Tag: Storyboard

Storyboard18 | Why brands took to esports and gaming to target GenZ in 2021

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Gaming and esports have opened a new door for advertisers offering high engagements and massive reach. While 2020 saw growth in the industry in terms of users, new apps and platforms, 2021 saw a huge influx of advertisers in the segment. From tech companies to e-commerce, FMCG and food delivery apps, categories targeting millennials and Gen-Z have grown.

“India was a sleeping giant till COVID, and now we have established ourselves as a market that cannot be ignored. Stakeholders like the brands, investors, authorities etc were just sitting on the fence and observing. But with a market of at least 450 million online gamers, the potential of video games and esports cannot be ignored,” said Lokesh Suji, Director, Esports Federation of India and Vice President of the Asian Esports Federation (AESF).

According to recent EY reports, the online gaming industry was the fourth-largest subsector in media and entertainment in 2020 with a CAGR of 27 percent. Reports also say that the esports market size in India has quickly scaled to Rs 3 billion in FY2021 and the expectation is that it’d reach Rs 11 billion by FY2025. According to the same EY report, the segment is also expected to generate an economic value of around Rs 100 billion between FY2021 and FY2025.

“Brand participation in our own platforms have grown by 40 percent over last year,” said Rajan R. Navani, founder and CEO of digital entertainment and tech firm JetSynthesys.

JetSynthesys, which has a 50 percent founding stake in Nodwin Gaming, also owns 100 percent of cricket simulation games like Real Cricket and Sachin Saga, engaging over 100 million gamers worldwide. JetSynthesys recently acquired Chennai-based Skyesports to form Jet Skyesports Gaming Pvt. Alongside working with ecommerce and FMCG brands they have also onboarded new entrants in 2021 mostly from the technology sector like AMB Technologies and Western Digital.

Players spending more time gaming, higher engagement

“The average time spent on the gaming and esports platforms were close to 40 mins a day last year. The number is almost an hour now. The engagements have gone up and so have viewership of live gaming events. Our Youtube channel Skyesports for instance saw 3X growth in viewership for certain tournaments and this is the kind of reach advertisers catering to millenial and Gen-Z crowd are looking for,” Navani added.

Similar audience profiles are another reason why brands are looking at the segment, Navani said.

Gaurav Agarwal, founder of Gamezop, a plug-and-play game center that apps and websites can use to bring casual gaming to their users explains why advertising in the segment makes sense for brands and marketers.

“Gaming amounts to interactive engagement and commands higher attention from the users. But that’s not the only reason why brands and agencies are growing focus on gaming. Casual gamers are the most diverse group on the internet, allowing for the highest degree of granular targeting,” he said.

According to Agarwal, within the broad gaming universe, brands can utilise inventory on banners, interstitials, videos (pre-rolls, mid-rolls, and rewarded), native units (such as in-game billboards or jerseys), or even sponsor an esports team that has millions of followers.

Agarwal’s Gamezop has also worked with a host of popular brands such as Amazon, Sony LIV, Paytm, Samsung Internet, Goibibo, and Airtel Thanks.

Interestingly, dentsu also recently launched dentsu gaming this year, a solution to dedicatedly support brands looking to advertise to 3 billion gamers worldwide.

The move clearly indicates the interest marketers are taking in the segment.

Gamers and brands want variety

Tarun Gupta, founder at esports platform Ultimate Battle said they have witnessed an increase of 31 percent in new user engagement in 2021. Similarly, Sunil Yadav, CEO, at fantasy cricket platform PlayerzPot told Storyboard18 that variety in content is also one of the reasons driving growth in the segment.

“Players are also open to exploring gaming content trends like short video, live streaming, new genres of gaming, GENZ-focused games, etc and this has pushed the envelope,” he said. Riding on this trend, PlayerzPot is expecting to reach 10M users by the end of FY 2021-22.

With the growth in top lines, the platforms are also attracting international brands and investments, venture capital and IPOs are opening up for this sector. There are now specific funds being launched for this sector. The likes of Eximius Ventures and Kalaari Capital are all adding gaming to their portfolio.

As for international brands, Thailand-based esports company Ampverse recently entered the Indian market by acquiring 7Sea Esports.

Charlie Baillie CSO and Co-Founder of Ampverse said they are planning a multi-million-dollar investment into India to enable the growth of the industry and establish a solid foundation.

“India has one of the biggest economies in the world and also a huge untapped market for gaming. Our mission is to accelerate the future of the esports industry and that’s what we’re planning to do with our Indian team 7Sea. With India expected to have over 900 million active internet users by 2025, a huge chunk of those users will turn into mobile gamers and that’s what organizations are betting on,” Baillie said.

Playing the long-game: Finding and nurturing talent and new users

Association with brands is also helping promote talent and healthy competition in the sector.

Pranav Panpalia, founder, OpraahFx and OP Gaming that manages close to 30 gamers says there is no dearth of talent management companies in the segment but still there isn’t any struggle to onboard new clients. “There are talent management firms for the sector that handles gamers based on followings, games, platforms, wins etc and there are so many of them in each category there is no cut-throat competition amid agencies,” Panpalia said.

Similarly, Abhishek Aggarwal, co-Founder and CEO at gaming talent management company Trinity Gaming, said that supporting talents and enabling them to monetize has become easier while associating brands like Truke, CellBell, Coca-Cola and others.

