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Hersh Bhandari Joins NDTV As Brand Advisor And Head Of NDTV CoLab

Ad Tribe! Bureau2 min read
Hersh Bhandari, brand advisor and head of NDTV CoLab

NDTV has appointed Hersh Bhandari as brand advisor and head of NDTV CoLab, a unit built to bring brand partnerships, branded content, original IP and cross-platform experiences under one roof.

  • Appointment: brand advisor and head, NDTV CoLab
  • Experience: close to three decades across media, business strategy, marketing, branded content and revenue
  • Previously: senior roles at Republic World, India Today Television, Times Television Network, Adhikari Brothers and NDTV itself
  • Spokespeople: Rahul Kanwal, chief executive and editor-in-chief, NDTV; Rahul Shaw, chief business officer, NDTV

What NDTV CoLab Is For

The unit is described as combining storytelling, creativity and commercial innovation to build content, properties and experiences across television, digital and social.

Strip the language back and it is a news broadcaster acknowledging that spot advertising alone will not fund a newsroom. The value NDTV holds that a platform cannot easily replicate is credibility and a live audience, and a unit like CoLab exists to sell that in forms other than a thirty-second slot.

Why Hersh Bhandari

Kanwal put the rationale on the pairing of trust and commercial ability:

"As brands look for deeper and more meaningful audience engagement, NDTV CoLab will bring together the credibility of NDTV's flagship news brands with innovative, content-led partnerships."

Bhandari's route through Republic World, India Today Television, Times Television Network and Adhikari Brothers is essentially a tour of the Indian news television revenue market, and he has worked at NDTV before. In a business where the deals are relationship-led and the buyers have long memories, the returning executive with three decades of contacts is a specific asset rather than a generic one.

The Difficulty Nobody Names

Branded content inside a news organisation is a permanent tension. The thing being sold is credibility, and credibility is spent by selling it. Every commercial format that works slightly blurs the line the newsroom depends on, which is why these units live or die on the labelling discipline around them rather than on the creative.

Shaw's framing pointed at relationships and an entrepreneurial mindset, which is the right description of the job. The unspoken half is that whoever runs it also decides, repeatedly, where the line sits.

More on Ad Tribe People.

#branded content#hersh bhandari#leadership appointment#ndtv#news broadcasting
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