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<ul><li>International racers Aditya Patel and Armaan Ebrahim are behind the <keyword id="6603402" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="X1-Racing-League">X1 Racing League</keyword>. </li><li>With an IPL like format, it will have 8 city based franchises which will feature international male and female racers.</li><li>The X1 Racing League will be investing ₹50 crores per season.</li></ul>It was in 2011, that the first <keyword id="29472" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="F1-race">F1 race</keyword> made it to India. Eight years later, motor sporting is still a distant dream for many Indian racing enthusiasts. But now international racers Aditya Patel and Armaan Ebrahim want to change that. The duo is bringing an exclusive motor sporting event to India – the X1 Racing League. Patel and Ebrahim are both former national champions currently racing internationally representing Audi and Lamborghini India. The X1 Racing League will follow an IPL like format where 8 city based franchises will participate in the races which will feature international and Indian male and female racers. Patel and Ebrahim have both been racing for 15 years now. “We have been travelling together the last 5 years, looking at different sporting events particularly motor sporting events. We have been looking at how to help the sport grow in India, because we haven’t seen a large number of Indian drivers coming out of the country,” Patel told Business Insider. The X1 Racing League will be investing ₹50 crores per season on operations, marketing, production and promotions. It is backed by Mohit Burman of Dabur India, Raghunandan, founder, TaxiForSure, Shanti Mohan, CEO, LetsVenture), Anupam Mittal of People Group and others. Bringing in the 8 city-based franchisees, they hope to garner a following in the country. “It’s a lot of sportainment. Each race will be of 45 minutes duration and there will be 3 races per day, with innovative race formats,” said Ebrahim. Being the first of its kind in India, they are also claiming to attract brands. “We are commercialising motor sports in India. With city affinities, the reaction has been very welcoming. With e-sports we are tapping the grassroot level and it is taking us to a whole new market altogether,” said Ebrahim. While the race will be held in November, they are also organising an e-sports league. Considering motor sports is an expensive game, they are bringing in e-sports, which works like a simple video game. “We are taking our racing simulators to colleges and malls in 8 cities. The winner from all 8 cities will be put through a racing program and will be contracted to X1 Racing League,” said Patel.

These two international racers are trying to build an IPL for motorsports in India

