Date-wise News

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) on September 16 announced that it would be launching the MGM Channel on Indian cable television and has entered into a distribution pact with Star Den Media Services for the same.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Sep 17, 2008 8:46 AM

Growing inflation is impacting the media too. While rising newsprint costs have forced print players to hike ad rates, growing competition and a double-digit inflation are talking a toll on radio players as well. exchange4media speaks with some radio players to gauge their reactions to these developments.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Sep 17, 2008 8:37 AM

The new ‘Chlormint’ TVC encourages people to exercise their choice and get what they want. Conceptualised by McCann Erickson, the multimedia campaign is breaking across media platforms on September 19.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 8:31 AM

Audience Measurement and Analytics (aMap), India’s overnight TV audience measurement system, has announced the expansion of its top management team. Joseph Eapen has been appointed as Director-Research, and Ravi Katoch has been brought in as National Head-Client Engagement, while Vitthal Sonavane is the new Head-Technology.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 8:29 AM

The latest blasts in the Capital on September 13 have left everyone shaken and there are growing voices asking ‘for how long will such acts of violence continue’. Joining in the people’s angst, Aaj Tak has launched a special initiative against terrorism called ‘Puchta Hai Aaj Tak, Aakhir Kab Tak’.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 8:28 AM

Running comes naturally to children, but as one grows up, sprinting around just for the fun of it, fades away. Even as Delhi prepares for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon on November 9, Airtel is all set to revive the child-like exhilaration of running with a new TVC that is breaking across all news and entertainment channels today.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 8:28 AM

Celebrating the completion of 10 years in India, Animal Planet will be unveiling a fresh brand identity and new logo on the midnight of September 30. The channel would also showcase programmes revolving around landmark television events, docu-soaps, animal battlegrounds and pet entertainment as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 8:27 AM

Shine.com, the job portal from Firefly eVentures, a 100 per cent subsidiary of HT Media Ltd involved in building brands and businesses in the Internet space, has reported that its candidate database has crossed the one-million mark. The portal has claimed to have reached this figure within a quarter of its launch.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 8:25 AM

Microsoft India has brought on board Hemant Sachdev as Joint Managing Director for its consumer and online business. Prior to this appointment, Sachdev was Group Director at Bharti Group and part of the Chairman’s apex team. At Microsoft, he will lead the consumer and online businesses, which includes consumer software, Windows Mobile, MSN, and the online services and search businesses.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 8:25 AM

Jagran Engage has bagged some exclusive OOH media marketing rights in Uttar Pradesh. This includes the Moradabad railway station and important UPSTRC bus stations. This latest acquisition has further strengthened Jagran Engage’s presence in Tier II and III towns.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 8:24 AM

Lowe Bangalore is getting into action after a client winning spate in the last 90 days. The agency has brought in GV Krishnan as Executive Vice President-South and Branch Head for Bangalore. His last assignment was with Airtel, where he was Chief Marketing Officer for East and Sri Lanka.

Tuhina Anand Sep 17, 2008 8:23 AM

Colors is working towards building its weekend block now and has added its next big ticket property, ‘Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina’, to its weekend band. The show, which will see some of India’s leading cricketers in a different light, is set to go on air from September 26, thus putting it in direct competition with another big ticket show, ‘Indian Idol 2’ on Sony.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Sep 17, 2008 8:22 AM

BBDO India has appointed Ajai Jhala as CEO. Jhala is relocating from London to Delhi to take up his new assignment. He will partner with Josy Paul, Chairman & NCD, BBDO India. They will both report to Chris Thomas, Chairman & CEO, BBDO & Proximity, Asia Pacific. Jhala is well-known in the advertising industry having worked in numerous international locations.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Sep 17, 2008 8:21 AM

Posterscope, the global OOH agency from the Aegis Media stable, is launching its India operations from Tuesday, September 16, 2008. It will be headquartered in Mumbai, but will be launched simultaneously in the top 32 cities, including metros, mini-metros and Tier I towns. Haresh Nayak, an OOH veteran, will lead Posterscope India.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Sep 17, 2008 8:21 AM

GroupM in its recently released annual media forecast – ‘This Year, Next Year: India Media Forecasts’ – has predicted that advertising expenditures in all media throughout India would increase 20 per cent in 2008 to $5.6 billion and 19 per cent in 2009 to $6.6 billion. The projected hikes follow a 20 per cent increase in 2007. With this, India is set to be the 15th largest advertising market by 2009.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Sep 17, 2008 8:20 AM

<br>"I find it hard to believe that a weekly magazine can have an RPC of 14 and in some cases even 50 or 60."

