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<ul><li>As of April 29, there are 18 million active Covid cases in India.</li><li>To help our country grapple with the second wave of Coronavirus pandemic, many brands have stepped forward to do their bit.</li><li>Apart from financial aid, there’s another powerful tool that brands can use today -- advertising. It can influence consumers to act and remind them that we are in this together.</li><li>We reached out to experts to understand how should a brand use its marketing tools today: should they halt their advertising to give consumers space or launch empathetic campaigns as a reminder of togetherness and better tomorrow.</li></ul>As we stepped into 2021, consumers were hopeful about their lives returning back to normalcy. There was hope and enthusiasm for a better tomorrow. We were almost towards the end of it. Consumer sentiment also picked up with the announcement of India’s biggest sporting event IPL and advertisers were optimistic about bouncing back to normalcy. Advertising agencies worked on IPL pitches for months, risked their lives to execute them and even started thinking about campaigns for Mother’s Day. However, the country now is in the midst of one of the worst calamities it has faced in recent times. Our country’s healthcare system and our brave healthcare workers continue to be under tremendous pressure. It has impacted our mental health because we are living in constant fear of us or someone close to us contracting the virus. People are either mourning someone’s loss or dealing with the anxiety that they might have to, soon. Despite the despondency in the air, citizens have taken it upon themselves to help each other out. Many brands and organisations have also come to our rescue. They are using their social media reach to amplify requests for hospitals beds and oxygen supply. They have also donated money to government bodies and NGOs. There’s another powerful tool that brands can use today -- advertising. It can influence consumers to act. Apart from facing the truth of what’s happening around us, we need empathy and kindness to get through this tough phase. It is only in socially-distanced unity and togetherness that we can find courage to face the reality. Consumers also need compassion, more than ever today. They need brands they follow to set an example and encourage them. Afterall, they are a huge part of our country. Many brands, however, have chosen silence to give their consumers enough space to heal. A few are using their social media to help everyone out -- left, right and centre. Some have chosen to focus on the fact that consumers still need products and services to survive and have continued advertising like nothing has changed. At the same time, these ads remind us of good, old days and serve as a great escape from the grim reality. So, we reached out to experts to understand how should a brand use its marketing tools today. Here is what they had to say: <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Karthik Srinivasan, Social Media Expert and Independent Brand Consultant:" text="Karthik Srinivasan, Social Media Expert and Independent Brand Consultant:">Karthik Srinivasan, Social Media Expert and Independent Brand Consultant:</cmsannotation> I would say that silence is definitely not the best way for brands now. It could be construed as disinterest or worse, callousness. A better way could be one of the two, or both, depending on the size and scale of the brand. 1. Make yourself directly useful - use your reach: Brands have media budgets, social handles with a sizable following, and access to media. They could put this to good use by helping in the coordination of essential medical supplies including oxygen. This would take time, effort, and coordination, but it would also be a visible example of the brand trying to help as against one donation done once and announced. This is particularly useful for brands that cannot reposition their own products/services as a way to help people manage their lives during a pandemic. For instance, a movie production house. Or a fashion brand. Or a Cola brand. Or IPL teams. 2. Make yourself indirectly useful - use your product/service context: This is useful for brands that can reposition their own products/services as a way to help people manage their lives during a pandemic. For example, a book retailer (or an audiobooks retailer, like Audible) could make a selection of their repertoire free/cheaper and pick those titles that can calm minds, or those that can help engage children (helping the parents who are recuperating). Or a retailer or producer of audio equipment could become a curator of calming music, podcasts, or audiobook titles. This way, they are not selling their products, but merely making them a backdrop to a far more contextually useful curation effort that is related to their category. Or food brands that could help offer recipes to gradually overcome the loss of sense of taste and smell. <div type="twitter" handle="beastoftraal" handlename="Karthik" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1140493276316745734/WH-6N17h_normal.jpg" favoritecount="8" retweetcount="2" status="Nice idea - &quot;A cook book to inspire those experiencing changes in taste and smell as a result of Covid&quot; (free digit… https://t.co/UU5s258eOf" createdat="1619440585000" id="1386660436552994821"></div> It is important that brands do not force-fit or contort themselves to become relevant within the COVID-19 context - that would be seen through and exposed very soon, and backfire badly. The connection has to be entirely natural and more importantly, purposeful. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist, Investor and former APAC Marketing head of HP:" text="Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist, Investor and former APAC Marketing head of HP:">Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist, Investor and former APAC Marketing head of HP:</cmsannotation> I think a brand cannot completely isolate themselves from the reality on the ground. Given the grim situation because of the Covid surge, it is appropriate that commercial objectives take a back seat and a brand communicates sensitively. Staying silent is a safe and acceptable strategy but if a brand can help people cope in any way appropriate, this will be a good time to do so. This could mean using the brand’s assets – communication spends or social media assets to communicate help messages or using logistical resources to move healthcare related equipment. These need to be devoid of any commercial motive or seem like virtue signalling. So staying sensitive to large humanitarian tragedy is paramount. Also, collaborating with a competitor on any social project would seem like a mature and positive thing to do. Many fondly remember Nike’s support to the Back Lives Matter movement when they said ‘For once, don't do it.’ Seeing this heartfelt message, Adidas shared the sentiment saying together we can move forward and change. This worked wonderfully for both brands. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Vani Gupta Dandia, Founder, CherryPeachPlum Growth:" text="Vani Gupta Dandia, Founder, CherryPeachPlum Growth:">Vani Gupta Dandia, Founder, CherryPeachPlum Growth:</cmsannotation> What can brands do in all of this crying chaos? Quite simply help, for no other reason, but for humanitarian reasons. Corporates can respond in one of three ways: 1) Support the efforts to fight the virus directly e.g. by providing infrastructure (ambulances, cold chains for supply chain management), volunteers, disseminating information on hygiene protocols etc. Last few days, for example, OYO has converted its rooms into isolation centres. Can an Airtel or a Truecaller take on the task of separating fake vs real/verified numbers amidst the zillion different covid related forwards? Can a company set up a leasing system of oxygen concentrators? Patients need one for only a few hours, at best a few days. Why don't we have them available on hire? Saves consumers money and lives, while those who lease can actually make more money than through a single sale. Can some company come forward to set this up? 2) Providing support to those impacted by the pandemic e.g., smartphones to students for online learning, community food kitchens in slum areas to support daily wage labourers etc; and 3) Helping NGOs e.g. Give India by providing cash and expertise. Will it reap any benefit on brand equity or more sales later... Who knows? But my bet is it will! People are hungry for stories of good amidst this grim desperation. And one great way of standing out just now is to simply come forward with courage and say "Screw strategy, let's help where we can.” It's war -- just of a different kind. Not all good work by companies need be categorised as 'purpose-driven' or 'CSR'. When brands stand up at such times people remember. It doesn't need to have any link at all with the brand proposition. But I see that there is an ongoing debate on whether IPL should be pulled down, given the gravity of the ongoing crisis. I don't see why it shouldn't go on. All of us as consumers need to keep our sanity too - and cricket is a welcome distraction. And because we're watching cricket, advertisers will continue to sell their wares - and I don't see why not. Normal life also must go on to the extent possible. Lives and livelihoods both matter. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Ronita Mitra, Founder and Chief Strategist, Brand Eagle Consulting:" text="Ronita Mitra, Founder and Chief Strategist, Brand Eagle Consulting:">Ronita Mitra, Founder and Chief Strategist, Brand Eagle Consulting:</cmsannotation> While we are faced with a large scale and challenging humanitarian crisis, corporates and brands, as responsible citizens, should consider contributing actively in order to alleviate the situation. This phase is not about advertising products and services unless it is for a new category which needs immediate awareness building. Actions, especially empathetic ones, that contribute towards bettering the lives of people during these challenging times, will have far more meaningful impact than mere communication. Corporates have the clout to make a significant impact and they should consider diverting their CSR funds towards helping citizens in various possible ways - be it funding supply of medical products, food for the lower socio-economic classes who are impacted by the lockdowns, education for children who have been impacted by the inadequate infrastructure at home, facilitating vaccination for those who are not adept with the systems, and much more. Brands can use social media and other media platforms to communicate the same. Meaningful actions during these times will have a memorable impact on the consumer psyche too and will help strengthen consumer connect in the long term more than anything else now. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Harish Bijoor, Brand-strategy specialist &amp; Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc:" text="Harish Bijoor, Brand-strategy specialist &amp; Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc:">Harish Bijoor, Brand-strategy specialist &amp; Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc:</cmsannotation> In moments such as these, very very tough times when fear and chaos is the norm, I do recommend a dignified brand silence. Brands must not add to the clutter of personal communication. Staying away from the melee of tumult is a good thing brands with commerce on their minds can do. At least for now. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="82260905" title="From CRED to Google, here’s how brands are helping India fight against COVID-19" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>

Experts share the ideal ways in which brands can advertise during the second Covid-19 wave in India

