Week at a glance: Sam Singh joins GroupM; the growing clout of Tier 2 & 3

GroupM has appointed Sameer Singh (Sam Singh) as CEO of its South Asia operations. Singh will lead the continued development of GroupM’s data-centric enablement for its agencies as they deliver competitive advantage to clients with digital leadership and content. Based in Delhi (Gurugram) starting in July, Singh will report to CVL Srinivas, Country Manager, WPP India, and Mark Patterson, CEO GroupM Asia Pacific. Singh joins GroupM from Google India, where he was Director - Sales, responsible for the agency business. 

There is a huge scope of brand reach and expansion for technology companies to connect with potential customers and consumers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and how they design their communication plan, how they distribute spends on these ‘Many Indias’ within a largely diversified nation of consumers of every taste what the quest is. Mobile technology and E-commerce industry has grown humongous in many smaller towns in India over the years and the reason why this is true is because consumers have now better access and understanding of internet and the ease of chatting and shopping online with relatively cheaper costs involved has brought about his revolution in India. 

This year, Tropicana, the packaged juice brand from PepsiCo, takes on a robust strategy to scale up the brand in India by offering a wide portfolio of relevant products, a redefined distribution strategy and a refreshed brand proposition. To further fortify itself as a healthy option for today’s millennials, Tropicana recently rolled out its ‘My Health My Way’ campaign conceptualised by J. Walter Thomson. Vineet Sharma, Director - Marketing, Tropicana, elaborates on the concept and ideation behind the ‘My Health My Way’ campaign as well as the brand’s growth plans. 

In an era of increasingly sophisticated camera phones, Canon has been able to hold its own as a leading imaging technology brand. Innovation and Customer Delight have been the two pillars of Canon’s outreach in India. The company’s future growth plans include retail expansion and deeper regional penetration into Tier 2, 3 and 4 cities. Eddie Udagawa, Vice President, Consumer Imaging and Information Centre, Canon India, speaks at length about the brand’s growth trajectory in India, steps taken to promote the culture of photography in the country, competition from camera phones and more. 

Over 9 decades since inception, Parle Products still continues to be a strong household name. Parle, India’s home-grown legacy with more than 50+ brands across categories, rolled out a corporate-focus strategy in 2017, where every campaign linked individual brands back to the house of Parle. In an interaction with Adgully, Mayank Shah, Category Head, Parle Products, speaks at length about the company’s regional focus, spends, digital strategy and more. 

Riding on strong growth across its key business categories and geographies, Dabur India Ltd ended the fourth quarter of FY2017-18 with a Comparable Consolidated Revenue growth of 11.1 per cent at Rs 2,032.91 crore. Consolidated Net Profit reported an 18.9 per cent surge during Q4 of FY 2017-18 to Rs 396.20 crore. 

HT Media Group has reported operating revenues of Rs 561 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2018, registering a dip of 4 per cent compared to Rs 585 crore in Q4 of the previous fiscal. However, operating EBITDA recorded a 10 per cent growth at Rs 81 crore in Q4 FY2018, as against Rs 73 crore in Q4 FY2017. 

With the growing viewership and clout of regional television, we have started to see more and more content from regional television making their way into the Hindi GEC space. Long-running sitcom ‘Taarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashmah’ is based on a well-known Gujarati work. Star Plus’ serial ‘Kulfi Kumar Baajewala’ is based on Bengali show’ Potol Kumar Gaanwala’ aired on Star Jalsha. Meanwhile, some marquee Hindi shows have also been adapted for the regional small screens. 

Zee TV is bringing in a talk show to spruce up its weekend offering with new show, ‘JuzzBaatt… Sangeen Se Namkeen Tak’. The show, which will premiere on May 5, 2018, will have actor Rajeev Khandelwal as the host. In conversation with Adgully, Deepak Rajadhyaksha, Deputy Business Head, Zee TV, and SOL Production’s Fazila Allana share the insight behind the show, the programming strategies, and much more about the new show. 

Star Plus is strengthening its weekday prime time line-up with a new fiction show – ‘Krishna Chali London’. The show is slated to go on air from May 21, 2018 at 9 pm and will be aired Monday to Friday. In a quick chat with Adgully, Writer & Producer Saurabh Tewari of Parin Multimedia speaks about the concept behind ‘Krishna Chali London’, relationship with Star over the years, the challenges in owning the IP of a show and more. 

A group of over 100 journalists and other professionals related to online media have written to Information & Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani to express their concerns over the Ministry’s proposal to extend traditional broadcasting rules and restrictions to the Internet. The journalists include veterans of the industry like Raghav Bahl, MK Venu, Madhu Trehan, Nalini Singh, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Shivam Vij, Sanjay Pugalia, Aniruddha Bahal and Raman Kirpal, as well as younger generation media entrepreneurs. 

Veteran ad man Sandeep Goyal, former Chairman of Dentsu India and ex-Group CEO of Zee Telefilms, has taken over as President of the Forum for Ethical Use of Data (FEUD) as some senior industry people came together to create a platform which will engender the right atmosphere and the right mindset sensitised to the ethical use of data. 

The growth in spends on digital advertising is expected to continue at a CAGR of 30% to touch INR 12,046 crore by December 2018. These are the latest findings of the ‘Digital Advertising in India 2017’ report, jointly published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar IMRB, today. According to the report, Digital advertising spend is about 16% of the total ad-spends in the country (estimated to be Rs 59,000 crore). 

GroupM has released a new report, “State of Digital”, offering intelligence on consumer media consumption and advertising investment trends worldwide. In 2018, consumers will spend an average 9.73 hours with media, up from 9.68 hours in 2017 (figures weighted by media investment). Additionally, GroupM predicts time spent with online media will overtake time spent with linear TV for the first time, globally, in 2018. Online will have a 38% share, TV 37%, and the balance spread primarily across print and radio. 

Following an analysis by WARC of its data for the 96 markets included in its Adspend Database, radio advertising spend was found to have amounted to $32bn worldwide in 2017, and is expected to rise by 1.3% this year. On average, radio reaches 75% of households every week across WARC's 12 key markets - Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and United States. Data show that reach is highest in China at 98% or 457.5m homes in 2017. 

Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC India), set up by the industry to accurately measure television viewership across the country, has issued a press statement wherein the industry body has dispelled allegations regarding its operations and organisation structure. Calling these allegations “malicious, baseless and grossly inaccurate”, BARC in its statement re-affirmed that it remained committed to maintaining the trust of its data users, and delivering on its mandate – to measure what India watches. 

BARC ratings for Week 17 of 2018 (April 21-27) [HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals] saw the FTA channels remain firm. Rishtey continued with its good run and climbed up a notch to claim the second spot this week. The channel had registered a jump of four places from No. 7 to No. 3 in Week 16. 

SonyLIV, the premium video on demand (VOD) service by Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), and Republic TV have announced their strategic partnership, where Republic TV’s live news and on-demand videos will be available round the clock to viewers of SonyLIV. With this strategic partnership, Republic World further expands its English news digital presence on OTT platforms. 

Ad land’s Young Guns: Divyoshri Chatterjee is Strategic Planning Manager at the Gurgaon office of Havas India. A digital planner through the week, a dancer by the weekend. Apart from being a Digital Planner at Havas Worldwide, she is a part of the faculty for mass communication add-on course at Gargi College, Delhi University.