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Tag: HDFC Life

  • 25 per cent drop in number of brands active on cinema: CAM Report

    25 per cent drop in number of brands active on cinema: CAM Report

    MUMBAI: Interactive Television in collaboration with IPSOS-MEDIA CT has released the CAM report for the month of September 2014. It includes detailed trends for the movie Finding Fanny. The report documents specifics including presence of each category and brands in cinema, brand recall, placement and distribution strategy of each brand and traces the developments in the Indian cinema advertising. The report examined advertising investments in Indian multiplexes or theatres and offers an overview of where the money is flowing in cinema advertising.

    Some of the key highlights of the report are: Food and beverages, beauty and personal care and media retained their position of top three categories on cinema in last 13 months. Electrical Equipment category has risen from 43 per cent in August to 74 per cent in September due to increase in spending of Syska LED lights on cinema screens. Syska LED is present in 3/4th of the screens but the number of spots is much higher than the top brand Chocon.

    Elaborating on the report Interactive Television CEO Ajay Mehta said “CAM completed 13 rounds of audit with the movie Finding Fanny. One can observe that there has been 25 per cent drop in number of brands active on cinema with the movie Finding Fanny as compared to Singham Returns.  Due to festive season the ad duration for 30/60sec is prominent with the majority of brands. Also, 238 total brands were active via cinema advertising during September 2014 audit, out of which 39 brands were screened on cinema for the first time.”

    Most brands prefer the During Interval Spot (70 per cent) over the Before Movie spot (30 per cent).But brands like HDFC Life, Kurkure, 7up and Vicco Vajradanti Toothpaste prefer before movie slots.  Food and Beverages shows a slight increase due to Chocon and Kurkure.

    Also the difference between the top brand recalled and the others is quite high. The report also highlights that Chocon is the top Brand played in north zone theatres followed by OLX.

     

  • Government should address the long-pending insurance bill: Sanjay Tripathy

    Government should address the long-pending insurance bill: Sanjay Tripathy

    Life insurance is one of the most important segments of the financial services industry and has contributed immensely to boost various sectors in the economy through its ability to make long term investments, and provide huge employment opportunities. Currently the sector is reeling under tough economic environment and regulatory changes that have been instituted in last couple of years. The industry needs support from the government of India, to help it in further contributing to nation building in the coming years.

     

    As an immediate step, the new government should address the following to boost growth in the life insurance industry:

     

    1. Re-looking at the current investment limits for tax rebates and certain current tax provisions would augur well for the industry. Life insurance is a socio economic instrument. In absence of any strong social security system by the government, at least the investment in life insurance premiums should be given additional limit of at least Rs 1 lakh, instead of clubbing the same with other investments u/s 80C of the Income tax Act, 1961. This will inculcate the habit of systematic and consistent long-term savings among retail investors. The present limit of Rs 1 lakh has not been increased in the past several years.

     

    2. To encourage customers to meet their retirement needs, investment in pension premium should be given separate deduction. Currently, such investments are clubbed with 80C investments. Annuity has been an unpopular investment choice because of its tax disadvantage. The maturity proceeds from Annuity are currently fully taxable as income, which effectively means that income is taxed twice.

     

    3. The current limit of Rs 15,000 in health insurance must be enhanced to at least Rs 50,000. Currently an individual gets a deduction of Rs 15,000 for health insurance premiums paid (apart from a similar deduction on premiums paid on the lives of their parents).

     

    Growing inflation has increased the cost of medical treatment. This has made it necessary for health insurance to be taken by every individual. In order to help the common man in meeting increased medical costs, offering more tax incentives would help in promoting health insurance.

     

    4. The service tax charged to insurance companies has been increased to 12 per cent from the existing 10 per cent and the rate on life insurance policies where entire premium is not toward risk cover increased to 3 per cent for the first year and maintained at 1.5 per cent for subsequent years. At the same time mutual funds are exempted from such tax.

     

    Overall, the change in tax has rendered life insurance at a position of disadvantage vis-a-vis MFs, PPFs, NPS, etc. Revisiting these changes will definitely provide the necessary impetus to help attract funds into long term savings and protection products offered by the life insurance industry.

