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Tag: Ashish Bhasin

  • Will the falling Re hit TV ad spends?

    Will the falling Re hit TV ad spends?

    With the rupee in free fall, escalating prices and the economy teetering on the brink of collapse, it wouldn’t be incorrect to say the country is going through one of its worst phases presently. The first quarter of the current fiscal, which registered the slowest growth in over four years, saw market sentiment at an all time low. The dismal scenario made us wonder if television advertisers too had been forced to tighten their ad budgets, adversely impacting broadcasters in the process. Talking to a cross-section of advertisers, media planners and broadcasters,indiantelevision.com found that industry opinion stands divided on the issue.

    Aegis Group plc chairman India & CEO South East Asia Ashish Bhasin blamed the negativity in the air for the industry thinking that reduced ad spends were not too far away. “Growth is still there but not as much as one would expect or wish it to be. Therefore, people have started thinking that cuts are on their way,” he opined.  

    A media planner said on the condition of anonymity: “The general mood isn’t positive. Advertisers are bound to rethink on the money allocated for advertising as there is an imbalance between demand and supply. People are not in the mood to go out and spend, so advertisers are apprehensive about spending too.”

    Godrej & Boyce vice president (sales & marketing) Kamal Nandi put it out in clear terms saying: “We apportion a percentage of our topline to advertising promotion. If the topline growth is not moving as per our expectation, then we will drop expenditure. Initially, when we had done the planning, we were expecting the market to grow at 20 per cent, but it is growing at half of that.”

    He asserted, “If the topline is dropping, then proportionately, the advertising will also drop,” saying that the company now plans to spend only where it gets higher ROIs. “We are very open to this though,” he added.

    However, Parle products general manager (marketing) Pravin Kulkarni had a different take on the matter. “Depreciation of the rupee will not affect advertising. Budget cuts happen because of media costs going up. Media costs depend on how much inventory is available, and what is the demand for that. And if an advertiser is cutting down, then it is because of that,” he observed.

    A Vodafone spokesperson too said that such slowdowns don’t affect the company as budgets are decided and allocated at the beginning of the financial year itself.
    Others reasoned that with the festive season just round the corner, it was difficult to ignore or drastically reduce ad spends.

    Said Madison Group COO – buying Neel Kamal Sharma: “This year, the festive season is not going to be like previous years. Clients are cautious because of the economy,” adding there were chances of the budgets being revisited. “The impact will be seen across categories as the fall in market and depreciation of rupee is affecting everyone. But the impact as well as cuts will vary from company to company,” he said.
    Indeed, many media planners were of the view that though the general trend would be of companies either rolling-back or postponing the launches of new products, the festive season could not be ignored. They even went on to say that most advertisers allocate a large portion of their budgets for end of year as consumers are bound to shop more because of various festivals.

    Said E&Y consultant Mihir Date: “If you look at TV or print, one can see advertisers have already started their new campaigns. There are ads splashed all across and it will only increase in the coming months. So I think, apart from certain sectors, no one else will cut back.”

    Similarly, a Dabur spokesperson said the company wasn’t planning to cut down on ad spends because of the impending festive season.

    An industry expert observed: “In the current market circumstances, anything is possible. Cutting ad spends is not something that advertisers will voluntarily do, unless they are pushed to the wall. But I do not think it’s happening as of now.”
    Meanwhile, Zee chief sales officer Ashish Sehgal shared a diametrically opposite view on the subject of ad spends. “I presume the economy actually pushes advertisers to increase budgets to push sales. Recession hits the consumers directly, so advertisers will have to do more of advertising. This is one cost they will have to invest in to protect their future. One cannot ignore the existing portfolios as far as FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) is concerned whereas in the auto sector, there are 10-15 launches that are planned so they need to invest there.”

    Similarly, ITV (News X and India News) ad sales head Arti Machama said: “We haven’t got any negative sentiments from our clients. And if it happens, then all broadcasters will be affected. However, if regular advertisers pull out, retail will still be there. Plus, with state elections and festivities coming up, advertisers will have to build up for next year.”

