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  • IPL and festive season to boost marketing sentiments: Experts

    IPL and festive season to boost marketing sentiments: Experts

    NEW DELHI: The Covid2019 has not only crushed the global economy, but it has badly impacted the live sporting events across the world. Every sporting event was canceled or postponed due to the virus, including the Olympic 2020. While some of the games resumed in Europe and the US, there has been a major upheaval in the sporting calendar.

    India's mecca of sports, Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to take-off from 19 September in UAE, and cricket fans are eagerly waiting for this sporting event.

    Indiantelevision.com organized a virtual round table to discuss more on the current state and future of Live Sports in India. The round table witnessed several industry veterans sharing their opinions and insights on the subject. These veterans included – Mindshare South Asia, COO Amin Lakhani; Dentsu Aegis Network CEO APAC & Chairman Ashish Bhasin; Byju’s head of marketing Atit Mehta; Future Group’s group CMO (Marketing, digital, and e-commerce) Pawan Sarda; IPG Mediabrands CEO- India Shashi Sinha; Group M India business head (Entertainment, Sports & Live Events) Vinit Karnik. The discussion was moderated by IndianTelevision.com Group Founder, CEO & Editor-in-Chief Anil Wanvari.

    Hence, the question being asked is: will the IPL’s overlap with the festive season lead to a drop in viewership for the GECs and advertising dollars being sucked out from them towards the league?

    DAN CEO APAC & chairman Ashish Bhasin exclaimed, “It will depend on how much marketers are willing to shell out, and the next three months will disclose how marketers are going to make their next move. Covid2019 has taught us to be more adaptable. Decision-making has become more agile.”

    Talking about anti-china sentiments, he said, “I don't think there will be any impact on Chinese brands. I see it as a temporary blip, and it won't impact IPL significantly.”

    Experts hope that this festive season will bring back the cheer among consumers to buy, which will eventually help the brands. “IPL will be a great stimulator to the festive season,” shares IPG Mediabrand CEO – India Shashi Sinha.

    Group M India business head Vinit Karnik describes the upcoming months as very crucial. “From now, India will see three big festivals ­- Ganpati, Durga Puja, and Diwali. However, the fourth festival, in this pandemic, will be IPL. My optimism comes from the conversations we have had in the past 2-3 weeks, which have been very encouraging. People are willing to spend on this little festival, and that’s an opportunity for us.”

    Therefore, the question being asked is: Can we see marketers investing in spot buying instead of buying packages deals during this IPL?

    Mindshare South Asia COO Amin Lakhani affirms, “As we move forward, people are taking calculative decisions. The window is open till November end, and a lot of brands depending on their strategy will take a call, and these packages will make a bulk of consumption from the IPL perspective. There are a few clients who are evaluating their positions and want to be a part of it, but it depends on how the business shapes up.”

    He believes that IPL is a wonderful opportunity, and brands are willing to be a part of it. They are making initial strategies on how they want to participate.

    On brand sponsorship, Karnik says that this will have a huge impact on teams as most of the team sponsors rally with IPL for two reasons- brand saliency and activation. “With IPL going abroad, the activation point gets moot, and for team sponsorships, the numbers will be 12-25 per cent downward for team sponsorships point of view.”

    It has been widely reported that for this edition of IPL, Star India has set a target of Rs 3,000 crore in advertising.

    According to Sinha, “If the broadcaster reaches closer to last year's ad sales number, it will be a good sign. While the overall industry is still not doing well in terms of performance, but categories work in terms of sponsorship. It will not be as bad as people think.”

    Bhasin states that even the last two generations haven’t faced anything like this, so it is unfair to expect that this year is going to be the same as the last one. The context is where we are as compared to three years ago.

    He further says, "In this pandemic, digital consumption has reached its highest level. Digital companies have benefitted, and many of them are funded companies. They are in a much better position than many others."

    However, he believes that the only exception is live sports because you need a bigger screen. “The skew of ad spends is towards digital, but it is not at the cost of TV. Digital segment will just open up more opportunities.”

    It will be interesting to see how the next three months pan and will advertisers open up their purses.

  • What IPL comeback means to the entire industry?

    What IPL comeback means to the entire industry?

