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Tag: Divya Radhakrishnan

  • FTV to hot up things with enhancement agenda in India

    FTV to hot up things with enhancement agenda in India

    MUMBAI: Iconic global fashion broadcaster, Fashion TV, founded by Michel Adam, has new plans on its agenda for India.

    The broadcasting and operations of the channel including programming, licensing & merchandising have been entrusted to Trinity Dreamworks who have extended the revenue and brand management mandates to Helios Media.

    Founder of FashionTV and mastermind behind the global fashion revolution on TV, Michel Adam said, “FTV the brand has been growing from strength to strength across the globe as THE fashion destination be it our broadcast brand or various categories we are into under the “F” brand. With the surge in Indians consuming global brands, it’s only natural that we affirm our presence in the market with renewed vigour”   

    The brand’s commitment to India is underlined by the growing off-air presence. FBars have been successfully entertaining guests in Mumbai and Bengaluru for a few years now, the first ever FResidence in India is progressing rapidly in Pune, with discussions in advanced stages for 40 FCafes around the country in the next 3 years. Apparels and accessories under the FAccessories label are in the pipeline and the FVodka might soon be at a bar near you.

    Commenting on the India programming agenda, Trinity Dreamworks’ Vishal Gurnani said, “The Indian Fashion industry is growing phenomenally. The markets are flooded with the best of brands from all over the world indicating growing awareness and consumption. Fashion TV in India has contributed towards enhancing the viewer’s knowledge and experience in the world of fashion, for over a decade. It is now time for us to enhance positioning of the channel itself so we can continue to satiate the viewer’s increasing love for fashion.”

    On the assignment, Helios Media MD Divya Radhakrishnan said, “Being entrusted to represent and partner the world’s biggest Fashion brand is an appreciation of our ability at Helios to position channels as brands and not commodities. With MTunes HD and FoodFood, we have exhibited how this takes the agenda beyond merely selling inventory. The teams across our offices are ready to offer advertisers the opportunity to associate and integrate with the #1 global Fashion destination.”

    Adding further momentum to the overall vision, Helios Media will undertake the Revenue and Brand Management of FashionTV India. While a team of handpicked media sales experts has been assembled to represent the channel among advertisers and media agencies, another team of Brand specialists will ensure that FashionTV India becomes the single destination for anything that is ‘Fashion’ in India. Covering everything from fashion trends, to glamorous lifestyles and global events, the channel will be the mecca for the swish set of the country and the guide for those aspiring to add a touch of glamour in their lives. If the viewer identifies with the tagline “I Love Fashion”, then this is where they will be found.

  • Divya Radhakrishnan & the Helios solution

    Divya Radhakrishnan & the Helios solution

    Media veteran Divya Radhakrishnan gets a little nostalgic as she recollects that moment a couple of year ago when she was contemplating which direction her life should take. Says she: “After working for almost 25 years, when I told my mother that I was planning to quit, I least expected her to be supportive of my decision. But then her response motivated me to go ahead: she said just do it. And so I did it.”

    The former TME president finally dug her heels in and made the drastic career change.

    “I knew I was going to be on the other side of the table now and it was not going to be easy,” she says while thanking the leadership role she played at Rediffusion-Y&R, which helped her get an insight into how things work in various verticals of a media business. “But then I thought to myself that being independent and leading a business with decision-making power at my own risk would give me a greater sense of freedom and that really motivated me,” she adds.

    Her decision was pretty calculated too, she says.

    “There are close to 180 odd channels in India not aligned to any broadcast network. Agencies, clients, vendors, and others, however, expect them to have everything that a large network does like sales, marketing, research, and what have you. Now in a large network you can amortise your costs across several channels,” she explains. “But for a standalone channel the high overhead can be killing. Hence, I decided I would first focus on the sales outsourcing function for TV channels and once I achieved that, I would add more services. I needed to find someone who had a similar vision and I found that in Bala Iyengar and so we started out.”

    Right from the start, Divya was clear that her agenda would go beyond being just-another-organisation to fill a need gap, and getting recognition for creating a brand in a commoditised business of air time sales.

    Hence, Helios Media has ambitions to provide advisory and undertake operations for independent players in the broadcast industry. In order to differentiate itself it has set up various verticals like sales, marketing communications, advertising, research, content, PR, broadcast operations, syndication, events and new media to create a 360 degree outsourcing company which television channels can rely on. Divya on her part is also involved in a TV content production firm TouCan with sister-in-law Bhavna Radhakarishnan.

