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Category: MAM

  • ‘Weekend Unwind’ with: Vajra Global Consulting Services CEO Ganapathy Sankarabaaham

    ‘Weekend Unwind’ with: Vajra Global Consulting Services CEO Ganapathy Sankarabaaham

    Mumbai: With another weekend upon us, it is time to unwind with the latest Q&A edition of Indiantelevision.com’s Weekend Unwind — a series of informal chats that peek into the minds of corporate executives through a fun lens in an attempt to get to know the person behind the title a little better.

    In this week’s session we have digital marketing company Vajra Global Consulting Services CEO Ganapathy Sankarabaaham opening up the windows to his thoughts.

    As CEO of an award-winning digital marketing agency, his vision is simple: to create a unique digital-led marketing strategy to help clients’ businesses grow profitably, meet their goals, and win in the market.

    Ganapathy’s strengths include the ability to quickly understand a business and its goals, to draw up a big-picture growth strategy, and a digital-led execution approach.

    At his firm, he has a robust programme management framework that easily captures business objectives and maps them to measurable outcomes.

    He takes pride in visualising, creating and delivering digital transformation and marketing programmes successfully for both B2B and B2C clients.

    Vajra Global, we specialise in working with technology, e-commerce, healthcare, and event companies. A collaborative, customer-first principle guided by ethics, transparency, and respect for every human being sums up Vajra’s motto.

    So without further ado, here it goes…

         Your mantra for life

     Dream big. Never give up!

        A book you are currently reading/plan to read

    “Visionary thinking” by Ashish Jaiswal.

        Your fitness mantra, especially during the pandemic

     Stay strong, stay positive. This too shall pass.

        Your comfort food

     Rasam rice.

        When the chips are down a quote/ philosophy that keeps you going

    When the going gets tough, the tough gets going! (or) when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

        Your guilty pleasure

     Ice cream.

        When was the last time you tried something new?

    Today.

        A life lesson you learnt the hard way

    It’s in the details.

         What gets you excited about life?

     Challenges, ideas, discovery, people, and growth.

        What’s on top of your bucket list?

     A trip to Norway.

         If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

    Enjoy the journey!

         One thing you would most like to change about the world

    Supercharge positivity, self-belief and compassion.

        An activity that keeps you motivated/charged during tough times

    Running.

        What lifts your spirits when life gets you down?

    Right intentions and efforts always deliver the right results in time.

        Your go-to stress buster

    Sleep.

  • Dentsu Creative India ropes in Dalip Daniel & Tulika Seth as directors

    Dentsu Creative India ropes in Dalip Daniel & Tulika Seth as directors

    Mumbai: Dentsu Creative India has continued to bolster its creative team with the appointment of Dalip Daniel and Tulika Seth. While Dalip has been roped in as group executive creative director, Tulika is group creative director. Both will report to Dentsu Creative India’s chief creative officer, Joy Mohanty.

    Dalip and Tulika will focus on boosting the agency’s creative competence for its existing and prospective clientele. They will design ideas that ‘create culture, change society, and invent the future by keeping modern creativity at the heart of business.’

    Dalip is a seasoned creative leader and has held leadership roles across agencies and radio stations like Ogilvy & Mather, GroupM ESP, and BIG 92.7 FM. He has worked for brands like Airtel, Nokia, Limca, Dabur, Pepsi, LG, Tata Tea, Sony, Nestle Milo, Honda, Perfetti, Horlicks, Unicef, Max New York Life, Zomato, Luminous, and Uttarakhand Tourism, to name a few. In addition to this, he has also created branded content for TV shows and launched BIG 92.7 FM in North India.

    Armed with over 16 years of experience, Tulika has received several Indian and international awards. Tulika has led creative teams at agencies like Lowe, TBWA, Grey, Innocean, and Humour Me in Delhi and Mumbai. Some of the brands she has worked with include Hyundai, Dunzo, LG, DS Group, Set Max, Dabur, National Geographic, Henkel, Anne French, and Parle, among many others.

    Speaking on the appointments, Joy Mohanty said, “Together with a superb body of work, Tulika and Danny bring with them a wealth of experience across formats. They will both play a key role in driving our agenda of creativity beyond silos. It is great to have them on board.”

    Dalip Daniel added, “This is an exciting opportunity, and I am thrilled to be joining Dentsu at such a pivotal time. Today, when you think of Dentsu, you can’t help but realise that “kuch toh naya ho raha hai iss agency mein.” So, it would be really amazing to work in such a great creative environment filled with the best of the creative minds in the industry.”

