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Category: Media Agencies

  • WPP’s Xaxis acquires US mobile advertising & e-commerce company

    WPP’s Xaxis acquires US mobile advertising & e-commerce company

    MUMBAI: WPP’s wholly-owned operating company Xaxis has agreed to acquire Action Exchange, Inc. (ActionX), a mobile advertising and e-commerce company in the United States.

     

    ActionX’s proprietary mobile-first data, audience targeting and dynamic creative advertising technology allows its clients to engage customers on multiple screens on the path to the point of purchase. Clients include e-commerce and media subscription companies such as Forbes, JackThreads and Hearst. ActionX employs 25 people and is based in New York.

     

    This investment continues WPP’s strategy of investing in fast growing sectors such as mobile and e-commerce. WPP’s digital revenues were $6.9 billion in 2014, representing 36 per cent of the Group’s total revenues of $19 billion. WPP has set a target of 40-45 per cent of revenue to be derived from digital in the next five years.

     

    Xaxis is a programmatic media platform that directs more than $770 million of audience-targeted media buys across 40 markets in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East.

  • Indian ad spends to grow by 11.3% in 2016; digital to lead way: Carat

    Indian ad spends to grow by 11.3% in 2016; digital to lead way: Carat

    MUMBAI: Global media network Carat’s first forecast for worldwide advertising expenditure in 2016 shows that Indian advertising spend is poised to grow by 11.3 per cent in 2016.

    Following the formation of a stable government in 2014 led by Narendra Modi, the economic prospects look bright in India.While Indian advertising spends increased by +8.7 per cent in 2014, as per the agency’s forecast, it is poised to leap by double digits of +11 per cent in 2015.

    Carat’s also released its latest forecasts for 2015 and actual figures for 2014, with all markets ring-fencing digital media spending, even when faced with negative economic headwinds.

    Asia Pacific

    In the Asia Pacific market, advertising spend is forecast to grow by a solid +5.2 per cent in 2015. This has however been revised down from the +5.9 per cent previously forecast in September 2014, with its major market Japan moderating forecasts from +1.7 per cent to +0.9 per cent, alongside a number of other markets including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam. Growth is expected to pick up pace in 12 out of the 14 markets in 2016 with growth overall of+5.8 per cent in 2016. 

    Based on data received from 59 markets across the Americas, Asia Pacific and EMEA, Carat’s global advertising expenditure forecast showsthat digital media, with a predicted $17.1 billion or +15.7 per cent increase in spend in 2015, is outpacing previous Carat predictions from September 2014. Powered by a dramatic rise in mobile ad spending globally of +50 per cent and online video of +21.1 per cent predicted in 2015, Carat forecasts that digital will, for the first time, account for more than a quarter of all advertising spend in 2016 with a market share of 25.9 per cent.

    From a global perspective, Carat forecasts that in 2015, advertising spend across all media will increase by $23.8 billion to reach $540 billion, accounting for a +4.6 per cent year-on-year increase. Market optimism continues into 2016 with Carat’s first forecast for the year predicting a year-on-year global advertising growth of +5.0 per cent.

    Carat Advertising spend forecast -March 2015

    Digital media spend continues to be the star driver of growth in the global advertising market, with a predicted $17.1 billion increase in spend in 2015 corresponding to a 15.7 per cent year-on-year growth rate, outpacing previous Carat predictions from the September 2014 report.New predictions for 2016 highlight that digital will continue to grow at double-digit levels, at 13.8 per cent, and will account for more than a quarter of all advertising spend globally.

    Trend Highlights from the report:

    ·Digital’s unwavering positive trajectory is being powered by a dramatic rise in mobile, online video, social media and programmatic spending. Carat predicts that in 2015, global mobile spend will increase +50 per cent, and online video will be up +21.6 per cent. US programmatic display advertising spending is predicted to grow +137 per cent to reach $10 billion this year, accounting for 45 per cent of the US digital display ad market.

    ·Digital media spend is being ring-fenced by advertisers even in markets with significant negative economic headwinds.In Central & Eastern Europe for instance, while total advertising spend is predicted to decrease by 2.2 per cent this year, digital media will see a double-digit growth of +12.9 per cent. Digital media is the only media expected to grow in this region this year.

    ·Carat’s first advertising expenditure forecasts for 2016 show elevated confidence in the advertising market, a robust +5 per centgrowth despite a still-recovering economic climate boosted by a year of events- the UEFA European Football Championships, Rio 2016 Olympic Games and US presidential elections.