“With the help of brands, we aim to bring more diverse talents under the Trinity Gaming banner. We are constantly doing R&D and identifying talents, even penetrating the Tier II and Tier III markets for vernacular content,” Agarwal said.

For brands the focus is not just on gaming but also taking gaming and esports to native language markets which is the new big source for millennial and Gen-Z customers.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Storyboard18 | ‘I can tell a story, and the moral of that story can be your product or service’: aiyyoshraddha

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Shraddha Jain spent nine years as a radio jockey and then some time working in the television industry where she learnt how to sell an idea in 20 seconds. Jain, who is popularly known on the Internet as aiyyoshraddha, doesn’t have a category tag. She’s not a comedian. She’s not a beauty/travel/lifestyle/culture vlogger either. But she manages to do a little bit of everything and in many languages, playing many characters. Jain calls herself a storyteller. Her videos travel from Pune to Paris through Whatsapp and brands swear by her. In an exclusive chat with Storyboard18, Jain talks about aiyyoshraddha and her creations, influencer marketing, storytelling, brand partnerships, her creator’s hack and more.

Edited excerpts.

Every brand is now focusing on influencer marketing. Do you think Influencers like yourself creating content for brands is working better than celebrity ambassadors from Bollywood or sport, for instance, these days?

I’m going to say we work better in certain situations. We are not always the better option. We are an option that did not exist until now. If you don’t have the budget for a superstar to endorse your product, you’ll have to make an ad film without any celebrities. But even to make that ad film the production money is huge. Then you need money to broadcast it everywhere. But now there is this person who will not only bring you the creative idea, but also will shoot, edit and hand you the complete creative. The person also has a certain following of people who may like your product in the part of the world where you are marketing that product. That’s why it’s such a great option now.

But we still need celebrities to sell your diamonds, perfumes and pan masala. Influencers are not cool enough for pan masala yet, right? You do need celeb power for that sort of thing.

We are bringing a whole new option for brands. For certain categories like electronics, fashion or cosmetics, I would much rather listen to somebody who has earned a lot of credibility in that domain. A person with expertise in tech will convince me to buy a phone more than just seeing Aamir Khan with that phone. But if it is a chappal that no one actually reviews, I’d buy it only and only because Salman Khan is wearing it.

So, it is also category-specific.

As for me, I think of myself not as a domain expert but as a storyteller. What I can do is I can tell a story, and the moral of that story can be your product or your service.

You have worked with a host of big brands ranging from real estate to FMCG to BFSI. Tell us the secret behind creating variety in content?

I started doing variety in content, way before brands started coming to me and that was mainly because I get bored very easily. So I cannot do the same thing again and again. Hence I created a Mrs Kulkarni, a Bulbul Vidyamandir, a Rina Dalal, and the family arrangements. This was long before brands approached me for paid partnerships. I had created this format for myself because I did not want to do the same thing again. I made sure no two characters appeared consecutively on my feed. Eventually what ended up happening is I had all these formats that in some way appealed to different categories of brands.

For instance, real estate did not really know how to pick an influencer, but then there was Rina Dalal and they said “arre yeh toh bohot sahi hain” (this is perfect for us). Probably, I’m one of the first people to do any content for real estate and that happened because I made Rina Dalal, not with real estate paid partnerships in mind. I was very excited with the idea – if Sima Taparia was a real estate agent and not a matchmaker how would that be? I went ahead and did that and real estate brands got so excited that I started getting paid partnerships for that. (Sima Taparia is a TV personality and a matchmaker who starred in Netflix’s popular reality series Indian Matchmaking.)

Tell us about your favourite kind of brand categories – the ones you love to create content about?

I absolutely love working with the kind of brand category where the product is massier. Ideas come faster for that kind of brand. But then a very niche brand poses a very fresh challenge.

More than a category I have favorite people that I prefer working with. The success of a collaboration depends on great communication. So if the client knows why they have come to me and they have clarity on why they’ve picked me and what they want, I think the work is just so much nicer.

But sometimes they don’t know why they picked me. They picked me just because a certain video went viral and they don’t know exactly how to use me. Then there is a lot of back and forth and ultimately you lose your mojo.

How much of the script is dictated by the client (if at all)? How much control do you have over the screenplay?

It is not at all dictated actually. The best kind of partnership is when the brand comes and tells me this is who they are, who they aren’t, what it is that they do and what they want me to tell. Then they leave me to sort of meditate on it. It gives me a big playground. I think of who I could use – Mrs Kulkarni or the family scene or something new. Then I present my options to the brand. This is when brands give their go-ahead which they usually do because I manage to hit the sweet spot usually and that’s how I create content. It does not take more than two meetings to decide on content. One is the brief meeting, then there’s the concept discussion meeting. That’s all it takes.

What’s the best kind of brand collaboration in your view? And what’s the worst you’ve had to deal with?

You should know why you have come to me and you should be 100% honest with me. Full disclosure, full clarity and trust is very important for a successful collaboration. Also, when you come to me you should know what my audiences like. If you don’t know my audience, you will have wrong expectations from me. I am not good at changing 50 clothes in 30 seconds with trending background music. Brands trusting your intuition is also important and trusting your experience in making content.

