Tag: Karthik Nagarajan

  • Netflix and music maestro Ilaiyaraaja to join forces

    By Our Staff

     

    Wavemaker brought together an industry first musical association with the music maestro Ilaiyaraaja to compose the title track of Stranger Things Season 4 with an Indian twist.

     

    Said Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker India: “When we asked ourselves what is that one name that will resonate with multiple southern states and stand for all things ‘80s, there was only one answer – Raja sir. It has been an absolute privilege to work with him on this. As we listened to the track, he had composed in his studio which was a combination of his signature sounds, ending with the world famous Stranger Things theme, we had goose bumps. Netflix has gone the extra mile in reaching out to new regional audiences with this effort to make Stranger Things available in Tamil and Telugu. Today I’m sure Netflix has won a lot of hearts in the south with this video featuring the Maestro and we at Wavemaker are very proud to have made this happen along with our South entertainment partner One Mercuri and Still Water films. This association marks the beginning of the many firsts beautiful collaborations to come.”

     

  • Wavemaker films for Friends adult diapers

    By Our Staff

     

    Friends Dry Pants – the flagship brand of Nobel Hygiene, specially designed for people suffering from incontinence, has launched a digital film to spread awareness on how the use of adult diapers can mean ‘urine leakage se azadi mubarak’.  The film features an elderly couple essayed by Marathi theatre actors and real-life partners – Anil Khopkar and Swaroop Khopkar.  The video was conceptualized and filmed by agency Wavemaker India.

     

    Said Kartik Johari, Vice-President – Marketing & e-commerce, Nobel Hygiene: “We have found that consumer truths resonate the most with our audience, and consequently, helps them break the adult diaper taboo at home. Also recently, a primary study we conducted found that it takes anywhere between 9 months and 1.5 years for those facing incontinence to start using adult diapers. For several months, sufferers attempt to ‘manage’ concerns instead of choosing dry pants because of social stigma. Consequently, we used consumer truths heroed by our female protagonist in this ad showing her as a trendsetter and urging her husband to join the dry pant league! We were helped by the real-life chemistry of Mr and Mrs Khopkar, and we hope to keep making many more such slices of reality for our growing audience.”

     

    Speaking on the campaign, Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker India added: “With this Friends campaign our attempt was to encourage conversations around the category without feeling awkward or embarrassed and show adult diapers as a part of their existing life that they’ve embraced fully. By showing an elderly couple enjoy their life while accepting their need for an adult diaper was the key to normalizing the conversation.”

     

  • Wavemaker collaborates with One Mercuri to turn South

    By Our Staff

     

    Wavemaker India has unveiled a specialised unit in collaboration with One Mercuri which will focus on helping brands leverage the entertainment and content businesses in south India. The unit will open up a whole new world of collaborations and opportunities for brands and creators.

     

    This is an effort to help corporatise the business of ‘south entertainment’, by way of providing brands structured access to entertainment content from South India, right at the conception stage. It will deliver on creating Original Content IPs, enabling better brand associations in films and OTT content (audio & video), bringing in an era of measurement and collaborations with writer rooms, among other things. The partnership will be a catalyst in developing the symbiotic relationship between brands and the South entertainment industry – one that has under-delivered so far.

     

    The unit will be based out of Wavemaker’s Bengaluru office and led by Anilkumar Sathiraju under the leadership of Karthik Nagarajan.

     

    Commenting on the launch of this new unit, Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia, Wavemaker, said: “We have always focussed on paving newer ways to provide innovative solutions to our clients and partners. Creativity, Content and Collaboration are the three pillars of this newly launched specialised unit. We see huge potential in content, partnerships, digital content and content creators / influencers in the next few years. With this unit, our aim is to create a new wave in the entertainment and business space”.

     

    Added Sriram Bakthisaran, MD & Group CEO, One Mercuri: “A resurgence of quality content from the region which is home to the four thriving film industries besides a large entertainment-hungry viewership, a larger than life fan following base seen nowhere in the world and the content coming out from this region  fast attracting global interests and gaining prominence on pan India scale and with our already significant presence in the south market having serviced some of the biggest production houses and the celebrities in the past, we feel we are better placed to expand our offerings than before as we jointly venture out to feed all stake holders including the consumer, the production houses as well as the brands. As Wavemaker has all the experience and knowhow with their global exposure, I am very confident that this collaboration will only elevate the industry and set standards for several to follow and benefit.”

