ITV

Tag: Artificial Intelligence

  • Mowies optimises its workflow with Harmonic’s VOS Cloud Streaming SaaS

    Mowies optimises its workflow with Harmonic’s VOS Cloud Streaming SaaS

    MUMBAI: LATAM-based on-demand media platform Mowies, which has a unique revenue model for creators of feature films, documentaries, TV series, theatrical performances, concerts, and other original content, has decided to optimise its workflow with Harmonic's VOS 360 cloud streaming offering. 

    The VOS360 SaaS provides Mowies with an easy-to-use, end-to-end solution for media processing and delivery, optimising bandwidth usage and enabling an exceptional viewing experience for viewers.

    "As a recent entrant to the streaming market, Mowies is growing rapidly as more creators and users come on board every day. Harmonic's VOS360 SaaS gives us the ability to scale based on our growing viewership, without requiring investments in infrastructure. Thanks to Harmonic, we have a streamlined solution from source to screen, and we can confidently keep adding new content and gaining much-needed visibility for content creators," said Mowies CEO Alejo Arango. 

    Harmonic's VOS360 SaaS supports the entire streaming workflow from ingest to delivery, allowing simpler on-demand streaming with easy control through a rich API. Mowies has improved the streaming quality and lowered overall streaming costs with Harmonic's EyeQ, an AI-based encoding technology on the VOS360 platform. EyeQ encoding reduces Mowies' storage and CDN requirements by up to 50 per cent compared with traditional encoding methods. Harmonic's worldwide team of DevOps experts provides 24/7 monitoring and assistance to ensure the highest service availability for Mowies at all times. 

    Harmonic vice president – sales and marketing (Latin America) Alvaro Martin said, "Mowies required a fast time-to-market, and that's an area where the VOS360 platform really shines. With its flexible cloud-based architecture, the VOS360 platform was up and running in weeks. With the VOS360 solution powering their streaming workflow, Mowies can deliver content from independent content creators and Hollywood filmmakers via a single, end-to-end platform, reducing their operating costs and decreasing complexity." 

  • NBA launches streaming service in association with Microsoft

    NBA launches streaming service in association with Microsoft

    MUMBAI: The National Basketball Association (NBA) has come up with a new branded streaming service in association with Microsoft. The NBA made the announcement on 16 April regarding a multi-year deal with Microsoft in this regard.

    The direct-to-consumer streaming video service, on the Microsfot Azure cloud platform, will provide consumers personalised TV broadcasts and game streaming with the help of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

    The yet-to-be-named streaming service will be co-managed by Microsoft and NBA Digital.  

    The alliance will transform the way fans experience the NBA.

    As part of this collaboration, Microsoft will become the official Artificial Intelligence (AI) partner and an official cloud and laptop partner for the NBA, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), NBA G League, and USA Basketball beginning with the 2020-21 NBA season.

     “Microsoft and NBA Digital — co-managed by the NBA and Turner Sports — will create a new, a direct-to-consumer platform on Microsoft Azure that will use machine learning and AI to deliver next-generation, and personalised game broadcasts and other content offerings as well as integrate the NBA’s various products and services from across its business,” said an official statement.

    The platform will reimagine how fans engage with the NBA from their devices by customizing and localising experiences for the NBA’s global fanbase, which includes the 1.8 billion social media followers across all league, team and player accounts.

    Beyond delivering live and on-demand game broadcasts through Microsoft Azure, the NBA’s vast array of data sources and extensive historical video archive will be surfaced to fans through state-of-the-art machine learning, cognitive search, and advanced data analytics solutions, says the release.

    This will create a more personalised fan experience that tailors the content to the preferences of the fan, rewards participation and provides more insights and analysis than ever.

    Additionally, this platform will enable the NBA to uncover unique insights and add new dimensions to the game for fans, coaches and broadcasters. The companies will also explore additional ways technology can be used to enhance the NBA’s business and game operations.

    As part of the partnership, Microsoft will become the entitlement partner of the NBA Draft Combine beginning next season and an associate partner of future marquee events, including NBA All-Star, MGM Resorts NBA Summer League and WNBA All-Star.

    “We are thrilled to serve as the official AI partner of the NBA,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “Together, we’ll bring fans closer to the game and players they love with new personalised experiences powered by Microsoft Azure.”