    Tulika Seth commented, “What has drawn me to Dentsu is how it has embraced digital technology in its everyday thinking, to firmly establish itself as a future-forward organisation. ‘Wholly integrated’ is the key descriptor that has really got me excited. The work that has been coming out of the agency is truly inspiring, and I can’t wait to dive right in.”

  • CaratLane launches festive campaign ‘#MereStyleKiDiwali’ to promote their gifting products

    CaratLane launches festive campaign ‘#MereStyleKiDiwali’ to promote their gifting products

    Mumbai: CaratLane has launched its digital film, Mere Style Ki Diwali, on the occasion of Diwali. Introducing the first of four digital films, the campaign aims to showcase that while jewellery plays an important role in “intimate gifting relationships,” every person has their own style of celebrating Diwali and honouring the traditions of the festivities. BBH Communications India conceptualised and executed the “#MereStyleKiDiwali” campaign.

    Building on the brand’s core purpose to help consumers express their emotions, CaratLane’s latest film brings to life the journey of a daughter-in-law finding her own unique expression with her in-laws on the occasion of her first Diwali with them. The story beautifully captures the slight nervousness and the confidence felt by her as she prepares for an evening with her husband and his parents. We see her styled in a silk saree with an off-white blazer and a brown belt, non-conventional and yet an acknowledgment of her tradition. The film takes us through the surprise she has planned for her mother-in-law by bringing both her worlds together.

    Whether it is gifting something memorable to family or friends, or even gifting yourself something to celebrate personal milestones, CaratLane aims to create designs and solutions for customer needs. The brand has also highlighted their 24-48-hour delivery service and the 15-day exchange service through the digital films.

    Speaking about the campaign, CaratLane vice president of marketing Jennifer Pandya said, “We have understood from many customer stories and interactions that our jewellery plays a central role in helping customers express their unique sense of style and personality. We’ve seen how jewellery is gifted by  women to their family on occasions such as Diwali, and CaratLane designs are perfect for such gifting occasions. They enable the gifter to express their gratitude and love while also celebrating their tradition and culture in a way that is meaningful to them. “#MereStyleKiDiwali” is born from numerous such stories that we want to celebrate this year. Through this campaign, we aim to showcase CaratLane as a gifting destination for different relationships during the festive season and help customers embrace their style of celebrating. We also wanted to highlight the different services like fast delivery, 15-day exchange, and old gold exchange, positioning CaratLane as a brand that creates solutions for customers rather than just a jewellery brand.”

    Adding to it, BBH India ECH Aarti Srinivasan said, “For a brand that designs some of the most unique and modern fine jewellery, our attempt has always been to let this modernity reflect in the communication we design. With #MereStyleKiDiwali, we wish to send out the message that there aren’t any set rules or ways of celebrating Diwali. Whether it is jewellery, rangoli or mithai, the idea is to encourage people to add their own style and embrace their uniqueness without the social pressures of fitting in.”

  • Truecaller announces hard-hitting campaign to protect India from harassment & scam

    Truecaller announces hard-hitting campaign to protect India from harassment & scam

    Mumbai: The global communications platform, Truecaller, launched a new brand campaign on Thursday to convey an important message. Conceptualised by Truecaller and The Womb, it depicts the true essence of India and its people.

    The films, launched under the campaign, are a humble attempt to leave a mark on the audience with the use of the “laal rang’’ to signify scam/harassment calls. It seamlessly ties back to the popular saying: “Buri nazar wale tera muh kala.” The campaign is aimed at creating a safe space in the world of online communication.

    In a quest to go that extra mile and help users stay away from spam, scams, and online fraud, Truecaller has been undertaking various initiatives in the form of campaigns, working with the government and creating awareness among the youth with the help of cyber safety training. Be it harassment in the form of unwanted/unwelcome attention or OTP and lottery fraud, Truecaller has been instrumental in helping people fight back.

    Speaking about the campaign films, Truecaller chief commercial officer Kari Krishnamurthy said, “Indian culture is very deep-rooted and the practices and customs we follow are a result of strong beliefs. With this campaign, we have not only tried to capture the core of the problem faced by people in the form of harassment and scams but also how it is the collective feedback and spam markings from the community that make such fraudulent calls appear red. I’m hopeful that with the help of these meaningful films, we will be able to further our cause and help create a line of defence against unwanted communication.”

    Further elaborating on the idea behind the campaign, The Womb co-founder Navin Talreja said, “Truecaller has been in India for more than seven years and has done significant work to make the basic functionality of smartphones safe and secure, with a special focus on women and the elderly. Through the consumer work our team did in smaller towns, i.e., “Bharat,” we realised that the product was highly relevant for them, but awareness and discovery were limited. This discovery gave us our brief: to launch Truecaller for “Bharat” in the most simple yet disruptive way. The product benefits both the individual user and the community at large. With this campaign, our intent is to start a movement and make India’s largest community help safeguard each other.”

