, the guidelines will become a part of ASCI’s Code for Self Regulation in Advertising.

The new set of guidelines takes note of the fact that a significant amount of advertising activity is currently happening in the education sector, reflecting the vast variety of educational programmes being offered in the country.

According to the recent ADEX report, advertising by educational institutions have gone up by leaps and bounds. Last year’s figures show that 8 per cent of the total advertising expenses in print media came from the educational sector. This is a significant increase compared to the advertising expenses just a few years ago.

According to Dhananjay Keskar, chairperson, ASCI and director, IBS Pune, who also heads the committee for drafting the guidelines, the council recognises the role of educational institutions in building the country’s intellectual capital and the value parents place in them for getting the right education for their

children.

“Unlike other tangible products and services, the value of education and training programmes can only be judged by degrees and diplomas, which are advertised in a variety of ways. ASCI realises that a variety of these claims in advertisements need to be regulated through a set of guidelines tailor made for the education sector,” he says.

The proposed advertising guidelines for educational institutions, among other things, prohibits institutions and programmes from claiming recognition, authorisation, accreditation, or affiliations without having proper evidence. The guidelines also require the name and

location of the affiliated institution which provides degrees and diplomas on behalf of the advertiser.

A d d i t i o n a l l y , e d u c a t i o n a l institutions will not be able to promise jobs, admissions, job promotions and salary increases without substantiating such claims and also assuming full responsibility in the

same advertisement. The proposed guidelines discourage institutions from claiming success in placements, student compensations, admission to renowned institutes, marks and rankings, and topper student testimonials unless every such claim is substantiated.

“Lately, ASCI has been receiving several intra-industry complaints against claims being made in ads by various educational institutions. Many students and parents, too, have complained to ASCI against claims made in these ads,” says Keskar.

Earlier, ASCI has put out specific guidelines for advertisements in automobile and food and beverage sectors.

1 0

‘‘A celebrity is chosen to provide an aspirational value to the brand. Can a celebrity worth million dollars actually be using the brand he or she endorses? Celebrities are over-exposed.’’

RAJESH JEJURIKAR, CHIEF OF OPERATIONS, AUTOMOTIVE DIVISION, MAHINDRA AND MAHINDRA, ON HOW HIGH ACHIEVERS ARE A BETTER CHOICE IN ADVERTISEMENTS THAN STARS, IN THE ECONOMIC TIMES.


Sponsored by��ASCI

Carlsberg> Carlsberg, the Denmark based global beer maker, is on the lookout for a creative partner in India. Sources confirm that three agencies are in the fray, including Bates 141. The pitch is in the initial stage. Carlsberg’s media duties are being handled by MPG and the creative work is looked after jointly by an agency called Bounds and Carlsberg’s in-house team.

ADVE

RTIS

ING

UNICEF> United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for a pitch to appoint a creative partner for its pan-India campaign on the ongoing census. McCann Erickson, Mudra, JWT and DraftFCB Ulka are some of the agencies in the fray. The census will enumerate the country’s 1.2 billion population, involve over 25 lakh officials, cost around `2,209 crore and consume more than 11 million tonnes of paper.

> The skin-care brand owned by Marico, Kaya Skin Clinic has appointed Ignitee Solutions as its digital agency, to handle its social media marketing. Kaya’s digital media planning and buying is managed by Starcom IP while Optima Advertising takes care of search marketing for the brand. Kaya’s social media duties were earlier handled by Mumbai-based social media agency, Windchimes Communications.

> Following a multi-agency pitch, Contract Advertising Delhi has bagged the creative duties for Lava Mobile. Draft FCB Ulka, Publicis Ambience and Mudra were some of the agencies in the fray. According to sources, the account size is pegged at `25-30 crore approximately. Shop is the

incumbent agency on the account, which had won the business in May.

afaqs! Reporter, September 1-15, 2 0 1 0

> Following a multi agency pitch in June, DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund has appointed two agencies to handle its creative mandate - Pickle Lintas India and Taproot India. JWT was the incumbent on the business. The pitch involved six agencies, namely, Pickle Lintas, Taproot India, JWT, Triton, Rediffusion Y&R and McCann Erickson. Ad spends for the brand are estimated at `12-15 crore annually. The media mandate is with Motivator.

>> ACCOUNT MOVEMENT

The new set of guidelines takes note of the fact

that a significant amount of advertising activity is currently

happening in the education sector.

��

��

In order to strengthen brand Volkswagen’s core value, ‘innovation’, the brand makes a loud corporate statement through a country-

wide campaign titled ‘Innovations for Everyone’. Innovation happens to be one of the three main assets that the brand stands for; the other two are ‘responsibility’ and ‘value’.

The target group (TG) of this campaign is essentially the young and progressive urbanite, as well as new age middle class men who fall in the age bracket of 25-44 years. The media activities of the campaign will be concentrated in areas where the brand’s 47 (14 at the onset on 2009) dealers are located.

VW’s first brand campaign in India, broke on November 11, 2009 and was accompanied

by the market launch-es of the Beetle and Touareg. Following this was Polo, launched in March, while Phaeton was launched in April. Since the eye-catch-ing brand campaign in 2009, the brand has focussed primarily on communicating its indi-vidual products and has, accordingly, high-lighted the features of each product. The pre-sent campaign, however, appears to be an effort to promote the mother brand, Volkswagen.

Lending a quick word on this corporate com-munication, Lutz Kothe, chief general manager, marketing and public relations, Volkswagen India, says, “Right from the very old Beetle up until now, we were always the brand that believed in the democratisation of innovation. Given this, it doesn’t make sense for us to innovate only for some of our products, thus the catch phrase ‘inno-vation for everyone’.”

He adds that at VW, innovation implies cutting edge technology that is available to cus-tomers belonging to all the TGs - from the luxurious Phaeton to the more affordable Polo. Thus, through this campaign, the focus is on the innovative technology used in each of VW’s cars across all segments.

The creative duties for the brand lie with DDB Mudra and the media duties are with media agency, Mediacom.

The TVC is a rather simple one, wherein the entire range of VW products, comprising six cars, is displayed. The image of each product is accom-panied by a mention of one unique characteristic feature of that particular product and the MVO content is made to coincide to facilitate this.

The features emphasised are the Bi-Xenon Cornering headlamps (Phaeton), DSG gearbox (Touareg), TSI technology (Passat), iconic design (Beetle), electronic stabilisation programme (Jetta) and lastly, the fuel efficient engine (Polo). The descending move from hi-end features like fancy headlights to something as basic as fuel efficiency is a deliberate effort to stress on the fact that the brand has something to offer for all segments.

Speaking about the creative brief given to the agency, Rajeev Raja, national creative director, DDB Mudra Group, explains, “The prime aim was to convey that the brand’s innovations are not restricted to high end cars such as the Phaeton but that they percolate all the way down to the Polo.” He adds this is a shift from previous campaigns as this communication is one in which the overall brand is speaking, as opposed to individual prod-ucts under the mother brand.”

The media mix includes television, print, out-door and digital. The TVC currently on air is a 40 second master TVC and through the course of this campaign, several edited versions of the same will be rolled out. These versions include

Unleashing the Core ThoughtVOLKSWAGEN

The car-maker’s new campaign promotes the mother brand intead of individual offerings. By Ashwini Gangal

�� >>

1 2 afaqs! Reporter, September 1-15, 2 0 1 0

Furthering its brand philoso-phy of taking a break from daily chores by consum-

ing the product, Nestlé’s Kit Kat has launched a new ad campaign to extend the brand thought. The new campaign for the brand urges youngsters to celebrate the present and notice the fun events in their surroundings.

Nestlé Kit Kat was launched in India in 1995 and was well received by consumers owing to both the ‘finger format’ of the chocolate as well as the way its advertising celebrated the ‘consumption rit-

ual’. “Through different creative renditions, the brand has always propagated the ‘break in routine’ communication,” says B Kannan, general manager, chocolates and confectionery, Nestlé India.

The ‘Have a break, have a Kit Kat’ tagline got a desi twist a few years ago, when the brand rolled out its ‘Kit Kat break toh banta hai’ communication. At the time, the campaign marked the return to its

‘take a break’ ideation, after the brand had given it a rest for a while.

The first TVC of the present campaign begins with a visual of two young men sitting in a park. One of them is involved in his work, completely engrossed in his laptop and headphones, whereas the other opens a Kit Kat. No sooner does he eat the chocolate than a

couple of animated squirrels appear in front of him. He is shocked to see how the male squirrel is wooing the female by singing Bollywood songs and performing some cute dance moves.

However, when he tries to show his friend the scene, the friend is unable to see what he sees. The friend is clearly not interested in what the first youngster is trying to show him and even expresses a hint

Animated BreaksThe new campaign urges consumers to notice the fun events in their surroundings. By Ashwini Gangal

KIT KAT

�� !"�>>

For the first time, Kit Kat has used ani-mated characters central to the storyline.

��

While Pepsi continues to add nuances to its Youngistaan positioning, keeping in

line with the global communication, the first commercial for Pepsi Max - the beverage giant’s latest offering for the Indian market - takes the mad-ness quotient to the next level.

An adaptation of one of the Pepsi Max commercials launched in the US last year by CLM BBDO, the film opens in an office where a job interview is on. The interviewer calls for the first candidate, who walks in with a bottle of Pepsi Max.

The interviewer asks him why he should be given the job. The candidate looks at the ceiling as if thinking and groans loudly, pretending to be bashed by the interviewer - who is baffled at the act.

In the next few scenes, the candidate slaps him-self, throws himself against a wall and some books off the shelf, immerses his head in the aquarium, rips off his shirt and finally, throws himself out of the interviewer’s office into the waiting area to take off.

Falling for the act, the other candidates make a hasty exit in terror. Only one candidate holds on to his seat and eventually, the helpless interviewer has no option but to offer him the job.

In the end, one realises that the violent act was

a set up by three friends to ward off other pro-spective candidates and guarantee the job for one of them. The ad ends on the shot of all the three friends celebrating with a dance.

The Indian film has been created by the team at JWT, including Soumitra Karnik, executive

creative director; Hari Krishnan, vice-president and Amit Wadhwa, associate vice-president.

The production was handled by Bang Bang Films; international director duo Nic and Sune, who also directed the last Youngistaan com-mercial featuring Ranbir Kapoor, has put together the film this time as well.

Discussing the film, Karnik shares that as the storyline was universal

there was no need to reinvent the communication. “In order to appeal to the Indian sensibilities, the needful was done by getting an Indian cast and adding some Hindi dialogues. It is an attempt to start a conversation with youngsters who are out of college in a new circle of friends and are looking for their first job.”

“The Pepsi Max drinker is street smart and someone who revels in laugh out loud experiences with his mates,” he adds. More films will be rolled out as the brand goes national.

Punita Lal, executive director, marketing, PepsiCo India, reveals that Pepsi Max is one of PepsiCo’s most successful brands that has driven growth and rapidly built market share across the globe.

“With this launch, brand Pepsi further strength-

(Left) Karnik and Lal: the starting point

The Bond of FriendshipPEPSI MAX

The first TVC for Pepsi Max shows a bunch of friends pulling off a violent act to get what they want. By Rohit Nautiyal

�� #�>>


two 20 second commercials, one that communicates information about the products Phaeton, Touareg and Passat, and another that focuss-es on the Beetle, Jetta and Polo. Additionally, three mute versions of the TVC, with durations as short as five, three and two and a half sec-onds, also form part of the campaign.

VW has also launched an interac-tive website as part of this campaign. The website acts as a medium to reach out to people and encourage them to share their personal innova-tions in a forum. A ‘celebrity jury’ will then pick and reward the best.

Kothe adds that the brand has made ‘people’ an integral part of the VW family by introducing this web-site. “In the digital space, bluetooth technology will also be used to create interaction with consumers - people will be able to download information about the brand and reach the inter-net page via this technology.

The campaign also includes out-door and Kothe says this is part of the ‘still young’ brand’s effort to further the awareness. Speaking of market launches, the brand’s latest sedan, the Vento, is slated for a September 2010 launch.

DID EVERYONE LIKE THE INNOVATION?

Industry experts are quick to applaud the creative bit but are

quicker to express their bittersweet reactions when asked about the potential effects of the campaign on the brand’s individual products. The general sentiment is that this overall branding in a sense dilutes the posi-tioning of each individual product.

Nabankur Gupta, founder and chief executive officer, Nobby Brand Architects and Strategic Marketing, is of the opinion that the campaign

is very creative with a new approach to auto TVCs. “This works well to project a common innovative plat-form for their product portfolio,” he says. However, he goes on, “While it builds value for their mass segment, the higher end models will lose equi-ty due to lack of differential”.

Regarding the TVC in particular, he opines that the photography qual-ity could’ve been better as the design aspects of the products don’t emerge

- other than for the Beetle - and that the lighting seems subdued. “The 40 second duration seems a little short and hurried. A 60 seconder would do more justice. Perhaps they should have launched the campaign with 60 seconds and then followed it up with 30 seconders,” he offers.

Sandip Mahapatra, vice-presi-dent and head, planning, McCann Erickson Delhi, feels that the cam-

paign is ‘nice’ but that it is the easy way out. He says that the TVC tells the audience, “All Volkswagens are built in the same mould, so whether it’s the `4.4 lakh-worth Polo or the `60 lakh-worth Touareg, we build them equally.”

He says that the brand may as well name all the cars ‘Volkswagens’ instead of “going through the fuss about naming them all differently”. He complains, “If you like a Touareg, you buy a VW, you like a Polo, you buy a VW. You really cannot like a VW and buy yourself a Lupo. After 70 years of trying to expand beyond one car for everyone, brand VW is back to ‘one’. When you do this sort of work, you must stick to the princi-ple you apply to thinking about cars. You mustn’t display all your cars. Ask Honda.” He concludes by exclaim-ing, “The next in this series will include Skoda, Seat, Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bugatti and the 20 per cent of Suzuki that VW owns!”

Volkswagen sells its broad model range from the Fox to the Phaeton in more than 150 countries. �

[email protected]

<< �� $%�&��'

Unleashing...

The general sentiment about the ad is that overall branding dilutes the positioning of

each individual product.

��


Once again, speaking to both mothers and children, Britannia has launched a new commercial for its popular brand of glu-

cose biscuits, Tiger. The commercial suggests that young India would make progress by eating what’s ‘right’.

The TVC opens in a school playground, where chief guest is speaking about the fact that the future of the country lies in the hands of the youngsters, who can put the country on the global map by making it the ‘tiger of the world’.

On hearing these words, one of the students takes a pack of Tiger out of his pocket and shares it with his friend. One of the teachers standing near the queue snatches the pack away from the kid. One of them wails: ‘How can kids - the future of India - become tigers on an empty stomach?’

Seeing the teacher’s puzzled expression, the kid repeats the question, much louder this time, and catches the attention of the chief guest, who agrees with the child. After devouring his share of biscuits, a rejuvenated child asks, ‘Ab bolo sir... kis kisko beat karna hai...’

The idea has been conceptualised by the team at Lowe Lintas, including R Balki and Deepa Geethakrishnan on the creative side, Vikram Satyanath from planning, and Ayyappan and Krithika Narayan from client servicing. Amit Sharma of Chrome Pictures has directed the film.

Anuradha Narasimhan, category director -

health and wellness, Britannia, reveals that as part of regular research, the brand talks to the mothers, who believe that their largest role in their chil-dren’s progress is to feed them what is right, at the right time.

“Tiger has always stood for high-energy solu-tions for today’s kids. We play a role in the everyday lives of middle-class households in India, as a mid-meal snack that’s both nutritious and loved by kids. Our products are iron-fortified -

iron is one of the biggest reasons behind deficiency in Indian kids. In our latest commercial, we have brought alive the context of ‘khali pet’ (an empty stomach), as well as the payoff of getting ahead in life. Both mothers and children can relate to it,” she adds.

Sharing the communication challenge, Geethakrishnan says, “The task at hand was to make Tiger more relevant to the present day, than any other affordable biscuit brand. If we want our children (the future of the country) to take us to great heights as a nation, we need to first ensure the basics - that they have their tummies full.”

