MxMIndia

Tag: Hungama

  • YouTube and Hungama emerge toppers

    Ormax Media’s Brand Trust Survey released

    By Our Staff

    Ormax Media has released its latest report titled Ormax Brand Trust Survey 2021 which ranks media brands based on the trust they enjoy among Indian kids. The survey was conducted during December 2020 and January 2021, among kids in the 6-14 yrs. age group across 10 cities in India, who scored 44 media brands, across television, digital, social media, gaming, streaming and film exhibition, on the trust factor that brand holds for them.

    YouTube has emerged as the No. 1 most-trusted brand among Indian kids, with a Brand Trust Score of 71%, followed by Ludo King (65%) and WhatsApp (63%). The top 5 ranks are all taken by digital brands, signifying the strong engagement digital media has built with kids in urban India.

    The top rank among TV channels belongs to the channel Hungama, which is followed by Hindi GEC Sab TV. Cartoon Network and Nick are the other two television brands in the Top 10 list.

    Shailesh Kapoor
    Shailesh Kapoor

    Said Shailesh Kapoor, Founder & CEO – Ormax Media: “This report is a decisive verdict on the growing resonance of digital media among urban Indian kids. A clean sweep of the top 5 positions by digital brands, ahead of legacy brands in the television space, would have been unthinkable even 2-3 years ago. Digital brands completely dominate the media landscape of older kids (10-14 yrs.) and boys, taking 8 and 7 of the top 10 positions respectively in these segments”.

    The top 20 most-trusted media brands among Indian kids are:

     

  • Mirum hires Preetam Thingalaya as Director of Media

    By A Correspondent

     

    Preetam Thingalaya

    Mirum has announced the appointment of Preetam Thingalaya as Director of Media. Thingalaya will head the media planning and buying division and play a key role in growing the business and providing strategic direction, especially focusing on programmatic and performance marketing.

     

    Thingalaya comes with more than two decades of experience across agency businesses, including Mindshare, PHD and Hungama. His last stint was with OTT platform Zee5 as the digital lead for SVOD and Music verticals. He will be based out of Mumbai office and will directly report to the Joint CEO, Sanjay Mehta.

     

    Sanjay Mehta

    Commenting on the appointment, Mehta said: “I am delighted to welcome Preetam on-board. Mirum offers a full-service solution to clients, from strategy, creative, technology, content, monitoring, and marketing automation, and paid digital media is an integral and critical component, to join the dots and deliver business results, for our clients. At Mirum, we already have a very successful media planning and buying division, and now with Preetam coming on board, we will provide enhanced value across all facets of paid digital media, further strengthening our media deliveries”.

     

     

  • The agency has been selected following a multi-agency pitch, to manage company's digital channels

    Tata Steel Corporate awards the digital mandate to Hungama Digital Services

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hungama Digital Services (HDS) announced that it will leverage the communication for Tata Steel Corporate across all its digital channels. HDS has been selected following a multi-agency pitch as the Digital Agency on Record (AOR).

     

    Carlton D'Silva

    Commenting on the win Carlton D’Silva, CEO and CCO, Hungama Digital Services states, “Tata Steel Corporate giving us the mandate  to assist them in this digital journey is a great responsibility as well as a huge moment of pride for the entire HDS family. To be associated with the world’s second-most geographically-diversified steel producer, operating in 26 countries and having a commercial presence in over 50 countries, in itself is an immense learning opportunity for us and we are all-set to deliver clutter breaking ideas with progressive communication.”

     

  • In addition to this, a significant technology upgrade has brought in seamless streaming on 2G networks ensuring an uninterrupted playback

    Hungama Music launches original audio series ‘Mera Wala Music’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hungama Music has launched a host of new programming initiatives and an application upgrade that offers a new experience for music lovers and subscribers of the service. Mera Wala Music – an original audio series unveils the story behind your favourite artists’ music. Launched with the first four artists namely, rapper Badshaah, Punjabi music sensation Diljit Dosanjh, ace composer Mithoon Sharma and talented singer Palak Muchhal – Mera Wala Music will bring the listeners closer to their favourite celebrities and their music. Each month a new set of artists will share their untold stories and relive the quirky, happy, fun moments behind some of their most loved tracks. Coming up next in this series are interesting anecdotes from Ayushman Khurana, Hard Kaur, Salim-Sulaiman and many more.

