 With that note let's get into the next panel discussion very interesting one and let's quickly call the panelists and from there on actually first call the chairperson the moderator and she herself will take it into the panel discussion so please welcome CEO of the glitch that is Pooja Jauri our moderator and she will introduce the panelists and take it from here so over to you Pooja I hope you're doing great thank you Mithan I'm doing very well I'm going to get right into it because we're running against time so hello everybody I'm looking I'm looking forward having this discussion with all of you I am Pooja Jauri I'm CEO of the glitch we're a gender blind inclusive progressive high-performance workspace and welcome all of you to the pitch CMO summit okay today I'm going to get you know we've got a brilliant set of panelists some of who I'm big fans of and I'm going to start introducing them right away Bidisha who brings in over 25 years of cross-industry experience in marketing she joined Schneider Electric India CMO in 2016 and runs a marketing function for the company welcome Bidisha thank you thank you great to be here hi and hello Sameer heading marketing at PolicyBazaar.com Sameer has extensive experience in leading the brand and consumer marketing digital marketing media planning and investments market research and social media initiatives well done welcome Sameer moving on to Sandeep who's responsible for the development of global branding marketing communication initiatives at the Jaguar Group Sandeep has been a crucial player in establishing the Jaguar Group as a leading global brand in the complete bathing and lighting solution space I'm very excited to speak with you Sandeep moving on moving on to Supriti who is head marketing at Conjuma Healthcare and Lupin Limited he has more than two decades of experience in brand marketing of Conjuma Healthcare FMCG and food excited to have you on the panel as well thank you Pogha hi Gaurav leads the Times Network Revenue team and is responsible for driving monetization strategy and overall business growth for the network's bouquet of channels there's a great group of people and we're going to have an interesting discussion on building brands on English news now English news in India opens doors to very interesting cohort the genre has very often and I've been part of these meetings that touted to attracting etymized and influential millennial however it is a cluttered and noisy medium at least a few of them right so let's start with and I'm going to go one by one how important and relevant is English news as part of your media plan today so Bidisha may I start with you please sure can everybody hear me I'm just trying to am I audible yes well you know I think I think you know with the and when I talk about English news I'm talking about cross platforms right it's not just television or print or or the internet or you know consumption and mobile app platforms etc I think you can't you know I'd like to break this up into two bits right one is the news itself you know and and the penetration etc right I mean we are we are set to reaching about 1 billion internet users by 2025 and and and of course you know English news plays a very important role in reaching out to all those people the other important thing I believe for English news is you know when I look at the consumption of English news versus entertainment or sports I mean it has a it has a low shelf life you know if you don't consume news then and there then it becomes still news right so to that extent I think there's a huge opportunity to to leverage the nature of of of the you know of the content itself and and and that's why it becomes a very very important part of any media plan and here I'd say the other you know the other great thing is that today the way consumption of news has happened is completely democratized right I mean Twitter can be a medium for English news you know of course the inshoth and the mobile app and all that is there so we've seen a huge evolution in the way English news is consumed and that's that's my two cents on this thanks for that in fact I am going to cover the evolution of the news as we move forward in Disha I'm going to come back and you know pick and double click on that a little bit Sandeep may I move to you now I've seen you everywhere across a lot of the English news and I'm I you know what I can I'm making an assumption to say that it is an important medium for you and how do you how would you like to back up what Bidisha has just said you're taking from what Bidisha was saying see jack what is into bathroom and lighting and if you see this category if you see India is the only country where you do advertising and very B2C advertising you make TV season on a product like bathroom products world over there generally is more of a product film you talk to plumbers and all so largely the TV and that too English news was there to set the narrative you know in terms of the audience were you know who really were the early adopters but what unfortunately what has happened that today because not only the advertising on TV or for example gives you a higher recall for a category like bathroom where we don't have a tons of money to spend so it's you know it keeps you on the top of mind recall awareness and you're building a category which is very functional to an aspirational so you need a help of a TV which is the last screen yes digital as as Bidisha saying you don't have news from only the prism of a TV there are OTT there's a digital there's a social media news and actually the whole I think the construct of news has changed it has become more of a news analysis you know news today is available you know by the time you know any city get bombed or any news thing happens you know the people on social media tells you so you know we just only do a post-mortem on you know all these channels you know I've seen a lot of these OTT platform they're only pick up those relevant news only section which is available for you so as a brand we join we largely on TV and largely on news whether it's a social media from a two perspective one is a higher