ITV

Category: Digital Agencies

  • Capital Numbers targets Rs 50 crore turnover by CY 2019

    Capital Numbers targets Rs 50 crore turnover by CY 2019

    KOLKATA:  Capital Numbers Infotech Pvt Ltd (CNPL), a Kolkata headquartered consulting,  application development and testing services company, which is likely to end the current fiscal with revenue of around  Rs 12 crore ($2 million), is targeting a turnover of Rs 50 crore by the end of calendar year 2019.

     

    CNPL is a consulting-led, integrated, web design, web development, mobile app development and search engine marketing services for startups, SMEs, digital agencies and IT consulting. The company which is used as the production backend for digital agencies is looking to up its bench strength to 1,000 professionals from the current 200 employees.

     

    “We are expanding our services and hope to achieve the targets of achieving Rs 50 crore turnover by CY 2019,” said CNPL director Mukul Gupta. “We work with lots of start-ups, small businesses and large organisations such as Edelman, Ordina, Doosan, Harvard University and Duke University among others,” Gupta added.

     

    Among CNPL clients include Harvard University, which was looking to create an online presence for two of its internal publications: The Harvard Health Policy Review and The Harvard Science Review. “We helped create their entire online presence from ground up where information about current and past issues for these magazines can be accessed,” Gupta said.

     

    Another project that CNPL undertook was for Condé Nast, a media company that has 9.5 crore (95 million) consumers across its industry-leading print, digital and video brands like: Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Wired etc., CNPL helped Conde Nast  make its content to be available to mobile users across 27 countries

     

    “Established by a team of professionals with over ten years of practical experience in outsourcing, our difference is its clear focus on the delivery of long term measurable business improvement,” concluded Gupta.

  • Publicis Groupe to acquire Sapient for $3.7 billion

    Publicis Groupe to acquire Sapient for $3.7 billion

    MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe and Sapient have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Publicis Groupe will acquire Sapient in an all-cash transaction for $3.7 billion, or $25 per share.

     

    The agreement has been approved unanimously by the management and supervisory boards of Publicis Groupe and the board of directors of Sapient.

     

    Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Maurice Levy said, “Sapient is a ‘crown jewel,’ a one of a kind company born in the technology space with strengths in marketing, communications, consulting and omni-channel commerce, all of which are equally important to best help clients achieve their digital transformation. It will also give Publicis Groupe access to new markets and creating new revenue streams.”

     

    “This acquisition fulfills many of Publicis Groupe’s objectives: we will enhance our leadership position in digital, achieve our goal of deriving 50% of our revenues from Publicisgroupe.com 3/9 digital and technology three years ahead of our 2018 plan, and leverage technology, consulting capabilities to expand in new verticals, and offering new and exciting opportunities to our talents,” he added.

     

    The acquisition will accelerate achieving Publicis Groupe’s objective to become the leader at the convergence of communication, marketing, commerce and technology, said the press release.

     

    Through this, the company will create a platform to be named Publicis.Sapient, which will focused exclusively on digital transformation and the dynamics of an always-on world across marketing, omni-channel commerce, consulting and technology.

     

    Sapient CEO and co-Chairman Alan J Herrick will also be joining Publicis Groupe senior management team as CEO of Publicis.Sapient and Sapient co-founder and co-chairman Jerry A Greenberg will join the company’s supervisory board.

     

    Sapient president, CEO and co-chairman Alan J Herrick added, “This transaction provides substantial value to our shareholders, offers an ideal cultural match for our people and provides an opportunity to share a wealth of new capabilities with our clients.”

     

    “The Sapient team has been on a 24-year journey building a company with the objective of creating significant impact for our clients and the industries in which they operate. With Publicis Groupe, we have found a partner that accelerates the level of transformation we can drive into the marketplace,” he further stated.

