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Tag: Facebook India

  • Chakrabarti comes with eighteen years of experience working with leading tech brands and PR agencies

    Bipasha Chakrabarti appointed Communications Head at Facebook India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Facebook announced that it has recruited a new communications head to lead its growing corporate communications and public relations mandate in India. Bipasha Chakrabarti will take on the role of Communications Director at Facebook India, and will be a part of the India leadership team, reporting to Ajit Mohan.

     

    Her last assignment was as Head of Corporate Communications at Cisco India and SAARC.  The announcement comes just a month after Facebook announced the hiring of Avinash Pant as the Marketing Director at Facebook India to drive the company’s consumer marketing efforts across the family of apps.

     

    Said Ajit Mohan, VP and MD of Facebook India: “Communications is a critical function for us as we continue to build Facebook’s story in India. We are grateful for the trust that our users, advertisers, partners, and the government have placed in us, and are committed to communicating openly and transparently. Bipasha is among the most seasoned communication professionals in the country and I am very excited to have her join us and lead this charter.”

     

     

  • The campaign highlights the power of connections through a high decibel marketing campaign

    Facebook rolls out its ‘More Together’ campaign in India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Facebook has launched a new consumer marketing campaign in India, ‘More Together’, to showcase how people across the country can do more together by harnessing the power of their connections on the platform. The campaign is the first to be launched in the Asia Pacific region.

     

    Said Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India: “India is at the heart of Facebook and one of our focus areas this year is to tell the exciting story of a service that is deeply embedded in the fabric of India. While at the company level we remain focussed on building trust, we want to showcase the many ways that Facebook is intertwined in the lives of Indians – from connecting with loved ones, to growing businesses and supporting local communities, to finding ways to come together to learn and share and celebrate. I could not be more excited that we are telling our story – it is a story that is lived by people across the country every day.”

     

    The campaign for India has been conceptualised and executed by Taproot Dentsu. Said Agnello Dias, Co-Founder, Taproot Dentsu and Creative Chairperson, Dentsu Aegis Network India: “Taproot Dentsu is delighted to develop such an important campaign for one of the most loved services in the country. The world of Facebook represents a canvas of connections that’s huge, vibrant and full of serendipitous outcomes and surprises. To celebrate all users and to inspire more of them to benefit from the power of connections, our creative team led by Pallavi Chakravarti, wrote stories with all these unexpected, wonderful outcomes, which are inspired by real people and their real journeys.”

     

     

  • Country’s leading creative agencies and brands showcase inspiring Thumbstopping work that redefines mobile storytelling in under ten seconds

    Facebook summit celebrates creativity in mobile video advtg

    By A Correspondent

     

    Earlier this week, Facebook India hosted its inaugural Thumbstoppers Summit, a platform in Asia for creativity in mobile video advertising.

     

    The summit opened with a keynote by Ajit Mohan, MD and VP of Facebook India, talking about the future of video in India, and how Facebook and its family of apps are driving curated video experiences, and enabling social video in the country giving businesses and people a range of ways to create, express, and communicate.

     

    Speaking about the initiative, Sandeep Bhushan, Director and Head, Global Marketing Solutions (GMS), Facebook India, said: “Video is central to our vision for India, and how we are building for people, communities, businesses in the country. From In-stream on Facebook to Stories on Instagram, there are multiple video ad formats on Facebook that can be used by both large and small businesses to reach their consumers, and drive the desired business results. Thumbstoppers is the most effective way to do storytelling for mobile video advertising, and it’s been heartening to see the marketing and advertising industry create and produce such inspiring Thumbstopping work in just five months.”

     

    The Summit also served as the concluding event for Thumbstoppers Challenge, which had invited members of the creative and advertising community to submit their short-form video stories with the aim of inspiring creative professionals, brands, and agencies to build for mobile as a medium. The contest saw more than 3500 entries from across the country. Of these, 60 entries were from brands from across verticals and industries with six films from Dove, Sofy, Vodafone, Unilever Sustainability, and Royal Enfield making it to the top 16 films that were recognised and unveiled for the first time today. All 16 winning films have been directed by adfilm maker Prakash Verma and the top four winners stand a chance to travel to Cannes next year.