recall for the brand for a brand which is a niche category which has to be on the always on the top of the mind and you cannot afford to be on a GC or a large budget marketing activities second more more you be there on an audience which is the trend setters you know the narrative setters which is H&I is the who's and who's in the country and typically you see the English linked with that kind of a perspective right or wrong is a different subject but that's the reality of the matter so yes news is very very important English news is very very important but the dynamics are changing now yeah because you if you really see that as compared to Hindi news English news was even less than one person so it was never a rich business it was always an impact business so from the impact point of view yes we consider English is very very important for us as a category and news particularly and say thanks for that Samir in fact I'm going to come back to you as we get to the end of the session because I want to talk about really the advice this group will have for how English news is now evolving okay so I'm going to come back you keep your keep your points ready Samir I'm going to move to you and Gaurav I'm going to come to you absolutely last because I know you have a lot to say here so Samir over to you how important is this medium for you and what are the newer things you'd be able to add to this discussion so while the fellow panelists have already touched upon the premiumness of the audience and that could be one of the reasons why advertisers are attracted to the medium I would also like to draw the attention towards a slightly different reason why maybe advertisers like us would want to do it so to give you some perspective policy was our is a it's not a seasonal advertiser we are on television for 12 months a year and we are predominantly HSM driven in our media planning we don't do very regular regional advertising so what English news does is it democratizes the audience a bit it cuts across language boundaries also so which means that I do get a fair bit of exposure in the south of India as well while I'm not regularly doing regional campaigns in Tamil Nadu or Andhra for example that does mean that you know that audience has still reminded of me on and off even though I'm still not very heavily invested in terms of media in those markets so that is fun and in terms of what new maybe I would want to expect from the genre a couple of things really so I think the genre has done very well in terms of capitalizing on the prime time I don't need to say there much say much there but in terms of I think the weekend I think there is an opportunity to bring out a lot more feature driven shows during the day as well as during the evenings because I think maybe those time bands are slightly underutilized and if I may I think maybe it's time to look beyond debates for prime time oh I agree absolutely but thanks for that Sameer. Suprati over to you for you know from really from a large client who spends a lot in this medium across TV what are the points that you'd like to add here I think see if you look at the fundamental of our media plan and if you look at just like I think Sandeep and I may talk about this if you look at a fundamental from media plan in the sense of big frequency and the gospel contact the English news would not make sense in those numbers but you need to look beyond those numbers and if you start looking at beyond those numbers then you see some interesting factor see if you look at news as a genre and is if you look at the entire TV audience of the total population around 90 percent to make it down to news audience out of that 50 percent which is news but if you come to English news it is roughly five percent but interestingly when you see that 50 percent cut which is at a all news level the male skew is 55 percent and the female skew is roughly on 40 to 45 percent but when it comes down to English news that that skew is not there so it's as good as our male audience as good as a female audience so there is so actually if you look at a news as a medium you not only reach the premium order which is the instance a 180 you reach 40 plus but you also reach a better female audience which is an interesting thing to look at the second part is that if you look at the entire demographic the way it has been changed if there are reports like between 2005 2018 today the bottom of pyramid is not the biggest of the jump the middle of the pyramid is bigger than the bottom of the pyramid in 2005 the bottom of the pyramid was around 70 percent of the population today it has come down to roughly at a 40 percent and the middle of the pyramid is bigger than that 50 percent so a lot of English consumptions are happening as a as the language is getting better penetration in terms of the education the language is getting a better penetration in terms of the content consumption which Britishers are talking about so today English is not something that the consumers are afraid of 10 years back 20 years back there was something kind of a kind of phobia around the language but I think that phobia is not here it has well-managed at the last point I would like to make there's one more interesting thing and I think Samir is here and he would be cool but I'm saying that if you look at the Hindi advertisement and I was looking a little bit of mixed data before coming to this panel almost 40 percent of the advertisers are advertising in Hindi language in the English and that's a great insight to look at that's why they are doing that because even though like why would anybody who would be advertising an English channel would be advertising a Hindi communication or running a Hindi language communication but I think the insight lies in there that okay it makes you even though you are there as an English audience but still the strength of the language which is the Hindi or the regional language is still there so it's a kind of balance which creates so at the end of it I would like to conclude the micro sense is that okay it's a channel which creates certain interesting demographical parameters and if you are