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  • Pet Tales with MediaCom senior business director Ketan R Karnik

    Pet Tales with MediaCom senior business director Ketan R Karnik

    Pets are a gateway to escape from everyday's stressful life. There is nothing more satisfying and relaxing than coming home to your 'buddy' and spending some quality time with our little furry friends. Executives that have a stressful and strenuous job love to spend some quality time with their pets as and when they can.

    From Instagram co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom who has a golden retriever that has more than 11,700 followers on Instagram to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo who keeps bees in his backyard and posts videos of them to his Vine account, it seems that industry executives are not afraid to show off their adorable pet friends.

    In our constant endeavor to bring the most diverse content to our readers, brings to you some stories of our media execs' and their beloved pets.

    Pet Tales, our latest special, captures certain aspects of noted media professionals that are rarely touched upon.

    We highlight how some of India's most successful marketing and media executives unwind and relax with their pets after emptying their creative reservoirs at work.

    Here’s MediaCom senior business director Ketan R Karnik talking about Leo.

    Pet: Dog

    Breed: Great Dane

    Age: 8

    Name: Leo

    What’s your favourite pet movie?

    K9 and War Horse

    What does a typical day with your pet look like?

    My day starts with a morning walk with him, then I feed him and leave for office. When I return he is the first one who welcomes me. After cuddling him for a while only then he allows me to remove my shoes. From then onward till we go to bed he follows me like a shadow. Saturday and Sunday are our days. He is involved in all the activities we do on holiday as a family. Now he is 8+ years old and a senior citizen but still a cute kid for me.         

    What prompted you to have a pet and do you feel having a pet changes your perspective?

    I have always loved animals. Right from my childhood, I wanted to have multiple pets as they are the ones who love you without any expectation. I got Leo eight years ago when a colleague of mine who stays in Kolkata told me one day that he has a puppy and would like to bring him to Mumbai. So, he sent me a photo and I thought he was cute. I brought him to Mumbai through flight and my entire family was unaware about it and so it was a surprise for everyone.

    After a few days, my wife couldn’t handle him as running behind him and taking care was a tiring job. She even suggested dropping him somewhere else, to that I  asked her to have some patience. And after a few months, the patience paid off as he became a family member. In fact, my wife is the one who looks after him very passionately like a kid. And after that we never leashed him in the house, he roams everywhere in the house. He’s very friendly. He being a large breed, we initially thought he won’t be comfortable and will need more space than what houses in Mumbai provide, but he got used to it.

    Even today when I come back home after a tiring day, just seeing him jump makes me feel energetic and charged up. Frankly, you have to take a lot of care of a Great Dane than any local breed because of his sheer size.

    Do you think public places within India are pet-friendly? If not, what can be done to improve this?

    I think we need more pet gardens to open up where pet parents can take their pets for a stroll because in societies or streets you don’t have any place. Even your kids don’t have space to play forget about pets. Also there needs to be more awareness among people about pets. Some societies don’t allow pets at all or treat them in a very different way as they are scared of them.  

    Climatic conditions in India are also not very favourable for breeds like St. Bernard and others. People adopt them as a puppy as they look very cute but they don’t know what they will become once they grow up and so there’s a need to spread awareness of these things. Many dogs even die because of this. So yes, generating awareness is very important.

    What’s been your favourite campaign/ad that involving animals?

    The international Chevrolet Chevvy commercial ad is my favourite.

    Has adoption of strays really increased today because of media and increased awareness?

    I have seen people adopting these stray animals where they have no relation with the animal but seeing them injured or in pain it makes people feel something. In our society and nearby societies there are a few guys who actually take care of stray dogs. One of the guys I know has adopted some 6-7 stray dogs.

    But then again there are people who feed glucose biscuits to these stray dogs every morning which is actually harmful for these animals. So yes, there is a lack of awareness on what to feed these animals. People who feed dogs non-vegetarian foods, they cook it and then they feed them. Even at my home, my mom used to give Leo bones to chew but I reminded her that there is a difference between meat being cooked and serving it raw as the hardness of the bone matters. It can actually harm their windpipe or intestine and your dog can actually die.

