Category: Digital

  • Snapdeal promotes fashion offering in string of new TVCs

    By A Correspondent

     

    Taking another step forward in expanding its fashion vertical, Snapdeal has launched five interesting commercials on how fashion has the power to unbox something exquisite in an individual irrespective of the age, gender and lifestyle.

     

    Each of the five commercials focus on a distinct segment and life stage, from working men to a newlywed bride to a bunch of college girls lays emphasis on the transformative power of fashion in a person’s life. The commercials focus on characters who use fashion in pivotal moments of their life to transform and unbox undiscovered sides of themselves.

     

    Each commercial in the seriesre-emphasises Snapdeal’s focus on building its fashion vertical. Talking about the advertisements, KanikaKalra, Vice President-Marketing, Snapdeal and FreeCharge stated: “Fashion as a category is growing exponentially at Snapdeal. We are constantly diversifying our fashion assortment to match the taste and preferences of the dynamic set of fashion consumers. Fashion is uniquely the most personal yet the most public signal when you transition life stages, relationships or mindsets. Taking forward the brand narrative on Unbox Zindagi- these films explore moments where fashion is instrumental to defining a new phase of life.”

     

    Created by McCann WorldGroup, the advertisements will be aired on television and will be cross promoted via Snapdeal’sYoutube channel, social media platforms and website.

     

  • Britannia Good Day & MEC India co-create campus digital radio station

    By A Correspondent

     

    Britannia Good Day in partnership with MEC Wavemaker, a content arm of MEC India, conceptualisedwhat is being biIndia’s first brand owned campus digital radio station in an attempt to get young Indians to smile more.

     

    Commenting on the launch, VP, Marketing, Britannia Industries Limited, Ali Harris Shere said:“Good Day is an iconic brand and enjoys immense love and equity amongst the consumers. The brand holds the baton for making Indians smile more and we know that youth with their innate optimism and cheer will do this better than any other demographic. By establishing ‘India’s 1st aural social network’, Good Day aims to connect deeper with its younger consumers. The digital radio station has been curated with a keen focus on today’s youth and their passions, and the content will reflect what’s current & trending in the country’s pop culture”.

     

    On curating the platform for the youth, Kumar Deb Sinha, Head – India, MEC Wavemaker said:“The content space is now witnessing a change as brands prefer to own unique platforms to connect and persuade their target audience. Our task at hand was to target Gen Z, who are interested in what’s new, trending and adapts to the latest trends. To focus on this specific audience, MEC had conducted an in-depth study in understanding Gen Z through customized research and consumer behavior tracking tools,  which helped to create customized and engaging audio platform called ‘Campus Radio’, a combination of preferred online (radio) and content (music) medium.”

     

    He added, “MEC Wavemaker always believes in creating unique content ideas that goes beyond traditional marketing activities that enables to strengthen the equity of the brand.”

     

    Celebrating the launch, Rahul Balyan, Head of Digital Initiatives, at Radio Mirchi said,“Radio Mirchi, in partnership with Gaana, is happy to create an online platform for Britannia that helps them engage with the College students. We have created a unique listening experience that re-invents radio for the internet-savvy youth. We are also helping Britannia connect with college students across the country through on-ground activation as well. Radio Mirchi already operates sixteen online radio stations in partnership with Gaana, and hopes to make Campus Radio the flagship online radio station of the youth of India. The challenge in digital marketing is to build meaningful engagement with consumers, and Radio Mirchi with its content creation capabilities, its iconic Rjs, and multi-media solutions is helping build that engagement for brands across digital platforms.”

     

  • Udacity offers 3-month digital marketing course

    By A Correspondent

     

    In order to address the growing demand for skilled digitalmarketers worldwide,Udacity, a leader in disruptive learning technologies, announced the commencement of its new Udacity Digital Marketing Nanodegree Program.

