October 1-15, 2010 Volume 1, Issue 19 ` 50

What happens when brands hijack their

competitors’ campaigns.

40
42 14 12 PLUS
POKEN
Electronic Introduction 30
GOOGLE
The Search Continues 32
LITEFAST 360
From all Angles 46
ENGLISH NEWS CHANNELS
PROFILE OOH VOLKSWAGEN Tremors at the Top 50
Tushar Vyas Recovery Mode Look, Who’s Talking 101 MARKETS
Back with GroupM, for a The outdoor scenario in Its latest innovation uses an Small Town, Big Spend 56
second innings. Chennai is looking good. audio module.
EDITORIAL
This fortnight... Volume 1, Issue 19

A mbush advertising, or ambush marketing, is here to stay. And it is getting more creative all
the while. What actually happens when an attacker adjusts the crosshairs and takes aim at
its competitor’s brand campaign?
EDITOR
Sreekant Khandekar
PUBLISHER
Prasanna Singh
Most ambush advertising instances are attached to events like sports championships and meets. SENIOR LAYOUT ARTIST
Some of it happens round the year too. As the examples in this fortnight’s cover story show, brands Vinay Dominic
big and small have let themselves be exposed to ‘sniper fire’ as it were. LOGISTICS
Rajesh Kanwal
Is a brand completely at the mercy of the attacker? Are there any rules in this
ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES
game? Does ambush marketing always work well? Does the consumer, who one Hansika Koli, (0120) 4077834 4077837 Noida
assumes is whom the advertiser wants to sway, really care? Varun Mohan, (022) 40429702-5 Mumbai
October 1-15, 2010 Volume 1, Issue 19 ` 50 Neeraj Ranjan, 09886846842 Bangalore
In the case of sporting events, the organiser is keen to make sure that its mktg@afaqs.com
sponsors’ rights are protected. The organising committee of the London Olympics Marketing Office
in 2012, for instance, has already booked all available hoarding space in the city B-3, First Floor, Sector-4, Noida-201301.
Tel: (0120) 4077800.
during the Games. The Atlanta Olympics in 1996 is considered a game-changer
as ambush marketers went on a rampage, giving the organisers a major headache Mumbai
501-502, Makani Center, 5th Floor,
What happens when brands hijack their
in the process. In the aftermath, protective rules were tightened further as everyone Off Linking Road, Bandra (W),
competitors’ campaigns.

woke up to the reality. Mumbai - 400050

Tel: +91-22-40429 709 - 712

40 How does a brand tackle an ambush when there is no such protection? The Bangalore
recent Dove story caused quite a stir in P&G’s scheme of things when it hijacked S-1, New Bridge Corporate Centre,
42 14 12 PLUS
777 D, 100 ft Road, Indira Nagar,
POKEN
Electronic Introduction 30 the latter’s teaser billboard for Pantene.
GOOGLE
The Search Continues 32 Bangalore - 560038, India
LITEFAST 360

PROFILE OOH VOLKSWAGEN

From all Angles
ENGLISH NEWS CHANNELS
Tremors at the Top
46

50
Though much of the ambushing happen outdoors, today, digital media has Subscription Enquiries
Tushar Vyas Recovery Mode Look, Who’s Talking 101 MARKETS
Back with GroupM, for a
second innings.
The outdoor scenario in
Chennai is looking good.
Its latest innovation uses an
audio module.
Small Town, Big Spend 56
made it that much faster for the attacker brand to unsettle the victim. The ambush Garima Agnihotri, (0120) 4077837
subscriptions@afaqs.com
strategy on the ground is sharpened even further as the hijacker’s arrow blasts it
way through sites like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. Printed, published, and owned by
Prasanna Singh, Publisher,
Cheeky, irreverent, naughty and finding its mark almost every time, ambush advertising can at 7-A/13,
Ch. Ratan Singh Complex,
only get naughtier and cheekier as marketers find newer ways to irritate their competitors. It is up Jawala Heri Market, Paschim Vihar,
to the ‘victim’ to look for insulation. New Delhi-110 063.

That is what the cover story explores. Printed at Paras Offset Pvt. Ltd.,
C-176, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase I,
New Delhi 110 028.

Cover Illustration
M Venkatesh Tiffin Box

CONTENTS
24 20 PLUS
FASTRACK
Mysterious Moves 16
ITC
Knock, Knock TATA MF
The campaign Saving Grace 26
for Vivel aims to
reach half a million WHERE’S MY BONE
households. Every Dog... 46

18 12
SPIKES ASIA
BARISTA LAVAZZA
Indian Show 52
Win with Coffee
A contest that tests your BY INVITATION
coffee-making skills. Training Theory 64

POINTS OF VIEW 48 STAR PLUS

Backing the Original
Reality Movies SAB LIC 66
Are movie promos on reality Housewives to the Fore Shifting Perspective ZOOM
shows as clutter-breaking as Aspirational? SAB thinks A campaign puts the
they are made out to be? Happy Housewives’ club is. policyholders in focus. Hitting a Six 72

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

 *HWWLQJ$KHDG
OVUM RESEARCH
1(:6%8//(7,1 Sponsored by

T
MARKETING

elecommunications, espe- government’s perspective, 2009

cially mobile, has been a key was good as tariffs were low and
sector driving growth for more people were getting covered Hercules> Hercules Inext Bikeathon, an annual cycling
several economies in the world, with by telecom. Even in rural areas, the rally recently completed its third season. This year the
the number of mobile connections teledensity increased last year.” cycling marathon covered four states in 12 cities of Kanpur,
having reached over 5 billion global- The huge increase in subscriber Lucknow, Agra, Allahabad, Dehradun, Meerut, Varanasi,
ly in July. India and China have been numbers also led to a rise in demand Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Patna, Jamshedpur and Ranchi. Last
leading this growth, with about 652 for value added services, with opera- year over 20,000 bikers had participated in this event and
million and 720 million subscribers tors treating these services as a major pledged to take up cycling for good health. Star News was
respectively as of July. revenue generator in coming times the media partner of the event.
However, according to a recent since voice average revenue per user
report by Ovum research, the year (ARPU) has been falling.
2009 saw the worst telecom growth Moreover, prices of handsets A mobile van Lenovo> The company in partnership with Intel is under-
rate in a decade as global telecom also came down with several new will showcase taking a multi-city campaign to drive closer to its customers.
Lenovo’s latest Intel-Lenovo ‘Fun-on-Wheels’ aims to offer a sneak peek into
operator revenues grew only by 2.2 entrants, both local and internation-
the company’s latest range of notebooks and desktops. A
per cent year on year. The study said al, in the mobile handset industry. range of mobile van will showcase Lenovo’s latest range of products
slow growth could be This was responsi- products. and provide consumers a touch
attributed to the global ble for an increase in and feel experience. This 21-day
economic downturn. handset sales, which long campaign will cover more
However, even led to growth in over- than 12 cities.
though 2009 might all industry revenue,
have been a bad year with about 100 to 125
for telecom globally, million handsets sold Fujifilm> The camera maker Fujifilm has launched the
it had a mixed impact every year. FinePix Z700EXR, the first in a new class of EXR touch screen
on the Indian telecom SC Khanna, digital camera. The camera offers the latest digital imaging
technology combined with a new YouTube and Facebook easy
sector. secretary general,
RN Prabhakar, 2009 marked Association of Unified
web upload tool. Available in black, red and pink colours, the
FinePix Z700EXR has a 12-megapixel Super CCD EXR sensor,
former member, the beginning of Service Providers of a Fujinon 5x periscopic optical zoom lens and ISO levels of
Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India,
an intense tariff India, is of the view
that “From 2008 to
up to 1600 at full resolution.
says, “There has not war amongst 2009, there has been a
been much impact on operators, with growth of about 23-30 In the next five Reliance Group & Zegna > The Milan-based luxury
Indian telecom sec- per cent in the telecom
each vying for a sector. The telecom years, the joint menswear brand Ermenegildo Zegna has formed an alliance
tor in 2009, unlike venture will with Reliance Brands, a part of Reliance Group, to develop
other markets where greater hold of market in India is dif- launch 10 stores the Zegna brand in India. In the next five years, the joint
recession led to a venture will launch 10 stores across six to seven cites, start-
decrease in demand
the mobile sub- ferent from any other
telecom market in across six to ing with a single-brand boutique to be opened in Hyderabad
for telecom services as scription market. the world. India and seven cites. in October 2010. The company expects India to be the larg-
people started cutting China are doing very est market in South and South
their expenses. There was also low well in telecom. In fact, India is East Asia for the brand.
demand for high quality value added expanding at a faster rate than China
services in these markets.” now.” Samsung> The electronic appliance company is look-
The year 2009 marked the begin- Gross revenues of the Indian tel- ing at a 40 per cent jump in the sales in the East this
ning of an intense tariff war amongst ecom sector in 2009 fluctuated. The Durga Puja. The company is relying on its new products
operators in India, with each vying gross revenue surged to reach close like 3D TVs, LED TVs, new launches in home appliance and
for a greater hold of the mobile to `40,000 crore for the quarter end- digital still cameras to create excitement in the market.
subscriptions market. This led to a ing December 2009. In addition, Samsung is also offering its consumers a ‘Dus
substantial increase in the number of The report also says that in the ka Dum Triple Zero Offer’ which includes zero processing
mobile subscribers. In 2009, about year 2010, China and India alone fee and zero interest and verification charges on the pur-
180 million new subscribers were will add 329 million new mobile chase of any audio visual product.
added, compared to only 83 million phone connections, equivalent to
additions in 2008. more than the combined population The company Chisel & Hammer> Formerly known as Living Room
Jaideep Ghosh, executive direc- of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and plans to open a Lifestyle, the company is planning to venture into new busi-
tor, KPMG, says, “From the the UK. nesses with a chain of electronic goods stores across metros
chain of
and tier II cities. The stores will cater to customers looking for
electronic goods lifestyle electronic goods. Also, as part of its plans to venture
QUOTE OF THE FORTNIGHT stores across into the gems and jewellery business, the company will be
metros and manufacturing gold jewellery to be sold in India and outside
‘‘Blackberry, the brand, is tier II cities. through exclusive brand outlets.
repositioning itself, as its
primary audience is no longer IMRB> The latest report from IMRB International states
corporates. One would be that netizens spend close to 3.5 hours per week online. Titled
Internet Audience Measurement, the report shows that the
surprised with the enthusiasm of netizens spend 12 per cent less time on the weekend whereas
young customers...’’ the browsing of social networking sites increases by more
ANURADHA AGGARWAL, V-P MARKETING, VODAFONE ESSAR, ON THE LAUNCH OF A PREPAID SCHEME BY than 12 per cent on Fridays. The report also states that women
VODAFONE TO MAKE BLACKBERRY MORE AFFORDABLE, IN BUSINESS STANDARD. spend even lesser time proportionately during week-ends.

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

 6LJKRI5HOLHI
NDTV-ASTRO
1(:6%8//(7,1 Sponsored by

N
DTV informed the BSE for a minority partner to fund its
MEDIA

that it has reached an plans for the growth of its lifestyle

agreement with South Asia channel and a planned food channel.
Creative Assets Ltd - a subsidiary of Shah is of the opinion that the Diabetic Living> Maxposure Media Group has acquired
Astro All Asia Networks, to create a deal with Astro is more about the the license to publish Diabetic Living magazine from Meredith
strategic alliance for lifestyle chan- financial support and infusion of Media group of publications. The inaugural issue of the
nels in India. fresh cash into debt ridden NDTV. magazine will hit the newsstands in November this year.
As per the deal, South Asia Astro, an integrated cross media The group is still working on the nitty-gritty, including cover
Creative Assets will acquire a 49 group with a presence in Malaysia, price, ad rates and print run of the magazine. However, the
per cent stake in NDTV Lifestyle India, West Asia and other regional magazine is likely to be a quarterly with an average of 120
pages per issue.
Holdings (NLHPL) in the pro- and international markets, will lend
posed holding company for NDTV its strategic expertise to NDTV.
Lifestyle. This will be done by way Abhay Amlekar, equity ana- The monthly W+K> Making its foray in print, Wieden+Kennedy has
of subscription, which is worth $40 lyst, KR Choksey Securities, terms magazine launched a magazine, titled Motherland. The objective behind
million (about `1822 crore). NDTV the NDTV-Astro pact as a sound the launch is to move beyond addressing stereotypical gen-
gets to hold on to the remaining move on NDTV’s part to reduce its Motherland, eral interest issues and provide an in-depth perspective on
51 per cent stake in the joint ven- mounting debt. is priced at Rs trends, issues and ideas - all emanating from contemporary
ture (JV). NDTV Lifestyle operates At present, NDTV is a loss mak- 100 and targets Indian subculture. Priced at Rs 100, the agency will bring out
NDTV Good Times, the English ing company with huge debt. 20-50-year-olds. the issue every month. The magazine targets readers in the
lifestyle television Amlekar shares that age group of 20-50 years, individuals from different walks
channel. the company’s long of life.
Commenting on
The total valu- term debt is about
the deal, Anand Shah, ation of NDTV’s `320 crore and it runs IBNLive.com and IBNKhabar.com> CNN-IBN’s
media analyst, Angel lifestyle business a short term debt of news portal -IBNLive.com and IBN7’s Hindi news portal IBN
Broking Firm, says,
“The new deal comes turns out to be `163The crore.
total valuation
Khabar have partnered with Vdopia to power online video
advertising on the Live TV section of the respective website.
in the wake of ter- `375 crore. The of its lifestyle busi- The online feed covers live news being broadcasted on-air,
mination of a similar ness turns out to be
pact between NDTV
sale of 49 per `375 crore. The sale
from CNN-IBN and IBN7. The decision came after the com-
pany observed a considereable growth in consumption of
and US based Scripps cent stake will of 49 per cent stake to online videos and online video advertising space. The group
Networks Interactive help it infuse Astro will help NDTV is hopeful that this growth to increase in the years to come.
for selling major- `185 crore in
ity stake in NDTV’s `185 crore in its infuse its business, thereby
lifestyle broadcast- business, thereby helping it reduce its The campaign Mail Today> The compact daily from the stable of India
Today, Mail Today (in collaboration with Daily Mail), claims to
ing company. The reducing its debt debt burden to certain has been have clocked a circulation of two lakh in the capital and has
new deal also comes
burden.
extent. designed by launched a campaign to reinforce this. The group claims that
at a valuation similar According to TBWA. in the last six months it has added a large number of copies,
to the Scripps deal. Amlekar, the partner- taking its circulation
Moreover, this time, with 51 per ship with Scripps meant NDTV figure up to 2 lakh
cent stake, NDTV gets to call the netted more cash as compared to the copies.
shots.” Astro deal. However, it also result-
In November 2009, Scripps ed in NDTV losing the controlling
bought a majority stake in NDTV’s stake in the company. This time, Oye! 104.8 FM> TV Today Network has re-launched its
lifestyle unit for $55 million. Scripps NDTV gets to retain the major- FM radio channel Meow FM as Oye! 104.8 FM. Meow FM
Networks Interactive also acquired ity stake and maintain the final and was distinctly targeted at the women listeners. With the
69 per cent of NDTV Lifestyle, authoritative say in all the business new positioning the radio station will focus on the Bollywood
anchored by NDTV Good Times, decisions. quotient. The new tagline of Oye FM is Sabse Filmi. The radio
with the NDTV Group retaining 31 “NDTV’s step towards reducing station will offer listeners a mix of Bollywood, RJ talk and
per cent stake in the JV. its debt by selling its core assets will humour. The station will tweak its product offering for all its
However, the deal was called off pay off in the long term only if it suc- seven stations - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Amritsar, Jodhpur,
in May this year, with NDTV termi- ceeds in supporting these moves by Patiala and Shimla to cater to distinct consumer preferences.
nating its pact. boosting its revenue from the new
With the deal being called off, JV and its lifestyle business,” says The channel PIX> The English movie channel has announced its new
NDTV was once again left to look Amlekar.
has announced partnership with Sony Pictures Television (SPT). This asso-
ciation will grant Indian television premiere rights to the
an exclusive channel for exclusive telecast in India in the first pay televi-
QUOTE OF THE FORTNIGHT tie-up with sion window of all the new movies released worldwide by
Sony Pictures SIP in their original language. This is the first such deal for
PIX, a relative newcomer channel in the English movies cat-
‘‘The space is crowded and Television.
egory.
their revenues are nowhere
close to Hindi news channels. 94.3 Radio One> The radio channel, 94.3 Radio One,
I have my reservations on new has begun a hunt for talent amongst college students across
India. Radio One College Championship (ROCC) aims to bring
players coming in...’’ forth the talent amongst students who aspire to be music
MANAS MISHRA, EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT, MUDRA CONNEXT, ON THE jockeys (MJs) on the station. ROCC has just kicked off audi-
UPCOMING NEWS CHANNELS IN KERALA, IN MINT. tions across 70 colleges all over the country.

8 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 $1HZ%HJLQQLQJ
ASCI
1(:6%8//(7,1 Sponsored by
ADVERTISING

R
ajiv Dube, director, to lead the movement on self
group corporate services, regulation in advertising in the
Aditya Birla Management country. It is a humbling experience
Corporation has been elected to be at the forefront of a 25 year Kellogg India> Kellogg India, the Indian subsidiary
chairperson of the board of ASCI old strong and growing initiative, of Kellogg Company, producer of ready-to-eat cereal and
(Advertising Standards Council of which has come to be looked upon convenience food, has signed on Bollywood actor Karisma
India). Dube has been a member by society and the government Kapoor as the new brand ambassador for its Kellogg’s
of the board of governors for five alike as the guardian for responsible Chocos range. The product is the Chocos Kpak range,
years, during which he provided advertising communication.” priced at `10. This is the first time the brand has signed
active support for self regulation in During the year 2009-10, a celebrity to endorse its product. This campaign will be
advertising. the Consumer Complaints supported by a 360 degree marketing plan incorporating
G Krishnan, executive director Council (CCC) met 12 times and both ATL (above-the-line) and BTL (below the line)
and chief executive officer, TV deliberated on complaints against activities.
Today Network has been elected 159 advertisements. Of these, 87
vice-chairperson of the organisation, complaints were upheld, while 72 Lux> HUL’s Lux is a brand known for featuring Bollywood
while Vikram Sakhuja, CEO, South were not upheld. In 71 cases, the ads beauties in its communication. It has kept up to its starry
Asia, GroupM Media India has been have been withdrawn or modified legacy by adding Asin Thottumkal as the new brand
re-appointed honorary treasurer. appropriately as per the CCC’s ambassador for its natural variant, Lux Sandal & Cream.
Other members of the new decisions, resulting in a compliance The natural variant is available at `15 in select Indian
board of governors states and cities only. This natural variant is a product that
are Johnson & calls for attention by its uniqueness in natural ingredients,
Johnson’s Narendra fragrance and colour.
Ambwani, Procter
& Gamble Hygiene
& Health Care’s
TV Today >> ACCOUNT MOVEMENT
Shantanu Khosla rate of 82 per cent.
and Hindustan Network’s Commenting on > Lowe Lintas has been assigned the creative duties for travel
portal, Expedia.co.in, following a multi-agency pitch. Besides Lowe,
Unilever’s Gopal
Vittal, representing
Krishnan is the says,past
the year, Keskar
“During 2009- Grey Worldwide, Publicis Communications and DDB Mudra were
advertisers. vice-chairperson, 10, ASCI celebrated in the final race for the business. The account will be handled out
of the agency’s Delhi branch. The multimedia campaign planned
Bennett Coleman while Sakhuja of its Silver Jubilee. It ahead will be led by online medium. Expedia.co.in is the localised
& Co.’s Bhaskar Das,
Eenadu’s I Venkat and
GroupM has been has grown in stature,
membership strength
website catering to Indian consumers since March 2008.
Vikram Kaushik from re-appointed and recognition.
Tata Sky will represent as honorary A sustained public > After a multi-agency pitch that saw participation from top agencies, Triton Delhi
the media on the board, relations campaign has won the creative mandate for Delhi Press. As part of the partnership, the agency
while the advertising treasurer. has ensured growing will be responsible for handling the communication for some magazines of the
agencies will be awareness of ASCI publisher. Delhi Press brings out 31 magazines in nine languages, including some of
represented by Subhash Kamath of among the stakeholders and also the biggest names in the country such as Grihshobha, Woman’s Era, Sarita, Saras
BBH India, Arvind Sharma of Leo among the general public. We Salil and Champak. The magazines reach out to more than 35 million readers.
Burnett and Srinivasan Swamy of upgraded our website and made
RK Swamy BBDO. it interactive. This feature and
From allied professions on introduction of a toll free number > Following a multi-agency
the board are Dilip Cherian of has simplified the process of lodging pitch that involved about
Perfect Relations, outgoing ASCI a complaint about an advertisement three other agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi has won the creative duties for Credit
chairperson Dhananjay Keskar of with ASCI. Information Bureau (India). The aggregator of credit information earlier followed a
IBS, Pranesh Misra of Brandscapes He mentions the support that B2B model; now, entering the B2C space, it sought a creative partner to build the
Consultancy and Partha Rakshit of the organisation has received from brand and increase awareness in the public domain. The campaign ahead will initially
Partha Rakshit Associates. the Ministry of Information and be led by the digital medium, before taking the multimedia approach.
On his appointment, Dube says, Broadcasting and also the World
“I feel privileged and thankful to Federation of Advertisers, who have > Following a multi-agency pitch, the lingerie brand from
the board of governors of ASCI for agreed to fund ASCI over the next Sri Lanka-based MAS Holdings Amante has awarded its
providing me this opportunity three years. creative mandate to Rediffusion Y&R. The account size
is pegged at about `8 crore and will be handled out of the
agency’s Bengaluru office. In the final stage, four agencies,
QUOTE OF THE FORTNIGHT including RK Swamy BBDO and TBWA, were in the fray for
the business. The incumbent agency on the account is Bates 141.
‘‘You have to be able to build
communities... you really > After a multi-agency pitch, the Bengaluru-
want consumers to be the based e-reader-maker EC Media awarded its
ambassadors for your brand. creative mandate to White Canvas, which
And you have to build that on a would be handling the launch of the companies e-reader, Wink. The communication
strategy is currently focused on direct marketing exercises around the retail
one to one relationship.’’ environment. Going forward, as more variants are launched, ATL (above the line)
activities are also on the cards.
JOHN ANDERSON, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LEVI’S, ON THE WAY LEVI’S HAS BUILT ITS
Wink was launched in August, as a multi-function e-book reader that supports 15
BRAND, IN BRAND EQUITY
languages and also offers more than 200,000 book titles.

