ITV

Tag: CVL Srinivas

  • Sameer Singh joins GroupM as South Asia CEO

    Sameer Singh joins GroupM as South Asia CEO

    MUMBAI: Media agency GroupM has appointed Sameer Singh as CEO of its South Asia operations.

    Singh will lead the continued development of GroupM’s data-centric enablement for its agencies as it delivers competitive advantage to clients with digital leadership and content. Based in Delhi, starting in July, he will report to CVL Srinivas who is the country manager at WPP India and Mark Patterson, the CEO of GroupM Asia Pacific.

    Singh joins GroupM from Google India where he was director for sales, responsible for the agency business. He was earlier based at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California where he worked on measurement, brand consulting, insights and product solutions.

    CVL Srinivas says, “When planning the leadership succession, we found in Sameer the perfect candidate who could take GroupM South Asia to the next level. We have built a strong enabling environment for our agencies with data centricity, digital leadership and content services. Sameer has a track record of driving change at organisations focused on media, technology, brands and ROI. I look forward to working with Sam who has been a client, a media partner and a friend for many years”.

    Srinivas has been CEO for GroupM South Asia since January 2013. In October 2017, he was given the additional responsibility of Country Manager for WPP India. He will now transition fully to his WPP role.

    Mark Patterson adds, “Sameer is a unique talent and a great business partner with a fantastic track record delivering growth for market-leading world-class businesses across the globe. He now joins another one, and we are excited, proud and pleased to welcome him to GroupM South Asia.”

    Speaking on his appointment Singh mentions, “The India market is transitioning to the next level of media sophistication, with GroupM adroitly navigating this space for their clients, and along with their media partners. I am super excited to join the GroupM team on this wonderful journey, and I look forward to bringing to the table, my experiences built at Google, as a marketer, and while working across emerging and developed markets. I look forward to contributing, and to learning from my colleagues, our clients, and our partners.”

    In a career spanning over 25 years across various geographies including India, China, UK, USA, and the Middle East, Singh, an alumnus of IIM Calcutta, worked across brand management, marketing services, media, forecasting ROI and research, sales and procurement at Gillette, P&G, GSK and Google. Prior to Google, he was VP, Global Media at GSK where he led its global pitch, set up the global media team and embedded digital excellence.

     

  • Mofam launches fund for in-film advertising

    Mofam launches fund for in-film advertising

    MUMBAI: In-film advertising is rapidly becoming a great place for brands to collaborate with movies. To optimise the equation of expense, integration and impact, Mofam, a financial services company has launched ‘Bfund’, a fund partner to consumer brands to convert their recurring expense for in-movie product placements into a returnable investment.

    Brands currently incur an expense per movie to tacitly make their brand visible. Bfund takes funds from brands only in the first year, and rotates it multiple times over a five-year tenure and returns the same with accumulated NAV at the end of the fund life.

    Started by marketing, media and procurement veteran Raja Peter and career investment management professional and ex-head of private equity at Essel Finance, Sumit Mody, Bfund is a scalable solution by Mofam that helps identify movie projects, brand slots within scripts and creative leverage in feature films across the industry.

    Peter says, “Marketers the world over look to maximise brand awareness at the lowest cost; Bfund is that vehicle for cinema in India. Bfund will work closely with brands to ensure a brand is ensconced within a choice of movies and genres. Our initiative will help deliver deeper brand integration across multiple movies at significantly lower CPM in this critical medium of popular culture.”

    To take this unique fund to the India advertising market, Bfund is collaborating with GroupM’s Mindshare, India’s largest media and marketing investment agency. Through this alliance, Mindshare clients will get a first-mover advantage in access to product placement in theatrical releases at a lower cost. 

    “Product placement in theatrical releases represents an increasingly valuable way for brands to reach targeted consumers,” adds WPP India and CEO GroupM South Asia country manager CVL Srinivas. “By creating a mechanism for marketers to collaborate with film producers at early development stages in filmmaking, innovative and impactful brand integrations can be conceived and developed.”

    Adding his thoughts on the alliance, Mindshare South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar mentions, “Cinema is a uniquely immersive medium and represents an opportunity for a brand to get noticed with undivided attention. We are excited to deliver to our clients a real competitive advantage in this medium.”

    Bfund is targeting a fund size of Rs 120 crore for Bollywood movies and another Rs 80 crore for Tollywood movies. It expects to start deployment from both funds by next quarter and will primarily look at star-rated projects. Investment size can be up to Rs 20 crore per project.

