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Tag: Aidem Ventures

  • Aidem Ventures: A comeback tale

    Aidem Ventures: A comeback tale

    Filling someone‘s shoes is never easy and especially when that someone is the person you‘ve always looked up to. Vikas Khanchandani, director of media outsourcing firm Aidem Ventures, who was part of the founding team humbly acknowledges the fact.

    “We all know Raj Nayak the man who started it and had the vision to look at an opportunity keeping in mind the fragmentation that the industry was witnessing. He has left very large shoes for me to fill and I don‘t think it‘s going to be easy doing that. After working with him for 14 years I am glad to make an attempt at fulfilling a dream and I know he is extremely proud of what we have done and continue to do.”

    Aidem Ventures was carved out of NDTV Media which ad veteran Raj had set up as a 26:74 joint venture in 2003 with major TV news network NDTV. NDTV Media‘s role was to do ad sales for NDTV (and any other channels it would launch), Mi Marathi and Sahara‘s TV channels. All was well for a few years.

    But then NDTV launched a Hindi GEC NDTV Imagine in 2008 and did not hand over ad sales to Raj and his team. He waited and watched for a couple of years for things to change, but nothing did.

    Vikas Khanchandani believes obstacles are the best path to take

    Hence, in 2010, Raj decided to quit NDTV Media and with the supposed blessings of both Prannoy and Radhika Roy he set up Aidem Ventures taking its entire sales team and business to the new firm in an effort to build a standalone enterprise. Things were hunky-dory, and Raj roped in some senior industry professionals such as Kaushal Dalal, M. Suku to strengthen the organisation. The venture was cruising until a year later when NDTV decided not to renew its contract. It was almost as if the entire floor collapsed under Aidem as NDTV accounted almost 80 per cent of the new fledgling‘s business. 
    Many of the founding senior management team headed for the exits. Around this time, Raj moved to Viacom18 as the CEO of Colors after finding an investor and well wisher, leaving with the belief that Vikas and team would successfully run with the baton.

    Raj also took the efforts to reassure everyone that the company will continue to keep its stakeholders‘ benefit in mind and will work forward to fulfilling its motto.

    “But those were tough times,” recollects Vikas. “We scaled down our operations and had to calm clients apart from making sure that our colleagues were absorbed in other companies. We did not lay off anyone.”

    The Aidem dream team: Alok Rakshit (regional entertainment & news head), Joydeep Ghosh (eBUS business head, India), Lama Choudhury (business development head)

    The investor that came in was none other than a client in his personal capacity: Ashok Gupta of the HDIL group, who was involved in a channel Live India. His entry and financial injection proved to be the proverbial turning point.

    From being a near basket case then, the firm has come back very strongly. And how. Today, Aidem has 100 plus employees and 30 clients across broadcasters and publishers nationally and claims to be more experienced in the outsourced model compared to any of its peers. The reason behind this is nothing but years of experience and practice that has built a whole host of services and IT enabled infrastructure that has given it an edge over some of the larger networks.

    “We spent two years to create extensive resources to have a robust platform which is web enabled giving people opportunity to feed, view and retrieve information on the go. We have experience across platforms and across genres from news – national and regional, regional entertainment, Hindi entertainment and niche and hence have build extensive knowledge and on pricing and strategy which have immensely helped our partners to improve their yields,” explains Vikas.

    He further adds, “We have the finest operations process and teams, something that keeps revenue based errors to negligible levels thereby bringing efficiencies in our service. Aidem also has one of the finest digital sales and operations team offering solutions to our digital publishers. Lastly, we are go-to-market experts, something that we have proven to our technology partners by creating the business model and then executing it as per plan and strategy to create one of the largest service providers in digital delivery of ad commercials within the country.”

    Madison Media COO Karthik Lakshminarayan agrees that there is a need-gap in the market and that is when such media-sales organisations have a huge potential to flourish. “Niche and regional channels don‘t have enough revenues to have a specified sales team and hence, such organisations come to their rescue unlike the large networks which have their own set ups.”

