Siva's new brew
This week C Sivasankaran was in action as consummate deal maker — he wrapped up a 65.4 per cent equity stake in Barista, the coffee chain from Turner Morrison, for around Rs 30 crore. The rest of Barista’s equity is held by the Tatas. So what plans is he brewing?
Catch C Sivasankaran in one of his introspective moods and ask him whether he made money selling the ISP and broadband business of Dishnet DSL and pat comes the reply.
“It was a no profit-no loss deal. We invested over Rs 320 crore in the business. I sold it for Rs 270. I have no reason to complain.”
Arch-rivals to this 40-plus maverick, Chennai-based businessman, however, insist that he has struck gold. In a cut-throat ISP market, where most other companies are going under, many of them have been forced to sell their business for a song. So Rs 270 crore is nothing to sniff at.
But that is deal-making, Siva sankaran style. You make the big bucks in some, just about recover your money in another but rarely ever lose money (he once told a friend that he has never lost a deal except selling his 10 per cent equity stake in Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Telecom back to him).
This week Sivasankaran was back in action as consummate deal maker — he wrapped up a 65.4 per cent equity stake in Barista, the coffee chain from Turner Morrison, for around Rs 30 crore (Turner Morrison is promoted by the Delhi-based Amit Judge).
The rest of Barista’s equity is held by the Tatas, and Sivasankaran doesn’t make any bones about the fact that Ratan Tata is a good friend. Indeed, industry insiders say the relationship goes much deeper — Sivasankaran functions as an unofficial adviser and is helping Tata execute his ambitious telecom plans.
But if Sivasankaran barges into new businesses he is as ready to shed old businesses with equal elan. Close on the heels of Barista, Sivasankaran also announced last week that he is open to selling his GSM cellular business in Tamil Nadu and Chennai — with a rider: he must get the right price.
As he points out, just before heading out to Frankfurt from Mumbai to attend a meeting: “If someone gives me over Rs 2,000 crore I will surely consider it. I want at least ten times of EBIDA. But the offers are only for Rs 1,000 crore.” He does, however, admit that he is talking to virtually all the top telcos for a deal: Bharti, Hutch and Idea.
For the time being, it’s the coffee business that is attracting Sivasankaran’s attention. So what plans is he brewing? It’s simple: he wants to turn the Barista business strategy on its head.
Under financial strain owing to its expensive, mainly company-owned-outlet expansion strategy, the coffee chain has been shutting down unviable outlets, keeping a close tab on opening new stores and consolidating its business.
But Sivasankaran is preparing for a major expansion, this time through the franchise route. “I will make Barista the Starbucks of India,” he says.
“I want to expand the number of Barista outlets from 100-odd currently to over 3,000 in the next 36 months.There will be a Barista even in Business Standard.” He hopes to invest over Rs 120 crore to bankroll this reality.
He is also keen to turn Barista into an international brand to reckon with: plans are afoot to expand its international operations from three countries to over 100 in the next few months.
That is not the only change that he will bring to the Barista table — he also is preparing a blueprint to expand its menu. Sivasankaran wants to offer a range of snacks that are available in five star hotels only. He sees no reason why falafal or sushi cannot be served at a reasonable price.
Sivasankaran also plans to leverage his coffee-vending business (through the Fresh & Honest brand) which has a large corporate clientele.
For instance, he says, Barista and Fresh & Honest can now make consolidated purchases of coffee beans and the bigger volumes will fetch a better price. And volumes he will surely get: he plans a massive expansion of his vending machines business too, from 1,300 to 6,000 in the next few years.
But he is clear: Barista will continue to be positioned at the upper end of the market (the guy who spends over Rs 100) while the cash generated from Fresh & Honest would be used — well, believe it or not, for charity.
Says Sivasankaran: “We have a turnover of Rs 50 crore from this business and make Rs 12 crore as profit. But this money is for charity to run government schools in Tamil Nadu.”
Whatever the plans, the Barista deal is a good example of Sivasankaran’s business style. He has an uncanny ability to spot a new business (whether it is computers or telecom and coffee) and enter at a time when most others fear to tread.
