Pitch Madison Media Advertising Outlook 2008

The fifth edition ofPitch-MadisonMedia Ad Outlookshows an impressive22 pc growth, taking the industrysize to an all-timehigh of Rs 17,690crore in 2007

R s 3 0V o l u m e V ● I s s u e 4 ● F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 8

ADVERTISING

OUTLOOK

S P E C I A L I S S U E

Presented by

Pitch-Madison Media

Advertising

Outlook

2008INTRODUCTION: Ad Spends Zoom 38

PRINT: Continuing Growth Streak 48

TELEVISION: Holding the Ground 56

OUTDOOR: Gaining from Clutter 64

INTERNET: Weaving a Wider Net 70

RADIO: More Music to Ears 78

CINEMA: Of Onscreen Glitz 86and Swanky Multiplexes

DM: Hitting the Right Spot 92

PR: Polishing Profiles for the Better 98

RETAIL MEDIA:Hooking Shoppers 104

CRICKET: T20 Comes of Age 112

OUTLOOK 2008: 119Marketers Sentiments from SynovateOpinion Poll and the Advertising GrowthProjections by Madison Media

38 ❘ Pitch ❘ February 2008

ADVERTISING SPEND

INTRODUCTION

5th PITCH-MADISON MEDIA ADVERTISING

THE PITCH-MADISONMedia Advertising Outlook Survey, over theyears, has become theadvertising and mediaindustry benchmark data

and analysis. Into the fifth year of pub-lication, the Advertising Outlook 2008spots the industry facts, and trendswhich have shaped the broad con-tours of this buzzing industry, be it thetrends in terms of the medium ofchoice or advertisers who have notshied away from going full throttle topromote their brands through the var-ious media vehicles. The Pitch-Madison Media Survey also looks athow the various ad serving platformsfared in the race for garnering theadvertising rupees.

And the findings are the following:The Survey spells good news for theindustry as the wallet is on a swell, asthe industry has crossed the 17,000-crore-mark for the first time to touchRs 17,690 crore. While the industry as

whole has maintained robust growthrate, in tandem with the expectationsand projections last year, clipping at asmart 22 percent growth in 2007 toclock Rs 17,690 crore in ad revenues,up from Rs 14,505 crore in the previ-ous year. Significantly, this is a littleover our Survey projection last year atRs 17,660 crore, though the growthrate has been as projected.

As expected, the print media hascontinued its growth streak, recordinga full 21 percentage points growth rateat Rs 8,470 crore, or yanking away 47.9percent of the overall advertisingmonies in the reporting year. The elec-tronic media is not far behind riding a19 percentage point growth rate andclocking Rs 7,110 crore or 40.2 percentof the overall ad spends in the year.Significantly, the share of the printmedia as well as the television is a taddown from what was projected in thelast Survey at 48.4 percent or Rs 8,540crore, and 40.8 percent or Rs 7,200crore, respectively. And the reasons

are not far to look for as other mediavehicles have grown much faster.

As noted earlier, while the majorshare of this robust growth have goneto the usual suspects—print and tele-vision—the emerging media formatslike radio that has seen a lot of expan-sion in the year and the Internetwhose coming of age has been pro-claimed for some time now, have alsodid their bit in terms of getting somedecent share of the ad pie. While theleaders have kept their leadershippositions intact, despite marginal slip-pages in their respective share, thenew kids on the block have notchedup a few paces to cement their posi-tion and declare their arrival. Radiohas clipped at a 68 percentage pointgrowth to corner Rs 480 crore, which isabove our projection of Rs 428 crore,taking its share to 2.7 percent of theoverall ad pie, while the share of theonline media has touched an all-timehigh of Rs 250 crore, logging in agrowth of 52 percent, and increasing

February 2008 ❘ Pitch ❘ 39

20039,328

200410,354

200511,915

200614,505

200717,690

Figures in Rs crore

RIDING A FULL

22 PERCENT

GROWTH, THE

ADVERTISING

INDUSTRY

TOUCHED THE

RS 17,690-CR

MARK IN 2007

TAKES OFF!

■ By PITCH BUREAU

OUTLOOK

its share to 1.4 percent, up from 1.1percent in 2006. While cinema,though had more flops than hits, hasmade a smart come back on a 90 per-cent growth, chipping away Rs 104.5crore or 0.6 percent of the overall adpie, the third largest medium, outdoorhas grown by 28 percent to clock Rs1,275 crore or 7.4 percent of the over-all ad money, up from 6.9 percent in2006. Though 2007 failed to reel insuccess for the box offices, it has notshaken the advertisers’ faith in thisage-old medium. The notion of serv-ing a captive audience seems to havehelped the medium to sail through.Another trend that has emerged in the

cinema space is that language flickshave also gained some ground when itcomes to cinema advertising.

The print media has once againtaken the winner's trophy on a 21 per-cent growth, which can be attributedto the frenetic expansion this industryhas seen seen during the year.Another reason for this impressiveshow is the introduction of new for-mats both in look and feel and con-tent-wise, which has been receivedwell. Localisation and specialisationalso have formed a part of the successmantra for print players. In the printspace the language press has notchedup a few paces upwards, still theEnglish media leads the pack.

The growth of print medium also

puts across an interesting scenariowhere this medium is strengthening,against all contrary projections fromacross the globe. This gains impor-tance in the backdrop of the printloosing its share to new-age media.

At the second place is televisionclocking a 19 percent growth to zippast the Rs 7,100-crore-market for thefirst time. The industry which has seena drop in most of the leading genreshas been able to record growth inabsolute terms. Media fragmentationdid show some signs of decline insome genres, but across the industrythe outlook remains upbeat as theindustry has grown on the whole. As in

the print space, it has been the lan-guage channels that have been able toput up a good show.

Significantly enough, the year hasseen the end of Star Plus as the largestchannels when it comes to total adshare or FCT (free commercial time)as cablewallahs are the toppers in theFCT sweepstake with 9.7 percent ofthe overall advertising seconds goinginto them, pushing Star Plus to thesecond slot with 7.7 percent of theoverall ad share. Though this smartrally of the cablewallahs is not con-vertible to actual revenues, as by farads on local cable channels are low-paid local specific adverts. In generalthis medium has continued to slip inthe FCT mop-up as a whole, with

almost all the genres showing declin-ing trends. Be it the news genre, main-line general entertainment channels,music, kids, sports, and DD regionalchannels, there has been a drop in theFCT share of this medium in the over-all ad revenue mop-up. The onlyexceptions are the Southern channelswhich have ramped up their share,followed by second line mass chan-nels and regional satellite channels.

Similar drops have been seen in theviewership shares too, with almost allthe genres, barring a few showingdeclines in viewership. However,when it comes to genre-wise viewer-ship trends, it is clear that the mass

entertainment channels continue todominate Hindi viewership at a high15.4 per cent, followed by Hind moviechannels at ten percent. This isdespite a decline in the former's over-all viewership during the reportingperiod in comparison to the previousyear, when its share stood at 16.7 per-cent, primarily due to fragmentation.Again, the news genre remains themost advertised genre and has moreor less maintained its viewership level,currently at 6.3 percent. However, thesecond-line mass channels havegained in their viewership with theiroverall share increasing to 4.3 from2006 to 4.1 percent.

Another gainer is the kids genre thathas done well in the viewership


MEDIUM

PRINT

TELEVISION

OUTDOOR

RADIO

INTERNET

CINEMA

TOTAL

2006

7,000

6,000

1,000

285

165

55

14,505

T O TA L S P E N D S I N R S C R

MEDIUM

PRINT

TELEVISION

OUTDOOR

RADIO

INTERNET

CINEMA

TOTAL

2006

23

20

15

43

50

72

22

P E R C E N TA G E G R O W T H

MEDIUM

PRINT

TELEVISION

OUTDOOR

RADIO

INTERNET

CINEMA

TOTAL

2007

47.9

40.2

7.2

2.7

1.4

0.6

100

2006

48.3

41.4

6.9

2

1.1

0.4

100

AD SPENDS SHARE IN %

2007

21

19

28

68

52

90

22

2007

8,470

7,110

1,275

480

250

104.5

17,690

INTRODUCTION

5th PITCH-MADISON MEDIA ADVERTISING OUTLOOK

sweepstake. Similarly, DD Nationaltoo has seen higher viewership at 2.2from 1.9 percent last year.

Another significant finding is thedramatic fall in the viewership ofHindi movie channels which haveseen their viewership nose-divingfrom 20.1 percent in 2006 to 10.9 per-cent during the reporting year.However, the viewership of Englishmovies genre remains flat at one per-cent. Similar is the case with the info-tainment genre too.

Moving onto other media plat-forms, both the Internet and radiohave continued their gaining streakthis year as well. The expansion ofradio into tier II and III cities gave themuch-needed fillip to this medium.The Internet on the other hand hasfinally arrived as a serious mediumon the media planner's schedule, asit has stuttered its way as a mediumof choice, and not a medium for leftover budgets.

Another media that has seen arenewed interest from marketersand maintained its the third rank-ing is outdoor, which has movedfrom the humongous hoardings tomore innovative ways to reach outto target groups, and as a result hasreceived a thumbs up from mar-keters as it has grown by 28 percentto touch Rs 1,275 crore. As morenumber of people getting on theroad, the opportunity to engagethem in a dialogue gets even bigger.

Making a break from the past foureditions, this year, we have decidedto speak to three other communica-tion vehicles which are growingvery fast. And these vehicles aredirect marketing, public relationsand retail media. Also, the Surveyhas a special coverage of cricket, themost saleable advertising property.

Public relations has sprung backto life as the medium got a bigger

canvas in terms of services as thismedium has is no more a mere com-pany releases vending machine buthelp create corporate image today.

Another fast growing tool is directmarketing which has got a fillip asmore and more marketers are takingon to this medium in their quest totalk to consumers directly. With majormarketing solutions coming out withexpert arms to handle the direct com-munication need of marketers, thismedium is on its way up.

Another fast emerging media for-mat is the ambient media or retailmedia, which in the past has remind-ed the ‘It' word for marketers as theydevised ways to engage and pursueconsumers right at the time when sheis out shopping, and the red-hot retail

is driving this medium. Finally, let’s see who have been driv-

ing this commendable growth? Arethere any new kids on the ad street?Interestingly enough, there are manya new advertiser who have beenaggressive on various media vehiclesduring the year. And leading the packis the telecom players who have con-tributed a hefty 5.2 percent of theoverall ad spend. Together withmobile handset companies (with 2.5percent contribution), the telecom isthe undisputed leader in the ad street.This is understandable as the countryis home to the world’s fastest growingmobile market with an averagemonthly addition of 6.9 million newusers. In 2007, mobile operatorsadded 83 million customers. Not just

that, with 237 million users, it isset to overtake the US soon.Currently India is the world'sthird largest mobile market afterChina and the US.

The next largest contributorsare toilet soaps, at 3.8 percent,down from four percent lastyear, followed by shampoos at3.1 percent, two-wheelers andcorporate brand advertisers at2.8 percent each, toothpastes at2.7 percent, cellular phonesmanufactures and cars/jeeps at2.5 percent each, Internet /SMSat 2.4 percent, colas at 2.3 per-cent, detergents and insurers attwo percent each, and milk bev-erages, biscuits and tea chippingin with 1.4 percent each.

This edition of the Survey con-cludes with the projection forthe next year and an opinionpoll of marketers by Synovate.While the Survey projects the adindustry rate at a healthy 20 per-cent, it adds that for the firsttime the industry will Rs 21,000-crore-mark in 2008. ■


CATEGORYMOBILE PHONE

SERVICES

TOILET SOAPS

SHAMPOOS

TWO-WHEELERS

CORPORATE/

BRAND IMAGE

TOOTH PASTES

CELLULAR PHONES

CARS/JEEPS

INTERNET/

SMS SERVICES

AERATED

SOFT DRINKS

WASHING

POWDERS/LIQUIDS

LIFE INSURANCE

MILK BEVERAGES

BISCUITS

TEA

20063.0

4.0

2.8

2.8

2.8

2.4

2.2

3.5

NA

1.9

2.1

1.3

NA

NA

NA

TOP 15 ADVERTISERS SHARE IN %

20075.2

3.8

3.1

2.8

2.8

2.7

2.5

2.5

2.4

2.3

2.0

2.0

1.4

1.4

1.4


INTRODUCTION

Pitch-Madison Media

PRINTin 2007

Analysis & Trends

Advertising Outlook 2008

Presented by

Leave the doomsayers ofthe West who had predict-ed its sudden death longago to their own fate. Thedomestic print media

remains profitable, even as newmedia platforms emerge stronger.And the fifth edition of the Pitch-Madison Media Advertising Outlookonly reaffirms this. The print media,both dailies and periodicals, hascontinued to be the largest adver-tised medium in the country, cor-nering 47.9 percent of the overall admoney in 2007, albeit a marginaldip in its overall share of 48.3 per-cent which it had cornered in 2006.But revenues have touched an all-time high of Rs 8,470-crore-mark,registering a smart 21 percentgrowth during the reporting year.

The year has also seen some newtrends gaining ground in the indus-try. While one dominant trend hasbeen the launch of special interestmagazines, as publishers and edi-tors tried to line up readers by offer-ing niche titles. The titles that havemade a debut during the periodinclude Prevention from LivingMedia; Vogue, the hi-street lifestylepublication from the Conde Nastgroup, and Dare, targeted at theyoung and aspiring entrepreneurs,from Cyber Media. England-basedHaymarket group has added moreto its arsenal in the country with

Campaign India, while OgaanPublications rolled out Brides Now,their second title after Elle, Frenchfashion and lifestyle magazine.

Another trend that has emergedduring the year is the advent ofcompact formats from morningersto business dailies. While HT Mediahas started the trend by launchingits economic daily Mint in associa-tion with the WSJ in the compactformat, the next in line was theMetro Now, an equal joint venturebetween the Times group and HTMedia. Mail Today, from the LivingMedia, followed suit by replacing itsafternoon title Today.

The industry honchos attribute anumber of reasons for this growthwhich reaffirms that the print staysresilient in contrast to the gradual

death theory it has been predicted.Times group chief executive officerRavi Dhariwal attributes this growthto what he describes as theunmatchable value that the printmedia offers to advertisers. He goeson to add that its expansion onlyexplains this further.

Living Media chief executiveAshish Bagga feels that the currentgrowth has been primarily driven bya strong economy which drivesmore consumer spending."Industrial growth is at an all-timehigh and competition is very keen,fuelling strong media spends bymarketers," he adds. Outlook grouppublisher Maheshwar Peri also sec-onds it, when he says, "our econo-my is growing so fast that I think it isthe India story that is driving us,

PRINT

If some predicted

a gradual death

for this old medi-

um, advertisers

never felt so. And

Pitch-Madison

survey proves

them right, as

another bountiful

year awaits them.

Continuing thegrowth STREAK■ By DEEPTI AGGARWAL

20034,303



and it's not any of us who is drivingit," Peri points out.

Echoes Malayala Manorama seniorgeneral manager for marketing oper-ations Varghese Chandy saying, "thisgrowth is primarily due to high eco-nomic growth." Displaying a some-what similar outlook is Jagran groupgeneral manager for brand andstrategic planning Basant Rathore,who feels that it's the fast expandingmiddle class that is at the helm of thisrevolution. "One of the major driversof this growth is the favourabledemographics, that is to say the rap-idly swelling middle class."