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

<br>"As per our estimates, the total media spending by technology companies is Rs. 300 crores and technology media in various forms gets 50% of this amount i.e. 150 crores"

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>Post-IPO, the biggest change that happened was that we decided to embark on our international strategy and globalisation. Among the five things that we have done as we were going global, was launching Global Services and Bio Spectrum Asia. Both are global products... The main thrust was looking at the global market, which we have achieved. Going ahead, it is the same theme, which we will be carrying forward.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

I think advertising globally is changing. It's been going through this huge transition, and India is not far behind. Marketers are much smarter than what people give them credit for. Most of the clients that we meet, I think they are far more aware than most agency executives and the creative people. I think unless and until we as advertising agencies evolve fast, advertising might soon become extinct given the way we are going. So, for sure now is the time to change and agencies are realising this.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

It's a fish market out there in terms of trying to afford the right kind of people for the right kind of jobs. We are not in that game as we do not believe in 'buying' people to do our jobs. We at Saatchi & Saatchi India have witnessed the shortest turnovers in the industry, essentially because we have a very healthy environment that we create in the agency. I think our efforts are going to be driven more in that direction than trying to buy people over.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

It is the lack of understanding between the agencies and the client that leads to one agency paying off against another. Even though we all are competitors, we all are trying to do the same thing. We need to have an agreement in place… I can't understand why advertisers don't charge royalties. For instance, if I was an author and my book gains great popularity, I get royalty for that. One can make millions out of a creative idea, I can't understand why nobody is doing anything about this.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

We believe that India is a fast growing market in terms of advertising in digital and digital technology. With 39 million Internet users at the moment, which by itself is bigger than the UK, it is a formidable size. And the forecast says that it will double in the next 2-3 years. I think that traditional media, particularly TV, is losing its effectiveness with the pretty high inflation rate. Advertisers really see the need to expand the whole communication to something next and digital has to be a part of this. And Solutions | Digitas has to take advantage of this opportunity.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

We found the marketplace to be relatively conservative, businessmen are cautious with new ideas, the time it takes in transactional movement is longer than what we have experienced in other markets. But we have found that the clients' understanding of what we offer, and their ability to explain the business internally is second to none. The Indian businessman is extremely astute and comes to terms with a good financial offering faster than what we see in other parts of the world.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

We use the word digital so often, but I think its potential has not been explored fully yet. Everyone is talking about YouTube, Facebook and online friends, but brands are not able to understand what to do with these to influence customers. Making an interesting creative site is not digital. We also need to see what is dying out. Telemarketing is one of them. Direct mailing is another, which is getting affected because of the costs shooting up.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

On a macro level, the forces are still in place in terms of the demographics of the market, the consumption habits and penetration of the platforms on which the fortune of all these players rest. However, nothing moves in a straight line forever. Things have twists and turns, but clearly there has been through our experiences, sustainable growth at high rates, faster than anywhere else in the region, and that has provided us the capability to continue to invest and continue to stay on course for the long run.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

The business newspaper space is cluttered. We do not have any plans now to enter this segment… General purpose magazines and sports magazines have lost their appeal. We do not have any plans now to revive these (Sunday and Sportsworld).

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

The media, especially when it comes to advertising, is of the belief that Mumbai is the only place. What they haven't realised is that not a single innovation has come from Mumbai, but from the agencies outside. Any media that deals with advertising must read trends rather than deal with the geography. Firstly, the industry is not growing in Mumbai, if you remove 4-5 advertisers in Mumbai, you will find that the place has negative growth. In Mumbai, you are a survivor, we would never have been innovators had we been in Mumbai.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

Change is an ongoing process in The Hindu. One need not look at bringing about changes just because The Times of India has launched. The very fact that Times has taken so long to enter the market makes it clear that in their mind Chennai is one of the most difficult markets to crack. However, we welcome healthy competition as it would help bring all-round improvement in quality and value additions.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

In India, there is a lot of competition, and the domestic news channels tend to have a very sensationalist approach towards news. You will see the breaking news tag almost continuously. That's not the way we treat our stories, we wouldn't want to copy any news channel. Breaking news is always going to be an on-the-spot judgment by the person who is in control of the newsroom at that particular point in time.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

Our iris Delhi office has a distinctly Indian flavour to it. So, for us it is not about exporting the iris culture out of UK, it is about making the agency culture relevant and ownable by our team in India. The iris Delhi culture can be summed up in the great phrase 'Chak de phattey!', which I think really captures the winning spirit we have here amongst our team. I believe great agencies are built from strong and distinctive cultures, and that's what we are focused on building here in Delhi and in all our offices in the Asia Pacific.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM