ITV

Tag: Hike

  • Hari Krishnan is new Lowe Lintas president – South

    Hari Krishnan is new Lowe Lintas president – South

    MUMBAI: Lowe Lintas has announced that Hari Krishnan is the new president of its South operations. This appointment comes on the back of GV Krishnan’s recent exit.

    To be based out of Bengaluru, his remit includes the agency’s offices in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. As the largest creative agency in South region, the portfolio includes over a 100 clients and brands such as Arvind, Britannia, Fastrack, Flipkart, Gold Drop, Hike, ITC Foods, MRF, Mobizz, Paperboat, Sonata, Tanishq, TI Cycles, TVS Motors and many other companies and brands.

    Krishnan, currently CEO of MullenLowe’s operations in Sri Lanka is in the process of transitioning into his new role.

    He had joined MullenLowe early 2015 from Grey India where he was heading their South operations.

    Hari has about 20 years of experience in the advertising and media industry; having spent most of it between Lowe Lintas, JWT, Star TV and Grey.

    Commenting on his move, MullenLowe Lintas Group, India Group CEO Joseph George said:“Hari has done an incredible job in Sri Lanka almost transforming our operations there overnight. Going by his track record across the agencies he has worked in, he is just the right person we need to build on the fantastic momentum that the South operations of Lowe Lintas have achieved over the past 3-4 years in terms of creative product and new business acquisition. Both of which, Hari is rabidly passionate about.”

    Hari Krishnan too added, “This is a homecoming of sorts for me since my association with Lowe Lintas almost 18 years ago started in the Bengaluru office. The India operations of Lowe Lintas has been on an unbelievable roll the past few years and my mandate is clear. The talent in our 3 offices in the South, especially the creative fire-power under Rajesh Ramaswamy’s leadership is just reassuringly and intimidatingly brilliant. Can’t wait to get started!”

    Speaking of succession for MullenLowe Sri Lanka, Joseph George said, “Our Sri Lanka operations are in a sweet spot thanks to all the efforts made in the past 18 months under Hari’s leadership and some fantastic clients. And we are perfectly poised to build on from here; which is why Hari’s replacement for the Sri Lanka CEO’s role is crucial; and so I am very pleased with whom we have found. The announcement will take place in a few days.”

  • Airtel’s new postpaid campaign urges customers to ‘Waste Nothing’ and make the most of their mobile expenditure with MyPlan

    Airtel’s new postpaid campaign urges customers to ‘Waste Nothing’ and make the most of their mobile expenditure with MyPlan

    MUMBAI: Sasha Chhetri, the Airtel 4G Girl, is back once again and this time she is telling customers to stop wasting the benefits that come with traditional postpaid mobile plans and move to Airtel MyPlan to get the best value for their monthly mobile spends.

    Commenting on the launch of new marketing initiative, Mr. Srini Gopalan, Director – Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel said, “Airtel MyPlan is designed to simplify the postpaid customer experience and offers them the flexibility to create their own plans. The new campaign is based on a simple consumer insight – that a lot of postpaid mobile users end up with plan benefits that they never fully utilize and end up wasting these benefits month on month. MyPlan addresses this problem by giving customers the freedom to choose what they actually need in their postpaid plans and gives them absolute value for their spends by eliminating any wastages.”  

    With traditional postpaid plans offering pre-defined voice/data/SMS benefits, customers end up wasting some of these benefits as their actual usage/requirements may be very different.

    *For example, if a Delhi customer is primarily using mobile apps like WhatsApp/Hike etc. for texting, why have hundreds of free SMS in the plan. Why not have the option of trading the free 200 SMS of the existing plan for 90 local minutes or 120 MB 4G/3G data?

    *Also, if one is a heavy data user and hardly talks, why have too many free calls in the plan? What if the Mumbai customer gets an option for trading the extra 450 Local minutes of their plan for 600 MB 4G/3G data? 

    *Customers also have the flexibility of changing their MyPlan whenever they want. If they are going for a vacation, they can always switch calls to data so that they have ample data to navigate, find the best restaurants or just upload vacation pics in real-time. Again, helps optimizing phone bills every month and waste nothing.

    *Not just that, under the plan, customers can also share the extra benefits with their family by getting one member connection at a nominal rate of Rs. 199/year. No separate rental is charged for the member connection.

