ITV

Tag: Mid Day

  • Print or digital; what redefines a traditional paradigm?

    Print or digital; what redefines a traditional paradigm?

    MUMBAI: While circulation of newspapers is still in the positive and print continues to have the lion’s share of the ad spend pie; digital is gaining ground rapidly. So is there a reason for fear amongst print players?

     

    Discussing this was a panel comprising The Indian Express Group wholetime director Anant Goenka, Mid-Day editor Sachin Kalbag, BBC Online editor Nidheesh Tyagi, Danik Bhaskar Group SVP – sales, market development and brand marketing Vinay Maheshwari and Percept Allied Media CEO Shripad Kulkarni. The panel was moderated by MXM editor-in-chief and CEO Pradyuman Maheshwari.

     

    Goenka recalled that when he started handling the digital side of The Indian Express Group, the important factor was to stick to the funda of ABCD – Astrology, Bollywood, Cricket and Devotion. He went on to say that politics became the hot topic interest on the Internet, thanks to the issues related to Narendra Modi, elections and Arvind Kejriwal. He believes that Internet, gives them an opportunity to reach out to a wider range of audience where print can’t be reached at this point of time.

     

    Goenka believes that it is a very complimentary medium. “It is clearly about finding a way to create content that works for both mediums (digital and print). Content has to be exclusively for each medium. Both mediums in India are comfortable and are here to stay,” he said.

     

    According to Danik Bhaskar’s Maheshwari, both the mediums always do not have the same set of audience. He opines that print and digital are going to co-exist and for long. He believes that newspapers act as an advantage for any consumer. “It reaches people at 7 am in the morning at their doorsteps and people are fresh to read it. In tier II and III cities, literacy, income and readership is on a rise. On top of all this, affordability is also on the rise. The reach that print delivers today is worth mentioning,” he said, adding that regional languages papers are also consumed well.

     

    Kalbag said that what digital is doing right now is putting a lot of strength to what print delivers in the morning. “Where you break big stories in print, it is a big worry for any journalist and editor for how to do justice post 8 am for internet. To viralise it on social media platforms is the best way to reach out to the whole world.” He asserted that social media platforms have become curated platforms where all print news is curated in the best manner for each of the digital platform.

     

    “What works for Twitter may not necessarily work for Facebook or Pintrest and vice-a-versa. So each of these platforms need to have a perfect tactic or strategy to put all of the content together and every journalist and editor should know how to do justice to each of the platforms,” said Kalbag.

     

    Kulkarni had a different opinion altogether. He believes that the industry is definitely witnessing a change, thanks to digital platforms entering into the market. “We have spoken about India and Bharat but for the first time, digital has had a heavy impact. Look at all the generations, from old generation like me to a new generation like my daughter. I still prefer newspapers and she prefers reading it online. This is the change and more changes are yet to come.”

     

    To conclude, most of the parties believed that print and digital are equally important for different set of audiences and both are here to stay for a very long time.

     

  • MSM appoints Neville Bastawalla as SONY PIX marketing head

    MSM appoints Neville Bastawalla as SONY PIX marketing head

    MUMBAI: Multi Screen Media (MSM) today announced the appointment of Neville Bastawalla as its new marketing head for its premium Hollywood movie channel SONY PIX.

    Neville Bastawalla with his experience and understanding of the business will help to consolidate Pix’s position in the genre

     

    A marketing professional with over 14 years of multi-brand experience, Bastawalla’s previous stint was with Star India where he joined in January 2011 as marketing head for its English channels and was most recently head – marketing for STAR’s Hindi movies channels since February 2013.

     

    Prior to joining Star India, Bastawalla was head marketing at Mid-Day Infomedia where he spent about four years. He joined Mid-Day in 2007 after a brief stint with Nickelodeon as senior marketing manager. A management graduate in marketing, Bastawalla also has worked with HSBC, Walt Disney Company, Contract Advertising and Mudra Communications.

     

    Announcing Bastawalla’s appointment SONY PIX EVP & business head Saurabh Yagnik said, “We are delighted to have Neville join the team and we are certain that his experience and understanding of the business and our audience will help us consolidate our position in the genre. We look forward to a long and fruitful working association with him.”

     

    “I am delighted to begin my association with Sony PIX.  The channel has always uniquely positioned itself in the English movie genre, with a strong content library and innovative campaigns for its premieres and other properties. The channel showcases the best of Hollywood movies. I look forward to taking up this role and delivering on the business objectives for the channel,” said Bastawalla.