<ul><li>Myntra is expecting a 2x growth in sales compared to last year’s Big Fashion Festival. </li><li>To drive more engagement and bring in a new set of audience before its big sale day, Myntra has made its debut partnership with <keyword id="6354831" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="indian-premier-league">Indian Premier League</keyword>’s <keyword id="13880" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mumbai-Indians">Mumbai Indians</keyword>, Royal Challenge Banglore and <keyword id="13886" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chennai-Super-Kings">Chennai Super Kings</keyword>, which are also the top most important markets for the brand. </li><li>Achint Setia, Vice President, Marketing, Myntra speaks to us on how Myntra is using IPL as a platform to strengthen their presence.</li></ul>With the Big Fashion Festival around the corner, fashion ecommerce firm Myntra is leaving no stone unturned to bring in more audience. It is expecting a 2x growth in sales than last year’s Fashion Festival. Since Indian Premier League brings in a huge opportunity for brands to ride on the wave of blitz and fervor in the country, Myntra has partnered with IPL’s most-talked about teams such as <keyword id="6354506" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Royal-Challengers-Bangalore">Royal Challengers Bangalore</keyword>, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super King. Myntra is the official fashion sponsor for RCB and its logo can be seen on the right chest patch of their jersey. Mumbai, considered the hub and trendsetter for fashion and style, is one of the most crucial markets for Myntra. So the brand is the presenting partner for Mumbai Indians and has placed its logo across MI’s team branding and communications. MI’s team merchandise and memorabilia, including autographed bats and jerseys, are up for grabs on Myntra. To engage with these viewers on social media and on its platform, Myntra is offering daily prizes for participating in its interactive contests around the cricketing extravaganza. The fashion firm is also targeting women with its branding activity by featuring female fan influencers on its platform. The idea is to not only drive conversational content about the brand, but also bypass any notion of cricket being only a ‘gentleman’s game.’ We caught up with Achint Setia, Vice President, Marketing, Myntra to understand the thought behind partnering with three IPL teams, marketing strategy to leverage IPL’s buzz before its Big Fashion Festival and plan to target women through the match. Excerpts: Q. What was the thought behind partnering with Mumbai Indians this year? Mumbai’s importance to retail businesses can hardly be understated and tying up with the city’s most prominent sports team will only further solidify Myntra’s position in a crucial market ahead of the festive season. This partnership will help Myntra cement itself as the go-to fashion destination in Mumbai, considered the hub for everything fashion and style in India, and leverage Mumbai Indians’ huge salience with cricket fans across the nation. Factors such as team popularity and style quotient were also given great consideration when opting for team partners this IPL season. Q. What kind of response are you expecting for MI’s team merchandise and memorabilia, including autographed bats and jerseys, that are up for grabs on Myntra? MI’s team merchandise and memorabilia will go live on Myntra soon. However, to entice the biggest customers of Mumbai Indians, Myntra does have a limited selection of autographed bats and jerseys up for grabs on its platform for lucky fans. Q. What do your marketing plans look like for IPL? Myntra has ensured to implement a multi-pronged holistic approach, to drive higher brand relevance not only in the key metro markets but also in T2/T3 and southern markets. Our key goal is to ensure Myntra has a prominent space in the key touch points with potential customers ahead of its blockbuster sale events for the festive season. Within that strategy, we believe that cricket in general, specifically the IPL makes for a key touch point and will help Myntra expand into newer markets. This festive season, our marketing efforts will further drive conversations around the brand through the star-studded campaigns with celebrity brand ambassadors, who have a wide audience appeal reaching all corners of the country, including a strong influence in Tier II and Tier III markets. Positioning Myntra as a style expert, the latest campaigns clearly bring out Myntra as one of the leading fashion destinations in the country while showcasing our tech capabilities through key differentiators such as Myntra Studio, Size &amp; Fit Recommendations, and Photo search. Q. Myntra also intends to integrate itself more naturally to the ‘Virtual Wankhede’ concept by featuring women fan influencers. Have brands finally started recognising/accepting the fact that IPL also has a female audience? Do you think more traditional brands will start catering to them now or are we still far away from that? Interactive and unique concepts such as ‘Virtual Wankhede’, which was developed in association with the Mumbai Indians, has ensured Myntra leads the way in terms of virtual fan engagement innovations. This platform provides MI’s army of fans with an opportunity to cheer their favourite team alongside fellow supporters, connected virtually. IPL is among the biggest sporting events in India and brands have always recognized the vast women fan-base for the event. Brands featuring women fan influencers and women-centric concepts have already been visible through the years and are not something new. With IPL being a co-viewing event, the type of brands sponsoring the tournament usually tends to have a sizable female customer-base. We feel it is important for both legacy brands as well as millennial brands to engage with women in some form, to build loyalty and stay relevant among its TG. Q. The format is different this year. So how do you think things will be different for you as a partner? As a partner, what are your expectations from IPL 2020? The IPL is the biggest cricket league in the world and among India’s most-anticipated sporting events in any given year. This year, there is even more reason for brands to be associated with the IPL as the competition overlaps with the upcoming festive season, which is the most important and biggest period for shopping. Furthermore, Myntra is keen to form deep connections with users across the country and firmly believes that engaging with prospective customers at all possible and relevant touch points is crucial to this vision. Cricket is a key touch point as it is the most popular sport in India and has intricately weaved itself into an important part of the history and culture of the nation. The IPL has generated significant traction since its inception, and its popularity and viewership continues to rise. The viewership numbers from the first week of the tournament are extremely promising despite no audiences being allowed at stadiums. Q. How do you plan to engage more closely with consumers, considering activations won’t be allowed this year and there won't be a live audience? There has been strong user engagement through social media, via the RCB, CSK, MI and Myntra handles, where customers can win unique daily prizes by participating in interactive contests around the cricketing extravaganza. We have also revamped the IPL store on the platform to drive further conversations among our customers with unique offers and deals as well as providing contextually engaging and reliable content which includes the use of appropriate cricketing terminology. IPL has also come up with innovations by bringing in the virtual crowd noise, virtual meet and greet with top fans, and creating a perception for viewers that there is enough support for their teams.

