Week at a glance: Deep dive - Piracy; Return of Goafest; Rewind 2021; Meta’s India plans

Rewind 2021:

Digital transformation & adoption continues to take big leaps: Prasad Shejale

In conversation with Adgully, Prasad Shejale, Founder & CEO, Logicserve Digital recaps the trends and developments that dominated the digital industry this year, as well as his projections and expectation for the upcoming year.

ZEE5 aims to reach 50% of the audience that’s consuming content digitally: Manish Kalra

“Our focus for 2022 will be to scale our efforts in providing a rich and compelling entertainment experience for the entertainment-loving Indian audience. We have a focused content strategy in store that will help us inch closer to our ultimate goal of ‘entertainment inclusion’,” said Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5, in an interview with Adgully. Going forward, he said, the aim is to focus on family entertainment along with regional content.

Indian agencies will take the lead when it comes to global work: Ameer Ismail

In conversation with Adgully, Ameer Ismail, President, Lintas Live, takes a look back at the key developments that took place in the PR industry in India during 2021, the trends that will dominate in the times to come, challenges and learnings from the year gone by as well as expectations from 2022.

Rewind 2021: ASCI - successful in driving a paradigm shift this year

Manisha Kapoor, Secretary-General, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), recaps the year 2021 for the advertising body and some bold steps that it took this year to rethink its purpose and strategies.

Mapping the piracy scourge Part 1: From theatres to Telegram

Adgully is attempting to answer these questions and much more in this four-part in depth series on Film Piracy. The problem of film piracy is so rampant and pervasive that it is difficult to look for simple solutions, because the issue is manifold, involving technical, cultural, social, legal, and transnational aspects.

Mapping the piracy scourge Part 2: Stringent laws alone cannot end piracy

Part 2 of this series takes a look at the legal provisions available to tackle piracy and whether they have been adequate to curb this menace. Also, what are the alternate steps that producers are taking to crack down on piracy.

Piracy scourge Part 3: Regulating VPN and file-sharing apps - A tricky road

Part 3 of this series identifies the various challenges faced in successfully tackling piracy and industry experts explain why it might not be possible to end piracy once and for all in the short term at least. This part will also look at VPN and app regulation.

Piracy scourge Part 4: Digital signature to blockchain – Solutions are many

After covering various aspects, ranging from societal attitudes to legal challenges, that fuel piracy, Part 4 of this in-depth series explores the available technical solutions to stem piracy. Experts say the deployment of digital signatures, machine learning and AI technologies, undercover investigations and cyber security, blockchain, anti-piracy technologies, etc. can go a long way in stemming the tide to a great extent.

"There’s an inherent drive for advertisers to get their hands on more first-party data"

In an exclusive interaction with Adgully, Tanmay Mohanty, CEO - Media Services, Publicis Groupe India, shares his view on how currently the platforms/ marketers operate and in his opinion how marketers should think of reach and performance planning. He also speaks on how the dependency on walled gardens will reduce going forward as marketers are looking for audience led planning.

15th edition of Goafest will be offline, to be held from April 7-9, 2022

The event that recognises consummate industry talents is curated by Advertising Agencies Association of India & The Advertising Club and is set to be held in Grand Hyatt, Goa from 7th to 9th April, 2022.

India is going to be a huge part of building the metaverse: Mark Zuckerberg

On what makes India such an exciting place for tech innovation, Zuckerberg elaborated, “The reason why India is so exciting to me is two things that combined together make for something special – the entrepreneurial spirit, combined with the scale of what can happen...This is what is fuelling a lot of the Internet economy in India already, but this is what makes me so optimistic about the future.”

HD-first launch was a brilliant opportunity: MK Anand on Times Now Navbharat

Explaining the rationale behind launching HD first, MK Anand, MD & CEO, Times Network, pointed out that the launch of the HD channel ahead of the SD channel was a strategic decision. “We have launched HD first. If nobody else has done it, doesn’t mean that it is not a better way to do it. Typically, HD has been an extension of the SD version, but we felt there was an opportunity to go in HD first and position the brand at the upscale end and secure premium perception before expanding to the mass market with SD. So, brand strategy was an important reason for this.”