He builds the business for a few years, creates value and sells it for a profit, moving on to other interests. As a former close associate of Sivasankaran says: “I am sure he already is thinking of a buyer to whom he can sell Barista at a premium.”
Those who know him say that he has two potent weapons in his arsenal. One, he is a tough negotiator who can extract the cheapest price from his vendors or when he is buying a business. Two, he is a maverick who can think out-of-the- box while running his business (he once thought of developing an electronic data machine that would measure a person and send the data electronically to tailors like Saville Row).
Says Pramod Saxena, former head of Motorola India with whom Sivasankaran has undertaken many business deals: “He does his homework before coming to the table, knows the weakness of the guy with whom he is negotiating and is able to drive down prices by promising volumes.”
Saxena says he prefers to pay cash upfront to vendors rather than go for credit lines so that he can negotiate with them from a position of strength.
For instance, Sivasankaran recently negotiated an over 50 per cent cut in equipment prices on behalf of a leading CDMA operator by successfully pitching a US multinational against a European giant.
Says an insider in the deal: “He figured out that the European company was new in the CDMA equipment business and was desperate for orders. So he promised them a large volume and a big entry into India provided they cut prices by more than 50 per cent.” They did and the US multinational had no option but to follow suit in order to get some part of the pan-Indian order.
His ability to rewrite the rules of the game is again reflected in his new telecom venture. Sivasankaran wants to become a pan-Indian provider of Evolution Data Only (EVDO) services — the 3G mobile phones based on CDMA technology that offer data speeds of up to 2 mbps, which is nearly 10 to 20 times faster than the GPRS phones.
That might sound unusual at a time when most mobile operators are concentrating on providing basic voice services. But Sivasankaran thinks that data-only phones can be a hot seller (though the phones will cost over Rs 30,000 a piece) among corporate customers who want to be enjoy the benefit of high data speeds on the move.
And no, he isn’t worried about competing with Reliance which is also planning to offer EVDO. Executives in the company say Sivasankaran has offered to share 15 per cent of the revenue from EVDO services with the government — if they allow him an all-India licence.
That’s not all, incredible as it might sound last forthnight he also applied for GSM licences in eight circles. Wishful thinking, given the crowds in this market? Not for Sivasankaran.
Says K V P Bhaskar, CEO of Aircel, (the company that runs GSM services in Tamil Nadu and Chennai) “We have chosen only those circles where there is a vaccum and the third or fourth player does not exist — like in West Bengal or Himachal pradesh. So there is a market that can be tapped.”
The investment tag for the project: Rs 1,800 crore. Sivasankaran, of course, is unfazed by the project — he might even go in for an IPO to finance it.
Whether he will be able to pull this one through only the next few months will tell. Telecom operators say the reason there are no third or fourth operators in these circles is that there are no subscribers to make the business viable.
But his ability to hit the jackpot is not new. From being a fabricator for Madras Refineries in Chennai Sivasankaran got his first break when he met Robert Amritraj — father of tennis player Vijay Amritraj — in the eighties and bought over their small computer company, Sterling Computers, and virtually changed the rules of the PC business forever.
The strategy was simple: Sivasankaran dropped PC prices by half and introduced his product in March — the peak season for computer sales by companies wanting to take advantage of depreciation norms. He also offered a printer free — a practice unheard-of in the PC business then.
Secondly, in a masterstroke Sivasankaran tied up with Computer Point, the country’s first computer retail mart, to ensure he had an all-India distribution.
Sivasankaran’s strategy catapulted him amongst the top three in the PC business. But he soon realised that competitors were also beginning to drop prices, so he decided to get out. As he said in an interview: “You are in the business to make money, if it doesn’t, close it and get into a profitable venture.”
It was this hunger that brought him into telecom. Sivasankaran sensed that the GSM cellular market would take off, so he shifted base to Delhi in the early nineties and bid for GSM licences that were being offered by the government. But after a protracted legal battle (initially he had won licences in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai) he won the Delhi GSM licence. And in the second round of bidding he picked up three more licences.
