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Tag: Shantanu Sirohi

  • Argentine Football Association expands presence in India with Interactive Avenues

    Argentine Football Association expands presence in India with Interactive Avenues

    Mumbai: The Argentine Football Association (AFA) and the leading digital agency in India, Interactive Avenues, have reached an agreement to consolidate the content and brand expansion strategies of the Argentine team in India in the coming years. AFA began operations in the Indian market in 2021, creating content and activations for fans in India and generating regional sponsorship agreements with the largest companies in the region.

    To develop exclusive content on social networks and media in India, AFA began to work hand in hand with the leading agency in this market, to propose interactions with the community, understanding the particular dynamics and Indian culture, with innovative proposals for elevating AFA’s presence in India.

    Since the beginning of 2021, AFA has begun a commercial expansion plan in India, for which today it has more than five regional agreements with large Indian companies, and intending to continue with growth in the region, entrusts Interactive Avenues with the management of AFA’s official social networks in India.

    Following Argentina’s historic conquest at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, AFA joined forces with Interactive Avenues to launch digital channels dedicated to the unique nuances of the Indian market and thus multiply its fan base. The agency was selected for its proven experience in managing sports media for renowned teams specializing in the Indian market. Today, AFA can connect directly with a broader audience, and drive large-scale engagement of thousands of followers on the official India networks on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

    In parallel, AFA is developing its new e-commerce channel for the Indian market, replicating the successful model implemented in China, to offer a wide range of merchandising products to Argentine fans in this region.

    To this topic, AFA, president Claudio Tapia, stated: “For more than 6 years we have been working steadily on AFA’s expansion plan in the world, developing important markets and regions where we previously had no presence or sponsorship agreements. Today we can highlight that AFA is one of the sports brands with the greatest presence in strategic markets such as India, China, the Middle East and the U.S. In this case, we are happy to renew our agreement with Interactive Avenues, who is helping us generate a closer link with the Indian audiences and at the same time generate new channels of communication and visibility for our sponsors in the region. We appreciate the trust and will continue working to be a bigger brand every day in India and the rest of the world.”

    Interactive Avenues COO Shantanu Sirohi added: “We are delighted to offer differentiated and relatable content that resonates well with Indian audiences and creates a thriving fan community for AFA. We are privileged to be the preferred digital partner for several Indian and international sports teams, and this collaboration will further strengthen our position as a one-stop digital agency for sports marketing.”

    Leandro Petersen, Commercial and Marketing Manager of AFA, said: “The Argentine Football Association together with Interactive Avenues has grown rapidly in India and this has allowed us to build deep connections with our broad audience base in this market. We are delighted with the results of this transcendental partnership and we will remain committed to involving Indian fans with our Argentinean National Team. We are convinced that the path outlined in global commercial expansion has the Indian market as a fundamental axis of growth and that the most important brands in the country today accompany us It is a demonstration of what has been built in the region for the last 2 years now. AFA has a presence in all the important markets where we had set our goals to enter: India, China, the Middle East and the United States. Today more than 50 join us as commercial partners in different regions and territories, which demonstrates the global strength of our brand and the strong bond that unites us with the most important companies in the world, who find in AFA, a strategic partner to carry out their marketing plans.”

  • ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup ’23 scores big with 44.6 Mn social media mentions

    ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup ’23 scores big with 44.6 Mn social media mentions

    Mumbai: The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 witnessed a host of remarkable player performances, new records, epic turnarounds, and heartwarming moments, resulting in massive social media buzz. Interactive Avenues, a leading full-service digital agency and the digital arm of IPG Mediabrands India, has released “Smashing Records, Winning Hearts: A Social Listening Report on #CWC23”, which delves into the digital conversation landscape surrounding the historic tournament. The report, based on extensive data gathered from social platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, and popular cricket forums, reveals unique insights on player popularity, most appreciated performances, most talked about matches, biggest moments, top brand partnerships and more.

    Commenting on the report, Interactive Avenues COO Shantanu Sirohi said, “The unprecedented scale of social media buzz sparked by this year’s Cricket World Cup has been remarkable. Using innovative tools and techniques, our Social team analysed millions of online conversations to unearth valuable metrics around player influence, match fever, emerging talent, brand engagement, audience sentiments etc. The report validates the surging power of social media in shaping the narrative of sports across the globe.”  