How Myntra is using IPL to build deeper connections and drive brand salience before its Big Fashion Festival

<ul><li>This year, Indian Premier League will be held in closed stadiums and in UAE. However, that hasn't led in any decrease in excitement for both the audiences and brands.</li><li>With many brands coming on board as sponsors for this edition of the sporting extravaganza, we will talk to some of the prominent sponsors to understand how they want to use the platform to strengthen their presence.</li><li>In today's interview, <keyword id="9937067" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="trupthi-shetty">Trupthi Shetty</keyword>, Lead- Growth and Engagement, <keyword id="1763236" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="CRED">CRED</keyword> tells us all that the Credit Card payment company is planning for its first stint as the official partner this year.</li></ul> As we come closer to this year’s edition of the Indian Premier League, things are slowly getting heated up. More and more excitement is building with each passing day and new sponsors are coming on board to make the most out of one of the most-watched sporting events in the country. It is obvious that things will be different in the league this year. With no audiences in the stadiums, the entire experience will be different. However, this hasn’t led to any decrease in the advertiser’s excitement around the tournament. So we thought of reaching out to some of the prominent sponsors this year and understand how they are going to use this platform to strengthen their relationships with their consumers. In the first interview in this series, we bring to you a conversation with Trupthi Shetty, Lead- Growth and Engagement at CRED. Board of Control for Cricket in India (<keyword id="6354756" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="bcci">BCCI</keyword>) has roped in CRED as the official partner for <keyword id="7463791" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ipl-2020">IPL 2020</keyword>. The brand, that has struck a three-year deal is a first-time sponsor and has quite a few innovative plans in place to make the most out of this association. Excerpts: Q) This is your first year as a sponsor for IPL. What do your marketing plans look like? We are excited to partner with one of the country’s most popular sporting events. This year, unlike others before, the pandemic has led to more of a focus on digital with events and activations being moved to virtual. This is exciting for us since CRED has focused on creating rewarding digital experiences for the community for quite a few months. Our community of affluent, high-trust members has a fan base in cricket and we want to use marketing to reach out to them and establish the narrative that credit cards are better with CRED. There are two focus areas that all our marketing plans would be centered around. The first is to use IPL’s reach to drive messages surrounding financial and credit literacy- an integral part of our mission at CRED. The second is to leverage our position as a brand discovery platform amongst the mass affluent to partner with brands and create rewarding experiences centered around matches that are high on engagement. The digital experiences we are creating for members include exciting cashbacks, partnerships with brands and even the opportunity for members to contribute to a relevant cause. There are plenty more activations planned and we will be able to share details about these once they are finalized. Some of the experiences planned include: • Members who pay their credit card bills on CRED during CRED Power Play - the Most Rewarding Overs will win assured cash-back with individuals standing a chance to get 100% of their credit card bill paid by CRED. • We have partnered with GiveIndia to have CRED members raise funds for an NGO- Sports Coaching Foundation. Through CRED Causes, members will be able to use their CRED coins to sponsor cricket training of the underprivileged youth across the country. • We have also partnered with leading premium brands such as OnePlus, Myntra, Ajio, Puma, Lalit Hotels, CROSS, Tata Cliq, JioSaavn, Audible, CureFit, Dineout, Syska, Samsung, Motorola, RBL (Reliance Brands), Hugo Boss, JioSaavn and WROGN to create and offer rewarding products, services and experiences to members. Q) The format is different this year. So how do you think things will be different for you as a sponsor? While the format of the IPL is slightly different this year, we don’t believe that things will be drastically different. It’s important to remember that in-stadium audiences and on-ground activations are just one part of what the IPL has to offer brands. What’s more important are the millions of Indians who tune in to watch the IPL at home from their screens. The IPL is a celebration that isn’t limited to stadiums but happens in everyone's homes. We are focused on creating rewarding experiences intertwined with each game that viewing audiences can enjoy from the comfort of their homes. Considering the fact that we have been creating these types of digital experiences for our members long before the IPL, we believe that the newfound focus on digital is an advantage that we can stand to gain from. Q) As a sponsor, what are your expectations from IPL 2020? With millions of Indians slated to watch the IPL this season, our partnership goes beyond the need to create awareness for the brand. Part of our mission at CRED is to educate the masses about managing their finances, more specifically, managing credit better. The association with the IPL will bring us closer to this goal, helping create widespread awareness about the importance of paying your credit card bills on time. Our target audience is primarily the first-generation wealthy, those who might be the first in their families to use products such as credit cards. Through the unique constructs and rewarding experiences we create for members, we will be able to build excitement and awareness about a product that helps people use their credit cards better. We are also looking forward to leveraging the sporting event’s reach to educate people about the plethora of products, services, and experiences they can avail as rewards on CRED for doing something as simple as paying their bills on time. Q) How do you plan to engage more closely with consumers, considering activations won’t be allowed this year and there won't be a live audience? Will Digital and TV be your biggest bets? At CRED, we specialize in creating unique and rewarding digital experiences for our members. During the IPL season, we will continue our focus on digital, creating engagements that audiences can access while watching the matches on their screens. These will be unique and rewarding experiences centered around the game, creating memorable experiences for members for each match that they watch. The experiences and constructs planned do not take away from the game and are rewards that members can avail while they are watching the game from their homes.

