Category: Brands

Xiaomi India retains smartphone market leadership in Q1 2018

MUMBAI: Xiaomi India continued to lead the Indian smartphone market as per IDC’s quarterly mobile phone tracker in Q1 2018. Xiaomi retained its top smartphone brand position with a substantial 30.3 per cent market share, widening the gap between itself and the number 2 smartphone brand. Xiaomi also continued its dominance in the online smartphone market with 59.6 per cent market share. The popularity of Redmi Note 5 and Redmi 5A and Xiaomi’s efforts in expanding its offline presence are key contributors for Xiaomi’s growth in the smartphone market.

Xiaomi India vice president and managing director Manu Jain says, “All the success which Xiaomi enjoys today is proof of the love we have received from millions of our Mi fans. We are thankful to each and every one of them for putting their faith in us and we promise to work hard to retain it. Xiaomi will strive to deliver on its philosophy towards providing high quality innovative technology at an honest price and bring the best of technology to everyone.”

True to its unconventional spirit, Xiaomi India released a unique video. With Xiaomi’s sales continuing to gain momentum, the video gives viewers a series of quirky insights on the vast scale of its smartphone sales in India over the last 3.5 years. The video aptly summarises the incredible scale of Xiaomi’s impact of smartphone sales, making quality and innovation available to everyone.

The video was conceptualised by the brand marketing team of Xiaomi India led by Karan Shroff, brand marketing lead, Xiaomi India and created by Schbang Digital Solutions. For example, if all Xiaomi phones sold were stacked together, it would run 25 times deeper than the depth of Mariana trench, world’s deepest oceanic trench at 10,994 meters and 35 times the height of Mount Everest at 8848 meters. The total weight of all Xiaomi phones sold measure 25 times more than the recorded weight of a blue whale. The video shares a similar fun fact on how the charge from batteries of all Xiaomi phones sold could easily light up the Burj Khalifa for as long as five days, which would stand as a distant dream to many other phone brands. This also highlights the powerful battery life that most Xiaomi smartphones are known for. With its highly engaging content, this video certainly leaves viewers with some great food for thought. Interesting facts like these indicate Xiaomi’s rapid success and growing positive outreach across the country.

Xiaomi was founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Lei Jun. With presence in over 70 countries and regions, Xiaomi is expanding its footprint across the world to become a global brand.

May 15, 2018
Star House lights up to promote VIVO IPL 2018

MUMBAI: Changing the way cricket fans experience VIVO IPL, Star India has added one more feather to its cap by re-imagining out-of-home (OOH) display in India. Star India’s spectacular 2D projection experience gracing Urmi Estate at the heart of Mumbai is a first of its kind projection, marking the debut of large-scale OOH projections in India.

With this initiative, Star India has added a fresh perspective to VIVO IPL by giving fans a chance to be a part of a larger than life immersive experience for the tournament. Modern Stage Services planned and executed the campaign for this initiative.

Urmi Estate, which is Star India’s headquarters, is being transformed into a canvas with a spellbinding light show to promote VIVO IPL. Rich and vibrant, red and blue visuals depicting team players were projected onto Urmi Estate with the help of an array of projectors installed in a specially built control cabin situated about 300 feet away from the projected surface. The projectors will be in portrait mode with the visuals measuring 140 feet long and 180 feet high which can be fully enjoyed by thousands of onlookers in the sports capital of Mumbai.

The projection is the first of many adorned by Urmi Estate which will be updated daily. 2D interactive images promoting daily match tune-ins with respective captains displayed, match statistics and exciting trivia related to the tournament will be highlighted.

May 14, 2018
Policybazaar, Paisabazaar sign Akshay Kumar as brand ambassador

MUMBAI: ETechAces Marketing & Consulting, which owns insur-tech brand, PolicyBazaar.com, and marketplace for lending products, PaisaBazaar.com, has roped in actor Akshay Kumar as its brand ambassador.

Policybazaar.com and Paisabazaar.com have launched their biggest ever marketing campaign, spread across the financial products basket of term insurance, free credit score and others.

The campaign was launched with a video of Kumar donning the avatar of Yamraj for Policybazaar’s campaign on the digital platform. The first TVCs from the duo will be aired across a spectrum of TV channels, including the IPL broadcast.

