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Tag: Ashish Bhasin

  • WAT’s Your Big Idea wraps up second edition

    WAT’s Your Big Idea wraps up second edition

    MUMBAI: Digital and social media agency WATConsult wrapped up its second season of WAT’s Your Big Idea (#WYBI) yesterday in Mumbai.

    The winning trophy was awarded to WAT’s in the Name from MICA. The first runner-up was team BhaiBhaiBhai from MICA, while the second runner-up position was awarded to ThreeTwoOne from IIMC – Delhi.

    This year WAT’s Your Big Idea received over 240 entries from 390+ students who participated from leading institutions like MICA, SIMC, XIC, IIMB, IIM (Indore), SP Jain, Jamnalal Bajaj, NMIMS, MET and Jai Hind.

    Teams had to create campaigns on the basis of brand objective, target audience, target market and challenges faced. ITC Savlon’s brief was to increase usage of hand-wash in households and to increase usage, while HE Face Wash looked for an integrated marketing idea for its newly launched product, waterless face wash.

    Naturolax’s marketing objective was to establish a new brand positioning, thereby driving new trials and increase market share. Jack & Jones’ core objective was to establish itself in the men’s comfort zone brand and gain branding visibility along with garnering actual footfalls and sales. Madame Tussauds looked for ideas which helped in increasing repeated walk-ins and ideas on new possible opportunities to drive revenues while Swarovski wanted ideas which helped increase sales and create a brand visibility in its TG.

    The shortlisted teams got an opportunity to work with the team at WATConsult, to understand the nuances of digital campaigns and improvise their entries before presenting in front of the esteemed jury, which comprised Rajiv Dingra (founder and CEO, WATConsult), Jaikishan Chhaproo (head media and PR, ITC), Praveen Das (co-founder & managing director, Happy Mcgarrybowen), Vineet Gautam (CEO, Bestseller Group) Sukanya Dutta Roy (MD, consumer goods division, Swarovski),  Sabia Gulati (head, sales & marketing, Madam Tussauds) Rajesh Kamat (VP, strategy & operations, Piramal Enterprises) and Anoop Agarwal (DGM marketing, Emami Group).

    WATConsult founder and CEO  Rajiv Dingra says, “This year we have received a tremendous response, the entries were more than double from last year and the quality of work was also commendable. We hope to take this initiative to greater heights next year.”

    Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO of South Asia Ashish Bhasin adds, “WATConsult has been doing an excellent job with WAT’s Your Big Idea and I would like to congratulate them on the same. Also, would like to extend my wishes to the winning teams on the fabulous ideas they came up with.”

    WYBI provides a unique platform and opportunities to the next generation in the field of digital advertising and marketing. Launched last year, the first edition saw more than 150+ registrations, 120 entries, 250 students participating and 28 teams. This year besides the cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, an endorsed certificate and an assured job offer, the winning team will also get an opportunity to visit Cannes Lions in 2018.

  • WAT’s Your Big Idea 2.0 gets bigger

    WAT’s Your Big Idea 2.0 gets bigger

    MUMBAI: After the success of its inaugural edition last year, digital and social media agency WATConsult has launched WAT’s Your Big Idea (WYBI) 2.0. It is the second season of WYBI, a digital ideation competition for colleges across India that provides a unique platform and opportunities to the next generation in the field of digital advertising and marketing.

    This year, besides the cash prize, endorsed certificate, and an assured job offer, the winning team will also get an opportunity to visit Cannes Lions in 2018.

    During WYBI,students get an opportunity to work on live projects, understand the nuances of creating digital campaigns for notable brands, and showcase their creative skills to the best brand marketers in the country.

    The agency has partnered institutes such as MICA, SIMC, IIM Bangalore, IIM Indore, SP Jain, Jamnalal Bajaj, NMIMS, and Jai Hind along with brands like Swarovski, Madame Tussauds, HE face wash, Savlon (ITC Group), Jack and Jones, and Naturolax (Piramal Healthcare).

    WATConsult founder and CEO Rajiv Dingra said, “Considering the overwhelming responses from students last year, we decided to offer them an international platform to meet, be inspired, and interact with the advertising stalwarts of the world. The winning team will have the opportunity to win an all-expenses trip to Cannes Lions 2018.”

    Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin added, “Last year was a benchmark setter. The students came up with some exciting and innovative ideas and I am looking forward to the entries this year. WATConsult’s initiative has helped us find some really good talent and we will continue supporting their efforts.”

  • Ad honchos: Digital to be central to advertising very soon

    Ad honchos: Digital to be central to advertising very soon

    MUMBAI: Today’s marketers are working in a complex environment with increasing consumer choice and fragmenting media environment. With mobile becoming central to our lives, content consumption through it has skyrocketed. This has created a dynamic consumer purchase cycle and an opportunity for businesses to find newer sources of growth.

    Addressing the needs of the industry, marketers sat down to discuss how brands are tapping into this shift in consumer behaviour and discovering growth at Facebook’s ‘Discover Growth’ session. The session moderated by Facebook India and South Asia interim MD Sandeep Bhushan, had panelists including Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin, GSK Consumer Healthcare general manager of marketing excellence Alok Agarwal and Ambuj Chandna, head – retail liabilities, investment and payment products at Kotak Mahindra Bank.

    Brands today understand the value of mobile because 75 per cent of Indians accessing Facebook do so from their smartphones. The presence of over two million business pages on Facebook indicates that companies expect customers and growth to come from it.

    Bhasin opened the panel by pointing out some key trends that are seen in digital. He pointed out that digital is now becoming equivalent to mobile. Digital has benefited some major brands in the country that are investing heavily on the platform.

    With 40 per cent of Dentsu Aegis Network’s revenue coming in from its digital operations, Bhasin sees a clear shift in the way digital will impact brands and clients going forward. He expects 25 per cent of the market to be digital by 2020 and digital to be the single largest medium in the industry by 2023 but traditional mediums will continue to grow as well.

    Banking was one of the earliest sectors adopters of digital when it provided online banking facility to its existing customers but lately, BFSI sector has also been investing moderately in digital content. This is in contrast to 15 years ago when nothing but physically presenting yourself at the bank could allow a transaction.

    Chandna added that almost 60 per cent of Kotak’s active customers is transacting digitally. Kotak Mahindra Bank launched 811, a digital only bank account early this year. The 14-year-old bank has 10.5 million customers as of June 2017 and saw a jump of 30 per cent in two quarters only because of 811 account. “The physical world rules don’t apply to digital as it is important to create value proposition for digital and if you get that right, a brand can scale up dramatically,” he added.

    Alok Agarwal mentioned that though internet typically is a male-skewed platform, female consumers are increasingly spending more time on it. “High time spent on internet leads to funnelling of brand spends as they want to tap the customers at all touch points.”

    Consumers are platform-agnostic, which is shifting dynamics from television planning to video planning.

    Bhasin raised an important point of the need for a common measurement metric system for the advertising industry in the next two to three years. “We are a year away from a very big inflexion point where digital is going to be hugely central if not peripheral,” he adds.

    Agreeing to Bhasin on the need for a measurement metric, Chandna cited that initially Kotak heavily depended on traditional media advertising but stopped that when they realised it was only creating a category and not launching a product. The brand is leveraging in a big way to create ease of doing business and have a better connect with its customers. “Kotak Bank’s digital spends have increased by 40X and a majority of that goes into Facebook as we get detailed analysis and data there which is not available on other digital platforms,” he states.

    Alok Agarwal concluded the panel by emphasising that Facebook allows GSK to geo-target the customers in ways that were not possible earlier. A brand can also go for advocacy on digital where consumers can react and share their feedback in real time which is not possible on television.

  • Brands pick digital over TV and print for Diwali marketing

    Brands pick digital over TV and print for Diwali marketing

    MUMBAI: The festival of lights and colours is finally here! Diwali has always been an occasion to reconnect with family and our loved ones but the event is also that time of the year when brands go all out to create presence and market themselves across all channels.

    The festive season starts in September all the way till December, but Diwali continues to remain a favourite among brands and advertisers every year.

    Dentsu Aegis network chairman and CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin projects a 15-20 per cent growth this festive season particularly because last festive season got badly affected due to demonetisation and this year with GST (Goods and Services Tax).

    The chocolate category continues to grow at 12.4 per cent this year as per a Nielsen report suggesting that there won’t be a slowdown this festive season in the chocolate category. The gifting space has considerably expanded over the past years and people are opting to gift chocolates over sweets on occasions. Mondelez India, a brand that is synonymous to celebration and festivity in India has introduced a miniature version of Cadbury chocolates this season to boost sales.