     

     

  • Trends That Will Influence Adland

     

    Courtesy GroupM

     

    As part of  the ‘This Year Next Year’ report presentation on Monday, GroupM captains presented a report on trends impacting the Indian advertising industry.

     

    Said Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker India: “It has been an interesting year for digital marketers as the nation-wide lockdown brought about exponential growth in certain trends which were already on the up – whether immersive experiences like gaming, the rise of audio or influencer marketing. People have started gaining interest in localized content and now OTT – audio or video, has become a major part of their entertainment. We are also moving towards an era of fragmented social media, where creators will take precedence over communities. Also, with the consumer becoming more conscious by the day, we will see empathy becoming a constant thread in brand communications.”

     

    Sharing some light on the trends, Bharat Khatri, Country Head, Xaxis India added: “Brands are aggressively looking at deploying new tools, data & cloud infrastructures which has resulted in the acceleration of digital transformation post Covid-19. With the increase in demand for different platforms, creativity and localized content, the advertisers have plenty of opportunities to reach consumers through engaging via different audio/video formats & achieve real outcomes in a device agnostic world. In short, the brands are continuously looking out for new ways to reach out to connect with their consumers and make the relationship stronger. We also see that Gen Z has been making a lot of their decision basis social media platforms and this coincides with the rise in new age ecommerce platforms.”

     

    Here are the 10 trends:

     

    1) From Carefree To Conscious – The Great Shift In Consumer Behaviour

    • During the lockdown, there was a 42% growth in searches to know “what’s normal” forbody stats like BP, body temperature and blood sugar

    • Browsing content on healthy cooking went up by100%

    • All this point to a marked change in what the user is seeking, towards self-preservation and wellness

    • Thisis also further accentuated by over 52% rise in content consumption on pets and a 70% increase in searches related to Yoga

    • This behaviour change will also imply how they look at Brands and consumption at large – Consumers are also more likely to embrace brands who showcase empathy and care aboutthe larger world /environment

    • This is presenting an opportunity tobrand

    :: Back of the pack = front of thepack

    :: Highlighting goodness in every possibleway

     

    2) Everything Is Becoming Hyperlocal

    • What is happening in your immediate surroundings – whether town or district istaking precedence over what is happening in the country or the World

    • Oneof the biggest indicators of this is the surge in regional language news & content during the lockdown

    • We are seeing similar trends in digital consumption as well in terms of the rise of more regional news and content consumption– in platforms like Daily Hunt and share

    • This also is happening simultaneously as our capability to sharp shoot communication has increased– for example, our ability to do Pincode-level targeting, thanks to multi-faceted data

     

    points on the audience or targeting based on distribution pattern or market share in specific locations.

    • There’s saying that- Every 15-20 km, the language, dialect, music, food, … everything changes in India

    • Brand owners have opportunity to leverage this and drive precision @scale

     

    3) Driving Up The Subscription Bandwagon

    • 2021 would “once-in-for-all” smash the adage that “Indians don’t pay for content” and drive up thesubscription game for Sports and other forms of quality original  It’s creating a direct 2 consumer opportunity.

    • Thereare many OTT player who has achieved their subscribers target 12- 18 month ahead of  This is not limited to live sports and premium video content – there’s the start of a similar trend in news, audio content and premium domain-specific content in small ways.

    • Platformslike Substack helping talented Journalist reach direct to their readers and monetize their content.

