ITV

Tag: Digital

  • Greg Beitchman joins CNN International

    Greg Beitchman joins CNN International

    MUMBAI: One of the world’s biggest news networks, CNN International has boosted its top level line up with Greg Beitchman being roped in from Reuters as vice president for content sales and partnerships. He will be responsible for overseeing and developing the network’s content sales and business on an international level with broadcast and digital being the main priority.

     

    According to the release, his role will include content sales and partnerships, out of home services and licensing deals. Apart from this, he will also be involved with CNN’s NewSource content syndication service. CNN has about a 1000 global broadcast partners.  

     

    At Reuters, Beitchman was global head of multimedia content. Commenting on his appointment, CNN International COO Rani R. Raad said in a release, The worlds news consumption habits are evolving, and our business is evolving with that. Our commercial strategy is geared towards ensuring our consumers and partners have access to CNNs best-in-class journalism across all platforms, and Greg is the perfect man to help us deliver that. He is a first-class operator and will make a major contribution to guiding and strengthening our commercial enterprise.

     

    Beitchman has been involved with India over the last many years. During his stint with Reuters he moved to Delhi in 1997 to lead the international news agency’s investment into the news agency ANI (Asian News International). In 2005, he returned to India to spearhead the launch of Indian English news channel Times Now as executive producer and broadcast talent. In 2007, Reuters launched its Indian domain reuters.co.in to cover news about India and its neighbours, which was also led by Beitchman and his team. While in India, he also covered the 26/11 terror attacks at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai for Reuters.

     

    Talking about his appointment Beitchman commented: “In an era when audiences have an almost infinite supply of content, CNN stands out among the world’s most trusted news brands. As our audiences and partners look for innovation in storytelling and commercial models, this is an exciting time to work on strengthening CNN’s commercial proposition internationally.”

  • Close Dentsu creates new campaign for Maruti Suzuki

    Close Dentsu creates new campaign for Maruti Suzuki

    MUMBAI: The campaign conceptualised by Dentsu Creative Impact aims to launch Stingray as a stylish, premium offering for the youth of today.

     

    The agency’s approach for the campaign is to understand the audience well before the communication started. The youth who is experimental, always hungry for more and wants to make the most of his/her life. In a nutshell, he/she wants ‘everything’ from life.

     

    On the campaign Harish Arora, NCD, Dentsu Creative Impact NCD Harish Arora said: “Pick any youth today and just peek into his car… you find Pizza boxes, cans, ties, shirts, shoes inside. Simply put, the youth today practically live out of their cars, the car is more than just a mode of transport, and it’s their world today.  Our idea was to take this insight to the next level and hence the idea – ‘My thing. Everything.’ We wanted our TG to see the TVC and relate with the various situations as each of them is a slice of his life.”

     

    Two films were created for the campaign. Both the films showcase how Stingray plays many roles in the life of our youngster – it is his café, his disco, his wardrobe, his work station, his shack and so on.

     

    Dentsu Creative Impact branch head Amit Wadhwa added: “We are talking to the ‘everything generation’. And the one partner for them in everything they do, are their cars. With Stingray being designed keeping the youth in mind, we brought it alive through the idea – everything about me packed in one.”

     

    Apart from television, the campaign will be available on print, digital, outdoor, POS.

    Maruti Suzuki India AGM (marketing) Thomas Cheriyan said: “Maruti being the leader in the automobile segment caters to a wide range of customers cutting across various markets and various segments. With the launch of the Stingray, which is a stylish, premium offering, we wanted to target the younger audience while retaining the core values of Maruti. The campaign has also been made accordingly, showcasing how the car fits into the life of today’s youth – work, personal life, friends, family etc.”
     

  • Will Mahabharatham walk the talk?

    Will Mahabharatham walk the talk?

    MUMBAI: Not very long ago, Star Plus launched its magnum opus, Mahabharat, a contemporary retelling of the ancient Indian epic, on a scale never-seen-before and amidst huge fanfare.

     

    Soon after, a dubbed-in-Tamil version of the show named Mahabharatham was aired on 7 October on Star Vijay, Star TV’s Tamil GEC.

