 Good morning, I think after two wonderful sessions, Navikas and Mr. Pachauri's, we're getting the first session with the first panel with predominantly a marketing group. Just to give you a quick outline of what we're hoping to do in the next 30 minutes, I think Mr. Pachauri made the point about the proliferation of news media, right? So 400 television, news television channels, you know, more than 800 newspapers. The fact that the viability of these channels and newspapers is always going to be an issue. What we are looking at is from the advertiser's perspective. Today if you look at, you know, the point made about the times of India physically copying 20 rupees, you know, I met Mr. Adjain who's the MD and he told me it's actually 40 rupees including the cost of journalists and the administration. The difference why we pay two rupees for the paper and they still make a huge profit, Bennett Coleman is usually profitable, is the fact that advertising subsidizes the cost of news. What this panel is going to do is really address the point of what will, how will marketers and businesses use news effectively and better, without compromising on the editorial integrity of news. And what are the examples of some advertisers who've done some exceptional work? I have a very distinguished panel out here, to my immediate left is Amit Tiwari. Amit spent 20 years in marketing, he recently got himself a PhD. But he's a reputed marketer with some top-rate companies. He was most recently head of marketing for Philips. He currently is the VP of marketing for Havels. Just as an indication, they spend upwards of 400 crores a year of advertising. And they take the news media very seriously. So Amit's a thought leader and someone who can give us a great perspective of a marketer using news channels. Then we have Satyajit Sen, who's a senior director of marketing, handling the media of Samsung. Samsung, as you know, is one of the largest media buyers, advertisers in the country, and a significant player. They were also, in a sense, a pioneer. They did deep integration of Samsung mobile phones with NDTV. You've seen that. So Satyajit will briefly talk about that and, you know, how you can make your advertising revenue go further on news channels. And the far left, we have Ashish Segel. Ashish is the chief growth officer of Z, the Z Group. Advertising revenue is his responsibility. So he brings in the revenue on which the channel runs. He's a veteran in the business, having started off with Radio Mirchi in the 90s. Been with Z now for over 16 years. Prior to that, he was with the Star Network. So he knows the business of gaining, you know, how to grow the advertising pie. I'll just take a couple of minutes to set the context before we kick off. So, you know, I've just got a couple of slides if we're going to get the slides working. Yeah. So I think what we're going to talk about right now is the whole issue of the opportunities for brands. Yeah. So like our topic is how marketers can use news media effectively. And I'm just going to set the context in terms of what we're going to cover. I think, firstly, we're going to look at what are the opportunities for brands in the news medium. I think right now the most simplistic and basic is buying commercial time, which is the ad spots and sponsored programs, which is very obvious. The second is product placement, right? And there have been some interesting cases of brands that have done excellent product placement. The third is branded properties, right? So people actually, you know, doing specific events with certain news programs and creating branded properties. And the last is partnerships and alliances, right? It's like the Samsung one I mentioned. Now, before we get there, I think it's important to understand that news as a medium in terms of absolute TRPs is not very significant, right? Most big advertisers will spend the bulk of their money on what is called GEC, general entertainment channels, right? So the colors, the Star Wars, they are the ones where the big advertising bucks go. The challenge for news owners, news channel owners, is how do you use the relevance of news? Because news is a very relevant medium. It may not have the mass viewership of the general entertainment channels, but the engagement of the audience levels tends to be much higher, right? So in absolute TRP terms, there's never a strong case for news. But in terms of engagement, relevance, and quality of audience, news is a very significant medium. When we talk of product placements, I've just pulled a couple of examples so we all get the context. It's important for the product to appear in the news format as a credible, relevant, aesthetic, and non-destructing, right? So you can't suddenly have things which have no context, right? So maybe branding a laptop, branding a coffee mug is discreet. It's OK. But you can't have something that's completely not so credible. So a couple of good examples. I think this is something interesting that a company I was involved with, which was HP, right? So most anchors have a laptop in front of them. Having a discreet branding of a laptop is something that will kind of get attention in a very subtle way without taking away from the credibility of the newscaster. Another great example. This is something that Acer did with NDTV. So interesting. It's just subtly tucked in, but a good example. Just something that Indian channels don't do as frequently, but this is from CNBC globally. And