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Tag: Group M

  • AAAI re-elects Anupriya Acharya as president for second term

    AAAI re-elects Anupriya Acharya as president for second term

    Mumbai: Publicis Groupe CEO- South Asia Anupriya Acharya has been re-elected as president of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for the year 2021-22 at the AAAI’s annual general body meeting held on 30 September.  

    Group M Media India CEO Prasanth Kumar was re-elected as vice-president of the association.

    Other elected members of the executive committee include Rana Barua (Havas Worldwide India), Mohit Joshi (Havas Media India), Kunal Lalani (Crayons Advertising), Rohan Mehta (Kinnect Media), Vivek Srivastava (Innocean Worldwide Communication).

    Immediate past president Ashish Bhasin will be the ex-officio member of the new AAAI executive committee, the association said in a statement.

    “It’s a privilege to be re-elected for another term as the president of AAAI and I thank all the AAAI members for placing their trust in me and for their strong support,” Acharya said. “This past one year, given the pandemic backdrop, our key priority has been to assist our members in navigating the challenging times. Our executive committee has been steadfast on this and despite virtual meetings, it made tremendous progress.”

    She shared that AAAI has also taken multiple initiatives to pivot to the new normal, make the association future-ready and drive inclusivity.

    “In fact, I am delighted to share that beyond creative and media, now digital agencies too are taking keen interest and are becoming full-fledged members of the Association. With the markets opening up, the EC and I look forward to driving these initiatives further,” Acharya further added.

    Formed in 1945, the AAAI is a not-for-profit industry-led and industry-managed trade association of advertising agencies. The association’s members include a large number of small, medium, and large-sized agencies, who together account for almost 80 per cent of the advertising business placed in the country.

  • Digital will not checkmate television anytime soon, says Madison Media’s Vikram Sakhuja

    Digital will not checkmate television anytime soon, says Madison Media’s Vikram Sakhuja

    New Delhi: Despite facing a tough competition from digital, Television will continue to remain the preferred option for viewers and brands, said Madison Media and OOH, Group CEO, Vikram Sakhuja, highlighting that TV gives rise to ‘tribal moments’ which digital cannot handle.

    “While penetration of digital is very high, it is difficult to get a high amount of reach in a single show. Any advertiser for reach still needs TV. By that token, reach build-up on TV will always be the preferred option,” he said while speaking to Governance Now MD Kailashnath Adhikari during the live telecast of the Visionary Talk series held by the public policy and governance analysis platform.

    The industry veteran said that today digital is 30 per cent of AdEx and TV is close to 40 per cent. Within digital, video which really threatens TV is only 5 per cent of Ad Ex and forms a very small part.

    Secondly, Sakhuja said that TV gives rise to ‘tribal moments’. He gave the example of live sports and said if people can watch it on big screen TV at night, why would they watch it on the phone when they are at home at night. “These are tribal moments very difficult for digital to handle,” he said. “Digital has to come out with its tribal moments for advertising to really see if it has checkmated TV. Digital is a very powerful force but has it checkmated TV? Absolutely not.”

    According to Sakhuja, YouTube will form the base of the video plan in near future and the share of OTT will go up. “With agencies and marketers getting evolved in their video planning more OTT’s will supplement YouTube,” he said, adding that lack of verified data on OTT is a drawback but most responsible agencies are doing seamless TV and video planning.

    Responding to the question, if Ad Ex will rebound to pre-pandemic 2019 levels, the advertising veteran said, “At present, we stand on a good level versus the first half of 2019. The second half will depend on if a third wave will happen or if there will be another disruption. If everything goes well our estimates will hold good. I am writing off estimates yet.” 

  • Essence appoints Magda Wolder as head of experience, APAC

    Essence appoints Magda Wolder as head of experience, APAC

    New Delhi: Essence, a global data and measurement-driven media agency which is part of GroupM, on Tuesday appointed Magda Wolder as head of experience, APAC. Based out of Singapore, she will lead the agency’s creative, content innovation and studio capabilities in the region. 

    Joining Essence in 2018, Wolder was previously head of creative Strategy, EMEA at the agency’s London office. With over a decade of experience bringing advertising and ideas together in the media, technology and entertainment industries, she earlier worked as a senior researcher for EMEA at Netflix in the Netherlands, as well as a lead creative strategist and head of customer closeness at Sky in the United Kingdom.

    “In addition to my focus to drive personalisation at scale for our clients in APAC, I am keen to help nurture emerging creative talent and imagination in this region. We have a very talented creative team on the ground here and I cannot wait to see what we will achieve together in 2021,” said Wolder on the new role.