However, Nai Duniya chief execu-tive Vinay Chhajlani says this growthmainly due to the sheer reach of thismedia. He feels that print is the firstchoice when it comes to local adver-

tisers and that is why the industry isclipping at a good pace and expand-ing very fast. Daily Thanti (from theMalar Publications) chief operatingofficer KR Skandraaj opines that thisindustry is growing because of itsimpact. Only the print media cangive an advertiser the requiredresponse, while other media formatscan give only a brand recall.Fragmentation Fails to Impact

Though in the overall share of the adpie, the share of this medium hasseen a marginal slippage this canlargely be attributed to the prolifera-tion of newer forms of media that

have emerged lately. So, the questionarises: has the print been able toweather the much-talked about frag-mentation. Dainik Bhaskar associatevice-president Sanjeev Kotnala says,"media fragmentation has beenunderway for more than a decadenow. However, the share of the printmedia in the ad pie has been stablefor nearly past one decade."

Claiming that the industry hasbeen able to weather fragmentationremarkably, Bagga says, "print hasseen a record number of niche titlesbeing successfully launched. Not justthat, the mainline brands have alsoperformed well." Lokmat director foradvertising and business develop-ment Jwalant Swaroop too joins himsaying, "it may be true that the therehas been a slide in percentage shareof the total ad spend, but we shouldalso realise that the industry hastouched a new high in revenue mop-up. So there is no cause for worry. Weshould also see that new media for-mats are also getting some budgetaryallocation that used to go to print inthe past. To tap this fund redirection,most print companies have restruc-tured themselves." Chandy jons himsaying, "fragmentation has primarilyaffected the television media, whileprint has been weathering this byoffering multi-media platforms."Citing his group's example Chandysays, "we offer print, television, radio,online, events and outdoor solutionsto its clients in Kerala."

And this is evident across theindustry where either the playershave taken the multimedia route or


PRINT CONTINUES TO GIVE VALUE TO ADVERTISERS

AND ITS EXPANSION INTO NEWER TERRITORIES

ONLY LEVERAGES IT—RAVI DHARIWAL, CEO, BENNETT & COLEMAN

20044,961

20055,700

20067,000

20078,470

Figures in Rs crore

PRINT MEDIA

CONTINUED ITS

GROWTH

STREAK WITH A

21 PERCENT

JUMP IN ITS AD

REVENUE MOP-

UP TO TOUCH AN

ALL-TIME HIGH

OF RS 8,470

CRORE IN 2007

are in the process of doing so. Jagran's Rathore says con-

stant innovation is the mainfactor helping the print indus-try ward off the fragmentationchallenge. He elaborates thatpublishers have upped theante—be it in offering betterproducts or engaging in bettermarketing, and giving betteraudience deliveries and theinherent advantages of theprint that has been maintainedall along.

Sharing a different perspec-tive is Thanthi’s Skandaraajwho says, "fragmentation inother media has only strength-ened print as clients have reallynot seen any significant resultsor been unable to measurevalue for his money."

Coming to individual performanc-es, the news remains good across theboard. Outlook's Peri says 2007 hasbeen good for his company. "For thenext two years, I don't see it comingdown dramatically," he adds. Peri'sconfidence is also riding high on thesuccess that his group's new launcheshave received. Bagga too is very opti-mistic when he says, "it's been a veryexciting year for us with the launch ofseveral new properties in magazines,radio and newspapers. Times group'sDhariwal also says growth has beenvery good as in the past few years.

Lokmat's Swaroop also describesthe year gone by as very positive say-ing "our group is growing substan-tially." Thanthi's Skandaraaj says hisgroup's ad revenue has seen 18 per-cent growth, primarily driven by theclassified section. Chandy saysManorama group could maintain ahigher growth rate in the past year. The Rise and Rise of Language Press

While there has been all-round

expansion in the industry, it has to benoted that the language press wasdriving this. And this pattern wasseen evenly across states and lan-guages. The Survey shows that theEnglish press, which traditionally hasthe biggest share of the ad pie, haslost some of its share to the languagetitles. While the share of the Englishpress has slumped a little from 35.6percent in 2006 to 34.7 percent inadvertising money sweepstake, onthe other hand, the Hindi pressgained from 24 to 24.4 percent duringthe reporting period.

That the Hindi market still haslarge opportunities to be exploited isclear from the fact that even estab-lished English players are getting intothis medium. The horizon of theHindi press is on an upswing as today

two major economic dailieshave come up with Hindi ver-sions. Both the EconomicTimes and Business Standardare now available in Hindi.The Economic Times is alsoavailable in Gujarati, a marketthat was first tapped by theFinancial Express. Also eyeingthis space is the Network18group that has plans to launcha pink daily in Hindi in associ-ation with the Jagran group.

Interestingly, there's been aminor realignment in the shareof other language publicationsas Tamil, Marathi, Punjabi andMalayalam have slipped mar-ginally, Telugu, Gujarati,Bengali, and Urdu have gained,while Kannada, Oriya andAssamese have remained flat.

Let's see how the industry leaderslook at this shift. Bhaskar's Kotnalasays, "while it is too early to concludethat there is a shift away from theEnglish press, there are manynational advertisers who are seriousplayers in the tier II & III markets."Thanthi's Skandaraaj adds, "mar-keters have woken up to the costadvantage of the regional press vis-à-vis the English. We expect more cate-gories to come to us in the times tocome." Adding a new angel to thisevolving trend is Chandy, who says,"language media has gained and willcontinue to do so. If you look atclosely, the primary concentration ofEnglish media is around the metros,while the language press has a muchwider universe."

Realising the importance of the

PRINT



Languages 2007 2006

English 34.7 35.2

Hindi 24.4 24.0

Tamil 9.7 9.8

Marathi 7.1 7.2

Telugu 6.7 6.6

Malayalam 6.2 6.3

Gujarati 4.5 4.4

Kannada 2.2 2.2

Bengali 1.5 1.4

Oriya 1.2 1.2

Punjabi 0.6 0.7

Urdu 0.6 0.5

Assamese 0.5 0.5

Language-wise Ad Share in %

PRINT SAW A RECORD NUMBER OF SUCCESSFUL-

NICHE BRAND LAUNCHES. THE MAINLINE BRANDS

TOO PERFORMED WELL. — ASHISH BAGGA, CEO, LIVING MEDIA

language press, Bagga of LivingMedia, which already has a clutch oflanguage titles, points out that"there is lot of potential to betapped in vernacular press and I seethe space growing at a faster clip."Whether the language press hasstarted to eat into the Englishdomain, Bagga says, "there's boundto be a realignment in spends giventhe large presence of regionalpress." Dhariwal says, "it would betoo early to say that language mediais eating into the English press. Thelanguage press is expanding as ithas a larger footprint, but peoplestill find a better deal in English."Rathore also feels that the shiftdepends on market considerationswhich vary across advertisers. At amacro level, more premium cate-gories are being made mass today,so non-metro markets are becom-ing important. This is where Hindiand other language media see a lotof growth coming in from.Bullish Sentiments

Picking up strength from the goodperformance in 2007, the industryanticipates a good show in 2008. Theindustry is pegged to touch the Rs9,995-crore-mark riding on a full 18percent growth, cornering with 46.9percent of the overall ad pie, says theSurvey. As Kotnala says, "the overalloutlook continues to be positive.Categories that have been growingshould continue at the same pace."Dhariwal too says, "I've a very goodoutlook for 2008 and expect it to beanother good year. There are fewchallenges in the economy, but theeconomy would be resilient and if itcontinues to grow at nine percentthen growth will not be a problem."

The industry leaders are not con-cerned about the looming recession

in the US, as they are confident of theIndia success story. For instanceChandy says, "as the US, which is theworld’s largest economy, heads to arecession, India will continue to growin investments and consumption.There'll be more competition whichwill only drive more advertising."Bagga too agrees saying, "we are verybullish about 2008 and hope to growvery aggressively."

Describing the present trends aspositive, Rathore says, "we see anincreasing trend towards media play-ers creating a lot more opportunitiesto aggregate audiences across vari-ous media platforms and create bet-ter communication solutions, andopening up newer revenue streamsin the process." Chhajlani is also

upbeat as he expects 20 percentgrowth in 2008. Swaroop too foreseesa robust growth saying, "we think theindustry would grow, thanks to allnew channels, publications etc com-ing in and as a result I see the indus-try growing at 20 percent or more."

Outlook's Peri sums up the bullishindustry sentiment well when hesays, "I will be smiling in the next fewyears, because the India story is goingto continue for next two-three years.And as long as the India story contin-ues we'll only keep growing. Thoughthe percentage growth might be dif-ferent for different groups."

With everything going in favour ofthe print players, the future lookspromising that the print media ishere to stay, for sure. ■

PRINT



Revenue Growth in Percentages

Publication Groups 2007

Bennett Coleman & Co 22

Jagran Prakashan 18

The Hindustan Times 20

Dainik Bhaskar Group 18

ABP Group 20

Kasturi & Sons 20

Living Media India 13

Malayala Manorama Group 12

The Thanthi Trust 12

Ushodaya Enterprises 15

Deccan Chronicle Group 10

Lok Prakashan 8

Sakal Papers 8

Rajasthan Patrika 8

Pitch-Madison Media

TELEVISIONin 2007

Analysis & Trends


Presented by

Overall, 2007 has been avery good year for theelectronics media as itsadvertising revenuesclocked a full 19 percent

growth rate to cross the Rs 7,000-crore mark for the first time.According to the fifth edition of thePitch-Madison Media AdvertisingOutlook Survey, the ad revenue ofthe television media touched Rs7,110 crore, thereby retaining its sec-ond dominant position in the overallshare of the advertising sweepstakeat 40.2 percent after the printmedia’s 47.9 percent. Though this isa marginal drop from 40.8 percent ithad during the previous reportingperiod. This dip is understandable,as even though this media has beengrowing fast, other media formatslike the print, the Internet, and radiohave been growing even faster.

However, in general it has to benoted that going by the numbers,both in terms of viewership and thefree commercial time (FCT) shares,the medium has been able to main-tain its positions as in the past year. Viewership Trends

When it comes to genre-wise view-ership trends, it is clear that themass entertainment channels con-tinue to dominate the Hindi viewer-ship at a high 15.4 percent, followedby Hindi movie channels at ten per-

cent. This is despite a decline in theformer's overall viewership duringthe reporting period in comparisonto the previous year, when its sharestood at 16.7 percent, primarily dueto the fragmentation in the sector.Another major development is thatthe news genre remains the mostadvertised genre and has been ableto almost maintain its viewershipsteady at the previous year's level,which currently is 6.3 percent.Significantly, the second-line masschannels have gained in their view-ership with their overall shareincreasing to 4.3 percent from theprevious 4.1 percent.

The kids genre has done com-mendably well during the periodwith its viewership share increasingto 4.8 percent, from the last year's4.3 percent. Similarly, DD Nationaltoo has reported higher viewershipduring the period at 2.2 per cent

TELEVISION

The small screen continues

to be the fond platter for

advertisers, no matter

many new media platforms

are flourishing. After a good

year, the players look bull-

ish even as numerous

channels are waiting in the

wings to yank at the ad pie.

Holding theGROUND■ By PITCH BUREAU

20034,104

20044,350



from previous year's 1.9percent. However, theSouthern regional chan-nels, which together isthe most advertisedgenre, have seen aminor slide in theirviewership, but stillremain the mostwatched television seg-ment with overall view-ership share remainingthe highest at 25.7 per-cent, though it is downfrom the 27.1 percent-age point it held in theprevious reporting year.

Another major findingis the dramatic fall in theviewership of Hindimovie channels whichhave seen their viewership nose-div-ing from 20.1 percent in 2006 to alow 10.9 percent during the report-ing year. However, the viewership ofEnglish movies genre remained flatat one percent during the year.Similar is the case with the infotain-ment genre. Despite a comparative-ly successful cricket year, the sportschannels as a whole have seen somedip in their viewership from 3.8 per-cent in 2006 to 3.1 percent duringthe reporting period. Advertising Volume Trends

Though lower in overall viewership,the news genre has continued itsleadership position when it comesto cornering the advertising vol-umes. This year too, the Survey findsthat the news genre has been themost advertised slot, followed by themusic genre. While news channelstogether have only 6.3 percent view-ership, its share in the advertisingpie is a high 22 percent. Similarly,while music channels as a genre has

a limited viewership share, this is thesecond most advertised genre with12.4 percent of the total televisionadvertising going to this genre.

However, the survey finds thatthere have been some slippages inthe relative advertising volumeshare in the kids and mass enter-tainment genres, despite their view-ership shares going upwards duringthe period. While the kids genre hasseen its viewership increasing by 0.5per cent to 4.8 percent from 4.3 per-cent in the previous year, there hasnot been a cumulative increase inthe FCT share of this genre as itsadvertising share has declined to 4.6per cent from 5.4 percent in 2006.Though the mass entertainmentgenre has almost retained its viewer-ship share at 15.4 percent during thereporting period, there has been amajor dip in its advertising volumewith a 2.4 percentage points dropfrom 5.4 in 2006 to three percent inthe under assessment year.

20066,000

20077,110


Figures in Rs crores

DRIVEN BY A

FULL 19 PER-

CENT GROWTH,

TELEVISION

CORNERED AN

ALL-TIME HIGH

ADVERTISING

REVENUE OF

RS 7,110 CRORE

IN 2007

20055,003

Genrewise Viewership Share in %

Genres 2007 2006

Hindi Mass Entertainment 15.4 16.7

Second Line Mass 4.3 4.1

DD National Network 2.2 1.9

DD Regional Network 1.3 1.6

Southern Channels 25.7 27.1

English Movies 1.0 1.1

Hindi Movies 10.9 20.1

English Niche 0.3 0.4

Infotainment 1.0 1.0

News 6.3 6.6

Sports 3.1 3.8

Kids 4.8 4.3

Religious 0.6 0.7

Pitch spoke to leadingbroadcasters for their viewson 2007. Overall, these indus-try leaders have rated 2007 asa great year as this media rodeon the booming economy. 2007 Was a 'Landmark Year'

When contacted to know how2007 has been for his chan-nels, Star India chief executiveUday Shankar described it as avery good year. "It has com-mercially been very good yearfor us, though in the earlypart, we had some setbacks.However, we have taken aseries of measures to insuregrowth," he says.

Similar is the response fromSony Entertainment too, withits president for network salesRohit Gupta terming the yearas “great.” “We have doubledour growth at around 35 percent, which is highly above theindustry average," he says. TurnerInternational vice-president foradvertising sales and networks forIndia and South Asia Monica Tatarates the year as “fantastic” as herchannels could hit all targets.According to HBO India countrymanager Shruti Bajpai, her channelcould also live up to the promises, astheir mantra was ‘Big, new, most.’"We are now in the eighth year andwe are only getting better each year.We have been consistently clockingdouble digit growth with around 15-20 percent growth in 2007." TVToday chief executive officer GKrishnan also describes the year as agreat year with revenues recording agrowth of around 30 percent in thefirst nine months of 2007.What's Driving This Growth?

