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Tag: Meta

  • Meta shakes up public affairs policy team with Trump set to become president

    Meta shakes up public affairs policy team with Trump set to become president

    MUMBAI: Well, well, so, that’s how the cookie crumbles.

    Meta has replaced its Democrat-leaning chief global affairs officer Nick Clegg with Joel Kaplan who is known for his Republican leanings and was Clegg’s deputy.  Kaplan   was the deputy chief of staff for policy at the White House during the presidency of George W. Bush between 2006 to 2009.

    Clegg a former British deputy prime minister and  an ex-leader of the country’s liberal democrats,  joined Meta in 2018, playing a key role in developing policies related to content and elections. He was named president in 2022.

    Kaplan joined Meta in 2011 and was once vice-president of US public policy at Meta.

    Kevin Martin, the current head of US public policy at Meta, will step into Kaplan’s former role and will be just below him. Kevin was once appointed to the Federal Communication Commission  by George Bush and is also known to be Republican in his leanings.

    The changes are happening just as the Republican party’s Donald Trump is set to take over as the US president. 

    Mark Zuckerberg and team are doing their best not to take steps that can attract his ire and, if anything inadvertently does, his team should be in a position to get it fixed quick.

    If readers recollect, Facebook had taken extreme steps like banning Trump from the social media network for a while but had reinstated his account a while later. Clearly, Meta and Mark Zuckerberg will have to tread carefully as far as the president is concerned.

  • Deepa Jatkar to head WPP’s OpenDoor – the special servicing unit for Amazon

    Deepa Jatkar to head WPP’s OpenDoor – the special servicing unit for Amazon

    MUMBAI: When you win a premium  media planning and buying account such as Amazon, you put  your best foot behind it don’t you? 

    That’s what ad agency WPP’s has done by setting up OpenDoor,  WPP’s dedicated global client practice for Amazon, providing custom-built teams around a client’s specific needs and challenges and easy access to the right capabilities. 

    WPP has chosen WaveMaker’s chief growth officer Deepa Jatkar to head OpenDoor in India. 

    A hardcore media and tech person, Deepa has had well-rounded 20 years of agency experience. She began her career working at McCann (May 2000-May 2002, media planner); Mindshare (June 2002 to Sep 20024, media planning manager); Omnicom group (Dec 2004 to Nov 2006, media planning manager -Associate director); MediaCom (Apr 2008 -June 2016 -Biz grp head, biz dir, sr biz dir, gen manager); Meta (Jul2016-Aug 2022, manager global biz group -agency vertical) and Wavemaker (Apr 2023-Jan 2025, chief growth officer. She’s got great academic credentials as well – a BA in psychology, a PGDM, and a masters in communication studies.

    Deepa will be putting a crack team in place to service Amazon. No surprises there, Amazon’s guesstimated to bill  around $20 billion globally; WPP is  handling  APAC and EMEA; Omnicom,  the Americas.

    “Here’s to building winning teams and driving meaningful impact.,” said Deepa on linkedin. “With over 20 years of experience leading business strategy, my career has been driven by a focus on delivering meaningful, scalable, and sustainable impact through winning media strategies. Looking forward to continue the streak at OpenDoor.”

  • Changemakers 2024: Culver Max’s Gaurav Banerjee’s emergence from the shadows

    Changemakers 2024: Culver Max’s Gaurav Banerjee’s emergence from the shadows

    MUMBAI: Gaurav Banerjee does not come across as CEO nor as MD material when you meet him the first time. The bespectacled unassuming 47-year-old actually reminds you of a writer or a director or a journalist or a scholarly researcher. But today he sits atop Culver Max Entertainment as the chief executive officer & managing director, a handpicked successor to the quiet and unassuming number-crunching CEO NP Singh who built a profitable broadcast network and retired earlier this year.

    Not for GB, as he is known, are all the pomp and flash that others in the business were vaunt to opt for in earlier times when pay TV was a fat man’s business oozing money like there was no tomorrow. Today, pay TV is shrinking, cord-cutting is rampant cord-nevers are growing and the coming generation will probably not know what cable TV and satellite dishes were.

