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  • Chinese app ban leads to higher uptake of Facebook, Instagram: Kantar

    Chinese app ban leads to higher uptake of Facebook, Instagram: Kantar

    KOLKATA: In the wake of the government of India banning 59 popular Chinese Apps, Kantar, has released insights on the impact of this ban on consumers’ digital behaviour. The ban came into effect from 29 June 2020. 

    The app-ban impacted platforms with a sizeable following. Given that users were spending hours every week across these platforms, one would have expected to see a dip in the overall time spent online once these platforms were no longer accessible. However, the average time-spent dropped only marginally (-6 per cent), indicating that consumers were switching over to rival platforms much faster than anticipated. 

    Instagram and Facebook saw an immediate increase in engagement. Avg. Time/Day on Instagram more than doubled (2.3X), and Facebook too saw a significant 35 per cent jump in time-spent on the platform with the bulk of this additional engagement being driven by smaller town consumers. Among the youth audience aged below 24 yrs, average time/day on Instagram grew by 35 per cent.

    Sharechat, India’s very own video sharing platform which focuses content around regional languages also witnessed a 2.5X increase in time spent. This has primarily been driven by the younger faction of internet audience (aged below 24 yrs). It has more than tripled (3.4X) its average time/day on Sharechat since the ban came into effect.

    The most impressive gain was seen on YouTube. Already the most popular digital video platform in the country, it saw a further 25 per cent increase in time-spent. Other players also enjoyed their fair share of the rise in engagement levels. Hotstar, India’s leading video OTT player saw its daily time spent grow by over 25 per cent. Time spent in the video OTT space grew by 40 per cent overall once the ban was imposed.

    Summarising the learnings, Kantar vice president (Insights) Akhil Almeida said, “Although consumers lost access to some of their favourite short-form video sharing apps, the bulk of consumers switched over to alternate platforms in an almost seamless manner. We saw that overall time-spent online was not as strongly impacted as one might have expected, given the size and scale of the affected platforms.” 

  • IPRS and Facebook sign music licensing deal

    IPRS and Facebook sign music licensing deal

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Performing Rights Society Limited announced today that it has reached an agreement with Facebook to license its music repertoire for video and other social experiences across Facebook and Instagram. People will now be able to choose music from the IPRS repertoire with hundreds and thousands of songs, to add in their own videos they share on Facebook and Instagram, as well as other social features like Music Stickers on Stories. Through this association, the artists/ members of IPRS would be able to get their music compositions out to millions of people in the country, as some of the largest and most thriving communities on Facebook and Instagram are here in India.

    The IPRS is a representative body of authors and owners, which include composers, lyricists, and owner publishers of music. The deal with Facebook will cover licensing and royalties whenever music represented by the IPRS is used on Facebook and Instagram. 

    Facebook India director and head of partnerships Manish Chopra commented, “Music plays an important role in India for sparking people’s creative expression. With this agreement, people will be able to access a wide variety of music and discover new scores from hundreds of authors and owners, across various genres in many Indian languages.” 

    Facebook director international music publishing Anjali Malhotra said, “We care deeply about enabling the music on our platform that is most important to people. IPRS plays an important role in that, given the meaningful repertoire of their songwriter, composer and publishing members. We continue to innovate with our music partners around the world to create new ways for people and musicians to tell their stories with music.”

    IPRS chairman Javed Akhtar said, “At the heart of music are the creators. The songwriters and the composers. IPRS is excited to create opportunities for our songwriters and composers for their use of works on Facebook and its platforms. The future is brighter when all industries work together and evolve the next phase of music usage together."

    IPRS CEO Rakesh Nigam said, “We are happy that Facebook and IPRS have concluded this deal. We are sure that this partnership will be very beneficial for all members of IPRS and Facebook. We are happy that more and more companies are respecting copyright and coming forth to seek proper licenses from IPRS."