She feels Tiger has always been a brand that provides substantive nutrition to the kids of India. According to her, this campaign takes it further - by creating empathy at an all-new level. She adds that it is a game-changer in talking about the positive implications of never being on an empty stomach, for our children and our country’s future.

Besides television, the campaign will use outdoor and print. In the next stage of com-munication, the campaign will be amplified with on-ground activities.

Tiger, launched in 1997, became the largest brand in Britannia’s portfolio in the very first year; and continues to be so, till date.

Bread and biscuits are a major part of the bakery

Roaring Away

�� (�>>

BRITANNIA TIGER

Besides television, the campaign will use outdoor and print. The campaign will be further amplified

with on-ground activities.

ens its leadership in the cola category by offering its consumers a beverage with a higher cola kick, more fizz, punch and an added advantage of no sugar,” she says.

Pepsi Max, currently available in Delhi and NCR, comes in a black packaging comprising can and PET bottles. While the 250 ml can is priced `15, the 330 ml can and the 500 ml PET are both priced at `25.

The launch is being supported by a multi media campaign involving outdoor innovations such as building wraps and larger than life bottles of the drink fabricated on mobile vans.

Experiential sampling will also see

exclusive mobile bars in high visibili-ty areas such as multiplexes, allowing consumers to interact with bartend-ers through a sampling exercise.

With its many global campaigns over the years, PepsiCo has man-aged to strike the right chord with the youth.

For instance, the ‘Ask for more’ campaign became ‘Yeh dil mange more’ in India.

Also, the copy of one of the com-mercials for Miranda, created in India, was tweaked and launched in other Southeast Asian markets.

According to Jagdeep Kapoor, chairperson and managing director, Samsika Marketing Consultants, global communication works well across different markets with the right local adaptation.

“While the brand positioning

should be distinct and clear, equal importance should be given to the setting and the language. If the com-munication is not localised properly, the target group may feel alienated,” he says.

WELL ADAPTED?

Kunal Gill, executive crea-tive director, Dentsu Creative

Impact sees the ad as a fresh breath of life to Pepsi’s communication. “I can’t remember the last time Pepsi’s advertising did not feature celebri-ties.

Secondly, some of the most mem-orable Pepsi work has always been about people doing strange things in order to get their hands on Pepsi. So, this one gets full marks for being dif-ferent,” he says.

At the same time, he has doubts

about the suitability of the ad to con-vey the brand message. “What is the connect between the guy’s behaviour and the drink? My take is that they’re talking about a sugar-free drink that has a strong flavour but it could also be a drink with a kick in it - like Red Bull,” he adds.

Anirban Mozumdar, senior vice-president, planning, Publicis India sees no reason why the commu-nication will not click with the youngsters. “Even when the main idea is same across the globe, one needs to make suitable changes depending on the peculiarities of each market. With proliferation in the internet, the Indian youth is in line with the global environment. What’s good is that the soul of the brand remains intact,” he says. �

[email protected]

In its new TVC, Tiger biscuits suggests how young India can progress by eat-ing what’s ‘right’. By Rohit Nautiyal

“Tiger has always stood for high-

energy solutions for today’s kids.”

ANURADHA NARASIMHAN

<< �� $%�&��

The Bond...

��


industry and comprise around 80 per cent of total bakery products in India.

According to the Federation of Biscuit Manufacturers of India, of the total biscuit industry in India the organised sector accounts for 60 per cent ; and the remaining 40 per cent of the share comes from unorganised bakeries.

Other biscuit brands in the market include Parle, Bakeman, Priya Gold, Elite, Cremica, Dukes, Anupam, Horlicks, Craze, Nezone and other regional brands.

TASTY?

The ad seems to have struck the right chord with some members

of the ad fraternity.Amit Shankar, executive crea-

tive director and creative head, Grey Delhi finds the insight of “hun-gry stomachs unable to empower a nation” very interesting.

“As kids, standing in long queues with empty stomachs, all of us have cursed the chief guests at school functions. The ad starts on a good note, but the plot is lost when chil-dren are made to work too hard for their share of biscuits and get into the India versus China and America debate,” he says.

Jitender Dabas, executive plan-ning director and vice-president, JWT, feels that the theme of “India as Tiger” has been explored before, but only on the covers of Time or Economist.

“Certainly, the take is refreshing. I like the ad for its seamless integra-tion of the brand into the messaging. I don’t think this TVC can be for any other brand than Tiger. Also, the brand is doing this without being preachy about it. If you are trying to woo kids, then it is always more effective if you look at life from their point of view, than from that of their parents,” he states. �

[email protected]

Months after buying over DBS Cholamandalam Asset Management

(DCAM), Larsen & Toubro (L&T), in February 2010, launched its asset management company (AMC) and took the plunge into the mutual fund business.

Now, taking a step forward on the creative front, the company has launched a new ad campaign. The objective of the communication is to establish the mutual fund arm of the L&T Group as an honest and trustworthy expert, which hides nothing from its patrons.

The mutual fund (MF) category is a crowded one, with over 50-odd AMCs offering more than 2,000 schemes. The MF brands that are active in the media space include SBI, HSBC, Fidelity, Tata, IDBI, Birla Sunlife and Religare.

When quizzed about L&T MF’s positioning vis-à-vis that of its com-petitors, Bobby Pawar, chief creative officer, Mudra Group, says, “While most other brands focus on their expertise, their heritage, or promise dreams and a better financial future to investors, the L&T MF campaign borrows its positioning - ‘Built on strong foundations’ - from the parent brand, L&T.” He goes on to explain that L&T already has a strong foundation - a fair reputation in the infrastructure business.

In sync with the brief given by L&T, the con-sumer insight that the campaign rides on is the realistic belief that no one can become wealthy overnight and the path to wealth involves hard work, difficulties and being exposed to the vagar-ies of financial markets. So, people need a ‘solid’ expert, who can help them invest their money wisely.

The TG thus comprises inves-tors who’re looking for long-term returns as a result of studying the market, as opposed to those who play the greedy game of chance for overnight returns.

Therefore, the brand skips incred-ible promises and offers a balanced approach instead.

The creative duties for the brand lie with Mudra West. The 45-second TVC, the first amongst several, shows the oft-seen images of Janmashtami celebrations. A group

of young boys is seconds shy of reaching the prized pot - the dahi handi.

One failed attempt has on-lookers’ watch-ing with rapt attention, and with a solid show of patience and teamwork, the group manages to successfully reach its goal.

The TVC ends with an aerial view of the victorious boy who breaks the handi. The MVO content in the TVC seems a tad more category-led than brand-led.

The production house behind the ad film is Corcoise and the director is Sainath Choudhury. The copy is by Prajato Thakurta and the artwork is by Vinayak Gaikwad.

Coincidentally, the campaign broke at a time when Janmashtami was round the corner.

When asked about this coincidence, Pawar insists that this is not a tacti-cal campaign, rather, it is an out and out brand campaign. The cre-ative expression has merely used Janmashtami as a metaphor to make the point that the prerequisite to reaching one’s financial goal is a strong foundation. “Hence, we did not think it was necessary to time the release of the campaign with the festival,” he clarifies.

This is a multilingual campaign released all over India in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali. It is primarily TV-led, and will be seen on general news, business news, gen-eral entertainment and movie channels. Besides TV, full wrap-arounds in the new AC BEST buses in Mumbai will also be used for branding.

CREATIVE FOUNDATION?

The campaign elicits a lukewarm response from industry experts. Madhu Noorani, chief crea-

tive planner, Lowe Lintas, opines, “I think it’s a nice analogy, but the message is way too generic and could apply to any mutual fund. It’s a bit hard to remember which mutual fund ad is for which company, and this one is guilty of the same thing.”

KS Chakravarthy aka Chax, national creative director, Draftfcb Ulka, asserts, “The L&T Mutual Fund ad, frankly, leaves me cold. ‘Govindas’ breaking matkas isn’t exactly a fresh subject, and if that is the level of stability and safety a mutual fund is promising me, I would probably give it a miss.”

He goes on to say that though the TVC has been shot reasonably well, the problem is the jaded metaphor and the slightly shaky logic. “It definitely does not add in any way to my per-ception of L&T as a very solid company,” he concludes. �

[email protected]

<< �� $%�&��#

Roaring Away

Bread and biscuits comprise around 80 per cent of bakery products in India.

Not Just PromisesLARSEN & TOUBRO MUTUAL FUND

The brand’s mutual fund, recently launched an ad campaign, ‘built on strong foundations’. By Ashwini Gangal

Pawar: pure connect

��

First, heads burst into choco-late and now, Eclairs makes you explode into your fantastic

world of ‘psychedelia’. The latest TV commercial of Cadbury Dairy Milk Eclairs, called the Psychedelia commercial, talks of getting further lost in the experience of eating the candy.

Created by Contract Advertising, the film takes forward the Meetha Bomb campaign, which showed people getting completely lost in the taste of the Eclairs candy, with the chocolate ‘exploding’ in their mouths.

The tagline this time is Doob Le Zara. The film shows the protagonist being extremely bored at a retro-styled social gathering. As he pops an Eclairs, things seemingly change for the better - with the scene suddenly turning into a fantasy which gets more upbeat as he delves further into his chocolaty fantasy. He is brought back to the present soon - but not before he smilingly looks at another Eclairs

in his hand.The film has been directed by

Razneesh Ghai and produced by Sunil Bhatia and Prithvi Luthra of Via Us Films. The play in both the Meetha Bomb and the current film is on the experience of eating the Eclairs and hence, explosion has been used as the creative device. The key insight used was consumers getting lost with every Éclair.

The agency was briefed by Cadbury to take the eating experience to a higher level with the new campaign.

Raj Nair, regional creative director, Contract Advertising is of the view that the nature of the product has a lot to contribute to the creative thought.

“Here is a better product. The caramel is smoother and creamier. The chocolate is less chewy and has a fuller feel. We wanted the next

Psychedelic ExperienceCADBURY DAIRY MILK ECLAIRS

The new commercial takes forward the Meetha Bomb idea and talks about the eating experience. By Biprorshee Das

“Eclairs, because of the product construct, is an

involving ‘eatable’ despite being a

candy.” RAJ NAIR

�� '(�>>

��

Domino’s is back on the advertising cir-cuit - this time for conveying the launch of two new products - Mexican Wrap

and Italian Pasta. The brand continues with its Khushiyon ki home delivery positioning, which it established two years ago. However, according to Dev Amritesh, senior vice-president, marketing, Domino’s Pizza India, the task this time round was slightly different.

Usually, one product - mostly the pizza offer-ing - is advertised, but this time, the best in both its new products had to be brought forth. “Furthermore, these two products have no com-mon denominator we could play upon, so we had to somehow thread both their stories together,” says Amritesh.

After a discussion with the creative partner Contract Advertising, it was decided that the focus should be on the countries of origin of these two snacks, namely, Mexico and Italy and regional or cultural nuances from those countries would be the platform for the communication.

WELCOME TO INDIA

The commercial, therefore, shows the Domino’s pizza delivery boy on his way to

deliver the two new products to his customer’s doorstep. On his way there, he is surrounded by dancers and singers in Mexican outfits (hats and swirling dresses et al), serenading and cheering him along his journey.

A little further down the road, Italian singers in elaborate gowns sing to him in opera style, egg-

ing him along. Finally, he reaches his destination, as the song and dance junta from the two nations cheers happily. Shots of the two snacks and a male voiceover wrap things up, while the happy delivery boy smiles knowingly and heads back.

When asked about the ‘feel good’ factor and

overall cheer in the communication being in a similar space as that of competing brands such as Pizza Hut, Amritesh clarifies that unlike the com-petition, Domino’s isn’t about mere celebration, but about the larger halo of happiness.

As far as the insight goes, there are also strong cultural nuances that differentiate Mexico and Italy, the sources of origin of the two new prod-ucts, but among these nuances, song and dance were selected as the chosen platform as they are the most ‘identifiable’ to Indian audiences, and the visual cues for representing these countries had to be easy to understand.

Classical opera singers, tuxedos, melody and sophistication in the music define Italy. On the other hand, senoritas with their enormous skirts, Mariachis, lively music, guitars and rhythm tend to

Learning in an environment specially tailored to suit your needs sure must be fun, espe-

cially in a classroom where you call the shots. Tata Sky is promoting its interactive educational services with a similar thought in its Badalte India ke badalte classrooms campaign.

Popularising interactive services on television, Tata Sky has covered a gamut of areas, with special focus on educational services through applications such as Actve Wizkids, Actve Stories, Actve Learning and Actve English. Wizkids is designed for preschoolers with learning games and stories which let chil-dren enjoy their favourite stories on television. Actve Learning allows

the viewer take daily quizzes cov-ering Mathematics, Science and General Knowledge; while Actve English helps the viewers improve their English speaking skills.

While these applications have been told about individually to peo-ple, the campaign attempts to push the entire proposition.

A set of two television commer-cials by Ogilvy India talks of how television can become a medium of learning while staying right at home - and education can be more fun.

The first TVC has brand ambas-sador actor Aamir Khan in a monologue - talking of how class-rooms are changing in India, putting forward the central proposition of the brand. The other commercial shows women and children talking excitedly about the fun associated with their ‘new classrooms’.

The films have been directed by Prasoon Pandey of Corcoise Films. The creative team at the agency includes Anup Chitnis, exec-utive creative director; Mangesh Someshwar, creative director; and Akshat Trivedi, senior writer.

“People already know about the quality of entertainment on Tata Sky. Herein, we are attempting to say how the brand is trying to do something more in addition for the

A Class ApartThe DTH company’s recent commercials talks about the new age classrooms of India. By Biprorshee Das

(Left) Namchu and Amritesh: halo of happiness

Delivering CultureDOMINO’S PIZZA

The latest TVC uses song and dance as they are more ‘identifiable’ to Indian audiences. By Devina Joshi

�� '#�>>

�� (�>>

TATA SKY


The two TVCs talk of how television can become a medium of learning while

staying right at home.

��


The next time a friend asks for a ‘treat’, the word should not be all that dreaded, says fast food giant, McDonald’s. Continuing with its

communication around the value for money, the lat-est commercial takes forward the Happy Price Menu concept.

Best food at value prices has been the brand’s chosen promise for some time now. While last year’s commu-nication centred on the ‘littlest’ reasons to celebrate, the year before was food at prices of old days. This year, the idea is more for less.

The latest commercial created by Leo Burnett weaves a story around a bunch of working executives. The film shows the group in a board room, where their boss is conducting a meeting. Strangely, the boss’s pet dog is also playing in the room. While petting the dog, one of the executives acci-dentally tosses the ball it was playing with out of the window. True to form, the dog jumps out the window to fetch the ball.

As the boss fails to notice what hap-

pens, the rest of the group convey through gestures to the shocked culprit that only a treat at lunch would be adequate incentive for them to keep things under wraps. The group is then shown enjoying a meal at McDonald’s. The executive in question does not mind, as the treat turns out to be not so heavy on the pocket after all. The film ends with him saying the signature line - “I am loving it”.

The film has been directed by Vivek Kakkad of Curious Films. The creative team at the agency included Nitesh Tiwari, ECD, Tushar Kadam, creative director and Brijesh Parmar, art director.

Rameet Arora, senior director - marketing, McDonald’s India (West and South) says, “Every year, McDonald’s has brought new excitement through its communication. Our belief is that consumers are famil-iar with the brand that is a mass concept. The brief has been to find new, engaging ways to reinforce value to the consumer.”

“The idea in the film is to show that you do not have to think twice before treating someone with the kind

of value you get at McDonald’s. Value is the key pillar to the brand. It is something that allows more access to an increasing number of customers, along with the promise of quality product, convenience and brand experience,” Arora adds.

Kadam says that multiple executions are possible with the thought. The film is a tongue-in-cheek refer-ence to show that it doesn’t take much to get out of trouble, along with the positioning of the brand that is

of great value every day.The film is a part of a series of com-

mercials, the second of which will soon go on-air. The campaign is being sup-ported by outdoor and radio promotions.

VALUE FOR THOUGHT

The fraternity’s responses to the TVC are mixed. While some like the

setup, others find the execution lacking in finesse.

