MUMBAI: In a film industry that averages over hundreds of movies every year, the bid to be in the audience’s consideration set has become increasingly competitive, hence disruptive movie marketing has become increasingly important.
Leading the charge this year is Balaji Motion Pictures (BMPL). In association with its long-term digital strategy partners, White Rivers Media, BMPL have hit the right notes with their marketing campaigns for Jabariya Jodi, Judgementall Hai Kya, and Dream Girl. Crucially, these three campaigns delivered a lot of engaging content outside the spectrum of social media, using touchpoints that are less intrusive to the digital audience, with avant-garde techniques like programmatic advertising, sequential storytelling, and new-age influencer outreach.
Digital media is growing at breakneck speed and while it is important to tell stories via social media content, the digital universe beyond social media is generally missed by a lot of entertainment brands. Team BMPL did a three-film, digital strategy deal with White Rivers Media. Furthermore, an integral part of each of these movie campaigns has been their effective use of existing public perception and leveraging it to nurture positive audience sentiment by using effective and innovative martech solutions.
Commenting on the strong showing in 2019’s marketing results, Balaji Motion Pictures’ executive vice president Ruchikaa Kapoor said, "If we are to create desire in the mind of someone who is spoiled for choice, then we need to stand out for which we knew being ‘clutter breaking’ is imperative, both in terms of idea & presentation. White Rivers Media has hit the nail on the head in that regard. We have been working with team White Rivers Media, and their services go beyond traditional social media and it is great to be industry first adopters of various new-age digital!"
On working with Balaji Motion Pictures, White Rivers Media chief executive officer & co-founder, Shrenik Gandhi quipped, "It is always great to be working with team Balaji. The quest for great storytelling, when extended to digital using programmatic and martech, creates nothing short of magic. We are given full license to innovate, and these are the sort of entertainment-category briefs that our creative and tech thinkers look forward to working on. I am happy that we have been able to deliver well on this front, and we’re going to keep this momentum going strong."
MUMBAI: Crossing another milestone on an exciting journey through the digital world, White Rivers Media celebrated its seventh anniversary on 7 August.
In the last year, the Mumbai- and Gurugram-based agency surpassed the 100-employee mark, through consistent on boarding of creative and management talent at every level, with a special focus on strong leadership at the top. This expansion has been facilitated by several new accounts across entertainment, finance, lifestyle, and B2B categories, further diversifying the agency’s portfolio.
White Rivers Media co founder and chief executive officer Shrenik Gandhi said, “For me, WRM has always been the opportunity to create an avant-garde organisation that prospers due to a mix of creative, media, and technology professionals. I foresee WRM as an agency that retains its start-up mentality of hunger and aggression – after all, that’s what has driven us to where we are now, and that’s what will we keep us on the path of success through continuous improvement. It is with this insatiable mindset that we launched our certified internal training programme, WRM ALPS, so that we continually feed the ambition and professional desire of the WRM family.”
White Rivers Media co founder and right brain Mitesh Kothari said, “7 marks our capability to stay relevant for our clients in a dynamic digital world. But 7 also marks our journey to stay updated with the latest digital marketing methods practiced around the world. So what really makes me happy about the WRM journey is our intention and indeed ability to leverage new tech with ideas that aren’t just creative, but also compelling.”
He added, “From MarTech innovations and alternate media inventory to programmatic advertising, we not only work closely with brands to see how they can benefit from the latest tech, but also with platforms to explore native innovations. There is a synergy that is born out of this endeavour, and that’s what facilitates true digital transformation for our clients’ brands. Looking forward, we’re focussing on leveraging voice, video, and vernacular, to blur the lines between a brand campaign and a user experience.”
In keeping with anniversary tradition, WRM also released a free eBook titled “Festive Marketing in 2019: The Ultimate Checklist”. It highlights the newest mechanisms in digital marketing that brands should incorporate in their festive campaigns, as well as practices that are still in vogue due to their continued effectiveness. Apart from being educational, the eBook also contains the views of industry stalwarts like Khyati Madaan, head of digital marketing at Red Chillies Entertainment, Divya Dixit, senior VP & head marketing, ALTBalaji & Sujoy Roy Bardhan, marketing and OAP head – Sony YAY!
