Category: Digital

  • GroupM ESP releases top 10 trends of entertainment and sports marketing for 2015

    By A Correspondent

     

    GroupM ESP (Entertainment & Sports Partnerships), a specialist business unit of GroupM has unveiled their top 10 trends for 2015. It is well known by now that sports in India, is undergoing a transition. With the rise of leagues across various sporting formats and with increase in cobranded promotions, the opportunities for brands to associate with movies and sports are also increasing.

     

    Uniquely positioned at the intersection of media and marketing, GroupM ESP predicts the following trends:

    1. Increased role and usage of celebrities as digital influencers

    2. Sporting entities will evolve by building digital and social assets to drive their valuation

    3. Blurring gap between Entertainment & Sports

    4. “Associative” to “Associative + Integration + Surround + Social”

    5. From Advertisers to Sponsors

    6. New avenues for traditional licensing – ex. branded real estate

    7. TV fiction characters as Brand Ambassadors

    8. Non-cricket sports to expand sports business ecosystem

    9. Sports businesses to build strong grassroots engagement through experiential programs

    10. Music concerts to grow bigger than award shows

     

    Commenting on the trends Vinit Karnik- National Director, GroupM ESP said, “As we scale up our practice, 2015 will see a change in the way consumers interact with the sports and entertainment category. Sporting entities will evolve by building digital and social assets to drive their valuation and brands will increase role and usage of celebrities as influencers especially across digital assets. We have strategically positioned ourselves to embrace this change and are confident that it will help us achieve our clients’ objectives by offering innovative brand solutions.”

     

    Adding further he said, “Celebrities have been using the digital space extensively for their work. From promoting their movies to inviting fans to attend a social cause, celebs make use of the digital platform in a great way. With millions of followers, celebrities have the power to influence their fans and effectively get their message forward.”

     

    “Digital and social assets are used by sports entities to keep their fans up to date. In order to increase the fan base, sporting franchisees and leagues will develop fan following around them by efficient use of digital medium. With immense focus on digital rights of sporting leagues, digital video sites will be competing with television broadcasters for eyeballs in the near future.”

     

  • Godrej Nature’s Basket partners with Snapdeal.com

    By A Correspondent

     

    Godrej Nature’s Basket has announced its partnership with Snapdeal.com. Through Snapdeal, the eclectic Indian and international gourmet range from Nature’s Basket will now be available to consumers in 5000 plus cities, thus expanding the brand’s reach significantly across the country. This association makes Godrej Nature’s Basket, the sole large gourmet retailer to list its range online on a marketplace platform.

     

    Commenting on the association, Mohit Khattar, MD, Godrej Nature’s Basket said, “We are thrilled to partner with Snapdeal.com. This is a huge opportunity for the brand to connect with all discerning customers who are currently not serviced by our offline and online formats. We continue to aim to make food shopping a bigger pleasure and enable better and brighter experiences for customers by making it even easier for them to source the finest from around the world.”

     

    Godrej Nature’s Basket has listed over 700 products on India’s largest online marketplace in the first phase and the range will increase exponentially in the coming months. The brand will also introduce its chic gifting options range on the platform. Exclusive and elegant Godrej Nature’s Basket gift hampers, catering to discerning and quality conscious customers, will make their debut soon.

     

    Speaking on the development Amit Maheshwari, Vice President – Fashion at Snapdeal.com said, “Godrej Nature’s Basket is India’s leading chain for premier gourmet products and we are extremely delighted to enter into this partnership. Our gourmet category has been receiving an encouraging response from 40 million+ users and this partnership is a strategic move to further strengthen Snapdeal.com’s gourmet category. We are sure of a positive response from our customer base and hope fine food connoisseurs will cherish ordering these amazing flavours from around the world.  We look forward to a long term and mutually beneficial association with Godrej Nature’s Basket.”

     

  • Snapdeal strengthens appoints Bhuvan Gupta as VP-Engineering

    By A Correspondent

     

    Snapdeal.com has appointed Bhuvan Gupta as Vice President-Engineering. In his new role, Bhuvan will be responsible for further strengthening the company’s technology platform by building technology which further eases merchants to sell online. This is in continuation with the company’s vision of helping a million merchants to go online in three years.

