April 16-30, 2012 Volume 3, Issue 8 `100 42 PROFILE Anita Nayyar Bennett Coleman’s new customer strategist. 14 VODAFONE Not Child’s Play The pug plays ‘Cupid’ to children now. 39 DEFINING MOMENTS The past 15 months have seen many Subhash Kamath mergers and acquisitions in the media and BBH India’s managing entertainment sector. Just why partner looks back. are companies getting together? VOLTAS Category Driven 10 STAR-BCCI What’s the Deal? 30 TAMIL GECS 28 Off the Radar 38 HISTORY TV 18 Reaching the Top 40 EDITORIAL This fortnight... Volume 3, Issue 8 EDITOR Sreekant Khandekar ill a few years ago, Indian media companies could have been compared to the small fiefdoms that PUBLISHER T existed in the country in the pre-independence era – content in their own comfort zone, living Prasanna Singh with the misnomer that they were decoupled from the rest of the world. EXECUTIVE EDITOR Prajjal Saha For a long time, many Indian media companies, which were largely family- SENIOR LAYOUT ARTIST owned businesses, grew in their own language territory or state. But, when it came Vinay Dominic to moving on to the next level, they preferred to stay in their own comfort zone – so LOGISTICS April 16-30, 2012 Volume 3, Issue 8 `100 Rajesh Kanwal 42 much so that many of them refrained from experimenting, forget about venturing out into new areas. ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES Neha Arora, (0120) 4077866, 4077837 PROFILE Anita Nayyar Noida Bennett Coleman’s new When companies venture out to newer pastures, there is always a chance of a customer strategist. 14 merger or an acquisition. This contributes to a faster pace of growth in any industry. Khushboo Varadkar, (022) 40429702-5 Mumbai Somehow, in the Indian media industry, the number of M&As were very few for [email protected] VODAFONE Not Child’s Play many years. Though there were buyers, even the not so healthy Indian companies The pug plays ‘Cupid’ to children now. 39 Marketing Office were not ready to be bought over. B-3, First Floor, Sector-4, Noida-201301. Tel: (0120) 4077800. For many of the players, this was the only family business they could think DEFINING MOMENTS The past 15 months have seen many Subhash Kamath Mumbai mergers and acquisitions in the media and BBH India’s managing entertainment sector. Just why partner looks back. of doing, while others weren’t ready to give up the political clout provided by the are companies getting together? 501-502, Makani Center, 5th Floor, VOLTAS Category Driven 10 STAR-BCCI Off Linking Road, Bandra (W), What’s the Deal? 30 ownership of media. In fact, in September 2011, we carried a story on how the TAMIL GECS Mumbai - 400050 28 Off the Radar 38 HISTORY TV 18 Reaching the Top 40 Indian media shied away from an M&A deal. Tel: +91-22-40429 709 - 712 However, there seems to be a change in the scenario since then. The last one Bengaluru S-1, New Bridge Corporate Centre, year has seen the coming together of many large media companies, be it the Zee and 777 D, 100 ft Road, Indira Nagar, STAR tie up for distribution; Network18’s acquisition of Eenadu’s non-Telugu channels; Dainik Bengaluru - 560038, India Jagran’s takeover of Nai Duniya or the UTV-Disney deal. Subscription Enquiries Garima Agnihotri, (0120) 4077837 The current issue looks at the reasons which drove the increasing number of M&As in the last 15 [email protected] months…. Printed, published, and owned by Prasanna Singh, Publisher, at 7-A/13, Ch. Ratan Singh Complex, Jawala Heri Market, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi-110 063. Printed at Cirrus Graphics Private Limited B-62/14, Naraina Industrial Area, Prajjal Saha Phase II, New Delhi – 110028. [email protected] Cover Illustration Gogol CONTENTS 47 44 PLUS AXE BRANDS Bullish on Digital 24 Take-over Talk Do strong brands RED BULL still stand tall after Alternate Route 32 are acquired do they get lost? INDIAN SOCIAL SUMMIT Art of Storytelling 32 BARISTA LAVAZZA 47 16 FEVI KWIK Being a Teenager 49 The chain has put up story A Quick Fix boards all over the place. ERRATA POV 36 Narendra Kumar Alambara is COMEDY CENTRAL THUMS UP chief operating officer of Daily Too Bold? Thanthi and not as mentioned Is primetime content on Indian Spreading Cheer Will it Work? (afaqs! Reporter, April 1-15, 2012). The error is regretted. GECs getting too bold for Buses, coffee shops or Its old brand ambassador is Editor comfort? cinemas, the fun continues. missing in this campaign. afaqs! Reporter, April 16-30, 2012 3 GSMA 1(:6%8//(7,1 ,QGLDDW1R Sponsored by McCain Foods India> The maker of frozen foods is plan- ning to increase its product offerings in India. The company is looking