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Tag: Shamsuddin Jasani

  • Isobar launches Sri Lanka Operations

    Isobar launches Sri Lanka Operations

    MUMBAI: Isobar, the digital agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has expanded its operations to Sri Lanka.

    Last year, Dentsu Grant Group, Sri Lanka's largest integrated communications agency with a 60-year-old legacy, disrupted the nation’s advertising industry with the introduction of the global marketing conglomerate Dentsu Aegis Network into the country.  Now, it will do so once again, reinventing Sri Lanka’s rapidly growing digital economy, with the launch of its full-service digital agency – Isobar.  

    Commenting on the prospects of Isobar in Sri Lanka, Shamsuddin Jasani, Group Managing Director – Isobar South Asia said, “I am very excited to launch Isobar in this amazing country. Sri Lanka is a rising mobile economy with smartphone penetration growing by over 20% and mobile penetration growing over 120% year-on-year. With the launch of Isobar Sri Lanka we are looking at creating a leading agency for the digital age that follows a true full service model. Under the guidance of Neela and her team, I am sure we will be a force to reckon with in this market in the years to come.”

    Speaking on the launch of Isobar Sri Lanka, Neela Marikkar, Chairperson – Dentsu Grant Group and Dentsu Aegis Network Sri Lanka states, “We are thrilled to be introducing such an iconic brand into the Sri Lankan advertising industry. We are fortunate to be working so closely with our global and regional offices; we are confident that we will be able to use their global knowledge and skills to help develop business opportunities for our clients as well as help the digital economy of the country and accelerate through Isobar’s experience led transformation and brand commerce expertise.”

    Ready to revolutionize the market, Isobar Sri Lanka will offer end to end full service digital media creative and technology services and help clients navigate the world of tangible and intangible businesses through mobile brand commerce, product innovations, artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), the internet of things (IOT) and wearables.

  • BrandVid – Can a brand become a media company?

    BrandVid – Can a brand become a media company?

    MUMBAI: Traditional media companies today have a very diverse story and narrative no matter what the subject. A consistent story is shared across paid, earned and owned media. However, media companies are more than that today. They create programming and/or distribute it. They also share the content via various media channels.

    But what we’ve been increasingly seeing is that brands have now started to become media companies by creating and distributing their in-house content. 

    It is challenging for a traditional agency to sustain and survive in a competing environment like this. But is there a way where brands, agencies and publishers can co-exist and collaborate? Well, that was precisely the topic of discussion at BrandVid 2018, powered by Colors. The session saw industry leaders discuss on whether a brand can after all become a media company. And if yes, how can they monetise their assets. 

    Clearly disagreeing with the proposition, Firstpost business head of revenue & strategy Anurag Iyer believes that the objective of becoming a media company and becoming a brand are completely different. He said, “Redbull as a business looks at its studio business as a separate entity and has great traction back to its website, but does its film on adventure and sports result in more Redbulls being sold? I don’t think so! But does it have a great brand rub off with their audiences? Absolutely!”

    On the other hand, Online Fashion portal Myntra is a brand as well as an e-commerce company that is also a media company to some extend as it creates in-house content. But does that mean it will become a full-fledged media company in the time to come? Probably! Myntra VP marketing Achint Setia is of the opinion that brands need to first figure out the role of content and the business objective. For a brand, its business objective is to drive revenue and sales and that’s where content plays a critical role. “Brands have a role to play in consumer’s mind and they should stick to that role. However, that role can get enhanced and more meaningful with the right use of content.”

    But while brands are struggling to find their sweet spot in the cluttered media ecosystem, there hasn’t been a better time for agencies as they get to have the cake and eat it too. Isobar Group MD South Asia Shamsuddin Jasani wants partake of that cake. Though it is a difficult proposition, big global brands want to monetise their content. Global FMCG giants Mondelez and Pepsi want 20-30 per cent of their spends to be recovered via video content and Isobar doesn’t want to miss out on that opportunity. 

    A lot of brands mistake content’s role in their business lifecycle. It is not about monetising content for the sake of it or about using content as an ROI drive. It is more about using content to have a deeper relationship with your community. 

