In this age of 360º communications, Communications Channel Planning etc…Media professionals are striving to find new / innovative channels to 'talk' to their audience. Never in the history of Media / Advertising planning has there been so much debate, time spent in discussing / analyzing this phenomena. The reasons for this is for all to see…in the recent times combination of all the below mentioned factors have led the Communication / Media specialists to chart and identify newer routes:

1. Escalating Media fragmentations…therefore Cost of Reach in mass media becoming prohibitive (comparisons of last years' and today's CPRP of mainline channels has seen a growth of almost 30 - 50 %)
2. Absolute Media inflation has also added to the above factor....
3. Ever increasing number of players in every category…sheer clutter in a Product Category has forced brands to think fresh, innovative in reaching out to consumers.
4. Consumers leading a far busier lives, compared to a decade ago…find less time for luxuries like consuming TV, Magazines, Radio etc…therefore..as the cliché goes ..Necessity is the Mother of Invention…thereby forcing Brand Managers / Media professionals to discover a more cost effective / relevant way to reach the consumer.

All of us are aware to a large degree, on the kinds of so called 'unconventional / below-the-line' media options. Indeed most of us have actively used these at some points of our lives to talk to consumers. In this article we are examining just one of these routes, and also understand the merits and demerits of this communication channel.

Event Association / Sponsorship:
Events, basically defines any concerted activity, set of similar type of activities which is held or hosted in a periodic manner…around a specific theme / activity.

By this definition …will a IT Exhibition held annually be considered an event? Most definitely so…its an event where the format is specifically designed to allow customer interaction. So would an annual Beauty pageant or an Award ceremony!

But Event should not be confused with those thousands of stand alone, ad hoc music / fusion shows, fashion extragavanzas..etc. because these are basically one off shows which are held to promote a particular artiste, designer or a build up to an another larger activity..say a launch conference etc..and the fact that these 'shows' are sponsored by someone is just by the way..

The following distinction will make it clear…. events are those which are either designed around a 'Brand'…and is periodical and NOT those which are designed around an 'Artiste' where Brand sponsorship is just incidental…and are isolated!

Therefore Filmfare awards, Femina Miss India, Glad Rags Man Hunt, MTV Awards, McDowell Derby etc are true blue events. Whereas say for eg…A Fusion Night with Shankar & Louis….in association with XYZ…is not an event.

Therefore some of the characteristics of an Event are:

1. The theme of the event should spring from a Core Brand Positioning…it should add to the existing Brand Equity..for eg Fimfare Awards, Red & White Bravery Awards.
2. The Event should allow for the Brand to 'shine' thru the event..ie the Brand story should not be overwhelmed by the size and scale of the event. The sponsorship of Formula 1 Grand Prix by Castrol is a prime example.
3. Finally, it should be continuous and not an ad-hoc

Mass media will always be cost effective for a Brand communication, but a well thought out strategic event idea can add enormously to an equity of the brand and move up the preference and 'closeness' factor with the target consumer. But these results usually pay dividends in the long run. So to expect short term gains through an event could be ill advised.

The barriers to an Event association for a brand are many. Like for eg the prospect of shelling out monies now for a long term equity building is a primary one or the fact that the same monies allocated to sampling, promotions or even a mass media presence can be too tempting, (which would definitely deliver short term goals). Hence Event associations should be seen as an investment in building brand equity and not simply as a tool for brand exposure/s.

An introduction
It's not very often that we see successful launches in a matured or dormant market. But one such successful launch was seen in the Karnataka print market. And that was for Vijay Karnataka, the leading Kannada newspaper.

Background of Vijay Karnataka
Launched on October 4th 1999 in Bangalore by Vijay Sankeshwar, who is successfully running a mega transport company called Vijayanand Road Lines (VRL). Though he did not belong to the media industry, he decided to launch the newspaper with the sole objective of providing a strong reader-friendly newspaper for the people of Northern Karnataka, his place of origin. However, the launch was not easy, since it pitted him against strong and established newspapers like Prajavani and Samyukta Karnataka.

