Ketki Karandikar, Pervin Bhasania and Saiket Sengupta have been appointed as Senior Creative Directors and Creative Director respectively.
Each of these new team members come with experience across categories and brands.
Ketki Karandikar joins Network Advertising as Senior Creative Director from L&K Saatchi & Saatchi. Prior to that, she was with Leo Burnett, McCann Erickson, Law & Kenneth and Saints&Warriors. In her 12 year stint in advertising she has worked on various FMCG brands across categories. Some of the brands Ketki has worked on would be Pampers, Mondelez, Stayfree, Saffola, Parachute and Whisper to name a few.
Pervin Bhesania joins Network Advertising as Senior Creative Director. Before this, she has been with Publicis Capital, Scarecrow Communications and Grey Worldwide.
In her 13 year stint in Advertising, Pervin has worked extensively on various brands in the beauty sector from a consumer and category perspective. Some of the brands that Pervin has worked on in the past would be Garnier India, ITC brands – Fiama and Vivel etc.
Saikat Sengupta joins Network Advertising as Creative Director. Prior to this, he was with Wunderman International, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi and R K Swamy BBDO. In his 9-year stint in the communications business, he has worked on several brands like Kellogg’s, HSBC, Hungama,com, Yatra.com, Fun Foods, Bose, Snickers, Raymond, Anchor Panasonic, and many more.
Commenting on the latest hires Shayon – Chief Creative Officer says“We were in the process of consolidating critical leadership positions in the Creative team. I am delighted to get Ketki Karandikar and Pervin Bhesania on board as Senior Creative Directors. Ketki and Pervin come to Network with solid creative reputations across agencies and categories. I am also excited to get Saikat Sengupta on board as Creative Director. I look forward to collaborate with them and do work that shines through.”
HOWL will be responsible for Aquatein’s social media management, performance marketing, and e-commerce managed services.
Aquatein, the protein water brand will exclusively be sold online via its website portal and e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, HealthKart and other Fitness and Health Platforms. A new brand entering the market, Aquatein has chosen HOWL to launch their product, create their website and manage their performance marketing and e-commerce duties. The agency will be responsible to create awareness and drive sales for this brand.
Speaking on the occasion, Ananth Prabhala, the brainchild of Aquatein, said, “The pro-active nutrients and supplements market in India is growing at a CAGR of more than 15%. The protein category is leading the charge globally as well as in India. This is mainly due to a massive shift in the consumer’s perception of Health and Fitness as well as dietary preferences. Studies show that India is a protein deficient country. With the global average protein consumption per day set at 50gms, India ends up consuming only 1/5th of the requirement. With the launch of Aquatein – One of India’s first Protein infused water drinks, we aim to provide a convenient and efficient way of Protein intake. Being a young and innovative brand with great aspirations, we were looking for a team which was driven to work shoulder to shoulder with us. HOWL is where we found young energetic minds who believed in the brand as we do. We have appointed HOWL as the Digital Agency for our Marketing endeavor because the team inherently understands what a Go-To-Market strategy should be. We are delighted to partner with them and help grow the business tremendously”
Nabeel Merchant, Co-Founder and CEO, HOWL said, “We are ecstatic to partner with Aquatein in launching their brand in India. The Health and Fitness space has exploded. Fitness has become a lifestyle choice not only among the millennials but even across Generation X. Native Social Image platforms like Instagram has created an environment where being fit and active is the aspiration for a large audience. We at HOWL intend to tap into this innate need and help educate consumers on the benefits of efficient protein consumption offered by Aquatein. Our role entails helping set up a strong omni-channel distribution framework for the brand across Health and Fitness E-Comm platforms as well as create visibility amongst a contextual and relevant target audience looking for alternate protein consumption options. Our long term goal also includes in educating our consumers on the minimum protein consumption required on a day to day basis based on the diverse dietary consumption.”
HOWL, is currently headquartered in Mumbai and has offices in New Delhi and Bengaluru and manages clients such as Digibank by DBS, HRX, High Street Phoenix, Palladium (Lower Parel), Baggit, Zee Live and Floh Tampons to name a few.
This week’s Brand Saga unravels Titan Watch’s advertising journey, the brand that personified sophistication.
Back in the late nineties, the memories of my parents not leaving the house without wearing that very ‘Titan’ watch refuse to fade away. The practice is still into practice.
Such
is the saga of a brand which has not only proven its mettle in the category
that it shares almost 60% of, but has also etched its place in people’s hearts
and minds even for thirty plus long years.
Titan Watches – Made in India
Titan Industries was established in 1984 as a joint venture between the Tata Group and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO). Soon after, the company set up its watch manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu’s Hosur.
In three decades of its existence, Titan has claimed to be a resounding success and brand that the renowned adman Piyush Pandey likes to call a ‘restless’ one.
Lt. Xerxes Desai, a Tata veteran and the Founder of Titan Co. Ltd ventured into the production of wrist watches when India’s watch market was way behind the rest of the world during the pre-liberalization phase. According to Livemint, Desai played a key role in introducing India to its first quartz and luxury watches in the late 80s after enduring years of resistance from state-owned and now defunct HMT Watches. With his enhanced sense of style and taste the world’s fifth largest manufacturer of watches.
The
Story behind Titan’s Signature Tune and First TVC
Vinay Kamath’s book titled ‘Titan- Inside India’s Most Successful Consumer Brand’ spills the beans behind the iconic signature tune of Titan without which Titan’s TV commercials were incomplete. The book mentions that Titan’sa story of innovation, out-of-the-box thinking, and fortitude and narrates how the Tatas launched the quintessential Indian brand against all odds. Titan’s founding managing director, the late Xerxes Desai, had worked with ad agency Ogilvy & Mather (then OBM) to select the signature tune for the brand’s television commercials, which was a piece of Western classical music.
Desai, who loved western classical and jazz teamed up with Suresh Mullick (the brain behind Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, “Sometimes Cadbury’s can say it better than words and many more) to go on a hunt to get a distinct audio appeal for its advertising on TV.