     

    Commenting on the launch, Ishan Gupta, MD – India, Udacity, said, “In the fast-changing marketing field, along with the freshers, even seasoned professionals need a refresher on the latest digital strategies and tools. In order to attend to this need, we have partnered with an incredible roster of industry-leading digitalmarketing companies to build a program that offers a holistic approach to the field, covers every important platform, and equips students with a broad foundation upon which to build their careers. Students will have the opportunity to learn with experts from Facebook, Google, Hootsuite, Hubspot, Mailchimp, Moz​, and more. We are thrilled about this launch and are confident that our students will be in demand like hot cakes in the market.”

     

    The program is a single, 3-month term, offered at an exclusive introductory price of Rs 46,000 for those who sign up this month.

     

  • DigitalF5 bags the complete digital marketing mandate for Victorinox

    By A Correspondent

     

    DigitalF5 has acquired the digital marketing mandate of Victorinox, makers of the Swiss Army Knife and utility products such as cutlery, watches and travel gear.

     

    The win includes managing the online business of GuteReise.in which is an authorised retail dealer of the brand Victorinox and has over 15 stores across multiple cities in the country.

     

    Commenting on the acquisition, Barin Mukherjee Co-Founder & CEO,  DigitalF5 said: “It is a very rare opportunity for us to be an end-to-end services provider and yet remain an integral part of a brand’s business growth trajectory on the digital domain. To associate with such a massive global brandname as Victorinox, with an integral business connect rather than just advertising campaigns is indeed a welcome challenge for us at F5.

     

    Explaining the reasons behind his choice of agency, Colonel Chandhoke, MD Victorinox India, said, “We chose DigitalF5 primarily because of their understanding and capabilities on e-commerce as a space.  Theirability to build cross functional teams, set up processes that work in sync with Victorinox team and integrationof each component of e-commerce todeliver the desired consumer experience is what distinguishes them from other organizations.”

     

  • Facebook partners TLabs to strengthen mobile startup ecosystem

    By A Correspondent

     

    Facebook and TLabs accelerator have partnered to strengthen the mobile startup ecosystem in India. Both Facebook and TLabs will build on the knowledge and learnings of in-house senior mentors to engage and educate budding entrepreneurs. As part of this partnership, they will co-host multiple events for solving startups’ issues around user experience, analytics, app installs, monetization and more.

     

    Facebook will also provide FbStart referral codes to TLabs for use by TLabs’s mobile portfolio companies. FbStart is a global program designed to help mobile startups build and grow their apps. Startups with a live mobile app on Google Play/iOS stores or a working Messenger bot can apply for the FbStart Program and membership is awarded to selected start-ups, post a review from the Facebook team.

     

    These startups will receive ad credits from Facebook and benefits from more than 30 partners, including AWS, Dropbox, SalesForce and MailChimp, notes a communique. Said TLabs COO, Abhishek Gupta: “It’s an incredible step by Facebook for the mobile ecosystem, and start-ups would be highly benefited from being a part of the Facebook global community.”Satyajeet Singh, Head – Product Partnerships, Facebook India, commented that partnering with TLabs was a progressive decision towards creating an empowered start-up ecosystem in the country.

     

  • YouTube celebrates growth of online creators in India

    By A Correspondent

     

    YouTube recognised the fastest growing online creators in India on the eve of fourth edition of YouTube FanFest in Mumbai, presented by Be Beautiful, 5 Star, Gionee and MarutiIgnis. With over 14 independent creators hitting the one million subscribers mark across entertainment, music, tech and food, YouTube claims a healthy growth in online video viewership in India, reaching over 180 million users per month in India on mobile alone, according to an App Annie stat quoted in a communique.

