Skip to content


ad:tech New Delhi 2012: Speakers and participating brands announced

ad:tech New Delhi 2012, the digital marketing, media and advertising event to be held in February, has announced a line-up of its first three panel tracks on Brand Strategy, Performance and Venture Capital.

Sharing his views on the panel discussions announced so far, Rammohan Sundaram, event chairman, ad:tech India and founder, chief executive officer and managing director, Networkplay Media, said, “Panel discussions spur great creative brainstorming and often yield innovative solutions to issues at hand. We have handpicked a roster of industry leaders from India who will add immense value to the ad:tech event brand that matches our global reputation as the world’s leading digital marketing event. We had earlier announced a dazzling preview of some of our keynote speakers from PepsiCo, LinkedIn, comScore, The Times Group and Ogilvy, and will be soon announcing more exciting panels and presentations.”

The ‘Brand Strategy’ track will comprise of two panel discussions featuring speakers from brands including Coca-Cola India, HUL, MAX, LG Electronics India, Google India, Bharti Airtel and MTV India. The first panel discussion in this track will focus on leveraging digital to pushing the industry to invest in ideas. Moderated by Harish Bahl, founder and chairman, Smile Group, this panel will include LK Gupta, chief marketing officer, LG Electronics India, Gaurav Seth, senior vice president, marketing and communications, MAX, and Arun Sharma, vice president, marketing – head, Media and Rural, Bharti Airtel.

With more and more brands doubling up to play the role of publishers, the second panel discussion, moderated by Ravi Kiran, former chief executive officer, South Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group, will explore how branded content can be combined with a killer marketing strategy. Panelists in this session will include Wasim Basir, director, Integrated Marketing Communication, Coca Cola India and South West Asia; Atit Mehta, country media manager, Hindustan Unilever Limited; Nikhil Rungta, country marketing head, Google India; and, Aditya Swamy, executive vice president and business head, MTV India.

Under the track ‘Performance’, the panel session titled, ‘Performance Marketing: Display Matters’ will be moderated by GroupM South Asia’s managing partner, Tushar Vyas, will look at how new display optimisation technologies and next-generation ad exchanges are offering fresh take on display advertising that historically lacked the targeted pricing, placement, and ROI of Search. Insightful views will also be shared by industry stalwarts including Anisha Singh, founder and chief executive officer, mydala.com, Robbie Hills, head of Media Technology – South East Asia and India, Head of Rich Media – Asia Pacific, Google Inc., Gulshan Verma, vice president and country head – India and North America, Komli Media, and Karan Gupta, managing director, Affinity.

The second panel in this track will be themed on ‘Retargeting/Remarketing’ and will feature Siddharth Puri, business head, Tyroo Direct and Gourav Chindlur, co-founder and chief operating officer, Vizury, who will delve into getting the right returns on paid search and SEO through technology with a clear call to action for consumers.

The third track is titled ‘Spotlight’ and features an array of speakers on venture capital. Since digital marketing is still in its early years in India, angel investors play a crucial role in giving the right launch pad to enterprising start-ups. This panel discussion will explore the importance of angels for developing strong businesses that make great venture capital investments. It will showcase views from Alok Mittal, managing director, Canaan India, Samir Kumar, managing director, Inventus, Sarbvir Singh, managing director, Capital18, Vinay Sanghi, promoter and chief executive officer, MXC Solutions and Sateesh Andra, venture partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ).

Posted in Advertising, Branding (personal), digital, Mobile Advertising, social media.

Tagged with , , , , , .


ad:tech New Delhi – an event for digital marketers

Till last year India’s digital fraternity used to attend ad:tech a global digital marketing event away from India. It is a place for the digital marketing professionals to get a sense of what is happening and how technology is changing and the way brands are positioning themselves with an increasing digital mass audience, but this changed with the 1st edition in New Delhi last April. The event is a brand in itself with a decade of keeping abreast of the changes happening in the technology side of business and marketing and has been in the forefront leading the challenge in the internet and digital industry.