Eventually, the duo decided upon a piece of Western classical music with mass appeal. Mullick zoomed in on Mozart’s 25th Symphony, and picked the track from the 1984 award-winning movie, Amadeus, on Mozart’s life.
According to The Hindu, the first television ad showed a series of watches one after another. As the second hand ticked, the watch face changed. The ad conveyed the message that you didn’t have to go abroad to buy a quartz watch anymore; you could buy it in India.
The author also shared that Desai felt the music gave the brand a world-class feel and this television campaign was a seminal achievement that defined Titan for the next 30 years.
According to one of media archives, adman Piyush Pandey who also created a large chunk of Titan’s advertisements reminisced that decades ago, a watch used to be synonymous with HMT. Into that market comes a premium watch with great design and now it is Titan and not HMT which is synonymous with watches. “It’s been 27 years but the music track selected by Suresh Mullick has still not been changed. He must be hearing it from somewhere up above us and feeling good about what he created”.
The Hindu article also mentions that in the mid-1980s for a brand to use Western classical music aimed at an audience little exposed to that genre of music was a risky business, although the trick worked for Titan and struck the right chords for a mass audience. Later the company experimented with variations fo the symphony for its advertising including Indian musical instruments.
The 90s – Rediscover the ‘Joy of Giving’
The watch market in India was witnessing new entries in the late nineties and Titan had to up its marketing game.
The advertising, this time around was focused on festivals, special occasions, ceremonies, and gifting- as the main proponent. With a subtle messaging and classier approach, Titan redefined style and luxury in its communication for the urban elites and simultaneously also kept its pricing low to meet the needs of the middle-class man.
Titan and Ogilvy together weaved some everlasting bonds portraying every aspect of joy and relationships with our loved and dear ones. One of the company’s marketing themes has been to focus on the Joy of Gifting that can be seen in Rajiv Menon helmed vintage TVCs were a father and sister team up to gift the bride her share of happiness on her D Day with a Titan watch.
Right from Durga Pooja to Diwali to Onam, Titan celebrated every festival and culture imbibing in its advertising communication panning across Print, Television, and Radio in its early days.
One of these commercials also starred the former Miss Universe and leading actress Aishwarya Rai. Titan was also among the first of brands who realized the power of celebrity endorsement and how can one leverage it to rake in consumer trust.
It would also not be wrong to say that the brand also primarily looked after the budding romance between young couples and teenagers college lives where also stood the maximum chances of gifting – no better than a watch.
Titan Redefines Style
In 2004, Titan shifted a little attention towards making watches a fashion statement and an accessory that redefines style. With ‘What’s Your Style’ campaign, also making it the brand tagline, Titan roped in Aamir Khan as its brand ambassador. With the repositioning campaign, Titan aimed at increasing watch consumption per person by suggesting the use of different watches for different occasion.
When we earlier stated that Piyush Pandey likely called ‘Titan’ as the restless brand, that is because Titan has continuously attempted to change according to the consumer needs and their evolving taste. In 2008, yet again the company underwent rebranding with a logo change invested around Rs 15 cr into its brand of watches. Which was heavily promoted through mass media advertising, below-the-line advertising, and online marketing.
It introduced ‘Be More’ as its new tagline and rolled out a campaign featuring Aamir Khan under the supervision of Pandey at Ogilvy. The company aimed at reinventing itself through new designs, retail strategy, and advertising.
In one of the official releases for the campaign, Pandey shared, “Titan has been a restless brand, be it in design or its advertising. The challenging part for us is to capture everything that the brand represents and show it in a way that is easily understood, engaging and entertaining.”
Harish Bhat, Former COO – Watches, Titan Industries Ltd had revealed to Hindu Business Line that Aamir Khan is busy endorsing Titan, which delivers the maximum in terms of value sales for the company, of Rs 1,000 crore.
Titan’s comeback with ‘Joy Of Gifting’ & the Digital touch
Being synonymous with gifting for years, Titan revived it’s signature tune while also bringing back the joy of gifting proposition. The one-minute long ad film conceptualized by Ogilvy India explored deep human emotions associated with gifting.
It showcased a classroom where the students recreate the magic of the signature melody to bid farewell to their professor.
“Titan ads were always Mozart Symphony 25. It was so well entrenched in my teen mind that I could hear it even when I flipped the pages of The Illustrated Weekly to a Titan full-page,” shared Porus Jose, Creative Head, IdeateLabs. “Everything was very classy and stylish about it; but it was a brand desperately fighting the ‘imported’ labels of Citizen, Sieko and Swiss watches in the 80s. Frankly, besides the music memorability, it didn’t have much impact on me.”
Titan and The Star Power
BTown and Advertising have walked hand in hand since celebrity endorsement became a big thing. Titan wasn’t far behind. While Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Aamir Khan, and Tara Sharma were the early reach outs, the new –Katrina Kaif, Rajkumar Rao, Kriti Sanon, and Kalki Kanmani are the appear in Titan watches’ commercials making them a star-studded affair.
Jose added here that over the years Titan matured, slowly but surely, to become a brand with substance. “Communication became meaningful, social and insightful. Some of the favourites starred Rajkumar, Nimrat, Amir, Kalki, Kriti, Katrina; through heart-warming campaigns of ‘Khudse Naya Rishta’, ‘Be more’ and to the more recent ‘flaunt your flaw’. Titan: it’s been a fighter’s journey”.
Titan
storms into the Digi-Verse
The digital bug bit the ad world almost five years back and Titan was one of the early ones to adapt to the social world and spends around 15-25% of its marketing budget on digital.
Storytelling packed with good narrative and execution were the campaign essentials adopted by the brand with its verticals like Titan Raga breaking stereotypes.
Titan Raga is known for celebrating the spirit of an emancipated young Indian woman. From ‘Break the bias’ to ‘#HerLifeHerChoices’ to ‘Mom By Choice’ to ‘Khudse Naya Rishta’, the commercials have spun different aspects of a young woman playing multiple roles in her life and balancing the acts with style and dignity.