     

    Bolstered with a line-up of new content, the Hungama Music app hosts a lot of new features. The new app has been designed keeping in mind the nativity of the iOS ecosystem and has a cleaner and sleeker look with simple and intuitive user journeys offering an elevated in-app experience. In keeping with the belief that “Offline is the new Online” the app has revamped the offline experience further. The new iOS app gives users an option to download a complete playlist that is available for offline playback as against the erstwhile listing of individual songs. Hungama Music is powered by a recommendation algorithm that recommends music based on users consumption habits offering the user an endless music experience. The video experience has been augmented with a mini-player that allows users to surf the app while the video continues to play simultaneously. In addition to this, a significant technology upgrade has brought in seamless streaming on 2G networks ensuring an uninterrupted playback.

     

    Speaking about the new and improved Hungama Music app, Said Siddhartha Roy, CEO – Hungama.com: “Hungama Music has undergone a complete experience upgrade. The app is packed with a lot of new programming, feature updates and an enhanced experience for the consumers. We have expanded our original content offering and have brought on board the biggest Bollywood celebrities to share their exclusive stories with the listeners who are passionate about their music and everything around it.”

     

  • The game brings together the unholy trinity of action games with platformer shoot outs, car chasers and bomber maze puzzle game

    Hungama unveils official ‘Force 2’ game

     

     

    Hungama Digital Media has launched the official game of Force 2 – an action thriller featuring John Abraham, Sonakshi Sinha and Tahir Raj Bhasin. The game lets users step into the shoes of the leading three to virtually experience the thrill and excitement of Force 2. The 3D animation game is available on Android and is soon to launch on iOS devices. The game is inspired by the journey of the three leading characters of the film – Yash, KK and Shiv as they foil an assassination in Budapest.

     

    Commenting on the game, John Abraham said, “I think what Hungama has created with this game is commendable. It feels great to see that an all-out action film can be adapted so intriguingly as a game and can be such an engaging experience. The game-play, graphics and overall user experience had me hooked to it completely. Urge all gaming enthusiasts to try their hand at the Force 2 game and enjoy the experience.”

     

    Added Tahir Bhasin: “It feels great to see myself as a part of the Force 2 game. Shiv’s character has been interestingly integrated along with a challenging puzzle game. I am eagerly looking forward to the response to the game and the movie alike!”

     

  • The funding is focused on growing its premium movie and TV, OTT service, Hungama Play; including addition of 1500 hours of TV content and original programming

    Hungama raises $25mn in funding round led by Xiaomi

    By A Correspondent

     

    Digital media entertainment company Hungama, has raised an investment of US$25mn, led by leading smartphone company Xiaomi, along with existing investors Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and ace financial investor and Indian billionaire, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.

     

    With this round of funding, Hungama will expand the content library and further invest in world class technology on its mobile app platforms Hungama Music for music and Hungama Play for premium video including movies, television and original series. Hungama will soon add over 1500 hours of television content along with original content to its current Hungama Play offering of over 8000 movies in English and 12 Indian languages

     

    Speaking about the funding round, Neeraj Roy, Founder & CEO – Hungama Digital Media Entertainment said: “India is adding 8 MN new consumers to the Internet each month with 90% of digital consumption being driven by mobile. Young Indians love their music and movies and the mobile will be the most used screen for this generation. Content will drive the next phase of Digital India and we are delighted to partner with Xiaomi as we prepare to bring premium and original digital entertainment to a 100 million Indians before the end of this year.”

     

    Hugo Barra, Vice President, Xiaomi said: “We think of smartphones as a platform for us to deliver Internet services, and this includes content. We are investing in Hungama not only to start integrating content into our smartphones, but also to grow together with them and deepen our understanding of the content sector in India. We have carefully selected Hungama because of what they are doing in terms of aggregating large amounts of content and delivering an amazing user experience.”

