The dynamic growth of ITC

Till 2005, we never knew that ITC could be anything but cigarettes. They had ventured into Greeting cards through their "Impressions" brand again as Gold Flake impressions. Everyone was aware they had paper business. But a dynamic and aggressive move from this company has now made them spread their wings across a diverse set of categories. In almost all categories ITC has taken on the leader and in some cases gained shares. What i personally liked is even in overlapping categories they did not go for brand extensions, they launched unique brands. They are now into

1. Bingo : As a snack brand it took on the might of Pepsi's Fritto Lay's. Today they are on par with them if not better. Look at the no. of flavours they have and the kind of pathbreaking advertising they did, i could recollect the "Vaango Pongo" and the "why is this chips not round" etc., They went one step ahead in getting scripts with local flavour to connect better. I still remember Ogilvy Dakshin had done some work on the Tamil versions.

2. Sunfeast : Biscuits is now a large brand that challenges the leader "Britannia". Marie, Cream, Cookies, Salted and so on. Very high brand visibility through strong media presence they managed and almost suppressed competition.

3. Candyman : Confectionery is supposed to be a difficult nut to crack and they did succeed. Eclairs, orange candy, kaccha aam, Coffee and so on.

4.Vivel : Range of products that includes soaps, fairness cream, body wash etc., targetted at the middle segment was launched using Trisha as the brand ambassador is highly visible, however i am not sure about the product offtake and market shares.

Advertising during IPL 2017

We could witness some interesting ads during this IPL, personally i am happy that marketers are looking at this window for some good communication. Here we go with some very good and not so good advertising during 2017:
Vodafone: This brand from Ogilvy has always lured the audience, made them talk about their TVCs. Zoo Zoos were exclusively created for this way back in 2006. This year’s advertising features the product story on 4G through Padma Bhushan Shanta Dhananjayan and V.P Dhananjayan from Chennai. The brand has engaged the audience so effectively that one is looking forward to the next spot. The brand has managed to maintain the interest on the communication.
Vodafone did use the popular Zoo Zoos to celebrate 10 years of IPL during the initial phase of IPL 2017.
Amazon: Another Ogilvy campaign that took forward the idea of “Sapno ki apna dukhan” through a series of TVCs exclusively created around cricket and IPL. As this one also has a cricket team, Some of the spots were good as they brought a few smiles. But the engagement and empathy factor wasn’t growing nor there was any intrigue.
Polycab wires : Considering the strong national footprint the IPL will offer these commercials are made in multiple languages with one common anchor “ Paresh Rawal”. Models from the respective regions have been used. I felt the whole idea was a refreshing one, as they avoided dubbing. Strategically impressive but creatively not scoring.
Ceat Tyres: Fresh set of commercials centered around “There are idiots on the road” impresses with its execution. The performance of the cast is excellent and we could easily emphathise with every situation captured. Another Ogilvy contribution.
Havells : Multiples TVCs on different products were rolled out. The one that stands out is the “Tuh fire hai tho mein wire hai” commercial on the TN popular art form “ Puli aattam”.
Set of ads featuring Bomman Irani for MCB switches simply irritates and goes overboard, doesn’t have the finesse of the earlier set.
The dust resistant fan commercial featuring a couple comes good
Parle has come out a set of commercials with each one bringing forward atleast two of their biscuit brands. These are interesting as they just attempt towards driving one point “Parle Range”.
Kingfisher commercial using different IPL teams for its “ Mannequin Challenge” looks fresh
Frooti with Aliabhatt just concentrates on execution
Voltas Inverter AC doesn’t cut enough ice
Oppo camera phone irritates you inspite of having an excellent product feature
Maruti has focussed on Brezza with 2-3 spots, fail to impress
Jupiter from TVS has rolled out some fresh commercial on the thought of “ Impresses by its looks”. Usage of languages in the song makes it different for better recall
Durex with Ranveer Singh lacks the required punch
Yamaha Fascino, Reliance Jio, Sporto underwear, Standard Fans, Surya bulbs, Crompton, Fair & Handsome, Airtel, Ajay Devgn for some pan masala, Taj were some of the other brands that get affected in the clutter.

Commitment vs Delivery

Commitment vs Delivery

The current government committed to a whole lot of things when they were fighting the elections- they fought it pretty hard against an already dead snake. They beat them to death and came to power, my belief was in any case BJP would have come to govern with or without Modi as 10 years of UPA was too much for us to take. We were perturbed by a lot of scams and scandals that the anger in us was clearly highlighted during the elections’14.

