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Tag: durables

  • Gamification, localization and monetisation way forward for #fame

    Gamification, localization and monetisation way forward for #fame

    MUMBAI:  Fame Digital Private Limited (FDPF) is fundamentally focusing on three objectives for its online entertainment app, #fame – gamification, localisation and monetisation.

     

    When it comes to gamification, #fame talent league (FTL) is the first step in that direction. FTL is a path breaking initiative that will encourage and enable content creators to test their popularity with audiences in real time. FTL will start on December 5, 2015. As may be recalled, #fame launched the country’s live video app in May this year and in a short span of time this has emerged as the largest live video platform. 

     

    Localisation -#fame is also planning to launch more of regional and local versions on the app to differentiate the sections over the next couple of quarters. The company is also looking at launching south Indian version of the app, as well as planning to launch in Indonesia and Thailand

     

    Speaking with Indiantelevision.com about the three fundamental plans, #fame CEO Saket Saurabh said, “There are three plans for #fame, one is that we have launched #fame talent league, also over the next couple of quarters we are planning to launch more of a regional and local versions to differentiate the sections of our app. Apart from this, we will be looking for monetisation also. Therefore gamification, localization and monetisation are the core components in building the name of #fame.”

     

    Commenting monetisation potential of video, Saurabh said, “Within digital, video is the fastest growing section. We believe that access with 4G is coming and the hardware is becoming cheaper; video is becoming the new language of the consumer internet. Revenue will follow consumption. In two years we have brought on board 20 to 25 top brands in India across categories like FMCG, automobile, durables and telecom. We are planning to bring more traction now. In the next six months, we are planning to reach out to 60 to 65 brands. Therefore, we feel that video has tremendous monetisation potential and great monetisation flexibility. Video monetisation is moving beyond pure play inventory.”

     

    Saurabh added, “We had launched the first live video app in the country in May. We have seen more than 30,000 people going live using our ap. That gave us the confidence that there is clearly an opportunity to discover the digital talent and that is why we started building a tech feature in our app, which in a sense is an innovation, because it has the kind of real time global audience looking at the live app.”

     

    Since May, #fame has seen 20 lakh downloads, with more than 30,000 performers going live and over 30,000 watch hours of content. 

     

    Earlier, #fame had launched its first digital singing competition Web Singer with Pritam in November, 2014. “The experience with Web Singer has been great. This is why we call ourselves as #fame, because there is an opportunity for a talent to really emerge and connect directly with the audiences. All our initiatives are designed to allow talent to come forward whether it’s our live video app or the launch of #fame talent league which is on the top of the app,” he added.

     

    India has 35 crore internet users and in couple of years India will have half of its people using internet and we are already a one of the largest market in the world. 

     

    India’s inherent advantage is that it is already a mobile ready country.  “There are three fundamental trends that are making it big; one is that hardware access is getting cheaper as you get mobile phones now in Rs 6000-7000 price range, which makes video access easier. Another factor is the Indian population and the demographics which play an important role as we have a whole generation of youngsters who have grown up not with television as their first screen, but with mobile phones. The third factor is that digital will be seen as the support medium by content creators and networks over time. The rise of OTT in couple of years is a great reflection that brands have realized that digital requires original content.  In the next couple of years we will see a tremendous growth in digital medium,” Saurabh predicted.

     

    #fame is spending about 30 to 40 per cent of its investments in user acquisition and user engagement. Speaking about the competition Saurabh informed, “I think there is space for everybody, in the case of live video, we are the pioneers in India and we are trying to build that category. In digital, there are all kinds of players. We have OTT, content creators, YouTube and Facebook, hence it’s a fairly a vibrant place. Also, live video space and digital space are all in their early stages. I don’t see competition is really an issue right now.  Here we need to have more innovations.”

     

    4G is creating a lot of buzz in the country. Saurabh said, “I think 4G will take another 6-8 months as it is not in the mainstream in India and is only available in some major cities.  The entry of more players and alliances will make an impact and there will be more, in combination with cheaper hardware manufacture. There will be a lot of cooperative marketing which will help mainstream 4G.”

  • Brands ready to outshine on Diwali

    Brands ready to outshine on Diwali

    Inflation be damned! Diwali is here and consumers are more than willing to loosen their purse strings. Exactly, why a majority of brands go all out to woo them.

