Mumbai: One of the biggest setbacks of the Covid-19 pandemic was the shutdown of educational institutions. Keeping this in mind, HDFC Life has unveiled a new brand campaign crafted by Leo Burnett, from the lens of a graduating school girl. The brand campaign is available across television, digital and DTH.
The film ‘BounceBack Batch’ highlights the challenges faced by students as they lost out on classroom learning, interpersonal skill-building and some of the best days of their lives. With this campaign, the brand attempts to throw light on the story of every student out there during this pandemic. The film depicts how graduating in these uncertain times is a testament to their resilience which makes the current batch of students stand out from every other batch.
“Our film takes the audience on an emotional journey of the turmoil that these champions had to go through and the resilience they have shown in the face of the worst adversity humankind has ever seen. They have persevered and bounced back stronger from this challenge,” said Leo Burnett CEO and chief creative officer – South Asia Rajdeepak Das.
“The last two years have been difficult for everyone. But the part that stands out is the bigger story about the resilience demonstrated by these students and their families,” stated HDFC Life head of marketing, digital business, and e-commerce Vishal Subharwal. “With this campaign, we aim to drive this realisation and the importance of financial planning through a student’s lens, instilling a sense of pride in parents who have ensured that their children overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic.”
Mumbai: Following the success of Discovery School Super League (DSSL) season three, Discovery India and the learning app, Byju’s have come together to announce its next season. With the campaign ‘Aao Milkar le Khushi ki Udaan’, this latest season will target over three million participants across the country, class three to ten students from 30,000 schools across 30 states in its new virtual format, the company said.
After going through rigorous rounds of quizzing, the top team from each of the 30 states will qualify for the six-episode TV quiz show, which will premiere on Discovery channel and Discovery Kids. Nine students of the competition along with their respective principal/teacher will be awarded a special chance of spending a day at NASA, it added.
“This initiative is an attempt to give students a unique opportunity to dive deeper into every subject while honing their general knowledge,” Byju’s marketing head Atit Mehta said. “Combining technology and creativity, we’re bringing students immersive ways to stay engaged whilst learning thereby making the application a wholesome destination for acquiring knowledge and ensuring every student gets a chance to participate in the quiz hassle-free. Discovery School Super League began as a means to contribute to the development of young minds, letting them compete healthily. With students from across 30000 schools participating in the quiz, season 4 will bring double the excitement, fun, and learning.”
Discovery’s south Asia head of advertising & sales, Shaun Nanjappa Chendira said, “Discovery School Super League continues to be one of the most awaited events in the School calendar given the scale of the platform and opportunities it provides for students to shine at a national level. In fact, with schools being closed due to the pandemic, the eagerness of the student community to participate in quiz has increased. We at Discovery believe that learning can be made fun through innovative and engaging formats and Discovery School Super League becoming India’s biggest and highly appreciated quiz competition serves as a testament to our belief.”
New Delhi: E-learning application, Tata Studi has launched a new ad campaign, positioning the platform as a ‘perfect’ after-school coach for students.
Conceptualised by Gozoop, the campaign – Padhne ka Sahi Tareeka (the right way to learn’ highlights the functionality of the application and showcases the science of learning that helps a child become an independent learner. The app also lets parents know how their child is performing, through a feature called ‘Progress Tracker’.
Tata ClassEdge, chief- B2C, Sachin Torne said, “We want to enable students to plan and schedule their studies across different subjects, learn systematically instead of cramming and rote-learning and use effective study strategies to confidently face exams. There’s a science behind effective learning and Studi packs in some of the best principles from this science.”
The ad series is aligned to emphasise on dedicated facets provided by Studi, which is part of the Tata group and caters to CBSE students of Class 1 to 8. The campaign was released on both electronic and online platforms.
