MxMIndia

Category: Digital

  • Stink's Martin Krejci and VFX specialist Tom Sparks reunite to take on another extreme technical challenge

    Koovs.com urges users to explore its unique offerings

    By A Correspondent

     

    Online fashion store koovs.com has launched a multi- media brand campaign – ‘step into koovs.com’ for the Indian market. Conceptualised by Grey London, the campaign is aimed at engaging with the young fashion enthusiasts and inspiring them to innovate with fashion. The new campaign will comprise of TV commercial, cinema, billboards, print and digital.

     

    Styled as a music video, the commercial features up-and-coming British rapper Lady Leshurr performing her explosive track, Hours and 17 year-old International dance sensation Dytto, who recently performed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The commercial with these two young and talented international artists represents the global fashion appeal that the brand stands for. The video includes a combination of dance, music and fashion, which appeal to youth across the globe. The television commercial showcases the main leads as they experience a fashion journey across the globe. From a Mumbai street to an East London food market, from an underground party in a Parisian ballroom to the beauty of a Manhattan rooftop, the concept was designed to showcase how fashion is empowering them to achieve their aspirations.

     

    Directed by Stink’s Martin Krejci, it took three weeks to shoot and presents an extreme technical challenge. Working with highly acclaimed technology specialist Tom Sparks, the VFX were done in camera using wires and completed in Flame. For each transition, multiple camera passes were utilised to capture multiple layers of action – actor, stunt double, clothing before and after and beauty passes. Each layer was then painstakingly composited to create a scene and seamless transition from one incredible scene to the next.

     

    Speaking on the brand campaign, Mary Turner, CEO, Koovs Group said, “We have successfully established a loyal fan base using digital media and now want to reach out to a wider audience through our multi media campaign ‘Step into koovs.com’. The aim is to establish Koovs as an undisputed authority on affordable western fashion. The idea is to inspire young people to explore, to be creative and enjoy fashion every day.”

     

    The television commercial has been designed to appeal to the emerging young population who are keen to explore the global culture and want to embrace a new energy.

     

  • Red Herring's Top 100 Global list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising new companies and entrepreneurs

    YuppTV makes it to Top 100 in Red Herring list

    By A Correspondent

     

    Red Herring recently announced the ‘Top 100 Global awards’ that honors leading private companies from North America, Europe, and Asia. YuppTV is among the chosen companies, recognized as a disruptor in the volatile media and entertainment industry.

     

    Red Herring’s Top 100 Global list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising new companies and entrepreneurs. Red Herring editors were among the first to recognize that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Salesforce.com, YouTube, and eBay would change the way we live and work.

     

    “Choosing the companies with the strongest potential was by no means a small feat,” said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. “After rigorous contemplation and discussion, we narrowed our list down from hundreds of candidates from across the globe to the Top 100 Winners. We believe YuppTV embodies the vision, drive and innovation that define a successful entrepreneurial venture. YuppTV should be proud of its accomplishment.”

     

    “When we were recognized as one of the top 100 North American companies earlier this year, we were absolutely thrilled with the distinction especially given that there were so many great companies,” said CEO and Founder, Uday Reddy. He continued, “However, to have been selected as one of the top 100 global companies really confirms our belief that we have a service that our customers love and that so many new customers around the world will want.” Red Herring’s editorial staff evaluated the companies on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration. This assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the track records and standing of startups relative to their peers, allowing Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list a valuable instrument of discovery and advocacy for the most promising new business models from around the world.

     

  • The agency won the account following a multi-agency pitch

    TimesOfMoney assigns digital mandate to Isobar

    By A Correspondent

     

    TimesofMoney (Remit2India and Klinnk) has appointed Isobar, the full-service digital agency from the Dentsu Aegis Network, as their digital agency. The agency won the account following a multi-agency pitch.

     

    Achal Shah

    Sharing his thoughts on the association, Achal Shah, Senior Vice-President & Head – Marketing at TimesofMoney said, “We have been in the pure-play digital cross-border business for 15 years now. Given our objective of reaching out to global ethnic communities, digital has always been our primary medium of communication. With our services now catering to newer audiences like the Chinese, Filipinos etc in the US, UK and Australia, it was imperative for us to get the right digital media partner who had a global presence combined with the local expertise.”

