Week at a glance: Battlegrounds Mobile India launch; IMAGEXX 2021 Jury Speak

Will Battlegrounds Mobile India meet the steep expectations as it launches in India?

Get ready for ‘Chicken Dinner’ today as South Korean video game developer Krafton’s made-for-India game – Battlegrounds Mobile India – launches today. After an Early Access period, Battlegrounds Mobile India is now available for download as a free-to-play multiplayer game on Google Play with an array of maps, game modes, and launch week challenges.

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Delving into the minds of content creators fuelling the influencer ecosystem

The influencer/ creator space has now matured to a stage where it is a multi-faceted economy. With multiple channels of distribution/ growth, a wide array of monetisation opportunities and also a growing support structure of people and companies who work with these creators to help create-amplify and monetise their content. This maturing will enable it to show higher growth and capture a bigger chunk of both media as well as brand investment money.

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Dentsu sets out timeframe for brands to be ‘Cookie Free’ in new global guide

The media arm of dentsu international has published the first in-depth review of a cookieless future in the wake of recent Google announcements and timelines. ‘The Cookieless World: A Guide for the New Era of Digital Marketing’ provides a deep dive into the impact on brands due to major changes in web tracking capabilities and enhanced privacy legislation. It will explore a range of areas including Data Management, Audience Activation & First-party Data Usage, Performance Measurement and Preparing for the Deprecation of Third-party Cookies.

Personal Healthcare Print ad volumes up 95% during Jan-May’21: TAM AdEx

Personal Healthcare ad volumes on traditional media – Television, Print and Radio – saw a huge rise in Jan-May’21, compared to Jan-May’20, as per TAM AdEx data. Sector ad space in Print rose the highest at 95% during Jan-May’21, followed by Radio at 93% and Television at 86%. In comparison, Personal Healthcare ad insertions on Digital grew by 50% during this period.

Real Estate advertising on Digital up 93% in Jan-May’21: TAM AdEx

Properties/ Real Estate advertising gained the highest traction on Digital, with this category witnessing 93% growth in Digital ad insertions during Jan-May’21 over Jan-May’20, as per TAM AdEx data. This was followed by Radio, where the category ad volumes rose by 50% during Jan-May’21, and Print, where ad space for Properties/Real Estates grew by 42%. Properties/ Real Estate ad volumes were lowest on Television, which saw a growth of 18%.

Demystifying Trade Mark laws & what constitutes a Trade Mark infringement in India

Competition is part of almost every goods and service available in India and globally. But sometimes competition results in the competitors alleging unfair trade practices or deceptive trade practices, especially when they believe that the competitor is attempting to confuse the consumer with a similar packaged product and infringe its Trade Mark. Part 30 of the series of articles on Misleading Ads by Advocate Aazmeen Kasad, serves to demystify and provide an in-depth understanding of what our Trade Mark laws are, what constitutes a Trade Mark infringement, in India.

How social media became a responsible lifeline for people during pandemic times

Social media has become an integral part of everyone’s lives, regardless of age, language, economic and educational levels. But perhaps the deep reach and need of social media was realised the most when the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world. Social media became the lifeline, helping people who were isolated in their homes to keep in touch with friends and family, stay entertained and informed, and above all, receive and extend help for people affected by the coronavirus.

“This pandemic has been setting a new normal in every step”

As part of our series of IMAGEXX 2021 JURY SPEAK, Sukanya Chakraborty, Head - Corporate Communications & CSR, VFS Global, speaks about the dramatic shifts that have happened in communications, information overload due to consumption of content across multiple platforms, successfully harnessing the power of digital and more.

I believe the next big trend will be communication marketing: Janet Arole

In conversation with Adgully as part of IMAGEXX 2021 Jury Speak, Janet Arole, AVP & Head - Corporate Communications, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd, speaks about how PR has evolved into a complex phenomenon, especially in the post COVID-era as well as the trends to look out for in this industry.

Twitter India's resident grievance officer quits: Reports

According to media reports, Twitter interim resident grievance officer for India has stepped down leaving the social media intermediary without a grievance official as mandated by Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Twitter had appointed Dharmendra Chatur for the post.

The PR industry is actually at a rather pivotal point: Kiran Ray Chaudhury

In conversation with Adgully, Kiran Ray Chaudhury, Co-founder, 80dB Communications, speaks about the profound shifts – both at the strategic and tactical levels – in the PR industry today, fighting the growing menace of fake news, her agency’s approach to business development pitches and much more.

Going forward, online media & traditional media will be a merged entity: Nikhil Bharadwaj

In this interaction with Adgully, Nikhil Bharadwaj, Head - Corporate Communications, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, envisages a future where the mobile phone will be everything for consumers – magazine, newspaper, social media, etc. – and hence, PR of tomorrow too will also be in consumers’ hands.