  • MiD Day launches new positioning to identify with city

    MiD Day launches new positioning to identify with city

    Mumbai: Afternoon daily tabloid, MiD DAY, has adopted a new positioning to identify strongly with the city, differentiating it from the other English dailies.

    ‘Mid Day My City…My Life!’ is a special anthem that celebrates Mumbai’s spirit and aspirations, the city where MiD Day comes out from and circulates. The new tagline symbolises how a person’s life revolves around a city and how its ups and its downs affect their lives.

    The new positioning is an extension of the core objective of MiD DAY – to deliver local city news in an interactive manner.

    The idea behind ‘My City…My Life!’ is that young working professionals today connect with the city at various touchpoints and, therefore, they take a lot from the city and simultaneously give back to the city as well. The values that define this target group are ‘breaking out’ and ‘breathing free’ and this enmeshes well with MiD DAY’s brand values.

    MiD DAY aims to extend the brand to different mediums and create new, improved and stronger touchpoints to connect with the people of the city and influence their lives. This will help MiD DAY create its own space to interact with the consumer and “make competition irrelevant”.

    MiD Day MD and CEO Manajit Ghoshal said, “MiD DAY stands up for the city and its citizens and drives the change. It has expanded its horizons to create something ‘intangible’ and helped people experience the MiD DAY brand in a variety of ways. The tagline is also an attempt to create an emotional framework while talking about our legacy in the city of Mumbai. It is a more holistic brand tagline as it will appeal equally well to the consumers, as well as the B2B fraternity.”

    MiD Day competes with Mumbai Mirror, the morning taloid from The Times of India Group. The market that way stands separated as MiD Day would basically aim at readers who are commuting back home. MiD Day shut down its morning edition in 2009. MiD Day costs Rs 3 while Mumbai Mirror is priced at Rs 2.50 or Rs 5 if bought with The Times of India (standalone price of TOI is Rs 4).

    In 2010, Jagran Prakashan Ltd acquired MiD-Day Multimedia‘s newspaper business in a share swap deal. MiD-Day shareholders were to receive two shares of Jagran for every seven held as part of the deal. The enterprise value of MiD-Day‘s print business had worked out to Rs 2 billion, including a debt of Rs 200 million.

  • Mid Day becomes broadsheet for Colors’ Ring Ka King

    Mid Day becomes broadsheet for Colors’ Ring Ka King

    MUMBAI: Colors, the Hindi general entertainment channel from the Viacom18 stable, is leaving no stone unturned to market its soon-to-be-launched sports entertainment reality show, Ring Ka King – Wrestling Ka Mahayuddh.

    The print campaign revolves around the theme ‘Size Does Matter‘ with Mid Day highlighting the “larger than life” characteristics of the wrestlers. On 25 January, readers will see the publication in a “broadsheet avatar” to bring forth the idea that the wrestlers are so large that they would not fit in the tabloid‘s normal format.

    MiD Day Infomedia MD and CEO Manajit Ghoshal said, “This broadsheet innovation employed by us is a powerful and stimulating manner of advertising. It introduces a surprise element, which helps in better absorption and recall of the communication. The broad sheet innovation issue also ensures and nice and fresh break for our readers. It has been our continuous endeavour to create path-breaking strategic solutions for each of our clients to reach their target audience. This innovation has been one more step in that direction, as it strengthens our repute to innovate and advertise in the market.”

    Colors head – marketing Rajesh Iyer added, “The Ring Ka King thriller campaign is the physical representation of the excitement that the show embodies. We wanted to bring the action of the ring alive throughout our communication. To bring out the adrenaline pumped exuberance of the show into our promotional activities we collaborated with our creative partners to come up with a campaign which could do full justice to the thought. All our promotions for Ring Ka King, be it the print innovation with Mid Day or disruptive campaign across outdoor, radio and TV, is high on volume and scale.”

    The outdoor campaign, through a mix of billboards and other mediums, aims to showcase the scale and impact of Ring Ka King in 70 trade markets. Audiences will witness billboards being stretched or ripped apart by the wrestlers so that the magnitude of the show can be highlighted, the channel said.

    The overall theme for the television, radio and cinema campaigns is ‘Disruption‘. Ads and promos running across media will focus on wrestlers interrupting regular content to talk about the show.

    Colors has partnered with Radio City to take Ring Ka King on air and engage with listeners. Two special characters will be created on-air that will talk about the show.

