Media conglomerate ZEEL has restructured its ad sales team in order to extract more ad revenue from top clients and to widen the pool of advertiser base from regional clusters.
As part of the strategic restructuring, ZEEL will have dedicated teams to service its top 40 clients. These are Key Account Management (KAM) teams. Then there are also the non-KAM teams that will also look at expanding the mid-level and long-tail business in their respective geographies.
He said that the whole idea is to have a customer focus and also a complete organisational asset approach. "All these teams will not just concentrate on the TV business. There will also be digital teams aligned with them who otherwise sit under ZEE5. For large clients, these teams will come together so that we can offer a 360-degree approach for clients. We will offer integrated TV, digital, experiential, and social assets to clients," he added.
In October 2020, ZEEL had announced a strategic restructuring of the organisation in line with its ZEE 4.0 strategy. Subsequent to this restructuring, the company had realigned the leadership roles. Punit Misra took over as President - Content & International Markets. Amit Goenka became the President - Digital Businesses & Platforms. Shariq Patel was given the responsibility for the integrated Movies business while Anurag Bedi continues to drive the Music business.
Former BCCI CEO and Discovery India head Rahul Johri was appointed as President – Business, South Asia and has been given responsibility for leading the integrated Revenue and Monetisation team.
ZEEL has four lines of businesses including broadcast, digital, movies, and music. It also has a live events business under Zee Live. The company is also monetising its social assets by offering branded content solutions to advertisers.
Sehgal noted that ZEEL has created a separate division, which is internally known as Zee Innovation Studio. Headed by ZEEL EVP - Business Head (New Initiatives) Ali Zaidi, this division will have 30-40 people. Apart from salespeople, it will also have ideation and creative talent.
"We have created a branded content and partnership division separately which will give bespoke advertising solutions to advertisers over and above the normal inventory sales. We want to give a separate identity to this division. This team will be led by Ali Zaidi. Currently, I am guiding this division. Informally, we call it Zee Innovation Studio," Sehgal informed.
"ZEEL has brought its bespoke products under one umbrella. This division will take care of the selling of branded content across platforms - TV, social and digital. It will club the assets of Zee, ZEE5, ZEE Live, Zee Studios, and Zee Music together. It will also have content partnerships and alliances. This is more about co-curation of content as per platforms and doing revenue share deals. That is also a substantial revenue generator," he stated.
The branded content and partnership division will help ZEEL to engage with the customers at a deep level. "We will go deep into understanding the clients' needs and then create a bespoke solution for them taking all the assets of ZEEL together," he said.
Influencer Marketing will also be a key focus area for this division since it has a lot of artists at its disposal. "We can do Influencer Marketing across platforms using our own influencers, Zee artists, and also those from the outside who are working with us," Sehgal noted.
ZEEL's top clients include Hindustan Unilever, RB, P&G, ITC, Nestle, Dabur, Emami, Marico, and Godrej among others. The company has roped in former Star India SVP- Ad sales Omkar Kore as National Head - Key Accounts (TV + Digital). Kore has 21 years of experience across media, FMCG, and B2B sales and marketing. He has also worked in Hindustan Unilever, Marico, and Kone.
"We have Key Account Management teams who will manage top 40 clients. Then, we will have geographical heads in the North, East, West, and South. These branch heads will be spearheading the expansion of the business for the company. They are also handling the entire network in their geography," ZEEL chief growth officer - ad revenue Ashish Sehgal told exchange4media.
"KAM and Non-KAM teams are selling all the channels but KAM teams have selected clients because they are getting the volume business. There the idea is to offer customised solutions to big clients and increase our share of the revenue from them because these clients spend a lot of money on TV. The geographical heads are going to go deep into their geography and develop new clients and also handhold those smaller clients to make them big," he added.
All sales heads KAM, Non-KAM and brand solution heads will report to Sehgal directly.
He said that the whole idea is to have a customer focus and also a complete organisational asset approach. "All these teams will not just concentrate on the TV business. There will also be digital teams aligned with them who otherwise sit under ZEE5. For large clients, these teams will come together so that we can offer a 360-degree approach for clients. We will offer integrated TV, digital, experiential, and social assets to clients," he added.
In October 2020, ZEEL had announced a strategic restructuring of the organisation in line with its ZEE 4.0 strategy. Subsequent to this restructuring, the company had realigned the leadership roles. Punit Misra took over as President - Content & International Markets. Amit Goenka became the President - Digital Businesses & Platforms. Shariq Patel was given the responsibility for the integrated Movies business while Anurag Bedi continues to drive the Music business.
Former BCCI CEO and Discovery India head Rahul Johri was appointed as President – Business, South Asia and has been given responsibility for leading the integrated Revenue and Monetisation team.
ZEEL has four lines of businesses including broadcast, digital, movies, and music. It also has a live events business under Zee Live. The company is also monetising its social assets by offering branded content solutions to advertisers.
Sehgal noted that ZEEL has created a separate division, which is internally known as Zee Innovation Studio. Headed by ZEEL EVP - Business Head (New Initiatives) Ali Zaidi, this division will have 30-40 people. Apart from salespeople, it will also have ideation and creative talent.
"We have created a branded content and partnership division separately which will give bespoke advertising solutions to advertisers over and above the normal inventory sales. We want to give a separate identity to this division. This team will be led by Ali Zaidi. Currently, I am guiding this division. Informally, we call it Zee Innovation Studio," Sehgal informed.
"ZEEL has brought its bespoke products under one umbrella. This division will take care of the selling of branded content across platforms - TV, social and digital. It will club the assets of Zee, ZEE5, ZEE Live, Zee Studios, and Zee Music together. It will also have content partnerships and alliances. This is more about co-curation of content as per platforms and doing revenue share deals. That is also a substantial revenue generator," he stated.
The branded content and partnership division will help ZEEL to engage with the customers at a deep level. "We will go deep into understanding the clients' needs and then create a bespoke solution for them taking all the assets of ZEEL together," he said.
Influencer Marketing will also be a key focus area for this division since it has a lot of artists at its disposal. "We can do Influencer Marketing across platforms using our own influencers, Zee artists, and also those from the outside who are working with us," Sehgal noted.