Who will be impact person of the year?
The final six nominees for IPOY, 2012 are Ambika Soni, Man Jit Singh, Punit Goenka, Sanjay Gupta, Vikram Sakhuja and Vineet Jain It’s that time of the year again - we at IMPACT are all abuzz about the IMPACT Person of the Year! We had invited nominations by way of an industry-wide poll, the data was then collated and validated by IMRB before narrowing down the final list of contenders to six. As always, the aim is to pick the person who has had the biggest influence in the media, advertising and marketing space in the last one year. Each of our nominees is a name to reckon with, a stalwart who stood tall this year and became a game-changer in his or her domain. In alphabetical order of first names, our nominees are: Ambika Soni, until recently Union Cabinet Minister for Information & Broadcasting, is credited with pushing the agenda for digitization of television in India, and finally making it official, with definite deadlines. She managed to fight pressure from different lobbies to safeguard progressive content on television since taking charge of the I&B Ministry in May, 2009. Besides firming up FM Phase III policies in the Radio sector and supporting the newspaper industry to ensure growth even in an economic downturn, Soni was committed to ensuring a level playing field for different segments of the media and creating a robust industry. She made her political debut in 1975, as president of the Indian Youth Congress and was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1976. She has held several senior positions in the Congress Party. She became Union Cabinet Minister for Tourism and Culture from 2006 to 2009, and her tenure saw the ‘Incredible India’ campaign, which led to 12-14% growth in foreign tourist arrivals in India. Soni calls herself a ‘political activist’. Heading one of India’s largest broadcasting companies – Multi Screen Media (MSM) – CEO Man Jit Singh is the brain behind the revival of Sony Entertainment Television (SET). He joined the SET India board from Diogenes Capital, LLC, a private equity fund in Los Angeles, California, where he was a Principal. Singh has held the CEO’s position in several companies specializing in management recruitment. To his credit is building a robust network of channels including SAB, Sony, PIX and Max. The network, created under his strong leadership, is one of the most watched bouquet of GECs of the country. Properties such as Kaun Banega Crorepati have helped MSM’s flagship channel Sony garner ratings, and its other content is also much talked about, with sole broadcast rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) giving it an edge. Singh’s plans include entering the genre of niche channels to increase share of distribution revenues. He has been elected President of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), and plays a crucial role in spearheading the television industry towards digitization. Punit Goenka, Managing Director and CEO of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), started his career with Zee TV in 1995 before moving on to other companies across the Essel Group. He took charge of Zee TV in 2004 as the Business Head, at a time when Zee’s rating had dropped to an all-time low. Since then, Goenka’s hands-on approach has been instrumental in steering the ZEEL empire to new frontiers of success and profitability. Its net profit for FY12 was 590.71 crore, despite a downturn faced by the industry. Zee has expanded its bouquet across genres and notched up impressive numbers; and post a rebranding in 2011, occupies No. 2 spot among GECs and is firmly in the contention for the No. 1 spot. Goenka has an inimitable flair for new business opportunities and is now working towards strengthening the reach and viewership of ZEEL internationally, with prime focus on content. ZEEL’s most recent launches include Zee Bangla Cinema, a 24-hour Bengali movie channel; and Zee Alwan, an Arabic GEC channel designed to be a part of the international growth strategy. Sanjay Gupta, CEO of Jagran Prakashan Limited (JPL), is whole-time Director and Editor of Dainik Jagran, arguably the world’s largest read daily. He has been expanding the group’s portfolio of profit-making newspapers, and his recent takeover of NaiDunia - with an estimated revenue of Rs 100 crore - shows a new aggression in Hindi heartland. To Gupta’s credit is driving profit for JPL – its standalone ad revenues beat overall industry growth, growing by 10.90% in FY12 to Rs 850.01 crore. Its net profit for the year stood at Rs 179.64 crore, even in the face of financial gloom. Under Gupta, JPL has also expanded its newspaper footprint in English, Punjabi and Urdu, launching a whole host of editions in the Hindi belt to strengthen its leadership position. Two years back, JPL bought the tabloid Mid-Day, shut down its loss-making divisions, ensured synergies in operations and made it more profitable than before. JPL has made parallel investments in other titles such as the hyper-local City Plus in Mumbai and the youth-targeted I-next too. Gupta has more than 26 years of experience in the Print media industry and has been a director of JPL since 1993. Vikram Sakhuja, CEO designate of Maxus Worldwide, is the first India-based CEO of a global media agency, and his appointment is seen as a landmark development for the media agency business in India. Until his new assignment, Sakhuja was CEO of GroupM South Asia, WPP’s holding company for its media independent agencies: MindShare, Maxus, mediaedge:cia, Mediacom and Motivator. He has spent more than 25 years in the industry, picking up his marketing craft with Procter & Gamble India (1988 to 1996) and Coca-Cola (1996 to 2000). He also spent a year on the media owner side, setting up the Marketing department for Star India (Newscorp). From 2002 onwards, he has been with the WPP group. His career highlights include setting up India’s first Media Agency of Record (AOR), pioneering a series of researches including the country’s first purchasebased retail audit, and a consumption panel to track habit change, etc. He is a part of the leadership team that started Mindshare and GroupM in India/South Asia. Sakhuja is known for his tremendous passion, will to win and strong value system. Vineet Jain is the Managing Director of India’s largest media group, Bennett, Coleman & Co, also known as the Times Group, and is elementary in running its business. He is the group’s chief strategist, marketing visionary and editorial architect, credited with rapidly expanding it into television, radio and internet to complement the existing print publications. He is also responsible for revamping the group’s stable of daily newspapers into youthful, contemporary and cutting-edge brands with market leadership in most parts of India. He has transformed the group into a diversified, most respected and multi-faceted media conglomerate and ensured top position of The Times of India and Economic Times brands, the world’s largest English newspaper and second largest business paper, respectively. He has also transformed the flagship events of the company — Filmfare Awards, Femina Miss India and The Economic Times Awards — into larger-than-life ground and television properties that are the toast of India’s crème de la crème. Under his guidance, the Times Group continues with its leadership through expansion, innovation and differentiation.
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