ITV

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  • India’s first interactive movie channel brings India’s first crowd sourced film!

    India’s first interactive movie channel brings India’s first crowd sourced film!

    MUMBAI: With ‘instant gratification’ being the flavour of this generation, can ‘instant’ movie making be far behind? After causing a buzz in the trade media and agencies with an innovative marketing teaser campaign and a long list of big ticket acquisitions, India’s first interactive movie channel ‘‘&pictures’’ will now venture into previously unexplored territory by going all out to make a movie in just 48 hrs! Impossible you say? Well not if everyone pitches in!

    ‘& pictures’ is all set to create India’s first crowd-sourced film in just a week. From 5th August the channel has invited entries for online users to name the film that they will co-create on the channels micro-site, andpictures.in. Over 7th and 8th August, users can share their storylines and dialogues for the film via Twitter and Facebook. The best ideas will then be aggregated onto the micro-site where users can log in and view how the story is progressing while watching the entries being sent in real time. This unique and one of a kind initiative integrates facebook, twitter and youtube seamlessly.

    Who will have a part in the creation of this movie? While the channel is reaching out to anyone and everyone who has an online account and wishes to contribute to the making of the film, they are particularly reaching out to digital influencers like movie reviewers, Twitterati, film bloggers and Facebook communities of movie aficionados.

    So if you are a movie lover, or think you can write as well as the celebrated script writers of our industry, come join the movement and be a part of India’s first crowd-sourced movie!

  • Yahoo to unveil a new logo soon

    Yahoo to unveil a new logo soon

    MUMBAI: Yahoo chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt has announced that it will be introducing a new logo next month.

    From 7 August onwards Yahoo will post new logo on its homepage throughout its network in the US for 30 days on Tumblr, @Yahoo (#dailylogo) and on the official Facebook page as well.

    Yahoo will be revealing its official logo on 4 September at 9 pm PST (Pacific Time).

    Savitt wrote in a press statement that “The new logo will be a modern redesign that’s more reflective of our re imagined design and new experiences, We also want to preserve the character that is unique to Yahoo! – fun, vibrant, and welcoming – so we’ll be keeping the color purple, our iconic exclamation point and of course the famous yodel. After all, some things never go out of style.”

  • Facebook hires its first CMO ever

    Facebook hires its first CMO ever

    MUMBAI: Facebook has hired Gary Briggs as its first chief marketing officer; most recently Briggs was an adviser to the head of Google (Motorola Mobility) division.

    Facebook VP and CMO Gary Briggs

     

    Briggs is officially replacing VP-product marketing Eric Antonow who used to handle company’s marketing efforts since last two years and now he will work with Facebook head of consumer marketing Rebecca Van Dyck.

     

    Briggs will be responsible for product marketing, platform marketing and events, communication design, brand marketing and content strategy for Facebook.

     

    In his earlier stints, Briggs was a CEO of Plastic Jungle (a gift company); he has also worked for EBay, PayPal and PepsiCo.

     

    In a statement given to adage, Briggs said “Facebook isn’t just a company. For more than a billion people, it’s their connection to the friends and things they care about most. Telling the story of such an important and still very young brand is an incredible opportunity, and I cannot wait to get started.”

  • Omron India’s BMB social media campaign brings in huge fan base

    Omron India’s BMB social media campaign brings in huge fan base

    NEW DELHI: Omron which deals in automation, home healthcare and sensing and control technology has successfully concluded its social media campaign focusing on the company‘s association with the blockbuster Bhaag Milkha Bhaag as the Technology Partner.

    The campaign, carried out on Facebook and Twitter, witnessed huge amount of participation and a significant enhancement in engagement level contributing towards the brand awareness and recognition in India. It was a key highlight of the association which was also promoted via TVCs, hoardings and online advertisements.

    The Facebook campaign motivated people to participate in the “Inspiring tomorrow” contest by sharing inspirational stories of their lives on the Omron page.

    In sync with the movie‘s theme of courage and conviction, the contest was rolled-out few days before the movie release. Before it went live, Omron ran a teaser with captivating messages to draw attention and create excitement around the contest.

    This was followed by inviting the participants to share their real life stories which were then made visible for votes/likes. On the Basis of the number of votes, participants found their positions in the leaderboard and the first three winners were rewarded with exciting Omron hampers.

    The contest resulted in addition of 30,665 fans increasing traction from 114,868 to 145,533 in a span of two weeks. The ‘no. of people talking about‘ went up from 400 to 17,338 during the same period.

    Omron India debuted on Twitter during the same campaign and promoted the Inspiring Tomorrow contest by inviting fans on its Facebook page to tweet their inspirational stories using#MyInspiration. Three winners were selected on the basis of the maximum tweets. The campaign reached out to 4805 audience and gained 30 new followers in just three hours. @OmronIndiaTwitter handle, which is 22 days old now, has 60 followers and 88 tweets.

