ITV

Category: Brands

  • Gaana Rolls Out Dynamic Creatives For Audio Ads to Empower Indian Marketers

    Gaana Rolls Out Dynamic Creatives For Audio Ads to Empower Indian Marketers

    MUMBAI: India’s No. 1 music streaming app, Gaana has unveiled new audio ad capabilities that will empower advertisers to talk personally with its listeners by creating contextual audio creatives in real-time. This will enable marketers to create hyper-personalized ads in real time by tagging parts of commercial scripts based on Age, gender, location, weather, time, music preference, device, and other 3rd party data to create and serve relevant ads to more than 150 million Gaana users.

    Gaana’s innovation offers a unique layer of ad personalization to audio that was till now only available with display ads. The brand’s ad engine will leverage a mix of the extensive & highly evolved user-buckets created over the past 10 years and real-time data, such as age, gender, location, weather and artist preferences among others to create contextual ads. These finer aspects will help create some of the most dynamic advertising personas in the industry, and the ensuing collaborative process with the client can create thousands — even millions of permutations for each ad creative.

    Speaking at the launch, Prashan Agarwal, CEO – Gaana said, “Audio streaming is rapidly evolving as an indispensable part of the media mix of most consumer brands across lifestyle, tech and online services among others. As the industry leader, we pride ourselves on having the most comprehensive suite of ad formats that enable our clients to reach their intended audience in a native and experiential setting. To further this agenda, we have launched Dynamic ads with the ability to customize audio creatives based on a target user’s demographics and other crucial psychographic metadata to drive significantly higher brand recall that will offer the crucial edge marketers need in this noisy world.”

    The Indian music streaming industry is at the cusp of an incredible growth curve as more of us start consuming music online. The sector has seen a meteoric 3X growth in the past two years, and the market is expected to 400 Mn monthly active users in the next 2 years. As the country’s go-to music app with over 150 million users streaming over 3.5 billion songs every month, the ability to target this massive user-base with dynamic programmatic audio capabilities will be a game-changer for the Indian marketing community.
     

  • Netcore, Clearout join hands to Automate email hygiene process

    Netcore, Clearout join hands to Automate email hygiene process

    MUMBAI: Netcore Solutions, the leading Martech solutions provider, today announced its latest partnership with Clearout, the leader in email validation and verification to ensure the best in class email deliverability for businesses of all size and scale.

    By using Clearout’s advanced email verification technology, Netcore pro-actively eliminates the possibilities of email bounce back. This ensures the emails hit the inbox, provides safety from spam traps and avoid any negative impact on the sender’s reputation.

    Email is the most reliable and time-tested channel of engagement for businesses and the one metric that is extremely critical to the overall email marketing performance is the sender reputation score. Emails bounce due to deactivation of accounts, dormancy in usage or plain simple typos affect the sender reputation score adversely and in the due course of time, it proves fatal for the channel.

    "Throughout our existence of more than two decades, Netcore has strived to enable businesses to deliver exceptional experiences to their customers and email has been an integral part of the mix. By partnership with ClearOut, we have added another layer of sophistication to our already best-in-class email platform," said Netcore Solutions group CEO Kalpit Jain.

    Clearout founder Gnana Prakash (GP) shares, "We are really excited to partner with Netcore. Clearout’s integration with Netcore is meant to accelerate email marketing goals of their clients and deliver better ROI from the email marketing campaigns.”

    The integration is now live and is being rolled out to its beta customers.

  • Trumping India

    Trumping India

    MUMBAI: From Bollywood to cricket and terrorism to defence, US president Donald Trump made an attempt to woo Indians and send a positive message back home to the Indian-Americans in his 26-minute-long speech during an event ‘Namaste Trump’.

    The event, Namaste Trump, is considered to be strategically important to Trump as the US presidential elections are slated later this year. Seeking a second term in office, he has been trying to create positive vibes and raise his brand value across the globe which eventually could have an impact back home. In the US, as many as 40 lakh people Indian-Americans are crucial, capable of swaying votes in his favour.

    Media pundits and experts are of the opinion that Trump’s India visit is a well-calculated marketing initiative.  

