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Tag: GroupM

  • Will Brand Sachin take a beating?

    Will Brand Sachin take a beating?

    Sachin Tendulkar has had his way with the BCCI after all. His legions of fans and his family will be able to watch the Master Blaster bat one last time on his home ground as he plays his 200th and final match at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium next month.

     

    While this is a small compensation for millions of cricket-crazy Indians who look up to him as almost God, one might argue that they can continue to watch him on television, post retirement, as the face of the many brands he endorses. And, others might question if advertisers will continue to cough up astronomical sums to have Sachin advertise their brands even after he retires from all form of international cricket.

    Watch the video: Boost pays tribute to Sachin’s 23 years of stamina!

    GroupM national director of sports and live events Vinit Karnik feels Sachin’s retirement will make no difference to his brand value. “Sachin appeals emotionally to at least four generations if not more. These are the people who have grown up watching him play and do not mind more of him. Post retirement, if he is seen endorsing a brand, these people would love ‘catching up’ on him, even if it is in the ‘brand’ space,” he says.

    Harish Bijoor feels post retirement Sachin’s brand value will diminish

    On the same thoughts, CAA Kwan’s COO Indranil Das Blah, thinks that though there will be a decrease in number of brands he endorses, his brand value won’t get affected. “Brands will continue to associate with him, especially the ones with older target audience. Post retirement, they will be known for stability, loyalty etc.”

    Having said that he adds that there can be a marginal decrease, around 10-15 per cent, on the brand value. However, this will and shouldn’t impact the price he charges for endorsing a brand.

    Brand consultant Harish Bijoor says: “Sachin’s retirement means a setback to Sachin’s brand endorsement money value for sure. Sport stars are always evaluated on the basis of the last three matches they have played. Add to that the heritage value of the bat that has been wielded.

     Despite it all and despite Sachin being the God of Cricket, endorsement money is bound to go just one way… south.”

    Indranil Das Blah feels that though there will be a decrease in number of brands he endorses but his brand value won’t get affected

    Whichever direction Sachin’s brand endorsements may be headed, most of the industry agrees that it doesn’t get any better than the cricketing legend’s current brand value. “Statistically speaking, with earnings in the range of $18 million, solely from endorsements across categories, even at the age of 40, he is ranked 51 on the Forbes World’s Highest Paid Athletes List for 2013. This places him ahead of the likes of Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba, Serena Williams, Neymar, Sebastian Vettel, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Steven Gerrard – all of whom are younger than him,” emphasises Karnik.

    Independent communication consultant Ganapathy Viswanathan, says: “Boost, the beverage drink, is one of the early brands that he endorsed which was followed by several other brands as he grew popular. One of his longest associations has been with MRF Tyres. Sachin almost had a 10-year long relationship with MRF, which proves the trust the brand reposed in him. Besides, there are several other brands he has endorsed that just went well with his personality and fit the brand well.”

    Ganapathy Viswanathan points out that after Boost he endorsed several other brands as he grew popular

    Collectabillia.com that sells Sachin Tendulkar’s memorabilia, informs that post his retirement announcement, the sale of Sachin merchandise and personally autographed products has increased significantly. “Sachin autographed products are selling like hotcakes. A personally signed cap by Sachin which costs Rs 7,500 provides a great investment opportunity for avid collectors and lovers of the game. Besides, Sachin branded T-shirts which starts from Rs 699 onwards are selling very fast,” adds a spokesperson from the portal.