    ·Global forecasts for 2015 have been revised down from the +5.0 per cent previously forecast in the September 2014 report, to +4.6 per cent. This is due to a reduction in advertising spend predictions in key markets including Russia, Japan and Brazil.

    ·The recovery in Western Europe has driven a second consecutive year of growth in 2015, predicted at +2.8 per cent. This follows a +2.3 per cent increase in advertising spend in the region in 2014. Growth is driven by the UK market, which is predicted to grow strongly by +6.4 per cent, and Spain by +6.8 per cent following the improved economic climate and consumer sentiment there. Greece (+8.0 per cent), Ireland (+5.7 per cent) and Portugal (+9.4 per cent) are also showing relatively high growth rates this year recovering after suffering severely from the global economic recession. Growth of advertising spend in Western Europe in 2016 is forecast to continue at the predicted level for 2015 of +2.8 per cent.

    By media, whilst Digital is the star performer in terms of growth, achieving higher that predicted levels in 2014 of +17.4 per cent and accounting for 21.7 per cent of market share, TV will continue to command the majority of market share for the foreseeable future, reaching 42.7 per cent in 2014, and is predicted to grow by more than +3 per cent year-on-year in 2015 and 2016. The steady decline in Print is expected to continue, however Out-of-Home is now positioned as the second fastest growth media, behind Digital, with a global market share of spend of 7.1 per cent. For the first time, Out-of-Home is predicted to outpace Magazines global share of advertising spend, with Magazines forecast to achieve 6.9 per cent market share in 2015, and with continuing declines for this media, it is predicted to fall behind Radio for the first time in 2016.

    Commenting on the Carat Advertising Expenditure forecasts, Dentsu Aegis Network, CEO Jerry Buhlmann said, “The strength of Digital continues to dominate discussions and the new distribution of spending. With a quarter of the global population now owning and relying on their smartphones daily, they are our second brain in our hands. Mobile dominates the way consumers access information, view content, browse products and purchase goods and this is reflected in the innovative services and approach we are discussing with our clients.

    By media:

    Globally,digital media spend is forecast to increase by $17.1 billion this year to reach 23.9 per cent of total global media spend in 2015.Digital’s growth far outpaces all other media types with a forecast increase of +15.7 per cent in 2015 and +13.8 per cent in 2016.

    Growth in digital spend is high in all regions. The highest in Asia Pacific at +20.1 per cent in 2015, followed by an impressive +16.4 per cent in North America and +16.2 per cent in Latin America. Even in Central & Eastern Europe, which is showing overall sluggish ad market growth, digital spending is predicted to achieve double digit growth this year of +12.9 per cent. In Western Europe growth is in high single digits (+9.8 per cent) this year.

    Mobile spend is notably rising dramatically at +49.7 per cent in 2015 with circa 50 per cent growth in each of the regions – Western Europe, Asia Pacific, North America and double digit growth in Latin America and C&EE. With the rise in smartphone ownership rates and data usage, mobile is playing a huge role in the way consumers access information, view content, browse products and purchase services and goods.

    Carat is seeing a major shift in behaviour with internet usage on mobile devices catching up with PC usage and exceeding it in some markets yet at an investment level, there is still a significant discrepancy with the amount of time spent with mobile media disproportionate to the advertising share mobile attracts.A factor, which is holding back investment in mobile is the difficulty in proving the ROI for more traditional businesses. Much of the early investment in mobile advertising has been amongst pure-play, app economy brands and business for whom there is an easily demonstrable ROI for investing in mobile.

    Mobility is the primary reason behind social’s explosive growth. Facebook and Twitter will continue to be the big winners in the mobile social space. Facebook leads the way in mobile advertising investment with their cost effective solution to advertisers, non-intrusive native advertising experience to audiences, targeting capabilities and selection of ad formats. Twitter is moving up with an increase in spending behind promoted tweets, its Amplify pitches and improvements to its targeting options such as the development of its TV targeting offering. One of its big plays this year is the introduction of Promoted Video for advertisers – a new way for brands to post videos that users can play in their timelines with a single tap.

    Online Video demonstrates continuing strong growth, +21.6 per cent forecast for 2015, with growth partly driven by a shift of investment away from TV. Expectations are particularly high for original content. In the US, nearly half (48 per cent) of online video budgets will go to ’made for digital’ video.

    Display spends including Video and Social is forecast to increase by 15.8 per cent in 2015. However it is ‘Search’ that continues to command the highest share of total Digital spend at 45 per cent, with growth of+12.6 per cent this year and +11.5 per cent in 2016.

