Tag: India

India — Evergreen Club, the online community for older adults has launched their Women’s Day campaign entitled #LadyActYourAge underscoring age-related plights like stereotyping faced by elderly women in everyday life. Evergreen cites the recent report stating that the ageing population in India has grown 34 per cent between the timespan of 2011 and 2021 and alongside it grew the loneliness and typecasting amongst this age bracket.

Through a video, this social media campaign by Evergreen Club explores the conflicting messages women have been given about how they should look, live, and behave as they get older.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpTaUJB3X-E&feature=youtu.be

#LadyActYourAge serves as a powerful reminder for viewers to change their actions, way of speaking, and the expectations society puts on older women. It also reminds us to beat gender and age-related stereotypes, and give elderly women the freedom to make their own choices.

Tapan Mishra, founder of Evergreen Club, said that society often expects older women need to behave a certain way and act according to their age. Mishra continued by saying that during his conversations with Evergreen Club members, he constantly observed how they have been breaking the stereotypes they have been subjected to.

“This International Women’s Day, we aim to highlight these issues so that people take cognizance of the same and take it upon themselves to spread the message to create a sensitive world for the elders, and more so, for the elderly women,” Mishra said.

Mumbai, India — Since its inception in 1940, the furry duo of Tom and Jerry has captivated fans all around the globe with its immersive and unforgettable storylines. Most of the children who grew up watching their adventures and antics have a special place in their hearts for the tandem. To rekindle those memories, Cartoon Network, a WarnerMedia Kids channel, launched a social media campaign to celebrate the 82nd birthday of Tom and Jerry in India.

The campaign was done in collaboration with Cartoon Network’s recently appointed social media marketing agency Chimp&z Inc, an alliance of Merge Infinity Global. The show’s birthday celebration was executed for brand and franchise amplification across social media platforms Facebook and Instagram with multiple social media activations to engage with fans across the country.

Tom and Jerry’s birthday campaign included a mix of brand collaborations and UGC-led content to organically increase the overall digital footprint of Cartoon Network. The campaign was divided into three segments: pre-birthday, birthday, and after-party.

The first segment, the pre-birthday activity ‘I see Tom and Jerry’, was a series of 3 stories where users were asked to share pictures of anything that reminded them of Tom and Jerry using the ‘Add Yours’ feature on Instagram Stories.

For the birthday, on 10 Feb, multiple brands from various sectors namely Parle G, Tata Play, Vinod Cookware, MuscleXP, Man Arden, Curious Cat Company, Feline Club of India, Portronics India, Yellophant, and many more joined the celebration with the 2nd part, ‘#LetItSlide’, where they uploaded unfortunate mishaps they would let slide just to wish the duo a happy birthday.

The campaign ended with an after-party themed ‘Tom and Jerry Get The Cherry’ where users were given the opportunity to decorate Tom and Jerry’s home with a single tap on their mobile screen. The story would display Tom and Jerry’s room with text and decorative items.

According to Chimp&z Inc, the campaign has garnered a total of 2,14,100+ reach and 2,25,400+ impressions leading to an increase in Cartoon Network India’s Instagram follower base by 3000+ within a week. The official handle of Cartoon Network on Instagram posted a wrap-up Reel to showcase how the celebrations unfurled.

Last January, Cartoon Network has unveiled its latest brand experience called ‘Redraw Your World’ for its APAC market.

Mumbai, India – Value retail chain 1-India Family Mart has successfully raised INR500m in its series B funding, which will be used in setting up an indigenous e-commerce business, thereby becoming omni-channel players in the sector. In addition, they will be also fueling inorganic growth as the group plans to double the number of stores in the next 2 years.

Said funding round was led by Dubai-based Gulf Islamic Investments (GII). The retail group had raised its first institutional round of funding from Carpediem Capital in 2018.

The retail chain is aiming to tap into India’s forecasted retail value of INR51t in 2019, growing at a CAGR of 9% to 11%. An increase in the market share of value e-retailers has demonstrated better profitability and value creation within the Indian retail landscape. Value retail constitutes 60% of the overall apparel retail market.

Jay Prakash Shukla, co-founder and CEO at 1-India Family Mart, said, “We are excited to raise a fresh funding round from GII which will significantly boost our expansion plans, strengthen our retail presence and drive growth trajectory of the group. This fund raise is quite sizable for the retail sector in recent times. As we build a scalable business, we needed like-minded investors that could guide us on nurturing an IPO-able group for the near future.”

