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  • Zee refutes claims by Star made in London court

    Zee refutes claims by Star made in London court

    Mumbai: This is with reference to our disclosure dated 15 March 2024, informing that Star India Pvt  Ltd (“Star”) has initiated arbitration proceedings against the Company, under the alliance agreement dated 26  August 2022, entered between Star and the Company, by filing a request for arbitration (“Application”) under the Arbitration Rules of the London Court of  International Arbitration (“LCIA”).

    Pursuant to Regulation 30 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, we hereby inform you that, on September  16, 2024, Star has filed its Statement of Case before the LCIA Arbitral Tribunal, in which it has,  inter alia, sought to declare that the Alliance Agreement between Star and the Company has been validly terminated by Star and damages to be determined as of the date of the Tribunal’s award (with such damages quantified, as at 31 August 2024 as proxy date of the award, at  US$940 million) along with costs, expenses and applicable interest until full payment.

    The Company categorically refutes all claims and assertions made by Star including its claims for damages. The arbitration is at its initial stage and the LCIA Arbitral Tribunal is yet to determine if the Company is liable in any manner. The Company will, on merits, strongly contest all unfounded claims by Star and reserves all its rights.  

  • YouTube content that moved the nation in 2023, and the creators behind it

    YouTube content that moved the nation in 2023, and the creators behind it

    Mumbai: India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission landed on the moon, and on YouTube, millions aimed for their own “moonshots”. In 2023, aspirants in India connected over navigating UPSC prep – sharing a knowing laugh and finding solidarity with Sandeep Bhaiyya. Viewers sought inspiration – from exploring new art forms, to launching a YouTube channel and orbiting stories of fame.

    Content that moved audiences this year came from all parts of the country, across various languages, in wide-ranging genres: a true testament to and celebration of India’s diversity. Here’s a look at 2023’s top trending content and the creators and artists behind it.

    Grand Theft Auto stole hearts and captured imaginations, reflecting one of the many ways in which gaming content continues to level up. Gaming creators have been able to immerse viewers with compelling stories by artfully combining gameplay, characters, narrative, comedy and music. Not just in gaming, creators continue to wow audiences with such ingenuity and creativity, across genres and formats.

    Here are key trends that continue to shape the digital video landscape:

    Ease of creation empowers the next- generation of creators

    Access to tools, ease of short-form video and the wide-reaching impact of digital video continues to democratize content creation. This is enabling more people – across age, gender, cultures, professional backgrounds, and languages – to become creators.

    This is supercharging the diversity of voices,

    powering new genres and growing the staying power of pop culture moments. For instance, Shorts is not only helping level the playing field but also opens doors to a playground of creative tools and formats to help emerging creators push the boundaries of their creativity.

    Access to formats and engaged fandoms drive long-lasting trends

    With creators and their communities coming from various corners of the country, today, multi-format creation is helping lend more memorability to content. Take for instance: the Tom and Jerry format is a tongue-in-cheek interpretation of the popular cartoon that appeals to young and old alike. A single video can capture the imagination of a nation – whether it is the coming together in rapt attention to watch the moon-landing or diving deeper into the content they love with their favorite creators, like Ashish Chanchlani’s uniquely personal take on a popular show.

    Music plays muse for viral masterpieces

    A traditionally one-way relationship with music has begun to transcend into a powerful one of creativity and self-expression. Whether to convey an emotion or express a point of view, Music serves as a universal language that appeals to broad audiences. Music videos and Shorts trends helped drive tracks such as Tere Vaaste, Pulsar Bike, Jailer, Company, Naa Ready and Heeriye to the top, inspiring various forms of expression from creators across the country. `

    We can’t wait to see how YouTube’s vibrant community of dreamers and doers will continue to express themselves, enhance their creativity and grow their communities in 2024!

  • Dish TV’s Jawahar Lal Goel resigns from the board

    Dish TV’s Jawahar Lal Goel resigns from the board

    MUMBAI: Dish TV, the DTH service provider has announced that director Jawahar Lal Goel has resigned from the board of the company. “Jawahar Lal Goel, Director…. has tendered his resignation from the company’s board of directors and committee/s thereof with effect from the close of business hours of September 19, 2022,” Dish TV informed in a regulatory filing.

