ITV

Tag: Abhishek Sengupta

  • Foreseegame targets 500 brand tie-ups by FY16 end

    Foreseegame targets 500 brand tie-ups by FY16 end

    KOLKATA:Kolkata-headquartered Foreseegame.com, a digital media company for consumer engagement, which has tie ups with more than 70 brands like Emami, Rupa, Spencer’s, Airtel, and Citibank among others, is aiming to partner approximately with 500 brands by the end of next fiscal (2015-16).

     

    The engagement media company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsec Enterprises, allows brands to integrate with advertisements on TV, radio, newspapers, on-ground promotional activities, direct communication and most importantly, social media and mobile platforms.

     

    Foreseegame.com chairman BL Mittal said, “Through our platform and engagement games like opinions and surveys question and answer sessions, the brand can engage with people in the age group of 18 – 45 years. By registering the brands in the minds of people, companies can see tremendous growth in online sales. Some of the major brands have already partnered with us and we are eyeing 500 brands by the end of next fiscal.”

     

    “It is the media, which covers the full cycle of engagement by providing solution of rich engagement, testing the product and ultimately making the consumers emotionally connected persons with the brand. Our platform provides a focused consumer engagement. Brands stand to gain undiluted consumer attention towards its products and offerings by the way of fun-filled interaction,” Mittal added.

     

    At Foreseegame.com people can play games of prediction and get rewarded. Through such engagement programmes, the brands can see these people converting into customers sooner. “The constant engagement with brands excites consumers to test the product and ultimately become the customer of the brand,” Mittal said.
     
    “Brand engagement is required, but that shouldn’t just be interacting with the customers. It should be more like a long-term affair with the consumers, wherein key consumer insights should also be taken into account,” opines Abhishek Sengupta, a city-based advertising expert.
     
    When asked if the company takes consumer insights into account, Mittal said, “Brand ideas are often the culmination of consumer insight and the brand offer.”

  • International Kolkata Book Fair seeks online dominance on FB & its URL

    International Kolkata Book Fair seeks online dominance on FB & its URL

    KOLKATA: The International Kolkata Book Fair, true to this metro’s population density and avid interest in the written word, is one of the largest book fairs in terms of footfall. Interestingly, its theme is Great Britain and is all set for a hectic 12-day event, which commences from 28 January in ‘The City of Joy’. IKBF aims to aggressively embark upon its online campaign by launching its official website ‘www.kolkatabookfair.net’ on 20 January 2015 as well as making its presence felt on Facebook.

     

    The organisers aim to feed its tech-savvy public with specially developed mobile apps for the Book Fair, with the precise aim to target booklovers to have full access to information concerning all the participating stalls.

     

    The idea of creating apps is all very nice and it’s good to see that finally the IKBF is going tech-savvy. “But a digital presence is not valid unless something exceptional is done. It is not just about running a page on Facebook or a Twitter handle. These tools should be used more effectively to create awareness, provide constant updates, inform the public about the popular stalls and preferred publishers, send frequent messages to update them on the footfall, and most importantly be interactive,” opines Abhishek Sengupta, an advertising expert…“As an avid app user what I would really like to see is the facility to book a ticket through the app and also avail special discounts,” says Sengupta.

     

    Right from aggressively advertising online, the authorities actually went to Delhi for the very first time in 39 years for the promos, to literally woo more Delhiites to pay a visit to Kolkata for the literary event. According to statistics, ‘the city of joy’ received a footfall of bookworms of over 1.8 million last year and sold books worth Rs 200 million the last time.

     

    The British Council has joined hands with the Book Fair, as its co-promoter and co-exhibitor. In keeping with its ‘Great Britain’ theme, books and online resources from the United Kingdom, will be displayed there. Nearly 103 book publishers and distributors ranging from various subjects, including diverse societies will make their way there to feast their eyes on these great works of art on display.

     

    The Book Fair will be meticulously divided into five distinct halls, carefully marking the anniversaries of well-known British and Bengali authors and playwrights, including renowned William Shakespeare’s 450th birth anniversary year, 100th birth anniversaries of Dylan Thomas, a known Welsh poet; Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay, a Bengali linguist and educationist and Sombhu Mitra, an equally legendary local actor, director and playwright.

     

    To commemorate this prestigious event, the fifth hall will be an exact replica of the British National History Museum, and will be named after erstwhile renowned comic actor and film-maker Charlie Chaplin, in honour of his 125th birth anniversary this year.

    Kolkata is sure to capitalise on this great literary event and will definitely be enriched literally and have great winnings to boot. The Indo-British liaison nostalgically takes us back to the East India Company formerly based in Calcutta in the 19th century and hopefully, once again it will revitalise this strong, symbiotic connection between the two countries for many years to come.

     

  • Focus Bangla aims to capture its audience

    Focus Bangla aims to capture its audience

    KOLKATA: The 24×7 Bengali news channel Focus Bangla, aims to tirelessly captivate its audiences, and is toiling hard on its programming and on introducing fresh and exciting content.

     

    The channel, which is bullish about its growth in the regional market, has also recently introduced a new slot for a programme featuring one-to-one interviews with achievers in different fields once a week from 7.30 pm to 9 pm known as ‘Sojja Saapta’ (Being Straight Forward).

     

    Interesting personalities like ex-Housing Minister Gautam Deb, Opposition leaders like Surya Kanta Mishra, State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim, have already participated and spoken straight from their hearts when it came to political discussion.

     

    The newly appointed editor Arkaprabha Sarkar said: “Apart from airing news, we came out with this concept of one-to-one interaction so that the interviewees can express their views, which is not possible to telecast during news slots. We are a non-biased news channel.”

     

    At present, Focus Bangla “airs news bulletins for 16.30 hours a day and another 1.30 hours is dedicated for advertorial content,” Sarkar added.

     

    “We believe in presenting the news… We have not adopted any political line. In a nutshell, we are committed to democracy, secularism and pre-market economy,” he further commented.

     

    “Focus Bangla also aims to reach more viewers in the region. It has also changed its logo with a promise to be “focused” in presenting unbiased news and create a better impact,” remarked Sarkar.

     

    How was Focus Bangla actually christened? At the end of February 2014, 24×7 Bengali news channel North-East Bangla (NE Bangla), changed its name to Focus Bangla, simultaneously changing its logo, which suggested that the channel would be “focused” in presenting unbiased news. A different name with a clearly different stance.

     

    Matang Sinh, a former Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in the PV Narasimha Rao government, used to own Focus TV and NE Bangla. But towards the end of 2012, Naveen Jindal, chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. (JSPL) bought a stake in the channel through his family and associates.

     

    “The market for Focus Bangla is still nascent. To compete with the bigwigs, it needs to stay focused. It’s difficult to remain unbiased, especially when the other channels have shown their allegiance to certain political parties. But considering the pivotal role that media plays in a democratic set-up, households should stay as unbiased as possible. The role of media is not to take sides, rather to bring out the harsh truth, no matter how bitter it may sound,” said Abhishek Sengupta, a media analyst.