Arijit Ray Stealing Ideas Prasoon Joshi

30

FLYING MACHINEFake Identity 16

MTVUpdating the Journey 44

IPLStill a Force 48

BIG CBS LOVESetting the Box 53

PROFILEArijit RayDentsu Communications’ CEO believes in the team.

46

June 16-30, 2012 `100Volume 1, Issue 3

COPYRIGHT Stealing IdeasIt is the ‘pitch’ process that is prone to theft.

18

DEFINING MOMENTSPrasoon JoshiA string of happy accidents made the man what he is.

40

THE PIN-UP MODEL

It is the visual element that has made Pinterest a hit with surfers. Here’s how Indian

brands could use this interesting platform.

EDITORIAL

5afaqs! Reporter, June 16-30, 2 0 1 2

Volume 1, Issue 3This fortnight...

A picture, as the saying goes, is worth a thousand words. If that is the case, Pinterest, the two-

year-old phenomenon in the social networking space should be worth a fortune. All about

pictures and images, that is how the site differentiates itself from Facebook, Twitter or Orkut.

In terms of size, Pinterest’s 20 million unique visitors might be minuscule

compared to Facebook’s 900 million, but the pictorial networking platform has

caught the attention of brands and advertisers across the globe.

Pinterest, by its very nature of being a pictorial site, is considered to be a favourite

with women. One could argue with this, but that reason alone is enough for many

brands to get interested.

But it is also true that male-oriented brands like Lambhorgini are trying this

platform out quite happily. What the car brand did was put up images of various

models on the website just to appeal to the general visitors - all of this through images

which speak for themselves.

Another smart user of Pinterest is NBC News, which created several boards

on Pinterest that carried news from all sources, not just its own. This was because

Pinterest doesn’t allow a user to broadcast his or her own work. NBC has managed

to increase the number of its followers despite that restriction.

In India, we are yet to see great innovations on the site, though brand owners

agree that opportunities are plenty. This issue of the magazine looks at what makes Pinterest such

an interesting platform and how Indian brands could take a leaf or two out of the book of global

brands.

30

FLYING MACHINEFake Identity 16

MTVUpdating the Journey 44

IPLStill a Force 48

BIG CBS LOVESetting the Box 53

PROFILEArijit RayDentsu Communications’ CEO believes in the team.

46

June 16-30, 2012 `100Volume 1, Issue 3

COPYRIGHT Stealing IdeasIt is the ‘pitch’ process that is prone to theft.

18

DEFINING MOMENTSPrasoon JoshiA string of happy accidents made the man what he is.

40

THE PIN-UP MODEL

It is the visual element that has made Pinterest a hit with surfers. Here’s how Indian

brands could use this interesting platform.

EDITOR Sreekant Khandekar

PUBLISHER Prasanna Singh

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Prajjal Saha

SENIOR LAYOUT ARTISTVinay Dominic

ADVERTISING ENQUIRIESNeha Arora, (0120) 4077866, 4077837

Noida

Khushboo Varadkar, (022) 40429702-5 Mumbai

[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

BENGALURUS-1, New Bridge Corporate Centre, 777 D, 100 ft Road, Indira Nagar,

Bengaluru - 560038, India

SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIESAkhilesh Singh, (0120) 4077837

[email protected]

Owned by Banyan Netfaqs Pvt Ltd and Printed and published by

Prasanna Singh, at 7-A/13, Ch. Ratan Singh Complex, Jawala Heri Market, Paschim Vihar,

New Delhi-110 063.

Printed at Cirrus Graphics Private LimitedB-62/14, Naraina Industrial Area,

Phase II, New Delhi – 110028.

COVER ILLUSTRATION Gogol

MEDIARural ApproachThe newspaper wants to bridge the rural-rural divide.

POVPaid ContentMore publishers are experimenting with paid models. Is it time to go pay?

42CLUB MAHINDRAFun-filled HolidaysThe company is using Madagascar as crowd-puller.

Eliminating uncertainty about your destination.

12SKODAWomen Drivers!

P L U S

COCA-COLA Reliving the Past 14

CADBURY GEMS Grown Up? So What! 20

SAMSUNG Peek into Reality 20

NICKELODEON-SONIC Rangers Ahoy! 50

1652

MAKEMYTRIPIt’s a Promise

49CONTENTS

ERRATAThe managing director

and CEO of Infinity Optimal Solutions Sports & Entertainment is Neerav Tomar and not as mentioned (June 1-15, 2012).

The error is regretted.Editor

Men find speed - and women at the wheel - an irresistible combo.

Prajjal [email protected]

Cadbury India> The chocolate maker plans to soon launch parent Kraft Foods’ legendary triangular Swiss choco-late brand Toblerone to take on Italian brand Ferrero Rocher in the premium chocolate market. The company plans to sell it more widely than what different third-party importers presently do. Cadbury plans to launch several pack sizes of Toblerone in India at a price range of `50-400, retail.

Software giant, Adobe has pub-lished a new survey report which says that internet traffic generat-

ed from tablets will exceed the traffic from smartphones as early as 2014.

Data traffic from smartphone and feature phones have been growing at an exponential rate and it was also predicted that mobile phones would be the first device with which most people in developing economies will access internet for the first time. Also, earlier studies said that more people in future will access internet using mobile phones than PC.

However, such sur-veys actually ignored tablets as a medium for internet. Tablets, like smartphones, are very mobile with a larger screen benefit, in fact according to the Adobe report, consumers find browsing websites on tablets nearly as engag-ing as on PCs. Given the fact that tablets are priced at the same level as smartphones, it is attracting customers.

According to the Adobe Digital Index report, PCs (including laptops) will continue to dominate in terms of internet traffic but tablets will grow at a faster rate to capture 10 per cent of the total traffic generated by 2014.

This is a second report pointing to tablets as the preferred medium over smartphones, following a research by TrendStream.

According to the report, “The share of website visits from tablets grew approximately 10 times faster than the rate for smartphones in the first two years after market introduc-

tion and grew more than 300

per cent in the last year.” This rapid growth is driven by both higher rates of tablet shipments and a dispropor-tionately higher number of website visits per tablet than smartphones.

The Adobe Digital Index report was examining how global website traffic and engagement differ when the visitor is on a tablet, smartphone or a personal computer (PC).

The results indicate that tablets have become a channel very distinct

from smartphones. Another interesting finding which Adobe released in January this year pointed out that (in 2011) tablet users spent more per purchase than other online customers.

“As businesses rethink their digital experiences to include mobile strategies, tablets are emerging

as the consumer device of choice,” says Brad Rencher, senior vice presi-dent and general manager, Digital Marketing Business, Adobe.

“Digital CMOs are wise to take a mobile first approach to optimize their digital content and marketing initiatives with a focus on the tablet experience because the consumer demands it.”

The Adobe Digital Index ana-lyzed 23 billion visits to the websites of 325 companies from the North America, Western Europe and Asia.

‘‘India is a growing market and penetration levels are much less than developed countries where consumer demand too has slowed down.’’ MANISH SHARMA, MANAGING DIRECTOR (CONSUMER PRODUCTS), PANASONIC INDIA ON COMPANIES FOCUSSING ON INDIA FOR HIGH GROWTH TRAJECTORY IN THE ECONOMIC TIMES.

ADOBE SURVEY

MTV> After launching co-branded condoms, lingerie and innerwear earlier this year, the music channel intends to foray into the personal care category by introducing a line up of body sprays and Eau de Toilettes over the next three months in partnership with Global Fragrances. As part of the licensing partnership, Global Fragrances will develop, manu-facture and sell the MTV range of personal care products across 1,00,000 retail points. MTV’s consumer products divi-sion extend into over 16 categories.

Sony> The Japanese electronics major has decided to ramp up its marketing spend by 30 per cent this year to `450 crore from `350 crore last year. Sony, which is still struggling globally following the March 2011 tsunami and the devastating floods in Thailand last year, which badly disrupted its supply chain, is expecting to clock 30 per cent growth in sales this year. The company is looking at around `8,000 crore sales this year as compared to last year’s sales which stood at `6,313 crore.

Lux> FMCG major, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) plans to extend its soap brand Lux into the deodorant segment. Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch parent of HUL, has so far extended the 112-year-old Lux brand into a range of body and hair wash products. The `1,300-crore deodorant market in India is growing rapidly. HUL has a strong presence in the male fragrance deodorant space with Axe being the largest deo-dorant brand in India. In the last two years, the women’s deo segment has grown by over 40 per cent annually.

Sahara> The company has decided to foray into the dairy business from April, 2013. It plans to produce 50 lakh tonnes of milk and is set to acquire 9,000 acres of land in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The company also plans to launch various projects in West Bengal, apart from Dwarka, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad.

Sponsored by

Havells India> The electrical goods maker is mulling over acquisitions in China and Africa that may entail an investment of up to $200 million (about `1,100 crore) to strengthen its overseas operations. The company also plans to expand its presence to Turkey, Russia, Indonesia and Malaysia. So far, the company’s biggest acquisition has been that of Sylvania in Europe for 230 million euro (over `1,500 crore) in 2007. In 2011-12, Havells posted a total turnover of `6,500 crore.

At present, Toblerone’s entry price varies between `55-80 per pack of 50 gm.

It plans to pro-duce 50 lakh tonnes of milk after acquiring 9,000 acres of land in UPand MP.

6 afaqs! Reporter, June 16-30, 2 0 1 2

QUOTE OF THE FORTNIGHT

Share of web-site visits from tablets grew 10

times faster than smartphones in first two years and grew more

than 300 per cent in the last year.

MARK

ETIN

G

ESS>ESPN-STAR Sports (ESS), England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have entered into a new deal which gives ESS broadcast rights for home and domestic cricket events for seven years. The deal, covering matches during 2013-2019, is worth $200 million. The current agreement will cover two major events, including the next two tours of the Indian team to England, and the three Ashes series.

8 afaqs! Reporter, June 16-30, 2 0 1 2

News Corporation and ESPN have entered into a defini-tive agreement under which

a unit of News Corporation will buy ESPN’s 50 per cent equity interest in ESPN-STAR Sports (ESS). With this transaction, News Corporation units will be able to own and oper-ate all of the ESS businesses while providing ESPN more independence and flexibility in future support of The Walt Disney Company’s (which owns ESPN) overall efforts in Asia.

The transaction is subject to cus-tomary regulatory approvals and ESS will be jointly managed by the two companies until the transaction closes.

James Murdoch, deputy chief operating officer, chairman and CEO, International News Corporation, says in an official statement, “News Corporation’s acquisi-tion of the interest of ESS that we did not already own, contin-ues the programme of simplifying our operating model, con-solidating our affiliate ownership structures, and furthers our commitment to deliver incredible sports program-ming to consumers, and particularly enhancing our position in sports pro-gramming in emerging markets.”

“After 16 years of jointly managing ESS, we have decided to indepen-dently pursue future opportunities in Asia. We are extremely proud of our role in building ESS into what it is today, and now with the grow-ing digital landscape in Asia, we look forward to continuing to serve Asian sports fans through ESPN-branded digital businesses like ESPNCricinfo, the leading digital cricket brand in

the world; ESPNFC and ESPN

Mobile,” says John Skipper, pres-ident of ESPN and co-chairman, Disney Media Networks.

Additionally, as a part of the development, News Corporation and ESPN have further announced that Peter Hutton, currently sen-ior vice-president of sports for FOX International Channels (FIC), will take over as managing director of ESS, a position that is current-ly held by Manu Sawhney. While Hutton will report to the ESS board, Sawhney will stay with the company until August 31 to work with Hutton on a smooth transition.

Sawhney joined ESS’s marketing department in India in 1996 and went on to head its India business for four years, before shifting to Singapore as head of program-ming, acquisition and marketing. He was promoted as manag-ing director in 2007. During his career at ESS, he has been responsible for vari-ous functions across the company, includ-ing sales, distribution,

programming, acquisition, market-ing and network presentation.

Hutton joined FOX International Channels Sports in 2011 after 20 years in the international sports television business. Earlier, he has worked at Broad Reach Media, a media consultancy firm. Before that, Hutton was at Ten Sports in Dubai (from 2002-2009), where he eventu-ally served as chief operating officer. From 1993-2002, he ran TWI, the television division of IMG, running its Indian business as well as televi-sion production for Asia. He was a radio and television journalist, com-mentator and presenter.

The earlier five year deal between the two companies was valued at $80 million.

Comedy Central> Viacom’s English comedy channel Comedy Central has announced the launch of seven new shows in the upcoming month. All these shows will be aired on primetime slots, with repeats running throughout the day. Hot in Cleveland, Key and Peele and Happily Divorced Season 2 will premiere for the first time in the country. The other four shows are 3rd Rock from the Sun, Archer, The IT Crowd and the epic, Doogie Howser.

9X Media>Music television network 9X Media has launched the 9X Music Network Live application for iPads. It allows users to get the music and other supporting content of 9X Music Television Network’s four channels - 9XM, 9X Jalwa (Bollywood Hits music channel), 9X Tashan (Punjabi music channel) and 9X Jhakaas (Marathi music channel). The 9X Music Network Live App is available on quarterly, half yearly and annual subscription packages. The introductory price of the app is $1.99, valid for two months.

MSM>MSM’s Sony Entertainment Television that launched the sixth season of its flagship property, Indian Idol, on June 1 has spent `8 crore to market the latest season of the show through various media, as per industry estimates. Indian Idol is set to run for 26 episodes. As per industry sources, about 30-40 per cent of the total budget (`2.4-3.2 crore) is being spent on television, while about `1.6 crore will be spent on print. Out of home, digital, radio and BTL (below-the-line) activities will also form a part of the communication effort.‘‘Indian households have over

10 per cent penetration of two or more TVs; this swells to 25-30 per cent in metros.So, multiple boxes in the same home will become a reality in one third of our top cities.’’ ANJALI MALHOTRA, EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT (MARKETING), DISH TV, TO DNA ON DIGITISATION FUELLING GROWTH OF MULTIPLE-TV HOMES


MEDI

A

Sponsored by

Aidem Ventures> Independent media consulting, marketing and advertising sales company Aidem Ventures has been roped in to handle service sales and ad sales for Radiowalla Network’s radio property, SpotRadio and the internet radio platform, Radiowalla. SpotRadio is a specialised radio service for retail and corporate players that creates customised, targeted and premium radio content for clients, taking into consideration their customers’ and employees’ tastes by building associations.

