ITV

Category: Digital

  • Nearly 60% of Indian CMOs have dedicated budgets for influencer marketing, study finds

    Nearly 60% of Indian CMOs have dedicated budgets for influencer marketing, study finds

    NEW DELHI: The growing affinity of consumers towards digital platforms to connect with brands has elevated the popularity of influencer activities in India. Moreover, the Covid2019 outbreak has made brands focus more on affirming their online presence, and it has made influencers a part of the mainstream marketing plans. And now, a new study conducted by AI-driven influencer marketing platform ClanConnect.ai has found that more than half (58.7 per cent) of Indian CMOs have dedicated budgets for influencer marketing in 2021. 

    According to the report, 78 per cent of marketing leaders leveraged influencer marketing in 2020, while a little over 13 per cent dabbled in the segment for the first time last year. Interestingly, 52 per cent of brands engaged more than 10 influencers in 2020, which coincides with the accelerated growth of the sector in the last year.

    The study found that budgets allocated to influencer marketing grew significantly in 2020 as compared to 2019. In fact, 39.13 per cent of the CMOs mentioned an increase in spends on influencer marketing. The other 60.87 per cent saw no change in spends between 2019 and 2020. Furthermore, more than 50 per cent of the respondents increased their marketing spends in 2020, a clear indication of the growing trust that industry-leading brands are placing in influencers for bolstering their brand message among the target audience. 

    58.7 per cent of CMOs are allocating separate budgets for influencer activities in their 2021 marketing plans. Simultaneously, 52.17 per cent have decided to increase spends in 2021 as compared to 2020. It is not surprising, then, that almost 90 per cent of CMOs are considering aligning up to a quarter of their entire marketing budget towards influencer-led activities in the current year. Moreover, over half of the respondents are interested in increasing budgets by up to 25 per cent in 2021. 

    While 50 per cent of the respondents find Instagram to be the most effective platform for these campaigns, 23.91 per cent prefer LinkedIn, and 15.22 per cent identify YouTube as their go-to platform. 

    In another interesting finding, the survey revealed that almost 87 per cent marketing heads prefer to conduct up to 25 per cent of their influencer campaigns with micro-influencers. This proves that brands prefer to engage with influencers who have a dedicated, loyal following even if the number of followers does not go into the millions. 

    Over 41 per cent of brands have taken the onus of managing influencer marketing mandates. On the flipside, 15 per cent of them are employing dedicated influencer marketing platforms and marketplaces to create and manage highly targeted and impactful campaigns. However, 89.13 per cent of CMOs are concerned about influencer fraud in the form of fake followers and engagement.

    "Influencer marketing is at the cusp of exponential growth. It is the veritable future of marketing, a fact that is evident from this first-of-its-kind survey report," said ClanConnect.ai co-founder and COO Kunal Kishore Sinha. 

  • Mirun wins digital mandate for Hero Electric

    Mirun wins digital mandate for Hero Electric

    New Delhi: Mirum India has won the digital mandate for Hero Electric, a pioneer and market leader in the Indian Electric two-wheeler industry. The account was won after a multi-agency pitch and will be serviced from Mirum India’s Delhi office.

    With Mirum onboard, Hero Electric aims to shift the consumer buying behaviour from fuel-based scooters to environment-friendly electric scooters, and spread awareness about the positive impact on the ecology.

    Mirum will be responsible for brand communication, digital strategy and execution; and performance-focused media campaigns. Mirum will also be providing technology and web development services for the brand.

    Hero Electric India CEO Sohinder Singh Gill said, “A strong digital presence has become more important than ever for brands today. By on-boarding Mirum as our digital marketing partner, we intend to strengthen our digital game plan with the expertise the agency brings to the table. We’re looking forward to some exciting times ahead.”

    Mirum Inda joint CEO Sanjay Mehta said, "We are happy to partner with India’s leading electric scooter company – Hero Electric. We look forward to working with them to drive a change in consumer behaviour towards a sustainable mode of transport, and create memorable campaigns on the way.”

  • Marcus Ranney moves on from Thrive Global

    Marcus Ranney moves on from Thrive Global

    NEW DELHI: Thrive Global India general manager Marcus Ranney has moved on from the organisation. He joined the company is 2018 and spent nearly three years before leaving.