    Suvarna business head Anup Chandrashekar said, “Our ad revenues have grown y-o-y despite the economic slowdown. The large FMCG advertisers have continued spending on our channel and we do not see any major impact on revenues. We are buoyant that we will see a significant growth in revenues this year backed by our increase in viewership performance.”

    With no consensus on whether advertisers will slash ad budgets or not in the current scenario, we proceeded to find out whether broadcasters would agree to such a cut, if at all…

    “If they don’t agree, it is up to them. But if brands, manufacturers are not getting the expected growth, how will they invest in communication?” said Nandi in a matter-of-fact manner.

    A CEO of a niche channel felt the genre would be the most hit and went on to argue: “Contrary to what most advertisers do, if they want to save money, they should cut ad spends on GECs and sports channels rather than niche channels where the percentage saved will be lesser. Our primary source of revenue is advertising. So, we will go to more number of clients and introduce more innovations. The festive season is on and they all have to advertise because that’s the only way they can make up for their loss in other times.”

    Several broadcasters felt that with 10+2 coming up, prices were anyway headed north and only premium products would be able to advertise on high-rated channels. As such, advertisers would have to choose if they wanted to go with mass or niche channels. 

    “FMCGs spend throughout the year but it is the automobile and electronic categories keep a huge budget for the month of Oct-Nov. So, we will have to see how much they are willing to spend now with the value of rupee depreciating. So, there could be some cuts, but we will have to wait and watch,” says a senior GEC broadcasting professional who says they were lucky enough to sign in sponsors for the channel‘s upcoming programme.

    A Hindi movie channel head went a step further to insinuate that the anticipation of the possible rate hike due to the ad cap could be the reason for advertisers and agencies to contemplate ad cuts. “This could be some kind of reverse ploy to defend the hike,” he said in a guarded manner.

    All said, the negative vibes of the current slowdown cannot be denied and only the coming weeks will be able to tell if this is all smoke and mirrors or people want to indeed play it safe.

  • Ashish Bhasin is on Festival of Media Global Jury 2013

    Ashish Bhasin is on Festival of Media Global Jury 2013

    Mumbai: Aegis Media South East Asia CEO and India chairman India Ashish Bhasin will be a part of the Final Jury Panel at the Festival of Media Global 2013 in Montreux, Switzerland.


    The final jury deliberations are slated to happen on 27 and 28 April.


    In addition, Bhasin will also be a speaker at the Agency Jeopardy event at the Festival of Media Global 2013, to be held on April 29.


    Bhasin said “I look forward to being a member of the final jury at the Festival of Media Global this year. It is a great opportunity for me to see the best of the media work globally and to interact with some of the best minds in our profession. I also look forward to speaking at the Agency Jeopardy event. I am sure it will be a great experience for me and a good representation for India in this global forum”.


    Bhasin, who is also the honorable secretary and executive committee member of AAAI, on the Board of Governors of the Media Research Users Council, serves on the managing committee of the Readership Studies Council of India and Co-chairs the AAAI-IBF committee amongst other industry bodies.


    In the past he has served and chaired several national and international juries, including Cannes Lions 2007 Direct Jury and Dubai Lynx 2008 Direct and Interactive juries.

  • Ashish Bhasin is on Festival of Media Global Jury 2013

    Ashish Bhasin is on Festival of Media Global Jury 2013

    Mumbai: Aegis Media South East Asia CEO and India chairman India Ashish Bhasin will be a part of the Final Jury Panel at the Festival of Media Global 2013 in Montreux, Switzerland.


    The final jury deliberations are slated to happen on 27 and 28 April.


    In addition, Bhasin will also be a speaker at the Agency Jeopardy event at the Festival of Media Global 2013, to be held on April 29.


