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  • Synamedia joins Alliance for Open Media

    Synamedia joins Alliance for Open Media

    MUMBAI: The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) has announced that Synamedia, the world's largest independent video software provider, has joined at the promoter level.

    As a member of the Alliance, Synamedia will collaborate with AOMedia members, which include fellow leading internet and media technology companies, to advance open standards for media compression and delivery over the web. Synamedia's video network portfolio features video distribution, processing, and delivery services, and solutions to power premium quality broadcast and broadband video, create compelling live multi-screen experiences, enable software-defined video processing and unify operations.

    AOMedia members include industry leaders like Amazon, ARM, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics, and Tencent.

    The availability of AOMedia Video Codec 1.0 (AV1), AOMedia's open-source, royalty-free video coding format is a significant milestone in the journey to deliver a next-generation video format. AV1 is interoperable, open, optimized for internet delivery and scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth. AV1 enables more screens to display the vivid images, deeper colours, brighter highlights, darker shadows, and other enhanced UHD imaging features that consumers and businesses have come to expect – all while using less data.

    "We're thrilled to join AOMedia. As customers make more intelligent use of virtualization and cloud, we see the adoption of AV1 as a way to further our own goals of enhancing online video streaming experiences for OTT at scale. We look forward to working alongside AOMedia members to open up new possibilities to use AV1 for royalty-free, cross-platform online video across a wide range of applications," said Julien Signes, senior vice president and general manager, video network at Synamedia.

    "We're excited to have Synamedia as our newest member, reflecting our joint commitment to increase the openness and interoperability of internet video," said Matt Frost, AOMedia vice president of communications and membership, and director at Google. "Synamedia brings to AOMedia a long history of live encoding and OTT delivery for major content distributors. We look forward to collaborating to improve the quality and availability of streaming video with AV1."

    Designed at the outset for hardware optimization, the AV1 specification, reference code, and bindings are available for toolmakers and developers to download here to begin designing AV1 into products. Specifically, the release of AV1 includes:

    Ø  Bitstream specification to enable the next generation of silicon

    Ø  Unoptimized, experimental software decoder and encoder to create and consume the bitstream

    Ø  Reference streams for product validation

    Ø  Binding specifications to allow content creation and streaming tools for user-generated and commercial video.

    Alliance for Open Media

    Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) was formed to define and develop media technologies to address marketplace demand for an open standard for video compression and delivery over the web. Board-level, Founding Members include Amazon, Apple, Arm, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics, and Tencent. AOMedia's open-source, royalty-free, video codec AV1 is a significant milestone in the ability to deliver a next-generation video format that is interoperable, open, optimized for internet delivery and scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth.

  • Facebook takes 9.9% stake in Reliance Jio, to invest Rs 43,574 cr

    Facebook takes 9.9% stake in Reliance Jio, to invest Rs 43,574 cr

    Mumbai: Facebook has bought a 9.9 per cent stake in Reliance Jio for $5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore), the telecom unit of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). The multibillion-dollar deal gives the social media giant a firm foothold in a fast-growing massive market and helps the Indian oil-to-telecom conglomerate to significantly cut debt.

    This investment by Facebook values Jio platforms at Rs 4.62 lakh crore pre-money enterprise value ($65.95 billion, assuming a conversion rate of Rs 70 to a US Dollar). Facebook’s investment will translate into a 9.99 per cent equity stake in Jio Platforms on a fully diluted basis.

    Mark Zuckerberg, in a statement, said: “There's a lot going on in the world right now, but I wanted to share an update on our work in India. Facebook is teaming up with Jio Platforms; we're making a financial investment, and more than that, we're committing to work together on some major projects that will open up commerce opportunities for people across India. India is home to the largest communities on Facebook and WhatsApp, and a lot of talented entrepreneurs. The country is in the middle of a major digital transformation and organizations like Jio have played a big part in getting hundreds of millions of Indian people and small businesses online.”

    Reliance Industries Ltd chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said: “When Reliance launched Jio in 2016, we were driven by the dream of India’s digital Survodaya – India’s inclusive digital rise to improve the quality of life of every single Indian and to propel India as the world’s leading Digital Society. All of us at Reliance are therefore humbled by the opportunity to welcome Facebook as our long-term partner in continuing to grow and transform the digital ecosystem of India for the benefit of all Indians. The synergy between Jio and Facebook will help realise prime minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Digital India’ Mission with its two ambitious goals — ‘ease of living’ and ‘ease of doing business’ – for every single category of Indian people without exception. In the post-Corona era, I am confident of India’s economic recovery and resurgence in the shortest period of time. The partnership will surely make an important contribution to this transformation.”

