MAM

Media Direction – repackaging itself

Published

21 years ago

June 13, 2005

When advertising and marketing professionals and trade publications talk about media independents in India, Media Direction is not a name that pops up first. It’s the shining stars – the Group Ms, Madisons, Starcoms, Lintas’, Media Edges, Carats – which take up a lot of the newsprint and conversation time. Media Direction has been seen as just a media arm of RK Swamy/BBDO, a not-so-serious player in the huge media sweepstakes.

No more. The RK Swamy/BBDO management has over the past year or so been shaping to shake off the lurking-in-the-shadows image. It hired a new CEO, luring away senior media professional Sandeep Tarkas from MPG. It, however, retained media veteran PRP Nair who had been managing Media Direction, giving him a senior advisor’s post.

Tarkas, an engineer by qualification with experience in advertising (MPG, Mindshare) and in marketing (with luggage major Blowplast), has been working on changing the pace and bringing in a different mindset within the agency which has six offices across the country, and a total of 48 media specialists.

“We need to change to the dynamic environment and in the last one year, people are responding very well to the changes we have been instituting,” says the soft spoken but extremely sharp-brained Tarkas. Among the changes he has instituted figure a new logo with Media Direction becoming more prominent, and hiving off its profit and loss account from the mother agency’s financials.

But the crucial challenge he says was to design processes to become an independent media entity. “It’s all in place now. Because of these processes, we are now a full fledged media agency. The last one year has seen an enhanced focus,” states Tarkas.
This included putting in place standardised systems and tools which enable market prioritisation, targeting, category evaluation, competitive evaluation, among other things. “We had all these in place earlier, but we revisited them to offer our clients more cutting edge service,” says Tarkas.

Work is on at the moment to develop several tools which will make that service even more razor sharp. “I don’t want to talk about it,” says Tarkas. “I want to keep that competitive edge, but we will shortly announce a suite of tools which will help our clients evenmore and shake up the media business.”

His entry has also brought about a change in attitude towards new business acquisition. In the past 12 months, Tarkas has been boxing with the Top 5 of the media business at about seven new business pitches as compared to earlier when Media Direction was not even in the consideration list. And he has notched up success in four – actually three as it had to turn down one because of conflict of interest – of these.

Media Direction’s Key Clients

Raymond

Visa

Sara LEE ( Media only)

Mercedes Benz

SBI MF (Media Only)

O General

Birla Sunlife Insurance (Media Only)

Hawkins

“There’s another account win we will announce shortly,” says Tarkas. The good hit rate has seen the number of non-RK Swamy/BBDO clients rising from two to six. Amongst these: SBI Mutual Fund, Sara Lee, Vitco, and Birla Sunlife Insurance. What’s more is that these six non-creative clients today account for 25 per cent of the agency’s billings of Rs 2.5 billion. The remaining 38 creative-also clients account for the remainder 75 per cent.

Tarkas believes that the agency is geared up now to make a dash for even more business now that systems are falling in place. “You will see us at a lot more pitches,” he says.

He is looking to hire more professionals at the senior level though he believes that the agency has a top notch senior team. The Southern office is led by ‘Satya’ Satyanarayana who oversees three regions Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad with M Gopal and Anuradha Kishore heading the Bangalore and Hyderabad head operations respectively. Mumbai is headed by K Ramesh while Shams Kabir is in charge of Delhi. And of course he has the old warhorse PRP Nair’s years of networking and media knowledge at his disposal. Navin Kathuria is the Group Head and D Raghunathan – TV buying head.

Tarkas believes that the agency enjoys several core strengths. Among these:

“We are a thinking agency and we bring a different kind of value to the whole media process. From the group’s perspective for instance, we launched the ‘RK Swamy’s guide to open markets’ . We as a media agency have used that guide to our advantage by utlising it as a resource for consulting assignments that we have done (multinational automobile giant).

“We are very outstanding buyers. We have been against the best, and our rates have been most competitive. Apart from that we have a set of experienced people and enjoy very good client relations.”

Additionally, Media Direction does not believe in cleaving the buying function the planning. Media professionals who hop on board double up for both. Explains Tarkas: “I guess it’s to do with the kind of profiles of clients we have. If you have one large client then maybe a division of a planner -buyer would make sense. But we do have a buying structure; so planners seek aid from that, but at the same time planners also have some direct buying responsibilities.”

The other structural advantage that the agency leverages upon is its group research company, where in it has access to group employees in 17 other cities. These are field offices and the employees are used by the agency for doing ground activation. “Ground implementation is a big positive strength we get out of this arrangement. This is an exclusive tie-up,” says Tarkas.

He points out that the dictum within Media Direction is to go the extra mile for clients. For instance, he points out that the agency worked out a market plan for one of them when it needed it.

The service orientation has got Media Direction fans. Gushes Sara Lee (Household and Body care) V-P marketing Shiv Sahgal, “We have worked with them for close to a year. This year they have done a good job; their involvement and understanding of the brand is the core strength of the team. While they are media specialists, they don’t work in isolation; they get into the business and brand objectives, and don’t restrict themselves as a media vehicle.”

