I believe nobody is against content regulation, but the difference of opinion is on the mechanism. I am against the view that the Government should have the key for it. I think news broadcasters are capable enough to chalk out a self-control mechanism. In fact, News Broadcasters Association has already made a body under the chairmanship of Justice JS Verma, which keeps guiding the member channels and also has a redressal mechanism. I am also a supporter of clean and responsible journalism, and believe me, the people of this country are mature. The way they oust their leaders in elections, they can also do the same with channels with objectionable content.

exchange4media Staff Sep 4, 2009 12:00 AM

I think we are still very TV-centric and need to grow our capabilities in other disciplines. Also, while we tend to do great work for theme ads, we treat tactical advertising like stepchildren. That’s not how the consumer sees it. We need to handle those with the same love and affection as the theme ads.

exchange4media Staff Aug 28, 2009 12:00 AM

Launching the Red FM brand nationally fulfills our vision of creating the single largest FM network across the country… The rebranding exercise will be comprehensive and incorporate the Red FM DNA into all the other stations in programming style, content, format and presentation, and entails complete re-training of the staff… Nisha Narayanan will now be heading the programming for North, East and West radio stations. I will be looking into the group’s operations as the COO, whereas Shanmugam K will be the CEO.

exchange4media Staff Aug 21, 2009 12:00 AM

There will be more players in future and the share of organised retail will go up. My personal view is that there will be consolidation in the industry and only strong players with good international experience and financial clout will survive. Retailing is a high cost business, because apart from high rentals, there is monies involved in advertising and to engage consumer 36 weeks a year. This could be in any form, be it promotions, consumer convenience, loyalty programmes, etc. Hence, a strategic approach to marketing is required rather than a calendar led marketing.

exchange4media Staff Aug 20, 2009 12:00 AM

Public relations over the years in the western markets have seen PR firms identifying their verticals with specialised resources and teams to cater to the specific niches… The PR industry in India is still media led and has the traditional approach. The expectation from PR is to deliver media coverage, while PR goes beyond media and editorial visibility. Over a period, Rediffusion Public Relations has been working towards changing the perception of PR and expectations of the clients to go beyond just media mileage.

exchange4media Staff Aug 19, 2009 12:00 AM

I expect the days to come to be really exciting. Budgets, agency size, team size, efficacy, conventions, luxury of time, ROI – everything will be questioned. Even without the recession the world has been a bit confused about where advertising and communication should be going. Digital, integration, mobile, new media, social media are words and phrases that have been baffling the pundits for sometime now. The rapidly evolving communication needs has anyway brought a 30-year old network agency and a two-year old independent agency on the same plane.

exchange4media Staff Aug 14, 2009 12:00 AM

We have really rebuilt from Connecturf to Ignitee, and post the re-branding, we have rebuilt the organisation in the last 6-7 – rebuilt it not only in terms of getting people or building business, but in terms of processes, identity, and market share, which is very important. The kind of phenomenal growth seen in Ignitee in the last 6-7 months is by far unparalleled in the digital industry itself. We have seen a 200 per cent jump in nine months’ time and we have seen it with significant new businesses. That has been the Ignitee story.

exchange4media Staff Aug 10, 2009 12:00 AM

The intense competition and the trying times both demand better efficiencies. Looking at the current state of the world economy, even organic growth is not going to be easy. Better financial management would be the key to survive. I am looking at strengthening our online division this year. We plan to open an outdoor division as well, besides aiming for a growth of 25-30 per cent in the current year.

exchange4media Staff Aug 7, 2009 12:00 AM

While the slowdown has had an impact, we are fortunate that in India we have not felt the hit like other parts of the world. From an overall economy standpoint, we are seeing a very healthy growth. But another truth is that the advertising industry in India is not going to grow this year. I am not pretending there is no pain. But while you do what is necessary to deal with the short term pain, you should not take your eyes off from the long-term objectives. The issue is what shape you will be in when the growth curve starts rising again. Because when that happens, we have to ensure that our growth graph is higher than that of the industry’s graph.

