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  • The Glitch to leverage GroupM data to reach rural India

    The Glitch to leverage GroupM data to reach rural India

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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  • MAM round up of the week

    MAM round up of the week

    MUMBAI: The world of media and advertising never seems to have a dull day with another action-packed week coming to an end. Amid the yo-yoing fortunes of the industry, the newsmakers held their sway. Indian Television Dot Com brings to you a round up of the most important news events over the past seven days: 

    Mindshare South Asia’s organisational restructuring

    Media agency, Mindshare, part of GroupM announced the organisation restructure this week by elevating Amin Lakhani as the new president of client leadership at Mindshare India. In his new role, he will manage core client capabilities across all offices in the country. 

    Additionally, Anita Kotwani has been promoted from her existing role to senior vice president of new business and Premjeet Sodhi will join Mindshare South Asia as senior vice president of Mindshare Fulcrum, South Asia and will lead Team Fulcrum across South Asia. Premjeet’s new role is effective March 2018.

    Madhusudan Gopalan takes over as P&G India MD and CEO

    P&G India elevated Madhusudan Gopalan who as the new managing director and CEO who will take over from 1 April 2018. Madhusudan is currently leading the P&G business in Indonesia and will take over from Al Rajwani, who is set to retire from the company after 37 years of service after the end of the financial year. Until his retirement, Al will help in on-boarding Madhusudan on the India business and enable a smooth transition.

    Gopalan has over 18 years of experience working for the company across business units and diverse geographies like India, US and ASEAN countries.

    Google Pay launches in US, UK

    Globally, in an attempt to become a hit in the vast payment space, Google launched its payment system, Google Pay in US and UK markets where users can pay for public transport in London, Portland and Kiev. 

    In India, Extending its Google Tez option, the Indian payment app will now enable bill payments for electricity, gas, water, DTH as well as postpaid mobile. You just have to link your biller accounts once and directly pay from your bank account. Tez supports Bharat BillPay and doesn’t add any transaction charges.The app is supported in English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu languages. 

    The bill paying feature would include major utilities like Reliance Energy, BSES and Dish TV and would cover all states and major metros. The app supports all major and small scale banks in India for payment.

    GroupM, Ogilvy unveil Effectiveness Lab

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

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

    ABBY Awards announces 2018’s jury chairs 

    The week also saw Advertising Club and AAAI’s ABBY Awards announcing the illustrious Jury Chairs for the Media, Broadcaster, Publisher, Branded Content & Entertainment, Specialist and Craft Categories. Chairing the jury for each of these categories are stalwarts and veterans who have played an instrumental role in leading the respective categories towards new echelons of growth. The Media category will be judged by Madison World chairman Sam Balsara, Branded Content and Entertainment category will be judged by BIG FM CEO Tarun Katial. 

    ABBYs 2018 will be a highlight at the leading advertising convention, Goafest, where once again the entire advertising and marketing fraternity is expected to come together in Goa, between 5th April, 2018 and 7th April 201 at The Grand Hyatt, Bambolim, North Goa.

  • GroupM, Ogilvy launch Effectiveness Lab in India

    GroupM, Ogilvy launch Effectiveness Lab in India

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • GroupM acquires digital agency The Glitch

    GroupM acquires digital agency The Glitch

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Essence hires Sonali Malaviya as VP – client partner

    Essence hires Sonali Malaviya as VP – client partner

    MUMBAI: Essence, a data-driven global agency and a part of GroupM, has announced the appointment of Sonali Malaviya as the vice president – client partner. She will be reporting to Anand Chakravarthy, managing director, Essence India and will lead the Google relationship, based in the Gurgaon office.

    With experience of more than 15 years, Malaviya is a seasoned marketing professional working with global brands and companies. Prior to Essence, she was the COO of Colorbar Cosmetics. She was also the India Country Marketing lead at Twitter and helped set up and navigate the company’s marketing offering to some of the biggest domestic and international brands in the market. Malaviya was also a principal partner at Mindshare Delhi and has done stints in leading media agencies and a research firm.

    “Sonali’s diverse experience and her width of exposure working on both the agency and the client side, makes her a real asset to have at Essence and the ideal choice to steward our longstanding relationship with Google. Bring onboard key leadership like Sonali is priority to Essence building a strong differentiated offering in India,” said Chakravarthy.

    Sonali Malaviya, Vice President, Essence India said, “I am excited to join the team at Essence in building an integrated, world class marketing product in India. As one of the few digitally led full service agencies, it gives us the opportunity to create breakthrough work for our clients, and I look forward working with this dynamic team of professionals.”

    As the agency continues to scale globally, India and APAC remain a key growth region due to Essence’s commitment to deliver its proposition to its existing client roster across greater geographies, and to support the abundance of new business activity. India, in particular, holds strong strategic importance given its status as a dominant and dynamic growth market within the region. 

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  • Mindshare appoints M K Machaiah as chief innovation officer

    Mindshare appoints M K Machaiah as chief innovation officer

    MUMBAI: India’s largest full service media agency, Mindshare, a part of GroupM has appointed MK Machaiah, known as Mac, as chief innovation officer for South Asia.

    In this role, Mac will lead the integrated approach to consumer engagement and strengthen brand propositions across all consumer touchpoints including traditional, social and experiential. He will be responsible for setting up an innovations lab through systemic integrations of content + social and activations and building sports practice. He will build future-ready capabilities and revenue models by assessing the scope of each practice, set the innovation vision & drive the team to work on client specific propositions. Mac has worked across global markets and has proven ability to bring together different cultural nuances which will be critical in the integration of these two diverse practices.