    (*The above mentioned plans are purely for illustrative purposes. For more information on plans, per your requirements, please log on to www.airtel.in/myplan and click ‘My Plan’)

     

  • Airtel’s new postpaid campaign urges customers to ‘Waste Nothing’ and make the most of their mobile expenditure with MyPlan

    Airtel’s new postpaid campaign urges customers to ‘Waste Nothing’ and make the most of their mobile expenditure with MyPlan

    MUMBAI: Sasha Chhetri, the Airtel 4G Girl, is back once again and this time she is telling customers to stop wasting the benefits that come with traditional postpaid mobile plans and move to Airtel MyPlan to get the best value for their monthly mobile spends.

    Commenting on the launch of new marketing initiative, Mr. Srini Gopalan, Director – Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel said, “Airtel MyPlan is designed to simplify the postpaid customer experience and offers them the flexibility to create their own plans. The new campaign is based on a simple consumer insight – that a lot of postpaid mobile users end up with plan benefits that they never fully utilize and end up wasting these benefits month on month. MyPlan addresses this problem by giving customers the freedom to choose what they actually need in their postpaid plans and gives them absolute value for their spends by eliminating any wastages.”  

    With traditional postpaid plans offering pre-defined voice/data/SMS benefits, customers end up wasting some of these benefits as their actual usage/requirements may be very different.

    *For example, if a Delhi customer is primarily using mobile apps like WhatsApp/Hike etc. for texting, why have hundreds of free SMS in the plan. Why not have the option of trading the free 200 SMS of the existing plan for 90 local minutes or 120 MB 4G/3G data?

    *Also, if one is a heavy data user and hardly talks, why have too many free calls in the plan? What if the Mumbai customer gets an option for trading the extra 450 Local minutes of their plan for 600 MB 4G/3G data? 

    *Customers also have the flexibility of changing their MyPlan whenever they want. If they are going for a vacation, they can always switch calls to data so that they have ample data to navigate, find the best restaurants or just upload vacation pics in real-time. Again, helps optimizing phone bills every month and waste nothing.

    *Not just that, under the plan, customers can also share the extra benefits with their family by getting one member connection at a nominal rate of Rs. 199/year. No separate rental is charged for the member connection.

    (*The above mentioned plans are purely for illustrative purposes. For more information on plans, per your requirements, please log on to www.airtel.in/myplan and click ‘My Plan’)

     

  • Hike strengthens leadership team with two key hires

    Hike strengthens leadership team with two key hires

    MUMBAI: Hike messenger is beefing up its leadership team and has roped in Vidur Vyas as VP of marketing and Sumit Mehra as studio head. 

     

    While Vyas will be spearheading Hike’s marketing initiatives, brand positioning and strategic alliances; Mehra will be responsible for driving game strategy, development and production. The duo will be reporting to Hike CEO and founder Kavin Mittal.

     

    Mittal said, “I’m excited to add Vidur and Sumit to our leadership team. It’s great to see such strong leaders in the industry share our vision to bring India online. I look forward to working with them and leveraging their experience to build Hike into a world class product and a brand that is loved by millions in India.”

     

    Vyas added, “Hike is a fun, innovative and culturally relevant brand. I am excited by the opportunity to connect India online in a fun way and Hike is uniquely positioned to capture that opportunity.”

     

    Mehra said, “Great games make people smile and for game developers that’s the final goal. When I met Kavin and heard his vision of a digitally connected India; I saw an opportunity to deliver millions of smiles a day. He and his team are doing some amazing work with Hike messenger and I’m excited to partner with them to bring great gaming experiences on Hike. For me there can’t be a bigger challenge and a more exciting mission to do this here in India and for India.”

  • Your WhatsApp could cost you, soon

    Your WhatsApp could cost you, soon

    MUMBAI: Telecom operators are worried with the increasing number of over the top (OTT) services that are using their bandwidth to provide share audio, video and text. Therefore, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) decided to pacify everyone with a seminar to discuss the issue.

     

    The telecom industry claims that it is suffering huge losses due to platforms such as Skype, Whatsapp and Viber that provide similar services at no cost but the internet service charge. PTI reports Cellular Operators Association of India director general TV Ramachandran stating during the seminar, “We want some kind of regulatory help to get a level-playing field. There are so many regulations binding on us but the same don’t exist for OTT players. We can do a lot more if level-playing field is given to us.”

     

    According to data by PricewaterhouseCoopers managing consultant Neeraj Kataria, Skype usage is costing the telecom industry around $36 billion a year globally.

