MUMBAI | WEDNESDAY, 22 MAY 2019 Brands take...
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BRAND WORLD 11 > MUMBAI | WEDNESDAY, 22 MAY 2019 URVI MALVANIA & T E NARASIMHAN Mumbai/Chennai, 21 May V irat Kohli is every- where, not just getting his gear on for the upcoming month-and-a-half long ICC World Cup that is barely ten days away, but also on every screen; plying friend- ly taxi rides, shoes and sports- wear, he is asking viewers to cheer the team on as they bat- tle for the Cup. Even as Kohli whips up the loudest buzz, his team mates MS Dhoni, Rishab Pant and former players are all adding to the noise made by brands cracking their bat at the biggest game of them all. No surprise this, for as the recent report by ESP Properties showed, in India, cricket beats all other sports hollow when it comes to spon- sorships and the World Cup is an opportunity no brand wants to miss. Cricket, which had accounted for 63 per cent of team sponsorship amounts in 2017, rose to 68 per cent in contribution in 2018, the report said. The big catch for most brands is the young male con- sumer. Be it automobile brand Nissan, or sports apparel and footwear brand Puma, or Britannia, the target is the same. But for others, such as Uber, the association presents a different opportu- nity. It helps seal its associa- tion with the country and establish itself as a global brand committed to local val- ues. Manisha Lath Gupta, head of marketing, Uber India & South Asia said with an esti- mated global viewing audi- ence of 1.5 billion, the World Cup is one of the most watched sporting events. Uber said that this is its biggest branding activity in the country. And as part of its initiatives for the tourna- ment, it has created an ICC World Cup 2019 anthem, applying a common market- ing practice for football leagues to the game of crick- et. Apart from the campaign, Uber also has a contest where users score runs for every ride on the cab-hailing app and their food-ordering platform Uber Eats. The points can be added up to win prizes, including a trip to England for a World Cup match. It is also running contest for its driver partners and food delivery agents. “That's how we are bringing the delivery community together. In some ways we are bringing the backseat and front seat in the car together, building a bigger human connect," said Gupta. The campaign is helmed by Kohli who is also Uber’s brand ambassador. Kohli is driving Puma’s campaign for the World Cup too. The brand will launch a new limited collector's edition product for Kohli, a new set of cricket merchandise under the Puma and Kohli's One8 umbrella and there will also be a song-and-dance routine. Puma has signed on rapper Divine who will create a spe- cial music video with Kohli that will be unveiled on May 30, the day of the first match of the tournament. Nissan is pushing its latest SUV model Kicks through the World Cup. Car owners get a shot at winning an all-expens- es-paid trip for big matches. The company is also flying top 25 Nissan dealer partners with their families for the game. Sriram Padmanabhan, vice president, marketing, Nissan India said, “Since the Indian audience has a high affinity towards the sport, the association helps us build a strong connect with our target audience.” Nissan has benefited from its association with cricket. Padmanabhan added that the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy was a huge success with over 40 million viewers in Nissan TG and more than 400 mil- lion reach across social media. Along with on-ground activities Nissan is betting big on digital this season. “Our content partner Hotstar will be the key property to garner eyeballs. We are going all out with large scale influencer marketing and engaging con- tent for the duration of the World Cup,” he said. Britannia is bringing back a 20-year-old campaign, Britannia khao World Cup jao (Bite into Britannia for a trip to the World Cup), spending around ~80 crore for what it calls one of its biggest cam- paigns ever for its mother brand. " Our association with cricket is very old and strong. We want to reignite that," Ali Harris Shere, VP-marketing, Britannia Industries had said in an earlier interview to Business Standard. Brands take guard on the World Cup pitch Uber, Puma, Nissan, Britannia have already lined up for the upcoming parade of cricketing nations, looking to align with the game and its legion of fans Virat Kohli is the face of many brand campaigns in the run-up to the World Cup, as he is for the ongoing Uber multi-country campaign (above) A board member expressed displeasure on the definition of default. However, the central bank maintained it was not willing to change the definition, which will con- tinue to be as it is — from day one of fail- ure to repay the loan. “This provision on default may remain intact in the new circular,” said the source. The original “resolution of stressed assets” framework created a huge rift between the government and the RBI, and perhaps led to the exit of Urjit Patel as gov- ernor. The framework had said accounts in default of ~2,000 crore and above could be taken for a resolution process and if that did not fructify, the banks could then send the companies for insolvency pro- ceedings. Importantly, even a day’s delay in servicing loans was termed default. The Supreme Court in