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  • Next by Rediffusion names Asheesh Malhotra as executive director

    Next by Rediffusion names Asheesh Malhotra as executive director

    MUMBAI: Next by Rediffusion has roped in Asheesh Malhotra as its executive director. Asheesh joins the Rediffusion group from Dentsu. The launch of Next was announced by Rediffusion on 15 August.

    With over 25 years of experience in the advertising industry, Asheesh has worked in leadership roles at Dentsu, Ogilvy, Lowe and Bates. He has straddled strategy and business functions on global & local businesses alike. He helped launch India’s first private life insurance company, ICICI Pru. He led global business hubs for Castrol and BP across Europe, Asia and also the business of Unilever beverages.

    Asheesh has over the years won the prestigious Effie awards for Unilever, ICICI Pru, Mondelez in India and APAC regions. He has also worked on the launch of Royal Enfield Meteor and Classic and Malabar Gold’s Brides Of India campaigns.

    Additionally, he teaches marketing and advertising students at institutes like SP Jain and Northpoint Center of Learning. He is also on the advisory councils of a couple of universities, and an active member of Intach.

    Asheesh did his schooling at St Edwards in Shimla and went on to pursue his higher studies at Delhi University. Thereafter, he attended the New York Film Academy and studied film and content development. Asheesh is also a certified apple orchardist having grown up in the pristine Kullu valley.

    Welcoming Asheesh Malhotra to Next by Rediffusion, Rediffusion group managing director Dr Sandeep Goyal said, “In Asheesh, we have a true blue-blooded professional who has worked across categories, domains, brands and geographies. I have personally worked with him during his earlier stint at Rediffusion when he was handling the Taj hotels business nearly 20 years ago. We again worked together when he led the Toyota business in Bangalore at Dentsu. Asheesh is client-focused, strategically strong and very good with creative teams. The assignment at Next by Rediffusion is just right for him – a combination of innovation and experience”.

    “This is my second innings at Rediffusion. I love the easy informality at the agency. Also, the wide canvas afforded everyone to do their best. Next by Rediffusion is a rare opportunity for me to create a completely new metaphor in advertising and communication. All soonicorns and unicorns, despite their size and apparent success, need a lot of help with brand building and ideation. We will do just that at Next by Rediffusion”, added Asheesh Malhotra.

    Asheesh Malhotra will be based in Mumbai. Next Rediffusion aims to have offices pan-India in the next 18-24 months.

  • ‘Weekend Unwind’ with: Loktantra Mediatech, CEO & founder Piyush Kulshreshtha

    ‘Weekend Unwind’ with: Loktantra Mediatech, CEO & founder Piyush Kulshreshtha

    Mumbai: With yet another weekend upon us, in our latest ‘Weekend Unwind’ series, it’s time to take a peek into the mind of the head of social networking and conversation platform through a fun lens in an attempt to get to know the person behind the title a little better.

    In this week’s edition, we have Loktantra Mediatech, CEO & founder Piyush Kulshreshtha. In his current pursuit of developing Khul Ke, a homegrown social networking app that enables users to freely express themselves through purposeful and positive conversations that matter and level up their engagement.

    Through his illustrious career spanning over two decades, he’s known for holding prominent positions across leading real estate, and investment organisations. With a strong stance, he is frequently known to lend his voice to the creation of meaningful discourse.

    Prior to embarking on this project, Piyush spent years in a top-management position in Mumbai’s real-estate development industry, where he explored his skills in management and leadership, which groomed him into a poised figurehead.

    In the stock broking industry, Piyush worked for five years in brand management at Motilal Oswal and Sharekhan. During his MBA days, he worked as a radio jockey with All India Radio for three years and spent a year writing for Indian Express’ youth magazine Channel Y. Piyush is a graduate in economics.

    So without further ado, here it goes…

    • Your mantra for life

    Act & perfect, don’t overthink.

    • A book you are currently reading/plan to read

    Vibhanga

    • Your fitness mantra, especially during the pandemic

    Pranayama and light asanas.