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  • Google to invest Rs 33,737 cr in Jio Platforms for 7.7% stake

    Google to invest Rs 33,737 cr in Jio Platforms for 7.7% stake

    KOLKATA: Putting an end to the speculations floating around, Jio has welcomed Google as its new strategic partner. At the 43rd annual general meeting of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), CMD Mukesh Ambani made the announcement.

    The business tycoon said that Google will invest Rs 33,737 crore for 7.7 per cent stake in Jio Platforms. The giants have signed a binding partnership and an investment agreement.

    “We are delighted to welcome Google as a strategic investor in Jio Platforms. We have signed a binding partnership and an investment agreement under which Google will invest Rs 33,737 crore for a 7.7 per cent stake in Jio Platforms,” Ambani stated.

    Google becomes the latest US tech giant to back Jio Platforms. Facebook started the series of investment by with a Rs 43,573.62 crore deal in April. Intel invested Rs 1,894.50 crore earlier this month. 

    He also stated that the company has fully kickstarted five accelerators of growth of digital connectivity: mobile broadband, JioFiber, Jio’s enterprise broadband, broadband for SMEs, and Jio’s Narrowband internet-of-things.

    Notably, Ambani has announced a significant development on the traditional side of Jio’s business. Jio has designed and developed a complete 5G solution from scratch. It will be ready for trials as soon as 5G spectrum is available and can be ready for field deployment next year.

  • SonyLIV 2.0 seeks to refresh through new-age, youthful vibe

    SonyLIV 2.0 seeks to refresh through new-age, youthful vibe

    KOLKATA: While the lockdown demotivated many, it did not stop OTT platform SonyLIV from taking a bold stop. With new content in-store, SonyLIV is reviving itself as SonyLIV 2.0. A new team which took up the role to lead the platform last year has reimagined the transformation. As the streaming war in India continues with Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, ZEE5 and MX Player being leading names, the rebranding is likely to give leverage.

    “We wanted to become more new-age, youthful, user-friendly. That was one thing which we wanted to say through the new logo design. Secondly, the V of LIV also resembles the tick mark. So, the entire design came from the fact that this is the right choice of entertainment,” said SPN digital business marketing head Aman Srivastava. The new logo emphasises the ‘liv’ part in a bright yellow colour in contrast to a colourful background with streaks of purple, blue and orange.

    Srivastava said they are informing existing customers about new content through notifications and emailers. Moreover, there is a way to interact with these consumers on the app itself. Apart from that, he adds that SonyLIV has been present on all digital and audiovisual platforms which provides it with the right kind of target audience including its network channels, major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. He added that SonyLIV was always well-played from a distribution point of view as its available across devices, platforms and telecom players. 

    He is also confident about customer retention even after the lockdown easing as it will have new content every week. Moreover, he added that live sports has also started and the sports fans are coming in and there might even be some more new sports content. As television shootings have resumed, catch-up content will also come back. Together, original, live sports, catch-up content will keep subscribers engaged. 

    Just after the launch, SPN digital business and SET content head Ashish Golwalkar said that it would start the journey with Hindi and English content. Although the English library has always been heavy of the streaming platform, it has now collaborated with the best creative minds of the country for good local content. 

    “Currently, we are starting with Hindi and English content. In English content, we have content from Sony Pictures Television, our own studio. We have acquired some content from ITV and NBC. We have an existing Lionsgate library. We have a rich rapporteur of English content. Now, we are launching with Your Honour. We will launch five shows in the next two months.  We have content planned for Hindi, Marathi and English. We have very enriching content from TVF as well,” he said.

    Golwalkar admitted that the space is highly competitive but even then he feels there is a lot of space for content in certain genres like comedy or content that is Indian in approach. According to him, there is not much content in the genre. The online content that is coming from India is revolving around crime, thriller and dark subjects. There are a lot of other stories that can be told and that will allow SonyLIV to create a niche for itself. He added that they would be launching around 15-20 originals in the next 12 months. Some of the content can be dubbed in major regional languages in the coming days.

