Mumbai: Auto-tech company CarDekho Group has appointed Parthasarathy Vankipuram Srinivas as an independent director. The appointment is in line with the company’s objective of strengthening its board and overall corporate governance within the CarDekho Group. The company is gearing up for its IPO (Initial Public Offering) in the next 12-14 months.
A seasoned business leader with 36+ years of experience in globally reputed organisations across a wide range of sectors, Parthasarathy has worked with the Mahindra Group in leadership positions for over two decades and with Xerox for 14 years. He currently serves as the non-executive non-independent vice-chairman of Allcargo Logistics, an Independent Director of recently listed Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), Imperial Auto Industries, IAI Industries, Greencell Mobility, and serves as Director of Rudi Multi Trading Company, Kids Clinic India (Cloudnine) and ECU Worldwide.
CarDekho Group co-founder and CEO Amit Jain said, “We are delighted to have Partha join our board. His diversified rich experience will help us further strengthen corporate governance as we prepare for our IPO and the next phase of growth.”
A chartered accountant from ICAI and ICAEW, UK, and an alumnus of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program (2011), Parthasarathy is also the chairman nominee on the board of governance at the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE).
On his new role, Parthasarathy V S said, “CarDekho’s enduring vision, unparalleled track record and leadership position across various technology driven auto solutions have given it a great position in the market across India and abroad. I look forward to contributing in building on this success further.”
Parthasarathy previously held several industry forum positions as a chairman of Sustainable Council of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) – 2021, president – Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry (2019-2020), chairman of Association of Finance Profession of India (AFPI) (2015-2020), besides working closely with ministry of finance through CFO Board, and on global advisory boards for CISCO/ SAP.
Mumbai: Taboola, a front-runner in powering recommendations for the open web, today released the readership insights for the month of April, 2022. These insights from Taboola’s Newsroom revealed the topics of interest of Indian readers that gauged their attention. Over the last month, a huge surge in the page view traffic on specific subject-focused articles showcased a tremendous shift in the reading interest of the population, increasing their awareness of the ongoing pandemic and keeping themselves entertained.
Here are some of the key insights revealed from the readership trends released:
The threat of new Covid Wave
The rising cases of coronavirus in the subcontinent alerted the readers as Taboola Newsroom saw a 65 percent surge in readership to 23 million pageviews peaking in mid-April. As Delhi and NCR region reported maximum cases, article headlines mentioning Delhi and COVID also peaked by 137 percent.
India’s love for cricket
Nothing causes a stronger buzz in India as much as cricket does. The new season of IPL caused an 877 percent surge in the readership by drawing a traffic of 14 million pageviews over the last 45 days. As people searched to gather updates about their favourite teams and players, Chennai Super Kings gained a lot of traffic during the season since the start of March while Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings saw a surge from mid-April.
Celebrating celebrity unions
The celebrity wedding of Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor caused much anticipation in the country. According to Taboola Newsroom, Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor drove 24 million (350 percent) and 15 million (1,831 percent) pageviews since early April, respectively. The couple tied the knot on 14 April 2022 and continue to drive readership in the entertainment segment as the country is geared up to know more about the newlyweds.
Data from Taboola Newsroom identifies topics and news categories, which have seen an increase in pageview traffic for the past 53 days. This data comes from the wide network of Indian news publishers Taboola works with. Taboola’s news publisher partners have access to data on trending topics in the Topic Insights part of Taboola Newsroom, a real-time audience analytics platform.
Mumbai: The leading pharmaceutical company Mankind Pharma has announced the launch of Docflix, an OTT platform only for doctors. Along with building scientific content through the expert team of doctors, Mankind Pharma has also hired the National Institute of Design pass-outs team to ensure the best representation of data and figures, directors and scriptwriters who can weave science into a story to deliver the message in a fun and engaging way.