Some brands know the secret of a good creative so well they always prefer not going overboard with branding. But then there are brands who’d want their brand name is mentioned several times in the video. I keep asking them to trust the viewer’s intelligence and not patronize them.

Having fun while creating content is very important. That shows in your work and works best for brands too.

Popular influencers generally have a fixed style and the expectation is to stick to that style. How do you feel about that? Do you sometimes feel trapped in the image aiyyoshraddha has on social media?

I also have the power to break free of it. For example, nobody expected Rina Dalal out of me. The only thing that’s stopping me is me. If I don’t have a kickass idea, I don’t want to be a rebel for the heck of it. I need to be convinced of the character that I play in my creative work and I need to be able to do it. Don’t simply create a Punjabi aunty character if you cannot pull off a Punjabi aunty accent.

Don’t do travel blogs when you don’t have the stamina for it. But tomorrow if I feel I can actually do cooking videos that are great and if I can sustain and can consistently pull out one funny cooking video every week, the next thing you know is I’m probably endorsing cooking oil.

What’s your take on the recent guidelines introduced by ASCI for influencer marketing?

If you put it out there that it’s an ad and people are still watching it and enjoying it says so much about your creative capabilities. It thrills me when people appreciate my paid partnerships. If you have watched my 30-second creative, laughed and enjoyed it, and in the comments are telling me it was so clever, I guess there is nothing to complain about. In fact, that is the reason why brands should come to you. If you’re skippable, why should a brand come to you?

Tell us about aiyyoshraddha and her journey outside of the Instagram grid?

A lot of all the good things about my work on Instagram are because of my training in radio. In radio, your real estate is only audio, there’s no video. So, I’ve been trained to communicate an idea in 15-25 seconds using only audio. So the training in content structure, the economy of words, connecting with people, tone of your voice, the smiling voice that people cannot see, is all radio.

So when I got the visual medium in my hand, I went a little berserk.

And I have worked in television also. A lot of times when I see content on Instagram, I notice how there was so much effort put into the script but the editing was choppy. So my editing is strong because of my TV career.

My past experiences in TV and radio helped me a lot in getting where I am. Like a lot of SNP rules in TV and radio still, influence me. For instance, how to put out a message without talking sex, politics or religion. To inform and to entertain without using cuss words or again politics and religion. I’ve followed these guidelines in my career before this and it helps me a lot to date.

I don’t like to follow statistics and I don’t go by ideas like one should follow trends or put up one video every week to keep the analytics right, etc. My creator’s hack is to not do what’s trending. The effort it takes to do that trending video is no less than what it takes to come up with something original. Also, I am in no hurry to put up content. Nobody is waiting for it. It is important for me to put out content only when I think ‘isko dekh ke maza ayega’.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Storyboard18 | Consumers favor safer and bigger brands over challenger brands

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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BrandZ India 2021 report broadly looks at the impact of the year’s multifaceted volatility on Indian brands, with a focus across FMCG, Non-FMCG and Technology brands. For the first time, the spotlight will be on the Most Purposeful Indian Brands across these business segments. In India and across the world, Purpose has emerged as one of the most important pillars of brand growth and equally, of brand marketing.

What makes Purpose the focus of this year’s report unlike other years where brands were evaluated on Value, Storyboard18 speaks to Deepender Rana, executive managing director— South Asia, Insights Division, Kantar and Soumya Mohanty, managing director— Client and Quantitative, Insights Division, Kantar, to find out more.

Here are the edited excerpts

In the BrandZ Report 2021, brands were evaluated on Purpose instead of value like previous years and this year you are spotlighting the Most ‘Purposeful’ Indian Brands across business segments instead of Most ‘Valuable’ Brands. Could you elaborate on what led to this shift in the way brands were evaluated?

Rana: This has been a year like no other. We started evaluating our own purpose in life and it’s no different for brands. They started evaluating why they exist, beyond making money for their shareholders, their connection with the consumers etc, so we felt that in these uncertain times, this idea of brands having a higher purpose, inspiring trust, became really critical and this is on top of mind of all marketers and clients that we talk to. They are really discovering their brand purpose and we felt that it is only fair that we started looking at this higher purpose. The second reason is that the stock market fell by 4% in two days, so there is a lot of fraught in valuations and it is time to discover something more long-term in terms of brand equity and we know purpose contributes to brand equity and sales in the longer term.

2021 proved to be an especially interesting year to examine Purpose in the brands’ landscape. What are the changed consumer values and expectations from the brands? What are the key consumer trends?

Mohanty: Long-term brand building has come back into focus because of COVID, because of the pain and suffering we all went through. So, in terms of consumer trends at an overall level, there has been a greater consolidation of brands. We are choosing safe and reassuring bigger brands versus the experimentation that India was used to. So there is a reversal of what the trend normally used to be. We have moved from loose and unorganized to branded, which is a reversal of trend that we are used to seeing. There is a lot of desire for safe and comforting, bigger and reassuring brands and you see that in the brands that have done well in this space, whether it is Britannia or Maggi, basically brands that we have grown up with.

There are a lot of micro-trends, some of which have already receded. There was an entire period when people were worried about spending money, that has changed and a lot of pent up demand has come back and Diwali this year was record breaking. Sales were the highest in the last decade. There are multiple Indias right now and there always have been, but that gap has increased with COVID. While one is going for Diwali shopping, the other has gone back home and is not earning as much as they used to earlier. This multiplicity of behavior means that purpose becomes that much more important because it provides an anchor in this kind of uncertain world that we are facing right now.