Chauthi Duniya> The Hindi newspaper Chauthi Duniya is all set to enter the English space with the launch of its first English weekly publication with the same name. Chauthi Duniya English will be launched on July 1. The mainstay of the weekly newspaper will be political news coverage, along with other sections such as international news and gadgets. The English weekly will be launched with an initial print run of 80,000 copies. The national paper will be published from Delhi and circulated across the metros of the country, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and others.

Peter Hutton, currently SVP of sports for FOX International Channels, will

take over as MD of ESS.

NEWS CORPORATION UNIT

> Contract Advertising has won the creative duties for Mankind Pharma’s condom brand, Manforce. The agency won the business following a multi-agency pitch. The size of the business is said to be in the range of `15-20 crore. Prior to this,

McCann Erickson managed the creative duties for Manforce condoms. The agency had also worked on the creative duties for Addiction (men’s deodorant) and Gas-o-fast (digestive tablet). Prachar Communications handles the media duties for all Mankind Pharma brands.

> From Here On Communications has won the creative duties for Y2CF Digital Media-promoted location-based check-in service, Hoppr. The agency won the business following a multi-agency pitch which also involved three other agencies in Delhi. The size of the business is said to be in the range of `15-20 crore. The company has not appointed a media agency and is currently working with From Here On Communications. For starters, the brand plans to work on some below-the-line communication.

‘‘Advertising makes a promise to consumers. Shopper marketing delivers it at the point of purchase, taking the brand from a consumer’s consideration set into the shopper’s basket.’’RAHUL SAIGAL, VICE PRESIDENT- RETAIL, OGILVYACTION, ON BRANDING AND SHOPPER MARKETING, IN BRAND EQUITY

Titan> Tata Group’s Titan Industries is on the lookout for a creative agency. The pitch is for an upcoming grooming product and is underway in Bengaluru. The product is slated to be launched within the next six months. Titan’s media spends for the launch campaign are pegged at `5-8 crore. The grooming product will be targeted at young adults (both men and women) in their twenties, on the threshold of professional life.

Future Group> Planet Sports, sportswear retail brand from Future Group, is looking for a creative partner. The authorities have started seeking basic agency credentials. Delhi-based D&H Blurb Communications (formerly Dhar & Hoon) has worked on the creative mandate for Planet Sports in the recent past. In 2009, Future Brands, a part of the Future Group, picked up a significant stake in the agency.

Bisleri> Bottled drinking water giant Bisleri is looking for a creative partner. The pitch process is anchored in Mumbai. Most recently, design agency Red Lion has worked on the creative mandate for Bisleri. The agency created an animation-led television commercial in September last year, which conveyed the message ‘Stay Protected’. At the time, protection, as a brand proposition, stood for health, hygiene, quality and purity. The ad film was supported by outdoor and social media channels.

Stovekraft> Manufacturer of professional kitchen appliances Pigeon Appliances, a brand from the stable of Stovekraft, is currently scouting for a creative agency. The process is underway in Bengaluru. As per market estimates, the media spends are pegged at `40 crore. Pigeon Appliances was established in 2001. Stovekraft was established by entrepreneur Rajendra Gandhi in 1999. The group offers two flagship brands, namely Pigeon and Gilma.

Sponsored by

The Outdoor Advertising Awards were announced on June, 9, 2012 in Mumbai. A

total of 53 awards were handed out. OAA 2012 received the highest

number of entries in its history – 588. This year, two significant changes were made in the awards process. Firstly, two separate jury panels were instituted for the creative and the media entries respectively. Secondly, the judging process for the media plan of the year awards this year included presentation slots for sub-mitting agencies to make more detailed presentations to the jury. Judging was done separately on two different days.

The creative jury was chaired by Josy Paul, chairman, BBDO India while the media awards jury was chaired by Sam Balsara, chairman and MD, Madison World.

DDB Mudra Max bagged the top spot, getting 14 metals in their kitty, comprising six gold, six silver and two bronze. The agen-cy’s gold wins included the work done for auto brand Volkswagen, which was awarded the campaign of the year and also bagged the outdoor media plan of the year (national). Volkswagen campaign was the big winner at the award ceremony, bagging a gold for DDB Mudra Max in the innovation of the year category. In the same category, the silver was awarded to Lintas Initiative Outdoors for a campaign done for Nokia Lumia.

In the best use of technology cat-egory, Bates Wallstreet won a gold for the work done for Star Plus.

Milestone Brandcom won

nine metals in all, with two gold, four silver and three bronze. The agency won the gold for a campaign done for Tanishq. The Tanishq campaign was awarded the outdoor media plan of the year (local). It also won silver in the campaign of the year for the work done for e-commerce portal, eBay. In the best use of ambient media catego-

ry, GroupM - Dialogue Factory scored gold for Mumbai Districts AIDS Control Society.

In the media awards, JCDECAUX India won the gold in the national media owner of the year category. The silver in this cat-egory was awarded to Atin Promotions & Advertising and the bronze was given to Times Innovative Media.

The gold in the zonal media owner

of the year category was handed to Times Innovative Media (north zone). Prakash Arts and Pioneer Publicity Corporation won silver each in the same category for south and west zones respectively.

Encyclomedia Networks won the silver for the work done for McDonald’s in the international cat-egory.

OAA 2012


1 0 afaqs! Reporter, June 16-30, 2 0 1 2

Titan’s media spends for the launch campaign are pegged at `5-8 crore.

In 2009, Future Brands, a part of the Future Group, picked up a significant stake in the agency.

>> ACCOUNT MOVEMENT

ADVE

RTIS

ING

A total of 53 awards were

given away. DDB Mudra Max’s Volkswagen campaign

was the star of the award,

bagging several awards across

categories.

Women drivers have long been the butt of jokes of their male counterparts. Skoda India, in its new campaign for the Skoda

Laura RS, apparently differs with this notion. Created by Saatchi & Saatchi, the television com-mercial for the Skoda Laura RS is based on the insight that men find speed – and women in the driver’s seat – irresistible.

The film depicts the power of the car in an unusual manner. The 30-second film opens to showcase an upmarket club in a big city. The car enters the frame and stops just outside the club. To the surprise of the waiting crowd, it revs up and performs some powerful stunts before com-ing to a halt once again. An attractive woman then gets off the driver’s seat and dabs on the burnt rubber on her neck. She walks towards the club, confident of her irresistible attractiveness, all thanks to the smell of burnt rubber.

Ramanuj Shastry, chief creative officer, Saatchi & Saatchi, says, “Power and performance in a car being a huge turn-on for men is a well known fact. We dramatised this fact by having our leading lady use the aphrodisiac quality of ‘the smell of burn-ing rubber’ to be more attractive to men. The film is more refreshing visually, at least compared to a stereotypical male racing the car around town.”

The ‘RS’ mark in Skoda is for variants that offer a higher level of performance. So ‘Play on’

is really a way to bring alive the benefit of a high performance.

Talking about the target consumers, Sourabh Mishra, chief strategy officer, Saatchi & Saatchi, says that there are different types of customers and there is a segment of people which looks for a high performance car, even in these times. “As they say about the Indian market, for every truth here, the opposite is equally true. We are targeting the ‘pas-sionate about driving’ segment. Even if they have a chauffeur most of the time, the few times they get behind the wheel, they would like to drive a car which is crafted for superlative driving perfor-mance,” he adds.

CARS AND WOMEN

For many years, cars and women were never uttered in the same breath. Even if they were,

it was used to poke fun at the latter.But today, women are increasingly taking the

driver’s seat as far as automotive advertising is concerned.

Hyundai Eon’s launch advertisement showed

Women Drivers!SKODA

The TV campaign for Skoda Laura RS is based on the insight that men find speed – and women in the driver’s seat – irresistible. By Shibani Gharat

>>

“The film is more refreshing visually, at least compared to a

stereotypical male racing the car around town.” RAMANUJ SHASTRY

“We are targeting the ‘passionate about driving’ segment. Even if they have a

chauffeur most of the time.”

SOURABH MISHRA


While the world moves towards a digitally advanced era, consumers

in India are still uncertain about online booking of hotels. A research revealed that most consumers remain concerned about the gap between what is being promised and what is being delivered. The new campaign of travel solutions portal,

MakeMyTrip answers this dilemma of consumers through its new prop-osition of guaranteed 100 per cent money back on hotel bookings.

Conceptualised by Draftfcb Ulka, the television commercial (TVC) shows an Indian visiting one of the Asia Pacific countries. The man, who wants to eat a

chicken dish, runs from one mar-ket to another. He then meets a lady dressed like a chicken, standing in front of restaurant named ‘Chi Can Restaurant’ holding the menu card. Excited that he has found a restaurant that apparently makes chicken dishes, the man enters and orders a dish. After a happy meal, he congratulates the chef for the tasty chicken dish. To his shock, the chef replies that the dish was not chicken but dog’s meat. The TVC ends with the message, Jo dikhega, wahi milega and promotes the guaranteed 100 per cent money back offer on hotel bookings.

Manish Kalra, head, marketing, Makemytrip.com, says, “Through

It’s a PromiseThe ad is based on the insight that there is lot of uncertainty amongst consumers in booking hotels online. By Anushree Bhattacharyya

MAKEMYTRIP.COM

>>

FOTO

CORP

four young women enjoying a ride in it. There were no men around. Ford India’s ad for its all-new Fiesta also showed two women enjoying the Fiesta drive.

The creator of Dilbert comic strip Scott Adams once quoted, “In less enlightened times, the best way to impress women was to own a hot car. But women wised up and realised it was better to buy their own hot cars so they wouldn’t have to ride around with jerks.” Well, Skoda seems to have taken him seriously.

ATTRACTIVE?

Meraj Hasan, vice-president, strategic planning, Everest

Advertising is of the opinion that to latch on to the rising number of female drivers in the country, using a woman in the driver’s seat is a good strategy. “Hyundai too is doing it for one of its models. But the man-ner in which it’s done here, I’m not really sure what it brings to the table. Perhaps burnt rubber from Laura’s tyre can be used if you’ve forgotten your perfume,” jokes Hasan.

Hasan is of the opinion that a good car can sell despite its advertis-ing and Mahindra XUV is a classic case to prove this. “But, I am not sure whether this TVC will appeal to the males.”

Charles Victor, national creative director, Law & Kenneth lauds the effort to do something different with this car commercial. “Firstly, in a cat-egory that is trying so hard to do the

obvious, I applaud the effort at try-ing to do something different. But I don’t think this commercial deserves any applause. Forget the poor execu-tion, I think the creative idea itself isn’t one that raises eyebrows,” he adds.

He feels that when one has some-thing as great as the fast Skoda Laura VRS to play with, one can’t write a commercial that reduces men to dumb blondes who swoon at the smell of burnt rubber!

Victor opines that ‘Play on’ is quite nice actually, given the VRS.

“But it didn’t connect the way it should have in the commercial. I also think it’s a nice approach to try and shake things up a bit and put a woman in the driver’s seat. We did that a long while ago too and if done well, it’s a welcome deviation from the macho, testosterone-inspired male stereotype that would have been the obvious choice for a car like the VRS. Again, the intent is laudable, not the output,” he concludes.

[email protected]

<<

Women...

Coke is back with cricket after 16 long years. The brand was last associated with it dur-ing 1996 Cricket World Cup. In its new

campaign, Coca-Cola celebrates the spirit and the happiness cricket brings into the life of people and binds them under various circumstances.

The campaign is largely based on Coke’s global theme of ‘Open Happiness’.

Conceptualised by Lowe Lintas & Partners, the television commercial, titled ‘Cricket ki khushi’, shows how a group of children who are die-hard fans of the game, come together in a desert to

play the game under the scorching sun (supported by a voiceover). The TVC captures various moments of their hap-piness while playing the game. At the end, it shows the new brand ambassador, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who says, “Khelte raho, khush raho (keep playing,

stay happy)”.Speaking about the idea, Anupama

Ahluwalia, vice-president, market-ing, Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia, says, “Cricket makes India happy and Coca-Cola is celebrating this happiness. The campaign taps into the simple pleasures that this game offers, to tell this story of happiness. With

this new campaign, Coca-Cola celebrates the pas-sion and joy experienced by all of us through the game of cricket.”

R Balki, chairman and chief creative officer, Lowe Lintas & Partners, explains, “Coca-Cola’s objective was to show happiness and talk about anything that brings happiness to the nation. And cricket is the best example, as India is known to be a cricket-crazy nation. Therefore, the new TVC salutes the game of cricket and celebrates its spirit.”

Apart from television, the beverage company will also launch radio, digital and out of home campaigns in key markets.

CREATING NOSTALGIA

Industry professionals opine that while the TVC does successfully evoke a feeling of happiness,

it still remains an average commercial with a nice voiceover. Experts feel that the commercial is a good mix of a few campaigns seen in the past, which obliterates the freshness factor.

Experts also feel that at a time when Pepsi is trying to find the right game for association, Coca-Cola India grabbed the right opportunity.

Soumitra Karnik, national creative director, Dentsu India, says, “Oh, so while Pepsi is in two minds on whether to dump cricket, which it supported for years, and to go after football, Coca-Cola sniffs an opportunity and tries to romance the joy of cricket. A reasonable strategy; however, if they had created something dramatically dif-ferent, it would have been far more refreshing to watch.”

Reliving the PastCOCA-COLA

In its new campaign, Coca-Cola India celebrates the happiness that cricket brings into the life of people. The campaign is largely based on the global theme of ‘Open Happiness’. By Anushree Bhattacharyya


Ahluwalia and Balki: on the spirit of happiness

The ‘RS’ mark in Skoda is for variants that offer a

higher level of performance.

The beverage company will

also launch radio, digital and out of home campaigns. >>

a consumer research, we found out that customers are not very sure at the time of booking a hotel online, what services will be offered eventu-ally. In a majority of the cases, what is promised is eventually not delivered. Therefore, customers now mostly rely on the touch-and-feel factor in case of booking a hotel. Hence, we have used a real life analogy to highlight the issue which is most common amongst people travelling to Asia Pacific regions.”

According to Kalra, the campaign aims to increase consumers’ trust for online travel solutions brands.