     

    5. Armed with an absolute majority, the new government is expected to address the long pending insurance bill, which looks to raise the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in the sector from the current 26 per cent to 49 per cent. FDI relaxation would encourage long-term fund inflow that would both encourage the growth of insurance in India as well as provide the government with access to funds to aid infrastructure growth.

     

    Moreover, insurance industry has seen negative job creation as number of agents and employees have been on the wane. FDI would get in greater investments into the sector and make it an attractive proposition for good talent.

     

    We also expect clarity to emerge on the road map of DTC and GST. This would help the industry better plan in the implementation of the new regulations.

     

     (These are purely personal views of HDFC Life senior executive vice president marketing product, digital & e-commerce Sanjay Tripathy and indiantelevision.com does not subscribe to these views.)

  • Star India gets AdSharp; targets regional advertisers

    Star India gets AdSharp; targets regional advertisers

    MUMBAI: The Modi sarkar promised acche din aane wale hai. If one saw the full page advertisement by India’s leading TV network Star India in The Economic Times on 3 July then it looks like good days could be coming the way of regional, small and medium advertisers which have been looking at advertising on the mainline GEC but have found the sticker price too high.

     

    The who’s who of the advertising industry took notice of the path-breaking step initiated by Star network CEO Uday Shankar.

     

    The network’s advertisement says, “Grow your business with the power of Star!” and invites marketers, planners and advertisers to attend  free  45-minute seminars through which they can get familiarised with the art of targeting their customers in a cost-effective manner to stay ahead of the competition.

     

    The target advertiser is  those businesses which are still not advertising on television. Media observers believe that India is a land of opportunity and various small and medium sized businesses have an opportunity to grow by advertising their products on TV, but have been loath to do so because they don’t have agencies, TVCs and also find the cost exorbitant. They cite the example of CavinKare’s Chik shampoo which began as a small regional player, but went on to challenge even the MNCs successfully. 

     

    The Star India seminars are likely to give more details for its, soon-to-be launched offering, AdSharp, which marks the network’s plunge into geo-targeted advertising in an organised manner. Through it, advertisers can target customers region specifically, as the ads will be local.

     

    The network which has advertising revenues of around Rs 5,000 crore annually is hoping to increase those top line numbers by luring the small and medium advertiser.

     

    The first of such seminars will start from Mumbai (15-19 July), followed by Pune (24-26 July), Delhi (5-9 August) and the last will be in Ahmedabad (21-23 August). Registration began almost a month back.

     

    The invitees can choose from the seven sessions offered in each day-long seminar. The day will not be just about selling and buying of geo-targeted air time by its ad sales team; attending advertisers will also get a chance to get a TV commercial produced free for them by Star India on taking up a package.

     

    HDFC Life senior executive vice president – head marketing, product, digital & e-commerce Sanjay Tripathy believes that Star India’s first of its kind initiative is laudatory and “will help the network increase its client base.”

     

    Rivals also expressed appreciation.  Zee’s chief sales officer Ashish Sehgal believes that Star’s seminar campaign  will educate advertisers who have been sitting on the periphery on how to market locally and eventually help expand the overall TV ad market.

     

     “We have been offering geo-targeted advertising for more than a year now with Amagi. We are part of almost every geo-targeted advertising plan that Amagi does for smaller regional advertisers, and this has worked well for us,” says Sehgal while highlighting that technology plays an important role here. “Broadcasters can choose to outsource geo-targeting to a third party or do it in-house; we have chosen the former so far.”

     

    Similarly, Amagi’s co-founder KA Srinivasan says that if the largest Indian broadcast network starts pushing geo-targeted advertising then it validates what he and some others have been doing for years now. “It is a good move for the industry and geo-targeting will only pick up in the coming years.”

     

    Star’s Adsharp which was scheduled to launch by June end, will now be launched by next week or so. It has opted for Cisco as its technical partner for the geo-targeting service.

  • HDFC Life extends association with ‘Hawaa Hawaai’

    HDFC Life extends association with ‘Hawaa Hawaai’

    MUMBAI: HDFC Life, has extended its association with Hindi film ‘Hawaa Hawaai,’ directed by Amole Gupte and presented by Fox Star Studios, by sponsoring the education of the four children featured in the movie, who come from financially challenged backgrounds.