    The channel is also associating with Agneepath to promote Ring Ka King through cinema. Additionally, the digital campaign involves creation of special applications on social media platforms like Facebook to interact with audiences and build connect with wrestling.

    The show premieres on 28 January at 8 pm.

  • Cadbury Dairy Milk wraps up Mid-Day

    Cadbury Dairy Milk wraps up Mid-Day

    MUMBAI: Continuing with its New Year campaign – Shubharambh of 2011, Kuchh Meetha Ho Jaye- Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM), the flagship chocolate brand of Cadbury India, today wrapped up Mumbai and New Delhi editions of popular tabloid newspaper Mid-Day.

    The tabloid reached its readers in a special package that resembled a big Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate. The innovative promotion was going beyond regular advertising solutions with plain advertisements or jackets.

    The idea was conceptualized jointly by Cadbury India and its media agency Madison Media.

    Cadbury India selected 3 January, rather than 1 January, as today was the first working day of the week. Mid-Day has a combined circulation (Mumbai and Delhi) of over 300,000 and is popular among office-goers.

  • ‘Over one third of BBC’s revenue comes from Asia’ : Sunita Rajan – BBC Worldwide VP- advertising sales, Asia and Australasia

    ‘Over one third of BBC’s revenue comes from Asia’ : Sunita Rajan – BBC Worldwide VP- advertising sales, Asia and Australasia

    BBC is expanding in the media space in India with not just new channel launches but also in the arena of FM radio and TV production.

    Among the recent launches are BBC Entertainment and Cbeebies. BBC World which was for years a free-to-air news channel, has gone pay to open up subscription revenues.

    BBC has also taken a minority stake in Mid Day Multimedia’s private FM station Radio One.

    And to expand its footprint in India, BBC has recently set up a production centre in Mumbai to tap the rapidly growing TV content market.

    In an interview with Indiantelevision’s Nasrin Sultana, Sunita Rajan, BBC Worldwide VP – advertising sales, Asia and Australasia, talks of BBC’s growth plans for this market.

    Excerpts:

    How is BBC giving the Asian region a push with its content, marketing and ad sales strategy?
    We have a strong presence in the Asia Pacific region. As far as the editorial position goes, our news bureaus are spread widely all over. We have Asia centric programming like Asia Business Report, Asia This Week and news features for Asians. We recently launched an Asia specific show – World News Today presented by Nik Gowing. All the shows are produced in London but our target is Asian audiences.

     

    Our India specific show India Business Report was favoured so much that we had to bring it back on air. But we are an international news channel. So our competition is not the local news channels of any country.

    Asia has been a strong revenue driver for BBC. How much does India contribute as a percentage to BBC’s total ad sales kitty?
    Over one third of the revenue comes from Asia. We do not break it down market by market. So I won’t be able to tell you about the Indian market alone. We have six beams of ad slots and rates across the globe. So an ad rate can be similar for India as well as in Latin America or South Asia. We kind of dice and slice it all across the globe.

    But the good thing is a good amount of ad sales comes from the Asia Pacific region. In recent times, we have seen a huge interest from our Indian clients to reach out to the Asia Pacific markets. At the moment, we are carrying campaigns by Indian clients targeted at the international audience.

    With this trend, how has BBC evolved an ad sales strategy?
    After some amount of internal research we found that there is a common trend among our audiences across countries. One commonality is that they are internationalists. Internationalists are those who are concerned about international news and have an international lifestyle. Keeping this in mind, we launched the “Internationalists campaign.” The campaign is nothing but telling “this is what our audience looks like”. What we did was we picked and chose the basic commonality of all the internationalists, which we identified.

    What is the basic idea behind the ‘Internationalists campaign’?
    Reaffirming and re-auditing that our audience are affluent. It is to give us a profile of our audience. We are focusing on this – through our content as well as on the advertising front. We are talking about Indians who are ‘internationalist’ in their attitude. We also did the Global Indian survey to find out who are affluent, who work in MNCs, who travel abroad, who use foreign products, and who are interested in the stock market.

    What is BBC’s audience profile in India?
    Affluent Indians living in the top 20 cities form the BBC audience profile. They are reflected in the ‘Internationalist’ campaign. The Indian audience or the ‘Internationalist’ is identical to any other Internationalist living in Tokyo, Korea or USA.
    ‘Affluent Indians living in top 20 cities form BBC’s audience profile’

    Who are your major advertisers in India?
    We have 90 brands advertising coming from India on our channel. They are from various categories – financial institutions, IT and auto. Blue chip companies like Nokia and Samsung are strong advertisers on our channel.