     

    The combination of Publicis Groupe and Sapient is expected to drive cost savings through the integration of digital production leveraging Sapient’s substantial production infrastructure in India, real estate consolidation, G&A reductions and procurement savings, said the companies in a joint statement.

     

    “The newly created Publicis.Sapient platform will create significant opportunities for our tremendously talented people across the platform. We will also be able to deploy our capabilities on a global scale through Publicis Groupe’s significant international presence. With access to the world’s greatest creative talent and media expertise, as well as a strong global footprint, we will be better positioned to identify and pursue market opportunities all over the world,” added Herrick.

     

    In connection with the tender offer, Jerry A Greenberg, J Stuart Moore, and Alan J Herrick have entered into a tender and support agreement with Publicis Groupe pursuant to which they have agreed to tender an aggregate of approximately 18 per cent of Sapient’s outstanding shares in the offer.

     

    The completion of the tender offer is subject to certain customary terms and conditions, including the tender of at least a majority of the outstanding shares of Sapient, antitrust and other regulatory clearances in the US, and antitrust clearance in Germany. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015.

     

    The completion of the tender offer is subject to certain customary terms and conditions, including the tender of at least a majority of the outstanding shares of Sapient, antitrust and other regulatory clearances in the US, and antitrust clearance in Germany. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015, added the press release.

     

    BofA Merrill Lynch and Rothschild acted as financial advisors and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as legal advisor to Publicis Groupe while Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Blackstone Advisory Partners L.P. acted as financial advisors and Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP acted as legal advisor to Sapient.

  • To The New launches Video+

    To The New launches Video+

    MUMBAI: To The New, a digital solutions powerhouse, has launched its innovative Video+ Solution at the MIPCOM 2014 in Cannes, France.

     

    The new solution innovatively integrates brand solutions, content creation, operations, cloud-based platform development and proprietary tools for marketing and analytics. The solution is designed to offer brands end-to-end digital video capabilities, enabling them to leverage the power of video to help drive consumer awareness, engagement, and conversion.
     
    Digital video sharing is growing at a fundamental rate. Fast Track Asia, especially, is expected to grow to twice the size of the US market over the next 3 years, which is a $10 billion market currently. Over half of 18-54 year olds share video online as per eMarketer. A recent report from comScore reveals that online buyers are 64 per cent more likely to buy a product after watching a video. Also, Nielsen claims that over 60 per cent marketers believe that videos will dominate their communication strategy moving forward. With the rise of video sharing, brands in the Asian market are looking for one-stop partners who can help them tap this opportunity.
     
    To The New manages digital video campaigns and content for over 100 clients, which results in over 5 billion views and 17 million subscribers for its clients. It has a team of over 300 people trained in video creation, marketing, management and technology capabilities. To The New is leading the change in video space in fast track Asia namely India, China and South East Asia.
     
    Video+ Solution offers brands end-to-end video capabilities ranging from conceptualizing brand campaigns to creating and crowdsourcing original video content, building and managing video-on-demand platforms, live streaming, digital video operations management, monetization and distribution of video content. The solution is underpinned by proprietary technology and also offers in-depth viewership and audience analytics for video platforms.
     
    “The exponential growth of digital video sharing and consumption is pushing brands to integrate video in their communication strategy on all social platforms. TO THE NEW VIDEO+ will empower brands to leverage digital videos to drive engagement, maximize reach and ROI all with a single solution” said To The New CEO Puneet Johar.
     

     

  • Tata Global Beverages appoints Indigo Consulting to redevelop its corporate website

    Tata Global Beverages appoints Indigo Consulting to redevelop its corporate website

    MUMBAI: One of India’s leading digital agencies, Indigo Consulting and part of the Publicis Groupe announced that the agency has been chosen to work with Tata Global Beverages, a $1.4 billion company that unties the beverage interests of the Tata Group under one umbrella.

     

    With a brand presence across 40 countries, Tata Global Beverages is the world’s second largest tea company with growing interests in coffee and water. It has a portfolio of strong brands such as Tata Tea, Tetley, Eight O’clock Coffee, Himalayan water and Good Earth tea.

