Radio Mirchi - Group Manager - Activations

Mirchi Activation: It's strategic importance:

The Activations business (NTR + Marketing activities) was started off as a logical off-shoot of the main-stream radio business. While it is a good fit for almost any media business, the fit of the activation business with radio is even stronger. With its unique characteristics of being a) city centric b) immediate c) relatively low cost and d) high frequency, it can generate foot-falls for any event like no other media can. The fact that Radio Mirchi is so wide in its reach only makes it an even more effective brand in the activations space.

To summarize, the reasons why Mirchi entered the Activations space were the following:

- It helps demonstrate the power of radio to potential advertisers

- It helps to take the brand to the people - where they can touch and feel the brand

- It helps generate revenues from the Below-the-Line (BTL) budgets of advertisers and clients

The Mirchi Activations strategy:

The following additional points must be kept in mind:

- Most brands spend as much on Below-the-Line (BTL - events, consumer promos, contact programs etc) as they do on Above-the-Line (ATL - advertising, mass media)

- There is an increasing movement of budgets towards BTL for the following reasons:

a) More accountability and professionalism emerging in this business

b) More clutter in the mass-media, leading to brand managers seeking higher-impact-creating contact programs

c) Decentralizing of marketing budgets to the branches - thus leading to increased spends on non-media activities

Many clients who are not convinced with the effectiveness of radio find it easier to start spending with us on Activation business. Their experience with an Activation event - under the overall umbrella of radio - gives them more confidence in radio - thus helping convert them to radio.

Job Description: Activations Group Managers

Primary responsibility:

- Revenue generation & timely collection for the company from the concerned category by engaging self & team on job

Responsibilities:

Sales Planning & Budgeting:

- Prepare monthly and quarterly activations plan

- Develop and implement activations strategy for the territory assigned

- Track revenue achievement at an individual and team level

- Monitor competition (Magus) and use innovative ideas to maximize market share while maintaining alignment to overall station & company strategy

- Recommend pricing strategies for the category

- Give feedback on programming and product to programming and marketing teams respectively and recommend improvements based on market feedback

- Aid team members in achieving their targets

- Help and aid in sales closures

- Go out on coaching calls with team members

- Contribute to ideas and concepts for furthering the team's objectives

- Meet and build relationships with key accounts (agencies and clients)

- Team Management

- Participate actively in all team activities including going to field on calls

- Coach and mentor team members

- Actively encourage upward feedback

- Provide training to all team members on a regular basis on sales skills

- Spend time with team members in giving feedback on their performance and also in resolving issues / conflicts

- Monitoring all reports sent by team members

- Own the responsibility of timely collections of team revenues through the respective team members.

- Maintain strong relationships with clients and agencies

- Implement & maintain processes and systems as developed by the corporate office

- Making sales calls along with team members

- Reviewing client proposals, presentations made by members

- Plan weekly sales cycle and schedule client meeting accordingly

- Help team in ideation for clients based on the brand requirement

Market Information:

- Reviewing client and market mapping reports for assigned territory / category

- Reviewing reports on client spends at a brand level

- Independent media tracking to generate prospects

- Reviewing reports including daily call reports, weekly reports, sales projection report, monthly sales plan etc

- Plan and budget revenue generation for the week and month

- Review written briefs given to programming by team members for the spot / commercial based on inputs from client / agency

- Monitor ROs and TOs generation and scheduling (through the sales coordinator and scheduler)

- Contribute to sales strategy and generate ideas for revenue maximization

- Help develop and sell specials and events

ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS:

- Reports to MA Head in Metros and to Station Head in non-metros

The position expects the person to work with considerable amount of independence and take decision regarding the target achievement.

CONTACTS:

- Internal persons

The position requires the person to coordinate regularly with :

1. Programming

2. Marketing

3. Scheduling

4. Sales coordinator

5. Branch Accounts

External persons:

The position requires the person to coordinate with agency personnel, clients, their key decision makers, decision influencers etc

KNOWLEDGE OF EQUIPMENTS TO BE USED:

The person should be able to use with proficiency:

- Excel and Word for preparing reports and proposals

- Basic computer applications for writing scripts, doing paperwork & corresponding.