MxMIndia

Category: MEDIA

  • Global unit to help clients capitalize on opportunities as digital transforms commerce

    Mindshare rolls out Shop+

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mindshare has rolled out Shop+, a unit dedicated to helping clients leverage real time data to apply adaptive marketing techniques to both in-store and online shopping.

     

    Shop+ covers all forms of commerce, from exploring beacons in physical stores to the latest adaptive pricing and promotion technologies being used by online retailers.

     

    Joe Migliozzi, MD, Mindshare North America, is global lead for Shop+ with support from Emma-Jane Steele and Charlotte Day-Lewin in the worldwide team based in London and Narayan Ivaturi in APAC. Combined the global Shop+ team is 12 people strong.

     

    Shop+ launches with the following partnerships, with more to be added in the coming months:

    • Checkout 51, a mobile coupon app for shoppers
    • InMarket, the world’s largest beacon proximity, location intelligence and mobile shopper marketing platform, reaching over 36MM beacon-enabled app users per month in every major U.S. retail location.
    • Footmarks, a leading enterprise awareness (beacons) platform provider

     

    Norm Johnston, Chief Digital and Strategy Officer, Mindshare Worldwide, said: “We are at the beginning of a third wave in digital marketing, with exponential growth in new data sources and technology, which is why we recently launched Life+ to help brands explore their role in the emerging Internet of Things. These same dramatic changes are happening in retail, and we intend to help our clients be at the forefront of digital and data innovation in both offline and online shopping.”

     

    Joe Migliozzi, Shop+ Leader at Mindshare said: “Digital technology continues to dramatically change retail, from online to mobile to in-store. Despite all these separate evolving channels, the consumer doesn’t see a distinction between online and offline shopping. It is one experience and brands must integrate all brand and shopper media across all channels to communicate a strong and consistent message from awareness all the way to conversion.”

     

  • The account was won following a multi agency pitch

    Rediffusion Y&R bags creative duties of KIFF 2015

    By A Correspondent

     

    Kolkata International Film Festival is the second-oldest film festival in India. Its focus this year is on “Hollywood”. Keeping in line with this, Rediffusion Y&R has worked on a campaign fashioned around well known Hollywood production companies. The Campaign includes 360 degree support of Press, Outdoor, Digital, Poster and Merchandise. The first four ads have already been released.

     

    Piyash Ghosh and Nilanjan Dasgupta – Executive Creative Directors (South- East), Rediffusion-Y&R said, “We took the reference of some of the well-known production houses based out of Hollywood and recreated them with Kolkata’s iconic structures. The main motif, the terracotta camera has been created keeping in mind the art form of Bengal.”

     

    Atri Bhattacharya, an IAS and Principal Secretary- Department of Information & Cultural Affairs, Government of West Bengal said, “Rediffusion-Y&R had great communication ideas, they have really thought out of the box. It’s the creative edge where they have cut out others in the line. They are also taking care of what we call the 360 degree communication.”

     

    Suparna Mucadum- Vice President, Rediffusion-Y&R Kolkata adds “Winning this prestigious campaign is very gratifying. In an era, where cutting clutter is a difficult task, our work on KIFF is already able to capture attention. The task is to enthrall all cinema aficionados to not only live the theme; but also take home a bit of Hollywood with them. For this we have worked on an all round campaign with contemporary digital ideas and interesting merchandise products too.”

     

    KIFF showcases creative work of most innovative and artistic film makers of the world.The festival will feature 149 films by 137 directors from 61 countries in 15 categories at 12 venues from 14th November to 21st November. Amitabh Bachchan will inaugurate the festival at Netaji Indoor Stadium, in the presence of Honorable Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

     

  • Nov 8 is Results Day on News TV, but EVMs have changed the rules, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Fasten your Seatbelts for The Big Bihar Sunday

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    An election results day is here again. And this time, it’s a Sunday too. Bihar elections have been a long-drawn process, with an extended campaign period and five phases of polling. It will all come to an end on November 8, when the counting begins. And it promises to be a cliffhanger.