    The first original with which the rebranded platform started the journey was Your Honor, Created by Applause Entertainment. Deepak Segal, the content head of Applause Entertainment said that it is one of format among six which were acquired from Israel. The show was first adapted and produced by it and then SonyLIV was approached. It has three shows coming up on SonyLIV.

  • Facebook hires directors to support growing partnerships in India

    Facebook hires directors to support growing partnerships in India

    NEW DELHI: Facebook has hired Francis  Jose, Manohar Hotchandani and Paras Sharma in its growing partnership team in India. With extensive experience in technology, telecom, media and entertainment, these new additions will help lead strategic partnerships and initiatives to support Facebook’s continued growth in India, with an overall aim for driving better value for business partners.

    Facebook India director and head of partnerships Manish Chopra said, “We are proud to expand our team with addition of Francis, Manohar and Paras – who are not only leading industry talents but also share Facebook’s passion to create unique experiences that drive business value for our partners and bring the world closer together.”

    Paras Sharma will be the director for media partnerships and lead the charter across news, entertainment, sports and music verticals for both Facebook and Instagram. Sharma comes with 23 years of experience with leading global media organizations like Viacom CBS Asia, Fox International Channels and ESPN Star Sports. He has worked across various functions including media, creative, content production, acquisition & programming, OTT platforms, marketing and business management and has led teams in diverse regions including India, SEA, China & Japan, with a focus on expanding to newer markets, creating localized programming and new programs; to grow audiences and engagement across linear and digital platforms.

    Francis Jose is the new director of mobile & connectivity partnerships for India and will drive engagements across the telecom, ISP & mobile devices industries in India. He joins Facebook from Samsung India Electronics and prior to that he has worked at Blackberry, Reliance Communications, Airtel, Aptech & BPL Mobile. Over the past 21 years, he has held responsibilities across a wide spectrum of roles including network engineering, business development, sales & distribution as well as strategic partner management; working with clients & principals to develop newer go to market strategies and expand their user bases.

    Manohar Hotchandani joins as director, business development and will be working across multiple opportunities in India, with a keen focus on growing gaming, commerce, AR/VR. He joins Facebook from Amazon where he led the Alexa voice service (AVS) business post a long stint at Microsoft across multiple roles. Manohar has 25+ years of experience across business development, ecosystem creation and management & P&L management with MNC companies like Microsoft and Amazon.

    All three of them will be reporting to Manish Chopra, director and head of partnerships at Facebook India. 

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  • Facebook launches Avatars in India

    Facebook launches Avatars in India

    NEW DELHI: Facebook today announced the launch of Avatars in India. With much of our social interaction these days are taking place online, it’s more important than ever to be able to express yourself personally on Facebook. Avatars will allow you to create a digital persona that’s uniquely representative of you and will enable you to share a range of emotions and expressions in a fun and personalised way.

    Starting today, people in India will be able to make an Avatar, a cartoon-like version of themselves by choosing from a variety of faces, hairstyles and outfits that have been specially customised for India. They will also be able to use their Avatar in Facebook comments, stories, your profile picture and Facebook Messenger chat windows and can even share it on WhatsApp chats.

    How to create your avatar:

    Our Avatar creator enables people to customise how they want to represent themselves across many dimensions such as facial features, hair, and outfits (to name a few!). This creator can be accessed from Bookmarks in your FB app, as well as from the comment composer. It’s also easy to access the avatar creator from someone else’s avatar shared across Facebook.

    To create your avatar, use your mobile device and go to the Facebook or Messenger comment composer, click on the “smiley” button, and then the sticker tab. Click “Create Your Avatar”! Or find the avatar creator in the Bookmarks section in your Facebook app. (Note: Avatar creation from Messenger is currently only available on Android, but will be rolled on iOS soon.)

