ITV

Tag: Facebook

  • Tamil Nadu Government directs blood banks and hospitals to use Facebook to boost blood donations

    Tamil Nadu Government directs blood banks and hospitals to use Facebook to boost blood donations

    MUMBAI: The Government of Tamil Nadu, today announced that it has directed all blood banks in Tamil Nadu to use Blood Donation feature on Facebook, to reach out to voluntary donors .

    There is a huge demand for blood every day all over the world. Acute shortage of voluntary blood donations can lead to lack access for many people to this critical lifeline. However, the Indian health ecosystem is undergoing transformation backed by digital technologies, helping in many ways in optimizing the process of blood donation.

    The Tamil Nadu Government feels social media with its power and reach to connect people, can help to create awareness and enable voluntary blood donations. The State government has issued a directive to all blood banks and hospitals in the state to use Facebook blood donation feature, in order to bridge the gap between blood donors and nearby blood banks.

    Speaking on the National Voluntary Blood Donor Day, Hon’ble Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Tamil Nadu, Dr. C. Vijaya Baskar said “One of the biggest reasons for blood shortage is the lack of access and appropriate know how among potential donors to donate blood. We believe that Blood Donation feature on Facebook, will help us to reach out many donors and encourage them to donate. It can also be one of the fastest and seamless ways, to let donors know of critical blood needs in their areas”

    All banks have gone through comprehensive training workshops to on board them on to Facebook Blood Donation feature and have learnt how about how they can connect with donors on Facebook basis their needs.

    Speaking on the occasion, Manish Chopra, Director and Head of Partnerships, Facebook India said “Our Blood Donation Feature is a great example of how extraordinary opportunities emerge when people and technology connect. In the two years since its launch, over 22 million people in India have registered as blood donors on Facebook. We are also continuously working with our partners across the spectrum to help the Blood Donation feature, to be accessible for a growing number of blood donors in India. Our partnership with the Govt. of Tamil Nadu is an extension of our commitment to make sure blood banks have access to these donors / blood banks regularly and help to create safe and sustainable supply of blood.”

    Launched in 2017, Blood Donation Feature on Facebook connects people willing to donate blood with opportunities nearby. People can sign up as donors on Facebook and get notified when blood banks near post about their blood requirements. Blood Donation feature was first launched in India and is now available in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Brazil and in USA with over 50 million people are registered as blood donors on Facebook.

    This National Voluntary Blood Donor Day, you too can give blood and save a life. Want to find a blood bank near you? It’s simple, sign-up with Facebook and find an opportunity to donate blood today. www.facebook.com/donateblood

  • Facebook plans to invest in tech startups of India

    Facebook plans to invest in tech startups of India

    MUMBAI: Social media giant Facebook is planning to invest in technology startups of India. Few months back, the first minority investment that Facebook made was in Meesho. Speaking at the opening session of the second edition of ‘Huddle Kerala 2019,’ Facebook India vice president and managing director revealed the plan.

    “We now have shown willingness to make direct investments in technology startups in India. We are willing to spend our time, and energy to tap the massive depth of engineering talent in the country,” Mohan said.

    The first investment Meesho could bring 2,00,000 first-time female entrepreneurs online which relies on the existing behaviour of communities in India and leverages on women entrepreneurs essentially pitching products to their friends and families.

    “It is an innovation that was coming out of India which can be exported to rest of the world, and that model has scaled a dramatic impact in job creation. Any analysis of economy, most of the job creation happens from small business,” Mohan added.

  • Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Facebook Partner To Launch Industry’s First Creative Playbook on Short-Form Mobile Video Strategy

    Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Facebook Partner To Launch Industry’s First Creative Playbook on Short-Form Mobile Video Strategy

    Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Facebook today jointly released a creative playbook at the MMA Forum India event in Mumbai. The creative playbook – a special MUMBAI: white paper on short-form video strategy titled ‘From a Blink to a HeartBeat’ – will help marketers and agencies push past the conventional creative practices to adapt and execute winning short-form video ad strategies and Thumbstopping creatives that are built for mobile as a medium.

    The white paper combines MMA’s groundbreaking neuroscience study of mobile ads, the First Second Strategy Cognition Research, with the core principles behind Facebook's Thumbstoppers initiative to provide the advertising and marketing industry in India with its first in-depth, research-backed creative playbook focused on short-form mobile video ads strategy.