But after BJP took charge i was expecting a lot from the government that would benefit the selfish tax payer (me!).  So, when i started commenting people around me said, “ Boss, you need to give time” Agreed, it wasn’t fair from my part to expect miracles to happen when one never expected anything from UPA for the past 10 years. We witnessed a lot of high end drama as the Prime Minister did a big “Sashtaanga Namaskaram” when he entered the Parliament and all of us said, “What a man” and we believed that he is out there to change the course of our country. Unfortunate that we weren’t aware that the GDP, Industrial growth, Inflation, Petrol Prices etc., were under control with the UPA govt. As a smart strategy the BJP never went on overboard to criticise Dr.Singh, PC, Sonia, Jayram Ramesh, instead they consistently made Rahul the scape goat and continued with their assault. This improved the image of the BJP and its leaders thereby dented the congress. The common man was made to believe that what BJP is delivering needs to be cherished. Prime Minister continued his foreign trips and made all of us believe that the relationships are improving with all other countries in the world except for China, Srilanka and Pakistan (which actually matters).

PM launched demonetisation and said all the black money will come to the roads, but unfortunately all of us came to the roads and stood in the queue to withdraw our own money. The banks kept strict stipulations that we cannot withdraw beyond a certain amount, but we all quietly adhered thinking that the black money holders are going to come to the roads. This is where we need to appreciate ourselves that when we believe, we believe. The Government took almost 8 months to give us an account of what was collected(99%). There is no clarity,

on what was the cost of this whole exercise called “Demonetisation”,

on what happened to those people who died standing in queues,

on those who lost jobs and

many who lost their businesses.

 Forget about the time we all spent discussing about this damn demonetisation.

Can you remember any issue that has affected us the most that we were discussing about the government between 2004 to 2014?

Look at some statistics,

The crude prices have comedown drastically while our fuel and cooking gas prices only look north.

The country’s GDP is at an all time low since 2006.

GST is all set to screw small and medium size businesses as they will have to only keep filing GST returns (40 times in a year).

The Swaach Bharat only added in the form of taxes and the dirt still exists. The amount of money spent on communicating the program runs into 100s of crores. The Make in India initiative remains to be a nice jargon and no great movement beyond Adani and Ambani. The news channels have surprisingly sounding pro government.

But the Central Govt is very busy preparing for election after election across the country and their only agenda is “Congress mukht Bharat”.

Friends, we need prosperity and not eradication of a party that doesn’t have power in any case.

Kamal as a Politician!

Kamal as a Politician!

Why not?    Is the first reaction.

Does he have the experience? Will he handle, Is he eligible, numerous such apprehensions. My submission is, the people  running the show according to me are neither eligible nor qualified. If we have accepted them and they are at the helm of affairs for many many years and giving (mis)governance to us,  why not Kamal? The way he has stepped in makes his intentions clear.

During the 80s, he defined clearly that his fan clubs be made into welfare organisations and need to take up social activities. They were known for their blood donation camps, organ donation camp, eye donation etc.,Unfortunately, Kamal didn’t have the huge mass that Rajnikanth possessed. The choice of movies and characters that Kamal chose never indicated his preference towards becoming a leader or a do-gooder.  He focussed on his talents to be a film maker and was trying his luck with all departments of movie making. The amount of criticism he used to receive from within the industry was enormous. The beauty of Kamal was he never would get disturbed and continued with his job.

Kamal was known for his confused speeches and interviews, i suppose he always wanted to portray himself as an intellectual amidst the crowd. But what has been witnessed post his “Viswaroopam” struggle was a lot of clarity in his communication. He started speaking less but with lot of substance. He was bold enough to criticise the Government directly for its inefficiency during the Chennai Floods. When the govt. machinery came down severly on him by disconnecting power and water supply to his Alwarpet home. He was cool enough in handling the situation by not reacting to it.

It was a cinematic situation where Kamal was dragged into the political scene by some immature politicians reverting to silly remarks. Kamal used the “Bigg Boss” opportunity in the right manner to revert back. His progressive thoughts and comments were received well across a lot of social groups. This has given him a lot of confidence and he too has transformed a lot as a presenter. He did make some strong point of views and overtly shared a lot of anti government statements both in twitter and through Television.

The question to ponder upon is, Can thoughts be converted into action?. Does he have the ability to convert support into a Vote. In Politics, especially during the process of election it is this skill that is displayed effectively by seasoned politicians to garner votes. The machinery deployed, the grassroot’s commitment and discipline to work for their leader makes a big difference in winning and losing. Our politicians have mastered this art over a period and clearly dominate the scene.