According to all the major broad-casters, television media is no longer

the darling of only the traditionalfavourite—consumer goods. Severalhigh-growth sectors like telecom,banking and financial services andreal estate are creating good hedgefor this medium. Sony's Gupta sayshis channels have all kinds of adver-tisers. “Now we are not entirelydependent on consumer goodsbrands. It contributes only 40-50percent now, unlike in the past whenit contributed 80-90 percent of ourad revenues. Now we have observedcategories like telecom, banking andfinance have replaced consumergoods brands. Even the auto indus-try is aggressively contributing toour revenue ad pie." Agrees Star'sShankar saying, "all these sectors aregrowing but the newer ones liketelecom, financial sector are grow-ing faster as compared to the tradi-tional consumer goods advertisers."Ditto for SET Max, whose executive

vice-president Sneha Rajanisays, "there was new breed ofadvertisers. Realty developershave become one of thelargest spenders suddenly ontelevision in general andcricket in particular."However Zee EntertainmentEnterprises president for net-work sales and revenue headJoy Chakravorthy has a differ-ent view on this as he says,"consumer goods will alwaysremain our major advertisers.Though the good news is thatwe are seeing a resurgence ofdurables on television.'' Is Fragmentation a Big Concern?

Not really, if the industryleaders are to be believed."Fragmentation has onlyincreased people using televi-sion. And if you see, with somany channels entering the

scene, the viewership base is onlyexpanding and so is the money.Advertisers and agencies know thattelevision is the cheapest mediumand hence the skew towards thesame is increasing by the day," saysZee’s Joy Chakravorthy. Star'sShankar too agrees: "It is difficult fora single player to capture all themarket and all the target audienceswith one channel.'' Kids Programmers Buoyant

Kids channels have for long been apromising genre with the advent ofnew players and especially since thepower of kids increasing on buyingdecisions. And this year has notbeen different. Turner Internatio-nal's Tata says, "the percentageshare of advertising on kids chan-nels has gone up in 2007." Accordingto Walt Disney Television Indiaadvertising sales head VijaySubrahma niam, the kids genre con-

TELEVISION



Genres 2007 2006

News 22.0 23.3

Music 12.4 16.5

South Channels 17.0 13.6

Regional Satellite 10.0 8.5

Hindi Movies 7.7 7.5

Hindi Mass 3.0 5.4

Entertainment

Kids 4.6 5.3

DD Regional 4.0 4.9

Infotainment 4.8 4.1

English Niche 2.3 2.6

English Movies 2.6 2.4

Sports 2.0 2.1

Second Line Mass 3.0 1.3

Others 2.8 1.1

DD National Network 1.0 0.9

Religious 0.7 0.5

Genrewise FCT Share in %

tinues to be one of the most excitingplaces to be in, in terms of bothaudiences and advertisers. "Theadvent of new players means that inthe immediate term there would bean increase in supply of overallavailable inventory, which no doubthappened. In the medium-term,however, consolidation and busi-ness priorities clearly drove thevalue proposition for the genre as awhole to the marketers, and mostdefinitely for us," points outSubrahmaniam. News Genre Makes Headlines

The news genre continues its domi-nance as the most advertised medi-um, with as many as 22 percent ofthe overall advertising share goingonto this medium during the report-ing year. Similarly, the genre couldalmost retain its viewership too dur-ing the year, at 6.3 percent.

When quizzed about this massiveadvertising volume compared toviewership numbers, TV TodayNetwork chief executive Krishnansays, "advertisers select differentmedia platforms based on market-ing objectives. The impact a brandcreates through television advertis-ing is unparallel by any other mediaplatform." Echoing Kirshnana'sviews, Zee News chief executiveBarun Das says, "ad revenues ofnews channels have seen a signifi-cant growth in 2007, and hence theoverall volume decline in FCT sharelooks surprising to me. The onlypossible reason for this could befaster growth of other genres."Sporting Times

Though cricket made a good come-back during the year after the initialsetback from the humiliating WorldCup defeat, this sports genre hasfailed to make good of it, both interms of viewership as well as in

terms advertising share. While theformer has come down to 3.1 from3.8 percent, the latter has more orless been steady at two percent,which is a tad down from 2.1 percentin 2006. But industry players claimcontrary. ESPN Star Sports Indiamanaging director RC Venkateishargues that "if you look at theabsolute growth numbers, thesports genre has witnessed a sellingof around 25,000 minutes of addi-tional inventory in 2007."

The survey shows that 20:20matches had almost double TVRs atclose to four percent, while ODIshad close to two percent. What is thereason for this massive response tothis format? Says Star’s Venkateish,"the T20 is the cricket equivalent forany internationally popular com-pact sports format like soccer, ten-nis, baseball, etc, which typicallylasts for about three hours or so onan average. With the pace of life everincreasing leading to a paucity oftime for television viewing, theTwenty20 cricket has actually man-aged to package in the excitementand passion of one day cricket in a

tighter, more viewer friendly format.And this has naturally worked wellwith audience world wide."Bullish Sentiments

Our study not only projects bettergrowth for the television medium at22 percent in 2008, but also says thatthe overall FCT share of this medi-um will see a minor spurt from 40.2to 40.7 percent clocking Rs 8,674crore in revenues. With new playersentering the GEC and news genres,the future seems to be bright for themedium. Numerous new channelshave been announced both in thegeneral entertainment channelsgenre and the news space towardsthe close of 2007. Players like Indraniand Peter Mukherjea's INX Media,Zee, Star and Sony group, NDTVMedia, UTV, the joint venturebetween Network18 and Viacomgroup called Viacom18, all offer animpact full year ahead. Nearly 100applications for news channels arepending with the ministry.

Star’s Shankar is optimistic aboutthe future saying, "the fundamentalsof the economy are very strong. Soas the economy grows one shall seea relatively equal growth in theindustry. We are looking forward to2008." SET’s Gupta says, "we arelooking forward to 2008 and hopewe do equally well as we did lastyear." Similar is the opinion of Zee'sChakravorthy who says, "we arebullish about 2008 as the growthprospects are strong."

"The ad revenue growth will bevery aggressive, varying acrosschannels targeting 25 to 50 percentgrowth for individual channels.Overall, we’ll be growing higher thanthe industry average. The overallgrowth is expected to be fuelled bycertain new offerings as well," con-cludes Zee News' Barun Das. ■



Top Channels (figures in %)

Channels 2007 2006

Cable Channels 9.7 9.0

Star Plus 7.7 9.7

Sun TV 5.9 7.3

Zee TV 5.3 4.4

MAX 3.8 3.7

Gemini TV 3.1 3.9

Zee Cinema 3.1 3.3

Sony 2.5 2.7

Star Gold 2.3 2.4

KTV 2.1 2.4

TELEVISION

Pitch-Madison Media

OUTDOORin 2007

Analysis & Trends


Presented by

The outdoor media hascontinued to cling on tothe third position with a7.2 percent share of the Rs17,690-crore advertising

pie in 2007 after print and televisionat 47.9 and 40.2 percent sharesrespectively. According to the Pitch-Madison Advertising Outlook 2008,this media has grown by 28 percentin the year gone-by. The survey alsoclearly shows that the sector hasrecorded a significant growth overthe previous year when it had 6.9percent of the advertising spends ofRs 14,505 crore.

Industry players cite several reasonsfor this impressive growth, as moreand more advertisers have startedlooking at this media more seriously.Also, there has been a whole newbunch of marketers, especially mod-ern retailers, real estate players andairlines taking seriously this media.But to its own credit, the outdoor seg-ment roped in new customers byoffering plenty of innovative formatson par with international standards.While relishing the growth, the indus-try also has set itself on a track of regu-larisation by forming an umbrellabody called the Indian OutdoorAdvertising Association.

"This high growth was driven bymany factors with the foremost beingthe infrastructure growth. New high-ways have come up across the coun-

try, and new airports are being built inthe metros. These factors have openedup huge opportunities for us. We haveseen over 300 percent growth," claimsTimes Innovative Media managingdirector Sunder Hemrajani. Theagency notched up high growth onaccount of the New Delhi andMumbai international airports.Started operations in 2006, TimesInnovative Media, popularly known asTimes OOH Media, has already madeits presence felt and enlisted bigclients like HSBC and Barclays to itsroaster during the past year.

The ongoing economic boom hasalso indirectly spurred the growth of

outdoor advertising as more peopleare on the move for reasons of workand leisure. To the glee of advertiserswho want more people out of theirhomes, there has been a manifoldincrease in the number of people onthe move. Another major growth driv-er is the increasing clutter in the massmedia, fragmented by the bulgingnumber of satellite television chan-nels, radio and the print. Yet anotherreason for this growth is the compara-tive price advantage this mediumoffers to clients.

Apart from all these external factors,innovation and the rise in the numberof stakeholders have also proved to

OUTDOOR

The increasing clut-

ter and fragmenta-

tion in the mass

media space and

the changing social

behaviour that has

seen an increase in

the number of peo-

ple on the wheels

have led to a huge

windfall to the

outdoor media

Gaining fromthe CLUTTER■ By JAYASHREE MAJI

2003727



the drivers of growth. "There is a par-adigm shift towards the digital formattoday. With huge number of malls andmultiplexes coming up across thetowns and cities, marketers want touse the opportunity to reach out totheir target groups through digitalscreens. International street furniture,LCD screens in malls, LED displaypanels are some of the new types ofoutdoor advertising happening lately.The airports are also getting revolu-tionised with world-class signagestaking up the prominent slots,'' saysClear Channel India national headRobin Carruthers.

If our imagination was monoto-

nously stuck only to the rectangularhoardings lined up along the roads,popping up out of the terraces andteeming up the streets until a fewmonths years back, the scene haschanged for the better now, with end-less innovative formats visible on busshelters, kiosks, signages, unipoles,mobile display vans, LED screens andthe like. Blue-casting is an emergingtool that uses a digital mode placed ona hoarding or a bus shelter to commu-nicate a brand message using blue-tooth technology to all those withcompatible mobile phones in a partic-ular range is a new attractive format.Also, using live models to create more

excitement surrounding the brand isanother innovation in the industry.Brands such as BBC World, Bru Coffee,Sony Ericsson, Zapak.com and manyothers have used this tool quite a bit inthe past year.

The advent of more internationalplayers have also given an impetus tothis media. Agencies like ClearChannel, Posterscope, JCDecaux andthe latest entrant Stroer Media havevirtually forced a revamp in thedomestic arena. For these interna-tional players, India with the secondfastest growing GDP and over a billionpopulation throws open vast poten-tial, says JCDecaux managing directorPramod Bhandula.

If many of them have started reap-ing the benefits, the late entrants likeGerman major Stroer OOH MediaIndia are just into the ground work."We have also been identifying placeswhere our technology can be effec-tively used. Most of this preparatorywork is nearly over so that we may rollout in 2008," says its country head andchief exective Indrajit Sen.

The entry of international biggiesalso extends a positive signal to thedomestic industry, as Percept OOHpresident Sanjay Pareek sees it. "Thequality of asset will be better and theywill bring in professionalism andtransparency in the industry. Theirmove is welcome. But we need to seewhat kind of investment plans theyhave as progress of their participationis slow," quips Stroer Media head mat-ter-of-factly.

The year also has seen some posi-tive trend in the regulatory sphere asthe industry is growing very fast bothin terms of revenues as well as in thenumber of players.

Another development was the AnilAmbani promoted Big FM making a


2005870

1,000

20071,275


OUTDOOR HAS

COME A BIG WAY

REGISTERING 28

PC GROWTH TO

TOUCH RS 1,275

CR IN 2007. IT

IS EXPECTED TO

GAIN BY 14 PC

AT RS 1,454 CR

IN 2008.

2004800

2006


foray into this space the launch of BigStreet. Headed by Big FM businessdevelopment vice-president JayyantBhokare, this division deals withadvertising options like billboards,street furniture, multiplexes and mallsformats. Big Street has also acquiredadvertising rights for display panels atthe Metro stations in the Capital.

Consolidating itself as an industry,the year has also witnessed the birthof the Indian Outdoor AdvertisingAssociation. Selvel Advertising, JagranEngage, Times Innovative Media,Clear Channel, Prakash Arts andLaqshya Media are the foundingmembers of this body. The immediate

agenda of the new-formed associa-tion is to facilitate fixing of jurisdictionover outdoor advertising at variouslevels such as local administrationand state governments.

"The primary objective of the asso-ciation is to promote, protect andadvance the rightful interests of out-door media and outdoor advertisingmedia companies and associatedbusinesses. It will ensure co-opera-tion, free and fair competitionamongst agencies and deal with fac-tors affecting the outdoor industry",says the chairman of associationNoomi Mehta, who doubles up as thechairman and managing director of

Selvel Advertising.While our survey projects a lower

growth rate in 2008 at 14 percent incomparison to the 28 percent in 2007,it is projected to touch Rs 1,454 crore.With traditional media getting morecluttered, the out-of-home mediastands tall as a critical medium to con-nect with the consumers and capturetheir attention when they are morereceptive outside their homes. Thechanging social behaviour drivingmore people out of homes in search ofjobs and recreation is also proving tobe fertile for this medium, which is onthe path of a better future.■

—[email protected]

IT NEEDS NO MENTION THATthe Pitch-Madison MediaAdvertising Outlook has

become the benchmark for themedia and advertising industry inthe country over the years. Into thefifth edition of the Survey, this yearwe have included a few new mediacategories which are growing atfaster pace and gaining in promi-nence, apart from the traditionalmass media formats that we havebeen auditing through this Surveyfor the past four years now.

While the media research centreof Madison Media has surveyedthe main media formats—print,television, outdoor, radio, theInternet and cinema—to gauge thesize and action in non-auditeddomains like direct marketing,public relations, and retail media,Pitch contacted and spoken inlength with leading players toknow the industry numbers, thetrends and the like.

This apart, Madison has alsoanalysed and studied the TAM and

AdEx data to review the hottestmarketing medium that crickethas come to be today, as to how themain three media owners in thisdomain fared during the years interms of both viewership numbersas well as the share of the advertis-ing times on them.

The Madison Media advertisingindustry estimates, prepared by itsmedia research centre, on adver-tising spends have been arrived atthrough a sophisticated methodol-ogy involving expert judgement,volume of advertising, industry/sectoral growth rates, and theoverall climate of marketingspending. Drawing on its rich anddiverse experience across all plat-forms of advertising, MadisonMedia has brought to bear this onits estimation. These estimateshave gone through several roundsof iteration and correction throughfactual analysis, and tapping intothe rich mental database atMadison’s disposal.

Since an analysis of and growth

prediction for this medium isincomplete without knowing thesentiments of marketers—thisassumes importance, as the wholeworld is fearing a slowdown in theUS economy in as many years, andits ripple effect on the rest of theworld in general and our growth inparticular, despite the fact that oureconomy is on a steady mooringand clipping at nine percent ormore— we thought of eliciting theviews of leading marketers thoughan opinion poll.

Pitch commissioned Synovate toconduct an opinion poll among 60marketers from diverse sectors likeconsumer goods, automobile,banking and finance, and telecomto know the pulse of these mar-keters who are based in Mumbai,New Delhi, Bangalore andChennai, as also their outlook for2008 in regard to consumer senti-ments on spending as also on theirplans for different media vehiclesfor promoting their products andservices and brand image.■

OUTDOOR


How Did We Arrive at The Numbers

Pitch-Madison Media

INTERNETin 2007

Analysis & Trends


Presented by



Advertising dollars are rain-ing for online companieswhich saw a successful yearin 2007 netting in moreyoungsters and winning

acceptance from the marketers acrossthe domains. Everything seems to beon an upward swing for the onlinemedia that logged in a smart 52 per-cent growth to touch Rs 250 crore inad revenues, according to the Pitch-Madison Advertising Outlook 2008.