IPL 2020: How first-time sponsor CRED plans to make the most of its IPL association

<ul><li>Health, immunity and fitness have become one of the top concerns for Indian consumers post COVID-19.</li><li>Healthtech platform Cult.fit has had a pretty busy year so far. It acquired three platforms, revamped its business model and brand identity, closed another funding round, and has recently launched a new campaign to target India’s youth.</li><li>Naresh Krishnaswamy, Growth &amp; Marketing Head, Cult.fit speaks to us about the platform's growth trajectory, idea behind its latest campaign and goals for 2021.</li></ul>What is that image that comes to your mind anytime someone says ‘fitness’? Do you see a petite woman with flawless skin, voluminous hair, a perfect smile posing with a small piece of gym equipment or a muscular man pumping ridiculously heavy weights? If the answer is yes, it is not your fault. Our definition of fitness is formed by the unidimensional communication we have grown up seeing. When it comes to fitness, all brands have tried to sell an ideal, unreal body image to their customers. They hire obscenely thin women who are further skewed to look even more ‘appetizingly perfect’ or muscular men who are photoshopped with 6 packs. Just in one Google image search of the word ‘fitness,’ you would notice a pattern of photoshopped images and how flawed the overall communication in the fitness industry is. The imagery we have seen in fitness advertisements, whether on billboards, TV or social media, have created a perception that has made us feel under confident in our own bodies. And people who don’t meet these idealistic body standards, feel intimidated to join a gym. Healthtech brand Cult.fit has been consciously trying to move away from this, reminding its audience that fitness is for everyone and people should exercise to feel good, stronger, and happier. Cure.fit’s latest campaign ‘Fitness is not an option’ imitates iconic Bollywood scenes to show how they would play out if the actors weren’t fit. It reenacts famous running scenes from Bollywood like ‘The Train’ scene from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and ‘The Bull’ scene from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara but there’s a twist in the plot; the actors start panting and wheezing instead, reiterating the message that fitness is not an option anymore but an absolute necessity. Everyone should take fitness more seriously. While it has been appreciated on social media for its creativity, sense of humor and great execution, there’s another reason why it stands out. It doesn’t sell an idealistic body image to its target audience. <div type="Youtube" id="xAB3CZC1BcI" title="Fitness Is Not An Option (cult.fit)" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xAB3CZC1BcI/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Naresh Krishnaswamy, Growth and Marketing Head, Cult.fit told us the genesis of the campaign. He said, “First, the idea was to go at a higher level and attack the barriers of the industry. Typically, you see a lot of fitness communication around building up muscles and looking more attractive, desirable and pumping weights, etc. We, with our communication, now and in the future, want to really drive this whole thought of fitness being really essential to life, something that you can no longer ignore and it is for everybody. Fitness can be anything from running, that you see in one of the ads, to working out in the gym or home, etc. So, the objective was to pivot communication to drive fitness as a lifestyle habit as opposed to what’s been traditionally talked about -- weight loss, muscle gain, etc. Secondly, we have significantly expanded our fitness offerings and we wanted to show Cult as a wide fitness option.” The core insight ‘fitness is not an option’ was brainstormed and finalised internally, further woven into scripts by freelancers and finally produced by <keyword id="3167731" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="supari-studios" source="Orion">Supari Studios</keyword>. The first TVC in the campaign has gone live on Cult.fit’s owned media channel, across all Sony TV channels and OTT platforms including SonyLiv. It was played during India vs England test matches and will extend into the IPL season which is set to resume on September 19. Unfortunately, Cult.fit’s first advertisement ‘Jaa Simran Jaa’ recently hit a minor roadblock. It has been taken down from YouTube after Yash Raj Films flagged it for violating copyright protocol. However, it is already back on Instagram. Krishnaswamy said that Cult.fit’s legal team is working to bring the film back. “We