League of Shadows- Group A3- Source - Exchange4media

India Today, Affle in pact for rich media & video advertising

Divya Gupta

Affle has announced its partnership with the India Today Group to exclusively power all video and rich media advertising for the India Today Group through its recently launched rich media and video ad network, Ripple.

As part of this partnership, the India Today Group would employ Affle’s Ripple ad network to serve all video ads on its online properties and to serve video and rich media ads across India Today Group’s properties on the iPad/tablet platforms. The announcement comes close to Affle’s declaration of similar partnerships with Yahoo and ESPN Cricinfo for rich media and mobile advertising in India.

Affle has experienced tremendous growth on the Ripple network since its launch in August 2012. In recent months, top advertisers such as Samsung, Nokia, Google, Microsoft, Maruti Suzuki, adidas, Coca Cola, and Hyundai have partnered with Affle.

Over the years, the India Today Group has built some very solid digital assets for its top properties, including India Today, Business Today, Aaj Tak, Cosmopolitan and many others. They are seeing tremendous growth on video consumption on these digital properties with an increasing consumption skew on mobile devices and have thus partnered with an industry leader like Affle to integrate their truly innovative advertising technologies and benefit from their well established partnerships on the Ripple ad network business.

Within five months of its launch, Ripple already has over five billion monthly ad requests being delivered on top publisher sites and applications.

Bacardi to go aggressive on digital in 2013

Vivek Raj Nair

·         Brand association with music concerts and TV shows.

·         Barcardi won a bronze in the Branded Content and Entertainment Lions category at Cannes Lions 2012 for its association with ‘The Dewarists.

·         15% of total marketing budget to be dedicated to Digital Marketing.

·         The spirit brand has roped in Webchutney to create digital destinations and coherent brand experiences

·         Satwik Mishra – Associate Creative Director of Webchutney happy with this association.

·         An association that started with Eistoff Vodka

·         It’s a challenge to create online destinations for premium brands such as Dewar’s and Grey Goose.

·         Webchutney also became the digital guardians of Grey Goose’s social media, and oversaw the coverage and promotion of their signature event, ‘Style Du Jour’;

·          They came up with the new concept of ‘Blue Carpet,’ a live tweeting and photo blogging initiative.

·         Bacardi is all set to create a digital powered experiential marketing campaign to create a buzz.

·         More consumer/social creativity to build consumer engagements – Manish Seth, Director Marketing & Sales.

·         Plans to build solutions and not campaigns to sustain in the cut throat & cluttered alcohol industry in India.

There’s no hiding from social media: Kartik Kumar (Rage Communications)

Pratik Jagtap

Earlier  if a customer was dissatisfied with the company’s service or product, it would remain a hushed and private affair.As a customer would  voice his dissatisfaction by complaining – through an email or over phone – to express his dissatisfaction.

But today , a disgruntled customer today, who wants to vent his frustration , would have far-reaching effects and could damage a company’s reputation, by posting it on twitter in less than 140 words.

Social media –unstoppable!Social media has grown at a rate that no other technology has. Every day, social network users spend more than 10 billion minutes on Facebook, watch 4 billion videos on YouTube, and send 340 million tweets.

Surely, in a scenario like this, there’s no way companies can slink or shy away from the public glare.
Studies show that answering complaints can change customer attitude from a negative to a positive one

While it can be quite tricky to placate an angry customer, it is a great opportunity for the company to turn this situation around to boost brand image and strengthen bonds with customers and improve service.

Star Movies’ marketing blitz for ‘The Avengers’

Janhavi Satish Patil

Star Movies is all set to premiere ‘The Avengers’ on January 26, 2013.

Channel has allocated a marketing budget for 360-degree marketing across print, online, OOH and television.

Rasika Tyagi, Senior VP, English programming, Star India stated, “Premiering this on Republic Day is in perfect sync with the movies central theme – Earth’s mightiest heroes assemble to save mankind.”

As a part of the marketing campaign, the channel has:

●              Launched a five-week on-air initiative that focusses on Earth’s mightiest super heroes assembling to fight the ultimate evil, on the home channel, with support from in and outside network channels that share high affinity with their target audience.

●              Designed a robust print plan across cities like Bengaluru and Kolkata, and a 10-day outdoor plan in Delhi and Mumbai.

●              Launched two innovative and interactive gaming applications on Facebook. A ‘The Avenger Facebook tab’ is created, which offers movie trivia, downloads and interactive games.

●              Leverage the reach offered by advertising on YouTube, and would be promoting the property through YouTube’s Masthead and First Watch Ads.

●              Associated with PVR Cinemas for branding at the multiplex across seven metros.

Why cross platform strategy works for digital mktg?