  • Impact of assembly elections on TV ad spends

    Impact of assembly elections on TV ad spends

    MUMBAI: “Bad officials are appointed by good citizens who do not vote.”  We’ve all heard that every citizen must cast their vote because it’s the very essence of a country’s democracy and also their right. However, a lot of people choose to turn a blind’s eye. This could either be due to lack of awareness about getting voter ID cards ahead of time or just sheer boredom to go out, stand in a queue and getting inked. 

    Election time is fairly interesting because we get to see so many different and new ads during this time. The ruling party is gushing about its achievements whereas the opposition party criticises the existing regime and the changes they intend to bring if elected. Brands on the other hand, often come up with some tongue-in-cheek advertisements that talk about the importance of voting and so on. Today, with digitisation, availability of low cost smartphones and low data costs, digital and social media has become the front leader of all marketing mix. Bands and political parties are sure to leverage the medium to reach a large set of audiences where traditional media kind of seems to fail. 

    India’s 2014 election was the world’s biggest exercise in democracy, with a price tag to match. Indian politicians spent around $12 billion on their campaigns, which, in terms of expense, makes these polls the most expensive since the US presidential elections hit the $7 billion mark.

    The next General Elections will take place in 2019 which is promised to be a game changer in the way political parties spend during elections. If we’ve learnt anything from the 2014 elections where BJP spent Rs 714 crore and Congress spent Rs 516 crore, 2019 election is set to break all major records. However, before we enter 2019, The Indian Assembly Elections are scheduled between November-December in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram.

    In order to understand what will be the impact of Assembly elections on ad spends this year and which brands or categories will advertise the most, we bring to you industry expects’ views: 

    MediaCom national director for buying K Srinivas Rao thinks that advertising on elections, especially state elections is majorly driven by local retail advertisers or semi-corporate advertisers with a B2B advertising objective.

    Local/retail advertisers majorly depend on news channels for their advertising and hence are most likely to go big during elections. Retail players do long term deals keeping in mind the election time which gives them a leverage to get the best value from the channels. Election time is generally seen as the time when news channels expect an upside in revenues on the back of specific programming and its sponsorships. We have typically seen around 10-15 per cent upside in revenues for the national channels during elections. However, this number grows many times on the respective local news channels in which the elections are being conducted.

     

     

    Dentsu Aegis Network chairman & CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin thinks that election ad spends are not that significant because the total size of the market is Rs 65000 crore whereas election ad spends contribute to only Rs 2000 crore. 

    The government/political ad spend goes up during elections, especially before election silence starts. Digital and mobile play a vital role during this time as all of them want to reach the younger user/generation. The 2014 general election was the first one where digital was used in a big way and it will be pertinent in the next elections as well. News channels become more active and advertise the most during this time because advertising follows eyeballs and people who follow elections, tend to switch on those news channels for election coverage. Other than the government and political parties, there is no significant change in the advertising spends because brands advertise according to their consumer cycle and the need of their category.

     

     

    Havas Media Group CEO – India and South East Asia Anita Nayyar is of the opinion that automobile, FMCG, e-commerce brands and e-wallet sectors are expected to advertise the most during elections along with digital and mobile which will play a major role in political advertising.

    According to the PTI report, the government spent nearly Rs 1,286 crore in 2016-2017 on ads about government policies, schemes, projects and events, through various media. The amount spent by the advertising agency for 2016-17 was 8.15 per cent higher than Rs 1,188.85 crore spent in 2015-16. The decibel level of marketing by government and brands will only go up in the coming months. While political advertising is an important arm of the Indian adex, it is very sentiment-driven and dynamic. If the government is stable, there is positive sentiment leading to brands spending more on advertising.
  • Adidas consolidates global media mandate with MediaCom

    Adidas consolidates global media mandate with MediaCom

    MUMBAI: For the first time in their history, adidas has consolidated its global media business.

    As part of the brand’s drive behind their 2020 ‘Creating the New’ strategy, adidas will align all areas and territories and have appointed WPP’s MediaCom to execute the holistic approach from September 2018.