10 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

Gift Vouchers

3 Bumper prizes of
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VOLKSWAGEN

Look Who’s Talking!

Marketing ploys that instantly catch the eye are becoming the signature of
Volkswagen. To mark the launch of the Vento, its entry-level sedan, the car
maker gave newspapers a voice. By Biprorshee Das

A
fter holes were punched and tyre impres- cards, took shape with Volkswagen’s media
sions made in newspapers, who knew what partner, MediaCom India, which took care of
Volkswagen had up its sleeve as its next the positioning, while DDB Mudra developed
media innovation? With strategies that are becom- the creative concept.
ing the hallmark of the brand, this time, the Talking to afaqs! Reporter Divya Gururaj,
German car maker brought another surprise for managing director, MediaCom India, says,
the readers of The Times of India and The Hindu “We needed to get quick awareness in a
- namely, a ‘talking newspaper’. cluttered segment. To top it, the brand is asso-
The creative was a full page ad of the Vento, on ciated with innovations that stand out, and
which a small, black box was stuck - this provided people expect something different each time.”
the voice to the ad. As the newspaper was unfold-
ed, readers could hear a recorded message about
the new sedan. The chips used in the black box The creative was based on
were light sensitive and the message would turn
off automatically when the paper was folded back.
the idea of musical greet-
The communication was carried out across ing cards that converted
Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru and
Chennai in the two dailies. a static medium into a
Talking about the innovation, Lutz Kothe, head
of marketing and PR, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, dynamic one.
Volkswagen Group Sales India says, “At
Volkswagen, innovation is a way of life and “It is indeed a difficult task, especial-
extends beyond our cars to the communi- ly with a medium such as print, where
cation we do for the market.” everything has been done to death,”
Kothe adds, “With this campaign, our Gururaj adds.
aim was to get the awareness of prospective Bobby Pawar, chief creative officer,
customers for our new Vento launch and Mudra Group says, “The brand lives in
drive traffic to our dealers’ showroom. This popular culture and we have to raise the
approach has converted a static medium to bar each time. Anything different polarises
a dynamic one. The idea directly correlates people. The objective was to get people
to one of our brand propositions, which is talking, imprinting their minds and spark-
innovation.”
The idea, based on musical greeting (Left) Kothe, Gururaj and Pawar: let’s talk FRQWLQXHGRQSDJH>>

LIC’s creative duties lie with a to make the brand recognise the
LIC roster comprising JWT, Mudra changed context and consumers,
Communications, DraftFCB Ulka while re-interpreting the role of life

Shifting Perspective and R K Swamy BBDO.

Prior to 2006, JWT handled the
creative duties for the brand. The
The campaign marks the brand’s attempt to bring the account moved from JWT in 2006,
but was back with the agency in
policyholder to the forefront. By Ashwini Gangal 2009. Currently, Motivator handles
insurance in their lives.
Insurance today is extolled more
as an investment to realise dreams,
than a vital cover for life’s risks.
Besides being cognizant of these
changed consumer attitudes, the
brief was to continue with the over-

A
fter a lengthy gap of 12 years,
LIC, a reassuring presence in
the lives of approximately 14
crore policy holders, has launched a
new corporate campaign to spread
awareness about its products.
The previous corporate com-
munication, in 1999, featured a
sentimental yet strong character,
Mrs. Sharma persuading consumers
to get insured by speaking about her
late husband who had secured his
family’s future with LIC.
This campaign was used for
years altogether. Films about new
products were launched from time
to time, but LIC did not roll out
another corporate campaign until
now.
The current campaign has
been created by JWT, Mumbai.
the media duties for LIC.
The campaign is aimed at a TG of
individuals aged 25 years and above,
who need risk cover but haven’t
insured themselves. LIC’s brief was
all thought of Zindagi Ke Saath Bhi,
Zindagi Ke Baad Bhi. Further, with
respect to the campaign idea, two
strategic shifts were conceptualised.
The first was to see life from the
perspective of the potential policy-
holder, rather than the beneficiary,
as was the case all these years. Also,
the mandate was to hint at what
could be lost, rather than painting a
stark picture of tragedy.
The ad film opens in a crowded
market, where a child is separated
from her father. The anguish and
FRQWLQXHGRQSDJH>>

12 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0


CHENNAI OOH
Back With
A Bang
The Chennai outdoor market seems
to be back on track after two years of
lull. By Surina Sayal
A
fter a double dip in 2008 - a hoarding ban
followed by the economic slowdown -
Chennai’s outdoor market was bruised and
bleeding. But like all things that go down and even-
tually make their way back up, Chennai’s outdoor
market too got up, dusted itself and has moved on.
REWIND MODE
O utdoor advertising began in Chennai in the
late ’60s with a few billboards. During the
next 25 years, the government gave permission for
around 500 billboards to be erected.
It was only in the ’90s that other outdoor for-
mats started sprouting. Besides billboards, there
were bus shelters, bus back panels, railway sta-
tions’ signage, centre medians and airport sites.
However, billboards dominated the outdoor scene
in Chennai, even though many disapproved of the
clutter and chaos.
There were about 5,000 billboards in Chennai,
and another 5,000 plus sites in the rest of Tamil
Nadu. The spends, from 2007 onwards, were close
to Rs 200 crore per annum - over Rs 15 crore per
month from the organised sector. The major chunk
- about Rs 10 crore - was spent on billboards, about
Rs 2 crore on bus shelters and the rest on bus back
panels, centre medians or inside airports.
In April 2008, following a government ruling,
billboards were removed in Tamil Nadu overnight.
THEN AND NOW
I mmediately after the ban, there was a drop of
50 per cent in outdoor spends. About 30-40 per
cent of clients, who were spending only on hoard-
ings exited since they felt that the other outdoor
format options did not fit their requirements.
During September 2008, due to the global
meltdown and recession, advertising spends dipped
further, to only about Rs 4-5 crore a month.
It was only from mid 2009 that the spends
slowly started getting back on track, thanks to the
launch of five telecom operators, namely MTS,
Idea, Tata Docomo, Uninor and Videocon.
The outdoor market in Chennai today is esti-
mated at around Rs 8 crore. This might touch
Rs 10 crore during the festival months of September
and October.
GROWING FORMATS
T here was a positive outcome too, as a result of
the double trouble faced by Chennai’s OOH
industry,” says Khalid Khan, CEO, Brainchild
Solutions. “The OOH market in Chennai has
matured and has developed more offerings now.”
14 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0
1(:622+
Before...
Left: Muralidharan, Khan and Alambara
Earlier, a majority of the outdoor ad spends
were pumped into hoardings. Thus, media own-
ers too took a shortcut by offering only hoardings
to their clients. After the ban, many more media
vehicles developed. Bus shelters and large-format
wall graphics and wall stickers have emerged as the
most popular OOH options in Chennai.
“While the use of other formats is high, these
two formats have emerged to be the most com-
petitive and preferred options for advertisers
- based on their widespread reach and ability to
provide larger than life imagery,” says Narendra
Kumar Alambara, GM and office head, Starcom
Worldwide, Chennai.
D Muralidharan, managing director of the
Chennai-based OOH firm, Metro Multimedia
During...
says, that in the past few months, branding in rail-
way over bridges (ROB) is in great demand and is
emerging as another sought-after media.
“These ROBs cut across the main arterial roads
like Mount Road, Dr Radhakrishnan Salai, Sardar
Patel Road and IT Corridor. They give head-on
visibility and are large formats, thus attracting
attention,” he says. These ROBs belong to MRTS
(similar to the Delhi Metro), which runs inside
the city from Beach Station to Velachery Station.
Aircel and Airtel have booked most of the ROBs on
long-term contracts. Some of the other regulated
mediums that have grown are bus back panels,
traffic signal timers branding, EMU train exterior
and interior branding, railway station and bus sta-
tion branding, pole kiosks, foot over bridge (FOB)
branding and airport advertising.
“As in Delhi and Mumbai, street furniture in
Chennai too got tremendous focus after the ban.
The remaining bus shelters in Chennai will also
be developed as either hi-tech or stainless steel
design,” Khan says, adding that ambient advertising
After FRQWLQXHGRQSDJH>>
 1(:6$'9(57,6,1*
FASTRACK << FRQWLQXHGIURPSDJH
Look who’s...
Mysterious Moves ing off conversations.”
The innovation came from the
idea of the Vento. The entry-level
sedan is positioned as a car that has
The youth accessories brand has created a series of three television commercials featur- been crafted with such passion that
ing brand ambassadors Genelia D’Souza and Virat Kohli. By Biprorshee Das even its engineers find it hard to see
it being driven away.

A
fter having established itself as a popular brand signature of the brand. “The product category had to be
among the youth with its range of watches and the hero of the campaign,” says Bhasin.
eyewear, Fastrack has ventured further into the
accessories space, launching its range of bags, wallets, digital - with a strong presence on social networking
belts and wristbands. sites and interactive activities on the brand’s website.
Building on the core brand thought of ‘Move On’, The campaign will continue until February, 2011. Maxus
Lowe Lintas has created a series of three quirky television handles the media duties for the band.
commercials for Fastrack bags, roping in its brand ambas-
sadors, actor Genelia D’Souza and cricketer Virat Kohli.
One of the films has the two brand ambassadors
getting intimate in an ATM. When Kohli signals at
the security camera, D’Souza empties her
Fastrack bag to cover the same with it. The
second film shows Kohli getting ready to
head out, when he finds a hickey on his
neck. He tries to covers it with the strap
of his bag. As he heads out, he bumps
into D’Souza, who spots the mark on his
neck and haughtily covers it up again with
the bag strap. The third TVC has the duo
checking in baggage at the airport. On
being asked if there is any more luggage,
D’Souza cheekily points at Kohli as she
exchanges a mischievous smile with the Iyer: brand personality
attendant. A common music score runs through the
films and each TVC ends with a product showcase and a
voiceover introducing the product.
Arun Iyer, NCD, Lowe Lintas says that the task was to
introduce the new category of bags with the ambassadors,
while keeping the communication in the personality
of the brand. “This is a segment that is fairly large and
unbranded. The films show how we interpreted the
brand thought of ‘Move On’. Bags are being cleverly used
in every situation to ‘move on’,” says Iyer.
The creative team behind the campaign at Lowe
includes Iyer, Rajesh Ramaswamy, Rimona Ganapathy,
Lohith Chengappa, Sharon Nayak, Mishti Srivastava
and Adarsh Atal. The films have been directed by Vivek
Kakkad of Curious Films.
Simeran Bhasin, head, marketing and retail, Fastrack
says, the venture into the category is part of the plans that
were drawn in 2005 when Fastrack was re-launched as
a fashion accessory brand. “We realised our strength is
in the small front accessories and market research also
indicates huge potential in the category. There are small
players but no national brands to talk of,” she adds.
On the campaign, Bhasin says that Lowe was briefed
to break the clutter of advertising to youth as well as the
Fastrack clutter and keep it cheeky and flirtatious - as is
The TV campaign is being supported by OOH and
MOVING ON TO THE VIEWS
The TVCs have met with a mixed response from
experts. While the slick and youthful nature of the
films have been appreciated, some complain
about the lack of product integration.
Nitin Pradhan, executive creative direc-
tor, Leo Burnett has a lukewarm response
to offer. He says that the attempt to do
something fresher is apparent and the films
are different from the general ones in the
category. However, he would have liked it if
the product integration was stronger, espe-
cially since it is a launch campaign.
“The engagement, situations, perfor-
mances are all nice. The tone, too, will
connect with the target audience. However,
if the product could have been integrated a bit more with
the script, it would have worked better,” says Pradhan.
He picks the airport film to be his least favourite, where
the bag seems to have very little role to play. “It is so
incidental,” he observes.
Vivek Dutta, business director and national planning
head, Hakuhodo Percept, on the other hand, gives a
thumbs up to the campaign. “According to me, Fastrack
as a youth brand stands out. The brand is being true to its
target group. The TVCs are honest and they manage to
catch the I-give-a-damn attitude of the youth. They are
bold, naughty and fun at the same time,” he says.
Dutta finds the execution interesting, with the music
adding to the irreverence of the TVCs. He also finds the
characters appealing, which he thinks would ring well
with the target audience.
“Genelia and Virat are interesting characters. You real-
ly do not know their relationship and yet, somewhere,
their naughty sexy appeal gets you at the end of it. I am
sure the TG would really connect and take notice of the
commercials,” he notes.
On a cheeky note, Dutta remarks that there seems to
be a message for all those who do not like the commer-
cial... ‘Move on’! „
biprorshee.das@afaqs.com
“We thought it would be great to
give the same passion with a voice
to a medium that has no voice. We
started with the idea that this passion
needs to be heard at the most unex-
pected places,” says Pawar.
The creative team at DDB Mudra
includes Pawar and Rajeev Raja,
national creative director. The copy-
writers are Anshumani Khanna and
Hemant Sharma while the art has
been handled by Timsy Gupta and
Trishna Prakash.
Six months of planning went into
what seemed to be an uphill task
logistically. “A total of 25 lakh chips
had to come at a cost that made
For the campaign
- that ran in The
Times of India and
the Hindu - the
automobile
company used
about 25 lakh chips.
sense. It seemed to be a logistical
nightmare,” Gururaj explains.
While Volkswagen and the agen-
cies chose not to divulge the spends
behind the exercise, it is learnt that
the chips cost the company less than
`10 each.
Interestingly, in early 2009, afaqs!
Reporter had reported a similar
marketing proposition by Pioneer
Book Company, which publish-
es magazines such as Meri Saheli
and New Woman. The publishing
company’s idea was that advertisers
would be able to play their jingles
even in a print ad.
Lalit Pahwa, director, Pioneer had
then told afaqs! Reporter that the
audio feature could be enabled with
the help of a pre-recorded chip. The
chip would be embedded in the page
in such a way that when the reader
arrived at the page, the audio would
start playing; it would stop only when
the page was turned.
He had pointed out that the
concept could be replicated in news-
papers, trade magazines and in-house
journals as well. „
biprorshee.das@afaqs.com

16 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 1(:6$'9(57,6,1*
SAB TV

Housewives to the Fore

The channel has rolled out an aspirational platform for women across the country to exhibit their skills. By Surina Sayal

S
AB TV has extended its brand
promise on-ground through the
aspirational platform, ‘Happy
Housewives Club’ across 20 cities,
where housewives can exhibit their
skills and talent.
The family comedy and entertain-
ment channel, launched a unique
initiative - an exclusive club for house-
wives across the country, a group that
forms a significant proportion of the
TV channel’s target audience. It will
be an initiative for the housewives, by
the housewives, to engage them with
the brand - thereby extending the
brand platform and brand promise of
Asli mazaa Sab ke saath aata hai.
The ‘Happy Housewives Club’
(HHC), as it is called, is a platform for house-
wives, where women from across the country
would get an opportunity to exhibit their skills,
such as cookery, art, pottery, music, dance or
painting.
They could even take up a social cause, cel-
ebrate a festival or simply go for a movie or picnic.
The club is being rolled out in 20-25 cities in the
Hindi speaking markets (HSM) across the coun-
try.
On-air promotions have been running on SAB
TV and are attracting a good response. The promo
shows housewives cheerfully going about their
The initiative is being
rolled out in 20-25
cities and aims to have
2,000 clubs across India by
the end of this year.
daily activities, such as watering plants, giving
their family breakfast, hanging clothes out to dry,
and so on. The promo ends with all these women
coming together to meet and chat. To join the
HHC, interested housewives can log
on to channel’s website and download
the form or call on 022 40369669,
after which registration kits and forms
will be sent to them. On receiving
the duly completed forms, SAB TV’s
team would send these housewives
their membership cards, welcome kits
and other details.
The channel claims to have already
received over 10,000 registrations.
Interestingly, there is no joining fee
involved.
Each club will have five to eight
members. In the first phase, 20 cities
will be targeted. SAB TV aims to have
2,000 such clubs across India by the
end of this year.
SAB TV will assign an Happy Housewives
Club manager to each club of about eight mem-
bers, who will take care of its day-to-day running.
The manager will coordinate the first meeting and
provide information on how to conduct activities
and run the club. The members will meet once
every 14 days.
In every club meeting, members will be given
themes by SAB TV. To participate, the club mem-
bers need to perform the activity according to the
theme, record interesting sections and send this
FRQWLQXHGRQSDJH>>

RBI

Show me the Money

The Reserve Bank of India has rolled out a public
service TV campaign on the authenticity of
banknotes. By Biprorshee Das

M
oney talks, someone once
said and someone later
even joked that it just says
‘goodbye’. So, if you are paying
attention to what your money tells
you, the Reserve Bank of India has a
word of advice - heed carefully!
carefully, highlights the usage of and Belliappa Maneyapanda.
currency by people and maintains Speaking on the film, Sankhe
the intention of the film through says, “The objective of the film was
the execution. to tell the people about the various
A music score runs through safety features in all currency notes.
the 60-second film, with a voiceo- However, instead of making a plain
ver reciting the words penned by informative message, we thought
FOTOCORP

After winning the creative
mandate for the central bank’s
media awareness project, Publicis
Ambience, teaming up with noted
poet and lyricist Gulzar, has created
a television film on the authenticity
of banknotes.
The film shows a montage of
situations from around the country.
The montage, while capturing the
various moods and colours of India
Gulzar. His lyrics tell, often cheek-
ily, the various details one must be
careful about while ensuring that a
bank note is an authentic one.
The film has been directed
by Pushpendra Mishra of Flying
Saucer Films. It has been produced
by Divyesh Satta and the music is
by Zubin Ballaporia. The voiceover
is by theatre personality Salim Arif.
The creative team at the agen-
Sankhe: careful observation
cy includes national creative
directors Prasanna Sankhe and
Ashish Khazanchi. Sankhe is the
art director and has also written
the copy with Rishi Upadhyay.
The film managers at Publicis
Ambience are Hozefa Alibhai
there was a wonderful opportunity
to tap into a very deep rooted Indian
insight.”
He adds, “We, as Indians, inspect
everything thoroughly before we
buy it. Test it. Check it. Be it a
car or a coconut. However, while
accepting a note - we don’t bother
much. We wanted to cash in on this
FRQWLQXHGRQSDJH>>

18 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 1(:6$'9(57,6,1*
ITC

Knock, Knock, Who’s there?