<ul><li>In our latest interview series, we speak to a few CMOs to understand how they are helping out their organisations find the right ways to connect with consumers.</li><li>Sapna Arora, CMO, <keyword id="6360657" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="olx">OLX</keyword> shares with us how her role has changed over the last few months and walks us through the platform's combat strategy for the horrifying second wave of COVID-19. </li></ul> As India reels through a dire second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, brands are trying to be there for consumers, to help them through these testing times. Till the time the number of positive cases in India declines, it’s not business-as-usual for brands. The overall sentiment of the audience is also grim and brands are trying to be there for consumers in spirit with their consoling marketing campaigns or by donating a part of their CSR budgets. Omni-channel marketplace OLX has altered its marketing approach to be relevant today. It has updated its communication and messaging by focussing on community building and using its platform to amplify pleas on social media. <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> Sapna Arora, CMO, OLX has found her role changing as a marketer and brand custodian. Her mantra has been to be agile, resilient, empathetic, helpful and kind. The horrifying scale of the second wave has made all playbooks on marketing redundant. Last year, CMOs in India focused on shifting their marketing monies from traditional mediums to digital platforms. Now, Arora’s role at OLX has been about helping the brand adjust to the sudden changes in the macro-environment, prepare for the uncertain tomorrow, use communication tools to help out customers and address vaccine hesitancy. Arora further shared with us how the second wave has changed OLX’s priorities, what route should marketers take to and much more. Excerpts: <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. How has your communication changed during what is probably one of the worst calamities we've faced in recent times? What is your B2C communication all about?" text="Q. How has your communication changed during what is probably one of the worst calamities we've faced in recent times? What is your B2C communication all about?">Q. How has your communication changed during what is probably one of the worst calamities we've faced in recent times? What is your B2C communication all about?</cmsannotation> It’s true, an emergency of this magnitude, felt across all nations, and for such a prolonged time, has not been witnessed before, not in the last 100 years. Rare complications are further deepening the crisis. We are moving with caution and with empathy. Our communication has vastly changed. How we collectively arrest the progression of this disease will be the litmus test to our awareness as a society. Our endeavour is to ensure that we remain relevant to our users at all times. We have opened up our social media handles to people seeking help, allowing all users to leverage our large reach and ensure wider sharing of messages. To reach out further, we have started donation drives and have partnered with Give India to provide food to Covid-affected families. Brand messaging now shows our side of care, offering comfort, encouragement and hope, addressing vaccine hesitancy, encouraging masking, sanitising, staying home, staying safe, connecting plasma donors with recipients, warning about fraudsters, and so on. It’s no more just a transactional relationship. We have to be real and relevant and show purpose, that’s what’s expected of leading brands at this time. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. How has your schedule changed as a CMO during the second wave? What are some of the new tasks that you are doing? Can you draw a comparison between last year's lockdown with this year's?" text="Q. How has your schedule changed as a CMO during the second wave? What are some of the new tasks that you are doing? Can you draw a comparison between last year's lockdown with this year's?">Q. How has your schedule changed as a CMO during the second wave? What are some of the new tasks that you are doing? Can you draw a comparison between last year's lockdown with this year's?</cmsannotation> We don’t know how fast we’ll be able to bounce back from the second wave or what the next normal will be like. The buoyancy that emerged after the first wave was quickly dissipated in the second wave. We need to ensure business continuity, as well as show empathy to consumers, and also within the organisation. There’s no playbook to dip into for response planning. On the business side, among the new tasks, is to offer better content experiences to online consumers, touch more and more digital access points. We had plans that needed to be modified, and that has been the impact on my schedule. The messaging has moved to not just about updating product news, but also to show a higher degree of sensitivity and resilience. Agility, along with mission and purpose, are the reigning marketing principles now. Last year, it was all about digitising, educating people about the virus, hand hygiene, and celebrating frontline heroes. This year, it’s more about reaching out, about vaccines, medicines, oxygen supplies, and offering a helping hand. Affirmative story-telling is at heart of the new reset. Soon after the crisis is sorted, our new tasks would be to think hard about what consumers in the next normal would want. We’ll certainly have to redesign shopping journeys for our consumers, develop adaptive ecosystems, and so on, but as of now, that can wait. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. As a company, how are you using your advertising tools to help out people?" text="Q. As a company, how are you using your advertising tools to help out people?">Q. As a company, how are you using your advertising tools to help out people?</cmsannotation> The scale and ferocity of the second wave has altered all understood paradigms. There are heart rending stories of loss, and people are talking only about essentials, about conscious consumption. At a time when everything feels impossibly hard, there is a greater need to remain optimistic and to steer hyper-local activations. We are infusing positive content across our digital platforms. Responsible brands are expected to have a wider agenda. While social media is full of all kinds of content on the virus, reliable and trustworthy content is hard to find. We have opened up our social media handles for all Covid related queries, people can post their SOS calls, run enquiries that will help them reach wider audiences due to the vast reach of our brand, and we are helping in food supplies for affected families. We are also running campaigns on public discipline, on all our social media handles. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. How has your role as a marketer changed?" text="Q. How has your role as a marketer changed?">Q. How has your role as a marketer changed?</cmsannotation> With the constant change that we are all experiencing, like the shift in containment zones, virus mutations, gaps in vaccinations, and so on, our roles, tasks and priorities have also been changing. Stakeholders, consumers and employees are looking at the brand, to know what we stand for, what values we uphold. We need to be realistic in our expectations, our goals, and in our messaging. To gain trust, we need to listen to our communities, employees and customers. We are looking beyond the traditional spaces of marketing, such as advertising and market-driven campaigns, to be relevant to people. We have tweaked our social media content around Covid-related information, encouraging people to vaccinate and to remain masked. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. What is your goal for this quarter? How have your goals changed due to the second wave?" text="Q. What is your goal for this quarter? How have your goals changed due to the second wave?">Q. What is your goal for this quarter? How have your goals changed due to the second wave?</cmsannotation> We have recalibrated our goals, from being number centric to being centred around how our resources can help communities. The goal presently is revolving around building strong connections with our consumers, fostering emotional togetherness while remaining socially distanced, to suppress virus spread. As a brand, we have come forward, using technology to build cohesive customer experiences. We recognize the human tragedy, and also the need to keep business running. As we understand now, the situation will rise and flare up at different times in different market segments. We will be mindful enough to act accordingly, and will continue to rejig our messaging, to show resilience and empathy. One can’t think in silos, or take an absolute stance amid such volatility. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. As a leader, how are you trying to be there for your employees?" text="Q. As a leader, how are you trying to be there for your employees?">Q. As a leader, how are you trying to be there for your employees?</cmsannotation> At this time, CMOs need to help their organisations adjust to the new realities. We have moved swiftly to expand our digital operations. The pandemic has deeply impacted the way businesses work. We have to show resilience, adaptability and help each person in the organisation to deal with the change. It’s a volatile situation, people are anxious, jobs need to be saved. We have adopted a people-first approach. Our teams have prioritised physical and emotional well-being of all. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. No communication or relevant/empathetic communication? Which route should a brand take during difficult times like these?" text="Q. No communication or relevant/empathetic communication? Which route should a brand take during difficult times like these?">Q. No communication or relevant/empathetic communication? Which route should a brand take during difficult times like these?</cmsannotation> In times of crisis, governments, as well as employees and consumers look up to their brands for answers. We have to cut the clutter, come on the front foot, move in the direction of the prevailing collective sentiment. By showing compassion, offering hope and understanding, and delivering relevant and trustworthy messages, brands show purpose, and better connectivity with their consumers. When a brand has reach and voice that can impact lives, the expected course of action is to come forward and help. At OLX, we are mindful of our responsibilities, and are addressing community pain points. Purpose establishes a brand’s culture and strong ethics. It has always been part of top brand cultures of the world. Now it’s playing a central role. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. What are your areas of focus for now?" text="Q. What are your areas of focus for now?">Q. What are your areas of focus for now?</cmsannotation> Till the time the Covid positivity rate declines, it’s not business-as-usual. We cannot afford to drop the ball. We are updating our messaging, focussing on community building; care is central to the underlying thrust right now. Our messages are helpful and uplifting. Holding each other’s hand, we have to steer a route for recovery.