    NEW DELHI-. As numerous tournaments around the globe are making their comeback, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is going to bring smiles to cricket fans’ faces from 19 September. The game will be held in UAE this year and is one of the most sought after tournaments in recent history.

    If reports are to be believed, online gaming and sports firms are all set to spend big on television and digital platforms. With live sports back in action, the biggest question that is being asked is how the business of live sports would fare during the pandemic.

    Indiantelevision.com organized a virtual round table to discuss more about the current state and future of Live Sports in India. The round table witnessed several industry veterans sharing their opinions and insights on the subject. These veterans included – Mindshare South Asia, COO Amin Lakhani; Dentsu Aegis Network CEO APAC & Chairman Ashish Bhasin; Byju’s head of marketing Atit Mehta; Future Group’s group CMO (Marketing, digital, and e-commerce) Pawan Sarda; IPG Mediabrands CEO- India Shashi Sinha; Group M India business head (Entertainment, Sports & Live Events) Vinit Karnik. The discussion was moderated by IndianTelevision.com Group Founder, CEO & Editor-in-Chief Anil Wanvari.

    Mindshare South Asia COO Amin Lakhani mentions that since the day IPL was announced there has been a sense of positivity and it indicates that we are on the path to recovery. “There is a cautiousness in the market as the businesses have taken a huge setback in most of the segments. Many brands are looking it as an opportunity on how they can engage with IPL. The conversation with clients on IPL is three times more than what we were having with them around television ad spends in last couple of months,” shares Lakhani.

    IPG Media brands CEO- India Shashi Sinha believes that it is definitely an opportune moment for IPL to come in. “Metro cities contribute to nearly 35% of overall consumption in India. However, these cities have been most affected due to pandemic and IPL gets large traction from these regions. So, IPL is a good opportunity for brands catering to the audiences in these markets to come out from the negativity. We also feel that the sentiment is really good, and one should not compare IPL to the March – April but to what the mood was in June and July this year.”. 

    DAN CEO APAC & chairman Ashish Bhasin points out that the Indian market is more sentiment-driven as compared to any other market in the world. “If the mood is upbeat, both advertisers and consumers continue to open their purses. Last year, the economy was not doing as badly as it is doing now, but the mood was depressed. As a result, the advertising industry and many other brands were not doing well. We have already had 4-5 months of bad news, and sometimes we need an escape from it, and IPL has a potential for that. I think around the time of IPL, we will start approaching closer to normality, and once that happens, the universe will expand,” says Bhasin.

    Group M India business head Vinit Karnik opines that it’s completely unfair to compare 2020 with last year's performance. “This year has been a completely different experience for each and every sector, but still, I believe there is a reasonable amount of head-room for both GECs as well as the sports sector to survive. I think we have a decent amount of headroom to manage both,” he further adds.

    Future Group’s group CMO Pawan Sarda defines the last few months as a complete washout and believes that businesses are still struggling as they have not reached 30-40 per cent of the previous year. Says he, “It’s time to step back and observe how things will happen and then make a decision on our spendings. IPL is a platform that sets the mood for the country. A good amount of advertising is always good for healthy consumption, and since we are in retail, we tend to get the benefit from it. We are not committing anything right now.”

    During this lockdown, e-learning has performed exceptionally well. Byju’s head of marketing Atit Mehta shares, “For us, the past 4-5 months have been good in topline and bottom-line growth. We are optimistic and looking forward to the start of the festive season and every other opportunity that comes our way.”

    Says he, “As we have lost out our bid, we will now have to look at other options as far as IPL is concerned.”

    So, overall the mood is very upbeat within the brands and agencies as they keen to once again go out and reach their consumers.

  • Amazon set to acquire 9.5% stake in Future Retail

    Amazon set to acquire 9.5% stake in Future Retail

    MUMBAI: Ecommerce giant Amazon is all set to acquire a minority stake in Future Retail next week according to an Economic Times report. This deal will allow Amazon to reach the country’s food and grocery market through supermarket chains like Big Bazaar and Nilgiris. Future Retail has more than 1,100 physical stores across India.

    The deal is said to be around Rs 2,500 crore. Speaking to Economic Times, sources said, “Amazon, through the foreign portfolio investor (FPI) route, will buy about 9.5 per cent stake in Future Retail and has already signed a term sheet. The deal will be announced after board approval on 14 November.”

