A look at the outstanding media plans of the year and how they helped advertisers reach their objective
By Team IMPACT
The media agencies are all abuzz after the just concluded EMVIES 2014. Some really good work has emerged this year, and top marketers are happy to see analytics and big ideas dominate the scene as media agencies don the role of brand partner to generate some of the best media plans. “What surprises me is the depth of analytics embedded in most media plans. It is refreshing to see media teams work comfortably with complex data sets to come up with solutions, not just for media campaigns but also for larger marketing problems. It is a clear indicator of the way media is evolving and integrating itself into their clients’ core crack teams,” comments Aditya Save, Head -Digital Marketing & Media, Marico.
Intelligent use of ambient media too has paid rich dividends. As Sukhpreet Singh, Director, CE Business at Samsung Electronics, says, “Overall, the quality of media plans always goes up a little every year. You see a lot more innovations in terms of ambient media and analytics.”
Some media plans have brands taking up a social cause, and building huge brand equity at the same time. “I like the way brands are bringing social messages into their activities – such as the Tata Tea - Power of 49, or work with Stayfree. But while uniqueness is important, results are equally important,” says Anuradha Narasimhan.
The bottomline of course is that media plans have to be effective and deliver results for the business. “Over the last 5-10 years, our understanding of what makes an impact in media seems to be improving. This year’s media plans are very high quality. For me, it is the question of what was the objective that the brand started the activity with and what is truly the impact that the media made,” sums up Anuradha Aggarwal, Director, Biscuits, Mondelez India Foods Ltd.
“Tata Tea Gold decided to partner Maxus about 18 months ago with the ambition of disrupting media and the category working with a very limited amount of money. And boy! What a journey it’s been and all credit goes to Sanchayeta and the Maxus south team. It’s great work across. Unlike a lot of others, Maxus is able to combine three things – great strategy with disruptive ideas and the ability to move really fast.”
Vikram Grover
Vice President, Marketing, India & South Asia, Tata Global Beverages Limited
“Madison Pinnacle is an extension of our core brand marketing team and that is how we work. The entire team is involved in the planning right from the beginning, so they understand the issue that they are trying to solve and work together to come up with the solution. I feel we can still do better in terms of coming up with really big ideas, perhaps stuff like Kan Khajura Tesan.”
Siddhartha Mukherjee
Director – Chocolate Category and Media, Mondelez India Foods Limited
“We are very proud of our media partners and proud of the work done by Mindshare. On another note, I am just blown away by the kind of innovations we are seeing in the social media space, digital, mobile marketing and I think things are only going to get better and more vibrant.”
Geetu Verma,
Executive Director – Foods & Refreshment, Hindustan Unilever
“There is a lot of good work happening around. You look at the brand task, the brand need, the insight that is being used which connects to the brand need, the quality of conceptualization and finally how was it brought alive.”
Ronita Mitra,
Senior VP, Brand Communication, Insights and Online, Vodafone India
“What surprises me is the depth of analytics embedded in most media plans. It is refreshing to see media teams work comfortably with complex data sets to come up with solutions, not just for media campaigns but also for larger marketing problems. It is a clear indicator of the way media is evolving and integrating itself into their clients’ core crack teams.”
Aditya Save, Head -Digital Marketing & Media, Marico
“Overall, the quality of media plans always goes up a little every year. You see a lot more innovations in terms of ambient media and analytics.”
Sukhpreet Singh,
Director, CE Business at Samsung Electronics
“I like the way brands are bringing social messages into their activities – such as the Tata Tea - Power of 49, or work with Stayfree. But while uniqueness is important, results are equally important.”
Anuradha Narasimhan
“Over the last 5-10 years, our understanding of what makes an impact in media seems to be improving. This year’s media plans are very high quality. For me, it is the question of what was the objective that the brand started the activity with and what is truly the impact that the media made.”
Anuradha Aggarwal, Director, Biscuits, Mondelez India Foods Ltd