     

    And there’s more: “With over 300 million smartphone users now in the country, creators are finding audiences beyond the top metros thanks to improved access to the Internet, as well as more Indians coming online in tier 2 cities who are discovering new content in their languages. This demand is driving more hunger for YouTube content across all genres. These trends are driving YouTube’s massive growth in watch time, with mobile contributing to 80 per cent of YouTube’s total watch time in India. That mobile watch time is growing at a staggering 400 per cent year on year. Earlier this year, YouTube announced that its 1+ billion users worldwide are now watching 1 billion hours of video daily. “

     

    At a pre-YouTube FanFest press conference, YouTube congratulated Bhuvam Bam, otherwise known as BB Ki Vines, as the fastest creator ever in India to hit the 2 million subscriber mark — he had attained the 1 million milestone just a few months prior. YouTube also awarded a Gold Play Button to celebrate the 1 million subscriber milestone to Technical Guruji and Shirley Setia. Amongst other top creators, Being Indian, Kabita’s Kitchen, NishaMadhulika, SANAM, and VidyaVox also emerged as the next generations of stars who are defining a new form of entertainment for millions of Indians with their entry into the 1 million subscribers club.

     

    Talking about YouTube’s plans to further grow the content creator ecosystem in India, David Powell, Director of Online Partnerships and Development, YouTube, APAC said: “With more people coming online especially in Tier 2 cities, we’re seeing more hunger for YouTube content across all genres. In 2016, we saw over 500 creators across India get over 100k subscribers, meaning at least one channel is crossing this threshold every day. This meteoric rise of content creators across the country is at the heart of YouTube’s popularity in India, and we are significantly ramping up our efforts to make India one of the most vibrant and successful content creator communities in Asia. We will ramp up our efforts in creator community events across the country with a big focus on the south of India, and will continue to put the spotlight on creators as with our recent #SeeSomethingNew campaign.”

     

  • YouTube ‘watchtime’ leapfrogs, fourth edition of Brandcast held

    By A Correspondent

     

    YouTube hosted the fourth edition of Brandcast India in Mumbai recently. Held in Mumbai, the event brought together leading advertisers, agencies, and partners from all across the country to discuss and celebrate YouTube – the destination where Indians choose to watch video. Talking about the growing appetite among Indian consumers to watch videos online, YouTube shared that as per App Annie, over 180 million Indians are watching YouTube every month on mobile. Further, ‘watchtime’ in India has grown 400 per cent year on year and 80per cent of watch time in India comes from mobile. From entertainment to education, from news to beauty – Indians are turning to YouTube for every aspect of their lives.

     

    Improved connectivity, affordable data plans and huge variety of content available has led to over 400 million Indians online and 300m smartphone users today. In the mobile video era, viewers can watch what they want, where they want and when they want – and this greater choice for viewers also means greater opportunities for marketers. In today’s media environment, while there is plentiful reach, it’s harder to attract viewers’ attention.

     

    Elaborating on how attentive reach has become the new currency for the advertisers, Sapna Chadha, Head of Marketing, Google India and South-East Asia said, “According to asurvey we conducted with Majestic Research, using eye-tracking technology we discovered, the first ad in an TV ad break is watched actively by 50% of people while the last one is watched actively by only 13% of viewers. Attention has always been inherent to advertising. But, capturing and keeping attention has never been harder for advertisers.”

     

    Addressing the audience, she asked them to change how they buy and plan media for attentive reach. She also shared that over the years, YouTube captures audience attention by delivering 95per cent audibility and 93per cent viewability.

     

    Speaking on how to make advertising more effective online, Jonah Goodhart, CEO, MOAT said, “Everywhere in the world, consumption patterns are changing, making ‘attentive reach’ the foundation of any digital campaign. Measurability is the key to understand the efficacy of any brand engagement and we are thrilled to be the first company to independently measure viewability on YouTube.”

     

    Sanjeev Handa, VP and Head of Marketing, Maruti Suzuki also addressed the audience and said, “When you combine a format like video and you want to reach out to a billion+ Indians, the answer comes naturally and that is YouTube. YouTube allows us to tell the right brand stories to the right audiences helping us capture their attention. Case in point, is the launch of the IGNIS which was done simultaneously through the physical as well as digital medium to engage with the millennials and, the results were astounding. On YouTube, the launch was viewed over 10 million times, and 20% pre-launch bookings came from digital in the first 10 days,” adding: “For advertisers to leverage digital effectively, one needs to have deep insights into your consumers, look to target their interests and effectively measure the viewability of the ad.”