With the launch of Docflix, the company is committed to bringing world-class content and technology to Indian doctors under the parent umbrella of Mankind Pharma. The new vertical will add to the commitment of the company to “serving life” and ensure to put knowledge first for Indian doctors.
The platform will have twenty different shows on varied subjects, a few shows include Science simplified, Legend inside the white coat, Stitch in time, Cardio Unflip, Digital for doctors, Medico legal Cases in India and Vantage point.
On the technology side, the team is building an AI-enabled personalized interface to deliver individual experiences on the platform. Technological innovations are aimed to deliver convenience to consume content.
Leading expert doctors in cardiovascular space have already partnered with Mankind to build reliable and authentic content that helps doctors in taking clinical decisions faster and thereby aid in reducing cardiovascular mortality rate in the country, which have become the leading cause of mortality in India.
There are several platforms for Doctors to deliver routine content, however, with changing times content delivery formats have become redundant and repetitive. Also, doctors have limited time in our country considering the large gap of doctor to patient ratio. Considering, this Mankind pharma is taking conscious steps to deliver engaging scientific content created by doctors specialised in their fields, in short, and video formats.
Announcing the launch, Mankind Pharma senior president India business Sanjay Koul said, “We are happy to announce our launch in the Digital HCP engagement space with Docflix. It is a new age OTT platform with a wide range of scientific content tailored to various practice needs of Doctors. Design, Story and Convenience are three strong pillars of the platform that will deliver unique, authentic and reliable scientific content.”
Mankind Pharma president of India speciality business Atish Majumdar said, “One of the greatest disruptions that the pandemic has caused is the way we, as humans, have perceived learning.”
“Docflix is but a manifestation of Mankind’s understanding of the new definition of learning and is meant to be a platform that will not only present the best of medical science but also delve into the art behind the science. With Docflix, we at Mankind envision a new age global knowledge platform that will be a humble partner in the learning journey of all our doctors. The platform is launched by the newly set up digital team at Mankind under the guidance of head of digital Rinkesh Shah. The new team brings in a plethora of experience in the HCP engagement space and has overseen the growth of the doctor platforms space in India and Asia in the last decade. The team is uniquely equipped to deliver on the promise.”
On this, Rinkesh Shah said, “It’s important that scientific content is simplified and made interesting for doctors to consume in a short time. The need for continuous education for doctors is very high and thus we at Mankind are committed to making this journey of doctors convenient and engaging. We aim to offer an uncompromised world-class quality experience with reliable scientific content from Indian and global experts and a platform enabled with the latest technology in the OTT space.”
Mumbai: Blink Digital has announced its full-fledged footing into the decentralised world that will cover metaverse, NFTs and web3 applications. The integration of virtual reality, augmented reality with social media is laying the foundation for the open and transparent ecosystem to connect and interact with each other.
Blink Digital has launched some of the successful NFT projects and metaverse activations on platforms such as OpenSea, Rarible and Decentraland.
This move is in alignment with their vision to bring the best to the brands and enhance the connectivity between brands and audiences. This agency foresees 300 per cent of the rise in revenue as they foray into the new vertical, according to the statement.
As far as the growth is concerned, Blink Digital has seen 100 per cent of growth ensuring great revenue momentum from web3 vertical. In terms of the new mandate wins, the client has grown by 60 per cent this year, the agency said.
Blink Digital also executed the successful OnePlus 10 model launch on Amazon in Decentraland. Leveraging blockchain technology, the agency has helped materialise numerous to sell and trade NFTs. They have been providing end-to-end services from strategy and development to deployment and promotion to the brands. The agency is working as a guiding light for brands to make an early stage impact of NFTs and metaverse and to become a trendsetter.
Talking about venturing into the new vertical, Blink Digital director of technology Amer Ahmad said, “The idea of bringing three-dimensional experiences had started with VR devices and it has come full circle with the innovations and advancements like Web3 and Metaverse. The buzz has already concluded that the newly found virtual world is inevitable. Blink Digital lies at the intersection of creativity, innovation and the power of the internet, so our foray into Metaverse focused marketing came naturally to us.”
