MxMIndia

Category: NEWS

  • India will house 17% of the global elderly population by 2050

    TOI to hold Right To Excellence – Senior Well-being Summit

    A recent report by real estate consulting firm CBRE estimates that India, currently one of the world’s youngest countries, will house 17% of the global elderly population by 2050. As India’s senior citizen demographic grows, the need for comprehensive support systems becomes increasingly urgent. Recognizing this critical issue, The Times of India proudly announces the launch of Right To Excellence – Senior Well-being Summit.

    Set to take place in New Delhi on July 22, this summit aims to bring together leading healthcare experts, policymakers, real estate giants, and industry professionals to address the multifaceted challenges faced by India’s elderly population. The event will foster dialogue and collaboration, exploring innovative solutions to enhance geriatric care, improve accessibility, bolster financial security, and provide essential mental health support for senior citizens.

    “India is poised to house one of the largest senior citizen populations, and planning for their quality of life is of paramount importance,” said Prasad Sanyal, Business Head of Timesofindia.com. Right To Excellence. “Through this summit, we aim to create a platform for stakeholders to share best practices, exchange ideas, and develop a sustainable roadmap for the well-being of our senior citizens.”

    The event will delve into several key areas crucial for enhancing senior citizens’ quality of life. These include improving geriatric care services, developing accessible infrastructure, ensuring financial security for the elderly, providing essential mental health support, promoting inclusion and diversity in the retirement living sector, and exploring the future of senior living. By addressing these critical aspects, the summit aims to create a comprehensive approach to senior well-being in India.

    These areas will be explored by various thought leaders & experts in this industry such as, Cdr. Navneet Bali, Group CEO, Clear Medi Healthcare, Neha Sinha CEO & Co-founder, Epoch Elder Care | Dementia specialist, Dr K Madan Gopal, Advisor, Public Health Administration, National Health Systems Resource Centre, Amit Chhabra, Chief Business Officer, GI, Policybazaar.com and many more.

  • One of the main differences of the state of affairs in the 1970 and now in 2024 India is that you’re not permitted to demand accountability, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: That ’70s feeling…

    Ranjona BanerjiFalling bridges and train accidents… Scrolling through the news in India, it almost seems like we’re back in the 1970s when we were still not fully established as a successful growing nation. Plus the 1970s version of an Emergency, except as a non-Constitutional emergency, in that it is undeclared. Add to that a media that is state-controlled, high levels of unemployment, low levels of industrial and manufacturing growth and lo and behold, maybe it is the 1970s after all, just with the addition of social media and colour television and phones for everyone.

     

    Except of course that it’s 2024. And perhaps one of the main differences is that you’re not permitted to demand accountability. In any BJP-run government, it is clear or has been made clear, that you are not allowed to expect, let alone demand, accountability. Everything that goes wrong is because of some earlier, non-BJP, preferably dead, prime minister. This pattern has not changed for 10 years. And since the much-reduced victory in the last general election is still being understood, we have not it seems yet changed our kneejerk reactions up in the high command.

     

    The upshot is that the bulk of the media has not yet understood that responsibility for a flailing economy lies with an incumbent government. Any minute now the Union finance minister, same as the last Union finance minister, will make a Union Budget speech. She has already literally cooked the halwa, which in colloquial metaphorical expression implies that we are cooked. Whether this Finance Bill will fix any problems is another matter, but we should not expect much media insights on this.

     

    We also cannot expect the media to focus in full measure on the completely unconstitutional move by the UP government in getting shops and stalls owned by Muslims to identify themselves on a particular so that Hindu religious pilgrims know where to shop. That the police is implementing an unconstitutional decision is worse. But sectarian division is part of the BJP package and so is the media.

     

    That the UP government itself appears to be in some distress and that the RSS chief keeps making potshots at the prime minister ought also to be top of media over-excitement. And yet. I did see one “editor in chief” – it’s very amusing when TV people give themselves big fat titles like these – justify in a badly worded tweet the clear Islamophobia of the Assam chief minister. No language skills, no editing skills, but more than enough talent when it comes to creating and spreading hatred.

     

    This knack which TV has is demonstrated in the case of Captain Anshuman Singh died a year ago, saving people in Siachen. A medical doctor, Singh had specified his wife as his next of kin, which means she gets his pension. Singh’s parents have made a sorry spectacle of themselves, demanding more money, vilifying their daughter-in-law with all sorts of allegations and speaking endlessly to TV channels about their family issues and their arcane views. The media is happy – it seems – to continue to amplify the abuse poured on the young widow, as they were happy with blaming Rhea Chakraborty for the death of Sushant Singh Rajput. Whether the parents know that they are being used is unclear, but they have become the next drama after the Ambani wedding.

