ZEEL completes 20 years in October2012. What have been the key mile-stones for the network?

I have been part of Zee since the pasteight and a half years. Our chairmanSubhash Chandra launched the com-pany, and there have many more peo-ple, my predecessors, who have takenZee to where it is today. Talking aboutmilestones, the first one was thelaunch of our flagship channel Zee TV

in 1992. Then came our second majorchannel Zee Cinema in 1995. The same

year, we entered the UK and the US. Wewere also the first ones to enter the region-al market in 1999 with Zee Marathi. In thefirst 10-12 years , Zee remained focused onorganic growth. In the early stages, thiscompany was an integrated media house,with broadcasting, cable, direct-to-home,news all housed under one company calledZee Telefilms Ltd.

Later, we divided the company into dis-tinct parts where news,direct-to-home,ca-ble became listed entities.We renamed ZeeTelefilms as Zee Entertainment. We alsorecently entered into new media spaces.The big change in our outlook is that we nolonger see ourselves as a broadcaster. Weare a content provider and creator. We areinterested in viewers available on anyscreen—whether it’s the television set, amobile or a computer. Till now, Zee has pri-marily been a South-Asian contentprovider. Now we have shifted gear and are also going after audiences in manyglobal markets—and these are not justviewers of South Asian origin. Our key focus will be on Middle East, Russia andSouth Africa.We are already re-purposingour existing content by dubbing and sub-titling it in different languages. Plus,we will be starting localised production forforeign markets. We are talking to a lot oflocal production houses in global marketsfor this content. Our audience reach isclose to 650 million globally and over thenext 3 -5 years, we want to expand it to a billion people.

What are the new channels in the offing?Given the analog environment, the

smaller channels get limited exposure be-cause they are not carried across the coun-try.In a digitised set up,these channels willbenefit the most. We have four channels inhigh definition and also a lot of niche con-tent channels like food. We are in theprocess of launching a kids channel calledZeeQ. That is our next big product. If youlook at our bouquet, we are available inmost genres. Kids was the only genre thatwe didn’t have a presence in. But it must besaid that the real phase of new launcheswill only start after the second leg of digiti-sation is over. In the overseas markets, werecently launched our second Arabicchannel last month.We are also actively re-

searching markets of Africa and Indone-sia but there’s nothing definite as of now.

What are some of the big shifts in thelucrative Hindi general entertainmentspace?

I think that the weekly gross ratingpoints (GRPs) in the Hindi general enter-tainment channel (GEC) space have ceasedto hold much importance. All the broad-casters are evenly matched with just a nar-row gap of 15-20 GRPs here and there.Thereis not much premium you can commandfrom the market merely by banking on theGRPs. Such close competition has alsomade the likelihood of a new entrant mak-ing an easy foray in the genre.Anybody whowants to enter this genre at this stage, willhave to keep a kitty of R3000-4000 crore andyet there will be no guarantee of success.Wehave seen at least three companies exit theHindi GEC space in the last five years. Onebig change in GEC is that the life-span of TVshows is becoming shorter. As the audi-ence’s attention span constricts, formatswill become even shorter. If you were tocompare today’s scenario with what wasthere five years back - the number of showsbeing launched has tripled , but their suc-cess rate is down by one third. There is agreat dissonance in the numbers. This ismore prominently seen in the life cycle ofreality shows. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa used to oncerun for 40 weeks.Today,more than 16 weeksis unheard of,for any reality show.

There is a lot of buzz around digitisa-tion. Does the October 31 deadlineseem realistic to you?

We cannot shy away from the deadline.Things will take shape because all broad-casters are unanimous on switching offanalog signals. The key date, however, isApril 2013 when 38 cities with 1 million-plus population are set to go digital. It isnatural to have some chaos in the begin-ning. There will be many fence-sitters ini-tially. There could be others who might bewaiting to see if the government will ex-tend the deadline yet again.My view is thatthis time around, we must go ahead withswitching off the analog signals and allowchaos initially. Things will settle downeventually. Only after the first phase getsunder way will the work on the next phasein tier two towns begin.