Sanjay Sharma, group creative director, Draftfcb Ulka, explains, “The television commercial has been kept fairly simple in order to address the main issue faced by consumers when they make online hotel reser-vations.”

FUNNY TOUCH

Industry experts opine that while the TVC is funny and brings a

smile to the face, in terms of execu-tion, it lacks dynamism.

Calling the TVC a funny one, Ferzad Variyava, executive creative director, Publicis Ambience, says, “The nice thing about the commer-cial was that they tried to bring the ‘you never know if it’s really chick-en you’re eating’ travel warning or

insight alive. Production-wise, the setting seemed to be eastern enough and the music played its part to cue in the oriental feel. Even the lady in the chicken suit costume seemed like a cute touch. The message seemed to come across fairly clear. However, the rolling, bouncing, slightly-high-on-sugar main character, on his

curious quest for chicken in a coun-try where he would be practically surrounded by them, threw me off at first.”

But in hindsight, an over-the-top approach didn’t seem like a bad thing. Could it have been funnier? Probably. Overall, it felt pleasant and left a smile on the corner of my lips,” he adds.

Bikram Bindra, senior account director, planning, BBDO India, calls the TVC a lighthearted fun piece of work that is sure to evoke a few chuckles.

He adds, “The elements, in terms of execution, the setting, the music and the brilliant performance by the lead, is bang on. The brand promise of ‘what you see is what you get’ is not exceptionally unique and in fact forms the basis of the current Docomo campaign as well. However, what elevates the thought in this piece is the fact that it answers a specific consumer dilemma when it comes to booking lodging online. Most of us have suffered on this front and this has led to an inherent suspicion in booking the stay before actually checking it out.”

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It’s a promise...

Kalra and Sharma: being a genuine brand

‘Fake’ IdentityFLYING MACHINE

The new campaign of denim brand, Flying Machine, from the house of Arvind Brands, targets the youth and is based on the core

theme, ‘I am sexy, when I am me’. The television commercials show two different sides of the youth - boys who are not pretentious and girls who can ‘fake it’ easily.

The TVCs, feature different boys under various circumstances, who wear the same T-shirts for various outings and only change their accessories, if needed. The TVCs end with the tagline, ‘Boys don’t fake it!’. Two other TVCs show two girls getting dressed - while one coordinates all her accessories with the dress worn by her, the other girl intentionally messes her proper look to create

a new look. The TVC ends with the tagline, ‘Girls can fake it!’.

Alok Dubey, vice-president, Arvind Lifestyle Brands, says, “The campaign is largely based on the core theme, ‘I am sexy, when I am me’. The TVCs target the youth and highlight the fact that the youth is not pretentious and boys are very dif-ferent from girls. While boys don’t fake it and are not that concerned about their looks, clothes and

accessories, girls take this job very seriously and hence can ‘fake it’. The campaign stresses on the core message of brand Flying Machine.”

Arun Iyer, national creative director, Lowe Lintas & Partners, explains, “All the television commercials are based on one single insight, that is, ‘how comfortable people should be being them-selves’. And, boys are never bothered that much about their looks and apparel. Even while going out, boys don’t think much in terms of clothes. As for girls, they are a lot more thorough and even when they intend to dress down, they do it inten-tionally. The TVC reflects the insights in a very

The new campaign, which comprises nine TVCs of Flying Machine from the house of Arvind Brands, is based on the core theme of the brand, ‘I am sexy, when I am me’. By Anushree Bhattacharyya

>>

The television commercials show two different sides of

the youth.


The TVC promotes the newly introduced proposition of 100 per cent money back

on hotel bookings.

An incumbent agency on an automobile account claims that its strategic idea pre-sented in a pitch process early this year, was

unceremoniously ‘stolen’ and executed by the new agency. This is not a sole example. There are other agencies which claim that they, too, have been cheated at some point.

So, is there a solution to the problem? The com-mon grievance is that industry bodies such as the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) are doing little to protect the rights of agencies in this regard. Many believe that if a single agency acts as a crusader against the system, it could lead to isolation in the fraternity and loss of business

opportunities. This is why agency heads are look-ing for some intervention from bodies such as the AAAI or ISA (Indian Society of Advertisers), that have the power to stop such practices.

Bharat Patel, chairman, ISA, says, “Stealing ideas and concepts from one agency and selecting another agency to do the job is unethical. If the AAAI brings this issue to us, we’ll surely look into it.”

Patel recommends that agencies should have more self-discipline and simply refuse to pitch for brands that are notorious about calling for pitches.

Nagesh Alai, president, AAAI, tells afaqs! Reporter, “It’s easy to take potshots at AAAI. Agencies need to have the courage of conviction to get into an iron-clad, signed agreement with the client at the pitch stage, specifying that the ideas put forward cannot be used without the agency’s permission or without adequate compensation.”

If a client breaches this agreement then who will take him to task? “The concerned agency can just go legal,” Alai answers. According to him, agencies ought to be more unified and refuse to pitch if clients refuse to sign such agreements.

COPYRIGHT ON IDEAS?

Many agency heads are of the opinion that a copyright on an agency’s ideas – as it is

practiced in several other countries - could be a solution to this problem.

Anil Nair, chief executive officer and managing

partner, Law & Kenneth, says, “There absolutely must be a copyright at the pitch level. Most often, the baseline is what gets stolen in creative pitches.”

Like Nair, many feel that there should be a pre-emptive arrangement in the form of a signed document which states that whatever is being pre-sented and is not bought, belongs to the agency and cannot be used without the consent of the agency.

Clients often make agencies sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) when the brief is shared. The general sense is that a similar non-disclosure or non-usage agreement, that agencies could ask clients to sign before presenting their ideas, will be a potential deterrent for such unethical behaviour.

A common complaint is that India is the only country where suggestions and recommendations come free of cost, under the pretext of ‘pitching’.

Shiv Sethuraman, chief executive officer, TBWA India, who spent seven years working over-seas, says, “In France, the minute a presentation is made to a prospective client, all the ideas are put on a CD and sent to the copyright bureau. In case of a dispute, you can re-visit that record and prove in a court of law that you had originally created a par-ticular idea.” No such mechanism exists in India.

Further, this issue is not one that plagues crea-tive agencies alone; media agencies face this too. Unlike in the case of creative agencies, where it is the baseline or a particular aspect of the creative

COPYRIGHT

natural way.”The campaign comprises nine TVCs, of

which four feature girls and five are based on boys. Also, the company has launched a print campaign. The brand has used daily newspapers for ads featuring boys and lifestyle magazines to target girls. Also, an out of home campaign has been launched.

TOO STRAIGHT?

Shiveshwar Raj Singh, group creative direc-tor, Draftfcb Ulka, says, “Here’s a brand

that is desperately trying to connect with the youth, but hey! - who isn’t nowadays? So the commercials have to be edgy, naughty and in your face but again, which commercial isn’t, nowadays? If I break down what is being tried blatantly here, the TVCs say that girls are like this, and boys are like that so buy me because I know what guys and girls are like. Maybe the youth understood the meaning but I didn’t. Some brands are born cool, while others rise to coolness; and many others, like this one, fall

flat in their attempts to be cool.”Atika Malik, senior vice-president and exec-

utive planning director, JWT India, remarks, “Getting it just right in youth brand communi-cation is always a bit of a tightrope walk. In this one, what works are execution elements like the deadpan, the matter-of-fact underplayed vibe, the silence, the scratched sound track. Even the specific film insights of guys noncha-lantly exchanging tees, adding a special touch for a date and creation of accidental fashion are nice.”

According to Malik, what doesn’t work is the ‘Boys don’t fake it ‘and ‘Girls can fake it’ tagline and what it brings to the party. “The brand’s strategic intent, ‘I am sexy, when I am me’, is simple and resolves the fit in and stand out dilemma of the youth. And, a fashion brand can own it, if it’s encouraging an indi-vidualistic fashion touch. But why add the boys and girls polarising behaviour of faking or not faking as a layer to the idea? Here, ‘Idea pe idea’ is not needed,” she adds.

[email protected]

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‘Fake’...


Iyer and Dubey: on showcasing two sides

Patel, Alai, Nair, Sethuraman and Nayyar: stop this theft

The campaign comprises nine TVCs, of which

four feature girls and five are based on boys.

Stealing Ideas

>>

Many agencies’ pet peeve is that clients tend to idea shop in the name of a pitch. afaqs! Reporter finds out whether this allegation holds true. By Ashwini Gangal

SUSH

IL K

UMAR

FOTO

CORP

FOTO

CORP

FOTO

CORP

There is a child in everybody and there are instances or moments when that child comes out in the open. From the colourful

Pandas to a set of new customers, Cadbury Gems’ new campaign tries to bring out the little child in everyone as it expands its target consumer base from kids to those who are children at heart.

The campaign showcases various childish attributes of adults, the reasons for their attrac-tion to Gems and further stresses on the idea of living an age-less life through the tagline, Raho Umarless.

Conceptualised by Ogilvy India, the first com-mercial shows a young woman sitting on a bench in a park. On the grass, she finds a yellow coloured Cadbury Gem, picks it, licks it and eats it. To her surprise, a few more Gems in different colours pop out. The woman hurriedly eats them. More and more Gems keep popping out and the woman tries her best to eat all. In her effort to hide her discovery and keep the growing heap covered with her body, she is blown into the air. The TVC ends with the message ‘No umar for laalach’.

The second TVC shows a man visiting a museum, where he comes across an artist’s work - a sculpture made of Gems. The sculpture, which has green, red and yellow gems, has a blue Gem, too. Unable to resist the colour, he picks it out and to his surprise, the whole sculpture falls apart. Sheepishly, he eats the sugar-coated chocolate button as the artist glares at him. The TVC ends with the message, ‘No umar for favourite colour’.

Both the TVCs promote the brand message, Raho Umarless.

Chandramouli Venkatesan, director, snacking and strategy, Cadbury India, says, “Insights reveal that Cadbury Gems has a strong connect with both kids and adults. The brand deeply resonates with child-like free-dom. Our new campaign ‘Raho

Umarless’ appeals to our consumers and encour-ages adults to be child-like.”

Abhijit Avasthi, national creative director, Ogilvy, explains, “For years, the overall percep-tion for Gems was that it is a kids’ brand but the truth is if I keep a bowl of Gems in front of an adult, he or she would equally love it and eat it. So we wanted to up the age and show that

Gems has a potential for a larger section of target consumers. Therefore we used

the concept that even as one grows up, there is a child inside all of us and that child will do anything to eat

Gems and we depicted this through various examples like a person who is fascinated with Gems because of

its colour, or someone who loves to lick Gems.”UPPING THE ANTE

Gautam Pandit, partner and senior creative director, R K Swamy BBDO, says, “The

idea has captured the core brand value well and ‘brings out the child in you’, in an entertaining manner. Umarless is an interesting coinage, which encapsulates what the product stands for, polar-ity amongst both the children and adults alike. However, out of the two, my personal favourite is the ‘Exhibition’ TVC for its setting and execution. The idea is simple, yet a gem!”

Vikram Dhaliwal, planning head, Rediffusion-Y&R, remarks, “On the face of it, it seems that Cadbury is trying to broaden its consumption base and make Gems relevant to a slightly older population than it currently addresses. However,

this advertising does not reach the heights that Dairy Milk does, simply because it doesn’t find a way to speak to the reality of adult life. Dairy Milk offered us a new way to look at daily life and find a celebration, a moment where none previously existed, and in the process made chocolate rel-evant to us. Gems, however, merely asks us to be like kids, without really telling us why. It’s wishful advertising and not effective advertising.”

[email protected]

Grown up? So What!CADBURY GEMS

The campaign talks about the ‘little child’ in everyone as it expands its target consumer base from kids to grown-ups. By Anushree Bhattacharyya


Venkatesan and Avasthi: on the new tag line

With an aim to communicate the benefits of the recently launched Smart TV and

ensure that consumers can engage and experience the Motion Control features of the set, Samsung and Starcom Digital have introduced the first augmented reality banner format

through the motion control ban-ner utilising digital platforms like YouTube and Moneycontrol.com.

In its current format, users can select content displayed in the ban-ner with gestures, just like they may do while using a Smart TV, and the selected content plays in the frame of

a Smart TV within the same creative. The creative ties-in with the prod-

uct feature and enables the user to experience motion control and its advantages digitally.

Commenting on this innova-tion, Rahul Saigal, chief marketing officer, Samsung India, says, “In keeping with the company’s thrust on innovation, we have created this digital communication to provide consumers a complete experience of the interactive features of our new 2012 Smart television range. The augmented reality banner gives consumers an opportunity to experi-ence Motion Control in a manner

SAMSUNG

A Peek into Reality The campaign aims to highlight the benefits of Samsung’s latest product, Smart TV. News Bureau

>>

Users can select content displayed

in the banner with gestures.

INDIAN IDOLTo create buzz around the sixth season of Indian Idol, a multi-city outdoor campaign was rolled out. Around 700 to 750 different outdoor sites were used including hoardings, bus shelters, backlit kiosks and mall medias.

Agency: Media CircleExposure: 30 Cities across Metros and Mini Metros

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

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

IDEA CELLULARThe innovative hoarding showcases a large cutout of Abhishek Bachchan and Idea 3G Smartfone cutout with golden wings that are flapping. The wings shown coming out of Smartfone and the Halo effect created around Abhishek adds to the ‘heavenly’ feel.

Agency: Bates WallstreetExposure: 30 cities in Gujarat

MAHINDRA SHARE YOUR STORY Auto maker Mahindra has launched an online campaign to go along with the mainline campaign for XUV 500. The website developed as part of the campaign, allows users to share their travel stories in the form of a blog. The campaign highlights the tag line of ‘May your life be full of stories!’

