IRS 2012 Q4: It’s bad news for Lokmat, Dinakaran & Daily Thanthi

Saturday,Mar 30, 2013 The entire industry is chanting one slogan ‘Regional is the new national’ but when it comes to IRS results, the picture is different. Six of 10 regional dailies have witnesses decline in readership in IRS 2012 Q4. Also, the four that have seen increase, have only seen marginal growth. Malayala Manorama retains top position, seeing increase of 8,000 AIR in the current quarter. In Q3 AIR of Malayala Manorama was 9,752,000, whereas in Q4 it is 9,760,000. Daily Thanthi, though it managed to retain the second spot in Q4, lost a huge number of readers – 83,000. In the previous quarter, Daily Thanthi has readership of 7,417,000, which came down to 7,334,000 in IRS Q4. Lokmat witnessed the steepest fall – losing 96,000 readers, but still managed to retain third position. The Marathi daily had also lost 98,000 in the previous quarter. The AIR of Lokmat in previous quarter was 7,409,000, which decreased to 7,313,000 in Q4. Mathrubhumi also lost 81,000 readers; its AIR decreased from 6,415,000 in Q3 to 6,334,000 in Q4. On the other hand, it’s a growth story for Eenadu; it has managed to add 15,000 readers, taking its AIR to 5,972,000 in Q4 from 5,957,000 in Q3. Ananda Bazar Patrika has lost 38,000 readers in this quarter, taking its AIR of 5,788,000 in Q3 to 5,750,000 in Q4. In the seventh spot, Sakshi has added a good number of readers in the current quarter. In the last quarter, it had added 37,000 readers, whereas in this quarter it has added 36,000 readers, increasing AIR from 5,343,000 in Q3 to 5,379,000 in Q4. In eight place, Gujarat Samachar has seen decline of 39,000 readers. In the previous quarter, AIR of Gujarat Samachar was 5,153,000, which has declined to 5,114,000 in the current quarter. Though Dinakaran is in ninth position, it has seen decline of 96,000 readers in the current quarter. The AIR was 4,912,000 in Q3, whereas the current AIR is 4,816,000 In last place, Daily Sakal has seen maximum growth in readership, gaining readership of 66,000. Sakal AIR has increased to 4,469,000 in Q4 from 4,403,000 in Q4.

IRS 2012 Q4: Nine out of 10 English magazines lose readership

Publisher worries continue as nine out of 10 English magazine’s Average Issue Readership (AIR) has declined this quarter. The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2012 Q3 data had registered seven English magazines losing readership. Though India Today is sitting at the top in the ranking, the magazine has lost 46,000 readers this quarter. The weekly magazine had recorded an AIR of 1,526,000 in Q3 and after losing readers in current quarter, the AIR of the magazine is 1,480,000. Monthly magazine General Knowledge Today is the second largest magazine to lose readers among the top ten. The monthly had recorded an AIR of 1,047,000 in Q3 but has lost 54,000 readers in this quarter, with AIR of 993,000 in IRS Q4 2012. In the third position, Reader's Digest registered the steepest decline in readership. It has lost 58,000 readers. The AIR of the monthly magazine was 1,016,000 in Q3 but is down to 958,000 in Q4. Competition Success Review lost 33,000 readers this quarter. The monthly had AIR of 703,000 in the previous quarter, whereas after witnessing a huge decline, the current AIR is 670,000 in Q4. Weekly magazine Outlook has lost 23,000 readers. The current AIR of the magazine is 451,000 in comparison of 474,000 in Q3. The only silver lining is for the English magazine industry, though very faint, is that Pratiyogita Darpan has gained 14,000 readers – the only English Magazine to gain readership. It has also climbed to number 6 position this quarter as against to number 8 position in Q3. Its AIR this quarter is 431,000. The Week has lost 10,000 readers in IRS 2012 Q4. It has also slipped down one position i.e. number seven. In the previous quarter, Stardust was at number seven but in IRS Q4, the film magazine lost 14,000 readers and slipped to number eight position. There is no change in the ranking in the last two positions. Business Today sits at number nine, after losing 3,000 readers and Wisdom at number 10, after losing 12,000 readers in the current quarter.

