App stores are already full of 18 goodies that consumers want to download. In such a competitive environment, do consumer brand apps stand a chance? EDITORIAL This fortnight... Volume 3, Issue 2 very now and then technology creates the promise of magic and marketers fall for EDITOR Eit. Mobile apps are the latest in that line. Brand custodians think that they are not Sreekant Khandekar ‘with it’ unless they have an app out there – but to what purpose? PUBLISHER Prasanna Singh If a large brand puts out a mobile app as a matter of hygiene, that is fine. The thing DEPUTY EDITOR is, managers have high expectations of innumerable downloads. Believe me, that’s not Ashwini Gangal going to happen. SENIOR LAYOUT ARTIST Downloads in the lakhs or millions that marketers dream of are saved for only Vinay Dominic three kinds of apps: games, utilities (including some service brands such as ecommerce PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE Andrias Kisku or food retail) and news or information apps. Unless a brand can create some form ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES of credible entertainment, the app has little hope. A consumer has so many other Naveen Arora, (0120) 4077803, 4077866 interesting options. Noida Arunima Bhattacharya, (022) 40429702-5 App stores are already full of Marketers do both - underestimate the cost of creating an app and overestimate the 18 goodies that consumers want to Mumbai download. In such a competitive environment, do consumer brand benefit to be derived. The brand team looks at the cost of creating an app and assumes apps stand a chance? [email protected] that that is where the spending will end. Not true. Within weeks of launch there is MARKETING OFFICE the shocking realisation that with millions of apps already available, nobody is keen B-3, First Floor, Sector-4, Noida-201301. on this latest addition. Tel: (0120) 4077800. To justify the expense of creating the app, advertising becomes necessary: it would typically cost Rs MUMBAI 501-502, Makani Center, 5th Floor, 50-100 to get one download. That’s not cheap: getting just 50,000 people to download the app would cost Off Linking Road, Bandra (W), Rs 25-50 lakh. Mumbai - 400050 Tel: +91-22-40429 709 - 712 It still doesn’t mean that the battle for consumer interest is over. There is enough evidence to show that BENGALURU while smartphone users download many apps, they use only a handful. The rest lie unused only to be deleted S-1, New Bridge Corporate Centre, 777 D, 100 ft Road, Indira Nagar, at some point. That is the most likely future of the brand app that has been created with such hope. Bengaluru - 560038, India The issue really is the marketer’s exaggerated sense of the brand’s importance in a consumer’s life. A SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES Akhilesh Singh, (0120) 4077837 senior digital agency executive says that it is difficult to talk a marketers out of launching a mobile app once [email protected] they set their mind on it. Owned by Banyan Netfaqs Pvt Ltd and A far less expensive is option is to use a combination of social media together with a clean website with Printed and published by Prasanna Singh, a responsive design that is easy to access on a smartphone. Admittedly, though, that is less glamorous than at 7-A/13, Ch. Ratan Singh Complex, launching a mobile app. Jawala Heri Market, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi-110 063. Printed at Cirrus Graphics Private Limited B-61, Sector 67, Noida (U.P.), 201301 Sreekant Khandekar Cover Illustration [email protected] Tiffin Box CONTENTS 28 30 PLUS HOMESHOP 18 Cat Stories 8 JHALAK DIKHLA JAA Breaking Limits 10 DOWNING STREET This year the show Safety Belt 10 spills over from the stage to outdoors. HAVELLS Respect for Women 12 DEFINING MOMENTS 20 6 Nabendu Bhattacharya FIFA WORLD CUP Milestone Brandcom’s Marketers’ Ball Begins 24 workaholic founder. HIGH SIERRA POINTS OF VIEW 22 A New Monday 26 Ads and Women RAKUL PREET SINGH VODAFONE M-PESA Is advertising provoking Meet the ‘Airtel Girl’ Cash in Hand BIG B/SONY crimes against women? Why this 24-year-old has Vodafone launches a Reactions. been trending online of late. nationwide ad campaign. A New Journey 32 afaqs! Reporter, June 16-30, 2014 5 $'9(57,6,1* VODAFONE M-PESA Cash in Hand Vodafone has launched a nationwide ad campaign for its mobile payment service, M-Pesa. Will it gain popularity? By Satrajit Sen ith the increasing adoption of technology money yourself. It explores various relationships by banks as well as its customers, where transfer of money takes place to highlight Welectronic payment modes have gained that M-Pesa is as quick, safe and convenient.” ground. Besides credit cards and debit cards, mobile payment products have also gained ground DEEP WALLETS... as an alternative mode of cash