LAUNCH STRATEGY The group planned to take on the strong equity of Prajavani and Samyukta Karnataka by doing the following things:

1. Reduced cover price: While the competition priced at around Rs.2.00, Vijay Karnataka was the first Kannada daily to launch with Rs.1.50 as the cover price.
2. Circulation: The print order saw a quantum jump in circulation from 30000 copies to 100000 copies in year 2000. On one hand, their key competitor, Samyukta Karnataka started losing circulation base and on the other, Vijay Karnataka generated highly satisfied customers and local retail trade. Hubli was later launched during the latter half of December 1999. They replicated success of Hubli edition to other centers like Shimoga, Mangalore, Mysore, Gulbarga and Gangavati. In a matter of time Vijay Karnataka established leadership across all centers except Mangalore and Bangalore where they started growing steadily.
3. Editorial Content: They are totally unique with focus on the news and readers. Right mix of news, views opinions, analysis, reports on International state level and regional / local news and happenings were featured. Special supplements on Agriculture-Business and Commerce, Sports, Youth, Women, Fine Arts, Cinema, Children, Sunday supplement, sumptuous reading material with variety were also covered. Off late they have launched a column for State Government employees, which addresses some important issues pertaining to them.
4. Innovative Distribution: VRL (Vijayanand Road Lines) is a household name, which has a very high credibility among Kannadigas. They leveraged this one strong point of VRL's mobility and accessibility cross the length and breadth of North Karnataka first and later in other parts of Karnataka to build a strong distribution base.
   Today there is no place in Karnataka, which does not get Vijay Karnataka
5. Use of color: Colour page on front and back right from day one was one of their USPs

Their success is a result of sincere approach to cater to the needs of readers. Of course, the regional and local touch in the presentation of news has helped a lot.

Profile of readers as claimed by them

• 70% of readership is in age group of 18-35 years.
• Readership in the categories: SEC: A1, A2, B1 & B2 women, working class, businessmen and self employed professionals.

• Sensitive to change in cover price: The key issue is how long will the group be able to sustain the introductory price of Rs.1.50p and the day it decides to hike the cover price, the impact could be felt on the circulation. On the other hand, if there is no significant drop in circulation inspite of a price hike, it's a win-win situation. They need to test it out soon.
• Advertising revenue: While the newspaper has been a huge draw among readers, the potential of the newspaper as an advertising vehicle is not being exploited. Unless its potential is communicated to the advertisers beyond Karnataka, it may allow a big opportunity to go by. This needs to be done immediately.
• Service: Its one thing to launch so many editions across a state, and another thing to maintain good quality editorial and reproduction consistently across them. A constant monitoring of the contents across editions is essential to maintain the high quality being offered currently.

The Monthwise ABC trend show that the circulation of Vijay Karnataka has been growing consistently month after month. The December figure stands at 4.8 lacs. The publication claims that the current print order is in the region of 5.3 lacs. Whether the publication will be able to retain the claimed circulation of 5.3 lacs or even the December figure of 4.8 lacs will depend upon the decision on increase in the cover price (which is almost a reality). This will mean that there could be definitely be a slight dent in circulation. However we at OMS feel that the circulation will stabilize between 4.5 and 4.8 lacs (despite increase in cover price) based on the market feedback we have about them.

What this means is that there will be a further reduction in the Milli Rate, the implications of which, is that the advertisers need not spend as much as they used to do in Karnataka.

The birth of a highly cost effective Print option has already surfaced.......

After the hype and the huge build up that Asoka The Series received, Star Plus would have counted on this property to re create some of the initial magic that KBC, KSBKBT etc did in delivering Television ratings.

Lets look at what was going for Asoka the series....

1. An unique concept (Movie serialized for TV)
2. A Brand new release
3. Top stars, Great Music, High curiosity
4. Whizkid director
5. Last but not the least…a completely new genre of programming…a new diet for the overfed TV audiences on 'Saas-Bahu' soaps !