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Tag: Navin Khemka

  • Industry touches base with family, this Diwali

    Industry touches base with family, this Diwali

    It is that time of the year again! Diwali, also known as the festival of lights, lives up to its name, filling every nook and corner of our streets with bright decorations and fireworks. Whether you talk about shimmery clothes, tasty food or wonderful traditions, one cannot deny the excitement associated with this festival. We buy gifts for ourselves and loved ones, feast on good food, visit our relatives and decorate homes with glowing lamps and rangoli. A festival that signifies the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil, the story behind Diwali has a strong base in Indian mythology. Diwali commemorates the return of Lord Shri Ram with his wife Sita and Lakshman from his 14 year long exile after killing the Ravana. In joyous celebration of his victory, the people of Ayodhya lit up tiny lamps at their homes, signifying positive energy. These days, people host a range of Diwali bashes to celebrate the occasion. A typical day normally starts with a Lakshmi puja, followed by visiting family and friends. Diwali is also an occasion for us to meet our loved ones, exchange gifts, socialise and bond.  The festival can also signify a chance for us to bring light into the lives of others. With all these meanings attached to this event, it is no wonder that Diwali is one of the most widely celebrated festivals in India and abroad. Likewise on this day, we found out how the media industry is celebrating Diwali. Take a look!

    Divya Radhakrishnan, Managing director, Helios Media

    “We are keeping an open house at my office today post 4 pm where friends, colleagues and families can come in to celebrate the occasion with us for some good food and alcohol.”

     

    JD Majethia, Actor-Director-Producer, Hats Off Productions

    “This year, there are lots of good things happening work wise. Our show Badi Door Se Aaye Hain just completed 100 episodes. Our viewers have given us so much love that even we want to give back the same kind of affection. We have prepared Diwali special episodes for the show. On a personal front, Diwali is very nostalgic for me. As I am a Gujarati, it signifies a new year for us. I just came back from a vacation with my family. And I intend to visit my relatives and celebrate Diwali with a bit of fireworks!”

    Karthik Lakshminarayan, COO, Madison Media

     “This Diwali, children from an orphanage have been invited to our office. Food and donations were collected as we want to spread happiness in their lives. At home, I will spend time with family and visit friends. I will avoid bursting crackers as I believe in an eco-friendly Diwali.”

     

    KVL Narayan Rao, executive vice chairperson, NDTV 

    “I would be having a small celebration at home with family and friends.”

     

     

    Navin Khemka, managing partner, north and east region, Maxis

     “At office, we had a puja followed by lunch with colleagues. On a personal front, I plan to spend the time with family and friends at home. A puja will be conducted at home and it will be an eco-friendly Diwali at my place.”

     

    Nisha Singhania, co-founder, Infectious

    “We are just having a quiet Diwali celebration. I am taking my office colleagues out for lunch at a vegetarian restaurant in Mahim.”

     

     

    Shantanu Gangane, marketing head-Movies Now, Times Television Network  

    “At work place, Diwali snacks and gifts are being distributed. I also plan to visit my weekend home with my family and friends. I want to spend quality time with my kids and teach them about the mythological characters pertaining to Diwali instead of just bursting fire crackers. I prefer a noise-free Diwali.”

     

    Sudhir Sharma, producer, Sunshine Productions

    “I will be going ‘party hopping’ to different Diwali events hosted by colleagues in the industry. Diwali means happiness. It is like a motivation to work harder for the upcoming year. This year will be different as I will not be going back to my parents’ house. Instead, I will be attending a lot of parties in Mumbai hosted by my fellow co actors and friends from the industry.”

    Yash Patnaik, producer, Beyond Dreams Entertainment  
    “I am in the midst of getting my office renovated. This year will be a working Diwali for my entire team.”

     

     

     

    Here’s wishing all our readers a very happy and prosperous Diwali from the entire team of Indiantelevision.com !