    GB – a history graduate from St Stephen’s College and a masters-degree holder in film making and TV production from Jamia Milia Islamia,  Delhi – belongs to a group of young executives like Arjun Nohwar who leads Warner Bros Discovery for India and south Asia.

    GAURAV BANERJEE

    These folks know they are leading legacy media companies in rapidly-changing times and they have to ensure that their charges stay relevant even in the midst of rapid churn and chaos.  Their response lies in putting their heads down and focusing on the task they have been assigned: protect and build legacy business and ensure they continue to generate cash which –  like in the past – continues fueling their existence and growth and money-gobbling streaming platforms.

    They also have to make the right moves on the streaming side on content, tech, distribution and business models. And they have to do all this profitably, without breaking the bank. For ranging against them are big players in the media and tech ecosystem: Google, Meta, Netflix, Amazon Prime and the potent combo of JioStar – all having deep pockets and a hunger to invest big and dominate the market. Plus there are others such as Zee5 and Sun Nxt and a string of other OTT players which are being spawned by the hour.

    No one in his or her right mind expected GB to be a candidate for the prized position of Culver Max Entertainment MD & CEO. For long the boyish-looking  executive was known to be a close ally, actually protégé, of current JioStar vice-chairman Uday Shankar and every one expected him to follow him to the joint venture that was in the making. (Danish Khan would succeed NP was most media observers’ guess; we at indiantelevision.com did not speculate about this)

    But GB probably knew otherwise; that it would be Kevin Vaz who would be chosen over him. Hence, when the offer to lead Sony came, he accepted it.

    Of course, he was deserving. A very strong content professional (he began his career as an anchor and producer with news channel Aaj Tak and later at Star News) with an uncanny knowledge of audience preferences, he knows how to weave stories into shows that generate high viewership.

    He did that very successfully both on Star Plus and Hotstar when he was president content at Disney Star India, retaining the network’s numero uno status for more than half a decade. It led others – who struggled to come even close – by a mile. To top it all he had the reputation of being a good manager and leader – earning the loyalty of his colleagues and subordinates.

    LA-based chair of global television studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment president & CEO Ravi Ahuja had expressed total confidence in GB’s visionary approach at the time of his appointment. “ Gaurav’s expertise in content creation and strategic leadership will undoubtedly lead SPNI (read Culver Max) into an exciting new chapter of growth and achievement. We are thrilled to have him at the helm and look forward to the continued success of SPNI under his leadership,” he had said.  

    GB has been playing low key ever since he took over in end-August 2024. He has been building up his A team bit by bit. Most old-timers have been retained, though some like Neerja Vyas chose to quit.

    Danish Khan who was EVP & business head Sony Entertainment Television, Studio Next and SonyLiv was recast to head -digital business, Studio Next, and networks channel licensing.   Ajay Bhalwankar, who  led Sony Marathi successfully,  was handed over Sony Sab to manage along with his existing charge.

    Nachiket Pantvaidya, general manager of Sony Pictures International Productions, was additionally made business head of Hindi general entertainment channel Sony Entertainment Television, marking his third stint with the network.

    Tushar Shah who led English, Bengali, and infotainment channels and  was the chief marketing officer (CMO) at the network was additionally asked to oversee Sony MAX, Sony MAX HD, Sony MAX 2, Sony WAH and Sony PAL.  

    Manu Wadhwa who was chief human resources officer was handed additional responsibility of information technology

    Ambesh Tiwari is currently being groomed to take over as kids channel Sony Yay’s business head when Leena Lele Dutta departs at the end of this fiscal year.

    Ritesh Khosla was brought in as general counsel.

    Veteran Rajesh Kaul, continued in his chief revenue officer, distribution and sports business head.  Aditya Mehta who headed corporate strategy, business monetization, and data analytics’ centre of excellence continues in his position.  Sandeep Mehrotra, continued in his position as EVP -sales.

    A new CFO Sibaji Biswas is slated to join come the first week of January 2025.

    The new leaders, in turn, have been building, their respective A teams.