    It is a critical period for most companies and hence, elaborate plans are made to reach out to consumers, says Llyod Mathias

    In any case, most companies are known to allocate nearly 25 to 35 per cent of their marketing budget to the festive season. Not surprisingly, it’s that time of the year when newspaper supplements get to look fatter and fancier, and television ads and hoardings get a colourful new lease of life.

     

    Says marketing veteran Lloyd Mathias: “It is a critical period for most companies – consumer durables, auto, paints etc. – and hence, elaborate plans are made to reach out to consumers, who are also not hesitant to shell out money.”

    Apart from aggressively marketing existing products, many brands even launch new products.
    Titan, for instance, has launched a new campaign featuring Katrina Kaif to promote its latest Raga collection – Raga Pearls. Says global marketing head Rajan Amba: “In addition to Raga, we also have outdoor campaigns for our premium brands – Nebula & Xylys.” In a first, Titan plans to offer a Tanishq gold pendant free with every purchase below Rs 70,000, and a Tanishq gold and diamond pendant free with every purchase about Rs 70,000. Titan also plans to launch 180 variants in keeping with the festive spirit.

     

    At Raga we strive to create memorable stories every year, explains Rajan Amba, The World Gold Council, undeterred by soaring gold prices, has launched its new collection named Azva. “This season is the main spending time for us and will go all out with it. GECs, movies, music, regional channels as well as OOH and print will be utilized in the 360 degree marketing plan to optimize sales,” says WGC jewellery director Vipin Sharma.

     

    There’s no undermining the importance of sweets during Diwali, and this year, Cadbury plans to leverage the entire Mondelez International Portfolio to create a cross-category gift pack containing Cadbury chocolates, Choclairs, Cadbury Bournvita and Oreo biscuits for customers. “As we get into the Diwali season, we will again look at getting consumers to celebrate the true spirit of the festival. The essence of the festival, of spending time together with your loved ones, seems to have been lost. Through, Cadbury Celebrations thus, we look forward to actually enabling people to come together and spend quality time this Diwali,” says Cadbury India chocolate – gifting & strategy AVP Amarpreet Anand. At Cadbury, gifting is all about re-establishing closeness with loved ones which seems to have been replaced in today’s age of technology, busy lives and consumerism; Anand points out.

     

    In sharp contrast, PepsiCo India plans to capitalize on the ‘sweets overkill’ to promote their salty snack brand Kurkure.

     

    Vipin Sharma says that the festive season is the main spending time and WGC will go all out with it

     

    “Over the years, through its campaigns that encourage consumers to spend more time with family, Kurkure has constantly re-invented itself to remain relevant to the Indian ethos and culture.

     

     

    Festivals hold special importance in our annual marketing calendar and offer an ideal platform to reach out to consumers. Kurkure, with its unique take on celebrations, seeks to cut down the excessive sweetness that accompanies celebrations. So every year around the festival season, we bring in new flavours and innovative gifting options that strengthen our much loved proposition of ‘Zyaada Meetha ho Gaya? Iss Diwali Muh Kurkure Karo’,” says PepsiCo India Indian snacks category director Nalin Sood. Indeed, Kurkure is launching a new range of ‘Raja Rani’ gift packs designed by Ray and Keshavan, a leading South Asian brand & design consulting firm.

    The festive period also sees a lot of consumer spending in the FMCG and automobile categories. Says Godrej Appliances sales & marketing executive VP Kamal Nandi: “At Godrej, our attempt is to delight our consumers with Best in Class innovative products. Continuing this tradition, we are launching a breakthrough technology in washing machines, which will be a revolution in this category and most of our marketing activity will be focusing on this product this festive season The pre-launch phase of this special campaign has already been launched on digital media and which in itself is a first of its kind initiative in the industry.”

    Godrej plans to focus on consumer engagement through facebook and YouTube apart from regular digital advertising, SEM, etc.

    Godrej plans to focus on consumer engagement through facebook and YouTube apart from regular digital advertising, SEM etc, elaborates Kamal Nandi

     

    Similarly, Fiat Group Automobiles India has come up with a new ad for its recently launched Linea Classic. The campaign showcases Fiat Linea Classic as an affordable car designed to make the sedan far more accessible to hatchback users, in turn making them ‘feel big’.

    In the electronics segment, Dell India has kicked off its ‘Celebrate Dell Se’ campaign a few weeks ago, part of which is the ‘Hint a Gift’ TV commercial for its Inspiron notebooks. Says Dell India marketing director Ritu Gupta: “Building an emotional connection between our customers and technology is integral to Dell’s branding strategy. In line with our on-going achievement “I can do kuch bhi” campaign, we decided this festive season to inspire the youth with the idea that they have the power to get what they want by hinting to their loved ones about their preferred gift for Diwali, which in this case is the Dell Inspiron range of touch laptops.”

