Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Japanese consumer electronics company Toshiba Corporation has appointed Sachin Tendulkar as brand ambassador across its product categories of laptops, LCD TV and home appliances and for corporate branding in India.
 
With Tendulkar, Toshiba will be launching an extensive cross-product media campaign with the key message of ‘Quality Technology Design‘.
 
Toshiba India MD Kenji Urai said, “Cricket is the most popular sport in India and Sachin, the most formidable and popular cricketer, is an influential figure. His cricketing achievements and constant quest for high performance is in line with Toshiba’s ‘leading innovation‘ tagline, where Toshiba aims to provide products with innovation in high quality, leading-edge technology and stylish design.”
 
As brand ambassador for Toshiba, Tendulkar will be featured in Toshiba advertisements in major media for its laptops, LCD TV and home appliances.
 

MUMBAI: Kerala Tourism Board has assigned its entire media and creative duties to Crayons Advertising, Mudra, Stark Communications, Group M and three local Kerala agencies – Hues, Modern and AD India.

The account size is pegged at Rs 200 million.

This decision comes after a multi agency national pitch involving 25 companies, and three rounds of pitching. 
 
The agencies will handle all the 360 degree marketing and advertising needed to promote tourism in Kerela. The campaigns would include TV, radio, print, OOH and BLT activities.
 
Mudra South, the agency which had created the “God‘s Own Country” campaign for Kerela Tourism 15 years ago, is one of the empanelled agencies who will be handling the account out of its Kochi office.

EVP & Head of Mudra South Ranji Cherian said, “We are delighted. There is something very special about Kerala Tourism. We are looking forward to creating some great work.”
 
Added Mudra India CEO Jude Fernandes, “This win is great news to follow Mudra South‘s double win at Cannes for its work for Bangalore Traffic Police. The Kerala Tourism brand now resonates globally as a holiday destination that is at par with the best destinations across the world.”
 

MUMBAI: Television ratings for cricket are taking a hit from an overdose of the sport and the soccer World Cup. The Asia Cup, telecast on Neo Cricket from 15-24 June, had an average TVR of 1.7, lower than its earlier edition that had posted a rating of 2.9. 
 
The final, which saw India beat Sri Lanka to win the trophy after a wide gap of 15 years, fetched a rating of 3.8. In 2008, the final between the same sides had earned a higher rating of 6.57.

The ratings are sinking somewhat even for the classic contest between arch rivals India and Pakistan. The match reaped a TVR of 3.9 as against 4.48 in the 2008 edition.
 
Cummulative reach for the tournament, however, has climbed to 81.7 million, up from 48.6 million in 2008. The India versus Sri Lanka final saw 47 million viewers tuning in compared to 23.2 million in the earlier version.
 

MUMBAI: Rosebys Home Care, a joint venture between Rosebys Interiors India and Caretel Infotech, has appointed Denstu Marcom India to handle its advertising duties.
 
The size of the account is estimated to be approximately Rs 100 million. 
 
As part of its new mandate, Dentsu Marcom will also be responsible for the creative duties of the company‘s official website, print advertising, outdoor designs, staff uniform, caps, car stickers, membership forms, welcome kits and B2B & B2C brochures.
 

MUMBAI: Star Plus may have shed a little fat that it earned on the back of Star Parivaar Awards but nevertheless it still maintains a vice-like grip on the leadership crown for the week ended 26 June.

In fact, despite a 32 step GRP fall over the previous week, Star Plus‘s gap with the second in command Colors still remains significantly wide (a difference of 158 GRPs).

The weekday prime time gains continued, contributing an extra 13 points (160 GRPs, 147 GRPs in previous week) to the channel kitty.

Bidaai (Monday – Friday 9 pm), Star Plus‘ top rated show for the week, registered a peak TVR of 7.24 while it averaged a TVR of 6.6 (5 TVR in previous week).

Yeh Rishta (Monday-Friday 9.30 pm), meanwhile, attained a peak TVR of 6.99. The average for the show was at 6.2 TVR and was a distinct slot leader. The Saturday special at 8 pm delivered 4.2 TVR. 
 
The newly launched Tere Liye also continues to grab the viewership pie at the 10 pm slot with a peak TVR of 4.19 and an average TVR of 3.9 (3.8 TVR previous week).