The campaign, Palichunu Oru Matram aims to reach half a million households. By Poojya Trivedi

I
TC has launched an on-ground initiative for
its personal care brand, Vivel, to charm home-
makers and give them the brand experience.
The objective of the home-to-home campaign,
called Palichunu Oru Matram which means ‘to
bring about a radiant change’, is to promote Vivel
shampoos and soaps in Tamil Nadu.
The campaign, which is being conducted by
Xpanse Asia, the specialist small town and rural
marketing network of Publicis Groupe, aims
at giving women an opportunity to experience
Vivel’s products without leaving the comfort and
convenience of their homes. As part of the cam-
paign, Vivel’s team is visiting households, carrying
audio messages of the company’s brand ambas-
sador, Trisha Krishnan, giving a personal brand
message to consumers.
Vivel caters to the mid-segment of soaps and
shampoos and through the campaign, ITC targets
the women in the segment. “The brand promises
to bring a radiant change in the lives of women
with its array of products. The objective of the
home to home initiative is to give women an
opportunity to experience Vivel’s total care with-
out leaving the comfort and convenience of their targets the popular segment. Vivel soaps are avail-
homes,” says Atul Joshi, head, marketing, personal “The initiative able in three variants in Tamil Nadu - Vivel Young
care products business, ITC Limited. of personally Glow, Vivel Satin Soft, and Vivel Sandal Sparkle.
Through the campaign, the brand plans to The `28,109 crore turnover company is a rela-
reach out to half a million households in Chennai, delivering the tively new entrant in the personal care segment. As
Coimbatore, Madurai and Vellore and engage con- message has met per The Nielsen Company, the market leaders in
sumers by inviting them to experience the brand. with positive the shampoo segment are HUL, P&G, CavinKare,
Taking about the success of the initiative, Joshi Dabur and L’Oreal India, while the soap segment
says the initiative is a perfect platform to engage response.” is dominated by HUL, Godrej, Wipro, Reckitt
with consumers, increase brand awareness and ATUL JOSHI Benckiser and Nirma.
inform the audience about our brand offerings. According to the data provided by Nielsen,
He adds that the initiative of personally delivering quoting the all India (urban and rural) figures
the brand message has so far met with positive prestige segment of the market, while Fiama Di from June 2010, the industry size of the shampoo
responses from consumers. Wills is the premium range and Vivel targets the segment is about `3,011 crore, which is growing at
The multi-business conglomerate entered the mid-segment. more than 9 per cent year on year. The toilet soap
highly competitive personal care business in July Vivel offers a premium range of soaps under segment is worth `8,896 crore and is growing at
2005 and has since introduced products in three the brand name Vivel Di Wills. Vivel Ultra Pro is about 8 per cent year on year. „
segments. The Essenza Di Wills brand targets the the anti-dandruff shampoo, while Superia brand poojya.trivedi@afaqs.com

<< FRQWLQXHGIURPSDJH
Housewives to...
across to SAB TV. The selected clips
will be played in the HHC show,
which will be aired on SAB TV
every Sunday.
Discussing the new platform,
Anooj Kapoor, executive VP and
business head, SAB, tells afaqs!
Reporter, “This initiative was
planned, as India consists of a large
number of housewives, who con-
stitute a major part of TV viewing
audiences. Television is their only
source of entertainment and favour-
ite pastime. In order to engage and
create a bond with the women
viewers, we introduced the Happy
Housewives Club.”
This comes close on the heels
of the success of SAB TV’s other
consumer connect programme, SAB
Ka Mela, a fun and entertainment
fair organised in Ahmedabad in the
month of May.
Kapoor adds, “Through HHC, we
hope to win over and create a bond
with the women audience among the
growing base of SAB families.” This
initiative will extend the core values
Through the club, the channel aims at
creating a bond with women who consti-
tute a major part of TV viewing.
of SAB, such as positive thinking,
driving core family positive values
and being happy and optimistic.
However, the promo only depicts
young married women. Could that
lead audiences to think that older
women wouldn’t be welcome?
“India is one of the youngest coun-
tries in the world, and a majority
of the TV viewing female audience
would fall in the bracket of 15-35
years. Though there is no upper age
limit for joining the club, you need
to be 18 years and above, married and
a housewife to become a member,”
clarifies Kapoor.
He points out that these clubs are
unlike regular kitty parties, as they
will help housewives showcase their
talents to millions of viewers across
the country through SAB TV.
Besides metros such as Mumbai,
Delhi and Gurgaon and Kolkata,
these clubs are being formed in mini
metros and smaller towns too.
This includes Pune, Ahmedabad,
Lucknow, Nasik, Indore, Nagpur,
Kanpur, Jaipur, Panchkula, Baroda,
Rajkot, Surat, Bhopal, Kota, Agra,
Chandigarh, Faridabad, Ghaziabad,
Meerut and Jodhpur. „
surina.sayal@afaqs.com

20 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 1(:6%5$1',1*
MUDRA GROUP Specifically, the brush stroke signifies the most
common behaviour when trying something new.

Rejuvenation
Drawing on its ‘can-do’ spirit and heritage of entrepreneurial ambition,
This brush stroke is also an integral part of the
branding of the four agency networks. Each agen-
cy is now qualified by a unique symbol - the quote
mark (a symbol of conversation) for Mudra India,
the degree symbol (denoting influence) for DDB
Mudra, the forward mark (symbolising maximal
impact) for Mudra Max, and the ‘on’ button (that
the group has a new look and perspective. News Bureau stands for a spark of ideas) for Ignite Mudra.
The brand has also revealed its new, revamped

C
lose on the heels of turning 30 earlier this
year (March 25), the Mudra Group has
unveiled a fresh brand identity. The group
has rebranded itself and has put its new foot for-
ward with a revamped brand logo.
This news was conveyed at a press event, in the
presence of the group’s executive board members.
The board comprises Madhukar Kamath, group
chief executive officer and managing director,
Mudra Group; Ajit Menon, executive director,
organisation development; Bobby Pawar, CCO;
Dilipkumar Upadhyaya, chief financial officer;
Jude Fernandes, ED, Mudra Group and CEO,
Mudra India; Pratap Bose, chief operating offic-
er, Mudra Group and CEO, Mudra Max; and
Sandeep Vij, ED and chief knowledge officer,
Mudra Group and CEO, DDB Mudra.
Water, Mudra Group’s strategy and design
unit, has created this fresh vision, marked by rapid
change and progress.
Based on the pillars of empathy, experimenta-
tion, expression and dynamic integration, Water
has crystallised the group’s new brand platform as
The new corporate brand
sees the historical symbol
of Mudra in a new light.
‘Inventive Brand Solutions’ as the Mudra Group
will now offer clients just this - inventive brand
solutions.
This will be done through the group’s four
agency networks, namely Mudra India, Mudra
Max, DDB Mudra and Ignite Mudra.
The new corporate brand now sees the histori-
cal symbol of Mudra - the hands - freed from the
rigid red roundel. This is symbolic of the spirit
of inventiveness. Replacing the solid, red circle
is the graphic device of the brush stroke. This
denotes experimentation, energy and dynamism.
website, www.mudra.com, created and designed
by Tribal DDB, the Mudra Group’s digital and
new media agency.
The new website carries forward the Mudra
Group’s spirit of inventive experiences, with its
design as a simple yet powerful conversational
tool.
Commenting on the re-branding, Kamath says,
“The dancer’s hands have been freed from the
confines of the roundel; this is based on research
that shows how a stroke is the starting point of
anything new - it shows that you’re free to invent,
to be bold and aggressive. This brush stroke will
now onwards serve as the red background on
which the dancer’s hands are placed.”
It may be noted that the group had re-designed
its logo in March 2005. At the time, the hands,
portraying a classical Indian dance pose (that is,
a ‘mudra’), were meant to stand for the agency’s
cultural roots, while also depicting its contempo-
rary bend. The re-branding had coincided with
the agency’s silver jubilee celebrations. „
feedback@afaqs.com

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BARISTA LAVAZZA

Win with Your Own Coffee

The coffee-retailer has received around 2,000 entries for the Master of Menu contest. By Poojya Trivedi

T
aking the coffee treat to the next level, the from our consumers
coffee retail chain, Barista Lavazza, has has been overwhelm-
rolled out an engagement programme for ing. The coffee-chain
its consumers. Master of the Menu is a beverage has over 40 stores in
recipe contest that aims to create uniquely fla- Delhi, 25 stores in
voured concoctions. Mumbai and 28 in
The contest provides an opportunity to all con- Bengaluru. Each retail
sumers to share their unique beverage recipes. The outlet of the chain, on
winning recipe will be awarded the title of ‘Master an average, experiences
of the Menu’, and will be featured in the upcom- 350-400 footfalls in a
ing winter menu across all Barista Lavazza outlets day. The event is being
Swarup: getting ready
in the country. for winter menu
promoted through
“By organising this contest, we are involving e-mails sent to the cus-
our brand lovers, fans and our loyalists to come tomer database, asking them to participate in the
together and share their original beverage recipes contest. Apart from this, in-store promotions
with us. The recipes can be showcased by mak- are being undertaken across all stores in the
ing them an important part of our winter menu three cities through posters, standees, tent cards,
range,” says Saurabh Swarup, head, marketing and registration forms and leaflets. Additionally, the
product development, Barista Coffee Company. company is also using its website and Facebook to
The contest, which is open to patrons of all spread the word. The on-ground activities for the
ages, is being organised in New Delhi, Mumbai coffee-chain are handled by Jagran Solutions.
and Bengaluru. Amongst all the entries received, Entries were submitted either by filling up a
eight finalists from each of the three cities were contest form available at the outlet or by sending
selected on the basis of uniqueness of recipes an e-mail to the company. Apart from the recipe
and were invited for the city wise finale event on being added to the menu, the 24 finalists will get
September 30. two nights’ free stay at a resort in Punjab.
The company, which started serving liqueur
coffee in November 2009, is, however, accepting
The winning recipes of the Owned by Italy’s largest coffee company,
Lavazza, Barista currently has more than 200 out-
only ‘no liqueur recipes’. contest will be showcased lets in more than 30 locations in India. Besides
The Delhi leg of Barista Lavazza ‘Master of India, Barista Lavazza also has cafes in loca-
Menu’ recipe contest has received over 1000 in the winter menu range tions across Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Oman and
entries and whereas about 1000 entries have come the UAE. „
from both Mumbai and Bengaluru. “The response at all Barista Outlets. pooojya.trivedi@afaqs.com

a second phase of the campaign. trust and believe our national legal veneer of touching visuals and mov-
<< FRQWLQXHGIURPSDJH tender to be sacrosanct and will use ing words,” says Suthan.

Show me the... WHAT’S NECESSARY? more currency in their lives and in “Harsh inspection is what is need-

very relevant point and make people

change their habits and start inspect-
ing, if not all, at least some of the
safety features.”
According to him, trying to
achieve a change in social behaviour
is a challenging task and to be able to
pull it off is a satisfying experience.
The collaboration with Gulzar
also helped, says Sankhe, as the film
needed to appeal to every Indian
citizen and not a specific target
audience.
The film, aired first on nation-
al channel Doordarshan as the
RBI wanted to get to the grassroot
level, followed by cinema halls
and eventually, satellite channels.
It will be supported by a print
campaign and on-ground activa-
tions in association with banks.
This shall be further followed by
W hen asked, creative pundits
have spared a kind word for
the execution and the intent of the
film but given the magnitude of the
problem (counterfeit banknotes), the
film has met with some brickbats.
The film was first aired on national
channel Doordarshan - to get to the
grassroot level - followed by cinema halls
and satellite channels.
Prathap Suthan, national creative
director, Cheil Worldwide likes the
analogies and casting and says that
the film is charming from a cin-
ematic perspective.
He appreciates that it is slanted,
aimed at the aam junta in the smaller
towns and villages.
“These are the very people who
daily life than us who live in the met-
ros. This is the heart of India, where
counterfeit currency will thrive and
grow unnoticed and corrode our
systems without suspicion,” he says.
However, he thinks that the
film is too soft, given the rampant
problem of counterfeit currency.
“This will help me admire my
currency note. It is indeed a beauti-
ful work of art. However, I need to
be told that the note in my pocket
could be counterfeit. The urgency,
the criticality and the importance of
the matter have all vanished under a
ed to keep my pockets safe. Ram
home the message. In the era of net
payments, credit cards, cheques and
everything else paperless, this is not
the tone or message to be deployed,”
he exclaims.
Rahul Jauhari, national creative
director, Pickle Lintas expresses sim-
ilar views and concerns. “On the
execution front, it is beautiful copy
- nicely cut and done. The thought
is very nice, the craft visible clearly,”
Jauhari says.
According to him, the film falls
short at its attempt to reach out to
the masses and induce a change in
the way people behave.
“The communication needs to
be a lot simpler, clearer to be under-
stood by the masses and to move
them to action. This one’s for the
galleries, if you ask me. It will draw
applause there,” he observes. „
biprorshee.das@afaqs.com

24 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 1(:6$'9(57,6,1*
TATA MUTUAL FUND

Saving Grace
The campaign for the Systematic Investment Plan stresses upon the habit of saving regularly. By Ashwini Gangal

T
ata Mutual Fund’s new communication,
occurring after a gap of about couple of
years, aims to make Tata SIP the first
thought for regular investment. The previous
campaign, that wasn’t exposed much and didn’t
run for too long, played on the concept of an ‘SIP
(Systematic Investment Plan) meter’. The present
campaign is a long term one and is slated to run for
about four-six months.
Addressing the objective of
the campaign, Dharmendra
Satapathy, head, market-
ing, Tata Asset Management,
informs, “We want to popu-
larise not just the brand but
also the mutual fund cat-
egory. So, in a sense, it is a
social effort.” He adds that
the prerogative is to make SIP
a common denominator, just
like an FMCG product, such
that the lay consumer watches
the ad film and seeks education about the category.
Enlightening the lay person about the category and
the jargon related to it is a complementary aim.
Satapathy adds, “Our TG is the 25-45 year old
male, belonging to SEC AB+ but the TG may as
well be all educated people out there.” He says
that within five years, even SEC C is bound to
get included in the TG for the brand and for the
category at large. In his opinion, this segment is
underpenetrated and the campaign will serve to
bring about some much desired financial inclu-
siveness. He quotes this as the reason the ad film
promotes the brand as the most obvious thing that
people are missing out on.
The creative duties for the account are with
Quadrant Communications, headed by Rajan
Narayan, president and chief executive officer.
The film has been directed by Pervez Ahmed and
the production house is Ourja Films.
The ad film is set around a child’s birthday
party. It opens on a father gifting a piggy bank to
his son on the occasion. The son is disappointed
with this gift and professes that if the aim is to
save money, then investing in Tata SIP is a much
better option. When the father displays ignorance
regarding this option, the child’s friends mock
“We’ve used the
notion of how kids
today give ‘gyaan’
to adults and tell
them to move with
the times.”
VIREN KAMDAR
him. Product details are then revealed through the
child’s dialogues.
The insight used in the commercial is the belief
harboured by most parents that the habit of saving
regularly is inculcated in a child through a piggy
bank. The brand proposition is Bachcha bachcha
jaanta hai ki Tata SIP hai investment ka pehla kadam.
Addressing the issue of the child being
the knowledge-laden protagonist, Viren
Kamdar, national creative director, Quadrant
Communications says, “We’ve used the notion of
how kids today give gyaan to adults and tell them to
move with the times. This is true for gadgets and
technology and we have extended it in an exagger-
ated form to mutual funds. We have used children
to shake their parents out of
their outdated notions about sav-
ing and draw their attention to
Tata SIP.”
The creative brief was to build
category awareness amongst the
lay person, presumably unfamil-
iar with this investment option.
“Most people lack awareness
about SIP. To popularise it, we
have twisted reality and made
this a very ‘evident truth to miss’
kind of gimmick.”
Kamdar adds that the mutual
fund category has been gaining momentum in the
ad space of late and rates its competitiveness at 7-8
on a 10 point scale. “In the midst of this compe-
tition, the USP of the Tata brand is the trust it
inspires in consumers,” he says.
Positioning a product as something one abso-
lutely ought to be familiar with and playing on
brand ignorance in an ad campaign is an oft-seen
advertising cliché. The most common manner
of executing this is to create a character in the ad
film, who is mocked or reprimanded in some way
for not knowing about the brand and yet another
character - a knowledgeable expert - who educates
this person about the brand.
Brands that have used this strategy in the
past include Orient’s PSPO (the ‘PSPO nahin
FRQWLQXHGRQSDJH>>

<< FRQWLQXHGIURPSDJH
Shifting Perspective
anxiety of the father and daughter
is brought forth in an emotionally
charged manner. Brand LIC is then
presented as an anxiety alleviator,
which helps fulfil one’s responsibil-
ity towards loved ones. The film
conveys the message with the help of
this relatable metaphor.
The creative team on the account
comprises vice-president and sen-
ior creative director, Debojyoti
Purkayastha; vice-president and
senior creative director, Vistasp
Hodiwala and copywriter, Aayusha
Shah.
About the film, Hodiwala says,
“We have taken a metaphor from life
that works at a simple, fine, insightful, touch- ways to treat life insurance. First,
small level, rather than ing, and empathetic. paint the grim picture; scare people
focusing on death in all
its seriousness. In the
“The concept is fresh
and touches a chord
into buying; remind them of what
happens if they die suddenly. LIC
film, the emotion of in this era of serial seems to have chosen this path for
momentary separation child-killers. It has a while now. I’m not sure how this
has been exaggerated to taken forward LIC’s does in the market place, but it’s not
convey the message of old brand territory, of something that will make a brand
potential separation of a a missing breadwin- warm and endearing to the con-
far greater scale.” ner, differently and sumer. Personally, I find the whole
The media mix for memorably. And the approach morbid and ‘guilt market-
the campaign includes Hodiwala: emoting well verbal reversal at the ing’ led to sell the products.”
TV, print, radio and end brings the mes- He opines that the positives of life
digital (Facebook and Youtube). sage home in no uncertain manner. insurance, such as ‘the worry-free
It is a far cry from earlier, heavy- life’ are more endearing but it is more
DOES IT MOVE AUDIENCES? handed commercials,” Chakraborty difficult to do interesting advertising
I ndustry experts, agree that the film elaborates. He also finds that the
is well-made; but harbour varying performances by the actors have been
opinions as to its effectiveness. skilfully extracted.
around this. “While the film is well
shot and brings out emotions very
well; I feel it falls into this logical fal-
Ambareesh Chakraborty, princi- Saji Abraham, vice-president, lacy, rendering the brand relevance
pal consultant and creative director, planning, Lowe, says, “Strategically very low,” Abraham asserts. „
R K Swamy BBDO, finds the effort speaking, there are two very broad ashwini.gangal@afaqs.com

26 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 1(:622+
LAQSHYA

Expanding Footprints
The out-of-home company has added more than 400 sites in Pune to its inventory. By Surina Sayal