    All said, brands may try to outdo and outshine one another but it is ultimately up to the customer to decide which one to give preference to…

  • MICA launches Mica Indian Marketing Intelligence (MIMI)

    MUMBAI: Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (Mica) has launched a market intelligence product called Mica Indian Marketing Intelligence (MIMI) that assists businesses in making sound and strategic marketing and business decisions in India.

    India‘s complex socio-cultural, political and demographical mix can present challenges in terms of developing new products, identifying market segments, designing market-entry strategy and effectively launching products into different regional markets with greater variation.

    Built around a data-fusion algorithm developed by the Professors and researchers of MICA, MIMI fuses the variety of structured information, compiled from authentic sources, to provide a composite, granular market-view. It also provides Market Potential Index (MPI) and other data separately for rural, urban and total Indian market for more than 630 districts, hitherto not provided by any other similar product.

    Mimi can be used by strategic decision makers to make informed marketing decision in various industry sectors like advertising, manufacturing, FMCG, durables, banking and finance.

    Mimi can also be used by researchers, consultants, entrepreneurs, academicians and students to get a better understanding of markets and their potential across India.

    The main highlights of MIMI are:

    • Provides Market Potential Index: As one of the most acute needs of the marketer is to arrive at a district prioritization for purposes ranging from market entry to product/Service launch, MIMI provides Market Potential Index (MPI) for 630 districts for rural, urban and total market. The higher the MPI, the higher is the market prioritisation. 
    • Provides a Wide array of Information and applicability: With 143 variables across rural and urban market, MIMI provides data related to Demographics, Agricultural, Financial Services, Media Ownership, Vehicle Ownership, House Hold (HH) Size and Usage, HH Basic Amenities, HH Light and Fuel, etc. to be applied across sectors ranging from Construction and FMCG to Telecom. 
    • Simplifies decision making: To interpret the data quickly and effectively, MIMI provides a host of features like Graphs, GIS maps, Quartile and Potentiometer in downloadable format. These features are helpful for better presentation of the data and clarity of analysis. For example, if a marketer would like to target a specific region, the Quartile-based model helps him to compare various districts on selected variables, simultaneously, to arrive at a comparative picture. 
    • User Friendly interface: With a highly interactive website and user friendly interface ,you can perform a large number of functions like execute simple arithmetic functions, customise variables, save work-space, compare districts across the states, besides others, with the help of MIMI‘s superlative filtered features.
    • Comes with Zero IT cost: MIMI is based on a powerful cloud platform. While the industries across all the verticals have understood and appreciated the importance of Cloud Computing. Mimi ensures that clients get a high performance platform without having to worry about software upgrades and hardware maintenance.
    • Has Composite score for selected categories of variables: To better understand the prosperity of a district and penetration of assets, composite score for selected categories of variables like agriculture, financial services, media ownership, and vehicle ownership are provided.

    Future Brands MD and CEO Santosh Desai said, “Mimi fills a crucial gap by putting together a comprehensive database that will provide immense value to business and research alike.”

    Center for Media Studies chairman Dr N Bhaskara Rao said, “Mimi is an invaluable one- stop reference source and master guide. It cannot be avoided by anyone interested in strategic marketing at macro and micro levels.”

  • Jaibeer Ahmad quits Saatchi & Saatchi to join Cheil Worldwide

    MUMBAI: Saatchi & Saatchi vice president Jaibeer Ahmad has decided to move on from the agency after a stint of over two years.

    Ahmad is on his way to join Cheil Worldwide. However, his designation at Cheil is still not announced.

    He will continue to be based in New Delhi. His responsibilities at Saatchi & Saatchi included driving top line growth through organic and new business development, relationship management, ownership of the strategic and creative output for all brands, team building, retention and training.

    Ahmad has over 12 years of experience in advertising and marketing. He has worked across multiple product categories including Telecom, FMCG, Durables, Online and Media others. He has worked with brands like Airtel, Nestle, LG, Samsung, Whirplool, SC Johnson, Carlsberg, OLX and India Today.

    Prior to joining Saatchi & Saatchi, he had also worked with DRAFTFCB+Ulka Advertising, Ogilvy & Mather, Lowe Lintas, Samsung Electronics, Rediffusion DYR and RKSwamy BBDO.