     

    Snapdeal has been ramping up its engineering team aggressively to further build and enhance customer and seller experience on its site. With the aspiration to become a globally renowned technology leader, Snapdeal’s 1000+ people strong engineering team aims to continue raising the bar on technology that enables great buyer and seller experience.

     

    Bhuvan comes with a vast experience across technology positions in multinational companies across industries, successfully leading technology functions and galvanizing their growth. With over 15 years of experiences, he holds an engineering degree from Birla Institute Technology and Sciences (BITS), Pilani and a business degree from the prestigious Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi. Prior to joining Snapdeal.com, Bhuvan was the CTO at BSB Portal (JV between BSB and Yahoo Japan). At BSB, he built the engineering team that developed popular Hike Messenger, Wynk Music and One touch internet, powering key mobile data initiatives for Airtel.

     

    “We are thrilled to have Bhuvan join the Snapdeal family.  Bhuvan comes with a rich experience and has been at the heart of key mobile and technology innovations in his previous organizations. Technology and innovation are at the core of our company, and we are positive that his passion for technology will ensure that Snapdeal continues to innovate and create life changing experience for buyers and sellers. His onboarding is in line with our plan of onboarding over 1000 of the top computer engineers in the country to make Snapdeal a technology powerhouse,” said Rohit Bansal, Co-founder at Snapdeal.com.

     

  • Millward Brown unveils Media & Digital predictions report for 2015

    By A Correspondent

     

    Millward Brown has released its Annual Digital & Media Predictions for the year ahead. For the seventh year running, the company is providing marketers with a clear guide to the challenges and opportunities of the next 12 months.

     

    Authored by Millward Brown experts from around the world, the 2015 report identifies the need for marketers to empower programmatic media buying systems to do more than simply access cheaper and more targeted impressions.

     

    To make this transition, marketers will need to build creative that can be customized and seamlessly delivered by media buying algorithms. Millward Brown says brands that achieve this will be able to create a new form of dynamic and relevant storytelling.

     

    At the same time,marketers will need to ensure the advantages that come from programmatic targeting are not delivered at the expense of other key campaign objectives such as communicating brand messages and building long-term desire. Successful programmatic providers will increasingly differentiate themselves based on their ability to deliver campaigns that not only drive behaviors but also improve brand metrics.

     

    “To date, the debate around programmatic media has been firmly centered on the ‘how’ of operations and behavioral metrics such as cost per click,” said Mark Henning, AMAP Head for Media &Digital at Millward Brown. “In 2015 we expect marketers to be equally focused on the benefits programmatic may be able to bring to building meaningful brands and the opportunities to leverage it more creatively.”

     

    Prasun Basu, Managing Director, South Asia Region at Millward Brown said,” Millward Brown’s Annual Digital & Media Predictions provide a guide to how marketing is likely to change in the next 12 months. A series of media conclaves in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru will provide marketers and media professionals a platform to discuss these trends and exchange ideas that will impact the way brands reach out to consumers.”

     

    Millward Brown also anticipates other important changes in the media landscape around the world and describes in the 2015 predictions how marketers can “get media right”.  These include:

    :: As native advertising becomes an established medium, advertisers should partner with best-in-class publishers who strike the right balance between advertising and editorial.

    :: New and exciting paid marketing opportunities will emerge on micro-video platforms, but only brands who know, learn and love those platforms will succeed.

    :: Location-based marketing opportunities will become powerful when brands focus on consumers’ interests rather than on their own.

     

  • Hungama unveils campaign to promote new offering

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hungama.com has announced the launch of the second phase of its ‘Zindagi Ka Soundtrack’ brand campaign. The second leg of the 360 degree campaign will be following up on the successful October 2014 campaign by introducing a refreshing and lucrative new offering for their loyal consumer base – ‘Dabake Free Gifts’. This new offering seeks to make the Hungama experience even sweeter as along with the music streaming services the patrons already enjoy.

