India's advertising industry is facing a serious manpower shortage, especially on the creative side of the business. Pressure on agencies' earnings has affected salary hikes, creating an opportunity for the burgeoning entertainment sector (TV and films) to poach on the limited talent pool. The shortage is mostly among the junior and mid-level executives. In advertising, money for creative people does not start flowing in till they are two to three years into the profession.
Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman, McCann-Erickson India, who will chair the outdoor and ambient media jury at the 55th International Cannes Lions 2008 in France to be held next month, talks to Business Standard about the performance of the Indian advertising industry at Cannes and his vision for McCann India.
Cellphone advertising is witnessing the first few signs of how it has the potential to become big in the near future. Hindustan Unilever and Coca-Cola, two of the biggest advertisers in the country belonging to the fast moving consumer goods sector, have launched campaigns this month to tap mobile users.
"If Bisleri does not receive this compensation, we will take legal action against Coca-Cola for violating the contract and the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement," Chauhan, chairman and managing director of Bisleri, India's leader in packaged-drinking water and creator of the Maaza brand, told Business Standard.
Bisleri, India's largest packaged-water player, said it would contemplate legal action against Coca-Cola India if the latter did not agree to its objection over the registration of the Mazaa trademark in other countries. Bisleri, however, insists that Coca-Cola has applied for registration of the Mazaa trademark in countries where the brand is not present and has objected to it on grounds that it is a breach of agreement under which Coca-Cola had acquired the rights of Mazaa.
STAR India, a wholly owned subsidiary of STAR Hong Kong, is exploring the possibilities of getting into the print media business in India. Last week, top STAR executives including STAR Hong Kong CEO Paul Aiello, STAR India CEO Uday Shankar and COO Jagdish Kumar were in Bangalore for meetings with possible joint venture partners for the print foray. The company is said to be in talks with Vijay Mallya's UB Group.
The rise in raw material costs has caused a 10 per cent increase in the retail prices of fast-moving consumer goods as companies are passing on the rise in costs.
This is as definitive as it can get. Dutch global beer major Heineken is understood to have outlined its intent to Vijay Mallya's United Breweries that it does not want to have any conflicting presence in India.
Danish beer giant Carlsberg is all set to commence production from its 2 greenfield breweries - one each in Aurangabad & Kolkata. Carlsberg together with beer major Heineken is part of the $11 bn global takeover of British brewer Scottish & Newcastle, which has 37.49% stake in Mallya's United Breweries. Heineken is also planning to launch its flagship beer brand Heineken in association with Asia Pacific Breweries. Total beer market in India is valued at 8 million hectolitres.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India floated a consultation paper on playing an active role in monitoring the Indian television viewership. TAM Media Research is the sole player in the monitoring market for the last 10 years. TAM's CEO L V Krishnan says govt should start regulating all types of rating outputs like daily newspaper polls done via SMS or even TV polls during elections and not just TV TRPs. TAM is often criticised for its poor sample size, TRP system, etc.
The bad news for newspaper publishers -- and there are over 40,000 newspapers in India -- has just grown worse. The price of newsprint, imported or indigenous, is set to touch $1,000 per tonne, and this after a 23 per cent increase over the previous four months that took prices to $760 a tonne in March. Factor in the April jump and newsprint prices, which typically account for 50 to 60 per cent of production costs, have risen over 60 per cent over the last six months.
Jon Wilkins, founding partner of Naked Communications, which gives communication consultancy to some of the world's biggest companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestle and Nokia, is looking for people to set shop in India. Initially, he wants to work with only three people here, who have an entrepreneurial spirit & an understanding for brand strategy. He is attracted to India for 3 reasons - India is ready for change, ad market here is growing rapidly and new channels are opening up.
Mumbai's McCann Erickson and Ogilvy & Mather have made it to the list of top 50 advertising agencies in the world. The list came out of awards survey titled The Gunn Report. Some of the other award-winning Indian performers such as Grey Worldwide, EURO RSCG & Lowe India were from the print advertisement space. It also surveyed whether award-winning commercials helped the products. The survey found that out of 400 award-winning commercials, 86.5% led to better product sales.
Targets women with new offerings such as Baileys cream liqueur and Nilaya. Liquor maker Diageo India is planning a big marketing push for its core brands such as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff and newer offerings in India such as Baileys and Nilaya. Both Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff have nearly 90 per cent share in the premium segment of the scotch and vodka market.
Australian Foods, owner of the Cookie Man brand, is on an expansion drive to double its number of stores across India in the next one year. The company has been following a unique model of retailing its cookies through own franchise stores. Cookie Man products are not sold in any other outlet and their franchise stores are located only in malls. The company will continue with this model for its next batch of outlets as well.
International digital marketing company Digitas has partnered with Solutions to enter the digital marketing sector in India. Digitas is owned by global advertising major Publicis Groupe. The new entity will be called Solutions Digitas. Digital marketing was not just online marketing and India is an upcoming market for digital marketing. Digitas will also introduce Prodigious digital production that manages the technology end of digital marketing for clients such as GM & P&G.
Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL), aiming to expand and double sales of its flagship brand Cinthol, has recently roped in actor Hrithik Roshan as brand ambassador.
French cosmetics major L'Oral recorded a turnover of Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion), and a growth of nearly 40 per cent, in India in 2007. L'Oral India, launched 13 years ago taking into account the sheer size of the Indian market, has recently set up its own manufacturing plant in Pune. L'Oral India imports most of its products from its own facilities abroad and manufactures the rest in Pune. L'Oral spends 30.7 per cent of its worldwide turnover on advertising & promotions.
The fee that TV channels pay to independent cable operators and the multi-system operators is set to go up by 40-50 per cent. The market for carriage fee charged by cable operators to distribute satellite television channels is on fire.A plethora of new TV channels have been launched and are jostling for space on the already choked analogue cable pipe. Nearly 330 channels are chasing bandwidth that can accommodate barely 80 channels.
World Sport Group India (WSG), the sports marketing partner of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), is in talks with three more sponsors, one each from the banking, petroleum and airlines industries to sign deals worth $200 million (about Rs 800 crore) for ground sponsorship of the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. These sponsors will have an opportunity to exclusively advertise their brands on the grounds for five years.
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