Affirmative storytelling is at heart of the new reset: Sapna Arora of OLX

<ul><li>Parle-G registered its best sales figures in over eight decades during the COVID-19 lockdown period. </li><li>We caught up with Mayank Shah, Sr. Category Head, Parle Products to understand how the brand managed to meet the ever-increasing demand, secret behind hike in sales, its shifting focus on digital mediums and overall marketing strategy. </li></ul>We all have grown up munching on Parle-G, dunking it in our chai and savouring the half-tea-soaked cookie everyday before rushing to school. The five-rupees pack came to the rescue yet again, cured the lockdown blues when our migrants trekked hundreds of kilometers back home. As a result, while many businesses struggled to survive, this home-grown glucose biscuit hasn’t seen its sales dip even for a day. In fact, Parle-G broke its own sales record by selling the maximum number of biscuits during lockdown in eight decades. Parle saw its overall market share increasing by nearly 5% in May and 80-90% of this growth came from Parle-G sales. “We have witnessed that during natural calamities and during COVID, there is an urgent need to supply rations to people and Parle-G has always been the go-to product and comfort food in any situation or location. It has a longer shelf life and the packaging keeps the biscuits fresh, thereby making it an ideal storage item,” said Mayank Shah, Sr. Category Head, Parle Products. Various NGOs and welfare organizations included Parle-G in their donation kits when Cyclone Amphan hit West Bengal and Odisha. Many people stocked it at home for emergencies. Another reason why Parle-G saw an uptick in sales is because the whole country was home and needed something healthy to snack on. “Today, most spending is happening on food and given the behavior, we are noticing people buying all sorts of biscuits, not just for snacking but for preparing various dishes. This is one reason why the demand went up. The second reason being staying at home has increased the consumption drastically. Typically, at the workplace the focus remains at work, at school focus is on studying but at home 24x7, consumption of food and snacking goes up. This is the reason why we saw uptick in consumption and we expect that this momentum will continue going forward as long as there are some or the other form of restrictions and also because of the concerns that people have in consuming outside food,” tells Shah. Challenges of meeting the market demand But how did Parle manage to meet this ever-increasing demand with scarcity of labor? “Right from day one, we were on the job in terms of ensuring that we get permissions to operate our plant, to ensure that the people are taking care of supply chains so any issues coming at any local level, there was a team that was functioning and taking care of those things to ensure smooth operation. Right from sourcing to manufacturing and supply chain, there were partners and teams already taking care of it. A big challenge was, a paucity of labor and the government additionally declared that offices will not operate with more than 50 percent capacity, which has changed today, initially it was even less than that,” said Shah. He added, “Depending on how a particular zone is affected, we probably have 20-40% labourers. To inspire and get laborers on board, we had to make them understand that it was not just a commercial activity rather it was food security of the country because of the sheer volume and consumption by people.” Shifting focus on digital mediums The lockdown has pushed even a traditional brand like Parle to embrace digital and explore the options available to reach out to its customers. While its ‘G Maane Genius’ iconic tagline continues to be a part of popular culture, to make it more relevant today and increase its recall value, Parle recently partnered with Amazon Prime Video for Shakuntala Devi. Talking about this partnership, Shah said, “This partnership celebrates what sets us apart, which is the generations of children that go above and beyond exploring possibilities in a way that makes their little world and imagination better.” Shah told us that the brand shifted its lion’s share from TV to digital during the lockdown because there was no fresh content on TV and on the other hand, there was a disproportionately higher rate on digital. “We would be investing a good amount of our budget into digital. Pre-COVID, the investments were typically 10 to 12% of the budget. During the initial part of the COVID, not just ours but many companies invested almost one third of the budget spent on digital. Now within a year or two, we will see almost about 20-25% of the total advertising spend happening on digital. Secondly, associations on OTT or TV only if we see a good synergy with our brand. So unless and until there is no great synergy in between our brand communication or brand proposition and the medium or rather the property with which we are associated, we normally don't associate,” said he. Tweaking marketing strategy to stay relevant This 82-year-old brand has grown to become a feeling in our country, it is not just any a cookie you dip in your chai. There is immense nostalgia associated with it. And to resonate with its consumers in gloomy times, Parle tweaked its overall marketing strategy. “We ensured that Parle remained part of consumers' life. Although we observed advertising by many brands, we opted to stay relevant and sometimes out of it. Rather, we continued talking to consumers about inspiring in these times, making them appreciate the role of the frontline workers and ensuring that they understand how the lockdown is beneficial to everybody. So they were not only public service ads which we executed, but ads of our products which talked about how we are part of their life by sharing their concerns. So, most of our communication was topical in nature.” When asked what keeps Shah motivated and at it, he said, “Today we are seeing many companies in the same category, same sector, who are giving up saying that it's the time of lockdown and nothing can be done. On the other hand and extreme, we can see companies that view this as an opportunity to rise up and go all out and carve out an opportunity out of constraint. We have seen both sides of the spectrum. A positive frame of mind, a positive bent of mind and a motivated team is something that makes all the difference.”

How Parle-G continues to exceed its sales record despite a recession

<ul><li>As IPL’s bio bubble breaches and two players Varun Chakravarthy, Sandeep Warrier test positive for COVID-19, BCCI has suspended IPL for this season. </li><li>Experts tell us about the impact cancellation of India’s biggest sporting tournament and advertising extravaganza can have on our brands and the media industry.</li></ul>Indian Premier League (IPL), one of the most keenly awaited events in India, has also felt the heat of Coronavirus. Over the last two days, several players from three IPL teams have tested COVID positive. This includes Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier, Delhi Capitals’ (DC) Amit Mishra and now, SRH’s Wriddhiman Saha. After much criticism, BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla has finally announced today that IPL has been suspended for this season. While the recent spike in COVID cases has brought our country to a grinding halt and forced every sporting activity to be either postponed indefinitely or cancelled, IPL continued, becoming an escape from the grim reality for many. It was acting as a bandaid on our wounds -- temporary yet effective. IPL is also one of the biggest advertising carnivals and this year, reports indicate that more brands have invested in the tournament. According to TAM Sports, average ad volumes during the first 22 matches of IPL 14 grew by 2% compared to IPL 13. Tally of categories grew by 10%, whereas count of advertisers and brands decreased by 3% and 9% respectively in IPL 14 than IPL 13. When brands started buying ad spots on IPL and bidding on the sponsorship deals, the COVID cases in India were going down and the economy was improving. Advertising agencies usually work on their IPL pitches for at least two months and spend many sleepless nights executing their ideas. Media planning and buying agencies also wait for IPL to buy the best deal for their clients. However, the situation is getting severe with each passing day. Given the gravity of the pandemic in India, there has been an ongoing debate on whether IPL should be pulled down. Now, after a few players have tested positive and the bio bubble has been breached, BCCI has decided to suspend IPL. We reached out to experts to understand how cancellation of IPL can impact brands. Vani Gupta Dandia, Founder, CherryPeachPlum Growth said cancellation might add to consumers' anxiety. "I understand there are a lot of us in dire circumstances but canceling IPL doesn't help people get well. It's a welcome distraction from the otherwise grim news we're inundated with. Cancellation will also cause further anxiety and fear - we need some markers of normality. Lives, livelihoods, and mental wellness are all important in equal measure," said she. Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist and former Marketing Head of PepsiCo, Motorola and HP APAC said, “The continuation of the IPL amidst the pandemic is questionable now, given that the secure bio bubbles have been breached. But even aside from this breach, the continuation points to a certain disregard for the suffering and misery millions of Indians are facing.” A Duff &amp; Phelps’ report had recently said that the value of the IPL Ecosystem was estimated to be impacted by nearly $1 billion only due to cancellation and without capturing the impact of the economic slowdown that might follow. Last year too, the pandemic had made a dent on the league. The IPL Ecosystem’s value plunged by 3.6% to Rs 45,800 crore during season 13 from Rs 47,500 crore IPL 2019. The report further said that this was largely due to Vivo pulling out of the title sponsorship deal, additional costs involved to create a secure bio-bubble environment, lack of gate receipts, etc. The individual franchisees also saw a reduction in their brand values in 2020 compared to 2019, largely due to reduced franchisee-related sponsorship revenue, loss of gate receipts, reduced food and beverage (F&amp;B) revenue, and certain teams’ on-field performances and off-the-field issues. The new sponsor, Dream11, had entered at a steep discount, and the IPL had to take a hit of Rs 218 crores in sponsorship revenues in 2020. However, Mathias reminded us that BCCI insures IPL. “If the IPL does get called off at this stage it will certainly hurt financially, but remember the BCCI is a very rich body, and this financial loss is an insignificant price to pay in comparison to the larger catastrophe all around. Also, insurance may help cover part of the damages, suffered by the teams, the sponsors, and the broadcaster,” said he. Star Sports has roped in 18 sponsors and over 100 advertisers across multiple brand categories and many small businesses have invested a large amount of their marketing budget on IPL this year. BCCI has also gone all out in its bid to host IPL this year. According to media reports, BCCI is slated to earn Rs 3,500 crore in advertising revenue from the 2021 season. Star charged around Rs 8 to 10 lakh for a 10 seconder last year. Star has previously charged brands Rs 25 lakh for 10-second slots during the India vs Pakistan ICC World Cup match and between Rs 16 to 18 lakh for other World Cup matches. In comparison, the IPL ad charges are still reasonable but the rates are among the costliest for a programme in the country. So, how badly will this hurt Indian brands? Karthik Srinivasan, Social Media Expert and Independent Brand Consultant, answered, “I don't think the brands, per se, would be impacted, not at least in terms of branding. They are already hugely affected in terms of demand, and sales, because the 2nd wave has washed over everything else.” Three days before IPL began, the number of positive cases in India had crossed 1,25,89,067, and the death toll stood at 165K -- and it was growing with each passing day. Harish Bijoor, Brand Guru and Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc said that brands would have analysed every situation before the tournament began. Bijoor said, “The pandemic is all about uncertainty. IPL and its fixtures are part of this uncertainty. Yes, brands will have their plans tampered with, especially with IPL money outlays kept in mind. However, the important point is that health comes before everything else. The bubble has burst to an extent. The bubble format of IPL has been breached with yesterday's incident. Brands have to grin and bear it. In reality, nothing is a surprise anymore. Brands have visualised this possibility, and it has been factored into plans for sure.” Vani Gupta Dandia, on the other hand, shared how months of hardwork will go down the drain if IPL is canceled. "After 2020 a lot of pent up demand was expected to manifest in 2021. After a disappointing 2020, advertisers were betting big on IPL. Spots were booked early this year, when there was hope of the COVID pandemic ending in 2021. IPL in particular brings the house together- everyone loves cricket. Annual plans and quarterly targets are constructed around the spurt in demand expected from the advertising spends on IPL. So cancellation at this stage will mean desperate scrambling to rework the media plan, besides losing time." <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Alternative strategy" text="Alternative strategy">Alternative strategy</cmsannotation> Experts we spoke to said whether IPL continues or not, brands should reconsider advertising during what is possibly one of the worst calamities we have faced in recent times. Srinivasan highlighted how ad spend will be a smaller wound but rebuilding reputation might take eons. “The brands continuing to advertise happy, nice things to buy would, at one point, seem utterly insensitive and out of touch. So, in a way, IPL being cancelled is perhaps for the best for these brands, despite the money being invested. After all, reputation is more important than money in the long run, and the brands being presumed to be insensitive and out of touch with the horrendous reality unfolding in our country, is far worse for them,” said Srinivasan. Mathias also said that functional advertising can wait. “It would be wonderful if the IPL uses its reach and financial muscle to amplify and help people. Teams, sponsors, cricket stars can come together and pledge part of their incomes to support this humanitarian disaster. This will also help reduce the valid feeling of the IPL’s tone-deafness, to the misery all around. And yes, for brands the best thing to do in the present circumstance is to help with relief in any way possible – from financial, procuring much needed medical supplies, to using their media assets to amplify SOS and help messages,” said Mathias. *Article updated at 1:15* <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="82294452" title="Experts share the ideal ways in which brands can advertise during the second Covid-19 wave in India" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>