     

    Shamsuddin Jasani

    Shamsuddin Jasani, Managing Director, Isobar India, “We are very happy to be associated with TimesofMoney. We are always looking at experiences across different sectors and different types of clients and this win adds a very important category of money remittance to our ever expanding repertoire.”

     

    “We recently instituted a focused business development unit to go after interesting brands. This win is just the beginning of many more to come. TimesofMoney is an interesting category and teams are excited to create innovative and creative work for them,” he added.

     

    TimesofMoney is the leading digital payments and remittances service provider catering to retail and institutional clients in India and across the globe. TimesofMoney’s bouquet of services includes retail online remittances (Remit2India & Klinnk), white-labelled remittance platforms (Payce), customized mobile wallet solutions (Movit) and online payment gateway solutions (DirecPay).

     

  • These appointments are a significant step towards building Madhouse's vision of being a data driven mobile marketing company

    Madhouse announces new senior appointments

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leading mobile marketing solution provider, Madhouse India, recently announced the appointment of Vishal Agarwal as the Head of Product and Platform and Akila Jayaraman as the Head of Performance Business. These appointments are a significant step towards building Madhouse’s vision of being a data driven mobile marketing company.

     

    Vishal Agarwal

    Vishal Agarwal, who joins the team as Head of Product and Platforms will be responsible for creating new products and platforms focusing on assisting brands in sales awareness and engagement; and also creating brand reach opportunities through technology partnerships. Vishal comes with over a decade of experience in IT, research and product development; he moves to Madhouse India from IMRB International where he lead the Digital Business. Vishal has also worked in the past with Sapient and Patni computers in the US.

     

    Akila Jayaraman

    Akila Jayaraman, has been associated with the mobile industry for over a decade and will now be heading the mobile performance marketing business unit at Madhouse India. As a part of her new role, she will help lead and expand the business across various e-commerce, BFSI and other mobile-first companies for all mobile performance marketing activations. Prior to this, Akila was the Business Development Head for Bharti Airtel at Mahindra Comviva.  In her earlier roles, Akila has handled multiple portfolios in consumer research, consulting and mobile technology sales and has also been a research analyst with Ericsson for their mobile domain.

     

    Speaking on the team expansion at Madhouse, Milind Pathak, COO, Madhouse South Asia, said “We are happy to have Akila and Vishal on board.  Both of them have a great understanding of the mobile ecosystem and bring with them with years of experience and industry knowledge. While Akila’s key area of focus will be growing the performance business, Vishal’s focus will be on expanding the product profile for us. We welcome them to the team and look forward to them joining us in setting new milestones for Madhouse India and creating products and solutions so that ‘we make brands love mobile’.”

     

  • Conceptualised and executed by Leo Burnett #OLXMADAds is a unique platform which makes selling fun

    OLX launches #OLXMadAds

    By A Correspondent

     

    OLX has unveiled #OLXMADADs, a unique platform which enables users to sell their products in a fun way.

     

    #OLXMadAds is a one of its kind initiative by the brand as it promotes user-generated content in form of video ads. Sellers can now create their own video ads in seconds and tell the world about their products in an engaging way through 10 specially created characters that not only inform but also entertain. Thus bringing in a completely new dimension to selling, by making it fun.

     

    The agency has made sure that the entire process of making these MadAds is simple and convenient for users.  Just a few clicks and your version of MadAdis ready to sell your product.

     

    The 10 characters created by Leo Burnett are Astronaut Nasa Musa, YogaNandShri, Bomb Bomb Bole, Dr Threesome Awesome, Death of Elizabeth, Lallan Top, Law-D Lady, Mr. Bananas, AachooPichoo and Silly Lilly.

     

    Gaurav Mehta, Chief Marketing Officer, OLX South Asia, said, “The #OLXMadAds campaign extends our brand philosophy further. User generated content is core to the OLX platform and hence it is important for OLX to help our users generate high quality and engaging ads. We have evolved to the times when transactions become easier if the ad content is both functional and interesting. In our continued endeavour to assist users in selling faster, this campaign does a good job of educating users with a different perspective.”