Meanwhile, Ravinder Singh, co-founder and COO at 1-India Family Mart, commented, “We are increasing our geographical footprint and developing our own private label in the fast-growing women’s apparel category. We are setting up our owned online omni-channel to further penetrate the market and reach our discerning customers. Moreover, having a strong online presence will further consolidate our position in the industry.”

Los Angeles, California — Prolific video game developer Riot Games has announced its expansion into several countries in the Asia Pacific (APAC) as part of its business reorganization in the region. 

With a focus on hyper-localisation and fresh plans to extend its publishing reach to Japan and India, Riot Games will also open new publishing offices in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Riot had previously run the SEA business out of its Singapore hub office and also had an office in Japan.

Riot has also brought in Alex Kraynov, its previous managing director of emerging markets for Southeast Asia, India, Latin America, Brazil, Middle East, North Africa, and Japan, as the new managing director for APAC to lead publishing.

The reorganization will also see a diversification of Riot’s operating model with publishing at the forefront, alongside its other business pillars of games, entertainment, esports and enterprise.

In this effort to strengthen their presence APAC, Riot has made the following regional appointments namely Shinji Komiyama as director of country management for APAC, Jennifer Poulson as head of publishing partnerships for APAC, Alasdair Gray as head of marketing for APAC, and Derek Winder as head of business development for APAC. Riot also made some appoint for its local division namely Yasushi Fujimoto as country manager of Japan, Joel Guzman as country manager of the Philippines, and Resha Pradipta as country manager of Indonesia and Malaysia.

Since re-establishing its Singapore HQ for Southeast Asia in 2018, Riot has significantly grown its workforce and is now doubling down on publishing in the region. This organizational expansion translates into the establishment of local offices and hiring country managers in key markets such as the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and India, joining publishing forces with Riot’s Japan office, and enhancing its publishing hub in Singapore to over 80 people across the region. Key departments within APAC Publishing include country operations, publishing partnerships, brand marketing, growth marketing and services, business development, and regional tech. 

Alex Kraynov, managing director of Riot Games Asia Pacific, commented that this is a natural step in progression for Riot’s publishing business in Southeast Asia, and they recognized that APAC has the potential to become the biggest region in the world for the company. Kraynov continued by saying that APAC is intricately diverse, with massive gaming communities that have diverse needs and a strong appetite for mobile gaming. 

“In the past few years, our offices in Singapore and Japan have worked hard to release several new games and have nurtured new esports leagues to excite and delight players. Working towards more physical presence in our key APAC markets, we’re extremely excited to double down on these efforts to continue striving towards being the most player-focused gaming company in the world,” Kraynov said. 

Beyond the gaming space, Riot has also released projects and campaigns in animation adaptation, music, and fashion. More recently, Riot also collaborated with Filipino urban streetwear brand Team Manila on an exclusive capsule collection to celebrate the launch of Neon, the first Filipino agent in its tactical shooter VALORANT.

With the goal of being the most player-focused game company in the world, Riot has in the last couple of years launched new titles including its recent shooter hit VALORANT. Riot’s games within the League of Legends universe have garnered over 600 million players globally in the past decade.

Bangkok, Thailand – The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has outlined its new marketing strategy in line with its ‘air travel bubble’ agreement with India, a major step forward in the planned recovery of what is one of Thailand’s important visitor source markets.

TAT is focusing on further building the Indian market with a particular emphasis on special interest groups with high spending; such as, weddings and honeymoons, golf, millennials, and digital nomads. Among the activities include familiarisation trips and business events.

To kickstart the marketing strategy, a fam trip for Indian travel agents and media is in Thailand from 15-22 February, 2022, to gain first-hand experience on tourism products and services on the Bangkok-Chiang Mai and Bangkok-Ko Samui travel routes, as well as discuss business with local suppliers in a trade meet event.

Tanes Petsuwan, deputy governor for international marketing for Asia and the South Pacific at TAT, said, “Thailand was a very popular destination for Indian travellers before the COVID-19 pandemic, and there is every indication this appeal will continue. Significantly, the proposed Thai-Indian Air Travel Bubble arrangement will help enhance the image of Thailand as the preferred destination for Indians wanting to travel abroad.”

