So that’s billed as a big fight! Infact one of the twitterati that I follow named it as bitch fight. One TVC and three months later another series to give it back in their own words or say giving a taste of their own medicine.

Well I am talking about the big fight between The Hindu and the Times of India with their TVCs, you can see all the The Hindu videos here  & TOI here which have created quite a debate and a following in traditional lines that Hindu reader normally does, take sides and also the TOI reader snaring / laughing off at the portrayal.

Now coming back to why I chose to write on this, well I have been a regular reader of the Hindu ever since I got subscribed  to it say from 1991 or so till the last one year before I came to Delhi. My association with the Hindu has been diverse, a reader, an advertiser – I managed the PSG’s advertising wing then also as a PR when with Narain Karthikeyan I did the rounds for editorial. But my association remains the best as a reader that’s when you get to enjoy all the best the Hindu has to offer.

I read with interest this article which appeared in Forbes blog. Very interesting take on why the ad in question from TOI actually woke up the Hindu. To a great extent, it is true and in fact my being in Delhi has changed the readership routine to Times of India for obvious reasons. I still get a hang of the Hindu online everyday even tweeting some interesting takes on my home town on and off. But to keep up the smell of the coffee I just buy a copy of the Hindu from Saket bookstall on Saturdays and Sundays during my walk.

The Delhi edition or rather the one printed at Allahabad or Mohali is very thin – less number of pages, but you get the Sunday Magazine and the usual Saturday stuff.

My early remembrances of the Hindu include the Saturday Sports special, which I started missing it when they stopped it altogether. They also did away with the last page sports reporting which was my favorite page. I reckon all the tennis reporting these days would not come close to the way they did without the internet and stuff we have today. But today is another different story. Then there was this change of design and all that which made news without dateline and it was fun reading those days when you could actually find same news items twice in the news paper or sometimes churned out the very next day.

And yes it has been a long way and editorially though I wouldn’t approve of it quite a few times, we would necessarily brag about the way its written; that immaculate English and the vocabulary that it imparts, it sheer brilliance and that what the stuff is made of at the Hindu. No doubt they refer the Hindu as a paper of study for the civil services.

Now you know all the questions that were asked were actually a part of the UPSC exams. It had caught the imagination of the ad industry and the people who read the Hindu, but my only hunch is will anyone from the TOI brandwagon jump the ship. True the south doesn’t celebrate the Bollywood or any of the Kollywood or Tollywood or Mollywood in the way the English dailies up north do it. There are no gossip columns there.  There are a number of vernacular magazines which bridge the gap.

I think I am seeing a different newspaper in the Hindu in the sense they are also going commercial and also thinking about marketing, not that they were lame about it. I still think the Sportstar ads by Lintas were one of the best ever.  But now it’s the time to be heard loud and may be this reaction. So welcome aboard the tough seas, the Hindu.

I will be missing the point if I don’t talk about the ads. The ads are well shot and are cute in fact, that’s a ridiculous comment you may say but what do you do when you know that lip sync is so obvious. Isn’t that the cute part. I should also be proud of the fact that I cracked almost 100% in all the ads. Now where is my big prize? Jokes apart it was trying to sell a bit of intellectual pursuit which is fine in a way but would the hurt guy (one mocked at) bite the bullet. They are a happy lot anyways!  But they were entertaining for sure… Well that’s my personal take! It was nice seeing The Hindu take an aggressive stand though will have to wait for the business part of the subscriptions.

A look at the celebrity followers in India especially on twitter will give the reason why Page 3 exists so much than all pages, it’s actually the 10 pages of Page 3 news articles which they call it the city times. You could also blame it on twitter and @Srbachchan for letting the world know that Ash was pregnant on twitter.

Anyways this should be good for the TV Channels, who are making money out of Newspaper fights.

On the other hand it is also noteworthy that they made a viral out of the ads they did. I got to know of the TOI ad after this hit back by The Hindu. That was the best part and it was on my timeline so many times both on FB and twitter. That perhaps is a lesson for all marketers. My take out of the episode: Digital is here, it is here to stay and grow big, now you get to choose whether you want to stay ahead of times or not.

R Senthilkumar

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).

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

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.

Source: WhatsOutt.com

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.

After the successful launch of  ad:tech in India in April 2011, Networkplay in partnership with dmg events, has announced the SECOND EDITION of World’s no. 1 Digital Marketing, Media and Advertising event to be held on 22^nd – 24^th February 2012 at The Leela Kempinski, Ambience Island, Gurgaon, Delhi NCR.