“The team at Blink has always challenged the status quo and keeps innovating to serve the best to our clients. We have already started working with a few brands for their NFTs and Metaverse campaigns. We believe that metaverse will play a notable role in the next decade of advertising and we would like to to be ready before it becomes highly democratised both in terms of creation and monetisation opportunities,” he added.
Mumbai: The OTT sector in India has witnessed a massive surge in viewership during the pandemic era with a host of new players and paid subscribers tuning into the online streaming space. With manifold growth across metrics, the sector continues its bull run even post pandemic, even as the next growth wave is expected to come from tier II, III, and IV cities and regional language content.
To discuss the role of OTT in influencing the content preferences in our country, Applause Entertainment CEO Sameer Nair, and Dharma Cornerstone Agency COO and renowned film critic Rajeev Masand got together for a fireside chat on the ‘Art of Creating Diversified Content and Secret of Mastering Them’ at the Vidnet 2022 summit organised by IndianTelevision.com in Mumbai last month.
Mumbai-based content studio Applause Entertainment led by CEO Sameer Nair has been betting big on the web series format since its inception in 2017. The company struck gold with several of its recent shows such as Hansal Mehta’s “Scam 1992,” Pankaj Tripathi-starrer “Criminal Justice,” “Hostages” to name a few on various OTT platforms. Nair acknowledges that in the last four to five years the single biggest revolution that has happened in the business of content is via the streaming platforms globally. “TV was always fundamentally limited by its nature- a linear medium with geographic and language boundaries and appointment viewing,” he says in response to Masand’s query of whether he sees OTTs replacing linear television in India ever.
Nair goes on to say that these being early days for the OTT medium, every operator will go through its fair share of teething troubles trying to find their own business models. Along the way, there will be challenges on how to make content better, to improve storytelling and take our content to other markets and how budgets can be bettered.
The biggest discovery or learning in the emerging medium has been in the writing. “If you can imagine it, then you can probably shoot it,” declares Nair. “Its not the star cast, it’s not a ‘big name’ director, it’s not a budget- the key lies in the writing. If it’s written well, chances are it may turn out well. After that everything falls into place.”
The other thing about this business, Nair adds, is that it’s not ‘star-dependent.’ “We have done some 36 series so far and it’s primarily been a collection of ensemble cast,” Nair asserts.
Referencing the massive hits and popular web shows delivered by the studio, Masand proceeds to ask Nair about “the process of knowing what’s worth pursuing”. While there’s no such “green light” moment, idea sources can be wide-ranging- from an original script or a book, or a foreign series or movie that they wish to adapt, Nair says. The journey from idea to screen, after a particular idea has been greenlighted is a process that takes time and effort, even before one starts filming.
Expounding on the studio’s hit vehicle “Scam 1992,” Nair says, “From the moment we bought the book rights from Sucheta (Dalal) to the time the series released, it took three years in the making. And all through this period we were on board, we stayed the course, and that’s what is important- to take it across the line.”
Over time, most platforms have developed their own particular character, when it came to content, noted Nair in response to a query from Masand on making platform-specific content. He added that when they first started out, it was only about making shows for the audiences and not about which streamer it should stream on. “We don’t have as much of a ‘platform-theory’ as trying to understand what genres to go after, where are programming trends headed and what are people watching more of.”
Now, of course, we get lots of inputs from platforms themselves because they have so much data, insights and understanding, Nair continues. “I think a lot of this is connected to essentially, ‘social-signalling’,” noting that it’s important to have one’s ears to the ground.
The other significant thing, Nair points out, is the scale at which you want to take an idea- whether it will be a big-budget show. That’s a decision which is full of risk in their business, considering the show is first created, produced and executed before finding a buyer platform for it. “So we have to be very sure and everything has to be planned in detail- the genre, the writing, the casting, the money we are going to be spending over it etc.”
