Times Network looks to tap new advertisers through workshops

According to MK Anand, MD & CEO, Times Network, 70 new advertisers have already been signed on at the first workshop held in Mumbai; Bangalore and Delhi next on the agenda

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | September 17, 2015

Times Network, the broadcast arm of the Bennett, Coleman and Company (BCCL), is conducting workshops for about 5,000 virgin advertisers across three metros – Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi. The first of these workshops, christened Ascend Now 2015, kicked off in Mumbai yesterday. The objective is to educate, create awareness, and provide cost-effective advertising opportunities on national television for SMEs and start-ups.

Times Network has enrolled the services of Australian media sales training company NRS Media to reach out to 5,000 advertisers across Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai. A large portion of these advertisers are SMEs who have never advertised on the visual medium.

While the business essence of these workshops is to tap new advertisers, Times Network MD & CEO, MK Anand, said, “While this might look like a sales programme, but it is actually a training initiative. Our sales team is comparable to that of any top TV media company, but we have a set very daunting growth target of 26 per cent, which is higher than the average market growth rate of 15 per cent. Besides doing improvements in our products, we also need to improve our sales team. So, the endeavour is to actually become the best sales team in the country.”

“I think in the whole year, we might have around 1,000 clients. But in the Indian market, the clientele would be in the range of approximately 40,000 across TV, print, print, radio, etc. Thus, there are 39,000 clients who are not our advertisers. This initiative is a bid to reach out to those 39,000 advertisers. We are talking to businesses who have felt that TV is out of their reach. When they talk to us, we are not offering them the choice of TV medium, but a very unique set of viewers who have the potential to put these advertisers on a completely different level,” Anand added.

He informed that Times Network had already signed on 70 new advertisers out of the 85 companies with whom they had held discussions at the seminar on Tuesday, September 15, 2015 in Mumbai. Some of these clients include Faasos, Clarity Gold, Euro Kids, Pavitravivaah.com, and Jumbo King, among others.

The packages that were offered were specially created for the SMEs and were in the range of Rs 22 lakh, Rs 44 lakh and Rs 66 lakh. The offers are valid for a period of 12 months and are only available on the day of the seminar.

Anand further said, “We are not segregating as Times Now and Movies Now; we are selling Times Network as India's leading English viewership network. These are fixed packages.”

When asked how much inventory the network would peel off the existing inventory pie with new clients coming on board, he said, “I think it is 10 per cent additional client count. This might be consuming about 5-7 per cent of our existing inventory.”

Meanwhile, commenting on the Ascend Now initiative, Sunil Awatramani, MD, Diat Foods (A Mumbai-based packaged food and export company manufacturing sugar free Indian sweets), said, “It was a very informative session and is a good platform for new advertisers like me to understand the potential of television as a medium of advertising and promotion.”

Mayur Pawar of Mirador – builders and developers – added here, “We are one of the leaders in affordable housings in Gujarat. Partnering with Times Network through this endeavour will give us a national platform to reach out to our target audience and expand our presence in all India market.”

Senior executives from diverse sectors such as construction, education, food and agro products, jewellery manufacturing, Internet start-ups, and beauty and lifestyle took part in the inaugural two-day workshop in Mumbai.

The second leg of the workshops will take place in Bangalore on September 18 and then move on to Delhi in the beginning of the next week.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com