     

    Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Chairman, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment said: “I have been invested into Hungama for several years and participated in this new capital raise as I believe they have built an unique leadership position with the most compelling music and movie OTT service for South Asians globally that is ripe for growth as India will embrace broadband and 4G. We welcome Xiaomi as one of our partners.”

     

    Vishal Gupta, Managing Director, Bessemer Venture Partners, said “We are excited about the leadership position that Hungama has built as being the one stop OTT platform across music, videos and movies. We are delighted to have Xiaomi as our partners and will accelerate our growth and leadership.”

     

    Citi acted as exclusive financial advisor to Hungama on this transaction.

     

  • To herald a new wave in entertainment and sports through digital marketing

    Marketing & advertising ecosystem Digi Osmosis launched

    By A Correspondent

     

    After a successful stint with Hungama and Red Chillies, marketing veteran Manish Kumar has launched Digi Osmosis, a marketing and advertising ecosystem that helps brands be future-ready in digital. Through digital innovations, content, engaging fans and followers and helping connect influencers via their preferred platform and technologies in the space of sports and entertainment, Digi Osmosis aims to provide a complete digital solutions package, not only driving content but become creators.

     

    Manish has over eight years of experience in being an instrumental front runner in driving innovations and creating never-before-seen business opportunities for the Indian entertainment and sports industry in the digital space.

     

    Digi Osmosis’ goal is to become the best digital consultants, providing high quality end-to-end solutions for the online ecosystem. Exuding knowledge in technology, marketing and digital industry and also acting as the nucleus connecting the arms of sports, entertainment and technology brands, the agency uses simple strategies and easy communication options to create digital assets for their clients through multiple ways. It integrates with systems and digital assets like media buying, viral marketing, social media marketing and using analytics efficiently to predict trends and create content in an organic manner.

     

    Digi Osmosis empowers influencers to become a direct source of media, connecting personalities to their followers through creativity, innovation and content. They enable strategy by leveraging existing properties like co-branded content, 4G, DTH, gaming, technology partnerships and many more. They believe the future is an integrated digital economy, one that is ever expanding and all-encompassing. The lines are increasingly becoming blurred and soon, there will be no difference between offline and online.

     

    Manish Kumar

    Talking about the development of Digi Osmosis, Founder, Manish Kumar, said, “It’s simple…we understand digital and technology. We are constantly exploring new ways to exploit the digital landscape and simplify it for both the clients and the consumers. Through this company, we aim to create content that engages the fans and appeals to them and marry innovation through technology by partnering with the best tech gurus in the business. We are young, passionate and think new! We don’t just dream, but we back it up with numbers. Our backbone is analytics, and we tailor solutions according to the figures. Digital is in our blood. And we bleed ones and zeroes.”

     

  • Hungama's musical CSR activity aims to hit the right notes

    Hungama partners with Kyoorius Designyatra 2015 for charitable cause

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hungama partners with Kyoorius Designyatra 2015 to raise awareness for a social cause while adding a musical note to the 10th anniversary of KDY. Hungama and Kyoorius Designyatra 2015 will create one of the biggest live-request playlists to raise the funds via a Twitter activity. By tweeting #HungamaKDY2015 and the name of the song, it will be played at the event. While the activity will contribute INR 100 per song streamed at the event it will also allow participants to actively contribute in the process to raise donations.

     

    With an interesting theme like ‘What pumps your heart’ Kyoorius Designyatra’s 10th anniversary edition aims to engage participants and guests alike during the event with a live music request Twitter activity in association with Hungama. The activity will be a means to raise funds for ‘Laadli’, a campaign that highlights the falling sex ratio of the country and their endeavors to correct the issue by making available relevant data, audits of documents received from Sonography clinics among other activities; of which the end goal is to stabilize the sex ratio difference.

     

    Neeraj Roy

    Speaking on the occasion, Neeraj Roy, MD & CEO of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment said, “It gives us immense pleasure to partner with Kyoorius Deisgnyatra 2015 to help raise charity and awareness for the social cause campaign ‘Laadli’. The campaign that aims to control female feticide has helped shed much light on the topic. With this association we are proud to leverage our platforms for this noble cause.”

