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<ul><li>Owing to lack of physical mobility in last 1.5 years, people stayed in-house, and digital adoption increased across devices.</li><li>On-demand content viewership on CTV increased manifolds.</li><li>Cheaper internet packs, affordable smart TVs, convertibles and connectable like fore stick etc transformed traditional TV into CTV.</li><li>Therefore, OTT consumption / gaming etc. on the connected big screen went up.</li><li>This report highlights who is the consumer, what does she/he want, how are they accessing content and what will future trends look like.</li></ul><keyword id="12034873" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="india-ctv-report" source="Orion">India CTV Report</keyword> 2021 - Mapping Connected TV (CTV) Viewership in India and the Opportunities for Brands” a report from mediasmart, an Affle company, highlights the changing media consumption patterns of the Indian consumer. India is undergoing digital transformation and consumers are steadily moving away from traditional linear TV to CTV and OTTs. This change presents an untapped advertising opportunity for brands and advertisers. The report highlights consumer adoption insights layered with an expert view on possible advertising potential of the CTV medium. According to the report, key CTV viewership trends and insights include:<ul><li>Out of the select audience surveyed, 78% own a Smart TVand 93% of these smart TV users access internet based content</li><li>Mobile-first, active and aware CTV consumers: CTV users are young, urban adults who are already mobile-first and are actively engaging with diverse apps such as - 89% of the respondents are social media users, 82% are e-commerce, 44% are gamers and more</li><li>Content on demand: over 59% respondents prefer downloading apps via Smart TV App Store, while 26% respondents primarily consume content via pre-installed apps and a small section (15% respondents) use the dongle to stream content on TV</li><li>One device, many uses: Close to 70% respondents spend between 1 to 4 hours on CTV watching movies (91%), streaming music (64%), playing games (47%) or watching news (64%)</li><li>Spending ability and OTT preferences: Over 65% respondents subscribe to more than one OTT app. There is 40%+ adoption for the leading eight OTT apps in India: Disney+Hotstar, Amazon’s Prime Video, Netflix, Zee5, MXPlayer, Sony LIV, VOOT and Alt Balaji. The inclination on app usage is also heavily dependent on seasonality and timing</li><li>Limited barriers to viewership and adoption: Unlike mobile usage of internet, which requires literacy levels, CTV consumption cuts across age, language, and city barriers. By going vernacular, advertisers can engage with users in ads of their language</li></ul>Nikhil Kumar, Sr. Director, mediasmart talks about the CTV potential in the report - “The world is moving towards immersive watching experiences and CTV is an exciting space to be at. It is interesting to see leading advertisers in the country adopt CTV advertising as a critical new addition to their media mix. CTV advertising is here to stay and with evolutionary solutions provided by mediasmart on Household Sync technology, we are powering brands to engage with relevant consumers across the connected devices.” India is a young market with a tremendous potential for CTV adoption. CTV inherently is more engaging than traditional TVs and brings together the twin strengths of (a) engaging storytelling associated with CTV advertising and (b) targeting associated with Programmatic &amp; Digital advertising. Affle’s mediasmart platform offers an innovative approach to help optimise the CTV opportunity. With mediasmart’s unique Household Sync technology, advertisers can make ads more engaging by syncing CTV ad campaigns with ads on other connected devices in the same household. Brands can launch CTV campaigns to a specific audience in the same household, target premium inventory, measure results and drive them to the nearest store. Amardeep Singh, CEO of Interactive Avenues, talks about the CTV opportunity in the report - “Advertisers globally - and in India - are lapping up the CTV opportunity as it continues to grow as an exciting medium for digital advertising. We have seen great results and ROI for some of our top clients who are already using the CTV ad technology from mediasmart. This research is a step in the right direction to build standard industry metrics, even as technologies like Household Sync make CTV more measurable and impactful.” With data plans becoming more affordable, India is one of the biggest markets of internet users. Availability of cheap Smart TVs, diverse and affordable internet content and an untapped demographic group opening to the digital-first world presents a massive opportunity for CTV adoption and growth. This makes for a fertile ground for advertisers to innovate solutions for different brands with diverse business needs. Affle’s mediasmart is driving the CTV innovation across India, SEA, Europe &amp; other key markets and aims to revolutionise the way brands interact with consumers on various connected devices.

Over 66% people in India subscribe to more than 1 OTT app: Report

<ul><li>Disney+ Hotstar has collaborated with MediaMath, a Demand-Side Platform (DSP).</li><li>This association enables advertisers and agencies to measure reach and frequency on Disney+ Hotstar’s <keyword id="2520956" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="programmatic">programmatic</keyword> inventory in a trusted, and brand-safe environment.</li><li>With this offering, brands can purchase premium inventory on Disney+ Hotstar through Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) and Private Marketplace (PMP) deals to reach India’s affluent, urban audiences via a multitude of ad formats that suit their marketing objectives.</li></ul>Disney+ Hotstar has collaborated with MediaMath, a Demand-Side Platform (DSP) that delivers the most responsive, accountable, and performant advertising technology for brands to buy <keyword id="10377443" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="addressable-media">addressable media</keyword>. This association enables advertisers and agencies to measure reach and frequency on Disney+ Hotstar’s programmatic inventory in a trusted, and brand-safe environment. With this offering, brands can purchase premium inventory on Disney+ Hotstar through Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) and Private Marketplace (PMP) deals to reach India’s affluent, urban audiences via a multitude of ad formats that suit their marketing objectives. The platform’s massive reach and sharp targeting options extend an incredible opportunity for brands, especially regional players, to tap the right audience whether on live sports or entertainment. Nitin Bawankule, President, Ad Sales, <keyword id="8934848" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Star-Disney-India">Star &amp; Disney India</keyword> said, “We are committed to enabling marketers and agency partners to reach new and existing audiences at scale and build incremental reach. By activating audience-based buying in a private programmatic environment, brands can target precise, highly engaged audience cohorts, exercise more control with transparency, and attain higher visibility of their campaigns. MediaMath offers a cutting-edge technology platform and this association will help us offer efficient programmatic advertising solutions to clients.” “OTT is a critical and fast-growing channel for driving addressability, and our association with Disney+ Hotstar helps us offer a forward-looking, sophisticated programmatic setup," said <keyword id="10377444" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="pranjal-desai">Pranjal Desai</keyword>, Country Manager India, MediaMath. “Disney+ Hotstar has already established itself as the largest [AR4] player in the OTT space, and this collaboration has been the natural next step in making media buying on OTT a more streamlined, efficient and accountable process.” Speaking about the Disney+ Hotstar Marketing Platform and the possibilities, Umesh Krishna, Director - Marketing, Swiggy said, "Swiggy and Disney+ Hotstar have had a long association, especially when it comes to cricket. In fact, food and video-on-demand are categories that go hand-in-hand, and they both cater to similar psychographics. Having tried out programmatic campaigns on the Disney+ Hotstar Marketing Platform recently, we are extremely pleased about the scale and targeting options that it offers us. I am confident that it can serve our various marketing goals effectively." <keyword id="267001" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amardeep-Singh">Amardeep Singh</keyword>, Co-Founder &amp; CEO, <keyword id="179255" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Interactive-Avenues">Interactive Avenues</keyword> said, "We are looking forward to programmatically accessing India’s most premium and brand-safe video inventory on Disney+ Hotstar via MediaMath – the leading independent DSP in the country. This is an offering that the market has been waiting for quite some time now. Interactive Avenues works extensively with both MediaMath and Disney+ Hotstar and we are very excited for this offering which will help us to further augment our promise to our clients to give them the best ROI on their investments." Additionally, buyers can access other key features such as viewability measurement, frequency-capping, and real-time analytics. With Disney+ Hotstar, brands can reach India’s affluent, urban audiences via a multitude of ad formats that suit their marketing objectives. The platform’s massive reach and sharp targeting options extend an incredible opportunity for brands, especially regional players, to reach the right audience whether on live sports or entertainment.