The methodology they adopt in selecting the village secretary to district secretaries to regional secretaries largely depends on the caste/communities they belong. Can Kamal enter into a game like this? Will he succeed? The way the monies are spent on communication are definitely beyond what the Election commission prescribes, all parties have their way in executing their plans without falling into EC’s gambit. Can Kamal pull these off? Every Political outfit has a team of top rung leaders who move around the party high command. These leaders generally exhibit skills such as mobilising crowds, charting out campaign plans, handling communities and castes, mobilising finance, handling press, holding internal meetings and so on. Can Kamal make successful identification of these characters? Because this will reflect a lot on the party that he intends to start. Another critical thing that Kamal and his family in whole needs to be prepared as there will be lot of personal mudslinging which will hit really hard. Not only Kamal will be on the radar, even his children and wife and girl friends will face enough and more from the media. An unbiased splitting of personal and public life should be undertaken with lots of care.

Summing it all, Kamal as an individual has the charisma, character, brand image and fan following. The aspect that he needs to work on is developing an organisational structure and a mechanism to reach out to the grassroots. He has the physical strength to be a leader for masses, but he needs to take care of the last mile connect. Before he begins Kamal needs to travel the length and breadth of TN and should reach out to his loyalists, identify local issues, identify local leaders and so on. If he successfully programmes all these then there is no stopping of Kamal as a politician!

BIGG BOSS TAMIL

It looks scripted?

Don’t waste time on it.

Are you watching it? What’s wrong with you?

You guessed it right!  I am referring to Bigg Boss from STAR Vijay, it is a reality show adapted from Big Brother. The show is produced by Endemol, currently through Endemol Shine India^[1] who owns the global format of Big Brother:

Currently BIGG BOSS runs in STAR Vijay and STAR MAA, with Kamal Hasan and Jr NTR being the hosts.

The show focuses on behavioural issues, leadership traits, personality clashes, class conflicts, balancing acts, anger management and so on. In addition, the voting for the candidates is a clear reflection of the society and its ethos. The host’s strength to discuss situations amongst the inmates is a live therapy session, which makes the inmates think and probe within themselves.

The reactions to the show is surprising, as this show to TN comes in as a refreshing programme of sort in the done to death serial arena time slot of 9 – 10pm.

That typical prime slot was filled with:

Serials - that were dealing largely with extra marital affairs, revenge, family issues, ghosts,  and so on

Contests – Challenging children from age 4 onwards to sing, dance, act etc.,

Meaningless Comedy Shows

Debates and Discussions on Current affairs

Movies

Out of the above, the clear winner with thumping TRPs in the 9 – 10pm slot were always SERIALS. Certainly, BIGG BOSS has come as a breath of fresh air in the Tamil TV arena, and more shows of this kind from competitive SAT channels, with more prize money and more gloss will hit in the months to come.

The so called protectors of society’s culture didn’t react when the serials were going over board with their creativity. But when a new patented show came alive, the jobless culture savers have surfaced with their criticism. However, the fact of the matter is the show has zoomed up with very high viewerships for the Channel and more importantly the stickiness of the programme too is an encouraging factor. Kamal at the top of the show is definitely a big highlight as he presents the show as a seasoned compere ( i used to be surprised by Shah Rukh’s presence in Filmfare award!!), whenever he mentions the sponsors of the show. Kamal’s diction, expressions, witty oneliners, strong command over the language makes him the right controller of these diverse set of inmates and the novelty value for the programme.

Smart marketers and advertisers will for sure take advantage of this programme for advertising, sponsorships and even will create parallel characters. The volume of trolls in twitter, facebook, and you tube videos only goes to prove the reach and engagement with the viewers. When we are talking of engagement with consumers in all our discussions, this show has managed to do that with its host and the other characters.

In a nutshell, its a god damn show, you like it... you watch it, don’t like it ... don’t watch! You need not have to be cautious about what others will say – this is exactly what this show tells you as well!

To the cynical few,

-          Even if it was scripted, so what? It is engaging and interesting

Is STAR VIJAY capitalising on BIGG BOSS?

In 2000, STAR Plus launched KBC, the most successful game show with the most popular star Amitabh Bacchan. This one programme revived the fortunes of this otherwise dying channel. STAR Plus pushed Zee and Sony behind to become the No:1 Hindi Channel.

What all they did?

The instant appeal of the programme garnered some incredible numbers for the channel. The channel had a solid game plan in hand as they cleverly started promoting their programmes during this 9 – 10pm time band. They brought some top brands as their sponsors, some newly released movies, repackaged their existing soaps and so on. KBC ran from Mon – Fri, and STAR created a new movie time band on Friday post KBC.