However, despite the full-spiritedmarch, online media's contribution tothe advertising pie is still hovering at aminiscule 1.4 percent, up from 1.1 percent in 2006. But it still means growthand wider acceptability as a viablemedium to engage target groups. AsMSN India digital business head RRajnish puts it, "this signifies thatalthough the current size of ad spendsis marginal in comparison to the massmedia, things are changing fast.Advertisers are beginning to under-stand the reach of this medium as itcan offer better interactivity and thetargeted or contextual connect," heargues. NDTV cheif executive SanjayTrehan also backs this saying mar-keters are adopting this medium in aneffort to break away from the clutter."Advertisers have also adopted onlineadvertising as a viable option to break

the clutter of print and more expen-sive television advertising. With morecompanies moving to the onlinemedia with an information and e-commerce perspective, online adver-tising provides the most effective vehi-cle where the target consumer is just aclick away,'' Trehan says.

Forget the present share and waitfor the long leaps ahead, that is howTimes Business Solutions president RSundar and Yahoo vice-president foremerging markets Prashant Mehtalook at it. "In India, 1.8 percent of adspends are on the Internet while forBritain this is 20.1 percent. Therefore,as Net penetration goes, one can get asense of where the market is headedto. It is projected that by 2010, as manyas 3.7 percent of all advertising in thecountry will be online," Sundarsounds bullish. "We are in the neigh-bourhood of 30-35 million people. Asthe behaviour of these people change,broadband penetration increases andtechnologies become more availableto engage mobile users, we are goingto see the real takeoff. At that point wewill see multiple things start happen-ing," Mehta is optimistic.

The domestic scenario has alwaysmuch to do unswervingly with the rip-ples outside where the Internet is pos-ing a big challenge to conventional ad

INTERNET

■ By DEEPTI AGGARWAL

200350

200470

2005110

With increasing acceptance by marketers and the

ever-widening penetration of this platform, the

digital space is looking for much brighter future

Weaving awider NET


delivery platforms as a potent com-petitor. At least in some markets andin certain categories, the scale hasstarted firmly tilting in favour of theonline medium.

At the global level, three major dealsdefined the equations mid-2007.Google bought DoubleClick, anonline ad serving platform, to add toits present competencies while thesecond biggest advertising conglom-erate WPP gulped 24\7 Media to givean online platform to its existingclients. Following this, another onlinebiggie Yahoo raised its stake in the adserving platform Right Media, muchon the lines of the two other deals.

Among these, WPP's deal in partic-ular is an eye opener for the advertis-ing fraternity the world over. It hasforced all and sundry to sit up andtake note of the fact that advertisersare moving online, and hence adagencies should also follow suit. Andthe trend was visible soon in thedomestic space too, as many playersdevotedly set up online creative shopsto cater to their client's digital adver-tising needs. Earlier, only independentstart-ups were offering solutions fordigital media.

Another development that points tothe sunnier days for the Internet isWPP's quest to expand its digital foot-prints. Taking the acquisition route,WPP bought majority stakes in QuasarMedia, one of many independent dig-ital agencies in the country today.Looking inwardly, it can be found thatthere have been new formats and oldones have been modified to fit the bill,in tune with the times.

Among the reasons for this buoyantgrowth, the biggest one propelling the

change is the improved broadbandpenetration. As per the ICube report,present active user base in the countryhas touched the 32-million mark.Though a tiny figure, it forms a formi-dable consumer chunk to which lotsof products and services can be target-ed. As Rediff.com marketing vice-president Manish Agarwal explains,"since the Internet reach among themetros is matching print and radio,we have seen metro-centric FMCGand non-FMCG brands experiment-ing with this medium in big way. Evenoffline brands such as telecom whichare targeting youth or SEC-A, B audi-ences find the Internet a very interac-tive way of communicating and thiswill continue to grow in future."

Another encouraging offshoot ofthis increased access is the emergenceand acceptance of social as well asprofessional networking sites. And itcomes as no surprise that leadingmarketers also also acknowledge this.Infoedge India vic-president for adsales, mobility and new investmentsApurva Kumar thinks that with theincrease in Net penetration and bettercontent available on online, more andmore content providers and servicesare going online.

Analysing the grounds of growth,Nai Dunia chief executive VijayChhajlani notes that some of theniche areas have become successfulon the Internet, thus promptingadvertisers to take this medium seri-ously. “So, a lot of larger players havereached that critical mass that anyadvertiser would be looking for.Several advertisers have worked outtheir strategy for advertising and start-ed to committing budgets. Now, peo-

SINCE THE INTERNET REACH AMONG THE METROS

IS MATCHING PRINT AND RADIO, WE HAVE SEEN

METRO-CENTRIC FMCG BRANDS EXPERIMENTING

WITH THIS MEDIUM —MANISH AGARWAL, VP, MARKETING, REDIFF


DIGITAL MEDIA

LOGGED IN A

HEALTHY 52 PC

GROWTH IN 07

TO TOUCH RS

250 CR. THIS IS

PROJECTED TO

SNIFF AT RS 363

CR IN 08 ON A

45 PC GROWTH.

2006165

2007250


INTERNET


ple say they want online advertisingand they are serious about it," he adds.

The adaptability of this medium interms of newer formats without beingintrusive has also won many admirers,giving a fillip to the growth graph. Therich media ads and video advertisinggiving way to interstitials and supersti-tials are among these favourite new adformats today. On the other hand,tools allowing contextual or behav-ioural targeting also have got thumbsup from the RoMI-conscious mar-keters. What most advertisers todaylook for are ways to filter consumers interms of demographics, interests, etc,and allow interaction or engagementwith the most relevant consumers in anon-intrusive manner, is how Rajnishof MSN explains the reason for theemergence of newer ad formats arebeing introduced.

Listing some from the preferred list,Indiatimes director for ad sales UpenRoop Rai comments, "rich media adsare the flavours along with specific adssuch as shoshkeles and old formatads." Rediff's Agarwal is also quick topoint out that last year, a major chunkof advertisers sought solutions in thesearch and content-based advertisingspace and these areas are likely to growin 2008 as publishers will increaseinventory yield from existing contentpages by deploying behavioural target-ing and contextual advertising.Yahoo's Mehta also feels that search-based advertising saw a very healthygrowth last year.

Google India managing directorShailesh Rao points out that “advertis-ers across verticals here have beenusing multiple formats like text, image,and video ads to meet different busi-ness goals across Google searchengines." In addition, Rao says adver-tisers have also shown a lot of interestin the rich media capabilities.

As the medium gets bigger, themajor publishers also fared better inthe year. NDTV, which came out withnew initiatives last year, recorded arevenue increase of 50 percent. TheNaukri group, which started ad salesjust a year ago, has been witnessingsignificant double digit growth and asKumar says, "even the base of rev-enues are becoming significantly larg-er now." Times Business Solutions,which already has many propertieslike Timesjobs, Simplymarry, Ads2book and Magicbricks under its wings,also had a good year in revenue terms.While Rediff recorded good growth inad revenues from its India businesswhich comprises online advertising

and fee-based services, increased byeight percent to touch $6.12 millionduring the quarter ended December2007 as compared to $5.69 millionduring the same quarter last previousyear. MSN grew higher than onerecorded by the display ad market. Theworld's biggest search company alsoenjoyed healthy gains in the past yearas Google's Adwords received supportfrom marketers across categories.Times Internet also had a good year asits revenue grew by 50 percent and rev-enues registered a jump of 30 percent.Yahoo India, riding high on itsrevamped advertising interface andslew of activities, had a good periodtoo. Not lagging behind is Nai Dunia’sWebdunia whose chief executiveChhajlani says, "we have trebled thetraffic during the first year and weexpect our revenues to double up thisyear as well." Changing Face of Advertisers

One of the biggest complaints by theonline media is that they always onlyget the left-overs. Moreover, mostadvertisers look for performance-based advertising on the Net. But, allthis is changing as the profile of adver-tisers coming on the Net is changing.Sundar explains, "advertisers are slow-ly but surely realising the potential thatWeb2.0 has unleashed for them withthe power of visitor interaction analy-

Active Internet

Userbase

Urban Penetration (in Mn)

2000 2001 2003 2004 2006 2007

2.24.3

7.5

11.2

21.1

32Urban Population 250 Mn

English Knowing 77

PC Literate 65

Claimed User 46

Active User 32

Literate Population 205

0 50 100 150 200 250

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

33%

15%

14%

21% 11% 6%

Demographic Break-up ofInternet Users

Young MenOlder Men

School-goingKids

CollegeStudents

Workingwomen

Non-workingwomen

Source: ICube Report 2007


INTERNET

Email


2004 50%

13%

24%

9%5%

2006 46%

10%

32%

8%4%

2007 51%

11%

20%

13%5%

Main Reasons for Using Internet in 30 Cities

Entertainment E-Commerce

Chat Information

Source: ICube Report 2007

sis and profiling, dynamic site search-es, rich online applications and col-laborative influencer platforms ofsocial networking and blogs." Rao toopoints out that Google has seen busi-nesses by utilising the platform tosupport a wide variety of marketingobjectives from brand developmentin support of new products and serv-ices to cost-effective lead generationfor customer acquisition. In one of the biggest transitions, con-

sumer goods behemoths are alsocoming onboard. Though largelyauto, financial services, telecom, air-lines remained the growth drivers forthe sector during the year. Bullish Outlook

Enthused by the success in the previ-ous year, the online stakeholdersexpect a better and brighter year in2008. And the Pitch-Madison MediaAd Outlook too projects 45 percentgrowth for the industry. The study also

expects that the share of online adver-tising will also gain some notches totouch 1.7 percent at Rs 383 crore in2008. Looking ahead, Agarwal ofRediff bets big on the video and richmedia ads coupled with contextualand behavioural targeting. He alsoforesees better returns from both textand display ads. Google expects bettergrowth on the continued use of searchadvertising and exploration of onlineadvertising using different formats.Another major platform that hascaught the attention of online indus-try is mobile. And both Yahoo andGoogle have plans to leverage thisplatform given the proliferation ofmobile devices and the increased useof data services over mobile devices.

MSN expects to see manifoldincrease in the user numbers pro-pelled by increased broadband con-nectivity. It also points out mobilephone as the next mile in the equa-

tion. NDTV's Trehan feels the marketwill make manifold rise while Yahoobelieves that it is going to be a greatyear for the Internet as a whole,thanks to more use of mobile plat-form and other strong user products.

Naukri's Kumar also feels upbeatabout the industry prospects when hesays, "significant double digit growthwill continue. And though I don't seethe big spenders changing, I do see alot of new advertisers with the profileof advertisers changing to someextent." He adds, "the year 2008 willsee a lot of traditional brands thathave not been there taking to theonline media in a big way. Gamingsites will be one of them." Indiatimes’Rai too expects the industry to contin-ue the upward movement but sees aslower growth on account of lessernumber of brand-building activitythat is taking place online now.“Growth will be there but not on simi-lar lines as last year, as the overall mar-ket has moved or is moving towardsperformance-based advertising frombrand-building and in such a scenariospend gets limited," he sums up real-istically. ■ —[email protected]

ADVERTISERS ARE SLOWLY REALISING THE POTEN-

TIAL THAT WEB 2.0 HAS UNLEASHED FOR THEM

WITH THE POWER OF VISITOR-INTERACTION ANALY-

SIS, PROFILING AND OTHER TOOLS—SHAILESH RAO, MD, GOOGLE

Pitch-Madison Media

RADIOin 2007

Analysis & Trends


Presented by

The private FM radioindustry, still in its nas-cent days, had a success-ful year in terms of adver-tising revenues if the fig-

ures in the Pitch-MadisonAdvertising Outlook 2008 are anyindication. Clocking 68 per centgrowth to corner Rs 480 crore in adrevenue from the previous year's Rs285 crore, this high-growth mediaemerged as the fourth largest medi-um in terms of size, cornering 2.7percent of the total advertising pieof Rs 17,690 crore in 2007.

This significant growth was driv-en by a number of factors such asthe massive expansion of industryunder the second phase of FMlicensing, which saw nearly 150 newstations going on air in tier II and IIItowns. Another key growth driverwas the establishment of radioaudience measurement (RAM) thatbrought in a sense of objectivity tothe claims of the channels withregard to their reach. The industryalso saw more content differentia-tion and flocking of more advertis-ers from new categories like retail-ers, television channels etc.Radio Goes Pan-India

Though there have been many sig-nificant developments in the indus-try that paved way for this stupen-dous growth, the most importantgrowth driver was expansion of the

radio footprint into tier II and IIIcities under the second phase oflicensing that was issued in 2003.While 2006 saw the birth for severalradio players, 2007 witnessed theirhealthy consolidation in the sectorwith operators like Jagran group,Bhaskar group, BAG Films,Matrubhumi, Asianet, MalayalamManorama, and Sun TV groupamong others launching their oper-ations. It also saw the birth of thefirst just for women station MeowFM from Radio Today. The year alsosaw the birth of 150 more new radiostations in over 50 towns.

Commenting on this enviablegrowth Red FM chief executiveAbraham Thomas says, "radio isgetting a lot of attention in theminds of marketers and mediaplanners. Suddenly markets, whichdid not have radio, are beginning touse radio and consequently itsgrowth at an overall level is lookingbetter than what it actually is."

BigFM marketing vice-presidentAnand Chakravarthy hopes thatmultiple frequencies for players in asingle city would further spurgrowth. "With multiple stations,players can get into niche program-


RADIO

The massive expan-

sion of the private

FM radio foot-print

into tier II and III

cities, coupled with

the launch of RAM,

has ushered in a

record Rs 480 crore

in revenues on a 68

percent jump in

growth for this nas-

cent industry.

More Musicto EARS

■ By PURNA PANCHAL

2003125


ming and offer better quality enter-tainment. Over a period, we willalso see greater segmentation anddifferentiated offerings. All this willhelp the industry grow exponential-ly with more players," he says.RAM Brings in Objectivity

The second most important growthdriver was the launch of the radioaudience measurement (RAM)towards the later part of the year byTAM Media Research, which to agreater extent has addressed theshortcomings in the audiencemeasurement, also giving a syndi-cated tool to the operators, albeit

only in three cities. Almost all majorplayers, including Radio Mirchi whoinitially contested the methodologyadopted by RAM, have now adoptedthe measurement system.

According to the RAM data on lis-tenership, on an average aBangalorean spends maximumtime on radio at 8.40 hours, fol-lowed by Mumbai and Delhi. InMumbai, Red FM has 19.5 percentshare leading on an average totallistenership during Monday toSunday 12.01 am-11.59 pm, fol-lowed by Radio Mirchi at 16.8 per-cent, with BigFM standing very

close at 16.7 percent. However,Delhi, which has comparatively thelowest listenership, places RadioMirchi at 21 percent whereas RadioOne is way behind at 12.8 percent,followed by AIR FM 2 Gold at 10.3percent. Amongst all the threecities, Bangalore has the highest lis-tenership and Radio Mirchi scores20.9 percent share here, followed byBig FM at 16.2 percent and RadioOne at 13.2 percent.

