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Tag: Om Jha

  • Om Jha levels up: From Pepsico prodigy to global media maestro

    Om Jha levels up: From Pepsico prodigy to global media maestro

    MUMBAI: Five and a half years ago, Om Jha took his first sip of Pepsico’s high-energy corporate culture—nervous, excited, and ready to shake things up. Now, with a portfolio of impactful marketing, media, and data-driven campaigns under his belt, he is stepping into the future with a brand-new role in the company’s global media & transformation team. From Gurgaon to Plano, Texas, Jha’s journey has been nothing short of fizz-tastic. But what’s next? Let’s pop the cap and find out.

    “I was stepping in to do something I had never done before,” Jha reminisced about his early days at Pepsico. “Thanks to Vishal Kaul for hiring me and introducing me to the world of possibilities, and thanks to George Kovoor and Anshul Khanna for letting me define my own role with every passing year.”

    Jha didn’t just dip his toes into the Pepsico pool—he dived in headfirst. As head of media & partnerships (2019–2022), he spearheaded efforts to connect Pepsico’s legendary brands with consumers using a potent mix of media, data, and technology. He led high-stakes advertising and marketing negotiations, ensuring every penny squeezed out more efficiency and effectiveness.

    By 2022, he stepped up as director – media, data, marketing capabilities & partnerships. Here, he architected a robust first-party data-led marketing infrastructure, setting the stage for cutting-edge digital campaigns and award-winning brand partnerships.

    Fast forward to March 2025, and Jha is now embracing his biggest role yet—director of global media capabilities. This new challenge places him at the intersection of global strategy and transformation, a role tailor-made for someone who thrives on the ever-evolving media landscape.

    But Pepsico is just one stop in Jha’s dynamic career. Before this, he was assistant vice president – customer strategy at Disney Star (2018-2019), where he led the strategy vertical for the northern region, handling TV and digital ad sales revenue across multiple entertainment portfolios. Prior to that, he spent nearly two years as senior director – strategy at GroupM, simplifying media and technology for brands while driving insights-based performance marketing.

    Jha’s journey also took him through the telecom world. At Airtel (2015-2016), he headed business planning & consumer insights for the Delhi circle, overseeing operational strategy, financial planning, and product pricing. Before that, he honed his consulting expertise at KPMG India (2014-2015), managing large-scale business transformation projects.

    His early career included a five-year stint at Idea Cellular Ltd, where he worked as chief of staff in the MD’s office, focusing on corporate strategy and operations. He also gained experience in engineering and manufacturing at Mahindra Group (2005-2007), before transitioning into business roles.

    “A huge thank you to Shyam Venugopal and Abhishek Jadon for this opportunity,” Jha said, his excitement as palpable as the fizz in a freshly opened Pepsi can.

    Corporate careers are a bit like carbonated drinks—always under pressure, occasionally shaken, but ultimately, they’re all about making a splash. And if Jha’s track record is anything to go by, he’s about to pop the lid on something truly groundbreaking.

  • ‘Enormous opportunity’: Brands upbeat about TV advertising in 2021

    ‘Enormous opportunity’: Brands upbeat about TV advertising in 2021

    MUMBAI: It would be safe to conclude from the BARC TV Universe 2020 figures that television remains our favourite form of video entertainment across India. The report, which showed that the number of TV viewers had gone up by more than 50 million to 892 million in the last couple of years, highlights how the power of television and consequently, television advertising remains steadfast and there’s nothing to halt its run! Little wonder then that advertisers are ready to bet big bucks on this old-fashioned medium. As these growing numbers prove, the ‘idiot box’ has proven remarkably resilient in an era of immense disruption, despite the threat of pandemic and emergence of new SVoD platforms.

    At the virtual panel discussion The Television Boardroom- organised by Indiantelevision.com Friday, brands across sectors ranging from F&B to automobiles spoke about the whys and hows of TV still taking the biggest slice of the advertising pie. The panel, moderated by Indiantelevision.com's Anil Wanvari  comprised Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Elizabeth Venkataraman, PepsiCo India’s Om Jha, id Fresh Food’s Rahul Gandhi, ITC’s Sanjay Singal and Maruti Suzuki India’s Shashank Srivastava. 