  • The great Indian Diwali on English GECs and movie channels

    The great Indian Diwali on English GECs and movie channels

    As families and friends come together to celebrate Diwali and spend personal time with loved ones at home, English movie and general entertainment channels (GEC) have put together some of the best line ups to reign in the festive period. While the genre stands fragmented, channels nonetheless are trying to woo audiences with either movie or show premieres or telecasting title’s that have repeat value.

     

    Zee Studio which underwent a refresh recently will telecast its special Diwali movie, How To Train Your Dragon at 12 pm and 9 pm. Its festival property ‘Studio Dynamite’ will include blockbusters such as Mission Impossible, Transformers, Avengers etc. Apart from this, movies like Lincoln, Shrek Forever After and Shutter Island will complete its programming lineup.

     

    Starting 23 October 9 am onwards, Movies Now viewers are in for a programming lineup which covers different genres. To tickle the funny bone are the hilarious trio of a sabertooth tiger, a sloth and a wooly mammoth from Ice Age. This will be followed by The Karate Kid, Kung Fu Panda, The Matrix, Olympus Has Fallen and X Men Origins: Wolverine. The finale will see good forces combine in an all out war with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II.

     

    HBO and its two premium channels; HBO Hits and HBO Defined too are vying for a share of the viewership pie this festive season. HBO will telecast Pacific Rim on 23 October at 1:57 pm, Step Up on 24 October at 6:54 pm, Red2 on 27 October at 9 pm, followed by World War Z on 28 October at 9pm. While HBO Hits will serve Riddick, Ghost Team One and Season one of The Knick on its platter, HBO Defined will have season one of Grace, Silicon Valley and True Detective.

     

    Another major player Star Movies has also put in place a festive lineup. Robert Downey Jr fans can watch Tony Stark’s world being torn apart by the formidable terrorist called The Mandarin on 23 October at 9 pm. This will be followed by Men In Black at 11 pm.  The other movies include Unstoppable, Speed, Fast Five, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Men in Black 3, King Kong and Resident Evil: Retribution.

    Sony Pix from the MSM stable along with its English GEC AXN started their Diwali celebrations with the simulcast of the legendary crime fighting cyborg Robocop on 19 October at 1 pm and 9 pm. AXN has also brought in two new shows especially for the festive season. While NCIS runs from Monday to Thursday at 10 pm, Supernatural airs every Saturday at 10 pm.

    So what brings English movies and GECs come up with special programming for Diwali? Says Maxus managing partner north and east region Navin Khemka, “Currently as some of these channels are able to draw an average yield, they try building a lot of hype and aura around these shows through various campaigns to maximise the yield in an extremely fragmented space. The festive season thus is about increasing the average yield where survival is vital.”

    English GEC Romedy Now through the theme of celebrating the joy of family and togetherness has launched its property ‘Diwali Sparklers,’ starting 4 October, 8pm onwards. The lineup for the slot includes Family Stone, The Notebook, Guess Who, Madagascar, Monster-in-Law and 27 Dresses among others.

    Comedy Central too has announced the launch of four new shows that will be premiered from 27 October from Monday to Friday. These are Billy on The Street 9 (at 8 pm) Psych (seasons one to four at 9 pm), Penn and Teller: Fool Us (at 10 pm) and The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon at 11 pm. These four will be premiered from 27 October 2014 from Monday to Friday.  

    Star World Premiere HD has New Girl season four, Community season five, Revenge season four, Modern Family season six, Bones season 10, Home Land season four among others. Star World will broadcast House season five, The Simpsons season 17, Masterchef Australia season six, Big Bang Theory season five etc. Meanwhile FX has lined up The X Files season nine, Californication season seven, Sons of Anarchy season six and Alias season one among others.

    According to Madison Media COO Karthik Lakshminarayan, since festive period sees a surge in advertising and these movie channels and GEC’s too are vying for a share of the pie, they come up with the special programming lineup. “The special programming for the festive season helps channels spike their advertising revenue on an average by 10-12 per cent,” he concludes.

  • Will KBC 8 sustain high numbers?

    Will KBC 8 sustain high numbers?