    Here are some key findings and highlights from the report:

    Social chatter highlights:

    • Overall, the tournament garnered 44.6 Mn mentions and drove 476 Mn engagements.
    • Virat Kohli emerged as the most talked about player and batsman (8.3 Mn mentions). Mohammed Shami was the most popular bowler (1.6 Mn mentions), and Glen Maxwell was the top all-rounder (1 Mn mentions).
    • The most talked about match was India vs. Pakistan (2.7 Mn mentions), followed by India vs. Australia (2.6 Mn mentions).

    Most talked about records:

    •  Kohli’s record of hitting the most centuries (50) in an ODI got 816K mentions.
    •  Maxwell’s ‘first-ever double century in an ODI chase’ drove 370K mentions, while Shami’s ‘best ODI bowling figure by an Indian (7/57)’ and ‘fastest-ever to 50 wickets in the world’ garnered 306K mentions.

    Most popular players:

    •  Powered by his stellar performances, Virat Kohli topped overall popularity charts (8.3Mn mentions). He was followed by Rohit Sharma (5 Mn mentions), Babar Azam (1.9 Mn mentions), Mohammad Shami (1.6 Mn mentions) and KL Rahul (1.1 Mn mentions).

    Top emerging players:

    •  Amongst emerging talent, Indian players topped the popularity charts. Shubman Gill led the roster (1 Mn mentions), followed by Shreyas Iyer (728K mentions), Mohammed Siraj (410K mentions), and Rachin Ravindra (322K mentions).

    Top controversies:

    •  During the match with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews became the first international cricketer to be ‘timed out’, which resulted in 1.07 Mn engagement.
    •  A policeman at Chinnaswamy stadium stopping a Pakistani fan from raising ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans drove 338K engagement.
    • Pakistan not qualifying for the semi-finals due to a debatable LBW decision in their match against South Africa resulted in 224K engagement.

    Top brands that leveraged the tournament:

    • Brands across diverse industries leveraged CWC-based partnerships to drive engagement. Coca-Cola got 3.4 Mn mentions, Mastercard garnered 685K mentions, Nissan got 772K mentions, Mondelez received 395K mentions, while Bira got 248K mentions.
    • Royal Stag witnessed a 915 per cent increase in average monthly engagement, while IndusInd’s #CheerForGreatness campaign drove a 554 per cent spike in average monthly engagement.
  • Rohit Sharma dominates social buzz in India-Pakistan ICC World Cup showdown

    Rohit Sharma dominates social buzz in India-Pakistan ICC World Cup showdown

    Mumbai: Excited cricket fans set social media ablaze with posts and memes during the highly-anticipated India vs. Pakistan match at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. Interactive Avenues, a leading full-service digital agency and the digital arm of IPG Mediabrands India released a comprehensive social media listening report around the intense match which ended in a crushing defeat for Pakistan. Based on extensive data gathered from social media platforms and popular cricket forums, the report deep dives into highlights of the social buzz before, during, and after the match.

    Interactive Avenues COO Shantanu Sirohi said, “The India vs. Pakistan match was one of the most talked about matches in this year’s World Cup tournament. Using best-in-class social listening tools, our Social team compiled a comprehensive report which unlocks valuable insights around player popularity and public sentiments, while revealing the most memorable, controversial, and heartwarming moments of the match.”

    Here are some key highlights from the report:

    Most popular players of the match:

    ●    Powered by his electrifying performance, Rohit Sharma emerged as the most talked about player, with 674.3K mentions.

    ●    Virat Kohli and Babar Azam were neck-to-neck for the #2 spot on social media chatter. Virat finally won the battle with 62K more mentions.

    Most talked about Indian and Pakistani players:

    ●    Among Indian players, Rohit Sharma was followed by Virat Kohli (364.8K), Jasprit Bumrah (129.3K), Mohammed Siraj (90.6K) and Shubman Gill (80.3K) on social media popularity charts.