    With over 50 people on board now, finding the right team was not easy for Divya at the start. “Since I was coming from the other end, I needed to get the business heads in place so they could get the correct people for us,” she says.

    Among those who she managed to snare figured: Bala Iyengar (business head Zoom), Vaibhav Vishal (a former MTV veteran) and Prashant Nigam (also from Zoom). Iyengar is business director and leads the sales vertical. Vishal is the creative and content leader whereas Nigam looks after content syndication and special projects. The four pillars run the show headquartered in Mumbai, although the organisation has branches in Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai.

    Helios is like a morphing organism, tailor making itself, depending on client and market needs. Though its headquarters are in the Maximum city, it has resources at regional levels as well.

    The organisation which started with its first client MTunes is now handling four different channels and is hoping to bill almost Rs 100 crore in revenue by this year end for them. Divya is also in conversation with others including an international TV network which wants Helios to draw out an entry and operational plan for a few of their channels.

    However, getting clients wasn‘t easy for it as it had to prove its credentials to the market.

    “The first eight to 10 months were all about investment of our resources, energy and talent to prove not only to ourselves but also to channels what we can do for them,” narrates Divya.

    Two agencies had approached the MTunes management when they announced that they would be outsourcing their ad sales functions.

    “The approach and the pitch with which Helios met us made us realise that they have enough insight and perspective about how to sell the channel at its launch stage itself,” says MTunes HD CEO Saravanan P, who asserts that the association helped their operations to touch inventory levels as high as the top two channels in the genre and they could also maintain it almost through the year.

    “The challenge was to pull off a decent ER (effective rate ) but we managed a very aggressive one which can be termed as an achievement for a channel in its first year of operation,” Saravanan adds. The agency also handles marketing, research, PR and social media.

    MTunes HD CEO Saravanan P says Divya & her team helped the new channel get very aggressive effective advertising rates

    “The past performance of the Helios team is very well known in the industry. Their recent success story with MTunes strengthened our belief on their capability. However, that is not the only reason why we outsourced our sales to them. FoodFood, being a genre creator, needed to be correctly represented to the clients and the agencies. Helios came forward with that understanding of the channel and the genre. For the long run, it is not just a few crores which advertising clients would like to put into the channel but would also like to get the correct association. We hope that Helios Media will be able to build that bridge between us and clients,” points out FoodFood CFO Sanjay Kumar Ballabh who came on board around four months back.

    Helios has a tool called DARE (defining, articulating, resulting and extending) to understand the brand and find solutions for the brand, especially for niche channels.

    “Using the tool, we could draw up the brand promise for MTunes as ‘Music like never seen before,‘” she says. “We worked almost like partners of the channel when we enabled the creation of a music countdown show called Trending which is probably the only show on right now with an indicator for the top songs in the country. We track them on YouTube, Hungama, and Radio City airplay etc and Ormax is our partner on this initiative. The concept is completely ours and has found a presenting sponsor in Airtel.”

    Divya has been focusing on other services such as marketing and content for her clients ever since she has got the ad sales engine chugging well. She says: “Marketing a channel is very different from marketing a biscuit. The customer is not really paying for a channel, and hence we have to be creative while inducing him to watch it. “

    Vivaki Exchange‘s Mona Jain & Mindshare Fulcrum‘s Amin Lakhani are impressed with Divya & the Helios team and the innovative solutions they offer brands

    Sources indicate that Helios has advised client FoodFood to go beyond cooking and also talk about other aspects related to food like eating out, food conversations, what to eat and when, health and nutrition, among others.

    Divya refused to comment on this but what she is really kicked about is the power of social media. “Digital should accentuate what‘s going on television,” she says. “And we have shown what can be done on digital through our work for MTunes.”

    Helios has designed and put together the online consumer interface for the channel in the form of its website with audio players, playlists, interviews, and what have you. But she faced a major challenge when she was assigned the task to build consumer engagement for MTunes HD on Facebook and Twitter: it had no rights to put the music it airs on TV on digital. Hence, the solution it found was to start conversations about youth interests.

    “Generally we spoke to them on Facebook and Twitter like a friend would do to them about everything that concerned them,” says Divya. “Of ocurse we also had guessing games about celebrities eyes and created special events online on friendship day. Right now we are working on creating a TV program which uses the interactivity of social media.”

