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Tag: Baskar Subramanian

  • Amagi acquires OTT recommendation & automation specialist Argoid AI

    Amagi acquires OTT recommendation & automation specialist Argoid AI

    MUMBAI: This is an Indian tech company which has been winning rave views in every market in which it operates. In fact, in most places it is  mistaken for an American firm. Now, Amagi – one of the top companies globally in  cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TVs (CTVs) – is  gearing up to add some more  trophies to its already well-stacked award gallery. The company has acquired Argoid AI – a company specialising in recommendation engines and programming automation for OTT platforms.

    Amagi believes the acquisition strengthens its mission to empower media companies with intelligent content planning, distribution, and monetisation solutions.

    Argoid AI has as developed innovative AI products that enhance content recommendations and enable real-time programming decisions. Its solutions have been pivotal in increasing viewer engagement and optimising channel operations for customers in the streaming media space. By integrating Argoid AI’s advanced algorithms into Amagi’s existing platform, the  acquisition will significantly boost the functionality of Amagi’s product suite, Amagi Now and Cloudport’s offerings, enabling media companies to make faster, smarter, and personalised content scheduling decisions at scale.

    It will also allow Amagi to deepen its AI-powered content programming, metadata enrichment, and recommendation engine services, which are crucial for transforming to personalised streaming as part of the  FAST 2.0 innovation.

    Argoid's founders

    “Amagi has been investing in AI/ML over the last couple of years. We strongly believe in AI/ML’s pivotal role in transforming the media and entertainment industry, creating efficiencies, enhanced monetisation, and a superlative viewer experience,” said Amagi co-founder & CEO  Baskar Subramanian. “With this acquisition, Amagi will integrate Argoid’s AI components into its award-winning cloud solutions, significantly enhancing value for our customers. The combined tech expertise of both companies will address key challenges in the streaming industry, such as content discoverability, viewer retention, and intelligent programming.”  

    Argoid’s founders, Gokul Muralidharan, Soundararajan Velu, and Chackaravarthy E will join the Amagi team, contributing to the future roadmap and further integrating AI into Amagi’s offerings. The three founders have one commonality: they all worked at the Walmart-owned Flipkart in Bengaluru around the same time.

    “We are thrilled to join forces with Amagi, a true leader in media technology,” said Gokul Muralidharan. “This partnership allows us to scale our AI-driven solutions, delivering even greater customer value. Together, we will revolutionise how content is programmed and distributed in the digital era.”

    Amagi provides a complete suite of channel creation, distribution, and monetisation solutions. The company’s clients include some of the world’s biggest names, including Hearst Networks UK, ABS-CBN, Astro, Cox Media Group, DAZN, Globo, Lionsgate Studio, NBCUniversal, Tastemade, and VIZIO.
     

  • Amagi appoints Richard Perkett as chief product officer

    Amagi appoints Richard Perkett as chief product officer

    Mumbai: Amagi, the global leader in cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TV (CTV), has announced the appointment of Richard Perkett as its chief product officer (CPO). Richard brings over 25 years of experience in product management, product marketing, engineering, and user experience (UX) to Amagi, with a proven track record of leading SaaS-centric product strategies across multiple industries.

    “We are excited to welcome Richard Perkett to Amagi as our new Chief Product Officer,” said Amagi co-founder & CEO Baskar Subramanian. “As Amagi enters its next phase of growth — Amagi 2.0 — Richard’s strategic vision and deep product expertise will be instrumental in shaping the future of our product offerings. His experience in building and scaling comprehensive SaaS platforms aligns perfectly with our vision of delivering unparalleled value to our customers.”

    As chief product officer, Richard is set to steer Amagi’s product strategy with an acute focus that is meticulously aligned with customers’ goals and priorities. His role will involve not only pinpointing their unique challenges but also deeply understanding their specific needs. Richard’s strategic vision and sharp insights are crucial as Amagi aims to develop targeted solutions that effectively address these challenges and aid in its customers’ success. His leadership is expected to greatly enhance the company’s capacity to tailor offerings in ways that truly resonate with and benefit customers, ensuring Amagi’s products are indispensable tools for their progress.