  • The Glitch to leverage GroupM data to reach rural India

    The Glitch to leverage GroupM data to reach rural India

    MUMBAI: Digital is the buzzword everywhere today and the advertising industry is not any different. Companies looking to acquire are also scanning for digital-ready candidates over traditional agencies.

    WPP’s GroupM, the world’s leading global media investment group, recently gobbled up digital creative agency The Glitch in India, showing its appetite for growth in a technology-driven communication market. GroupM South Asia country manager for WPP India and CEO CVL Srinivas believes that the communications ecosystem in India has evolved dramatically in the last few years. “With The Glitch, we found a partner that brings exciting creative and content skills that can leverage our unique assets to create effective solutions for our clients,” he says.

    It was in 2009 that two friends Varun Duggirala and Rohit Raj from Symbiosis decided to quit their jobs at Channel V after it stopped airing music and was pivoting into a general entertainment channel. Recalls Raj, “We went to Channel V because we loved music and wanted to work in the space but decided to quit after our team leaders told us that the channel will be shifting focus to GEC as the youth that was watching music content has now moved into digital ecosystem.”

    Soon after leaving the duo turned entrepreneurs and launched their own digital video production company called The Glitch. Like every other startup, Duggirala and Raj slogged the first two years as they were trying to sell a concept which most clients didn’t have. Duggirala says that due to work of mouth work worked in their favour.

    The company started operations from their apartment’s front room with four employees and an investment capital of Rs 3 lakh. Although they loved creating digital videos for clients, it was only in 2011, that Glitch started its digital agency route with major initial international clients Diesel and Quicksilver in its kitty. Today, the company has over 200 employees and offices set up in Mumbai and Delhi and is looking at setting up a new office at Bengaluru by the end of this year.

    While digital still continues to be an urban phenomenon, low cost data and availability of cheap mobile handsets has helped digital penetration in rural areas. The Glitch CEO Pooja Jauhari emphasises that rural is going to be a huge focus for the team this year. Duggirala adds that with this acquisition, the company is looking at GroupM helping it out on a large scale to tap rural India as GroupM has a large set of data of rural audience which will help them to craft communication better.

    Though the company was in conversation with various agencies over the years, it was approached by GroupM in 2014. Raj mentions, “We started to analyse the pros and cons of each acquisition. We had a two year learning curve to understand and only then we decided to go ahead with the deal.”

    The Glitch Delhi managing partner Kabir Kochhar adds, “In GroupM we saw the market leader that would help inform our intuitions better with data backed insights as well as give us a jumpstart with consumption trends. Post the acquisition, the company wants to concentrate on having quality clients and add new services and business solutions for them.”

    The year started on an extremely positive note for The Glitch and the team has a positive outlook for the year. ”2018 has begun on a very positive note with some key account wins and we look to cement our existing relationships with clients and bring them the benefits we gain from the GroupM alignment,” concludes Kochhar.

    ALSO READ:

    Is India ready for the impact of AI on marketing?

    2017 – The year of long-format ads

    Talent retention is key, says Mindshare’s Prasanth Kumar

    Martin Sorrell on how WPP is combating ad world slowdown

  • GroupM, Ogilvy launch Effectiveness Lab in India

    GroupM, Ogilvy launch Effectiveness Lab in India

    MUMBAI: Wavemaker, GroupM’s media, content and technology agency, has partnered with creative powerhouse Ogilvy, to create a first of its kind Effectiveness Lab in India. This unique collaboration, between the two WPP agencies will develop data-validated points of view on creating effective communications across consumer interaction platforms.

    Branded content is the first space the Lab will explore, probing how consumers respond to different content strategies, creative approaches and formats. As marketers increase spends on the creation and deployment of content, it is crucial to bring intelligence to what drives effectiveness in the content space.

    GroupM South Asia country manager, WPP India and CEO CVL Srinivas says, “At WPP, our focus is to provide ‘horizontality’ across our agencies and create a seamless structure to provide effective solutions. While we have a wide range of services on offer, the focus of our agencies is on creating efficient solutions to help our brand partners strengthen their engagement with the audience. Launching the Effectiveness Lab as a combined initiative by Wavemaker and Ogilvy is a great example of this.”

    Wavemaker managing director of South Asia Kartik Sharma adds, “At Wavemaker, we connect media, content and technology to drive growth for clients and we understand how effective marketing can be. By being able to better understand how content moves consumers to action along their purchase journeys, we’ll be able to help our clients to make informed decisions on how and when to create engaging content and therefore drive growth for them across their consumer journeys.”

