ITV

Tag: LCD TV

  • OLX.in launches a new campaign to strengthen its ‘Bech De’ proposition

    NEW DELHI: OLX.in has launched a new TV campaign aimed at building and strengthening its ‘Bech De‘ proposition.

    OLX‘s new campaign communicates the core OLX message of ‘Bech De‘ in interesting ways using the previous campaign ‘Badi Badi Baatein‘s‘ married couple‘s playful teasing route.

    Conceptualised by creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi, the ad is an extension of the underlying value propositions of the brand – ‘Sab Kuch Bikta Hai‘ and ‘Badi Badi Baatein‘.

    OLX.in CEO Amarjit Batra said, “Our new ads are a reflection of inputs and insights gained from listening to our users and Indian consumers and derived from real life situations among couples and the typical Indian household. These new ads convey a simple message through a humorous storyline. Whatever be your reasons to sell your pre loved or pre owned goods – whether you have liked something new or are hardly using it, the solution is to just ‘Sell it on OLX‘ (OLX PeBech De).”

    The product highlighted in this ad is an expensive cruiser bike that is no longer being used in a manner promised by a husband to his wife while purchasing it. The beauty of story unfolds with the wife exaggerating the promises made and thus making the husband realise his folly.

    A wife is shown serving morning tea to her husband who is dressed up in casual summer attire. She starts teasing her husband and pretends to shiver while saying, “Is saal Shimla mein kitni thand hai…nahin??” The husband is taken aback and tries to ensure if his wife is in good health. He reverts back, “Babush tum theek to hona? Hum Delhi mein hai, apne ghar.” The wife retorts and says, “Tum bhulgaye hum aaj hi to aaye hai Shimla” and clarifies by mentioning that they arrived on his Bike “Jo tumne do saal pehle kharidi thi, long rides jayenge etc etc.” The husband is annoyed and says, “To kya karun iss bike ko phenkdun?” The answer that follows from the wife is simple, “OLX pe bech de.” Instead of just talking, the protagonist is shown as acting upon the selling decision and transacting with an interested buyer by selling the bike in lieu of cash. This leaves the couple satisfied and ends the pitter-patter of words between them for good.

    While the entire world progresses, so do you. This is a simple insight that is the crux of the second TVC. What is a loved and treasured material possession today might lose its charm tomorrow due to the availability of a better substitute. Simmering tension between a couple unfolds into a situation that was nothing more than playful bickering over a TV that needed to be upgraded.

    The TVC opens to a cricket-loving husband watching the match on a LCD TV, comfortably seated on a couch in his living room. His wife Sweety returns home hands full of grocery and gives a disappointed look to her husband. She says “Kabeer, hume ab baat karni chahiye”; obviously not very happy to see the husband relaxing while she is doing the household chores. Kabeer, deeply engrossed in the match, reverts “Haan karte haina.” A serious discussion follows and the wife opens her heart out, “Mujhse aur bardaasht naheen hota.” Kabeer cajoles her,”Par Sweety tumne promise kiya tha ke tum ek bar toh koshish karogi.” Sweety confesses her new love and reveals, “Mera dil kisi aur pe aagaya hai.” Kabeer concludes, “Koi baat nahi Sweety, TV ko OLX pe bech de.” Even in this TVC the entire transaction is highlighted and the TV is sold to a person who collects it from their home and pays the couple cash for it.

    Batra added, “India is a one of the key markets for OLX and we are investing in growing this market. We strive towards delivering high quality marketing communications that builds an emotional connect with our users and positions us a thought leader in this space.”

    The TVC is integrated with Radio, OOH and social media to make it more substantial.

  • ‘Our marketing spends will stay flat at Rs 6 bn’ : LG India VP marketing LK Gupta

    ‘Our marketing spends will stay flat at Rs 6 bn’ : LG India VP marketing LK Gupta

     

    A sluggish market and depressed consumer demand is not deterring consumer electronic major LG India to reduce its marketing spend this year. The drive will be to reallocate spends with print seeing a marginal dip. Television will stay flat while digital ad spends will jump 50%.

     

    The South Korean conglomerate will cut back its marketing spend on cricket, from Rs 1 billion in 2011. But it is still bullish on the game and believes addresses a wider consumer base compared to music or Bollywood.

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Ashwin Pinto, LG India VP marketing LK Gupta talks about the company‘s thrust in pushing new technology products like 3D and the marketing strategy it is following to drive growth in sales.

     

    Excerpts:

    So far year 2012 has been difficult for LG and the consumer electronics sector. What are the reasons behind this slow growth?
    The market is looking sluggish because consumers are feeling less than confident about the situation – the economy, food and fuel inflation, interest rates and rising prices across categories. So, some consumers are postponing purchases of discretionary high-ticket items. We‘ve still had growth in AC and Appliances this summer while the rest of the industry has struggled.