    After spending over a decade in different media agencies including a two-year stint with Mindshare India, Mac became an integral part of the India leadership team in 2012 as office head, South. He then progressed to chief executive officer, SSA to lead Mindshare Sub Saharan Africa region where he was entrusted with the responsibility to set up Mindshare and consolidate the Unilever business across the region and drive global best practices.

    Mindshare South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar says, “Mac has been a part of the Mindshare family and comes with credible and rich experience in the industry. We have always taken not just the lead but also the leap in defining industry’s best practices and becoming the trusted marketing partners for our clients. To take this leap, we have appointed Mac who brings experience across industries and markets, which makes him the perfect fit to assist in the growth of the agency.”

    MK Machaiah chief innovation officer South Asia adds, “Mindshare is one of the largest media agencies and I am delighted to embark on a new journey with them. It’s an honour to be a part of an organisation with great stature in the industry. I am excited to be working with some of the top creative and strategic minds in the industry at Mindshare. I look forward to utilise my knowledge and experience to fortify our position in the market and assert the trust of our partners and consumers”

  • Talent retention is key, says Mindshare’s Prasanth Kumar

    Talent retention is key, says Mindshare’s Prasanth Kumar

    MUMBAI: Mindshare, a global media and marketing services company that is a part of GroupM, has completed 20 years this November globally and 15 years in India. The company was created by the merger of the media operations of JWT and Ogilvy & Mather, then the two big full-service advertising agencies within the WPP group.

    Mindshare has global billings in excess of $34.5 billion. The network consists of more than 7,000 employees, in 116 offices across 86 countries spread throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Each office is dedicated to forging a competitive marketing advantage for businesses and their brands based on speed and teamwork. Mindshare is a part of GroupM, which oversees the media investment management sector for WPP, the world’s leading communications services group.

    Mindshare helps clients to make collaborative decisions across their paid, owned and earned marketing in real-time with various tools and services such as FAST, Content+, Mindscan, Kyve and Loop rooms offered by the network.

    While FAST is the programmatic and performance marketing engine leveraging audience insights, category dynamics and environmental triggers to deliver a customised solution in real-time, Content+ was launched to focus on producing insight-driven, purposeful content for a specific audience, at a specific time to meet a specific brand need. Kyve is a platform for brands and advertisers to track online video viewership. It also helps to use the data and intelligence gathered to scan, seed, and strategise end-to-end digital video and content strategies for brands. The tool also leverages its platform for precise brand targeting on online video, to eliminate audience spillage, and further measure the success of video campaigns. LOOP Room brings diverse talent together in one place to interpret data, gain insights and optimise campaigns in real time.

    Prasanth Kumar, also known as PK, took over as the CEO of Mindshare India and South Asia in February 2015. Prior to this he was the managing partner, Central Trading Group, South Asia, GroupM.

    Thanking his predecessors for making the organisation what it is today and laying a strong foundation, Kumar says, “We are glad to be celebrating 20 years and it is a big milestone for any agency. In the last 20 years, the Indian media industry has evolved along with our agency. It is a great achievement for any agency to be celebrating 20 years in this ever-evolving media world.”

    Kumar also added that talent retention is a big challenge in today’s time when the younger generation does not want to join the media world. To combat the issue, Mindshare organises workshops and seminars for its employees while also encouraging and appreciating their hard work.

    He also mentioned that the client agency relationship has changed dynamically over the last few years and it is a challenge to retain clients. An agency needs to be attentive and agile to cater to the client’s changing need and Mindshare has been successful in doing that over the last 20 years, resulting in clients being with Mindshare for the long term.

    Terms such as analytics, big data and AI (artificial intelligence) became more prominent this year but Kumar believes that the Indian media landscape is yet to adapt and understand these tools. He has a positive outlook for 2018 and believes it will be a good year for the industry as a whole after a year’s slowdown due to demonetisation and GST.

  • Rob Norman quits GroupM

    Rob Norman quits GroupM

    MUMBAI: GroupM’s global chief digital officer Rob Norman has decided to retire from his full-time role effective January 2018. Hewill remain an advisor to GroupM and its clients, with a reduced workload that allows him more time to pursue personal interests.

    Norman decided to call it quits after giving over 31 years of his life to CIA, MEC and GroupM.

    GroupM global CEO Kelly Clark says, “Happily, this is not goodbye. We thank Rob for his loyal service and for continuing to share his passion and vision for this business as GroupM and the industry continue to evolve. Rob has been a fantastic partner to our clients, our people and our company, so I’m delighted that he will continue in an advisory capacity.”

    On his exit, Norman says, “GroupM, WPP and before that CIA, have been my work, my life and almost always my pleasure. My friends in the business know that I’ve become very attached to a rural life and understand that after 31 years, it’s time to do other things. It’s a curiosity of our business that few people get to step back, yet stay involved; I’m honoured that GroupM is allowing me to do exactly that.”

  • GroupM’s Wavemaker launches India biz

    GroupM’s Wavemaker launches India biz

    MUMBAI: Wavemaker, GroupM’s new billion-dollar revenue, media, content and technology agency created from the merger of MEC and Maxus has opened its business in India.

    Wavemaker India will open with a team of 700+ professionals, lead by the recently announced new managing director Kartik Sharma and will serve a portfolio of clients including FMCG giant ITC and L’Oréal.

    Wavemaker India will be headquartered in Mumbai with offices in Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Thrissur and Cochin.

    Wavemaker India managing director of South Asia Kartik Sharma says, “I am excited as Wavemaker officially starts operations in India. All our people, processes and technology are united through our focus on understanding, accelerating and optimising purchase journeys; making them more satisfying for consumers and more effective for our clients.”