     

    Rajesh Kejriwal

    Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder CEO of Kyoorius said, “We are happy to have Hungama partnering with us at Kyoorius Designyatra 2015. Music is an essential part of the conference experience, it’s one of the things that gets delegates really ‘pumped’, so I’m sure Hungama’s Digital Jukebox will be a huge hit. And it’s for a great cause, which makes it all the more impactful.”

     

  • #50MillionKaHungama is the result of aggressive catalog additions and feature roll-outs by the digital brand

    Hungama.com crosses 50mn+ monthly active users

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hungama.com has achieved a new milestone in the Indian digital entertainment space by becoming the first company to cross 50 million monthly active users across its entertainment service. This milestone places Hungama among the top 5 music and video streaming services globally, including platforms like Pandora and Spotify.

     

    Over 250 million consumers accessed Hungama’s services over the last year, during which the platform registered 200% growth in monthly active users.

     

    Over the past 12 months, Hungama has introduced several first features as well as several key catalog additions to create an unmatched consumer experience. The fast pace of growth in mobile data adoption among consumers across the board has provided a platform for Hungama to tap into the market with its mobile-apps, leading to massive penetration in both metros, urban, semi urban and even rural India.

     

    Anticipating the market opportunity in semi urban and rural India, Hungama rolled out multi-lingual support in its Android app in October 2014. It was the first music led mobile app globally to be available in more than 5 languages when it was launched with support for Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Punjabi, along with English.

     

    In July 2014, Hungama also introduced its PRO service for Android and iOS devices. The service featured integrated video and audio downloading for the first time in a single app, along with a caching feature for music that allowed users to save their music and video which can be played without internet connection anywhere, anytime in turn saving data cost.

     

    Neeraj Roy

    Speaking on Hungama’s achievement, Neeraj Roy, MD & CEO of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment said, “We are glad to be the music & video service of choice for over 50 million South- Asians across the world. The milestone is the result of initiatives that we at Hungama began undertaking about 15 months ago. Over the next year, we plan to continue to build on this momentum to grow into newer markets and explore more avenues to distribute digital music and video. Hungama is on track to reach 100 million MAUs by March 2016.”

     

    Hungama’s patent pending gamification layer has become immensely popular with its consumers who are now rewarded for multiple actions and on a daily basis and redeem their points for a range of products and services. Whether you are listening to music or watching a video, its never been so much fun and rewarding as on Hungama.

     

  • Nine weeks of Premium Hungama PRO app will be free with purchases on Snapdeal's mobile app

    Snapdeal enters into strategic tie-up with Hungama

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hungama.com has entered into a strategic partnership with Snapdeal, India’s largest online marketplace to offer digital entertainment content to its shoppers. The tie-up between the two leading digital entities will begin with an offer wherein shoppers on Snapdeal’s mobile app will get access to Hungama’s Premium PRO service free for a period of nine (9) weeks.

     

    Hungama PRO, which is a paid premium subscription service, offers users HD quality music videos with the lyrics of songs, and can be accessed offline without any internet charges. It is also an ad-free app, which further makes for a hassle-free experience. The mobile app is available for download from the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store. After the first nine weeks, the service will later be made available to the users at a price of Rs 120 per month.

     

    Both Snapdeal and Hungama have been focusing on expanding their leadership position by tapping into developing Tier-II markets. The recent update that brought transliteration features to Hungama’s Android app, made it one of the first India apps to be available in five languages – English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Punjabi – an ideal service for Snapdeal’s userbase that is spread across 5000 plus cities and towns in India.

     

    Speaking on partnering with Snapdeal, Siddhartha Roy, CEO at Hungama.com, said: “With music and shopping being among the primary drivers of mobile internet consumption, our tie-up aims to offer users an enhanced value proposition. 2015 is likely to be a vital year for brands to out to Middle Bharat, and tie-ups like this will help our brands to attract a larger share of the consumer’s mind space.”