     

    Elaborating on his experience of working with brands, Kurt Hugo Schneider who has over 8 million subscribers on YouTube and has collaborated with over 40 global brands said, “Concept integration and not product integration, is key to making a brand video authentic and earning people’s attention. With technological innovation, brands today have the opportunity to interact more closely with their audience and get a feel of their preferences.”

     

  • The CMO view on Digital Marketing

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leading brands are refocussing on digital assets as the atomic unit of marketing. Digital Asset Management – Digital Assets, that are traditionally under the IT budget, today account for 30-40 per cent of the digital marketing budget. As digital continues to transform, it is forcing marketers to re-think their omnichannel approaches, personalisation led by analytics or disruption like chatbots and virtual reality – a key priority for marketers in 2017.

     

    Meanwhile, Content Marketing and Distribution is the centrepiece of the Digital Marketing strategy, with the budgets on content marketing and distribution estimated to double in the next two years. Also, Social Media Marketing along with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) accounted for a lion’s share of the CMO’s ‘Always on Budget’.

     

    These and many more insights were unveiled by DMAasia and Times Internet on Thursday in Mumbai in a study titled ‘Digital Marketing in India: A CMO Perspective 2016-2017’.

     

    The study also yielded that 40 per cent CMOs are not satisfied with the contribution of agencies as they do not manage to deliver in conformity with their marketing goals and growth prospects. Consequently, in house marketing asset creation movement is gaining momentum and will see surge over the next few years unless agencies reinvent their models.

     

    At the launch, Gulshan Verma, CRO Times Internet Limited and President of the DMAasia Insights Council said: “With this study our goal was to understand what the marketers were thinking and help them learn from their community. By speaking to over a hundred CMOs in the country, we realised that ultimately the core goals of marketing haven’t changed – reaching the consumer, engaging with them, and making them a loyal customer are still essential to all marketers. Digital will continue to be very important in the years to come to achieve these goals and what is interesting is the way marketers are approaching it. We hope this report will be useful to the marketing community.”

     

    Commenting on the release of the report, Vatsal Asher, Founder and CEO DMAasia said: “The report reveals the contribution of digital platform in the overall marketing mix and shares an insightful road map for the coming years. Basis current trends & sentiments, this report aims to help businesses understand, analyse and make decisions by being an indispensable guidebook to sail through the abundant choppy marketing waters.“

     

    We reproduce here the Executive Summary of the report:

    Through the years what has remained consistent has been the marketer’s concern. With the evolution of technology and the tools and the increasing clutter, prioritisation and choosing the correct strategy is of paramount importance.

     

    When we undertook this survey, our goal was to understand what were the digital priorities of those who make brands – the Marketing Officers. We spoke to 115 marketers, only to realise that for each of them the only priority was building their Brand and Product Portfolio.

     

    Today, digital plays a critical role in every aspect of marketing – whetherit is about awareness, customer engagement, acquisition, and product development.

     

    As the mobile screen became the first screen of India in 2016, it is rapidly changing the way we consume media, interact with others (including brands)and how we live our lives today.

     

    Companies today, work hard to create brand awareness and an experience,seamlessly in the offline as well as the online world. Thus, the marketers’ today have two critical roles to play:

     

    1. Strategic Role – Impacting the consumers in the digital medium by creating the same brand association and customer engagement in the offline andonline world. Facilitating a consumer’s journey through the life-cycle of discovery to consumption and most importantly recommendation.

     

    2. Execution role – Supporting marketing initiatives done by the Brand Managers using traditional marketing and supporting business goals of generating leads/ sales.The strategic as well as executionary level roles that CMOs play today, put them under a lot of pressure. Many marketers have started allocating a large share of their budgets to spends on Digital. This is primarily due to a better measurability and the “higher Return on Investment” (ROI) vis-à-vis traditional media options. This is a double-edged sword as this is skewing spends towards performance marketing, directly compromising on brand awareness and top of the funnel initiatives.