    “A core guiding principle of the MMA is a commitment to science and truth in marketing for brands, leveraging future oriented research techniques and methodologies.” said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, MMA Asia Pacific. “The neuroscience cognition research undeniably supports marketers in making better decisions around both their marketing investments and creative strategies in digital. This white-paper, authored by MMA and Facebook, serves as a unique playbook for the industry to develop both strategy and creative or mobile video advertising“.

    MMA’s research about cognitive processing of advertising in a mobile environment is one of the world’s first and most comprehensive neuroscience-based studies on understanding how consumers respond to advertising on mobile. The most important insight from this study is that the cognitive process is faster than we thought, and that the human brain needs less than 1/2 second to engage with mobile advertising and trigger a reaction, positive or negative. The main implication of these findings is that brands have less time than they thought to win consumers in today´s fast-paced advertising environment. This is where Facebook’s Thumbstoppers comes in.

    For the last six months, Facebook has spearheaded ‘Thumbstoppers’ Program, which was launched in May with an aim of inspiring, educating, and challenging the creative ecosystem with powerful storytelling for video ads in less than 10 seconds. To help marketers make the greatest impact with their targeted audiences using short-form video, Facebook has partnered with the top advertising agencies and brands of the country.

    Speaking about the whitepaper and the collaboration with MMA, Sandeep Bhushan, Director and Head, Global Marketing Solutions (GMS), Facebook India said, “The findings of the MMA ‘s neuroscience cognition research are testimony to the rationale behind Thumbstoppers. This white paper combines the comprehensive knowledge of MMA on the topic with Facebook’s study and experience with thousands of campaigns across verticals. We’ve consistently delivered business results for our advertisers, large and small, and this is an opportunity for us to now take the best-practices of Thumbstoppers even wider across the industry, helping our advertisers realize even stronger efficiencies.”

    The key belief behind Thumbstoppers is that there has been a dramatic change in consumer behaviour due to mobile; people consume as well as recall content faster on mobile. With mobile becoming more pervasive the industry needs to embrace the possibility that stories that stop thumbs from scrolling, evoke emotions, and change human behavior can be told in under ten seconds. Facebook’s understanding of Thumbstoppers is built on the back of meta studies of thousands of campaigns and fine tuned by creative directors who have used them.

    How to create an effective Thumbstopper Ad – The playbook for the marketer in the mobile age

    1)      Duration – Stop thumbs, move hearts in under 10 seconds: Thumbstoppers are brief and need to remain under 10 seconds to be effective

    2)      Branding – Convey your key message immediately: Thumbstoppers showcase their brands and message early on and often

    3)      Visuals: Show your products in action: Thumbstoppers use striking visuals to grab attention

    4)      Sound – Design for sound-off but delight with sound on: Thumbstoppers use visual concepts to communicate to viewers who might watch with sounds turned off

    5)      Opening – Make the first few visuals count: Thumbstoppers have strong opening visuals to grab attention and lock the audience in

    Top-performing mobile ads have an element of surprise. By experimenting with strong design elements, one can make ads more effective. The key is to ‘Be creative, and test, learn and adapt’.

  • ICC announces ground- breaking partnership with Facebook

    ICC announces ground- breaking partnership with Facebook

    MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council today announced a ground-breaking partnership with Facebook which will become the exclusive digital content rights partner for ICC global events in the Indian sub-continent and will also carry post match recaps throughout the rest of the world through to 2023.

    The collaboration builds on the unprecedented digital success of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019, which cemented cricket’s position as one of the world’s most watched sports, netting 4.6 billion #CWC19 video views across ICC’s digital and social media platforms.

    Facebook will carry a range of digital content across four years including match recaps, in-play key moments and other match and feature content, giving the hundreds of millions of cricket fans in the region the opportunity to deepen their engagement with the sport with more content available than ever before.

    ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said: “We are delighted to welcome Facebook to the global cricket family for this multi-year, multi-market partnership which is a first for our sport. The combination of one of the world’s most watched sports with one of the world’s largest platforms is exciting for the future of our game.

    “The record-breaking growth in digital consumption at this summer’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup demonstrated the continued power of cricket to connect and engage more deeply with diverse audiences around the world.

    “Throughout the competitive bid process, we received tremendous interest from a range of platforms, all of whom recognise the phenomenal reach of cricket. In Facebook, we have a genuine partner who shares in our ambition to continue to grow and deepen engagement with cricket fans globally using its platforms.”

    Ajit Mohan, VP and Managing Director Facebook India said, “We are excited to partner with the ICC to bring the most exciting moments in cricket to Facebook Watch and to chart the next stage of technology led transformation in cricket. 

