Mediaboss Marketing

Who doesnt remember the hilarious Camlin permanent marker ads that brought a dead man alive, or the royal win of Nataraj in a race of pencils, or Shah Rukh Khan taking a waterproof test to be identified from his clone, or he turning everything from a school student to a corporate employee for Linc Pens! These are only a few of the many iconic ads that led to the setting up of bases for several big stationery brands in India. They used television as a big medium to reach out to their prospective consumers and spent good bucks on ATL marketing. Several, especially the ones in the writing instruments category, also roped in celebrity endorsers to raise their share of awareness. However, as the digital revolution picked up and consumer trends shifted, there was a gradual decline in brands affinity to big ambassadors, and eventually in television as an advertising medium. And then the pandemic, finally, truly made the industry a digital-first marketing entity. exchange4media traces the big shift of stationery brands in India from television to digital.

From Liberalisation to Digitalisation

As per a TAM AdEx data released in 2011, writing instruments were the fifth largest category of advertising on television, taking up 3% of overall ad volumes in 2001. The brands were actively visible on the screens and were trying to build a market for themselves. Soon after, from 2007-08 onwards, brands like Reynolds and Cello started introducing big brand ambassadors to further their share of awareness.

Speaking about the trend, FoxyMoron (Zoo Media) National Head-Client Partnerships and Business Head, North Prachi Bali says, This phase directly correlates with the advent of the corporate world in India. The boom of the private sector, the socio-economic makeup of the country, Gen X achieving career milestones, Gen Y (millennials) as students having ambitious dreams - all of these were geared towards celebrating professional success. And a huge marker of this success was writing instruments. Having these big brand ambassadors pretty much built this correlation in the minds of the consumers.

Adds Wunderman Thompson Kolkata SVP & Managing Partner Vijay Jacob, In yesteryears, the stationery category was highly commoditized with local players offering low-cost but inferior offerings. At that point, getting people to know about and upgrade to brands in a mass popular category like stationery necessitated endorsement by popular celebrities and actors who had mass appeal. It helped people get interested in brands and prompted them to try those even if it required paying a slight premium.

However, with digitalisation, the trend started to subside. While big brand ambassadors started leaving the scene around 2011, the next few years saw the brands adopting digital slowly, which really became prominent in the pandemic era. As per TAM AdEx data, the ad volume for the stationery category in TV saw a drop of 23% in Jan-Jun 2021 compared to the same quarter in 2019.

During the same period, ad insertions by the stationery category in digital medium saw a sharp rise of 19 times.

Havas Media India HeadDigital Rohan Chincholi explains, What was once a classic & linear model of AIDA has today become a complex fishbone design, where a user is exposed to multiple touch-points that aid him in his buying journey. We must admit that for all categories, the audience is in a state of active evaluation always comparing with multiple other brands. If your brand is not visible someone else will take the share.

Grapes Digital founder & CEO Himanshu Arya further notes, A traditional medium like TV is an expensive way to market your product. Brands know that students are spending most of their time on digital channels. Hence, spending their market budget on digital media gives them the edge.

From Building Brands to Building Salience

Another thing that has shifted in stationery brands marketing strategy is their focus from building brand awareness to building brand salience. And nothing could be better than digital marketing for that.

As Linc Pen and Plastics Ltd Managing Director Deepak Jalan shares, Pen is a low-involvement category. Mostly students have been our prime TG and they show brand loyalty around exams. So between 2008 and 11, when we were working with big brand ambassadors like Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif, our focus was on building brand awareness and creating a loyal prodigy of customers. And while it did not have much of an impact on our sales then, it surely did increase brand awareness. Today, brand awareness is not an issue for us. We just want to be available and visible to our customers at all possible touch-points.

He adds that apart from the usual presence at retail outlets, they are aggressively working on a solid digital strategy and have started increasing their presence on e-commerce channels too.

Reynolds General Manager India & South Asia Rajat Vohra, in the same vein, highlights, I would say that our share of awareness had gone up by 20 points after the continuous running of ads featuring Sachin Tendulkar for three months back then. But, interestingly, it did not go down even after we stopped running those big celeb ads. It remained constant. Right now, it makes more sense to be present on digital as our core TG of students is there. Additionally, from hereon, our focus is more on building saliency and awareness for different products that we have. While we are well known for writing instruments, there are many other products in the art space, for example, that we want to promote and influencer engagement is really helping us push that agenda.