    Ranney spearheaded the growth of Thrive Global in India and was responsible for P&L of the brand. He created partnerships with 75 plus organisations and clients and impacted lives across APAC.

    Thrive Global, the technology-based media and corporate services company helping individuals, companies and communities improve their well-being and performance, was founded by Arianna Huffington in November 2016. It came to India in 2017 in partnership with Times Bridge, a division of Times Group, that works with global brands having an India ambition. The platform aims to end the global stress and epidemic burnout.

    Coming from a medical background, Ranney has 20 years of experience in his career. Trained as a doctor at University College London, he practised clinical medicine in the UK before making the transition to Mumbai in 2011, where he has since worked within the healthcare and life sciences industry as a venture capitalist and strategic advisor. He has been instrumental in creating large portfolios of digital health assets. Ranney is an active member of the World Economic Forum global shapers community and is a writer focused on artificial intelligence, automation and their future impact on our collective well-being. He is an active outdoorsman and long distance runner, and has participated in expeditions to Mt. Everest, the Arctic Circle and the European Alps; he has also served as a medical officer in the Royal Air Force and at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. He is also a global health commentator on Forbes.

    Ranney was also VP investments at RoundGlass, and an advisor to multiple start-ups in the health and life sciences sector.

  • Meghna Chettri joins UTI Mutual Fund

    Meghna Chettri joins UTI Mutual Fund

    NEW DELHI: State Bank of India’s senior digital marketing manager Meghna Chettri has moved on from the organisation. She has joined UTI Mutual as senior associate vice president.

    Chettri drove the digital marketing function for SBI and led several successful campaigns under her leadership. She played a key role in pushing the recall of Yono, #GhasSeBanking, #GoVocalForLocal, and others.

    She has over eight years of experience and has had stints with Accenture and Cognizant in the past.

    During her career, she has won several awards and is a regular speaker at multiple forums.

  • ThinkAnalytics brings in Sky veteran Tony Mooney

    ThinkAnalytics brings in Sky veteran Tony Mooney

    NEW DELHI: ThinkAnalytics has appointed Sky veteran and data and analytics expert Tony Mooney as SVP, advertising. Tony will head up the firm’s ThinkAdvertising business, helping pay-TV and OTT providers maximise their ad inventory across broadcast and streamed TV and generate new revenue streams from advertisers running hyper-targeted campaigns.

    Mooney has an unparalleled track record in the adtech and data and analytics space. From 2010-2017 he was MD, insight and decision science at Sky, where he developed its world-leading customer data and customer intelligence capabilities. Mooney and his 600-strong team supported the entire Sky business, from customer acquisition and retention through to product, content, and targeted and linear advertising. He also led the Sky IQ B2B business, providing advanced data capabilities for large advertisers. 

    On leaving Sky, Mooney set up DecisionBox to help multinational clients apply digital, analytics and decision science techniques to boost customer retention and acquisition, and grow revenues. Prior to this he held senior positions in data, analytics and CRM at Experian, Orange and Centrica.

    Mooney joins ThinkAnalytics at a time when demand for addressable advertising is set to leap from total worldwide revenues of $15.6 billion in 2019 to $85.5 billion by 2025, according to Rethink TV. 

    “I joined the ThinkAnalytics team because I have known the company and its leading technology  for many years and I can see the potential to help pay-TV and OTT providers of all sizes. Addressable advertising is about to go prime time as new solutions like ThinkAdvertising replicate the precision of hyper-targeted digital campaigns on TV screens, and offer an attractive alternative for advertisers concerned about the reputational and fraud risk in web campaigns,” ThinkAnalytics SVP – advertising Tony Mooney said.

    “Tony’s pioneering work at Sky makes him the ideal person to advance our addressable advertising ambitions and help service providers unlock their treasure trove of subscriber data. His understanding of the complex and piecemeal nature of the adtech ecosystem will be invaluable as customers embark on their addressable advertising journey,” ThinkAnalytics chairman Eddie Young said.

    ThinkAdvertising automatically generates consumer profiles at the individual viewer rather than household level. Its machine learning and AI extracts understanding using the behavioural and viewing data captured by the service provider that can be blended with third-party demographic data. Supported by ThinkAnalytics’ automated viewer personalisation and segmentation models, it avoids the need for service providers to rely solely on expensive and often out-of-date third-party consumer data or large internal data teams. Available as a standalone solution or as part of the ThinkAnalytics suite, the hyper-targeted solution is highly scalable, and can be easily integrated with adtech solutions.

