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So we at Adgully asked some celebrities endorsing brands and promotions and also some brands about their thoughts on the unwritten and unsaid fact that whether or not celebrity endorsement hold a strong ground in selling a product and also can consumers really be persuaded by the charm and looks of the celebrities? Does a celebrity association help in giving the cause/product a better coverage by media?

Social events like promoting a cause etc. are also seen with a famous face. Recent examples may include Mandira bedi getting associated with a stem cell preserving company. Raveena Tandon was seen teaching five golden rules of healthy teeth with Colgate or some days back Amir Khan and his wife Kiran Rao were seen in media promoting the cause of surrogacy. Amazingly, at times may be these celebs do not do it in terms of promoting but as soon as a celeb get associated with a small brand it on its own starts seeking media coverage. An apt example would be Acer, a small brand after getting associated with Hrithik Roshan has reached from nowhere to such a position.

How can media stay behind!! The newspaper industry is not far behind; they also have celebrity association for their publications; Nai duniya and Deccan chronicle to name a few.

Nidhi Arora

Arun Iyer, National Creative Director, Lowe Lintas also supporting the statement said, “Yes, to some extent, but there should be a perfect fit and connect.”

Mandira Bedi

It is really obvious at times that these endorsements may help in boosting up sales. It basically attracts the fan following. Nidhi Arora said, “A celebrity is used to impart credibility and aspirational values to a brand, but the celebrity needs to match the product. A good brand campaign idea and an intrinsic link between the celebrity and the message are musts for a successful campaign.” Elaborating further, she said, “Celebrities, undoubtedly, are good at generating attention, brand recall and positive attitudes towards advertising, provided that they are supporting a good idea and there is an explicit fit between them and the brand.”

Variating a bit, Arun Iyer said, “No not really. You can’t expect the celebrity to do everything for you in terms of boosting up sales. It all depends how you use your celebrity.”

From the brands side of the story, Rakesh Rao, Business Head – Consumer Activation Zapak.com said, “Yes at times because they kind of become the face of your brand.”

But after the whole discussion above the question arises, then does it impact the overall brand? Nidhi Arora said, “The health of a brand can definitely be improved up to some extent by celebrity endorsement. But one has to remember that celebrity endorsement is a means to an end and not an end in itself.”

On further elaboration, she said, “However, brands have been leveraging celebrity appeal for a long time. Across categories, whether in products or services, more and more brands are banking on the mass appeal of celebrities. As soon as a new face ascends the popularity charts, advertisers queue up to have it splashed all over. Celebrity endorsement in fact promises establishment of credibility, ensured attention, PR coverage, higher degree of recall and mass appeal.”

“Nevertheless, if I may take the liberty of re-phrasing Aristotle’s quote on anger, ‘Any brand can get a celebrity. That is easy. But, getting a celebrity consistent with the right brand, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way is not easy’”, she added.

Arun Iyer said, “It is really difficult to generalize. Yes it would but again it depends how you take it. There should be perfect fit and connect between the brand and the celebrity.”

Rakesh Rao says, “Yes it does. It could help the brand to make it famous and popular as per the image of that celebrity.”

While a wholesome mix of opinions and thoughts on celeb endorsements is present, one thing that would be considered certain is that, a celebrity endorsing a product does attract the necessary eye balls, which later become the buying hands; bringing along higher degree of recognition. But it all remains to see how this trend shall be used productively and exploited further. | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal(at)adgully.com]

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Individuals hailing from any age and social background are not only present on these social meeting points but are also highly fond of it. But take a look back at times before 2011. These were accessed by a select niche of tech savvy consumers, business outfits and advertisers.

The dawn of 2011 saw internet and these social mediums being highly used for making consumers know about numerous products, services and initiatives.

Through 2011 we would see that businesses have been launched and grown over the social media space. Clients and advertisers see this as ‘the place’ to talk about their products, services, ideas and campaign.

Anna Hazare’s ‘Anti Corruption Campaign’ took the social media space by storm. Hundreds of hits on the campaign’s Facebook pages, numerous tweets gave tremendous push to cause, gathering people from all over the country.

Rajnikant’ SMS jokes on his ‘godly powers’ may be for the sake of light entertainment. But the Southern superstar’s son – in – law Dhanush, took entertainment to a new level. His latest ‘Kolaveri Di’ has become a rage among youth. The song, which has a strong presence on Youtube, caught attention through Facebook sharing. Within a couple of days of its release, Kolaveri Di has been all over the media-television, radio, newspaper while continuing to grow online.

Though these events had strong online presence, a lot of ink went into this as well. Anna’s campaign manage to gain huge number of supports; while Kolaveri encashed on its growing popularity.

So is the social media really ‘the next stop of businesses and advertisers? What is scope like?
We at Adgully decided to wrecken industry expert’s brains to know more about this.

Speaking about the three roles that social media plays, Srinivas Chari, Co- founder & CMO – Xerago, said, “Present day consumers are tired of excessive advertising and explosive exposure to communication. Over time their selection of products or services has moved to trust. Social media and networks provide the consumers this opportunity, hence the 3 key roles it plays are: Influences user action to buy or consume products or services, Provides insights to brands in terms of what their customers are seeking and also it helps to create and drive awareness.

Whereas according to Kanika Mathur, President, Digitas India, says, “For a brand the social media plays the following 3 roles: Listening Tool; the consumer is now a creator, producer and distributor too. Social Media allows brands to brands to listen to what people are saying , helps to organize these voices and take action on their insights within the business. Second as a Brand Activator; brands are able to create thriving communities around relevant passion points. For eg Airtel has been able to create a 4,00,000 + strong community around Soccer on Facebook and third as a Voice of the Brand- Social media has enabled consumers to have a two way conversation with brands. This is manifested in various forms such as customer service issues being resolved via this medium or even leads getting generated. “

And Prof. Jayaram.K.Iyer, Marketing & Social Media, Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai, says, “There are several roles that social media can play for a firm. It is primarily today used for marketing and recruitment. Within marketing, a firm can use it for diverse roles such as need identification, new product development, branding, sales, etc. Of course, the social media is a place where, unlike the traditional medium where customers are spoken to, customers are engaged. This means brands are created and destroyed by the online community and therefore, traditional skills at brand management do not work as well. Firms also collaborate with customer to create new products and services by engaging them in conversations.”