Agency: Hungama Digital

OOH DIGITAL

METLIFE Through the new TVC, MetLife looks at building awareness among the 40-plus male audience about the importance of early retirement.Agency: McCann EricksonCreative Chief: Ashish Chakravarthy Creative Directors: Mayur Hola, Sudeepa Ghosh and Shikha Sud Chairman and CCO, McCann Worldgroup India and president, South Asia: Prasoon Joshi

HAYATE Salman Khan has returned to his Dabangg avatar for the launch campaign of Suzuki Hayate. Khan enters the scene as Chulbul Pandey announcing that he will catch the escaped criminal with the help of his Hayate. Agency: RK Swamy BBDOCreative Team: Ajmer Pratap Singh, Ankur Suman and Abhishek DubeyProduction House: IBIS ProductionsProducer of the campaign: Harsh Dave

BHARTI AXA LIFEThrough the new TVC, Bharti Axa talks about the policy’s proposition ‘‘Aapka insurance policy aapki khushiyon ki taarikh kyun tay karen?’’ (Why should your insurance policy decide the date of your happiness?)Agency: Grey IndiaNational Creative Directors: Amit Akali, Malvika MehraCreative Team: Rohit Malkani, Karan Rawat Films: Manjula Moses and Samir Chadha

BAJAJ EXHAUST FANS The print campaign suggests that Bajaj Exhaust Fans allow you to reclaim your space from foul odors. In one of the print ads, a bathroom is lined with cigarettes.

National Creative Director: KV SridharExecutive Creative Director: Nitesh TiwariCreative Director: Vikram PandeyArt Director: Brijesh Parmar

FEDRIGONI Prism Papyrus, exclusive distributor for Fedrigoni paper, wanted an attention-grabbing idea to promote Fedrigoni’s new range of recycled papers so that offices switch to this greener option and help save trees.

Chief Creative Officer: Sonal DabralCreative Director: Prajato Guha ThakurtaCopywriter: Prajato Guha Thakurta

ABBOTT HEALTH CAREThis is an awareness poster for Breast Cancer, which features Monalisa, without her smile and without one breast.

Creative Agency: Creative Studio at Abbott HealthcareVisualiser and Graphic Designer: Vishakha Potdar

TELEVISION

PRINT


In its most recent bout of product-centric com-munication, DTH (direct to home) player Tata Sky has rolled out a three-film campaign.

Whether it’s the casting or the objective of the campaign, all three commercials are an evident extension of the brand’s recent set of ads, also a three-film effort. Both sets of films attempt to position brand Tata Sky as an out and out service brand.

While the product benefits highlighted in the previous campaign include the brand’s relocation services, its call centre services and punctuality, the current campaign emphasises offerings such as Tata Sky’s package advisory service, payment reminder system and the three-day grace period after the bill payment date.

While the earlier campaign featured married couples, the current one features only the wives.

Referring to the TVCs as ads comprising Tata Sky’s ‘service campaign’, Sukesh Kumar Nayak, group creative director, Ogilvy India (the brand’s creative agency of record), says, “These films are a continuation of the earlier set of films. The

personality of each of the three female characters has been main-tained across the two campaigns. “Apparently, all six films draw inspiration from actual consum-er behaviour.

Why are the husbands miss-ing in this set of ads, anyway? Well, while featuring just

the wives (who appear to be housewives) may appear misleading as far the brand’s target group (TG) is concerned, Nayak assures that featuring only the wives in the second leg of the brand’s service com-munication has nothing to do with women being a special focus this time. According to him, they emerged as the protago-nists to continue the story because in the previous campaign, it was these women who were having fun at the expense of their respective other halves.

Regarding the rather plain testimonial-like route adopted in this campaign, Nayak insists that this was a deliberate move on part of the agency and that it serves to break the monotony dur-ing commercial breaks on TV. “This simple look of the campaign stands out. It was an ‘art direction call’,” he explains.

In all, there are eight such films, which are being aired on Channel 100, the Tata Sky channel.

STILL JINGALALA?

According to Vivek Dutta, vice-president,

planning, Cheil Worldwide SW Asia, the strategy to use housewives as direct endorsers seems plausible in creating some credibility for the brand as a service brand. “But the execution could have been more hard-hitting.

Currently, it seems to be forced and staged,” he says.

He adds, “Also, jamming it up with too much information is a further put off.”

He feels that considering how mandatory digitisation is a landmark event in this cat-egory, this could have been a great opportunity for the brand to address familiarity and con-venience issues.

Sujit Das, executive crea-tive director, Pickle Lintas finds the insight too generic. “It didn’t appeal to me much, by putting myself in the con-sumer’s shoes as well as from a creative perspective,” he cri-tiques.

After blatantly express-ing his perplexity about why the films feature only women this time, Das goes on to add, “Talking heads or testimonials have been in vogue for some time now. A better execution could have lifted the film. This ‘vox-pop’ approach (also known as the ‘voice of the people’ method) is too plastic and artificial.”

[email protected]

Direct SellingTATA SKY

In its latest product-led, tactical ad campaign, Tata Sky furthers its position as a ‘service brand’. By Ashwini Gangal

that helps them understand this truly distinctive feature of our Smart TV range.”

Arnab Mitra, national director, SMG Digital, explains, “To a lot of Indians, Smart TV just stood for a television with a few features which does not have a unique space any-

more with the advent of smartphones. However, the Samsung Smart TV is beyond that and enhances the television viewing experience with interactive online content, exploring apps, and much more. Our objective was to ensure that the consumers can live this experience without having to visit a store or buy the TV, and thus actually create awareness about the features.

[email protected]

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A peek...


“The personal-ity of the three

female characters has been main-tained across the

campaign.” SUKESH KUMAR

NAYAK

“Our objective was to ensure that the con-sumers can live the

experience without hav-ing to visit a store or

buy the TV.” ARNAB MITRA

Both sets of films attempt to position brand Tata Sky as an

out and out service brand.


presentation that is most likely to get stolen, in the case of media agencies it is the strategy that is most likely to get picked up.

PITCH FEE?

In such a scenario, is charging a pitch fee the solution because

doing so will partly compensate the agency, if it feels that its idea has been stolen or has been the source of inspiration?

“A pitch fee by its very nature is compensation for the time and effort put in by the agencies, not so much for their resources, ideas and intel-lect,” says Anita Nayyar, director, customer strategy, BCCL.

The general sense is that an idea that comes from an agen-cy is something a client can’t put a price on, unless the agency

is officially appointed as the AoR.

CLIENT SPEAK

To find out the clients’ side of the story as well, afaqs! Reporter

speaks to brand marketers or ‘clients’ in agency parlance.

In the opinion of Tarun Khanna, head, marketing, Fiat India, when the client’s brief is a focused one, there is bound to be some overlap in the

ideas that agencies come up with, and that within that common ground, the creative execution could be differ-ent. “Everything is derived from the client’s strategy. The agencies aren’t presenting a black book or a specific proprietary model; they’re present-ing creative thought processes based on a client’s briefing. So I don’t know

if the issue of copyright is really rel-evant in this case,” he says.

According to Abdul Khan, sen-ior vice-president, marketing, Tata Teleservices, any formal agreement at the pitch stage will get stuck at the very definition of ‘idea’. “While I understand how important intel-lectual property is for an agency, creativity is so subjective, that defin-ing the contours of an idea is difficult.

Already there are different interpre-tations, across eco-systems, of what constitutes an idea. The legal angle will make things even murkier.”

Unless an entire ad done by one agency is released as another agen-cy’s work, other smaller disputes should be treated on a case by case basis, instead of codifying everything

with the industry body, feels Khan. “There should be one unified open forum where marketers and agencies can discuss these issues,” he suggests.

LEGALITY VERSUS MORALITY

According to some, the issue is not of copyright laws as much

as it is about moral values. “It has more to do with the morality of the theft and less to do with the legality,” says Meenakshi Menon (Madhvani), founder and chairperson, Spatial Access.

If there is better unity among the players in the advertising industry and if agency professionals come together and decide not to use one another’s ideas, then they can collec-tively solve the problem, she insists. “While legality may be difficult to implement, a sense of fairness and brotherhood is something agen-cies can work towards,” advises Madhvani.

[email protected]

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Stealing...

A common complaint is that in India is the only country where suggestions and

recommendations come free of cost.

A Threat to Instagram?FACEBOOK

A little over a month after social networking giant Facebook announced the acquisition of Instagram, a photo-sharing platform, for

$1 billion, it has introduced a specialised photo-sharing app, Camera, for iPhones.

The new free photo-sharing app allows users to share multiple photos all at once, crop images, add captions, tag friends and use filters to add effects to the picture. The app offers many features similar to that of Instagram, including several filters and the ability to share pictures with friends separately from Facebook’s main ecosystem.

BUYING OUT COMPETITION

Facebook has been facing flak for the mediocre picture sharing features available on Facebook

for Mobile app. The ability to edit the pictures using the app and upload them in batches has been missing in the app. With the Camera app, this has been addressed successfully.

The social networking platform has, for quite some time, worked to develop an application that addresses all the issues flagged by users but was unable to execute it so far. Instead, it decided to bag Instagram, which came with a built-in com-munity of photographers and photo lovers. A lot has been said and written about why Facebook decided to buy Instagram in the first place. The newly launched Facebook Camera affirms that the Instagram acquisition was a clever and well-thought strategy to beat competition.

Calling the acquisition as a strategic move by

Facebook to systematically take out competi-tion, Girish Mahajan, co-founder and director, Webitude, says, “Facebook had been working on the app for a while now, but could not execute it. With Instagram in its kitty, the technology just gave a boost to the app and hence the release. Buying out Instagram is an excellent move by Facebook as not only did it kill competition but also managed to get its hands on technology that has aided in the release of the camera app.”

DEATH OF INSTAGRAM?

The launch of the Camera app has set tongues wagging on whether Facebook is gearing up

to phase out Instagram. When the acquisition was announced, many were surprised as it was a deviation from the manner in which Facebook has functioned over the years - keeping it under one product umbrella. Keeping Instagram as a separate product and brand is reminiscent of what Google has done with YouTube following its acquisition.

Digital consultant Shubho Sengupta believes that the launch of the Camera app will not mark the end of Instagram. He says, “Instagram will do for Facebook what YouTube did for Google. Facebook being an extremely dynamic platform, we will see a lot of apps being launched in the coming few months.”

Zafar Rais, co-founder and CEO, Mindshift Interactive believes that this launch and the

The launch of the photo-sharing app has set off alarm bells about whether Facebook plans to phase out the recently acquired Instagram. By Nisha Menon

“Instagram will do for Facebook what YouTube

did for Google.” SHUBHO SENGUPTA

“At the end of the day, there’s plenty of space for every social network.”

ZAFAR RAIS

“Buying out Instagram is an

excellent move by Facebook.”

GIRISH MAHAJAN

>>

Not too long ago, someone thought up Orkut and long-lost friends were reunited. Facebook arrived and took the idea further. Twitter made eve-

ryone’s opinions compact and more audible on the internet. Socially, internet is becoming a great leveller. And where society gathers, can brand marketers be far behind?

Brands and their marketers kept a close watch on the changes in the virtual world and attempted to make the most of every new opportunity that emerged, taking social conversations to a level where ‘nothing is personal, just business’.

Amidst the chaos, appeared another kid on the block called Pinterest. Ever since its arrival just about two years ago, it has been riding a wave. Crossing the 10 million monthly unique users faster than any other platform (according to com-Score) and bringing in increasingly more referral traffic to websites, Pinterest is screaming for atten-tion and probably getting it too.

What is the opportunity that Pinterest is throw-ing up for a brand? And have brands, especially Indian ones, included it in their social media mix yet?

PINTEREST FOR DUMMIES

Pinterest is nothing more than an online version of the scrapbook that most of us maintained

back in school. It could also be the board in your office cubicle where you pin up pictures, newspa-per cut outs and post-it notes.

People love collecting pictures and referring back to them for private leisure viewing. The no-brainer is just an online extension of this offline behaviour. Users ‘pin’ images and other media content that interests them on their categorised

online pinboards. Images can further be ‘repinned’ increasing the viral nature of shared content.

What works best for the platform is the simplic-ity in which it operates and the ease with which images can be - and are - shared or repinned.

A simple ‘Pin It’ button installed in the brows-er, allows one to grab images from any website and add it to pinboards. Copyright issues are also tackled with the simple fact that the source link is

also grabbed and the creator is duly credited with the content.

A Pinterest enthusiast and the digital head of JWT India Group, Max Hegerman reveals how he takes a break from his daily work schedule and spends 20-30 minutes on the website every day. He also admits how he “gets lost” very easily. “People connect better through images. Pinterest quickly communicates your interest through pic-tures. It is easy and that is why it has caught on, particularly with people who might not usually connect on social media,” says Hegerman.

Aman Mishra, strategic planner, digital and new media, What The Hell?, exclaims, “It is a marvel of ingenuity that rivals Twitter in reach and impact, leapfrogging into the top three social media platforms in record time. In many ways, it is even more powerful because its ability to inte-grate e-commerce into all the pins and postings is exceptional.”

Consider one simple factor: On Facebook, the newsfeed changes rapidly with every passing minute. In Twitter, a fresh number of tweets are loaded on the timeline all the time. Miss an update and it is lost among the many. With Pinterest, the visibility of content only rises as the content is a permanent fixture on pinboards with all the ‘con-stant repinning’. Does that make Pinterest more interesting than FB or Twitter?


GOGO

L

It is the visual element that makes Pinterest such a hot favourite with web surfers. Are brand marketers making good use of this interest? By Biprorshee Das

With Pinterest, the visibilityof the content only rises since

- with all the constant repinning - the content is a permanent

fixture on pinboards.

THE ‘INDIA’ CONNECTION

Pinterest touched the 20 million unique visitors mark in April 2012 – up from just five million

in May 2011. Of this, 4.5 per cent are from India. This seems paltry, compared to Facebook’s 46 million users in India and 900 million globally. Probe a bit deeper and one realises that Facebook’s user base in India is also close to five per cent of the global user base.

Facebook has done its own bit to contribute to Pinterest’s growth. Interestingly, the number of Pinterest users rose sharply by late 2011 – this was roughly around the same time that Pinterest integrated Facebook Open Graph and the new Application Programming Interface (API) that allowed Pinterest to scale up the ‘shareability quo-tient’ of its content.

Preetham Venkky, business head, KRDS (the Facebook Marketing Agency that also develops applications) says Pinterest used the Open Graph to its advantage. “Every Facebook activity has a viral impact; the activity appears on the ticker of your friends, it appears on your friends’ news feeds and your own Timeline. Open Graph made it easy for Pinterest to use all three effectively. Your Pinterest activity becomes a permanent one on your Timeline, there for everyone to see and experience for themselves,” says Venkky.