     

    The top four winners include Rachita Kotwal from FoxyMoron in the category ‘Products We Love’ for the film ‘Fathers should be a part of their daughter’s menstrual journey’, Samriddhi Shah from Wunderman Thompson in the category ‘Breaking Stereotypes/Social Causes’ for the film ‘Just because home makers don’t earn, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be respected’, Shib Nath Sen from Wunderman Thompson in the category ‘Start A Habit’ for the film ‘Peeing on roads!’ and Swati Subramanian from Leo Burnett in the category ‘Little Big Moments’ for the film ‘Divisive behaviour in our society towards people with different orientation/preferences’.

     

     

  • Facebook’s VC Brand Incubator program aims to scale SMBs, empowering them to accelerate the socio-economic growth of the country

    Facebook partners with VC Funds for faster SMB growth

    By A Correspondent

     

    Facebook India announced an initiative which will see it collaborating with Venture Capital (VC) Funds to accelerate the growth of the small and medium businesses (SMB) they invest in. The VC Brand Incubator Programme will be the first in a series of programs by Facebook that will be geared towards laying a strong foundation for SMB growth in India by providing them with timely skilling and guidance, enabling these businesses to hasten socio-economic growth of the country as well.

     

    Speaking about the initiative, Archana Vohra, Director, Small and Medium Businesses at Facebook India, said: “With the VC Brand Incubator programme we hope to unlock the potential of SMBs in India, enabling them to enhance their and the country’s socio-economic growth. SMBs are the backbone of our economy and Facebook is the default destination for them to thrive and grow. Several SMBs are actively working towards creating a larger social change, and many are empowering women entrepreneurs and generating impact in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns. Their seamless growth can lead to consistent job creation, adding to the GDP growth. Working with VC funds is crucial as it allows us to scale and support SMBs at an early-stage itself, fast-tracking their growth.”

     

     

  • Launches ‘Thumbstoppers’ to redefine video storytelling in less than 10 seconds

    Facebook partners with leading creative agencies to boost short-form video creativity

    By A Correspondent

     

    Facebook India has launched ‘Thumbstoppers’, an initiative to “redefine” short-form mobile video creativity in the country. This initiative is in partnership with senior professsionals from Wunderman Thompson, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, McCann and Mullen Lintas – to “transform storytelling for mobile advertising”.

     

    The initiative sees the participation of Sukesh Nayak, Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy India, Senthil Kumar, Chief Creative Officer, Wunderman Thompson, Rajdeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett India, Garima Khandelwal, Chief Creative Officer, Mullen Lintas and Ashish Chakravarty, Executive Director, and Head of Creative at McCann Worldgroup. In partnership with Facebook, they will support skilling of their teams, helping them understand and think mobile-first, and execute short-form videos more seamlessly. Thumbstoppers will see experts from Facebook visiting top agency offices in the country to empower them with the required skills and education to create effective short-form video campaigns for their clients.

     

    Speaking at the launch of the Thumbstoppers campaign in Mumbai, Sandeep Bhushan, Director and Head of Global Marketing Solutions (GMS), at Facebook India, said, “Advertising on Facebook has driven significant business results for all our advertisers – large and small. The opportunity now is to drive the impact even harder with storytelling built for mobile. Facebook’s Thumbstoppers is our partnership with the creative agencies to inspire and showcase short stories that evoke emotions in under 10 seconds”.

     

     

  • Brings the AI community together to discuss next phase of innovation, announces accelerator programme, scholarships, and 'women in AI' hackathons

    Facebook hosts AI for Social Good Summit

    By A Correspondent

     

    Facebook has announced a host of initiatives dedicated to delivering social and inclusive growth by harnessing the power of emerging technologies led by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The announcements were made at Facebook’s inaugural AI for India Summit held in Bengaluru that focused on AI for Social Good. The summit was attended by AI thought-leaders, start-ups, NGOs, and the developer community.

     

    Kicking off the day-long summit, Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India, said: “At Facebook, we are developing and leveraging cutting-edge technologies for products we develop around the world. From developing a tool to swiftly connect blood banks and hospitals with blood donors to utilising Disaster Maps to aid the relief work during the 2018 Kerala Floods, we have always sought opportunities to deploy the best of our expertise in the service of India. We are an ally for India’s economic growth and social development and this summit is our effort to understand how we can contribute to the development of deep tech in India, as well as corral resources to use these technologies to develop impactful solutions for tough and persistent problems.”

