2015 – An year of many stories

2015 has been an eventful year in spite of nothing much happening in the Parliament. Media and advertising being no exception.

There were, of course, high power people and account movements, awards won and so on which mark every year. What was unique, however, was a number of industry initiatives taking shape and people movements that took the industry by surprise.

Here is adgully’s quick take on top 10 events in the media and advertising industry this year.  A rider here: your views might differ, or we might have overlooked a key happening. That being the case, do write to us and we would quickly add them to our list.

Here we go – the list has been put together in no particular order and it is not an attempt to rank happenings which are way different from each other:

1. ADVENT OF BARC RATINGS: Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) started releasing its television ratings in the month of April 2015. Since then a number of guidelines have been issued by it on how the users and trade media need to present numbers in the public domain. One key advantage of BARC ratings has been that so far no one has stood up and raised issues as to the accuracy of numbers.

In August came the announcement of merger between TAM and BARC. Nitty gritty of the same are being worked out and an announcement is expected within the first two quarters of 2016.

A big event this for all the stakeholders as discussions and debates for an alternate television audience measurement currency has been on for quite some time.

2. RURAL RATINGS: Another game changing activity that too had BARC centre stage. Effective Week 41, BARC ratings encompass urban as well as rural audiences, and same are presented in the form of a single currency. The All India data has expanded BARC’s reach to 153.5 million TV households. It includes 77.5 million urban TV households and 76 million rural TV households. 

With it has begun the debate on audience profile of pay channels vs the audience profile of FTCs and the relevance of rural data for a number of product categories. We would hear more on this in the year to come. If current off the record conversations are anything to go by, there might be pressure to segregate ratings for Pay and FTA channels.

3. FM PHASE III AUCTIONS: The single largest game changer as far as media consumption pattern is concerned may well prove to be FM auctions. A number of new territories, new players in a number of cities and the muscle power of big media houses has come to fore.

In e-auction of the first batch of private FM radio phase-III 97 97 channels in 56 cities were announced winners, earning cumulative provisional revenue of about Rs 1,156.9 cr for the Government.

In a related move 236 FM radio channels have sought permission to migrate from Phase II to Phase III.

Get set for a marketing blitzkrieg, initial rate undercutting and hopefully innovative content on FM channels as the roll outs begin in the first quarter of the coming year. 

4. COMPLETION OF DAS PHASE III: Come December 31 and phase III of DAS roll out would be completed. I&B Ministry have directed all the stakeholders to complete the seeding process before December 31.  The Government has reinstated its firmness by directing broadcasters and MSO’s to switch off analogue signals in the areas being covered in DAS III post December 31. 63o districts and 7709 urban areas would be covered in DAS III.

Regular taskforce meetings and government – industry interactions are being held to make sure that the process is completed smoothly.

5. HINDU COMING TO MUMBAI: Big? Not so big? A matter of debate. We at adgully believe that arrival of the third largest English newspaper in the city would make print media-scape in the city interesting. The publication known for its excellent content quality has priced it a rupee or so higher than others in the space and is positioning itself as a premium brand. It is expected to adopt an aggressive stance in the days to come.

Thing to look for, however, would be how soon it revises its strategy considering newspaper reading is becoming snippety and headline focused, more so in a city like Mumbai where time is always at a premium.

6.VIKRAM SAKHUJA MOVING TO MADISON: While some of us were taken off guard, many in the industry said it was anticipated. Vikram, who has picked a minority stake in Madison World, joined it as the CEO of Madison Media and OOH. The announcement came in the month of April. A direct jump from Goliath to David.

Interestingly, Vikram left for a gardening leave to return only in the month of November. Like everyone else, we too are keen to see the impact of it. Early days still!

7. PRATAP BOSE LAUNCHING SOCIAL STREET: A digitally driven agency with a holistic bouquet of services. Its buzz quotient is way higher than any other agency launch. Wins, announcements and its social media savvy CEO are making sure that it remains in news constantly. Besides, Ex Chief Operating Officer of DDB Mudra, Pratap Bose, founding partners include Outdoor and Experiential guru Mandeep Malhotra, Arjun Reddy an entrepreneur who owns and runs a diversified portfolio of businesses, and Pradeep Uppalapati, who was a Senior Director and India Lead for Global Corporate Development Team at Accenture.

8. PARTHA SINHA JOINING MCCANN AS VICE CHAIRMAN – It would have been just another high profile movement – if it was not for the fact that Partha and Prasoon Joshi, chairman, McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific, have worked together in the past too – at Ogilvy.  In an advertising landscape where jodis are becoming almost non-existent, a high profile jodi that would run the show at McCann would be interesting to watch. Partha’s strategic brain coming together with Prasoon’s creative instinct is definitely good news for the agency. 

9. BBDO WINNING GLASS LION(S) AT CANNES: Though entries from India winning awards at global award shows are not a rare happening anymore - this one is a little different for more reasons than one. It is the first year that Glass Lion category has been introduced; the category is for the work challenging gender bias; BBDO bagged Grand Prix as well as Gold in the category for the campaigns 'Touch the pickle' for Whisper Sanitary Napkins and 'Share the Load' for Ariel Matic respectively; Considering that both the issues raised are true for a large percentage of Indian society, the campaigns are very relevant too.

10. DIGITAL MOVING MAINSTREAM: Digital, of course, has been the big news. Though still a small stakeholder in the scheme of things in media industry, its immense promise is now unrolling fast. Native advertising and programmatic were perhaps the most talked about advertising formats though they are yet to reach their optimum potential. The digital space saw an App boom or perhaps super boom. If you are in a space related to digital or disseminate information on digital platform and you don’t have an app, you are outdated. App only strategy, however, is still being questioned and might not become a preferred choice any time soon. OTT Video too gained Momentum: A fast catching up trend – it has a number or players including leading television channels. Though ranked 123 in the world in terms of Internet speed, optimism is high. As per a Cisco VNI  report,  India’s IP video traffic would reach 1.8 Exabytes per month in 2017, up from 173 Petabytes in 2012 with IP video constituting 66% of all IP traffic in 2017, up from 38% in 2012.

None of these happenings is a storm in the teacup. We would see the impact of each one of them in 2016. Maximum action, as per adgully guesstimates would be in Rural Ratings, FM Radio, Print Space in India and Madison. Digital, of course, would see the action reaching another level altogether.