early April ruled that for each account the RBI would have to take permission from the Centre before allowing banks to invoke insolvency rules. The circular fell through on technical grounds and the RBI had to go back to the drawing-board for a revised one. The board discussed “the medium term strategy document, covering, inter alia, the mission statement and the vision statement”, the RBI said in a release on its website. Sources say the Vision 2022 plan, called Utkarsh 2022, which would start on July 1, focuses on six areas including financial inclusion, financial stability and sustainable growth. The broad contours of the vision were discussed at the board meeting and the draft policy would be presented at the next board meeting, said sources. The board discussed creating a spe- cialised supervisory and regulatory cadre within the RBI to strengthen the supervi- sion and regulation of commercial banks, urban cooperative banks, and NBFCs. The 576th board meet was attended by Deputy Governors N S Vishwanathan, Viral Acharya and B P Kanungo and other senior officials of the RBI. Other directors of the central board present were Bharat Doshi, Sudhir Mankad, Manish Sabharwal, Satish Marathe, Swaminathan Gurumurthy, Revathy Iyer and Sachin Chaturvedi. Subhash Chandra Garg, finance sec- retary and economic affairs secretary, and Rajiv Kumar, secretary, Department of Financial Services, were present as gov- ernment directors. > FROM PAGE 1 SOLUTION TO #2748 > BS SUDOKU # 2749 Hard «««« Solution tomorrow HOW TO PLAY Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9 RBI rules out credit line... Mobile user base dips 22 million... The March numbers, however, reflect a different trend — that of cleaning up low-paying subscriber bases to improve the average revenue per user (ARPU), a strategy adopted by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea since the third quarter of FY19. “Both the companies want to focus on the paying subscriber base. They are cleaning up their subscriber bases to improve ARPU and improve their Ebitda margins,” said a Mumbai-based analyst. Morgan Stanley analysts noted in a recent report that Vodafone Idea report- ed a 35-million reduction in the sub- scriber base in the third quarter of FY19 and another 53 million in the fourth, resulting in a subscriber base of 334 mil- lion at the end of March. The analysts also noted, “Airtel also reported a 48.5 mn reduction in Q3FY19, but the move- ment in Q4FY19 has still not been dis- closed due to the ongoing rights issue.” Experts say the decline in numbers is a positive for the incumbents. “The companies decided to shed the 'incom- ing only' customers, which had choked the network of these service providers,” another Mumbai-based analyst said. The results are showing. The Trai data showed the proportion of active wireless subscribers, which is measured through the VLR metric, had improved. Bharti Airtel has the maximum pro- portion (100.82 per cent) of its active wireless subscribers as against its wire- less subscribers on the date of peak VLR in March 2019. In the fourth quarter of FY19, Vodafone Idea posted a 17 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) improvement in ARPU (~104) while analysts estimate Bharti Airtel’s ARPU improved by 21 per cent QoQ. Amid the subscriber losses by the two incumbents, Jio was the only mobile service provider that witnessed a growth rate of 3.19 per cent in wireless subscribers in March. The monthly decline rates of urban and rural wireless subscription in March were 0.93 per cent and 2.99 per cent, respectively. As of March 31, 2019, the private access service providers held 89.74 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers where- as BSNL and MTNL, the two public-sec- tor access service providers, had a mar- ket share of only 10.26 per cent. Of the 22 service areas, six showed positive growth in wireless users in March 2019. The Assam service area showed maximum growth of 2.46 per cent and the Bihar service area showed the maximum decline (4.52 per cent) in their wireless subscribers during the month. As of March 31, the top five wire- less broadband service providers were Jio (306.72 million), Airtel (112.26 mil- lion), Vodafone Idea (110.20 million), BSNL (12.93 million) and Tata Teleser- vices (1.68 million). Indices fall... However, a non-NDA govern- ment may lead to a 10-15 per cent correction in the Nifty, if we go by market reactions in 2004 and 2009 to big surprises,” said Gautam Chhaochharia, head of Research at UBS India. Just like a day earlier, overseas investors were strong buyers, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers on Tuesday, the data provided by the stock exchanges showed. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth ~1,185 crore, while DIIs sold shares worth ~1,090 crore. On Monday FPIs bought shares worth ~1,734 crore after pulling out ~8,500 crore from domestic stocks in the previous eight sessions. Barring three, all Sensex con- stituents ended with losses. Banking and financial shares were the biggest drag on the mar- ket — most of them declined between 1 per cent and 3 per cent, after making stellar gains a day earlier. Seventeen of the 19 sec- toral indices of the BSE declined, led by the auto index, which fell 2.60 per cent.
Transcript of MUMBAI | WEDNESDAY, 22 MAY 2019 Brands take...