talking to a particular class of people and it should flow down from your brand strategy it's not that I would pick up a genre because it's doing well the entire genre selection would flow down from your brand strategy and if the brand strategy demands that genre then it's an interesting genre too of course yes thanks for that so far Gaurav we've spoken about evolution of English news we've spoken about how it's been segmented also how the importance of it a lack thereof and how and you know since we have you on this panel how is this medium evolving today and you know and things that you guys have planned that's going to make it that's going to make it an attractive medium for advertising continue to make it an attractive medium for advertisers yeah thank you puja firstly I must compliment you you have a news person on this panel and you have kept him quiet for 15 minutes so okay see as an evolution I would say that news has evolved definitely in the last say 15 years and you know I've been fortunate to be part of that evolution I remember when we had launched times now almost 15 years ago we went to the market saying that you know in India news is all about reporting facts and you know taking that forward but here we come forward with a new format of a channel that will not only bring the facts but we'll start moving from news to views we're the first channel to actually in India bring forward views as a big game changer and there are not many channels who are doing it one of the competitor channels you should do a weekend show with you know 20 people sitting in a in a room and discussing subjects but it was once in a week we said we want to change the narrative India can't work at that pace we want to discuss threadbare issues that matter to us then and there and that's where we launched times now being in the now zone we said we want action now we want to discuss it now we want to bring it forward now so that narrative changing actually started 15 years ago and today if you see what times now was doing 15 years ago almost every channel is doing that evening 8 to 11 is only debate but when this started it was a novel idea so that's where it started moving forward I mean the evolution is in the fact that news as a medium as a category is all about being in the now and you've developed the now in very many ways so today you have the you have the benefit of technology and use technology to make your now even more relevant I'll give you a small example maybe I'm sharing a bit of a trade secret but we partner with Twitter in a very very deep way this started many years ago so what we do is we actually through our we have a massive backend team right who picks up news and stories on a daily basis so we actually put those stories up on Twitter on a daily basis in the morning maybe half a dozen stories are put 10 stories are put up and then we start seeing how the stories are trending and you know what when you put the story of Mamta having an accident or whatever she was attacked you don't know what was the truth right so we start seeing whether that story trends or you know evening some player is dropped from a cricket match with that trend more so by the time you come to about 5 p.m we already know what the nation is thinking they can use that term right and when you go back home in the evening we pick up three out of those six seven subjects and we start doing debates on that so you know what you have already been part of the narrative because somewhere down in your canteen in your lunch you know or at coffee you have seen some you have posted something you have commented something and you actually helped us decide what story is of interest to you so if Mamta breaking a leg is more interesting than a cricketer drop from a team you know that comes up for debate in the evening so the evolution has changed in such a way that we are harnessing the strength of technology in the real time to bring forward news that you think is relevant for you and you know what you helped us decide that so to that action that evolution has already taken shape moving forward we see technology playing an even bigger role just not being part of the content creation machinery also like some of my fellow panelists mentioned as part of the content distribution machinery so that's really where the next level of realization is expected to come and getting more real time getting more involved in conversations for example on our news channels we have a very interesting service on some of the bigger issues we actually give a opportunity for a viewer to ask a question in live to an anchor or to a guest of course there is screening happening nobody should come forward and ask the stupid question but yes once you screen that it's the real time is in as as little as two minutes you can actually come on board and ask a question of an anchor or a guest so we are again trying our best to get closer to the consumer closer to the viewer and you know bringing that forward so those are some of the things that we are busy with thanks Gaurav thanks for that Pidisha I'm going to come to you you know when you spoke about evolution the last time you were talking about the importance of being on this media how really what is your if you had to give inputs to you know this this genre to make it extremely attractive for advertisers what are the kind of changes that you would like to see on this media or evolution that you'd like to see on this media you know again I'm I'm talking you know I represent a very strong B2B company the you know in the energy efficiency space etc so for us the digital platform is perhaps more relevant today for a B2B customer than a television platform I think I think you know what is what I'm seeing very interesting today is snapshot of news you know if you look at the consumption of news today perhaps people had more time in the past to you know enjoy the cup of tea pouring over a newspaper you know consuming content or in the evening the family gets together and watches the news on television etc now that continues but there is a layer on top and I think that's something that we constantly need to