    After a competitive and multi layered pitch process MediaCom were selected as the agency to help adidas and Reebok continue the momentum behind both brands and deliver a winning media approach. The combined brief will be executed across all platforms with a focus on innovation aligned to the brand’s strategic business plan; ‘Creating the New’.

    The strategy for adidas has been concentrated on three strategic choices; Speed, Cities, and Open Source. These have all been channeled through a core belief – “Through sport, we have the power to change lives”. This new brief will align to these areas of focus with faster media implementation than ever before, a laser focus on the capital cities of culture and commerce as well as a world class digital ecosystem, and then a continued drive behind an open source approach to fuel innovation.

    The areas of responsibility for the agency teams across the world will include full funnel media planning, integrated media consultancy and buying, consumer insight and measurement. The two hubs for the global business will be London for adidas and New York City for Reebok with MediaCom staff also positioned around key focus locations for the brands across the world.

    adidas senior vice president for marketing Jocelyn Robiot says, “Through our partnership, we look forward to innovating ways of reaching and connecting to our consumers across the trend-leading cities whose influence on global culture is the key to unlocking desirability and demand.”

    Reebok VP of marketing Melanie Boulden adds, “After a vigorous pitch process, MediaCom stood out as an excellent strategic media partner for our brand. We feel that they are the right partner to help us achieve our goals and mission for 2020 and beyond. We are pleased to be working with them and look forward to kicking off our partnership.”

    MediaCom Worldwide COO Toby Jenner mentions, “We are delighted to have been selected by one of the world’s most ambitious and iconic brands as their partner. Our teams around the world can’t wait to get cracking. adidas is a business of great people and brands with enormous e-commerce opportunities moving forward. We’re looking forward to developing brilliantly creative and highly effective campaigns, which combine their brand heat and e-commerce, alongside their other agency partners.”

  • MediaCom wins Media Network of the Year at Cannes Lions 2018

    MediaCom wins Media Network of the Year at Cannes Lions 2018

    MUMBAI: MediaCom has been named Media Network of the year at the 2018 Cannes Lions Festival.

    The agency’s work for Tesco in the UK landed the Grand Prix for Excellence in Media Planning, while campaigns for P&G’s Gillette in Israel added two Silver Lions and a Bronze Lion. The agency also received eight shortlist nominations, making MediaCom the most decorated media agency in the competition.

    The Grand Prix campaign, Tesco’s Food Love Stories, enabled the retail giant to turn food shopping from a functional to an emotional purchase. While competitors focused on food provenance, Tesco used its first food campaign in three years to celebrate “the food you love to cook for the people you love”.

    The message was spread via paid digital, out of home and radio, with data targeting ensuring the delivery of personalised stories to consumers. Owned media, including point-of-sale, recipe cards, email, print and digital helped spread the word.

    The fully-integrated campaign delivered a 53 per cent improvement in quality scores, making Food Love Stories Tesco’s most effective campaign ever.

    MediaCom worked with BBH London on the campaign with ITV Creative, Global Radio, Facebook and JCDecaux also providing production services.

    MediaCom Israel picked up three Lions for its work with P&G’s Gillette. The Babyface campaign picked up a Silver Lion by encouraging new dads to build strong physical bonds with their children by shaving their scratchy beards, while I Don’t Roll on Shabbos grabbed both Silver and Bronze for enabling members of the country’s Orthodox community to buy and use deodorant on the Jewish day of rest. I Don’t Roll on Shabbos boosted Gillette’s share of the deodorant market from 3 per cent to 15 per cent.

    “This is fantastic news, and I’m hugely proud of the UK team for winning the ultimate prize in our industry. Nor could I be happier for our client, Tesco, who worked in partnership with us to create this memorable campaign,“ said MediaCom Worldwide chairman and CEO Stephen Allan. “Tesco’s Food Love Stories combines great insight with fantastic business results and demonstrates how our Systems Thinking approach can help brands be both creative and effective in the way they invest their marketing budgets. I’m also thrilled by the geographical spread of our shortlisted work. From Vietnam to India, Australia to Belgium and Israel to Russia, we have ensured our clients get the same high quality of service in every market“.

    The result maintains MediaCom’s dominance at global award ceremonies, as it was named Agency Network of the Year by Festival of Media Global earlier this year and topped the Gunn Media 100, published by WARC.

