ITV

Tag: OEM

  • Doms Industries inks 51 per cent stake in Super Treads to bulk up stationery play

    Doms Industries inks 51 per cent stake in Super Treads to bulk up stationery play

    MUMBAI: Doms Industries Limited has acquired a 51 per cent equity stake in Super Treads Private Limited (STPL) for up to Rs 6.12 crore, the company confirmed after a board meeting held on May 19. The strategic acquisition will be executed through a secondary share purchase, subject to due diligence and regulatory clearances.

    The move is aimed at strengthening Doms’ manufacturing base in the paper stationery segment and extending its reach in eastern India. STPL, which has been in operation for over two decades, has built its niche as an OEM supplier specialising in notebooks and paper stationery.

    “Our proposed acquisition of a majority stake in STPL is a key step in enhancing our manufacturing capacities and geographically diversifying our paper stationery infrastructure to efficiently reach our consumers, thus further strengthening our competitiveness in this segment,” said Doms Industries Ltd MD Santosh Raveshia.

    He added, “This investment aligns with our vision of leveraging our growing brand reputation and well-entrenched distribution network to deliver our unique and differentiated range of products at the most competitive prices. With Rakesh Maheshwari and his team, we have got this wonderful opportunity to partner with great technocrats, like-minded entrepreneurs who have a great zeal to offer something unique to the market. We are confident that this partnership would lead to significant long-term growth and value creation for all of us”.

    STPL promoter director Rakesh Kumar Maheshwari described the deal as a strategic inflection point. “This partnership represents a strategic milestone for our company, combining our manufacturing expertise with Doms’ national distribution capabilities and established brand. This collaboration will be instrumental in realising our full potential and enable us to explore opportunities, thereby unlocking new avenues for growth and innovation. In Doms, we have found a perfect strategic partner to help us pursue a brand-led business journey”, he said.

    Once finalised, STPL will become part of the broader Doms Group portfolio, which already includes Pioneer Stationery Private Ltd, Micro Wood Private Limited, Skido Industries Private Limited, Uniclan Healthcare Private Limited and associate firm Clapjoy Innovations Private Ltd.

    Marathon Capital Advisory Private Limited served as the strategic advisor to Doms on this acquisition.

  • Summer Olympics in Paris heats up mobile advertising opportunities

    Summer Olympics in Paris heats up mobile advertising opportunities

    Mumbai: A global stage beckons later this month with the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Transcending mere sports, the Summer Olympics aren’t just about athletics; they’re a prime time for apps to flex their marketing muscles. With a global audience of 3.05 billion during the last Olympics, the multi-sporting event in Paris this year is anticipated to exceed that number, offering an unparalleled opportunity for mobile apps to expand their reach and engage with a vast audience worldwide; presenting a golden opportunity for brands to enhance their visibility and foster stronger consumer connections during peak audience engagement.

    Leveraging Mobile OEM Advertising: Racing for Olympic Gold

    Brands in India have a golden opportunity to leverage mobile OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) advertising, with players such as Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, OnePlus, Realme, and Transsion. Connecting with the passionate sports enthusiast demographic, brands can drive user acquisition through targeted app promotions or branding campaigns during the event. Likewise, mobile developers can adopt an open mindset to look beyond traditional advertising methods and reach an updated audience through mobile OEMs and their “alternative” app stores. 

    Mobile Consumption: A Driving Force in Sports Engagement

    Tokyo 2020 was the most digitally watched Olympics in history with a 74 per cent increase in digital viewers and a 139 per cent rise in video viewers compared with Rio 2016. It also attracted almost 200 million unique users to its official website and app.

    Illustrating high mobile consumption in other sports, in India, 32 million people used the JioCinema app to watch the FIFA World Cup 2022 final between Argentina and France. In total, over 110 million viewers watched the event digitally, surpassing television viewership for the first time. This milestone made India one of the top digital viewership markets globally for the FIFA World Cup.

    The Indian Premier League in 2023 stood out as well. Approximately 70 per cent of viewers were actively engaged with their smartphones, from checking match updates to ordering food. Particularly noteworthy was the surge in app downloads for food delivery (63 per cent) and e-commerce apps (54 per cent) during the IPL. This underscores the strong connection between sports enthusiasts and mobile apps for targeted advertising.