    The Aidem dream team contd: Neena Dasgupta (digital & international business head), Nikhil Sheth (Hindi entertainment & niche channels head) , Shailendra Shetty (systems head)

    Vikas has built a solid team, which is responsible for the Rs 200 plus crore business, Aidem generates across platforms for its clients. Alok Rakshit is the business head across regional entertainment and news. Neena Dasgupta looks after the digital & international businesses as business head. Joydeep Ghosh leads the eBUS Business for India. Nikhil Sheth is business head across Hindi entertainment & niche channels while Shailendra Shetty has been instrumental in devising and developing work flow and system for traffic and sales operations. Lama Choudhury heads the business development team and is actively involved with all commercial negotiations and deal evaluations. He has been with Aidem right from its incorporation.

    “Our hierarchy is simple, each business head has people under them looking after different regions,” explains Vikas.

    Tamil television broadcaster Jaya Network which has been with Aidem for more than an year is not only content but also thanks it for bringing in more clients (read: revenues). “We started with one channel but now Aidem handles the whole bouquet and within a year we have seen a 30 per cent increase in revenue,” proudly proclaims Jaya TV marketing head S Senthil Velavan.

    Similarly, The Economist which is in its second year of association with Aidem never anticipated the results it has got so far. “I knew Neena Dasgupta and when she came with a proposal for our online business, we were open to it. And all I can say is that revenues are now substantial while it was negligible when they came to us,” says The Economist India MD Supriyo Guha Thakurta.

    One venture which the organisation feels was a god-send was that of eBus, a digitial delivery and distribution platform for short form TV commercials, which it set up as a joint venture with a Singapore based company (headed by its CEO Carmine Masiello) of the same name in 2010. eBus is arguably one of the largest providers of this service to the advertising and broadcasting industries and was acquired by media logistics company IMD this year. “The acquisition gave us some good cash which has helped us retire all debt,” says Vikas. “But Aidem has the contract to manage it for the next five years. eBus is one of the finest cloud based delivery service and industry swears by it. We have around 300 clients using it.”

    Karthik Laxminarayan says outfits such as Aidem Ventures help the smaller players

    Like for any other, the journey for Aidem so far has been challenging, trying and exciting at the same breath. Not every client stays and it has had its fair share of losses. For instance, Radiowalla‘s co-founder Anil Srivatsa feels that though they had partnered with Aidem for only six months, the expectations and capabilities didn‘t match. He blames the timing for it, but however hasn‘t struck it off completely and wouldn‘t mind considering it in the future.

    Ups and down are a part and parcel of life and keeping that in mind Aidem sees itself as a platform that will create opportunities for many of its partners to grow and in the process grow with them. It has shortlisted some of the growth areas that it needs to put its energies in to and build them into substantial and valuable business over the next three to five years.

    “Right now, Aidem 1.0 is about trading while Aidem 2.0 will be about building platforms offering solutions across channels using technology as a tool to scale. We will also be building new business/services verticals using technology as a tool/differentiator that will help bridge some need gap within our industry,” says Vikas optimistically.

    He hopes to reduce the revenue dependence on channels too. “We are far better off from the days of the 80 per cent dependency on NDTV for revenues. But I would like it to come down from the 14 per cent to 20 per cent which it is currently. What that means is getting in more channels,” says Vikas.

    What was it that kept him going when everything else around him seemed to be falling apart? “It has been touch and go on several occasions,” he confesses. “But for all of us at Aidem: obstacles are the best path to take.”

    Maybe the quote by Marcel Proust “We don‘t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us” can sum up Aidem‘s journey.

  • Jai Maharashtra assigns its ad sales to Aidem Ventures

    Jai Maharashtra assigns its ad sales to Aidem Ventures

    MUMBAI: The team at media and ad sales repping company Aidem Ventures is saying Jai Maharashtra these days. No, no they are not becoming fundamental Maharashtrians; the company has been appointed as the official media and sales rep for the news channel from the Sahana group which was launched on 1 May 2013.