    Jio Platforms, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd, is a next-generation technology company building a digital society for India by bringing together Jio’s leading digital apps, digital ecosystems and India’s #1 high-speed connectivity platform under one umbrella. Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, which provides connectivity platform to over 388 million subscribers, will continue to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jio Platforms.

    Jio’s vision is to enable a digital India for 1.3 billion Indians and Indian businesses, especially small merchants, micro-businesses and farmers. Jio has brought transformational changes in the Indian digital services space and propelled India on the path towards becoming a global technology leader and among the leading digital economies in the world. 

    Jio has built a world-class digital platform powered by leading technologies such as broadband connectivity, smart devices, cloud and edge computing, big data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Augmented and Mixed Reality and Blockchain.

    Jio has created an eco-system comprising network, devices, applications, content, service experiences and affordable tariffs for every Indian to experience the Jio Digital Life. During the current Covid-19 crisis, Jio’s platforms have been a dependable and inclusive Digital Lifeline for India, said a company statement.

    As one of the largest countries in the world, India is home to some of Facebook’s most thriving communities on WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. Over the years, Facebook has invested in India based on a strong belief in country’s entrepreneurial talent and opportunity, to help create meaningful impact for Indians and Indian businesses using their multiple platforms.

    The partnership between Facebook and Jio is unprecedented in many ways. This is the largest investment for a minority stake by a technology company anywhere in the world and the largest FDI in the technology sector in India. The investment values Jio Platforms amongst the top five listed companies in India by market capitalisation, within just three and a half years of launch of commercial services, validating Reliance Industries’ capability in incubating and building disruptive next-generation businesses, while delivering market defining shareholder value.

    The investment will enable new opportunities for businesses of all sizes, but especially for small businesses across India and create new and exciting digital ecosystems that will empower, enrich and uplift the lives of all 1.3 billion Indians.

    This partnership will accelerate India’s all-round development, fulfilling the needs of Indian people and the Indian economy. The partnership focus will be India’s 60 million micro, small and medium businesses, 120 million farmers, 30 million small merchants and millions of small and medium enterprises in the informal sector, in addition to empowering people seeking various digital services.

    The partnership assumes special significance for India in the wake of the severe disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Indian — and the global — economy. In the post-COVID era, comprehensive digitalisation will be an absolute necessity for revitalisation of the Indian economy.

    Concurrent with the investment, Jio Platforms, Reliance Retail Limited (Reliance Retail) and WhatsApp have also entered into a commercial partnership agreement to further accelerate Reliance Retail’s New Commerce business on the JioMart platform using WhatsApp and to support small businesses on WhatsApp. WhatsApp already plays an important role in helping people and businesses connect in India. Reliance Retail’s New Commerce platform, JioMart, is being built in partnership with millions of small merchants and kirana shops to empower them to better serve the needs of Indian consumers. The companies will work closely to ensure that consumers are able to access the nearest kiranas which can provide products and services to their homes by transacting seamlessly with JioMart using WhatsApp.

    The transaction is subject to regulatory and other customary approvals. Morgan Stanley as financial advisor and AZB & Partners and Davis Polk & Wardwell as counsels advised on the transaction.

  • Zee Keralam engages audience with a variety of content during lockdown

    Zee Keralam engages audience with a variety of content during lockdown

    MUMBAI: Zee Keralam, the fastest growing general entertainment channel in Malayalam, is introducing a variety of content to engage their audience confined to their homes due to the national lockdown.

    Zee Keralam took to its social media handle to do daily Facebook Lives of its fiction stars, SaReGaMaPa Keralam finalists and non-fiction celebrities. All of them connected from their respective homes and gave the audience a look into how they’re spending this lockdown with their families and encouraged everyone to stay home. Some of the popular stars include Pearle Maaney who stars in the channel’s comedy show Funny Nights with Pearle Maaney, Amala Gireesan and Stebin Jacob who play the lead roles in Zee Keralam’s top fiction Chembarathi, actor Shiju from their latest fiction Neeyum Njanum followed by the leads of most of the serials on the channel.

    The latest FB Live : https://www.facebook.com/ZeeKeralam/videos/208181637148784/?vh=e&d=n

    As a Vishu special release, the SaReGaMaPa Keralam contestants have not let the lockdown stop their music from reaching their audience base. The five confirmed finalists Aswin Vijayan, Swetha Ashok, Keerthana, Libin Scaria and Jasim Jamal have sung an Acapella song together for the Zee Keralam's audience from their homes which received tremendous response on Zee Keralam’s social media handle.