    Since BBC has also launched a GEC, how are you tapping advertisers beyond the traditional news genre?
    GEC definitely has a different profile of advertisers. FMCG companies are an important breed of advertisers who back GECs. We are looking at tapping such companies.

    What are the marketing and advertising plans for the kids channel Cbeebies?
    Cbeebies is for pre-schoolers. No kids channel in India has such a target group. Cbeebies is very popular in other markets where we have launched. BBC’s Teletubbies is a most liked brand. We are looking for advertisers for our kids channel.

    Cbeebies is still restricted to a DTH footprint. How are you getting into carriage deals with the cable networks?
    Right now we are available on the TataSky DTH platform. But we are in talks for distribution deals across cable networks.

    How do you tap advertisers for Radio One where you are an equity partner with Mid-Day Multimedia?
    Though BBC has a stake in Radio One, we do not handle the advertising at all.

    BBC recently launched BBC Knowledge in Singapore. When are you bringing it to India?
    We launched BBC Knowledge in August on the IPTV platform. The channel showcases some of the best features and documentaries. We have 3000 hours of content in our archives. We are soon to launch BBC Knowledge in other markets too.

    How is the recently launched commercial venture BBC.com faring?
    BBC.com is our commercial venture to offer advertising on BBC’s international online service for users outside the UK. The current site has been very successful in attracting international traffic. Currently, it has more than 40 million unique users per month from outside the UK who mainly access the news pages.

  • Bhaskar Group appoints Bikash Banerjee as head of business – West & South

    MUMBAI: The Bhaskar Group has appointed Bikash Banerjee as head of business for West and South India. Spearheading the Group’s publications Banerjee will be responsible for marketing, sales and revenues of Dainik Bhaskar (South and West) and Divya Bhaskar (South) in these regions and will be based in Mumbai.

    He will replace Harrish M Bhatia who is moving on to Synergy Media, the radio venture of the company (MYFM 94.3), as Senior VP and business group head and will operate from Delhi.

    With 20 years of experience in marketing and sales, prior to the Bhaskar Group Banerjee has worked with ABP, Mid Day Multimedia Ltd, Vibrant Media (a joint venture of ABCL and Mudra) and Business Standard.

    Banerjee said, “I am delighted to join the group. The job is challenging, but with my experience and the outstanding track record of the group, I am sure of achieving great results.”

  • Percept, Group M will lock horns in the final

    MUMBAI: The stage was set for the clash of the titans in the semi finals between Vyas Giannetti Creative (VGC) vs. Group M and Percept vs. Adfactors at Bandra Kurla Complex ground & P.J. Hindu Gymkhana respectively.

    In the match between VGC & Group M, the latter won by 47 runs. After winning the toss VGC put Group M in to bat first. It looked like a wise decision initially as VGC snapped up 3 wickets in 5 overs giving away only 34 runs. But what followed was a great performance from the Group M middle order, with Ketan Karnik and Sandeep Bhattacharya remaining unbeaten on 115 and 113 runs respectively. Their partnership of 266 runs took the total score to 300. In reply, VGC did not have the start they wanted. The opening stand between Anand Yalvigi (28 runs) & Niket Karvir (36 runs) lasted only 37 runs. Amit Siddheshwar put up a tough fight, hitting 58 runs off 32 deliveries, but could not see VGC through to victory. For his match-winning innings, Sandeep Bhattacharya was adjudged man of the match.

    In the other semi final, Percept beat Adfactors comprehensively by 157 runs. Batting first, Percept scored 247 runs powered by scores of 73 and 59 from R. Mulam and S. Singh respectively. In reply, Adfactors were bowled out for a mere 90 runs, with P. Chavan top scoring with 36 runs. S. Rikame and R. Mulam of Percept ran through the Ad Factors batting line-up, with spells of 4/23 and 4/18. For his all-round performance with bat and ball, R. Mulam was adjudged man of the match.