Netflix slashes prices by up to 60% in India as competition intensifies

With these price cuts, Netflix is now almost on par with Disney+ Hotstar. The price change will happen from today (December 14, 2021) and will come into effect from the next billing cycle for members.

How Meta has been empowering local businesses in India

A panel discussion on ‘Enabling Local Businesses’ saw Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Meta, in conversation with three Indian entrepreneurs, who shared their stories and experiences of how Meta helped their local businesses grow exponentially.

Cookieless future – Bumper business ahead for affiliate marketers

Santosh Ghosh, Specialist, Data, Tech & Innovation, highlights the big discussion on First Party Data and how the ownership of this data can be crucial for the advertising business in future.

How The Ashes 2021 has become a gateway for brands for rural outreach

The Ashes 2021 got underway from December 8, 2021 and will continue till January 18, 2022. The series is being aired across Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN) channels SONY SIX, SONY TEN 3, and SONY TEN 4, as well as live streamed on the network’s OTT platform, SonyLIV.

The good old days of traditional marketing are over: Girish Kalra, Tata AIA

In an exclusive conversation with Adgully, Girish Kalra, Chief Marketing Officer, Tata AIA Life Insurance, speaks about the company’s marketing approach, the emerging trends in the life insurance sector, how the company plans to leverage the strengths of Olympic gold medallist Neerja Chopra for the brand and more.

Growing appetite for snacks - who gets a bigger bite of the market?

Speaking to Adgully, Amit Kumat, MD and CEO of Prataap Snacks Ltd, said that “The Indian salty snack category has a very large market potential, with rising consumption of packaged foods, increasing disposable income and changing lifestyle.

"Polycab has enhanced its digital presence in rural & Tier 2-3 markets"

Speaking to Adgully for the Talking Insights column, Nilesh Malani, President and Chief Marketing Officer, Polycab India Ltd, elaborates on the new campaign, choice of Ayushmann Khurrana as the brand ambassador, enhancing digital presence in rural and Tier 2-3 markets, consumer engagement strategy and more.

“Hindware’s journey from bathroom to living room has been phenomenal”

In this video interaction with Adgully, Rakesh Kaul, CEO and Whole Time Director, Somany Home Innovation Ltd, speaks about the objective and thought behind Hindware Appliances’ ‘MaxX Silence’ chimney ad, how the new normal has led to an increase in focus on Digital and much more.

"Businesses today need more logical branding & effective media outreach"

In conversation with Adgully, C. Lekha, Director - Corporate Communications & Brand Reputation at IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation Ltd), speaks about the growing significance of PR’s role in the digital era, tackling the disruption in the aviation, travel and hospitality industry due to the pandemic, and more.

Chhorii makers on the potential of horror genre and telling desi stories

In an interview with Adgully, producers of ‘Chhorii’, Vikram Malhotra and Jack Davis, along with the director Vishal Furia, give some wonderful insights on the making of the film and the emergence of the horror genre movies.

Regional Cinema struggles to get screen time in theatres in post-pandemic times

As the cinemas started opening, many Bollywood producers started picking up early November and December dates for the release of their productions. There has been a backlog of big-budget movies waiting in line. These biggies have snatched away screens, which were earlier committed to regional films. Add to that every exhibitor wants movies with big stars, and they all have preferred to allot screens to movies like ‘Atrangi Re’, ‘83’, ‘Jersey’, ‘Radhe Shyam’, and so on.

Sridhar Vs Sridhar: Give your digital gameplan a leg-up

The fifth edition of Adgully’s Thought Leadership series will see Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-Com, share his perspective and valuable insights on how digital transformation has made brands to think differently and effectively in their communication. Joining Ramanujam Sridhar will be Sridhar Ramanathan, who will be moderating the session.