    With 1 in 5 global sports fans using mobile apps to follow sports, the 2024 Summer Olympics offers advertisers a massive opportunity to connect with a highly engaged audience. In SEA, many broadcasters have offered the current European Championships as part of a paid package, with mobile-only packages costing significantly less than TV packages. As such, this has encouraged many viewers to opt for the cheaper mobile-only packages, which is sure to significantly increase mobile and digital viewership of the tournament.

    The same mobile-centric consumption of the Olympic Games – from live streaming to news and other media – is expected in the EU, SEA, India, and beyond. This widespread mobile access creates a massive and engaged audience for advertisers. Similar to how brands leveraged specialists in Mobile OEM advertising for targeted ad placement during Champions League football matches on Prime Video, advertisers can utilize similar strategies to connect with viewers during the Olympics.

    Mobile OEMs Deepen Ties with Sports

    Strategic sponsorships by mobile OEMs like Samsung for the Olympics, Vivo for the FIFA World Cup 2022 in addition to the IPL from 2016 to 2021 and Euro 2024,  and OPPO for the Cricket World Cup (2016-2019), UEFA Champions League (2022 -2024), and Wimbledon (2022 & 2023) solidify the connection between sports and mobile. This benefits everyone – mobile OEMs gain exposure, marketers reach captivated audiences, and app developers utilize prominent placements.

    For instance, Vivo’s popularity increased as the Official Smartphone Sponsor of the 2022 FIFA World Cup – and in Q1 of 2024, it became the leading smartphone brand in India, capturing a 19 per cent market share. In terms of integrations, during the ongoing Euro 2024, OEMs like Xiaomi and Oppo are offering real-time customization options with themes tailored to fans’ favorite football teams, enriching the immersive experience for users

    With the numerous options mobile OEMs provide, advertisers can employ diverse strategies for enhanced effectiveness. Full-screen videos, splash ads, and appographic marketing in display ads offer personalized campaigns. Dynamic Preloads utilise mobile OEMs’ app recommendations for effective user acquisition. Leveraging Private Marketplace (PMP) deals and Dynamic Preloads during key sports events provides additional acquisition channels without excessive costs.

    Reach Millions of Engaged Fans with Mobile OEM Advertising

    Brands must partner with new-age global app growth marketing companies specializing in mobile OEM advertising to leverage their expertise in Mobile OEM advertising and achieve a targeted app promotion strategy that scores big during major sporting events like the 2024 Summer Olympics. With access to over 1.5 billion daily active users and exclusive partnerships with mobile OEM inventories such as Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, Realme, and Transsion, some leading players offer unparalleled opportunities for targeted user acquisition.

    This article has been authored by AVOW co-founder and CRO Ashwin Shekhar,

  • GUEST ARTICLE: Everything marketers need to know about optimising mobile OEM user acquisition campaigns

    GUEST ARTICLE: Everything marketers need to know about optimising mobile OEM user acquisition campaigns

    Mumbai: Mobile original equipment manufacturer (OEM) inventory is rapidly increasing, with a year-over-year growth of 3.8 per cent, and with shipments expected to reach 1.43 billion by the end of 2022. Within this space, brands such as Vivo, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo (which includes Realme and OnePlus) occupied 52 per cent of the global smartphone market share as of Q1 2022.

    The user inventory generated by these mobile OEMs provides a tremendous competitive advantage for budget holders, as it continues to scale for as long as smartphones dominate the telecommunications industry. In parallel, these giant companies have been developing new and better proprietary platforms and systems that support specific targeting and ongoing optimisation of their intrinsic user traffic.

    As a result, mobile OEMs are becoming one (if not the most) successful channels for mobile marketers to add to their marketing mix plans to achieve scalable and targeted user acquisition.

    Marketers should not miss the diversity and effectiveness of ad campaign optimisation capabilities provided by mobile OEMs.

    When mobile advertisers don’t see the right results for their campaigns, their first instinct is to pause the ad channels that are not meeting their expectations. However, as new inventory sources (such as mobile OEMs) provide a very granular range of optimisation options towards specific targets, learning and taking advantage of such features is crucial for the campaign’s success.