Chakravarthy of BigFM, however,refuses to go by the RAM figures,saying his station has doneextremely well in Delhi and Mumbaialong with Bangalore. As per theRAM data (week ending October20), Big FM’s delivered reach of over1.1 crore listeners cumulatively inMumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore.Radio Mirchi chief operating officerNandan Srinath observes, "ourunderstanding from clients is thatRAM has still not found acceptanceand adoption. The results fromacross the markets continue to beamazing."

Assessing the noteworthy devel-opments in the space, Radio Citychief executive officer and thenewly instituted Association ofRadio Operators of India presidentApurva Purohit says, “the first majormilestone was the advent of RAM.The second would be the conver-gence of radio broadcasters acrossthe nation under the aegis of theAssociation of Radio Operators ofIndia (AROI), which will emerge as avery strong entity to work aggres-sively towards the progress andstrengthening of this medium andindustry in the years to come."

Attributing growth to the avail-ability of a common currency in theform of RAM the lack of which made


2004

2005200

2006285

2007480


RADIO POSTED

A FULL 68 PC

GROWTH TO

CORNER RS 480

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PIE AND IS

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TO TOUCH RS

672 CR IN 2008

150

marketers and media plannersskeptical on putting money onradio, RedFM chief executive officerAbraham Thomas says, “since nowwe have a measurement tool broad-casters are accountable and adver-tisers are more confident that theyare spending their money in thebest possible way." Radio Todaychief executive officer Anil Srivastavfeels that the radio did well, prima-rily because of the increase in thenumber of stations. He howeveradds, “people have not understoodthe actual potential of the medium.Radio has a lot more to offer thanjust music; there are many creativeways in which radio can be used,but unfortunately, we stick to only afew popular ones and do not exper-iment enough with the medium."Content is the King

Though numerous debates and dis-cussions on rights to air news andcurrent affairs programmes on pri-vate stations could not reach anylogical end, operators did not takethis as growth deterrent, as theykept on creatig new content. 'Talk'or 'Music' or 'Talk+Music' was

another debate that came under thescanner during the year. But a goodthing that stood out was the re-found love for English music, airedby many players along with Hindiand regional language content. Theyear witnessed the launch of thecountry’s first talk-based radio sta-tion. Srivastava of Radio Todayclaims that this forced people tolook at radio differently. Some radio players also tried going

the English+Hindi way. While RadioCity added English to its content,Mid-Day's re-branded Hindi chan-nel, RadioOne too, turned toHinglish in the quarter of the year,playing a handful of English songsin the night slots. The Bangalore-based Radio Indigo, which is alsoairing in Goa, continues to be theonly radio station that remains theonly complete English station in thecountry today.

Some stations used film associa-tions to make more noise and mostof the banner movies released in theyear tied up exclusively with oneradio station or the other. Thesepartnerships proved to be a win-win

situation for both the parties as theygave the much-required marketingpush to both. While operatorscashed in on the celebrity quotient,producers took to radio for its reachcapabilities. New Revenue Streams

Apart from on-air advertising, theindustry also tried many innovativeways for revenue generation.Activations have been one of theimportant ways. Increasingly adver-tisers asked more value for theirmoney and 360-degree solution fortheir campaigns. This includes theconventional radio spot and seam-less integration into content on air,SMS, mobile and web digital medi-um and the on ground applicationof the same message. "Activationshave become an integral part of anymarketing communication today.Increasingly more and more clientsare demanding a holistic approachthat is where activation is playing akey role,'' says Thomas of RedFM.However, Srivastava of Radio Todayconsiders activation as a very smallpart of advertising and backs on-air-advertising as the main driver


RADIO

Average Listnership Share in Percentages

MUMBAI

0.0

0.4 0.2

2.2

2.2

4.1

4.9

5.2

7.4

11.0

12.4

12.3

16.2

20.9

1.8

2.0

2.6

3.9

8.9

11.7

16.7

15.8

16.8

19.5Red FM

Radio Mirchi

Big FM

Radio City

Radio One

AIR FM2-Gold

Fever FM

AIR FM1 Rainbow

Vividh Bharati

Akashvani

Others

Big FM

Radio Mirchi

Radio One

S FM

AIR FM1 Rainbow

Radio City

Fever FM

Gyan Vani

AIR FM1 Vividh Bharati

Akashvani

Radio Indigo

Others

5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0

BANGALORE


Sou

rce:

RA

M

Oct

20

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for revenue generation. On theother hand, Srinath of Radio Mirchisays, "relatively small revenuestreams can be generated throughcontent monetisation and movingcontent to the web and mobile.Activation is a relatively small andnascent part of the radio business,albeit growing fast." Industry Bullish about 2008

The year ended with a promise of aneven more action-packed 2008 andon the revenue front. The Surveyprojects the industry to grow by 40percent to touch Rs 672 crore in2008, and says the share of radio inthe ad pie would touch 3.2 percentin 2008. Many more radio stationsare scheduled to go on air in theyear, as the government has alreadyinitiated the third phase of licenc-ing. The overall objective of thethird phase would be to achieve 60percent coverage of the populationthrough FM stations.

The radio sector is poised tobecome an Rs 1,200-crore industryby the end of the decade, accordingto recent Ficci-PricewaterhouseCoopers study. With the majority oflicences in phase II going opera-tional by the end of this year, 2008 isgoing to be a very good year forradio and the industry will experi-ence dramatic expansion in its lis-tener base leading to major growthin business and 2008 will be the tip-ping point for the radio industry, asper the study. On the outlook for the

industry, RedFM'sThomas optimisticallysays, "it looks like a verypromising and excitingyear because media andadvertising industry islooking for a high robust

growth. Moreover, we are optimisticabout our own growth too."Chakravarthy adds, "we hope thatnews and current affairs will beopened for private broadcasters. Inthat case, this will lead to a newwave of growth."

"Spends on radio have definitelygone up and radio today is the mostcost-effective medium. In the FMbroadcasting space, commandinghigher advertising rates is the key toprofitability. Radio is becoming animportant part of the advertisingmix today. The future will see moreadvertisers coming on board," saysChakravarthy.

Radio Mirchi's Srinath believesthat the private FM business willcontinue to grow strongly in thecoming years, and should post y-o-ygrowth of over 50 percent over the

next three years. “Presuming that AllIndia Radio revenues stay in theregion of Rs 200 crore and the adindustry as a whole continues togrow at 15 percent, over the nextthree years, radio will constitute 6.5-7 percent of the ad industry," hesays optimistically.

Purohit of Radio City says radiowould emerge as a new age optionin conjunction with the Internet,activation and mobile platforms.With most stations set up andfocused, 2008 will see radio unfurl-ing as a truly national medium withstability seeping in for new stations.

Advertisers in the cities that gotFM stations recently will discoverthe power of radio, and realise thatit is an extremely effective mediumin improving traction with theirconsumer base because of its

immediate, engaging andinteractive nature.Develop ments in the reg-ulatory regime are likelyto lead to a lot moreexperimentation, newerformats, music and con-tent innovation. ■

[email protected]


RADIO

Bangalore

4.10hrs

Mumbai

3.10hrs

Delhi

1.50hrs

Bangalore

2.00hrs

Mumbai

1.50hrs

Delhi

2.10hrs

Bangalore

1.25hrs

Mumbai

1.00hrs

Delhi

1.10hrs

Bangalore

1.10hrs

Mumbai

1.15hrs

Delhi

1.00hrs

Places of Listening

HOME CAR OFFICE OTHERS

Time Spent in ListeningDelhi

5.4hrs

Bangalore

8.4hrs

Mumbai

6.5hrs


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Pitch-Madison Media

Presented by

CINEMAin 2007

Analysis & Trends


Hits or flops, the filmsalways remain a desiredplatform for marketers.Last year was also notdifferent with cinema

advertising faring well, though thethere weren’t many blockbusters thebox offices had to offer. On-screenadvertising picked up furthermomentum as marketers know that

it will always have a captive audi-ence and the power of cinema willnot die, no matter the number offlops on the rise. According to thefifth edition of the Pitch-MadisonMedia Advertising Outlook, the cin-ema advertising genre touched Rs104.5 crore last year from the previ-ous year’s Rs 55 crore driven by ahefty growth rate of 90 percent,thereby cornering 0.6 percent of theoverall ad pie.

Going by the number of films, thedomestic film industry is among thelargest in the world as it churns outover 1,000 films a year. The Hindi,Telugu and Tamil film industriesproduce over 200 films each.According to the latest Ficci-PricewaterhouseCoopers report, the filmindustry is around Rs 8,500 crore.

Every year there are 10-12 block-busters, but last year, the Hindi filmindustry saw fewer blockbusters.


CINEMA


Though the year failed to throw up many runaway

hits and the box offices wore thinner, advertisers

refused to ditch the power of the captive audiences

that the cinemas across the country offer

Of onscreen glitz andswanky MULTIPLEXES

■ By JAYASHREE MAJI

200319

200423

200532


The few flicks worth writing homeabout are Partner, Chak De India,Om Shanti Om, Welcome, Partner,Heyy Babyy, and Taare Zameen Par.Some big banner releases like JhoomBarabar Jhoom, Aja Nachle and LagaChunri Mein Daag were bombed inthe box offices. Still, the industrysaw significant growth, according topopular film critic Rajeev Masand.

But despite all this, the year wasgood in terms of cinema advertising,

if the Kanakia Group, the parentcompany of Cinemax India, is to bebelieved. Cinemax is a multiplexchain that has so far set up 51screens with 13,907 seating capacity.Cinemax has theatres acrossMaharashtra, Gujarat, Assam andHaryana. The company is planningto set up 100 more screens this yearand also to enter Bengal, Andhraand Tamil Nadu.

"The total ad revenue from the on-

screen business is mere 1.1 percentof the advertising revenue. It is closeto Rs 200 crore and with new multi-plexes being added every day, theshare is getting fragmented," says E-City Media, which a specilaised cin-ema ad agency, vice-presidentAnand Vishal.

The Fun Cinemas multiplex chain,owned by Ecity Digital Cinemas ofZee Group, has currently 53 screensacross Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore,

200655

2007104.5


THE CINEMA

MEDIUM

GREW BY A

HEFTY 90 PC

TO TOUCH RS

104.5 CR IN

07 AND IS

SLATED TO

REACH RS

157 CR IN 08


Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Agra, andPanipat among other cities.

PVR Cinemas is another big multi-plex chain that is spread across 24cities through a network of 96screens. According to PVR Cinemasgeneral manager for marketingGautam Dutta, "the on-screen cin-ema advertising has got huge poten-tial and it is yet to be fully tapped. In2008 we are going to get this mediaaudited. Because there are severalbig advertisers who refrain from thismedium because they believe that itis not audited. There are lots of planson the anvil," points out Dutta.

He further reveals that his compa-ny has exclusive tie-ups with Airtel,Hero Honda, Pepsi, Maruti Suzuki,Seagram and McDowell to boost adrevenues. Many other multiplexeshave tie-ups with agencies DimplesCine, Cinemedia and Salvos to hookthese big advertisers, while someothers rely on internal teams to mopup advertisements.

Last year, Dimples Cinema grewby around 40 percent. According toits spokesperson, the clients todayare looking at 360-degree presencethrough cinemas, and innovationsin terms of brand placement, brand-ing, kiosk activities and variousother innovational promotionalactivities. Dimples has been provid-ing in-theatre advertising solutionsto many brands since 1992 and ithas clients like Airtel, Cadbury, LGElectronics, Bajaj Auto, Reliance,Samsung, and ICICI Prudential Lifeamong others as its core advertisers.

Along with growth, the segmenthas also seen some healthy newtrends. "A lot of small and mediumfilms got noticed. A lot of good filmsgo unnoticed for the lack of advertis-

ing budget. There is lot of marketingmuscle that is coming in. Hence,even the smaller films, interestingfilms are getting a chance to make a

noise. That is a real good trend thathas happened last year," says thefilm critic Masand.

With the mind-set of audiencechanging and they are becomingmore selective, sometimes also opt-ing for small but good films, theoccupancy level at the movie hallshas not suffered much. That in turnhas helped the ad industry positive-ly. Besides, the scope of Hindi filmshas also expanded and languagebarrier has been broken. There aretakers for different types of movies.Rajnikant-starrer Shivaji The Bosswent beyond the Tamil-speakingaudience creating national ripples.

All these have reaffirmed the faithof marketers in the medium. Butstill, as some pointed out, lack ofaudit mechanism makes many mar-keters critical about on-screenadvertising. With the industry peo-ple claiming to set up formal body tosolve the issue, the medium is notjust going to stay, but grow bigger inthe days ahead. It is perhaps theonly medium where the marketergets captive audience for almostthree hours, giving him ampleopportunity and eyeballs to shoothis message. Hence, most big mar-keters put their money in on screenadvertising now, though theatreadvertising was limited to socialmessages earlier.

Looking ahead, our survey proj-ects this medium to grow by 50 per-cent to touch Rs 157 crore in 2008.The survey also projects the medi-um to register a marginal increase interms of its share in the overalladvertising market with its sharelikely to go up a notch to touch 0.7percent from current 0.6 percent inthe year 2008. ■


CINEMA

HIGHLIGHTS

■ Multiplexes like PVR Cinemas,metro-centric so far, are planningto enter small towns

■ Entertainment has overcomethe language barrier with movieslike Shivaji, The Boss grabbingboth national as well as interna-tional attention

■ Small banner films like BhejaFry by Sagar Ballary, Life in aMetro by Anurag Basu, BlackFriday by Anurag Kashayp,Manorama Six Feet Under byNavdeep Singh, and JhonnyGaddar by Sriram Raghavan hasgot noticed during the year

■ The industry also witnessedmaking of new kind of movieslike Chak De and Tarein ZameenPar not only earned reviews butalso made their mark at the boxoffices raking in moolhas


Pitch-Madison Media

DIRECTMARKETING

in 2007Analysis & Trends


Presented by

The advertising industry hasanother cousin—directmarketing, but it does nottake the popular massmedia route to talk to its

audience. Though relatively a newtool in the domestic market and it isyet to become a force to reckon with, ithas been making steady inroads intothe marketer's list and snatching ashare from his advertising money.Though not regulated as the massmedia advertising is, it is on a high asan increasing number of marketersare ready to dabble with this mediumin this era of increased media frag-mentation and the resultant clutter.The higher degree of flexibility indesigning communication message isalso luring marketers to use this medi-um increasingly.

Estimated to be around Rs 250 crorein terms of agency revenues, thedomestic direct marketing (DM)industry has always got thumps upfrom studious marketers, if the twocurrent trends are any indication. Thefirst trend that explains the upwardmovement is that all major creativeshops in the country have a dedicatedmechanism to churn out DM solu-tions. The second testimony to the ris-ing acceptance of DM is seen in thegrowth figure itself that stands some-where between 25 and 30 percentannually based on industry estimates.

RMGConnect president and

national creative director MeeraSharath Chandra explains it well. "Welive in a world of pluralistic media anddirect marketing must go to where thecustomer is. By that logic, this special-isation is finding a wider canvas in itsexpansion to cover the digital andactivation spaces. So, you could tech-nically find unexpected consumertouch-points via interactive inter-faces, promos and events." Chandraalso feels media fragmentation is amajor factor that pushes more mar-keters towards the direct marketingoption with a greater interest.

