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Ad creatives react to Star Plus’ 3D innovation

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MUMBAI: Star India is coming up with its one of the most expensive show – Mahabharat – and it is surely spending a lot of moolah in promoting it.

When you have a mega property, you probably have to think mega-plus while trying to communicate its scale to your consumer. That‘s something many a company follows. And that‘s the tack even Star India took today to announce the launch of its epic Mahabharat which is slated to air on its Hindi GEC Star Plus from tonight.

A four page false cover ad adorned today’s Bombay Times  (an advertorial, entertainment, promotional  supplement of The Times of India). It featured the epic show‘s characters (Arjun, Draupadi and Duryodhan) of Mahabharat. And to top it all, it was all in 3D! Yes, you read it right.

KV Sridhar and Viral Pandya feel that the 3D effect was unnecessary

In fact, the network is leaving no stone unturned to create enough and more buzz related to it.   From 3D innovations on  OOH platforms across cities to promos on 25 other channels apart from the Star network, the channel wants to make sure that people don’t miss out on its blockbuster epic.

The show is estimated to have a budget of  Rs 100 crore and out of this, 20 per cent has been allotted to marketing.

The innovations which have been conceptualised by Contract Advertising, however seem to have failed to dazzle other creative heads. Leo Burnett NCD KV Sridhar feels that there is nothing new in the so-called innovation. “It’s an old concept and will only attract small children’s attention especially today when 3D is a common phenomenon,” he says while emphasising on the fact that innovations today have moved up a notch with augmented reality.  

He’s not alone.  Even Out of the Box CCO Viral Pandya feels that there was no need for a 3D effect when the message would have been effective enough in  2D which Star did with the Mumbai morninger Mid-Day and The Hindustan Times Café did. “If one looks at the Volkswagen Talking newspaper (again TOI and The Hindu) innovation which appeared three years back, this is just plain blah! There is no idea in it expect for showing that one has enough money to spend.”

The two innovations most can’t get over are the ones created for the German automaker (Volkswagen) which got everyone talking. As per reports, the Das Auto company spent close to Rs 6 crore on that exercise. The other one (2011) was the integrated 3D campaign for Audi A8 L.

However, there are a few who feel that the innovation did encourage them  to pick up and try on the 3D glasses. “It did manage to create a little bit of noise,” says Lowe Lintas & Partners NCD Arun Iyer who adds, “It surely would have cost them a bomb!”

Whereas Arun Iyer and KS Chakravarthy say that it did manage to create a little bit of noise

Draftfcb Ulka NCD K S Chakravarthy (Chax) too believes that Star‘s innovation – something which no other channel has attempted before – is bound to have had an impact. “It‘s not as if 3D hasn’t been done before but the scale at which at which it has been done by Star could have worked in getting it noticed,” he says.

One just hopes that for Star‘s (it has been pushing the pedal on marketing and has been showing chutzpah just like Levers or P&G or Coke ) sake that 3D translates into TVT.

MAM

Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement

Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted

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MUMBAI: Nielsen is taking a fresh stab at one of television’s oldest blind spots: how many people are actually watching the same screen. The audience-measurement giant on February 4 unveiled a co-viewing pilot that uses wearable devices to better capture shared viewing, starting with America’s biggest broadcast stage.

The trial begins with Super Bowl LX on NBC on February 8, 2026, before extending to other high-profile live sports and entertainment events in the first half of the year. The goal is simple but commercially potent: count viewers more accurately, especially during live spectacles that pull families and friends to one screen.

The new approach leans on Nielsen’s proprietary wearable meters, wrist-worn devices that resemble smartwatches. These passively capture audio signatures from TV content, logging exposure to shows, films and live events without requiring viewers to sign in or self-report. In theory, fewer clicks, fewer lapses, better data.

Karthik Rao, Nielsen’s ceo, cast the move as part of a broader measurement push. He said the company’s task is to keep pushing accuracy as clients invest heavily in live programming that draws mass audiences. The co-viewing pilot, he added, builds on upgrades such as Big Data + Panel measurement, out-of-home expansion, live-streaming metrics and wearable-based tracking.

Co-viewing is not new territory for Nielsen, which has long tried to estimate how many people sit before a single set. What is new is the heavier integration of wearables and passive detection to reduce reliance on active inputs from panel homes.

For now, the pilot comes with caveats. Co-viewing estimates from the trial will not be folded into Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings, which remain the industry’s trading currency. Instead, pilot findings will be shared with clients a few weeks after final Big Data + Panel ratings are delivered. Clients may disclose those findings publicly.

More impact data will follow later this year. Full integration into Nielsen’s marketing-intelligence suite is slated as a longer-term play, with a target of bringing co-viewing into currency measurement for the 2026–2027 season. This is only phase one, with further co-viewing enhancements planned beyond 2026 and additional timelines to be announced.

The push fits a wider pattern. Nielsen has in recent years expanded big-data integration, adopted first-party data for live-streaming measurement and broadened out-of-home tracking. It also positions itself as the reference point for streaming metrics through products such as The Gauge and the Nielsen Streaming Top 10.

In a market where billions of ad dollars hinge on decimal points, counting who is in the room matters. If Nielsen can pin down shared viewing, the humble sofa could become prime measurement real estate. The race to count every eyeball just found a new wrist to watch.

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Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board

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Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.

Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.

“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.

The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.

Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.

The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.

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Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships

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SINGAPORE: Anuvrat Rao has taken charge as APAC  head of commerce and signals partnerships at Meta, steering monetisation deals across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from Singapore. The former Google executive, known for launching Google Assistant, PWAs, AMP and Firebase across Asia-Pacific, steps into the role after a high-growth stint as chief business officer at Locofy.ai.

At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.

Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.

Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.

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