    TV continues to command the highest share of spend, 42.2 per cent globally in 2015, remaining popular particularly in Latin America and the Middle East with share of spend above the global average in APAC and C&EE.

    There are indications, however, of TV’s share slowly eroding as it has decreased by 1.2 per cent points over the past five years. Growth was boosted last year by a slew of events with +4.4 per cent growth. TV spend is predicted to increase by +3.6 per cent this year, picking up in 2016 a quadrennial year – to +3.9 per cent.

  • Havas Media Group India wins digital mandate of Caterpillar India

    Havas Media Group India wins digital mandate of Caterpillar India

    NEW DELHI: Havas Media Group India has started 2015 on a positive note. The agency has won the digital media mandate of Caterpillar India after a multi-agency pitch, which included leading digital agencies. 

     

    This is the second digital win of the year after Ranbaxy and further strengthens Havas Media Group’s presence in Bangalore.

     

    Caterpillar marketing and business strategy manager – South Asia Deepak Aggarwal said, “In Havas Media we saw a perfect partner. Their passion was outstanding. Their ‘Digital at Core’ philosophy was impressive and that translated seamlessly in their strategic approach and category understanding. We are keen to utilize the power of digital marketing for our growth, and Havas Media has demonstrated the right direction.”

     

    Havas Media Group India and South Asia CEO Anita Nayyar added, “We are delighted at the win. We believe in creating meaningful brands and Caterpillar is an excellent example of such a brand, which shows devotion to the customer. It gives us further scale in our southern operations – specially Bangalore. Look forward to a great partnership.”

     

    “Digital is the future and Havas’ ‘digital at core’ philosophy provides us the capability of driving this growth in the Indian market. We are proud of the win and look forward to working with Team Caterpillar,” said Havas Media India managing director Mohit Joshi.

     

    “Caterpillar is a great brand to be associated with. It operates in a category that will drive us hard to constantly innovate and execute unique digital marketing tools and avenues. We look forward to this opportunity,” emphasized Havas Media India head of digital Ranjoy Dey.

  • Carat to handle Garuda Polyflex Foods’ media duties

    Carat to handle Garuda Polyflex Foods’ media duties

    MUMBAI: Soon after adding Dixcy Textiles to its client kitty, Carat, the independent media communications specialist from the Dentsu Aegis Network, has added yet another client.

     

    The agency has been roped in to handle the media duties of Garuda Polyflex Foods (GP Foods). Carat won the account in a multi-agency pitch. The agency will handle the account from its Bangalore office. Mudra is the incumbent agency.

     

    GP Foods managing director P.K. Gopalakrishnan said, “When we met the team led by Joydeep, we were very impressed with their professional approach. We were also very impressed with their strategic thinking, which has enabled their client base and the long standing relationship they have with some of the great brands. We are extremely happy to be associated with Carat.”

     

    Carat – South senior VP Joydeep Raha added, “We are delighted and honored to have GP Foods on board. Our thorough understanding of urban consumers with respect to their attitudes and aspirational needs in granularity and through proprietary cutting-edge tools (CCS &CCS Planner) enabled us to provide a customized solution, based on the client brief.”

     

    GP Foods is a joint venture between GarudaFood and Polyflex India. GarudaFood is a $500 million entity that is part of the Tudung Group that deals in agribusiness, food and beverage manufacturing and distribution. 

  • Dentsu’s psLive Rural bags Gold at RMAI Awards

    Dentsu’s psLive Rural bags Gold at RMAI Awards

    MUMBAI: psLive Rural, the rural marketing division from the Dentsu Aegis Network, has been conferred with three awards at the 6th edition of Flame Awards, organized by RMAI (Rural Marketing Association of India). 

     

    While it won a Gold for the campaign ‘Jaagte Mat Raho’ (client: Cholayil) for the soap brand – Medimix, its work for DuPont’s Coragen brought home a silver (for its Sweetness of Victory campaign) and a bronze metal (for its Kori Se Mulaqat campaign).

     

    Dentsu Aegis Network chairman & CEO South Asia and Posterscope & psLIVE chairman – Asia Pacific Ashish Bhasin said, “It’s great to see psLive Rural perform so well. Rural marketing will become an extremely important area and psLive is expanding its network rapidly to gain leadership in a field that most agencies seem to have vacated.”

     

    Rural Markets, psLive national head Keshav Chandorkar added, “We are proud to receive the honour that was showered on our intellectual properties in the field of rural marketing. We are thankful to our clients for believing and partnering with us. A special thanks to the Jury for believing in our work. We look forward to creating many more such campaigns in the future.”