     

    RajDeepak Das

    RajDeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett India, said, “OLX India, being India’s largest marketplace wanted to engage consumers in a unique way. In this age of content creation and sharing, with millions of videos being passed around each day through YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook and other social networking sites, we wanted to provide OLX users a tool that not only simplifies selling but also makes it fun. Thus was born #OLXMadAds. The #OLXMadAds platform is a true demonstration of how we can use creativity and technology together to create magic for a brand.”

     

  • The objective of the campaign was therefore to help them rediscover the joys of sharing, specifically on Facebook, and all the wonderful things that it leads to

    Facebook urges women to rediscover the joys of sharing

    By A Correspondent

     

    Facebook India recently launched a campaign to encourage women in smaller towns across India to share more on Facebook. Conceptualised by Taproot, the three digital films, titled ‘Clothes’, ‘Sangeeta’ and ‘Jhansi’, aim to re-introduce the magic of Facebook to those who have taken to it but not to sharing on it.

     

    According to statistics while a majority of these women were accessing Facebook through their mobile phones regularly, they were not sharing as much personal content in the form of posts, videos or pictures but viewing other content as passive consumers. The objective of the campaign was therefore to help them rediscover the joys of sharing, specifically on Facebook, and all the wonderful things that it leads to.

     

    For maximum impact, the campaign was broken into 2 phases- the first phase being to inspire sharing again through a series of films and then following up with education on safety features within Facebook.

     

    Each film holds a mirror to how sharing on Facebook goes beyond the online world to real-life friendships and relationships. From getting in touch with long lost friends to bridging the generation divide, Facebook is at the heart of joyous moments every day.

     

    Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative Officer & co-founder, Taproot Dentsu said, “It was important to have a more human / real approach. Without pushing too much we wanted to communicate how the brand can play an important role in their day to day life to bond with their friends and families. I think we were successful to get every single bit right, be it the conversation, cast or set up, all of these captures the TG’s world very well.”

     

  • It enables users to enjoy a holistic customer experience – seamless login, intuitive and customised interface for post-paid/prepaid and non-Vodafone customers

    Zumi Army arrives to popularise ‘MyVodafone App’

    By A Correspondent

     

    India’s popular TV entertainment property, the IPL is still some months away but a character that’s familiar with the sport and has its origins there, has arrived much ahead of it this year. ZooZoos, or the Zumi Army is back again to woo the audience of the latest offering from Vodafone – MyVodafone App.

     

    Developed on a state-of-the-art platform with intuitive and customised interface, the MyVodafone App provides a personalized experience to postpaid and prepaid customers as well as non-Vodafone customers. The app enables a customer to see his/her usage, plan details, pay bills, buy recharges and bonus cards, get best offers, access their M-Pesa account, recharge/pay bills for friends and family and so much more, giving him/her the power to manage their Vodafone number with their fingertips!

     

    The new television campaign will be supported by rich presence on social media, prominent and a series of on-ground activations will communicate the app’s various features and benefits.

     

    Speaking about the feature rich MyVodafone App, Kavita Nair – National Head – Retail and Digital, Vodafone India said, “Customers are gaining comfort with apps and are using them to shop, subscribe to services and access news/information. Keeping these evolving needs of customers in mind, the MyVodafone App is designed to provide them at their fingertips, a personalised interface of everything that is Vodafone. From accessing their services to managing their accounts or transacting or even getting their problems resolved, the app is a manifestation of Vodafone, on the smartphone.”

     

    Speaking about the theme of this marketing campaign, Siddharth Banerjee, National Head – Brand Communication & Insights, Vodafone India, said “The new MyVodafone App campaign aims at citing feature-led benefits of adopting and using the app, thereby driving home the key point that one can avail of Vodafone services, now on one’s phone. Accordingly a 360 campaign has been designed that clearly establishes MyVodafone App as a one-stop shop for all Vodafone related services. The much loved Zumi army will engage with customers through different mediums, showcasing key features of the all new MyVodafone App.”

     

    The MyVodafone App is available to all Android users and is free to download from Google Play. The app will be made available for other user interphases sequentially.

