ITV

Tag: Rajiv Mathrani

  • Star Sports names Sudhir Shukla as marketing head

    Star Sports names Sudhir Shukla as marketing head

    New Delhi: The Walt Disney Company-owned Star India has elevated Sudhir Shukla as head of marketing for Star Sports. He will be managing the marketing for the entire sports portfolio at Star Sports. 

    Shukla announced the development on his social handle.

    He joined Star India in 2016 and has served in different roles such as VP & head marketing and brand strategy, SVP – cricket.

    In his previous role, he has successfully spearheaded marketing for IPL, ICC World Cup 2019, women’s cricket and launched several campaigns.

    Previously, this portfolio was handled by Rajiv Mathrani who had recently moved on from the organisation. 

    Shukla has over 17 years of experience and has previously worked at Mondelez, and Tata Consultancy Services. His longest stint was at Mondelez where he served for over 10 years in different roles such as area sales manager, brand manager, category manager – gum and candy, category head – cocoa beverages, and head of modern trade, CSD and away from home (NCD) channel.
     

  • Rajiv Mathrani quits Star Sports

    Rajiv Mathrani quits Star Sports

    NEW DELHI: Rajiv Mathrani has decided to move on from Star Sports. He was serving as EVP & head, Star Sports marketing.

    Sources close to the development have confirmed the news.

    The news comes right after the high profile exit of Star Sports CEO Gautam Thakar.

    Mathrani joined Star Network in 2018, prior to which he was serving as chief brand and online officer at Airtel between 2015 and 2018. He has also worked at Pepsico between 2010 and 2015. During this stint, Mathrani worked on snacks category, beverages and innovation. He also worked on the Asia, middle east and Africa region.

    Mathrani has over two decades of experience and has also worked at Marico, Citibank and GSK.

    Along with Mathrani, two other top executives have also called it quits. Ashok Namboodiri who was working as executive vice president, business head – regional sports network and Rupali Fernandes executive vice president – emerging sports have put down their papers. While Namboodiri joined the network in 2016, Fernandes was associated with it for nearly two decades.
  • Football viewership up 7% in 2018 from 5% in 2016

    Football viewership up 7% in 2018 from 5% in 2016

    MUMBAI: After Star India took the initiative to boost a variety of sports in India, other broadcasters also picked up their shovels to dig deep. It has made a sincere effort in the turnaround of Indian football with participation (to build culture), incentivisation (to build careers), and commercialisation model (to drive in viewership) which are the three building blocks to development.

    Delivering a keynote address at the Star Sports India Football Forum 2018, an initiative by SportzPower, Star Sports head marketing Rajiv Mathrani said, “The best way to predict the future is to dream it. India is not too far from playing FIFA World Cup with the increase in the number of teams, the ranking in which we are and the young talent which is coming along.”

    All India Football Federation (AIFF) general secretary Kushal Das said that AIFF will very soon launch a school-level project along with the game’s world governing body FIFA.

    According to BARC data, FIFA WC final garnered 16 million impressions in India and stood at fourth place. China (56 million impressions), Germany (21 million impressions) and France (19 million impressions) were ahead of India.  

    BARC India head- partnerships Elbert D’Silva said, “If we look at football, in 2016 the sport garnered 2 billion impressions and now till October 2018, it has garnered 3 billion impressions.”

    Football viewership has gone up from five per cent in 2016 to seven per cent in 2018.

    As of now, there are 836 million viewers who watch television across India. Out of these 836 million viewers who have access to television, 791 million or 95 per cent have consumed some sporting content across multiple TV channels. If we look at football numbers, 498 million people have sampled some content related to football in the country.

    According to D’Silva, the movement of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid to Juventus has affected the viewership. El Clasico’s impressions dropped down from 4 million to 2 million, but on the other hand, Serie A viewership doubled.

    The sports revenue in India has increased from $0.9 billion in 2016 to $1.1 billion in 2017, whereas North America has seen a spike in the revenue from $15.7 billion in 2016 to $16.2 billion in 2017.

    SPN India EVP and head digital business Uday Sodhi thinks that this year’s FIFA WC has really made football mainstream in India. “The only difference for OTT is that this is a newer medium, the forms of monetisation and the way you monetise will take more time to get established,” Sodhi added.

    ESP Properties business head Vinit Karnik said, “With multiple services coming in one set top box, the day is not too far when the gap between traditional TV and OTT will change.”

    SonyLiv has a large sports footprint, football is growing 150 per cent y-o-y, basketball is growing 3-5X. Sodhi believes that India will have a freemium business going forward to a large extent. There will be a significant amount of advertising play and subscription will then be able to create a niche for itself for premium content.

