ITV

Category: Media and Advertising

  • Delhi Duty Free Associates with Delhi Daredevils for IPL 2014

    Delhi Duty Free Associates with Delhi Daredevils for IPL 2014

    MUMBAI: Delhi Duty Free, India’s most awarded duty free retailer is proud to be associated with the “Delhi Daredevils” as official partners for IPL 2014. This is the first time any Indian duty free has entered into the sponsorship with a sports event.  

     

    The DDFS logo will be on the Delhi Daredevils jersey and the partnership will entail a series of marketing activations. As the Official Team Partner, DDFS will be entitled to a number of benefits besides its logo on the team jerseys andwill have significant in-stadium presence during Delhi Daredevils matches.

     

    The DD promotional campaign will start at the DDFS shops from 16thApril and will last till 1st June 2014.Customer’s shopping with us can win a chance to meet the Dare Devils team members, win team merchandise, match tickets, a chance to participate in the match day coin toss and much more.

     

    Said Mr. Duncan Lawley, CEO, Delhi Duty Free on the association “Being the most watched sports event in the country, the Indian Premier League serves as a lucrative platform to reach out to our customers and leverage our brand at a national level. It is an honour for us to partner with one of the best IPL team – Delhi Daredevils. The format of the game is very entertaining and highly active. Our promotional initiatives, too, are equally exciting and engaging of our customers where they can win a BMW X1 at the end of the campaign. “

     

    He further added “We at Delhi Duty Free have always endeavoured to provide the best of offers and promotions to our customers. This is a new initiative for us & we expect our association with the DD to create a lot of interest & excitement amongst our customers during the event & beyond.”

     

    Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/delhidyutyfreeservicesor on twitter at www.twitter.com/delhidutyfreeor visit us at www.delhidutyfree.co.in for more updates.

     

  • GroupM elevates Jai Lala and Sidharth Parashar

    GroupM elevates Jai Lala and Sidharth Parashar

    MUMBAI: GroupM has elevated two of its senior executives of the Central Trading Group (CTG). The company elevates Sidharth Parashar as head, Pricing & Investments, and Jai Lala as head, Trading & Partnerships.

     

    Both Lala and Parashar will report to CTG south Asia managing partner Prasanth Kumar.

     

    Prior to his promotion, Parashar was the agency buying head for Maxus, for over five years, where he was a valued member of the leadership team, working on media mandates for brands such as Google, Nokia, Vodafone to name a few. In his new role Parashar will be responsible to facilitate and execute GroupM investment mandates across media. His key focus will be on the GroupM trading products that should continue to offer the edge to our clients. All the GroupM agency trading heads and cluster heads will now report in to Praashar.

     

    Prior to Lala’s elevation, he was the agency trading head for Mindshare, where he worked on media mandates for clients such as Pepsi, GlaxoSmithkline, ICICI, Aditya Birla Group and Nike. Going forward Lala will be managing all trading mandates at GroupM. He will also be heading a team of all the heads across verticals: Proprietary media, DTH, Xaxis, Syndication, GME and Special projects and maximize value for our clients. He will also work closely with Parashar and the agency trading heads on delivering the maximum ROI on media investments.

     

    Speaking on the new structure, Kumar said, “As we move into a growth phase largely driven by converging synergies across the group and driving client satisfaction it has become critical that we create more focus, especially in the area of media investment. With the development of new concepts of integrated media, merging traditional and digital media, we are also looking at reforming the way we plan our investments as a central hub. This new structure in our core function will deliver unparalleled client delight and value.”

  • Sony Max & Six take IPL to the fans, with on-ground activities

    Sony Max & Six take IPL to the fans, with on-ground activities

    MUMBAI: The biggest cricketing extravaganza – Indian Premiere League – is just a couple of days away and the official broadcaster Sony Max and Six is going all out (literally) to get the fans jumping and dancing.

    Kicking off the on-ground activities, the network rolled out its ‘Bulaava Express’, which is an open air bus, on the streets of Mumbai on Sunday carting along Kandivali, Carter road, Worli Sea face and Marine Drive.

