Brands
“Our media investment is lower than last year”: Hyundai Motor’s Tarun Garg
NEW DELHI: Even as the automobile industry was only beginning to cope with the changes from BSVI norms, the pandemic battered it. Deteriorating demand has affected production, factories’ closure and the extended lockdown led to labour disruption. As India eased into Unlock mode, auto brands are engaging in refreshed marketing activities to boost sales.
In an interview with Indiantelevision.com, Hyundai Motor India Ltd director- sales, marketing & service Tarun Garg says that due to the fear of the virus among people, the customer sentiment is shifting towards personal mobility over shared mobility. “We believe there will be an increase in traction for the compact and used car segments.”
The industry witnessed one of its sharpest declines in domestic sales in March 2020. As per SIAM reports, sales of commercial vehicles – light, medium and heavy carriers of passengers and goods – declined by 88.05 per cent to 13,027 units in March 2020 compared to 109,022 units in March 2019.
The brand recently launched a virtual reality experience, ‘The Next Dimension’, an immersive expression of different cultures with human-centric design. According to Garg, "Digital platform has the power to transform the world and we have received an overwhelming response on the event with 39 million views and counting and engagement of over 1.1 million.”
“Perfectly harmonising the dynamics of physical and digital worlds, the entire 33-minute capsule, except the cars and presenters, was shot by using the advance level CGI & VFX technologies, presenting a larger-than-life storytelling experience,” he adds.
He shares that the auto industry will see some revival in the festive season and is likely to normalise early next year. Garg admires that the Indian market has been highly resilient in challenging conditions. “We will be quicker to overcome the adversities than other countries. We will evaluate the environment and determine the future course of production plans.”
Auto industry body, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), recently, in a statement, said that the sector was already "facing an unprecedented challenge with 18 per cent de-growth last year and as per an assessment, the impact of COVID2019 on demand for vehicles in the current financial year, the sector could have a decline between 22 per cent to 35 per cent in various industry segments, if the overall Indian GDP growth is at zero to one per cent for FY 21.”
Since consumer sentiment is not substantial and the sector is not performing well, Hyundai’s first aim is to resolve customer anxiety. “Under the ambit of Hyundai Cares, we have introduced multiple financial schemes to enhance customer confidence through programs such as EMI assurance and associations with banks to offer unique customer-centric car finance schemes,” adds Garg.
In the lockdown period, auto companies slashed their advertising spends, especially on TV, and focused on the digital space with campaigns mostly about the pandemic. However, now the momentum is picking up in the Unlock phase and digital and TV viewership is on a record high. Brands are working on new strategies to connect with the target audience.
According to Garg, this unprecedented situation has taught learnings such as to have a sustained communication, focus on digital mediums and customer relationship. However, he shares that though Hyundai has optimised its media mix and investments, it is lower than last year’s level and based on market priority.
He asserts, “The consumption of digital mediums has gone through the roof. We optimised these mediums very strategically. Today, more than 30 per cent of our customer sales queries are coming through digital sources, i.e., 2X over what we recorded last year.”
In an extremely challenging market, Hyundai seems to have made a positive beginning towards normalcy. In the month of June, Garg says it registered a cumulative sale of 26,820 units. The ‘All-New CRETA’ has recorded over 45,000 bookings including 5000 units exported in May, maintaining its SUV dominance for the month of May and June.
Brands
UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
