At home this Republic Day? Sony MAX and MAX 2 have it sorted for you! Gear up to celebrate the spirit of the nation’s Republic Day with a movie marathon on Sony MAX and MAX 2. The channels will be bringing a slew of entertaining movies for its viewers to keep them hooked on to their TV sets this Republic Day.

Offering its viewers with a mélange of diverse movies throughout the day, the channels have something for everyone! While Sony MAX will fill you with the spirit of ‘Desh Bhakti’ with movies like ‘Tiranga’ and ‘Chak De India’, the channel will also be entertaining its viewers with movies like ‘3 Idiots’ and South Indian Dubbed superhit, ‘Tadakha’ and Sony MAX 2 will be invoking the feeling of ‘Indianness’ through the poignant tale of patriotism in ‘Hindustani’ along with evergreen hits like ‘Kundan’, ‘Zakhmon Ka Hisaab’ and ‘Khal- Naaika’.

“I want the world to know that everybody deserves a second chance- El DeBarge”

Not often is life kind enough to let you move past errors and start afresh but when it does, we must make the best of it. Chronicling many such stories of human experiences, Zing, a youth General Entertainment Channel presents a brand new fiction show Aye Zindagi with television heartthrob Rithwik Dhanjani as the host.

Keeping with its brand promise of #thatsmything, the channel brings to you thrilling stories of Indian hinterlands starting 26th January 2017 at 7:00 PM.
When you are young and raring to go life throws many challenges at you. Aye Zindagi explores those heart felt, humane and very relatable stories of youngsters dealing with various situations and how they come out of them victorious. It explores volatile emotions as youth treads forbidden path, taking up tricky and dangerous challenges but Aye Zindagi reinstates optimism as it shows the youth ultimately choosing the right path winning over trial and tribulations of Zindagi.

Speaking about the new show, Mr. Vishnu Shankar, Business Head, Zing, says, “Youth is the most exciting and at the same time the most alarming stage of growing up. Struggling through peer pressure, parental control and mixed emotions, little chance do they get to introspect and think through life choices. And these at times lead to bad judgement. But there is always hope at the end of the tunnel and Aye Zindagi instills that hope. Our endeavor is to tell life altering stories of youngsters who didn’t budge to the wrong and took a second chance at life.”

The host of the show, Rithwik Dhanjani said “When I heard the concept of the show, what intrigued me were the realness of the stories. Aye Zindagi touches upon stories that do touch our lives. And there is no preaching in the show. There is no sending a message, not asking people to follow what’s right and wrong. It’s just reflection of life stories which appealed to me. It’s also first of a kind show for me different from the romantic shows I have done. Here, I am personally involved in all the stories. There are episodes where I am interacting with the characters of the story which is new.”

Around the world, consumers are looking for a taste of the good life. And it’s not just those who are wealthy. Sales of products in the “premium” tier—which Nielsen defines as goods that cost at least 20% more than average price for the category—are growing at a rapid pace. In fact, the growth of the premium sector in many markets around the world is outpacing total growth for many categories of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG).

Between 2012 and 2014, the premium segment grew 21% in Southeast Asia, more than double the rate of the mainstream and value tiers (8% and 10%, respectively). Premium products grew 23% over the same period in China. In Latin America, growth in the premium segment outpaced total FMCG growth in every market except Mexico and Venezuela in the 12 months ended June 2016.

But while the premiumization trend is going strong, some of the big-player manufacturers have struggled to keep pace with smaller players. For example, in the U.S., the 25 largest food and beverage companies drove only 3% of the total category growth from 2011 to 2015, while companies below the top 100 drove nearly half (49%). While these numbers indicate an underlying issue with all new product development, there’s more at stake with premium products because of their higher revenue potential.

This study identifies the attributes consumers are looking for in premium product offerings, and reveals the underlying sentiment behind the reasons for purchase. We explore what “premium” means to consumers, and we identify the categories for which they’re most willing to pay a higher price. In addition, because willingness to pay a premium is largely shaped by how consumers feel about their financial situation, we look at perceptions of spending capacity. Finally, we offer best practices to consider when competing in the premium product space.

SPENDING FREELY OR TIGHTENING PURSE STRINGS?

Nearly as important as consumers’ income is how they feel about their ability to spend. When it comes to those who say they’re doing well financially and those who are feeling increasingly cash-crunched, response rates vary between emerging/developing and developed markets.

BBC Worldwide today announced a deal with Amazon that will give Amazon Prime members in India access to more than 600 hours of award-winning and popular factual and pre-school content from the BBC.

Amazon Prime launched in India in July 2016, and launched its Prime Video streaming service in December 2016.

