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Tag: Wavemaker

  • Seagram’s Royal Stag Packaged Drinking Water unveils ‘A Billion Films for A Billion Fans’ campaign

    Seagram’s Royal Stag Packaged Drinking Water unveils ‘A Billion Films for A Billion Fans’ campaign

    Mumbai: Strengthening its long-standing association with cricket at the global level, Seagram’s Royal Stag is thrilled to announce the launch of an innovative and immersive AI-led fan experience ‘A Billion Films for A Billion Fans’. The campaign features three of India’s most talismanic cricketers, team captain Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Surya Kumar Yadav. Fueling the larger-than-life emotions associated with cricket, the brand aims to ignite a whole new generation of young cricket fans, many of whom are witnessing their first World Cup in India as adults.

    This World Cup is happening in India and is already slated to be the “Greatest World Cup Ever.” Syncing with the brand’s ‘Live it Large’ philosophy, the AI-integrated campaign gives each fan an opportunity to become part of a personalized film featuring the cricketers. Conceptualized in association with creative agency partners FCB India, Digital Agency partners Dentsu India, Technology Partner Artizens Events, and Experiential solutions & media partners Wavemaker; the campaign is groundbreaking where every fan is able to not merely live their dream, but also, live large.

    The whole fan experience has been curated keeping today’s youth, aka, the digital natives, in mind by offering them a simplified user journey. A selfie and a voice sample coupled with the power of regenerative AI creates an ultimate fan experience. With these tools, the campaign uses the power of generative AI technology and machine learning, to create a platform that enables each fan to feature themselves as part of the Royal Stag Live It Large star cast. With the aid of this innovation, each fan can create a personalized edit of the film. Face-mirroring algorithms precisely map the unique facial features of fans onto the characters in the main film. In addition, with just a brief voice sample it also emulated the tone, pitch, and nuances of the fan’s voice. In essence, this campaign will transform the consumer journey into an extraordinary yet personal experience. The consumer experience also gives the fans a chance to go beyond boundaries and get close to their favorite players and World Cup trophy.

    The campaign will be amplified through a high-decibel 360-degree plan spread across digital, print, radio and OOH to offer an immersive, unforgettable experience.

    Pernod Ricard India chief marketing officer Kartik Mohindra stated, “Royal Stag aims to share the electric atmosphere in the stadium with cricket fans across the world. As a partner of ICC, AI allows us to deliver a truly “Live it large” experience to die-hard cricket fans everywhere. This year, we are giving each fan the power to craft their own Live It Large Story through this unique AI platform that integrates with the brand’s commitment to relishing every moment in their journey to success. While on one hand we celebrate cricket’s heritage, on the other we have embraced cutting-edge technology to broaden brand engagement and inspire cricket fans to immerse themselves in their favorite sport like never before.”

    FCB India president Abhinav Kaushik added, “In an age where experience is the only currency amongst the digital natives, how can a cultural icon like Royal Stag do something that epitomizes ‘large’ during the biggest sporting spectacle of the year. This was the starting point of the brief, and we are excited that this idea truly allows every cricket fan to create their own unique ‘Live it Large’ experience. I am confident that this power of creativity fuelled by technology, will not only deliver brand engagement but enhance the love for the brand multi-fold.”

    Wavemaker CEO – South Asia Ajay Gupte said, “Cricket World Cup is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated sports properties and this World Cup 2023 is touted to be the greatest ever. Through this collaboration, we aim to extend brand synergies and offer a unique, memorable, and thrilling ‘Live it Large’ experience to each and every cricket fan”.

    Dentsu Creative India CEO Amit Wadhwa said, “This campaign provided us a big platform where we could showcase how modern creativity can be infused into the Indian Cricket fandom. It’s a great example of how technology can be used to enhance and enrich our connection to sports and entertainment. This multi-faceted campaign has the potential to inspire fans to become more deeply involved in their favorite sport, creating memorable moments and experiences that will stay with them for a long time.”

    Artizens Events & Experiential Solutions founding partner Aditya Joshi said, “As technology partners to this innovative campaign, we are trying to harness the connection with the Generation Large who crave for social currency and vicarious thrills by bringing together AI and Machine learning and creating a never seen before immersive experience.”

