Indiantelevision.com Team

(30 August 2006 6:30 pm)

MUMBAI: Carat Media Services has announced its global initiative to reposition itself as a communications planning organisation by which communications planning will be an integral part of its offering through the newly rolled out global 3C Process.

Carat has already developed the requisite iterative tools and processes which have been tested worldwide to help the planning agency to connect to the client's consumers directly and provide the necessary experience.

Speaking on the transformation, Carat acting CEO Asia Pacific Region Patrick Stahle said, "In order to provide a higher level of Brand experience organizations will now have to have far superior involvement with the Brand. With offerings such as Communications Planning added to Carat's bouquet of services the approach will become far more Consumer - centric, integrated and synergistic. The new approach will be more aligned and responsible to the marketing objective of the organization and Carat will become the single window for Accountability to the client for achieving the desired results."

The strategic profile of Carat in the future will move into a holistic offering ranging from communications strategy, engagement planning, seamless execution and econometric evaluation of the campaigns. Carat India Group CEO Charles B. Jenarius averred, "Carat will evolve to a more Consumer Centric Planning as compared to Channel Centric Planning so far. The only objective will be to create a greater consumer engagement through experience based activities and to increase ROI for clients while being accountable. Carat now has a truly differentiated offering that has been tested among some of the leading advertisers, in some of the leading markets across the world."

With media choices multiplying exponentially, today consumers are in control and demanding content whenever and wherever they want. This changing media and consumer environment and the critical need to build lasting relationships make Communications planning imperative for today's marketers, adds the release.

Commenting on the evolution of Communications Planning, Carat regional director communications planning, Asia Pacific Rob Kabus said, "The 3C process will enable us to continually find new and better ways to connect our clients with their consumers through communications. Today we have become managers of content from messengers of content as content is everything and there is a need to customize and create a focused role for each channel of communication"

Carat executive director K. Subramanian will be in-charge for Deep Blue (Communication Planning) and SPI (Econometric Modeling) said, "Along with creating a holistic engagement plan we shall strive to evaluate the efficacy and ROI of each of the engagement plan components to make marketing a truly scientific learning process."

P. V. Narayanamoorthy regional director, strategic resources APAC will now devote time in India, to facilitate this transition and help seamlessly integrate communication planning with traditional media planning and raise the bar on the overall planning product commented, "How to achieve transformation using the right combination of tools will become extremely imperative for the success of this program. To provide a consistent and consolidated experience to our clients few things will become very important vis-à-vis Joint training across all the business partners, encouraging case studies and best practices, expanding peoples mind to explore connections and immersion with the consumers to gain a deeper understanding of the Consumer."

Carat had been quick to anticipate the complex media scenario nearly a decade back and introduced a media independent agency to India. Now, in 2006, Carat has yet again forecast that shifting consumer and media dynamics will ignite an era where communications will play a more vital role in brand fortunes.