  • TLC gets Trinny & Susannah to make over India

    TLC gets Trinny & Susannah to make over India

    MUMBAI: They have been making waves with their down under filmed fashion and style makeover show. As they have done in 12 other countries through adaptations of the programming format they share with global format major Zodiak Rights. Now British style gurus Trinny and Susannah are bringing their Makeover Mission series to Indian TV screens daily on Discovery Network’s lifestyle style TLC from 12 August at 9 p.m. 

     

    Filmed and produced in India by Zodiak Media’s Indian offshoot Sol Productions, Trinny & Susannah’s Makeover Mission India features the two British ladies, roaming the streets of Mumbai, selecting plain-Janes and Johns and whisking them away only to transform them into ultra chic ladies and debonair dudes. And not just that they even end up making them walk the ramp.

    Trinny and Susannah will be at their funny best while dressing up Indian men and women

     

    Explains Discovery Networks Asia Pacific, Sr. VP & GM, head of revenue, pan-regional ad sales & south asia, Rahul Johri: “We have done a lot of grooming shows over the past one and a half year and the reason behind this is that India is a young country which is oriented towards fashion. We have altered our international formats to suit Indian aspirations.”

     

    That is indeed true: a few months ago it rolled out the Indian adaptation of What Not to Wear India (hosted by Soha Ali Khan and Aki Narula), and then the Ozzie edition of Trinny & Susannah’s makeover mission is airing on TLC these days.

     

    For the record, Trinny & Susannah’s Makeover Mission India is an adaptation of the Norwegian format and it is pretty simple: both men and women with different shapes and sizes, fashion backgrounds are scouted by the two and given fashion and grooming advice in a very easy and fun manner. Together the hosts strive to bring a sense of individuality and confidence in them as they encourage and motivate them to accept their unique body shapes and sizes and feel good about themselves.

     

    In all, the Indian series is slated to run over 16 episodes and will feature 16 participants being transformed into swans. 11 of these were picked up casually from the streets while five were selected through a promotional campaign run on-air and a stringent selection process through TLC’s Facebook community.

     

    Each half-hour episode has been filmed both outdoors and indoors. For instance, in one of the episodes we will see the Trinny and Susannah walking down Mumbai’s iconic Marine Drive talking about fashion before they approach a couple sitting at the Pizza By the Bay and lastly, in the studio where they will go through the transformation. In Delhi, the studio location where filming took place was BKP Studio, while in Mumbai it was the Mehboob Studio. A high quality production, Trinny & Susannah’s Makeover Mission India required 70 production and technical crew, 13 cameras – two while scouting for the participants, four in the makeover studio and seven on the ramp. Direction is by Akshat Rao.

     

    However one does wonder how much do Trinny and Susannah know about Indian body shapes and dressing styles? This is where the team of experts comes in. The duo has a professional makeover team – a hairdresser, a make-up artist, seamstresses and a photographer. The styling team is headed by the British stylist Annie Swain. The hair and make-up team is from the Mumbai-based image salon KromaKay.

     

    The stylists have not restricted themselves to the international standards of dressing and will be dressing the participants in both western as well as Indian outfits. But it wasn’t an easy task for Trinny and Sussanah to make Indian women open up to them.

     

    “Unlike other countries, Indian women are very conservative when it comes to opening up about the dressing styles. For example, if we asked one what they thought about an outfit, we would get answers in monosyllables. We had to probe them to know why they liked or disliked it,” narrates Sussanah.

     

    The duo is known to get physical as well as times be rude and upfront about participant’s dressing. However, many viewers internationally, have found this approach funny, which is why the format has travelled to so many countries. But from the promos, one can clearly see that there are going to be a lot of beeps in the Indian version. Maybe that’s because the channel has toned down the way the two will talk to and approach the participants.

     

    “Of course, you won’t see a very brazen approach in the Indian version.. We had to be very careful while shooting and editing so that no one gets offended,” says SOL Production managing director Fazila Allana.

    Discovery Networks’ Rahul Johri is on a fashion programming binge on lifestyle channel TLC

     

    On the other hand, Trinny goes on to explain that they feel that more than the people living in the metros (Mumbai and Delhi) it is the people in other smaller cities that are in desperate need of a makeover. She adds “Susannah and I are keen to spread our wings and work with people who have mind blocks about how they dress. The reason could be career, family, household duties etc that they give more importance to than what they wear and how they look.”

     

    The channel, which is happy to get the well-known stylists to India for the first time says it has no worries about marketing them and the show; the target audience knows them well enough. Says Discovery Networks Asia Pacific VP marketing Rajiv Bakshi: “We didn’t face any challenge on the marketing front. Actually, India is absolutely ready for a show like this.”

