ITV

Tag: Expedia

  • Rajiv Malhotra boards 12Go as chief product officer

    Rajiv Malhotra boards 12Go as chief product officer

    MUMBAI: Rajiv Malhotra has packed his bags for a fresh adventure, joining 12Go as chief product officer, and adding another heavyweight chapter to a career that’s criss-crossed e-commerce, travel, media, mobile, and logistics.

    An MBA from NTU Singapore and a citizen of Singapore with OCI status in India, Malhotra brings 25 years of razor-sharp product expertise to the role — across start-ups and blue-chip giants alike. Whether it’s managing $100 million+ P&Ls, pioneering UX strategies, scaling digital businesses, or launching SaaS solutions, he’s left an unmistakable signature on every stop.

    Before this, he steered digital media products at SPH Media, led logistics products at Gojek, advised start-ups, and even brewed success as an entrepreneur with Hotellauncher.com. Past tours of duty also include Expedia, MakeMyTrip, Yatra, and Yahoo! SEA, where he was at the bleeding edge of product innovation and digital transformation.

    From product vision to UX design, Malhotra is passionate about building tech solutions that actually make life easier (and a lot more profitable). A self-confessed Kombucha enthusiast and amateur chef when off-duty, he knows a thing or two about the perfect blend — whether in the kitchen or in code.

  • Deepti Sampat has transitioned to Air India following Vistara merger

    Deepti Sampat has transitioned to Air India following Vistara merger

    MUMBAI:  Deepti Sampat has officially transitioned to the role of vice president marketing  at Air India, following  the merger of Vistara and Air India. Her shift to Air India took place in November, but because this was not reported earlier, we are posting it now.

    Having spent over five years at Vistara as VP-marketing, , Sampat reflects on her journey, expressing gratitude to her colleagues and the customers who supported the airline, helping build it into a strong brand within Indian aviation. She earlier  has had stints with Oberoi group, tripadvisor, Expedia, Talent Edge, and finally Vistara. In various roles.  

    Sampat’s rich educational background includes an MBA in marketing from the Indian Institute of Planning and Management, and a certificate in business strategy from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Her career trajectory spans multiple senior marketing roles, showcasing her expertise in driving brand strategy and customer experience in highly competitive markets.

    Her tenure at Vistara was marked by numerous accolades.As she embarks on this new chapter at Air India, Sampat aims to leverage her extensive experience to enhance marketing initiatives and further elevate the airline’s service standards in the Indian aviation sector.

    This new appointment emphasises Air India’s commitment to strengthening its brand identity while integrating the values and services of Vistara into its operations.

  • Media and marketing professionals most vacation deprived: Expedia Report 2017

    Media and marketing professionals most vacation deprived: Expedia Report 2017

    MUMBAI: Majority of media and marketing professionals are sleep-starved, according to Expedia’s new edition of Vacation Deprivation Report 2017, stating that they cannot afford to take a holiday. 

    The study was conducted online between 4 September and 15 September 2017 on behalf of Expedia by Northstar Research Partners. The company surveyed 15,081 working adults across 30 countries.

    The report states that 66 per cent respondents of those surveyed from the media and marketing sectors said they don’t take vacations because they cannot afford a holiday or get out of work.

    Millennials are the most vacation-deprived age group and also receive the least vacation time. At 53 per cent, they are also the most likely to shorten their trips due to impending workload.

    Professionals in the government and education sectors are found to be the least vacation deprived.

    The study revealed that after media and marketing sector professionals, about 62 per cent of those in the food and beverage sector said they don’t have enough holidays, followed by agriculture with 56 per cent, transportation and travel with 56 per cent, business and consulting around 55 per cent, and finance and legal at 55 per cent.

    Furthermore, the study said that professionals in government, health, transportation and travel, real estate, business and consulting and manufacturing and technology sectors have not taken a holiday in the last six months.

    Moreover, 35 per cent of professionals in sectors like agriculture, media and marketing, food and beverage, retail and education said they are vacation deprived mainly because they cannot afford to take a holiday. In sectors like finance and legal, however, 28 per cent professionals attribute it to not getting time off from work. 

    Also read: 

    Air India, Jet and Indigo’s oops moment!

    Budget ’17: Rural net will facilitate travel bookings

  • Expedia asks you to try it out

    Expedia asks you to try it out

    MUMBAI: Online travel agency, Expedia has launched its new ad campaign for Indian consumers themed- What a pleasant surprise! The ad conceptualised by Taproot Dentsu, the creative agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, aims to acquire new shoppers and customers to the site and get them to try Expedia.