    “This partnership with Microsoft will help us redefine the way our fans experience NBA basketball,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver. “Our goal, with Microsoft, is to create customized content that allows fans, whether they are in an NBA arena or watching from anywhere around the world, to immerse themselves in all aspects of the game and engage directly with our teams and players.”

  • Kantar Increases creative impact through artificial intelligence

    Kantar Increases creative impact through artificial intelligence

    MUMBAI: Kantar, the world’s leading data, insights and consulting company today extends its leadership in Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration into the advertising and creative world with the announcement of four new big data and AI-based solutions. The new offerings will help brands, advertising agencies and media companies more efficiently and accurately build and measure campaigns that have global impact. 

    The new offerings announced are: 

    Context Lab: A new platform that creates synergy between creative and media strategies. Context Lab answers the question “How does content perform incrementally better in different media environments?” The platform is flexible enough to optimise elements of a sponsorship, assess the value of branded content, evaluating boutique sites, choose the right creative for the right environments, understand potential for influencer or social performance within a live feed or optimise ad units for the environment in which they’ll run.

    Creative Transport: A new toolset capable of forecasting how well creative executions designed for one country will perform if transported to other markets. Kantar combines learning from historical ads and the Link™ database to unleash AI-powered predictive models that guide where to reuse creative and where investment in new creative is needed. In beta testing clients have saved up to 30% in reduced creative production costs.

    Balanced Attribution: A new solution that allows marketing leaders to balance short-term sales optimization and long-term brand equity growth. Balanced Attribution allows companies to find the right mix of channels, both online and offline. Built on the experience of over 10,000 brand lift studies and enhanced with AI capabilities from Kantar’s Analytics Practice and sales data from Kantar and our partners help clients optimize their marketing to the ideal balance between upper funnel brand objectives and lower funnel sales. 

    Enhanced Visual Analytics (EVA): A new online platform that analyses social media imagery at scale to help brand owners understand how their brand and products are being visually represented in broader culture. With almost 100 million images uploaded daily to Instagram alone, Enhanced Visual Analytics is the future of how we understand brands in a culturally connected way, and a critical component in how brands develop and deliver content to consumers. Combining AI and semiotics expertise EVA understands the equity that brands and categories have in culture and helps create great content, track brand equity and understand the opportunities in category ‘white space’. 

    Discussing the launch of Kantar’s latest suite of AI tools Eric Salama, CEO, Kantar said “At Kantar, we have a longstanding reputation as being the world’s most innovative research and consulting company. Today’s launch illustrates clearly how that innovation delivers meaningful impact for our clients across the whole marketing cycle. From understanding how your brand is perceived and used by consumers in social media, to ensuring investments are repurposed or directed to the right channels through to calculating ROI, it is clear AI is beginning to have a significant impact in the world of marketing”.

  • Idea promotes video calling feature in new ad

    Idea promotes video calling feature in new ad

    MUMBAI: Mindshare, India’s largest full-service media agency and part of GroupM, launched a unique interactive campaign with Mallika Dua – a renowned comedian and social media influencer, as part of Idea 4G #IndiaKaLiveNetwork initiative. The campaign is an attempt to bring alive the experience of video calling with a renowned celebrity in real time.

    Building on the brand’s tagline of ‘India Ka Live Network’, Idea 4G Live leveraged the power of video calls in an attempt to create awareness about common misdoings of people and encourage them to change their behaviour.

    Mindshare and Idea 4G unveiled a distinctive voice-enabled AI led interactive video chat bot ad campaign that enabled millions of users to interview Dua.  This has never been attempted before in the digital mobile ad-space and was co-created by mCanvas, the experiential storytelling ad platform for small screens. The tool allows users to interact with Dua, and ask her questions ranging from personal trivia to the benefits of Idea 4G network and the power of live videos by simply tapping on the mic icon. Trending questions are also prompted at the bottom of the screen which the user can scroll through and ask Dua. The innovation is done through live media banners placed on popular websites, which can be accessed through mobile phone browsers.

    The experience is designed to be seamless and resemble a live video call with the user's own face seen on the screen. This experience can last for as long as the user has questions to ask and also allows users to ‘Get Idea’ in just a few clicks.

    The innovation uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) where the ad creative listens to user questions in English & Hindi and uses Machine Learning (ML) to analyse all the questions asked by previous users and increase the accuracy of the responses. For example, if a user asks a question in Hinglish, the AI detects that it contains English and Hindi. Next, the ML helps accurately assign a relevant answer to that question.