    Havas Media chief executive officer Anita Nayyar said: “Indian-Americans are contributing a lot to the US economy and could be the potential campaign fundraisers.”

    Nayyar believes it was a well-planned marketing gambit of Team Trump to come to India a few months ahead of the presidential elections to woo the Indians and the Indo-Americans back home. It may be recalled that in 2018, the US president turned down India’s request to be a chief guest for the Republic Day event.

    She adds: “Trump talked about India very well in his address. He talked about Indian festivals and the country’s cultural diversity. He also touched upon topics such as movies, cricket – all those good aspects where India is progressing.”

    Trump quite often has a habit of making loose comments, which can have repercussions, at domestic and international levels. “I was quite surprised that Trump remembered and touched upon all the areas where the Modi government has made progress,” explains Nayyar.

    Literally playing to the gallery and earning the applause of the cheering crowd at Motera stadium, the US president eulogised Bollywood and mentioned Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Sholay. He very well struck a chord with the audience by talking about cricket, which is almost like a religion to the masses. He also mentioned the cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and the Team India skipper Virat Kohli in his speech.

    Despite facing problems in pronunciation, Trump also praised the work of Swami Vivekananda and Sardar Patel in his speech. He also lauded India’s effort to reach the moon’s southern pole.

    The president’s popularity in India has soared to 56 per cent from 14 per cent since his candidacy in 2016, a Pew Research poll said in a report. Nayyar says: “The sole credit for the increase in confidence within Indians for Trump goes to Modi as their bonhomie has been quite visible for the last few years.”

    The president, all along with his speech, kept praising India, Indians and prime minister Modi and his government’s work. “India will hold a very special place in our hearts,” he said. “America loves India, America respects India and America will always be a loyal and faithful friend to Indian people.”

    Nayyar also said that it was expected that Trump would speak on the common problem shared by both the two nations: terrorism. Trump in his speech said: “India and the US are committed to fighting terrorists and their ideology; that is why my government is working with Pakistan to crack down on terror groups.”

    Moreover, on defence strategy, he also announced an over $3 billion military deal between the two nations that would be signed on Tuesday. “The Indian armed forces will get the absolute finest state-of-the-art military helicopters and other equipment through this deal,” he said.

    Echoing Nayyar’s views, Dentsu Aegis Network’s chief executive officer Anand Bhadkamkar says: “Trump is a great marketer and he understands the pulse exactly where to reach out. He definitely will make use of every  opportunity he comes across.”

    He believes that the recent visit to India could be termed as Trump’s approach to woo Indians in India as well as in America. “Indian-Americans are quite large in the US and this visit cannot only be seen as the upcoming US election agenda, but an enhancement of bilateral and trade relations between India and the US.”

    “Trump is a quite sharp businessman and great politician, which he has proved in the last few years. Trump as a brand has great value and people do respect him for what he’s creating. He has maintained what he was before and he’s very conscious and aware of the same,” says Bhadkamkar.  

    The Namaste Trump event is a return gift to the US president. “Five months ago, the United States welcomed your great Prime Minister at a giant football stadium in Texas and today India welcomes us at the world's largest cricket stadium right here in Ahmedabad,” Trump said in his address.

    Quid Pro quo?

  • Dettol Toilet Soaps secures top spot in BARC week 6 ratings

    Dettol Toilet Soaps secures top spot in BARC week 6 ratings

    MUMBAI: The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) of India has released its data for top advertisers and brands for the period between 8 February and 14 February 2020, respectively. 

    The data reflects the top 10 advertisers and brands across genres on Indian television, including OOH screen, (U+R): 2+, Individuals NCCS All, demonstrating ads that were inserted the most in week 6 of 2020.

    Top Advertisers:

    Not many changes were observed in the week 6 ratings of BARC. Hindustan Lever Ltd and Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd remained the top two advertisers with 179339 and 132883 insertions, respectively. 

    Just like the last week, the following spot was acquired by ITC Ltd with 51958 insertions. Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd and Cadburys India Ltd interchanged their last week’s spot to rank fourth and fifth, respectively. They recorded 37552 and 34363 ad insertions. 