Mudra Marketing Services chiefexecutive R Laxminarayan, who alsoheads Rapp Collins India, adds anoth-er perspective to it. “The DM industryis growing leaps and bounds becauseof the increasing relevance for person-

alised and technologically verifieddata base that marketers need today,”he says. Wunderman India chief exec-utive Satish Sathyanarayan also backsthis notion. "Today marketers areinterested in spending their rupees onthe audiences who are relevant fortheir products and services. That'swhere DM has made strong inroads.Marketers are looking at actions overawareness from their end-consumersthat would mean selling their prod-ucts and services as well," notesSathyanarayan.

Solutions co-founder and manag-ing director Srikant Sastri also chips inwith his ideas to the fragmentationtheory, saying, "mass media is losingbattle due to fragmentation of mar-kets and media options, while directmarketing is set to play a complemen-


DIRECT MARKETING

Armed with personalised

communication tools in

this hi-tech era, direct

marketing is all set to

make further inroads and

become one of the most

effective ways to get

connected with the target

audience in a more

personalised manner

Hitting the right SPOT■ By DEEPTI AGGARWAL


tary role rather than a competitor'srole." Bringing in also the RoMI issueto drive home his point, Sastri saysthat it is also because of intense com-petition which forces marketers to optfor a medium like this to reach out totheir consumers.

Even as talks of high growth fill theair, there are still some in the industrywho choose to play it down. UCPIntegral Marketing Solutions manag-ing director Raj Bhatia is one amongthem. "I don't think much growth hasactually happened in direct marketingagencies' business. However, BTL hasgrown as that's the only way mostproducts and services can actuallyreach out to target audiences. At thesame time, mass media advertising istoo expensive, and mass media ishighly diverse, and audiences are

highly fragmented," Bhatia contends.One of the major trends, evolved in

terms of formats, in the industry dur-ing the last year was the shift towardsmore personalised ways to connectwith the audience. Laxminarayananexplains this when he says that DM isall about one-to-one contact or mak-ing touch-points. “For DM agencies itis not the client but the customer whois at the centre of thinking and plan-ning. The cost of a direct mail per cus-tomer varies between Rs 8 and Rs 10per mail today. But today this has beendone away with, thanks to technology,especially the Internet and mobilephones. DM is actually the CRMtoday," he says. Sathyanarayan ofWunderman goes a step further whenhe says marketers today are trying tofind ways to manage their tribes, and

so, "marketers are moving towardsbuilding relationships with end-con-sumers and secondary markets,rather than be content with theirimmediate trade."

Chandra of RMG also echoes thesame sentiment when she says, "DMis not a stuffed envelope that landsinto your mailbox." Explaining theevolution of the tool, she adds that "itcould be the ambient, it could be digi-tal, it could be viral, three-dimension-al, or on-and-off-line. It's no longerlinear. It could go the full circle. It is nolonger just selling—it is all aboutadvocacy, loyalty, and communitybuilding strategies." Aditya Atri, chiefexecutive and managing director ofMRM Worldwide, the DM arm ofMcCann, also agrees that the defini-tion of DM has undergone tremen-dous change with increased focus onrelationship marketing. Another pointthat he makes is that earlier the stresswas more on understanding thebehaviour of the audience and there-fore the focuss is now on behaviouraldata. Another trend that Atri brings upis that marketers have become agnos-tic about how the choice of the medi-um through which the solution has tobe delivered. FCB Ulka vice-presidentSatish Ramchandran agrees saying,"considering the diminishing dividesbetween ATL above BTL and lookingat customer as a whole, planning ofthe entire communication idea hasimproved today, thanks to DM."

Another trend that ruled the pastyear in the light of the ever-increasingneed for accountability for the RoMI-conscious marketer, is the fact thatmarketers are opting for more thanone agencies to help them with solu-tions. As Solution's Sastri says, "clientshave become more cost- conscioustoday. They seem to have turned



DIRECT MARKETING

promiscuous, not being shy to rope inmore than one boutique agency to dovarious parts of his marketing processwell. There is a greater focus on bot-tomlines rather than size of the firm.”

Bhatia of UCP is perhaps more criti-cal in looking at the development."DM as we knew, which was led by thecreative, is dead. Database-drivendirect marketing has grown at a veryslow pace," he says. Despite all these,as Direxions director Brian Almeidasays, “the industry got larger throughacquisitions as companies are search-ing for fresher ways to acquire cus-tomers in this highly competativemarketplace.”

Going by the individual scorecards,the industry performed well in 2007.RMG Connect, which underwent achange in command, had a prettygood year. "As we increase our scale,the attempt is to consolidate and firmup our future relevance in DM, CRMand digital space including data ana-lytics. Our proprietary CRM tool calledConnexions best exemplifies ourinvestments and commitment tobecoming a new age player providingseamless convergence," says Chandra.Almeida also claims that his companyhas been growing around 40 percentfor the past two years. The agency hasbeen betting big on its expansion asthey have opened office in New Delhi.Mudra's Laxminarayanan also exhibitsan upbeat mood when he says, "for usit was a very good year. We more thandoubled our revenues. We are amongthe top five players today." The FCBInteractive head also notes that hisagency could achieve 50 percent

growth. But Wunderman's Sathyan-arayan admits that his agency had anaverage growth, which still was abovethe industry average. UCP's Bhatia isbit disappointed at his 20 percentgrowth. "I would say that a 20 percntgrowth is very disappointing as every-one is growing at 30-40 percent. Wecould reach this growth only by chang-ing our business model, and by focus-ing on loyalty and database ratherthan creative," he says.

Looking ahead, there is widespreadoptimism across the board in theindustry. As Ramachandran of FCBopines, "our outlook is extremely pos-itive, we expect huge organic growthand new clients opting for interactiveas part of 360 solution. We are also see-ing clients diverting higher budgets toone-one media." Solution's Sastri alsoexpects a good year ahead riding high

on media fragmentation. "With mass-media's return on investment goingdown drastically because of audiencefragmentation and media-cost infla-tion, marketers are increasingly look-ing at BTL to deliver customised solu-tions for their brands. My outlook for2008 is great, thanks to a growingeconomy," he says.

Bhatia of UCP also though expects abright year as he sees digital spendsgoing up four to five times in thefuture. "Also, lack of people will makethe business more operation intensivethan 'smarter'. So we may see theadvent of more fragmentation of serv-ices." However, he sounds cautiouswhen he says, "I expect some DMagencies to bite the dust and otherswill continue to battle with shrinkingmargins." Wundrman's Sathyana-rayan is looking forward to a brightyear, drawing strength from the ongo-ing retail revolution. "It is bullish out-look which is supported by growth inretail, and service sector marketing.We also see evolution of the new con-sumer class where we start seeing nonconsumers becoming consumers," hesays. Bullish is also the word that sumsup Mudra's outlook. Direxions alsoforesees a better future driven bymaturing industries and their need forcustomer service. RMG's Chandrafeels that there can’t be a better canvasas, "The market is growing exponen-tially, brands are aggressive, resultsand accountability are everything."MRM's Atri gives three basic premiseson which he feels the growth wouldride. "Increasing investments in thedigital space coupled with higherfocus on consumer engagement andincreased focus on segmentation driv-en by behavioral data will be the wayto things that would make all the dif-ference,'' he sums up. ■



KEY DEVELOPMENTS■ The domestic direct market-ing industry is growing ataround 30 percent and isaround Rs 250 crore in agencyrevenues. Industry sees muchfaster growth in 2008.

■ Increasing investment in dig-ital space will give a fillip to this

■ Behavioural data will becomemore important in future

■ New advertiser categories aregiving a fillip to this alreadyhigh growth medium

■ Convergence of differentmedia tool will further boostthis medium

DIRECT MARKETING IS NOT A STUFFED ENVELOPE

THAT LANDS INTO YOUR MAILBOX; IT APPEARS IN

MANY FORMATS AND THAT IT’S NO LONGER A LIN

EAR TOOL—MEERA SHARATH CHANDRA, PRESIDENT & NCD, MGCONNECT

Pitch-Madison Media

PUBLICRELATIONS

in 2007Analysis & Trends


Presented by

The Pitch-Madison MediaAdvertising Outlook 2008 isan attempt to look at howthe different media plat-forms gained or lost in their

tussle for the share of advertisersmoney. Apart from media spending, aconsiderable amount of the total adbudget also goes to other significantplatforms like public relations. To tryand understand the positions,progress and prospects of the PRindustry, Pitch spoke to the leadinglights in the industry fraternity to getan overall picture and how the indus-try is shaping up in terms of acquisi-tion of clients, its growth etc.

As an industry, PR is relatively ayounger concept compared to itsother counterparts. But the populari-ty of PR as a marketing tool has seenan upsurge in the past decade or so,chronicling a visible success story.The keen interest shown by MNC PRfirms in the domestic agencies andhiking of their stakes in the existingjoint ventures amply speak of this.While Genesis became Genesis-Burson Masteller after the latterbought out the former, Hanmer andPartners Communications is on theblock of its foreign partner MS&L foran imminent takeover. The PR indus-try, which is presently pegged at

above Rs 300-crore by different esti-mates, has seen a lot of forwardmovement in terms of new servicesand offering innovative solutions toclients. Again, various estimates putthe industry growth rate between 15and 20 percent, thanks to its fastevolving role in the business of corpo-rate image building.

It is all happening due to many fac-tors like the overall economic growthand the resultant upsurge in corpo-rate confidence and profitability andhence their marketing as well asbrand-building spends. The ongoingeconomic boom has also see a lot ofMNCs joining the India growth story.As the largest PR agency PerfectRelations consulting partner DilipCherian shares, "global interest inIndia's growth story is at an all-timehigh and companies and govern-ments from around the world are

looking for strategic support for aneffective market entry."

Genesis-Burson Masteller principaland founder Prema Sagar too feels thesame. "Public relations is becomingfar more holistic today. We are seeingthe industry transcending from beingviewed as a simple bridge to themedia to a trusted advisor on corpo-rate reputation." Sagar further addsthat this recognition of the need forcredibility within a growing decibel incommunication makes PR the pre-ferred alternative medium to spear-head synchronised and integratedcommunication.

Shedding more light on this buoy-ancy, Madison PR chief executiveVeena Gidwani says, "the overall

PUBLIC RELATIONS


With the economic boom and

entry of more MNCs, the profile

of the Rs 300-crore domestic

PR industry is changing for the

better, and its prospects are

getting brighter each year

■ By DEEPTI AGGARWAL


Polishingprofiles forthe BETTER

growth of the economy is resulting insprouting of many new ventures,launch of new brands and expansionof existing businesses. The entry ofmany global organisations into ourmarket through joint ventures andtie-ups is also widening the scope forPR agencies.'' Integral PR chief execu-tive Sharif Rangnekar also believesthat MNCs' increased interest in Indiaas a whole is pushing the growthgraph of the PR industry vertically."There are a number of MNCs thatrequire hand-holding as India’s diver-sity is at times too complex for themto understand. This is where PR con-sultants step in to help draw a con-nection between our socio-economicenvironment and the positioning of a

foreign entity," he says.Innovations Galore

The industry has also a seen a broad-ening of horizons in terms of servicesthat they provide. As PR Pundit direc-tor Archana Jain elaborates, “till a fewyears back, PR professionals weremore of 'technicians' who were con-cerned with the job of communica-tion. Their new role calls for a beingstrategist who can think business."Perfect Relations’ Cherian also under-lines this factor when he shares thathis firms are now increasingly lookingat providing a holistic communica-tions package that includes BTL,spokesperson training, PR 2.0 amongothers. Practice areas like corporatesocial responsibility and public affairs

have become an integral part of hisagencies’ service portfolio.Another interesting development is

that PR agencies are changing theirprofile today. As Hanmer & Partners’managing director Sunil Gautamsays, "agencies are expected to deliv-er a host of services other than justpushing media releases and remain-ing as clip-vending machines." Heputs the changing picture further inplace when he says the focus onmedia relations will always remain,but PR agencies have now startedgiving value-added services in termsof a host of non-PR activities likeevents and non-advertisement-related promotions.' Sagar ofGenesis echoes similar sentimentswhen she says the PR industry ismoving up the value chain. And thiscan be seen in the way agencies arecatering to the integrated communi-cation needs of their clients and arenot just confined to managing anddelivering media mileage.

Coming to a rather ticklish issue—the performance of individual play-ers, in the backdrop of non-availabili-ty of any audited data as an indus-try—most players claim high growthrates coupled with a bullish outlookfor the future. As Madison's Gidwanishares, her agency has been main-taining an high 50 percent growthyear-on-year for the past three years.Integral's Rangnekar also claims thatthe past year was good for the agencyas he was able to book a growth ratehigher than what the industry aver-age. Hanmer's Gautam also notesthat his agency managed to gainimpressive numbers in terms ofgrowth in the year gone by. Talkingabout the growth figures, Ipan’s VivekSengupta has this to offer, "we havedone very well in 2007, and was in line


with our creditable performance inthe previous two years."

The industry saw a whole set of newtrends coming in as the concept of PRitself having changed or rather broad-ened, thanks to a greater realisation ofthe need for better corporate com-munication. As PR Pundit's Jainexpresses, "we have witnessed a fur-ther rise in the trend of specialisationwithin PR. The role of a specialisttoday encompasses issues of man-agement, public affairs, investor rela-tions, employee communication andevent management."

Seconding this, Ipan’s Senguptasays, "most agencies and their clientsseem to think that PR begins andends with media relations! However,we encourage our clients to lookbeyond media relations." He furtheradds, "as a result of this, our clientsare increasingly opting for a mix ofmedia and non-media activities. Andthat is going to be the trend, for soonthere will be a saturation of themedia, from a perspective of corpo-rate communications.'' According toHanmer's Gautam, "corporate repu-tation and corporate communica-tions have emerged as the areas ofspecialisation which offer the bestgrowth prospects over lobbying orpublic affairs."

Another change that Jain brings upis value overtaking the numbers.Today these agencies do not need toshow the numbers anymore andnow the focus has shifted to creatingand showcasing value, she pointsout. Another important shift is thatnow PR services are being used byboth small and big corporate alike.Apart from all these, internal com-munication and crisis managementhave also emerged as key focus areasduring the year.

Upbeat Outlook

Looking ahead, the industry seemsbullish, riding on the innovation waveand broadening profile. With a largenumber of global PR firms gettingentrenched in the country, the publicrelation industry has started witness-ing more internationally-bench-marked practices. Amid all the buoy-ancy, there are some talks of consoli-dations taking place in the industrywhich reached the point of thinkingin terms of offering differentiatedservices and practices. As Hanmer'sGautam says, "public relations age-

nies have an enormous opportunityto lead the next generation of market-ing and communication activitiesaround the world as well as in thecountry, and integrated communica-tions through opportune ATL andBTL, events and public relationswould become a necessity."

Another growth area that Gautamforesees is 'digital', as he bets big on itto turning as a catalyst for the com-

munications industry. Sharing a simi-lar sentiment about the change, Sagarof Genesis opines, "the year 2008 isgoing to be the year when digitalcommunication comes into the cen-tre-stage. Mass communicationmedia will have to share the dais withonline conversations as more andmore people turn to the web for infor-mation and opinion."