    The campaign is live on several media and news websites and has already seen engagement from over 7.2 million users. The campaign is witnessing about eight times higher than the average mobile-banner click-through rate. Interactions with this creative have also been found to last for an average of 22 seconds, with some users spending over 10 minutes.

    Speaking about the launch of the campaign, Mindshare India national head – mobile Niraj Ruparel said, “We at Mindshare always look forward to crafting innovative and effective solutions for brands. Idea, as a brand, does not shy away from taking an unconventional path when it comes to communication. With the video-chat bot ad we have come together to create a first of its kind innovation on an effective platform. By leveraging on Mallika Dua’s popularity, and Idea’s 4G network, we are hopeful of bringing about a change in people’s behaviour, and habits, as well as encourage more people to go Live to highlight societal issues.”

    Vodafone Idea Ltd president marketing Sunita Bangard said, “Over the years, brand Idea has built a strong reputation for creating purposeful, conscientious campaigns that encourage change for the betterment of society. The Idea 4G #IndiaKaLiveNetwork campaign highlighted the power of streaming LIVE videos over Idea’s robust 4G network thereby driving a positive change in behaviour among citizens. In its endeavor to engage with the digital natives, Brand Idea has always tried digital-first initiatives for our ATL campaigns, many of which have been appreciated and rewarded at various digital forums. Our innovative AI-and ML-aided campaign has set new benchmarks in digital advertising.”

  • ADOHM comes on board as sponsors for Bloomberg|Quint’s web -series ‘Brandsmiths’

    ADOHM comes on board as sponsors for Bloomberg|Quint’s web -series ‘Brandsmiths’

    MUMBAI: ADOHM, a new age marketing platform powered by artificial intelligence, has come on board as the sponsor for Bloomberg|Quint’s web -series Brandsmiths. The series is an effort to showcase excellence of teams that are custodians of the brand and have created path breaking marketing campaigns to catapult the brand to success.

    Speaking on the same, ADOHM co-founder Kuldeep Chaudhury said, “We are glad to partner with Bloomberg|Quint for their web-series Brandsmiths. This platform has a unique reach and we are sure we will be able to reach out to maximum audience with this association.”

    Commenting on the association, BloombergQuint CEO Anil Uniyal said, “In this season of Brandsmiths, we speak with some of the best marketing practitioners in the country & try to understand their perspective on building brand salience in this era of technology dominated by Artificial Intelligence. We could not find a better partner but ADOHM for the same.”

  • Silverpush grows 100% y-o-y following apac expansion

    Silverpush grows 100% y-o-y following apac expansion

    MUMBAI: SilverPush, the marketing technology platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI) designed to effectively improve engagement between brands and consumers, is set to become the fastest-growing contextual marketing tech company from India. 

    Since it’s expansion in APAC last year, the firm has rolled-out several innovative technologies to bolster their audience reach and significantly increased its headcount. To date, SilverPush has been experiencing over a 100 percent year-on-year growth – of which 30 percent is contributed by the firm’s international business. 

    “The opportunity to grow in Asia is huge, given that online video revenue is expected to grow at 21 percent CAGR across the region in 2017-2022,” said Mr. Kartik Mehta, Chief Revenue Officer of SilverPush. “For 2019, we expect our contributions from online video to reach 50 percent and with it to be driven by consumers in the Asia-Pacific. In 2018, we started working with global brands such as Ford, Nestle, Coca-Cola, Samsung, and many others.”

    In Southeast Asia, the company has experienced a fivefold growth in revenue. The company credits this performance to the rising consumer appetite for on-demand and multiscreen viewing. 

    “Users in Southeast Asia are spending more time on their mobile devices compared to those from other regions, so there is a constant rise in internet and smartphone penetrations,” added Mr. Kartik Mehta. “Also, businesses in these markets are maturing and becoming more open to integrating newer technologies in their audience outreach strategies. We plan to leverage on this and grow our business significantly by helping marketers effectively target their audience engagements.” 

    The company’s latest product, Mirrors, was launched in late 2018 to help contextualise ads when people are viewing content on their devices – therefore aiming to tackle the US$170 billion global problem of misplaced online advertising. Using AI with computer vision, Mirrors detects context in video content that aligns with an advertiser’s core communications objectives, allowing them to effectively target their ads in a world already cluttered with advertisements. This contextual approach to marketing seeks to revolutionise the way that brands engage with their audience.