    Other top brands in pecking order were as follows:Procter & Gamble, Colgate Palmolive India, Smithkline Beecham, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, and the new entrant – Lakme Lever Ltd, respectively.

    Top Brands: 

    Dettol Toilet Soaps re-entered the list after a small break and that too on the top spot. It had made 21099 insertions. Harpic Bathroom Cleaner and OLX.in were also the fresh entrants in the list on second and third position with 15462 and 14034 insertions, respectively.

    Trivago slipped down three spots from last week’s top position to rank fourth this time with 13996 insertions. Dettol Antiseptic Liquid ranked fifth with 13335 insertions. 

    The subsequent pecking order was as follows: Lux Toilet Soap, Harpic 10/10, Surf Excel Easy Wash, Moov Advance Diclofenac Gel, and Veet Men Hair Removal Cream, respectively. 

  • Hindustan Media Ventures Limited invests USD 5.5 million in Zvesta

    Hindustan Media Ventures Limited invests USD 5.5 million in Zvesta

    MUMBAI: Gurugram based, Zvesta, a proptech start-up has raised USD 5.5 million from Hindustan Media Ventures. Zvesta is a 360-degree comprehensive AI-powered real-estate solutions company which is innovatively designed for buyers, sellers, developers, builders and property agents. Zvesta shall utilise the raised capital to build its brand and collaborative marketing for real estate aggregation across the country. 

    Zvesta is a marketplace where all the stakeholders connect on a real time basis to make clear and transparent deals through SaaS based platform, which provides an altogether new visualization, technology controls, faster and more interactive user-interface as a property search engine. The platform provision options to Search, List, Advertise, Sell, Buy and renting out various properties under the respective category of Residential, Commercial, Plots  Land.

    In addressing the fund raiser, Zvesta founder and CEO Rajan Dang said, “The capital raised will be used to widen the builder alliances from 100 to 1000 and other partnerships across India strengthening through its technology product.  It will also be utilised to scale up the business by opening regional offices Jaipur (Rajasthan), Mumbai and Pune (Maharashtra), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) as well and expansion of sales team.”

    According to Zvesta co-founder and CIO Anushree Srivastava said, “Collaboration is the call of the era in Real Estate. The synergy for all influx and exodus to any system is imperative. Citing an example at the airport if collaborative technology is not used at the Airport there would be total mismanagement of the consumer and air traffic. At Zvesta, to gain fulfilment of business for E-Mitras, Dept of Information Technology, Rajasthan, Other counters it is important to maintain transparency. Hence the flow of the transaction that captures consumer sentiments, Lead flow, sale closure that may not be handled, all directly by one stakeholder, hence imperative for collaboration through technology ZVESTA PRO”.

    In the words of HT Media Limited group CFO Piyush Gupta, “Zvesta’s real estate search engine and the database on which they are working is laying a foundation for homeowners, buyers, sellers, renters, real estate agents, landlords, and property managers to discover and maintain vital information about homes, real estate, transactions and home improvement”.

    The Target benefits significantly from a first-mover advantage domestically as other on-line real estate services.  Zvesta  is  taking  advantage  of  the  newly  established  governmental  Real  Estate  Regulatory Authority (RERA)  which regulates the real estate sector and compels all builders and developers to register their new and ongoing projects with it. Affordable housing has caught up, the government in order to focus on affordable housing has to mandate the use of technology to source all inventories and land parcels being allocated to each project. Likewise post built of the inventories the buy and sell should be made transparent.  

    Zvesta founders adorn the different cultures and professional backgrounds feel an instant connection with the Real Estate Community, given their shared sense of understanding and experience for maturing Zvesta to the next level in business. The company founders Rajan Dang, a multi-domain industry Leader in Banking, FMCG, Ecommerce & Real estate, and Anushree Srivastava, in past was Joint General Manager /  IT of IRCTC handling INR 5,000 Cr Revenue Portfolio, built SAAS platform and set up new revenue streams for the corporation who have a decade of experience working in the E-commerce and technology space.

