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Tag: OMD Mudramax

  • OMD Mudramax launches AI-backed media buying tool Bingo

    OMD Mudramax launches AI-backed media buying tool Bingo

    Mumbai: OMD Mudramax, part of the DDB Mudra Group, has launched Bingo, India’s first outcome-based, AI-backed media buying tool focused on emerging brands and enterprise clients. According to a statement, Bingo took approximately 18 months from conceptualisation to launch and two patents have been filed in India and under the PCT which are currently under examination.

    Bingo helps marketers achieve their brand and sales goals by identifying platforms and optimising media spends in a transparent and open manner without human intervention, said the company in a statement on Friday. “Bingo is an Agency Trading Desk (ATD) that integrates all downstream channels including but not limited to media buying platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook, Yahoo and other DSPs,” it added.

    “The ability to buy media in an optimised and agnostic manner by setting clear objectives is what this product intends to achieve,” commented DDB Mudra Group country head and managing partner-integrated media Rammohan Sundaram. “As an advertising agency, we are also looking at acting as technology enablers and partners for our clients. Media optimization and transparency aren’t as esoteric as they sound but require technological intervention. We want to provide those capabilities to clients and marketers in the simplest manner.”

    Like the conductor of an orchestra, Bingo acts as a single control layer that keeps all other buying platforms in sync to deliver media goals. The buying platforms are connected by ready-made marketing APIs through which audience and campaign data flow in. Over a period of time, this historical data is used to optimise campaigns, maximise performance, identify problems and suggest changes to keep the campaign on track for objective delivery.

    The greatest advantage that Bingo offers marketers is a transparent big picture that delivers the best ROI for a business’ media budget. With this tool, marketers have complete transparency over the buying process with no hidden fees and markups, said the statement.

    It offers agnostic buying through a unified platform, solving the problem of having silos for a multichannel approach. Its unbiased KPI-based buying funnels the budget towards a platform solely based on performance data. Campaign optimisation recommendations can be implemented from a single dashboard to achieve the desired outcome, it further said.

    “Merely talking about transparency in the Ad Tech ecosystem is not enough. The entire demand-supply chain is lopsided towards closed ecosystems, which aren’t exactly built in a manner to facilitate transparency, be that pricing or audience data,” said DDB Mudra Group partner – digital and lead programmatic Abhishek Sharma. “It’s time to wrest control and place it exactly where it belongs, with the Advertiser, in a ubiquitous manner. This product is a sincere step in the direction of demand-side innovation and transparency.”

  • DDB Mudra Group wins IMC mandate for IndoSpace

    DDB Mudra Group wins IMC mandate for IndoSpace

    NEW DELHI: Industrial real estate developer IndoSpace has awarded its integrated marketing communications mandate to DDB Mudra Group following a multi-agency pitch. As part of the mandate, creative & brand strategy will be handled by DDB Mudra, and digital media planning will be managed by OMD MudraMax.

    Speaking about the win, DDB Mudra West managing partner Anurag Tandon said, “Over the last few years, we have developed substantial domain expertise in the B2B space. The team is excited to use our understanding of consumer behaviour, especially in a post-Covid world, to develop communication for a category that has typically not been product-focused.”

    With Covid-19 significantly boosting online sales in India, e-commerce and modern retailers have realised the importance of warehousing in strategic locations in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities. The partnership with DDB Mudra Group will enable IndoSpace to capture the growing demand.

    The marketing communications group focuses on using emotional advantage thinking to create business growth for brands. Human beings choose to believe that they make logical choices but are in fact driven by emotions. This deep understanding of social and cultural contexts will be instrumental in developing the overall communications strategy. The Group’s proprietary sign banking and earshot tools help with breakthrough consumer thinking that’s elevated by powerful creative work.

    IndoSpace is the real estate arm of the Everstone Group. Speaking on the association, Everstone group vice chairman – real estate Rajesh Jaggi said, “We are delighted to have DDB Mudra on board and wish to gain substantially from their creative and digital communication expertise. Their unique approach towards brand building and end-to-end capabilities were the reasons to choose them as our partners.”

