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Tag: The Glitch

  • From Netflix to Next-Gen AI, Akash Iyer joins OpenAI India as social lead

    From Netflix to Next-Gen AI, Akash Iyer joins OpenAI India as social lead

    MUMBAI: Lights, camera… AI-ction! After nearly seven years scripting cultural moments at Netflix, Akash Iyer is stepping into a whole new frame as the social lead for OpenAI in India. Iyer, who announced his move on LinkedIn with a mix of excitement and humility, joins at a pivotal moment. India is ChatGPT’s second-largest market after the US, and OpenAI is doubling down on its local presence with its first India office slated to open in Delhi later this year and a new India-only ChatGPT plan priced at Rs 399 per month.

    With over a decade in media and marketing, Iyer has a résumé as eclectic as it is impactful. At Netflix, he masterminded over 100 campaigns, from The Archies to the flagship Playback, scaled Youtube from zero to 20 million subscribers, and grew Instagram from 1 million to 8 million followers. Before that, he sharpened his storytelling craft at Buzzfeed, Sportskeeda, and The Glitch, dabbling in everything from viral video formats to sports explainers.

    His move signals OpenAI’s serious intent to court India’s fast-growing user base especially students, who, according to the company, use ChatGPT more here than anywhere else in the world. OpenAI comms head for Asia Pacific Jake Wilczynski summed it up: “India is not just a big market, it’s a critical one.”

    For Iyer, the leap is more than a career pivot. “It’s an incredible opportunity, but also a deep responsibility to contribute to building AGI for the benefit of humanity,” he wrote. With his cultural instincts and digital flair, OpenAI’s India story may just get the blockbuster treatment it needs.

  • Motilal Oswal elevates marketing maven Mundra to group media head

    Motilal Oswal elevates marketing maven Mundra to group media head

    MUMBAI: Financial services giant Motilal Oswal has promoted Varun Mundra to group head of media and innovations, capping the digital-first marketer’s swift rise through the company’s marketing ranks.

    Mundra, who joined the firm less than three years ago, steps up from his previous role as senior vice president of marketing for the wealth management division, where he spearheaded brand growth and product excellence initiatives for India’s seventh-largest broking house.

    “The journey has been nothing short of amazing—filled with learnings, challenges, and some big wins along the way,” Mundra said of his time at Motilal Oswal. He credited senior leadership, including Sandeep Walunj, for their “trust and support” in his ascent.

    The ET Brand Equity Shark 2024 “Rising Star” winner brings a distinctive pedigree to the role, having cut his teeth at several top-flight advertising agencies. Before joining Motilal Oswal in 2022, Mundra served as director of business and client relations at The Glitch, where he managed campaigns for CoinSwitch, Kuber, SleepyCat and Netflix India.

    His résumé includes stints at White Rivers Media, Isobar, Jack in the Box Worldwide and Dentsu Webchutney, where he honed his craft working with blue-chip clients like Hindustan Unilever, Visa India, CEAT Tyres and Godrej.

    Industry observers note that Mundra’s promotion coincides with Motilal Oswal’s aggressive push to modernise its marketing approach and capture India’s digitally-savvy retail investor community.

    The marketing executive’s previous initiatives at the firm included securing branding rights to Mumbai’s Malad Metro Station—establishing “Motilal Oswal Malad West”—and creating branded studio partnerships with financial news channels CNBCTV18, CNBC Awaaz and CNBC Bajar.

    Mundra’s entrepreneurial spirit emerged early when, as a 17-year-old college student, he founded a digital agency that landed him features on CNBCTV18’s Young Turks and in The Times of India. He holds degrees from the University of Westminster and Coventry University London.

  • The Glitch bags digital mandate for OLX Autos

    The Glitch bags digital mandate for OLX Autos

    New Delhi: OLX Autos has appointed The Glitch for its digital duties. The digital-first creative agency within the VMLY&R network has won the account through a competitive pitch.

    As a part of this partnership, The Glitch will partner with OLX Autos to create awareness and recognition for the brand across India via a robust digital strategy.

