MxMIndia

Tag: digital

  • Adspend will exceed pre-pandemic peak by 6% this year, notes a report by media agency network, Zenith

    Ecommerce and online video to fuel 11% recovery in global adspends: Zenith

    By Our Staff

     

    Global advertising expenditure will grow 11.2% in 2021, driven by exceptional demand for performance-led ecommerce advertising and brand advertising on online video, according to Zenith’s latest ‘Advertising Expenditure Forecasts’ report. Advertising expenditure will total US$669 billion this year, US$40 billion more than was spent before the pandemic in 2019.

     

    Growth in advertising expenditure is expected to remain robust in the medium term, with 6.9% growth forecast for 2022 and 5.6% for 2023.

     

    The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the structural shift in the economy from bricks-and-mortar sales to ecommerce, driving more consumers than ever to research and complete purchases online. Brands have responded by forming partnerships with retailers and creating new direct-to-consumer operations, using performance-driven advertising – primarily in social media and paid search – to lead consumers down the path to purchase. Zenith forecasts that social media advertising will expand by 25% this year to reach US$137 billion, overtaking paid search in scale for the first time. Paid search will expand by 19% to reach US$135 billion.

     

    Much of this is new money to the ad market, coming from small businesses that have had to pivot rapidly to ecommerce to survive lockdowns, and from budgets that brands would previously have allocated to retailers to secure physical shelf-space, which they are now spending on display and search ads on retailer websites. The shift to ecommerce will slow down as coronavirus restrictions lift and economies open up again, but won’t go into reverse. Zenith expects ecommerce to continue to pull in incremental revenues to the ad market, driving 13% growth in social media and 12% growth in search in 2022.

     

    Audiences continue to migrate online, and online video viewing is growing rapidly, even as traditional television ratings shrink again after a one-off spike when lockdowns began in 2020. Advertisers value online video as a means of maintaining reach while television declines, but it’s an effective form of brand communication in its own right. Demand is strong, although the popularity of subscription-funded video-on-demand has helped limit the supply of high-quality online video available to advertisers. Zenith predicts that online video advertising will be the fastest-growing digital channel in 2021, rising by 26% to reach US$63 billion. Specific numbers for India have not been given by Zenith in this forecast.

     

     

    Said Benoit Cacheux, Global Chief Digital Officer at Zenith: “The online video landscape continues to transform, fuelled by the growth of streaming services and connected TVs. Its continued evolution requires a radical rethink of how to build the optimal screen-neutral reach model. The ingestion of new data sources into TV planning also creates further opportunities to further sync TV and video planning.”

     

    Social media and online video have eclipsed traditional static display, which is forecast to shrink by 15% this year, while online classified grows by just 4%. Overall, Zenith expects digital advertising to grow by 19% in 2021, and increase its share of total adspend to 58%, up from 48% in 2019 and 54% in 2020.

     

    Most other media are enjoying growth this year, as spending rebounds from the 16% drop in traditional media adspend in 2020. Cinema and out-of-home were the worst affected by Covid-related restrictions, shrinking by 72% and 28% respectively, and will enjoy the fastest recovery in 2021, with respective growth rates of 116% and 16%. Radio advertising, which shrank by 22% in 2020, is forecast to grow by 4% in 2021, while television fell 8% in 2020 and is forecast to grow 1% in 2021. Print will continue its long decline, now in its 14th consecutive year, with an 8% drop in adspend in 2021. In 2023 adspend in all these media will still be below 2019 levels, though cinema and out-of-home will have made up almost all of their lost ground.

     

    Limited supply and rising demand are stoking media inflation

    This year’s rapid recovery in adspend, coupled with the continued migration of audiences from traditional to digital channels, is fuelling substantial increases in media prices, particularly in television. The cost of television advertising is up 5% this year on average, though the variance between markets and audiences is wide. Television spend is up by 1%, so the volume of audiences reached globally is shrinking. Digital media growth, in contrast, is mainly driven by rising audiences and more extensive monetisation, with online video inflation averaging 7%, and social media roughly flat, compared to their 26% and 25% respective adspend growth rates.

