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Tag: #Retrace2021

  • #Retrace2021: Associating with marquee properties on TV helped us take a quantum leap on digital: Arjun Mohan

    #Retrace2021: Associating with marquee properties on TV helped us take a quantum leap on digital: Arjun Mohan

    The only ed-tech “to have a ‘donkey’ as its brand ambassador”, upGrad has been hitting all the right notes, starting from its eye-grabbing ‘Don’t lick ass, instead kick ass’ 2020 ad to its fortune-teller donkey ad in early 2021 to drive across its “Sirf Naam Ki Nahi, Kaam Ki Degree” messaging. Having achieved the desired impact with its former campaign, the edtech consciously shifted its brand positioning to ‘Fast Forwarding’ one’s career with upGrad’s online courses, ending the year with a striking print campaign that took on CAT, while also tackling with humor the perception of ‘online’ MBAs not being effective.

    The seven-year-old start-up, known to make full use of its marketing channels to amp up the reach has crossed a subscriber base of two million learners at last count, and the jump from one million to two million came about in approx. eight months.

    As the person at the helm of upGrad’s India operations, Arjun Mohan has steered the edtech unicorn and helped put it on an upward trajectory. An experienced industry professional, Mohan has worked across domains spanning sales, marketing, and product development for over 15 years.  Before upGrad, Mohan worked with edtech major Byju’s as marketing vice-president and later as the chief business officer (CBO). A gold medallist from IIM Kozhikode, Mohan has worked with brands like Titan and Tata services.

    In a free-wheeling conversation with IndianTelevision’s Anupama Sajeet, the upGrad India CEO Arjun Mohan talks about steering the edtech brand through a post-pandemic world and on the key marketing innovations adopted by the brand in the past year. He also shares his thoughts on being a ‘hardcore optimist’ and the trends that might dominate the edtech industry in 2022.

    Edited excerpts:

    On looking back at how the year 2021 fared for upGrad

    In a growing industry, every year is a good year. So, from a business perspective, 2021 was a good year as overall business metrics have been quite good. But it was pretty challenging considering the multiple waves of Covid which struck us – the lockdowns, the inconsistencies of when to come to the office, and the problems that our consumers were facing. As a result, decisions were getting delayed. But then it was these challenges that pushed us and I believe as a result of that we were able to carve out several good ideas on all three aspects of business i.e. products, sales, and marketing. Hence we were able to create an impact in the market.

    On key innovations adopted by the brand in 2021

    Yes, between 2020 and 2021, there have been a lot of changes in the way upGrad communicated. That change is a testimony to consumer behaviour, where the association between education being something ‘serious’ is a thing of the past. And that is why we positioned the brand differently.  We realised that learning, upskilling, lifelong learning- all these aspects are no longer constrained to a few. There are guys who want to learn, upskill, and constantly improve themselves but at the same time, they want to enjoy life. We started talking to our consumers in a lighter vein, started communicating with working professionals in a language they connected to.

    One of the initial communications we did was on office politics- on how one should stop bothering about office politics and focus on specialisations and upskilling that will take your career ahead. The second campaign we built upon was ‘Sirf naam ki nahi, kaam ki degree’. We continuously heard from customers that “we would definitely think of doing this course, par ye degree koi kaam ki honi chahiye.” In India, a degree is associated with – a better job, a promotion, a better salary, a future, and so on. So, we worked on those insights and repositioned the entire company into offering courses that will actually be life-changing. That’s where we moved to our positioning of ‘kaam ki degree’.

    In 2022, we moved into phase two of it. Rather than just talking about online learning, we started focusing more on the value proposition part of it- On how the upGrad course/ degree is better than whatever options you have in the market. Thus, if you see our communication, it has also been based on the life-changing impact that upGrad courses have, followed by two or three shorties or 15-second films where we talk about the USPs. This format has been really helping us with the consideration part and we have been seeing that the conversion on the lead has been on the uptick. So, if last year the donkey was the high point from an ‘awareness’ perspective, then this year the MBA campaigns we did focusing on the ‘value proposition’ – that would be the highlight which saw a lot of impact for us. That’s been a big change in 2021. 

    On launching campaigns sans any celebrity endorsements

    While we do joke about it that every edtech out there has a celebrity brand ambassador- Byju’s has a SRK, Great learning has Virat Kohli, now Vedaantu has got Aamir Khan- and we have a donkey (!), it’s not been a conscious decision. If at a point in time we feel we need a celebrity vehicle we would do that. Currently, we are at an early stage of our brand building and the aspect we have been focusing on, as well as the TG we are talking about, is very different. This is not for mass India; this is for a smart audience. We didn’t see working professionals as the right vehicle for getting a brand ambassador. Even if you look at who or what they follow on OTTs or YouTube platforms – the kind of influencers these people follow are not celebrities. They are very individualistic and iconoclastic in that they follow what they think is right- they don’t believe they need to follow the crowd. And that’s why we stuck to the basics and the donkey!

    On exploring influencer marketing and subsequent ad-spends

    The way we look at brand marketing is that there are three pillars- The first pillar for us is ‘Content’ which includes social etc. Then comes the ‘Mass media’ which is where the TV and Print comes in and finally the ‘PR’ and all other aspects.

    For Content- we focus a lot on the content creators: influencers on YouTube, Instagram, OTT platforms, etc because our TG, especially the knowledge worker who is in IT/ ITES follows this segment a lot. We have started by working with multiple content creators like BeYouNick, Dhruv Rathee, who are very popular with this TG. We work with them on bringing Upgrad into their content very organically.

    Apart from relying on other content creators, we have also started creating our own original content called ‘the office canteen’. This again revolves around the theme of office politics, along with BeYouNick and YouTube, Google and has been a big success for us (trending with ten mn views).

    On the brand’s ad spend across TV, digital and print

    When it comes to mass media like TV and Print, rather than a ‘spray and pray’ our strategy has been focused on large properties.  When we do it, we do it big because we want to work on those properties which have a huge reach. So, we worked on IPL, the Test championship, UEFA, Wimbledon, and such. You can also see the sports association- as sport is connected with winners and ambitions so that works for us. Even in newspapers, our ad was an impact ad. It was more like moment marketing in that we took a dig at CAT, saying ‘CAT is so yesterday’. So that’s the kind of ‘big bang’ approach we are taking with mass media.

    We do digital marketing all the time and we’ve our leaps coming at particular CPL (Cost per lead) and traffic coming with a particular threshold. I want these brand properties on mass media to be at a point where I’ll get a quantum leap on the digital side of it. We plan it in such a way that our traffic moves a threshold and comes to a new benchmark. That’s been our larger strategy.

    Digital is where we get to do direct marketing. And we keep using large-scale marketing properties to get quantum jumps. Because, the kind of scale these properties give, digital will take years to reach there. We are also seriously looking at OOH. We shall do a clinical campaign, once our TG is back in the office, by trying to focus on places where we know our TG is- for instance, an IT park- and then do BTL inside such premises along with hoardings etc.

    So, all of this mass marketing is important to us, and we have a way to measure their impact. For that matter, even ‘Shark Tank’, where we are the title sponsors, we are quite sure that is the direction large-scale mass media is moving into. Rather than doing a couple of ads in between programs, writing your brand into the story is what really works. So that’s something we have really worked on and we have big plans for the show.

    On rising competition in ed-tech space and strengthening their USP

    We have complete confidence in our product. This product took almost five years to develop after multiple iterations. We were always clear that if we are able to get our customer to at least try our product then we can change his/ her perspective and even convince them that online is better than offline. There has been a lot of influx but if you see what’s happening today is that the players with a strong product, and sales & marketing capability are finally emerging out of this. So, I feel the solution for us is just to have our ears to the ground and keep on listening to the customer and then be ready with a solution that they will love. And that’s what we have been doing with our products, sales and marketing.

    On upcoming plans for 2022

    I am a hardcore optimist so I am sure 2022 will be superb for the brand. We are very clear we want to be the largest integrated edtech in the higher education space (post K-12) across the globe. Our international operations, which we started in 2021, is panning out well. We have our offices in the US, APAC and India where we have set up our subsidiaries. Post-India, our focus market will be the US- we really want to crack that market. So really looking forward to 2022 when we can take this to the next level.

    On key trends that might dominate the industry this year

    I think most of the ed-tech players in the K-12 segment will ultimately stabilise with the hybrid model, wherein there’s an offline component to it and an online component. But in higher edtech I don’t see that happening. Higher online learning has gotten established as a clear option or a side-by-side alternative to what used to exist earlier offline. There’s a very clear value proposition that you can continue upskilling even when you are working: ‘Learn while you Earn’.