Disney+ Hotstar collaborates with MediaMath to offer audience-based marketing in a private programmatic environment

<ul><li>OTT has helped bring an ocean of content to our fingertips. However, it has also made it difficult to sift through the vast amount of content and select one according to our taste.</li><li> <keyword id="1659188" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="content-discovery">Content discovery</keyword> platform <keyword id="9574458" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="flyx">FLYX</keyword>, launched last year, is trying to solve this problem.</li><li> We speak to <keyword id="350051" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shashank-Singh">Shashank Singh</keyword>, Founder and CEO, FLYX to understand how the platform works, its revenue model and how it is bringing more users to its platform.</li></ul>The advent of over-the-top (OTT) platforms has introduced a new problem in our lives, what is the best content available in this vast universe and where to find them! Haven’t all of us spent more time deciding what to watch rather than watching the content? FLYX was conceived keeping this very consumer problem in mind. It is a discovery platform specially aimed at people faced with the perennial dilemma of selecting content worthy of watching. The pandemic and the ensuing lockdown led to many people flocking to different OTT platforms, to keep themselves entertained while staying locked at home. This led to a surge in interest among people to get better content recommendations and led to an earlier launch of FLYX which had been in the making for the past couple of years. Despite being in the pre-revenue stage currently, the platform is working towards creating opportunities for content producers to reach the right audience at the right time through the business platform the company is currently working on. We caught up with Shashank Singh, Founder and CEO, FLYX to understand how the platform works, how it is planning to monetize itself and the kind of opportunities it will present to marketers in the future. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Excerpts:" comment="subhead" text="Excerpts:">Excerpts:</cmsannotation> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) FLYX was launched in the middle of last year’s lockdown. Briefly tell us about your journey so far." text="Q) FLYX was launched in the middle of last year’s lockdown. Briefly tell us about your journey so far.">Q) FLYX was launched in the middle of last year’s lockdown. Briefly tell us about your journey so far.</cmsannotation> FLYX was conceived with the idea to provide a platform for the seamless discovery of movies and shows for people who were faced with the dilemma of selecting content worthy of watching. Our aim is to create a new-age digital platform to empower consumers and content creators to ensure great content wins. As the first step toward the goal, we have launched a unique social network to connect friends, family, celebrities, casts, crews and influencers to help get recommendations. Research has shown us that two-thirds of our video streaming habit is influenced by friends and family and that is the best way to discover great content. We started working on the idea since the last couple of years and opened up our private beta in early 2020, then publicly launched at the end of April 2020. Since then, it has been an interesting journey and we are really excited for what lies in the future. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) How did the pandemic and the lockdown affect your business?" text="Q) How did the pandemic and the lockdown affect your business?">Q) How did the pandemic and the lockdown affect your business?</cmsannotation> The pandemic brought with it a surge in the number of people turning to OTT platforms to fulfill their cinematic cravings. This scenario prompted us to pre-pone our launch. We had launched in a private only beta earlier in the year, and had decided upon a late summer or early monsoon official release. However, as the pandemic swept through the world, we saw a sudden and a huge spike in activity within our small group of close to 500 private beta testers. Our family and friends wished to introduce their acquaintances to the app too and demanded that FLYX be launched. Therefore, contrary to expectations, the pandemic forced us to launch sooner than we had intended, and so far, the response has been overwhelming. India, which serves as the home for over 40 OTT platforms, and is the second largest OTT market predicted to reach $5 billion in size by 2023, is our primary focus market. It is encouraging to see that the people are tuning in more than ever to OTT platforms within the confine of their premises. People are still wary of going to go to theatres but want to keep themselves entertained. We already have more than 100,000 users in India from key locations like Hyderabad, Delhi, Pune, Chennai, Lucknow, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Patna. We have been strengthening our team in India to further expand our footprint. We recently partnered with <keyword id="5714" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Filmfare">Filmfare</keyword> for their first-ever OTT awards which was very well-received by the audience as well as the industry. This is a validation of the work we are doing. We were able to double our user base and witnessed a huge spike in engagement across our social media. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) Tell us a bit more about your association with Filmfare." text="Q) Tell us a bit more about your association with Filmfare.">Q) Tell us a bit more about your association with Filmfare.</cmsannotation> Over the past few years, with the advent of digitalization, the streaming industry in India has garnered greater attention. New talent, innovative, gripping narratives and layered characters have all been limned in the limelight, and OTT platforms have facilitated the recognition of this new, brilliant facet of cinema. Our collaboration with Filmfare was motivated by a common goal - to celebrate and honor the best content creators and artists who have kept up with our entertainment needs and delivered quality content to us even during unprecedented times. Filmfare’s legacy and FLYX’s dedication to bringing modern-age technology to digital entertainment contributed to the distinctiveness of the award show. The overall response to the event was also gratifying. All in all, an atmosphere of camaraderie and shared excitement was cultivated and we were amazed at how the industry came together in such a short period of time and helped us make this a historic event for the OTT industry. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) Have you seen any trend in the demographics, gender, age group of your users?" text="Q) Have you seen any trend in the demographics, gender, age group of your users?">Q) Have you seen any trend in the demographics, gender, age group of your users?</cmsannotation> We conducted a survey to examine the consumer behavior during the pandemic. The respondents were in the age group of 18-65 years and formed a multifarious group of students, professionals, business owners and self-employed individuals, among others from major cities of India, including Delhi NCR, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata. 56% of the respondents were male and 42% were female. The survey revealed that there has been an upsurge in both purchase of OTT subscriptions and viewing hours among Indian users. Over 50% of the respondents said that they had purchased new subscriptions during the pandemic, along with a 5x increase in those spending 16+ hours weekly and a 4x increase in those spending 12-16 hours weekly on OTT platforms. This has made it evident to us that people from all age groups and both the sexes have shown a pre-ponderance for OTT platforms and all that is associated with them. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) What is your current revenue model?" text="Q) What is your current revenue model?">Q) What is your current revenue model?</cmsannotation> We are still at the pre-revenue stage but there are huge opportunities in this space. FLYX want to create opportunities for content producers to reach right audience at right time via the business platform we are currently working on. We are targeting to launch this in the second half of 2021. We are also working on some really cool and exciting stuff and will create some experience for premium users who will have access to some premium features. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) You are a content discovery platform. Are you exploring advertising or brand integrations?" text="Q) You are a content discovery platform. Are you exploring advertising or brand integrations?">Q) You are a content discovery platform. Are you exploring advertising or brand integrations?</cmsannotation> This is definitely one very important part of FLYX journey. We aim to democratize content discovery and FLYX will provide brands a platform to reach out directly to the end consumers and show them the right content at the right time. Various brands who are associated with the entertainment industry directly or indirectly can also participate in the promotion of the content in which they are involved. In future, we will also allow them to sell merchandise to the fans. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) Who are your competitors? And how are you differentiating yourself?" text="Q) Who are your competitors? And how are you differentiating yourself?">Q) Who are your competitors? And how are you differentiating yourself?</cmsannotation> Currently, we have two competitors in the segment: Just Watch and Likewise. What sets FLYX apart from its contemporaries, however, is the fact that it is a one-of-a-kind, highly interactive and fun social platform where users can engage with their friends and followers through stories and chats, watch trailers, read news, create shareable lists and exchange notes and comments with followers about the new and upcoming releases. Recently, we also launched a new exciting and innovative feature called Sharelist on the platform. This feature will enable users to share recommendations of movies and shows with their friends and family and across social media platforms in real-time and is available for both Android and iOS users. We are also working on some really cool stuff which will take interaction among fans and with celebrities to the next level and make it very fun and exciting. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q) Where do you see FLYX in the next 3-5 years?" text="Q) Where do you see FLYX in the next 3-5 years?">Q) Where do you see FLYX in the next 3-5 years?</cmsannotation> Our vision is to become a platform that will play its part in democratizing the media and entertainment industry by shifting focus on quality content. Our app will not only help users discover great content, but will also open avenues to connect with family, friends and favourite cast and crew members. We aim to bridge the gap between those who produce content (the entertainment industry) and those who consume it (their intended audiences). We are also working on some inventive, new age products and features that will certainly alter the industry radically.