O
ut of home media company Laqshya has
expanded its presence in the western mar-
ket by adding more than 400 out of home
(OOH) media assets in Pune, which is an upcom-
ing hub for a number of companies and industries.
The OOH formats that will now be part of
Laqshya’s inventory include billboards, pole kiosks,
traffic booths and mobile vans in Bund Garden
Road, Kalyani Nagar, Yerwada, Kharadi, Kondhwa,
Camp, Wakdewadi, SB Road, University Road,
Baner, Aundh, Kothrud and Bajirao Road, cover-
ing most parts of the city.
Pune is fast emerging as a key location for
multinational firms. Here, the outdoor medium
has long been seen as a significant vehicle to reach (Top Left) Sinha: the inventory includes billboards,
out to target customers, with different media being pole kiosks, traffic booths and mobile vans.
popular amongst different industries. Pole kiosks
offer frequency and immediacy, traffic booths to continue offering innovative and professionally
and other transit media ensure repeated exposure, integrated OOH services to brands.”
especially in a city which is concentric in nature With the inclusion of Pune, Laqshya will now
(unlike Mumbai). In fact, this was the second loca- have media assets in 14 cities across the country. It
tion where the Indian Outdoor Survey (IOS) was also has presence in Sri Lanka and Dubai.
conducted by MRUC, after Mumbai. Laqshya functions through three divisions,
Shashi Sinha, national sales head, Laqshya OMI (Outdoor Media Integrated) - the OOH
Media, says, “Mumbai’s twin city, Pune, has media agency, Laqshya Outdoor, which offers
shown a lot of promise as a lifestyle destination a media assets in the OOH space and Laqshya
and has attained significant importance in the Airport, which has exclusive rights to the green-
media plans. We will now market premium sites field airport project in Hyderabad and the
in the city. This move has been largely applauded Bandaranaike International Airport (Colombo,
by our advertisers and agencies and most of them Sri Lanka). „
have already shown interest. Our aim would be surina.sayal@afaqs.com

<< FRQWLQXHGIURPSDJH He says that another reason for Pandit, partner and senior creative ful towards the older generation.
using a child as the main character director, RK Swamy BBDO is of Senthil Kumar, executive crea-

Saving Grace is to generate an association between

jaante!’ commercial) and Perfetti Van
Melle’s Chlormint (the Dobara mat
poochna TVC). Nirma Shudh Namak
had also used a similar tactic a few
years ago with its ‘Bacche bhi jaante hai
iske saare gunn’ commercial.
When confronted with this,
Kamdar agrees that the idea is not a
new one but reasons nonetheless, “It
is very novel in the finance category.
Also, using a child in the mutual fund
category is a new idea - ads in this
category mostly convey the brand
message through characters such as
graduates and businessmen.”
The commercial is deliberately
disruptive as it is aimed at startling
viewers. “The act of a kid giving an
older person advice is not improb-
able; agreed that the content - that
is, finance advice - is improbable.
However, this is a deliberate exag-
geration that is necessary for effective
advertising,” Satapathy adds.
the brand and modernity. “We want
to position the brand as a modern
style of investing and this goal is
achieved by showing that the next
generation is aware of it and is telling
their elders about it,” he explains.
The campaign is primarily TV-led
with only one 40 second TVC.
The use of a child is to deliberately make
it disruptive and draw attention between
the brand and modernity.
Edited versions of the same (30 sec-
ond and 20 second version) will
follow shortly. Besides TV and print,
below-the-line activities are also on
the cards.
DOES THE CREATIVITY
WORK?
I ndustry experts give a thumbs
down to this campaign. Gautam
the opinion that the ad suffers from
classic role reversal as instead of the
father educating the child about the
investment plan, the ad shows the
child telling the father how to invest
money.
“A message about a serious topic
such as insurance would be more
relevant and convincing if a senior
person spoke about it. Due to this
role reversal, consumers may not
identify with the offering. It is hard
to accept a kid talking about SIP and
the exaggeration is hard to believe,”
he says.
On an ethical stand point, Pandit
adds that the gesture of the kids
mocking the father is a complete
no-no as it is insulting and disrespect-
tive director, JWT India, comments
on the tried and tested creative for-
mula used in the commercial. “I hate
formulas. I believe that the audi-
ence out there wants you to surprise,
engage and connect with them at
every touch point. They don’t have
time for the same old formula in a
new form,” he says.
He adds that usually cute kids help
endear adult audiences if one plugs
in emotion, humour, a deep human
insight or any real hook that will
engage and hold attention beyond 30
seconds. “This one, though, lacks a
good right hook to connect with the
investor out there,” he says.
Kumar concludes that he is not
sure if the tactic of using the child
as a spokesperson of financial invest-
ments will really work in the market.
He asserts, “How many parents like it
when their teeny boppers start teach-
ing them stuff? Kids know more but
will any child put his father down in
front of his friends?” „
ashwini.gangal@afaqs.com

28 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 1(:6',*,7$/
POKEN THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS CARDS

Electronic Introduction A t first glance, Poken looks like a pen drive

(storage device). In reality, it is a USB-
enabled social business card, developed by the
Switzerland-based company, Poken.com. It not
only allows its users to exchange their contact
Social media gadget Poken, provides networking and brand-building details but also empowers them to share their
presence on various social networking sites in
opportunities to users. seconds. How?
To transfer the contact details stored

B
efore revealing this gadget named in Poken, to begin with the user needs
Poken, it is important to under- to first plug the device into the USB
stand the genesis of its existence port of his computer, which is connected
through a conversation between a media with the internet. Once plugged, the
professional and Dr. Networking: device automatically directs the user to
Poken.com, where he or she can
Media professional: I am a networking create his virtual business card and feed
addict. in information such as name, designation
Dr. Networking: Are you just an online and other contact details.
social networking addict? The user can also add his photograph
Media professional: No. I meet a lot of and provide clickable links - displayed as
professionals in daily life and exchange icons - of his various social networking
business cards with them. profiles. More than 40 social media sites,
Dr. Networking: Is there any problem such as Linkedin.com, can be linked with
with it? the social business card.
Media professional: Yes! there is a To exchange information/cards with
problem with exchanging cards. Once I have people in the real or offline world, the Poken
exchanged the visiting cards, I take a lot of users are required to bring their Pokens close
time in extracting and arranging their contact (about 0.5 inch) to each other, and wait for few
details in my database. Besides, searching for seconds until the devices exude a green light. The
the online presence (on networking sites such green light indicates that the business cards of the
as LinkedIn and Facebook) of the people I share two users have been successfully exchanged.
business cards with is also a time consuming The information acquired could then be
process. retrieved by plugging the device into the internet
Dr. Networking: Oh! My dear friend, you don’t enabled computer. Soon after it is plugged, the
need a medicine rather you need a gadget called
Poken. FRQWLQXHGRQSDJH>>

SANDISK

Jogging Their Memory

The flash memory maker reached out to consumers
through on-ground activities. By Poojya Trivedi

W
ith the growing need to
store data, storage space
always seems to run
short. And with mobile devices
becoming ubiquitous, the need to
be able to access anything and eve-
rything is leading to the exponential
growth of memory devices.
To tap this growing potential,
the flash memory maker, SanDisk
,has launched the SanDisk Memory
Yatra, which aims to reach out to
gizmo-geeks of all ages. The pan-
India activity involves educating the
target group about the benefits of
flash memory.
“The importance of memory is
very high right now, with the surge
in digital devices. So, this initiative
will allow us to engage our custom-
ers and make them more familiar
with our products,” says Manisha
Sood, country manager, SanDisk
India & SAARC.
The activity aims to
make the target group
aware of the company’s
wide range of offer-
ings, which is available
at various price points.
“Consumers know
about memory cards,
but they do not pay attention to
these memory devices. When they
buy a digital camera, they don’t
pay attention to which brand of
memory card they should use or
what capacity they need. We want
them to know about the availability
of our products in various capaci-
ties and various price points,” Sood
explains.
The initiative covers Jaipur,
Chandigarh, Kochi, Pune,
Hyderabad, Varanasi, Ahmedabad,
Lucknow and Guwahati. The
(Left): Sood displaying the product and SanDisk canters
SanDisk memory van
will traverse all the hot
spots of the various cities it travels
to.
Sood says, “In big cities, con-
sumers have many digital devices to
handle. But in smaller towns, the-
phone becomes the only important
device that people carry with them
everywhere and use it as everything
- to save pictures, music or any
other data. This leads to the need
for high-capacity memory cards.”
Phones today are loaded with
multiple features and are also very
affordable. For instance, a particular
Nokia phone costs about Rs 2,500
and allows 8 GB of storage. For this
campaign, the company’s primary
target is SEC B, C and D, who are
aware of memory cards, but do not
know what type of cards best suit
their needs.
The canters are designed to
engage with the consumers, while
demonstrating the entire product
range of SanDisk. The mobile van
has a signature wall and memory
wall set up for the product demo.
The inside of the van is divided
FRQWLQXHGRQSDJH>>

30 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 1(:6',*,7$/
GOOGLE INSTANT

The Search Continues

Google has launced new search service which can have serious ramifications on the search engine optimisation (SEO)
business in comparison to search advertising. By Kapil Ohri

R
ecently, Google announced its new search
service called Google Instant. Compared
to the existing search process on Google -
which suggests search terms and displays search
results only after the user clicks on the ‘Google
Search’ button or presses the ‘Enter’ key, the
‘Instant’ version not only suggests search terms
but also displays search results as soon as the user
begins to type or key in words in the search bar.
This implies that a user will start getting the
results even before he finishes typing his full
search term or presses the ‘Google Search/Enter’
key. The Google (Instant) search bar will display
the prediction or suggestion of keywords, while
the corresponding search results will be presented
below the search bar.
For instance, if a user enters the key word ‘coc’,
Google Instant will suggest words like ‘Coca-
Cola’, ‘coco’, ‘coconut’ and ‘coconut water’ and
simultaneously show search results for ‘Coca- some time. Till then, Indian users can experience
Cola’. Now, if the user adds the character ‘k’ to The service will be avail- it through Google.com, instead of Google.co.in.
‘coc’, the search suggestions and results displayed
below the search bar will change instantly. In the
able in markets such as the Though Google has clarified in its blog that
there will be no impact of ‘Instant’ search on the
case of ‘cock’, it shows results related to cocktails. US, UK, Italy and Spain. ranking of search results, yet many digital experts
The search ads served via Google AdWords believe that the new search system will mostly
programme on the right side or top of the search user will see an ad titled, ‘Employment in Coca- affect the websites which depend on the search
results page as sponsored links, will also begin to Cola’ when he keys in ‘coc’ and as soon as he adds engine for traffic.
appear as the user keys in keywords, even before the character ‘k’, he will get to see an ad titled “In the US, various websites have already start-
the user finishes or enters the complete search ‘Designer cocktail dresses’. ed reporting fluctuations in their traffic figures,”
term. Thus, a user will get to see different and To begin with, Google Instant services will claims Milind Mody, chief executive officer,
more search ads during the search process on be available in a few markets such as the US, the eBrandz, a search marketing company based in
Google Instant. UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia. In
For the same example mentioned above, the India, the service is expected to be launched after FRQWLQXHGRQSDJH>>

<< FRQWLQXHGIURPSDJH ads on per user and monthly basis.

Electronic...
device pulls up a web page called
poken.com/dashboard, where details
of shared business cards are show-
cased. In case the user wants to visit
the social networking profiles of the
various business associates he gath-
ered the business cards of, he can
directly click on the social network-
ing sites’ icons (on the bottom of
the social business cards) and land
on the desired profiles in absolutely
no time.
A Poken can save up to 64 social
business cards in one go. The con-
tacts after being transferred to the
desired location, empties the space
to further save new business cards.
THE BRANDING
OPPORTUNITY
Naidu Darapaneni, founder and
chief executive officer, Versant
Technologies, the Hyderabad
based company which is the exclu-
sive reseller of Poken in India
(Pokeninindia.com), explains,
explore the online branding pos-
sibility.”
The online branding option
includes branded social business
cards, skins and banner ads served
on Poken.com dashboard. The com-
He adds that companies use
Poken during business events and
conferences organised or sponsored
by them.
“Some of the global brands such
as BMW, Adobe, Microsoft, SAP
and IBM have used Pokens in their
events,” adds Darapaneni.
BMW utilised branded Pokens
in an event named Trend Forum,
organised in Munich, Germany in
December 2009.
Poken has recently launched an
Apple iPhone application which
offers similar functionality. The
same technology will soon be made
available on other smart phones.
Poken is priced at about
Rs 1,500. It will be interesting to
watch whether Poken will take off
in India, especially considering the
fact that it will be of no use if the
other person does not own the same

M arketers can employ Poken

for brand building purposes.
“Advertisers can print their logos
or stickers on Pokens and can also
pany has plans to charge about Rs
100 from advertiser to serve banner
device. „
kapil.ohri@afaqs.com

32 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 1(:63(23/(
>> MOVEMENTS/APPOINTMENTS<< A compilation of some major people movements in the last fortnight

ADVERTISING OOH & BTL MEDIA

> Nirmal Pulickal the ex-asso-
ciate creative director of W+K has
joined Mudra Communications as
executive creative director, North
and East. Based out of Delhi, he will
report to Bobby Pawar, chief creative
officer, Mudra Group and work with
Ajay Naqvi, EVP and head, Mudra
North and East, handling accounts
like HBO, Wrigley and Philips.
A graduate in English literature from Fergusson College,
Pune, Pulickal has 12 years of experience in advertising. He
started his career in 1998 with Clarion (now Bates141). Later,
he moved on to agencies like Contract Advertising, McCann
Erickson, Ogilvy & Mather, RMG David, Young & Rubicam and
finally to Wieden+Kennedy in 2008.
Over the years, he has worked on brands such as Nike,
Royal Enfield, Chevrolet Beat and Cruz, Incredible India,
Indigo, Singapore Tourism, Citibank, Asahi Glass, United Colors
of Benetton (UCB) and Cornetto Walls, among others.
> Nitin Makdani, ex-business
head - consumer electronics at Cheil
Communications has moved to LG
Ad as vice-president. He will be the
overall in-charge of the agency while
working towards strengthening the
existing verticals, as well as devel-
oping new verticals, to establish
LG Ad as a full-fledged communica-
tions agency.
Makdani is an MBA from Mudra
Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad and has over 15
years of experience in advertising. He also did a course in
advertising and marketing from Pennsylvania University.
He started his career in 1994 with Mudra Communications
followed by Rediffusion Y&R. In 1996, he moved to Everest
Integrated Communications, where he spent six years handling
clients like Godfrey Phillips, Honda Scooters, Caltex Lubricants,
Fena Detergents and Maxima Watches. In 2003 he joined
Hakuhodo Percept Delhi as client services director, where he
worked on Maruti Suzuki and Suzuki two-wheeler brands. This
was followed by another brief stint at JWT as client services
director, before he moved to Cheil in 2006.
> Madhuri Sapru, managing
partner, Kinetic & Dialect South
Asia, who handled the position
since mid-2006 has put in her
papers at the agency. Before join-
ing Kinetic, Sapru held various
positions at Tata Teleservices.
Earlier. She was working for the
Tata Group managing the Tata
brand and also led the Tata Group
AoR. She has more than 21 years of experience, most of
it at the client’s end with companies such as Nestle, Blow
Plast, BPL Mobile (now Loop Mobile) and the Tata Group.
MARKETING
> Cleartrip.com has appointed Niraj
Seth as the CMO. He was earlier the
head of marketing at online jobs por-
tal, Monster.com. He will report to
Stuart Crighton, CEO, Cleartrip.com,
and will be based in Delhi. Seth is an
alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and has
more than 17 years of experience.
Of this, he has spent more than 12
years with Bharat Petroleum and in
2006 he moved to Monster.com.
DIGITAL
> Hungama Mobile has appointed
Sunny Virmani as VP-international
mobile business. He will lead
Hungama’s global growth and opera-
tions in the mobile space and will
work closely with the company’s con-
tent and service partners globally.
He has over 13 years of experi-
ence in filmmaking, entertainment,
marketing, consulting and tech-
nology. He has worked with many
prestigious and boutique companies in the US and in India.
Prior to joining Hungama, Virmani was president of VCXel
Entertainment, where he led the strategic direction and opera-
tions of the company.
> The India Today Group has
appointed veteran journalist MJ
Akbar as the editorial direc-
tor of India Today - English
and International editions, tak-
ing over Prabhu Chawla’s
responsibilities at the organi-
sation. Akbar will also have
the additional responsibility of
Headlines Today as editorial director of the channel.
While, Chawla has been redesignated as CEO and editor
(languages). The latter will explore possibilities to bring
more Indian language titles in future.
Akbar had launched a weekly English newspaper titled
The Sunday Guardian in early 2010. Also, he is the chair-
person of Covert, a fortnightly news magazine launched
in May 2008. In the past, he has also been associated
with The Asian Age as founder, editor-in-chief and manag-
ing director and has been editor-in-chief of The Deccan
Chronicle.
> Bloomberg UTV has appointed Manoj Menon as
senior vice-president, ad sales. He will report to Deepak
Lamba, business head, Bloomberg UTV. He will be respon-
sible for increasing the channel’s revenue and capitalising
on the channel’s renewed programming and branding.
Earlier, Menon was head, ad sales, STAR Movies and STAR
World. He has more than 17 years of experience in ad
sales, of which 11 years have been spent at STAR Network.
> Red FM has announced multiple appointments in its
programming team. With an aim to strengthen the sta-
tion’s senior management in programming, Vaibhav
Vishal has been appointed as the NCD, while Rohit
Kulkarni is the new national client solutions head.
Mayur Chikramane has joined Red FM as the regional
programming head - North and Macoy D’Souza comes
on-board as the regional programming head - West.
Before this, both Vishal and Kulkarni were associated
with MTV. Chikramane was earlier associated with Fever
104 FM and D’souza was with the media industry and had
previously led the regional programming teams for Big FM.