    Jai Maharashtra has brought on board a great blend of anchors and the finest talent from the news television industry. With Mandar Phanse as the editor, Tulsidas Bhoiteand and Ravi Ambekar as the executive editors, the channel has already gained tremendous traction in the Maharashtra market.

    Jai Maharashtra plans to establish a strong foothold in the Television industry which is evident from its availability across cable & leading DTH platforms including Videocon D2H, 7 Star, Scod18, Siti Cable and GTPL. Jai Maharashtra boasts of a modern infrastructure to broadcast digital quality signals promising exceptional clarity.

    Aidem Ventures Regional and News Broadcast business head Alok Rakshit says: “Regional channels accounted for approximately 27 per cent of total television viewership in 2012, which is proportionate to the advertising market share they commanded during the same period. Advertising interest in regional markets is strong and broadcasters see immense potential for revenues from local advertisers who are willing to pay a premium to reach their targeted audience. From our own experience with regional channels, we have come to realise that a staggering number of advertisers are seeing the benefits of developing localised communications strategies using sponsorships, promotions and integrated branded content around regional TV. It gives us immense pleasure to be associated with Jai Maharashtra and look forward to driving its vision.”

    “The Aidem team has a good understanding of the Indian advertising market and we believe they‘ll help us connect better with our advertisers. We look forward to a continued association with them to help us achieve better yield for the channel over the long term” said Sahana group‘s Waahiid Ali Khan.

    “Given Aidem‘s proven track record in the News TV advertising trade, this association is a great way to begin the new financial year,” added Sahana Films president Adil Mateen.

  • Shagun TV outsources ad sales to Aidem Ventures

    Shagun TV outsources ad sales to Aidem Ventures

    MUMBAI: It made all the right buzz when it announced last month that it was launching India‘s first 24 hour wedding entertainment TV channel. Now Shagun TV is looking to cash in on the buzz and the viewers that will be tuning into it. The channel‘s management has signed on ad sales firm Aidem to manage and sell its ad inventory.

    “We are happy to be associated with Aidem Ventures. We are looking forward for a fruitful bonding and a long term relationship with this organisation of national repute,” adds Vertent Media Soft Pvt Ltd chairman Chakardhar Dhoundiyal.

    “10 million couples get married in India every year! Marriage is indeed considered one of the biggest celebrations in an Indian‘s life. The channel carries the same ?avour,” says Shagun TV‘s Arunanjan Jha. “The Indian wedding industry is estimated to be a staggering 1,25,000 crore and the number just gets bigger every year. It is for this reason that the largest Food and beverages, apparel, jewelry, consumer durables and furniture players want a piece of this pie. With Shagun TV, we want to ensure that we set the pace for the changing face of the Indian broadcast industry.”

    Aidem Ventures director Vikas Khanchandani is thrilled to bits on his company‘s new partnership. Says he: “The entire Aidem team is glad to be associated with Shagun TV. With the second phase of digitisation, the TV audience will be able to access diverse content and sampling of such content will continue to witness a surge.”

    He points out that Shagun TV‘s innovative content has tremendous potential with existing and new advertisers alike. “Beyond the usual FCT buys, a channel offers a wide range of possibilities ranging from events, in-show integrations, selective & premium non-FCT ad elements and sponsored specials,” he reveals.

    According to him, the weddings business is growing at a 25 per cent clip year on year and is recession proof. “We are also looking forward to work with stakeholders in the wedding business ecosystem to enhance opportunities,” Khandchandani highlights.

    A press release states that “the channel‘s content is unquestionably, like no other. It features pre-nuptial and post-nuptial programmes, issues and relevant information around marriages. There is ‘Mere Jeevansathi‘, a primetime show that complements the theme and concept of the channel. It is the first match-making show in the history of Indian television. There is ‘Toh Baat Pakki‘, a chat show that focuses on how a prospective groom and bride look forward to leading a life of shared joys, emotions and aspirations. ‘Gold n Beautiful‘ features trends and patterns prevailing across India in the wedding jewelry market. ‘Honeymoon Travels‘ unravels exotics honeymoon destinations. The channel will soon be announcing its Hindi fiction line up.”