    Essence’s Experience capabilities utilise data science and machine learning to deliver more relevant, meaningful and effective personalised experiences, while protecting consumers’ data privacy. In APAC, Wolder will head a team of creative strategists, conceptual thinkers, design experts and technology-powered production partners to create data-driven creative innovation for Essence’s clients in the region.

    “We are delighted to have Magda join our APAC team. With her impressive brand experience, as well as her deep understanding of Essence’s unified approach to data that brings creative and media closer together, we are looking forward to the creative innovation she will bring to media channels and content programmes for our clients in this region,” said Essence senior vice president, client partner, APAC and managing director, Singapore, Monica Bhatia

    “With Magda’s leadership, I am excited about the creative technology and experience products our Experience team will continue to deliver through Essence Global Ventures, which will be scaled to help brands across APAC and globally succeed in the new economy,” said Essence CEO APAC, T. Gangadhar.

  • Brandie appoints Junaid Hakim as national director, India

    Brandie appoints Junaid Hakim as national director, India

    New Delhi: Social media word-of-mouth marketing platform, Brandie, has appointed Junaid Hakim as national director for India. He will be based in Bengaluru.

    Hakim joins from MediaCom, where he was the general manager and headed the media mandate for Dell till November, 2020. In his new role, he will oversee Brandie’s growth in the Indian market and develop stakeholder engagement, drive sales and new business development.

    “The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally impacted the marketing industry and highlighted the growing importance of word-of-mouth marketing and customer advocacy,” Brandie’s co-founder, Pranav Kosuri said. “Junaid’s vast experience, strategic perspective, and operational focus will play a vital role in strengthening Brandie’s core leadership team and ensure our continued fast growth and adoption amongst agencies and brands in one of our core markets.” 

    Talking about his new role, Hakim said, his focus in the first six months at the organization will be to drive awareness and education around Brandie, to boost product adoption. 

  • Cricket claimed 87 per cent share of sports sponsorship in 2020: GroupM

    Cricket claimed 87 per cent share of sports sponsorship in 2020: GroupM

    Mumbai: With the Indian Premier League (IPL) leading the charge, cricket contributed Rs 5,133 crores ($694 million) to the total sports sponsorship in India in 2020, which works out to a mammoth share of 87 per cent, according to GroupM ESP Sporting Nation Report 2021 released on Monday.

    Other sports cumulatively contributed Rs 761 crores ($ 103 million), which roughly accounts for 13 per cent of the total share. The report pegged the size of the Indian sports industry in 2020 at Rs 5,894 Crores, which includes sponsorship spends, celebrity endorsement and media spends on sports properties.

    Media spends on sports

    The biggest share is occupied by media, where advertisement spends on TV, digital and print media contributed to Rs 3,657 crores, which accounts for 62 per cent of the total spends. Sponsorship spends included on-ground sponsorships, team sponsorships, and franchise fee grabbed up 28 per cent of the industry pie, which translates to Rs 1,673 Crores.

    An interesting shift that gained momentum in 2020 was athlete endorsements which grew five per cent over 2019, against the run of play in a year ravaged by the pandemic. Out of the total 377 endorsement deals that happened in 2020, as many as 275 involved cricket players.

    The year 2020 also saw female athletes pulling in brands. “The continued success of these stars is proof of the fact that our champions are loved, and we are proud of them. As the sporting nations wait eagerly in anticipation, the stocks are highly in favour of endorsements from our athletes,” the report stated.

    Group M South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar said, “Even without any activities, our sports heroes stayed close to us during the pandemic by actively engaging with their followers on social media. The spontaneity of this online content flow demonstrates the power of sports in our country. Speedy responses and improvisations are on the go where the situation demanded. Among the many things the Covid2019 situation taught us, marketers were the need to be adaptable as the tide turns fast around us.”

    The boom in e-sports in 2020

    The lockdown had also catalysed the growth in certain sectors. The absence of live sports along with a sub-optimal supply of fresh OTT content led to the shift towards gaming. The month of April 2020 saw an 11 per cent increase in users per week along with a significant jump in average time spent per gamer. This led to a sudden boom in e-sports in 2020, with communities getting built and multiplayer activities gaining ground. Over the last three years, there has been a doubling in the gamer base as well as viewership numbers in the time, the report stated.

    Sports: A success story in 2020

    Despite the Covid2019 threat and multiple risks, the 13th edition of the IPL got underway in UAE in September 2020. The success of the IPL was a great demonstration of the qualities of brinkmanship and improvisation and was able to lift the spirits of the nation battered by the pandemic, highlighted the report.