Here’s how FLYX, a content-discovery platform, is trying to bridge the gap between content producers and consumers

<keyword id="2434035" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rapper-Raftaar">Rapper Raftaar</keyword> has invested in the <keyword id="11790278" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="frontrow-app">FrontRow app</keyword>, six months after Deepika Padukone invested in the same platform. After investing in the learning and community platform, <keyword id="302421" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Raftaar">Raftaar</keyword> told <keyword id="105681" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="IANS">IANS</keyword>: "I am very excited to be joining forces with the stellar crew at <keyword id="4975958" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="frontrow">FrontRow</keyword> and see how I can add value in fostering the culture of non-academic education across India. In my teenage years, I was always motivated by the creative arts and felt like a misfit in the conventional educational setup. I have always believed there is more to life than traditional degrees and textbook knowledge and skill development deserves its spotlight now, more than ever." Elaborating how the app would be beneficial for the youth in rural areas due to unlimited avenues, he added: "Whilst interacting with young minds during my tours in different cities, I realised that rural India has alternate passions, most of which it cannot pursue. The students would come up to me and talk about their acting, singing, and filmmaking dreams. They didn't want to do engineering, IT, or medical. But they had limited avenues because they weren't in Mumbai or New Delhi." Emphasising the necessity of the app in today's times, he said: "I want to make non-academic learning accessible and affordable for small-town Indians and hope to do so as I embark on this new journey. A big shout out to my partner, Ankit Khanna (AK Projekts) for making this happen." FrontRow has secured an undisclosed amount from Raftaar and AK Projekts. The fundraise came six months after Frontrow secured seed funding of $3.2 million from Deepika Padukone, <keyword id="455799" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lightspeed-Venture-Partners">Lightspeed Venture Partners</keyword>, and Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners). Reflecting on the development, Mikhil Raj, co-founder, FrontRow told IANS: "We are excited to join hands with Raftaar on the mission of democratising access to learning with partnerships with some of the industry's finest peers and experts at an affordable price from the comfort of your home. We continue to aspire to make learning accessible, easier, and enjoyable at FrontRow with partnerships like these." The non-academic skill development platform was founded by serial entrepreneurs Mikhil Raj, Shubhadit Sharma, and Ishaan Preet Singh in 2020. The app has forged creative alliances with celebrities like Neha Kakkar, DIVINE, Suresh Raina, Amit Trivedi, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Raju Srivastava, <keyword id="6404681" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sunburn">Sunburn</keyword>, MortaL and 8bit Thug in the past. Adding on Ankit Khanna, founder, AK Projekts said: "We are extremely bullish on the opportunity presented in the celebrity-driven vocational training platform segment in India. We believe there is huge merit and scope in this business that allows a wide section of people to have access to leaders from their respective fields and to learn from them directly. We are excited to support a new archetype for learning, an assortment of education, entertainment, and community." SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/google-is-now-using-chrome-as-another-security-layer-for-account-sign-ins/articleshow/84975356.cms">Google is now using Chrome as an added security layer for account sign-ins</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/how-to-check-allotment-status-of-glenmark-life-sciences-ipo/articleshow/84978486.cms">Glenmark Life Sciences IPO: How to check allotment status, listing date and more</a>

After Deepika Padukone, Rapper Raftaar also invests in learning community FrontRow

Army chief Gen MM Naravane will arrive in Nepal on Wednesday on a three-day crucial visit, which Indian officials here say will deepen the long-standing bonds of friendship between the two armies and provide an opportunity for both sides to explore avenues to further strengthen bilateral defence partnership for mutual benefit. Naravane's visit is largely aimed at resetting relations with the Himalayan nation after the ties came under severe strain following a bitter border row. Gen Naravane is visiting Nepal at the official invitation of Nepal Army chief Gen Purnachandra Thapa. Indian Embassy spokesperson Naveen Kumar said that Gen Naravane's visit "will deepen the long-standing and customary bonds of friendship between the two armies." "His visit will provide an opportunity for both sides to discuss the bilateral defence partnership and explore avenues to further strengthen it for mutual benefit." Gen Naravane will pay homage at the martyrs' memorial at the Army Pavilion on Thursday morning and receive a guard of honour at the Nepal Army headquarters, according to Nepal Army sources. He will hold formal talks with his Nepalese counterpart at the Nepal Army headquarters on Thursday. Mutual interests between the two armies and bilateral relations will mainly feature during the talk, Nepal Army sources said. The <keyword id="78682" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-army-chief">Indian Army chief</keyword> will also gift an ambulance and medical equipment for a mobile field hospital to be operated by the Nepal Army. He will also hold interaction with senior officials at the Nepal Army headquarters. In the afternoon, the <keyword id="6354416" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-Army">Indian Army</keyword> chief will be conferred with the honorary rank of General of Nepal Army by President Bidya Devi Bhandari amidst a special ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He will also pay a courtesy call on President Bhandari after the ceremony. Gen Naravane will attend a dinner reception hosted by Nepal Army chief at Nepal Army headquarters. Gen Naravane will address the student officers at the Army Command and Staff College at Shivapuri, in the outskirts of Kathmandu on Friday morning. In the afternoon, Gen Naravane will meet Prime Minister and Defence Minister K.P Sharma Oli at the Prime Minister's Official Residence at Baluwatar before wrapping up his visit. "I am delighted to be visiting Nepal on their kind invitation and to meet my counterpart Gen Purna Chandra Thapa, Chief of the Army Staff of the Nepali Army. I am sure this visit will go a long way in strengthening the bonds of friendship that the two armies cherish," Gen Naravane said in New Delhi ahead of the visit. The Chief of Army Staff said he was also grateful for the opportunity to call on Prime Minister Oli. India's decision to send the Army Chief to Nepal to reset the ties is seen as part of a larger exercise by New Delhi to rejuvenate relations with Myanmar, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Afghanistan in the wake of greater efforts by China to expand its influence in the region. The ties between the two countries came under strain after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated an 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8. Nepal protested the inauguration of the road claiming that it passed through its territory. Days later, Nepal came out with the new map showing Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as its territories. After Nepal released the map, India reacted sharply, calling it a "unilateral act" and cautioning Kathmandu that such "artificial enlargement" of territorial claims will not be acceptable to it. In June, Nepal's Parliament approved the new political map of the country featuring areas which India maintains belong to it. In its reaction after Nepal's lower house of parliament approved the bill, India termed as untenable the "artificial enlargement" of territorial claims by the neighbouring country. India said Nepal's action violates an understanding reached between the two countries to resolve the boundary issues through talks. Nepal Prime Minister Oli has been asserting that Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura belong to Nepal and vowed to "reclaim" them from India. The Lipulekh pass is a far western point near Kalapani, a disputed border area between Nepal and India. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory - India as part of Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Dharchula district.

Indian Army Chief Gen MM Naravane to begin three day Nepal visit today amid border tensions with China