     

    US to add nearly half of all new ad dollars

    All regions will enjoy robust adspend growth in 2021, ranging from 9% in Asia Pacific to 15% in the Middle East and North Africa, which is recovering from the steepest decline in 2020, of 21%. The strongest underlying growth since 2019 is taking place in North America, which is forecast to grow by 13% this year despite shrinking by only 1% last year. Growth in North America is being driven by the very rapid pace of digital transformation in its industries, as well as strong investment in connected TV and advertising-funded video-on-demand.

     

    The US will be by far the largest contributor to global growth in 2021, accounting for 46% of the US$67 billion added to the global ad market this year, followed by China with 11%, and Japan and the UK with 6% each.

     

    “After a very tough year last year, the ad market is enjoying rapid and broad-based recovery, and will end this year well above the level it achieved in 2019,” added Jonathan Barnard, Head of Forecasting at Zenith. “Digital advertising is becoming a more effective tool for brand growth as media and commerce continue to move online, attracting greater investment from large brands and small businesses alike.”

  • India cannot afford to be complacent in the digital era, concluded panelists at FICCI-Frames

    #Frames2013: ‘For digital to excel, freemium has to make way for pay’

    By A Correspondent

     

    The past two years have seen the digital ecosystem in India take off in a big way. Whether for the medium of mobile or web, the fast-paced growth sweeping this medium is making other developing economies around the world sit up and take notice.

     

    The session on ‘Digital content consumption: developing a robust paid ecosystem’ on day 2 at FICCI Frames saw panelists discuss the advantages, opportunities and challenges facing the medium. The panelists comprised, Neeraj Roy of Hungama Digital Media, Devraj Sanyal of Universal Music, Manish Agarwal of Reliance Entertainment – Digital, Sidhartha Roy of Hungama Digital and Boaz Ben Yaacov of Catch Media Inc.

     

     

    Neeraj Roy

    Neeraj Roy, CEO, Hungama Digital Media Enterprise started off by presenting a positive picture of the medium. He said, “India is today the third largest internet market in the world and is likely to be the second largest market with 600 million internet users in the next 3-4 years. The industry is adding about 5-6 million users every month and most of this is largely from the mobile device, especially smartphones that saw about 60 million new users this year. India will also be one of the rare nations that will transition from 2G to 4G this year. In India there was a single ecosystem that was created around the mobile which had got to do with micro-transactions. Unfortunately there are a lot of regulatory hurdles that are impeding the rapid growth of the sector. We are now at the cusp of moving away from voice to data consumption. What the industry needs to do is contemplate ways to develop an ecosystem that will bring in robust growth and provide an impetus for the industry to move forward swiftly.”

     

    Devraj Sanyal, MD, Universal Music said that it was exciting to see three ecosystems in digital co-existing well with each other. “It rarely can be seen in other parts of the world. For me, the death of voice is the beginning of a much bigger phenomenon – data. The entire future will ride on data. In a country as diverse as India there are two kinds of consumers – the first being pay consumers who are very few in number and the other kind of consumers being those who will pay for nothing and want everything free. As a content creator, I want to see a lot of this ecosystem thriving on the pay model. For me, having 1 million paid viewers is much more valuable than having 500 million viewers who are fence-sitters/pirates. The future will be pay along with value-added services.”

     

    Manish Agarwal

    Manish Agarwal, CEO, Reliance Digital said, “There’s no doubt on the huge impact that mobile will have on our lives. It is a device of the future and will be accessed for a host of things including content, gaming, etc. The market is very appealing and has just about taken off. I travel a lot around the world and have often heard things like if there are 20 million mobile users in Japan and if that economy is where it is today on that medium, imagine what potential the Indian market has which has more than 600 million mobile users and counting. While there is no doubt on the loyalty on behalf of the customer, we have to see how the medium will benefit the business across the formats that they will operate in.”

     

    According to Boaz Yaacov, CTO & Co-founder of Catch Media Inc, “The question we need to ask ourselves is whether we are still living in a world where a customer pays a dollar for a song when there are others who get it from Bit-torrent or even a youtube for free. If we are to sustain the technology or content we need to find practical solutions. We all know how the business of credit cards started about three decades ago and how they charged micropayments to give convenience and access to our money. Today one such player – Visa, is worth about $ 250 billion but the point is that we consumers do not know of these payments.” Adding further Boaz said, “What we are trying to do is build technologies to give people very convenient and mobile way to access their content. If we are able to deliver content to consumers where they are and at their convenience they won’t mind paying for it.”