     

  • From cashless transactions and analytics as a service to RFID and 4G… Presenting key trends in digital and analytics by PwC's Sudipta Ghosh

    Key Trends in Digital and Analytics: PwC

     

    Although these are not specific trends for Media and Entertainment, but given the reasonably significant role of telecom and digital and analytics in the media, we bring you this trends report by PwC India (eka PricewaterhouseCoopers).

     

    By Sudipta Ghosh

     

    Key trends in 2015

    Real-time Customer engagement/interactions – There is shift from determining the proactive offers / next best offers from simple cookie based or click stream based analytics to more valued, analytical, data enriched analysis. This integrates the customer behavior patterns coming from other data sources / historical transactions. There is a wave of technology adoption for responding customers in real-time with more meaningful offers. The trend needs powerful processing platform with capability to handle high volume of data with very high velocity. Enterprises are either evaluating or adopting the big data platforms for the same. We will see more adoption of the big data platform in 2016.

     

    Cashless payments and related analytics – There is a great adoption of cashless payment methods (online, payment wallets, etc.) in India. The adoption will improve over time. Most of the cashless payment methods have ability for further improve the customer acquisition by extending appropriate offers. Analytics will play a great role in determining the offers that can be extended to these methods.

     

    Telecom transformation due to 4G – Introduction to 4G services will cause disruptive adoption of mobile internet in India. Companies like Bharati and Reliance are geared up to swipe the 4G market. The introduction of the 4G services provide a great challenge to the service providers to handle the generated huge volume of data effectively. It is estimated that there will be around 30-40 TB of data that will get generated on daily basis. Telecom service providers need to gear-up to manage and handle this data and use it for their benefits. The QoS parameters and analytics will also play a great role from regulation perspective to ensure the quality of service.

     

    Shift from ‘Data as a Service’ to ‘Analytics as a Service’ – The trend started with off-loading the data processing services to the private cloud or to the hosted environment and then derive the intelligence in local data center using Analytics solutions. Customers are now looking to avail the analytics as a service solutions. Niche companies or the companies with rich domain expertise are now providing analytics as a service in collaboration with IaaS vendors.

     

    Adoption of Big Data platforms – During past couple of years many customers evaluated the new/emerging technologies/platforms required to handle the structure and unstructured data. During second half of 2015 we observed that many customers start adopting the big data solutions/platform. The trend will continue and grow further in 2016. Many customers also have adopted the ‘Data Lake’ strategy for starting the Big Data initiatives. Customer are taking the staggered approach to build the data lakes and at the same time identifying the analytics initiatives that can be derived out of data collected in the data lake.

     

    IoT Devices, Human and Machine Interface – There were many enquiries and evaluation happening on adoption of data generated through IoT devices like Fitbit, Nike Fuelband, Apple Watch, Heat Sensors, etc. The blueprints are getting defined for integrating the IoT data into generic Analytics platform and derive meaningful intelligence out of it. Customers are also evaluating the scope KPO automation through Human and Machine interfacing solutions. The solutions use the technology for audio, video, images, text and other unstructured data analytics.

     

    Key Trends in 2015: Retail Analytics

    Retailers are increasingly using omni channel marketing to improve the customer experience as they shop across various channels like store, web and mobile platforms. There has been a huge growth in cross channel data volume and now Retailers have access to variety of data which include not only the demographic information but also past purchases, call centre interaction, social media interaction etc. Retailers are leveraging analytics tools to enhance customer loyalty by creating a personalised shopping experience that customises coupons and offers to match customers’ needs. Retailers are increasingly using segmentation based on purchase patterns, price sensitivity and customer lifestyle to identify the most relevant customers for targeting, which results in more relevant offers. Segmentation helps focus marketing on the customers who will most likely buy the products or services and avoid markets which will not be profitable. Retailers are adjusting their product mix from store to store-based on the preferences of their customers. This  help retailers improve their inventory allocations by understanding customer demand and their choice patterns resulting in increased revenues and margins

     

    Using analytics, retailers are able to determine the optimal pricing of products and services. The price elasticity not only help in only finding identifying the products that are most and least price sensitive but can also be used with optimisation to identify the optimal pricing. Increasingly number of companies are adopting open source analytical tools to provide descriptive, prescriptive and predictive analysis of the fast increasing volumes of data which are both structured and unstructured in nature in order to reduce the total cost of ownership

     

    More retailers are introducing mobile apps for integrated loyalty programs. Consumers no longer have to clutter their wallets with physical cards anymore. Instead, they can use their smartphones to track and redeem their rewards through mobile applications.