    Ogilvy India CEO Kunal Jeswani mentions, “The Effectiveness Lab will bring the best minds at Ogilvy and Wavemaker together to throw light on creative effectiveness across new age platforms. With digital communications across multiple platforms becoming core to any integrated campaign strategy, the industry needs new thinking on effectiveness. Ogilvy has always stood for Great Work That Works. The more informed we are, the better we will get at delivering creative effectiveness.”

  • GroupM forecasts India’s 2018 adex to grow by 13%

    GroupM forecasts India’s 2018 adex to grow by 13%

    MUMBAI: WPP’s media investment group Group M has forecast the advertising expenditure (adex) in India to grow by 13 per cent in 2018 year on year. According to GroupM’s futures report ‘This Year, Next Year’ (TYNY) 2018, which was released today, India’s advertising investment will reach an expected Rs 69,346 crore this year. The report also estimated ad spending in 2017 as Rs 61,263 crores, growing at 10 per cent, as predicted by GroupM in February of last year.

    Various industry estimates peg economic growth at 7.3 per cent to 7.8 per cent for 2018 as the benefits of GST-higher productivity and lower cost of goods sold-become apparent. This, combined with key reforms already implemented, such as bank recapitalisation, budget provisioning of non-performing assets and the Bankruptcy Bill approved by law, are likely to facilitate a recovery in consumer demand and private investment.

    GroupM South Asia CEO and WPP India country manager CVL Srinivas said, “As consumer sentiment stabilises and spending increases, we estimate 2018 to be a relatively better year from an ad-spend perspective. Growth in digital media will continue to outstrip other media but, unlike most markets, India continues to see traditional media formats grow. After a couple of sluggish years, rural volumes are expected to pick up this year leading to increased marketing budgets. The structural changes witnessed in the last couple of years could pave the way for a more stable outlook in the coming years. We haven’t yet realised our full potential as an ad market but are headed in the right direction.”

    Continuing urbanisation and rising wages are supporting consumer growth in finance, durables, services and retail. E-commerce is becoming a key channel for FMCG, and ad investment is anticipated to increase in shopper and performance marketing. India is witnessing an increase in spending from rural markets, as sales growth at 1.5-2.5 times of urban sales growth for major FMCG and consumer durable companies.

    Looking at the advertising industry worldwide, GroupM estimates the global advertising expenditure to grow by 4.3 per cent, and APAC is anticipated to grow at 5.4 per cent. GroupM South Asia chief growth officer Lakshmi Narasimhan said, “India remains one of the fastest growing ad markets globally and is among the top-five countries that are expected to drive incremental investment in 2018. Our growth percentage is three times that of the global adex and more than double of the APAC growth percentage.”

    This year, 35 per cent of all incremental ad spends will go towards digital advertising (including mobile). GroupM estimates digital adex to continue to grow by 30 per cent in 2018 to Rs 12,337 crore. Video advertising on digital is estimated to grow at 54 per cent as bandwidth improves and data and mobility device become more economical for the consumer.

    As digital becomes 18 per cent of the overall advertising spends in India, measurement and transparency become paramount. Last year, GroupM globally led the conversation on measurement and transparency in digital media, and released viewability standards that are higher than those stipulated by the Media Rating Council in the US. In India, too, GroupM is working with industry bodies, brands and publishers to adhere to a standard viewability index that would become integral to the digital ecosystem.

    “On the traditional media front, parliamentary elections in H1 2019 will stimulate advertising from the back half of 2018. Print will see a slight uptick in 2018 from the elections, with key markets in demand. The growth rate for newspapers is estimated at 4.2 per cent with English papers growing slightly slower than Hindi and regional languages,” the report stated.

    Television continues to be the largest medium, with its contribution remaining at close to 45 per cent share. This year, the growth rate for TV is 13 per cent, as there is growth in both volume with free-to-air channels as well as value with HD channels. In 2018, the last leg of cable digitization will improve quality of delivery to rural India, also driving viewership.

    This year, radio is expected to grow at 15 per cent which is higher than the last couple of years. This growth is predominantly due to the launch of new radio stations across the country. Other media such as OOH will witness good traction of 15 per cent growth from premium transit sites. Cinema will continue to grow at 20 per cent in 2018, as the infrastructure investment made last year will attract a larger audience to theatres for a blockbuster experience.

  • GroupM acquires digital agency The Glitch

    GroupM acquires digital agency The Glitch

    MUMBAI: WPP’s GroupM, the world’s leading global media investment group, has acquired the digitally led creative agency The Glitch in India. 

    This acquisition will demonstrate the company’s growth plans in a technology-driven communication market. The Glitch will continue to operate as an independently positioned brand while taking advantage of GroupM’s larger infrastructure and agency ecosystem. It will continue GroupM’s growth strategy in one of the world’s most dynamic emerging economies.