    With over $3 billion in investment, and 36 operational and under development parks, spread over 37 million square feet, IndoSpace enjoys a pan-India presence. With its combination of strategic land bank, world-class infrastructure, and amenities, the company caters to the logistics infrastructure needs of leading players across sectors.

  • Will GECs score big this IPL & festival season?

    Will GECs score big this IPL & festival season?

    MUMBAI: 2020 has been a different year, what with the pandemic totally putting things out of kilter for the economy, for business. And it continues to be different even as the festival season comes up in India.

    Normally, the fiefdom of India’s general entertainment channels which launch new seasons, and shows to indulge their viewers and attract a large chunk of the advertisers’ dollars and their own annual revenues,  August to November, this year features a party pooper, in the shape of India’s biggest sports extravaganza, the  Indian Premier League (IPL).

    Set to take place in the UAE between 19 September and 10 November, the league – which is usually held between April and May every year  – corners close to Rs 2100 odd crore of ad spends and is expected to better those numbers in its 2020 season .

    Hence, the question being asked is: will the IPL’s overlap with the festive season lead to  a drop in viewership for the GECs and to advertising dollars being sucked out from them towards the league?

    OMD MudraMax EVP & principal partner Navin Kathuria believes that viewers who are looking for refreshing content will find that in the IPL.  Says: ”Due to Covid2019, only 17 per cent of the total sports events took place and that too pre-Covod2019. Secondly, there is a fatigue in viewers due to the plethora of mythological programmes, overdose of Covid2019 news, repeat movies etc.”

    He says what will aid its viewership is the fact that majority of the working population will be at home during the IPL as many organisations will not be fully functional or will be working with shortened hours / reduced staff strength / alternate days of the week. “With bars and clubs shut, people will be watching more from home, reading to an  upsurge in home viewing.”

    The Media Ant co- founder Samir Chaudhary echoes Kathuria. Says he: “The lines were clearly demarcated that April-May would be for cricket and festive seasons would be for GEC, but as IPL is coming now the viewership of GECs will be impacted.”

    “The audience is hungry for IPL and cricket so the performance in terms of ratings could be unprecedented or amongst the best in the recent seasons,” shares regional language network Enter10 chief operating officer Deep Drona.

    The belief is that with matches scheduled at 3:30 pm and then at 7:30 pm, single TV homes – of which India has a majority – will opt for the IPL, with GEC shows being watched between the match breaks or viewers tuning into them when the matches end.

    Zee TV business head Aparna Bhosle does not support this viewpoint.

    According to her, Hindi GECs have over many years has managed to sustain viewership and even grow despite the IPL. She says, “Long running fiction or non-fiction shows have, by and large, not seen an adverse impact on viewership due to existing fan bases and the loyalty channels’ command in terms of appointment viewership.”

    She further adds: “The viewership of television has increased by 34 per cent during lockdown. There is a growth of 10 per cent in average daily reach as well as 22 per cent growth in average daily time spent. (Source: BARC| 2+| HSM (U+R)| Wk 12-20’20 vs Wk 1-11’20). With the best of content across our primetime, we want to ensure that our shows act as a great binder that brings families together during this period of social distancing.”

    In fact, so confident is she of it being business as usual, that Zee TV is gearing up to premiere four big-ticket family targeted shows during the festive season.

    Ditto with the Enter10 network. It is planning to have a robust line up starting from the end of August until November end with a slew of original new series planned.

    Estimates are that marketers signed checks to the tune of Rs 24,000 crore during the festival period last year. The pandemic and the lockdowns over the past six months have resulted in Indian advertising expenditure shrinking by as much as 39 per cent over last year. Soothsayers predict that 2019’s festival adex of Rs 24,000 crore will not be breached this year. 

    Not everyone agrees. Havas Media CEO Mohit Joshi says, “There has been a revival of sorts from June, July with spends going up gradually. We expect brands to press the accelerator pedal in September-October-November.”

    Drona believes the fact that the IPL and GEC launches are coinciding, will lead to an overall expansion of the ad pie in the festive season, benefiting both. According to him spending has been subdued for a large part of the year, and this will be the time when it will be all systems go for categories such as FMCGs, ecommerce sites, gaming platforms, the OTT sector and what have you. “Yes, there will be a scramble for marketing and ad budgets but that will lead to a growth in the overall spends,” he added.

