ITV

Category: Brands

  • Vodafone launches global design store

    MUMBAI: Vodafone has launched a global design store in Kanpur. It is a one-stop-shop with exclusive service counters on 4G, M-Pesa, Vodafone Red & Self Service Kiosk. It provides live and engaging experience of Vodafone’s wide variety of products & services.

    The store’s core services include:

    • 4G Zone: 4G Zone offers customers an interactive experience to explore and discover a world of data services on the mobile phone.

    • Vodafone Red Zone: An all-in-one, integrated, worry-free solution, exclusively for postpaid retail and enterprise customers

    • Self Service Kiosk: A facility, where customers can drop by to pay their bills or recharge their plans with any amount at any given point in time

    • M-Pesa Zone: Convenient service to transfer money across geographies and make payments.

    • Zoo Zoo Merchandise: Customers can choose from a wide range of merchandise such as Vodafone Zoo Zoo dolls, mugs etc from the Take me Home section.

    • Go Post-Paid Zone: Get instant post-paid connections activated through KYC.

    With the increasing use of smart phones, mobile internet and new technologies, the customer is evolving at a fast pace. To provide this customer with an interactive, convenient and satisfactory service experience, Vodafone India introduced its Global Design Store in Kanpur.

    Customers will be offered an array of services through special designated zones such as 4G Zone to discover and experience mobile internet, Vodafone Red Zone; – all-in one post-paid service, m-pesa Zone a unique mobile money transfer service, Self Service Kiosk; a facility for bill payment and recharge service, Vodafone Red Box; to enable customers to transfer content from an existing handset to a new age smart phone for free.

    Vodafone India business head – Uttar Pradesh (East), Nipun Sharma, said, “The consumer has always been at the heart of everything we do. Vodafone is at the forefront to introduce innovative concepts, products and services that enrich the lives of our customers. Hence, keeping in mind the trend of increasing smart phone penetration and mobile internet usage, we have taken an innovative approach in retail design. The Global Design Store with an easy and simple design, welcoming and engaging staff will provide a one-stop shop experience platform for our customers.”

    The new Vodafone Global Design Store retail concept is designed and equipped to be warm and customer friendly, to meet the evolving needs and expectations of the customers. The store offers live and engaging retail experience of Vodafone’s wide range of products and services. This store has been specifically adapted and customized after testing and validating a full suite of customer insights, which are relevant to customer needs in India.

  • Airtel lists 32.7 mn paperless Aadhar-based acquisitions in ‘Sustainability Report’

    MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel (Airtel), India’s largest telecommunications company, has released its 2017 India Sustainability Report that outlines its approach towards responsible, sustainable business practices and making a positive impact on all stakeholders including customers, suppliers, local communities, investors, employees and government bodies.

    Bharti Airtel MD & CEO (India & south Asia) Gopal Vittal said, “As part of our governance DNA, we attach a deep sense of purpose to the way we conduct our business and ensure it has a positive impact on all stakeholders. Being a responsible corporate citizen, we have implemented a host of sustainability initiatives across the organization and remain fully committed to building on this strong foundation.”

    Green Initiatives

    81% reduction in CO2 emissions across network infrastructure in the last five years and 27% reduction in the last financial year.
    23% reduction in CO2 emissions per square feet in our facility and 9% reduction in CO2 emissions per rack in data centre operations against 2015-16
    Airtel saved over 1280 million sheets of paper since FY 2011-12 on paperless billing initiatives.
    Adopted Aadhar based instant verification process which is secure and eliminates paperwork
    Managed to recycle 2400 tonnes of e-waste and refurbished over 500,000 direct-to-home set top boxes
    Over 1200 tonnes of paper have been saved since FY 2011-12 with the paperless billing initiative, over 170 millions have opted for e-bills. 191 tonnes of paper was saved across facilities

    Adopted Aadhar based instant verification process which is secure and eliminates paperwork. 32.7 million such paperless Aadhar based acquisitions were completed last year.

    Customer Initiatives

    Unveiled India’s first Open Network, setting a new benchmark for transparency in the industry, by making the entire network information including coverage, site details and signal strength available to customers.
    Doubled mobiles sites in just two years by deploying 180,000 sites. This is the same number deployed over the past 20 years.
    Self-regulation: Airtel will contribute INR 100,000 for every 0.01% increase in call drop rate beyond 1.5% / month against the TRAI prescribed limit of 2%. The amount will be contributed towards education of the under privileged.

