Category: Social Media

Sky & Whistle Sports launch social media channel for original football content

MUMBAI: Sky Sports and Whistle Sports have launched a new social media channel dedicated to creating original football content. Using Sky’s Soccer AM brand, it will go live today (18 September, 2015) and be available to watch on multiple platforms, with its own YouTube channel and a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Vine.

The content produced will feature new faces such as England Women’s footballer, Alex Scott as well as bringing together existing Sky Sports on-screen talent Adam Smith from Soccer AM and Laura Woods. There will be original programming, entertaining videos and posts covering football topics, such as gaming, fantasy football, stats, and skills.

It is the first collaboration since Sky’s $7 million investment in Whistle Sports in October 2014. Since then the two companies have been working together on creating exciting new content, aimed at young millennials.

Sky Sports director of digital media Dave Gibbs said, “Whistle Sports has led the way in producing entertaining digital sports content in the US for some time now with hugely engaged audiences. The new Soccer AM channel on social media is going to do something very different to what football supporters are used to from Sky Sports. We will produce new types of content, with new presenters for new audiences. By combining our expertise and talent, we hope to produce something that will really excite young football fans.”

Whistle Sports CEO John West added, “Young millennial sports fans increasingly use social media to drive their engagement with live sports. Our community of compelling creators have grown to serve that need and engage a growing generation of global sports fans,” pointing out that Whistle Sports recently broke an aggregate 100 million global fans and followers across social platforms.

“Sky makes a perfect partner for our international expansion due to their commitment to innovation. This new brand, new content and new approach around the world’s most popular sport is a great new offering,” he said.

The Soccer AM channel on social media will feature a number of original content strands including event weeks, with quarterly programming focused on specific themes, as well as new regular shows. On a Monday morning, it will take a fun look at the quirky stories from the weekend’s football, and the Friday evening show will use data and stats to debate the key upcoming games.

The launch will see the first event week focused on the release of FIFA 16, bringing together some of the biggest names in vlogging to look at the characters that surround the game, its evolution and role in sports gaming. The partnership brings together Sky’s expertise in producing sports output including football, rugby and cricket with Whistle Sports’ proven capability in combining youth-orientated celebrities, innovative programming ideas and formats to make sport more accessible for younger audiences.

The partnership with Whistle Sports is part of Sky’s ongoing programme of investing in innovative startups that help Sky bring new ideas, insight and services into its business.

September 18, 2015
YouTube Space India names Jigisha Mistry Iyengar as head; plans year end launch

MUMBAI: For aspiring YouTube stars in India, 2015 is spelling out to be a good year. By the end of this year, Mumbai will be home to YouTube Space at Subhash Ghai’s Whistling Woods International (WWI), making India one of the seven in the world to have one.

The India operations of YouTube Space will be headed by Jigisha Mistry Iyengar.

The move comes in the wake of the emerging generation of YouTube creators and the growing demand for quality digital video content on the platform. As per YouTube’s internal studies, the number of watch hours on YouTube has grown by 80 per cent in India.

“Jigisha comes from a very strong background in production, both here and in the US. Apart from her, we will be collaborating with all the popular creators onboard with YouTube from all genres be it music, art comedy, news,” said YouTube Space head South Asia David McDonald, who is in Mumbai to conduct a workshop on YouTube at Celebrate Cinema 2015.

McDonald also threw light on how the launch of YouTube Space in India is going to be giant leap in inducting more YouTube creators in the country. The workshop’s key aim was to empower youngsters with the knowledge of how YouTube consumers can become creators and encourage them to seriously consider a profession as a YouTuber.

The aim of the workshop was to show creators how to build an audience as well as design relevant content for YouTube, build one’s business as a creator and the role YouTube Space in all this. Keeping that in mind, three spokesperson from YouTube addressed the audience at the workshop clarifying their doubts on content creation, audience building and monetisation respectively.

“YouTube Space will offer YouTubers a platform to build their community and network better through events, seminars, parties, ‘happy hours and workshops, at the same time facilitate for them to improve the quality of their product through better infrastructure at the Space,” McDonald said.