“It has an interesting setup. I am not too sure of how many people in India

take their pets to work; but that does not take away anything from the setup,” says Brijesh Jacob, managing partner, White Canvas.

However, he does not find it as interesting as the brand’s earlier commercials. “If it’s about the price point, it’s not as clear-cut, smart and witty as the Aap ke zamaane mein baap ke zamaane ka daam campaign. If someone plays back that this is a price-point com-mercial, I will be pleasantly surprised. People will remember the jumping dog more than the price point on offer,” he adds.

Raj Nair, regional creative director spots the attempt-ed strategy of communicating a good eat at an affordable rate, but he thinks the execution could have been better.

“The execution seems lacking in finesse and an insightful story. In this case, I am guessing that some people will like the joke and some may not, as is always the case with jokes. I feel that a human truth or obser-vation may have connected a bit better. And that could very well have been funny as well,” he points out. �

[email protected]

MCDONALD’Sconsumers. When such added ser-vices talk for the overall brand, it is a positive push,” says Chitnis.

The mood in the communication has definitely taken a more seri-ous turn compared to the previous campaigns. Chitnis says that this is because of the subject in question.

“As a brand, Tata Sky is fun and light hearted. However, education is a serious matter. People will not believe or be convinced if we are not serious about it,” he says.

The campaign is aimed at tel-evision households in India which aspire for better TV viewing experi-ence by upgrading to DTH services. The television campaign is being supported by extensive outdoor pro-motions.

DIFFERENT VIEWS

The campaign has met with mixed responses at both extremes, with

some liking the effort and others dismissing it.

Deepesh Jha, executive creative director, Lowe Delhi notes how the

films are a departure from the usual tongue in cheek tone that one associ-ates with Tata Sky.

“The messaging is clear so I am sure these will work. They are slight-ly harder working commercials than the benchmark set by the brand in its earlier work. One can’t flaw anything in the commercial. Aamir’s perfor-mance is, without doubt, helping the film keep its head above water,” he says.

“It always helps to advertise the pluses on your base services as these come at extra cost to the consumer,” adds Jha. On the other hand, Rahul Sengupta, national creative director, TBWA India is not impressed. He finds the idea clichéd and does not appreciate the execution, either.

“Basically boring. Basically cli-chéd. It just uses a celebrity as a coy salesman and children as half-wit cute coating. As a matter of fact, you do not need an agency if you want to write the ads yourself. The execution is too obviously blue for branding,” he says. �

[email protected]

<< �� $%�&��'

A Class Apart

The latest television commercial tells the tale of how a treat at McDonald’s will not hurt the wallet much. By Biprorshee Das

The TVC shows that it doesn’t take much to get out of trouble, along with brand’s positioning of great value every day.

Treated Well

Chitnis: serious matter

Arora: reinforcing value

��

level to be a psychedelic experience of eating Eclairs. Hence the hallu-cinatory imagery, which stems from the eating experience and that is why we came up with Doob Le Zara,” says Nair.

He further adds, “Eclairs, because of the product construct, is an involv-ing ‘eatable’ despite being a candy. The act of eating an Eclairs is actually engaging and you could romanticise that experience,”.

The agency has worked out radio and digital media support for the film. Activation plans are also under-way.

Madison handles the media duties for the brand.

SUNK? NOT REALLY

The film, although appreciated for the style and execution, has

come in for some flak for a plot that delivered little surprise to the crea-tive experts.

“The styling is nice and the psy-chedelic graphics are super neat but the plot is old and contrived. If this is version 2.0 of the chocolate bomb ad, I am not sure if I am buying it. Surely, there are better ways to carry forward the idea,” says Rohit Malkani, executive creative director, Grey Group.

“Stuck in a bored situation, pop the product and voila! Nothing new! The casting and acting, too, were rather predictable,” he adds.

Bobby Pawar, chief creative offic-er, Mudra Group likes the ad as well, although he, too, has reservations.

“It is a nice spot. The storyline is interesting. The chocolate fantasy segue is cool but a little too long,” he says.

Pawar adds that the concept is too close to the 5 Star commercials, which also talk about getting lost in the taste idea.

“One visualises and the other does not. That is the only difference,” he says.

Earlier, afaqs! Reporter also popped the same question to Nair, who, while not denying the simi-lar angle, said that the other brand explored the concept too literal-ly, while with Eclairs, it is more sensorial. �

[email protected]

<< �� $%�&��'"

Psychedelic


For Deepesh Jha who recently took over the reins as the creative head at Lowe Lintas Delhi, get-ting into advertising was totally unplanned.

Hailing from an army background, it was no sur-prise when, close to the end of schooling, his father said, “You’d better give National Defence Academy (NDA) a shot.” Jha, who graduated in Science, cleared the Sashastra Seema Bal’s (SSB) written examination, but didn’t go further. Exposure to advertising came in 1995 when he visited HTA (now JWT) with a close friend who was a summer trainee with PepsiCo. “I just didn’t want a job where one is supposed to sport a formal look. I liked what I saw at the agency and soon, after clearing a copy test, joined Clarion (now Bates 141) in the same year with a stipend of just `1,250,” he reminisces.

In Clarion, Jha picked up the basics in advertising like idea-tion and understanding product briefs. Six months later, Samit Sinha, (the agency’s head then) told him that he was confirmed as a regular employee. Sinha broke the news to him in the agency’s washroom.

After completing close to two years at Clarion, he moved to Euro RSCG, then a start-up in India and participated in at least one pitch every week.

“Telecom has played a huge role in my advertising career and it started at Euro RSCG where I worked on Essar Cellphone – one of the agency’s biggest accounts then,” he recollects. As a junior copywriter, Jha worked on almost every aspect of the brand’s communication - from product manuals to cam-paigns. There were just six people in the creative team and burning the midnight oil was routine.

In early 1998, he joined McCann Erickson as a cop-ywriter. The agency was segregated as McCann 1 and 2 - a segregation based on different accounts. He spent close to five years at McCann 2 working on brands across categories including Sprite, Bacardi, Microsoft,

Adidas and some brands of Reckitt Benckiser. Here, Jha learned the most about films.

Then came a second stint with Euro RSCG, which had just picked up the Reckitt Benckiser account globally and was getting back on its feet after a bad time. Ashish Chakravarty, one of his ex-bosses at McCann was also at Euro RSCG and was the main reason behind Jha joining the agency. He says, “In advertising, associations with bosses, peers and colleagues matter a lot. It’s rare that appointments happen through cold calls or interviews.”

JWT was the next stop. In 2003, he moved in as senior creative director and worked under Syed Usman, who “was a writer with an eye for art”. Soon, it was decided that while Jha would write, Usman would focus on art. “We had a ball while working on the Boost and Dettol commercials. Though Dettol

was not my responsibility, I could not let go of the opportunity as it remind-ed me of my McCann days where I worked on the account for the first time,” he says.

He worked on nine films in his nine-month-long stint at the agency. “I lived out of my suitcase literally and when Usman decided to move on, I lost my anchor. I wish I had spent more time there,” he confesses.

The duo was reunited at Cheil where the client (Samsung) had its offices just two floors above Cheil’s. One disad-

vantage of having the client two floors above you is that “you could never tell them that we are on our way to the meeting,” he jokes.

Cheil was followed by a stint at Publicis India, where he headed Nestle and ABN Amro, among other accounts. In 2007, Jha was called to head the Airtel account at Rediffusion Y&R.

He admires Lowe for its ‘stability’. “The agency has always been in the news for it’s work and my priority is to maintain the momentum of growth,” he says.

Jha feels though many things have changed in advertising, intrinsically it would “remain a business of gut feel and last-hour job”. �

[email protected]

SUSH

IL K

UMAR

By Rohit Nautiyal

A Happy Accident

DEEPESH JHA I CREATIVE HEAD I LOWE LINTAS I DELHI

“Advertising will remain

a business of gut feel and

last-hour job.”

The hallucinatory imagery, used in the ad, stems from the eating experience.

��


Gerson da Cunha has been a journalist, advertising and marketing man, film and theatre person. Over cups of tea at his home in Churchgate, Mumbai, he picks out moments that transformed his professional life.

It was 1954 and I was a journalist in PTI-Reuters, my first job, where I had worked for five years. Waiting for a friend in the JWT lobby - Mehlli Gobhai whom I have known since 1947 - things changed for me forever. Mark Robinson, then Copy Chief at JWT, rushed past me, stopped, turned and said, ‘Hey, you’re a writer, aren’t you?’ I had worked with him in AIR. I said ‘No, I’m a journalist’. He asked if I’d like to sit for a copy test, I said ‘Yes’ – and so said goodbye to journalism.

Mark taught me many rules of writing body copy. For instance, the first word of your copy should be in caps. There should be no more than 10-12 words at a stretch without some punctuation, or italics, to relax the eye. It was dogmatic but it imposed a discipline on me, a dis-cipline that was among my life’s lessons. He recommended a book that I recommend to all, The Art of Plain Talk by Rudolph Flesch.

I took a six-month break and did a fellowship at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. My theme was, ‘The Role of Communications in Attitudinal and Behavioural Change,’ with a focus on nutrition and eventually on maternal child health. At 2 AM one night, in a bar in Sao Paulo, I ran into a doctor who thought I was Brazilian because of my name! He reported that at the hospital he worked in, he was part of a team promoting breast-feeding, a vital part in child health. Could this be at the centre of my work at the University? In Brazil – in 1979 – particularly in the lower SECs, breast-feeding was in sharp decline and being replaced by breast milk substitutes.

Government programmes at that point made women feel guilty for not breast-feeding. I produced a straightforward marketing programme. I simply applied advertising and marketing methods, using celebrity tes-timonials advocating the ‘right’ way. The Brazilian Ministry of Health and UNICEF were impressed and offered me a job.

Film and TV stars willingly breast-fed their babies on camera. The tagline (translated from the Portuguese) was ‘Six months that are worth a lifetime’. The programme, spearheaded by use of TV, was immensely successful. Breast-feeding practice and durations greatly increased. The learning in a bar in Sao Paulo was this: standard marketing and advertis-ing methods can make a huge difference far beyond the marketplace.

A campaign I hold dear was for Dalda (a HUL brand). The director of our client company, Morris Zinkin said “For ‘Dalda,’ I cannot have advertising conceived in heads that think only English.”

I was Copy Chief at Lintas (1956) which handled ‘Dalda.’ We were told we needed the ads in 10 Indian languages, not translations. The rough and tumble that followed threw up two remarkable writers: Balwant Tandon in Hindi and Urdu and Sivaramakrishna, in Tamil, who supervised work in Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. I believe we created Indian Language Advertising and good writers in them. People bought Dalda because they couldn’t afford ghee. We met this resistance with something positive: ‘Dalda is good for you.’ Balwant transformed that into something much superior in Hindi, ‘Mamta ki kasauti par khara’. The campaign was a milestone - and a marketing success. �

As told to Devina Joshi

) � * � � + � , - , � � �

FOTO

CORP

The Copy Chief

of annoyance. The film ends with a VO that states Mana ki life bahut busy hai, Par kabhi kahi break lo, Kit Kat khao, Zindagi aapko shayad kuch haseen dikhade.

The creative duties for the brand are with JWT, Delhi. The copy-writer of the TVC is Anuja Chauhan, executive creative director and vice-president, JWT Delhi. The film is directed by Shyam Madiraju, the production house is Gobsmack Films and the post-production house is Radium, LA.

The brand has always targeted the youth and the present campaign is particularly targeted at youngsters constantly swamped with technolo-gy, gadgets and busy schedules. “The effort is to position the products as something that can be consumed to take a break from work as one may miss out on fun and cool things that

are happening around one. It is all about cel-ebrating the present,” explains Chauhan.

One can’t help but notice the simi-larity between the recently aired Cadbury 5 Star advertisement and the current one for Kit Kat. The former shows people getting lost in a fantasy world after con-suming the product and in the current Kit Kat TVC, too, we see the boy in the TVC going into a world where he alone is privy to certain interesting scenes.

Bring this to Chauhan’s notice and she counters, “The 5 Star ad was about get-ting out of the real world and going into a fantasy world; the Kit Kat ad tells you to get out of your busy, gadget-laden world and get into the real world for a change!”

While it has used computer graphics in the past, this is the first time that Kit Kat has used animated characters that are central to the sto-ryline in an Indian advertisement. Animation has been seen in some former international ads for the brand; coincidentally, animals such as pandas were seen in those.

The campaign is initially sched-uled for the next couple of months and will then be reviewed for optimal connect with consumers. TV will be the lead medium, with high frequen-cy intensive bursts on a mix of mass and regional channels. The campaign will be rolled out on numerous other touch points.

DOES THE ANIMATION WORK?

Ashish Khazanchi, national crea-tive director, Publicis Ambience

is of the opinion that the animation used in the TVC is fabulous and that the overall piece is great as well. “This campaign serves to up the benchmark for Kit Kat,” he quips. Addressing the extent to which the campaign serves to propagate the brand’s philosophy of taking a break, he goes on, “Talking from a purely impressionistic point of view, I’m left with the feeling that a break can give me a fresh and renewed perspec-tive, that little breaks can make one’s

routine bearable, inject freshness into a life that’s wrapped in gadgets and is full of chores.”

He adds that this Kit Kat campaign and the Cadbury Shubh Aarambh campaign are two parallel contemporary commu-nications that effectively stir the desired TG (tar-get group), namely, the young adolescents.

Pushpendra Misra, ad film maker, Flying Saucer Films, says that the animation, craft and film making are ‘pretty cool’. “Animation is just a tool; it’s the story that is outlandish and singing squirrels is a good ‘first time ever’ for any brand. It makes the brand youthful and impulsive,”

he laughs.“A worldwide Diesel campaign

says - ‘Be Stupid’. Youngsters dig ‘uncool-cool’ today, so I guess being mindless about stories is a good thing. The big ideas are the ones that are trivial and small,” continues Misra.

He concludes that on a creativity scale, however, he would give the TVC a 7/10 as he didn’t like the per-formance of the protagonist. �

[email protected]

The present campaign is targeted at youngsters constantly swamped with

technology, gadgets and busy schedules.

<< �� $%�&��'

Animated Breaks

(From top): Kanan and Chauhan

34 afaqs! Reporter, September 1-15, 2010

Notion No 1: Small, non-cast film - no star power won’t be able to draw in audiences.

Notion No 2: Small Film - muted overseas response. Same old story as people will watch it only on DVDs and the internet.

Peepli Live, the small-budget (`10 crore) movie with a first-time director and a satirical comedy about farmer suicides blew away these two notions. In its first weekend, the film reportedly raked in `21 crore in India and `3 crore overseas not counting the UK (the

audience did throng the theatres after all). Add to that `10 crore from satellite TV rights even before it was released and you have a well-marketed product. The makers achieved all this with the only big weapon they had: Aamir Khan, the producer.

Khan used his charm and teaser promos to great effect. But he was just carrying on from where he left off with Ghajini and 3 Idiots. In the former, the actor gave Ghajini haircuts to ushers and in the latter he travelled incognito across India - all in the name of promotions. It worked perfectly. The difference this time was that it wasn’t Khan the actor who was doing the work. It was Khan the marketer who was strutting his stuff.

Call him the man with the Midas touch and Khan would probably flash his signature grin perhaps but not deny it altogether. One can easily believe that the man lives his characters. Remember Rancho of 3 Idiots as he preached, “Be sincere and worthy and success shall follow”? Khan is the actor who made a successful transition to producer, a brand ambassador who ensures recall value with the selective brands that he endorses and a marketing genius. afaqs! Reporter finds out why he is a dependable brand.

FILMS AND THE ‘AAMIR CHHAAP’

Debuting as the young romantic with the boy-next-door looks in the late mid-’80s, Khan has seen his share of commercial success and has also

delivered a few turkeys. The last 10 years saw the rise of what is now being termed as ‘Aamir certified’ films. Lagaan, the period saga with a liberal dash of national craze cricket, was followed by the quirky and youthful, Dil Chahta Hai, in 2001 ushering in a new wave. It also established the legend of the thinking actor and savvy marketer. Film critic Raja Sen who has been a severe critic of Khan does stop and give credit where its due as he speaks about the production values that Khan brings to his films - as a producer, the choices he is making, the smaller films that he is bringing. “He concentrates on high production values, great music and an ensemble cast. The perception is that if it is an Aamir film, the basics are going to be taken care of,” says Sen.

