The first challenge I see for the Indian radio industry is the music royalty issue, if you get this sorted out, a lot will happen automatically. At the end of the day, I feel that I work 50 per cent for my company and another 50 per cent for the music company. The first thing we need to do is to fight together and remain united.

exchange4media Staff Nov 30, 2009 12:00 AM

We are one of the top five agencies in the country. You may say that our creative products have slipped over the couple of years; maybe or maybe not. But in the Asia Pacific context, Grey India is the key driver in both its top line and bottom line numbers. And India is the jewel in the Asia Pacific crown.

exchange4media Staff Nov 27, 2009 12:00 AM

The success of a communication campaign is gauged by its accessibility, viewership, relevance, and understanding by the target audience. In designing a communication, an accurate media vehicle not only helps us connect to a specific group of audience, but also helps us in identifying the gap between the present lifestyle and the aspirational life space of the target audience, while an impressive creative helps us bridge this gap.

exchange4media Staff Nov 24, 2009 12:00 AM

We have done better than 99 per cent of the global networks in terms of new business, consolidating with our global clients and the quality of our works. But every market has been hit hard, there isn’t any market that has escaped the global crisis. The good news is that we’ve been incredibly resourceful in terms of continuing to invest in what we think are priorities and we haven’t ducked in any changes. So why we are excited about 2010 is because we can see the great shape that we are in as a network as well as in India.

exchange4media Staff Nov 20, 2009 12:00 AM

You can expect us to continue to fight for the freedom of advertising and for a framework that would enable us to advertise more efficiently and effectively. This will absolutely affect India. We are in very close collaboration with the Indian Association, and when anything happens in India, we will work in any way that we can to help enable us to continue advertising. You can also expect us to have a closer look into India in the way medium like mobile can be picked up, or the way in which new media can be explored.

exchange4media Staff Nov 13, 2009 12:00 AM

It is impossible to give a figure like we will grow by 15 per cent, or we will win seven awards at Cannes next year from India. But we have very high expectations that in the next year or two. Creatively, India would be in the top five because we now have a very good team there. The agency has been gaining critical mass that we did not have before, and many other roadblocks are out of the way. Even as TBWA\Worldwide, we are focussing and supporting the offices in India in a much stronger way and it is needed. Today, clients want good teams in India and we cannot let anyone down. So, you can rest assured that you would seeing and hearing a lot from India in the days to come.

exchange4media Staff Nov 6, 2009 12:00 AM

About the kind of channel we want to build, at this stage let me say we want to avoid the trend towards tabloidism. Our intention is to respect the viewers and recognise that a very large number wants good quality news… we’re not aiming to be the No. 1 channel, we are not driven by that. We aim to be big enough to be relevant to viewers and advertisers, but mainly focus on creating a different news experience for viewers. I like to tell our team ‘Let’s be like Aamir Khan. Let’s be big, but not obsessed with being No. 1. Let’s be different and better, but in a way that is widely appealing’. Of course, the trick here is not to become too different or too intellectual. That was the mistake I think the old NewsX made. It was so different and rarefied that it ended up alienating the viewers.

exchange4media Staff Oct 30, 2009 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>Let’s put it this way, we won’t create any confusion; we would clarify the brand offering that is relevant to local as well as to international clients and would help clients to make the right decision on which area they want to be the most serviced in. From the Mudra point of view, that gives Mudra the opportunity to clearly be the competitive brand and it gives DDB the opportunity to clearly be the international corporate. As a creative organisation, we don’t want to change local cultures or re-orientate them to western minds and that is where our local and international talent comes in.

exchange4media Staff Oct 23, 2009 12:00 AM

It is not nice to do work for just the heck of awards. It is putting our industry in a bad light. I know that these are expressions of creativity, but we should be very clear that these are the ads that are specifically done for that. Why should we hide this fact? Yes, it is tough, but we are going to make sure that the work that we do for the clients is award worthy, but not on the cost of scams. We have to start getting the youngsters to think larger, they have to start being more responsible on brands.

exchange4media Staff Oct 16, 2009 12:00 AM

There are other challenges, namely the apathy of the civic agencies towards the outdoor media. The reality is that almost all government and civic authorities consider outdoor media as a burden. Despite heavy licensee fees and taxes, outdoor media does not enjoy 100 per cent legality. It is really strange. Something tangible should be done to impress upon the civic agencies to ‘promote’ outdoor and not to ‘control’ it.

