Discovery is not just making great strides, but looking far beyond its current footprint as it sets its sights on connecting with the next generation, as Anurag Batra discovers in a conversation with Discovery Networks International CEO and President, Mark Hollinger.
Satisfying the Curiosity of Young Indians

 Today, the international footprint of Discovery is huge. Presence in more than 180 countries, 40 languages and more than 1.5 billion cumulative subscribers. It makes an interesting story as to how the network still thrives on the same idea that it was launched with, which is to provide new and refreshing content.

In a recent development, Maxus Global has decided to entrust additional responsibility on Managing Director Ajit Varghese. Varghese will now also run Maxus in the South Asian markets comprising Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, besides running Maxus and Motivator – the two GroupM brands in India.

Deciphering consumer behaviour has always been a challenge for markets, but if one were to follow Brain Science, this exercise would lead to many success stories, as Robin Wight, CEO, Engine, explains…

For Sir John Hegarty, fame and persuasion are important elements in brand building as he stresses on how brands need to be leaders and not mere followers.

Minus scandal, GoaFest 2011 was certainly shiny and happy and the cleaner and greener festival that Festival Chair Lynn de Souza had vouched for. Rules were adhered to, advertising was celebrated and aspirations were created – a look at all that was noteworthy at GoaFest this year…

Display ads are set to witness tremendous growth, says Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Google India, as he lists the factors fueling this growth and where Google fits in.

Deliberating on the future of advertising in light of accelerating growth, Indian ad industry honchos highlight the key challenges and opportunities ahead…

Marketing has over the years evolved beyond the traditional 4Ps. Delivering the keynote at the Mumbai round of the Pitch CMO Summit 2010 on November 16, Sanjay Behl, CEO, Reliance Big TV, delved upon the more contemporary approach of marketing today and demystified the concept of Marketing 3.0…

Leo Burnett has been successfully applying its unique ‘HumanKind’ approach in the process of re-defining the nature of advertising. Highlighting how Leo Burnett puts ‘people’ in the centre of all that it does is Leo Burnett Chairman and Global CEO Tom Bernadin’s book titled ‘Human-Kind’, with Chief Creative Officer Mark Tutssel.

Havas Sports, the sports marketing arm of the Havas Group, which is fairly active in India during cricketing events – particularly IPL, is all geared up to take bigger strides and cash-in on the growth opportunities, not only in cricket, but in other events as well.

Social media has caught on in a big way all over the world, but how can brand managers and advertising agencies cash in on this growing segment? Can it become the centre of digital communications? How does one measure social media? These issues were addressed at a panel discussion on Social Media, which was part of the Knowledge and Learning Seminar on Day 3 at GoaFest 2010.

Much has been said and written about India and China being markets of great importance for global brands and advertising networks, both in terms of size and scope. But where does India exactly stand vis-à-vis China? Tom Doctoroff, CEO, JWT China, gave some interesting insights into the Chines market in his keynote address – ‘Shadow and Light’.

In a recent development, the Board of Directors for BBDO India and RK Swamy BBDO came to a consensus that allows RK Swamy BBDO to exercise a ‘significant minority’ stake in BBDO India. According to sources in the know, it is understood that RK Swamy BBDO will now have about 35 per cent shareholding in BBDO India, up nearly 15 per cent.

‘Do magazines give a better ROI’ saw Ambika Srivastava and Shashi Sinha speak at length on several pertinent issues such as Do magazines help deliver scale? Do they help optimise media plan? The role of creativity in delivering ROI, etc. The two media stalwarts were speaking at the two-day Indian Magazine Congress 2009 that concluded in the Capital on November 6.