  • lDBF 2022: Content marketing to become an extremely powerful tool for brands in future

    lDBF 2022: Content marketing to become an extremely powerful tool for brands in future

    Mumbai: The second edition of the Indian Digital Brand Fest (IDBF) 2022, which took place on 12 October at ITC Maratha, Mumbai, ran an intriguing panel discussion on the topic “Content Marketing for Web 3.0,” which brought together minds and thoughts on how content marketing is going to be the next big thing and how essential it is going to become to understand the consumer.

    The session was chaired by Indiantelevision.com Group founder, CEO & editor in chief, Anil NM Wanvari.

    Beginning the session and putting things into perspective with the topic of web 2.0, TV9 Network managing editor R Sridharan said, “If you look at the innovation that has happened in web 2.0 is far greater than what we saw much before. Earlier it was static content, then in web 2.0 we saw that it allowed people to interact with content like becoming a publisher on Twitter, Facebook. It became richer in many ways. In that way web 2.0 has done an incredible job in making content an integral part of marketing for every chief marketing officer (CMO).

    “More than advertising, content marketing is important, and for that web 2.0 has done a great job. Web 2.0 has been a great learning experience from a content marketing perspective,” he added.

    However, Madison India vice president Kosal Malladi was of the view, “We have done a job in content marketing, but have we done a good job? I’m not so sure. When content marketing started, we thought that the end consumer wanted to know everything, so initially the content marketing was quite bad. We are getting better; it’s an ongoing learning process.”

    “We got to understand that if there’s too much content and information being bombarded on the consumer, then that’s also a problem,” pointed out HDFC ERGO General Insurance vice president marketing Alok Bhargava.

    Talking about the onset of web 3.0, Sridharan brought out, “No one knows how it’s going to pan out, but some things are very apparent and obvious. Firstly, on the content side, it is going to become far more immersive, and secondly, it’s about privacy. These things are going to change the game, and brands have to understand how to know their customers and how to interact with them.”

    He reiterated, “Content marketing is going to become more important in web 3.0 because, as a brand, I need to build communities and platforms where people will come on their own and share information about themselves.”

    “It is about creating the right content in the first place – if you have created some content which is not engaging the consumer and the consumer is not enthusiastic about it, then you have to have a harder look at what you’ve created. Researching the customer and what would keep them engaged is probably the most important thing,” Sridharan pressed.

    Needless to say, content will become extremely powerful if it is done the right way. He said, “If the customer sees value in interacting with you, he/she will come back to you again and again. You won’t have to persuade them.”

    Bhargava opined, “Content creates a good factor for any brand. If your content is not good, you will have to push it harder to the consumer.”

    According to Malladi, most of the content marketing is paid. Sridharan was quick to add, “When a piece of content is dishonest to the consumer, it’s not going to work. They are able to see through when the brand is not being authentic.”

    Regarding whether digital will overtake TV in outreach, Malladi said, “If you are advertising on digital, it’s not just the reach that happens but your ad is also seen on multiple devices.”

    “Yes, digital will overtake eventually, with connected TV taking over linear TV family viewing habits in India. The content has to be medium-appropriate,” said Bhargava.

  • SPRD bags the PR mandate for Wubba Lubba Dub Dub

    SPRD bags the PR mandate for Wubba Lubba Dub Dub

    Mumbai: Stories.PR.Digital (SPRD) has bagged the public relations mandate for Bengaluru-based meme marketing company Wubba Lubba Dub Dub (WLDD).

    SPRD is passionate about building a brand story for communications. It will manage industry alliances and help the client build thought leadership in addition to public relations.

    Commenting on the mandate win, SPRD director Asif Upadhye stated, “In a world full of routines, people seek solace in ‘memes’. It’s a fun as well as challenging way to accomplish customer retention strategies by deepening the connection with your audience. We are definitely looking forward to unfolding what this collaboration beholds.”

    Creating a meme revolution in India, WLDD has helped several businesses break through the clutter via snackable and entertaining communication models. With relatable content, they’ve introduced meme marketing to over 100+ brands so far and have expanded their horizons as a leader in digital assets. “Everything your audience sees online leaves an imprint on them, and through an extension of tech products, our aim is to showcase how this industry can continue to be profitable, number-driven, and accessible for all. We’re committed to solidifying our impressions and communications with this partnership,” added WLDD chief executive officer Arihant Jain.