But MediaPro (the distribution jointventure between Zee Group and StarNetwork) is yet to ink interconnectionagreements with a host of MSOs (multisystem operators) such as Digicable?

I don’t want to comment on specificcontracts. What I can say is we havesigned up with some MSOs and someare yet to be done.

TUESDAY | OCTOBER 16, 2012

brandwagon@expressindia.com

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

Pininterest piques interest amongIndian brands as women hop on

to this social media platform PAGE 3

F I R S T S T O P F O R M A R K E T I N G , A D V E R T I S I N G A N D M E D I A

Vespa’s first ad captures thethe spirit of the seventies.It’s retro, not retrograde

PAGE 4

YESTERDAY,TODAY &TOMORROW

Allowing specialisations to becomesilos is the biggest mistake agencies

have made, says Ashish Bhasin PAGE 3

A H M E D A B A D B A N G A L O R E C H A N D I G A R H C H E N N A I H Y D E R A B A D K O C H I K O L K A T A L U C K N O W M U M B A I N E W D E L H I P U N E

Subhash Chandra is known as thepioneer of private broadcasting inIndia. His son Punit Goenka nowplans to take Zee Network beyondmere television broadcasting

Zee Network was the first homegrown broadcaster to have liberatedIndians from the bland and limited programming served by publicbroadcaster Doordarshan for decades. Zee’s story is almost synonymouswith the growth of private broadcasting in India. The network, like the cable and satellite TV industry, completes 20 years of its existence this month.What began with one general entertainment channel,Zee TV,in 1992, today is a diversified enterprise comprising a bouquet of 31channels beamed across 168 countries entertaining 650 million peopleacross the world. Broadcasting wasn’t a family businesses that grouppatriarch Subhash Chandra inherited from his forefathers. It wassomething he created from scratch. Coming from a family of rice tradersin a small town in Haryana,Chandra,however,is known today as a mediabaron. Zee, with presence across content production, broadcasting,distribution both through cable and direct-to-home platforms, is a multi-interest media and entertainment behemoth. The group has myriadcompanies housing these businesses.

Having built the empire, Chandra has passed on the baton to his sonPunit Goenka. As the managing director and chief executive of thegroup’s flagship company Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, Goenka isready to take his father’s efforts to a new level.

In a freewheeling chat with FE’s Anushree Chandran, Goenkaspeaks about his plans to reposition the group from merely a broadcasterto a full-fledged content creator and provider company that will reach outto the consumer wherever she is – on TV, her laptop, tablet or the mobilephone.He also delves on the challenges and opportunities for the industryand his group in particular,in the times to come.Edited excerpts:

■ Continued on Page 2

3THE FINANCIAL EXPRESSTUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 20122 THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2012

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

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Payal Khandelwal

AN ONLINE scrapbook ishow social media plat-form Pinterest is often

described and it is quite an aptdescription. It is a ‘virtual pin-board’ website where users canorganise and share visuals ofvarious interesting things ontheir respective boards and fol-low other people’s boards too. Insome ways, it is like a visual ver-sion of Twitter.

Internationally, variousbrands are tapping into the bene-fits that Pinterest provides suchas referral traffics to their e-com-merce sites and to understandthe demographics of a particu-lar target audience. However, inIndia,this social media platformis still in infancy. According tosources,currently,the India Pin-terest base is about 8.3% of theglobal user base (10 million glob-al users) and is mainly driven byfemale users.

However, there are clearlysome unique advantages that themedium offers which Indianbrands can tap into. Most e-com-merce sites (a business which isgrowing at a phenomenal pace inIndia right now) can utilise Pin-terest as a product catalog.

According to Vishal Sampat,founder and CEO, Convonix Sys-tems, an internet marketingfirm,while Facebook dominatessocially-driven shopping (con-versions via social traffic), a re-cent study shows that Pinterestis driving the highest averagespend per online shopping ses-sion. “While shoppers who cometo retail sites from Facebook andTwitter purchase more often,Pinterest users spend dramati-cally more than either ($168.83average order value vs.$94.70 forFacebook and $70.84 for Twit-ter),” he says. And the fact thatPinterest can be easily be linkedto a Facebook account, works toits advantage.