this is a nice little plug-in for Starbucks, right? So anchors grabbing their little coffee on the move. Visual that most of you see in American Idol, you can't but notice the coax on the table of the four judges, right? So interesting product placements. Again, something done here, and the jury is out on this, but it's a small acknowledgement to Zara because they provided the outfit for the person holding the show. So interesting cases. The second thing that a lot of brands like to do is really branded properties, right? And here again, it's important to be relevant. It's important to reinforce the brand promise, the deep integration, and ride on the channel's credibility. When you do something with a mainstream channel, you're building off the credibility of the brand. I've, again, pulled random examples off from what you heard. So Dettol is a brand that speaks for sanity, for sanitization, for cleanliness. So with NDTV did the Banega Swatch India campaign. It's interesting. It leverages the channel. It leverages some of the celebrities who come for a social cause. Dettol gets a share of branding. Quite a hugely successful one. Another interesting one was Toyota, which was trying to promote clean and green energy, which did the greener thong with NDTV. Again, a huge amount of awareness and credibility. Okay, so that's really the context. I'm getting down to the panel. There's Amit, Satyajit, Ashish, and myself, very briefly. I'd just like to kick it off, trying to get Amit's perspective. And Amit, you guys are big advertisers, spend more than 400 crores a year. What's your take and perspective in terms of news as a medium, and how does Havel and the brands you've been associated with in the past have used news media effectively? So, thank you so much, Lloyd. Good afternoon, everyone. I think news is one of the biggest and prominent mediums, or the section of the mediums that we actually use, because if I actually do a basic cut from my particular audiences, my 90% audiences are male audiences, and news becomes extremely important, whether it's English news, Hindi news, and that's how it is. If you look from a brand perspective, any brand today in India globally really want to be on a platform, which we actually term, you have most heard in digital platform, which is CTR, which is credible, trust, and reliable in response that we actually, from a news perspective, it has to be reliable. From a brand perspective, you have to get response from the advertising that you're actually trying to do. So it's very important that actually associate with those medium today, and the news become extremely, extremely important in the days that we actually look for, because we also, today we are actually present in more than 250 cities across India. So whether it is regional news, national news, any news in format of different vernacular makes a huge sense in that we actually look for, that's what I would say. Thanks, Amit. I'll just take it across to Ashish on the far end, and Ashish represents the channel business. And Ashish, I think you wanna briefly tell this audience, how does news help a brand? In what way can advertising on news help the brand in terms of editorial environment or give it more credibility? Okay, thank you, Lloyd, and good afternoon everyone once again. So you touched a lot of points on how the marketers have been using news till now, or in fact, as a matter of fact, most of the mediums, right? What you showed is mostly true for any other medium as well, for whether it's an entertainment channel, et cetera. However, now I'd like to bring back to the entire question back to the center point, which is the consumer. How consumer, and for any marketer, consumer is the prime, right? He's also, we are all chasing that consumer. And if we exactly understand the consumer mindset, I think we will be able to use all the mediums relevantly. As far as news genre is concerned, we need to understand what's the mindset of the consumer when he's consuming news as a medium. He's looking at credibility. He's looking at understanding information. He's looking for what you call understanding his social responsibilities or democratic rights and various forms of world news or world information, what's happening around me. So his mindset is very engaging, as you rightly said in the very beginning. So when he's engaging, whatever he's consuming on this medium, he's also able to consume the other messages which is coming to him. Hence, very important thing for any marketer is to present his message in a very credible form. One. Secondly, the consumer who's available on the news are mostly opinion makers. Our decision makers are social influencers. Hence, while the overall impressions of the audience, what you speak about, that they are very less vis-a-vis an entertainment or any other genre, the people who are watching news channels are the one who then decides how others are going to imitate and, you know, that push your brands or products, sales, et cetera, because these are the decision makers. These are the opinion makers. These are the influencers. So they actually impress upon the others to also imitate the same thing. So hence, it propels your brand message as well as your product sales. So one of the few points. Okay, so I think Ashish has made the key point about the credibility of the news factor. Though I think what we'll discuss subsequently is a little bit of the fact that news barring for the 9 o'clock prime time slot is not