"The next big step for Aegis Group in India will be to relaunch Posterscope. This time though we are going to relaunch Posterscope as an independent discipline. The OOH market in India is still very fragmented and I think it is going to take a long while before any measurement system comes into place. So, the key thing for Posterscope will be not only to prove that it can bring in all the modern technologies with regard to digital screens, but also convince clients to go for larger campaigns. Secondly, Posterscope will aim to consolidate the fragmented market with alliances and mergers."

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

In many ways, advertising awards, especially the international ones, are like p*****g in a dark suit. No one notices, but you feel damn good with the release. However, the most dangerous fallout of this is that today agencies are increasingly populated by young creative guys who don’t know how to create for the markets, their only concern is pushing the boundaries of lateral thinking in splendid oblivion.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

"The readers market in this country (India) will grow substantially in the coming years and that is a huge opportunity for us. Magazines have a chance in this country to even be something like a status symbol. It is the size of the market in this country that is very promising. A niche market in India is bigger than the whole of Switzerland! We can one day get very significant circulation figures and advertising revenue from the Indian market."

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

The importance of a media agency in delivering a strategic output for brands or media planning has increased in the eyes of the client significantly in the last few years… Media function is the repository of all research that is done in India, and we as media agencies are at a position where we can value add to the brand planning much more than a creative person… We need to market ourselves better… We need to give media prominence, which is happening gradually, but needs to be escalated. Our time will come very soon.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

Experiential marketing is a very general concept. It is a broad-based orientation. It does not work better or worse for certain types of categories. The touch points may be different, the way we create the experience may be different, but the most important thing about this is that it is a way of rethinking how marketing and management is done. It focuses on the customer rather than focus on the internal operations of the products. It is always important to understand the customer. So, you need customer research, and not just the traditional focus groups.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

Almost everything will be digital in 10 years' time, I think it will continue to grow. The end to the growth will be when everything will turn digital. The funny part is that some of the growth is mostly underestimated, because people always looked at shared advertising spend, which is all very little. Therefore, you need transformation of the whole media environment into a digital eccentric one, with the digital growing significantly.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

There is always scope for improvement, and in Doordarshan’s case, there certainly is a case for improvement. We have made some changes recently, walked some distance, but these are early days. Not withstanding the constraints, I am quite hopeful that as time passes we should be making the forward movement more distinctly. But yes, we have to pull up our socks, we have to work harder, be more imaginative and more alert and sharp, and we are working towards that.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

Cannes is important because it means international recognition, but I have a problem with some people, who do not understand your culture, sitting and judging work and saying which is good or which is bad. It is very easy to create an ad for a small section of people. To my mind, the challenge that we Indians face is creating advertisements for one billion people, which these judges cannot relate to. Not too many people face the challenge that we encounter.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

We are focused on what the consumers want and how to deliver that. The screens are incidental, it happens to be our delivery medium. Someday we won't have screens. Our whole business is based on consumer engagement. We believe that people don't sit and stare at screens while shopping. It's not about eyeballs, but engagement.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

At present, if there is potential, it is in the Asian market. The main reason is that this is the one market where we have found independent marketing communications companies that have shown the ability and the business model to go international. It is time for Indian firms go international. India has the potential to go global and that is really exciting for us as we have the expertise to help the independent firms find the right partners. Another point is that the rest of the world is very open to Indian companies.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

Pitch fees are not the solution, even if you mandate it. Even if it becomes mandatory for the agency to charge pitch fees, it is not going to solve the problem. The problem is going to be solved when agencies come to realise that they are a business and profession that has a value attached to it and they must not discount that value. So, the value of the business is more important than the implementation of pitch fees.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

Pitch fees are not the solution, even if you mandate it. Even if it becomes mandatory for the agency to charge pitch fees, it is not going to solve the problem. The problem is going to be solved when agencies come to realise that they are a business and a profession that has a value attached to it and they must not discount that value. So, realising the value of the business is more important than the implementation of pitch fees.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

I am very happy with the Indian business. It is doing brilliant financially. Perception always lags reality and it was the case with Euro globally as well. What I heard about us four years back versus what people have to say now is very different. So, that would overcome itself so long as we keep doing the right things – that is, getting new businesses, doing great work – and it would be fine. We are very focussed. We have a brilliant manager there in Suman. We are looking at how we accelerate our growth curve by getting more talent on board and by acquisition of companies.

exchange4media Staff Sep 17, 2008 12:00 AM

We feel that today the middle class has truly emerged in India. The Indian woman is ready to take on challenges and be independent. We are sure that we will achieve our targets by growing at a pace far more accelerated than ever before. We have seen double digit growth and we expect this trend to continue this year as well. We have invested substantially in India and view the country as one of the strongest emerging markets in Asia.

exchange4media Staff Sep 15, 2008 12:00 AM

Today, it is not possible for a radio station to survive if it is producing niche content. We did start it in Bangalore, but it did not work. Within six months of operations, we migrated to ‘only Kannada’ format. Everybody followed us after that. In Chennai, from the very beginning the brand positioning of Mirchi has been as a complete Tamil channel and that has worked wonders for us.

exchange4media Staff Sep 2, 2008 12:00 AM

Cricket will always remain at the top because in India, we are exposed to the game from childhood. There is mass interest in cricket, and it is a reflection of the changing demographics of the country… (however) We have realised that there is a niche community of people who like to watch certain sports that are not common likings for everybody… Our attempt is to broaden our sports offering vis-à-vis other channels.

exchange4media Staff Sep 2, 2008 12:00 AM

If one takes into account that the time is not too far when the medium can interact with the TG on a real-time basis thanks to Bluetooth/IR technology, it would offer results that could be tracked and passed on to clients. In that sense, OOH has stormed their bastion and is able to offer ROI that is measurable. It is, therefore, not surprising that you now see a lot many brands hitherto focussing on ATL apportioning a major chunk of their advertising monies on OOH.

exchange4media Staff Aug 4, 2008 12:00 AM

We do not sell our products through the catalogue; we first let our consumers use the product and then let them decide to do the purchasing. At Mary Kay, we completely refrain from forced selling. As consultants, we might not make the money today, but due to their trust in us and by not being pushy in selling, we believe that the customer would return to us one day.

exchange4media Staff Jul 23, 2008 12:00 AM

Listeners are not annoying, but they are persistent. ‘Patience’ is the mantra. As a radio jockey one has to keep in mind the fact that a listener is not aware of the fact that we receive dozens of calls every single minute. He or she calls because they feel so close to the jock and want to speak their hearts out. Can’t break the listener’s heart just because we are running out of patience.

exchange4media Staff Jul 16, 2008 12:00 AM

The core proposition of ibibo.com, as we define it, is that it ‘a local social utility that enables you to discover new people’. There are numerous local social utilities available on ibibo that drive creation, collaboration and hence, discovery of new people. ibibo.com has been able to craft these social utilities into the social graph, thereby giving the applications viral power.

exchange4media Staff Jul 8, 2008 12:00 AM