    Hence, I believe, online education will be the preferred mechanism, at least from a Masters-degree perspective in India. The majority of Indians do not do a Master’s today because they are not sure whether thereafter, they will be able to get a job with that kind of a package. Even from a NNation-building perspective it is important for a country like India, with such a young population that we have highly skilled people. That’s when the country’s economy will move to the next level.

    Also, as we keep getting feedback from our learners, there has to be some social component to even online learning. So we are working to build a social module where learners can share their ideas, meet their lecturers, and have a session offline also. So that’s the way we see it and we will keep improving on it in 2022.

  • GUEST COLUMN: Social media will play critical role in building brand awareness in 2022

    GUEST COLUMN: Social media will play critical role in building brand awareness in 2022

    Mumbai: As India continues to fight Covid-19 and Omicron, and people continue to fear venturing out, digital initiatives in both advertising and marketing will become more prevalent in 2022.

    According to the most recent statistics, there are around 3.78 billion social media users globally. The number of such users is expected to climb again next year. Social media trends will rule the advertising and brand strategies in the coming year. Marketing and business will become more varied, inclusive, and responsive to real client requirements in the future. While AI and data-driven marketing will continue to advance, the primary focus will remain on people rather than technology.

    Using social media for brand recognition

    Traditional in-person events and promotions have given way to virtual spaces in brand awareness initiatives. We live in a world of social media marketing, and every company understands the value of social media. Whether you are leveraging influencers, referrals, or simply providing good content, social media has proven to be an important part of building brand recognition. This is due to the fact that social media is an excellent venue for brands to maintain client interactions while also increasing their chances of discovering new leads. In reality, many people become aware of new businesses after hearing about them via a friend on social media. Social media sites are a place where people may interact with one another. As a result, it’s an excellent area for you to interact with clients and build a relationship with them.

    Going ahead, 2022 will witness a greater emphasis on highly personalised one-to-one advertising, mobile advertising with in-app and in-game ads, video advertising, video-embedded display banners, native advertising, accelerated automation, programmatic advertising, and even cookie-less advertising, among other things.

    Here are the top 3 social media trends to watch out for in 2022.

    Metaverse and its virtual universe

    Facebook’s name has been changed to Meta. The company has planned a range of new products for virtual and augmented experiences as part of Metaverse. This is a major gamble on the web’s future, and it has the potential to change social media space. Companies will be able to benefit from new features which Meta will introduce. With the help of new emerging social media trends, they will be able to expand their product reach and visibility.

    Influencers market will continue to grow

    Influencer marketing is expected to reach $13.8 billion in 2021, with growth expected to continue in 2022. Influencer marketing efforts add a personal touch to the product, making it more relevant to the user. Thus, B2B brands will continue to embrace influencers in light of current trends.

    LinkedIn will grow in importance as a social networking platform

    In the digital world, LinkedIn is still a growing star. The company just launched a Hindi version to cater to the 600 million Hindi speakers throughout the world. With 82 million members in a global community of 800 million, India is a key market for LinkedIn’s growth and the second-largest market in terms of members after the United States. Since the pandemic, India’s member base has expanded by more than 20 million (15 percent year-over-year), and participation and talks on the platform have increased dramatically. This will continue to be a great way for brands to reach out to their target demographic.

    In conclusion

    Building brand recognition may require some trial and error, but having a dedicated awareness plan will surely help in your brand’s visibility. By following the latest social media trends, you may position yourself to become a brand that stands out in the eyes of your customers.

    (Rishi Kajaria is MD Kajaria Bathware and JMD of Kajaria Ceramics. The views expressed in this column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • #Retrace2021: A look back at print ad campaigns that stood out in 2021

    #Retrace2021: A look back at print ad campaigns that stood out in 2021

    Mumbai: Reeling under the aftermath of the pandemic, the Indian print industry began its road to recovery in 2021. According to the latest Magna Global Forecasting Report released in December, overall, the print industry grew +12 per cent from a low base (2020: -40 per cent), despite the slowdown in business in 2021. Maximum growth came from Retail, Durables, Finance, Real Estate, and Government spending.

    After witnessing a tumultuous period of plummeting circulation, and advertising revenue, the industry also began pivoting fast to strengthen its digital presence. The projections paint a heathier picture, with 2022 growth expected to be broad-based, with most categories increasing spends and elections in a few large states helping to drive an increase of +14 per cent. However, a rise in cases of the new Covid variant could prove to be dampener.

    Nonetheless, Print remains one of the most trusted mediums to influence brand perceptions on critical factors like quality, price, and trust. This explains why 2021 saw the return of traditional, as well as newer brands, and advertisers to print to create some stand-out campaigns. As we begin 2022, we take a look back at some of these campaigns …

    TRUECALLER

    While the businesses were beginning to reopen, the Truecaller print ad in January 2021 set the tone for the rest of the year. The in-your-face, unmissable ad carried by the app on the front pages of leading national dailies, talked about the issue of phone harassment women face. It mentioned how women could block these numbers on the app and should step forward and report these callers. The campaign #ItsNotOk has been running for four years now. But it caught everyone’s attention, courtesy of the latest print ads. Thinkstr, the Gurgaon-based independent agency for the campaign said they were “a little jittery about spending money on print” because they “knew the circulation was down”. But the print ads outdid itself “more than any other medium we’ve advertised on.” 

    NESTLE

    When in doubt, choosing ‘Print’ seems to be the mantra of marketers. Whenever there was a need to emphasise a brand’s credibility or build trust it was the go-to medium. Nestlé India’s print campaign launched in June 2021 did just that- reinforce the brand’s assurance of offering quality products, while talking about its long-standing legacy of 100 years and ‘family-like’ trust. The FMCG conglomerate switched to the damage control mode, coming out with the print ad campaign to rebuild consumers’ faith in the brand, only days after news reports questioning the ‘healthiness’ of the company’s products surfaced.

    FORTUNE

    A similar approach was followed by the Adani Wilmar Group’s Fortune oil brand. The brand’s claims of ‘a healthy oil for a healthy heart’ suffered a beating after Sourav Ganguly, the brand’s endorser, suffered a heart attack. Prior to this, he was seen in an ad for the brand’s Rice Bran oil which promotes the oil’s heart health benefits. Fortune faced severe trolling on social media as netizens chose to highlight the irony of the situation. To salvage the situation, the brand came out with front-page ads across leading publications with the caption ‘Today seems to be a good day to talk about the heart’, which had a fit-looking Ganguly dismissing the talk about his ill-health and tackling the subject of heart health head-on. The long format copy presented as a signed letter from the former cricketer himself, pushed heart health conversation to the fore, was the brand’s comeback after the stretch of online trolling.

    INDIAN OIL

    Nothing beats the traditional medium when you want to create an impactful awareness about a social cause. Indian Oil wanted to create awareness around the ill effects of excessive honking ahead of World Environment Day 2021 (5 June). It came out with a creative print campaign, conceptualised and executed by Mumbai-based agency, Grey Group that showed the life-threatening impact honking had on other living creatures. The artwork by Vaibhav Bhilare replaced the body parts of various animals with sound waves to depict the hazardous effect the loud noise had on them.

    MANFORCE

    That Print media allows a brand to tell its brand story effectively with no excessive drama is a known fact. To simply and effectively convey its message of protected sex and to educate people to use condoms as against ‘messy’ scenarios related to the consequences of indulging in unprotected sex, the Condom brand come up with a campaign, #DontMessAround. The series of tongue-in-cheek ads which appeared in leading newspapers creatively nudged people not to engage in unprotected intercourse as it can come with bigger problems such as STDs and unwanted pregnancy, even as it drove its brand message through.

    SEBAMED

    After the famed Cola ad wars, this year saw the battle of the soaps, with major soap brands taking on one another, directly targeting their rival brands in their ads. Sebamed kickstarted the creative sledge-fest at the outset of 2021, going after other popular brands like Lux, Santoor, and Dove, by comparing them to a detergent bar. The German skincare brand made quite a splash launching a series of print ads in leading dailies, with shocking claims alleging that each of these leading soaps had pH factors (ranging from 7 to 10) that rivaled that of the detergent soap Rin, to highlight the harshness of these skincare products, as against its own which it claimed stood at ‘an ideal 5.5’.

    The brand has launched another campaign ‘Conditions apply’ with print ads taking on other anti-hair loss shampoos. The campaign sought to discredit the ubiquitous disclaimer ‘Conditions apply’ used by these products while making tall claims. It has, however, refrained from naming any brand this time.