Now the brands are relying on traditional advertising on television only for new product launches or festive occasions, as Bali shares, Traditional advertising channels arent being used much anymore unless it is related to gifting/ festive occasions. Digital is being leveraged to promote the customisation of the instruments themselves. Also, a lot of luxury/premium brands are using digital mediums to capture newer audience bases. This has also led to a sense of polarisation within consumers where stationery has now become a passion to pursue.

Jacob adds, Brands are generally giving the primary launch communication or product information on traditional media while sharing the social media page links for continued brand engagement. Traditional media is helping inform and build recall while modern channels are helping in building brand familiarity and connection.

The Rise of E-commerce

Another factor that is contributing to this shifting of marketing rupees to digital mediums is the rise of e-commerce platforms.

Chincholi agrees, Consumers have evolved; owning stationery has become an extension of ones personality - from brand choice to functional relevance. To fuel these choices, e-commerce platforms have helped in the discovery of newer brands & ensured availability in the shortest time from order to delivery. The legacy brands continue to use social platforms with a lot of meaningful content and also use online videos very effectively. Given that 26.31% of Indias population is in the age group of 0-14 years currently, India has approximately 250 mn school-going kids (source: ibef.org) which shows a mammoth potential from the student base alone.

BIC Cello India Marketing Director Tanveer Khan highlighted, "The pandemic has significantly changed the consumer behaviour across the world. Certain industries have witnessed a change more than others education and e-commerce fall into that category. We have been working towards building a robust e-commerce portfolio by introducing new products across segments. Building a strong omnichannel presence as part of BIC Cellos plan even before the pandemic. We always had a plan of making our products available in alternate channels of modern trade, e-commerce, institutions and exports. 2020 only accelerated our journey in alternate channels particularly e-commerce and digital. BIC Cello grew more than 50% in terms of a sell-out on e-commerce platforms and we have a double-digit business contribution from the alternate channels. 2020 brought new trends and accelerated others. The most notable ones include the adoption of digital and e-commerce channels and the personalization of communication to occasions."

The category, therefore, is poised for stronger growth on digital platforms in the coming days. Right from adopting new technologies in products to expanding their presence on social media, several things are going to write the next chapter in its history. It will surely be interesting to see how it pans from here!

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The giant leap of stationery brands from television to digital marketing - Exchange4Media

It is hard for marketers to look beyond the marketing mix on most days, but when it is the Premier League in question, the mix of great football, intense competition and the stature of players is a strong distraction. Considering the growing popularity in India of this most-followed football league in the world, we decided to bring to its viewers a Premier League special feature. Through this seven-part series where we will reach out to PL fans within the marketing community and official fanclubs spread across the country, we hope to identify why the nine months of great footballing action can be a wonderful platform for building brands, and why the passionate followers of the PL cant wait to see the power-packed league kicking off on August 14.

In this edition, we spoke to one self-confessed PL fan, Nitin Khanna, Senior Director, Marketing, ACKOwho has been rooting for Liverpool for well over a decade. Khanna says, I normally get my jersey on for every Liverpool match that I'm watching. I get both the jerseys from the season--the home jersey and the away jersey, and make sure that I get the feeling of watching the match in the stadium with the other fans.

Talking about what sets the Premier League apart from most other leagues, he says that in the others there are just two or three teams that are top-notch. In LaLiga, you have Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid but there is a big gulf in terms of quality between them and the others which makes viewing really attractive for only select matches, they are largely one-sided so you lose interest as a football fan. That is definitely not the case with the Premier League. Over the years there's a really nice competitive set of six eight teams which makes every match well contested and thus a delight to watch. The last season is a testament to that fact. Till about a week or two before the Premier League ended, you had no idea who was going to be fifth in the league and who was going to be second. There was a difference of just a couple of points between the two spots.

The onset of Premier League is almost like a declaration of war for Khannas circle of friends each of who has his loyalties etched on a stone for a particular club, be it Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool etc, starting from WhatsApp battle of wits, to memes on social media to sharing articles which rub the other teams followers the wrong way and finally celebrating the defeat of a rival club ostentatiously, Premier League in those nine months is always a buzzing topic for them. Khanna elaborates, In the past 8-10 years, each club has had a period where they've not been doing so well. So, we've all had our chances for really making sure that we are giving the supporters of those teams a hard time. Arsenal, for example, has had a rough patch in the past six years and we have all ensured that my friend who is a true blue Arsenal supporter definitely realizes that every step of the way. We have not missed even one opportunity to mock her and tell her just how badly the club is performing.