    The overall view is a brand ambassador must fit the bill as he/she is the best way to put a human face to a product or service. Hence, brands must be careful about choosing their ambassadors rather than just going for famous faces to advertise their products. For instance, Virat Kohli is the hottest name right now and most brands want to cash in on him, feel many.
    In Sachin’s case, brands have just about a month to cash in on the phenomenon. Only time will tell which brands choose to stay in action and which try to get away from the clutter…

    Brands endornsed

    Boost (1990–present)
    Fiat Palio (2001–03)
    G-Hanz (2005–07)
    Pepsi (1992–2009)
    TVS (2002–05)
    Sanyo BPL (2007–present)
    Action Shoes (1995–2000)
    ESPN Star Sports (2002–present)
    Toshiba (2010–present)
    MRF (1999–2009), Adidas (2000–10)
    Sunfeast (2007–13), Canon (2006–09)
    Colgate-Palmolive, Philips, VISA, Castrol India (2011–12)
    Britannia (2001–07)
    Airtel (2004–06), Reynolds (2007–present)
    Ujala Techno Bright and Coca-Cola (2011–13)
    He has also been a spokesperson for National Egg Coordination Committee (2003–05),  AIDS Awareness Campaign (2005) and Luminous India (2010–present)

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

    GroupM India adds another feather to its cap with Porter Prize

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

     

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

     

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

     

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

     

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

  • GroupMs Dialogue Factory Initiates a Dialogue with Safe Water Network at World Water Week in Stockholm

    GroupMs Dialogue Factory Initiates a Dialogue with Safe Water Network at World Water Week in Stockholm

    MUMBAI: Dialogue Factory, GroupM’s experiential marketing arm, was a participant in the recently concluded World Water Week in Stockholm. Dialogue Factory shared the lessons and opportunities for using experiential marketing to increase the number of low-income consumers purchasing safe water. Dialogue Factory has been working on the brand mandate of US-based NGO Safe Water Network to build a communication model that helped create awareness and market safe drinking water in Andhra Pradesh, India.

    Safe Water Network works in the field of providing safe drinking water to low-income consumers in India and Ghana. Co-founded in 2006 by actor and philanthropist Paul Newman, along with prominent civic and business leaders, it brings together diverse capabilities form the public and private sectors.


    “The challenge was to create a self-sustainable model for the rural audience that would not just ensure trials but also adoption addressing all the key stakeholders,” says Dalveer Singh – Head – Experiential Marketing Asia Pacific, Dialogue Factory.

    Modus Operandi

    · Safe Water Network faced a challenge in generating enough revenue from water sales to cover the costs of operating a safe water plant in rural India. As the model followed the principle of affordability and inclusion to serve the bottom of pyramid communities. Without that revenue to pay for operator’s salaries, power, consumables, etc., the plant would fail soon after it launched.

    · The solution lay in accelerating household demand for safe water by convincing more people to purchase water through a consumer activation program.

    · The agency started with understanding the key stakeholders through a field survey in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh and picked up a key insight that ‘The water that’s visibly clean is good enough, my forefathers have been surviving on this and so will I’.

    · Insight – although the district was bearing the ill effects of high fluoride in the ground water (which causes fluorosis, a very painful and debilitating skeletal disorder) a minority of them related it to the water they drank.

    · This was the insight basis on which Dialogue Factory built the complete behavior change program of ‘Ijal Swathya Abhiyan’.

    “Lack of awareness and knowledge made it difficult to start a conversation with the community; the need was to have a communication package that was convincing”, says Ravi Sewak, Country Manager Safe Water Network.

    The first step in creating a brand traction was to build a brand identity for iJal, the strategy team worked on the platform of water that leads to health (after Research by IMRB indicated that communities understood health messaging better than prosperity messages) and positioned the brand as ‘iJal Swasthya Kal’ .As part of the brand identity completely new brand logo, branding and local communication material was developed.

    The next step was to get the local community on board, but to do so it was important to engage with the key opinion leaders so for the first time in the rural context computer tablets as a tool of communication were used with customized message in local language for the stakeholders.

    “The tablet platform is cost effective and also brought standardization and ease of replication for scale to what has historically been a challenging communication” says Ravi Sewak, Country Manager Safe Water Network.

    “A water health card that measured the water quality of each household not only shocked communities but also created conversations around it. One of the key pillars to the success of this program was the use of marketing principles in a social sector campaign that led to adoption” adds Dalveer Singh, – Head – Experiential Marketing Asia Pacific, Dialogue Factory.

