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Tag: Playbook

  • Nearly 80% of urban consumers use ecomm portals for online product research: GroupM report

    Nearly 80% of urban consumers use ecomm portals for online product research: GroupM report

    Mumbai: WPP’s GroupM and Wunderman Thompson in partnership with Amazon Ads launched the ‘Content Strategies for the New-age Digital Consumer’ playbook. According to the report, nearly 80 percent of urban internet users in India use ecommerce portals for online product research, and 25 percent of them visit ecommerce portals for product research even for their offline purchases. 350 million Indian consumers are expected to make a purchase online in 2025, as per an MMA-GroupM report, which is a steep jump from 150 million online buyers in 2020.

    The playbook seeks to be a complete guide for building content/ creative communication strategies for the touchpoints in ecommerce networks, with the aim to help marketers and agency professionals in making efficient decisions around revamping their online content strategies. It covers key reasons why brands should have a separate communication strategy for ecommerce touchpoints. It also touches on ideas around content and engagement strategies to efficiently drive visibility and recall with millions of ‘intent’ consumers.

    GroupM South Asia president – growth and transformation Tushar Vyas said, “Brands have aimed to reshape their marketing strategies considering the consumer behaviour transformation that has taken place in the last two years. Before digital started dominating our lives, consumers preferred going to stores to make their purchases; but today, be it any commodity, it’s fascinating to see consumers doing thorough research online and then buying things online or going to stores. Digital Consumers are increasingly spending more time on emerging digital platforms and hence there is a need for a separate communication approach, which is why we’ve come up with this playbook with Amazon Ads and Wunderman Thompson to help marketers build stronger consumer connections.”

    The pandemic saw several long-term lifestyle and consumption changes in the last two years. All these changes, adaptations, and revelations took place with the massive rise of digital convenience. Be it researching, purchasing products or buying services like insurance, digital platforms have now become crucial partners. These ‘Digital consumers’ are more informed, participative, well-employed and more affluent than the average internet users in India. They have diverse interests and an evolved lifestyle and they rely on ecommerce networks for their product research and shopping needs.

    Wunderman Thompson South Asia chief digital officer Manoj Mansukhani said, “We saw an exponential growth of consumers moving to online shopping during Covid-19. The trend only continues to grow as more customers are coming online to shop from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. With marketplaces like Amazon becoming the first port of call for product searches, brands need to develop a separate content strategy to help engage with customers on these platforms. The playbook with Amazon Ads and GroupM showcases ideas for brands to help build the right communication strategy with consumers on these platforms.”

    Amazon Ads India director-ad sales Vijay Iyer commented, “Digital Channels are now an inseparable part of our lives and have forever changed why, how, what and where we buy. Ecommerce marketplaces are playing a crucial role in not just aiding, but shaping the brand and product discovery. Marketers have the unique opportunity to build connections with customers through an immersive content experience rather than restricting themselves to “advertising real estate”. This playbook will help marketers and agency professionals get ideas for building customized content marketing strategies for ecommerce touchpoints.”

    The playbook leverages audience intelligence resources to help understand a brand’s TG better through product research/shopping based deterministic affinity signals. It also covers content marketing levers for building integrated experiences and establishes retail readiness with optimal detail pages and innovates with immersive and integrated experiences through Stores.

  • 80% buying will be ‘digital’ influenced this festive season: Report

    80% buying will be ‘digital’ influenced this festive season: Report

    Mumbai: Consumer sentiment ahead of the festive season remains positive with 50 per cent of consumers likely to increase their festive spends this year. Digital channels will continue to be crucial to the purchase decision with a whopping 80 per cent consumers’ journeys being ‘digital’ influenced, of which 77 per cent endemic journeys will involve amazon.in, according to a festive season industry playbook released by MMA, GroupM and Amazon Advertising.

    As per the handbook for marketers on expected consumer sentiment along with recommended strategies for Diwali this year, consumers are still not fully decided on their purchase, with 62 per cent of consumers currently undecided about the product/brand choice. The playbook titled ‘Decoding Consumer Behaviour and Winning the 2021 Festive Season’ further advises brands to leverage multiple touchpoints. Be visible across touchpoints leveraging connected TV, video, search advertising etc to drive active/passive discovery and leverage ‘efficiency’ related metrics to assess performance holistically, recommends the report.