On the media front, he points out that Media Direction managed a 15-20 per cent improvement on CPRPs in 2004-2005 compared to 2003-2004. And the icing on the cake is the fact that the agency is “very competitively priced and we have a very good deal. They put their money where their mouth is as they assured us a 10 per cent saving when we took them on. They have exceeded their commitment.”

Visa director marketing & business development South Asia Gagan Maini echoes that sentiment, though in a muted manner. “We have been using them for some time now and are satisfied clients. Since it is not a huge media organisation, we have managed to get good service levels.”

Says Raymond V-P media & corporate communication Paulomi Dhawan: “Planning and strategisation is very strong.They are a bunch of dedicated professionals – a no nonsense team. I would think their core strength would be implementation.”

Tarkas is not letting the praise go to his head. He admits that the agency has to rev up on several fronts. “On a scale of 1-10, I would rate us at seven. Media is all about scale and size,” he says.

“We have a lot of expertise in handling different kinds of audiences, but primarily we handle a lot of male audiences. This is due to the client profile of the agency which handles a lot of new age products like financial services, textiles and some technology clients which are traditionally male targeted categories. We have a couple of clients who give us the opportunity to work on female audiences. Another area that we need to get into is the kids segment.”

Maini points out that Media Direction needs to diversify its skill sets into radio and Internet as well. “We have been increasing our marketing investments over the years, and are now in the process of considering new areas of communication investments,” he says.

Tarkas highlights that Media Direction is responsive to market demands. He is keen to set up a specialist unit for in-film placement which currently is done through associates. A strong area of growth which will also open other revenue streams for the agency, he believes.

The ambitions and expectations are running high within the agency. Says RK Swamy BBDO CEO Srinivasan Swamy: “We will touch (Rs) four billion in the next 18 months.”

Tarkas expects growth to leapfrog at around 30 per cent this year as against the media industry average of about 7-9 per cent. “Talk to me in 2007. The big change will be where we stand in the market. We will be among the top 5,” avers Tarkas confidently.

The head of a rival agency believes it could well get there. That’s if it manages to sort out its issues with other Omnicom agencies – Mudra DDB Needham and TBWA – in India and pool all their resources under the Optimum Media Direction (as has happened in other regions) umbrella. To know more about Optimum Media Direction Click Here

Says he: “In the Asian region as well as Australia OMD is second biggest player after Mindshare. OMD has a strong hold in the network. Although it is a bit surprising that they have still not set up shop here as India is the weak link. Sooner or later, however, they will beat the process. When Media Direction becomes a part of OMD, is when the agency will really kickstart.”

Tarkas is non-committal on this front. He, however, adds that it is not necessary that the model that has worked on the OMD front elsewhere be replicated here. “We are facing the same issues Group M and Mindshare had faced. Don’t forget it took Mindshare five years to come into existence.”

Clearly, this is a player who is headed in the right direction.

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Brands

Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

MAM

Washington Post CEO exits abruptly after newsroom cuts spark backlash

Leadership change follows layoffs, protests and a bruising battle over trust.

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: When the presses are rolling but patience runs out, even the editor’s chair isn’t safe. The Washington Post announced on Saturday that its chief executive and publisher Will Lewis is stepping down with immediate effect, bringing a sudden end to a turbulent two-year tenure marked by financial strain, newsroom unrest and public backlash.

Lewis’s exit comes just days after the Bezos-owned newspaper announced sweeping job cuts that triggered protests outside its Washington headquarters and a wave of anger from readers and staff. While newspapers across the US are grappling with shrinking revenues and digital disruption, Lewis’s leadership had increasingly come under fire for how those pressures were handled.

The Post confirmed that Jeff D’Onofrio, a former Tumblr CEO who joined the organisation last year as chief financial officer, has taken over as CEO and publisher, effective immediately. In an email to staff, later shared by reporters on social media, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.”

The leadership change follows the announcement of large-scale redundancies earlier this week. While the Post did not officially confirm numbers, The New York Times reported that around 300 of the paper’s roughly 800 journalists were laid off. Entire teams were dismantled, including the Post’s Middle East bureau and its Kyiv-based correspondent covering the war in Ukraine.

Sports, graphics and local reporting were sharply reduced, and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended. On Thursday, hundreds of journalists and supporters gathered outside the Post’s downtown office in protest, calling the cuts a blow to public-interest journalism.

Former executive editor Marty Baron described the moment as “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations.”

Lewis defended his record in his farewell note, saying “difficult decisions” were taken to secure the paper’s long-term future and protect its ability to publish “high-quality nonpartisan news”. But his tenure coincided with growing scrutiny of editorial independence at the Post.

Owner Jeff Bezos faced criticism for reining in the paper’s traditionally liberal editorial page and blocking an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 US election. The move was widely seen as breaking the long-standing firewall between ownership and editorial decision-making.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, around 250,000 digital subscribers cancelled their subscriptions after the paper declined to endorse Harris. The Post reportedly lost about $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues slid.

While the wider newspaper industry continues to battle declining print advertising and the pull of social media, some national titles have stabilised. Rivals such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have managed to build sustainable digital businesses, a turnaround that has so far eluded the Post despite its billionaire backing.

As Jeff D’Onofrio steps into the role, the challenge is stark, restore confidence inside the newsroom, win back readers who walked away, and prove that one of America’s most storied newspapers can still find its footing in a brutally competitive media landscape.