     

    Election results coverage is perhaps the only form of structured programming of any significance that news channels still have, besides the ‘talking heads locked in a debate’ format. It all gets over in a hurry, but it’s great fun while it lasts, especially if you can identify the best 2-3 news channels on the day and watch within that set, than surfing across more than a dozen of them.

     

    Most exit polls show a close finish for these elections, though Today’s Chanakya, best known for their 300+ forecast for NDA in the 2014 General Elections, is predicting a clear majority for NDA in Bihar. Sunday will be a crucial day for Chanakya too, not just for the two sides locked in a prestigious political battle.

     

    When we shifted from ballot paper to EVMs, the nature of election results programming changed overnight. Till then, anchors had all the time to engage in deep analysis. Psephologists, political experts and politicians themselves with spend considerable time in news studios. No one would be in a hurry. It would all roll out at a leisurely pace, with banter thrown in for good measure. Dr Prannoy Roy shone through those days. This format really suited his personality.

     

    When the EVMs arrived, we witnessed a time collapse. The real action, from the first leads coming in to a clear picture emerging, would take anything from half-hour to maximum two hours, depending on how one-sided or close the battle is.

     

    Most news channels are still experimenting with an ideal programming format that delivers to this T20-type brief. The viewer is bound to focus primarily on the leads window, much like business news channels are watched in market hours. So should one create a show that presents the leads information to viewers in a direct, almost idiot-proof, manner? Or should one create engaging programming for the high-engagement viewers who are deep into politics, and let everyone else focus on the window on the side or the bottom of the screen

     

    This is where anchor personalities can play a significant role. Choices like above are not easy to make. But viewers eventually tend to watch election results programming because they trust certain anchors for their experience and knowledge of the topic. Every anchor has his (rarely ‘her’ in this case) style that he needs to bring to the coverage. Technology and talking-heads are only aids.

     

    Yet, after Dr Roy, we haven’t had a standout election results anchor. Most top news anchors (across languages) do a serviceable job of the day, but there’s no one who will be remembered for his election results coverage before anything else. Perhaps an outcome of the EVMs coming in.

     

  • The 120 Media Collective Founder and CEO to represent India on the prestigious panel

    Roopak Saluja on the jury of Cristal Festival 2015

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Cristal Festival has invited Roopak Saluja, Founder & CEO, The 120 Media Collective, to be a member of jury for Brand Entertainment & Content and Sports Marketing this year. He will also be speaking at the programme on the subject of Online Video in the Brand Content space.

     

    A global summit for Media & Communications, held every year in Courchevel (French Alps), the 15th edition will be held from 9 to 13 December, 2015 with a special focus on Content Creation in the digital era and Content Distribution as a result of data & technological innovations.

     

    Commenting on the development, Roopak said, “Cristal is a unique event that seamlessly straddles the cutting edge of content and communications spaces. It’s where the future lies and I’m greatly honoured to be on their jury as well to be speaking at this year’s edition.”

     

     

  • Varun will oversee marketing strategy across channels covering online, offline, mobile and strategic alliance partnerships

    ShopClues appoints Varun Jha as Senior Director, Marketing

    By A Correspondent

     

    ShopClues has announced the appointment of Varun Jha as its Senior Director, Marketing. Varun joins ShopClues from PayU India where he was a core team member and the Head of Marketing. In his new role, he will work directly with Nitin Agarwal, AVP Marketing at ShopClues. In his new role, he will oversee marketing strategy across channels covering online, offline, mobile and strategic alliance partnerships.

     

    Speaking on his appointment, Varun said, “I am super excited to be a part of India’s largest managed marketplace – ShopClues. In a short span of time, ShopClues has established itself as a dominant player in the e-commerce sector through rapid growth in both merchant and consumer base. What excites me more is the fact that it operates at an immense scale and this will open up a new set of challenging opportunities for me. As a new-age marketer, I will be looking at further scaling the business through innovative marketing solutions and aligning marketing channels with the path of profitability.”

     

    Radhika Aggarwal, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer said, “Varun has 8 years of solid experience through which he has demonstrated his expertise in result and profit-oriented marketing activities. He is extremely analytics-oriented and is a great communicator, all prerequisites of a great marketing professional. His agility and acumen is precisely what ShopClues needs at this strategic point in its growth curve.”