    GroupM South Asia country manager for WPP India and CEO CVL Srinivas says, “The communications ecosystem in India has evolved dramatically in the last few years and GroupM continues to lead the market in creating cutting-edge solutions that leverage data, technology and creativity. With The Glitch, we found a partner that brings exciting creative and content skills that can leverage our unique assets to create effective solutions for our clients. The Glitch has done some outstanding work for clients and we eagerly look forward to their coming on board.”

    Speaking on the announcement, The Glitch co-founder and creative chief Rohit Raj adds, “With GroupM, we have found the perfect partner who complements our skills and shares a similar vision on the future of advertising. We will be able to use their strong expertise in data and analytics to help craft more insightful and effective campaigns for brands and help close the loop with a superior understanding of content and creative strategy to serve today’s economy.”

    The Glitch is a digitally led creative agency, which believes that through shaping culture, great business results can be delivered and being strategically driven is how great creative is made.

    The agency has delivered award-winning campaigns for a wide spectrum of clients including Unilever, Netflix, OYO Rooms, Shutterstock, Tinder and many other international brands in the realm of entertainment, beauty, and FMCG amongst others. With over 200 digital strategists, technologists, content creators and planners, The Glitch has offices in Mumbai and Delhi.

  • Martin Sorrell bullish on India

    Martin Sorrell bullish on India

    MUMBAI: WPP chief executive officer Martin Sorrell is bullish about India’s economy. He believes the GST switchover pangs and demonetisation were only temporary hiccups.

    Lauding India’s growth rate, Sorrell mentioned that India continued to remain among the fastest growing economies of the world, the Economic Times reported. When one had legislative change which brought about significant social change, it would lead to disruption. That was short-term pain for long-term gain, he said.

    Sorrell, who was in India yesterday to attend the company’s first board meeting, announced the appointment of CVL Srinivas as the new country head. He also hinted that GroupM, which is a part of WPP network, was seek good acquisitions.

    Sorrell said he did not believe internet companies such as Facebook and Google were particularly technology companies. They were media companies but took the position publicly as technology companies, which was wrong. He also shared that Facebook hired 4000 employees for its editorial content and social media companies should take responsibility of the content they put out.

    He said he believed the technology companies had to take responsibility of their contents appearing on extremist sites or whatever happened to be — about consumer brands, safety, about transparency, about fraud, about bots, about fake news, all those issues, he added.

    About characterising what the world was beyond India, he said, it was not growing at six per cent or 5.7 per cent. People would give their eye, teeth, they would cut off their limbs to grow at that sort of rate. The world, he said, was growing at around three to four per cent.

    The UK would be lucky if it grew at a couple of percents. In the US, President Trump would like to see the growth at four per cent, he concluded.

  • Adex 17: TV to contribute 45pc, FTA to aid 8pc growth rate, says GroupM

    MUMBAI: GroupM, one of the leading global media management investment conglomerates, has released its biannual advertising expenditure futures report ‘This Year Next Year’ (TYNY) 2017, forecasting India’s advertising investment to reach an estimated Rs.61,204 crores in 2017. This represents a growth of 10 per cent for the calendar year 2017 over the corresponding period in 2016.

    As per GroupM, the ad spending in 2016 was Rs. 55,671 crore. Even though the year began on a very optimistic note, the overall Adex took a downturn due to lower than expected ad spend growth from sectors like FMCG, traditional retail, telecom and sporadic spending in categories like Ecommerce. In the Januray-October period itself the Adex was growing at a lower trajectory than forecast. Furthermore, demonetization in the last quarter had a negative impact of about 2 per cent on the total Adex in 2016.

    Speaking on the TYNY 2017 report, GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas said, “Despite a volatile 2016, we are estimating advertising expenditure growth at 10 per cent in 2017. The first quarter will give a slow start to the year, with the market picking up from March-April, fueled by a stable recovery process post demonetization. Sectors that are contributing to this positive trajectory include Auto, Media and e-Wallets. In addition Government and Political parties will increase spending with elections in several states this year.” Explaining the media scenario, he added. “Digital is leading the Adex growth with a 30 per cent growth, while TV continues to be the largest medium in the mix. Print continues to grow at a stable rate of 4.5 per cent and is still the second largest medium in the Adex.”

    Looking at the advertising industry worldwide, GroupM estimates the global advertising expenditure (adex) to grow by 4.4 per cent and Asia-Pacific to grow by 6.3 per cent. With an estimated adex growth of 10 per cent, India remains one of the fastest growing ad markets globally. While 80 per cent of incremental ad spend growth in major markets comes from digital media, in India the numbers are more evenly split between traditional and digital media. Digital media accounts for about 40 per cent of the incremental ad spend growth.

