MxMIndia

Category: Digital

  • The 2015 Awards represented the biggest and most inspiring creative collection for Facebook as it reviewed over 2,700 submissions from 160 countries that offered a snapshot of the state of creativity and innovation across Facebook, Instagram and the entire industry

    5th edition of Facebook Awards announced

    By A Correspondent

     

    The nominations are open for the fifth edition of Facebook Awards. The awards celebrate the best creative work being shared on Facebook. More businesses are using Facebook and Instagram to connect with audiences and tell stories than before and the FB Awards showcase the power of Facebook and Instagram as creative canvases.

     

    The 2015 Awards represented the biggest and most inspiring creative collection for Facebook as it reviewed over 2,700 submissions from 160 countries that offered a snapshot of the state of creativity and innovation across Facebook, Instagram and the entire industry.

     

    For 2016, the awards program will include –all countries will have the ability to be recognized for great work within their region, with local creative executives from each region as judges at the Regional Voting Events; Regional awards: “Best of APAC”, “Best of EMEA”, “Best of LATAM” and “Best of NA” have been added; top winners from each Regional Voting Events will move to the Global Judging Event; the judging process is in three rounds this year due to the volume of entrants

     

    Also, for the first time ever, the FB Awards will recognize small business advertisers who have earned effective, eye-opening results. Winners of this category will also receive FB Ad Credits.

     

    Other initiatives include

    – Best Use of Facebook family of brands: Awarded to the most creative, original and well-executed Facebook and/or Instagram campaign concepts. Example: Lexus 1000 to 1

    – Innovation: Awarded to campaigns that aren’t only creative, but engage audiences in ways we’ve never seen before. Example: GT Ride – Viral Gaming for Kia

    – Small business Awarded to those who successfully captured the attention of local audiences and drove gained results with creative thinking on Facebook and Instagram.

    – Social for good: Awarded to charitable/non-profit org campaigns that creatively and successfully raise awareness and drive positive social change using Facebook or Instagram. Example: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Kafa

    – Integrated: Awarded to campaigns that creatively use Facebook as part of a larger, overall media mix.Example: P&G Always “Like a Girl”

     

  • The association recommends that for the first three years, the service tax could be waived off or incentivizes the start-ups, if they pay their service taxes on time

    Digital start-ups need specific incentives: IAMAI

    By A Correspondent

     

    To implement the Prime Minister’s twin vision of ‘Stand-up India’ and ‘Digital India’, the industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has come up with specific fiscal and non-fiscal measures required by the internet industry. According to the association, the digital start-up ecosystem in India should be systematically encouraged by focussing on specific fiscal interventions.

     

    On the fiscal incentives, the association has suggested the following:

    1.   Improve Investment Environment:

    India’s entrepreneurs need early stage venture capital – but the domestic venture capital sector needs to develop further. In the US, the VC industry took off when their government allowed the large pension funds to put 5-10 per cent of their assets into VC firms.

    1.1 Angel Tax: Angel Tax under Sec 56 (2) of the Income Tax Act has not been actually tailored to restrict start-ups funding but it has put start-ups under the Income tax scanner, questioning the valuation by domestic individual investors. The criteria to qualify as an angel fund are stringent and need to be eased to support the start-up ecosystem in the country.

     

    The association suggests that there should be tax breaks and incentives for individuals supporting start-ups with capital.

     

    2. Incentivize Internet Services Start-ups:

    These are the largest chunk of internet companies in India. This sector, which comprises of aggregators, digital advertisers, online classifieds, bring in a lot of efficiency, and are the largest employment generators. They are either enabling businesses, or they are creating lot of employment in the country, resulting in many people are earning a lot of money than they should otherwise have.

    2.1 Service Tax: Unfortunately, Start-ups have to pay huge amount over the first three years in way of service tax. It is not that they don’t want to pay, but they have survival issues and this takes a back seat and penalties just make a struggling start-up’s life harder.

     

    The association recommends that for the first three years, the service tax could be waived off or incentivizes the start-ups, if they pay their service taxes on time.

     

    3. Streamline taxation for e-Commerce marketplace Start-ups:

    Online market places are changing the way businesses are done in India. Small players are setting up niche businesses in India and are attracting lot of investments in India. Online marketplaces bring in a lot of efficiency in the entire retail value chain from customer experience to payments and delivery.