    The result of this innovative work was a 50% increase in the amount of water sold. This means that not only are more people getting healthy, but that water plant that provides the water will be functioning for a long time.

  • Where Advertising Can’t, Content Can: Vinit Karnik National Director, Sports and Live Events of GroupM ESP

    Where Advertising Can’t, Content Can: Vinit Karnik National Director, Sports and Live Events of GroupM ESP

    Marketers for brands, consumer products, retail chains, media and entertainment are struggling to redefine and reinvent “advertising” for a new generation of empowered consumers.

    Media proliferation and fragmentation is making it harder to reach consumers with traditional formats of “interruption” advertising. New technologies, media platforms and consumer behaviors are affecting every aspect of traditional marketing and thereby dramatically impacting marketing effectiveness.

    There is a strong need to create “engagement” advertising models with digital at the core which will facilitate more sophisticated, powerful and profitable connections between brands, content creators and their target audiences….

    There is a strong need to create “engagement” advertising models with digital at the core which will facilitate more sophisticated, powerful and profitable connections between brands, content creators and their target audiences.

    Internationally, the content-commerce partnership evolution is gathering momentum. Brand entertainment partnerships are changing the rules of developing creative campaigns, marketing and advertising planning and production.

    In response to these challenges, GroupM India launched GroupM ESP to help brands harness the power of content based solutions by activating the power of movies, music, sports, live, celebrities and characters.

    GroupM ESP specialises in evaluating, negotiating, developing, activating and measuring strategic content platforms and partnerships around movies, music, sports, celebrities and characters. Uniquely positioned at the intersection of the media and the sports and entertainment industries, the ESP teams focus on developing innovative content strategies and solutions with a digital core that embed advertiser’s brands in consumer passion points using multimedia leverage and multifaceted partnerships.

    GroupM ESP also works closely as a high end consultant with clients and rights owners to help create and own multi-media content assets of long term value and their exploitation through media distribution, marketing, licensing and retailing to build deeper and more valuable connections with consumers.

    The Indian entertainment and sports market, the largest in the world by size, offers advertisers and their brands, unique and multiple passion points to reach and engage target audiences with profitable and proven content solutions, embracing all the learnings from traditional media and advertising. New technologies and new channels incorporating licensing need to be harnessed creatively using insights with marketing ROI rigorously quantified.

    The Indian entertainment and sports market, the largest in the world by size, offers advertisers and their brands, unique and multiple passion points to reach and engage target audiences…

    The GroupM ESP content team comprises more than 50+ specialists (the largest for any advertising or media agency in India) has been providing end-to-end solutions for over a decade now. Known for its transparent dealings, easy and preferred access to content and talent (International, National and Regional), GroupM ESP is also able to seamlessly deliver the benefits of parent GroupM media volumes, relationships and specialist units backed by robust systems and processes. All this has been recognised through more than 50 awards at various industry and company platforms.

    Through its high profile alliances and partnerships with content creators, rights owners and talent across every domain and geography, the GroupM ESP team is able to offer expanded capacity and capability to handle complex projects smoothly.

    As we move from a decade of “Airing” to “Sharing”, digital needs to be at the core of any marketing program and the GroupM ESP team is adequately equipped to impart a strong digital dimension in all its projects. An in-house ESP digital team backed by the parent GroupM resources ensures that solutions are digitally centered and executed.

    More than 100 advertisers in India have benefited from their association with GroupM ESP.

  • GroupM appoints Atique Kazi as director Xaxis India

    GroupM appoints Atique Kazi as director Xaxis India

    MUMBAI: GroupM has appointed Atique Kazi as director of Xaxis, India.

    Kazi moves in from Yahoo!, and in his new role, will be reporting to GroupM India head of trading Prasant Kumar and head of digital Tushar Vyas.

    Commenting on the appointment, Kumar says, “Atique brings with him a decade of experience traversing sales, strategy, partnerships and new media technologies. His international experience coupled with his passion for digital and brands will help us scale Xaxis and make it a truly new age company.”