    • 2021 is also going to be an interesting year for sports – 2020’s loss, in terms of sports events, is 2021’s gain. Global sporting events like Euro 2020 and Tokyo 2020 are due to happen this year. Add to this, local favourites i.e., IPL 2021 (within 6 months of its previous edition) and ICC T20 (which would be hosted in India) and you’ve quite a field day for Indian sports fans and broadcastersalike! an Indian Sports Fan as s/he would be battling questions on what to subscribe, when to subscribe, how long to subscribe, where to watch and many such conundrums

    • Interesting time ahead for content industry and distributionplatforms

     

     

    4) Gaming & Esports Growth – More Than Time Pass

    The next generation of entertainment is immersion and engagement while gaming will be a natural winner there

    • 5G

    • VR

    • Gaming

    Gaming will become not just about time spent but also a cultural destination. The nature of this entertainment is not a lean back but a more immersive one. Music concerts and other experiences will also be activated on esports platforms. A handful of businesses can talk positively about 2020 and COVID- 19… One such benefactor is gaming and esports. In peak lockdown during Apr’20, there was an 11% increase in users per week and has seen a rise in the number of gamers where 66% of new gamers are females and 56% of new gamers are above the age of 45. Now gaming as an industry has evolved in multiple ways too. Most companies in this industry are looking to create platforms that will be central to an individual’s life where activities, like shopping, socializing, events (especially esports) can all be done in virtual and interactive ways. During the lockdown, esports live-stream viewership grew by 61% and 66% in week 1 and 2, respectively. These are great signs, considering that despite the majority of the on- ground esports events getting pushed in 2020, the gaming fans have held their own. With 2020 contributing immensely to gaming habit formation; for 2021 to be the year of esports, organizers need to focus on building career opportunities starting with improved prize money pool.

     

    5) Platforms Will Become Creator Led Than Community-Led

    The entry barrier for social platforms used to be the network effect. a.k.a how many of my friends/people are there on the network. As we move towards an ecosystem where people join platforms more for the experience and creators on it, this barrier will be lowered significantly. We are possibly looking at 4-5 different platforms with a 100 Million plus user base, not far from now

     

    Influencer content for brand building will sustain but a majority of categories will move towards a performance mindset for advocacy. Newer platforms, driven by creators already have seamless commerce features built-in. This will spur content-to-commerce in a big way in 2021. The journey from platform-based advocacy to an integrated strategy for brands will now scale to include commerce as well. This will also bring in more industry guidelines on influencers disclosing brand partnerships.

     

    6) Immersive audio becomes a cultural movement. Finds a loyal audience across age demographics

    As we predicted last year, audio has truly made its comeback in style. Platforms like Clubhouse are seeing great traction and audience for podcasts has grown manifold in India in 2020 and the MAUs are already where social media was a few years back. The IAB has just released technical guidelines for podcast measurement in the US. In India, standards and guidelines will emerge and be solidified, as we are reaching critical mass. Given the proven efficacy of audio on brand recall, this will be extremely critical for brands looking to make cultural interventions.

     

    7) Digital Transformation – ROI To Opportunity Cost

    Leaders are aggressively deploying new tools, data & cloud infrastructures, the digital transformation process got accelerated post-Covid. This will help create new age “Marketing Digital Infrastructure “and replace old tech which was becoming a barrier to fast-track digital transformation. Advancing towards a P3PC (post-third-party cookies) has accelerated the long-term data strategies plan to own the consumer where brands have already started to deploy CDPs (Customer Data Platforms) to transition from segment audience data approach to individual consumer profiles. The industry will continue to see this trend in both advertiser & publisher ecosystem on putting more focus towards 1st party data activation powered with contextual targeting.

     

    8) Streaming Wars- In a Device Agnostic World

    2020 pandemic turned out to be an opportunity in crisis for OTT industry in India. Connected TV is simply becoming the new TV. It is the way large segments of consumers will access premium content. As we see by its current use for reach extension, CTV is a medium through which mass brand messaging can continue going forward. The fact that it is more targetable and measurable than ‘old TV’ enables marketers to elevate and personalize their messaging when appropriate. So, it can be the best of both worlds. Growth in SVoD may sound bad news for advertising, as largely SVoD platforms are ad-free. But in India, the home- grown broadcaster & independent OTTs at an early stage only has adopted hybrid multi-tiered monetization model by giving the audience the choice of both free, ad-supported content & premium subscription offering. This is giving advertisers plenty of opportunities to reach consumers through engaging video formats & achieve real outcomes in a device-agnostic world. In 2021, this advertising channel will continue to have a lion share in programmatic spends & will also bring incremental budgets from the traditional/linear TV pie. With increased spends, we will also see advertisers adapting to more evolved, efficient & effective programmatic buying methods like PMPs (Private Market Place) to get a unified consumer view & thus maximizing the ROI from video spends.