    ThinkAdvertising helps video service providers offer compelling propositions to a broader set of advertisers – from new and existing hyper-local and regional advertisers through to big brands. For established TV advertisers such as car manufacturers, they can now run one integrated campaign to advertise multiple sub-brands using highly segmented dynamic ad insertion.

  • Rusk Media launches new YouTube channel ‘BINGE’ for regional focused content

    Rusk Media launches new YouTube channel ‘BINGE’ for regional focused content

    MUMBAI: The new age digital entertainment organization, Rusk Media, is all set to launch a new YouTube channel, titled ‘BINGE’, with an aim to create premium content for the regional markets. The link of the YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/c/Bingeoriginals/featured. This announcement comes after the strategic acquisition of infotainment platform, Digital Commentary, who will head content for this channel.

    With an existing viewer base of over 30 million in the urban metros, Rusk media now gears up to provide quality content in regional languages with its new YouTube channel BINGE. Specifically targeted to tap viewers based in UP, Bihar and parts of Madhya Pradesh between the age group of 16-35 years, BINGE will produce fictional content in the form of short video stories and web series that will be distributed across its YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and other Social platforms. The content will have artists talking in the regional dialects and will cover topics that are localized and region specific.

    Speaking on the launch of BINGE and the acquisition of Digital Commentary, Mayank Rusk Media CEO Mayank Yadav said, “With over 40 per cent of India’s smartphone users residing in the regional markets, the availability of premium entertainment content for those viewers on digital mediums has been skewed. To address this gap, we decided to launch BINGE that will focus on telling stories that are of interest to people in those regional markets, with popular dialects of Hindi language. Additionally, through advertiser integrated short form content on BINGE, we want to support the brands in reaching out to the regional audiences.”

    “Founders of Digital Commentary, Aakash Kumar and  Kshitiz Sudhakar come with a vast experience of creating medium and long format web shows and TV series for OTT platforms. Having driven successful shows on TVF, Sonly LIV, MX Player and TSP, Aakash and Kshitiz bring an earthy touch to the content, making it more relatable and hence, more engaging. Therefore, we roped in Digital Commentary to spearhead content for BINGE,” he further added.

    Talking about this venture Binge creative director Kshitiz Sudhakar said,” With easy access to internet and smart phones, people have been turning to social media and content platforms for their regular dose of entertainment – be it in the metropolitan cities or the other towns. While the urban population has a lot of options for entertainment content on social media, viewers in the regional markets lack access to quality premium content. With BINGE we intend to address this problem, by making it one of India’s only platform that curates and produces content specific for the regional markets.”

  • Digital marketing beyond Google, Facebook, Amazon

    Digital marketing beyond Google, Facebook, Amazon

    NEW DELHI: The realm of digital marketing has grown much beyond the porticos of Google, Facebook and Amazon, with advertisers becoming eager to experiment with the platforms and investing in more targetted solutions, highlighted the diverse panel discussing the widening scope of digital marketing in the new world with Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari. 

    The panel consisted of Team Pumpkin co-founder and CBO Swati Nathani, Zoo Media and FoxyMoron co-founders Suveer Bajaj and Pratik Gupta, White Rivers Media CEO and co-founder Shrenik Gandhi, iProspect India AVP-strategic solutions Nihal Nambiar and Wavemaker India chief client officer and head-west Shekhar Banerjee.

    While the advertisers were already staying alert about the diverse possibilities digital marketing has to offer, Covid2019 acted as a catalyst in facilitating the move. 

    Gandhi insisted that while the world was expecting the number of people on traditional media and digital reaching at par in 2025, Covid2019 has managed to attain that within this year itself, thus prompting even the most traditional brands to venture online. 

    Nambiar noted, “It is a fact that the lockdown has been a crazy experience for the industry. Many brands had to remain completely silent while many increased their spends on digital platforms. Going ahead, brands realise it will be smarter for them to invest in at least one or two advertising media than going completely thin and that’s where digital will benefit.”

    He added that apart from the usual Google, Facebook, Amazon (e-commerce) mix, the brands are looking at more organic options to advertise. They are churning out their own properties, content, and are greatly investing in technology, to make the most of the medium. 