    The 2021 Diwali festive season will be an unprecedented test for marketers, as per the study. As consumption is on a natural upswing post-pandemic restrictions, brands are looking to stand out and capture the mindshare among the new-age ‘digital’ consumers.

    Multiple brands have deferred their product launches and are counting on the festive season to drive incremental reach and sales, as per the report. As a result, shopping aisles will be choc-a-bloc with new launches supported by high-decibel marketing campaigns. At the same time, consumer journeys have become more complex and non-linear, and the role of digital has become more prominent across the journey. As a result, this festive season will require marketers to re-think their media strategies in order to be successful, says the study based on findings from consumer surveys, brand marketer surveys, and inputs from key opinion leaders.

    MMA India country head Moneka Khurana commented, “76 per cent of marketers mentioned they will be allocating more spends for digital as compared to last year. Hence it’s key to understand omnichannel users better in the changing times as we continue to drive the narrative of shaping the future of marketing.”

    GroupM South Asia president of growth and transformation Tushar Vyas stated, “Digital influence in consumer journeys has increased significantly while the e-commerce adoption has accelerated in the last 18 months. Hence, digital is no more a support media platform but is core to media plans.  E-commerce platforms offer brands the opportunity to hand-hold consumers across the purchase funnel by not only aiding in active/passive brand discovery but also in closing the loop by measuring performance objectively.”

    Amazon Advertising India director of ad sales Vijay Iyer shared, “E-commerce portals act as gateways to this world that we are so quickly embracing and are playing a crucial role in brand and product discovery. For marketers, this presents an unprecedented opportunity – to be able to identify and leverage customer intent at an unprecedented scale. This playbook will help brands in not only sharpening their online strategy but will redefine how they measure and drive business outcomes.”

    The playbook aims to help brands in making efficient decisions around their media strategy during the festive season. It captures insights around consumer sentiment and marketer expectations for the upcoming festive season, along with implications and recommendations for advertisers.

  • Amazon Studios launches inclusion policy & playbook

    Mumbai: This is one production studio which is putting its money where its mouth is. And it should even get a nod of appreciation from the Indian ministries of information and broadcasting, electronics and information technology, and even education. Even as many companies are talking about inclusion and diversity, the Culver City (California, US)- based Amazon Studios released on 16 June a comprehensive inclusion policy that extends its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity for its content and productions, as well as a playbook with guidelines for its collaborators in the creative community.

    These guides offer detailed and actionable recommendations as Amazon Studios continues to seek out stories and storytelling that amplify voices across race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, age, religion, disability (including mental health), body size, gender, gender identity, and gender expression for the global Prime Video audience.

    “Amazon Studios has long prioritised telling innovative and inclusive stories from a diverse range of creative talent, delighting our global audiences. We wanted to move beyond good intentions to creating mechanisms that hold us accountable to a high bar. This inclusion policy and inclusion playbook adds important, additional depth and guidance for our internal teams and external partners to ensure we continue to advance our shared mission of amplifying the best creatives and content around the world,” said Amazon Studios executive head of diversity, equity & inclusion Latasha Gillespie in a press release.  

    “With the establishment of our inclusion policy and inclusion playbook, Amazon Studios has committed itself to being a thought and action leader in the transformation of our industry,” said Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke. “We know how much work there is to be done to improve representation both on-camera and behind the scenes, and it starts at home, with us. With clear directives and a commitment to accountability, these guides provide a path toward a more equitable future, both on- and off-camera.”

    Amazon Studios shared the policy and playbook with creators, including Gloria Calderón Kellett, creator and executive producer of the upcoming Amazon Original series With Love. Said Kellett, “I am so proud to be a part of a creative community at Amazon that understands the importance of what I’ve been doing my whole career. Inclusive hiring is what makes a change. Opportunity and an eye towards changing things through action is what makes a change. Thrilled that Amazon has put together this playbook to start important conversations with their other creatives. This is real action and commitment and I’m thrilled to see it!”

    Upload’s creator and executive producer, Greg Daniels said: “Having worked with Amazon Studios for several years, I can confirm their commitment to inclusiveness is deep, sincere, sensitive, and practical. These new guidelines should encourage talented people from historically underrepresented groups to feel more confident about making a career in Hollywood.”

    Establishing expectations for Amazon Studios and its creative partners, the inclusion policy covers four primary areas: developing stories and characters, hiring and production, reporting and documentation, and meeting goals. The policy ensures meaningful visibility in Amazon Studios’ content and throughout all aspects of the production process — both in the stories being told and the people hired to tell them. The policy includes specific goals for Amazon Studios productions, including:

    • Each film or series with a creative team of three or more people in above-the-line roles (directors, writers, producers) should ideally include a minimum 30 per cent women and 30 per cent members of an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. This aspirational goal will increase to 50 per cent by 2024.
    • Casting actors whose identity (gender, gender identity, nationality, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability) aligns with the character they will be playing.
    • Aiming to include one character from each of the following categories in speaking roles, with a minimum 50 per cent of these to be women: LGBTQIA+, a person with a disability, and three regionally underrepresented race/ethnic/cultural groups. A single character can fulfill one or more of these identities.
    • Seeking at least three bids from vendors or suppliers on productions, one of which must be from a woman-owned business and one from a minority-owned business.
    • Pay equity across casting, behind the camera staff and crew, and vendors and suppliers.

    Amazon Studios will provide a report template for each production to indicate whether these expectations were met, which will be submitted within one month of the completion of principal photography. This reporting exceeds the minimum standards set by the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences but ensures Amazon is poised to report on the diversity of their films for Academy Award contention.

    Through the setting of goals and tracking of adherence to these policies, Amazon Studios, says “it is expanding its commitment to increasing representation on camera and behind the scenes, contributing to efforts to move the industry forward to a more inclusive future.”

    The inclusion playbook puts in place intentional practices to minimize and disrupt biases, providing specific guidance that will help everyone within and working with Amazon Studios to meet the expectations set in the inclusion policy. The playbook provides direction on how to make inclusive decisions while telling authentic stories and hiring the best people for the job; knowledge of where to go for help, including tools to make inclusive decisions; tools to identify criteria for making creative choices, leading to balanced, consistent and informed decisions; and ways to foster curiosity and ask questions to disrupt the status quo about “how things are done.”

    Amazon Studios worked closely with Dr. Stacy Smith and Dr. Katherine Pieper of USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, and with Brenda Robinson of the International Documentary Association and Gamechanger Films on the creation of the policy and playbook. The studio also consulted with leading organizations devoted to advancing the visibility and responsible depictions of underrepresented or marginalized people, including GLAAD, Illuminative, Think Tank for Inclusion & Equity, and the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund.

    “Frankly, the outcomes of DEI work within the entertainment industry have not been swift or sweeping. In part, that can be attributed to disingenuous approaches to address the systemic barriers to entry that have long plagued Hollywood,” said Smith. “But now, Amazon Studios has created a comprehensive new blueprint that will change Hollywood by elevating those who have historically lacked access. I’m immensely proud of this new policy and I know it will be a gamechanger throughout an industry often resistant to real change.”

    One will have to wait and watch whether Amazon’s new inclusion policy will be applicable to its Indian productions as well. The diversity, equity, and inclusion team within it which was instrumental in drawing up the changes has “telling inclusive narratives to globally diverse audiences” as one of its main focuses.

  • Spielberg to direct Bradley Cooper in a film on a navy seal

    Spielberg to direct Bradley Cooper in a film on a navy seal

    MUMBAI: Fresh from the box office success and critical accolades of ‘Lincoln‘ director Steven Spielberg‘s next film will be about the late Navy Seal Chris Kyle. It is scheduled to be released next year.

    The film is based on the autobiography of the man who is considered to be the deadliest sniper in US military history. He was killed along with a friend earlier this year at a Texas gun range.
     
    The film will star Bradley Cooper ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘. Cooper will next be seen in ‘The Hangover III‘ which releases later this month.

  • David O Russell re-titles his next film

    David O Russell re-titles his next film

    MUMBAI: David O Russell, well known for his film Silver Linings Playbook has re-titled his next film as American Hustle, It was earlier titled American Bullshit.
     
    It is said that Russell is repeating the cast of his earlier films The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook for the corruption-drama. The cast of American Hustle includes Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jack Huston among others.
     
    The film is based on a sting operation conducted by FBI in 70‘s that led to conviction of a senator and five members of US House of Representatives on charges of bribery.
     
    The film is being co-written by Eric Singer and Russell himself.

    The release date of the film is yet to be announced.