Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Advertising agencies are in hot pursuit of telecom companies as they sense big spends flowing from the sector amid 3G roll out, global ambitions and new brand communication requirements.

Agencies realise old friendships won’t last in the new competitive climate. They have to pitch hard and make new brand propositions that would catch the eye of the telcos.  
 
In  a year that has seen aggressive 3G spectrum bids, telecom majors Reliance Communications and Airtel have decided to go with new partners. Airtel has assigned its duties to JWT India, terminating its 15-year-old relationship with Rediffusion Y&R, in an account size pegged at Rs 4 billion.

Reliance Communications, on the other hand, has switched from Cartwheel Creative to Grey in an account size estimated at Rs 2.5 billion. The company, in fact, has also changed its media agency, shifting from Mudra Max to Optimum Media Direction (OMD) India and MEC.

Says a top Grey executive on condition of anonymity, “The telecom sector is becoming a very competitive space wherein there are at least four players present even in smaller towns. Huge sums of money are also being spent in getting 3G licenses and the pressure is huge. Companies, thus, want their agencies to understand that pressure and come up with brand solutions to address the issues.”
 
While players within the sector are now shifting focus from the actual brand promise to the services offered in their communication strategies, the advent of the 3G spectrum has made them much cautious about their brand talks.

Says Euro RSCG VP – client services Sheel Saket, “As far as the 3 spectrum is concerned, advertisers are adopting the wait and watch approach in their brand communications. This is because not all players are into 3G yet and if the brand message begins to talk about the features, they will actually be at a loss as the others will devise methods to counter the proposition put forward. The requirement right now is to educate consumers on 3G. And as they become, the communications will look at highlighting one feature at a time as a differentiator. Also, in due course this too will become a price war.”

There is an increased need for advertisers to look out for creative partners who can generate bigger ideas that can be utilised across all media platforms – TV, print and OOH.

 

“Fatigue seeps into the creativity of the agency after a point of time while dealing with the same product and as a result change becomes necessary,” Saket opines. Telecom majors are looking at all vehicle platforms to convey their brand message. Airtel has decided to spread its reach and recently bagged the BCCI sponsorship rights from 2010-13. It will have to cough out Rs 1.7 billion for 51 international cricket matches (including Tests, ODIs and T20 International) played in India that have been firmed up during this period. The games could go up, for which Airtel has to continue paying at Rs 33.3 million per match. Telecom companies are going to be aggressive ad spenders this year. Interestingly, the other bidders for the BCCI sponsorship rights were telecom majors Idea Cellular, Micromax and Karbonn Mobiles. Tam AdEx data proves the aggressive intent of telecom players. According to Tam, there has been a 27 per cent increase in TV ad volume of the telecom sector during January-May 2010 compared to the year-ago period. More than 55 per cent of advertising was on national channels, justifying the existence of telecom companies as national brands with a pan-India presence. The telecom sector is dominated by the top players, a trend that is representing the advertising spend as well. The top five advertisers contributed to 69 per cent of the telecommunication services TV ad pie (based on ad volumes). Occupying the top three list are Bharti Airtel, Ideal Cellular and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), according to Tam data. Bharti Airtel has a 17 per cent TV ad volume share in the category, followed by Ideal Cellular and BSNL with 15 per cent each. Tata Telesevices holds a 13 per cent share while Vodafone Essar has a 9 per cent share.

The telecom sector has different ad campaign requirements, depending on the position the telecom companies have in the marketplace. New entrant Huawei Telecommunications (India), a telecom solutions provider, is going to spend Rs 2 billion over an 18-month period and has assigned its creative duties to Mudra Communications.

The changing market dynamics in the handset space is creating pressure points on the advertising front. Nokia, monopolising the Indian market for long years, is now losing share in the premium segment. The bottom-end of the market is seeing a price war with new players coming out with attractive entry pricing.

Lava Mobiles has decided to go with Contract Delhi and will be spending Rs 250 million in its ad campaigns. Wynn Telecom, which is foraying into the mobile handset business under the ‘Wynncom‘ brand, appointed Dentsu Creative Impact as its creative agency. The company’s marketing budget for the current fiscal will be in excess of Rs 300 million spread across television, print, outdoors and online media platforms.

Nokia Corporation still tops the list of advertisers among the handset manufacturers with a 22 per cent share in TV ad volumes for the period January-May 2010, according to Tam data. This is followed by Samsung India Electronics and LG Electronics India with a 15 per cent and a 9 per cent share respectively.

