Week at a glance: Landing page woes; India @Cannes Lions; A Mauka overdone?

With BARC reverting to old system, broadcasters call landing page a malaise
On June 13, 2019, BARC India announced that it is reverting to its earlier method of filtering out outliers or abnormal reach from the landing page. The industry body stated that it was doing so after receiving representations from the industry and that the data would be reflective from Week 23 onwards.

What IAMAI said on the current state of TV ratings measurement
Following TDSAT’s May 21, 2019 order on landing page and the TRAI mandated new tariff order, TV audience measurement has come under deep focus. It may be recalled that TRAI had issued a Consultation Paper on December 3, 2018, to review television audience measurement and rating in India. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has made several submissions on the Consultation Paper.

BARC Wk 23: No landing page data this week; ICC takes a toll on GEC viewership
BARC India data for Week 23 (Saturday, June 1 to Friday, June 7) of 2019 [HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals], saw 8 out of the top 10 Hindi GECs in Rural + Urban witnessing a decline in their gross viewership. Two channels from the SPN stable – Sony SAB and Sony Pal – have witnessed growth in viewership.

BARC issues statement; landing page no longer part of ratings universe
BARC India can no longer identify landing pages. It has been identifying reach outliers. This practise is followed for all channels but the impact is more pronounced for smaller viewership channels like English news, business news and not for genres like Hindi GEC etc.

Cannes Do: India has enough creative arsenal to charge at the Lions, says Sonal Dabral
Amid the accolades, it was felt that India lacked ammunition in several categories, such as Titanium Lions and Digital Craft Lions and thus failed to make a lasting impression. For 2019, agencies have expanded on their depth of entries with hopes of conquering more than one category.

India’s ad spend to grow 11.4% to reach Rs 696.9 bn in 2019: DAN report
Dentsu Aegis Network’s latest advertising spend forecast, based on data from 59 markets, predicts global growth will reach +3.6 per cent in 2019, following growth of 4.3 per cent in 2018, taking total investment to US$609.9 billion. In Asia Pacific, there is a predicted +4.0 per cent growth in 2019, following +5.3 per cent in 2018, taking total investment to US$216 billion.

Mobile internet to account for 31% of global media consumption in 2021: Zenith
People around the world will spend an average of 800 hours using mobile internet this year – that’s equivalent to 33 days without sleep or pause, according to Zenith’s Media Consumption Forecasts. By 2021, the total will rise to 930 hours, or 39 full days.

Baap re baap! Mauka Mauka returns to up the game of one-upmanship
After two very convincing wins in the ICC World Cup 2019, India will be taking on New Zealand on Thursday, June 13. However, all eyes are on the India-Pakistan match that will be played on Sunday, June 16. As always, sentiments are sky high when it comes to any tie between India and Pakistan.

Gloves are off: Pak’s Abhinandan reference in retaliatory ad slammed
While there are still four days left for the epic India-Pakistan battle on the pitch, the war of words – or ads – has already started, causing a jarring note that has not gone down well amongst the Twitterati.

The future of OTT growth depends on these two mindsets
In continuation of this conversation, Adgully engaged with Divya Dixit, Senior Vice President & Head – Marketing, ALTBalaji, in a #TwitterChat on the co-existence of OTT players in the Indian ecosystem. The #TwitterChat took place yesterday (Mau 11, 2019) between 3 pm and 4 pm and also opened up to public questions soon after.

Music, Mothers, Memories – How Carvaan crafted its success story
Carvaan, the portable digital music player from Saregama India, has broken various industry norms and further fortified the presence of retro music among different generations, including the millennials with its 5,000 pre-loaded evergreen Hindi songs from legends like Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, RD Burman and many more.

India is the most important piece of the business for OTT growth: Zulfiqar Khan, HOOQ
Recently, HOOQ announced that it will be the world’s first OTT service to localise its entire content library using machine learning and automated “smart dub” technology. The OTT service plans to localise English-language content for Indian audiences in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu by the end of 2019, to improve accessibility of content for the diverse Indian market.

How brands reacted to Yuvraj Singh bidding adieu to cricket
On Moday, cricketer Yuvaraj Singh announced that he would retire from first class cricket, bringing an end to an illustrious cricket career. Popularly and fondly known as Yuvi, the cricketer announced his retirement at a press briefing. He also added that he had turned town the opportunity to play a retirement match. However, fans and fellow cricketers feel that the veteran cricketer deserves a proper farewell and flooded social media with the top trending hashtag: #YuviDeservesProperFarewell.