    He is no longer the chairman of the company. Goel will vacate his position at the upcoming company’s AGM on 26 September, 2022.

    After the announcement, the share price rose by 10 per cent and hit the upper circuit.

    In June, over 75 per cent of shareholders voted against the reappointment of Goel as board’s managing director at the company’s extraordinary general meeting. After it happened, Goel had agreed to resign as Dish TV chairman ahead of the AGM.

    Yes Bank holds around 25 per cent stake in the company. It had been pushing for a board reconstitution and wanted the promoter family led by Goel to be removed. Yes Bank had cited corporate governance issues and Goel stepped down after engaging in a legal battle for a long time with Yes Bank.

    Earlier this month, Dish TV had agreed to appoint three of the seven independent directors, which were proposed by Yes Bank.

    The Goels own a six per cent stake in the company. They lost control over the company after banks seized the promoter’s pledged shares.

  • Rentokil Initial appoints Mark Gillespie as Asia MD

    Rentokil Initial appoints Mark Gillespie as Asia MD

    Mumbai: Pest control and hygiene services company Rentokil Initial on Friday announced that Mark Gillespie, currently managing director, Rest of World region, will succeed Paul Cochrane as the new managing director, Asia & Menat region. Cochrane retired at the end of March, after serving Rentokil Initial for more than three decades.

    With over 18 years of experience at Rentokil Initial, Gillespie has built and developed several high-performing teams, leading the execution of key regional growth strategies for the business. Based in Singapore, Gillespie will be responsible for sales and business operations, as well as driving the strategic growth across Asia and the Middle East, North Africa & Turkey (Menat), said the statement.

     “The last two years, though challenging, have seen Rentokil Initial delivering our purpose of protecting people and enhancing lives through high-quality pest control and hygiene services,” said Mark Gillespie. “Asia and Menat are amongst the most important regions for Rentokil Initial, and I am pleased to be taking on this responsibility from Paul, with an endeavor to carry forward the legacy of a high degree of efficiency of service to our customers in the region.”

    Asia has been a vital growth market for Rentokil Initial, and the company’s continued success in the region is a testament to the increasing market demand for pest control and hygiene services as well as the competencies of the dedicated leadership team and employees. In Asia, its business operations cover Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, (through a Joint Venture with PCI), Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.

    “As the industry leader, Rentokil Initial has been continuously developing new technologies that are environment-friendly and sustainable, thereby improving the hygiene solution standard within the industry and I am excited to work with the Asia team to unlock new growth opportunities for Rentokil Initial in Asia,” Gillespie further said.

  • Havas Media bags the integrated mandate for Valvoline

    Havas Media bags the integrated mandate for Valvoline

    MUMBAI: Following a multi-agency pitch, Havas Media India has secured the integrated mandate of lubricant company Valvoline – ‘the Original Engine Oil’. The mandate includes offline, online and OOH duties. Havas Media Group India president & chief client officer Uday Mohan led the pitch, and the business will be handled by his Delhi team.  

    “At Valvoline, we firmly believe in the quality of execution and power of innovation to remain a step ahead of market demands,” Valvoline Cummins chief marketing officer Ipshita Chowdhury said. “As a brand, the 3 key values we stand by are – being Humble, being Hungry and being Smart. We wanted an agency that could emulate these values and Havas Media made the right cultural fit. I’m confident of Havas Media’s capabilities, and their strategic, audience-centric, meaningful media approach, in strengthening the effectiveness of our marketing initiatives, with a focus on building the upper funnel awareness and brand equity.”

     “We are proud to have secured the integrated media mandate of Valvoline, a leading global brand in the lubricant category,” said Havas Media Group India CEO Mohit Joshi. “In India, Valvoline Cummins’ long-term, sustainable and ambitious plans, coupled with its 25-year-old legacy, is set to carve a niche for itself, making it a market leader in the segment. We look forward to driving the next phase of growth for the brand using Havas’ proprietary tools and by creating meaningful media experiences.”

