ITV

Category: Software

  • Nimesh Bhandari to be CMO at RealtyCompass.com

    MUMBAI: Realtycompass.com, a property search engine, has appointed Nimesh Bhandari as the Chief Marketing Officer.


    Speaking on his appointment, RealtyCompass.com COO Sankara Srinivasan said, “Nimesh’s rich execution experience in the field of Internet & Telecom will aid RealtyCompass.com in scaling up rapidly across PAN India. He has great credentials with a proven track record in business development and product marketing which will help Realtycompass in re-defining the online property search space. While welcoming him on board, I wish him a happy and successful tenure at RealtyCompass.com.”


    Nimesh brings over a decade of experience in business development in the internet & telecom space.


    Prior to this Nimesh started and grew the online ticketing business for Paytm.com overseeing business, product and marketing. Nimesh comes with a very strong understanding of e-commerce and mobile ecosystem and has played pivotal roles in alliances, marketing and product functions in Ibibo.com, Reliance Entertainment, TomTom & ValueFirst Messaging in his earlier stints. 


    Elaborating on his role at RealtyCompass.com, Nimesh said, “Technology is yet to disrupt realty space, and RealtyCompass has a huge opportunity to create an efficient & transparent marketplace for home buying. There is no single platform today where every project in the city is listed. I believe it’s a great opportunity for us to leverage these and make Realtycompass.com, the solution to hassle free home buying.”


     

  • Mobile internet ad spending to reach $ 4.14 billion in Asia Pacific: eMarketer Report

    MUMBAI: A recent global media intelligence report conducted by eMarketer and Starcom MediaVest Group says that nearly 2.5 billion of the world‘s 4.3 billion mobile phone users this year will be in Asia-Pacific.


    The report by eMarketer estimates that 2.43 billion people in Asia-Pacific will use a mobile phone at least monthly this year, translating to 56.3 per cent of the world’s mobile phone users. More than one billion of these mobile users will be in China alone, and about half that number will reside in India. By 2017, eMarketer estimates, Asia-Pacific will have nearly three billion mobile phone users out of a total 5.1 billion across the globe.






    The most astounding of these figures in Asia-Pacific’s trajectory is its smartphone user growth. In 2009, Asia-Pacific had just 86.2 million smartphone users. This year, Asia-Pacific will have more than four times as many smartphone users— 738.2 million total—than the next largest region in that category, Western Europe, which will have 161.1 million by the end of the year, and North America, which will have 152.2 million.


    Advertisers are lining up to reach these users, many of whom are part of a rising middle class across several emerging markets in the region. eMarketer estimates spending on mobile internet ads, including display and search but excluding messaging-based formats, will reach $4.14 billion across the region this year, up from $2.69 billion in 2012.






    That will represent 26.2 per cent of all mobile internet ad spending in the world, making Asia-Pacific second only to North America by this metric. The region is expected to lose share in the coming years, however, as mobile internet ad spending in Western Europe grows more quickly.


    Overall, Asia-Pacific will account for 27.7 per cent of total media ad spending and 28.7 per cent of digital ad spending in the world, ranking it second for both types of ad expenditure.


    The global media intelligence report is eMarketer‘s largest and most comprehensive snapshot of the state of media usage and spending globally. The report contains more than 700 charts collected from more than 150 global research sources, which SMG helped identify and gather for local and core global markets, in addition to benchmarks, analysis and context provided by eMarketer.


    Key figures on Asia-Pacific media usage and spending from the report include:
    Population: 3.94 billion in Asia-Pacific this year, up from 3.75 in 2008.
    Internet Users: 1.21 billion this year, from just 583 million in 2008.
    Mobile phone users: 2.4 billion this year, up from 1.56 billion in 2008.
    Smartphone Users: 738.2 million this year, up from 86.2 million in 2008.
    Social Network Users: 777 million this year, up from 195 million in 2008.
    Total ad spending: $143.23 billion in 2013, up from $120 billion in 2008.
    Digital ad spending: $33.76 billion in 2013, up from $13 billion in 2008.
    Mobile ad spending: $4.14 billion this year, up from $745 million in 2008.

  • DDB MudraMax lights up streets for Reebok One

    DDB MudraMax lights up streets for Reebok One

    MUMBAI: The sports brand Reebok has come up with a new running shoe – Reebok One – and to create visibility and awareness for it, the brand along with DDB MudraMax OOH team decided to cover malls and major traffic junctions of the various cities.