     

    Varun has also worked with multinational organisations like Cummins Inc (Fortune 500) and Micro-Star International Co-op in various marketing roles. He has diverse industry experience from spheres like consumer electronics, IT and E-commerce and has expertise in digital strategy, performance marketing and online payments.  He has a management degree from IIT Bombay and a B.E. in Electronics and Telecommunications from Mumbai University.

     

  • ​In the fight against intolerance, the most dangerous of all are those journalists who have sat on the fence, waiting it seems to see which side prevails. Almost no one, and I include myself here, has managed to be a dispassionate observer. Perhaps that will be a loss later: this is one of those clichéd wait and watch situations writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: The media’s tizzy between the farce of exit polls, glorification of a gangster and a new wave of protests for a more tolerant India

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The media this week was in a tizzy over protests by creative people against intolerance, led by film star Shah Rukh Khan, the Bihar elections and the return to India of the “patriotic don” Chhota Rajan.

     

    Let’s take the least significant of the three first. Our “patriotic because he is Hindu and not Muslim” gangster Chhota Rajan. Make no mistake, he was an integral part of Dawood Ibrahim’s gang and also a big Mumbai gangland boss. He is not a returning hero, he is not a fine example of patriotism and he is not a fictional character from a Bollywood movie. He is a gangster. However, we have breathless reporters giving us his every move and Chhota Rajan milking every TV op in the craftiest manner possible.

     

    Once more I return to my old and now tired even to me theme: if only we had some journalists out there who were around when the Bombay Underworld ruled. Instead we have a bunch of ignorant editors and reporters romanticising a life of murder, extortion, smuggling, prostitution and worse. As a sign of the times, India’s newspaper with the best institutional memory, The Times of India, gave us a history of Bombay’s underworld by referencing the film industry and particularly Kamal Hasan’s Nayakan (1987) where he played Vardarajan Mudaliar, one of the city’s biggest ganglords. I would have also added Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Parinda (1989) for its remarkable understatement and realism. The flip side is that our lack of contemporary history or our contempt for history in general (look at the reaction to the protests) means we have few other reference points especially for the internet generation.

     

    Then we have the Bihar elections, the run-up to which has been vicious and vitriolic. Last night on TV we had the regular and routine farce of exit polls. Whoever gets within 100 seats of being correct will claim victory. We will all agree that exit polls don’t work because people lie and then we return to them the next time round. Meanwhile, we have worked out every theory of win and loss to hedge our bets.

     

    Finally, there is the rising tide of creative people and academics speaking out against what they perceive as a corrosive atmosphere in the country today. Journalists have responded in interesting ways. Some have aligned with the protestors. Some have aligned with the government and played the idiotic and favourite “whataboutery” game of all politicians who are accused of something.

     

    And the most dangerous of all have sat on the fence, waiting it seems to see which side prevails. Almost no one, and I include myself here, has managed to be a dispassionate observer. Perhaps that will be a loss later: this is one of those clichéd wait and watch situations.

     

    **

     

    In a sweet display of intra-media love, both The Times of India and Economic Times picked up a story from Mint to carry in their editions. The credit in the websites is hard to find. The dateline just says “By Livemint” and below that the byline “By Shuchi Bansal”.

     

    Of course what is important is that the story itself talks about the importance of print and why even e-commerce companies have to depend on print advertising. Thus, win-win for Mint and TOI and Hindustan Times and so on.

     

    Mint interestingly is part of the Hindustan Times stable. And while Times of India and Hindustan Times are bitter rivals when it comes to readership surveys and circulation figures, they also share a “no-poaching pact”. This means that you cannot switch jobs from one to another without a six-month wait. But evidently, you can share stories.

     

    **

     

    I welcome the All India Bakchod (AIB) to Indian television with its political and social satire. Perhaps in some ways, this is a sign of an India growing up where some of us at least are willing and able to laugh at ourselves.

     

    The other good news is that Jon Stewart, recently retired from The Daily Show, will be back on air with HBO.