Sampat also feels that Pinter-est can be used to convey compa-ny culture by posting pictures ofthe office, the mascot, people’scubicles and office events. Fansare interested in these details,and this imagery helps to hu-manise the brand.

Says Sudhir Nair, senior vicepresident and head, Grey Digi-tal, “The advantage begins rightfrom the way the platform oper-ates. Pinterest allows users toshow what they probably want tobe,make interests based connec-tions with very interesting us-age of images. It reinforces thefact that people tend to relate toimages much more;be it pinningof images about the subject theyare interested in or even info-graphics which makes hard-core statistics look appealing.Brands have a chance to show-case their products in very unas-

suming way.”Saugata Bagchi, VP, Tribal

DDB India talks about anotherinteresting point. An accurateestimate of a brand’s social me-dia strategy can be made throughaccurate tracking of referrals toits POS (point of sale). “Thoughnot overtly social, Pinterest hasexhibited heavy traffic genera-tion capabilities particularly toonline stores in the beauty andfashion categories,”he says.

However, despite the advan-tages listed above, Pinterest isnot a suitable medium for brandstrying to achieve incrementalreach. Bagchi says that datashows that Pinterest traffic ismore transient and users are lesslikely to linger on a product. “Onthe other hand, Facebook dealswith a much more channeliseduser base, which interacts withthe brand in a more controlledsetting, exploring multi-layeredmarketing collaterals. Couple

this information with the 56 mil-lion user base of Facebook in In-dia, spending an average of 15hours per month on the site,thenit suffices to say, that for a brandwhich requires incrementalreach, Facebook should be theadvertising carrier of choice.For specialised categories asmentioned above, Pinterest canalso be considered.”

As the user base is still quitelow in India currently, Indianbrands do not recognise Pinterest as a part of their socialmedia strategy.However,some ofthe Indian brands which havebeen on the platform include

Lavasa, Vivanta by Taj, PepeJeans, Club Mahindra and VeroModa India. Pepe Jeans had acontest on Pinterest where it hadcreated a ‘Pin it to win it’ boardon their profile having pins con-sisting of Pepe apparel. Partici-pants were invited to follow andre-pin what they liked. ClubMahindra has also conductedtwo contests on Pinterest – ‘Pho-to Upload’ contest and ‘Pin ATrail’ contest. It also has a boardfor its blog – ‘Clay - The Traveler’sBlog’. Vero Moda India did a ‘AreYou Printerested?’ campaignwhere female users were askedto upload a photo of themselvesdressed in any printed apparel

on a custom Facebook app.These entries were then up-loaded on Pinterest.

As with all social media, thenumber of users on Pinterestare expected to go up.Especially

in India,social media is expectedto grow faster with the penetra-tion of smartphones.

Says Sampat, “The user basein India should go up thanks tocheaper smartphones andcheaper data connections com-ing in besides the increase in PCand computer penetration.”Other factors on which itsgrowth would depend is how In-dian women adopt the social media boom, since Pinterest ispopular among females and also on how brands leverage Pinterest effectively and pro-mote it across other social platforms,he adds.

Pin thatBRANDWhile quite a few Indian brands are

experimenting with Pinterest, much of it willdepend on how women in India adopt the

platform and also on how brands promote it across other social platforms

But I am very clear that irrespec-tive of whether the agreement goesthrough, by midnight of the said date,we will switch off all our analog sig-nals. Because as per the law, I cannotprovide the analog signal on Novem-ber 1. The local cable operators willwant us to keep extending the date butthat way digitisation will never be-come a reality in this country.Extend-ing the deadline is not the solution.Myrequest to the government is that if itis serious about digitisation,it shouldstick to the deadline this time.

In the backdrop of a tough econom-ic environment, is the festive sea-son likely to bring some cheer tothe industry? Will expensive pro-grammes be able to generate de-cent returns?