Khan’s ‘script sense’ is lauded too. That further cements the certification of merit for his audience. “There is integrity in less quantity and a better quality. That is what stands for a really good brand, a luxury brand really. He takes his name seriously, a little more seriously than others do,” says Mayank Shekhar, national cultural editor, Hindustan Times.

ADVERTISING AND THE ‘AAMIR CHHAAP’

Nothing sells like Bollywood does. Cricket might come a close second. And who knows this best than the advertising industry. Name a brand

and you will have a leading actor or a cricketer championing the product smiling at you from TV screens, newspapers or from hoardings.

Khan, however, is choosy. Just as the movies he acts in, Khan picks the brand he wants to endorse. He seems to be a good judge of value and like the

On screen or out of it, Khan is a brand and movie marketer’s delight. What makes the actor a failsafe option? By Biprorshee Das

Mr DependableAamir Khan

A scene from Peepli Live: How a non-cast, small-budget movie was turned into a major draw

35afaqs! Reporter, September 1-15, 2010

��movies he brings, the first thing that seems to come to mind with the brands that he endorses is that he has approved of it and the brand is ‘certified’.

Khan is - or has been - the face of brands such as Toyota, Tata Sky, Samsung India, Titan, the Teach India campaign of the Times of India and government campaigns such as Incredible India. Khan is also said to have signed up one of the biggest sponsorships (an estimated `35 crore for three years) with telecom brand Etisalat of the UAE. Among the elements he brings to a brand what seems to be of foremost importance is that Khan seems to do enough homework to judge quality before forming an association. It does not stop at the initial judgement but continues as an end-to-end assessment, believes Anand Halve, co-founder, Chlorophyll.

The basic notion of a brand association does not merely stem from popularity but also the specific qualities that the ambassador brings to the brand. One could think of examples of various products and its ambassadors and wonder if the product impression really improved with the association. Citing the example of Sony Vaio and actress Kareena Kapoor as the brand endorser, Halve asks, “Do they really believe that Vaio would sell as a fashion accessory?” The difference with Khan is that with he is conscious and does not overshadow the brand. It helps consumers recall product features easily.

Vikram Mehra, chief marketing officer, Tata Sky, says that it is the actor’s quest for perfection and the element of trust that he is able to bring that makes him a winner. “For two years since we launched, we did not feel the need for an ambassador. It was only when we decided to penetrate into smaller towns and tried to explain that DTH is not really as complex that we decided to bring Aamir on board to have the mass appeal,” says Mehra.

So when Aamir Khan endorses a brand, can one easily relate to him than is the case with his peers? Something that is larger than life and yet is not? Prathap Suthan, national creative director, Cheil Worldwide who has worked closely with Khan agrees. “Something about Aamir

reassures me that the brand will come first. He effortlessly connects and touches people every time. It is a craft that amplifies brands,” says Suthan. Being referred to as a brand himself, what could be the attributes that make Khan such an enduring bet? “He has a pulse on the changing likes and desires of people. Good brands do that. He is good in style as well as substance and is a great combination of both,” says Suparna Mitra, global marketing head, Titan Watches.

Gullu Sen, executive vice chairman and chief creative officer, Dentsu India identifies the key factors that make Khan click. “Aamir is discerning, he brings a sense of differentiation, embodies quality and is dignified. He also brings a certain seriousness to the message of the brand. This rubs off positively on the brand. In terms of his persona or the kind of films he makes, he never repeats himself. He is never boring, hackneyed or clichéd,” explains Sen, who has worked with the man.

MARKETER PAR EXCELLENCE

What do you call the man who shaved the heads of ushers in multiplexes to promote his character in a forthcoming movie, disappeared without

trace and moved around in disguise and made a winner of a small-budget film with his promotional techniques? Is he actually a ‘marketing genius’?

Take the Peepli Live example again. Debutant director Anusha Rizvi - everyone agrees - has made a fine film. After all, if the direction weren’t up to the mark, would viewers queue up after the first few shows? But would it have made a difference to the fate of the movie if Khan had not been associated? “If you remove Aamir Khan from Peepli Live, you are removing a multi-crore campaign. There are certain things you cannot even quantify. How do you evaluate goodwill? How many crores would you put to that? What he has brought is the fact that this film is Aamir’s. That, in this blink-and-miss time, is the biggest thing to happen to a film,” says Shekhar.

Peepli Live also thought big. Where it was normal for smaller films to release 200-250 prints, Peepli Live went ahead with 600 prints in 600 screens in India. UTV Motion Pictures, co-producer of Peepli Live, has been associated with Khan’s blockbusters since Rang De Basanti in 2006. “I do believe that it (Peepli Live) owes a lot of its success to Aamir. Anusha is a great director. But it is also about Aamir’s instincts to zero in on the right script and the talent and bring to the audience the final product. You cannot take away some facts,” says Siddharth Roy Kapur, chief executive officer, UTV Motion Pictures.

Promotions for the movie began early on and ideas were fine-tuned and crystallised through discussions before the ball was set rolling. “Aamir strips away all complexities of a situation and does not treat marketing as rocket science. When you are clear about what you want to convey, it is not difficult to have a streamlined marketing approach,” Kapur says. It showed.

Halve puts it best when he says, “With Aamir, you hire a celebrity as a brand ambassador and get a marketing manager and a creative director free.” If Khan were to be a brand, observes Sen of Dentsu, he would be the iPhone - popular, innovative, energetic, successful, contemporary and exciting.

That is what most brand marketers who put their money on Khan believe. And will continue doing so. �

[email protected]

Samsung Guru�Making the transition from the earlier cheeky ads to an emotional one easily

Incredible India�An indignant Khan takes on the fight to clear his country’s image

Titan Edge�A two-year-old association that is going strong even now

Toyota Innova�The ad had Khan doing his impersonation of various characters

THE OTHER SIDE OF AN ACTOR

The basic notion of a brand association stems from popularity and the specific qualities that the ambassador brings in.

Promotions for the movie began early, ideas were fine-tuned through discussions

before the ball was set rolling.

Khan: celebrity, brand manager, marketing manager and creative director rolled into one

Promos like these worked well: Peepli Live’s crew on the sets of Indian Idol

Ask a mobile marketer and the answer to that ques-tion will invariably be a

resounding ‘Yes’. The advantage with mobile advertising is that advertisers and service providers just need to use their customer information database rationally. That’s a goldmine - provided the customer wants to receive the ads.

Mobile ads can reach over 400 million people in India. With its ability to carry personalised con-tent, the mobile phone is becoming an important platform for grabbing more eyeballs, increasing awareness and sales.

X- FACTOR

The real plus of mobile marketing is the value it brings to an ad campaign that consists of

other media such as print, online, TV, billboards and direct marketing. Says Vinod Vasudevan, group chief executive officer of Flytxt, “A mobile is a personal device, a constant companion and is attended to immediately by the owner.” What can be more meaningful to marketers than a 24X7 platform? Observes Arun Tanksali, head, mobile lifestyle solutions, Comviva, “The immediacy of the mobile phone, given that it is practically always on, means that brands can run effective real time campaigns that tie in to events happening ‘right now’, and in the actual physical location of the consumer. Another important characteristic is that a phone is interactive. A clever campaign might

include a competition or a survey that engages the consumer and builds interest in the brand.”

Asif Ali, president, ZestADZ, makes an inter-esting observation. According to him, “This ubiquity and all-pervasive nature of mobiles is a compelling reason for advertisers to choose this as a medium. Moreover, mobile advertising enables innovation as it drives additional rev-enues to mobile application developers who were earlier dependent on the carriers for revenue.” Ali elaborates that the carriers with their walled gardens could not spur enough innovation and growth, and mobile advertising is one of the rea-sons why there is so much innovation happening on apps, handsets and services being rolled out to consumers. This innovation is driving adoption of better handsets, better network technologies and so on, accelerating industry growth, which is good for all stakeholders within the mobile ecosystem. What about return on investment (ROI)? Says Vasudevan of Flytx, ‘Every action

and even inaction on mobile channel can be tracked accurately and in real time. That means in mobile advertising, ROI can be accurately and immediately determined. The almost 100 per cent reach, immediacy and accu-rate ROI measurements make mobile advertising special and differentiated.” Brands can get closer to their consumers while operators can introduce new

business models and create new revenue streams.

GLOBAL VIEW

Mobile advertising started with practices in internet advertising being replicated in the

mobile world. This meant in-content and in-page ads delivered to smartphones and high-end fea-ture rich devices. The ecosystem largely excludes mobile operators who have critical assets for mobile advertising – subscriber information and a vast ad inventory.

But, according to Vasudevan, this has led to forecasts that mobile advertising will just consti-tute one to two per cent of all advertising growth over the next four to five years, which is less than a tenth of its true potential. Globally, mobile advertising is moving towards rich media-driven advertising. This trend is prominent in markets such as the US and EU.


��

Is mobile advertising the best solution to the spillover that traditional advertising leads to? By Sandeep Budki

MOBILE ADVERTISING

The Right Connect

(From left) Ali, Tanksali, Vasudevan and Kartikeya: immediacy counts

The general entertainment channel (GEC) Sony and kids channel Pogo are set

to extend their favourite properties CID and Chhota Bheem beyond tel-evision.

Sony has plans of coming out with comics based on its most popu-lar show CID.

Ajit Thakur, business head, Sony Entertainment Television (SET), shares that the channel is in talks with various parties for the launch of CID Comics. He adds since it’s an on-going process, one cannot put a time frame to the project.

According to Thakur, Sony has been doing well, with the channel jumping from 80 GRPs in June

last year to 180 GRPs this year. “CID, Comedy Circus, Indian Idol and Aahat have been doing well for us. We also experimented with differ-entiated content, by offering viewers YRF shows and Crime Patrol, along with our positive fiction show, Baat Hamaari Pakki Hai,” says Thakur.

Besides the plans of launch-

ing CID Comics, the channel has recently rolled out two more new shows including Comedy Ka Daily Soap and new season of Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega.

Besides Sony, another player looking seriously at licensing and merchandising (L&M) is kids chan-nel Pogo. The channel is planning to

extend the Indian animation super-hero character of Chhota Bheem into promotional and product licensing.

With product licensing, the idea is to come out with a range of Chhota Bheem products, including apparel, gifts and other novelties.

“For Pogo, 25 per cent of its total revenue comes on the back of Chhota Bheem,” claims Monica Tata, vice-president and deputy general manager - Entertainment Networks, South Asia, Turner International India.

Originally launched in 2008, Chhota Bheem, over the last two years, has emerged as the most popular and successful property on Pogo. As a driver show on Pogo, Chhota Bheem boasts of advertisers such as Glaxo Smithkline Consumer Healthcare, Perfetti Van Melle India, Nestlé India, Kellogg India, Mattel Toys, Cadbury India and Wrigley India.

L&M

Out of the BoxCID and Chhota Bheem are set to move beyond TV. By Sangeeta Tanwar

�� #�>>

�� ."�>>


��

Is Cover Price Reduction the Best Way to

Tackle Competition?The recent launch of Dainik Bhaskar in Jharkhand led to other dailies slashing cover prices.

Is this an effective strategy? By Sumantha Rathore

NO PUBLICATION OWNER WANTS TO REDUCE THE COVER PRICE, WHICH IS ALREADY UNDER-PRICED EVEN IF IT IS SELLING IT AT AN AVERAGE OF `2.50-4. Even so, ad revenues have to substanti-

ate the loss. And to get ad revenues you

need to get sizeable eyeballs in any mar-

ket.

Underpricing was started by a top

English daily in Delhi way back in the

’90s as ‘invitation price’. Its success

paved the way for big publishing houses

to resort to this tactic. Underpricing,

however, is a short-term objective. In

a majority of the cases they reverse the

pricing close to average pricing. The

definition of ‘short-term’ depends on the

objective of the publication.

With low penetration of circulation,

rising literacy rates and capita incomes,

we can expect more publications to adapt

to this practice to not only grab the cir-

culation share in existing markets, but

also to expand the base itself. But it’s still

a long way for any publication to sus-

tain underpricing beyond the objective

period.

I DON’T AGREE. PRICE PROMOTIONS ARE DONE TO GENERATE TRIALS AMONGST NON-READERS. BUT ONE NEEDS TO CRACK THE RIGHT BALANCE between value and price. Our prod-

uct offerings in Bhopal, Indore and in

some other markets have clearly helped

us keep the competition at bay. I don’t

think we would have managed the read-

ers’ expectations or our dominance in

the market, by only dropping the cover

price.

Price reduction can be an effective

strategy to penetrate a new market where

the brand equity is yet to be established

- it can never drive readership. Retention

will depend on the ‘credibility’ and

‘content offering’ or in other words the

‘value on offer’ for a reader. Therefore,

more than the price reduction, it is

important to engage with your readers

well.

LOWERING THE COVER PRICE HELPS INCREASE TRIALS AND MANY SUCCESSFUL CASE STUDIES SHOW THAT WHENEVER THERE HAS BEEN A successful sampling of a product, sales increases in the long run.

Whenever a player enters a new market, it tries to build on its product - how differenti-ated or superior from the existing players and the value add-ons. It makes sense for new products to opt for sampling. As not all read-ers are ardent lovers of the newspaper they read, there are many occasional readers who just want their daily dose of news no matter from where it comes. These readers have a cascading effect on the newspapers looking for sampling.

The existing brand tries to make itself more interesting and the new brand tries to create a value for itself. Many new products come and go, but if the product is not good people will switch back to some other offering. Sampling is just a part of a product’s success - it’s the quality that works in the long run. Having said that, the potential of the product should not be lost because of inadequate sampling.

/,��/01/�Head, Exchange, Mindshare India

2��23/�/2/3/�/�Business Director, LMG

4�/3�,/1��1�/2National Head Consumer Sales, Dainik Bhaskar Group

FOTO

CORP


There is a popular proverb in Gujarati. “Jya na phoche ravi (Sun), tya phoche kavi (Poet) ane jya na phoche kavi tya

phoche Gujarati.” It means that a poet will reach where the sun will not, a Gujarati will reach where even the poet will not. Gujaratis are well known for their successful exploits in far away lands since centuries.

Foreign education has always topped the aspiration list of students in India, especially in Gujarat. The state has always been home to globe-trotters. This is partially due to the Gujarati community being economically well-off and due to the entrepreneurial streak which every Gujarati kid nurtures in his heart.

With the booming economy and rising prosperity, more number of students in India opt foreign shores for education today. A general conception is that the swelling Non-Resident Gujarati (NRG) community is responsible for this trend.

A lot of people from Gujarat settled abroad even before Indian independence and after that. Till today the number of Gujaratis among the People of Indian Origin (PIO) is very high.

According to Anand Bardhan, Director (Diaspora Services), Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, “Every year, the number of Indian students going to foreign universities is rising gradually.” He, however, declined to ��

Gujarat is one of the Indian states which witnesses high number of students going abroad for education. The reason being large number of Gujarati diaspora in the

US and the UK, which attracts more of their community there. The new middle class of Gujarat today is economically well-placed and give due importance to academic knowl-edge.

“A lot of Gujaratis in the US are well settled with good degrees, that acts as a catalyst for more people to consider that country for migration,” said Kunal Shah, CFO, AIA Engineering. Shah did his MBA from the US, nearly a decade ago.

Shonell Thakker, a media professional based in Mumbai echoes the sentiment, “I have my aunt in Washington D.C. Though I’m well-placed here, I can go and live with her any time and pursue my educational goals.”

Social mobility may be a recent trend as far as education is concerned. But Gujaratis have been sailing to foreign shores from time immemorial.