     

    So, is the channel right in hoping that the names will get it more viewers? Those in the media don’t think so. According to Madison Media COO Dnyanada Chaudhari, “TLC is a niche lifestyle channel and has a certain loyal audience. I don’t think that bringing in international hosts will draw in many more eyeballs to the channel, even if the series is localised.”

     

    Now, it’s over to Indian viewers to prove her wrong.

     

    Trinny and Susannah’s curriculum vitae

     

    · The two fashion journalists have been working together for the past 17 years. They met at a party hosted by David Albert Charles Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley (the grandson of King George VI). But the stylists didn’t hit-it-off from the beginning.

     

    · The pair came together in 1994 to write a weekly column Ready to wear for the Daily Telegraph for seven years. It was a hit among readers. But ventures such as a website named Ready2shop.com and a co-authored book Ready to wear which followed later failed to make an impact.

     

    · In 2000, they were approached by BBC to host a show What Not to Wear. It ran for five years from 2001- 2005 reaching an audience of over 20 million women in 31 countries. In 2006 they moved to ITV where both made three original series: Undress, The Great British Body and Trinny & Susannah Meet. Their current TV show Trinny & Susannah – The Makeover Mission is aired in 12 countries around the world, generating an audience of 15 million viewers.

     

    · The Trinny & Susannah – The Makeover Mission’s format which the stylists co-own with Zodiak Rights (London) which is the international distribution and rights exploitation arm of Zodiak Media. The rights were acquired in 2010 from Kanakna (part of ZMG).

     

    · Fans can check more updates from the two Fashion journalists official website http://trinnyandsusannah.net
     

  • Facebook prepares to insert video ads into users’ news feeds

    Facebook prepares to insert video ads into users’ news feeds

    MUMBAI: According to media reports the social network giant Facebook plans to let marketers insert 15-second video ads directly into people’s news feeds. This step needs to be taken with caution as it may not go down well with its users.

    Buyers could target the age and gender of the users who’d find the ads in their feeds reports claim citing “two people familiar with the matter.” Ads could sell for as much as $2.5 million a day depending on how many people watch them.

    Execs appear to appreciate the possibility of a backlash: CEO Mark Zuckerberg has delayed the plan “at least twice” as he considers ways to minimise user ire over the ads, for example by offering them in high-def and ensuring that people won’t see the same pitch more than three times a day. But the sales opportunity apparently is too lucrative to resist.

    Advertisers likely will spend nearly $64 billion in the US this year on TV ads vs $36 billion on the web. That’s why digital powers including Google, Yahoo, and AOL are gunning for TV advertising – including by staging their own NewFront sales pitches to ad buyers as they also gather for television networks’ upfront presentations.

    Last week Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told analysts that her company has “a massive and engaged audience around the world that brands can use to build awareness and drive sales. Every night 88 million to 100 million people are actively using Facebook during primetime TV hours in United States alone.” Nielsen has been working with Facebook to come up with ratings for online videos that would be similar to TV ratings.

  • Pakistan’s superwoman Burka Avenger

    Pakistan’s superwoman Burka Avenger

    MUMBAI: A country where women are not allowed to have many rights, a change is about to happen with the coming of the Burka Avenger, the country’s first cartoon superwoman who stands against crime and injustice. The cartoon series will be aired on Geo Tez in Urdu and is produced by Unicorn Black that is owned by Pakistan’s biggest pop star Haroon Rashid. He is the creator of the cartoon, the first animated series ever produced wholly in the country.

     

    Burka Avenger is a mild-mannered school teacher who is fighting against thugs, who represent the Taliban, who are intent upon closing down the school where she teaches. She actually is Jiya, who also is trained in a fighting style called Takht Kabaddi, taught by her adopted father, using pens and books to attack. The character was created to send positive messages to the youth in the country.

     

    The series will be of 13 episodes of 22 minutes each. The show will begin from 28 July on Geo Tez at 6 p.m. Pakistan time. They have created a mobile application that can be downloaded for free and are currently working on an android application. The Facebook page has already got more than 8000 likes.

     

    The Ninja-like character wears a burka while fighting against the villains in the series. It follows the story of three kids in the imaginary city of Halwapur. The trailers are available on their website which are in Urdu and English, though it is now yet known where the English version will be aired. “Don’t mess with the lady in black” goes the title track with some amazing music by artists like Ali Zafar and Ali Azmat and a good quality picture.

     

    The whole series has been developed by a team of 22 people operating out of an office in Islamabad in a span of just a year.

  • Google’s North America web traffic bigger than FB, Netflix and Instagram combined

    Google’s North America web traffic bigger than FB, Netflix and Instagram combined

    MUMBAI: Search engine giant Google on an average day reportedly handles 25 per cent of web traffic running through North American internet service providers (ISPs) which makes it bigger than Facebook, Netflix and Instagram combined.

