ITV

Category: MAM

  • Adlabs board to meet on FM radio demerger on 22 April

    Adlabs board to meet on FM radio demerger on 22 April

    MUMBAI: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises (ADAE) controlled Adlabs Films is holding a board meeting on 22 April to discuss the demerger of its FM radio business.

    As reported last month by Indiantelevision.com, ADAE has sought government clearance for bringing all the radio business under a division — Adlabs Radio Pvt Ltd.

    The company has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that the board will “consider the proposal for the reorganisation of the Company and demerger of its FM Radio business pro-rata to all the shareholders, pursuant to a scheme of arrangement under sections 391-394 of Companies Act, 1956.”
    According to a recent PTI report, ADAE had further increased its stake in Adlabs Films to 54.91 per cent after the acquisition of an additional 3.8 million shares.

    Reliance Land Private Limited, along with Reliance Capital Limited acquired these shares on 12 April, Adlabs Films has informed the stock exchanges.
    The mode of acquisition has been preferential allotment (conversion of warrants to equity), it said. With this latest acquisition, Reliance Land and Reliance Capital now own 21,855,000 shares aggregating to 54.91 per cent of the total paid up capital of the company.

    Reliance Land, a part of the Reliance Capital Group, last year had acquired 51 per cent controlling stake in Manmohan Shetty’s Adlabs Films, a leading motion picture processing laboratory which also runs a chain of multiplexes.

  • FremantleMedia expands UK home entertainment team

    FremantleMedia expands UK home entertainment team

    MUMBAI: Fremantle Home Entertainment (FHE), the home entertainment division of format creator FremantleMedia has appointed Rebecca Candler as senior product manager for the UK.

    Candler will manage and develop the ongoing relationships with DVD labels represented by FHE. Additionally, she will be responsible for creating and developing innovative marketing campaigns to support releases from these labels as well as FHE’s own label and also assist in building brand awareness of the division by maximising opportunities for the company’s proprietary library of over 19,000 hours of programming.

    Candler will be based in London and will report to FHE marketing manager Michelle Donovan.

    Donovan says, “2006 sees the continued expansion of our DVD business in the UK. With this appointment, we have another experienced marketing executive who can further develop relationships with our labels and oversee the strategic marketing of our portfolio of brands. I am very pleased to announce that Rebecca is joining the team and I feel certain that, with her tremendous TV and studio experience along with her industry knowledge, she will be a great asset to the team and play a major part in the continued growth of our business.”

    Candler joins FremantleMedia from Warner Home Video where she was senior product manager, television and special interest. In this role, she was responsible for the strategic product management of the company’s TV sector including key Warner Bros TV properties Friends, Joey, The OC and West Wing.

  • Randstad acquires 57% of Indian staffing company Team4U

    Randstad acquires 57% of Indian staffing company Team4U

    MUMBAI: Randstad Holding has agreed with shareholders of Team HR Services Private Limited, operating under the brand name Team4U, to purchase 57 per cent of the company’s shares, with the option to purchase the remainder of the shares over the coming two years.

    “Team4U provides a platform to further strengthen Randstad’s position in the growing Indian market, and fits with our overall growth strategy to establish a presence in the region,” the company stated.
    “Team4U helps Randstad expand its Indian business. This gives us a head start in entering the rapidly growing staffing market thanks to their market share of some 10 per cent. Team4U is a well-managed company that has experienced excellent growth over the past years, now being the fourth largest staffing company in India. We are delighted to benefit from the managerial and commercial strengths of Team4U. This will allow us to further leverage our position in India, which we first established with our majority stake in the Indian recruitment company EmmayHR in December 2005,” said Randstad Holding CEO Ben Noteboom.

    “Randstad’s expertise in staffing will enhance our capabilities for serving our clients. With Randstad as a strong partner, we will be in an even better position to continue our path of profitable growth,” said Team4U president and director Abhinav Dhawan.