The free eBook can be downloaded from: http://bit.ly/festiveebook
With awards, new clients, and fresh talent, White Rivers Media have all the tools they need to fulfill their ambition of charting an even more aggressive growth trajectory. It’s safe to expect some exciting innovations coming our way from this new chapter in the WRM story!
MUMBAI: White Rivers Media helped ALT Balaji, the OTT platform from Balaji Telefilms Ltd, in successfully launching the second season of one of its marquee series Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain by creating a three-week long digital campaign ‘Will the heart ever be happy with what it has’, for its promotions. The idea was to establish the show’s premise, where the audience could experience a heightened emotional relatability.
The 360-degree campaign was inclusive of packaged as well as organic content, which pushed POVs of the characters to maximise social sentiments of audience w.r.t each during pre-buzz. With a concentrated approach, the campaign flowed towards the launch, while instigating an equitable conversation around dynamics of a complex relationship, aspirations of an emancipated woman, and life after divorce.
White Rivers Media chief executive officer and co-founder Shrenik Gandhi said, “We’ve been associated with ALTBalaji since its inception. If a show comes from Ekta Kapoor, one knows it has to be about breaking records and much more! This campaign brings back the nostalgia of success we achieved for the brand with this marquee show’s first season. This one is even special because we broke through all pre-set benchmarks from the previous year. We are very happy with the positive response and look forward to a similar response for ALTBalaji’s power-packed line-up this year.”
ALTBalaji senior vice president and head of marketing Divya Dixit said, "Ekta Kapoor undoubtedly understands the pulse of Indian OTT entertainment better than anyone else, and produces one blockbuster after another. Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain is very special to us as a concept, and so was this launch campaign for this second season. Right from the build-up of this campaign to the launch of the show and activity line-up, it has been a data-intensive and strategic call. It gives me immense pleasure to see that what was once up on our whiteboards is now at play on digital grounds with collaborative help from White Rivers Media. We are also grateful to our millions of subscribers for their support and we are glad it is winning hearts.”
February being the month of love #GetLoveZoned being the social theme at ALTBalaji; the launch hit close to home with its matured take on love and relationships. The campaign has already hit 20 million views on social media itself in 2 weeks and is rearing to go forward. Netizens, influencers, and celebrities across the country have flooded all social and digital platforms with outpouring of love.
MUMBAI: Renowned film production house Red Chillies Entertainment (RCE) has extended its existing partnership with White Rivers Media, and has awarded its digital mandate to the agency for 2019 as well.
Speaking on the same, Red Chillies Entertainment head of marketing Binda Dey said, “It’s been great working with an enthusiastic and proactive team at White Rivers Media. We look forward to continuing our existing relationship with them, for Badla and others.”
White Rivers Media chief executive officer and co-founder Shrenik Gandhi added, “We are stoked to be a part of Red Chillies Entertainment’s journey yet again in 2019, and are gearing up to churn out some exciting campaigns.”
Red Chillies shared in a press statement, the year 2019 will be a power-packed year for Red Chillies Entertainment as its upcoming movie, Badla, starring Amitabh Bachchan, is slated to release this year. The association with White Rivers Media is a perfect synergy at this point as Red Chillies Entertainment and White Rivers Media conceived some incredible campaigns for Zero, cleverly employing MarTech to deliver fresh and unique fan experiences.
Mumbai, 29th October, 2018: White Rivers Media today announced that it ranked Number 25 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2018, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in India.
White Rivers Media’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Shrenik Gandhi credits all its stakeholders, team, media and clients for the company’s revenue growth over the past three years.
He said, "It has been an amazing year for White Rivers Media and we are humbled to be featured for the third consecutive year in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 2018. This signifies that our work is being recognized and acknowledged by industry experts."
"Making the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 is commendable in today’s highly competitive, fast-changing technology industry," said Rajiv Sundar, Program Director – Technology Fast 50 India 2018 and Partner, Deloitte India. "We congratulate White Rivers Media on being one of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the India."
White Rivers Media previously ranked at #43 (India) and #473 (APAC) in 2016 and #10 (India) and #173 (APAC) in 2017 Deloitte Technology Fast 50.
Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India program selection and qualifications
The Technology Fast 50 India program, which was launched in 2005, is conducted by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP (DTTILLP), and is part of a truly integrated Asia Pacific program recognizing the India’s fastest growing and most dynamic technology businesses (public and private) and includes all areas of technology – from internet to biotechnology, from medical and scientific to computers/hardware.
The program recognizes the fastest growing technology companies in India based on their percentage revenue growth over the past three financial years.
MUMBAI: Mandom Group’s grooming brand in Asia – Gatsby has associated with White Rivers Media for the third time in row.
As part of the mandate, White Rivers Media, the digital agency, will continue to manage their digital and social media presence across India.
Gatsby India’s branding ideas have successfully managed to resonate with their target audience. Since the first year of the brand’s association with White Rivers Media, this digital agency has studied their target audience well and accommodated these insights into content. Engaging content on the page is exclusively targeted towards young urban men, which has resulted in an impressive engagement rate.
To put their best foot forward in the future, this collaboration aspires to explore different permutation and combinations of engaging content, media spends, ad models to optimise their reach. The agency also plans to strike conversations in the community and sense the sentiment for various messages. These insights will help them to enhance brand management, evolve in their own space and stay ahead of their competition.
White Rivers Digital Media chief executive officer and founder Shrenik Gandhi says, “We have been working closely with team Gatsby since past 2 years and I am looking forward to a great next year with the brand. While a good portion of our time this year shall be invested in building the brand in the ‘traditional digital’ manner, special efforts are being taken to capture the new age digital audience via innovative and category first digital activations. I take this opportunity to thank team Gatsby India on the continued trust they have on us.”
Gardenia Cosmocare (exclusive agent for Gatsby n India) director Puneet Motiani adds, “A good sense of product market as well as a keen ear to the ground greatly assists in selecting the right target audience and engaging them in a fun and constructive manner allowing for meaningful brand interactions which in turn results in positive and improved consumer experiences.”
For the past ten years, male grooming products have cut out a strong niche for themselves in the global market. In addition to the initial connection of beard to masculinity, being well-groomed is now an essential part of a young man’s routine. To buy these grooming products or gain more information about them, they turn to the web world. Hence, accurate branding of these grooming products in the digital space is extremely important.
MUMBAI: In India, one of the fastest growing independent agencies White Rivers Media has recently completed its six years in social media and digital marketing industry. To celebrate the same, it has sent personalised thank-you messages to all individuals who have been a part of the journey.
The company founded in 2012, has been the only digital marketing agency to be awarded the Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 twice, consecutively in 2016 and 2017. The core verticals of the company are digital, design, social and video to clients in B2B and B2C space, across industry verticals.
As a give back to the industry, the agency has launched an e-book on Everything a marketer needs to know about #Hashtags. The book contains essentials, best practices and some crazy global bloopers. The same has been chosen given the fact, that a lot of brands across the globe still make hashtag errors or don’t use it optimally across digital and in adaptations in offline.
Link to e-book: http://whiteriversmedia.com/eBook
Speaking on the occasion White Rivers Media CEO Shrenik Gandhi said, “As we complete six years in the industry, we would like to thank everyone who has been a part of growth journey and helped us reach here. The industry has grown with break-neck speed and I strongly believe, this is just the beginning. Exciting times ahead!”
White Rivers Media co-founder Mitesh Kothari added,“We have done some interesting work for brands across sectors in the last six years, and we look forward to building more meaningful and stronger connections with stakeholders across the industry. We look forward to this year as becoming one of the top mar-tech driven communication partner to brands across the country. The past years have been of learning un-learning and re-learning and we are eager to know what is stored for us in the future.”
This e-book is one of the many to follow which White Rivers Media shall launch in due course of time, covering various topics concerning Indian and global digital marketers.
Along with this the agency also ran an extension to its award-winning digital campaign, Honesty Breaks Clutter.