  • Rajiv Mathrani joins Star Sports as chief marketing officer

    Rajiv Mathrani joins Star Sports as chief marketing officer

    MUMBAI: Star Sports has appointed Rajiv Mathrani as its new chief marketing officer (CMO), a source close to the development has confirmed to Indiantelevision.com. Mathrani joined Star Sports on 17 September 2018. In his last gig, he worked as chief brand and online officer at Airtel, where he led the transformation of the telecom giant into a digital services player.

    In a career spanning close to two decades, Mathrani has worked with top companies including Pepsico, GlaxoSmithKline, Citibank and Marico Industries. He was a creative consultant for a brief period of three years, before returning to the corporate world as vice president marketing at Pepsico in 2010. He was elevated to Pepsico senior director – snacks category head in 2014.

    Mathrani holds a PGDBM in marketing from XLRI Jamshedpur.

    In a recent development, Star had expressed displeasure with regards to Virat Kohli’s absence from Asia Cup. The broadcaster wrote an email to ACC game development manager Thusith Perera, stating how Kohli’s absence will impact the financial aspect of the coverage. The broadcaster wrote that it will impact their ability to monetise and generate revenue for the tournament.

    Responding to the email, BCCI, however, in a sharp reply to ACC has made it clear that neither it nor broadcasters have any say in national team selection matters.

  • Airtel hits back at Reliance Jio, Ookla stands by its findings

    NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel today accused Reliance Jio of making a deliberate attempt to “malign the brand” and “misguide customers.”

    A day after Reliance Jio wrote to the Advertising Standards Council of India against Airtel’s advertisement claiming it was officially the fastest network based on a finding by Ookla, Bharti Airtel chief brand officer Rajiv Mathrani said the company is “rather amused” by the allegations being made against its campaign.

    Meanwhile, Ookla has stood by its earlier finding about mobile internet speed. “Ookla fully stands behind Airtel being named ‘India’s Fastest Mobile Network’,” Speedtest (Ookla’s app) COO Jamie Steven said in a statement. Ookla has named Airtel as the “Fastest Mobile Network” in India based on data from Q3 and Q4 of 2016 which has been challenged by Reliance Jio.

    Jio had alleged that the advertisement was “misleading”, and done in “mala fide manner in collusion with” Ookla.

    Jio also alleged that Ookla, the owner of Speedtest app, charges money for giving such awards and the company has also approached Jio for the same for the very quarter it issued certificate of fastest mobile network to Bharti Airtel.

    But, Steven said: “When analysing markets like India, we take many factors into consideration, including dual SIM devices, network technology, device types, and more. In addition to what the user sees on their mobile application as they take a test in real-time, we apply a rigorous methodology when aggregating the data which uses a variety of internal data sources that control for potential variability in the market.”

    He alleged that “this is a deliberate attempt to malign our brand and misguide customers through a campaign of misinformation, which is something we now come across on a regular basis, in particular, on social media platforms.”

  • Airtel’s 4G girl is back in a new avatar at ICC World T-20 Cup

    Airtel’s 4G girl is back in a new avatar at ICC World T-20 Cup

    MUMBAI: The ubiquitous Airtel 4G girl is back in a new avatar starting today as she goes on a vacation with her friends. Airtel’s new campaign around its 4G services starring Sasha Chhetri goes on air today during the India-New Zealand match of the ICC World T-20 Cup.

    Airtel has led the proliferation of 4G services in India and has the widest 4G footprint in the industry with services available in over 350 cities and towns across the country. The new campaign, which has been conceived by Taproot Advertising, is positioned on Airtel being the widest 4G network in the country with unmatched coverage.

    The campaign will have a total of 5 films, each one different from the other in terms of the visual beauty of the location. It will have support legs in outdoor, print and digital mediums which will play a big role in delivering the message to the online audience, in particular the youth.

    Since August 2015, when Airtel’s disruptive 4G ‘Challenge’ went on air, Sasha Chhetri has become the synonymous with 4G in India and has established herself as the confident go-getter who can deliver the brand’s message with panache.  

    On the new campaign, Bharti Airtel (India & SA) CBO Rajiv Mathrani says, “Airtel’s 4G campaigns have redefined communication around high speed mobile data services and the brand has powerfully surged ahead. With the expansion of Airtel’s 4G network across India, the campaign showcases the network in some of the most picturesque locations and is delivered in a casual yet persuasive tonality. We will see Sasha in a refreshingly new avatar as she continues to build a strong youth connect for Brand Airtel”

    Taproot-Dentsu’s Agnello Dias says, “The Airtel 4G girl has built a powerful 4G association with Airtel. For this campaign, we have taken a different spin on her character while driving home a strong network message”

    India is witnessing explosive growth in the mobile data category. As the 4G device ecosystem matures, and 4G enabled handsets are available at affordable price points, high speed data services are expected to see considerable uptake across India.