did our due diligence before launching that ad and we think it is completely in the clear. We are sorting a few things out and are confident that in a couple of days, it will be back up and running again.” ‘Fitness is not an option’ is Cult.fit’s first campaign after its brand revamp. In May 2021, Cure.fit was renamed to Cult.fit. Even before the revamp exercise, Cult.fit had tried to stay on top of social media trends. Now, with its latest campaign, it is trying to be an active part of pop culture. Telling us about Cult.fit’s marketing approach since its inception, Krishnaswamy said, “Right from when we started out in 2016, our objective has been to make fitness fun and relatable for individuals. If you look at our communication before the pandemic, our focus predominantly was to show people enjoying working out in a group with a smile on their faces. So no idealistic body types and showing extremely ripped, fit people. That’s been our ideology throughout. We now want to play a much larger category game and want Cult to be really associated with fitness. Our association before the revamp was with group classes, which is what we were offering before the pandemic, but now we offer every type of fitness. So, the evolution from there to today has been about the brand taking more of a humorous, quirky approach across channels. Before that, we were a little more functional -- a brand trying to tell you the benefits of working out. Now we are taking a lifestyle approach.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Goals for 2021" text="Goals for 2021">Goals for 2021</cmsannotation> Health, immunity and fitness have become one of the top concerns for Indian consumers post COVID-19. After gyms shut down in 2020, fitness apps and on-ground gyms rose to the occasion by shifting their focus online and providing personalised services based on different body types. With this, the Indian healthtech space saw a surge in user traffic and became a part of the new normal. According to Valuates Report, the Global Fitness App Market size is expected to grow from $3,312.58 Million in 2019 to $13,016.77 million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 25.61%. Cult.fit has also had a pretty buzzing year. It acquired healthtech platform Fitternity, hardware-at-home platform Tread and partnered with Disney+ Hotstar, Sarva and Brilliant Wellness. Commenting on the first half of the year and focus areas for the rest of it, Krishnaswamy said, “We have been very active this year. We have done 3 acquisitions, completed another fundraising round recently, we have pivoted into digital and gyms, the next six months is heads-down growth. We will continue to remain opportunistic with any acquisitions or any other inorganic opportunities to grow. But we have all the tools we need in our arsenal. So, the next six months would be about execution and campaign activity.” After the pandemic, Cult.fit added 2 million users and out of these 1.5 million, 1 million users joined the platform during the lockdown in April and May. However, this number slowly tapered off as it moved to a paid subscription model. Today, it has 1,50,000 paid members on its content product and with gyms coming back, 100,000 people work out in Cult.fit gyms every day. As per its regulatory filings, its operating revenue shot up 174% to Rs 496 crore during FY20 from Rs 181 crore earned in FY19. “About 50% of our gym members are back. Our revenue and MAUs are on a steep upgrowing trend now, with people using our gyms and online product and we only see ourselves continuously growing month-on-month as vaccination rates increase, and we add more supplies in our gyms and consumer sentiment picks up. We foresee that over the next few months, we should get back to pre-pandemic levels of general attendance and member activity,” shared Krishnaswamy. To accelerate the vaccination process in our country, Cult.fit is also offering free vaccination to its members and one of their family members. It would be focusing on improving its online group classes, upping gym safety, polish its hybrid model and consolidate local gyms under its network. Sharing the company’s vision, Krishnaswamy said, “We want Cult.fit to be completely synonymous with fitness. When you think fitness, you should only think of Cult. The second objective is that we want to be an iconic, youthful brand. We want people to really love Cult. We want to speak to them in a language that inspires them to get fit and not be in the annoyingly motivational zone, which a lot of fitness brands are. We want to be in the top league of fitness brands in India that really lead and define the category.”