TAT will also head up the Thailand presence at India’s largest tourism promotion event – South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE) 2022 – scheduled for 18-20 May, in New Delhi. It will also arrange a product presentation event to provide travel agents from key cities in the South and West of India.

Following the materialisation of the ‘Thai-Indian Air Travel Bubble’ arrangement and the reopening of commercial flights between the two countries, TAT will join hands with airlines to co-organise networking sessions in key cities in the North of India, including New Delhi and Kolkata to further promote Thailand’s latest tourism products and services.

Petsuwan added, “With the TEST and GO entry scheme having been resumed from 1 February, 2022, under which fully vaccinated travellers from any country can apply for a Thailand Pass, while the COVID-19 situation in India is vastly improving resulting in relaxed restrictions for international arrivals including returning Indians, TAT will actively target high quality Indian tourists to return to Thailand.”

Bengaluru, India – Fast-growing social e-commerce start-up DealShare in India has announced that it has recently raised US$45m as part of its series E funding round from a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which takes the company’s total funding to US$393m and valuation to US$1.7b. 

DealShare is a rapidly growing social commerce company focused on catering to new-to-internet and value-seeking users. It offers low-priced essentials coupled with a gamified, fun-filled, and virality-driven shopping experience to make it easy for first-time internet users to experience online shopping.

The company said it will use the fresh funds to power product innovation and technology to support its rapid growth and expanding customer base.

Vineet Rao, founder & CEO of DealShare, said that the company aims to democratize online shopping for Bharat users with unmatched service and experience by developing innovative products and tech solutions

“We are thrilled to welcome ADIA as a shareholder as part of our next phase of growth. The support that we have been receiving from the investor community is very encouraging. It is a testimony of the confidence in DealShare’s vision, business model, and an acknowledgement of the growth we have been exhibiting. In a span of just 3 years, we have scaled to over 10 million customers and over 100 cities across 10 states,” said Rao. 

Sourjyendu Medda, DealShare’s founder and chief business officer, shared that it is likely to hit US$3b of gross revenue run rate in the next 12 months and will be tripling its geographical presence, investing heavily on acquiring top-notch tech talent, and building world-class supply chain infrastructure to aid said growth.

The company was founded in 2018. In January 2022, DealShare raised $165m in the first close of its Series E fundraise. The company welcomed Dragoneer Investments Group, Kora Capital, Unilever Ventures, and continued commitments from its existing commitments investors, Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Global (Falcon Edge). 

Mumbai, India – Global payments network EMQ has launched its real-time cross-border payments across South Asia, including direct access to Nepal and India’s Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), with Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and additional markets in the pipeline.

The enhanced payment capabilities to Nepal and India provide a more transparent and cost-efficient payments solution for its customers in the region, while enabling them to capture new opportunities across the emerging markets. Moreover, customers can now send a maximum of INR500,000, which has increased from INR200,000, directly into local banks in real-time under IMPS and higher amounts via same-day fund transfers to India through a single EMQ Connect API integration.

Meanwhile, customers in Nepal will also have direct access to real-time bank transfers of up to NPR1m with additional same-day payment options available in the country. These extended service offerings enable enterprises to focus on growing their business without the need to manage complex network infrastructure.

Steven Liu, EMQ’s global head of networks and expansion, shared that they will continue to expand their network with more global market touchpoints across the fastest growing economic corridors.

EMQ said that it continues to expand its product suite with real-time payments capabilities across Europe (Sepa Zone), Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Singapore, India, and Indonesia, as well as Nepal, and 19 markets in Africa, amongst many others, with expansion underway in the USA, Canada, and Latin America.

“Our enhanced coverage across Nepal and India further complement our efforts to offer differentiated value propositions with greater speed, agility and flexibility in both consumer and business payments that meet the evolving business models,” said Liu.

Mumbai, India – FCB Interface, one of the creative agencies under the FCB Group in India, has announced a new chief strategy officer – ex-MullenLowe Lintas Aditi Patwardhan. The agency said the new appointment is part of its reorganisation towards becoming “future-ready” and “providing strategic partnership to its clients.” 

Patwardhan is a brand and business builder with 25 years of solid marketing and advertising experience. She’s had stints in Leo Burnett, and was most recently an executive director at MullenLowe Lintas. She has partnered with global brands for multinationals like Unilever, P&G, Whisper, Fair & Lovely, Pureit, Knorr, Kissan & McDonald’s and her marketing stints include DCW Home Products, International Bestfoods, Dabur India and Mattel. Having been on both sides of the table, she is well versed in the intricacies of business and the pressures of P&L.