    GAURAV BANERJEE

    In the meanwhile, GB has been working on getting to know  Culver Max Entertainment, its processes, its people, its neurology, its innards  better. He starting rerunning  episodes of old shows (Beyhadh, Bade Achche Lagate Hain, among others) on Sony excepting for  non-fiction shows Kaun Banega Crorepati and Indian Idol. The two were tweaked with better production quality and selection of participants. Each contestant had a dramatic back story or extremely good talent. Or even both.

    Without incurring any great additional programming costs, the ratings of SET  started rising.

    The teams in the meanwhile strategised on what kind of programming audiences would like to see on the network. The answer was classics like CID and Tenali Rama which would be modernised, have better casting, fabulous production values and improved storytelling. The first is being produced by Banijay Asia and the second by Contiloe Films and have already starting airing on their respective channels Sony Entertainment and Sony Sab. The focus in on gauging audience reactions to these two, before launching new shows which are currently being developed with other producers. Shark Tank, which has been drawing eyeballs and attention ever since it launched three seasons ago is slated to launch on 6 January.

    The second strong plank of content at Culver Max is its sports programming under the Sony Sports Network umbrella. Recently, rights to the Asian Cricket Council covering men’s, women’s, under19’s, and men’s and women’s emerging Asia cup tournaments from 2024 to 2031 were  acquired. The network already has rights to  cricket matches in New Zealand, England, Sri Lanka. Formule E race broadcast rights have been inked for the next three years. 

    For football fans, close to 1,600 matches from the 2024-2025, 2025-2026 and the 2026-27 seasons of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, UEFA super cup and UEFA Youth League havbeen be been signed up earlier this year. Ultimate Fighting Championship matches till 2028 should continue attracting its loyal audiences, even though it’s quite possible it will lose the WWE (its staple)  programming to Netflix which has paid top dollar for it as part of a global acquisition deal.  Rights to local Hockey India League championships for three years have also been acquired,. Sony has also been a partner to three of the Grand Slam tennis tournaments. Therefore it has enough heft to keep viewers engaged throughout 2025 with their TV and handphones, says GB.

    SonyLiv is the least of GB’s worries. Led by old-timer Danish Khan and content commissioner Saugata Mukherjee, the streamer has been churning out shows which have attained cult status: The Scam, Rocket Boys, Freedom at Midnight, Gullak, Tanaav, Cubicles, Undekhi, among many others. It has loyal subscribers who know what they are going to get on the platform, and they come there to get it. Sources indicate that it has the lowest churn among all the streamers, though its subscriber base is in the 15-20 million range.

    Four months into his job, and GB has begun to make his presence felt on the Indian entertainment landscape. He has just begun emerging from the shadows as a corporate leader. 2025 will see his influence spreading even further.

    Media mavens had better not be surprised if he makes some sharp moves, especially acquisitive ones. For as his boss Ravi Ahuja expressed to him on his December visit to India: “Exceed expectations, take on new challenges, and build your skills and network – that’s the path to leadership!”

    To his advantage, to many in the industry, he is a mystery, known more for his content savviness, not for his managerial or strategic skills. 

    And that is his trump card. 

    (We asked an AI pic generator to re-imagine Gauarav Banerjee through its tool, and the main picture on our home page is what it came up with. No malice is intended toward Culver Max, Gaurav Banerjee or anyone else asociated with personally or professionally. No copyright infringement is intended either.)
     

  • WhatsApp partners with OML to raise privacy awareness

    WhatsApp partners with OML to raise privacy awareness

    Mumbai: WhatsApp has collaborated with Only Much Louder (OML), a market-leading, full-service creative and entertainment business network for #MessagePrivately, a consumer awareness partnership focused on the importance of privacy in our lives. The collaboration has led to the production of ‘WhatsApp GoodMornings’ social series with Zakir Khan, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Aakash Gupta, and Gurleen Pannu, who talk about their experiences and light-hearted moments when sharing ‘Good Morning’ messages on WhatsApp from family and friends.

    This partnership with the talented bunch of comedians brilliantly combined humour and relatability, leveraging the power of comedians, who resonate with millennials, to deliver content that is both informative and entertaining. With each comedian bringing their unique style, the films highlighted the importance of privacy in our digital interactions, all while delivering light-hearted and engaging storytelling.