     

    However, even though it has been a year of challenges so far due to difficult macroeconomic environment like inflation, dollar appreciation and constant hike in input prices, the good news for us is that LG has grown by 15 per cent in its core business of Home Entertainment and Home Appliances. There has been a growth of 30 per cent in Home Appliances business and 25 per cent growth in Flat panel business.

    By when do you see the situation turning around and what corrective measures are being taken by LG?
    This is an industry wide situation and a lot of things at a macro level have to improve. So it’s tough to say by when the situation will turn around. We do expect the festival season in the second half to improve the growth somewhat.

    At this point LG is launching flagship products across categories which will help in strengthening our product leadership via strong marketing campaigns. This includes LED, LCD TV, refrigerators, washing machines, Split ACs and microwave ovens.

     

    We are looking at a 25 per cent growth in sales overall this year.

    Could you talk about the impact of rising input costs due to the declining rupee value and how is it affecting the business?
    Input cost is certainly a concern and rupee depreciation is also alarming due to which prices were hiked across all product categories by 15 per cent in the past year and a half. This was not only in television segment but all categories.

    On a more positive note, there is increasing adoption and acceptance of new technologies like HD and 3D by consumers. How is LG tapping into this with new products?
    LG is expanding the 3D market in a big way with Cinema 3D Smart TV range and is now poised to offer the widest range of 3D entertainment products – 3D LED, 3D Ultra Slim LED, 3D Home theater systems and 3D Blu-ray players.

     

    Technology and design are key factors behind LG Home entertainment products. With our 2012 3D Smart TV line-up, we have been able to take a significant step forward, thanks to a series of new and upgraded 3D features led by the Cinema Screen Design.

     

    With the 2012 Olympic Games to be broadcast in 3D and more than 30 English and Hindi 3D movies to hit the Indian Cinema theatres, 3D entertainment is set to explode in India at a steady growth of 500 per cent. We are targeting business worth Rs 10 billion from 3D TVs and aim to consolidate our position in the Flat Panel TV segment with 30 per cent market share.

     

    To ensure the numbers we have an aggressive marketing strategy with a target investment of Rs 1 billion in Flagship product communication. This will be accompanied by experiential marketing campaigns.
    ‘This year we will spend slightly less on print and focus more on digital. Our spend on television will be similar to last year. We always look at efficiency for our marketing spends and digital platform is one where we can see good response. We have increased our digital spends by 50 per cent‘

    LED TVs are growing fast in sales. Is this technology superior to LCD TVs?
    The LED segment is growing at a faster pace with 500 per cent year on year growth (2011 versus 2010). The consumer preference is shifting to LED’s as CCFL and LED price gap is reducing. LED is perceived to be the latest, modern and eco-friendly technology. The LED segment contribution in sales was 35 per cent (in value) in 2011 and is targeting around 60 per cent in 2012.

    Will the slowdown affect your marketing spends?
    Our marketing spends will be Rs 6 billion, the same as last year. We are not reducing spends. We are only re-allocating spends to an extent.

     

    A slowdown scenario indicates that fewer consumers are willing to buy in the current time and many consumers, due to the prevailing market mood, start postponing their discretionary purchases.

     

    In such a situation marketing has to be focussed on converting the customers who are willing to buy. Accordingly, marketing spending will focus in the short term on in-store excellence.

     

    Investments will be geared to give consumers a better in-store experience via display, demonstration and branding visibility for flagship products. At the same time, advertising will be more streamlined to deliver higher efficiency within the same budget. This will impact the media choices in print and TV media. Digital media, which plays a very important role in the consumer decision journey of searching and evaluating products, will be given a bigger share to have an early influence on potential customers.

    In terms of LG’s marketing spend how does it split between TV, print, and radio? Will the slowdown force a change in the platforms that you use?
    This year we will spend slightly less on print and focus more on digital. Our spend on television will be similar to last year. We always look at efficiency for our marketing spends and digital platform is one where we can see good response. We have increased our digital spends by 50 per cent.

    Which medium is more impactful in terms of reach and brand recall?
    All mediums have their own role to play. Some work better to create awareness, while others are important to drive consideration and even comparison with other brands.

    But isn‘t it true that when consumers are hesitant companies need to be more aggressive in marketing? Does LG agree with this?
    Yes! We have an aggressive marketing strategy in our flagship product communication so that we achieve our goals within the set budget.

