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<ul><li><keyword id="6911038" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="VMLYR">VMLY&amp;R</keyword> network employs over 7,000 people across 75+ offices across the world. </li><li><keyword id="2951846" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Glitch">The Glitch</keyword> senior leaders, including CEO <keyword id="2998892" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pooja-Jauhari">Pooja Jauhari</keyword>, Co-Founder &amp; Chief Creative Officer, <keyword id="228356" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rohit-Raj">Rohit Raj</keyword>, and Co-Founder &amp; Content Chief, <keyword id="3054169" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Varun-Duggirala">Varun Duggirala</keyword> will now report into Tripti Lochan, Co-CEO of VMLY&amp;R Asia.</li></ul>The Glitch has joined forces with global experience agency VMLY&amp;R. The new entity taps on the strengths of both WPP agencies, creating a stronger expanded offering through the best of technology and creative expertise. <keyword id="10219305" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="the-glitch-and-vmlyR">The Glitch and VMLY&amp;R</keyword> India will continue to operate distinct brands and organisational structures while working together. This will allow clients to experience their combined proposition of marketing talent, capabilities, and experience, while maintaining the simplicity of their current communication cadence with each agency. The integration will see The Glitch become a part of the nearly $1 billion global VMLY&amp;R network, which employs over 7,000 people across 75+ offices across the world. These include three offices in India, based in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. The Glitch senior leaders, including CEO Pooja Jauhari, Co-Founder &amp; Chief Creative Officer, Rohit Raj, and Co-Founder &amp; Content Chief, Varun Duggirala will now report into Tripti Lochan, Co-CEO of VMLY&amp;R Asia. In addition, the Glitch leadership team along with <keyword id="7792201" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="vmlyr-india">VMLY&amp;R India</keyword> CEO <keyword id="293465" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anil-Nair">Anil Nair</keyword>, will form an India leadership council to manage strategic decisions for both companies. The council will be headed by Anil Nair. Founded in Mumbai in in 2010, The Glitch stands as one of the leading, digitally-led creative agencies in India, employing over 300 digital strategists, technologists, content creators and planners, delivering award-winning campaigns for a wide spectrum of clients including Netflix, Hindustan Unilever, LinkedIn, Lenovo, Diageo, and most recently Microsoft and Triller among many other global brands. With offices in Mumbai and Delhi, The Glitch services clients in India and many other regions of Asia. VMLY&amp;R embodies a hybrid blend of brand creativity with a deep digital heritage, manifesting in a comprehensive understanding of the entire customer journey. The agency has accolades reflecting both its creative excellence and digital expertise. VMLY&amp;R India’s business-first team is known for delivering digital excellence for blue chip brands like ICICI Bank, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, IDFC, Ford, Swaraj Tractors, IDBI Federal and Marico, delivering transformational solutions at the intersection of brand and customer experience, data, platforms and commerce. “WPP's aim is to provide clients with a simplified and integrated offer to help them grow their businesses holistically. The Glitch over the past ten years has grown to become a digital and content powerhouse, and when combined with VMLY&amp;R’s capabilities in digital transformation and customer experience, can help clients make an impact in their transformation journeys," said CVL Srinivas, Country Manager, India, WPP. On joining the VMLY&amp;R Network, Pooja Jauhari, CEO, The Glitch, said: “We have flourished alongside WPP in the past 3 years. The founders and I are delighted that we’ve now found a great permanent home for our brand, our company and most importantly, our people. The Glitch is a gender blind, inclusive and progressive high-performance workspace and with this marriage, we’ve found kindred spirits in VMLY&amp;R when it comes to driving the same vision. We’re eager to explore our complementary capability sets for the benefit of our clients’ businesses. With this union, we believe we are in the best position to help our clients be more agile, sharper and ready for whatever the future may bring.” Anil Nair, CEO, VMLY&amp;R India, said: “This union spells great news for clients looking at building digital-first brands. In addition to cutting edge solutions such as customer experience (CX), commerce , technology, innovation, AI/ML, data, media innovations and good old culture impacting creativity, we will now be able to add new weaponry to our arsenal, including powerful capabilities in brand experience, new-age content, youth marketing, connections thinking, brand publishing, and live creativity amongst others. This makes us the most relevant agency group in the market with best possible capabilities to help our clients future-proof their businesses and succeed in the new paradigm.”