     

    This year, RMAI received as many as 300 entries from corporate and rural marketing agencies for the Awards. The entries were judged by a jury comprising top level executives.

     

  • WPP’s Kuvera joins hands with China’s mobile platform PaiPai

    WPP’s Kuvera joins hands with China’s mobile platform PaiPai

    MUMBAI: Kuvera, a wholly owned WPP company specializing in e-commerce in China has forged a partnership with Paipai, China’s social commerce platform on mobile owned by JD.com. The deal names Kuvera as Paipai’s strategic partner in a new initiative of developing mobile social e-commerce in China for global brands.

     

    Under the agreement, Kuvera acts as a total solution provider for WPP’s clients to conduct online retailing business on Paipai’s e-commerce platform, utilizing social networking and a variety of marketing tools; if circumstances permit, Paipai will recommend WPP agencies to Paipai’s merchants, as a preferred service provider of marketing and promotion services and as a strategic partner of Paipai.

     

    Specifically, Kuvera becomes a qualified service provider on Paipai and will assist Paipai to recruit new brand merchants. Kuvera will provide a full spectrum of services to clients, including transaction services, storefront management, brand promotion and customer relationship management (CRM). In turn, Paipai will provide clients with necessary support and resources, including traffic, technical solutions and merchandising staff. 

     

    The agreement also provides Kuvera access to Paipai’s advertising inventory, including its organic traffic and traffic from social media which Paipai connects with, such as WeChat and QQ.

     

    “It is a milestone that we are going to provide a total solution package including advertising and online sales for global brand names under social e-commerce context. Through Paipai and Kuvera, we hope more global brand names can enjoy the benefit and excitement that social e-commerce brings to them and we hope JD and WPP will have further and tighter co-operation along the way,” said JD.com CEO Richard Liu. 

     

    “China’s consumers are among the world’s most engaged in the e-commerce, social networking and mobile spaces. This agreement provides WPP and our clients the ability to leverage Paipai and JD.com’s platforms,” added WPP CEO Martin Sorrell. 

     

    “Brands are seeking to reach Chinese consumers more effectively, particularly over social and mobile networks. With this agreement, our clients now have greater access to social commerce channels, including the highly popular WeChat ecosystem,” said WPP China CEO Bessie Lee.

     

    In 2014 in Greater China, WPP companies (including associates) generated revenue of $1.5 billion with almost 15,000 people, with digital revenue around $450 million. WPP’s global digital revenue was $6.9 billion in 2014, representing 36 per cent of the Group’s total revenues of $19 billion. 

     

    “We are excited to have WPP as a strategic partner of Paipai. With WPP’s unparalleled branding and advertising expertise globally, we together will provide a total solution including brand and long tail ads and marketing strategy to our customers in the social commerce universe,” said Paipai president Kate Kui.

     

  • GroupM India wins ‘Country of the Year’ at eMMies

    GroupM India wins ‘Country of the Year’ at eMMies

    MUMBAI: For the second time now, GroupM India has won the ‘Country of the Year’ award at the eMMies 2015, the regional awards for GroupM Asia Pacific. However this time round, India will be sharing the title with GroupM Philippines.

     

    The ‘Country of the Year’ is the grandest award at the eMMies and is given to the country that delivers the best business performance.

     

    Commenting on GroupM India’s showing, GroupM Asia pacific CEO Mark Patterson said, “India continues to set a gold standard in the region through continuous refreshment, reinvigoration, expansion of services and unique influence in the market whilst maintaining a close, collaborative and entrepreneurial spirit throughout GroupM. India does this year on year which make their performance all the more special and worthy of recognition. If there was a country of the decade award it would be India’s.”

     

    GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas added, “India is extremely proud to receive the ‘Country of the Year’ award at the eMMies this year. 2014 has been one of our best years. We are especially proud of our talent who have embraced challenges in a very dynamic market and delivered true value to our clients. However what is most heartening is that we live up to the highest standards of quality among our peers in the larger GroupM family.”

     

  • Rentrak partners India’s Cinepolis for box office analysis

    Rentrak partners India’s Cinepolis for box office analysis

    MUMBAI: The movie measuring consumer viewership information provider Rentrak has joined hands with Indian multiplex operator Cinepolis. With this tie-up, Rentrak will launch its box office service to report daily theater-level information for Cinepolis, the third largest multiplex operator in India, in terms of box office revenues.

