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Tag: marketing

  • Knowledge platform Mind Wars renews marketing mandate with Blue Buzz

    Knowledge platform Mind Wars renews marketing mandate with Blue Buzz

    Mumbai: Knowledge platform Mind Wars on Monday announced that it has retained the marketing and communications mandate with Blue Buzz, a full-service integrated marketing agency for the second consecutive year. The move is part of the aggressive growth strategy of the brand in line with its overall vision.

    Mind Wars is the brainchild of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL), and a first-of-its-kind knowledge acceleration program aiming to make India smarter. Blue Buzz will take charge of the creative, digital, and media mandates for the brand and amplify the brand’s presence across all platforms.

    Speaking on the association, Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd, vice-president, Umesh Bansal said, Mind Wars is gaining rapid momentum across the country in line with its vision of making young India smarter and encouraging playful learning methods. “2021 will be an even more exciting year for the brand. We are confident about the expertise and integrated solutions Blue Buzz will bring to spearhead this next phase. We look forward to taking this partnership to newer heights and exploring innovative ways of brand engagement in the year ahead,” he said.

    Speaking on the partnership, Blue Buzz’s co-founder, Neha K Bisht said the agency has always adopted a distinctive storytelling approach to achieve the client’s business goals. “We will be using this opportunity to showcase the team’s unmatched skills of prodigious strategies that strengthen the brand’s presence across platforms. We are certain of putting our best foot forward to set new benchmarks together,” she said.

  • Brands respond with optimism, as pandemic throws up new challenges

    Brands respond with optimism, as pandemic throws up new challenges

    KOLKATA: The absence of live sports during the pandemic has not only been felt by fans, but by brands and advertisers alike. Even when the games returned, they remained restricted to empty stadiums with players inside a bio-bubble. Despite the challenges, sport is not losing its charm even during these uncertain times, especially cricket.

    So it was no surprise, when the much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) broke all viewership records after its return last September. The 13th edition of the cash-rich league breathed life into the distressed advertising sector which was hit hard by the extended lockdowns. Eventually when the tournament returned this year in April, the hopes were high. But they came crashing down, when the league had to be suspended midway amid the worsening situation in the country, battling it’s worst ever health crisis.

    While the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) is still looking for another window to finish the rest of the tournaments, advertisers remain optimistic. If the next window is in September later this year, the consumer sentiment will be at its peak, opined DDB Mudra Group Integrated Media country head, managing partner Rammohan Sundaram. The chances of reaching out to a bigger audience will increase as more people are expected to watch. So, it would be more positive for business compared to March, Sundaram added.

    He was speaking at ‘Brands and live sports in the pandemic times’ organised by Indiantelevision.com, moderated by founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari and attended by Havas Media Group India CEO Mohit Joshi, upGrad India CEO, Arjun Mohan, Mobile Premier League (MPL) corporate development, investors relation SVP Joe Wadakethalakal and DDB Mudra Group Integrated Media country head, managing partner Rammohan Sundaram.

    “It was the right decision to not run IPL 2021 that time, as it would have appeared very tone-deaf,” said upGrad India CEO Arjun Mohan. “By the time it returns, the mood of the nation will change. upGrad can look forward to creating campaigns around it.”

    “Keeping aside the economic situation and the mood of the country in the pandemic, I think the big breach was in regards to the bubble which should not have ideally happened. IPL is not ready to handle the pandemic situation in India,” Sundaram added.

    Havas Media Group India CEO Mohit Joshi also agreed it was a good decision to take off IPL while bio bubble security was already broken. However, he noted that IPL is a very big component of P&L, it builds a strategy for the entire year. Overall, the sports genre is itself important for the agency.

    Mohan also agreed that any brand that is advertising in India cannot ignore sports. Fundamentally, the way upGrad looks at live sports is the reach and width it offers, so it prefers Cricket. The brand has tried multiple other sports too like the English Premier League (EPL) which has very loyal committed fans.