  • Myntra accelerates digital transformation journey with Microsoft Cloud

    Myntra accelerates digital transformation journey with Microsoft Cloud

    MUMBAI: Myntra, one of the leading destinations for fashion and lifestyle, has partnered with Microsoft to accelerate its digital transformation and offer an unmatched experience to its customers. Leveraging Microsoft Azure, Myntra is focused on innovation, speed, and agility to strengthen its leadership position even further.

    “As we accelerate our business and grow our value, the ability to scale our technology in a secure environment to accommodate this growth is critical,” said Myntra CEO Amar Nagaram. “The Microsoft Azure platform provides our teams the ability to deliver innovative and personalized capabilities for our customers with speed supported by a strong depth of technology expertise from the Microsoft team.”

    Myntra has worked closely with Microsoft to migrate its platform – from supply chain management to inventory to site capabilities – to Azure for trusted, always-on, hyper-scale and cost-effective computing. These critical capabilities support its entire portfolio of 7,00,000 styles from more than 3,000 international and domestic brands available on its store. Myntra is now in a position to offer a seamless and personalised experience for customers as they shop across its portal both from their personal computers and mobile phones.

    The elasticity of Azure is helping Myntra scale rapidly for big spikes that occur routinely during festive seasons. Since the deployment of Azure, Myntra, has recorded a 50 per cent rise in orders in the latest edition of its biennial End of Reason Sale.

    Microsoft India president Anant Maheshwari said, “We are thrilled to partner with Myntra to integrate Azure cloud and analytics capabilities in India’s largest fashion e-tailer. The solutions we build together will empower Myntra to be the leading fashion e-commerce experience from India.”

    Microsoft Azure supports the company’s engineering and product management teams rapidly develop, deploy, and test new capabilities. By building and centralising its data platform on Azure, Myntra is applying advanced analytics and machine learning to gain a comprehensive understanding of customers and deliver highly personalized products, marketing and service for them. The company is using Microsoft Power BI to empower its employees to visualise and act on real time feedback to create the best customer experience and drive the business.

    Microsoft is relentlessly working towards making technology accessible and productive for all. This partnership with Myntra is a tremendous opportunity to bring out a transformation in the Indian ecommerce space and to co-create and deliver industry solutions on Azure.

  • Sula Vineyards Launches India’s first wine in a can Dia Sparkler

    Sula Vineyards Launches India’s first wine in a can Dia Sparkler

    MUMBAI: Sula Vineyards, India’s largest and most awarded winery, is taking its brand ethos of innovation one step further with the launch of India’s first Wine-In-A-Can – Dia Sparkler, in an attractive can design and in two variants of red and white wine.  

    Dia, a decade-old-brand, was to date sold only in bottles, and is fondly remembered by many as their ‘first wine’ with nostalgia! When Sula wanted to launch the country’s first wine in a can, Dia was the perfect choice. This sweet, bubbly and refreshing drink needs no mixers, corkscrews or swirling to enjoy; it’s easy to carry and crack open straight from the fridge. Pour it in a tall glass full of ice with a dash of lime or sip a chilled can straight up. A package that expresses perfection, pampering and style, Dia epitomises the good life – in a convenient way. 

    Low in alcohol at 8 per cent ABV in line with strong beer, both variants, red and white, are appealing to men as it is to women. It is paired up for every occasion be it house parties, pool parties or a day at the beach! With MRP Rs 180 for a 330ml can, this convenient drink is surely meant to give the right bang for the buck! 

    Introduced at a time where ‘on the go’ is the need of the hour to match our fast paced lives, the concept of wine in a can is blooming globally. Nielsen reports off premise canned wine sales for the 52-week period ending June 15, 2019, has risen 69 per cent from the previous year, totalling $79.3 million in sales so far in the US, according to a Neilsen report.  

    Sula Vineyards founder-CEO Rajeev Samant said, “At Sula, we are always on the lookout to bring new experiences to our customers. We are thrilled to bring the iconic Dia in a brand new avatar! It is India’s first wine sparkler in a can. Not just convenience, this drink promises all things light, bubbly and refreshing."

