Guha Gets Going, but...Choli ke peeche kya hai?

Pradeep Guha (PG) is back in the thick of things. A flurry of activities signal his return to active duty: a makeover of the Zee look; a much-talked-about teaser campaign for the Zee-Dainik Bhaskar print initiative; and a triumphant execution of the Zee Cine Awards.

The first move was the revelation of the new look for Zee, which an Impact panel is divided over (see: ‘New logo's Cool?’ on page 12 for more on this).

The second was the show of strength at the Sunfeast Zee Cine Awards, embellished by openly, and vocally, grateful VVIP attendees including all notable absentees at the 360-degree managed Filmfare Awards sponsored by the SGI Group — and incidentally, the first non-PG Filmfare Awards edition in the "modern" era. It's clear that A. P. Parigi's (MD and CEO, ENIL) headache, beginning with the Manikchand-Dhariwal-Dawood fiasco, is now quickly turning into a migraine with Guha's London coup.

Perception-wise, Zee Awards seemed to score over the Filmfare awards but ratings tell their own story (read: Zee Cine Awards: Bigger and better? on page 14).

The third salvo was the tsunami-like swamping of Mumbai by the highly prominent DNA teaser campaign for the forthcoming Zee-Dainik Bhaskar English Continued from page 1 daily newspaper — a campaign unprecedented in scale, intrigue and budget. In a continuing drama, there has been an attempted hijack of the DNA campaign by ‘Maharashtra Times’ resulting in the instant filing of a Rs 1 billion suit by Diligent Media Corpo-ration Ltd., a second (and almost amateurish) atte-mpt at hijack by ‘Loksatta’ (no suit filed here yet).

But, stripped of all the hype and hoopla, there's a long way to go for Zee. Guha's three initiatives are all in the superficial and packaging area. Does he have the resources, strategies and the warriors for the real battle ahead?

Let’s remember that this battle will be fought on multiple fronts against various enemies; not the single-enemy-single-location battles that Guha has presided over in his various capacities at BCCL. On the print front, his yet-to-be-born but already christened DNA is pitted against ‘The Times of India’, ‘Indian Express’, ‘Mid-Day’ and possibly, ‘The Hindustan Times’. On the television front, his new look Zee bouquet faces the might of the STAR and Sony Networks. Individual competitors have formidable financial and human resources and smaller turfs to protect. On a more relevant issue, the final arbiter in the battles will be content, and on this, we have little yet from Guha's camp.

First, let's analyse the daily newspaper. The DNA campaign does give us a glimpse: the paper seeks clearly to target the higher and younger SECs. The suggestion is that the war will be similar to ‘The Statesman-Telegraph’ battle for Kolkata — but with a difference. Be-nnett Cole-man & Co. Ltd. (BCCL) is as different from ‘The Statesman’ as chalk is from cheese. BCCL will not dismiss DNA, but will attack both proactively and reactively.

The Empire Strikes Back

It's a belligerent BCCL with Samir Jain at the helm. He knows that Subhash Chandra and the Agarwals have the requisite monetary resources (Rs 1 billion in the first year) to back Guha’s brain power. Also, Jain knows that every media baron worth his salt wants to beat “The Times of India’s” clout in Mumbai in a bid to capture the rest of the country. The Old Lady of Boribunder has already made it clear that the gloves are off with the attempted hijack of the DNA campaign. If Guha had counted on a BCCL simultaneously preoccupied with other paper wars and with a less than satisfactory performance by its fledgling TV channel, Zoom, he needs to count again. After a tumultuous first few months for Zoom, Arun Arora (Executive Director, BCCL) and Apurva Purohit (COO, Times Television Network) have it back on track (see "Zooming in") and Jain can focus on defending his print flagship.

To read the entire story, grab your copy of impact Marketing, Advertising and Media Weekly magazine issue dated April 11-17, 2005