    The Glitch has a decade of experience in building digital-first brands and championing editorial-first content. It will be responsible for re-imagining OLX Autos presence online via focused and engaging content.

    OLX Autos country head of marketing Siddharth Agrawal said, “We are very excited to have The Glitch on board as our partner. We are committed to building a strong brand presence in the digital and social media space and are confident that working with The Glitch will help us drive a better engagement with our target audience.”

    Expressing his thoughts on the collaboration, VMLY&R MD (North) Paras Johar said, “The OLX group has a legacy of changing the way Indians buy and sell pretty much anything. We are humbled and excited to be partnering OLX Autos in their journey to do the same for the pre-owned cars segment across the country. Through innovative processes and solutions, they have been able to provide true value for their users since launching in 2009 and we look forward to helping further this through a unique social media strategy to unlock deeper engagement, understanding and conversations with their audience.”

  • upGrad teams up with SonyLIV for new series ‘Khud Ke Liye’

    upGrad teams up with SonyLIV for new series ‘Khud Ke Liye’

    Mumbai: Ed-tech major upGrad has taken its original content game a notch higher with the launch of a multi-starrer anthology film titled “Khud Ke Liye.” Conceptualised and written by The Glitch’s digital-first division – Flux, the film series is currently streaming on upGrad’s YouTube channel and streaming platform, SonyLIV.

    The series emphasises the fact that the absence of ‘life-long learning’ in the era of constant evolution adds tremendous pressure on working professionals, without having them realise it. This jeopardises their professional growth and mental well-being in the long run. “We wanted to depict the most ordinary of lives, with their self-consciousness erupting from an uncomfortable incident or series of events, which leads them to choose higher education. The idea was to make the characters brave but at the same time relatable and vulnerable, to appeal to the potential audience and consumers,” said Flux creative director Tathagata Ray.

    Besides Flux, two other production houses Melting Clock and Upward Fall Films also collaborated on the series over a period of three weeks, the company said.

    “We are committed to making quality and affordable higher education a reality for millions. Our strategic partnership with India’s leading OTT player SonyLIV to tap into the right set of audience is another step forward in that direction,” commented upGrad head of marketing Ankit Khirwal.

    Speaking on the association, SonyLIV head – ad sales revenue Rnajana Mangla stated, “At SonyLIV, we believe in offering unique and relevant entertainment to our viewers. The upGrad original ‘Khud Ke Liye’ hence is the perfect fit. We are excited to bring this thought-provoking anthology for our diversified audience.”

    “While the world competes to break formats, score big on innovations, and run behind short video-led engagements, we wanted to do something a little less conventional,” remarked Flux associate VP – content strategy and business Varun Anchan. “Leveraging the roots of branded content, we tried to bring back long-format storytelling through this content series. With upGrad, we saw mutual respect for long-form and thus entered OTT with #KhudKeLiye.”

    Directed by filmmakers Rahul Nangia, Smrutika Panigrahi, and Pranjal Vaid, the three independent films “Pehchaan,” “Saahas,” and “Koshish” depict the real-life journeys of upGrad alumni. The cast comprises names such as Priya Bapat, Sharib Hashmi, Tanmay Dhanania, Alam Khan, Jihaan Hodar, Maya Sarao, Joy Sengupta, and Shiwangi Peswani.

  • LinkedIn launches new campaign ‘Kyonki Linkedin Ab Hindi Mein Bhi’

    LinkedIn launches new campaign ‘Kyonki Linkedin Ab Hindi Mein Bhi’

    Mumbai Global professional network, LinkedIn has launched a new brand campaign to support the launch of Hindi language on the platform. With the tagline, ‘ab hongi kaam ki baaten Hindi mein, kyonki Linkedin ab hindi mein bhi,’ the campaign highlights how everyday conversations in the world of work can now take place in the language on LinkedIn. Hindi is the first Indian regional language, and the 25th language globally, to launch on the network.   

