ITV

Tag: DDB Mudra

  • Disney+ Hotstar unveils new content line-up in latest campaign

    Disney+ Hotstar unveils new content line-up in latest campaign

    Mumbai: Riding the direct-to-digital movie release wave, streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar has launched a television campaign to promote its new content line-up.

    The campaign announces all releases under the Disney+ Hotstar Multiplex banner within the next three-month window, including Ajay Devgn-starrer Bhuj: The Pride of India, Bhoot Police starring Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Kapoor, and Hungama 2 starring Shilpa Shetty and Paresh Rawal among others.

    The TVC, conceptualised by DDB Mudra, features actor Shakti Kapoor returning as the iconic ‘Crime Master Gogo’ after 25 years. He shares the screen with actors Shraddha Kapoor and Karisma Kapoor.

    “Disney+ Hotstar Multiplex has built a library of both blockbuster and highly acclaimed films that have garnered a spectacular response from India’s movie-loving audiences,” said Disney+ Hotstar, executive vice president, Sidharth Shakdher. “Through our new marketing campaign, we are celebrating the success of our exclusive, made-for-the-big-screen movie releases on Multiplex, and announcing the upcoming blockbusters.”

    Speaking on the campaign, Shakti Kapoor said, “Love and appreciation from audiences have kept my characters alive even after all these years, and I am happy to have recreated the Crime Master Gogo look for Disney+ Hotstar. Reliving those moments was made even more special because it was the first time that I got to share the screen with my daughter Shraddha. Back in the day, we could have never imagined that movies could be accessible to people at all times with just the touch of a button. But Disney+ Hotstar Multiplex has ensured that the latest movies reach audiences at home.”

  • Cannes Lions Day 2: Indian agencies win eight more metals

    Mumbai: Outdoing its seven Lions haul on day one of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2021, Indian agencies clinched eight metals on day two, bringing the country’s overall tally to 15.

    The eight metals won include one Gold, four Silver and two Bronze Lions, with DDB Mudra Group’s ‘Project Free Period’ campaign for Stayfree bagging India’s second Gold Lion at this year’s fest. The campaign won the metal in Creative Strategy category under the audience insight sub-category.

    Dentsu Webchutney’s The eight-bit journo for Vice Media bagged two Silver Lions and one Bronze Lion in Direct Lions, Creative Strategy Lions and Direct Lions, respectively.

    Continuing its winning spree on day two, FCB India brought home a Silver Lion for Mumbai Police’s Punishing Signal in the PR category and Not-for-profit / Charity / Government subcategory. With this latest win, the agency leads India’s tally with six metals.

    Ogilvy Mumbai bagged a Silver Lion for Dove #StopTheBeautyTest campaign in the Creative Strategy category under FMCG. Ogilvy Mumbai’s #NotJustACadburyAd campaign for Mondelez also won a Bronze Lion in Creative Data under Data-Driven targeting category.

    Lowe Lintas’ Bronze Lion win for its HUL’s Lifebuoy ‘H for Handwashing’ campaign in Media under Excellence in Media Execution sub-category rounded off day two’s haul for India.

    Tuesday’s wins were in the Creative Data, Creative Strategy, Direct, Media and PR categories. Here’s a look at the winning campaigns on day two of Cannes Lions 2021:

     DDB Mudra Group’s ‘Project Free Period’ campaign for Stayfree

    DDB Mudra Group’s campaign showcases how women in the sex trade actually look forward to periods as a welcome pause and time off from their regular work, in contrast to the opinions usually expressed by women during periods. The campaign #ProjectFreePeriod in collaboration with Stayfree India, attempts to change the conversation around two of India’s biggest taboos- periods and prostitution by reaching out to commercial sex workers in the country and helping them step out of the trade, by equipping them with other skills, one period at a time.

     Dentsu Webchutney’s The 8-bit journo for Vice Media

    This unique campaign was launched in 2019 when the people of Jammu & Kashmir were facing a communications blackout. Mobile networks and more importantly, internet access had been severely curtailed following the revocation of Article 370 by the government. Due to which, the average person who stayed updated through these channels, couldn’t. As SMS services resumed, the campaign combined decades-old technology and launched the world’s first teletext news portal: The 8-Bit Journo. Relevant news stories that came out in the last 4 months were recreated and sent out as text messages to lakhs of Kashmiris, thus connecting a generation of internet users, without the internet.

      FCB India’s The Punishing Signal for Mumbai Police

    Through this brilliant campaign, Mumbai Police and FCB Interface collaborated to teach Mumbai’s reckless honkers a lesson. They transformed a passive street signal into a Punishing Signal – one that taught Mumbaikars ‘how to #HonkResponsibly’.

     Ogilvy Mumbai #StopTheBeautyTest campaign for Dove

    This film by Ogilvy captures what Indian women go through during a typical arranged marriage matchmaking setup. It highlights society’s fixation with certain beauty ideals, wherein anyone falling short of those standards are made to feel rejected or

    undesirable. The film questions ‘How much beauty is enough?’and exhorts us to ‘Stop The Beauty Test’.

    Ogilvy Mumbai’s #NotJustACadburyAd campaign for Mondelez

    Here’s how Ogilvy made a Cadbury ad also an ad for hundreds of small local businesses across the country through this much talked about campaign for Mondelez. Which’s the reason they called it ‘Not Just A Cadbury Ad’.

     Lowe Lintas’ ‘H for Hand Washing’ for HUL’s Lifebuoy

  • Mukund Olety appointed CCO of VMLY&R India

    New Delhi: Global brand and customer experience agency VMLY&R has appointed Mukund Olety as chief creative officer in India. He moves from BBDO China, where he was group creative director.

    Olety will report to VMLY&R India CEO, Anil Nair and chief creative officer, VMLY&R Asia, Valerie Madon. His mandate will include driving the agency’s creative vision and nurturing its creative talent, said the agency in a statement.

    “I couldn’t have thought of a better person to lead our creative team in these thought-provoking times. Mukund has extensive experience working on both local and global brands and working at both Indian and international levels. This grasp of both, coupled with his passion for creativity, makes him an outstanding addition to the VMLY&R family,” said Nair.

    With experience in India, China, and South-East Asia, Olety will be instrumental in developing and strengthening the creative capabilities in India in tandem with VMLY&R’s positioning of creating connected brands that add value for clients by harnessing creativity, technology, and culture, said the agency.

    “If there is one agency that is poised to become the agency of this decade, it is VMLY&R. It has this potent mix of creativity, technology, culture, and commerce. That is everything you need to create connected brands for the new age,” said Olety, post the announcement. “I am looking forward to creating connected, future-facing and awesome work for our key clients and brands.”

    Olety has also worked with Ogilvy, Leo Burnett-Malaysia, O&M India, JWT and DDB Mudra across India and southeast Asia in the past.

  • DDB Mudra ropes in Pallavi Chakravarti as creative head – West

    DDB Mudra ropes in Pallavi Chakravarti as creative head – West

    MUMBAI: DDB Mudra on Monday announced the appointment of Pallavi Chakravarti as the creative head of the West office. Her last stint was at Taproot Dentsu, where she led the creative function for the Mumbai office as executive creative director.

    In her new role, Chakravarti will work closely with DDB Mudra Group, CCO, Rahul Mathew to take on the responsibility of driving the agency’s creative product. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve been slowly gathering momentum as an organisation – number two at Effies, topping the new biz league, back-to-back Grand Prixs at Spikes Asia and our more recent performance at Kyoorius. And Pallavi is just the person to help us keep this momentum going and add more kick to it. She strengthens our belief and our ambition to do unexpected work that gets disproportionate results for our clients,” said Mathew.