“The Space will be open for creators to learn connect and create. Our first goal is to foster the community of YouTube creators in India. We give them a physical community a place they can call home. Secondly, it’s to inspire better quality content on YouTube, by giving them resources like shooting studios, cameras edit labs etc. It will allow them to experiment more with what they create. We want to push the envelope of creativity through this. Frankly, a YouTube Space becomes a front door to YouTube itself. Between the industry and media, it’s a great place catch up on what YouTube does,” he added.

McDonald is confident that having YouTube Space in india will boost the number of creators here. “We have seen this in other parts of the world and I think it stands true for India as well. Specially with the growing demand,” he said.

Citing an instance from YouTube Fanfest earlier this year, he said. “There were more than 5000 fans screaming and going gaga over 33 YouTube stars, and that number has increased by multiples from the previous year. It is a win – win for the viewers, who get more creative content, the creators who have access to facilities to improve their content and advertisers to expand their reach as well. We hope the numbers keep growing,” he adds.

A lot is still under planning when it comes to accessibility of the ‘Space.’ While McDonald asserts that the workshops and networking events will be for all, the access to the studio will have certain eligibility criteria. “The seminars, workshops, happy hours and networking events are pretty much available for all those who have a YouTube channel to begin with. Our idea behind the Space is to democratise the access to these kind of facilities, which means we are a democratised platform available for everyone who wants to learn connect and create. The challenge of course is that we have finite resources in only so many studios, cameras and other equipments. At some point we have to figure what the right threshold of the access locations is,” he explains.

While some may say that this will be counter productive of the ‘democratised’ idea behind the concept of Spaces, segregating the YouTubers who have access to the facilities from those who don’t, McDonald painted a different picture. “I have seen this happen in the US. We have only two Spaces there in Los Angeles and New York. But we still have creators doing good from other parts of the country as well, and there is no preference from the viewers as such. Similar is the case with our Spaces in London. Not everyone from the UK gets access to the facilities but that doesn’t deter YouTubers from all over UK and Europe to contribute. Our goal is to have more of the Spaces and the one in Mumbai is a first step. I hope we can support more creatives from all over India. We do have events and workshops in other parts of the country as well to reach out to as many creators as possible.”

With this major push in India from YouTube, more Indian talent is soon poised to join the likes of All India Backchod (AIB), IISuperwomanII and The Viral Fever, who have become household names by showcasing their talent on this popular video platform.

September 12, 2015
Google India unveils new initiative for SMBs

MUMBAI: In a bid to provide deeper engagement to small medium businesses (SMBs), who are looking to gain from the rising Internet user base in the country, Google India has launched a new initiative called Google Advantage.

The initiative will entail Google hosting an offline symposium to educate small medium businesses on the benefits of the Internet and also provide one-on-one consultation on how to use the latest online tools and technologies and meet their business objectives.

Speaking about the initiative, Google India head of small medium business marketing Sapna Chadha said, “Small and medium businesses in India have been a strategic focus for Google. In the last four years, we have rolled out several initiatives that are aimed to equip small medium businesses to get an online presence and use the digital platform to grow their business. With this initiative, we wanted to provide SMBs a platform to get direct access to Google and gain through deeper engagement and one-on-one consultations. We expect over 4000 small medium businesses to attend the program this week.”

The initiative in Delhi will be executed in partnership with Google agency partners IPG Mediabrands.

IPG Mediabrands CEO Shashi Sinha said, “We’re delighted to partner with Google for this initiative. Google Advantage is a great platform for small medium businesses to connect and learn about the scope of online medium. There is a huge potential for modernization and adoption of newer marketing technology amongst SMBs in India to grow their business.”

Out of the estimated 51 million small medium businesses, only five – six per cent have online presence. Studies done by Google indicate that at least 20 per cent of India’s SMBs are already equipped with the infrastructure to leverage technology but need the help of digital experts to help them navigate some of the complexities of navigating the constantly changing digital landscape.

The initiative is designed to help small medium businesses get first hand information from Google in a format that will encourage SMBs to share their challenges and learn directly from Google experts. The event will be held in Delhi from 7 – 12 September, 2015 and extend to more cities basis the feedback.

September 7, 2015
Twitter most popular source for breaking news updates: study

MUMBAI: Twitter has changed the way this generation communicates and consumes news. Ever since the world woke up to its awesomeness, it has given rise to a new breed of citizen journalists, albeit sometimes it has been responsible for many fluke death reports and rumour generated news, which couldn’t be verified.

