Tag: India

India – In a rather sentiment film, jewelry brand in India Tanishq celebrates the wedding season with a reminder that beyond the glamorous preparations and mounting of a matrimonial ceremony is the real definition of a union – creating a life together and making it work everyday with personal vulnerabilities out in the open. 

Created together with creative agency Dentsu Webchutney, the 3-minute film features three fictional couples who dive into what seems as the dreaded conversation before officially tying the knot. Through an intimate and authentic portrayal, 1/2 of each couple bare open their fears, baggage, and dreams, scared of how their soon-to-be better half will respond.

Captured to demonstrate a real-life scenario, couples quietly sit down in a kitchen, a restaurant, and a car. 

One woman, scared of having her depression get in the way of the relationship, says, “But you don’t know about the days we didn’t meet. Only I know how I got through them.” 

While another, opening up about being adopted tells her partner, “It’s a big part of what’s made me, well me.”

Of the campaign, which is aptly called ‘Marriage Conversations’, Tanishq’s GM for Marketing Ranjani Krishnaswamy, shared that through it, the brand, which offers engagement rings, aims to encourage young couples who are taking the next big step of their lives to pause and talk about the marriage they envision with each other.

“A conversation where they feel the comfort and honesty with their partners to discuss what truly matters to them. Tanishq wants to celebrate these real conversations that lead up to the moment ‘when it rings true’ for our couples and etch these moments with our engagement rings,” said Krishnaswamy.

Binaifer Dulani, creative director at Dentsu Webchutney, commented, “Tanishq is part of every milestone a couple shares together, embellishing a lifetime of memories. And it all begins when the couple decides to make that commitment. We’re proud of the brand for inspiring and encouraging soon-to-be-married couples to get raw and real and build a strong foundation together, as they inevitably set on a rollercoaster of a journey that is life.”

Meanwhile, Kopal Naithani, director and founder of Superfly Films Pvt. Ltd. who produced the film, adds, “For me, the best creative work is also deeply personal. This film took me back to the conversation I had with my husband 11 years ago.”

The film was released on YouTube on 24 November. 

India – Online parenting community platform, FirstCry Parenting, has partnered with programmatic digital ad company PubMatic, to make its audience data segments available across PubMatic’s premium inventory. This will be through PubMatic‘s audience data platform, Audience Encore.

FirstCry Parenting boasts a user base of 20 million and engages parents via a wide range of parenting content, from curated video and editorial articles on parenting, which is validated by medical experts, from tracker tools to meal plans and parent forums. Its audience is segmented into expecting parents, parents of infants, toddlers, and school-aged children, enabling advertisers across industries and sectors to connect with the relevant target demographic of their choosing.

Through the partnership, PubMatic will further expand its Audience Encore, which is designed to improve how marketers and data owners transact by aiming to give more control to the data owner and better ROI for the advertiser. Data providers and publishers with first-party data can upload their segments to the platform, generate a Deal ID for single, recurring, or customized use, and then transact programmatically, alongside premium PubMatic inventory in private or open marketplaces.

Moreover, the partnership will enable media buyers to leverage FirstCry Parenting’s rich audience segments across all digital screens and channels, including mobile, connected TV, and the open web on PubMatic’s premium inventory. The direct integration allows buyers to activate data at the supply level which can lead to increasing the campaign performance via improved scale, viewability, and click-through rate.

Supam Maheshwari, FirstCry’s founder and CEO, believes that the combination of PubMatic’s premium inventory and FirstCry’s valuable audience data is a real win for advertisers.

“FirstCry Parenting harnesses the accumulated knowledge and experience of parents on FirstCry for several years, making this a complete resource for new families embarking on their parenting journey. Engaging with young families is an opportunity for brands to introduce themselves to a generation of prospective new customers,” said Maheswari.

Amit Yadav, PubMatic’s country manager for South Asia, said that with the prevalence of third-party cookies continuing to decline and consumer privacy paramount, it is important for agencies to re-define audience addressability strategies to optimize reach. 

He further shared that poor cookie match rates can be addressed when data targeting is applied at the SSP level and passed via a deal ID, which typically represents a multitude of domains. 

