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Tag: Akash Banerji

  • Kaya finds its true glow with Fatima Sana Shaikh as brand ambassador

    Kaya finds its true glow with Fatima Sana Shaikh as brand ambassador

    MUMBAI: When science meets stardom, the glow is hard to miss. Marico Limited has announced actor Fatima Sana Shaikh as the new brand ambassador for its Kaya range of skincare products, bringing together 20-plus years of dermatological expertise and a star known for her bold, authentic persona.

    Kaya, trusted for formulations designed specifically for Indian skin, boasts a portfolio of over 75 products spanning acne care, sun protection, anti-ageing, pigmentation, hair, and body solutions. The brand’s dermat-led approach aims to simplify routines while delivering visible results cutting through the clutter of skincare trends that often leave consumers confused.

    For Marico, the move signals a fresh chapter for Kaya. Marico executive vice president and head of beauty & styling digital business Akash Banerji said Fatima embodies “confidence, relatability, and a progressive take on beauty,” qualities that resonate with today’s informed yet overwhelmed skincare audience. He added that Kaya’s mission remains simple: science should empower, not complicate.

    Fatima echoed this sentiment, saying Kaya stood out because it “cuts through the noise” with products co-created with dermatologists and built on trust. For her, authentic beauty is about confidence and clarity, not chasing fleeting trends.

    With this partnership, Kaya looks to sharpen its storytelling edge while reinforcing its credibility as a science-backed, results-driven skincare brand. In an industry crowded with quick fixes, its pitch is clear, stop second-guessing, trust the experts, and let confidence be the true glow-up.

  • Tata Neu ropes in Akash Banerji as head of content & entertainment vertical

    Tata Neu ropes in Akash Banerji as head of content & entertainment vertical

    Mumbai: The Tata Group has roped in Akash Banerji to lead the content and entertainment vertical of Tata Neu app. Tata Digital unveiled its much-anticipated super app Tata Neu earlier this week.

    In this role, Banerji will oversee the entire content vertical, including P&L, product, content creation, and marketing at Tata Neu, as per media reports.

    Banerji was previously leading marketing for Amazon’s mobile business vertical, having joined the organisation in August 2020.

    Prior to Amazon, he worked with Viacom18’s OTT platform Voot. He was with Viacom18 for five years.

    Banerji has more than eighteen years of experience in the technology, marketing, sales/distribution & P&L domains with consumer centric MNCs.

    He served in multiple industries across digital video (Hotstar & Voot), e-commerce (Prime), Slsports (Star Sports) & entertainment (Star Plus) broadcast & CPG (Pepsi, Marico).

  • Voot’s Akash Banerji moves on to join Amazon India’s centralized mobile biz development unit

    Voot’s Akash Banerji moves on to join Amazon India’s centralized mobile biz development unit

    KOLKATA: Voot’s Akash Banerji has put down his papers after a five-year stint with the digital arm of Viacom18. He will join Amazon India’s centralized mobile business development unit as marketing head in September end. At Voot, Banerji was serving as a business head for AVoD.

    According to sources close to the development, Banerji will work closely with different businesses of Amazon ecosystem as well as the multiple strategic distribution partners (including telcos). In his new role, he will foster synergies with partners and create new product expansion strategies with the aim to drive subscription numbers and revenues. 

    Banerji joined Voot back in 2015 as vice president and head of marketing and partnerships. He was associated with the launch of the OTT platform which has now become one of the leading players with over 100 million monthly active users. 

    Being a media and marketing professional, he has worked across leading brands including Star India, Marico. During his stint at Star, he led the successful marketing launch of Hotstar as well as the marketing launch of the new Star Sports network.

    We tried reaching out to Banerji, but he was not available at the moment.

  • OTT platforms go beyond entertainment to score consumers

    OTT platforms go beyond entertainment to score consumers

    KOLKATA: Over-the-top (OTT) platforms have come a long way in the country now. Around 2015, these services were mere apps to catch up on favourite television shows and stream live sporting events. Cut to 2020 and the discussion has evolved to whether OTT is a threat to TV. After a transition from catch-up content to premium originals, homegrown OTT platforms are now heading in the direction of being a one-stop shop. 

    In the last few months, many OTT platforms have enhanced their content catalogue, delving into segments like education and gaming. At the beginning of the year, ZEE5 announced a partnership with Eduauraa. Later, more players like VOOT also took the ed-tech road especially during lockdown thanks to the online learning boom. 

    While streaming services were already bullish about ed-tech and gaming, the lockdown period pushed them into health and fitness content, accelerating the next transition of those players. Disney+ Hotstar forged partnerships with Brilliant Wellness, Cult.Fit and Sarva recently. Another player VOOT also partnered with Cult.Fit and Isha Foundation. 

    KPMG India media and entertainment partner and head Girish Menon says that most of the OTT players were already looking at this strategy but the post-Covid2019 change has accelerated it. 

    “Consumers have been engaging with OTT platforms in a significant manner rather than certain hours. The idea is to increase the number of hours on the app, reduce video churn and increase retention,”  Deloitte India partner Jehil Thakkar says.

    “For us, constantly enhancing and improving our catalogue is important so that our existing and new consumers constantly keep seeing something new and different on the platform,” Viacom18 AVoD business head Akash Banerji says.

    Banerji adds that merely enhancing the catalogue is of no value unless it is also relevant to customers and can drive higher engagement. Moreover, forging partnerships with premium partners is also an important aspect. “We wanted to give something more,” he sums up.

    "For any platform, offering good content is more important rather than focusing only on entertainment. The content can educate , inform, entertain consumers. While OTT space has been largely focusing on entertainment, we have to offer more to get consumers back on the platform. Everything a person can do online, we want him to do it on ZEE5," ZEE5 SVoD senior vice president and business head Rahul Maroli says.

    He also mentions that when they talk to B2B partners, the latter will partner with an entity where their customer will get entertainment, infotainment, education at the same place. Moreover, as consumer tastes evolve they start moving around new content and that leads to a stronger brand affinity.

    While both Banerji and Maroli said they want to “offer more”, they also want to get more consumers. 

    “They are definitely looking to build an offering which is more comprehensive than pure-play content. The idea is that if you have a consumer who is coming to your app for entertainment, are there other services you can provide to them which will ensure that he continues to spend time and builds on that,” KPMG’s Menon adds. According to him, these deals make sense as an extension of offering rather than starting a separate segment.

    While its an offering about consumption right now, commerce around core offering and other deals can also become the norm.  

  • Story of product, digital marketing and tech to ensure customer retention: Voot’s Akash Banerji

    Story of product, digital marketing and tech to ensure customer retention: Voot’s Akash Banerji

    MUMBAI: This is not only the time to focus on what the business is gaining but also giving the best experience to existing consumers, Viacom18 AVoD business head Akash Banerji believes. While he notes that there has been an obvious upsurge in engagement, Banerji highlights that consumers are watching a variety of shows and sampling a wider roster of content.

    “Ealier, consumers would only come to watch certain content. But now they are much more open to watching different stuff and experiment. And then they're also trying to sample what works for them and what doesn't. So their propensity to try out new content also seems to have increased,” Banerji says in an interaction with Indiantelevision.com.

    It has been more than two months since the country has started grappling with this pandemic. People had taken refuge in the leading over-the-top players including Voot to beat the monotony and blues of the lockdown. In such a crisis, Banerji believes innovation becomes an inherent part of every business’s DNA. One of the big steps that Voot has taken is doing collaborations and partnerships with content platforms at scale. He mentions that their partnerships with UpGrad, Cultfit, Sadhguru are aimed at giving knowledge, tips around health and helping them stay focused. Moreover, it has partnered with nearly about 15 linear live channels also.

    Banerji also talks about Voot’s new show amid lockdown Go Fun Yourself hosted by Kusha Kapila. “Our idea was to bring a content piece to life, where engagement with the consumer has to be at the centre and driving the entire content creation path. It's a great win-win for both the platform and viewers. We get a lot of content and they find a voice and a platform to showcase their talents and abilities,” he adds.

    Other than user-generated content, two types of genres have worked very well during this period for the platform: mythology and romance. Moreover, a rich roster of news has also seen good uptick.

    While many of the players and experts in the OTT ecosystem are speaking about growth of connected devices during this period, Banerji says the growth already started happening at scale even before Covid2019 happened. He says, citing industry sources, that about the end of last year itself there were about 15-16 million users. He adds that it won’t be surprising if that number doubles in July-August.

    “Right now, while the individual consumption on mobile has increased significantly, this is also a time when all the families and individual members in the family are coming together and watching content. The interesting thing is now these consumers prefer to watch content that they wish to do. But on a device, joint watching and group consumption can also happen. Now, connected TV absolutely sits right in the middle. It offers the flexibility of video on demand. And yet, it offers the flexibility to watch content on a bigger device and with everyone together. So the growth was already there. It has only got accelerated,” he adds.

    While there has been a sudden spike in traffic on all OTT platforms creating more pressure on back-end, he mentions that most of the OTT platforms don’t only plan a capacity on the basis of average consumption but for peak levels which is always 20-30 per cent more than what the platform will be seeing naturally at any given point in time. While many OTT platforms have seen a substantial increase, he says that the backend, the tech part has always been geared to have managed to service the demand in a very, very seamless fashion. “If they have not planned for it, I think now would also be the time for a lot of the platforms to go back to the drawing board and plan it out,” he mentions.

    For the tech team, another challenge is spike in users.

    “I think what the product and the tech team need to see is how different will the journey of a new consumer be from that of an existing company. What is the content that you're going to dish out to a new consumer versus an existing consumer? How will the new person discover his or her target content, what is the kind of ad load you would provide or do you want to give them an ad experience for the first few times? How do you ensure that the retention levels of the new consumer are sustainable?” he asks.

    “So it's a story of the product, digital marketing and tech to ensure how and what the behaviour of a new consumer is. You should have the necessary tools to know who the new consumers are and try the maximum retention possible,” he concludes.

  • VOOT Studio collaborates with Indian Cancer Society on World No Tobacco Day

    VOOT Studio collaborates with Indian Cancer Society on World No Tobacco Day

    MUMBAI: On this World No Tobacco Day, India’s premium video on demand platform VOOT has partnered with Indian Cancer Society on its World No Tobacco Day 2020. The campaign endeavors to raise awareness about the health hazards of smoking and tobacco usage. Executed by VOOT Studio, the short and high impactful video featuring one of the most popular actors Sunil Grover will urge people to stop smoking.

    The film is a mockumentary and offers a satirical take on the contents required to cook up a cigarette. The film will see Sunil Grover with his usual sass and ease making a cigarette with all the lethal ingredients that one would never consume. The film culminates with a strong behavioral change message of giving up tobacco and cigarettes given its toxicity and long terms effects on health.

    Akash Banerji, head AVOD business, VOOT, said, “At VOOT Studio we are focused on empowering our partners to effectively deliver on their brand and campaign message effectively through engaging, innovative and relevant brand solutions. Partnering with Indian Cancer Society for this imperative behavioral change initiative is even more special and solves for a critical issue plaguing the world.  We are sure that this innovative and sarcastic take on the issue will strike a chord with the audiences and allow the message to be delivered far and wide through the reach of the platform.”

    Indian Cancer Society marketing director Shivani Sanghavi says: “While it is common knowledge that smoking is harmful, it is unusual that people at large are ignorant of the use of such chemicals that go into making a cigarette. Indian Cancer Society through the campaign attempts to create an awakening that results in people quitting smoking. We believe that everyone, including the protagonist will rethink their habits with the compelling facts presented in the video.”