Nitin Vaidya, Star India, believes that social media is the best place to interact with the people. You stay connected with the world. So basically social media enables the communication with the entire world whether its personal or professional. He says, “according to me the three key roles are engagement, interaction and involvement.”

According to Amit Tiwari, General Manager, Country head Media, Philips, social is a place which connects everyone. It is a perfect and electronically balanced way to connect with your customers. It also brings out interactivity. Also as a marketer is the best way to solve the problems which your customers are facing.

Now the point is whether we are utilizing it to the optimum and also do clients have a proper social media strategy or are just getting into the band wagon. Srinivas Chari stands of the opinion. He says, “Not fully. Social media is about influencing to ‘get attention’ and unfortunately we want to use it like traditional media where we are used to ‘buying attention.”

Srinivas also believes that most of the brands do not have a proper strategy. But I’m seeing a sure footed shift happening. It is my personal opinion that companies that are focusing social media strategy and in the current scenario companies are adopting strategy as per their budget and also pre metrics are set to evaluate the return on investments.

Social Media is about empowering and conversing with potential customers, not driving new traffic to your site. Brands that focus on influencing potential customers, are the ones who realize the most significant impact on their business. The better job you do of encouraging and influencing consumers who engage with your brand, the more profound impact you will have on your conversion numbers, KPIs, and overall brand engagement.

Prof. Jayaram.K.Iyer, also believes that we are not utilizing it to the optimum. He says, “No. That customers can speak back to and at the brand is a very recent phenomenon. Further, collaboration between highly vocal customers and brands is not something firms are accustomed to. Lastly, social media is still seen as a channel through which customers are again only spoken to. Therefore, firms have not yet understood how to listen to customers for new products, cross-selling, up-selling, branding, etc.

Further elaborating his point, prof said, “I think that most consider social media presence to be just opening a Facebook and Twitter account. Nothing can be farther from truth. I know several very successful leverages of Social Media where the firm is not having any of the two aforementioned accounts.”

There is also a tendency to think that Social Media is either cheap or free – again far from reality and truth. Social media strategy calls for sustained investments in people and campaigns with robust monitoring and analytics. A strategy calls for clear objectives, a choice of a social media technology, a workable campaign, and metrics and monitoring to assess success and rework if need be.

Kanika Mathur,says, “There was a phase when social media became a must have on every marketer’s list. During this phase a lot of brands jumped into the medium without having a clear long term strategy. However over time everyone has learnt that one cannot make brands “social” overnight. It’s not about being ‘on’ social but ‘being’ social.

The key to a successful social media campaign is that you specially create content and strategy tailored for the medium rather than retro fit traditional marketing campaigns into the realm of social media.”

Being in the name like Star, Nitin explained saying that yes Star is utilizing it in every possible way whether it is digital or social media and as seen Star is very active on social media. We have an entire team who looks after this platform.”

Amit Tiwari, believes that we are not at all utilizing it the way we should do. It is because our understanding towards this medium is very less. It is very important to have a particular strategy in a way to handle social media. You should know what your customers like and what you customers wants from your social media page.

Also now after knowing what and where social media stands, the question arises, are the clients monitoring the dollars spent vis a vis returns on social media?

Srinivas believes that It is both Yes & No. Brands that have a serious strategy and a planned approach doimonitor and measure returns on Social Media. In fact, the first step to a sound strategy on Social Media is monitoring!

Social media marketing delivers a wide range of benefits in the short term and long term in ways both quantitative and qualitative. Most clients with sporadic Social Media initiatives are content with qualitative benefits like exposure, perceived recall, and passionor loyalty based on ‘likes’. With plethora of tools and an ever expanding universe of social networking sites, it seems to get harder.

Whereas Prof. Iyer stands of the opinion that Social Media today is manned by ad agencies that have traditionally shied away from directly measuring ROI of any campaign. But that is not the clai | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal(at)adgully.com]

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The cabinet decision allowing 51% FDI in multi-brand retail and 100% FDI in single-brand retail has been under the scanner with the opposition displaying rare unity against the decision. There was speculation whether government would at least put on hold the FDI decision in the interest of functioning of Parliament. But yet, the next couple of days still keep the curiosity quotient high, leaving things unclear in this direction.

Thus, we at Adgully took it to our task to bring together an array of viewpoints from the industry expertise on the issue.

Govind Shrikhande, Customer Care Associate & Managing Director- Shoppers Stop, is confident that the new FDI policy will surely bring forth benefits to customers, economy and infrastructure in the country. The positive feedback and experience in telecom, automobile and insurance sectors, clearly showcases the success of the FDI policy. He opines, “If rolled out in phases and with proper checks and balances – the policy will directly impact both multi-brand outlets and small retailers with a balanced approach as customers will get large assortment of great quality of goods and merchandise at reasonable prices and this will enable the up gradation of post-harvest, cold chain infrastructure, bringing in technology and management know-how, removing ‘structural inefficiencies in the supply chain’ and will benefit consumers in terms of cost and quality.” Adding further, he said, “The large investments in infrastructure would lead to rise in farm productivity, manufacturing, food processing and cold storage, thereby leading to cutting down of wastage, growth in employment, exports and GDP. With the right controls in place our exports can double in three years time, leading to a significant jump in employment and GDP. The introduction of technology and good management practice will improve product availability and customer satisfaction.
China has successfully demonstrated the execution of phased FDI opening in retail. Post the FDI opening in retail, Chinese retailers still hold majority of retail share. The number of small retailers doubled post opening of FDI. Chinese exports and GDP growth have continued unabated as well. Majority of ‘The Top Twenty Retail Chains in China’ are still Chinese.”

“It would also incentivize local producers to ‘scale-up’ their production that would create multiplier effect on employment and income generation,” he added.