     

    “We at Snapdeal are focusing hugely on making sure our customers get a great shopping experience on our app. The partnership with Hungama brings shopping and music together, both are a way of life for Indian consumers. We want to encourage the growing love of apps by providing customers with what they love most –high quality uninterrupted music and awesome deals on the go,” commented Mr. Sandeep Komaravelly, SVP, Marketing at Snapdeal.com

     

  • The PRO service for Android and iOS distinguishes itself by offering integrated video streaming without internet

    Hungama unveils PRO service for its native app

    By a correspondent

     

    In a bid to further augment its reach in the digital music entertainment industry, Hungama Digital has taken yet another step towards innovation by announcing the launch of its PRO service for Hungama mobile app.

     

    Commenting on the robust digital music industry, Siddhartha Roy, Chief Operating Officer (Consumer Business & Allied Services) at Hungama Digital, said, “It is known fact that as Indian audiences we don’t just listen to our music but we watch it as well. It’s this specific gap, which has prompted us to rollout the Hungama music service that has both Audio & Video offering for our consumers. Hungama has been a pioneer in the digital music industry for over a decade and a half and basis our understanding we have observed that there is a need of providing consumers a solution where they are free from being dependent on their internet connectivity, specially where there is an issue with the quality of connectivity.

     

    Given this, music streaming will continue to grow exponentially, Hungama is delighted to launch the PRO service, which allows consumers to listen to their streamed music without data connectivity.

     

    The unique features of the Hungama app include:

    :: Patented Loyalty feature and Gamification – that rewards you for every action on the app. You can earn (and redeem) points every time you watch videos, play/share music, invite friends or even create playlists

     

    :: Patented Mood Discovery – finds and plays music to match your mood. This feature allows you to discover music based on your preferences – Mood, Tempo, Language, Genre or Era

     

    :: Access to lyrics – You can experience music intelligence with an add-on feature which brings interesting trivia and lyrics with just a touch

     

    :: Artist Radio: With over 20,000 artistes on Hungama.com, you have access to a massive music pool. Tune in to your favourite celeb’s music playlist on Artist Radio feature

     

    Social Music: The ‘My Stream’ option allows you to invite, share and connect with your friends online through social networking platforms and create waves of interesting music conversations online

     

  • The campaign aims to bring together budding photographers to share their images with Bing and MSN

    HDS unveils #TheBigShot campaign for Bing

    By a correspondent

     

    Hungama Digital Services has created a unique and one-of-its kind photography led social media campaign for Bing, one of the leading search engines by Microsoft.

     

    Bing’s homepage displays images across genres that people like to engage with; keeping this as the driving thought, HDS designed Bing’s #TheBigShot campaign that aims to bring together budding photographers to share their images with Bing and MSN to become part of Bing’s homepage imagery. The six week contest kick-started on 10th March, 2014. Weekly themes will be unveiled by the Jury, thus inviting entries for submission in each of the categories.

     

    “We are very pleased to partner with Hungama Digital Services for this initiative. The Bing search engine is steadily gaining momentum and its visual richness is one of its top features. We are therefore excited about reaching out to top photographers across the country with our joint campaign”, said Vinay Kumar, APAC Head, Bing Partnerships.

     

    A celebrated jury comprising leading photographers of India such as Hari Menon, Rathika Ramaswamy, Venky of Photriya Photography and Dr. Ceaser Sengupta will not only be screening the entries, they will also aid amateur photographers with tips and tutorials to hone their photographic skills. The jury will declare a weekly winner in each of the categories, who will have their image featured on the Bing homepage for a day. Bing will also enlarge the image to poster size and send it across to them. Besides being featured in the downloadable wallpaper pack of the Microsoft website, the winning entries will be featured prominently on Bing and MSN India Facebook pages.

     

    “Images can have a very deep and lasting impact. Bing is a pioneer in this space with the beautiful imagery that goes on every day on the search engine. It makes for a beautiful experience! So we thought, why not involve our fans and ask them to contribute? Through #TheBigShot campaign, we want to nurture budding photographers and provide them with a platform to showcase their work, making it a one of its kind social media campaign”, said Kunal Arora, Head Digital Services, Hungama Digital Services.

     

    Bing’s #TheBigShot campaign is for everyone who is interested in photography including amateur photographers. In order to participate in the contest, fans have to follow Bing India’s official Facebook page and submit their images for various themes suggested by Bing India over a span of six weeks.