    The script was written by her to spread awareness and educate the masses to make informed choices.

    Tobacco leads to more than seven million deaths every year worldwide and the campaign aims to put an end to the tobacco consumption menace by spreading nationwide awareness around the alarming issue.

  • VOOT skill introduced on Alexa

    VOOT skill introduced on Alexa

    MUMBAI: India’s second largest premium AVOD platform by Viacom18 has always created high engagement and interactive experiences through its diverse and immersive content slate. Adding to this, to amplify the reach of its content, VOOT has now introduced the all new VOOT skill on Alexa for Amazon’s range of Echo devices with screen – the Amazon Echo Show, NEW Amazon Echo Show 8 and Amazon Echo Show 5.

    Enhancing discoverability and convenience, users can now activate and enable the skill on any Amazon Echo Show smart speaker with simple voice commands. So now an Asli Fan of Bigg Boss on VOOT only needs to say “Alexa, watch Bigg Boss on VOOT” to enjoy the national phenomenon.

    VOOT, AVOD Business Akash Banerji, Head said, “At VOOT we have been committed to creating highly interactive and engaging experiences for our users. We’re constantly driven to exceed our efforts beyond industry standards and benchmarks set by ourselves. We have wide ranging, language agnostic content like Bigg Boss Hindi, Feet up with the Stars, Silsila, Bigg Boss Kannada, Bigg Boss Marathi, Kodeeswari Tamil and many more; and now the all new VOOT skill on Amazon Alexa allows us to make it easier and more convenient for our customers to access their favourite content, in a highly technology forward and futuristic environment.”

    “Entertainment is one of the most popular categories on Alexa and we’re very excited that the VOOT Alexa skill is now available for customers,” said Amazon India Alexa Skills and Voice Services Country Manager Dilip RS. “VOOT is extremely popular for some of their flagship shows such as Bigg Boss, Feet up with the stars and a host of regional content. With the new VOOT skill, customers are just an utterance away from enjoying their favorite shows, giving them even more choices for engaging content.”

    With the VOOT skill now on Amazon Echo Show, NEW Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 5, your favorite entertainment needs and best of shows like Bigg Boss, Splitsvilla, MTV Hustle, Kodeeswari Tamil and more are just a conversation away with Alexa. So, enjoy the new enthralling VOOT experience on the Echo Show range of smart displays that come with HD screen and premium sound.

  • OTT platforms should focus more on retention: VOOT’s Akash Banerji

    OTT platforms should focus more on retention: VOOT’s Akash Banerji

    MUMBAI: As more and more users are flocking to over-the-top (OTT) platforms, the contenders in the race are getting aggressive about acquiring new users. Viacom18’s digital arm VOOT has garnered 100 million monthly active users amid this fierce competition. The three-year-old streaming platform is, however, focusing more on retention of users, engagement on the platform and consumer life-time value (CLTV).

    In a media briefing, VOOT Advertising Video Platform (AVoD) business head Akash Banerji stated that the sharp focus on driving constant engagement and reach through partnerships, product and tech innovations, and content strategy has lead to the success. Along with reaching 100 million MAU target, the platform said it's first in terms of engagement (46 minutes) and frequency of visits according to App Annie data.

    Elaborating on the importance of customer retention, Banerji pointed out that 90 per cent of consumers who install an app on day one, do not use or install the app on day 30. He also added that digital video business is about driving habit like TV.

    Banerji who emphasised on good watch time also spoke of a different metric to pay attention to. “Watch-time still is the only story half-told. In this new era, the story is clearly going to be about what is driving CLTV. What is indeed driving the value I am getting out from a consumer versus the cost I am incurring to dish a certain piece of content on my platform. Till the timing I am driving higher CLTV, I am taking tangible steps to make profitability for my business,” he commented.