    ●    The most talked about Pakistani player was Babar Azam (302.6K), followed by Mohammad Rizwan (121.8K), Haris Rauf (65.8K), Shaheen Afridi (43.9K) and Hasan Ali (42.4K).

    Fans heap praise on Rohit Sharma:

    ●    Rohit Sharma drove 3.1 Mn engagement and received the most praise as an exceptional captain for field setting, bowling changes, highest number of sixes and more.

    ●    Fans appreciated his becoming the first Indian to complete 300 sixes in ODI cricket along with his ability to handle high-pressure situations.

    Umpiring controversy:

    ●    Match umpire Marais Erasmus garnered 4.2K mentions and 10K engagements amidst fans’ accusations of not paying attention during the match and making biased decisions in favour of Pakistan.

    Jersey exchange controversy:

    ●    Virat Kohli gifting Babar Azam with a signed jersey after the match won 14.4K mentions.

    ●    Wasim Akram slamming Babar Azam for the on-field jersey exchange got 3.4K mentions.

    Sachin Tendulkar’s dig at Shoaib Akhtar:

    ●    Sachin Tendulkar savaged Shoaib Akhtar’s pre-match #ThandRakh message after India’s smashing 8-0 win, garnering 41.7K mentions.

    Player’s heartwarming gestures win hearts:

    ●    Virat Kohli’s sign language communication with his wife Anushka Sharma garnered 11.4K mentions and 121K engagements.

    ●    Rohit Sharma’s ‘fingers crossed’ gesture to his wife Ritika Sajdeh drove 5.8K mentions and 58.1K engagements.

    In total, the match generated a whopping 1.5 Mn mentions and 9.7 Mn engagements, with 78 per cent of the social chatter from India, 9 per cent from Pakistan and 13 per cent from other countries.

  • Despite 30% y-o-y growth, Indian digital ad industry lagging behind global market

    Despite 30% y-o-y growth, Indian digital ad industry lagging behind global market

    MUMBAI: Even though the digital advertising industry is showing impressive growth, touching a year-on-year rise of around 30 per cent, there is scope for it to boom when compared to the global market. “If we look at expenditure made on digital advertisements in India, the average is still 4 dollars per view, while in countries like the US and China it is quite higher. China’s ad spends per view are at $88 per view. Even sub-Sahara African regions, which have a different GDP than ours, are spending much more than us,” said Interactive Avenues (a Reprise network company), IPGMediabrands COO Shantanu Sirohi at Future of Video-India conference in Mumbai, recently.

    He was the part of a panel discussing if digital ad spends are shifting back to TV. Joining him on the dais were Dentsu Aegis Network CEO, greater south and chairman, CEO, India Ashish Bhasin, and Zee Media managing director Ashok Venkatramani.

    The panel unanimously declined any possibility of such a shift and maintained that digital is showing tremendous growth and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. They also said that advertisement on television is also growing, though at a slower pace.

    However, the panel highlighted some of the constraints that might hamper this glorious growth rate of the digital advertising industry in the future. Venkatramani said that the industry has come to realise that one can’t build a brand using just the digital platform. He quoted, “Digital serves a purpose, which is of performance marketing. It creates impact and also high marketability as you know what your input is and what your output is. The spends on digital also give very quick results. But what one can’t do using digital is build the brand in a classical sense.”

    Further highlighting the constraints that can hamper digital’s growth, from an advertising perspective, Ashish Bhasin added, “From an advertising perspective, digital can land into trouble in two areas. One is this whole [issue related to] reliability, credibility and fake news, wherever one’s ad is appearing. That is starting to scare off the people a little bit. And the second thing is the lack of a measurement system. This should be the most measured medium but as an industry, we haven’t come to a consensus on a common currency like BARC or IRS.”

    Sirohi concluded by saying that when it comes to keeping a tab on data, the digital medium has been ‘always over-measured’. He said, “You always have third-party applications that you can run to measure the data. The entire concept of fraudulent e-links or bots comes in when agencies or the clients are not doing what they are supposed to do. They must plan around the media and pass only the end-goal metric to the third party. Otherwise, there always are people who will figure out the way to make a little more money from the advertiser. But on the whole, the internet is not the problem.”