But it was the Delhi licence that catapulted him into the big league. Sivasankaran approached an old-time acquaintance in Chennai, Shashi Ruia, and sold the Delhi licence for $150 million (according to telecom industry sources) and there was no looking back.
Says Shashi Ruia chairman of the Essar group: “He was sharp, well informed on telecom and a keen negotiator and a man of honour when the deal was done”.
But many point out that Sivasankaran has singularly failed to develop business and many of his grandiose projects have fallen by the wayside. Says a close watcher: “He is not an organisational man and does not believe in nurturing one at all. He looks at each business for a maximum of five years. So the best talents don’t join him.”
Avers a senior executive of a telecom services company: “There are two views about him. One is that he is a great friend, the other is that he could be a dangerous enemy.”
He also has a string of failed projects. There is, for instance, his aborted attempts to get into the broadcasting business (except as an investor in some channels). Sivasankaran tied the knot with Subhash Chandra’s Essel group to set up a DTH platform — but the project never got off the ground.
He also ventured into an ambitious $1 billion undersea cable project with US-based Tycom from Chennai to Guam. But Bharti had a similar project up and running before Sivasankaran could get in.
That’s only for starters. Telecom analysts say Sivasankaran had also contemplated making a bid on VSNL but withdrew at the last moment. He worked on a project to set up a 2,500- apartment project in Chennai, set up a high-tech chemicals plant in Cuddalore and buy a tungsten manufacturing facility for the defence ministry. But, says a close Sivasankaran watcher, “ all of them were abandoned”.
Ask Sivasankaran and he is unfazed by such criticism. That is understandable for a man whose business philosophy which he shared with a close friend could make most other entrepreneurs sit up with amazement. “I have created wealth on my own and I must enjoy it in this life,” he had said.
And his deals and his network of friends keep him on the move. One day it is Delhi, the next San Francisco, Frankfurt, Zurich. But whether he is in his swanky home in San Francisco (he bought rap singer C J Hammer’s house) or at the presidential suite in the Ritz Carlton in Singapore he’s the same: living life king size and striking king size deals.
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Social Beat wins SEO mandate of Tata CLiQ tag rss
The account was won after a multi-agency pitch
e4m e4m Social Beat has won the SEO mandate for Tata CLiQ, one of the fastest-growing omnichannel marketplace in India. Social Beat has been entrusted with optimizing existing content, as well as launching new, optimized category pages systematically on Tata CLiQ’s platform to scale monthly organic traffic by 2x over the next year. The account was won after a multi-agency pitch and will be serviced by Social Beat’s offices in Mumbai.
Shishir Kataria, Director - Marketing, Tata CLiQ, “Shoppers, e-commerce or otherwise, continue to heavily rely on search and discovery throughout their shopping journey, be it engaging with the latest fashion trends or hunting for the best buys. No wonder a platform's ability to be a part of this journey organically drives significant consideration for it amongst potential shoppers. We, at Tata Cliq, are confident that Social Beat will help us develop and optimise content that is highly discoverable to grow our engagement and revenue. Our goal continues to be to drive more and more shoppers to our platform with optimised and curated products and relevant content.”
Vikas Chawla, Co-Founder, Social Beat said, “We are thrilled to partner with Tata CLiQ in their growth journey. We aim to scale traffic to the Tata CLiQ platform manyfold over the next year. Our team of specialised SEO and Content strategists will be working closely to achieve this”
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ShareWill OOH dazzle this festive season?
As the celebrations begin, experts tell us the trends and challenges for the OOH sector this season
Be it the flower-clad taxis in Mumbai for Made in Heaven Season 2 promotion or Zomato’s ‘kheer mangoge kheer denge’ billboards, India's OOH advertising sector has undergone substantial transformation and expansion in the recent years. Even though the medium was severely hit during the pandemic years, it has now managed to rebuild its status. Now, with the onset of the festive season, elections and the cricket world cup, OOH is expected to see more and more advertisers come on board.