Commenting on why the maverick actor was a natural choice for the brand to sign as its ambassador, policybazaar.com co-founder and group CEO Yashish Dahiya says, “He is self-made, speaks directly and delivers important messages with humour, these attributes make him a perfect fit for our brands. Like him, our brands stand for transparency, positive social change, reliability, trust and have a genuine connect with the masses. So, this partnership is a natural extension of the values that we share with him. Our shared passion for fitness is an added plus.”

paisabazaar.com co-founder and CEO Naveen Kukreja adds, “Being the market leaders for both insurance and lending products, our next step is to take our brand to every Indian household and who better than Akshay Kumar to spread this message. Along with being one of the biggest names in the Indian entertainment Industry, he is also the face that the common man resonates with. We strongly feel our association with Akshay would further build customer’s trust on Policybazaar and Paisabazaar.”

Policybazaar.com and paisabazaar.com associate director and group head of marketing Sai Narayan mentions, “Our latest marketing campaign, featuring Akshay Kumar, is aimed to garner a wider reach for both Policybazaar and Paisabazaar’s key messaging around financial products. We have already upped the ante through our ongoing campaign during the IPL broadcasts, and will be launching our new campaign with Akshay in the IPL later this week. We will also launch other product-specific campaigns with Akshay through the year.”

The high-impact campaign will be aired on Star Sports, Star Sports HD, Star Gold, &Pictures, &TV, Discovery Channel, History TV18, National Geographic, NDTV 24×7, India Today, Mirror Now, Zee TV, Aaj Tak, ABP News and others.

May 14, 2018
Fastrack launches limited edition Deadpool watches

MUMBAI: All you superhero fans hold your breath! Cause this May Fastrack is launching watches from the Deadpool Collection and it’s that one piece of accessory you’ll have to own if you’re a Deadpool fan. If you're the smart, tongue-in-cheek, crazy millennial who loves to flaunt that swanky piece on his wrist, the Deadpool Collection from Fastrack is what you need next! And what’s better is, these are limited edition watches and you can pre-book yours even before you book movie tickets for Deadpool 2.

Priced at Rs. 995, these limited edition collectible watches from Fastrack come in 10 variants. To pre-book watches from the Deadpool Collection, you can visit Fastrack stores across the country or order them online on titan.co.in. The Deadpool Collection from Fastrack will also be available exclusively on e-commerce website Flipkart.

Explaining about the Deadpool Collection Fastrack, Head of Marketing, Ayushman Chiranewala says, “The Deadpool Collection from Fastrack is a collection of 10 watches, as mad as Deadpool himself, and will take your style quotient to a notch higher. We wanted to team up with a Hero who is as wacky, crazy, irreverent and witty as Fastrack. Someone who packs a punch, makes you laugh your guts out while being utterly cool and someone who’s badass with a tendency to break the fourth wall as and when required.”

All customers preordering the watch will get a free movie ticket. Fans also have a chance of winning watches from the Fastrack Deadpool Collection by participating in the #FlashYourFastrack campaign. All they would need to do is, take a picture with the life size cut out of a watch and Deadpool displayed at 170 Fastrack stores across the country and upload it with the #FlashYourFastrack hashtag.

May 11, 2018
Big Bazaar used meme based marketing to promote sale

MUMBAI: Big Bazaar is known for its blockbuster sales which attract customers in millions. For this public holiday sale from 28 April to 2 May, it also gave an opportunity to customers to buy online. This was done with the intent to reach every nook and corner of the country where its stores were not present.

Big Bazaar created immense visibility for its public holiday sale campaign and pushed visitors to try online shopping by partnering with RVCJ Media to create a buzz on social media. The single point agenda for all communication was to crowd source, drive awareness and encourage shopping both in-stores and online.

Big Bazaar wanted to drive purchases of a variety of products like kitchen appliances, suitcases, cookware, trimmers, bedsheets, television sets, mobile phones and other electronic goods. It tried static /video memes and WhatsApp conversation videos to highlight deals and specific offers, across these categories.

The campaign went live on all social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, on 22 April, and RVCJ leveraged topical content and trends around conversations, for e.g. it created memes featuring IPL stars, and actors from the hit film Sonu KeTitu Ki Sweety, to relate with customers and create visibility for their client. Using witty pop culture references, RVCJ created funny static memes, video memes in Hindi also dubbed in variety of regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali, WhatsApp conversation GIF videos and articles to craft a 360-degree campaign.

RVCJ also created a hilarious sketch based ‘hero video’ to anchor the campaign, featuring well known artists and familiar faces. The theme of the hero video was ‘Indians During Sale’ and showcased quirks and people’s eagerness to get the best discounts during an e-commerce sale and integrated bigbazaar.com cleverly, within the narrative. The ‘Indians During Sale’ video performed exceedingly well, getting 1.5 Million views on FaceBook alone, and crossing 512K views on YouTube.