This festive season will be a toughone for broadcasters. While some willsail through,others may struggle.Theeconomy is going through a difficultpatch and in our sector, most broad-cast companies are growing in singledigits with advertising lumberingalong at around 7-8% and distribu-tion,at 5-6%.To sustain a high-decibelspend on programming is going to bevery difficult.Given that our industryis anyway margin strapped, very fewbroadcasters will make healthy prof-its. Most broadcasters throw bigbucks in programming simply to benumber one. No one is thinking seri-ously about the return on investmentand on sustaining the business. Aslong as the broadcast industry main-tains its short term view, we will keep draining the business.Unless weall get together and take a collectiveview on how to make the businessprofitable, things are going to remainthis way. Over a period of time, youmay see more broadcasters falling by the way side.

Has ZEEL ever thought of diversi-fying into radio? With phase3 onthe way,would you bid for licenses?

We are very clear that our primary

mode of business will always be audio-visual. We are not really look-ing at radio. Radio is a small marketand it is extremely fragmented. Thenext round of licences will make it further fragmented.

What are some of the big issues be-fore the broadcast industry at themoment?

Apart from uncertainty on digiti-sation, the ratings system is definite-ly a big challenge. Considering thelength and breadth of the country, asmall sample is an issue. Then again,rating is an estimate and you can never be completely accurate. So,while there are issues that peoplehave with 8000 peoplemeters, therewill be issues even if you raise thenumber to 80,000 meters. The other issue in the ratings system is that end to end, it is managed by oneagency and therefore is subject toquestioning. Whereas if you look atthe international models, they aredistributed among three of four agencies. One agency designs the survey, the other one does the base-line study, somebody else does the metering and a fourth body releasesthe data. This way, you have enoughchecks and balances at every stage.Another thing to note is that our in-dustry is too small and fragmented.At best, broadcast is a $2.5 billion in-dustry in terms of advertising. Youcan say that you need a robust study,but it will come at a cost and somebodyhas to pay for it. You can take the sample size to 10 times, but the costwill skyrocket at least five times.Whowill pay for it? The industry has towork together to thrash out these is-sues. The systems globally have notbeen built overnight. They haveevolved over time.

What is the progress on BARC(Broadcast Audience ResearchCouncil)?

Finally, we have an agreement onBARC approved by all the three stakeholders including the ISA (TheIndian Society of Advertisers), IBF(the Indian Broadcasting Founda-tion) and AAAI (Advertising Agen-cies Association of India). We haveconstituted a high power committee.The next step for BARC is to develop anRFP (request for proposal) and select avendor. Meanwhile, IBF has alreadystarted a baseline study. Then, we arealready in the midst of talking to re-search companies.

In the next five years, where do you see yourself and the Zee Network?

I would like to see us as a di-versified global media company. I see new media accounting for a significant chunk of our business. Itmay not be the dominant part of ourbusiness, but an important verticaljust the same. Hopefully, I will not berunning the place and will have a professional chief executive man-ning the front. I’d like to focus on some bigger things than to get in-volved in the nitty gritty.

1THE JOB: Like every child, I too was abig fan of Walt Disney. However, I didnot know that one of his oft-quoted

statements—“All our dreams can cometrue, if we have the courage to pursuethem”—would become my guiding force. Inthe last 12-odd years, I have realised thatthe courage to go through all the ups anddowns gracefully comes from the fact that Ilove my job. As a company founder, thegreatest excitement is to see your ideastaking shape. Most ideas initially arenameless, shapeless, formless non-entities, but giving a form to them,patiently, brick-by-brick, requiresorganising resources and talent. I spend alot of my time hiring the best people,evangelising the products we build andstrategising the road ahead. Routine stuffbores me to death—so I make sure I have ateam of senior managers around me whoare better than I am in executing themundane but necessary tasks.

2THE WEEKDAYS: I organise my time inthe office around team meetings. Imake sure that I meet every team at

least twice a week. Most of my meetingsare short and to the point. When I’m in theoffice, I am constantly meeting one team

after another—so at times when I need toreally think alone, I put a do-not-disturbnote on my door. I devote at least 12 hours to work andbusiness related activities but at the sametime I am a strong proponent of a healthywork-life balance.