As BCCI suspends IPL 2021, experts share how it could impact the ad, marketing and the entertainment world

Elon Musk was on a heater.From 2019 to 2022, it seemed as if every gamble that Musk took was paying off. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-profitable-all-quarters-future-elon-musk-earnings-2019-1">Tesla was consistently profitable</a> for the first time in its history and <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tesla-stock-price-hits-another-record-high-rally-continues-trading-2020-7-1029374092">its stock soared</a> as its massive new Shanghai plant ramped up production. SpaceX rockets captivated the public's attention — even when they blew up, everyone still clapped. Accusations of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-wins-solarcity-tesla-shareholder-lawsuit-2022-4">corruption and self-dealing </a>slid right off Musk's back. Musk could do and say anything he wanted and success followed: He was even named Time's 2021 Person of the Year.Then Musk did what every risk-addicted blackjack player inevitably does: pushed his luck too far. Overconfidence, confirmation bias, and delusions of control led to a string of bad decisions — and BOOM — Elon's empire is in trouble again.The change of fortune was apparent at The New York Times Dealbook Conference last week. During an interview with host Andrew Ross Sorkin, the recognizable tells that Musk's hand had gone cold were everywhere. He <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/x-twitter-sales-employees-resignations-elon-musk-comments-advertisers-2023-11">raged at the very people who will dictate Twitter's fate</a>, seemed baffled by key questions about the future of his companies, and offered non-apologies for his unhinged, antisocial behavior online. Sorkin suggested Musk's brain is like a storm, but it sounded more like two cats fighting to get out of a duffle bag.This, ladies and gentlemen, is what it looks like when Musk realizes he's in a jam entirely of his own making. I know, because we've seen it before, including back in 2018, when he nearly flew Tesla into a mountain. He may find a way to ward off calamity, as he did then, but this jam is much tighter than the last one. Musk has to contend with over $13 billion of debt still weighing down a swiftly sinking Twitter, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-price-cuts-electric-cars-losing-business-strategy-2023-11">Tesla's profits shrinking</a> because of a lack of demand and new products, and a world that is generally sick of his schtick. In Muskland, everything is connected by money — problems at one business bleed into the others. That's why Elon is being exceptionally obstinate. It's not just your imagination — his luck has changed.<h2>2018, the first annus horribilis</h2>If you want to understand Musk's latest unhinged behavior, it's helpful to understand the reasons he's lashed out in the past. So let me take you back to the wild ride that was 2018: Musk had bet Tesla's future on the Model 3. With an intended starting price of $30,000, the car was supposed to make EVs accessible to drivers who couldn't afford luxury prices. But Tesla's investors got increasingly restless as the model became trapped in what Musk called "production hell."The pressure to get the Model 3 out clearly weighed on Musk, and he was not subtle about it. On Tesla's first-quarter earnings call, he cut off one analyst's basic financial question, saying that "boring, bonehead questions are not cool." He got so frustrated that he ditched the analysts entirely and started taking questions from fans posting on YouTube. Eventually, he even <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2018/05/03/please-sell-our-stock-elon-musk-clashes-with-wall-street-during-epic-earnings-call/">begged skeptical Tesla investors</a> to "please, sell our stock." When Musk is at his most hungry for cash, he tends to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tells-advertises-get-lost-twitter-dealbook-summit2023-11">bite the hand</a> that feeds.Musk also became more active on Twitter around this time, often with erratic results. When a professional diver complained that Musk was distracting from efforts to rescue a children's soccer team that had been trapped in a cave in Thailand, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-talks-about-his-wealth-pedo-guy-defamation-trial-2019-12">Musk called the diver</a> a "pedo guy" and harassed him on Twitter. He used the platform to whine about the media, attack investors betting against Tesla's stock, and even tweeted that he would be <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-private-one-year-anniversary-2019-8">taking Tesla private at the price of $420 a share </a>when there was no such deal in place. Tesla was — as Musk later admitted — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-faces-legal-trouble-financial-issues-in-2019-2019-2">"near death,"</a> and summer's "production hell" was about to turn into autumn's "logistics hell."Tesla's salvation came in the form of the Chinese Communist Party. In 2019, as executives were fleeing Tesla and the company continued to bleed cash, Musk struck a deal to build a factory in Shanghai. From permitting to construction to opening, the Shanghai Gigafactory was built in just <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-23/elon-musk-opened-tesla-s-shanghai-gigafactory-in-just-168-days?embedded-checkout=true">168 working days</a>. Skeptical observers — myself included — were blindsided. What we failed to appreciate was the staggering power of the CCP when it's aggressively pushing to meet a single goal. When the party said Tesla could build the factory there, that meant immediately. Without China, Tesla would not have finally turned into a "real car company," in Musk's own words. He dodged destruction and started to settle down and focus on other projects, like Starlink. Sure, he was still wilding out on Twitter, but at least he wasn't bawling <a target="_blank" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/elon-musk-the-architect-of-tomorrow-120850/">to Rolling Stone</a> about how badly he needs a girlfriend to be happy. At last, it seemed the Musk universe had found some kind of frenzied equilibrium.Generally, there are two different lessons a person can take from surviving a brush with near ruin. They can learn to be more cautious, or they can decide that they are indestructible and tempt fate. I don't think I need to tell you which path Musk chose.<h2>All of Elon world is connected</h2>Say what you want about him, but Elon Musk has ambition. On top of the world in early 2022, Musk decided that he had the power to single-handedly "fix" the entire concept of free speech. And given that he is hopelessly addicted to the adulation he gets from Twitter, that's where he figured he would start.We all know this part of the story. Musk started building a stake in Twitter in early 2022, then offered to buy it outright. He offered such a ridiculously high price that the board couldn't say no. A consortium of banks — led by Morgan Stanley — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-margin-loan-twitter-takeover-morgan-stanley-2022-4">loaned him a large portion of the money</a>. And finally, after trying and then failing to renege on the deal, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-reach-agreement-to-close-acquisition-deal-2022-10">he bought Twitter</a>. Not long after completing the deal, Musk exhausted all the ideas to turn around the platform and was left with angry former employees, skeptical advertisers, a terrible new name, and a massive pile of debt owed to the Boy Scouts over on Wall Street.Nowadays, some analysts, like Vicki Bryan, the CEO of the research firm <a target="_blank" href="https://bondangle.substack.com/">Bond Angle</a>, suspect that Twitter is spending much more than it's able to generate or borrow."With the company still burning cash and $1.3-1.5 billion in annual interest due over the past year, I had expected Twitter to live on borrowed time," Bryan wrote in a note to clients. She said that even if Twitter tapped the loans available to it at the beginning of the year, the company may be almost out of options. "The year is over, so Twitter's cash may be nearly if not already dried up—along with Elon Musk's options," Bryan wrote.Because of the way that Musk operates, the social-media company's troubles pose a threat to his whole business empire. Despite being the second-wealthiest person in the world, Musk is curiously cash poor. He doesn't take a salary from Tesla, and while he owns about 20% of the EV maker, public documents filed in March show that about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000119312523094075/d451342ddef14a.htm#toc451342_59">63% of those shares</a> are "pledged as collateral to secure certain personal indebtedness." You know, like the private jets. This is why <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-money-sucking-quagmire-tesla-spacex-debt-2022-4">using Tesla stock to source cash</a> all the time gets hairy. If Tesla shares fall below a certain level, the banks can call in those personal loans — leaving Musk on the hook. And the quickest way for Tesla's stock to drop off a cliff is for investors to get wind of a big Musk sale. And of course, he needs to make sure that he still holds on to all the Tesla stock he's pledged as collateral to the banks. Unfortunately, though, the easiest way for Musk to fill the gaping hole in Twitter's balance sheet is to sell Tesla shares. You see how this could be a problem.Sometimes, when he's really hard up, Musk borrows money from SpaceX — a private company that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/behind-the-curtain-of-elon-musks-secretive-spacex-revenue-growth-and-rising-costs-2c828e2b">lost a combined $1.5 billion</a> in 2021 and 2022. He <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/business/elon-musk-spacex-loan-269a2168">borrowed $1 billion</a> from the company when he bought Twitter and paid the loan back within a month — but he had to sell $4 billion worth of Tesla shares to do it. Using his wealth and power, Musk has built himself a separate reality where there are no real consequences for the risks he takes, but keeping the lights on at Twitter — sorry, X — is testing its limits more and more by the day.<h2>Life on Earth 1</h2>All of this money-incinerating activity, from the beginning of the Twitter deal to this very moment, could not have come at a worse time. For decades, Musk has operated in a placid economy where interest rates were near zero. But Musk started buying Twitter right as central banks around the world began hiking rates in an effort to combat inflation. That means the cost of servicing his debt is getting more expensive, making it harder for him to get new loans. It's a shift so dramatic that it could rip a hole in the universe through which Musk's reality collapses into our own.The outlook for Tesla's business doesn't help him much either. The company's share of the EV market has fallen as competitors have swarmed in. The new entrants prompted Musk to start <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-model-3-model-y-less-than-average-gas-car-2023-10">cutting prices for his cars</a> at the beginning of 2023, and as a result, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-price-cuts-electric-cars-losing-business-strategy-2023-11">Tesla's profitability</a> is under serious pressure. The company has plans to expand its manufacturing capability, but no plans to refresh its aging fleet of vehicles. Unless, of course, you count the Cybertuck, <a target="_blank" href="https://jalopnik.com/tesla-offers-1-000-to-cybertruck-reservation-holders-t-1851065528">which most do not</a>. Last month, Tesla threw a launch event to celebrate the delivery of 10 Cybertrucks. Ten. The least expensive model, priced at $60,000, will not be available until 2025, according to the company. Bryan told me that she expects Musk to continue to siphon money from Tesla in obscure ways — but the question is: How much money will there be to siphon, exactly? And for how long will he need to do that? "The only thing we're waiting on is for Elon to cry uncle," said Bryan. In her view — which is based on 30 years of investing in distressed assets — any equity in the company has already been erased by Musk's antics. As for the debt, the banks have been unable to unload it at 85 cents on the dollar, and she thinks they'll be lucky to get 40 cents. By all accounts, Twitter has a credit problem, and Bryan said that calls for a run-of-the-mill restructuring solution: bankruptcy. When Musk tires of robbing Peter to pay Paul, he will default on his Twitter loans. Then the consortium of banks that own the debt can accelerate it — standard debt agreements come with clauses that allow lenders to force a borrower to pay all of an outstanding loan back if certain requirements (like payment) are not met. Once that wire is tripped, Twitter can declare bankruptcy."There is money that has been set on fire that is never coming back," Bryan said. "We're in the salvage business with Twitter. In a restructuring, with Elon gone, you can have people looking at it. They can foresee that Elon didn't do anything that can't be reversed and offer instant relief."Will it be enough to save Twitter/X? Maybe not, but it's the company's only and best hope.Wall Street should be thoroughly embarrassed. According <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/one-year-on-twitter-continues-to-burn-a-hole-through-bank-balance-sheets-d92dfe12">to reports</a>, the banks holding Twitter's debt are already expecting to take a $2 billion hit when they can finally sell it off. It's not hard to see why. I've said from the jump that there was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-money-sucking-quagmire-tesla-spacex-debt-2022-4">no money in this Twitter venture</a>, and no principles either. Musk was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-killed-twitter-irrelevant-meta-threads-debt-mark-zuckerberg-2023-7">always going to turn Twitter</a> into a reflection of his limited view, his "Earth" — as he put it during his manic rambling at Dealbook — not a place for the average user. I never expected Musk's fanboys to understand that, but I did expect bankers who are supposed to understand who pays for what in a media business to get it. In the end, there's a real chance Wall Street investors will wind up owning the shambolic mess that is Twitter/X. One of the few blessings to come from this fiasco is that when that happens, at least they'll know what not to do with it.<a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/linette-lopez">Linette Lopez</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider.