    Bhasin said “I look forward to being a member of the final jury at the Festival of Media Global this year. It is a great opportunity for me to see the best of the media work globally and to interact with some of the best minds in our profession. I also look forward to speaking at the Agency Jeopardy event. I am sure it will be a great experience for me and a good representation for India in this global forum”.


    Bhasin, who is also the honorable secretary and executive committee member of AAAI, on the Board of Governors of the Media Research Users Council, serves on the managing committee of the Readership Studies Council of India and Co-chairs the AAAI-IBF committee amongst other industry bodies.


    In the past he has served and chaired several national and international juries, including Cannes Lions 2007 Direct Jury and Dubai Lynx 2008 Direct and Interactive juries.

  • Keshav Chandorkar to head rural marketing function at Carat Fresh

    MUMBAI: Aegis Media’s Carat Fresh Integrated has launched its rural marketing vertical with KeshavChandorkar who comes in as National Head- Rural Marketing.

    He will report to Carat Fresh Integrated VP Sampat Shenoy.

    Chandorkar’s previous stint was as Dun and Bradstreet National Manager Rural Marketing. Prior to that, he was at rural marketing firm Linterland for nearly a decade.

    Aegis Media South East Asia CEO and India Chairman Ashish Bhasin said, “Rural marketing, in a country like India, is probably the most important aspect for several marketers but is often ignored due to the lack of knowledgeable and professional agencies. Having worked on several rural brands myself, including the launch of Wheel by HUL, and having established Linterland from scratch, my learning is that rural marketing has an almost endless potential for our clients, particularly when urban markets are slowing down.”

    Shenoy said, “In Keshav, we have a seasoned media professional with huge experience in the rural sector. His experience will help us in further strengthening our rural operations and in expanding our reach.”

    Chandorkar said, “I wish to explore all growth possibilities and aspire to expand our presence to make it stronger in the years to come.”

    He has around 17 years of experience in activation, profit centre management, key accounts management, rural marketing and strategy planning. His other stints during his career include Dr. Jain Video on Wheels and Selvel.

  • Mindshare gets maximum shortlists at Media Abbys 2013

    MUMBAI: GroupM‘s Mindshare leads the Media Abbys shortlist this year with 20 entries from India and one entry from Sri Lanka.

    IPG Mediabrands India‘s Lodestar UM follows with 16 entries, while GroupM‘s Maxus falls one short to be a close third. Madison Pinnacle has the fourth highest shortlisted entries with 14.

    The Media Abbys has a record 660 entries this year (beating last year‘s record of 628 entries) across 18 categories. The thrust is on digital with 260 entries coming from this medium. The rest 400 entries were from TV, Print, Radio, OOH and Branded Content.

    It was perhaps the result of Media Abby chairman Ashish Bhasin‘s foresight to further divide the digital category into Digital Search, Social Media, Display, Content, Medium and Mobile. The other categories for Media Abby Awards include Best Use of TV, Cinema, Newspapers, Outdoor, Special Events, Radio, Sponsorship, Branded Content, Mixed Media, Youth Marketing, Pro Bono, and South Asia Mixed Media.

    Speaking at the announcement of the Media Abbys shortlist, Bhasin said, “We realised that having one broad category for digital is not fair. The medium is fast catching on to traditional media and has a lot of variety within itself. Comparing a mobile campaign with a website design is like comparing apples to oranges. So we thought of creating the sub categories and giving the different aspects of digital a fair chance to compete.”

    Bhasin also stressed that this year nearly 50 agencies (big and small) participated in the Media Abbys, of which 27 agencies feature in the shortlist. “It is heartening to see that even independent and upcoming agencies are willing to participate. This year has seen a very encouraging participation from the entire industry,” Bhasin added.

    Apart from adding sub categories to the Media Abbys, this year was also the first time that the entire judging process was digital. Each jury member was given a laptop with headphones to see the case studies. The scores were entered online which were then collected on a common server and compiled. The entries for the awards were required on a USB drive rather than the usual hard copies.