TVF will never cross the line just to grab eyeballs: Sameer Saxena
The Viral Fever has today become an indelible part of the Indian youth’s life.TVF is now expanding its programming line up to include diverse content genres with the launch of innovative shows in the coming months. Spread across various formats and styles of storytelling, the new content offerings promise to include something for everyone and are sure to delight fans of TVF while enticing new viewers.

Print’s loss is TV & Radio’s gain in political ad insertions: TAM AdEx analysis
The 2019 Lok Sabha Elections witnessed an ad blitzkrieg from the two leading political parties in India – Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress. While digital was the mainstay of the election campaigns, traditional media like TV, print and radio also led in ad spends. AdEx India, a division of TAM Media Research, has released its analysis of the political ads in the period January 1 to May 19, 2019, spanning TV, Print and Radio, compared with the political ad spends during the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections (January 1 to May 12, 2014).

HT finds an ingenious way to gain traction during ICC CWC 2019
When it comes to cricket, brands, marketers, publishers, broadcasters can never go wrong in investing in the game. The ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 has been a bonanza for brands associating with the tournament, especially since the time of airing of the matches coincides with primetime in India. 

Isobar India elevates Shekhar Mhaskar as Chief Growth Officer
Isobar, the digital agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, a global media, and marketing communications conglomerate, has elevated Shekhar Mhaskar to Chief Growth Officer. He will continue to report into Isobar South Asia, Group MD, Shamsuddin Jasani.

Hindustan Times appoints Abhesh Verma as CEO, HT Digital Streams
Hindustan Times has appointed Abhesh Verma as chief executive officer of HT Digital Streams according to media reports. Previously, Verma was associated with nexGTv (Live TV Mobile application) in the role of chief operating officer.

Kulmeet Bawa, MD for Adobe India & South Asia puts in his papers
Kulmeet Bawa, Managing Director for South Asia, Adobe has put down his paper’s sources have confirmed to Adgully. According to a company statement, he is quitting to explore opportunities outside. Meanwhile the company is actively searching for a new India head.

RB Announces Laxman Narasimhan as Chief Executive Officer
Reckitt Benckiser Group plc (RB) today announces the appointment of Laxman Narasimhan as Chief Executive Officer to succeed Rakesh Kapoor. He will join the Company as CEO-designate and be appointed to the Board as an Executive Director effective 16 July 2019.  He will become Group CEO with effect from 1 September 2019.

Mercedes-Benz appoints Santosh Iyer as the Head - Sales & Marketing, India
India’s largest luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz India today, announced an organizational change in its Sales & Marketing function effective from 1st July, 2019. Santosh Iyer, currently Vice President of Customer Service & Corporate Affairs has been appointed as the Vice President, Sales & Marketing of Mercedes-Benz India. Santosh succeeds Michael Jopp who assumes the new responsibility of heading the Sales & Marketing function of Mercedes-Benz in Malaysia.

Court vindicates ZEE News' reporting in Kathua rape-murder case
ZEE News has once again shown that its path-breaking journalism and reporting can help in unearthing the truth and getting justice for people. One such report by ZEE News in January 2018, on the Kathua rape-murder case of an 8-year-old girl, has helped the court in deciding the case and acquitting an innocent person who was being falsely implicated in the case.

BARC Wk 23: News18 Hindi topples leadership of AajTak in HSM (U)
BARC India data for Week 23 (Saturday, June 1 to Friday, June 7) of 2019 [HSM (U) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals] has been released. Data for Hindi News genre has seen a major shift with News18 Hindi’s toppling AajTak’s long held pole position in the Hindi News channels for HSM (U). However, gross viewership for News18 Hindi dropped to 62713(000) impressions compared to the Week 22 where they had 82238(000) in HSM (U).

With Meesho, Facebook makes its first investment in an India-based start-up
Reaffirming its commitment to the Indian start-up ecosystem, Facebook has announced an investment in Meesho, a platform that enables Indian entrepreneurs to establish online businesses via social channels. This is Facebook’s first investment in an India-based start-up.