     

    Not only did Mahabharatham take over the 7:00 pm slot, earlier reserved for a kids’ show titled 7 C, which was anyway about to end, two weeks prior to the show’s launch, a high decibel marketing campaign comprising TV, radio, digital, on-ground, and to a large extent, outdoor, was undertaken to publicise its arrival.

     

    As part of this endeavour, life-size posters of the show characters were put up across Tamil Nadu; TV celebrities were brought in at the end of every show on Star Vijay to promote the series; monologues were staged on streets to grab attention; and hoardings were put up across 500 locations including Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchirrapalli, Erode and Tirunelveli. A staggering Rs 1 crore – Rs 1.5 crore was spent on the campaign, with separate plans for merchandising during Diwali.

     

    Promotions apart, Star Vijay ensured Seventh Channel Communications did a neat job of the dubbing. “Seventh Channel Communications has dubbed on a 50 episode contract, with each episode costing up to Rs 1 lakh. We have ensured the dubbing is so tight that the lip movements match with the Tamil words the characters are speaking. People were thoroughly impressed with the grandeur on watching the promos. The feedback on production value was positive,” elaborates Star Vijay general manager K Sriram.

     

    Now, with the show well past its launch, Star Vijay faces the big question whether all the investment and effort has been worth the channel’s while.

     

    While there are no clear answers, it is true that the first two weeks of Mahabharatham have garnered 422 and 440 TVTs (average), respectively, and its opening show has got 415 TVTs unlike 7C, which was just about managing 169 TVTs weekly (average). What’s more, close competitor Raj TV’s Sindhu Bhairavi (Uttaran dubbed in Tamil), which airs at the same time (7:00 pm), has garnered only 251 TVTs (average).

     

    As a media planner from Chennai-based Group M puts it: “For Star Vijay, these are good numbers and now – Mahabharatham – for which they did huge promotions, is their best show as well.”

     

    However, the picture is not entirely rosy. Sun TV, another rival, has its own version of Mahabharatham which airs every Sunday morning and garners more TVTs than Star Vijay’s show. To this, the planner only says that it is wrong to compare any other channel with a player like Sun TV which enjoys strong loyalty.

     

    The planner reasons that Tamilians are attached to such shows because they are conservative and dedicated to religious beliefs and that is why epic shows work well down south. At the same time, he is quick to point out it would be best to wait for another week to see if Star Vijay’s Mahabharatham sustains its ratings before taking any call on the show.

     

    In fact, readers may recall that the original Mahabharat (Hindi version on Star Plus) too dropped from 8,445 TVTs to 5,518 TVTs in its second week… So, Star Vijay will have to wait to see the returns of its investment…

  • Cisco increases its reach to 100 million digital TV homes in Asia Pacific

    Cisco increases its reach to 100 million digital TV homes in Asia Pacific

    MUMBAI:  In the rapidly-growing digital television industry in Asia Pacific, Cisco, a provider of conditional access (CA) and digital rights management (DRM) solutions, has secured content that is delivered to more than 100 million digital homes in the region.

    Using an industry-estimated average of 3.3 people per household, Cisco’s VideoGuard conditional access and digital rights management technology now provides the critical protection of premium content to over 340 million viewers.

    Cisco has also developed a research and development (R&D) center in Bengaluru that is dedicated to the development of video technology. According to the MPA report of May 2013, the company currently enjoys the largest market share of the estimated 257 million digital TV homes in Asia Pacific.

    Service Provider Video Software Solutions vice president sales, Asia Pacific Sue Taylor said, “Achieving the milestone of over 100 million digital homes in this region is a testament to our commitment to Asia Pacific over the past 20 years, and our partnerships with some of the most successful cable TV and DTH satellite platforms in the region. This industry in Asia Pacific is one of the fastest growing and most dynamic in the world. We look forward to serving million more households that can benefit from Cisco’s enhanced TV-viewing experiences, as the demand for advanced services and applications surges.”

    BOX

      Cisco® VideoGuard conditional access and digital rights management solutions make Cisco the leading CA provider in Asia Pacific with a market share of 31 per cent (Source: Screen Digest Report 2013 and Cisco’s internal subscriber data).
     

      Cisco is a trusted pay-TV technology partner for over 150 Pay-TV operators as well as media and entertainment companies worldwide, including leading Direct-to-home (DTH) and cable operator customers in Asia Pacific like Airtel Digital TV, Astro, Foxtel, Hathway, Oriental Cable Network, Sichuan Cable TV, Tata Sky and DEN Networks.

    Cisco recently announced the key milestone of over 30 million digital TV homes in India with an estimated 150 million viewers.

  • GroupM India adds another feather to its cap with Porter Prize

    GroupM India adds another feather to its cap with Porter Prize

    MUMBAI: GroupM India has won the award for ‘leveraging unique activities’ at the prestigious Porter Prize 2013 event.

     

    GroupM is the first company from the media and advertising field to win this award. Elaborating the reasons why GroupM was chosen, Institute for Competitiveness India honorary chairman Dr Amit Kapoor said: “GroupM reflects effective rendering of activities across the value chain, how activities reinforce and synergies are created across its range of activities through a interlocking system that becomes basis for competitive advantage and sustainability. GroupM reflects an understanding that clearly states that good strategies depend on the connection among many things, on making interdependent choices and making a tailored value chain that competitors cannot easily imitate.”

     

    Porter Prize is one of the coveted awards in the field of strategy and competitiveness and is supported by the Institute for Competitiveness India.

     

    Speaking on the occasion, GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas said: “We are delighted to win the prestigious Porter Prize. This award is testament to GroupM India’s strategic approach to building the business that has resulted in a strong leadership position in this market. The diversified offerings of GroupM have scaled up over the years to become the new core of our agency. Our integrated product helps us provide unique value to clients to build their competitive advantage. All this wouldn’t have been possible without the support we get from our clients and business partners, the dedication and hard work put in by our talented team over the years, and the encouragement we get from GroupM regional, global offices and WPP to keep innovating and shaping the market.”

     

    GroupM India has continued its great run in 2013. Its agencies have dominated all industry awards, won over 60 new businesses and it has launched several initiatives in digital, content, experiential marketing and analytics.

  • Dentsu Digital bags duties for Honda and Indo-Nissin

    Dentsu Digital bags duties for Honda and Indo-Nissin

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Digital, a digital marketing solutions company of the Dentsu India Group, has added two new businesses to its kitty.

    Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI) has appointed Dentsu Digital as its digital agency to develop a complete digital ecosystem for the brand. Starting with the launch of an integrated social media campaign via various platforms to expanding the footprint across different touch points, the digital agency will also help drive Honda’s search and optimsation efforts with the help of media campaigns and search engine optimisation.
    We’ve also invested in technology and tools that allow us to deliver a great online experience says Glen Ireland

    Dentsu Digital recently worked on a unique brand engagement campaign using iButterfly – a proprietary platform, to launch HMSI’s new Activa-i. iButterfly is a the mobile platform that allows people to virtually catch branded butterflies and redeem them for discount coupons, branded merchandise and many more exciting takeaways.

    The second win for Dentsu Digital is Top Ramen (instant noodles), from Indo Nissin. The mandate given to the agency is to find a digital expression to Top Ramen’s offline campaign – ‘More Masala, More Maaza’ by creating consumer engagement and interest with its core target group.

    This is Top Ramen’s first serious foray into the digital world. The plan is to start by developing an engaging brand conversation followed by a more immersive experience through the website and other digital points of contact.

    Commenting on winning these prestigious accounts, Dentsu Digital CEO Glen Ireland said, “These wins directly reflect the hard work and effort put in by the entire agency.It also bears testimony to our understanding of the client business, their challenges and goals. Winning these accounts also helps demonstrate our competencies and strengths especially in social media, where we have invested a lot of time in developing a best-in-class approach to content, conversation and community building. We’ve also invested in technology and tools that allow us to deliver a great online experience.”