    The storyboard captures a young couple on a beach where the girl persuades the guy to enjoy the waves. The guy is initially apprehensive, but once he gives in, he actually enjoys the experience, happy to overcome his fear.

    The second advertisement opens with a college reunion party at a resort where everyone is dancing and enjoying. However, one of the members who is shy of dancing, is standing in a corner. His friends notice this and signal him to join. Feeling reluctant, he indicates that he is fine. But the women prompt him more and pull him in. At first, his friends help him with the moves, and slowly he gains confidence and picks up the dance, and starts enjoying.

    Expedia India marketing head Manmeet Ahluwalia says, “Our aim with this campaign is to encourage new users to visit and experience Expedia and generate awareness amongst the consumers about our zero booking fee on flights and free cancellation on hotels, in order to help the consumers save money and ensure a pleasant experience while managing their travel.”

    The brief given to the agency was to showcase and address trepidation, hesitancy, and state of inertia that keeps consumers away from trying something new in life and the associated surprise, joy and contentment of that new experience.

    Taproot Dentsu Gurgaon creative head Titus Upputuru adds, “Unless we try something, we will never know. This is the key insight we developed into a campaign where the protagonists try out things that they’ve never tried before. As a result, they end up discovering experiences that they thoroughly enjoy! Not only that, once ‘bitten’ by the experience, the protagonists don’t want to stop.”

  • Microsoft enables video calling on Android with Office 365 in 19 languages

    MUMBAI: Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced the general availability of Microsoft Teams, the company’s new chat-based workspace in Office 365. The new tool for team collaboration is now available to Office 365 business customers in 181 markets and 19 languages.

    Customers worldwide are choosing Microsoft Teams to enable collaboration within their organizations. Since announcing the preview in November, more than 50,000 organizations have started using Microsoft Teams, including Alaska Airlines, ConocoPhillips, Deloitte, Expedia, J.B. Hunt, J. Walter Thompson, Hendrick Motorsports, Sage, Trek Bicycle and Three UK.

    “In a world where information is abundant and human time and attention remain scarce, we aspire to help people and groups of people be more productive, wherever they are,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “Office 365 is the broadest platform and universal toolkit for creation, collaboration and communication. Today we are adding a new tool to Office 365 with Microsoft Teams, a chat-based workspace designed to empower the art of teams.”

    Office 365 is designed to meet the unique workstyle of every group with purpose-built, integrated applications: Outlook for enterprise-grade email; SharePoint for intelligent content management; Yammer for networking across the organization; Skype for Business as the backbone for enterprise voice and video; and now, Microsoft Teams.

    According to Trek Bicycle vice president of global customer service Laurie Koch, “Microsoft Teams is already streamlining the company’s work by providing assets and tasks in context: “Across Trek’s global teams, the integrated collection of Office 365 apps serves up a common toolset to collaboratively drive the business forward. We see Microsoft Teams as the project hub of Office 365 where everybody knows where to find the latest documents, notes and tasks, all in line with team conversations for complete context. Teams is quickly becoming a key part of Trek’s get-things-done-fast culture.”

    Microsoft has introduced more than 100 new features to Teams since November, including: an enhanced meeting experience, with scheduling capabilities; mobile audio calling, with video calling on Android now and coming soon to iOS and Windows Phone; email integration; and new security and compliance capabilities. The company has also delivered new features to make Microsoft Teams accessible, such as support for screen readers, high contrast and keyboard-only navigation. Guest access capabilities and deeper integration with Outlook, and a richer developer platform are targeted for June of this year.

    Microsoft Teams brings together people, conversations and content, along with the tools that teams need. It’s integrated with familiar Office applications and is built from the ground up on Office 365 and Microsoft’s global, secured cloud. Microsoft Teams is built on four core promises:

    · Chat for today’s teams. Microsoft Teams provides a modern conversations experience, with threaded, persistent chat to keep everyone engaged. Team conversations can be either private or visible to the entire team, and users can access multiple teams, making it easy to switch between projects.

    · A hub for teamwork. The Office applications and services that teams use every day — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneNote and PowerBI— are all built-in, so people have the information and tools they need.

    ·Customization for every team. Microsoft Teams offers the ability to customize work spaces with tabs, connectors and bots from third-party partners as well as familiar Microsoft tools like Microsoft Planner and Visual Studio Team Services. Today, more than 150 integrations are available or coming soon, with companies like SAP, Trello, Hipmunk, Growbot and ModuleQ building on the platform.