    Wazir Advisors founder Harminder Sahni said, “It essentially means Amazon is taking a position in offline retail. But it can’t just be a financial investment and they will surely leverage Future Group's network and backend facilities for supply chain and other operations."

  • Brand Factory takes a quirky take on how things go overboard during Diwali

    Brand Factory takes a quirky take on how things go overboard during Diwali

    MUMBAI:  Diwali known as the festival of lights, brings with itself a gigantic festive fervour that's filled with fun, happiness, love, family bonding, and not to forget — the gifting and shopping frenzy. And no brand wants to miss out the opportunity to connect with its audience through a heart-touching and emotional content.

    Brand Factory, breaking this clutter, has launched a digital film – #Diwali365Days, which shows there is every day Diwali at Brand Factory because of amazing discounts 365 days on 200+ fashion brands.

    The film captures the essence of how Diwali also means dramatisation of everything. There are countless greetings from random numbers to mandatory office celebrations to never-ending selfie sessions. It is something we don’t opt, but our celebrations are incomplete without it. Through a quirky narrative, the digital film showcases such instances which do get overwhelming. 

    The film was a big hit among millennials and garnered over 2 million views and 200+ shares in just 5 days.

    Brand Factory chief marketing officer Roch D’Souza says, “During Diwali, brands usually take an emotional or social hook to convey a message. But at Brand Factory, we decided to take insights from things that usually happen during Diwali and give a quirky spin to it. So, we decided to have a digital film which will resonate with our audience. At the same time, we ensured to enhance the brand proposition of discounts 365 days which the film does it aptly.”

    Brand Factory, a Future Group concept, is India’s leading chain of fashion discount stores with 72 outlets across 30 cities in India. It offers 200+ Indian and International fashion brands at 20-70 per cent discount, 365 days a year. It also offers a diverse range of merchandise at absolutely great prices in a refreshingly enjoyable ambience. Brand Factory stores include men’s formals, casuals, youth wear, women’s wear, sportswear, kids wear, footwear, accessories and more.

  • ZEEL appoints Animesh Kumar as chief people officer

    ZEEL appoints Animesh Kumar as chief people officer

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has appointed Animesh Kumar as the chief people officer (CPO). He will report to ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka.

    In his new role, Kumar will be spearheading the human resources function to build a dynamic workplace that attracts the best talent and enables innovative people practices, supporting the growing workforce needs.

    The new CPO has also worked with the IDFC Group for nine years engaging in various roles like head of human resources, marketing head of IDFC Bank and CEO of IDFC Foundation. Prior to joining ZEE, he was associated with the Future Group as the chief people & transformation officer wherein he was responsible for driving the internal transformation.

    Having over 25 years of experience, Kumar has led the HR function at large scale Indian and MNCs for over 15 years. He has served on boards of various companies and has worked closely with non-profit organisations helping them enhance internal capacity to increase their social impact.

    Kumar started his career with Marico as the HR manager and served the organisation for more than five years from June 1993 to December 1998. He has done BA in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce and holds a post graduate diploma degree on PM&IR (Personnel Management and Industrial Relations) in Human Resources from XLRI College, Jamshedpur.

  • Big Bazaar used meme based marketing to promote sale

    Big Bazaar used meme based marketing to promote sale

    MUMBAI: Big Bazaar is known for its blockbuster sales which attract customers in millions. For this public holiday sale from 28 April to 2 May, it also gave an opportunity to customers to buy online. This was done with the intent to reach every nook and corner of the country where its stores were not present. 

    Big Bazaar created immense visibility for its public holiday sale campaign and pushed visitors to try online shopping by partnering with RVCJ Media to create a buzz on social media. The single point agenda for all communication was to crowd source, drive awareness and encourage shopping both in-stores and online.

    Big Bazaar wanted to drive purchases of a variety of products like kitchen appliances, suitcases, cookware, trimmers, bedsheets, television sets, mobile phones and other electronic goods. It tried static /video memes and WhatsApp conversation videos to highlight deals and specific offers, across these categories.