Indian consumers are the ‘savviest’, with clear focus on value and quality. Indians love to buy and cook fresh and they will continue to visit their regular local market vendors and vegetable vendors to take care of their daily needs.

Further elaborating his point, Shrikhande said, “Secondly, there are no large spaces available for large box retailers to enter the most crowded catchments within most of the big cities at reasonable rentals. Hence the big box will always remain a destination for big buys. Therefore the small retailers will continue to serve the customers in the long run. Both will co-exist, with large organised players taking 15 % share over the next 10 Years from the current 5 %.

Whereas Kishore Biyani, Group CEO, Future Group, said, “The opening up of the retail sector to foreign investment is a win-win-win scenario for everyone in the economy. It is a big win for consumers as they will have more choices, its a win for small industries as they will have more retailers creating markets for their products and it’s a win for the agri-sectors as investments in back-end on the agri-sector will result in better prices for the sector and reduce efficiencies thereby getting better prices for the farmers. Above all, its a win for the country as we will get around $8 billion to $10 billion of fresh investments coming into the country over the next 5 to 10 years.”

Shrinivas Rao, CEO, Vestian Global-Asia Pacific, compared the both market scenarios and explained saying that, “The retail sector prior to FDI announcement followed 51% FDI for Single brands to enter market, 0% for multi brand outlets whereas currently, post FDI opening up: 51% of FDI from multi-brands and 100% in single brand.

Rao said, “It is a welcome step as it will open up opportunities for the organised retail sector. The repercussion of this is manifold. Now single brands can enter the market completely on their own, without partnering with Indian franchisee. This would mean that Indian counterparts will have to take a hit. Global players like Carrefour can enter as multi brands (Hyper markets) partnering with local brands with 51% FDI.”

Having said that, he says, “But they would need to invest a minimum of $100 million out of which 50% should be invested on infrastructure and back-end expenses. Such formats can enter only in cities with a population above 100 million. The state government will have a final say for multi-brand stores.”

To sum it up while FDI has brought cheer amongst a certain section it also has created a stir amongst another set.Lots of airtime and ink has gone in , the new FDI policy and its implementation is a ‘wait and watch’ situation.

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Alyque Padamsee mentioned in a book ‘adkatha’ written by Anand Halve and Anita Sarkar, that what happened to brands like Liril and MRF, Hamara Bajaj and Lalitaji? According to him, at times, in a rush of getting their work noticed, ad people simply go from one ad to the next, focusing on that ad not the brand. There are around 10,000 brands being advertised and not even 100 of them have a real strength or proper Image. If you look back and recollect brand campaigns like Nirma, Amul etc are still remembered because of their appealing campaigns. And it is a matter of fact ‘A’ in advertising stands for ‘Appeal’.

We at Adgully, took it as a task to brain storm the ‘creative heads’ of the ad world and know what they have to say on the point in question.

Sonal Dabhral, Managing Partner, India and Head of Creative for Asia, Bates, said, “‘What’ is conveyed in an advertisement today has been empowered with ‘How’ it has been conveyed. Medium has become the message as brands are personalising their communication according to the audiences, therefore promoting themselves in line with the psychology of their consumers.”

“Having said that,” he added, “it is also important to reckon that ‘Integrated’ is the it word these days, with most of the brands leveraging their message across all mediums, be it new media, outdoor or television. Moreover, these are intertwined at some level to bring across the holistic appeal of the brand.”

Adding further,he said, “Secondly, with the upsurge in digital medium, interactivity has also added to the consumer experience at the level of advertising itself. The level of engagement has increased between the audiences and the offerings, adding to the necessary zing. Unlike the past Advertising now is all about engagement.

Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative officer & Co-Founder, Taproot India, said, “”I think things have changed in past 5/6 years drastically , the way brands use to approach the market is very different than the way brands are being marketed today, it far more competitive and aggressive now, like in olden days a campaign use o run for at least 4/6 weeks to arrive to the decision if its doing well for the brand or no, today they decide in 4/6 days, we are living in a very fast moving world, consumers have a very short span of time for this medium as they have plenty of other things to do in life.”Further explaining his point, he said, “whatever is happening to brands are because of our behaviour have changed in last few years, like 12/15 years back most of them would spend good amount of time with family/at home, that has been reduced now by half, and whenever we are at home either we are on phone or laptop, people are multitasking these days, so are the brands in form of ads, i would say in olden days test matches use to drive 60/80 thousand crowd in a ground like eden gardens today things have change the same number comes for 20/20 as that’s the life style they lead and that’s what they like, the market have demands brands to be like T20 format and brands as being build through this format versus the test match way which was 15 years back”

Jagdish Acharya, Founder and creative head, Cut the Crap, shared his thoughts on the subject, saying, “The biggest change in advertising has been in its sensibilities. The questions you need to ask remain the same (what’s the consumer benefit) but they demand to be answered a whole lot differently. neither do-good nor feel-good are good enough. Ad campaigns are getting polarised at two ends : imagination and insight. Also, advertising is becoming the only feature of a product that has the power to stay differentiated. In the past sales would go up when the campaign is on and drop when it is off. Simply today it soars with one campaign and dips with another.

In other words what was always said of creative people can be said of brands today : you are as good as your last campaign.”

Subhash Kamath, Managing Partner, BBH India holds a different stand. He says, “I’m not quite sure in what context Alyque has said what he’s said. But to me, it’ll always be about building brands. Sure, the way we communicate may be changing. There’s a lot more emphasis on creating ‘conversations’ and engagement with consumers today, and not just one-sided communication. But it’s still brand building that we we’re here for. Ultimately what you still need is a big Brand Idea that is relevant and motivating. That certainly hasn’t changed and it never will.”

Anindya Banerjee as ECD, Scarecrow, compared the two scenarios of advertising then and now. He said, “Earlier, Advertising was a monologue. The brand delivered its message, and got out. Thanks to its design, the brand manager and the agency were in complete control of the campaign. He would pour in enormous sums of money and prayed the campaign would work. Sometimes, there would be a pre-campaign and a post-campaign research to judge reactions. In short, a pretty clinical process for a discipline that’s so intuitive. Whereas now, the world has turned more social, more and more people are talking to each other through various media. And unless, a brand can become a part of this conversation, it has no hope.