In that sense, we complement the platform’s services and aid in their pain point by taking over the complete production and directorial decisions pertaining to a show. This allows them to focus on other things to worry about like, gaining subscribers, increasing paid user base, marketing etc, he adds. The studio usually has a pipeline of 12 to 15 shows lined up in various stages of production, reveals Nair on the company’s plans to expand its content library of shows.
The kind of content being produced and the price point are the chief issues, according to Nair. And then it depends upon how the entire market dynamics works. Deliberating on the recent Netflix stocks crash, Nair observes, “Using any one player, even if they are the leader, as the bell weather for how the entire industry works may not be the right way to do it. Because different businesses have different models of operation.” Larger players like Netflix and Amazon Prime, he says without naming the giant streamers, have very long investment horizons with long investment cycles and diversified businesses. So that becomes a very different dynamic, as compared to securing only streaming.
On a macro level, the numbers can only increase hereon, as the OTT market continues to grow, Nair observes. Along the way, there is bound to be discovery of various operable models like ad-supported, subscriber-supported models or lower-end content or upper end content catering to every available market.
On adapting books and shows, Nair says it makes business sense to adapt a good story. “The reason why great stories exist is because they have been retold. So what we do is re-visualise a good story and adapt it according to our cultural sensibilities, while staying true to the original plot.”
“Measuring success on streamers is sketchy, one way to go would be to check if the platform is happy with the show’s outcome or performance,” says Nair. “We look at the social noise around it and the audiences are happy overall. Another critical way is the data insights provided by the streamer- they have a lot more information, on new subscribers added, drop-off points etc which give a better clue on a show’s performance.”
“The way forward for the studio is working with debutantes or first-time filmmakers, we are also finding our way around this evolving landscape of the streaming business. For the industry in India, the language content will become more pan-Indian, and the audience for this content will grow. The onus is on us to make the most of this space,” Nair signs off.
To tune in to the entire conversation, click on the below link:
Mumbai: Personalised audio streaming service Pocket FM has announced Shubh Bansal’s appointment as VP-growth and Rahul Nag as head of communications. Both Bansal and Nag will be reporting to Pocket FM CEO and co-founder Rohan Nayak.
With these appointments, the company aims to intensify its focus to accelerate revenue, speed up growth initiatives, and elevate its brand positioning, it said in a statement.
Bansal will be leading the business growth initiatives across listeners, and new business opportunities. He was a co-founder at Truebil, an auto-tech platform acquired by Spinny where he was responsible for spearheading growth, marketing, and revenue. Before Truebil, he was associated with Housing.com.
Nag will be driving stakeholder engagement through external, social media, and internal communications along with establishing Pocket FM as a culture-first internet organisation. With over a decade and half years of experience in the communications landscape, he has worked with organisations like Flock, Mindtree, and ShareChat. In his earlier roles, he has led the crisis communication for Mindtree during the L&T takeover conflict and contributed to leading the communications for ShareChat and Moj.
Welcoming them onboard, Nayak said, “As we continue our exponential growth curve on the backdrop of a unique storytelling experience, we are bullish on our market leadership in pioneering the ‘audio entertainment’ space. Both Shubh and Rahul are proven leaders in their space and are valuable inclusions into our strategic team. With their strong skillsets and expertise, we hope they will bring the required momentum to our growth, revenue, and brand recall as we continue to build Pocket FM for our community.”
These key appointments come amidst Pocket FM scaling up rapidly, and reflects an increasing trend in audio content consumption on the internet. Over the past few months, the platform has aggressively focused on monetisation and content diversity.
Joining Pocket FM, Shubh Bansal said, “It gives me immense pleasure to work with a company that is pioneering and leading the audio-entertainment category in the OTT space. Our vision is to build category leadership for Pocket FM and lead the OTT landscape through our product innovations and business acumen. I am thankful to the founders for their trust and confidence bestowed upon me, and we will together take Pocket FM to newer milestones.”