    With these wins seems Dentsu Digital is to creating a unique digital service offering within the Dentsu India Group.

  • Close Big Magic launches multi-media marketing campaign across HSM

    Close Big Magic launches multi-media marketing campaign across HSM

    MUMBAI: Big Magic, the flagship GEC from Reliance Broadcast Network, which recently expanded its reach across Hindi speaking markets and announced a slew of new shows and now kicked off with a multi-media marketing campaign.

     

    The two-month comprehensive and integrated campaign sees a mix of traditional and non-traditional media across television, cinema screens, radio and digital. With a marketing mix that connects with consumers across touch points through the day, will be spread across external media platforms, while also optimising the company’s internal media muscle to ensure mileage. The campaign kick-started last week will run until the end of November.

     

    Commenting on the campaign, Big Magic business head Sunil Kumaran said, “We are rolling out the marketing campaign now that we have our distribution and content in place.  This will give a strong impetus to the good growth we are witnessing on the channel.  We have created an integrated multi-media campaign ensuring we connect with our audiences through multiple touch points.  We are using TV extensively along with Radio, Cinema and Digital to ensure that we reach out to a large base of audience in a short time.”

     

    With a communication built to convey the availability of the channel in more geographies and fresh and newer content, the campaign is aimed at garnering greater eyeballs for its differentiated content. The creative idea is to make Big Magic the destination for the best Hindi television entertainment with a mix of drama, comedy and more.

     

    An exhaustive plan including using television channels ranging music, movie and news, cinema screens across the cities, effective promos on radio, and an engaging digital plan, the campaign has been designed to attract newer audiences and encourage sampling. Ensuring the company’s internal media strengths are part of the plan, 92.7 BIG FM, Spark Punjabi, Big RTL Thrill and Big Magic Bihar & Jharkhand will also be effectively used as part of the plan.

     

    The media mix is designed to deliver maximum impact. Given the audience profile of BIG MAGIC, media selection has been made keeping in the mind the lifestyle and habits of the female television viewer.

  • NewsX partners with Aidem Ventures to recalibrate pricing with improved performance

    NewsX partners with Aidem Ventures to recalibrate pricing with improved performance

    India’s leading HD-ready English News Channel, NewsX has awarded its advertising sales duties to Aidem Ventures.

     

    Part of ITV Network, NewsX is now India’s No. 1 English News Channel on the basis of 21 week combined GVTs. Even in terms of stickiness the channel has been witnessing more Time Spent Per Viewer than any other English News Channel in India. [Source: TAM | All India (1 Mn+) (incl. 6 Metros) | CS M 25-44 AB | Wk 19 -Wk 39’13, combined GVTs and average TSPV]. To monetize its current position, it has partnered with India’s leading independent advertising sales company – Aidem Ventures.

     

    The channel’s leadership is well established over the last 21 weeks as per the TAM ratings. With its clean presentation and unbiased content, NewsX targets the younger, aspirational audiences who appreciate and demand well-researched, thought-provoking news. With its focus on ‘News. Not Noise’, NewsX differentiates itself from its competitors in staying away from hysteria and sensationalism.

     

    Post digitization in 38 cities, NewsX has augmented its viewership by 260%. This performance has been consistently growing since the markets have gone digital. Research showcased a void in the offering in super prime bands for pure news dissemination resulting in high performance amongst the large part of younger audiences in addition to the other age groups. NewsX stands by its tagline and with its unassuming presentation style has managed to come across as a breath of fresh air. NewsX didn’t want to tread up any existing pathways in terms of style and news delivery and wanted a completely independent identity. This strategy has paid off said Vikas Khanchandani, Director, Aidem Ventures while discussing the new business win.

     

    “This association reflects our vision to pursue NewsX’s successful positioning as a strong, robust media platform among Indian advertisers & agencies. NewsX’s high-quality content, well-established reputation, latest video technology and rising TAM numbers will have a synergistic effect on the channel’s revenue generation.  NewsX has been focusing on interactive shows and intend to introduce other new exciting formats in the near future. Aidem has been managing Ad Sales some of the biggest News brands from India and abroad. We are very optimistic about their sales infrastructure and their professional management team working in favor of our plan for NewsX” added RK Arora, CEO, ITV Network.