transfer. odafone claims that the service now covers The campaign for M-Pesa, which Vodafone V1.1 million customers. Using their M-Pesa M-Pesa works on any mobile handset and one India operates through its wholly owned subsidiary account, customers can deposit and withdraw cash does not need GPRS or a data plan. The user needs Mobile Commerce Solutions (MCSL), sells the from designated outlets, transfer money to any to register for this service by paying `200 and there proposition: Apne haathon dene jaisa. mobile phone, remit money to any bank account, are charges for each M-Pesa transaction. Sixty five make recharge to mobile phones, clear utility bills per cent of M-Pesa’s 1.1 million customers belong MONEY ORDER and for DTH service subscription. to rural areas. The service is used in government odafone completed the rollout (in all the 22 Vcircles it operates in) of the service in March, 2014, exactly a year after M-Pesa was launched in association with ICICI Bank. Only Vodafone subscribers - they don’t have to be ICICI Bank account holders - can access M-Pesa service. It claims to empower the unbanked and under- banked sections of the population gain access to financial services via the mobile phone. Pesa is Swahili for money and it, coincidentally, sounds like Paisa. Vodafone launched this service in 2007 in Kenya where it became wildly popular with migrants working in big towns wanting to transfer money back to their villages easily. According to Rajiv Rao, national creative director, Ogilvy India, the brief was to position Vodafone M-Pesa as a fast, safe and easy way of schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural transferring money. “The consumer for M-Pesa The consumer Employment Guarantee Act (MG-NREGA), works away from home in big cites and sends for M-Pesa works National Rural Health Management (NRHM). money to remote places across the country. away from home Other patrons for the service are TABCab service Sending money in the conventional way can be a BJP and AAP. painstakingly slow process or even unreliable. We in big cities and took this insight and showed them a new way of transfers money to WALLET SHARES doing the same,” he says. remote places. ompetition for Vodafone comes - or will An official Vodafone note says, “We summarised Ccome - from players such as Airtel, Tata the product benefits of M-Pesa under one RAJIV RAO campaign idea. It’s as good as handing over the FOTOCROP FRQWLQXHGRQSDJH>> 16-month-old son Milan, who has The soundtrack of this film has VIRAL NOW made a cameo appearance and is been used by Activia in its TVC. seen kicking a soccer ball towards Shakira is also famous for her an elephant. Brazilian musician Waka Waka track, released for the One Love Wins All Carlinhos Brown brings the Samba 2010 Football World Cup in Africa. feel to the song. Shot in Barcelona, the TVC for The video featuring Shakira is for Activia (a yogurt With this song, Shakira joins Activia features Shakira in a ‘fantasy forces with Activia (a yogurt brand forest’ where she is showered with brand by Danone) to support the World Food by Danone) to support the World swirls of gold stardust and is seen Programme (WFP). By Devesh Gupta Food Programme (WFP) in its fight dancing to express how good she against child malnutrition. Shakira feels inside. head of the upcoming World the 2014 FIFA World Cup. and Activia will also be donating Developed by Vinizius Young Cup, Shakira, world-famous The video stars some renowned funds to support the program. & Rubicam Barcelona, the TVC AColombian pop star, has football stars such as Lionel Messi, forms a central piece within launched her latest music album Neymar, Cesc Fàbregas, Sergio Activia’s first ever integrated global ‘Dare (La La La)’, which has received Agüero, Radamel Falcao, James communication campaign. over 95 million views on YouTube, Rodríguez, Eric Abidal, and (Viral Now is a section about videos so far. Gerard Piqué (Shakira’s real life that are catching people’s fancy on social The song is a part of One Love, love interest). media). One Rhythm, the official album for It also features the couple’s [email protected] 6 afaqs! Reporter, June 16-30, 2014 $'9(57,6,1* HOMESHOP18 Cat Stories In its first ever full-fledged TV campaign, HomeShop18 showcases two animated cats as protagonists who urge consumers to shop on its platforms. By Saumya Tewari rands usually take celebrities as ambassadors mass and scale. The campaign, along with other BUSY TIMES AHEAD but Homeshop18 decided to take cats as strategic investments in delivery mechanisms, n terms of traction and sales, television Bits custodians. The idea is refreshing in a logistics, supply chain and IT, is a step towards Icontributes the most followed by web and rather cluttered brand communication space of the achieving business targets.