Rahul Nag added, “I have always been a great believer in audio-first digital content and it always feels special to have the opportunity to contribute to the leader in the space. Our objective is not just to lead India but become a strong force to reckon with, and we are hopeful of emerging as a stronger brand for our listeners, creators, employees and investors.”
According to the company, it has recently raised $65 million in Series C funding to double down on its strategic priorities of building AI capabilities, multiplying its listeners base with new languages and strengthening its creator community. The company has already hired senior executives to address these priorities and continues to look for talents in the product and tech space aggressively, it stated. Pocket FM has raised $93.6 million till date and is backed by some marquee investors like Lightspeed, Times Group, Tanglin Venture Partners, Goodwater Capital, and Naver.
22feet Tribal Worldwide has won the digital mandate for India’s largest marketplace for intracity logistics, Porter. The mandate was awarded following a multi-agency pitch.
The primary focus of this partnership is to focus on brand awareness and community building. 22feet Tribal Worldwide will help Porter define a proposition and develop campaigns that will move the needle on awareness and consideration as the company continues to grow and scale.
Currently operational in 15 cities across India, Porter is set to expand its presence to 35-40 cities by March 2023. With 22feet Tribal Worldwide as its digital partner, the brand hopes to tap into every logistics conversation and deliver on the promise of service and reliability.
Porter AVP growth and marketing Mohit Rathi said, “Porter is built on the promise of quality, accessibility and affordability of the service. We plan to carry these values into our next phase of growth. We are excited to bring in 22feet Tribal Worldwide to lead our digital communication as we continue to transform the logistics space.”
22feet Tribal Worldwide EVP and national head of business Ken Sekhar commented, “Porter has been on an incredible journey of growth since its inception. It has revolutionised the logistics category in the country and helped several small businesses thrive in the new normal. The brand has bigger ambitions now as it looks to cement its top spot in the market, and we are excited to partner with them in this mission. I’m sure we will create a beautiful story together.”
Mumbai: Eureka Forbes has launched a new campaign with Madhuri Dixit for its leading product Aquaguard. The campaign is planned by Taproot Dentsu and produced by YellowLifafa with the tagline ‘pani mein Zinc aisa kahaan hota hai… jahan Aquaguard hota hai.’
The newly launched copper and zinc cartridge will be present across the Aquaguard range. The campaign will be launched across all media channels and platforms.
It features the famous Madhuri-Dadi jodi, both played by the Bollywood actor. The ad showcases Aquaguard’s technological superiority by enriching water with the goodness of copper and zinc. Madhuri as dadi exhibits nonchalant confidence using the line ‘jahan Aquaguard hota hain.’
The new technology by Eureka Forbes, Active Copper Zinc Booster Cartridge infuses Copper and Zinc ions into the water to give not just pure but enriched healthy water also. When water passes through the cartridge, zinc and copper infuses with it offering the double goodness of both, said the brand in a statement.
Talking about the campaign, Eureka Forbes managing director Marzin R Shroff said, “Aquaguard as we all know has always been a pioneer in water purification. With copper and zinc ionic infusion, our new range focuses on the goodness of both copper and zinc. We continue our endeavour of developing innovative technologies to meet the ever changing needs of our consumers in order to build a healthier India.”
Taproot Dentsu India executive creative director Yogesh Rijhwani commented, “When we talk ‘Madhuri’ and ‘Aquaguard,’ the one word that comes to mind is ‘legacy!’ It’s that legacy factor and the bond that India shares with both the actor as well as their home water purifier – that helped us shape this campaign. She was obviously fabulous to pull this off with such ease – it was a pleasure to create this campaign!”
Eureka Forbes brand ambassador Madhuri Dixit said, “Our generations are changing but certain old-time habits are still intact! Aquaguard’s copper + zinc innovation is something I’ve always believed in – it made the belief in the communication message stronger. It was fun to do another ‘old generation vs new generation’ role yet again!”