Says Star India EVP marketing and communications Anupam Vasudev, “Our weekday primetime is almost 60 per cent higher than everybody else‘s and this is because of the channel‘s organic growth as we are fundamentally leading in all the day part primetime slots from 6.30 pm – 11 pm except the 8 pm band.”

Contributions from weekend original programming (25 GRPs as against 22 GRPs in previous week) and weekend movies (22 GRPs, 17 GRPs previous week) have also inched upward. Meanwhile, GRPs from weekday afternoon remain stable. 
 
The IIFA Awards Sri Lanka Flashback, the first IIFA property aired on Sunday 10 pm, delivered 1.4 TVR over two hours garnering 5.6 GRPs for the channel while the world TV premiere of Bum Bum Bole on Sunday at 6.30 pm delivered 1.5 TVR and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai on Sunday at 1 pm delivered 1.9 TVR.

And now, the challenge ahead for Star will be to maintain the brand trajectory that has moved up to a higher scale.

“Though it is a challenge, our weekday primetime looks strong and properties are gaining muscle across the portfolio. So we are optimistic,” opines Vasudev.

As for Colors, the primetime slot has lost yet some more gloss as the band lost 10 more points over the week 25 grab (100 GRPs, 110 GRPs in previous week) and the channel dropped by 23 GRPs.

While Uttaran‘s peak TVR was at 4.2, its week‘s average TVR remains almost stable. Meanwhile, Balika Vadhu‘s average TVR has dropped significantly to 3.7 TVR (4.8 TVR).

Colors had shown four movies during the weekend, none of which could fetch enough to lift the GRP grade. The genre overall contributed 17 GRPs to the channel, down from the 24 that it had earned in the previous week.
 
The movies shown were Bhool Bhulaiyya (Sunday 8 pm, 1.1 TVR), Bhootnath (Saturday 6.50 pm, 1 TVR) that ran with just a promo break, Golmaal Returns (Saturday 3.45 pm, 0.6 TVR) and Do Not Disturb (Sunday 5.15 pm, 0.5 TVR).

Zee TV at 211 GRPs saw a drop of 20 points over the previous week. While there was a significant drop in weekday primetime (99 GRPs, 116 points in previous week), its weekday afternoon remained stable.

Pavitra Rishta¸ the highest rated show for the channel, though saw a peak TVR of 4.75, its average TVR fell to 4.4 TVR (5.3 TVR in previous week). In fact, Jhansi Ki Rani (Monday -Ffiday 8 pm) was the only weekday show that saw an increase in its average TVR at 3.5 (3.4 TVR in previous week). However, the channel did gain nine extras from the movies it showed during the weekend (13 GRPs, 5 GRPs in previous week). It featured Gadar on Sunday at 7 pm that delivered 1.1 TVR while Tridev on Saturday at 4.30 pm delivered 0.6 TVR.

Overall, the channel genres which have grown this week are Hindi News with 57 GRPs (147 GRPs), Hindi Movies with 446 GRPs (439 GRPs) and youth with 129 GRPs (121 GRPs). The genres which dropped are: Hindi general entertainment with 1323 GRPs (1374 GRPs) and sports with 171 GRPs (187 GRPs).

MUMBAI: Dalmia Cement Bharat Ltd (DCBL) has appointed the Aegis Media Group-owned Vizeum as its media agency on record (AoR).

The size of the account is Rs 100 million, according to sources in knowledge of the deal.
 
With this new contract, Vizeum has bagged four fresh clients over the last three weeks. The list includes Aegis Global Academy, Sanyukata Developers and Asia Motor Works.

Vizeum‘s Chennai office will handle the account under the leadership of general manager E M Sreeneelakandhan. 
 
Says Vizeum MD Indian sub-continent S Yesudas, “This is our fourth account win in the last three weeks. We will be looking at making specific and tangible contributions to increase the quality of DCBL‘s communication investments.”

Dalmia Cement is looking for a fresh and diverse approach in its communication investment strategy. Says DCBL executive director- sales and marketing BK Singh, “Vizeum has been evaluated amongst the other choices available on the basis of their systematic/exhaustive processes and reliable people.”
 
DCBL is a multi-spectrum cement player in South India with a sizeable market share. It has cement plants in southern states of Tamil Nadu (Dalmiapuram and Ariyalur) and Andhra Pradesh (Kadapa), with a total capacity of 9 million tonnes per annum.