     

    Indigo Consulting has been tasked to evaluate and refocus Tata Global Beverages’ brand communication efforts towards more effective online experiences via the company’s website. The website revamp comes as a concerted effort by the group to amplify its brand awareness and use the channel to better communicate with the company’s key target groups – investors, media, employees and consumers.

     

    Commenting on the move to partner with Indigo Consulting from among the other international contenders, Tata Global Beverages global brands director Sushant Dash says that the website is a critical piece of its corporate identity and looks forward to the redevelopment resulting in an engaging and differentiated online experience for its stakeholders.

     

    The agency has already chalked out plans for the website overhaul and these plans will help build a differentiated online positioning for Tata Global Beverages, says Indigo Consulting SVP strategy and client services Priti Jhavar.

     

    She says, “Tata Global Beverages is such a dynamic brand in itself that to play it safe and stick to a stiff, corporate persona would be a great disservice not just to the group but also to its customers. This is a brand that is responsible for bringing magical beverage moments daily to people around the world and that’s the message that we are very excited to convey through new-age interactions and advanced technology on their website.”   

     

  • Tangerine Digital launches content solution for e-commerce brands

    Tangerine Digital launches content solution for e-commerce brands

    MUMBAI: Tangerine Digital, a digital content solutions provider and part of To The New group has launched a customised content solution for brands in the budding e-commerce sector.

     

    Tangerine Digital chief operating officer Seeraj Katoch said, “As digital increasingly drives every aspect of the consumer’s life, we have observed that the digital consumer today prefers purchasing online after evaluating the product. With this unique solution, we are confident we will create content that is engaging, trend based, informative, visually attractive and well packaged that will help drive engagement this festive season. This could be in form of top quality videos, classic photo-shoots, engaging descriptions and so on!”

     

    Cashing on the festive season in India, e-commerce players have increased their marketing budget to persuade consumers to buy everything online. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) 2014 report states that the corporates are planning to spend about 25-30 per cent on advertising in this festive season as compared to the last year in consumer durables, electronics and auto taking the lead, but this change is expected in the e-commerce space ranging from higher sales in mobile telephones, shoes, apparel, gifts and electronic gadgets. 

     

    The e-commerce content solution by Tangerine Digital will enable brands to provide their customers with customized content, aggregated content and crowd sourced content that can help brands to communicate with their audiences’ at all possible digital touch points. The content solution is supported by analytics that can help brands monitor the effectiveness of their content. The solution can help brands serve the right content at the right time.

  • Myntra signs up with iProspect Communicate 2 for GAP

    Myntra signs up with iProspect Communicate 2 for GAP

    MUMBAI: Myntra has teamed up with iProspect Communicate 2 to become the first brand in India to sign up for Google Analytics Premium (GAP).

     

    For years, Google Analytics has been a digital marketer’s best friend, providing them with data driven insights into the target audience, allowing them to narrow in on the customer path and tailor the campaigns, according to the user. Google Analytics Premium offers all these features plus those additional aids that marketers have been dreaming of.

     

    GAP is more powerful, provides deeper insights and ensures complete support to brands. iProspect Communicate 2 has a team of trained and certified experts who are dedicated to offer complete GAP support in terms of implementation guides, training and audits. This will be exceptionally beneficial to a huge e-commerce site like Myntra.com with a registered base of 10 million and growing.

     

    iProspect Communicate 2 MD Vivek Bhargava said, “We were the first Google Analytics Certified partners in India six years ago. Quite naturally, Google thought we would be the best company to be their first Analytics Premium partner, as well. Companies like Myntra that garner a huge amount of traffic, need an enterprise version of Google Analytics. Our data led approach to digital marketing has always delivered superior ROI to our clients and I believe this development will continue and grow with Myntra as well.”