    Banerjee elucidated that brands are going heavy on performance marketing. “Apart from the usual search, social, and e-commerce mix, one platform that has become the biggest gainer during the period is e-groceries section, taking a huge part of the digital pie. Going ahead, hyperlocal platforms, with their changing business models will be more conducive to advertising.”

    He also hinted that influencer marketing will change in a big way in the future, with it becoming more hard-core and result-driven. Additionally, social commerce will attract a lot of advertisers. 

    Nathani added that outdoor screens like tabs inside the cabs will also attract of a lot of advertiser attention. 

    Bajaj lauded the growth that platforms like TikTok have gained during the period and also highlighted the prominence that OTT platforms are getting from the advertisers as consumers spike. “OTT picked up a big way during the covid-period, and with most of them running on a hybrid (AVOD+SVOD) model, attracted good revenues. While this quarter might not be big for them with advertisements, the subscriptions are hitting the roof. Going ahead, they will attract a lot of advertiser attention too.”

    In addition to these, gaming platforms and digital events are also going to get a substantial part of advertisers pie in the coming future. 

    TAGS: Digital Marketing, Indiantelevision Virtual Roundtable. FoxyMoron, Zoo Media, Pratik Gupta, Suveer Bajaj, Team Pumpkin, Swati Nathani, White Rivers Media, Shrenik Gandhi,  Wavemaker, Shekhar Banerjee, iProspect, Nihal Nambiar, TikTok, Google, Facebook, OTT 

  • Digital storytelling platform Terribly Tiny Tales (TTT) launches a brand-new property called ‘Streedom’ in partnership with OkCupid

    Digital storytelling platform Terribly Tiny Tales (TTT) launches a brand-new property called ‘Streedom’ in partnership with OkCupid

    MUMBAI: From the 1st to the 15th of March, India's popular storytelling platform TTT (via its Instagram, Facebook and YouTube handles) will tell stories of women speaking up for themselves and their fellow women, as they take a stand against stereotypes, regressive remarks and other misdemeanors thrown at women – in a strong, savage and sassy voice that evokes thought, expression and participation from both men and women, country wide.

    Streedom has been carefully crafted to celebrate women from all walks of life, so as to encourage them to move on from caring about what they ‘should do', to actually 'doing what they want to do.'

    The campaign will culminate in a short film called Ved and Arya to be released on TTT’s YouTube channel. Starring popular TV actors – Nakuul Mehta and Sanaya Irani, the story will capture the challenges of finding love in today’s times, under the same context.

    Terribly Tiny Tales has delivered various successful women centric campaigns in the past, the last being 'I am Mrs. Maisel' with Amazon Prime. With Streedom gaining momentum, the campaign has already garnered accolades from its peers and massive social media traction already.

    Anuj Gosalia, Co-founder & CEO of Terribly Tiny Tales, mentions, “We are extremely excited to partner with OkCupid for Streedom. With over 63% women in our community of over 3 million followers, Streedom was a property waiting to happen. In addition, our short films are regarded as the best in the country – winning big awards like Clermont Ferrand, Filmfare and Jagran for our many films. OkCupid suits perfectly with our young and premium community of users. The dating app intuitively solves for many of the problems in modern relationships that our community associates with and is, therefore, an amazing partner to Streedom and its many stories.”

    Sitara Menon, Marketing Manager, OkCupid India, said, “At OkCupid we believe that you are more than a stereotype or clutch of images. You deserve a serious relationship built on shared opinions, beliefs, and a celebration of each other’s oddities. Partnering with Terribly Tiny Tales on Streedom has been an opportunity to bring to light the stories of young Indian women in 2020 — their aspirations, desires, and struggles, both in love and in life.”

    In a bid to capture the voice of the modern woman, the first edition of Streedom is a powerful IP that has already reached over 14 million people in the last 12 days and shows that women just have to be themselves to change the world.

    For more information, visit – http://www.streedomstories.com

  • The Minimalist to go global; invest in in-house video production capacity

    The Minimalist to go global; invest in in-house video production capacity

    MUMBAI: Started a little more than four years ago as a Facebook page, The Minimalist today is one of the most sought-after digital agencies within the country working with brands like Google, Coca Cola, Saint Gobain, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra, etc., and now the founders are planning to embark on a global expedition. Co-founder Sahil Vaidya in a telephonic conversation with Indiantelevision.com revealed that the creative solutions company is already working with a number of start-ups based in New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore, amongst others, and is willing to expand its footprints across the globe.