     

    HDFC Life senior executive vice president and head, marketing, products, digital & e-commerce Sanjay Tripathy said, “As a brand, we have always propagated ‘Independence and Self respect’ or ‘Sar Utha Ke Jiyo,’ as a way of life. In line with our brand philosophy, we were very keen to ensure that the four children featured in the movie receive quality education and any other vocational or co-curricular training required to help them build a sound foundation. We, in association with Aseema Charitable Trust, a Mumbai based NGO working for the rights of underprivileged children, are sponsoring the school education of the four financially challenged children featured in the movie.”

     

    For the three children studying in municipal schools, the sponsorship would include all educational material, complete school uniform, participation in co-curricular activities such as art, sports, computers, etc., extra classes and remedial help within and outside school hours, counseling if required, a nutritious meal in school every day. “For the fourth student studying in another school, this would include school fees, expenses for uniform and educational material and any tuition or after school support required,” added Tripathy.

     

    Fox Star Studios India CEO Vijay Singh said, “Hawaa Hawaai is a very special film for us. Amole Gupte’s magical film touched the hearts of the people of the country and we are thankful to all our partners specially HDFC Life for believing in Amole’s dream as we did and supporting it with the way they have. It’s a very special relationship that we shall continue to cherish.”

     

    Gupte concluded, “On behalf of Salman Chhote Khan, Ashfaque Khan, Maaman Memon and Thirupathi Kushnapelli, I thank HDFC Life for sparing a thought for their well being by supporting their education at Santacruz Municipal School and St. Elias High.”

  • In 2020, the role of Chief Consumer Officer may emerge

    In 2020, the role of Chief Consumer Officer may emerge

    MUMBAI: Like everything else today, marketing too has acquired a digital focus.

     

    Not surprisingly, companies now need specialised professionals to handle the various aspects of online marketing. Indeed, Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and in turn, HR heads of companies are increasingly facing this challenge.

     

    Mahindra & Mahindra HR- vice president, auto & farm sector Namrata Gill is of the opinion that today, company CEOs are digital-educated. Gone are the days when top management needed to be informed about the power of digital to justify marketing investments. While the western world is busy decoding the power of big data, many Indian marketers are yet to bring on board people with the right skill sets. The hurdle they face is mainly that Indian brands still have a long way to go to get the data right.

     

    Much is discussed about roping in the right talent but what needs to be taken into consideration is the integration of talent. According to Gill, the best person may not be able to work along with the marketing team and that is where the change needs to begin. CMOs want to look beyond functional teams and HR heads agree to this need.

     

    According to HDFC Life senior executive vice president- marketing, product, digital and e commerce Sanjay Tripathy, the need of the hour is to start hunting for people with a technology base along with good operational skills and content and data expertise. Tripathy thinks that a marketing team will be perfect with such talent.

     

    Many experts believe there is a discipline of data existing in many western markets and Indian professionals need to upscale themselves in the long run. The year 2020 is predicted to be the time when the nature of world business and technology would change for the best. For marketing too, the year 2020 is predicted to be the time when communication would take a leap.

     

    Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India chief marketing officer, Deepali Naair believes that by 2020, when roles get integrated, there will emerge a new role of “Chief Consumer Officer.” It will be interesting to see when talent across different domains comes together to take marketing to the next level.

     

    Will CEOs invest in bringing such roles into existence? Well, only time will tell!

  • HDFC Life’s new ad campaign targets youth

    MUMBAI: HDFC Life, India‘s leading life insurance company, has launched a new advertising campaign to increase awareness about early retirement planning among country‘s youth.

    The campaign follows the launch of HDFC Life‘s two pension plans – HDFC Life Pension Super Plus (a regular premium unit linked plan) and HDFC Life Single Premium Pension Super (single premium unit linked plan).

    HDFC Life EVP and Head Marketing, product and direct channels Sanjay Tripathy said, “Our new campaign talks to a younger audience, to help change their mindset that retirement planning is an exercise which one needs to take up only when he is 40-45 years old and all other financial planning objectives have been met.”

    Created by Leo Burnett, the communications concept of HDFC Life‘s retirement campaign is ‘a solid back-up plan,‘ which signifies that ‘you will enjoy the fruits of your labor without any worries, when your future is secured‘. The creative expression is,?Retirement plan karo taaki aapka kal bilkul aaj jaisa ho‘.