    “Reebok one is a high impact campaign designed to ensure that the consumer gets attracted towards the product and understands how the 3 zones can help a runner. This is being conveyed at every touch point be it retail or OOH. The consumer is introduced to this technology powered shoe in a compelling manner”, said Reebok brand director Somdev Basu.

    The campaign’s objective was to urge people to visit the showrooms and try the new Reebok One.

    To highlight the USP of the shoe the DDB MudraMax team came out with the idea of lighting the three parts/zones which help the person to land softly, transition smoothly and push forward quickly. The creative idea was to relate the foot movement with the zones in the shoe and the strategy was to take good clear hoardings and mall facades and highlight the 3 key functions of the shoe.

    Commenting on this, DDB MudraMax – Outdoor, retail and experiential president Mandeep Malhotra said, “Reebok is a brand which is very close to my heart. We were thrilled to welcome the three layered brief from them and the team did a fantastic job. We have been working hard on DDB MudraMax being the agency to tell a story on a single frame. This innovative campaign besides reaching out to prospective consumers brought the wow factor back in innovative lifestyle footwear campaigns.”

  • Aircel and Micromax join hands to share channel and retail network

    Aircel and Micromax join hands to share channel and retail network

    BENGALURU:  Telecom player Aircel and Indian handset supplier Micromax announced a strategic partnership with the aim to drive data growth. Under this new partnership, Aircel and Micromax will share their channel and retail networks, sales resources and run an integrated device sales activation program. The announcement was made simultaneously in four cities in India – New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai today. 

    Also, the duo introduced reverse bundling handset offers worth Rs 12,000 per month for every new Aircel customer. Aircel’s focus on data innovation and its expertise in mobile network, along-with Micromax’s expertise in device marketing will redefine the user experience and take data penetration to the next level claim the companies. 

    In Bengaluru, Aircel Circle Business Head, Karnataka, Kadhiravan K, said, “India is at the cusp of a data revolution and device tie-ups will strengthen the telecom ecosystem in the country, which is critical to drive data penetration.  According to a recent study, by the year 2020, mobile internet users are set to grow four – five times and smartphone penetration is set to increase five times to 50 per cent in India. Affordability in devices will give a rise to data proliferation which will be the main revenue generator for both telecom operators as well as handset manufacturers in the near future.” 

    “Aircel recognises the importance of smartphone devices to drive data usage. In line with that, it is our focus to get into partnerships with leading smartphone device manufacturers in an endeavor to bring to our customers exciting bundled products. In this exclusive partnership with Micromax, we will share their robust channel and retail network to deliver innovative and best value for money products and services,” added Kadhivaran. 

    At present, mass media communications will be limited to print media by Aircel and Mircomax individually, where each company will mention the other in their advertisements. Since the festive season is not very far off, a joint multimedia ATL and BTL campaign will be launched before the Durga Pooja/Duhessara and Diwali festivals revealed a source.

  • Digital Chocolate sells its Barcelona studio to Ubisoft

    Digital Chocolate sells its Barcelona studio to Ubisoft

    MUMBAI: Mobile-gaming developer Digital Chocolate is selling its 47-person strong Barcelona studio to French publisher Ubisoft.

    In addition to the employees, Ubisoft also purchased the rights to Digital Chocolate Barcelona’s original properties. Those include mobile games like Army Attack, MMA Pro Fighter and Zombie Lane.

    Digital Chocolate is a mobile developer based in San Mateo, Calif. It now maintains offices in California, Seattle, St. Petersburg, and Bangalore.

    Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins founded Digital Chocolate in 2003. The company is probably best known for its feature-phone games like Tower Bloxx and Tornado Mania! The company is struggling. It currently doesn’t have any games in the iOS highest-grossing charts.

    In 2012, Hawkins stepped down as chief executive officer. The developer also closed its Helsinki office and laid off 180 people.

  • Digital magazine app Flipboard valued at $800 mn

    Digital magazine app Flipboard valued at $800 mn

    MUMBAI: Flipboard, a magazine app for mobile devices, has been valued at $800 million after a round of funding raised $50 million from investors including Goldman Sachs and Rizvi Traverse Management.

    The app first launched for iPads in 2010, but has since been downloaded by more than 85 million users on a range of Android and iOS devices. In the last six months its user base has grown, and it now reports nearly 200,000 new downloads each day.

