ITV

Category: Digital

  • First Economy Wins Digital Media Mandate for Page Industries E-Commerce Businesses in India

    First Economy Wins Digital Media Mandate for Page Industries E-Commerce Businesses in India

    MUMBAI: First Economy, a digital marketing and media buying agency won the digital media mandate of Jockey and Speedo. The mandate tasks the agency with invigorating their current digital journey through precision targeting on their digital portals respectively.

    Mr. Jeffrey Crasto, Joint CEO & Partner, First Economy, said, “We are excited to be partnering with Jockey and Speedo from Page Industries. We are looking forward to leveraging our expertise in digital branding, understanding the Indian consumer and our ability to craft media interventions across personas and platforms. With our team of creative and young minds, we look forward to growing their e-commerce business on a large scale. This is a huge milestone for us, and we are confident that this partnership will only expound positive businesses for the future.”

    Jockey being the leading innerwear brand in India has a presence of about 25 years in the country and Speedo is India’s favourite swimwear brand. First Economy provides exceptional services based on creative and strategic thinking with a performance-driven approach. From its HQ in Mumbai and presence in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Udaipur, they have been providing holistic ROI driven solutions in Technology, Media Buying, Social Media, Design & Branding for the last 5 years.

  • Havas Group acquires experiential agency Shobiz

    Havas Group acquires experiential agency Shobiz

    MUMBAI: Havas Group today announced its third acquisition in India in 2019 – Shobiz – the country’s first and most experienced experiential agency. Founded in 1982, Shobiz is regarded as a pioneer in the experiential space and has grown steadily and consistently to employ over 300 professionals across its five offices in India. 

    Headquartered in Mumbai, Shobiz is a multi-disciplinary experiential communications agency, offering an integrated service spectrum from concept to commissioning and final reporting. The agency’s strengths include strategic planning, communication & content design, creative, graphic and architectural design, audience acquisition, production and logistics. The Shobiz portfolio has over 142 recurring clients.

    While Shobiz CEO Sameer Tobaccowala will continue to oversee the business along with Vishnu Mohan chairman & CEO, Havas Group India & South East Asia, the daily operations will be led by Tejpal Singh Patpatia COO Shobiz, who will report into Rana Barua, CEO Havas Group India,  leading to seamless integration for both the entities.

    With the acquisition of Shobiz, Havas Group completes its third acquisition in India within a span of just one year, demonstrating the group’s commitment and intent to expand its scale and expertise in India with a focus on exponential growth, new business momentum, and leading future-ready teams in the Indian market. 

    In May this year Havas Group acquired Think Design, the leader in user experience consultancy and design in India, followed by the acquisition of Langoor a full-service digital agency led and driven by creative technologists in September this year.

    Havas Group chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré comments: “India has increasingly become a priority for Havas, and even more so over the past 12 months. With the acquisition of Shobiz we have delivered on our ambitious growth plan to triple our footprint in India. Shobiz’s talented teams are renowned for their solid track record and their excellence in the planning and flawless execution of complex events. After strengthening our local digital and service design capabilities with the acquisitions of Think Design and Langoor, we can now significantly boost our activation and experiential offer on the rapidly growing events market in India. Shobiz is a precious addition to Havas and I welcome them warmly.” 

    Mohan adds, “Experiential marketing is a critical component of an integrated approach to brand building as consumers are demanding personalised and meaningful interactions across all touchpoints. The acquisition of Shobiz will further strengthen the breadth of our multi-disciplinary Village model of working and bring on board a different kind of creative skills set. Shobiz’s transformation from a leading production house to be one of the country’s leading experiential communications agency is impressive and I am delighted to welcome Sameer and his entire team to the Havas family.”

    Havas Group India CEO Rana Barua says, “Shobiz’s acquisition adds an enviable strength to Havas Group with its forte in the experiential space.  Shobiz’s thirst for innovation, impact and results, adds tremendous value to our existing offerings as a Group, and seamlessly fits in with Havas Group’s multi-faceted, integrated, client centric “Village” style of working, giving us a distinctive advantage and making it a much stronger force to reckon with.”