    SilverPush has already supported the campaigns of regional brands in APAC such as Indofood, Unilab and Tiger Beer – as well as international brands such as Unilever, KFC, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Johnson & Johnson and many more.

    In addition to India and Southeast Asia, SilverPush is also present in South Africa, Tanzania, Japan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. With an aim to further amplify its business presence in Hong Kong in the next two months, the company plans to expand to Australia and South Korea by Q2 of 2019. 

  • Expectations from the brand and marketing industry in 2019

    Expectations from the brand and marketing industry in 2019

    MUMBAI: The world of marketing is perpetually changing with constant innovative practices in the field of social media and automated ad tech. As broad-brush marketing techniques have dwindled, brands are battling to maintain their originality and meet customer expectations in an ever-evolving technologically advanced world. From multimedia content creation to influencer marketing, 2018 saw some excellent marketing trends adapted by brands across various verticals.

    The next big leap is the application of artificial intelligence and voice search for personalised advertisements and better data analytics. AI and voice searches have grown from niche to buzzword to mainstream and brands are entailed to incorporate them in their marketing strategies.

    With numerous emerging trends, the B2B marketing landscape has become more competitive. From email marketing to landing pages and content recommendations, personalisation isn't limited for B2C brands anymore. What a brand stands for has become very relevant for B2B organisations as well. Companies working in B2B space now understand how content outreach and online advertising can help them strengthen their customer base and create brand awareness. However, they are still in transit to use more digital tactics to drive ROI and growth. Marketers are continuously looking for more exciting ways of story-telling and more innovative content formats to lure their B2B prospects.

    Advertisements are no longer the pool for the same kind of talent. Brands have gotten smarter about the content they publish on various platforms. They know that to allure a better reaction from the audiences, they need to give an experience tailored according to consumers' dialect.  Everything brands do, need to help them achieve their goal, target their ideal audience and get the most out of the content as possible.

    Ephemeral content and stories have soared in popularity as they display quick content with different features such as polls, GIFS, boomerangs, etc. Viewership of digital videos, both on over-the-top and social platforms, continues to be more captivating than television. Besides, with brands investing in influencer marketing, Instagram and Snapchat are increasingly gaining ground. Mobile spending across all the sectors has increased because it provides more targeted ad campaigns.

    With new marketing trends continuing to evolve, the pressure on marketers for optimising the digital strategies has increased. Advertisers want to engage consumers with more relevant content and thus, are spending on platforms providing a direct and real-time connection with the consumers. Communicating with customers on a one-to-one basis encourages them to engage more with a brand's product or service.

    Team Pumpkin has grown well and healthy in terms of revenue and bagging new clients in 2018. The New Year is looking more promising. I believe that we need to connect deeply with other people, not just within our agencies, but with the people who are going to buy what we are selling. We aim to provide integrated communication solutions to maximize our client base and expand our footprint nationally.

    (The author is co-founder and CBO, Team Pumpkin. The views expressed here are her own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them) 

  • Guest Column: Impact of artificial intelligence on programmatic advertising

    Guest Column: Impact of artificial intelligence on programmatic advertising

    Programmatic advertising is a method of utilising software to buy digital ads. It is easier for media buyers to go through an auction-based process instead of manual negotiations for displaying their ads on digital platforms. It is one of the most innovative methods of advertising which facilitates the buying and selling of digital ad space.

    On the other hand, artificial intelligence (AI) is the concept of replicating human intelligence in machines the potential of which, in turn, is unlocked by human intelligence. AI undoubtedly adds immense value to marketers.

    Machine learning has revolutionised media trading & programmatic algorithms based on volumes of data. AI incorporation enhances the targeting capabilities as individuals can be targeted based on behaviour & preferences and other programmatic interactions. Ads can be personalised based on location, demographics, interactions etc. Precision targeting is required for global reach of programmatic advertising. AI is allowing advertisers to dramatically boost the efficiency of their campaigns. Programmatic uses AI technologies to make better budget decisions for advertisers. When AI is applied to programmatic advertising, it can navigate on its own, as well as provide minute insights thereby enhancing the effectiveness of the campaign exponentially.

