MAM
Brands should focus on creating content that fits their space
MUMBAI: Every individual during the lockdown is trying to master one or the other skill. But they are not realising that it is okay to ignore the pressure of productivity. Apparently, productivity is not a synonym for safety, health or sanity. This point was raised by Oaktree founder Gaurav Kapur during a webinar discussing the business of content in a post-Covid world, hosted by The Advertising Club Bangalore.
Kapoor said: “I just want to tell people that it is not a productivity contest which people initially taught it is. It is the race for survival. During the first thirty days people though it is a party, but slowly people are realising that the situation is quite dire. And now there is a shift in the mood and behaviour of people. I have a team of 25 people at Oaktree. It is not just about generating revenue but also have some things that keep the team motivated; we are trying to keep busy by generating content”
The other panellists in the virtual discussion included Pocket Aces founder Ashwin Suresh, Duroflex VP marketing Smita Murarka, Nodwin Gaming MD Akshat Rathee, Wavemaker VP and Kishan Kumar MS. The panel was moderated by Wavemaker chief content officer Karthik Nagarajan.
Explaining the measures taken at Pocket Aces, Suresh added, “In the initial week of lockdown we realised the repercussions. So, accordingly we made the arrangements by moving the system to people’s houses. Post that, we started working on forward content; we were planning a lot of shoots that could be done during lockdown. We started researching about what is happening in the countries where lockdowns happened before India. Our HR team started preparing scenarios if it is going to be 20 day or 30 day but now it is almost 70 days. So we in a way had a capability to move into the productive mode.”
According to experts, it is time for motivating people as well as focusing ways on generating revenue systems.
There are two kinds of advertisers: those who spend a lot of money on advertising and those playing it safe. And others who are seeing this period as a great opportunity and are being more aggressive when it comes to content.
“Before Covid2019 we were educating clients about the importance of sleep but according to Indian mentality burning the midnight oil is great. For Duroflex as a brand the situation has come very positively and organically where we say that sleep builds immunity. We were able to take this conversation out in the world through digital and TV medium in a much stronger way than we could have done earlier,” says Smita Murarka.
According to Murarka, posting the right content that fits today's environment has helped them a lot. There was an increase in the traffic on the site by 4x times. She also highlights that it is important for other brands to see if the occasion relates to you and how much connection you can draw from it organically. It is not a performance contest or a competition. Brands should see if the content is in their space and strengthen that further to help people.
Gaming industry is one of the few sectors that has seen growth or is faring better than other industries.
Elaborating on the same, Nodwin Gaming MD Akshat Rathee said that working from home for a sector like gaming and e-sports is easy. “We already knew that PUBG mobile was doing well before it became popular. My servers are melting down because people are playing too much and watching too much. On the other side platforms like Netflix are very passive because when you watch too much it creates an urge of doing something live. E-sports comes at the top tier of gaming.”
This year was very challenging in terms of ad spends. Currently, live entertainment has come to a standstill. Major sports events like IPL and Olympics are not happening. Considering this scenario Nagarajan pointed a question towards Kishan Kumar on how it will impact a market like India.
“As agencies we are consultants. So, basically consultancy is based on past knowledge and here we don’t have any rule book on issues like this. As an industry we work on passion points, whether it is cricket or live game or entertainment. So, when you are in a situation where a large aspect of the industry is taken away is very difficult. As long as brands and advertisers stick on to a passion point to engage with consumers that passion point translates into different ways of expression. This pandemic has also taught us to go back and rediscover our fundamentals,” added Kishan Kumar.
MAM
Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement
Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted
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.
Brands
Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board
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.
MAM
Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships
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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