From almost every village in Gujarat there is at least one family settled abroad. This helps psychologically as well, said a state ��

“For a student to go and study in a foreign �� count but social security is also important,” said Dr. Sheik Suleman, Head (International

Westward-bound: Flight of Prosperity

SPECIAL INVESTMENT REGIONS

5�2�6�� %��7��8 ��'""��9� ��1)��$�": ' � ��%��;�)�%�� %� ��$��&�� <�+�6�%� ��

TOP 10 INDIAN STATES ON THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX

STATES 2001 HDI 2001 Rank* 1991 HDI 1991 Rank 1981 HDI 1981 RankKerala 0.638 1 0.591 1 0.500 1Punjab 0.537 2 0.475 2 0.411 2Maharashtra 0.523 4 0.452 4 0.366 3Gujarat 0.419 6 0.431 6 0.360 4Haryana 0.509 5 0.443 5 0.360 5Karnataka 0.478 7 0.412 7 0.346 6Tamil Nadu 0.531 3 0.466 3 0.343 7West Bengal 0.472 8 0.404 8 0.305 8Andhra Pradesh 0.416 10 0.377 9 0.298 9Assam 0.386 14 0.348 10 0.272 10

PHOT

OGRA

PH C

OURT

ESY:

IMAG

ESBA

ZAAR

.COM

�$�=�>?��7�%�� @�

4 1afaqs! Reporter, September 1-15, 2 0 1 0

Placements and Secondments), EdCIL.Educational Consultants India Limited (Ed.

CIL) is a public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Human Resource Development. EdCIL (known so since January 2009) offers consultancy and technical services in differ-ent areas of Education and Human Resource Development not only within the country but also on a global basis.

Though, education in foreign institutions is still a far-fetched dream for a chunk of mid-�� of Gujaratis helps make foreign education an easy option for the students.

“Most of the people in Gujarat are either self-employed or are business people, rela-tively lesser number of salaried workforce

makes it easy for people to afford bulging educational expenses. Also it’s a tradition in a Gujarati family to send its young genera-tion for a foreign exposure, be it in for leisure, business or education,” said Professor Jagriti Mishra of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Gandhinagar.

Higher education in foreign shores is per-ceived as a tool to get specialised education ��

Students go to foreign universities for their research projects, advance diplomas or super specialisations.

Indian institutes encourage foreign exchange programmes now. “Apart from getting a foreign university on the resume, ��-sure,” Prof. Mishra said.

Students in Gujarat mostly head to coun-tries like the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and recently to EU countries like Germany, France and Sweden.

According to experts, technology has also heralded increase in more students vying for admissions in colleges abroad.

With the Indian economy booming and larger number of students, foreign univer-sities are marketing in potential pockets. “Gujarat happens to be a lucrative one. Representation from universities is a common site at various educational fairs

organized across the country,” observed an industry expert.

According to Dr. Suleman, it’s mostly at the post-graduation or advanced stages that students prefer going abroad.

“Indians want their children to study here till graduation level, they send them abroad for post-graduate or advance studies. The reason being, children are mature at the age of post-graduation level. They will act with maturity and will be responsible adults,” he said.

With economic engines rolling and India clocking a growth rate of over 9%, most sectors including education have brighter prospects today.

Also with higher disposable incomes and �� International Baccalaureate schools are set-ting base in Gujarat. Certain pockets of cities like Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara have started resembling the Middle-east.

“Settling down abroad is not seen as a via-ble option now,” said A.K. Singh, Convener (Academics), Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat.

“It’s unique with Gujaratis. Even if they settle down in foreign territories, they never severe ties unlike people in Punjab. Rather a lot of higher educational infrastructure has been established through donations from the

people of Indian origin,” he said. India is beginning to witness a reverse

brain drain, said Salman Khurshid, Minister of State for Corporate and Minority Affairs, on his visit to Dubai earlier this year. Many second-generation Indians are coming back to the country. MNCs are sending Indian minds to head companies in India.

Gujarat as a society breeds entrepre-neurship. Social fabric of innovation and entrepreneurship is an important contributor to higher number of students aspiring for education abroad.

One wonders if the westward mobility is due to lack of requisite educational infra-structure The verdict is hazy, while many opine that Gujarat might boast of having the premiere B-school in India, but education in most colleges (barring a few like the IITs and IIMs) cannot be compared to foreign education.

Gujarat as a state, since last few years has been witnessing upward mobility. Even farmers in the state are at par with people in developing cities. Owing to the phenomenal surge in real estate prices due to widespread industrialisation (ports, SEZs and automo-bile plants like Tata Nano coming up) the state economy has started looking up.

The government of Gujarat has eloquently manifested its commitment to the future by creating the Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat (KCG).

Since the Global scenario is marked by various peaks of concentrated knowledge and excellence dotted across the world, it would be imperative for societies and educa-tional institutions to innovate, cooperate and collaborate with one another.

��%��;�� 7��)�@��&�� %��%� ��

CHALLENGES FOR YOUTH

Annual Status of Education Report highlights the quality of schooling. Most rural youth:

��

��

��

The new middle class of Gujarat today is economically well-placed and give due importance to

academic knowledge.


Top 10 PublicationsDainik Jagran continues to maintain its lead as the No. 1 daily of the

country. But in Q2, it lost about 70,000 readers. Its total readership is now 5.42 crore. At No. 2, Dainik Bhaskar again reported a growth in readership. Currently, its total readership stands at 3.37 crore, which is about 3 lakh read-ers more than Q1.

Hindustan maintained its No. 3 slot from last quarter and added 15 lakh readers in Q2, taking its total readership to 3.09 crore.

At No. 4 is Amar Ujala, which added 2.62 lakh readers in Q2 and com-pensated its loss about 3 lakh readers in the previous quarter. The Marathi daily Lokmat retained its No. 5 position. The newspaper added about 3.8 lakh readers in the current round. Its total readership in Q2, 2010 is 2.37 crore.

Top 10 MagazinesThe Tamil weekly magazine Kumudam, replaced Hindi-weekly Saras

Salil at the top position. The Hindi weeklies also lost 2.57 lakh readers. At No. 2 position, Saras Salil lost 5.76 lakh readers in Q2, 2010.

Pratiyogita Darpan, which was the only magazine that gained readers in the last quarter also lost 1.3 lakh readers in the current one.

Hindi fortnightly magazines lost 8.85 lakh readers, while the monthlies lost 3.13 lakh readers. Even India Today Hindi lost 2.29 lakh readers in the current quarter.

Amongst the prominent general interest English weeklies, India Today again lost more than 2 lakh readers. While Malayalam monthly magazines lost 5.5 lakh readers, the weekly and fortnightly magazines lost 5.2 lakh and 4.57 lakh, respectively. Vanitha (Malayalam) lost 4.5 lakh readers.

Bengali MagazinesBengali magazines, irrespective of periodicity, are amongst the frontrun-

ners in acquiring new readers. In this quarter, Bengali weekly publications added 3.12 lakh new readers. Similarly, Bengali fortnightly magazines added 1.16 lakh readers in Q2, taking the total readership to 41.58 lakh.

All popular Bengali magazines such as Saptahik Bartaman (general inter-est), Anandalok (film magazine) and Khela (sports) added new readers.

Karmakshetra is the biggest gainer in the lot followed by Saptahik Bartaman. While Saptahik Bartaman added 1.44 lakh readers in the current quarter, after losing 32,000 readers in the previous round, career magazine Karmakshetra added 2.24 lakh readers taking its readership to 18.28 lakh. Saptahik Bartaman’s total readership now stands at more than 10 lakh. Sananda continues to be the most read Bengali magazine after Karmakshetra and added 33,000 readers.

An analysis of how various publications across the country fared in the latest round of IRS. News Bureau

IRS 2010: QUARTER 2

Decoding the Figures��

4500

5000

5500

6000

6500

7000

4000

Kumudam

Saras Salil

India Today (Eng)

Vanitha (Mal)

Kungumam

India Today (Hin)

Pratiyogita Darpan

Ananda Vikatan

Grih Shobha (Hin)

Meri Saheli

� ��%�

��%��A��

�B"""C

2009 R2 2010 Q1 2010 Q2

TOP 10 MAGAZINES

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

2000

Any Bengali Fortnightly

Any Bengali Monthly

Any Bengali Weekly�

��%�

��%��A��

�B"""C

2009 R2 2010 Q1 2010 Q2

THE GROWTH OF BENGALI MAGAZINE

Hindi DailiesHindi dailies reported a total readership of 13.5 crore and AIR of 5.96

crore - a gain of 9.18 lakh in total readership and 8.91 lakh in AIR in the current quarter. Six out of 10 Hindi dailies grew while rest saw a decline in readership in the current quarter.

As reflected in the top 10 Publications’ list the top four Hindi-dailies are Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, Hindustan and Amar Ujala, respectively. At No. 5 is Rajasthan Patrika with a total readership of 1.47 crore in Q2 - a gain of 4.79 lakh readers over Q1. At No. 6 is Punjab Kesari, which a total reader-ship of 1.05 crore and a drop of 22,000 readers from Q1. No. 7 is Aj with a total readership of 52.55 lakh - a decline of 2.33 lakh readers in Q2 since the previous quarter. The Navbharat Times is at No. 8 with a total readership of 52.13 lakh, while Prabhat Khabar is at No. 9 with total readership of 51.59 lakh and Hari Bhoomi is No. 10 with 13.14 lakh readers.

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

0

Dainik Jagran (All Edn)

Dainik Bhaskar (All Edn)

Hindustan (All Edn)

Amar Ujala (All Edn)

Rajasthan Patrika (All Edn)

Punjab Kesari (All Edn)

Aj (All Edn)

Navbharat Times (All Edn)

Prabhat Khabar (All Edn)

Nava Bharat (Mah/Chh) (All Edn)

� ��%�

��%��A��

�B"""C

2009 R2 2010 Q1 2010 Q2

TOP 10 HINDI DAILIES (TR)

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

0

Dainik Jagran

Dainik Bhaskar

Hindustan

Amar Ujala

Lokmat

Daily Thanti

Dinakaran

ABP

Eenadu

Rajasthan Patrika (All Edn)

� ��%�

��%��A��

�B"""C

2009 R2 2010 Q1 2010 Q2

TOP 10 PUBLICATION (TR)

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

0

Any Telugu Daily

Eenadu

Sakshi

Andhra Jyothi

Vartha

� ��%�

��%��A��

�B"""C

2009 R2 2010 Q1 2010 Q2

TELUGU DAILIES

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

0

Any Tamil Daily

Daily Thanthi

Dinakaran

Dinamalar

Malai Malar

� ��%�

��%��A��

�B"""C

2009 R2 2010 Q1 2010 Q2

TAMIL DAILIES

4000

8000

12000

16000

20000

0

� ��%�

��%��A��

�B"""C

2009 R2 2010 Q1 2010 Q2

KANNADA DAILIESAny Kannada Daily

Vijay Karnataka

Prajavan

Samyukta Karnataka

Kannada Prabha

Udayavani

Sanjavani

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

0

� ��%�

��%��A��

�B"""C

2009 R2 2010 Q1 2010 Q2

MALAYALAM DAILIESAny Malayalam Daily

Malayala Manorama

Mathrubhumi

Deshabhimani

Kerala Kaumudi

Madhyamam

��


Kannada DailiesKannada dailies emerged as the biggest gainers in South India, having

close to 6 lakh readers. In fact, between R2, 2009 and now, the Malayalam dailies added more than 8 lakh total readers. In this market, the No. 1 daily, Vijay Karnataka, with a total readership of 78.01 lakh readers, lost 4.65 lakh readers, while the No. 2 player, Prajavani, added 9.68 lakh readers, which contributed to this growth. Prajvani, with a total readership of 64.15 lakh, has been narrowing its gap with Vijay Karnataka for the last few rounds.

The other gainer in Karnataka is Kannada Prabha, which added 1.34 lakh readers, while Samyukta Karnataka and Udayavani lost 1.34 lakh and 98,000 readers, respectively.

Tamil DailiesTamil dailies enjoy the maximum readership amongst the four South Indian languages and this time, they added close to 4.5 lakh readers, taking the total readership of Tamil dailies to 2.97 crore. In fact, since R2, 2009, the Tamil dailies added close to 7.40 lakh readers.

In fact, just like the Telugu dailies, the top two Tamil dailies also recorded a growth in total readership. Daily Thanthi, with a total readership of 2.06 crore, added 4.04 lakh readers, while Dinakaran added about 6.13 lakh taking its total readership to 1.7 crore.

Amongst Tamil dailies, Malai Malar lost the most readers - a loss of 1.36 lakh readers in this round.

On one hand, where Tamil dailies are performing the best, the weekly, fortnightly and monthly publications in Tamil registered heavy losses.

Telugu DailiesAmongst the four South Indian languages, Telugu dailies lost a marginal

number of 1 lakh readers in this quarter. From 2.26 crore in Q2, 2010, the total readership for any Telugu daily is now down to 2.25 crore. This is despite the fact that the two leading Telugu dailies gained readers. Eenadu, the No. 1 Telugu daily, grown by 3.12 lakh readers, while its closest com-petitor, the newly launched Sakshi, added 2.4 lakh readers. Eenadu’s total readership is now at 1.5 crore, while Sakshi is at 1.32 crore.

However, other dailies in this language, including Andhra Jyothi and Vartha, lost readers. With a total readership of 32.48 lakh, Vartha been con-tinuously losing readers in the last few rounds. In the last nine months, the daily lost about 7.70 lakh readers.

Andhra Jyothi, with a total readership of 59.98 lakh, also lost 97,000 read-ers in the latest round.

Malayalam DailiesMalayalam dailies recorded a marginal decline of 8,000 readers in the latest

quarter. The total readership of Malayalam dailies stands at 2.18 crore. Here, except for Malayala Manorama (also the top Malayalam daily), the other top four newspapers witnessed a decline in readership. Mathrubhumi been the biggest loser amongst the four South Indian language publications since the last three rounds - a loss of 8.04 lakh readers.

Deshabhimani and Kerala Kaumudi are the other two major players to have recorded a sharp decline in the readership in the latest quarter - both lost 3 lakh plus readers.

Malayalam publications, including daily, weekly, fortnightly and monthly publications, all recorded losses in readership.

An analysis of how publicatoins in the Southern states of the country fared in the latest round of IRS. News Bureau

IRS 2010: QUARTER 2

Decoding the Figures - II

Ali feels that mobile advertising in the last few years has primarily been limited to display ads. Banners and text ads are displayed within mobile apps and mobile websites while there has been some uptake of rich media ads using full screen, full screen ani-mated ads and video ads.

The strategic focus, says Tanksali, has been on initiatives that maximise the share of a consumer’s “wallet”. But in many markets, high speed internet access with the introduction of 3G and 4G, and traditional teleph-ony offerings to the home and office have saturated that aspect, compel-ling operators to look towards non subscriber sources of revenue.

Service providers believe that this is the right time to introduce ad-driven service models that allow operators to not only tap into new revenue streams (without the limita-

tion of the available end-user wallet share) but also differentiate them-selves from competitors. In emerging markets, the mobile medium is the dominant digital channel.

Kartikeya, CEO of Planet41 is of the view that since data usage on net-works is growing, mobile advertising companies are carrying out success-ful campaigns with video ads and interactive solutions to engage con-sumers. The US market is expected to grow by 58.1 per cent, from $10.4 million (2008) to $256.4 million in 2015. The estimated increase in revenue from mobile advertising is speculated to be $24 billion by 2013.

THE ECOSYSTEM

In India the adoption is slower owing to advertisers, mobile

operators and content providers not working in a favourable eco-system, feels Kartikeya. Applications should be developed to make user experience richer, with campaigns targeted in such a way that users

browse through the content. This will mean that advertisers can inter-act with targeted customers more effectively. Also, once an ecosys-tem exists with more transparency in revenue sharing, there will be an increase in mobile advertising.

According to Ali, “most adver-tisers do not know how mobile advertising works or how to deliver successful campaigns.” He also feels that advertisers prefer cost per lead (CPL)-based advertising. When it comes to online, and now mobile, advertising most marketers tend to fall into the trap that they need to pay only for CPL. This is encouraged by agencies that are purely lead-driven. SMS spam and the large ecosystem around this industry is another rea-son why mobile advertising (of the legitimate type - SMS opt-in, WAP and in-app display advertising) is not so popular in India. Spam has also led mobile consumers to demand strict laws for unsolicited advertising via SMS.

