Tag: Prakash Sikaria

  • super.money introduces AI influencer SUMO in a quirky campaign

    super.money introduces AI influencer SUMO in a quirky campaign

    Mumbai: A Flipkart backed fintech app – super.money,  has introduced its brand influencer, ‘SUMO,’ as part of its latest campaign. SUMO is an AI influencer who is a human in a goat’s avatar. He embodies the everyday Indian who is tired of pointless marketing gimmicks. With his dry sense of humour and relatable persona, SUMO highlights the exaggerated promises that various UPI apps make. The campaign also features a digital video film that takes us through SUMO’s life and his annoyance with pointless rewards.

    In a 75-second film, a man dressed as a goat is going about his day and engaging in everyday activities such as getting a haircut, enjoying chai, and buying vegetables. Throughout these scenes, the goat repeatedly expresses a disinterested ‘Meh!’ creating an air of curiosity. As the film progresses, viewers are drawn into the goat’s world, wondering about the source of his indifference. Creating an air of curiosity, the climax reveals that the goat’s persistent ‘meh’ is a reaction to the uninspiring rewards currently offered by UPI apps. The film concludes with the introduction of super.money, the app that guarantees real cashback on every merchant transaction, transforming everyday purchases into rewarding experiences.

    The campaign is built on the insight that everyone, regardless of their age or financial status, dislikes receiving subpar rewards, prefers actual money over impractical scratchcards. By illustrating this through the humorous yet quirky ad film, super.money aims to connect with viewers and convey the widespread dissatisfaction with difficult-to-redeem rewards on digital platforms.

    “SUMO is the voice of everyone who feels stuck in the daily grind and doesn’t have the luxury of generational wealth to fall back on,” explained super.money founder & CEO Prakash Sikaria. “His dry wit is a reflection of how we, at super.money, believe in a no nonsense approach to everything. We’ve tried to push the envelope leveraging AI, influencers and social media in a way that hasn’t been tried before. As regular media channels become crowded, we believe that great content and social media innovation is the new way to build brands.”

    Through his everyday frustrations—whether it is working a corporate job or navigating life as a goat-human hybrid— SUMO sheds light on the absurdity of meaningless things in life. His humorous take on life as a corporate employee resonates with young, tech-savvy users who demand more from their financial apps.

    super.money consulting creative director Shikha Gupta added, “super.money believes in going against the tide in every way. That means no useless rewards in the app and no celebs in the film. Instead, we created a character of our own that reflects the realities of modern life. SUMO is relatable, witty, and offers a much-needed break from the glossy, unattainable personas we often see in ads. He’s tired of putting up with empty promises, just like our users, and that’s why he’s the perfect symbol for super.money’s promise of real rewards.”

    Footloose Films Director Indrasish Mukherjee said, “The idea behind the film was to capture the frustration we all feel when faced with disappointing rewards. The goat’s ‘Meh’ reactions every time he pays, whether he’s getting a haircut or buying vegetables, humorously exaggerating how unsatisfying these rewards are. We wanted something quirky that people could relate to, but also something that would stand out and stick.”

    SUMO can be followed on his humorous journey of navigating life, work, and financial frustrations on Instagram at @real.sumo.

  • Flipkart Video Original ‘Zindagi inShort’ to release on 19 Feb

    Flipkart Video Original ‘Zindagi inShort’ to release on 19 Feb

    MUMBAI: Flipkart Video is all set to launch another original Zindagi inShort on 19 February. Zindagi inShort comprises seven short slice-of-life films. The cerebration of the anthology is to showcase bittersweet episodes of life in miniature configurations. 'Chajju Ke Dahi Bhalle', 'Nano So Phobia', 'Sunny Side Upar', 'Swaaha', 'Pinni', 'Sleeping Partner' and 'Thappad' are the seven short films that constitute the anthology. 

    Basking in the success of the digital show 'Backbenchers', India's homegrown e-commerce marketplace is gearing up to stream its collaboration with Sikhya Entertainment on Flipkart Video, which is available on the Flipkart app itself. 

    The anthology is produced by Guneet Monga's Sikhya Entertainment. Some of the most impactful and acclaimed productions to Monga's credit are Gangs Of Wasseypur – Part 1 and Part 2, The Lunchbox, Masaan, Tigers, Dasvidaniya and Haraamkhor. Not to mention, her filmography as a producer includes the Oscar-nominated short film, Kavi, Oscar-winning short documentary, 'Period. End Of Sentence' and the Bhuvan Bam-starrer Plus Minus that won the Filmfare Award for Best Short Film. 

    The seven short slice-of-life films touch upon online romance, the innocence of childhood, the confusion of old age, the construct of being loved in a marriage, infidelity, a woman owning her role in the family and standing up for yourself when it's the hardest to do so. Themes as powerful as these have been crafted and explored in the films in small doses, that offer a bittersweet flavoured entertainment. 

    Speaking about the 'first look' of the upcoming Flipkart Video Original, Flipkart Growth and Monetisation VP Prakash Sikaria says, “Zindagi inShort is a unique collection of heartwarming stories, that everyone will be able to relate to, in one way or the other. Every story represents different stages of life, and bittersweet moments that can at times, accompany them. We are excited about this partnership with Guneet's Sikhya Entertainment and we are thrilled to provide a powerful storytelling platform for these young creators.”

    Says Guneet, "As the title suggests, Zindagi inShort has been an endeavor to capture various nuances of everyday life in short. Our anthology comprises of seven extraordinary stories, drawn from everyday lives with a promising twist, directed by seven unique voices. We are excited to bring our fresh slate of Sikhya shorts on Flipkart Video, which will help us connect with over 200 million Flipkart customers across India."

    Starring Neena Gupta, Shishir Sharma, Srishti Srivastava, Sanjay Kapoor, Divya Dutta, Deepak Dobriyal, Isha Talwar, Jitin Gulati, Nakul  Mehta, Manjot Singh, Nidhi Singh, Jagdish Nandi, Hiral Parekh, Aayan Modi, Abbas Syyad, Ajmal Khurshid, Aisha Ahmed, Geeta Agarwal Sharma, Rytasha Rathore, Rima Kallingal, Swaroop Sampat, Shafin Patel, Vedika Nawani and Arun Kushwah among others, helmed by directors Punarvasu Naik, Tahira Kashyap, Rakesh Sain, Gautam Govind Sharma, Vijayeta Kumar, Smrutika Panigrahi and Vinay Chawwal and produced by Sikhya Entertainment in association with Flipkart Video, Zindagi inShort is slated to stream on the video platform on the 19 February 2020.

  • Flipkart, Hotstar announce new ad platform ‘Shopper Audience Network’

    Flipkart, Hotstar announce new ad platform ‘Shopper Audience Network’

    MUMBAI: Flipkart and Hotstar recently announced the launch of Shopper Audience Network, Flipkart’s new ads platform that allows brands to connect with customers through personalised TrueIntent video ads on Hotstar.

    Developed by Flipkart, Shopper Audience Network uses deterministic audience based insights to help brands connect with users by leveraging Flipkart’s understanding of users’ purchase journey and the massive scale of TrueIntent video ads. It will help serve personalised advertising to over 150 million users across hundreds of categories.

    Speaking on the partnership, Flipkart senior director Prakash Sikaria said, “Understanding our customers better than anyone else has always been one of Flipkart’s core strengths, and these insights help marketers in their ad journey, on our platform. This partnership further leverages the intent-based understanding and couples it with Hotstar’s platform to create an unparalleled offering in the ads industry in India.”

    Commenting on the development Hotstar EVP Prabh Singh said, “In Hotstar, marketers today have access to a large scale audience that is deeply engaged and paying attention. Brands that advertise on Hotstar are seeing the power of that engagement. The partnership with Flipkart will build on this proposition and provide marketers an opportunity to connect the dots to hundreds of product categories on Flipkart.”

    This partnership ties in with Flipkart’s ambition to be a leading digital ads platform in India and the partnership leverages Hotstar’s huge momentum in the video ads market.

    The three key components  of Hotstar video platform’s canvas of high quality content, innovative ad formats and a sticky and affluent audience when powered via Flipkart’s customer insights come together to create a compelling platform for any brand to talk to its consumers.

  • Flipkart spends 80 percent of its digital marketing budget on mobile: Flipkart Ads business head Prakash Sikaria

    Flipkart spends 80 percent of its digital marketing budget on mobile: Flipkart Ads business head Prakash Sikaria

    MUMBAI: While addressing a session at a marketing conclave in Mumbai, that debated the relevance of mobile marketing and the need to go app first for brands, Flipkart Ads business head Prakash Sikaria shared that the  eCommerce giant spends almost 80 percent of its digital marketing budget on mobile.

    Sikaria’s confidence in the medium stems from the data the eCommerce site has gathered as an advertising and eCommerce platform that tracks its consumers’ usage behaviour on multiple screens.

    When posed with the question ‘is mobile a minor or a major screen’ Sikaria simply asked, ‘Is that even a  debate’. To back his astonishment at the topic of debate, Sikaria shared that for a eCommerce company such as Flipkart going mobile first was only natural, given that more and more of the site’s consumers are switching to spending more time on their smartphones.

    “Just to put things in perspective, 3 hrs of mobile in India is equatable to 92 mins of television, which is in turn equatable to 31 minutes of  desktop usage by viewers. What we see as a consumption pattern for several businesses mobile is the only screen in India, and going forward a large proportion of the time spent on any medium by consumers would be on mobile,” Sikaria shared, highlighting how India is unique in its mobile friendliness.

    Sharing some data the eCommerce platform has gathered from its own consumer research and data and analysis of consumer behaviour on the platform, around 50 per cent of the time spent on mobile is used for communication.  According to the consumer pattern gathered from traffic on Flipkart’s mobile app and its  web usage analysis, Sikaria inferred that usually customers try the mobile app first, and once they are convinced with the services and have grown loyalty towards the brand, they move to web. This places mobile marketing as the supreme most important requirement for a brand that functions mostly digitally, as it introduces the service to new consumers.

    “We have also noticed that across metrics there is better customer engagement and better customer experience on mobile from how much time consumers spend on the site per visit, to how many successful transactions they complete per visit,” Sikaria shared.

    As per Sikaria, once the user has jumped the hurdle of downloading the app the engagement is far higher on mobile than on other medium like desktop, provided the app is designed conveniently for them. That is the reason every ecommerce site, every travel startup or web based business wants their app to by in everyone’s phones.

    It is to be noted that between the four to five major eCommerce players in the country, television media raised about Rs 1,200 crores in advertising revenue in a single quarter, albeit it was before Diwali last year.

    Now with a key player such as Flipkart thinking mobile first, should television advertisement slot seller be worried about the smaller screen stealing away the advertisers which are native to the medium? 

  • Flipkart spends 80 percent of its digital marketing budget on mobile: Flipkart Ads business head Prakash Sikaria

    Flipkart spends 80 percent of its digital marketing budget on mobile: Flipkart Ads business head Prakash Sikaria

    MUMBAI: While addressing a session at a marketing conclave in Mumbai, that debated the relevance of mobile marketing and the need to go app first for brands, Flipkart Ads business head Prakash Sikaria shared that the  eCommerce giant spends almost 80 percent of its digital marketing budget on mobile.

    Sikaria’s confidence in the medium stems from the data the eCommerce site has gathered as an advertising and eCommerce platform that tracks its consumers’ usage behaviour on multiple screens.

    When posed with the question ‘is mobile a minor or a major screen’ Sikaria simply asked, ‘Is that even a  debate’. To back his astonishment at the topic of debate, Sikaria shared that for a eCommerce company such as Flipkart going mobile first was only natural, given that more and more of the site’s consumers are switching to spending more time on their smartphones.

    “Just to put things in perspective, 3 hrs of mobile in India is equatable to 92 mins of television, which is in turn equatable to 31 minutes of  desktop usage by viewers. What we see as a consumption pattern for several businesses mobile is the only screen in India, and going forward a large proportion of the time spent on any medium by consumers would be on mobile,” Sikaria shared, highlighting how India is unique in its mobile friendliness.

    Sharing some data the eCommerce platform has gathered from its own consumer research and data and analysis of consumer behaviour on the platform, around 50 per cent of the time spent on mobile is used for communication.  According to the consumer pattern gathered from traffic on Flipkart’s mobile app and its  web usage analysis, Sikaria inferred that usually customers try the mobile app first, and once they are convinced with the services and have grown loyalty towards the brand, they move to web. This places mobile marketing as the supreme most important requirement for a brand that functions mostly digitally, as it introduces the service to new consumers.

    “We have also noticed that across metrics there is better customer engagement and better customer experience on mobile from how much time consumers spend on the site per visit, to how many successful transactions they complete per visit,” Sikaria shared.

    As per Sikaria, once the user has jumped the hurdle of downloading the app the engagement is far higher on mobile than on other medium like desktop, provided the app is designed conveniently for them. That is the reason every ecommerce site, every travel startup or web based business wants their app to by in everyone’s phones.

    It is to be noted that between the four to five major eCommerce players in the country, television media raised about Rs 1,200 crores in advertising revenue in a single quarter, albeit it was before Diwali last year.

    Now with a key player such as Flipkart thinking mobile first, should television advertisement slot seller be worried about the smaller screen stealing away the advertisers which are native to the medium?