While its authenticity may have been questioned, the platform still remains the number one source of breaking news across the world.

This is as per a recent study done on Twitter by American Press Institute in association with independent research lab, DB5. Although funded by Twitter, the researchers were allowed complete independence — from framing the survey questions to observing the trends to drawing the inferences by API.

The online survey sampled 4700 social media users and asked them several questions that reveal their usage of social media, specifically Twitter. The study reveals that news consumption is one of the prime usage that majority of the sample users had for Twitter.

Twitter users, who tend to be of younger demographic prefer to consume news via Twitter, and 74 per cent of them do so daily, says the report.

The survey also assessed the number of news breaks that have happened via Twitter, and how thought leaders, journalists and public figures use it as a platform to break news.

“Three quarters of Twitter news users follow individual journalists, writers and commentators (73 per cent) and nearly two thirds follow institutional accounts (62 per cent). Twitter users also are very likely to discover new journalists and writers and consequently follow their work, often on other platforms beyond Twitter,” says the report.
This proves as a vital marker for news publishing organisations to use social media more effectively to have a greater impact and reach of their content.

The report also suggests that most individuals usually scroll through their timeline to get their daily dose of news and 82 per cent of them access the site through mobile application. This is an indicator for news providers to make their content shorter and provide more information in a single post.

DB5 conducted the survey between 23 November and 15 December, 2014 and tabulated results, which were further analysed by API to produce a written report.

September 5, 2015
Twitter launches self-service ad platform for SMBs in India

MUMBAI: Twitter has launched its self-service advertising platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in India. With this, Twitter has now expanded Twitter Ads’ reach globally from 33 countries to over 200 countries and territories.

Now, SMBs from India to Iceland can more effectively reach their target audiences on Twitter in 15 languages. In addition, Twitter also announced that the total active advertisers, including SMBs were approximately 100,000.

“Small and medium-sized businesses face the most challenges and are least resourced to promote the good work they do. With the expansion of the Twitter self-service ads platform, we are excited to help SMBs level the playing field with digital advertising to increase their sales,” said Twitter SMB lead for Asia Pacific Emily Huo.

There are 51 million SMBs in India, according to market research firm Zinnov. Start-ups registered in India are projected to go up a whopping 11,500 by 2020, independent consultancy KPMG reports. Anyone with a small business, from tech start-ups to retail, F&B establishments, and even mom and pop shops, can now use the Twitter platform to target and engage in real-time with more than 316 million active Twitter users worldwide and increase sales.

Twitter self service advertising platform – better than tweeting for free

Twitter self-service advertising platform allows businesses to amplify their organic Twitter message and reach more people by targeting a specific audience. The great thing about the platform is that companies can set their own budgets. There is no minimum requirement for spends and the campaign can be started and stopped at any time. The self-service ad platform has been developed so it is as easy to use as possible, while providing businesses and individuals with all the tools they need to advertise effectively. All one needs is a Twitter account and a USD credit card to get started.

With Twitter Ads, advertisers can now select the best ad format for their campaign, reach their target audience as well as track and analyse results in real time.

September 3, 2015
Subtle yet creative, Google unveils new logo

MUMBAI: The times they are a-changin’! Google acknowledges these evergreen lines from Bob Dylan’s song as it changes its logo and branding yet again. The last change had come about in September 2013.

As the world bid adieu to the good old days when Google was only accessed from desktops, the company is re-inventing itself yet again. Since Google’s launch 17 years back, a lot has changed. Thanks to the aggressive penetrations of internet and smartphones, Google now is as mobile as human beings are. On 1 September 2015, the world’s largest used search engine changed its logo and identity once again, which reflects this reality and shows people when the Google magic is working for them, even on the tiniest screens.

Google has said goodbye to the small blue ‘g’ and replaced it with a capital ‘G,’ which has all four colors – blue, red, green and yellow – in it.

So why did they do so? In an announcement, the company said, “As you’ll see, we’ve taken the Google logo and branding, which were originally built for a single desktop browser page, and updated them for a world of seamless computing across an endless number of devices and different kinds of inputs (such as tap, type and talk).”

Google is known for its subtle changes and the voyage started from 1998 when Larry Page and Sergy Brin used the logo for their Stanford University graduate project.