     

    With the plethora of music options to suit every mood, that Hungama has to offer, the music streaming portal is already an indispensible part of the lives of its loyal consumers. And now with ‘Dabake Free Gifts’, Hungama gives its large pool of listeners the unique opportunity to gain something more from the thing they love already.

     

    Hungama.com has handpicked prizes that appeal to its consumer base, which is mainly made up of the youth. The prizes include products from brands like Apple, Bose, Phillips, Blaupunkt, Samsung, Nokia, JBL, Lenovo, Sennheiser, Wildcraft, Portronics, Benetton, Happily Unmarried, Epitome, Chumbak, MOM Italy, etc. as well as experiences like fine dining at select five-star hotels & restaurants, holidays, etc. As an added incentive for users, Hungama will also be offering free talktime to users as a part of the rewards.

     

    Siddhartha Roy

    Commenting on the idea behind the launch of the second phase, Siddhartha Roy, CEO at Hungama.com said, “The first phase of our brand campaign received an overwhelming response from consumers, which also led to Hungama’s mobile app’s move to the top position in the download charts. As the market leader in this space, we felt it was important for us to now start communicating with our consumers about how while Hungama’s app is entertaining them, it can also simultaneously reward them. Hungama, across our multiple platforms, has the largest set of engaged active users and this campaign is our way of acknowledging their loyalty to our platform.”

     

    The TVC of the campaign will go on air from 18 January, for two weeks, across national and regional channels. The campaign will also be extended to the digital platforms. To activate the campaign on Youtube, Hungama.com has created a series of 5-second advertisements for the platform. The campaign will also be promoted via social media, where fans winning prizes will have their pictures clicked and uploaded to Hungama’s pages.

     

  • Snapdeal.com, DEN unveil TV Commerce channel

    By A Correspondent

     

    Snapdeal.com has announced a 50:50 joint venture with DEN to launch a TV Commerce channel titled ‘DEN Snapdeal TV shop’. The channel aims to create a multi-nodal electronic shopping avenue for customers.

     

    The channel is currently available for viewers on channel number 132 on DEN cable network and will be extended to other cable and DTH networks in the course of the next six months.

     

    DEN Networks Ltd. reaches about 13 million households in over 200 cities across 13 states in the country. Snapdeal.com will leverage this robust distribution network of DEN to provide customers easy access to the wide assortment of products across Home, Lifestyle and Electronics categories with great value deals.

     

    DEN Snapdeal TV Shop will benefit those customers who have limited access to internet services particularly in Tier 2 and 3 cities further hampered by lack of physical access to top retail products and brands at competitive prices. Additionally, every purchase made on the channel comes with quality and delivery assurance from Snapdeal.com and the flexibility to pay on delivery – an option largely confined to e-shopping.

     

    Speaking about the partnership, Kunal Bahl, Co-founder and CEO Snapdeal.com said, “Innovation lies at the heart of Snapdeal.com and with this initiative we are taking yet another step to fulfill our promise of providing accessibility to the best products at best prices to consumers across India. We are delighted to partner with a likeminded brand like DEN Networks which enjoys massive reach and brand loyalty across the entire country and especially in smaller towns of India. India is a country with many heterogeneous segments of consumers, and we believe that by reaching 150 million households with 600 million people that have a TV, we can create another revolution through TV Commerce.”

     

    Sameer Manchanda, CMD, DEN Networks said, “We are extremely thrilled to partner with Snapdeal.com on this game-changing initiative. By leveraging Snapdeal and DEN’s nationwide distribution network, we will now be able to engage with a much larger audience which is still not exposed to the benefits of online shopping and internet access. Together we aim to offer the Customers a wide assortment of products and provide them with a hassle free buying experience.  The response to the pilot has been extremely encouraging and we are sure DEN Snapdeal TV Shop will be well received by our viewers.”

     

    Snapdeal aims to take the DEN Snapdeal TV shop to 100 Million households across India over the next 12 months.

     

  • In a first in India, Twitter acquires ZipDial

    By A Correspondent

     

    Twitter announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire ZipDial (@zipdial), its product partner based in Bangalore, to make Twitter even more accessible to people around the world. This is Twitter’s first ever acquisition in India.