    • Your comfort food

    Arahara ki daal and rice with aloo ki bhujia.

    • When the chips are down a quote/philosophy that keeps you going

    This too shall pass.

    • Your guilty pleasure

     Gulab Jamun

    • When was the last time you tried something new?

    Everyday.

    • A life lesson you learnt the hard way

    There is no moment in my life that I do not deserve. Everyone has to carry their own cross.

    • What gets you excited about Life?

    Possibility of becoming a better version of myself.

    • What’s on top of your bucket list?

    Research work on vipassana and Buddha’s discourses.

    • One thing you would most like to change about the world

    Be more objective.

    • An activity that keeps you motivated/charged during tough times

    New ideas and quick execution.

    • What lifts your spirits when life gets you down?

    Vipassana.

    • If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

    Life is a journey, keep moving.

  • Weekend Unwind with: The Rabbit Hole business head Rishabh Khatter 

    Weekend Unwind with: The Rabbit Hole business head Rishabh Khatter 

    Mumbai: Another weekend is upon us, and so is the time to unwind with yet another edition of Indiantelevision.com’s Weekend Unwind—a series of informal chats that peek into the minds of corporate executives. In this week’s session we have The Rabbit Hole business head Rishabh Khatter opening up the windows to his thoughts.

    Having joined FoxyMoron as a senior creative innovations associate in 2015, Rishabh moved up the ranks to spearhead The Rabbit Hole as its business head (content and technology). He is credited with not only developing sustainable business units but also being the creator of The Rabbit Hole-content, successfully marrying content with technology to develop solutions for various brands.

    Under his mantle, it has evolved from being a digital video first agency to a full-service new age content creation ecosystem. Led by Rishabh, the mission of The Rabbit Hole is to turn ideas into reality and deliver outputs that cut through the clutter.

    So here goes: 

    Your mantra for Life
    Acknowledge the good times amid a hard time.

    A Book you are currently reading/plan to read
    Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.

    Your Fitness mantra, especially during the pandemic
    Swimming.

    Your comfort Food
    Chicken wings.

    When the chips are down a Quote/Philosophy that keeps you going
    This too shall pass.

    Your Guilty pleasure
    Watching films and shows below a rating of two on IMDB.

    When was the last time you tried something New?
    When I tried my hand at digital painting.

    A life Lesson you learnt the hard way
    Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.

    What gets you Excited about life?
    Building new relationships.

    What’s on top of your Bucket List?
    F1 Monaco Grand Prix.

    One thing you would most like to Change about the world
    Efforts towards ocean conservation.

    An activity that keeps you Motivated/Charged during tough times
    Travelling.

    What lifts your Spirits when life gets you down?
    Travel vlogging. 

    Your go-to Stress Buster
    SimCity’s badminton.

    If you could give one piece of Advice to your younger self, what would it be?
    There is a place in this world for everyone.

  • upGrad onboards Myleeta AgaWilliams as CEO – International

    upGrad onboards Myleeta AgaWilliams as CEO – International

    Mumbai: EdTech company, upGrad has announced the appointment of Myleeta AgaWilliams as CEO-International to spearhead growth across the APAC, EMEA and US regions. She assumed office in August this year.

    With over two decades of experience in global and digital businesses, Myleeta will be responsible for managing end-to-end international operations and creating region-specific product pipelines, thereby driving high-impact revenue and profitability results.

    Myleeta AgaWilliams will be leveraging her experience in scaling businesses through strategic interventions across content and global distribution for broadcast and streaming media. She will engage with managerial teams based in multiple geographies to align short-term and long-term business objectives for accelerating profitability.

    Previously, she has managed diverse product portfolios and led marketing and sales teams across geographies at Netflix, BBC Studios, Discovery, and UTV, amongst others.

    Commenting on the appointment, upGrad co-founder & MD Mayank Kumar said, “We are at such a high point of our international expansion that we require a leader who has seen these markets evolve to make sound business decisions. Myleeta comes with a strong entrepreneurial mindset and cultural intellect that will augment our operations across existing and upcoming markets.”

