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Tag: iDiva

  • Network18 ropes in digital entrepreneur Angad Bhatia to helm Firstpost and Creator18

    Network18 ropes in digital entrepreneur Angad Bhatia to helm Firstpost and Creator18

    MUMBAI: Network18 has appointed seasoned digital entrepreneur Angad Bhatia as chief executive of Firstpost and its freshly minted creator-focused venture, Creator18.

    Bhatia, who founded and scaled the influential men’s lifestyle platform MensXP before its acquisition by Times Internet, brings over 15 years of digital media expertise to the role where he’ll steer India’s international news brand while simultaneously building a creator network across Network18’s digital properties.

    His appointment marks a strategic push by the media conglomerate to capitalise on the booming creator economy while strengthening its news credentials.

    The digital veteran most recently served as chief executive of India Lifestyle Network and spearheaded brand and marketing growth initiatives at Mensa Brands. His career has spanned content, technology and digital commerce, including the development of influential digital-first consumer brands such as iDiva and Hypp.

    Industry observers note Bhatia’s reputation for identifying growth adjacencies and applying entrepreneurial thinking to established media businesses – precisely the toolkit Network18 appears keen to harness as traditional and social media boundaries continue to blur.

    “Bhatia represents the new breed of media executive who understands both content creation and commercial models in the digital sphere,” said a media analyst at a leading consultancy firm. “His experience with MensXP demonstrated he can build audiences while driving commercial success.”

    In his new role, Bhatia will report directly to Rahul Joshi, managing director and group editor-in-chief of Network18, as he attempts to bring fresh thinking and audience growth to the organisation’s digital portfolio.

  • #MediaMinds2: ILN CEO Angad Bhatia on the unique mix of content & commerce

    #MediaMinds2: ILN CEO Angad Bhatia on the unique mix of content & commerce

    NEW DELHI: Standing at the unique crossroads where commerce meets content, MensXP founder and Indiatimes Lifestyle Network CEO Angad Bhatia is leading one of India’s top content platform to a completely new realm. His world of content-led-commerce is driven by editorial data and works on the foundation of community-building that can rally behind the unique stuff his in-house production team is creating.

    Opening season two of Indiantelevision.com’s Media Minds, Bhatia shares his thoughts on content, commerce, and content-led-commerce in terms of the modern world, how the Covid2019 pandemic has impacted his plans of curating brick-and-mortar shops for a range of products led by content properties like iDiva, MensXP, and What’s Hot. 

    Speaking about the publishing company’s foray into the unique world, he says, “We definitely see a surge in demand and of course the convenience of online is going to contribute to a major share in the industry. I think what we have done is that we have taken this opportunity to our advantage and we have really thought very deeply; if we have to create products, which are genuinely going to last longer, to be built on tenets of environment, affordability and can last longer.” 

    Highlighting the process that goes behind creating these unique products, Bhatia notes that his team looks that the white spaces that exist in the marketplace through editorial works and then include the community of millions of followers in taking decisions about what products they require. “We don’t have a robust strategy to tell us what our sourcing should be or we are not mining external data. All we are doing is mining around (editorial) data and figuring out what type of products we should be creating and sourcing.” 

    To know more about his model of content-led-commerce and his thoughts on current industry trends, watch

  • MX Player’s integrated campaign #IsLoveComplicated reaches over 52 million Indians

    MX Player’s integrated campaign #IsLoveComplicated reaches over 52 million Indians

    MUMBAI – On the occasion of Valentine’s Day, while most brands sought to highlight love stories that end with happily ever after, leading entertainment streaming platform – MX Player decided to bring to light the ‘reality’ of love in a modern day relationship. The platform released its new MX Original Series ‘Pawan and Pooja’ that deals with the lives of 3 couples, ALL named Pawan and Pooja –  spanning across 3 generations.

    With an objective to bring alive the concept of the series and effectively break online clutter, MX Player conceptualized the campaign #IsLoveComplicated.

    The genesis of this idea is rooted in the theory that many couples do not openly discuss the conflicted reality of love and hence, the brand decided to create a microsite – http://isloveuncomplicated.in/ to conduct an anonymous digital ‘Pyaar ka Poll’ survey to understand the dynamics of functional relationships in India. The microsite held 8 hard-hitting questions revolving around the core themes of the series such as: whether or not couples were dissatisfied in bed, whether or not they kept secrets from their partner, and whether or not they’ve ever indulged in an exaggeration of their love on social media, to name a few.

    In addition to the microsite, MX Player also effectively used  Instagram, Facebook stories, and specialist content channels such as Femina, Filmfare, iDiva, MensXP, SpotboyE and more to gauge India’s view on love today. The survey witnessed a participation of over 15 Lakh Indians and MX Player was able to piece together a picture true to love and relationships, as seen by audiences today.

    Taking the campaign beyond just digital, the statistics gleaned from this poll were highlighted through outdoor, radio and print. With smart insights and seamless execution, a simple digital survey was transformed into an integrated campaign across platforms with statistics from the poll to support bold relationship claims.

    Furthermore, this campaign saw traction from many influencers like Neha Dhupia, Kusha Kapila, Prince Narula and Divyanka Tripathi, who discussed the show launch and even participated in some compatibility activities with their partners.

    Elaborating on the same, MX Player marketing and business partnerships head Abhishek Joshi said, “This real life social experiment flips the regular Valentine’s day approach on its head and the campaign tackled hard hitting questions about love, rather than the typically seen emotional drivers of romance and happiness.”

    Talking about the scale of the campaign, he added saying, “#IsLoveComplicated is a digital first campaign which was able to scale into a 360 degree integrated approach with powerful OOH communications.  What makes the campaign impactful is that we could use the power of digital to reach out to the masses & use the insights across multi-channel communications.”

    The results for a poll brought to the surface some very real issues that individuals experience in relationships today.