    MediaCom is a member of WPP, the world’s largest marketing communications services group, and part of GroupM, WPP’s consolidated media investment management arm.

  • Anita Mookerjee joins Lodestar UM as head for South business

    Anita Mookerjee joins Lodestar UM as head for South business

    MUMBAI: Media and marketing company, Lodestar UM has appointed Anita Devraj Mookerjee as the head for South India business. 

    Mookerjee will lead the entire South India operations of LUM, including the agency’s Bangalore, Chennai and Kochi operations. Lodestar UM’s South India operations includes marquee clients like Wipro Consumer Care, Accenture, MedLife, Exide Life Insurance, Duroflex, Zivame, Amaron Batteries, Amante and several others. 

    Mookerjee will lead the agency’s continued focus on strategic media planning, technology, data, content and ROI driven solutions.

    Prior to joining Lodestar UM, Mookerjee was the managing director at Mediacom Indonesia. 

    Lodestar UM chief executive officer Nandini Dias says, “A comprehensive search for the right leader, led us to Anita, who is the perfect candidate to spearhead the next phase of development in these critical markets. A performance-oriented, industry leader with a proven track record of success, especially in the areas of business growth, strategy and brand building, Anita will ensure we continue to deliver on the Lodestar UM promise of powerful, creative, insight-driven ideas for our clients”

    Talking about her new role, Mookerjee mentions, “I spent my formative years in media in Lintas Media Group (now Initiative), where I used to handle ITC. So, this is a home coming for me. Lodestar UM as an agency has always focussed extensively on its product and people.”

    Armed with over 19 years of experience in media communications and brand planning, Mookerjee is an alumni of Mumbai University. She started her career with Ogilvy in 1999. In 2005, she joined Lintas Media Group as Business Director. Following a stint of 3 years, Mookerjee joined Mediacom in 2008 as General Manager and overlooked the agency’s operations in Bangalore and Chennai. She moved to Mediacom Indonesia in 2012 as Managing Director and spent 5 years with the agency before returning to India.

  • Sony Pictures Network promotes Aman Srivastava, Amogh Dusad

    Sony Pictures Network promotes Aman Srivastava, Amogh Dusad

    MUMBAI:  Sony Pictures Network (SPN) has witnessed a flurry activity at senior positions of late. The latest movers in the hierarchy include for Aman Srivastava and Amogh Dusad who were elevated by the company. Srivastava has been promoted to senior vice president, head of marketing at Sony Entertainment Television (SET), while Dusad was handed a new responsibility as head of  digital products at SET.  Earlier Srivastava and Dusad occupied the roles of vice president, marketing and senior vice president and head – programming and content acquisition respectively.

    After a three-year stint as senior marketing manager at Sony, Srivastava joined Viacom 18 as associate director- international marketing. In 2013, he moved on from Viacom 18 as director- international business and syndication to join The Walt Disney Company as head of marketing, youth and movie channels. After almost three years in that role, Srivastava returned to SPN as Vice President Marketing.

    Srivastava has more than 14 years of experience in marketing, communication and new product development -brand management, research, activation, new product launch and content syndication. He has also lead brand to success in terms of profitability, Market share & Share of Mind. He has successfully conducted channel and product launches across geographies.

    Before joining Sony, Dusad worked with NDTV Imagine as director in strategic planning and research. He started his career as an associate director at TAM Media Research, working there for four years.

    Over a career spanning 15 years, Dusad has a demonstrated a history of working in leadership positions covering different facets of the broadcast media industry including content acquisition, creating partnerships with content creators, leading cross functional teams to drive business planning, ad revenue maximisation, consumer insight generation, spearheading initiatives towards digital and second screen engagement.

    Also Read:

    SPNI elevates Abhishek Joshi at digital biz

    Shishir Gupta elevated as head content acquisition sports at SPNI 

  • MEDIACOM promotes Avinash Pillai to global leader trading and operation for team P&G

    MEDIACOM promotes Avinash Pillai to global leader trading and operation for team P&G

    MUMBAI: Avinash Pillai, who is a current P&G leader IMEA for MediaCom, has today been named global leader trading and operation for Team P&G.