    Valvoline Cummins Private Limited (VCPL) manufactures a wide range of fluids, viz., engine oils, gear oils, radiator coolants, brake fluids etc. for engines made by various OEMs. The company has a team of over 400 employees across the country, more than 450 distributors, 50,000 resellers and 2,000 direct customers, according to the company, and serves varied audiences, ranging from a mechanic, truck driver, farmer, and the end consumer.

  • Maulik Kalamthekar to lead consumer engagement strategy for WolfzHowl

    Maulik Kalamthekar to lead consumer engagement strategy for WolfzHowl

    Mumbai: Brand strategy consultancy Wolfzhowl Strategic Instigation has brought on board Maulik Kalamthekar as the lead of consumer engagement strategy. This is Maulik’s second stint at the behaviour change strategy firm.

    “Strategy is about devising the best plan for winning. The wolves are mavericks in strategy craft. As we create robust strategies, we also want to focus on helping our clients execute our winning strategy with candour and creativity. Super pumped to be returning to do some rainmaking work for brands,” said Kalamthekar who carries over seven years of experience in advertising and digital marketing across functions, agencies, and brands. In his previous brief stint at The Glitch, Kalamthekar was the group head of strategy for the WPP agency and content division – Flux.

    “At Wolfzhowl, we are constantly strengthening our team, bringing in diversity, improving our skill-sets. This time we have Maulik, who joins us back at a crucial juncture in our journey,” Wolfzhowland head of culture, partner Renuka Asnani said. “As a Strategic Consultancy, we are increasingly focusing on providing final mile engagement solutions that bolster our strategy craft that lead to better business outcomes. Maulik’s consumer and culture first thinking along with his expertise in new-age platforms, especially using data, will give us an edge to deliver not just effective strategy but also delightful creative engagement solutions.”

  • GUEST COLUMN: Why do companies need to be more consumer-centric than brand-centric?

    GUEST COLUMN: Why do companies need to be more consumer-centric than brand-centric?

    Mumbai: Experts and professionals have long debated the merits of customer-centricity versus brand-centricity. I have to say that it’s not one against the other; instead, both complement each other. With the fast-changing business landscape, the tenets of marketing and brand value have evolved equally fast. Back in the day, when outbound marketing was the primary method of outreach, it made sense to put brand-centricity at the core as the outbound efforts involved advertisements via radio, TV, and newspapers. Mainly, the brand decided what to communicate and how; there was limited two-way communication.

    But with inbound marketing taking centre stage, the marketing processes, tools, and funnels are entirely different. Digital has changed the game completely. Companies cannot afford to ignore the sheer volume of inbound traffic and how it’s suitable for the bottom line. Before making a purchase today, customers proactively do their research, which involves search engines, social media, peer-to-peer conversations, and more. This shift in customer behaviour has heralded a change in the marketing mantra from brand push to brand pull, from brand-centricity to customer-centricity. In essence, brand efforts are now a sub-set of customer-centric marketing.

    ‘Customers 2020: A Progress Report’ by Walker talks about customer experience overtaking both price and product as the key brand differentiator. This is a validation of what marketers already know. Similarly, Forrester Research has consistently highlighted how we live in the ‘Age of the Customer’, where the customer experience with the brand is paramount, and obsession with the customer is a defining change as per Exhibit one.

    360-degree Customer Approach

    To be truly customer-centric, it’s vital to have a holistic end-to-end understanding of the customer by mapping the persona, buying patterns, and using marketing automation to listen to consumer preferences and leanings. In a nutshell, deep customer intelligence and insights should become the prime focus. Marketers today are increasingly warming up to the fact that higher levels of customer understanding translate into unprecedented levels of customer engagement.