Future Group India group head for digital Pawan Sarda says, “We partnered with RVCJ media for them being one of leading content aggregators when it comes to crowdsourcing, creating snacky and engaging content which cuts across geographies and age segments. Its high rate of organic engagement being another critical factor worked well for the campaign.”

A high frequency of a variety of interesting content ensured that the message reached the maximum number of people. For instance, a static meme using a picture of Ranveer Singh for a before and after effect, to push the sale of a trimmer was liked by over 51k people. And overall, the 14 static meme based campaign got a total reach of 1.59 million on Facebook, with an engagement of 21.2 per cent, and reached out to an additional 2.5 million people on Instagram and 91K people via Twitter. And nine video memes achieved a good amount of traction with 2.5 million views on Facebook and seven video memes distributed via Instagram fetched 1.2 million views.

RVCJ Media founder and CEO Shahid Javed Ansari adds, “Big Bazaar has partnered exclusively with RVCJ on all digital platforms for the past few months and this is the fourth campaign we are working on together. Our ability to tap into what is trending, our understanding of what works with Indian audiences and our pan-Indian regional language reach helped us create awareness about Big Bazaar’s e-commerce portal. In the past we have generated 48 per cent of traffic for them during a sale, using viral memes and other popular content like sketch based humorous videos. We hope to continue doing good work for them in the future.”

May 10, 2018
Pepsi gives the ‘kyun sookhe sookhe hi?’ campaign a new twist

MUMBAI: Beverage brand Pepsi has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to communicating with consumers. The brand has always innovated and developed campaigns that connect with consumers in the most relevant ways. Continuing this trend, this year too, Pepsi is reaching out to millions with its message of ‘Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi’ by giving a twist to typical YouTube advertising with Google’s dynamic advertising tool Director Mix. This tool creates custom video ads from one core creative, turning consumer’s attention into action.

Through Director Mix, Pepsi is showing its consumers content which is most relevant to them, in its trademark witty and humorous style. The brand has turned a limited set of creative assets for its ‘Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi’ campaign, including images, voiceovers, texts, fonts and colors into multiple unique messages catering to different audiences in a contextual and engaging manner.

Pepsi has fashioned over 100 customized creatives for Director Mix in a bid to stand out in the consumers’ mind. Each pre-roll ad will place the ‘Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi’ philosophy customized to the context of one’s search; and will reinstate the idea that food is incomplete without Pepsi. The unique marketing initiative has resulted in 96 million impressions, 84 million unique users and 87 million completed views, over the last few weeks.

Speaking about the Director Mix and success of the campaign, Raj Rishi Singh, Director Marketing, Pepsi, PepsiCo India, “Pepsi has always created campaigns and experiences which resonate strongly with consumers. In fact, we are constantly experimenting with different marketing tools and techniques and Director Mix, with its customized creatives, has helped us strike a chord with our consumers better. We have been able to reach our audiences with content which is most relevant for them. By leveraging Director Mix, Pepsi has been able to cut through the clutter in the digital space.”

Elaborating on Director Mix, Vikas Agnihotri, Industry Director, Google India said, “People are drawn to the contextual creatives as they’re highly engaging and they drive higher awareness for the brands. It’s great to see Pepsi take the approach of personalizing their campaign at scale on YouTube with our latest tool called Director Mix. Using the tool, Pepsi has turned its video campaign, into many highly relevant and shareable video’s that genuinely connects with their consumers at scale without having to worry about producing multiple video campaigns.”

Pepsi is leveraging Director Mix as part of the ‘Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi’ campaign, which kick started last month with a TVC featuring Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma and Manjot Singh, stars of the popular Fukrey movie franchise. The three actors will make their appearance in all Pepsi Director Mix ads as well. The 360-degree campaign also celebrates Pepsi’s strongest asset, its packaging through the introduction of new Pepsi Foodicon bottles. These bottles will feature different interpretations of age old street food favourites such as dosas, burgers and noodles, amongst others.

‘Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi’ will also be supported by massive outdoor & digital surround. There will also be exclusive promotions with partners like KFC, Pizza Hut & Subway.