In 2016, Sonata launched the first safety watch for women which came with a built-in app-enabled panic button which women could press if in distress to alert her family. The company claimed that users responded well to the initiative as it valued their lives. Same was conveyed through an ad film rolled out during the same time when the country spoke big about women’ safety.
It is also not far behind getting on board a strong
influencer like fashion designer Masaba Gupta to change the perception of Titan
raga worn only for special occasions.
The social saga of Titan is not limited to only this but spans across topical posts, occasion-based marketing and balancing its communication across demographics it serves.
Titan produces watches under the brand name Titan, Fastrack, Sonata, Nebula, RAGA, Regalia Octane & Xylys and also export them to about 32 countries around the world.
We can vouch for this that Titan is one of the most loved brands in India and has been a part of everyone’s life and so have their campaigns.
All happen when the duo Saurabh (Founder) and Navin (Co-Found) met coincidently. Where Saurabh was an SEO specialist having a lot of experience in ranking the pages also own Techibhai and on the other hand Navin who blogs at QuestionCage and a content marketer helped many businesses to promote their business effectively.
Having enough experience in their own field, these guys were a perfect combination to skyrocket any business. This is when the thought rooted to form AllDigiTrends into an SEO company and growing continuously by serving their clients.
Quite opposite but there are a few things which come in common. They interact with their clients as someone would care for their family.
What’s in the name?
You might have already understood with the name what this startup is all about. By the way, AllDigiTrends pronounced as All Digital Trends, an SEO company which was formed in January 2018 by Saurabh Tiwari and Navin Rao.
Although, before turning into a Digital Marketing Agency, it was an Internet Marketing Blog initiated by Saurabh Tiwari (Founder) in 2014, sole intention of sharing his acquired knowledge with the audience.
What we do?
As a Digital marketing agency based in Lucknow, our services include:
Social Media Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
PPC + Display Marketing
Content Writing
Guest Posting
Why we do it?
Being an SEO agency, our main goals are to provide more exposure only to all the prestigious clients. Doesn’t matter whether the brand is starting up or even scaled and already made some impact in the online world. We go from roots, to rectify the issue if persists.
It gives us immense pleasure when we could make the clients feedback.
The industry is growing so fast and we are still keeping up with the trends. And that’s an important element to be in the competition.
We try to understand the business needs closely and strategize our plans according.
Whether it could be getting more visitors from search engines, creating a brand around Social Media and even Reputation Management, in fact, anything which could improve the brand’s visibility. We are always there to fulfill their needs. Thus, apart from newer clients, older too love to work with us. And that let us kept growing.
Social responsibility in social media
Social media networks draw on our human need to socialize, us, the Social media companies, or any freelancer who connect and share in the social media ecosystem need to take care of negative, fake news or any other things.
As we know great power comes great responsibility.
Need of the hour
Social networking laws are not properly drafted yet. Things we consider that need to be taken care of from our experience. Social Media is a massive platform to bring up the exposure, but you need to find out the right audience from it.
We learned the hard way
While Search Engine Optimization is not being simple these days, because of Google algorithms changes on the regular intervals. Thus, we come with the fresh idea every time considering those. And that’s really exciting as you eat a new meal each and every time.
Did we just share that?
A few months back, we met with Client’s who need keyword ranking in next 10 days (Which is not possible, you know that) but the shocking news was they gave a negative review for that.
As we provide plenty of Services in Digital Marketing zone, which includes SEO, SMM, Quality Content writing and Guest Posting Services as well.
And currently we been working with several clients, let us project a few Content Writing Services for – JoomDev, Multicodes, DevHitech, BloggingJoy.
Industry as we foresee
Social Media has been already grown up a lot, and yet tend to do that faster. There are billions of accounts already created and people love to consume content through it.
And going further it will become used even more. All thanks to smartphones.
A day without Internet
A day without internet for me is nothing that shocks me. Sure, my whole work is solely based on the internet, but let’s says that I’m on a day off.
Let’s listen to the buzz campaigns featuring music artists make while singing along a few that topped the charts and learn how to do it. Take a look at some of the best music campaigns.
Collaborating with a music artist can help you gain effective engagement on social media platforms and perhaps influence them. Pepsi’s Super Bowl 2019 commercial gathered 40,000 social mentions according to Brandwatch.
While featuring a music artist can do wonders for your campaign and strengthen your social media presence, finding an artist with a personality and image that would be the right match for your brand would be advisable.
Although, match-making is only the first step in featuring an artist in your campaign. While the brand image requires to be maintained, it is also important to let the artist bring their own artistry in the campaign.
Doritos was the second most-discussed brand on social media after they released their Super Bowl 2019 campaign featuring Backstreet Boys and Chance the Rapper.
The advert was an infusion of the classic Backstreet Boys’ ‘I Want It That Way’ vibes and Chance’s hot rap on nachos. The product placement was on point, so was the artistry. The video has received 13,587,558 views till date.
While bringing in their creativity is important, another significant factor is, the portrayal of the artist should not hamper their image, if it does, it may invite backlash to the campaign by their followers.
All artists have a colossal social media following and paid promotions on their social media handles introduce the brand to a new audience in addition to the campaign’s runs on multiple channels, increasing the overall footfall on all mediums.
Pepsi’s Okurrr ft. Cardi B has 2,855,502 views, Chrysler’s Super Bowl Commercial ft. Eminem has 18,568,142 views, Apple’s Taylor vs. Treadmill has 9,425,574 views on YouTube (till date).
People’s conventional interest in the artists intrigues them towards such campaigns. Reactions and conversations on social media are a result of that interest. Therefore, brands leveraging that interest as a part of their marketing strategy tend to benefit and induce leads.
Sherina Kapany, Founder sunSTRATEGIC Digital awarded in the Agnecy Professionals segment at #Superwomen2019 voices her thoughts on the woman-centric subjects of the digital ecosystem.
Sherina thinks that winning is a good feeling but, it’s taking part that requires the most courage. Read on to know her take on the ‘boardroom inequality’, obstacles faced by women-led agencies, key changes needed in the industry and more.
How would you define a Superwoman in today’s day and age?
