Event Coverage

MIS 2024: Tackling the acquisition – retention juggernaut

Published

2 years ago

April 4, 2024

Mumbai: The Media Investment Summit 2024 which is being held on 4 April at Novotel, Mumbai is a dynamic platform that aims to bring together minds from the brand, media, advertising, digital & TV fraternity to explore the ever-evolving landscape of content, Adtech, Martech, metaverse and Web 3.0, the evolution of traditional media planning and buying, data and privacy infringement and ROI on advertising.

The day-long affair is to make sure to tantalise the thoughts of those looking for answers to myriad topics under the branding, advertising, TV, digital media planning, and buying roof.

The key highlights of this session encompass defining customer acquisition and retention within the framework of business strategy. This includes mapping the customer journey from awareness to conversion and retention, identifying touchpoints for continuous engagement throughout the lifecycle. The pivotal role of personalization in both acquisition and retention strategies will also be discussed. Additionally, the session will cover the utilization of various channels, encompassing digital and traditional methods, for effective customer acquisition. Lastly, the imperative for businesses to adapt acquisition and retention strategies in response to evolving market dynamics will be addressed.

The very first-panel discussion of the event is chaired by PivotRoots – A Havas company VP – media & strategy Ashok Shinde, consisting of panelists including – mFunnel.ai co-founder and CEO Chintan Soni, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories India head – e-commerce Reethika Nair, Jio deputy general manager – marketing Shaurya Tyagi, CleverTap Sr VP partnerships (East Globe) Tapan Acharya and WebEngage director of growth and strategy Tanisha Doshi.

Sharing the context of the session, Shinde began talking about customer acquisition, retention marketing and perhaps why do brands and marketers of businesses really need to invest and pay attention to it.

Shinde asked his first question to Tyagi, “What are some of the key elements that are important for making a successful customer acquisition and retention marketing strategy?”

Tyagi answered, “Whenever we look at customer acquisition, more than looking it as a funnel, I look it as a loop. Everytime we acquire a new customer, if that customer makes a transaction or makes an action on the app or website, that customer will talk about their experience or whatever action they’ve taken on the web or the app, to other people also which will further get other people also into that.

Secondly, there would be channels that can be grouped into two buckets. One is always on channel, which will give sustained growth as you continuously optimise them over a period of time. The other one would be, the one giving you the spike when a particular offer or promotion is running for a product. If you think of Instagram as an example, the growth will come from specific events when they’re happening. That’s where you’ll get a lot of growth from existing customers.”

Talking about retention, he added, “Retention can be actually broken down into three parts. First one is activation. For example a customer signs up on the app, that’s where the customer has actually taken an action on the app. Second is the engagement. When you think of any social media pp or any ecommerce app, you’ll have to see what core action you want the user to do and that defines the engagement. The last bit is resurrection which is actually linked to the first two. The customer downloads the app but doesn’t sign up, that means he/she is not activated and resurrecting a customer is not possible in that case. But if you see that the customer is talking daily, weekly or monthly action on your app only then you can call them as an engaged user and if that is not happening then you have to resurrect them and bring them back into the loop.”

Moving on, Shinde asked Soni, “What has been you approach to some of the common challenges that you’ve faced and how did you overcome those?”

Soni answered, “When you talk about acquisition, one of the biggest challenge atleast in the digital media is that there’s a reverse economy. Probably if you go from zero to ten, the acquisition cost will be stagnant but if you go from 10-100, that is where you start seeing the cost of acquisition going up. The reason that happens is that 70-80 per cent of the digital media works on the auction based economy, where you have to actually outgrade another advertiser in the poll, to win that impression.”

He then goes on to talk about analysing the whole funnel and lead indicators in each stage of the funnel. He also spoke a bit about click through rate. Talking about customer retention he said, “Customer retention is almost like employee retention in a company. You’ve to understand why they’re not coming back to you again.”

Moving on to his next question, Shinde asked Nair, “What would be your recommendation on how we should go about prioritizing between the two (customer acquisition & retention)?”

Nair answered, “Firstly, a big question is ‘should you have a retention strategy?’. I think one should know what stage their brand is in. If it’s in the starting stage then forget about retention strategy and focus on whether you’ve built the right product or service to get the acquisition done in a very organic or natural fashion. People say that acquisition is five to 25 times more expensive than retention. But the fact is that acquisition becomes expensive when you want scale in very small period of time. You have to figure out ways of getting acquisition done in a cost efficient manner. The second scenario is, retention becomes critical but retention’s first big soul is your product experience. Today it’s a very difficult problem to solve because of the fragmentation that we live in.”

She then talked about the various types of retention that a brand can have including emotional aspect or the price reason.

Shinde then asked his next question to Acharya and Doshi, “How do you see brands leveraging to try customer acquisition or retention strategies?”

Doshi answered, “Every customer does require personalisation to a really large extent. Being an enabler in this space, there are top three strategies that every brand can inculcate in their retention strategy. One is data is king. When we talk about data,not only online but even offline, data becomes important to merge the data between your online and offline customers so that a seamless customer journey can be created for your end customer, i.e, consolidation of data.”

She then went on to talk about the real power of omnichannel marketing, and personalisation.

Acharya then went on to answer the question saying, “The acquisition and retention juggernaut is actually two sides of the same coin. If you have a leaky boat where you’re acquiring and just draining then it makes no sense. Secondly, we pretty much know th CMP or the LTV formula, i.e., ‘what is one transaction making for you, what is the frequency of the transaction, what are the number of years the customer stays with you, that’s your lifetime value for the customer. Keeping these two thing in mind, if you think about acquisition an retention, the whole communication is about the maturity framework. If your integrated opinion is to have customers for life, then acquisition and retention has to be spoken in the same breath. Once that happens, then ofcourse the whole media has evolved to be bidirectional.”

He then went on to talk about the five parts in which money can be made on the internet, that is, through technology, banking services, advertising, subscription models, and gaming platforms.

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Event Coverage

Anime India announces Amazon MX Player as co-presenting partner for Anime India Kolkata 2026

Published

1 week ago

January 28, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Riding high on the success of its blockbuster Mumbai debut, Anime India is accelerating its nationwide expansion with the announcement of Amazon MX Player as the co-presenting partner for Anime India Kolkata. The partnership marks a significant step forward in the festival’s mission to deliver large-scale, accessible, and fan-first anime experiences across the country.

Scheduled for 14 and 15 February 2026 at the iconic Biswa Bangla Mela Prangan, Anime India Kolkata will launch the first regional chapter of what is set to be a year-long, multi-city tour. As the curtain-raiser for the 2026 circuit, the Kolkata edition aims to fuse the energy of global Japanese pop culture with India’s fast-growing community of anime, manga, and pop-culture fans.

A household name in digital entertainment, Amazon MX Player brings unmatched reach and cultural relevance to the Anime India platform. With its expanding focus on anime and youth-driven content, Amazon MX Player’s involvement as co-presenting partner reinforces Anime India’s vision of making anime culture more inclusive breaking barriers of language, geography, and accessibility to connect with fans nationwide.

*Glimpses of Anime India Mumbai edition*

Anime India Kolkata 2026 will showcase cosplay competitions, interactive zones led by the Indian Gunpla Community, India-39 Vocaloid Community, The Japan Curry, and Adda-o-Otaku by The Otaku Guild. Fans can join tournaments across fighting games, Pokémon VGC, and more. Acclaimed Japanese director Susumu Mitsunaka (Haikyu!!) will attend as guest of honour, appearing in panels and live sessions. Positioned as an immersive celebration of fan culture and industry collaboration, the Kolkata edition marks the beginning of Anime India’s nationwide expansion.

Sharing their perspective on the partnership, Amazon MX Player director Aruna Daryanani expressed, “Anime in India has evolved from a niche interest into a mainstream cultural movement, driven by an increasingly engaged and passionate fanbase. At Amazon MX Player, our focus is on expanding access by bringing anime to audiences across the country for free and in multiple local languages. Our association with Anime India reflects our commitment to supporting the growth of anime in India and deepening connections with fans, while continuing to build Amazon MX Player as a trusted destination for free, high-quality entertainment.”

“Anime India Kolkata is a celebration of how anime has grown beyond entertainment into a powerful cultural and creative force. By bringing fans, creators, and industry leaders onto one shared platform, the festival is helping define the future of pop culture in India,” said Anime India co-founder and director Neha Mehta.

The debut edition of Anime India 2025 in Mumbai attracted over 29,000 fans, quickly cementing its status as a landmark celebration of anime and Japanese pop culture. Riding on this overwhelming response, the Kolkata chapter is projected to draw more than 40,000 visitors across two days, positioning it as one of the biggest anime conventions ever held in eastern India.

