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kbc

Big B’s Kaun Banega Crorepati Season 13 Promises Hi-Tech, Audience And More

Sony Television’s marquee programme Kaun Banega Crorepati, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan, is back. And despite Covid-19 pandemic hitting the economy hard, the sponsors are more than eager to sponsor this longest running reality show as it continues to have a huge draw across all sections of the society. Already 11 sponsors have been lined up for Season 13.  The differentiated factor this season is the use of hi-tech technology, graphics and Artificial Intelligence. And of course, in a major break from the pandemic led restrictions, the audience is back in the studio this season. The show is one the biggest revenue churners for SET.  Media buyers estimate that Sony charges upwards of Rs 4 lakh for a 10-second spot. It is around Rs 40 crore for presenting sponsors, Rs 16 -20 crore for associate sponsors. Though it is a closely guarded secret, insiders say, Big B is paid around Rs 3.5 crore per episode. Started in 2000, the first three seasons of KBC were aired on Star Plus. It then moved to Sony Entertainment Television. Big B has been associated with the show since its inception except for Season 3 when it was hosted by Shah Rukh Khan.
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ICC Sponsorship, Design Contests Lined Up to Boost Skoda's 2.0 Strategy

The year 2021 seems to be an important one for Skoda Auto, the European auto giant, as they have unveiled the 2.0 strategy. For starters they have announced a unique design contest for all its new cars to be globally unveiled in India later this year. The winners of this contest will get to meet their head of design at Prague, Czech Republic. Realizing India loves cricket, the company is investing in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup as broadcast partner. It may be recalled that Škoda made its first major inroad into football sponsorship by agreeing a deal with Spanish LaLiga club Espanyol. Its strategy seems to be to sponsor the most popular sports. For ICC, besides Skoda, they have already signed another auto client on board besides Nissan who are the sponsors for global cricket events till 2023. ICC has also opened Expression of Interest for media rights opportunities for various non-exclusive media rights in relation to public screening. To popularise the sports globally, they have also introduced bids to get bidders to package attractive content on any inflight or on board entertainment on aircraft, ship or train. These commercial initiatives by ICC are to boost the popularity of cricket globally by 2032 and open the door to the sport’s entry in the Brisbane Olympics.
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Group M: Semi-Conductor Shortages May Impact Global Motoring Adspend

Group M, WPP’s media investment group, in its Global Marketing Monitor has reported: “Semi-conductor shortages will have an uncertain impact this year, especially on motor vehicle manufacturers. Related disruptions could have an impact on spending on advertising by those companies, but could also impact the electronics companies consumers rely on to access content. Both industries have options to mitigate supply chain challenges, so negative consequences are not necessarily going to be meaningful.” The report adds that top advertising auto companies Honda, BMW, General Motors shall be short of their productivity targets, though the production is down but demand is up. Ad spending could be impacted, says the report. The global shortage could have some impact on India where things are looking up for the country as a whole and the auto sector among others. Analysts say if there is a supply chain issue, then here too in India, some of the auto companies may put their advertising campaign on hold or curtail it till they are assured of regular supply. But they say the impact could be short term. Seeing demand-supply mismatch the Tata Group has announced plans to make semiconductors.  As per Pitch Madison Advertising Report 2021 for India, auto category’s advertising contribution in 2020 was Rs 3,243 crore
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Photo: icc-cricket.com

After Olympics, Advertisers Look Forward To ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

Now, the next big event on advertisers’ watch list is ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be hosted in the petro-dollar venues UAE and Oman from October 17 to November 14, 2021. Reliable sources say Star Sports, the official broadcaster, which includes its video streaming app Hotstar, has already lined up event sponsors (BYJU’S, Dream11), broadcast partners (Coca Cola, Vimal) and are hoping to get on board two more sponsors. Already 40% of the inventory has been sold – with the cost for a 10-second spot put at Rs 10,000-Rs 12,000. The World Cup which will be played after Dussehra but before Diwali may prove to be bang for the buck for both advertisers and broadcasters. Star Sports which was expected to rake in around Rs 3,000 crore (that includes Hotstar) by way of advertising revenue from IPL 2021, could not hit that number as matches were suspended due to the second wave of pandemic. However, insiders are optimistic that Star Sports will earn close to Rs 1,200 crore from 45 matches to be played between 16 teams in the T20 World Cup.  It is learnt several advertisers like BharatPe, Upstox, OPPO, MRF Tyres, Booking.com have signed on as ground sponsors. As always the most keenly watched match will be one between India and Pakistan and for this match advertisers don’t mind paying a premium.
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Shah Rukh Khan: The Don Of Brand Endorsements

The king of romance is back in what he does better. The Mumbai-based Hygienic Research Institute has signed up the 55-year old superstar Shah Rukh Khan as their brand ambassador for Streax Hair Colour. The first brand which Shah Rukh Khan endorsed was Liberty Shoes way back in 1988. During the last 33 years, SRK has endorsed close to 44 brands and hair colour is the latest addition to his remarkable portfolio. With fewer movies in action, SRK, it is learnt, is looking at every opportunity to climb up the Brand endorsement rank. According to Duff & Phelps Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2020, Shah Rukh Khan has moved up one notch to No. 4 commanding a brand value of $51.1 million. At No. 1 is Virat Kohli with brand value of $237.7 million followed by Akshay Kumar ($118.9 million) and Ranveer Singh ($102.9 million). Shah Rukh is trying to move up the pecking order. He has signed a number of brand endorsements contracts and shooting of most of the ad films was done at his residence, Mannat during the second lockdown. The superstar, whose personal net worth, according to Forbes Rich List 2021, is around $690 million also runs a successful production house Red Chillies and is the co-owner of the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders.

TRENDS & VIEWS

Technology Cannot Disrupt Original Content Provider: Short Post Editor

They say time flies. How true!  Today is our #SecondAnniversary. Two years back at the height of Covid-19 Pandemic when lockdown was the way of life we took a leap of faith and launched Short Post (Jan 28, 2021), the first-of-its-kind website in the country that focuses on Authentic Gossip. The Oxymoron is deliberate. Well, the response has been quite encouraging. That’s what has kept us going. Till date we have posted close to 2000 stories in the areas of Politics, Business, Entertainment and Sports. Each insightful story of around 225 words has been contributed by Senior Editors. There is a sense of satisfaction of creating a new segment in the market – authentic gossip — and in the process creating a brand (in a limited sense), creating demand (readers) and creating supply (writers). Well known advertisers — IDFC FIRST Bank, ICICI Lombard – supported us.  And that really boosted our confidence. Thank you!

So here we are raring to go.  But, when I look at the media landscape the disruption is indeed fast and furious. Technology is playing a very big role in how content will be consumed. In the past, we have seen how social media has disrupted the media world. Now, everybody is saying the same thing about ChatGPT. It has reached 1 million users in five days. Its scorching pace of growth is indeed frightening and will disrupt the media industry big time. My limited argument is can it do investigative stories, write gossip items using the digital world ecosystem. Unlikely. Clearly, the original content has to be created first — only then can ChatGPT do the magic. That’s what we promise to do – focus on original content.

Before I sign off, I am reminded of an old advertisement of the early sixties: “Avis is only No.2 in rent a cars. So we try harder”. Likewise I can say, we are two years old and we are trying even harder to be relevant to you readers.