at launching frozen food items based on paneer and soya platforms besides the frozen idli-sambar combo that it introduced recently in the Delhi and NCR region. At present, the firm claims to have 25 per cent market share in the estimated Rs 1,000 crore Indian frozen foods segment. The company is also looking to double its retail presence in the country from the current 5,500 outlets. he GSM Association transparent way for all stakeholders.” (GSMA), which represents According to the GSMA’s Wireless Tthe interests of mobile opera- Intelligence service, despite a large Garware Motors> The two-wheeler company which is tors worldwide, has announced that rural population, mobile growth in the wholly-owned subsidiary of Garware Bestretch, is all set India is all set to become the second India is being largely driven by more to launch a new bike in 250 cc category under Korean brand largest mobile broadband market in affluent communities in cities. Net Hyosung in the next three to four months. The company is the world within the next four years additions in urban areas reached 85 targetting metro and tier-II cities as potential market for the with mobile broadband connections million last year compared to 57 two-wheeler bike brand. At present the company has three MARKETING models, ST7 Royale, GT 650R and GT 650N in its product touching 367 million by the year 2016. million in rural areas, with mobile portfolio, which are sold across 16 dealerships pan-India. This will make it a larger market penetration increasing by 20 per- The company claims to have sold 611 bikes last year. than the US, which is estimated to centage points in urban areas to 161 reach 337 million connections by per cent, against a 6.5 percentage 2016; but it will still point rise in rural areas Maruti is looking Maruti Suzuki>The country’s largest car maker, is set to be second to China, As LTE to 36.6 per cent. at selling 4,000- take on the multi-utility (MUV) segment the launch of Ertiga. which will have According to The company has negligible presence in the fast growing reached 639 million networks prolif- Wireless Intelligence 5,000 units of the MUV space with Gypsy and Grand Vitara. connections by then. erate worldwide the cost of an LTE new vehicle in With Ertiga it is looking at selling 4,000- Since 3G licenses and more devices (long term evolution) the first month of 5,000 units of the new vehicle in the were first awarded to smartphone, with an launch. first month of launch. The Ertiga mobile operators in become available, average retail price would be available in both petrol India in September costs will come of $500 (`25,000), is and diesel versions. 2010, mobile broad- four times the aver- band connectivity has down. age monthly per grown steadily. There capita GDP in India, Bharti Airtel> The telecom company is all set to launch are now more than 10 million HSPA and at an average of $200 (`10,000), its 4G services in Bengauluru by next month after the launch - high-speed packet access (also the retail price of an LTE USB of 4G services in Kolkata recently. The company and its rivals known as 3G technology) - connec- dongle is twice an Indian’s monthly paid a total `38,543 crore to buy fourth-generation (4G) tions across the country, and this is income on average. wireless broadband spectrum in a 2010 government auction. expected to grow exponentially, by LTE is the latest standard in the It managed to win 4G spectrum in four zones including 900 per cent, to more than 100 mil- mobile network technology from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kolkata and Punjab of the country’s lion connections in 2014. This will the producers of GSM technology. 22 telecoms zones in the auction, paying `3,314 crore for the make India the largest HSPA market LTE is often marketed as 4G. As spectrum. worldwide within the next two years. LTE networks proliferate worldwide Anne Bouverot, director general, and more devices become available, GSMA said, “To take full advantage costs will come down. Initiatives Flipkart> The e-commerce company has acquired Letsbuy. of this, we need operators to have like the introduction of the low cost com, online electronics retailer. The move reflects Flipkart’s access to spectrum and we call on Aakash tablet in India are helping strategy of growing through acquisitions. It also reiterates the Indian government to release and spur widespread access to the inter- that e-commerce in India is likely to be dominated by cash- allocate spectrum in a fair and net in emerging markets. rich companies that can leverage their financial strength for scaling up and strengthening their position.