    “We wanted to make the process as efficient as possible. By going digital, we have increased the transparency and are also doing our bit for the environment by saving paper,” explained Bhasin.

    The final judging process for the Media Abby Awards will be held on the 8 March 8 and the Media Awards will be held on 5 April 5 along with Digital, Design and Direct.

  • Aegis Media launches CCS in India

    MUMBAI: Aegis Media has launched its proprietary research based tools Consumer Connections System (CCS) in India.

    CCS was originally launched 12 years ago in the UK. It has now expanded globally and is available in 40+ countries covering over 250,000 respondents accounting for over 90 per cent of global advertising expenditure, the company said.

    In APAC, CCS is currently active in China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and now India.

    CCS is an “in-depth” single source of media, marketing and consumer targeting data in the world and will provide India and Aegis Media clients, actionable insight into communication usage and engagement across bought, owned and earned digital, experiential and media channels.

    The investment in the tool stems from a belief that digital is changing everything, and, crucially, contributes to the way advertisers put an understanding of how consumers think and behave at the heart of everything they do, the company said.

    According to the company, with a focus on digital, this is the first study to have a significant focus on the digital touchpoints and e-commerce which is on a growth spurt in India. In-depth information is available for the through CCS which is capable of evaluating the comfort of the consumer with e-commerce.

    In the new era of media, CCS helps to create powerful connections between client‘s brands and their most valuable consumers.

    Aegis Group chairman India and CEO South East Asia Ashish Bhasin said, “CCS is based on a communications, lifestyle and product survey conducted across 18 towns and cities across SEC A, B, C and D thus making it the most in-depth tool available in the country. It facilitates the consumer-centric philosophy that we apply to strategy and communications. This is combined with insight into our clients‘ brands and categories making bespoke consumer segmentations truly actionable through communication. This is India‘s largest research of this nature, with a global footprint.”

    “We will be introducing all of our clients to this tool which will become an integral part of our Integrated Communication Planning (ICP) process for all of them. Our investment is not a one off and we will be repeating the research whenever required, from now on. We will also make available to our clients an opportunity to go back to each of the consumers who have been interviewed as the part of the benchmark study and run a deep dive analysis specific to their categories. This would further enable our clients to understand the way the consumers interface with media and how they respond to their brands,” Bhasin added

    The research was conducted across 18 cities and across 9000 respondents to measures the Consumer‘s relationship with communications generically and by category. It measures aspects like Generic Channel Involvement across 39 touch points (Bought, Owned and Earned) addressing questions on consumption, level of interest/enjoyment, level of attention paid to the Touch-point, level of engagement with the Touch-point. It goes further into understanding the Category Specific Channel Involvement across 61 touch-points (Bought, Owned and Earned) answering queries like Action as a result of noticeability and What channel facilitated post engagement.

    On the digital space and e-commerce, the research shows a growing role for e-commerce in the market and early studies suggest.

  • Agencies feel need to speed up BARC

    MUMBAI: The need for speeding up the existence of a transparent television audience system under the aegis of the broadcasters and the advertising and media agencies is gaining ground after NDTV‘s lawsuit has made allegations against TAM Media, the single TV ratings measurement currency in India.

    “BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) needs to probably be expedited. It will not be a supervisory but a governing body. The clients, the broadcasters and the agencies will be represented in that,” said Aegis Media CEO South East Asia Ashish Bhasin.

    The shareholding of BARC was announced in March 2012 with the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) holding 60 per cent equity and the balance 40 per cent being equally shared by the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI). But it has still to become operational and the draft incorporating the memorandum of agreement (MOA) and the Articles of Association (AoA) finally approved and signed.

    Several industry professionals from the advertising and media agencies said that a body overseeing TAM was the need of the hour.

    A senior official from a leading agency emphasised the need for a body like BARC as TAM has become akin to the Holy Grail or Bible when it comes to TV ratings. “I have always wondered how can you base your decisions on a single ratings agency that is so powerful to decide the buying of over Rs 110 billion of television advertising spend. I have found the peoplemeters and the sample size inadequate and there have been allegations of tampering. It defies rationale under these circumstances if we are not to speed up BARC.”