“Parents want their children to be more independent in their studies. They want them to experience more, get inspired more, shine more – Studi is a means to that end – a coach in the life of the child where he / she can learn concepts that last for long,” said Gozoop, group director, brand communications, Megha Ahuja. “This campaign will capture many such stories and trace the trajectories of children and parents like you and me, who can benefit from edutech learning, but in the right way. Our aim has been to capture the same story throughout.”
New Delhi: During this unprecedented year, the BBC Indian Language Services have continued the trainee scheme in the form of webinars to train journalism and mass communication students who come from economically and socially marginalised communities of India. The ongoing webinars ‘Journalism – the BBC Way’ aim to educate the university students on BBC’s editorial standards of impartiality, accuracy, and factual journalism in six Indian languages: Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Telugu and Tamil.
BBC head of Indian Languages Rupa Jha said: ‘’As journalists, we must always scrutinise arguments, question consensus and hold power to account with consistency and due impartiality. As part of our training programme during the pandemic, we reach out to students of journalism from socially and economically marginalised groups to train them in the most important aspect of journalism, that is, impartiality.’’
Over the last two years, under this outreach programme a number of journalism graduates and postgraduates were selected and trained at BBC’s Delhi bureau by senior journalists and the production team. The trainees were given an opportunity to work in the newsroom with BBC’s Indian Language Services on multiple platforms such as TV, radio, digital and social media.
Some of the trainees from the previous two programmes described the BBC’s trainee programme as a “significant value addition” to their learning. Ananya Das, a trainee from the 2018-2019 scheme, who is now working full time with BBC Monitoring said, ‘’The trainee programme allowed me to be part of a world comprising complexity and opportunities, ideas, and new challenges to grapple with. It has sharpened my resilience and discipline to multitask in a dynamic environment. Remembering that listening is just as important as being heard, has helped me grow both personally and professionally.’’
Kailas Pimpalkar who contributes to the BBC Marathi Service said, “BBC is like a family to me where everyone is treated equally. Everyone works on the same platform. I came from a rural background and never thought that I would ever be able to work in an international organisation like the BBC. It is the epitome of journalism and I am privileged to work here. However, the training scheme offered by the organisation helped a lot in sharpening my journalistic and social media skills which would help me throughout my life.”
Chitvan Vinayak a trainee from the 2019-2020 Scheme who now works with another renowned media outlet said: “BBC Trainee programme was an edifying one since it helped in 360-degree skill development in the field of journalism. Learning from the best gave me a hand in mastering the ethics of journalism. The programme focussed on social media and that sharpened my skills. BBC provided me with a way to polish story writing skills and also learn the art of video presentation and its making. I got an opportunity to work with another organisation of national repute because of what I learned at BBC.”
NEW DELHI: The pandemic has proven to be a boon for the edtech brands helping them clock more downloads and bag new subscribers. Students, across age groups, have adapted to online learning as schools and learning institutions were forcibly shuttered and and moved online.
Both professional and school-level courses witnessed a spurt in takers. While professional courses are expected to make job search easy in this competitive market, the school courses prevented students from compromising on their learning during this time.
Experts say that the edtech space has accomplished more in the last 100 days than it did in the past five years. A white paper released by Ficci indicated that 92 per cent of learning leaders have confirmed the adoption of online learning journeys from 68 per cent in the pre-Covid2019 period.
A testimony to the growth of this sector is that investors are now keenly doling out hundreds of millions of dollars to startups with even edtech as part of their business plans. Media reports quoting Venture Intelligence data state that $998 million from just January 2020 to July 2020 as compared to $310 million a year ago has found its way into edtech startups.
A large part of that cash is going into category building and customer acquisition – through both digital marketing and promotion and expensive TV air time. With reason: they are trying to change old habits of physical face to face learning. And with that out of the question for a while now, it definitely would not harm anyone if they went in for an upskilling course which would give them a shot at getting a better job or designation or fancier increments.
The Ronnie Screwvala funded edtech venture upGrad has over the past month or so running a print, TV and digital campaign, Sirfnaamkinahin, kaamki degree’ to spread awareness on the importance of getting a degree which will help execs get kicked upstairs into a better position and role.
