ITV

Tag: Amit Tripathi

  • What you should know before pressing ‘I Agree’ button

    What you should know before pressing ‘I Agree’ button

    NEW DELHI: 'Data is the new oil' is what we have been hearing for a long time now and observing how the marketing industry is relying on this pool of numbers to guess user behaviour, identify target consumers and customer-centric marketing campaigns. One mode of reaching out to prospective customers has been the use of programmatic advertising, using buying and selling of data using artificial intelligence.

    While this gives the marketers and advertisers great power in hand to grow their business, it also raises pertinent questions about the pressing topic of consumer data protection, too.

    In a virtual press meet, organised by Xaxis India, country head Bharat Khatri addressed the issue. While there are options for the consumers to protect their data and limit access they give to the apps and browsers, the lag remains in making them aware about these choices.

    “To give you a quick example, you can use the settings option on your android device to opt-out of ad personalisation, which means stop sharing your advertising ID with any of the apps, or on a music streaming platform like Spotify, you can see and monitor all the data you are sharing with them,” Khatri said.

    He added, “Yes, in a country like India, there is a lot that can be done to make the consumers aware of these options. There needs to be education around this.”

    In a separate telephonic conversation with Indiantelevision.com, IdeateLabs MD Amit Tripathi also stated that data privacy is a big issue as digital grows. “Data is not very safe online. With every “I Agree” button you click, you are sharing lots of personal information with the platform. It makes sense from a business perspective, as to provide you with free services, they will have to get the advertisers’ money coming in.”

    While all these digital platforms, the apps or browsers, give the users the option to opt-out of data sharing, limiting access to personal information, etc., is a cumbersome procedure. People need to be educated about this.

    “I think there is a vast opportunity for entrepreneurs to work in this field and I believe that in future, not so distant, we will have actual training for how to protect your data online, or how to deal with cyber bullying. There are a lot of progressive schools that are already teaching the latter, and I think, in future, it is going to be even more rampant,” Tripathi commented.

    He continued that only drafting policies might not be a solution as in a big country like India, it will take some time to get it implemented. “For example, even for setting a cybercrime cell, you need trained manpower, hackers to compete with hackers, people who understand data; and this force can’t be created overnight. We obviously will need to train people and set up a system.”

  • Brand Factory uses consumer-first approach to launch the 4th edition of Free Shopping Weekend

    Brand Factory uses consumer-first approach to launch the 4th edition of Free Shopping Weekend

    Mumbai: Brand Factory, India's leading retail discount chain by Future Lifestyle Fashion is back with the country's annual shopping pilgrimage, ‘Free Shopping Weekend’ (FSW) from 4th to 8th December. Customers can shop from over 200 plus original national and international brands like Zara, Jack & Jones, Lee Cooper, Levis, Imara, ONLY, PEPE, Iktara, Adidas, Reebok, Skechers, Fila, American Tourister, V.I.P, Lino Perros, Lavie, Caprese and much more. This event offers the customers goods worth Rs 5,000 at Rs 2,000 only and returns the entire value in the form of free merchandise, gift vouchers and cash backs.

    Aiming to increase brand awareness and directing themselves towards strengthening the connection with customers, Brand Factory is going all out on its digital campaign. The retail chain will be sending over 1,00,000 customized invites in the video format, created by IdeateLabs, to each customer who has conversed with the brand, through various social media platforms. The entire marketing exercise has led to a large variety of user-generated content organically and has received a tremendous response.

    This integrated marketing campaign has roped in influencers across fields, gender, reach and demographics to raise mass awareness around its upcoming sale. Along with boosting awareness on personalization and Influencers marketing, Brand Factory ensured to be visibility to consumers across multiple touchpoints such as print, television, OOH, radio amongst others to connect with their target audience.

    Announcing the launch of the 4th edition of Free Shopping Weekend, Roch D’Souza Chief Marketing Officer of Brand Factory said, “Brand Factory is known to take alternative experimental approaches for its campaigns, and this time was no different. Free Shopping Weekend is one of our prime properties and also India’s annual shopping pilgrimage where people readily queue up to get the best deals on the best brands. In this spirit, we have launched a 360-degree marketing strategy including customizations, influencer trends in regional markets and digital platforms like Tik Tok to amplify the biggest shopping festival of the year. We have created over 1,00,000 personalized videos and messages for our brand followers while having strict deadlines was one mammoth task. The initial response of the audience is phenomenal. They have been surprised with the personalized approach which in-return is successfully generating numerous conversations and user-generated content. With FSW, we have enabled equalization among audiences. As always we are looking forward to having maximum footfalls at FSW.”

    Amit Tripathi, Managing Director, IdeateLabs commented, “Digital today is primarily about building conversations. Brands have the opportunity as well as resources to use various digital channels to connect with their customers effectively and engage with them in more personalized ways. A content approach that speaks to your desire of ‘hunt for the deal’ and weaving an impactful messaging around it, is the only way to gain consumers attention in a heavily cluttered world today. Team IdeateLabs has been involved with FSW since the launch, and this is the 4th edition of the event. Our focus was on maximizing our engagement with the entire loyal follower base of Brand Factory.  FSW is a concept which provides ‘value’ to the customers in terms of money, products as well as the entire shopping experience. And hence we stayed focused on reaching out to our existing audiences and at the same time communicating with new ones in a more meaningful manner and inviting them to the party of the year at FSW."

    Brand Factory presently has 103 store outlets across 49 cities in India such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Orissa, Calicut, Mysore, Thiruvananthapuram, Gurajat, Bhuj, Guwahati, Ghaziabad, Mangalore, Hyderabad, to name a few.

    Customers can book their entry tickets on insider.in or through brandfactoryonline.com or visit the nearest Brand Factory store.

  • Network18 announces key elevations, re-organises revenue function

    MUMBAI: Network18, one of India’s most diversified media conglomerates has been strengthening its revenue team ever since Joy Chakraborthy took over as President- Revenue for TV18 and CEO-Forbes India, a year ago. Moving ahead in this direction, it has recently re-organized the leadership roles within the function by announcing key elevations.

    Commenting on these elevations, Joy Chakraborthy said, “In the past one year, we were able to utilize and leverage strengths of our network, leadership and people with a cohesive sales structure. For the new fiscal year, we are geared up to look at newer opportunities and face different challenges. Keeping in line with our strategy to move ahead, we feel it is imperative to re-jig leadership roles to make the most of individual forte, team and network strengths in extracting our best from market situations and opportunities.”

    Mukund Setlur takes on the role of National Sales Head for News18 India, IBN Lokmat and CNBC Bajar, utilizing his vast knowledge and experience of selling the 13 ETV News Channels nationally as well as from his successful stint at leadership position with the erstwhile IBN7 (now News18 India).

    Sudip Roy will be in charge of ETV News Channels’ sales as National Sales Head bringing in his experience to extend ETV news network’s business onto the next level. Amit Tripathi who currently leads the sales team for Government businesses of TV18 channels as well as that for the Hindi speaking markets for ETV News channels, will now also manage government businesses of language channels under the ETV News Network.

    Sonia Kapoor, in addition to being National Sales Head for her present Focus portfolio comprising CNBC- TV18, CNN News18, Moneycontrol, Forbes India and Firstpost, will also head Focus nationally for CNBC Awaaz, CNBC Bajar, News18 India and IBN Lokmat.

  • Network18 braces up revenue function with new appointments

    Network18 braces up revenue function with new appointments

    MUMBAI: Network18, one of India’s most diversified media conglomerates, has been strengthening its revenue team since the past few months after Joy Chakraborthy took over as the President – Revenue for TV18 and CEO-Forbes India in May 2016.

    Moving forward, it has appointed Amit Tripathi as the national revenue head for government sales & non-metro markets, and Sandhya Dhar as the vice president – focus sales (branded content of the network).