exchange4media Staff Oct 15, 2009 12:00 AM

We can see some very strong signs when you see the macro indicators of what was happening, Asia was not really that damaged… Some of the markets had a very dramatic slowdown and some markets just had slowdown, but still there was a growth, and then there were a couple of markets like Japan that had their own markets; Korea is very export-dependent, so they are now also picking up. The overall advertising market should grow – it is an overall positive picture. We are having another decent year.

exchange4media Staff Oct 9, 2009 12:00 AM

It is not nice to do work for just the heck of awards. It is putting our industry in a bad light. I know that these are expressions of creativity, but we should be very clear that these are the ads that are specifically done for that. Why should we hide this fact? Yes, it is tough, but we are going to make sure that the work that we do for the clients is award worthy, but not on the cost of scams. We have to start getting the youngsters to think larger, they have to start being more responsible on brands.

exchange4media Staff Oct 9, 2009 12:00 AM

The challenge for any new brand is to establish itself in a cluttered environment and amongst brands that are well entrenched in the consumer’s mind. While one can look at rationalising spends, one should not switch off the engine as it will become more difficult to revive it when the economy picks up. Also, a key point to note is that in the current scenario, a brand can demand a greater bang for its buck. A brand can get good deals from most media houses, which helps them reach the same audience, but at a lesser cost.

exchange4media Staff Oct 1, 2009 12:00 AM

The ‘Indian’ qualification is perhaps not required any more. World over, the builders of business – that is, both clients and their agencies – have tough challenges, mandates and some compulsions. Ideally, both groups need to keep their eye on the ball (read brand) at all times. Engaging and enduring brands get built when both these groups excel at their respective jobs

exchange4media Staff Oct 1, 2009 12:00 AM

India’s PR industry is still fairly nascent in terms of size and years of experience. We still have a vast majority of people who view the industry from the lens of the old model of public relations officers. Secondly, most agencies don’t typically invest the time and resources in understanding the business of their clients to be able to counsel and advise on strategic communications and how it can be leveraged to meet strategic goals. But we have seen a slow positive change of this perception.

exchange4media Staff Sep 30, 2009 12:00 AM

“World over it has been observed that it is better to advertise on vertical ad networks than on a horizontal ad network if the objective is to create brand awareness. This is because on a horizontal ad network one is not sure which sites the ads are being served on. This leads to spillover, which is money down the drain. If a person seeks brand engagement from a user from a specific audience thereby ensuring that there is zero or minimal spill over, then vertical ad networks are the best.”

exchange4media Staff Sep 29, 2009 12:00 AM

The reality is that the world is changing more quickly, more rapidly than we have ever seen before. Digital is becoming omnipresent. The concept of old media is dying. And to be effective, you really have to be across the thinking processes. You need to get your people engaged with what people are doing in the region at a level of excellence. What we are saying is that here is a learning experience – you need to either change the intellectual adopters into real adopters or enhance skill quotient of the real adopters by exposing them to the world’s best practices.

exchange4media Staff Sep 25, 2009 12:00 AM

FM radio has become more interactive now. Earlier, there were a lot of recorded programmes with a certain concepts like the ‘Cibaca Geetmala’… However, now radio has become more of a companion, and with the launch of mobile phones with FM feature, people are beginning to use it as a personal medium. Radio has become a platform for listeners to become involved through increased interactivity; today programming is all about capturing the city vibe.

exchange4media Staff Sep 22, 2009 12:00 AM

In India, today there are huge opportunities in the areas of retail, experiential and digital, and clients are looking for agencies that can offer multiple specialisations and the ability to blend it all effectively around a client need. At iris, we have remained committed to our creative vision of integrated marketing – ‘Media anything, Idea everything’ – combining integrated thinking with some of the best in class retail, digital and promotional activation.

exchange4media Staff Sep 18, 2009 12:00 AM

India is a genuinely free and liberal democracy, which simply means that the news media has to be free and has to go according to its own code of conduct. Anybody who doesn’t believe in that has got it wrong, it’s as simple as that. If India has to remain a free democracy, then the news media has to remain free and has to regulate itself. Nobody can come and tell it what to do, and if anyone has such thoughts, then those thoughts are all wrong. Media will pick up this debate, television shows will continue to run, politicians will speak a few lines, but I firmly believe that nobody can interfere with the freedom of the media, particularly news media.

exchange4media Staff Sep 11, 2009 12:00 AM