    DOVE

    The HUL brand of skincare, Dove chose to respond to Sebamed’s ‘pH’ allegations with a print campaign that reiterated its gentleness, falling back upon its familiar messaging –that the soap is mild and comprised of one fourth ‘moisturising milk’. The print ad seen in major newspapers Dove responded to the jabs that Sebamed’s ads have taken at it, coming hot on the heels of the Sebamed campaign. The ad copy in a prominent font stresses that ‘Dermatologists have put something strong in Dove’s bar – their trust’.

    The beauty soap launched another print campaign titled ‘Stop The Beauty Test’ that attempts to call out the stereotypes associated with Indian matchmaking and goes against unrealistic stereotypes of beauty in our society. Conceptualised by Ogilvy India, the campaign urges one to look at the beautiful aspects of a person’s personality and not their shortcomings. “Khoobiyan dekho, khaamiyan nahin” says the ad released across print and other media. The print ad, written in a long format, tackles in-depth how a girl is subjected to these beauty stereotypes and biases right from childhood, only getting worse as she becomes of marriageable age.

    And it is not just traditional categories that see the profit in the printed word. Newer advertiser categories like the edtech, crypto, and several digital-first brands are also opting for the mass medium, even going full-throttle with full pager, front-page displays in major dailies. For newer categories like crypto exchanges who are in their next phase of growth in India, it becomes even more crucial to target beyond the early adopters of this digital world by associating with traditional mediums like television and print, the study noted. Thus, making print a viable medium to build credibility and trust.

    COINSWITCH KUBER

    One such platform, which has been investing heavily in print is CoinSwitch Kuber. Building trust is key to the category as a lot of uncertainty and risk have been associated with cryptos in the past. The crypto brand came out with full front-page ads in leading newspapers in the last few days. “While digital media enables us to target a certain set of audiences, print has the accessibility to the most basic audience group which finds credibility in the print news,” said CoinSwitch Kuber chief business officer Sharan Nair explaining the brand’s decision to go aggressive on print advertising.

    UpGRAD

    With eye-catching full-page ads in leading dailies, edtech brand, upGrad launched the campaign for its online MBA programs to ‘fast-forward your career’ because ‘CAT is so yesterday’. The two-page managed to grab eyeballs for the brand with its effective use of empty spaces and an attention-grabbing caption.

    TINDER INDIA

    In another resounding endorsement, a millennial and Gen Z brand like Tinder released a series of print ads, acknowledging that print still carries ‘trust and maturity’ which digital is yet to achieve. The new age dating app’s ad is indicative of how serious it is about educating its existing and potential users about consent, serving as a lesson on how many times we misinterpret our partner’s words to consider it a ‘Yes’. Tinder India’s front page Bombay Times ad is a primer on consent and what all doesn’t equate to a ‘Yes’. This ad is the latest installment from the dating app’s ongoing campaign around consent, emphasising that only a ‘Yes’ means a ‘Yes’. Nothing more, nothing less.

  • #Retrace2021: From Nykaa’s Falguni Nayar to dentsu veteran Ashish Bhasin, who all made news in 2021?

    #Retrace2021: From Nykaa’s Falguni Nayar to dentsu veteran Ashish Bhasin, who all made news in 2021?

    Mumbai: The year that began with the slowdown of pandemic cases, and phased opening of businesses across the country, is ending with another Covid variant rearing its head. The new cases of Omicron are spreading faster, even as the industry struggles to hold on to its post-pandemic revival after braving a deadly second wave in May early this year.

    Amid all these challenges, there were signs of resilience, that highlighted the advertising industry’s slow yet significant recovery this year. If 2020 was the year of ed-tech, 2021 only took the game a notch higher. E-commerce dominated headlines, and several D2C brands rose to success with their innovative advertising and marketing strategies. The year saw the largest number of startups joining the unicorn league, of which many of them are internet-based companies, including Flipkart, Nykaa, Zomato, and Paytm. The agencies too, adapted to the new normal, brainstorming newer ways to strengthen brand connect and retain audiences across media channels.

    With the curtains falling on this eventful, yet resilient year, we take a look at some of the biggest names that made headlines, and created a buzz in the world of brands, advertising, and marketing this year.

    1.      FALGUNI NAYAR, NYKAA FOUNDER

    An entrepreneur at 49 and a billionaire at 58, Nayar made waves with her company’s chartbuster initial public offering (IPO) in November. The ₹5,352-crore IPO of her FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd was oversubscribed nearly 82.5 times. On the same day, the company’s market capitalisation touched the ₹1 lakh crore mark, making Nayar who owns a 52.56 per cent stake in the company, India’s richest self-made woman billionaire. An investment banker, Nayar launched the beauty and fashion e-commerce platform Nykaa in March 2012 after quitting her job at Kotak Mahindra Capital. Today, Nykaa Fashion is a multi-brand platform with close to 1,500 brands—of which five are its own brands- two acquired and three it has built from scratch. Nykaa Beauty and Nykaa Fashion are separate businesses.

    Falguni Nayar: The billionaire founder of Nykaa who dared to dream at 50

    2.      BYJU RAVEENDRAN, BYJU’S FOUNDER-CEO

    Byju Raveendran-owned edtech, Byju’s has been on a dream run. The company, which saw its business grow rapidly during the pandemic, ramped up its user base and saw a swift growth in revenues. It also announced several deals around the world over, acquiring a number of its competitors, eight of which were this year. With this, Raveendran and his family have also expanded their fortunes, making them the 67th richest Indians, according to the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2021. The home-grown edtech startup is now the 13th most valuable start-up in the world, as per CB Insights’ latest unicorn tracker. Currently valued at $21 billion, the Bengaluru-based start-up is also the world’s most valuable ed-tech start-up. It is also the only Indian name to feature in the list of the world’s elite unicorns as of December 2021. Recently, the ed-tech giant was in the news for its advanced discussions to go public through one of Churchill Capital’s special-purpose acquisition companies (SPAC). While an announcement could come as soon as January, the negotiations are not final. 

    3.      PARAG AGARWAL, TWITTER CEO

    2021 was also the year when Indians were taking over coveted leadership roles in the global forum. The first to mark his name was Indian-born Parag Agarwal, who was appointed as the CEO of the micro-blogging platform Twitter in November. An alumnus of IIT-Bombay, Agarwal had joined Twitter in 2011 and worked his way up the ladder to becoming the chief technology officer (CTO) by 2018 and was reportedly one of the ‘first choices’ of the company’s co-founder Jack Dorsey in the line of succession, after the latter announced his resignation. In a staunch endorsement of 37 years old Agrawal, Dorsey wrote: “He’s been my choice for some time, given how deeply he understands the company and its needs. Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around… My trust in him as our CEO is bone-deep.” Before Twitter, Agrawal had briefly worked at Microsoft, AT&T, and Yahoo. He did his bachelor’s in engineering in computer science here, before moving to the US for further studies, his doctorate coming from Stanford University.   

    Jack Dorsey steps down, Parag Agarwal named as Twitter CEO

    4.      LEENA NAIR, CHANEL CEO

    In another proud moment for India, Maharashtra-born Leena Nair joined the list of Indian-origin CEOs of multinational brands in December. Her appointment as the CEO of the French luxury fashion house Chanel was unprecedented, given that Nair was a rank outsider with zilch experience in the fashion industry, not being a part of the Paris fashion scene.

    Before this, the 52-year-old had an illustrious career that spanned 30 years at Unilever, becoming the first female and youngest-ever chief human resources officer at the global company, in London- a position she resigned from to join the 111-year-old luxury group. Nair rose through the ranks of Unilever having started out as a management trainee. Under her watch Unilever achieved gender parity across global management. With the latest win, Nair is being hailed as a “serial glass-ceiling breaker”. An electronics and telecommunications engineer from Walchand College of Engineering in Sangli, Maharashtra, she did her MBA in Human Resources from XLRI Jamshedpur in 1992 before joining as a trainee at HUL.

    5.      PIYUSH PANDEY, OGILVY

    An advertising industry veteran with over three decades of experience in the industry, Pandey has donned several hats, representing Rajasthan in Ranji Trophy cricket during his younger days and being a tea taster are some of them before discovering advertising as a career choice. This year, the ad guru added one more feather to his cap when he took on the role of global creative chairman at WPP Plc. owned creative agency Ogilvy in May. He continues to serve as chairman of Ogilvy India helping brands understand their consumers.

    6.      ANITA NAYYAR, PATANJALI AYURVED COO-MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS

    The year 2021 saw life turning 360 degrees and completing a full circle for former Havas media India boss Anita Nayyar in the advertising and media industry, as she joined Patanjali Ayurved as COO- Media & Communications in July, after a brief stint with Zee5 from May 2020 to March 2021. An industry veteran, Nayyar had an eventful two years, with transitions circumscribing the client-side from the agency side, before settling finally on the brand side, having managed many portfolios of brands across sectors in a career spanning three decades.

    #Retrace2021: Cautious optimism will drive industry growth in 2022

    The year also saw some of the country’s biggest agencies undergo senior-most level executive shuffles and the arrivals and departures of some of advertising’s top talents. In recent months, dentsu India network parted ways with many of its key leaders in an exodus that began in January. The exits were announced as part of its restructuring process to usher in the dentsu India 2.0 vision. The rejig, brings together its creative agencies under one umbrella, including Dentsu Webchutney, Taproot Dentsu, WATConsult, Perfect Relations, Isobar, Dentsu One, Dentsu India, and Dentsu Impact. The high-level exits from its India leadership team included veterans like Santosh Padhi, Shamsuddin Jasani, Vivek Bhargava, Rubeena Singh, Haresh Nayak, Gopa Menon, and the India CFO turned CEO Anand Bhadkamkar. After almost five years of being the CEO at the digital-first media agency iProspect, Rubeena Singh started new innings as the country manager at the short-video app Josh in October.

    7.      ASHISH BHASIN, DENTSU

    Ashish Bhasin -stepped down as dentsu International- CEO APAC & chairman India in November. An industry veteran with over 30 years’ experience, Bhasin had joined Aegis Media in June 2008 and was tasked with launching the business in the market. He was promoted to CEO, Dentsu Asia Pacific in September 2019. Earlier this year, Bhasin had resigned from the board of directors and Audit Committee of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC India) sparking the retirement rumours.

    Ashish Bhasin steps down as dentsu International CEO APAC & chairman India

    8.      SANTOSH PADHI AND AGNELLO DIAS, TAPROOT DENTSU

     

    The news about Padhi’s sudden exit from the agency he founded with Agnello Dias in 2009 shocked everyone in the industry. Padhi ended his historic innings with Taproot dentsu in September. An art graduate from Mumbai, Padhi began his career with DDB Mudra. He then moved on to Leo Burnett, where he was an executive creative director and later became the national head of art.

    Earlier in June, Taproot made some leadership level rejigs and announced that Agnello Dias (Aggie) will move on to a role as a consultant for key brands, but he too put in his papers around this time. Dias began his advertising career in 1989 and after working with many local and international agencies, including Dart, Interpublicity, Lowe and Leo Burnett, he joined JWT India in 2005, where he soon became the chief creative officer. It was in 2009 when the art and copy duo Padhi and Aggie, decided to together launch their independent creative boutique Taproot India — a bold independent setup. Over the last 12 years, Taproot dentsu rose to become one of India’s most prominent creative agencies, notching up several accolades along the way.

    9.      AJAY GEHLAUT, DENTSU CREATIVE

    Industry veteran Ajay Gahlaut joined dentsu Creative as group CCO in the midst of Dentsu India’s transformation journey towards dentsu India 2.0 and Ajay’s joining is a critical part of the plan, the agency said. Gahlaut, with over 27 years of experience in advertising, was with Publicis Worldwide, India, as chief creative officer and managing director till June 2020. He wrote the line ‘Do Boond Zindagi Ki’ that anchored the famous Pulse Polio Immunisation campaign with Amitabh Bachchan and the ‘Make It Large’ tagline for the whiskey brand Royal Stag. He was also the man behind the ‘Men will be men’ series of campaigns for whiskey brand Imperial Blue and the creator of the character ‘Mr. Murthy’ for Voltas air conditioners.

    10. SHAMSUDDIN JASANI, WUNDERMAN THOMPSON

    As Wunderman Thompson chairman and Group CEO South Asia Tarun Rai moved into a new role as executive director Strategic Initiatives, APAC, Jasani was roped in to take on the mantle. Before this, he was with Isobar as Group MD South Asia. Jasani is a veteran of the industry, having launched Isobar in India in 2008, growing it from a two-person team to over 300-strong across South Asia.

    Isobar’s Shamsuddin Jasani joins Wunderman Thompson South Asia as CEO

    11. PRITI MURTHY, GROUPM

    Priti joined GroupM India as president, GroupM Services India this October, which the network described as a ‘homecoming’ for her and strengthening of the GroupM India leadership team. As an industry veteran, Murthy has spent a large part of her 22+ year career with GroupM. Her last held role with GroupM was as the chief strategy officer at Maxus Global.

    Priti Murthy joins GroupM as president, GroupM services India

    12. ANISHA IYER, OMD India CEO

    Iyer was elevated to OMD India chief executive officer in December. With nearly 18 years of experience in the advertising business and a niche in digital and technology, she joined OMD, a subsidiary of the group, in 2019 as the managing director for Malaysia. Her previous stints include working in companies such as Mindshare, Madhouse, and GroupM in a career spanning two decades.

    13. ANUPRIYA ACHARYA, PUBLICIS GROUPE 

    Anupriya Acharya, a veteran in the media and advertising world, was re-elected as president of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for the year 2021-22 in September this year. Hailing from Dehradun, Acharya has worked with Ogilvy & Mather, McCann (then McCann Erickson), media agency Mindshare Fulcrum and The Media Edge in her 20 plus career. She has also remained the Group CEO of Zenith Optimedia (part of the Publicis Groupe), where she was elevated to lead the India business of Publicis Media in 2016 with a 900-plus strong team.

    14. SWATI BHATTACHARYA, FCB INDIA

    This year also saw the FCB Group India announce the restructuring of its creative agencies and a new three agency structure – FCB Ulka, FCB Interface and FCB India. FCB India, the newest agency in the fold, which’s led by Swati Bhattacharya as the creative chairperson, announced its newly elevated C-Suite leadership team. A noted industry professional, Bhattacharya has been the only woman CCO in India when she joined FCB Ulka in 2016. The brains behind award-winning campaigns like Sindoor Khela for the Times of India, Horlicks, Maggi sauces and noodles, Close up, Airtel, Kit Kat, 7Up, Pepsi, Pizza, UNICEF, Sunrise and Slice are some of her other note-worthy works.

    15. RAMESH NARAYAN, CANCO ADVERTISING

    Canco Advertising founder and Indian advertising doyen Ramesh Narayan was inducted into the prestigious Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA) Hall of Fame at the AdAsia conference held at Macao in December. “The AFAA Hall of Fame sets out to recognise those who’ve defined a generation of advertising, those who we look up to, who inspire us, and who have done what few others have ever done or could ever do; for those who have pioneered- the very few we can call legends,” said outgoing AFAA chairman, Raymond So about Narayan’s inclusion in the prestigious hall of fame. Earlier this year Narayan also released his book titled “A Different Route to Success”, which gives readers a ringside view of his professional life, having retired at the age of 50, after running Canco Advertising, an advertising agency he founded and ran for 24 years.

    Ramesh Narayan inducted into AFAA Hall of Fame

    16.  ARJUN MOHAN, upGrad CEO

    upGrad CEO ArjunMohan is an experienced industry professional having worked across sales, marketing, and product development domains for more than 15 years, before helming upGrad. One of the most creative edtechs in the country, when it comes to utilising marketing channels to amp up its reach, Mohan helped script a remarkable success story backed on innovative services and out-of-box marketing activities. The upGrad CEO is on a high this year with education going digital-first due to the compulsions brought about by the pandemic.

    17.  VINEETA SINGH, SUGAR COSMETICS CEO

    Singh famously gave up a crore-rupee job offer from an investment bank while she was still in her twenties because she wanted to dive into entrepreneurship. Sugar Cosmetics, a digital-first brand, is her third start-up—the first two did not take off but the second startup, Fab Bag, a subscription business that offered women an assortment of beauty products every month for a small fee- gave her enough data and insights to kickstart her third one. Unlike most digital-first brands, Sugar was early to develop an omnichannel presence and her mantra to make cosmetics for Indian skin tones and suited to the Indian environment paid off. In 2020-21, the D2C firm achieved Rs 130 crore in revenue, and raised $21 million (Rs 160 crore) in venture funding, bringing its valuation to Rs 750 crore.

    From the verge of closing shop, Sugar Cosmetics delivers 49x returns to investors

    18. GHAZAL ALAGH, MAMAEARTH CO-FOUNDER

    Baby and mother care brand Mamaearth turned unicorn after raising close to $80 million in a new round at unicorn valuation led by Sequoia. One among the few startups to turn unicorns with a woman co-founder, the five-year-old D2C brand took birth after Ghazal Alagh and her husband, Varun became parents. In 2016, the couple launched the brand under the parent company Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd, in Gurugram using natural, plant-based or manmade ingredients, which are both certified safe as well as effective.  In just four years, Mamaearth became Asia’s first brand to get the MadeSafe certification for its toxin-free products. The company recently acquired a female-centric content platform, Momspresso, and associated influencer-engagement platform, Momspresso MyMoney to further accelerate engagement with consumers and strengthen content-to-commerce.

    19. ANIL KAPOOR, AD VETERAN

    Finally, taking a stock of all that we lost this year, there are some losses which cannot be restored ever in any manner whatsoever- and that’s the lives of people lost. This year saw the demise of many eminent names and talents of the industry, many of whom were lost to the Coronavirus.

    FCBUlka chairman emeritus Anil Kapoor passes away

    One such name is that of DraftFCB+ Ulka’s late chairman emeritus Anil Kapoor, who passed away after a prolonged battle with cancer, in April this year. His passing marked the end of an era in the advertising industry. Kapoor joined a struggling Ulka in 1988 and scripted one of the greatest turnaround stories in advertising. He was given charge of the situation to stop the exodus of clients and is credited with bringing in a fresh set of talent, including from institutions like the IIMs. Clients who had left returned and he built a leadership team that stuck together for decades. Kapoor’s career in the ad industry extended to over three decades, and under his guidance, Ulka group emerged among the top five advertising agencies of India. He was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the AAAI in 2013. His death leaves a huge void in the realm of India’s advertising industry.

    In memoriam: Anil ‘Billy’ Kapoor

  • #Retrace2021: Same passion for global content in Tier 2 & 3 cities as in metros: Zeel’s Amit Shah

    #Retrace2021: Same passion for global content in Tier 2 & 3 cities as in metros: Zeel’s Amit Shah

    Mumbai: With a career spanning over two decades, Zee Entertainment cluster head – North, West, and premium channels Amit Shah has amassed experience in sales and marketing from two leading FMCG organisations – Dabur and Mondelez.

    In his current role at Zeel, he spearheads a cluster of premium channels and regional channels in the North and West regions. He is responsible for delivering the P&L for the cluster and individual channels along with respective business heads. Leading a team of nearly 200 people from different functions like programming, content, research and insights, marketing, on-air promotions team, and more, Shah is also responsible for new market entries and tapping other channel opportunities in existing North and West markets along with the premium channels segment.

    As the year draws to a close, Indiantelevision.com got into a freewheeling conversation with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. cluster head – North, West, and premium channels Amit Shah who speaks about the evolving content trends in Zee English cluster in 2021, programming, and growth in viewership in

    Edited excerpts:

    On any changes in content consumption patterns

    With increased learning of English and foreign languages, India has become more welcoming and adaptive to foreign content. The same is reflected across its content consumption pattern. With the advent of OTT, the audience base for foreign movies has increased. Today, foreign language movies are not just for the audiences living in metros, but also for Tier II, Tier III cities where we see the same level of passion for global content.

    On any innovation that the channels adopted in 2021 to build viewership

    As a channel, we try to understand the needs of our viewers and innovate and come up with content matching their tastes and preferences. For example, we were early to recognise the growing affinity of viewers towards Korean content. So, we collaborated with Korean Cultural Centre India (KCCI) to treat viewers to Korean content across Zee Café, &flix and &PrivéHD. Zee Café has added over 300 hours of content post-lockdown to offer relevant content to the existing consumers along with walk-ins.

    While, &PrivéHD targets the niche audience with its premium content. Foreign language content has been an important part of the programming of &PrivéHD for its foreign language movie block ‘World Box Office’. Another disruption in the category was bringing premieres of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters within months of their theatrical release. We launched several properties that allowed TV audiences to watch Hollywood movies in the language of their choice.

    The non-fiction category has been an important part of the Zee Café programming line-up. Foreign shows such as the ‘The Drew Barrymore Show’ and ‘Masterchef’ have been an audience favourite. Indian originals ‘Chef Vs Fridge’ and ‘Dance With Me’ programmed in Hinglish for a wider reach amongst Indian audiences have also managed to build a good base for themselves. A successful season 2 of ‘Dance With Me’ recently concluded, garnering an encouraging response from the viewers on TV as well as social media.

    Our aim has always been to reach out to the right section of the audience basis programming. Hence, we involve a lot of backend research to define the target group. However, in the recent past, there have been multiple changes in the consumption patterns which has evolved the traditional media landscape.

    On the viewership trends for the English language content

    At a macro level, interest in English content is seeing a steady rise and the same is being reflected in the form of viewership numbers. This growth can be attributed to deeper penetration of the English language in various parts of the country. As a result, the acceptance of English content and its consumption has seen an exponential rise. During the lockdown, the TV industry witnessed significant growth in viewership. This was majorly led by more walk-ins, however, the time spent on television has increased too and the same has continued post lockdown as well.

    On the co-existence of TV and OTT

    TV and OTT are here to co-exist. While both mediums sometimes have a consumer overlap, they are quite different in terms of approach. OTT comes with an opportunity of ‘me-time’, television brings ‘we-time’. Also, the audience is always on the lookout for fresh and relatable content. Hence, to satiate the demand both mediums complement each other.

    On the marketing initiatives launched this year

    Consumers have become more adaptive to digital media, and multiple mediums have emerged offering the same. For instance, our ‘First Day First Show at Home’ campaign featuring comic José Covaco garnered an overwhelming response with over nine million views on YouTube. We also hosted a unique interactive live session on the premiere day with José which garnered great engagement on Instagram.

    Moment marketing has found its relevance and context has become the key element in any integrated marketing strategy. To further drive engagement and build visibility for Korean shows on Zee Café, the channel collaborated with ‘Supaarwoman’ fame Supriya Joshi for Diwali special reels with a twist of K-Drama.

    The brand also engaged in consumer connect initiatives such as the recent Flix First Screening contest organised across five cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. As a part of the contest, 350 winners received two tickets each for the special screening of ‘Spiderman: No Way Home’ in their cities. To ensure maximum awareness of the contest amongst the Spiderman fans, we associated with José Covaco who uploaded a video with his daughter garnering 27,000 views on Facebook and 58,000 views on Instagram. Our ad film with Deepak Tijori, Renuka Shahane, and Rohit Saraf also garnered attention exemplifying the need of the right message with the right resources and how simple themes can be molded into clutter-breaking outcomes to fuel consumer engagements.

    Tags: #Retrace2021, Year Ender, 2022, Amit Shah, Zee English Cluster, &flix, &PriveHD, Zee Café, year-ender, Retrace 2021, English channels, English content on TV.

  • #Retrace2021: The long road to recovery for the travel sector

    #Retrace2021: The long road to recovery for the travel sector

    Mumbai: ‘Tis the Season! To be jolly and ring in the holidays. Except that it is not.

    Just when it seemed like life was returning to normal, the spread of the omicron variant has once again put a question mark over the travel plans. The new restrictions being announced across states and countries have dashed hopes of a cheery festive season for many, including the travel sector that had just begun its road to recovery in 2021.

    “The year ushered in significant opportunities for the brand to leverage, but it remained challenging nonetheless,” summed up Thomas Cook president and group head, marketing, service quality, value-added services, and innovation Abraham Alapatt. “A big win for us is that it gave us the ability to rapidly accelerate our digital journey – to build scale and create a contactless journey through digital means for both our B2C and B2B customers.”

    The company worked on its conversation and brand messaging which underwent a major shift from price to safety-first and ease of travel.  Digital became the new normal, as companies experimented with online tools – self-service apps, AI-enabled chatbots, build-your-own holiday platforms for personalisation, and CRM connectivity across business lines to its leisure and corporate travelers. “We decided to educate customers on the most credible and updated travel restrictions and guidelines and become the first point of contact for our customers. We organised virtual events to showcase travel experiences in the new normal in Europe, Dubai, and the Maldives to encourage customers to travel,” he elaborated.

    From launching a series of campaigns to building consumer confidence, travel companies and hotels also invested in strengthening customer safety. There was continued emphasis on vaccinated hotel staff, drivers & co-travellers, offering facilities of flexible rescheduling and cancellation when required and travel insurance that covers Covid related quarantine and/or hospitalisation, with some even going the extra mile by offering 24×7 doctor-on-call and contactless Covid-negative certification services with doorstep delivery.

