MAM
Crisis no bar on creativity: Brands, agencies team up amidst COVID-19 scare
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The rules of communication had never been so versatile as we are witnessing now. When almost the whole world is under lockdown, business running from homes, probably for the first time in history, and purchase patterns seeing curves deviating from regular, the communication and marketing industry is functioning in a sort of dystopia no degree could have taught them of.
As per a recent Kantar Study, despite the disturbing reality people are living in these days, 92 per cent of consumers will prefer brands to continue advertising. The enjoyment percentile for top-quality advertising content has mostly risen for the period. This puts an additional responsibility on brands’ shoulders to not only stay relevant but also educate and entertain consumers in times of distress.
Muthoot Pappachan Group CMO Sanjeev Shukla tells Indiantelevision.com that it is very important for brands these days to build on the brand value that they have generated over years and make their users their brand advocates in a time when sales are lower than usual. He said his brand is focussing on staying in touch with the consumers and keep their trust intact.
Asian Paints recently released a shot-at-home video for its Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai campaign to spread positivity and cheers. Asian Paints MD and CEO Amit Syngle said, “While all of us are put to this unprecedented test, the campaign aims to take a moment and look at the brighter side of things, cherish the joy of being with our families and create unforgettable memories.”
The Kantar study also suggests that brands should refrain from advertising too much around the pandemic and try including light humour in their ads. It also suggested that brands can revisit old videos and footages to fit in this “new world of engagement”, something that Amul is doing by showing its old ads during the Ramayana and Mahabharata episodes on Doordarshan.
Ogilvy India chief creative officers Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha believe that agencies will have to be wearing their thinking hats tighter than ever now considering the limitations agencies are working in.
“Currently, we see no dip in work at all. In fact, more and more brands want to help in sending out the right information about Coronavirus, so that is keeping us very busy and rightly so. Restrictions are a reality of life, at least for the next few months. But thanks to technology and the wonderful World Wide Web, we are still able to create work. Writing needs to be sharper than ever because there will be limits on visuals,” they said.
FCB Ulka ECD Anindya Banerjee shared similar sentiments as he noted, “The best part of the crisis is that it has no precedent. So, clients are looking for out-of-the-box solutions. And we as an agency are beside ourselves at such an opportunity. The creative team is up to their eyebrows with work. While many of them are prior commitments, they have to be recalibrated to the new normal; the complete dependence on the online media.”
While most of the work has moved online and mobility restricted, neither brands nor agencies are giving up on the idea of creating fresh TVCs. Case in point being ZEEL’s #HumAndarCoronaBahar campaign by Lowe Lintas, Tata Sky’s campaign by Ogilvy, and Sony Pictures unique short film starring biggies across Bollywood and regional industries including Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikanth.
Limited resources and restricted movements have brought out the creative best of many brands and agencies.
Karmarkar and Rajadhyksha shared, “Our video team has rolled up its sleeves and is finding ingenious ways of making work happen. The office is producing some pretty sweet work. The Vodafone stay at home pug, The Fevikwik ‘don’t repair, Asian Paints and UNILEVER; all these and many more pieces have been written, produced and released in the last three weeks. No one can lockdown creativity.”
Banerjee also noted that their video team is working hard to innovate. “At the risk of sounding immodest, as an agency, we are used to not giving up, no matter what. Our films department is already planning on how does one do a great film and yet make it look like a million bucks.”
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