    In a career spanning over 17 years, Chakravarti has been instrumental in building effective brand campaigns across categories. Her ability to craft compelling narratives is evident in her body of work on brands like Facebook, Airtel, Parle, Uber, Pepsi, Times of India among others, said the agency on Monday. Previously, she has worked with Saatchi & Saatchi, JWT and Grey.

    “I’m here to build, to enjoy the creative process, to love the business of advertising even more than I already do. I’m here because it felt like the right place to be. And I’m looking forward to the journey,” said Chakravarti on her new role.

    Pallavi has over a hundred awards to her credit. Over the years, her work has been recognised at coveted platforms such as Cannes Lions, One Show, D&AD, New York Festival, Adfest APAC, Spikes Asia and The Dadasaheb Phalke Awards. She has also served on the jury panels of creative festivals including Cannes Lions, Dubai Lynx, New York Festival, Global Awards, Gerety Awards etc.

  • DDB Mudra Group’s Point of New reveals shifts in 2021 consumer trends

    DDB Mudra Group’s Point of New reveals shifts in 2021 consumer trends

    New Delhi: DDB Mudra Group has unveiled Point of New, an e-book comprising a collection of essays that examine lasting shifts in consumer behaviour brought on by the pandemic. Using the group’s proprietary Signbanking process, over 600 Covid specific small signs of social change were aggregated over the course of eight months. Authored by the group’s strategy team, these 15 essays act as a guide in shaping decisions for the new world.

    Point of New showcases the impact of new rituals in a post-Covid world on people, businesses and society at large. The essays discuss the new rules of the new world modelled on themes that keep the wheel of life in motion such as being, identity, consuming and parenting amongst others.

    The research began by studying people's lifestyle and daily routines in their natural environment without intrusion. This anthropological approach to understanding consumer behaviour as it plays out in day-to-day lives helped predict larger cultural and behavioral shifts.

    DDB Mudra Group national strategy head Amit Kekre said, “The pandemic has forced us to consider a new and hopefully a better tomorrow. Just how much better this new world will be, depends on how we construct it. It depends on the choices we make on our path to the new. While a lot has been said about the pandemic from a quantitative point of view, ‘Point of New’ goes a step further. The essays contemplate what aspects of the new world could be truly meaningful and which might need us to exercise caution as brand and business owners.”

  • 2020 and the debate of TV vs digital video

    2020 and the debate of TV vs digital video

    MUMBAI: It’s been two decades since I have been listening, participating and speaking about the great inflection point in digital in India. Every five years with some growth in consumer usage of the internet, adoption of platforms and growing online shopping, the claim used to only add fuel. Further to tons of VC money going into start-ups, every third person used to say “Digital Inflection Point” has truly arrived in India.

    So, I am kind of tired of this whole story, but wait… 2020 has been that year when the digital inflection point truly arrived. I say it with total conviction, data points and authority as a media agency head, based on what I am seeing on the ground and how clients have responded to the turning landscape and massive consumer behavior changes happening around us.

    VCs invest in ideas for the future and 90 per cent of them fail but the ones that stick, address the growing need when the inflection point arrives, solving a problem and making the business viable because the business has a purpose. Purpose of disseminating information or spreading joy through entertainment or enabling healthcare in remote places or bringing education to people’s homes or even making financial transactions simpler.

    This would not be possible without the technology that could back the high-speed internet required for addressing any of the purposes I have mentioned above. India as a country still has affordability issues. So,  when the high-speed internet became affordable, consumer intent naturally swayed towards cheaper options, making viewability of content agnostic in nature.

    That is the only true reason why I believe that the inflection point has arrived and it’s here to not just stay but grow exponentially. Now how does that translate to comparing digital video to TV?

    TV is known as the idiot box and it will continue to be one. Mobile will be known as an idiot brick, but these idiotic products are the only mediums that enable communication with the latter being a two-way mechanism of communication at the highest levels.