Ad budgets of the smaller players is low but the spread of the sector is interesting agencies as they have to come out with campaigns that would drive penetration into the interiors and the lower strata.

Even as the telecom sector enters into a new phase of expansion, brands have to be freshened and tailored to meet the new market conditions. Vodafone, for instance, has gradually shifted from its focus on network (pug follows) to value added services.

The ads with ZooZoos have attracted many to the Vodafone brand.

Airtel, the biggest mobile services provider brand, has done advertising with three focus points – Express Yourself, Atoot Bandhan Atoot Network, and inspirational and patriotic. Now, after its international acquisitions, Bharti Airtel has to craft new campaigns that would build its image as a global brand.

“It is not just more advertising that the telecom companies are spending. There are some great creatives coming out. The ZooZoo ads are a case in point,” says a senior ad executive who did not want his name to be revealed.

MUMBAI: Zee Studio, which is airing The Godfather trilogy on Saturdays at 9 pm, has kicked off a campaign.

To pull the younger audience to this Hollywood cult Trilogy, Zee Studio has created a Godfather Face Book page where it is running two contests – Godfather Confessions – Trivia and Post your Godfather Picture.
 
In Godfather Confessions – Trivia, users will post onto the wall or in the notes section.

In Post your Godfather Picture, users can post their suited up ‘God fatherly’ pictures to get a prize.
 
Zee Studio is promoting the property off air to build appointment viewership via Sms Godfather Trivia Questions campaign. Questions posted on TV during films have to be answered correctly to win prizes.

Zee Studio has specially branded God Father Buses plying across Mumbai. It has also tied up with a Radio Channel to promote the “Ride The God Father bus”.
 
 In extension to the campaign, a month long theatre slides and Translites in all major Theatre chains in Metros are done. OOH Media has also been tapped to promote the Trilogy.

Zee Studio plans to continue showcasing crime movies in this time band, after it has exhausted the trilogy.

MUMBAI: Royal Philips Electronics and TPV Technology have signed a letter of intent to enter into a brand licensing agreement under which TPV will assume responsibility for the sourcing, distribution, marketing and sales of all Philips’ television activities in China (excluding Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau).

The five-year minimum agreement, which is subject to governmental approvals and expected to be signed in the third quarter of 2010 and implemented in the fourth quarter of 2010, stipulates that Philips will receive royalty payments in exchange for TPV’s right to exclusively use the Philips brand name for its TV offerings in China.
 
Other consumer businesses of Philips in China are not affected by this intended agreement.

This intended agreement with TPV is aimed at strengthening the presence of the Philips brand in the Chinese TV market and is in line with Philips’ global TV strategy, using different business models to optimize regional brand presence.

Philips has other brand licensing agreements in place for its TV businesses in North America and Mexico with Funai Electric and in India with Videocon Group.
 
TPV is a display solution provider, specialising in design and production of a wide spectrum of desktop monitors and LCD TVs and a key industrial partner in the manufacturing of Philips LCD TVs.

TPV will be licensed on condition of compliance with Philips requirements on brand use, product quality, product design and provision of consumer care.
 
TPV will ensure that consumers of Philips-branded TVs can continue to count on the same premium quality, design, innovation and consumer care associated with the Philips brand.

MUMBAI: BCCI has awarded the series sponsorship rights of all international cricket matches played in India to Bharti Airtel for the period 2010-2013.

The winning bid amount was Rs 33.3 million per match (Test, ODI, T20 International).

Airtel will, thus, have to cough out Rs 1.7 billion as 51 matches have been firmed up during this period, according to information available with Indiantelevision.com. There is a possibility that more matches will crop up.
 
The value of the sponsorship rights doesn‘t seem to have moved up. World Sport Group (WSG), which had the rights till March, was paying Rs. 31.5 million.

BCCI had called for fresh bids rather than extend WSG‘s contract.
 
The BCCI had set Rs 20 million per match as the floor price. The other bidders were telecom majors Idea Cellular, Micromax and Karbonn Mobiles.
 
Bharti Airtel, apart from the title sponsorship, will get to advertise its brand on the wickets as well as on in-stadia advertising space. It also gets the first rights of refusal for on-air advertising on Neo Cricket.

The deal allows Airtel to plan for the long term. “Telecom service providers are on an aggressive growth strategy. They want maximum visibility in order to attract customers and this is a good deal for Airtel at this price. You also have more competition in the telecom space,” a sports marketing expert said.
 

MUMBAI: South-India based real estate company Hygrevar Home and Hearth has appointed TBWA/India as its communications partner.
 