<ul><li>Finance Minister <keyword id="129243" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nirmala-sitharaman" source="Orion">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword> announced that the government will set up an Animation, Visual Effects, <keyword id="6357332" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="gaming" source="Orion">Gaming</keyword> and Comics (<keyword id="1920258" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="avgc" source="Orion">AVGC</keyword>) promotion task force for boosting talent in the animation and gaming sector.</li><li>We speak to experts from the industry to understand the larger implications of the move and how it will help the industry.</li></ul>During her Union Budget speech yesterday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government will set up an Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) promotion task force for boosting talent in the animation and gaming sector. Sitharaman said the AVGC sector will provide a huge opportunity for young professionals and also create new job opportunities for the youth. “The AVGC sector offers immense potential to employ youth. An AVGC Promotion taskforce with all stakeholders will be set up to recommend ways to realize this and build domestic capacity for serving our markets and the global demand,” Sitharaman said during her speech. The move is expected to attract new talent and give them the required support to take the AVGC sector global. The AVGC sectors, and especially the gaming industry has been witnessing a healthy growth. Most industry reports have predicted that the next few years will contribute to immense growth for the industry. A recent report by Sequoia India and BCG had said that while the gaming industry in India is currently smaller than that of the US and China and is 1% of the global gaming market, it is generating $1.5 billion revenue and is expected to triple to over $5 billion by 2025 on the back of the ‘mobile first’ phenomenon. So the government’s move comes at an opportune time. To understand the larger implications of the move, we spoke to experts from the gaming industry and here’s how they thought the government's move will give a boost to the segment: <keyword id="2388996" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sai-srinivas" source="Orion">Sai Srinivas</keyword>, Co-Founder and CEO, Mobile Premier League It is very encouraging to see that the Union Budget has taken into consideration some of the long-pending suggestions for the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC) sector, while noting the strong potential this industry holds for employment-generation as well as taking ‘Made in India’ game titles global. We welcome the Hon’ble Finance Minister's announcement to set up an AVGC Promotion Task Force to provide a much-needed boost to the sector. This announcement highlights the need to build capacity to serve both domestic and global markets, and is a strong indicator of the impetus that the government is willing to provide for its growth. It is also heartening to see the government's commitment to work with the industry, allowing for a balanced approach that accommodates the needs of all stakeholders and strengthens the ecosystem holistically. A progressive tax regime, predictable regulatory framework and supportive funding policies will allow the industry to compete on the world stage and fulfil the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision for the Indian digital gaming sector to be a global powerhouse. Moreover, it will also help develop a workforce of young and employable AVGC professionals to usher in the next tech revolution from within India. With a renewed focus on the AVGC sector, blended financing for deep tech and IT, hardware and electronics manufacturing combined with deployment of 5G and affordable internet in underserved areas, it is clear that the government is committed to take the Indian startup ecosystem to the next level. We are hopeful that with the positive support of the government, the coming years will see online gaming, VFX and esports startups leading the charge in the global economy. By developing deep tech intellectual property and exporting services, they can help cement India’s position as a world leader in the sector. Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, JetSynthesys I strongly welcome the formation of a AVGC task force for promotion, something that we as an industry have been pushing for a long time. It is high time that animation, visual effects and gaming are recognised as an industry because of the sheer potential that they carry. Skyrocketing further owing to the pandemic, these industries have the power to create large employment as well as give Indian gaming companies an opportunity to become globally competitive and play an increasingly larger role at a global level. Building a task force that will address the needs of this industry across various ministries would be a very proactive approach towards strengthening this industry, in my opinion. The aim to rollout 5G services in FY 2022-23 along with affordable broadband services and efficient connectivity to allow equal access to e-services in remote and urban areas has also been long due. The focus of Hon FM on new emerging technologies particularly like Blockchain and AI, a word which was repeated several times during the speech is again a very positive move to show that digitalisation is truly the future, and a strong focus area for government. Digitalisation was applied across agriculture, healthcare, skills, education and appeared in various shapes and forms throughout the budget speech. Additionally, the national tele-mental health programme is a great initiative by the government as the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of people to an unfathomable extent. Various channels and platforms like ThinkRight.me by JetSynthesys and others in the space can together help tackle India's mental health issues. In all, we’re truly excited about the future of digital India and what this means to JetSynthesys which is here to play a key role in the daily digital lives of a billion Indians. As a country, we hope to move forward with jet speed and transform our country into an atmanirbhar, technologically and digitally forward nation. Vishwalok Nath, Director, World Esports Cup We welcome the steps by the Finance Minister of India as part of Budget 2022-2023 including the creation of the AVGC task force. We hope that this task force can help promote the creation of a robust infrastructure for game development with gradual benefits to the esports community. We are also looking forward to the 5G spectrum auction this year. 5G can further promote the latest innovations and mass adoption of technologies like cloud gaming in the country. There is a huge scope of employment for the youth in the gaming industry. Esports/Video Games is a versatile industry and there is a huge scope for professional gamers as well as other jobs like casters, commentators, and other support staff appointed by the esports tournaments like producers, editors, analysts, product managers, game testers, referees, production crew members, event managers, social media managers, etc. Lokesh Suji, Director, Esports Federation of India &amp; Vice President, Asian Esports Federation It is encouraging to finally see the seriousness from our Government towards this sector which has been long neglected. This will definitely help in setting up the policies which would encourage and build our capacities and capabilities to export to the rest of the world; leading to more domestic video game development studios and more investments in the AVGC sector. Spectrum auctions for 5G is a welcome move for the gaming industry as well, 5G can disrupt the industry by enhancing the live streaming of games and cloud gaming as well. The task force should consist largely of people who have been part of the ‘Video Game’ industry and are playing an active role in shaping up the Indian video game industry. <keyword id="263906" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="jehil-thakkar" source="Orion">Jehil Thakkar</keyword>, Partner and Media and Entertainment Sector Leader, Deloitte India The setting up of the AVGC promotion task force announced in the Union Budget will help India achieve its potential of achieving 20 lakh jobs according to Deloitte projections. These are critical skills for growth of the metaverse and India is poised to take advantage of this ecosystem. Sagar Nair, Co-Founder &amp; CEO, Qlan It is this continued acceptance that will lead to the progress of the Indian gaming and esports industry. First was esports’ entry in the Asian Games as an official event followed by a government dedicated task force to work with the AVGC sector. I have no doubt that these initiatives as part of the national budget policy highlight the true potential of the Indian gaming &amp; esports segment not only in India but also on the global circuit. The statement clearly indicates the backing of homegrown game developers, tournament organizers, and esports companies and recommendations from the appointed task force will help build domestic capacity for serving out markets and the global demand as well. Sunil Yadav, CEO, PlayerzPot The AVGC sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in India, and attracts a huge interest from a large cross section of the population. The announcement of the new AVGC task force is a welcome one, as we expect it will help to build domestic capacity and also serve the global demand. The task force has come at the right time, for those pursuing a career in gaming as the sector is booming right now and needs more talented youngsters to grow. With the government introducing digital rupee and a visible trend in crypto adoption, NFT’s will grow significantly. 5G services auction within FY 22-23 across the country will play an important role in the growth by further penetrating in the markets and also enhancing the gaming experience. As the honorable minister mentioned in her budget presentation, the gaming sector has the potential to become the torchbearer of 'Create in India' &amp; 'Brand India', on the same lines we were hoping for transparent and progressive regulation that will help differentiate games of skill from those of chance, because this is a key area of concern for the industry as a whole. Dilsher Singh Malhi, Founder &amp; CEO, Zupee The creation of the AVGC promotion task force is a welcome move. The initiative with industry participation will help in establishing uniform, progressive policies that will promote growth and investments in the sector, which in turn, will lead to job creation, revenue generation, and engagement opportunities. This will be a crucial step towards bridging the digital divide and unlocking a fully connected and empowered digital India. We believe that this initiative will pave the way for the Indian gaming industry to establish itself on a global stage. Rahul Tewari, Chief Financial Officer, Games24x7 The gaming industry welcomes the decision to set up a task force for Animation, Visual Effect, Gaming and Comics. AVGC taskforce can provide the long-term policy impetus and bring together the various stakeholders to turbocharge the vibrant ecosystem in gaming and animation. India has a deep and very high-quality talent pool of developers and creative artists who will transform India into a global player in the interactive entertainment space in the coming years. We hope this paves way for regularity clarity for gaming, a sector that has contributed immensely to India’s start-up success in the last few years. Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies Ltd. The government’s announcement of an AVGC task force to seek recommendation to create the way forward is a welcome move. As we know, India presently commands around 10% of the global AVGC market and has the potential to reach 20-25% by 2027. This taskforce will facilitate employment for the youth, build domestic capacity to serve the Indian markets and also meet global demand. <keyword id="3471731" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="roland-landers" source="Orion">Roland Landers</keyword>, CEO, The All-India Gaming Federation I am pleased that the government has announced a progressive budget; stating the gaming industry as a sector that generates various job opportunities for the youth while boosting the economy of the country. The ideas proposed for the sector are very encouraging. We are thrilled and look forward to the AVGC task force that will give a major boost to the game development sector by building scale and adding to the overall online skill gaming industry’s momentum. AIGF and the skill games council of domain experts will be happy to assist, if need be, in playing a consultative role for the same Likewise, the tax extension to four years will benefit the entire start-up ecosystem in online gaming which is in the excess of 300 companies. Furthermore, the Hon’ble FM’s announcement of the digital rupee launch will increase purchases of virtual goods in games through microtransactions. Finally, 5G auctions when implemented will enhance the gamer experience dramatically as well as facilitate the adoption of new technologies in gaming. Overall, the budget has opened more avenues for the gaming industry.