“I was fortunate enough to be a part of one such campaign – Me and Meri Maggi in 2009-2010. I soon realised that it was like being the creative director of hundreds and thousands of consumers. It was a conversation in which the consumer was an equal participant. And increasingly flexing his/her muscles to control it as well. Expectedly, they were delighted to be a part of the process.”

Adding further Banerjee said, “Fast forward to 2011 and you have the un-hate campaign. Not only the brand has a POV, it even invites its consumer to express their POV. Expectedly, world leaders were slamming the campaign while the consumers were merrily ‘viralling’ it away and uploading their pictures on the kiss-wall.”

“The result? Advertising has becoming more real, more contagious and more measurable,” he added.

So all-in-all, it still is very interesting to solve the curious case of building a brand and communicate it through the best and most creative and innovative ad campaigns. | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal(at)adgully.com]

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On the occasion of Children’s Day kids across Mumbai came together and celebrated ‘their’ day preparing ‘World’s Largest Jammy Art’ in over two hours. This Kissan jammy art carnival, a part of the brands on-going initiatives and created a fresh record which gained the brand an entry into Limca Book of Records. Speaking on this occasion, Harpreet Singh – Tibb, General Manager Packaged Foods, Hindustan Unilever Limited said, “Kissan has been a heritage brand in providing happiness to millions of families. Jammy Art is an innovative attempt to let kid’s imagination run wild with foods. Children are creative and they showcase their creativity in many forms like painting, clay modeling, origami etc. In an attempt to bring forth their creativity using an interesting mix of food and jams, Kissan Jammy art was created. This is a huge milestone for the brand as we enter the Limca Book of Records with the creation of the Largest Jammy Art.”

With similar objective of enhancing creativity in the children, Perfetti Van Melle India (PVMI), the confectionery giant has brought an innovative out of home space campaign – “Grow More Dreams”. Perfetti has developed a life-sized “Candy Tree” that has been set-up inside a mall, Mumbai and this Candy tree will sprout candies when it is shaken. In this activity, children entering the mall were invited to pen down or draw their dream and in turn were given a chance to shake the tree. Upon shaking, the tree showered an assortment of Perfetti candies from its branches.

Commenting on this innovative campaign, Nikhil Sharma, Category Head, Perfetti Van Melle India, said, “Through this campaign, Perfetti Van Melle India plans to encourage children to indulge in creative, crazy thinking and dreaming. The whole idea is to do something really special for children this Children’s Day. Innovation and innocence is the heart and soul of this campaign and is expected to make a lot of kids happy this Children’s Day.”

With so much sweetness pouring in this Children’s Day kids had a lot more to chose from. The little ones were offered an array of enthralling gifts by The Body Shop. An extensive range of product like Mango lip butter, Banana Shampoo or Grapefruit lip butter to see wide smiles on those special faces, making it a perfect avenue to express soothing emotions and spotless thoughts for the special one. Bata, the shoe giant in India, presented its unique collection for the ‘young feet’. Flaunting a wide variety this season, the brand provides best fine stitch and new styles and comfort.

The collection is a gamut of joy, available from a wide variety to choose from. For the little angels, flats, polka dots, bows and shiny footwear are a hit. To pair with all the cute dresses, the range offers footwear in funky red, pink and orange colour. Complimenting the outdoor personality of the boys, the new collection is available in easy to wear & upper straps sneakers. The rough & tough sole helps the boys enjoy a fun filled day. With a smartly assigned price range of Rs. 129, the brand is sure to give a smile to your child!

To dress the kids in style, Fashionandyou.com took the drool-worthy world of indulgence to another level with the introduction of “Fashionandyou Juniors” to ‘up’ the junior fashionista’s style quotient up with premium and luxury brands. Catering to kids, babies, busy parents, and moms-to-be, this shop is filled with fabulous apparel, travel accessories, toys, essentials, and more, tailored to families and their growing needs.

Speaking on this perfectly timed brand extension activity, Pearl Uppal, CEO, Fashionandyou.com said, “Fashionandyou Juniors is an exciting addition to the Fashion and You family. The portal is loved by our 3 million members for the excitement it brings to shopping, through its daily flash sales. Our members asked us to extend the daily indulgence for their little ones and here we are- Fashionandyou Juniors will be a shop within www.fashionandyou.com where each day you will feel the joy of discovering style from the most sought after brands for your juniors! We are confident our members will love the indulgence!”

DLF Promenade, the ideal fashion and lifestyle mall, celebrated Children’s Day with a week-long fashion carnival for Kids. The first edition of the Kids Fashion Week concluded with celebrity child actor, Darsheel Safary, walking the ramp as the Showstopper. Leading kids’ brands, like Kidology, Marks and Spenser Kids, Mothercare, ELC, Ginni and Joni, Smart Kids and Crocs participated in the fashion show.

Speaking about the fashion show, Pushpa Bector, Vice President and Mall Head, DLF Promenade Mall says –“DLF Promenade is a perfect fashion destination for adults and kids alike. It is our constant endeavour to bring together the most unique and engaging activities for our patrons. With celebrity events like these, we ensure an opportunity to our patrons to meet their favourite stars and at the same time highlight the latest fall winter trends available at our retailers for the customers”.

While companies and brands were doing so much, how could the media stay behind. The King Khan, Shah Rukh Khan on this Children’s Day, donned yet another charismatic avatar and turned as Guest Editor for Lokmat Media Ltd. Recalling about his childhood, youth, his growth in cinema and as a businessman who wants to give back to the industry which made him big, SRK essayed the perfect task as the Guest Editor for this special day balancing the tonality of news with compilation of stories and anecdotes.

Endorsed by SRK, the talented Lokmat editorial team put together thought-provoking, trend-setting and wonderful stories for the Children’s Day. It was an edition, ranging from the current state of education to saving the environment, sports and technology – all in all an interactive read for all age groups. It is a Collector’s Item, definitely.