Anime India is focused on bringing together fans from across the country to create a truly pan-India celebration of anime, manga, cosplay, gaming, and Japanese culture. With plans to expand into four key metropolitan hubs in 2026—east (Kolkata), north (Delhi), west (Mumbai), and south (Hyderabad)—the festival seeks to deliver globally benchmarked experiences while supporting and uplifting creators, artists, and fan communities throughout India.

Event Coverage

Transcend Goa Day 2 closes with a vision for cross‑border storytelling and shared narratives

Published

3 weeks ago

January 16, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

Day two of Transcend Goa 2026 built on the momentum of the opening day and offered a deeper dive into the possibilities of transmedia storytelling and IP creation. Through a mix of panel discussions, and visionary presentations, the second day highlighted both the challenges and opportunities of building story worlds that thrived across platforms, leaving participants inspired by the breadth of ideas and collaborations that were showcased.

The second day began with the session Transmedia History of Japan Manga/Anime/Game IPs in the Partnership of East Asia. The session explored the evolution of Japanese manga, anime, and game IPs as transmedia ecosystems, shaped through long‑standing collaborations across East Asia. The speaker for the session was RE Entertainment CEO & president Atsuo Nakayama.

L to R: Ankur Pathak, Dhruv Jagasia, Tarana eddy and Caleb Franklin

The session ahead was titled A World Where Narratives are Currency. It explored how powerful narratives function as both creative and commercial currency, shaping brands, fandoms, and franchises in the global media landscape. Speakers included Big Bad Wolf founder Dhruv Jagasia, Matter Entertainment founder & CEO Caleb Franklin, Storiculture transmedia producer Tarana Reddy, with the discussion moderated by writer Ankur Pathak.

The next session post‑lunch was Building Mugafi into a Transmedia Giant. It took a deep dive into transforming Mugafi into a scalable, story‑driven ecosystem. The discussion explored how IP development, technology, and creator communities converge to build a transmedia platform that nurtures talent, expands narratives, and unlocks global opportunities. The speaker for this session was Mugafi founder Vipul Agrawal.

The session titled From Collectibles to Culture – Toys, Merchandising & Global Transmedia Value Chains focused on merchandising and consumer products. It examined how toys, collectibles, and licensing strategies can expand a story’s reach and create sustainable value chains across film, television, gaming, and more. Speakers included Weta head of consumer products Kim Faiga and Weta consumer products sales manager Jack Oolders, with the discussion moderated by Bulletproof Entertainment founder Harish Rao.

L to R: Sunder Aaron, Charuvi Agrawal, Manvendra Shukla and Milind Shinde

The last session for the day was titled The Next Wave of Global IP – Connecting India, Asia & the West. It spotlighted emerging intellectual properties that bridge continents and cultures, highlighting collaborative projects linking creators in India, Asia, and the West. By showcasing case studies on scaling IP across borders, the discussion underscored how co‑productions and shared narratives can reach audiences worldwide. Speakers included 88 Pictures founder & CEO Milind Shinde, CDL TV CEO Charuvi Agrawal, writer Binky Mendez, and Lakshya Digital CEO Manvendra Shukul, with the discussion moderated by Locomotive Global founder Sunder Aaron.

Transcend Goa 2026, concluded with closing remarks from Rao and representatives of the government of Goa, followed by a networking evening. The sessions across the event captured the spirit of collaboration and innovation, showcasing how transmedia storytelling and IP creation can transcend borders, formats, and industries. As the event drew to a close, participants left with renewed inspiration, strengthened connections, and a shared vision for the future of global media and entertainment.

Event Coverage

Transcend Goa 2026 Day 1 showcases India’s journey in storytelling, IP creation and transmedia content

Published

3 weeks ago

January 16, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

Day One of Transcend Goa 2026 marked a significant step for India’s creative industries, as the inaugural transmedia conclave unfolded at the Marquinez Palace in Panjim on 15 January. The summit brought together leading voices from cinema, publishing, gaming, animation and emerging technologies to discuss how stories can move fluidly across formats and reach audiences in new ways.

Conceived as a platform to showcase India’s growing strength in original IP and cross‑media innovation, the conclave set out to highlight the country’s transition from service‑driven work to globally recognised creative leadership. With the support of the Government of Goa, the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) and Goa Future Proof curated the event to spark dialogue on the future of storytelling and its impact on culture and commerce.