    Amagi CPO Richard Perkett said, “I’m incredibly excited to join Amagi at such a pivotal time in the company’s journey. The opportunity to lead a talented product organization and contribute to shaping Amagi 2.0 is truly inspiring. I am confident that by fostering a strong product culture, we will be able to deliver even greater value to our customers and achieve remarkable growth.”

    It is notable that at the recently concluded NAB Show 2024, Amagi’s DYNAMIC, a market-leading product in the asset management, automation and playout category, won the NAB Product of the Year Award.

     

  • Amagi signs a definitive agreement to acquire Tellyo’s business

    Amagi signs a definitive agreement to acquire Tellyo’s business

    Mumbai: Amagi, the global leader in cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TV, has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the business of Tellyo, a leading real-time live cloud remote production, clipping/editing, and social sharing platform. This development is set to enhance Amagi’s video toolset for live sports and news broadcasts and improve live video streaming and editing experience for customers worldwide.

    Tellyo empowers media and content teams to produce compelling live videos that can be streamed to multiple digital and social media destinations using Stream Studio. The company enables branded video clips, highlights, and compilations to be created and published to channels simultaneously and instantly, from anywhere, all with one click. Tellyo also helps deliver high-quality web conferences, events, and presentations in real-time that bring external contributors and commentators into productions from multiple devices. Using Tellyo, athletes, actors, sponsors, ambassadors, and influencers amplify their reach and engagement across social media.

    Amagi’s co-founder & CEO Baskar Subramanian said, “We are excited about the opportunities this acquisition presents for Amagi. Tellyo brings a wealth of expertise, a strong team, and innovative products that align perfectly with our strategic vision of being a frontrunner in the cloud-based live broadcast technology space. Together, we will not only enrich Amagi’s product offerings, but also bring investments in the Eastern European region and create new possibilities for local talent and global customers.”

    Tellyo CEO Richard Collins expressed his optimism for the future: “This move is a testament to our commitment in delivering outstanding value to our customers, employees and investors. We believe that joining forces with Amagi will provide us with the resources and scale to reach new heights. We are excited about the potential of what both our companies can offer.”

    “We are committed to ensuring a smooth transition for Tellyo’s clients, employees, and partners during this exciting phase. Our collective team is energized and ready to embark on this journey, leveraging our shared values, vision, and passion for excellence.” said Amagi co-founder & chief revenue officer Srinivasan KA.

    With this agreement, Amagi expands its footprint in Europe. Earlier last year, Amagi had set up its development center in Croatia, its first outside India. By bringing together Tellyo’s product development center in Poland and Amagi’s technology centers in India and Croatia, Amagi expects to drive cloud innovation in the region in an accelerated manner.

  • Amagi will explore M&As to accelerate revenues, expand marketplace: Baskar Subramanian

    Amagi will explore M&As to accelerate revenues, expand marketplace: Baskar Subramanian

    Mumbai: Just a couple of years prior to the pandemic Amagi was known as a targeted TV advertising solutions provider. At present, it prides itself on calling “a global leader in cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TV,” which aims to transform the media and entertainment industry by virtualising entire broadcasting operations.

    Pivoting around the growth of streaming, Amagi has evolved into a next-generation media technology company driven by increased demand for its products, more so globally, than in India. Today, its clientele includes large media conglomerates (NBCUniversal, Paramount, A+E Networks UK), connected TV majors (Samsung TV Plus, Roku, Vizio, LG Channels), content owners (Tastemade, USA Today, AccuWeather) and leading OTT/FAST players (Fubo, Stirr, Redbox, Rakuten TV & more).  

    Overall, Amagi supports 650+ content brands, 800+ playout chains, and over 2000 channel deliveries on its platform in over 40 countries. It has a presence in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Paris, Singapore, broadcast operations in New Delhi, and an innovation centre in Bangalore. Amagi witnessed a 59 per cent surge in customers in 2021, 108 per cent YoY growth in revenue, and 112 per cent YoY growth in ad impressions generated using its dynamic ad insertion platform – Amagi Thunderstorm.