    MUMBAI: The Indian adaptation of the original format, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, catapulted Star Plus’ popularity when it was launched in 2000 as part of the channel’s revamp, later after exchanging hands, it boosted Sony’s viewership and since then has worked its magic.

     

    After 13 years, two channels, seven seasons, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) has come a long way.

     

    It has been a tedious task to entertain people season after season and though the show started off like a rocket, it did have to face a few hurdles. The show couldn’t garner enough ratings as expected, season after season.

     

    Nonetheless, produced by Big Synergy, once again climbed the upward trend in its eighth season, raking in viewership of 8.96 million TVTs for its grand premiere episode. The average weekday viewership of the show was 5.2 million TVTs in its first week.

     

    This was the highest rated show in the week under consideration (17-23 August 2014), across channels. Moreover, it outdid other top shows like Diya Aur Baati Hum (Star Plus), Jodha Akbar and Kumkum Bhagya on Zee TV. It also helped the channel to move from its number sixth position to be number four in the TAM TV ratings.

     

    According to media planners what worked wonders for the show was its social connect with the audiences. Woven around the thought of ‘yahan sirf paise nahi Dil bhi jeete jaate hain’, the TVCs garnered many accolades.

     

    Planners believe that through its new theme, KBC is going back to the roots. “This season, it has had a very strong social connect. They are bringing up a lot of social issues and women empowerment issues in the programme and that has caught people’s attention,” asserts Maxus managing partner north and east region Navin Khemka. Khemka further goes on to say that this time the social issues it is highlighting are topical and well told.

     

    The three TVCs were launched in July, ‘Kohima’ was followed by the ‘Hindu-Muslim’ and ‘Community’, received positive responses from the industry pundits as well as viewers. The channel had bought around 10,000 ad spots in over 45 TV channels, including the MSM network channels.

     

    Moreover, it was also promoted in 15 cities through 2,000 OOH sites in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and selected ones in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

     

    On the digital front also, it was active than before. It launched an app called KBC Play Along, by which a viewer could play the game on his mobile and stand a chance to meet Bachchan on the sets. Taking the marketing efforts a notch up, it had also done a 100-city-on-ground activity.

     

    Media planners believe that, though the channel saw a good opening response, a lot of KBC ratings was dependent on the social impact and celebrities it got hold on to appear on it. “Celebrity episodes drive the viewership. In the coming weeks, because it is the festival time, a lot of new shows will get launched. So if they are able to get good celebrities and good content, they should be able to hold on to the ratings,” says another media analyst.

     

    This season also saw re-invention of KBC. The grand premiere of the Bachchan-helmed show was shot in Surat with a live audience of around 7,000 people. The evening’s proceedings included comedy acts by Kapil Sharma, the anchor of Colors’ Comedy Nights with Kapil, song and dance sequences and Bachchan’s interactions with the live audience.

     

    Cadbury remains the presenting sponsor while Idea continues to be the ‘powered by’ sponsor. Samsung, Maruti Suzuki, TVS, and Cisca LED are the associate sponsors.

  • Maxus wins businesses worth over Rs. 300 crore

    Maxus wins businesses worth over Rs. 300 crore

    MUMBAI: Maxus, yet again retains the title of the most ‘dominant’ agency as per the latest RECMA report, a qualitative assessment for all leading media agencies in India.

    It is the fourth consecutive year that Maxus is on the top of the RECMA ratings. Along with this, the agency also won business across 23 new clients, worth upwards of Rs. 300 crores in the first half of 2014. These new clients include Tata Sons, JK Tyres, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Unitech, Paytm, Askme.com, ICC T20 World Cup 2014, Cigna TTK Health Insurance and BML Educorp.

     

    Maxus South Asia managing director Kartik Sharma said, “Over the last 12 months, Maxus has made an effort to become future ready in a digitally charged media environment. We approach planning and investments in an integrated manner with emphasis on new media concepts that brings digital media, content and data together with traditional TV, print and radio. We believe this gives us an edge in the market, helping us delight to our existing clients and bring new clients into the fold.”