    Chakraborthy said, “I believe that such talent will continue to strengthen the revenue proposition, and provide greater momentum to the sales function.”

    Tripathi has over 21 years of experience in sales, marketing & business development. Prior to joining Network18, he was the COO and national sales head at Focus News. He also served as the national sales head at Zee News in the past.

    Dhar has over 17 years of experience in sales. She was the asst. vice president & sector head (BFSI & HealthCare) at ET Edge (Times Conferences Limited). She was associated with Bennett Coleman & Company for over a decade into brand-building and sales.

    Tripathi will report to Chakraborthy.

    Network18 is a media and entertainment group with interests in television, internet, films, e-commerce, magazines, mobile content and allied businesses. Through its subsidiary, TV18 Broadcast Ltd., the group operates news channels such as CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNBC-TV18 Prime HD, CNN-News18 and IBN7. TV18 also operates a joint venture with Viacom called Viacom18.

  • Network18 braces up revenue function with new appointments

    Network18 braces up revenue function with new appointments

    MUMBAI: Network18, one of India’s most diversified media conglomerates, has been strengthening its revenue team since the past few months after Joy Chakraborthy took over as the President – Revenue for TV18 and CEO-Forbes India in May 2016.

    Moving forward, it has appointed Amit Tripathi as the national revenue head for government sales & non-metro markets, and Sandhya Dhar as the vice president – focus sales (branded content of the network).

    Chakraborthy said, “I believe that such talent will continue to strengthen the revenue proposition, and provide greater momentum to the sales function.”

    Tripathi has over 21 years of experience in sales, marketing & business development. Prior to joining Network18, he was the COO and national sales head at Focus News. He also served as the national sales head at Zee News in the past.

    Dhar has over 17 years of experience in sales. She was the asst. vice president & sector head (BFSI & HealthCare) at ET Edge (Times Conferences Limited). She was associated with Bennett Coleman & Company for over a decade into brand-building and sales.

    Tripathi will report to Chakraborthy.

    Network18 is a media and entertainment group with interests in television, internet, films, e-commerce, magazines, mobile content and allied businesses. Through its subsidiary, TV18 Broadcast Ltd., the group operates news channels such as CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNBC-TV18 Prime HD, CNN-News18 and IBN7. TV18 also operates a joint venture with Viacom called Viacom18.

  • Yesudas’s triggerbridge to launch ‘Un-News Hour’

    Yesudas’s triggerbridge to launch ‘Un-News Hour’

    MUMBAI: More often than not, negative and disturbing news dominates prime time television and suppresses the good that happens all around and hence paints a rather cynical picture of society. With an aim to bring these positive stories to the fore, triggerbridge -the unagency by S Yesudas, in partnership with Ajit Nair and Amit Tripathi, has planned the ‘Un News Hour.’

    “It is a one-hour prime time news capsule across English, Hindi and all other vernacular languages, which will air only happy news of human achievements, however small or big the achievement might be,” explained media veteran and entrepreneur, Yesudas.

    “With every other noise that’s being made everywhere else, this in my opinion, will be an equalizer of sorts, and will be a huge opportunity for those unsung heroes to be recognized, day after day and a big ground of motivation for many more to embark on such initiatives,” he added.

    When quizzed about the choice of the title for the initiative, which has indirect reference to Arnab Goswami’s flagship ‘News Hour’ Yesudas shared, “While there was no inspiration from Arnab, I can’t deny the potential of Arnab himself owning up both the News Hour, which is about debate on hot topics in the country and the Un-News Hour, which is just simply happy news to triggerhappy conversations. I have interacted with Arnab and he is a very different human being personally, gentle, soft spoken, intuitive and brilliant. Un-News Hour will give him an opportunity to portray his actual personality where he doesn’t have to lose his cool or get upset with people who are covering up etc”

    While the idea is definitely noble, due to lack of proper planning and participation such social initiatives seldom see the light of the day. To this Yesudas commented, “I don’t think any genuine initiative ever fails. If there are hidden agendas, yes it will, much like how Free Basics failed and odd/even (Delhi) succeeded. Both happened around the same time, the former began with so-called support and the later with all the negativity possible. But it is the purity in purpose that made odd/even a success. The attempt here is to motivate people by raising their awareness to the wonderful things that are happening around them. As a dear friend of mine said it is strategy without a map. And yet each element is beautifully tied into each other through human knots of kindness.”