Amarjeet Hudda, Chief Operating Officer, Laqshya Media Group, believes most of the clients spend a lot of money during the festive season, especially for Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali, targeting their customers in a festive mood. The categories that spend heavily during these months are Auto, Consumer Durables, Real Estate, Organised retail, and E-commerce.
According to Dipankar Sanyal of Platinum Outdoor, there was a huge surge in the festive season last year, and he expects the same this year too. “Last four to five years have turbulent for outdoor. It was picking up in 2019, but then Covid came and everything went flat for two years,” he mentioned.
According to EY-FICCI’s M&E Report 2023, OOH media grew 86 percent in 2022 to Rs 37 billion. The value includes traditional, transit and digital media, but excludes untracked unorganised OOH media such as wall paintings, billboards, ambient media, storefronts, proxy advertising.
Sharing the brand’s perspective, Shivam Ranjan, Head of Marketing, Motorola-APAC, said, “We are going into this festive season with a strong mix of media, including OOH. Within OOH, we are focusing on digital OOH, due to its capability of programmatic serving, measurability, and near real-time insights that allow us to be agile with the communication and optimisation of our campaigns.”
With urbanisation, improved infrastructure, rising consumerism and an increased spending power, clients' expectations from OOH advertising too have evolved. “The clients expect better ROI on every investment, best in class innovations, tech-led planning and execution. Today, technology plays an important role starting from planning the campaign, to measuring metrics to ROI,” Singh explained.
Another trend that Sanyal has observed is that traditionally advertisers looked at spending on OOH nearly two weeks prior to the festivities, but now, most advertisers have now started advertising a week earlier so that they can get maximum eyeballs. Additionally, the digital OOH advertising (DOOH) has also emerged big. The digital OOH screens increased to around 100,000 and contributed eight percent of total segment revenues.
“Now with digital, there is more space for advertisers to come in one frame. Because of this, you can see it is getting more attractive. The innovations too are coming in at a much lower cost and creating a greater impact,” shared Sanyal.
The only challenge with the medium, according to Ranjan, is OOH being a fragmented industry with lack of measurability and agility. This becomes a serious issue for ROI-centric brands. However, the growth of DOOH, which is dynamic, agile and measurable, is giving marketers the confidence to invest in the medium backed by relevant data and outcomes.
Adding to this, Hudda highlighted that availability of good media spots is the biggest challenge in this season as media assets are limited and demand is very high. Due to the gap in the festive season, many clients are not able to fully optimise their campaigns. Rather sometimes, clients are even compelled to divert their budget which adversely impacts the industry, he shared.
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Banking on positive consumer sentiment: BFSI optimistic on doubling festive AdEx : Cache
Some categories within the sector, however, may spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season
The BFSI sector is expecting a surge in demand for loan during the festive season and is looking at increasing its ad spends to cash in on the celebration spirit. Industry leaders say they are hopeful of witnessing a good growth in the number of applications for auto loan, home loan, credit card and health insurance during October, November and December due to positive consumer sentiment this year. However, though most of the BFSI players are planning to double their advertising budget this time compared to the previous year, there are some who are not investing too heavily on marketing during the festivals as they plan to save the money for the fourth quarter.
According to Shailendra Singh, MD & CEO, BOB Financial, they witness incremental growth every year during the October-December quarter, and they anticipate an increase in consumer spending as well as new enrolments for cards this year too. “There remains a surge in customer demand for credit during the festive season,” said Singh.
Singh shared that the company is fully geared up for the launch of #FestiveShoppingRewards on all Bank of Baroda credit card variants under the theme ‘Reimagine Festivities’. They would kickstart festive offerings with the start of Navratri.
The festive season does not just see the demand for credit go up, but there is an increase in applications for health and motor insurance too during this time of the year.
Aabhinna Suresh Khare, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer, BajajCapital Ltd, shared that among insurance products, health insurance and motor insurance reign supreme during festivals. According to Khare, the demand for mutual funds and SIPs too sees a hike.
“Overall, the festive season presents an opportune moment to secure insurance coverage. A plethora of attractive products and services are on offer, with financial institutions extending special discounts and promotions to entice new customers,” said Khare.