    Talking about his new role, Kazi says, “I look forward to an exciting and enriching career at Xaxis. My priority is to leverage my International exposure and digital experience to enhance GroupM‘s vision. I would like to have each and every client to see a marked increase in the quality of work they receive from Xaxis and help them lead in their field.”

    Kazi started his career with Ideasnyou.com in 2001.

  • MEC India appoints Ajit Gurnani as head, West

    MEC India appoints Ajit Gurnani as head, West

    MUMBAI: MEC India, a media and planning agency and founding partner of GroupM, has appointed Ajit Gurnani as head of MEC West.

    The post-graduate from the Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA), Gurnani will be reporting to MEC India managing director T Gangadhar.

    Speaking about the appointment, Gangadhar said, “Mumbai is our biggest office by far and I am pleased that we have found a quality leader like Ajit to head our operations here. Given his rich vein of experience, I have no doubt that Ajit will make valuable contributions – to clients and staff alike.”

    Gurnani has more than 16 years of experience in the field of media and marketing. Prior to this, he was with Mindshare as principal partner, was a part of Jagran.com and Starcom Digital.

    On his new role, Gurnani said, “I am excited about the opportunity and challenge that this assignment provides to me. I look forward to working with the team and help create business building work that wins accolades and recognition.”

    MEC is a media agency whose services include media planning and buying, digital media, mobile, search, performance marketing and social media management, among others. The agency has a global headcount of 4,500 people with domestic and international clients across 84 countries.

  • Hiren Pandit bids adieu to GroupM

    Hiren Pandit bids adieu to GroupM

    MUMBAI: Media veteran Hiren Pandit has decided to call it a day. The affable GroupM managing partner – special projects has put in his papers and is currently serving his notice period. His last day at the agency will be 11 July. The 53 year old Hiren‘s role was to drive efficiency and productivity in the organisation. . Apart from the various roles he has essayed, he was closely involved in Aspire, GroupM‘s training programme.

    His replacement has been zoomed in on but the agency was reluctant to reveal who it was.

    He joined Mindshare in 2000. In October 2006 he was made managing partner – GroupM entertainment, sports and partnerships, south Asia and was then given the responsibility of managing partner – special projects in March 2012. Before joining GroupM, he was with JWT India.

    Hiren was also a member of the GroupM executive committee.

    He says that WPP‘s media agency network is “a great place to work having great people to work with adding that “there comes a time when you want to go, and for me this was the time. I want to take some time off. But I do have some ideas in mind which I shall reveal in due course of time. For now, I am happy to have worked with such a great team and a completely non-political environment.”

  • Mindshare enters Kochi

    MUMBAI: GroupM‘s flagship media agency Mindshare is expanding its South India presence and is setting up a branch office in Kochi, Kerala.

    The Kochi office of the agency will be headed by K.T Haridas.

    Mindshare leader – south Asia Ravi Rao said, “Mindshare has been committed to providing leading media and marketing services pan India. The opening of a Kochi office is a natural outgrowth of the strong customer and partner base that we already enjoy in Kerela. We are well positioned and look forward to growing this further.”

    The office in Kochi will add on to the agency‘s offices that span across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.

    The agency is working closely with clients like Jos Alukka & Sons and Dhathri Ayurveda.

  • GroupM steals the show yet again; no Grand Prix awarded in the Media Abbys

    VARCA: Once again, WPP‘s media agency network GroupM India came out on top of the list as the Media Abbys 2013 were announced at the Goafest 2013 taking place at Zuri White Sands, Varca, Goa. The group won 16 metals of the 46 awarded this year (10 for Mindshare and six for Maxus). Mindshare Sri Lanka also walked away with one metal (bronze) taking the total tally to 17.

    Mindshare India won three gold, six silver and one bronze trophy in its tally of 10 metals at this year‘s Media Abbys. The gold metals came in for the agency‘s work on the 30 seconder to 3 hour campaign for Fair and Lovely (in the best use of cinema category), 5.2 years of Brand Content Interactions in 6 months for Axe Deodorant (in the best use of branded content category) and Kissanpur – where Tomato Ketchup grew Tomato Farmers for Kissan Ketchup (in the best use of mixed media category).