    Chaudhary points out that may not come to be true as budgets have been slashed and with smaller budgets, advertisers would prefer to park it with a big bang event. Says he: “Disney Star India has priced its spots at Rs 10-15 lakh per 10 seconds. Only the big companies can afford these price points. So they will mostly park their spots with the IPL, leaving aside smaller spends for the GECs.”

    Will the GECs then be forced to shave their FCT and sponsorship rates? Kathuria would like to wait and watch. “Normally, GECs don’t discount big properties,” he says. “The challenge they face is that consumer sentiment has been subdued due to Covid2019 and it has impacted consumer spends. And hence the propensity by brands to spend big.”

    Clearly, for both the IPL and GECs, the festival season 2020 is bringing with it interesting and testing times.

  • IPL, festive season expected to push up ad rev for GECs

    IPL, festive season expected to push up ad rev for GECs

    MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: After almost four months of hiatus, advertising spend is slowly inching up on TV, especially GECs, which saw shows resume some weeks ago. Experts suggest that whenever consumer behaviour sees a shift, advertising spends have also adjusted.

    Havas Media Group MD–India Mohit Joshi says that growth would have been much sharper if the unscheduled one-off lockdowns in several parts of the country had not happened. He is expecting an overall increase in TV ad revenues in the coming weeks since brands want to make the best use of the remaining five months. Not to mention that IPL is also expected to take place in the last quarter coinciding with festive season.

    DDB Mudra Group executive director and OMD Mudramax president Sathyamurthy Namakkal says that August and September will continue to be lower than the previous years, but October-December should witness some positive growth,( as compared to the previous six months), due  to optimism about a vaccine solution for Covid2019 and festival advertising needs. However, he feels that IPL is likely to impact the viewership of GECs across markets.

    They are of the opinion that while many GECs haven’t yet matched their viewership numbers pre-Covid2019, there is an improvement in viewership post the revival of original content, a few weeks ago.

    Namakkal says, “Many advertisers have moved from negative sentiment to a more neutral sentiment as manifested in the planning process that has been reactivated after a gap of three months.”

    As per TAM media research the tally of advertisers on both national and regional news channels increased by four per cent and three per cent respectively during week 29 (12 July to 18 July)  to week 30 (19 July to 25 July)  compared to week 27 (28 June to 4 July) to week 28 (5 July to 11 July).

    The data further reveals that ad volume on both national and regional news channels increased by 18 per cent and 15 per cent respectively during week 29 to week 30 compared to week 27 to week 28.

    Channels began luring its viewers back to TV after some of them shifting off GECs due to lack of content. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) chief consumer officer Pratyusha Agarwal says, “Our comeback strategy was planned meticulously with the objective of reinstating the habit of appointment viewing for our audience across our GECs. We harnessed the power of digital and social platforms, PR, outdoor, print and the biggest asset of all, our network strength.”

    Zee TV engaged audiences with a combination of artist interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from primetime shows, building curiosity around the return of fresh programming.

    “Given that we are a video-led medium, we have continued to use video-led media as a predominant vehicle and the others being fit-to-purpose added as complimentary media. But with people not stepping out much or being a lot more careful when they step out, we are looking at in-home media a lot more with TV being our primary tool,” shares Agarwal.

    Dangal was the first channel which started airing fresh content from 2 July. Enterr10 Television (Dangal TV) COO Deep Drona shares, “An interesting part was that during lockdown a lot of sampling has happened by fresh viewers. We need to see if they change habits or go back as pause and play viewers.”

    However, Zee TV launched a mega OOH campaign announcing the resumption of its shows. On the other hand, Dangal will not be taking up OOH anytime soon. But, Dangal has increased its digital footprint in order to communicate with its prime audience in tier I and tier II cities.

    According to the tenth edition of BARC-Nielsen data, since 11 April total television consumption increased by 40 per cent. The data also reveals that news and movies continue to grow. April onwards, news has registered 16 per cent growth while GEC from 52 per cent from pre-Covid2019 is now steady at 44 per cent.