exchange4media Staff Jul 31, 2009 12:00 AM

As an industry, we would thrive a lot more if we had one voice when it came to important issues like agency remuneration, pitch fees, even awards. And I am not talking about the ‘fly-by-night’ operators here, but the big guns of advertising. I’m sure everyone has issues. But I’d rather work with the system and address these issues than become a rebel. We also need to be geared to face the digital revolution. We will need people who have different skill sets and aptitude in this context. Mere lip service to this space will not do anymore, we can’t wait for it to hit us, but need to start right now.

exchange4media Staff Jul 24, 2009 12:00 AM

We are very much dovetailing into the general macro economic indicators, which is the growth of the general electronic segment, retiling more disposable income and more easily accessible different platforms. India is one of the markets where home entertainment is still a growing segment and we don’t see that change for the next mid- to long-term.

exchange4media Staff Jul 17, 2009 12:00 AM

We want to be more serious and balanced and go beyond ‘breaking news’. We have a very clear focus on ‘Bharat’, which is distinguished from ‘India’. Most media leaders focus more on ‘India’, which is about 6-8 major cities; the affluent and upwardly mobile people are targeted and the content is advertiser-driven. While I would love to cover the 10 biggest corporates and all the metropolitan cities and their lifestyles, I would also like to cover Rampur, Indore, Kota and the social, political and economic life there.

exchange4media Staff Jul 14, 2009 12:00 AM

Creativity in advertising is not writing a story with a twist in the end. Real creativity is to crack a problem and give a solution that builds value for the client. Real creativity is all about generating relevant insights, breaking barriers and changing human behaviour.

exchange4media Staff Jul 10, 2009 12:00 AM

Advertising was hit by recession badly. We have cut down our advertising budget from Rs 100 crore last year to Rs 50 crore. We are not compromising on our below-the-line (BTL) activities, it remains the same as last year but our above-the-line (ATL) activities have been impacted. We have spent almost Rs 1 crore in the online medium; print and outdoor there is some activity but we have completely cut down television.

exchange4media Staff Jul 8, 2009 12:00 AM

Digital OOH started off in the last one year or so. Though it expands the overall OOH market, it still remains to achieve critical mass. As a medium there is a possibility of interacting with the TG on real-time which needs to be exploited. In large formats we have been hearing a lot of opportunity with blue casting but we haven’t seen much happening on that front.

exchange4media Staff Jul 7, 2009 12:00 AM

Radio has become infotainment now. With competition and so many different contests happening, the winner may just get complete dowry at one go. You can vent your feelings on radio, laugh, listen to music, talk and drive .Radio is cheap and you can carry it anywhere. It is one on one and means different things for different people. Nowadays, jocks want to get into production and TV and work out of prime cities.

exchange4media Staff Jul 3, 2009 12:00 AM

I don’t think recession is fun at all, far from it. I think they are very painful, I don’t think reducing headcount is fun. It can be described any way but that way. It is a difficult time. The prospects of the industry are strong because of different reasons -- globalisation, over capacity and shortage of human capital, internal communication, distribution importance for retailers, CSR, centralisation, rise of new types of country manager -- this is all good long-term stuff. But the short-term is very painful.

exchange4media Staff Jul 3, 2009 12:00 AM

In India, the slowdown has worked for us because we came at a time when the slowdown was just beginning to happen and what it has done is make the clients ask for more accountability and we are the only ones to have the tools that deliver accountability, thus we are actually ahead of our targets and growth is much faster than what we had anticipated.

exchange4media Staff Jun 27, 2009 12:00 AM

We are a drama critic – we are going to have good reviews and bad reviews and that is what people like about content. In Forbes US, hardly an issue goes by when we have not offended some company who is a customer but when you have strong audience, they will come back – CEOs change. I used to be involved in US politics, and I have been subject to some very hard, nasty stories, so when someone calls to complain about something we have written in either print or online, I tell them, I can feel your pain but life goes on, you will survive.

exchange4media Staff Jun 27, 2009 12:00 AM

During the start up, everyone jumps in everything. But now we have put together functional experts. We started putting structures. We identified areas and levels that we needed to build in, and in essence would strengthen the systems. You will see this pan out in the next few months, and each of the core functions would see people coming in different levels. The thought is that essentially it has to be a system-driven company. If you are talking a league, you cannot be driven by individual decisions, there has to be a system and process in place and people have follow tem with conviction.

exchange4media Staff Jun 26, 2009 12:00 AM