He explains that a lot of start-ups ride on the Facebook Open Graph that was created to tap into the large portion of social media users who

did not interact much with their newsfeed. Social media enthusiast and head maven, Windchimes Communication, Nimesh Shah welcomes the trend and simplifies it. “New players thrive better when you have existing key players pushing them. They are not eating up each other’s space but are only helping to grow the market,” says Shah.

ARE MARKETERS LISTENING?

Picture this. A brand might not even have used Pinterest to showcase its products. However,

a user might have pinned a picture of a product he uses and endorses. A conversation has already started without any effort from the brand’s end. Now, it depends on how much a brand can steer that conversation in its favour.

Most people agree that a platform such as this lends itself excellently to businesses such as retail, lifestyle, clothing, ecommerce that can visually showcase its various offerings. Consider the example of the high-end clothing and apparel brand, Diesel. Pallavi Barman, marketing and communications manager, Diesel Fashion India Reliance says that Pinterest works very well for the brand.

The social strategy of Diesel is controlled inter-nationally and the brand is present on Pinterest, showcasing its catalogue across different boards.

In India, however, the same is done for the brand’s loyalty programme, Diesel Cult. “When it comes to marketing online, pictures appeal. Pinterest is just the platform for that. You are not forcing anyone to like your product but the medium is the message. Pins and repins help the brand a lot. If we use it wisely, I am sure it will turn into a forum,” says Barman.

Another interesting and well-known charac-

teristic of Pinterest is the favour it finds with the fairer sex. This must certainly appeal to lifestyle and clothing brands, and the categories where women influence the buying decisions.

Venkky, who safely puts the ratio to be at 80:20 in favour of women, explains the idea saying,

“Women have forever maintained scrapbooks and are extremely social. They tend to collect things, maybe much more than men. Pinterest combines the idea of personal collection and the art of scrap-booking, making it very interesting for them.”

There are other aspects of Pinterest that also are a tad underutilised. Videos, for example. Pinterest provides for sharing videos as well, along with images that also open up immense opportu-

nities for marketers. Yet another feature is how Pinterest allows the user to change the embedded link of any image and video. With most content on Pinterest being repinned, this feature enables a brand to keep the image the same and yet route users to a new campaign, if required.

3 1afaqs! Reporter, June 16-30, 2 0 1 2

Note: Based on a sample of 50,000 visi-tors from Pinterest and 50,000 visitors from Facebook (March 15-April 15, 2012)

Boticca.com is the online destination for jewellery and fashion items from over 260 independent designers in 40 coun-tries. The site is a specially curated and highly editorialized online marketplace where customers can buy directly from the designers and contact them person-ally.

Source: Boticca.com

VS.

PINTERESTSPEND ONAVERAGE

(+10% VS. SITE AVERAGE)

PINTERESSSSSPPAAAAVAAUSERS

(+1010% VS. SITE AVAA ERAGE)

$180FACEBOOKOOK

SPEND ONAVERAGE

(-44% VS. SITE AVERAGE)

FACEBOOSAAUSERS

44% % VVSS SITE. SITE A AVVAAAA ERAGERAGE)

$85

INFLUENCED

INFLUENCED

INFLUENCEDOF TRANSACTIONS

INFLUENCEDOF TRANSACTIONS

ONONCTI SS10%

DDONNACTTIIO SSS

7%

PINTEREST SPEND MORE FACEBOOK

PINTEREST MORE SALES FACEBOOK

PINTEREST MORE NEW USERS

86%57%

PINTEREST ARE NOT AS ENGAGED FACEBOOK

PINTEREST HURTS CONVERSION RATES

LESS TIMEON SITE VS.

LOWER CONVERSION VS.

LOWER CONVERSION VS.

SITE AVERAGE

SITE AVERAGE

SITE AVERAGE

LESS TIMEON SITE VS.

LESS PAGESON SITE VS.

LESS PAGESON SITE VS.

65%

51%

44%70%

73%

52%

1

PS

2

P3

P4

5

Boticca is a London-based jewellery and fashion

accessories retailer. Chief executive officer Kiyan Foroughi reveals that Boticca has dedicated employees to maintain the company and brand boards on Pinterest. These are the two factors that drive a lot of traffic and sales. Boticca has over 60 boards divided into different categories and trends.

Recently, the company carried out a Facebook vs Pinterest survey too (see infographic left). ‘‘Pinterest’s recent success is due to its user experience and the very visual nature of the platform. It provides a great tool for internet users to curate the web, according to their own tastes and likes, which is not done as easily on other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Pinterest has become our biggest social referrer,’’ says Foroughi.

Pinterest will also need to play its mobile strategy right to garner more

users and interest. Currently, only available on the iOS, it will surely be looking at other mobile platforms.

MCDONALD’S

Indians use a variety of spices in their palate on a daily basis and that is why McDonald’s, came up with a

unique way of acknowledging spices and their importance in the Indian cuisine, without which our food would be bland and boring. With a dash of fun and excitement this summer, McDonald’s gave Indians something to celebrate by launching the Spice Fest from April 1st to June 2012, introducing four new vari-ants to its McSpicy range of products: Mexican Spice Chicken, Mexican Spice Veg, Asian Hot Garlic Dip and African Peri Peri Shake Shake.

The launch was actively supported by a 360 degree marketing campaign which debuted with a mix of television com-mercials, print, outdoor and in-store promotions. Milestone Brandcom, got the spicy flavour and fun on the streets for spreading the aromas of Mexican, African and Asian spices and flavours, tickling everyone’s taste buds all through this summer.

Rameet Arora, senior director market-ing, McDonald’s India (West and South) said, “We have come up with a campaign that embodies the fun, freshness and festivities of Spice Fest to extend our ‘I’m Lovin It’ experience to our custom-ers. We have tried to communicate the varieties of Spice in a fun way, whilst showcasing our ‘freshness’ and ‘quality’ products. We, at McDonald’s aim to be our customer’s first choice and we are taking brand McDonald’s to the next level by providing our customers with products and campaigns that are new, fresh and innovative.”

A range so spicy called for a blazing hype and buzz in the market to create awareness and conversations around the spicy delights, making people talk about and get tempted to walk into to the McDonald outlet to try it.

The Out of Home (OOH) campaign was executed across nine markets starting

in April across 200 touch points. Besides creating impact with large format bill-boards and gantries at key junctions and arterial roads, the campaign reached out to the targeted audience in an effective way along various high-reach media like bus shelters, railway foot-over bridges and utilities.

“While one could see a heat wave in the summers in India, we further built on the spicy offering with an innova-tive execution around the hot and spicy burger burning up a billboard on every bite or using the fire extinguishers to put out the fire as a result of savouring a hot and sizzling McSpicy delight,” said Hanoz Patel, founder member and managing partner, Milestone Brandcom.

The Burning Billboard

Right in the heart of Mumbai, at Mahim causeway – an area that wit-

nesses more than 2.5 lakh passenger cars pass by daily, the innovative concept of revealing the product was carried out on a billboard of the size 40ft by 20ft for a period of seven days and included five flex changes.

On the first day, audiences saw an entire burger with the McDonald’s logo. Thereafter, every alternate day for the next five days; the burger was bitten up reducing in size with the area around the bitten part surrounded by flames which emitted real smoke.

On the last day of this innovation, audiences saw a billboard with a hole in the shape of the burger, still flaming hot. The innovation was a sure shot traffic stopper and caught nearly every pas-serby’s attention.

The campaign spiced up the summer of 2012 with multiple innova-tive communication at relevant touch points and exciting engagements to drive the hot and sizzling summer delights from McDonald’s.

[email protected]

Spicing Up Life This Summer

Stories featured on this page highlight innovative marketing techniques using various

media vehicles like print, digital and out-of-home.

Milestone Brandcom creates an innovative marketing blitzkrieg for the new fast food range. News Bureau

The billboard as it appeared: sizzling and hot

Day 1

Day 4

Day 6

MORE TALK

Pinterest has its fair bit of championing done by communication experts as well. Identifying

the potential, they stress on active engagement on the medium.

Says Navin Kansal, group creative director, Grey Digital, “Brands that allow a peek into them-selves resonate well on this medium. But they must put consumers at the centre of engagement. A token presence will not suffice. If users retain images about the brand, they must be offered exclusive content. Interesting contests must be run on a regular basis.”

According to him, the timing for Pinterest has been spot-on, as the virtual world became increas-ingly visual. Technology, too, is making it easier for users to click, post and share better quality images online. And the simple interface makes the interaction even easier.

Karl Gomes, co-founder, AgencyDigi says, “Unlike Flikr (an image and video-hosting web-site), not everybody creates content on Pinterest. That is where it works. A lot of people just repin. Any or every brand can be present on Pinterest.” He opines that it is not just about selling products but engaging with a ready consumer base that is already present on a platform.

“The good thing is that people are pinning things they like, irrespective of a brand’s presence. The more people use it, the bigger the idea will get. Today, you need evangelists of the brand. Not all brands can fight their own battles. They will need the consumer to shape perspectives,” explains Gomes.

JWT’s Hegerman affirms that Pinterest, although new and fresh, cannot be dismissed as a flash in the pan. “You take a Facebook strategy to clients and they might roll their eyes asking, ‘What is new that you have got?’. We are taking Pinterest to them and keeping ideas fresh. This is like a visual Google search,” he says.

Independent digital consultant Shubho Sengupta minces no words when he says that Pinterest does not interest him much as he does not find it too user friendly and even “slightly clumsy”. “My main interest in Pinterest is its ability to push up the brand on search rankings. Personally, I am struggling. I have limited time and with so many platforms, I might get a bit con-fused. It has been proved how you are sorted if you have Facebook, Twitter and Google+, as a part of your strategy. Currently, in India, internet con-nections and Facebook accounts are rising at the same pace,” Sengupta says although he is quick to add that it might not be a very wise move to ignore Pinterest in its entirety.

TESTIMONY

It is still very early days for Pinterest in India. Brands are merely testing the waters. However,

there are enough case studies of foreign brands using the medium innovately and effectively.

A popular example is that of Kotex’s ‘Woman’s Inspiration Day’ campaign in Israel. Fifty ‘influen-tial’ Pinterest users were identified and handcrafted gifts were made for them based on their Pinterest boards. With surprised users pinning images of the gifts across social networking sites, the campaign fetched 694,853 impressions for Kotex.

Yael Linen Zuchman, owner and chief execu-tive officer of Smoyz, the agency that designed the campaign says that they chose the unique and

unconventional activity to encourage women in Israel to talk about the product and rethink their habits and attitudes towards a brand that is consid-ered to be the underdog in the feminine category in Israel.

“Pinners were found to be the best candidates when we were looking for an innovative social platform for women to express themselves freely. The idea to create unique and personal gift boxes came from the insight that in order to be relevant for the consumers, you have to create true value for them and personalisation is a great way to do it,” he says.

Internationally, there are brands like Fab.com, Etsy (furniture and houseware retailers) and west elm (a US-based food supermarket chain) that have used the platform well. Among Indian brands, Mumbai-based Fashion and You and Chennai-based Basics Life (Hasbro Clothing) have used Pinterest as bulletin boards. However, there has been nothing beyond this. Moreover, many Indian brands that afaqs!Reporter spoke to feel that the awareness levels in India are not that high to warrant a full-fledged Pinterest strategy.

This is what Suhail Sattar, director of Hasbro Clothing has to say. “We are yet to see the potential in it compared with Facebook as a social market-ing tool . The content on pinterest is the same as as Facebook.”

He agrees that it is a great “personal tool but I don’t know whether it will be as effective for brands as Facebook has been. Much like Twitter I think its great for individuals.”

Sattar confesses that he doesn’t know how many Indian brands are successfully using Pinterest as a medium. And it has nothing to do with the num-bers - whether it is page views or unique visitors - being touted around. But won’t brands want to go where their audience is? “I can see Pinterest growing slowly in India. We could see a huge dif-ference in the next 12 months maybe?” he signs off with a question.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Pinterest is still an invite-only platform. How much it can grow further depends on how

soon it chooses to open up, spread itself across platforms and become more engaging.

The key lies in reinvention and innovations. The social sphere is one, where the fatigue factor settles in rather quickly. It is anybody’s guess how long people would enjoy just putting up images. “If innovations (a la Facebook and Twitter) do not happen, sites like these will enter what I call the ‘floopy zone’. You cannot just pull the plug. And if you have to be a serious social player, you have to look at 100 million-plus active users,” says Venkky.

“We must create and curate content such that it becomes more male-female neutral. This will help both, brands and Pinterest,” adds Hegerman. There will be an explicit need for Pinterest to become a ‘platform’ and develop an API where developers are allowed to integrate content. Twitter, for example, sees a lot of user access from third party applications and very few Twitter regulars actually tweet via Twitter.com. This has worked rather well for Twitter.

Pinterest will also need to play its mobile strategy right to garner more users and interest. Currently, only available on the iOS (Apple), it will surely be looking at other mobile platforms.

Monetisation also is a concern on people’s minds. While venture capitalists have not turned a blind eye towards Pinterest, stress on returns must be dealt with patience. “Facebook and Twitter have passed the baton to marketers wherein brands are pushing the platforms with campaigns and engaging content. The same thing needs to be done by players such as Pinterest. There must be investment to get the marketers excited about you,” says Shah of Windchimes. It is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation at the moment. But there is a lot of enthusiasm.

Pinterest could also think of solutions that Facebook (with its Sponsored Stories) and Twitter (with Sponsored Tweets) have come up with, although it must take care to not become intrusive or spoil the user experience. What’s really impor-tant is that the Pinterests of the world must con-tinue experimenting lest things stagnate.

[email protected]


Many Indian brandsfeel that the awareness

levels in India are not thathigh to warrant a full-fledged

Pinterest strategy.

20Unique Visitors in Million

Source:www.compete.com

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15

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TRAVEL

HOME DESIGN

CARS

SPORTS

FILM

FASHION

HUMOUR

ART

The Globetrotter

If there is one place you can keep going back to for a holiday, where would it be?

Wild life sanctuaries across India.

Tell us three good things about travelling.

Travelling is a great stress buster for me and brings out the adventurous spirit in me. I love exploring new sights and experiencing the culture, food and tradition of the local people. It gives me exclusive time with my family and helps me also forge a deeper bonding with them which is a rare opportunity when

When you travel, what is a must carry for you? My training shoes and my exercise bands to help me exercise wherever...

When and where did your best holiday happen?

Last year, when I was all over Europe for three weeks and the view on top of Mount Titlis was breathtaking.

Have you ever been surprised by the taste of food, outside India? Where?

What and where has been your best bazaar bargain so far? One of my better bargains was on a recent visit to Cape Town where I bought a pair of authentic African tribal masks (male and female) after some hectic negotiations and now are a part of the wall hangings as a memory of my visit to Africa.

Which has been the most unique destination that you ever visited. When and why? My visit to Thekkady in Kerala a few years ago was a very unique and different one because of a night safari on foot which was a fantastic experience for me.

Tell us how have you managed to make a journey fun.

My family and myself are fond of bird watching and on any journey it is really a competition in the family as to who spots a different species (local and migratory) and identifies it first. On a recent visit to Gir forest, home to the Asiatic lion we spent more time trying to sight birds as sighting a lion became a tough task given the heat. It was a lot of fun as we suddenly realized that there were a lot of bird species (Serpent Eagle, Owls, Paradise Flycatchers etc.) which we would not have noticed if

A gourmet gaffe that you would like to share.

On a recent visit to Europe when we were in Cologne, we took the local meal option on the recommendation of the local tour guide who strongly recommended it. We realized the gaffe when the meal arrived and we found it was a gourmet of non vegetarian fare which was unpalatable to us as we are pure vegetarians. The staff was quite flummoxed as in spite of their best efforts they could not figure how to make a pure vegetarian meal at such a short notice and eventually we had to settle for

What is the best souvenir you ever bought for anyone? A painted original Ostrich egg from Cape Town which could double as an ornamental piece in the travel trophy cabinet or as a table lamp as it had detachable wooden

I am not really a foodie at heart but was pleasantly surprised with the variety base for the electrical socket.

P Balakrishna, COO, Allied Media

and flavour of the food in Paris, especially the salads which really are colourful and nutritious too, a very important factor for me.

you are in a daily routine.

we had not been looking for it.

some bread and butter as the best option.

acquisition of Instagram pro-vide Facebook with an excellent chance to tap into more users. He says, “While Facebook comes with its history of providing new features and letting users adapt and then get addicted to them, Instagram comes with a base of loyalists to help it hold its ground, provided it looks at new features and building the network in a healthy manner. At the end of the day, there’s plenty of space for every social network, provided you’re able to make your mark and cater to your audiences. What would be the ideal situation though, is for Facebook Camera and Instagram to merge strengths.”

STRENGTHENING MOBILE

Mobile has been the Achilles heel for Facebook. With

an IPO that many are calling a debacle, the need for Facebook to strengthen its mobile inter-face becomes imperative. It had recently launched App Center, seen by many as baby steps to develop the mobile medium. The new Camera app launch is also indicative of the fact that Facebook has started divert-ing its technological expertise toward mobile.

With the launch of this app, Facebook has once again shown the importance it gives to the medium owing to its mon-etistion opportunities. Nikhil

Kharbanda, social media head, Ignitee Digital believes that for Facebook, mobile is the way of the future. He says, “Facebook will be looking at mobile as a crucial component of revenue growth and generation. It has been constantly working towards establishing FB Credits as a pay-ment mechanism. Facebook can monetise this app in two

ways - one by coming up with a paid version of the app, which offers more value in terms of functionalities and secondly, it can monetise the end product, which will depend on what the user decides to do with the pic-ture. For example, printing it, framing, sending it as a gift are just a few options it may experi-ment with.”

Rais sums up, “I feel Facebook’s mobile-focused strategy is towards the larg-er picture of gaining a strong foothold within the mobile mar-ket, securing a pleasant space for the future and then tap-ping the monetary aspect of it. Monetisation is important, as is for every successful business to keep the attention of stakehold-ers, and Facebook has moved consistently in that direction.

[email protected]

According to Karnik, to show snippets of a game just the way it’s played by millions of Indians since their childhood, across the nooks and corners of several streets, is a let-down. “Having said this, the voiceover is quite nicely written. The music is nice, too. Together, they do justice to the idea of ‘Open Happiness’. Beyond this, nothing,” he adds.

Amit Kekre, planning head, Mudra West, remarks, “It’s not the first time for Coke and gully cricket. This ad is very reminis-cent of the kitschy Dum Mast Kalandar Coke ad done with Tarsem Singh in the ’90s. Having

said that, it’s well produced, no matter the sepia tone taking one back to another cricketing saga that made the common man the hero, Lagaan. Strategically, it seems right and works - using the analogy of happiness of the game and the core of Coke - ‘Happiness’. Lastly, a refreshing (if not entirely new) take in the midst of sport-related ads full of stadia and sport stars - the piece nicely bringing the sport on the street and with the people - which is where it truly belongs.”

“The story has been executed well, with a good cast, which further makes it entertaining. Overall, the idea works and is a welcome departure from the last ‘wannabe commercial’ Jaldi kya hai,” he adds.

[email protected]

<<

<<

A threat...

Reliving..


The new free photo-sharing

app allows users to share multiple

photo.

An idea can come from anywhere and anybody,” says ad veteran Rohit Misra. And, with the very

logic, Misra announces IdeaDemocracy, his entrepreneurial venture in partner-ship with New York-based creative director and user experience designer, Chetan Mangat.

What is unique about IdeaDemocracy as an agency is the fact that it brings to India the concept of crowdsourcing ideas. The idea is simple - the creativity process will be thrown open to every-body at large, with everyone getting an opportunity to contribute with a crea-tive idea.

The online platform claims to be India’s first when it comes to design

and communication crowdsourcing and will offer brand solutions in the spheres of graphic design, web and mobile app development, film and video, social media and product design.

“Creative people are everywhere. Some are fortunate enough to make it a profession. Others might not be. Our challenge is how to harness the talent available. While this concept exists over-seas, the focus often is on the delivery medium. At IdeaDemocracy, we start with the creative process. We want to see what are the challenges faced by the brand and then how we can best har-ness the available talent pool,” Misra tells afaqs!.

According to him, the need of the hour is democratisation of the creative process by harnessing talent and ideas from wherever they exist.

“Rohit (Misra) brought an idea that was well thought out because it allows businesses to seek talent and find solu-tions to problems. I was immediately excited by the collaborative thinking aspect of this project and how we could use our social graph to solve creative

challenges,” adds Mangat.Misra, in his last role, was president,

India and Sri Lanka, Rediffusion-Y&R. He quit Rediffusion in 2009. Backed by more than 20 years of experience, he has worked at agencies such as Ogilvy, JWT, Euro RSCG and Y&R in India.

Mangat, on the other hand, runs a digital agency, Blank & Co. based in New York and New Delhi, and an art network called Collection with Howie Chen in New York. Through his career, he has worked extensively on e-commerce and digital projects for brands such as Fendi, Calvin Klein, Levi’s Vintage Clothing and others.

IdeaDemocracy will focus on both large advertisers and SMEs and while the partners will look after business development, the creative ideas of course will be outsourced.

Beginning with the basic idea at the very fundamental level, IdeaDemocracy is crowdsourcing its own design. A con-test on the platform’s website currently invites people to design a logo for the company and then vote for the most

popular design. This will also extend to other facets of the site’s development, where the design of the home page, intro videos, social media strategy and a mobile app will be crowdsourced as well.

Mangat says, “People are now ready to connect directly with one another. They have stronger creative opinions and most importantly, thanks to the web, it is easy to give direction and provide inspiration. We can all leverage our imagination and be creative direc-tors. From a technical perspective, we are going to make a collaborative tool, which utilises the power of the social web in an extremely innovative and unique manner.”

[email protected]

IDEA DEMOCRACY

Crowdsourcing The online platform by Rohit Misra, in partnership with Chetan Mangat, looks to throw open the creative process to everybody with ideas. By Biprorshee Das

Misra and Mangat: all ideas welcome

Prasoon Joshi, chairman and CCO, McCann Worldgroup India and president, South Asia has spent around 20 years in the biggest ‘acci-

dent’ of his life: advertising.Since childhood, I have not been fixated

about what I wanted to do in life. My ambitions changed almost everyday - doctor, scientist or engineer.

Coming from small-town Almora in Uttarakhand, talking careers was not as aggres-sive a discussion as it is in families today. The only thing that I recall was that I saw a lot of music in my family since both my parents are musicians-vocalists in Hindustani classical.

I gradually developed a liking for music and writing. I would circulate handwritten magazines in school, write short stories, jokes, satire and poems. My childhood was full of inspirations and a sense of freedom. This freedom was the key to my growth and I never allowed myself to be imprisoned by a certain mindset or an image of myself.

EARLY DAYS

As I grew up, the pressure to go for science and mathematics increased. I completed

BSc in Physics from Meerut College and went for an MBA from the Institute of Management Technology. But I meandered. I had no clarity on what to do with my life.

I used to write a lot of poetry, primarily in Hindi and Urdu. My first book was published when I was 17. But my father told me to do something that would earn me a living. That was the time that I discovered advertising. I found advertising very interesting and started going from door to door to find jobs at agencies.

While studying for my MBA, I joined Trikaya Grey (in 1990) as summer trainee in the servicing team. In spite of that, I used to visit creative team very often. By the time I finished, I had decided that advertising is where I want to be, and that I wanted to be in creative.

What thrilled me about adver-tising was that I got paid for writing. I got into Ogilvy Delhi as a junior copywriter. Logically, I should have gone into client servicing or mar-keting, but my heart told me to be in creative.

THE MENTOR

I met Suresh Mallik at Ogilvy India. He had created Mile Sur

Mera Tumhara, the famous musical ode to India’s unity in diversity. He was a great teacher, eccentric and a maverick. He took an immense lik-ing for me and we connected because of music. He used to say: “Write a script like a writer and not a film direc-tor. Write the way your grandmother would tell you a story.”

I learnt the nuances of sto-rytelling from him. He also encouraged me to compose my own jingles and sing my own jin-gles. He helped me direct my talent in the right direction.

MUMBAI CALLING

In late 1997, Piyush Pandey offered me a trans-fer to Mumbai since Sonal Dabral was moving

to Malaysia. After coming here, I was approached by film directors to write songs and suddenly a new stream opened up for me.

Mumbai also offered me an opportunity to work on brands such as Cadbury, Asian Paints, Parle, Hutch and Tata Safari.

MCCANN ERICKSON

Another turning point in my life came when I joined McCann Erickson in

2002. At that point in time, McCann did not have a creative reputation. I was told that Coke did not go beyond Bollywood, song and dance themes.

Within a few years we changed McCann’s reputation and it started getting known as

a creative powerhouse. We also changed Coke from a song-and-dance

driven communicator to a storyteller with ‘Thanda

Matlab Coca Cola’. In the second year of my join-

ing, we won two golds at Cannes.

MANAGING

In 2006, I became the CEO when

Santosh Desai left. I knew taking this up would take away my free-dom as a creative individual. But if I had to build a creative culture, I had to take this chance. My

management back-ground helped me.

I have always believed in integrity,

honesty and consist-ency. I am not scared

of exposing myself. As a writer you have to be hon-

est. My writing comes from real life experiences.

As told to Shibani Gharat

Happy Accidents

PRASOON JOSHI CHAIRMAN AND CEO, MCCANN WORLDGROUP INDIA AND PRESIDENT, SOUTH ASIA

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FOTOCORP


Are We Ready to Pay for the Online Content?

The debate continues. More publishers are experimenting with paid content models. Has the time to go pay arrived? By Sumantha Rathore

WHEN WEBSITES GAVE AWAY CONTENT FOR FREE – IN THE INITIAL DAYS OF THE DOTCOM AGE - THE PLAN WAS TO SUPPORT THE BUSINESS WITH advertising revenue.

However, once the ad budgets dried

up, digital publishers who tried charg-

ing for content found few takers. Users

would just go to another free website.

Since everything was given away for free

in the beginning, the perception among

users was that publishers themselves

don’t value their content and was not

worth paying for. The feeling continues

to linger. The truth is that creating and

publishing original content is expensive,

be it online or on traditional media.

This cost can’t be offset by advertis-

ing alone. Many publishers have been

experimenting with paywalls and combo

subscription packages, with varying

degrees of success. More experimenta-

tion may be required, and what works

for a mainstream publication may not

work for a niche one. The key is to find

the right balance between advertising

and subscription revenue, as has been

the case with most print publications and

even cable TV.

READERS ARE ALWAYS WILLING TO PAY FOR INTERESTING, INSIGHTFUL AND EXCLUSIVE CONTENT THAT THEY WANT, BUT ARE UNABLE TO GET IT FREE.

The real challenge for publishers is

not about changing the reader mindset

but more about creating truly differenti-

ated content and delivering it seamlessly

across all platforms.

At Mint, we are strongly committed

to providing our readers with a clear and

comprehensive analysis of key local and

global issues that matter. Having estab-

lished our print offering, we are now

putting a lot of emphasis on expanding

our digital portfolio.

In addition to our website, Livemint.

com, we have launched apps for iPhone

and iPad, and we are always looking for

more relevant initiatives. Since our read-

ers value the uniqueness of our content,

we have started experimenting with paid

content models - and our e-paper has

already gone paid.

Overall, I believe publishers must

continue to focus on content differen-

tiation, invest in latest technology and

provide readers with content that they

value.

WE BELIEVE THAT IT IS STILL TOO EARLY FOR INDIANS TO PAY FOR ONLINE CONTENT ON THE WEB.

THE CONCEPT OF MICRO payment - subscription money - is not there on the online medium. We don’t have enough readers to pay for language content and the present subscription system does not yield returns.

Things can only change if we implement subscription on e-papers as an industry and not at an individual level. So, even if the top 10 publishers come together it will serve the pur-pose to a large extent. That’s the only way the problem can be tackled effectively. However, in mobile phones, the ecosystem is robust and the model for paid content is viable.

Most of the larger Indian publishers are ready with their digital strategy, whether it is for paid content or advertising supported sites for the mobile phones.