    Team4U provides staffing and HR solutions services, with payroll management services forming an important part of the service offering. Headquartered in Delhi, Team4U has offices in nine Indian cities, including Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata.

    The staffing and recruitment services market in India is still relatively small, but rapidly developing. Randstad already established a position in the Indian recruitment market by obtaining 51 per cent of the shares of EmmayHR in December 2005. The current transaction with Team4U provides Randstad access to the Indian staffing market.

  • Indiantelevision.com’s Media, Advertising, Marketing Special Report

    New emerging technologies are going to change the way we consume media. It is a dynamic and constantly morphing scenario that confronts media researchers and marketers. Indiantelevision.com introduces the first of a series of studies by Group M’s Maxus, which will cover a wide range of issues.

    Indiantelevision.com would welcome such similar studies that add to a better understanding of our media landscape.

    In this, the first such paper, Maxus dwells on Television and Generation Next.

    “Incredibly Young India”! This might well be an appropriate coinage given the current demographics of the Indian population. Over the next decade, marketers are looking at the most lucrative and influential youth market in Indian history.

    But crucial to profiting from this increasingly critical section of our society will also be a proper understanding of this fickle and extremely hard to please generation.

    The fact that India is getting ‘younger’ is also reflected in our advertising – in 2005, advertising directed at the youth comprised 20 per cent of total ad spends, up from 16 per cent a few years ago. (Maxus estimates)

    However, worryingly, youth engagement with TV is on the wane – time spent on TV is progressively declining.

    Time Spent on TV viewing per day Index to 2002
     
    (Source: TAM, 15-24 years, SEC A)

    A look at similar numbers for housewives confirms that this is a youth only trend – housewife viewing is at best flat with spikes in some years.

    Time Spent on TV viewing per day Index to 2002
     
    (TG: Housewives, 25-44, SEC A)

    So while more money is chasing the youth on TV year after year, the worry for marketers is the declining returns on their investment. TV channels aimed at the youth need to also contend with this problem. How do they get Gen Next to watch more TV?

    Why is this happening?

    The growing propensity to multi task also makes inroads into the TV preserve – not only is the youth much more on the move (college, tuition, evening job, partying…), they are also consuming multiple media simultaneously – SMS a friend, while on a chat site with FM blaring. The SMS shorthand has also shortened attention spans making the youth clamor for constant newness.

    But of course, the biggest change agent has been the Wiring of Gen Next’ – a phenomenon sweeping urban India – SMS, internet, gaming, iPods…

    Apart from the technology, these gadgets fulfill a very basic youth need of providing a network: their virtual, private world offers them the peer group belonging and security, exchange of information and a social cocoon that helps fight loneliness characteristic of nuclear families today.

    Most of the entertainment options that appeal to this whole new segment is actually done with others and not alone. Be it going to multiplexes, hanging out in coffee pubs, sweating it out at gaming parlours or chatting online – all are group acts.

    Hence the cult rise of IPods, chat rooms, networks, Google, iTunes and PodCasts, on line messengers…

    All the gadgets and entertainment options mentioned above are:

    Interactive and/or consumer created
    Warm and friendly inviting active participation
    Platforms where there are very few pre-set norms or content limitations
    So, is it doomsday for TV?

    Certainly not! TV has some inherent strengths – the challenge for TV is to amplify its strengths and leverage the new digital world to expand its youth catchment.

    The starting point of course has to be content. In the convergence era of information, communication and entertainment, the last remains a bastion for a (relatively) large screen, audio-visual medium like TV.

    This is the area that TV needs to build on and develop far greater depth in content. The question is how? For one, we really need to stop thinking of the youth as one amorphous mass of wired, accessorised, colloquialised beings.