Elon Musk's luck has finally run out

Lessons brands can learn from the winners of Kantar's Creative Effectiveness Awards

<ul><li>Marketers have been closely observing how the pandemic has turned the market upside down and altered the way consumers are communicating, sleeping, working, consuming content or making any purchase calls.</li><li>‘What next?’ is a question that has been on their minds for a while now and is commonly discussed in group meetings.</li><li>However, very few brands have been successful in closely listening to their consumers, making notes, evolving with the changing behaviour and finally tweaking their marketing strategies accordingly.</li><li>Rahul Jain, CBO &amp; Brand lead of <keyword id="2912767" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hero-Electronix">Hero Electronix</keyword> shares why the company decided to completely discard traditional marketing approach and switch to newer forms of marketing during the on-going pandemic, new product launches, upcoming trends in the consumer tech industry and goals for this quarter.</li></ul>Hero Electronix, the electronics venture of the <keyword id="46577" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hero-group">Hero Group</keyword>, has completely changed its <keyword id="489452" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="marketing-strategy">marketing strategy</keyword> due to the on-going pandemic. It has navigated through the past pandemic year by enhancing consumer shopping experiences online, pivoting its focus from traditional marketing vehicles to digital channels completely to increase its engagement with consumers and expand its reach in non-metro markets. Within digital, Hero Electronix has taken the content marketing route to build consumer trust and is also looking to tap into Instagram Reels now. Hero Electronix has also been focusing on expanding its presence in the market by acquiring new, emerging businesses in the consumer-technology sector. It acquired set-top box brand MyBox in 2015. A year later, it acquired Tessolve, semiconductor chip design company and in 2018 it further expanded its business by acquiring Zenatix, a company in the enterprise internet of things space. Rahul Jain, CBO &amp; Brand lead of Hero Electronix is now optimistic about seeing steady growth at an industrial level. He talks to Advertising and Media Insider about the company's rapid growth in e-commerce and building direct-to-consumer presence simultaneously, altering marketing strategy during testing times, increasing adoption of connected devices in our lives and more in this interview. Excerpts: <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. How did the second wave affect your brand? What are some of the challenges that you are facing?" text="Q. How did the second wave affect your brand? What are some of the challenges that you are facing?">Q. How did the second wave affect your brand? What are some of the challenges that you are facing?</cmsannotation> Amidst such uncertainty, it is difficult to predict the exact rate of growth or revival of the economy right now but I predict a positive rate of recovery as increasingly people rely on digital tools and technology to stay connected. In the consumer technology sector, I do foresee a wider adoption for connected devices in our daily lives as people increasingly work from home and businesses implement new solutions to safeguard their consumers. I am optimistic that in a year's time, the industry at large would have not only recovered but will continue to see a heightened demand for connected products and services. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. How has your communication changed during what is probably one of the worst calamities we've faced in recent times? What is your B2C communication all about?" text="Q. How has your communication changed during what is probably one of the worst calamities we've faced in recent times? What is your B2C communication all about?">Q. How has your communication changed during what is probably one of the worst calamities we've faced in recent times? What is your B2C communication all about?</cmsannotation> With the lockdown, we have focused more on innovation and re-strategizing our business priorities which is reflective in our communication as well. It's no longer enough to just keep channels of communication ongoing with consumers but also being relevant to their needs not only presents a big challenge but also an opportunity. The concept of one size fits all doesn't work anymore and neither does an inside out communication approach. It is evident that different consumer segments have different needs. Various members of the household from young ones to the elderly consume communication differently hence brand communication must be aligned to their needs. In order to tackle this challenge we tailored our communication approach to showcase real life use cases and benefits of our products across various life problems our consumers may be dealing with. For consumers working from home we communicated the benefits of our products for work from home use cases through our Qubo Video DoorBell which lets them view individuals waiting at the door without having to check on them in person. This also enables them to maintain social distancing and reduce their contact outside the safe confines of their homes. For business consumers we showcased use cases of our outdoor security camera and how it enables them to safeguard their shops/offices/clinics remotely to ensure business continuity for essential services. Overall our core focus has been to shift from conventional ATL/BTL activities to content based advertising. During a pandemic, consumers are shifting their focus to products and solutions which can safeguard their well being proactively rather than providing them with a sense of perceived benefit. It's extremely important for any brand to ensure that their brand communication mirrors their actions in actively helping or benefitting consumers to address their anxiety or concerns during a crisis such as this. One example of this was our partnership with Kareen Kapoor for Qubo Baby Cam. We leveraged her persona as a parenting influencer to communicate the salient benefits of our Baby Cam product to help parents alleviate their stress of managing household chores, work from home duties and taking care of their kids. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. How has your schedule changed as a CMO during the second wave? What are some of the new tasks that you are doing? Can you draw a comparison between last year's lockdown with this year's?" text="Q. How has your schedule changed as a CMO during the second wave? What are some of the new tasks that you are doing? Can you draw a comparison between last year's lockdown with this year's?">Q. How has your schedule changed as a CMO during the second wave? What are some of the new tasks that you are doing? Can you draw a comparison between last year's lockdown with this year's?</cmsannotation> Last year just like the entire consumer technology industry, we were taken aback by the sudden impact of the COVID induced lockdowns. All of us were trying to understand and grapple with the dynamic situation of the pandemic we were witnessing for the first time in our lives. As a CMO, the 2nd wave has been far more challenging and relentless than the first one both on a professional and personal front for me. If I were to look at my role between the 2 waves then the 2nd wave enabled us to step back and rethink our strategy even more. It also allowed us to connect with more of our customers to gauge the impact of our products and solutions in their daily lives. Some of them have even become our friends now. Talking to them has enabled us to understand and improve on many problem areas, bridging any communication gaps and using this feedback to improve our products and services on all fronts. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. As a company, how are you using your advertising tools to help out other people?" text="Q. As a company, how are you using your advertising tools to help out other people?">Q. As a company, how are you using your advertising tools to help out other people?</cmsannotation> During times like these, it's important for brands not only to reassess their communication strategy but also ensure that instead of it being centered around the brand it must serve a larger purpose of helping people deal with the uncertainty around them. Keeping the current situation and consumer sensitivities in mind, we decided to move away from traditional forms of advertising to a digital-first approach with a strong focus on content creators collaborations aimed at different consumer segments in order to build a more organic consumer engagement and drive top of the funnel engagement. We are tapping into our highly engaged base of 1000’s of consumers across India (metros and non metros) to drive product engagement, referrals and repeat purchase through CRM. Our presence on leading ecommerce platforms has also grown substantially which has allowed us to strengthen our relationships with consumers. Using marketing tools on ecommerce platforms, social media and content collaborations to educate consumers about our products and how it can enable them to lead productive and healthy lives has been a key area of focus for us to help people emerge from the pandemic in a resilient manner. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. What is your goal for this quarter? How have your goals changed due to the second wave?" text="Q. What is your goal for this quarter? How have your goals changed due to the second wave?">Q. What is your goal for this quarter? How have your goals changed due to the second wave?</cmsannotation> Our goal is to continue to focus on a consumer-centric approach to developing innovative newer products and solutions. I do foresee a wider adoption for connected devices in our daily lives as people increasingly work from home and businesses implement new solutions to safeguard their consumers and employees. I am optimistic that in a year's time the industry at large would have recovered to a great extent and consumers remain touch averse, the demand for products which enable them to minimise their touch points but also stay connected with it would sky rocket. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. How has your role as a marketer changed?" text="Q. How has your role as a marketer changed?">Q. How has your role as a marketer changed?</cmsannotation> Marketing as a domain is getting more democratic and efficient with wide access to individual talent nowadays. Gone are the days when brands would need to spend large sums of money to run big budget campaigns on traditional mediums without any visibility on ROI. As a marketer and as a category creator brand, we have embraced a more experiential approach in our communications thereby doing away with traditional or conventional approach to marketing. In terms of communication, there has been a paradigm shift from a product-centric approach to a content-centric approach hence the role of content marketing, influencer marketing and a trusted content creator is much more pivotal for brands to help address the trust deficit between them and their consumers. Within the digital domain, the big trend has been a shift from static content to video based content, especially short form videos which are more engaging vs long form videos. Hence, we are looking to tap more into these emerging forms of content such as Instagram reels which are able to capture more of the consumer attention without overbudening them with long form content. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. What are your areas of focus for now?" text="Q. What are your areas of focus for now?">Q. What are your areas of focus for now?</cmsannotation> Our focus is to expand our customer base across India, build brand awareness for a young brand like Qubo and launch more connected devices in the smart home space geared towards addressing various challenges faced by consumers in their daily lives. We were surprised to see that a majority of our products on ecommerce platforms are now being ordered by consumers across non metros. Tapping into this massive yet rising user base will be key for us this financial year. Additionally, we are also focusing on our direct to consumer business via our website as an alternative to ecommerce channels. We are also doubling down our focus on tapping into enterprise consumers such as system integrators and even architects to enable wide scale adoption for our products across new or existing real estate projects. The COVID-19 crisis has enabled Qubo to create more consumer-centric products to cater to such needs. Despite the lockdown, we developed a new feature called “Qubo COVID-Guard”. The feature uses artificial intelligence to detect if individuals are wearing a mask or not. We believe that new-age technologies like artificial intelligence which can help keep people safe post the lockdown. Innovation even during tough times is our company ethos. The pandemic has accelerated our innovation in-house, which will bode well for the business operations at large in the coming months. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. No communication or relevant/empathetic communication, which route should a brand take during difficult times like these?" text="Q. No communication or relevant/empathetic communication, which route should a brand take during difficult times like these?">Q. No communication or relevant/empathetic communication, which route should a brand take during difficult times like these?</cmsannotation> Getting marketing communications right through the relevant content, reaching the right audience at the right time is more important than ever and so is the ability to step in your customers shoes by having a deep understanding of their pain and trust points. These are key building blocks to build an engaged consumer base to create content that is relevant and that people want to engage with. Keeping this in mind as well as the context in today’s time, I believe relevant and empathetic communication is key to reaching audiences right now. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Q. As a leader, how are you trying to be there for your employees?" text="Q. As a leader, how are you trying to be there for your employees?">Q. As a leader, how are you trying to be there for your employees?</cmsannotation> Unlike the first wave the second wave was far more widespread and dangerous. Despite undertaking more precautions many in our team were impacted and unfortunately we lost a few talented team members to the virus. As a leader I have tried my best to be in touch and help all members in our team across all levels but honestly this was an extremely difficult phase to deal with. We shifted to a work from home model during the early days of the second wave and our first priority was to ensure the adequate mental and physical well being of our team members. In order to strike the right work life balance we undertook many new engagement driven projects to keep the morale of the teams high. Team members were also encouraged to take leaves sans any explanation and reach out to anyone in the leadership team for any help or assistance. Keeping all team members apprised of the evolving situation in our business was key to ensure that we tackled the pandemic with transparency which led to our team members innovate and come up with new ideas in order to tide over the challenges. Nonetheless, I must admit that it hasn't been an easy phase but thankfully almost all our employees have recovered and most importantly have been vaccinated.

Tapping into the massive yet rising user base across non-metro cities will be key for us this financial year: Rahul Jain, Hero Electronix