    Divya and Helios have got fans in the media business. For example Vivaki Exchange CEO Mona Jain and Mindshare Fulcrum principal partner Amin Lakhani. “What sets Helios apart from the rest is not only the team which is packed with experienced as well as young talent but also the innovative ideas they come up with to service and represent a brand,” echoed both Jain and Lakhani.

    Divya knows she is onto a good thing and is looking forward to capitalise on the strengths she has built up in Helios. Says she: “When the 10+2 ad cap comes into play we will be best equipped to help our clients. Because I have all the verticals in-house and hence solutions that can help channels monetise what they have better.”

    Clearly, this is one lady on a mission.

  • Industry reacts to move to net billing

    Industry reacts to move to net billing

    MUMBAI: After nearly three weeks of speculation, debate and discussions, the advertising agencies, represented by the Advertisng Agencies‘ Association of India (AAAI), and the broadcasters, represented by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the bodies have come to a consensus about shifting to net billing.

    The decision came as a relief to both agencies and broadcasters as the latter had stopped airing ads on their respective networks. Clients were yelling blue murder at the agencies for not being able to promote their products to TV viewers. Indiantelevision.com spoke to some of the network officials to get their views on what they thought about the settlement between the two:

    Says MCCS CEO Ashok Venkatramani, “I welcome it completely. It‘s the right thing and I am very glad that the issue is resolved and I think we have done the right thing moving to net billing. It should have happened earlier, but it‘s better late than never.”

    AXN Networks India business head Sunil Punjabi feels that the new net billing system is not going to affect broadcasters. “It doesn‘t make a difference from a channel‘s perspective. It is just that things will be more transparent. From a tax perspective things will be clearer.” He however adds that from an agency’s perspective there could be an impact pertaining to commission. “Earlier on a bill of Rs 100 we were paid Rs 85. The rest was the agency‘s commission. Now we will charge Rs 85 and get paid that.”

    Venkatramani adds that the industry was “just hanging to the system which is completely outdated and nobody was gaining. It was just a paper number, paper figure or you can say paper transaction and it doesn‘t make much difference to their (agencies‘) life. They just need to sit with their clients and renegotiate their actual fees.”

    Taking a slightly milder tone, Colors CEO Raj Nayak said, “I am glad that both the IBF & the AAAI have been able to come to a mutually agreeable solution on the net v/s gross billing issue. This is an industry issue and we have to address it together keeping the interests of all stakeholders in mind.”

    NDTV group CEO Narayan Rao is in complete agreement and adds, “We were part of that decision and we fully supported it. I am glad that the IBF leadership and also some of the CEOs of our broadcasting channels have been able to achieve this conclusion.”

    Helios Media CEO Divya Radhakrishnan feels that the standoff between the two stakeholders of the industry served little more than proving a point one way or another. She said, “Broadcasters and agencies are working in the same space of providing communication solutions for brands. Hence there can be no reason for working at cross purposes. An amicable solution works for all concerned. Such stand offs serve no purpose other than wanting to prove a point. Lastly, if a stance has to be taken then it cannot be selective.”

  • Bhansali’s TV debut ‘Saraswatichandra’ opens with 2.5 TVR on Star Plus

    MUMBAI: When Bollywood names get associated with television, the aspiration of the channels airing those shows rises. Be it Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate or Amitabh Bachchan’s Kaun Banega Crorepati or Salman Khan’s Bigg Boss, these Bollywood personalities have time to time proved that their charisma can pull the audience to the television screen as well.

    This time it is someone who is not seen on camera but is someone who has been behind many Bollywood blockbusters like Devdas, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Black. Director-producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali tried out the television medium with ‘Saraswatichandra’ – and the fiction show has worked well on Star Plus.

    ‘Saraswatichandra’ debuted with 2.5 TVR on 25 February. The average rating of the show in its opening week stood at 2.1 TVR, according to TAM data for the Hindi Speaking Market (C&S 4+) provided by a Hindi GEC.

    Helios Media CEO Divya Radhakrishnan believes the debut rating of ‘Saraswatichandra’ is pretty good. “Earlier prime-time was from 8 pm which has now shifted to 7 pm. Considering the Hindi GECs’ standards, it is a big show and the channel has spent a bomb on it. I had thought it would get a better slot on the channel but for a 7.30 pm slot, 2.5 TVR ratings is good and it has picked up pretty well,” she said.

    Star Plus VP-marketing Nikhil Madhok said, “We are happy with the way the show has opened up. It is the highest rated debut amongst past few launches of our channel.”