    Conceptualised and executed by The Glitch, the creative is inspired from barakhadi, which goes back to the popular trope of learning the Hindi alphabet in school. The campaign marries visuals from the learning rubric of Hindi alphabets and connects it with familiar situations in the world of work to showcase the moments of belonging that communicating in Hindi creates.

    Bollywood actors Vidya Balan and Pankaj Tripathi have been enlisted to support the launch of the campaign as the ‘voice’ of LinkedIn in Hindi. The two audio spots encourage Indian professionals to celebrate their everyday work moments in the regional language. The spots are being aired on radio stations across all metros and tier 1 cities of Hindi speaking markets and also across leading audio streaming platforms including Jio Saavn, Gaana, and Spotify.

    “To celebrate the launch of LinkedIn in Hindi, we wanted to create a campaign that would build a strong audio and visual association between the Hindi alphabet and workplace scenarios. Ergo, we chose key visual mediums to help people see these Hindi words representing cultural and professional scenarios, and key audio channels with high-profile voiceovers that would help them hear these words — a collective of which helps us effectively land the message that LinkedIn is now available in Hindi as well,” said The Glitch creative director Lucille Pereira.

    The barakhadi inspiration has been brought to life further with an eye-catching print creative that brings the concept to the modern day in a professional context. The full page print ads will go live from 17 December 2021 across Hindi speaking newspapers. The barakhadi illustration has been designed by local artist Sugandha Bansal from IndieFolio.  

    “Hindi is spoken by nearly 44 per cent of the Indian population today, and with the introduction of the language on LinkedIn, we hope to foster an even deeper sense of belonging for Hindi speaking professionals in the workplace. Our goal is to bring down language barriers for Hindi speaking professionals on LinkedIn, so more professionals and customers can unlock greater value through content, jobs, and networking, and express themselves in a language that they are comfortable with,” said LinkedIn Asia Pacific head of brand marketing Sivaram Parameswaran.

    The creative will be featured in out-of-home (OOH) across Mumbai and Delhi covering key commuter locations such as corporate hubs, airport media, metro trains, and busy arterial roads. The integrated, full-funnel campaign will be running across digital, outdoor, radio, audio, and print media.

  • LinkedIn urges professionals to hit ‘pause’ with new #FindTheBalance campaign

    LinkedIn urges professionals to hit ‘pause’ with new #FindTheBalance campaign

    Mumbai: Online professional network LinkedIn has tied hands with digital creative agency The Glitch to launch the second phase of the #FindTheBalance campaign that provokes honest conversations about the realities of working from home and the struggle of finding work-life balance amid the pandemic. The new creative films spotlight the importance of well-being in today’s remote hustle culture by encouraging professionals to hit pause and strike the right balance between work and life in the new world of work.

    In the second phase of the campaign, the three films take a deeper look at the lives of the characters introduced in the first #FindTheBalance film and present three 35-second films that depict the lives of professionals Vedika, Andrew and Gaurav, who struggle to keep up with work-from-home challenges.

    Conceptualised and executed by The Glitch, the second phase of the campaign comes as an extension of its first phase, which sparked honest conversations about the realities of working from home amid the pandemic across India.

    “Professionals in India are grappling with burnout at this time, and our Future of Work perception study also finds that today professionals value work-life balance (52 per cent) even more than job security (50 per cent),” said LinkedIn APAC head of brand marketing Sivaram Parameswaran. “The #FindTheBalance brand campaign is a reminder for our members to hit pause, reconnect with their family, friends, and colleagues, and find a new idea of balance.”

    These films are also being supported by a social media campaign across LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter that encourages professionals to rewrite motivational quotes to make them more relatable for the post-pandemic world of work that professionals find themselves in today.

    “What I love about this campaign is the mirror it holds up to our lives. In the last 1.5 years, working from home gave us so many new perspectives,” The Glitch creative director Lucille Pereira said. “It showed us how to make time for family, or carve out time for self, whether it’s doing things we love or just a quiet coffee & sunset session. Whatever it means to you, however you do it, this campaign is a beautiful reminder to #FindTheBalance.” 