really a point in viewing. A lot of it is, you know, small snacks. Today, a lot of us get our news out of Twitter, out of various digital feeds. So when it comes to television channels, it is, you know, people watching small bits of it. But at least come back to that issue. I'll just move it right now to Satyajit from Samsung. And Satyajit buys all the media from Samsung as one of India's largest advertisers. And I like his perspective on how does a large advertiser look at news as a medium? And subsequently, I'll also have, you know, Satyajit has got a small, you know, 42nd video on Samsung's integration identity. We'll talk about that in the second part. But if you can give us a perspective of how significantly is news in the Samsung media plan. You know, so Samsung uses news agnostically. It is not really television alone. So it is also on the digital platform. There are large, you know, brands like The Times of India and the, you know, NDTV and the first post where there is lot of news consumption and Twitter when news consumption is happening. So therefore, you know, from a, because we are male centered as a brand. So therefore, you know, news is a very important part of the conversation like what Amit also said. And it is therefore a platform agnostic. And interestingly, there is also one more perspective of news which comes in. And this comes in from our digital platform because today you have apps like a Daily Hunt and all who are kind of, you know, congregators of news platforms. But interestingly, they also do just not news but bring in a lot of influencers as part of their, you know, orbit. And this is just not a Daily Hunt or an NDTV or a Times of India. All of them have that as a proposition. I work, you know, largely in a category which is mobile phones and durables and all of that and increasingly influencers or reviews and, you know, recommendations are part of the decision-making mix. And news channels provide a huge opportunity in that space. So whether it's a Rajiv Makni or whether it is somebody from South, news channels therefore, and news platforms therefore, whether it's in print or television or digital have brought in these influencers and kind of created these influencers across geographies, across languages. So therefore, it is just not news in the way traditionally we understand news. It's also news really making it real in the buying decision process of the consumer. So we find, you know, news in a very interesting mix. So while you have news, the way we understand credible, editorial, all of that in the top of the funnel, you have recommendations, et cetera, coming in at the, you know, bottom of the funnel. So it's an interesting journey across the entire funnel which the news platforms today provide. And that I think is an interesting opportunity. Yeah, I think a great perspective there. Before I'll ask Satyajit about his, you know, the innovation they did with NDTV, I could just ask for the producers to just play this one minute video that Satyajit has got for us on the NDTV integration with Samsung for mobile phones, please. We need the video played, please. NDTV Network, a leading English premium news channel. We brought a paradigm shift in journalism. In a first of its kind initiative, NDTV Network replaced its bulky cameras with Samsung smartphones, using its cutting edge 4K camera technology that matched broadcast experience. We disrupted industry norms and became the breaking news. We're replacing this, our broadcast television camera. Look at that size, with this, a mobile phone. Samsung cameras, we're reporting from everywhere. We partnered up with Samsung to promote stories and our shows in 4K. Multiple creative renditions, amplified communication and ensure the only presence. Proud to own score triple, Samsung the most desired brand. Market share have increased two times. So Satyajit, briefly, can you tell us a little bit about how you got about this and have you all done this with other networks as well? No, this was really done only with NDTV. In this spirit of deep integration, for simple reason, for other news networks, replacing television cameras and crew into a mobile only, I think it's a fundamental business operational decision. NDTV took that decision. Probably they had, you know, and there are operational challenges. There are technology challenges. So what we thought this was really a sweet marriage made, so to speak, in the ether because NDTV was willing to move from a camera-based reporting to a mobile-based reporting. For Samsung, you know, for the phones, the camera is essential. In fact, you know, till date, if you look at the Google query volume, camera still stays as the most dominant query volume as far as phone buying and critical decision-making is concerned. So phone camera and NDTV's transition from a traditional camera to a mobile-based camera, I think it was just a perfect opportunity for us. So therefore, it was our hardware speaking to a business requirement of NDTV, bringing the truth. I think this was really how it was. With other networks, you know, Lloyd, the reality is this was not really advertising the way we generally see advertising. So this was a deep product integration for other networks. If they don't really need that transition, there is a cost of doing that transition. There is a technology cost of doing that transition. So if they don't need it, it's a business decision for other channels, actually. Thanks, Satyajit. So I think, you know, a