Mobile advertising will take off if more brands and agencies adopt this as an additional medium and take risks to try it. Agencies could proac-tively pitch to all their brands. They could help the local market by trying out locally established players. 3G could be an additional factor in ena-bling rich media mobile advertising.

RURAL, TOO

Reaching rural folk may have just become easier. Says Arun

Sharma, vice president, market-ing, Airtel, “Most of the time we are debating on what can be the best medium to reach rural.” If we look at the telecom scenario in rural India, cheap handsets and afford-able call rates have made inroads into this market. The advancement of mobiles can also help small and medium sized enterprises develop highly effective campaigns to target potential customers. It’s all happen-ing now. �

[email protected]


��

<< �� $%�&��!#

The Right Connect

> Law and Kenneth’s new branch at Chennai has roped in Anbu Chezhian as director. He moves in from Interface Communications, Chennai, which is Draftfcb Ulka’s sis-ter concern. At Interface, Chezhian served as client servicing director. He will report to Anil Nair, CEO and man-aging partner, Law and Kenneth. His prime responsibility will be to handle the recently won Renault business which will be driven by the Chennai office of the agency.

At Interface Communications, Chezhian handled several key accounts such as The Hindu Business Line and Mahindra Holiday & Resorts. Earlier, he handled the direct market-ing business for Ford India at Wunderman, which is part of Rediffusion Y&R.

> JWT’s vice-president Elvis Sequiera and executive creative direc-tor Anuja Chauhan have quit. Chauhan joined JWT in February 1993 and since then has been associated with brands like Pepsi, Frito Lays, Nokia and Nestle. She is the mastermind behind memora-ble catchphrases like ‘Dil Maange More’, ‘Mera Number kab Aayega’,’Nothing offi-cial about it’ and ‘Oye bubbly’. Sequeira

has 19 years’ experience. In 2007, he left Percept to join JWT. Prior to Percept, he was with Lowe Lintas Mumbai, heading the Bajaj business. He has worked on Hamara Bajaj (new), ICICI-Prudential Life Insurance (‘Retirement from work, not life’), Jet Airways (the yellow rose campaign), and Royal Challenge (golf in airplane).

> Tarun Chauhan, president, Lowe Lintas India has joined JWT Mumbai as managing partner and senior vice-president. He will be responsible for JWT’s Mumbai branch, in addition to certain other roles assigned to him across verticals in the system.

Chauhan brings in more than two

ADVERTISING

A compilation of some major people movements in the last fortnight

decades of experience in advertising. Prior to joining JWT, Chauhan was with Lowe for nine years. In 2007, he was vice-president at Lowe Mumbai and went on to become the executive director. In May 2010 Chauhan was promoted as president of Lowe Lintas India.

He has worked across brands and companies such as Bajaj Auto, Idea Cellular, ICICI, USAID and the Tata Group (Tata Tea, Tata Retail, Ginger Hotels). This is Chauhan’s sec-ond stint with JWT - before joining Lowe Lintas, he was with JWT as a part of the team that set up Thompson Connect, now integrated within JWT.

> The Chennai-based Optima Advertising has appointed Abraham Karimpanal as vice-president, creative. He brings in more than 16 years of expe-rience. Karimpanal will help strengthen the agency’s creative offering across conventional and digital platforms. Earlier, Karimpanal was associate vice-president and senior creative direc-tor, JWT Chennai. He has worked on Tanishq, Fastrack, Infosys, Wipro Net Kracker, Fairever Fairness Cream, Lotte Confectionery and Pondicherry Tourism.

Some of the key campaigns he has worked on include the Murugappa Corporate campaign, Radisson Resort Temple Bay and Ford Fusion’s Test Drive Challenge.

> Simran Sablok, general manager, marketing, Web18 has quit the company. Sablok joined Web18, which is the digital arm of the Network18 group, in July 2009. She has more than 13 years of experience across online, hospitality and apparel industries. At Web18, she was responsible for marketing of online properties, such as In.com, Moneycontrol.com, IBNLive.com and CricketNext.com. She was also responsi-ble for marketing alliances to create strong brand presence for Web 18 properties.

DIGITAL

> Vikram Malhotra, COO, Balaji Telefilms has called its quits after 10 months of joining the organisation. He has now moved to Studio18, the film production and distribution arm of Viacom18 as COO where he will report to Haresh Chawla, chief executive officer, Network 18. In this new role, Malhotra’s main responsibility will be driving growth and profitability at Studio18.

Prior to Balaji, Malhotra was head of worldwide marketing at Kingfisher Airlines, one of India’s premier consumer brands. He, along with his team, is credited with creating India’s larg-est airline brand in just a little over four years of operations. At Kingfisher, Malhotra facilitated the growth of the domestic airline, was instrumental in the launch of Kingfisher Airlines International and was also responsible for the Formula One team, Force India.

> Praveen Sharma (Perry), chief operating officer, Madison Media Plus, has left the company. Sharma was heading the Bharti (Airtel) account at Madison. Sources in the industry reveals that Sharma can join Google at its Singapore office.

Sharma has more than 13 years of experience in the industry. He had worked with Lintas for five years in the media planning and buying space. In 2003, he moved to Mediaedge:cia as business director. Subsequently, he joined Madison Communications in 2004.

Ashish Singru will replace Sharma at the agency. Singru is a graduate from IIT Kanpur, with an MBA from the University of IOWA. Earlier, he was working with Microsoft (US) in its corporate marketing group and was responsible for strategic media planning, campaign evaluation and business analytics.

> The chief executive officer of Sahara One Media and Entertainment Avinash Kaul has left the organisation. He joined Sahara in February this year from NDTV Media.At Sahara One, he was in charge of all the broadcast channels - Sahara One, Filmy and Firangi. Prior to Sahara One, he was executive vice-president at NDTV Media, where he worked for seven-and-a-half years, ever since the company’s inception. He has also spent a year at STAR India.

MEDIA

>> MOVEMENTS/APPOINTMENTS<<


��

Bus seat-back and bus-stop advertising were used to promote ZEEL’s new shows. By Surina Sayal & Sangeeta Tanwar

ZEE TV

Handling it DifferentlyW

ith a slew of new shows being launched on various GECs, each one wants to

stand out from the clutter when it comes to promotions. A new ambi-ent campaign by Zee is noteworthy in this respect.

For its new show, Sanjog Se Bani Sangini, Zee TV has branded seats in 100 BEST buses in Mumbai. The innovation involves installing an ‘arm’ across each seat, such that any passenger sitting on that seat would appear to have affectionately draped his arm across the shoulder of the co-passenger next to him. Zee TV wants its viewers to “feel the love”. The uniqueness of the idea and the real-istic creatives has grabbed eyeballs.

The first 20 seats in each bus were used for the innovation. This involved putting up 10 ‘arms’, and the cost of advertising worked out to around `5,000 per bus. The creatives were executed by bus seat-back advertising specialist, Tinta Media Creations, a sister-concern of Emnet Samsara Media.

Shonak Gholkar, CEO, Tinta Media Creations says, “We wanted to take innovations on bus seat backs one step forward. Thus, when Zee approached us with this idea, we were very excited about it.” He shares that this innovation was more challenging. After creating dyes for the arm, and then printing; the ‘arms’ were laminated, so as to reduce wear and tear and get a more realistic look. Gholkar also informs that while Zee TV has advertised with BEST buses in the past, this is the channel’s first bus seat-back campaign.

For the same show, Zee TV had undertaken a pre-launch interactive marketing campaign. The first phase of the campaign invited viewers to par-ticipate in the naming of the show. The channel had also urged viewers to write in with their own love stories, the best of which would be showcased on-air, by inviting the couple for an exclusive interview on Zee TV.

Akash Chawla, marketing head, Zee TV, says, “The interactive marketing campaign launched for Sanjog Se Bani Sangini was the first of its kind in the Hindi GEC space. The show was named on the basis of suggestions made by our viewers. When you involve the viewers at every stage of a show,

it creates a greater sense of belonging and ownership. The response to our call for viewers to share their unique love stories has been overwhelming.”

Recently, Zee has been pulling out all the stops when it comes to OOH advertising. For another show, the latest edition of Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Singing Superstar, the chan-nel has created special Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Music Zones at select bus stops across Mumbai. The entire bus stop will have Sa Re Ga Ma Pa branding, including lights and a music setup replete with speakers and associated paraphernalia. Also, illuminated, life-size cut-outs of microphones with Sa Re Ga Ma Pa branding will be seen hanging between adjacent buildings

at prime areas in Mumbai, akin to impres-sive and stunning Diwali kandils.

The channel is also organising an on-ground BTL activity, ‘College Ka Singing

Superstar’, which is being held across 15 colleges in Mumbai, and 10 in Pune and Delhi each. Zee will also organise musical events in residential colonies, with the support of local politicians or associations. The event will have a live orchestra and a singing competition for the residents.

Chawla adds, “The life-size microphones and College Ka Singing Superstar initiatives are just the beginning of a comprehensive campaign.”

To explore further branding and promotional opportunities, Café Coffee Day has been selected as the on-ground partner for the display for stand-ees, drop downs and danglers. �

[email protected]

After dying and printing, the ‘arms’ were laminated to look real.

connote Mexico. Domino’s attempts to bring these two distinct worlds to the consumer palate in India.

Nima Namchu, executive crea-tive director, Contract, says that the idea was simple: when one orders a Mexican Wrap or Italian Pasta from Domino’s, it’s like getting them delivered straight from Mexico and Italy itself.

On the use of the delivery boy once again as the Domino’s food - and brand message - deliverer, Namchu elaborates, “When the brand comes in contact with the consumer through the delivery boy, it is natural for him to play the role of the ‘deliverer of happiness’ as well. However, unlike in other campaigns,

this one had him playing a more cen-tral role, because the story was about the arrival of the wrap and the pasta.”

The TVC prior to this one was for Pizza Mania, the economy offer-ing from Domino’s, which showed a school teacher at a remote location, who tempts her absconding students back to school, with the promise of Domino’s Pizza.

A budget of `6-7 crore has been earmarked for this communication, which would be on-air for three months. While television is the dominating media (around 70 per cent), the rest would include in-store leaflets, direct mails to customer

databases and digital media.

HAPPINESS DELIVERED?

Domino’s’ latest attempt gener-ates mixed feelings amidst the

ad fraternity.Manish Bhatt, co-founder,

Scarecrow Communications, feels it is a natural take for the brand to borrow upon the cultural nuances of the regions from where its products emerge. And this isn’t the first time either: earlier, for its Chinese pizzas, Domino’s had Chinese characters and cultural innuendos dotting its communication. “While it is natural for Domino’s, one wonders if it is

becoming a formula for the brand,” he muses. “This ad is not out of the box, but it is fairly exotic to look at, with good production value that cre-ates intrigue.” he asserts.

KV Sridhar aka Pops, NCD, Leo Burnett India, says that the com-mercial takes the ‘easy way out’. “Regional nuances are the first thing a brand will look at in such a case - it is like showing elephants to represent India. The consumer will identify with such nuances, the job will get done, but the brief allows for so much more,” he says, adding that the execution is in all probability, competent.

“But the story needs to be more charming, and more creative liberty ought to have been taken to take this brand to the next level,” Pops signs off. �

[email protected]

<< �� $%�&��'

Delivering...

The company has used regional or cultural nuances to promote the Mexican Wrap

and Italian Pasta in the market.


��

Between 2008 and 2010, with four seasons of Chhota Bheem, the channel has so far produced 80 hours of 30-minute content; it also has three full-length, 60-minute feature films based on the character, which are aired on special occasions such as Janmashtami and Holi.

Tata mentions that the Indian animation per se continues to deliv-er high on ratings, in comparison to any other genre in kids’ entertain-

ment. She adds that the success of Desi Toons on Turner’s network channels, Cartoon Network and Pogo proves this.

Chhota Bheem is a nine-year-old kid who lives in the fictional town of Dholakpur. The character is inspired by the legendary Bheem from the Mahabharat. The show, which traces the exploits of Chhota Bheem and his gang of friends, is an original co-production between Turner International India and Hyderabad-based Green Gold studios.

Describing Chhota Bheem’s fol-lowing among kids, Tata claims that between February and August this

year, kids downloaded as many as 30,000 e-card applications of Chhota Bheem on the channel’s website.

According to her a total of two-and-half lakh videos of the show were also watched by kids on the channel’s website.

In fact, this year, the channel is undertaking a school contact pro-gramme for the contest titled ‘Bheem Ki Team’. As part of the school contact programme, Pogo is reach-ing out to five lakh students. The channel has plans of conducting the ‘Bheem Ki Team’ contest in as many as 500 schools. �

[email protected]

The lifestyle store recently showcased the brand’s communication over the last 19 years. By Surina Sayal

SHOPPERS STOP

Looking Back With NostalgiaW

ho doesn’t love flipping through a photo album? Going through old pictures and memorabilia always

brings up warm memories. Lifestyle store Shoppers Stop gave its customers a chance to walk down memory lane recently at the re-launch of its first ever store that was set up in Andheri, Mumbai in 1991.

Shoppers Stop is, as the brand calls itself, ‘the first store in the history of modern retail-ing in India’ and is positioned as a premium bridge-to-luxury brand. It is present in 14 cit-ies in India with multiple stores in the metros. Over the years, the brand has mostly stuck with advertising via the print medium and more recently, outdoor. Stark black and white advertising has also been a key strategy to cre-ate a brand differentiator.

The refurbished store in Andheri put up its print campaign pictures from 1991 and across the years, till its most recent campaign this year, allowing people to take a walk through the brand’s journey and evolution in India.

Vinay Bhatia, customer care associate and vice-president, marketing and loyalty, Shoppers Stop, says, “The history of Shoppers Stop’s ad is not only the brand’s journey through the years but also a reflection of the changing consumer aspirations and outlook. The store’s baseline has been changed over the years and is a direct indication of the changing attitudes of the consumers towards shopping.”

From ‘The Ultimate Shopping Experience’ in 1992 to ‘Shopping. And Beyond’ in 2005, these reflect a paradigm shift of people enjoying the international shopping experience to shop-ping for emotional fulfilment - like purchasing a diamond ring to express love or even flaunt one’s status. This later changed to ‘Start Something New’ in 2008 as a part of the brand’s makeover strategy, connecting to the current mindset of customers to constantly upgrade and experiment.

The 13 creatives displayed were of brand cam-

paigns and some key festivals that Shoppers Stop has carried out over the years.

“This idea was to take customers of the Andheri store down memory lane as they walked towards the newly renovated store to take their first look at it,” says Bhatia. It also stemmed from the fact that this store enjoys a lot of emotional attach-ment with its customers, with a loyalty member base of over one lakh customers. “We saw many

of our First Citizen members having discussions over the ads and remem-bering instances from the festivals. Some of them even brought along old shopping bags of Shoppers Stop as memorabilia,” shares Bhatia.

While this may be the first time that

an Indian brand has showcased its communi-cation journey, internationally, many brands have done the same with brand museums and archives being created. These include Mustang Jeans, which has a private museum displaying old merchandise and communica-tion materials in the city of its origin.

The colourful button shaped candies brand, M&M, has a museum-cum-store in Las Vegas that consists of four floors of clothes and col-lectables with M&M characters from across the years on them. Czechoslovakia-born shoe brand Bata runs the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada that houses more than 4,500 years of history and a collection of 20th cen-tury celebrity shoes.

Cola giants PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, too, have dedicated museums in the cities of their respective origins, North Carolina and Atlanta. Heineken has a brewery museum in Amsterdam that gives tourists a dive into the

world of the famous Dutch beer.Shoppers Stop will keep adding campaigns to

its growing archives. It also plans to release the ‘Start Something New Today’ campaign of small ads in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, which appear every Thursday to give fashion or style tips to customers, and are also highlighted in stores through visual merchandising. �

[email protected]

Bhatia: memories

The communication displayed aptly captured the consumers’

changing preferences.

Tata and Thakur: cashing-in

<< �� $%�&��!#

Out of the...

CID and Chhota Bheem will get on

to shelves now.