     

    3.1 Taxes on e-commerce Transactions: The e-commerce marketplace industry is being subjected to onerous VAT demands from several states. They should be recognized as marketplaces and exempt from VAT demands in states. As market places they provide a service to online sellers and pay the service tax on that account. The State of Rajasthan for example treats e-commerce players as market places.

     

    4. Boost FinTech Start-ups:

    FinTech plays a significant role in serving those underserved or not served by formal institutional mechanisms. They are also likely to play a significant role in various financial inclusion programmes of the government. Various forms of FInTech services such as pre-paid instruments, wallets and others create efficiency, transparency and wider reach in financial transaction.

     

    4.1  P2P lending and crowd-funding need an impetus and clarity from Government: While some early inroads have been made in the P2P lending segment in the country, individual efforts have not translated into a policy from the government. The lack of clarity of rules and regulations has meant the industry is shooting in the dark. In the absence of dictated policy or scriptures, it is quite plausible that misguided individuals may fall prey to unscrupulous operators that may look to make a quick buck.

     

    4.2 Easy KYC through aadhar will allow innovators build new services which in turn will help bring more people under the ambit of financial services: Various forms of digital payments such as pre-paid instruments, wallets and others create efficiency, transparency and wider reach in financial transaction.

     

  • Ekalavya will work closely with the leadership team to define the corporate strategy for ensuring wider acceptability and success of ALT's digital initiatives

    Alt Digital Media appoints Ekalavya Bhattacharya as the Chief Strategy Officer

    By A Correspondent

     

    Ekalavya Bhattacharya

    ALT Digital Media Entertainment Ltd. (ALT Digital), a wholly owned subsidiary of Balaji Telefilms Ltd., announced the appointment of Ekalavya Bhattacharya as the Chief Strategy Officer.ALT Digital reflects the BalajiGroup’s strategic intent to extend their creative expertise to develop on-demand, original, edgy andcontemporary content for global audiences to consume on digital platforms.

     

    Ekalavya will work closely with the leadership team todefine the corporate strategy for ensuring wider acceptability and success of ALT’s digital initiatives.

     

    Ekalavya joins ALT Digital from Viacom18 Media Private Ltd. where he was the AVP and Head – Digital, MTV India. Responsible for expanding the digital footprint of MTV India, Ekalavya’sstint at Viacom 18 saw him develop and execute strategies related to product, content, mobile, technology and marketing amongst other things. Ekalavya brings with him more than a decade of experience in the digital space and is well-versed with the country’s digital landscape. He has previously worked at other reputed digital firms like Zapak.com, Contests2Win.com, WAT Consult and PaGaLGuY.com.

     

    Commenting on his appointment, Sameer Nair, Group Chief Executive Officer, Balaji Telefilms Ltd. said, “Ekalavya comes with very strong pedigree having done some amazing work at MTV in building their digital business. We believe his disruptive attitude and business smarts are a wonderful addition to the eclectic diversity in the fast growing ALT Digital Team.”

     

    Nachiket Pantvaidya, CEO, ALT Digital Media Entertainment Ltd. said,“We welcome Ekalavya to ALT – his experience and diverse skill sets will help us formulate and drive our strategy across our business operations. He will enrich the already strong team at ALT as we prepare to launch our service in India and globally.”

     

  • Prior to this, Niti was in-charge of the digital marketing accounts under Google India for a span of five years

    iProspectropes in Niti Beri to lead team Paid Media

    By A Correspondent

     

    iProspect India has roped in Niti Beri to lead the Paid Media strategists who are based out of the agency’s Gurgaon office. Prior to this, Niti was in-charge of the digital marketing accounts under Google India for a span of five years.

     

    “Paid Search is all about being there with the right message at the right time, at the right price. iProspect India has been providing value and business insights through bought media at an extremely efficient cost. Niti has come in with immense experience from Google – the biggest Search engine giant in the world. We are blessed with an efficient team of SEM professionals across all the three branches of iProspect. Niti will be guiding our paid media experts from the Gurgaon branch to deliver best in class campaigns for our clients based out of the Delhi circle. I wish her all the very best and welcome her warmly to the iProspect India family,” said Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director, iProspect India.

     

    NitiBeri has been a digital marketer for more than seven years. She began her career as a Management trainee at Satyam Computers (now Tech Mahindra) before moving to Google. During her 5 1/2 years at Google she took up various roles. She has extensive experience in working on accounts ranging from the biggest Fortune 500 companies in the US like AT&T, Citigroup, Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Labs to budding start-ups and new entrants into the Indian market.

