Branding is the goal, storytelling is the means: Sashi
Shankar
BY: Shorya Bhatnagar
Be it the quirky ‘Hunny Bunny’ song or
the witty advertisements featuring Abhishek Bachchan, Idea Cellular commercials
have always managed to strike a chord with the audience. The ad films usually
stand out as they manage to narrate a complete tale in the 30-45 seconds time
slot. “Idea believes in storytelling,”
said Sashi Shankar, CMO, Idea Cellular. “Stories have a magical power. They are
not attached to any shackles and help in creating emotions or giving wings to
one’s imaginations. A good story is always remembered,” he added. Idea
commercials function more or less like a short film, having a plot, characters
and a conclusion. While most of their advertisements convey a social message,
Shankar explains that it was no theme but an effective means to deliver their
promise of ‘An Idea can change your life’ in an innovative manner.
Shankar stated that in today’s world,
product differentiation is blurry. Now physical difference does not matter but
communication and customer experience matter and story is what makes the
difference for Idea. He expressed that branding is the goal and storytelling is
the means.
Bharat Bambawale leaving Bharati Airtel
By – Amar Naik
Ø
Bharat Bambawale,
Global Brand Director, Bharti Airtel has put in his papers after a stint of 1
year and 8 months.
Ø
Bambawale looked
after the health of Brand Airtel in twenty countries.
Ø
He was responsible
for driving the strategic repositioning of Brand Airtel to make it younger,
livelier and better connected.
Ø
He had joined Airtel
from JWT (London), where he was the global team leader for Unilever’s haircare
portfolio.
Ø
Under his
leadership, the brand came up with campaigns such as the ‘Har Friend Zaroori
Hain Yaar’ (Aug 2011) and ‘Jo Mera Hain Wo Tera Hain’ (Aug 2012), Established
on the youth-relevant creative territory of friendship.
Ø
The friendship
territory rolled into Africa (Nov 2012) with the Nigerian Half Dollar campaign.
Ø
Airtel recently has
seen some senior level changes in its structure. After a stint of almost 15
years at Bharti Group, Sanjay Kapoor, CEO – India and South Asia, Bharti Airtel
decided to put in his papers.
Ø
Gopal Vittal, who
rejoined Airtel in April 2012 as Group Director – Special Projects, took over
as CEO – India, Bharti Airtel. The senior level organisational changes were
effective from March 1, 2013.
Regulation
& Creativity reforms key for TV to reach 1 bn people
By
Nikhila Sharma
This article talks about one billion people in India
with different variation in mindset depending upon the socio economic strata.
In order to reach these people its essential to follow certain steps as
mentioned by various CEOs of media industry –
Ø One
should segregate the audience into smaller fragments, hire a good creative team
surrounded by a good marketing team and finally give them freedom to execute
strategies
Ø Trend
and connection is already in place but segmentation and targeting has to be
developed in a robust manner
Ø Media
industry has to be redesigned and should take a next leap in order to connect
to the masses
Ø The
time has moved forward from the 90s era and now we have a co-existence of two
kinds of Hindi films (mass and class), both enjoyed by the same set of
audience. The poor infrastructure which may harm the industry prospects
comparing India and America. Resonating with the audience is of extreme
importance and this is what will bring the best out of the TV players.
Ø The
first stage will be to build strong brands and then capitalising on the
audience sentiment to reach to larger set of people.
Ø Three
key factors affecting the industry: creativity, technology and regulation.
Ø The
technology factor insisting that technology is a part of the business and
should be used to evangelise it and not the other way round. Leveraging the
mobile platform as effectively as possible to reach to maximum number of people
in this diverse market. He also said that at the end of the day it’s about matching
the parallels of creativity and content.
Ø Leveraging
maximum content platforms and capitalising them to the best of the capabilities
and storming the regulation vibes would be the need of the hour
BrandNEW signs up with Kwality Group
By Priyanka
Siram
New entrants in the agency fraternity, BrandNEW has
signed on Kwality Group, which owns a chain of food outlets including flagship
brand Kwality (Restaurant and Catering Services), Gaylord, Chopsticks, Bread
& More, Angeethi and other allied outlets in India and abroad. The contract
inked this week will pave the way for an exclusive and long-term relationship
on a 360-degree level in all marketing communication endeavours of the group.
Indranil Gupta, Founder-Director & CEO of
BrandNEW, who had recently returned from a 13-year brand consultancy stint in
the Middle East, said, “Ours is a specialised offering that certain kinds of
clients sorely need, and not many easily succeed in getting... we partner in
not only finding solutions to existing marketing problems, we also visualise
how to leapfrog competition.”
Gupta, earlier a head honcho in the Indian
advertising world, confesses to being a convert into the evolving science of
brand architecture building. “It is uncanny how good methodology can guide you
inevitably towards the right answer, in a spirit of collaboration, where
everyone’s views are taken into account,” he said.
For the new venture, Gupta has partnered with
Pranab Dutta as Founder-Director & Chief Creative Officer and Aniruddha Roy
as Founder-Director & Chief Operating Officer.
One of BrandNEW’s areas of business focus is
start-up ventures. In a market where 90 per cent of start-up brands bite the
dust, brand building carries a big responsibility in this area to get it right
the first time. Armed with sufficient experience in the area of brand
value-building and identity creations, BrandNEW aims to bring in a solid,
professional approach to help clients who believe in the value of brands.
“Start-ups is also a state of mind,” explained Gupta, adding, “Even old brands
have the opportunity to throw away their baggage and start fresh with a new
mindset.”
Zee News set to enter
MP; may wind up Chhattisgarh ops
Shreya Ramaswamy
1.
Zee News is set to expand its operations into the Madhya Pradesh
market after building a strong presence in the Bengal, Maharashtra, Uttar
Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab markets,.
2.
The group is already present in
Chhattisgarh with Zee 24 Ghante. However, there are speculations about Zee
closing this operation or merging it with the new launch in Madhya Pradesh.
3.
Confirming the news to
exchange4media, Alok Agrawal, CEO, Zee News said that they were indeed planning
to launch Zee in Madhya Pradesh and the plans were in the initial stage.he also
added that it was a natural expantion as they were already present in Punjab
and Maharashtra and moreover there is an overall increase in average regional
news consumption.
4.
In the Madhya Pradesh market,
Zee News will have to contend with players such as Sahara Samay, Sadhna News,
ITV News, ETV and MT News for Hindi channel space.
5.
With Tier II and III cities set
to be covered under the digitisation umbrella, broadcasters are gearing up to
consolidate their regional presence.
6.
The idea of its presence felt
in Madhya Pradesh is under the goodwill of the Zee banner and specialised
reporting strategy. The group is currently working on a tagline, which will be
unveiled soon.
7.
Other offerings of Zee News
include Zee News, Zee Business, Zee News UP/UK, 24 Ghanta, Zee Punjabi, 24
Ghantalu and Zee 24 Taas. All these channels are available in Hindi, Bengali,
Telugu, Marathi and Punjabi languages.
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