Rana: The other big trend has been the central role of technology. The role that tech brands play in our lives just got really magnified, whether it is ecommerce brands that bring convenience to your home or the online entertainment brands. Once these brands get embedded as habits they will endure.

You mentioned people are taking comfort in bigger legacy brands. What does that mean for smaller, challenger brands?

Mohanty: The thing about trends is that they emerge and they recede. Some amount of experimentation will come back. For example, people are starting to go out, so experience is coming back. The smaller and challenger brands will come back into the basket but they will have to in some way go beyond the functionality that they offer. The food tech brands have done it very well. Whether it is Swiggy or Zomato, they became such a strong part of our lives in that phase that today we cannot think of a life before them. So tech brands will have to figure out the role that they play in consumers’ new lives which is hybrid – we want to stay home but we also want to go out. So, we have mixed trends that give brands tremendous opportunity to target wherever they wish to target.

Which brands stood out in the BrandZ Report? Take us through the rankings and the categories that did well?

Rana: We came out with the rankings for three categories, tech, FMCG and Non-FMCG. The most purposeful tech brands were Amazon, Zomato, YouTube, Swiggy and Flipkart. It’s a mix of brands that brought convenience to your home and they did it while keeping you safe and their frontline workers safe. Brands that provided a mix of information and entertainment. Google has always held itself to the purpose of being a trusted information provider.

Mohanty: For Non-FMCG – mobility brands, handset brands, brands that made our lives better. Thematically, it’s about convenience and how brands make your lives better.

What are the things that brands need to keep in mind going forward, owing to this shift in consumer behavior and how long are these trends likely to continue given how quickly consumer needs are evolving?

Mohanty: There are some trends that will recede, some will emerge and some will sustain. I would say consumers’ expectations from brands to play an active role in their lives will continue. Between health and indulgence, it will be a mixed trend. People will come back to metros from smaller towns and we will start aspiring for growth again. But, brand trust and functionality is something that is not going to change.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Storyboard18 | What can fix the brand crisis of consumer internet companies?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

From Paytm being trolled for its underwhelming stock market debut to Zomato being cornered for spending huge money on ads featuring big Bollywood stars (Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif) instead of ensuring “fair pay” to its delivery staff, an increasing number of consumer internet companies are facing brand crises due to various reasons. Being pulled up for everything from the negative impact on society to hurting religious sentiments has become the order of the day with digital platforms opening up the window for candid feedback and easy access to companies and their leaders.

Such incidents, which are happening with increasing frequency in edtech, fintech and foodtech, can have a serious impact on a company’s brand value and consumer perception.

Branding and marketing experts believe that the broader reason for an increase in ‘crisis’ situations is owing to social media outlets aiding people to take their grievances and concerns to a lot of people in a short span of time. This wasn’t possible in the pre-internet days when the crisis largely stemmed only from mainstream media’s reporting of the brand (that started from media identifying aggrieved customers, or an adverse point of view among some people).

Create social media presence of founders

Karthik Srinivasan, a communications strategy consultant believes that brands are not individuals, to have perspectives or point of view but brand owners can have perspectives and offer them as part of conversations he says. To some extent, Zomato does this consistently well, and the founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal, is a good example of such engagement, even when a topic is negative to the company.

“Increase the presence of brand leaders and management teams on social media channels. Work on helping them create perceptions for themselves through adept use of social media. For example, Anand Mahindra’s use of Twitter not only helps him, but also Mahindra the company,” he adds.

Srinivasan further notes that this helps immensely during a crisis – the time to build a personality through a social channel is not when a crisis hits, but when there’s absolutely no crisis whatsoever and things are going swimmingly well.

Be proactive and leverage influencers

Advertising experts note that research work for communication purposes is critical for new-age companies as it will be easier to understand what would be the possible pitfalls (of a campaign/content piece) and then accordingly create the mitigation plan.

“….whenever the internet companies or new-age startups tend to take a point of view they tend to be a little bit more extreme in their point of view. They tend to push the envelope a little more than the traditional companies because that way they tend to get more eyeballs and conversations etc. In absence of research work, the brand and communication teams should always factor in the risk mitigation plan,” says Rahul Vengalil, managing partner, Isobar India, a Dentsu-owned digital agency.

The risk plan, Vengalil adds, could include influences coming in to tone down the negative publicity, a different cut of the same campaign.
“…Influencers will play a big role especially when it comes to creating positive conversations online and countering content on challenges that a brand might be facing,” he notes.

Apart from advertising campaigns, product and service-related issues continue to be another huge challenge which is specific to internet companies. Amazon and Flipkart, for instance, are often pulled up on social media for delivering wrong or absurd products. Zomato received flak when its delivery staff was caught eating a food delivery order.  More often than not these issues snowball across digital platforms attracting negative customer perception.

Isobar’s Vengalil suggests that companies should invest more in data insights and social listening which can be on their own platform (through reviews/feedback) as well as social media platforms (talking about brands).

“There’s enough and more data that they have to dip into to create patterns of how customers react, their experiences. Brands should start acting the moment they see a dip in such patterns. Companies not only should fix problems but also communicate how they are fixing them. Being proactive which is backed by consumer data always helps,” Vengalil says.