    It aimed to familiarise key audiences with privacy features related to messaging through some of their favourite comedians. The in-house team tapped into the potential of ‘Good morning’ messages to translate their power into a successful social media marketing collaboration for WhatsApp while seamlessly blending its creative expertise through four films and memes into the ‘WhatsApp GoodMornings’ IP series.

    With cheeky wordplay that celebrated his beloved plant, Biswa Kalyan Rath kicked off this partnership by talking about the wrath of spam callers and how to not let them ruin our ‘budding’ happiness. Zakir Khan, with his innovative storytelling, educated his father about dodging over-enthusiastic scammers through the ‘Block And Report’ feature while simultaneously taking a playful jab at singlehood.

    Gurleen Pannu taught her overprotective mother how to not let hackers get to chats with WhatsApp’s two-step verification feature. Lastly, Aakash Gupta, with his signature interactive style and wit, explained to viewers the importance of buying products from vendors with a Meta Verified Badge while brewing his first cup of Colombian coffee.

    Meta director of consumer marketing Vyom Prashant said, “’Privacy is at the core of WhatsApp. Over the years, we have added layers of security and protection with innovative features that empower our users to communicate securely & confidently on WhatsApp, including engaging with businesses they choose to. ‘Good Morning’ messages on WhatsApp is a shared experience for our users across India, and we partnered with OML to build upon this familiar concept, with humour and levity to explain how easy it is to protect oneself from spam and scams on WhatsApp.”

    Only Much Louder SVP of revenue Pankaj Malani said, “The team at OML Studios wanted to elevate the conversation about how WhatsApp is protecting its users’ conversations with loved ones from unwanted scammers. We set out to blend humour with purpose and highlight the importance of privacy while messaging in a light-hearted and relatable manner. We leveraged the intimacy that ‘Good Morning’ messages hold for everyone and kicked off the series with an amazing pool of talent, crafting engaging narratives that resonated with diverse audiences. Each message was designed to not only create awareness but also to foster connection, ensuring that every ‘Good Morning’ message resonated with warmth, all while underscoring the important role that privacy plays in our digital interactions.”

    By celebrating the simple joy of good morning messages, this partnership reminded viewers of the love and support that surrounds them, transforming ordinary mornings into meaningful moments of connection. Ultimately, this collaboration highlighted WhatsApp’s privacy features that help people connect with their loved ones safely and securely and demystify privacy in a simplified manner that resonates with audiences. It also fostered a community that values both authentic communication and privacy in the digital age.

  • Gupshup is a strategic partner for Meta and works together on a host of joint GTM programs: Vartika Verma

    Gupshup is a strategic partner for Meta and works together on a host of joint GTM programs: Vartika Verma

    Mumbai: Gupshup has launched its first brand film, Do More with Conversations as part of its #EveryConversationMatters Campaign. The film was conceptualized by Gupshup and produced in collaboration with Meta and SisterWolf Studios.

    The campaign features a brand film and a multi-city customer event series titled “Gupshup Conversations,” spanning Jakarta, Dubai, New Delhi, Brazil, and Mexico. The film, set against diverse global landscapes, features individuals from various walks of life interacting, showcasing the universal language of conversations. The film will be available for viewing on Gupshup’s YouTube channel, with its reach extended through social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.

    With an orchestral soundtrack, the film captures heartfelt conversations between friends, families, and colleagues, and pans to inspirational speeches that move humankind forward. The visuals gradually transition into featuring more business-to-consumer interactions. A powerful voice-over emphasizes the pivotal role of conversations in sparking innovation and driving business growth. The film creatively juxtaposes in-person interactions with brands engaging customers via chatbots, demonstrating how Gupshup’s Conversation Cloud facilitates human-like interactions across the customer lifecycle.

    Earlier this year, Gusphup made a splash with its Conversation Cloud launch featured on the NASDAQ tower. This was followed by a revamped website design and a new brand messaging that reinforced the importance of two-way communication for brands.