May 10, 2018
Win a place on the sets of the first IKEA India commercial

MUMBAI: IKEA, the Swedish home furnishings company, today announced a contest in which the winners will experience behind-the-scenes of its first TV commercial to be shot in Bangkok. IKEA is ready to launch its first store in India in Hyderabad soon to be followed by Mumbai in 2019. The contest is open till May 10, 2018 for IKEA Family members (loyalty program of IKEA) in Hyderabad and Mumbai. Two members who get the maximum number of people from Mumbai and Hyderabad to join IKEA Family between 3-10 May, will be chosen winners. The three-day trip to Bangkok will include behind-the-scenes on the sets of IKEA India’s first ever TV commercial where winners will also meet IKEA’s interior designers, a day of sight-seeing with family and a visit to the IKEA store in Bangkok to experience IKEA solutions even before the store opens in India.

“The IKEA Family members have been eagerly waiting for the store launch. During our interactions with them, they spoke of their enthusiasm to get a feel and touch of the IKEA experience beyond the Hej Home, our experience centre in Hyderabad. We thought the contest was great way to give this feel and touch experience,” said Neha Jindal, Country IKEA Loyalty Manager, IKEA India.

MRM McCann is the agency behind the contest while Dentsu is the creative agency behind the commercial.

May 9, 2018
Study reveals that 1/3rd of India hasn’t done any physical activity even once in the last 1 year

MUMBAI: India’s leading athlete Virat Kohli and sportswear brand PUMA commissioned a pan-India study with market research agency Kantar IMRB to understand the current state of physical activity and sports adoption in the country. The study also assesses the barriers to playing sport regularly. Additionally, it highlights that the biggest motivation for adopting play is the sheer joy it brings and how it can effortlessly be included in everyday life.

Findings show that:

· 1/3rd of the total population surveyed had not done any physical activity even once in the last 1 year!*

Physical activity here included any activity at home/outdoors/gyms/fitness centers such as Running/Walking/Zumba/Yoga/Swimming etc. as well as sports such as Cricket, Football, Badminton, Tennis, Table Tennis, Basketball, Volleyball, Hockey, Squash and local games such as Kabaddi, Kho-Kho etc.

· 57% of the respondents have not played any sport for the last one year!*

o 3/4th of this group last played a sport only in school or college

o While 70% of the respondents between 18-21 years had played a sport at least once in the last 1 year, this figure dropped drastically as individuals progressed in their occupations, and reduced to just 26% in the age bracket of 36-40 years.

· 58% of those who don’t play any sport cited ‘Lack of time’ as the main reason *

o However, the research brought out that the same respondents also spent close to 4-5 hours on social media, watching TV, personal phone conversations and usage of various messaging platforms on a typical working day (all put together).

o In fact, the average frequency of uploading content on one’s social media handles was found to be 9 times in a month

o Additionally, the average number of working hours for those who don’t play was found to be lesser than those who do (4.8 hours vs. 5.4 hours)

· Interestingly, 81% of those who do play said they did so simply because they ‘enjoyed playing’ *

o Other reasons for playing sport include ‘keeping fit’ and ‘relief from stress’

o 76% percent of those who play stated that they play in any open spaces that they find near their homes and 65% play with neighbors. Both clearly showing that lack of infrastructure or unavailability of people to play with were not barriers to play.

· Goa topped the list with 89% of the respondents playing a sport at least once in the last 1 month*

o This was followed by Hyderabad and Mumbai.

o Gurgaon, Raipur and Patna rated low on this index with only 18%, 15% and 12% of the respondents from these cities playing at least once in the last 1 month.

Responding to the findings Virat Kohli said, ““It is shocking to see that one-third of the country has not done any kind of physical activity in the last one year. When you are physically fit, you are more energized to take on challenges. I have experienced this personally, and therefore strongly believe in leading an active lifestyle.

Technology and social media is gaining preference over health and fitness in our lives. This needs to change. Sports can be seamlessly integrated into our daily life – one can do it anywhere and at any time. Hence, I urge everyone to Come Out and Play. Its fun, relieves stress and helps us stay fit.”

PUMA India, Managing Director, Abhishek Ganguly said “The study brings out alarming facts about India’s adoption of physical activity. It is essential to take corrective steps to address this situation. Playing sports is a simple yet effective solution that can be implemented into everyday life.”

He further added “Our endeavour has always been to encourage and promote an active lifestyle in the country. It is Virat Kohli’s personal mission to inspire India to get fitter, and we are delighted to partner with him in this journey.”

The survey covered 3924 respondents from the age bracket of 18-40 years (both male and female). The respondents were spread across 18 cities – Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Cochin, Ghaziabad, Goa, Gurugram, Guwahati, Jaipur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Patna, Raipur, and Surat.