     

    The panel went on to discuss the challenges confronting the medium and also how ‘pay’ would be a preferred model in the future compared to the model of ‘freemium’ that is currently what the players are taking a preference to.

     

  • The World Marketing Congress attracted more than 350 participants, and afforded delegates an opportunity to learn from the experts and share branding experience and insights with their peers

    AIMA World Marketing Congress pinpoints marketing myopia in digital age

    By A Correspondent

     

    All India Management Association (AIMA) Third World Marketing Congress concluded recently. It highlighted the need for a fundamental change in marketing in the age of digital media and empowerment of the consumer. The theme of the congress was “Marketing Myopia 2.0”.

     

    On the second and the final day of the event, the speakers shared their insights on many urgent marketing issues, including big data and analytics, future relevance of the traditional media, the role of NGOs in marketing social causes and the relevance of advertising agencies in the new era.

     

    Speaking about the relevance of traditional media in the current scenario, Shefalika Saxena, CMO, Microsoft India said, “Traditional media is not at all losing relevance. Media is only media and not new or old, which is constantly changing and evolving. It’s not about newspapers or television or any other media but it’s how one uses that media to engage with the customers to sell or to market a product.”

     

    “As world of marketing is changing rapidly every day, traditional media has to change ways of communicating with people and have to go where the audience is going rather than where media wants to take them,” Ashok Venkatramani, CEO, ABP News, said while commenting on role and relevance of traditional media in current scenario.

     

    Talking about the importance of analytics in marketing, Clifford Patrao, Director and Leader, Strategy & Transformation-Global Business Services, India/South Asia, IBM India Pvt. Ltd, said, “Analytics are for enriching customers experience and to make product branding more user friendly. We are seeing an era where data is empowering marketing and marketers.” The delegates also discussed the new age consumers, extending product lifecycles, defining business based on customers and not products, using Internet to gain competitive advantage and the rising importance of earned media.

     

    Koichiro Shima, Co-CEO, Creative Director and Editor, Hakuhodo Kettle Tokyo and Yasuharu Sasaki, ECD, Dentsu Network, New York presented five tips to avoid myopic campaigns. Co-presenting the tips, they said, “The agencies need to design the experience that people have never experienced. Creative rectors must be good facilitators and allow people to discover message on their own rather than follow directives. It is important that agencies are flexible and are ready to tune the content and budget anytime.” The fourth point they shared was to “forget digital’ since agencies focus too much on digital making it myopic. “It is not the technology but the idea that attracts people. We need to design human touch behind the technologies.” The last tip they shared was to create social significance with the digital medium, as it offers many opportunities.

     

    The Congress attracted more than 350 participants. The Congress afforded the delegates an opportunity to learn from the experts and share branding experience and insights with their peers.

     

  • Managing a media archive is no mean task, though the digital era has infused it with new life and efficiency. The Association of Media Libraries and Archives' two-day conference on Feb 4 and 5 will discuss the challenges and opportunities of digital archiving

    Archiving in the time of digital

    By A Correspondent

     

    Newspaper archives have existed since the newspaper itself. The efficiency and turnaround time in daily production is affected hugely by the availability of an archive giving instant access, retrieval and re-use of content created in the past, be it stories, photographs, graphics, audio, video and so on. The return on investment (ROI) is made well worth it when the right technology and more importantly the right professionals are in place to organize this intellectual property into a valuable asset that can be tapped for multiple purposes, endlessly.

     

    The advent of the Digital Archives Management System (DAMS) both in terms of technology application and investment has shown significant returns in the past decade. Add to that the instantaneous needs of 24×7 news delivery and new media. The Association of Media Libraries and Archives (AMLA), a professional forum and the first such initiative inIndiawas conceptualized by the Indian media library and information professionals. It primarily aims to provide a professional platform to deliberate, discuss, examine and debate the various practical issues in managing all aspects of media libraries, across the various mass media segments such as Print, TV, Radio and Online.