    Memes have gained immense popularity today and play an integral role in an organisation’s marketing plan. Leveraging this strategy since its inception as a startup turned pioneer of meme and experiential marketing in India, WLDD has successfully ventured into community building by expressing and engaging with audiences via a diversified meme-connect. Founded in 2018 by Arihant Jain, Jaidev Kesti, and Vivekanand Kilari, three college friends from Belgaum, WLDD envisioned reaching greater heights with new-age memes and experiential marketing. This indicates the tremendous growth opportunity for the meme companies which would benefit from this trend.

  • Brands using trademarks in defence of dishonest claims is an unfair practice: Asci and K&S Partners report

    Brands using trademarks in defence of dishonest claims is an unfair practice: Asci and K&S Partners report

    Mumbai: Asci and K&S Partners in a recently released whitepaper titled “Misleading Advertisements and Trademarks-A Registration Conundrum” identified the practise and instances of brands making misleading claims and representations through the use of trademarks.

    It has often been noted that businesses register misleading or even deceptive descriptive or laudatory terms, slogans, etc. as trademarks. These words describe the product’s unsupported nature, quality, or quantity, which ends up misleading consumers. For instance, a sweater brand called “All Wool” implies that it is made of wool. However, if the actual products are not made entirely of wool, such a trademark can be misleading. Similarly, a product with the trademark “Wholewheat Marie,” which contains refined flour as the dominant ingredient, misleads consumers as to the health and nutritional values of such products. The use of such trademarks that falsely describe product attributes is a potential breach of both the Consumer Protection Act and the Asci code.

    Brands and advertisers often cite trademark registrations as a defence. These words or phrases mislead consumers. However, this paper argues that such a defence is not valid as making misleading representations violates the Asci code, the Consumer Protection Act, and the Trade Marks Act itself. The paper calls for greater scrutiny and restraint in permitting descriptive trademarks for brands and to ensure that such trademarks are not a false representation of the product.

    Asci CEO & secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “At Asci we see cases where the advertiser uses a trademark registration to defend their direct or implied claims, asserting that a trademark registration means that the claim is good in law. This is not true, and we would ask brands to be cautious in using untrue, exaggerated or misleading phrases to describe their products, whether trademarks or not.”

    K&S Partners’ Prashant Gupta said, “The issue concerning false, unsubstantiated, and dishonest advertisements, under the guise of descriptive or laudatory trademarks, is grave. Protecting consumers from deception is one of the principal tenets of the Asci code, the Trade Marks Act, and the Consumer Protection Act. The trademark office needs to raise the threshold for descriptive or laudatory trademarks, failing which, protecting consumers’ rights from fraudulent marks and making informed choices would be severely compromised.”

    Check the full report here: https://ascionline.in/images/pdf/misleading-ads-and-trademarks.pdf

  • ACKO appoints Saurabh Jha as senior VP of digital marketing

    ACKO appoints Saurabh Jha as senior VP of digital marketing

    Mumbai: Digital-native insurer Acko has announced the appointment of Saurabh Jha as the senior vice president of digital marketing.

    Saurabh is a seasoned leader with strong management experience across the consumer internet and start-up space. He has worked in various verticals such as travel, ecommerce, and real estate for both digital and traditional marketing functions. Saurabh’s prime focus has been to lead businesses towards excellence.

    At Acko, he will be responsible for scaling and driving growth across all business units, and his mandate will include digital marketing, content, and strategic partnerships.

    Before joining Acko, Saurabh was associated with Housing.com as the senior director of growth, marketing & analytics, where he spearheaded the team. During his professional journey, he has also contributed significantly to the growth of HolidayIQ and Jungle Lodges & Resorts.

    Saurabh holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from IIFM and a bachelor’s degree in computer science.

    Speaking at Saurabh’s appointment, ACKO founder & CEO Varun Dua said, “I am delighted to welcome Saurabh to the team. Saurabh brings with him years of knowledge in the performance marketing domain. He has been a part of the growth journey of some well-known digital brands and clearly understands what it takes to fuel growth for brands.”

  • RBL Bank & BookMyShow signs agreement to launch ‘Play’ credit card

    RBL Bank & BookMyShow signs agreement to launch ‘Play’ credit card

    Mumbai: After the successful launch of Fun Plus in 2016, RBL Bank and BookMyShow have once again joined hands to cement their long-standing partnership further by bringing a new credit card, ‘Play,’ to take the entertainment quotient for Indian audiences several notches higher.

    ‘Play’ will be available to selected customers on BookMyShow. It will give them access to lucrative offers on transactions across movies, live entertainment offerings (online and offline), as well as binge-watching movies and TV series on its streaming platform by renting or buying a title, while enjoying benefits with every purchase made.