    “While we are leading the higher education space in India and have penetrated successfully across SE Asia, we felt it’s the right time to go aggressive with other geographies, which will require strategic linear and non-linear movements to support the growth. Myleeta, who has built and scaled operations across niche markets including Asia, will continue to accelerate our ambition of becoming a global leader within the LifeLongLearning segment,” Kumar added.

    “Taking the hugely successful online learning portfolio that upGrad has pioneered to transform the lives and careers of learners across the globe is a fantastic opportunity,” said Myleeta while talking about her new role at upGrad.

    “In this next stage of growth, we will be looking at each of the markets in which we have ambitions to achieve scale and apply a nuanced and focused strategy, leveraging my past experience and deep knowledge of digital consumption habits. I am thrilled to be joining Ronnie, Mayank, Phalgun, and the leadership team at this exciting phase of high growth,” she concluded.

  • JCDecaux Advertising India promotes Alim Ahmad as business head

    JCDecaux Advertising India promotes Alim Ahmad as business head

    MUMBAI: Alim Ahmad has been promoted to the business head for Mumbai business for JCDecaux Advertising India. With this new assignment, Ahmad will be responsible for overseeing the Mumbai branch including the newly acquired Mumbai Metro Project.

    Ahmad joined JCDecaux India in the year 2014 where he started as assistant manager for sales. During his last eight years of tenure with the agency, he was responsible for direct business acquisition for the organisation. He is also pursuing Doctorate from University of Switzerland on Changing Outdoor Dynamics in India.

    Ahmad holds business insights and an understanding of street furniture and mall media where he has onboarded various reputed clients for the organisation. He was a key member of the UB City Mall Business Team. While working as vertical head – direct business SF, he was responsible to drive the overall mission and vision of JCDecaux Advertising by interfacing with PAN India advertisers regularly. 

    He also served as the brand strategist and business partner for leading companies and orchestrated large-scale outdoor media campaigns on JCDecaux’s media inventory.

  • Sandeep Bhushan logs out of Meta after seven years

    Sandeep Bhushan logs out of Meta after seven years

    Mumbai: Meta’s director business group India Sandeep Bhushan has announced his decision to move on from the tech conglomerate. Bhushan took to LinkedIn to announce that he will be moving on from the company before the end of this year.

    “I want to share that later this year I will be leaving Meta to start the next phase of my professional life,” he wrote.

    Although he did not disclose his future plans, he mentions that having completed 25 years of his professional journey this month, he is keen to go deeper into the social sector and “build new learning muscle” that can guide his contribution over the next 25 years.

    Bhushan further added, “I will be on a listening and reflection tour for a while as I plan the details ahead. Before that, I will be at Meta for the next few months to extend all possible transition support to Ajit Mohan and the team for their ambitious plans for Meta’s social and business impact in India.”

    Prior to taking on the role of director at Meta business group India, Bhushan was serving as the director and head of global marketing solutions India for six years.

    Furthermore, he is also an invitee to the Board at the Advertising Standards Council of India, in addition to being a board member at MMA APAC.

    He has also worked with companies such as Samsung Electronics, HT Media, and Hindustan Unilever towards the beginning of his career.

  • TCH 2022: How to drive the next wave of growth in the digital audio ecosystem

    TCH 2022: How to drive the next wave of growth in the digital audio ecosystem

    Mumbai: The Indian audio and music landscape has undergone a paradigm shift in the past few years. On-demand audio content and podcasts are transforming people’s listening habits, just as on-demand video has changed how viewers watch television. Music streaming platforms have been gaining traction driven by the growing appetite for on-demand music and the rising popularity of podcasts, with a pandemic-prompted shift in the public’s content consumption patterns. The Indian music streaming market is projected to cross $870 million by the year 2025, according to the data from market research firm Statista.

    On day two of the sixth edition of Indiantelevision.com’s The Content Hub Summit 2022 held on Thursday in Mumbai, executives of the music and audio content industry share their insights on ‘Decoding the business of audio, music and podcast’. The informative session chaired by Ideabrew Studios co-founder & CEO Aditya Kuber saw industry insiders comprising Hungama Digital chief executive officer Siddhartha Roy, Showbox vice president -Programming & Strategy Clyde Dsouza and Pocket FM senior vice president – content Ashu Behl discuss ways and means to drive the next wave of business growth in the digital audio space.