     

    9) Connected Commerce- The Customer-Convenience Imperative

    E-commerce platforms have become an indispensable digital channel to reach target audiences and influence sales. Marketers will need to think like DTC brands – embracing emerging technologies, customer service obsession and adaptive messaging to get closer to their consumers. DTC brands have excelled at creating 1:1 relationship with their consumers since they have closed-loop measurement within their customer journeys. Shoppable Ads are on the rise as Genz are deciding on social media videos. These new media formats play an important role in cultivating better outcomes overall for an advertiser. In 2021, we will see a big shift of spends happening from current market-leading DSPs especially in display channel towards the new age e-commerce DSPs like Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm. Categories, where spend shift, is quite inevitable are FMCG, BFSI, Grocery, Apparels, Health & Personal care, as ecomm DSPs offer end to end marketing funnel solutions with efficient ROAS.

     

    10) Bringing Creativity Back Into Digital Advertising

    The industry is recognizing that creativity is the first step to grabbing attention and enhancing the influence, and media buying should aim to match advertising messages with real consumer behaviours, not just attributes. Brands need to embrace AI to boost personalization at scale. It is like feeding an algorithm with historical & real-time data and then letting AI perform analysis, build & serve the user hyper-personalized message. Traditional personalized creative tools were built for targeting customer personas or profiles, where each profile used to represent a category of consumers, however, in case of AI personalization tools it is like engaging with each customer as an individual profile. With increased social commerce share, AI-based hyper-personalization engines will be the need of the hour, as it will improve both ROI & customer experience.

  • Wavemaker collaborates with Indie star Jasleen Royal

    By A Correspondent

     

    Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk has collaborated with singer Jasleen Royal as she launches her much awaited music video Sang Rahiyo, for its Heart Pop ‘I Missed You’ campaign.

     

    Commenting on the collaboration, Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, of Wavemaker India said: “We wanted to build an association that would capture the essence of #HowFarWillYouGoForLove messaging seamlessly. Over the years, Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk has been an integral part of expressing love and has evolved to a symbol of love. Known for her soul stirring love songs, Jasleen Royal came across as the ideal choice to bring alive the brand’s messaging”.

     

     

  • Media agency Wavemaker creates film for Gemini Oil

    By A Correspondent

     

    To keep the spirits of festivity alive even during these challenging times, Gemini Oil has launched its new campaign ‘Iss Saal har Ghar Pandal’, conceived, designed and produced by Wavemaker Films, the creative production arm of Wavemaker India. Yes, you read it right: the creative production arm of Wavemaker India.

     

    The campaign aims at spreading awareness about celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi festival at home along with their loved ones, ensuring the safety norms are in place.  ‘Iss Saal har Ghar Pandal’, has been conceptualised in-house including the scripting to production, the entire campaign has been managed by Wavemaker Films.

     

    Speaking on this incredible campaign, Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker India said: “Ganesh Chaturthi is an indelible part of the Maharashtrian culture and as the pandemic threatens the festivities this year, Gemini wanted to reassure its audience that the real spirit of the festival is safe in our hearts and homes. Conceiving, writing and producing a TVC during the lockdown is an arduous task but the idea was so powerful that we were able to overcome all else”.

     

    Commenting on the campaign, Subin Sivan, Head of Marketing, Cargill’s Oils, said: “Ganapati is one of the most popular festivals in Maharashtra. As a brand that is rooted in Maharashtrian culture, Gemini has integrated itself with the Ganpati festival over the years. While a lot has changed this year due to the pandemic, we believe the festive cheer and energy during the Ganpati Chaturthi should not change. Our campaign ‘Iss Saal Har Ghar Pandal’ encourages our consumers to celebrate the festival at home keeping the original festive spirit intact”.