In a unique twist to the Children’s Day celebrations, PlanetRadiocity.com invited 10 year old Devika to be the guest RJ on Dedication Top 10. RJ Rahul and guest RJ Devika brought the house down with their fun banter and endearing rapport.

India’s top rated television channel for kids and their families – Disney and Hungama TV brought out a special treat of fun and laughter to kids with an exciting array of programs. While Disney offered Junior’s Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Doraemon and everyone’s favourite inventor brothers – Phineas and Ferb together with their pet Platypus Perry; Hungama TV was set to present all new episodes of ‘Shin Chan’ from 4.00 pm onwards to join in the Children’s Day celebrations. With a slew of exciting programs, Disney Channel and Hungama TV promised to make this Children’s Day a memorable one for kids across India.

So from what it looks like, brands today just constructively eyeing opportunities and making optimum use of it. With occasion like Children’s Day, brands have not only used their marketing skills and revenue to boost the company’s monetary charts, but also utilized this as opening for brand extensions as well.

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Adgully caught up with a few of the delegates and speakers, to try and understand the key takeaways that they have and how the congress worked as an added knowledge base camp for some.

Prasoon Joshi, Executive Chairman and Regional Executive Creative Director Asia Pacific, McCann Erickson (India) Pvt. Ltd on this occasion said, “It is all about popular culture. The fact that a company like Coca-Cola is trying to be a part of the popular culture and genuinely being a part of the conversation, is a very unconventional thing to do. As a result, even the role of advertising changes here; because personally, I believe that, the basic aim of advertising is to communicate. With the session held at Adasia, what I learn is that, a company / brand needs to reach out to it audiences and talk to them, be it through a 30 second television commercial, or a webpage or mobile app or a stage show. So the key is to communicate with consumer and try and become a part of their everyday life.”

Vikram Sakhuja, CEO – South Asia, GroupM, appreciating the session on ‘Contagious Ideas’ by Will Sansom, Writer & Consultant, Contagious Communications, Sakhuja said, “In his session, Samson, very beautifully and simply explained how technology can be used for simple digital solutions. People today talk of digital as though it’s a new jargon that the fraternity should learn. Through his, examples, what we learn from his session is that technology and digital mediums etc are just enablers and tools to communicate with one’s audiences. According to me, that session brought out the entire usability of digital medium very well.” Adding further, Sakhuja said, “The other reinforcement was the power of integrated marketing, coming from inspirational brands like Coke and their workings on this aspect.”

On the other hand, Will Sansom, Writer & Consultant, Contagious Communications opined that, “One very interesting thing which I found in here in India is that the relationship between the client and the agency is quite different from other countries. There are lots of agencies in U.K and USA who charger the clients for ideas. But here in India, it does not work that way; the client only pays for execution. So it’s interesting to know that with this how one acquires the faith by the brand. I think with this, the clients will become more willing to invest with agencies that are more willing to push things and that they might have to invest in ideas as well the execution. So it’s interesting to see how this relationship dynamics changes over time.”

Kitty Lun, Chairman & CEO, Lowe, China was of the opinion that, “For a conference of this stature, the enthusiasm and excitement does not seem to slowdown. The line-up of speakers is very good, who spoke very ‘today’. Be it the internet, social media, what’s the next big thing, future of mobile in advertising. So we had more questions than answers and I personally think that’s very good for the creative muscles.”

Over time AdAsia has become the continent’s most prestigious event. AdAsia 2011, hosted at the national capital in a large way successfully flexed the creative muscles of agencies, clients’ and marketers. What we Adgully could take away from the gala event was that, the digital and social media space utilization, not a new concept though, is gaining higher importance with time. Marketers no want to talk to consumers through all possible channels and agencies are not letting them down.

The elaborate line up of speakers and delegates, numerous facts and figures, business tactics floating around, the multi-cultural gathering provided an opportunity to the professionals of the advertising fraternity to share, exchange and experience their mantra’s of each one’s respective business and creative deals, know the current global trends, the strengths and weaknesses, projected trends in terms of creativity, business, consumer behavior and technology. With so much said and done, Adasia 2011 truly was one intellectually loaded international affair. Bringing down the curtains for this year’s edition of the ultimate advertising fraternity gathering, Adasia for the year 2013 will be held at Vietnam and inevitably, all eyes are on the event to know what’s next! | By Ankita Tanna [ankita(at)adgully.com]

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While E-commerce portals are catching up quite fast, given the ‘speedy and economical purchase’ mindset of Indian consumers, the shopperholics are in for a treat this festive season. But the last few weeks have a buzz that the markets are projecting a slowdown in spends in the coming months.

Adgully tries to take a look at the situation from the other side of the table. We spoke to web portals with the aim to understand how does e-commerce portal try and attract consumers to make effective purchases; in an almost cluttered market, especially in the festive season. Also, how do these online shopping sites as business outfits, differentiate their offers and deals from competitors in order to initiate and sustain purchases.

Anisha Singh, Founder and CEO, mydala.com said, “Our primary focus is to gain the trust of our users and give them the comfort that if the deal is on mydala, it is an unbeatable one and they should buy it! As we have done with pioneering the concept in India, we constantly innovate and lead the market in building the best experience for our users.”

Telling us about some of their innovative methods used this festive season, she added, “This Diwali, we launched India’s first and exclusive mobile WAP browser for discounted deals, which will help mobile internet users to access mydala deals quickly on any internet-enabled mobile phone using GPRS or Wi-Fi. You can access our WAP portal even from a non-smartphone! Earlier in August this year, we had also launched India’s first free BlackBerry® smartphone application for group buying in India.”

Explaining how they are different from others in the market, Anish Singh said, “We have several features which distinguish us from the competition, a couple of which are: Firstly, the deals that we do are much better value/discounts to the customers in terms of discounts: that is a function of us pioneering the group buying space in India and having deep relationships with merchants coupled with the volume of paid customers that we give them. Secondly, our customers in most cases pay the entire deal value upfront, versus most of our competitors who issue a coupon on the deal. In our case the merchant gets the money upfront whereas in the others, they get zero money upfront.”

