Week at a glance: Bullish start-ups; Social commerce; Oct ad volumes; GroupM rejig

The great Indian start-up growth story – Part 1

Since all start-ups are born on the back of a powerful idea, the founders and owners will be so passionate to see their idea come through flying colours. So, while communicating their value proposition they have to tell their story with lot of passion and the story should be clear, concise and consistent, with credible messages with the right value proposition that will help and grow the brandand build their reputation both online and offline.

The great Indian start-up growth story – Part 2: More than a leap of faith

Educating the customers is equally important. So, when developing an innovative solution, it is imperative to spread awareness of the platform and the category. Rather than trying to sell the product, start-ups need to focus on educating their user base about the category itself.

We’re in final stages of stitching up ZEE-Sony merger; sports a key focus: Punit Goenka

Regarding the synergies from the ZEE-Sony merger, Goenka said that ZEE as an entity will now aggressively focus on sports. “My focus is to look at it on a joint consolidated basis with Sony. Certainly, the merged entity will focus on sports. ZEE on a standalone basis will not because we have just finished our non-compete with Sony on the sports side, why we will reconsider sports on a standalone basis. But I believe that the opportunity is great,” he further said.

OTT wave: Should TV reinvent its content strategy?

As we bid adieu to another World Television Day, Adgully is throwing this question to the Indian broadcast industry. The inescapable fact is that TV cannot remain complacent for so long in the face of this digital wave. That’s the overriding mood among the industry insiders, because OTT will be posing considerable competition to the television medium in the days to come.

No shoot at site, please – How safe are Indian film sets?

We reached out to some industry experts on the safety aspects while shooting on the sets. In an interaction with Adgully, director-producer JD Majethia said, “It is a very tragic thing to happen on set and world over such things should not happen.

Unlock, festive season spur adspends on Print, exceeding pre-COVID period

According to a recent TAM AdEx’s comparative analysis, Ad Space in Print rose by 37% in July'21 compared to July’20. Over 70 new categories, 15.9K+ new advertisers and 19.1K+ new brands were seen in Print during July’21 over July’20.

M-commerce is transforming businesses; how ready are brands for next growth phase?

The transition to m-commerce has been further buoyed by increase in data speed, growing Internet penetration the advent of Jio. The pandemic period has given a push to faster adoption of online buying and digital transactions. Thus, we have seen consumers buying almost everything that they consumer – from groceries and household goods to even jewellery and automobiles online amid the lockdowns and social distancing. Even Tier 2 & 3 markets and beyond are increasing switching to online buying and the mobile phone is turning into the new market place.

October 2021 delivers all-time high ad volumes: BARC

While ad volumes for FMCG dominate the charts, E-commerce and BFSI sectors have recorded an extraordinary growth of 97% and 98%, respectively, against October 2019, which is highest amongst other sectors. Ad volumes for the Auto sector are also showing a positive curve with growth of 3% over 2019. The Retail sector grew by 127%, Durables by 297% and Personal Accessories by 157%, over the start of the year, January 2021.

Ad volumes on TV see a rebound in Q2 FY22, growing 14% YoY: TAM AdEx

Over 210 growing Categories were present during Jul-Sep’21, compared to Jul-Sep’20. Among the Categories, Milk Beverages saw the highest increase in Ad Volumes with a growth of 44%, followed by Paints with 3.4x growth during Jul-Sep’21, compared to Jul-Sep’20. In terms of growth percentage, Software category witnessed the highest growth among the Top 10 at almost 30x in Jul-Sep’21.

T20 World Cup 2021 garners 112 bn minutes of TV consumption in India: ICC

Cricket and sports fans across the world enjoyed unparalleled coverage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, when the tournament returned after five years. The pinnacle of the shortest format of the sport offered explosive cricket and entertainment for everyone and featured cricket’s biggest names and best teams.

Festive period fails to bring cheer to news genre, ad volumes dip 2%

On the other hand, there was not much festive cheer seen by the News genre, which saw a decline of 2% in advertising during festive period of 2021 over the same period of 2020, as per TAM AdEx’s analysis of advertising in the News genre during the festive period this year (September-November 2021).