    Putting the scale of the initiative in perspective, one can’t help but wonder how triggerbridge planned to cover the costs. “I’m looking for support from clients to cover the actual expenses, not for advertising, but for them to be known for doing something much more meaningful for the people of India. I am happy to say there have been people calling in offering their support in various ways. I got a call from an institute that trains in cinematography, with many trained camera units. They offered to become part of our cause. I have had a doctor calling up offering support. Many friends are waiting in line to offer all kinds of support. I’ve also tweeted the PM, celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, requesting each to give the initiative wings,” explained Yesudas.

    The entire concept is heavily dependent on partnerships with channels and networks that believe in the cause. “I’m talking to all possible channels. I know this is disruptive and this is not for someone who is only focused on transactions. We are sure to align with a few like-minded people. Conversations are ongoing as we speak. Within two to three weeks we will be able to share names of concrete partners and the status report,” Yesudas concluded.

  • Yesudas’s triggerbridge to launch ‘Un-News Hour’

    Yesudas’s triggerbridge to launch ‘Un-News Hour’

    MUMBAI: More often than not, negative and disturbing news dominates prime time television and suppresses the good that happens all around and hence paints a rather cynical picture of society. With an aim to bring these positive stories to the fore, triggerbridge -the unagency by S Yesudas, in partnership with Ajit Nair and Amit Tripathi, has planned the ‘Un News Hour.’

    “It is a one-hour prime time news capsule across English, Hindi and all other vernacular languages, which will air only happy news of human achievements, however small or big the achievement might be,” explained media veteran and entrepreneur, Yesudas.

    “With every other noise that’s being made everywhere else, this in my opinion, will be an equalizer of sorts, and will be a huge opportunity for those unsung heroes to be recognized, day after day and a big ground of motivation for many more to embark on such initiatives,” he added.

    When quizzed about the choice of the title for the initiative, which has indirect reference to Arnab Goswami’s flagship ‘News Hour’ Yesudas shared, “While there was no inspiration from Arnab, I can’t deny the potential of Arnab himself owning up both the News Hour, which is about debate on hot topics in the country and the Un-News Hour, which is just simply happy news to triggerhappy conversations. I have interacted with Arnab and he is a very different human being personally, gentle, soft spoken, intuitive and brilliant. Un-News Hour will give him an opportunity to portray his actual personality where he doesn’t have to lose his cool or get upset with people who are covering up etc”

    While the idea is definitely noble, due to lack of proper planning and participation such social initiatives seldom see the light of the day. To this Yesudas commented, “I don’t think any genuine initiative ever fails. If there are hidden agendas, yes it will, much like how Free Basics failed and odd/even (Delhi) succeeded. Both happened around the same time, the former began with so-called support and the later with all the negativity possible. But it is the purity in purpose that made odd/even a success. The attempt here is to motivate people by raising their awareness to the wonderful things that are happening around them. As a dear friend of mine said it is strategy without a map. And yet each element is beautifully tied into each other through human knots of kindness.”

    Putting the scale of the initiative in perspective, one can’t help but wonder how triggerbridge planned to cover the costs. “I’m looking for support from clients to cover the actual expenses, not for advertising, but for them to be known for doing something much more meaningful for the people of India. I am happy to say there have been people calling in offering their support in various ways. I got a call from an institute that trains in cinematography, with many trained camera units. They offered to become part of our cause. I have had a doctor calling up offering support. Many friends are waiting in line to offer all kinds of support. I’ve also tweeted the PM, celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, requesting each to give the initiative wings,” explained Yesudas.