CEO, MMI Online (JPL) Senior General Manager, Malayala ManoramaBusiness Head, Mint

SUSH

IL K

UMAR

MTV, in association with Tata Nano, has launched ‘Nano Drive with MTV’,

India’s first social streaming show featuring four teams on a 21-day road trip across the country. The show, which is in the form of a tweaked travelogue, will see each member of the winning team being awarded a Tata Nano. The show started on May 28.

The show captures the journey of four teams from North, South, West and East on video that is streamed online primarily on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The content is created by the contestants while on the trip in the form of blogs, videos, photo-graphs and even status updates and tweets, which they publish on their own profile pages using a tweaked version of a phone application called Gotcubed. The app tracks and col-lates the conversation happening on various social media platforms on to MTV’s official website and Facebook page.

The winners will be decided on the basis of the social engagement scores accumulated by each team. The points are calculated on the basis of the social media engagement a team manages to gath-er. For example, one Like on Facebook will earn a team one point. Ten comments on Facebook convert into one point and one mention on micro-blogging site Twitter will get two points.

At the time of filing this report, all the teams had gathered more than 1,000 points each, with the South team at over 1,800 points. The Facebook page for the property is also doing well, touching 75,000 fans within two days of launch. Videos of the teams’ journey, too, are available on Facebook and YouTube (http://www.youtube.

com/watch?v=Mby6EhtBZvA, http://www.you-tube.com/watch?v=1qiI8DiOT8A).

To make the show social in the true sense of the word, the teams have to travel on their respective routes around India and complete the fun activi-ties set up for them. They have a fixed budget of `4,000 per day, in which they have to figure out their food, stay and petrol. The format of the show allows teams to reach out to friends, acquaintances or even people who they have just met to help them with lodging and other requirements, thus creating a social connect not only limited to online media but spreads to every city that they visit.

Commenting on the reason for choosing digital as a medium to execute and promote the show, Ekalavya Bhattacharya, head, digital, MTV, says, “The concept of a reality travel show goes beyond just involving real people in a travel show format.

The idea is to bring in reality in terms of people, places, time, their relationship and movement.

Updating the JourneyMTV

‘Nano Drive with MTV’ is a reality show that captures the journey of four teams on a road trip on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. By Nisha Menon

>>

(clockwise) Duggirala, Bhattacharya, Drive with MTV’s website and face-book page snapshots


Arijit Ray loves the warmth of the people in Kolkata, has great friends in Delhi and

has learned to adjust to the demand-ing life in Mumbai. Ray finished his schooling from Bandel (a town 60 km from Kolkata) and the family moved to Delhi. “I did my B.Com Honours from Bhagat Singh College. My brother-in-law was at Contract Advertising,” he says, referring to how he got acquainted with advertis-ing as a career option.

Ray’s career began with the Delhi-based Alfred Allan Advertising in the early ‘90s. “I wanted a summer job.” The manager liked Ray’s work and offered him a full time job, after he finished his summer training. “I was hesitant as I was still studying,” recalls Ray. In 1992, Triton Communications was being launched in Delhi. “I joined their start-up team here.” He managed brands such as Geep Batteries, Salora TVs and Fax Machines and Flury’s Tea and Confectionery Products. In 1993, he moved to Rediffusion DY&R, working on brands such as Godfrey Phillips, Rothman’s, United Airlines, Ericsson Mobiles, Canon Copiers and Singer Sewing Machines. “My love was Godfrey Philips. I became the key pioneer of cigarettes, although I never smoked.”

At Triton, he picked up the “fundamentals of pro-

fessional account management - the importance of client meeting reports, the values of responsiveness and expe-rience of launching a brand.” Being a part of a start up team meant that each one shouldered more responsibility than usual.

Rediffusion was about belonging and empowerment. “I started realiz-ing that I had the potential to do good things. At a time when there was tre-mendous churn, I stayed on for more than six years at a stretch.”

In 1999, Ray moved to McCann Erickson, Delhi as an associate account director. He led the Nescafe business that launched the “Taste that gets you started out” communi-cation, integrating it into Nescafe’s then global communication platform ‘Open up’.

He moved back to Rediffusion Delhi as account director in 2000. “As I was known as the cigarette guy, they called me back because at that point in time, they had won Four Square and it was the biggest brand of GPI.” One day, he got a call from the head office and he was asked whether he would like to move to Kolkata, because Rediffusion’s Kolkata office needed leadership. In 2001, he finally decided to take the plunge and move to Kolkata as branch head.

In two-and-a-half years, Ray turned the business from a one-client operation to a stable 7-client operation, which included three big ‘Kolkata’ brands (Tata Steel, Keo Karpin hair oil and Birla Cement). “I got fantastic support from the team,” says Ray. “That was when I under-stood the power of building teams more than building offices.”

Ray was also toying with the idea of going to Mumbai. In early 2004, he joined Ogilvy Mumbai as vice president and head of its Specialist Auto Practice Group, leading work on brands Bajaj Pulsar and CEAT

Tyres. He also led the team that launched one of the most successful bikes, the Discover, where he led the negotiation for Jackie Chan to endorse the brand.

He then moved to Saatchi & Saatchi in January 2005, as business head, Mumbai Operations. “At Saatchi, I had the privilege of working on roles I had not done before. The role of telecom knowledge leader helped me sharpen my brand stewardship skills.” Three years later, Ray joined Mudra as executive VP & head, Mudra West. “We had six-seven businesses when I joined. The brief that Madhukar Kamath gave me was clear: take this office to the next level.” He got several businesses like Lavassa and Economic Times - Power of Ideas propelling Mudra to greater heights.

[email protected]

“You have to build

organisations with people.

They are everything.”

By Shibani Gharat

ARIJIT RAY I CEO I DENTSU COMMUNICATION

Bennett Coleman and Co (BCCL) is gearing up to launch a Bengali newspaper

from West Bengal. The daily, ten-tatively titled Amaar Shomaay (My Times), is expected to be launched in September, as per the sources.

The sources also informed that

the company plans to introduce the new daily only from Kolkata, as of now. Though there is no official con-firmation about this, it is known that the new entrant will be launched to compete with Anandabazar Patrika (ABP), the leading daily of the state.

It is expected that BCCL will resort to price slash strategy and come up with a low priced variant. It is believed that the paper will be priced somewhere between `2 and `3, similar to that of Aaj Kal and Pratidin, as against ABP’s cover price of `5 per copy.

Amaar Shomaay will be an all-colour newspaper, whose content mix will be on the lines of The Times of India, different from ABP’s approach - which has a tilt towards opinion-based coverage.

As per the sources, “The latest entrant will aim to give Kolkata a new experience in the newspaper industry. There is a lot of scope for the loyalty of the readers to be chal-lenged in this market.”

This is not the first time that TOI has launched a local language offering in West Bengal; the group already has two Bengali magazines titled Aamar Somoy, a general inter-est magazine and Ami Udita, a women’s monthly magazine.

[email protected]

Tentatively titled Amaar Shomaay (My Times), the daily will be launched later this year. By Sumantha Rathore

BCCL

Team Player

FOTO

CORP

BCCL will resort to price slash strategy and come up with a low priced variant.


There is no doubt that, this time, the Indian Premier League (IPL 5) sashayed with the controversy crown. And yet, the predica-

ment that the controversy could further mar the cash-rich tourney’s finale viewership seems to have worked otherwise.

According to TAM Sports (C&S 4+, All India), the final match that took place between the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on May 27, scored a TVR of 8.92.

Yes, the tourney may not have stirred the cricket-hungry nation’s zest with the same vigour as it had done during its first three seasons, but when compared to the fourth, the game finale has surely fared well. The final match that took place between the CSK and Royal Challenge Bangalore (RCB) on May 28, 2011 scored a TVR of 6.44.

Indranil Das Blah, chief operating officer, KWAN, says, “While overall the fifth edition has not performed as well as the previous ones, the

build up to the finals this season had been very exciting. Add to it, the popularity of both the teams - CSK and KKR, along with the SRK star quotient, the audience viewership impact went on to become quite positive.”

Navin Khemka, managing partner, ZenithOptimedia, meanwhile, notes that the finale viewership of IPL 5 was chiefly driven by Kolkata.

“The quality of the match was good and there

was also a lot of star power presence on the field, which helped drive up the final ratings,” he says.

Not to forget, when compared to the first three seasons, the final match score of IPL 5 is still at a low. Consider this - in season 1 (2008), the tour-ney’s final match between CSK and Rajasthan Royals (RR) had scored 9.81 TVR, while during its second edition, the final match between Deccan Chargers Hyderabad (DC) and RCB garnered 9.29 TVR.

Meanwhile, it was the third season finals (CSK

versus Mumbai Indians) that took the cake with the highest TVR of 10.48.

But despite the fluctuations, media experts are of the view that IPL has still not lost its sheen.

A top media executive who does not wish to be named says, “With this season, the IPL viewership has finally stabilised. There will not be any doubts about IPL anymore and clients will be quite clear on what kind of ROIs are to be expected.”

Compared to the earlier seasons, IPL 5 has averaged at a lower rating of 3.45 TVR. In 2011, it had scored 3.51 TVR, while in 2010 and 2009, the average stood at 4.65 TVR and 4.17 TVR, respec-tively. In the debut season, it rated 4.81 TVR.

However, in terms of reach, IPL 5 has earned the highest numbers among the five seasons. As per TAM Sports, DLF IPL 2012 has garnered a consolidated reach of 1,62,934,000 viewers.

During Season 1, IPL had reached out to 1,02,414,000 viewers while in Season 2, it was 1,22,746,000. In Season 3, the tourney’s viewer-ship reach was 1,43,692,000, while in Season 4 it was 1,62,276,000.

[email protected]

Still a ForceIPL FINAL

The fifth season of the tourney has averaged at 3.45 TVR, which is lower than the earlier four seasons. Despite the fluctuations, experts believe that IPL has still not lost its sheen. By Anindita Sarkar

“The popularity of both the teams - CSK and KKR,

along with the SRK star quotient

has helped.”Indranil Das Blah

“The finale viewership of

IPL 5 was chiefly driven by

Kolkata.”NAVIN KHEMKAIPL 5 has earned the

highest reach among all seasons.

Best News Company, which plans to become a seven-channel network by the end of 2013, launched its first channel under the

brand name Samachar Plus on June 15. The test signals for the channel were up from June 7.

While the first channel launch is targeted at the Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal markets, the following launches will be targeted at Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana, and the Delhi and NCR region.

For the record, the seven-channel network will include six Hindi news channels and one religious channel.

Atul Aggarwal, executive editor, Best News Company, confirms the development to afaqs! Reporter.

The television network is being headed by Umesh Kumar, company director and editor-in-chief. Amitabh Agnihotry is the managing editor of Best News Company.

It is pertinent to note here that Kumar is also the managing editor of News Network of India (NNI), which runs as a separate independent news agency that provides news to leading newspapers and channels.

However, both Best News Company and NNI will run as different entities.

[email protected]

SAMACHAR PLUS

More in the Pipeline

On June 15, the first chan-nel was launched under the

name, ‘Samachar Plus’.

Best News Company plans to become a seven-channel network by the end of 2013, this will include Hindi news channels and one religious channel. By Anindita Sarkar

SUSH

IL K

UMAR

For this purpose, the show output in the form of a weekly episode or even a daily episode is redundant, as the content is old by the time it is seen by the viewers. To bring real-time updates to the viewers from the trip and have them consume this content, it is important to plug into a medium which the viewer is plugged into all the time as well. This medium is the internet, more specifically social media.”

The Nano Drive with MTV is pro-duced by The Glitch. Commenting on the concept, Varun Duggirala, co-founder and left brain, The Glitch, tells afaqs! Reporter, “We’ve always believed in having a strong social aspect to digital content. There have been many travel blogs and shows but no one has tried to make the content and experience truly social. So when MTV approached us to produce ‘Nano Drive with MTV’ we jumped at it. How often do you get the opportunity to take something groundbreaking and help push it a notch higher?”

[email protected]

<<

Updating...

4 9

The rural population of Uttar Pradesh is all set to get a newspaper made for them, by them. Titled Gaon Connection, the Hindi

weekly will be launched initially from the villages of three districts of the state, including Lucknow, Barabanki and Sitapur, in August.

The weekly will be introduced as a pilot project with an initial print run of 50,000 copies and will have a cover price of `5 per copy.

The 12-page broadsheet will be circulated in villages and will target the “rural readers who otherwise have no voice as well as those compa-nies which are interested to invest in these areas,” says Neelesh Misra, editorial director, Gaon Connection. While four pages of the newspaper will be coloured, the rest will be black and white.

Gaon Connection will have a mix of employees from villages as well as urban areas. The news-

paper will have a three-pronged strategy - while there will be a physical version of the newspaper, there will also be a news wire service that will supply news stories from the villages to the main-stream newspapers across the country.

The new venture is run by a 40-year-old organisation called Bharitya Gramin Vidyalaya Society and is a part of the Gaon Connection pro-ject that will have a newspaper, rural information

centres, and train computer teachers in the rural areas. The newspaper will be made available across the villages of the three districts. It will also be distributed to marketing heads of the companies, and mainstream media for rural news ser-vice.

Explaining a lit-tle more about the project, Misra says, “The idea is to take out the first issue our-selves, create a model, and then scale it up. We want to bridge the rural-rural divide so vil-

lages can share best practices, knowl-edge and information across rural commu-nities.”

The newspaper

will have three main sections - Gaon via Pradesh that will have stories and columns of NRIs with a rural touch; Gaon via Shehar that will talk about city dwellers who have some connec-tion with the village life; and a Village Special section that will cover interesting developments at the village level.

The media house conducted a survey last year across 3,000 homes

in the villages of UP, where it found that villagers are willing to spend money, provided they are

excited about the product.To promote the newspaper

among the advertisers and general public, the newspaper has launched an online crowd sourcing campaign, where it asks people to send `500 a month or `6,000 a year to the com-pany to help a rural reporter do a story.

The newspaper plans to undertake a unique distribution strategy to sell the physical version of the newspaper in the rural areas, that oth-erwise do not have a very robust distribution network. According to its plan, the organisa-tion will tie up with pan shops, fertiliser shops, schools and cart pullers to stock the newspaper. Alsos, there will also be a travelling library, a jeep converted into a library, which will travel on fixed routes, allowing people to read and buy the newspaper.