    This unique open air bus is designed to capture the imagination of the citizens with a host of entertaining and unique activities. Be it the impromptu ‘buckram ka chukrum’ which quizzed people on their knowledge of the tournament or ‘Bulaava Bahana’ which mandated fans to confess which ‘bulaava’ they have used to watch the Pepsi IPL, the activities left the audiences hungry for more. The journey finally ended with the specially created energetic ‘Buckram dance’ which left the people spellbound.

    Speaking on the occasion, Sony Max VP marketing Vaishali Sharma says: “Bulaava Express is the perfect initiative to get the people excited about the tournament. Cricket fans were exuberant about being a part of this activity. The overwhelming response and enthusiasm of the crowd has encouraged us to take the fun and excitement to more locations.”

    The ‘Bulaava Express’ will tour the country across 13 cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Chennai, Nashik, Indore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Nagpur between April and May creating euphoria for Pepsi IPL 2014. Sony Max & Six have created this unique initiative especially for the followers of the grand spectacle of Pepsi IPL.

    Apart from the ‘Bulaava Express’, plans are afoot for mall activations as well. Activities at the mall will include the ‘Buckram Dance’- A unique buckram dance done by a troupe which popularizes the campaign track and the “buckram move”, ‘Buckram ka Chukrum’- fun games/IPL based trivia to popularise the Buckram, ‘Buckram Hunt’ and ‘Bulaava Bahaana’.

    The mall activation will also see a unique concept which is called ‘Buckram pe Buckram’. “This will be a giant size collar cut out of about 10 feet, here we will encourage people to come and write small notes saying “Iss baar kaunsi team ka bulaava aya hai” and stick it on the huge cut out,” Sharma explains.

    Storyboard Brandcom has been appointed to look after the OOH campaign for the broadcaster with the campaign spread across 97 cities in 500 sites. WATConsult is handling the digital and social marketing for the IPL. This time around the marketing spends have seen a spike of nearly 12-15 per cent as against last year by Sony.

    The broadcaster also intends to target the heartland by reaching out to more than 400 LC1 towns over the next month and a half with ‘Remote ka bulaava’. “The idea is to really get people even in the smaller towns hooked onto the game,” says Sharma. “We will also be going door to door and conducting quizzes and handing out merchandise to the winners.”

    This time around, with the help of WATConsult, the broadcaster has also launched an app that will enable the fans to catch the match action on their mobiles and further build the engagement.

    “The message we are sending out through the campaign is very clear, the call for the IPL brings out the attitude among the fans and translates into them running to catch the live match action from wherever they are,” Sharma expounds.

    The broadcaster is leaving no stone unturned in pushing its biggest property through its network. It has been running the broadcast campaign for over a couple of weeks now and will carry it on for another four weeks, spread across 95 channels.

    On print, the broadcaster has bought spots across leading dailies like; Times of India, Nav Bharat Times, Vijay Karnataka, Dainik Saamana,  Daily Thanthi, The Hindu, Vijayavani, Deccan Chronicle, Saakshi, Eenadu, Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi, Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala, Gujarat Samachar, Lokmat, Ajit, Anand Bazaar Patrika, among others.

    The Radio campaign is spread over two weeks across 11 stations, the broadcaster has a special plan for addressing LC1 markets where it will be playing the spots on air.

    “We have done some extremely interesting innovations with Radio Mirchi this year; Red FM, Big FM and Fever will also be promoting the campaign in a big way via contents and other interesting integrations,” reveals Sharma.

  • Digital media eats into traditional media spend

    Digital media eats into traditional media spend

    MUMBAI: India’s low ad-spend-to-GDP ratio makes it one of the most promising ad markets globally, says IIFL’s Institutional Equities. In  a Media sector report titled “India: Ad-vert > Ad-word – Digital yet to come of age,” IIFL states that digital media is eating ad space with the other traditional forms of media like the print and television media and has been the fastest growing advertising media. This trend is likely to continue as the Internet user base expands at a brisk pace.

     

    India’s digital ad market grew at 43% CAGR over the past decade to ~Rs25bn, far in excess of the overall ad-spend growth of 13% during this period. Digital now accounts for 7% of the total ad spend, compared with 1% in CY03. A multi-fold rise in the Internet user base over CY03-13 (from 5m to 169m) and increasing acceptance of the digital platform among advertisers drove this growth. The supernormal growth in Internet penetration is likely to continue, driven by the Internet on mobile, the report states.