  • NDTV ends ad sales outsourcing deal with Star

    NDTV ends ad sales outsourcing deal with Star

    MUMBAI: New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) has decided to end its advertising sales outsourcing arrangement with Star India for the news business, after allowing the Rupert Murdoch company to handle it from 1 April 2011.

    NDTV’s ad sales revenue in 2011-12 remained flat at Rs 2.62 billion in a fiscal that witnessed slowdown in the economy.

    “We have managed ad sales of our lifestyle channel NDTV Good Times, convergence and other smaller businesses successfully. Star has assisted us in transitioning the team. We see it as a positive step,” NDTV executive vice-chairman KVL Narayan Rao told Indiantelevision.com.

    NDTV will take its sales and marketing destiny into its own hands from Star India and the transition process has already begun. The Star sales team that was working on the NDTV channels — NDTV 24X7, NDTV Profit and NDTV India — will be transferred to NDTV.

    The transfer of sales team from Star to NDTV will ensure close integration with a number of fresh initiatives that NDTV is launching. Under NDTV Lifestyle Holdings, NDTV and joint venture partner Astro plan to launch a slew of niche channels in the lifestyle genre. NDTV Good Times is already a profitable channel.

    “Now that the (NDTV sales) team is ready and NDTV wishes to take charge of its own destiny, we amicably agreed to exit.” said Star India CEO Uday Shankar.

    NDTV’s executive co-chairperson Prannoy Roy said, “Working together with Star has been a great experience.”

    NDTV in its 2011-12 annual report said 2011 was a challenging year for the television broadcasting industry with pressure on advertising rates and total television ad market estimated to have grown by around 12 per cent during the year, less than the projected growth of 15 per cent.

    The challenges are going to stay as the ad market continues to be sluggish. “In the short run, NDTV will have to bear the cost of running its own ad sales team. And posting ad revenue growth in a tough market would always be a challenge,” a media analyst said.

    Prior to Star, NDTV’s ad sales duties were handled by Raj Nayak-promoted Aidem Ventures. The broadcaster did not renew the deal with Aidem in March 2011 and instead turned to Star India.

    NDTV had outsourced its ad sales to Aidem Ventures for one year, after Nayak quit as CEO of NDTV Media to float his own company. NDTV had bought back Nayak and his team’s 26 per cent stake in NDTV Media, a company that was handling the ad sales of the broadcasting company.

  • Aidem Ventures to handle Getit’s corporate ad sales

    MUMBAI: Getit has appointed Aidem Ventures as its corporate advertising sales representative for the next 5 years.

    Through this mandate, Aidem will be responsible for marketing Getit’s synergistic product suite to leading brands, agencies and corporates. The products include a free-deals site – www.getithotdeals.in, India’s leading mall locator – www.getitmalls.com, B2B platform – www.tradeget.com, a host of micro-communities in key verticals such as automotive, weddings, young-moms, gadgets, travel, fashion, food etc. in addition to its local search engine – www.getit.in and leading free-classifieds website – freeads.in.

    While Aidem will be responsible for services to large corporate clients, key brands and agencies, Getit will continue to sell directly to its SME clients in over 70 cities, through its 1200+ strong sales force.

    Getit already has over 85,000 paying SME advertisers across India; more than three million are listed businesses in its databases. Its platforms receive over four million visitors monthly and generate over 17 million page views. Already more than a million Getit local search apps have been downloaded across iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Java and Symbian platforms.

    Getit has alliances with leading media and telecom companies, wherein it powers local search and classifieds on their digital platforms. Some of these are with NDTV.com, Indiatoday.in, Dainikbhaskar, Aircel, Loop Mobile and RadioOne in Chennai.