    From this perspective, to get better outcomes and higher engagements, mobile marketers should consider three layers of optimisation for their user acquisition (UA) advertising (ad) campaigns:

    1. Advertisement placement optimisation: Not all placements will drive the same level of quality. Advertisers need to look at which ad placements are driving quality users compared to others, and increase the bid for those placements so they can leverage more traffic. In addition, there are advertising placements that drive volumes but not quality, and those can be optimised by calculating the return on ad spend (ROAS) for a particular ad placement so they can decrease the bid and still get a positive ROAS result and retain volumes.

    2. Creative optimisation: When mobile advertisers are buying media, they need to prevent “advertising fatigue” and ensure that their users aren’t seeing the same ad multiple times, as it leads to them eventually not interacting with it. Therefore, an advertiser should always have three creatives running for A/B testing and constantly come up with new concepts. Hence, the engagement of the ad remains constant as users get to see something new each time the ad is displayed. The higher the engagement of the ad, the better the conversion rate and effective cost per install (ECPI) for the advertiser.

    3. Targeting optimisation: Some app stores also offer appographic targeting that helps app advertisers promote their apps to new users based on their unique app interests. It allows the advertiser to target over 200 appographic segments based on app interests and leverages audience insights beyond category and ownership, and all of this is user privacy compliant.

    Understanding how advertisers can optimise their advertising spend based on upcoming special promotions

    Timing, timing, timing!

    Advertisers looking to place their ads on mobile OEMs during the special promotions season need to start by planning way ahead. For example, if there is a shopping app that wants to run a campaign for promotional offers in a specific time period, they need to work closely and plan with their partner agency in order to leverage the right mobile OEM inventory mix.

    When the shopping app is featured within alternative app stores on any of these promotional days, then not only does the conversion rate go up, but overall conversion volumes also become higher, and this is when an optimisation strategy is key to achieving maximum success.

    Furthermore, if the shopping app has also been promoted through offline media and other networks such as TV and third-party ad networks, the effective cost per acquisition per user becomes much lower.

    Key takeaways for mobile marketers to consider for UA campaign optimisation

    Optimising efforts for app marketing can be challenging, but mobile marketers can certainly tackle such situations by focusing on a few things:

    First of all, they need to look at pricing based on quality. They should never remove an entire mobile OEM ecosystem because of quality. They need to be careful that app discoverability decreases if they pause the campaigns on a specific smartphone OEM. Therefore, they can always choose to negotiate price deals based on quality.

    Secondly, they should measure mobile OEM performance. Every mobile OEM has different levels of offering placements and inventories to get apps launched in their respective app stores since each is at a different maturity level in its offerings. Analysing which mobile OEM works best is the key to placing and winning bids for advertising user acquisition campaigns.

    Last but certainly not least, mobile marketers often tend to cannibalise when bidding for multiple inventories from their agency partners. They should choose one agency partner that acts as a single source of truth, specialises in mobile OEM inventory, and has close partnerships with those mobile OEMs. They need the know-how to deal with the individual platforms from launch to running user acquisition campaigns and optimisation.

    Adopting these success mantras can change the course of mobile marketers’ user acquisition goals ahead of this year’s festive season.

    The author of the article is AVOW co-founder Ashwin Shekhar.

  • Glance’s active user base crosses 160 million in India

    Glance’s active user base crosses 160 million in India

    Mumbai: Lockscreen content platform Glance recorded 163 million active users as of Q3 2021, according to Counterpoint Research’s Quarterly Mobile Application Tracker. Experiencing consistent growth since its inception, its active user base which now consists of 30 per cent of India’s smartphone users, grew by eight per cent QoQ in Q3 of 2021.

    Glance’s presence is highly prominent in the $100- $250 price segment, with nearly two-thirds of the active users coming from this price band. Upper-mid-and-affordable premium ($250 and above) comprises about 20 per cent. Over the past year, the lockscreen content platform has expanded its reach beyond India, and is currently also available on devices across Southeast Asia.

    Glance enables its users to access a wide range of content, including live interactive content, on their smartphone lockscreens. This content is curated from top publishers and developers in India across categories such as sports, current affairs, fashion, travel, food, commerce and entertainment.

     

    Commenting on the development, Research Analyst Arushi Chawla said, “The lockscreen is the most visited real-estate on a smartphone. It is the first screen users see every time when unlocking their smartphone. Being present on this surface, Glance makes content discovery frictionless and improves the opt-in rate for interactive broadcasting, compared to any other in-app event features that require users to login. Glance’s recent foray into Live, interactive content has also helped it to differentiate itself as a platform and has helped boost user engagement levels.”