“Brands should be mindful about highlighting positive changes they might have made at their end in all their content and not stop creating content with innovative storylines,” says Mitesh Kothari, co-founder, White River Media.

Beyond communication

Sreedhar Prasad, internet business expert and former partner at KPMG tells Storyboard18 that once a company acquires a certain scale its brand becomes the mote and customers are loyal to it. It is extremely critical for such companies to have a tracking mechanism that keeps a tab on whether unfavorable things are being said about their brand, whether bad elements are misusing the brand name for personal gains across digital and offline platforms.

“The company has to be vigilant about such malpractices,” says Prasad. Many new-age startup brands grew really fast unlike a Taj Hotel or Unilever. “Therefore, it also becomes imperative for these startups to instill a culture in the company at a fast pace that is followed by its employees and partners. There has to be some sort of fear mechanism as well which pushes its employees to become accountable for their actions and that will bring down service-related issues,” he concludes.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Storyboard18 | Wait, how did we get here? Musings of an adman

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Back in 2015, when I joined the advertising space – there was a phrase that was doing the rounds. My then-boss published a paper with that as the title, there were podcasts and articles being circulated internationally with those 3 brutal words: ADVERTISING IS DEAD.

Back then, that simply stood for the advent of digital media, and the shift in focus from offline to online by small, and big brands. That advertising, as we know – is dead. Sure. But is it though? Is advertising dead, or is good advertising dead? In this daily diarrhea of social media topical content and Twitter banter by brands – are we forgetting what advertisements were supposed to do? Make an impression on the minds of customers by using the power of stories and experiences. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I don’t remember the last time I saw an ad and went “Ha! That’s clever.” instead of “Ah, I’ve seen that before.”

If everyone wants to be as funny as Zomato and Netflix, then why spend time and money on your brand’s identity – if it just had to be a cheaper carbon copy of what’s working. If your defense is that “hey, it worked for them” well dumdum it worked for them because they thought of it first. When they did it, it was original, if not unique. When you mimic it, it’s just a sad attempt holding onto your pricy accounts. Is this what we want to do till we retire? Without an iota of freshness or innovation. Give the client what they want, what they want to hear – because we need their money oh-yes-abhi. That’s it? That’s our end goal now?

Why do we keep doing this?

Naturally, I don’t have the answers – But I do have a lot of questions. Questions like, why though? Why do we keep doing this? Are we so focused on pleasing the client that we don’t even have the time to cater to the brand? Are we the brand manager’s agency, or the brand’s? It’s a tough question, I realise that. I lose sleep over it often. Or, maybe we’re just great marathon runners. Since we just like to run constantly towards social media awards, features, retainer contracts – and in that race, we let go of that one thing we needed for ideas to marinate, to bloom into something strong and resilient. Time.

Where is the time to sit and just think in this industry? Clients don’t want to pay you to daydream. They want deliverables. By End of Day. Including 9 rounds of changes. Agencies that are sales driven, instead of being idea driven suffer from an institutional sense of insecurity. “What if someone else gets the job?”, “What if the client fires us after 3 months?”

This sense of anxiety gets deep-rooted in the management and team members. Just look at your colleagues, the ones with shifty eyes, sweaty palms and dark undereye circles will tell you a very familiar story. But it is this what-will-we-do complex that compels small-medium scale setups to lower their prices to make themselves attractive to the average Indian client. Because Indian clients, as we all know – love to negotiate. If your price for a job is Rs 50 you have to quote Rs 150 because the client will bring it down to Rs 100 in any case. That’s just how we work. No one values your dope designs, ideas and content. You’re just a tomato in one of many sabzi markets, waiting for a customer to pick you up, give you a squeeze – and decide your worth.

The fortunate ones who have risen above this, demand their own rates. But the majority of us – with the exponential mushrooming of ‘agencies’ and ‘studios’ – we’re still desperate for a sense of validation. We’re still hungry for that one gig that lands us in the big league. It is this desperation that just puts us back into a vicious cycle of mediocrity:

1. Lower your prices to attract your client
2. Churn out bad content because you don’t have the budget to hire good talent
3. Be known in the market for your affordability
4. Low prices attract stingy clients

How does it affect the agencies and brands? How do we achieve a balance?

Perhaps then, the only way to be exceptional is to break away from this cycle. Maybe the only way we can get back to enjoying what we do for a living, is to find a way that merges our skillset, with our challenges. For example, if your team is great at UI/UX and sucks at motion graphics, then stop taking up animation projects. Play to your strengths. Don’t strive to be the one-stop solution for all brands. You’re a creative studio, not a goddamn mall.

Even less than 5 years back, big brands preferred to onboard agencies who would take care of all their needs. It made sense then. These agencies had the resources, team strength and the brand didn’t have to talk to multiple points of contacts. Hence, the need to be a one-stop shop for them became a priority. But the market has been changing, and evolving and welcoming newer models since then.

I have personally worked with at least 3 ‘bigger agencies’ who would hire my company for our brand design, web design and social media content – but would white label it in their name. The ‘white labeling’ aspect only happened because they felt like the client wouldn’t appreciate multiple smaller agencies working on their brand, when it was the ‘bigger agency’ they were paying to cater to their demands.

