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Tag: Kunal Sawant

  • GroupM and The Goat Agency unveil top 100 digital stars of 2024 in partnership with Forbes India

    GroupM and The Goat Agency unveil top 100 digital stars of 2024 in partnership with Forbes India

    Mumbai: GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, has announced the third edition of the Top 100 Digital Stars List for 2024 curated by GroupM’s influencer and content marketing solution The Goat Agency, in partnership with Forbes India. This list showcases some of the most influential digital personalities in India, representing various industries such as comedy, fitness, food, technology, travel, social work, beauty, fashion, as well as business and finance.

    With this year’s new selection criteria, the focus will be expanded beyond verified profiles to include all creators, regardless of verified or non-verified status. While verification badges can signify authenticity, the vibrant community of genuine creators, even those without such badges, plays a crucial role in shaping the digital landscape and deserves recognition for their invaluable contributions. Comedy creators dominate the list, with seven out of the top ten recognized for their talent and creativity. Following closely are creators in the tech, travel, and photography categories, which together comprise 50 per cent of the overall list. Taking into account the wider understanding of influence, this shift emphasizes the importance of diverse voices in the creator economy, ensuring that all creators can contribute to the evolving digital narrative and shine.

    GroupM India Goat, business head, Kunal Sawant said, “The Top 100 Digital Stars List for 2024celebrates the diverse and dynamic voices shaping India’s digital landscape Together, we are pushing boundaries to spotlight the country’s most influential creators across platforms. By expanding our criteria this year, we are ensuring a more inclusive and data-driven approach. Our comprehensive, data-driven approach ensures that the true impact of these digital stars is highlighted, reflecting a broader understanding of influence in today’s creator economy.” He added, “Additionally, we are proud to see the GOAT Changemakers—a group of socially responsible creators—continue to be an essential part of the list, aligning with our Responsible Investment Framework.”

    GroupM South Asia COO Ashwin Padmanabhan said, “The third edition of The Top 100 Digital Stars presents a carefully curated, data-driven selection of India’s most influential digital personalities. With a broader understanding of influence, this edition highlights the value of diverse voices in the creator economy, ensuring that every creator has the opportunity to contribute to the evolving digital narrative and be recognized. Our aim is to ensure all creators have a role in shaping the digital landscape and receive the recognition they deserve.”

    A multi-step approach was initiated for compiling this list. Starting with identifying leading creators across nine specific genres by evaluating their engagement rates and follower counts. The selection was then refined to the top 100 influencers through a comprehensive analysis of key metrics such as reach, engagement, impressions, and follower numbers. Goat’s proprietary scoring algorithm was instrumental in this process. This algorithm ranks creators within related categories, types, and audience sizes based on engagement rates.

    Forbes India editor Brian Carvalho said, “Almost everyone wants to be an influencer lately. But what does it take to consistently produce content that’s high quality, trustworthy and engaging in categories from fashion and comedy to technology and travel? The answer lies with those who produce it. And what better destination to find them than the list of India’s Top 100 Digital Stars. Now in its third edition, the Forbes India-Goat study recognises and ranks digital creators who dish out their appealing wares across Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.”

  • Star India producer: Incredible to know about art and evolution of storytelling

    MUMBAI: “It was insightful to know about the conscious and subconscious mind, and it was incredible to know about the art and evolution of storytelling,” said Star India senior producer Avni Bhatija. She was among a gathering of creative heads at Qench Studioz at Lower Parel, Mumbai, recently.

    On 23 March, creativity abounded at Qench with a gathering of several notables of the advertising fraternity. It was a first-of-its-kind initiative to bring people from this industry together in one room, to create an idea sharing a collaborative learning platform – a platform where one can showcase one’s work and meet people from the industry, not for business, but to share creativity and knowledge in a convivial atmosphere.

    Ogilvy ECD South Asia Sumanto Chattopadhyay, a firm believer in collaborative learning, was the star speaker and his thought on the psychology of the brain that mostly thinks in stories was an eye opener for many. This initiative is the brainchild of Avadhut Hembade, an award-winning photographer, a 25 year veteran of the industry and the CMD of Qench Studioz.

    Avadhut believes that in the daily routine and grind of our jobs, we lose out on sharing ideas and discovering the treasure-trove of hidden personal talent in the advertising fraternity. He has now created a space for these creative souls, to share not only their talent in advertising but also as artists, writers, poets, photographers, actors, dancers or musicians. The intention is to share work, learn from others, inspire and be inspired to produce brilliant pieces of creativity.

    Chattopadhyay is a gem in the advertising industry and an inspiration to many. He is accustomed to wearing several hats and is an actor, writer and photographer. He also holds the prestigious title of ECD at Ogilvy & Mather, the renowned ad agency. A firm believer in collaborative learning, his main thrust was on the psychology of the brain. He stated, “The brain cannot not think of a story,” sums it all up. In his talk, he goes on to explain with examples, how the advertising industry too could make use of this fact in its creative output.

    The first event received an overwhelming response and was attended by several top leaders of various media agencies as well as the eminent Sandeep Kulkarni, of Shwaas and Dombivili Fast fame. One of the attendees, Sushant Gaikwad of Paarami Digital, said, “Such initiatives will help drive the creativity of the industry to higher levels and everybody using the learnings of Sumanto will surely contribute great work to the industry.”

    Other participants included Star India associate VP Santosh Patil, Leo Burnett ECD Sachin Kamble, DDB Mudra ECD Ashish Phatak, and Lowe Lintas creative director Purwa Sali.

    Abhijit Karandikar, Kunal Sawant, Rajeshwari Rao, Sushil Chintak, Durga Bangade and Minal Phatak, senior creative directors of Ogilvy & Mather, applauded the initiative.