At the inaugural Indian edition, we saw some of the best technology in practice being displayed and some of the innovations showcased on internet and mobile and digital as a whole. India with its ever increasing internet population which at presently an estimated 120 Million active users and fast growing into the largest medium to which advertisers can target their marketing communication. The challenge it proposes is the interactivity and the closeness, in social media front has been a steep learning curve. Brands will have to go social and be in the midst of the mind space with more time spent on the Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. The content has become the king and for brands the first time it has given them an opportunity to own the content as media itself.

The event also brought into light how technologists are turning creative directors with creative and engaging mobile applications and augmented reality making its presence in the traditional domain. A great amount of exposure and learning is in store at ad:tech New Delhi where the best of technology brands and marketing case studies are shared with the audience. Thus making it possible for others in the digital space to embrace the technical knowhow and exploit it to engage with the consumer, be it on social, search or mobile.

It’s a new era where marketing meets technology is the buzzword and ad:tech is poised to take it to the next level in India. Mobile with its penetration and mass reach will also be a challenge for brands to engage effectively. The smart phones which are growing fast with the prices going south and features being loaded by the minute will soon become the most important medium. Mobile applications fondly called apps are changing the way people use their phones from being a simple communication device to an engaging branding console. Getting to make the best use of the technology and the latest in location based services which is making a lot of advancement in making a connect to the user at a particular location making him glocally available for brands to communicate.

So the game is on the most empowered consumer today because of his being connected and  internet being available on multiple platforms the desktop, his laptop, the mobile and the all new internet powered TV. Following him wherever he goes and that too without being seen as intrusive, a marketing miracle which will be a success to replicate.

So, while the reach of the digital has removed the concept of “distance” with a keystroke or a touch, it’s never been more important to physically connect with friends, colleagues, business associates, trade journalists and the growing base of marketing experts that have come to represent ad:tech’s expanding network.

With such a background, ad:tech New Delhi’s 2nd edition in February 2012 will be a platform for all stakeholders to get updated, share, network and do business.

R Senthilkumar

Posted in Advertising, Branding (personal), Management, Mobile Advertising, social media.

Tagged with , , , , .


Welcome 2012! Will it be Red Bull’s run this time too?

(Thats Me with Daniel Ricciardio at RBR Speed Street in Delhi!)

I am keeping a promise that I made to myself and this is a beginning of writing about the F1 Teams and the drivers regularly. This year the F1 circus is going to be really huge and we can start imagining that there will be a real contest on the cards. Unless of course that the guys at McLaren and Ferrari don’t take themselves seriously.

The way the seats got filled so early is a good pointer, there are at least a couple of seats undecided as I write this, nevertheless its a heave of sigh for quite a young set of people and of course quite an old set of people – read Pedro La Rosa it is now a settled affair.

The most important point here would be that its is becoming a sort of champions round akin to what we have in our National Racing Championship. All the champions are there when you have Kimi also joining in, it will be fun to watch. I am only sad that Adrian has not been confirmed yet and would be forced to comment if they came together at a corner or if any of them were to be racing together at some point in a race. I wish Webber and Massa also had a chance to be champions so almost half of the grid would be champions.

Now lets see how they stack up, Red Bull  remains the same team, and we should only be looking at their style and they can be a great team in the making, I am talking long term. If one team which has the potential to be a threat to Ferrari fan base in the long run without being in the motorsports business, trust me it could be only Red Bull. Not because I was the official blogger, but you should know the branding that Red Bull is capable of and how they were on top in both the forms of racing today – the circuit and the forests, I mean the racing and the rallying they have been there. They are building a loyal fan base, if you have doubt check out their Facebook page with 25 million likes and almost a million people talking about it.

Just check out this article which underlined how Red Bull has now really become the content and media in a way that they are doing a great job of most importantly selling the energy drink. I have been associated with the brand up close, and some of the branding association and the branding on ground is pretty close to the energy drink literally. Take the case of the Red Bull Racing Cans, the students get to make cars out of Red Bull cans and get to do a race like event with trials, qualifying and the race. For the first time when I watched, I didnt know they had a final with all the cars on the grid! In a way as one participant pointed out you had to control the remote very well and aerodynamics can wait, still it was fun to see the cars going all over and you know how they get stuck in a corner and et all. And there are appeals to the Marshals and Chief stewards after the results are announced.