    Listening to customers through various touch points – stores, customer care, website and social media. There is 74% increase in online interactions and 10 million social media queries were answered last year.

    Community Initiatives

    The company supports over 254 Satya Bharti School Program, Learning Centers and Quality Support Program through its educational initiatives and benefitted over 43,500 underprivileged children in rural India, impacting over 198,000 underprivileged children cumulatively.

    Benefitted over 3.8 million farmers through the IFFCO-Kisan Sanchar Ltd by undertaking mobile based agriculture awareness Implemented a host of initiatives in the field of disaster relief management, environment protection and other social causes

    Other key interventions

    Deployed a ‘Win with people’ strategy. To help talent grow through strong learning, mentoring and succession planning, started conducting Career Fairs. Over 370 hours of training interventions with over 935,000 man hours of training delivered in FY 2016-17

    Launched Airtel Payments Bank, the first payments bank in India, further consolidating the government’s agenda of digital payments and financial inclusion.

    Enabled over 1000 villages to go cashless across India, through enabling Airtel Payments Bank accounts with over 250000 banking points and onboarding merchants who accept digital payments

  • Ranbir urges Rupa’s Macroman & Macrowoman to ‘live open’

    MUMBAI: The millennial is not just a different generation, they are a different breed. Unconventional choices, modern philosophies define them.

    And none other than youth icon Ranbir Kapoor can represent them better. Small wonder, he is the one revealing the new mantra of iconic brands Macroman M-Series and Macrowoman W-Series — ‘Live Open’. The W-Series is presented by Rupa & Co. Limited, a leading knitwear company in India, covering the entire range of knitted garments from innerwear to casual wear.

    The new Macroman philosophy goes really well with the brand’s revamped new-age and progressive vision. It’s an ode to those who live on their own terms and set trends rather than follow one. The new promotional campaign of Macroman M-Series & Macrowoman W-Series resonates with a new energy and confidence in all key stakeholders associated with the brands.

    Speaking about the new positioning and campaign, Macroman & Macrowoman president & brand director Vikash Agarwal said, “Our communication campaign is designed to further deliver this objective. The campaign is aimed at making Macroman M-Series synonymous with youth, style and fashion. It is in true sense, the ‘inner’ voice of today’s generation.”

    Agarwal said, “Ranbir Kapoor is the perfect link as he is a living embodiment of Macroman with his bold choices and unapologetic way of living.” Kapoor said, “I am sure that today’s youth will relate to ‘Live Open’.”

    Initially just an innerwear brand, Macroman M Series has now grown up to be a formidable player with its large range of finest innerwear, leisurewear, sportswear and casual wear. It also intends to enhance its distribution and open several exclusive outlets in India. The brand’s superior range of bras celebrates the woman in all her attitudes. Bras for working comfort, uniquely designed bras for sports, everyday wear bras and also special designs for the freedom loving millennials, Macrowoman has something for every woman in her every mood.

  • Viacom18 welcomes Peppa Pig & George, largest party with Hamley’s

    MUMBAI: Viacom18 Consumer Products, the consumer products arm of Viacom18, is all set to welcome the internationally acclaimed character of Peppa Pig and her brother George, to India this July. The show – Peppa Pig, started to air in India on Nick Jr. from December 2016 along with our fast growing video on demand platform Voot and rapidly gained a massive following among tiny tots and their parents in India; following which, Viacom18 is gearing up to enhance the viewer’s experience further by providing an exclusive meet and greet with their favourite characters across Hamley’s outlets in Delhi on 22 July, Chennai on 30 July and Mumbai on 5 August.

    The mega launch of the characters will be hosted in association with none other than kid’s leading toy brand- Hamley’s. A never-seen-before ‘Peppa Pig Party’ will be organized and a meet and greet exclusively in Hamley’s stores across four cities. Kids will get to interact with Peppa Pig and George while participating in fun activities such as coloring contests, Peppa maze game, Peppa pong game, and an exciting magic show. An extensive marketing and communication plan has been activated to maximize the reach of the Peppa Pig characters.