    Billing itself as a ‘personal magazine’, Flipboard provides users with the ability to search content from different online publications, as well as aggregating articles from links posted to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

    The app then formats this content to allow users to ‘flip’ through it or even create their own publications to share with friends. Celebrity users include Al Gore, who posts articles he has read and enjoyed, and Ashton Kutcher, who created a magazine about Steve Jobs prior to the release of his biopic Jobs profiling the Apple founder.

    Platforms that aggregate content from other publications have seen increased interest from investors and are seen by some as an effective way to increase engagement with old media on the web and mobile devices.

    However, others see their business model as a parasitic. McCue, who founded the app with former iPhone engineer Evan Doll, reports that around three million magazines have been created on the service and that the platform is expanding through desktop apps and new partnerships.

    Publishing company Random House announced last week that it would be making two custom magazines for its readers; one concerning the extended universe of George R. R. Martin’s ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ books and another based around Margaret Atwood’s new ‘MaddAdam’ novel and curated by Atwood herself.

  • Twitter adds CBS to its stable of big advertisers

    Twitter adds CBS to its stable of big advertisers

    MUMBAI: Twitter has been frantically adding partners to its Amplify advertising program ever since it began informally last year with a partnership between the social network, ESPN and the Ford Motor Company. In those initial ads, the sports broadcaster sent out clips of football games, disguised in a Ford Fusion ad, as short messages on the service.

    Since then, more than a dozen other content distributors, from the Fox television network to Globosat in Brazil, have joined the program, with brands including Heineken and AT&T promoting clips from major sports events like the U.S. Open tennis tournament and NCAA basketball games and live events like MTV‘s Video Music Awards.

    Twitter recently announced that it had signed CBS, one of its biggest partners yet. The broadcast and internet network intends to use Twitter Amplify to showcase content from 42 products, from TVGuide.com to its fantasy football site.

    As an example, Twitter and CBS showed off a possible “60 Minutes in 60 Seconds” ad, which could promote content from the revered television news magazine.

  • Panasonic strengthens its mobile offerings, launches new smartphones

    Panasonic strengthens its mobile offerings, launches new smartphones

    MUMBAI: Encouraged by the tremendous success of its P51 smartphone launched earlier this year, Panasonic, one of the global leaders in consumer technologies, has unveiled three new smartphones: P11, T21, and T11. These smartphones are designed to deliver on Panasonic’s brand promise of Smart solutions for Smart people, and come with compact and sleek designs, loaded with innovative software features to deliver performance.

    The newly launched smartphones are a combination of stylish design, cutting-edge technology and innovative convergence capabilities attempting to redefine the smartphone experience for the Indian mobile phone consumer. These new smartphones run on Android 4.1 (jelly bean) that promises superior quality graphics, multi-tasking and improved application performance. Priced between Rs 9,790 to Rs 16,490, all the three devices come in multiple screen sizes with IPS and High Resolution display. Quad-Core and Dual-Dual Core technology ensures impressive speed and graphics performance. All phones come pre-loaded with popular Apps such as ToI & ET news application, Hungama music application, WeChat Instant messenger, CamCard & CamScanner utility applications. The smartphones will be available to consumers in India from third week of September, 2013.

    Expressing his pleasure on the launch, Panasonic India MD Manish Sharma said, “With the launch of these devices, we are yet again raising the bar for innovation. Smartphone is a reflection of who you are, and since we are all different, it is imperative that we do not adopt a ‘one size fits all approach’. Panasonic’s new offerings will deliver a remarkable mobile experience to our consumers and set a new standard in premium smartphones. It syndicates great functionality and design, accompanied by a comprehensive system of applications that reliably address the needs of our evolving customers. We are positive that our consumers will yet again repose their faith in Panasonic.”

    Panasonic has partnered with Broadcom and Qualcomm to quickly bring smartphones with advanced features including multi-core processor, vivid graphics and dual-SIM capabilities.

  • Techzone enters into strategic alliance with PTC Punjabi

    Techzone enters into strategic alliance with PTC Punjabi

    MUMBAI: The Punjabi entertainment industry has been in great demand and hence has been producing content that is widely consumed not only amongst the Punjabi community, but also amongst the large Hindi speaking masses.

    Keeping in mind the demand, Techzone, an aggregator, developer, publisher and distributor of entertainment content in the world, has entered into a strategic alliance with a Punjabi entertainment channel, PTC Punjabi. The alliance will provide a platform for direct interaction with audience for the channel by offering Techzone’s short code 56060.