In today’s day and age, someone who creates a prosperous reality for herself and others, just from a simple thought, with or without any external help is a Superwoman.
One quality that you think every superwoman has and that helped you win Social Samosa Superwomen…
The power to never give up.
How successful have women been in shattering the glass ceiling in the Media & Advertising field? Does the ‘boardroom inequality’ phrase still stand true?
Yes, very much! Boardroom inequality still stands true. Women are successfully shattering the glass ceiling in many fields of work, but we still have a long way to go before we completely shatter that glass ceiling in the media world.
I would like to call out on some people from media industry such as brand managers who tend to take women-run agencies for granted, take their hard work and share it with their favourite agencies, who don’t pay on time, who are promising work just to get strategies for free. This is harassment. This is us not being able to break the ceiling. And this makes me think that it is high time for women entrepreneurs to voice their thoughts and create a movement to make sure that brand managers are not taking any intellectual property of the women-led agencies or any regular agencies for that matter. Women entrepreneurs in other fields also face similar issues. Many clients feel that women entrepreneurs will give better discounts and that if we don’t stick to their so-called piddly budgets, our businesses will shut down.
And to take action, you don’t have to be on the field to do that. It can start on your social media platforms like LinkedIn. I remember sharing a thought-provoking post inspired by my experience in the industry on LinkedIn. It was viewed by thousands of people and many people (women-led agencies and regular agencies) commented on it with solutions and their own experiences, while relating to the situation.
In order to bridge this gap, it is very important that our ladies negotiate for better opportunities. And that they do not feel threatened enough to short sell their talent. Women in our industry deserve a lot more and they need to demand it with authority. I will not generalize but being in a job and going up the ranks is very different than running a business and ensuring you provide for staff in every way. And therefore ee need more people to understand that a position should not be a matter of gender. It should purely be based on the skill and capability an individual brings on the table.
What are the key changes this industry needs in order to make workplaces gender neutral, safe, and nurturing?
1) Remove the bias that women in the media industry or advertising industry is up for anything. 2) The big brands should give women-run businesses/agencies a chance to work for them. I feel there should be a quota where a certain percentage of campaigns or projects should be given to the women-led companies/agencies. 3) I have come across more males in higher positions as compared to the females and a change in that is going to be a great step towards gender neutral and nurturing workplace environment. This is the one change that I am most certainly looking forward to.
One Superpower you wish you had?
I wish I had the superpower where I could save people’s hard work, ideas, and intellectual properties from getting stolen by the big companies during the pitch presentations and meeting.
The’Superwomen’ you diligently follow and who inspired you…
Kangana Ranaut. She is a one-woman army, fighting against all the norms and hypocrisy of the industry she belongs to. A true epitome of bravery and boldness. She is not afraid and the funniest part is that powerful people are afraid of her not being afraid!
One tip to women out there attempting to scale heights…
Don’t let anyone box you into a cage and tell you what you are capable of. Come out of that cage, create and break your own ceilings. Don’t be in a hurry to reach your goals, be patient and get a 360 degree experience of every situation you are into.
YouTube will now be showing abbreviated YouTube subscriber counts publicly instead of the full count.
For instance, at some places you’d see a channel’s subscriber count as 133,017 and some places you would see them as 133k, from now on you’ll only see the abbreviated count like 133k at all places.
The change would be made across YouTube desktop and mobile apps. The platfrom says the move made is to maintain consistency all across.
The changed subscriber count will begin showing in August 2019 across all public YouTube surfaces. Third parties that use YouTube’s API Services will also access the same public facing counts you see on YouTube. Creators will still be able to see their exact number of subscribers in YouTube Studio.
For channels with fewer than 1,000 subscribers, the exact (non-abbreviated) subscriber count will still be shown. Once the channel passes the 1000 subscriber milestone, we will begin to abbreviate your public subscriber numbers on a sliding scale.
Here are a few examples:
If a channel has 4,227 subscribers, the public subscriber count will read “4.2k” until the channel reaches 4,300.
If a channel has 133,017 subscribers, the public subscriber count will read “133K” until the channel reaches 134,000.
If a channel has 51,389,232, the public subscriber count will read “51M” until the channel reaches 52,000,000.
YouTube shared an early heads-up about it and will share more specifics when the August 2019 date comes closer.
LinkedIn is introducing a LinkedIn new Ads tab on LinkedIn pages where members will be able to view all the Sponsored Content.
The members on the platform will be able to view all the native ads on the LinkedIn new Ads tab that advertisers were previously running on the LinkedIn feed for the past six months.
Advertisers would not be charged for the engagements and the clicks will not impact the campaign reporting but members would still be able to click on the campaign.
The new Ads tab is build on similar tools LinkedIn has recently introduced to help members understand and control their ads experience, including new ad settings that each member can access from their LinkedIn account.
LinkedIn says, “The Ads tab is the first of many updates to come as we continue to provide our members with useful information about the ads they see on LinkedIn.”
The new Ads tab will be rolling out to all LinkedIn members globally over the next few weeks.
Mahindra Rise celebrates the world’s Hardest Workers that help us #RiseAgainstClimateChange by creating a film made entirely out of waste paper
Ever wondered what it would feel like to be a tree? To selflessly clean up after the mess humans left. To stand tall and reverse the damage when everyone around you is determined to leave a trail of destruction?
In a heartwarming narration, Mahindra Rise’s ’Hardest Worker’ film narrates the tale of tree through a video made entirely with the help of waste paper. This quirky videoshares the story of ‘someone’ who strives every waking moment to undo damages done by pollution created thoughtlessly by humans.
The ‘someone’ is revealed to be a tree, emphasizing how difficult their job is considering that they work day and night, giving out oxygen, right from the day it was born the day it dies. The Hardest Worker film further shares how Mahindra Rise has managed to plant over 15 million trees since 2007!
The Hardest Worker campaign boldly brings forth the issue of environmental degradation, urging people to plant trees&#RiseAgainstClimateChange through their tale. The campaign stands to true to the brand’s personality –striving to drive positive change while inspiring others to do the same.