    The content generators have to realize that there are at least four life stages that are spawned in the decade of 15-24 years – leaving school, college years, early work life and in some cases, matrimony – each with their own share of angst and joy. While some content has meaningfully focused on the first two, nothing has been done on the rest

    The possibilities are many:

    A soap completely scripted by the audience through emails and the winning contestant being sent on a creative writing course to a US university
    A news hour exclusively showcasing reports from “Citizen Journalists” (anyone with camera-mobile), who can SMS/email in their content
    A muti-contestant Gaming platform on TV completely enabled at the back-end to require just a mobile phone to participate
    A few ideas, like the ones above, have in fact been experimented with by various channels. However, these have been a smattering on the larger landscape of music countdown shows! One way to increase impact for these shows would be to package them in a ‘youth’ time slot. We have an afternoon band for the ladies at home, one early evening for kids, but no time band exists which invites youngsters into ‘their’ world.

    The second big focus area for TV needs to be on becoming a part of the digital youth network. In this regard, content providers need to augment their content through the digital world as well as sample it through the digital world.

    Snippets of programming converted into mobile/mail friendly formats like 3GP or MPEG and mailed/SMS’d out
    Creation of specific chatrooms on popular portals that help the prospective audience understand (and augment) the programming intent
    Previous episodes easily accessible online, but for the fresh episodes they have to tune in
    In the end, TV will be an integral part of the digital world – the challenge for TV will be to retain its glory as the defining point of entertainment – just like its content be it cricket or serials dominates the drawing room and kitchen conversations, will it also dominate the canteen, the SMS, the blogs and other ways in which the youth communicate?

     

  • America Online is now AOL

    America Online is now AOL

    MUMBAI: After 15 years, AOL announced that it is retiring the name America Online and will now officially be known as AOL.

    AOL Chairman and CEO Jon Miller said, “Our company long ago accomplished the mission implied by our old name … we literally got America online. Our new corporate identity better reflects our expanded mission – to make everyone’s online experience better. Plus, consumers in the U.S. and around the world already know us by our initials.”

    The legal structure of AOL has also changed, from a corporation to a limited liability company.

  • GM looks to increase emotional quotient of Chevrolet through marketing initiatives

    MUMBAI: For a special journey called life! Car and vehicle manufacturer General Motors (GM) India is going all out to increase the aspirational awareness about its Chevrolet brand of luxury cars. For this purpose the company has among other things announced a tie up with jewelry store Tanishq.
     

     
    Elaborating on the strategy General Motors India VP marketing, sales and after sales Amit Dutta says that a loyalty initiative Optra Gold Rush has kicked off in the Metro cities. This will be a two-month affair that is aimed at pushing the Chevrolet Optra. Here customers purchasing the care get gift vouchers worth Rs 30,000 from Tanishq. However each week a lucky draw is held and the big prize comes in the form of the winner visiting a Tanishq store. The man will then have one minute to pick up whatever jewelry is on display and put it on his wife.
     
     
    Basically the aim is to take the message of the Chevrolet furthering the bond of love, warmth and emotion between a man and a woman to the next level. Last year a TVC had been done where a man as a treat takes his wife out for drive on his Chevrolet Optra. This year another TVC was created where the quietness of the car is brought to forefront. Basically in the car while the woman is very nervous she can hear the man’s heartbeat. Chevrolet ads naturally air on channels that cater to the upmarket sector like Star Movies.
     
     
    As Dutta says,” While ads of other luxury cars make a big noise about luxury our message is that the Chevrolet quietly and smoothly moves along. As a result the woman can literally hear the extent to which her partner feels for her. A strong storyline was used to push the emotional quotient. One unique TVC was done through a tie up with BPCL. Through that while the ad was for a petroleum brand FI driver Narain Kartikeyan was shown driving a Chevrolet Optra.