The company specialises in super specialty cements for strengthening airstrips, concretising railway sleepers and cementing oil wells. Its consumer brands available in the market are Vajram & Superoof.
 

MUMBAI: Primesite, Mudra Max‘s out-of-home solutions unit, has recently unveiled the latest range of antiperspirants for men by Garnier, a part of world‘s largest cosmetic company L‘Oreal.
 
The Garnier Mineral Deodorant range for men is an extension of Garnier MEN and is endorsed by Bollywood actor John Abraham.

Primesite has now come up with an engaging creative in the outdoor space for its client Garnier. The task in hand was to execute an impactful creative idea that simultaneously brought alive the launch of Garnier Deodorants, a new range of antiperspirants designed to give 48-hour protection from sweat and odour, thus promising long lasting freshness. ‘Now life…no sweat‘ is the main idea conveyed through the OOH campaign.
 
The campaign had kicked off on 13 June. The creative uses hoardings, mall branding, airport pillars, cantilever with cut-outs and bus shelters with block-out, at locations such as Kolkata metro, Delhi metro. They also include drop downs which help in strategically extending the mass media communication in the OOH space. Nearly 100 sites across four cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata have implemented these ideas.

While being simple and sticking to the brand message, Primesite has also brought innovation through blockouts for backlit cantilevers and bus shelters comprising cast iron columns and glazing panels giving a contemporary style and look to the shelter. They have also made use of pillar branding at Security Hold Area for departures and conveyor belts at airport‘s arrival.
 
Sr. VP. Primesite Mandeep Malhotra said, “We were given the brief to implement a ‘hatke‘ innovation on a large format in top cities. We thus reached the target audience in an engaging manner that clearly stood out amidst the crowd and made its presence felt.”

MUMBAI: Following a multi-agency pitch, Mudra West, a unit of Mudra India, has been awarded the creative duties for Philips Colour Televisions (CTV) and consumer durable giant, Electrolux.

The account will be handled out of the Mumbai Office.
 
On handing the creative duties to Mudra West, Philips COO Neeraj Sethi said, “The Mudra Group has been custodians of the Philips brand in India , and we liked their understanding and appreciation of challenge for brand Philips. We look forward to working closely with the Mudra team to orchestrate a distinctive position for the brand on the back of many innovative television models that have been lined up for launch.”
 
Electrolux is a global leader in home appliances and appliances for professional use, selling more than 40 million products to customers every year. Recently, Electrolux and Philips were clubbed together as a business unit as these premium brands complement, rather than compete with each other given their product mix.
 
Speaking on the account win, Mudra West president Arijit Ray said, “Both, Philips and Electrolux, have a very strong brand philosophy; both have the consumer at the heart of all their initiatives. We look forward to strengthen and consolidate the imagery of the brands and give them an enduring meaning in the Indian context. We look forward to creating some great work on the brands in tandem with the brand teams.”
 

MUMBAI: With the onset of what appears to be a good monsoon and strong GDP rates, advertising expenditure in India is expected to see a 14 per cent growth in FY‘11 vs FY‘10.

The latest GroupM study titled ‘This Year, Next Year‘ reveals that the period January-March‘10 has seen a significant upswing in spends from traditional large spenders such as FMCG and telecom as well as categories that had previously seen a dip – financial services, auto and retail. This upswing has continued into the second quarter of the year with IPL cricket season receiving significantly more spends than it did last year.

Also, the rest of the year expects to see over 10 new launches each of car brands as well as new insurance products.
 
 
Television: TV is enjoying a good run and is likely to clock 20 per cent growth.

Television advertising which currently stands at Rs 99.14 billion in 2010, is expected to scale up to Rs 118.97 billion in FY‘11.

TV has benefited from both the traditional big spenders of FMCG and telecom as well as new launches and the revenues are strengthened due to two factors:

The industry is aggressively strengthening rates. This is helped by the fragmentation of viewing which leads to less overlapping viewers. As a result, to deliver the same reach, a plan now requires more channels. As channels get picked for incremental reach rather than merely to deliver frequency, the rate they can command improves.

Improved viewership of regional language channels and the subsequent strengthening of their rates.