    Indians have consumed AV since the early fifties  through movies, which was later followed by terrestrial TV, then the VCR wave settled in with cable TV from early nineties. Indians are emotional and therefore anything that brings in emotional highs has always worked, which is why entertainment as an industry is so large in India. Naturally, the progression would be towards affordable consumption, and high-speed internet did just that. It enabled consumption of the ever-growing content from emotional to comedy to dramatic to romantic to edgy to sexual to the next level. Add to that social media, where you could be a star with millions of followers generating income for the content you create, made the medium even more adoptable for creators and stickier for the consumers.

    We haven’t even spoken about cricket here!

    Add to that the pandemic in 2020, every aspect of consumption soared, and India’s favorite pastime now made its entry into the idiot bricks or what we call mobile phones. Everything changed and I am going to quickly explain how the growth of mobile internet actually grew the market and did not take away the share from TV.

    I recently met an MD of a very large financial institution with my team and we started talking about how OTT is taking away the share from TV in terms of reach and I begged to differ with him because the data that I am narrating shows that not only has TV grown in size and consumption, but digital video has also in fact created newer audiences, thereby breaking the myth of OTT taking over TV in the future.

    India is the second largest television market in the world with 195 Million households of which 80 per cent are paid C&S channels, which makes it a subscription market for TV at around 156 million as per Statista. As per BARC, TV viewership grew by 10 per cent  in 2020 over 2019 (consolidated – urban + rural, Jan – Nov). India is looking at a projected revenue generation of $3 billion  from TV as an industry through advertising in FY 21.

    Despite the growth in C&S, digital advertising is going to overtake TV advertising in FY 21 with a projected revenue of $3.5 billion. As per KPMG, the 20 per cent drop from projections is largely the dismal economic situation due to the Covid 19 pandemic but what that did was to enable the massive adoption of OTT and grew the whole base of paid subscribers which will cross 40 million in FY 21 fueling the growth of digital advertising northwards.

    There are standing examples of these claims with the release of movies on OTT and its subsequent adoption, IPL on Hotstar which saw unprecedented growth reaching over 300 million handheld devices and the ever-growing connected TV story, for which Samsung is gearing up to provide solutions on advertising in the near future.

    With an average of $10 in subscriptions, we are estimating  paid subscription revenue on OTT to be around $400M which clearly indicates that consumers are willing to pay to consume more and more video content. Players to watch out for in 2021 will be YouTube, Hotstar, Instagram Reels, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee5, SonyLiv, MX Player, Ullu, Hoichoi and SunNext.

    If TikTok makes a comeback then it will see tremendous adoption but there are players like Josh who are taking that space up quickly, so while OTT consumption will continue to grow, social video sharing apps are also now part of the same mix when it comes to content consumption if it has to be classified as digital video.

    So, my humble submission therefore is, “inflection point” has truly arrived in 2020 and was accelerated by the pandemic, which is why in FY 21, digital advertising will overtake television advertising and while TV is seeing growth in viewership, it is declining in revenues due to the drop of 20 per cent  in advertising spends again due to the pandemic that impacted our economy on the whole. TV and OTT are parts of the same coin as heads and tails are. Hence, while we see OTT adoption is growing at a rapid pace, it will necessarily not replace TV anytime soon. OTT behavior is in silos except when on connected TVs  and television viewing is typically family driven, again a big difference in consumer behavior thus making a niche for both these mediums which is why I continue to believe that OTT as disruption has increased the overall size of audience and not taken away share from TV. Therefore, both these mediums will co-exist in India for some time to come, period!

    (The author is managing partner at DDB Mudra Group and is responsible for the media business. )

  • Wondrlab appoints Sandesh Shetty as lead integration director – west, experience platform

    Wondrlab appoints Sandesh Shetty as lead integration director – west, experience platform

    NEW DELHI: Platform-first martech startup Wondrlab has appointed Sandesh Shetty as lead integration director – west, experience platform. He will report to Wondrlab co-founder and managing partner – experience platform Vandana Verma. 

    In his new mandate, Shetty will infuse new-age thinking with conventional mediums of experiential marketing, helping clients in India’s western regions win in these spaces.