    Shamsuddin said, "Big advertisers feel there is some monetisation that needs to happen and they are all grappling with how to create those monetisation opportunities. As an agency, we are working with brands to create those IPs. As brands, they will do it and as agencies we will have to do it because we don’t have a choice or they will push us to do it.”

    Although it’s a vicious and profitable cycle, but when does a brand pause, take a step back and think whether they are overstepping their business objective and should rather focus on sales and revenue? That’s exactly what Marico head of media and digital marketing Ankit Desai thinks. He believes it will be a few hits and a lot of misses for brands if they go the media company route. “While media companies can deal with many misses and start over again, it’s a different ball game for brands as it is linked back to business objective where you don’t have the option of repetitive failure since your marketing money will be wasted and that’s really the challenge.”

    Getting customer attention is a task for most marketers today. The millennial consumer will not stick to your content no matter how well made it is if it isn’t engaging and informative enough. It will take a lot of time for brands to understand the young customer of today. Agreeing that brands will become media companies in the future, Fastrack head of marketing Ayushman Chiranewala said that you cannot time when it will actually happen. He however thinks that it will come from a different business need which will be to be on the top of customer mind because getting the customer attention will only keep getting difficult in the future.

    Brands will become media companies in the times to come and there is no denying that but the timeline is likely to vary. For Myntra, it may happen in less than three years from now whereas Fastrack believes it will take five to 10 years. Interestingly, today content creators are also becoming brands in themselves. They create an IP and later sell products around the IP, eventually creating a brand. 

    All in all, maybe the world in the future will not be about everyone trying to do everything but about a lot of collaborations and partnerships. But every brand and creator should keep their minds open and think about consumer intent first.

  • TV in future to be delivered through internet pipe, not DTH: Isobar group MD

    TV in future to be delivered through internet pipe, not DTH: Isobar group MD

    MUMBAI: The year 2008 will always be remembered as the year of the global financial crisis. It was the worst financial crisis the world ever faced since the Great Depression of the 1920s. The crisis that originated in the United States gradually extended over a period of time and eventually brought the entire world under its grip. And India wasn’t spared from the catastrophe as well. It was a time when brands didn't have enough money in their pockets to spend on advertising and manufacturing.

    Digital agency Isobar that started operations in 2008 during the meltdown, recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. While it was a definite challenge convincing brands to come on board to advertise on a new medium, it definitely paid off. The agency has worked for Godrej securities, V-Guard, Wrangler, Adidas, Lego, Durex, Acer, Voot, CEAT, Barbie, ROUSH among others. Isobar has over 6,500 people in 85 locations across 45 markets globally.

    We sat down with the recently elevated Isobar group MD for South Asia Shamsuddin Jasani along with executive vice president Gopa Kumar where they discussed about their journey at Isobar, what has changed in the last 10 years, the advent of newer technologies, challenges for the industry and much more.

    It was a challenging time when you started the agency. How was it?

    Shamsuddin: We started Isobar when there was a global financial meltdown in 2008. Businesses across were shutting down and it was a bad phase for the entire industry. But it was a good time for us to start the company. It was a different time altogether as digital was just coming up. Ashish Bhasin had joined Dentsu just two months before I joined.

    2006-2008 was a time when brands were new to the digital world. How challenging was it to get brands on board?

    Shamsuddin: In 2008, businesses were reducing spends on media due to the global meltdown. People wanted to start experimenting on digital more than before as the idea was that you need to spend much lesser on digital than on print and television. But yes, we worked really hard to get clients on board for a relatively new medium. We had to use our existing list of contacts but it was more about going to clients and explaining to them how digital works. But clients were also receptive to hearing us out as they wanted to experiment with their money. The years 2008 to 2012 was more about educating clients but digital really hit home in 2012. The digital spends between 2008-12 were around 8-10 per cent which has now gone up to 20-30 per cent.

    How has it been working with Ashish Bhasin? He is known as one of those bosses who really gives you the creative freedom to operate the way you want to.

    Shamsuddin: We have learnt so much from him and we have grown so much because he has allowed us to make our own mistakes and take our own risks while giving us a guiding light. I wouldn’t have been able to build Isobar the way it is if we were a part of a different network.

    Gopa: His ethics and the way he conducts himself is inspirational to us. It has been great working with him. He is a guiding light to everyone at Dentsu Aegis Network.