    “Crafting unforgettable brand experiences has the power to engage consumers in ways not seen before. Havas Group’s integrated approach to brand building coupled with their entrepreneurial spirit resonated with us. We are confident that this collaboration will unlock unprecedented growth opportunities for us and forge stronger consumer connections that foster trust, loyalty and business results. We are thrilled to be a part of Havas and look forward to a meaningful journey ahead, together,” said Tobaccowala. 

  • Programmatic TV is the future of advertising

    Programmatic TV is the future of advertising

    As we move towards a digitally-driven world at a high pace, it is essential for brands to stay ahead of the curve and discover/develop newer and effective ways to reach the consumers ensuring impact. Now in the ever-evolving digital world, advertising has bypassed the traditional approach. With affordable internet prices across the country, digital advertising has evolved into a global marketplace at large. This new and evolved sector requires many relationships that extend further than the typical publisher/advertiser bond that brands and agencies were familiar with. Although new platforms for advertising have emerged but the value for television advertising is still growing. Television is of paramount importance for brands as they know TV ads work in reaching a larger set of audience who either has limited access to the internet or no access at all. Over the last decade, television has undergone major technological development which has enabled marketers to direct commercial messages in a focused manner on an individual level.

    With the invention of Smart TV’s, traditional ways of TV ad buying are being challenged by the programmatic approach.  Programmatic TV largely refers to the TV inventory that could be bought via a programmatic platform.  As simple as it may sound but it is rather a complex mechanism which has many broad categories with several types to choose from. They consist of video on demand (VOD), digital linear TV, video and terrestrial linear. One can always purchase the programmatic inventory of the TV by either open exchange or via a private market place. Open exchange can be accessed by anyone by using real-time bidding to auction inventory to the highest bidder and private market place, on the other hand, is more direct and based on impressions rather than the traditional guarantees of time and place. This digitization has overall enabled marketers to apply data segment to leverage big screen and create high impact on the audience. Programmatic TV is a one-stop solution for brands as well as advertisers as it largely applies digital advertising’s efficiency model to traditional TV advertising with the automation of buying process with connected devices.

    While programmatic TV as an option has an exceptional potential but it’s still quite new. Hence, programmatic TV is not living up to its true potential given that we’re still in the very early stages. Going by the pace of the adoption, the industry is likely to adopt it in phases. The first phase will induce buyers and sellers to use programmatic tech to transact digital video buys. This phase is actually underway and making notable strides across platforms. As per a report by Google Data, a 4x growth in impressions for videos was visible in 2014 itself. The second phase will ensure the overall development of the programmatic infrastructure, making it easier for buyers and sellers to place ads in streaming and video-on-demand TV content across connected devices efficiently. Both these phases will create pathways for the third and most important phase i.e. Linear TV. Support for Linear TV in programmatic is the most complex phase as it will take some significant work to integrate digital platforms with traditional systems and data vendors across the TV ecosystem. If done right, programmatic TV will help the sector in overcoming several ideological and technical challenges. The sector needs to get programmers and broadcasters along with advertisers to help understand what programmatic TV can do instead of what people think it does. This will then result in brands focusing on the things that really matter such as universal measurement across all advertising platforms for better ROI, the ability to reach viewers across screens, access to inventory devoid of rights issues along with programmatic buying support for set-top boxes and so on.

    As per e-marketers research, programmatic TV would be a multi-billion dollar industry by 2022. Though it accounts for less than 1 per cent of all TV ad spends for now. As brand advertisers, programmers, distributors and ad tech providers work their way through the real-world challenges, programmatic TV will begin to live up to its true potential making it the future of advertising on TV.

    (The author is co-founder and managing director, Makani Creatives. The views expressed are his own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • Logicserve Digital asks ‘Munna Kab Aayega’ for a quirky Unwanted21Days campaign

    Logicserve Digital asks ‘Munna Kab Aayega’ for a quirky Unwanted21Days campaign

    MUMBAI: To normalise the use of contraceptives and promote the importance of planned pregnancy, Logicserve Digital has created a one-of-a-kind digital campaign for Mankind Pharma’s Unwanted21Days.