    As per TAM data (HSM including 5 new LC1 markets, C&S, 4+) sourced from a channel, Star Plus continued to maintain its leadership position in the genre with the addition of 17 GRPs to notch a total of 265 GRPs. The other shows of the channel like Diya Aur Bati Hum (5.9 TVR), Nach Baliye (2.9 TVR) and Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai (4.4 TVR) have seen rise in eyeballs.

    Zee TV climbed to second position with 226 GRPs, despite a loss of five GRPs. The channel’s recently launched kids’ reality show India Ke Best Dramebaz notched a whopping 4.4 TVR in the week ended 2 March.

    Following Zee TV is Colors that slipped to third position with a loss of 15 GRPs. The channel had earned 30 GRPs last week as it had aired Akshay Kumar-starrer ‘Khiladi 786’ on 23 January. The fiction shows of the channel recorded marginal difference in their ratings as it closed the week with 220 GRPs.

    Sony Entertainment Television lost 18 GRPs to clock 170 GRPs. The channel had gained numbers last week as it had aired the Filmfare Awards. Its recently launched fiction show ‘Khubsoorat’ opened with a TVR of 1 as it averaged 0.9 TVR in the week.

    Sab with 138 GRPs (same as last week) went ahead of Life OK in the ninth week of TAM. Life OK ended the week with 132 GRPs (last week 144).

    Sahara One with 24 GRPs (last week 24) remained at the bottom of the ladder.

  • Women Power: Divya Radhakrishnan

    Divya Radhakrishnan could have ideally fitted into a banking or finance career after graduating in economics. But it is the world of marketing and communications that fascinated her. And that is how she moved into the advertising profession.

    With over 24 years of experience, Radhakrishnan moved up the ladder across agencies like Dacunha Communications, Publicis Zen and Rediffusion Y&R. After becoming president at TME, the media arm of Rediffusion-Y&R, she decided to start her own venture and floated Helios Media in December 2011.

    In the second part of our International Women’s Day coverage, Indiantelevision.com looks at the lady who says that the “gender divide” has vanished over the years as she moved up the hierarchy. Radhakrishnan believes that a “CEO is a CEO be it in a suit or a skirt!”

    What has your experience as a woman in the media business been over all these years?
    When I joined the media business two decades ago, most media agency heads were women – Roda Mehta, Lynn D‘Souza, Ketaki Gupte and Kalpana Sathe. Having said that, it‘s not as if this was any reason for me to choose this space. Being part of a full service agency, most of my colleagues were men (the boss I was reporting into was a man too!). Hence, there wasn’t any gender leaning of any sorts.

    However, large amount of media spends in my early days of media planning was driven by FMCGs and most media plans therefore were housewife centric. Therefore, there was a slight edge in understanding behaviour (not that it gave me, a thoroughbred Mumbaikar, an upper hand about housewives in Kerala to sell Kanan Devan Tea to them).

    As I rose up the ranks to head the agency, this so called gender divide vanished. A CEO is a CEO be it in a suit or a skirt.

    In my current role as a person running my own company in the media space, all I can say is it gets noticed a bit that “yes she is a woman too!”. I am also discovering special allowances that the government has for women entrepreneurs which makes me feel very proud of our Indian governance. For example, the scheme for Small enterprises for financing by PSU banks has greater flexibility if the owner is a woman.

    How conducive is the environment for women to thrive in the media business today?
    Communications business has been about delivering the right ideas and ideas that work. Hence there needn‘t be any deterrent about being a woman to succeed in this space. The environment today is more conducive than ever before with the mobility of the office tools, with laptops and smart phones one needn‘t be tied down to your desk to complete work. The deadlines remain impossible like before but this flexibility keeps a check on the hours at office. Like it’s said “Office begins at 9 am but work begins at 7 am”.

    What are the major challenges women face today in the media biz?
    The challenges faced by women are the same as that of men. The challenges do not differentiate gender. But if I have to give specific examples pertaining to women, I would rather elaborate the opportunities than challenges because a challenge is a challenge till you face it and then it promptly converts into an opportunity.

    What changes would you like to see in the work environment to make it a better and more conducive place for women?
    Changes, I want to see is for the profession per se:
    1. Enough training opportunities before students take their career decisions of coming into media. Many a times, they do it blindly.
    2. Practical exposure rather than exposure to database. “Can you run TAM/IRS software” is a question that should be banned in interviews for Junior planners
    3. Diversion of business outside of the metros is not just about servicing a client in Trichur but getting closer to the consumer located there.