The Glitch becomes a part of the nearly $1 billion global VMLY&R network

<ul><li>The <keyword id="6418916" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Glitch">Glitch</keyword> was recently consolidated into the nearly $1 billion global <keyword id="6911038" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="VMLYR">VMLY&amp;R</keyword> network.</li><li>We speak to <keyword id="2998892" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pooja-Jauhari">Pooja Jauhari</keyword>, CEO, The Glitch on what the recent consolidation will mean for the agency, how it fared during this difficult year, its recent account wins and her vision for the agency.</li></ul>When <keyword id="3054169" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Varun-Duggirala">Varun Duggirala</keyword> and <keyword id="228356" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rohit-Raj">Rohit Raj</keyword> founded The Glitch, a digitally-led creative agency, in 2009, the idea was to create an organization that would help clients come up with smart solutions, therefore fix the glitch they were facing in communicating with their consumers (the agency had been founded around the 2009 recession and both Duggirala and Raj had been told it was the worst time to start the agency). Eleven years down the line, considering how far the agency has already come, in hindsight, it was perhaps the best time to start the agency. Today, The Glitch is one of the edgiest agencies out there, with an impressive roster of clients. The agency has made a name for itself by way of the differentiated work it is able to put out for its clients. Back in 2018, <keyword id="168456" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="WPP">WPP</keyword> identified the potential in the independent agency and made it a part of its ecosystem and since then, the agency has only moved upwards. Recently, WPP also consolidated this young, edgy agency with VMLY&amp;R. We recently caught up with Pooja Jauhari, CEO, The Glitch to understand what the recent consolidation will mean for the agency, how it fared during this difficult year, its account wins and her vision for the agency. <div type="Video" msid="79760457" hostid="261" title="Pooja Jauhari, CEO, The Glitch shares some invaluable leadership mantras" dataSource="BUSINESSINSIDER" thumbUrl="https://denmark.timesinternet.in/cmslite/api/app/images.jpg?msid=79760457"></div> The Glitch’s 2020 journey Over the last few years, the Glitch has been witnessing healthy growth. It has also been churning out great content and campaigns. The agency has been working on many beauty brands under HUL, it is also the agency behind all the content <keyword id="128682" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Netflix">Netflix</keyword> puts out. They also handle <keyword id="28120" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Linkedin">LinkedIn</keyword> and the premium portfolio of Diageo. Despite the year being challenging for most businesses, The Glitch had some impressive client wins. “Our focus this year was on tech businesses and we have succeeded in adding some wonderful brands to our portfolio. We worked on some projects for Facebook and won the accounts for Triller, Octro Inc and Microsoft,” shared Jauhari. While she said she would be lying if she said 2020 wasn’t challenging, the agency had fared well, against all odds. “At the start of the lockdown, we were all seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. But very quickly, that light disappeared because of all the uncertainty. However, I have great respect for the people that I work with - both my colleagues and clients, because I saw leadership at every level. And while the year was tough and the first few months were very difficult, we bounced back very quickly. We've had great business wins. All our top clients continue to stay with us. We've played an active role in helping them through this darkness, and there truly is camaraderie and partnership. We aren't yet back to where I would have liked us to be but bounced back we have!,” said Jauhari. While not sharing revenue figures for the year, Jauhari also said that there had been a dip in the initial months, but they're now on an upward swing. “And should the trajectory of the last few months continue, we should be in a very good place next year,” she added. The VMLY&amp;R consolidation About a month back, The Glitch became a part of the nearly $1 billion global VMLY&amp;R network. While talks between the two agencies were on for over three years, it finally came to fruition in November this year. Both the agencies will continue to operate as separate, individual brands. On what the consolidation would entail and the synergies that the two agencies share, Jauhari said, “Over the years, one feedback our clients kept giving us was that they love our organization for our people, our sound culture and our agility. Our creative and business strategies have truly succeeded in solving real-life problems for our clients. We truly believe The Glitch is a modern partner to our clients. And to be able to continue being a modern partner, we needed to add data and technology to our fold as well. And that was one of the key reasons VMLY&amp;R was so attractive to us.” “We share a lot of synergies with them. There’s always been a lot of camaraderie. As a network at large, they’re very entrepreneurial. And, when I talk about Glitch, we're all about being gender-blind, diverse, progressive, and we're high performance as a workspace. We happen to be an advertising agency. And that's the kind of language VMLY&amp;R speaks as well, which is why, people and culture-wise it was such a great fit,” she added. The vision for Glitch This year threw unforeseen challenges to organizations across the world. And most have come up with learnings that will help them navigate the uncertain future. On what were a few things that the pandemic taught the agency, Jauhari said, “We would be really foolish if we didn’t learn anything from this experience. One of the obvious thing we have pondered over is, can our industry actually bring about work-life balance, and can that balance come from spending a few days in office and then working remotely for a certain amount of time? So, we will try and bring about a remote working culture in our organization. Secondly, the experience also showed us efficiencies in the way we conduct our businesses, the kind of travel one should do or where to spend our money. For instance, I would rather spend money on our people than on massive office spaces. But the most important factor for me has been focusing on mental health, both for myself and my colleagues. And this is not something that your HR team should do. It's something that every person in the organization needs to imbibe and it starts with leaders. I often tell my colleagues that building mental strength is like building muscle strength, it needs practice. And, we have to focus on proactive mental health rather than reactive mental health. And that to me is a big change in the way I operate as a person and its also something I would do for my organization as we move forward.” On what is that one thing that she feels she has done right and is proud of as a leader, she said, “The one thing I'm truly proud of is our collective belief in being an organization that's gender-blind, truly inclusive, and highly progressive, and I don't mean inclusivity and being progressive only in the form of gender, but in the form of opinion, background and the kind of work we put out. As a company, we're all about normalizing and not cause-vertising. I would hate it if Glitch ever put out a piece of work that cause-vertised something rather than normalizing. For example, when we talk about same sex love, our focus is not on the same sex, it’s on the love. When we feature a transgender model in a beauty film, we don't highlight the model, we rather highlight beautiful skin, the beautiful people, a way of being. When we talk about men washing dishes, we just normalize it because we are in 2020, and its obviously normal. And that’s our key agenda and mission as an agency, which I'm very proud of.”