They’d also probably feel that the costs would go up by involving multiple vendors. This was true as well, to a large extent. The bigger agency tends to act as a middle-person in these relationships. They are the client’s point of contact, and they’re the ones briefing the other studios. The client is the property owner, the smaller agency is the tenant – and in the middle, collecting a smooth commission is our big agency, as the broker. Basically, the client never meets the small agencies in this scenario. Everyone’s happy. Everyone’s happy until the smaller agency demands recognition.

This is changing though. I’m seeing newer agencies adopt hybrid models that maintain the accountability of agencies, with the flexibility of working with freelancers. The idea is always to create a team, out of your community. Brands will have to re-learn the game gradually, and I’m not expecting things to change overnight. But in a year, this will be the new norm.

We will see a design studio partner with a social media marketing agency and serve one client. We’ll see a collective of writers, collaborate with a motion design team to conceptualise and create animated shorts for a common client. And in both these cases, the client will be aware of the different people/teams working on their brief – not just that, I’d bet they’d sleep better knowing that each little part of the brief is being catered to by someone with actual expertise in that area.

Perhaps, this is the way ahead. The only way we can bring back that charm of just creating because we enjoy what we do, while solving our client’s problems – is by getting really good at one thing. Instead of being okayish at everything.

Rohan Mukherjee is creative head of Double Clap. Views are personal.

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Storyboard18 | Led by festivities and sporting events, October 21 saw 178 million seconds of advertising: BARC

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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This festive season set new records in terms of ad volumes. A recent festive trend report by BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) India said October 2021 registered the highest ad volume so far as compared to 2019 and 2020. According to the report ad volumes in October 2021 were 11 percent higher than 2020 and 23 percent higher when compared to the same period 2019.

October 2021 this year was a golden period for advertisers with the festive season coinciding with the second phase of IPL 2021 between September 19 and October 15. Legacy brands as well as new-age brands parked a sizable chunk of their annual ad budget in television advertising.

The report on ad volumes says Dussehra Week this year witnessed 13 percent growth in ad volumes over the previous 4 weeks and 25 percent over 2019. The number of advertisers and brands during the Dussehra was the highest as compared to previous years; 18 percent more than the previous four weeks.

This festive season was the first big advertising opportunity for brands after the second wave of the ongoing pandemic hit the country resulting in a slowing down of business and low consumer sentiments.

No wonder the festive season saw new advertisers in abundance. As per the BARC report, out of the 2851 total advertisers on board in October 2021, 22 percent were new advertisers and out of the 4624 brands advertised on TV in the period, 1065 were new ones.

In terms of sectors, retail, durables, BFSI, textile, and personal accessories, registered the highest growth over 2020.

The top 10 advertisers this festive season were Hindustan Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser Group, Godrej Group, Procter and Gamble, Cadburys India Ltd, Amazon Online India Private Limited, ITC Ltd, Coca-Cola Ltd, Colgate Palmolive India Ltd, and Tata (G).

The top 10 brands advertised in the period according to the report were Horlicks, Amazon.in, Dettol toilet soaps, Harpic Power Plus 10X Max Clean, Clinic Plus Shampoo, Lizol, Harpic Bathroom Cleaner, Lalithaa jewellery, Surf Excel Easy Wash and Boost.

An analysis of the trends in 2021 October showed that while the top 10 advertisers remained steady, the next 40 grew by 17 percent over October 2020. The rest of the advertisers witnessed 26 percent growth.

Language channels saw the maximum traction, said the report. Ad Volumes for the Bhojpuri language during the festive period were at an all-time high in 2021, recording a growth of 111 percent compared to the same period in October 2019. Apart from Bhojpuri, Punjabi viewership has also recorded a 52 percent growth over October 2019, while the growth percentage for Telugu and Marathi languages was 33 percent and 35 percent respectively.

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Storyboard18 | Cryptocurrency platforms switch to GEC, news and gaming for advertising

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Cryptocurrency brands in India are targeting impact properties for advertising both on TV and digital media. The gala cricket season may have ended, but crypto players have a new media-buying strategy in place; and even the government’s new tenets on crypto advertisements aren’t forcing them to lie low.

“Considering big-ticket events like the Indian Premier League and ICC World Cup are done with, businesses now have the opportunity to either explore ancillary advertising opportunities in the cricketing world or opportunities outside of cricket; more specifically in the television and digital spaces,” says Yatin Balyan and managing partner and national head of investment at Omnicom Media Group India.

According to Balyan, noteworthy impact properties like Hindi general entertainment channels (GEC) on television are an ideal platform for advertisers to explore when looking for a wider reach.

But for those looking to invest their advertising budgets on a more performance-based medium, one could also expect a possible shift in strategy from the top of the funnel to lower down the conversion funnel, skewing investments in favour of digital media, he suggested.

Jai Lala, CEO of Publicis Group’s Zenith suggests properties like Bigg Boss and Kaun Banega Crorepati are perfect for crypto players.

Also read | Most cryptocurrencies will not survive; pose same problem as unregulated chit funds: Raghuram Rajan

“The advertisers in the space are using their campaigns for both lead generation and awareness creation and they are looking for high impact properties to maximise their access. While GEC and news, both on TV and digital, are attractive options for them, players are also looking at gaming platforms because of similar user profiles,” explained Lala.