Based in an office, the TVC features a donkey – or an ass in common parlance – whom employees come and lick in the hope of pleasing him.. The donkey symbolises the boss who gives higher priority to smoothness over talent. Towards the end, the protagonist appears who refuses to lick the donkey and ends the film by saying that he needs specialisation, not ass licking to get ahead in his career.
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upGrad is clearly pushing its specialised courses and positions them as a tool that can help executives to rise. The media plan for the campaign includes 50 plus TV channels.
upGrad CEO Arjun Mohan says, “At upGrad, we have reiterated our age-old principle of ‘life-long learning’ across all our marketing efforts and brand campaigns, making it a new norm for individuals who are looking to upskill and re-skill. Especially during the current pandemic-induced lockdown period, where concerns like job loss, insolvency, and career ambiguity are looming, this mantra helped us resonate and connect with our audience better.”
Currently, it is running the TVC across Disney+hotstar and on TV during the Indian Premier League and hopes to grow by 300 per cent by this fiscal year-end.
The edtech brand had previously launched a campaign in February 2020 ‘Raho Ambitious.’ The previous campaigns from the online learning brand were mirroring the sentiments of working professionals. “With the changing times, we realised that what they lack is a means to achieve and materialize the ambition. Hence, a brand only claiming to fuel ambition will not serve a definite purpose in their lives, because it isn’t providing a solution that they urgently need now. Hence, we let go of the previous brand propositions and moved to ‘Sirfnaamkinahin, kaamki degree’, with which we promise to provide outcome-oriented specialisations, to help learners achieve the ROI on education; job/profile switch, increment or promotion, thereby supporting employability,” adds Mohan.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, upGrad has registered a massive upsurge in the traffic. Around 1,00,000 learners are logged in to the platform and over 8500 hours of live sessions have been conducted in the past three months (May – July). Media reports suggest that upGrad has a 500,000 -strong learner base, of which 32,000 are paid users. The company expects to close the current fiscal year with revenues of around Rs 1,200 crore. Small towns and non-metros are playing a key role in fueling the growth of the brand.
The brand is now ready to scale the number of learners to one million. Mohan says: “Moreover, given the Covid2019 scenario, we are now looking to double our quarterly revenue numbers. (We are considering Q4 – Jan, Feb, March is the pre-COVID-19 quarter and Q1 – April, May, June is post-COVID-19 for the data). While all verticals have grown in Q4 vs Q1, the MBA vertical has grown by 63 per cent in terms of revenue and 82 per cent in terms of learner base, making it the biggest winner.”
Other programs such as an MSc in data science witnessed a 60 per cent growth and PG certification in digital marketing and communication with Mica witnessed a 70 per cent growth in terms of revenue and learner base.
He further shares that the brand had to move from quarterly to monthly cohort launches, in order to cope with the increased demand for the online programs that it is experiencing.
upGrad has gone the whole hog on social media marketing as well, with the #DontBeAChaatuin August to synchronise with the release of the TVC. The campaign connected with the youth as did its funny short film ‘How to impress your boss’ with YoutuberBeYouNick (BYN), shortly thereafter. The sequence of activities triggered pop – culture influencers across platforms, who then contributed to the buzz and shared their personal experiences. Abhiand Niyu, Barkha Singh, AnkushBahuguna, Saloni Gaur, and AyushMehra amongst others joined the bandwagon to promote the idea of upskilling. Twitter heavyweights like Gabbbar, Sagarcasm, Trendulkar, also shared their views on corporate world culture to support the drive.
Mohan says, “At the beginning of the year, we announced a budget of Rs 175 crore for marketing. We will be largely present on TV and digital. We are strong on social media as well.”