    Another top official from a different agency pointed out that the best way is to review data simultaneously as it gets thrown up so that errors can be kept in check or rectified timely. The anomalies can, thus, be investigated promptly. If there is any mistake, genuine or of malicious intent, it can be set right,” he remarked.

    Media agencies do not depend entirely on TAM when they do their buying plans for their clients. “We also look at other factors and along with our internal research and some element of gut feel we decide on how we can best get to the target audience of the brand. Advertisers and media agencies don’t trust the TAM data blindly before putting monies behind the channel,” a media professional said.

    Is monopoly of a single ratings currency bad? Bhasin does not think monopoly is the issue. “The issue is if somebody is not doing the job properly or deliberately doing it wrong. That is what has to be monitored and controlled,” he said.

    Another senior media executive, however, disagrees. According to him, this may be a good time for other research agencies to offer services compatible to TAM and provide the industry with an alternative.

    Bhasin, though, feels that it is a better option to have the industry’s resources pooled in one place and a monitoring body structured.

    Most of the media executives agree on one thing: to make BARC operational with much thought and detailing.

  • Aegis expands footprint in Chennai

    MUMBAI: Aegis is expanding its footprint in India. Carat, the media agency from the Aegis stable, has launched in Chennai. Posterscope will also expand its team and launch new services in Chennai.

    Carat will be headed by senior vice president south Joydeep Raha. Aegis also plans to expand its Carat Fresh teams in Chennai with recruitment of new talent and introduction of new services.

    In addition to this, Aegis Media India is consolidating its Chennai office in one building which will house Vizeum, Isobar (Digital) Iprospect (Search), Posterscope (OOH), Hyperspace (Retail), Carat and Carat Fresh Integrated (Activation).

    Aegis Media chairman India and CEO South East Asia Ashish Bhasin said, “We believe Chennai will be an extremely important market in the years to come and the spectacular success of Vizeum has proven that. Vizeum has won several businesses and expanded rapidly in Chennai. We are investing in a world class, state-of-the-art office, with the latest systems, technologies and connectivity. Shortly our clients in Chennai will, perhaps for the first time, have available to them, all specializations under one roof. We will soon announce the launch of a few more of our services, later this year. Our One Aegis promise will, from July 2nd, be available to our clients in Chennai, too. ”

    Vizeum managing director Indian sub continent S Yesudas added, “I have to place on record my appreciation for Team Vizeum Chennai who saw the merit in our story and chucked their other established jobs to put their hands on ours when we were just beginning. We will stay focused on this market in terms of our investment in our product as well as talent. My gratitude also goes out to each of our clients who have stood by us, with a special thanks to Amrutanjan and Sambhu for being the inspiration for our launch in Chennai.”

  • Aegis Media aims at widening profits in 2012

    MUMBAI: Aegis Media expects to widen its profitability in India this year after breaking even in 2011 as it has set itself the target of doubling growth from each of its business verticals.

    “We broke even in 2011. And we expect 2012 to be the first year when we will be significantly profitable,” says Aegis Media chairman (India) and CEO (South East Asia) Ashish Bhasin.

    Aegis Media, part of Aegis Group, has four main businesses – media planning and buying; digital and search; Out-of-home and retail; and activation and creative.

    “Our target for this year is that every business will have at least double the growth of their own category,” says Bhasin.

    Aegis Media does not believe in a silo structure, the way many agencies are run. “We have a unique operating model in that sense. We give the clients all the benefits of specialisation without the hassles of silo-isation. And we are able to do it because we treat India as one country with one P&L (profit and loss).”

    WPP, for instance, has its different agencies work independently and report to the parent company separately .

    “We are media and agency agnostic. We can work with any agency. We are just media specific and we tell clients what combination of media is good for their product or brand,” Bhasin adds.