Then the best one happened when I was with Team Red Bull Racing at Khardung La, running an F1 car at 18,380 feet above MSL to be precise is not everyone’s idea of owning an F1 team. Here’s how they make themselves heard and they are loud about that when they do it.

To top it all they had their Kart Fight this season in India. Its a nice way to be there, and I know for sure what they are capable of, setting the trend as they did a few weeks before the Inaugural GP blazing the road at the India Gate.

Once Yohann Setna in a conversation long ago had said, ‘You wont be surprised if you can see Red Bull on anything that moves, motorsports in particular, and most important they have only one product!’

If you can add up all these, they are slowly building up the momentum to be the franchise that everyone would want to associate with. And you can easily do it with so much of action on the ground and off the ground, at the races, rallies and even in the Himalayas!

On the other hand they have a formidable Young Drivers Program, and that’s getting really into the mode. Daniel Ricciardio who will drive for STR is a Red Bull prodigy in their terminology. You get to be the best under Red Bull.

Now back to the teams, Mc Laren and Ferrari  have so much at stake atleast start pretneding to be guys, and make a match, while 2011 was boring except a couple of races, we need to see some down to the last race happening this year in 2012. Would be interesting to see someone fail me in that aspect.

Button will continue in his form and Lewis will try a resurrection from the bad times he has had on track and his personal life. Fernando and Massa will be watched eagerly by all the F1 fans and that eventually means Ferrari fans at large.

Then there is Mercedes, with Schumi and Nico they are trying hard and probably they were the ones who tried hard last year. Lotus Renault, we can call them with full honours with the other Renault becoming Caterham, will love to see them challenge the guys on top. Will wait to see  how Kimi a part owner too, will play his part and make it happen, we are for sure in for some real fast entertainment. The Iceman is back as an owner/driver at Lotus Renault.

Down the order we have, Force India – Sahara Force India to be honest, only wondering if the Kingfisher’s problem should not rub off on to the team, its been an excellent progress to date for the team. Though I would have loved this team to have an Indian driver in Narain or Karun, I am sceptical of Mallya approving my idea. On that front, I think the erstwhile Lotus Renault did make us look bad when they didnt put Karun in for Indian race giving Mallya a big boost for his idea of Indian drivers not being upto the mark.

Then there is Williams, where are the glorious days Mr. SFW? But I have the highest regards for such an independent team on the grid, lets hope they get some pace and make themselves heard.

Sauber, our Amul’s Brand car if I may call it and then HRT, STR and Marussia to complete the list.

Personally sad to see Sir Richard Branson leave, he is my entrepreneurial hero away from the tech world.

Will write about the teams and the drivers in details in the posts to come.

Till then signing off!

R Senthilkumar

(Indian F1 fan)

Posted in Branding (personal), Just about it, Motorsports, social media.

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , .


Sporting Moments – F1 Indian Inaugural GP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first Indian Grand Prix had so much in stake for itself. The advertisement or the bad PR of Common Wealth has not been erased from the memory of the public. As the preparations were going on at a racy speed came the Supreme Court order that they move  25% of the ticket sales to a separate bank account till they decided if the sporting event needed a tax cut.

Cut to the party after the successful hosting of the Indian Grand Prix which was attended by the most venerated person Sachin Tendulkar, in a country where Cricket is a religion and God decided to witness the race, it was only fitting that he waived the chequered flag.

One of the most interesting takeaways of this whole exercise is that it has been able to showcase India as a wonderful tourist destination. !ncredible India was bang on as one driver after another went gaga about the Taj, the roads, the food, the pretty Indian women and ofcourse the rickshaw or the tuk-tuk.  Sebastian Vettel has vowed to learn the most important words in Hindi so that he would be able to impress a few charming godess as he put it the next time he is in Delhi.

It opened vistas for a lot of event management people albeit only for the month still it did give rise to hope for better days in the near future. The people who had sold their land in the meanwhile had made a killing and are living a luxurious life thanks to this F1 venture of Jaypee.

The success had its effect and it was not without reason. It was a show case par excellence in terms of private party holding an event of this magnitude. For all of us having to tend to disagree with what government working can be like this event with such mass gathering of over 1 lakh plus apart from the volunteers and the men working around the clock to ensure a great event was like raising hope over something’s that we normally don’t take for granted.