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  • Harley-Davidson India introduces India’s first-ever virtual H.O.G. Rally

    Harley-Davidson India introduces India’s first-ever virtual H.O.G. Rally

    National: Continuing the streak of offering the most experiential and innovative events to its riders, Harley-Davidson India recently hosted India’s first-ever live virtual Eastern H.O.G. ® Rally (EHR) over Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. The EHR is one of Harley-Davidson’s zonal rallies which was originally planned for March 2020, however, had to be postponed on account of the lockdown. In a 60-minute live streaming show, Harley-Davidson India found yet another way to celebrate the love for motorcycling by engaging over 5.7 Lakh organic viewers across H-D’s social media platforms & partner platforms. In a first-of-its-kind initiative, Harley-Davidson India, through this virtual rally celebrated the shared passion for freedom, self-expression and epic adventure, attended live by thousands of H.O.G. community members. It also reached out to brand lovers outside the H.O.G. community giving them an opportunity to experience the Harley-Davidson lifestyle.

    Earlier in the year, the 8th India H.O.G. Rally was conducted in Goa in February ’20 that witnessed around 2500 riders joining the annual celebration in person.

    The Rally was kick-started by Mr. Sajeev Rajasekharan with a beauteous welcome message for the H.O.G. community, followed by a quick view on the post-lockdown phase by Regional Directors and the host dealer Bengal Harley-Davidson. The Rally offered exciting performances by leading artists such as Ash Chandler, The Unplugged Project, Rahul Ram from Indian Ocean and Debanjali Lily.

    Speaking on this first of its kind initiative, Sajeev Rajasekharan, Managing Director, – Asia Emerging Markets and India, Harley-Davidson said, “Harley-Davidson has always thrived upon sharing experiential events with their riders. With these changing times, Harley-Davidson India is adapting to new ways to provide experiences to its riders and deliver upon the promise of a Harley lifestyle.  This virtual rally is a testament of our commitment towards celebrating the H.O.G. community and keeping our riders at the forefront of everything we do.”

    The Virtual H.O.G. Rally also witnessed the first virtual launch of Harley Davidson’s new Low Rider® S model, a cruiser that takes a performance-first approach to customizing. This new model is powered by 1,868 CC Milwaukee-Eight 114 engine that puts out good 92 bhp at 5,020 rpm and 155 Nm and is paired with a six-speed transmission. The Low Rider S differentiates itself from the standard version with its all-black theme, it gets its styling inspiration from the West Coast custom design philosophy.  The new Low Rider S is the latest addition to the Softail family and is now available at most of the dealerships for a test ride. The model is priced at INR 14.69 lacs and was earlier introduced to market with a press announcement during the lockdown phase. 

  • Wake-up call for social media platforms as brands boycott in droves

    Wake-up call for social media platforms as brands boycott in droves

    NEW DELHI: Social media platforms, which were a boon for brands, seem to have turned into a bane now. After consumer product giant Unilever announced that it will halt advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the US for the rest of the year, due to the rising hate speech and upcoming election period, Coca-Cola, which advertises heavily on digital media, has also suspended advertising on social media for at least 30 days.

    "There is no place for racism in the world and there is no place for racism on social media," said The Coca-Cola Company chairman and CEO James Quincey.

    Should social media companies worry about the rising boycott? TRA founder and CEO N Chandramouli believes that the #BlackLivesMatter protests compelled brands to take a closer look at things they often considered “normal.”

    “Coca-Cola and Unilever are leaders not only in terms of the advertising spends but also thought-leaders such that other brands will see and follow. Social media has always been a little free of scrutiny with the indiscriminate show of ads with irrelevant content and also with content that the brand may not want to associate with. Social media has to turn its technology to deliver ads more contextually, with the advertiser deciding what type of content they do not want to be seen with," he says.

    The boycott has had a ripple effect with other brands coming on board to boycott including Diageo, Lululemon, Starbucks, Verizon. Levi's and Dockers have also restricted themselves from advertising on Facebook and Instagram till July. Hershey’s has also decided to join hands with #stophateforprofit; the brand will slash its advertising budget on Facebook. American Honda has also decided to withhold its advertising on Facebook and Instagram for Honda and Acura, to stand with people against hate and racism.

    Even P&G chief brand officer Marc Pritchard said that the company would be conducting a comprehensive review of where it was advertising.