    Biscuits and confectioneries sector is also doing better this year as opposed to last year due to better monsoon and demand coming in from rural India. Rural has accounted for 10-15 per cent of Parle Products growth this year as compared to same period last year.

    But, what has changed over the years is how brands have changed their communication with the audience. Customer communication is no longer about being accessible when the brand wants to talk to the customers or vice versa but making sure the conversation is present on all media platforms. Digital is growing 3X faster than traditional advertising and is becoming more important as the younger consumer has come into purchasing power and the trend will only increase. “A few years ago, the overall digital accounted for only five per cent of the market but it accounts for 15 per cent today and is expected to grow to 85 per cent over the next couple of years,” Bhasin adds.

    Brands have decided not to invest a lot in TVC but to divert it to digital and connect with millennials.While Parle Products and Acer India will be launching a digital-only campaign for Diwali, Vodafone India and Mondelez India will not be rolling out any fresh campaign this time but will re-run its prominent ads from the past and showcase new offerings from the brand.

    Mondelez India has tied up with Amazon India to launch India’s first virtual chocolate and sweet store. Seeing a massive opportunity in the corporate gifting space, Mondelez has also launched a new website for corporate gifting options called, ‘Cadbury Joy Deliveries.’ A Mondelez India spokesperson informed us that the company will be banking on social media capabilities, over the coming months and promote the direct-to-consumer website to reach out to key corporate decision makers enabling gifting choices at the click of a button.

    Vodafone India will be using augmented reality to provide its consumers an opportunity to create their own unique Diwali greeting and eco-friendly‘phuljharis’ greetings. This personalised GIF can then be sent to friends and family through social media.

    Parle Products, the category leader, has shelled out 40-50 per cent more this year as compared to the previous year. Parle’s focus on print is down from the usual 8 per cent to just five per cent. Digital focus is up from 12 per cent to 35 per cent which has eaten into TV’s share of 80 per cent. Parle Products category head Mayank Shah says, “Digital helps us in getting our message across to consumers with our long format commercials which otherwise would cost a ton if done on television during festivals.”

    Similar is the case with Acer. The brand hasn’t invested heavily into marketing this season and allocated a mere three per cent of its advertising budget this year but is also focussing on digital. CMO and consumer business head Chandrahas Panigrahi points out, “All brands today have to do that in order to survive because just television or print won’t yield results as consumers have now moved to digital screens.” Acer India spends close to 20 per cent of its budget on digital and 10 per cent on print.

    While brands are cheering for Diwali, the industry does not seem to have overcome the impact caused by GST. While sales remained low until September, marketers have kept their fingers crossed and are hoping to make up for the loss by the end of festive season.

  • Dentsu elevates Kartik Iyer as president – Media Brands and Amplifi

    Dentsu elevates Kartik Iyer as president – Media Brands and Amplifi

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has strengthened its media group across Carat and Vizeum to provide a future-proofed, digitally ahead, holistic solution to clients. Kartik Iyer has been elevated to president, Media Brands and Amplifi.

    Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin said, “To enable a more future ready product for our clients, our media agencies have been reorganized for the rapidly changing market environment under the unified leadership of Kartik Iyer who has been leading our fastest growing media agency, Carat, for over eight years now. He will be responsible for enabling the continued fast track growth of the brands and will provide senior executive council level oversight to the media brands, in addition to his Amplifi responsibilities.”

    Speaking on the next steps for Media Brands, Kartik Iyer, President -Media Brands and Amplifi said, “I am delighted to have been given this opportunity and look forward to working with the agencies in their growth path over the years. Carat is future proofing to take on the new opportunities that the market dynamics have provided in order to be able to provide world class service to our clients. Rajni Menon as CEO of Carat and Joydeep Raha as CEO of Carat Context will be leading their respective agencies.”

    “Rajni is a true blue One DAN exponent. In the past 8 years that Rajni has been with Carat, she has led some of the agency’s most significant developments in capabilities, especially in the area of ICP, CCS, CCS Planner, Multiscreen planning (TV Stack) and Digitizing of Carat, which has enabled the entire group to deliver more consumer focused and business oriented solutions and is best placed to drive it to the next level. Joydeep has been a pillar in the growth path that Carat has seen over the years, particularly in the South markets. With his focus on business growth backed by delivering integrated solutions, he has constantly been adding business for the group. Further, Himanka Das will be taking over as CEO of Vizeum. Himanka has been a part of Dentsu Aegis Network Media leadership for the last 5 years and has a proven ability in managing and growing client relationships both Multinational and Indian,” Iyer added.

    Shripad Kulkarni has decided to pursue interests outside of the company after the end of this year.

    Speaking on Shripad, Bhasin said, “Shripad has contributed significantly to the growth of Vizeum in India. His focus on business and managing client relationships has enabled Vizeum to grow from strength to strength in the last 2 years. We wish him all the very best in his future endeavours.”

    Speaking on the future plans, Iyer said, “The Leadership of our Media group will continue to focus on delivering Business Outcomes and Digitally Ahead solutions. Over the next few weeks, each of the agencies will be setting up their plans for the coming years and you can expect some very significant initiatives in this area by each agency. Rajni, Joydeep and Himanka, as leaders of their respective media agencies, will continue to innovate the way brands are built.”

  • Dentsu launches Amplifi, with Kartik Iyer and Sujata Dwibedy as leaders

    Dentsu launches Amplifi, with Kartik Iyer and Sujata Dwibedy as leaders

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has announced the launch of Amplifi in India under the Executive Sponsorship of Kartik Iyer, President Media Agencies and Amplifi.

    ​​​​Amplifi is the media investment arm of The Dentsu Aegis Network, comprising four specialisations – Investment Management, Global Media Partnerships, Amnet and The Story lab.

    Speaking on this launch, Ashish Bhasin Chairman & CEO South Asia said, “We are excited to launch Amplifi in India under Kartik’s leadership and bringing together the four key capabilities under one structure. In today’s world, our media partners have much more to bring on table for our clients, than just media inventory.  Amplifi’s is uniquely placed to drive this supply-side convergence by harnessing data, technology, insight and content to help all members of the Dentsu Aegis Network operating model.”

    As part of this launch, Sujata Dwibedy is taking over as the Group Buying and Trading Head from Harsha Joshi who has decided to explore options outside the company. On Harsha’s association with the group, Ashish Bhasin said, “Harsha, with her vast experience, has been a huge contributor in the growth of the media group. We wish her all the very best for her future.”

    Kartik Iyer, President Media Agencies and Amplifi said, “Our constant endeavour has been to bring best in class solutions for our clients that enable their business growth. The launch of Amplifi is another step in that direction and I am very excited with this opportunity.”

    Further, speaking on Sujata’s appointment, Kartik said, “Sujata, with over 20 years of media trading and strategy experience, has extensively worked across sectors such as FMCG, telecom, airlines, finance, alcohol and beverages and has led teams in the areas of planning, research, buying and strategy. Her holistic perspective will enable a better integration of all buying and trading functions across the group, in both online and offline media. Sujata will be supported by Prashant Nandan who has over 10 years of expertise in strategic digital marketing, media planning, media buying and content marketing across agencies like Isobar, Maxus and Motivator. Over the past 3 years, he has been leading buying for Isobar and now moves to Amplifi to deliver the digital buying and trading expertise to the group.”

    Speaking on her appointment as Group Buying and Trading Head, Dwibedy said, “I am delighted to have been chosen for this responsibility to drive ROI and deliver value to Dentsu Aegis Network clients. In today’s rapidly changing media marketplace, I look forward to working with our agencies and media partners to deliver this value across media to our clients.”

    Amnet, the programmatic capability of Dentsu Aegis Network, continues to grow from strength to strength and will now be a part of Amplifi.

    The Story Lab, launched in 2015, will continue to operate as part of Amplifi under the leadership of Sunil Kumaran.

  • DAN launches data-driven celebrity endorsement and sports marketing agency ‘CLab’

    DAN launches data-driven celebrity endorsement and sports marketing agency ‘CLab’

    MUMBAI: With the launch of CLab, the media and advertising conglomerate Dentsu Aegis Network, which operates 25 businesses in India, has expanded its footprint into celebrity endorsement and sports marketing.

    CLab will deliver solutions that range from brand endorsements, brand integrations, property and content creation to digital associations and sports marketing offerings including in-stadia branding, image rights, associations, activations, live events and appearances.