The gaming industry lauds the government’s decision to set up an Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics promotion task force

<ul><li>The Advertising Standard Council of India has released a new set of guidelines for <keyword id="10879114" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="non-fungible-tokens" source="Orion">Non-Fungible Tokens</keyword> and <keyword id="6357017" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cryptocurrency" source="Orion">Cryptocurrency</keyword>, effective from April 2022.</li><li>After November 2021, all major <keyword id="2721952" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">crypto</keyword> exchanges had to put a pause on their marketing and advertising activities as PM Narendra Modi had announced in a Parliament meeting that attempts to mislead the youth through over-promising and non-transparent advertising need to be stopped.</li><li>After a long hiatus, now that there will be more clarity and standardization in crypto advertisements with <keyword id="169284" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="asci" source="Orion">ASCI</keyword>’s guidelines, their ad expenditure is likely to return on digital and traditional mediums.</li><li>We reached out to experts to discuss how players in the segment can navigate these challenges and woo consumers without violating regulations.</li></ul>The latest trend flooding the internet is Non-fungible Tokens. From Indian celebrities like Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Sonu Nigam, Nucleya, Yuvraj Singh to brands such as Yum!, Rage Coffee, MG Motors India -- have announced their foray into the <keyword id="4668945" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nft" source="Orion">NFT</keyword> world. A recent report by Deloitte predicts that India will be quick to catch on to the global NFT revolution with favourable regulations. In fact, it says that NFTs for sports media will generate more than US$2 billion in transactions in 2022, about double the figure for 2021. Another report from market research firm Finder said that Asian countries are outpacing the rest of the globe in terms of crypto adoption. The Asian country with the highest percentage of crypto ownership was Vietnam at 40% followed by Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines, respectively. However, since November 2021, all major crypto exchanges in India had put a pause on their marketing and advertising activities after PM Narendra Modi had announced in a Parliament meeting that ‘attempts to mislead the youth through over-promising and non-transparent advertising should be stopped.’ Since then, the crypto exchanges have refrained from launching fresh advertisements on print, television and radio. Now, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/advertising/ad-tech/news/asci-frames-guidelines-for-advertising-and-promotion-of-crypto-and-nft-products/articleshow/89764550.cms">Advertising Standards Council of India</a> has released a new set of guidelines for NFT products and crypto exchanges. Under the new standards, all Virtual Digital Assets and services will be required to carry prominent disclaimers. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="89764550" title="ASCI frames guidelines for advertising and promotion of NFT products" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> Experts welcome new ASCI guidelines; call it a step in the right direction Crypto platforms, after a long hiatus from marketing, are up for the challenge and are excited to be resuming their marketing activities before the Indian Premier League. Welcoming the new guidelines, Ashish Singhal, Founder and CEO, CoinSwitch said, "The ASCI guidelines are a step in the right direction to standardize advertisements within the VDA space. The VDA industry is supportive of all efforts towards investor protection, however, there are nuances that need to be addressed as the space is ever-evolving. We will continue to work together with ASCI and other stakeholders to refine them further.” Manasa Rajan, Business Head at Jupiter Meta also said that the new guidelines will improve accountability. She said, “This move is welcome and will offer further legitimacy to this space and create more accountability from the marketers, which is a positive direction for a nascent category with a customer-centric approach. While cryptos are seen as purely investment or trading opportunities, where the ultimate goal is profit., NFTs have a value proposition that is far more versatile than just speculative worth. It is more about changing the way we consume content, engage with art &amp; artists and immerse ourselves in popular culture. So, NFTs’ value cannot be seen from a trader’s lens alone. The experience of involvement, decision making, ownership &amp; utility have emotions attached to it, just like art, gold or even high-end brand purchases. Hence, a regulatory framework should be more inclusive in approach for a nascent category, where the inherent value of these NFTs is still being discovered.” The regulations come almost a month after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced plans to tax crypto investments by 30% during India’s Union Budget. While most <keyword id="12386484" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="crypto-ads" source="Orion">crypto ads</keyword> did come with disclaimers, they were easy to miss as they appeared at the bottom of the screen or flew by in a few seconds at the end of it. As per the new guidelines, the voiceover will be required to be at a normal speaking pace so that the consumer can’t miss it. In the case of a long-format video of over two minutes, the disclaimer will be required to be repeated at the beginning and at the end of the video and stay on screen for a minimum of five seconds. No crypto advertisement can now contain statements that promise or guarantee future increase in profits either. Overall, the current guidelines indicate that ads cannot mislead, misguide, give false information, or exploit a consumer’s lack of expertise on a subject. Whether it was CoinSwitch’s maiden B2C advertisement with Ranveer Singh or Ayushmann Khurrana’s campaign with CoinDCX, advertisements last year showed how investing in crypto is the future and it is very easy and simple to invest in. All of these ads painted a rosy picture that highlighted the highs and downplayed the volatility and risk of the assets. Therefore, ASCI is now restricting VDA products from claiming that their assets are so easy that consumers do not have to think twice about investing. It is also barring the use of the words ‘currency, securities, custodian and depositories’ in crypto-related ads. The task now for these crypto players is to win the confidence of people, raise awareness and educate, while convincing them that it is safe to invest in crypto. On top of these regulations and lack of trust in the market, crypto exchanges will be competing with the government’s own digital currency. Rikki Agarwal, Co-Founder &amp; COO from Blink said, “Last year, we saw an uptick in the crypto ad spends during the festive season and during important cricket matches. The new guidelines by ASCI will certainly have an impact on the brand spends, especially during the upcoming IPL tournament. The associations with Influencers and celebrities will also witness a radical shift. The move will definitely help in education and creating awareness amongst the consumers but it is too early to comment on the impact on the brands. Currently, India is the second-largest market in cryptocurrency adoption and the culture seems to be growing rapidly. With the adoption increasing among young men and women, private players such as CoinSwitch Kuber, CoinDCX and WazirX had plans to increase their ad spendings to compete with the possible launch of the government's digital currency. With the move from ASCI, the brands will definitely have to relook at their strategy and plan their ad spends. Brands will also have to consider spending on other platforms and mediums to interact with the consumers and will open up new avenues for growth.” Crypto platforms will also have to relook at the duration of their ads because it might get difficult for the audience to understand crypto in 10-15 seconds; it could send the wrong message across and mislead consumers. Navigating the challenges of advertising in the NFT, Crypto landscape While there are a lot of grays in crypto ads and ASCI guidelines will certainly bring transparency, will it restrict