    Continued to pump money into advertising

    The year saw the travel-booking platforms pumping money into advertising across all media channels, and leveraging social media. There was a significant shift from print to digital/social media which was not only used to inspire travel, but more importantly to spread positive news on travel and thereby build customer confidence. Online travel brand Goibibo rolled out its campaign ‘Apna Rule Toh Full Vasool’, announcing ‘Daily Steal Deals’ for hotels and last-minute flight bookings on its platform. While, My Trip roped in the hit-duo of Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt for its campaign ‘JoHogaWOWHoga’ to encourage travellers to plan, book and travel once again without any worries arising out of cancellation or hassle of refund claims.

    Club Mahindra, the flagship brand of Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India also reached out to travel enthusiasts through its ‘Jaana Kahaan Hai’ campaign starring the ‘Shershah’ actor, Siddharth Malhotra. The campaign captured people’s desire to travel and explore new destinations and indulge in newer adventures in the new normal.

    “Our 2021 visibility is almost back to the pre-pandemic levels while our share of voice in print has almost doubled to that of pre-Covid levels,” said Thomas Cook president. 

    2021: The year of domestic tourism

    As most foreign destinations remained out of reach due to restrictions, 2021 emerged as the year for domestic tourism. There was a growing appetite for non-standard elements and a rising trend for deeper exploration of smaller yet undiscovered locales and a pronounced shift from micro-cations to in-depth stays. The trend also shifted from emergency travel to leisure travel, according to industry experts.

    “India’s growing appetite for outdoor and adventure is fuelled by the desire to get away from crowds,” said Alapatt sharing insights on the changing consumer behavior. “We are seeing a strong uptick for our camping, hiking, trekking, and biking trips; jungle and safari experiences too. Our biking trips are in high demand – equally from millennials as India’s C-suite, with routes across rugged yet spectacular terrain from Kashmir, Leh-Ladakh, Rajasthan, Sikkim to South India’s Madikeri, Yercaud, etc. and the option of riding your own bike or hiring a premium Ducati, Harley Davidson or equivalent.”

    According to Cleartrip chief business officer Prahlad Krishnamurti, there was at least 25 per cent improvement over 2020. “We have approximately doubled our user base from August to December which corresponds to a 30 per cent increase in conversion rates. There was a sharp recovery at almost 70-80 per cent pre covid levels in H2 2021. This recovery was stronger than what we saw post first wave in 2020,” he added.

    Apart from the metros commanding the usual high share, the leisure destinations preferred during the festive season during the second half of 2021 were Goa, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Guwahati, and Srinagar- making up for nearly 15 per cent of the market share on the ClearTrip portal- with Goa and Rajasthan having the lion’s share in hotel bookings.

    “However, there was and still exists a lot of anxiety and uncertainty around travel due to the pandemic,” said Krishnamurti. But he remains optimistic about the prospects for next year. “ClearTrip spent 2021 ramping up and investing in building our flight and hotel products, with the goal of making travel simple for customers. We are looking to gain larger mindshare with our customers and expect this to translate into a sizable market share.”

    High hopes for 2022

    Despite the challenges, the industry remains hopeful that the pent-up demand for travel could drive rapid growth in travel ad-spend over the next few years, but it will no doubt, be a long road back to pre-pandemic spending.  According to Zenith’s latest Travel adspend forecast released in November, the fastest growth in travel advertising is expected to come from India, but it will take until 2023 for the travel ad spend to be 31 per cent above the 2019 baseline.

    Looking ahead at 2022, sustainable tourism could become a very important factor as travellers become environment-conscious.  According to industry experts, the post-pandemic travellers are going to be characterised by discerning, detail-driven, and discovery-oriented – seeing more value in depth of experience rather than whistle-stop ‘photo-op’ travel. Travellers will continue to depend on technological advancement to ensure reduced physical contact, even as safety and hygiene will remain the top most important factors in their 2022 travel decisions.

    So, here’s looking forward to a stronger and safer 2022.

  • #Retrace2021: The emergence of new advertiser categories in sports genre

    #Retrace2021: The emergence of new advertiser categories in sports genre

    Mumbai: As LIVE sports returned to Television in full swing in 2021, several new categories of advertisers also dived in to make the most of the opportunity to establish a connect with consumers. From e-pharma, gaming, cryptocurrency to several new-age brands flocked the TV space with a marketing blitz.

    “There is a deep connection between sports and youth, and the latter is undoubtedly among the first adopters of technology. So, no wonder why a plethora of consumer tech brands are dominating the mass sports broadcasting airspace,” says Wunderman Thompson Delhi senior VP and managing partner Joy Chauhan. “For them, the biggest metric of success is how fast they can scale up their brand and operations. Big sporting brands and Bollywood celebrities are just what the media planning doctor ordered for them.”

    Sample this: According to the latest Barc India report, out of the total 4,624 brands that advertised on TV in October, as many as 1,065 were new ones. While legacy brands such as the durables and automobile brands stayed strong, several new ones made splashes with significant increases in investment in the sports sponsorship space.

    According to Pitch Madison Advertising report published in February early this year, ed-tech firm Byju’s spent Rs 400-500 crore in advertising in 2020 while gaming firm Dream11 spent Rs 350-400 crore and My11Circle spent Rs 150-250 crore. The trend continued this year as millions of people tuned into cricket, football, and other sports events throughout the year.

    Despite the pandemic-led disruptions, the sports scene in 2021 saw some big impact properties reigniting the LIVE sports action on Television. From the 14th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to ICC T20 World Cup, India-New Zealand series, Indian Super League (ISL), and the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) – all boosted the presence of new advertisers powering the revenue growth.

    Online gaming, ed-tech, and crypto brands drive Ad-ex

    The contribution of these companies to the overall adex has also been steadily growing each year with new categories such as online gaming and ed-tech driving the adex in 2021.

    According to DDB Mudra Group country head and managing partner – Integrated Media Rammohan Sundaram, new-age consumer tech companies contribute nearly 50-55 per cent of the adex on sports. “Look at the number of brands and their frequency on TV – PayTM, Cred, Upstox, CoinDCX, Byjus, Unacademy, Upgrad, MPL and others have ensured the growth of TV advertising, sponsorship in sports and celebrity endorsements,” he explains. “This is visible not just on TV but also on digital due to the nature of the business of streaming sporting events on devices. My guess is that around Rs 4500-5000 crore come from new-age companies into sports marketing alone.”

    Industry experts also highlight the advantages that an Indian consumer offers especially in terms of consumer loyalty and long-term affinity. With the youngest population in the world, where 65 per cent of the total 1.3 billion are below the age of 35, India is considered the largest market economy in the world.

    Building Mass Reach

    When such a denominator is at play, how does a consumer-tech company build its momentum? It does that by being omnipresent through reach and high frequency, through a medium that still continues to build new audiences outside of the urban population- and that medium is TV. Experts cite this as one of the prime reasons why big brands in e-commerce and other new categories continue to plough millions of dollars on television.

    Going by the consumption patterns of this young audience, and a definite outcome that makes for a wholesome experience, the Sports genre delivers the highest GRPs (gross rating point measuring impact). Thus, making it worthwhile for these new-age companies to bet on so that the required adoption of their products happens in their desired target sets.

    “At least 60 per cent of Unacademy’s advertising spends is allocated to TV to capture the growing internet populace and make them adopt their offerings early so that they can stay locked in for a longer period of time. Most of the loan-to-value (LTV) for such (EdTech) brands is strong because of the number of years these platforms can lock their consumers with high-quality educational content and experience through their product offerings,” says Sundaram. “So even if they have a very high customer acquisition cost, it really doesn’t matter much because eventually they not only recover but make a lot of profit from one customer, leading to an eventually profitable business simply because of the duration a customer stays attached with the brand.”

    That may not hold true for eCommerce, or Crypto, however, which is a different ball game altogether. So, while there may be different consumer behaviours associated with these new-age brand categories, all of it makes media investments in Sports advertising, parking a sizable chunk of their annual ad budget, worthwhile given the sheer size of the addressable audience that is available for these new-age brands in such a large market economy.

    According to dentsu India chief client officer Narayan Devanathan, brands in these categories are the ones which are flush with funds, and they are looking to generate awareness very quickly, backed by a lot of ad spends—and the properties with the most impact for this task are the sports-related ones. “The emergence of these advertisers is so visible is primarily because they have received a disproportionate share of attention and capital from VC firms in this time period. And they are now spending that capital to garner a disproportionate share of attention from their potential customers,” he opines.