    Are brands okay and accepting to spend a huge chunk on digital marketing or will it still take them some time to accept digital?

    Shamsuddin: The acceptance has happened and clients now know the importance of digital. Every brand is on digital today but it’s more about how brands are exploring the medium to the fullest. For a long time, digital was seen in isolation from other mediums and that is where it failed. I think soon everything will move to digital. Five years down the line, you will have television that will be delivered digital only through an internet pipe and not through DTH.

    So the way we consume digital will change?

    When Jio fibre comes out with its set top box that will be a game changer for television because you will now watch a lot of content on demand. That will create a sea change in the money we are spending. Television metric will be intrinsic to digital because you will be buying everything through digital. The explosion is already happening due to Reliance Jio. In the next few years, video will drive a lot of the consumption stories and advertising stories along with e-commerce. Increasingly, a lot of people are not searching for brands on Google but directly on e-commerce websites.

    When do you see the shift happen when everything becomes digital?

    Shamsuddin: Even when it becomes a digital world, you will still buy television and outdoor. Outdoor will become 30-40 per cent of the total media spends because you will have digital screens. Advertising will be a digital led industry, not necessarily digital buying in as early as 2020. However, that may not necessarily mean that digital spends will be 40-50 per cent of the ad budget.

    They said out of home a dying medium but increasingly we see a lot of brands exploring the medium to the fullest. Also digital OOH is becoming every advertisers’ favourite medium…

    Shamsuddin: Outdoor and digital have the perfect marriage. Experiential advertising in the next few years will change the face of advertising altogether. Nearly 30-40 per cent of all outdoor in India will be through digital outdoor. That is simply because digital outdoor is very local and also digital now allows us to do hyperlocal. Some exciting times ahead for us!

    There is a constant chatter about digital content regulation. If it happens, won’t that only be a bad decision altogether?

    Shamsuddin: The basic question here is, how will you regulate digital content? It basically means that you will not have free content because you can’t regulate digital content. A player like Netflix or Amazon may abide by that but a lot of created and shared content can’t be regulated. You need to have enough filters to stop communal content but a content that users are paying for shouldn’t be regulated. It has to be more about self regulation by content creators because it’s viewed on a personal device.

    Whats your view on technologies like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality? Will they become inevitable in advertising few years down the line?

    Gopa: India has used VR as a tactic and gimmick but nothing which has translated into scaleable marketing solution. But around the world, people are using VR and actually adding value to it. I think in India, it won’t only be about AR or VR, but mixed reality and that solution will be sustainable. More brands and agencies need to invest in these technologies and only then we can scale it up in terms of quality as people need to experiment.

    Shamsuddin: I think AR will be bigger than VR in reality between the two technologies. That is simply because you don't need bulky headsets to experience AR. Now smartphones come with preloaded AR kit. But I think it will take another two to three years before AR changes the way we interact and use our phones and see things around us. Google glasses came in too early in the game but this would have been the perfect time.

    In India, it’s only Republic TV and Discovery Jeet that are using VR to show news. Is the Indian audience even ready for such technology?

    Shamsuddin: I don't think VR is ready yet in India and I don't think VR is something that you would want to take on live. The virtual content does not lend itself well for live content. It might work well for a cricket match or a Formula1 race but I don't know how important this is for news because news we are already consuming through video or text and that gives us enough information. The immersive concept works well for concerts and live sports.

    One word of advice that you would want to give to upcoming talent?

    Shamsuddin: You need to work on the basics as the basics don't change just because it is a digital agency. Just because you work in a digital agency, it doesn’t mean this is Silicon Valley where you can come in by 2 pm and leave by 6 pm! It is still work and you need to work! You need to work hard, get your basics right and make yourself better every day.

    Gopa: For me, it’s all about hard work, being passionate and having your integrity is the foundation. The industry is dynamic and everything changes at the fly and if you are not ahead of the curve and you are not reinventing yourself, you will never be able to succeed.

  • Isobar launches commerce practice in India

    Isobar launches commerce practice in India

    MUMBAI: Isobar, part of Dentsu Aegis Network, has launched a commerce practice in India, following the launch of the global counterpart.