MUMBAI : Mothers everywhere and, perhaps, more so in India are held to unreasonably high standards, wherein they are expected to lean in at work whilst remaining primarily responsible for the domestic front. This perennial balancing act leads to an intense pressure to ‘perfectly’ manage both work and home for most working moms today, or ends with guilt about their inability to live up to socio-cultural ideals of a ‘good mother.’ It is this narrative that Prega News’ latest campaign #SheIsImperfectlyPerfect released ahead of Mother’s Day chooses to highlight and challenge. The pregnancy detection brand from the house of Mankind Pharma unveiled the second leg of the campaign on Thursday with celebrity influencers and mom bloggers that further attempts to normalise a more ‘realistic’ version of motherhood.
IndianTelevision.com caught up with Mankind Pharma general manager- sales & marketing Joy Chatterjee to find out what drives the brand to challenge societal stereotypes on a sensitive subjects like pregnancy and motherhood. The interaction also saw a deep dive into the brand’s journey from 2007 to becoming a leader in the category with an 82 per cent market share through its marketing activities.
According to the brand, it has witnessed a steep spike of over 20 per cent in its demand during the Covid-19 lockdown, and has been growing in healthy double digits annually. Over the years, Prega News has managed to create a unique brand proposition, becoming synonymous with ‘at-home pregnancy detection.’
A marketeer who self-confessedly “works to balance bottom and top line” with more than 20 years of Industry experience, Chatterjee currently heads the OTC division of brands like Manforce, Health ok, Gasofast, Acnestar, Unwanted 72 etc- apart from Preganews- at Mankind Pharma, having joined the company in 2006.
By Anupama Sajeet
Edited excerpts:
What was the thought behind the #SheIsImperfectlyPerfect concept, and why do you think it is essential to get these conversations going?
There is always needless pressure on every mom to be perfect, which puts her in self-doubt about being a good mother. The campaign encourages society to embrace the imperfection of a mother who is always on her toes to work best for her child. The entire ad was curated with the aim to spread the message that it’s completely fine to be not so perfect. The film breaks the age-old narrative of mothers always portrayed as the perfect personalities, highly adept at everything they do. It disintegrates this stereotypical image of a mother who always forces herself to be perfect in everything.
With time the number of working women has increased over the years and the trend of living in a nuclear family has been evolving as a lifestyle option. Considering that this number is only going to escalate in the future, it is important to have conversations around embracing the imperfection of a mother to not pressurise the new generation and make them scared to enter the motherhood phase in their lives. We have all observed that working mothers are always chasing the balance between her job and being a mother. The pressure of being perfect makes her life stressful. We don’t want our mothers to live in any stress or guilt for not being able to meet the expectations of a “perfect mother” imposed by society.
What worked in favour of creating brand recall value for Prega News since its inception?
Since its inception in 2007, throughout the journey, the brand focused on educating women and their families about pregnancy to break the stereotypical mindsets and to address the myths existing in society. We continuously come up with campaigns be it on digital or on TVC to spread awareness and take a firm stand on what we believe in as a brand. These campaigns helped us in creating a special bond with the target audience.
One thing that majorly worked in our favour was that we were determined to develop an emotional connect with the audience by shedding light on the various issues faced by women and also portraying an inclusive conversation aimed at bringing about a social change. The primary purpose at Prega News is not to promote the product but we strive to touch upon the lives of our consumers and create awareness around the sensitive topic of pregnancy. We closely study the problems existing in society and come up with solutions to help people get acquainted with the options they have ahead. At Prega News through our initiatives, we urge the people to be more responsible when it comes to pregnancy.
