Week at a glance: Sports sponsorship; Minimalist’s disruption; Zee, HT, DC Corp results

How brands are upping the game for sports sponsorship in India
Sports sponsorship is on the rise in India. As revealed by the ESP Properties-SportzPower annual report, titled ‘Sporting Nation in the Making’, the Indian sports sponsorship industry grew by 14 per cent in 2017, surpassing the $1 billion mark for the first time. Media investments contributed to the largest portion of the pie (55 per cent of overall spends), followed by ground sponsorships. While media spends grew 16 per cent to Rs 4,065 crore, between IPL, ISL, Pro Kabaddi and Fifa Under-17 World Cup, on-ground sponsorship also witnessed a 15 per cent jump to Rs 1,337 crore. 

The Disrupters: The Minimalist’s forward march with empathy & simplicity at its core
Adgully’s latest feature offering – The Disrupters – this week turns the spotlight on new age creative, design and digital consultancy, The Minimalist. Armed with a passion for design and humour, the idea for The Minimalist germinated during an auto ride in Mumbai by its co-founders Sahil Vaidya and Chirag Gander. Starting life as a Facebook page, Vaidya and Gander set up The Minimalist as a consultancy in 2015. The agency today boasts of over 150 clients and 150,000 followers. The agency has worked with over 200 brands, including Coca Cola, ICICI Prudential, Airtel, Blue Star, Religare and many other corporates, SMEs and high growth start-ups. 

Zee Café’s BBC First S1 saw 600% growth in GTVTs, time spent doubled: Aparna Bhosle
Zee Café, the English general entertainment channel from ZEE, is back with the second edition of the BBC First content block, which commenced on July 16, 2018. In conversation with Adgully, Aparna Bhosle, Business Cluster Head – Premium channels, ZEEL, speaks at length about growing this block, the response received for the first season, growth of the English Entertainment genre in India as well as how Zee Café has been strategising to stay true to its promise of ‘All Eyes on New’. 

ZEEL Q1FY19 ad revenue up 18.6%; subscription revenue reaches Rs 5,186 mn
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has reported consolidated operating revenue for the first quarter of FY19 at Rs 17,720 million, recording a growth of 15.0 per cent on YoY basis. EBITDA for the quarter ended June 30, 2018 was Rs 5,657 million, translating into EBITDA margin of 31.9 per cent. Profit After Tax (PAT) for the quarter was Rs 3,264 million. 

Shrinking ad budgets hit HT Media in Q1 FY19, net profit dives 86%
HT Media has reported a steep drop of 86 per cent in its Q1 FY2019 Profit After Tax (PAT) at Rs 6 crore from Rs 42 crore recorded in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. Delayed advertising recovery on account of macro factors weighed on performance of the quarter. 

DB Corp Q1 FY19 revenues up 7% at Rs 6,392 mn; net profit up at Rs 976 mn
DB Corp Limited has reported 7 per cent growth in its total revenues at Rs 6,392 million in Q1 FY2019 from Rs 5,997 million in Q1 of the last fiscal. Circulation revenues in Q1 FY2019 increased 10.3 per cent YoY to Rs 1,345 million from Rs 1,220 million, primarily due to volume driven growth. Advertising revenues reported growth of 5 per cent YOY to Rs 4,549 million in the current period from Rs 4,334 million in Q1 of last fiscal. 

Nokia targets mobile first millennials with new digital campaign
HMD Global recently rolled out a digital campaign for the Indian market to support the launch of the new Nokia 6.1. The campaign, which commenced on July 6, 2018 with 2 digital films, features new brand ambassador Parineeti Chopra. The films, that have humour and a surprise element to them, show the Bollywood actress and her pals hanging out in the house doing everyday fun things, when their Nokia 6.1 comes handy, bringing a twist to their fun. 

Parle 20-20 busts orthodox thinking in new campaign; eyes No. 1 position by 2019
Parle Products looks to bring about a change in orthodox social values through a series of five TVCs that it has rolled out for its leading cookie brand, Parle 20-20. Conceptualised and crafted by Everest Brand Solutions, the campaign is an honest effort from Parle to showcase everyday situations that today’s youth encounter while dealing with redundant traditional norms. It metaphorically connects forward thinking values to 20-20 cookies by giving full marks, that is, 20 out of 20 to characters that behave positively to unconventional thought process. 