    Indiantelevision.com caught up with Vartika Verma, Senior Director, Global Marketing, Gupshup senior director, global marketing, Vartika Verma, where she gave deeper insights on the campaign and many moree…

    Edited excerpts

    On the collaboration with Meta and SisterWolf Studios

    Gupshup is a strategic partner for Meta and works together on a host of joint GTM programs. The collaboration on the film is one of the many initiatives that Meta and Gupshup drive jointly. While the script was built by Gupshup, the production was done hand-in-hand with Meta and their preferred film-partner, SisterWolf Studios in LA, USA.

    On the campaign catering to different cultural contexts in diverse markets like Jakarta, Dubai, New Delhi, Brazil, and Mexico

    Gupshup’s customer base spans India, APAC, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, China, Europe, and the USA. The film endeavors to capture the diverse demographics of both our customers and their end users. Centered around the theme “Every Conversation Matters,” the film illustrates how conversations drive growth across various use cases—acquisition, engagement, conversion, and customer care—across different regions. Additionally, the film will be translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and Bahasa to reach a broader audience.

    On the decision to use various social media platforms (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X) for the campaign’s distribution

    Gupshup, as a digital-first enterprise, empowers businesses to embrace conversational digital strategies to drive growth. Given that a significant portion of our audience engages with us frequently on social media and through byte-sized WhatsApp newsletters, it was only natural for us to leverage digital platforms for the distribution of our film.

    On the modules—Converse, Advertise, and Communicate—working together to enhance customer interactions and business outcomes

    Converse, Advertise, and Communicate are three key modules of Gupshup’s Conversation Cloud which enable brands to capture the entire customer journey right from awareness to support on messaging channels.

    Communicate is our high-scale smart CPaaS solution which is leveraged by brands to send personalized messages – at scale, across multiple channels such as WhatsApp, RCS, SMS, and more. And every message sent is an opportunity to weave a conversation to engage with the customers deeper. That’s where our suite of modules under the Converse product comes to life. With intuitive Journey Builder, Campaign Manager, Agent Assist, and Catalogs and Payments, Converse allows brands to build immersive two-way conversational experiences for several use cases across marketing, commerce, and support.

    The Advertise module supports brands by helping them build their first-party database of consented users via Click to WhatsApp and Click to Instagram ads. The modules leverage advanced no-code tools, conversational customer data platforms, and AI-powered automation to build engaging two-way conversational journeys, to acquire, qualify and sell to prospects.

    On Gupshup making  a significant branding effort with the NASDAQ tower feature and website revamp earlier this year.

    The launch of Gupshup Conversation Cloud is a part of our effort to stake our leadership position in Conversational CX, on a global scale.

    We have an expanding global customer base, and some of the biggest brands are starting to adopt Gupshup as their global platform for conversational CX.

    Some of our key customers leveraging Gupshup Conversation Cloud in India include IDFC Bank, Canara Bank, Tata Capital, MPL, Flipkart, Cars24, and global brands such as Loreal, ADCB, Carso, Carrefour and more.

    On ensuring the human-like quality of chatbot interactions

    The great thing about Gupshup’s AI chatbots (built through our ACE LLM), which are based on the most advanced Generative AI LLMs, is that they are contextually aware and capable of engaging in human-like conversations. This capability gets further enhanced with fine-tuning which is retraining the foundational LLM on domain-specific knowledge, vocabulary, and insights. Our deep domain expertise from years of experience working with companies in numerous verticals such as banking, insurance, e-commerce, retail, gaming, and healthcare means that we already have a huge repository of conversational datasets to train these models. Apart from learning from the past customer interactions, the model is well-equipped to learn on the go from customer responses and adapt itself accordingly.

    On your personal goals for Gupshup’s brand and marketing initiatives over the coming years

    My objectives are centered on advancing both the brand and demand for Gupshup on a global scale.

    From a branding perspective, our name, “Gupshup,” translates to “Conversations” in Hindi. My vision is to establish Gupshup as synonymous with Conversations on the Internet, akin to how certain companies have become synonymous with Search, Payments, and Photocopying.