    The ICC Men’s World Cup is scheduled to take place in India from 5 October to 19 November. Royal Stag is an associate partner for all ICC events.

  • Wavemaker India unveils earned equity report on IPL 2022

    Wavemaker India unveils earned equity report on IPL 2022

    Mumbai: The real-time data intelligence solution provider, Wavemaker MESH, has revealed an earned equity report on IPL 2022. The report captures the social conversations around IPL 2022 based on multiple data points collated to create meaningful and actionable insights. The report analyses how the audience perception of IPL has evolved over the years. It focuses on the digital audience and uses data points like consumption data around digital content and also social and search insights.

    The report has data sources from multiple consumer touch points across the digital ecosystem, ranging from social listening, video analytics in partnership with intuitive intelligence, and interaction data points collected from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The methodology behind measuring earned equity draws from social listening, content analytics, and audience measurement.

    Wavemaker plans to bring out an earned equity report on key properties, which will help brands add a qualitative layer to their decision-making process.

    Talking about the report, Wavemaker India chief content officer & GroupM India head of branded content Karthik Nagarajan said, “The perceived value of a property today is measured in a uni-dimensional way. ‘Earned Equity’ is Wavemaker’s way of quantifying the ‘digital perception’ and sentiment around it. Along with complementing the traditional media metrics, these earned equity reports will help brands decide their associations with premium events.”  

    Key highlights of the report:

    • When we talk about sporting events across the globe, the English Premier League emerges as the buzziest sporting event in the world. Just behind the EPL, we have the IPL, which has become the second-largest in the world and the buzziest sporting event in India. The popularity has been growing year on year and in 2022, with growth of over 300 per cent last year, the season garnered 334 million buzz, making it ahead of other global sporting events like the NBA, NFL, and Major League Baseball.
       
    • This season of IPL was unique in multiple ways, which is why the audience engagement was at its peak. After trailing in the number two spot for the past three consecutive seasons, RCB broke the jinx and emerged as the most popular team this season. The winner, ‘Gujarat Titans,’ was the sixth most popular team this season.  One more interesting fact is that RCB has only seven per cent of fans from Karnataka cheering for the team. This clearly shows that in this event, the loyalty is not with the city/state team but with the franchise.
       
    • IPL is growing as an opportunity for content creators and advertisers to engage with the audience. This season, the IPL received over 6.5 billion video views on digital platforms, representing a nearly 50 per cent increase over the previous year.
       
    • This rise in popularity corresponds to the media’s assessment. The popularity of this sporting extravaganza, along with potential growth rates of digital, is the reason why digital rights were sold more than TV for 2023–27.
       
    • For the third time in a row, Virat Kohli is the most popular player in the IPL 2022. The top three player spots have been the same for the last three years, with Virat, Dhoni, and Rohit on the leaderboard.
       
    • Amongst the advertisers, Vi continues to lead the advertiser leaderboard by being the buzziest brand around IPL 2022 for the fourth time in a row. The “Fan of the Match” campaign has become a critical engagement event for the audience. Tata, the title sponsor, garnered the second spot this season, followed by Vivo, Dream 11 and Unacademy.
       
    • IPL is synonymous with India’s Super Bowl and is the time of year when advertisers create engaging advertisements to make an impression on the audience. Creds had the top two most viral ads for “#Credbounty” this season, according to our technology partner Intuition Intelligence (Viral analytics and Insights provider). The nostalgia of the 90s content theme was the driving factor for the success. This was followed by the Cadbury 5 Star “#DoNothingLegend” ad, which incorporated humour around cricket’s third umpire.
  • ‘Chef vs Fridge’ returns for second season on Zee Café

    ‘Chef vs Fridge’ returns for second season on Zee Café

    Mumbai: Zee Café is set to telecast the second season of “Chef vs Fridge” on 27 March starting at 8 p.m. The show will be aired across Zee channels including Zee Zest SD and HD, Zee TV HD, Zee Marathi SD and HD, &TV SD and HD, Zee Telugu SD and HD, Zee Ganga, and streaming service Zee5.

    The show has roped Parle Platina Hide & Seek as ‘co-powered by’ sponsor, Pril Instaclean and TTK Prestige as ‘kitchen’ partner, Mother Dairy as ‘nourishment’ partner and Vijay Sales as ‘gifting’ partner. “Season two will have multiple integration opportunities with access to a wider audience base,” said the statement.