Andhra Pradesh (AP) is witness to a new form of advertising these days, as PepsiCo tries out ‘augmented reality (AR) adver-

tising’ or ‘ARvertising’ for its 7Up brand.Augmented reality involves the addition of

virtual elements to the real environment. Virtual elements could include computer-generatedimages, video clips or textual information pulledfrom the internet while the real environment includes elements such as a printed picture, object, a building or landscape. To retrieve addi-tional or ‘virtual’ material, the user would needan information ‘reader’ - such as a web camera connected to an internet-enabled computer or the camera of a GPRS-enabled mobile phone - which can identify the real object, and then pull out ‘virtual’ information contextually related to the real object.

For instance, an advertiser could embed a special code in its logo or a picture printed in ads or packaged material. Thus, whenever users point their mobile-phone or webcam to the logo/picture, they could get some additional informa-tion from the internet, such as images, videoclips or discount offer details, on their mobile or computer screen.

In the case of 7Up, PepsiCo has initiated a two-month campaign, ‘You Click, Allu Arjun Dance’. The Tollywood actor is famous for hisdancing skills and is also 7Up’s brand ambassador in the South.

For this campaign, PepsiCo has created vid-eos of Allu Arjun performing seven different dance styles, which are hosted on the website, www.7Up.in. A small-size code, ‘black and whitepicture or graphic image’, has also been devel-oped, which the company will print on 600ml 7Up PET bottles distributed in AP. This codedimage is the virtual key or enabler for users to access the dance videos.

Speaking to afaqs! Reporter Carlton D’Silva, rcreative director, Hungama Digital, the agency which is managing this digital campaign, explains, “First, the online user will be required to open

the 7Up website and click a link - available on the site’s homepage - titled ‘Now everyone can make Allu Arjun dance’. This will prompt him toconnect his computer with a web camera, select the dance-style video and then point the camera to the coded image printed on the PET bottle. Once the ‘black and white image’ gets decodedthrough the camera, which acts like a reader, thevideo will start playing.”

These videos can also be accessed on operat-ing system (OS) based mobile phones, which are internet enabled. For this, users will be first required to download a special software or appli-cation on their mobile phones. Then, a user canopen the application, select the camera mode and point the camera to image on the PET bottle, in order to play the videos.

Alpana Titus, executive vice-president, fla-vours, PepsiCo India says, “The objective behind this campaign is to create buzz and positive word-of-mouth about 7Up among the youth in

Andhra Pradesh. We have opted for AP, becauseit is an important market. About 25 per cent of the country’s lemon-based drinks sales come from here.”

“We have figured out that dancing andArjun are popular among the youth in AP. Thus, we have zeroed in on dancing and the Tollywood star for the campaign. Augmented reality has been opted for as we want to carry out a disruptive initiative, which will cre-ate interest, and thus, engage users with thebrand,” she adds.

Titus indicates that the company will consider unique visitors on the 7Up website, time spent by users and the level of engagement, to judge the effectiveness of the ARvertising campaign. Based on the success of the campaign in AP, it may be extended to other states, too.

Lots more to happen in the new age of engage-ment with the users! �

[email protected]

��

New Age Mantra

5 1afaqs! Reporter, September 1-15, 2 0 1 0

The objective behind this campaign is to create buzz and positive word-of-mouth

among the youth.

7UP

PepsiCo uses augmented reality engaging the youth smartly. y By Kapil Ohri

To understand and experience Augmented Reality (AR), follow the two steps below to open this story on yourGPRS-enabled mobile phone.

1. Download an application or QR code Reader viaBeetagg.com/downloadreader/.

2. Open the application on phone and take a snap-shot, which in turn will open the web link.

EXPERIENCE AR

For more updation on STAR News ‘SMART Idea Section’ pls visit the below link :

www.afaqs.com

CITATION: THE GOLD IN PRINT EMERGING WAS AWARDED TO SAKAL FOR CREATING AGROWON, A TRULY UNIQUE DAILY FOR FARMERS, TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE AGRO-CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF THE AREA.

Maharashtra has a large number of progressive farmerswhose information needs are not being fully met

by existing dailies. That is why the Pune-based Sakal

Media launched Agrowon whose core audience, apart from farmers, consists of retailers as well as marketers of goods meant for farmers.

Agrowon has eight editions which, unusually, cater eight different agri-climatic zones. Each zone has

different mix of crops which also changes the way eople live and the kind of information they seek. hough Agrowon uses the Sakal network for distribution,

s an independently priced daily, currently priced at Rs 2.With a circulation of 54,000 copies, Agrowon has

managed to create a bank of advertisers separate from the mainstream, 80 per cent of the revenue coming from core agricultural products. It has gone beyond that to create multiple platforms for farmers – exhibitions that act as a bridge between farmers and advertisers, investment workshops to educate farmers, it has even created international initiatives to broaden their horizons about agriculture. It now gets a significant percentage of its revenue from on-ground activities.

CITATION: THE BRONZE IN PRINT EMERGING WAS AWARDED TO MATHRUBHUMI FOR USING ITS REACH TO SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND THUS CREATING A BOND WITH READERS OF TOMORROW.

Kand villages face a water shortage. The forest coverhas dropped from 35 per cent to 13 per cent. And ‘God’sOwn Country’ has turned into a paradise of mosquitoes because of poor waste management.

Mathrubhumi launched SEED – Student Empowerment for Environmental Development – on June 5, 2009. Inall 3,089 schools participated in SEED which consisted of greening, cleaning, water conservation, bio-diversity mapping and creating public awareness against tree cutting etc.

SEED 2009-10 started with 3 lakh saplings being planted by participating schools. Representatives of the daily regularly visited the schools, the height of the saplings was measured and more than 2 lakh saplings have been survived and grown. They are primarily fruit bearing and ecologically important trees.

A five-member jury visited the schools and in all 129 of them were awarded. The total cash prize was Rs 20 lakh.

SEED is perhaps the largest green initiative in thecountry at the school level by any newspaper organisation. As many as 15 lakh students participated in SEED activities in 2009-10.

CITATION: THE SILVER IN PRINT EMERGING WAS AWARDED TO THE SENTINEL FOR CREATING AN INNOVATIVE NEWSPAPER PLATFORM TO REACH OUT IN A REGION WITH A DIVERSE MIX OF LANGUAGES AND ISSUES.

Tof Guwahati. It covers North East India whichconsists of seven states and its residents use dozens of languages and dialects. This makes theprocess of coverage and reaching out difficult for an Englishnewspaper like The Sentinel. The group has newspapersin Assamese, Hindi and Khasi but there are many otherlanguages where viable newspapers with reach do not exist.

How could The Sentinel get around the problem?The answer it found was in the launch of a weekly,

‘Multi-Lingual’. It is a unique platform offered to indigenouslanguages of Assam to find a voice. Languages like Boro and Karbi which rarely get a platform in mainstream NorthEastern media are given substantial space in Multi-Lingual.

Here their special concerns can be put forward to the authorities. At an ideological level, it is an attempt by the daily to strengthen the spirit of diversity in North East India.

At a business level, the circulation of The Sentinel increases sharply in the indigenous language areas on the days of the supplement. Moreover, Multi-Lingual has encouraged writers in Bodo and Karbi to voice their feelings.

EYE-CATCHING STUFF

News Innovation Awards (NIA) 2010 by afaqs! heldon August 27 at The Lalit, New Delhi recognised some of the path-breaking initiatives by TV and print playersthat aim to help take the news business into the future.


PRINT EMERGINGSAKAL MATHRUBHUMI

THE SENTINEL

BRONZE WINNER

Agto

apTh

it is

GOLD WINNER

e

SILVER WINNER

D-��2�)��3

D2��

CITATION: THE SILVER IN TV EMERGING WAS AWARDED TO ZEE 24 GHANTE CHHATTISGARH FOR USING CONSUMER INSIGHT AND PROMOTION TO REGAIN MARKET SHARE.

Zee 24 GhanteChhattisgarh is

the regional set-up ofZee News. It is thedominant news channelin Chhattisgarh. Theproblem was that theevening band, which wasits strong point, showed adip at 11 pm. Qualitativeresearch involving about1,000 respondents wasconducted in Raipur, the

capital and Bilaspur, the seat of the High Court. It showed that a large percentage of men,especially traders, returned home late and got the remote control only late in the evening.

To hook them, the channel created Rajdhani-Nyaydhani - news from the Rajdhani, Raipurand the Nyaydhani, Bilaspur. The programme was scheduled for 11 pm. A week prior tolaunch, ads were printed in local dailies, flyers were distributed in parks, respondents of the survey were contacted, an sms blast and pamphlets in trains followed. There was a specialfocus on lawyers, who form a large segment, and are an influential group. The emphasis: telling everyone that the day’s news could be caught at 11 pm.

The result: the progamme and the promotion took the channel to No 1 in the 11 pm slotand whenever the channel drops lower, a contact programme takes it back to the top slot.

CITATION: THE BRONZE IN TV EMERGING WAS AWARDED TO DILLI AAJ TAK FOR ITS INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN TO INCREASE VIEWER INVOLVEMENT IN THE GENERAL ELECTIONS AND THEREBY DRAW ATTENTION TO ITSELF.

With over 30 Hindi channels in the fray, standing out in the clutter is a big issue. Dilli AajTak had an additional problem - it was overshadowed by Aaj Tak.

The channel decided to use the General Elections in Delhi on May 7, 2009. It decided to focus on people whose attitude is: Mere ek vote se kya farak padega? Those who are readyaato criticise the system but aren’t willing to do anything about it. The objective was to get people to come and vote despite soaring mercury levels affecting turnout in other states.The channel used branded vans, digital screens, human banners, in metro stations, airports, multiplexes and traffic intersections. ‘Vote Dilli Vote’ was the central communication idea.

Election stories were dovetailed to the campaign. Top anchors went out into the streets to persuade people to vote. The OOH message read: ‘Beat the Heat, Vote Dilli Vote’. The radio

campaign emphasisedthis and on D-day, thechannel reiterated its message through ads in the Hindustan Times, SMS

and ambient marketing.In Delhi, the voting

ercentage was igher than in either 999 or 2004. The nnel share of Dilli Aaj

Tak grew by 22 per centduring the campaign week.

��

TV EMERGINGZEE 24 GHANTE CHHATTISGARH DILL AAJ TAK

and a

ph19

chan

BRONZE WINNER

SILVER WINNER


CITATION: THE GOLD IN PRINT BIG WAS AWARDED TO MID DAY FOR BEING THE FIRST MOVER IN USING AN EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AND THUS EMPHASISING ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE YOUNG URBAN PROFESSIONAL.

Mid Day’s target group is the YUMPI – Young UrbanMobile Professionals across India. These are men and

women in the core group of 20-39 years and are working professionals in the SEC A & B income groups who seek a break at work. This group is tech-savvy and largely use smart phones.

The idea of the project was thus to engage YUMPIs through code technology. QR (Quick Response) technology allows

he readers to read their copy of Mid Day as well as view udio-visual linked file to the key stories on their mobile hones. This was in keeping with the brand’s desire to nstantly innovate and provide newer avenues to add to the

experience of consuming the paper.What it means is that readers with GPRS-enabled phones

or BlackBerry can point their phones and capture the QR code printed next to the stories. This automatically takes them to the audio visual news files.

The service was launched in February 2010 and Mid Day was the first newspaper in India to try using this technology. Mid Day now has daily news features with QRcode technology embedded. What’s more, advertisers havestarted engaging the consumer by placing QR code ads in the daily and running contests to give away gifts to readers.

CITATION: THE BRONZE IN PRINT BIG WAS AWARDED TO HINDUSTAN FOR IDENTIFYING A

VERY SPECIFIC CONSUMER NEED AND CREATING A PRODUCT THAT SATISFIES IT.

In the course of researching reader needs, Hindustan found that the desire to learn English was felt strongly

among its readership. To this end it recently launched a weekly supplement, ‘Jaano English’, which is published each oFriday. To bring credibility to the initiative, the daily forged a partnership with BBC.

Jaano English began as a free supplement within themain paper. It gained popularity rapidly so that in five weeksit was turned into a priced publication. The cover price isRe 1 and it is delivered inside the main daily but also soldseparately on the newsstand. It is priced in every state otherthan Jharkhand.

CITATION: THE BRONZE IN PRINT BIG WAS AWARDED TO MALAYALA MANORAMA FOR USING ITS REACH TO HELP SAVE ELECTRICITY AND THUS EMPHASISE ITS LEADERSHIP IN ITS MARKET.

Kerala was heading for a severe power crisis and load shedding had become common. Malayala

Manorama initiated SAVE – Serve As a Volunteer for Energy – jointly with Energy Management Centre, abody under the Kerala State Electricity Board. The idea was to engage the consumer in an interactivecontest to convey a serious message.

Ten celebrities were chosen as endorsers and two mobile based contests were used to drivethe message home. The first was a pledge in aprescribed format promising to save electricity,each day with a different pledge. A total of 10,000 CFL lampswere distributed as prizes.

The other was an interactive quiz on electric conversation which required the participant to call 5056776, Manorama’s

RS platform. The participant had to answer imple questions based on energy saving.

Winners were given 100 solar lanterns and 00 chargeable LED torches.The campaign received strong editorial

support. The pledge to save had 29,000 people participating while the quiz involved 45,000 people in all.

According to the National Productivity Council for the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Union Ministryof Power, a total of 276 million units of electricity were saved as a result of the campaign.

PRINT BIG MID DAY

HINDUSTAN

MALAYALA MANORAMA

BRONZE WINNER

IVRsW1

t

BRONZE WINNER

QR thap

cone pe i

GOLD WINNER

CITATION: THE SILVER IN PRINT BIG WAS AWARDED TO INEXT FOR QUESTIONING EXISTING NORMS OF LANGUAGE AND FORMAT TO CREATE A UNIQUE DAILY THAT TOUCHES A YOUNG GENERATION OF SMALL-TOWN INDIA.

Once upon a time, the young men and women living inthe Hindi belt’s mini-metros had no daily that they

could vibe with. The internet was unavailable because of poor penetration combined with a lack of electricity. Because they were not fully comfortable with thelanguage, English dailies were out of bounds. And they didn’t identify with existing Hindi dailies.

Inext was launched as a bilingual paper the youth could relate to, in a language and format with which they were comfortable. It aimed to appeal to the SEC A and B1 youth of mini-metros of the Hindi belt.

Inext has a strong lifestyle component andit encourages its readers, many of whom belong to conservative families, to be bold and individualistic and follow their hearts. Their own cities have undergone big changes in recent times and the tabloid mirrors this change and helps them go into the future with ease.

Proof of the experiment’s success is that Inext’s totalreadership figure is now 21.5 lakh, making it India’s No 1 compact daily.

INEXT

SILVER WINNER

55afaqs! Reporter, September 1-15, 2010

��

CITATION: THE TV BIG GOLD WAS AWARDED TO NDTV WORLDWIDE FOR CREATING YODA, AN INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE WHICH SIMPLIFIES SHOOTING VIDEO IN A MULTI-CAMERA SET-UP AND REDUCES COST.

Multi-camera shoots have traditionally involved expensiveequipment. Even post-production involves large

expense, logistical issues and a lot of coordination across departments.

After a particularly frustrating multi-camera production failed to go on air on time because of the complicatedprocess, NDTV Worldwide resolved to find a solution that

would make life simpler. The project objective: to get large multi-camera

roductions on-air fastest, cost-effectively, file based with no quality degradation, transferable to any part f the world with the lowest number of people and

her resources involved.The team considered a broadcast hardware solution

but voted against it as expensive, complicated to use, beingbulky besides. Also, it would need an engineer to set up.

NDTV Worldwide partnered with an independent programmer to co-develop the current version of thesoftware, Yoda. Apart from the 3 or 4 cameras, all that the producer needs is a backpack with a laptop and 3-4 firewire cables. The end result of the shoot is a full broadcast quality .avi file in DV25 that can be transferred to any on-air playout server.

CITATION: THE TV BIG BRONZE AWARDED TO STAR NEWS FOR USING DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY TO PROVIDE A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE TO ITS VIEWERS.

How does a channel break the clutter of rapidnews shows across most channels at the start

of the day? Star News designed its morning showStar Khabar, which unfolds on the screen like arbroadsheet newspaper.