     

    The same enthusiastic approach was shared by Myntra chief revenue officer Prasad Kompalli. He was quoted as saying “Over the past few years, the number of users choosing to shop online has shot through the roof. This being said, the sheer volume of data that is generated is unimaginable. We need to segment our traffic in greater detail and this is where Google Analytics Premium will help us. We have multiple marketing channels like Adwords, Doubleclick, GSP, TV etc. With real-time data updates and easy ways to analyse multiple channels of data, Google Analytics Premium will help us to come up with innovative data insights. We feel we can offset the higher price of the tool with the savings we will be generating.”

  • #fame to invest 10 million dollars across six countries

    #fame to invest 10 million dollars across six countries

    MUMBAI: To The New (TTN), an end-to-end digital services network, through its digital content platform #fame will be investing $10 million in the next couple of years as it sets a target to reach out to 5000 channels and 50,000 content creators across six countries in south east Asia.

     

    #fame CEO Saket Saurabh, who was previously working with the Network18 group, says the company will follow a three pronged strategy for its talent-first programmes. Saurabh elaborates, “In the first stage it will focus on emerging talent and to establish them and help them promote and build digital communities.  In the second stage, content through digital IPs’ will be created via innovative digital shows in genres such as food, fashion, music, comedy and technology and in the third stage the company will monetise by helping brands reach out and engage with audiences through digital conversations via digital video services.”

     

    The digital agency has adopted a multi-platform approach when it comes to distribution on social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, WeChat etc. “We are screen agnostic. We are looking at mobiles, movies, airports, television screens etc,” says Saurabh.

     

    #fame, which was formerly known as Four Cross Creative Services, in the last few months decided to redefine its business operations and thus ideated to come up with its multi-tier talent management programme, which is designed to help talented youngsters grow their presence digitally and evolve as performers.

     

    TTN Ventures MD Puneet Johar feels that video is the new language for consumers on internet. “It is combining powerfully with the smartphone explosion and the rise of social sharing across screens to inspire a new wave of talent. We have built a strong ecosystem of digital businesses well positioned to create value in such a landscape,” he informs.

     

    #fame has identified six key markets – India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. It will now focus on creating Indian-based IPs and will begin its local businesses in other five countries in the coming six to eight months.

     

    To create talent inflow, it has partnered with Blogmint which is a fast growing network of bloggers. It currently has 5000 content creators and this figure is expected to reach 10,000 by the end of the year. It will also build a network of alliances with talent hubs such as comedy clubs, film and music schools, art and culinary academies.

     

    #fame announced a slew of digital shows like School of Style which it claims to be India’s first online hunt for top stylists and will be hosted by celebrated entertainment and fashion icon Karan Johar who will be the host, judge and mentor. Others include, Websinger which seeks promising young singing talent, Gang No 1 a search for top comedy collectives and the second season of Webchef the country’s largest online hunt for amateur chefs.

     

     When asked if the IPs will rest with either #fame or the hosts, Saurabh says it will be dealt on a case to case basis.

     

    Celebrities that have signed up with #fame include TV star Maria Goretti, child comic star Saloni, top fashionista Anusha Dandekar, celebrity chef Ajay Chopra, singing sensation Shibani Kashyap and style guru VJ Andy.

  • Digital Quotient launches audience marketing platform – ‘arQ’

    Digital Quotient launches audience marketing platform – ‘arQ’

    MUMBAI: A data-driven social and mobile marketing firm, Digital Quotient, has launched arQ, a audience-marketing platform that analyses integrated data from various sources and creates real-time actionable – audience marketing intelligence.

    arQ’s audience marketing intelligence helps marketers to create customised digital user experiences. The marketing intelligence derived from arQ can be integrated across multiple mediums – social, mobile, web and video, ensuring maximum impact and ROI.