    Link to the Vishu Special Song: https://www.facebook.com/2013890732265019/posts/2619583835029036/?vh=e&d=n

    Furthermore, the channel has also launched an entertainment show on the story of legendary poet Thennali Raman who outwits everyone with his sharp wit and intelligent charm. The programme targets audience of all age groups. It’s currently being aired from Monday to Friday at 6 pm.

    Link to the latest Tennali Raman promo: https://www.facebook.com/2013890732265019/posts/2617953295192090/?vh=e&d=n

    The channel continues to add more progressive shows to their programming mix. Zee Keralam has seen incremental growth since its launch and is completing one-and-a-half years of operations in Kerala the following month.

  • The Zoom Studios launches #StuckWithYou initiative

    The Zoom Studios launches #StuckWithYou initiative

    MUMBAI: The Zoom Studios, with its new initiative ‘#StuckWithYou’, offers curated content that inspires everyone to convert these tough times into fond memories. Akin to the brand ethos of presenting powerful and real-life narrative, The Zoom Studios’ #StuckWithYou brings stories and experiences that make the most of being ‘stuck’. The initiative encourages its viewers to do things that they often forget in daily rigmarole. Be it playing a board game with a sibling or cooking for the parents, #StuckWithYou gives viewers a reason to live in the present and lessen the worry of an uncertain future.

    Through a series of curated content formats like scrapbook, tiny quarantine tales, changed lyrics of songs, video logs, audio stories across social media, #StuckWithYou will talk about rekindling relationships, taking your first steps, exploring your inner selves, confessions, introspections or simply re-living your childhood and much more.

    “These are unprecedented times. With a nationwide lockdown, the feeling of being ‘stuck’ is causing anxiousness and anxiety amongst everyone. At The Zoom Studios, we wanted to reverse the feeling of being stuck from negative to positive. As India, and the world, fights this virus we want to encourage our viewers to use this time to enjoy the little joys and never take them for granted again, and our initiative is a step forward in this direction. By putting out real and heart-warming content, we at The Zoom Studios humbly attempt to add doses of happiness in the life and times of lockdown,” said Times Network COO and executive president Jagdish Mulchandani. 

  • Weekly TV viewing mins up by 8%, smartphone time spent up by 6.2% during Covid-19: BARC India & Nielsen

    Weekly TV viewing mins up by 8%, smartphone time spent up by 6.2% during Covid-19: BARC India & Nielsen

    MUMBAI: As India goes through an unprecedented lock-down in living memory due to the Covid-19 crisis, people are increasingly consuming more content on TV and smartphones, according to a report. BARC India and Nielsen have jointly put together a report to understand the changes in consumption behaviours of TV and smartphones, respectively, given the extraordinary situation surrounding the Covid pandemic and its fallout.

    Key highlights: –

    1.  Expectedly the COVID disruption period has seen an increase in television viewership – 6% increase in TV reach and 8 per cent increase in TV viewing minutes /week. The time spent on TV / viewer has seen a jump by 2 per cent.
    The PM’s address to the nation on complete lockdown garnered unprecedented viewership of 197 million watching it across the country. 
    2.  When we look at smartphone behaviour the time spent on smartphones per user has gone up by 6.2 per cent. The time spent/user/week on VOD apps has also seen an increase of 3 per cent. If we look at the increase in the time spent/user/week over that of the previous week (to take away the impact of cricket viewing in the PRE COVID period considered), we can see a jump of 5 per cent.
    3.  Kids’ schools being shut down and the stress of exams off their shoulders; this increase in Television viewing is driven by Kids (+20 per cent). With corporate India getting into work from home mode, we are seeing NCCS A showing an 11 per cent increase in viewership. Even on smartphone usage, the increase in driven NCCS A (+7.7 per cent) and 35-44 year olds (+10.7 per cent).
    4.  People staying at home means watching TV throughout the day and hence the growth in TV viewing is coming during non-prime time slots (8am – 5 pm).
    5.  The need for continuous updates expectedly has led to a huge increase in news consumption on television (57 per cent increase in Impressions), while spending more time as a family together could be leading to the movies genre and the kids genre also showing significant increases. 
    6.  This behaviour is seen in digital consumption as well with news and gaming showing huge increases. News apps saw 8 per cent more users per week with an increase of 17 per cent in time spent/user/week. This growth was led by non-English News apps (+87 per cent). Gaming apps saw an increase of 2 per cent in users/week and with a 11 per cent increase in time spent/user/week.
    7.  With a lot of uncertainty around what is happening, people have increased their time spent on chatting (+23 per cent) and social networking (+25 per cent) apps.  Almost all social networking apps – Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have seen significant increases not only in time spent /user/week but also in the sessions/ user/ week. 
    8.  Expectedly shopping apps, travel apps and food apps have seen a huge drop in both users/ week and time spent/user/week. 
    9.  It’s not just TV viewership that has seen an increase – we can advertising FCT on TV has increased by 13 per cent. 