    The major revelation is that re-run driven Hindi GECs obtained all-time viewership high post exit from DD Free Dish. In fact, April onwards, overall FCT observed seven per cent growth. There is a significant growth in FCT across news, movies and kids genre. Major FMCG companies continue to advertise on GECs along with some new players.

    Even though news channels became the viewers’ darling for the last few months, Namakkal feels that it will continue to get its regular loyal advertisers. To this, Joshi says, “Each genre has a role to play in the plan. News has seen a lot of surge in viewership. Even today, this continues to be at a higher than pre-Covid2019 levels. Given their performance, their role as a reach driver in the plan has further been consolidated.”

    As primetime viewership starts to return to normalcy, advertiser spends will follow suit.

  • OMD Mudramax EVP Tarun Nigam quits

    OMD Mudramax EVP Tarun Nigam quits

    NEW DELHI:  OMD Mudramax executive vice-president Tarun Nigam has quit and will launch his own startup. As per sources, he has co-founded Sendi, an on-demand personal assistant services startup. Nigam has spent around three years in the company. Before Joining OMD Mudramax, he was the CEO and co-founder, PM Media Solutions.

    Nigam has about two decades of experience in the advertising world, over the years he has played an important role in brand building for many leading brands.

    In his versatile journey, he has worked with established brands like Diageo, Radico, Gillette, Hero Honda, Hero Cycles, Monte Carlo, Oracle, Richemont, LVMH, Samsung, Suzuki Motorcycles, Starwood Hotels, Tetrapak, VLCC, Wrigleys, Yahoo and Makemytrip.com amongst others.

  • Cipla hands over media duties to OMD Mudramax

    Cipla hands over media duties to OMD Mudramax

    MUMBAI: Following a multi-agency pitch, OMD Mudramax has bagged the media duties of Cipla Health.

    OMD Mudramax will be partnering with the brands under Cipla Health in its consumer engagement initiatives across mass media / digital and below-the-line promotional efforts. The account will be managed out of the agency’s Mumbai office.

    Cipla Health is working towards fulfilling its vision of becoming the most preferred consumer healthcare company in India. In its quest to create innovative health solutions for consumers, it has launched many consumer-need-centric healthcare products.

    Cipla Health CMO Himava Nath says, “We at CHL aspire to have exponential growth in the consumer healthcare OTC segment in the coming years. We needed an agile agency partner who can work closely with our brand marketing team to facilitate much greater consumer traction for our brands. We feel that OMD MudraMax can help us achieve this goal.”

    OMD MudraMax president Sathyamurthy Namakkal adds, “This is a prestigious win for us and we love to work with clients who embrace agencies as their partners. Working with good brands and a great set of people at CHL, we look forward to creating impactful business solutions through interesting customer initiatives”.

  • Dr Batra’s campaign depicts disappointment with scant hair

    MUMBAI: Dr Batra’s Homeopathy has announced the launch of its advertising campaign #PhirSeBachpan. The integrated campaign conceptualised by Water Communications combines a mix of TV, Radio, Digital and Print advertisements.

    The media planning for this campaign is done by OMD Mudramax.

    The #PhirSeBachpan TVC begins with a small child looking into the mirror as he plays with his bouncy hair. A peppy jingle plays in the background. The child then transforms into an adult version of himself, who seems evidently disappointed with his scanty hair. He is seen attempting to conceal his bald patch with the jingle ending on a low note. The TVC concludes with a voice over – ‘Treat your hair loss with Dr. Batra’s Homeopathy.’

    You tube link:

    Dr. Batra’s group of companies chief marketing officer Sanjeev Dhiman said, “Forty-five per cent of our business comes from the hair segment. With the Indian hair care market growing at 18 per cent and Indian homeopathy industry growing at 30 per cent, we see this as an opportunity for us to further consolidate our position in this segment. With this campaign, we have shifted our focus to TVC, radio and digital mediums.”

    Water Communications CEO and creative thinker Vandana Sethhi said, “The new campaign celebrates the joy of childhood – hair in particular and wellness at large.”

    OMD Mudramax SVP and principal partner Gerald Roche said, “The plan for Dr Batra’s campaign is centred on achieving business goals in targeted markets.”