Walking the talk, the Hardest Worker film was created with 150 kgs of recycled waste paper, old cardboard boxes and old newspapers. A labor-intensive task indeed, it took a team of 72 craftsmen and paper-artists who worked for 3600+ hours to turn the waste paper into beautiful sets. Further, after the film was shot, the sets constructed out of recycled paper were shredded and converted into manure, upholding the brand promise and petition for Environment Conservation.
The unique visual set up not only manages to grab consumers’ attention but also establishes the brand’s commitment towards environmental conservation. Throughthe Hardest Worker, Mahindra Rise narrates a compelling tale, urging viewers to #RiseAgainstClimateChange
With social media being the hot spot for discussions and conversations, brands created some innovative Election Results 2019 Campaigns
The world’s largest and longest democratic election concluded with results being announced yesterday. Soon social media became a site for skull sessions. And soon enough brands latched on to the trend with Election Results 2019 Campaigns.
3.2 million Tweets were observed on the Counting Day, with 1/3rd of the Tweets being recorded between 3 and 4pm. Twitter saw more than 396 million Tweets on the platform, nearly a 600% growth from 2014, from 1 January 2019 till 23 May 2019.
Despite being an election for the Lok Sabha in India, the impact was seen around the world. Conversations unfolded across the globe, with world leaders, celebrities and Indian diaspora engaging.
Soon the #ElectionResults2019 also became a topical trend with brands.
The campaigns revolve around the taglines from parties that surfaced during the elections, the winner and more.
Social Media Platforms are constantly evolving and updating with newer features to increase relevance and stickiness for users, brands, and businesses. Here is our weekly roundup of Social Media News this week.
Social Samosa brings you all the latest news, platform updates and trends dominating the digital ecosystem.
Social Media News this week was dominated by Chtrbox clearing the air after allegations of Instagram Data Breach, Twitter’s tweetdeck getting updated & carousel ads launch, YouTube’s change in the portrayal of subscriber counts and more.
Facebook updates algorithm to give users their time’s worth
Facebook is updating the Facebook algorithm with two major changes prioritizing which friends you might want to hear from the most and links you might consider the most worthwhile. Read more here.
Instagram to distinguish new likes from old ones
Instagram is testing an update to categorize the likes your posts get into old and new. Read more here.
Twitter updates Tweetdeck with much needed features
Tweetdeck rolls out new features such as GIF’s, threads, polls, and emojis in a recent update. Read more about the Tweetdeck updates here. Read more here.
Chtrbox clears air post data breach allegations
Chtrbox spokesperson shares that personal data has not been acquired through unethical methods. Read more here.
Instagram revamps IGTV with singular feed
Instagram has scrapped the categories on IGTV with one algorithmically suggestive feed. Read more about the IGTV Singular Feed. Read more here.
Facebook rolls out ‘Why Am I Seeing This Post’ in a bid to hand control to users
According to a feature spotted by Social Samosa, Facebook is asking users for their preferences and allowing them to take control & customize their News Feed while explaining why they see a certain post. Read more here.
Testing: Twitter carousel ads for App Install campaigns
The micro-blogging platform is testing Twitter carousel ads with a fresh design letting you add multiple images for App Install campaigns. Read more here.
Facebook Groups become the new target for spammers
The biggest challenge for digital platforms has been, being one step ahead of spam. While Facebook has been a constant target, the threat of spammers looms large on it again this week and this time Facebook Groups have been the target. Read more here.
Twitter records 396 million Tweets for #LokSabhaElections2019
Twitter was a hotbed for breaking news and real-time public discussions about the#LokSabhaElections2019 by the citizens. Read more here.
YouTube is changing the way viewers see YouTube subscriber counts
YouTube will now be showing abbreviated YouTube subscriber counts publicly instead of the full count. Read more here.
LinkedIn is making advertising more transparent with a new Ads tab
LinkedIn is introducing a LinkedIn new Ads tab on LinkedIn pages where members will be able to view all the Sponsored Content. Read more here.
Here’s to another week of some impressive work from brands and agencies all over the world. Check out some of the social media campaigns that were rolled out this week.
Social Samosa’s weekly digital marketing and social media campaigns round-up this week features campaigns ft. music artists that were a hit, Gits’ Mother’s Day Spot decoded by experts, Mia by Tanishq, and more.
Learn more about the trending and hottest new social media and digital marketing campaigns with Social Samosa’s weekly social media campaigns roundup for a condensed summary of the industry.
Experts give full marks to P&G Shiksha’s 75-year-old student, Bittu
The recent P&G Shiksha Campaign introduces us to Bittu whose desire to educate himself hasn’t faded even if he’s waited for 75 long years. Read more here.
Why Burger King decided to join the Rap bandwagon…
Joining the rap bandwagon is yet another brand. Burger King India unveiled #WrapsWithoutGaps for its recently launched ‘new Loaded Wraps’. Read more here.
#CWCSpot: Coca Cola too offers a World Cup ticket in recent campaign
Coca Cola too, like many other brands, is betting big on the ‘win a trip to ICC World Cup match’ formula in it’s latest campaign. Take a look at the Coca Cola World Cup campaign 2019. Read more here.
Hellmann’s presents The Restaurant With No Food, making the best out of waste
With approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food getting lost or wasted, Hellman’s new campaign, The Restaurant With No Food prompts us to a global emergency. Read more here.
Mia by Tanishq launches a 12-part series with #MeInAction
Born under the legacy of Titan, the eight-year-old brand, Mia by Tanishq’s campaign applauds the women of today for being dynamic, confident and absolutely unapologetic. Read more here.
Featuring a music artist can make your campaign a mega hit
Let’s listen to the buzz campaigns featuring music artists make while singing along a few that topped the charts and learn how to do it. Take a look at some of the best music campaigns. Read more here.
Generating sales not the objective of Gits’ Mother’s Day Campaign!
For Gits’ Mother’s Day campaign this year, the brand went the “unusual” route to redefine Motherhood. Social Samosa gets in conversation with the brand and its agency to take a peek behind the scenes. Read more here.