     

    Internationally, we have a media which behaves in similarly absurd ways. The Western media in general still hasn’t twigged on to the fact the whole world knows that Israel is the aggressor in Palestine and responsible for genocide. It insists on equating Israel and Hamas, as if the two are equal or that Hamas has killed thousands since October 7, 2023.

     

    And the American media in general has plenty of questions for President Joe Biden – is he well enough, suitable, senile or not, makes sense, doesn’t make sense. For former President Donald Trump, who almost never makes sense, we hear about his rallies, the state of his poor ear and so on. The rules are not the same.

     

    As we should know by now.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.

  • An ad testing solution generating actionable insights within minutes

    Ipsos launches Creative|Spark AI

    Ipsos, the market research major, has announced the launch of Creative|Spark AI, an ad evaluation solution to predict human reactions to linear and social videos, delivering actionable insights within minutes.

    Shaun Dix
    Shaun Dix

    Said Shaun Dix, Ipsos’ Global Leader of Creative Excellence: “Creative|Spark AI is designed for advertisers seeking greater value and learning from their assets, especially those constrained by budget and timing. It is particularly beneficial given the significant spend on social media advertising, helping advertisers evaluate their assets and identify areas for improvement, whether it’s one, or hundreds of creative in as little as 15 minutes.”

    Amit Adarkar
    Amit Adarkar

    Added Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India: “Exciting times ahead. While the Ipsos Creative Spark AI launch is taking place in a phased manner, by markets, soon it will be accessible to clients in India and will be a game changer in improving the entire ad testing and communication testing framework, providing data understanding at a mere click using customised prompts,”

  • Cutting marketing spending often backfires on businesses: Journal of Marketing

    Cutting marketing spending often backfires on businesses: Journal of Marketing

    By Andre Martin

    Businesses are often tempted to cut their marketing budgets for the short-term savings it provides – but those cuts can cause problems in the long term. A new study my colleague Tarun Kushwaha and I published in The Journal of Marketing proposes a method for predicting whether these counterproductive cuts will take place up to a year in advance.We gathered transcripts of nearly 25,000 earnings calls held by public companies from 2008 to 2019. We then analyzed how management teams discussed marketing and earnings. We found that the more earnings-oriented language was in a call — think words like “lucrative” or “revenues” — the more likely a management team was to cut their marketing budget for a boost in earnings.Unlike business-as-usual budget shifts, the motive in these cases was to raise short-term earnings to gain personal profits – for example, to boost stock prices before an executive retires – to raise immediate funds, or to satisfy investor pressure and expectations. These cuts in exchange for a bump in earnings are shortsighted, since investing in marketing tends to grow a company’s market share over time.

     

    Why it matters
    Executives often feel pressured to meet short-term earnings targets at the expense of long-term goals, survey data and research have shown. Cutting costs is one way businesses make themselves look better in the short term. And since investing in marketing takes time to pay off, marketing spending often winds up on the chopping block.My fellow marketing professors call these “myopic” marketing spending decisions – “myopic” being a fancy word for shortsighted. They often happen before initial public offerings, share repurchases and executive retirements.While these myopic decisions have short-term benefits, they harm investors, customers and other stakeholders in the long term. After companies myopically cut marketing spending, they often lose market value; that’s why such cuts are linked with worse stock-market performance in the long run. A tool that helps investors identify myopic marketing spending would help them protect their portfolios from negative long-term consequences.Our method isn’t just backward-looking – it can be used to forecast future shortsighted cuts to marketing spending. Investors could use it to analyze publicly available earnings-calls transcripts for useful data up to four times a year. We estimate that for every US$100 invested, using our method to avoid investing in shortsighted companies could return an additional $6.44 over four years compared with conventional methods. Marketing firms and advertising agencies could also use it to identify companies that plan to pare their marketing budgets.

     

    What’s next
    As part of our research efforts, my team has published the algorithm and data necessary to replicate our findings. This will let individual investors and other stakeholders gain valuable insights into executives’ intentions regarding the funding of their marketing and research departments.While our research has primarily focused on transcribed text from earnings calls, we see more potential in analysing the audio and video from these calls. Audio analysis could reveal insights from tone, pitch, pauses and filler words, while video analysis could capture the brief involuntary facial expressions known as micro-expressions.

    Andre Martin, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Notre Dame This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

  • …. for its 100th anniversary through integrated marketing approach

    Three Fourth Solutions to boost Halder Group’s brand visibility

    Marketing agency Three Fourth Solutions (TFS) has been awarded the mandate for Halder Group to “elevate” the brand’s visibility through a comprehensive integrated marketing approach.