    The quirky campaign is surrounded around the one pressing and intrusive question that most newly married couples in India are often bombarded with—“When is the Good News?” or “Munna Kab Aayega?” While expecting a baby is a magical moment for the parents, such unwarranted questions at social gatherings can hit like an alarm and make the situation awkward. Considering the sensitivity of the subject, Unwanted21Days and Logicserve Digital took a creative route of presenting an engaging story (with a folksy tune and earthy lyrics) to reinforce a sense of privacy and independence in the minds of the consumers.

    Mankind Pharma assistant general manager Joy Chatterjee said, “Raising awareness amongst the audience while also conveying a message on a sensitive topic in a creative way was of paramount importance to us. Leveraging an insight that was easily relatable and using it in our communication to highlight the importance of planned pregnancy was a brilliant thought. Team Logicserve Digital did a fabulous work of cracking this unique piece of content for us that has the potential to travel on its own.”

    Commenting on the uniqueness of this campaign, Logicserve Digital VP-creative Manesh Swamy said, “When we started working on this campaign, our focus was to educate and empower the audience in the simplest way without being intrusive. Hence, we thought of creating a powerful communication tool involving a captivating tune that lingers in the mind. That’s how #MunnaKabAayega was born. The idea was consumed well by the audience and effectively conveyed the brand message of ‘Pregnancy jab tum chaho’.”

    Logicserve Digital developed a quasi-puppet show, with music and dance as a medium to convey the message to the audience. An animated music video focused on two newly-weds, Faguni and Bittu who are visited by an array of inquisitive relatives was released on social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. The song’s lyrics showcase various scenarios that newly married couples usually land into with relatives and neighbors prying about personal life. The nagging questions are finally put to rest when Faguni and Bittu take a stand and inform everyone that they will have a child when they feel is the right time basis their joint decision.

    To create a buzz around the campaign a wedding invite was prepared, along with pre-wedding shoot of the central characters. Recent visitors of the brand page were sent an automated invite upon commenting with the hashtag ‘#FaguniWedsBittu’. WhatsApp stickers were created as well to introduce and highlight inquisitive family members and friends with atypical messages. The folksy approach with traditional music and descriptive narrative helped the brand connect effectively with audiences in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. For the major target audience of the brand from West Bengal and Orissa, the communication was also established in the local language in Bengali and Oriya, respectively to ensure better message delivery.

    Post-release of the video, a contest was launched asking the audience to showcase the signature ‘Munna Kab Aayega’ dance step on social media platforms. The campaign was amplified by roping in regional influencers who further propagated the importance of family planning.

    The video garnered 149698 views within 24 hours of its launch on social media platforms. With the high engagement rate (0.84 per cent), views (35,73,619), reactions (11,720) and shares (400) the campaign continues to be trending on social media. With a relatable story, the brand rightly struck a chord with the audience and received a definitive answer to the prying ‘Munna Kab Aayega’ question.

  • Video hosting, ad distribution, monetisation solutions on one platform: VDO.AI

    Video hosting, ad distribution, monetisation solutions on one platform: VDO.AI

    MUMBAI: The world of video is constantly changing and evolving. Brands and platforms are looking for interactive solutions to monetise and distribute their content. The new platform of VDO.AI helps clients to target exactly these aspects from one point. VDO.AI co-founder Arjit Sachdeva reveals to Indiantelevision.com all the details about this new technology, its importance for the industry, and the challenges it has been facing. Edited excerpts follow:

    1. When and why was VDO.AI established? How has the journey been till date?

    Answer: From the past decades, television has been ruling the channel for advertisers to promote their products and services to the masses. Evidently, a formula was created – “the 30-second television commercial” which was backed by press, poster and radio adverts. But in recent years, the advertising landscape has seen a drastic change. There are now more brands to choose from, a whole range of different broadcast channels and publications and, of course, technology that has completely shifted the way we communicate. Probably, one of the formats is video advertising which has taken the leap from television to online portals. Today, video content is more engaging and it is more receptive to the audience who are watching it.

    Hence, there is no contradicting the fact that video is rapidly becoming one of the most dominant forms of content consumption. While all the major social media platforms, as well as websites and portals, are shifting to video content at a rapid rate, still there is a need for the majority of publishers to get access to cutting edge video hosting, distribution and monetisation solutions.