Building investor awareness

Elaborating on the audience profile and advertising plans, Ashish Singhal, founder and CEO at CoinSwitch, said: “Crypto asset investing is emerging as a popular investment option among digital natives, and increasing investor awareness is a business imperative. We are using a robust marketing mix strategy for investor education and protection. A typical crypto asset investor in India is less than 28 years old, mostly from non-metro cities, and more often than not, exploring asset investment options for the first time.”

Singhal says while the sports season provided an opportunity to educate users about asset class investing on topics including how to invest, research, and assess the health of any crypto asset through various mediums, investor education is a key strategy to build a crypto ecosystem that users and regulators can trust.

Also read | What will happen to your crypto investments if India bans digital coins?

“While sports seasons help us inform and educate a large number of digital natives, we will keep the momentum going through relevant digital and print platforms that help us educate and engage with crypto enthusiasts,” he said.

Experts suggest that the sector spent nothing short of Rs 60-80 crore on advertising across the IPL and World Cup matches. According to a media buyer’s estimate, ad spending by crypto players will continue at a much larger scale in the last three months of the financial year as well.

Leveraging partnerships

Crypto exchange platform WazirX, for instance, said that it is leveraging partnerships with media outlets for investor education.

“With our marketing initiatives, our goal has always been to focus on responsible marketing and spreading education among the masses about crypto. We want to make awareness and understanding of crypto mainstream in India,” a WazirX spokesperson said in an emailed response to queries from Storyboard18.

The ad blitzkrieg by the crypto platforms comes at a time when the government has recently raised concerns over the content of crypto advertising in the country.

Crypto communication

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting on cryptocurrency with senior officials. Although there are no clear guidelines or policies issued by the government on the regulation of crypto platforms or their advertising, there has been a clear push in making crypto-related communication more transparent.

This move is critical as ad industry watchdog Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has also not devised any crypto advertising-related guidelines despite the massive scale of media spending in the sector.

Also read | Cryptocurrency bill: Law makers don’t want competition with INR, say experts

However, there has been a focus on self-regulation by multiple crypto exchange platforms operating in the country.

Nischal Shetty, founder and CEO at WazirX India, put out a tweet saying: “India is finally on the right path towards crypto regulations. Industry consultation is crucial and it’s great to see that the crypto industry has been invited for discussions. With the right regulations, India can be a top player in crypto.”

Singhal, who is also the co-chair of Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC), added: “All top crypto exchanges are working together as part of BACC, a part of the industry body IAMAI to plan their brand strategies in adherence to the Code of Conduct in a responsible manner.” IAMAI is short for the Internet and Mobile Association of India.

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Storyboard18 | How auto brands should emphasize their electric ambitions

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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As auto brands gear up to market an electric future to Indians, Storyboard18 caught up with industry veteran Delna Avari to get her view on the electric vehicles market in India. Avari used to head marketing at Tata Motors’ passenger vehicles division, where she was part of the senior leadership core team that led the transformation of the PV business unit. Here, Avari unpacks the market opportunities and challenges for brands, the players to watch and what they should watch out for.

The EV market in India and auto brands

With a CAGR of 22 percent till 2030, the EV market in India is growing rapidly especially with a lot of states declaring incentives and subsidies. The 3-wheeler category generated the highest revenue in the electric vehicle component market in India, under the vehicle type segment, in 2019. This is credited to the huge sales of e-rickshaws in the country, which are the highest in the world.

In recent years, the Indian electric vehicle component market has witnessed a number of product launches, as the players are focusing on expanding their business, with the rising demand for EVs. Apart from B2C use cases, a lot of companies are now focused on providing last-mile solutions for clients like Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, Swiggy.

Companies like Ather Energy, Ola Electric, Ampere, ETO, and a host of start-ups have revolutionized this space of last-mile solutions along with some 4-wheeler OEMs like Tata and Mahindra.

Emphasizing electric ambitions: What works and what doesn’t

According to WBCSD, the recent Indian electric vehicle policy advancements are encouraging electrification, but the absence of ambition and mandates leaves ambiguity about the pace.

There is a need to develop a roadmap with clear milestones for the systematic transformation towards sustainable mobility. Aspects to consider include incentives to customers to scrap old and migrate to EV, encourage vehicle fleet owners to increase usage of EVs, systematically invest in upgrading charging infrastructure in a grid-based manner, standardize industry protocols and liberalize regulation. This is happening but needs to be more collaborative and structured in a single direction to build momentum.

At a large OEM level, there is adequate action with Tata Motors and Mahindra leading the charge so to speak. There is also a sub-sector emphasis on employee transport, ride-hailing services, and goods delivery services where the adoption of electric two, three, and four-wheelers could gather steam soon.

Undoubtedly what works is the ecosystem conversations around EVs driven at one level by the likes of Tesla and at the other by homegrown brands. The early adoption and positive experience will drive the industry forward. The risk is a narrow definition of what EV stands for making it another CNG kind of customer adoption. If the infrastructure rollout, component cost and availability, and customer experience are not elevated, we will not unleash the potential.

The Indian EV consumer and the challenges of marketing an electric future

There is definitely a strong B2B play here currently mainly with logistics providers, delivery operators, and last-mile solutions, led mainly by cost and efficiency and to some extent brand perception of doing the right thing for the environment.