<< FRQWLQXHGIURPSDJH search process is over, so there could

The Search...
Mumbai, which has offices in the
US as well.
He adds, “Google Instant search
will have more impact on the organ-
ic search business (search engine
optimisation) compared to the paid
search (search advertising using
Google AdWords programme).”
Bhaskar Thakur, co-founder and
chief executive officer, RankUno
Interactive (a Pune-based search
marketing agency), says, “Earlier,
the focus was on choosing the right
set of keywords to make search
engine optimisation (SEO) effective.
However, from now onwards, the
relevance of each word of a search
term will become important and
search agencies/advertisers will be
required to focus on the order of
keywords of a search term.”
He adds that searches for terms
such as ‘Delhi five star hotels’ and
(From left) Mody, Thakur and Murthy: great opportunity for advertisers
‘five star hotels in Delhi’ could pre-
dict different results while the search
process is on - based on the order
of keywords. In the earlier Google
search system, both keywords/search
terms were treated equally.
Clarifying it further, Mahesh
Murthy, co-founder and chief exec-
utive officer, Pinstorm, says, “The
challenge for search agencies/adver-
tisers will be to optimise and create
content/pages related to each word
for a long tail search term.”
Will Google Instant affect the
paid search business? says, Murthy.
“The keywords selection process
for AdWords based advertising will
become more strategic and advertis-
ers will have to increase the number
of ‘ad groups’.” An ad group rep-
resents a grouping or collection of
keywords for which a search ad is
being served. Thus, the advertiser
will end up buying more keywords.
Thakur believes that the Google
Instant search system is actually an
opportunity for advertisers. “Search
ads will be displayed even before the
be more opportunity for companies/
brands to serve their search ads in
advance, even before the search pro-
cess ends,” he says.
However, brands serving ads on
search will need to be careful as the
system may count impression even
for searches which may not be apt,
says a search marketing expert.
“One area that Google Instant
could play a role for users could be
that of local search because that’s
one area where the search queries
are more vague (as a person may
not know what exactly he would
like). In such a case, the intelligence
that ‘reads your mind’ will be wel-
comed. But overall, just as one uses
or ignores ‘auto form filler’ sugges-
tions, the same is likely to happen
with Instant Search once its novelty
rubs off, and it becomes the way all
search is,” Ashok Lalla, president,
digital, EURO RSCG (India) points
out. „
kapil.ohri@afaqs.com

34 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0


VODAFONE/BLACKBERRY
Not Just For the Big Boys
The ‘BlackBerry Boys’ are the new craze in town. Vodafone’s new campaign says that the smart phone no
longer belongs to only the corporate honchos. By Biprorshee Das
W
hether Research In Motion
(RIM) puts the Indian
government’s security
concerns to rest or not, one cannot
deny that the BlackBerry phone user
base has widened steadily in recent
times and that the average age of the
user has only got younger.
The ‘smart’ phone, if you will, has
moved beyond being just a device for
a hotshot executive to check e-mails
on the go. It has moved beyond being
only a business phone. Controversy
or not, the BlackBerry Messenger or
BBM is one of the more hep con-
cepts with the youth and ‘Give me
your BB PIN’ is common usage.
All in all, move over corporate
honchos - the bubbly young have
staked a claim in the fun BlackBerry
space as well. Vodafone Essar’s new
campaign for BlackBerry is recognis-
ing this very trend and conveys the
message in a simple yet cheeky man-
ner with ‘BlackBerry Boys’.
Having created quite a buzz
already, the television commercial,
designed by Vodafone’s long trusted
creative partner Ogilvy India, passes
the message very figuratively.
The film begins with five men
dressed in formal attire - singing
about how special they are, being
BlackBerry users or ‘the BlackBerry
Boys’. The group, much to its cha-
grin, is gradually joined by a whole
bunch of youngsters singing the
Move over same song, saying how they all do the
same fun thing and stay connected
corporate socially while they are on the move.
Besides the implied message,
honchos - the the campaign pushes Vodafone’s
BlackBerry service plans for its pre-
bubbly young have paid customers in India at pocket
staked a claim in friendly prices.
The creative team at Ogilvy
the fun BlackBerry includes creative directors Rajesh
Mani and Mehul Patil. The TVC has
space as well. been directed by Prakash Varma of
36 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0
1(:6$'9(57,6,1*
Nirvana Films.
Talking about the campaign,
Rajiv Rao, national creative director,
Ogilvy India, says, “I remember the
look on the faces of the top execu-
tives in suits, sitting in business class,
having to share their seat with a
young guy like me in a crumpled
T-shirt and torn jeans. It was this
Rao: Targeting the young
feeling that was very similar to the
BlackBerry phenomenon a few years
ago - when getting a BB was like a
big perk in the organisation.”
“Today, besides the top execu-
tives, a lot of youngsters are using
BlackBerry for various reasons.
Inspired by this insight, we thought
- how about getting these typical
BB users singing a song about BB
and themselves - and then letting
a bunch of youngsters completely
take over what was meant to be their
stage, since they are the new users,”
Rao adds
The lyrics of the song, says Rao,
had to be simple enough to look like
one that is made by the same men
in suits.
Vodafone’s brief to the agency was
to expand the usage of the BlackBerry
beyond the traditional post-paid cor-
porate segment. With the pre-paid
offering, youngsters have the option
to control their expenses on the
service and experience the suite of
offerings.
Anuradha Aggarwal, vice-pres-
ident, brand communications and
insights, Vodafone India, says, “We
noticed that BlackBerry had become
an aspirational phone with the youth
and we wanted to make Vodafone
the preferred service provider. The
objective was to be different. To be
different with a simple message can
be challenging, too.”
The television campaign will be
supported by print and outdoor pro-
motions.
BOYS’ SPEAK...
T he campaign has evoked mixed
responses from the advertising
fraternity, while the light hearted
nature of the film has been much
appreciated.
Satbir Singh, chief creative offic-
er, Euro RSCG India observes that
the BlackBerry had become a “very
straight-jacketed for the stuffy” kind
of a phone.
“BlackBerry had become a device
for the guy who replied on Lotus
Notes at ungodly hours. In reality,
the number of people who ask you
for your PIN has been rising steadily.
BBM is the lifeblood for scores of
gossipy young things,” notes Singh.
He says that the commercial
changes the perception in a delight-
ful way.
“Indeed, I love the light hearted
‘boys’ bit. It’s catching on as a for-
ward on social media. What else do
you need,” Singh says.
Prasanna Sankhe, national crea-
tive director, Publicis Ambience, a
self-confessed BlackBerry hater, is
not impressed by the new position-
ing of the BlackBerry.
“People like the efficiency of the
BlackBerry and in some way, in
the corner of their hearts, desire to
project themselves as a part of this
corporate BlackBerry world. I don’t
know how prudent it is to erode that
strength,” says Sankhe.
Having said that, Sankhe likes the
‘feel good’ factor and music of the
commercial - as one has begun to
expect of the Vodafone communica-
tions. According to him, given the
nature of the client, a bigger creative
leap with a relevant insight could
have been possible. „
biprorshee.das@afaqs.com
Here’s your tool to create ripples..

Come, get into act....

 35(6(176
&$03$,*175$,/
New and notable campaigns across television, print, out-of-home and digital media

TELEVISION

HINDUSTAN TIMES LENOVO PHILIPS ELECTRONICS

The TVC is a part of the four-film series. With the
Commonwealth Games and reality shows being the case in
point, the idea of the campaign is to bring people closer to
sports and also to propose a change in the way people are
putting pressure on children to participate in reality shows.
Creative Agency: Lowe Lintas, Delhi
Creative Team: R Balki, Deepesh Jha, Amer Jaleel,
Shayondeep Pal and Harpal Singh
Film Director: Nikhil Rao
The film for Lenovo’s range of personal computers is based The TVC for Philips energy efficient lighting talks of how the
on the fact that most of Indian household PC purchases by product is a good bet to save energy.
the youth needs parental approval.
Creative Agency: DDB Mudra Delhi
Creative Agency: Hungry & Foolish Chief Creative Officer: Bobby Pawar
Founder and Creative head: Anto Noval Creative Director: Neville Shah
Creative Directors: Praveen Raj and Prem Kishore Creative Team: Hassan Jafri, Radhika Kapur and
Film Director: Milind Dhaimade Saurabh Dawar
Production House: Equinox Films Film Director: Prakash Varma

PRINT
VIMAL VIVANTA BY
The ad talks of TAJ HOTELS &
Vimal’s recently
launched anti-
RESORTS
The ad is the launch
microbial fabric
campaign for Taj
that allows
Group’s Vivanta. It’s a
sweat free use.
5-star hospitality brand
The campaign
positioned in the upper-
is designed
upscale segment. The
keeping in
creative through various
mind young
words brings alive the
entrepreneurs with a hectic work schedule and social life
AIRTEL mixing fashion with a functional benefit that is communicated
brand experience and
The creative is about the Airtel-Manchester United School philosophy.
with a floral metaphor.
Programme. The copy says how aspiring footballers in 240
schools across six cities will undergo rigorous trials led by Creative Agency:
Agency: Grey Advertising
Manchester United coaches while the 20 most promising Rediffusion Y&R
Executive Creative Director: Karan Rawat
players will head to Manchester to train at the club’s facility. Creative Head and Copywriter: Anisha Sarin
Senior Creative Director and Art Director: Goral
Art Director: Sanket Pathare
Creative Agency: Rediffusion Y&R Ajmera
Brand consultancy and Design Firm: Landor
Creative Head: Jaideep Mahajan Copy Supervisor: Pallavi Chakravarti
Associates

OOH DIGITAL
COCA-COLA
Coca-Cola, the official
beverage partner for
the Commonwealth
Games, has launched
a 45-day long outdoor
campaign. The OOH
firm has opted for
large formats like
frontlit hoardings,
bridge panels, building
wrap around the
SUSHIL KUMAR

JACK AND JONES Centerstage Mall and BUILDADREAMCAR.COM

As part of the outdoor campaign, the European fashion The site empowers consumers to assemble and build a
façade branding on
brand rolled out fully wrapped Innovas for seven days in the virtual car using machinery and accessories available on
The Great India Place
Capital. the site. It is rumoured to be a teaser campaign for the
in Noida and vertical
OOH Agency: CashurDrive displays in the amphitheatre of Ansal Plaza Mall, New Delhi. upcoming vehicle called Aria, a crossover between MUV and
Exposure: Delhi NCR SUV, by Tata Motors.
OOH Agency: MOMS, Delhi
Exposure: Delhi NCR Digital agency: Experience Commerce, Mumbai

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

38 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 YEARS OF

....and turn ripples into waves.

Theme: Crisis of credibility in India Media
Plus: Best of 15 - goof ups, letters, cartoons, pictures and
thought provoking, rip roaring features.

Outlook’s 15th Anniversary Special Issue: October 25th

Welcome aboard to the most awaited issue any magazine
ever published.

Delhi Sushmita + 91 97 118 08101 sushmita@outlookindia.com

Mumbai Rajeshwari + 91 99 201 77066 rajeshwari@outlookindia.com
Don’t wanna give it a miss, na? Call: Bangalore Swaroop + 91 98 452 12010 swaroop@outlookindia.com
Chennai Uma + 91 98 407 58484 uma@outlookindia.com
Kolkata Moushumi + 91 98 310 39871 moushumi@outlookindia.com

What happens when brands hijack
their competitors’ campaigns.
By Devina Joshi
I
f the run-up hadn’t gone horribly wrong
with accusations of corruption, failing
infrastructure and the resultant media and
public outcry, it would have been interesting
to see whether ambush advertising would have
reared its - some say ugly - head in this month’s
Commonwealth Games (CWG) in New Delhi.
The CWG committee has its hands full without
this adding to its woes.
Games meets and championships tend to
bring out the guerilla in the advertiser while the
organisers have a torrid time trying to nip it in
the bud and protect the sponsors’ turf. Ambush
advertising has been a part of the Super Bowl in
the US, the Olympics (Winter and Summer),
World Cup (football and cricket), Marathons and
even beach volleyball.
Globally, legendary conflicts like adidas-Nike
(Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and the Football World
Cup this year), Olympus-Canon (US Open tennis,
last year) and Carlsberg-Budweiser (Football
World Cup, 2010) have been played out in a blaze
of publicity that helped the attacker brand. In each
of the cases mentioned, the first-named has been
an official sponsor. But the others too got more
than anyone had bargained for.
The battle for eyeballs, perhaps fittingly, takes
place outdoors. And appropriately enough, one
can expect the hijacker to lie in wait round the next
billboard or hoarding. There are Indian examples
in plenty, both at sporting arenas and elsewhere.
The 1996 Cricket World Cup saw the Pepsi-
Coke face-off which gave birth to one of Indian
40 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0
advertising’s memorable lines: Nothing official
about it. One of the more striking ones off the
sports field was Kingfisher-Jet Airways billboard
war that was talked about for many months after
it first appeared.
In India, most ambush advertising happens off
the sports field possibly because, cricket aside, there
is no big sponsor involved in sports. The CWG,
for instance, despite the star athletes attending, has
just a handful of official sponsors.
When campaigns are hijacked, it is the teaser
ads that are most vulnerable to being targeted
Teasers that
are about
intrigue and
aren’t central to the
campaign to follow are
the most vulnerable.
TIFFIN BOX
especially if the teaser goes on for too long. Last
month, the Pantene-Dove billboard conflict made
headlines. What makes a brand want to hijack
another’s campaign? What are the finer points of
ambush advertising? Is it fair?
STREET BRAWLS
R ecently, consumers in India were baffled by
a couple of hoardings that screamed for their
attention. First, a shampoo brand (P&G’s Pantene,
as it turned out later), claiming to be the leader
in its space, launched an outdoor campaign that
said, ‘A Mystery Shampoo 80 per cent women say
is better than anything else’. Pantene’s extensive
teaser campaign was supposed to be a precursor
to its new, revamped avatar. What P&G didn’t
know was that someone was watching. And that
someone reacted with alacrity.
Hindustan Unilever’s shampoo brand, Dove,
seized the opportunity to take a pot shot. Massive
hoardings came up claiming: ‘There is no mystery,
Dove is the No.1 shampoo’. Often, these hoardings
w
were strategically placed near Pantene’s ‘mystery
shampoo’ ones. While some marketing managers
applauded HUL’s clever spoiler, others had mixed
opinions. P&G, in the meantime, went ahead and
filed a case.
Other highly-visible examples in India
include Nescafé’s launch of granulated coffee
a week before Bru was to have done the same,
sabotaging the entire sets of creatives prepared
by the latter. The Zee-Bhaskar combine Diligent
Media Corporation took The Times of India
 &29(56725<
Group to court because the latter’s campaign marketing officer, Tata Teleservices, giving an Would it perhaps be logical to conclude that
for Maharashtra Times had ‘sabotaged’ the Grey advertiser’s perspective. a challenger brand is most often seen sabotaging
Tape launch campaign for Diligent’s newspaper, Teasers that are about intrigue and not central a market leader’s communication efforts? Not
Daily News & Analysis (DNA). Similarly, Dainik to the campaign to follow are the most vulnerable. really. Branding experts feel it is not a challenger
Bhaskar’s teaser campaign for its launch in Ranchi On the other hand, teasers that are just the prequel brand that sabotages, it is the challenger mentality
was ‘hijacked’ by Hindustan. So where and how to a strong, well thought-out, long-term position in any brand that does so - the panga lena hai
does one lay the ambush exactly? are quite safe. K S Chakravarthy (aka Chax), attitude. It’s akin to the Shah Rukh Khan versus
It is not as if ambush advertising cannot happen national creative director, Draftfcb Ulka, cites an Aamir Khan debate. Shah Rukh knows he’s the
on TV. Airtel Digital’s teaser campaign with a red example. When Maharashtra Times tried to hijack numero uno, but still likes to behave like a
couch took a pounding when Big TV’s ads pulled DNA’s outdoor teasers, not much happened. challenger, and attacks Aamir all the time.
the rug from under its red sofa. Hijacking an ad is DNA’s hoardings of people with taped-up mouths Sabotage is obviously a short-term strategy, a
considered an art and a science by a section. It is were merely the opening salvo of a strong ‘Speak pit stop, and there may not be anything wrong
an art, some experts point out, when the creative Up, it’s in your DNA’ juggernaut. “MT wasted with that. It is said that the really good ones make
is put together and unleashed on an unsuspecting some money and DNA went on to become the a statement about their own brand - taking a swipe
rival. And it is science when you can calculate launch of the year,” muses Chax.
how far you can go and, at the same time, stay
within legal limits. Or, when and how much of a GAMES BRANDS PLAY
competitor’s campaign can be ‘sabotaged’ without
it backfiring on the aggressor. W hy would a brand take open swipes at its
competitor in such abrasive ways? “For
the same reason someone would wear a yellow
LAST-MINUTE SURPRISES suit - instant attention,” quips Sainath Saraban,
Sabotage is
A t what point in a brand’s campaign cycle can
sabotage take place? The answer is: absolutely
any point. Experts, however, agree that the teaser
executive creative director, Leo Burnett Delhi.
Sabotage usually happens when brands stop
talking to consumers and start talking to each obviously
phase is when a brand is most vulnerable to attack. other. Most of the time, this is just an opportunity
According to Anand Halve, director, to show off how clever a brand is, with the
a short-term ploy,
chlorophyll, there are three key “occasions” when
sabotage is likely to take place. The first is the
target group being the competing brand/agency.
It is about one-upmanship. “The consumer is left
a pit stop, and there
teaser phase of a campaign. It is the equivalent to confused, and may still not know why to buy your may not be
giving “advance notice” so that a competing brand brand,” says Vikram Mehra, CMO, Tata Sky.
can step in. According to a survey by chlorophyll, women anything wrong
The second situation is akin to, in boxing didn’t get the Dove-Pantene saga at all nor did
with that.
Watch Out!
W hat should a brand do to make sure that its campaign is not broken? Harish Bijoor, brand
strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc suggests five rules that could help.
at competition while doing it
Integrity insulation: Don’t ever lie, intentionally or un-intentionally. Do not try to stretch the truth. even if there has been a mishap.
The further you stretch it, the further it lends itself to ridicule and ambush marketing. It’s like an When Pepsi’s Michael
elastic band. Stretch it far, and when you leave it, it hits hard...very hard! Jackson world tour was cancelled
a few years ago, it left millions
Hyperbole insulation: Advertising is a creative process. The brand positioning statement offers
of fans - and the sponsor - disappointed. Coca-
integrity. At times, the ad positioning statement builds on this. The execution, which sits atop this uses Cola, however, was quick to step in with the line,
every hyperbole to make the creative endearing. Avoid a situation where hype overtakes reality. ‘Dehydrated? Time for a Coke’. Consumers loved
Teaser-insulation: Avoid teasers at all cost. Even if you use it, do it with quick updates. Don’t it, because it came from what Coke stands for as a
tease the competitor too much. Not worth it. Let the sleeping competitor lie. refreshment drink.
Tall-claim insulation: Stop making those tall claims altogether. You are offering the competitor a SNOOPERS’ INC?
tall and thick whip to flog you with. Tread the path of product claims with integrity.
360-degree insulation mindset: The days ahead are competitive. Examine every piece of N ot every hijack attempt works in favour
of the cheeky brand. Often, the hijacked
brand gets the benefit of the hijacker’s media
creative with a 360-degree mindset that explores society, competition, advertisers, the green
language and more importantly the inclusive language at large. Don’t offer a gap in any of this which budgets. The primary objective of a hijack is
the competitor can use to sabotage perfectly good creatives in other ways. often entertainment. “You’re not in the business
of advertising only to entertain. Every marketer’s
primary objective is to get people to buy your
product,” cautions Mehra of Tata Sky.
parlance, “bleeding with a glass jaw”. A glass they fully comprehend the play on the word Others such as Chax feel that if a brand attacks
jaw is a chin that practically begs to be punched ‘mystery’. The logic is simple. If one were to a competitor’s inherent brand values, it can work.
severely. A brand might open itself up for attack take a pot shot at a long-term property associated For instance, when Thums Up said ‘Grow up to
by providing gaps that a competing brand can fill with a brand (such as a claim like one-fourth Thums Up’, it was attacking Pepsi where it hurt
in. In some cases, it would seem that the affected moisturising cream or even Nike’s tagline ‘Just do - its inherent sweet taste, and the vulnerability of
brand was just asking for it. it’) the effort has a chance of being understood. its kiddy-consumers to being called kiddies. But
The third scenario is simply stealing someone Whether it works or not is another debate. when the attack is purely on a competitor’s ad,
else’s thunder creatively. Sixteen years ago, Pepsi’s “But if you attack something as obscure as a finding after finding indicates consumers don’t
‘Nothing official about it’ was a statement on ‘mystery shampoo’ and ‘being number one’, which understand - or appreciate - such efforts.
Coca-Cola’s ‘Official sponsor of the Cricket the consumer might not so strongly associate with Where does one draw the line? Saraban of
World Cup’. It was a way of turning a competitor’s any of those two brands, then it doesn’t work,” Burnett feels it depends on the people creating
bragging to rubble. “There was no question of Halve deduces. Typically, the brand that faces and approving the communication. If it’s a one-off
any opportunity being created by Coke, nor were eyeball-to-eyeball competition goes the sabotage project and they’re getting their kicks, no worries.
there teasers for Pepsi to pick on. It was simply way the most. Furthermore, categories that enjoy “There are no absolutes here. One man’s ‘tongue-
irreverence on Pepsi’s part, which made the word just two big players as adversaries are happiest in-cheek’ is another ‘in bad taste’,” he muses. „
‘official’ sound stupid,” says Lloyd Mathias, chief doing this. devina.joshi@afaqs.com

afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0 41


TUSHAR VYAS I MANAGING PARTNER - SOUTH ASIA I GROUPM
Innings 2.0
FOTOCORP
By Kapil Ohri
“Only time
S
elf-starter, solutions provider,
team leader, relationship build-
er, strategic thinker, persistent,
down-to-earth, keen listener and a
will tell
go-getter. No, you won’t find these
mentioned in Vyas’ CV. These are a
what I have
few adjectives picked up from various
recommendations written by various
done
media professionals - associated with with my
Vyas - on his Linkedin.com profile.
His recent move to GroupM as experience.”
managing partner, South Asia to head
the digital business is his second term
with the agency. His first stay was seven years long.
Born and brought up in Damnagar (Gujarat), a
town with population of about 17,000 people, Vyas
followed the ritual of pursuing engineering (electrical
and communications engineering from Shantilal Shah
Engineering College, Gujarat), after finishing higher
secondary. Instead of learning the science of commu-
nication, the engineering course helped him develop
an interest in the art of communication. “While stud-
ying engineering, my interactions with marketing
professors built my interest in advertising.”
In 1996, Vyas got admission in MICA. After finish-
ing the course, he secured a media planner’s job in
the Kolkata branch of Bates Clarion. There he was
assigned the task of creating media plans for vari-
42 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0
ous international cigarette brands like
Benson & Hedges and 555, which
ITC was planning to launch back
then. In mid-1999, he moved to
HTA Fulcrum, the WPP agency for
Unilever accounts.
Vyas started taking an interest in
digital media during the late ’90s,
when the digital industry experienced
the dotcom boom. He began his
experiments with internet advertising
while working on brands like Close-
up, Axe and Sunsilk.
The boom - which motivated
many people to start their own ven-
tures - encouraged Vyas too, to come
up with his own company. While at
HTA Fulcrum, he teamed up with
his old MICA classmates Kedar Lele
and Ruchira Gupta to devise a busi-
ness plan. “We wanted to create a
media trading and exchange platform,
which would ease the process of buy-
ing and ordering of advertising (TV
and print) inventory through the
internet medium. Then the bust hap-
pened and our idea died on the paper
itself,” recalls Vyas.
When HTA Fulcrum became
Mindshare, Vyas was asked to set up
and handle its digital division. He
kick-started the operations with a team
comprising Madan Sanglikar (now
with Mindshare Interaction) and M V
Rajesh (now with OnMobile).
“Mindshare Digital happened
immediately after the dotcom bust
and there were less expectations from
digital at that time.”
In late 2007, Vyas’ decision to
quit GroupM and partner with digital
media technology start-up Surewaves
came as a surprise to many. “I am
a start-up person at heart. I would
have regretted for the rest of my
life if I had missed it in 2007. There
was an opportunity to apply internet
technologies to other mediums. I
happened to meet Rajendra Khare,
who was earlier with Broadcom India
Research, and Surewaves happened.”
What made him quit Surewaves? “All the while at
Surewaves, I was in touch with GroupM folks as many
of them are beyond just ex-colleagues. There was an
unwritten pact that I will review my decision after
three years of joining Surewaves.” Despite his exit, he
still owns some stake in the company.
Now that he is back with GroupM, what are
his plans? Says Vyas, “There is a famous quote:
‘Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a
man does with what happens to him.’ There are many
things you go through in start-up environment which
will have immense relevance in high growth or estab-
lished businesses. Only time will tell what I have done
with my experience.” „
kapil.ohri@afaqs.com
352),/( _ 1(:6
TAJ TELEVISION
2QWKH%DOO
The new channel, Ten
Action+, will be all about
football. News Bureau
T
aj Television India has
launched Ten Action + as
an exclusive football channel.
This is the third channel from the
company after Ten Sports and Ten
Cricket.
Ten Action+ will showcase the
world’s leading live and exclusive
football action. Talking about the
channel, Atul Pande, CEO, Sports
Business, Essel Group, says, “This
affirms our commitment to grow
the sports business and consolidate
our position as the leading sports
broadcaster. The channel will bring
the best football action from around
the world.”
Ten Action+, which will be
‘entertaining and informative’, and
will showcase live and exclusive
matches from the Spanish La Liga,
UEFA Champions League, Italian
Serie A, UEFA Europa League,
English Championship, Carling
Cup, Scottish Premier League and
Dutch Eredivisie, among others.
Apart from these, there will be a
host of preview, review and maga-
zine style shows along with original
live studio programming before the
games kick off at the weekends.
Countdown2Kickoff (C2K), will
follow the football action every
Saturday and Sunday and track
breaking news, live scores, results,
standings and fixtures.
Experts on the team will also
explain in detail the subtleties of the
game with exact precision using the
channel’s newly acquired Piero 3D
virtual graphics package.
Controversial goals, tactical
play and disputed moments will
be analysed through the real-time
transition of live action into virtual
reality.
Ten Action+ will also showcase
content from Chelsea TV, Liverpool
TV, Manchester City TV, Barca
TV, Real Madrid TV and Bayern
Munich TV to keep viewers updated
with the latest team and player news
from clubs around the world.
In January this year, Zee
Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL),
which owned 50 per cent stake in
Taj TV, increased its stake to 95 per
cent. „
feedback@afaqs.com
 1(:622+
LITEFAST 360°

From All Angles

Mumbai-based blueMango solutions has partnered with a German company,
Kinoton, to market new display systems in India. By Surina Sayal

M
umbai-based technology consulting,
digital marketing and software develop-
ment company, blueMango solutions
has tied up with German tech solutions company,
Kinoton to market the state-of-the-art Litefast
range of 360-degree digital display systems, which
can be used for marketing and communication
out-of-home.
The Litefast 360° range comprises multimedia
LED digital signage displays, whose 360-degree
presentation can be viewed from all angles, attract-
ing three times as many visitors and customers as
conventional flat screens.
These displays are suitable for locations that
see a constant flow of visitors, such as airports,
cinema halls, railway stations, shopping malls,
clubs, theme parks, trade fairs, company foyers,
These displays are suitable for locations that see a con-
hotels and restaurants. stant flow of visitors, such as airports, cinema halls,
The body consists of a cylindrical LED display,
resting atop a sleek cylindrical stand structure. railway stations, shopping malls and clubs.
Litefast displays come in three variants - Mini,
Magic and Motion - with a range of sizes and display windows. The Mini stands at a height of trailer. The innovative LED display technology
display options. about 16 inches or 1.3 ft, and can display text and provides good colour space, colour brilliance and
The transparent Litefast Mini desktop mod- images. contrast.
els are a face-to-face advertising medium for Litefast Magic is a larger format display, stand- Since Litefast Mini and Magic are transparent
high-traffic locations, such as sales and trade ing at approximately 7 ft. It is a multimedia
fair counters, customer desks, checkout areas or platform for any kind of video, commercial or FRQWLQXHGRQSDJH>>

WHERE’S MY BONE across the metros of the country.

Harihar adds that 70 per cent of the

Every Dog Has His Day circulation will be through a sub-

scription based model.
Talking about the content of the
The lifestyle magazine for dogs is good news for pet magazine, Harihar says, “Where’s
My Bone will be a strictly dog
enthusiasts. By Sumantha Rathore lifestyle magazine and it will have
nothing to do with dog nutrition

H
as it ever happened that
you so wanted to go for
an exotic holiday but
couldn’t, because you did not have
the heart to leave your pet pooch
alone at home? For pet owners
who are obsessed with their canine
friends, dog lovers Jimmy Jain
and Apeksha Harihar decided to
launch a magazine focussing on
dogs. Titled ‘Where’s My Bone’,
the lifestyle offering will cater to pet
owners from middle income and
high net worth group.
Where’s My Bone is tentatively
priced at Rs 75. It will be launched
in January 2011 and will be a quar-
terly offering.
The company is promoted
by Jain, chief executive officer
and Harihar, editor and founder,
Where’s My Bone.
The magazine is looking at
advertisers from various sections,
including those who are into related
businesses, pet friendly hotels, dog
food companies and “basically any-
one who wants to reach out to the
pet owners,” says Harihar.
The magazine is in the final
stages of talks with Mahindra
Homestay, Petsmart Pet Products
and a few dog salons in Mumbai for
advertisements.
It also aims to attract advertise-
ments from other small but growing
dog related businesses such as dog
travel agencies which suggest pet
friendly vacations, pet photography
related businesses and dog bakeries.
It will have an initial print run
of 2,000 copies and aims to take
the figure up to 5,000 copies by
the end of the year. The magazine
will be available at Landmark and
Crosswords outlets and pet shops
and training.
There are many magazines
which cover that aspect. We will
cater to those who want to give
their dogs a better life. We want
to make India a well equipped
nation for pets, like many other
countries.”
Each edition of this quarterly
will have a different theme, includ-
ing travel special, beauty special,
fashion special and photography
Harihar: for the love of dogs
special issues.
The magazine’s closest compet-
Tentatively priced itor will be the six-year-old Dogs
and Pups magazine, a bi-monthly
at Rs 75, the in the same genre.
Where’s My Bone will, on an
magazine will focus average, have 50 pages, out of
which 70 per cent will be dedi-
on a better lifestyle cated to content and the rest will
for dogs. be taken up by advertisements. „
sumantha.rathore@afaqs.com

46 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0


Are Movie Promotions on TV Actually
Clutter-breaking?
Of late, almost every new movie gets onto a reality show on TV to announce itself. Are these as
clutter breaking as they are made out to be? By Rohit Nautiyal
7(-$6:,1,$3$5$1-,
COO, P9 Integrated
YES, TO A CERTAIN EXTENT. WE
ARE LIVING IN AN AGE WHERE
FILM PRODUCERS ARE NOT
CONTENT WITH RUNNING MOVIE
PROMOS ON ‘X’ NUMBER
of reality shows - which are now a cru-
cial part of a film’s media plan. They
want more innovation. If a movie is
treated as brand then integration is a
must.
The best part is that no money is
exchanged in such deals, making it a safe
bet for the producers on both the sides.
Usually, general entertainment channels
(GECs) are preferred as they ensure eye-
balls. While it’s convenient to do this in
the case of big budget movies or movies
with star power, small films lose out on
this opportunity.
However, now regional markets are
also exploring such associations between
reality shows and films in a big way.
Though in-programme integration is the
future, many innovations in this segment
are yet to see light of day.
48 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0
1,7,19$,'<$
Business Head, Zee TV
IN TODAY’S CONTEXT, THE
VERY FACT THAT EVERY
FILM MARKETER PLANS
APPEARANCES ON REALITY
SHOWS ON THE EVE OF A
film’s release speaks volumes for the popu-
larity of reality shows, their effectiveness in
generating buzz around a film and the reach of
television as a medium.
Having popular actors make an appearance
on reality shows is definitely a delight factor
for the viewers as well. Zee TV pioneered the
initiative of roping in film celebrities for special
episodes of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa way back in 2005
and the competition followed suit.
However, the current trend where the
entire cast of an upcoming film visits every
ongoing reality show dilutes the effectiveness
of the publicity campaign. It is overkill.
It also substantially reduces the returns
for the reality shows as there is little or no
differentiator between the celebrity appear-
ances across various shows. Now, is the time
for film marketers to select the right platforms
to showcase their upcoming releases in a way
that makes it a win-win situation for everyone
across the board.
32,1762)9,(:
.$1,.$02+$16$;(1$
AV-P, Marketing, UTV Bindass
THE RESPONSE DEPENDS ON HOW
A MARKETER HAS UTILISED - OR
UNDERUTILISED - THE PLATFORM.
THE SUCCESS WILL SOLELY RELY
ON THE SYNERGY BETWEEN THE
storyline of a film and the theme of a
particular reality show. Such an associa-
tion is fruitful either before the release
of the film or within a few days post its
release.
Film producers have realised the
importance of being a part of the small
screen. At the same time, a 13-week-
long reality show has understood the
significance of star power in titillating
the viewers.
Recently, on the eve of the release of
Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, actors
Ajay Devgan and Emraan Hashmi made
an appearance on Emotional Atyachaar
on Bindass where they became a part of
the crew and not a single promo of the
movie was played during the show. All
this happened without disrupting the
show’s format.
While the makers of a film are able
to reach a varied number of audiences
across different channels, the right buzz
is created for the reality shows as India is
a star-struck nation.
 1(:60(',$
ENGLISH GENERAL NEWS

Tremors at the Top

After a long time, things are stirring up once again in the English general news genre. The space was
ruled by Times Now but now others are catching up. By Sapna Nair

T
he English general news genre
has been following a set rank-
ing since a long time, with
Times Now leading the pack with
a lion’s share of the viewership pie,
as per TAM Media Research data.
There had always been a tussle for the
No.2 position between CNN-IBN
and NDTV 24X7.
In 2009, Times Now enjoyed undisputed lead-
ership, with a majority share of (yearly average)
30 per cent (C&S, 25+, All India, 1 mn+)
of the general news channel genre. It was fol-
lowed by NDTV 24X7 and CNN-IBN, which
commanded relative shares of 23 per cent each.
In 2008, however, Times Now and NDTV 24X7
were vying for the No.1 spot.
The year 2010 saw CNN-IBN gradually
expanding its share among the other channels,
while NDTV 24X7’s share has been declining.
Times Now’s share of the market has declined
over the past few weeks.
From a relative share of 21.4 per cent in January
2010, CNN-IBN’s share in July was 23 per cent,
while NDTV’s share has gone down from 24.3
per cent in January to 20.3 per cent in July. Times
Now’s share, too, declined from 29.3 per cent to
25.2 per cent.
August saw a major upheaval in the English
general news space. In Week 33, CNN-IBN’s
share increased to 26 per cent, close to the No. 1
For English news,
a fluctuation in viewership
is not led by programming
changes. Neither has there
been a big event to which
this can be attributed.
player, Times Now, which had garnered 27 per
cent share.
Week 34 onwards, however, the rankings
gradually changed. CNN-IBN grabbed the No.
1 position with a majority share of 24.4 per cent.
It was followed by NDTV 24X7 as second player,
with a market share of 23.4 per cent. Times Now
slipped to No3, garnering 22 per cent relative
share in Week 35.
In Week 36, the gap between CNN-IBN and
Times Now was 3 percentage points,
while in Week 37, the gap broadened
to 5 percentage points. As per the
TAM report (Week 38), CNN-IBN
continues to be No.1 with 29 per
cent share of the English news genre,
followed by Times Now, which is at
No.2 with 27 per cent share.
While no particular reason could
be ascertained for the shuffle in the genre, media
analysts believe that a dip in distribution could
have led to the drop in viewership of Times Now
because for a genre such as this, fluctuations in
viewership is not led by programming changes.
Neither has there been a big event to which this
can be attributed.
NDTV 24X7 is at No.3 in the latest week and
commands a 20 per cent relative share, followed
by Headlines Today, which has garnered a share
of 12 per cent. Among other channels, News9
has garnered a share of 6 per cent, followed by
IMN News and BBC World News, which have
garnered relative shares of 3.7 per cent and 1.5 per
cent, respectively.
While CNN-IBN has clearly replaced Times
Now in the last six weeks, media planners would
like to wait for another six weeks before pro-
nouncing a verdict.
As of now, it seems that the English news genre
is slated to see some action. „
sapna.nair@afaqs.com

<< FRQWLQXHGIURPSDJH
From All Angles
digital signage displays, they can also
be used to showcase actual products
inside the display.
The third variant, Litefast Motion
display is a customised version,
which hasn’t been introduced in
India yet.
Besides its attractive 360-degree
display, and the chance to showcase
actual products, other advantages are
that the messages on display can
be updated automatically in a flash,
organised in accordance with the tar-
get group and presented with precise
timing when required. Additional
real-time information, such as news
or timetables, can also be combined
with commercials, music clips or
movie trailers.
Discussing the launch of Litefast
in India, Aditi Manduskar, direc-
tor, blueMango solutions says, “I
met the Kinoton representatives
while at a digital media conference
in Singapore and was very impressed
with the product. They, too, were
looking for a representative in India,
which is how we decided on the
partnership.”
Harald Naether, vice-presi-
Additional real-time
information, can
also be combined
with commercials
or music clips.
dent, sales, Kinoton’s Litefast 360°
Displays, says, “blueMango’s pro-
found know how regarding digital
marketing technology, their mar-
ket expertise and their commitment
to superior customer service makes
them the perfect contact for our
Litefast customers in India. We are
looking forward to a fruitful coop-
eration.”
Manduskar explains that after
interacting with a few members
from the media industry, they came
to believe that everyone is now look-
ing for a medium of advertising
that is more vibrant and innovative
than the flat LCD and LED display
panels.
“We hope to bring in Litefast 360°
Displays as the new, unique and
vivacious trend for the advertising
world in India,” she says.
Litefast was launched interna-
tionally in 2009 and blueMango is
in the process of importing it to
India. blueMango is currently look-
ing at selling these displays, and
may explore the possibility of leasing
them out in the future.
The cost of purchasing a Litefast
Mini is about Rs 3.5 lakh, while
Magic is steeply priced within the
range of Rs 30-40 lakh, depending
on the software and sound systems
one purchases with it.
The company is currently mar-
keting the product to OOH media
owners, outdoor ad agencies and
shopping malls. While the product
has the potential to attract eyeballs
and comes with the ‘German engi-
neering’ label, it remains to be seen
whether the steep pricing would act
as a hurdle, or whether advertisers
would view it as a premium OOH
medium that is clutter-breaking and
worth investing in. „
surina.sayal@afaqs.com

50 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 1(:6$'9(57,6,1*
SPIKES ASIA 2010

Time to Celebrate
While TapRoot India got seven spikes, BBDO and Mediacom were No.2 and No.3 with four and three
metals, respectively. News Bureau

W
hile last year India had 65 shortlisted
entries at Spikes Asia, this year saw 80 AND THE WINNERS ARE
entries from the country in categories Spikes won by various agencies
including Print, Print Craft, Media, Outdoor, Agency Gold Silver Bronze Total
Digital, Design, Direct and Sales Promotion, TV/
Cinema, TV/Cinema Craft, Radio and Integrated. TapRoot India 4 2 1 7
Leading with a tally of seven metals, TapRoot BBDO 1 2 1 4
India won four gold, two silver and a bronze. Mediacom 1 1 1 3
The agency bagged one gold and one silver Spike, Ogilvy India 1 - - 1
both for Transasia Papers in Print Craft category. JWT - 4 2 6
In Print category, the agency has bagged one sil-
Mudra Group - 1 2 3
ver Spike, also for Transasia Papers. The same
campaign also got it a gold Spike in the Outdoor McCann Erickson - 1 1 2
category. Grey - 1 - 1
In the Media category, the agency won a gold Creativeland Asia - 1 - 1
Spike for The Times of India’s ‘India-Pakistan Leo Burnett - - 5 5
Peace Project’. The same campaign was awarded a Bates 141 - - 2 2
gold Spike in Integrated and a bronze in Direct & 7 13 15 35
Sales Promotion category.
BBDO is the No.2 Indian agency with one
gold, two silver and one bronze. The gold Spike
is for Aviva Life Insurance (Education Street to
This year saw 80 entries Outdoor category, and one bronze Spike in the
Outdoor category for Onida Washing Machine.
School Program) and two silver Spikes for 7UP
Lemon and P&G’s ‘Women Against Lazy Stubble’
from the country in In the Digital category, Grey Worldwide India
won a silver Spike for Wockhardt Hospital’s
(WALS) - all three in the Media category. Again,
in Direct & Sales Promotion category, the agency
categories includ- ‘Orthopaedist Harvard Medical International’.
In the Media category, Creativeland Asia won a
grabbed one bronze Spike for P&G Gillette Mach ing Print, Print Craft, silver Spike for Frooti.
3 for WALS. Leo Burnett India won five bronze - two for
Mediacom is next with one gold, one silver and Media, Outdoor, Digital, Sambhavana Trust in Print Craft category, two for
one bronze. One Gold for Gillette Mach 3 and Tide Detergents in Print category, and one more
the silver for anti-aging cream, Olay - both in the Design, Direct and Sales for Bajaj Electricals in Radio category.
Media category. The agency also won a bronze Bates 141 managed one bronze Spike for Virgin
Spike in the same category for Gillette Mach 3. Promotion. Mobile’s ‘Indian Panga League’ in Media category
Ogilvy has managed one gold Spike in TV/ and one bronze Spike for Net Protector’s cam-
Cinema category for the Breakthrough campaign Chase’. Additionally, the agency won two bronze paign, titled ‘Stolen Signature’.
on domestic violence awareness. Spikes - one each for Atul Sharma’s ‘Fold-Out MediaCom Communications Mumbai and
With a total tally of 6 metals, JWT has won Yoga Cards’ in the Design category and Fujifilm BBDO India, Mumbai have been ranked No.2
four silver and two bronze. It got two silver in the Print category. and No.3 Media Agencies of the Year. This is part
Spikes for GSK’s ‘Horlicks Pro-Height Room’ Next is Mudra DDB with one silver Spike and of the Special Awards category.
and Ehsaas Foundation’s ‘Dhobi Ghat’ - both in one bronze Spike in the Print Craft category for India had no shortlisted entries in the TV/
the Print category. In Direct & Sales category, Srujan. Also, the Mudra Group grabbed a bronze Cinema Craft category. Spikes Asia 2010 was
the agency picked up a silver Spike for ‘Horlicks Spike for Federal Bank. hosted in Singapore bringing together 1,400 ad
Pro-Height Room’. In the TV/Cinema category, McCann Worldgroup won a silver Spike for professionals in Asia Pacific region. „
JWT grabbed a silver Spike for ING Bank’s ‘The Onida Washing Machine’s ‘Clothesline’ in the feedback@afaqs.com

<< FRQWLQXHGIURPSDJH
Back With A Bang
in both formats - traditional and digi-
tal - has also picked up tremendously.
nicate their message,” says Alambara.
He suggests that advertisers,
both national and local, can max-
imise their OOH investments in
Chennai. “Creating (or recreating)
their messaging to suit the existing
OOH options will help most adver-
significantly by volume, it has not
dropped drastically in value - because
the cost of the OOH options available
have shot up dramatically to fulfil the
increased demand from advertisers.
WHAT’S AHEAD?
600 shelters, and different formats
are being implemented across sites.
Thus, advertisers are unable to use
a common template across different
shelters.
Also, the cost of existing OOH
options has spiralled to cope up

ADVERTISERS’ VIEW
tisers gain from the limited scope that
OOH offers in this market.”
A lambara points out a few issues
that need to be tackled here.
with the increased demand, making
it unviable for smaller advertisers.