    In March, the company solidified its position as a unicorn after raising $95 million in a funding round led by Accel. Impressive traction for Amagi’s cloud solutions, and its demonstrated leadership in the rapidly growing CTV-led Free Ad-supported Streaming TV space, led to further investments from existing investors Norwest Venture Partners and Avataar Ventures to power the next wave of growth.

    “The media industry has been swept up in a content storm with consumers demanding high-quality, personalised content at faster-than-ever turnaround speeds,” says Amagi investor Avatar Ventures’ founding partner Nishant Rao. “Amagi has enabled major media players to stay relevant in these times of change while helping them to extract nearly 40 per cent operational savings through cloud solutions.”

    But what does Amagi actually do?

    Amagi provides end-to-end cloud-managed live and on-demand video infrastructure to content owners, broadcast and cable TV networks, and OTT platforms. Its core expertise lies in broadcast-grade 24×7 linear channel creation, channel distribution to Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV platforms, live orchestration for sports and news, OTT server-side ad insertion, analytics for monetisation, and cost-effective disaster recovery, among others.

    “The popularity of streaming and the resultant change in consumer behaviour has also effected a change in the back-end or what is called the content factory,” Amagi co-founder and CEO Baskar Subramanian simplifies the jargon for us. “What used to be a hardware-based setup is now becoming software-driven. As a result, large TV networks are moving all of their media operations to the cloud. And this movement to a virtualised model of operating the business is nothing new; it has happened in retail, in BFSI, now it is happening in the media business,” he says.

    For TV channels Amagi helps in moving all operations to the cloud, while OTTs use its services to operate and monetise their content with targeted advertising at an individual level.

    “Even though OTT is starting to become big in the country, it’s not really big in advertising dollars. In India, we made about 900 million in ad revenue last year, which is quite low for a country of our size. Video CPMs are also dismally low at three-four dollars vs 30 dollars in the US. This needs to change, and it will happen when marketers start moving their TV budgets to OTT platforms. I see that happening in the next few years,” shares Subramanian.

    “FAST which is gaining traction due to increasing fatigue among consumers overwhelmed by choices, can be a great way of increasing streaming ad revenues, but it has not yet made inroads in India,” he informs. Internationally, FAST services like Pluto TV and Tubi continue to up the game by investing in quality content. Audiences and advertisers are following.

    According to the latest edition of the FAST industry report by Amagi, in 2021, total FAST viewership hours grew by 103 per cent, while the average session duration increased by eight per cent. Ad impressions grew by a robust 134 per cent, reminiscent of the $50 billion in ad opportunities up for grabs for content owners each year across FAST platforms.

    The next wave of growth for Amagi

    Buoyed by the recent fundraise, the company is doubling down on its R&D from last year. It has quadrupled its sales team and also plans to expand offices across the globe including in Australia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.

    Amagi recently announced two new hires including Daniel Marshall as EVP of global sales for its SaaS business and streaming TV veteran James Smith to lead its global ad sales and partnerships business. Marshall moves in from Amazon, and Smith, from Facebook.

    The company is keen on raising capital and growth through mergers and acquisitions. “We are looking at acquisitions which can help us to accelerate the overall revenue and expand the marketplace,” informs Subramanian.

    “This is a crucial juncture for our business as we look to hit a hyper-growth trajectory by creating a winning combination of goals, processes, team structures and more. Our investors have a known history of crafting the success stories of companies with the promise of potential. We look forward to leveraging their astute understanding of the B2B SaaS landscape to successfully navigate the market intricacies and position ourselves for sustained success in the coming years,” he concludes.

  • Geo-targeting eliminates ad wastage says Amagi’s Subramanian

    Geo-targeting eliminates ad wastage says Amagi’s Subramanian

    MUMBAI: The biggest chink in the armour of Indian advertising, which is also celebrated as India’s unique trait, is its heterogeneity. Its diverseness creates differences in dialect and lifestyle ever 110 kilometres. If taken in the right stride, it also opens up a range of opportunities for businesses.