  • Airtel’s 4G girl is back in a new avatar at ICC World T-20 Cup

    Airtel’s 4G girl is back in a new avatar at ICC World T-20 Cup

    MUMBAI: The ubiquitous Airtel 4G girl is back in a new avatar starting today as she goes on a vacation with her friends. Airtel’s new campaign around its 4G services starring Sasha Chhetri goes on air today during the India-New Zealand match of the ICC World T-20 Cup.

    Airtel has led the proliferation of 4G services in India and has the widest 4G footprint in the industry with services available in over 350 cities and towns across the country. The new campaign, which has been conceived by Taproot Advertising, is positioned on Airtel being the widest 4G network in the country with unmatched coverage.

    The campaign will have a total of 5 films, each one different from the other in terms of the visual beauty of the location. It will have support legs in outdoor, print and digital mediums which will play a big role in delivering the message to the online audience, in particular the youth.

    Since August 2015, when Airtel’s disruptive 4G ‘Challenge’ went on air, Sasha Chhetri has become the synonymous with 4G in India and has established herself as the confident go-getter who can deliver the brand’s message with panache.  

    On the new campaign, Bharti Airtel (India & SA) CBO Rajiv Mathrani says, “Airtel’s 4G campaigns have redefined communication around high speed mobile data services and the brand has powerfully surged ahead. With the expansion of Airtel’s 4G network across India, the campaign showcases the network in some of the most picturesque locations and is delivered in a casual yet persuasive tonality. We will see Sasha in a refreshingly new avatar as she continues to build a strong youth connect for Brand Airtel”

    Taproot-Dentsu’s Agnello Dias says, “The Airtel 4G girl has built a powerful 4G association with Airtel. For this campaign, we have taken a different spin on her character while driving home a strong network message”

    India is witnessing explosive growth in the mobile data category. As the 4G device ecosystem matures, and 4G enabled handsets are available at affordable price points, high speed data services are expected to see considerable uptake across India.

  • PepsiCo spins the chip this Cricket World Cup 2015

    PepsiCo spins the chip this Cricket World Cup 2015

    MUMBAI: In a country where cricket is a religion, the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 is the most awaited event. However, the timings are likely to play spoilsport.

    With the tournament taking place in Australia and New Zealand, the matches will be aired anywhere between 3:30 am and 12 noon, IST. This means that most fans will be stuck at offices, day jobs and their daily schedules during match time.

    To keep the excitement level high and to entice, enthrall and entertain all of India, Lay’s has introduced its new campaign ‘Yeh Game Hi Hai…Taste Ka.’ The campaign captures the frenzy, which grips India when the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 is on and how mismatched timings of the matches this year will create a dilemma for viewers.

    PepsiCo India marketing VP Vipul Prakash said, “Cricket has been a great unifying factor and the fever that grips India is unmatched. As the official snack partner of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, Lay’s gets the perfect opportunity to start the year through a scale marketing campaign, ‘Yeh Game Hi Hai…Taste Ka’. This campaign offers a Lay’s spin on the powerful insight of mismatched timings to appeal to consumers. We are enabling consumers to enjoy the game of cricket using the great taste of Lay’s.”

    As the official snack of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, the brand is coming to the rescue of bewildered cricket fans across the country.

    Conceptualised by JWT and directed by Ravi Udyawar from RU Films, the new ad features Ranbir Kapoor, Pankaj Kapur and Lisa Hayden. The ad is a light hearted and fun take on the distance a cricket fan is willing to go to catch every World Cup match, inspite of the hurdles, the timings, or any difficulties. The track is penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya and composed by Dhruv Ghanekar of Wah Wah Music.

    JWT Delhi VP and SCD Sumati Singh said, “The morning telecast timings for the ICC Cricket World Cup this year led us to the idea behind the Lay’s campaign. When a cricket loving nation looks for ways to catch the matches on television, Lay’s, with its irresistible taste, is the answer.”

    The campaign will unfold with a 360-degree outreach and engagement plan. In the last few years, consumption of media has changed and on the go viewership has gone up. Hence, the campaign will cut across multiple media vehicles. Taking the insight of mismatched timings Lay’s will have significant presence across digital, retail, radio, print and TV. Innovative consumer activations and engagement activities will enable consumers to win tickets to matches in Australia and LED TVs.

    Speaking about the campaign, PepsiCo India snacks category marketing head and director Rajiv Mathrani said, “The campaign will engage consumers across multiple touch points bringing the match closer to consumers.”

    Mindshare principal partner Ruchi Mathur added, “As the media consumption is increasingly fragmenting, this campaign will reach consumers across multiple touch points. With seamless integrations and activations across traditional and emerging media, Lay’s will create multiple viewing opportunities and bring the World Cup closer to its consumers.”