    CLab aims to introduce actionable insights with informed decision-making into the process of celebrity endorsement. Therefore, to address the existing gaps and evolving nuances of the industry, the unit has developed, The Star Matrix, a unique celebrity insights tool. The tool enables both, qualitative and quantitative learning, of the celebrity’s social sphere, giving a deeper understanding of their multifarious influence vis-à-vis their social interactions.

    Dentsu Aegis Network – South Asia chairman and CEO Ashish Bhasin said, “We hope to bring a data-based, scientific approach in the area of establishing brand image with the help of celebrity endorsers under CLab.”

    CLab ‘mentor’ Posterscope MD Haresh Nayak said, “Our vison with CLab is to bring accountability and informed decision-making in a discipline which functions on perception, probability and gut feeling of advertisers.

    CLab aims to break the myth of notional acceptability that has its roots in experimentation rather than information. A team of experts is now in place at CLab to deliver it.”

    CLab VP Deepak Kumar said, “If we look at celebrity and sports marketing separately, the two might differ in their operational mechanism but the driving force is common. People, popularity, occasions and influence share the common angle, governing the dynamics of the business. We took timely cognizance of the lacunae and (formed CLab).”

  • Dentsu buys Pune’s Sokrati, rebrands Merkle India

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sokrati, India’s leading data-driven performance marketing and analytics agency, launching Merkle in the country – the first launch of the global data-driven performance marketing agency in the Asia Pacific region.

    The deal is expected to close this week.

    Post-acquisition, Sokrati will be rebranded as Merkle Sokrati, further scaling Dentsu Aegis India’s data and performance marketing offering.

    Founded in 2009, Sokrati is headquartered in Pune and employs a staff of 120 digital marketing professionals. The company develops its integrated marketing offering with the help of data analytics, CRM based marketing and the integration of offline data and hyperlocal marketing, with a focus on the automotive, telecommunications and banking and financial services sectors. It offers digital and performance marketing with deep specialisation in e-commerce, with service lines encompassing search and performance, social, retargeting, display and video production, and product ads.

    Nick Waters, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific, said: “India is the fastest growing large economy in the world. It is on track for 400 million smartphone users, making it second only to China, and has emerged as a major e-commerce market. Sokrati’s strength in mobile, e-commerce, data, analytics and performance media provides an ideal basis from which to launch Merkle in India as we develop the roll-out plan for Asia Pacific. We will develop the unique M1 addressable media platform for India as a next step.”

    Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia, said: “Sokrati has strong ability in CRM and data to accelerate the launch of Merkle in India and further bolster our data practice, which is becoming increasingly critical in all aspects of our business. It will also give our clients added value as we bring CRM and data into the heart of our digital offering. With Dentsu Aegis Network India already being a leader in performance marketing services, with iProspect and the recent acquisition of SVG, the complementary addition of Sokrati will enable the network to take a clearly dominant position in the rapidly growing Indian digital advertising market. With Sokrati on board, we will now be more than twice the size of any of our competitors in search and performance. Out of 3,500 staff in India, about 1,500 will be digital professionals, and over 35% of our revenue – a market-leading statistic – will come from digital.”

    Over the past four years, Sokrati was consecutively ranked Deloitte’s top 50 Technology Companies in India. In addition, it has won Google India awards, including Best Quality Accounts and Largest Increase in Overall Revenue, consecutively in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

    Zhengda Shen, President of Merkle Asia Pacific, said: “Given Sokrati’s strong credentials and proven capabilities in data & analytics, Sokrati will be in the ideal position to give strong footing to Merkle’s launch in the Indian market, in line with Merkle’s global growth strategy. India is strategic to Dentsu Aegis Network and is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world.

    “Sokrati’s data DNA, analytics-driven and performance approach to digital marketing make it a natural extension for Merkle into the Indian market. Furthermore, they are focused on expanding their CRM capabilities and connecting these capabilities across media and channels. Merkle is in a strong position to support this expansion and Sokrati’s ecommerce-heavy client base is data rich, innovative, and ready to benefit from Sokrati’s push into cross-channel marketing.”

    The co-founders of Sokrati – Ashish Mehta, CEO, Anubhav Sonthalia, Enterprise Business Head, and Santosh Kumar Gannavarapu, Head of Innovations, will be joining the Dentsu Aegis Network leadership team in India. Anubhav Sonthalia will be the CEO of Merkle Sokrati and report to Vivek Bhargava, CEO of Performance, Dentsu Aegis Network India, and Zhengda Shen, President of Merkle Asia Pacific.

