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The core objective of the offer was to promote the convenience of cashless shopping, coupled with great offers and anytime access to their bank account, all with Axis Bank Debit card. The media objective of the campaign thus was to cue awareness for the cashback offer on Axis Bank Debit cards.

In view of this fact, Milestone Brandcom devised an all-pervasive OOH media plan to tactfully target the audience on the go, across strategic locations, following them right up to the last mile. The idea was to cue awareness & action, where they would typically purchase electronics, books, movies, music, gifts and much more for their family & friends during the festive season.

The outdoor campaign was spread across 25 cities/towns, encompassing 19 states in India. “A strategically selected vehicle mix of large format along arterial routes, high footfall transit media and most relevant last mile touch points maximized the brand exposure & offer communication. For a product category like debit cards whose usage is purely based on impulse purchases, outdoor media offers the best opportunity to not just create awareness but also trigger a response by enticing the shopper enough, just at the right time & place at the last mile.” said Hanoz Patel, Founder Member & Managing Partner at Milestone Brandcom.

The large format media was spread along key arterial routes with large billboards, public utilities, gantries & wall wraps, whereas transit media covered the train exteriors, railway stations, metros signages, panels inside metro trains and bus Q shelters. Lastly the most captivating media with looming presence was used for the last mile impression in the shopping neighbourhoods, with mall signages, pillar signages inside malls, mall drop downs, large mall facades, signages & kiosks in shopping areas & markets.

As part of the strategy the campaign also witnessed creative executions & cutouts on key traffic intersections for the desired impact & clutter breaking visibility spread across cities.

With the execution of the above across-the-board strategy, the promotional offer enjoyed an extensive reach & desired response in quick time.

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Dibyendra Nath Mukerjea, editor of FORTUNE India, said, “Indian women span generations and today we find them in every field. Acquisitions, garnering profits, successful new ventures, pioneering concepts, snagging mega deals…all important factors, no doubt, when defining power. We looked at the changes they brought in, and the way they transformed businesses. In the process, we made some surprising discoveries. But then, surprise was what we expected when we put together Fortune India’s first ranking of the most powerful women in India Inc.”

Other women who figure amongst the Top 10 as per the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business by FORTUNE India, include – Aruna Jayanthi, CEO, Capgemini India; Zia Mody, Co-founder, AZB Partners; Vinita Bali, Managing Director, Britannia Industries; Shobhana Bhartia, Chairperson and Editorial Director, HT Media; Chitra Ramakrishna, Joint Managing Director, NSE; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon and Frenny Bawa, ex-MD, RIM India. (Detailed list enclosed below).

Pavan Varshnei, President of FORTUNE India, said, “FORTUNE India’s Most Powerful Women in Business list is the most comprehensive ranking of influential women in Indian business.”

Issue also carries a feature on the compensation package of the 10 highest paid Indian business women. The story gives a graphical comparison of the salaries of the highest paid women in India vis-à-vis their counterparts in US and the highest paid men in India.

FORTUNE India had recently received global recognition for its design and layout – photo, graphics etc. It is the only Indian magazine to win two merit awards from the Society of Publication Designers, New York, and besides that, a bronze award for infographics at the IFRA Annual Competition, earlier this year.

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Dnyanada has 15 years of experience in media, working with media agencies like Lodestar and ZenithOptimedia and on the advertiser side, driving the media mandate for advertisers like Hindustan Unilever, Marico and ICICI Prulife.

Says Punitha Arumugam, Group CEO, Madison Media, “Dnyanada is definitely going to be a great asset for us. Her experience spanning agency and client media functions is hopefully going to bring a holistic perspective to our services.”

Says Dnyanada Chaudhari, on her joining Madison, “I have worked closely with Punitha during my stint at Marico and Sam on many industry related issues. I am happy to be part of the Madison family and it is a privilege to be groomed under their leadership. I am looking forward to offering my experience to drive disruptive thinking, leverage scale and best practices for our clients.”