     

    Christian Oestlien, VP of Product, Twitter explains, “Over the next several years, billions of people will come online for the first time in countries like Brazil, India and Indonesia. For many, their first online experience will be on a mobile device – but the cost of data may prevent them from experiencing the true power of the Internet. Twitter, in partnership with ZipDial, can make great content more accessible to everyone.”

     

    ZipDial has built a mobile platform that lets people follow and engage with content across all interfaces. The user experience combines SMS, voice, mobile web, and access to mobile apps to bridge users from offline to online. For example, through ZipDial, it’s easy to engage with a publisher or brand by making a toll-free “missed call” to a designated phone number. The caller will then begin receiving inbound content and further engagement on their phone in real time through voice, SMS or an app notification. These interactions are especially appealing in areas where people aren’t always connected to data or only access data through intermittent wi-fi networks.

     

    ZipDial’s platform has engaged nearly 60 million users with hundreds of marketer clients, including the world’s leading brands and media companies. The platform’s unique model of engaging users while “offline”enables ZipDial to personalize the experience and content in ways that are not possible on traditional online platforms.

     

    Valerie Wagoner, Founder and CEO, ZipDial explains, “More than half of the world’s population live in emerging and newly developed markets, and these consumers use their mobile phones differently. We build for them. ZipDial’s innovative platform has already scaled across South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa, where we operate. We are thrilled to expand our impact to a global level with Twitter.”

     

    Rishi Jaitly, Market Director, India and Southeast Asia, Twitter said, “We’re extremely impressed with what ZipDial has built and are delighted to welcome them to the flock. In India, our primary mission, which is bolstered by this acquisition, is to help every Indian with a mobile device enjoy a great, relevant Twitter experience. We believe Twitter – a platform invented for SMS and rich in media – is a perfect match for India, a mobile-first country with a celebrated media heritage.”

     

    This acquisition significantly increases Twitter’s investment in India, one of the countries where the company is seeing great growth, and also brings Twitter a new engineering office in Bangalore.

     

  • Ronnie Screwvala returns to media with digital foray, with B Sai Kumar as MD, Ajay Chacko as CEO

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sai Kumar

    Media veteran who promoted the entertainment conglomerate UTV Ronnie Screwvala is making his first major foray in the media after exiting UTV. Along with former Network18 Group CEO B Sai Kumar, he is setting up a digital media company. Based in Mumbai, in its first phase, the venture aims at launching multi-genre, multi-lingual content across video, audio, text and other traditional and ‘new age’ art forms. The investment envisaged is an outlay of up to Rs 150 crore across two phases – while the first phase would be largely domestic-focused, the platform will evaluate new geographies and verticals in its second and subsequent phases.

     

     

    Ajay Chacko

    The venture with Mr Sai Kumar as Managing Director, has roped in former Network18 COO Ajay Chacko as CEO and is said to have commenced a global search for talent in creative, product and technology functions across entertainment, current affairs & infotainment spaces.

     

  • InMobi ‘pivots’ to take on online Ad giants like Google, Acxiom, Experian directly

    By Krithika Krishnamurthy & Peerzada Abrar

     

    Mobile advertising network InMobi is all set to woo large enterprises with a new analytics service that will mark a crucial shift in the business model of the eight-year old company that is looking to revive growth and investor interest.

     

    The move, termed as a “pivot”, will see InMobi ­ combine data from clients with insights on consumer behaviour that it has gathered ­ create new marketing strategies for enterprises. This will pitch the company into direct competition with global players such as Google, Acxiom and Harte Hanks.

     

    “The trials have already begun,” said a person with direct knowledge of the development. “This pivot will make In Mobi an early mover in this space.”

     

    Experts are of the view that for mobile advertising networks that are increasingly dependent on algorithms that churn out programmed output, looking beyond is proving to be crucial.

     

    “Companies like InMobi have to pivot because of the complex channels of data involved (online, offline, beacon, mobile),” said Michael J Becker, managing partner of mCordis, a consulting firm that advises companies on mobile trends and advertising strategies.