     

    Emerging Trends to watch out for in 2016: Retail Analytics

     Fraud detection and prevention will be an important concern for retailers  looking to build security and preserve consumer trust. Using analytics, retailers can identify unusual patterns of product and inventory movement.

     Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and readers will increasingly provide substantially more data on product movements and locations for retailers to analyse. Retailers will be using analytics to optimise their inventory and reduce their transportation costs.

     Workforce analytics will help organizations effectively plan their future workforce needs to increase labour efficiency and improve schedule effectiveness. Analytical tools would be used for workforce acquisition and labour scheduling based on when customers are most likely to visit a store.

    ï‚· Retailers will increasingly adopt multiple IoT technologies in the coming years to reshape the customer experience, to drive loyalty and to focus on inventory. The use cases in retail will include sensors on products, interactive consumer engagement, automated store lighting, shopper intelligence, perishable tracking, fleet operations tracking etc.

    ï‚· There will be an increase in video analytics as powerful processors are becoming available at affordable price points to video surveillance manufacturers. Video surveillance with analytical models can be used for effective in store promotions, stock out analysis and tracking customer movement inside the store.

     

    Rise and growth of e- commerce or digitisation of retail has been one of the key trends in the retail sector. As this digitisation continues in the new year, companies will turn to analytical solutions to both manage and make sense of the huge amount of data being churned from these transactions. Companies will require insights into the consumer behaviours to try and personalise user experience as competition will hot up between various e-commerce retailers. These companies are already investing in significant social media management to promote their services and will also turn to analytics to gain insight from that data regarding their product perception and target market. App based analytics solutions will be at the forefront of this growth as the market will shift from laptop to smart phone based solutions. New age analytics solutions like using CCTV for eyeball tracking, Planogram optimisation, single view of customer to create shopper profile and anticipate needs better, analysing supplier and employee performance and compliance (attrition analytics, workforce planning),  are all seeing an uptake in the Indian market.

     

    Sudipta Ghosh is Partner, Data and Analytics at PwC

     

  • After working with MEC in India and the UK from March 2014, GoDaddy expands its relationship to include all global markets

    MEC is GoDaddy’s Global Media AOR

    By A Correspondent

     

    GoDaddy Inc has appointed media agency MEC as its global media agency-of-record. This includes India.

     

    GoDaddy has worked with MEC in India and in the UK since March 2014, and this new agreement expands their relationship to include all global markets. The business will be led out of MEC New York, with support from its San Francisco office.

     

    “Our decision to move GoDaddy’s media business to MEC is a natural step as GoDaddy expands our business globally. We looked for a strong partner with local media expertise and global technology and tools to help drive forward our efforts to reach small businesses at the right time with the right medium. MEC shares our passion and vision for delivering locally-relevant, targeted messaging to connect with people worldwide,” said GoDaddy Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of Digital Commerce Phil Bienert.

     

    “GoDaddy is a brand that has been bold in both its approach and determination to reach and engage its customers. We are energized by the company’s ambitious drive globally and excited by the challenge to deliver creative media solutions built for today’s digitally-enabled world,” said CEO of MEC North America, Marla Kaplowitz.

     

  • Vinodh Bhat is a serial entrepreneur, who co-founded Saavn, which is a revolutionary streaming music service, reinventing how people listen to and share music, in India and around the world

    IAMAI names Kunal Shah as its new Chairman

    By A Correspondent

     

    Kunal Shah

    The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has named Kunal Shah, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, FreeCharge as the new Chairman of IAMAI. The move was necessitated following Nishant Rao’s move to join Freshdesk as the global Chief Operating Officer, from Linkedin.