#RiseAgainstClimateChange: Mahindra Rise’s environment conservation campaign made completely through waste paper
Mahindra Rise celebrates the world’s Hardest Workers that help us #RiseAgainstClimateChange by creating a film made entirely out of waste paper. Read more here.
One of the fastest growing industries, not just around the world, but back in India too, Social Media is the place to be if you are aspiring to script a successful career for yourself. Begin your journey with these lucrative social media jobs.
Some of the industry’s leading agencies and organizations are on the lookout for skilled and ambitious new talent. A goldmine of opportunities beckon, and you are in the right place with Social Samosa Jobs where we help you wade through the countless opportunities to find the right employment with best social media jobs.
Many firms are looking for smart young minds to fill in these positions and land lucrative social media jobs from individuals that complement their organizational values and strive to achieve the objectives assigned to them. These are the companies looking to hire you if you are the right person for the job.
Mehak Sagar, Co-Founder, WedMeGood awarded in the Brand Marketers category at #Superwomen2019 shares empowering insights in a one-on-one with Social Samosa.
Being a mom, Mehak thinks one of the key changes required in the industry is flexible timings. In this interview, an economist turned entrepreneur, Mehak Sagar of WedMeGood shares her experience in the ad world, one superpower she wishes she had, and more.
Glance through.
How would you define a Superwoman in today’s day and age?
I think superwoman is a misused word out there- I just became a mom and I somehow see it everywhere now. It puts an unnecessary pressure on women to not only be a superstar in their field of work but superstar mom for their kids, a superstar in terms of their own fitness etc . Personally, for me, that’s setting them up for unrealistic expectations.
I like to define superwomen as women who are happy in their own skin, driven to achieve their goals, and accepting of the fact that they are actually not perfect. There might be days where they are superwomen at work but not supermoms at home and there will be days where they are supermoms at home, but miss that important meeting at work. And that’s OKAY.
Superwomen are just women who accept and love themselves and understand that it takes sacrifices to achieve whatever goals you have set for yourself in life.
One quality that you think every superwoman has and that helped you win Social Samosa Superwomen…
Drive. In a startup, there are a million roadblocks that knock you down. Its drive and perseverance that makes you get up, dust off your jeans and drive with full force ahead
How successful have women been in shattering the glass ceiling in the Media & Advertising field? Does the ‘boardroom inequality’ phrase still stand true?
I can only talk from my experience. I think within the media and advertising field I actually have had a great experience. Most people I meet in this industry are women, and I personally haven’t felt the inequality but that’s just me. Someone else can have a different experience.
What are the key changes this industry needs in order to make workplaces gender neutral, safe, and nurturing?
Flexible timings – being a mom has made me realise how much harder a woman has to work in order to really put in her best at work. So your amazing woman employee may have to leave a bit early to go to her kid at home but that only means she is being super productive and getting more things done at the same time
One Superpower you wish you had?
Ability to be in two different places at the same time
The ‘Superwomen’ you diligently follow and who inspired you…
I love Indra Nooyi’s interviews. She keeps it real and her story is so inspiring
One tip to women out there attempting to scale heights…
Don’t second guess yourself. Hard work and perseverance eventually always pays off.
Experts discuss the role of General Elections 2019 social media marketing strategy and digital play, understanding the true power of the medium as a marketing vehicle.
Call it the Great Indian Elections or the longest
election or the most important one – all the superlatives lead to an expensive
affair with a magnetic momentum proffering engagement opportunities in the Ad
World. Political parties thrived on it, brands latched on, and consumers, well
they enjoyed all the attention.
The spends game –
Is digital really winning?
What was probably made into a practice by Obama,
became an oxygen tank during General Elections (globally and Indian) – digital
media! All the memes, the trolling, the trending, and the campaigns and yet
experts opine that digital media was grossly underused.
“While there was a speculation that there would be increased spending on digital media and the battle will be fought digitally this year , the real sense is that almost all parties have under spent in digital,” opines Gopa Kumar, Executive Vice President, Isobar India.
In terms of hard numbers, media reports suggest 139,000 poll ads were done on Facebook and Google. BJP obviously topped the charts with INR 17.11 Crores spent on Google alone. 62.5 per cent of the overall ad spends were raked from elections.
Similarly, on Facebook, BJP was the largest spender and it clearly reflected in their social media presence and dominance. Between April 16 to April 30, BJP held 71.5 per cent of the total share of voice on Facebook also leading in the trending hashtags chart with #PhirEkBaarModiSarkar and #NaMoAgain.
“Approximately 500 crore is said to have been spent this time on digital media, which is 70% more than the 2014 elections,” shares Akshay Gurnani, Co-Founder & CEO, Schbang.
The importance of phases in the General Elections
reflected in the Ad Spends as well. According to a report by News18, political
parties amped up spends before the third phase of elections. Reported, INR 7
crore was spent on running political ads on Facebook and Instagram in the first
20 days of April.
Bindu Balakrishnan, Country Head, DCMN India opines that there were more than 84 million new voters and 300 million voters of Facebook, so the tilt of spends had to be heavy on social because this set of audience spend a lot of time on social media. The increase in spends towards trolls and memes however is to be noted.
“One thing needs to be taken into account here is the amount of money spent on troll armies, WhatsApp groups and Social Media pages promoting different ideologies, leaders and parties. There were thousands of such groups collating information, creating memes across languages and circulating them across the country,” Balakrishnan expresses.
However, the spent on these activities cannot be
calculated but they are way above than the accounted spends on the medium.
A definite part of the digital plan was also the well-articulated content strategy containing the movies and web series around political leaders. While they couldn’t release before the election results were announced, their released being postpone was newsy and engaging enough (of course going by the adage any publicity is good publicity).
Aanchal Arora, Founder 1702 Digital tells Social Samosa, “The crafty strategies employed by political parties in this general elections included investing in movie marketing followed by heavy spends on different digital platforms. Political parties spent a whopping Rs. 53 cr between February and May in promoting themselves in the digital sphere with BJP owning more than half of the share of that pie.”