News gets neatly categorised into thesections of the newspaper on the screen. Andwhen it moves from a news item into an ad itdoesn’t seem like the regular commercial break. This breakthrough idea solves the segmentation riddle for a news bulletin. What’s more, it’s got the flexibility of adding supplements on special days.

The decades put in by the press in building the credibility and significance of the front page have been transferred tothe television in this format.

CITATION: THE TV BIG BRONZE WAS AWARDED TO AAJ TAK FOR USING DESIGN AND 3D ANIMATION TO GO THE EXTRA MILE AND MAKE A REGULAR STORY INTERESTING AND COMPREHENSIBLE TO ITS VIEWERS.

After many years of boring politics involving the tussle between seats and even more

countless years spent in terms of hours everyelection in trying to present the latest polls, a new initiative, backed by 3D animation was at the coreof the Sarkar Express.

Aaj Tak decided to showcase complex permutations and combinations of seat sharing in a manner that was simple to comprehend forviewers.

The Sarkar Express symbolised the Congress and the train stopped at each station (representing the various regional parties). The animation depicted the possible coalition with the various parties either boarding or getting off the train to

get the optimum number for government formation. The trainwas chosen because it is part of every Indian’s life and was a metaphor everyone would instinctively understand.

TV BIGNDTV WORLDWIDE

STAR NEWS

AAJ TAK

a

ak

BRONZE WINNER

BRONZE WINNER

would

pwof

oth

GOLD WINNER

CITATION: THE TV BIG SILVER WAS AWARDED TO NDTV FOR GREENATHON 2 FOR GROWING A MEMORABLE PROGRAMMING PROPERTY AND USING BOTH A VARIETY OF ACTIVITIES AND MEDIA TO GIVE IT SCALE.

NDTV-Toyota Green Campaign’ is a three-year nationwide environment campaign. Year Two of

the campaign culminated with Greenathon 2, a 24-hour nonstop live programme dedicated to create environmental awareness. Apart from a musical extragavanza with filmstars and singers, it had live chats with celebrities, greenactivites across India, documentaries on the environment along with some energetic hosting. The campaignambassador is Priyanka Chopra.

Paresh Maity created a painting for the cause on thesets of Greenathon 2. A Green Mela was organised in Delhi while the Mumbai Eco Fest had celebrities cycle the electric pedal and erect art installations from collectedwaste materials. Marathon man Milind Soman ran 100km in 24 hours, passing through some famous Mumbailandmarks. Clean up drives were organised in Chennai,Srinagar and Lucknow; saplings were given away inBengaluru and Hyderabad.

Apart from watching the drama unfold on TV, people logged in to the NDTV website and on to the wap portal.Viewers also chatted live with the stars.

Greenathon 2 managed to raise Rs 3.92 crore and lighted up 157 villages across India.

NDTV

SILVER WINNER

ALL

PHOT

OSBY

SUSH

ILKU

MAR


FIAT PUNTO The owner of a Fiat Punto catches hold of a thief trying to unlock the car. Rather than making a noise, the owner gives a demo of the car to the thief and takes him for a test drive. The film ends with the voice over: ‘Crafted for a true fan’.

Creative Agency: Bates 141Creative Director: Abhinav PratimanFilm Director: Nic and Sune Production House: Bang Bang Films

LICContinuing the Independence Day celebrations even after August 15, a bus shelter has been decorated with more than 1000 flags. The creative gives information on LIC’s Pension Plus scheme.

Concept: Proactive In & Out AdvertisngExposure: Vadodara

AIRCEL The banner ad promotes Pocket Apps store, the mobile applications store of Aircel. The store offers various mobile applications available with the mobile phone operator.

Creative: digiVaasiMedia Agency: Starcom IPExposure: Yahoo.in, MSN.co.in and Cricinfo.com

KURKURE With Juhi Chawla playing a spiritual guru, once again, the salience of spending quality time with one’s family is the central idea in the film.

Creative Agency: JWTCreative Team: Sonia Bhatnagar, Ajitesh Verma and Bauddhayan MukherjiProduction House: Little Lambs

TATA DOCOMO Talking about its new payment option - pay per site – the ad shows a young man who is obsessed with body building and always uses the objects around him to flex his muscles.

Creative Agency: DraftFCB UlkaCreative Head: Sanjay Sharma Art Director: IndraneeFilm Director: AyappaProduction House: Foot Candles Film

New and notable campaigns across television, print, out-of-home and digital media

DIGITAL

Got some great campaign that has been published recently? Upload it on afaqs! for the world to see.Visit: www.afaqs.com/advertising/creative_showcase

VODAFONE While the colourful art work shows E-Rick – the eco friendly rickshaw started by the telecom giant, the copy gives information about the places where it can be spotted.

Creative Agency: Ogilvy IndiaNCD: Rajiv RaoCreative Head: Preeti KoulCopywriter: Umesh GroverArt: Jonathan George

TELEVISION

TATA INDICOM The hoarding with a life size cut out announces the brand’s recently launched ‘Ulta Plan’ which offers STD calling tariff of just 30 paise per minute for both existing and new prepaid subscribers across the country.

Creative Agency: Contract AdvertisingExposure: Metros and mini metros

NIRULA’S The ad shows a cup of Nirula’s Chocolate Pleasure Sundae turned upside down. The copy reads: ‘one bite and you’ll go head over heels’.

Creative Agency: Lowe LintasCreative Team: Deepesh Jha, Uday Shankar Rao, Rajiv Agrawal, Nikhil Pandey and Tridip Nandi

MOTHER’S PRIDE The ad has a number of drawings showing all that kids learn when they come to the pre nursery school. The copy reads: ‘Creativity. Part of the curriculum’.

Creative Agency: Out of the BoxCreative Team: Viral Pandya, Guneet Pandya and Sabu Paul

PRINT

��

OOH

��

RAMEET ARORAARRSr. Director, MaMarketing, McDonald’s Indiadia - (South & West)

Imust confess I’m a fictioction junkie but something about Chetan Bhagat’s boobooks had simply put me

off any attempt to read them. That’s not entirely m. That’s not entirelytrue any more. I just finished rereading es2 States andsurprisingly enjoyed it. I’m told the story is inspiredhe story is iby the author’s own life. Which is probably why I probafound it far more authentic and endearing.

It’s an old plot - Punjabi boy meets South Indian girl - but it’s well told. Almost like it is real (whichit is apparently). There are lots of laughs (ok smiles) for the taking. The characters jump at you as people you’ve probably known or seen sometime in life.And the author himself (let’s assume it is his story) is a refreshing protagonist.

The story moves quickly, the end is decisive andit’s all “happy”. Time well spent I’d say.

As told to Biprorshee Das

THE GREAT TYPO HUNT9��*%�� %��<�-��%%�� &�

/� ��%;��6�&��):�1�%��<�E�$$�)��7D��%;��%�9��D��

Recruiting his friend Benjamin and other val-iant companions, Jeff Deck created the Typo

Eradication Advancement League (TEAL). Armed with markers, chalk, and correction fluid, they cir-cumnavigated America, righting the glaring errors displayed in grocery stores,museums, malls, restaurants, mini-golf courses, beaches, and even a nationalpark.

The authors championed the cause of clear communication, blogging about their adventures transforming horor into horror, it’s into its, and coco-nunut into coconut. But at the Grand Canyon, they took one correction too far: fixing the bad grammar in a fake Native American watchtower. The gov-ernment charged them with defacing federal property and summoned them to court - with a typo-ridden complaint that claimed that they had violated “criminal statues.”

GOOD BOSS, BAD BOSS1�9� �� :::�/��%��$%�&� ��%� �

/� ��%;�2��% �:�� D��%;�+%�� %��D��

Good Boss, Bad Boss is devoted to answering the question: if you are a boss who wants to do great

work, what can you do about it? Robert Sutton weaves psychological and manage-

ment research with compelling stories and cases to reveal the mindset and moves of the best (and worst) bosses.

Good Boss, Bad Boss was inspired by the deluge of emails, research, phone calls and conversations that Sutton experienced after publishing, The NoAsshole Rule. He realised that most of these stories and studies swirled around a central figure in every workplace: The Boss.

��9�/%%�@��

2��2��&��


It’s a judgement that was long awaited. Radio stations are heaving a big sigh of relief asthe Copyright Board has passed a judgement

which states that radio broadcasters and musiccompanies will follow a revenue sharing model - as done internationally.

The new rule entails that radio stations will pay 2 per cent of their net revenues as music royalty fee to all music providers. In most markets where radio has developed well, music royalties rangebetween 0-4 per cent.

Apurva Purohit, chief executive officer, Radio City, says, “The case has been going on for several years in various courts. We are happy that there is a resolution of the matter and firmly believe that it will benefit both the radio and the musicindustry.”

Under the current practice, radio stations pay afixed fee as music royalty to music owners. Each radio station is believed to spend `1,200-`1,600 every hour as music royalty fee. This translatesto royalties which were a considerably high share

of the overall revenues. Besides, the fee was equal for all stations, irrespective of location, making it a highly unprofitable proposition.

“Big stations used to pay 15-20 per cent of theirrevenues as royalty to music companies, while the smaller stations ended up paying 75-80 per cent,” Purohit adds. She is certain that the revenue sharing model will go a long way in improving theprofitability of small stations and networks, which were bleeding under the impact of the fixed fee regime.

Prashant Panday, chief executive officer, Radio

Mirchi, says, “The extortionist regime will stop now. Currently, radio broadcasters are accruing close to `100 crore in music royalty every year. At2 per cent of the market size (of about `700 crore), music royalties will now reduce to about `14 crore.This is a big saving for the radio industry.” Heclarifies that this should not be seen as a victory for the radio industry but only as a removal of an anomaly of so many years.

While this brings great respite to the radioindustry, it will also pave the way for further development in the sector. “With phase III onthe anvil, the timing couldn’t have been better.This will further fuel phase III growth for the FM industry and allow broadcasters to deepenfootprints, while offering advertisers greaterreach,” says Soumen Ghosh Choudhury, business head, 92.7 Big FM.

The judgement will be implemented withimmediate effect and will continue for the next10 years.�

[email protected]

In markets where radio as a medium has

developed, music royalties range between 0-4 per cent.

��

Radio broadcasters will now pay only 2 per cent of their net revenues as royalty to music companies. By Sapna Nair

RADIO

High Notes, Low Notes

The Steal-a-Deal Offer

YES, I WANT TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE afaqs! Reporter RIGHT NOW ! (Tick whichever is applicable)

I want a six-month subscription. I want a one-year subscription. I want a two-year subscription.

Cheque / DD should be in favour of afaqs! Reporter and mailed to the following address:afaqs! Reporter, B - 3, First Floor, Sector - 4, Noida - 201301, India.

For Enquiries:Mail: [email protected] Call +91-120-4077800 / 837 (From Delhi: 95120-4077800 / 837)

Terms & Conditions:� Please mention your name and address on the back of cheque/DD, � Printout of this form is acceptable, � This is a limited period offer valid in India only, � Offer may be withdrawn without notice,� Offer valid for new subscribers only, � Please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery of your magazine, � All disputes subject to Delhi jurisdiction.

First Name Last Name Billing Address Home !��Address City State Postal Pin Designation Company / institution E-Mail Fax Phone (Please mention one number atleast)Residential Number !��"�� Mobile Number

Term No. of Issue Cover Price You Pay You Save 6 Months 12 Rs. 600 /- Rs. 500 /- 15 %

1 Year 24 Rs. 1,200 /- Rs. 900 /- 25 %

2 Years 48 Rs. 2,400 /- Rs. 1,440 /- 40 % Best Offer

��


JOBSWITCHOrganization Name: Experience CommercePosition: Visualizer & Copy WriterLocation: MumbaiProfile: Visualizer will have to help define, develop & execute fantastic interactive design concepts, with the highest attention to detail and quality of finish, communicate effectively and with conviction to clients, colleagues and distributed teams. She/ he should have strong conceptual ability, proficient in using softwares like Illustrator, CorelDraw, Photoshop and Flash and 1-2 years of relevant experience. Applied art from any reputed design institute like Rachana’s, Raheja’s, Sophiya, JJs, NID etc. is desired. Copy Writer will need to consult with sales, media and marketing representatives to obtain information on product or service and discuss style and length of advertising copy. She/He will have to explore different ideas and concepts for both the visual and verbal elements in union with the creative team, prepare drafts of different initial options for the creative director, develop advertising campaigns for a wide range of clients and work with an advertising agency’s creative director and art director to determine the best way to present advertising information. The candidate should have 1-3 years of relevant experienceEmail: [email protected].............................................................

Organization Name: Oxylabs networks pvt. Ltd.Position: Social media Marketing HeadLocation: GurgaonProfile: The successful candidate should have excellent communication & writing skills with at least 3-5 years of relevant experience.Email: [email protected].............................................................

Organization Name: Solutions Integrated Mkt. Services Pvt. Ltd.Position: Sr. Manager - Client ServicingLocation: DelhiProfile: The successful candidate will be responsible to implement projects. She/He needs to have 5-7 years of relevant experienceEmail: [email protected].............................................................

Organization Name: Elixir Web Solutions Pvt ltdPosition: Associate Creative DirectorLocation: MumbaiProfile: The applicant is expected to have 3-8 years of relevant Creative Experience preferably in advertising/ marketing / other media.Email: [email protected].............................................................

Organization Name: Naidunia Media Pvt. Ltd. Position: Manager –Ad SalesLocation: MumbaiProfile: The candidate will be responsible for getting new large accounts in the region, generating and exceeding assigned sales targets per month. She/ He should have successful sales experience of at least 2-5 years in Media, handling corporate clientele in Print Media.Email: [email protected].............................................................

Organization Name: MRM Worldwide Position: Art Director and Account DirectorLocation: Mumbai Profile: Art Director: The applicant should have a degree in art from an institute of repute, hands off experience in Digital Design – Websites, Online Campaigns etc. of over 7 years, thorough understanding of digital medium and the ability to generate & visualize ideas quickly, manage creative projects and translate servicing briefs into creative strategies for online media. Account Director: The candidate will be responsible for successful development & implementation of both global & local client campaigns, identifying & progress strategic development & new business opportunities with clients,work with the MRM Team to ensure leverage and appropriate application of guidance for Global initiatives. At least 6 years Direct Marketing/CRM/marketing experience within an Agency or the Client side is desired. Email: [email protected].............................................................

Organization Name: WITS Interactive Private Limited Position: Senior VisualiserLocation: Mumbai Profile: The incumbent should have the ability to develop exceptional brand communication

across all mediums, capability of understanding client requirements & aspiration and to be able to translate brief into solutions. She/ He should have a degree/diploma in Graphic Design/Commercial Art/BFA with a minimum 2 years agency experience and an interesting portfolio across mediums. Extensive knowledge of Corel draw/ Photoshop/ Illustrator/Flash/ Indesign is desired.Email: [email protected].............................................................

Organization Name: Tempest Advertising Pvt LtdPosition: Branch ManagerLocation: HyderabadProfile: The successful candidate will be responsible for the overall management of the branch with focus on business development, manpower recruitment, training & retention and client management. She/ He should have at least 7 years of experience in an advertising agency of repute and Master’s/ Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with Marketing as Electives.Email: [email protected] .............................................................

Organization Name: Response Communications Ltd.Position: Art Director & Account DirectorLocation: New DelhiProfile: Art Director would be working in close tandem with the Creative Head. The incumbent should have a hands on experience of designing packages and should be able to ideate and think out of the box. She/ He should be a Post Graduate with at least 5 years of relevant experience in advertising agencies of repute with exposure to handling brands on a national level.Account Director would be responsible for the servicing of all clients of the agency and strengthening the existing client relationships with a constant endeavor for deepening would be the key responsibility. The person would be completely responsible for all day to day operations and complete aspects of servicing including payments. She/ He should be a Post Graduate with at least 4 years in advertising agencies of repute. Email: [email protected].............................................................

To advertise, contact:

Neha Arora Ph: 0120 4077868

email: [email protected]

Aarti Khatri Ph: 022 40429706

email: [email protected]

To view other jobs in Marketing,Media and Advertising, log on to:

http://jobs.afaqs.com

EYE-CATCHING STUFF

Documents

Transcript of EYE-CATCHING STUFF