    After the media briefing we caught up with Banerji for a short chat to delve deeper into the platform’s strategy. Here are the edited excerpts from the interview:

    What are the challenges for consumer retention on platform? How does VOOT ensure that users keep using the platform?

    Retention happens at three levels -content, product experience and technology. A platform which has a rich roster of content that can at different points in time appeal to the varying and changing tastes of consumers has a much higher propensity to be able to retain consumer. Higher the chances a platform offering all your needs and hence a platform which has a massive catalogue of good quality content always in a much better position.

    Second comes experience. You have content but if you are unable to help the user to discover that content, your story is already gone. Now, if your content is there, discoverability is there, you are bombarding him with too many ads, consumer will be pissed. Experience is great, content is great, minimal ads are there but on your 3g phone it does not work, your app us not compatible with it or keeps on buffering, streaming is not great then also consumer will leave.

    So, across these three facets is what eventually drives retention- content, UI,UX, and third is the tech part.

    Across each of these three things, what we have built is good balance of reality shows, drama shows, big roster of content across languages, across audience segment. On UI, UX side we have launched a new version, a V3, refreshed app. At the backend, we are building our own-house expertise.

    What is your strategy to reach the target profitability?

    I think two things we need to do that- to look at each and every user segment, the value that I get from him, value basis the demand from advertisers to chase that audience and what is the content cost, marketing cost, streaming cost, product cost to service that user. If I can do this for one user, 100 users, 1 million, 100 million users, then I exactly know that each and every user at any given point in time is giving me as a value and what is the cost I am incurring to service him. If the cost is high, then I am okay to let go of that consumer. If the user is very very valuable then I will do anything to get him on that platform. The more I am able to drive value higher than my cost, then I can drive profit.

    What is the current ARPU of users on the platform?

    I am looking at CLTV as the whole foundation stone. From the marketing point of view, for marketing cost point of view, my CLTV is higher than marketing cost.

    What will be other key areas in 2020?

    We will keep focusing on driving more revenue, streamlining cost, partnerships, regional content. This year was about big high revenue, big milestone in user, watch time. The story for next year is about not just user and watch-time but all of it eventually leading to profitability where specific intervention on marketing, on product, ad sales are supposed to drive towards that.  

    How are you taking decisions of commissioning or licensing content?

    User is going to be at centre of this. Product, marketing, tech, content revolves around him. Either it can get me a lot of new users which are not there on my platform today or to my existing audiences it will drive higher views.

    Did you feel the heat of economic slowdown as brands cut down on their marketing spend?

    It has affected in a way that people have realised that this proportion of money spending on content and marketing for a sustainable period of time is not going to help the cause. What you need is a very clear focus on hardcore business metrics. And hence I feel the debate is going to be about retention as opposed to acquisition.

  • VOOT garners 7.5 billion minutes of watchtime in October

    VOOT garners 7.5 billion minutes of watchtime in October

    MUMBAI: In a world where loyalty is a diminishing commodity, Viacom18’s Advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) platform VOOT has emerged as the most preferred premium OTT service with a fiercely loyal fanbase of 80 million Monthly Active Users (across multiple platforms ), and a phenomenal 65 per cent growth in watch-time month on month.

    With 7.5 billion minutes of watch-time (as per the latest third-party source App Annie, Oct ’19) on the app, VOOT’s watch-time is more than the combined watch-time of its nearest AVOD competitors. Not just that, as per the report, the platform engagement of VOOT at 29% (as measured by the average Daily Active Users to Monthly Active Users ratio) and time spent of 50 mins per day per user makes it the No. 1 premium AVOD platform in the OTT category on engagement. This shows that when it comes to brand love & viewer loyalty, viewers in India have made a clear choice.