[email protected]

The media house conducted a survey

last year across 3,000 homes in the

villages of UP.

Rural ApproachGAON CONNECTION

Being started as a pilot project, the Hindi newspaper will be initially introduced from Lucknow, Barabanki and Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh. By Sumantha Rathore

“We want to bridge the rural-rural divide so

villages can share best practices, knowledge and information across rural

communities.”NEELESH MISRA

Gaon Connection’s Print Campaign

afaqs! Reporter, June 16-30, 2 0 1 2

Nickelodeon and Sonic, the kid’s entertainment chan-nels from the Viacom18

stable, have brought in the red, blue and green Power Ranger heroes to India to meet their fans in person.

To promote the latest season of ‘Power Rangers Samurai’, high decibel on-ground initiatives were launched that included van and mall activations. The van activation kicked off from June 1 across 15 cities in Uttar Pradesh, in which a van branded with Power Rangers Samurai creatives traversed the

streets of various cities. Promoters on the van organ-ised contests and games to engage the audiences. The van travelled to cities such as Ghaziabad, Meerut, Hapur, Sambhal, Moradabad, Bareilly, Aligarh, Agra, Farrukhabad, Allahabad, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur and Gorakhpur.

The mall activations, on the other hand, were scheduled on

June 9 at Infinity Mall, Mumbai

and June 16 and 17 at MGF Metropolitan

Mall, Saket, New Delhi. The red, blue and green Power Rangers were present at both the malls during the activations. The rangers met and engaged the audience, espe-cially kids, with various games and

To bring the show close to the kids, the channel organised van and mall activations in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Mumbai. By Jhumur Nandi

NICKELODEO N AND SONIC

Rangers Ahoy!


Berkshire Insurance, which offers online motor, travel and health insurance services, launched its operations in Bengaluru for

the first time. To create buzz around its services, the online insurance company rolled out an out -of-home (OOH) campaign in Bengaluru at over more than 30 outdoor sites.

The creatives of the OOH campaign were sim-ple but done in an interesting way, using different colours along with funny messages that compare easy things with buying online insurance from Berkshire. Some of the messages read - ‘Easier than worshipping film stars like gods’, ‘Easier than hearing about a new scam every other day’, ‘Easier that seeing more software parks than public parks’ and many more.

The creatives have been done by Metal Communications while the OOH campaign was executed by Media Circle. The outdoor sites were strategically placed at in high traffic areas. “As it

was a launch campaign in the Bengaluru market, our team, along with the client, had done a cou-ple of recces to understand the market and chose strategically located media as per the defined target

group, allotting specific creative communication to be put up on that medium,” says Anil Vohra, managing director, Media Circle.

Siddharth Prasad, vice president - creative, Metal Communications, says, “We wanted to keep the feel of the communication light-hearted with a view to reinforce the message that insurance

>>

>>

Simple SolutionsBERKSHIRE INSURANCE

With more than 30 outdoor sites, the OOH campaign aims to promote the company’s service in Bengaluru. By Jhumur Nandi

Jaipuria: meet your heroes

n-

JM

an

The creatives were simple but done interestingly using different colours and funny messages.

The last fortnight was a bit quiet for the advertising fraternity as there was not much

movement. To start with, BMB India appointed Raj Nair as chief creative officer wherein he will create communication solutions for the brands to make them famous, regardless of the medium used. Nair moved in from Contract Advertising where he was regional creative director.

Anindya Banerjee was promoted as branch head at Scarecrow, Delhi from his previous posi-tion of executive creative director and creative head of the Delhi office. Banerjee joined the agency in April, 2011 from Law & Kenneth.

Meanwhile at Saatchi & Saatchi, Kavita Kailas quit as vice president (VP), planning to start her own outfit. Kailas had joined the agency in June, 2011.

Media agency Mindshare Asia Pacific has gone in for a global as well as local re-structuring with a new leadership team. Ashutosh Srivastava, chief executive officer (CEO) Asia Pacific, Mindshare, was promoted as chairman and chief executive officer for global emerging markets. He will also be Mindshare’s new global leader for products

or services and talent development. Srivastava will continue to be based in Singapore and will focus on emerging markets such as Russia, in addition

to APAC. R Gowthaman, chief client officer at the agency, has taken the role of CEO for South and Southeast Asia. He, too, will be based in Singapore. While James Greet, CEO, Australia, has added Japan, Korea and New Zealand to his responsibilities, and will also be the APAC regional leader for talent.

Nirvana Films’ Ram Subramanian joined Native Films as director and partner. Here, he partners with Prithvi Lutharia. He began his career in ad film direction at Nirvana Films.

A round up of some major people movements in the last fortnight>> MOVEMENTS/APPOINTMENTS<<

MAINLINE


The media industry bustled with changes in position in various companies. The

first and the foremost being the appoint-ment of Deepak Lamba as president at Times Group. Lamba was the business head at BloombergUTV for twenty eight months. Lamba will drive businesses for the new ven-tures that the company plans to announce soon.

In another development, Endemol India appointed Abhishek Rege as chief operating officer (COO), television and Doris Dey as fiction head. Both Rege and Dey will be based in Mumbai. While Rege will report to Deepak Dhar, CEO, Endemol India, Dey will report to Rege. As a part of Rege’s new mandate,

he will be responsible for strategic operations specific to the production of new shows across the coun-try. Dey, meanwhile, will drive the fiction proper-ties and concepts. Earlier, Rege was director, business operations, international business, Viacom18 Media. Dey moves in from Balaji Telefilms, where she had

scripted shows like ‘Bade Achhe Lagte Hai’, ‘Kya Hua Tera Waada’, ‘Parichay’ and ‘Pavitra Rishta’.

Meanwhile, Rajmohan Nair has joined India TV as president, network development. He will report to Ritu Dhawan, managing director and CEO, India TV. Earlier, Nair was vice-president, distribution, TV Today group. In his new role, Nair will take care of the distribution of the channel in the domestic market. He will also be responsible for all the international launches and expansion of the channel, and will look after network development for India TV and forthcoming group channels.

Meanwhile Ashish Sehgal had taken over a new role as chief sales officer for the entire bouquet of channels including Ten Sports. Though there are no major changes in his responsibilities, Sehgal will now take care of all the sales related activities in the domestic market for all the channels of the network, apart from Zee News.

Moreover Writemen Media’s Kannada channel, Public TV has taken on board C K Harish Kumar as vice-president, sales and marketing. Earlier, Kumar was working with Suvarna News as associate vice-president. At Public TV, he will report to H R Ranganath, chairman and managing director. Kumar will be responsible for handling the expansion of the new projects.

Network18’s Zubin Driver has put in his papers to start up his own theatre company. Driver was chief executive officer, Cell18 and group creative director, Network18 for the past 11 years. Along with the theatre company Driver will also set up a separate production house for creative content that will cater to all platforms including TV and films.

MEDIA

JWT has strengthened its digital arm by mak-ing several senior level appointments. The

agency has roped in Sushobhan Chowdhury as vice-president, digital strategy, while Rahul Kaul has joined as vice-president, digital tech-nology. Prior to joining JWT, Chowdhury was employed with Leo Burnett East Africa as vice-president and general manger. While Kaul was with Sulekha.com.

DIGITAL

DEEPAK LAMBA

ABHISHEK REGE (L) AND DORIS DEY

RAJMOHAN NAIR

C K HARISH KUMAR

ZUBIN DRIVER

ANINDYA BANERJEE

RAJ NAIR

JAMES GREETR GOWTHAMANASHUTOSH SRIVASTAVA

RAM SUBRAMANIAN

RAHUL KAUL

Aholiday is all about exploring new things, enjoying and relaxing with family and friends.

Club Mahindra, a part of Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India, took the holiday experience close to its consumers by engaging them with a fun-filled on-ground activation organised at malls.

The activation, organised in association with the upcoming animated movie Madagascar 3, involved a Madagascar zone created at malls. Character cut-outs were placed near the zone so that the people visiting the zone can get their pic-tures clicked with their favourite characters from the movie. The highlight of the activation was Alex the Lion, from the movie Madagascar 3, who interacted with the people at the mall and played cricket with the kids and their families.

Various games and contests were also organ-ised at the venue and participants were gifted Madagascar branded goodies, while the winners of the con-tests recieved preview tickets of the movie.

The mall activation started

on May 26 and continued till the release of the movie that was June 8. The on-ground activation was carried out at various malls in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru over the weekends.

Sarita Srikanth, head, marketing, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India, says, “The whole idea is to bring the holiday experience offered by Club Mahindra on-ground to its consumers in a fun way. That is why we thought of doing it differ-

Fun-filled HolidaysCLUB MAHINDRA

Club Mahindra brought Alex the Lion from the movie Madagascar 3 to interact with consumers by playing cricket with them. By Jhumur Nandi

also teach them some of their stunts. The kids were given Power Ranger goodies such as branded T-shirts and caps, and also got themselves clicked with the Samurai heroes.

The channel also initiated a con-test for those who want to meet the heroes personally. The contest, begun on May 20, was supported by a 360 degree marketing campaign, ‘The Power Ranger’ Tour, which included television, radio, on-ground activations and digital platforms.

Speaking on the initiative, Nina Elavia Jaipuria, executive vice-presi-dent and general manager, Sonic and Nickelodeon India, says, “We want-ed to make this summer vacation memorable by getting the kids to meet their heroes in person. For this, we have started a contest in which the winners can meet and spend time with their favourite heroes. We had promoted the contest through a wholesome marketing campaign, wherein the on-ground activation helped to engage the audience more with the show.”

In addition, Power Rangers Samurai has a dedicated micro-

site on nickindia.com, as well as on sonicgang.com for fans to enjoy exclusive Power Rangers games and downloadables and interactive contests with prizes to be won as well.

The campaign started on June 1 and will continue for four weeks. However, the promos of the contest are being aired on television chan-nels and on more than 100 screens at McDonald’s outlets across North India. Apart from meeting with the super heroes, the contest winners also won other prizes like BlackBerry phones, iPads and PSPs.

[email protected]

Rangers... <<

>>

“The whole idea was to bring the holiday experi-ence on-ground

to the consumers.”

SARITA SRIKANTH

The contest was supported by 360 degree campaign

that included all media.



GAURAV GANDHI COO, Indiacast

Currently, I am reading two books, simultaneously - Jim Morrison by

Stephen Davis and Too Big To Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin.

Jim Morrison is a fascinating book for any Doors fan. The author is primarily a music journalist who began his career around the time when the band was gain-ing popularity.

Too Big to Fail gives an in-the-room account of the men and women who led some of most powerful organiza-tions in the US and how the Wall Street meltdown of 2008 affected their lives. Sorkin is a news-breaking New York Times journalist. His sources and an ability to dig through facts provide insights into what went on behind the scenes.

Of late, I have realized that books focusing on the hearts and souls that form the core leadership of large media and entertainment conglomerates catch my fancy more often.

I have two absolute favourites when it comes to books, Disney War by James B. Stewart and Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward. The former is an absolutely brilliant tale of the battle of control of one of America’s leading media and entertainment companies. Disney is the company that made mice and ducks household names way before they made fairytales famous.

Plan of Attack is a blow-by-blow account of the build-up to the Iraq war - after 9/11. One book that I have been waiting to read is Sweet Revenge - The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell by Tom Bower. I love to read about the characters that are the heroes or villains in a story. There is no particular author that I am really fond of. At the end of the day, what matters to me is the build up to the story.

As told to Raushni Bhagia

ently from the regular activations and brought in Alex the Lion from the movie Madagascar 3 to increase engagement with the consumers.”

The objective of the activation was to position Club Mahindra as a fun-brand that offers holiday experi-ence in a fun way. Stating the reason

for using Alex the Lion, Srikanth says, “The movie is for the fam-ily and so are we. We are a product that is enjoyed by the entire family. Therefore, we tried to relate the fun part from the movie with our brand. In the movie, Alex and his friends go to different destinations and explore places. Club Mahindra also provides offers to explore different places and enjoy with their loved ones.”

[email protected]

does not have to be a serious matter. That’s why we have designed the creatives in an illustrative style using humour.”

To create high impact, large for-mat billboards and bus lit shelters were chosen. And more than 30 outdoor sites have been used for the campaign. Arun Balakrishnan, chief executive officer (CEO), Berkshire Insurance, says, “We targeted

Bengaluru as there are mature online buyers. Therefore the objective was to create awareness and build com-munication with the clients about the services offered by the company. By executing the OOH campaign, we focused to drive the TG which travels internationally due to person-al or business purposes and people who own cars, to visit our website through our communication.”

The OOH campaign kicked off on June 2 in Bengaluru and will con-tinue for 21 days.

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Fun-filled...

Simple...

<<

<<

BIG CBS LOVE

Setting the Box

Taking advantage of the digiti-sation drive, Big CBS Love, a joint venture between

Reliance Broadcast Network and CBS Studios International, has rolled out an out of home campaign, ‘Subscribe to Love on Your Set Top Box’, urging people to buy set top boxes (STBs).

The campaign creatives feature celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Priyanka Chopra, Tyra Banks, Carrie Bradshaw and many more, with a message ‘Don’t miss the divas!’. The pictures and the content urge the audience to subscribe to a digital STB to see these divas.

About 60 outdoor sites have been used to spread the communication message over different outdoor for-mats such as gantries, bus shelters, pole kiosks, and Metro rail in Delhi.

Vishal Rally, business head, Big CBS Networks, says, “The cam-paign was launched on the back of Reliance Broadcast Network’s successful campaign, ‘Choose Your Set-Top-Box wisely’ with a similar aim, which is to increase aware-ness about digitisation and empower consumers with information, while enabling operators to build their

brand equity.”“We also use the platform to

highlight our partners who are rid-ing with us through this campaign. They include DTH players like DEN, Reliance Digital TV, Airtel, Dish TV, Hathway, Sun Direct, Digicable and others,” Rally adds.

The campaign started on May 28 and will continue for one month across Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

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The one-month long out of home campaign is spread across 60 outdoor sites in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. By Jhumur Nandi

“We want to empower consumers with

information about digitisation.” VISHAL RALLY

JOBSWITCH

TO ADVERTISE, CONTACT:

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Ph: 09619442284 Email: [email protected]

Sidharth Chittur (Bangalore)

Ph: 09964091407 Email: [email protected]

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