Who Woos Who?

Is it a buyer's market or a seller's? For media, it does look like buyers' have an edge. Officially there are 123 TV channels & 796 publications in India (TAM data); the unregistered could take the count up to twice that number. Almost 70,000 programmes to advertise on. Print monopolies have taken a major beating. All this bodes well for advertisers. Media vehicles are trying hard to grab their attention. And to woo media planners.

Saw two instances yesterday. Discovery Channel, which is all set to launch a new show, Alien, sent over their folks to the office to create some buzz. And Mumbai Mirror sent over a gorgeous cake, with icing that was a front page replica.

Ultimately it's numbers that tell the truth. But the hierarchy of control is there for everyone to see. The client rules over the agency, which in turn rules over the channel/publication. Oh.. add the consumer to beginning of that line. He's the one everyone's trying to woo anyway.