    Turning to Social Media for the boost

    Even as Sports continues to attract eyeballs, the ‘new normal’ and digital advancements coupled with the social media expansion have brought new possibilities for brands to increase their visibility and improve their sponsorship message. And this time, with back-to-back IPL and T20 World Cup leagues aligned with the festive season, the brands went all out investing in the sport on TV and OTT platforms to be where their audiences are.

    E-commerce brands were the biggest spenders during the first leg of IPL 2021 in April-May and an increase in the number of fantasy gaming apps were observed during the league, as per HI-CRICKET, a proprietary IP report by Havas Media Group India.

    Digital stock brokerage Upstox recently beat online investment platform Groww to become the official partner of the Indian Premier League (IPL), joining startups such as fantasy sports platform Dream11, e-payments firm Cred and ed-tech startup Unacademy. The latter is also sponsoring the T20 tournament, apart from IPL, and currently working on Olympics and other branded content-led partnerships across different forms of sports, the company disclosed earlier.

    Pro Kabbadi League, which returned after two years on 22 December has online pharmacy platform Netmeds.com and Dream11 as sponsors. Recently e-gaming platform WinZO which aims to build a community of gamers and gaming influencers in Tier 2 to tier 4 cities in India, also secured the principal sponsorships for two major Vivo Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) teams, Bengal Warriors and Gujarat Giants, as well as associate sponsorship for Patna Pirates. Meanwhile, the Indian Super League (ISL) has sponsors including Dream11 and Policybazaar.

    With the year drawing to a close, let’s see how these new-age brands up their game in 2022!

  • #Retrace2021: 30-40 per cent of our investments will be in regional content: Manish Kalra

    #Retrace2021: 30-40 per cent of our investments will be in regional content: Manish Kalra

    Mumbai: Outlining the vision for Zee4.0 at the company’s 39th AGM held prior to the Zeel-SPNI merger, CEO Punit Goenka had said that the roadmap for the next three years is going to be driven by digital. The focus on digital meant greater opportunity as well as challenges for team Zee5, particularly in terms of scaling up the content library and providing enhanced customer experience, as emphasised by Goenka.

    For Zee5 chief business officer Manish Kalra who leads the B2C business for India, the year 2021 was largely about aligning the platform’s content strategy with these tangible business outcomes. With rich experience in leadership roles at digital-first companies such as Amazon, Craftsvilla, and MakeMyTrip, he is now responsible for growing the overall revenue, viewership, and driving subscription numbers for Zee5.

    Kalra strongly believes that successful businesses are built by teams with a great understanding of customer behaviour, which explains his zeal for the ‘customer-first approach’. Under his leadership, Zee5 placed the bet on ‘deeper regionalisation’ and TVOD services in an SVOD and AVOD-dominated market to build an expansive and diverse library of content comprising over 150 web series and over two lakh hours of on-demand content across 12 languages.

    In Q2 FY22, Zee5 reported 93.2 million global monthly active users (MAUs) on the platform. On the back of the Punjabi content slate announced in the year’s second half, it witnessed 2X growth in active subscription numbers with the highest contribution from Punjab and neighbouring states like, Haryana Delhi NCR and Uttar Pradesh. The average watch time per viewer per month as on September stood at 186 minutes. Another significant development in 2021 was the launch of the Zee5 Intelligence Monitor – a fortnightly knowledge series for advertisers.

    In this interaction with Indiantelevision.com, Manish Kalra talks about all these developments, and other happenings in 2021, and shares his plans for the year ahead.

    Edited Excerpts:

    On the content strategy for 2021 and going ahead

    Content is one of the strongest pillars of Zee5’s growth strategy. 2021 has been a phenomenal year in terms of churning out compelling content as we endeavoured to develop a robust content slate that caters to the diverse needs of our consumers. Right from launching tentpole properties such as ‘Radhe’, ‘Friends: The Reunion’, ‘Break Point’, and ‘Rashmi Rocket’ to collaborating with TVF, and offering the Punjabi content slate ‘Rajj ke Vekho’, we’ve ensured having something for everybody at our content store.

    In fact, with a concerted focus on ‘Deeper Regionalisation’, and a primary objective to drive ‘Entertainment Inclusion’, we also launched two successful campaigns – ‘Any Time Manoranjan’ and ‘Dekhtey Reh Jaogey’. Both these initiatives were aimed at democratising access to bespoke Indian entertainment for all, especially for markets that are new or underserved.

    We foresee the next wave of growth coming from the Tier II and III cities that are looking for diversity in original content and genres. While the big cities will have a definite influence, the larger share of the pie will come in from smaller markets over time. Content will still be king across all, and the diversity of content is only going to grow. Regional content is our forte and we want to continue to be the multilingual storyteller for multiple entertainment seekers.

    On the opportunities in regional and sports content

    A major part of Zee5’s strategy is to convey realistic and original tales from the heartland. Coming from the legacy content powerhouse, Zee, we have established our dominance in the regional content space. Almost 50 per cent of our viewership comes from regional language content. In fact, we were the first home-grown streaming platform to have been launched in 11 Indian languages (Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, and Punjabi), offering access to one of the largest regional content libraries in the country.

    Going forward, around 30-40 per cent of our content investments will be in the regional space, and we expect this percentage to increase as we further cater to untapped regions. After the recent foray into original Punjabi programming, our aim is to double our Telugu and Tamil originals by early 2022. Bengali is on the radar post that.

    On the emergence of new business and subscription models

    The pandemic made us rethink the way we operated and accelerated the process of innovation. Since people were confined to their homes OTT adoption accelerated resulting in a surge in viewership and watch-time. Consumers’ willingness to pay has also increased, resulting in SVOD revenues growing at a higher rate than AVOD revenues globally for the first time ever in 2020. Zee5 being a hybrid video streaming platform saw an upsurge in traffic on both SVOD and AVOD. It was heartening to see how consumers sampled content on AVOD and further migrated to SVOD to enjoy uninterrupted content across genres and languages from our library.

    That being said, we had to continuously reinvent ourselves to give our viewers the best experience and value for their investment. With this thought, we introduced our pay-per-view subscription model ‘ZEEPlex’ to bring the box office home to Indian audiences. With digital consumption being at an all-time high we are positive that the TVOD subscription model will prove to be a success in the coming days. The concept of subscriptions was also once new, but it has picked up today. We expect TVOD to meet the same fate.

    On the evolution of movie business through 2021

    The pandemic-induced lockdown resulted in two trends – consumers stayed at home to enjoy movies and other forms of entertainment, while studios and filmmakers had to go back to the drawing board and rework their distribution strategy. Since the advent of streaming has fundamentally altered how the audiences consume content, OTT became the natural choice for filmmakers for premiering their movies – be it low-budget movies or blockbusters, giving birth to the concept of direct-to-digital. The TVOD (pay-per-view) model also emerged as a viable option. In fact, India also witnessed an industry-first, hybrid release of the magnum opus ‘Radhe’ on Zee5 and ZEEPlex.

    Now, even though the theatres have opened up, there are plenty of opportunities for both movie theatres and OTT platforms to leverage and co-exist in a profitable way. The way I see it is that movies will now first release in theatres and then come to our platform where viewers will have the flexibility to view them at their convenience. Both entities will have a synergistic relationship with each other.

    At Zee5 we are geared up for 2022 with our pipeline comprising both originals and acquired content including movies such as ‘420 IPCC’, ‘Bob Biswas’, among many others. Over and above this, we have a list of direct-to-digital releases lined up. It will be unveiled gradually in the coming days.

    On the road ahead; key focus areas for 2022

    Our customer is at the heart of everything we do. Hence, our focus has always been to enhance our technology prowess and provide high-quality video and best-in-class content viewing experience across devices.

    Moving forward, we want to focus on family entertainment along with regional content. Our aim is to make South-Asian content across languages popular, not only in India but also internationally. We aim to reach 50 per cent of the audience that is consuming content digitally. We will continue to offer differentiated shows and blockbuster movies and invest in content that is ‘real, relevant, and resonant’. These investments would drive our market share putting us in good stead going forward. In terms of content investments, it will be equally divided between original shows and acquisitions, primarily films and other shows.