<ul><li>The Indian government has proposed several changes to the <keyword id="44081" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cigarettes">Cigarettes</keyword> and Other <keyword id="406227" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="tobacco-products">Tobacco Products</keyword> (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003. </li><li>The changes are proposed to promote healthy living as almost 267 million Indians today consume tobacco in one form or the other. </li><li>However, the changes are set to hit India’s tobacco industry and pose a dilemma for some of its biggest tobacco companies like ITC and Godfrey Phillips. </li><li>The upcoming budget and stricter GST could only make it worse for the industry.</li></ul>The over <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/india-tobacco-law/indias-proposed-changes-to-anti-smoking-law-face-objections-from-tobacco-industry-idINKBN29B1L4">$12 billion</a> Indian tobacco industry has a new problem at its doorstep, as the government is set to enforce strict regulations around the consumption of tobacco, mainly cigarettes. While the need for regulations around tobacco is to be lauded as it impacts the health of millions, in a year where the government has to ensure its cash flow remains strong, it remains to be seen whether Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hurt the likes of India’s big tobacco companies, ITC. For ITC, cigarette sales alone account for 46% of its total revenue – a whopping $6 billion in FY20. The Indian government has proposed several changes to the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003. Here are the proposed changes: <ul><li>Tobacco products will not be sold to persons under the age of 21. </li><li>Sale of tobacco products will be prohibited within 100 yards to 100 metres of an educational institution.</li><li>Retail sale of loose cigarettes will not be allowed. </li><li>Retailers will have to obtain a mandatory license, which will be subject to annual renewal. </li><li>All shops selling tobacco products will have to set up advertising and promotional content to show the harmful effects of tobacco.</li></ul>The changes are set to come into force from February 1, 2021. The changes are proposed to promote healthy living as almost 267 million Indians today consume tobacco in one form or the other. According to a report by <a href="https://globaltobaccoindex.org/upload/assets/3Z3etsFtAPNhMM3sovQgfULM4uTjafVS7mLvQe2He5CHQOmy49.pdf">Global Tobacco Index</a>, the economic cost of diseases caused by tobacco accounts for over $22.4 billion in India. However, the proposed implementation of these products has already seen a dissent from India’s retailers and tobacco industry. According to a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/india-tobacco-law/indias-proposed-changes-to-anti-smoking-law-face-objections-from-tobacco-industry-idINKBN29B1L4">Reuters report</a>, India’s tobacco companies will vehemently oppose the new rules, some of whom have already begun to see the impact in the stock market. One of India’s biggest tobacco companies that generates <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/the-33-billion-itc-one-of-indias[%E2%80%A6]ks-seems-to-have-turned-a-corner/articleshow/79641456.cms">nearly ₹2 billion in cash every year</a>, ITC, has been an underperformer in the stock market till about two months ago when it saw a recovery in its share price. <div type="image" title="itc stock" msid="80340429" hostid="261"></div> The Federation of Retailers Association of India had also appealed to the Prime Minister to roll back the changes proposed under COTPA. The association said that the changes were aimed at destroying small retailers without really impacting India’s big retailers. “By making age old trade practices like selling loose cigarettes a cognizable offence and an imprisonment of 7 years for small violations makes small traders look like heinous criminals. Compared to a 2-year imprisonment for extortion or for dangerous driving that can cause death, this is the extreme of the extremes. This puts paan, bidi and cigarette sellers in the same crime list category as a person voluntarily throwing acid on someone or causing death by negligence etc. How can anybody be so insensitive while drafting the amendment towards poor, marginalized people who are struggling to earn their daily living?,” said Ram Asre Mishra, President, Federation of Retailers Association of India. The association also said that the change of area near an educational institution where tobacco can be sold from 100 yards to 100 metres will hurt small time retailers who will have to pack their bags and move. “As per law, we do not sell tobacco products to minors. In congested and heavily populated cities, such a restriction is impractical. Petty retailers will have to vacate their place without any means to support their livelihoods. Moreover, if a new educational institution will come up within 100 metres of the retailer’s location and he will again be asked to move,” said Gulab Chand Khoda, Joint Secretary of FRAI. Here’s why the government could be pushing to stop the retail sale of loose cigarettes. According to ITC’s annual report from 2020, it is estimated that on account of illegal cigarettes alone, revenue loss to the Government is almost ₹15,000 crore per annum. “About 68% of the total tobacco consumed in the country remains outside the tax net,” said the report. Here’s a look at the taxes paid by ITC, which doesn’t even include the 28% GST on cigarettes which is a huge revenue factor for the government. <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 468pt; table-layout: fixed;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">ITC </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">2019 </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">2020 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Current Tax </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹4441.97 crore </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹5849.24 crore </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Deferred Tax </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹(411.21) crore </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹130.60 crore </td></tr></tbody></table> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The tobacco industry has a long history of liaisoning with the government to influence policies" comment="subhead" text="The tobacco industry has a long history of liaisoning with the government to influence policies">The tobacco industry has a long history of liaisoning with the government to influence policies</cmsannotation> A recent report by the Global Tobacco Index said that the tobacco industry, directly or indirectly, often reaches out to the government for changes in favour of the industry. The report cited instances from the ban of electronic cigarettes and taxation of tobacco, where industry leaders pushed for changes in government policies. Talking about the taxation policies, the report cited that Godfrey Phillips in its annual report had spoken about the stringent taxation of cigarettes. “It said “High level of taxation” has “led to the rise in illicit cigarette trade”, and conveniently linked that to “consequent loss of revenue to the government.”. It said “various industry bodies and corporates have urged the government to consider bringing the taxation on cigarettes to pre-GST levels.” This very rhetoric of decreasing tax rates so as to tackle illicit trade has been exercised by various tobacco companies: Golden Tobacco Limited, Godfrey Phillips, and ITC,” said the report. Here’s how India fared in the Tobacco Industry Interference Index. The score determines the interference by the industry in government policies – higher the score, higher the interference. <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 468pt; table-layout: fixed;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Year </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">India’s score </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">2020 </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">61 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">2019 </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">69 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">2017 </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">72 </td></tr></tbody></table>Source: Global Tobacco Index <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The upcoming Budget could change the game" comment="subhead" text="The upcoming Budget could change the game">The upcoming Budget could change the game</cmsannotation> The Budget has always mentioned changes for the tobacco industry. In the Budget 2020, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hiked the excise duty paid for cigarettes. The National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD) on cigarettes was increased by 212% to 388% depending on the length of the cigarette sticks. And the upcoming <keyword id="8420431" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="budget-2021">Budget 2021</keyword> could once again change the game. Analysts believe that the government may ask the tobacco industry to pay up more. “Possibility of GST hike in the Budget or during any GST council meets remains high due to weak government finances amid the COVID-19 situation,” said analysts at <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/government-looking-to-raise-minimum-age-of-cigarette-smoking-to-21-6310661.html">Motilal Oswal Securities</a>. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/here-are-the-major-changes-that-could-reportedly-come-up-with-the-union-budget-2021-by-nirmala-sitharaman/articleshow/80325146.cms">Budget 2021: From Income Tax deductions to creating jobs and boosting healthcare – Here’s all that could be in Nirmala Sitharaman’s fiscal plans</a>