As a company, we're all about normalizing and not cause-vertising: Pooja Jauhari, The Glitch

Pooja Jauhari, CEO, The Glitch shares some invaluable leadership mantras

<ul><li>The Glitch's Varun Duggirala, Nirvana Films' Prakash Varma and Spring Marketing Capital's Arun Iyer share how the lockdown has been the biggest teacher. </li><li>They tell us what they have learnt in the past few months after being house arrested with their kids 24*7. </li></ul>The advertising industry is infamous for working the graveyard shift and always slogging way beyond working hours. Fathers in this industry are barely left with any time to spend with their families and themselves. This lockdown, albeit challenging, came with a silver lining. It provided them with an opportunity to spend more time with their kids and family. On the eve of <keyword id="15465" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Fathers-Day">Father's Day</keyword>, we reached out to a few cool fathers of the ad world like Varun Duggirala, Content Chief and Co-founder, The Glitch, Prakash Varma, Director/Partner, Nirvana Films and Arun Iyer, Co-founder, Spring Marketing Capital to understand how the lockdown experience has been for them. Here’s what they had to say: <div type="twitter" handle="admediainsider" handlename="Advertising and Media Insider India" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1268418343238635521/lelrmGKf_normal.jpg" favoritecount="5" retweetcount="3" status="#FathersDay | With #FathersDay almost here, @varunduggi of @followtheglitch shares with us about some parenting les… https://t.co/9iGtdWUlVY" createdat="1592641800000" id="1274258183909978112"></div> <div type="twitter" handle="admediainsider" handlename="Advertising and Media Insider India" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1268418343238635521/lelrmGKf_normal.jpg" favoritecount="7" retweetcount="1" status="#FathersDay | @aruniyer of @tweet2spring shares how working from home has changed work and how it is important to t… https://t.co/Aekx6FiYaL" createdat="1592715705000" id="1274568166526468099"></div> <div type="twitter" handle="admediainsider" handlename="Advertising and Media Insider India" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1268418343238635521/lelrmGKf_normal.jpg" favoritecount="1" retweetcount="0" status="#fathersday2020 | On the eve of #FathersDay, #PrakashVarma of @NirvanaFilms shares his experience of spending all d… https://t.co/KS0CaJp1a0" createdat="1592649000000" id="1274288383666208768"></div>

Working fathers share some lessons they’ve learnt in parenting during the lockdown