look at which is how are you slicing and dicing news by personas right I know of somebody who had very interestingly started a news platform a digital news platform for just the working woman you know keeping in mind that the working woman you know is always rushed so what is the five things that she needs to know to empower her for the day you know personalized news exactly you know I mean today we push I push my daughter to keep reading news you know and you know what is it how do you how do you slice and dice news by persona I mean to me that is something that I'm constantly looking at and that that probably is the next stage of evolution of the way news is going to move from where it is today to perhaps in the future I mean that's my point of view on this I like that Vidisha personalized news right I would like that as well to get snippets of what someone's learning or what I'm interested in and giving me that I think Google is doing that well you know on what comes in our homepage but yes it'd be interesting to see that from main news channels as well I think I just want to add one more thing you know credibility source credibility is very very important here right because today news is coming to you from every side I mean whether you're on your I for example consume Facebook as a newspaper I get my top news in the morning you know just just going through what's going on or from Twitter so since news is going you know coming to me from every every side I'd love a very credible source which I can build up credible which can build up credibility over over months which just speaks to me because the world is moving to personalization whether it's shopping whether it's entertainment whether it's what have you so why why shouldn't news be that's my point of view thank you for that Vidisha we're we're running out of time and I have so many questions for all of you so I'm going to move quickly now to Sameer Sameer the last time you made a point you know you did speak about evolution as well what are your inputs on how this medium should really grow to keep it more attractive I'm extremely sorry so see television is a mass marketing medium right so personalizing experiences of personalizing content consumption is very tricky on television particularly but borrowing a bit from what Vidisha also said digital news consumption is a is an opportunity where you could personalize news serving as well as consumption I'll give you an example that could really get me and a lot of other advertisers like it various you know digital platforms through various signals are able to identify which audience is intending to buy which category right what if I were to identify the intenders of my category and serve them news which would influence them to buy a certain category we're already doing it with advertising with banner ads and everything else on digital what if a simple news article is also served to a category in tender because those signals are already available those signals basis what has the person searched in the last few days what has a person consumed in terms of content over the last few days etc so I think those personalization opportunities are more relevant for the digital news space than the television news space so yeah I think that is something that could get me really kicked the more focus on digital more focus on personalization is what we have so far Sandeep how can you please add to this see as an advertiser I think you know is for me as I think one of my fellow panelists has said that I think the job is to reach out to your right audience in the you know in the most cost effective way so it's up see it's very difficult for me to talk on news as a whole you know because see eventually news that what we listen and what we see is the reflection of the society if people want the same Sushant Raj to debate for you know almost 24 hours into six months and same panelist you know you at the end of the day commerce takes over but see I think if I say news for me as an advertiser because you know as I'm also in a cusp of a category which is both B2B and B2C ideas to always top of the mind recall for the customers so whenever you are into that buying space you consider jack war as a brand so obviously depending on see we have artists which is luxury segment jack war is premium escrow for masses if for example if I say English news as a genre okay obviously I have to see in digital yes is a great recall but you can't build brand on digital I'm a slightly old school thought you know you have to build brand in the right context so if you have a 10 panelists you know trying to kill each other and you know there is a 10 minutes two minutes break and you want to have a respiration light doesn't cut across you know if that's that's the audience then you have to see whether your brand fits in there so I think more you have to really study rather saying you change the news change the format I think it's very important that you be contextual you have to be very clear that what kind of an audience coming in watching for example English for English news was largely an impact in India you have to build brand from the top and in that case you need an audience which for example today case in point the the original English audience is not more a fad now I'm sure in a coffee discussion you will never say in a cafe day I watch news I want English news you know you will be like a you like you know from a dinosaur age you know people really they may be watching but they will never commit that they watch news because news is not news is something which is not something which is very very important for them in the format which currently is there digital always a challenge even for the news for that matter all ott platforms that you know how I will fit in as a brand you know so you know in in terms of recall yes digital is a great medium I think the way the news is consumed on a on a daily basis whether it's facebook whether insta whether any twitter any any medium for that matter or the digital platforms a lot of tv's tv news channels I think what primarily is important that you have to really study the a