    If a product is meant for a particular state, only the big companies can afford to conduct pan-India advertising. Smaller businesses that don’t have such deep pockets have an alternative in an upcoming technology of hyperlocal advertising. It lets you target people sharing a neighbourhood or ethnicity.

    During an interaction with indiantelevision.com, Amagi Media Labs co-founder Baskar Subramanian broadly discussed the advantages of regional and hyperlocal advertising. Soon turning 10, Amagi has grown from its modest base in Bengaluru to hold offices in New York, London and Hong Kong boasting of clients in 40 countries with 80 feeds.

    How do pan-India ads lack when it comes to regional areas?

    While pan India ads do convey what they should regionally do, but they never connect with the audience, as regionalisation today is the way forwards for the brand and consumer bonhomie i.e. If there is a Lalitaji endorsing Surf Excel in Haryana, there needs to be a Lalitaamma selling the same Surf Excel regionally across Udupi.

    Dhirubhai Ambani once said, “Money is lying in every street of India. One must know how to collect them!”, and so what really matters here, is going “To the bottom of the pyramid” by ensuring to go regional, and creating prosperity by pricing not the product but the customer, his aspiration and affordability (i.e.FMCG sachet’s or JIO’s offers).

    Would you like to share some successful regional ad campaigns?

    When you look at few of the award-winning regional campaigns from various national brands such as the “NaakaMukka’ of the Times of India, the ‘Ella okay, cool drink Yaake?’ campaign of the United Breweries, the Allu Arjun redBus campaign or the ‘my first train ride’ by Paper Boat, it takes us beyond the thought of just dubbing or adding regional subtitles to make things seem regional.

    The example of Dhirubhai Ambani strongly applies to brands advertising product categories and regions across, i.e. Tata Tea deciding to run the “Alarm Bajne Se Pehle Jaago Re” nationally, while it goes on a price war with Wagh Bakri in Gujarat or Frito Lay holds a national campaign during IPL while decides to target Balaji Bhujia in Maharashtra and Gujarat. On the other end, we also have regional brands like Medimix and Cavinkare expand towards the northern market with value propositions suiting a region across Punjab or Haryana. Also, look at Horlicks, which promotes itself as a supplement to milk in Kolkata (perceived as a milk-deficient market), while in Chennai, it promised nutrition from wheat based drink, as the intake of wheat in the southern state is lower compared to the North. At the bottom, the real nationalisation of brands is now happening hyper locally across India.

    What are your thoughts on bringing cohesiveness in regional marketing spends by giving importance to local television?

    The regional channels’ advertising revenues are ascending with an increase in viewership year on year as compared to national channels. With the regional spread across DTH and cable, the plethora of regional platforms is on the rise. As per data from BARC India TV measurement system – regional GECs comprising of regional movies and regional music accounted for 38.99 per cent viewership share over a particular period(TG: All 4+, Market: All India, Period: Wk 41 to Wk47, 2016).

    Similarly, in Hindi speaking markets (HSM), GECs are the leading genre in regional markets as well with 29.6 per cent viewership share followed by regional movies with 6.6 per cent in 2016. Among the regional markets, Tamil channels occupy the biggest share with 25.7 per cent share in viewership and Telugu market is the second largest with 24.4 per cent viewership share.

    What are the factors to consider while customising budgets for regional targeted ad spends?

    The ad spends for regional advertising should focus more on tactical executions rather than intensive brand building activities. Though the increase in brand awareness cannot be neglected, the focus has to be on festival promotions, regional discounts, dealership level sales push and test marketing avenues to name a few, need to adequately have their share of targeted television expenses. In fact, brands like Patanjali and Reliance Jio have stabilised their ground through regional advertising across tier II and III cities. They are expected to increase their ad spends considering new product launches and price wars in the current and future.

    Has geo-targeted advertisement become the disruptor in television advertising ecosystem?