We don’t want to show idealistic body types and extremely ripped, fit people in our ads: Naresh Krishnaswamy of Cult.fit

The Supreme Court appointed high-level committee led by former Chief Justice RM Lodha on Tuesday found <keyword id="13886" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Chennai-Super-Kings">Chennai Super Kings</keyword> official <keyword id="1682587" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gurunath-Meiyappan">Gurunath Meiyappan</keyword> guilty of betting during <keyword id="6354831" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-Premier-League">Indian Premier League</keyword> season 6. 
 Pronouncing the verdict, Justice Lodha said Meiyappan was found guilty of betting, whereas co-owner of <keyword id="13802" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rajasthan-Royals">Rajasthan Royals</keyword>, <keyword id="18641" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Raj-Kundra">Raj Kundra</keyword>, was found guilty of misconduct. 
 
Both the teams, Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), have been banned from the IPL for two years. 
 
While addressing mediapersons in New Delhi, Justice Lodha said that Meiyappan was an integral part of CSK and should not have indulged in corrupt practices. 
 
“He is found guilty of betting, his conduct affected the image of the BCCI, the league and the game,” said Justice Lodha. 
 
Meiyappan, son-in-law of former BCCI President N Srinivasan, has been banned for life from involvement in any type of cricket matches. 
 
Justice Lodha said that Kundra acted against contrary of the spirit of the game. 
 
“Mr Raj Kundra was placing bets through a known punter, was constantly in touch with bookies. Kundra didn't have true love for the game. He acted contrary to the spirit of the game. Kundra is declared ineligible in cricket participation for five years and suspended for life in any type of cricket matches,” said Justice Lodha. 
 
The committee also pulled up India Cements, owners of CSK, for not acting against Meiyappan. 
 
“The purity of the game has been affected by the actions of India Cements and CSK. Fans have been cheated. CSK or India Cements took no action against Meiyappan,” said the former CJI. 
 
The Supreme Court in January this year had held that betting allegations against Meiyappan and Kundra were proved. However, the apex court had dropped all charges against Srinivasan, as none of the allegations were proven against him. 
 
Meanwhile, the verdict was hailed by Jharkhand Cricket Association’s Subodhkant Sahay who termed it as a good and unprejudiced judgement. 
 
Bihar Cricket Association’s secretary Aditya Verma, who is the petitioner in the case, said justice had triumphed in the case. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

IPL Verdict: CSK, Rajasthan Royals banned for 2 years; Meiyappan, Kundra banned for life

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Facebook is willing to pay lots of money for sports.That much is evident by the company's roughly $610 million bid for the rights to stream five years of games from The Indian Premiere League (IPL), the most popular cricket league in the world.<a href="https://twitter.com/IPL/status/904881033354502145">The IPL announced</a> that 21st Century Fox's Star India won exclusive streaming rights with a $2.5 billion bid on Monday, beating out Facebook's second highest bid. A Facebook spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.Even though Facebook didn't win the rights, its hefty bid shows how much it's willing to pay for sports now that it has its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-watch-service-for-original-shows-coming-to-most-us-users-2017-8">new Watch hub for live, scripted, and episodic video.</a>During Facebook's first quarter earnings call earlier this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would try licensing sports games with the goal of "creating some anchor content" that teaches people to think of Facebook as a destination for premium video.Facebook eventually wants all of its shows and content deals to move to an ad revenue sharing model, but right now it's clearly comfortable spending money upfront - even hundreds of millions of dollars - to secure streaming rights for marquee content.<div></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/questions-to-ask-during-job-interview-facebook-2017-7">A director at Facebook who's interviewed hundreds of people reveals the best types of questions to ask in a job interview</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Facebook bid $610 million for the rights to stream Indian cricket matches