    The expansion of this department will lead to a commerce centre of excellence, delivering end to end experiences for clients, through integrated platforms and solutions that are informed by local insight. This addresses a growing demand for commerce solutions from clients in India, where India’s e-commerce market value is projected to grow by 30 per cent annually to a total of $200 billion by 2026 according to a Morgan Stanley report.

    Speaking on the launch, Isobar CEO Asia Pacific Jane Lin-Baden says, “Commerce is no longer about optimising the last mile, it’s now the space where people interact and experience brands. By establishing Isobar Commerce in India, Isobar can offer clients higher commercial value and customer satisfaction by leveraging our customer experience design, data intelligence, and technical commerce solutions.”

    Isobar India managing director Shamsuddin Jasani adds, “E-commerce in India has exploded. By launching Isobar commerce practice in India, we will not only be able to offer the best development capabilities but also to partner with our clients on their entire e-commerce journey and delivering solutions across the board powered by our offering across Isobar and Fractal Ink.”

    This will bolster Isobar India’s strategic capability and scale to deliver brand commerce solutions, bringing brand experience and commerce closer together. This integrated commerce offering in India will be delivered through its 150 e-commerce specialists, in addition to 450 people from design specialists (Fractal Ink-Linked by Isobar) and innovative marketing and media specialists (Isobar India).

    The Indian Isobar commerce division will join the 1,000+ commerce specialists across Isobar’s network in Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. The global practice includes all commerce centres of excellence, all e-commerce, m-commerce, retail commerce experts and commerce off-shore delivery centres within the Isobar network. Isobar global commerce has strong technology credentials across all major platforms and is aplatinum Salesforce partner. Isobar is also a global alliance partner with Adobe, a SAP Hybris partner and SAP Hybris value added reseller (VAR), Microsoft managed partner, an Oracle business partner, an Apple strategicpartner, and is the Asia-Pacific leader for Magento.

    Isobar commerce practice globally combines strategic, technology, user experience (UX) and operational support to deliver rapid growth for global brands and retailers and has delivered transformational commerce work for leading brands including include Asda, Clarins, Ecco, Lacoste, Nestle, Samsonite and Pandora and more.  

    The global practice delivers commerce experiences using platforms and solutions with the biggest technology players, including Salesforce, Adobe, SAP Hybris and Magento – combining strategic, technology and operational support to multi-market and regional clients. It also covers strategy and brand commerce in third-party market-places, such as Amazon and Tmall. The end-to-end offering includes commerce strategy and consulting, customer experience design, data and technology implementation and platform management to ensure rapid growth for Isobar’s clients.

     

  • Isobar India makes hotels friendly to differently abled

    Isobar India makes hotels friendly to differently abled

    MUMBAI: Isobar India, the digital agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has introduced the Blind Faith Upgrade, a thoughtful and cause-oriented initiative under accessible tourism. A sustainable step towards accessible tourism, it explores the challenges faced by visually impaired travellers and allows the hotel to transform any of its rooms into a visually impaired-friendly room. The launch of the initiative was first introduced at Hotel Ramada, Ajmer. 

    The agency looks at expanding the initiative further to other corners of the tourism industry where accessibility is a major concern across the nation. A successful tourism product requires effective partnerships and cooperation across many sectors at the national, regional and international levels. The impact of accessible tourism thus goes beyond the tourist beneficiaries to the wider society, engraining accessibility into the social and economic values of society.

    Hotel Ramada, Ajmer general manager Manish Gupta mentions,“We are glad we could take up the Blind Faith Upgrade initiative; it fits right into our vision. As a hospitality brand, it’s our objective to deliver accessible tourism to all. This is an important step towards it.”

    In the light of the growing awareness for accessible tourism in India and the alarming ratio 1:250 of differently-abled-friendly hotel rooms to the total number of hotel rooms, Isobar introduced this initiative at Hotel Ramada, Ajmer with the Blind Faith Upgrade Kit. The kit includes Braille labels which can convert any phone into a Braille-enabled phone, reusable tactile paving tiles and Braille literature with audio assist. Available for purchase on theblindfaithupgrade.com, the kit is on an open-source model, inviting all players in the tourism industry to implement the same and spread more awareness for accessible tourism.

    Garnering immensely positive feedback, the video has received more than 1 million views since its launch.