Ranjani Raguraman

·         Cross platform digital programmes aim at synergizing strengths of different digital marketing medium to create a strong brand recall value.

·         Sabyasachi Mitter, Managing Director, Interface Business Solutions says

§  Consumers don’t understand platforms. Successful campaign is one that they can reach out to at every point.

§  Such campaigns executed at scale have a disproportionately higher recall and engagement than single platform digital campaigns.

§  If the success parameter is impact, recall or even RoI, a cross platform digital campaign delivers far better than smaller one-off campaigns that are one-dimensional and lack impact of scale

·         Cross platform digital campaigns have benefits such as better incremental reach and delivery, better frequency planning, optimisation due to integrated ad effectiveness.

·         Sanjay Mehta, Joint Chief Executive Officer, Social Wavelength says

§  The other advantage specific to digital media is that you can use a large community on one platform to seed another platform of yours and get that going.

·         Reliance Tweet-a-Tab was one of the most interesting cross platform digital campaigns attempted in 2012. 

§  Users had to solve a digital code word journey to win a tab. The digital part of the campaign involved extensive use of Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps and YouTube, and there was support from offline activation. .The campaign was also promoted across radio and television. 

·         Zafar Rais, CEO and Founder, MindShift Interactive shared a formula for effective cross platform campaign:

§  Use every platform for optimum outreach

§   Gain insights constantly on the campaign and consumers interacting with your campaign

§   Optimise your strategy on an ongoing basis based on what works well

§   Inform consumers on the gratifications

·         Volkwagon’s Anything4jetta and Brave The Storme by Tata Safari were two digital campaigns that managed to make use of other platforms to reach out to a larger number of audiences.

·         BloodLine Club campaign for Tata Docomo is also an interesting example - it integrated SMS, Facebook and Twitter using a website, mobile site and a mobile app to connect those who need blood with those who have the same blood group in the same area/city.

·         Vineet Gupta, Managing Partner, 22feet says

§  while creating a campaign is one of the ideal methods of making a product one of mass appeal, digital is not limited to it.     

·         Fastrack’s website is customised differently for computer access and mobile access. It aims at giving mobile users a unique interactive experience of retail.

·         Royal Enfield’s website is also customised for mobile users so that they do not have to compromise on their experience. 

·         As simple as it sounds, a cross platform campaign can result into a complete disaster if the involved medium do not play their role aptly.

Bindass integrates social with on-air line-up

 

Rohit Biswas

Disney UTV Digital has launched ‘Bindass Facebook Jukebox’ for youth channel Bindass. It is a digital jukebox that allows users to interact with music on Facebook and watch their interactions on television on the Bindass channel.

Bindass’ Facebook page has over 1.9 million fans, with more than five lakh people interacting on the page.

Users can rank music by voting for their favourite songs listed on the application. The application does not only play music but also allows the users to interact with each other.

This jukebox allows users to dedicate songs to their friends and loved ones and watch their dedication on television on The Bindass Jukebox Show that is on air from Monday to Friday from 5PM – 7 PM.

Sameer Pitalwalla, Director, Video and Celebrity, Disney UTV said that they had engaged fan base for a youth channel on Facebook, with a PTA (people talking about) percentage above 20 per cent. With their presence in  youth space, they can understand the importance of music and social media in their lives.

The entire technology, application and middleware connecting Facebook, the on-air play out and music playlists is developed by the channel’s in-house team.

Explaining the role of social in Bindass’ digital media plan, Pitalwalla added, “The great part of having an engaged fan base on social is that it provides an attentive and active audience to communicate your new show offerings, contests or activities at a moment's notice. By combining these activities with our TV channel, we are extending brand Bindass and its shows beyond the TV channel and at the same time empowering our audiences to have a direct say in key programming.”

Bindass has created original content for web series in the past. Shows such as Chickipedia, How to survive, Bad news breaker, have been successful in attracting the channel’s digital audience.

Understanding the usage of mobile phones for social platforms, the channel is also planning to take the ‘Bindass Facebook Jukebox’ on mobile soon. The mobile version will allow users to vote for their favourite songs and dedicate songs through the Facebook app.

‘Bindass Facebook Jukebox’ had a soft launch in December 2012 and since then has had over 25,000 installs of the app and received more than 60,000 comments.

Marketing to kids: Unveiling the secret

Nikhl Narayanan             

                                                                                                   

·         Kids being tough to understand and as a company which has done consistent work in the kids’ domain for the last 15 years, EduMedia understands children and their needs slightly better it claims.

·         EduMedia plans to organise a conclave called ‘Decoding kids’ on January 16, 2013 in Mumbai. The theme this year is ‘Marketing to kids’. The following years will have themes such as content for kids, technology for kids, etc.