    The key differentiator for arQ is its holistic analysis and transformation of gathered data into real-time unique audience buckets. These buckets enable marketers to segregate the target audience and reach out to them with the right message at the right time. This approach eliminates all the guesswork and media spillover of the traditional digital marketing approach based on inventory. 

    “In a world where consumers are using multiple devices and are flooded with endless choices, it is not surprising to note increasing spends on digital advertising by brands. There is a paradigm shift occurring in the digital marketing world which now demands customised marketing experiences not functioning in silos but integrated across multiple platforms. At Digital Quotient, we are committed to improve the user-experience across multiple mediums by focusing on the audience rather than inventory. arQ promises to translate online user behaviour into actionable intelligence for marketers. Thus, helping marketers to make the most effective business decisions and strategies by incurring the minimum cost,” said Digital Quotient (DQ) COO Vinish Kathuria.

    arQ deep dives into the user’s digital journey and transforms heaps of complex data into valuable real-time marketing intelligence. This precision of marketing intelligence, we believe is a revolutionary step in the current scenario. The innovation team at DQ is always focused at solving the intricate issues of digital marketing, delivering the best results and ensuring high ROI,” he added.

    With the launch of arQ, Digital Quotient focuses on an audience-first approach in all marketing strategies. arQ aims at reducing the time and effort required by marketers to deliver impactful, functional and engaging user experience which converts a user into consumer. In a complex and crowded Digital ecosystem this turns out to be a rather pressing need for most CMOs and marketers. arQ not only provides to run cross channel campaigns,  but also enables real-time bidding and audience buckets from which a marketer can find its most relevant target audience and reach out to them bang on time.

    Digital Quotient says that in the current stage, the arQ platform will offer a reach of 50 million monthly unique users globally, with plans to expand  reach in coming months. Digital Quotient has been able to recruit top tier talent from IITs & other premier institutes for this initiative  who are focusing on Data Science, Machine Learning & Statistical modelling aspects. Company plans to scale up though build, partner and buy approach and is in active discussion with partners and investors.

     

  • ThoughtBuzz launches cross-platform to identify ‘influencers’

    ThoughtBuzz launches cross-platform to identify ‘influencers’

    MUMBAI: The digital platform has become much more than just an end medium to market a product, today. Brands are conserving with the consumers directly through the platform to build a better and stronger relationship between the two.

    However, though there are many tools in the market that offer social media management, none of them provide a dashboard where a user can view not just fan growth, engagement rates but also see content performance, influencers and do competitor benchmarking.

    Hence, keeping this insight in mind, ThoughtBuzz, the analytics arm of TO THE NEW, launched a unified social media management and analytics platform for brands and enterprises.

    The platform is aimed at helping businesses to monitor, engage and identify influencers across all major social media platforms, namely Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. The self-serve product compliments ThoughtBuzz’s enterprise grade OmnioG solution, which in addition also allows exhaustive external monitoring of brands and products on blogs, forums, news and review sites and completes its range of social intelligence solutions.

    Only a handful of tools provide image and video analytics, and since the new platform can analyse both, it differentiates from the rest. Key features of the new platform include influencer identification, cross platform analytics, competitor benchmarking, content performance, Instagram and Twitter analytics.

    “The new platform allows community and brand managers to understand what content works best for them. You can compare content performance across Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter simultaneously. This is a powerful feature for community managers to engage more with their audience,” said ThoughtBuzz CEO Anshul Jain.

    ThoughtBuzz COO Ashok Patro added, “As ThoughtBuzz is Asia’s only mobile first social analytics platform, we will be able to provide brands with the latest information and insights, empowering them to effectively manage their social media accounts and businesses in real-time.”

    A team of four worked on the product which promises to not invade consumers’ privacy. All the data that is crunched is public data; it doesn’t track any private data of any user on any platform. Secondly, all the analysis is concentrated on data from fan pages for Facebook specifically.

    The product can be used by simply logging on the digital agency’s website and selecting a plan – free as well as paid plans.