Viacom18’s digital video-on-demand streaming service aims to reach 100 million monthly active users within the fiscal year. According to information shared, its current MAU number is in the vicinity of 55 million.
At a media briefing on Friday, Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO and MD, Viacom18 also announced the currently advertising-supported video-on-demand model (AVOD) will soon diversify into four distinct businesses: Voot AVOD, Voot Kids, Voot International and Voot Freemium. Viacom18 also announed the setting up of VOOT Studios, a content-tech solution for advertisers looking to connect with digital audiences with branded shows, sponsorships, interactive formats in addition to various bespoke offerings.
As part of its future growth strategy, the platform also announced the further scaling of its current content library with over 30+ originals across genres and languages, to be launched this fiscal.
Said Vats: “India will have an online consumer base of more than 500mn by 2022. Of this, more than 3/4th will be consuming video content. While technological advancements allow us to personalize content consumption, growth for the category will come from our ability to segment our offerings to multiple consumer segments accelerated by the three A’s – accessibility, availability and affordability,” adding: VOOT has crossed the 100bn watch minutes’ mark in 3 years and we are now targeting 100mn monthly active users within this financial year. Additionally, we are segmenting the VOOT business into 4 uniquely focussed propositions – the existing AVOD model and the upcoming freemium offering, VOOT Kids and VOOT International.”
Added Akash Banerji, Head – AVOD Business, VOOT: “Brands today realise regular ad spot while important is not sufficient to drive resonance with the consumer. Branded content solutioning is hence the way forward given that it allows for bespoke content curation and subtle communication embedded into the narrative of the show. VOOT Studios will allow brands to bring the world of story-telling, data and tech all together to deliver the brand message and the ROI effectively for the business.”
Following a multi-agency pitch, online pharmacy Medlife.com has brought Lowe Lintas on board as its creative agency.
Said Meera Iyer, CMO, Medlife.com:”Having worked with Lowe Lintas in the past, I know how they have created memorable brand campaigns for Unilever. But you need a slightly different approach for e-commerce retail brands, and of the agencies in Bengaluru, I felt Lowe Lintas would deliver best, as they understand both the online place as well as the new digitally-inclined audiences that drive growth. Maintaining Medlife’s leadership position and growing the online share of the Healthcare pie is critical to growth ambitions this year. We will look to Lowe Lintas to deliver a fantastic creative campaign that helps us achieve both.”
Added Hari Krishnan, President, Lowe Lintas: “Medlife, a one-stop online healthcare brand, has aggressive expansion plans and we are proud to partner them at a time when the category is opening up. It is truly a pleasure and privilege to chart the course for a brand that is all set to change India’s healthcare and pharmaceutical space for the better.”
Domain registration platform BigRock has launched a new digital ad campaign for the .co domain name. The campaign positions .co domain name as the best digital identity for India’s new-age entrepreneurs.
Speaking about the campaign, Mitika Kulshreshtha, VP of Marketing, APAC at Endurance International Group, parent company of BigRock, said: “As one of the largest providers for domain names and websites in India, BigRock helps start-ups and small businesses get an active online presence quickly and easily. Through this campaign, we use humour and playfulness, typical to BigRock’s brand style, to reach entrepreneurs and reinforce our brand appeal as a trusted domain name provider.”
In the last GOT campaign, Hotstar Premium took the fight directly to torrents and this year the brand takes on the Spoilers. But instead of loathing spoilers, the campaign celebrates them through a film campaign by handing the power of spoilers in the hands of Hotstar Premium subscribers. The campaign is further amplified through out-of-home.
Quoting on the campaign, Rahul Mathew, National Creative Director, DDB Mudra Group said: “For a manically followed show like Game of Thrones, spoilers as an idea is both insightful and creatively fertile. Then it was just a matter of bringing the idea to life in the most entertaining manner.”
Quoting on the campaign, Sunder Balasubramanian, Head – Marketing, Hotstar Pay said: “The single-minded proposition to communicate was that this year the GOT fans in India could watch it live with the U.S. on Hotstar Premium. The creative idea of ‘the first to the throne owns the spoilers’ captured this thought simply, and stayed true to the language and milieu of the show.”
