Are You Ready For The Challenge?

” There are dreamers & there are planners; the planners make the dreams come true”

Yes, everyone wants to create ground-breaking ads. But, do not underestimate the power of a Media planner. If you think you want to spend your next few years helping brands reach out to the right audience, this competition is for you.

Introduction

India is a unique country with its own set of opportunities and constraints for businesses. One such big opportunity is the Festive season. Running across four months (Aug to Nov), the Indian festive season covers many popular festivals like Janmashtami, Onam, Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra/Durga Puja, Karwa Chauth, and Diwali. These festivals not only mark the months of celebrations and holidays but are also important for purchase.

Like most citizens of the country, businesses also eagerly wait for this season to lure customers with a range of offerings like new launches, discounts, gifts, and also heart-touching content. It is estimated that about 40% of sales for any business happen during the festive season. Hence, it is no wonder that brands across categories and segments join hands together to celebrate the great Indian festival of shopping.

One of the categories that witness a very high demand during the festive season is automobiles. There are many reasons for the same but the driving factor behind it is the belief that the festive season is an auspicious occasion to make high-ticket purchases. Hence, the demand for investment-heavy items like cars, two-wheelers, real estate, home appliances, furniture, gold, etc. as well as lifestyle items like clothes, gadgets, home décor, and FMCG increases. In response to this, brands also come up with new model/design launches, offers and discounts, and gifts.

Campaign Brief

The festive season is around the corner. A well-known two-wheeler brand in India (with a market share of ~5%) wants to launch a Campaign at a brand level targeting the metro cities with the objective of increasing footfall to its dealership showrooms. Following is a campaign brief for the same:

Total budget: INR 4 Crore (to be spent during the four months of the festive season Aug-Nov)

Product: Range of Two-wheelers

Target Group: Male/Female in the age group of 18-50 years, NCCS ABC

Target Geography: Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad

Objective: To increase the footfalls during the festive season.

The Approach

• You have to plan a media campaign based on the campaign brief shared above.
• To make the process easier, feel free to use any existing two-wheeler brand with a comparable market share to understand the products and marketing approach. Do mention the brand name in your document.
• You can consider the macro-environmental factors affecting the sector like inflation, Covid-19, drop in demand for entry-level two-wheelers in recent months, etc. This will help you decide the tone of the message you would like to send across.
• There are no restrictions in terms of formats of media assets and the allocated budget doesn’t include the cost of creation of these assets.
• You can pick any one of the approaches for planning and scheduling the campaign with justification for your selection

For example, you choose to run 3 TV campaigns with 3 different creative ads to be run 2 weeks before Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra and Diwali respectively.

• We do not expect a detailed media plan but we would like to see a list of suggested media with a suggested budget and campaign duration.
• Following is a graphical representation of the customer’s journey to purchase a car (RHS). Each step in the journey is marked by a set of activities (LHS). You can use this diagram to plan the type and tone of the ad campaigns. Look for stages where showroom visits happen and the activities that take place during this period.

The Presentation

The approach has to be presented in the form of an article covering the following topics/header (You can include/exclude one or more based on your approach):

• A brief introduction of the industry (2-wheeler automobile segment in India- Big players, Market Share, Marketing & Advertising trends)
• The problem statement (Your understanding of the campaign brief)
• The constraints (The pandemic, Indian Economy, Low Demand)
• Suggested content- Ad formats, Ad examples, Ad messages
• The top advertising options (A brief introduction of the advertising media and the reason to select them and suggested budget)
• Suggested campaign schedule
• Mention how did you use different websites/Data Sources to make the plan.

Terms & Conditions

• This competition is open to college students only (undergraduate and postgraduate).
• You can work individually or in a team of up to 3 people.
• You have to submit your entry in a .docx or .pdf format before 23rd September at 11:59 pm by clicking here.
• In case of any plagiarism, the entry will be disqualified.

A Few Resources To Help You

• Our website (Click Here) for 3 lakhs+ advertising options with other details of ad rates and reach.
• TMA MASH Tool: A tool that suggests the media mix for advertising based on past campaign data.
• Automobile sector 2021 Advertising Report: https://www.tamindia.com/tam-adex-mirroring-y-2021-for-auto-sector/
• Report on Indian Festive Season Shopping Behavior 2021: https://go.inmobi.com/2021-festive-season-report-india/
• Last but not least: In case you feel overwhelmed, here’s an example to help you visualize your article.

The Rewards

• Prize money of INR 6,000 for the best article, INR 3,000 for two runner-ups.
• Certificate of recognition for the top 3 teams.
• Publication of the top three articles on the company website (blog) with a short bio of the winners.
• The best article will be a part of our monthly newsletter sent to a database of 1 lakh+ brands/advertisers/agencies.

Evaluation Criteria

Following are the three criteria on which the entries would be evaluated:

• The choice of advertising platforms and the reasons to select them.
• The suggested campaign schedule.
• The writing and presentation style. The minimum suggested length of the article is 1000 words. Usage of graphs, tables, and bullets would get you extra points.

About The Media Ant

The Media Ant is a 10-year-old company in the AdTech space. We aim to disrupt the traditional process of executing ad campaigns through a physical media agency and replace it with a self-serve advertising platform. The platform should work equally well for both online and offline media.

This platform will empower any advertiser, irrespective of their budget and level of marketing understanding, to be able to go ahead and launch a campaign.

The Media Ant is the winner of various startup awards and is used by more than a million users every year. Please visit our website (www.TheMediaAnt.com) to learn more.

For any queries about the competition, write to us at [email protected]

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