    On the demand side, there is a growing momentum driving brands towards conversational interactions. The shift from humans adapting to machine behavior to machines learning to emulate human interaction marks an irreversible trend. Increasingly, people prefer to accomplish tasks through conversation. We foresee a future where brands operate their core workflows via conversational interfaces at the front end, powered by AI at the back end.

    With the proliferation of internet-enabled smartphones and messaging apps, brands are finding it more efficient to acquire, engage, and support customers on platforms like WhatsApp, RCS, and Instagram. My goal is to cultivate and nurture such Conversational Brands worldwide, supported by an integrated demand generation engine.

  • MIB to convene with Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Google and Meta on broadcast regulations

    MIB to convene with Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Google and Meta on broadcast regulations

    Mumbai: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has summoned the nation’s leading OTT platforms, including Netflix, Disney, Amazon, along with tech giants Google and Meta, for a meeting on 14 June to discuss new broadcast service regulations.

    Stakeholders are worried that the bill’s provisions for official certification and regulatory committees could stifle artistic freedom. It calls for the creation of content evaluation committees with members from various social groups to review and approve shows before their release.

    While films in Indian cinemas are currently reviewed and certified by a government-appointed board, streamed content does not undergo this process.

  • Digital the most lucrative channel for FMCG brands: Meta studies

    Digital the most lucrative channel for FMCG brands: Meta studies

    Mumbai: On the sidelines of Meta Marketing Summit – FMCG edition held in Mumbai, the company announced findings from several Meta commissioned studies with leading market research firms Nielsen and Kantar that show the growing relevance of digital for the country’s FMCG sector. Among the key findings, the studies call out digital platforms, especially Meta, a crucial pillar in driving brand imagery, equity, and higher return on investment across categories.

    Meta director and head (India), ads business Arun Srinivas said, “The FMCG industry is a leading contributor to the country’s overall ad-ex, and a marked shift in its media consumption patterns is going to be significant for the country’s creative ecosystem and the digital economy. The studies with Neilsen and Kantar clearly demonstrate the transformative power of digital channels for the FMCG sector. Catering to such an important industry, we are excited to see Meta platforms not only enhancing brand imagery and mindshare but also delivering exceptional returns on media investments.”

    The Nielsen study noted that the return on investment (RoI), which is the incremental revenue generated per Rupee invested is 1.42 for digital mediums vis-a-vis 0.95 non-digital mediums. Within this, the RoI from Meta is 1.76 for every rupee invested.

    On the other hand, the Kantar study reveals that the digital platforms, especially Meta, contribute significantly in building a brand. Meta has been instrumental in driving brand imagery where around 20 per cent of all media-led brand growth comes from Meta.  Furthermore, digital media channels led by Meta provide the highest ROI for building mind measures, according to the study.

    Both the studies highlight that the investment by FMCG/CPG brands on Meta poses stronger returns indexed to traditional channels across categories including food, household care, personal care, baby care, laundry, and health & hygiene.

    The summit was attended by prominent industry leaders and brands from the FMCG industry that shed light on the evolving consumer landscape and its effects on changing brand strategies, the use of Reels, AI and Business Messaging as new frontiers of marketing, and brands leveraging Meta platforms for enhancing their reach and growth.

    “In today’s fragmented ecosystem, quantifying the effectiveness of media strategies has become a daunting challenge. Cross-platform nuances require a laser focused approach to uncover what truly drives performance. Nielsen Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) enables marketers to assess the impact of their investments, understand what is working, and unlocks several opportunities to increase ROI and drive profit, bringing accuracy and simplicity to an increasingly complex advertising environment in India,” said Nielsen, VP APAC – marketing effectiveness Abhinav Maheshwari.

    Meta commissioned Nielsen to conduct an FMCG Meta-Analysis for India, an extensive study covering MMMs for FMCG categories including food, beverage, personal care, home care, health & hygiene, and others. Nielsen leveraged the Nielsen compass repository of Marketing ROI norms, and looked at performance of all channels including TV, other traditional (radio, print and OOH), META, online video, and other digital (display and search). The learnings cover the role of media channels in driving sales, how ROIs compare across media channels, and how ROIs compare across categories. FMCG advertisers can greatly benefit from the Meta-Analysis insights to drive better marketing decisions, added Nielsen.