Looking forward, Rangnekar ofIntegral PR feels confident about thefuture when he says, "growth is a cer-tainty and the market is bound toexpand. Small and mid-sized compa-nies are aspiring to be bigger. Theywill wish for a corporate profile. At thesame time, infrastructure is anotheremerging sector as such. The needswould differ from typical brand andmarketing communications that haslargely dominated the business of PRover the past few years. So what wecould see not just over the new yearbut for many years to come is a grow-ing mix of clients for the PR industry."

Perfect Relations’ Cherian perfectlyputs it, holding that domestic agen-cies have a bigger and better scopewith the rush of multinationals anddomestic leaders going to the foreignshores. “PR agencies have a biggerscope in terms of decoding Indiatoday than many other,'' he sums up.

With a booming economy, themood is upbeat and most of theindustry leaders are talking about abrighter tomorrow. However, somesee some dark clouds on the horizonon account of shortage of staff andthe feared slowdown in the domesticeconomy which has been sizzling forquite some time now. On the wholeindustry leaders look buoyant aboutthe future and promise that PR as anindustry holds out. ■


PUBLIC RELATIONS


FACT SHEET

■ The domestic PR industry isworth Rs 300 crore; and isgrowing at 20 percent annually

■ More and more multinationalcommunications specialistsand media agencies are keen onincreasing their stake in thedomestic agencies. The movehas already been activated byBM buying out Genesis;Hanmer & Partners will soonfollow suit with ML&S.

■ PR firms are no longer justabout press relations; they arenow stragetic consultants andplanners for their clients


Pitch-Madison Media

RETAILMEDIAin 2007

Analysis & Trends


Presented by

The red-hot modern retail,though accounts for onlyabout four percent of the$200-billion domestic retailindustry, it is poised for a big

leap, given its 25-30 percent annualgrowth rate. If a KPMG report is anyindication, it is bound to cross $23 bil-lion by the end of the decade. In tan-dem with its all positive offshootsfrom creating jobs to quality and con-venient shopping environment, its

long strides of growth have alsothrown up a new vista for marketers topromote their products and servicesin these sprawling retail spaces.

Though looking like an extensionof the age-old out-of-home media atpresent, the retail media is fast grow-ing to be an independent media,because the advertising that happensinside any retail environment isinvariably different from static out-of-home media vehicles. Advertisers andmarketers, who now use digital

screens which are also known as digi-tal signages or posters, inside the retailenvironments are all set to make bet-ter use of the space by broaching newideas, tools, models and thereby net-ting in higher share of the ad industry.

The domestic retail media sectorhas two types of players. On the onehand are the retail players them-selves like the Kishore Biyani-owned Future Group which has setup a separate arm for this namedFuture Media to tap into this fast



RETAIL MEDIA

Hooking the SHOPPERAs modern retail and mall culture make faster inroads and increasingly become a cosher form

of shopping and entertainment, there’s a new breed of advertising space called retail media

■ By JAYASHREE MAJI


growing media vehicle as also totake care of its own brand promo-tions at its various retail verticals.Reliance Retail is another playerwhich puts up campaigns inside itsstores for promotions.

The second type of players are thespecialised retail media agencieslike Digital Signage Networks(DSN), OOH Media, Tag Media,Enhance India, Live Media, andView 24*7 which link marketerswith retail property owners. Apartfrom Future Group and RelianceRetail, all other major retailers havetied up with either of these spe-cialised agencies to mount cam-

paigns inside stores.Digital Signage handles Vishal

MegaMart while Tag Media takes careof Spencer's Retail. Subhiksha hassigned up vJive Networks, whileShoppers' Stop has teamed up withOOH Media. Similarly, Oxford, Trentand Globus and Westside are handledby OOH Media. Tag Media doesadvertising and promotions forTrinethra and Fabmall outlets.

Notwithstanding these fast devel-opment, the retail advertising as agenre is still in its embryonic stage inthe country, considering the fact thatthe very concept of modern trade isquite new in this market. But having

seen retailers opening up their spacefor marketers, few can doubt about itsscope and potential. According to theMumbai-based View 24*7 presidentNayan Bheda, "if total advertisingmarket is over Rs 17,000 crore, out-of-home advertising would be just aboutfive percent of it and retail advertis-ing, which mainly constitutes digitalsignages, will be under one percent."View 24*7 is the OOH division fromIntellivisions that has recently comeup with OOH TV channel under thebrand name of Sellivision, and it hastied up with nearly 300 restaurantsand retail stores for putting up theirdisplay screens which would air itsOOH TV channel.

Though it is too early to quantifythe retail advertising or the digitalsignages market at this stage,according to the players, they fore-see a huge growth ahead. "Retail

RETAIL MEDIA WILL BE SEVERAL HUNDRED CRORES

WITHIN NEXT TWO-THREE YEARS, AND IS GOING TO

BE ONE OF LARGER MEDIA —GOURANG SHAH, CEO, DSN

OOH Media

Head of the Agency:

Ishan Raina, CEO.

Background: OOH

Media is one of the

leaders in the mar-

ket with over 3,800

live screens in 22

cities across the

country.

Major Clients:

Shoppers’ Stop,

Trent, Westside,

Oxford, Globus.

Digital Signage

Networks

Head of the Agency:

Gaurang Shah, CEO.

Background: DSN is

has pioneered the

concept of digital

posters at high foot-

fal locations.

Major Clients: Café

Coffee Day, Lifestyle,

McDonlads, Vishal

MegaMart, and DLF

Malls among others.

Live Media

Head of the Agency:

Rajan Mehta, CEO.

Background: Found

ed by Rajan Mehta

Live Media is fund-

ed by Draper Fisher

Jurvetson, a VC

from the Silicon

Valley. It has over

2,000 screens at

1,000 locations.

Major Clients:

Costa Coffee, TGIF.

Tag Media

Head of the Agency:

PR Satheesh, CEO.

Background: Tag

Media provides a

retail TV network for

timely and effective

delivery of brand

communication

within leading super-

market chains.

Major Clients:

Spencer’s, Trinethra,

Foodworld.

Who are The Players: A Fact File


RETAIL MEDIA


View 24*7

Head of the Agency:

Nayan Bheda,

President.

Background: Owned

by Intellvisions

Software it was

launched in Febru-

ary 07 and services

dine-in restaurants

with some innovative

in-store displays.

Major Clients: Non-

mall locations.

Enhance India

Head of the Agency:

Kaushik Chakravorty,

Country Head

Background: It waslaunched as a special-

ist unit of Starcom

MediaVest Group in

June 2006 and has

offices in the metros.

Major Clients: Manipal

University, GVK

OneMall, Rave@Moti

Mall, Metro Junction.

Jive Networks

Head of the Agency:

Rajesh Jog, CEO.

Background: Launched in 2004 vJive

has exclusive and

customised technol-

ogy to address the

digital signages

space in the retail

environment.

Major Clients:

Subhiksha, Apna

Bazaar.

Future Media

Head of the Agency:

Partho Dasgupta,CEO.

Background: Future

Media is Future

Group’s media ven-

ture, and is aimed at

creating media prop-

erties in ambience of

consumption and thus

offer active brand

engagement.

Major Clients: All

Future Group brands.

media will be several hundredcrores probably in the next two-three years and it is going to be oneof the largest sectors of advertising,"says the Digital Signage chief execu-tive Gourang Shah. His agency isone of the pioneers in the digitalposters space in public areas likecafes, malls and retail areas. DSNhas partnered with some of theleading brands like Café Coffee Day,McDonalds, Lifestyle, Vishal MegaMart, Arvind Brands, DLF Malls, toname a few.

Another major player is the IshanRaina-promoted OOH Media thathas already made its presence felt inalmost all retail formats includingmalls, in-stores, restaurants, book-stores, cafes and multiplexes. Besidesthese commercial spaces, thisMumbai-based agency has also putup digital screens in corporate parks

and residential societies. Its headIshan Raina is considered as one ofthe leaders in the digital signagesmarket owning more than 4,000screens in retail oriented locationssuch as restaurants, malls, book-stores, cafes, in-stores in key cities.Some of the major clients of OOHMedia are Shoppers' Stop, Westside,Trent, Oxford and Globus.

"The OOH television, also knownas the digital signage market, is still inits infancy, accounting for less than0.5 percent of the ad industry. But Ithink this will move to about 1.5 per-cent in 2008, and reach five percentin 2008," Raina looks confident.

These agencies vouch that there isa growing penchant with marketersto use this newly-evolving platform.Its rising popularity can be easilygauged from the success of FutureMedia which has around 200 adver-

tisers as its clients in a span of lessthan a year.

Future Media chief executivePartho Dasgupta feels that in-storeadvertising has been there in theindustry since the time storesopened. With organised retailing,the ad industry is shaping into anorganised medium and now we areseeing money coming in from bothmainline marketing and BTL budg-ets. Pointing out the developmentsin this space, Dasgupta says, "newermedia forms like TV, LED screens,multi-scrollers are being launched.We see the medium to be a compul-sive part of media plans in the com-ing years. The future will also seenew technology, newer from of con-tent, metrics and more and moreorganised players."

He goes onto add that "an excit-ing fact is that nearly 55 percent of


his clients are brands that do notgain from these retail spaces. Theseclients include those from the finan-cial, media and entertainment, andautomobile sectors. They advertisewith us as they seek to reach out torelevant audiences," he notes.

The retail advertising medium isowned by two types of players-theproperties that offer retail spaces onrent and advertisers who markettheir products and services usingthese properties. Again, retailersthemselves either promote their

goods or the goods of their clients.But the professional agencies thatfacilitate this do enter into contractswith the players on both the sides.DSN has tied-ups with leadingnames like Café Coffe Day,McDonald's, Western Railway, VishalMegaMart and Lifestyle on the oneside and SBI, LIC, Sony channels,HDFC and HSBC as advertisers.

Another major player is the RajanMehta-promoted Live Media, whichis present in over 1,000 locationswith more than 2,000 screens. "Theretail advertising industry is growingwell which could be seen from theubiquitous screens in various loca-tions. Already there are around eightplayers in this space and each has itsown strategy. Some are focusing onmalls, some on elevator lobbieswhile others on restaurants etc."

On the issues facing this nascentsector, he says monitoring and evalu-ation are some of the major concernstoday. "Multiple and fragmented sup-ply chain is a major issue in thismedium," says Mehta. Other players

also back this concern and feel that ithas become a hurdle for clients inknowing the efficacy of the medium.Monitoring and evaluation are notjust the concerns, as some feel. Butthey have become major challenges,causing apprehension among theadvertisers. "There is difficulty inconvincing marketers to use thismedium due to its recent birth in theindustry," says Bheda of View 24*7.

"Managing the depth and pene-tration levels that clients are lever-aging is a challenge in this market

given the fact that we have so manytowns and cities that need properservicing on time," feels EnhanceIndia country head KaushikChakravorty. Enhance India,launched as one of the specialist affil-iated units of the Starcom MediaVestGroup in June 2006, looks after retailand merchandising activities of vari-ous brands and work towards provid-ing them marketing solutions in theretail environment. In the retail andvisual merchandising space, Enhancehas clients like Reliance Money,Nerolac Paints, Aircel, Essar TelecomRetail that operates The Mobile Store,Dainik Jagran, Samsung, and TataGreen, to name a few.

Notwithstanding the challengesand concerns, retail advertisingspace has also witnessed manyinnovative trends. Networking ofdigital signages, blue-casting (a waydeliver a branded ad content toBluetooth-enable mobile phonesaround poster sites, retail locationsetc) SIM-bedding (is a techniquewherein a SIM card is planted in the

LED display panel at a retail toupdate its new offers or subscrip-tion schemes) are some of the mod-els that have added flavour to thismodels that upcoming medium.Since this is this upcoming finaltouch-point for communicatingwith the consumer, the real chal-lenge lies in utilising this mediumcreatively and innovatively, whetherit is a commercial on television setor a wall branding.

Even though advertisers and mar-keters have just woken up to thepotentials of the new medium, in acontrast to the still-guarded open-ness among retailers to make use ofit fully, the sector as a whole hasbeen reporting significant growthrate. "Industry is on an averagegrowing on 10-15 percent annually.There are different clients who areusing the retail and merchandisingroute as a part of the experientialdifference that customers aredemanding in the evolving retailenvironment in the country today",points out Chakravorty of Enhance.

And the bottomlines are undoubt-edly the huge opportunity cut opento marketers and the upward movinggrowth curve. But all agree to theurgent need of evolving a measure-ment tool for assessing the efficacy ofthe medium which still is fragmentedto a large extent. Hence, there couldbe no specific data made possible forthe particular medium in the fifthedition of the Pitch AdOutlook.Taking note of the biggies joining thebandwagon of retail advertising, onething is crystal clear that the sectorwould fast catch up with the conven-tional advertising medium andwould create a new stand-alonedomain, independent of the regularout-of-home advertising. ■



THERE IS SOME DIFFICULTY IN CONVINCING MAR-

KETERS TO USE THIS MEDIUM DUE TO THE RECENCY

OF THIS CONCEPT IN THIS MARKET—NAYAN BHEDA, VIEW 24*7

RETAIL MEDIA

Pitch-Madison Media

CRICKETin 2007

Analysis & Trends


Presented by

When it comes tocricket, nothing,not even a humili-ating defeat by theminnows can keep

the crazy Indians away from ador-ing the demigods of cricket andturn their faces away from a livematch on their television sets for awhile. Cricketers, boards and moreimportantly, the marketers know it.Hence, even the very disgracefulexit from 2007 World Cup couldforce only a minor dip in the shareof free commercial time (FCT) ofthe sports genre, according to thefifth edition of the Pitch-MadisonMedia Adoutlook survey.

As always, cricket bounced backin our country, which was evidentfrom the Twenty20 World Cupcrown after the ICC World Cuphumiliation and gave more to theadmen, handsomely making up forthe brief lull. Looking back, the yearwas thus buoyant with some wins,stirred up with tussles, marred withcontroversies, and above all action-packed and promising with theemergence of two leagues— IndianCricket League (ICL) and IndianPremier League (IPL). The year

began with the India-Australiaseries in January followed by theIndia-England, India-Bangladesh,India-Pakistan series, the ICCWorld Cup in March-April, and thenew Twenty20 World Cup inSeptember.

The Pitch-Madison Ad Outlook2008 analysis, based on the TAMviewership data, shows that theTwenty20 matches had almost dou-bled the TVRs for channels at closeto four percent, while one-dayinternationals (ODIs) had close totwo percent TVR and the tests hadthe lowest ratings. Similar pattern isobserved for non-India matches aswell where again the Twenty20 for-mat won the hearts of viewershands down.

But the bottomline is that cricketlives on as the most sporting pas-sion of Indians, so goes it withadvertisers and marketers as theirfavourite slot. "Cricket generatesviewership, and high involvementat least in parts. A good series stillhas the ability to generate a decentTRP. Unlike soccer or tennis, here isa much longer duration availablefor advertising," is how Media Edgepresident Anupriya Acharya sums


CRICKET5th PITCH-MADISON MEDIA ADVERTISING OUTLOOK

Forget the humiliation that the World Cup debacle threw up, the

emergence of two domestic leagues and birth of the T20 format

keep marketers glued to this national passion like never before

■ By PURNA PANCHAL

Twenty 20comes of AGE


up the belief of his fraternity in theworld of cricket. Twenty20 Win Fans and

Advertisers Alike

The Twenty20 format, sweetenedby India's win, proved a mega suc-cess not just for viewers, but for theadvertisers too, who were smartingunder the humiliation meted out tothe Indian cricket at the hands ofthe minnows that Bangladesh is, inthe world of cricket at the 2007World Cup. As ESPN Software Indiamanaging director RC Venkateshsays, “it has come as the best com-pact format for the sports, if thereare still a few who are itching overwasting man-days for a full day orfive days.”