creative freedom? Vijay Pravin, Founder &amp; CEO of bitsCrunch, does not think it will. “With the new tax rules and now ASCI’s regulations, I don’t think it will be challenging for digital products to be creative. In fact, this will bring out more creativity among the Web-3 people. When people came out with the concept of Cryptocurrency, it was laughed at, since it was new and seemed confusing. Likewise, the laws and regulations for cryptos will take time to be able to cover all bases. With web-3, we are enabling an additional asset class for the future. For sure, in the years to come, we are going to witness a quirkier side of NFT and crypto projects than now. Regulations or laws keep changing. This is the current stand but in a few months or years, we could witness something else. But the technology or the infrastructure remains the same. We already witness that India is making progressive steps towards Blockchain technology. I am personally looking forward to seeing how this technology and the landscape evolves,” said he. Raj Shamani- Digital Content Creator, Entrepreneur, Investor and Podcaster said that while creativity will get hampered to some extent, the overall impact on the whole industry and people interested in this industry will be positive. “A lot of people have been misusing their power to pump &amp; dump and promote wrong things just to make quick bucks. This is going to be good for people who are here for the right reasons because they are anyway educating. And if they are providing good value education, people are going to learn about it. Also, it's always the best to tell people I am not personally recommending so that people can easily differentiate between honest opinion and promotional opinion,” said Shamani. He also shared some advice on how to connect with consumers. He said, “The best way to woo consumers is to provide them the right education and value. If you educate your audience right. If you tell them the right things. If you let them know the use cases. If you tell them about the community power. If you tell them how this is going to empower their life and not 'sell it'. The content will connect. People who have been already doing this thing in the space won't face a problem. In fact, this will make people more aware and push them to promote and make the right content. This will only help to eliminate the promotion of bad projects.” Anjali Malthankar, National Strategy Director, Tonic Worldwide said that with everything new comes excitement and concern and both need our attention. "I think the attention from regulators for any space which is seeing a crazy traction in such a short period, is expected. At the pace that NFT, Crypto are growing in popularity the interventions are understandable. As far as the challenge for creative promotions is concerned, I think the creative agencies have often come across the term during briefings – “It’s a creative challenge” So, in that spirit creative will always find its way to not let this come in the way of creativity. There have been very many categories, including traditional finance categories which have disclaimers and yet it does not stop good creative work. In fact, the fence sitters or doubters who were unsure of the VDA products, might consider the category, as promoters get more upfront and transparent about it. If VDA brands are strategically not dependent on or riding on the fad, confusion, consumers’ lack of knowledge and noise but have a genuine offering, then it is just about giving space to disclaimer which for today’s smart and conscious consumer is nothing but a sign of transparency. In fact, if we see closely Crypto and NFTs are born out of blockchain and the need for transparency and hence in intent they are both (the regulators and VDA category) on the same page." Rage Coffee recently made its debut in the blockchain matrix with its valentine's NFT campaign. Its Founder, Bharat Sethi said that the growing adoption of crypto tokens has led to the emergence of advertisements that downplay the risk associated with these assets. Therefore, according to Sethi, increased transparency is a welcome move and where it might impact creative freedom, when it comes as a hit on the consumer interest, it is best to be transparent and supply critical information/disclaimers in this volatile category. “Even after including the disclaimers and adhering to the guidelines, there is scope for being creative. It does restrict creative freedom in communication; however, this is in the best interest of an average consumer who might not have in-depth knowledge about cryptocurrency and VDAs. A promise that can not be kept should ideally not be made in a promotion. There is a need to educate the consumer on the basic ideas around NFT, cryptocurrencies and take the customer on a journey to understand how these assets are. The risks can not be downplayed as risk appetites are very personal. There is plenty of space to experiment, spread awareness and create a buzz,” said Sethi. NFT marketplace Fullyfaltoonft.com curated by Viacom18’s Youth Music &amp; English Entertainment cluster and powered byGuardianLink.io has already received an overwhelming response for its digital artwork preview. Keyur Patel, Co-Founder &amp; Chairman, GuardianLink and Co-Founder, BeyondLife.club said that consumer education comes first and it's a welcome move from ASCI to ensure customers are aware of the market volatility. "Crypto as an investment class is quite volatile compared to stocks or real estate. All investment Ads and campaigns have a responsibility to educate the users on the risks and affiliated volatility and liquidity restrictions and aspects of the asset. Even media, ad agencies, and other supporting ecosystems have the responsibility to educate the same market in a responsible method. NFT is not a financial asset. It is a digital asset associated with games, entertainment, and art. Its inherent value is either in art or utility. Also, the buyers of NFT don’t buy it because there is instant gains, they do it because they find affinity to Amitabh Bachchan or Stan Lee or they find Game like Racing very interesting and want to participate in it. Crypto is purely a trade asset, for investments and hence it needs very aggressive education to make sure, the expectations of returns for the buyers are not skewed by hype and unrealistic aspirations. So, this declaration will not just motivate consumers to study the brand/product before purchasing but also put the onus on celebrities who endorse digital assets to do due diligence thereby promoting a responsible environment. Many industries have been following such guidelines without seeing any impact on creativity. It will rather inspire marketers and content creators to make their storytelling more creative and credible than ever before." Sagar Pushp, Co-founder and CEO, ClanConnect agreed that clear-cut norms were needed in this space. “For advertisers, the greatest purpose of communication is to put across accurate messaging for users. The new promotion and advertising guidelines for crypto assets will bring this authenticity into the segment. It is a welcome move by ASCI as it will ensure that brand communication is not misleading. Going forward, brands will need to operate within the guardrails of these guidelines, making sure their messaging is not limited to quick money and gains. The intrinsic value of blockchain is much wider than the prospect of big money, and we’ll need to get creative to empower users with precise information,” said Pushp. After a long pause, now that there will be more clarity and standardization in crypto advertisements, their ad expenditure is likely to return on digital and traditional mediums. During the festive season and IPL last year, crypto platforms were at their peak. The month of Diwali, which was October in 2021, nearly had a 30% share of the category in digital advertising and it took a dip by 6% in November 2021, whereas on television, there wasn’t a single ad from Crypto platforms in 2020, revealed TAM. In 2021, television saw 33.4 hours of advertising from Crypto platforms. The festive season proved to be bountiful for television too as October had more than 75% share of Crypto platforms, up from 2% in June and 23% in September. A lot of people have been speaking about the risks of investing in digital currency without fully understanding how the crypto ecosystem works. ASCI’s guidelines, therefore, could help bring about more transparency and accountability into the ecosystem.