    The summit was presented by Viacom18, and co-powered by Applause Entertainment and IN10 Media Network. Aaj Tak Connected Stream is the association partner. Industry partners are Fremantle India, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, One Take Media, Pratilipi, Pocket FM and The Viral Fever. The Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association (IMPPA) is our community partner. 

    With widespread internet penetration, and affordable smartphones becoming a common commodity even in the country’s tier three and four towns, the boundaries of the music streaming landscape have been pushed.

    Showbox’s Clyde Dsouza, represents the more traditional media which some may say is on its way out. In his view, the more things change the more they remain the same. He said “While the platforms will keep evolving, the core piece- which’s the content- be it audio or visual- will always remain the same. So, the curation, the programming, the packaging- all of that remains the same. It’s just that the distribution models will keep changing.”

    While the Indian market is now choc-a-bloc with digital music streaming platforms, OTTs that are purely ‘non-music’ and ‘audio-based’, such as Pocket FM, are also getting launched. These OTTs are evolving the audio-listening space into three broad categories, namely the traditional informative podcasts, audio books and lastly, the dominant category of audio series, explained Pocket FM’s Ashu Behl.

    “The biggest barrier to user acquisition for us was there are not many audio user-acquisition channels, unless we go to competitors like Gaana or maybe, Hungama. So, we actually leveraged a video-led acquisition approach where we got consumers to sample audio content in some form of video, maybe a five-minute or three-minute clip,” continued Behl. “When the audience gets ‘stuck’ to the content or the story they then latch onto the content and download the app and continue to listen.”

    How has the digital side of the business affected revenue on the traditional side, Ideabrew Studios’s Aditya Kuber asked Showbox’s Dsouza. From an advertising perspective one might have expected a downturn from digital platforms eating away at the advertising revenue, but there’s actually been an upturn, observed D’souza.

    “I think traditional TV media is grounded within the ecosystem of the advertiser, the client, the audience and the measurability,” he added further. “Showbox has seen a huge uptick, not only in terms of viewership, but also in terms of advertising. So, music channels are still robust and it’s a while away for the traditional space to be upturned as such.”

    The industry stakeholders discussed some of the newer payment methods in terms of micropayment models, and how smaller pieces of content can be converted into paid pieces of content.

    “When we started monetising, we did so with an annual subscription model, but then we realised there’s an entry barrier for users to pay even nominal amounts,” said Behl. “So, we completely did away with it and started micro-payments, where the initial user can start spending, say as low as nine rupees, and listen to a number of episodes of a particular show.” This has lowered the entry barrier for the users, as well as, helped retention and stickiness of our long-form content.

    When it comes to streaming platforms- more so music-driven- the entire category, each of us are aggressively continuing to grow our communities and each of us have different ways and forms in the way we are going about it, said Hungama Digital’s Siddhartha Roy. “From a payment perspective, it’s not the price. It’s all about the fact that if I’m getting the service free, why should I be paying? So, each of us are running different programs on how to move the consumer from a ‘free’ bucket into ‘paid’.”

    What is the role that brands can play, in terms of advertising and effectively tapping into a platform’s community of users, asked Kuber, while going beyond the standard sponsorship or advertising route? The key for brands could be to step up by taking calculated risks and partnering more with the content, say the panellists.

    Taking the same content, and packaging it and giving the brand proposition across music, OTT and broadcast, creating a 360-degree play with the brand’s passion was some of the other means spoken about. Another innovation is integrating the brand’s stories as a part of an audio series or content, where brands can actually monetise and see the outcome.

    One of the major challenges brands face today is measuring the return on investment (RoI) on their investments in the digital audio space. How are the platforms aiding the brands on this, asked Kuber.