“Media buyers who use Audience Encore to target high-value segments like FirstCry Parenting’s segments typically report increased efficiency, more control, better transparency, increased scale, higher quality buys, and greater efficacy,” said Yadav.

Mumbai, India – Working from home, now coined as the famous WFH, for the most part, had been initially looked to as a positive working structure for many, eliminating additional steps from workers’ daily grind such as not having to bother with commute, taking the pressure out to dress up, and overall, having less expenses and just more focus.

However, as everyone cruised through the pandemic testing out new lifestyles and decisions, people soon found the WFH has its own downsides and struggles that take a toll on workers’ mental health.

Leading online professional network LinkedIn aims to take a lead in this conversation with an India-specific campaign, and in partnership with digital creative agency The Glitch, the network has launched the second phase of its ‘Find The Balance’ campaign.

While work-from-home has many pros, work now being closely integrated with home life reveals some unexpected repercussions, and the campaign aims to provoke honest conversations about such struggle – finding work-life balance amid the pandemic.

The story of ‘Vedika’ in the new ‘Find The Balance’ campaign

Being more immersed with work in the comforts of one’s home steals away some precious time with friends and family, and each of the three ad films of the campaign tackles this dilemma.

Specially intended for professionals in India, each 35-second film shows the WFH life of fictional Vedika, Andrew, and Gaurav, who is a sales lead, a data analyst, and a marketing manager respectively. Each narrative shows how the individuals, amid the busyness of work, find time and space to engage with their friends, children, and parents.

The story of ‘Andrew’ in the new ‘Find The Balance’ campaign

In the first phase of the ‘Find The Balance’ campaign which was released in September this year, the stories of each were subtly touched on in a single one-minute film. In the sequel, viewers will be able to learn deeper how each represents the struggles of employees sheltered at home this pandemic.

Sivaram Parameswaran, the head of brand marketing for APAC at LinkedIn, commented that the #FindTheBalance brand campaign aims to be a reminder for LinkedIn members to “hit pause” and reconnect with their family, friends, and colleagues, and “find a new idea of balance.”

“As the world of work continues to evolve, we are committed to fostering a sense of community for our members to connect, spark conversations, share ideas, and encourage each other to build flexible schedules and a well-rounded lifestyle,” said Parameswaran.

The Glitch’s Creative Director Lucille Pereira shared that what she loves about the campaign is the ‘mirror’ it holds up to people’s lives.

“In the last 1.5 years, working from home gave us so many new perspectives. It taught us to bond deeply with our family, giving us the advantage of having all meals with them, as opposed to a ‘rushed’ breakfast, and a ‘tired’ dinner. 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,” said Pereira.

Meanwhile, Riya Lalchandani, associate business director at The Glitch, added, “Our long-standing relationship with LinkedIn has always paved the way for relevant and insightful work. The world around us has changed and many of us have experienced the blurring of our professional and personal lives.”

With an official hashtag #findthebalance, the campaign also takes in the form of social media engagement, where in LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter professionals are encouraged to rewrite motivational quotes to make them more relatable for the post-pandemic world of work.

By humanizing old adages, the agency said the campaign hopes to help professionals to adopt a mindset of building a healthier lifestyle with clear work-life boundaries that allow for rest and recuperation” without guilt.”

The new short films are now live on LinkedIn and LinkedIn’s YouTube channels.

According to the agency, the first phase of the campaign garnered six million engagements on Facebook alone.

Mumbai, India – With more organizations in India heavily investing in technology or technological assets that will allow them to thrive in the coming times, Merkle B2B, the B2B arm of dentsu’s customer experience agency Merkle, and financial news organization Bloomberg Quint have launched ‘The Media Guide’ to understand the world of evolving Indian tech buyers and the factors influencing their decisions.

The study, commissioned through Greyhound Research, has been conducted with Indian CIOs (Chief Information Officer) and ITDMs (IT Decision Maker), to identify their concerns, issues, and preferences about a brand, product or solution while making a purchase.

According to the study, CEOs and managing directors are personally getting involved in the technology decision-making process. They are seeking business leaders and external parties (analysts/consultants) to gain deeper insights and better bargains from the existing and new vendors. 

