Week at a glance: Gung-ho about Rap; Big FM buyout; Ekam rollout; WC spends

In Depth: How successful have Indian brands been in tapping the rap culture
Rap is not a new phenomenon – with the Eminems of yore and the whole hip-hop and gangsta rap culture, along with the Punjabi rap enticing India’s youth over the years. But it took a film like ‘Gully Boy’ to bring to the fore India’s underground rap scene – and that too in Hindi.

Radio City Board okays acquisition of Big FM; combined entity to have 79 stations
The Board of Directors of Music Broadcast Limited (MBL) has approved the acquisition of Reliance Broadcast Network Limited (RBNL), a Reliance ADA Group company. RBNL houses 92.7 Big FM, one of India’s largest radio networks with 58 stations, which reaches out to 1,200+ towns and 50,000+ villages and over 30 crore Indians across the country.

What is delaying Ekam’s rollout?
It’s been a little over two years since BARC India announced its much-awaited digital measurement service – Ekam – in April 2017. However, the independent third-party digital measurement service is yet to see the light of day.

Read more: Week at a glance: 2019 Elections; GoT ends; Sam Singh’s new role; Emerging Leaders

Splicing and dicing the ad spends for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019
Star Sports is the official broadcaster of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in India and as per media reports, Star India has already signed up 35 advertisers and is optimistic about selling 90 per cent of the inventory for the tournament by the end of this month.

Advertisers very often make the mistake of under resourcing their brands: Sam Balsara
Doyen of Indian advertising, Madison World’s Sam Balsara in a free-wheeling conversation with Adgully talks about the major changes that have taken place in the advertising industry in the last 10 years.

Prakash Javadekar is new Information & Broadcasting Minister
Prakash Keshav Javadekar has been appointed as Minister of Information and Broadcasting as well as Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the Modi 2.0 Government that was sworn in yesterday (May 30, 2019).

Humanising Uber is the way forward for the brand: Manisha Lath Gupta
Uber has come aboard as the official sponsor of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. The partnership makes Uber the first mobility and food delivery app to strike a sponsorship deal with the ICC for the Men’s Cricket World Cup.

Colors Gujarati Cinema will give the industry a big push: Ravish Kumar
In a bid to give a push to regional language content, Viacom18 Media has announced the launch of Colors Gujarati Cinema, the region’s first 24-hour premium movies’ channel.

Amul never spent more than 1% on advertising: RS Sodhi
The fifth edition of ZeeMELT, which puts the spotlight on disruptive marketing, kicked off in Mumbai on May 30, 2019. The two-day conference features an extensive line-up of speakers – experts, leaders, and professionals who have themselves disrupted the global marketing arena.

MIB mulls changes in guidelines for Uplinking & Downlinking of TV channels
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) has decided to seek the views/ comments of stakeholders for suggesting changes in the policy guidelines for Uplinking& Downlinking of TV channels from India. These guidelines were last revised in 2011. 

India’s film marketing ad spends touched Rs 600+ cr in 2018: GroupM’s ESP
ESP Properties, the entertainment and sports division of GroupM, has launched the second edition of ‘Showbiz Report’, in India. ‘Showbiz 2.0’ is a consolidated India Entertainment Marketing Report, which covers the entertainment industry in four parts – Film Marketing, Brands & Films, Celebrity Endorsements and Licensing in India.

AajTak, India Today TV lead news genre on Counting Day
The verdict is out – for the next Government at the Centre in India as well as the leading news channels on Counting Day (May 23, 2019).

#MemeMania: JCB + viral trend = Brand creativity
It has become difficult to comprehend what makes for viral trends and meme fest on social media these days. A few days back, the humble JCB excavator became a subject of hilarious memes and #JCBKiKhudai went viral.

How IRCTC turned a complaint against obscene ads into a funny digital moment
Imagine this, you are trying to book railway tickets on IRCTC’s website or app and suddenly obscene ads appear on the page. This is something that a user faced recently and he decided to complain about it – where else – on Twitter. “Obscene and vulgar ads are very frequently appearing on the IRCTC ticket booking app. Instead of ignoring the complaint, IRCTC decided to reply to it, which subtly put the onus of obscene ads appearing on the complainant himself.

Leveraging live streaming platforms for better audience connectivity
The field of marketing and communication is consistently evolving, leaving marketers perceptive when it comes to new ways of gaining customers and spreading brand awareness.

Navigating the OTT ecosystem as it becomes more diverse and complex
The number of screens on which content is today enjoyed in India has quadrupled. And, with more screens, the content has become even more diverse, high pitched and exponentially more entertaining. Further, this trend is true for all Demo groups; nothing short of a content revolution.

How Star Sports is upping the game for ICC Cricket World Cup 2019
The country is once again gripped by cricket fever as the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 commences today (May 30) with the opening match between host England and South Africa. Star Sports is all geared with a plethora of content around the tournament.

Publicis Media aligns Convonix & Resultrix under Performics
Publicis Media India today announced the alignment of Convonix and Resultrix under the Performics brand. This firmly establishes Performics as the largest performance marketing offering in the country by far and is in line with Publicis Media’s market-leading presence and ambitions in the areas of digital marketing, data, tech and analytics.

The Hindu appoints L V Navaneeth as new CEO
N Ram, Chairman, The Hindu Group Publishing Pvt. Ltd., announced today that L V Navaneeth has been appointed to the role of Chief Executive Officer. He will take over from Rajiv C. Lochan who has stepped down.

BARC Wk 21: Naagin 3 asserts its supremacy by reclaiming the top position
BARC India data for Week 21 (Saturday, May 18 to Friday, May 24) of 2019 [HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals], shows yet another week of no major upheavals in the top 10 GECs rankings, except for the re-entry of Star Utsav in the tenth spot.

Viacom18 further expands its regional play with COLORS Gujarati Cinema
Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd., India’s youngest entertainment company, today, announced the launch of COLORS Gujarati Cinema, the region’s first 24-hour premium movies’ channel.

Uber fires ICC World Cup salvo with energising anthem - Way-O, Way-O
As part of its partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC), Uber has released ‘Way-O, Way-O’, a song to energise fans at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, 2019. The song will be played on stadium screens during game breaks through the tournament.