     

    As per a recent IMRB International study, the share of digital in the total marketing spend is at 12% in India. However, our discussions with the 115 top marketers in the country suggests a much higher digital share, averaging 50 –55% of the entire marketing budget. We also found that for some of the new age online retail firms, digital marketing spends were as high as 75-80%.It is critical for marketers to set their marketing and media buying goals in line with their business objectives. Each marketing dollar must be back-calculated to derive top, middle and bottom funnel objectives,factoring drop-outs at every stage. This is the first step towards measuring ROI.

     

    Focusing on wrong measures can often be a challenge as marketing objectives are constantly revised alongside the business objectives. Leading brands are refocussing on digital assets as the atomic unit of marketing.Digital Asset Management – Digital Assets,that are traditionally under the IT budget,today account for 30-40% of the digital marketing budget. As digital continues to transform, it is forcing marketers tore-think their omni channel approaches,personalisation led by analytics or disruption like chat bots and virtual reality – a key priority for marketers in 2017.

     

    Building on digital assets is the content that engages with the customer.Content Marketing & Distribution is the centerpiece of the Digital Marketing strategy,with the budgets on content marketing and distribution estimated to double in the next two years. The marketing mavericks we spoke to believe that content distribution will be50% of the content marketing budget.

     

    Social Media Marketing along with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) accounted for a lion’s share of the CMO’s ‘Always on Budget’.

     

    What was interesting to note was that Influencer Marketing and Video Virality did not live up to the expected hype in 2016. This was predominantly due to limited execution.

     

    What we overwhelmingly heard was that Influencer Marketing was hijacked by Social media, while they attributed the failure of video virality to limited investment in distribution.

     

  • Twitter expands pre-roll ads to Periscope Video

     

     

    Twitter has introduced a new route for publishers and creators to monetise their content with pre-roll ads on Periscope video within Twitter.

     

    Pre-roll ads on Periscope video enable brands to merge their message with specific broadcasts from creators and publishers. When consumers scroll through their timelines or search for content from a specific publishers or creators, Periscope videos – live and replay – can start with a short ad.

     

    Ads on Periscope videos are available to select advertisers through custom Amplify packages, and will roll out more broadly in the coming months.

     

  • Vodafone scores a Perfect 10 with IPL

     

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Talk of the Indian Premier League, and other than the title sponsor, if there’s one brand that’s is kinda intrinsically associated with the cricketing tournament, it’s telecom major Vodafone. Right from inaugural tournament in 2008, Vodafone and its advertising agencies have worked extra to be associated with the premier sporting league.

     

    And despite all the controversies around it, Vodafone India has stayed on. However, there’s more to the advertising one sees around the live broadcast. For instance, the large amount of BTL activity at the time of the IPL, including the cricket stadia. The match-signing is now an activity that other brands also like doing, in order to engage with customers and/or their own constituents.

     

    Celebrating a decade of its association with the Indian Premier League, Vodafone India has announced to make the 2017 edition as big as it gets. This year, even as Vodafone and IPL commemorate a decade-long partnership,Vodafone customers and IPL viewers can look forward to many new initiatives. Vivo IPL 2017 starts on April 5 and continues till May 21.

     

    The Vodafone Super Fan that offers Vodafone customers to get the match winning ball signed by the winning captain on live television,takes on a larger avatar in IPL 2017. Then there will be the Zumi Cheer films with the little characters displaying their signature steps.

     

    Another engagement exercise is an opportunity for aspiring Vodafone SuperFans to experience the unique feel of cheering for their favourite team from the front row of the stadium, even if they are not actually in the stadium, but are watching the match from a Vodafone store anywhere in the country.

     

    Said Siddharth Banerjee, EVP – Marketing, Vodafone India: “Vodafone and IPL together have offered unique and engaging experiences to cricket followers and sports enthusiasts over the last decade. We at Vodafone are proud and privileged to have been part of this 10-year journey that has changed sports and cricket in India. If you have loved the iconic Vodafone campaigns over previous editions of IPL, this year is going to be bigger, better and even more action packed. Vodafone Super Fan Ki Super Wish and the chance to cheer from the Front Row will offer exclusive experiences to the Super Fan for the first time. Vodafone customers and cricket lovers can also look forward to enjoying this IPL season with the Zumi Super Cheers celebrating special cricket moments”.