 
 

Print (Dailies): Print is swinging back and is expected to show a growth of about 7 per cent
 
 
According to the study, this is driven by new launches in categories that were traditionally print heavy. Retail and consumer durables have seen strong growth in sales which is expected to fuel spends going forward. The new launches in auto and financial services of course give print a significant boost. Between players, however, there is wide variation in growth levels, wherein some players have seen double digit growths and others have seen negative growths. This has been in part due to the economic strength of the respective regional markets.

Radio: Radio is expected to grow even stronger than last year at 20 per cent

Of the total growth, the incumbent government channel, All India Radio (AIR), contributed about 46 per cent. Parliament / Lok Sabha Elections and National Congress Party elections contributed to approximately Rs 900 million on radio.

Due to recession, a lot of retail players looked at radio as a cheaper option (Oct to Dec 2009 & Jan-Mar 2010 most of the radio stations grew by 25 per cent vs an estimated 15 per cent in the post recession scenario). FMCG / telecom players / consumer durables – increased spends more than 15 per cent (with all three categories contributing to approximately 20 per cent of overall radio monies).
Going forward, an inflation rate of 15 per cent is expected with key players having announced hikes. The retail segment is increasing its spend in this medium. Hence, combined with volume increases, radio expects to see at least 20 per cent growth.

OOH: The sector is expected to post a 10 per cent growth.

For this medium, FY‘10 stayed against the same levels as FY‘09. Going forward the overall spurt of spending as well as new launches will result in increased money in outdoors also. There will, of course, be an impact of the Commonwealth Games. However, the extent is as yet unknown and is an unusual occurrence that will only impact the coming fiscal. 2011 is expected to grow at 10 per cent on the back of additional inventory but it will also depend on the state of European economy and some global businesses.

Digital

As per IAMAI reports, the display numbers for 2009-10 has been Rs 4.3 billion, revealing a growth of 32 per cent compared to the previous financial year.
Over 25 per cent of the media spends came from online services (travel, job, matrimony).

As the economy stabilised, media spends showed an increase towards the last quarter of 2009.

This year, the industry is already seeing inflation in some top sites and some key properties. IPL on Youtube was able to draw in advertisers and 2010 will see most of the categories increasing spend. Some of the large spends are likely to come from online shopping – existing brands or new brands setting up online sales channel. Search and mobile advertising will also be key growth drivers.

Search is expected to grow by 25-30 per cent. The growth areas for the key players (read Google which covers over 90 per cent market share) are going to be broadly in three areas-

Online Search – Currently search volume is pegged at 2.8 billion search queries per month (April ‘10 data) with categories such as entertainment, telecom and technology registering a search volume growth of over 50- 75 per cent on query terms. This is due to the concerted effort of Google trying to integrate search database of different genre such as Bollywood, finance and news besides enabling itself to track activities on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter as part of its searches.

Mobile search – Of the total search queries on Google, a whopping 27 per cent of the searches happened on mobile that is people accessing Google Wap on mobile.

Content Network – The avenues of growth is only expanding by the day with more and more sites (content and social networking) incorporating search ads through contextual targeting (through Google or on its own). Google has further consolidated its position as the largest ad network, by offering image and rich media creative options to the search advertisers with long tail sites across categories.
 
 
Another area of growth on content piece, which is also supposed to be the growth engine for Google, is ‘YouTube‘ that has led to one of the successful content tie-ups in the history of online with IPL-3. This is besides the ever growing video content (both user generated as well as aggregated) on the site, with a precision targeting technology in terms of content and demographics, which has led to a 20-30 per cent growth in traffic.

Growth implications on online ad industry

With Google covering 80 per cent of the entire online universe (estimated to be 100 million unique visitors), advertisers will continue to increasingly have Google as part of its online media plan.

The ad industry is already witnessing categories such as FMCG, auto, technology and telecom expanding their online pie in favour of search marketing.
Key happenings in the mobile space where most of the operators are opening up their inventory for advertising are:

Mobile is becoming part of every integrated plan (even for brands that may not use other digital media)

More consumer exciting formats have been introduced which allow rich media creative – Flash, Video streaming

Usage of advanced platforms such as augmented reality, location based advertising will be the future on mobile advertising

Introduction of 3G – mobile social media, utility applications and mobile TV will become a reality
Retail Media

As predicted in the last report, this medium stays flat. Digital networks have dropped revenue while the usage and spends on mall space has gone up. This is being driven more in the smaller markets, where the relative difference in rates vs. larger towns has lessened.

