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Goafest 2012 to focus on ‘Magic of Ideas’

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MUMBAI: The theme of Goafest 2012, to be held on 19-21 April, will be ‘Magic of ideas.‘

In line with the overall festival theme, Goafest 2012 Conclave is themed ‘Ideas for impacting the full circle‘.

Also, some changes are introduced this year, one of them being that for the first time it will encompass the geographical area of the entire South Asian region.

Goafest Committee chairman Arvind Sharma said, “This year, it will be an advertising festival for all in South Asia. We are calling everyone involved in creating ideas from countries across South Asia- Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal – as delegates as well as award entrants.”

Held at the Zuri White Sands in South Goa, the organisers will be holding road shows in countries across South Asia to promote the festival in these markets.

Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) president Nagesh Alai said, “We have received a very positive response from countries in South Asia. We are looking forward to our road shows to promote the festival in these markets. All South Asian agencies will participate in the main awards show. However, there will also be ‘The best of rest of South Asia‘ in each of the verticals.”

The 2012 edition of the advertising world jamboree is looking at strong client participation. Beyond the Conclave, senior clients are expected to be an integral part of the knowledge seminars.

The Goafest Committee is also looking to attract young client delegates in large numbers. It is offering a special package for under-30 marketers. “We‘re confident that well over 50 major client organisations will take part in the festival this year,” averred Sharma.

Following the trend of the past, this year too AAAI and Ad Club Bombay will be working together in partnership for the fifth year to deliver awards to celebrate creativity.

The Advertising Club Bombay president and chairman of the Awards Governing Council, the joint Advertising Agencies Association of India and Advertising Club Bombay body that runs the awards, Shashi Sinha said, “Last year‘s awards were well received by the industry. The Awards Governing Council will follow the same tight processes with some fine tuning in 2012.”

Over the years, specialist areas like Out of Home, Ambient, Design, Interactive Digital Advertising, Direct, and Integrated Advertising have been growing in importance. In recognition of this phenomenon, in 2012 Abbies at Goafest will have a provision for Grand Prix in all the nine verticals.

It may be recalled that last year Grand Prix were given only in Film, Print and Radio verticals. This year Grand Prix is also being introduced in media awards.

In 2011, over 140 agencies sent entries for Abbies at Goafest. A large number of these were specialist agencies. “Abbies are open to all those who create ideas. They do not have to be Advertising Agencies Association of India or Ad Club members,” Sharma observed.

Consistent with its growing importance, digital will find a place of pride at Goafest 2012. Digital Awards will be held on 20 April as will Media Awards. Design, Direct Awards will also be held on the same day, while the rest of the Creative will be held on 21 April.

Throwing light on the novelty of this year‘s do, Sharma said, “We have made the festival more inclusive and professional from the previous installments. Also, we have worked on tightening the jury process of the awards after taking into consideration the industry‘s feedback from last year‘s awards.”

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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