·         Tabassum Modi, Executive Director, EduMedia states through their work at Krayon, they found that marketing professionals are often confounded and seeking insights into the kids’ world making them realise that there was a sore need to disseminate their knowledge and expertise in understanding kids.”

·         Kids are also a segment that is very dynamic.

·         Also 30 per cent of our population is below 15 years of age – that is a considerably high number they plan to organise this event

·         The topics covered will be all aspects of marketing viz. research to advertising, activation to rural marketing and knowing responsible ways of marketing to kids.

·         Shaping gen-next will reveal how companies can start early and build a loyal consumer base with kids.

·         The eminent speakers in the panel discussion on responsible marketing to kids include educationist Lina Ashar, psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty, TV and marketing professional Mahesh Samat and market research analyst Partha Rakshit, amongst others.

·         The conclave is relevant to not just marketing professionals and brand managers, but anyone who has any business revolving around kids. It is going to benefit product developers and innovators, advertising agencies, event agencies, PR professionals, TV professionals, researchers, educators, start-ups/entrepreneurs targeting kids and any other professional working in the kids’ segment.

Headline: Hyundai to hike car prices from 1 Feb by up to Rs.20, 000, Jan 16, 2013

       

·          Hyundai Motor India will increase prices of its vehicles by up to Rs.20,000 across all models by 1 February.

·         On account of rise in input cost and fluctuation in currency, Hyundai will increase the prices up to Rs.20,000 by 1 February 2013 across all the models starting from Eon to Santa Fe SUV.

·         The company sells a range of vehicles starting from the entry level hatchback Eon priced at Rs.2.77 lakh—Rs.3.83 lakh to luxury SUV Santa Fe tagged at Rs.22.61 lakh—Rs.25.63 lakh.

·         Rival and market leader Maruti Suzuki India has increased the prices of its different models, except the imported sedan Kizashi and SUV Grand Vitara, by up to Rs.23,000 from Wednesday.

·         Post the increase the M800 will be costlier by up to Rs.2,500 from its existing price of Rs.2.08 lakh—Rs.2.33 lakh.

·         The company’s hot selling model Swift will be dearer by up to Rs.5,000 from the current price ofRs.5.57 lakh—Rs.6.82 lakh.

·         On the other hand, the company’s compact sedan Dzire will see a price hike of up to Rs.10,000 from Rs.4.91 lakh—Rs.7.4 lakh.

·         The company’s multipurpose van Ertiga, currently priced at Rs.5.9 lakh—Rs.8.63 lakh, will become costlier by up to Rs.7,800.

·         The steepest price increase of Rs.23,000 will be on the cargo version of its van Eeco, which was tagged atRs.3.9 lakh.

 

 

 

 

 

Headline: Facebook’s big revelation: new search tool, Jan 16, 2013

 

Facebook Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled on Tuesday a feature to help its users search for people and places within the social network, in the company’s first major product launch event since its May initial public offering.

 “Graph search,” which allows users to sort through only content that has been shared with them - addressing potential privacy concerns. Available as a “beta” or early version now, the new feature - dubbed “graph search” because Facebook refers to its growing content, data and membership as the “social graph” - will initially let users browse mainly photographs, people, places and members’ interests

• Zuckerberg described what he called “graph search,” which allows users to sort through only content that has been shared with them — addressing potential privacy concerns.
• Zuckerberg promised users will be able to tailor their searches, such as by specifying music and restaurants that their friends like, or their favorite dentist.
• Critics have long deemed the social network’s current search capabilities inadequate. Zuckerberg stressed that Facebook was not getting into Internet searches, Google Inc’s specialty
• The world’s largest online social network, with more than one billion users, Facebook is moving to regain Wall Street’s confidence in the wake of a rocky IPO and concerns about its long-term money-making prospects
• That anticipation, as well as expectations of strong fourth-quarter financial results, have helped boost Facebook’s stock. Its shares are up more than 15% since the start of the year.

Headline: Search gives Facebook challenge and chance, Jan 15th, 2013

Summary: Facebook faces the ultimate burden of the information age: how to help its users find what they are looking for amid the billions of pictures, likes and status updates they post every day.  Thus, ferreting out junk from its treasure is its biggest challenge and potentially its most lucrative opportunity, a chance to topple Google from the throne as the king of search.

Review: Facebook more than any other platform has a singular and huge data set to mine. Its users gush about what they like and listen to, whom they admire, where they jog, what they eat, etc. Where there is too much information, there is high value in search, navigation and discovery. Thus, Facebook has set up a team of 100 engineers to crack the search puzzle, led by the former Google engineer Lars Rasmussen for building the best search tool.