According to a report by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), online demand during festive season for products like mobile phones, e-tablets, consumer electronics, home appliances, home decor, furnishings, apparel and ornaments usually takes the upward graph. The report also suggests that online shopping boom is not restricted to metros alone; towns and cities like Lucknow, Ahmadabad, Jaipur, Dehradun, Nasik, Trichy rank among top online buying cities and the market is consistently growing.

Mukesh Bansal, CEO, myntra.com said, “There are some reports that suggest a slowdown while some suggest an upward trend in shopping spends by consumers. October and November are months of festivities for Indians, and we have seen a positive trend in consumers purchasing apparel and footwear for the season. We have launched the latest collection of ethnic and formal wear for both men and women from brands such as W, Aurelia, Mother Earth, Scullers, Indigo Nation, Indian Terrain etc.”

Telling us about the factors that differentiate them form the others, Bansal said, “In order to provide an added advantage to the fashion conscious consumer, we’re offering a 10% cashback on all of Autumn/winter 2011 collection available on Myntra.com. We’re also adding new brands on a daily basis to make sure our consumers find the largest catalog of whatever fashion merchandise they’re looking for on the website. We’ve also launched a brand campaign on television and print to bring new customers to our site, who are looking to shop for new attire for the festive season.”
Highlighting their deal packages as one of the best and most pocket friendly one’s, Amarjit Batra, Country Manager, Olx.in said, “Ours is a free classified market space where we have equal number of buyers and sellers. While market sources expect and report a slowdown, ours is the best place you can access fruitful deals”.

Elaborating further he said, “In a situation where a consumer is not comfortable spending high cost for a particular product, he has the facility of buying a pre-owned, products at fairly discounted prices with just a click. In this process, in a way, we also encourage entrepreneurship among young consumers, who make use of this platform to sell their products, for best deals, and in turn avail the facility of buying new products, which are unavailable in the market. Also, we are a good and convenient option as against other portals and offline stores as well; since we provide our consumers with a huge range of products, all in place.”

Thus, factors like multiplying number of e-buyers, ’24×7′ hours shopping, supported with ease and added feature of availability factors for product comparisons, clearly show that online shopping has in fact come of age and consumers are keen to shop over the internet. Festival shopping being the prime time for multi-channel retailers to attract new shoppers; online retailers have seen growing consumer interest in online buying.

Hence, slowdown or no, shopper’s will always be in a hunt for the best shopping spots offering the best deals. With the kind of deals and offers that e – shopping portals propose today, they are turning out to be the new shopper’s paradise!

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With the thought to get the true 360 degree, clear picture of the innovations that broadsheets are exploring during the festive season, we asked these industry minds as to what shall be their recommendation to their clients during festive season for a clutter breaking communication in broadsheet. And this is what they said!

Nitin Chaudhry, Head – Media Marketing (Revenues), Hindustan Times said, “A number of innovations have been implemented by Hindustan Times with our various advertisers during the festive season. Some of our major work being the Hyundai Eon Launch where we utilized the innovation of multiple flaps very effectively. For the Maruti Swift Launch we went with multiple front pages, a concept supported by the tagline – More Swift per Swift.” K.Uma Shankar, GM, Prabhat Khabar said, “Technically we did not do traditional innovations. However we have designed various packages to different clients for the entire festive season. We did Prabhat Utsav which is our Branding Initiative. Many clients happily participated and were happy with the results. The reason why we did not do innovations is; firstly, they have become very common and innovations no more remained innovations and secondly, clients were not willing to pay any premium due to slow down so doing innovations without premium does not make any business sense.

While Dhruba Mukherjee, Associate Vice President – The Telegraph said, “Innovations that we have done include – cover on cover, half cover, center spread and tabloid blowing out in to a broad sheet”, Gautam Dalal, dna positive said, “PFA 3 innovations done recently with advertisers. Some of these innovations are indeed done on page 1 (either main or after hrs)

Looking at this from agency’s point of view, Janardhan Pandey, Mudra Max suggests, “Large format ads & front page/page 3 innovations which will stand out to give them the best possible OTS & impact for their communication.”

On the other hand Kartik Sharma, Managing Partner, Maxus said, “At Maxus our recommendations are rooted in deep understanding of the consumer, a clearly articulated insight & great media ideas borne out of the insight. A lot also depends on the creative. We do not have a formula based approach for clutter breaking ideas during season period. Everything depends on the brand, category, creative & the context. Having said this, during season time we have noticed a disproportionate increase in ads & sometimes it can become a blind spot. Our overall recommendation is ‘tread with caution & if a great idea comes along, back it to the hilt’.

Print Media Brand Consultant A. S. Raghunath is of the opinion that, “Integrated Marketing communications would have been a better option in such festive season. I would have advised my market leader to shift the buying frenzy from the clustered space to more fare kind of spots.” He further elaborates that, “In a place where Diwali buying shops range from stalls selling puja materials to gift items to other electronic goods could have brought the entire diwali buying gamut in just one large space. It is wise to ensure the buyer’s traffic flow. My newspaper would have released special numbers from last week by integrating with local fm, outdoor and cable option. It would have also given a build up to such spots by also highlighting the salient feature through editorial content.”

With an increase in the use of jackets for newspaper as advertising options, do these industry’s thinking minds see this as the best innovations or jackets seem to have lost its sheen?!

Agreeing to the latter half of the above mentioned statement, K.Uma Shankar said, “Front Page jackets have become boring and at times I don’t even bother to see who is advertising. We directly jump into page 3 which is the real ‘page 1’. Jackets have defiantly it lost its sheen.

In complete contrast to this Nitin Chaudhry said, “Jackets are certainly an innovation with high visual punch both for advertisers and readers.” Similarly, Dhruba Mukherjee who said, “Jackets is increasingly becoming popular. They are still the best source of innovation revenues but given the frequent use they are becoming more of a standard offering rather than an innovation. Will not be surprised to see them appearing in rate cards in the future.”