    Leo Burnett national creative director KV Sridhar said, “Young professionals think retirement is too far away to worry about it today. This campaign taps into the insight that these people, all of whom grew up in a liberalized economy, prize their current lifestyle a lot and would like it to continue post-retirement.”

    HDFC Life plans to take its new campaign through different platforms and intensify the brand experience. Apart from television, this film will be supported by other mediums such as print, OOH, and digital will have significant focus.

  • HDFC Life’s ad to create awareness about ‘Financial Freedom’

    MUMBAI: HDFC Life has unveiled a new marketing campaign aimed at driving financial freedom among urban Indian women.

    The campaign has been conceptualised and created by Leo Burnett.

    The creative route of the new campaign is Director of Happiness.‘ The communication insight is that a woman‘s financial independence will let her be a stakeholder in the family decision making process. Financial independence will let her care for others, which gives her true happiness. It will help fulfill all her dreams and aspirations and make them come true for her loved ones as well. Financial independence will thereby, make her the Director of Happiness. This also links back to the company‘s brand philosophy of “Sar Utha Ke Jiyo.”

    Leo Burnett NCD KV Sridhar said,”The Smart Woman product and campaign is targeted towards progressive women-of-today. Keeping this niche target audience in mind, the campaign builds on the commonly felt emotion and insight of the joy in making a landmark contribution towards the family. Keeping the product offering in mind, the film encourages young women to secure their future, so that they can do all that they desire for their family.”

    HDFC Life EVP and head-marketing product and direct channels Sanjay Tripathy, said, “Following the launch of our flagship women‘s product ‘Smart Woman,‘ we have embarked on this new marketing campaign to drive awareness about ‘financial freedom‘ among urban Indian women.”

    The film is centered on a female protagonist and opens in a middle class house showing playful conversations between dad and daughter. They argue to come to a decision about where the parents should go for a vacation on their wedding anniversary. While the father tries to control the budget and keeps suggesting cheaper options, the daughter keeps upgrading to international locations. When the daughter suggests Europe tour, dad refuses because he cannot spend so much, to which the daughter replies “Par main toh kar sakti hoon na.” “Ab aap poochenge, itne paise kaha se aaye. Dad kaafi time se plan kiya hai. Happy anniversary!” All this has been a surprise for the mother all along, who now asks “Kya planning chal rahi itne din se “. Dad gets emotional and replies “Jisse kandhe pe ghumata tha, aaj humme Europe ghuma rahi hai.”

    HDFC Life plans to take its new campaign through different platforms and intensify the brand experience. Apart from television, this film will be supported by other media such as print, OOH, radio, and digital.

  • HDFC Life returns to Rajasthan Royals as associate sponsor

    HDFC Life returns to Rajasthan Royals as associate sponsor

    MUMBAI: Strengthening its association with the Rajasthan Royals, HDFC Life has announced extension of its sponsorship deal with the team for the fourth consecutive year as associate sponsor.

    Talking about its journey and association with Rajasthan Royals, HDFC Life EVP & Head – Marketing and Direct Channels Sanjay Tripathy said the values epitomised by Rajasthan Royals is in sync with the company‘s philosophy.

    He also emphasised the fact that a sports sponsorship should be on a long-term basis in order to gain maximum mileage.

    “Our focus on ‘long-term‘ reflects in our association with Rajasthan Royals since the last three years. Our journey with Rajasthan Royals has been very eventful and momentous. A team known for their self belief, pride, and confidence, Rajasthan Royals continues to epitomise the values of resilience, commitment and intensity and never say die attitude. This spirit goes well with our brand thought – Sar Utha ke Jiyo,” Tripathi said.

    HDFC life will continue with ‘Sar Utha Ke Jiyo – Most Valuable Player’ award instituted during the first year of association.

    The Rajasthan Royals coaching staff along with the team captain will select the Most Valuable Player from the Rajasthan Royals team, who will receive this honour along with a cash incentive.

    Rajasthan Royals CEO Raghu Iyer said, “We are delighted to continue our association with a brand of the stature of HDFC Life as we have always looked at building long term relationships with our sponsors. I truly admire our association till date with HDFC Life as it goes beyond mere brand visibility.