The company launched #BlessMeGanesha campaign during Ganesh Chaturthi. “Our goal for this festive season is not only to provide financial solutions but also to create memorable experiences and deepen the connection with our customers,” said Khare.
Though all major sectors spend heavily on advertising during the festive season, within the BFSI sector, some categories spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season.
Explaining the trend, Samir Sethi, Head of Brand Marketing, Policybazaar.com, said that the festive season has varying impacts on the BFSI sector. In the banking sector, for instance, the demand for loans surges as many individuals purchase items and undertake home renovations. Conversely, in the insurance category, the festive season doesn't result in significant changes. Instead, the insurance industry experiences its peak season after the festive period, particularly during the fourth quarter of the financial year.
“As the festive season approaches, there is a noticeable increase in car sales though, leading to a surge in the demand for motor insurance. Consequently, we see a significant uptick in the requests for motor insurance policies. During the festive period, there is an upswing in demand for various categories, such as electronics. However, in the insurance sector, this period doesn't significantly affect us, so we don't run specific campaigns targeting festivals. Nevertheless, we do roll out multiple campaigns throughout the year, and some of them may coincide with the festive season,” said Sethi.
According to the TAM AdEx report on BFSI sector across media for H1, the advertising volume of the sector grew on TV, radio and digital, but declined in the print medium. The report indicated that ad impressions on digital saw 91% rise during Jan-Jun '23 over Jan-Jun’22. The increase was 32% for radio and 4% for TV. The ad space of the BFSI sector decreased by 7% in print.
Speaking on media mix, Singh shared that BOB Financial has a good mix of customer segments belonging to Tier I, II and III. So, understanding their needs and preferred form of media channels, the company will reach out to them through relevant media promotions. “For the easy discovery of our offers, we shall have a dedicated offers page with regular promotion of top offers on our social media and other digital channels,” said Singh. Without disclosing the figure, Singh shared that the company’s promotion budget has surely increased from last year and it will be visible through their multi-channel promotional activities.
According to the TAM report, in the BFSI sector, life insurance is the leading category on TV and radio whereas mutual funds is the top category on digital.
Khare highlighted that in recent times, Bajaj Capital has observed a significant growth in audiences on online platforms and the changing preferences of their clientele. “This observation led us to recalibrate our marketing approach, placing a heightened emphasis on digital avenues,” said Khare.
He further added, “Our promotional efforts are primarily digital-focused, accentuating areas like social media engagement, search engine outreach, content-driven marketing, and targeted online advertising. As we approach the festive season, we've fine-tuned our online approach. By harnessing the insights from data analytics, we aim to grasp our clients' needs and inclinations better, ensuring our content is both tailored and pertinent.”
Khare also mentioned that Baja Capital has doubled its advertising budget compared to the previous year.
“This increase in our ad spend signifies our confidence in the opportunities this festive season presents. This impressive surge in our budget allocation underscores our dedication to maximizing the potential of this festive season and driving significant expansion within our business. We firmly believe that this increased investment in advertising will not only elevate our brand presence but also lead to an exceptional uptick in customer engagement and sales.”
For Policybazaar.com, the media strategy primarily involves a blend of television and digital platforms, an approach that has remained consistent in recent years and is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.
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OMD appoints Dileep Raj Singh as Head of Digital for APAC
Singh will report to Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC
OMD has added a Head of Digital (HOD) to its Asia Pacific (APAC) regional leadership team with the hiring of Dileep Raj Singh.
Singh is a digital native and brings with him a wealth of experience across product, media agency and client side in APAC, North America and the United Kingdom. His last 10 years have been spent building diverse digital marketing teams covering areas like performance marketing, digital media planning, ad/martech, product marketing, branding and measurement.
As HOD, he will accelerate OMD’s digital leadership agenda, rooted in helping clients address their business challenges and digital ambitions. He will be supporting OMD’s local teams in APAC on operational excellence, and digital transformation frameworks and roadmaps; and the development and implementation of our digital leadership agenda. He will also be working hand in hand with both our regional and global networks to initiate complementary workstreams for our clients in APAC.