  • Why Star sponsored Indian cricket for 2013-14?

    Why Star sponsored Indian cricket for 2013-14?

    MUMBAI: It came as a bolt from the blue – actually in this case the greens on which the sport of cricket is played. The BCCI has decided to award the title sponsorship of all domestic and international tournaments in India for 2013-2014 for a reported price of Rs 2 crore per match, around Rs 1.5 crore less than that paid by the previous sponsor Airtel.

     

    What goes? Why is Star going hell for leather putting money behind the game? One can’t but forget that the Star Group beat competition from Multi Screen Media (Sony) to bag the six-year broadcast and digital rights of India’s international cricket matches at home and domestic events like Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and the Irani Trophy. The Rupert Murdoch-owned company’s six-year contract is valued at Rs 3,851 crore and will cover 96 matches in all.

     

    One of the reasons, Star India COO  Sanjay Gupta says is that the network is going all out to promote not just cricket but also other sports. Says he: “We are betting big on sports and even more betting on cricket. Currently we have the rights to telecast the matches on television as well as on other multi-screens.”

     

    As a strategy the Star group, he says, is ideally looking for something similar to what it did for IPL, Star sponsored IPL through its brand – Star Plus. Plans are focused on deepening its relation with cricket and also using cricket to promote its brands in a big way.

     

    “So looking from the Star brand point of view we would like to use this sponsorship, for obviously Star Sports and also Star Plus and Life OK,” expounds Sanjay.

     

    He further states that Star will use its entertainment network to build the awareness and enthusiasm for cricket likewise. And then conversely use the cricket platform to build awareness for other sports in the country. “So when people are watching cricket we should be able to sample other sports to them, and thus give them more to watch, so that is the strategy we are putting in place,” says Gupta.

     

    Telecasting the action on the field in different languages is another tack. “One of the major challenges of sports in the country has been that for the last 10 years, sports were being telecast in only one language and that’s English, but that is not the primary language for consumption in most of India.”

     

    Research has revealed that TV viewers would be better served if they get to consume sports coverage in either Hindi or their local languages. “As we know that in entertainment the language used makes a big difference, so our attempt is to build content for both key sports – cricket and football – in Hindi, so that people are able to consume the content in a much better manner,” exults Gupta.

     

    Star will continue the English commentary for both cricket and football as it has a great panel of commentators for both these sports and the content is enjoyed by a huge chunk of its viewer base. “But we are equally building affinity with the content in the Hindi speaking markets (HSMs) and the response has been really encouraging and proves that our strategy is working well with our loyal fan base,” Gupta explains.

     

    With digitisation still an ongoing process what kind of changes can be witnessed in the near future? Reveals Gupta, “It hasn’t really brought about a fundamental change, but people who were in analogue had limited access to content as they could only see 20-30 channels, and some of the sports channels were hit at that time as many of the operators would replace it with some other channel if a live match was not on, may be a movie channel or something else. But with digitisation kicking in not only sports but the content for overall channels has improved dramatically and that’s a welcome change as people will be able to watch the sports channels everyday rather than on a need-be basis.”

     

    Star is striving to build its sports portfolio, and that is the reason that it is trying to get in other sports like football with the Barclays Premier League, motor-racing through F1 and several other sports.

     

    Giving his view on HD as a format Gupta says, “It is very powerful, and we initiated it a couple of years back, as the quality of experience goes up, and with roughly two million HD households consuming HD content across different platforms, the growth of HD will only accelerate.”

     

    Star has recently also launched Star World Premiere HD only strengthening the fact that it believes that is a very big opportunity for all premium content including sports. “We are going to be investing heavily in HD content across genres as we seriously believe HD is the way ahead,” says Gupta.
    Bringing about interactivity with the audience is also something that Star plans to bring about in the near future. “We have already seen that with www.starsports.com when we put cricket, there is a lot of interactivity even in content consumption and not only commenting & social networking but people can see the match and equally see the players’ performances and enjoy highlights even as the live action is going on in the field. So we do see interactivity as a very big tool for the younger generation of the country to connect with sports,” ends Gupta.