     

    In her new role at iProspect, Niti Beri hopes to build and sustain an even stronger team of Paid Media strategists to ensure client delight.

     

    Niti said, “It’s been a long seven years in the digital industry and each day has been a new challenge pertaining to the changing ways of digital approach. I am extremely excited to join one of the pioneers of digital marketing industry in the country. I have understood that iProspect has very strong paid media strategists. I look forward to working with them closely and contribute towards building a stronger and more agile team with laser sharp understanding of the clients’ objectives and goals.”

     

  • One Digital's presence ranges from music, entertainment, lifestyle, food, comedy and more

    One Digital achieves new landmark in India

    By A Correspondent

     

    One Digital Entertainment recently crossed the 1200+ YouTube channels mark, further consolidating its position as the leading multi-channel network in the country. The company that started around three years ago today boasts of an undisputed 20 billion minutes of content that has been consumed on its network so far,

     

    One Digital’s presence ranges from music, entertainment, lifestyle, food, comedy and more. The company is also credited with identifying new talent and creating Internet sensations like Prajakta Koli, who has crossed 37,000 subscribers in less than 10 months on her channel Mostly Sane. The largest content network for YouTube in India and also distributes content across multiple other content publishers and partners. 2016 will also see One Digital foray into original web programming with a line-up of 12 different formats to be launched.

     

    Commenting on this success, COO and Co-founder of One Digital Entertainment, Gurpreet Singh said, “Driving reach & viewership for online video has been a challenge for a lot of entities in this space but One Digital Entertainment has developed its secret sauce to ensure we are able to deliver each creator their due. We are also humbled by the support and the talent of our creators and channels and only look to make this business more meaningful for them”.

     

  • Red Polka raised a round of angel funding of $2,50,000 from a clutch of investors for technology upgradation and enhancing brand visibility, last year

    Red Polka unveils revamped website

    By A Correspondent

     

    Online fashion discovery portal, Red Polka, has unveiled an upgraded version of its website. The new website comes loaded with features like personal profile page, wish list creation, colour code for every category. This is the company’s attempt to offer personalised curation services to women shoppers who have given thumbs up Red Polka’s curated line of fashion and lifestyle products.

     

    Red Polka is one of its kind interactive e-page, a podium, which curates fashion and lifestyle designs and tell unique stories behind the brands they showcase. The company has been credited with discovering more than 150 upcoming designer brands and opening up a whole new market segment for them. Vishakha Singh, Founder and CEO, Red Polka says, “When we launched last year, we went live with a simple website which enabled shoppers to surf and check out curated products. With this new website, we aim to personalise curation for every shopper so that they discover exactly what they are looking for.” The feature, which enables them to follow designers of their choice, will automatically showcase new launches of those designers on their personal profile page, which one create via Facebook sign in, she adds.

     

    The new site has been categorised into three verticals — Fashion, Lifestyle and Kids — which are colour coded for enabling ease of navigation on the site. In addition to this, users will have access to Red Polka’s weekly-curated fashion editions of up to last four editions. In addition, Red Polka has issued a Merchants Login feature to enable the designers to increase their reach and have a better business management. The site has been designed on global new material design guidelines while the colour scheme has been inspired from the latest UI/UX. The site has been developed on PHP platform.

     

    Vishakha Singh, Founder & CEO, Red Polka says, “We are not only excited about the new graphical and enhanced content to our website but also about the fact that we have created it with a responsive design and a display for optimal viewing on any size/resolution screen. With our revamped shopping cart one can now create Wish Lists – lists which are not only for one’s own shopping, but gifts that you want to buy for others, gifts that you would want others to buy for you. The redesign is intended to ensure that the site remains effective and user-friendly.”

     

    Red Polka raised a round of angel funding of $2,50,000 from a clutch of investors for technology upgradation and enhancing brand visibility, last year. The company is also working on launching a mobile app too.

     

  • Research used state of the art facial coding technology

    Digital Content Marketing holds promising future for brands, reveals BBC Works study

    By A Correspondent

     

    BBC Story Works, the content marketing arm of BBC Advertising, is pioneering new ways of understanding the emotional impact of content-led marketing by measuring consumers’ subconscious reaction to campaigns on BBC.com. In a study published today titled ‘The Science of Engagement’, its in-house insight team, in partnership with facial coding experts CrowdEmotion, has combined traditional research metrics with facial coding to understand how brands can use content-led marketing to effectively engage with consumers. BBC Advertising plans to offer this insight to premium clients as part of its campaign reporting to ensure they understand the full impact content-led marketing can have on consumers and the value of it to their brands.