May 9, 2018
Nutralite launches India’s first mayonnaise with vitamins

MUMBAI: Table spread brand Nutralite has launched India’s first mayonnaise range with vitamins. The company claims Nutralite Mayonnaise to be fortified with Vitamin A, D and E and provides 30 per cent daily requirement of the three with every serving of 15g. The completely vegetarian range will be available in flavours of cheesy garlic, achari and veg.

Nutralite brand ambassador Chef Sanjeev Kapoor says, “Nutralite has always focused on bringing together great taste and good health. Nutralite Mayonnaise follows the same legacy. The kids will love Nutralite Mayo flavours.”

Zydus Wellness director and chief operating officer Tarun Arora mentions, “Mayonnaise has started becoming a must have at home as kids love it. But regular mayonnaise traditionally is not associated with health benefits and hence mothers restrict its use for kids. Nutralite, known for its health credentials, identified this as an opportunity. The flavours are developed keeping the Indian palate in mind. Achari is the first of its kind flavour in this category. The other two are veg &and cheesy garlic. For today’s ‘smart home-maker’ who is proactive, creative and experimental and works towards developing her skills to minimise the daily struggles of cooking a variety of dishes for her kid while keeping them healthy, Nutralite Mayo would be ideal ally.”

Nutralite Mayonnaise is available at all retail stores for Rs 85. Zydus Wellness has a strong presence in the sugar substitute market, table spreads and the skin care segment.

Nutralite is a market leader in the table spread category and appeals to consumers looking for healthier alternatives to normal butter. It is cholesterol free, does not contain any hydrogenated fats and is also trans-fat free.

May 4, 2018
Barbie dons the colours of India

MUMBAI: Barbie, from the house of Mattel Toys, has launched an India-exclusive collection of dolls inspired by several cultural aspects of India. The collectibles, from the Colours of India series, will see Barbie in six different avatars, uniquely inspired by six heritage sites across the country.

Colours of India series brings to life several aspects of each iconic monument that inspired the doll-maker to create the collection. With distinct shifts of cultures at every step, each doll in the collection has found a unique muse in the beauty India has to offer. Barbie has seamlessly weaved in elements of iconic Indian heritage destinations into the collection that reflects contemporary designs in traditional wear. Inspiration from each design comes from unique architectural and design elements of monuments in India such as the ‘jharokas’ of Hawa Mahal from the pink city Jaipur, the mystical paintings from Ajanta Caves from Maharashtra, the opulent courtyards of Mysore Palace from Mysuru – the city of Palaces, the grand arches of South Indian heritage palace, Thirumallai Nayakkar Mahal in Madurai, the vibrant colours from Sikkim’s Gompas and the striking sheen of marbles from India’s wonder of the world Taj Mahal. These elements are flawlessly integrated in the dolls’ designs and packaging as well.

Mattel’s head of marketing Lokesh Kataria says, “We, at Mattel, have always encouraged development through creative play and believe that when you play with a doll, you open your mind to endless possibilities. We are elated to launch a collection of Barbie that is so close to home. With this edition, we aim to drive a local connect with our audiences by showcasing the vibrant and diverse Indian culture inspired by iconic sites across the country. Bringing a unique concept of Barbie visiting India, we intend to generate curiosity amongst young girls and inculcate in them the rich treasures of Indian heritage through meaningful play.”

The packaging designs were conceptualised by Design Orb. Speaking on the range,

Design Orb founder director Poornima Burte mentions, “This was a great design opportunity to help little children rediscover our country with Barbie. The Colours of India series firmly roots Barbie in the Indian context. Barbie is curious about India and is on a travel spree to find out more. She is inspired by every place she visits – its unique architecture, motifs and colours, and chooses to style herself in her interpretation of every place she visits. Each pack tells the story of the amazing destinations of India that span the length and breadth of our diverse country. Inspiration for the colours, motifs and architectural styles have been borrowed from the monuments of each destination. Barbie welcomes all her little friends to take this enriching journey of discovery with her.”

The Colours of India will be available at leading retail stores and e-commerce websites. In line with the theme of Barbie traveling across India, the pack also contains a mini DIY kit where girls can make a paper suitcase for the doll.

Mattel Toys has focused its efforts around the core philosophy of play with purpose where each toy developed by the global leader has an intrinsic benefit linked to it. For over 58 years, Barbie has led girls on a path to self-discovery. After over 180 inspirational careers and diverse range of collectibles, Barbie—along with her friends and family—continues to inspire and encourage the next generation of girls that they can be anything.

May 4, 2018