Week at a glance: Trending Now; Personalisation Vs privacy; Revisiting long copy

Personalisation Vs privacy: The important pointers for the mobile ecosystem

The pandemic saw digital activity increasing across sectors with even traditional brands joining the digital race. Projected growth of the digital sector for the next two years was achieved during the lockdown months and now, digital and mobile take a bigger slice of the media pie.

90% of Modicare’s business is online: Samir Modi

In 1996, Samir Modi launched Modicare Ltd with the vision of giving ‘Azadi’ to every Indian and making their dreams come true. Modicare is one of India’s leading direct selling companies that pioneered the direct selling revolution in India. Today, the company has over 50 lakh direct sellers and 300,000+ new direct sellers joining each month.

What should be Brand Fortune’s stance after Sourav Ganguly’s cardiac arrest?

Caught inadvertently in the health scare was Fortune brand from Adani Wilmar Ltd (AWL). As is known, Ganguly is the brand ambassador for Fortune oils and soya chunks. Ganguly has been appearing in Fortune’s ads promoting the health benefits and taste of the oils and soya chunks. He has a strong connect with the consumers in the East markets. The brand has been aggressively advertising across channels and he also appears on the packaging of their products.

“Sourav Ganguly will be our brand ambassador, not exploring any new celebrity”

Sourav Ganguly’s cardiac arrest has put Brand Fortune from Adani Wilmar Ltd in a spot. However, instead of a kneejerk reaction, the brand has decided to stand by its brand ambassador, despite some sharp comments on social media.

Panasonic’s engagement with consumers hit an all-time high at 10-12%: Shirish Agarwal

Shirish Agarwal, Head - Brand and Marketing Communications Officer, Panasonic India, is positive about 2021. In keeping with the health and safety requirements fuelled by the pandemic, Panasonic India is introducing innovative technology in its new product launches slated for the year ahead. 

Raghav Bahl steps down as Managing Director of The Quint

Raghav Bahl has resigned as Managing Director of The Quint. The Quint is an English and Hindi language Indian general news and opinion website founded by Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur. He will continue to act as the non-executive promoter-director of the company.

Advertisers Beware: Decoding the ad regulations for infant food products

Infant Food products are increasingly seeing growing regulation in India. The FSSAI recently notified its regulations on Infant Food on December 4, 2020. Part 20 of the series of articles on Misleading Ads by Advocate Aazmeen Kasad, serves to demystify the use of this claim and provide an in-depth understanding of what the law on such products are, what kinds of infant food are available in the market, what kind of advertising is permitted by such products, what the packaging should state, etc.

Prasar Bharati’s digital channels garner over 6 bn watch minutes in 2020

In 2020, digital channels of Prasar Bharati across Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (Akashvani) have registered more than 100% growth, clocking over a billion digital views and over 6 billion digital watch minutes.

PR function has evolved from being a ‘push’ to a ‘push & pull’ channel: Priya Patankar

In conversation with Adgully, Priya Patankar, Head of Communications, PhonePe, speaks about the changing face of PR, how PR professionals are turning into trusted advisors for brands, and adapting to the pandemic disruptions and beyond. 

Brands shouldn’t be blindly carried away by technology & tools: Sukhpreet Singh

As 2021 dawns, there are several key trends for the entertainment industry in the year ahead. Sukhpreet Singh, Corporate Head – Marketing, DishTV & Watcho, Dish TV India, presents the industry outlook for 2021 as well as recounts some of the challenges and key developments in the DTH and OTT industry in the year ahead.

GEC genre saw growth of 33% in ad volumes in 2020: TAM AdEx

The General Entertainment genre on television saw quite a few ups and downs in 2020. The global pandemic and long months of lockdown resulted in drying up of fresh content on TV channels due to strict COVID-19 regulations that brought all shootings to a standstill. However, GECs found a fresh lease of life in old classic shows that were revived across channels and found great traction. Hence, we saw the return of series such as ‘Ramayan’, ‘Mahabharat’ and many more.

Akamai partners with MX Player to deliver seamless viewing experience

MX Player has partnered with Akamai Technologies, the intelligent edge platform for securing and delivering digital experiences, to provide its increasing user base in India with seamless digital experience.

Brand Moments 2021: Happy New Year!

While there was a curfew at night in the entire nation, the end of the decade saw brands come up with interesting and creative ways to wish followers in the bid to stand out from the rest.

A planner is the anchor who holds the floating individual brand strings: Ekta Relan

For Ekta Relan, National Planning Director, Mullen Lintas, the role of the planner has become more critical than ever. In conversation with Adgully, Relan decodes the world of planners, observing human behaviour, construction of a good brief and much more.

Consumers will shift to subscription driven model vis-à-vis ad driven: MK Anand

2020 was an unpredictable year but also presented a definitive opportunity to rethink and reimagine our businesses and lives. It is imperative for the broadcast players to understand these changing patterns and adopt new strategies and agile approaches for content development, aggregation, and delivery.MK Anand, MD & CEO, Times Network envisions key trends for the broadcast industry in 2021.

ZEE aims to take the Hollywood experience to the next level in 2021: Kartik Mahadev

Kartik Mahadev, Business Head, Premium Channels, ZEEL, talks about his vision for 2021, which involves giving a bigger and better Hollywood experience to viewers, connecting with the ‘Many Bharats’ and leveraging content curation for greater engagement.

Evidence shows Partho Dasgupta manipulated TRPs of certain channels: Court

While rejecting bail plea of Broadcast Audience Research Council's former CEO Partho Dasgupta, a Mumbai court observed that played a vital role in the Television Ratings Points (TRP) scam. The court passed the order on January 4.

Stay close to the consumer this year: Nitesh Chhapru, Diageo India

Nitesh Chhapru, VP - Marketing & Business Innovation, Diageo India, looks back at the challenging year for the alco-bev industry, adaption of e-commerce models and home deliveries, as well as the key trends that will dominate in 2021 amid an unpredictable market scenario.

TV ad volumes on News genre up 23% in 2020: TAM AdEx

The News genre perhaps saw the most turbulent times in 2020. News channels saw a steep increase in viewership during the lockdown period, surpassing that of all other genres, including GECs, movies and sports.

Mobility to be fuel for profitable expansion in the new normal: WPP

In partnership with Ogilvy Consulting, WPP interviewed 16 global leaders in innovation, marketing, growth and UX across four industries – entertainment, retail, transportation and telecom. To understand how their current mobility strategies and ambitions for the future compared with consumer expectations, a survey of 300+ US citizens was carried out in parallel. 

WhatsApp tweaks privacy policy to share more user data with Facebook

WhatsApp updated their privacy policy on Monday that allows the messaging app to share commercial user data with parent company Facebook, as the company aims to enhance business usage among group companies.

The economy is going to contract anywhere between 7% & 9%: Hemant Mehta

Kantar has conducted a study called Target Group Index (TGI) since 2000, which captures the consumers’ mindsets, attitudes, values, brand footprint, the media they consume and the lifestyle that they lead. It is akin to a social barometer to understand the behavioural change in the Indian consumer.

2021 will be a year to know & understand your customer all over again: Nida Naushad

In conversation with Adgully, Nida Naushad, Head of Brand, CARS24, speaks about the emerging trends in the field of marketing/ branding in 2021, the evolving consumer behaviour trends, as well as the key learnings from 2020.

Have advertisers lost faith in the power of long copy?

We’re not here to argue the case whether long copy is effective or ineffective. That case has already been made by an excellent piece on a LinkedIn blog by Glenn Fisher, titled ‘The myth that no one reads long copy’. Adgully’s first TwitterChat of the year 2021 tackles the topic – ‘Longer narratives are back, why not long copy?’. The discussion will be helmed by some of the finest advertising men and women in the industry.