particular news genre you know Hindi was Hindi news was always about volume and reach English news was never about that so if I'm on English hoping to build my brand in an aspirational way I have to talk to a really high-end segment of customers there maybe the some customers are there but the context is not there the kind of a conversations you know the kind of a topics are discussed the way your brand is inserted during the breaks you need to find much more innovative ways by which you know you know more contextual the challenge is there you take up a great topic and you run it three o'clock in Sunday who gonna watch that so there is a challenge between you know numbers you know the reach and the context so I think somewhere I think some of the channels I'm sure they have good content also I think we do have to really believe in that is not if the the whole challenge today is chasing the the value and volume together news should refrain from especially if I am going back to TV again and again a digital there is no debate a digital is something get consumed and you will have your brand inserted in a way but if I go a big box a standard TV advertising which is still the cheapest is still the cheapest still the biggest reach digital still doesn't give me that kind of a reach if if we if we can bring more contextual if we can bring more of a in a good environment the brand is getting inserted more innovative I still remember I think I think the Modi was supposed to make announcement on you know a particular date I think the second or third lockdown and something to do with made in India I could see around this phase there are 40 brands screaming vocal local you know now you know this is not the place to build brand you know that is richard is good for me holdings are good for me I think we have to go back to original you remember the the kinds of ad we remember of some of the classic ads they built from the TV I think TV somewhere I have to stop chasing the volume game I think the platforms are digital the OTT is where you can have numbers but when it comes to traditional advertising I think I think TV should chase more of a value than volume thanks a lot for that that was that was insightful and I'm sure a lot of you agree with his point of view we just have one more minute before we close in and move on. So let's take a quick closing statement from you before I you know try and wrap up with Gaurav. So what was the question just if you can repeat that what was the question initially you started asking. Question is on how would you like to see this medium evolve and just give me a quick POV on it that would be amazing. Okay so the POV is basically it's not my personal POV is as an advertiser so you're asking for advice how to make the channels better the English channels because you are saying that there are certain channels which allow a question back to Gaurav with the listen to the advice I think I have a contra view I think the news channels are now as entertaining as a GEC okay and as an advertiser it benefits me because if you look at the COVID period that as a genre I'm not talking English as a genre the genre had basically garnered the highest viewership growth we service any other genre okay it it randomly definitely helped but at the same time the numbers are in favor of the news genre because it is becoming more entertaining because it is more whatever way the entertainment comes at a cost of hero journalism the entertainment cost comes at the cost of distortion of the fact and all but as an advertiser that's okay as long as it gives me the rating it gives me the bang for the buck so that's my contra view thank you thank you so much Gaurav I'm really sorry I have to wrap up so quick note from you on the things that you guys are doing to make it more attractive well see as a as a channel as a network we believe that English news as a combination I'm saying English news it includes a times now a mirror now and and you know ET now we what we do best is we help set the narrative narrative of the nation narrative of the brands and we take it to consumers so they can buy into it once you buy into the narrative then you go with what the product or what maybe even the PM is offering right so narrative building is really the strength going forward so that is something that we are really heavily focused on also like you said we will also be using a lot of technology going forward to dissect maybe do region-wise etc to do some contextual you know news where relevant more on the digital format but TV will remain you know and I agree with what he said you know TV news is all about reality emotion drama entertainment and why not I mean that's what the consumer wants and he follows it he likes it I mean the news consumption today is probably five times more than what it was six years ago so people want it people catch it up so that we're giving them what they want of course there should be no distortion of facts but having said that we really are on the ball and we are continuously coming with newer formats for example when most people in India were talking about covid and what it is doing to them in life you are probably one of the few companies that came with a covid predictor which was predicting statewide the covid cases four weeks from today and we were giving those reports to the PMO's office as well as to the chief ministers so they can then plan whether our states are going into an emergency situation or not and we were almost 90 percent accurate on that so you know we are again using the power of news like like we talk about internally you know you it was like a CSR for us you know companies who donate money right we believe we have an excess of intellect so we donate our intellect in this format to the government and to the PMO so they can face this situation better so that's it from me thank you everybody for taking the time today and thanks so much for accommodating you know the rest of them because I know we don't want to make people wait so thank you so much everyone it was great chatting with all of you have a good evening thank you thank you poja thank you Sunday Sunday