    Maxus took home one silver and five bronze Abbys while Madison Pinacle and IPG Mediabrands‘ Lodestar UM both took five metals each (Madison Media Pinnacle – one silver and four bronze; Lodestar UM – two silver and three bronze Abbys). Apart from Mindhsare, Interface Business Solutions (best use of digital display advertising for Tata Docomo), Mliestone Brandcom (best use of ambient and outdoor media for McDonalds) and Starcom Mediavest (best use of display advertising for Samsung) won a gold Abby each.

    Of the 46 metals awarded this year, six were gold Abbys, 16 were silver Abbys and 24 were Bronze Abbys. This year, the jury did not find any entry exceptional enough to award a grand prix and thus, that metal remained unclaimed this year. Last year, Mindshare had walked away with the Media Grand Prix. The Media Abbys category received a total of 660 entries from as many as 50 different big and small agencies.

    IPG Mediabrands CEO Shashi Sinha said on the occasion, “The highlight of this year‘s Media Abbys is that till last year we saw participation by some 25 agencies and the metals were distributed among some six to seven of them. This year, the number of agencies participating was almost double at 50 while the final award list features 16 agencies. This means that we are seeing more participation from the industry and is very encouraging.”

    This year saw two major changes in the Media Abbys judging process. Firstly, the entire process was made digital. The participating agencies were asked to submit their entries/case studies in digital format on a pen drive. The judges were given the entries on a laptop and were asked to judge them individually in the first round. “The 52 judges of the first round entered their choice without any sort of discussion onto a common server. This made the process efficient and transparent. In the second round too, the shortlisted entries were graded individually by the judges. The discussion happened only while deciding the metal allocation,” informed Media Abby Jury chairman Ashish Bhasin.

    The second major change made in the Media Abbys this year was the fragmentation of the Digital category into best use of digital search (SEO and/or SEM), best use of social media, best use of digital display advertising, best digital content creation strategy, best use of digital as a medium and best use of mobile as a medium.

    “This way, we wanted to enable fair comparison so that we do not end up comparing apples to oranges which was the case when you consider digital as one category only. It is not fair to compare a website layout with a mobile marketing campaign and then adjudge which is better. The segmentation has helped attract more targeted entries to the medium,” explains Bhasin.

  • GroupM ESP executes sponsorship deals worth $15 million for IPL 6

    MUMBAI: GroupM ESP, the entertainment and sports practice of media agency GroupM Media India, has said it has enabled and activated on-ground sponsorship deals worth $ 15 mn between various IPL teams and sponsors for IPL season 6.

    GroupM ESP has been an active intermediary and enabler, for clients and their brands and team owners and their franchises seeking to leverage the IPL on-ground sponsorship platform, by providing end-to-end IPL related solutions.

    Group ESP Head of Sports and Live practice Vinit Karnik says “We‘ve been part of IPL since its inception and we strongly believe that IPL is India‘s biggest and the most powerful marketing platform for brands to leverage the combined appeal of cricket and entertainment.”

    “The total value of all the on-ground deals enabled and activated by GroupM ESP in IPL 6 is estimated at US $ 15 mn,” reveals Karnik.

    The sports marketing agency worked closely with Sun TV Network‘s IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad. It enabled the new franchise to get off to strong start with 10 on-ground official partners/sponsors including Make My Trip, 7UP, Garnier, Kingfisher, Livein Jeans, Manyavar, Sheltrex, and RN Sports.

    Apart from Sunrisers Hyderabad, other high profile deals managed by GroupM ESP include Bajaj Allianz and Mumbai Indians, Flying Machine and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

    The agency had also advised Vodafone on renewing its on-ground sponsorship deal with IPL for another five years backed by a comprehensive valuation exercise based on proprietary data and insights.