    Getit Infoservices CEO Sidharth Gupta said, “We have appointed a strategic sales partner in Aidem and going by their track record and level of commitment to their partners, we are confident that we can take our business to new heights. The search advertising industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India and trade analysts have pegged it to grow 5 folds in the next year. We at Getit want to ensure that we set the pace for the growth of the industry and appointing our sales partner is a big step in that direction.”

    Added Aidem Ventures EVP Kaushal Dalal, “We are excited with the mandate to enhance the advertising potential of Getit that will provide brands with a perfect platform for a sustained engagement with consumers. This partnership also complements our plans to expand Aidem’s footprint in the digital and new media space. With a fair percentage of the consumers spending almost 16 hours a week online, it’s a strategic decision for most brands to be proactive in the digital space for best possible consumer engagement. It is our constant endeavor to enable the Indian advertiser base to explore lucrative media platforms.”

    Directional media is the much needed link to complete a brand’s advertising cycle by bridging the gap between desire (purchase) and action. For brands, it ensures an instant brand connect with consumers, just when there is purchase intent. Getit comes with the proposition to fill the need gap in the advertising cycle of every brand with its directional media offering.

    Getit, the pioneers of the concept of Yellow Pages in India, has transformed into an integrated digital media organisation specializing in local search and classifieds. It is India’s leading ‘directional media’ platform providing leads to businesses & brands, across media and devices, thereby helping their business grow. The aim is to connect buyers to sellers, thereby generating actionable leads that result in immediate sales.

  • Aidem Ventures bags sales duties of Oriya GEC Lakshyya Entertainment

    Aidem Ventures bags sales duties of Oriya GEC Lakshyya Entertainment

    MUMBAI: After bagging Mi Marathi, Aidem Ventures has won the India sales account of Oriya general entertainment channel Lakshyya Entertaiment.

    The free-to-air channel is the first from Dreams Daru Bramha Productions and claims to have garnered 65 GRPs in the first week of its launch in September 2010. The channel provides wholesome programming and has a deep focus on on-ground events.

    Said Aidem Ventures head, regional and entertainment business Alok Rakshit, “Media agencies have, over the years, realised the importance of regional channels in focused targeting. Regional channels have now become a crucial element of media plans not just because of the cost advantage they provide, but also because of their regional focus. Aidem commands domain expertise in the regional GEC space and Odisha media is the next big thing now. Our team is very well equipped to enhance the advertising potential of the channel and change the face of the market.”

    TV spends in Odisha have increased more than 5 times over the past 4 years, a big leap for a predominantly print-dominated market. The size of the market is pegged at Rs 700 million and is poised to grow further, said an official statement from Aidem Ventures.

  • Policybazaar.Com assigns ad sales duties to Aidem Ventures

    Policybazaar.Com assigns ad sales duties to Aidem Ventures

    MUMBAI: Media consulting, marketing and advertising sales company Aidem Ventures has been appointed as an advertising partner for Policybazaar.com.

    Aidem will help Policybazaar.com to optimise the ad space available on the website and bring about more value proposition for the prospective customers.

    Aidem Ventures new business initiatives head Shailendra Shetty said, “With an average user spending 16 hours/week online and an increased attention of the advertiser to the space, the medium is looking up to some good times in the near future. It is the futuristic planning of the young and dynamic team at Policybazaar.com that has made them trust Aidem Ventures with their advertising sales mandate. As it has been quoted often, today, almost every brand’s path-to-purchase starts on the digital medium.”

    According to trade analysts, the next decade will bring a massive growth in the Indian Internet sector, supported by highly favourable demographics, growing Internet/broadband penetration, launch of world’s best 3G networks, growing middle class/income levels, noticeable pick-up in technology/gadget and mobile culture. India has already witnessed a surge in home-grown Internet start-ups.

    Policybazaar.Com chief marketing officer Akshay Mehrotra said, “Currently we attract close to five million users each month on our website. Consumer visit to our portal to understand, compare and buy financial products like life insurance, motor insurance, health insurance, personal loans, home loans and MFs. With such large customer visits we wanted to optimise the ad space available on our site and needed help of Aidem to reach out to more advertisers.”