For a B2C play, there is a set of customers who are knowledgeable and keen, mainly led by the appeal of international brands which are largely unaffordable even when present eventually.

Tata Motors has done an impressive job so far with their products as having the 2-wheeler start-ups. However for increased adoption and acceleration of the trend, we need to do a lot more for mass customer awareness, range anxiety, cost concerns and resale/used car market.

Even the customers who can afford and want it, are concerned about the hassle of battery cost/replacement frequency or of setting up individual charging infrastructure. This is why one emphasizes the need for a comprehensive roadmap with all aspects moving simultaneously in the same direction, it cannot be sequential.

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Storyboard18 | Is YouTube hiding Dislike count an attempt at cancelling ‘cancel culture’?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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While it’s still not clear whether YouTube will stick to its decision of making the dislike count hidden in the long run, as of now the Alphabet-owned platform is restricting the abuse of the dislike button on videos. Creators and brands who have often faced the wrath of users on the platform, can now breathe a little easier.

The creator community, however, is divided. Some are appreciating the move while others took to various social media platforms to criticize and dislike YouTube’s decision to hide Dislike counts. But brands and agencies in India are looking forward to the change.

According to advertising executives Storyboard18 spoke to, the dislike button has always been a tool for the user to decide if they like a video and find its content useful or not. But with changing times, the purpose and functionalities of the tool have changed.

“Platforms are now living in an economy and culture that is creator-led. This is a shift like we have never seen before,” says Harsh Shah, EVP, Business – North and West, Dentsu Webchutney. “It is, therefore, imperative to ensure equitable opportunities for everyone and to especially safeguard the wellbeing of the creator, eventually encouraging more and more creators to actively participate across platforms,” he adds.

According to Shah, the dislike function has often been turned into a tool to target certain creators for their thoughts/actions/content – which is not something anyone signs up for.

YouTube is one of the few platforms that has a dislike button. Many don’t.

With people spending more time at home since the outbreak of Covid-19, the reach of YouTube has gone up rapidly in the country. As per the YouTube Brandcast 2021 report, in India, 85 percent of the viewers used the platform more than ever since March 2020.

So, what’s to like in YouTube’s decision for marketers? “This move could also be beneficial for brands to experiment with more content and work towards a robust content strategy without fearing an ORM disaster,” Shah says.

Why did YouTube make the dislike count private across YouTube?

YouTube’s decision to make the dislike count private was a planned move to promote respectful interactions between viewers and creators.

Digital marketing experts point out there has been significant growth in instances where groups of users have used the dislike button as a tool for coordinated attacks to cancel a piece of content or the creator.

“We’ve noticed this kind of coordinated attack against content/ads from a few brands in the past few years,” says Preetham Venkky, President, 22feet Tribal Worldwide & Chief Digital Officer, DDB Mudra Group

In an official blogpost on November 10, where the platform announced the gradual rolling out of hiding dislike counts, YouTube said they had run an experiment earlier this year with the dislike button to see whether or not changes could help better protect creators from harassment, and reduce dislike attacks — where people work to drive up the number of dislikes on a creator’s videos.

As part of this experiment, viewers could still see and use the dislike button, but not the counts.

Elaborating on the experiment, the blog said, “Because the count was not visible to them, we found that they were less likely to target a video’s dislike button to drive up the count. In short, our experiment data showed a reduction in dislike attacking behavior.”

What changes for the brands and creators?

YouTube removing the dislike count from public view is an action by the video streaming platform in the right direction, say most experts.

As Shradha Agarwal, COO and Strategy Head – Grapes Digital points out, earlier too users were able to hide the dislike count by logging in to the YouTube studio.

“In so many instances we have seen that videos facing extreme heat of trolling and aversions forced content makers to hide the dislike count on their videos,” she says.

Clearly, it was time brands were given some relief.

Brands would now be able to use the dislike data on their analytics dashboard, constructively.

“At the back end brands can use the data as a way to determine their own benchmarks towards the quality of videos being created. This change helps improve brand safety on the platform since brands can be rest assured that there will be less likelihood of coordinated cancel culture attacks on their content,” says Venkky.

Additionally, according to Chetan Asher, Founder and CEO of Tonic Worldwide, the move will create a safer atmosphere for social media and motivate budding content creators who are just starting out, by protecting them from the discouragement of haters on the internet.

What changes for the viewer?

As YouTube pointed out in its official blog post, the dislike count will be private across the platform, but the dislike button will remain.

Before investing time in a video, most power users on YouTube would use the ratio between ‘Likes’ and ‘Dislikes’ to determine the quality of the video.

“This was an additional ‘signal’ (data information) for users to make a decision before watching the video,” says Venky. But it will now change for good, he adds.

Basically, users can still dislike content but their decision will not be based on popular opinion. Not unless they actually see the video or go through the comment section.

“Power users will get used to the ratio or Likes vs Views as a way to determine the quality of a video,” says Venky, adding, “Alternatively, a simple scroll in the comments section will help them determine the same.”

Thumbs up and down

YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim on the other hand has called the move “stupid”. He updated the description of the first-ever video on the platform titled ‘Me at the zoo’ to ‘When every YouTuber agrees that removing dislikes is a stupid idea, it probably is. Try again, YouTube.’ But will YouTube try again is the million-dollar question at the moment for marketers across the board.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow