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Tag: Manish Agarwal

  • SGA aims to integrate its public relations, investor relations, and social media communications

    SGA wins Nazara Technologies mandate

    By Our Staff

     

    SGA Growth Advisors (SGA), has won the public relations and social media, mandate for Nazara Technologies  gaming and sports media platforms. Through strategic communications and ideation, SGA aims to integrate its public relations, investor relations, and social media communications.

     

    Commenting on this collaboration, Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara Technologies said: “We have an existing relationship with SGA for our investor relations and annual report consulting. The teams at SGA work very closely with us to translate our thoughts into building narratives. They also are young and agile, similar to our thought process and add new insights and perspective to the strategy. We have extended our partnership with SGA for PR and Social Media with an aim to have a common communication strategy across spectrums. Looking forward to working with the team.”

     

    Added Kevin Shah, Founder of Strategic Growth Advisors (SGA): “We are delighted to have Nazara Technologies on board for PR & Social Media. It is a testimony to our vision of offering complete communications’ solution to a company under one umbrella. Nazara Technologies, is a young unicorn and it is exciting to work in the new emerging spaces of technology and gaming. We believe, going forward having a single partner integrated throughout all aspects of communications will be an efficient solution for companies. We are committed to offer the best in quality services across practices.”

     

  • To acquire a 55% stake in programmatic advertising and monetization company

    Nazara acquires stake in Datawrkz

    By Our Staff

     

    Nazara Technologies Limited has announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire a 55% stake in programmatic advertising and monetisation company Datawrkz valuing the company up to INR 225 Cr (approx. USD 30M) linked to CY 22 EBITDA performance.

     

    Nazara will acquire a 33% stake (INR 60 crore payable of which INR 35 crore is partly payable in cash and the balance consideration of INR 25 crore will be paid either in cash or swap of shares) in the first tranche by April 2022. Nazara reserves an option to acquire an additional 22% in the second tranche that is expected to close in Q4 FY23.

     

    Said Nazara Technologies CEO Manish Agarwal: “We, at Nazara, are looking to build strong gaming ad tech offerings globally with the partnership with Datawrkz. We strongly believe that growth of gaming focused ad tech will be exponential in the coming decade across geographies with the growth of gamers and game publishers across freemium, web3.0 and skill based real money gaming.”

     

    Added Nitish Mittersain, Founder & Joint MD of Nazara Technologies: “As always, it’s a great moment for us to welcome a new friend to our ‘Friends of Nazara’ network and I believe Senthil and the entire Datawrkz team will add great value to what we are building at Nazara over the next few years.”

     

    Said Datawrkz founder Senthil Govindan: “We had started this company with a vision to disrupt the digital advertising space. Datawrkz was already on a fast track to achieve our objective with rapid growth and satisfied clients around the world. Through our partnership with Nazara, I see our pace accelerating further. While Datawrkz will be able to immediately bring our natural strengths to bear within the existing Nazara fold, this also gives both sides a tremendous opportunity to build global advertising and publisher monetisation products with a sharp focus on the gaming vertical.”

     

  • To build a network of skill-gaming destinations

    Nazara acquires skill gaming platform OpenPlay

    By Our Staff

     

    Nazara Technologies Limited, the gaming and sports media major, has announced that it has acquired 100% stake in Hyderabad-based skill-gaming company OpenPlay for a total consideration of INR 186.4 crore.

     

    Said Nazara CEO Manish Agarwal: “The OpenPlay acquisition offers an opportunity for Nazara to build a network of skill gaming destinations operating on one common tech platform under the proven leadership of Sreeram and his team at OpenPlay. Sreeram is a successful entrepreneur globally in online real money gaming and we are excited that he will be leading Nazara’s growth in this sector.”

     

    Added Sreeram Reddy Vanga, Founder at OpenPlay Technologies: “I’m excited to join the ‘Friends of Nazara Network’ and look forward to working closely with Nazara leadership and the Network to build India’s largest vernacular social gaming and entertainment platform. Our technology complemented by Nazara’s positioning in the gaming industry in India is the perfect combination for this endeavour.”

     

  • The company reports 1.3 crore users

    As Covid-19 halts live action, Sportskeeda evolves with Esports

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sportskeeda, a subsidiary of Nazara Technologies has reported 1.3 crore users within two months. The company witnessed a 70% drop in revenue when all mainstream sports were suspended with the nationwide lockdown announced in March. Sportskeeda, notes a communique, was quick to convert the Covid-19 adversity into an opportunity by focusing on Esports without breaking away from the core. “With a 2000% hike today, the company has now emerged as the biggest Esports news destination in the country,” it claims.

     

    Porush Jain

    Said Porush Jain, Founder, and CEO, Sportskeeda: “Quick thinking and apt decision-making enabled us to harness the Esports growth opportunity successfully. Our strategic approach, innovation, and precision mingled with team-spirit is what truly fast-tracked the growth.”

     

    Given Sportskeeda’s success in the Esports vertical, Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies added: “The young team of Sportskeeda has always kept their users in mind while designing strategies which leads to their success time and again. Nazara has always had a predominant space in Esports with subsidiaries like Nodwin. With Sportskeeda entering the Esports news space we have not only widened our horizon but also established synergy within the subsidiaries.”

     

     

  • HalaPlay is a leading fantasy sports platform in India

    Nazara & Delta Corp invest INR 40 crores in HalaPlay

    By A Correspondent

     

    Gaming company Nazara Technologies and Delta Corp, a casino gaming company, have invested Rs 40 crore as part of Series-A funding round in HalaPlay, an online daily fantasy sports platform.

     

    Said Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara Technologies: “Nazara invested in HalaPlay in 2017 and we continue to be excited about the growth story of HalaPlay. We are confident that Halaplay with this fresh round of funds will ride the explosive growth of fantasy sports in India.”

     

     

  • Nazara, with its majority investment in Nodwin, is furthering its commitment of developing the esports ecosystem

    Nazara acquires majority stake in Nodwin

    By A Correspondent

     

    Nazara Technologies, which announced its foray into esports last year, has acquired a majority stake of 55 per cent in Nodwin Gaming.

     

    Said Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies: “Through this acquisition we aim to provide Indian esports enthusiasts a robust player and community orientated esports ecosystem, in which players can thrive, improve their skills and become top competitors at an international level.

     

    Added Nodwin Gaming CMD Akshat Rathee: “Esports is one of the fastest growing sports worldwide. This acquisition by Nazara Games adds to the credibility of Nodwin and opens up a wide vista of opportunities for Indian esports players to build careers domestically and Internationally. It strengthens our ability to provide our key stakeholders better experiences and bigger opportunities to engage with our community”

     

     

  • The TVC will be followed by a multi-media campaign

    Eggfirst unveils inaugural campaign for Centric Mobile

    By A Correspondent

     

    PriyankaCommunications has launched a campaign for its latest offering Centric Mobile. Produced by Mumbai-based Eggfirst,the film will be followed by a multimedia campaign.

     

    “Eggfirst presented a very detailed and promising approach to communicate the value proposition of the brand‘Centric’. We were impressed with their consumer insight, which positioned the mobile with a specific consumer profile. Not to mention the emotional zone through which we wished to connect with our consumers,” said Manish Agarwal, Director,PriyankaCommunications.

     

    Added Ravikant Banka, CMD, EggfirstL “We are delighted to be given the stewardship of this new upcoming brandand we look forward to doing some great work.”

     

  • Players consumed a whopping 1.2 billion virtual Parle G biscuits on Chhota Bheem Parle G edition mobile game

    Parle G scores a Bheem-sized win with Seventynine and Nazara Games

    By A Correspondent

     

    Seventynine announced an in-game branding campaign for Parle G as part of a special edition of Chhota Bheem mobile game developed by Nazara Games. Chhota Bheem is a popular mobile game on Android platform and Parle G is the world’s largest selling biscuit brand.

     

    Nazara Games creatively integrated Parle G brand inside Chhota Bheem Jungle Run, most downloaded game of Nazara with over 10 million downloads. The brand campaign was experience by over 3.4 million gamers since its launch in November 2015, overshooting the original target of reaching two million users. Players consumed whopping 1.2 billion virtual Parle G biscuits in this time frame.

     

    Siddharth Kelkar, Business Head of Seventynine said, “Parle G’s goal was to build a strong brand connect and engage with their core audience of children. We’re thrilled to have delivered them a campaign that not only met all its objectives and gave Parle G a fantastic and innovative medium to connect with their customers, but in the process set new benchmarks in demonstrating how successful in-game branding can be.”

     

    Mayank Shah
    Manish Agarwal

    Mayank Shah, Deputy Marketing Manager at Parle Products Pvt. Ltd. said, “We are delighted that this campaign came out as a win-win for both the marketer as well as the consumer; the spectacular results including 367 years of game play and consuming a whopping 1.2 billion virtual biscuits are proof that the audiences we were targeting totally loved the game and the associated Parle G branding.”

     

    Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Games said, “The partnership with Seventynine and Parle G demonstrates the marketing magic that is possible when a creatively-conceived concept brings together hugely popular app and a brand that is directly targeting the app’s users.”

     

    In the original version of the game, a player has to collect laddoos to score higher points. With the idea of integrating Parle G into the game, it seemed like a fresh idea to introduce Parle G biscuits along with ladoos using SVG technology. Thereby by achieving brand integration while making it interesting for the young players. We are delighted that the marketing campaign by Seventynine achieved its targets ahead of projected timelines.

     

  • Manish Agarwal will be CEO while Nitish Mittersain will be MD at Nazara Technologies

    Nazara nets Manish Agarwal as CEO, eyes being largest smartphone publisher

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leading mobile game developer and publisher Nazara Technologies has announced the appointment of Manish Agarwal as Chief Executive Officer. Nitish Mittersain, who founded Nazara Technologies, will assume the role of the Managing Director.

     

    Formerly CEO of Reliance Games, Agarwal brings with over 16 years of rich experience in digital, consumer marketing and mobile gamingHe was instrumental for development of successful, multi-million download games including Real Steel franchise, Pacific Rim and Hunger Games Panem Run among others. He has held senior leadership positons at Unilever, Microsoft, Rediff, Infosys and UTV.

     

    Said Mittersain: “As an industry as well as a company, we are at an inflection point today. While on the demand-side, the adoption of smartphones and enhanced connectivity is helping the segment grow at an unprecedented pace, on the supply-side there is tremendous interest in the Indian market from global players, new entrants, content developers and investors. To remain competitive in this market, we need to scale up our operations and increase the management bandwidth, and this is where Manish will play a role. We are certain that his experience of running a large mobile gaming business, expertise of developing world-class games and passion for the mobile game developer ecosystem will help in taking Nazara to new heights.”

     

    Speaking about his appointment, Agarwal, said, “Nazara has been a pioneer in the Indian mobile gaming space. With an in-depth understanding of the gaming ecosystem and a highly talented team, the company is well poised to shift gears and enter a phase of faster growth. I am glad to be a part of Nazara, and together with Nitish will help steer the company and set it on course to becoming a world class mobile gaming company. ”

     

  • The platform will celebrate knowledge-sharing and networking with industry leaders

    Reliance Games announces debut of Pocket Gamer Connects

    By A Correspondent

     

    Reliance Games has announced the advent of international mobile gaming conference – Pocket Gamer Connects to be held at Bangalore on April 16th and 17th2015. The event will feature some of the biggest developers, Indie superstars and global publishers known for games such as Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Candy Crush Saga, Warhammer 40000: Carnage and many others amongst a remarkable list of business leaders.

     

    In association with Steel Media this conference will be the epicenter for the entire Mobile Gaming fraternity, where developers and the academic community will get a chance to interact with the who’s who of the sector, investors, publishers and government representations to know what it takes to succeed in this fast growing space. The conference will have short-form lectures, super smart engaged speakers dispensing practical advice, intensive networking and will wrap up with a mega entertainment night featuring eastern and western cultural influences.

     

    Manish Agarwal

    Announcing the launch of PG Connects Bangalore, Manish Agarwal, CEO, Reliance Entertainment Digital said, “We are glad to announce our collaboration with Steel Media to bring Pocket Gamer Connects to India. It’s a dream come true to give global exposure and world class knowledge to a young Indian developer community so we can build the next billion dollar game from India. This event will be a true inflection point for mobile gaming to surge to great heights in our country.”

     

  • Gamification is the use of game mechanics and game design techniques in non-game contexts and is a powerful tool being used by brands globally to engage with their stakeholders.

    Guest Column: Manish Agarwal on Basic Principles of Gamification

    By Manish Agarwal

     

    Gamification, the new argot that has been making headlines lately, is not the same as game development; it’s not about making console or mobile games for mere entertainment. As the best in the business describe it, Gamification is the use of game mechanics and game design techniques in non-game contexts and is a powerful tool being used by brands globally to engage with their stakeholders.

     

    Gamification has helped marketers get their users engaged in desired behaviours by taking benefit of humans’ psychological tendency to connect with game techniques. Since the term is a recent buzzword in India, it remains largely unlearnt by the same marketers. Here are a few basic principles to Gamification that I think can go a long way in strategising for your next Gamification effort.

     

    Defined Objective: You got to determine the primary objective. What is the desired action out of the effort? If you think its entertainment, you are not a marketer but a gaming company. You will have to invest a few days and brainstorm on this; try and involve the team that will be eventually gamifying your service.

     

    Make It Measurable: You have a boss somewhere who trusts in you but is concerned about the RoI too. You will have to prove to him that the gamification effort has really helped; ensure you are able to measure and map the performance. A combination of techniques can help – include a call to action that can be measured, evaluate the KPIs before and after the implementation, have trials with focus groups and so on. We are a digitally connect world, exchange notes with marketers across the globe on relevant forums if you wish to.

     

    Repeated Feedback: Feedback is crucial. Repeated feedback is unavoidable. As Charles Coonradt explains, “Increasing the frequency of feedback improves the quality and quantity of performance. When feedback is illustrated on charts and graphs, the impact is greater.” Feedback will help you find answers to some of the questions that have been sitting in your head unattended.

     

    It’s Not About Rewards, It’s About a Sense of Achievement: The most powerful rewards are intrinsic not extrinsic. Personalise the reward mechanism. Incorporate a mechanism that allows the user to show his status (a personalised message on his social media page, a direct congratulatory message, a leaderboard etc.) It makes a difference on an individual level.

     

    Don’t Stop: Gamification effort is never a one-time assignment, it’s a process. It requires to be practised regularly, with an improved shot each time. Keep some budget aside for this every quarter.  What is more important is that you rethink about your objective (point #1) each time you want to gamify!

     

    Manish Agarwal is CEO, Reliance Entertainment Digital

     

     

     

  • Reliance Games has launched the official mobile game of the popular US dance-based reality show Dancing With the Stars, available on the Apple app store

    Reliance Games launches Dancing With the Stars mobile game

    By A Correspondent

     

    Reliance Games, a developer and publisher of mobile games, has set the stage for enthusiasts to groove along with the dance-based TV show, Dancing with the Stars. This rhythm-based mobile game is inspired by the enormously popular television show and lets users prove they are the best dancer on the virtual floor. Dancing With the Stars: On the Move can be played on iPhone, iPad and iTouch (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dancing-stars-on-move/id642440504?mt=8).

     

    Manish Agarwal

    “Dancing with the Stars: On the Move mixes the glamour and high-stakes drama of the competitive show with the rhythm-based gameplay people love,” says Manish Agarwal, CEO of Reliance Entertainment Digital. “Both new and seasoned casual gamers will be addicted to the combination of music, colourful costumes and amazing dance floor moves.”

     

    Players can also share their game progress with friends via Facebook Connect, allowing users to share their dancing outfit and show off their winning score.

     

    “It’s an amazing, immersive experience,” said Paul Joffe, VP BBC Worldwide Digital Entertainment and Games. “It puts the excitement and energy of Dancing with the Stars in your hands. Fans get the chance to enjoy first-hand the journey to becoming a champion. They can even team up with their favourite dancers from the show.”

     

    Dancing With the Stars showcases paired celebrities and professional dancers who compete for the trophy.