    With Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, the ICC has an exceptional opportunity to leverage our family of apps to serve current sports fans as well as bring in an entirely new generation of fans. Every day, people come to our platforms to talk about, and form friendships around, cricket. With this partnership, we will be able to serve these fans with the kind of premium content that can ignite new conversations, new connections and new followership.

    The future of AR and VR is being charted by Facebook and we are excited about the possibility of bringing the best of our innovations to fans around the world.”

    The package includes the following events across the 2019-2023 cycle:

    ICC Major Global Events
    ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020
    ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020
    ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021
    ICC World Test Championship Final 2021
    ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021
    ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2022
    ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023
    ICC World Test Championship Final 2023

    ICC Men’s Qualifying Events:
    ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019
    ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2022

    Other ICC Events:
    ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2020
    ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2022

  • SEMrush to kick-off the Biggest Business Show in India

    SEMrush to kick-off the Biggest Business Show in India

    New Delhi: SEMrush a leading online visibility management platform will host the biggest business event in India which is to be held on 5th December 2019 in Bangalore at Sheraton Grande Whitefield Hotel & Convention Center.

    SEMrush Marketing Show will have around 40 worldwide speakers from top international companies, including Microsoft, IBM, Uber, etc.  The opening keynote will be presented by one of the most known marketers all over the world – Larry Kim talking about growth marketing strategies. The conference will be also featured by the leaders at Shopify, Hubspot, Quora, Swiggy, Nykaa and others. The workshop track of the conference will be conducted by speakers from Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and SEMrush.

    Sharing his thoughts on the conference, one of the conference’s speakers Charmis Pala, Global SEO Head at Cleartrip.com states, “This conference is an excellent opportunity to receive the latest industry news, learn the best practices from marketing leaders and get new creative ideas for your digital marketing campaigns. It's great to see that such conferences are coming to India.”

    The conference will gather around 2,000 participants responsible for implementing marketing technology and operations that drive growth, profitability, and extraordinary customer experiences in Indian and international companies. According to SEMrush data, global searches for top Indian startups which got abroad, grew by 12% in the last three years. For some of these companies, the growth of interest exceeds even 1000%. No surprise ‘digital marketing' is 140% higher in the demand in Google in India now than it was in 2016.

    Mr. Fernando Angulo, Head of Communications, SEMrush commented, “This conference will bring about a change in practices of the marketing leaders and will enhance them with new ideas and latest industry updates. It will bring a revolutionary change in the market which will eventually lead to innovative campaign. It is our honor and privilege to come up with such conference in India.”

  • Facebook’s New Ads Bundle Signals Growing Importance of Interactivity in Online Advertising

    Facebook’s New Ads Bundle Signals Growing Importance of Interactivity in Online Advertising

    New Delhi: Facebook is rolling out a suite of new interactive ad solutions today including Poll ads, Augmented Reality (AR) ads, Instagram poll stickers for Stories ads, and Brand Playables. The new Ad solutions released today are built on people’s natural desire to interact, engage, and touch. Interactive Ads enable instant two-way communication and get people involved, which is a natural fit for how people, especially the youth, engages on mobile phones. With the festive season coming up in India, this suite of interactive Ads can help advertisers engage with their consumers in new and interesting ways. 

    "At Facebook, we build for people first. This means our products, services, and Ad solutions have evolved to meet people’s growing desire to engage and participate in ideas. This is also a key reason why they have delivered consistent business results for our advertisers, large and small. In the age of reducing attention spans, Interactive Ads are one of the most effective ways of holding the attention of the consumer. They are also easy to execute – a poll Ad can be created in just five seconds. The new Ad bundle will especially add value to brands looking at high-engagement festive campaigns,” said Sandeep Bhushan, Director and Head of Global Marketing Solutions (GMS), at Facebook India. 

    Increasingly people want to participate in a brand’s big idea and they’re using innovative ways of doing so – less words, more GIFs, Lives, Reactions, emojis, face filters, and stickers. In turn, brands and people are becoming more intertwined and it’s changing digital advertising from a one-way push communication to an ongoing dialogue powered by creativity. “This behavior is unfolding across our family of apps. Already, 60% of businesses on Instagram use an interactive element such as @mention, hashtag or poll sticker, in Stories every month. What started with exploring new things on mobile has morphed into vast and varied conversations that welcome people’s participation and will eventually immerse them into shared experiences. To help brands further embrace this trend, we are announcing new ad solutions that encourage a playful experience between people and businesses, and deliver results,” said May Seow, APAC Creative Strategy Lead, The Creative Shop at Facebook.

    Facebook is now bringing video poll ads to Facebook mobile Feed, globally available this month. Poll ads allow advertisers to insert polls to video ads and enable an interactive, personalized advertising experience. Facebook is launching three variants of poll ads, and each will support the reach, brand awareness objective (BAO), traffic, and app installs objectives:

    ·       Poll Only: enable advertisers to interact with their target audience to drive brand lift.

    ·       Poll plus Watch & Browse: enable advertisers to capture peoples' preference for personalized journeys on their websites.

    ·       Poll plus Watch & Install: enable advertisers to interact with people and drive them toward an app install.

    Advertisers can insert a poll question and two corresponding response options to a video ad campaign in the Facebook mobile News Feed. “In early findings, we’re seeing poll ads in Feed drive increased brand awareness and conversions. For example, in 5 out of 9 brand lift studies, we observed poll ads increased brand awareness compared to video ads,” Seow said.

    In addition to interactive questions, people use face filters and fun animation in the 1 billion stories shared every day across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. For businesses, the augmented reality opportunity is clear. For WeMakeUp, a US-based cosmetics brand, AR Ads on Facebook enabled customers to try on its latest shade of lipstick, and as a result the brand drove a 27.6 point lift in purchases with the average person spending 38 seconds interacting with the ad unit. Facebook is now expanding this AR opportunity to more advertisers, entering open beta for AR Ads globally over the next few months.

    Lastly, Facebook is also expanding its playable ad format that allows people to play a game to drive downloads, conversations, and brand objectives. Uber India used the Playable format for a campaign during the 2019 Cricket World Cup and saw 3X higher Ad Recall Lift Rate and 10% higher click through rate (CTR) compared to other brand awareness campaigns.

    The expansion of playables is now available for all advertisers globally.

  • Facebook and Instagram roll out music products in India

    Facebook and Instagram roll out music products in India

    MUMBAI: Facebook announced new ways for people in India to express themselves through music on Facebook and Instagram, with music stickers on Stories and other creative tools such as Lyrics on Instagram, Lip Sync Live, and the ability to add songs to their Facebook Profiles.

    With the roll-out of music products today, people across India can add the latest tracks such as Bekhayali – Kabir Singh, Ve Maahi – Kesari, to super hits like Dil Diyan Gallan from Tiger Zinda Hai, and regional hits like Lahore by Guru Randhawa, Zingaat from Sairat as well as old classics like Bas Ek Sanam Chaahiye from Aashiqui, to their Facebook and Instagram Stories.

     “Facebook and music share something special — they both bring people together and enable personal expression. And that’s why music is important for us. We want to make it possible for the Facebook and Instagram communities to express themselves and connect around music on our platforms. With India’s strong music ecosystem, we're thrilled to open up the ability for people in the country to include music in the moments they share on our platforms. We've partnered with the Indian music community to enable these new products, and we look forward to seeing all the ways people in India use them to express themselves in fun and engaging way, ” Facebook India director and head of partnerships Manish Chopra commented on the launch.

    Earlier this year, Facebook India announced partnerships with top music labels T-Series Music, Zee Music Company and Yash Raj Films, licensing their music for use in social experiences on Facebook and Instagram.

     “We continue to see fast adoption of Stories across our family of apps. Today, with the launch of music stickers on Stories, we are excited about giving new ways for people to express and connect with their friends, ” Facebook head of video and music products Paresh Rajawat said.

    Product details:

    Music on Facebook and Instagram Stories

    Starting today, people will be able to add a song to their photos and videos on their Stories. Simply open the camera on Facebook or Instagram or select a photo or video from your gallery, touch the sticker icon and add the Music sticker. After choosing a song, you will be able to select which part of it you would like to highlight on your story, and add the artist's name and track title. Knowing that Hindi film music is integral to music in India, people will be able search for music by Actor and Actress names, in addition to search by Film Name, Singer Name as well as a Song name. People can also search for songs by language.

    Lyrics on Instagram: Additionally, if the song has lyrics available, they will automatically pop up. Tap through the icons to change the animation and text style, and move the lyrics around, rotate or resize it like you would a normal sticker.

    Lip Sync Live on Facebook: will allow you to perform and dub songs live on Facebook. Friends can check your performance in real time and follow the lyrics of the songs while you have fun together.

    To create one, just select the "Lip Sync Live" option when starting a Live on Facebook – choose a song, add a description and customize the video with filters or a background. During broadcasts, friends will be able see the name of the artist and song featured on the video and be able to directly tap to follow the singer or band on Facebook.

    Music on Facebook Profile: will allow people to add tracks to a new music section on your Facebook Profile. In addition, you can pin songs at the top of your Profile, so your friends learn more about you. Songs fixed to your Profile will visually show the artist and the track. When your friends play a song on your Profile, they will be able to hear a small clip or choose to listen to the complete track through streaming platforms. They can add the same song to their Profiles or click to visit the singer or band's Page.

  • WhatsApp offers to track ‘dubious’ individuals for Indian govt

    WhatsApp offers to track ‘dubious’ individuals for Indian govt

    MUMBAI: Facebook vice president of global affairs and communications Nick Clegg met home minister Amit Shah, national security adviser Ajit Doval, IT and communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and commerce minister Piyush Goyal regarding the dispute over traceability of messages in WhatApp. However, it remained unresolved.

    According to an ET report, Clegg offered to track WhatsApp communication activities of persons deemed “dubious or suspicious” by government agencies. However, Facebook will only do this for persons identified by the government from now on. The company also does not want to break end-to-end encryption, which is at the core of the traceability issue.

    Clegg also informed that instead of message content, Facebook could help with metadata. His discussion with Shah was around protecting end-to-end encryption as well as sharing different forms of signals in response to legal requests that can be helpful.

    Clegg also commented that data localisation will create "balkanisation" of the internet and make it unlikely that the next Facebook or Google will come from India.

    On Friday, the Supreme Court asked the government for an update on the proposed intermediary guidelines which mandate traceability for social media companies such as Facebook when content is deemed officially to have created law and order problems.

  • YES BANK launched its newest content marketing initiative on the occasion of Teacher’s Day.

    YES BANK launched its newest content marketing initiative on the occasion of Teacher’s Day.

    Banking as a category, is often dubbed as ‘boring’ and we often approach marketing and content creation on special occasions like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Yoga Day, Teacher’s Day etc. to engage with our customers. The challenge however lies in finding relevance, and fitment for our brand and /or products. Else the content remains as just another wishing post on our customer’s timeline, and does not deliver any real impact.

    We took this challenge up with our content strategy for Teacher’s Day and have looked at a fun, relatable yet relevant way of integrating the occasion with our products.

    In addition to the marketing and engagement activities organized at our branches and also at the premises of our partner corporates, 3 digital films have been launched. The objective of our #SikhaateRehna campaign is to bring out the continuous aspect of learning through humor and relatable content to educate our customers about ‘Safe and Secure Banking Practices’. We are organizing workshops in our branches and also in collaboration with our partner organizations (corporate and educational) who bank with us.

    The campaign is devised on the simple insight that there are some very easy tips and tricks which if kept in mind can prevent fraudulent transactions! Just as we were educated about good practices in school, the Bank aims to educate its customers on Safe Banking Practices. Banking on the wide spread usage and consumption of video content our focus on digital is to deliver the brand message and create relevant & entertaining content. These films are a step in that direction.

    Delivered through the humor route, the films portray some basic mistakes that people tend to commit even after multiple reminders and how they can be prevented.

    These films have been released across all key social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

    Links for the films are shared below:

  • Facebook approaches broadcasters & streaming services for new TV chat device: Reports

    Facebook approaches broadcasters & streaming services for new TV chat device: Reports

    MUMBAI: Facebook has approached broadcasters and streaming services like Netflix, Disney, Hulu and HBO for a new TV chat device for making video calls from TVs. The platform is also planning to launch its own TV streaming service.

    According to a report in ‘The Information’, the Facebook TV chat device will use the same technology currently available in the company's video-calling 'Portal' devices. The platform is planning to launch an updated version of its video chat device 'Portal' later this year.

    Facebook's Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) vice president Andrew Bosworth has confirmed that the company has a lot more to unveil later this year related to Portal.

    The report also informed that the new device, code-named Catalina, will also come with a physical remote and a streaming video service similar to other television boxes like Apple TV.

    Portal was launched in November 2018. While the smaller device was priced at $199, the larger "Portal Plus" was made available for $349 with a 10-inch display and 15-inch display, respectively.

    The smart camera-enabled device is also powered by Amazon's voice assistant Alexa and comes with front cameras. Facebook Portal has a 10-inch display, while there is a 15-inch display on the Portal+. The devices offer hands-free voice control and allow users to start a video call simply by saying "Hey Portal". It uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to recognise people in the frame and follow them as they move throughout a room.