Indian government’s budget dilemma – curb the sale of cigarettes or let the over $12 billion tobacco industry provide the much needed cash

<ul class="summary-list"><li>There's been an uptick in anti-Semitic incidents related to the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> pandemic so far this year.</li><li>On Monday, when releasing a report of anti-Semitic incidents from 2019, researchers at Tel Aviv University said they "cannot disregard the implications of the Coronavirus crisis during 2020."</li><li>The global crisis has breathed new life into centuries-old rhetoric that blames Jews for the spread of disease and economic downturns.</li><li>Rockland County, a coronavirus hotspot outside of New York City with a large Jewish population, has become a flashpoint.</li><li>And Jewish organizations trying to congregate online have been targets of "zoombombing."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>Every year, the Kantor Center at Tel Aviv University publishes a report on the state of anti-Semitic incidents around the world. When releasing its 2019 data on Monday — which noted an 18% surge in incidents last year — researchers also said they're already seeing an increase in <keyword id="135025" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="anti-Semitism">anti-Semitism</keyword> this year related to the coronavirus pandemic."Although this report deals with antisemitism in 2019, we cannot disregard the implications of the Coronavirus crisis during 2020," Professor Dina Porat wrote <a href="https://s3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/cdn-ejc/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20133010/The-Kantor-Center-Antisemitism-Report-General-Analysis-2019.pdf">in the report's executive summary</a>. "It has inspired antisemitic expressions that we must address."Porat wrote that, in the first few months of 2020, there has been a rise in anti-Semitic expressions and "Jew-hatred," mainly originating from activists on the extreme right.The hateful rhetoric mimics age-old anti-Semitic conspiracy theories — blaming Jewish people for economic unrest and global disasters, the report says. An example of that bubbled up in the United States as recently as Saturday. <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/daily-mail-nazi-refugee-rat-cartoon_n_564b526ee4b06037734ae115">In an echo of Nazi propaganda</a>, protesters at an Ohio rally held signs depicting a rat donning a Star of David and yarmulke that read "the real plague."The actions of the protesters drew disgust from people on Twitter, including local Democratic State Rep. Casey Weinstein. <h2>A Jewish community in New York has been the target of anti-Semitic attacks online</h2>Similar hateful rhetoric has bubbled up in social media posts from residents of a New York City suburb, prompting a response from The Anti-Defamation League. Rockland County, which has a population of more than 325,000 residents, has been a hotspot for coronavirus cases in New York. The county is about 30 miles from New York City, the global epicenter of the crisis, and is also home to a large community of Orthodox Jews.In Facebook groups and other social media platforms, some residents have attributed the high number of coronavirus cases to a failure of social distancing among the religious community.<div type="image" title="Members of the Jewish community walk amid vandalized tombs in the Jewish cemetery of Westhoffen, west of the city of Strasbourg, eastern France, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019." height="3395" width="4778" msid="75261891" hostid="261"></div>In 2019, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/nyregion/rockland-county-gop-video.html">when the Rockland County Republican Party producing a campaign advertisement widely criticized as anti-Semitic</a>, Ed Day, the county's Republican executive, called for its withdrawal, criticizing its tone but saying that its contents were "well-grounded."Day has now <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/rockland-county-exec-blasts-cuomo-over-covid-19-containment-zone-request/2360015/">called for a containment zone</a> around Spring Valley and Monsey, which are towns where a large number of Orthodox Jewish residents live. And on his Facebook page, Day had thanked police for breaking up a gathering of Orthodox residents at synagogue during Passover.In response, residents who blamed the high number of coronavirus cases to a failure of social distancing among the religious community posted hateful messages on Day's Facebook page. <a href="https://forward.com/news/national/444110/coronavirus-orthodox-rockland-suburbs-new-york/?fbclid=IwAR2I9MDypx-yKQBXwO_qJDdVL9hsmLtP2mV8absYtPb2qNpiiVH79JBqfc8">According to the Forward</a>, some even called for patches with the letter "C" be sewn onto those infected with the virus.Eventually, the comments on got so bad that Day himself called it out and urged people who spotted the hateful rhetoric to contact the county's Human Right Commission, he told The Forward."The language was getting to a point where it was starting to harken back to a time in our history, in the 30s in Europe, that nobody really has to be reminded of, obviously," Day told the outlet. "I made a comment at the top of the page that said, this is not something you need to be doing. And it stopped.""If I was truly anti-Semitic, I think probably one of the most anti-Semitic acts I could commit would be to let Jewish people get sick and die," he continued.Day didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. He told Forward that the containment zone idea was "based upon logic, <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="science">science</keyword>, reality" — and not anti-Semitism.<div type="image" title="Surrounded primarily by family, David Neumann, center, wipes his eyes as he speaks to reporters in New City, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020, about his father, Josef Neumann, who was critically injured in an attack on a Hanukkah celebration." height="2898" width="4347" msid="75261892" hostid="261"></div>Still, the cultural tension has sparked fear and uncertainty in a community that has seen a surge in violence in recent months. In December, a man broke into a <a href="https://www.insider.com/new-york-synagogue-stabbing-injuries-2019-12">Hanukkah dinner</a> hosted at a Hasidic rabbi's Monsey home and stabbed five guests. A 72-year-old man <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/nyregion/rabbi-monsey-attack.html">died from his injuries in March</a>. The month prior, a 30-year-old Orthodox Jewish man was stabbed several times on his way to morning prayers."All of us in Rockland County — residents, community leaders, and elected officials — are facing this public <keyword id="6354750" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health">health</keyword> crisis together," Evan R. Bernstein, vice president of the ADL's Northeast Division, <a href="https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/1845745/rockland-county-anti-semitic-covid-19-social-media-posts.html">told The Yeshiva World</a>, a <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> organization that serves Jewish communities. "The scapegoating and finger-pointing that we have seen in recent days, coupled with a surge in antisemitism online, serves no purpose other than to distract and divide us. Now is the time for unity, not for placing blame."<h2>The attacks recirculate old tropes and take advantage of new technologies</h2>The Kantor Center study notes that Jewish hatred during times of crisis is not new and that the kind of language used has relied heavily on centuries-old canards. For example, some have baselessly blamed Jews for poisoning water supplies and others have accused them of undermining the world economy "in order to facilitate their control over it," the study said. When there were coronavirus outbreaks at synagogues, some called it a punishment for the "rejection of Jesus Christ."The Anti-Semitism has resulted in a trend in cyber-attacks on Jewish institutions and groups trying to congregate online, the study said, with organizations being targeted by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zoom-security-passwords-waiting-rooms-stop-zoombombing-2020-4">"zoombombing."</a><div type="image" title="monsey anti semitism protest demonstration rabbi hannukah stabbing" height="2414" width="3219" msid="75261893" hostid="261"></div>Earlier this month, for example, a group of 150 Yeshiva University students met virtually for a Passover event.During the Zoom conference call, a dozen or so people logged into the chat and started inundating it with hateful messaged and popular tropes among neo-Nazis.There were death threats, Holocaust references and references to "dirty Jews," one of the students <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nazi-zoombombing-jewish-yeshiva-university_n_5e84f704c5b692780506d519">told Huffpost</a>."Since the beginning of March 2020, there have been disturbing examples of Jews, Zionists and Israelis, as individuals and as a collective, being accused of causing and spreading the Coronavirus," the study said. "In the past, global and national calamities, natural disasters, plagues, tsunamis, earthquakes, as well as world wars and economic crises were followed by accusations against the Jews as their main perpetrators."Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-pandemic-fuels-anti-semitism-2020-4">Business Insider</a>