  • Will Kolkata go the Mumbai way?

    Will Kolkata go the Mumbai way?

    KOLKATA: Digital marketing may have caught on in a big way in metros like Mumbai and Delhi but in Kolkata, it is struggling to play catch-up, largely due to skepticism around its success as a promotional strategy.

    This, despite the recent example of Bengali film Aborto garnering over 30,000 Facebook likes, not to mention huge pre-release awareness simply by paying Facebook Rs 832 per day for a period of 25 days before the movie hit theatres.

    City-based digital advertising agencies are positive that all businesses stand to benefit by deploying new methods of advertising, moreso those related to travel, real estate and e-commerce.

    In fact, with the number of internet users having multiplied, most businesses that have been following traditional advertising methods (TV, radio and newspaper ads) are expected to divert some portion of their ad budget to digital platforms.

    And yet, there’s agreement on the fact that it would take some more convincing before the City of Joy gets into serious digital space.

    In a bid to understand the situation at ground zero, this correspondent spoke to a cross-section of industry.

    Inter Action owner Prantar Chaudhuri said: “Apart from Facebook and Twitter, the next most used digital platforms are Instagram and LinkedIn. But FB and Twitter are priority.” However, he did say they had done a short-term Facebook plan for a client called Call Buddy, which is into customised gifts and novelties.

    While Let’s Assist Digital Services CEO Prasit Bhattacharya opined that digital marketing is being adopted by both small and medium sized businesses. “The growth rate of digital advertising is almost 50 per cent and it will keep growing as the number of internet users increases. While social media marketing (SMM) finds a niche market here, we are seeing more activity in this space than before,” he said.

    Bhattacharya said that with people searching for more and more information online, sites such as Tumblr and SlideShare were now featuring in people’s priority lists and companies were targeting applications advertising to reach out to more clients on their phones and tablets. “We are also developing a website with iOS and Android Apps, where people can create landing pages and websites by themselves, do A/B spilt testing and get detailed analytics reports on their digital marketing efforts in real time,” he added.

    However, The Webspidy MD Avishek Tarafdar said that around 80 per cent of the people in Kolkata use facebook and the remaining 20 per cent use Google ppc. Going by 2013-14 social media trends, mobile/video ads on YouTube/Vimeo were the main platforms. The size of the advertising industry is $7.3 billion in India, of which, digital ad spend is only around six per cent, Tarafdar pointed out.

    Even Bhattacharya was quick to point out the challenges associated with digital advertising. “Making clients understand the lifespan and reach of each campaign and ad can be challenging. While newspaper ads have a lifespan of one day, online ads can be strictly ROI focused if measured properly,” he said.

    A media planner said: “Clients only want to spend on print media now. They like TT (The Telegraph) for space in Sunday magazine and pay for three months. But they are not sure what they want to put in that space.”

    Another player said on condition of anonymity: “In Kolkata, mid-segment clients do not differentiate between advertising, brand building and propaganda. What most clients do is propaganda and not brand building.”

    A third player rued: “To the Kolkata client, it will start only when some Mumbai agency comes and tells them.” A Delhi-based agency felt most Kolkata brands go digital because everyone else is going that way. Yet another source opined that Kolkata clients do not want to take a risk with new methodology until and unless they’re sure about its acceptability even among competitors.

    The source added: “Moreover, ad budgets in east Indian cities like Kolkata are less than in Mumbai or Delhi. Besides, Kolkata-based clients are not very clear about SMM marketing. They think they can simply open a FB page and voila… they are doing SMM.”

    Worth mentioning here is the initiative by Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) chairman Partha Rakshit, who is working to liaison with Google and Twitter for a tighter monitoring of digital ads. Ads that are in serious breach of the ASCI’s code, and that includes digital ads, will be withdrawn immediately.

    So, given this scenario, will digital advertising take flight in Kolkata? It’s something only time will tell…