<ul><li>As per the GroupM futures report ‘This Year, Next Year’ (TYNY) 2022, the ad spends are estimated to reach 107,987crs in 2022. </li><li>This represents the estimated growth of 22% for the calendar year 2022. </li><li>India to be the fastest-growing market among the top 10 global markets and retains its 9th rank in 2022.</li></ul>1. Shifts in organization structure &amp; work cultures open up new opportunities The pandemic has fundamentally altered ways of working across industries. We set up a quarterly “new Normal Tracker” in 2020, to understand shifts in consumer habits and behaviour. This tracker identifies the “desire for flexibility” as the primary reason for people to shift jobs. This has resulted in a huge rise in the gig economy, which is slated to grow at a CAGR of over 17% for the next 3 years. This is increasingly common across service industries, including media and advertising. Content creation as a vocation will move towards Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). Even if their craft involves the physical world (production, shoots, etc) the next generation of content professionals are likely to find the work culture of DAOs more appealing. Today DAOs are able to hire, collaborate with creators and also pay them entirely within the metaverse. The advent of 5G will further power this trend. This could translate to shifts in business models, with fluid, specialist team structures, measurement- based entirely on outcomes and a revamp of remuneration and recognition models. 2. Consumer sensitivity &amp; sustainability impact brand marketing While the global trend towards sustainability and inclusiveness started a few years ago, this trend has gained tremendous traction in India over the past 18 months. Our “new Normal Tracker” throws up some very interesting insights:<ul><li> Sustainability is a stronger driver than ever before - the Q4 2021 tracker has over 80% respondents agreeing to the statement “I am more aware of the impact my actions have on the environment” – up from 73% in Q4 2020</li><li>81% agreed that the progress being made on gender equality was a “Source of Happiness”</li><li> 78% felt that media platforms &amp; content should be more inclusive of underrepresented communities (LGBTQIA, differently-abled, etc.) and 84% felt that brands need to do more to make their products more accessible to the differently-abled communities</li><li>We have also seen a marked rise in interest and conversation around Plant-based proteins, electric vehicles and a more sustainable lifestyle overall</li></ul> This has translated to brands and marketers placing a great deal of focus on sustainability &amp; inclusion – be it in terms of Carbon credits, recycling, use of ethically sourced ingredients and supporting inclusivity through actions and messaging This has implications for media as well, with a focus on sustainable or Carbon-neutral media plans. We will see increased use of Carbon Calculators which identify the elements of a media plan where carbon needs to be offset. This is in line with shifts we have already seen in markets like the US and UK and will involve strong partnerships between agencies &amp; media owners to drive this. Inclusivity and sensitivity will also play a stronger role in the choice of media platforms and influencers going forward 3. The next generation of digital experience will be driven by decentralization The Web3.0, Metaverse and NFTs are all making headlines with pundits and promoters using these terms to communicate visions of a decentralized and virtual-first future. Fundamentally, these emerging technologies are harbingers of a developing cultural shift that may unfold over the next decade as a generation of consumers who live primarily in virtual worlds comes of age. Web 3.0 is the next stage of the web evolution that would make the internet more intelligent or process information with near-human-like intelligence. In Web 3.0 - users won’t distinguish between physical &amp; digital experiences. They will expect work, friends, goods, and experiences to be connected virtually. This interconnected, live, persistent virtual world is also popularly known as the Metaverse. Brands would start leveraging this virtual world as well as components powering the virtual worlds to build brand experience &amp; assets, drive the consumer to connect, associate with the cause, build loyalty, own a moment or drive real or virtual sales. The new virtual world will also come with its own challenges and learning curves for the ecosystem. We helped three of our brands to participate recently in the first Metaverse wedding and integrate brand experience and narrative. 4. Privacy-first leveraging of data to build stronger consumer connections On January 25, the Google Chrome team announced that they were replacing the FLoC Privacy- Preserving API proposal with a new “Topics” API proposal, which presents an updated approach to supporting interest-based advertising via the Chrome Browser. Google’s pivot from FLoC to Topics indicates a key shift in Chrome's approach to enhancing their privacy-preserving advertising solutions. We believe in a future of multiple privacy-preserving solutions that help create a more responsible advertising ecosystem, including Chrome’s Privacy new initiative – there’s no single solution to manage Cookie deprecation. We have spoken about the importance of first-party data earlier. Marketers have already dialled up focus on first-party data and we see broad-based use cases emerging out of first-party data. The role of panel-based data will grow as it will bring unique and differentiated signals to the mix. Finally, the way the data comes together is evolving in terms of technology and techniques used to combine various signals. We are strengthening our capability in this space and Choreograph will play a significant role in our journey. 5. Commerce becomes all-pervasive, powered by persuasion Across town class &amp; cohorts, powered by KOLs, Content, influencer &amp; Social. We all know about the moment of truth when the consumer encounters the product. But the zero moment of truth today is when he / she encounters the brand experience first through creator / influencer content across platforms. This is actually as much a Tier II &amp; III phenomenon as it is Tier I, as the creator ecosystem from small towns have gained exponential traction. And this phenomenon is driven by three important forces – one is the brand-led focus, driven by the D2C initiatives that brands are undertaking. Second is the community-led commerce which is driven by group buying models that are growing at a great clip and finally, the KOL-led social commerce models which include creator-led content to commerce. Hence overall, commerce as a component of content will become more integral and not just an exception anymore. 