     

     

  • Hansa Cequity will work as a Business Level Partner of Adobe to provide digital marketing solutions and integrated technologies to its pan-India customers

    Hansa Cequity joins Adobe Solution Partner Program

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hansa Cequity has announced it has joined the Adobe Solution Partner Program as a Business Level Partner. This will allow Hansa Cequity to work more closely with Adobe to provide digital marketing solutions and integrated technologies to its pan-India customers.

     

    Hansa Cequity will use Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions such as Adobe Audience Manager (a data management platform), Adobe Analytics (a leading marketing analytics solution), Adobe Campaign (for multi-channel campaign management), to provide integrated customer marketing solutions to its clients in retail, automotive, banking and travel and hospitality domains. In strengthening its relationship with Adobe, Hansa Cequity will receive greater levels of support from Adobe and in turn be able to pass that along to its clients.

     

    “Hansa Cequity is excited to build our relationship with Adobe, and in signing this enterprise agreement, we will have a great Digital Technology partner in Adobe as we continue to expand as a full service Customer Experience Management Company,” said S Swaminathan, CEO and Co-Founder, Hansa Cequity.

     

    “With customer centricity gradually becoming an integral part of organisational thinking, marketers are looking to partner who can provide integrated services for enhancing their customer’s experience. And that is what we aim to achieve with this partnership,” added, Ajay Kelkar, COO and Co-Founder, Hansa Cequity.

     

    Commenting on the partnership Umang Bedi, MD – South Asia, Adobe Systems said, “Hansa Cequity has been one of the pioneers of data-driven marketing in India. This partnership will enable customers to act on the insights to deliver differentiated customer experiences in this rapidly changing digital world.”

     

    The Adobe Solution Partner Program is designed to create a successful relationship between Adobe and digital marketing companies to help build customer experience solutions and facilitate exchange of resources and support.

     

  • The five-day extravaganza will bring together stalwarts in the fields of Media, Entertainment, Entrepreneurship, Education, Food and more

    Social Media Week to delve on ‘Upwardly Mobile’ this year

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mumbai will be one of the 12 cities across the world to host the fifth edition of the leading international digital conference, Social Media Week from November 16 – 20. The platform is an effort to bring leading social influencers together to re-imagine human connectivity and to understand how humanity and technology can come together to change the ways we live, work and create. This year, the theme is ‘Upwardly mobile: The rise of the connected class’. The other host cities are Berlin, Chicago, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Mumbai, Rome, Rotterdam, São Paulo, Sydney, and Toronto. The conference will be held at the ISDI Parsons School of Innovation and Design at Lower Parel.

     

    “The world of social media has subsumed almost all aspects of our lives today. At Social Media Week, we bring together the contributors and pioneers of this change to help the community acquaint themselves with the dynamics of human connectivity via mobile platforms, through sharing of ideas and experiences.” said, Rohit Varma, Founder RSQUARE Consulting and Director Social Media Week, which brought Social Media Week to India.

     

    The Internet and Mobile Association of India recently announced that internet users in India now exceed 350 million out of which, 45 per cent users access the internet through mobile phones. Out of our total population of 1,285 million, 46 per cent (590 million) are mobile users. These advancements have enabled a myriad of new innovations in areas as diverse as marketing, entrepreneurship and regulation of traffic. Social Media Week will curate and share the best ideas, innovations and insights into how social media and technology are changing business, society and culture in India.

     

    With its impressive line-up of speakers and exciting and relevant themes, it promises to be a rewarding opportunity for participants. The speakers include brand expert Suhel Seth and international news anchor Richard Lui. Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Milind Bharambe, will share the experience of successfully tapping social media to influence behaviour and run social campaigns. Ansoo Gupta, a pioneer of safe and affordable adventure travel for women and COO of Pinstorm will also address the audience. Munaf Kapadia, CEO of The Bohri Kitchen and other ‘foodpreneurs’ will share insights on how social media has impacted the food business.

     

    Started in New York in 2012 by Crowdcentric Media LLC, Social Media Week has evolved into a global movement that taps into human networks to create and share a knowledge bank, through debates, discussions and talks, which helps people stay connected the world-over.