Speaking on the appointment, Robby Mathew, vice chairman and chief creative officer of FCB Interface, said, “With Aditi on board, I look forward to some scintillating work emanating from razor-sharp strategy.”

Adding, Joe Thaliath, vice chairman & CEO of FCB Interface, said, “Really excited to welcome Aditi onboard. Aditi is a strong believer and practitioner of media-agnostic solutions to real problems. Her well-rounded experience and expertise is indeed a perfect fit to lead the agency in its next phase of growth! We look forward to creating inspiring Never Finished brand building stories with Aditi at the helm.”

On joining the FCB family, Patwardhan said that the agency’s strong strategy fundamentals and client partnerships made for a natural fit, but that it’s the strong solutioning focus of the much awarded ideas like the ‘Punishing Signal’ that excites her the most, which are at the confluence of “human truths, problem-solving & technology.”

“I look forward to the mandate of taking the momentum to next level and sharpening the strategy offering. We are in process of building a powerhouse planning team which offers clients multidisciplinary competencies. Powered by the strong philosophy of Brand Bedrock and a suite of tools that have proven results within the network,” said Patwardhan. 

The campaign ‘Punishing Signal’ is FCB Interface’s 2020 campaign with the Mumbai traffic police which aimed to address the problem of noise pollution on the city’s roads.

Mumbai, India — Digital marketing agency Yellophant Digital, an alliance of Merge Infinity Global, has won the digital mandate for 1Rivet India, a tech-based consultancy firm headquartered in the USA. Through the mandate, the brand’s entire social media responsibilities, from ideation to execution will be tasked to YelloPhant. The Mumbai-based digital agency secured the mandate in a multi-agency pitch and will work towards building up the brand’s presence online.

1Rivet is a US-based IT strategy and consultancy firm that helps clients expand their business growth, assist with new talent acquisition and facility management. The agency will manage the brand’s social media reach on different platforms namely Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Yellophant Digital also plans on launching the brand on any new platform that can bolster its presence further.

Harikrishna Nair, CEO of 1Rivet for India, said, “It has been a pleasure to work with Preksha and her team at Yellophant. We have engaged Yellophant Digital to manage our digital presence and we are happy with the way they’ve run the program so far. The Yellophant Digital team is responsive and easy to do business with. It’s definitely worth having a conversation with them if you’re thinking of investing in your company’s social media presence.”

Preksha Seth, co-founder of Yellophant Digital, said, “We are thrilled to be working with 1Rivet India. There is so much commonality between us, especially a shared vision of what the organization should communicate online. With both our teams being young and dynamic, it shall be an exciting collaboration. I’m eager to kickstart the project and elevate 1Rivet India’s online presence.”

Yellophant Digital has also previously acquired other mandates from brands such as Beleaf, CarBoli, Mezaya, and ExpertMFD, among others.

India – dentsuMB, the integrated communication agency under dentsu India, has been appointed for the digital creative mandate for Social Alpha, the multistage innovation curation and venture development platform for science and technology startups, which will be handled by the agency’s Bangalore office.

Social Alpha seeks to address the most critical social, economic and environmental challenges. It supports mission-aligned entrepreneurs through a network of innovation labs, startup incubators, accelerator programmes, and seed funds, as well as market access mechanisms. 

As part of the mandate, dentsuMB will be developing the communication framework and creating campaigns that showcase the initiatives across Social Alpha’s social media assets. The focus will be on the core mission of the brand, which is to create social, economic, and environmental impact through the power of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Manoj Kumar, Social Alpha’s co-founder and CEO, said, “While we take extreme pride in what our startups do, we needed help in communicating the inspiring work of our portfolio companies with an intent to attract more innovators and enablers to this emerging sector.”

Meanwhile, Indrajeet Mookherjee, dentsuMB’s managing partner, shared that this partnership will be a unique journey given the nature of services that Social Alpha provides and the divergent startup sectors it works with. 

“At the heart of Social Alpha, is a clearly defined purpose ‘of making a difference to the lives of millions’ and we hope to collaborate on bringing these beautiful stories of impact and change to a larger audience,” said Mookherjee.