    VDO.AI is one of such platforms, which provide video hosting and distribution of advertisements and monetisation solutions. It came into existence in 2017 as a product. However, in its initial stage, the product was utilised in-house as a revenue generator for the company’s own web properties. But, after perfecting the solutions for six months we decided to launch it in front of brands and clients.

    With the launch of the internal solution of VDO.AI, the company has managed to reach over 30 million page views across all GEOs. The product has managed to achieve 500 publishers all across geographies. Also, with a good bunch of qualified professionals and their expertise at VDOI.AI, it has enabled to deliver unparalleled desired result. The company till date tries to unleash all new business marvels in the fields of video content creation and advertising. All in all, the company is observing an influx of immense success as well as exponential development throughout.

    2. Why was the name VDO.AI chosen?

    Answer: The Name VDO.AI was coined basis two main factors:

    a. The initials-VDO has been taken from the company’s in-house video advertising products

    b. And AI- because the product showcases the contextual video to the final consumer by using intelligent algorithm of AI and ML to connect them with relevant context and video.

    3. What were the key challenges that you faced during the initial stages of development?

    Answer: Development of new products is now hyper-paced for many brands and more essential to success than ever. Remaining relevant, maintaining growth and entering new markets can expand profit potential. But for every new product that is successfully brought to market, there are challenges faced by a company. There are countless companies in the industry competing for share-of-wallet. This forces companies to stay vigilant beyond back-end design, engineering and prototypes. To win the race from confident ideation to successful execution, companies must rely on calculated steps to guide the development and marketing decisions along the way.

    Similarly, there were a few challenges faced with the development of VDO.AI product:

    a. Cutting time to market: Initially, the company shaved a week off a development timeline in order to capitalise on everything from being first to market to dominate the hypercompetitive market. Instead of sacrificing on the quality insights, the company worked on testing and retesting the product in house to ensure the viability in the long term market.

    b. Technical Conundrum: At a primary stage, development in terms of technology was a challenge due to minimal availability of team that was working on one product while trying to create a new product.

    c. Leading customers to your new product: Once the product was foolproof tested and ready, it was time to launch in the market. Hence, it was necessary to drive the customers towards the product. Since there were other competitors who were serving the same sort of services, it was quite tricky to serve the same purpose to existing customers. At the outset, the company tried to grip on small publishers in the country.

    d. Providing product viability: There was a requirement for establishing enough information to confirm the authenticity of VDO.AI. In order to harmonise the product, testing the veracity of a concept via a prototype and other means were offered to discover to give consumer realistic and believable context on the product that encourages them to amplify. However, now it is easy to install software with minimal efforts required.

    4. How has the perspective of the industry changed towards the video advertising platform?

    Answer: Video marketing is at its dominant stage where in the next decade, 86 per cent of marketers will be using content to advertise, educate and entertain. Similarly, to provide a seamless path to publishers and advertisers, new formats are rising in consumption to bolster video as an effective and engaging medium. With the advancements in technology, publishers now being exposed to new formats for advertising. Let’s have a look:

    1. Mobile advertising and higher ROI: Looking at the stats, in 2018, mobile ad spending was increased 20 per cent accounting for 75 per cent of all ad spend over $70 billion. In 2017, video marketing was brought in over $2.6 billion in revenue a number that was on the rise. Also, for app mobile video advertising, predictions say that there will be an increase of 78 per cent in 2018 to 84 per cent in 2023. This shows that although video advertising is necessary, but specifically focusing on mobile video can help brands to bring in more customers, more sales, and greater brand growth.

    2. Advertising focus shifted to vertical video ads: In 2018, the growth of platforms like Snapchat and the newest Instagram TV created more resources to be put toward the creation of vertical video. Hence, this shows the higher preference of horizontal video as optimal for viewing experience. Industry research shows that phones are used vertically 98 percent of the time, so video finally caught up to user behaviour.

    3. More video through influencer ads- It is predicted that spending on influencer marketing is estimated to reach $101 billion by 2020. Influencers carry a lot of weight when it comes to helping company to close a sale. Hence, consumers look to influencers at every stage of the buyer’s journey while making product decision.

    4. More personalised video experiences through better data and technological advancement- The growth of video personalisation has also been facilitated by a growth in the technology and software sector, with new platforms making it easier (and cheaper) than ever before to customise video content at scale.