Given that this method (pregnancy home test kit) was very new for the rural masses, we strived to create awareness around pregnancy care for which we worked towards breaking the stereotype connected to pregnancy detection cards in rural India. Considering the intensity of preconceived notions existing in these parts of the country, we tied up with Asha workers and local NGOs who hold a strong influence on people as key opinion leaders for effective message reception amongst the audience. Also, to create awareness, we organised a caravan activity for 25 days across 125 districts of Uttar Pradesh to establish a better line of engagement with the people there through door-to-door invitations, announcements and distribution of gifts, and many fun activities. We took the opportunity to give detailed information on the do’s and don’ts during the pregnancy. From the proper diet with the right nutrition to what food to avoid was touched upon at large in the activity.
Over the years, the brand has collaborated with some of B-town’s leading actors and of late, influencers. What was the idea behind roping in celebrities?
We aimed at leveraging the various tools to increase our visibility amongst the potential audience throughout the journey of Prega News. When we started in 2007 we wanted to make the brand a household name by making it acquainted with the people at large. For which we collaborated with Neha Marda who was a popular face at that time in every household. Therefore, by roping in Marda we were able to introduce our product in the market. Over the time when we realised that Prega News has made a decent place in the market we wanted to amplify our reach by making it the top brand in the country. For this, we collaborated with leading B-town actors such as Kareena Kapoor Khan, Anushka Sharma and Shilpa Shetty to give mileage to our brand reception. Further to penetrate deeper into the market we also ventured into influencer campaigns where we roped in more than 21 regional mommy bloggers in an influencer activity campaign to spread awareness about the important RTBs of Prega News for expectant mothers.
Considering that pregnancy is a very sensitive topic, what is the primary challenge you have faced in the segment?
The lack of awareness amongst the people is the biggest challenge the brand faces till now. From the very initial stage, it has been a persistent roadblock acting as a deterrent that makes people skeptical about the product and inhibits them from coming forward to find solution to their persisting problem. Hence, to overcome the challenge we realised that along with the promotion of the product we needed to elaboratively talk about the sensitive problem of pregnancy at the root level and encourage women to break free from their inhibitions and come forward to try new solutions to improve the quality of their lives. To achieve this, we continuously organise on-ground events and collaborate with local NGOs and Asha workers to throw light on various aspects of pregnancy and make women acquainted with family planning as an important option.
How do you plan to further amplify the brand’s penetration into the market?
To penetrate deeper into the market beyond the metropolitan cities, we take an alternate route, as mentioned earlier. In order to reach out to the masses beyond metropolitan cities, we deliver content in their preferred vernacular language to ensure better reception. Previously, we have launched Shakti Awareness program to spread awareness about the product’s benefits. Through the programme, we stressed upon how the pregnancy detection kits were important for early pregnancy detection that could help in reducing any chances of health hazards for the baby as well as the mother. We tied up with local Asha workers and NGOs to spread our message and establish a more personal interaction with the local people. They became the solution providers for the women in the village, helping them with the healthcare-related needs.
The entire campaign was unique as it was the first time ever a pregnancy detection card brand had initiated rural activation. We organised local events at the field level to better interact with the audience. We invited 50 to 100 Asha workers and gynecologists to spread awareness around pregnancy and contraception. To date, we have organised 20 such events by tapping around 750 Asha workers across India.
Share about your recent inroads into regional markets with local brand ambassadors.
Over the years, we have realised that content is better received and reciprocated in the regional language. Audiences are better able to form connections with the brand and understand the comprehensive message the brand wants to convey when it is communicated in their own mother tongue. Hence, multilingual campaigns help in entering into a more concentrated market that lies beyond the metropolitan cities but can make up for a larger customer base. Hence, understanding that vernacular content enhances the brand penetration into the regional market, recently we collaborated with Kajal Aggarwal for a TVC as she is a well-known face in the South, helping us form better connectivity with the masses there. Prior to this, we had also roped in Priyamani to amplify our presence in the South and reach the remotest parts of the market. Likewise, Prega News is focusing to expand its visibility in other regional areas as well and has roped in Bengali Film actress Srabanti Chatterjee as the brand ambassador of West Bengal to intensify its reach and regional connection in West Bengal.