    Consumers will be able to track the entire journey from application to delivery of the ‘Play’ credit card on BookMyShow, with real-time updates enabled within the platform.

    The launch of the ‘Play’ credit card in partnership with BookMyShow gives RBL Bank a fillip to their efforts to remain closely associated with a vast, young, digitally-savvy, spending consumer base across industries including media & entertainment, food & beverages, and consumer-facing brands in line with the demographic of the BookMyShow audience.

    With ‘Play,’ RBL Bank will be able to reach BookMyShow’s wide base of 200 million monthly customer visits and five billion monthly page views, offering unmatched experiences to India’s entertainment-seeking audience.

    Apart from the core entertainment offerings, ‘Play’ owners will also be able to avail varied offers on brands including boAt, Myntra, WOW Momos, Archies, Cookie Man, Ixigo, and Eat Sure listed within the F&B section of BookMyShow.

    Commenting on the partnership, BookMyShow head of partnerships & revenue Samradha Tibrewala said, “Credit cards have been amongst the strongest, most pervasively used modes of transaction for millions of customers on BookMyShow and so the idea was to deepen our existing partnership with RBL Bank towards an offering that enables users to get the most out of their preferred mode of transaction on our platform with an added special layer for all their entertainment needs. Coupled with the festive season ahead, the avenues for discovery-led transactions are multi-fold for BookMyShow consumers, making the availability of the ‘Play’ credit card extremely timely and strategic, enabling users to eke out maximum bang for their buck. The ‘Play’ credit card makes a significant contribution to increasing our shared reach and helping one of India’s foremost banks reach out to a larger cohort of young and digitally-savvy audiences through BookMyShow. We look forward to many more such collaborative innovations to bring the best of experiences for an entertainment-loving India.”

    Speaking on the launch of the ‘Play’ credit card, RBL Bank credit cards head product Utkarsh Saxena said, “With covid-19 restrictions now a thing of the past, customer spending on movies, events, food and beverages, and other entertainment avenues is on the rise again. We hope to capitalise on this opportunity and enhance our versatile product portfolio. Our partnership with BookMyShow for the launch of the ‘Play’ credit card is a step in that direction as it gives us exclusive access to India’s young and tech-savvy entertainment audiences to stay relevant with the times.”

  • EnKash launches “savings focused” campaign to boost growth for businesses

    EnKash launches “savings focused” campaign to boost growth for businesses

    Mumbai: EnKash has announced the launch of its brand campaign and unveiled a new brand mascot, “chief savings officer,” a superhero CXO that enables businesses to save significantly by digitising manual processes and providing control and visibility using a DIY intuitive platform.

    The “chief savings officer” is a two-month campaign that will run across various digital and social media channels to drive awareness. In the second phase, EnKash plans to launch a much broader campaign covering mass media that would focus on how businesses could optimise business spending to maximise value from their organisational spending by keeping costs under control.

    The campaign is built around the insight that while businesses account for functions such as sales, finance, marketing, product and more, the function of savings is often missed.

    Through this campaign, EnKash aims to reinforce its brand philosophy of facilitating transparency, decentralisation, and optimising spending for each of its clients. The brand mascot will also enable a better understanding of the multiple business expenses incurred, such as vendor payments, tax payments, rental, bill payments, employee related expenses, including but not just limited to travel, digital expenses related to process efficiencies, assessing and mitigating fraud risk, and the importance of real-time spend visibility by covering the entire spectrum of spends. Each of these is crucial to enabling savings through a well-controlled spending management system.

    The “chief savings officer” is a personification of the benefits that organisations can leverage by adopting EnKash into their daily spend management process. Serving as a member of the chief experience officer suite, EnKash’s primary focus is on increasing efficiency, control, visibility, and overall transparency across all the various cash flows of the organisation to provide significant savings.

    Speaking about the launch, Enkash co-founder Hemant Vishnoi said, “We see a significant rise in the demand for spend management solutions across small and medium-sized businesses. Our unique brand campaign endeavours to create a voice to enable “savings” across business value chains. Businesses lack focus on the savings aspect while making business expenditures. Therefore, EnKash looks to play the role of the “chief savings officer” by identifying inefficiencies and plugging the gap across various expenditures.”

    He added, “Our current product suites include company cards, payable, receivable, and expense management solutions that are focused on bringing savings by cutting down on unnecessary spending and helping cut unnecessary man hours and days spent in reconciliation, reporting, and streamlined processes. Our long-term objective is to allow businesses to primarily focus on their growth and let EnKash truly be their “chief savings officer.””