     

    However, India still is behind developed markets in terms of mobile technology and internet connectivity, hence there is no immediate threat to Print and Television advertising from the digital media ad spends, the report adds.

     

    Emergence of digital would materially harm the print industry in the medium to long term. English print is at a higher risk compared with regional print. Moreover, given the limited reach of the Internet, certain India-specific factors would help print to face competition from digital media. Ad spend on Indian print is expected to continue to increase in the medium term.

     

    “However, a larger audience base and diversified viewer profile make television advertising indispensable. Additionally television is a better-suited medium for certain types of ads such as new product launches or brand building. Hence, the impact of the Internet on television would be lower as compared with print. An analysis of ad spends for the past ten years reveals that print ad spend is more sensitive to economic growth. These factors make television ad spend more resilient,” says Bijal Shah and Jaykumar Doshi of IIFL Institutional Equities, authors of the report.

     

    Print media ad spends growth decelerated sharply from 16% CAGR during CY03-07 to a meagre 4.5% CAGR in the past three years. The slowdown in English was more pronounced than in vernacular languages. Vernacular papers benefited from continued strength in smaller towns and villages. A drop in ad spend from large national categories such as BFSI, telecom, and consumer durables, partly explains the weaker growth for print. Additionally, education and real estate, the two big categories, witnessed a sharp deceleration. Local advertisers maintained their higher spends, riding on the buoyancy in consumption.

     

    FMCG, Consumer durables and Auto constitutes to 65% of overall ad spends on television. Both FMCG and Auto ad spends have shown signs of slowing down, where as the Consumer durable companies are witnessing sluggishness in sales volumes, impacting the Television ad spend going forward and we can witness marginal growth in this segment. However Mobile handsets and e-commerce ad spends have supplemented in the overall as spends on television and have emerged as new categories. The television ad spend growth is expected to soften to high single digits.

     

    A sustained 6%+ GDP growth could accelerate ad-spend growth to 15%+, compared with 9% CAGR over CY10-13, as per IIFL’s Institutional Equities research report on media industry. The report further states that in medium term, TV and print should dominate ad budgets whereas digital would play a complementary role. Digital advertising is gaining traction, but limited reach and minimal fresh and vernacular content are limitations.

     

    Following the general elections, government ad spend, a key tailwind for print media in FY14, would taper. Thus, print media ad-spend growth could remain lacklustre in FY15 unless GDP growth picks up.

     

    Some key highlights from the report are:

    · India’s low ad-spend-to-GDP ratio and rising consumerism make it one of the most promising ad markets

    · A sustained 6%+ GDP growth could accelerate ad-spend growth to 15%+ compared with 9% Cagr over CY10-13.

    · Given its miniscule reach and slow Internet speed in India, digital is unlikely to emerge as a key advertising vehicle in the short-to-medium term

    · However driven by rising Internet penetration digital ad spends will continue to grow by 2-3 times the total ad spends  

    · TV would continue to be the mainstay for advertisers, given limited fresh content and absence of certain key target audience group such adult females on digital

    · Television ad spend is double that of digital in the US

     

    Few stocks recommended in the media industry:

     

    Zee Entertainment

    Zee Entertainment (Zee) is the best play on structural improvement in India’s pay television market and resilient consumption. Zee’s distribution joint venture with Star network, coupled with digitisation, would help secure its rightful share of subscription revenue. Furthermore, a diversified bouquet of channels and improving network market share would translate into above-industry ad-revenue growth. Meanwhile, Zee is investing in new channels and markets, which we believe lays the foundation for long-term growth.

    Call: ADD

     

    SUN TV Network

    Sun TV Network (Sun) is a strong player in the Rs36bn southern ad market with a leadership position in three of the four markets. Its diversified revenue stream and bouquet of channels, large movie library, and low-cost operations are advantages that are difficult to replicate. Subscription revenue is growing at a brisk pace and the momentum is likely to sustain. We expect ad revenue growth to resume following a drop for two consecutive quarters. At PER of 16x FY16ii, Sun is trading at ~15% its median multiple and at 33% discount to Zee. We believe the risk-reward is favourable.