Cadbury Dairy Milk turns the spotlight on ‘Achhai’ in its 70th year in India
Celebrating its 70-year journey in India, Mondelez India Foods’s flagship brand Cadbury Dairy Milk now explores the theme of Achhai (goodness) in its latest campaign, building on its strong proposition of ‘Kuchh Meetha Ho Jaaye’. Conceptualised by Ogilvy India, the ‘Generosity’ campaign aims at celebrating the generous instinct in everyone and showcasing as to how such moments go on to strengthen human relationships. The TVC shines the spotlight on spontaneous little acts of kindness, celebrates them and the wonderful human connection that they result in. 

Hindi news channels seek revenue boost with B2B campaigns
In the last few years, the news genre in India has witnessed a flurry of activity driven by the launch of various channels across languages. Thanks to the country’s burgeoning middle-class, the news genre—especially Hindi news channels—has enjoyed a healthy spike in viewership as well as revenue. According to BARC’s Breaking the News Story report released this year, news contributes to 8 per cent of the total television viewership in the country, making it the third biggest genre in terms of viewership. Moreover, the genre has seen a 15 per cent increase in the number of channels to 163 channels in 2017 from 142 channels in 2016. 

The W Suite | Network18’s Sonia Kapoor on why being intuitive is good for business
AdGully’s ‘The W-Suite’ series features Sonia Kapoor, Group Revenue Head, Network18 - Special Projects. Kapoor has a rich experience of over 17 years in sales and strategy, having associated with benchmark brands in India, a key emerging market with a challenging competitive environment. She has always thrived on challenges of over-achieving in niche markets. Kapoor is known for her strong leadership skills and excellence in training and mentoring diehard teams, deriving high commitment levels from them. 

Offbeat: Manas Gulati on why he wants to be a Chief Happiness Officer
Adgully’s special feature section – ‘Offbeat’ – seeks to give a peek into the lesser known facets of our very well-known industry leaders. Manas Gulati, Co-Founder & CEO, #ARM Worldwide, is considered a thorough-bred digital marketing professional. With a career spanning advertising and marketing, Gulati is skilled in Digital Strategy, Mobile Advertising, Advertising, Entrepreneurship, and Media Buying. 

Ad land’s Young Guns: Saipriya Iyer, GroupM - M/Six
An inherent zeal and unquenchable passion to create a difference, quantifies Saipriya Iyer, Manager - Digital, GroupM (M/Six). Working in the digital space since 2010, Iyer has varied experience in both agency and the client side as a media planning and buying professional. With over 8 years of hands on experience in the digital arena on planning and account management, Iyer has been an integral part of number of award winning campaigns. 

BARC Wk 28: Hindi GECs see decline in viewership during FIFA play
BARC ratings for Week 28 (July 7-13) [HSM (U+R): NCCS All : 2+ Individuals] saw most of the top 10 Hindi GECs witnessing decline in their gross viewership, not surprising as the week saw the Quarter Final and Semi Final playouts at the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018. Star Bharat saw gains this week as it moved past Colors to be placed at No. 4. 

BARC India plans to grow rural sample size by 153% by end of FY19
Recently, Partho Dasgupta, CEO, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) spoke to PTI revealing ambitious plans to increase the sample size for TV viewership in rural markets by the end of FY2019. Dasgupta told PTI that the percentage of metered homes in the rural television market will grow from 33 per cent to 38 per cent, with the number of metered homes increasing to 44,000 from 33,000. 

13 industry stalwarts to crack the D-Code at Ad Club’s India Digital Review
Addressing the drivers of the tectonically shifting brand ecosystem, The Advertising Club has announced the debut edition of its India Digital Review – D-CODE. The Review will be held on August 1, 2018, in Mumbai. The Review will see 13 industry champions do a show and speak for 10 minutes each about: 1) One piece of work that they are proud of; 2) One piece of work another brand has done that inspires them; and 3) Three pieces of advice for marketers for winning in digital.