In terms of media channel utilization, 80% of traditional and 73% of startup organizations in India prefer to use local podcasts and videos along with their global content pieces to strengthen context. Meanwhile, 40% of startup organizations and 23% of traditional organizations in India? find global video content to be helpful while identifying a technology vendor.

Other results showed that 73% of respondents from traditional organizations continue to value conferences and events, while only 53% of startup organizations prefer them as part of the new technology buying decision-making process. Lastly, 60% of traditional organizations and 100% of startup organizations in India find online technology magazines to be effective in their technology buying decision-making process.

“Our intent is to get an on-ground understanding of the tech buyers’ evolving world and unearth insights that can help tech marketers make informed decisions. Merkle believes that today’s customer-focused marketing leader is evolving with the core pursuit of placing people at the heart of the business strategy,” said Abhay Kulkarni, managing director at Merkle DWA.

He added, “Our aim is to help marketers stimulate their thinking towards the future of marketing while getting actionable ideas that can impact businesses, and ultimately, strengthening their ongoing approach to people-based marketing.”

Singapore – Redhill, the global full-service communications agency headquartered in Singapore, bolsters its senior leadership team with key hires for its Malaysia, Indonesia, and India teams.

Umesh Nair (leftmost in photo) has been named as deputy managing director and will lead Redhill’s technology practice and operations in Malaysia. Nair brings with him 15 years of experience in digital marketing and corporate reputation across technology, banking, aerospace, and telecom. Before joining Redhill, he was managing partner at Publicis Groupe’s PR firm MSL Malaysia, and also served as head of reputation at Edelman Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Pavan Sahu (rightmost in photo) has been elevated to the role of deputy managing director, and will continue to accelerate Redhill’s growth in Indonesia and India.

Sahu joined Redhill in 2019 as senior director and has played a crucial role in leading communications strategies across India, Indonesia, and Singapore, while leading crisis communications and brand reputation management for Redhill’s office in India. Some of the key clients Sahu has worked with include Danone, Truecaller, Crayon, Builder.ai, and GudangAda.

Aside from the key appointments in APAC, the agency has also unveiled leadership for its market in the Middle East and for helming the agency’s accounts in the government, public and corporate sectors.

Seasoned communications expert Anit Kurian (second from left in photo), who carries with him nearly two decades of experience, will be managing director for Middle East and Africa. Meanwhile, Charu Srivastava (second from right in photo), like Sahu, has been promoted to deputy managing director. 

For the role, Srivastava will lead the agency’s business within the government, public, and corporate sector. Srivastava joined the agency in 2019 as director, building the company’s government and corporate practice to include a diverse portfolio of clients.

On the appointment of Kurian and Nair, Pranav Rastogi, Redhill’s managing director, commented, “We are delighted to welcome Anit [Kurian] and Umesh [Nair] to the Redhill team. Both Anit and Umesh bring decades of management and communications experience to the table across multiple countries and verticals.”

On Sahu and Srivastava, Rastogi continues, “Charu [Srivastava] and Pavan [Sahu] have performed exceptionally well in growing their respective verticals exponentially despite the challenging environment due to the pandemic. Even as we hire externally, we are also investing in our current senior leaders. Charu and Pavan have proven track records and a wealth of experience and expertise to keep up with our rapid growth. I am confident that Anit, Umesh, Charu, and Pavan will help take Redhill to new heights in the coming years.”

The agency recently celebrated its seventh anniversary in October this year. In June, Redhill entered MARKETECH APAC’s Top 5 Stories for welcoming its new MDs, Marienelle Castelino and Tavy Cussinel.

In an exclusive conversation with its CEO and Founder Jacob Puthenparambil, he shared the agency’s philosophy in building and growing its team.

“It’s extremely vital for our growth that we have people who stay with us for a very long time because it’s a people-based industry, especially PR. A lot of the company culture is based on the long-term people that we have. You can’t write those things down or learn from a textbook,” said Puthenparambil.

New Delhi, India – As a part of the Candy Day and Diwali Festive season or Festival of Lights, hard-boiled candy brand Pulse has launched its annual property, ‘Candy Day, The Pulse Way’, with a one-of-a-kind digital activation called ‘#PulseTongueTwisterChallenge’.