    In November 2020, the Indian Super League (ISL) kicked off in three venues in Goa with strict protocols and adherence to bio-bubble considerations. This was the first major sports event to be held in India after the pandemic and according to the report, it gave ample demonstration of the country’s ability to pull off an event of this magnitude under such circumstances.

    GroupM South Asia head – sports Vinit Karnik said it was commendable how the sporting ecosystem reacted to the crisis in 2020 and returned sooner than expected.

    “Many sports properties were either canceled or postponed and even sponsorship and media spends were impacted. Even in the face of an adverse context, the stakeholders came together to provide the spark the industry needed. The IPL and ISL are an exemplary demonstration of India’s preparedness to host major sporting events under such taxing circumstances,” he added.

    Karnik went on to say he was hopeful of an increase in demand for subscription viewing in live sports in 2021, with many sporting events lined up in the next few months. “2020 looks like that proverbial backward step we take before a giant leap, like the one we are expected to take in 2021, as part of the making of the sporting nation,” he concluded.

  • 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.

  • Challenge status quo through experiential marketing

    Challenge status quo through experiential marketing

    MUMBAI: As brands around the globe are grappling with the Covid2019 pandemic, it has also raised questions about the future of experiential marketing, also known as the touch-and-feel marketing.

    In this new age of experiential marketing, the challenge before brands is to showcase that their products are better than the rest in the most creative and unique manner. It is more about engaging with your audiences on a personal level. But with social distancing and lockdown can anything be experiential? How is the industry redefining itself and what are the skillsets that industry practitioners need to equip themselves with?

    To discuss all these scenarios, The Advertising Club of Bangalore hosted a webinar with a theme "Experiential Marketing – The Next Pivot." The panellists included Group M APAC head experiential marketing Dalveer Singh, Geometry Encompass Roshan Abbas, Brand Aid Events and FanTam Brands founder and director Vipul Mathur, DEIVEE co-founder Darshan M.

    About how experiential marketing will reinvent itself, Abbas said: “As experiential marketers we need to embrace the change quickly. If you are just entering into this industry don’t jump into it directly. Take a pause and understand this situation, challenge the status quo and let the creator play with their mind. This is how television, radio and Netflix came into play.”

    Darshan said that it was always about being Instagram-ready. Marketeers have been wary of adapting this but now there is no choice but to adopt this. He adds that the second screen has always existed but now it has become the primary screen.

    Elaborating more on the changes seen in experiential marketing during pandemic, Dalveer says, “I think now home will become the epicentre of everything. It is not like everything in experiential will become digital, you may be able to do many things which are physical. The way to look at it is not purely virtual or digital but what is the best way to connect with the needs of the consumer.”

    Vipul Mathur who comes from an apparel background where touch and feel is the most important thing feels that even if people are buying stuff online, differentiating between products is still a challenge.

    Everything from artificial intelligence to virtual reality to augmented reality is being tried out, but we need someone to orchestrate well between industries and create that 360 degree experience and urgency for consumers to buy the product.

    Abbas explained that while some of them had the fear of technology, others were ready for the experiment. They wrote a play that is contextual with Supriya Pilgaonkar and Radhika Madan. After the show Abbas focussed more on the interactivity process. They included chats, poll and multiple other formats in their system. From the experiment stage Abbas has now come to the revenue stage. The company now has close to 12,000 people interacting on Instagram which has invited a lot of brands to invest.

    Dalveer who has done a lot of work at the rural level said that the last two to three months were very challenging for the rural audiences. It has been difficult for people staying in the rural market as well as those migrants who have been on the move.

    “The next transformation in the rural experiential market is pin code marketing. We have got 21000 pin codes across the country. And we use the simple formula of three V. The idea is how I can reach the people who use smartphones through video, voice and above all you put the vernacular piece to it. Because there are 14 languages and many dialects. We have done a couple of pilots which is helping brands reach the audiences,” he further added.

    The panellists agreed upon a point that this pandemic will also bring a lot of event technologists and people who will increase time span, who will build loops and feedbacks within their programme which will eventually help others. They were of the opinion that people who have fresh ideas and can produce cost-effective solutions will survive.

  • Lalit Agrawal moves on from OMD India, joins ZEEL

    Lalit Agrawal moves on from OMD India, joins ZEEL

    MUMBAI: Senior media professional Lalit Agrawal joined Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) in April after ending nearly a decade-old stint with OMD India. He has joined as vice president – sales planning and strategy, as updated on his LinkedIn profile. 

    Prior to that, Agrawal was serving as senior vice president in OMD India. He has worked across the media vertical including Times of India, Star India, Mediacom, and Group M.