    The entire concept is heavily dependent on partnerships with channels and networks that believe in the cause. “I’m talking to all possible channels. I know this is disruptive and this is not for someone who is only focused on transactions. We are sure to align with a few like-minded people. Conversations are ongoing as we speak. Within two to three weeks we will be able to share names of concrete partners and the status report,” Yesudas concluded.

  • S Yesudas plays a whole new ball game with triggerbridge

    S Yesudas plays a whole new ball game with triggerbridge

    MUMBAI: Of late there has been much talk about going beyond the sales driven take on advertising among the agencies. The focus should shift back to building brand identity, if brands have a long term vision in mind.

     

    It would have been great if the talk truly reflected the industry’s concern over the matter, but, alas, much of that is lip service according to S Yesudas, the former managing director of Vizeum.

     

    The need of the hour, he feels, is to break this pattern that agencies are so used to, and bring in some disruption in the ecosystem. This is precisely what he plans to achieve with his entrepreneurial venture triggerbridge.

     

    Backed by his expertise in media business for over two decades, Yesudas partnered with Ajit Nair of MX Advertising and Amit Tripathi from IdeateLabs to form this ‘un-agency,’ which has managed to create quite a buzz in the industry ever since its launch earlier this month.

     

    Prior to kick starting his new startup venture, Yesudas was known for his successful stint at Vizeum India as managing director, preceded by Grey Worldwide, Lintas/Initiative Media and R K Swamy BBDO/Media Direction. Interestingly, he was Vizeum’s first employee and built it to a successful position with its current 55 employees within a span of four years.

     

    With an impressive portfolio like this, is it easier to handle his new role in a start up? To find out, Indiantelevision.com got in touch with the man himself.

     

    Here’s what he had to say:

     

    What sets triggerbridge apart from other players in the market?

    We are the ‘unagency’ and are free of all the bondages as that of an agency. The big and basic difference is, our reason to exist is not to help our clients “spend” their marketing resources, but to help their brands build bridges of relevance with consumers in various ways through our philosophy of True Vertexing.

     

    We look at the core of the brand, human insights, storytelling, technology and data and help itself express truly in order to carry the well aligned consumers along as the brand moves to the highest peak, the vertex. Consumers are human beings is a fact that’s forgotten in the world of transaction. We cater to all brand owners who are looking for much more than just short term sales from their consumer relationships.

     

    Few agencies have taken the ‘brand first’ route as well. What is your take on them?

    I’m sure brand love is a dinosaur concept to many. Those who talk about the same, pretend it can be created by the effect and weight of their “advertising” investments including endorsements and other sponsorships. I would leave triggerbridge, the unagency, for our clients to judge us.

     

    What disruptive ideas does triggerbridge have in store for its clients?

    There’s disruption in everything we do. Firstly, we are not just a service, but a product as well. Among the set of products is a platform that aggregates storytellers and technology producers for the benefit of brands. Our focus is the brand in its entirety and not specific specialised solutions. We also have a unique structure of a creative advisory board, which consists of real storytellers like authors and theatre artists along with a business board that consists of members of the board of other companies as well as venture capitalists. We are also looking at a whole new measurement of SoV and SoE as Share of Vision and Share of Empathy as against the transactional Share of Voice and Share of Expenditure.

     

    Since triggerbridge is a product as well, what is the target group or clientele you are looking at?

    Every brand owner who is interested in looking beyond short term results and those who actually believe that the future of commerce is brand commerce, would be a triggerbridge client. 

     

    What is the one thing that the industry is lacking currently?

    I believe lot of agencies today pay lip service to brand building and focus their energy and attention on “selling” their specialised silos to clients for better profitability. Once you create a need and everyone is doing that, the advertisers, knowingly and/or unknowingly will keep following the pattern.