The campaign aims to bring people together on an active social media community and challenge their speed and fluency through the Pulse Tongue Twister. 

Created in collaboration with creative and performance digital agency FoxyMoron and creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson, the twister challenge had been spearheaded by social media personalities, namely, Sanket Bhosle, Sugandha Bhosle, and Varun Sharma attempting the challenge.

Arvind Kumar, DS Confectionery Products’ general manager of marketing, shared that through the Pulse Tongue Twister Challenge, they aimed to bring in an added element of cheer and fun to the festive celebration. 

“The initiative is an opportunity to engage with our vibrant online community and celebrate the spirit of festivity with dual enthusiasm,” said Kumar.

To participate, interested participants must make a reel accomplishing the tongue twister, and upload their attempt on Instagram with the hashtag #PulseTongueTwisterChallenge, tagging @passpass_pulse.

The challenge had started from 1 November until 4 November 2021. The winners will enjoy an array of prizes such as a laptop, iPhone XR, and bluetooth portable speaker, among others.

Prachi Bali, FoxyMoron’s national head client partnerships and business head for North, commented, “This campaign does the most important thing that any festive campaign should do, which brings people together over shared laughs and it’s wonderful to see the teams achieve that while keeping audiences engaged.”

The ‘#PulseTongueTwisterChallenge’ is now live across Pulses’ Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

India – Smartphone brand vivo in India has released its campaign for Deepavali or Festival of Lights which takes the theme of the ‘Joy of Homecoming’.

Created in collaboration with Dentsu Impact, the creative agency from the India division of dentsu international, the film aims to address the need of treasuring special moments through encapsulating the role of smartphone photography in rekindling the ‘joy’ of connections and elevating the festive cheer. 

Starring the Bollywood actor Kanwaljit Singh, the ad film starts by showing the ‘loneliness’ of an old man whose entire family has moved out, allowing travelers to rent his house for short stays. It then transitions to showing a young man who has decided to get away from the polluted city life, arriving at the old man’s house to celebrate Deepavali. An emotional roller-coaster, the film ended on a happy note, uniting the old man and his family.

Nipun Marya, the director of brand strategy at vivo India, shared that the campaign aims to bridge the emotional and physical distances between families and spread happiness through smartphone photography. 

“At vivo, we understand that technology is an enabler for the joy in our lives, and through this campaign, we want to celebrate homecoming and rekindle the joy of connection,” said Marya

For Anupama Ramaswamy, Dentsu Impact’s managing partner and national creative director, Deepavali is a very apt occasion to send out the message of strong bond, as it is about celebrating the coming home of children after a long period of time. 

“What really tugs at heartstrings is the song that accompanies each moment. It has been carefully composed to highlight every emotion – ‘happiness’, ‘sadness’, ‘laughter’, and tears. The lyrics have also been written from the heart, each word flowing seamlessly into the next to tell us that memories have the ability to bridge any distance and pull anyone back home. And vivo, with its high-quality camera, is the perfect tool to stir these memories via the power of pictures,” said Ramaswamy.

The campaign has rolled out across mainline and digital platforms.

Singapore – Global web recommendation platform, Outbrain, has appointed Shouneel Charles, former executive vice president and business head digital at Time Group’s television division Times Network, to assume the position of managing director for its India arm

Charles brings more than 20 years of digital and media expertise, setting up large digital ecosystems, digital news publishing models, and profitable internet, as well as mobile-based businesses.

Aside from his previous role at Times Network, he worked as the chief revenue officer and chief sales and marketing officer at news media company NDTV, as well as the national sales head of Yahoo India, and as director at HBO & Warner Brothers India.

In his new role, Charles will be responsible for driving Outbrain’s revenue, business strategy, and digital growth.

Commenting on his appointment, Charles said that he will bring his skills to bear in the native advertising and digital ad tech spaces.

“Outbrain India is primed for rapid growth and I am privileged to now be a part of it. I hope to not only see business increase but also to be instrumental in the next phase of growth for Outbrain across India,” said Charles.

Andrew Burke, Outbrain’s managing director for APAC and growth markets, said, “We’re sure that with his impressive background in this region, he will help us continue to provide the best service across the open web.”