L to R: Sanjay Ram, Shobha Sant, Veerendra Patil, Monisha Advani and Vijay Koshy

The day opened with an address by a Government of Goa representative and ESG chief executive officer Asvin Chandru. He said, “Goa has been envisioned as a future facing space where cinema, publishing, gaming, technology and artificial intelligence converge, reflecting the state’s ambition to emerge as a hub for creative, innovation and cultural exchange. Over the next two days, we hope this conclave inspires meaningful dialog, learning and collaboration across disciplines.”

Next, government of Goa chief secretary and planning secretary V Candavelou took the stage, setting the tone for the discussions ahead. He noted, “You all know that transmedia storytelling has undergone a transformational change. With the evolving of new technologies, this storytelling keeps on changing. The Transcend Goa summit is making this platform available to all the stakeholders to exhibit their talents. I hope that these two days spark meaningful conversation and ideas for the future.”

The event was graced by Goa’s chief minister Dr Pramod Sawant. “Transcend Goa is a simple idea to create a space where the culture meets technology, creates a space where the creativity connects with opportunity,” he said taking the stage. “The summit is also a pilot. It allows us to learn and understand how Goa can position itself as a large, creative and digital economy. Even small steps matter when we move in the right direction. If this discussion is of value to the creators’ businesses and the students, then these efforts will serve its purpose.”

He further said, “Goa always attracted the artist and thinkers. Today, it also has the students who code, design, animate, write and build the digital products. This summit gives them the exposure. This platform can open new doors and sparks new ideas. The government of Goa has extended support to Transcend Goa because we believe in the enabling of this platform. The Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) has been entrusted and with the responsibility because it understands the culture landscape and has the capacity to execute such initiatives. We see the summit as a part of the larger efforts, our efforts to strengthen the Goa’s creative economy.”

The keynote was delivered by Creativeland Group chairman Sajan Raj Kurup, who underscored the importance of building narratives and transmedia content that resonate across platforms and markets.

The day opened with the session Beyond the Screen: Creating Stories that Travel, which examined how narratives moved across film, television, games, social media and immersive experiences. It considered strategies for designing stories that adapted and engaged audiences across formats. Speakers included Emmay Entertainment producer partner and CEO Monisha Advani, Zebu Animation co‑founder and creative director Veerendra Patil, TVF president Vijay Koshy and Creativeland Studios CEO Shobha Sant, with the discussion moderated by Mediasmiths founder Sanjay Ram.

The session The Evolution of India’s Media Ecosystem: Transitioning from Outsourcing to Transmedia IP Creation examined how India’s media sector moved from providing back‑end services to developing original intellectual property that attracted global investment. Speakers included Punnaryug Artvision founder Ashish Kulkarni, Brhat founder Raghav Krishna, with the discussion moderated by Bulletproof Entertainment founder Harish Rao.

Post lunch, the session India’s Original IP Powerhouse: The Raj/Alpha Comics Story presented a case study on how publishers such as Raj Comics and Alpha Comics developed Indian superhero stories into transmedia properties. Speakers included Raj Comics founder Sanjay Gupta, Raj Comics and Alpha Comics founder Vasu Gupta, with the discussion moderated by Animation Xpress India director Mishaal Wanvari.

The session The Art of Creating Multiplatform Narratives explored the craft of building cohesive story worlds that unfolded across film, television, games, social media and other formats. It considered approaches to creative planning, audience engagement and maintaining narrative consistency while using the strengths of each medium. Speakers included filmmaker Raja Krishna Menon, filmmaker Reema Maya and filmmaker Q, with the discussion moderated by Mediasmiths founder Ram.

Harish Rao (left) felicitating Vignesh Raja

The session AR Rahman’s Secret Mountain: Building a Transmedia Music Universe introduced the composer’s latest project, Secret Mountain. It highlighted India’s first Meta Band and explored its potential across music, digital platforms and immersive experiences. The presenter for this session was Secret Mountain cofounder Vignesh Raja.

The last session of the day, Animating Success: Green Gold Entertainment’s Journey, highlighted Green Gold Entertainment founder Rajiv Chilaka and his team’s work in building one of India’s leading original animation studios. It traced how Green Gold Entertainment created hit franchises such as Chhota Bheem, developed a merchandise and licensing strategy, and showed that Indian stories could find global resonance. The session featured Chilaka in conversation with Bulletproof Entertainment founder Harish Rao.

The day concluded with a lively networking evening, leaving participants energised and looking forward to the sessions on the second day.