March 16-31, 2019 Volume 7, Issue 18 `100 8 INTERVIEW TARUN KATIAL CEO, ZEE5 INDIA JUST DIAL 14 What About the Rest? Will people forget other apps? 6 SURF EXCEL Passions Boil Over How brands should tackle social media bashing. 16 ADIDAS Equal Treatment The challenges of e-commerce marketing. “WE HAVE VERY GOOD LEVI’S Shaping the World 10 RETENTION RATES” SNICKERS Playing with Words 20 Katial wants to increase the subscriber base and hopes to MOST VIEWED ADS convert free users into premium subscribers in quick time. On the Campaign Trail 21 eol This fortnight... Volume 7, Issue 18 f there’s one thing that amazes me about the Indian OTT segment – that EDITOR Sreekant Khandekar I comprises over 30 players, of which 10-15 have big numbers – it’s the prolificity PUBLISHER March 16-31, 2019 Volume 7, Issue 18 `100 with which new content is churned. There is just so much content being produced! Sreekant Khandekar 8 INTERVIEW Just how many shows are we to watch? EXECUTIVE EDITOR TARUN KATIAL CEO, ZEE5 Ashwini Gangal JUST DIAL 14 What About the Rest? ZEE5, freemium digital video-on-demand platform from the house of Zee ASSOCIATE EDITOR Will people forget other apps? Sunit Roy 6 Entertainment Enterprises, one of the last to enter the VOD battleground, began by PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE announcing 90 original titles in its first year. Moreover, the platform will release 72 Andrias Kisku SURF EXCEL Passions Boil Over new titles by April 2020. Yet, Tarun Katial, CEO, ZEE5 India, insists it’s the How brands should tackle ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES social media bashing. depth that matters. He’s on our cover this issue, as ZEE5 turns one. Shubham Garg 16 81301 66777 (M) We spoke to Tarun about the competitive OTT game – particularly, ZEE5’s Apoorv Kulshrestha ADIDAS Equal Treatment 9873824700 (M) The challenges of e-commerce marketing. audience acquisition strategy, what premium means in the OTT space, the Noida “WE HAVE VERY GOOD LEVI’S Shaping the World 10 Nikhil Jhunjhunwala RETENTION RATES” SNICKERS importance of creating content for regional audiences, the growth of voice search, Playing with Words 20 Katial wants to increase the subscriber base and hopes to MOST VIEWED ADS 9833371393 (M) convert free users into premium subscribers in quick time. On the Campaign Trail 21 the content recommendation system he’s got in place on the platform, and most Mumbai importantly, his subscription related plans. Tarun is confident about being able to [email protected] convert his non-paying users into paying users, soon. Interestingly, he tells us there’s MARKETING OFFICE a fair amount of overlap between people who watch television and those who pay for B 3, Ground Floor, Sector 4, Noida -201301 Uttar Pradesh content on OTT. But, on the contrary, from a consumer psychology perspective, one must look at not television, but the film industry, and film marketing, very closely MUMBAI 302, Makani Center, 3rd Floor, if one is keen on understanding the online video pay space, believe media experts. Off Linking Road, Bandra (W), Mumbai - 400050 One point made by Tarun really stayed with me; it challenges the way we’ve SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES been classifying content all this while: on OTT, unlike on TV – or even in the case [email protected] of movies – how ‘new’ a show is, depends not on the release date, but on when a Owned by Banyan Netfaqs Pvt Ltd and person discovers it. By that definition, for him, an old-yet-new show is Karenjit Printed and published by Kaur - The Untold Story of Sunny Leone. Every new subscriber watches it, he Sreekant Khandekar, at 7-A/13, Ch. Ratan Singh Complex, claims. Jawala Heri Market, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi-110 063. Printed at Artz and Printz 208 DSIDC Sheds, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi - 110020 Ashwini Gangal [email protected] CONTENTS 19 JAGUAR LAND ROVER Non-stop Action Cause-vertising to create conversations. 