It also underlined that the public private partnerships, thought the government was  not directly involved, can work wonders for the sports. With the unveiling of the track we have already seen Mercedes open a training academy that’s the first here and third after Germany and China. So it would only spur the motorsports fraternity to test waters and make it a global hub.

It was also nice to see two support races in MRF Championship and JK Tyre Asia Series where all the future racers gave a shot to their dreams not withstanding the machinery they had was not that great, but the spirit was there for all to see. The next year the machine will be all the more bigger and better.

It has also opened up the newly christened iSeries on the lines of the IPL, which has already got enough of media attention and has lined up more almost all the franchise as I write this, the reason is very clear – the series has two of its races at Buddh International Circuit.

Also be rest assured that there will be a lot of Karting races happening and you can actually scout for some new venues which will come up in the days to come since that is the basic breeding ground for kids to enter racing early in their life. Force India already ran a One in a Billion in 7 cities and now Red Bull is doing a Kart Fight in 4 cities.

On a large level the economic benefits of this is yet to be realized to its full potential, while the racing weekend can rake in a lot of tourist and makes for a good tourist festival, the motorsports as an industry will only thrive with so many brand getting into the sponsorship arena.

Take the case of Amul, which partnered Sauber for a one off race sponsorship, gives ample scope for the brands to think global starting with such associations. The other brands like Vodafone and Renault already having tasted the success of being a part of F1 circus will increase their spend to better it the next time. But if you ask me the one brand which walked laughing all the way to the branding bank was Airtel. It made a kill with a branding by being the presenting  sponsor – Airtel Indian grand Prix and the rest was history. And I like it when you have two of the most competitive brands in Airtel and Vodafone vying for your  mindspace.

So the race has already got cracking with the calendar for next year. With such economic benefits the brands will only be ready not to miss the ship this time.

Posted in Advertising, Motorsports.

Tagged with , , , , , .


2011 biggest Logo changes!


Source: WhatsOutt.com

Posted in Advertising, Branding (personal), Just about it, Mobile Advertising.

Tagged with , .


ad:tech New Delhi 2012 gets bigger, better and bolder

Announces two more industry heavy weights as keynote speakers along with the global execs from PepsiCo and comScore

ad:tech, world’s No.1 Digital Marketing, Media and Advertising event, has announced that the upcoming event in February next year will live up to its promise of being bigger and better. The first Indian edition of ad:tech held earlier this year was hugely oversubscribed with as many as 2500 delegates attending the event. With the promise of getting bigger, better, and bolder, the second edition will feature more number of tracks and sessions in the conference, a larger exposition area, and will be held over three days instead of two days. ad:tech New Delhi 2012 will also showcase more than 80 industry stalwarts as speakers, including 7 ground breaking keynotes.

ad:tech New Delhi has announced a lineup of  global thought leaders as keynotes for the 2012 edition including Shiv Singh, Global Head of Digital, PepsiCo Beverages and Gian M. Fulgoni, Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, comScore, Inc. Arvind Rajan,  Managing Director & Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan, LinkedIn, and Kent Wertime, Chief Operating Office, Ogilvy Asia Pacific and also President and Representative Director, Ogilvy & Mather (Japan) K. K.

Commenting on ad:tech New Delhi 2012 Rammohan Sundaram, Event Chairman, ad:tech India and Founder, CEO & Managing Director, Networkplay Media Pvt Ltd. said “Just like the last edition, we promise to make ad:tech New Delhi 2012 a confluence of leading global digital marketing experts. The event will cater to the best in marketing, advertising, digital, media and communications industries to empower organizations with knowledge to adapt to the ever changing digital marketing ecosystem. With continued growth in technology and use of social media, the event will present an interactive platform for marketers to discuss and share strategies that will shape the digital landscape of tomorrow.”

The agenda for ad:tech New Delhi 2012 includes two parallel tracks of insightful panel discussions with 18 sessions conducted by experts from the advertising, media and marketing industry. “It is ad:tech New Delhi’s earnest attempt to provide an ideal networking platform for like-minded professionals to facilitate meaningful conversations to explore new avenues in the digital advertising arena,” adds Ram.

