The number of celebrities per capita is rapidly increasing, paving a solid path to harness this exponential fan power writes Samridhi Katyal.
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Test media and public will now get to know television viewership in thousands, referred to as TVT. It captures & reflects growth in TV audiences in the country in absolute numbers
Google Instant is Google’s latest tool to try and deliver the fastest possible search results for its users. Benedict Hayes, Head of Search and Analytics, Communicate 2 demystifies Google Instant – how it works, what it can do and SEO implications, among others.
A marketer’s skills are constantly tested in his bid to cut through the clutter to reach his potential customer. With technological advancements and rampant Internet penetration, ‘webinars’ help marketers reach out to a vast audience in a one-to-many presentation using audio and video, thus saving time and money. Cisco WebEx’s Balaji Kesavraj throws ore light on this.
Will haphazard surveys and questionable findings continue to drive the Rs 10,000 crore print advertisement industry? Or are there alternatives available to this, asks Manajit Ghoshal, CEO, Mid-Day Infomedia. INS has taken steps in the right direction to set this anomaly right by constituting a committee to give guidelines for such surveys to the National Readership Study Council, which conducts the NRS.
Consumers have always been considered a powerful communication channel. It is not a new phenomenon. They formed interest groups and discussed various topics of interest. What is new is the speed and ease of getting connected to millions of similar-minded individuals by just the click of a few buttons, observes Atrayee Chakraborty, Business Director, Lintas Media Group.
It has been the most shocking tragedy that Mumbai has ever seen, and this city has had its horrific share of terrorist activities. S Yesudas, CEO, RK Swamy Media Group, urges the advertising fraternity to come together to help the kin of the brave non-officer ranking policemen on duty and others who lost their lives at locations like CST/Cama Hospital.
It’s election season once again, and this time BJP seems to have a winner of a campaign with ‘Mehngi Paregi Congress’. Swapan Seth, CEO, Equus Red Cell, takes a look at political advertising in India, comparing the advertising strategies of two of India’s largest political parties – the Congress and the BJP.
The viewership monopoly enjoyed by Star Plus, Zee TV and SET has met with a challenge recently. The entry of some potentially strong players has seen a whirl of dynamic activity. For years the triumvirate ruled with gusto; no one attempted to upset the applecart till the entry of Colors, NDTV Imagine and 9X, argues Indranil Datta, VP, Mudra Radar.
Indranil Datta, Vice President-Knowledge, Mudra RADAR, provides a holistic view on the rising popularity of reality talent shows on the leading GEC channels. He analyses TRP data and marketing efforts behind these shows to show what has made some of them more successful than the others.
Obsolescence is inevitable. According to writer and advertising professional Anand Kurian, there is real obsolescence and then there is artificial obsolescence. For marketers, creating artificial obsolescence becomes an effective persuasive marketing tool that can help create repeat buyers.
This article by Jitender Dabas, VP & Strategic Planning Director, JWT Delhi, won him WPP’s coveted Atticus Award for 2007, which honors original thinking in communication services. He provides an interesting approach to building service brands in ‘high power distance’ societies, making out a case why the consumer should not be king.
Vijay Singh, MD, 41 Sercon, writes that large format events are intriguing business – they tend to be larger than life, much talked about, much visited and even glamorous. However, there are very serious business objectives behind the creation of these ‘events’.
Sourabh Mishra, Chief Strategy Officer, TBWA\India, argues that the Nano is not just about the automobile industry; it more about a disruptive new price proposition. What has been overlooked is the impact that the Nano -- and other such disruptive offerings before it -- will have on other categories.
Balki has over the years made a demonstrable difference to Lowe’s creative product. And yet it does seem that Balki and a host of others have been discriminated against if media reports are to the believed. The issue is not about servicing versus creative. Nor is it about money. It is about who matters and whether they should be ignored, writes Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, brand-comm.
Gopinath Menon, Senior VP-Media, TBWA India, takes stock of the changing environment that has had an impact in the way advertising agencies function today, and how this has led to erosion in the respect that this profession once enjoyed. To change this decline, he suggests that agencies should charge for pitching for a new business and that should be a diktat -- anyone deviating from this should be warned and later blacklisted by all agencies and also by the media.
Rajendra Dwivedi, Business Director, MAXUS, writes about the likely impact of CAS on channel viewerships. In the near-term scenario, he advises taking a liberal dose of print, radio and Out-of-home media.
Premjeet Sodhi, President, Initiative, Lintas Media Group, says the problem faced by consumers of media research is a lack of open systems. The choice one gets is whether one wants to buy the product or not. There is not much scope for breaking up the total solution and buying components from across vendors. This is the era of plug-and-play but our media research providers are not ready to divide their systems.
Lynn de Souza, Director of Media Services, Lintas India, is known not to pull her punches. In this tongue-in-cheek article, she raises issues about ranking of media agencies.
Sumit Roy, Founder Director, Univbrands, argues that word-of-mouth can be seeded in a variety of ways - events, PR, promotions, direct marketing, out-of-home experiences, etc. He contends that word-of-mouth can be measured and it is free.
In this delightful article, Mythili Chandrasekar, VP and Executive Planning Director, JWT Chennai, traces and defends the role of media and advertising in the Indianisation of the globe despite all the whining about the globalisation of India.
S Yesudas, Director, Initiative Worldwide, Jakarta, proposes a simple tracking mechanism to provide for quality of exposure among the same base of audience measurement sample, besides TVRs, called SIT (Single-source Impact Tracker).
Rajul Kulshreshtha, GM, GroupM Team LG, makes out a strong case for bringing accountability in the media industry. As he says, despite a whopping Rs 9,000 crore spend, there is no accountability of whether the money was well spent.
In this Pulse report, Kishore Chakraborti, AVP and Director, Consumer Insight, McCann Erickson, takes a look at how the profile of women has been changing over time.
With the Indian television audience increasingly turning off to commercial breaks, there has been growing confusion among the advertiser community to choose the right break that would ensure the maximum reach. PV Narayanmoorthy, CEO, Asia Pacific, Carat, shares his views on commercial break viewing.
In these days of crowding options, are brand endorsers on the losing end for their restrictions in brand hopping? They have the money but no choice. And, I have the freedom but no means to exercise it. The paradox comes alive in the views of Anant Rangaswami, Director, Event Management Development Institute.
Subjected to continuous scrutiny by the markets, most companies are becoming alive to the need to emulate best practices of market players rather than operating in a vacuum, writes Sushil Bahl of Nirma Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in the latest 'Viewpoint'.
Mantra for a successful business has ever been the USP. But, in an oversupplied economy, only customers' feelings drive purchase decisions. 'In an economy plagued with abundance in everything, business no further runs on the selling proposition, rather customers' feelings,' says Suresh Dinakaran, President, Communicate, Dubai.
Staying clear of the finger-pointing fraternity, Swapan Seth, CO-CEO of Equus Red Cell, doffs his hat to the campaign that has generated much heat. It's a terrific idea executed with perfect timing, he says. Seth comes out blazing with his views on the campaign in this week's Viewpoint.