     

    “Our ‘Lean into Change’ approach has given us a healthy double digit growth in 2014” Besides their expertise in core traditional media, Maxus today is a full- fledged media solutions agency with expertise across digital, mobile media, data and analytics, branded content and programming. Talent across these verticals are embedded in the network and work closely with core client teams,” added Sharma.

     

    The new approach at Maxus has resulted in several ingenious campaigns like “Power of 49” for Tata Tea, Kotak Jifi, Vodafone Fan Photo and Tata Sky’s innovation around the IPL. Maxus was the first agency to set up a digital command centre for Nestle, where the marketing and agency team to monitor data from various social feeds and take real time marketing decisions. This ensured judicious use of budgets across media with a low percentage of wastage. The approach also helped expand business with new clients across industries ranging from e-commerce, banking and insurance, sports, retail, healthcare, etc.

     

    In 2014, Maxus was part of WPP Team Red (head by MEC Global) that won the Vodafone account across several countries, retaining the account in India. The expertise of a long client relationship with Vodafone domestically brought about great insight during the pitch process.

     

    It can also be noted that this year, Maxus has also brought on board two senior leaders – Navin Khemka in New Delhi to head the North and East region and focus on new business development and Anand Chakravarthy heading Maxus, West and some of their key client relationships. Earlier in the year, Maxus won the digital agency of the year and a number of metals at the Abbys 2014 for their new media capabilities.

  • Maxus brings Navin Khemka on board as managing partner

    Maxus brings Navin Khemka on board as managing partner

    MUMBAI: Maxus has appointed Navin Khemka as its managing partner. Khemka will be heading the north and east regions for the media agency and will also be responsible for new business development across the country. He will report to Maxus south Asia managing director Kartik Sharma.

     

    With over 17 years of experience in the advertising and media industry, Khemka’s last appointment was with ZenithOptimedia, where he left as managing partner. With a tenure spanning the last eight years, he was initially the trading lead for key accounts such as Nestle and HP. He subsequently took over the business leadership of the HP account, delivering some award winning campaigns such as the HP Serena Williams campaign at Lakme Fashion Week. Thereafter he took on the additional role of new business director for India. He was instrumental in bringing on new clients such as Honda, Toshiba, Uninor, McVities, Karbonn Mobiles, Godfrey Philips, Best Rice, Greenlam Laminates, Olx.in, Jabong.com, Yatra.com at ZenithOptimedia.

     

    Sharma said, “Navin comes with a varied skill set and extensive experience across various product categories. He is an ideal leader to spearhead the Maxus team, and uphold our PACE value system across the organistaion.  At Maxus we endeavour to push the boundaries to delivering excellence for our clients, to achieve our 10/10 mandate.”

     

    Khemka said, “I am delighted to be a part of India’s most dynamic agency – Maxus.  Brand needs are changing and Maxus is geared up to providing a holistic solution to its clients. I look forward to work closely with the team and help provide seamless, media neutral solutions to our clients. Driving growth for Maxus in existing and new geographies also makes my role challenging. I am looking forward to exciting days ahead.”

     

    A graduate of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and MICA, Khemka started his career with Mudra where he worked for five years. Prior to ZenithOptimedia, Navin worked at Cheil Communications, Mindshare and Carat.

  • ZenithOptimedia gets a new CEO and managing partner

    ZenithOptimedia gets a new CEO and managing partner

    MUMBAI: ZenithOptimedia has seen two major exits with Satyajit Sen and Navin Khemka moving on from the agency after eight years.

     

    Sen held the position of chief executive officer of agency while Khemka was the company’s managing partner.

     

    On their exit, ZenithOptimedia Group CEO Anupriya Acharya said, “After putting in eight years with ZenithOptimedia, Satya has decided to embrace a new challenge. We thank him for all his contributions to ZO and wish him all the very best. ZOG thanks Navin also for his contributions and wishes him well in his next assignment.”