    “As per our estimates, about a billion smartphones will be sold in the next five years in India, which brings a huge opportunity for a content platform to expand using Hardware as a Distribution (HaaD) model. Being a multilingual, pre-installed application in many leading smartphone OEMs it serves as a gateway to the latest content for many first-time smartphone users,” she added.

    Glance continues to come up with engaging ways to create stickiness on the platform. With the launch of Glance Live, and a rise in interactive, real-time content, it is progressively bringing newness in content delivery. Content from Roposo’s top creators onto the Glance lockscreen platform has increased content uniqueness as well.

    India is a price-sensitive and highly competitive market for OEMs. In many cases, it directly affects their operating margin and ability to maintain their market position. As the market dynamics are moving from hardware-level competition to providing an overall holistic experience, most of the OEM’s strategy will concentrate on maximising the customer’s lifetime value. In such a scenario long-term loyalty and value creation will depend on providing differentiating over-the-top services. Content will certainly play a key role in developing brand stickiness.

    (The findings are based on a sponsored survey to better understand the brand’s presence in the Indian smartphone market.)

  • FreeDish auction on 22 Aug, different reserve prices for GEC & news

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan’s FreeDish is all set to hold its second e-auction with differential reserve prices for general entertainment channels and news channels.

    The 37th e-auction is slated for 22 August and the reserve prices for general entertainment channels will be Rs 80 million but the reserve price for news and current affairs channels will be Rs 65 million.

    With the completion of MPEG4 trials, the total strength of the platform will go up to 104, over the next few months. Earlier this year, Parliament was informed FreeDish had got approval to increase this capacity to 250 channels and DD sources had told indiantelevision.co that will happen ion the third quarter of 2018.

    The e-Auction will be conducted by M/s. C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Noida which also conducted the FM Radio Phase III auctions on behalf of Prasar Bharati.   

    The participation amount (EMD) in the e-Auction for GEC channels is Rs.28 million while it is Rs 22.8 million for news channels. This has to be deposited in advance before or by 12 noon on the date of auction along with processing fee of Rs.25,000 (non-refundable).

    Incremental amount for the auction will be Rs one million and the time for every slot e-auction will be of fifteen minutes duration. This may be extended by five minutes if a bid is received before the closing time.

    Unsuccessful bidders will get back the participation amount within three weeks of the results while that of successful bidders will be adjusted against the third and final instalment of the carriage fee.

    If the successful bidder fails to put his channel on the allotted slot within a month, the allotment will be cancelled and the participation fee forfeited. Successful bidders have to sign and return an agreement within fifteen days of allotment.                                                                                                          

    The first installment of 25 per cent of the bid price with the applicable service tax will have to be paid within one month from date of placement of channel.

    The second installment of 25 per cent of the total bid price along with the applicable service tax will have to be paid within four months of placement of channel.

    The third installment of remaining amount after adjusting the participation fee and previous installments but adding the applicable service tax will be deposited within seven months of placement of channel.

    If any of the installments is not paid in time, a penal interest of 14.5 per cent per annum will be levied.

    If there is failure in depositing an installment for two months, the deposited participation amount along with any installment paid will be forfeited and the channel discontinued after a 21-day discontinuation notice.

    In line with the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’, DD has implemented Indian CAS (iCAS) on DD FreeDish Platform. iCAS (which is an initiative of the central government).

    DD officials said the existing viewers will continue to get 80 SDTV channels and 32 radio channels, but will have to obtain iCAS-enabled authorized set-top boxes for accessing all new channels.

    Although Free Dish will remain free-to-air with no monthly or periodic fee, the viewers will be required to register with DD FreeDish on getting the new STB from Doordarshan authorized STB dealers.

    DD officials said implementation of iCAS and authorisation of STB original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by Doordarshan will give a major thrust to ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’. At present, a majority of STBs are imported. However, the introduction of iCAS will help in standardization of STBs and encourage quality STB manufacturing in India.

    With analogue having been switched off, Parliament had been told that many stakeholders feel that FreeDish is the best option in Phase IV which covers rural India.

    FreeDish was launched with a modest bouquet of 33 channels in December 2004, and now carries eighty TV channels and 32 radio channels. This includes 22 Doordarshan channels and two parliamentary channels, seven general entertainment channels, 18 movie channels, 13 news channels, seven music channels, three religious channels and eight channels of other genres. The All-India Radio stations also piggy-back on the platform.

    Also read:

    MIB favours switching to DTH if consumers have problems with MSOs or LCOs

    FreeDish: English news channel among two come aboard (Updated)

    FreeDish creates record, sells 11 slots for Rs 851 million

  • Animated ‘Ramayana’ a global Diwali gift on web, mobile

    Animated ‘Ramayana’ a global Diwali gift on web, mobile

    NEW DELHI: Thirty episodes of the animated series Ramayana will be available around the world on the nexGTv web and mobile platforms during Diwali.

    This follows acquisition by nexGTv of the digital telecast rights from HT Media. With Diwali just around the corner, the content addition highlights nexGTv focus on delivering highly-relevant India-centric entertainment solutions to viewers around the world.

    The platform also recently tied up with several reputed content developers and media firms such as Culture Machine and Inavit Digital Pvt. Ltd. in order to add more diversity to its content library, already including 150+ Live TV channels, movies, shows and videos.

    nexGTv COO Abhesh Verma said, “With the festival fast approaching, our acquisition of the global digital rights to Ramayana could not have been timed better. We are confident that our viewers will be delighted with the latest addition, as they get a chance to relive the quintessential triumph of good over evil on-the-go through nexGTv.”

    Made available for seamless viewing across multiple devices and platforms, nexGTv viewers can watch 30 episodes of Ramayana as a part of its free content catalogue. The series can be accessed be either through www.nexgtv.com or through the nexGTv mobile app, available on both Android and iOS.

    With over 25 million downloads, nexGTv is the flagship, multi award-winning application from DigiVive. Offering unlimited and compelling entertainment across multiple devices (mobile, tablets or laptops/PCs), nexGTv offers its users an unrivalled suite of 150+ Live TV channels aside from a huge content library comprising movies, TV shows & videos for every mood. The app has won numerous awards including ‘The Best Digital Experience’ at the prestigious World Communication Awards 2014, in London, and is ranked amongst the Top Entertainment applications in app stores.

    DigiVive focuses on creating offerings in line with trends, with best-in-class content. Its partners include leading telecom operators and OEMs.

    nexGTv launched nexGTv Kids to curate and deliver the most entertaining and educative content meant especially for the kids aged between two and to 10 years. The platform’s exclusive news app, nexGTv News, has been launched as the go-to destination for mobile-based video news content aimed at revolutionizing the way news is currently consumed in the country through enhanced accessibility. Through its partnership with One Network Entertainment Pvt. Ltd (ONE), nexGTv has also launched the Comedy One, a first-of-its-kind comedy app having premium original comedy content ranging from stand-up, gags and spoofs to sketches and web-series. iFaith, nexGTv’s exclusive devotional app, will enable anytime, anywhere access to devotional content for nexGTv users. nexGTv has also launched nexGTv Yoga, which enables access to a host of videos on meditation, breathing techniques and yoga postures anytime, anywhere. The nexGTv Movies n Music app has been launched specifically for movie and music buffs around the world, and boasts of a library comprising nearly 2500 movies including titles such as Singham Returns, Holiday, Ragini MMS 2, Buddha In A Traffic jam, Dirty Politics and many more. The company has rolled out My nexGTv, a wrapper/aggregator tool that allows users to manage, install and access multiple nexGTv apps such as nexGTV Kids, nexGTV Yoga, nexGTV News and nexGTV Comedy One etc through one consolidated platform.

    nexGTv has partnered with leading channels such as B4U, 9X Jalwa, Tashan, B4U Music, M Tunes and 9XM Music to showcase high-quality entertainment solutions on its platform. Meanwhile, its partnership with India’s leading digital media firm, Culture Machine, will enable access to various digital channels like Being Indian, Put Chutney, Blush, Epified, What’s Trending India, Whack, Old Delhi Films, Rascalas, Vendhar TV etc to its viewers. Moving towards international web series content, the platform has acquired the digital telecast rights to UK-based Daehan Drama’s popular comedy web series, At the Counter, as well as its French-Chinese web series, Ex-Model, in order to diversify its offerings with high-quality international content.