    The basis of both programmatic advertising & AI is data analytics. With the effective amalgamation of AI in programmatic advertising one can dynamically score user, accurately differentiate, bid on valuable customers & drive efficient conversions. The brands need to embrace the power & opportunities that AI bots & digital assistants provide. The search has improved drastically with the inception of AI algorithms. As per a report, the AI market is predicted to grow more than 47 billion dollars by 2020 which is a massive rise. It can also enhance the look and feel of ad creatives which can be designed to catch the attention of the viewer.

    Real-time bidding can be facilitated with AI in programmatic advertising. Automation brings advertisers closer to the goals that are set by the brand. As per statistics by Zenith marketing forecasts, by 2019, 67 per cent of display advertising will be traded programmatically. Before the onset of programmatic, the process of digital ad-buying was slow & monotonous. The marketers had to negotiate for ad placement wherein they had to compromise upon cost, space or results. The need to sort this recurring issue paved way for programmatic advertising & to automate the process further, AI was incorporated with it. Thus, ad buying has now become more effective, efficient, cheaper & result-oriented. AI enables the option of whom to show the ad, when & where instead of simply negotiating the ad space. Many brands are banking upon programmatic advertising for lead generation across the globe. Right from FMCG to BFSI to real estate& tourism & hospitality, it has become a favourite of the brands.

    The future also looks promising for AI enabled programmatic advertising as in times to come, through the process of machine learning audience profiling will be finalised on its own. There would be no need to use programmatic tools for filtering audience, in fact, it will evaluate customers’ behaviour and display ads accordingly.

    (The author is CEO and founder, iCubesWire. The opinions expressed here are his own and Indiantelevision.com)

  • Sony MAX embraces Artificial Intelligence to launch Television Industry’s first NLP based Chat Bot – ‘Filmykaant’

    Sony MAX embraces Artificial Intelligence to launch Television Industry’s first NLP based Chat Bot – ‘Filmykaant’

    MUMBAI: Staying true to its philosophy of ‘Deewana bana de’, Sony MAX, India’s number 1 Hindi Movie Channel, from Sony Pictures Networks is all set to amplify the ‘Deewanapan’. In a bid to engage with viewers beyond their television screens, Sony MAX has launched ‘Filmykaant’ – television world’s first-ever artificial intelligence (AI) Chat Bot in India. Developed with an advanced NLP (Natural language processing) technology with an in-built ability to read Hinglish (a mix of English and Hindi), Filmykaant will engage with nation-wide cinema lovers 24×7.

    Choose from an array of options ranging from Bollywood Gossip to Quizzes; and enjoy all things Bollywood! Log on to Sony MAX Facebook messenger and chat with your filmy friend, Filmykaant, to find answers to trivia from the world of Hindi Cinema. Filmykaant is one stop destination for every Bollywood lover. It is trained with more than 5000 keywords and key phrases to handle user conversation and personifies the personality of MAX, which makes him approachable to the audience.  

    Always striving to offer the best in entertainment through unique and innovative means, Filmykaant is Sony MAX‘s endeavor towards engaging with its ardent audience beyond the conventional route. Interaction with brands is moving to a more one to one interaction and driving consideration with the consumers is through conversations. The BOT aims to create these meaningful conversations with the audience by embracing new technologies. Viewers can log on to the Sony MAX Facebook page or click on the link http://m.me/MAXTelevision to start chatting.

  • Tight deadlines holding Indian agencies back: Roopak Saluja, The 120 Media Collective

    Tight deadlines holding Indian agencies back: Roopak Saluja, The 120 Media Collective

    MUMBAI: Who can forget the catchy viral sensational song – Why This Kolaveri Di – from a few years ago? It might seem like just a song that went viral but the reality is far from that. The song has an interesting story.

    It was back in 2011 when Jack in the Box Worldwide, the digital agency brand of The 120 Media Collective, helmed by Roopak Saluja got a call from Sony Music to help them control the damage that was done when their upcoming movie, 3’s song had been leaked from the recording studio. That’s when a new viral marketing strategy was born.

    Soon enough, Jack in the Box Worldwide , Sony Music’s digital Agency of Record, decided to create an ‘official video’ of the song. Within 24 hours, the video was shot and humorously sub-titled, 12 hours after that the action began on social and 48 hours later, it was trending on Twitter.  The song to date has over 156 million views on YouTube.