GroupM India restructures central trading group leadership

Pratik Rathod who has been successfully leading buying for Wavemaker will be taking on an elevated group-level role of National Broadcast Head, GroupM India. Muralidhar T is taking on an elevated role of leading buying function for whole of Mindshare. K Srinivas Rao takes over the Wavemaker buying mandate from Pratik Rathod. Rahul Satoskar, currently the region buying lead for Mindshare west, gets elevated to lead Mediacom buying nationally.

60% of Indian shoppers use digital payments multiple times per week: Experts

Adgully, as part of its premier #TwitterChat #GullyChat property, turned the spotlight on ‘Digital Payments ecosystem: The bumps on the road to a cashless India’. While digital payments are on the rise, there are still some concerns that need to be addressed and ironed out. This #GullyChat is part of the build up for Adgully’s MOBEXX Summit & Awards 2021, which will be held on November 30.

Myntra forays into Social Commerce; to give immersive live video shopping experience

Today, social platforms are considered to drive ~70% of purchase decisions for fashion-forward consumers with fashion and beauty being the most popular categories in the Social Commerce realm as per industry reports. Pivoted on community, connection, and trust, Myntra believes that as the future of shopping, its Social Commerce charter is likely to play an important role in defining the way its customers shop.

RIL subsidiary set to acquire franchise in ECB’s UAE T20 League

RIL, through Mumbai Indians, is amongst the eight founding members of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and over the years has evolved as the most successful cricket club both on-and-off the field. The deal will see UAE’s T20 League benefit from the company’s commercial and cricket know-how, promising a new and exciting brand of cricket for the Emiratis along with the best learnings, experiences, and entertainment.

Parliamentary panel proposes new regulator to monitor Facebook and Twitter

The high-level group made the recommendations while reviewing the 2019 personal data protection bill, which aims to safeguard users' privacy by imposing rigorous rules on how businesses like Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Amazon.com Inc. gather, process, and store data.

Dreamworks & E! Entertainment coming to India with JIO

For the first time in India, NBCUniversal International Networks & Direct-to-Consumer launches DreamWorks and an E! Entertainment branded zone, with additional VOD programming under the Universal+ brand. DreamWorks and E! will be available on JioTV and JioTV+. Universal+ will deliver a companion package of on-demand content from both DreamWorks and E! on JioTV+ enabled through JioFiber.

Unlike other brands, Xiaomi has a social first approach: Jaskaran Singh Kapany

Jaskaran Singh Kapany, CMO, Xiaomi India, spoke to Adgully about the brand’s festive marketing strategy this year, as well as shared some interesting marketing and consumer insights.

Public aims to have 1,000+ advertisers on the platform by year-end: Harshil Dhingra

In an exclusive interview with Adgully, Harshil Dhingra, Chief Business Officer, Public App, speaks about the rise of consumption in Tier 2 and 3 towns, the diverse brands that Public app is advertising with, projections of ad spends in H2 and much more.

“Companies need to follow responsible transparency while sharing information”

In conversation with Adgully, Piyali Dasgupta, Director - Corporate Marketing & Public Relations, Knight Frank, speaks about how the pandemic period has demonstrated the true power of listening, the benefits of transitioning to digital, tackling the menace of fake news and more.

How MFine is fortifying is Cure with Care proposition in its latest campaign

In an exclusive interview with Adgully, Garima Khandelwal, CCO, Mullen Lintas, speaks at length about MFine’s latest campaign, the brand’s consumer engagement strategy, increasing preference for at-home lab tests amid the pandemic, and more.

OLX Autos has crossed $1 bn in sales in 10 countries: Sapna Arora

In conversation with Adgully, Sapna Arora, CMO, OLX India, speaks about how OLX is betting big on the pre-owned car market, their marketing and campaign strategy and much more.

Simran Hoon on what makes The Q unique in the FTA space

 All of these combined have helped the channel in advertiser on-boarding in a significant way, says Simran Hoon, CEO, The Q. The channel is uniquely positioned to cater to the evolved FTA audiences who are on the lookout for fresh content, says Hoon in this interaction with Adgully.

Social media has been a great boon to battle the pandemic crisis: Sachin Karweer

In an interaction with Adgully, Sachin Karweer, Business Head, HGS Interactive, speaks about the trends that are driving engagement for brands in the post-pandemic period, fortifying social media strategy, impact of COVID-19 on CSR & consumer ethics and more.