    With six million engagements on Facebook alone, the first phase of the campaign resonated with the Indian workforce aching to discuss issues of burnout and an increasingly toxic hustle culture.

    “The world around us has changed and many of us have experienced the blurring of our professional and personal lives. This film aims to showcase this very relatable narrative — the monotony that has become part of our everyday. Our hope is that it leaves professionals with the message of how we are all in this together, and as we navigate these unprecedented times it is important to remember to find our own unique version of balance,” The Glitch associate business director Riya Lalchandani stated.

    Professionals in India are also taking to LinkedIn to spark conversations, and share tips and learnings about how they can #FindTheBalance to beat the pandemic blues.

    The three films are now live on LinkedIn and other digital channels including YouTube.

  • The Glitch Joins VMLY&R’s global network

    The Glitch Joins VMLY&R’s global network

    MUMBAI – The Glitch has joined forces with global experience agency VMLY&R. The new entity taps on the strengths of both WPP agencies, creating a stronger expanded offering through the best of technology and creative expertise.

    The Glitch and VMLY&R India will continue to operate distinct brands and organisational structures while working together. This will allow clients to experience their combined proposition of marketing talent, capabilities, and experience, while maintaining the simplicity of their current communication cadence with each agency.

    The integration will see The Glitch become a part of the nearly $1 billion global VMLY&R network, which employs over 7,000 people across 75+ offices across the world. These include three offices in India, based in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.

    The Glitch senior leaders, including CEO Pooja Jauhari, co-founder & chief creative officer, Rohit Raj, and co-founder & content chief, Varun Duggirala will now report into Tripti Lochan, Co-CEO of VMLY&R Asia.

    In addition, the Glitch leadership team along with VMLY&R India CEO Anil Nair, will form an India leadership council to manage strategic decisions for both companies. The council will be headed by Anil Nair.

    Founded in Mumbai in in 2010, The Glitch stands as one of the leading, digitally-led creative agencies in India, employing over 300 digital strategists, technologists, content creators and planners, delivering award-winning campaigns for a wide spectrum of clients including Netflix, Hindustan Unilever, LinkedIn, Lenovo, Diageo, and most recently Microsoft and Triller among many other global brands. With offices in Mumbai and Delhi, The Glitch services clients in India and many other regions of Asia.

    VMLY&R embodies a hybrid blend of brand creativity with a deep digital heritage, manifesting in a comprehensive understanding of the entire customer journey. The agency has accolades reflecting both its creative excellence and digital expertise.

    VMLY&R India’s business-first team is known for delivering digital excellence for blue chip brands like ICICI Bank, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, IDFC, Ford, Swaraj Tractors, IDBI Federal and Marico, delivering transformational solutions at the intersection of brand and customer experience, data, platforms and commerce.

    “WPP's aim is to provide clients with a simplified and integrated offer to help them grow their businesses holistically. The Glitch over the past ten years has grown to become a digital and content powerhouse, and when combined with VMLY&R’s capabilities in digital transformation and customer experience, can help clients make an impact in their transformation journeys," said CVL Srinivas country manager WPP India.  

    The Glitch CEO Pooja Jauhari said: “We have flourished alongside WPP in the past 3 years. The founders and I are delighted that we’ve now found a great permanent home for our brand, our company and most importantly, our people. The Glitch is a gender blind, inclusive and progressive high-performance workspace and with this marriage, we’ve found kindred spirits in VMLY&R when it comes to driving the same vision. We’re eager to explore our complementary capability sets for the benefit of our clients’ businesses. With this union, we believe we are in the best position to help our clients be more agile, sharper and ready for whatever the future may bring.”

    VMLY&R India CEO Anil Nair said: “This union spells great news for clients looking at building digital-first brands. In addition to cutting edge solutions such as customer experience (CX), commerce , technology, innovation, AI/ML, data, media innovations and good old culture impacting creativity, we will now be able to add new weaponry to our arsenal, including powerful capabilities in brand experience, new-age content, youth  marketing, connections thinking, brand publishing, and live creativity amongst others. This makes us the most relevant agency group in the market with best possible capabilities to help our clients future-proof their businesses and succeed in the new paradigm.”