    SPOTLight, India’s first mobile talent discovery platform, has been introduced by nexGTv with ace director Imtiaz Ali as the creative judge, as a medium to enable both amateurs and professional video enthusiasts to not only showcase their talent pan-India, but also earn off it. nexGTv also unveiled an original 14-part mobi-series in association with Priyanka Chopra and Fluence, ‘It’s My City’, in order to provide relatable and engaging video entertainment content to the country’s new-age digital viewership. In her inimitable style, Priyanka Chopra appears in and as herself, assuming the mantle of an official landlady, unofficial guardian and protective friend to the young protagonists.

  • Animated ‘Ramayana’ a global Diwali gift on web, mobile

    Animated ‘Ramayana’ a global Diwali gift on web, mobile

    NEW DELHI: Thirty episodes of the animated series Ramayana will be available around the world on the nexGTv web and mobile platforms during Diwali.

    This follows acquisition by nexGTv of the digital telecast rights from HT Media. With Diwali just around the corner, the content addition highlights nexGTv focus on delivering highly-relevant India-centric entertainment solutions to viewers around the world.

    The platform also recently tied up with several reputed content developers and media firms such as Culture Machine and Inavit Digital Pvt. Ltd. in order to add more diversity to its content library, already including 150+ Live TV channels, movies, shows and videos.

    nexGTv COO Abhesh Verma said, “With the festival fast approaching, our acquisition of the global digital rights to Ramayana could not have been timed better. We are confident that our viewers will be delighted with the latest addition, as they get a chance to relive the quintessential triumph of good over evil on-the-go through nexGTv.”

    Made available for seamless viewing across multiple devices and platforms, nexGTv viewers can watch 30 episodes of Ramayana as a part of its free content catalogue. The series can be accessed be either through www.nexgtv.com or through the nexGTv mobile app, available on both Android and iOS.

    With over 25 million downloads, nexGTv is the flagship, multi award-winning application from DigiVive. Offering unlimited and compelling entertainment across multiple devices (mobile, tablets or laptops/PCs), nexGTv offers its users an unrivalled suite of 150+ Live TV channels aside from a huge content library comprising movies, TV shows & videos for every mood. The app has won numerous awards including ‘The Best Digital Experience’ at the prestigious World Communication Awards 2014, in London, and is ranked amongst the Top Entertainment applications in app stores.

    DigiVive focuses on creating offerings in line with trends, with best-in-class content. Its partners include leading telecom operators and OEMs.

    nexGTv launched nexGTv Kids to curate and deliver the most entertaining and educative content meant especially for the kids aged between two and to 10 years. The platform’s exclusive news app, nexGTv News, has been launched as the go-to destination for mobile-based video news content aimed at revolutionizing the way news is currently consumed in the country through enhanced accessibility. Through its partnership with One Network Entertainment Pvt. Ltd (ONE), nexGTv has also launched the Comedy One, a first-of-its-kind comedy app having premium original comedy content ranging from stand-up, gags and spoofs to sketches and web-series. iFaith, nexGTv’s exclusive devotional app, will enable anytime, anywhere access to devotional content for nexGTv users. nexGTv has also launched nexGTv Yoga, which enables access to a host of videos on meditation, breathing techniques and yoga postures anytime, anywhere. The nexGTv Movies n Music app has been launched specifically for movie and music buffs around the world, and boasts of a library comprising nearly 2500 movies including titles such as Singham Returns, Holiday, Ragini MMS 2, Buddha In A Traffic jam, Dirty Politics and many more. The company has rolled out My nexGTv, a wrapper/aggregator tool that allows users to manage, install and access multiple nexGTv apps such as nexGTV Kids, nexGTV Yoga, nexGTV News and nexGTV Comedy One etc through one consolidated platform.

    nexGTv has partnered with leading channels such as B4U, 9X Jalwa, Tashan, B4U Music, M Tunes and 9XM Music to showcase high-quality entertainment solutions on its platform. Meanwhile, its partnership with India’s leading digital media firm, Culture Machine, will enable access to various digital channels like Being Indian, Put Chutney, Blush, Epified, What’s Trending India, Whack, Old Delhi Films, Rascalas, Vendhar TV etc to its viewers. Moving towards international web series content, the platform has acquired the digital telecast rights to UK-based Daehan Drama’s popular comedy web series, At the Counter, as well as its French-Chinese web series, Ex-Model, in order to diversify its offerings with high-quality international content.

    SPOTLight, India’s first mobile talent discovery platform, has been introduced by nexGTv with ace director Imtiaz Ali as the creative judge, as a medium to enable both amateurs and professional video enthusiasts to not only showcase their talent pan-India, but also earn off it. nexGTv also unveiled an original 14-part mobi-series in association with Priyanka Chopra and Fluence, ‘It’s My City’, in order to provide relatable and engaging video entertainment content to the country’s new-age digital viewership. In her inimitable style, Priyanka Chopra appears in and as herself, assuming the mantle of an official landlady, unofficial guardian and protective friend to the young protagonists.

  • LeEco partners with HCL Care Services to deliver superior services

    LeEco partners with HCL Care Services to deliver superior services

    MUMBAI: LeEco, a global internet and technology, today announced a strategic alliance with HCL Care Services, a division of HCL Services Ltd., to deliver superior after-sales service experience to its customers. HCL Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of HCL Infosystems Ltd. (India’s premier IT Services and Distribution Company). HCL Care Services will provide one-stop solution for all service requirements to LeEco customers through existing 265 ‘HCL Touch’ centres in more than 240 cities across the country. Customer Services for LeEco phones have already been activated in the 265 HCL Touch multi-brand centres for walk-in-centre support for customers and Supply Chain Support.

    Speaking on the strategic partnership, P. Seshachalam, Head-Operations and Vice President, HCL Care Services, said, “We are delighted to tie-up with LeEco, one of the fastest selling Super-phones in India, for providing superior after-sales support for their leading-edge phones. We are confident our state-of-the-art HCL Touch centres will enable LeEco to cater to the Indian markets more effectively and efficiently. This initiative is in line with our constant endeavour to deliver service excellence and be a preferred partner for leading Indian and international brands.”

    Atul Jain, COO, LeEco India commented, “As a leading Superphone brand in India, we believe that the real test of brand loyalty is the after-sales service that a customer can rely on. In this context, we are happy to partner with HCL Services to cater to the needs of our consumers in a truly professional and timely manner. We have a total of 555 service centres out of which HCL will provide service in 265 centres. We are confident that an eminent and trusted entity like HCL Services will fully support us in serving LeEco’s users in the best possible manner.”

    HCL Care Services has a network of more than 300 service centres across 250 cities in India, and serves more than 3 million consumers in a year. It is also the most preferred partner of OEMs with maximum numbers of Exclusive Service Centres. Through its specialized retail outlets ‘Touch’, HCL Care Services provides end-to-end solutions to customers, including Contact centers, Walk-in centres, On-site support, Supply-chain operations, Repair factory services and After-sales value added services.

  • LeEco partners with HCL Care Services to deliver superior services

    LeEco partners with HCL Care Services to deliver superior services

    MUMBAI: LeEco, a global internet and technology, today announced a strategic alliance with HCL Care Services, a division of HCL Services Ltd., to deliver superior after-sales service experience to its customers. HCL Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of HCL Infosystems Ltd. (India’s premier IT Services and Distribution Company). HCL Care Services will provide one-stop solution for all service requirements to LeEco customers through existing 265 ‘HCL Touch’ centres in more than 240 cities across the country. Customer Services for LeEco phones have already been activated in the 265 HCL Touch multi-brand centres for walk-in-centre support for customers and Supply Chain Support.

    Speaking on the strategic partnership, P. Seshachalam, Head-Operations and Vice President, HCL Care Services, said, “We are delighted to tie-up with LeEco, one of the fastest selling Super-phones in India, for providing superior after-sales support for their leading-edge phones. We are confident our state-of-the-art HCL Touch centres will enable LeEco to cater to the Indian markets more effectively and efficiently. This initiative is in line with our constant endeavour to deliver service excellence and be a preferred partner for leading Indian and international brands.”

    Atul Jain, COO, LeEco India commented, “As a leading Superphone brand in India, we believe that the real test of brand loyalty is the after-sales service that a customer can rely on. In this context, we are happy to partner with HCL Services to cater to the needs of our consumers in a truly professional and timely manner. We have a total of 555 service centres out of which HCL will provide service in 265 centres. We are confident that an eminent and trusted entity like HCL Services will fully support us in serving LeEco’s users in the best possible manner.”