    Tidal7 co-founder and chief creative officer KS Chakravarthy explains, “This is no longer about a few brands or a few hundred million in revenues. It is a wakeup call for all media and particularly for those depending on an online audience. Crossing the line can spark off a whole series of adverse reactions that can very quickly feed off one another to escalate into a universal movement. And it is this symbiotic growth of outrage that Facebook should be seriously worried about.”

    Unilever has more than two dozen brands in its kitty including popular ones like Dove, Lipton and Breyers. According to marketing analytics firm Pathmatics, Unilever spent more than $11.8 million in the US this year on Facebook. While it quit social media, the consumer giant will maintain its planned media investment by shifting to other media.

    Consults Inc founder Harish Bijoor shares, “Brands are getting sensitive in these sensitive times as to where they advertise. Coca-Cola and Unilever's action is part of this sentiment translating into action. Hate speech in the time of social angst is something responsible brands want to avoid. Social media will need to realign its content policy if it wants sponsors to stay with it in terms of advertising.” 

    Following the resentment, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, on Friday, said that the company would implement new policies to connect people with authoritative information about voting and fight hate speech. However, he did not directly address the advertisers boycott.

    As per media reports, Facebook brought in $69.7 billion in ad revenue globally through its millions of advertisers last year. The company said earlier this year it has more than eight million advertisers.

    Brand-nomics MD Viren Razdan says, “For Facebook, it’s really a time to put their transparency out to test, it’s important for them to clarify that their self-created code of conduct does not lean towards any business goals.”

    Chakravarthy says, “Social media does have a real responsibility and unfortunately, they are not stepping up, at least not enough, in many people's opinion, including their own employees.”

    The list of brands boycotting social media platforms, especially Facebook, is likely to increase and unless they take the issue seriously, may incur severe losses.

    (With inputs from Mansi Sharma)

  • Digital marketing beyond Google, Facebook, Amazon

    Digital marketing beyond Google, Facebook, Amazon

    NEW DELHI: The realm of digital marketing has grown much beyond the porticos of Google, Facebook and Amazon, with advertisers becoming eager to experiment with the platforms and investing in more targetted solutions, highlighted the diverse panel discussing the widening scope of digital marketing in the new world with Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari. 

    The panel consisted of Team Pumpkin co-founder and CBO Swati Nathani, Zoo Media and FoxyMoron co-founders Suveer Bajaj and Pratik Gupta, White Rivers Media CEO and co-founder Shrenik Gandhi, iProspect India AVP-strategic solutions Nihal Nambiar and Wavemaker India chief client officer and head-west Shekhar Banerjee.

    While the advertisers were already staying alert about the diverse possibilities digital marketing has to offer, Covid2019 acted as a catalyst in facilitating the move. 

    Gandhi insisted that while the world was expecting the number of people on traditional media and digital reaching at par in 2025, Covid2019 has managed to attain that within this year itself, thus prompting even the most traditional brands to venture online. 

    Nambiar noted, “It is a fact that the lockdown has been a crazy experience for the industry. Many brands had to remain completely silent while many increased their spends on digital platforms. Going ahead, brands realise it will be smarter for them to invest in at least one or two advertising media than going completely thin and that’s where digital will benefit.”

    He added that apart from the usual Google, Facebook, Amazon (e-commerce) mix, the brands are looking at more organic options to advertise. They are churning out their own properties, content, and are greatly investing in technology, to make the most of the medium. 

    Banerjee elucidated that brands are going heavy on performance marketing. “Apart from the usual search, social, and e-commerce mix, one platform that has become the biggest gainer during the period is e-groceries section, taking a huge part of the digital pie. Going ahead, hyperlocal platforms, with their changing business models will be more conducive to advertising.”

    He also hinted that influencer marketing will change in a big way in the future, with it becoming more hard-core and result-driven. Additionally, social commerce will attract a lot of advertisers. 

    Nathani added that outdoor screens like tabs inside the cabs will also attract of a lot of advertiser attention. 