    Verma said, “Our recent acquisition of What’s Your Problem and our new operations in NCR are testimony to our growth and momentum. Bringing in experienced talent like Sandesh to support this unprecedented pace is the natural next step. His ability to understand offline experiential touchpoints and leveraging technology helps nudge products off the shelf for clients. Sandesh has the unique ability to merge the best of traditional cross-category thinking with contemporary platform-first experiential solutions. With his appointment, clients can leverage his stellar experience and expect a deep commitment toward solving their business problems.”

    Shetty has over two decades of robust experience in activation, experiential marketing and strategy. He has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to different experiential marketing touchpoints. His last stint was as senior vice president – experiential at Arc Worldwide, Publicis Groupe’s full-service shopper marketing and experiential division. Apart from this, he has held senior roles in agencies such as DDB Mudra, Ogilvy, and Kidstuff Promos. At Wondrlab, Shetty will now help apply martech solutions to the conventional mediums of experiential marketing such as events, activation, rural and shopper.

    Shetty added, “Platformisation is a revolution in the business of experiential marketing. None of the existing players addresses this need-gap to lead brand experiences in the right direction, effectively. My experience and understanding of this space perfectly match Wondrlab’s long-term vision. I look forward to creating innovative, immersive work for brands as I kickstart my exciting journey here.”

  • #McGrillisBack: Iconic burger returns after online petition

    #McGrillisBack: Iconic burger returns after online petition

    NEW DELHI: Days after giving in to popular demand of bringing back the much-loved Chicken McGrill burger, McDonald’s India north & east has launched the #McGrillisBack campaign for the most talked about burger in town.

    Fans of the iconic Chicken McGrill had started a petition and took to social media to begin a movement asking McDonald’s to #BringMcGrillBack. The rally found support from comic Abhishek Upmanyu and actor Neha Dhupia, who also signed the petition and spoke about their love for the burger. After a large number of requests started pouring in, the fast food giant decided to reintroduce the burger.

    "You guys did it. Chicken #McgrillisBack on popular demand in stores near you. You read it right, YOU WIN," wrote the official handle for McDonald's India on Instagram. It had been taken off menus in 2019 when outlets had reopened in Delhi. 

    The ‘#McGrillisBack’ campaign, featuring actress Shreya Chaudhary, puts a funny spin on some of the popular reactions by netizens on their love for Chicken McGrill and their celebrations when the burger was put back on the menu. Conceptualised by DDB Mudra, the campaign with the help of digital films uses situational humour to highlight people’s craze for the burger.

    Robert Hunghanfoo, head, CPRL (Connaught Plaza Restaurants operates McDonald’s restaurants in north and east India) said, "Chicken McGrill has been one of the most loved menu offerings at McDonald’s. The reaction and desire we witnessed on social media is a true testament to people’s love for it. With this campaign, we are offering our customers another chance to relive their favourite memories by offering them a menu item that they have been asking us for."

    “Chicken McGrill is an icon. And the icons are timeless. Its teeming fans had been campaigning for its comeback. Therefore, it was only natural for us to make this unbound love for the Chicken McGrill, the fuel for its comeback. The campaign celebrates this very love for the burger in a heartfelt, McDonald’s way so that the fans never have to stop lovin’ it!” said Ashutosh Sawhney, managing partner – DDB Mudra Group, north.

    Chicken McGrill is now a part of the all-day menu across all McDonald’s restaurants in north and east India, including McDelivery and takeaway orders.

  • EatQual: McDonald’s new packaging for the specially-abled

    EatQual: McDonald’s new packaging for the specially-abled

    NEW DELHI: Back in the noughties, McDonald’s as a brand was the great Indian equaliser. The brand was in dire straits after failing to win over Indian consumers whose palates and wallets were used to the taste and inexpensiveness of samosa, vada pao and chaat; so, McDonald’s switched gears and positioned itself as a super-pocket-friendly global chain. This immediately made a mark on the aspirational middle class, and the products’ price point – starting at only Rs 20 – was a big hit across demographics.