    On the launch of this initiative, Isobar India MD Shamsuddin Jasani says, “We’re all accountable towards building a community in which we wish to live – not just for ourselves, but for generations to come. We at Isobar are trying to focus on overcoming key challenges in our quest for a sustainable community. We are looking at taking this a step towards creating an informed society and urging the other key players across tourism industry to adopt the same across their properties in India. ”

    Speaking about the project, Isobar India executive vice president Gopa Kumar adds, “Accessibility is a key concern for letting the elderly and differently-abled people feel confident that they can travel without facing any problems. We hope this initiative would help spread further awareness about accessible tourism and bring further advancements across larger players within the hospitality space.”
     

  • Isobar ropes in Nagappa as VP – south, strengthens Bangalore team

    Isobar ropes in Nagappa as VP – south, strengthens Bangalore team

    MUMBAI: Isobar India has appointed Suraj Nagappa as its vice president to head the business for south. He will be based out of the Bangalore office which boasts of a team size of over 70 and with clients like SunTv, Myntra, Wrangler, Duroflex, Air Asia to name a few.

    Suraj will also be a part of Isobar India’s Leadership team, which already includes Gopa Kumar (Executive VP), Shekhar Mhaskar Vice President, Anish Varghese National Creative director, along with Shamsuddin Jasani, MD, Isobar India.

    Suraj comes with more than 17 years of rich experience in New Media strategy and planning especially with Mobile, SEM and Programmatic based solutions. His past stints have been with some of the best Media setups like Neo@Ogilvy, DDB Mudra, Denstu, Interactive Avenues and Mediaturf and serviced brands like Citibank, SAP, Infosys, Accenture, Toyota, Hitachi, Honda, Amway and Ministry of tourism.

    Isobar India MD Shamsuddin Jasani says, “Suraj is a veteran of the digital industry and I am happy to welcome him to the Isobar family. With a team of over 70 people in Bangalore and Chennai we needed a person who could take the team forward to greater heights and clearly cement our place as the leading full service agency for the digital age.”

    Nagappa says, “I look forward to collaborating with Shams and his team to work on future ready agency for our clients. Digital technologies are transforming all the aspects of business at clients end… I am looking forward to help and build Isobar for the future where digital and mobile are at the heart of strategy.”

  • Decoding the Indian online video watchers remains an enigma

    Decoding the Indian online video watchers remains an enigma

    MUMBAI: Perhaps the biggest challenge for programmers on online media is to define and segregate the online viewers who will take to OTT mediums in India.

    Following the presentation on OTT trends in the APAC region by Media Partners Asia executive director Vivek Couto at VidNet, this question expectedly assumed importance.

    Indian Television Dot Com’s founder CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari flagged off the discussion by asking Isobar India MD Shamsuddin Jasani to define who is a customer for him?

    “A person who is consuming digital content through any medium be it TV, mobile, YouTube, Facebook, etc is my customer. I would spend dollars on a person who is consuming content via digital platforms, what is he consuming, time spent on that piece of content,” said Jasani.

    Adding his perspective on defining a digital customer was FoxyMoron co-founder Suveer Bajaj. He seconded the definition of an OTT consumer and added that he was one who migrated to the digital medium. “I have come across consumers who are consuming three hours on digital. There is a very powerful change that we are seeing right now. These people are plunging on digital than TV.”

    Citing example from his own personal experience, Jasani highlighted how his 6-year old kid consumes around six to seven hours of video content on various platforms like Voot, YouTube, etc. He opined that this is a powerful change that he is witnessing from TV which happens through demand. Bajaj further added that it is not just on demand but also on the go.

    dittoTV business head Archana Anand strongly believed on the platform’s subscription model. Underlining the success of ditto TV’s campaign and aggressive pricing, Anand believed that she and her team had grown the pie by reaching out to people who are not internet savvy audience and is very clear on not getting content for free. “We have marked the people who perhaps are not typical OTT audience to whom TV is being provided at a subscription of Rs 20. There is a huge audience who is alien to OTT in India and we are trying to get them on board by handholding them throughout the entire procedure of getting our app by just a missed call.

    Arre co-founder Ajay Chacko was sure he did not intend to become an OTT platform. “The way we are defining our consumers is not just through access and comfort but by creating new forms of content to drive change.”

    Voot, the AVOD platform from Viacom18 which is often credited with bolstering kids and originals apart from content from the various channels falling under the network, has targeted their digital natives. Their Head marketing and partnerships Akash Banerji dissected consumers into different categories depending upon-access and comfort, demographics and content business offers.

    Discussing the first point, he explained that there are 180 million TV households in India with an average of at least two persons in every house, meaning 350 million subscribers on Internet who are not necessarily active users. “In India, we have 120 video consumers out of which 20-30 million are native digital who are consuming videos online. It is up to a platform whether they are targeting digital natives or getting internet consumers who are not consuming videos or are looking at growing the pie of digital.”

    The discussion went a notch up with the panelists enlightening the audience on the regional content that the content providers have created so far.

    Even the consumers come from varied backgrounds. At the base of the pyramid is the young, college or office going people who are mostly from the metropolitans. The older males and women who are consuming on mobile and desktop are not consuming high velocity content like the youth comprise the mid level. Banerji said that in the past 18-24 months, he has also seen consumers evolving from tier 2 and tier 3 markets primarily consuming content on mobiles. “Rural consumers which are about 200 million i.e 80 per cent of India are also coming up on board in the next few years.”

    Voot follows clear cut understanding of content and is leveraging on its popular content library of TV shows from market. Kids content and Voot originals are the other two important key factors for the platform. “Our Voot originals do not have to follow any format or template. They have to resonate with the consumers”, he added.

    Banerji strongly believes that it is a myth for any business to chase app download numbers. “The players should work on active users and the video watch time.”

    With the second most important driver being content, focusing on just the demographics is not enough. Yash Raj Films Head of content and development Nikhil Taneja said the digital audience is primarily between the ages of 18 to 34. “We are not targeted at providing entertainment to the audiences through effective storytelling and providing emotions through content.”

    He also spoke about the different gender differences by sharing some interesting statistics about the traction and viewership of YRF’s shows. The platform, being a YouTube channel, manages to get some revenue from their channel but also has various other ways to make money. “We launch our own talent and if that talent gets picked by an advertiser, we are benefitted. Our show Love Shots has been picked up by airlines. It is definitely early for advertisers to invest but that does not stop us from creating good quality content.”

    Adding to that, Jasani said, “The customers are agnostic in accessing content and consume digital data through Wi-fi and other services available to them. The offline viewing space is also brewing up rapidly in India. If we are putting an advertiser on every stage of digital consumption, there is no need for him to be on TV.” With various service providers launching 4G, Jasani opined that within 18 months the data is going to become cheap. “Adding to cheap data rates is the launch of smartphones for Rs 2,000 which is also going to grow in the future.”

    Banerji also shed light on how the viewing dynamics are changing and why that change is happening. “With consumers in control of what they consume and content being the king, the need for quality content is just going to grow. The illusion that most of us have on the content that can go on a digital platform has to be broken”.

    The panel discussion also concentrated on the discovery of content in various languages which is currently difficult. The players said they were collectively working on the challenge.

    One thing that all the panelists accepted was to keep innovating and experimenting with content.

    Anand spoke of how asked how she is facing a challenge from payment gateways as they are in English which majority of the Indians do not understand. “Even if there is a potential customer, he has to be guided to pay for my subscription and so.80 per cent of my potential subscribers cannot be captured.” She opined that all the players in the eco-system and various payment platforms have to think in this direction.

    But are there advertisers willing to get on board? Bajaj said that it is no more about ads but content. Selective content will attract specific advertisers.

    “Advertisers are squeamish to put money. We decide after evaluating how it will help the brand after a year. We are no more selling a product but brand through its content,” said Taneja.

    “We are not finicky about not putting ads on dittoTV. There is an ad replacement technology through which I can have two different ads on TV and digital for the same content,” added Anand.

    Jasani said the digital advertising pie is small as the major audience is not yet online. The consumers are not ready to pay for content but the fact that innumerable content creators are evolving cannot be sidelined. With both AVOD and SVOD having their own perks and challenges, there is no tangible answer that any player can provide currently.

    It is an exciting space where everyone is experimenting and innovating. The panel discussion concluded by citing that both the models will co-exist at least for 10 years down the line.