     

    Most often computers create the strategy to connect with humans with emotions. Then it is a mad rush to justify Share of Voice (SoV) and Share of Expenditure (SoE). The result is increasing instances of ad avoidance and the agency then offers one more specialisation to “catch” the consumer’s’ attention. The circle keep going on. We will fill the very vacuum of zero brand love for most brands, by first helping the brand owners understand the purpose of their brands. We will also help them articulate that through executions that will create multi – sensorial impact on the consumers

     

    Can you mention one recent campaign that you think lacked brand identity?

    One campaign that comes to mind is what Pepsi did during IPL, getting consumers to feature in its ads. It was a gimmick that I presume they spent top dollars on. And I personally don’t think it worked at all. They could have done things to bring together larger Pepsi communities across the country, very meaningfully, who interacted with each other in a sustainable manner as they shared their love for the brand, at much lesser cost and left enduring impressions on the consumers. But again this is purely based on their stated purpose/intention.

     

    Tell us about your partners and what they bring to the table in triggerbridge? 

    Ajit Nair has been running a very successful full-service advertising business, MX Advertising, for a quarter of a century and has built many brands through that journey. Amit Tripathi has been running a leading digital business, Ideate Labs for 15 years. I have been in the media business for over two decades.

     

    Our vision, purpose and the conviction about the future of communication business converged at the same point. I also don’t think there could have been a better combination than this which brings all aspects of the communication business together.

     

    What is your target for the upcoming year?

    We have not set a revenue or profit target. Money will follow good and differentiated work that will produce actual results. But we have a five year blue print with clear milestones to eventually see a good part of the “advertising” market practice True Vertexing. 

  • ITV Network’s Karthikeya Sharma picks up majority stake in Barun Das’ ad sales firm

    ITV Network’s Karthikeya Sharma picks up majority stake in Barun Das’ ad sales firm

    MUMBAI: ITV Network MD Karthikeya Sharma has picked up majority stake in private equity backed ad sales agency Cent Percent Media Solutions, a company co-founded by former Zee News CEO Barun Das and Amit Tripathi, who was heading the ad sales function of Zee News.

     

    Sharma owns ITV Network, which runs a clutch of news channels. Besides Hindi news channel India News, the other regional-language channels are India News Haryana, India News Bihar-Jharkhand, India News Rajasthan, India News Chhattisgarh and India News UP.

     

    Last year, ITV Network acquired English news channel NewsX from Vinay Chhajlani and Jehangir Pocha.

     

    With this stake dilution to Sharma, Cent Percent Media Solutions will handle the ad sales of the ITV-owned channels. The plan is to have a slew of regional-language news channels.
        

    Commenting on this acquisition, ITV Network MD Karthikeya Sharma said, “Barun and his team have tremendous track record in managing news television business in the highly competitive genre. Also given the proliferation of niche and regional channels that I foresee, riding the digitisation of cable distribution, Cent Percent is an extremely exciting proposition.”

     

    ITV Network CEO R K Arora added, “Our thrust is on content and marketing strategy, which has already started showing results.”

     

    Cent Percent Media Solutions is outsourcing adverting sales organisation with its core focus on regional and niche channels.

     

    Cent Percent Media Solutions co-founder Das said, “Regionalisation and Digitisation are the primary growth drivers of TV media, where so far the profitability has been the prerogative of only a select few. With capacity growing exponentially due to digitisation, Indian TV industry is poised for the next big leap. In a country of 1.24 billion people with 22 official languages, niche and regional language channels would realise their true potential, now. I expect more 200 new channels, mostly regional and Niche would be launched in next 3-5 years. Cent Percent would be a one-stop shop to meet the advertising revenue challenge of all niche and regional channels who may not find it viable to build a strong national sales team.”

     

    Tripathi added, “We would have a strong national team with about 70 leading sales professional. Our initial plan is to build a bouquet of regional news channels which would be the biggest and most effective one from the point of view of national advertisers. Within the first fortnight of its operations, Cent Percent has signed up with seven high potential regional news channels. We are confident that before the new financial year, we would be setting up a bouquet of 10 regional news channels. Our primary bouquet would have one channel each from leading regional TV markets of India. We would carefully handpick those channels.”