Singapore – Global communications firm Edelman has announced a new lineup of digital hires as part of strengthening its digital offering in the Asia-Pacific region.This includes expanding the firm’s existing offerings in content creation and production, as well as adding talent in the areas of social commerce, paid and performance marketing, martech, AI, VR and 3D capabilities, among others. 

In South Asia, Saurabh Kulkarni has been appointed as the head of Edelman Studios in India, where he is tasked with building a regional hub for content creation. He will partner with India’s managing director for digital, Kunal Arora, on leveraging AI to create data-centric content production capabilities that will serve the region.

At Edelman China, in addition to Justin Teo joining the firm in August as the new chief digital officer, Yuliani Setiadi has come onboard as head of digital for Hong Kong and Taiwan. With Setiadi’s extensive experience in building shoppable e-commerce experiences across different touchpoints, she will aid in establishing Hong Kong as a B2C regional hub.

In Korea, the firm welcomed Rebekah Lee as its new head of digital earlier this year, bringing rich experience in data-driven performance marketing and web analytics that complements Edelman’s digital newsroom capability in the Korean market.

Jonathan Wong and Henry Taylor also joined the teams in Malaysia and Australia respectively this October to serve as head of digital in those markets. Wong brings extensive technical and automation experience, as well as a proven track record for e-commerce and digital transformation, while Taylor is skilled in content, SEO, newsroom and platform growth strategies, given his background as a data journalist.

To manage the growing team’s operations across the region, Debra Ng returned to Edelman this year to take on the role of regional digital operations manager. She is tasked with delivering digital upskilling and competency development programs for clients.

“Over the course of the pandemic, we’ve seen our clients take significant steps to accelerate their digital capabilities, knowledge and skills. With these hires, we are doubling down on specialisms across the region to match the evolving needs of our clients, helping them create more compelling content, facilitate digital transformation, and leverage the growth of e-commerce and digital storytelling,” comments Stephen Kehoe, Edelman’s CEO for APAC.

He added, “Each of these hires brings a deep specialism to the firm, allowing our clients to benefit from the industry’s most advanced and comprehensive practices, irrespective of which market they are in. By removing the silos of markets and specialisms, we are building a more client- and solution-centric operating model, setting ourselves and our clients up for success in a post-pandemic world.”

Mumbai, India – Zimmi.com (Zimmi), the global search engine hub that helps businesses expand their reach, has appointed strategy consultancy Pitchfork Partners, to be its marketing and communications partner for its India office.

Zimmi is a US-based company that brings buyers and sellers together to the exclusive B2B marketplace built to deliver verified global search results through proprietary AI verification. Its search platform currently hosts more than 20 million verified suppliers from 200 countries with more than 64 million unique searchable keywords, which will help Indian exporters reach the global market.

The latest partnership will see Pitchfork Partners building and driving the brand presence of Zimmi, enabling it to expand operations in the country.

James Thomsen, Zimmi.com’s CEO and co-founder, believes that all B2B buyers deserve to procure the best products, services, and vendor partnerships on a global scale, and the businesses listed on their search engine would be verified by Dun & Bradstreet, the global provider of B2B data, insights, and AI-driven platforms. 

“Pitchfork Partners shares our passion and beliefs. Its expertise will play a key role in the success of our communication agenda. We see a huge opportunity for sustained growth in India and Pitchfork has the credentials to assist us,” said Thomsen.

Meanwhile, Daniel Malina, the co-founder and senior vice president of Zimmi.com, commented, “We are excited to be part of the country’s economic march. We partnered with Pitchfork Partners to communicate our mission and vision to connect sellers in India to verified buyers from 200 countries.”

Jaideep Shergill, Pitchfork Partners’ co-founder, said, “Zimmi spans the B2B marketplace, challenging the status quo to bring fair and equal access to all businesses. It is a great opportunity to bridge the gap and help Zimmi achieve its vision through strategic and insights-driven communication.”

In September this year, Pitchfork Partners has also been appointed by Intellimation.ai, the enterprise AI company in India that uses proprietary natural language processing and machine learning methods in the BFSI sector, to be its new strategic communication partner.