    Sharing her views on the current surge in smartphone usage, Nielsen Global Media, South Asia country leader Dolly Jha said, “We are living through unprecedented times! physical social distancing seems to have led to a phenomenal growth in virtual social togetherness with an almost 20 per cent increase in time spent per user on chats, social media and news in the last one week. And we anticipate this to grow further.”

    Elaborating on the topic BARC India CEO Sunil Lulla said, “These are unfortunate and unprecedented times. Working closely with Nielsen, we bring for our customers and stake-holders, this very significant and important update, on change in content and advertising consumption behaviour, with a significant population at home. We will report soon enough, the impact of total lockdown. Our respective brave teams are working (WFH) round the clock to ensure the TV measurement currency, continues uninterrupted.” 

    On 24 March 2020, with the prime minister announcing a total lockdown in the country, peo ple are slowly coming to terms with the new normal. It started with many states enforcing the lock-down, partially and fully, and many places of work enforcing work from home (WFH). Faced with the predicament of not being able to move out of their homes, people are creating new ways of spending time productively.

    It is a well known fact that Television Viewing is an integral part of the Indian ethos. An average Indian is known to spend a considerable number of hours with 3 hours, 51 minutes every day on TV. So, it is obvious that forced confinement will lead to changes in TV consumption behaviour.

    Today if there is one device besides the TV which is an integral part of the Indian consumers’ lives, it is the smartphone. People today depend on their smartphones not just for communication and social interactions, but also for entertainment, banking and financial transactions, purchase of daily need goods like groceries, personal care to durables.  It is but natural that this period of forced confinement would also engender some change in the way people interact with their smartphones.

    As the situation continues to evolve in the coming weeks, BARC and Nielsen will also continue to track shifts in TV and Smartphone audience behaviour. Future reports will be released on a weekly basis to keep the ecosystem abreast of how audiences in India are adjusting their TV and Smartphones consumption around the new normal.

    BARC is the official currency on Television Measurement in India and Nielsen runs a 12000 strong smartphone panel passively capturing smartphone behaviour.
     

  • Facebook ad biz weakening despite upsurge in users

    Facebook ad biz weakening despite upsurge in users

    MUMBAI: Streaming services, social media services and apps are emerging as the unwitting beneficiaries of an unprecedented situation which has forced people to stay at their homes. The usage of Facebook has gone up in many of the countries hit hardest by the novel coronavirus. Total messaging has increased more than 50 per cent over the last month. Moreover, in places hit hardest by the virus, voice and video calling have more than doubled on Messenger and WhatsApp. Despite the spike in usage, however, Facebook's ad business seems to be weakening.

    Facebook shared in its blog post that much of the increased traffic is happening on its messaging services, but it has also seen more people using its feed and stories to get updates from family and friends. 

    “At the same time, our business is being adversely affected like so many others around the world. We don’t monetise many of the services where we’re seeing increased engagement, and we’ve seen a weakening in our ads business in countries taking aggressive actions to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” Facebook stated.

    According to Cowen & Co analysts' estimate, the two internet giants, Facebook and Google, together, could lose more than $44 billion in worldwide ad revenue. Facebook ad revenue for the year is expected to slide by $15.7 billion to reach $67.8 billion for the year. 

    “During this emergency, we’re doing everything we can to keep our apps fast, stable and reliable. Our services were built to withstand spikes during events such as the Olympics or on New Year’s Eve. However, those happen infrequently, and we have plenty of time to prepare for them. The usage growth from COVID-19 is unprecedented across the industry, and we are experiencing new records in usage almost every day,” it added further. 

    The social media giant also noted that maintaining stability throughout these spikes in usage is more challenging than usual as now most of the employees are working from home. However, it has mentioned that the team is working to keep the apps running smoothly while also prioritising features such as COVID-19 Information Center on Facebook as well as the World Health Organization’s Health Alert on WhatsApp.  To help alleviate potential network congestion, Facebook is temporarily reducing bit rates for videos on Facebook and Instagram in certain regions. 

  • Facebook announces call for applications from non-profit organisations for its CSR grant

    Facebook announces call for applications from non-profit organisations for its CSR grant

    MUMBAI: Facebook India today announced a call for applications for its CSR initiative, Facebook Pragati – powered by N/Core (The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation). The initiative will incubate and accelerate, early stage women led non-profits that are working in the areas of women entrepreneurship and to drive awareness and adoption of technology among women in India. This is a part of the Corporate Social responsibility mandate by the Government, where Facebook will work in collaboration with N/Core. Facebook Pragati will award four grants of up to 50 lakhs for each non-profit to scale their work. 

    Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India said, “Facebook is an ally for accelerating India’s growth and promoting inclusion is one of our key priorities. An important enabler for that is financial independence. The relative number of businesses in India run by women entrepreneurs is still very low. We are committed to helping women entrepreneurs succeed through greater access to digital platforms, funds and mentorship. Our CSR focus with Facebook Pragati will be to empower women to set-up and grow their businesses, and contribute to making the country economically and socially stronger. ”

    “N/Core believes in the massive potential of women entrepreneurs to drive innovation, create jobs, unlock the power of technology, and fuel India’s economic growth. We are excited to partner with Facebook in launching Pragati and taking a significant step towards bridging the deficit for providing essential support for women entrepreneurs.” added Akshay Soni, Managing Director, N/Core Accelerator 

    Each of the non-profits selected for Facebook Pragati initiative will get access to:

    Direct Grant: as resources to build an organization and scale operations for a greater impact. Each non-profit selected will receive a grant of upto INR 50Lac.
    Mentorship:  by an N/Core Partner – Kamakshi Rao (Partner, Ankur Capital); K R Lakshminaraya (Chief Endowment Officer of Azim Premji Foundation) and S K Jain (Co-founder, WestBridge Capital) amongst others. The startups will also receive hands-on support in areas like technology, marketing and human resources from renowned experts and industry leaders including Facebook’s leadership team and employee volunteers 
    Fund-raising: Along with improving the fundraising strategy of the nonprofits through techniques including targeting and storytelling, the program will also ensure face to face meetings with funders to enable the nonprofits to utilise and internalise the learnings, leading to greater sustainability. 
    Organisational capacity building: the program will work on building second tier capacity within the nonprofits, with a series of functional mentors across marketing, HR and technology. Apart from creating sustainability, this will also let the founder of organisation to  spend time on strategic growth, resulting in scaling up faster.

    Who can apply?

    Nonprofits that are less than 3 years old and have at least one woman founder
     Should be able to demonstrate a viable business plan, working in the space of women entrepreneurship and promoting use of technology in India. 

  • Brand Factory launches #365OrNothing campaign on the occasion of International Women’s Day

    Brand Factory launches #365OrNothing campaign on the occasion of International Women’s Day

    Mumbai: Future Group’s retail discount chain, Brand Factory has launched a new campaign #365OrNothing that urges us to celebrate womanhood 365 days. The hard-hitting digital ad campaign aims at breaking the stereotypical habit of celebrating, recognizing women and being respectful only on one day. 

    The messaging resonates with the brand’s core value and proposition of #Discounts356days which lets the consumers purchase their favourite brands at the most discounted rates. It is definitely a unique campaign as it champions to break the stereotype and yet remain in touch with the essence of women’s day.

    The ad-film captures real-life instances that a woman faces, from receiving a horde of WhatsApp messages, roses etc., and highlights how they ought to be treated throughout the year. Brand Factory narrates that people should continue the same behaviour irrespective of what day it is. 

    Link: http://bit.ly/BF_WomensDay

    The digital campaign was launched on various online platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter amongst others. A series of posts, teasers and contests will be running across the social media platforms to engage with shoppers. The engaging contests will give shoppers a chance to express their views on this topic. The most gripping responses will get a chance to shop for free at Brand Factory.

    Roch D’Souza, CMO, Brand Factory commented “As a brand, we always try to have a different narrative pertaining to the occasion while keeping our core values and proposition in focus. So, on this Women’s Day, we wanted to break the clutter and urge people to recognize women and be respectful all the year round. Alongside, we also wanted women to know that they are special, not just this one day but all 365 days. We are giving a platform to our customers to buy their favourite premium brands at highly discounted prices and feel special every day. We believe that women deserve nothing less. Hence 365 days or nothing!”

  • Facebook Announces New Communications Head for India

    Facebook Announces New Communications Head for India

    March: Facebook today announced that it has recruited a new communications head to lead its growing corporate communications and public relations mandate in India. Bipasha Chakrabarti will take on the role of Communications Director at Facebook India, and will be a part of the India leadership team, reporting to Ajit Mohan.

    Bipasha comes with eighteen years of experience working with leading tech brands and PR agencies. In her last assignment as the Head of Corporate Communications at Cisco India and SAARC, she not only led the entire gamut of communications, including analyst, technology, and corporate communications, but also managed leadership and executive communications for the office of APJC President. Prior to Cisco, Bipasha was with Sun Microsystems. As part of her new role, she will lead the communications charter for both Facebook and Instagram in India.

    The announcement comes just a month after Facebook announced the hiring of Avinash Pant as the Marketing Director at Facebook India to drive the company’s consumer marketing efforts across the family of apps. Just a year ago, Facebook had also announced a new leadership structure in India bringing the company’s functions under Ajit Mohan, reporting directly to its headquarters in Menlo Park.

    Said Ajit Mohan, VP and MD of Facebook India, “Communications is a critical function for us as we continue to build Facebook’s story in India. We are grateful for the trust that our users, advertisers, partners, and the government have placed in us, and are committed to communicating openly and transparently. Bipasha is among the most seasoned communication professionals in the country and I am very excited to have her join us and lead this charter.”

    Over the course of last year, Facebook has spearheaded several India-focused initiatives with a strong focus on fueling entrepreneurship, boosting digital skilling, and breaking the gender imbalance on the Internet.

    In the last few months, Facebook has recruited for key roles across multiple functions such as Marketing, Sales, Partnerships, and Policy. Consistent with the new organization structure, several of these roles have been spread across the Facebook family of apps.

  • Facebook launches first high-decibel marketing campaign in India

    Facebook launches first high-decibel marketing campaign in India

    DELHI: India alone accounts for 11 per cent of Facebook’s global user-base, making it the biggest for the social media platform. The country, with its growing internet penetration and smartphone market provides ample opportunities for the platform to grow and therefore, it is not leaving any stone unturned to tap the space.

    After updating the branding of the Facebook company in November 2019 and annoucing the appointment of Avinash Pant as the marketing director for India operations, Facebook has released its first high-decibel campaign ‘More Together’ in India, making the country the first Asia-Pacific region to witness its roll-out.

    “Consumer marketing is a new strategic area of focus for Facebook and is part of the company’s priority of transparently communicating the role its services play in the world. ‘More Together’ is the marketing campaign for the Facebook App, to share stories that celebrate and highlight the power of connections.  It is built on the core belief that people can do more together, than alone," shared Facebook in a press release.

    Facebook India VP and MD Ajit Mohan noted that India is at the heart of Facebook. He insisted that the brand wants to tell stories of its services that are deeply embedded in the fabric of India. “While at the company level we remain focussed on building trust, we want to showcase the many ways that Facebook is intertwined in the lives of Indians – from connecting with loved ones, to growing businesses and supporting local communities, to finding ways to come together to learn and share and celebrate.”

    The first film of the campaign, themed around the upcoming festival of Holi, has been catching the fancy of the media veterans.

    Praising the campaign, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc founder Harish Bijoor said, “Brands need to keep reminding their users that they are culturally in sync and in connect. Facebook is doing just that with this piece of communication. It is a format of pure goodwill communication at play. It seeks nothing but goodwill.”

    Samsika Marketing Consultants founder chairman and managing director Jagdeep Kapoor told Indiantelevision.com, “It is a vibrant campaign, taking the brand, Facebook, at a higher emotional level, far and wide and deepening friendship beyond boundaries, which keeping the Indianness intact, in this case through Holi.”

    Kapoor feels that the campaign will take the brand reach wider and deeper. He stated that the timing is perfect to launch such campaign which is topical and relatable.

    The multi-channel campaign has been conceptualised by Taproot Dentsu and will have multiple campaigns going on-air over the next few weeks, in eight languages.

    Dentsu Aegis Network creative chairperson and Taproot Dentsu co-founder Agnello Dias taking delight in developing the campaign said, “The world of Facebook represents a canvas of connections that’s huge, vibrant and full of serendipitous outcomes and surprises. To celebrate all users and to inspire more of them to benefit from the power of connections, our creative team led by Pallavi Chakravarti, wrote stories with all these unexpected, wonderful outcomes, which are inspired by real people and their real journeys.”