     

    According to the research, well executed and clearly labelled content-led marketing is considered trusted and persuasive in quality environments, and has a powerful emotional impact for the brands involved. Exposure to content-led marketing can significantly improve consumers’ positivity towards the advertising brands (with a +77 per cent increase in explicit positivity between pre and post exposure). In addition, the study measured the second-by-second facial movements of people as they experienced the content to measure true engagement and the respondents’ implicit reaction. The results showed that exposure can also lead to a 14 per cent increase in subconscious positivity.

     

    Richard Pattinson, SVP Content, BBC Advertising and Head of BBC Story Works, said: “In a time when advertisers are increasing their spending on content-led marketing, it is important that they also feel confident in its effectiveness, and understand the significant positive impact this kind of content has on their brand. We believe that this study will enhance advertisers’ understanding and confidence in these campaigns, and in the value of high quality content-marketing delivered in premium environments.”

     

    Other key findings from the research include:

    :: Transparency and quality were revealed to be the most important factors in engaging the audience.
    :: 64 per cent were happy to read content-led marketing so long as it is clear which brand it is presented by and 64per centwere happy to read as long as it is clearly labelled.
    :: Among those who already have a high awareness of the medium, this increases to 82 and 83per centrespectively. From that group, 80per centagreed they would share it and 80per centthink it plays a complementary role to editorial content.
    :: In the facial coding study, rejection for fully labelled brand-presented content was 7per centbelow the average benchmark, while rejection for non-labelled content was 18per centabove the average.
    :: 63per centof respondents were happy to see the content as long as it mirrored the quality of the provider’s editorial content. In addition, 59 per cent found the content informative, 55per centfound it interesting and 57 per cent said they would share it.
    :: Consumers are 30 per cent more likely to believe content-led marketing on premium news providers will be more informative and accurate than on non-premium news providers.
    :: Integrating the brand drives a greater emotional response and referencing the brand within the content narrative works harder for the advertiser. Integrated content drives a +109 per cent increase in explicit and a +32 per cent uplift in implicit brand positivity. Integrated content also increases key call to action measures of recommendation and consideration.

     

    The month-long study was conducted in October 2015, following the insight that while traditional performance metrics offered a partial story of campaign success, combining them with the measurement of both conscious and subconscious consumer reaction to branded content offered a more rounded view of the effectiveness of content-led marketing campaigns.

    On the decision to explore emotional recognition techniques, Pattinson commented: “BBC StoryWorks has used the innovative facial coding methods offered by CrowdEmotion to prove that when made transparent and properly executed, brands can use content-marketing to heighten emotional engagement and enhance brand perceptions with consumers.”

     

  • We will have no update on January 26 on account of Republic Day. Our next update will be on Wednesday, January 27, 2015

    Happy Republic Day. Holiday tomorrow

    It’s Republic Day tomorrow and our offices are shut tomorrow on account of Republic Day. Hence we will have no update on January 26. Our next update will be on Wednesday, January 27, 2015.

    ​

  • The event will unfold on 4 February 2016 at Le M’eridien, Gurgaon

    ZenithOptimedia and Google to host Zoogle Day on Feb 4

    By A Correspondent

     

    ZenithOptimedia Group and Google have partnered to present Zoogle Day, a first of its kind event on digital and mobile marketing. The event will unfold on 4 February 2016 at Le M’eridien, Gurgaon.

     

    The ZenithOptimedia leadership, along with top executives from Google will share learnings, insights and case studies where brands have taken the lead in a mobile inevitable world. Some of the subjects that the summit will focus on includes how mobile commerce is shaping up sectors such as banking insurance and telecom, how data driven planning driving programmatic, top trends in ecommerce, the success story of Alibaba and other future-facing business models that are reaping the benefits of a digital economy.

     

    The conference will also have a key address by Craig Greenfield, Chief Operating Officer of Performics Worldwide. Since 2005, Craig Greenfield’s expertise in scaling large client programs and developing company-wide processes and this has helped Performics successfully transition into the first truly global performance marketing agency. In his current position, Craig leads global technology and innovation; a dynamic network of change agents focused on identifying, evaluating and developing new products, services and systems to ensure competitiveness and improved operational efficiency.