  • GUEST COLUMN: Top marketing trends brands may need to adopt in 2022

    GUEST COLUMN: Top marketing trends brands may need to adopt in 2022

    Mumbai: With the rising internet and smartphone penetration and social media usage, especially in tier-II and tier-III cities, the way brands engage with their clients has irrevocably changed. Digital adoption has been the primary focus for marketers in 2021, with a myriad of trends appearing in the marketing industry, including growing online shopping, technology-integrated operations, and so on. With this backdrop in mind, here are some of the most essential marketing trends to watch in 2022.

    Influencer marketing

    Once known as an additional leg to a brand campaign to gain social media visibility, influencers have expanded their audiences and now are driving the communication strategy for many brands. Millennials and Gen Z customers religiously follow influencers on social media, considering them to be highly relatable in terms of content they share. Various brands are already banking on this trend, collaborating with influencers to promote their products and services. The coming months will see more marketers and advertisers follow suit increase brand exposure and garner fans from the influencer’s audience. In fact, several businesses are developing technologies that will enable influencers to create their D2C brands, resulting in creating a micro-entrepreneur ecosystem.

    First-party data will become relevant

    Until recently, most marketing platforms have relied on third-party cookies to collect consumer data. These insights help them understand the evolving shopping patterns of customers and accordingly modify their ongoing marketing activities. However, with rising privacy concerns, the new legislation has initiated restricting the use of third-party consumer data sources. Given this, first-party data will become more relevant than ever. As a result, organisations should enhance their existing data practices and partner with platforms that have extensive first-party data. Doing so will not only give them access to quantitative insights but also help them craft innovative marketing campaigns that are tailored to the intent of consumers.

    AI-powered conversational marketing

    As technological advancements continue to evolve, consumer behavior, interests, and expectations will keep changing at an accelerated pace. Today’s consumers aren’t satisfied with simply appealing websites or products. They are always looking for something new, desiring more personalised, engaging, and immersive shopping experiences. Brands must therefore modify their customer interaction strategies to generate interest, engage buyers, and convert demand to flow in sync with the new customer journey.

    Many brands are implementing conversational AI technologies such as chatbots and voice assistants that can understand and speak vernacular to provide an enhanced experience and strengthen brand-customer relationships.

    Short-form content

    Long-form videos make consumers reluctant to watch and consume content about the brand and its products, pushing them away rather than attracting and retaining them. But fitting well with the fast-paced attention spans of Millennials and Gen Z consumers across several demographics, short videos have gained substantial traction, contributing to an overall increase in e-commerce. As a result, major e-commerce platforms are shifting their focus to short-form content to create more engaging purchasing experiences.

    Mobile-friendly digital experiences

    With over 600 million internet users in India, it’s no wonder that people are spending more time on their smartphones and tablets. And, as millennials and Gen Z audiences, who like to explore and buy across a range of devices, increase their purchasing power, the problem of providing a & seamless experience across all devices — particularly on mobile — will get more complicated. So, it is pivotal for marketers to recognize that mobile-friendly digital experiences are more important to consider, and accordingly create meaningful user experiences to drive brand awareness.

    Conclusion

    The Covid-induced quarantine and consequent isolation have redefined the consumer expectations and how they interact with brands. Improving customer satisfaction is the most accessible approach to distinguish yourself from the increasing e-commerce crowd. And catalysed by the pandemic, the aforementioned trends will continue to thrive in 2022, which is why you should start experimenting with different advertising strategies to keep customers happy and delighted at every point possible.

    (Vijay Kumar Mikkilineni is TCL India marketing head. The views expressed in the column are personal, and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • #Retrace2021: Cautious optimism will drive industry growth in 2022

    #Retrace2021: Cautious optimism will drive industry growth in 2022

    Mumbai: The year 2021 saw work-life turning 360 degrees for former Havas media India boss Anita Nayyar, as she joined Patanjali Ayurved as COO- Media & Communications, after a year-long stint with Zee5 as head of customer strategy and relations.

    An industry veteran with over three decades of experience, Nayyar has managed many portfolios of brands across sectors. She has played leadership roles in several media and advertising agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy & Mather, Initiative Media, MediaCom, and Starcom Worldwide. Nayyar spent the longest tenure at Havas – the agency she joined in 2007 as chief executive of the India operations. Under her aegis, the agency grew exponentially and expanded its offerings as an integrated communications group. She subsequently headed Havas Media Southeast Asia (SEA) in addition to her role as CEO of Havas Media.  

    As the year draws to a close, Indiantelevision.com, got into a freewheeling conversation with Anita Nayyar about her big professional move in 2021, leading the media and communications strategy at Patanjali Ayurved, and outlook on industry’s growth as we enter 2022.

    Edited excerpts:

    On looking back at 2021 and her transition from Zee5 to Patanjali

    I spent over 30 years working with agencies and publishers. After so many years on the agency side, I thought I had done my bit. Plus, the monotony tends to set in. So, it’s good to learn something new from the other side of the table. That’s how Zee5 happened. On the whole, I have worked with advertising agencies, media agencies, publishing platforms, as well as new-age digital platforms like Zee5. So when Patanjali came in, I thought it’s a good opportunity to do a full circle and explore all aspects of advertising, marketing, and communication. So to that extent, I feel it completes my circle in the industry.

    On how the year was for Patanjali as a brand, and her priorities when she joined the company in July

    Patanjali is one of those aggressive Indian brands, which has galloped its way through to the top in the Indian FMCG industry. When I took over as the COO for media branding and communication, the idea was to oversee all the strategies that are happening in their advertising domain, how they are progressing and what is it that we can do better. It was interesting to see their (Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna) vision. Sometimes, it’s even difficult to match up to the speed at which their vision for the company goes- both in the Wellness, fitness, and the Ayurveda sector. Also, the fight that they are bringing to the table for the MNCs in the FMCG category. Patanjali Ayurveda, along with Ruchi Soya, is the second-largest FMCG brand in the country.

    On any key innovation that the brand brought in this year

    The company is constantly innovating, in terms of the categories and areas they have entered in over the years. Like IT solutions or Agri sciences for example and this foresight of acquiring Ruchi Soya. The brand has kept up with the times, even by propagating the fact that they are ‘swadeshi’ as well as ‘Make in India’ initiatives. So innovation, to my mind, is the core of this brand. We have recently launched a Nutrela nutraceutical range of supplements, that’s the new category that Patanjali along with Ruchi Soya has entered into. And it’s interesting as there aren’t too many players in this segment and the fact that people have become very conscious about their health and wellness, especially in the last two years.

    On any changes in the brand’s media strategy in 2021

    This past year has fared fairly well for the brand because we have strategically invested in some high-impact properties. As a brand, we have been highly visible on the news channels and we have done a lot of GECs as well, and as such, there’s a tremendous amount of reach and awareness for the category. New marketing campaigns are on and we are in the process of working on our annualised spend and strategies, so let’s see how that goes.

    On looking ahead to 2022 and expectations for the brand

    We are cautiously optimistic. In businesses, when there’s recovery, optimism is the core. If you aren’t optimistic how will you take risks and move forward? That applies to life in general. But, if I were to wrap up my expectations for the brand in a single word, it’s ‘growth’. That is what every organisation’s looking for and we specifically do so, because we want to bridge the gap between the number one in the industry. And we are getting there. In the media branding and communications domain, I want to maximise the return on investment (ROI) that we are doing in the media industry.

    On key industry trends that might dominate next year

    The past year has certainly fast-paced the digital transformation of companies, whether it was entertainment, online shopping, or the use of digital platforms to connect with other people. It was anyways slated to grow between 25-30 per cent earlier also, the needle just moved quicker now. To my mind, next year we will see a healthy mix of both TV and digital and each medium plays an important role, depending on what the objectives are. TV, of course, remains the mainstay because of its reach and low CPMs (Cost per Thousands) that it offers.

    Print was badly hit during the pandemic. It is doing a little better, but still nowhere close to where they were pre-pandemic as yet. Outdoor is back and Cinema is also showing signs of recovery, depending on the titles that are playing.

    Each medium today has a role to play from that aspect and we use them for their attributes. So I think overall for the media industry and, as per industry reports too, there should be a growth of 12-16 per cent in the media & advertising industry, which given the situation is not a bad thing. 

    On any personal learnings that she will take into the next year

    My personal learning may sound a little clichéd, but it was very important for me to explore other areas and not remain stuck to a particular area of expertise. It’s when you try to explore other fields that you know what your proficiencies are. Every domain that I’ve worked in has given me immense learning. So, it’s a good check for one to constantly keep trying newer opportunities and opening up newer avenues for one’s own learning. If you continue to explore newer domains, it just keeps adding to your professional and personal growth as well.