    On the personal front, which are the TV shows that you like watching more? Does this influence your buying and planning decisions positively?
    I am a voracious media consumer myself. I read five newspapers in the morning, listen to radio at drive time, surf net during the day and watch a lot of TV at night. I love daily soaps on GECs and reality shows (however uncool that may sound, don’t care). During my media planning days, I made sure that I had sampled whatever I recommended in my plans. This was a result of my early training days.

    What kind of movies are you fond of?
    Hardcore Bollywood entertainment.

    What is your vision of media and the role of women in it 5-10 years down the road?
    Media business has clearly demonstrated that there is equal space for all. It depends purely on your talent. Early days of women agency heads to current trend of men, five years down the line there will be no doubt at all of any wanting to know if the gender had any role to play for these positions which will get clearly established. Leadership definitions 10 years hence will be determined by pure leadership skills rather than the technical media knowledge. Gautam (Kiyawat) at Madison has already set this trend going.

    What are your views on traditional media?
    In the context of India‘s population construct, traditional media like press is yet to reach its optimum reach capability where it hovers currently at over 45 per cent. With literacy catching up, this will expand. TV, The more popular traditional medium, though larger, is still to reach the entire spread of the nation.

    What is your perception of emerging media such as the mobile screen, tablets, online and social media? And your perception of these being used as a targeted medium to communicate brand messages to consumers?
    Any place, space, time that a consumer can be found (even if it is a wash-room) becomes a medium. I think the line of traditional and emerging does not exist.

    And specifically mobile screens are certainly not emerging as they have travelled even beyond electricity and reached villages where consumers charge their phones on solar energy.

    All product categories have their own defined set of consumers and their media habits therefore become the relevant medium for the brands in that category. One cannot generalise on a medium per se. What works for one will not necessarily work for another.

    What will the media buying look like in 10 years from now?
    Media agency is the better terminology and not media buying agency. For a media investment to get its full worth, it needs to go through a full-service media agency and not focus on buying alone. This will become a fundamental given in 10 years wherein it will get more and more complicated to get those elusive reach numbers. Strategies will have to evolve towards providing the consumer “Opportunity to experience” (OTX) rather than the traditional “Opportunity to see” (OTS).

    What advice would you give to the young girls entering the business of media today?
    Be aware of what you are getting into. Early years of media business is extremely challenging and one needs to be fully researched on what it entails.

    Be a voracious consumer of media yourself – my favourite example is the men at the saree shop who drape the saree around themselves unabashedly to demonstrate the saree‘s beauty.

    Be well-read about society and people to map behaviour which needs to reflect on the media strategies. Rise above the numbers that data throws at you to give the client true value for his investments

    Whoever controls Media controls the Mind…. a space we women want to be in our relationships!

  • Divya Radhakrishnan launches Helios Media

    Divya Radhakrishnan launches Helios Media

    MUMBAI: Divya Radhakrishnan, who had quit in February this year as president of TME, the media arm of Rediffusion-Y&R, has launched her own venture, Helios Media.

    Helios Media, an integrated ancillary service company for television broadcasters, has collaborated with specialised partners to complement services in all allied areas. It has set up Sales, Marketing, Research and Traffic management verticals and will offer the services as a composite piece or as a stand-alone, based on the requirements of the broadcasters.

    The company has set up offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

    The company has also roped in former business head of Zoom, Bala Iyengar as business director. He will lead the sales and content syndication function at the company.

    According to the official communique, the vision of this company has been crafted on the premise that the increasing number of TV channels in India is facing a key business challenge. While content is the primary scope of these channels, a lot of effort has to be invested in creating a robust eco-system to run the business. This puts in a lot of stress on the channel business head, resulting in dilution of focus from the key delivery, which is content. Also, the proliferation will lead to further slicing of the revenue pie making the all-encompassing business model non-viable.

    The company has already signed up two music channels — MTunes and Music Express — as clients. It has also partnered with World Media Connect (WMC) as its Asian arm. WMC markets Indian Channels to the ethnic population based in US and UK. The portfolio includes six channels of the Sun TV Network (Sun TV, KTV, Gemini TV, Udaya TV, Gemini Movies, Surya TV) and Punjjabi TV at present.

    Helios Media said that with the above contracts already in place, it is in advanced stages of negotiations with four speciality channels coming into India.