     

    Anita Pujari, General Manager, Research, Archives & Syndication, DNA – Daily News & Analysis, said, “No media house can afford to not digitally archive their content. The value of immense intellectual wealth lies only if the content can be re-used and re-purposed. Especially, in news media, the stories keep coming back. One needs to have a cutting-edge archive to revisit and reuse the stories of the past. Else, one can spend money and gather from archives of some other resource.”

     

    Media archives as a source of revenue generation is a growing area of business interest amongst established media houses and this potential perhaps augurs well for the Media library & archives professional. The two-day conference on “Managing Indian Media Libraries and Archives: Challenges, Opportunities and Best Practices” jointly hosted by Association of Media Libraries and Archives (AMLA) and Jawaharlal Nehru University and supported by UNESCO will be held on Feb 4 and 5, 2013 at New Delhi and will discuss all aspects of Digital Archiving.

     

    The conference will be followed by a one-day workshop on ‘Digitization, Digital Archiving and Digital Video Archiving in Media Libraries and Archives’ on Feb 6. More details are available at www.amla.org.in.

     

    MxM India is the media partner to this event.

     

  • The flash mob concept was extended to on-the-spot games, at the Express Avenue Mall in Chennai

    DDB MudraMax, Aircel flash mob promotes Pocket Internet Games card

    By A Correspondent

     

    Aircel in collaboration with DDB Mudra Max organized an ‘exhilarating and exciting’ Flash mob at the Express Avenue Mall to promote their newly launched Pocket Internet Games card. The crowd at the Express Avenue mall in Chennai were entertained with music, footwork and the live gaming activities of boxing and football.

     

     

    For starters, two men materialized out of nowhere and got into a heated argument. Their heated argument got the whole crowd interested and even as they listened to the peppy background music. On cue, the duo stripped down to boxing attire, a referee jumped into the fray, cordoned off an impromptu ring and began a round of boxing. Football followed similarly.

     

     

    Mandeep Malhotra, President, DDB MudraMax, said, “The ‘Aircel Pocket Internet Games’ Card is a unique property, and we wanted to do justice to the same.  When the word ‘flash mob’ is used, we automatically picture a group of people getting together and dancing on a song. We wanted to change this assumption, so we brought in the idea of gaming in the form of a flash mob.

     

    Commenting on the idea behind the flash mob, Gunjan Arora, Group Director, Brand Communications, DDB MudraMax, said that Aircel as a brand has always been open to new ideas and innovative practices to aggressively engage consumers and make an impact.

     

  • The Augmented Reality application was soft launched on December 16 and recorded 250,000 downloads of the app on the first day

    Times of India launches ‘Alive’

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Times of India Group has soft-launched its Augmented Reality experience application, Alive. To its surprise, on the launch day of December 16th, the app was downloaded 250,000 times, leading to 300,000 augmentation views on a single day. This significantly surpassed internal estimates of about 15,000 downloads on day one. Augmented Reality is a technology that bridges the online and offline worlds using the mobile phone. It allows readers of the newspaper to interact with a print medium, and get access to rich media content, such as videos, photos, and polls. The Times of India’s Alive App boasts of being the first augmented reality service launched in India by a media company.

     

    On December 16, the most popular augmentation was a video interview between Arnab Goswami and Salman Khan, where Salman Khan sheds light on his darkest days when diagnosed with a disease. This story was augmented by 65,000 users over a four-hour period.

     

    Times Internet CEO Satyan Gajwani said, “We love bringing new technology solutions that add value to our users. Alive is exciting because it is a new dimension to a medium people are used to and comfortable with. We’ve thought hard about where AR actually adds value and where it’s just a gimmick, and we’re working to ensure that each augmentation brings something new to our readers.”

     

    BCCL Managing Director Vineet Jain, said, “Times of India believes in innovating constantly and out of the box thinking. This technology has existed for years as QR code readers, but no newspaper in the world has used it editorially to delight its readers. We are excited to bring a new level of interactivity to the newspaper every day, and there is more to come in the coming weeks. Times of India and Alive is just a small peak into how the future newspaper will look in the era of convergence.”