“In the last year or so, we have seen digital consumption in India increase exponentially,” said Myleeta Aga, SVP and GM of India, BBC Worldwide. “We are very excited to be partnering with Amazon Prime Video India to satisfy viewers’ demands for quality, premium programmes from the BBC.”

“We are pleased to work with BBC Worldwide to avail premium quality pre-school and documentary programmes to our Prime Video customers,” said Nitesh Kripalani, Director and Country Head, Amazon Prime Video India. “We are very humbled by the positive response from customers to Prime Video and we are confident that the BBC’s programmes will resonate with customers. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with BBC Worldwide.”

Indian subscribers to Amazon Prime Video now have access to CBeebies programmes never before broadcast in India – including Clangers - about the Clangers, pink, long-nosed, inventive and lovable mouse-shaped creatures who live on a little blue planet, out in the starry stretches of space, not far from Earth; Dinopaws – an animation series about the delightful adventures of a trio of very young, inquisitive dinos; and Hey Duggee, the animated series narrated by award-winning comedian Alexander Armstrong which features Duggee the pooch and his after-school club. Hey Duggee most recently won the Pre-School Animation of the year at the most 2017 BAFTA Children’s Awards.

Subscribers to the service are also able to watch award-winning and highly rated BBC factual programmes including Gandhi, The World’s Weirdest Weapons and The Genius of Inventions. Gandhi is an in-depth look at the life of the 'Father of a Nation'. It is the first definitive series on the life of Gandhi, examining his relationship with his wife, his controversial views on race and his role on the path to Indian independence; The World’s Weirdest Weapons explores the stranger side of warcraft – where the jet pack, the inflatable rubber plane, and the pigeon guided smart bomb, even a cat that eavesdrops on the enemy are some of the top secret devices designed to the give the West the edge against its enemies in World War Two and the Cold War; and The Genius of Invention, in which Dr Michael Mosley and his team explore 12 inventions how they have changed the way we live our lives. They explain how these inventions came about - from sparks of genius to steady incremental improvements hammered out in workshops - and separate myth from reality in the lives of the great inventors.

One of the big trends of 2016 was ‘marketing in the moment’. People were talking about the need to use data and technology to target people at specific moments of need, but very few were talking about content. By definition, a ’micro-moment’ is specific to an individual’s needs and situation, so unless the content is tailored to match it does not matter how smart the targeting might be, the ad will likely be ignored.

However, I think that the whole ‘marketing in the moment’ movement is totally missing the point about the purpose of marketing. To me, marketing is about developing demand for your brand before they recognize a need for it, as opposed to selling which is about activating that demand once someone recognizes they have a need. The two practices are complementary, and practicing one without the other will likely to be far less effective than when the two are combined.

Most examples of marketing in the moment appear to fall squarely on the activation side of the equation. Take the example of Red Roof Inn which capitalized on last-minute demand for a hotel room following flight cancellations. Or Mondelez in China who target people at work with ads for different brands at different times of day: belVita Biscuits in the morning as a breakfast replacement, or Oreo in the afternoon as a pick me up treat. Or Narellan Pools whose agency figured out that after two sequential days with above-average temperatures, people were more likely to respond positively to ads for swimming pools.

I would argue that in the cases of Red Roof Inn and Oreo, they are likely capitalizing on the immediate need because the equity of both brands is relatively well-established. People respond instinctively to the right offer made at the right time based on pre-existing brand associations built by prior experience and marketing. Without those associations Red Roof Inn might have been rejected as too cheap to be a safe place to stay, or Oreo rejected as an odd foreign brand. The job of marketing is to prepare your brand to be chosen at all the moments when people might consider it and marketing does this by establishing motivating ideas, impressions and feelings about the brand ahead of time not just at the moment of decision.

In the case of Narellan Pools you could argue that many people reached in the moment might never have heard of the brand and therefore the practice is both marketing and selling rolled into one. This might be true, but to convert someone to buy a brand they have never heard of before requires a really compelling sell. and that is a lot to ask of a digital ad impression which likely will get a few seconds of attention at best. The ads for Narellan Pools were not actually making the sale, but instead generating leads that could later be turned into a sale.

In all these cases the need is fairly specific and common across the potential audience, making it easier to use a common set of content to activate the sale. However, delivering the right content still matters. In the case of Oreo Thins in China it is reported that changing the creative to highlight the thin nature of cookie increased conversions threefold.

Technology and big data will continue to empower brands to reach people at the right time to make a sale but marketers would do well to persuade their colleagues that without pre-existing demand and the right content, ‘marketing in the moment’ is likely to be ineffective. But what do you think? Please share your thoughts.

Written by Nigel Hollis,Executive Vice President and Chief Global Analyst at Kantar Millward Brown.