     

     

  • Gemini Sunflower looks to spread festive cheer…

    By A Correspondent

     

    With Ganesh Chaturthi coming up, Gemini® Sunflower Oil, the flagship brand of Cargill’s oils business in India, is celebrating the ‘Iss Saal har Ghar Pandal’ campaign.

     

    Speaking on the campaign Subin Sivan, Marketing Head, Cargill’s oils business in India said, “Ganapati is one of the most popular festivals in Maharashtra. As a brand that is rooted in Maharashtrian culture, Gemini has integrated itself with the Ganapati festival over the years. While a lot has changed this year due to the pandemic, we believe the festive cheer and energy during Ganesh Chaturthi should not change. Our campaign ‘Iss Saal Har Ghar Pandal’ encourages our consumers to celebrate the festival at home keeping the original festive spirit intact.”

     

    Said Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker: “Ganesh Chaturthi is an indelible part of Maharashtrian culture and as the pandemic threatens the festivities this year, Gemini wanted to reassure its audience that the real spirit of the festival is safe in our hearts and homes. Hence, we came up with the idea of ‘Iss Saal Har Ghar Pandal’, which captures the current sentiments of the region beautifully. The film is a great testament to the spirit of Ganesh Chaturti, which is more than a religious festival in the region and also the long-standing cultural linkage of the brand to this market. We are deeply thankful to our wonderful client who inspired us to deliver this emotional film”

     

     

  • Mother Dairy unveils new ad for Rocket Ice Cream Chocolate

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mother Dairy Ice Creams along with Wavemaker and Red FM has conceptualised and executed  the brand’s latest campaign for Rocket ice cream chocolate.

     

    Speaking on the initiative, a Mother Dairy spokesperson said: “It has been our constant endeavour to introduce enticing ice cream flavours to our consumers to keep them delighted throughout. This year has been no different with the launch of a unique Ice Cream Chocolates category under the new brand Rocket. To engage and excite the imagination of young target audience our creative partner Ogilvy has created an awkwardly cute and adorable inter galactic alien-Neila as the brand mascot. Here is a fun piece of Neila trivia, the name Neila isn’t just derived from the alien’s color as referred to the color Blue in Hindi, but it is also the word Alien spelt in reverse – Neila.”

     

    Added Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker India: “Our work is only as innovative as our clients and partners. Adaptive marketing is all about brands understanding popular culture and becoming a part of it seamlessly. Neila is a playfully innovative way of using meme marketing to cut through the clutter and making the brand endearing to the customer. Mother Dairy has always been supportive of contemporary campaigns that drove us to design this fun campaign along with our partner Red FM”.

     

    Commenting on the association, Nisha Narayanan, Director and COO, RED FM and Magic FM, said: “An innovative product needs an innovative campaign and we are happy to be associated with Mother Dairy for the launch of Rocket, Ice Cream Chocolate. The thought behind this campaign was to create more conversations and playfulness around the newly launched product by Mother Dairy.”

     

     

  • NatureFresh flags off #StartAHeartResolution initiative

    By A Correspondent

     

    NatureFresh Acti Heart, a new offering from Cargill, has launched a digital campaign #StartAHeartResolution. The campaign looks to encourage consumers to adhere to their New Year resolution by picking one which is easy to stick to – that is to take care of their heart.

     

    Speaking on the launch of the digital campaign, Subin Sivan, Marketing Head, Cargill’s oils business in India said: “December and January are the months where a lot of conversation happens around New Year resolutions. Considering how digital ecosystem thrives on topical content, this posed as a perfect opportunity for the brand to engage with the consumers in a relevant manner. We all know that sticking to your resolution is not quite as easy as making one. This forms the basis for the new ActiHeart campaign, which captures micro-moments in our lives when we struggle with our resolutions. In order to encourage consumers to stick to their resolutions, the campaign encourages them to start easy with a heart resolution in 2020 by switching to a better heart oil, #StartAHeartResolution with Nature Fresh ActiHeart.”