    Now, on the occasion of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the fast food chain is doing something unique and in line with its egalitarian ethos. McDonald’s India west and south will be launching a new packaging – EatQual – designed for its specially-abled customers. The EatQual pack has been developed over months of collaboration with an NGO that has been working towards the betterment of the specially-abled community for over 50 years.

    EatQual will be available across McDonald’s restaurants in west and south India starting mid-December.

    The new packaging innovation stems from the insight that the current packaging typically requires customers to use both their hands to truly enjoy the delicious McDonald’s burgers. This makes it difficult for those with upper-limb disabilities. EatQual will address this challenge and ensure that everyone can bite into their favourite burgers just as easily.

    McDonald’s India (west and south) director – marketing & communications Arvind RP said, “It has always been our endeavour to make delicious feel-good moments easy for everyone. The launch of this EatQual packaging is a step to further our commitment towards inclusiveness and social responsibility. We hope that this packaging will make the McDonald’s experience easy and delightful for our specially-abled customers.”

    DDB Mudra Group India NCD Rahul Mathew said, “Equality and inclusivity isn’t always about the big things. It’s also about being able to do the little everyday things like everyone else can; eating your favourite McDonald’s burger, for instance. And that has been the guiding force behind the EatQual initiative. How can we make the McDonald’s experience just as enjoyable for all.”

    Food accessibility is the bare minimum necessity for every individual including the ones with upper arm movement disability, and innovations like these can make eating so much easier for them, said Vaishali Kolhe  associate professor at the Centre for Disability Studies and Action & Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. “It is heartening to see an iconic brand like McDonald’s take initiatives to maintain inclusion at their restaurants. Through initiatives like these, we are not doing these individuals a favour but making their experience of eating independent and enjoyable. I look forward to enjoying my favourite McDonald’s burger in the new EatQual pack.”

    McDonald’s restaurants in West and South India are owned and operated by Westlife Development Ltd under its wholly owned subsidiary – Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt Ltd.

  • DDB Mudra Group wins IMC mandate for IndoSpace

    DDB Mudra Group wins IMC mandate for IndoSpace

    NEW DELHI: Industrial real estate developer IndoSpace has awarded its integrated marketing communications mandate to DDB Mudra Group following a multi-agency pitch. As part of the mandate, creative & brand strategy will be handled by DDB Mudra, and digital media planning will be managed by OMD MudraMax.

    Speaking about the win, DDB Mudra West managing partner Anurag Tandon said, “Over the last few years, we have developed substantial domain expertise in the B2B space. The team is excited to use our understanding of consumer behaviour, especially in a post-Covid world, to develop communication for a category that has typically not been product-focused.”

    With Covid-19 significantly boosting online sales in India, e-commerce and modern retailers have realised the importance of warehousing in strategic locations in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities. The partnership with DDB Mudra Group will enable IndoSpace to capture the growing demand.

    The marketing communications group focuses on using emotional advantage thinking to create business growth for brands. Human beings choose to believe that they make logical choices but are in fact driven by emotions. This deep understanding of social and cultural contexts will be instrumental in developing the overall communications strategy. The Group’s proprietary sign banking and earshot tools help with breakthrough consumer thinking that’s elevated by powerful creative work.

    IndoSpace is the real estate arm of the Everstone Group. Speaking on the association, Everstone group vice chairman – real estate Rajesh Jaggi said, “We are delighted to have DDB Mudra on board and wish to gain substantially from their creative and digital communication expertise. Their unique approach towards brand building and end-to-end capabilities were the reasons to choose them as our partners.”

    With over $3 billion in investment, and 36 operational and under development parks, spread over 37 million square feet, IndoSpace enjoys a pan-India presence. With its combination of strategic land bank, world-class infrastructure, and amenities, the company caters to the logistics infrastructure needs of leading players across sectors.