    Digital as a medium is the most transparent measurement of what you would call ‘brand value’, says Roy. “It could be done through an impression, a view, or through the time spent. So, the amount of data that is being put out to brands, the effective RoI for the money that they deploy on advertising in digital – it can’t get more transparent than that.”

    That context-setting and target-setting needs to be done at the time of engaging with the brand, he added.

    The panellists also debated on having a standardised tool of data measurement for brands to measure their ROI, when it came to digital platforms.

    On dealing with upcoming challenges and rising competition in the audio content space, experts were united about applying the standard tenets of staying ‘relevant’ and ‘committed’, while continuing to add something new and of value to the ecosystem.

    Watch the entire session.

  • Redcliffe appoints Ishaan Khanna as new director – reproductive medicine & genetics

    Redcliffe appoints Ishaan Khanna as new director – reproductive medicine & genetics

    New Delhi: Redcliffe Lifetech US and India unit Redcliffe Labs, on 26 May 2022 announced Ishaan Khanna as director – reproductive medicine and genetics.

    Ishaan is a techno-commercial leader with over 19 years of experience in institutional and commercial healthcare businesses. He has effectively built organizations from the ground up and demonstrated success in establishing successful; diagnostic business models in India and abroad.

    He started his career as a scientist with assignments spanning across Australia and the UK. After coming back to India he worked in business development leadership roles in Biotech and pharma companies such as Avesthagen and Krishna Antioxidants.

    His last assignment was at Lifecell where he was the CEO, Biobank and Diagnostics where he spent over a decade.

    He also brought some of the key diagnostic platforms to India for the first time such as QFPCR and rapid genetic testing to support the need of sick infants and pregnant women and building leadership in domains such as newborn screening. In his previous roles, he has built a pan India network of labs and efficient networks, something which he wishes to do at a much larger scale at Redcliffe.

    It is also noteworthy to mention that Ishaan has been facilitated with various awards such as the Best Healthcare CEO, Sustainability leader and Start-up Baron.

    Ishaan is a gold medalist in bachelors biotechnology, Manipal University, Kasturba Medical College/ Manipal Lifescience School India; and holds masters in biotechnology and masters in enterprise, University of Manchester.

    Redcliffe Labs founder Dheeraj Jain said, “Ishaan comes with a rich experience and his work reflects his interest in taking healthcare to the masses, which is exactly in sync with Redcliffe’s philosophy. We are confident that he will perfectly lead this role. This appointment is also important as the Reproductive Medicine and Genetics market continues to grow and evolve, offering great opportunities for players like us in this space. As we continue to experience strong growth momentum, we feel having the right team is key.”

    Newly appointed Redcliffe Labs director – reproductive medicine and genetics Ishaan Khanna said, “I am honoured to be associated with Redcliffe Labs at a time when the healthcare and genetics industry in India is witnessing upward growth. I am looking forward to being a part of the Redcliffe team and its growth story.”

  • MX Media strengthens growth and business teams in organisational rejig

    MX Media strengthens growth and business teams in organisational rejig

    Mumbai: With the start of the new fiscal year and its continued pursuit to charter new growth areas and scale the business to newer heights, entertainment major MX Media on Saturday announced its new corporate team. The organisational restructuring includes teams for user growth, marketing & brand, PR & corporate communications, revenue, SVOD distribution & partnerships, AVOD and revenue planning & strategy.

    The newly formed teams will work with MX Media chief operating officer Nikhil Gandhi.

    “The last year has been dynamic, transformative and extremely rewarding for MX Media,” said Nikhil Gandhi. “We are extremely proud of our businesses scaling new heights and the value we have been able to create for our customers, shareholders and employees. We are pleased to announce a restructuring of functions and new leadership who will work in driving this exponential growth story further at MX Media.”

    User growth

    The entertainment super app has appointed Niraj Mishra as the head of user acquisition & performance, Amandeep Singh as head of growth strategy & analytic, and Swati Kaushik as the head of programming strategy & content operations.

    Marketing and Brand

    Sandeep Das is the marketing head and will drive show campaigns, trade marketing, brand and consumer strategy.