  • Brands and Valentine’s Day campaigns 2020

    Brands and Valentine’s Day campaigns 2020

    MUMBAI: Love is in the air and Valentines’s day is not just an occasion for those who love to connect but also for brands to connect with their consumers. This year too, brands are leaving no stones unturned to grab customer’s attention and promote their products.

    Brands are trying to break the stereotypical notion of gifting roses, chocolates and teddy bears on this special day in favour of more relatable and tangible products and experiences.

    Here’s a list of top brands that have come out with some innovative campaigns.

    Kalyan Jewellers
    One of India’s leading jewellery brands, Kalyan Jewellers, asks its consumer to gift her something that makes her feel deserving. Because, like diamonds, a girl as special as her is rare and impossible to find.

    TheSmallBigIdea

    This Valentine’s Day brands are curating innovative strategies to garner eyeballs. This is what TSBI, the digital marketing partner for Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan did for the film.

    The video showcases Bollywood actors Ayushmann Khurrana and Jeetu’s romance amid family humour, staying true to the film proposition, ‘Jeetega Pyaar Seh Parivaar.’

    Pepsi

    Why should a couple have all the fun! Pepsi is all set to celebrate singlehood with its new ‘Swag Se Solo’ anthem.
    The peppy, foot-tapping anthem features Bollywood superstar and Pepsi’s brand ambassador Salman Khan in a music single for the first time in over a decade.

    Britannia Little Hearts

    Britannia Little Hearts seems to have understood the need of staying attuned to the vibes of the youth. To break some hearts in this season of love Britannia has introduced #BreakSomeHearts Song, Valentine’s Day 2020 edition.

    The brand-new song released on the eve of Valentine’s Day is set in a rap-meets qawwali genre and is a fresh, fun and edgy take on heartbreaks and one that will inevitably make it to your playlist! The song features the standout rapper, Kaam Bhaari along with actress and influencer, Ahsaas Channa.

    Mad Over Donuts

    MOD is back with its Valentine’s campaign but this time it about celebrating love of every kind.

    Ferrero Rocher

    Valentine’s Day is approaching fast, so it is the time for love to be glorified! Ferrero Rocher launched a campaign based on the theme “#GoldenLove”.

    The Ferrero Rocher campaign has kick-started involving key influencers to express their golden love for their precious ones as grandmother, mother, father, sister, brother and partner.

    https://www.facebook.com/FerreroRocherIndia/videos/183096326367422/

  • Deloitte Global Powers of Retailing Report shows an Indian retail brand lead fastest 50 list

    Deloitte Global Powers of Retailing Report shows an Indian retail brand lead fastest 50 list

    MUMBAI: According to the recently released 23rd edition of Deloitte Global Powers of Retailing 2020 report, the average company size of top 250 retailers has increased to US$19.0 billion in FY 2018 from US$18.1 billion in FY 2017. 

    The report also shows that Reliance Retail grew by 55.8 per cent CAGR and jumped to the first position from sixth a year ago on the list of Fastest 50 retail brands. The growth is backed by the company’s strong focus on e-commerce and continued efforts to build a strong consumer base and delivery network. The retailer also became the first Indian retailer to operate more than 10,000 stores in the country.

    Speaking on the launch of the report, Deloitte partner Anil Talreja said, “Even as the economy is facing a prolonged slowdown, the resilience of the global retail sector is likely to be mirrored in India as well, especially given the tax sops announced for boosting investment in the recent Union Budget for 2020.”

    “Key initiatives taken by the government including liberalisation of FDI norms for select sectors; a rollback of the much-debated tax surcharge on foreign portfolio investors; incentives to support several industries; bank consolidation, the amendment of insolvency and bankruptcy code enabling the resolution of financial companies, and a significant cut in the corporate tax rate are sure to show some green-shoots in the Indian economy leading to the boost of customer confidence.

    Moreover, the young profile of the country and the increasing dependency on convenience through access to technology and digital platforms makes the country one of the growing retail destinations of the world,” added the spokesperson 

    Key trends and highlights from the report:

    Retail growth in the Asia Pacific region continues to be driven by changing shopping preferences among growing middle-class consumers, particularly young millennials, and the increasing adoption of e-commerce and m-commerce by the physical retail players.