    5. Increase in ad spend: As video consumption grows, platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even LinkedIn have made video marketing a primary focus. In 2018, brands spent over $90 billion dollars on video ads. Moreover, according to a recent Forrester report that number is expected to hit $102.8 billion by the year 2023. The explosion of video along with advanced analytics has made video advertising vital to any online marketing plan.

    In a nutshell, marketers driving this spike in video ad spend will also be the leaders testing new formats. We can expect to see more brands adopting vertical, six-second, and non-skippable ads into their online marketing strategy this year. Together, larger budgets and optimised ads could create the perfect storm for capitalising on video’s exponential growth. We can only imagine the shifts in technology and online advertising this growth will lead us to the next level.

    5. What are the technologies and what sort of data do you use to provide services to your clients?

    Answer:  At VDO.AI, the experts in creating innovative video marketing campaigns make use of the state-of-the-art AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology towards providing contextual videos as well as video marketing campaigns to selective publishing partners. The proprietary platform at VDO.AI at https://vdo.ai/, aims at integrating the best available demand sources with the high-end publishers out there. The integration helps in allowing a high-value video advertising ecosystem to thrive where both the publishers and advertisers get maximum value. With the help of the innovative video advertising technology, the integration of the AI enables the delivery of top-class video content creation as well as marketing services to the clients.

    6. Name some of your clients and share a case study on how you helped them?

    Answer: Some of the marquee clients are:

    Notable Publishers

    Demand Partners

    India Tv

    Google

    Scroll Mantra

    AppNexus

    Jagran Media

    Oath

    TimesNow News

    Pubmatic

    The Hindu

    Beachfront

    Maps of World

    Gumgum

    We have partnered with several premium publishers to distribute ads on a large scale. One of the success stories is mentioned below:

    Mapsofworld is one of VDO.AI premium publisher involved in providing maps by creating high-quality maps for everyone. When started, it was just a handful of web pages and maps. But now it has now grown into one of the biggest websites people love to come back to.

    VDO.AI partnership with Mapsofworld in March 2018 and helped them to reach the full potential by monetising the existing users on the website. At the initial stage, there were several meetings conducted to discuss the impact of video on the user experience and the existing client base. Gradually, after testing out few formats (in content, content-floating, and floating) the end results stopped at floating format which provided maximum performance in terms of revenue, UX as well as ads visibility from the advertisers POV.

    In the end, VDO.AI was able to provide them with a growth in revenue by 47 per cent and also helped them increase the users on the website.  It also successfully delivered and boasted campaigns of advertisers like Netflix, Nexa, Cadbury, Amazon with 83 per cent completed video views.

    7. What is the way ahead for VDO.AI and also the video industry at large? What are your plans for the future?

    Answer: VDO.AI is all prepared to serve the end clients and aiming to break the du-poly of Facebook & Google when it comes to top-notch video advertising. The team aims at extending innovative video content usage as well as advertising by encouraging VR & AR platforms for creating free access venues throughout.

  • Trends to look out for in digital marketing

    Trends to look out for in digital marketing

    We, as an industry, are witnessing the upsurge of digital trends and newer technologies YOY. Experiments are being conducted simultaneously to test their effectiveness too, like when the search engine giant Google tested out new approaches (like shopping tab) to enhance customer experience and leverage their buying intent. Even e-commerce players like Amazon have increased priority to the marketplace. PayTM mall and Flipkart also gaining focus on e-commerce marketplace and the trends only seem to be getting better.

    The reason behind this: as per reports, digital media spend that stands to be at 12 per cent of complete ad share will inflate to 24 per cent by 2020. And these statistics will be influenced further by the rising smartphone penetration expected to go up to 800 million over the next 10 years. Other involved factors include expansion of artificial intelligence and robotics, customised targeting and a gradual shift from man-made towards automated mediums. The report even suggested that digital advertising would grow to 32 per cent CAGR reaching roughly approximately Rs 19,000 crore by 2020. 

    So here are the top trends to incorporate into your digital marketing plan in order to make your brand ubiquitous. Before that, one thing more –

    Fact: In 2020, the visitor’s patience will decrease further on. 25 per cent of them will most likely abandon their search on your site if it fails to load within a meagre time span of 4 seconds. Therefore, the first and foremost priority for you would be improving the site’s performance for tapping on the below given top trends. 