    · Security teams trust. Microsoft Teams is built on the hyper-scale, enterprise-grade Office 365 cloud, delivering the advanced security and compliance capabilities our customers expect. Teams supports global standards including SOC 1, SOC 2, EU Model Clauses, ISO27001 and HIPAA.

  • Lowe Lintas and Partners sign on over 100 new businesses in 15 months

    Lowe Lintas and Partners sign on over 100 new businesses in 15 months

    MUMBAI: In a year that was relatively sluggish for the industry, Lowe Lintas and Partners announced today that they registeredover 100 business wins in the past 15 months. These wins have come across its 7 divisions and 9 offices in India.

     

    Joseph George (Joe), Chief Executive Officer – Lowe Lintas and Partners says, “2013was the culmination of an aggressive 3 year New Business plan that was put in place in early 2011; resulting in us, signing up upward of 300 new businesses in this period.Fantastic work leading to in-market success of our existing brandshas played a disproportionate role in helping us earn the confidence of new clients.I have always believed that doing well on Existing business is the best strategyto acquire New business”

     

    Some of the clients acquired in this period include Hero Motocorp, myntra.com, STAR TV, OLX, Heinz, Bharat Matrimony, Onida, Expedia, bookmyshow, Milma, Coir Board, Bharat Benz, Max Bupa, Finolex, Gyproc, Apollo Hospitals, Wockhardt, Bharat Forge, MCX, Heinz, Rajasthan Tourism, Nutricia, Mahanagar Gas, Dr. Reddy’s Labs among many others…

     

    Lowe Lintas and Partners, IPG’s largest operation in India,partnersabout 250 clients. Some of whom, amongst India’s most successful and marketing savvy companies–Aditya Birla Group, Arvind Brands, Axis, Britannia, Croma, Dabur, DLF, Essar, Future Group, Godrej, Havell’s, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI, ITC, Johnson & Johnson, Maruti, Micromax, MRF, Nestle, Croma, Tata Tea, Tanishq, Times Group, Videocon to name a few.

     

    OpineAmer Jaleel and Arun Iyer, National Creative Directors at Lowe Lintas – “The agency has put out the best body of work in the industry; now for 2 years in a row. So while 100 or 300 is a statistic that we are certainly very happy about, what is even more gratifying,is that the infectious energy ofthese wins are spurring on all of us to deliver even better work”

     

    Lowe Lintas and Partnershas traditionally been a strong player in advertising; but in recent times, its divisions outside of advertising have been significant contributors to business growth. A reasonable chunk of the over 100 wins have been accounted for, by LinOpinion-Golin Harris (Public Relations), LinEngage (Activation), dCell ( Design ), LinTeractive-Interactive Avenues and LinHealth-ICC (Healthcare Marketing)

     

    Some of the clients acquired in this period by the “non-advertising” divisions include Shapoorji Group, Brylcreem, Bru Coffee, Haldiram’s, Abbot India, Piramal, Mattel Toys, Tata Asset Management, Supermax, Wadhawa Group, NEC India, Herbalife, INOX, G.M. Pens, VST Industries, Govt of Netherlands, Onida, Sony Max, Bangalore Literature Festival among many others..

     

    Vikas Mehta, Chief Marketing Officer – Lowe Lintas and Partners said, “For the past year or so, we’ve gone about client acquisition as a group in a lot more orchestrated manner. It’s heartening to see our divisions like PR, Activation, Digital and Healthcare firing too.The investments we made through partnerships like Interactive Avenues and Golin Harris have shown results and we would like to make further and faster strides in that direction.”

     

    Joseph George concludes “An often used metric byclients to evaluate apotential agency partner is the consistency with which itkeeps putting out work that impactsbonding, buzz and business results. And most new prospects find us doing rather well on that count…”

  • Expedia rolls out new campaign nationally

    Expedia rolls out new campaign nationally

    MUMBAI: Expedia, the online travel company has announced the launch of its latest advertising campaign in India.

    The TVC is visualised and conceptualised by Lowe Lintas.

    The campaign is aimed at igniting the hunger for travel amongst its target. The campaign can be seen in all platforms like print, digital, radio and television mediums.

    Expedia head marketing India Manmeet Ahluwalia said, “The campaign is designed keeping in mind the need for travel and the travel proposition offered by Expedia to consumers in India and globally. The purpose of this campaign is to convey the need to travel for people who often neglect it due to lack of time or not being able to book in advance and end up being the non-traveling population. With 18,000 amazing offers every day, unparalleled in the industry. Expedia ensures that you are never ‘the neighbor who never travels‘.