    Peppa is one of the most celebrated animated characters internationally. British pre-school animated series- Peppa Pig provides for healthy kid’s content like creative lessons and other elementary learnings for kids.

    Viacom18 Consumer Products and Integrated Network head Saugato Bhowmik said, “We have previously launched iconic international characters like Dora-the explorer, Spongebob, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Peanuts and Charlie brown with a wide range of consumer products for kids along with our home-grown beloved characters Motu Patlu. With the launch of Peppa Pig Viacom18 Consumer Products truly establishes itself as the leader in bringing the world’s best licensing programs to India.”

  • Curated video platform Flickstree nets Sourav Ganguly as investor

    MUMBAI: Indian cricketing legend and former captain Sourav Ganguly has made his very first foray in the startup world by investing in Mumbai-based company, Flickstree.

    Flickstree, a tech-entertainment company started by Saurabh Singh, Rahul Jain and Nagender Sangra, has raised a seed round Rs 30 million capital from investors like Venture Catalysts, Anirban Aditya & Ankit Aditya (Aditya Group, Kolkata) and Moksh Sports Ventures, along with Sourav Ganguly. Venture Catalysts is leading the round.

    Flickstree compiles these free-to-watch curated and personalised online videos from social networks, media sites, and blogs and then creates a custom user video feed. The AI based on patent pending technology, allows Flickstree to effectively curate and personalize the experience for its users.

    “Different users have different passions. I decided to invest in Flickstree because they’re at the forefront of innovative cutting edge technology,” said Sourav Ganguly.

    Ganguly added: While currently users can create only a single video magazine on Flickstree based on their interests, going forward I have asked the founders to enable users create multiple such magazines that users can create and enjoy.”

    CEO Singh said, “With so many content producers creating quality content, it becomes difficult for users to discover videos across multiple platforms. Flickstree is trying to organise video content from the free web for users.”

    “The free-to-watch video space is extremely fragmented. These videos are published exclusively on separate platforms – a user who has interest in several categories cannot install multiple apps and keep browsing them separately, also owing to limited phone storage. This leads to poor video discovery. Flickstree is trying to solve this consumer problem,” said Satadru Dutta, co-founder Moksh Sports Ventures and Business Development Consultant to Flickstree.

    Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, co-founder and president Venture Catalysts, said, “Flickstree’s core technology is an AI powered video recognition technology that watches videos in-screen like human beings. The patent pending technology generates keywords for each video and gathers video popularity, sentiment and engagements on Internet.”

  • Dettol campaign for 26k villages to be ‘open defecation-free’ by ’18

    MUMBAI: RB (formerly known as Reckitt Benckiser) in collaboration with Jagran Pehel, in its endeavour to strengthen the prime minister’s ‘Swachh Bharat Mission,’ marked the success of their 1st phase of activation in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, reaching out to 200 villages and 85,205 households. The 2nd Phase would target 26,032 villages and 14,712,453 households across seven Indian states of UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh covering 25 districts and three cities.

    The BSI Campaign in the second phase will focus on mentoring Swachh Bharat Fellows who will provide support to districts in smooth implementing and monitoring of the mission They would work closely with faith based leaders, mothers, care givers, municipal cleaners on behavioural Change Communication and also initiate citizen movement for human to human connect. The Campaign which was launched in 2015, has been successful in reaching out to 100% of its target and has successfully mobilised around 13000 change leaders in communities.

    The announcement was made in Lucknow at the completion of 1st phase of “’Changing Behaviour, Creating Sanitation Change Leaders programme”in association with Jagran Pehel. The event brought together leaders and policy makers from Global Interfaith WASH Alliance, WHO, UNICEF, World Toilet Organisation and other organisations associated with Dettol Banega Swachh India to share best practices and grassroots solutions that can be implemented to achieve ‘Open Defecation-Free’ status.

    Chief Guest Surya Pratap Shahi, Cabinet Minister for Agriculture, Agriculture Education and Agricultural Research launched the Impact Assessment Report that embodies behaviour change strategies adopted, activities undertaken, success stories and impact created through public-private participation during the first year of the project.