    Aegis Media‘s aggressively intent got reflected late last year when it acquired a majority stake in Doosra Brand Communications to add creative capability to its India outfit.

    So what will Doosra do for growth? “We are looking at quality rather than volume of work from there. We want them to have one or two marquee clients. Take few great companies and do path-breaking work for them, that‘s the direction we are looking at. We have also planned if at some later stage we can get into end-to-end film solution for clients,” says Bhasin.

    What about Carat, Aegis Media‘s flagship brand, which was a loss-making outfit? “We had good clients in Carat but were not doing full justice to them. So for the last three years our focus has been to give them more attention and quality. So rather than going out for new businesses we wanted to service them well and get more businesses out of them. So for clients like Philips, of which we had only small part of their account, we now have 100 per cent of it,” says Bhasin.

  • Movies Now’s 100% ad rate hike fails to enthuse media agencies

    Movies Now’s 100% ad rate hike fails to enthuse media agencies

    MUMBAI: That the English movies genre is undervalued is not disputable, but Times Television Network’s English movie channel Movies Now has taken a giant leap forward by deciding to double the ad rates on the back of its encouraging performance last year.

    Television Network English Entertainment Channels CEO Ajay Trigunayat says that the aim is to increase the effective rate from Rs 3000 a spot to Rs 6000, contending that the channel has been undersold for a long time.

    “With a very robust one year performance and an equally strong eight weeks performance, we sincerely believe that the brand deserves premier and premium pricing,” Trigunayat states.

    He is, however, quick to concede that the channel will face stiff resistance from advertisers while at the same time asserting that the genre has grown in reach and viewership.

    “The English movie category has grown by 50 per cent in terms of viewership. Overall the English movie channel genre will grow by 15 per cent in terms of revenue this fiscal. I estimate that it made around Rs. 4.2 billion in the previous fiscal. Performing channels in any genre will grow by at least 30 per cent. The rest will struggle,” he explains.

    He says that the channel follows an RODP and ROS route for advertising. “We are flexible depending on a client’s needs and outlay. We have over 260 clients and over 500 brands like Coca-Cola, Nokia, Cadburys, Parle, and Nestle.”

    The question is whether doubling the rate is feasible?

    Ashish Bhasin Chairman and CEO Aegis media feels it will depend on the performance of the channel but the mood currently is not feasible for such a massive hike.

    “It would really depend on the performance of the channel. If there is a significant improvement in their delivery of the audience and ratings, they could draw in growth. But in general advertisers are not in the mood to pay, there is caution in the air,” he says.

    Concurs Indian Media Exchange vice-president Sejal Shah, “It is not a viable thing at all to ask for a 100 per cent ad hike like this when there is no corresponding increase in viewership. Market will not absorb this kind of inflation.”

    Pix business head Sunder Aaron feels while agreeing that the category is under-valued, Movies Now’s decision to raise ad rates by 100 per cent will be hard to get. “Price correction is due. However , Movies Now trying to double its rate is a stretch, given that the movies are all re-runs. The question is whether Movies Now can continue to grow in terms of viewership,” Aaron observes.

    Giving the genre perspective, Star India president ad sales Kevin Vaz is not too enthused about Movies Now’s ad rate hike . However, he admits that a rate hike is imminent.

    “At the end of the day, we are under monetised despite the fact that we deliver premium audience. It is high time advertisers start paying higher price for the audience that we deliver. Right now the rates that English movie channels get is peanuts compared to the kind of audience we deliver. With more and more premium brands launching in India, I think English movie channels will start commanding higher price since we connect them to their core target group,” Vaz affirms.

    Says Lintas Media Group Head of Planning-Mumbai Dhirendra Singh, “If you compare the current rating, Movies Now is almost at par with Star Movies. However, in terms of rate if the channel is going to hike its ad rate by 100 per cent and audience will not be delivered more than Star Movies, then from efficiency point of view the likelihood is that the channel will get a hit.”