The agency‘s Chennai branch will handle the company’s account. While this will be a national level advertising plan, communication activity will be concentrated in South India.

Though there was no formal pitch process for the account; the agency approached the brand authorities and made the presentation. Prior to this development, Hygrevar was working with a few Chennai-based creative agencies. 
 
The development is the result of the Hygrevar’s wants to consolidate its communication strategy and bring in consistency in the way the brand is projected. Since the creative duties were scattered amongst several local agencies, the way the brand was portrayed to people differed from project-to-project.

The communication mix will comprise print, outdoor and BTL (below-the-line) activities.

MUMBAI: Following a multi-agency pitch, the Delhi wing of Contract Advertising has bagged the creative mandate of Lava Mobiles.

The account size is pegged at around Rs. 250 to 300 million. 
 
Contract will handle the entire creative duties for the brand including ATL and BTL. The challenge for the agency will be to make a mark in the cluttered mobile space where there are over 100 players. 
 
Mudra, FCB and Publicis Ambience also participated in the pitch.

Lava Mobiles had called for the creative pitch in July.
 

NEW DELHI: The third edition of ApnaCircle-APREE 2010, which stresses on social network as a tool for promotion, is to be held on the theme of ‘Tools in a Surging economy’ in Goa from 26 to 29 August.
 
Actor-producer Sanjay Suri, who had taken part in last year’s edition on ‘Innovations in Recession’, related at a press meet here how he had collected funds and talent using social networking sites for the film ‘I am’ produced by him and Onir.
 
He said he had floated the idea at the meet last year, but will now relate his success through this medium.

Spotlight Event & Entertainment is hosting this annual interactive learning platform aimed at Advertising, PR, Entertainment & Event management companies, where experts from these industries come together at one platform for social and business networking and discuss the bright way forward.
 
ApnaCircle.com founder and CEO Yogesh Bansal claimed that the website now had 1.5 million users in India and was the second largest website in the world. “I believe online and offline networking is a great way to reach out to people. As ours is a business and career networking website, we see such platforms as a great stage to be utilised for business and professional networking. APREE is one such extension where I think the Communications industry from across verticals will come together at one platform to share ideas.”

The meet is a business marketing forum which will have senior marketing, advertising and public relations practitioners relating their experiences.

Some of the prominent speakers and participants this year include, Harish Bijoor – Brand Expert & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc; Terry Waller – Managing Director Arc International (UK); Vipul Mathur, Head Markketing YS Arvind Brands; Feroz Merchant UB Group; Film Actor Hiten Pantal; TV Actors Sumeet Schdev, Sandeep Baswana, Aslesha Sawant, Eijaz Khan; Shubhomoy Sen Gupta – Digital Advertising Head, Rediffusion YR; Ashmeen Munjal Make Up Artist; Yogesh Bansal – Founder & CEO, ApnaCircle.com and Maniv Arcot, Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett among others.
 

MUMBAI: Sri Adhikari Brothers‘ recently launched music and comedy channel Mastiii has scaled new heights within six weeks of its launch, claiming leadership position among the music channels.

As per Tam data for week ended 14 August, the newly launched channel has captured 12.2 per cent genre share. Nevertheless, when compared to youth focused channel UTV Bindass (16.2 per cent), which is also placed by Tam in the same genre, Mastiii seconds the list. 
 
Mastiii‘s share, however, is more than its other counterparts such as B4U Music (11.4 per cent share), 9XM (10.6 per cent), MTV (10.4 per cent) and Channel [V] (9.1 per cent share).

Sri Adhikari Bros vice chairman and MD Markand Adhikari said, “We are encouraged with the response we have received within a few weeks of the channel‘s launch. It doesn‘t come as a surprise as we were very confident of our differentiated product that offers 24-hours of non-stop music and comedy. We conceptualised ‘Mastiii‘ as an ‘electronic radio‘, where people can tune in any time of the day for their dose of unadulterated fun.”
 
Media pundits, meanwhile, are cautious before declaring Mastiii a clear winner. Industry observers that Indiantelevision.com spoke to unanimously stated that while it is an encouraging start for the channel, it is too early to declare it as a leader. Also, competition among the market players is too big with brands like Bindass, MTV and 9XM.

“It is too early to say anything. We have to give a couple of months to see if it (Mastiii) is a sustainable model. But with more players, the genre should grow,” a media observer commented. 
 