3THE WEEKEND: The biggest problemwith weekends is it usually ends onSunday evenings. Therefore, I really

don’t give a big deal to weekends. For me,everyday is an extension of work,meetings, business travel and family life.So, somewhere in my book, weekdays andweekends sort of come together, unless, ofcourse, I am out of town. Even onweekdays, I spend quality (and quantitytime) with my family. I help my boys withtheir Math homework and projects, whichin the IB curriculum, demand real work. Mylittle girl has 10,000 questions everyday

and at times I wish I had more time toanswer her never-ending queries. SomeSaturdays are involved in tagging alongwith my wife on shopping trips (I really donot enjoy it)!

4THE TOYS: I never leave home withoutmy iPhone. I got my first iPhone in2007, within two weeks of its first

launch. I am also a very hands-on tech geekso I play a lot with the latest routers, wi-fidevices, etc.

5THE LOGOS: Being a pragmatist, I’mnot into labels. What looks good onme and fits me well becomes my

brand. Having said that, I am particularabout my shirts. I love good shirts and mywife, who is my shopping consultant andpersonal shopper, makes sure I wear thebest.

—As told to BBaannaassrreeee PPuurrkkaayyaasstthhaa

AFTERHOURSFAISAL I. FAROOQUI

Founder & CEO, Mouthshut.com

“The greatest excitement is inseeing your ideas take shape”

often from the same holdingcompany, and taking them indifferent directions. The cre-ative agenda was driven by acreative boutique, the digitalspecialist made it sound thatlife was only about digital andthe old-fashioned creative di-rector was still stuck with a 30-second TV commercial. To mymind,this is the biggest chink inthe armour of all the old-fash-ioned holding companies, withlegacy, creative businesses andseveral silos of areas of special-isation under them.

May be because they wererelatively younger and new ageor perhaps because they werethe only truly independent,and therefore, media agnosticagency or because they werenimbler, Aegis Media was oneof the few players who got itright. Aegis built the best ofthe specialisations, focusingheavily on the digital front, ledby Isobar, the world’s leadingdigital agency and iProspect,the world’s leading search

and performance marketingcompany. These werebacked by Carat, the

world’s leading mediabuying and planning

specialist and Vizeum.Posterscope, the world’s

leading OOH specialistagency was another gem but

the beauty was notjust that they had

the best special-ists. The beautywas that Aegis

Media crackedthe unsolv-

able puzzle of being able to of-fer all the benefits of speciali-sation without the hassles anddemerits of siloisation. Howdid this happen?

In hindsight, the solutionwas actually quite simple andelegant.Aegis Media mandatedthat there would be “One Coun-try,One P &L”.This mantra wasuniversally followed and there-fore, the country heads weresuddenly free to move talentacross specialisations, as perthe needs of the client,uninhib-ited by the strain of silos thatother holding companies suf-fered from. Due to historicalreasons and personalities in-volved, despite their best ef-forts, others could not cutthrough the proverbial Gor-dian Knot of their silos,sudden-ly making them look old

fashioned and clumsy.I predict that this mantra of

“One Country, One P & L” willsoon be imitated by other hold-ing companies and it will be-come a trend in a few years tocome. Of course, Aegis Mediawill retain the prime mover ad-vantage,but the significant out-come of this trend will be thatmany old-world, large agencysystems,will just collapse over aperiod of time and many of thebig agency names we know oftoday in India will just fadeaway,replaced by nimbler agen-cies, who can provide the clientwith “all the benefits of special-isation, without the hassle ofsiloisation”.

The writer is chairman,In-dia,& CEO South East Asia,

Aegis Media

Specialisations SANS SILOSHolding companies in the communications business need to adopt the mantra of “One Country, One P &L” which allows country heads tomove talent across specialisations, as per the needs of the client,uninhibited by the strain of silos.

WHEN I began my careerin advertising about 25years ago, the advertis-

ing agency offered complete com-munication solutions to clients.As brand custodians, we were re-sponsible for creative, media andintegrated marketing. Over theyears, as liberalisation of the 90’sprogressed and the industry ma-tured, unbundling started. It be-gan, at first, with media as aspecialisation beginning toemerge as a separate function.Over the next few years, every as-pect of the communications busi-ness became a specialisation andunbundling is almost completenow in 2012, particularly helpedby the growing importance of dig-ital as a medium.So today you havedigital specialist agencies,searchspecialist agencies, PR (public re-lations) agencies,DM (direct mar-keting) agencies, CRM (customerrelationship management) agen-cies, activation agencies, OOH(out-of-home) agencies, eventagencies and so on.