    However, the scale of those sports does not give many reasons for the brand to invest now. When a brand’s objective is to achieve reach through various campaigns, cricket qualifies for now. He also noted that Kabaddi may reach there in the future.

    Mobile Premier League (MPL) corporate development, investors relation SVP Joe Wadakethalakal shared the increasing interest among the e-sports platform to engage with sports that have the broadest reach. So it focuses primarily on cricket for brand-building activities. It also finds value in international cricket if team India is involved.

    Joshi said that he has been fortunate enough to have clients who go beyond Cricket. For example, Tata Motors associated with Kabaddi for its trucks. However, ROI and investment were very different indeed. But even brands invest in other sports, the spends are largely skewed towards cricket.

    “We are planning to launch a sports marketing division. There is a holistic approach that one needs to take to understand what sporting events can deliver,” Sundaram added.

    However, all the experts agreed that brands should be agile in these uncertain times. Rather than planning for the entire year, the agencies and brands should look at a month or even for two weeks. “One has to be short-term focused with a long-term strategy,” Joshi summed up.

  • Brands ride high on the Crypto wave sweeping India

    Brands ride high on the Crypto wave sweeping India

    MUMBAI:Bitcoins and Cryptocurrencies have garnered a lot of buzz and popularity of late, dominating conversations globally. While it carries its own set of complexities like any other new technology, the digital asset has drawn increasing attention from the investors, customers, developers, and regulators.

    Yet, the intangible nature of cryptos has led many to believe that they do not have real value and that investing in cryptos is quite complicated. Some are unaware that one can purchase Bitcoins in fractions also, and that there are crypto exchanges that allow their users to buy Bitcoin with a minimum investment of just ₹100.

    To dispel such doubts in users’ minds, leading crypto exchange firms, CoinSwitch Kuber and CoinDCX have recently released ad campaigns aiming to position Bitcoin as a serious investment asset for the masses. The Cryptocurrency exchange space, which works in a similar way to the stock market where an investor can buy, sell or hold the cryptocurrencies, has seen these start-ups -WazirX, BuyUCoin, CoinSwitch Kuber, CoinDCX emerge, making it simpler for investors to buy and sell cryptos.  

    CoinSwitch Kuber, which was also the associate Sponsor for the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on the Disney-Hotstar platform April, released a three-film campaign during the event to cash in on the league’s popularity. With this rollout, it became the first brand in the Indian crypto space to launch an extensive campaign to bring the conversation to the center stage.

    Created by Nihilent, the ‘Trade Kar Befikar’ campaign consisted of three interconnected ad films that humorously represent an expectant couple’s journey through the birth of their baby and how investing in cryptocurrency could help them achieve their financial goals. 

    All three films feature actor Kunaal Roy Kapur hilariously donning multiple roles of the curious father-to-be, mom-to-be, doctor, and even the baby! The dad-to-be voices out loud several doubts that a new user would have about trading over the crypto exchange.  

    “With Trade Kar Befikar campaign, we aimed to showcase how it is a smart move to invest early in cryptocurrencies. Crypto has been the fastest-growing asset class of the last decade and the momentum is only growing stronger now. As a result of our campaign, our registrations went up by 4X”, CoinSwitch Kuber CEO and co-founder Ashish Singhal told IndianTelevision.com.

    The Indian Crypto market has flourished since the onset of Covid, CoinDCX CEO & co-founder Sumit Gupta recently told a publication, adding that the growth in trading volume from April 2020 to April 2021 has been incredible. CoinDCX has launched a digital campaign #BitcoinLiyaKya, with humorous storytelling and positioning top global cryptocurrency Bitcoin as the latest must-have investment asset for all.

    The ad film shows a royal Prince who can’t stop bragging about his numerous assets and purchases. While he goes on and on about his acquisition of lands, villages, and even a hill opposite his palace, his pride is stumped by a simple question “Bitcoin Liya kya?”. The film cheekily and aptly relays the point that no matter what your assets may be, it would not be enough until you buy a Bitcoin in today’s times!