The event will feature:

• GLOBAL thought leaders of the industry as KEYNOTE speakers
• BIGGEST & HOTTEST digital marketing and advertising companies on the EXPO floor
• HANDS ON Sponsored workshops and Marketing Master series delivering immediate take-away value
• Start-up Zone on the EXPO floor along with Premium Booths in the Delegate Area
• Parallel tracks of ISIGHTFUL & ACTIONABLE industry specific panel discussions
• Search & Social Pre-Conference MASTER CLASSES

Commenting on this, Rammohan Sundaram, Event Chairman, ad:tech New Delhi & CEO of NetworkPlay said “Post the grand success of the launch event in April 2011, we’re excited to present the second edition of ad:tech New Delhi which promises to be bigger, better and bolder! With a globally respected roster of keynotes, a bigger expo floor and pre- conference master classes, the event will help set digital strategy for the coming year. ”

ad:tech New Delhi has recently announced its first set of keynotes:

Shiv Singh, Global Head of Digital, PepsiCo Beverages – Shiv is a recognized digital marketer who focuses on how brands are being forced to transform with the rise of digital marketing and media. In his day job he serves as the Global Head of Digital for PepsiCo Beverages (across paid, owned and social media), where he drives PepsiCo Beverages’ digital marketing agenda working for the CMO of Global Consumer Engagement. In September 2009, he was recognized by Ad Age as a Media Maven and was featured on the publication’s cover. He is also author of the book, “Social Media Marketing for Dummies.”

Gian M. Fulgoni, Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, comScore Inc- Mr. Fulgoni has long been involved in the growth of hugely successful public companies. More recently, he served on the board of yesMail.com, a leading supplier of permission-based e-mail services. In 1991 and again in 2004, Mr. Fulgoni was named Entrepreneur of the Year, the only person to have twice received that honor.

Early bird registration is open and over 2500 senior industry executives are expected to attend this event in February 2012.

The mobile advertising is in its nascent stage, but is loaded with immense possibilities and endless opportunities. While the media managers are trying to decipher the way people are responding, the fact remains that it will be one of the biggest advertising platforms in the near future.

The main reason of course is the reach that it can offer with a push of an SMS. For that part Short Messaging Service has now become Sales Messaging Service. Sometimes I do wonder where I left them the number to message me. While Indian public is not too keen on being proactive to being private we are ok with a few messages coming in from almost everybody who is selling.

Now the advent of the Chinese mobile handsets with features that match the best selling iPhone or a Nokia or a Blackberry, promises to take the mobile advertising platform to a new high. Innovations in the form of applications and other software make the usage of the mobile phone convenient and more user-friendly. The most successful applications will be those who can engage the audience in its effort to create an addictive and loyal base of subscribers.
Apart from this a look at the telecom industry in India would clearly suggest the fall in the rate of Voice platform across the local/STD and ISD platforms, and this will push the operators to launch a massive VAS platform across the board. It’s going to be the days of VAS though pay per user variable will be in vogue.

The latest BCG report on telecom industry in BRIC and Indonesia makes an interesting reading when it says that the next set of users would be introduced to internet through the mobile rather than the computer. Now that’s really a great phenomenon in the making especially in India. Internet mobility has the power to redefine the idea of broadband and bandwidth. With the advent of 3G, the opportunities are going to but only increase in terms of what the bandwidth can offer and also engage the users interactively at the palm of his hand. This would throw up a quite a new wave of advertising opportunities and learning opportunities for both the brands and also the consumer.

The best part of the mobile phone is that it’s a very personal thing for the owner. Then of course the reach is instant unless the mobile is not in his hands. It can be timed and more so it can be targeted so very easily and also be seen that how fast they respond and an SMS a minute old is a lost thing for ever. That’s the pace that the industry will be driven at, they miss your SMS and you lose a customer. This is where context and timing plays an important role. Though we might find it intrusive, it is here to stay. Chances are that we might find sms telling us a new café in the neighbourhood at 7 pm or 8 pm so that there is enough time for us to really explore.

Then there is the social networking which we are a part of whether we like it or not. Our days are getting organized by Facebook alerts and twitter tweets. Its no more personal diaries now. We find the best of brands in the Facebook. Recently Vodafone celebrated 1 million fans in the Facebook, that’s a remarkable achievement by any standard.

Now the big screen is being squeezed into the smaller one albeit a 7 incher ipad or say a Chinese make Olive and sometimes with Samsung galaxy’s and Nokia. An artificially created aura around the social networking has taken its toll with us looking for updates at every other second with a ping or twitter updates. It’s a fight for one-upmanship in all the spheres of social networking and this will replace all the communication aspects in the days to come, people will say I told you so on fb and twitter. So much is possible.

And people have now started adding applications every other minute to their mobile phone with a hope that they are not gonna be selective about being on chat or fb or orkut, they are infact looking for one application which will host all these and more on their mobile screen. All this at a cost that they are no more private entities.

Will discuss this and more in the next blog. Till then happy working!!!

R Senthilkumar

Bombay they say is the city of dreams and well I couldn’t be far left behind to chase my dreams…

Yesterday was a moment to cherish when I joined Networkplay.in at Mumbai… a great team in there raring to go… thanks so much Ram.

Will post about my Mumbai experiences as I come face to face with them.

R Senthilkumar

Absolutely riveting information here….

Now its our choice to look the other way on social media….

Credit: Gary Hayes