    Brands buoyant about 2021

    While the uncertainty and turmoil caused by the pandemic leading to a virtual halt of film and television shoots in the country was a dampener, marketers remained optimistic about prospects of advertising on television, especially as compared to 2020. The panel tried to explore the mindsets of the TV-viewing consumers and also shared what their expectations from the medium are.

    Kotak’s Venkataraman made note of the unusual consumer viewing behaviour in the year gone by, which needed to be watched carefully to learn whether it sustains going ahead, as we come out of the pandemic. So while all agreed that TV viewership will be higher than 2019, there was a doubt on whether the levels that we see now would continue going ahead, with lockdowns being phased out and work and life calling.

    Srivastava shared his data on projections for TV ad spend in 2021 which are 12 to 13 percent higher than previous year’s. Overall hope and optimism from this year was that it will not be an out and out disruptive year like the year before. With expectations from vaccination drives and/ or herd immunity impact, the world is expected to settle in by mid-2022. Consequently, both viewership and marketer’s spending should improve this year on, was the general opinion.

    Role of branded content & impactful advertising

    Discussions also revolved around the roles branded content and impactful advertising can play in upping the television adex game. ITC’s Singhal spoke about its tie-up with Star during the pandemic called ITC Masterchef, which had insights from five star hotel chefs on how to cook up five-star-like fare, using ingredients already available in one’s kitchen. This got a lot of mileage, so there is definitely a space for branded content, but the need has to be there first, or it could fall flat, he felt.

    TV advertising consists of very short formats of 30-odd-seconds slots, hence to convey a larger picture of what the brand wants to talk about, branded content could help weave a brand story within the content very subtly so that the brand appears organically to the viewer. Brand integration can make it more relatable, without making it look like marketing -oriented.

    Brand association, integration and branded content gives one extra arsenal to marketers to push your product and gain brand recall, while telling the story of the brand, Srivastava said.

    However, contextual or relevance value along with understanding consumer’s needs is crucial for branded content to succeed. So, while TV offers the opportunity, for a brand to make it work is the challenge. That fear needs to be addressed for investment to come in this area. The impact also needs to be felt in numbers for it to be feasible.

    TV stands out for marketers with its impact and reach, and with third party organisations like BARC doing the measurement for the brand on TV modelling analytical capability on television has evolved to a different level. All the impactful advertising in IPL is a case in point – brands associated with IPL 2020 have become household names. Srivastava cited the IPL viewership touching a high of 400 billion viewing minutes in 2020. “There is no debate on the glory and size of TV advertising’s impact” stated Kotak’s Elizabeth.

    Alongside hard data it is also heavily intuitive, while being dependent on the brand objective. Hence there is also a role for a marketer’s gut instinct alongside the measurable impact was agreed overall.

    On looking at sports content beyond cricket

    Nothing beats or even comes close to cricket when it comes to sports in India is unanimously accepted. For television or brands to pick a sport and develop it, the nation must first adopt that sport, opined Jha. He cited instances to prove his point. Sony has been broadcasting football leagues for ages, while Star did a fantastic job with pro-kabaddi but the viewership is nowhere comparable to that of cricket.

    Panelists concurred that brands have been shy of investing in other sports for the same reason, unless it’s a niche region. There were hopes from Football and Kabaddi in this context. Maruti Suzuki is eyeing football as the next massy sport to look forward to in TV advertising, Srivastava shared. Venkataraman deemed Kabaddi as a local sport and also showed promise. There was a feeling that building up hype and hoopla around a sport league could help the sport, as transpired with kabaddi.

    All said and done, TV remains the best pick for a marketer today in India for ROI. And while it may not always be cheap, it is cost efficient for the kind of scale and resilience that the medium offers.

    Also, with television reinventing itself by evolving into smart TVs, which can be connected to the home Wi-Fi or an Amazon firestick, it will continue to remain relevant to consumers and the viewership can only grow from here. And with 90 million households yet to own a TV set in India, according to BARC data, that indicates enormous opportunity for brands in times to come.

  • Why TV remains the preferred mode of advertising for brands

    Why TV remains the preferred mode of advertising for brands

    MUMBAI: Cord-cutting may be a thing in the west, but in India, television still rules the roost when it comes to at-home entertainment. Consequently, there’s a tremendous amount of money spent on TV content and advertising on the medium. However, the Covid2019 pandemic altered this TV-centric state of affairs; now, with changing world scenarios and consumer behaviour, we have already seen and can expect further shifts in the way viewers and advertisers interact with content on TV. 