Madison Media Group is India’s foremost media agency handling media planning and buying for blue chip clients including Airtel, Godrej, Cadbury, ITC, General Motors, Marico, McDonald’s TVS, Britannia, Procter & Gamble, Asian Paints, Tata Tea, Shriram Transport Finance, Levis, SpiceJet, Axis Bank, Domino’s, Bharti Axa, MaxNewyork Life Insurance, Tata Salt, Acer, Dish TV, Imagine TV, Times Television Network, Indian Oil and many others. The gross billing of Madison Media is Rs. 3000 crores.

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Sushma has over 18 years of experience in Media planning and research having worked in companies like Carat, Mindshare Fulcrum, TME, Synovate. Her last stint was with Carat as Sr. Vice President. Across her career she has worked with clients like Unilever’s oral care and deodorant brands, Colgate, Britannia, Godrej Appliances, Heinz, Castrol, Viacom 18, ICICI Bank, Star Network, Shopper’s Stop, HDFC and many others. In her research role, she has been involved with media research, micro market planning softwares, various ad tracking studies and formulating customized research for various brands.

Says Punitha Arumugam, Group CEO, Madison Media, “I have interacted with Sushma at various industry forums in the past and found her perspective and inputs refreshing and concise. With Sushma becoming a Madisonite, I am delighted that we will now have her experience and inputs available to our portfolio of clients”

Says Sushma Jhaveri, on her joining Madison, “I am happy to be given an opportunity to be a part of the Madison family. Madison has interesting set of clients which is the exciting part of work. Hoping for a great new innings.”

Madison Media was in the news earlier this year for winning the coveted ITC media planning and buying AOR that it is currently handling through its unit CREST.

Madison Media is India’s foremost media agency handling media planning and buying for blue chip clients including Airtel, Godrej, Cadbury, ITC, General Motors, Marico, McDonald’s TVS, Britannia, Asian Paints, Tata Tea, Shriram Transport Finance, Levis, SpiceJet, Axis Bank, Domino’s, Bharti Axa, Max Newyork Life Insurance, Tata Salt, Acer, Dish TV, Imagine TV, Times Television Network, Indian Oil and many others. The gross billing of Madison Media is Rs. 3000 crores.

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The association will be flagged-off with a ‘remittance pilot’ between Dharavi in suburban Mumbai and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, which will enable money transfer using the mobile platform. Idea and Axis Bank will also explore extending the association to include other banking products and services such as savings, credit, micro insurance, micro SIP and micro pensions in a phased manner. On completion of the successful pilot, a full range of banking services is proposed to be launched across the pan-India footprint of IDEA Cellular, subject to receipt of all statutory and regulatory approvals.

S K Mitra – President, Agri Business & Rural Banking – Axis Bank, while speaking about the project said, “As a total solutions bank, we are always exploring options to deliver improved and convenient services to customers across all strata of the society. We have already undertaken urban and rural financial inclusion initiatives in parts of India on a POS platform through our Business Correspondents. We were keen to adopt additional delivery channels to drive financial inclusion and were particularly keen on a mobile based channel, considering the reach and the low cost service delivery platform. Since only 41% of the adult population have bank accounts, whereas more than 70% of adults own a mobile connection, associating with a telecom service provider looked to be the apt choice.”

Mitra further added, “IDEA Cellular has the necessary reach and adaptability to drive the initiative and we are happy to be associated with IDEA Cellular in this Pilot Project. Idea’s deep-rooted retail distribution network is ideal for our ‘Branchless Banking’ model.”

Talking about the project, Ambrish Jain, Director – Operations, IDEA Cellular said: “We are pleased to partner Axis Bank in its Financial Inclusion initiative through a pilot based on mobile-enabled low-cost banking service model. Idea’s mobile technology platform will enable the provision of a gamut of banking products and services to the end customer, and allow cash transactions at select Idea retail points.”