    Geo-targeted television advertising, is a new phenomenon in India which is disrupting the current television advertising eco system. Television, a medium with one of the highest penetration across India, suffers from limitations as being expensive and lacking measurability. With associations such as BARC, the share of reach and voice can be determined for brands advertising across categories, but the actual conversion of campaign effectiveness are miles away. Also with India’s diverse heterogeneous market coupled with varied regional preferences, TV was unable to singularly address this diversity. There were limited options for brands to target a specific market using TV, until today where platforms like Amagi Mix ensures a collection of channels, which helps advertisers decide their targeted television advertising, measure the effective reach and modify campaigns accordingly based on national or regional business requirements. By eliminating the spillage and wastage, geo-targeting justifies television spends.

    What opportunities exist for the collaboration between digital advertising spends with regional television advertising?

    The average young Indian spends around 2 hours 20 minutes on digital platforms every day. This is vastly expected to go up, considering the exponential rise in OTT viewership. Today over 300 million Indians commuting to work and back use OTT platforms on mobile phones, and while this audience is set to increase across rural and urban India, it has currently already crossed the population of United States of America.

    Hence, television advertising (comprises over 40 per cent of advertising viewership) coupled with personalised OTT and digital communications (12 per cent) together as a combination gives formidable marketing opportunities to brand managers of various sectors. These ensure targeted, high impact reach, bring in measurable results, and cost effectiveness for hyperlocal brand marketing.

  • Omnicom’s Amol Dighe joins Amagi as business head

    MUMBAI: Amagi Media Labs, a global media technology and leading ad-tech company in India, has appointed Amol Dighe as the business head.

    A seasoned media professional, Dighe has worked on all sides of the value chain – client, agency and media owner. His expertise runs across buying, planning, negotiation and strategy; developing business systems with deep strength in analytical, organisational and managerial experience. His mandate with Amagi spans across channel strategy and media buying along with growing and adding new revenue streams targeted at both national and regional advertisers.

    Commenting on the appointment, Amagi Media Labs co-Baskar Subramanian said, “Amagi is geared up for the next level of growth. We have set ourselves a clear goal to expand our channel footprint for providing geo-targeted advertising solutions, scale Amagi MIX e-commerce platform for media planning and buying and create innovative ways to add media efficiencies for large advertisers by ad versioning. Amol is a terrific addition to our management team and I am confident that with his expertise we will be able to grow profitably and build a robust business foundation for future.”

    Prior to joining Amagi, Amol Dighe was the Head of investment for Omnicom Media Group Holdings (OMD) India and led the strategic insight and analysis over the OMD and PHD investment portfolio. Dighe has worked in Jakarta in a leadership role with Mindshare. He has also worked with Unilever in a regional buying and operations role for the Asia Pacific Region. He has also worked with Star TV as vice president – sales strategy, and Group M India.

  • Amagi roped in for Colors Kannada & Marathi ad solutions

    MUMBAI: Amagi Media labs has added Colors Kannada and Colors Marathi to its expanding bouquet of channels offering geo-targeted advertising solution.

    This partnership will offer advertisers an opportunity to market region-specific products, communicate regional offers and promotions, and increase the share of voice by targeting markets such as Bangalore and rest of Karnataka, and Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra. With this addition, Amagi’s channel strength has increased to 18 channels across entertainment, news, movies and music genres.

    Viacom18 regional channels sales senior VP Bikash Kundu said, “The partnership with Amagi will enable our national, regional, and new advertisers to reach region specific audience with targeted messaging in a cost-effective manner.”

    Amagi Media Labs co-founder Baskar Subramanian said, “We anticipate an incredible scope for growth of geo-targeted TV advertising in the country.”

  • Amagi partners with BARC India to offer monitoring of geo-targeted TV ad-campaigns

    Amagi partners with BARC India to offer monitoring of geo-targeted TV ad-campaigns

    MUMBAI: Amagi Media Labs has entered into a partnership agreement with India’s apex television viewership monitoring body BARC India to help advertisers monitor geo-targeted ad-campaigns of brands across TV channels.

    With this partnership, TV networks offering geo-targeted split of its national channels, including their national and regional feeds will be monitored on a separate basis and will be listed across BARC India’s interfaces. This will help Amagi’s advertisers evaluate their national geo-targeted ad-campaigns on BARC India’s software and as a result will increase the credibility of the concept of geo-targeting advertising.