    Bajaj lauded the growth that platforms like TikTok have gained during the period and also highlighted the prominence that OTT platforms are getting from the advertisers as consumers spike. “OTT picked up a big way during the covid-period, and with most of them running on a hybrid (AVOD+SVOD) model, attracted good revenues. While this quarter might not be big for them with advertisements, the subscriptions are hitting the roof. Going ahead, they will attract a lot of advertiser attention too.”

    In addition to these, gaming platforms and digital events are also going to get a substantial part of advertisers pie in the coming future. 

    TAGS: Digital Marketing, Indiantelevision Virtual Roundtable. FoxyMoron, Zoo Media, Pratik Gupta, Suveer Bajaj, Team Pumpkin, Swati Nathani, White Rivers Media, Shrenik Gandhi,  Wavemaker, Shekhar Banerjee, iProspect, Nihal Nambiar, TikTok, Google, Facebook, OTT 

  • Impact of Covid2019 on global ad spends on Indian ad industry

    Impact of Covid2019 on global ad spends on Indian ad industry

    The Covid2019 pandemic has presented serious challenges when it comes to stabilising the overall economy amidst lockdown, one of which is changing industry dynamics. Covid2019 has impacted the way brands, agencies and various other businesses work which disrupted the ever-evolving advertising and marketing industry. The world’s leading economies have witnessed a downfall in the revenue as the businesses are shut. While there is no handbook that one can follow in such crisis, it is essential for advertisers to re-calibrate their entire approach and connect with the right target audience.

    Since people spend maximum time staying at home during the quarantine, connecting with them through digital media is convenient. In such cases, advertiser’s needs to know the tactic of how to keep their audiences engaged through right media platforms and how to make the brands invest through them.

    Are brands taking a responsible route? Shifts that were witnessed

    Restrictions on travel due to lockdown have posed to be a threat for Out-of-home (OOH) advertising and seems to be a medium that has no realistic lockdown replacement as it has majorly been impacting revenues. But what has actively taken over the current scenario during these tough times and has saved brands from sinking is the way online advertising is responding to it. Brands have started focusing on alternative ways of boosting their businesses online by taking a different approach towards dealing with the current scenario.

    Is global ad spends sinking?

    Spending has now made a shift from the traditional means of advertising from newspaper ads, hoardings, printed pamphlets etc., to digitally active platforms. These include social media like Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and also digital OTT Platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, Voot etc. 

    Global ads are expected to sink this year as the pandemic has led to dip in travel and tourism and entertainment industry among others, all of which has impacted demand. This change in the global ad spending is what is been highlighted in the way brands have chosen to spend particularly on platforms as a means to increase their sales during and post lockdown. One of the major reasons why ad spends are sinking is because of the attitudinal shift in consumer behaviour. Most advertising companies will experience negative impacts on their business as ad revenues are dropping at a faster pace.  

    Even when sales are at halt because of the pandemic, what was to be noticed is the way how brands did not stop advertising. They continued to create awareness through digital platforms by posting TVCs and coming up with creative ways on Instagram pages which strongly depicted how brands are posing to be with their audience even during these tough times. 

    Creatives from various brands like Metro, Mochi, Burger King, Swiggy, Zomato, Audi etc., have found different ways and means to stay connected with their audiences on typical topics like lockdown, quarantine, isolated, pandemic while playing around strategically with these terms. Changing their logos to promote social distancing, etc brands like Dominos, Swiggy, Big Basket have even started safely delivering groceries by following WHO's guidelines at your door steps to hold credibility in the eyes of its consumers.

    Impact on Indian advertising industry

    While industry is actively dealing with the challenges of OOH during these challenging times, advertisers have now realised that digital progression is the only savior. Digital is the best medium for advertisers to reach their end users. We can already see a shift in Flipkart’s Big Billion Day sale, Myntra’s end of reason sale, etc has always happened in a particular way, but have a possibility of changing due to the crises.

    (The author is co-founder and managing director, Makani Creatives. The views expressed are his own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)