During the ‘remittance pilot’, a remitter in Dharavi will be able to remit money back home to his family in Allahabad, through the mobile platform.

As a part of the association, IDEA Cellular will support Axis Bank’s Financial Inclusion initiatives whereby Idea will act as a Business Correspondent (BC) of Axis Bank and offer the entire range of financial products and services through its retail outlets that will act as Customer Service Points or CSPs.

This association will prove to be a win-win situation for both Axis Bank and IDEA Cellular. On one hand, IDEA Cellular’s extensive network will help Axis Bank gain access to widespread distribution reach and a low cost delivery channel for offering the financial products and services, based on the mobile platform. On the other hand, IDEA Cellular will have the opportunity to increase value to their customers through the offering of the financial products and services.

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“With India emerging as a vibrant global financial center, online finance is beginning to attract significantly more attention and drive more transactions than ever before in this market,” said Will Hodgman, comScore executive vice president for the Asia-Pacific region. “With half of India’s online population visiting a business or finance-related site during the month, there is an opportunity to reach and engage financial consumers in a way that was not possible before. Financial companies must focus now on devising effective digital strategies to help attract and retain these important customers or risk losing them to their competitors.”

ICICI Ranks as Most Visited Bank in India
In June 2010, 19.7 million people age 15 and older visited a Business/Finance site from a home or work location in India, an increase of 45 percent from the previous year. Nearly all of the top 10 most visited Business/Finance sites witnessed double-digit traffic growth in the past year as more Indians turned to the Web for financial information. ICICI Bank led as the top Business/Finance site in India with 4.7 million visitors, an increase of 40 percent from the previous year. HDFC Group followed as the second most visited site with 3.5 million visitors (up 58 percent) with the State Bank of India grabbing the #3 spot with nearly 3 million visitors (up 84 percent).

Top Business/Finance Sites by Unique Visitors
June 2010 vs. June 2009
Total Audience, Age 15+ – India Home & Work Locations*
Source: comScore Media Metrix

Total Unique Visitors (000)

Total Internet: Total Audience, Jun-2009: 34,601, Jun-2010: 39,171, % Change: 13
Business/Finance, Jun-2009: 13,633, Jun-2010: 19,708, % Change: 45
ICICI Bank, Jun-2009: 3,365, Jun-2010: 4,725, % Change: 40
HDFC Group, Jun-2009: 2,217, Jun-2010: 3,496, % Change: 58
State Bank of India, Jun-2009: 1,598, Jun-2010: 2,944, % Change: 84
MoneyControl.com, Jun-2009: 1,674, Jun-2010: 2,264, % Change: 35
Indian Overseas Bank, Jun-2009: N/A, Jun-2010: 2,064, % Change: N/A
Citigroup, Jun-2009: 1,136, Jun-2010: 2,027, % Change: 78
Yahoo! Finance, Jun-2009: 707, Jun-2010: 1,343, % Change: 90
Axis Bank, Jun-2009: 839, Jun-2010: 1,308, % Change: 56
Bombay Stock Exchange, Jun-2009: 917, Jun-2010: 896, % Change: -2
PaySeal.com, Jun-2009: 304, Jun-2010: 889, % Change: 192
*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Further analysis of the most-visited online banks revealed that the top three received a significant portion of site traffic from markets outside of India. ICICI Bank saw 12.3 percent of its traffic originate from other markets, with the U.S. accounting for 5.4 percent of overall visitation to the site, the U.K. at 2.5 percent and Canada with 1.0 percent, leading as the three largest markets for visitation outside of India. HDFC Group received nearly 6 percent of its traffic from other markets (top three: U.S. 1.5 percent, U.K. 0.7 percent and Singapore 0.3 percent). While State Bank of India received 6 percent of its traffic from other markets (top three: U.S. 2.3 percent, U.K. 0.5 percent and Singapore 0.3 percent).