     

    The Association has also announced Vishwas Patel, Chief Executive Officer – CCAvenue as the new treasurer. Vinodh Bhat, Co-founder, President & Chief Strategy Officer at Saavn remains the Vice-Chairman of the Association.

     

    Vinodh Bhat is a serial entrepreneur, who co-founded Saavn, which is a revolutionary streaming music service, reinventing how people listen to and share music, in India and around the world.

     

  • The festival is not just about discounts and cash-backs but, also about the experience the consumers have – a simple, straight forward, rewarding and smooth payment experience

    Citrus Cash Back Week seeks to make an impact on social & traditional platforms

    By A Correspondent

     

    Citrus Wallet has rolled out its first digital multimedia campaign with four films that support its latest brand campaign ‘The Citrus Cash Back Week’. The campaign has been conceptualised by Charles Victor, NCD of LK Saatchi & Saatchi and went on-air on January 4th to kick-start 2016 with the theme ‘Your wallet will never be empty’. The festival is not just about discounts and cash-backs but, also about the experience the consumers have – a simple, straight forward, rewarding and smooth payment experience.

     

    The films open with ‘The Orange man’ trying to get into the wallet of young online shoppers to give them their cash back. The four films, each with a consistent narrative, explore four instances where Citrus Wallets offer upto 80 per cent cash back.

     

    The mascot, an orange man, is a mime character who is more than enthusiastic to return cash back into the online shoppers’ wallets. In each film, he is consistently seen walking into the user’s space to pay cash back into the shopper’s wallet almost instantly. Making this frame the key take away for viewers.

     

    The campaign is supported by the brand’s efforts on social media urging users to spot this ‘mysterious orange man’ in various popular spots in the city. Citrus Pay has also roped in 30 merchant platforms for this Citrus Cash Back Festival.

     

    Jitendra Gupta, Founder & MD, Citrus Pay said, “Before the new year blues set in, we decided to give our users something to cheer about. The Orange Man or The C-Man, as he’s popularly called, captures that energy and the ease of getting cash back into Citrus Wallet no matter where and when you shop — be it online or offline, too. The 4 digital films crafted by Lk Saatchi & Saatchi portray that association with ease and showcase over 30 different tie-ups with our merchants across multiple categories.”

     

    Charles Victor, NCD shared, “The brief really was simple – during the promotion, Citrus Wallet users get money back in their wallets when they spend on partner brands. The team created this character who at first seems like he’s out to pinch your wallet, but he actually does quite the opposite. We had a wonderful client who backed the team and in the end, everyone had a lot of fun doing this! What else do you expect when you have someone in spandex! ”

     

  • Former CEO and Co-founder of Pulse will also lead product initiatives in India

    LinkedIn appoints Akshay Kothari as Country Manager for India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Akshay Kothari

    LinkedIn has announced the appointment of Akshay Kothari as Country Manager for India, effective immediately. Akshay will report to Olivier Legrand, LinkedIn’s Managing Director for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, and join the company’s APAC senior management team.

     

    Akshay joined LinkedIn in 2013 when Pulse, the company he co-founded and was CEO of for almost three years, was acquired by LinkedIn. Since then, based out of LinkedIn’s global headquarters in Mountain View, California, he successfully led several major product and content initiatives, including making Pulse one of the fastest-growing consumer product on LinkedIn, and boosting the number of members publishing on LinkedIn from 1,000 to nearly 2 million in the last two years.

     

    “My journey with LinkedIn started when Pulse became part of the LinkedIn family almost three years ago. I’m excited to have this opportunity to work with our teams across India, from sales to product and engineering. This new role also brings me back ‘full-circle’ to India, a high-growth market where there are opportunities abound to create even more value for our members and clients. Ultimately, my dream is for LinkedIn to play an even more significant role in helping to transform professionals and businesses in India, and showcase their success to the rest of the world,” Akshay said.

     

    Olivier commented, “India continues to be a strategic market for LinkedIn. While we have come a long way over the past 6 years in the country, we still have a long runway of opportunities to deliver even more compelling experiences and value for our members and clients. Akshay’s successful track record as an entrepreneur, leader and product executive will be a boost to our efforts, as he leads our team to the next stage of growth in India.”