Adhikari added, “This is just the beginning as we are committed to bringing our viewers non-stop Mastiii and achieve many more milestones in the times to come. For us, sustained leadership of the genre will be a mark of our success and we are gearing up to achieve just that.”

A top executive of a rival channel commented on condition of anonymity that to sustain in the music genre, channels have to identify their unique proposition. For instance, Bindass and MTV have strong youth connect while 9XM is known for its non-stop Bollywood music and animated characters.

“Mastiii is just an extension of 9XM with comedians instead of the animated characters. In the initial phase, a lot of convergence happens because of high activation, marketing push and distribution. So let the channel stabalise,” he said.
 

MUMBAI: Telecom solutions provider Huawei Telecommunications (India) has assigned its creative duties to Mudra Communications following a multi-agency pitch.

The size of the account is pegged at Rs 2 billion over an 18-month period. 
 
The other agencies that pitched for the account include Lowe Lintas, Ogilvy India, TBWA, Bates 141, Saatchi & Saatchi, PerceptH and Mudra. 
 
As part of its new mandate, Mudra will handle the above the line (ATL) and below the line (BTL) communications for the brand.
 

MUMBAI: Watching superheroes beat up villains may not be the best image for boys to see if society wants to promote kinder, less stereotypical male behaviours, according to psychologists who spoke at the 118th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. 
 
Psychologist Sharon Lamb says, “There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday.

“Today’s superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he’s aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity. When not in superhero costume, these men, like Ironman, exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns. “

The comic book heroes of the past did fight criminals. “But these were heroes boys could look up to and learn from because outside of their costumes, they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities” she said.
 
 
To understand how the media and marketers package masculinity to boys, Lamb surveyed 674 boys aged 4 to 18, walked through malls and talked to sales clerks and came to understand what boys were reading and watching on television and at the movies.

Lamb and her co-authors found that marketers take advantage of boys’ need to forge their identity in adolescence and sell them a narrow version of masculinity. They can either be a “player” or a “slacker” – the guy who never even tries – to save face.

Lamb adds, “In today’s media, superheroes and slackers are the only two options boys have.

“Boys are told, if you can’t be a superhero, you can always be a slacker. Slackers are funny, but slackers are not what boys should strive to be; slackers don’t like school and they shirk responsibility. We wonder if the messages boys get about saving face through glorified slacking could be affecting their performance in school”

Teaching boys early on to distance themselves from these images and encouraging them to find the lies in the messages can help, said Lamb. “When you crowd out other types of media messages, you promote stereotypes and limit their options.”

Boys seem better adjusted when they resist internalizing “macho” images, according to a researcher who also presented at APA’s convention.

Researcher Carlos Santos of Arizona State University, examined 426 middle school boys’ ability to resist being emotionally stoic, autonomous and physically tough — stereotyped images of masculinity — in their relationships. He also looked at how this would affect their psychological adjustment.
 
 
Santos looked at whether boys could resist being tough, emotionally unavailable, and detached from their friends as they moved from sixth to eighth grade; whether ethnicity made a difference; whether their relationships with their families and peer group fostered this resistance; and whether resisting these images affected their psychological health.

Participants were from different racial/ethnic backgrounds: 20 per cent were African-American, nine per cent were Puerto Rican, 17 per cent were Dominican-American, 21 per cent were Chinese-American, 27 per cent were European-American and six per cent were of another race or ethnicity.

Boys from diverse ethnic and racial groups were equally able to resist these masculine stereotypes, going against the common belief that certain ethnic minority boys are more emotionally stunted and hypermasculine, said Santos. Few differences were detected and most tended to dissipate over the course of middle school.

He found that boys were more likely to act tough and detached from their friends as they got older. But boys who remained close to their mothers, siblings and peers did not act as tough and were more emotionally available to their friends compared to those who were not as close. However, closeness to fathers encouraged boys to be more autonomous and detached from friendships.

“If the goal is to encourage boys to experience healthy family relationships as well as healthy friendships, clinicians and interventionists working with families may benefit from having fathers share with their sons on the importance of experiencing multiple and fulfilling relationships in their lives” Santos said. He also found that boys who were depressed had a harder time not acting macho in their friendships.

Interestingly, levels of emotional stoicism tended to remain stable throughout the middle school years and boys who did not adopt these macho behaviors had better psychological health in middle school, he found.

The results show that being able to resist internalizing these macho images —especially aggression and autonomy — declines as boys transition into adolescence and this decline puts their mental health at risk. “Helping boys resist these behaviours early on seems to be a critical step toward improving their health and the quality of their social relationships,” said Santos.