     

    “At Facebook we are also committed to growing the local AI ecosystem, which can be achieved by providing support to start-ups, to the student community, and by ensuring diversity within the ecosystem itself. That’s the thought behind our key announcements today around AI for India Accelerator, trainings and scholarships for students and developers, and ‘Women in AI’ hackathons,” added Mohan.

     

  • Banerjee will be part of the leadership team in India and will be responsible for partnering businesses to help them to achieve strong business outcomesby leading the Verticals, Agency Relationships and Solutioning Teams for Facebook India

    Siddharth Banerjee quits Vodafone to join Facebook

    By A Correspondent

    Siddharth Banerjee

    Vodafone marketing head Siddharth Banerjee has joined Facebook India as Director – Global Sales Organisation. Banerjee will be part of the leadership team in India and will be responsible for partnering businesses to help them to achieve strong business outcomesby leading the Verticals, Agency Relationships and Solutioning Teams for Facebook India.

    Banerjee has had a four-year stint at Vodafone where he was last at EVP-Marketing. He joined the telco in 2015 after a 12-year stint in Unilever.

  • Increasing mobile in marketing media mix can create about $14bn opportunity between fashion brands, notes a Facebook-KPMG report

    Mobile to fuel apparel & accessory buys

     

    By A Correspondent

    India has emerged as one of the world’s fastest growing fashion markets over the years. Traditional brick-and-mortar brands are increasingly adopting digital channels for engaging with and selling to Indian consumers while maintaining their competitive positioning. In order to help these brands understand and eliminate reasons for consumer drop-outs in their path to purchase of apparel and fashion accessories, late last month, Facebook released the next installment of the research report under its Zero Friction Future programme titled “Eliminating friction in Fashion path to purchase”. The third in the series, the reports are authored by KPMG, based on primary research and insights basis the survey conducted by Nielsen for various industry verticals, across different cities in India.

     

    According to the findings of the report, friction accounts for 19% of consumer dropouts, in apparel category, and more than two-third of this friction is caused by media. In accessories category, friction accounts for 22% of consumer dropouts, and around two-third of this friction is caused by media. It further highlights that by 2022, seven in ten fashion accessory purchases in 2022 will be mobile influenced, nearly half of which will be driven by Facebook, amounting to a USD 110 billion sales opportunity. Additionally, mobile will influence two in three apparel purchases, amounting to USD 66 billion opportunity for brands, half of which will be driven by Facebook.

     

    Commenting on the launch of the report, Pulkit Trivedi, Director, Facebook India, said: “Fashion spectrum in India has evolved so considerably, that the apparel and accessory market is projected to reach USD 102 billion and USD 155 billion individually, by the year 2022. Today, mobile has become central to the way brands market and sell their products and engage with customers end-to-end. With our Zero Friction Future report, we aim to help fashion brands adopt relevant marketing strategies and reduce friction in consumer journeys across multiple touch-points, leading to improved conversion rates and increased revenue opportunity.”

     

    The study reveals that mobile enabled purchase journey is 14% and 25% shorter than offline journeys of apparel and fashion accessories respectively. The friction faced by consumers can be reduced with the higher use of mobile in the media mix, creating ~USD 14 bn worth of potential revenue for fashion brands by 2022. It also suggests that mobile can reduce media friction by 3 percentage points for apparel category and 4 percentage points for accessories, allowing the brands to tap into ~USD 5 & 9 billion market opportunity respectively.

     

    Speaking on the report findings, Sreedhar Prasad Partner & Head –E-Commerce and Internet, KPMG in India remarked: “The fashion consumption story of India is evolving and demand for quality fashion products is on the rise. This phenomenon is not limited to Tier 1 markets, but also Tier 2 and below towns, on account of growing per capita income, mass urbanization and increasing access to digital content. Rising affluence of the middle income group is creating demand for aspirational brands. In order to capture a larger share of mind, time and wallet of their target customers, fashion and e-commerce brands should continuously evaluate their marketing mix to ensure presence where the customer is. The report aims at exploring the customers’ path to purchase and associated friction throughout their journey.”