17 12 VIVEK SRIVATSA 10 “The Fan Parks Helped” Srivatsa is upbeat about the second year of Tata’s DAILY HUNT 18 KEDAR APTE ASHISH BHASIN association with the IPL. In this exclusive interview, he ‘Parroting’ opinions? “Influencers are Key” Home Base says he is expecting “even Create your own opinion The stories behind marketing Why Bhasin’s new role is such better results” in 2019. instead of being a ‘tota’. an engine lubricant. a big deal. afaqs! Reporter, March 16-31, 2 0 1 9 5 e SURF EXCEL Passions Boil Over What happened with HUL’s Holi spot for Surf Excel this week could happen to absolutely any brand campaign tomorrow. What should brands do when a simple advert is monsterised, then bashed on social media? The experts debate. By Aishwarya Ramesh and Abid Hussain Barlaskar urf Excel’s newest Holi-themed it’s a reaction from one particular ad found itself in the middle of section... If I were in their place, I’d Scontroversy. Social media erupted lay low for some time... Brands need at the brand’s attempt to promote Hindu- to be extra careful and sensitive right Muslim harmony. We spoke to industry now. We’ve seen the damage social professionals about the campaign and the media can create to brands and this perils of digital marketing. The responses: is real. die down. In the age of the internet, theme, you don’t know how it might controversies come and go, and this be misunderstood. I would say Deepika Tewari Abhishek Gupta one too shall pass. religion is a sensitive subject right Associate Vice President, Marketing, CMO, Edelweiss Tokio Life now and best to keep away from it. Jewellery Division, Titan Irrespective of the medium, you will Ravi Shankar K, Trends on Twitter are supposed to It’s not a unanimous view; it’s a always get different reactions from Senior vice president - India Online have a half-life of 24 minutes which polarised view. In that situation, your target groups. As a marketer, Business - Langoor means that half of all the impressions, wouldn’t you stand by people who it forces us to be on our toes and Given the prevalence of social media clicks and retweets your tweet are rooting for your ad? Why would makes us vigilant about the kind of usage, dealing with its marketing and receives will happen in the first 24 you succumb to the pressure of communications we’re bringing out. its downsides need to enter corporate minutes and then drop dramatically. people who are dissing your ad? Social media gives you feedback and communication playbooks. Brands So whether you issue an apology or There will always be naysayers. That the pulse of the audience, quickly. often find themselves at the receiving not, the trend is going to die. If the doesn’t mean brands have to pull This is not a case of a cause gone end of public ire when they talk company believes in what they did, down the ad. It’s not like a legal body wrong. As a brand, you need to take about sensitive issues like religion, they shouldn’t apologise. If it was a or government authority is telling up a cause and ensure that it fits with politics and regional identities. And genuine oversight and they felt it was the brand it’s anti-national or anti- your brand. Once you’ve decided on because social media gives a voice wrong, then they should. social... So does the brand need to the cause, you need to stick to it and to the masses, individual opinions take a stance by apologising or taking do something meaningful around coalesce very quickly into mass Rajasekar KS it down? I think it is in continuation it and be consistent with it. The sentiments forcing the brand to go GM - Marketing at Matrimony.com with Surf Excel’s standpoint of daag acche hai and the goodness that on the defensive. Brands, like humans, are sometimes ‘dirt is good’ (referring to the daag comes out of the stain is a narrative The brand’s reaction, ideally, vulnerable. The recent error in achhe hai communications) and is in that Surf Excel has been using for depends on their stand with respect judgement by HUL is a good case continuation of the regular thematic quite some time now. to the issue. If the brand is fully study for marketers, social media advertising it did for Eid, for example. If there’s a fair balance of positive aware of what is put out and have strategists and PR folks. On social, if and negative comments, then you their convictions in place, they may things go wrong it can be a terrible Ramanujam Sridhar should stick to it. want to stick with their stand. In downslide and spiral out of control. Founder & CEO, Brand-Comm some cases, the communication Marketing that rides on cultural I don’t see anything offensive about Rohan Mehta could be mistimed, misconstrued or sensitivities and religious sentiments the ad, but people’s views tend to be CEO - Social Kinnect, a digital a plain mistake. In such situations, is treading on dangerous waters. quite polarised - I can see that from marketing company the brand would be advised to issue a The best way out depends on the my various WhatsApp groups; these Social media has helped brands reach clarification addressing the sentiment social media quicksand that a brand are the people who are vocal on social more customers than ever before. and pull out the offending content. is caught in. If it’s about cultural media, unfortunately.