     

  • This is how the Page 1s of various newspapers displayed the Bihar results

    NewsStand: How the front-pages of various newspapers displayed the Bihar results

     

     

       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       

     

     

  • Political strategist Tushar Panchal on why the NDA communication strat failed leading to the comprehensive win of the Nitish-Laloo combine

    Why Nitish-Laloo won the Battle for Bihar?

     

    By Tushar Panchal

     

    Ab ki baar, haath se gaya Bihar! 

     

    There are many oracles in our industry, who could give you amazing insights into why JDU+ winning and NDA losing the Bihar election with all types of facts, figures and information that common people such as you and me are not aware of. As far as I am concerned, the formula of winning election is as simple as a very seasoned political party founder of Maharashtra once said: “In elections, opposition never wins, ruling party always loses.” There’s a very profound message in this simple statement.

     

    In my opinion, which is largely based on my close interaction with political leaders across the spectrum and interacting with people (or should I say voters) across the length and breadth of our wonderful country, the most important aspect of any communication campaign for election revolves around the humbleness and your ability to connect with the people on ground. All media blitzkrieg, larger than life hoardings, massive rallies are no substitute for a gentle reminder that I am one amongst you and I have always worked for you and will continue to work for you.

     

    As a student of human psychology, I have always been intrigued by society’s willingness to support the underdog, believe in someone, who is closer home, wears clothes just like you do, eat the same meal as you do, wronged by someone who is powerful and mighty. We have always loved David vs. Goliath stories. Amitabh is one of the greatest superstar, Arvind Kejriwal is Delhi Chief Minister and Narendra Modi is our Prime Minister today… all thanks to this very human nature of connecting with someone, who is vulnerable and here Brand Nitish has taken that positioning in the minds of the people of Bihar.

     

    Was there a flaw in the communication strategy which the losing side didn’t read?

     

    Nitish had learned his lessons early on (as soon as he tasted defeat in the General Elections) and realised that the elections cannot be won by just trumpeting the bugle of development, especially when there’s a formidable competition from BJP with their impressive  track record of development in the states, where they were/are in power. Nitish learnt this quick and developed his own concoction, which didn’t just have a heady dose of development, but was spiked with societal insecurities and Bihari pride.

     

    On the other hand, the NDA didn’t have anything special to offer. It couldn’t decide on who the Chief Minister candidate could be, it couldn’t decide whether bringing in Holy Cow in the campaign mix would help or bringing in a cracker of an idea about celebrations in Pakistan would help. Rising prices, poor handling of sensitive issues such as OROP added to the misery of the BJP. Shifting loyalties of campaign managers who worked for BJP during general elections was probably the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

     

    The NDA bosses got the taste of their own medicine – similar messages and familiar actions, which they have used successfully in the past to win elections, came back to haunt them to serve the defeat they anticipated (and even expected) as soon as the campaign started.

     

    Remember what we communicators always say, “First the message, second the messenger and last the medium.”  NDA lost on all three. And we must remember what great Abraham Lincoln has said and I have taken a creative liberty to modify to suit what we have witnessed today: You can fool all the voters some of the time, and some of the voters all the time, but you cannot fool all the voters all the time.

     

    Over to Assam now!

     

    Tushar Panchal, Senior Vice President, Advocacy and Strategic Communications at Adfactors PR, has seen politics and political communications from close quarters, having worked behind the scenes for shaping many successful communication campaigns for political parties, political leaders, heads of state governments and governments. The views here are his own.

     

  • The forum was especially relevant in the context of the digital revolution that the country is undergoing and the resultant impact on the financial sector

    ‘Financial Services Forum’ unravels new frontiers in digital

    By A Correspondent

     

    The ‘Financial Services Forum’, an event jointly hosted by Facebook and Publicis Groupe in India, had many key learnings for brands in the banking, financial services and insurance categories (BFSI).