     

    The agency has got on board Madison Pinnacle COO Dnyanada Chaudhari as the managing partner for ZenithOptimedia India and former JWT digital ECD Prasanna Kulkarni as the chief creative officer.

     

    Chaudhari will be based out of the agency’s Gurgaon office and on her appointment said, “I’m excited to be back and strongly believe in ZenithOptimedia’s Live ROI principle and am very keen on partnering marketing teams to not just look at efficiencies but to also strategically leverage alliances to drive thought leadership and brand ROI.”

     

    On her appointment, Acharya said, “Chaudhari brings with her the exact expertise needed for this role. Her diverse background across strategy, buying and media management as well as experience with large scale businesses, is especially suited to create and refresh our trading architecture and execution across all media including TV, print, radio, digital, OOH, experiential and other specialist services.”

     

     Based out of Mumbai, Kulkarni will be in-charge of creative and content marketing solutions across ZenithOptimedia, Performics, Resultrix and Newcast.

     

    Commenting on his new role, Kulkarni said, “Great opportunity to work across the focus groups like performance based marketing, content led communication solutions, and integrated campaigns with ZenithOptimedia and its divisions, extremely glad to be part of such multidisciplinary team at ZOG. I look forward to taking the organisation’s creative capabilities to the next level by elevating the bar for innovative content. I am confident we are on our way to making ZenithOptimedia, Performics, Resultrix and Newcast a stimulating place for creatives and patrons alike.

     

    On the appointment, Acharya said, “Increasingly we are finding our client requiring creative content solutions across not only online but even on integrated campaigns. Kulkarni’s role is towards driving competitive edge in our product through superior integration of creative and content solutions. In fact as we move ahead, we will be looking at getting more and more diversified talent on board.”

  • IPL hits Hindi GECs hard, knocks off 110 GRPs

    MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League (IPL) has come back to haunt the Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) again as the cricketing extravaganza has shaved off 110 GRPs from the Hindi GECs in the week ended 6 April.

    The genre has seen a greater loss this year as compared to last year when it lost 51 GRPs in the opening week of the tournament.

    According to ZenithOptimedia managing partner Navin Khemka the IPL matches this year are more interesting and hence are attracting more viewers. “IPL this season has gained at the cost of Hindi GECs. This year has seen considerable increase in the viewership as the quality of the matches have improved.”

    When asked if Hindi GECs were not prepared for IPL, Khemka averred, “If the matches are more interesting and are doing well, I don‘t think Hindi GECs can do much to retain their audiences.”

    The week saw a shuffle in the ranking of top four Hindi general entertainment channels as Sony Entertainment Television (Set) went past Colors adding an extra eight GRPs to occupy the third spot on the Hindi GEC hierarchy.

    As per TAM data (HSM including 5 new LC1 markets, C&S, 4+) sourced from a channel, Star Plus continued to maintain its leadership position. The broadcast of Salman Khan-starrer Dabangg 2 on 31 March notched up 4.9 TVR. The channel lost seven GRPs to clock 284 GRPs.

    Star Plus had also launched a new dance reality show titled ‘Nach Baliye Shriman vs Shrimati‘, an extention of Nach Baliye, that debuted with 2.3 TVR on 6 April.

    Following Star Plus is Zee TV that lost 22 GRPs to register 185 GRPs. All the shows of the channel have seen loss in viewership.

    Meanwhile, despite the loss of 11 GRPs, Set managed to move a step ahead, displacing Colors at No. 3. Its crime-based properties Adaalat ( 1.2 TVR), CID ( 2.2 TVR) and Crime Patrol (2 TVR) continue to drive majority of the audience for the channel that closed the week with 164 GRPs (last week 175).

    Colors lost the most this week as it lived without a single 3+ TVR show. All the shows of the channels have seen drop in numbers. The channel had earned a few points last week as it had aired Femina Miss India 2013 on 24 March. For the week under review, Colors lost 35 GRPs to record 156 GRPs.