    Operating from the agency’s Kolkata office, the primary objective under this mandate is to articulate Halder Group’s vision and enhance its brand presence across multiple platforms.

    Said Pragati Agarwala Jain, Partner and PR Strategist at TFS: “We are thrilled to partner with Halder Group to amplify their legacy and impact in the industry. Our strategic focus will be on crafting compelling narratives that resonate with stakeholders, leveraging digital platforms to maximize Halder Group presence, and reinforcing their leadership position.”

    Meanshiel Koustuv Halder, General Manager & Change Management and Process Improvement at Halder Group, believes that teaming up with Team TFS will help Halder Group shift to a “digital-first” strategy. “This alliance could also open up new opportunities for the brand to grow and expand,” he added

  • Patil will report to Vikram Sakhuja

    Pallavi Patil back with Madison Media as VP – insights & strategy

    Pallavi Patil
    Pallavi Patil

    Madison Media, a unit of Madison World, has announced the return of Pallavi Patil as Vice President – Insights & Strategy. In her new role, Patil will report to Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO of Madison Media & OOH.

    Said Sakhuja on the appointment: “We are thrilled to welcome Pallavi back to the Madison family. Her extensive experience and strategic expertise will be instrumental in driving innovation and delivering exceptional value to our clients.”

    Added Patil: “I am excited to rejoin Madison Media and look forward to contributing to our clients’ growth and success through data-driven strategies and insights. It feels wonderful to be back and collaborate with such a talented and dedicated team.

  • …. to create content hub

    Mindshare helps Times Network & Britannia partner

    Times Network has partnered with Britannia The Laughing Cow Cheese and Mindshare to launch ‘Cheeseitup.in’, a content destination to enhance cheese awareness in India and provide culinary inspiration.

    Said Abhishek Sinha, CEO Britannia Bel Foods, and CBO Britannia Dairy: “CheeseItUp.in is Britannia The Laughing Cow Cheese’s effort for all cheese enthusiasts and novices who are constantly looking for gathering knowledge about the product category. After the joint venture between Britannia and Bel group, we began the journey of creating awareness about the category benefits, with borrowed learnings and expertise from the French conglomerate. We realised that as a nascent category in India, the awareness about cheese, its benefits, and usage is still limited and fragmented. We took up this challenge with our partners – Times Network and Mindshare to build an inclusive platform which could cater to this gap for all Indians.”

    Commenting on the partnership, Rohit Gopakumar, CEO- ZENL & BCCL(TV Division) added: “Our endeavour is always to provide a balanced platform for both our audience and clients. The satisfaction of achieving brand objectives through targeted content offerings excites our team. Britannia has consistently led the way in creating cutting-edge communication ideas for its various products. This partnership between Britannia The Laughing Cow Cheese and Times Network Digital platforms will undoubtedly break new ground in the cheese category. Collaborating with Britannia and Mindshare to introduce a new and innovative concept that marries content with brand thought leadership is the way forward for deep audience engagement. It’s time to CHEESEITUP!”

    Speaking on the partnership, Rohit Chadda, President & COO – Digital, Times Network said: “Content-driven commerce strategically integrates content into the shopping process to provide customers with the highest quality experience. Times Network Digital has the largest base of premium, influential audience in the country across news & lifestyle categories. Our brand TimesFoodie.com, an industry-leading platform in food content, is the perfect partner to create such a food destination for Britannia. The idea of ‘CheeseItUp.in’ is to instil product knowledge and usage, while also taking an innovative approach to ecommerce that directly drives revenue for the brand.”

    Said Amin Lakhani, CEO, Mindshare: “CheeseItUp.in isn’t just a platform, it’s your fun and flavourful culinary playground! We want to make cheese a delicious and healthy part of everyday meal planning. We use real consumer data to craft healthy and inspiring recipes with Britannia The Laughing Cow cheese. It’s connected commerce powered by content. Mindshare has architected a partnership between Britannia Bel Foods and Times News Network. Get ready to experience a whole new world of cheese-based creations! We are excited to see how this platform will revolutionise the way people enjoy Britannia The Laughing Cow cheese in their daily lives.”

  • With a billboard that has a pakoda-in-the rain twist

    Adani Wilmar’s #MonsoonWithFortune campaign

    Adani Wilmar has gone in for a 3D twist to the newly launched #MonsoonWithFortune campaign.

    Said Mukesh Mishra, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Adani Wilmar: “This innovative campaign is our way of celebrating the joy of monsoon and connecting with our consumers on a deeper level. We believe this creative approach will resonate with our audience and reinforce Fortune’s position as a brand that understands and embraces the traditions and flavours of Indian households.”