    With this alliance, PTC Punjabi aims to engage its vast and much spread out audience across various parts of the country and interact with them via SMS services, program related activities (MYSMS, PTT), contests like opinion polls/Voting and subscription based services (News, Astrology, Jokes etc.).

    Speaking about the alliance, PTC Network CEO & director Rajiee M Shinde said, “Interactive Marketing enhances Viewer Engagement with the channel and SMS & other VAS services offered by Techzone help us to that aspect. We are looking at more such Interactive Services and this strengthening our relationship with our ardent viewers who seek us out, platform irrespective.”

    The response of the SMS services has been overwhelming already with 1.5 lakhs SMS subscription between Oct. 2012 and Mar. 2013. The highest gainers till now are PTC Music awards with 28, 500 sms hits, PTC Film awards with 14, 000 sms hits and the Miss PTC Punjabi Beatuty & Talent Pageant with 16, 000 sms hits.

    PTC Network president & director Rabindra Narayan said, “Significant SMS responses on our key properties have been extremely encouraging. Viewer Response & reaction important in shaping further content strategy. Our viewers are extremely loyal and almost consider it their right to convey their feedback back to the channel. We are always striving to better our content basis their feedback, rather than only relying on Industry Viewership figures.”

    On the same, Techzone MD Naveen Bhandari said, “PTC Punjabi is the No. 1 Punjabi entertainment channel in India, Australia, UK, USA & Canada and the reason for this is the unique content they offer to their consumers. We are glad to become a part of such an authentic brand where our robust technology will engage the user directly with the channel and also give Techzone a large platform for creating better visibility for ourselves. PTC Punjabi has a strong international appeal, thus, we are expecting to reinforce our global customer base through this alliance. This alliance in future will also prove to be another bench mark in our many efforts to strengthen our regional content portfolio in India and becoming the preferred VAS provider across the world.”

    In future, Techzone plans to extend its VAS services like CRBT, IVR, WAP and apps etc for PTC Punjabi to make the channel’s content available on mobile platform and ensure more effective content monetization for the channel.

    Commenting on the ongoing adoption of VAS services amongst the known media channels, Bhandari added, “Over the years we have witnessed a paradigm shift in the content monetization space. VAS has opened new doors for the non VAS related content providers to reach out and opine with their audience even without having to associate themselves with telecom operators. Techzone wishes to spear head this change with the advanced technology and reach, and its unique content monetization strategies. ”

  • Recharge Tata Sky connections through Yes Bank ATM

    Recharge Tata Sky connections through Yes Bank ATM

    MUMBAI: Recharging your Tata Sky connection couldn’t get easier. The direct-to-home service provider and Yes Bank have come together to provide its respective customers an easy medium to recharge the DTH connection. The Yes Bank customers can simply walk into any Yes Bank ATM to recharge their Tata Sky account.

    “The purpose is to make recharging of Tata Sky connections easier for customers,” says Tata Sky CEO Harit Nagpal. The ATM recharge method is the newest addition to Tata Sky’s already existing options of recharging through retailers, debit/credit cards, call center, mobile app, WAP and SMS recharge. “We have taken a step towards making recharges available to customers in a convenient way,” adds Nagpal.

    Yes Bank is the first of the lot from the banks that Tata Sky has approached for activating this facility. “We are in touch with many other banks. There will be many more such activations that will take place in the time to come. Yes Bank is a start,” says he.

    Commenting on the tie up with Yes Bank, Tata Sky chief commercial officer Vikram Mehra says, “We are proud to be associated with Yes Bank, known for its customer service centricity for this offering. Tata Sky has constantly endeavored to customise its bouquet of product and services for its evolving subscriber base. With the advancement of technology; the option of instant ATM based recharge facility will help reach out to subscribers spread across the country. Using the wide spread network of the bank along with other touch points, Tata Sky looks forward to increasing convenient modes of payments in the future.”

    Yes Bank with its 1100+ ATMs pan India is hoping to better its services with this addition. “This is a result of our ever endearing efforts to offer superlative ‘consumer convenience’ across the board. And it gives us immense pleasure to find like minded partners, to work closely towards jointly achieving a platform aimed at ‘Customer Delight’,” adds Yes Bank senior president & country head, liabilities, cards & direct banking Chitra Pandeya.