     

    With the recent acquisition of Mumbai-based Fun Cinemas, Cinepolis has now nearly 200 screens in India in 31 cites. The addition of Cinepolis, gives Rentrak a huge boost in its efforts in India, where Rentrak has just launched its services to track movie box office revenues with the Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s film PK starring Aamir Khan.

     

    “India is one of the fastest-growing theatrical markets and our measurement is vital to helping serve their clients, we look forward to our partnership with Cinepolis and expanding as they continue to add more screens,” said Rentrak worldwide movie measurement business president Ron Giambra. 

     

    Cinepolis India managing director Javier Sotomayor added, “India is a very exciting market with tremendous passion for cinema. When this passion can be measured accurately in real time and understood in terms of box-office analytics, it will pave way for greater growth in the industry and better movie products for the country as a whole.”

     

    Rentrak’s Box Office Essentials and International Box Office Essentials are the movie industry’s source for comprehensive global box office intelligence and are used as the currency by every studio in the United States as well as distribution entities around the world. Boasting a global footprint of the worldwide movie market, Rentrak is able to provide its clients with real-time box office intelligence, through one unique system, which allows users to view real-time online reports from anywhere around the world.

     

  • Publicis Groupe buys shares from Badinter family

    Publicis Groupe buys shares from Badinter family

    MUMBAI: French advertising group Publicis Groupe has bought back 2.4 million of its own shares for a sum of EUR 175,775,861 (at EUR 73.03 per share) from the Badinter family as it prepares to pay back early a convertible bond known as the ORANE 22.

     

    This transaction will bring down the holding of Elisabeth Badinter and her family group from 8.67 per cent to 7.58 cent of the share capital and from 15.87 cent to 13.88 cent of the voting rights. Elisabeth Badinter remains the first shareholder in the company.

     

    This transaction is part of the buy-back program approved by the General Shareholders Meeting held on 28 May, 2014 and the repayment ahead of schedule of the ORANE 2022 approved by the Supervisory Board and announced on 15 September, 2014. 12,684,487 shares are required for this repayment. One half will be taken from shares currently held by the company, and the other half (6,342,244 shares) will be acquired.

     

    The shares bought from the Badinter family will be used to cover the debt securities giving access to equity capital in order to proceed with the early repayment of the ORANE 2022. The balance of 3,395,371 shares will be acquired in the market.

     

    The Supervisory Board meeting held on 12 March, 2015 examined the proposal to buy back part of the shares held by Elisabeth Badinter and her family, and concluded that the acquisition of this block of shares was in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. Consequently, it unanimously approved this transaction; the Board members personally concerned abstained from taking part in the discussion and vote.

     

    The price of the transaction represents a discount of two per cent from the weighted average share price over the previous five trading days and of 4.5 per cent with respect to the closing price of EUR 76.47 on 16 March, 2015.

     

    The share buy-back is financed by Publicis Groupe’s available cash resources.

     

    Publicis Groupe welcomes this transaction, which enables the company to control changes in its shareholding structure without affecting its financial structure, while at the same time ensuring the early repayment of the ORANE, which will have a relative effect on the net profit per share on a fully diluted basis of around 2.4 per cent on a full year. The early repayment of the ORANE will be submitted to the Shareholders’ meeting of the company, which will take place on 27 May, 2015.

  • WPP to acquire minority stake in OTT TV service FlowNetwork

    WPP to acquire minority stake in OTT TV service FlowNetwork

    MUMBAI: WPP has agreed to acquire a minority stake in FlowNetwork. FlowNetwork is a new, Swedish, over-the-top television service, delivering its programmes via the internet, which supplies Sweden’s regional newspapers with technology and content.

     

    Newspapers served by FlowNetwork include Norrköpings tidningar, Folkbladet, Motala Vadstena Tidning, Norrländska Socialdemokraten, Östgöta Correspondenten, Norrbottens-Kuriren, Västervik-Tidningen, Hela Gotland and UNT. FlowNetwork is co-producer of the new Swedish drama series G?smamman.

     

    This investment continues WPP’s strategy of developing its integrated services in fast-growing and important markets and sectors and strengthening its capabilities including digital media. WPP’s digital revenues (including associates) were $6.9 billion in 2014, representing 36 per cent of the Group’s total revenues of nearly $19 billion. WPP has set a target of 40-45 per cent of revenue to be derived from digital in the next five years.

     

    In Scandinavia, WPP companies (including associates) generate revenues of over US$500 million and employ over 2,500 people. In Sweden alone, WPP businesses generate revenues of over $180 million and employ over 800 people.