  • The Glitch conceptualises #RiseUpChallenge for Horlicks Protein+

    The Glitch conceptualises #RiseUpChallenge for Horlicks Protein+

    MUMBAI: The Glitch, an independent creative agency under GroupM, recently created a digital campaign called #RiseUpChallenge for the brand Horlicks Protein Plus. The campaign was aimed at generating awareness about muscle health among urban consumers who are 30+ in age.

    Horlicks Protein+, a protein variant under Horlicks, aims to spread awareness about muscle health deterioration. Due to lack of awareness, people fail to identify the early symptoms of poor muscle health.

    The Glitch came up with an easy yet engaging digital solution for the brand’s core messaging. A video film was created showcasing six individuals from different backgrounds, participating in a simple test to help identify their muscle strength. The test required them to attempt to stand up from a seated position balanced on one foot, with the other foot stretched straight ahead and arms folded. Completing the test would indicate the person has good muscle health.

    GSK Consumer Healthcare India executive vice president marketing Vikram Bahl said, “Muscle health has a crucial role in the normal functioning of a human being. However, it usually goes untracked. With this campaign, we intend to educate the people about the importance of muscle mass and how it starts declining as they move into their 30’s. We are confident that after taking up the challenge, people will understand its significance and take corrective actions for building muscle strength and consequently foster a healthy lifestyle. Horlicks Protein+ is an offering from our portfolio to help consumers with quality protein intake.”

    The Glitch amplified the video on social media platforms using the #RiseUpChallenge, which then evoked interest from various influencers who attempted the challenge and further nominated their influencer friends to assess their muscle health.

    Commenting on the campaign The Glitch founding partner Kabir Kochhar said, “We used a seemingly simple test as a vehicle to draw attention to diminishing muscle health and thereby the need to consume adequate protein. Through the #RiseUpChallenge, we were able to make the consumer aware that poor muscle health could be the reason behind their tiredness.”

  • Ad industry calls for regulatory body to monitor plagiarism

    Ad industry calls for regulatory body to monitor plagiarism

    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.

  • Glitch launches its new age content division Flux@The Glitch

    Glitch launches its new age content division Flux@The Glitch

    MUMBAI: Glitch, the Digital first creative agency (an independent brand under GroupM), has launched Flux@The Glitch, a specialized new age content division. Flux is a content development and production hub that works in a unique structure built for the modern creation needs of brands around the world. Saransh Agarwal is being elevated to lead content strategy & business for Flux and will report to Varun Duggirala, Content Chief @The Glitch.

    Flux@The Glitch will have two distinct verticals to service the content requirements of clients.

    Creator Lab will be an unique incubator for content creators, brands and platform partners or in short, Tinder for branded content. Content Studio & Hub will focus on the long term requirements for brands who have an ‘always on’ approach towards content. This can range from micro content, especially for ecommerce models, to long form content that is driven by data and insights.

    Speaking on the launch Content chief @The Glitch, Varun Duggirala said,

    “Over the last 8+ years, we have always relied on a core brand insight driven strategy to build brands across platforms and consumers. It is this very thought process that has helped us create effective branded content as a core part of a brand’s value chain, and we have used that learning to come up with an effective yet fluid system that works for brands, for consumers, for creators and for platforms. The beauty of a fluid model is that it will always be in Flux because the world of content changes every day.”

    GroupM, Chief Strategy Officer, Tushar Vyas added,

    “Flux will be empowering brands by providing powerful meeting point between the consumer and the brand across diverse touchpoints- this brings in a unique layer augmenting GroupM’s capability in consumer insight,  planning and activation. Flux will work closely with GroupM Agencies to deliver effective and engaging content solution for our clients across GroupM in India and beyond.”

    Over the last 8+ years The Glitch has been one of the first movers in the Digital Branded Content space and has created successful branded content campaigns across a vast array of clients encompassing FMCG, Entertainment & OTT, Auto amongst other categories.