    HCL Care Services has a network of more than 300 service centres across 250 cities in India, and serves more than 3 million consumers in a year. It is also the most preferred partner of OEMs with maximum numbers of Exclusive Service Centres. Through its specialized retail outlets ‘Touch’, HCL Care Services provides end-to-end solutions to customers, including Contact centers, Walk-in centres, On-site support, Supply-chain operations, Repair factory services and After-sales value added services.

  • PSU brands pave way for private brands

    PSU brands pave way for private brands

    MUMBAI: It was almost 25 years back when all of us were familiar with HMT watches. They really ruled the market and even I remember in their slogan they called them as Time Keeper To The Nation.  And their advertising message said if you have the inclination we have the time.  And when they launched the quartz brand they said if we you have the inclination we have the exact time. Here they were emphasising the exactness to the correct time a quartz watch is supposed to deliver.

    But in 1987 when the Tatas came to the market with Titan they came with lot of planning and a well thought out strategy to rewrite the watch industry which they ultimately did so. And within a matter of few years they dislodged HMT and just surged ahead by bringing in variety and innovation in all their marketing efforts. Be it distribution or product innovation they did it differently to only be the undisputed king in the watch business. From a watch brand they have moved into to a whole range of brand extensions and the latest being the launch of perfumes.

    By the time we entered the 90s with liberal policies we saw several categories where private brands entered and started giving a tough time to the PSU brands. Let me recollect a few categories where private brands have made deep inroads.

    Lubricants: This category was primarily dominated by the PSU brands due to their strong hold on distribution. As no private brands were allowed to sell their products through petrol stations. But that did not stop the private sector to push their products. Castrol was the first to aggressively market their product. Their strong communication strategy helped them gain good visibility to get into the consideration set. They used the bazaar trade for distributing their products and also cleverly opened outlets opposite petrol pumps to make easy availability of the product which gave the car owners one more choice apart from what the fuel station was stocking. They constantly kept innovating and improving their product offerings through strong R&D and became partners to many OEM automobile manufacturers. Today the private sector put together holds close to 40 per cent market share. We have several brands like Gulf, Elf and Tide water that also had their share in this market.

    Insurance:  Life insurance was synonymous with LIC. In fact the lingo that was used is LIC kar leya… Also since this PSU brand had backing from the government, the credibility scores were very high which helped them to gain loyalty  as against the private brand. But today desk research say’s that LIC has only 50 per cent share and the combined private insurance brands control the balance 50 per cent. There are at least 10 brands which are fighting to get their pie in this highly competitive market which has lot of government norms that one has to adhere to. Most of these private brands have pumped in huge marketing spends to create awareness but besides that they also bought in the use of the online tool for people to buy polices, which is still lagging behind with the PSU brands. With the rapid penetration of internet and a younger population that will rule the Indian market these private sectors will have an upper hand to woo this new generation?

    Airlines: The Indian skies were ruled by the Indian Airlines (Now Air-India). But over a period of time starting in the 90s we saw the downfall of the Indian Airlines as private operators flew in. There was a huge shift towards private airlines and the result being that Air-India only has 20 per cent market share according to published reports. In the airlines business service matters a lot and that’s where Air- India dipped very low to surrender their market; besides the constant staff and pilot issues have also eroded their equity over a period of time. And the continuous newness in the service and the competitive pricing by the private operators never allowed Air-India to regain their glory which they sat on for many years.

    Telecom: BSNL and MTNL were the household names in the wired connection when it came to telephone. One had to wait for a long period of time to get a permanent connection. At one point of time having a telephone was a luxury but since the 90s with the advent of mobile connections it very soon became a necessity. While both the PSU brands are also present in the mobile space but I am unaware of their exact market share. Nearly 85 per cent market share is held by the private brands. Here again technology and aggressive marketing helped these private sector brands to hold the market with lot of ease as there is no fight or competition from the PSU brands.

    While red- tapism and vested political interest has been by and large the deterrent for PSU brands to grow. We must also keep in mind that the mindset of Indian consumers have shifted and changed in the last few years. The new breed of Indian customers seeks value in whatever they buy and hence it is important for both the PSU brands and private brands to get their value proposition right. With internet within reach, the narrowing of buying decisions have become easier as with price comparison more product information is being provided by many aggregators. Unless there is huge overhauling done by PSU the story will not change and private brands will just keep on cashing them.

    By Ganapathy Viswanathan, an independent communication consultant, in communication, branding and public relations.