Seconding Mukherjee’s opinion is Gautam Dalal, who said, “Jackets / front page ads certainly are preferred, since they provide 100% plus exposure. Besides subscribers, even passers by / glances notice innovations well.

Agency minds like Kartik Sharma said, “Jackets were conceived as a good way to differentiate & interestingly engage consumers. It gave a refreshing way to surprise & communicate with consumers in the initial stages. However it is getting overused. When any format gets over used there is bound to some degree of effectiveness drop as consumers start expecting the format and/or ignore it (if creative is not good). I won’t say jackets have lost its sheen but definitely some thought needs to be given before using it as an end all solution for brands. Apart from jackets there are many other interesting and relevant ways by which we can communicate with consumers.”

Voicing similar thoughts, Janardhan Pandey said, “Jackets are space created on premium positions to accommodate demanding advertisers for high impact communication. They are rampant now in publications which wasn’t the case few years back. I won’t call them as innovation but they are an innovative space options smartly created for advertisers.”

Critically analyzing this situation A.S Ragunath said, “If jackets are common to all newspaper, the communication loses impact. In Delhi almost all the newspapers were having jackets right from last week. With news space being compromised, it also irritates the news consumers.”

In an effort to understand the advertising patterns / trends and revenue charts, we threw a question to our elaborate guests’ line-up. It read – Are publishers offering better packages this festive season vis-a-vis last year, in turn getting a better value for your money?

We received almost single toned responses on this.

While Nitin Chaudhry opines that, “We have seen an uptick in festive season related revenue as compared to last year”, K. Uma Shankar also said, “Yes in our market the revenues are better than last year’s festive season, except few centers like Delhi last year during the same period there were elections and hence we cannot consider that revenue to it”. Mukherjee, in complete agreement said, “This year revenues have certainly been greater than previous years (Ranging between 15-20% higher)”.

Gautam Dalal elaborating on this point said, “Festive season continues to be good for DNA. The reason is obvious: Firstly, with over 5.7L copies in Mumbai alone, DNA is a huge opportunity for retail clients to reach the city’s spenders at almost half the rate of the leading publications. – The E:R works in DNA’s favour. Secondly, with a slew of automobile launches, we have seen strong revenue coming in this sector too.” Adding further, he said, “Given the huge buying season, clients pick up packages and not just single ads. These packages work well, as a local reach medium for them.”

“Each year different media houses craft new packages. Some of them are similar to last year & some are unique. Value for such offers need to be weighed in the context of the offer on the one side & the expected clutter (therefore effectiveness) on the other. Overall my sense is it will be more or less similar at an overall level”, said Karthik Sharma.

Janardhan Pandey is of the opinion that, “As media agency our job is to continue adding value to our clients by way of better rates and best positioning of ads. Now days the media owners are also forthcoming and open to offer innovative and cost effective deals that are win-win for all stakeholders. I can say that its volume & business which is more important than the ‘per square cms’ rates for media owners.”

Consultant A.S. Raghunath is dissecting the situation said, “The market has been passing through low sentiments. The other festivals like Onam and Dasherra which sets the pace for the Diwali campaigning were also dull this year. However, Diwali campaigning has suddenly burst out from late last week. I opine it was because most newspapers offered attractive packages to build up the tempo. Markets have not been as rewarding as last year.”

Speaking on decreased spends from the advertisers, which has led to the Broadsheets en-cashing on this with better packages, Nitin Chaudhry is of the opinion that, “While large advertisers have decreased the ad spends to some extent, lots of new advertisers have ensured continued revenues for publishers. Better packages do help in revenue maximization but they are a regular phenomenon rather than being an outcome of decreased spends.”

On similar lines, Mukherjee said that, “It is true – with spends been rationalized broadsheets are been forced to look at aggressive packages to maximize revenues.”
Have a crystal clear and analytical opinion on this point, K.Uma Shankar said, “First of all not all the advertisers have declined their spends. Some clients have spent more in some markets and some clients have ventured new markets. However, yes, broadsheets did en-cash the situation while the advertisers have also en-cashed it by getting more visibility and good impact.”

From this read, what one may understand and infer is that, though technology and taken the media by rage, print still holds a strong grip as an advertising option. With the revenue, cost and expenses charts sliding their way, it has become essential for print media owners and agencies to think out-of-the-box advertising methods and deliver superior quality results for every pocket size. Thus, though festive seasons have been and will continue to be the ‘high-action times’, innovation will also be a continuous task for the people of the business. | By Ankita Tanna [ankita(at)adgully.com]

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Adgully caught up with a few of the delegates, to try and understand the key takeaways that they have and how the congress worked as an added knowledge base camp for some.

An elated Tarun Rai, CEO of World Wide Media, on this occasion said, “It was an amazing experience and the fact that the congress was held in India, simply added to the joy. Indian magazine and publishing market is full of action and is growing at a faster pace.”

Adding further he said, “From the Association of Indian Magazine (AIM) and the publisher’s point of view, it’s great that the congress was held in India. In this manner, the world of magazines moved a step closer to the Indians market. In other cases, it is not feasible to send such huge number of people to the other countries. Thus, something like this in India is perfect to interact at a national and global level.”

Varghese Chandy, Senior General Manager, Malayala Manorama, strongly marked the importance of holding the congress in India. Adding on to the excitement and satisfaction, he said, “Finally the focus is digitization of the media. Here, publishers need to understand that there is not much difference between the digital and print mediums. One also needs to know that as the consumers grow tech savvy, it is essential to strategies that quality content across all platforms; we should be in a position to provide our readers with content on mediums, in all formats, be it print, digital, mobile etc.”

Chandy also marked that, “Within the organization as well, people have to be digitally trained to use the potentials of each medium to the fullest. Bridging the gap between digital and print, this will enable them to develop their own unique brand equity as well.” He is also of the opinion that India has a huge number of readers for the regional language magazines. But unfortunately, lack of appropriate representation and he regrets as one of the reasons why this issue was not discussed at the Congress.