The STAR VIJAY Story

STAR Vijay known for its rebranding since the Golden Eagle Television days, has this time used BIGG BOSS to revamp the channel. The initial support from viewers are looking encouraging and am sure will grow over the next 70 days (100 days of BIGG BOSS). But the promotion of other programmes doesn’t seem to be impressive. Their over dependency on comedy shows and talent shows might prove costly as they are being adapted by other channels successfully with better and bigger celebrities.

Vijay TV in the past had a lot of new format programmes such as Nayandi Darbar by Yugi Sethu, Kalaka povathu yaaru, Kushbu’s Marumagal, Super Singer, Saravanan Meenatchi, Coffee with Anu, Neeya Naana, Kadavul paathi, Live shows, Awards etc., Not only they had interesting programmes they did some innovations in marketing when STAR pitched in- eg:Kushbu did a tele calling initiative with a recorded message during their relaunch sometime around 2001. It is the only channel that has some good anchors like DD, Gopinath, Mahesh, Makapa etc., All of us are aware of  that  Sivakarthikeyan, Santhanam, were Vijay TV products.

The general perception however, around the channel is that it lacks “Stickiness” amidst viewers, it is more like a flirty channel,” if nothing else is there let me watch Vijay”. It tries to be young but it comes across strongly as an urbane youth channel. Even though the “Maamis” were glued in with Super Singer but they were ready to go for Nandhini or Vaani Raani.  The core of Vijay lies in its youthful fresh thinking, so it is time that they start putting their thinking caps to derive some unique programmes. In addition, also should avoid this Comedy based reality show trying to identify talent.

Summing up, STAR Vijay now has around 68 days to conceptualise programmes:

1.      To fit into this 9-10pm slot to follow BIGG BOSS

2.      To Create atleast 2-3 programmes for other time bands that are weaker including SAT / SUN

3.      To explore a possibility to position themselves like a MTV, V Channel or SS Music 

We need to wait and watch if STAR Vijay capitalises on this BIGG BOSS success.

To read more visit my blog : http://subbusabjaantahai.blogspot.com/

Advertising during IPL 2017

We could witness some interesting ads during this IPL, personally i am happy that marketers are looking at this window for some good communication. Here we go with some very good and not so good advertising during 2017:

Vodafone: This brand from Ogilvy has always lured the audience, made them talk about their TVCs. Zoo Zoos were exclusively created for this way back in 2006. This year’s  advertising features the product story on 4G through Padma Bhushan Shanta Dhananjayan and V.P Dhananjayan from Chennai. The brand has engaged the audience so effectively that one is looking forward to the next spot. The brand has managed to maintain the interest on the communication. 

Vodafone did use the popular Zoo Zoos to celebrate 10 years of IPL during the initial phase of IPL 2017.

Amazon: Another Ogilvy campaign that took forward the idea of “Sapno ki apna dukhan” through a series of TVCs exclusively created around cricket and IPL. As this one also has a cricket team, Some of the spots were good as they brought a few smiles. But the engagement and empathy factor wasn’t growing nor there was any intrigue.

Polycab wires : Considering the strong national footprint the IPL will offer these commercials are made in multiple languages with one common anchor “ Paresh Rawal”. Models from the respective regions have been used. I felt the whole idea was a refreshing one, as they avoided dubbing. Strategically impressive but creatively not  scoring.

Ceat Tyres: Fresh set of commercials centered around “There are idiots on the road” impresses with its execution. The performance of the cast is excellent and we could easily emphathise with every situation captured. Another Ogilvy contribution.

Havells : Multiples TVCs on different products were rolled out. The one that stands out is the “Tuh fire hai tho mein wire hai” commercial on the TN popular art form “ Puli aattam”.

Set of ads featuring Bomman Irani for MCB switches simply irritates and goes overboard, doesn’t have the finesse of the earlier set.

The dust resistant fan commercial featuring  a couple comes good

Parle has come out a set of commercials with each one bringing forward atleast two of their biscuit brands. These are interesting as they just attempt towards driving one point “Parle Range”.

Kingfisher commercial using different IPL teams for its “ Mannequin Challenge” looks fresh

Frooti with Aliabhatt just concentrates on execution

Voltas Inverter AC doesn’t cut enough ice

Oppo camera phone irritates you inspite of having an excellent product feature

Maruti has focussed on Brezza with 2-3 spots, fail to impress

Jupiter from TVS has rolled out some fresh commercial on the thought of “ Impresses by its looks”. Usage of languages in the song makes it different for better recall

Durex with Ranveer Singh lacks the required punch

Yamaha Fascino, Reliance Jio, Sporto underwear, Standard Fans, Surya bulbs, Crompton, Fair & Handsome, Airtel, Ajay Devgn for some pan masala, Taj were some of the other brands that get affected in the clutter.