     

    Vivo IPL 2017 starts on April 5 and continues till May 21

     

    Vodafone @ IPLs

     

    Year 1: 2008:: Happy to Help

    :: Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa5i8Yx9RPk

     

    Year 2: 2009:: Vodafone introduced ZooZoos

    :: Cricket Alerts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx5PYo5oNZw

    :: Beauty Tips - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ5J-RWQuIY

     

    Year 3: 2010:: Campaign: Launch of IVRS (Zoozoos)

    :: Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1qpm5K8fIw

     

    Year 4: 2011:: Vodafone 3G: Faster, Smarter, Better (Introducing Super Zoozoos)

    :: Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GFr_GSjYPI

     

    Year 5: 2012:: Internet is Fun

    :: Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwqNdhzUPpM

     

    Year 6: 2013:: Mobile Internet: Faster Download, sharing, online recharges, games etc

    :: Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0fQHXN1Bd4

     

    Year 7: 2014:: Superior Customer Experience

    :: Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GVEiaP3mf0&feature=youtu.be

    :: .Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4MPiybKAqA&feature=youtu.be

     

    Year 8: 2015:: Speed is Good

    :: Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztDH9ufdhgY&list=PLFIgzNfEWW2XesiPcL0npS_fA_XeHFjZ0

     

    Year 9: 2016:: #BeSuper

    :: Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFRMh5kv19k

     

    Other initiatives in IPL

     

    2012 - Vodafone launches Super Zoozoo comic series (The Adventure of Super Zoozoos, New Year videos, Christmas Carols, Diwali & Valentine Day greetings)

    2012- Vodafone SuperFan launched

    2013 – Vodafone Facebook ZooZoos page crosses 10 million fans

    2014 - Vodafone FanArmy

    2016 - ZooZoo Emoji on Twitter - India’s first corporate brand emoji 2016

    2016 – Cheer Slogan – #HakkeBakke  -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuGr2dVzoC4

    2016 – Vodafone Super Album (75,000+ photographs were collated in an Online Album)

     

  • Air Asia India bullish on online bookings via its website and mobile app

    By A Correspondent

     

    AirAsia India has announced the launch of a comprehensive marketing campaign for existing and new fliers. Titled “One Destination for All Destinations”, it is aimed at increasing awareness about the company’s website and the mobile app, to make it the preferred destination to book flights.

     

    Through this campaign, the brand wants to further reinforce its positioning as a digital airline, by providing guests with best deals on its digital platforms

     

    The campaign includes three digital films that will be played across Air Asia’s digital platforms as well as multiplexes in India. The films bring to the fore the flavor of India’s diversity by way of food, shopping and music. Said Amar Abrol, MD and CEO, AirAsia India: “One Destination for All Destinations will be our third campaign this year under the umbrella thought of #FlyWithAirAsia; 2017 is proving to be an exciting year for us! All our marketing efforts are directed towards ensuring that guests get the best deals at one destination, airasia.com. We are continuously working towards making AirAsia a truly digital airline and enabling every Indian to fly hassle-free”.

     

  • Myntra launches campaign to promote the first season of ‘Big Fashion Gig’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Myntra kicked off a special campaign to promote Big Fashion Gig and launch two television commercials as part of its ongoing promotions.The campaign calls upon fashionistas to try out the latest products, styles and designs from over 1500 domestic and international brands, with access to over 3 lakh curated styles.

     

    Commenting on the campaign, Gunjan Soni, Head of Jabong and Chief Marketing Officer at Myntra, said: “Big Fashion Gig has been conceptualised to allow our fashion forward customers, access to brands, designs and styles to the upcoming summer collection of some of the finest global brands. It is the first of its kind event in the country where we have conceptualized over 30 gigs with curated styles for our customers and collaborated with over 10 celebrities who will offer their tips and style mantras. The campaign has been developed to clearly highlight their role as fashion advisors to our consumers.”