    The Indian advertising expenditure growth rate is also in line with the revised GDP forecast; India’s GDP is estimated to grow between 6.5 to 7.5 per cent. This will be led by low interest rates, sustained urban demand and the impact of key policy reforms. Over the last seven years, ADEX to GDP growth ratio has been between 1.5-2X, and 2017 will be no exception.

    GroupM also elaborated on the major media trends that will emerge in the Indian advertising industry. These include trends in sports programming, content, data and digital media. Globally, GroupM has been leading the conversation on viewability with brands and partners. Taking this program forward, chief growth officer Lakshmi Narashimhan, explained the importance of viewability, “As India matures as a digital advertising market, transparency and trust are critical for higher adoption of the medium. Those adopting high viewability standards will be able to differentiate themselves on quality parameters. Once implemented, platform choice and pricing will depend on viewability scores.”

    GroupM estimates the Digital Adex to grow by 30 per cent in 2017 to Rs. 9,490 crore. The digital Adex is estimated to take a 15.5 per cent share of the total Adex this year. There will be a high emphasis on viewability metrics and outcome based optimization. Ad spends will grow on OTT platforms, as internet speeds improve and catch up TV gains ground.

    2017 is estimated to be a modest year for newspapers with 4.5 per cent growth. The increase in ad spends expected from print heavy sectors like Auto, BFSI, e-wallets will contribute to this growth. Vernacular and regional newspapers will see a higher growth rate.

    Television continues to be the largest medium contributing to the Adex with close to 45 per cent share. This year, the growth rate for TV is 8 per cent, with ‘Free To Air’ channels adding more inventory, and pure HD content gaining ground. The market will also see a consolidation of niche channels.

    While Radio is expected to grow at a little over 10 per cent, there is scope for the medium to pick up as the Phase 3 rollout is completed in 2017. Higher growth is expected as stations will see the supply impact of the full year.

    Other media such as OOH will witness good traction from sectors addressing rural audience and premium niche audience. As per the trend in recent years, Cinema advertising will grow at a high double digit rate of 20 per cent. Cinema consolidation has led to investments in infrastructure, this coupled with the growing acceptance of premium Indian and Hollywood content by advertisers augurs well for the medium.

    This Year, Next Year, is part of GroupM’s media and marketing forecasting series drawn from data supplied by holding company WPP’s worldwide resources in advertising, public relations, market research, and specialist communications. The TYNY report is the most comprehensive understanding of the estimated media spends by advertisers in the current year. It also highlights some of the industry sectors that will have a major effect on advertising spends across media.

  • GroupM acquires controlling interest in MediaCom India

    GroupM acquires controlling interest in MediaCom India

    MUMBAI: WPP’s GroupM, the world’s leading global media investment group, yesterday announced it will be acquiring a majority stake in MediaCom India, a joint venture between GroupM India and Sam Balsara, the principal shareholder of the Madison Media group. While MediaCom India will continue operating as an independent brand, the agency will have the advantage of access to GroupM’s global infrastructure.

    This acquisition continues WPP’s strategy of investing in fast growth markets, new media and digital.

    “The majority acquisition of MediaCom in India represents a significant evolution in one of the world’s fastest growing economies. As India becomes a very attractive business hub for global clients, we are confident our talented team in India will deliver exemplary growth and results for all stakeholders,” MediaCom Worldwide CEO Stephen Allan.

    Speaking on the acquisition, GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas said, “MediaCom India has won several prestigious clients, developed a strong digital presence and has delivered award-winning campaigns for clients. As a network, we have taken giant strides globally and in India towards a more Data and Tech-led core to our business. MediaCom India can harness our world-class media infrastructure to provide more value to its clients and people.”

    Founded in 2007, MediaCom India became a joint venture in 2008. Over the last eight years, MediaCom India has established itself as one of the top 5 media agencies in the market in terms of market share (source: RECMA ratings 2015). In 2016, WARC ranked MediaCom India’s Mumbai office as one of the top 10 media agencies in the world based on performance in effectiveness and strategy impact for its clients.

    The Content + Connection agency, MediaCom India, delivers not just individual channel efficiencies but also connected communications system effectiveness by developing and optimising all content –as the fuel that drives high-performing systems. Furthermore, the India team has adapted the ‘People First’ philosophy very well from its global parent, resulting in the lowest attrition rate in the media industry. The agency has consistently won all major awards, both global and local including M&M, Spikes Asia, FOM Asia as well as The Global Awards, EMVIEs, ABBYs, etc.