    Call: ADD

     

    DB Corp

    DB Corp, through its flagship brands Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, and Divya Marathi, enjoys a well-entrenched franchise in several print media markets. Over the past two decades, it has evolved from a single-city newspaper to a strong player in several regional markets. DB Corp delivered double-digit ad-revenue growth even during periods of subdued ad spend. It has built a strong readership base and it is poised for gains in revenue market share. Healthy ad-revenue growth along with margin expansion would drive 20% EPS CAGR over FY14-16ii. At 16.4x FY15ii, scope for re-rating is limited; we expect returns in line with earnings growth.

    Call: BUY

     

    Jagran Prakashan

    Jagran Prakashan (Jagran), publisher of Dainik Jagran, India’s most read Hindi daily, enjoys a strong brand franchise in the key Hindi markets of Uttar Pradesh (UP), and Bihar and Jharkhand (BJH). Competitive intensity is on the rise in UP and BJH, which together contribute ~75% to Jagran’s ad revenue. DB Corp’s entry in Bihar and Hindustan’s readership gains in UP as per IRS 2013 are medium-term risks. In the interim, lower losses at subsidiaries would help margins. At 12.3x FY15ii P/E, Jagran is valued attractively and it is trading at ~35% discount to its three-year median multiple despite 17% EPS CAGR FY14ii-16ii.

    Call: ADD

     

    HT Media

    HT Media is one of the largest print media players in India with a well-entrenched franchise in the English and Hindi markets. We believe the long investment phase in new businesses is nearing an end. Two key properties, HT Mumbai and Hindustan UP, are at inflection points and should boost ad-revenue growth in a weak environment. Losses in digital would continue but will likely remain stable. At PER of 9.8x/7.9X FY15ii/FY16ii, valuations are compelling, given upside risks to our forecast of 20% EPS CAGR.

    Call: BUY

    Disclaimer: The views expressed in the research report accurately reflect such research analyst’s personal views about the subject securities and companies; and that no part of his or her compensation was, is, or will be directly or indirectly related to the specific recommendation or views contained in the research report.`

  • Fraser Castellino appointed as the COO of Kings XI Punjab

    Fraser Castellino appointed as the COO of Kings XI Punjab

    MUMBAI: Kings XI Punjab today announced the appointment of Fraser Castellino as their new COO. Fraser has over a decade’s experience of working in the sports industry.  Besides leadership roles in IPL teams like Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals, he has also been instrumental in setting up the Sahara Group’s polo and other non- cricketing ventures. 

     

    Commenting on the announcement, Promoters of Kings XI Punjab said: “We are pleased to have Fraser Castellino as our new COO. We are confident that his vast experience in the sports field, especially IPL, will benefit KXIP. His vision and guidance will help us grow further. With a new and strong team squad, along with Fraser in the management, we are upbeat and looking forward to a great tournament this year, both on and off the field. ”  

     

    “It is an absolute honour for me to be a part of Kings XI Punjab and I would like to thank the management for showing this faith in me. Having been a part of the IPL since its inception, I am looking forward to replicating a similar success with the franchise. With a brand new team and a fully charged fanbase, the season looks extremely promising for the team.” said Fraser Castellino, COO, Kings XI Punjab. 

     

    Fraser is a marketing graduate from Mumbai and also has a bachelor’s degree from St Xaviers.

  • MTV’s goal: Make voting ‘cool’

    MTV’s goal: Make voting ‘cool’

    MUMBAI: It’s been a week since the Lok Sabha elections started, and since then social media has been flooded with ‘ungli’ pictures.

    Many believe that 2014 elections will see a better turnout than previous years. Thanks to not only the anti-incumbency votes, but also the 12 crore first-time voters who will play an important role.

    Political parties have left no stone unturned to put forward their vision and mission for the coming years, news channels are busy questioning and highlighting those motives. However, this time around, general entertainment channels (GECs) too have joined in to educate and urge people to go out and vote.