    PR & Corporate Communications

    Usha Rachael Thomas will lead public relations and corporate communications for all MX Media businesses.

    SVOD Distribution & Partnerships

    Abhishek Joshi will be heading the SVOD business along with partnerships and distribution.

    AVOD

    Dina D’Souza will lead the direct client and agency business as revenue head of AVOD OTT. Nitin Kemse will head the network revenue and drive new ad verticals for self-serve platforms – MX Advantage & MX Audience Network. Ashish Patil will lead MX Studios business and will be supported by Pankaj Malani and Suresh Menon for revenue and production operations respectively, said the company.

    Revenue Planning & Strategy

    To bring a similar focus to revenue planning and strategy, Kunal Bharti will lead this function to drive excellence in pricing strategy, market share growth, planning and best practices. He will be supported by Ramgopal Iyer.

  • We aim to penetrate into tier 3 & 4 markets with continued IPL sponsorship: TCL’s Mikkilineni

    We aim to penetrate into tier 3 & 4 markets with continued IPL sponsorship: TCL’s Mikkilineni

    Mumbai : It’s no secret that the Indian Premier League (IPL) is much more than just a show of the country’s love for the sport of cricket, with tons of money riding on the homegrown tournament. Organised by the richest cricket board in the world – the Board of Control of Cricket (BCCI) – the T20 League has many a deal running into multi-million dollar pacts- from the title sponsorship to broadcasting rights to individual team sponsorships. With each succeeding season, the brand value of the league has only grown, with its value in the ongoing season 15 of the Tata IPL set to jump manifold along with the addition of two new teams. The tournament has been a rollercoaster ride with mostly highs and very few lows for all the stakeholders of the IPL. So much so that it would be safe to presume that this is one unique business proposition that is ‘risk-proof’ with the return on investment pretty much guaranteed.

    In this context, it’s only logical that brands and companies across the board wish to partake in a share of the IPL pie and be associated with the league in some manner. So also global television brand and consumer electronics company TCL has reiterated its commitment to officially sponsor Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for the third time in a row this year. This also makes it the brand’s fourth consecutive year of IPL association, having tied up with Delhi Capitals (DC) before this, in 2019. So what prompted the consumer electronics brand’s switch to the Hyderabad-based franchise? TCL India head of marketing Vijay Kumar Mikkilineni explains the rationale behind the decision and the long-standing IPL partnership in a conversation with IndianTelevision.com.

    Background of the TCL-SRH partnership

    “So although we started off our participation with IPL in 2019 through Delhi Capitals, we moved to Sunrisers in 2020. In December 2018 we had our panel factory groundbreaking ceremony in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh in which we have invested Rs 2400 crore in 153 acres, and which has become operational this year,” Mikkilineni says. “With the established base in Hyderabad, the city became a big market for us and it was but natural for us to have an alliance with the Hyderabad-based team. That is the core essence of our three-years on and still going strong collaboration with SRH,” he adds.

    While Andhra Pradesh has been “one of the top three markets for TCL,” Mikkilineni takes pains to emphasise that the brand does not look at the SRH collaboration as only to be leveraged in the state, but as something that will help TCL to capitalise and capture the brand presence ‘pan- India’ with the huge fan base that players like Kane Williamson and the rest of the relatively young team of SRH enjoy in all the states across the country.

    Rationale behind the three-time collab with SRH

    The brand TCL has been associated globally with sports where the younger audience will be present and which their target group of consumers would connect with, including ice hockey, soccer, FIFA to name a few. Globally it had footballer Neymar and several other players from European Football teams as its brand ambassadors.

    “Coming to India, it was a given that there is no bigger sport than cricket in the country, and no bigger platform than IPL, which is a good 360-degree marketing activity for any brand to leverage its presence in the country,” Mikkilineni says.

    Talking about the trials the league faced in the last two years of the pandemic, Mikkilineni says that it will be difficult to judge the merit of the association merely on the basis of return on investment (ROI). The previous year the tournament was split into two halves, with the first half getting adjourned due to Covid-related issues and lockdowns. “It was very challenging for the sport itself and the players as well, being in the bio bubble and so on. Due to this, we couldn’t utilise the players in physical events. Earlier, if I had a product launch during IPL I would bring the biggest star players of that team and we would have done it in a different way.”