     

  • Excerpts from an Ernst & Young report based on a survey of 34 global M&E titled 'How CEOs are Embracing Digital Growth'

    How M&E CEOs are embracing digital growth

     

    After years of uncertainty and caution in the digital world, CEOs are now more optimistic than ever about the digital future, notes leading consulting firm Ernst & Young. “This was the primary theme that emerged from our 2012 CEO study, in which 34 CEOs from leading global media and entertainment companies shared their views on how the industry will benefit from the digital future.The CEOs we interviewed represent leading global companies with combined annual revenues exceeding US $300 billion.”

     

    Five industry captains from India were among the 34 interviewed. These being: Messrs Ravi Dhariwal, CEO-Publishing, Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd; Sudhir Agarwal, MD, DB Corp; Sanjay Gupta, CEO and Wholetime Director, Jagran;  Tony D’Silva,  Group CEO, Sun Network (now with the Hindujas) and Punit Goenka, MD and CEO, Zee.

     

    Excerpts from the report:

     

    Four key actions from CEOs
     

    1. Focus on the customer.

    “The world’s greatest company will have the customer at the center.” “Having a direct relationship with the consumer will translate into new revenue stability and growth.” “Companies understanding and concentrating on the consumer’s need will do better than those that concentrate inwards.”

     

    2. Create differentiated content.

    “First, second and third things will be the creative success of our brands and studios.” “Being able to navigate the waters with compelling, cost-efficient movies that people have to see.” “Strong content delivered in exciting ways.”

     

    3. Deliver a seamless experience to the customer across all devices, platforms and geographies.

    “We are looking to be with the customer all day with tablet, iPhone(R), online and IPTV.” “Providing seamless delivery of all content on a global basis.”

     

    4. Recruit and retain the right people. They will be the ones who will drive success.

    “Digital reduces the number of levels of hierarchy, allowing the CEO to interfere in debates that are not necessarily his.”

    “Our company needs to become more horizontal and less vertical.” “I want my people and teams to (1) be well-grounded, (2) be competitive with a desire to win, and (3) take responsibility and be decisive.”

     

    Courtesy: Ernst & Young Media and Entertainment practice (http://www.ey.com/IN/en/Industries/Media-Entertainment)

     

    The 34 media and entertainment CEOs interviewed for Ernst & Young’s 2012 CEO study are optimistic about the opportunities in today’s digital world. They see digital as key to their revenue and margin growth. It is their present and their future. This contrasts with E&Y’s 2008 study, which showed that CEOs were more tentative about digital’s potential.

     

    However, every path has its risks. In addition to sharing their insights into the opportunities digital offers, CEOs also admit they face challenges.

     

    Getting the consumer to pay fair value and developing their “digital muscles” across the front, middle and backoffice continue to be key focus areas for media and entertainment companies.

     

    And yet, CEOs are meeting these challenges head-on and are regaining control of the reins of their future long-term growth. In today’s rapidly changing digital marketplace, CEOs remain undeterred about the role digital will play in their companies’ future

     

    Summary of key points

    CEOs are optimistic about digital. They are no longer tentative about digital. They see opportunities for growth in both revenues and margins.

     

    Connected technologies drive growth and create transformative digital ecosystems. This growth is being driven by connected technologies that are, in turn, creating transformative ecosystems.

     

    CEOs are thoughtful about where to invest. CEOs currently see new distribution methods and new types of content as the most attractive investments. CEOs see these investments as central to setting them apart from their competition.

     

    Exploiting digital opportunities comes with challenges. CEOs are working to make sure customers pay a fair price for content, and they are building the competencies in their back, middle and front office to maximize their advantage in a digital world.

     

    Digital drives double-digit growth

    Today, CEOs see digital as a core part of their business, as well as a key driver of growth. As one respondent commented: “everything we do is digital.”

     

    Definitions of what constitutes digital can vary by subsector and even by companies within a sub-sector. With this caveat, CEOs were asked what impact digital would have on their own company’s revenues and margins over the next three years. Sixty-four percent of study participants expect digital to drive revenue growth of 10% or more. Forty-eight percent of CEOs also expect margins to increase by 10% or more in the same time frame.

     

    This compares to the 2008 study, where CEOs were more focused on protecting their traditional business than pursuing digital opportunities. One respondent worried that “digital media may not be as economically attractive as old media.” Another suggested that “media is trading analog dollars for digital dimes.” For many, digital media was still viewed as a new frontier – a place only for gamblers willing to take a chance on the unknown.