Even as Twitter rises in popularity in India, its leadership continues to see changes. Former Network18 Digital CEO Manish Maheshwari will take charge of Managing Director from next week.
Reporting to Maya Hari, Twitter’s Vice President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific, Maheshwari will be responsible for driving an integrated business strategy to accelerate Twitter’s audience and revenue growth in the country, overseeing Twitter India’s teams in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Said Hari: “India is one of our fastest growing audience markets for Twitter in the world and our purpose is to serve the public conversation in India. We are thrilled to have Manish join us at this important time to take our Indian business to the next level. He has a successful track record of building strong digital businesses and leading teams in India, extensive experience working at the intersection of media and technology sectors, and a deep understanding of Indian consumer trends over the past 20 years. Under his leadership, we will continue to invest in India to empower all elements of Indian society to have a public voice to be heard through Twitter.”
Added Maheshwari: “The future of India is digital-first and full of possibilities with the world’s largest youth population and soon, the world’s largest workforce. I’ve been a Twitter user for more than 10 years now and I’m excited to lead Twitter India now to greater heights in the country. With premium Indian content on the rise in multiple regions across the country, I believe we are scratching the surface of what’s possible with Twitter in India. With our amazing teams across India, I’m bullish about the overall impact that Twitter India can create in the country and the influence of India on our global platform.”
Flipkart has launched its ‘Equals’ Day’ campaign, aiming to change the way we look at elections. This campaign is conceptualised and executed by Dentsu Webchutney.
Said Apuarv Sethi, Director- Brand Marketing, Flipkart: “Flipkart has always championed the charter of ‘Naye India ke saath’ by upholding progressive values, and we believe Equals’ Day truly brings India together to ink a symbol in the quest for equality. This is a truly secular narrative that we are proud to weave in the fabric of the country. Through the course of the elections, we will see Flipkart bring this festival alive in different ways.”
Added PG Aditya, Executive Creative Director, Dentsu Webchutney: “Flipkart is a brand that is built and powered by India, and it’s truly heart-warming to see this new festival being embraced by the country. From India’s very first election, back in 1950, the right to vote was given to every adult, regardless of caste, colour, religion or gender – known as the Universal Adult Franchise (UAF). When we remember the vote counts because it counts all of us as one.. we realise it’s not just the means to an end… but an end in itself. A day where we’re all equal, stripped off our differences. As one vote and one vote only.”
I knew all along, there was something drastically wrong with the way the future is unveiling itself. I was on the lookout for a debate on ‘How to fix the future’. Andrew Keen’s session at the IAA World Congress held at Kochi, India in February this year probably opened new spaces for the discussion.
We are under constant surveillance. Our behaviour is slowly being nudged towards what the dominant biggies Google, Amazon, Facebook of the business want. It is the new era of ‘Winner-takes-it-all’ business that is creating polarisation of wealth rather than distributing it.
We are ignorantly working towards bettering their algorithms. We believe we are getting all this free. Not realising there is nothing free.
The internet is a boon, but may be the price we are paying for its services outweigh the benefits. Internet is the new morphine. Like many of us, I feel trapped in the system. I am addicted to it. I am unable to withdraw or detox.
After having read ‘Internet is not the only thing’ by Andrew Keen, and having an equally polarised view of the internet, it was logical for me to pick his next book ‘How to Fix The Future: Staying Human in the Digital Age’.
And if this is the trailer, what profound changes Artificial and Alternate Intelligence can unleash on mankind, unless we pre-plan to control the damage. History is witness to the fact that we are blinded by our vision of advantages and rarely humans have thought of the future repercussion while it adopted a new regime of services and products.
Talking of the influence of internet-based services and addiction, I find it amusing and true. A potential threat humans failed to appreciate at the initial stage. “In the 1960s, we swam through the waters with only a few hooks: cigarettes, alcohol and drugs that were expensive and generally inaccessible… “In the 2010s, those same water are littered with hooks. There’s the Facebook hook, Instagram hook. The porn hook. The email hook. The online shopping hook. And so on. The list is long –far longer than it’s ever been in human history, and we’re only just learning the power of these hooks.”