    Anubhav Sonthalia, Co-Founder & Enterprise Business Head of Sokrati, said: “Our business is built on a highly data-driven culture, supported by the strong passion for digital and performance marketing from myself and two other founders – Ashish and Santosh. It is not often you meet amazing talent with the same drive and mindset, and we could not be more pleased to be joining forces with world-leading agency Merkle, as we expand our global footprint as part of Dentsu Aegis Network. It has been an incredible journey from the start, and we are all very excited about the next chapter for Sokrati.”

  • Social Samosa award-winners announced

    MUMBAI: Social Samosa, one of India’s leading news aggregator on social and digital media industry, has announced the winners of its first edition of Best Social Media Brand Awards, via a Facebook Live stream event.

    The first edition of the awards saw entries from more than 130 brands across 16 categories which include Automobile, Cement, B2B, Beauty, BFSI, eCommerce, Education, FMCG, Food & Beverage, Healthcare, Media, Real Estate, Retail, Tourism & Hospitality, Technology, and Telecom.

    The journey of creating this formidable benchmark for the social media industry involved a pragmatic analysis of the nominated brands’ engagement on key social media platforms using Unmetric, a rigorous evaluation across parameters from our distinguished Jury Members and Social Media Voting powered by Newsfeed to adjudge the brand’s popularity among social media savvy users.

    Social Samosa head Hitesh Rajwani said, “We thank all our participants and winners from the entire team at Social Samosa. We hope to scale to larger heights in our next edition.”

    Dentsu Aegis Network chairman & CEO – south Asia and Posterscope chairman Ashish Bhasin said, “The quality of their work was good and the jury had a tough time choosing the winners.”

    Hungama Digital Services shared CEO & CCO Carlton D’Silva, commented, “Digital Advertising being a part of our daily lives, most of the entries seemed very familiar to me but I was enlightened by the thinking behind most of the winning campaigns. I particularly liked the Ola and the Zomato Campaigns.”

    Brand curator Lata Subramanian said, “I hope that these brands serve as case studies to help other marketers understand the role social media can play in building brands.”

    Social Samosa had partnered with Unmetric to power the Best Social Media Brands Index, Treize Communications for media outreach and Newsfeed SmartApps for online voting.

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  • NatGeo inspires Goafest to go green

    MUMBAI: In its 12th year, the festival pledges to reduce its environmental footprint with the help of National Geographic. The much awaited Goafest 2017, organized by the AAAI and The Advertising Club will be hosted in Goa from 6 – 8 April, 2017. Like every year, this year too promises to showcase and recognize the most incredible creative and planning work of the year. However, there is one significant change in the awards for the first time in its 12th year history.

    Goafest has pledged to be more conscious of its environmental footprint in its 12thedition. For this cause, it has partnered with National Geographic, an iconic brand which has inspired people to care about the planet for more than 129 years. National Geographic will come on board as the ‘Green Partner’ to help make the festival not only a congregation of the country’s best creative and planning minds, but also one that is conscious about its actions, and their impact.

    Some of the initiatives include the organizing committee using recycled paper and making available a system of carpooling for the delegates. However, both National Geographic & Goafest agree that the organization committee adopting a host of initiatives will not be enough. Real impact and change will happen if the delegates themselves are involved and engaged in this initiative.

    Consequently, National Geographic will create an awareness drive throughout the festival to shock, educate and inspire delegates for the need to be environmentally conscious. Delegates will also be encouraged to do their bit, from collecting water they would’ve wasted to ditching plastic bottles for the much sought after National Geographic branded water bottles.

    FOX Networks Group India Business Head Swati Mohan said, “National Geographic has been educating and inspiring people to care for the planet. Our association with Goafest is another endeavor in the same direction – to make our incredible industry aware and conscious about preserving the planet. We are confident that the country’s best creative and planning minds will adopt this cause and be our partners to spread this important message.’’

    Goafest chairman Ashish Bhasin adds, ‘’This year, apart from being this festival that is associated with excellence, we wanted Goafest to be a festival that is conscious and responsible. This year, Goafest is Green through the various initiatives that we have adopted. We couldn’t find a better partner than National Geographic for this cause.”

    National Geographic reaches 139 million television viewers in India and globally the entire portfolio to 700 million consumers each month.