     

    Commenting on the campaign, Karthik Nagarajan, CCO, Wavemaker added: “This Nature Fresh campaign for New Year came as a welcome challenge to us, as not many clients take the plunge to stay culturally relevant to the audience. The ask was to showcase the brand fit in the consumer’s daily life and build brand awareness so that the campaign has a high recall value. Instead of going the broader way of keeping health or fitness resolutions, we narrowed it down by inviting them to take an easy resolution to #StartAHeartResolution with NatureFresh® Acti Heart™. The colloquial phrase ‘Kal se pakka’ used by the protagonists in the films certainly resonates with the people. Co-curating such interesting pieces of work at Cargill helps push the envelope to achieve greater milestones.”

     

     

  • Wavemaker India launches ‘Thrive’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Wavemaker has launched its Influencer Marketing offering – WM Thrive. Thrive offers a tailored, strategic approach adapted for the increasingly complex landscape of content creators and platforms of today, notes a communque, adding: Thrive ties in the three critical aspects of advocacy – measurement, brand safety and the irrefutable human creativity, into a seamless experience for clients.  Thrive is an entire suite of services from Wavemaker that is powered by GroupM’s INCA platform.

     

    Speaking on the launch, Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker India said: “Over the last few years, influencer marketing has become so commoditized that we have shifted our focus from what it was originally meant for – impacting purchase decisions. Given the leadership position of Wavemaker, it was our responsibility to demystify and declutter this space for our clients and help them move to an impactful, measurable and brand safe environment. With Thrive, we have done just that, by creating a data-driven system that matches influencers with the core values of the brand and also treats them as talent as against media channels.”

     

     

  • Myntra partners with Banijay Asia to launch digital reality show

    By A Campaign

     

    Wavemaker and Banijay Asia have partnered with Myntra to create a digital reality show – Myntra Fashion Superstar. The show is aimed at identifying country’s most sought after digital fashion influencer. The eight-part reality show will go live on Myntra app on September 17, 2019. Actor Sonakshi Sinha and celebrity stylist Shaleena Nathani will be the judges.

     

    Speaking about the show, the Myntra spokesperson said, “Consumers these days look for experiences coming from people whom they can relate to, which are more authentic. Fashion as a category is highly dominated by influencers who play a huge role in consumer’s decision making journey. Rather than create for them, we realized that we should put them in the centre and create with them and take the game to the next level.”

     

    “Fashion and Entertainment dominate the lives of young Indians. To cater to their specific needs we decided to combine these two worlds and put together a truly unique and relevant reality show that’s bound to resonate with young India. We are delighted to have found a partner in Wavemaker to bring this idea to life”, says Deepak Dhar, Founder and CEO, Banijay Asia.

     

    Commenting on the initiative, Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker said, “In Myntra Fashion Superstar, we landed on an idea that was the perfect marriage between audience centric, digital first content, which was also moving the needle on business goals. In Myntra, we had a client who was willing to push the boundaries and Banijay Asia was the perfect partner for us as their ability to create quality content and innovative concepts at scale, is unmatched in the country. We are delighted to partner with them for such a unique, path-breaking show that promises to merge the boundaries between reality television, digital content and fashion – creating a first of its kind genre along the way.”

     

     

  • Wavemaker executes latest campaign for Jaago Re Version 2.0

    By A Correspondent

     

    Tata Tea has launched its latest film titled “Celebrate the Goddesses of our Homes” for their digital campaign Jaago Re Version 2.0. Conceptualised by Wavemaker, the new digital film is an extension to the latest campaign of Tata Tea which is on the theme of pre-activism ‘Alarm Bajne se Pehle Jaago Re’.

     

    Speaking on the new digital film, Puneet Das, Head – Tea Marketing India at Tata Global Beverages said: “Tata Tea-Alarm Bajne se Pehle Jaago Re has been driving messages of ‘Preactivism’ in a relevant and thought-provoking manner. On the occasion of Durga Puja, we wanted to connect with our consumers at an emotional level and while drawing a parallel with the celebration of the goddess, reiterate the message of respecting the (Women) goddesses in our homes.”

     

    Added Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker India:  “Every year for 10 days, we celebrate the Goddess with 10 hands, shower her with all our prayers and offerings, but tend to ignore the women in our household who the Goddess symbolises. This central idea led to the creation of this digital film.”