Havas Media bags Voltas account

Voltas has awarded its media planning and buying responsibilities to the newly rebranded Havas Media, following a multi-agency pitch that saw participation from GroupM, Madison, Aegis and IPG. Speaking on the appointment, Pradeep Bakshi, Chief Operating Officer – UBBG, Voltas said, “We are happy to announce that Havas Media has been appointed as our media agency for our room AC and other unitary products business. During the multi-agency pitch we were impressed by their capability to look beyond seasonality and traditional media. Their understanding of the category from a regional perspective was also very accurate. We look forward to working closely with them in our next phase of growth in the coming years.” “We are delighted to have Voltas as a part of our portfolio yet once again. It was a very tough but a well-organised pitch with practically all the leading agencies in the fray. I am delighted that we have been able to demonstrate our capabilities through our insights and category understanding. I believe our extremely focussed and well integrated effort made us win the business. While it is a great brand to be associated with, more importantly, they are a wonderful client to work with. This prestigious win is yet another very important milestone in Havas Media India’s ambitious growth plans,” said Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media, India and South Asia.

IAA vows to stop violence on women

International Advertising Association (IAA) has launched the IAA Gender Sensitisation Drive – the components of which seek to fundamentally change the deep rooted bias against women. “The initiative has an acronym ‘VOW’ standing for ‘Violence on Women’ which we seek to stop, consciously doing our bit and taking a vow to get rid off this scourge in our society,” Srinivasan K Swamy, President, IAA India Chapter. The initiative consists of two equally important segments” Gender sensitisation seminars for content creators The first part of the drive would be to hold a series of seminars across India to sensitise content writers in film and TV industry, story writers (in print media) and in advertising, to guard against typifying women and on other gender nuances, and create focussed awareness about the right way to project women across media. The seminars would be addressed by a galaxy of experts in the field and also leading lights of the communications industry. The first one is already scheduled in Mumbai on February 16. IAA is hoping to have the Union Minister of Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath to inaugurate it. Seminars are also being planned in Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Pune in the next few months. Pradeep Guha, IAA Regional Director (Asia Pacific) said, “This is yet another instance of the IAA taking the lead and showing how the power of communications could be used for a good cause. This would go a long way in sensitising people on a very important issue.” Multi-media advertising campaign against ‘eve teasing’ The second initiative is a national advertising campaign that will use the creative resources of the communications industry and the strength of media linkages to use creative communications to try and change behavioural patterns in a manner that would benefit women. Eve teasing has been identified as the critical issue that needs to be addressed. Swamy said, “Eve teasing is seen as the mother of most evils affecting women. Today’s eve teaser is tomorrow’s molester, and could be a future rapist. It is necessary to nip this in the bud itself. Research and experience of experts in the field like UNFPA and leading NGOs like Laadli have also suggested this subject as the critical one to address.” A national contest would be run inviting entries from creative people all over the country on how to tackle this issue through effective communication. The entries for this contest would be judged by the best creative minds in the communications industry and shortlist some good campaigns; and an elite jury consisting of leaders from a cross section of society and NGOs would then select the winning campaign. The IAA would fund the production of this winning entry and use its strong media linkages to run the campaign on all newspapers and TV channels across the country. Kaushik Roy, Chairman, IAA Public Service Committee said “You will realise that in a period of about three months we will have a concentrated burst of positive attention on the importance of women’s issues. We believe that such an initiative conducted by the entire communications industry lead by the IAA would have a very salutary effect on the burning issues confronting women today.”