“It is a continuous effort to directionally understand drift in consumers’ interests"

Speaking to Adgully, Ravindra Sharma, Chief of Brand, Corporate Communication & CSR, SBI Life, explains the entire rationale behind the film and how they keep culling out new insights for their film to celebrate Father’s Day and keep the sentiment alive well beyond the annual occasion.

Enamor scales up to 5X growth online, post pandemic: Sandra Daniels

In a free-wheeling conversation, Sandra Daniels, Vice President, Enamor, speaks to Adgully on the importance of sustainability in the garment industry and how their company is moving in that direction. Apart from sustainability, Daniels also speaks about the overall strategy of the company in terms of marketing and online sales, as well as how they are engaging with their audiences during the pandemic times.

“Brand building in this new world should be more about simplicity than complication”

In conversation with Adgully, Sooraj Balakrishnan, Head of Marketing , Acer India, speaks about the new ideas and strategies that were built for creating effective branding during the pandemic, brand building in the new normal, the evolving role of the CMO, the importance of offering a cohesive brand experience to customers at all touch-points and more.

“Next 5 years will see new challenger agencies that can disrupt conventional leaders”

In this interaction with Adgully, Chetan Mahajan, CEO, The Mavericks, highlights how technology and AI will eventually be the cornerstone of storytelling, agencies evolving to be full-stack agencies in the next five years and more.

“Start-ups need to adapt the business & embrace the change happening in the world”

Working as a full-time professional, it was a constant challenge for Prerna Kalra to carry healthy food & snacks to work every day. She barely had time to cook breakfast or lunch or mid-day snacks, and would find herself craving for fresh home-cooked food and snacks. Food delivery simply got tiresome, expensive, and just didn’t match her schedule between meetings, and one needed an instant or quick snacking option to match up long working schedules.

“Brand building in this new world should be more about simplicity than complication”

“Next 5 years will see new challenger agencies that can disrupt conventional leaders”

“Start-ups need to adapt the business & embrace the change happening in the world”

“Being an entrepreneur is about facing challenges head on & a never give up attitude”

In conversation with Adgully, Aarti Gill, Co-Founder & CEO, Oziva, speaks at length about the core business proposition of Oziva, how it is the world’s first connected omni-channel nutrition brand, overcoming the challenges faced by start-ups and more.

T20 World Cup 2021 to be held in UAE and not in India

The BCCI recently announced the shift of the T20 World cup 2021 to be held in UAE instead of India by looking at the Covid-19 pandemic situation in the country. The BCCI will remain the hosts of this awaited event, according to the media reports. The information was shared by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly in an email to the members, saying that, "the decision had been taken after several rounds of discussions internally".

Social music platform Humit raises pre-seed funding from Antler India

Social music app Humit, founded in 2020 by BITS Pilani graduates Rohit Ganapathy, Prithvi Sankar and Ishaan Negi, has raised a pre-seed round of funding led by Antler India. Humit seeks to reimagine the way people discover, share and express themselves with their taste in music. The platform is currently home to 500+ stations created by users across 42 countries.

Isobar India appoints Aalap Desai as National Creative Director

Isobar, the digital agency from the house of dentsu India, has roped in Aalap Desai as National Creative Director (NCD). In his new role, Aalap will lead the agency's creative team and report into Gopa Kumar, COO, Isobar India.

Chimp&z Inc Celebrates #PrideOfAdvertising with Agency Professionals

Chimp&z Inc celebrates the openly LGBTQIA+ members of the advertising community by bringing them together for its digital pride parade, #PrideOfAdvertising, all through June. Conceptualised and executed by the integrated digital agency, the campaign was initiated to understand, support, and celebrate the culture of inclusivity and acceptance at workplaces.

Krishna Mani appointed as Chief Creative Officer of BBDO Delhi

BBDO India has announced the appointment of Krishna Mani as CCO for their Delhi office. Krishna Mani has previously worked with Dentsu and Ogilvy. Krishna comes to BBDO bringing with him a strong heritage of solid brand work. Throughout the 18 years that he worked at Ogilvy Delhi, he created distinctive work across many brands.

The Roaring 20s usher in Retail's big reset : TBWA, Future of Retail Report

Backslash, the cultural intelligence unit of TBWAWorldwide, has today released its Future of Retail report, leveraging insight and expertise from its global network of culture spotters to unlock opportunities for disruptive growth in the retail sector. The second in its “Future Of” series, the report explores the most urgent questions facing retail businesses as they prepare for recovery.

Ad Land’s Young Guns: Megha Chaturvedi, Senior Account Director, Adfactors PR

Megha Chaturvedi, Senior Account Director, Adfactors PR, is a publicist by profession and a poet from heart. She is associated with Adfactors PR for more than 3 years now. In her current role, she entails two critical responsibilities – Client Management and People Management. She leads communication support for issue management and in exploring New Business Opportunities.