     

    Intuitively, there is a prevailing belief that digital margins should be higher because media and entertainment companies no longer have the cost of physical distribution. In the short-term, investments required in infrastructure to enable digital will tend to drive margins lower. However, that is only in the short-term. Once companies have the required digital infrastructure in place, we expect their margins will rise.

     

    Tablets and smartphones are driving growth

    So what is driving this double-digit growth in digital revenue and this foundational shift in consumption? When CEOs were asked which technologies they see having the greatest impact on their individual sectors, 79% suggest tablets, 62% say smartphones. The impact these devices have on the consumer experience is obvious to each of us in our daily lives.

     

    These devices are supported by the technology that respondents see as having the third biggest impact on the media and entertainment industry in the next three years: cloud hosting services and digital lockers.

     

    When CEOs were last surveyed in 2008, consumer tablets were not even on the market, cloud computing was a niche product and smartphones were focused on email and texting as opposed to video and apps. Today, more digital content across more platforms and available on more devices has created new and significant monetization opportunities for media and entertainment companies.

     

    Conclusion

    CEOs have a clear vision of a digital world

    When CEOs survey the future, they see the opportunities that digital media presents. Whether it is B2C or B2B, the direct relationship that applications, ecosystems and technologies enable is fundamental to their vision. It is about the ability to drive an outstanding consumer experience by offering differentiated content on an array of platforms and devices, anytime, anywhere.

     

    Their success will depend on how quickly they can optimize their back, middle and front offices to overcome challenges they face – getting consumers to pay fair value, managing content and optimizing their supply chains.

     

    It will also depend on their people. It will depend on having the right people with the right skills to win in a fast-paced, ever-evolving digital landscape.

     

    Once a gambler’s enterprise, CEOs today see digital as necessary for future long-term growth. Undeterred by their challenges, CEOs are optimistic and they have greater confidence their companies can take full advantage of the opportunities that exist in today’s digital world.

     

  • WATMedia's annual event will witness participation of prominent visionaries discussing topics that contribute to the growth of digital and advertising space

    WATSummit ’13 to discuss new era of digi mktng

    By A Correspondent

     

    WATMedia has announced its annual event, WATSummit that brings together eminent personalities to confer the evolving facets of social and digital industry. In its third edition, the theme of WATSummit 2013 is ‘A New Era of Digital Marketing’. The annual summit that is scheduled to take place on 15th Feb, 2013 at The Orchid Hotel, Mumbai, will also host WAT Awards 2013, wherein, thought leaders of Web, Advertising and Technology will be awarded.

     

    WATSummit 2013 will witness participation of prominent visionaries discussing topics that contribute to the growth of digital and advertising space.

     

    A panel of experts will be seen highlighting the prominence of social media with ‘Social Media Marketing – Making sense of jibber-jabber by brands’. The evolution of ‘Digital Media Marketing – Can it build a brand on its own?’ will be discussed extensively by a panel comprising Digital Agencies and Brands.

     

    The summit will also bring to light the E-commerce industry and the upspring of mobile marketing with in-depth discussion on topics like ‘Ecommerce Market build brand V/S build business’, ‘Mobile Marketing – Promises of reach V/S Actual Impact’. The final panel will be seen conferring the do’s and don’ts and the challenges of ‘Startup Marketing – Breaking the cluster and creating a Brand’.

     

    Sharing his views on the third WATSummit, Rajiv Dingra, Founder & CEO, WATMedia Pvt Ltd said, “I am pleased to announce WATSummit 2013. The response to the earlier summits has been encouraging, which brings us to its third edition. This year, at WATSummit 2013, we aim to emphasize on the new era of digital marketing. The medium has grown exceptionally over the past few years and brands and consumers across the world consider the digital medium a dominant tool. I am delighted with the participation of renowned speakers who will share their profound knowledge. With WATSummit 2013, our endeavor is to embark on a digitally successful journey.”

     

    The keynote speakers for the event include dignitaries such as Suresh Reddy – Chairman & CEO, Ybrant Digital & Neville Taraporewalla – Country Director, Advertising and Online- Microsoft Corporation.