The coronavirus pandemic is fueling anti-Semitism around the world, and the US is no exception

I grew up in Portland, and I love it. Here's why I'm never moving back, even though I can work from anywhere.

<ul><li>Last week, Zee Entertainment Enterprises mentioned FMCG brands like Pepsi, Maggi, ITC Dark Fantasy, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Red Label Tea and Amul Lassi in its OOH campaign and a week before that, Lay’s also thanked other brands for their services. </li><li>But it wasn’t just brands from unrelated categories uplifting each other. Brands like Dunzo, Swiggy, Dettol and Lifebuoy have also shown in the recent past how difficult times are about putting competition to rest and working together towards a common goal. </li><li>We reached out to experts to understand how well it bodes for brands to opt for this empathetic strategy. They opined that consumers respect brands that care about things other than business and work together for a single, larger cause. </li></ul>For years, <keyword id="9575066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="rival-brands">rival brands</keyword> have engaged in ad wars that called each other out on social media or pulled each other down publicly to achieve one-upmanship. However, we are in the midst of a global pandemic and many SMBs and even well-established brands are struggling to survive in this highly volatile environment. Therefore, it is time for big brands to pause, reflect, rework their strategies and most importantly, keep aside competition to prioritise consumer interest. A few brands like Dunzo, Swiggy, Dettol and Lifebuoy that provide essential services swallowed their pride and decided to uplift each other in their brand campaigns. By acknowledging their competitors, these brands reminded their consumers that we are all in this together. With its wit that it is known for, Dunzo had posted a creative on social media saluting those who chose to do the ‘ride’ thing and thanked Swiggy, Grofers and BigBasket. <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> After Dunzo’s post, Swiggy launched a video campaign called ‘Sukhriya Kare’ with leading social media influencers to thank heroes who wear a helmet and drive around on their scooters to deliver essential products -- risking their lives. It also mentions rival delivery partners Dunzo, Medlife and Grofers. <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> In yet another heartwarming gesture, bathing soap giant Lifebuoy released a public service print ad that urged the audience to buy a soap they have access to -- be it Lux, Dettol, Santoor or Godrej No 1. <div type="twitter" handle="ambimgp" handlename="Ambi Parameswaran" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1075309911880421378/egNXy-cA_normal.jpg" favoritecount="258" retweetcount="82" status="⁦@HUL_News⁩ Great initiative to advertise the importance of hand wash ⁦@htTweets⁩. And a big hurray for mentioning… https://t.co/66U8bINm4x" createdat="1580453185000" id="1223135428984725504"></div> But does this really work? Unusual times call for unique solutions. Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist and Angel Investor said it is a great idea to keep aside competition and collaborate, especially during times of crisis. Mathias said, “The Covid pandemic is a moment of great human suffering as brands coming together – even with competitors – speaks well about our larger need to fight this together. Very early on during this pandemic, Apple and Google came together to partner on COVID-19 contact tracing technology. A positive step by two tech giants signalling the seriousness of the challenge and the need to bring all hands on deck.” Highlighting how this strategy can help brands gain consumer affinity, Mathias added, “At times of any major disruption or calamity, brand wars must take a back seat and rise to the occasion keeping consumer interest in mind. Consumers will see this as a positive and mature sign, recognizing that brands can put behind their differences when it comes to larger concerns of humanity.” In the age of social media, anything that is a little different from regular communications generates a lot of chatter. And emotions go a long way. Lay’s had also launched a digital campaign to express gratitude towards the unsung heroes of India who have brought joy to millions even in these challenging times like Dunzo, Zomato, Flipkart, Whisper, to name a few. One might argue this strategy looks opportunistic but Nidhi Sinha, Head of Content, Mintel India told us that brands who care about things other than their business are not only bought more often but gain their consumer’s respect. Sinha said, “In times of the pandemic, Indian consumers have reflected a strong sense of affinity with the environment and local communities. As brands come together for a single cause, it certainly puts them in a good light as consumers respect the fact that these brands 'care' and are not just focused on their own business. According to a Mintel research conducted in February 2020, prior to COVID-19, 26% of Indians said that they expect brands to support environmental issues. As the country fights the crisis together, these initiatives not only show gratitude but also reflect a sentiment of care and selflessness, much needed in these times of need.” Telling us why inclusive ads would work more than <keyword id="9575064" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="competitive-ads">competitive ads</keyword> in today’s environment, N Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research said, “Empathetic advertising instead of adversarial advertising is what people appreciate, especially in stressed situations like extended WFH, threat of Covid etc. Consumers do not want to be pushed to take sides in such a situation, and they want unadulterated information. Not only are such ads like a breath of fresh air, but they are also non-intrusive and gentle. Which is why they work well.” However, Chandramouli also said that brands will be brands and even in these instances, they subtly show how they have an upper hand over other players. He said, “The competitive spirit of brands comes when you are fighting for survival, market share and mindshare. In some categories, if the category is the beneficiary of this crisis, they may keep the combatant side silent, but soon after the dust of the crisis settles, the pugilist in them will be out with gloves again. Even in these empathetic ads for instance, brands will be brands and they tend to subtly show their advantages against competition. After all, brands exist in a competitive world, and they do not exist to do philanthropy.” Not just in communications, crisis calls for long-term relationships Mathias said brands need to lend each other their expertise and fight the bigger battle together. “The lockdown severely impacted most businesses and in these times collaboration worked as an effective risk mitigation strategy to minimize revenue loss by ensuring supply and fair distribution. Brands may need to collaborate with their competitors in areas that they would normally compete for e.g. combining deliveries and sharing of logistics and manufacturing. Some may even consider doing joint messaging,” said he.

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