    With prices of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin skyrocketing over the past year, the transaction of cryptocurrencies in the country have already shot up as much as 30 per cent in volumes during the pandemic. More youngsters or first-time investors are looking to invest in cryptocurrencies in India. More retail investors are also interested in dipping their toes in the market, with many renowned investors funding many fintech start-ups to build the crypto space.

  • iProspect India wins digital mandate for AU Small Finance Bank

    iProspect India wins digital mandate for AU Small Finance Bank

    New Delhi: iProspect, the digital-first end-to-end media agency from the house of dentsu India, has won the digital mandate for AU Small Finance Bank, a Scheduled Commercial Bank and Fortune India 500 Company.

     

    As per the mandate, the agency will handle the entire gamut of digital duties for AU Bank including performance and branding campaigns. iProspect India will utilise its proprietary tools and solutions to help the brand achieve its digital marketing objectives via innovative digital campaigns.

     

    Commenting on the win, iProspect India, CEO Rubeena Singh said, “We are delighted that our in-depth domain experience of the BFSI sector won us the mandate. We are excited to partner with AU Bank and work towards driving business growth and achieving their brand KPIs. We look forward to delivering our best services to the brand through the intersection of Brand, Tech, Media and Communication.”

     

    Speaking on the partnership, AU Small Finance Bank executive director, Uttam Tibrewal said, “Over the last few years there has undoubtedly been a fast-track shift towards digital adoption among customers. As a tech-led Bank focused on offering customer-centric solutions, we are continuously working to optimise our customer engagement through digital media. The partnership with iProspect India is an important step in that direction which will strengthen our data-driven approach to digital marketing and media planning.”

  • Justdial appoints Prasun Kumar as CMO

    Justdial appoints Prasun Kumar as CMO

    New Delhi : Justdial has appointed Prasun Kumar as the chief marketing officer. Kumar was previously associated with Magicbricks, where he was the head of marketing, revenue verticals, content and public relations.

    With an experience of over two decades in the industry, Kumar is a marketing expert who has played key role in building several brands.

    Kumar has worked with different companies including Reliance Communications as senior vice president, Sony Mobile Communications as head of marketing and MTS as director brand.

    He has also worked as head of brand activation at Levi’s Strauss, associate director at Madison Communications and manager at McCann Worldgroup.

    His experience includes launching and turning around businesses, building large revenue verticals and driving innovations in the consumer, technology, and content space.

    Justdial, founder and CEO, V.S.S. Mani said, “We welcome Prasun on-board as we build a new exciting future for Justdial. We recently launched our B2B marketplace platform, JD Mart, which has received an overwhelming response both from businesses and users. Prasun and his team shall focus on increasing awareness about JD and JD Mart platforms among every Indian and work towards growing our user base. I am confident that our marketing efforts will drive our growth agenda strongly under Prasun’s experience and leadership.”

    “I am excited to join Justdial. The brand has touched the life of almost every Indian at some point. Its massive scale will give me an opportunity to drive innovation, better consumer experiences and create campaigns to spearhead the growth,” said Kumar on his new role.

  • Nickelodeon collaborates with Google to launch Nickelodeon Ludo

    Nickelodeon collaborates with Google to launch Nickelodeon Ludo

    Mumbai: Ludo is one of the most popular games enjoyed by people across all age-groups. The lockdown saw a resurgence of Ludo as people remained indoors and looked for virtual means for entertainment. Catching up on the trend, Nickelodeon teamed up with Google and launched Nickelodeon Ludo, an innovative format to play the game hands-free with your favourite Nicktoons’ pegs and their voice. 