     

  • Indian music service Saavn has announced the launch of its new advertisement platform, Impact, which enables brands to identify, connect and engage with its users

    Saavn launches new ad platform

    By A Correspondent

     

    Indian music service Saavn has announced the launch of its new advertisement platform, Impact. This platform enables brands to identify, connect and engage with its 10.5 million users in India and across the globe.

     

    Impact is an innovative approach to digital and mobile advertising that gives brands 100 percent share-of-voice. Using Impact, brands get complete and exclusive access to all advertisement units on the Saavn web site and mobile apps for a set time period. These include Custom Skin, Web Display, Web Audio, Mobile Spotlight, Mobile Display, and Mobile Audio. Impact is a powerful model that allows brands to build positive associations with their products and services through music. The model has proven to create strong brand awareness, shape brand preferences and increase purchase consideration through undivided mindshare of listeners of Saavn across platforms.

     

    “In India, we all know that music plays an integral and meaningful part in every individual’s life. Impact is a powerful solution that enables the advertisers to build an emotional connection with their target audience during a passionate, social and engaging musical experience,” Vinodh Bhat, co-founder and CEO of Saavn, said. “The Saavn Impact model is based around engagement, curation and social sharing rather than the archaic click-through. Brands are able to measure ROI in meaningful ways, such as increases in perception, awareness, recall and purchase intent. The byproduct of our strong focus on the consumer experience is helping brands grow their businesses.”

     

    Some of the major brands utilizing Saavn to reach million of engaged users in India include: Samsung, Lay’s, Pantene, Pepsi, Nokia, Vodafone, Airtel, Hyundai, Domino’s Pizza, 7Up, Nielsen, MakeMyTrip, Max NewYork Life, Google Plus, Nokia, Vanish, Groupon, Intel and several others.

     

    Saavn delivers a comprehensive catalogue of Bollywood, Indian and regional South Asian music, licensed from more than 200 content providers. Saavn users can search, browse, and play a catalog of more than 1 million tracks; create and save their own playlists; and share their music tastes seamlessly via Facebook.

     

  • The new website will be loaded with innovative applications including the 'Hungama Music Cloud' technology

    Hungama.com revamps website

    By A Correspondent

     

    Digital entertainment e-store Hungama.com has announced the launch of its revamped website www.hungama.com. The new website allows users to stream free as well as buy the very best of Indian and international content, including music tracks, music videos and streaming full-length movies.

     

    The new website is powered by HTML5 technology which will provide a vivid user interface, multiple music applications and easy social connect options; allowing users to sign on through various social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google and get real-time social feeds. The latest upgrade also means HD quality streaming and downloading options for music and movies along with easy access to music through the innovative cloud technology. The site is currently running in its beta version.

     

    The revamped website will be loaded with the following features:

    Streaming: Hungama.com is the only entertainment storefront that allows the consumer to not only buy and download content, but also stream entertainment content for free.

     

    Music Cloud: India’s first Music Cloud will be based on a freemium model. The service allows consumers to save files on the Cloud, which they can seamlessly access via their connected devices- PCs, Mobile Smart Phones, Laptops, Tablets and connected TVs.

     

    Playlists: The new website will offer users different editorial playlists and artiste radio. Users will be able to create their own playlists, save it and share their playlists on social media platforms.

     

    Social Media Integration: Social Media integration will be on following fronts – Use your Social Login to browse and buy content from hungama.com. Consumers can also share their favourite content – Songs, Albums, Videos, Wallpapers with their peer group over social networks and follow members activity to check out what their friends are up to.

     

    Music Discovery: This exciting new feature allows users to discover new music based on user preferences – Mood, Tempo, Category, Genre, Era- a great way to explore the unheard!

     

    Personalization: Favoritization of songs and saving one’s preferences is now possible. New improved ‘My Accounts’ section to display user account details, content downloaded, plans availed, credits remaining, movies watched etc. all in one section.

     

    The revamped website is accessible via Web, mobile apps and through social media options. In addition to the digital platforms, the content of Hungama.com can also now be accessed through its retail touch points, ‘Hungama Oxigen’ retail points, across the country.