     

    InMobi has so far gathered data from third-party website and partners, and mostly competed with Google and Facebook. It will now not only push advertisements on smartphones but will run marketing campaigns through email and other channels. Manish Dugar, InMobi’s vicepresident for finance and legal, declined to term the new business model as a “pivot” saying “finding new initiatives and scaling them is a regular activity in our industry.” The company according to him follows an investment philosophy of 60:30:10. While the bulk of the money is used to run the existing business, a tenth of the money goes into trying out “moonshots” which are at an idea stage.The ideas that make it past this stage are then provided with investment to scale and commercialise the idea.

     

    “Big data analytics is one such initiative,” he said. The shift in business comes at a time when InMobi has been out in the market since last year to attract new funding of about $300 million (Rs 1,896 crore). According to people in the know, the company is seeking a valuation of $2 billion (Rs 12,640 crore) but not many investors have stepped up. SoftBank which invested $200 million (Rs 1,250 crore) in 2011 has since invested an additional’ . 30 crore so far.

     

    InMobi’s competitors are closely watching the new moves by the Bengaluru-based company.

     

    Mobile advertising company AdNear gathers both online and offline data, much like InMobi plans to do, and unlike InMobi, which is a third-party intermediary player, it works directly with brands.

     

    “It’s (InMobi) a good company, but it has grown too big to pivot at this stage,” said Anil Mathews, chief executive of AdNear, whose startup raised $19 million last October from Telstra Ventures and Global Brain.

     

    “The ad network business is dead. It’s gone long ago. The ‘network effect’ of an ad network doesn’t hold strength,” he said, referring to the emergence of exchanges that publishers and advertisers can plug into and bid for ads in real time. People with knowledge of the developments said InMobi’s CEO Naveen Tewari is trying to wooe investors with big-data analytics pitch.

     

    InMobi is also looking to raise funding through debt from foreign banks if it does not get the valuation it wants from the investors, according to a source with direct knowledge of InMobi’s funding plans. According to a senior executive, InMobi which has 900 employees has crossed revenue of over $200 million `1,264 crore). “We are com(.mitted to our business model which continues to deliver phenomenal results,” said Dugar, who said the company serves ads to 872 million monthly active unique (devices).

     

    The company announced that it turned profitable in the last quarter of 2014.

     

    Competitors however question the company’s ability to survive cut-throat competition from the likes of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Millennial Media, Twitter and Yahoo. “I agree they were early movers in mobile advertising and ran it very well, but the entire industry has become programmatic. They need a brute force to catch up,” said another top executive at a rival firm who did not wish to be quoted.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2015, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • Social Media Week to focus on ‘Upwardly Mobile – The rise of the connected class’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Bangalore will host the fourth edition of Social Media Week (SMW) in India with the theme being Upwardly Mobile: The Rise of The Connected Class. Multiple sessions through the week will explore the dynamic ways of how social media strategy is converging in multicultural market and how mobility devices like laptops, tablets and smartphones along with social technology have transformed the way we work.

     

    The international festival is hosted twice a year, in India, by R SQUARE Consulting, an integrated marketing services firm.

     

    The five-day event will bring together brands, agencies, influencers, practitioners, academic thinkers, entrepreneurs, public officials, celebrities and international experts, who will provide a blend of information and ideas through panel discussions, debates, master classes and more. Some interesting events in this edition of SMW include the Social Media Strategy Challenge, ‘App’athon, Tweetathon and Blogging Challenge. SMW’15 February edition is scheduled simultaneously across the world in seven cities– Bangalore, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Jakarta, Lagos, Milan and New York.

     

    Speaking on the initiative, P. Krishnakumar, Executive Director & General Manager, Consumer & Small Business, Dell India said, “The marketplace today constitutes of a dynamic set of consumers who are constantly evolving the manner in which they engage with brands and with each other. Social media has been one of the pillars of this evolution and Dell has embraced it as a key medium for outreach to keep in step with them. A consumer brand must recognize the value in being able to reach out to its audience in the manner that they prefer to connect.. We believe that SMW is a platform which explores the dynamic nature of social media. We also see it as the right platform to demonstrate that technological innovation is imperative in this context; and that a successful experience comprises of both the right technology as well as the right medium.”