    Despite running into such hurdles in the past couple of years, the brand did not let it impact its decision to further invest in the league and the franchise. “Considering the on-air viewership reach that IPL has in India market, while also taking into account the receding Covid cases in India, I think especially the offline activation this year would be much better as compared to the last two years in April and May,” Mikkilineni believes.

    Expectations from the Tata IPL association

    The brand sees the homegrown league as the platform that serves as a bridge between the brand and its consumers, helping it to stay connected and continuously engaged with its target audience. “I really feel the association with IPL from the last four years- first with DC & now three years with SRH- has taken us to the ‘number four’ rank in India today, in the last five years since our launch in India,” asserts Mikkilineni. With this IPL too, the brand will be looking at stepping into Q3 (with Independence day and Diwali on the horizon in August and October) with a goal to achieve a target of 1.2 million Television sets this year. “We want to keep the momentum going for the brand from the April-May-June quarter with the IPL tie-up, further moving into Q3 where bigger volumes will come up, and then we can achieve the target figure of 12 lakh units that we have  set for the year.”

    Expanding its consumer demographic

    While the electronic consumer brand’s core TG varies according to the product category, Mikkilineni reveals that for TCL as a brand, its target group essentially is the first time job seeker, newly married young couple, the employed young generation and the tech-savvy customer who loves to know more about the latest technology, which essentially comes in the age bracket of 25-35 age group. The next set of higher segment products sees the 35-45 age group as its target customers.

    Sharing the penetration levels of the brand’s TV in the Indian market, Mikkilineni discloses, “The tier 1, tier 2 markets contribute more towards the higher segment of TVs, whereas it skews towards the lower segment when you talk about the tier3, tier4 markets. He adds that currently the brand has a very strong presence in the tier1 and tier 2 markets. “Our target through IPL- the continuous sponsorship and continued BTL activations- is to penetrate into tier 3 and tier 4 markets of the country,” he reveals.

    Leveraging the IPL for user engagement

    To further leverage this collaboration to the maximum, the brand is ramping up its marketing activities, emphasising the brand image, with plans to spend over Rs 10 crore on a 360-degree campaign, which includes digital, social media, channel marketing, as well as, ATL & BTL. “There might, probably, be very few brands from the consumer durable industry- especially the TV industry- who are participating in IPL and spending that kind of money,” avers Mikkilineni. Talking about the omnichannel media mix adopted by the brand, he adds, “Currently, we are looking at a 60:40 split of the marketing spend, with 40 per cent in digital, social, online and PR, while 60 per cent includes ATL, BTL, channel marketing, and partner marketing activities.”

     The brand is already running promotions on its social and digital platforms currently. “We will also be focusing much on BTL activations, having kicked off BTL activations with a strong base of almost 8000 plus retailers in India. The brand stories between the association of SRH & TCL will be running parallel,” he says while adding that the brand has no plans of any endorsement associating with the team players, even as it is looking at associating with the whole team. “We have online events which will be going on, such as interaction with the players, but not towards any particular brand ambassador as such,” clarifies Mikkilineni.

    The brand also has an eye on regional prints ads, which it plans to run later during the league matches in the month of April. “It will be laying out its marketing plans in tune with the launch of its new miniature 8K Mini LED TV model in the last week of May,” reveals Mikkilineni.

    The brand also looks to leverage outdoor media now that all curbs on outdoor movement are off in most parts of the country. “We are evaluating the OOH association with Delhi, Mumbai airports, as well as, another regional key nine metro cities,” says Mikkilineni.

     While the last two years of the pandemic affected every sector, the demand remained steady for television with everybody staying at home. “Now it has become a multifunctional product- not only for entertainment but also for having a video conferencing as well as for the school going children’s education, and the OTT platforms, which are penetrating more and more into the households,” says Mikkilineni. “So we see this year as very positive in terms of the growth,” he concludes.