The last edition in April 2011 included presentations by global experts like Babs Rangaiah, VP Global Communications Planning Unilever, Yahoo’s CMO, Elisa Steele, Google’s India MD, Rajan Anandan, among several others. It was at ad:tech New Delhi 2011 that David Fischer, VP of Advertising and Global Operations officially announced that the social networking site Facebook had crossed 25 million users in India.

 

Posted in Advertising, Just about it, Mobile Advertising, social media.

Tagged with , , , .


I am not 24… by Sachin Garg Book Review

As the book arrived, I was looking at the cover, already familiar with the image, I was expecting a college fest and a romantic saga and may be some fashion statement to be made. To start with this is a story of a girl and slice of her first career spanning over 3 months or so.

As I started reading the first few pages, it was a bit different in the sense the narrator of the story herein Saumya lands up at a Steel Plant, for her first job after her MBA. Thus the setting had gone for a toss for Saumya who had thought of a corporate career in a five star setup or atleast in a city environment. So welcome to Toranagallu.

Once there, she is taken by surprise at the being so rural and has no choice but to appreciate the positives wherever she could think about. She has no other go but decides to make amends and starts liking the place on some of the most appreciable things she comes face to face in life.

At her age and in a male dominated workplace, she is a sort of out of place. She takes the challenge head on and makes head turn literally at all places so much so at one instance a worker fatally falls in Sulphuric acid.  The storyline also has some characters in Malappa, Amit and her boss.

Another character who influences Saumya is one Shubro who she accidentally meets when she is on her leisure trip to Hampi. Though we get to see some glimpses of Shubro at their meeting and a bit of his past, it is not until he comes into her life while she decides to quit the company.

What we see in the rest of the story is a blossoming and untold love between these two and may they think the other would make the first move.

In all this there are characteristic display of wantonness of being the person they are, the author takes liberty in portraying their weakness too.  On the other side he makes it up with some of the most positives we tend to normally ignore because we take them for granted or may be we see it as we already knew this person was going to be so.

Saumya gets a chance to impress her peers as also Shubro in his time at the social club when he changes the life of almost 10,000 people in this tiny village in Karnataka.

Shubro lives by what he calls ‘Lets move on’ theory a fascinating aspect in reality because we would love to do it, and it keeps him from staying at one place, but as we see it it clear in the later part, he is there to make the change that he wants.

So we get to see how they were so close yet far.

In the end we get to see Saumya make up her mind and taking off to live what Shubro had believed in as his dream and reality.

Its a fast paced book, but then there are breaks which the reader doesn’t quite expect, the blog at the end is a bit long, and thats too late for the reader to say something so important about the character.

A nice read and I dont know if the readers think the characters are different from who they are since all the youngsters, given a chance could tread Saumya’s path without blinking an eye.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

Posted in Book Reviews, Books Reading / Read, Just about it.

Tagged with , , , , .


Qutub Minar in B&W!

Qutub Minar is old and so thought of rendering it in B&W! and here’s the album!

 

Qutub Minar in Black & White

And the slide show here for you:

Posted in Just about it, Photography.

Tagged with , , .


India Gate in all its splendour

So to my new found love, photography goes this post! Tried my hand at India Gate in the night, not bad I shud say!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s the slide show:

 

Posted in Just about it, Photography.

Tagged with , , .


Airtel Indian Grand Prix made history…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, the inaugural Airtel Indian GP was a run away success by any international standards. It has been in the waiting for almost three years and we were still unsure of how it was going to unfold given the niceties that we encounter with a popular government issuing diktats to the organizers everytime something big was going to happen.

Ask Narain Karthikeyan who was all smiles after his completing the full race without any hitch, it was surreal as he had quoted. It was always a ‘will this ever happen in India’ question for people like him. They had their reasons, Narain the pioneer in F1 in India broke many a shackles when he became the first F1 driver in 2005 with Jordan F1. It was a result of his commitment, unwavering confidence that led him to his seat, not to miss the sponsors who saw the potential in his abilities.

Things had changed fast after that, the Indian GP dream was unfolding and it was almost three years of waiting for the calendar to be finalized and what we saw when it was unveiled was really the best of infrastructure and a track the country could be proud of. It was a great moment for us when the country stood for the National Anthem before the race started.