On the other side, humankind has always been smart enough to get out of the damage path by intense social pressure, tweaking of the technology and bringing new guidelines and reforms to control the damage. Half of us would believe that we would once again succeed in doing so with the Internet and AI.
In his book, Keen makes a very pertinent point: ‘The computer is the “Brain Outside ourselves” our “Second Brain”. From an evolutionary point of view, there we have taken an exponential leap. The new brain has outpaced our heart, our morality and beliefs. We are so preoccupied looking down at the second brains, that we forget how to look smartly at ourselves. As these devices get faster and faster, we appear to be standing still, as they produce more and more data about us, we are getting any more intelligent: as the devices become more powerful, we might lose control of our own lives. Instead of the singularity, we actually be on the brink of antithesis- let’s call it the “duality” – an ever-deepening chasm between humans and smart machines and also between tech companies and the rest of humanity.’
He adds what I call a real possibility: ‘In the future, we may no longer be in charge of our own creation… Our technology might be developing a mind of its own, thereby excluding and disempowering, and enslaving us. The existential threat of self-conscious algorithms is very real. They might be our final invention.’
May be the answer lies in genuinely finding ‘What the Humans are good at’ and will always be a wee bit better than the machines. The current answer is ‘Nothing’. And we in our quest of making machines equally smart and emotive with a better power to process and take decisions are clearly on the path to wipe out any difference. I have my doubts. I am part of the small subset that believes; we are on the way to hastening the end of mankind. And one of the reasons I like reading Andrew Keen.
Most of us are intellectually challenged to understand the enormity of the technology revolution, the amplified inequalities, the creation of parallel power centres feeding on our data and the race to harnessing Alternate intelligence.
No doubt, Keen is open and transparent in stating: ‘This is a maybe book, based on the belief that the digital revolution can, like the industrial revolution, be mostly successfully tamed, managed and reformed. It hopes that the best feature of this transformation – increased innovation, transparency, creativity, even a dose of healthy disruption – might make the world a better place.”
The book title ‘How to fix the future’ is misleading. There are no solutions. There can’t be.
Keen presents a strong argument in favour of his belief that “No, not even the smartest technology can solve technological problems. Only people can”. I agree with him as he shares a few example and stories of how people are solving the thorniest problem in the digital age.
Though there are directional paths from education to governance, to fixing it well in time. The example quoted in the book of Governance in Estonia and the always-on technology for betterment in Singapore shows some promise. The concept of ‘Universal Basic Income’, paid to everyone for ‘Not Doing Anything’ is also explored but be warned that can never be the solution. The only good part is that Andrew Keen is raising the issue. He at least presents a possible solution around competitive innovation, government regulation, consumer choice, social responsibility by business leaders, and education. It is up for healthy discussion.
What I disliked was the constant reference to the 1516 work of Thomas More’s Utopia. It comes across as a framework of an idealistic world-inspiring Keen. But that is hardly the way life is expected to turn. Though it was interesting to note that if seen from a perspective More’s Utopia Map resembles a skull. May be there is a cryptic message in the map design that we are missing.
Go read this interesting book that may sound fiction to many followers and admirers of internet-led ease in life.
NoBroker.com has launched a multicity ad campaign that underlines the absurdity of paying brokerage in residential real estate. Conceptualised by Ralph&Das, the ad film speaks to the home-owners who have been paying almost a month’s rent as brokerage for very little value addition by brokers. It urges them to list their properties on NoBroker.com where they can rent it out for free.
Launched across Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and Chennai, the ad campaign targets homeowners and landlords who consume more TV than online media. The campaign will be aired across English as well as regional news channels along with GECs. It would be amplified through a diverse mix of media such as TV, radio, digital, OOH, and cinema.