    Radhakrishnan has over 24 years of rich experience in the business of media management. She has worked with leading advertising agencies like Publicis and Rediffusion Y&R. In her last assignment, she headed the Contact Practice at Rediffusion Y&R wherein the Media company TME, Public Relations company Rediffusion PR and the Event Management company Showdiff Worldwide were under her leadership.

    Meanwhile, Iyengar, who has over 14 years of experience, has worked with leading media networks like Times of India, Sony Entertainment Television, Star Network and MTV.

  • Shriram Insight ropes in TME as its media agency

    Shriram Insight ropes in TME as its media agency

    MUMBAI: TME, the media company of Rediffusion Y&R, has been appointed the media agency for Shriram Insight, the stock broking arm of the Rs 42,000 crore Shriram Group.

    Shriram Insight‘s creative mandate will be handled by Metal, an ad agency set up by Narayan Kumar.

    Confirming the win, TME President Divya Radhakrishnan said: “We are very excited about working with Shriram Insight and it‘s a privilege to have been awarded this mandate.”

    Shriram Insight had started a new corporate campaign from 6 December that featured a series of television commercials of 45 seconds and 30 seconds each.

  • Title sponsorship for Star’s ‘Antakshari’ goes to Colgate Maxfresh; Juhi Parmer to co-host

    Title sponsorship for Star’s ‘Antakshari’ goes to Colgate Maxfresh; Juhi Parmer to co-host

    MUMBAI: Star is poised to ramp up its offerings on sister channel Star One and has signed on Colgate Maxfresh as the title sponsor for it’s edition of the musical talent hunt show, Antakshari – The Great Challenge.

    The brain child behind Antakshari, producer Gajendrra Siingh has once again roped in Annu Kapur as host. In addition to this, the show has also selected Juhi Parmer to partner Kapur as co-host.

    A show that soon became a ‘fashion’ and ‘phenomenon’ on rival network Zee, Antakshari for the first time on Star promises to be “snazzier with new inclusions to the format and a reality aspect.” Geared to hit television in the second week of February, the first season will run for a 13 week period.

    Commenting on the association of Colgate Maxfresh with Antakshari, Star India advertising, sales and distribution Paritosh Joshi said, “Antakshari-The Great Challenge is a unique musical programme and is all set to add excitement to primetime viewing on Star One. With vibrant hosts and a lively and interactive format the viewers will be treated to a rich viewing experience each time. We are thrilled to be associated with a young brand like Colgate Maxfresh that will reach out to our audiences with innovative programming that is unique to Star One.” 

    On having initiated the partnership, Media Edge vice president Divya Radhakrishnan said, “Colgate Maxfresh is a brand targeting the youth. We have been constantly using platforms that engage this ever evasive TG beyond standard communication tools. In Antakshari, we saw an opportunity which was a good combination of a game show weaved in with a high entertainment quotient. This we believe will have a good appeal in our core TG.” 

    Four zonal auditions were conducted on the 12 and 14 January with guest judges including Ismail Durbaar at Indore, Abhijeet Bhattacharya in Kolkata and Annu Kapur in Delhi and Mumbai. 

    Following Gajendrra Siingh’s exit from Zee, the channel launched Antakshari last month with Titan as their main sponsor and Sunil Pal from the Laughter Challenge and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2005 champion Himani Kapoor as hosts. But with the original creator and host for the show propagating a fresh avatar for Antakshari on a new network – Star One, a fierce battle is yet to begin!

  • Shailesh Velande likely to replace Divya Radhakrishnan at Optimedia

    MUMBAI: Nearly one and half months after Zen Optimedia VP Divya Radhakrishnan left the organisation to join The Media Edge, the agency seems to have finalised the name of the candidate who will replace her.

    There are strong indications that Shailesh Velande will head the media planning and buying operations at Zen Optimedia. At present, media manager Bala Gopal is been managing the show; Bala Gopal will report to Velande as and when he comes aboard. Media independent Optimedia has billings to the tune of Rs 1.5 billion.

    Media veteran Velande has worked with some of the bigger agencies including Lowe’s Initiative Media (IM). After leaving IM, Velande had gone abroad and worked in Singapore.

    Radhakrishnan, who had a long innings (nearly 16 years) with the Publicis, has joined The Media Edge, the company that handles Dentsu, Young and Rubicam’s media business, as VP Media. Radhakrishnan reports to Divya Gupta who is heading the show.

    Media reports indicate that Radhakrishnan grabbed the opportunity to head the Tata AOR. For the record, The Media Edge was awarded the media buying business way back in October 2001. Optimedia has handled certain Tata brands earlier.