"With the pace of life everincreasing, resulting paucity oftime for television viewing,Twenty20 has actually managed topackage the excitement and pas-

sion of one-day cricket in a tighter,more viewer friendly format. Itworks well too. Just as an example,the number of page hits for theTwenty20 World Cup final betweenIndia and Pakistan on the ESPN UShomepage was the second highestin that day in a country which isquite unfamiliar with the sport ingeneral," he explains.

SET Max India executive vice-president and business head SnehaRajani also supports this when sheterms it as the future of cricket.Because people have much lessertime today to spare for a full day forsports. But Neo Sports executivevice-president for advertising rev-enues Sunil Manocha also notesthat from an advertisers’ angle,the new format has really becomemore expensive. The Humiliation that World Cup was

The unceremonious exit of team

Average Viewership Share of Matches in %

0 0. 0

0. 5

1. 0

1. 5

No

of

Ma

tch

es

Av

g.

Ra

tin

gs

2. 0

2. 5

3. 0

3. 5

4. 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

ODIs

20-20

MatchesTest

Matches

India from the World Cup, spoilinga billion dreams, naturally forced abrief lull on the otherwise ever-vibrant advertisers fraternity forthis property. But the handsomeTwenty20 win proved to be a level-er, both in ad revenues and sharefor individual channels. Accordingto TAM, SET Max had higher ratingsfor ODIs due to exclusive rights forthe World Cup 2007, while otherchannels like Star Cricket and ESPNSports scored better than Max onthe Twenty20 matches.

“Of course, the World Cup affect-ed us badly, but not as badly as itwas made out by the media. Interms of RoMI for marketers, forsome it was really good, but forsome others it was bad but not asbad as it was made out to be,"Rajani admits.

But the bad time was so brief asTwenty20 pegged the advertisers'spirits to a new high, or rather“phenomenal level” as Rajani put it.“What is common between cricketand cinema is that the immediate

last movie or series changes theimpression of one and all.” NeoSport's Manocha also explains this,noting that public memory is tooshort. “Soon after the World Cup,India played the India-Bangladeshseries, and the adverting rates werelow but the overall responseremained the same, perhaps faredbetter than the previous series.''

And this short-memory of audi-ence coupled with team India'sunpredictable habit of bouncingback keeps advertisers in good spir-it always, as ESPN Star's Venkateishbelieves. “We work with majorclients on a broad perspectivewhere outlays are made on thebasis of a full season and not on anyparticular property—this way theups and downs have very littleeffect," he says, detailing howTwenty20 justified the hopes of theadvertisers community.

Though the World Cup catastro-phe did hit the ODI format and usu-ally strong ad income, test matchesalways yield less returns. As India

played 10 test matches, the TAMrating data is very low, and evenclose to around just one percent.Although Neo Sports telecast thehighest number of test series, StarSports scored higher in terms of rat-ing followed by Start Cricket on thesecond and Neo Sports on the thirdspot respectively. The IPL-ICL Saga Unfolds

In the domestic arena, action wasmore out of the field with ZeeGroup chairman Subhash Chandratried to do a Kerry Packer on the so-far unchallenged BCCI, by launch-ing Indian Cricket League in April.Lining up veterans like Brian Laraon the field and Kapil Dev in theadministrative side, its firstTwenty20 format tournament tookplace in November. The flow ofpromising youngsters into the rivalcamp and tossing up lots of moneyfor winners finally stirred the BCCIto announce Indian PremierLeague, fearing erosion of groundfrom under its strong feet. With theblessings from the ICC, the forth-coming Twenty20 IPL tourneypromises to be a more exciting affairby all means, be it money for win-ners or the advertisers fraternity.

The tournament, featuring eightteams, would be held over 44 daysin 12 cities from April 18. The toptwo sides in the tournament willqualify for an internationalChampionship Twenty20 League,which will be held in October.

Teams of the IPL finally got theirmulti-millionaire star-studdedowners on January 24. All the eightIPL teams have been sold atapproximately around $100 millioneach, earning the BCCI a hugebounty in the bargain. The winningbidders include Vijay Mallya forBangalore, Shah Rukh Khan for


CRICKET


Channel-wise Viewership Analysis

Star Sports

Test Matches ODI Matches

Star Cricket Neo Sports ESPN MAX

20-20 Matches

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

Kolkata, Mukesh Ambani forMumbai, Preity Zinta and NessWadia for Mohali/ Chandigarh,GMR Group for New Delhi, DeccanChronicle for Hyderabad, IndiaCement for Chennai, and EmergingMedia for the Jaipur matches.

With the off-court battle directlybenefiting the cricket ultimately,more exciting year awaits advertis-ers too. "Quite a lot is riding on theback of the IPL. I believe it shoulddo well, given the overall marketsbuoyancy and the changing taste ofaudiences in cricket. The expecta-tion is so high that the perform-ance to various parties may looktepid," Acharya opines. Also boost-ed by the dominating performanceof team India in the shorter ver-sion, the Twenty20 promises to be agolden goose for marketers.What to Expect

Along with huge excitement in thewaiting, the current year also car-ries lots of challenges. While peo-ple have great expectations fromthe IPL, sports channels are gear-ing up to face the increasing frag-mentation and gain higher viewer-ship and involvement. “The chal-lenges are the channel clutter andthe resultant severe fragmentation.To maintain growth goals in termsof reach and revenue will be tough.I think this will be the biggest chal-lenge. As a group we are the No 1Hindi movie channel and the No 3GEC channel, it brings us furtherburden too," explains Rajani of

SET Max.However, Manocha of Neo Sports

is not betting on the success of theIPL as it is too early to comment.“As the format is interestingenough for India, the challenge willbe to get the viewer involvement.We are very sanguine about 2008,"he says.

But ESPN's Venkateish is confi-dent that their content would helpthem win the race 2008. "We have apretty strong content lined up forthe year. There is a host of big-tick-et properties like the CB3 nationseries in Australia, the ChampionsTrophy, Euro2008 along withWimbledon, Australian Open andthe French Open as well amongothers. We are quite bullish that we

will be able to achieve our objec-tives based on such quality contentand would be able to serve theIndian sports fans to the best of ourability," he is optimistic.

At the same time, there alsowords of caution, like what comesfrom Sashi Sinha of Loadstar. "Ithink the kind of money involved inthe IPL is huge thereby over-hypingthe sport. This year has not startedwith good economic note. With theUS economy going through roughwaters it is bound to affect theentire world. Therefore, growth inall industries will be very slow. Theyear 2008 should be fine but maynot be as exciting as 2007," Sinhasays cautiously.

“Cricket delivers high ratings, butI personally feel this is just going toincrease advertising rates of cricket.Cricket today has become veryexpensive. It does not give a farevalue for the money spent," hesums up realistically. ■



CRICKET


Ratings of India Matches

Star Sports

Test Matches ODI Matches

Star Cricket Neo Sports ESPN MAX

20-20 Matches

THE NEWLY-EMERGED TWENTY-TWENTY HAS

COME AS THE BEST COMPACT FORMAT FOR

CRICKET, PRIMARILY BECAUSE OF SHORTER

DURATION OF THIS FORMAT—RC VENKATEISH, MD, ESPN INDIA

4.0

3.5

3.0

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OUTLOOK 2008


OUTLOOK 2008: MarketSentiments & Projections

Making predictions can be dangerous,especially in a turbo-charged economicenvironment. However, sticking ourneck out, like every year, the fifth edi-tion of the Pitch-Madison Media

Advertising Outlook, is ready with the projections fornext twelve months. To do this onerous task, we haveused exhaustive inputs from an exclusive 'sentiments

survey', conducted by global market research agencySynovate India, and the understanding of the mediaindustry space we have built over the past five roundsof this Survey, which have already become the industrybenchmark.

Let’s begin by looking how the marketing, advertis-ing and media industry professionals see the nexttwelve months.

Read what the Pitch-Synovate Opinion Poll on how marketers look at 2008, and the

Pitch-Madison Ad Outlook 2008 on the growth of the advertising and media industry.

The Madison projection pegs the industry size at Rs 21,314 crore, riding a 20 percent

growth rate. It also projects that the print media will sniff at the Rs 10,000-crore-

mark for the first time, while the electronic media will drive close to Rs 8,700 crore.

■ By PITCH BUREAU

Marketers

Sentiments Soar

To get first-per-son account ofwhat the market-ing mavens arethinking aboutthe year 2008, wehave commis-sioned SynovateIndia to conductan opinion pollamong leadingmarketers. Thisopinion pollassumes impor-tance as both the

government as well as corporate India are a bit wor-ried about the possible impact of a feared recessionin the world's largest economy, and its ripple effectson the domestic economy which already is bur-dened with double impacts of the hardening rupeeand a tight interest rate regime that has been on theupswing for the past nine quarters.However, significantly enough, the Pitch-Synovate

survey finds that alarge majority ofthe marketerspolled, who num-ber as many as 60,are not at all wor-ried about any ofthese issues hav-ing any negativeimpacts on con-sumer sentimentsas well their mar-keting and adver-tising plans dur-ing the nexttwelve months. Alarge majority of

these marketers, who are spread across consumergoods, automobile, banking and finance, andtelecommunications sectors, are sanguine thatconsumer spending will be better than last year.

OUTLOOK 2008

5th PITCH-MADISON MEDIA

MEDIUM

PRINT

TELEVISION

OUTDOOR

RADIO

INTERNET

CINEMA

TOTAL

PROJECTED SPEND IN RS CR

2008

9,995

8,674

1,454

672

363

157

21,314

MEDIUM

PRINT

TELEVISION

OUTDOOR

RADIO

INTERNET

CINEMA

TOTAL

PROJECTED GROWTH IN %

2008

18

22

14

40

45

50

20

Not just that,these marketers,who hail fromNew Delhi,M u m b a i ,Bangalore andC h e n n a i — t h emajor centres ofaction as far ourindustry domaingoes—are dis-tinctly bullishabout consumersentiment on theone hand andtheir own corpo-rate prospects

on the other. The survey shows that as many as 88percent of the marketers polled are very optimisticabout 2008 while over 70 percent of them actuallywant to ramp up their marketing and advertisingspends by around 20 percent or more during theyear. Majority of them feel that 2008 will be betterthan the year gone by.

While 88 percent of these marketers feel that theyear 2008 will be better than 2007, eight percent ofthem say it will be as good as last year, with theremaining respondents fearing that this year to benot as good as last year if not a bad year .

On the marketing and communications spendsfor 2008, a full 45 percent of these marketers have

ADVERTISING OUTLOOK

MEDIUM

PRINT

TELEVISION

OUTDOOR

RADIO

INTERNET

CINEMA

TOTAL

PROJECTED SHARE IN %

2008

46.9

40.7

6.8

3.2

1.7

0.7

100

8%4%

45%18%

10%

Not as Good as 2007

2008 Will be Better Than 2007

As Good as 2007 Grow by 15%

Grow by Over 20%

Grow by 20%

Grow by 10% or less

Marketers expresshigh level of opti-mism about growth

Majority say thatthey will increasetheir ad spends

88%

27%

plans to increase their advertising budgets by ahefty 20 percent, 27 percent of them plan to jack itup by 20 percent, 18 percent by 15 percent and theremaining 10 percent of these marketers haveplans only to spend less than 10 percent in the year.

On their preferred media vehicles for brandbuilding and promotions, the survey finds thatthese marketers have their plans already in place. Itis television, the print, the Internet and outdoormedia that they will use the maximum in 2008because these marketers believe that advertisinghas been a great driver of their success last year.

On their preferred brand building property, atleast 63 percent of them believe that the IndianPremier League and Indian Cricket League, thenew kids on the cricket streets, will be importantmarketing channels for them in 2008.

Yes, whether the US goes into a recession or not,or whether our economy fails to cross the nine-percentage point GDP growth this year, whichlooks more than likely with the latest IIP indexshowing a massive decline from the previous quar-ters, majority of the marketers we have polled arebullish about growth of their industries and bill2008 to be great year for them.What the Ad Outlook 2008 Survey Predicts

We have already seen how bullish the marketersare and what they have up their sleeves for the newyear. Now let's see what the industry benchmarkSurvey has to offer on this. Quite clearly, the Surveyis too very bullish on the growth of the advertisingand media industry in 2008 and projects that forthe first time, the industry will cross the Rs 21,000crore market to clock Rs 21,314 crore in revenues inthe current year, driven by a smart 20 percentgrowth of the overall industry.

Which media formats will drive this growth?Significantly, the Survey projects that the electron-ics media will grow higher than the thusfar domi-nant print media, clipping at 22 percent, which is afull three percentage points more than the growthit achieved in 2007, while the print media will begrowing three percentage points less than what itgrew in 2007, registering at 18 percent. While tele-vision is projected to sniff at Rs 8,674 crore, theprint industry is projected to chip away with near-

OUTLOOK 2008

5th PITCH-MADISON MEDIA

ly Rs 10,000 crore for the first time, to be precise Rs9,995 crore, in the coming year. While the printmedia is projected to see a decline in its overallshare to 46.9 percent from the current 47.9 per-cent, the electronic media is set to marginallyincrease its share to 40.7 percent from the present40.2 percent.

Coming to other media formats, the Survey proj-ects that the outdoor media will clip at 14 percentgrowth to touch Rs 1,454 crore, and the fast grow-ing radio will grow at 40 percent touch Rs 672crore. The booming digital medium is set to log ina smart 45 percent growth to zip past Rs 363 crore,and cinema advertising is projected to corner Rs157 crore of the overall advertising monies on a full50 percentage point growth. The respective rev-enue shares of these media vehicles are follows:the Internet is set to chip away with 1.7 percent ofthe overall advertising spends, which up from thecurrent 1.4 percent; outdoor is likely to sniff at 6.8percent which is a down form the current yearshare; radio is likely to drive home around 3.2 per-cent of the overall advertising money, up from thepresent 2.7 percentage share (which is quiteachievable considering the frenetic pace at whichthis nascent media industry is growing now, whichwill only get a further leg-up in 2008 as the thirdphase of FM licensing will be open shortly); andthe cinema medium will corner around 0.7 per-centage point of the total advertising budgets inthe new year.

The higher growth projection for the electronicmedia is understandable since the industry is setfor a massive boom in 2008, especially in the newsgenre. It can be noted that nearly half a dozenchannels were launched towards the end of lastyear, hence their real impact on yanking away thead monies from the existing players will be wit-nessed only this year. The NDTV group is planningto launch a number of city-centric channels thisyear, so is the Network18 group. Another entrant isthe soon to be launched INX News from INXMedia, being promoted by Peter Mukherjea. Also,the year is likely to see a flurry of entrants in thenews space as the government is sitting over near-ly 100 applications for news channels. ■

ADVERTISING OUTLOOK

Documents

Pitch Madison Media Advertising Outlook 2008