    The campaign went live on all social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, on 22 April, and RVCJ leveraged topical content and trends around conversations, for e.g. it created memes featuring IPL stars, and actors from the hit film Sonu KeTitu Ki Sweety, to relate with customers and create visibility for their client. Using witty pop culture references, RVCJ created funny static memes, video memes in Hindi also dubbed in variety of regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali, WhatsApp conversation GIF videos and articles to craft a 360-degree campaign.

    RVCJ also created a hilarious sketch based ‘hero video’ to anchor the campaign, featuring well known artists and familiar faces. The theme of the hero video was ‘Indians During Sale’ and showcased quirks and people’s eagerness to get the best discounts during an e-commerce sale and integrated bigbazaar.com cleverly, within the narrative. The ‘Indians During Sale’ video performed exceedingly well, getting 1.5 Million views on FaceBook alone, and crossing 512K views on YouTube.

    Future Group India group head for digital Pawan Sarda says, “We partnered with RVCJ media for them being one of leading content aggregators when it comes to crowdsourcing, creating snacky and engaging content which cuts across geographies and age segments. Its high rate of organic engagement being another critical factor worked well for the campaign.”

    A high frequency of a variety of interesting content ensured that the message reached the maximum number of people. For instance, a static meme using a picture of Ranveer Singh for a before and after effect, to push the sale of a trimmer was liked by over 51k people. And overall, the 14 static meme based campaign got a total reach of 1.59 million on Facebook, with an engagement of 21.2 per cent, and reached out to an additional 2.5 million people on Instagram and 91K people via Twitter. And nine video memes achieved a good amount of traction with 2.5 million views on Facebook and seven video memes distributed via Instagram fetched 1.2 million views.

    RVCJ Media founder and CEO Shahid Javed Ansari adds, “Big Bazaar has partnered exclusively with RVCJ on all digital platforms for the past few months and this is the fourth campaign we are working on together. Our ability to tap into what is trending, our understanding of what works with Indian audiences and our pan-Indian regional language reach helped us create awareness about Big Bazaar’s e-commerce portal. In the past we have generated 48 per cent of traffic for them during a sale, using viral memes and other popular content like sketch based humorous videos. We hope to continue doing good work for them in the future.”

  • Tasty Treat’s new campaign celebrates India’s love for snacking

    Tasty Treat’s new campaign celebrates India’s love for snacking

    MUMBAI: Tasty Treat, the ready-to-eat snacking brand from Future Consumer Ltd, has launched a new brand film.

    The campaign is a montage of our current lives; where sweet, spicy, crunchy and masaaledar snacks constantly add fresh flavours across age, gender and time.

    Executed by Purple Vishnu films, the ‘Chak Chak Chabao’ campaign captures India’s undying love for tasty food and showcases the wide range of Tasty Treat products from namkeens to mithai and juices to sauces. The campaign is pictured to a peppy and foot tapping music created by rap sensation Kunal Pandagle a.k.a Kaam Bhaari and led by music director Sammeruddin.

    Future Group CEO of food business Sadashiv Nayak says, “Tasty Treat is one of our biggest and most loved snacking brand. The film celebrates the fact that Tasty Treat stands for an endless list of all finger licking snacks. Chak Chak Chabao is an anthem for all foodies who can hum to the music while indulging in some heartfelt and mindless munching.”

    Purple Vishnu Films director Sainath Choudhury adds, “As a brand, Tasty Treat has a basket full of snacks to offer and a musical rap was the best way to capture all of it in one go. The crunchiness of namkeens, binging on popcorns, sipping juices and never-ending snacking is what we have encapsulated through Chak Chak Chabao.”

    Taking the ‘Chak Chak Chabao’ campaign to the cricket stadium, Tasty Treat is associated with the upcoming VIVO IPL as an official on-grounds partner. Leveraging the reach and popularity of this platform, Tasty Treat will launch multiple campaigns centred on its products phased throughout IPL. Through a special digital contest, Tasty Treat and cricket fans have a chance to cheer and support their favourite teams live. Fans need to share their Chak Chak Chabao selfie on Facebook @Tastytreatofficial and stand a chance to win the IPL passes.

    The campaign will be promoted through a holistic marketing campaign spread across TV, print, radio, social media, in-store marketing and OOH.