Indian food explorer directed by Standard chartered bank case study

Indian food explorer directed by Standard chartered bank case study BACKGROUND Standard Chartered Bank wanted to promote their credit cards through social media, but they had a few concerns They had little or no presence on social media in the rest of the South East Asian region. There was also the possibility of a negative impact on the brand as seen in the case of other companies trying to sell their services through social media OBJECTIVE The challenge was to make the brand interesting and relevant to the user, while maintaining a connect with the product Food was found to be second only to shopping in terms of spends through credit cards. That justified choosing food as a category of interest to leverage the brand. Maintain a refreshing approach to social media in the category EXECUTION IFE, a community of food lovers, provided users with suggestions for food joints, delicacies, etc. based on their tastes and location. A wide variety of activities kept the users engaged. Most other brands had taken the approach of promoting their brands in a direct manner. With IFE, we created a clutter-breaking approach We created a community for food lovers, catering to their dining needs through various activities, like: Daily updates of food recipes, trivia etc. FOODIE FILES APP: It was a platform that took care of users’ dining needs. The app, Foodie’s Files, had a mascot, Foodie, who took care of the following: • Helped users choose places to eat, from our bank, based on their preferences. • Presented suitable deals. • Introduced features which make eating out simpler for users. Allowed users to not only review and rate a restaurant but also add it to their wish list. We organized the Foodie Awards, which were for the foodies and by the foodies. Restaurants across India competed against each other, in 4 interesting categories. The winners were selected by voters’ choice. RESULTS In a year, we’ve not only built the country’s largest community in the Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI) category With more than 6,00,000+ fans and a reach of 55,561,539. A community that’s constantly growing and has a significantly large base of active users at any given time. FACEBOOK INSIGHTS Weekly Total Reach: 300,000+ Daily Organic Reach: 60,000+ Adding 200+ fans on a daily basis FACEBOOK INSIGHTS 300+ page views on a daily basis As of July an average viral reach of 1 million

RSCI set to announce new research partner for IRS

The RSCI (Readership Studies Council of India), a joint body formed by the MRUC (Media Research Users Council) and the NRSC (National Readership Studies Council) tasked to bring out the new avatar of the IRS (Indian Readership Survey), is in the process of finalising its research partner for the IRS 2013-15.

RSCI is working with a deadline for the new avatar of the IRS to be in field, with a pilot, by October 2012. A full field is planned for January 2013, with first results to be available by mid-2013. The last report of the IRS, with 2012 fieldwork, will be released in the first quarter of 2013. The intention is to make this the last IRS in its current form.

There were six agencies pitching for the IRS. While RSCI has identified the agency it would like to award the project to, the discussion is still in the final stages.

Elaborating further on the attributes and the requisites that a research agency had to have to be assigned this project, Lynn de Souza, Chairperson, RSCI said, “The agencies were evaluated on the basis of their response to the RFP (request for proposal) by the Technical Committee, looking at three factors – comprehensiveness, capability and experience to meet the research requirements, and the extent to which they went beyond the brief.”

The RSCI also subsequently held chemistry meetings that were conducted by the Selection Committee, who sat through presentations in which agencies fielded their senior staff and global leadership.

The new avatar of the IRS is one of the most watched out projects for the Indian print industry, as it would bring the sharp edge of measurement for different kinds of print media vehicles thereby assisting the industry to grow. The RSCI technical committee will be working very closely with the research agency, after it is appointed to ensure that the gold standard product that the RSCI has set out to achieve by this exercise.

RSCI’s Technical Committee head, Paritosh Joshi explained that the very architecture of the study will undergo a change in the new IRS. He said, “The earlier format was on lines of an omnibus, where every aspect of the survey was caught in a single sweep. The new architecture changes that. It will include a core study and then multiple satellite studies depending on the requirement of the IRS.”

The core study will be the print readership, an equivalent of average issue readership. The satellite studies will be able to drill deeper and allow the industry access richer data. This architecture uses the well established processes of data fusion and ascription, which on a systematic basis, allows the research model to adapt to requirements. Joshi observed, “The current IRS has got bloated. The questionnaire duration is running into 90 minutes and more. And any researcher will tell you that a research interview should be restricted to 30-40 minutes to get the best from a respondent. In a sense, the current IRS is facing a non-sampling error.”

The RSCI had the challenge of addressing this error and reducing questionnaire duration. At the same time, it had to ensure that the robustness of the survey was maintained. A pilot study was hence critical to the introduction of the new model.

The agency will need a minimum of 90 days to deliver the pilot after it begins work on the project. The RSCI is hence working towards announcing its research partner in the early part of August 2012.