August 1998: The team heads to Burning Man and creates the first Doodle as an out of office message.

September 1998: Google moves to Google.com and shares its beta release with the world.

May 1999: Still playful, the logo gets a more sophisticated look based on the Catull typeface.

May 2010: The logo brightens up and sports a reduced drop shadow.

September 2013: The logo goes flat with some typographical tweaks.

September 2015: The logo becomes part of a new family that includes the Google dots and ‘G’ icon.

The new logo doesn’t simply tell consumers that they’re using Google, but also shows them how Google is working for them. For example, new elements like a colourful Google mic helps identify and interact with Google whether a person is talking, tapping or typing.

Complimenting the subtle yet creative development, RK Swamy Hansa Group chairman S K Swamy said, “Google has been refreshing its logo quite often but the current change is a larger and continuing step. I quite like the modern looking upper case – lower case version.”

“Google has succeeded in striking a fine balance of form with function in its new logo. It’s a homegrown typerface and vector based, which makes it scalable across devices in so far as legibility is concerned and sports a contemporary look at the same time. Although it will take some time to get used to the new look, it’s nice that Google has retained slight tilt of ‘e’, ” said Leo Burnett’s digital creative agency’s Indigo Consulting national creative director Navin Kansal.

September 2, 2015
HK-based Lamplight raises $1.49 million to drive social analytics in Asia

MUMBAI: Lamplight Analytics, a Hong Kong based social media analytics startup, has completed a seed funding round of $1.49 million, led by venture capital fund Vectr Ventures.

The investment is currently one of Hong Kong’s largest seed investment rounds ever. Other participants in the investment round included local and international firms, friends and family. The company plans to use the capital to accelerate its growth in Asia while further developing its proprietary technology.

Vectr Ventures’ Alan Chan says, “We invested in Lamplight because of their incredibly diverse and dynamic team. Their combined skills are perfect for tapping into this rapidly evolving, exponentially growing, demand driven market.”

Lamplight Analytics was founded by Sam Olsen (CEO), Fergus Clarke (COO) and Nathan Pacey (CTO) in 2014, after their experience in Asia revealed a lack of specialised tools designed to navigate Asia’s social media landscape. They created the Lamplight tool to address the complexities of social media analysis in Asia, stemming from language, culture, variety in social platforms, and geography, among other factors.

In less than a year, Lamplight Analytics has grown to over 15 staff at its Kennedy Town office and is currently working with numerous multinational and regional clients, including Live Nation, the world’s largest live music company.

Olsen said, “Lamplight helps our clients listen with a local ear, which provides enormous commercial advantage. Our tool allows you to understand what your customers and markets are really saying, helping you identify growth opportunities, set effective campaign goals, manage your online reputation, the applications are endless.”

Clarke added, “Bringing realtime insight to businesses on their target markets is incredibly useful in a region as diverse as ours. The investment ensures Hong Kong will be at the forefront of advances in this technology.”

Social analytics tools like Lamplight are using latest technologies to uncover value from the continuous conversation found on social media. Millions of social sources and data can now be aggregated and transformed to provide important brand and market insights such as brand sentiment, demographics, top influencers and other actionable insights, allowing brands to make quick and informed decisions, factors crucial in today’s fast paced business environment.

Major investments by both investors and brands into the social analytics are transforming the once niche industry. A study by global market research and consultancy Marketsandmarkets shows the social marketing analytics sector is projected to be worth at least $2.75 billion by 2019, growing at 35 per cent a year, with Asia second only to North America in terms of market size.

September 2, 2015
Yahoo announces contest for Apple Music Festival in September

MUMBAI: Yahoo India has announced a contest that will give music fans the exclusive chance to travel to London for the 2015 Apple Music Festival in September.

To participate, fans need to start a blog on Tumblr, create as many music-related posts as they like and register for the contest. Given that Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything, these posts can be in any format – audio, photo, video, gif, links or a quote. Whether it’s singing a tune, grooving to one or writing a song, participants need to showcase their creative best. The contest closes at 23:59 hours, IST, 9 September 2015.

Five contestants with the most creative, imaginative Tumblr blogs that show plenty of music love, will win the chance to fly (with a friend) to London for the closing night of the Apple Music Festival on September 28.