    “At Zee Café, we have always stayed committed to providing the unique flavours of entertainment to our various consumer cohorts,” said Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd chief cluster officer – North, West and premium Amit Shah. “As our consumers’ needs evolve, our aim is to provide our audience and partners with content formats that engage and entertain them with a unique value proposition.”

    “After the success of our originals, ‘Dance with Me’ and ‘Chef Vs Fridge’ season one, we now intend to send the audience in yet another food coma with season two of our most loved food show,” said Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited chief channel officer – English Rishi Parekh.

    “Zee Café is providing a unique platform to the chefs to showcase their skills to the country,” said Parle Products senior category head Mayank Shah. “We are really glad to be part of the chef’s journeys throughout the show and confident that the show will garner engagement and love from the audience.”

    “Chef Vs Fridge is a unique show that engages a diverse set of audience,” said Jyothy Labs Ltd MD Jyothy M R. “This strategic partnership is bound to lead ahead as we believe in the great interest and support the show will receive.”

    “The show has been garnering immense love from the audience right from the first season,” said TTK Prestige EVP sales and marketing Dinesh Garg. “The exciting cook-off between contestants takes viewers on a glorious culinary journey that appeals to food connoisseurs across the country.”

    “At Mother Dairy it is our constant endeavour to bring out products which are aligned to the expectations of our consumers and compliments varied consumption occasions be it celebrations, fun and family time, etc,” said Mother Dairy spokesperson. “Our association with ‘Chef Vs Fridge’ is a natural fit for us as our portfolio provides solutions to every kitchen’s needs. Viewers and consumers will witness the amalgamation of our wide variety in lip smacking dishes this time.”

    The partnership between Mother Dairy and Zee has been crafted by Wavemaker India.

    “Chef Vs Fridge has been a huge success since its first season and we at Vijay Sales believe in quality more than anything else,” said Vijay Sales director Nilesh Gupta. “The show is providing the best quality content to its viewers and we couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the show.”

  • Wavemaker and HUL bag top honours at Emvies 2022

    Wavemaker and HUL bag top honours at Emvies 2022

    Mumbai: Wavemaker and Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) grabbed the top honours at the 22nd edition of Emvie Awards, organised by The Advertising Club on Friday at Taj Lands’ End here. The much-anticipated event celebrated the very best of strategic, ground breaking and high impact media campaigns by media agencies in the year gone by.

    Wavemaker with 395 points was recognised as ‘The Media Agency of the Year,’ while also bagging the Grand Emvie for Mondelez India Foods for the Cadbury Celebrations – Not Just a Cadbury Ad (Best Response to Covid-19).

    Mindshare with 375 points stood second and Lodestar with 160 points stood third.

    HUL was declared as ‘The Media Client of the Year.’

    ‘The Best Implementation Team of the Year’ award went to Wavemaker for Mondelez India Food for Cadbury Celebrations  – Not Just a Cadbury Ad

    This year, The Advertising Club (TAC) received 1,054 entries with around 25 agencies participating in the competition to win the prestigious media award. More than 1,200 professionals from the media, marketing, advertising and research fraternities, witnessed 26 gold and 51 silver Emvie trophies being presented to the winners in addition to 42 bronze winners receiving recognition.

    Google, the ‘presenting sponsor’ instituted special recognition for work done in the area of “Inclusion.” The campaign that bagged the honour was McDonald’s  – Eatqual – One Bite Closer to Equality by the agency DDB Mudra Group. This will be a regular category in the Emvie entry form from the next year, it was announced. 

    The Times of India Group instituted the Pradeep Guha trophy for the category ‘Young Emvie of the Year.’ The Pradeep Guha trophy was on stage by Partha Sinha- president, Dia Mirza as distinguished guest, and Papia Guha, wife of the late Pradeep Guha.

    Emvie Committee chairperson Aditya Swamy said, “It is the privilege of The Ad Club to shine the light on the best work in our industry and it is our endeavour through our award shows to inspire our community to keep raising the bar.”

    “It’s great to be back on the ground. The energy was infectious and the agency and clients had an excellent time celebrating the spirit of excellence. The winners were not only just best in class in India but they were of global standard. No wonder Emvies is called the Oscar of media awards,” said The Advertising Club president Partha Sinha.