    Talking about how the global industry is more evolved when it comes to advertising and marketing, Vaidya said that though the Indian brands are quite similar to foreign ones when it comes to a hard-core focus on customer experience, the latter subjects are much advanced when it comes to technology. “The approach essentially differs depending upon the size and nature of the brand and not because of geography. Working with hi-tech startup industries abroad, we have noticed that they have a very similar approach as Indian startups. It’s just that they are pretty much new-age and their usage of technology is very advanced.”

    The Minimalist is also looking forward to investing more in its in-house video production capacities to capitalise onto the surging trend of video advertising. Vaidya believes that even when some brands do not have enough money to create large-scale TV campaigns, they are willing to spend on tactical video efforts that give them the required reach.

    He said, “Transition into videos was a big trend in 2019. People realise that videos are the next big thing and that too not high-budget, large-scale productions but snackable content that can be rolled out on a day-to-day basis. That’s where we have our own propriety called ‘Mideos’, short form for Minimalist Videos. We have our own in-house production arm that helps the brands in creating short videos to generate engagement and virality.”

    Vaidya is of the view that another big thing that is going to rule the roost in the coming times is geofencing that will help the brands to deliver targetted ads based on the consumer’s location. This is going to especially help those brands who have an offline retail presence.

    He was also excited about the creative opportunities the rise of audio-based apps is going to serve the marketing and advertising community. He said that the skills required to create good voice spots are going to be the same as creating good radio ads.

    Vaidya concluded, “I think a lot of creative strengths needed to create good ads are going to remain the same but the mediums are going to evolve.” 

  • Happydent launches #HappydentSparklingSmile campaign in partnership with Smile Foundation

    Happydent launches #HappydentSparklingSmile campaign in partnership with Smile Foundation

    New Delhi: Happydent, one of Perfetti Van Melle India’s flagship brands, has partnered with Smile Foundation for #HappydentSparklingSmile, a digital campaign under which brand is urging consumers to capture candid smiles to help support the education of underprivileged children. Known for its iconic advertisements, Happydent has traditionally bought smiles to the consumer through its quirky and humorous communication centered around the benefit of ‘Sparkling Smiles’ and this campaign is an extension of the brand’s core philosophy. The endeavor to capture #HappydentSparklingSmile is based on the consumer insight that every ‘smiling selfie’ shared on social media may not necessarily be a genuine, heartfelt one.

    For this campaign, the brand has partnered with the leading Indian photographers, Abhinav Chandel, Praveen Bhat, Shramona Poddar and Zaid Salman, to capture “candid sparkling smiles” around them. Under the campaign, these notable photographers have shared the images on their social handles and have also detailed the moment which led to that smile. Alongside, the brand is urging its consumers to share the candid moments on brand’s social handles through a simple process detailed out in the campaign video. The Campaign is live and has received an encouraging response from consumers with close to 60000 entries till now in over a week.

    The process of participation along with campaign details can be viewed in the link below. For every candid smile picture captured and shared by consumers, Happydent will contribute Rs 10 towards the education of kids at Smile Foundation.

    Elaborating on this campaign and partnership, Mr. Rohit Kapoor, Director Marketing, Perfetti Van Melle India said, “We are delighted to be partnering with Smile Foundation for this noble cause. As a responsible corporate, Perfetti Van Melle believes in giving back to the communities where we operate and we aim to make a difference to the lives of these wonderful children by providing them better access to education. The cause coheres with Happydent’s brand proposition of adding ‘sparkling smiles’ to people’s lives.

    #HappydentSparklingSmile is a simple initiative at heart to ensure we are able to light up the lives of some underprivileged kids.”

    Commenting on this partnership Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder and Trustee, Smile Foundation added “We are quite excited to partner with Happydent on this campaign.  The idea behind this partnership is to see more and more children enrolled in schools. Despite, us having a law that makes education a fundamental right of every child between the ages of 6 and 14, the harsh reality is that at least 32 million Indian children of age up to 13 years have never attended any school, majority of them belonging to the socially disadvantaged class. As socially responsible organizations, we will together work to bring back smiles to these children”.