Talking about pre-Covid times he says, My friends and I would organize a house party to watch the game together or hit a sports bar especially when Liverpool was locking horns with Manchester United, those were big draws. In fact, a permutation or combination of matches between Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea was always a ready excuse to catch up and watch the match together.

So high is the Premier League mania for Khanna that he has conditioned his five-year-old son to watch the Premier League with him. Khanna jokes, Right from the time when he was three years old, I've made sure that he sits beside me and watches the matches. I've tried my best to coax him into being a Liverpool supporter as well. But his loyalties seem a bit divided at the moment because my brother is a Manchester United fan. He's doing his best as well, to make sure that the youngest male member in the family is pulled to the Manchester United side. But me being the father, has had the strongest influence so far and I see our little one tilting towards Liverpool now.

He also has quite a collection of the Liverpool merchandise, he emotionally blackmails his friends into getting something for him every time they are visiting the UK, be it scarves, or a giant poster of Anfield stadium in Liverpool which is pasted right next to his bed and one he happily wakes up to every morning.

The passion associated with the game is what according to him makes the Premier League such a great marketing property. The banter on PL was alive even during the Covid times, that is why I feel it is way ahead of other football leagues. From an advertising point of view, we get a sharp, affluent male audience watching the Premier League. There is a certain age and income demographic that's more clued in with the Premier League. It is not like IPL, which has a mass following. The Premier League is still in a niche of its own. So, if a product is aimed at that target audience then it's probably one of the highest impact properties to advertise your brand on. Hence you see a lot of auto-related companies, like car manufacturers or bike manufacturers advertising on it, says Khanna.

Premier League is most certainly growing its fanbase and viewership in India in addition to being one of the richest sporting leagues in the world. Signing off Khanna says his dream is to be able to visit the Anfield stadium one day. I want to walk through the players tunnel, watch a game and be able to sing the anthem, You Never Walk Alone with all the fans in the stadium- that's a bucket list item, the Liverpool fan adds proudly.

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It was just about a year ago when Kartik Sharma took on the Group CEO mandate at Omnicom Media Group (OMG), at a time when the economy and the industry was reeling from the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the timing was challenging and the experience extraordinary, Sharma tells us that the time he had between his previous role at Wavemaker and the new one allowed him to observe changes in the industry before being thrown right into the action. I realised then, that we are amidst a sea of both challenges and opportunities, he says, adding that it wasnt easy to adapt to a remote working arrangement immediately. Sharma takes us through the events of the past year at OMG, which also saw the agency bag business worth Rs 400 crore.

You took on the CEO mandate during a year that turned out to be truly extraordinary and challenging. Tell us a bit about the transition into the CEO role at such a tumultuous time.

It has been an extraordinary year indeed. While I did have some time between my previous role and the new one, most of it was spent observing the changes in the industry and thinking about how agencies need to evolve. I realised then, that we are amidst a sea of both challenges and opportunities.

Ill admit that its not easy to sink into the remote working scenario immediately. Weve all inevitably become used to working in a certain way over time - meeting people and clients, being in an office space, making decisions together. Everyone has had to evolve rapidly, adapt to the newness, and actively learn new ways of working remotely. Most important, it was a lesson in managing teams remotely. One of the best things, however, has been the team, that welcomed me and been extremely supportive and energised about the vision for the future across OMG.

Its true that now, meetings are shorter but its also true that we continue to collaborate and get things going. The pandemic has surely turned us into more nimble and agile beings - continuously learning to be more innovative, curiosity-driven and solution-oriented. I do miss the quick, spontaneous brainstorming sessions and, am sure all of us do. But greater good precedes and our teams, their well-being and the health of the organisation are paramount right now. With that in context, we are all learning to communicate differently, with a lot more transparency in the way we operate.

Almost a year into this role, what have some of the big moments been for you at OMG? What were some of the big takeaways and learnings for you in this first year?