Visitation Origin to Three Largest Online Banks in India
June 2010
Total Audience, Age 15+ – India Home & Work Locations*
Source: comScore Media Metrix

% of Unique Visitors % of Unique Visitors
in India Outside India
ICICI Bank, % of Unique Visitors in India: 87.7%, % of Unique Visitors in Outside India: 12.3%
HDFC Group, % of Unique Visitors in India: 94.3%, % of Unique Visitors in Outside India: 5.7%
State Bank of India, % of Unique Visitors in India: 94.0%, % of Unique Visitors in Outside India: 6.0%
*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

“Several banks occupied top spots in the category, pointing to the popularity and growing interest in online banking in India,” continued Mr. Hodgman. “With the top banks attracting a significant number of visitors from countries outside of India, these visitors, most likely non-resident Indians, represent an important segment for banks to address when developing and executing their digital strategies.”

Visitors Show Strong Engagement at MoneyControl.com and Bombay Stock Exchange
On average, Internet users in India spent 53 minutes on Business/Finance sites in June 2010, consuming 92 pages of content and frequenting the category 6 times during the month. Of the top 10 most visited Business/Finance sites, visitors to MoneyControl.com displayed the strongest engagement, averaging more than one hour on the site during the month, visiting the site 5 times and consuming 57 pages of content. Visitors to Bombay Stock Exchange also exhibited strong engagement, averaging 42 minutes on the site during the month and consuming 97 pages of content. Among the major banks, ICICI Bank led with the largest amount of time spent per visitor at 26 minutes.

Engagement at Most Visited Business/Finance Sites
June 2010
Total Audience, Age 15+ – India Home & Work Locations*
Source: comScore Media Metrix

Average Minutes Average Pages Average Visits
per Visitor per Visitor per Visitor
Total Internet: Total Audience, Avg Mins Per Visitor’09: 723.4, Avg Mins Per Visitor’10: 1,118, % Change: 29.8
Business/Finance, Avg Mins Per Visitor’09: 53.3, Avg Mins Per Visitor’10: 92, % Change: 6.3
ICICI Bank, Avg Mins Per Visitor’09: 26.3, Avg Mins Per Visitor’10: 58, % Change: 4.0
HDFC Group, , Avg Mins Per Visitor’09: 20.6, Avg Mins Per Visitor’10: 51, % Change: 3.9
State Bank of India, Avg Mins Per Visitor’09: 16.6, Avg Mins Per Visitor’10: 28, % Change: 3.4
MoneyControl.com, Avg Mins Per Visitor’09: 65.3, Avg Mins Per Visitor’10: 57, % Change: 5.0
Indian Overseas Bank, Avg Mins Per Visitor’09: 4.8, Avg Mins Per Visitor’10: 10, % Change: 1.9
Citigroup, Avg Mins Per Visitor’09: 12.0, Avg Mins Per Visitor’10: 21, % Change: 2.5
Yahoo! Finance, Avg Mins Per Visitor’09: 17.0, Avg Mins Per Visitor’10: 15, % Change: 4.3
Axis Bank, Avg Mins Per Visitor’09: 16.2, Avg Mins Per Visitor’10: 32, % Change: 3.6
Bombay Stock Exchange, Avg Mins Per Visitor’09: 42.2, Avg Mins Per Visitor’10: 97, % Change: 5.8
PaySeal.com, Avg Mins Per Visitor’09: 0.8, Avg Mins Per Visitor’10: 6, % Change: 1.6

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

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Prior to this, Shermann was the management supervisor – account management for Ogilvy & Mather.

Shermann has over 13 years of experience in the advertising industry. He has worked with companies such as Barclays Bank, Axis Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Tata Indicom, AXN, Airtel, HBO, Hindustan Lever and Star Plus.

Shermann started his career with Primesite Outdoor advertising in 1999 and moved on to The Media Network in 2001.

He worked with Madison Outdoor Media Services and later, in 2002 moved to Portland India Outdoor advertising as group account director.