Commenting on the latest campaign, Saurabh Garg, co-founder and CBO of Nobroker.com said, “The concept and amount of brokerage charged for services in real estate in India is quite absurd. Also, owners are very emotional about their house. Through this ad, we aim to reinstate the fact that the sum of money that anyone is expected to give as brokerage is totally not worth the service. Once the information asymmetry in real estate is solved there is very little value that a broker adds to the house-hunting/renting process. Our commercial speaks to owners to question the justification for this amount. We are targeting owners who are financially smart and understand the logic of why paying brokerage is absurd.”
Short video platform Vigo Video has launched “#DekhteRehJaaoge”, its first integrated brand campaign. The TV-led campaign comprises four videos that highlight real moments from the lives of Vigo Video users across India.
Notes a communique: “We’re thrilled to unveil our first integrated brand campaign for Vigo Video especially made for our Indian users. Vigo Video’s vision from day one has been to build a short video social platform where anyone and everyone can express themselves freely by sharing real stories from their everyday lives. Vigo’s core users are first-time internet and smartphone users who create short and entertaining stories for a like-minded community who have similar interests. With the launch #DekhteRehJaaoge, Vigo aims to attract new users who would be keen to experiment with the platform to create entertaining content.”
Arm Worldwide has been awarded the digital duties for Revolt Intellicorp, the new electric motorcycle venture announced by Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma. The mandate was won following a multi-partner pitch in February 2019 and will be operated from the headquarters of Arm in Gurugram.
Shubhodip Pal
Said Shubhodip Pal, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer: “While shortlisting our agency partners, we wanted to work with like-minded people who share our vision of making this electric dream for India a reality. We are happy to have Arm Worldwide as part of the mix; they are a young group with fresh ideas and that is crucial for a new start-up and brand like ours. It is great to have Arm on board as we roll out to bring India’s First AI enabled Motorcycle to our consumers in July 2019.”
Ritesh Singh
Commenting on the win, Ritesh Singh, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Arm Worldwide, said: “We are thrilled to be the partner of growth for Revolt Intellicorp. The automobile category is going through a transformation globally and Revolt Intellicorp will be leading this in India. The day I rode the electric motorcycle, I was sold; I knew that this is a Unicorn in the making. We had/have no category case studies to take inspiration from, no set industry benchmarks as electric automobile business is new, which was good in one way. It pushed us further and our way of looking at the brand journey for success came out to the accepted winning formula for team Revolt. We are ready to write another mega success story and this time, we are going to break all our records for the brand, both in terms of business and brand.”
Inuxu Digital Media Technologies has announced the appointment of Sumeet Dubey as Chief Business Officer. He will report to Rohit Bagad, Inuxu’s CEO.
Said Bagad: “Native advertising in recent years have taken fancy of digital marketers in India due to its simplicity, reach and cost-effectiveness. Adgebra offers same native advertising solution along with the power of multilingual solution. Indian internet growth fueled with 4G data connectivity will cross 550 million by 2020. 9 out of 10 new Indian internet users between 2016 to 2021 will consume content in regional language. These data points showcase tremendous opportunity that lies ahead for adgebra. I’m very confident that Sumeet will help adgebra scale further growth.”
ByteDance has announced the appointment of GroupM CEO Sameer Singh as Vice President, Monetisation (India). In his new role, Singh will work closely with ByteDance’s partners and clients while leading the advertising, sales and marketing strategies across all of ByteDance’s products in India. Based in Gurugram, Singh will be starting his role in August.
Commenting on his new role, Singh said, “I am truly excited to join ByteDance, which is one of the fastest growing global technology companies spearheading innovation in the mobile space. In India, ByteDance has transformed the way people create and interact with their content, and I believe that my experience will contribute to ByteDance’s promising journey in this market. I am looking forward to working with my colleagues, our clients, and our partners at ByteDance to create new synergies in the industry.”
Welcoming Singh to the team, Lidong Zhang, Senior Vice President, ByteDance said, “We are excited to welcome Sameer to the team. We are looking forward to working with him to bring ByteDance’s monetization efforts in India across our various platforms such as TikTok and Helo to even greater heights.”