    “Our partnership with the BARC India is a proof of the increasing ad spends of brands geo-targeting on TV. As competition becomes local, be it large brands or small regional brands all of them need to target specific region as their product has specific regional promotional needs. This will help marketers measure the ROI of their targeted TV campaigns and fine tune their media strategies. It will also be a great tool for our future customers to understand the large and varied audiences they can cater to using Amagi’s patented geo-targeting technology”, said Amagi Media Labs co-founder Baskar Subramanian.

    As the industry’s authoritative voice on TV viewership data, BARC India’s association with Amagi will provide transparent and quality data on geo-targeted advertising, thus enhancing its offering to its own clients, and providing unprecedented insights into the viewership patterns of the diverse and heterogeneous Indian market.

    “BARC India has always endeavored towards providing the media industry with cutting edge viewership and advertising data. Our tie up with Amagi in monitoring geo-targeted advertising is a big step in this direction. As more and more companies opt for geo-targeted advertising, the importance of this data is only growing. This partnership is an essential tool in providing the industry with data that will help them plan their campaigns with deeper insights,” said BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

  • Amagi partners with BARC India to offer monitoring of geo-targeted TV ad-campaigns

    Amagi partners with BARC India to offer monitoring of geo-targeted TV ad-campaigns

    MUMBAI: Amagi Media Labs has entered into a partnership agreement with India’s apex television viewership monitoring body BARC India to help advertisers monitor geo-targeted ad-campaigns of brands across TV channels.

    With this partnership, TV networks offering geo-targeted split of its national channels, including their national and regional feeds will be monitored on a separate basis and will be listed across BARC India’s interfaces. This will help Amagi’s advertisers evaluate their national geo-targeted ad-campaigns on BARC India’s software and as a result will increase the credibility of the concept of geo-targeting advertising.

    “Our partnership with the BARC India is a proof of the increasing ad spends of brands geo-targeting on TV. As competition becomes local, be it large brands or small regional brands all of them need to target specific region as their product has specific regional promotional needs. This will help marketers measure the ROI of their targeted TV campaigns and fine tune their media strategies. It will also be a great tool for our future customers to understand the large and varied audiences they can cater to using Amagi’s patented geo-targeting technology”, said Amagi Media Labs co-founder Baskar Subramanian.

    As the industry’s authoritative voice on TV viewership data, BARC India’s association with Amagi will provide transparent and quality data on geo-targeted advertising, thus enhancing its offering to its own clients, and providing unprecedented insights into the viewership patterns of the diverse and heterogeneous Indian market.

    “BARC India has always endeavored towards providing the media industry with cutting edge viewership and advertising data. Our tie up with Amagi in monitoring geo-targeted advertising is a big step in this direction. As more and more companies opt for geo-targeted advertising, the importance of this data is only growing. This partnership is an essential tool in providing the industry with data that will help them plan their campaigns with deeper insights,” said BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

  • Amagi’s Mix challenge

    Amagi’s Mix challenge

    MUMBAI: “Small and medium enterprises that participate in TV advertising, can help broadcasters expand their revenues. While the combined media spends of 100 such SMEs would equate to the TV spends of one of heavyweights in the brand world, SMEs can contribute around 15 per cent of total advertising dollars in India, if trends in other markets are to be believed,” Amagi Media Labs co-founder Baskar Subramanian said.

    Giving a fresh new twist to the line ‘anything can be bought online these days,’ Amagi recently launched the much-talked-about online media buying and planning platform Amagi Mix that aims to make media buying more inclusive for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the ever-growing start-up companies in India. While the service is currently available for only television buying, Amagi intends to expand it for other media as well.

    A senior broadcasting professional and advertising industry expert, however, was skeptical of Amagi Mix calling it an “evaluation biz” that does not focus on profit-making. He did not think Amagi’s geo-targeting model was very successful either. He also doubted the broadcasters on board had a bulk inventory on sale on the platform.

    But, Amagi Mix, as per Subramanian, is win-win initiative for both broadcasters and brands. On the one hand it allows brands with limited budget to access a national television broadcaster’s reach and customise it to reach its target audience. This is enabled by Amagi’s existing geo-targeting technology that allows a single ten second slot to be multiplied according to different regions, so that different advertisement plays on the same spot in different locations.