     

    Craig works in tandem with Performics’s worldwide leadership, client teams and external partners to help clients identify and capture new business opportunities, negotiate strategic partnerships and enhance operational efficiency.

     

    Anupriya Acharya, Group CEO, ZenithOptimedia said, “ZenithOptimedia and Google host Zoogle Day in many top markets around the world and we are very excited to bring this premier event to India. Given the way mobile is increasingly shaping consumer behavior and commerce, we felt this is an opportune time for us to hold this event. Both ZenithOptimedia and Google are leaders in mobile marketing and have valuable lessons and insights to share on the transformation that India is witnessing.”

     

    Tanmay Mohanty, Managing Director of Performics and Resultrix says, “We share a long fulfilling relationship with Google and this event cements this relationship further. They, like us, are driven by the Live ROI philosophy, and have unique data driven insights that help clients derive sizeable share.”

     

    Punitha Arumugam – Director Agency Business India and SEA, Google says “With an estimated 5mn smartphone users being added very month, India’s online populations is expected to cross 500MN by 2018. The Zoogle day chapter we are extending to India is tailored to this reality and will address the mobile and commerce future of this market.”

     

  • The IAMAI-IMRB report also notes that while urban users have grown 71% from 2014, the rural user-base is up 93%

    Mobile net users to be 371 mn by June ’16

    Figure: 1: Mobile Internet Users

     

    By A Correspondent

    The number of mobile internet users in India is expected to reach 371 million by June 2016. There were 306 million mobile internet users in India in December  2015. Of the 306 million internet users, 219 million users are from Urban India, which registered a Y-o-Y growth of 71 per cent, while the user-base in Rural India has gone up by 93 per cent from December 2014, to reach 87 million in December 2015. These are the major findings of a report titled ‘Mobile Internet in India 2015’, released by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, recently.

    The report also finds that the share of mobile internet spend out of average monthly bill has increased to 64 per cent in 2015 as compared to 54 per cent in 2014. The average monthly bill has reduced to the extent of 18% compared to last year.

     

    Figure 2:

     

    For the first time “Online Communication” has surpassed “Social media websites” to top the purpose to access mobile internet list. 80 per cent of the urban users use mobile internet for communication whereas 74 per cent access social networking sites using their mobile internet. In Rural India however, majority of the users access Mobile Internet for Entertainment. This is followed by Social Networking & Online Communication.

     

    Figure 3:

  • The agency will handle the entire gamut of digital advertising services for the brand

    Dentsu Webchutney wins digital mandate of Red Bull

    By A Correspondent

     

    DentsuWebchutney has been awarded the digital mandate for Red Bull. The agency’s Mumbai office will be leading the account services. The agency won the account following a multi-agency pitch.

     

    Sidharth Rao

    Commenting on the win, Sidharth Rao, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, DentsuWebchutney, says, “We are delighted to partner with Red Bull. The brand as well as the category are pretty dynamic – something that will certainly help us push the envelope and come up withsome refreshing work!”

     

    DentsuWebchutney is the digital agency from the Dentsu Aegis Network with offices in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Its clientele includes Flipkart, Airtel, Unilever, MasterCard, and Coca Cola.

     

  • Archana comes with close to 20 years of experience across domains

    Zee Digital appoints Archana Anand as Business Head, DittoTV

    By A Correspondent

     

    Archana Anand

    Archana Anand the current Vice-President & Head-Global Business Development, performance marketing and life cycle management at Zee Digital Convergence Ltd, will be the new Business Head of dittoTV. In her role as Business Head-dittoTV she will report to Debashish Ghosh-CEO, ZDCL (Zee Digital Convergence Limited, the digital arm of ZEEL).

     

    Debashish Ghosh, CEO, Zee Digital Convergence Limited on her appointment highlighted, “The OTT Industry is at an influx point with competition hotting up and things looking better than ever before in terms of choices for the end consumer. Content and Broadcast behemoths have all woken up to this reality and are quickly ensuring that they too are in the race, so as to continue to engage the end consumer and his demands for watching TV anytime, anywhere. As recently was done with the launch of our exclusive beforeTV feature which telecast, shows hours before television.”

     

    Archana comes with close to 20 years of experience across domains, a management professional from IIM Bangalore, who has worked across the Sales, Client Relationship, Product, Creative and User Experience domains, to have a very well rounded and holistic sense of managing a new age product business.