Indranil Roy, President, Outlook Group was a satisfied and delighted delegate at the World magazine Congress. He said that, “The magazine industry, both Indian and international spoke very positively and progressively at the congress.”

He highlights that, “adoption in the industry has to be digital and has to be it the form of tablets and smart phones formats.” This he believes is because of two reasons; one the growing number of tablet users in the West increasing rapidly and will slowly take the trend to Indian market as well. Secondly, content on these formats encourages higher degree of creativity and more visual appeal will attract readers to these platforms.Roy is of the opinion that, “people need to think hard in the internet apps section as well. This will not only help get better content but provide higher exposure to advertising as well.

Roy believes that magazines as a form of media are here to stay; with amazing technical nuances like digitization only adding to the excitement of consuming the medium. “This medium is all about engagement and reach”, he said.

As a third party, what we can take from the congress are three things. Firstly, the magazine media and its efforts to venture the digital platform have caught up pace, like their international counterparts. With tablets and smart phones gaining more users in India, the content and presentation, along with marketing and other communication strategies have been tweaked to cater to the ‘new medium’ and its consumers.

Secondly, affairs like the World Magazine Congress have worked effectively to bring about and discuss on issues that are usually taken up behind the board room doors. It served as a platform where Indian and international personals from the business shared and exchanged ideas and thoughts, providing fruitful insights to the one’s present there. Be it the steady transmission of B2C to B2B model, lack of technological support to enhance the mobile magazine platform; all these proved to be knowledge sharing session for the delegates as well as the media present there.

Lastly, India is now been seen as a comprehensive and wholesome destination of such events. With such global affairs happening in the country, the media market only seems to be getting easier and extensive international exposure, proving productive for the industry.

With another international event lined up, it shall be interesting to gauge the effect and impact of these interactive affairs on the media, its business and its reach and growth. | By Ankita Tanna [ankita(at)adgully.com]

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Adgully caught up with people from a cross section of businesses and sectors to get a 360 degree perspective on the projected slowdown, its effects on product launches, advertising spend and marketers’ minds and strategies.

Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO, The Mobile Store is of the opinion that the projected slowdown will have different effects on different industry. “As the GDP softens, pressure will increase or decrease marginally on each sector. Sectors like food and groceries will continue to work and spend as usual, since they deal with basic needs that need to regularly spoken about. Also, some other sectors like mobiles and electronic goods will continue similarly, but spends will later depend on sales post the festive season as well”, he said. Adding further Chakrawarti said, “On the other hand, luxury and semi – luxury segment along with automobiles will be affected to some extend or may be even show a sizeable decline.”

Leading to an interesting tangent, a report published in The Economic Times highlights that the Indian luxury market grew at a healthy 20% during last year, reaching a size of $5.8 billion, despite signs of the reemergence of a global slowdown, (CII-AT Kearney report on Indian Luxury). The luxury electronics and car segments have seen a growth of above 35%, while fine dining has seen a whopping 40% growth in this period. All of these segments have seen higher growth than expected in the last one year. Apparel and accessories, watches and personal care have also seen robust growth, between 24-30%.

Dirk Dedekind (Head of Marketing), BSH Home Appliances Pvt Ltd Head at the India launch of Europe’s largest home appliances brand strongly puts his point, “The fact that we are launching in India right now, clearly indicates that we do not see a slowdown. We believe that there is an affluent section in the market, in cities like Bangalore etc, who see the benefits of the products usage and secondly, compared to our other competitors, we are not that unaffordable.” Speaking from the marketing point of view, Dedekind said, “Our launch before the festive season is a prudent decision because this is the time when a lot of buying decisions happen. Thus, launching in a quiet period does not make good business sense.”

Reports and experts suggest tighter working bands post the festive season in India. Skepticism is creeping in the businesses in terms of new product launches and spends quantity and patterns. Speaking on this point, Dinesh Jain, CEO, Hover Automative India Pvt. Ltd said, “If one looks at the overall market, it has been slowing down due to the higher interest rates and high inflation rates. But being a new entrant in the country, for us the opportunities are tremendous. Yes, such temporary hurdles will effect in the short run, but we are here to stay for long. That is why, one would see that with the launch of Nissan Sunny, we have not changed any of our plans, even in the product launch per say.” Pointing that their advertising and marketing spends will be as the market demands, Jain further added that, “ We are not going over the top or very conservative when it comes to advertising, since it’s a new product, and we have lots of hopes form it. But post the festive season, we’ll have to wait and watch about the apprehensions and projections made on the Indian markets.”

In an attempt to get a media perspective to the point of discussion, Adgully learnt that cynicism or uncertainty in terms of product launch or advertising spends is not any issue for media businesses. Anooj Kapoor, Executive VP & Business Head SAB TV said, “From October end till December we have a very aggressive launch pattern with 2 -3 new dailies in the line – up. Over all, the economic scene is a little weak as of now and post Diwali, there may be even a huge drop in the advertising spends. However, looking at the GRP and TVR charts, we are an advertising medium that come across a safe and steady option and therefore they continue to invest with us. Also, we offer the advertisers a unique platform to appeal to the entire family and male centric TG in one go. With this distinctive combination, whether spends are more or less, it does not affect SAB much.”

On similar thoughts, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman, India, and CEO, South-east Asia, Aegis Media said, “I think India will not see a recession, but there might be some elements of a slowdown. The growth may slowdown, for a quarter to two or maybe evens a year. But it won’t be a recession as it’s projected. The period from October to December is very crucial and needs to be monitored very carefully. If it pans out as expected (from a consumers buying and purchasing patterns), then we are on a healthy track. But if for some reasons there are any hurdles, then we shall definitely feels its impact for more than 2 -3 quarters.”

Thus, with a bag full of mixed opinions and thoughts, it is only a wait and watch game that all, consumers, business outfits and advertisers need to do to understand and design their strategy and roadmap, not only for the next quarter, but the next year as well. | By Ankita Tanna [ankita(at)adgully.com]