    Indiantelevision.com organised The Television Boardroom- a virtual panel discussion that explored how to fully understand TV audiences as well as the brand journey through TV today.

    The panel comprised esteemed representatives from the industry – Kotak Mahindra Bank joint president-consumer, commercial & wealth marketing Elizabeth Venkataraman, PepsiCo India head media and partnerships Om Jha, id Fresh Food chief marketing officer Rahul Gandhi, ITC chief operating officer- dairy and beverages Sanjay Singal, Maruti Suzuki India executive director – marketing and sales Shashank Srivastava and Indiantelevision.com's founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari presided over the session.

    Why TV takes biggest slice of brands’ adex pie

    Maruti Suzuki’s Srivastava took the discussion ahead, sharing the company’s advertising spend – the auto-maker blows 40 per cent of its budget majorly on print, television is a close second at 30 percent and digital is at 25 per cent with the balance being split by radio, OOH and cinema.

    “We are using TV at the top end of the funnel for the reach, brand awareness and brand salience KPIs. Clearly television stands out as a huge medium of importance when it comes to these points,” he added.

    The executive director also shared how the growth in TV audience has been all-encompassing – not just in rural but also urban regions. Citing the example of how e-commerce giant Amazon was the third largest spender in advertising on TV in 2017-18 in India, he asserted that India is proving to be different from other countries when it came to the reach of television.

    Id’s Rahul Gandhi spoke about how the rhetoric question of ‘Who even watches TV?’ should be done away with because “out of the 133-crore people in India a sizeable 100 crore use TV as their primary source of entertainment still”. Thus, “there are many Indias within India with different indicators, which could come as a shock to the naysayers.”

    Also, with television reinventing itself by evolving into Smart TVs, which can be connected to the home wifi or an amazon firestick, it will continue to remain relevant to consumers and the viewership can only grow from here, was Gandhi’s opinion.

    Pepsi’s Jha agreed that “TV remains indispensable to not only consumers but also to marketers” who wish to leverage their brand’s advertising. A large part of marketing that happens in India is centred around TV, for most of the brands and product categories. Speaking about the soft drink brand, Jha said they cater to both spectrums of consumers- from the lowest socio-economic strata to the deepest pockets of our society. And television helps them to reach the last mile of this wide-ranging audience from the two ends of the spectrum. Hence the bulk of the beverage company’s spends would remain in television, he said.

    Where would a brand prefer to advertise on TV

    Recently released BARC stats have shown an upward mobility in TV viewing. The panel theorised that the pandemic seems to have increased the value consciousness of the average Indian. Jha pointed out that “if one had to communicate with 90 per cent of the audience in this country” you will have to go to a mass-heavy medium like television. And that this will only further improve with improving affluence of societies in lower GDP markets like Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa – which presents a great opportunity for brands like Pepsi for which these are untapped markets.

    Even when it came to high value items like automobiles, Srivastava said that they still prefer television for more strategic brand building, launch and reaching even the interior vernacular regions, while print would be for tactical and lower end of the funnel. All agreed that these stats are highly encouraging, even for high value products. As, not only have the numbers but also the viewing time has spiked.

    “Which is a big vindication of the automaker’s investment of 300 crores currently in television- of which GEC takes up 100-120 crores,” Shashank shared, referring to the IPL viewership touching a high of 400 billion viewing minutes.

    Kotak’s Venkataraman made note of the unusual consumer viewing behaviour in the year gone by, which needed to be watched carefully to learn whether it sustains going ahead, as we come out of the pandemic. So while all agreed, TV viewership will be higher than 2019, but it will probably not remain at the levels that we see now.

    Perspective on TV advertising in 2021

    The jury is out on how many more covid waves the world has to contend with, before it can settle back into pre-Covid “normalcy”. It is apparent we need to learn to manage the waves, while learning to live with it without letting economic activity come to a complete standstill.

    The outlook for 2021 is more optimistic, that it will be more like 2019 rather than the previous year. Herd immunity or vaccination impact also bodes well for settling in by mid-2022. So both viewership and marketer’s spending should improve this year on, was the general opinion.

    “Projections for spending on TV adverts this year is 12 to 13 percent higher than previously,” Srivastava shared. There was overall hope and optimism from 2021 that it will not be an out and out disruptive year like the year before.