This trend is inevitable be-cause clients would naturallywant the best specialist in eachfield to service his account needsand not a generalist. The sameperson cannot be an expert ondigital as well as OOH as well asdesign. Nothing wrong with it.We live in an era of specialisa-tions. But where nearly everyholding company got it wrong isthat they allowed the specialisa-tions to become silos. Each hadtheir own P& L (profit and loss)account to look after, each ofthem had agendas that bestfavoured their silos and none ofthem really bothered to think ofwhat was best for the client.Clients, meanwhile, while theywanted the spe-cialisms, werebeginning toget irritatedfor having todeal withmultipleagencies,

◗ AD-DENDUM BY ASHISH BHASIN

(Above) The Club Mahindra page onPininterest

Zee TV islaunched

1992

1995

Zee News and Zee Cinema launched; ZeeTV goes global by entering the UK; cabledistribution opera-tions are launched

1996

India gets its firstcable channel‘Siti Channel’ catering to cities.Zee TV enters Africa

Zee Music islaunched

1997

1998

Zee TV is

launched in

the US

Buys out NewsCorp’s 50% stake inthe broadcast JVand enters regionalmarkets with thelaunch of a Marathichannel

1999

Enters into a contentdistribution JV with MGM and Viacom andintroduces a bouquet of pay channels in Asia

2001

Enters film production with‘Gadar – Ek PremKatha’

Five newchannels for DTV

market arelaunched. Entersfilm distributionthrough a tie up

with Rajshri Pictures. A

fashion and stylechannel Trendzalso goes on air

2003

2007

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) is listed as an independent

company

2010

Distribution arm Zee Turner enters into a 50:50JV withStar Den Media Services to launch India’sfirst consolidated contentdistribution company MediaPro Enterprise

Four channels-Zee Khana Khazana, ZeeSalam, Ten Crick-et, Ten Action + –are launched. Online venture india.com islaunched.

2011

ST

EPBYSTEP...

Yesterday,Today &Tomorrow

■ Continued from Page 1

CVL Srinivas to join GroupM as South Asia CEO in 2013

CVL Srinivas will joinGroupM early in 2013to succeed VikramSakhuja as GroupMSouth Asia CEO withresponsibility for allGroupM operationsin India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka andBangladesh. Srinivaswill also join theGroupM Asia Pacificexecutivecommittee. Srinivaswill report to MarkPatterson AP CEO

GroupM.On the appointment, Mark Patterson commented:

“Srini was our first choice by some stretch for this role. In his previous roles in GroupM he excelled and he rejoinsus with more and different experiences under his beltwhich will serve our clients, our people and ourambitions well. We have a world class business in theSouth Asia region and Srini has the skills, personality,relationships and attitude to build the business onstrategy and with his own style and ideas too. He will add huge value in South Asia, to our business in the widerAP region and no doubt WW too. I am personally veryexcited and delighted to work with Srini closely onceagain as I am sure are many of his colleagues and friends in GroupM.”

Srinivas commented, “I am really looking forward totaking up this role and going back to an organisationwhere I learnt the ropes and built a business . Vikram andhis team have done a phenomenal job in growing thebusiness and diversifying the service offerings to date. Iam thrilled to be joining a talented team and workingwith such a portfolio of powerful media brands andfantastic clients. Mark has outlined a vision for thebusiness regionally and globally that I am excited and challenged about and one I look forward toparticipating in fully.”

Dish TV announces basic channel packagefree of cost in four metros

Direct-to-home (DTH)operator Dish TV hasannounced a gamechanging offer toviewers in the four

metros where compulsory cable digitisation comes intoeffect on October 31. Under the offer, customers will beeligible to receive a basic channel tier comprising of 70channels free of cost for life. Viewers availing this offerwill have to remain active by subscribing to a regularpackage at least twice during a year.