    “Just to give perspective when we launched the Chevrolet Optra in 2003 after a gap of 50 years the challenge was to rekindle the association. So our first TVC basically demonstrated the perfect control the car allows the driver. We also conducted a Chevrolet Vintage Rally last year in Delhi. Basically General Motors’ aim is to capture 10 per cent of the car market share in the next few years. We also came out with a book that spoke about the heritage of Chevrolet. Most of our media budget goes towards promoting the Chevrolet brand. It goes without saying that we have become much more visible in 2004 and in 2005 due to our next product the Chevrolet Tavera which launched last year.”

    However Dutta points out that while mass media is effective in creating awareness about the aspirational value of a brand direct marketing can have a bigger impact at a lower cost. He gives the example of a tie up that the company did with Jet Airways in 2004. Winners could walk away with a Chevrolet Tavera and as a result GM got 80,000 inquiries.“That represents the number of potential clients. We also do customer relationship management initiatives. For instance through a tie up with ICICI Bank we were able to build up a database of 20,000 potential clients. We have also done innovative loyalty programmes like giving away movie tickets to customers. That is not to say that we do not use mass media like print.”

    “In fact a print campaign that we did in magazines and newspapers celebrated the fact that 10,000 Chevrolet Taveras were sold. As of now I would say that around 17,000 Taveras have been sold. Also the TVC that was created showed a family going for a holiday. That is the brand positioning of this car – that a husband can use it to get away from the hectic life of the city and go for a break with his family to a hill station like Lonavala. Another TVC was the Monk Ad. This saw students in a monastery enjoying a ride despite the fact that monks have a strict routine.”

    While McCann handles the media duties Enterprise Nexus is in charge of creative for GM. The next round of ads for Chevrolet Optra and Chevrolet Tavera will kick off in September. Dutta says that hoarding activity will be taken to the next level. Last year outdoor was used in around 76 cities. This year it will be used in 120 cities, which will include the smaller towns. However the company has no plans to rope in a brand ambassador as of now. Dutta says, “A brand ambassador works better for mass products. For high end products like Chevrolet it is better for the product to speak for itself. Anyway people are not going to buy a car unless they are sure it is reliable. That is why we plan to put in place 90 sales points and nearly 100 service outlets by the end of the year. We will be bringing in mass products like SUVs later on. At that time we might consider appointing a brand ambassador who will be able to help us cut through the clutter.”

    The company has also kicked off the GM Service Plus initiative in Delhi. It has among other offers the Free After Three service. Here a service mechanic will reach the car destination within three hours. If that does not happen then the person gets the service for free. So far 600 customers have availed of this service and the company claims to have had a 98 per cent success rate in meeting the three-hour deadline. It plans to introduce this initiative to Mumbai in December. This is way of saying “We value your service and your time’. The aim is to provide the wow factor in the service arena and thus become a leader as far as image is concerned even though in terms of volume sales one might not be number one. In addition before the year is through Chevrolet will unveil its global brand positioning.

  • Airtel launches customer care solution NetXpert

    Airtel launches customer care solution NetXpert

    MUMBAI: Internet service provider Bharti Tele-Ventures has launched an automated customer support service NetXpert. The company, in association with California-based SupportSoft, has introduced the service to its DSL (digital subscriber line, a fixed broadband connection) subscribers to simplify installation and help overcome snags.

    Airtel broadband subscribers in Bangalore will be the first in the country to receive NetXpert.

    The NetXpert suite comprises three applications – Installer, Agent and Chat. With these, subscribers will be able to diagnose and solve problems without making calls to customer care agents. NetXpert is based on SupportSoft’s products for real-time customer support, which are used by 38 million broadband customers outside India.

    Connectivity, browser and e-mail related issues are immediately resolved by NetXpert Agent, while the Installer helps subscribers install their connection without assistance. Installer also automatically detects system and network issues. It is based on SmartAccess, which allows the ISP to save on manpower as there are no longer time-consuming household visits by service technicians, states an official release.

    The Chat application, based on SupportSoft’s LiveAssist, allows Airtel’s customer service representatives to chat online with up to four customers at a time. This reduces the wait time by taking recourse to a different, widespread communication medium, the release adds.