    Pillai, who will continue to be based in Mumbai, has over 20 years of experience within media agency and in revenue functions with broadcaster and publisher. Pilllai will be responsible for driving efficiencies within operation and increase the effectiveness of P&G ‘s media investment across markets. He will report to Nihar Das global leader, team P&G at MediaCom.

    “This is the first global role in the network based out of India, and I am delighted to have Avi join the global team. He has delivered exceptional value for P&G over the years, and we look forward to spreading his excellence more widely across the network. His experience on both sides of the media table, as well as his attitude to ‘thrive in strife’ makes him uniquely suited for the role,” said Nahar Das.

    Commenting on his new role, Avinash Pillai said, “My journey with MediaCom over the last 8+ years has been one of constant learning and reinventing myself in the different roles and challenges that have been offered to me. I am especially glad to have been offered this role based in India due to my personal choice and am confident that I will achieve the results that we envisage with the support of my colleagues at MediaCom and the client team at P&G.” 

    Pillai is working with MediaCom from last 8 years as National Buying Head and was entrusted with the responsibility of setting up buying operations for MediaCom. In 2013, he went on to lead the India P&G AoR and in 2016 extended his remit to take on responsibility for the IMEA (India, Middle East and Africa) region.

  • Navin Khemka to take over MediaCom South Asia as CEO

    Navin Khemka to take over MediaCom South Asia as CEO

    MUMBAI: Media agency MediaCom has appointed Navin Khemka as CEO of its South Asia operations effective 16 July 2018. Khemka takes on the role from Debraj Tripathy who will be leaving the organisation to explore new opportunities outside the group. He will be based in Delhi and report to the incoming GroupM South Asia CEs Sam Singh and Mediacom Asia Pacific CEO Mark Heap.

    Tripathy joined MediaCom in 2011 and under his leadership, MediaCom India has been among the fastest growing and most awarded agencies in South Asia. In recent years, MediaCom India was recognised among the top 10 agencies in the Gunn Media 100 Agency Report, named Agency of the Year at the Festival of Media Asia, and delivered many award-winning campaigns recognised as among the best in the world, including Ariel’s “Dads Share the Load”, Gillette’s “Bachelor of Shaving”, and Wrigley’s “Doublemint #Startsomethingfresh”.

    Khemka is currently the managing partner of North and East and new business development lead for the GroupM agency Wavemaker India. He has over 20 years’ experience, working with brands such as Perfetti Van Melle, Hero, Pernod Ricard, PayTM, Nokia, Samsung, Reckitt Benckiser etc. A MICA alumnus, Navin has played a stellar role in growing Maxus and later Wavemaker in New Delhi with his client-centric approach. He joined GroupM to lead the New Delhi branch of Maxus in 2014. He has previously worked in Zenith Optimedia, Cheil and Mudra.

    With the dynamic media landscape in India, Khemka’s challenge will be to drive relevance and effective ROI for the agency’s brands, including several blue-chip clients.

    MediaCom is a member of WPP, the world’s largest marketing communications services group, and part of GroupM, WPP’s consolidated media investment management arm.

    WPP India country manager CVL Srinivas says, “WPP and GroupM are making many investments into areas that will further enhance our market-leading capabilities in India and South Asia. We are excited to see Navin take on this role. With his experience and energy, we are sure he will take MediaCom to even further heights by leveraging all that our group has to offer, for the benefit of our clients. Debraj has done a terrific job leading MediaCom. He has been a fantastic colleague and a very admired leader.”

    Heap adds, “The search for a new leader has been an exciting one as there is no shortage of strong talent in India. We considered many candidates from within and outside the group and unanimously knew that Navin was the choice. In Navin, we have a leader with stellar raw talent and a real thirst for growth, who can capitalise on the enabling assets of the MediaCom global network and the strength of GroupM and WPP India.”

    MediaCom is one of the world’s leading media communications specialists, with billings of US$33 billion employing 7,000 people in 125 offices across 100 countries. Its global client roster includes Dell, Coca-Cola (TCCC), Mars, NBC Universal, P&G, PSA, Sony, Shell and Richemont.