It was also a great moment when we saw Narain Karthikeyan race for HRT though it was one off race. The car had Hero (Hero Motocorp) written on the rear wing, and Narain was the Hero in fact of this show. Karun who was also expected to race had a disappointment at the last moment and it was really tough for the Indian fans to miss another Indian on the grid. F1 has been a business driven sport and it can hand harsh and stricter business decisions like this one.

Micheal Schumacher and Narain won the crowd as one commentator said Vettel too deserved the applause and the standing that Schumacher and Narain rightly deserved.

So the Friday we could see that the place was dusty and the rack was dirty when the first MRF Championship support race started, Hormadz Sorabjee tweeted saying its so dirty and the cars are all over the track.

So this being a new track and like someone in my stand said, this has been a [addy field so you are bound to see lot of dust.

The big moment was the first practice and literally a dog had its day when it forced a red flag. Welcome to Indian GP and the first red flag was due to a stray dog on the track and it took almost five minutes to actually drive it off the track.

As the laughter subsided there were talks about how even Turkey had its dog moment. But in Indian context this was not a big deal if you ask me. Its not uncommon that we find animals in the roads on a lighter note.

The drivers said the same thing, its like very tough and very dirty and you had to take the racing line and you miss it the track will punish you for that. But over all they had praise for the track and new challenge for them and it was a proud moment for the Jaypee Group and thye had definitely put India on the world sporting map. Some lessons for the govt how a private enterprise can pull off such a big event given the much needed logistic support. You will fail if you don’t praise the road leading to the track I am sure the people who drove would have touched easily the max on their car without any problem, this road Yamuna Expressway was a track for the driver in you. The road signs had the people drive in perfectly to the destination.

Ofcourse the final day and the second day the traffic woes did remain a matter of concern since all roads were leading to the track. These are early days and the organisers will ofcourse look into the issues in the long term.

As the Friday practice concluded there was a big sigh of relief for everything went well no hccups no untoward incidents except ofcourse a Marussia Virgin car was involved in a crash when the rear suspension gave way.

The Qualifying was a good one with Red Bull team making it known that they were very much in the business after having collected both the trophies for themselves, the drivers and constructors championship. On the other hand the race for the second place in driver’s championship was going to be really competitive with Webber, Button and Alonso and Hamilton in the fray.

In the end Red Bull making it to the pole was sweetest moment for me as a Red Bull Official Blogger and ofcourse we did see the P1 stance from Sebastian Vettel. It is ofcourse a bit boring since nobody is challenging that anyways, still I did predict this quite long back. It was a matter of fact that the track would easily help the reigning champions.

As we would close the day, the Indian star Narain Karthikeyan would have a bit of disappointment when he was penalized for blocking Schumacher on his flying lap, Narain commented ‘there is just a single racing line, how will we give in?’ it didn’t earn him anything better and the race day he started last.

It was an anticlimax again when he started last from the grid. But on the drivers parade he led form the front and the crowd were all smiles and were cheering him as he strode gallantly in a classic vintage and the other drivers followed suit. It was great to see them in nice vintage cars. The loudest of cheers was reserved for guess who, Micheal Schumacher. I would love to put on record we grew up with F1 knowing his exploits on track and F1 for quite some time was Micheal Schumacher and now turning to be Sebastian Vettel, the common factor that they share being German nationals.

The race was a great starter akin in a dinner course, but it was going to be expected result when Sebastian Vettel went on to make the historic win for the inaugural Indian GP. It’s going to be in the history book of motorsports for ever. That’s what every driver looks to do and Sebastian was perfect that weekend. Narain finished 17th in what he could term as the historic moment for Indian motorsports in front of a home crowd and in front of his family to be precise. All his family had come to watch him race in India a moment we had all been waiting for.

The race winner Sebastian Vettel received the trophy from the Honourable Chief Minister Mayawati.

Absolutely perfect weekend no issues to ponder, on the track and kudos to Team Jaypee led by its CEO Sameer Kaur, and its mentor J P Kaur. The event had sealed its place for the coming years as an exciting destination for F1 circus.

All compliments are also due to the Uttar Pradesh Govt  who joined Jaypee Group in making this a grand success.

Indian F1 Fan

Posted in Just about it, Motorsports.

Tagged with , , , , , .