BRAND WORLD 11>
MUMBAI | WEDNESDAY, 22 MAY 2019
URVI MALVANIA & T E NARASIMHANMumbai/Chennai, 21 May
Virat Kohli is every-where, not just gettinghis gear on for the
upcoming month-and-a-halflong ICC World Cup that isbarely ten days away, but alsoon every screen; plying friend-ly taxi rides, shoes and sports-wear, he is asking viewers tocheer the team on as they bat-tle for the Cup. Even as Kohliwhips up the loudest buzz, histeam mates MS Dhoni, RishabPant and former players are alladding to the noise made bybrands cracking their bat atthe biggest game of them all.
No surprise this, for as therecent report by ESPProperties showed, in India,cricket beats all other sportshollow when it comes to spon-sorships and the World Cup isan opportunity no brandwants to miss. Cricket, whichhad accounted for 63 per centof team sponsorship amountsin 2017, rose to 68 per cent incontribution in 2018, thereport said.
The big catch for mostbrands is the young male con-sumer. Be it automobilebrand Nissan, or sportsapparel and footwear brandPuma, or Britannia, the targetis the same. But for others,such as Uber, the associationpresents a different opportu-nity. It helps seal its associa-tion with the country andestablish itself as a globalbrand committed to local val-ues.
Manisha Lath Gupta, headof marketing, Uber India &South Asia said with an esti-mated global viewing audi-ence of 1.5 billion, the World
Cup is one of the mostwatched sporting events.Uber said that this is itsbiggest branding activity inthe country. And as part of itsinitiatives for the tourna-ment, it has created an ICCWorld Cup 2019 anthem,applying a common market-ing practice for footballleagues to the game of crick-et. Apart from the campaign,Uber also has a contest whereusers score runs for every rideon the cab-hailing app andtheir food-ordering platformUber Eats. The points can beadded up to win prizes,including a trip to Englandfor a World Cup match. It isalso running contest for itsdriver partners and fooddelivery agents. “That's howwe are bringing the deliverycommunity together. In someways we are bringing thebackseat and front seat in thecar together, building a biggerhuman connect," said Gupta.The campaign is helmed byKohli who is also Uber’sbrand ambassador.
Kohli is driving Puma’scampaign for the World Cuptoo. The brand will launch anew limited collector's editionproduct for Kohli, a new setof cricket merchandise underthe Puma and Kohli's One8umbrella and there will alsobe a song-and-dance routine.Puma has signed on rapperDivine who will create a spe-cial music video with Kohlithat will be unveiled on May30, the day of the first matchof the tournament.
Nissan is pushing its latestSUV model Kicks through theWorld Cup. Car owners get ashot at winning an all-expens-es-paid trip for big matches.The company is also flyingtop 25 Nissan dealer partnerswith their families for thegame. Sriram Padmanabhan,vice president, marketing,Nissan India said, “Since theIndian audience has a highaffinity towards the sport, theassociation helps us build astrong connect with our targetaudience.”
Nissan has benefited from
its association with cricket.Padmanabhan added that the2017 ICC Champions Trophywas a huge success with over40 million viewers in NissanTG and more than 400 mil-lion reach across socialmedia. Along with on-groundactivities Nissan is betting bigon digital this season. “Ourcontent partner Hotstar willbe the key property to garnereyeballs. We are going all outwith large scale influencermarketing and engaging con-tent for the duration of theWorld Cup,” he said.
Britannia is bringing backa 20-year-old campaign,Britannia khao World Cup jao(Bite into Britannia for a tripto the World Cup), spendingaround ~80 crore for what itcalls one of its biggest cam-paigns ever for its motherbrand. " Our association withcricket is very old and strong.We want to reignite that," AliHarris Shere, VP-marketing,Britannia Industries had saidin an earlier interview toBusiness Standard.
Brands take guard onthe World Cup pitchUber, Puma, Nissan, Britannia have already lined up for the upcoming paradeof cricketing nations, looking to align with the game and its legion of fans
Virat Kohli is the face of many brand campaigns in the run-up to the World Cup, as he is for theongoing Uber multi-country campaign (above)
A board member expressed displeasureon the definition of default. However, thecentral bank maintained it was not willingto change the definition, which will con-tinue to be as it is — from day one of fail-ure to repay the loan.
“This provision on default may remainintact in the new circular,” said the source.
The original “resolution of stressedassets” framework created a huge riftbetween the government and the RBI, andperhaps led to the exit of Urjit Patel as gov-ernor.
The framework had said accounts indefault of ~2,000 crore and above couldbe taken for a resolution process and ifthat did not fructify, the banks could thensend the companies for insolvency pro-ceedings. Importantly, even a day’s delayin servicing loans was termed default.
The Supreme Court in early April ruledthat for each account the RBI would haveto take permission from the Centre beforeallowing banks to invoke insolvency rules.
The circular fell through on technicalgrounds and the RBI had to go back to thedrawing-board for a revised one.