     

  • The Australian series will be seen across TV, Internet and Mobile platforms

    Star World to showcase Packed to the Rafters digitally ahead of TV launch next week

    By A Correspondent

     

    Star World is all set to air Packed to the Rafters for the first time in India. Packed to the Rafters’ is an Australian drama series which revolves around the story of the Rafter family, who are fighting different problems of life together.

     

    To make the show more relatable to the audience, Star World got Karan Johar as the face of its campaign. The channel launched a six week on-air campaign with him. And the channel has unleashed robust print, digital, DTH, cinema, radio and OOH campaign given the launch next week.

     

    In keeping with the growing importance of the digital platform, the channel will be hosting a Web Premiere across the Star World website (www.starworld.in/PTTR) and other social networking sites to give the viewers an experience of the show before it goes on air. Star World will be taking such initiatives up for key shows to create reach and buzz. The digital premiere will be held today (November 30) before its official launch on the channel on December 4.

     

    Subsequently, each of the episodes of the show will be available to be streamed and viewed on the Star World web and WAP platforms after it telecast on air. A tie-up with Vodafone will ensure viewers can catch up on the key moments of the show at their convenience.

     

    Commenting on the show, Rasika Tyagi, Senior VP, English Programming, Star India said, “From our Hindi and Regional GECs, one of the biggest learnings is that viewers seek life lessons from the daily soaps they watch. The issues faced by the Star World audience, the English speaking, urban Indian youth, is quite myriad and they don’t get to see shows which reflect their life on TV. Our audience will be able to resonate with the issues faced by the characters in Packed to the Rafters and emulate the way they resolve the conflicts.”

     

    Commenting on the digital catch-up service, Rasika Tyagi said, “When we go for consumer home visits, we get a reality check on how content is being viewed by the youth today. They want to watch a show at their convenience – anywhere, at any time. So, we as content providers have to gear up to share our content across platforms, on internet or on mobile.”

     

  • Burson-Marsteller study finds huge missed opportunity for country promotion on Twitter

    @India, living in China: Burson-Marsteller finds out

    By A Correspondent

     

    When everything else, or so it seems, is “Made in China”, why should India’s Twitter handle not originate from there? The fact that it has not happened by design is – or should be – a source of embarrassment for the Incredible India peddlers, for this is a strange fact unearthed by Burson-Marsteller – that the @India account is owned by an Indian person living in Guangzhou, China.

     

    The public relations and communications firm has released the second part of its “Twiplomacy” study (http://twiplomacy.com), looking specifically at country branding on Twitter. The study shows that only 9 governments out of 193 UN member states own their country name Twitter handle.

     

    In the case of @India, the account owner shares pictures from his daily life and has made it clear that his Twitter handle is not for sale. With respect to other social media channels, India is one of just 19 YouTube channels owned by the tourism office.

     

    The accounts of @GreatBritain, @Israel, and @Sweden are the most significant examples of country promotion on Twitter. @GreatBritain is part of the ‘Britain is Great’ campaign launched in March 2012 to highlight everything that is great about the United Kingdom.

     

    @Israel is the country’s official Twitter channel, maintained by the Foreign Ministry’s Digital Diplomacy Team. The account is one of the most followed country accounts with more than 66,000 followers and serves as the focal point for Israel’s government Twitter activity.

     

    The Twitter accounts of @AntiguaBarbuda, @Barbados, @Lithuania, the @Maldives, @SouthAfrica, and @Spain are run by their respective official tourism organisations to promote tourism in each country.

     

    However, three out of five country accounts are either protected, dormant, inactive, or suspended and almost half of the 71 remaining active accounts are tweeting an automated news feed broadcasting news about the country.

     

    “Looking at the findings it becomes clear that few governments and tourism organisations have understood the power of country branding and marketing on Twitter,” said Matthias Lüfkens, head of the Burson-Marsteller EMEA Digital Practice. “There is a huge opportunity for countries to use Twitter as part of their communications to engage with a large and growing audience.”

     

    Data used was taken in November 2012 looking at the Twiter handles of the 193 UN member countries. Burson-Marsteller used Twitonomy (http://twitonomy.com) to analyze tweeting patterns and the Twitter history of each account.

     

    To access the complete analysis of these findings, visit: http://twiplomacy.com/country-promotion.