     

    Rohit Varma, Founder R SQUARE Consulting & Director Social Media Week Bangalore said, “The aim of SMW 2015 is to understand how technology will impact the way we Live, Work and Create in a connected world and also how new ideas, innovations and technology will change our lives. The change is happening quite fast and platform like Social Media Week becomes very important to discuss, understand and implement social strategies for the connected class.”

     

    Globally, 30,000 people came together to be a part of this mega event which was held simultaneously in 11 cities. With 2500 speakers and more than 1000 events, the festival reached out to 555 million people in 2014. This edition of SMW Bangalore will have 60+ events with a league of eminent speakers both national and international joining. Attendee registration will commence at the beginning of February, 2015.

     

  • Dentsu Aegis Network acquires majority in social & digital media agency WATConsult

    By A Correspondent

     

    Left to Right: Ashish Bhasin, Heeru Dingra, Nipun Kapur Dingra and Rajiv Dingra.

    Dentsu Aegis Network has announced the acquisition of WATConsult, a leading social and digital media agencies, with over 160 professionals in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata. WATConsult will become part of  Isobar, Dentsu Aegis Network’s global digital marketing agency and will be referred to as ‘WATConsult – Linked by Isobar’.

     

    Founded in 2007, WATConsult, which is led by CEO Rajiv Dingra, has evolved from being a social media agency to a full-service digital agency. WATConsultalso provides its client base with creative and technology services across mobile, digital and video. Clients include the Godrej Group, Nikon, Tata Chemicals, Bestseller Group, Bajaj Allianz and more than 70 other national and global brands. According to a newspaper report, the valuation of the company is in the region of Rs 180 crore, a figure dismissed by a few industry professionals MxMIndia spoke to as way too high even for a future-ready digital agency.

     

    Said Nick Waters, CEO Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific: “The acquisition of WATConsult marks another significant step for our group in India.  This is a high quality award winning market leader specialising in one of the fastest growing and critical segments of the market.  Alongside Isobar, iProspect, and WebChutney we have created the largest and highest quality digital services capability in India.  We view India as a priority market and will continue to seek scaled and quality investment opportunities here.”

     

    Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO South Asia Dentsu Aegis Network added: “Having WATConsult, a leader in social media, as a member of our family will further enhance our digital offering to our clients and support our growth in the market. WATConsult, will join iProspect, Isobar and Webchutney in making our digital offering the most comprehensive in India.”

     

    Said Rajiv Dingra, CEO WATConsult: “We are delighted to join hands with Dentsu Aegis Network, and our entire team are looking forward to taking WATConsult – Linked by Isobar to even greater heights. We are confident that by becoming a part of a digital focused network like Dentsu Aegis Network we will gain a competitive advantage in the fast consolidating Indian market. As an agency we see huge growth opportunity in digital advertising, particularly social media, digital video and mobile, and we are geared to capitalising on it.”

     

    Rajiv Dingra will continue as CEO ofWATConsult – Linked by Isobar, reporting to Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia. His key management team, including Nipun Kapur, COO of WATConsult and HeeruDingra, CFO of WATConsult, will also continue in their respective roles. Mr Dingra will also join the Digital Council of Dentsu Aegis Network India, alongside the CEOs of Isobar, iProspect and WebChutney. This ensures that digital specialists at Dentsu Aegis Network in India now exceed 600 professionals.

     

  • ZenithOptimedia wins media duties of Jungleegames.com

    By A Correspondent

     

    ZenithOptimedia has bagged the media duties for Junglee Games in a multi-agency pitch conducted recently. The mandate covers all aspects of the brand’s media planning, advisory and buying across print, TV, Digital and Outdoor.

     

    Hari Krishnan, Managing Director ZenithOptimedia said, “This is a significant win for ZO with the tech and mobile sector gaining momentum in the overall advertising space. It is indeed a matter of pride for us to be partnering with Junglee Games.”

     

    Satya Mahapatra, CMO, Junglee Games said, “We are glad to partner with ZenithOptimedia who have demonstrated excellent understanding of the Internet & Mobile audiences. I am sure this will go long-way in the success of our brands.”

     

    The high-intensity multimedia campaign will break in February 2015.