A typical Cancerian - she sees herself as an extrovert who is full of energy and passionate about work and other worthy causes. BBC World head of advertising sales, India, Seema Mohapatra will need all this energy as she gears up to face the challenges offered by the mushrooming of innumerable news channels in India.

A management graduate from XIM (Bhubaneshwar), Mohapatra has been with BBC World since the last four years. In the beginning, she was responsible for west and east India markets. Mohapatra also developed ad sales operations in south India from scratch as BBC World didn't have a strong presence there at that point of time. Currently, she has an all India team of 18 people and two more from the finance department who are responsible for collections.

Prior to BBC, Mohapatra was with Star India and was responsible for the Kolkata and the East India market. For nearly four and a half years, she was responsible for getting revenues for the Star Network's five channels including BBC World which was part of her portfolio. Having worked in different markets in India, Mohapatra is well-positioned to leverage her contacts amongst the advertising fraternity and obtain revenues for the channel.

Mohapatra responded to indiantelevision.com's Ashwin Kotian's queries and outlined her plans. Excerpts -.

How has the relationship between advertisers, ad agencies and airtime marketers changed in recent times?
The need of the hour is ROI - greater return on investment - by agencies and clients. This has necessitated the three parties to work more closely on embracing the brand values and providing solutions that reflect the 3 Ms - media value, media innovation and media solutions. Advertisers and agencies expect sellers to be more than agents for airtime.

Did the war have any impact on BBC's airtime sales? What should be the stance of 'news' airtime sellers during times of war or calamities?
Viewership of news channels demonstrated a steep upward curve both globally and in India in recent times. As far as we are concerned, the channel assumed a rolling news format where all advertising breaks were dropped. Advertising was resumed when it was thought to be appropriate during such sensitive times and also in keeping with other international channels.

We did lose a number of international ad campaigns especially those from advertisers in the travel and energy sector. But when we reinstated our breaks, several of them returned to the channel - especially the tourism boards - who were keen to maintain business interests during a peak holiday period.

What efforts are being made to ensure constant dialogue with advertisers and clients? Has BBC developed any special training modules to address these "client servicing issues"?
Information, Involvement, Ideas and Insight - these are the four 'I's that the sales team for the channel embrace and use to conduct our business in India.

Engaging with agencies and advertisers in communicating our brand values; along with our unique offering of international programme formats and series; as well as bespoke shows for our audiences in India forms the backbone of our sales approach.

More recently, the team has adopted the creative approach to selling the uncluttered and exceptional environment with sponsorship of long and short form programming as well as production of unique features - for example 'Samsung Dream Team', 'The Complete Man' for Raymonds, Fiat 'Sport Today'.

Around the world, we subscribe and commission studies to understand the elusive upscale audience who form our core audience. Mass studies tend to ignore this niche but powerful group of influencers in any society.

BBC World found a gap in research available on this audience in India and conducted a major study called Horizon in 2000. This was shared with advertisers and agencies, which has been used as a tool successfully to understand this group better. This year, we have conducted the next study in the series called Horizon 2003, which again throws up interesting trends.

BBC World does both in house training as well as getting external trainers to come in and periodically update skills of the team. The team is encouraged to come back with new ideas of reaching out to customers, which has worked very well. We have used various interesting 'out of the box' ideas to inform our clients on special programming on the channel.

What are the extra efforts, which will be required to market BBC group channels - which offer a different proposition - infotainment news with documentaries?
BBC World is a 24-hour news and information channel in India bringing to its viewers in-depth news and analyses along with informative and compelling programmes.

The channel will continue to constantly upgrade and strive to be a leading global news and information provider around the world. We will be able to show the clear differentiation and value to our advertisers in the future by providing both a programming environment across every aspect of news - business, sports, motoring, entertainment, technology, travel and current affairs as well as an involved influential audience.

Will BBC launch these documentaries in India to ward off the stiff competition from a plethora of Indian news channels?
BBC World continues to invest in programming for its audience in India and around the world. There has been an influx of news channels in recent times but the offering across all of them is local. However, appetite for international news has also increased in recent times.

The new launches will not affect the international news channel share. Viewers will continue to watch BBC World for its unparalleled reporting, in-depth analysis, informative programming and award winning documentaries.

The channel has been offering unique weekend programming like the Voyager series, Trouble at the Top - which examines how bosses steer their way through start-ups, revivals, turnarounds and disasters. Profiles, a series, which ran last quarter, featured key international personalities from the global fields of business and politics like Saddam Hussain, George Bush and Stephen Hawking.

Coming up in the next quarter is a programme called Great Britons, which is a series of ten biographical programmes of the 10 great Britons as, voted for by the British public.

BBC World has remained the preferred choice among international channels in India. Recent research during the Iraq crisis showed a 57 per cent increase among upmarket people and over 10 million people dipped into the channel in the first three days according to TAM ratings.

Credibility, the single most important factor for any news brand, is extremely high for the channel globally and in India.

What kind of innovations will a tradition bound channel (such as BBC) permit in air time sales packages?
We have been investing in locally relevant programming with more creative opportunities for advertisers to associate with the channel. Our short form programming series have provided effective associations for our advertisers.

With over 50 years of archival footage available to us, we have created unique vignettes for our clients on technology, travel, inventions, medicines amongst others. We have commissioned some innovative ideas in India like the idea of 'The Complete Man' for Raymond where successful women from different fields were asked to comment on their idea of a complete man.

Special programming associated with events that are important in the business and sports calendar both locally and internationally have also been on the agenda. The World Cup cricket had dedicated programming across Indian programmes, sports and business programming.

The first ever contest on the channel, sponsored by Samsung, ran pre cricket World Cup; where viewers were invited to create their cricket 'World Dream Team'. We will continue in our endeavour to provide meaningful innovations to our advertisers.

Do you see content and sponsorships (in TV placements) going hand in hand? Will BBC ever compromise airtime space - in a manner similar to how major publication groups are talking about selling content?
The trend has already started in a minor way and channels are evaluating such options. I would say that the associations have to be very clever and will only work well within certain genres.

Today, we have a very evolved and discerning viewer and we cannot insult the viewers' intellect. News channels specially will be watched only if the consumer is comfortable with what he or she is getting. BBC World will not compromise on the editorial content of news as both viewers and advertisers come to the channel for the environment and the values it stands for.

How do you cope up with ever-increasing targets imposed upon sales teams by broadcaster-proprietors?
Increasing targets are an integral part of any sales teams core deliverables. The challenge is to strike a balance between setting realistic targets based on market condition and at the same time guiding and motivating your team to meet these numbers.