great point. It's really the deep integration. It works both. It works for the channel. It works, obviously, for Samsung mobiles. And I think it also plays off the credibility of a very large news network. So it's a great pointer for, you know, the other, you know, say, channel revenue officers out here. Amit, I just want to get your thoughts on what do you think the news media ecosystem needs to do to attract advertisers. We understand the fact that the economics of news media right now is dependent very heavily on advertisers. But what is it that it'll make it more attractive to advertisers? At the same time, what are the watch-outs for advertisers so that they don't infringe on, you know, make news media less credible? You've got to add on to the credibility. So what is your wish list? So, Lloyd, the biggest thing, let's invest some 30 seconds on what exactly the scenario today, and when actually news channel approaches us, and I'll tell you, we are the largest spender of news channel in India across. Anybody and everybody only starts selling the concept of prime time, eight o'clock, nine o'clock, seven o'clock in the morning, and you'll start selling the biggest property, whether it's elections, whether it is budget, whether it is any special show. I think we really need to get out of that because that has been there, done there in the entire ecosystem. The bigger challenge is nobody knows what exactly is the requirement of the brand today. So any news channel needs to do a basic homework when you're actually approaching a deal worth 25 crores, 30 crores, what exactly you're actually trying to offer, apart from the regular FCT and some sponsorship of presenting or co-presenting that you're actually trying to provide. The third thing which is most important because as Satya rightly said, only one channel, if there are 400 news channel, one channel can take that call and say, boss, this is what we really need to do. I think there is a bigger scope for every category to look for. We handle 31 categories. If we do five integrations in a year, I think our job has been done in the entire sphere that we look for. Last but most important, and I think most of the people will not like it, get out of this habit of breaking news. Every right, every point of time, then you open a new TV channel, you'll find a breaking news. 12 o'clock, a news can't be a breaking news. And then you say, boss, we have a stroller which is going around with, there's a contest which is going on. Please clean the format. Without cleaning the format, I think it is actually making advertiser move up. And Ashish made a very relevant point today. I asked my 16-year-old, where do you actually, in the morning I was just having a chat with him, where do you actually consume the news? I told him, you don't read newspapers. Well, no, I read newspapers, but it's on the app. I actually go to different formats to see the ad, but not on the TV. So, irrespective of TV not having, I think in the previous discussion and the presentation was happening, somebody raised a point that, what will happen to traditional media, how to use, nothing is going. Today, digital is complimenting the main medium and that will happen because nothing is moving out of. Last two decades back, when I started in the industry, everybody said print will die. Is print actually died today? So, the idea is you really need to compliment, the mediums are complimenting each other. So, these are my takes that I think is, has to be, if you're able to do a homework one, I think the job for news channel is much, much, much easier in future. It's great, Amit. So, I think what I heard Amit say and which is very relevant, I think one is the fact that, one has to look at news media beyond television, right? The reality is today about 95% of the revenues of news media comes out of the television channel, but increasingly you're gonna have a generation that's gonna consume news on the go through their mobile phones, through digital apps. So, I think looking at how to monetize that is gonna be critical. I think the second very relevant point Amit made is really about the fact that the clutter on news channel screens. I mean, it is an irritant. It is an irritant for viewers. I'm sure advertisers also recognize that, you know, you're having three multiple scrollers, you know, slugs on the top left, top right, tends to overkill, that's when, so rather have one clean integration than multiple integrations. I'll take that to Ashish and Ashish, what do you think news channels can do to make it more relevant for advertisers and how do we kind of broaden the revenue pie? What are the interesting, say, integrations? What are the new steps you can take to make advertisers come back news and accept it in a much better way? Thank you for giving an opportunity to kind of pitch right here to two of the biggest advertisers sitting with the news genre. Okay, so firstly, let me tell you, we as all broadcasters today of news channels do not see them just purely as channels, okay? Most of us are news content creators and we are delivering news now on almost every possible platforms which a consumer is wanting to watch. Hence, just saying that I'm just a channel is not the right thing. My news is today consumed on OTT, my news is today consumed on various apps, various, you know, telecom platforms, et cetera, so we are streaming there, as well as on a video on demand, kind of a, you know, distinct news we are giving today. I