    360-degree Organisational Approach

    For any enterprise, the target customer needs to be at the heart of its marketing strategy and part of its DNA. Firstly, inculcating a customer-centric approach needs to start with the leadership. Secondly, internal restructuring needs to be aligned with the customer segments and needs. Thirdly, success and outcome need to be measured using key consumer metrics like customer satisfaction (NPS scores), order and delivery timelines, etc.

    360-degree Execution Approach

    The mantra should be to execute flawlessly and address the customer’s pain points, demands, and expectancies by analysing all available information. Take the example of a famous ketchup brand that acted expeditiously upon customer feedback highlighting the need for increased convenience in daily use. Exhibit two is self-explanatory.

    360-degree Customer Care

    Training customer service teams to be the ‘best amongst the best’ is critical. In many cases, the customer experience is closely driven by first-hand interaction with the customer care executive/helpline. Building systems and processes at an organisational level that allow a single customer view so that specific details pertaining to each customer can be accessed is the need of the hour. Also, such information should be made available to all functions for empowering and aligning them with the customer-centric strategy.

    360-degree Customer Feedback

    While the customer feedback is provided through multiple sources like customer care and sales teams, websites, survey questionnaires, google forms, social media, etc, it is imperative to address each through a carefully created repository backed by a tech-oriented query resolution and product development process. This forms the backbone of a consumer-centric culture.

    360-degree Content

    Over the last few years, Google’s search engine has shown a preference towards human-friendly content, ranking it higher than just content that hits all the right keywords. Therefore, the more humanised the content strategy, the more it will connect with the target audience. 360-degree content, hence, is people-centric and adds value to the product features and business-led articulation.

    To sum up, customer-centricity is the bedrock for businesses and in many ways decides their fate in terms of ‘Intention to Purchase (ITP).’ Brands, slogans, products, and media are only the spokes that help bridge the gap between the customer and the business and influence ‘Top of the Mind Recall (TOMA).’

    In essence, the brand reality today is defined by its collated perceptions and insights of the customers. Having said this, customer-centricity is a lifelong approach and needs constant attention to changing customer/market needs, perceptions and expectancies.

    (Atul Raja is executive vice president, global marketing at Wadhwani Foundation. The views expressed in the column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • The Trade Desk launches new media trading platform Solimar

    The Trade Desk launches new media trading platform Solimar

    MUMBAI: Global advertising technology company, The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD) announced Thursday the launch of its new trading platform, Solimar that will help marketers optimise their digital advertising campaigns across the open internet.

    Designed in response to a rapidly evolving digital marketing environment, the platform enables marketers to unleash the power of their valuable first-party data, drive greater precision in their digital marketing campaigns, while advancing consumer-conscious privacy, the tech company said in a statement.

    The result of more than two years of product development, Solimar addresses key concerns for today’s marketers. This includes easy and secure onboarding of first-party data; the need to connect marketing performance to business growth goals; an increasingly cross-channel digital media environment including the fast-growing world of OTT and CTV; and a rising focus on digital identity.

    “We are at an important moment in the evolution of digital advertising. Marketers are eager to address a wide range of emerging opportunities, from the once-in-a-generation shift in TV consumption to proving the connection between their campaigns and business growth, and driving advances in consumer-conscious privacy,” said The Trade Desk co-founder and CEO Jeff Green. “And we are launching Solimar at this moment so that marketers can fully embrace those opportunities on the open internet. The transparent cross-channel precision and measurement capabilities of Solimar stand in strong contrast to the limitations of Walled Gardens.”

    In a rapidly evolving identity environment, marketers increasingly want to activate their own first-party data – data they have gathered about their most loyal customers, often through years or decades-long relationships. Solimar enables marketers to upload this data easily, and leverage advances in internet identity, such as Unified ID 2.0, in order to nurture more loyal customers. At the same time, other major first-party data owners, such as retailers and offsite measurement companies, are increasingly making their data available to advertisers in Solimar’s measurement marketplace. This enables advertisers to track the performance of their campaigns to actual consumer actions.