     

    On the other hand, when WhatsApp picked up speed in the country, several other such services such as Hike, Line, WeChat, Snapchat etc also emerged to eat a share of the pie.

     

    Ramachandran also shared his concern that OTT services can switch calls over the web outside India but telecom ops have to pay interconnect charges.

     

    Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) president CS Rao said that OTT service providers have no rule regarding quality of service and consumer commitment. “If 20 per cent of our customers start using OTT service then burden on network will increase $55 per subscriber,’ he added.

     

    A report in Business Today states that telcos currently are losing around Rs 5000 crore per year due to these OTT services that will cross Rs 16,400 crore in next two years.

     

    On the other hand, Internet and Mobile Association of India president Subho Roy stated that TRAI should keep out of it since it is a business to business issue. But the TRAI secretary Sudhir Gupta is reported to have said that the purpose of the seminar is not to see if OTT services are cutting into telecom operators’ revenue but whether there is a need for regulating such service or not.

     

    Amid all this, Facebook India has also joined the Cellular Operators Association of India to ‘focus on mobile technology, access and its continued desire to work in collaboration with the industry to increase connectivity.’

     

     

  • EMFA seeks hike in govt. ad rates

    EMFA seeks hike in govt. ad rates

    MUMBAI: It’s rare that a private body appreciates the government whole-heartedly. But recently The Electronic Media Forum Assam (EMFA) appreciated the State government’s decision to hike government-sponsored advertisement rates for newspapers by 60 per cent over the existing rate. The forum announced it in a statement.

     

    However, the Forum has also urged the Assam government to enhance government- sponsored advertisement contributions to the State-based satellite news channels.

     

    Earlier, the representatives from the State government and newspaper owners’ association in presence of State information & public relations minister Basanta Das met to get an assurance from the government to hike the advertisement rates with effect from January 1, 2014.

     

    The news channels in Assam are registered as ‘free to air’ and are more dependant on advertisements for their survival. And thus, the forum has been asking the government to consider improved rate of advertisements for news channels too.

     

    In the release, EMFA mentioned: News channel managements should use the enhanced fund for the benefit of their employees with structured salaries, other allowances, PF and ESI benefits.

  • DirecTV, Dish Network to hike price

    DirecTV, Dish Network to hike price

    MUMBAI: Dish Network and DirecTV subscribers will have to gear up to shell out more for using their services. Come 2014 and DirecTV’s base ‘entertainment’ package will cost $58 per month, a $3 hike from 2013, the ‘premier’ package will cost $130, up $5 from a year ago. Rising content cost and desire to keep the satellite TV provider’s operating profit flat are being cited as the reason for the price hike.

     

    Dish Network on the other hand will hike its fees by 5.5 per cent. This following its 16.3 per cent price hike in the beginning of 2013. While, the ‘welcome plan’, ‘America’s choice 120+ plan’ will cost the same, the other packs will get a $5 price hike and a $3 hike in the ‘smart pack’ which will cost $33 in 2014.

     

    DirecTV, which has close to 20.16 million US subscribers, according to reports, will increase its price at an average of 3.7 per cent starting February.

     

    Media reports have confirmed that both the companies will raise the prices of their various television packages and also increase the service fees as well.

     

    Can’t say if pay TV service providers are looking at any such New Year surprise for consumers in India, but it surely doesn’t seem to be a happy start to the New Year for DirecTV and Dish Network subscribers in the US.

  • Week 50 ratings: Major GECs register a hike

    Week 50 ratings: Major GECs register a hike

    MUMBAI: In the week 50 of TAM TV ratings, Zee TV, which has reported consistent growth over the past few weeks, saw a fall in viewership. Life OK too witnessed a drop in its viewership. As for the other channels, it was a good week as they saw an increase in the ratings.

    As per the TVT data sourced from TAM subscribers for week 50, Star Plus remains at the number one position with 579 million TVTs as compared to last week’s 561 million TVTs.

    Colors reported 449 million TVTs, as compared 480 million in week 49. Zee TV slipped to the third position, seeing a decline in viewership at 439 million TVTs as compared to last week’s 456 million TVTs.

    Life OK was at number four position with a fall in the viewership and reported 313 million TVTs, as compared to 325 million TVTs last week. Sab occupied the fifth position, however the channel recorded hike in the viewership with 291 million TVTs, as compared to 261 million TVTs last week.

    Sony witnessed a growth in the viewership but still continued to occupy the number six position with 267 million TVTs, as compared to 241 million TVTs last week.