ASCI releases new guidelines for Non-Fungible Tokens, Crypto ads; here’s what experts have to say about it

<ul><li>Marketing has always been about understanding how a consumer reacts to certain triggers and how brands can use that to influence them.</li><li>After the year 2020 turned the marketing world upside down, brands and businesses of all sizes had to reimagine their communication strategies and evolve with the rapidly changing times.</li><li>Brands started offering a helping hand to consumers by leveraging their social media presence to either amplify citizens’ SoS for ICU beds or to spread awareness around vaccination registration.</li><li>In 2021, the focus shifted primarily to digital channels owing to the pandemic.</li><li>As we enter a new year with a lot of hope and optimism for the future, we speak to a few brands to discuss how the pandemic impacted their marketing activities and what the future holds for marketing.</li></ul>After months of multiple nationwide lockdowns in 2020 and living and working in isolation, the Indian <keyword id="11095746" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="marketing-ecosystem" source="Orion">marketing ecosystem</keyword> started preparing for a new future. Brands decided to pause, reflect, rework their strategies and most importantly, prioritise consumer interest. They focused on creating more enhanced consumer experiences online as we all waited to physically get back to our ‘normal’ lives. A few brands decided to reach out to people who were crying for help and many brands swallowed their pride, kept aside fierce rivalry and started uplifting their competitors in social media posts instead -- even burger and cola wars stopped. Consumers started yearning for stories that uplift and inspire them to keep going in the otherwise gloomy times. There was a new-found appreciation for empathetic advertising and nostalgia marketing in the brandverse, which continued in 2021. Brands delivered some hope and delight with every post and advertisement. They also started speaking one-on-one with their consumers across social media channels more than ever and delivered on what is asked of them because GenZ and Millennials are quick to call out unconnected brand purposes. Brands also moved along with the great digital migration of consumers and expanded their digital presence. They also factored in the massive economic upheavals due to the pandemic and offered value-based deals. They engaged with consumers on smart devices and interfaces across the home, expanded their media mix to include virtual reality, video conferencing platforms and video gaming platforms. This year’s Ipsos and Tetra Pak report found that the personal, economic and environmental fragility experienced during the global pandemic has created a shift from more passive concern to active caretaking -- driven by the desire to protect ourselves, our communities and the security of the planet. People are being more proactive in making the right purchases – for their own wellbeing and for the environment around them. This includes dietary choices and recycling more and reducing waste. As a result, we have seen more eco-friendly product and packaging launches this year. The concern for the environment will only grow stronger and brands will be expected to align themselves with a larger purpose. With a new-found appreciation for life and altered perspectives towards marketing, we reached out to Indian brands from different sectors to find out what are some of the trends that they expect to see in 2022. Here is what they said: Pankaj Sharma, Director – Consumer Products Division, L’Oréal India: Indian beauty consumers have become more discerning as they move between online + offline buying and experiencing paradigms. And in this journey, eCommerce will continue to play a big role in driving beauty in India. It has created more opportunities for consumer experience and demand fulfillment. The initiatives like live streaming, e-BAs, Video-Content on DIY have enabled new touchpoints. This has allowed more specific media and activation plans for each region, depending on the festive peaks. For example, at L’Oréal India, we used Insta-Festive as one of our umbrella themes and could do insta-diwali, insta-pujo, insta-karwa, insta-onam as activation points to engage with consumers on e-commerce and digital with the power of data. Apart from targeting festive occasions, we are moving towards occasion-led purchases, celebrating personal milestones of life. Hence beauty brands are sending out relevant brand communications throughout the year, with the same rigor, as one would have done during the festive season before. The festive season, however, still sees an uptick in purchases and offers a variety of formats to give consumers what they’re seeking. Raunika Malhotra, President - Marketing &amp; Corporate Communications, Lodha: In the coming year, I see stakeholder marketing becoming increasingly relevant. It essentially means working towards creating value for all stakeholders that include customers, employees, vendors, communities, natural capital, cities, etc. The other trend that we will witness is the increased use of analytics and data scientists in marketing communication and performance. Lastly, the pandemic has made people more conscious of the community and the environment at large. They are looking to engage with brands with shared values of doing good for the society and the planet. Abhishek Shahabadi, Vice President &amp; Portfolio Head, Scotch and Premium Whites Diageo India: There’s been good momentum on Diageo India brands in 2021, despite operational challenges due to pandemic led restrictions. This is attributed to the growing trend of ‘at-home drinking’. The off-trade salience increased to 88% compared to 73% in the pre-pandemic phase, as individuals were constrained to more intimate drinking occasions at home. We see at-home drinking as a strong trend coupled with the growth of outdoor experiences in 2022 as the market opens. Keeping this in mind, Diageo India continues to strengthen its in-home play through off-trade and digital along with influencer engagement to embrace ways to make at-home drinking experiences more enjoyable. Arnab Roy, Vice President, Marketing, Coca-Cola India &amp; Southwest Asia: While this year has tested the thinking and resilience of brands worldwide, going forward, we hope that the pandemic continues to regress and we get the real magic back into our lives. As people step out of their homes more often, they will be looking out for more real activities like watching blockbusters at multiplexes, visiting their favourite food “gullies” and travelling more frequently with their loved ones. Post COVID we are also seeing a trend where people are more experimentative and open to new genres of music, food, sports and entertainment. It is thus imperative for brands to deliver integrated experiences at a global scale with the agility, speed and data-driven insights that are required to win locally. Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Executive Director – Kalyan Jewellers: Gold has always been a preferred consumption item for Indians and in the post COVID-19 era, it has also emerged as one of the safer and more lucrative long-term assets. The dynamic market scenario and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to renewed interest from younger consumers who bought into the idea of gold jewellery, for the first time. Today’s young consumers or millennials consider jewellery as a fashion statement and a style symbol that will go with their sensibilities and help them showcase their true self. Because of this, it has become increasingly critical for jewellery companies to keep up with newer trends and address the changing sensibilities and consumer preferences in this ever-evolving business environment. To address the ongoing digital transformation in India’s jewellery industry, we are focusing on creating a holistic ecosystem, strengthening our omnichannel strategy and making the ‘phygital’ model more seamless. Over the past few years, we have been making consistent investments in developing and leveraging technology to offer convenient solutions to customers for purchasing jewellery or investing in gold. As a result of this, we were well-positioned to adapt to this digital transformation and ventured into newer product categories such as Digital Gold as well as explored newer avenues to reach our customers by introducing services such as Gold Ownership Certificate and LIVE Video Shopping facility, which allowed customers to browse through and purchase jewellery at the comfort of their homes. One of the biggest trends that have emerged out of the nationwide lockdown is an enormous increase in the screen time spent by Indians across digital platforms. In line with this, brands have aligned their marketing budgets towards digital, social media &amp; OTT, especially for including new content. Following this, we have introduced temporary changes to our media mix with a more digital-centric approach, which is a key to making the most during this quarter. With 2022 around the corner, we aim to continue moving forward on this growth trajectory and register consistent growth while widening our consumer base. Kartik Johari, Vice President - Marketing &amp; Commerce, Nobel Hygiene: 2022 will be the golden year for great marketeers, as content will reign supreme. We are drowning in a glut of content, be it 10 sec Reels, to full-blown documentaries. Consumers on the other hand are oscillating between anxiety, fright and boredom. The challenge is up to us, to create content that can engage, reassure, add value and be honest. It is so important to keep a track of how many people the content reaches, who engages, and what they say. We have never had so much data on our interactions and it is time we start using data better! It should be an interesting year for strong brand teams. Ketan Kulkarni, Chief Commercial Officer, Blue Dart: The world has acclimatized to the ‘new normal’ and what seemed to be the most challenging obstacle of 2020, has now enabled us to prepare for any unprecedented events that could cause business disruptions in the future. A major factor in actualizing this is agility driven by technology and automation. The role of logistics has been highlighted over the last two years given our industry’s essential service status and this has only been possible because of the technology-based solutions adopted by resilient players. 2022 will definitely see an enhancement in the ‘Technology-led transformation’ that we are witnessing today. Digitalization across the supply chain from first mile to last mile is the future of the industry; technology enabling near-autonomous facilities, robotics, drone-delivery systems, and 3D/additive manufacturing are going to be adopted very quickly. The reason is, in the event of another unprecedented crisis, organizations would want to ensure ‘business-as-usual’ to cause minimal business disruptions. The underlying theme of 2022 would revolve around creating business models that will survive in a ‘less-contact’ society. Amrinder Singh, Director, Bonn Group of Industries: It's been a fantastic year of change and recovery for both consumers and businesses. Consumers prioritised their safety while dealing with illness, job loss, lack of available products and services. Anticipating change and adapting for future challenges accordingly can help enterprises see around corners and plan effectively for the post-pandemic consumer. Businesses are riding on the pandemic-accelerated digital transformation wave and the trend is likely to continue. Around 80% of companies are allocating resources to improving their e-commerce and shopping platforms. This includes a full 60% investment in their digital direct-to-customer (DTC) channels. The digital shift also includes transforming internal capabilities and creating efficiencies with the help of technology. The future of retail will be omnichannel shopping or phygital retail. New technologies will continue to transform the retail sector with rapid change and innovation. Retail consumers will expect frictionless and tech-enabled experiences. As retailers and manufacturers embrace a direct-to-consumer model through e-commerce, traditional marketing channels will continue to blur. Satish NS, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Haier Appliances India: Today, hyper-personalization is inevitable for brands to get closer to their consumers. More than ever before, brands need to work on identifying and nurturing relevant cohorts for the business and reach out to them with tailored content that strikes an instant connection between the brand and its consumers. Since digital gives us the liberty to phenomenally reduce the distance between a brand and its customers, it’s important to create critical touchpoints along the consumer journey that will enable a more immersive brand experience with a 360-degree approach. Moreover, leveraging creative strategies on digital to deliver business impact will continue to become even more important in the coming years. Next year, we will also see an uptick in brands that will be experimenting big with performance marketing tools to help drive better ROI for the business. Manish Bandlish, Managing Director, Mother Dairy Fruit &amp; Vegetable Pvt. Ltd: The year 2021 was yet again a dynamic year however, the revival has been remarkable for us at Mother Dairy. Preparedness coupled with collaboration, resilience and agility played a vital role in the pandemic stressed quarter of this year, to ensure wellbeing of each and every employee as well as business continuity in order to serve our consumers. The year saw new products, markets and experiences, both for the business as well as the consumers. Despite the happenings, this year saw consistent supplies as varied channels such as e-commerce continued big-time. In addition, the consumption trend of consumers which began witnessing a change last year are persistent this year as well with in-home consumption and preference for packaged foods going strong.

Marketing trends to watch out for in 2022

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=flipkart&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Flipkart</a> is filing cases against brands that have allegedly not paid for advertising on its platform and the amount has gone up in crores. 
 
India’s largest e-<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ecommerce&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">commerce</a> company, <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>, is going to drag them to court and is seeking to recover dues from nearly 20 Indian and foreign companies. 
 
"There are about 20 Indian and foreign companies which haven't paid and the dues are in the range of Rs 90,000 to crores of rupees each," a person familiar with the development told ET. 
 Reportedly, Flipkart had recently registered such a case with the Delhi High Court against a US-based computer data storage company <keyword id="362605" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Western-Digital">Western Digital</keyword> and accused it of not paying over Rs 1 crore for placing <keyword id="3346842" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ads-on-flipkart">ads on Flipkart</keyword>. 
 
Last year, Flipkart had offered other brands and sellers to advertise on its platform but there was no pre-paid mode of payment, thereby relying on companies to pay later on. 
 
"The digital industry is suffering because there have been several cases where advertisers default on payment. We do not have a strong industry body in terms of payment collection yet. Payments for digital are cleared much after the payments of print and television," Amar Deep Singh, CEO, Interactive Avenues, told ET. 
 
However, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=amazon&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Amazon</a> has a pre-paid mode for payments under which brands and sellers advertising on its platform need to make payment beforehand only. 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Flipkart is going after 20 brands over payment defaults, seeking to recover crores

<ul><li>With the industry changing at a rapid pace, throwing a new set of challenges every day, experts are hoping that 2020 will be a game-changer that will help them redefine a lot of rules in advertising, with smarter marketing techniques. </li><li>We spoke to a few industry experts to identify these new opportunities that 2020 will bring forth for the industry and here is what they had to say. </li></ul>2019 was an interesting year -- full of ups and downs for the advertising, media and marketing industry. While we saw <keyword id="618493" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-marketing">digital marketing</keyword> taking the center stage and brands experimenting with newer formats on the medium, the economic slowdown affected consumer sentiments, and naturally, the industry. However, during this period of tough economy, the industry tried to squeeze out the inefficiencies to make themselves more productive. As we enter 2020, the industry is hopeful to rise to its full strength together. They are all set to reap the benefits of AR and VR, voice, influencer marketing, and much more to stay ahead in the game. We spoke to a few industry experts to identify these new opportunities that 2020 will bring forth for the industry and here is what they had to say: Will Scougal, Director of International Creative Strategy, Snapchat: I don’t think there’ll be one dominant trend but several interlinked trends that have emerged over the last decade all achieving scale and creating real shifts in the way we experience and interact with brands. Over the last few years people have increasingly shifted their attention to mobile and, as they have become more confident navigating the world with their handset, they’re looking for quality experiences. What we’ve seen at Snapchat is that people are choosing to spend time adding a creative layer to their world through AR (Augmented Reality). As this format continues to scale, both on Snapchat and beyond, we are going to see more innovative, useful, and immersive experiences being built by brands embracing the marketing benefits of AR as a full funnel format. In addition to the growing popularity of AR, we are also going to see premium mobile video content gain more viewers. As audiences rise, we can expect to see more quality made-for-mobile shows from studios, publishers, entertainers and brands who are adapting to the mobile mindset of people. Ashish Bhasin, CEO - APAC and Chairman India, Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific: Voice and performance will gain much more prominence than they did so far in the industry. With the emergence of OTT and data rates going down, there is a natural preference towards digitisation amongst younger audience. Equally, voice is so intuitive, it will be naturally driven more and more on a daily basis -- whether you are driving or use some voice assistant on your phone, which will be simplified with time. On the other hand, clients are also under-pressure to deliver results every quarter, hence, they will be far more interested in performance rather than just pure brand-building. Prathyusha Agarwal, Chief Marketing Officer, ZEEL: With consumption across platforms, the most dominating trend of 2020 would be brand and character love that transcends multiple screens. Viewers will share their dining tables and living rooms with our content on television satisfying the craving for anticipation of a new story, the first bite to savour the emotion and relationship with our characters every day. They will then stretch it across multiple screens and interactions binging on it, dipping in, dipping out and gorging on it through time and space. As broadcasters, we need to gear up our backend to tailor-make our content such that it is adept to the multiple platform front-end user interfaces. There is a shift needed from thinking of content development as an uncertain creative process to building a nuanced understanding the cultural core that makes viewers tick, what they want/ need, where do they need it and have the capability to evolve our craft to deliver that. To own multiple screens where stories and characters are loved beyond just television, content creators and curators, will have to manage the share of pie on each of platforms to maximise screen hours. Sameer Saxena, Chief Content Officer and Head of TVF: “For 2020, we will continue to strengthen our partnerships with OTT platforms and brands equally. We plan to venture into new genres like thrillers and romance amongst others. We will also explore non-fiction properties as there isn’t much happening in this space. Our aim is to release around 15 to 20 shows in the year including a few in regional languages starting with Marathi. In addition to new shows we're also planning the second seasons of some of our key shows like ‘Kota Factory’, ‘Cubicles’, and ‘Hostel Daze’.“ Dinesh Chhabra, CEO, Usha International: “The consumer durables sector has shown a consistent growth and Usha International Ltd leads this growth from the front riding on new product launches like the Bloom series and Racer fans, as well as the introduction of a whole slew of colorful new kitchen appliances. During this period of tough economy, Usha tightened its operating belt to squeeze out the inefficiencies to make itself leaner and more productive. Usha believes in keeping the customer at the core of our businesses and hence ensures that all the new products that we have recently developed keeping consumer insights in mind and built to fulfil their needs, thereby transforming their daily lives. We expect the New Year to fuel consumer demand and a stabilization of growth patterns in coming quarters. We, at Usha, will continue in our journey to launch new products and innovative technologies, and improve the depth of our distribution penetration specifically in the geographies which are growing at a GDP growth higher than the national average.” Koshy George, Chief Marketing Officer, Marico Limited: One big trend for me will continue to be digital. You will continue to find a lot more digital adoption because the rates, while they have gone up, continue to be rock bottom in the country. And you will find that a lot of time that consumers spend will move into digital and hence the focus to continue to build brands and invest there will be one big trend that we look at. And as part of that, there are a lot of medium like TikTok that have suddenly come and exploded out of nowhere. We have recently worked with the platform and seen really good results so that'll be an area of focus. Secondly, while the economy has been witnessing a slowdown, there is still a room for a lot of premiumization. And there's a big trend in sustainability that is slowly but surely picking up momentum and is something we will see more of in 2020. Amer Jaleel, Group CCO &amp; Chairman, MullenLowe Lintas Group: I see content saturation coming. We have to start seeing consumers as audiences in the Media Age. Everybody is creating content with ease through apps. While this explosion leads to satisfying the creative urge among people and that surely is a good thing, but coupled with the march of platforms and production, this is leading very rapidly to content fatigue. Once we see our consumers as an audience, we have to account for the fatigue they have to overcome to see the frankly poor quality of brand content that most of us are putting out. The only way marketeers and their brand partners have is to be ahead of and fresher than the content that's being dished out. I can clearly see that the phrase 'break the clutter' is outdated. We will have to preempt all the evolution of what we call clutter and be ahead of the thinking of the clutter makers. Gurmeet Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India: To stand out from the crowd, companies are putting the customer at the heart of everything they do. This has led to the emergence of exceptional customer experiences. Marketing in the modern era has to play a significant role in shaping these experiences. Artificial Intelligence is certainly going to be a game changer driving the marketing landscape in 2020. This Next-gen technology will create new avenues of effective marketing and customer experiences. One of the trendiest topics across the world, both in B2B and B2C spaces, AI is going to take the charge as it holds the power to evolve businesses, accelerate customer experiences and boost sales like never before. Audience segmentation with in-depth understanding of the demand is key to success in any B2B module. Here AI will empower and align business, marketing and sales teams to accurately analyze the demand touchpoints much before a lead generation. This will ensure faster and concrete conversion of leads resulting in enriched customer experiences. Artificial Intelligence can play a significant role in influencing marketing strategies and predicting favorable product and service outcome. With AI things will become faster, easier, more convenient and affordable for business ecosystem to meet the ever evolving customer expectations. New India’s smart customer is globally connected and is curious to explore, experiment and experience. Today, customers are considering exceptional experiences as a critical aspect of their buying decision. In the B2C segment, AI has a huge role to play. It is also the responsibility of businesses and marketers to ethically leverage the power of this impactful tool. Without invading the privacy of customers, AI should aim at significantly providing intelligent and informed customer experiences by equipping marketing and product teams to effectively analyse consumer behavior, acceptance, demand and delivery points. This will ensure a smooth end to end customer journey that is more customized and interactive in the most natural and ethical manner. AI will also support the marketing landscape by enabling powerful and high-impact consumer insights to disrupt customer satisfaction and enhance success factors of product and service innovations. TikTok spokesperson: In 2019, we saw a drastic shift in online content consumption behavior. As the internet continued to democratize, Indians moved beyond the traditional consumption of entertainment content and are now avidly looking at videos to educate themselves on variety of topics such as self-improvement, health, fitness, e- learning languages, among others. In 2020, we foresee this trend to grow, with brands and NGOs leveraging short video formats with platforms such as TikTok. At the same time, given shorter attention spans, it will be critical for content to break through the clutter, be creative, fun and engaging, in order to attract audiences. Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD, Isobar South Asia: Voice as a technology is coming into its own and is going to be a big trend in 2020. With Hindi as a language being made available on Alexa, it will open up huge opportunities in the future. Secondly, with advancements in technology, augmented reality is going to take off in a big way. And the third biggest trend will again come from the world of vernacular content. Local languages are going to explode as we go into 2020 and you will see more OTT players investing on local languages. Pratik Gupta, Co-founder, FoxyMoron: "2020 will be the year for digitally evolved agencies and digitally involved clients. Hyper-personalization of content through all digital platforms should be the biggest trend this year. Along with the innovation on digital; Voice, OTT, Social, Progressive Web Apps, the use of Hyper-Personalisation are going to be imperative. While the entire ecosystem believes that the consumer does not want to see advertisements, I believe that ads &amp; communication served to an exposed cookie pool at the right time and at the right place is the future. This year we will be working on creating workflows, technologies and teams to cater to this need for brands and consumers alike." Also see: 
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