    Commenting on how Solimar would add value to marketers in India, The Trade Desk India’s GM Tejinder Gill said, “Modern marketers are looking to manage their entire omnichannel strategy (mobile, audio, OTT/CTV) under one roof aligned with their goals at every stage of their campaign. Solimar helps Indian marketers focus on achieving their goals while capturing the fast-growing opportunities on the open internet. As the industry’s most sophisticated programmatic platform, Solimar solves for the complexity of the thriving open internet by enabling marketers to plan, track and measure their digital spend easily across all digital advertising channels on the open internet.”

    “Solimar is the result of more than two years of engineering work, and represents a breakthrough in surfacing the most important decisions for today’s marketers,” said The Trade Desk co-founder and CTO Dave Pickles. “That means traders can focus on their strategic priorities, and rely on Solimar to handle everything else. That’s because by adding planning and decisioning into every aspect of the buying cycle, Solimar acts on information in real-time, ensuring all decisions are data-driven. In this way, Solimar embodies everything I’ve learned about media buying over the last 15 years.”

    The Trade Desk unveiled Solimar at a launch event on 7 July in New York City, featuring The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green, GroupM’s Wavemaker executive director, head of Investment & Activation Vinny Rinaldi and the Washington Post chief revenue officer Joy Robbins.

  • ViacomCBS restructures its global leadership

    ViacomCBS restructures its global leadership

    New Delhi: Global media and entertainment major ViacomCBS has announced that it will unify the company’s US and international businesses under a simplified global leadership structure. Effective immediately, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins were promoted to the role of president & CEO, with global oversight for their respective brand groups, MTV Entertainment Group and Nickelodeon.

    In addition, CBS president and CEO George Cheeks will expand his role to include responsibility for a global content strategy across ViacomCBS’ FTA networks around the world.

    McCarthy, Robbins, and Cheeks will continue to report to ViacomCBS, president and CEO, Bob Bakish and work closely with ViacomCBS Networks International, president and CEO Raffaele Annecchino. International brand leadership will be realigned under this new structure.

    In addition, ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group president, Dan Cohen will add distribution of ViacomCBS International Studios content to his group’s mandate, which will now oversee all ViacomCBS content licensing and distribution globally. Barbara Zaneri assumes the title of chief program acquisitions officer for ViacomCBS, to reflect her expanded role leading all acquisitions globally across linear, streaming and pay. Zaneri will continue to report to McCarthy and partner closely with leaders across ViacomCBS and VCNI.

    “These changes enable a truly global approach to brand management, content acquisitions and licensing across ViacomCBS’ networks around the world,” said Bob Bakish. “With a global reach of 4.1 billion cumulative homes in over 180 countries, our globally aligned leadership structure will ensure that our internationally recognized brands and content are ubiquitous across every platform and every market.”

  • Kantar brings in Chris Jansen as group CEO

    MUMBAI: Data and media company Kantar has announced the appointment of Chris Jansen as group chief executive officer, effective 1 November. He is currently CEO at Cognita, a global schools group.

    Jansen joins Kantar with more than 20 years of leadership experience in the services sector, ranging from brand building to service delivery transformation, alongside a background in classic FMCG marketing, and an established track record of managing private equity-owned businesses.

    Welcoming Jansen on board, Kantar chairman Adam Crozier said, “Chris’ track record of building great companies, as well as his entrepreneurial and competitive spirit, further strengthens the leadership team we have been building over the past 18 months. Chris is a highly people-centric leader who understands the importance a strong culture plays in delivering outstanding results. As we continue on our transformation journey at Kantar and build on our recent business momentum, his leadership will be instrumental in fulfilling the ambition that we have for Kantar.”

    Jansen has previously served in various leadership roles, and board positions at both British Gas and British Airways. He led the Automobile Association (AA) to a stock market flotation in 2014.

    Kantar’s newly appointed CEO said, “Kantar is rightly regarded as a world leader in data and insights-led consultancy and has an outstanding reputation with its clients. This is a result of having outstanding people, and I am really looking forward to working very closely with the Kantar team. We have an exciting future ahead, as we continue to embrace advanced analytics and the latest technology in order to better serve our clients.”