    “TV goes national with the help of satellite signals – which could be DTH or cable – and these then come down to different headends in the country, which pipe the content to your homes. We intercept these signals in each of these headends in thousands of locations in the country. It allows us to change the content only for 10 or 30 secs of the ad slot. We buy one spot which then gets spliffed to different content at the headends,” Subramanian explained, adding that the broadcasters install it on Amagi’s behalf as part of their deal. Some of the networks that Amagi has partnered with for its geo-targeting service are ZEEL, Viacom18 group and Times Network.

    “Since we are not competing with the big agencies, we are actually adding or expanding the advertising pie rather than eating away from it,” Subramanian added. It is good for broadcasters to have a variety of advertisers rather than few spenders, because if there is a cost cut in one, it adds more burden to the broadcaster.

    Since going online, the platform has already attracted 5500 visitors, some even resulting in buys starting as Rs 25,000 to tens of lakhs. As per Subramanium, the ideal budget for an average SMEs should start at at least Rs 1 lakh to see the effectiveness of a campaign on Amagi Mix.

    Given the restricted budget of the said advertisers, Amagi is also offering to create creative content for the ad spots in a cost-effective way. “We also create advertisements for those who don’t want to spend a bomb on making ads via big name creative agencies, some of them for as low as Rs 20,000. It is an add-on to our services that ties up well with the rest,” Subramanian informed.

    As to how SMEs would embrace being hands-on with the complex work of buying the right TV media mix for themselves, Subramanian clarified that they have deliberately kept the website simple and easy to use. So far, Subramanian observed that Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi have emerged as strong markets where SMEs are interested in buying media online.

    The idea was to leave the complex knowledge of media buying at the backend, while brands can concentrate on their simple marketing needs.

    “The challenge,” Subramanian said, “is to grow the breadth of media options the SMEs have now. We want to ensure that Amagi Mix is the most trusted platform available to them so that these advertisers, who used to shy away from buying national TV ads thinking it’s too expensive, feel comfortable buying online. It’s not easy to spend lakhs of rupees on a faceless online transaction. Therefore, making ourselves the most trusted brand is very critical.”

    To address this, Amagi has also launched a television commercial, titled ‘Yaari Yaari’ which has gone on-air across Amagi’s vast channel bouquet to educate TV audiences about the viability of the tool. The entire TVC has been scripted, conceptualized, financed, shot, produced and edited in-house at Amagi.

    Amagi Mix works on an algorithm that extrapolates and processes historical data of successful campaigns from around 4000 brands to learn and take intelligent decisions for an advertiser using the service.

    Currently the service offers an ad inventory of 70 national and regional channels, who are already partners with Amagi for its other services. “It’s at a nascent stage now so we don’t have clear figures but channels have come on board with some thousands of 10 seconders for now. We are aiming to broaden the width of channels as well to be more relevant to regional SMEs.”

    About the kind of commissions Amagi expects from transactions online, Subramanian made it clear that currently they aren’t looking at making money right now. “We haven’t really planned the commissions yet. Our primary focus is to make Agami Mix the best place for SMEs to trade in media by making it really user friendly. We will figure out the economics of it once we have established Amagi Mix as the most trusted brand for being media online for SMEs.

    He however affirmed that the company expects the platform to reach maturity in 18 months, post which it is expected to contribute 20 per cent of the agency’s overall business.

    “We had to wait till online buying became more commonplace in the county. It took us two to three years to be ready with everything, in our wish to give a quality service. Especially for brands in the tier II and tier III cities who often complained about the lack of skills or access to the right media inventory for their campaign needs. Either relevant media agencies didn’t exist there or they didn’t have the heavy budget to deal with the media behemoths of the country,” Subramanium shared.

    While media reports suggest that the company is looking to raise series D funding of $25 million, Subramanian stated that the company is adequately funded for the time being and looking to execute in three areas — smooth sailing of Amagi Mix in India expanding into online video business by providing targeted advertising solutions to broadcasters for streaming videos online, and growing its international base.