Tell us about your future plans. Any upcoming announcements in 2022?
Currently portraying a market share of 82 per cent, Prega News has marked consistent growth and come a long way from 67 per cent in 2019. Passionate to further expand our product into the unorganised and unbranded market we strive to form an emotional connection with the expectant mothers not just in metropolitan cities but make our presence felt in the rural market as well. Considering that the segment penetration across the country is very narrow, we are working towards a unified goal of increasing the penetration of kits from 17 per cent to 26 per cent by 2026.
We are intensively reaching out to small towns with the help of our rural outreach strategy to penetrate deeper into the regional market. Last year we launched an awareness drive with Asha workers in Lucknow to create awareness around the use of contraceptives and pregnancy detection cards. It was our first interactive session in Malihabad, Bachhwaran (Lal Ganj), Nawabganj (Unnao), Varanasi, Meerut, Kolhapur, Patna, and Bulandsheher in Lucknow and Bihar aimed at breaking the myths prevalent in society and motivating people to adopt family planning in advance. In the future too, the company is keen on conducting such sessions in a phased manner and amplifying its endeavor to educate people on sexually transmitted infections, different contraceptive methods, and regular use of available contraceptives.
Finally, would you say Prega News’ 2022’s Women’s Day campaign with its #SheCanCarryBoth message is at odds with your latest one for Mother’s day, which acknowledges that a mother can be humanly imperfect and not excel at every role as dictated by society?
Both the campaigns are unique in their own way touching upon the different aspects of women’s life. I would say that the message conveyed through #SheCanCarryBoth and #SheIsImperfectlyPerfect complement each other. When we said that women can don multiple roles, we never implied her to be perfect. We encourage the empowerment of women where we do not believe in putting incessant pressure on them. Rather we want them to explore new possibilities in life at their own will and at their own pace, and to evolve over time by learning from their own experiences.
Digital marketing agency Sociowash has won the digital marketing mandate for Viacom18’s music brands MTV Beats, VH1 and KaanPhod, English entertainment brands Colors Infinity and Comedy Central, and multiformat content destination Fully Faltoo YouTube channel, with NFT marketplace fullyfaltoonft.com.
Sociowash will be responsible for reinforcing each brand’s digital presence by conceptualizing relevant content that users can engage with daily. In addition to that, the agency will also work towards creating content that not only reiterates the quirky vibe of the brands but also emphasizes on creating dynamic and thought-provoking content for its viewers. This partnership will serve to further enhance the digital presence of Viacom18’s Music and English Entertainment brands, multi format content destination Fully Faltoo YouTube channel and fullfaltoonft.com.
All these responsibilities will be taken care of by the Mumbai branch of the Sociowash. The aim for Sociowash will be to synergize with these youth-centric brands and create active digital media content across all social platforms. Collectively, the brands under this mandate offer content across genres including comedy, music, snackable shows as well as Fully Faltoo NFT marketplace.
Viacom 18 marketing head for youth, music and English entertainment cluster Utsav Chaudhuri said, “With a unique mix of multi-genre and multi-platform content, our brands MTV Beats, Vh1, KaanPhod, Colors Infinity, Comedy Central are synonymous with pop-culture, and our new brand Fully Faltoo along with its NFT ecosystem will leverage the emerging pop-trends. With Sociowash, we aim to further strengthen our digital strategy for our content to reach and engage with the youth.”
“We at Sociowash have always believed in adding value to brands and maximising the digital footprint. After having done the same for the Viacom 18 network we are extremely delighted to have their YME cluster on board with us. Creating strategies that will resonate with the target audience, while using marketing for the good is what will positively help us and Viacom 18 reach greater heights,” commented Sociowash co-founder Pranav Agarwal.