    Meta also released the findings from cross-media studies by Kantar. Cross Media is a Kantar-preferred and industry-accepted solution to evaluate the brand impact for a multi-media campaign. Kantar built the most robust Meta-analysis of cross-media studies in India covering more than 140 campaigns across industries from 2012 -2023.

  • Meta launches enhanced Gen AI features to help businesses grow

    Meta launches enhanced Gen AI features to help businesses grow

    Mumbai: Meta has launched enhanced generative AI features for advertisers, such as full image and text generation to help businesses to grow. The goal is to help advertisers at every step of the journey, whether that’s improving ad performance by helping develop creative variations or automating certain parts of the ad creation process.

    Now, for the first time, businesses can create full image variations inspired by the original ad creative with text overlay capabilities, building on capabilities to generate new backgrounds around product images and expanding images to better fit multiple surfaces. For instance, a coffee bean business advertising a savouring cup of coffee will be able to use Meta’s generative AI to create other variations of backgrounds, including settings that embody a lush and idyllic farm, and also provide adjustments to the coffee cup to offer more creative options. This feature has already started to roll out, and in the coming months, businesses will also be able to provide text prompts to help better tailor the creative variations.

    In addition, businesses will now have the ability to apply text overlay to images, with a dozen of the most popular font typeface options for brands to choose from. Lastly, image expansion, a feature that allows businesses to seamlessly adjust creative assets to fit different aspect ratios across multiple surfaces, is now available on Reels and Feed across both Instagram and Facebook and can now work seamlessly with text overlays on ads.

    The text generation feature creates variations for the ad headline in addition to the primary text. Meta is currently testing the ability of the generated text to reflect the brands’ voice and tone, by highlighting key selling points based on their previous campaigns and text input. These enhancements are driven by advertiser feedback for a more diverse set of text suggestions that better reflect their brand and key selling points.

    This feature will soon be built with Meta Llama 3, the next generation of Meta’s large language models, which will enable new capabilities and enhance ad performance.

    Meta has begun rolling out these updated generative AI features and aims to make them available globally by the end of the year.

    Centralising the generative AI features under Advantage+ creative

    These updated generative AI features – and Meta’s currently available creative enhancements – will be available in Ads Manager through Advantage+ Creative, supporting businesses along the entire ad campaign creation journey. By bringing all of the generative AI features together in one place, businesses will be able to see the benefits of automation and generative AI at the same time. That means faster ad creation and better performance.

    In addition to generative AI tools, Meta has recently updated several Meta Advantage products that businesses can use today:

    1    Advantage+ creative optimizations: Optimizes video ads for viewing on Reels or the mobile Facebook and Instagram apps with a 9:16 ratio when using visual touch-ups.

    2    Advantage+ catalogue ads: Delivers product recommendations to people based on their interests. Advertisers are now able to import and use creatives like branded videos or customer demonstration videos, instead of just static images. After previously announcing the testing of this feature last year, Meta is now allowing all global advertisers to provide more engaging product information to shoppers in dynamic and customized videos.

    3    Advantage+ creative with Advantage+ catalogue ads: Advertisers are now able to upload a “hero” image or video in the centre of their catalogue ad, and Meta will then use Meta’s AI to dynamically show people the best products from their catalogue to drive performance. Marketers can use this tool by clicking add catalogue items under Advantage+ creative within Ads Manager. 

  • Meta and Star Sports forge partnership with 250+ creators to elevate IPL 2024 fan experience

    Meta and Star Sports forge partnership with 250+ creators to elevate IPL 2024 fan experience

    Mumbai: In a bid to amplify discussions and celebrate the cricket frenzy, Meta has embarked on a collaborative journey with over 250 content creators, uniting voices on Threads during the ongoing tournament. According to the 2024 GenZ Trend Talk report reveals a staggering statistic: over 90 percent of teens proudly identify themselves as part of a fandom, with cricket emerging as a primary passion. This fervor was unmistakably palpable during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, which garnered a staggering 16.9 billion views on ICC’s platforms on Meta, a trend that continues to resonate today.