    In efforts to compete with Amazon, FMCG retailers have been employing strategies such as greater focus on e-commerce, buy-online-pickup instore, cashier-less stores, opening more convenience stores, voice-enabled shopping, and doorstep delivery.

    According to the report, despite trade tensions and growing uncertainty around tariff policies, at the aggregate level the global retailers have exhibited remarkable stability. While the highest annual revenue growth in FY 2018 was reported to be in hardlines and leisure goods, apparel and accessories like every other year was found to be the most profitable product category. 

    Talking about the macro level global perspective, Dr. Ira Kalish, Deloitte Global Chief Economist said, “The outlook for the global economy and the retail industry in 2020 is uncertain. Overall economic growth is likely to be subdued but positive, with lower growth in consumer spending and inflation in most countries remaining low.”

    Global Powers of Retailing Top 250

    The world’s Top 10 retailers contributed 32.2 percent share to the Top 250’s total retail revenue in FY2018, up from the 31.6 percent share in the previous year. Growth of the Top 10 outpaced that for the Top 250 retailers, at 6.3 percent and 4.1 percent respectively. The composite net profit margin for the Top 10 retailers was 0.5 percentage points higher than the previous year, despite the pressure on retailers from intense competition, rising labor costs, price wars, and investment in e-commerce capabilities.

    With the largest number of companies (136) in the Top 250 list, the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) 1 product sector generated 66.5 percent of the retail revenue in FY2018. Retailers in this sector have the largest average retail revenue (US$23.2 billion in FY2018), however this is a low-margin sector with the lowest net profit margin of all the sectors (2.0 percent in FY2018).

  • Seagram puts the spotlight on women in iconic ‘Men Will Be Men’ campaign

    Seagram puts the spotlight on women in iconic ‘Men Will Be Men’ campaign

    DELHI: With the society and media & entertainment industry getting more serious about issues like inclusivity and women rights in their approach, it becomes tactical to harness campaigns that rely on very gendered aspects of one’s nature. There have been several instances of brands stepping on the wrong side to attract great backlash from the consumers. But one brand that doesn’t fail to do it right every time is Imperial Blue with its ‘Men Will Be Men’ spot. Even though it has been subject to a lot of scrutiny when it comes to social movements, the campaign never fails to resonate with the audience with its crisp, tongue-in-cheek, and responsible humour.

    This year’s edition, titled ‘Heartbeat’, created by Ogilvy & Mather, received a similar response from the viewers as it went viral across three continents. It had managed to get 20 million impressions on social media in just 5 days of the launch and its popularity is only growing with each passing day.

    Talking about the spot to Indiantelevision.com, Pernod Ricard India general manager marketing, Seagram’s whiskies Ishwindar Singh shared that he was surprised to see the level of engagement the campaign got on digital media.

    Elaborating on the gendered nature of the ad, Ishwindar admitted that the brief for the particular campaign is any agency’s nightmare. “We want it to be crisp, within 20-seconds, without any dialogues, comic but not slapstick, and there should be no objectification of women,” he said.

    Singh added that this year, the aim was to create it from a woman’s perspective. “This year, we have looked at the whole act of ‘men will be men’ from a woman’s eyes. This is a historic campaign, and if you would have looked at it 10-years-ago, the whole story was from men’s perspective. The scenario back then was very different. There was no concept of objectification of women. This time, we have got the female character at the centre-stage.”

    He also noted that this inclusivity was not only at the creative level but the team working on the project comprised of a good number of women. Even the creative director from Ogilvy’s team, Ritu Sharda, gave a fine women’s angle to the story.

    The campaign was launched with a digital-first strategy and will be launched across TV channels. Speaking about the strategy, Singh said that the brand will be targeting sports and music programmes with the spot.

    Talking about the digital-first approach, Singh shared that launching the ad on social channels first helps the brands understand if the campaign will fly on its own or will need media push to travel. He insisted that the constant feedback received on social media helps the marketers gauge the full potential of a campaign.