  • Future Group joins IPL bandwagon as associate sponsor

    Future Group joins IPL bandwagon as associate sponsor

    MUMBAI: Future Group, one of India’s largest retail brands, has come on board as an associate sponsor with Star India for this season of the Indian Premier League, which kicks off on 7th April. Future Group will be an associate sponsor, joining brands such as AMFI, Asian Paints, Dream 11, MakeMyTrip, Parle Products, Polycab and Vimal Pan Masala in the category, taking the tally to 8 brands. The co-presenting sponsors are Vivo, Coca-Cola and Jio.

    Future Group CEO-food business Sadashiv Nayak said, “As one of India’s leading retail chains, catering to over 400 million customers a year, we at the Future Group depend upon strong consumer connects to drive our mission to pioneer the consumption-led growth story in India. At Big Bazaar and FBB, we believe in celebrating every tyohar or festival with people of the country and we believe an event like IPL is one of the new age festivals that we celebrate. With our presence in more than 240 cities, we are excited to partner with the Vivo IPL 2018 because it will be presented in 5 regional languages along with English.”

    Dream 11 co-founder and CEO Harsh Jain added, “As India’s fastest growing sports-gaming platform, Dream11 has been a leader of the fantasy sports industry in India. We are delighted to come on board for Vivo IPL 2018 because it will provide us great traction with the largest audience from any single event in Indian television history and we look forward to benefitting from the association.” 

    “Some of the biggest and best brands have signed up with us, which is a testament to their belief that Vivo IPL 2018 will deliver them unparalleled reach and engagement across geographies and demographics throughout the length and breadth of India,” said Star Sports EVP and head of ad sales Anil Jayaraj.

    Also Read:

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  • Law & Kenneth Saatchi & Saatchi, FB India collaborate on Sabse Saste 5 Din

    Law & Kenneth Saatchi & Saatchi, FB India collaborate on Sabse Saste 5 Din

    MUMBAI: Law & Kenneth Saatchi & Saatchi partnered with Facebook and Big Bazaar for the World First 24 Hour Facebook Live Shopping Entertainment Show. The campaign broke through shopping festival clutter and bridged the gap between a digital first millennial consumer and the offline retail giant.

    This was the first time in the world that a retail giant reached out to its customers individually on their phones – not just with exciting exclusive deals but with live entertaining content crafted around those deals.

    Big Bazaar revolutionised the way Indians shopped back in 2006 when it started one of the country’s biggest shopping festivals—the Sabse Saste Din Sale. For the last 12 years, every year Sabse Saste Din takes over the country around 26th January.

    Campaign link:

    https://www.facebook.com/events/1787556964652314/

    Future Group group head – digital Pawan Sarda said, “24 Hours Facebook live for “Sabse Sasta 5 Din” is one of the most exciting marketing ideas we have built in recent times. Thanks to Facebook and Law & Kenneth Saatchi & Saatchi to come together with us to make this happen. It was a challenging project as we had to create content for 24 hours. We created an entertaining programme with leading Bollywood and television influencers for our viewers and with M-coupons we were able to drive them to the stores. The most exciting part though, is that 10 million people viewed it real time. I am not sure if anyone has done anything like this before, but I can imagine this to be the biggest online to offline initiative.”

    Added Law & Kenneth Saatchi & Saatchi managing partner Anil K Nair, “Our biggest challenge was how to make the country’s biggest shopping festival interesting for millennials, especially considering habitual discounting has become such a hygiene across both offline and online retailers. We were very clear that we didn’t want to use social media for the sake of it. This 24-hour live entertainment event turned a monotonous transactional exchange into an authentic engaging experience for our customers and fans. We couldn’t have done this without the Big Bazaar team and Pawan Sarda supporting this maverick idea all the way. It is a matter of great pride that an Indian brick and mortar retail brand is showing the way to the rest of the world by creating such a world class contextual branded content and digital event.”

    Millennials are now surrounded by shopping festivals from every offline and online retailer, turning exciting deals and discounts into an annual monotonous ritual. Big Bazaar wanted to break out of this clutter and create a more authentic connect with millennials who spend hours on social media everyday looking for ways to keep themselves entertained.