     “Driving consistent engagement is the holy grail that we all at VOOT constantly focus on. And our fundamental belief is that in this age, businesses need to converge data and technology with impeccable storytelling to drive consumer engagement – and do it every single time – to earn, not buy, loyalty. Everything else is noise. And our persistence and single-minded focus on driving this ambition has created a unique and a superlative experience for our consumers on our platform. The massive 7.5 billion minutes of watch-time on app last month is a testimony to the success of this belief and is sure to help establish a long-lasting relationship with the audiences.” VOOT AVOD business head Akash Banerji said.

    The stupendous growth in the scale of this loyalty has come on the back of Voot’s consistent focus on offering a massive depth of premium content across genres, languages, formats and content duration.  Vernacular content in particular has played a pivotal role in driving this massive growth, growing at more than 2X over last year and contributing close to one-fourth of total consumption on the platform.

     Driving share of attention on the back of blockbuster reality content has always been VOOT’s forte and Bigg Boss this year, across languages, has packed an even bigger punch. The latest season of Colors’ Bigg Boss Hindi on VOOT that offers a plethora of interactivity features, first time a live magazine show right from the studios  and a massive roster of exclusive not-seen-on TV content, has led to the creation of a strong & loyal  ‘Asli Fan’ base on VOOT. The show with a nearly 1 billion views, has become the biggest digital entertainment property, India has ever seen.

    It is this reach and loyalty that has ensured that advertisers have made VOOT an integral part of their outreach and engagement plan.  Enhanced and immersive user experiences and continued audience patronage is driving VOOT towards new echelons of growth.

  • VOOT’s Akash Banerji hints at introduction of interactive content around fiction programming

    VOOT’s Akash Banerji hints at introduction of interactive content around fiction programming

    MUMBAI: With a rich line-up of content and advanced solution for advertisers, Viacom18’s OTT arm, VOOT, has pledged to reach 100 million monthly active users within the fiscal year on its third anniversary. The advertising-based video on-demand (AVOD) platform is now looking at the introduction of a freemium model in the second half of the year, VOOT Kids, which is at the beta testing stage, further expansion of international business followed by an entry in the UK. More interestingly, the streaming platform may introduce interactive opportunities for consumers around fiction content.

    “I think that’s where a huge unlocking of value is going to happen. Just imagine if a drama show is running, you can decide what you want the protagonist of the drama show to do, what choice he or she should make which could be about the relationships, which could be at a certain inflexion point in the storyline and you act on it. Either you do what consumers are looking for or you do something different to surprise them. This is one of the things that we have been discussing and you will see something interesting coming up,” VOOT AVOD business head Akash Banerji commented when asked if the platform has any plan to introduce interactive content around fiction programming.

    While the platform had already ventured into the branded content opportunities, it is now introducing VOOT Studios, a business performance-oriented content-tech solution for advertisers. Explaining the rationale behind the move, Banerji pointed out key problems for advertisers. According to him, although brands started creating an interesting array of short-form content they did not necessarily drive great business value or ROI. Brands failed to realise sometimes creating content alone cannot drive the conversation and engagement unless more pieces of data and tech are added to it.

    Banerji said that the second big barrier is the inability to initiate dialogue with content writers, data scientists, tech people, agencies, etc. for brand building and, more importantly, how to bring all of that together.

    “We are a digital-first brand and we have this huge roster of maverick rich insights and deep consumer understanding of more than 1000 plus audience segments. We will not just make stories for VOOT, we will integrate data and tech and give out solutions which are bespoke and will help solve a brand’s specific need. That has actually led to the birth of VOOT Studio. Essentially, we have just institutionalised this entire solution from our side,” he added.

    He also noted that the platform gets all kind of large advertisers including CPGs, e-commerce brands, fashion brands, consumer durables on board. Banerji pointed out that the brands don’t have the luxury anymore to think of spending on TV alone as everyone knows the next wave of audience growth and audience time spent is happening on digital. While a CPG brand advertising on digital would have raised eyebrows earlier, brands today are thinking differently.

    Digital brands today turn to OTT for better ROI while non-digital brands come for branding purposes.