The board discussed “the mediumterm strategy document, covering, interalia, the mission statement and the visionstatement”, the RBI said in a release onits website.
Sources say the Vision 2022 plan,called Utkarsh 2022, which would start onJuly 1, focuses on six areas including
financial inclusion, financial stability andsustainable growth. The broad contoursof the vision were discussed at the boardmeeting and the draft policy would bepresented at the next board meeting, saidsources.
The board discussed creating a spe-cialised supervisory and regulatory cadrewithin the RBI to strengthen the supervi-sion and regulation of commercial banks,urban cooperative banks, and NBFCs.
The 576th board meet was attended byDeputy Governors N S Vishwanathan,Viral Acharya and B P Kanungo and othersenior officials of the RBI. Other directorsof the central board present were BharatDoshi, Sudhir Mankad, ManishSabharwal, Satish Marathe, SwaminathanGurumurthy, Revathy Iyer and SachinChaturvedi.
Subhash Chandra Garg, finance sec-retary and economic affairs secretary, andRajiv Kumar, secretary, Department ofFinancial Services, were present as gov-ernment directors.
> FROM PAGE 1
SOLUTION TO #2748
> BS SUDOKU # 2749
Hard««««Solution tomorrow
HOW TO PLAYFill in the grid sothat every row,every column andevery 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9
RBI rules out credit line... Mobile user basedips 22 million...The March numbers, however, reflect adifferent trend — that of cleaning uplow-paying subscriber bases to improvethe average revenue per user (ARPU), astrategy adopted by Bharti Airtel andVodafone Idea since the third quarter ofFY19. “Both the companies want to focuson the paying subscriber base. They arecleaning up their subscriber bases toimprove ARPU and improve theirEbitda margins,” said a Mumbai-basedanalyst.
Morgan Stanley analysts noted in arecent report that Vodafone Idea report-ed a 35-million reduction in the sub-scriber base in the third quarter of FY19and another 53 million in the fourth,resulting in a subscriber base of 334 mil-lion at the end of March. The analystsalso noted, “Airtel also reported a 48.5mn reduction in Q3FY19, but the move-ment in Q4FY19 has still not been dis-closed due to the ongoing rights issue.”
Experts say the decline in numbersis a positive for the incumbents. “Thecompanies decided to shed the 'incom-ing only' customers, which had chokedthe network of these service providers,”another Mumbai-based analyst said.
The results are showing. The Traidata showed the proportion of activewireless subscribers, which is measuredthrough the VLR metric, had improved.
Bharti Airtel has the maximum pro-portion (100.82 per cent) of its activewireless subscribers as against its wire-less subscribers on the date of peak VLRin March 2019. In the fourth quarter ofFY19, Vodafone Idea posted a 17 per centquarter-on-quarter (QoQ) improvementin ARPU (~104) while analysts estimateBharti Airtel’s ARPU improved by 21 percent QoQ. Amid the subscriber losses bythe two incumbents, Jio was the onlymobile service provider that witnesseda growth rate of 3.19 per cent in wirelesssubscribers in March. The monthlydecline rates of urban and rural wirelesssubscription in March were 0.93 per centand 2.99 per cent, respectively. As ofMarch 31, 2019, the private access serviceproviders held 89.74 per cent marketshare of the wireless subscribers where-as BSNL and MTNL, the two public-sec-tor access service providers, had a mar-ket share of only 10.26 per cent.
Of the 22 service areas, six showedpositive growth in wireless users inMarch 2019. The Assam service areashowed maximum growth of 2.46 percent and the Bihar service area showedthe maximum decline (4.52 per cent) intheir wireless subscribers during themonth. As of March 31, the top five wire-less broadband service providers wereJio (306.72 million), Airtel (112.26 mil-lion), Vodafone Idea (110.20 million),BSNL (12.93 million) and Tata Teleser -vices (1.68 million).
Indices fall...However, a non-NDA govern-ment may lead to a 10-15 per centcorrection in the Nifty, if we goby market reactions in 2004 and2009 to big surprises,” saidGautam Chhaochharia, head ofResearch at UBS India.
Just like a day earlier, overseasinvestors were strong buyers,while domestic institutionalinvestors (DIIs) were net sellerson Tuesday, the data provided bythe stock exchanges showed.
Foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) bought shares worth ~1,185crore, while DIIs sold sharesworth ~1,090 crore. On MondayFPIs bought shares worth ~1,734crore after pulling out ~8,500crore from domestic stocks in theprevious eight sessions.
Barring three, all Sensex con-stituents ended with losses.Banking and financial shareswere the biggest drag on the mar-ket — most of them declinedbetween 1 per cent and 3 per cent,after making stellar gains a dayearlier. Seventeen of the 19 sec-toral indices of the BSE declined,led by the auto index, which fell2.60 per cent.