    Set‘s sister Hindi GEC Sab maintained its grip at the No. 5 spot despite losing more audience than Star Plus‘ second rung Hindi GEC Life OK. Sab lost 22 GRPs to end the week with 137 GRPs, while Life OK ended the week with 110 GRPs (last week 119).

    Sahara One with 18 GRPs (last week 22) stood at the bottom of the ladder.

  • Hindi GECs gain after losing for two weeks

    MUMBAI: The Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) gained 23 GRPs last week after losing viewers to live T20 World Cup cricket matches in which India played in two previous weeks.

    The India vs Pakistan clash did attract a lot of viewership but its impact was not felt as it was on a Sunday, which resulted in viewers not normally watching television on the weekend being glued to TV sets, and GECs too had strong content in programmes like the finale of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa.

    As per TAM (HSM, 4+, C&S) data provided by GECs, the India vs Pakistan match fetched 6.4 TVRs in its first innings when India batted and 7.6 TVRs in its second innings during Pakistan‘s batting.

    The GECs had taken a hit in previous two weeks because of start of the T20 World Cup on 18 September (week 38 of TAM). The combined GRPs from Hindi GECs fell to 1271 from 1322 in week 38 as the T20 matches were telecast live during evening prime time. In week 39, when India played against Australia on 28 September (Friday), the genre further lost GRPs to register 1233 GRPs. However, GECs have seen an improvement in ratings in week 40 when the genre added 23 GRPs to clock 1256 GRPs.

    According to ZenithOptimedia managing partner Navin Khemka, The India vs Pakistan match was able to attract more viewers onto the television screen and people who wanted to watch GECs too saw their favourite programmes. “India vs Pakistan match was able to get light viewers onto the television screen on that day. It had driven up the overall viewership of that day, therefore people who wanted to watch GEC for a particular time period, be it because of the airing of Jhalak finale or Ishaqzaade, watched it.”

    “The impact of live cricket on GECs is more if the matches are played during weekdays. The India vs Pakistan match was played on the weekend against big properties like Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa that aired its final episode,” Khemka added.

    Weekly GEC update:

    Star Plus continues to lead the GEC genre with 274 GRPs, having added five gross rating points (GRPs) during week 40. The channel has crossed the 270 GRP-mark after a gap of seven weeks. In fact, this is the highest recorded rating of any channel in the genre in six weeks.

    Star Plus has extended the telecast of two of its weekday shows, ‘Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai‘ and ‘Diya Aur Baati Hum‘, which rated 4 TVR and 2.8 TVR respectively on Saturday (6 October). However, the average ratings of both the shows dropped; ‘Yeh Rishta…‘ rated 3 TVR (last week 3.4) while ‘Diya…‘ fetched 4.9 TVR (last week 6.7) in the week ended 6 October.

    Colors held on to its second position with its GRPs unchanged. The channel aired the finale of ‘Jhallak Dikhhla Jaa‘ which notched 3.5 TVR on 30 September. The finale episode helped the channel stabilise itself despite India and Pakistan playing against each other in the same time slot. However, the fiction shows of the channel have seen a drop in viewership. The channel ended the week with 233 GRPs.

    Zee TV closed the week with 231 GRPs (last week 217), just two GRPs away from Colors. The ratings of its singing reality show ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa‘ fell from 2.5 TVR to 1.9 TVR, though its fiction shows have seen a rise in eyeballs.

    Sony Entertainment Television (Set) added three GRPs to end the week with 205 GRPs. It had premiered ‘Ishaqzaade‘ on 30 September, which rated 1.9 TVR in its 12 noon airing and 1.4 TVR in the 8.30 pm telecast. Set did not air its ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati-6‘ episode at 8.30 pm on 30 September. Daily soaps of the channel lost numbers but its crime-based shows – CID (3 TVR) and Crime Patrol (2.7 TVR) and KBC (3.4 TVR) saw an increase in viewership.

    Meanwhile, Sab added six GRPs to end the week with 128 GRPs. Life OK with 121 GRPs (last week 124) follows. Sahara One with 33 GRPs (last week 34) remains at the bottom.