    A couple of years ago LG aimed to change its brand perception from a mass to an aspirational brand. Did this work?
    We have managed to grab a bigger share in categories across the product portfolio. We are leading the market in side by side refrigerator, Front load washing machines, convection microwaves. Our image is much better compared to five years back. This effort to change and improve brand perception, though, is an on-going process. Our products are more modern and more high-tech, which has helped improve brand perception. We have single-handedly carved out a premium LED 3D segment where we sell the most TVs.

    Have any new campaigns been lined up and could you talk about the thrust?
    We have rolled out two campaigns. The first one is for our flagship product LG Cinema 3D smart TV and second is Eco health campaign for Home Appliances. We have started out Home Appliances Above The Line campaign Eco friendly which showcases eco friendly technology in LG HA products.

     

    Simultaneously we announced a digital interactive campaign on Facebook called My Eco Home which will allow Facebook fans around the world to create and share their own personalised, virtual dream homes. An industry first, LG’s My Eco Home Facebook app reflects the company’s effort to interact with today’s customers in new, innovative ways. We also rolled our new TVC for the latest range of Cinema 3D Smart TV. LG Electronics India is betting big on Flat panel category and you will see a 360 degree campaign across to strengthen this portfolio.

    When LG partnered the ICC and then renewed the deal what were the objectives? To what extent have these objectives been met?
    We have a long association being the Global Partners of ICC, promoting cricket among its billions of passionate followers. We are proud to be associated with this great sport and with ICC. Through the global platform provided by ICC events, we will enhance the joys of cricket with our own innovative programmes and campaigns. Lead 11 is one such initiative to celebrate the national spirit by giving platform to our young future generation to lead the Cricket Stars in ICC World Cup.

    What role has the ICC relationship played in giving you leg up on competition?
    The association has helped us in establishing a strong relationship with the consumers. With our unique consumer engagement programmes, we have actively established the brand as a young, sporty today‘s brand.

    How much of your marketing spend goes towards cricket and has this been rising year on year?
    Last year almost Rs 1 billion of our marketing budget was spent on cricket. This number is lower this year since there is a smaller ICC tournament and also we didn’t participate in IPL broadcast advertising this year.

    Why did you stay away from the IPL? 
    This was a wise decision, given the decline in viewership. We felt that under the circumstances this year, the IPL would not have been cost effective given that rates have increased every year. So, our decision was the right one.
    As a platform how does cricket compare to other avenues like music and Bollywood?
    Certainly cricket is a far bigger platform and it addresses a far bigger consumer base as compared to music or Bollywood.
    Will the monies that cricket gets this year from advertising be affected as it requires high expenditure by companies who are fighting a slowdown?
    Not really! In India cricket fortunes swing with Indian team’s fortune. If the team does well, advertisers will continue to invest behind cricket.
    Apart from cricket, which other sports is LG involved with?
    At present LG is associated with cricket and at the global level with Formula 1. In cricket, we like to develop innovative consumer engagement programmes.
  • Sharp launches new range of HDTVs

    Sharp launches new range of HDTVs

    MUMBAI: Sharp India has launched its latest range of AQUOS Full-Spec High Definition Televisions (HDTV).

    The firm says that the television sets employ LCD panels made from the eigth-generation mother glass substrate manufactured at Sharp’s second Kameyama Plant in Japan, which started operations in August 2006.

    The features the products have Sharp says include high dynamic contrast ratio and fast response time. The dynamic contrast ratio of 10000:1 enables reproduction of images with enhanced lighting and shadowing. Dynamic contrast detects the source video characteristics and smoothly adjusts the screen brightness accordingly to achieve deeper black level. The 4ms High Speed Response Time reduces the sense of visual lag as a result of high-speed moving images, thus reproducing clean, clear and “easy-on-eyes” pictures.

    Sharp notes that the reason for the excellent quality of high-definition signals is high-density information. Therefore, the AQUOS employs Full-Spec HD panel (1920 x 1080) to deliver high-resolution, high-definition picture in its entirety with same quality as the High-Definition signal format (1080i/p). This it says is in contrast to any other high-definition panel (1366 x 768) which delivers only about 50 per cent of the image information.

    In addition by applying Multi-Pixel Drive on the LCD panel, each RGB sub-pixel is further divided into two cells, thus having a greater control over color gradation. Viewers get to have a wide viewing angle of 176 degrees from top to bottom and from left to right, which results in greater freedom in viewing position. MPD takes care of light reflection and colour tone changes caused by angled viewing. Reproduction of people’s natural skin color can be enjoyed without white out.

    Sharp also states that its proprietary Four-Wavelength Backlight System adds crimson to the three conventional color wavelengths (blue, green and red) enabling the expression of deep red colours which were conventionally difficult to reproduce. It also enables reproduction of neutral colors such as translucent clear natural skin or healthy skin. The Four-Wavelength Backlight System reinforces overall color reproductivity.