Even through the pandemic, we have been actively pitching to clients to enable business growth, and have started seeing efforts bear fruit in the last quarter of the year, and that was definitely a big moment. Multitasking was a big challenge through it all, but the team did a fabulous job! We also launched Transact, our e-commerce unit, seizing a new opportunity to innovate rather than waiting for COVID-19 to be completely at bay. Additionally, we brought on board a set of diverse and versatile talent. Some top-notch new leaders have joined the group - something that has truly worked in favour of team morale and strength, alongside business output.

We have also stepped up our efforts to be innovative in learning and development initiatives through regular podcasts. Weve ensured that data and insights have led to better decisions whether its for our people or our clients. Regular and consistent communication was important and so we made sure we organised regular town halls within OMG, OMD and PHD. Weve been actively emphasising the need for resilience, offering support through mini-sessions, regular check-ins, offering breaks and other measures. One learning that has stuck to me personally, is one that I took from the team. It was the sheer ability to view circumstances through a positive lens. We saw getting things done collaboratively, leading to building both stellar teams and organisational resilience.

How challenging has it been to pitch and win new businesses in this past year? What are some of the key account wins youve had so far?

The major challenge has definitely been to communicate everything through the screen. Considering that attention spans continue to diminish, its important to practice and embrace the art of crisp storytelling. As for new wins, across agencies, we have brought home some amazing brands like Philips, AU Bank, Cuemath, Tread One, Country Delight, The Pink Foundry (ConfiraLab), Parrys, Bel Group and Lead School, cumulatively adding to over Rs 400 crore to business. This to me is an indication of the trust our clients have placed in OMG and we are confident about building for the future.

After the initial setback from the pandemic last year, how tough was it to get billings and business back to normal? How would you evaluate the Groups performance from last year in terms of growth and revenue?

Last year, after the pandemic began, AdEx declined for the industry in general, and so a dip in billings was understandable. However, we saw an exceptional surge in digital, e-commerce, and trading. So, Id say specific verticals have definitely seen growth and continue to do so.

OMG has consistently seen a good representation of women at the leadership level. What is your vision for the organisation when it comes to ensuring inclusivity and equal opportunities for all?

OMG India is probably the only agency in the country where women make up 80% of the C-suite / leadership team. We're merit-driven and so its possible that what the world considers a bias, we think of as a competency. If you are competent, you make the cut. Having been in the industry for 25 years I have witnessed some great strides when it comes to inclusion, across the board. The media industry has definitely been quite progressive in this realm. I am proud of the leadership team across OMG.

What are the differentiators for both PHD and OMD as well as Omnicom Media Group in a very competitive industry? What are the capabilities you are building in this volatile pandemic scenario?

OMG embodies the principle of being limitless to strive for bigger, better and bolder accomplishments every day. The cohesiveness of the group lies in creating a resilient workforce across agencies. All our agencies are defined by the same ethos in their niche. OMD and PHD, as world-class agencies, are unified under our commitment to remain agile and futuristic. OMD India is the leader in benchmarking deep data-driven solutions, resulting in better and faster decisions for clients. This is essentially achieved because OMD focuses on being adaptable, collaborative and open to learning every step of the way. PHD Media is a challenger brand / a disruptor, an idea hub that is constantly going above and beyond today to focus on constant creative disruptions for tomorrow. All of this, by challenging the status quo and making the leap, with smart, strategic, innovative business outcomes.

Being limitless in our efforts to deal with any challenges has been the key to creating a resilient, empathetic and collaborative workforce. We have adjusted ourselves to new ways of working and new methods of interacting with our clients. And through it all, we have been ensuring that our people have the time and opportunity to keep their physical and mental energies up. We are largely focussing on enabling seamless systems, processes and practices by leveraging digital transitions for agile decision making. Improving trading, financial policies and practices, HR processes, as well as opening and exploring new lines of business are at the crux of our long-term strategy. OMG India aims to become not just a market leader in precision marketing with its tool Omni, but also the frontrunner in being a responsible corporate citizen.

Going forward, what will your key focus areas be? What is the organisations new vision given the current landscape?