     

    Added Ashish Karnad, Executive Director – Marketing Effectiveness, Nielsen India: “We wanted to measure the influence and impact of media touch-points on consumers’ path to purchase route – right from the time they have a need to buy an apparel or fashion accessory, to finally buying it. We designed the study to get a zoomed-in view on how buyers are now interacting with various media touch-points. Unsurprisingly, mobile is playing a key influencer in the entire journey. While other touch points have their own roles to play in a buyer’s journey, Mobile helps in reducing friction at each stage. We hope this study will give a strategic view on the opportunities being missed by marketers due to media friction and bring in further optimization.”

     

    According to the research, top friction areas for different demographic cohorts vary and hence marketers need to customize their marketing strategy accordingly. Some key consumer friction areas across touch points include:

    :: Gender based: Both men and women display different drivers for entering the purchase funnel. Men seek clear next steps after watch and advertisement. On the other hand, women are more susceptible to ignore ads if they fail to either capture their attention or provide relevant information. As they both ahead in the purchase journey, credible information and better ‘value for money’ become important decision making parameters for both men and women. While buying fashion accessories, women are more sensitive to price and lack of trust at point of sale. Men, however, are more likely to ignore an advertisement at top of the funnel, but seek lucrative offers and detailed information for evaluating their shortlisted products.

    :: Age specific: 35-49 year old are more sensitive to inaccurate targeting of ads, or lack of clear call-to-action. However, younger age group of 18-24 year old have a higher propensity to drop-out at the intent stage. Highest friction is accessory purchase across age groups is observed at the top of the funnel. Across age groups, more than 1 in 3 consumers shopping at retail stores are likely to change their purchase decision. Consumers from all age groups discontent for lack of options to compare and choose from, lack of attractive offers and expectation mismatch at point of sale. This creates an opportunity for e-commerce players to deploy full-funnel marketing strategies by addressing these friction points. Brand’s communication strategy implemented in tandem with e-commerce strategy could capture leads at top of the funnel and facilitate their movement through the purchase funnel.

    :: Socio-economic: Both NCCS A and NCCS B consumers display comparable tendency to enter and complete the apparel purchase journey. However, more than three fourth of prospects abandon apparel purchase at either awareness or intent stage. NCCS B consumers are more likely to abandon an accessory purchase after entering the purchase funnel as compared to NCCS A, and half as likely as NCCS A to transact online. Contextualization of content and call-to-action mechanism could extend the proposition of online medium to NCCS B consumers.

     

  • Pulkit is an MBA from BITS Mesra and was featured in the "Hottest Young Business Leaders under 40" in India list by Business Today in 2015

    Facebook appoints Pulkit Trivedi as Industry Director

    By A Correspondent

     

    Facebook has appointed Pulkit Trivedi as Industry Director for e-Commerce, Retail, Travel and Financial Services verticals, where he will lead in building and maintaining strategic relationships with clients in the country.

     

    Trivedi comes to Facebook with over 18 years of extensive industry experience covering Sales, Business Development & Partnerships for Indian and multinational technology companies such as Google, Intel, Microsoft, IBM and HCL. Most recently, Pulkit held the position of Head of Industry, eCommerce at Google India and was with the company since April 2012. He was responsible for driving a large business for Google India.

     

    “We are thrilled to have Pulkit join the talented Facebook team to help grow our advertising business. Pulkit is a well proven business professional who along with our teams will strengthen our ability to deliver personalised marketing at scale to clients in India,” said Umang Bedi, Managing Director, Facebook India.

  • That was the underlying them as a cross-section talk of how to profit from the mobile-first Indians

    Going mobile-first via Facebook

     

    By Santosh Jangid

     

    Whether it’s banking on the go, catching up on news or flicking through friends’ holidays photos, mobile is the device that has people’s time and attention. It has transformed the way people around the world connect, share experiences and discover new things. Many of the first-time users of internet in India are coming via mobile phones.

     

    This presents a huge opportunity for brands as Facebook has over 166 million monthly active users, of which over 95 per cent users log in via mobile. Facebook is at the heart of a mobile-first shopping journey and can play a significant role to help brands and advertisers reach out to consumers who form a huge and core target audience for them. Speaking to the media in Mumbai on Monday, Umang Bedi, Managing Director, Facebook India started off the session by saying,“Our journey has been focused on connecting people. They said the world is going mobile but that is not correct. The world has gone mobile. India is leading the way on mobile purchases.76% use mobile for e-commerce for exploration, 76% use mobile for shopping, 74% use mobile to post purchases and 42% use mobile to transact/purchase. 90% consumers who seek information on Facebook are likely to buy the product. Facebook is at the heart of mobile-first shopping journey and Facebook users are heavy mobile shoppers. 9 out to 10 e commerce shoppers are active on Facebook.”