    Why are we telling you this story though? Well, because it was Roopak Saluja and his team, who utilised the power of digital when Facebook and Twitter were still experiencing their nascent days in India.

    A former DJ, media businessman, an angel investor, owner of a record label in Europe, and an actor in few movies, Saluja has seen it all. While he originally wanted to become a writer, Saluja worked for six years in Y&R (Young and Rubicam) in Budapest and Ogilvy & Mather in Paris.

    Featured in Campaign India’s A-List of the Most Influential People in India’s advertising, media & marketing industry between 2010-2014, Saluja is founder and chief executive officer of The 120 Media Collective – a communications and content group comprising subsidiaries, Jack in the Box Worldwide, Sniper, Bang Bang Films and Sooperfly.

    Today, the agency handles digital and content marketing mandates for Unilever, PepsiCo, Reckitt Benckiser, Amazon, Novartis, Aditya Birla Group, Loreal, Indigo, Budweiser, IKEA and the Taj Group among others. It has been 12 years since he started his entrepreneurial journey in the advertising and media industry in India and a lot has changed ever since. While he was one of the earliest entrants in digital marketing, today we have over 150+ digital agencies in India. The challenges are shortcomings are more than ever before.

    Indiantelevision.com spoke to Saluja to understand the agency model, Indian creativity, use of technology by 2020 and more.

    You have always maintained that Jack In The Box is ‘premium priced’. Isn’t is hard for you to get clients in that scenario or are clients actually willing to spend that kind of an amount?

    Yes, we are premium in our pricing and that is because we know we deserve it for what we bring to the table. We do discuss the pricing before we start working for the client. And it is actually not about the size as not everyone has the appetite for it (big budget). It’s not always the big advertisers that spend a lot, there are also some smaller startups who are trying to build the brand and they will over invest.

    Larger clients today are reconsidering their investments and want to consolidate their spends in fewer agencies rather than having 10 different agencies on board doing 10 different things. Do you see that as a challenge?

    I think 10-15 years ago, getting marquee clients was considered good for an agency’s reputation and it was something everyone could brag about. Today, it has become hard for agencies to make money with large clients due to the rise of procurement. We had a large client that paid us well back in the day for the work we did for them but now they have changed their pricing value and pay us peanuts for the same kind of work.

    How do you view the work that comes out of India as compared to the rest of the world? Although we are getting there, so far we clearly aren’t winning a lot of awards at international film festivals.

    I think we definitely are getting there. The work that came out of India at Cannes this year was better than last year. What happens at Cannes usually is that you tend to support your home country’s work but when an Indian work comes up, the Indian jury is never happy with it. I don’t know if it’s the jealousy or what, but you won’t find Indians supporting a fellow Indian’s work.

    What is holding us back in terms of creativity?

    The biggest difference and what’s holding us back is not money and budget. Obviously, clients expect moon and stars for peanuts but it’s more importantly about time. What we Indian agencies get four weeks for, they (international agencies) get 14 weeks. In India, agencies are put under a lot of pressure to finish the creative under a tight deadline. When the pressure is put on agencies, that pressure is in turn put on the production team to finish off the final product soon. This results in a substandard quality of creative.

    Moving forward, do you think artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other technologies will become indispensable in ads, say 5 years from now?

    Use of technology will change the way we advertise now but the basics will still remain the same. Jack in the Box or digital agencies, in general, will no longer be called a ‘digital’ agency by 2020. Someone once said to me, “Digital marketing is dead, long live digital marketing!” Going forward, digital marketing will just be a way of advertising.

    What do you think will be the game changers for A&M in 2019?

    It will be a mix of technology and data. My brother has a PhD in AI and he laughs about what we call AI in our industry. I intend to deliver better business results with the technology. Content for business impact is really important for us. Everyone is looking at the effectiveness of budget and its accountability.

    Finally, what next for 120 Media Collective and what next for Roopak Saluja?

    I want 120 to be the most effective company in the marketing space. I want it to be effective, not the best, not most creative. When I say effective, I mean in terms of business results. I say company and not agency because the ability to do and deliver the results will not come only from agencies.  Who knows we may not even be an agency anymore as agency implies that you are a part of the advertising world. I don’t think this holy grail belongs to the advertising industry anymore. Accenture and other technology companies are going into play as marketing and technology start to converge and technology companies will have as much of a claim over those marketing budgets as agencies.