The key focus is definitely to enhance offerings through our people-based precision marketing tool and insights platform Omni. It is a forward-looking platform that can manoeuvre in a cookie-less environment, having ingested over 500 million device IDs, all from India. It is divided into five utilities insight, planning, activation, optimisation and workflow. Providing data clean rooms with strict privacy controls in alignment with Ad Data Hub, the platform has evolved a great deal since inception. At the core of Omni is our robust people-based identity graph, which monitors consumer behaviours in real-time to reveal how people connect, engage and transact with brands. It connects people, data assets, and analytics into a common framework, providing our teams with deep insights for making better decisions, faster, and outcomes that drive business results. We want to interlink everything to optimised business metrics.Our vision is to scale more capabilities in content and e-commerce, in a holistic manner for sure, but also in order to meet the needs of the data-rich digitally-powered world we live in, today.

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Across agencies, we have cumulatively added over Rs 400 crore to business: Kartik Sharma - Exchange4Media

THE WOODLANDS, Texas, July 13, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Actual SEO Media Inc. is a fast-growing PPC provider in the Greater Houston Area. Knowingly, they are announcing the opening of a new business location in The Woodlands, Tx. This new location will help aid businesses in need of help with effective strategies that help foster growth.

With everything now being virtual, businesses need new and unique ways to help boost success within the industry. Effective pay-per-click (PPC) strategies can help with the presence of personal business so that strategies can begin to be adjusted with how popular search engines are being ranked. With Actual SEO Media at your side, businesses can blossom into the company they want to be and so much more!

Actual SEO Media is an in-house team of strategists who work closely with businesses that want to explore and reach new horizons. Their team has years of experience on their hands. So much so that they've been able to expand their services all over the Houston area. This company isn't a typical PPC company because instead, they operate under non-binding contacts. A non-binding contract means businesses can start or stop the services paid for at any time they see fit.

All businesses can trust that they're going to receive services that work. PPC is an internet marketing strategy used to help invite more traffic to their website. With competitive service industries, the most successful PPC industries leave businesses ranking high on the most popular search engines like Google. Advertising is one of the most popular forms of PPC. Usually, it is even more successful than other strategies like content writing and SEO.

When combined with many already-in-place white-hat strategies, meaning they stay within the boundaries Google sets in place, any business can find themselves ranking high. Notably, Actual SEO Media strays away from the fray and finds methods that aren't oversaturated. ASM will always utilize strategies that fit best for individual companies alone.

Actual SEO Media Clients like David say, "This product rocks, and it is definitely something I am going to fit into our monthly budget." ASM takes pride in providing services that speak for themself, and all businesses can and will attest to this. They do a fantastic job of keeping clients organized in order to maintain the ideals that the customer always comes first.

This organization prides itself on providing excellent services to communities that need them the most. If outstanding services are what a business is looking for, then Actual SEO Media, Inc will put all of the work into maintaining and helping businesses flourish. They work with their clients and maintain a "client-first" mentality.

About Actual SEO Media, Inc

Simply put, there is no job too much for the ASM team. Any company looking for expert strategies and methods needs to visit the new location in The Woodlands, Tx. Businesses will be met with fresh ideas, strategies, and methods never seen before.

For more information about Actual SEO Media, Inc, call (713) 201-7666, or email the team at info@actualseomedia.com

Media Contact

Benjamin Thompson, Actual SEO Media Inc., 832-834-0661, info@actualseomedia.com

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Nutrition company Herbalife Nutrition is the Official Nutrition Partner of Team India for Tokyo 2021.

Commenting on the partnership, Ajay Khanna, Vice President & India Country Head, Herbalife Nutrition, said, As a company at the forefront of developing sports nutrition and working successfully with teams and athletes around the world, we are proud to be the nutrition partner in support of Team India. We look forward to bringing our knowledge and expertise in sports nutrition to the team and are confident they will achieve huge success in Tokyo 2021.

Commenting on this association, Rajeev Mehta, Secretary General, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) said, Herbalife Nutrition is an ideal partner for Team India as they have a key understanding of the specific nutritional needs of high-performance athletes. The synergy between Herbalife Nutrition and Indian Olympic Association creates a sporting platform that leverages science-based nutrition and expertise to optimise performance and well-being.

Over 100 Indian athletes and sportspersons including Mary Kom and Manika Batra are scheduled to represent India in Tokyo 2021 in an array of competitive sports including boxing, table tennis, badminton, track and field athletics, wrestling, hockey, tennis, fencing, archery and shooting. Fans and athletes around the world are waiting for the mega sporting event to kick off on July 23.

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