A fter nearly 18 months of liv-

ing without large-format OOH
options, advertisers have learnt to use
the available options effectively.
“Besides telecom, the strong retail
base in Chennai has also used the
available outdoors well to commu-
While the national outdoor size
would account for roughly 7-10 per
cent of the total advertising spends
- in Chennai, it is slightly higher
(in the 10-15 per cent range) due
to extensive outdoor usage by retail.
While this would have gone down
This includes a uniform code and
proper regulations that are yet to
be put in place. An element of
doubt exists, with numerous illegal
options still in operation. Another
factor is that designs of bus shelters
are not uniform. Chennai has over
Where there are mistakes, there are
learnings too. Khan concludes, “The
Chennai OOH industry has bounced
back, and is slated to gain what it lost
due to earlier setbacks, before the end
of this year.” „
surina.sayal@afaqs.com

52 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 1(:6(9(17

Associate Sponsors

101 Markets, presented by Amar Ujala, discusses and explores the promise that small town and rural
India holds. The third edition had insightful case studies on campaigns designed specifically for small town
India and the challenges pertaining to this market. Excerpts from the presentations. By Payal Khandelwal

Special Address: Suman Srivastava, Euro RSCG

R ural culture is not finely differentiated,’’ said Suman
Srivastava, CEO, Euro RSCG who kicked off the event.
He said that before the downturn, India was shining and
According to him, Bharat can well exist in metros and
India can exist in rural as well.
While Bharat is about tradition, suspicious of western
so were the marketers. And ‘Shining India’ was taking place culture, believing in arranged marriages, buying tried and
in small towns too. For example, MS Dhoni. tested products and brands; India is about changing, open to
‘‘The slowdown pushed us even deeper and marketers western culture, being open about love marriages and on the
devised new media plans, price cuts, discounts, inclusive lookout for latest brands and products in the market.
advertising etc for ‘Bharat’,’’ he said. He said that marketers need to focus on tackling mindsets
He then raised the question as to what is really ‘Bharat’ and also need to dissect the non-metros. He also suggested
and how is it different from ‘India’. ‘‘To understand Bharat avoiding falling for clichés and avoiding being condescending.
there is a need to go to unchartered territories. The divide is ‘‘Bharat and India exist next to each other,’’ he concluded.
about how do they think and nothing else,’’ he said.

Research Masterclass: Marketers Panel 1: Marketers Panel 2:

Shonali Ghosh, The Nielsen Company Neeraj Garg, Abbott Healthcare Samir Gupte, Ogilvy Action
S honali Ghosh,
director, client
solutions, The
N eeraj Garg,
COO, True Care
Business, Abbott
P resenting a case
study on ICICI
Prudential Life’s
Nielsen Company Healthcare presented campaign, Samir
said, ‘‘New products a case study on Gupte, country head,
and ideas have been pharma marketing in Ogilvy Action said
synthesized in the rural and small towns. that while LIC is a big
lives of people living ‘‘35-42 per cent of player in rural, private
in rural and small pharma’s income players are looked at
town India. Now comes from small with suspicion and
they are moving into town and rural,’’ he the thinking in rural
a new future.’’ She said. According to is still agrarian which
gave an example of him, the challenge means short-term
FMCG which had 9 is to reach rural and and insurance is long
per cent growth in urban and 15 per cent in rural. small town due to low population density and huge term. Thus, rural is about mindset.
However, small town growth not as strong as rural. spread. Moreover, healthcare does not have an The objective of the campaign was to get rural to
According to her, one of the reasons for rural option of advertising. General therapies are the most start thinking about financial planning for children.
growth is accessibility. High-end products are important for growth here and there is also a growth ‘‘We realized that farmers’ dreams are based
growing in small towns. And metros are growing in prevalence of chronic diseases but people aren’t on their children and they realise the value for
too due to migration. Ghosh said that in terms of aware of them. education see it as a way of development.’’ Thus,
‘perceptions’, rural is poor, agrarian and isolated He said, ‘‘Mass market is low income group Pragati ki Anokhi Paathshala was launched. On day
and in terms of ‘potential’, it is collectively rich, full households, therapy areas - largely primary care one, things related to the development of child like
of growth opportunity and sustainable. ‘‘There is a and where the doctors’ profile is primary care communication skills, and vedic maths were shared
lot of focus and concerted effort on rural. There have practitioners.’’ Some of the key decisions to tackle with the students. The second day was kept for
been various corporate initiatives like E-choupal this market included democratising the quality of ‘Arthyudh’ with parents where they were asked to
with a common theme of empowerment.’’ She said primary healthcare. ‘‘As diagnosis is very important plan out their monthly expense etc. After two days,
that the two triggers for the growth are media and in rural areas, we made diagnostic products. We a reckoner with similar exercises was given to the
education and rising consumerism. Specifying the also redefined the profile of people as medical reps. parents. Children’s photographs were put in branded
role of market research, Ghosh said that ‘‘Market 500’’ ‘‘The focus of marketing programme has been frames and given to the parents. This helped in
research will contribute to determine price, product, knowledge up-gradation and relationship building. getting entry into potential households for sales
place and communication.’’ Technology can be very useful in rural markets.’’ pitch. ‘‘This program helped in brand consideration
and spontaneous awareness,’’ concluded Gupte.

56 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0


PANEL DISCUSSION 1
English rule: The challenge from Hindi
(From left): Neeraj Sanan, Madan Mohapatra, Amit Baruah, Divya Gururaj, Prajjal Saha
D uring the panel discussion, the moderator, Amit Baruah, who is head of BBC Hindi
said that, ‘‘English is an aspirational language but when it comes to growth in
journalism, it is in Hindi and regional language.’’
Neeraj Sanan, VP-marketing, MCCS said that the news channels have the power
from influence and money from advertising. However, he said, ‘‘A Hindi news channel
reaches out to more people than a lot of English channels put together but English
media walks away with 400-500 per cent premium.’’ According to Divya Gururaj, MD,
Mediacom, regional publications are the clear winners as that is where the boom is
happening. ‘‘All the regional publications are moving up quarter on quarter. In the
TV space too, there is a big boom in regional channels.’’ She said, ‘‘There are three
interesting trends that are emerging: India is unique as there is both homogeneity
and heterogeneity, there is a pride in being Indian and media has become very
personalized. People want to consume vernacular media.’’
Prajjal Saha, deputy editor, afaqs! raised the question of Hindi vs regional. ‘‘While
there is pride in consuming regional, it might not be the case with Hindi probably
because Hindi is not a language of one particular state.’’ However, there is a sense
of change in the last few years, he said. ‘‘Today high end brands would advertise in
a Dainik Jagran or a Dainik Bhaskar.’’ He also feels that Hindi TV is more popular
than Hindi print. Madan Mohapatra, chief marketing, Future Group mentioned that
while Hindi daily penetration is 6.8 per cent, English daily penetration is 1.9 per cent.
‘‘However, it’s a perception when it comes to readership. The reality is that English
commands twice the revenue of Hindi. There is 80 per cent of English daily readership
in SEC A-B as compared to 49 per cent of Hindi dailies.’’ However, he added, ‘‘We are
moving from English to the mother tongue to get maximum share of hearts. The pace
will depend on reducing the gap in product category and TG.’’
Gururaj rounded up by saying that this is the tip of the iceberg as there is a lot of
potential. ‘‘Another area to look at in the future is vernacular digital boom,’’ she said.
,1&219(56$7,217+($8',(1&($1'63($.(56
Delegates during one of the sessions Ashwini Deshpande
Samir Gupte (left) and Amit Baruah Shonali Ghosh (right)
58 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0
1(:6(9(17
PANEL DISCUSSION 2
Have Indian creatives finally understood
small town India?
T he moderator for the panel discussion Narayan Shankar, VP and branch head
Mumbai, Rediffusion-Wunderman started the session by saying that, ‘‘The ongoing
challenge is that these markets (rural and small town) are very dynamic as compared
to urban markets.’’
KV Sridhar (Pops), NCD, Leo Burnett said, ‘‘ The fact is that there are several Indias
and we need to have market specific communication. As the cultures are different, we
need to relate to people to build a brand otherwise the local clients will come and take
(From left) Narayan Shankar, KV Sridhar, Josy Paul, Ashwini Deshpande,
Sandip Bansal
over your market. A recent example is Micromax taking over Nokia.’’ According to
Pops, there are two classes - rural educated and urban educated, rural rich and urban
rich. ‘‘Indian advertising needs to realize that India is not same anymore. We need to
have more vernacular commercials,’’ he said.
Sandip Bansal, country head, Xpanse Asia said that we need to see how urban and
rural relate to each other. He mentioned that there are some ads that do connect like
Uninor but there are not many like that. ‘‘We need to understand the environment to
connect to consumers. There is a need to go beyond just language as more things
are changing in their lives. We need to find out what are they tuned into.’’ Josy Paul,
chairman and NCD, BBDO India said that for small towns and rural, one should be
looking at market development. He stressed on the importance of outsourcing. ‘‘We
need to have local writers in advertising. We will give them an action oriented idea to
work on. Local partners can help you create localisation.’’
Ashwini Deshpande, consulting editor, Sakal said, ‘‘At Sakal, we realized that even
a state like Maharashtra is not homogenous. Thus, content is more important than
language. If we don’t understand the intelligence of our consumers how will we reach
them? She agreed with Paul that the answer lies in ‘‘outsourcing resources’’.
Ratikant Satpathy,Orissa TV Suman Srivastava
Sandip Bansal (centre)

ZEE TV
Holding On To It...
Bus seat-back and bus-stop advertising were used to promote ZEEL’s new shows. A smart idea to drive home the
point of innovative advertising. By Surina Sayal and Sangeeta Tanwar
W
ith a slew of new shows
being launched on vari-
ous GECs, each one
wants to stand out from the clutter
when it comes to promotions. A
new ambient campaign by Zee is
noteworthy in this respect.
For its new show, Sanjog Se Bani
Sangini, Zee TV has branded seats
in 100 BEST buses in Mumbai.
The innovation involves installing
an ‘arm’ across each seat, such that
any passenger sitting on that seat
would appear to have affectionately
draped his arm across the shoulder
of the co-passenger next to him.
Zee TV wants its viewers to “feel
the love”. The uniqueness of the
idea and the realistic creatives has
grabbed eyeballs.
The first 20 seats in each bus
The activity involved installing 10 arms,
were used for the innovation. This and the cost of advertising worked out to
involved putting up 10 ‘arms’, and
the cost of advertising worked out
to around `5,000 per bus. The cre-
atives were executed by bus seat-back advertising
specialist, Tinta Media Creations, a sister-con-
cern of Emnet Samsara Media.
Shonak Gholkar, CEO, Tinta Media Creations
says, “We wanted to take innovations on bus
seat backs one step forward. Thus, when Zee
approached us with this idea, we were very
excited about it.” He shares that this innova-
tion was more challenging. After creating dyes
for the arm, and then printing; the ‘arms’ were
laminated, so as to reduce wear and tear and get a
more realistic look.
Gholkar also informs that while Zee TV has
advertised with BEST buses in the past, this is the
channel’s first bus seat-back campaign.
For the same show, Zee TV had undertaken
a pre-launch interactive marketing campaign.
The first phase of the campaign invited viewers
to participate in the naming of the show. The
channel had also urged viewers to write in with
Win exciting prizes worth Rs. 5000/ from STAR News by playing ‘SMART Idea Contest’ on
6 0 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0
around `5,000 per bus.
their own love stories, the best of which would
be showcased on-air, by inviting the couple for
an exclusive interview on Zee TV.
Akash Chawla, marketing head, Zee TV, says,
“The interactive marketing campaign launched
for Sanjog Se Bani Sangini was the first of its kind
in the Hindi GEC space. The show was named
on the basis of suggestions made by our viewers.
When you involve the viewers at every stage of a
show, it creates a greater sense of belonging and
ownership. The response to our call for viewers
to share their unique love stories has been over-
whelming.”
In alignment with the premise of the show,
the channel has also launched instant love com-
patibility checks on the mobile platform. By
merely keying your sun sign your partner’s sun
sign the channel would offer mobile users an
instant compatibility rating for their relationship.
Recently, Zee has been pulling out all the stops
www.afaqs.com
60$57,'($
Gholkar: innovative thinking
when it comes to OOH advertis-
ing. For another show, the latest
edition of Hero Honda Sa Re Ga
Ma Pa Singing Superstar, the chan-
nel has created special Sa Re Ga
Ma Pa Music Zones at select bus
stops across Mumbai. The entire
bus stop will have Sa Re Ga Ma
Pa branding, including lights and a
music setup replete with speakers
and associated paraphernalia. Also,
illuminated, life-size cut-outs of
microphones with Sa Re Ga Ma Pa branding will
be seen hanging between adjacent buildings at
prime areas in Mumbai, akin to impressive and
stunning Diwali kandils.
The channel is also organising an on-ground
BTL activity, ‘College Ka Singing Superstar’,
which is being held across 15 colleges in Mumbai,
and 10 in Pune and Delhi each. Zee will also
organise musical events in residential colonies,
with the support of local politicians or associa-
tions. The event will have a live orchestra and a
singing competition for the residents.
Chawla adds, “The life-size microphones and
College Ka Singing Superstar initiatives are just
the beginning of a comprehensive campaign.”
To explore further branding and promotional
opportunities, Café Coffee Day has been selected
as the on-ground partner for the display for
standees, drop downs and danglers. „
surina.sayal@afaqs.com
 1(:6%22.6
5HDGLQJ5RRP
ASHUTOSH TIWARI
Executive Vice President : Strategic
Marketing at Godrej Group

T he series, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan,

is a fantasy epic with lots of sub-layering in
social psychology, philosophy and interestingly,
management. The most striking aspect of the series
is its treatment of the classical good versus evilbat-
tle. While what is evil or ‘wrong’ is definitively so,
there is nothing which is definitively ‘right’. That sounds suspiciously like
a strategy! One is clear about what should not be done as compared to
what’s the right choice. It also has a mix of factors contributing to deci-
sion making at different points of the narrative. Decision making is not
about making choices from various isolationist factors; rather, it is about
choosing from different plausible equilibrium points in the environment.
Most of the books that I read pertain to evolution, be it from a socio-
logical point of view or from a scientific: genetic or anthropological point
or a cultural, religious point. Some of my favourite authors are Spencer
Wells, Nicholas Ostler, Stephen Hawking and Clarissa
Pinkola Estes. Evolution gives fascinating insights into
understanding societies, cultures, people and hence
consumers and behaviours. It also helps sharpen
one’s ability to cross reference information to create
patterns and knowledge.
Interest in fiction is also consequently guided
by a similar philosophy, and hence, the interest
in fiction grounded in either history, fantasy or
philosophy.
As told to Poojya Trivedi

1HZ$UULYDOV
WHEN THE PENNY DROPS
/HDUQLQJ:KDW¶V1RW7DXJKW
$XWKRU5*RSDODNULVKQDQ
3XEOLVKHU3HQJXLQ

Using the framework of the Tata Management

Training Centre and the Center for Creative
Leadership, the author explores the three worlds of
the manager - the inner world, the world of rela-
tionships and the world of getting things done. And
the importance of emotional quotient to progress as well as intelligence to
get ahead in your career. It also talks about the deadly personal qualities of
bonsai-trapped leaders and the traps for organisations.

THE BUYING BRAIN

6HFUHWV)RU6HOOLQJ7RWKH6XEFRQVFLRXV0LQG
$XWKRU$.3UDGHHS
3XEOLVKHU-RKQ:LOH\ 6RQV

T he book maintains that if you understand the

basics of brain, you can sell more. The author
says that around 95 per cent of our decisions are
made by the subconscious mind. The Buying Brain
offers an in-depth exploration of how cutting-edge
neuroscience has an impact on how we make, buy, sell, and enjoy everything,
and also probes deeper questions on how this new knowledge can enhance
customers’ lives. The book provides the key to brain-friendly product con-
cepts, design, prototypes, and formulation of effective packaging, pricing,
advertising, and in-store marketing to build stronger brands that attracts
deeper consumer loyalty.