  • Infosys strengthens partnership with Udacity

    MUMBAI: Infosys, a leader in consulting, technology, outsourcing and next-generation services, has announced that it has fortified its partnership with Udacity, a global online education company, for the second consecutive year. The joint endeavor, aimed at accelerating the pace of skill adoption in new technologies and industry skills in the new batch of trainees of Infosys, offers a Nanodegree program online in an innovative curriculum. It also enables the learner to develop unique, in-demand skills through project-based and real-world scenarios.

    Highlights:

    ● The training program, called Infosys-Udacity FastTrack Program, gives students an opportunity to complete a Nanodegree program online before joining the Infosys training program in Mysore

    ● The best-in-class courses taught by leading experts, coupled with individual mentoring and detailed feedback, have demonstrated a positive impact on maximizing the learning potential of trainees over the last year

    ● The partnership is aimed at preparing the current talent pool to work on more ambitious projects, and accelerate the deployment of these hires on projects

    Talking about the partnership, Dr. Navin Budhiraja, Chief Technology Officer, Infosys Ltd said, “At Infosys, our focus has evolved from learning specific technology skills to learning to learn. We are consistently investing to bring a culture of lifelong learning early, especially for our young engineers. Through our partnership with Udacity, we are now able to complement this learning, and build a strong foundation with specialized skills training, and I look forward to scaling this partnership further.”

    “Udacity has been at the forefront of providing the latest, most relevant technology skills to prepare the global workforce for the jobs of today and tomorrow. There is great demand within the IT industry in India to upskill workers and lead the world in software development, and we are excited to take our partnership with Infosys into our second year to further train their talent pool,” said Vish Makhijani, Chief Executive Officer of Udacity.

  • MTV’s Nescafe Labs picks 12 finalists

    MUMBAI: Nescafe and MTV hosted the finale of their co-branded digital talent platform called MTV presents Nescafe Labs at the Summer House Café in Mumbai.

    MTV, the voice of the youth and Nescafe, India’s favorite coffee brand, had set out on a journey to provide young and raw talent with a unique online platform to help them get nurtured and recognized with MTV presents Nescafe Labs – a destination for creative youngsters looking for inspiration, mentors and a stage to showcase their talents.

    The property garnered a social reach of over 90 million, over 8 million digital video views and received an overwhelming 85,000+ registrations. Out of this, 12 finalists were selected by the mentors to showcase their talent in India’s biggest talent pool party in Mumbai, aptly named the House of Labs.

    This ‘Always On’ Platform for experimental, creative, raw and hidden talent, has enabled youngsters to live their dreams. The property saw enthusiastic participation of youngsters possessing unique talent like flute-boxing, beatboxing, rapping, singing, dancing and football freestyling.

    Speaking on the need for such platforms, Sunayan Mitra, General Manager – Coffee and Beverages, Nestlé India Ltd. commented, “Nescafe is a brand that resonates with the aspirational youth. It aims to partner with the youth in their journey towards achieving their dreams. Youngsters have an inherent talent. This talent needs to be identified, harnessed and refined. MTV presents Nescafe Labs is one such platform which discovers creative talent and enables them to interact and learn from industry experts. Serving as a talent scouting and nurturing platform, it is an opportunity that kick starts their journey to better and bigger things in life.”

    Speaking about the finale of season one of MTV presents Nescafe Labs, Ferzad Palia, Head, Youth, Music and English Entertainment, Viacom18 said, “MTV and Nescafe joined hands to empower the youngsters by providing them a platform in the form of MTV presents Nescafe Labs to give wings to their dreams. The massive number of registrations prove that a lot of youngsters have been able to be a part of this creative ecosystem. It’s amazing to see the enormous talent pool in the country, which is second to none. For us, true success of the platform lies in seeing these talented young people reaching heights of success in their chosen fields and having the best of minds from within the industry coming forward to mentor them.”

    Commenting on judging the film-making competition at MTV presents Nescafe Labs, National award winning film-maker Madhur Bhandarkar said, “It feels really good to judge such fresh and raw talent at MTV presents Nescafe Labs finale. It’s amazing to see young film makers brimming with unrestrained energy and showcasing their talent. Rarely do people get such opportunities to showcase their mettle and MTV and Nescafe have done a brilliant job by providing youngsters with such a great platform.”

    On being adjudged the winner of the photography challenge, Manjusha Dangeti said, “Photography has been my passion and when I got to know about MTV presents Nescafe Labs I did not give it a second thought and registered right away and to my surprise I won the contest. MTV presents Nescafe Labs has boosted my confidence and given me hope that this is a promising profession and I can surely make it big.”

    In order to enable the contestants to hone their talent, industry stalwarts renowned for the skills including the likes of Papon (Cover Singer Challenge), Subi Samuel (Photography Challenge), Shakti Mohan (Dance Challenge), Satish Acharya (Cartoonist Challenge), Nikhil Chinapa and Jose Covaco (Twitterati Challenge), RJ Rishi (RJ Challenge), Vikas Bahl and Madhur Bhandarkar (Film-making Challenge) mentored the contestants.

  • Diana Hayden to be face of Estilo Patio

    MUMBAI: Estilo Patio, in association with Mini Homes, has signed former Miss World Diana Hayden as the brand ambassador and face of their high-end luxury brand. Hayden will be the face of Estilo Patio, a flagship project by Estilo Moderno Realty.

    Estilo Patio is an elegant collection of luxurious European styled individual and row villas tucked in the folds of the lush green environment of Sancoale Village of Goa. The carpet sizes along with the rich majestic looks and the amenities provided are the USP’s of this project. The marketing partner of this project is Mini Homes, a real estate investment advisory firm and an exclusive real estate project marketing company.

    Hayden said, “I have always dreamt of owning an ideal vacation home in the beach haven of India, i.e. Goa. The European inspiration in this project will definitely uplift the status of the state.”

    Estilo Moderno Realty MD Sagar Salgaocar expressed, “At Estilo, we believe in creating something unique by focusing on the Minutiae – the tiny details that make every creation spectacular. Just as the saying goes – “Write the book you want to read” we believe in ‘Creating Dream Homes that we would want to live in.”

    “Having Diana Hayden on board is an appropriate amalgamation of her beauty and individuality with how unique the project ‘Estilo Patio’ is,” added ‘Mini Homes’ director Mansi Arora Bagla.

  • Cox & Kings plans romantic trail based on Jab Harry met Sejal

    MUMBAI: Bollywood fans, after watching a film, always fancy about visiting the beautiful foreign locales where the movie is shot. Cox and Kings, a leading leisure and education travel group with operations in 22 countries, has introduced a special romantic trail to Europe based on the film Jab Harry met Sejal.

    The package has been announced well in advance before the release of the film which is slated to release on 4th Aug 2017. The tour is a bunch of exquisite experiences at some of the most beautiful and charming destinations in Europe such as Prague, Budapest and Amsterdam. Here’s a chance for the Bollywood lovers to visit the beautiful locales even before the movie hits the theatres as the first departure of the tour is scheduled on 31 July 2017.

    The story of the film revolves around Harry and Sejal’s journey across Europe which is full of love, life, thrill, fantasy and the voice within. Similar to the lead protagonists in the film portrayed by Shahrukh Khan and Anushka Sharma, you can also enjoy the experience of falling in love through Cox & Kings’ Jab Harry Met Sejal excursion. Highlights of the tour include:

    • A guided walking tour of Prague, the city that depicts the hilarious relationship which Shah Rukh Khan’s Harinder Singh Nehra shares with Anushka Sharma’s Sejal. Commence your exploration of this city with the imposing Prague Castle, Royal Castle, gothic St. Vitus Cathedral, the Royal Palace and the gardens, the famous Astronomical Clock, a special High tea organised for you at the famous Hotel Intercontinental and mouth-watering dining experience

    • A guided highlight city tour of Fairy-tale, picturesque and charming Cesky Krumlov- one of the most beautiful towns in Europe. Also experience a Pub crawl tour and dive into the city’s legendary nightlife together with an international crowd of fellow travellers from across the world and highly motivated party guides

    • Orientation tour of Bratislava- the greater metropolitan area

    • A guided highlight city tour of Budapest- explore the locales of the city where the movie has been shot, admire the World Heritage sights of Buda Castle and the Castle District, walk along the Fisherman’s bastion for superb views of St. Stephen’s cathedral, Hero’s square the Danube embankment and the Chain bridge, explore the famous cafes

    • Amsterdam- a canal cruise, Zaanse Schaans- for Windmill, Clogs, Cheese, Madurodam – an enchanting miniature city that features the best of the Netherlands