He further explains that the brand is now expecting an overall surge in the television viewership. “This will increase the co-viewing window. Therefore, keeping the current situation in mind, the idea is to look at more mass media such as TV and accordingly shift our spending towards the same, supplementing it with digital. While we will continue to advertise targeting the metros due to new launches that we have in the pipeline. The consumers and prospective learners will now see upGrad more active in the smaller towns,” adds Mohan.
upGrad has recently announced a corpus of Rs 500 crore to expand internationally, especially in APAC, Europe and west Asia. Mohan is optimistic about the shift in the education space. He believes online learning is here to stay and the sector will continue to boom going forward.
The company has also introduced a wide range of free online programs across the areas of tech, management, and data to encourage users to utilise the extra time at hand, meaningfully. It has introduced ‘upGrad higher’, which is a free platform for all job portals for Covid2019 impacted professionals.
Screwvala and his teams have honed a special skill which can hopefully be imparted to other execs wanting to turn entrepreneur through upGrad: how to scale up companies from scratch, and in the process build high valuations.
MUMBAI: The inaugural Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) India Ideathon 2018 culminated with a bang over the weekend, after participants spent 30 long hours strategizing and programming mobile apps with practically no sleep.
A lead up to the MMA Forum that will take place next month, the Ideathon was conducted in collaboration with IncubateIND. 145 tech driven entrepreneurs and students participated on August 25 & 26 at Ideathon held in Bangalore. They were selected from a pool of 432 applicants. The event saw four big brands: Cleanipedia Unilever, Godrej Consumer Products Limited, Tata Sampann and Vodafone define their full problem statements. Participants were then given 30 hours to come up with a solution for their brand of choice, and present their ideas before a panel of judges.
The mentors at the event were – Amrita Purkayashta, Senior Brand Manager, Godrej Consumer Products, Pooja Singh, Digital Marketing Lead, Unilever, Aanavi Dewan, Brand Manager, Tata Sampann; Rupa Mittal, Senior Brand Manager, Vodafone; Harsha Kikkeri, CEO, Kaya Tech; Nelson Vasanth J; Vijetha Sastry, Lead, Open Innovation, Nasscom Centre of Excellence; Akshay Padwal, Co-Founder and Chief Product and Tech Officer, Vserv; Paras Pundir, Founder – Community Folks.
The three winning teams that showcased the most creative ideas were Team Excelsior, Team Programmers and Team Bluebottle. One of the winners, Dinesh from Bluebottle said, “We are excited that our technological solution for Tata Sampann won the first prize.”
Bluebottle used voice based/ natural language-based application using which people can understand about nutrition rich products, dishes, and availability of discounts. This application works seamlessly on other applications such as FB messenger, Google Assistant. Technology used is Dialogue Pro for natural language processing.
More than just a competition, the event also served as a space for brands and students to network.
“India now accounts for 20 percent of mobile phone subscribers globally. As we continue moving towards a mobile-first economy, it is important that brands leverage more and more technology solutions to build scalable and scientific strategies to meet the needs of tomorrow’s consumers. I hope this Ideathon has given brands a fresh perspective and insight into their businesses,” said Moneka Khurana, Country Head at MMA India.
Anand Chakravarthy, Managing Director, Essence India, who was part of the jury added, “We were very impressed by the quality of ideas presented. Indeed, youth today determine the future of advertising. Growing up as digital natives, they bring a different perspective to the table. This challenge has definitely been an eye-opener for many of us, as we understand what motivates and drives loyalty for this next generation.”
The panellists also agreed that trust remains to be an important factor when driving consumers to their brands. Pankaj Parihar, Vice President & Head, Digital Marketing & Transformation, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd said, “Brands can only come up with so many creative ways to target consumers. What keeps customers coming back is the transparency and consistency, that wins the customer’s confidence.”
“With the success of MMA India’s first Ideathon, we look forward to running similar events like this across the region. I also hope that more brands will continue to be open to the idea of communicating and working with young talents when thinking about their advertising strategies, something that will be equally beneficial to both parties,” said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, MMA Asia Pacific.
“MMA India’s first Ideathon has been a success. This will encourage more brands to try a different approach to their campaigns. MMA will help define the brand problem and the approach,” said Shivakumar, Chairman, MMA.
MUMBAI: It is not just for entertainment. It’s for education too. Professors from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will be giving coaching classes to engineering aspirants through four DTH channels from January 1, taking the concept of Digital India to another level and reducing the dependency on coaching institutes.
These channels will be available free of cost through Doordarshan’s FreeDish DTH platform, and the aspirants will only have to secure a Set-Top Box to watch these channels, PTI has reported.
IIT-PAL (Professor Assisted Learning) initiative will reduce dependence on coaching centres and also reach out to the students who are living in rural areas and cannot afford to pay the fee for expensive crash courses.
IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao said that a team of 40 professors from various IITs had compiled 200-hour lectures for each subject covering the entire syllabus of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). There were several coaching institutes claiming to be providing easy tricks to crack the exam and not every aspirant could afford to join them, he added.
He added that the faculty members would be joined by teachers from various Kendriya Vidyalyas in imparting these lessons to the aspirants and the focus will be more on concepts.
MUMBAI: It is not just for entertainment. It’s for education too. Professors from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will be giving coaching classes to engineering aspirants through four DTH channels from January 1, taking the concept of Digital India to another level and reducing the dependency on coaching institutes.
These channels will be available free of cost through Doordarshan’s FreeDish DTH platform, and the aspirants will only have to secure a Set-Top Box to watch these channels, PTI has reported.
IIT-PAL (Professor Assisted Learning) initiative will reduce dependence on coaching centres and also reach out to the students who are living in rural areas and cannot afford to pay the fee for expensive crash courses.
IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao said that a team of 40 professors from various IITs had compiled 200-hour lectures for each subject covering the entire syllabus of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). There were several coaching institutes claiming to be providing easy tricks to crack the exam and not every aspirant could afford to join them, he added.
He added that the faculty members would be joined by teachers from various Kendriya Vidyalyas in imparting these lessons to the aspirants and the focus will be more on concepts.
MUMBAI: To promote its upcoming release Mary Kom, Viacom18 announced a short film contest early last month called Cineshorts allowing aspiring filmmakers and documentary makers to submit five-minute long films on the theme ‘Against All Odds’.
With cash prize worth Rs 1,00,000 for the winner and a chance to be premiered on Pepsi MTV Indies, the registrations have touched the 400 registration mark and the deadline for submission has been pushed to 30 September from 15 August.
Viacom18 Motion Pictures marketing head Rudrarup Dutta said, “As a studio, it is our constant endeavor to identify and promote fresh talent in the industry. Cineshorts is an initiative that provides an exclusive opportunity for budding filmmakers. We believe this is an effective platform for us to identify new talent and nurture an ecosystem that allows fresh talent to contribute new vision and fresh ideas.”
Cineshorts was held in seven cities targeting a total of 28 colleges across Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Manipal, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi/ NOIDA and Kolkata. MICA, Government Film and Television Institute, Indian Institute of Mass Media and Communication, St. Xavier’s College, Manipal Institute of Communication, Whistling Woods International School of Film-making, and Symbiosis College (BBM) were among other colleges that participated in Cineshorts.
The contest will see short movies made on a number of themes. While one participant, a 22-year old BCom graduate, Raj Sampad is making a docu-fiction Dreaming With Sand, based on the real life story of the most famous sand sculptor in India, Padma Shri Sudarsan Pattnaik, Yogendra Kumaria’s movie focuses on the common man, who has to fight against the rising expenditure and inflation every month, and finally comes out as a winner.
Different participants also revealed various motivations to take part in the contest.Wwhile for some the Rs 1,00,000 cash prize was the focus, others concentrated more on the chance to showcase their work on television.
A student of MGR Govt Film and Television Institute, Janardhan Chikkanna said, “As a short film maker what attracted me towards the competition is the platform to reach a wider audience, which would have been very difficult to reach on my own.”
Adding to that another participant, Narsee Monjee College graduate Devansh Doshi said, “The motivation for applying is to have professionals see your work and guide you for your future films. It also serves as a great platform for communicate with people of similar interests. Cineshorts has helped me to bring forward my film to a lot of people who have been a part of the industry for years.”
The contest, according to Dutta is solely a Viacom18 Motion Pictures initiative. Speaking on the same he added, “Cineshorts is a Viacom18 Motion Pictures registered property that we plan to nurture and cultivate on a regular basis. The start of this initiative was with Mary Kom but there will be a second season, so to speak, every six months or a year with an upcoming project on our slate. The plan is to up the ante for contestants with every edition and to release the best short film before the feature film so that we can establish the crux of the feature film as well as give the aspiring filmmaker a theatrical release reaching out to a wide audience.”
The campaign is mainly targeting young, aspiring filmmakers who may otherwise not receive a competitive outlet to display their work. “The initiative caters to all Bollywood lovers who want to make it big in the industry without the crutches of family legacy or a godfather,” Dutta reckoned.
Commenting on the marketing and promotion of the campaign, the marketing head revealed,” Since this concept was targeted towards youth, we advertised on platforms that they haunt daily, therefore a large investment on the digital front was the obvious choice. A teaser that said ‘Movie Banane ke Liye Talent Chahiye, Babaji ki Jooti Nahi!’ led the campaign on digital video platforms. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter ensured both awareness as well as engagement. Also, the association with the film Mary Kom helped in garnering attention and traction with a wide cross section of the TG.”
The company also carried out on ground promotions with seminars in colleges that have it as part of their syllabi for mass media and film courses.
MUMBAI: The showcase book is an initiative by Kyoorius in its continued commitment to the growth & development of the Indian design & visual communications industry by launching the 4th edition of its biennial Kyoorius Design Showcase 2013/14.
The Kyoorius Design Showcase aims to bridge the existing divide between advertising and design. While the former is well know and established, the latter needs a platform to showcase the strategic value of design and in many ways to be seen as an industry distinct from advertising. In India, so far branding, visual communication and other specialised design services have lived under the shadow of advertising but this is rapidly changing and rightly so. The design industry is now being recognised for what it is. But there is gap in connecting these studios with the buyers of design in the corporate world. The 3rd edition of Kyoorius Showcase Book helped generate business worth over Rs.9.4 Cr for the studios showcased in the book and this is just what Kyoorius has been able to track. But it brings to focus that businesses in India are upping the ante by working with specialist design studios in an effort to add value through design.
This 4th edition of the Kyoorius Showcase Book helps bridge the gap between studios and business and help the buyers find the right partner for their needs. Additionally starting this year, all the studios and work would be featured on resources.kyoorius.com – an online version that allows studios to regularly update their work, becoming relevant to the needs of design buyers. Additionally, the book also helps studios showcase themselves to the young talent graduating in design schools across India. The Kyoorius Showcase Book is amongst the only initiative that helps studios, brands and students alike – by blurring the lines of communication, conversation and collaboration.
It is a tribute to the work of these studios, that the Kyoorius Showcase Book has found such acceptability within the corporate world. On the success of the previous editions and the demand for this 4th edition. Kyoorius has upped the circulation numbers to 3000 copies this edition – a
50% increase over the last edition.
Unsurprisingly the number of participants and consequently the number of pages have also increased in similar percentage. The increase in participation necessitated the publication to print two books published as a box set and has been printed on an all new paper while using an all new velour like paper used for the cover of the book and the bookcase from its fine papers division.
Speaking at the launch, Mr. Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder CEO, Kyoorius said, “From the feedback we have received in the last few years, we are glad that the Kyoorius Showcase Book has grown to become a must have resource book for all corporates. I would like to thank all the contributors who helped bring this edition together and hope that this hardback like the others, helps add value to all businesses and brands.”