    Interacting with individual customers:

    Personalisation: The current customer goes to the extent of paying OOT media and music streaming services extra in order to avoid ads. They don’t want to waste even 1 second of their precious time on a generic ad. The solution to this problem is personalised advertising. 90 per cent of target audience has admitted that personalisation held an appeal for them. Even personalised email blasts are found to perform 3X better than their generic counterparts. 2020 will be mostly about getting up close and personal with the target audience.

    Private & Customised Messaging: Brands will steadily shift towards the private messaging app. WhatsApp advertising will be one evolution in this direction and similar to WhatsApp other private messaging apps will gain attention too. Even customers are taking their feedback, complaints, queries and appreciations to the DMs of Facebook messenger and Instagram app. 

    2. Going LIVE & engaging through videos: 2019 was all about videos in the digital marketing arena. So would be 2020. They dominated Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Even a social media video app Tik Tok took the Indian youth segment of Tier 2 & 3 cities by its fascination. 

    All a testimony to how our audience loves consuming content on video. Seeing this, brands have been increasing their share on digital marketing spends too. Because videos also increase 53X likelihood of getting your website on the first page of search results. And as an improvement on them, the Facebook Live and Instagram Live are where these visitors are spending more of their time. These live videos are watched 3X longer than the videos on the feed because they give the audience an option to ask for information and give feedback in real time. 

    3. Voice search slowly taking precedence over text search: In 2018, around 28 per cent search queries were being done by voice in India and in the same year, Google revealed that the nation was seeing 270 per cent YOY rise in voice searches. 

    With Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa already becoming the favourites amongst millennials, digital marketers will need to attune (optimize) their brands’ site for the voice search. The most important change would be involving long-tail keywords to the sites. 

    4. AR in Social Media: For a long time, VR had hogged all the attention but it is being predicted that soon VR will give way to AR. Digital marketers are already devising strategies around this technology to transform the way brand searches happen and the way a customer experiences these brands. 

    Even Facebook is heavily invested in AR believing it to be the wave of the future. By feeling truly present, the target audience can interact with the product offerings and make purchases based on this experience. Facebook has started rolling out augmented reality feed ads in order to give advertisers an option to show off their products in new ways. This, as a result, has made online shopping an even more interactive experience for the customers and assisted advertisers in better conversions.

    5. AI Everywhere: Several AI features already work in the background of social media platforms. From auto recommendation to image recognition, AI will only work on empowering these social media platforms further. 

    Whereas on websites, AI & machine learning-powered chatbots have been found making it more comfortable for the visitors to communicate with them. In 2020, smoothening customer service through AI would become a priority.

    6. Apps losing the limelight: App bloat, frequent updates, uninstall rates, & increasing app installs fraud on phones might force more consumers & companies to choose PWA options. Services/Products that pass the ‘Toothbrush Test’ (“Must be used at least twice a day”) will be preferred as apps while the rest will stand on shaky ground. 

    7. ‘Amazon’ the Marketing Channel: Owing to its being the product search starting point and rich customer data, Amazon is only estimated to grow further as a marketing channel of its own. It’s estimated that Google will be putting huge efforts into servicing & increasing the share of its product searches. 

    8. Catching them on the go: As the audience gets busier and their attention span decreases, more content would be consumed in transit. The omnichannel approach across video sites, social media, OTT players and Digital OOH placements in transit – OLA Play etc will increase. This also spells rapid growth in hyper-locally relevant Digital OOH like at restaurants, malls, railway stations and bus stands.

    9. Strong on Social Media: Majority of the marketers think that social media is going to be big as compared to apps or web. It is especially going to be vital for the sake of brand awareness and brand connectivity. And to help the brands achieve these goals, social media channels keep undergoing evolution. New features are constantly added to Instagram, Youtube etc. 

    One such trend is of shoppable posts, which is becoming a big part of online marketing. Approximately 60 per cent of the Instagram audience says that they discover products of new brands on Instagram. Something to tap in the upcoming year.

    (The author is founder & CEO of Hiveminds. The views expressed are their own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)