Speaking on the occasion, RC Venkateish, CEO, DishTV said, “This is a never before kind of unique facility forall those valued subscribers who will choose our servicesduring digitisation. This will translate into a hugecompetitive advantage for Dish TV as none of the othercompetitors both from cable as well as DTH offer thisfacility. Cable operators have already announced a Rs 100monthly charge for basic tier, which will be provided freeof cost by Dish TV”.

Debashis Paul joins Percept/H as chief operating officer

Percept/H has taken onboard Debashis Paul aschief operating officer.Paul, based in New Delhi,will have a national role atPercept/H and isresponsible for six officesincluding Delhi, Mumbai,Bengaluru, Chennai, Puneand Lucknow. Paul hadstarted his career withBates (then Clarion

Advertising Services) before moving to Lintas where heworked for six years, primarily on ITC and Philips, later hejoined Saatchi and Saatchi. His last employer wasMcCann Erickson where he spent 12 years. His lastposition there was executive vice president and head -McCann Social based in Delhi.

Commenting on his appointment said Prabhakar

Mundkur, CEO, Percept/H,” We are happy to welcomeDebashis at Percept family. He has worked in advertisingacross global brands and across wide range of categoriesfor 25 years . He would certainly be a huge asset to thesenior management team and our Company. We areimpressed with Paul’s team building skills and with himon board I am sure we can forge a new path ahead forPercept H.”

Salman Khan is back as Thums Up brand ambassador

Bollywood actor Salman Khan is back as brandambassador for Thums Up. Atul Singh, president andCEO, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, said,“Salman’s appeal cuts across age groups and socioeconomic strata, just like Thums Up. The brand’s corevalues of masculinity, adventure, thrill and excitementwill further be amplified by Salman’s association and willhelp us take the brand to the next level. We are excited bythe prospects that lie ahead for the brand and ourpartnership with Salman.” Coca-Cola India has alsosigned an agreement with Being Human—The SalmanKhan Foundation – to jointly promote, conceive andexecute charitable and social activities. Thums Up is oneof the country’s largest selling soft drink, with anenduring charisma, much like Salman Khan—the original thunder star.

Coke tops Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2012 list

ZeeTelefilmsLtd, the umbrella company, isde-merged.New companiesfloated.

2006

Brand consultancy Interbrand hasranked Coca-Cola as the world’sbest global brand for 2012,followed by Apple and IBM atsecond and third spotrespectively. Interbrand’s annualBest Global Brands reportanalyses the many ways a brandtouches and benefits anorganisation, from drivingbottom-line business results todelivering on customerexpectations. Technology brandscontinued their strong push ofrecent years, with four of the fivetop risers hailing from the sector –Apple, Amazon, Samsung, andOracle. In addition, five of thisyear’s Top 10 brands come fromwithin the technology sector –Apple, Google, Microsoft, Intel,and Samsung. Pampers at number34, Facebook at number 69, Pradaat number 84, Kia at number 87and Ralph Lauren atnumber 91,Mastercard at number 94 areamong the new entrants in this

year’s top 100 brands. “As global competition

increases and many competitiveadvantages, like technology,become more short-lived, abrand’s contribution toshareholder value will onlyincrease,” said Jez Frampton,Interbrand’s Global ChiefExecutive Officer. “The world’s100 most valuable brands areleading the way by listening toconsumers, employees, andinvestors alike and delivering a

seamless and holistic brandexperience across an ever-evolving range of touchpoints.”

Despite the current economiclandscape, all of the luxurybrands in this year’s reportincreased their brand value. The2012 Best Global Brand reportincludes seven luxury brands:Louis Vuitton (17), Gucci (38),Hermès (63), Cartier (68), Tiffany& Co. (70), Burberry (82), andPrada (84). The rise in the value ofseveral FMCG brands—Kellogg’s(29), L’Oréal (42), Heinz (46),Colgate (47), Danone (52), Nestlé(57), and Johnson & Johnson(79)—reflect successful growth,especially in the developingmarkets. Five of the 12 financialservices brands in this year’sreport increased in brand value,including American Express (24),Morgan Stanley (54), AXA (58),Allianz (62), and Visa (74) even asCredit Suisse (95) declined 5% inbrand value.

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