62 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0


Some of India’s well-known professionals write on issues that they feel passionately about
AJIT MENON
New Imperatives
T
rainees’ expectations
from organisations have
changed over the years,
but expectations from
trainees have changed much more.
I seriously think that the word,
‘trainees’ should be changed to
‘young directors’. Because that is the
attitude they come with nowadays -
aiming high and asking where they
can be in the next five years.
The journey from a trainee to a
full-time employee is an important
professional journey for anybody.
However, when a trainee walks in
today, he or she is already thinking
of sitting on a senior seat. They are
impatient for success, growth and
look at ways to secure quick learning,
followed by quicker acquisition of
responsibilities.
Most trainees today are pretty
clear about what they want from the
organisation and very vocal about
it. When I look back, I feel that the
trainees of yesteryears were so differ-
ent from the ones that walk in now.
During the ’80s and ’90s, train-
ees were ready to do anything and
everything. They just wanted to be
closer to the gods, hear them speak
and win their attention and affection,
by doing sheer hard labour. This was
with the hope that some day, the
trainee would get a golden chance for
all the current suffering.
Today, however, trainees do a
reference check on the organisa-
tion before entering it, list down the
names of people whom they want to
work with, are clear about what they
([SHFWDWLRQVRIWUDLQHHVKDYHFKDQJHG
DQGVRKDYHH[SHFWDWLRQVIURPWKHP
want to learn in the period allotted to
them, know their rights and use it.
As the trainees’ expectations have
changed with the years, so have
expectations from them.
Trainees were earlier looked upon
as merely additional hands but over
the years, companies have realised
the importance of developing talent
and have started investing a lot on
trainee development programmes, to
reduce the overall learning curve.
For organisations, it’s a great
opportunity to have trainees, because
they get to build a team from scratch,
especially in the current scenario
where getting the right talent itself is
difficult. However, many organisa-
tions still make the mistake of using
trainees for running errands. Such
organisations usually have high attri-
tion rates at the trainee level.
On the other hand, for organisa-
tions that are serious about grooming
the talent, it is important to first
identify what they expect out of the
internship and then set the training
agenda. Organisations should explain
their expectations to the trainee.
An ideal trainee should have a
%<,19,7$7,21
clear set of goals before the start of
the training. Having a mentor dur-
ing that period is also a necessity. All
trainees should ask for one and share
their goals with the mentor.
The trainee should be inquisitive
about knowing more than what is
being taught, and exhibit the desire
to get the maximum from the trainer
in the limited period of the train-
ing. They should be open to all
kinds of learning assignments and
get involved in understanding other
functional areas of the organisation.
Trainees should maintain the
decorum and policies of the organi-
sation. They should behave like
employees from day one and under-
stand that they are in the organisation
to learn, and not merely to observe.
Trainees need to show a sense of
belonging and exhibit their commit-
ment to the training. They should
show interest in the organisation
itself and get noticed for that.
Today, companies want to create a
talent pool, which becomes the future
of the company. Hence, the expec-
tations from trainees also change.
In many organisations, trainees are
expected to conduct themselves as
full-time employees from day one
and value-add in their own small way
to the business.
The expectations on both sides
have grown but with scarcity of tal-
ent, expectations from trainees have
grown much larger and faster. „
(The author is executive director -
organisation development, Mudra Group.)
 1(:6',*,7$/
STAR PLUS

Backing the Original

Will the channel’s move to extend prime-time until midnight help it get new viewers? By Sangeeta Tanwar

S
TAR Plus, with its recent launch Kaali - Ek
Agnipariksha, now has an original show in the
late-night prime-time slot.
Kaali is on-air at 11 PM, and the channel plans
to roll out another show, Maryada at 11:30 PM.
So far, like other competing GECs, STAR Plus
too was airing repeat telecasts of its shows, Chaand
Chupa Baadal Mein and Sasural Genda Phool in the
11 PM - midnight time band.
This is not the first time that STAR Plus has
extended its prime-time until midnight. Way back
in 2004, the GEC had two shows, namely Kahiin
Toh Hoga and K-Street Palli Hill, airing at 11 PM
and 11:30 PM, respectively. K-Street Pali Hill was
targeted at male audiences to broaden the chan-
nel’s viewership.
In the past, during STAR Plus’ heyday the con-
cept of repeat programming wasn’t very popular,
until Colors changed the rules of the game.
In the current scenario, when fragmentation is
high and viewers have numerous choices to select
from, STAR Plus’ strategy to replace reruns with
fresh programming in the late-night slot is being
seen as a brave move by industry observers.
STAR Plus’ market share in the 11 PM-
11.59 PM time band is either on par or more
than its closest competitor. For instance, in Week
34, Colors claimed a 23.5 per cent relative chan-
nel share; while STAR Plus had a share of 21.2
per cent. In Week 36, STAR Plus was ahead of
Colors, where as in Week 37, both the channels
are on par with 21 per cent share.
Ravi Kiran, CEO, South Asia and emerging
“It’s a bold move advertisers look at total viewership; for them, it’s
not a game of original versus repeats.
but only compel- However, while measuring the success of the
ling content and fresh programming, it would be unfair to compare
a show at 11:30 PM with the 9:30 PM offering -
word-of-mouth “it has to be a slot by slot comparison,” adds Kiran.
will get the channel Manas Misra, executive vice-president and coun-
new viewers.” try head, Mudra Connext, states “Currently the
8 PM-11 PM slot in the GEC space is fully occu-
RAVI KIRAN pied. It makes sense for STAR Plus to bring in
fresh programming and benefit by building a new
slot altogether. The content in this slot has to be
“The late-night slot mainstream. The late-night slot will open up new
will open up new markets for players and advertisers, by broadening
markets for play- the GEC basket.”
Misra points out that though the viewership
ers and advertisers, base for the 11 PM-midnight slot will be smaller
by broadening the than the 10 PM-11 PM slot, STAR Plus will
GEC basket.” undoubtedly have the first-mover advantage.
A 30-minute episode of a fiction show entails
MANAS MISRA an additional investment of Rs 5-6 lakh by the
channel. With two new launches, STAR Plus
market leader of specialist solutions, Starcom is spending an additional Rs 12 lakh per day, as
MediaVest Group, says, “It’s a bold move on their against zero cost involved in airing repeats.
part and involves effecting change in TV viewing Given the high costs involved, is STAR Plus’
behaviour. Only compelling content and word- strategy to offer viewers fresh programming
of-mouth will get them new viewers.” worth its salt?
Will original programming enable STAR Plus A senior media planner, on condition of ano-
to command a premium over its competitors for nymity, shares that new shows in place of repeats
advertising in the 11PM-midnight slot? translate into more investment. However, to get
Kiran opines that if the shows do well, STAR it right, the channel has to play the rate versus
Plus stands to gain but the premium earned rating game. „
would be marginal. This is because, he explains, sangeeta.tanwar@afaqs.com

<< FRQWLQXHGIURPSDJH
Jogging...
into three zones: USB, mobile and
imaging.
The USB zone focuses on the
company’s USB flash memory
devices; the mobile zone emphasises
the memory-card range for mobile
phones; whereas the imaging zone
is about the memory cards used
in digital cameras. The three zones
will help the respective consum-
ers understand the nuances involved
while buying memory devices.
The company will use a branded
canter that will move around the city
for seven days. It will also promote
the activity through radio informing
the audience about the movement
of the canter. At the canter, the con-
sumers can learn about the various
products of the company through
games and quizzes, where consum-
ers could also stand to win prizes.
With the growing potential of
mobile devices, the demand for
memory cards has been on the rise
across all regions in India, especially
among the youth. “About 140 mil-
lion handsets were sold in India this
year, and about 40 per cent of them
come with memory slots,” says Sood
about the market scenario.„
poojya.trivedi@afaqs.com

POSTERSCOPE
Out for a Walk
OOH agency is celebrating its second anniversary by launching a 10-day outdoor campaign in Mumbai,
Bengaluru and Delhi. By Surina Sayal
O
ut of home (OOH)
agency Posterscope
India has completed
two years of its operations in
India. With an aim to celebrate
its second anniversary and to
communicate this to clients and
industry members, the OOH
agency launched an outdoor
hoarding campaign.
The creative for the outdoor
campaign shows the figure ‘2’
in 3D style and the copy reads
‘840 Campaigns, 63 Clients,
25 Offices. 2 Successful Years.
This is just the beginning.’ The
10 day campaign has been run-
ning in three cities namely,
Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi.
Discussing the outdoor
hoarding campaign, Haresh
Nayak, managing director,
Posterscope India, says, “We are
an OOH agency and we believe
OOH works and helps cre-
ate brand largeness and impact, This is not the first time that an agency has used
so the idea was to reach out
to corporates, clients and our outdoors to communicate its own message. It
partners through this medium
itself.”
also plans to further consolidate its two core
This is not the first time businesses, namely, OOH and retail.
that an agency has used out-
doors to communicate its own message.
In the past agencies such as Ogilvy India and
Rediffusion Y&R devised hoarding campaigns
to communicate shifts in their addresses. Ogilvy
designed a creative and humorous campaign that
gave directions to its new office in Goregaon
East, Mumbai, when it shifted its office in 2009.
While Rediffusion Y&R shocked the industry
insiders with its campaign that said things such as
‘Kingfisher account moves’, ‘Taj account moves’ -
smartly denoting that with the agency moving to a
new address, the agency’s clients too were chang-
ing locations.
Speaking on Posterscope India’s completion
of two successful years in India, Nayak says, “We
have had a phenomenal success in the last two
years, where the agency has grown from noth-
ing to more than Rs 100 crore, which is a good
achievement in the OOH business. We have won
63 clients, out of which 70 per cent are on Agency
on Record (AOR) basis.”
Some of the recent client wins for Posterscope
India include P&G, Nestle, Air Asia, YouTube and
Bharti AXA.
1(:622+
“In the last two years, we
have consolidated our OOH
business and seen it grow;
we have also diversified into
retail in a big way through
Hyperspace and we believe that
as the infrastructure develops
in India, retail as a category will
continue to have double digit
growth,” says Nayak.
Posterscope India has a
presences in 25 cities. It has
more than 85 team members
across India. Some of of the
Posterscope India’s key cli-
ents are Future Group, Philips
India, P&G, Nestle India,
Essar Group, Titan, Tanishq,
Samsonite, Lee Cooper, Levi’s,
Bharti AXA, Ray-Ban, Amul,
Mont Blanc, Google, AirAsia,
GoAir, Adidas and Blue Star among others.
Going forward, the OOH agency plans to fur-
ther consolidate its two core businesses, namely,
OOH and retail, through its brands - Posterscope
and Hyperspace. “We will also announce offerings
and services which will be new to the market in a
few months time,” shares Nayak.
He further adds, “Since, we are getting into the
festive season now, our core focus in next couple
of months will be to maximise our presence and
consolidate our market position.” „
surina.sayal@afaqs.com
 SPECIAL INVESTMENT REGIONS

NAVIGATING GROWTH:
THE PORTS OF GUJARAT
Every year Gujarat’s ports LOCATIONS OF GREENFIELD PORTS IN GUJARAT per cent of which were contrib-
have been successfully uted by the major ports. The port
contributing to the nation’s activity, in terms of ship turn-
export import sector and around time, waiting time and
driving growth. average ship per day output, has

G
ujarat was created on   
 

  

-
May 1st 1960 out of Mundra opment scenario. The existing
the 17 northern districts major ports are under tremen-
Modhawa
of the former state of Bombay. Sikka Khambhat dous pressure to handle the
Bordering with Pakistan in the Positra Dholera  
 
 


north-west, and the Arabian Sea
making up the state’s western
coast, the state has a geography
which has and can be the basis
of its growth and development.
With the largest coastline of
1,600 kilometers in the country,
Gujarat is dotted with 41 ports:
one major, 11 intermediate and
29 minor ports.
The state, endowed with
favourable port locations is the
nearest maritime outlet to the
Middle East, Africa and Europe.

    -
Gujarat’s maritime sector is con-
sidered to be the most pro-active
and well developed sectors in
India. During 2009-10, the non
major ports together handled
206 million tonnes of cargo,
which accounted for 75 per cent
of the total cargo handled by all
the minor ports in India.
Gujarat has a vast hin-
terland comprising fast
developing Northern and Central
Sutrapada
Chhara
Indian states. Neighbouring
states of Rajasthan, Madhya
Pradesh, Western Uttar Pradesh,
Delhi, Haryana, Punjab,
Himachal Pradesh and Jammu
and Kashmir, which constitute
35 per cent of the total exports,
are potential customers for
Gujarat ports. Export of surplus
food grains from these mainly
agrarian states and import of
fertilizers to these major con-
sumers, offer great potential of
growth of cargo.
According to the 11th Five
Year Plan of the Government of
India, the GDP. The manufactur-
ing sector is expected to grow
Dahej into demurrage (detention of a
Mithivirdi
vessel on port beyond the time
Mahuva Hazira
agreed upon) and huge loss in
Pipavav
the foreign exchange.
Vansi Borsi
The minor and intermediate
Maroli
ports of Gujarat handle about
8.5 per cent of national ship-
ping cargo. Gujarat ports handle
at 12 per cent requiring high about 16 million tonnes of cargo,
quality infrastructure in roads, which account for 70 per cent
railways, ports, power and of the total cargo handled by all
telecommunications. minor ports of India.
According to the data from The Gujarat Maritime Board
Ministry of Shipping, Indian ports 
handled around 412 million lion metric tonne during the year
tonnes of cargo in 2009-10, 90 2009-10 an increase of over 30
PRESENT STATUS OF THE GUJARAT PORTS
The ports in Gujarat have been the growth drivers for the state’s
economy.
1. Along the 1600 Kms. of coastline of Gujarat, there are 41 ports, of which
Kandla is a major port. Out of remaining 40 ports, 11 are intermediate
ports and 29 are minor ports under the control of Gujarat Maritime Board.
2. These ports can be broadly classified into three categories :
   
 
  
   
  
weather direct berthing facilities
Minor and intermediate ports of
 
 
 


Gujarat handle about 16 million tonnes of ports
cargo, 70 per cent of total cargo    ! 
  "
  
 "

handled nationally.   "
#

70 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 $%+$6.$5,1,7,$7,9(
  
  

 
  TRAFFIC HANDLED AT MAJOR INDIAN PORTS
the previous year.
“Gujarat ports are one of the PORT Target 2009 Actual 2009 Actual 2008

   
 
  
 (April-Dec.) (April-Dec.) (April-Dec.)
 
 

 

  $  10.03 9.63 8.26
growth rate is 13.14 per cent. Haldia 33.44 24.61 31.86
! 

  "
 
   40.24 41.73 32.50
nearly 6 per cent and the growth % 50.06 49.31 48.22
rate of non major ports is 35 per Chennai 47.64 45.83 41.66

#        Tuticorin 16.34 17.63 16.42
Gujarat Maritime Board.
Cochin 13.85 12.06 11.77
Port Policy of the Government
New Mangalore 29.82 27.11 27.71
of Gujarat envisions to increase
Mormugao 31.74 31.26 26.46
the state’s share in the export
and import sector and the inter- Jawaharlal Nehru 50.41 44.55 44.10
national trade and commerce. Mumbai 39.47 40.36 38.58
It is estimated that over 50 per Kandla 58.30 59.74 55.74
cent of the investment com- Ennore 9.25 8.13 8.52
ing to Gujarat in future will-be & '(   430.59 411.95 391.80
port based. Taking full advan- Source: Annual Report 2009-10, Ministry of Shipping
tage of the strategic location
of the Gujarat coast, the state western coast of the Gulf of
shipping authorities are encour- Cambay adjoining Alang-Sosiya Gujarat ports handled traffic of
aging ship building and ship village is developed as ship about 205.5 million metric tonnes during
repairing facilities apart from recycling yard.
2009-10, an increase of over
establishing manufacturing facili- The recycling yard, with a
ties for cranes, dredgers and other capacity to break over 4 million 34 per cent year-on-year.

 
 metric ton per annum provides
Gujarat is home to the direct employment to about to develop all weather direct lems of congestions and
world’s largest ship recycling 25,000 skilled and unskilled berthing ports in participation limitation in expansion of port
yard in Alang. Approximately labours. It also provides indirect with well known private port facilities. In these circumstances,
10 Km long sea front on the employment through downstream players. These capital incentives ports in Gujarat have an oppor-
industries like re-rolling mills, port projects are being devel-


 
   %
" 
oxygen plants,transporters and oped under Build Own Operate growing demand and supply.
ALANG’S BEACHING scrap yards. Transfer (BOOT) policy and Accordingly, port projects are
PERFORMANCE Gujarat is one of the leading will be transferred back to the  
 " 
The world’s largest ship recycling industrialised state of India. It Maritime Board after completion been carried out and envisaged
yard at Alang has been recycling houses a number of multina- of 30 years. to create total port capacity of
ships in hoardes. tional corporations, large private The currently developed 557 million tonnes at the end of
Year No. of Ships sector companies, strong public    
 
  

   &'*„
sector enterprises and a large include Pipavav,
2000-01 295
number of medium and small Mundra, Dahej
2001-02 333 scale units. While sharing 5 and Hazira.
2002-03 300 per cent of Indian population, Looking at the target-
2003-04 294 Gujarat contributes 21 per cent ed growth rate of 8-10
2004-05 196 in exports and 13 per cent in per cent, it is estimated
2005-06 101 India’s industrial production. that the Indian ports
2006-07 136 will have to reach a
DEVELOPING NEW PORTS minimum capacity level
2007-08 136
Gujarat Maritime Board under of 1500 million tonnes
2008-09 264 its Port Privatisation Model has per annum (MTPA) by
2009-10 348 been actively promoting and the year 2016-17.
)*+*/++ & 152       
 $
 Major ports are
Source: Port Officer, Ship Recycling Yard Alang  
   
 already facing prob-

afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0 71


ZOOM
Hitting a Six
Zoom is celebrating its sixth anniversary by highlighting six brand
attributes. By Sangeeta Tanwar
Z
oom, the Bollywood channel, is celebrat-
ing its sixth anniversary this year. The
channel, launched in 2004 as an out-
and-out fashion destination, has evolved into a
complete Bollywood channel.
Omar Qureshi, editor-in-chief, Zoom
Television, says, “We are using our anniversary
to bring Bollywood closer to our audience. Our
programming and marketing strategy is to focus
on and highlight six attributes that define Zoom.”
Dishing out film led content, the channel
has got on board actors including Katrina Kaif,
Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka
Chopra, Shahid Kapoor and Imraan Khan to rep-
resent the channel’s six appeal communication
strategy.
Each of these stars stand for six different
attributes that the channel flaunts. These are sexy,
stylish, cool, naughty, bold and passionate.
The channel has put together content compris-
ing songs, special features, vignettes and music
revolving around the six Bollywood stars. This is
in addition to the channel’s regular shows such as
Planet Bollywood and Encounters with Qureshi.
It is conducting on-air contest to seek audience
participation to celebrates its anniversary.
Zoom calls itself a ‘complete Bollywood’ chan-
nel and Qureshi says that the channel questioned
its positioning as an-out and-out fashion and life-
style channel in 2008. The point was how niche
could the channel be - given the subject itself
represented a niche genre.
It was at this time that Zoom decided to
broad base its offerings with a combination of
more urbane, upscale content with Bollywood
at its core. Currently, the Bollywood channel
1(:60(',$
Qureshi: bringing
Bollywood closer
Zoom competes with music and youth led chan-
nels such as UTV Bindaas, MTV and Mastiii.
Qureshi asserts that for Zoom, Bollywood is the
core genre, while for others, Bollywood content
is a subset. For other channels, lifestyle content
revolving around hotels, luxury and reality are the
main drivers.
As per TAM data, C&S, 15+ (July 11-September
11), the three leading channels in this space are
Bindaas, Mastii and B4U Music, with average
channel shares of 15.1 per cent, 12 per cent and
11.8 per cent. Zoom is placed No. 8, with an aver-
age channel share of 7.8 per cent. „
sangeeta.tanwar@afaqs.com






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JOBSWITCH
Organization Name: One97
Communications Limited
Extensive knowledge of Corel
draw/ Photoshop/ Illustrator/Flash/
years for Junior Designers.
Email: jobs@peppermint.co.in
Position: Senior Manager - Sales Indesign is desired. .............................................................
(Mobile Marketing) Email: shilpa.somani@witsindia. Organization Name: Xebec
Location: Noida, Mumbai, com Communications Private Limited &
Chennai ............................................................. Xebec e-Media Technologies
Profile: The candidate will be Organization Name: Position: General Manager - Client
responsible for selling mobile Asymmetrique Communications Servicing
marketing campaigns and solutions Pvt.Ltd. Location: Mumbai
to agencies, brands, retailers and Position: Copy Head Profile: The applicant should have
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and have at least 5 years of B2B copy for all media of advertising Organization Name: Religare
experience within the Agency, / communication and handling Securities Ltd
Mobile Marketing and/or Mobile responsibilities to create refreshing Position: Manager- Business
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Email: careers@one97.net the team of copywriters and senior Location: Mumbai
............................................................. copywriters ensuring that they Profile: MBA/ BBA (Marketing) &
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Servicing and Art Director graduate / post graduate who has a .............................................................
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Profile: Director- Client agency experience is desired Multiplex Private Limited
Servicing is expected to have Email: hr@asymmetrique.net Position: Assistant Manager - Sales
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command over creative software like writing content for our websites, Media)
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have the ability to develop converting brand briefs into relevant Bradstreet Information Services Neha Arora
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He should have a degree/diploma knowledge of Photoshop, InDesign, Profile: Candidate from Ad
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74 afaqs! Reporter, October 1-15, 2 0 1 0

 Growth comes naturally to us. This time it was even faster!
57 lakh readers agree.

*

PRAJAVANI THE MOST TRUSTED KANNADA DAILY

Prajavani, the flagship Kannada daily from The Printers Mysore Group,
*Source: IRS 2010 Q2

yet again proves that it is indeed the most trusted and respected in the
category. We just grew by 9,68,000* more readers. And, at a time,
when the print industry has generally shown signs of sluggishness.
More and more Kannada readers choose Prajavani, because it is the
voice of Karnataka. A trusted, dynamic voice you cannot ignore.

The influence of truth

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