    “HDFC Life through its innovative communication has managed to capture the true essence of Rajasthan Royals – tremendous self belief & confidence. What they do is not merely deriving value out of the association like traditional sponsors but adds a lot of value to the equity of Brand Rajasthan Royals.”

    HDFC Life plans to drive the core essence of the association through different platforms and intensify the brand experience.

    Apart from television, digital and social medium will have significant focus. On the digital medium, the company will leverage all channels — search, display, social, mobile and video — to reach out to IPL fans across the country.

    The company is also associating with various NGOs across the country that is involved in promoting and raising awareness about ‘every children‘s right to education.‘

    ‘Children and Education‘ is one of the core themes of HDFC Life’s overall CSR framework and the company aims to enable underprivileged children to dream big. Throughout IPL, there will be diverse initiatives launched to bring the children closer to their dreams by witnessing the matches and spending time with their favourite cricketers.

  • Yashraj Rao joins Big CBS as sales head for Love and Spark

    Yashraj Rao joins Big CBS as sales head for Love and Spark

    MUMBAI: Big CBS Networks has appointed Yashraj Rao as the national sales head for two of its channels – Big CBS Love and Big CBS Spark.

    In his new role, Rao will be responsible for growing sales and leading the team across the country, to grow client base and revenues for these Channels. He will report in to Big CBS Networks business head Vishal Rally.

    SRao comes with nine years of sales experience across industries. He began his career with Monster.com and moved to Aviva Life Insurance in the Corporate Sales portfolio. From there he moved to HDFC Life where he was associate vice president – group sales.

    Rally said, “Yashraj’s sound background across the dot com and insurance sectors along with skill sets, when combined with his ability to listen to prospects’ needs and develop solutions to meet their requirements, are what will work in his favour to lead the team to further growth. We are happy to have him on board and wish him an excellent innings at Big CBS.”

    Rao added, “I feel honoured to take on this responsibility and feel proud to be part of an excellent media conglomerate. I look forward to working with the dynamic team here and am confident it will be long and fruitful journey for both of us.”

    A trained pilot with the Indian Air Force, Rao comes armed with a combination of technical skills and sales knowledge.

    His new profile marks his entry into the M&E industry, beginning a new journey for him, the company said.

  • Rajasthan Royals eyes 20% growth on back of UltraTech Cement sponsorship deal

    Rajasthan Royals eyes 20% growth on back of UltraTech Cement sponsorship deal

    MUMBAI: Rajasthan Royals is targeting a 15-20 per cent revenue growth this year on the back of its sponsorship deal with UltraTech Cement.

    The IPL franchise‘s strategy is to first stitch the big deals before spreading out as it will help them get better rates in a slowdown economy.

    Says Rajasthan Royals chief executive officer Raghu Iyer, “The Ultratech Cement deal accounts for around 30-35 per cent of our sponsorship revenue.The key is to get the big deals in place. Then the smaller deals will happen.”

    Rajasthan Royals earlier announced it had roped in UltraTech Cement, part of the Aditya Birla group, as its Principal Team Sponsor for the fifth season of the IPL.

    According to Ultratech Cement joint executive president Shashank Awasthi, the company’s marketing budget will be similar to that of last year‘s. “70 per cent of the marketing spend goes towards below the line activities. The deal with the Rajasthan Royals has over the years helped build relationships with our dealer network and customers.”

    Ultratech Cement will launch contests and hold ‘meet and greet‘ meetings with the stars for their dealers and customers. The company also supports cricket at the grassroots level.

    Rajasthan Royal‘s associate sponsors are Kingfisher, HDFC Life, Supertech, Arihant Superstructures and Puma.

    “The Kingfisher deal accounts for 10-15 per cent of our sponsorship revenue,” says Iyer.

    The majority owner of Emerging Media Sporting Holdings, the company that owns Rajasthan Royals, is Tresco International Ltd (Suresh Chellaram Family) with a 44.2 per cent stake. The other shareholders are Emerging Media Ltd (Manoj Badale – 32.4%), Blue Water Estate Ltd (Lachlan Murdoch – 11.7%) and Kuki Investments Ltd ( Raj Kundra & Family – 11.7%), according to the disclosures made by the company.

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