    Sharp’s TVs are also equipped with Dual High-Definition Multimedia Interface inputs which are compatible with all current and future 1080p sources, such as Blue-ray player or next generation game consoles. With the DVI-I terminal, the LCD TV can also be turned into a marvelous computer monitor.

  • Panasonic announces advances in Plasma TV sets in the US

    Panasonic announces advances in Plasma TV sets in the US

    MUMBAI: Electronics firm Panasonic says that its plasma TVs are the first in the US market to feature lead-free Plasma Display Panels. The display panel is the Plasma TV’s glass-sealed image display device, equivalent to a cathode ray tube in a conventional television.

    In addition to the elimination of lead in the panel, Panasonic has made significant advances in enhancing the performance of the phosphors used to render colors on the screen.

    In conventional manufacturing processes for Plasma Display Panels, lead oxide glass is used in the dielectric layer, electrodes, glass sealant and other structural elements. Lead oxide glass was valued for its ability to stabilize production yields and quality. Now, as a result of advances Panasonic has made in material sciences and manufacturing processes, stable production yields can be secured without the use of lead oxide. In this way, the company has been able to eliminate all of the roughly 70 grams (0.15 pounds) of lead used in a 37-inch plasma panel.

    Panasonic US director of environmental affairs David Thompson says, “Panasonic is committed to achieving a sustainable future through the development of environmentally conscious products. Now with this achievement, we believe that Panasonic plasma displays have outpaced our flat panel TV competitors in an important area of environmental performance: the elimination of hazardous heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, mercury — commonly used in backlit LCD TVs and in projection TV lamps.

    “In fact, we estimate that worldwide the elimination of lead from our Panasonic plasma panels will mean a reduction of close to 300 metric tons of lead – the approximate weight of two 747 commercial airliners — that would otherwise have been used in their manufacture each year.”

    Noah Horowitz, a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), commended Panasonic for being the first in the industry to eliminate lead in its new plasma TVs and for significantly reducing the energy consumed by their new models. “NRDC is very supportive of Panasonic’s longstanding record of consistently delivering some of the most environmentally friendly products in the market.

    “Panasonic’s leadership in this area is noteworthy and we challenge the rest of the TV industry to implement similar improvements to their products” he says.

    Thompson adds, “Panasonic is also making progress on reducing the amount of energy each Plasma TV consumes. There is an inaccurate but persistent myth that Plasma TVs consume much more energy than other types of digital television The truth is that large screen TVs consume more energy than the smaller screened CRT-based TVs they replace. Our research indicates that energy consumption by large-screen Plasma, LCD and DLP TV sets is on average comparable. But as a relatively new technology, compared with LCD, Plasma is capable of becoming considerably more energy-efficient, and Panasonic plans to lead the way to this goal.”

    Panasonic’s advanced phosphor technology is estimated to deliver 60,000 hours of use — more than 25 years at seven hours of viewing a day – before reaching half brightness. Phosphor improvements have also led to the virtual elimination of the burn-in phenomenon in Panasonic Plasma TV. Long-life products translate into lower use of environmental resources for the simple fact that they need to be replaced far less often.

  • Sony merges LCD TV with PC

    Sony merges LCD TV with PC

    MUMBAI: Consumer electronics major Sony has announced a new product named – Vaio LS1 TV/PC combo. The company says that the product combines the power of a PC with the LCD quality and stylish design.

    Featuring a framed display with a transparent border for a floating effect, the LS1 model packs the essentials for powerful computing into a slim chassis discreetly hidden behind the back of a flat-panel 19-inch WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) LCD display.

    The new Vaio LS1 TV/PC model incorporates an Intel Core Duo processor, 2GB of RAM and a 250 GB hard drive for running multiple, demanding applications simultaneously. For instance, the customer can watch and/or record a TV show while downloading music in the background. The unit is a Windows Vista capable PC. It is also Windows Vista Premium ready.

    Sporting a 19-inch widescreen display powered by Sony’s XBRITE-HiColour technology, the unit doubles as a flat-panel TV.

    The LS1 model ships with Microsoft Windows XP MCE 2005 and a built-in NTSC TV tuner providing DVR-like recording capabilities. It also has a built-in DVD burner and Sony’s Click to DVD software so that the consumer can create a digital entertainment library for personal viewing at your convenience.

    The new Vaio TV/PC also features an audio/video quick resume switch that shuts down the display and the audio output without the PC having to enter sleep mode. This allows the user to return to full PC functionality without waiting for the computer to shut down or boot up.