     

    Facebook has partnered with India’s top 100 advertisers wherein they have launched their products or engaged with consumer on Facebook which has led to conversions. Some of them include Mondelez, Kingfisher, Tanishq, Goibibo, Adidas, Garnier, Durex, Shopclues amongst others.

     

    Kingfisher launched a new drinks brand on Facebook, bringing its personality to life through vides, photos and slideshow ads aimed at youth on mobile device. Similarly, Goibibo used Facebook, audience network and Instagram to reach Indians on mobile on a massive scale, driving over 15x more installs in three days.

     

    Said Siddharth Banerjee, SVP Marketing, Vodafone on Vodafone’s key learning using digital: “It’s not just about digital marketing in a box but about doing digital marketing in real world. I see three trends in this. The first one being understanding the marketing trends, i.e., What will Facebook/Twitter deliver to my business. The second trend is reorienting creative. We at Vodafone have always understood the value of good story telling. In the last few quarters, we have brainstormed on how to make thump stopping at Facebook. And the third trend is area measurement. Area measurement has enabled us to put more funding. We brought the pug back because the pug connected with our audiences.

     

    Speaking about future of mobile first and digital marketing in India, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO South Asia Dentsu Aegis Network said ,“Video is very important for us and with JIO and Vodafone coming in market, the data cost will fall and once that happens, the lines between  digital and outdoor and other mediums will blurry. Everybody who predicted 40% will be digital will be proven wrong because by 2020 I think 80-100% will be digital.”

     

    Adding on to what Bhasin said, Siddharth Banerjee averred:’We see great opportunity with m-pesa in the future. We are seeing huge spurs with the payment banks now available. In the future, There will be many Indias within India. There will be a leap from 2G to 4G and we will have the services, offerings to power the road to digitalisation.”

     

    “As the shift to mobile accelerates in India, businesses have to be faster in adopting mobile strategies that reach people at every step of the fragmented commerce journey. We are committed to helping businesses grow .Whether it’s brand building, generating demand, driving leads or sales, we are focused on helping business unlock growth opportunities and help them move their business through solutions that drive results.” said Umang Bedi, Managing Director, Facebook India.

     

    “Mobile, in India, is becoming an integral part of doing business, not just for communications. In some ways, the recent demonetisation decision of the government will further accelerate this process and as a country we will leapfrog a generation, thanks to mobile. It is an integral part of a consumer’s life and brand and purchase decisions. At Dentsu Aegis Network, we want to be at the cutting edge of this revolution, along with our partners like Facebook, to bring the learnings and best practices to India and provide a world class product to our clients” said Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia.

     

  • The objective of the campaign was therefore to help them rediscover the joys of sharing, specifically on Facebook, and all the wonderful things that it leads to

    Facebook urges women to rediscover the joys of sharing

    By A Correspondent

     

    Facebook India recently launched a campaign to encourage women in smaller towns across India to share more on Facebook. Conceptualised by Taproot, the three digital films, titled ‘Clothes’, ‘Sangeeta’ and ‘Jhansi’, aim to re-introduce the magic of Facebook to those who have taken to it but not to sharing on it.

     

    According to statistics while a majority of these women were accessing Facebook through their mobile phones regularly, they were not sharing as much personal content in the form of posts, videos or pictures but viewing other content as passive consumers. The objective of the campaign was therefore to help them rediscover the joys of sharing, specifically on Facebook, and all the wonderful things that it leads to.

     

    For maximum impact, the campaign was broken into 2 phases- the first phase being to inspire sharing again through a series of films and then following up with education on safety features within Facebook.

     

    Each film holds a mirror to how sharing on Facebook goes beyond the online world to real-life friendships and relationships. From getting in touch with long lost friends to bridging the generation divide, Facebook is at the heart of joyous moments every day.

     

    Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative Officer & co-founder, Taproot Dentsu said, “It was important to have a more human / real approach. Without pushing too much we wanted to communicate how the brand can play an important role in their day to day life to bond with their friends and families. I think we were successful to get every single bit right, be it the conversation, cast or set up, all of these captures the TG’s world very well.”

     

  • 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.”