Arora further shares that with spends more than INR 17 cr on Google and INR 8.23 cr on Facebook, BJP successfully used the different platforms and the fan pages set up to reach out to the Indian audience. In contrast, Congress did not go heavy on digital spends and focussed more on the tried and tested methods of fanning the ire of the common people against the ruling Government. At a time when no publicity is good publicity, the effect of this decision was disastrous.
Given the sheer size of the momentum created by
General Elections 2019, giving it a hard pass was definitely difficult for
brands. Thus, the election season witnessed many neutral and responsible
campaigns. The likes of Comedy Central and McDonald’s took to social media. The
general messaging was around the responsibility of casting a vote and making
the right decision.
“Most of the brands tend to keep away from elections as they would not want to get into any incessant controversy or tick someone in wrong way. The environment of brand and political point of view is still evolving in India and is in a very nascent stage,” Kumar comments. “Brands who do have some communication tend to be neutral and they tend to stick to asking people to come out and vote. I did not find any striking campaigns.”
Echoing a similar view, Sabyasachi Mitter, Founder
& Managing Director, Fulcro shares that brands tend to avoid controversies.
And to a great extent brands need to avoid controversies, for the Ban XYZ brand
and its ambassadors and anyone who was ever associated with it circus can be
tedious and not something brands can afford.
“Most youth brands have taken advantage of this heightened interest on social media as well as news websites and apps. However, given recent controversies when brands got into trouble during Holi with their digital content, the number of brands who released election-related content has been unexpectedly low,” Mitter tells Social Samosa.
One of the most important General Elections for India has concluded and with it concluded a great marketing phase. As experts stay divided on the role of social media and digital on the results of elections, it brings us to a few questions – how do we define “low spends” when it comes to digital? Comparing it to Television & Prints numbers certainly wouldn’t be fair due to the medium’s mass appeal. Second, do spends impact the results? Had there been better results if the spends were North of where they’re now? Also, on the brand side – are brands shying away from digital due to the fear of controversies or menace for trolls?
Like any other campaign, it is difficult to calculate hard RoI on the election spends, but social media can definitely be termed the supporting actor for the party that ruled the socialverse also won the elections.
Bira 91 on Monday announced the appointment of Deepak Sinha as the Vice President of Marketing, India, and Global.
Sinha has worked in the marketing domain for over 14 years with companies like Pernod Ricard, MillerCoors and alco-bev start-ups across different stages of growth.
“With many more new products and markets on the horizon, Bira 91 is at pivotal state of its growth. As we scale, one of the key challenges we see is to remain fresh and relevant to a large segment of consumers and deliver consistently on our promise of flavourful and innovative beers,” said Sinha.
Hinting at the upcoming ICC partnership, he said, “It is perhaps the largest global partnership for any Indian beer brand going live this month.” He further explains that it will give the brand a tremendous platform to catalyse their ambition of becoming a fun, youthful brand for “this generation of consumers in India and across the world.”
“We are positioning ourselves for defendable market leadership over the next decade in India and meaningful execution across international markets,” said Ankur Jain, Founder and CEO, Bira 91, adding that with his thorough knowledge and experience, Sinha will help them achieve their goals. “We are delighted to have him on-board to lead the marketing team for Bira 91 across all markets,” he said.
Sinha had joined Bira 91 as Vice President, Marketing for USA in 2017 and was responsible for leading the brand through multiple product launches. Passionate about delivering impact and results, he looks forward to bringing global best practices and experiences and contribute to the organisation’s growth.
Snap Inc. is reportedly in conversations with leading music labels to add more licensed music to Snapchat.
Snapchat is looking to solicit rights to a broad set of music catalogs from music labels like Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The move maybe a strive towards competing with other major platforms who have already incorporated music on the platform like Instagram Music, TikTok and more.
In March, 2019, Facebook partnered with major music labels in India like Yash Raj Films, Zee Music Company, and T-Series Music to incorporate their music in Instagram Stories in India.
Including music in a post to express and share with peers on the platform, is one of the favorite activities of users on any platform, given the popularity of such activities among the users and various platforms’ efforts to improve the features that support these activities.
Snapchat in December, 2018 introduced Lens Challenges that were almost similar to the ones on TikTok, apart from having a themed-lens incorporated. The first challenge involved selecting a specific lens, and singing along Jingle Bells by Gwen Stefani.
As of January, 2019, TikTok has 20 million active users in India and 500 million active users worldwide, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.
TikTok has explosively grown in Asian countries.
On the other hand, Snapchat has 300 million+ monthly active users, as accounted by Omnicore. As the numbers suggest, Snapchat lies way behind TikTok in terms of the userbase.
Facebook duplicating stories, increasing popularity of apps like TikTok and inferior standard of the Android app, all fueled the fire dooming Snapchat.
But, the recently released revamped Android app gained positive reviews from users and Snapchat’s new features like AR filters, Bitmoji Party, Snap Map, Snap Originals, Lens Challenges and more may help the platform find a place for itself.
Moreover, if Snapchat successfully incorporates licensed music on the platform, it will aid the growth. The deals with the music labels are not final, as of yet, and it’s uncertain how soon or if the deal would be locked in.
Emami Double Bull Cement has appointed L&K Saatchi & Saatchi to handle the integrated communication duties.
This business was won after a multi-agency pitch; the agency’s Kolkata office will handle the business.
Vivek Chawla, CEO & Whole time Director of Emami Double Bull cement, said: “Emami’s legacy of creating world class brands, its commitment to quality and our investment in state of the art technology in our cement plants’ has resulted in EDBC becoming Eastern India’s fastest growing cement brand.
We look forward to L&KSaatchi & Saatchi partnering us, to get us to the next level of engagement with our customers, by becoming a preferred brand of choice.
Anil S Nair, CEO & Managing Partner, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi India, said, Emami Double Bull Cement is a very cherished win as it signals the beginning of our relationship with the venerable Emami Group. We look forward to taking Emami to market leadership in the Cement Category.