will touch and also on social media. Okay, so I'll touch upon a couple of things, first on the medium itself and then I'll come to the, you know what, how advertisers can use it. Today, Satya just said that, you know, he's looking at news as a platform agnostic. That's a fantastic news for us as well because the way we are building content, we are looking at first to go on television for appointment viewing and the same content is then traveling across various other mediums, whether it is OTT or whether it is digital formats of websites, et cetera, or even going on to social media. Now, social media is another very relevant, you know, news consuming platform. How we as content creator and along with brands can, you know, utilize that in a very smart way. You see anything on social media which is not with any news anchor or news, you know, channels, logo, doesn't bring in credibility. We know we're talking a lot about fake news, fake news on the social media, et cetera, or on YouTube, et cetera. But if you align with a broadcaster, a content producer, you know, let's say whether it is Zee or NDTV or, you know, Times or anybody, they bring in certain credibility along with that. If that content is, you know, there is a certain deep integration where you showed some examples also, those integrations are done and then, you know, broadcast across all platforms, A, it will bring in the brand safety for the brand advertiser, okay? Because then you know for this is going through Times or through Zee or through any other medium who's credible is actually bringing the right news, hence the brand message along with that will always be credible. So I come back to my point originally where I said, you know, your message which also, because today, you know, consumer is looking even at a brand or a product, whether his message is credible or not. Hence this environment is very good for you to give a very credible message from an advertiser point of view. So this is how you utilize the platforms. Now coming to other ways of, you know, utilizing news other than deep marketing, deep integrations and he also touched upon a situation called influencer marketing. That is becoming a norm today. You know, most of the news channels are bringing in very subtle influencer marketing for advertisers because again, it comes back to the credibility thing. You know, any anchor, anybody who is delivering news also talks about the brand news. You know, he brings in credibility. Hence when Rajiv Makhni speaks something about Samsung, people believe in it. You know, otherwise he keep on shouting on 20,000 channels and consumer may not believe what he's saying. So thirdly, what today advertisers should also look for beyond all these ways of advertising is one purpose marketing and second social marketing. These are the two major, you know, components of marketing and third is obviously even corporate marketing. You know, beyond what marketeers or even chief marketing officers keep on thinking just about the brand which are the categories of the brand they're looking at. The overall arching, overall arching, you know, credibility of the organization and how it impacts your brands then down the line can be influenced through news mediums. So these are the three, I would say, pillars which not many marketeers are touching today. And that's the future for, you know, social marketing, purpose marketing and corporate messages as well. Thanks, Ashish, great. I'll just take that to Satya and Satya, do you see news media in general, not just channels but looking at the other, you know, the online sites? Do you think they're doing enough to kind of get advertisers' attention and are they taking the pitch beyond just TRPs, right? So when you're talking of just TRPs and leadership, that may be limiting, but the moment you talk about innovations and doing things in a slightly more integrated manner, playing off the credibility of the anchors, are you seeing enough of that? Lloyd, so I don't see, you know, influencer marketing still becoming a part of the conversation. It's something sometimes the advertiser pushes and probably it's still a bit more limited conversation. And maybe with a few advertising, you know, content partners like Ashish and all, yes, the conversations happen. I also think there is an additional micro opportunity which news content providers can do. You know, what happens is we do all these, you know, sitting out of HOs, we obviously have a national purview of things and we also as human beings have a very metro, you know, view of the market and that's how we human beings are conditioned. Down in Salem, you know, Z will have Z, Tamil, news, et cetera. The power of media is also in the power of the localization. You know, when you come on a channel and even if it is for those 100,000 people in that town, you are the hero because the credibility therefore puts you on a pedestal, however small it is. And therefore, given the power of technology today, given the power that there is news in a variety of languages available, I think there is an opportunity to create micro news, micro platforms and glorifications and brand amplifications, which I think is still under leveraged. So there I think is a, you know, power of doing, because we are all saying power of the vernacular, we are all saying power of the next billion, we are, if we are saying all of that, how do you bring that to life? And there is an opportunity in my head that's still under leveraged.