    With 12 crore first-time voters, the youth entertainment channels have taken upon themselves to make sure that youngsters go out and exercise their right. “We have more than 12 crore first time voters. It is not that they are unaware and don’t care about the nation; but, they do need a strong motivation to go out and vote,” says MTV marketing and insights head Sumeli Chatterjee.

    The channel started a ‘Rock The Vote’ campaign in December and will continue till the elections end. The channel’s seven-month long initiative’s ultimate objective is to make voting cool; so much so that a person feels embarrassed to step out without the voter-ink mark on the day of elections.

    MTV ‘Rock The Vote’ was created at the intersection of politics and pop-culture and was presented as an integrated media initiative that would drive conversations around elections. The campaign that sounds a wake-up call for the youth to vote drives on a simple philosophy – If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.

    Based on the study done by the channel, even though youth has a comment and opinion on everything around them – whether it is the traffic, professor, food or even weather and they voraciously tweet, post and share their point-of-views. Yet, somehow their participation in voting process has been traditionally poor. The study states 97 per cent of the youth agree that they can bring about change, but only 15 per cent feel they have a say in choosing the government.

    To change this, the campaign was launched.

     

    But is the youth ready to listen? “We have kept the communication simple, direct and tongue-in-cheek; so that it resonates with the young, rather than sound preachy. We created a host of sharable assets like funnies and cartoons, music anthem, merchandise, crowd-sourced videos – that the youngsters can share with each other while engaging in a serious discussion on elections. Music, humour and Bollywood, are the three anchor points for MTV ‘Rock the Vote’ campaign,” answers Chatterjee.

    And since, youth is constantly in an attention deficit state, to sustain interest for more than seven months was a herculean task for the channel. In order to keep it alive and buzzing among the TG, it tried to keep every part of the initiative very interactive with crowd sourced videos, engagements across colleges integrating the college festivals, tongue-in-cheek cartoons, hashtag wars, voter-ink selfies etc.

    Social media especially Twitter played a lead role in driving the interactivity along with the on-ground college concerts with Mohit Chauhan, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Indian Ocean, Arijit Singh, Amit Trivedi etc. “We also launched a new mobile feature on Twitter that enabled offline users to listen to the conversations on #RockTheVote – this is the first time across the world, that this feature was made available to users. The best endorsement of a philosophy is when the fan wears the same. With Puma, MTV has launched a new t-shirt range promoting the messaging for voting this election,” she adds.

    The Twitter Townhalls included real time Q&A on youth issues like freedom of speech on social media, education system and reforms, job opportunities etc. On-ground activities included voter education/registration camps across 40 plus colleges along with live debate amongst student groups on elections and youth issues. An half an hour series was created on MTV that brings a funny and satirical take on these youth issues. It also brings in organisations / people from their respective fields to put out their views on the issues. For example, Greenpeace was invited as a spokesperson for the episode that dealt with environment issues on MTV ‘Rock The Vote’ series on Television.

    In-collaboration with young Bollywood stars like Varun Dhawan, Nargis Fakhri, Ileana D’Cruz, Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor, the channel has created short vignettes. Half an hour satirical bulletins with stand-up comedians on the state of various national issues that affect the citizens, an anthem and music video with Papon and Clinton Cerojo, have also been created to spread the word. The MTV t-shirt range with Puma is in retail already promoting the messaging for voting this election.

    Apart from this, the channel has also partnered with ‘Rock the Vote (USA)’, a non-profit, non-partisan organisation which pushes political awareness amongst youth across many countries including the USA, Canada and Chile.

    Although, media agencies handling political parties have signed special in-programming deals with some channels, MTV has association with political parties only from an awareness creation perspective. They haven’t included them in its regular programming schedule. But does the channel see the youngsters imbibing it in real life too? “The youngsters are really smart. Talk to them in their lingo, and they love to talk back. The Twitter Townhall and the Live Debates with leading political party spokespersons like Congress, BJP and AAP, saw a reach of 14 million plus on Twitter. So yes, we do see the youth making an effort to understand the process and the people involved. Once the interest is developed, the action will follow,” says Chatterjee optimistically.
     

    And with its social media buzzing with activities like selfies of the voter-ink marks, the channel feels it has won the battle, it had started in December.

    So, ‘Don’t be a Goat, go Rock the Vote’, MTV style.