Pharrell Williams, One Direction, Florence + The Machine and Disclosure are among the headliners at this year’s Festival, which includes ten nights of spectacular live shows at London’s historic Roundhouse venue. Get ready for all the action at this year’s Apple Music Festival with a selection of incredible live performances from years past at www.applemusic.com/festival

Stay updated with the latest news on Apple Music Festival, with exclusive content on Yahoo India Celebrity.

September 1, 2015
Sooperfly launches ‘Mission Everest’ web series

MUMBAI: Sooperfly has launched a new web series on YouTube that captures the adventure and tribulations of the two young mountaineers, Samir Patham and Sauraj Jhingan through Mission Everest 2015.

Sooperfly, which is a joint venture between India’s The 120 Media Collective and UK based Diagonal View, has created the web series from concept to finish and will manage Mission Everest, which documents real-life experiences.

Sooperfly business head and senior vice president Vishal Nongbet said, “At Sooperfly, we support fresh narratives and share compelling content through custom distribution. Mission Everest follows Samir and Sauraj – two youngsters who chose to help rather than flee in the wake of a crisis. It is a narrative that appeals to fellow youth on a medium that is most accessed by them.”

About a month into their 29,030-feet climb, on 25 April, a massive avalanche triggered by a 7.8 earthquake tore through Everest Base Camp, Nepal, leaving in its wake, 19 dead and over 60 casualties.

“We emerged from the avalanche to witness a trail of destruction. The quake had claimed our camp as well. We were confronted with the choice of retreating from the valley to safety or staying back and helping,” Sauraj adds.

“We decided to do the unconventional, leaving our day jobs and following our dream to climb Mount Everest. After two years of preparation and giving it our all, the biggest tragedy in the history of mountaineering hit us. Sooperfly helped us tell our story as it happened,” recounts Samir, one of the two qualified mountaineers, with wide trekking and climbing experience, featured on Mission Everest.

August 29, 2015
Twitter rebrands Publisher Network; to launch new creative format
MUMBAI: Twitter, which launched the Twitter Publisher Network (TPN) to help advertisers connect with audiences beyond its social network last year, is now set to revamp the product. TPN has been renamed as Twitter Audience Platform in order to reflect the evolution of the product.

The Twitter Audience Platform, which helps advertisers reach over 700 million people on and off Twitter, is expanding beyond mobile app installs and re-engagements, by offering advertisers the ability to drive two additional objectives: tweet engagements and video views, which are now available for the first time in beta to all managed clients globally. Secondly, the platform is launching new creative formats to help advertisers better engage with their in-app audience.

Drive video views and tweet engagements

Advertisers can now easily extend their promoted video and tweet engagement campaigns to the Twitter Audience Platform with a single click. Many of the targeting signals used on Twitter such as interest, username, and keyword can be applied to the campaigns across mobile apps. As on Twitter, promoted videos on the Twitter Audience Platform can play automatically on a device with all video being 100 per cent in-view.

New creative features

On the Twitter Audience Platform, promoted tweets are transformed into one of the platforms’ immersive ad formats including video, native ads, banners, and interstitials. For example:
- Tweet engagement campaigns on Twitter become interstitial and native ads
- Promoted video campaigns are turned into in-app video ads
- App install or re-engagement campaigns become interstitial or banner ads
The platform has also added creative features to interstitials to help advertisers extend their best content beyond Twitter. Users can now retweet and favourite directly from their Twitter Audience Platform ad. Twitter has also added customizable call to action buttons to help advertisers more efficiently drive their desired user action.

Advertiser success

According to Twitter, advertisers who run campaigns across both Twitter and the Twitter Audience Platform can double their reach and lower CPEs by as much as 30 per cent. Additionally, a June 2015 study that the platform commissioned from MediaScience shows that consumers — both on and off Twitter users — spent about 123 per cent more time with Twitter Audience Platform ads compared to traditional mobile interstitial ads. The research also showed that non-Twitter users who saw a Twitter Audience Platform ad expressed about 11 per cent more positive sentiment towards the brand advertiser.

Availability

The Twitter Audience Platform is now available globally to all managed clients driving Tweet engagements and video views. It is also being tested by select clients driving mobile app installs and re-engagements. Over the next few months, the platform has plans to expand the programme to other objectives, including website clicks and conversions.
August 21, 2015