Cinema

The last 18 months have seen the demise of the minimum guarantee (MG) system. Theatre chains have begun selling directly to clients. This has resulted in a drop in rates in some cases. On the other hand, digital cinema share has gone up considerably. As a result, overall industry number is likely to have marginal growths.

MUMBAI: UK media watchdog Ofcom has published proposed new rules to allow product placement on TV. It is also proposing to liberalise the rules on paid-for references to brands and products in radio programmes. 
 
To date, Ofcom‘s Broadcasting Code has prohibited product placement. This prohibition was based on the requirements of European legislation. Changes to EU law, and resulting amendments to UK legislation, now allow for the placing of references to products, services or trade marks in television programmes in return for payment.

As a result of these changes, Ofcom intends to amend the Code to remove the prohibition on product placement. This consultation, therefore, sets out proposed new rules reflecting the new UK legislation that enables product placement in television programming. 
 
The introduction of product placement impacts on the regulation of other types of commercial references during television programming, such as sponsorship. Ofocm is also proposing revisions to those rules that it considers are impacted by product placement.

Scope of product placement rules: Under the Communications Act 2003, product placement is defined as being “for a commercial purpose”. Ofcom is proposing to apply the rules to all instances of paid-for placement, regardless of whether the placement is intended to serve a commercial purpose.

Single dramas are not specifically referred to in the list of programme genres in which product placement is permitted. Ofcom is proposing to clarify that such programmes fall within the definition of films and may, therefore, contain product placement. 
 
News: The Act does not explicitly prohibit product placement in news but the Government has made it clear in its statement that news does not fall within the programme genres in which product placement is permitted.

Ofcom is proposing a rule to clarify that product placement is prohibited in news programmes.

Thematic placement: Ofcom is proposing to clarify that thematic placement – that is the creation of scripts/storylines as vehicles for the purpose of featuring the aims, objectives, beliefs or interests of a third party funder – is prohibited.

Specialist factual programmes: Ofcom is seeking views on whether it should prohibit product placement in specialist factual programmes (e.g. purely factual programmes covering educational, science, medical or arts subjects, or those that are investigative in nature).

Prohibited restricted products/services: in addition to those products, services and trade marks that are prohibited under the Act from being included in programmes as a result of product placement arrangements, Ofcom proposes to prohibit the paid-for placement within programmes of any product, service or trade mark that cannot be advertised on television.

Signalling of product placement: The Act includes a signalling requirement for product placement.

Ofcom says, “We are proposing that audiences are made aware of instances of product placement by means of a universal neutral logo, and a universal audio signal (to ensure that both visually and hearing impaired audience members are made aware when a programme contains product placement).

“Additionally, we are proposing that broadcasters make available to the audience a list (in a programme‘s end credits or on the broadcaster‘s website) of products, services or trade marks that have been placed in a programme. We also make a range of proposals in relation to raising audiences‘ awareness of the product placement signals and what they mean.”

Sponsorship : The current rules that apply to television sponsorship are based on the principle that paid-for commercial references are kept separate from editorial. The introduction of product placement changes this position. Ofcom is consulting on proposed revisions to those sponsorship rules that are underpinned by the separation principle.

Sponsor references within sponsored programmes: It is proposing to remove the rules that prevent sponsorship arrangements resulting in references to the sponsor within a sponsored programme.

Ofcom also intends to clarify that where a reference to the sponsor‘s products, services or trade mark are included in a programme, this will be treated as product placement and must, therefore, comply with the relevant rules.

Identifying sponsorship arrangements: Ofcom is proposing revisions on how sponsorship arrangements are announced to ensure that audience members are made appropriately aware when they are viewing commercial messages, and can distinguish between different types of commercial arrangements, such as sponsorship and product placement.

Sponsorship credits during programmes: Ofcom is proposing to amend the rules on sponsorship credits to allow credits to be broadcast during programmes. However, to ensure that such credits do not conflict with the product placement rules and are not unacceptably intrusive, it is proposing a number of restrictions on the content and scheduling of credits shown during programmes.