  • Microsoft appoints Ybrant Digital as its sales house, Aidem

    Microsoft appoints Ybrant Digital as its sales house, Aidem

    MUMBAI: Microsoft Corporation India today announced the appointment of Ybrant Digital Limited as the sales house for the cities outside Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore even as it plans to expand to Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Goa.

    Microsoft Advertising’s existing sales partner, AIDEM Ventures, will continue to drive sales in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bangalore.

    Microsoft India country director advertising and online Neville Taraporewalla said, “The growth of the Internet is enabling digital lifestyles at a pace never seen before and resultantly we today live in an era of consumption on the go and increasing online conversations. Interestingly, tier II cities are emerging as huge growth drivers and this presents an opportunity for us to enable businesses to engage with their audiences in an effective and interactive manner, like never before. Our tie up with Ybrant Digital is well positioned to help us in this direction, and we are excited about the opportunities ahead.”

    Ybrant Digital chairman and CEO Suresh Reddy said, “Ybrant is delighted to provide businesses an option to advertise with premium media properties owned by Microsoft. Together with Microsoft we will ensure maximum ROI on the advertising rupee spent by our advertisers across the region.”

    The digital advertising market has grown in the recent years crossing the $166 million mark in 2011 and is expected to reach $273 million by 2013, according to ZenithOptimedia in its July 2011 report. Internet is increasingly being consumed in smaller towns and cities. In fact, of India’s total Internet population of 112 million, non-metro cities account for approximately 68 per cent, according to IAMAI, I-Cube.

    Founded in 2000 and headquartered in India, Ybrant Digital holds offices in 20 countries, including US, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Ukraine, Serbia, Israel, China, India, and Australia, and with representatives or partners in Spain, Greece and Netherlands.

  • Aidem Ventures to handle KBS World’s ad sales

    Aidem Ventures to handle KBS World’s ad sales

    MUMBAI: Aidem Ventures will now handle the media sales function for the South Korean international TV channel, KBS World.

    The channel, which is being distributed and broadcast via pay TV operators around the world, is available on Reliance Digital TV in India.

    KBS senior manager channel and content business Tae-Ho Sung said, “KBS is happy to sign a deal with Aidem Ventures for media sales of the KBS World channel in India. In the years to come, we will be steadily developing the local advertising business into a significant revenue source by jointly teaming up with Aidem Ventures and Coast Road Media.”

    KBS World was represented in this transaction by Stuart Tenzer of Coast Road Media LLC.

    Aidem Ventures head – International and digital businesses Neena Dasgupta said, “We are pleased to include KBS World in our steadily increasing bouquet of international offerings to global Indian advertisers. The presence of KBS World shall further enhance our sales bouquet to advertisers and agencies.”

  • Aidem Ventures to handle The Economist’s online biz

    Aidem Ventures to handle The Economist’s online biz

    MUMBAI: The current affairs magzine The Economist has appointed Aidem Ventures as the media representative of their online business in India.

    The Economist Group (Asia/Pacific) digital sales director Inez Albert said, “We look forward to strengthen our business presence in India by appointing Aidem Ventures as our representative in India. This partnership will ensure that our commitment of sharing world views and unbiased news reaches out to all stakeholders in the Indian market. We look forward to partnering with some of the best companies in India.”
     
    “We are excited with this mandate to enhance the advertising potential of The Economist in India,” said Aidem Ventures head- digital and International business Neena Dasgupta. “Aidem, with its extensive experience and track record in the news and digital space, is best equipped to partner with The Economist Online to strengthen their presence in the Indian market.”

    The site provides daily diet of news, analysis, columns, blogs, and multimedia, while contributing to the ongoing debates and discussions themselves. It also features a suite of research tools and data for subscribers, including free full access to a searchable archive, as well as The Economist audio edition.
     
    The Economist Group India MD Suprio Guha Thakurta added,, “We have appointed a strategic sales partner in Aidem and going by their domain expertise (news and digital), we are certain that we can take our online business to new heights in India.”