    The awards were presented by Google, powered by Colors and in association with The Times of India.

    The entire list of the winners is as given below: 

    1. EMVIE 2022 Agency of the Year

    2. EMVIE 2022 The Client of the Year

    3. EMVIE 2022 Results

  • Star Sports partners with Olx Autos for IPL 2022 broadcast

    Star Sports partners with Olx Autos for IPL 2022 broadcast

    Mumbai: Pre-owned automobile platform Olx Autos has partnered with media giant Star Sports which is set to broadcast Tata IPL 2022 from 26 March. The partnership will entail Olx Autos leveraging Fall of Wickets and DRS (Decision Review System) feature across 74 matches.

    Olx Autos’ media agency Wavemaker is spearheading efforts around media buying and planning for this campaign.

    The brand campaign will run on a concept called ‘Out & In,’ where upon the fall of wickets or upon review from the DRS, Olx Autos will drive its core brand positioning. The used-car industry continues to be dominated by traditional offline dealers, and price-discovery and transparency are a major pain point faced by used-car sellers, hence via this association, Olx Autos aims to strengthen its ‘Best Price’ positioning as a ‘reliable and trustworthy’ platform to sell one’s car.

    To strengthen this proposition, Olx Autos plans to leverage a multi-channel approach that includes digital, radio, OTT, and television, with deployment plans to deliver the maximum reach and impact among potential used-car sellers across the country.

    “Cricket is still a religion in India, and IPL continues to be an apt platform on the TV from the perspective of viewership, reach and affinity among car owners,” said Olx Autos India CEO Amit Kumar. “Considering the increase in the number of teams to 10,  and matches going up to 74 the latest edition of IPL will become even more interesting and help us build reach and drive brand recall for Olx Autos. We believe that the integration with the ‘Out & In’ concept that plays with the colloquial cricketing lingo, will resonate with customers across India.”

  • Zee5 partners with Garnier and Wavemaker for ‘Garnier Men BroCast’

    Zee5 partners with Garnier and Wavemaker for ‘Garnier Men BroCast’

    Mumbai: Zee5 has entered a partnership with Garnier and Wavemaker to exclusively stream “Garnier Men BroCast,” a celebrity podcast on male grooming conceptualised in partnership with Schbang.

    The brand has roped John Abraham and Tiger Shroff for the first episode of the podcast to initiate conversations about normalising grooming for the modern Indian man. The first season of the podcast is a three-episode series with each episode lasting for six to eight minutes, accessible to both AVOD and SVOD audiences on the platform.

    “An average Indian man spends 42 mins every day grooming himself. With search around men’s skincare increasing by 400 per cent over last five years and 22 per cent male consumers (aged between 18-34) turning to social media influencers for grooming tips, Garnier along with Wavemaker wanted to dedicate its latest property, ‘Garnier Men BroCast’ to change the perception around the idea of male grooming and address the stigma associated with grooming being a focus area only for women,” said the company in a statement.

    “Leveraging tech in beauty in collaboration with Zee5’s reach, we are confident of reaching the right audience, to drive talkability and consumer love for Garnier Men,” said L’Oreal India general manager – marketing Zeenia Shroff.

    “Garnier Men has been a pioneer in driving grooming conversation with Indian men,” said L’Équipe L’Oréal Wavemaker head Avinash Pareek. “In partnership with Zee5, we have been able to create an entire campaign around it with promotional elements leading to reach and buzz, giving BroCast stellar scale.”

    “We are glad to partner with Wavemaker to exclusively host the show, created by Garnier Men to lead conversations around this subject, along with lifestyle problems with their solutions,” stated Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd chief revenue officer – digital and SMB Gaurav Kanwal. “John and Tiger being the epitome of charm, will be the best examples to immerse and inspire across this trend of men’s grooming.”

  • Wavemaker launches South entertainment outpost for brands

    Wavemaker launches South entertainment outpost for brands

    Mumbai: Wavemaker India has unveiled a specialised unit in collaboration with One Mercuri which will focus on helping brands leverage the entertainment and content businesses in South India. The unit will open up a whole new world of collaborations and opportunities for brands and creators.

