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Tag: advertising agencies

  • “VisualDub has been built in India by NeuralGarage using its own original research”: Mandar Natekar

    “VisualDub has been built in India by NeuralGarage using its own original research”: Mandar Natekar

    Mumbai: NeuralGarage is a technology startup in GenAI & is the brainchild of IIT Kanpur alumni Subhabrata Debnath, Subhashish Saha, Anjan Banerjee, and media & entertainment veteran Mandar Natekar. It is one of the few startups from India that is building core tech with original research and developing its own models in the audio-visual domain. The startup’s flagship technology, VisualDub, addresses a significant challenge in dubbed content — the synchronization of visual and audio cues – ensuring a harmonious viewing experience across languages through visual dubbing and lipsync.

    Since its inception in July 2021, NeuralGarage has evolved strategically. After a year dedicated to research and development, and building the technology for commercial use, the company launched VisualDub in May 2023. A successful fundraising round in October 2022 paved the way for building a robust core engineering team, leading to collaborations with more than 10 large global clients.

    Building for the world, the company targets a diverse clients & partner base, including film studios, directors, production houses, advertising agencies, OTT players, broadcast networks, and media entertainment companies. Additionally, the company engages with media outlets covering the AI space, technology, and deep tech, establishing a comprehensive outreach and strategy.

    NeuralGarage has an ambition to take VisualDub to a global audience by refining its go-to-market strategy and securing further rounds of capital to fuel expansion and innovation. The company has received notable recognition, including being ranked No. 2 at ‘Pitch Fest’ during TechSparks’23 and was a part of YourStory’s Tech30 for 2023. Other accolades include NASSCOM Emerge50 (ranked No. 1 in the media category 2023), Amazon AWS ML Elevate 2023 cohort, and NASSCOM GenerativeAI Foundry. Currently, NeuralGarage has a dedicated team of 20 professionals driving its vision and mission forward.

    Indiantelevision.com had the pleasure of conversing with Neural Garage co-founder & CEO Mandar Natekar. In this interview, he offered plenty of valuable insights into the company’s operations and vision.

    Edited excerpts

    On identifying the need for VisualDub in the audio-visual domain

    Consider for a moment that you are watching a Korean film with English audio. Your audio input is English while your visual input remains Korean since the visual spoke expression does not match the audio. VisualDub solves for this visual discord, so now when you watch a Korean film with English audio, you feel as if you are actually watching a film shot in English itself. With localization content becoming the biggest currency for the content creation industry, this problem of Visual Discord is amplified exponentially. VisualDub was built to specifically solve this at scale and make content accessible seamlessly to every single person in the world in a language of their choice and which looks truly native and authentic visually in every language.

    On the technological innovations behind VisualDub that differentiate it from existing solutions in the market

    VisualDub has been built in India by NeuralGarage using its own original research and foundation models and without using third party wrappers. This tech is completely proprietary and is patent filed. It has been built specifically to cater to high impact industries like Films, Streaming, Broadcast Networks and Advertising where preservation of resolution and sync of the original is of paramount important across temporal and spatial movements including background and talent IP. The technology delivers at 2k resolution on pre shot footage without the need to create 3D models or avataars and works across screens of every size from theatrical to mobile phones. This differentiates it completely from any other tech available.

    On the role does original research play in the development of NeuralGarage’s models for VisualDub

    Original research ensures that you are building the tech from a top-down approach, and it’s built with a single focus of specifically meeting the high capability demands of the industries you are building for. Unlike horizontal tech that meets some requirements of many industries with generalized models, VisualDub has been built as vertical SaaS to meet all mandatory requirements of key industries like Films, Streaming Platforms and Advertising. We ensure that we are at the forefront at innovation by staying focused on original research that leads to differentiated tech innovations.

    On considering the diverse applications of VisualDub in the entertainment and content creation industry

    Currently we are offering it as a service to select large customers to ensure that technology is used correctly to deliver the right results and creates a playbook for the industry. Our ultimate goal is to create a desktop version of our VisualDub that can be licensed across both individual and enterprise level solutions depending on the size of the business and the annual contracts. We are currently raising capital to be able to move in the direction.

    On NeuralGarage anticipating VisualDub revolutionizing the content creation landscape and some potential impact you foresee it having on the overall quality of dubbed content across languages

    The biggest problem in dubbed content is the visual discord that makes it unrelatable and unauthentic. Content today is monetized across multiple revenue streams, and this is achieved through dubbing. This opens up massive global geographies for content monetization. With VisualDub, dubbed content as we know it ceases to exist. Now with technology it actually gives studios, streaming platforms to create content in every language without incurring additional production cost! VisualDub will allow you to shoot in one language and recreate it authentically in every language on earth without making it look like dubbed content.

    On your aspirations in terms of market penetration and becoming the go-to solution for audio-visual synchronization in dubbed content

    VisualDub has been made in Bharat for the globe. It solves a very pertinent problem for the entire Entertainment, Media & Content industries across the world and we intend to be the default technology for the post production pipeline across these industries. We are creating a new category “Visual Dubbing” in the post production workflow and VisualDub will define this through original innovation and globally scalable use cases.

  • Excellent Publicity makes waves with international expansion

    Excellent Publicity makes waves with international expansion

    Mumbai: Excellent Publicity, one of the independent advertising agencies, embarked on its ambitious international expansion earlier this year. With a steadfast focus on growth and innovation, Excellent Publicity has set its sights on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with Dubai as its primary launchpad. This strategic decision is underpinned by the region’s economic stability, diverse emerging industries, and remarkable economic growth prospects, making it an ideal destination for the agency’s global expansion.

    Before embarking on this exciting journey, Excellent Publicity conducted comprehensive market research and analysis to ensure its success in the MENA region. MENA’s geographical location serves as a bridge between Europe, Asia, and Africa, making it a pivotal hub for businesses seeking global reach. The MENA region is witnessing a dynamic shift from traditional sectors to technology, tourism, and entertainment. Excellent Publicity sees this transition as an opportunity to provide its advertising expertise to scale businesses. Besides, countries in the MENA region are experiencing robust economic growth, leading to increased consumer spending. After establishing a strong foothold in the MENA region, Excellent Publicity further intends to build its presence in Canada and the United Kingdom.

    Currently, Excellent Publicity is operating in Dubai for its international operations. It has also started a new corporate office in Indore, India, in addition to its existing presence in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune, with Ahmedabad being the headquarters. In terms of increasing its footprint, Excellent Publicity is eyeing expansion in metro cities and non-metro regions, with plans to establish its presence in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai,  Vishakapatnam, Kochi, Vadodara, and Surat. The advertising agency has experienced a 2.36X growth from 2020-21 to 2021-22 and achieved a 1.8X increase in revenue from 2021-22 to 2022-23, reaching almost 100 crore Rs.

    In the last decade, Excellent Publicity has witnessed remarkable growth, serving over 3,000 clients, including 100 listed on BSE and NSE, and a handful of Fortune 500 clients. Globally, the agency boasts 20-25 clients across various industries.

    Excellent Publicity co-founder & director Vaishal Dalal said,” The growth trajectory we have witnessed in the last two years is exceptional. Going forward, Excellent Publicity is poised to lead the advertising industry into a new era of international expansion, revenue growth, and unparalleled service excellence. Our entry into the international market, beginning with the MENA region, further strengthens our position in the advertising industry. The agency’s commitment to innovation, strategic planning, and market leadership positions it for continued success in India and beyond.”

    Excellent Publicity has projected an exciting growth trajectory over the next six years, with plans to launch an IPO by 2029. Its comprehensive range of offline and online marketing services remains unrivalled in the market.

  • Nilesh Naik joins Rediffusion as executive creative director

    Nilesh Naik joins Rediffusion as executive creative director

    Mumbai: Rediffusion announced that Nilesh Naik has joined its Mumbai office as executive creative director. 

    With over 19 years of work experience, Naik has worked with several top agencies including Publicis, Euro RSCG, Bates, Dentsu, Percept and FCB in India, and The Classic Partnership, Grey Worldwide and GTB in the UAE, in Dubai. 

    “We have been strengthening our team at Rediffusion to keep pace with all the new businesses that we have been winning over the past few months. And of course, there has been a tremendous surge in projects and assignments from existing clients,” said Rediffusion Mumbai head and EVP Kalyani Srivastava. “Nilesh will be tasked with shouldering some of the increased responsibilities and I am sure he will come out aces.”

    Naik was ranked among top 10 creative directors in the MENA region in 2019. He is the recipient of several awards that include the Cannes Lions, Adfest, OneShow and Dubai Lynx and his work has been featured in Lurzer’s International Archive.

    “Nilesh brings mature, well-rounded and multi-domain experience to Rediffusion Mumbai. He is a wordsmith who expresses himself elegantly and impactfully,” said Rediffusion Mumbai head of creative Pramod Sharma. “We are looking forward to some great work from Nilesh in the days to come.”

    “Rediffusion has created some of the most memorable campaigns in Indian advertising and it feels great to be part of such a fabulous team,” stated Nilesh Naik on his new role. “Here creativity is the only currency and I’m looking forward to creating fantastic work that gets noticed, establishes a deep connection with the audience and does wonders to clients’ businesses.”

  • Huawei India to launch $ 10 million campaign in Jan 2014

    Huawei India to launch $ 10 million campaign in Jan 2014

    BENGALURU: Huawei India plans to launch a multi-media campaign come January 2014, revealed Huawei India Devices sources. To that extent the company is evaluating offers from advertising agencies that have been submitted.

     

    “We’ll be taking a decision in about a week’s time about the agency that will create the campaign,” revealed the sources. “The $ 6-10 million campaign will cover corporate branding as well as products, devices,” added the source.  Huawei plans to use television, outdoor, print and digital for its mass media communications.

     

    The company is planning a three phase campaign revealed the source further. Initially, it’ll be about brand building over the first six months, followed by a sustainability campaign over the next six months, culminating with a leadership campaign.

     

    Huawei officials were in Bengaluru late last week for the India launch of what the company claims is the thinnest mobile at 6.18 mm in the world – the Huawei Ascend P6. The P6 is being touted as the current flagship smartphone in India by the company, and will feature in lot of the company’s communications. Earlier, the phone model had its global launch in the fashion capital of the world – London on 18 June, 2013. Huawei plans to launch other phone devices as well as products including tablets in India.

     

    Huawei Devices India president Victor Shanxin said, “The Ascend P6 has already received a tremendous response from global consumers over the last few months, offering unsurpassed technology with a design that is simply stunning.”

     

    Victor revealed that Huawei had received orders totaling five million units of the P6 from across the geographies where it had been launched and had completed supplies of around three million P6 handsets so far since the launch on 18 June.
     

  • Pradeep Guha is chairman of AFAA executive committee

    Pradeep Guha is chairman of AFAA executive committee

    MUMBAI: Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA) has elected Pradeep Guha, who represents the Advertising Council of India, as the chairman of its newly mandated executive committee for a period of four years.

    Raymond So, representing Taipei Association of Advertising Agencies, was elected deputy chairman.

    AFAA is known in the Asian region for organising the biennial AdAsia Congress. It has also helped incubate the AdFest held annually in Pattaya and the Asia Pacific Media Forum held biennially in Bali, Indonesia.

    The new four-person committee consists of Bharat Avalani (regional IBC director, Asia Africa Middle East & Turkey, Unilever), Anthony Kang (representing Association of Accredited Advertising Agents, Singapore), Soon Dong Lee (representing Korea Federation of Advertising Associations) and Ramesh Narayan (representing the Advertising Council of India).

    Guha said, “There is a real need for an umbrella body like AFAA which represents the interests of marketers, agencies and the media to play a more proactive role in the Asian subcontinent.”

    AFAA was founded in 1978 and has representations in 15 Asian nations including India, Japan, Korea, Taipei, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and UAE. Its primary objectives are to unify all Asian associations involved in the various aspects of advertising and upgrade the standards, ethics, and practices of advertising and to bring about a meaningful contribution from advertising activities to both regional and national socio-economic development.