MUMBAI: Creativity sometimes takes inspiration from past creatives but what if it is an entirely copied one? Plagiarism (or inspiration), is a never-ending burning issue in the advertising world. A little similarity can be overlooked but complete knockoffs are just astonishing.
Information sharing on the internet has led to rampant plagiarism. In the garb of creativity, sometimes, knowingly or unknowingly, ideas tend to be entirely copied.
Plagiarism with ads is much more difficult to pinpoint compared to a music piece or a film narrative, purely owing to the shorter format of the medium. Accepting that this does happen, The Glitch senior creative director Sunetro Lahiri admits that he has personally been part of campaigns where the main thought had to be tweaked in the event of another brand (that too, from a totally different category!) having launched a campaign with the exact thought. He affirms, “It does happen and that’s why it’s more about ethics than rules. We see elements of different auteurs in the work of a lot of current film-makers. Just the way you can’t label it plagiarism, there’s a larger grey area in advertising too.”
Without naming any brands Grapes Digital COO Shradha Agarwal brings up that there are times that a client shares references to create a new piece of communication. After multiple rounds of changes and iterations, it becomes less of an inspiration and more of a ‘copy’. This is another reason why sometimes a creative agency, without the intention of copying, might actually end up copying a current campaign from an ‘inspirational’ campaign.
Lesser known local brands tend to ape their famous counterparts. It was only last year when a 2015 ad for Wagh Bakri Tea conceptualised by Scarecrow Communications was plagiarised by a local Gujarati tea brand, Jay Jawan Tea. The local brand not only copied the entire ad but smartly replaced Wagh Bakri shots with its own product placement.
Wagh Bakri ad:
Jay Jawan ad:
Recalling an old incident, Happy mcgarrybowen senior creative director Naren Kaushik read about a bike, named Gulsar, which was a rip off of Pulsar. He says that maybe years ago when internet didn’t make everything news, it was just easier to use existing ideas for which people would have spent time and money, and just rip them off as is. In today’s context, Jai Jawan gets their share of eyeballs very quickly. Now we all know such a brand exists.
While there is no way to stop it and brands often just send a legal notice to the other party, maybe there is a need to have more stringent rules to keep a tab on plagiarism.
Our experts view on this:
BBH chief creative officer and managing partner Russell Barrett:
The people who do that should be ignored. It’s the best punishment. It’s a vile habit that untalented poseurs have resorted to through the centuries. The best thing is for them to be forgotten and ignored. By their peers and their audience. The argument should not be about copied versus unique. Show me what you think is a unique idea and I will show you another one that is somewhat similar. The drive should be for freshness. Why is this idea different? Why should it exist in a new form? What’s fresh about it?
Happy mcgarrybowen senior creative director Naren Kaushik:
Needless to say, yes. A regulatory system for any big industry is important. There will always be me-toos bordering on illegal. If we walk around our own neighbourhood, how many salons do we see with actors’ and actresses’ pictures all over them? Surely they haven’t paid for endorsement. Even smaller and local fashion outlets use celebrities of all sorts. There’s no real way to keep track of who is copying who and where. We have also seen billboards when we drive out to smaller towns where some or other ad has been ripped off. It is very difficult to keep a track of this. But when it does come to someone’s notice, there should be some action that we can take. The trouble, though, is that this is a sketchy process right now. We don’t have a system to ensure quick results and more often than not, the petitioners end up losing time and money. That is a huge deterrent. If there’s a ‘regulatory body’ that can help fast-track this, more agencies will be encouraged to take their case up.
The Glitch senior creative director Sunetro Lahiri:
Ideally, it should. If various forms of media are protected, why should this field be left out? The lack of legal action stems from the lack of belief that there will be a possible resolution. Also, as a rule, as mentioned in the question, agencies and brands aren’t even aware of the said creative.
Grapes Digital COO Shradha Agarwal:
There are a lot of copyright laws that exist which are meant to safeguard the interests of advertisers from ones that are out to steal. But sometimes they are not enough as has been proven time after time. Things, like muting the audio or taking the entire video down, are currently practised on multiple social platforms as a good way to minimise copyright infringement. So yes, perhaps a regulatory body can help minimise the damage that this sort of plagiarism can cause. If the entire advertising community comes together as one and penalise the one that is stealing work from one of their own, it can definitely serve as a step in the right direction.
White Rivers Media co-founder and CEO Shrenik Gandhi:
Honestly, it is too small a problem for a regulatory body to be formed for. These are marketing techniques used by smaller brands to influence a smaller audience. So this has to be solved at a smaller level itself. And I don’t think at this moment there’s a need for a regulatory body to guide on this particular issue. There are much bigger issues the industry is facing and if a regulatory body exists, they should focus on those.
While copying someone’s creative is a pertinent issue that needs to be looked at, maybe AAAI, ASCI (The Advertising Standards Council of India) and other regulatory bodies should come together to fight against this. If not, let us just leave ideas to breed other ideas just like this ad where oil brand, Sunny Lite filed a complaint with ASCI against the Aashirvaad Atta brand over a TVC where Sunny Lite claimed that the ad bears a striking similarity to its advertisement.
MUMBAI: White Rivers Media has won the digital media mandate for Dun & Bradstreet India in a multi-agency pitch. The account shall be handled from its head office in Mumbai.
The agency will be responsible for managing performance marketing, online reputation management, digital listening, search engine optimisation, and other media duties of the brand.
Dun & Bradstreet grows the most valuable relationships in business, by uncovering truth and meaning from data. DNB connects customers with the prospects, suppliers, clients and partners that matter most, and have since 1841. Nearly 90 per cent of the Fortune 500 and companies of every size around the world, rely on their data, insights and analytics.
Dun & Bradstreet leader of marketing and communications Nayna Banerjee says, “We are in the business of building relationships for our customers. We are happy to partner with White Rivers Media in our journey to publish our content and insights across the digital platforms, that is transforming the way businesses communicate with all its stakeholders. We have seen a similar passion in the team of White Rivers Media and are looking forward to working with them.”
White Rivers Media CEO and co-founder Shrenik Gandhi adds, “We look forward to creating digital marketing stories with D&B, one of the global market leaders in this space. With the combination of impactful content marketing and tactful targeting, White Rivers Media aspires to the further uplift the brand’s presence in the digital universe.”
White Rivers Media will play a pivotal role in Dun & Bradstreet’s plan to evolve as a digital-focused brand. With its exclusive team of experts, the agency will help the brand to further strengthen the brand identity and achieve optimum digital presence.
MUMBAI: In a multi-agency pitch, White Rivers Media has successfully bagged the digital marketing mandate for Canadian Wood. The account shall be handled out of the head office in Mumbai.
Forestry Innovation Investment (also known as Canadian Wood) is the crown agency of the government of British Columbia (BC), the westernmost province of Canada. Started in the year 2013, its mandate is to promote sustainable and durable wood from BC to India, spread awareness and educate the Indian market about certified lumber and other wood species through seminars, exhibitions and other networking systems.
White Rivers Media has been entrusted with the task of structuring the digital brand strategy, curating content marketing ideas and managing end-to-end digital and creative execution for the brand for the online and offline audience.
Canadian Wood director of India market development Nirmala Thomas says, “White Rivers Media comes with creative-edge and strategic insight and we weren’t just looking for a digital marketing partner, but someone who is creatively strong and understands the category, business aspects, and markets we are operating in. We are hoping to see path-breaking ideas in this partnership.”
White Rivers Media CEO and co-founder Shrenik Gandhi adds, “We are glad to be associated with Canadian Wood and look forward to creating some engaging B2B communication stories for them. Their messaging is highly clutter breaking and engaging and we hope to add on to the same.”
White Rivers Media is an independent Indian digital marketing agency, specialising in end-to-end digital, social, AI-driven re-marketing and video marketing for top e-commerce, B2B and B2C brands in India including HDFC Realty, OnePlus, ALTBalaji, Tata Cliq, Zivame amongst others and has offices in Mumbai and Gurgaon.