     

    The event included leaders from Facebook and Publicis, as well as marketers from the BFSI segments, and there were discussions on how to best leverage Facebook as a powerful tool in performance marketing, segmentation of consumers and extrapolation of data, personalized marketing, creative and visual storytelling and effective use of Facebook’s ad serving platform Atlas.

     

    This forum is especially relevant in the context of the digital revolution that the country is undergoing and the resultant impact on the financial sector. There are over 200 million internet mobile connections in India – estimated in June this year, over 150 million in last October. There will be over 600 million smart phones by 2019. Every avenue remains transformed for the BFSI sector, be it transactions or marketing or creation of new products or channels and distribution.

     

    Kirthiga Reddy, Managing Director, Facebook India said, “We are pleased to partner with the Publicis Groupe for the first ever Financial Services Forum. The financial services ecosystem has always been at the heart of economic growth and one of the first in adopting digital and CRM platforms in the country. This conference is about “growth” and how Publicis Groupe and Facebook can work together to help business in the segment grow, in the wake of the consumer’s shift from desktop to mobile.”

     

    Anupriya Acharya, Group Chief Executive of  ZenithOptimedia Group says that in the context of the Indian government‘s call for financial inclusion coupled with the fast transforming consumer journey, the given mobile revolution and now the Digital India initiative, the time to hold a seminar such as ‘Financial Services Forum’ made perfect sense.

     

    Acharya states, “The BFSI sector is set to undergo complete transformation in the next few years. Facebook, with its tremendous mobile reach and equity is not only a great platform for Social and Display but also a powerful tool for Performance marketing. And hence, holds great potential to accelerate growth and business for the BFSI clients. I think that the forum was quite successful in highlighting this and answered a lot of key questions for the marketers. We hope it will help our clients to reflect on their digital assets, on whether they are fully mobile ready for the many millions of addressable consumers on boarding, and how data driven insights can drive thumb stopping content.”

     

    Hanley King, Chairman, Starcom MediaVest Group, feels that Facebook’s immense reach, frequency of usage, deep mobile penetration and advanced targeting options, make it a platform like none other for the BFSI sector for driving both performance as well as brand awareness objectives.

     

    Speaking on the sidelines of the first ever “Financial Services Forum” King remarks, “The question in everyone’s mind was how do we unleash the unique features of Facebook to drive tangible business results, especially in a category like BFSI which cannot purely depend on relevant exposures. What everyone took away from today’s event is that, in the context of the BFSI sector Facebook is not just a potent source for new customer acquisition but a powerful tool for driving customer retention, engagement and cross-sell opportunities.”

     

    King further added, “I am sure that the case studies, new product features and tools that were showcased helped our clients see Facebook in a new light and they were able to walk away with a road map on how to translate the platform’s reach, along with its precise and deep segmentation of audiences to achieve their business goals. It has always been our endeavor to bring forth to our clients the best-in-class in digital and we are committed to partner with our clients in their journey to exploit the potential of platforms like Facebook to enhance their business.”

     

  • This win is among many that the agency has enjoyed this year, including Future Group, Welspun, Subway, Bose, Urban Ladder and SAB Miller to name a few

    MediaCom to handle media mandate for Koovs.com

    By A Correspondent

     

    MediaCom has been awarded the media planning and buying duties for the online fashion brand Koovs.com. The appointment is ahead of the launch of the brand’s first 360 degree ad campaign later this month. MediaCom India will be responsible for media planning and devising efficient media mix for the new campaign.

     

    This win is among many that the agency has enjoyed this year, including Future Group, Welspun, Subway, Bose, Urban Ladder and SAB Miller to name a few.

     

    Mary Turner, CEO, Koovs.com said, “MediaCom was an obvious choice owing to their out of box ideas and their credibility in the industry. The team has a clear understanding of our target customer and this we believe is a must to attain the right media mix. Their in-depth experience in building and strategising for young companies in the emerging sector was also one of the key factors of this choice and we look forward to a great partnership.”

     

    Speaking on the win, Debraj Tripathy, Managing Director, MediaCom said, “Koovs has a unique offering and we feel privileged to partner them. My team and I look forward to working together in making Koovs a huge success in the fast evolving Indian e-commerce market.”