    (The CAG Shield Cricket Tournament: Presenting Sponsor- Visage Images, Radio partner- Radio One, Print Partner- Mid Day, Web partner- Exchange4Media)

    Brief Scores

    VGC VS.GROUP M

    GROUP M WON BY 47 RUNS
    GROUP M: 300 FOR 3, K. KARNIK – 115*,
    S. BHATTACHARYA – 113*
    VGC: 253 ALL OUT
    A. SIDDHESHWAR 58 RUNS, N. KARVIR 36 RUNS
    A. YALVIGI 28 RUNS,
    MAN OF THE MATCH: SANDEEP BHATTACHARYA

    FURTHER INFORMATION: OP THOMAS: +91-98213-48253

    OR

    ANAND YALVIGI of VGC :+91-9867106644

     

     

    PERCEPT VS.ADFACTORS

    PERCEPT WON BY 157 RUNS
    PERCEPT: 247 FOR 6, R. MULAM – 73 RUNS,
    S. SINGH – 59 RUNS,
    ADFACTORS: 90 ALL OUT, P. CHAVAN – 36 RUNS
    R. MULAM – 4/18, S. RIKAME – 4/23,
    MAN OF THE MATCH: ROOPESH MULAM

    Final match between Percept & GroupM will be played on 10th March 2007 at Police Gymkhana.

  • Radio One tickles the funny bone this World Cup

    Radio One tickles the funny bone this World Cup

     

    MUMBAI: As the World Cup draws closer, FM stations have gone ahead full throttle to grab a slice of the cricket pie with innovative non music programming and on gound activities.

    Radio One 94.3 and BBC also promise contests and laugh-a- minute segments and loads of entertainment in the run up to World Cup. The FM has produced a soundtrack for the Cricket World Cup called ”Dhoom Machale Cup Uthale’ composed by DJ Suketu with vocals rendered by Shaan.

    The FM which is a joint venture between Mid Day Multimedia and BBC World will also feature BBC updates on the match with expert analysis from former cricketer Mohinder Amarnath. Another feature BBC World Cup Golden Moments will air commentary from the past World Cup matches including the World Cup 1983 matches.

    Radio One’s World Cup coverage leans heavily towards spoof with Paaji on the Beach, Hey Azzar Bhai , Chalo West Indies and Tommy Singh.

    .As part of its on ground activity the FM will have a branded float taking the message of World Cup fever to the streets that will move around colleges, malls and other youth hangouts.

    An on air contest has the listeners predict who will win the toss and the lucky winner will win a gold coin daily.

  • Times of India Group to invest Rs 211 million in Mid-Day

    Times of India Group to invest Rs 211 million in Mid-Day

    MUMBAI: The print industry is seeing strange marriages. If traditional rivals The Times of India and Hindustan Times formed a joint venture to publish a newspaper in Delhi, Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd, publishers of a popular tabloid in Mumbai and Bangalore, today announced its new strategic alliance.

    Bennett Coleman Co. Ltd (BCCL which owns the Times Group) will own 6.65 per cent in Mid-Day Multimedia for Rs 211.1 million. The holding will be routed through a preferential allotment of Mid-Day shares at Rs 60 per share.

    Mid-Day said today it would issue and allot on a preferential basis 26,85,000 equity shares at a price of Rs 60 per share to Banhem Financial & Investment Consultants Ltd, an affiliate of BCCL. It would further issue 8,33,333 convertible preference shares to Banhem Financial & Investment Consultants at Rs 60 per share.

    “We have signed a business cooperation agreement. This alliance will benefit both organisations through cooperation in printing, circulation and advertising sales,” Mid-Day said in a statement.

    The promoters of Mid-Day are enhancing their investments in the company to support the company’s growth in print anf FM radio in metro markets across the country. Mid-Day will issue and allot on a preferential basis 29,27,333 equity shares at a price of Rs 60 per share to Ferari Investments and Trading Co Pvt Ltd, a promoter Group company. It will also issue 8,33,333 share warrants at a subscription price of Rs 6 per warrant (10 per cent of an exercise price of Rs 60 per warrant) to Ferari Investments and Trading.

    Mid-Day promoters will, thus, put in an incremental investment of Rs 225.6 million. The promoters will own 51 per cent while BCCL will have 6.65 per cent after both rounds of investment, the release said.

    It may be recalled that the Indian Express had bought a 10 per cent stake in Mid-Day for a little over Rs 250 million while BCCL held about 8 per cent. Subsequently, both had sold their stakes in the open market.

    In a joint statement, BCCL executive director Ravi Dhariwal and Mid-Day Multimedia managing director said: “The Times of India with its leadership position in the morning broadsheet market and Mid-Day with a successful formula for the middle-of-the day, are in fact complementary plays. With this alliance, we will endeavour to garner a larger market share of both readers and advertising in major metros of the country.”