    Founder of Deepfield, the internet monitoring company, Craig Labovitz said that over the past year Google has become pervasive not just in Google data centers, but throughout the North American internet and 62 per cent of smartphones, tablets and other devices that tap into the internet from throughout North America connect to Google at least once a day. According to the report, Google’s lion share of the web traffic comes from YouTube and the growing traffic is the reason why Google is building data centers as fast as possible and has data centers on four continents.

    Google has added thousands of servers called Google Global Cache servers to ISPs around the world which store the most popular content from Google’s network and then serve it directly from the ISP’s data center, rather than streaming it all the way from Google’s data center.

    Labovitz said that Google and Netflix’s move into so many of the ISP network operation centers is likely to be followed by other internet giants like Apple and Facebook, the report added.

  • Draftfcb Ulka creates Amul: Eats Milk with Every Meal campaign

    Draftfcb Ulka creates Amul: Eats Milk with Every Meal campaign

    MUMBAI: Eats Milk with Every Meal is the new Amul campaign. Executed by Draftfcb Ulka, the campaign showcases the goodness of the entire range of Amul

    products. The brand had earlier positioned milk as ‘Worlds original energy drink‘ in its campaigns. The campaign is a step towards educating Indian consumers of the goodness of milk and milk products.

    Eats Milk with Every Meal is a print campaign that brings alive the nutritional benefits of various dairy products, be it milk, butter, paneer, ice cream or even ghee. The tone of the campaign is quirky and resonates well across audiences. The press campaign will be published in leading national English dailies. The campaign will be extended in the digital space too. An app on Facebook and a microsite will also be designed where users can create their own memes with messages using their friends‘ pictures.

    GCMMF managing director R S Sodhi stated, “Milk and milk products form an integral part of the diet of every Indian. However, in this era of fast food, we do not want the goodness of milk in our food to be compromised. This campaign forms a part of our efforts to re-position milk and make our entire range of Amul dairy products trendy and appealing to all.”

    Draftfcb Ulka group creative director Haresh Moorjani said, “The idea was to make dairy products part of consumers daily diet but in an exciting and interesting manner. Leveraging popular culture inherent to the brand, we strategised a digital campaign Eats Milk with Every Meal – Create your own Meme.”

    The Create your own meme application enables the youth to create, participate and share memes socially. “The memes are ideal tools to generate online chatter and aid virality for the brand in the social space. The application is hosted on the microsite via Facebook social login. In print we have designed a series of 100 cc ads all appearing on the same day in one newspaper for impact,” added Moorjani. 

    The core target audience for the new Amul campaign is housewives and youth for print and digital campaigns respectively. Amul plans to extend the campaign on other mediums as well.

    The TVC was headed by national creative director K S Chakravarthy. The creative team comprised Haresh Moorjani, Mehul Patil, Bhushan Pandit, Varun Sharma and Chaitanya Joshi. Account Management was handled by Ruta Patel, Pranay Merchant and Rohan Patil.

  • TV related activity on Facebook five times more than on other social networks: Trendrr

    TV related activity on Facebook five times more than on other social networks: Trendrr

    NEW DELHI: A new study shows there is a large amount of TV-related social activity on Facebook – in numbers approximately five times as large as that of all other social networks combined as measured by Trendrr.

     

    The study follows a new partnership between Trendrr and Facebook that gives Trendrr preliminary access to previously unanalysed Facebook user engagement data relating to television content.

     

    As part of that access, Trendrr CEO Mark Ghuneim has unveiled a new study that shows “there is a large amount of TV-related social activity on Facebook – in numbers approximately five times as large as that of all other social networks combined as measured by Trendrr”, The size of the activity for one week in May was particularly evident for the chatter on social media networks pertaining to broadcast TV. That activity was seven times as large as all other social media networks combined.

     

    But the TV-related activity was also enormous for cable programming, which was 4.5 times as large as the other social networks.

     

    The Trendrr analysis also showed particularly high levels among viewers of dramas and comedies and among Hispanics, which other studies have found to be particularly heavy users of digital and social media.

     

    “For example, Univision’s finale of Nuestra Belleza Latina had 12 times more activity on Facebook during the on-air window than all other social networks combined,” Trendrr reported.

     

    Trendrr also released data on the NBA Playoffs that showed the Knicks at Pacers on ESPN had three times the number of on-air interactions on Facebook as on all other social networks measured by Trendrr.

     

    In releasing the results, Trendrr blog noted that “this is the start of an exciting relationship between Facebook and Trendrr. The potential development of an open system for accurate measurement of the entire Facebook platform will provide our clients and the larger Social TV ecosystem with more insights and tools to make better decisions.”