“We will continue to invest and win in digital as part of our wider goal to be our clients’ most trusted business transformation partner,” said Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC.
“It is our global ambition to continue our leadership position in digital, data and technology. In line with this ambition, we are excited to have Singh come on board the OMD APAC leadership team. His background of agency, in-house and start-up experience position him perfectly to understand and address our clients’ business needs,” added Lee.
“Digital media and access to our audience, as we know it, is changing quite rapidly around us. This puts most of us in a delicate but remarkable position, a position from which we can shape and contribute to conversations about the next evolution of digital media. As we embark on this journey, I want to leverage the strength of the OMD network – people, technology, data, tools and platforms – to help our clients pivot and navigate through all the new and evolved possibilities in digital media. With this, I aim to position OMD as an unrivaled partner for our current and future clients; to dominate and succeed in this incredibly competitive and multifarious digital realm,” said Singh.
Singh will report to Lee, and work closely with the team including Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), David McCallen, and Chief Client Officer (CCO), Sadhan Mishra, to drive and support APAC local markets as well as regional clients on digital, data and technology needs.
Mishra was promoted to CCO of OMD APAC recently in June 2023. He will continue to be CEO of OMD Singapore, a position he was promoted into last August. Mishra has been with OMD for over 13 years and in his concurrent new role as CCO, he will focus on key client relationships, understanding their business needs and ensuring we remain a critical partner on their transformation journeys.
McCallen was elevated to the role of CSO of OMD APAC in April 2022, and was previously the CSO of OMD New Zealand for five years where he helped the agency to attain the top place in the market for new business, overall billings and award wins. Since starting in the APAC role, his focus has been on connecting and elevating strategic best practices across the region, building capabilities across a range of strategic outputs, and supporting new business growth both regionally and locally.
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Chandrayaan 3: Brands over the Moon
Some of the best moment marketing posts on India's crucial lunar mission
The nation is in a celebratory mood with its moon mission Chandrayaan 3 making its smooth landing on the lunar surface on the evening of August 23, 2023. The Pragyan rover is in pursuit of discovering water on the moon and is a vital feat for India's ambitious space research.
To celebrate this momentous episode in Indian space research history, netizens have taken to the internet to express their excitement, hopes and fears for the nation's lunar mission. Joining them are brands who have crafted creatives to mark the historic occasion and capture the emotions of the nation who have their eyes set on the moon. Here is our pick of some of the best Chandrayaan 3-moment marketing posts.
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BCCI rakes in Rs 4670 cr in Women's Premier League team auction: Jay Shah 26 Jan
WPL has broken the inaugural auction record of Men's IPL in 2008, tweeted Shah
As expected, Wednesday turned out to be another historic day in Indian women's cricket with BCCI having a windfall gain of Rs 4,600 crores by auctioning five team franchises for the first season, a higher sum compared to what men’s IPL franchises offered to the cricket body during the launch in 2008.
Adani, IndiaWin Sports, Royal Challengers, GSW- GMR cricket and Capri Global have won the bid, BCCI secretary Jay Shah tweeted.
Shah shared in a series of tweets, “Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of inaugural #WPL broke the records of the inaugural Men's IPL in 2008! Congratulations to the winners as we garnered Rs.4669.99 Cr in total bid.”
“This marks the beginning of a revolution in women's cricket and paves the way for a transformative journey ahead not only for our women cricketers but for the entire sports fraternity. The #WPL would bring necessary reforms in women's cricket and would ensure an all-encompassing ecosystem that benefits each and every stakeholder.”
“The @BCCI has named the league - Women's Premier League (WPL). Let the journey begin…”
The country's top corporates had bid aggressively for the league. Over 16 groups including IPL franchise owners, Adani group, Torrent and Haldiram were believed to be in the fray.
Given the popularity of IPL in India, the event is touted to be a big draw for all stakeholders involved.
The BCCI was reportedly expecting ₹4,000 crore gain through team auction.
It’s noteworthy that Viacom18 has won the Women's IPL media rights for Rs 951 crore for the next five years creating euphoria around the league whose first season will be held in March.
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