6. Transformation of the creator ecosystem Creators will be able to monetize their content directly through platforms like Substack and podcast subscriptions – something that platforms like Spotify are piloting successfully globally. What this will do is to decrease the dependence of the creator on algorithmic advertising models and help them with sustenance even before they hit scale. This subscription based model is a big change from the YouTuber era of advertising based revenue models for creators. In the coming days both these models will grow simultaneously and with synergies. 7. Boom-time for sports business in India 2022 is expected to create history in the Indian sports media rights landscape. IPLs media rights are expected to be announced followed by ICC and BCCIs home series. Improved mobile internet infrastructure and increased consumption of OTT platforms has made this sector extremely competitive and hence also on the driver’s seat for these media rights. Today live sports remain unique and most sort after considering its promise of appointment viewing and sustained audience interest. This has also caught attention of the global private equity players and you can now see the PE money coming into the world of sports in India. We have seen PEs investing in sporting teams, sport leagues and fan engagement initiatives and sports content. This is just the beginning, and we should watch this space very closely. This year esports debuts in the Asian Games, we will have our own India contingent competing and the international level which will keep the audience interest alive and adding to the current base. Last 2 years have seen a massive scale up in the world of gaming. Going forward gaming and esports will see increased investment and physical events will add flavour and excitement to viewer experience and overall product offering. What started in 2021 will continue taking shape in 2022 as well, the world speaks about NFTs, fan tokens and digital collectables passionately. Platforms and rights creators will continue testing different ownership models to determine the optimal balance of fuelling consumer demand and maintaining intellectual rights. There will definitely be a lot of moulding and remoulding but it is only going to make it exciting for brands and open newer avenues for consumer engagement. 8. Advanced Intelligence to counter digital fragmentation With the receding impact of cookies and rising data privacy laws; Advance Intelligence is the saviour in this digital marketing and advertising data explosion. Also, Humans are unable to process the huge amount of marketing and digital data points that are hitting them every second, in volume, variety and velocity. The use of AI and ML will lead to advance data processing capabilities bringing excellence in execution by automating, auditing, reporting and analyzing digital campaigns. Marketers will accelerate the use of the algorithms to find numerous permutations and combinations to deliver performance/ROAS. Customers demand relevance and resonance from the advertising they see. AI-ML will be used to predict personalization. Automated Content Recognition will be required to understand what content works for what audiences to what is trending in the marketplace on all types of public content. 9. Performance orientation powers the full funnel of marketing Performance marketing historically has been attributed to last-mile conversion and metrics. Marketers only focusing on the lower funnel and not appropriate weightage on top and middle funnel; have already seen the performance numbers drying up or not scaling. In 2022, many advertisers will move away from last-click/mile attribution models; and ensure that media money spend on Top and Middle funnel are accounted for performance on how its influences conversions or outcomes. Performance marketing will continue to hold its sway – to convert, conquest in-market audiences; but awareness and engagement spends will have to show the outcomes that lead to that performance. A full-funnel performance marketing approach is more than a campaign. It’s a combination of brand building and performance channels through interlinked teams, measurement systems and joint KPIs. Consumer journeys are not linear anymore, but funnels are. No two customers are the same. Shoppers can enter the funnel at any stage. Through the full-funnel approach, marketers can have one view of their customers – moving from the nascent digital adoption stage to an interconnected multi- moment one – where Life-times Value, Hyper localization, Hyper-Personalization, Federated learnings, New Customer Funnel can be improved. 10. Addressable TV becomes mainstream With Smart TV, TV Advertising will become smart. From smartphones to smart TV’s; the Indian market is seeing a massive shift in how households are replacing their living room colour tv box with internet- enabled Smart TV. Now it’s time for TV advertising to become smart. A sizeable NCCS A household has completely cut the chord, or swap between on-demand viewing and linear feed, hybrid viewing in the new normal. By end of 2022, we expect to have 12% of Indian TV households have a smart TV, truly connected to broadband and watching on-demand broadcast-quality content either freemium, avod or subscription- based. Marketers and Agencies will demand the best combinations of TV and Connected TV plans depending on the targeting. Connected TV advertising plays a big role in ad experience, where 1 or 2 ads are stitched in the steam, unlike Linear that has a longer ad break; which has the risk of losing viewers attention and engagement. Connected TV is the first step in making even linear TV feeds addressable. There is a huge impetus by distributor economy, middleware and tech companies to make linear TV addressable. With the success of Connected TV, broadcasters will have to embrace the tech that offers household targeting on linear feed too. 11. Evolution of offline media organizations with fluid content, formats and new business models The dramatic shift in media consumption behaviour with simultaneous use of multiple screens is leading to a rapid evolution of what used to be known as “Offline media” <ul><li>Growth in the OOH industry will largely be powered by Digital OOH, which is currently ~5% of all OOH but projected to grow to ~ 25% over the next few years. This is further accelerated by the rapid expansion in infrastructure – airports, metros, Tech parks, and the return to mobility.</li><li> Print networks will further leverage their core strength – high-quality content – by expanding their digital presence. Moving beyond web editions and apps, we will see more podcasts and usage of AR in delivering immersive content</li><li> Radio is also undergoing a major evolution with social integration, podcasts, and phygital events. </li></ul>We are also seeing a significant evolution in the business models with outcome-linked accountable deals – while this started with Print, it is now extending to all other offline media

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