    The game will enable the users to play using just their voice on the device. Adding a tinge of spunk to the classic game from Google, for the first time ever, users will be able to play Nickelodeon with a little voice help from Google. The game will have four houses with only two pegs each, with faces of their favourite Nicktoons on the pegs in each house and all one has to do is say ‘Ok Google, talk to Nickelodeon Ludo’. While teams with Green and Red colors will be renamed as Motu- Patlu, and Rudra Rangeela, that of Blue and Yellow will be re-named as Shiva- Reva, and Happy- Pinaki, respectively. Nickelodeon Ludo will be available in English language and be open for all users.

    The channel has also devised expansive influencer promotion and digital engagement through an array of exciting activities to drive their attention to Nickelodeon Ludo.

    “Nickelodeon has always endeavoured to engage with its young viewers by providing them unique and immersive experiences through multiple touchpoints that are unparalleled. This association with Google is yet another step towards collaborating with like-minded partners and creating a platform to experience different aspects of the media & entertainment ecosystem thus transporting them to the world of fun with their favourite Nicktoons,” said Viacom 18, Kids TV Network, marketing head Sonali Bhattacharya. 

  • Brandie appoints Junaid Hakim as national director, India

    Brandie appoints Junaid Hakim as national director, India

    New Delhi: Social media word-of-mouth marketing platform, Brandie, has appointed Junaid Hakim as national director for India. He will be based in Bengaluru.

    Hakim joins from MediaCom, where he was the general manager and headed the media mandate for Dell till November, 2020. In his new role, he will oversee Brandie’s growth in the Indian market and develop stakeholder engagement, drive sales and new business development.

    “The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally impacted the marketing industry and highlighted the growing importance of word-of-mouth marketing and customer advocacy,” Brandie’s co-founder, Pranav Kosuri said. “Junaid’s vast experience, strategic perspective, and operational focus will play a vital role in strengthening Brandie’s core leadership team and ensure our continued fast growth and adoption amongst agencies and brands in one of our core markets.” 

    Talking about his new role, Hakim said, his focus in the first six months at the organization will be to drive awareness and education around Brandie, to boost product adoption. 

  • Big Bazaar’s ‘Asli Dukaan’ locks horns with Amazon’s ‘Apni Dukaan’

    Big Bazaar’s ‘Asli Dukaan’ locks horns with Amazon’s ‘Apni Dukaan’

    MUMBAI: Big Bazaar has crossed swords with Amazon India by taking a dig at the e-commerce giant’s flagship campaign India ki Apni Dukaan (India’s own shop). The Future Group-owned chain of hypermarkets on Thursday released full front page ads in major newspapers across cities calling itself India’s Asli Dukaan (real/ original store). The ad promises to make deliveries of grocery to customers’ doorsteps in under two hours.

    Apart from the Asli Dukaan moniker, it has played on the word ‘Amazing’ by using terms such as “amazing” service, deals, and products at “amazing” prices. The harping on the word “amazing” is hard to miss! The south India editions of leading print publications had a largely English tagline with only Asli in Hindi, and dukaan changed to ‘store’.

    Amazon has been running an advertising campaign since 2016 with the tagline ‘India ki Apni Dukaan’(India’s own shop), and it is no coincidence that the superstore chain led by Kishore Biyani is now marketing itself as ‘India ki Asli Dukaan’.

    The brick-and-mortar superstore chain Big Bazaar has been entangled in a fierce legal battle with Jeff Bezos’ Amazon for its deal with Reliance Retail. RIL had announced in August last year that it was buying out the retail and wholesale business of Future Group, but Amazon — with a minority stake in an unlisted Future Group company — subsequently dragged the Mumbai-headquartered retailer to court, alleging that the proposed deal violated contractual agreements. The case is currently sub-judice.

    Meanwhile, the debt-laden Future Group is looking at ways to put its assets to better use. Big Bazaar has launched a marketing blitzkrieg taking a dig at the US e-tailer and is ramping up its two-hour home delivery across India to get more customer orders amid the pandemic that has largely confined people to their homes restricting outdoor movement. The company has tied up with hyperlocal delivery companies with employees at their stores doubling up as delivery executives, to drive its Store2Door program and double its online business in the span of a month.