    The unit will be based out of Wavemaker’s Bangalore office and led by Anilkumar Sathiraju under the leadership of Karthik Nagarajan.

    This is an effort to help corporatise the business of South entertainment, by way of providing brands structured access to entertainment content from the south, right at the conception stage. It will deliver on creating original content IPs, enabling better brand associations in films and OTT content (audio & video), bringing in an era of measurement and collaborations with writer rooms, among other things. The partnership will be a catalyst in developing the symbiotic relationship between brands and the South entertainment industry – one that has under-delivered so far.  

    “We have always focussed on paving newer ways to provide innovative solutions to our clients and partners. Creativity, content and collaboration are the three pillars of this newly launched specialised unit,” said Wavemaker South Asia CEO Ajay Gupte. “We see huge potential in content, partnerships, digital content and content creators / influencers in the next few years. With this unit, our aim is to create a new wave in the entertainment and business space.”

    Southern entertainment industry releases more than 900 films in a year. While Bollywood witnessed a tepid response to the reopening of cinema halls, for example, the Southern films and entertainment industry has led the way. The same is also true in terms of original content creation during the pandemic.

    “The South entertainment industry has always held a great promise for national brands but it is also true that historically this promise has never been realised,” said Wavemaker India chief content officer Karthik Nagarajan. “There are probably two key reasons for this –  the cultural understanding of the South is scarce among national brands and – the entertainment industry here is also more independent in nature compared to Bollywood, which makes tie-ups a bit more challenging. This outpost is an attempt to overcome both these challenges and make brands a significant stakeholder in both South films and streaming content.”

    “In One Mercuri, we not only have a trusted partner to the entertainment industry but also one with a strong understanding of brands,” he further said.

    This first of its kind specialised unit will help create original content IPs on audio and video OTT channels, bring some of the legends in the industry into the digital content-verse and also bring in brand investments into film and streaming content. Wavemaker with its proven track record in content marketing will leverage its expertise in IP creation, audience understanding, measurement and culture scoping for the partnership.

    “A resurgence of quality content from the region which is home to the four thriving film industries besides a large entertainment-hungry viewership, a larger than life fan following base seen nowhere in the world and the content coming out from this region fast attracting global interests and gaining prominence on pan India scale,” commented One Mercuri MD and group CEO Sriram Bakthisaran. 

    “With our already significant presence in the south market having serviced some of the biggest production houses and the celebrities in the past, we feel we are better placed to expand our offerings than before as we jointly venture out to feed all stakeholders including the consumer, the production houses as well as the brands. As Wavemaker has all the experience and know-how with their global exposure, I am very confident that this collaboration will only elevate the industry and set standards for several to follow and benefit,” Bakthisaran added

  • Wavemaker bolsters leadership team with two new appointments

    Wavemaker bolsters leadership team with two new appointments

    Mumbai: Wavemaker has announced the appointment of Shipra Roy as its new global chief people, inclusion and culture officer and Helen Price as global chief investment officer. Both will be based in London and join CEO Toby Jenner’s global leadership team, said the company.

    Roy joins Wavemaker from a position as chief talent officer with McCann UK and Europe where her main responsibilities included setting the people strategy and working on key initiatives with a focus on DE&I, leadership development and succession planning. Previously, she worked at VMLY&R where she co-led the talent function globally with responsibility for EMEA, APAC, and key WPP global clients. In her new role, she will oversee all aspects of the people function in the organisation. She replaces James Edgar who left the agency in August.

    Price joins Wavemaker from IPG Mediabrands where she was head of global accountability and investment. She has over 20 years of experience in the media industry with a focus on media trading and investment and has a strong track record in building and developing innovative media value solutions which balance client savings and commercial opportunities. At Wavemaker, her focus will be on creating value for clients and commercial opportunities for the agency. She replaces Keith Tiley who will be retiring at the end of the year.

    In addition, Wavemaker has promoted global managing partner Simon Broderick to global head of investment.

    “Even in the face of a global pandemic, Wavemaker has had an incredibly strong year and, as our growth journey continues, I’m pleased to welcome Helen and Shipra to the team,” said Toby Jenner. “They are both tremendous resources in their fields, and I look forward to working closely with them to help us deliver positively provoking, innovative, and commercially sound solutions for both our clients and our people.”