  • Launches new tool Ormax Star Image Pulse

    Ormax Media forays into celebrity image consulting

    Media consulting firm Ormax Media announced the launch of its new consulting tool Ormax Star Image Pulse. The tool marks the company’s foray into celebrity image consulting to help actors in the film and streaming categories, as well as social media influencers, craft their market positioning based on audience intelligence provided by Ormax Media.

    Shailesh Kapoor
    Shailesh Kapoor

    Speaking about Ormax Star Image Pulse, Shailesh Kapoor, Founder and CEO, Ormax Media, said: “In a world where a celebrity is surrounded by people who are always putting them on a pedestal – fans, followers, media, employees, industry colleagues – objectivity invariably gets compromised. The distance between the celebrity and the audience increases as the celebrity gets more famous and successful. To hear independent, objective voices, from outside this echo chamber, is a pressing need, which Ormax Star Image Pulse has been designed to fulfil, by acting as a bridge between the celebrity and their real audience”.

  • Updates will help customers seamlessly navigate across Prime Video

    Prime Video revs streaming experience

    Prime Video has introduced some improvements to its user experience that will begin to roll out globally, and will become available to all customers in the coming weeks.

    “We’re always listening to customers and reviewing feedback, and it’s clear that many are in search of a more intuitive streaming experience,” said Kam Keshmiri, Vice President of Design at Prime Video. “With the improvements we have made to the user experience, customers will be presented with an easy-to-navigate entertainment destination where they can discover new titles and enjoy favorites, as well as sign-up to or switch add-on subscriptions with just a few clicks. Best of all, they can do this while using a single login.”

    It may be noted that MxMIndia hasn’t reviewed the new introductions in the Prime Video platform and the information published in this report is based on information received from Prime Vieo. We urge readers to familiarise (and satisfy) themselves with the features before taking a new purchase/subscription decision.

  • Additionally, the tournament will be powered by Garnier Men

    Nodwin Gaming ropes in Android as title partner for BGMS Season 3

    Nodwin Gaming, the leading gaming and esports company, has officially announced Android as the Title Partner for Battlegrounds Mobile India Series (BGMS) Season 3. Additionally, the tournament will be powered by leading men’s skincare brand, Garnier Men, marking the first time that Android and Garnier Men have partnered with an Indian esports tournament.

    The high-voltage action of Android BGMS Season 3 is being broadcast on Star Sports for the third consecutive year as the nation’s best BGMI squads battle it out. The entire tournament will be played on high-performance Android devices.

    Said Akshat Rathee, Co-founder and Managing Director, Nodwin Gaming: “We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Android, Garnier Men and Redbull for the highly anticipated third season of BGMS. Having such notable partners whose vision for the growth and development of competitive gaming in India mirrors our own, is a tremendous asset. Their involvement not just highlights the emergence of esports as a mainstream sport but also the massive potential of youth engagement in this field. Together, we are confident in our ability to provide the necessary resources and visibility required to nurture and promote esports talent nationwide,”

  • Unlocking fresh design possibilities for creative Pros

    Adobe unveils new innovations in Illustrator and Photoshop

    Adobe, computer software company, announced a set innovations in popular professional design apps Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. From ideation to production, the new release of Illustrator unlocks new ways for pro designers and illustrators to more easily and quickly bring their vision to life across brand graphics, logos and icons, product packaging, marketing deliverables, pattern creation and beyond. The latest release of Photoshop delivers new ways for creative professionals to iterate design concepts and jumpstart asset creation to achieve complex, custom outputs with differentiated colour and style more efficiently.

    To accelerate creative workflows, Illustrator is introducing new tools including all-new Generative Shape Fill (beta) to empower designers to quickly add detailed vectors to shapes by entering text prompts directly in the Contextual Taskbar. Generative Shape Fill is powered by the latest Firefly Vector Model (beta) which is designed to support creators with additional speed, power and precision. Additional innovations in Illustrator including the Dimension Tool, Mockup (beta), Contextual Taskbar, Retype, enhanced selection tools, Text to Pattern (beta),

    “The most creative people across illustration, design, photography and beyond trust Adobe’s tools to deliver the most innovative features to maximize productivity and accelerate workflows across ideation, design and production,” said Ashley Still, senior vice president, digital media at Adobe. “Adobe’s new innovations in Illustrator and Photoshop are built directly into designers’ existing workflows, offering new ways to create and helping them to work faster and focus on what they do best – drawing, designing and bringing their creative visions to life.”

    It may be noted that MxMIndia hasn’t reviewed the new introductions in the platforms and the information published in this report is based on a communique received. We urge readers to familiarise (and satisfy) themselves with the features before taking a purchase/subscription decision.