Devraj Basu, Executive Vice President – North and East, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi India, said the mandate is to empower the consumer to make an informed decision to upgrade to a superior product offering, in a category known for varied promises.
Nikhil Madhok, Head- Original Content, Hotstar reveals the sense behind launching Hostages, Hotstar Specials content strategy, competing with other OTT channels, and more.
Hotstar rang in the new year by announcing its foray into original content with Hotstar Specials partnering with storytellers including Shekhar Kapur, Neeraj Pandey, Kabir Khan, Nikkhil Advani, Ram Madhvani, Nagesh Kukunoor, Mahesh Manjrekar, Vishal Furia, Rohan Sippy, Debbie Rao, Sharad Devarajan, and Salman Khan. Since then the OTT platform has launched four shows – Roar of The Lion, Criminal Justice, City of Dreams and the most recent Hostages. Take a look at the Hotstar Specials content strategy.
About ‘Hostages’
A crime thriller at its core, the story revolves around the life of a renowned surgeon who is ordered to assassinate the chief minister, in exchange for the survival of her family. Created by Applause Entertainment, ‘Hostages’ features powerhouse talent like Tisca Chopra and Ronit Roy as leads with Parvin Dabas, Aashim Gulati, Mohan Kapoor, Malhaar Rathod, Sharad Joshi, DalipTahil, Surya Sharma, Anangsha Biswas in pivotal roles and will be streaming from 31st May. The show will be available in multiple Indian languages on Hotstar VIP.
Insight
behind launching ‘Hostages’
The rationale behind launching Hostages, as Nikhil Madhok, Head- Original Content, Hotstar shared is that in the OTT space was lacking was a real high-quality thriller and this story in his opinion is a complete binge-worthy page turner.
He added, “What you can expect is 10 episodes which will make you completely binge watch the content. It fits into our overall philosophy of providing variety with more Indian stories created by talented storytellers.”
The response
for earlier three original shows
Madhok asserted that all three shows (Roar of The Lion, Criminal Justice, City of Dreams) have done well in different ways and have helped Hotstar in adding a lot of subscribers to its VIP service.
Especially calling out to Vikrant Massey starrer Criminal Justice, Madhok shared that the show has done exceptionally well. “In the last two-three years if you look at the OTT space this one is really a big hit,” he exclaimed.
Content strategy for ‘Hotstar Specials’
According to Madhok, the strategy is to ‘Be Bold’ in storytelling and present a variety of bold Indian stories with talented storytellers. For Hotstar to be able to provide variety its important for them to be able to tell stories across formats and genres. “We had a sports docudrama which is an unusual way to launch the category, and then there was a family drama proceeded with a crime story and now we have a thriller. Coming up next is a comedy”.
As far
as bringing in overseas stories to India is concerned, both Criminal Justice
and Hostage are international formats and have been adapted by Hotstar
Specials. The platform believes that the core of the story is very Universal.
The
Content production value and ROI
With quality production, the cost per episode also goes up. Though Madhok couldn’t share the exact individual cost, he stated that a bare minimum that is required to create a certain quality. But the investment in different shows differs depending on the nature of the show. For instance; an international action series will require a different scale and if it’s a sitcom, that would be different.
For Hotstar, more than the return of investment, the most important thing is these shows winning them consumers attention. He added, “Also are they loving the shows enough to become paid members of our VIP service. These are the very important parameters”.
The way forward…
When
quizzed about where he would like to see Hotstar 5 years from now and are they aiming
to take it head on with the streaming giants Netflix and Amazon Prime, Madhok
shared, “For us to think how we will stack up against the competition is a
wrong way to think. From a point of view of our consumers, we will continue to
be the most preferred OTT service in the country.”
Further, he claimed that right now as things stand Hotstar especially from India perspective is far ahead of the game in terms of audiences’ love and subscribers.
Gillette wins hearts, makes Twitterverse teary-eyed with new #MyBestSelf inclusive first shave advertisement as people shower love. Take a look at the Gillette campaign here.
The first shave is meant to be a transition point for a boy as he enters manhood. But do these lines really have to so opaque? The answer is no. Gender is a fluid concept and the Gillette campaign is trying to be a razor brand that brings forth various aspects of masculinity, exploring facets that often contradict it’s own created imagery.
The advertisement portrays the emotions of a young Canadian artist, Samson Bonkeabantu Brown, as he uses a razor for the first time. Overwhelmed by the response he got for the video, he took to Facebook to thank people across the globe.
He says he wanted to include his father in the narration of his tale for it was him who had been one of his greatest supporters throughout his transition, encouraging him to be confident and live authentically as his best self.
“I’m keenly aware of how blessed I am to be able to exist in this world being supported by my family in ways that all too often many of my trans brothers, sisters, and siblings who exist outside the binary are not always as fortunate,” he wrote.
3/4 may be going through even more scrutiny about his own identity. The father's unconditional support and the son's own identity as a trans man add up beautifully towards Gillette's 'The best a man can get'!
3. Unlike the toxic masculinity ad that generalized its narrative,
4/4 this one isolates one real individual. That specificity adds depth. Samson's own Facebook post explaining the ad is a good read in context too: Karthik (@beastoftraal) May 27, 2019
I don't say this very often: this is a beautiful ad. I admire @Gillette for creating an ad that both respects and supports the trans community. Trans rights are under attack in this country and around the world every day. Individuals and organizations alike have to take a stand. pic.twitter.com/zoTjIcF5hw
@Gillette Apparently your declining sales after your last ignorant TV Ad flopped didn't teach you a lesson. Your new Ad is even more offensive. Fire your Ad agency – they suck. Men: Don't shave like a Cave Man, with a sharpened implement to scrape whiskers off Ur Face!
After releasing an ad shaming all men for being 'toxic' pigs Gillette wants female-to-male trans individuals to know that once those hormones kick in, they've got your shaving needs covered. How comforting eh?
— Twinheadedphoenix (@Mitchel06512105) May 27, 2019
Though there are plenty of negative remarks, they are negligible when compared to the love the campaign got through tweets and over comments. Kudos, Gillette!