    Some of these accounts include:

    Teams – Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

    Experts – ex cricketer Akash Chopra, sports presenter Ridhima Pathak and analyst Mufaddal Vohra.

    Creators – Naveen Singh aka bihariladka, Shreyas Mendiratta and Deepika Venkatachalam aka deepika_v__

    “The current cricket fever is all about intense rivalries, passionate involvement and strong fan following. With platforms like Threads that enable fans and experts to voice their opinions and Instagram that allows fans and athletes to share moments and create unique content related to the games, we are dedicated to heighten this excitement through our partnerships and collaborations with creators from all over India. We’re thankful to our partners like Star Sports as well, to join in this journey,” said Meta, India director, Content and Community Partnerships Paras Sharma.

    Meta has teamed up with Star Sports, as was done during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, to create engaging experiences for fans throughout the tournament. This is being achieved through regular interventions at various touchpoints, stated the company.

    ‘Ask Star’ – During a live match, fans can submit their questions to the commentary team at Star Sports on Threads, who will then select some of them to answer.

    ‘Ajab Gajab T20 Challenge’ – Star Sports developed a one-of-a-kind concept where former cricketers and a group of content creators played a game of box cricket before the start of the tournament. The participants included cricketers such as Harbhajan Singh, Irfaan Pathan, and Steve Smith, as well as content creators like Naveen Singh, Dharna Durga and Rishabh Shukla. This event was broadcasted on Star Sports and also available on reels for fans to watch.

    ‘Shor Squad’ – A group of selected creators will have the opportunity to have their reels broadcasted live during the matches.

    “At Star Sports, our mission is to enhance the cricketing experience for fans across every platform. We are thrilled to bring the cricket extravaganza to life through our Creator Network program, joining hands with top creators and influencers to deliver an immersive experience by dialing up fan engagement, with initiatives like ‘Ask Star’ (Give fans a chance to ask questions to their favorite cricketing expert), ‘Dream Job’ (A chance to become an anchor on Star Sports) and the ‘Ajab Gajab T20 Challenge’ (A mixed team match between cricketing heroes & fans). Together with Meta, we’re redefining fan engagement and are committed to creating unforgettable money can’t buy experiences for every cricket enthusiast, uniting fans in the spirit of the game,” said Star Sports marketing head Vikram Passi.

    In addition to partnerships with broadcasting giants, Meta has also forged alliances with cricketing powerhouses like Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders. Through collaborative efforts such as creator days, content creators were given the unparalleled opportunity to interact and collaborate with teams and players, further enriching the fan experience.

  • Meta expands third-party fact-checking program in India with Press Trust of India

    Meta expands third-party fact-checking program in India with Press Trust of India

    Mumbai: Meta has expanded our third-party fact-checking program in India to include Press Trust of India (PTI), a dedicated fact-checking unit within the newswire’s editorial department. The partnership will enable PTI to identify, review and rate content as misinformation across Meta platforms.

    To fight the spread of misinformation and provide people with more reliable information, Meta partners with independent third-party fact-checkers that are certified through the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) who identify, review and rate viral misinformation across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Globally, we’ve also built the largest independent fact-checking network of any platform, with nearly 100 partners around the world to review and rate viral misinformation in more than 60 languages.

    With this partnership with PTI, we now have 12 fact-checking partners in India, making it the country with the most third-party fact-checking partners globally across Meta. Our Indian language coverage stands at 16 through our existing fact-checking partners to include Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu, Punjabi, Assamese, Manipuri/ Meitei, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Kashmiri, Bhojpuri, Oriya and Nepali, besides English.

    Each time a fact-checker rates a piece of content as false, altered or partly false, we reduce its distribution so that fewer people see it. We notify people who try to share the content – or who previously shared it – that the information was rated by a fact-checker, and we add a warning label that links to the fact-checker’s article with more information about the claim.

    Since 2016, our fact-checking program has expanded to include nearly 100 organizations globally. The focus of the program is to address viral misinformation – particularly clear hoaxes that have no basis in fact. Fact-checking partners prioritise provably false claims that are timely, trending and consequential.