<ul><li>We bring to you a series of columns from industry experts, looking back at the last 10 years</li><li>The columns will explore how the media, marketing and advertising industry has transformed in the last decade</li><li>Varun Duggirala, Co-founder &amp; Content Chief, <keyword id="2951846" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Glitch">The Glitch</keyword> answers if '10 years too short a time for the world to change?'</li></ul>This year marks the end of the second decade of the millennium. It also marks a decade for me in the agency space (I never worked in an agency before co-founding The Glitch in 2009). So looking back, I’d say it’s been not just a disruptive but also a transformative period for the advertising space. How brands function has changed to its core! The distribution pipeline has been democratized by the advent of e-commerce. The content outlay from a brand has evolved towards a wider spectrum, that of 3-4 television commercials in a year. It’s not a calendar of content opportunities that a marketer has to focus on to both build her brand as well as push for sales, while consistently understanding and evolving with the ever-changing mindset of the consumer. This has, in effect, directly changed the needs of a brand from its agency. While traditional agencies have borne the brunt of it, digital agencies have ridden this wave to become the default agency for brands. Because in the world we live in, what has become the new normal is that everything is digital at its core, even if the execution is non-digital. Because of the core consumer insight, the broader creative building process by using data as your superpower and the ability to be agile, creative yet effective is now the new normal. What’s also been disruptive for the agency model is that there’s no singular template model for all agencies; we all do a lot of the same but a lot of different things as well. Some might focus on content creation a lot more versus others who concentrate on technology platforms and tech innovations. It’s not a one-size-fits-all and that’s what makes it an exciting time to be in advertising. We live in a time of massive disruption and hence, we live in a time of massive potential for innovation of how we do what we do. Automation and AI are spaces we’ve just scratched the surface of, when it comes to automating tasks that don’t need human creativity or intervention. Collaboration with the modern content creator ecosystem while employing and learning from the methods that most new media creators use is not just necessary, but mandatory. To constantly reinvent how we work with data and how we engage with influencers, new media and platforms is going to define our strategy. There is no 5 year plan now, it’s a 6-month revamp. So I’d say it’s been a great decade, a game-changing one and I’m looking forward to what the next one brings. - By Varun Duggirala, Co-founder &amp; Content Chief, The Glitch

Is 10 years too short a time for the world to change?

<ul><li>Advertising and Media Insider catches up with Advertising folks to take a closer look at one of the most talked-about Netflix series of this year so far, <keyword id="7496509" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="emily-in-paris" source="Orion">Emily in Paris</keyword>.</li><li><keyword id="3054169" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="varun-duggirala" source="Orion">Varun Duggirala</keyword>, Co-founder of The Glitch, Podcaster and Entrepreneur, Henna Pande, VP - North, Kinnect and <keyword id="13023377" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="binaifer-dulani" source="Orion">Binaifer Dulani</keyword>, Creative Director, Dentsu Webchutney had some interesting thoughts on how the series portrayed agency life.</li></ul>If you are a marketing or advertising professional who has dabbled with social media, I am sure you would have desperately wished to swap places with Netflix’s Emily in Paris. She is a ‘brilliant’ marketing executive who always gets approval in one go, can come up with out-of-the-box ideas every time you ask her, barely knows how to use hashtags right but has managed to find the formula behind going viral after every post, gets to combine PR, advertising, marketing, event management into one role and has a very active social life beyond work. She is living the dream, one that every advertising marketing professional yearns for! Watching this show itself is like taking a vacation, it serves as an escape that people in an overworked job role often crave. However, this original Netflix series has polarized viewers since its debut on the platform. Its recently released season two has gathered flak for its stereotypical representation of Parisian culture and unrealistic portrayal of how easy, glamourous a marketing job can be. At the same time, it did get a few things right. The protagonist Emily, played by <keyword id="602245" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lily-Collins" source="Orion">Lily Collins</keyword>, is unafraid to challenge the status quo and the show also depicts how sexism is still present in ads. We caught up with Varun Duggirala, Co-founder of The Glitch, Podcaster and Entrepreneur, Henna Pande, VP - North, Kinnect and Binaifer Dulani, Creative Director, Dentsu Webchutney to discuss a few things that Emily in Paris got right about marketing and a few things that they should do away with in season 3. <div type="Video" msid="89098302" hostid="261" title="Indian Advertising folks discuss the representation of agency life in Emily in Paris" dataSource="BUSINESSINSIDER" thumbUrl="https://denmark.timesinternet.in/cmslite/api/app/images.jpg?msid=89098302"></div> 3 things that we at Advertising and Media and creative folks liked: <ol><li>Advertising can be sexist but you shouldn’t be afraid to voice your opinions</li></ol>Emily works in a marketing firm in Chicago and is transferred to Paris as her boss’ replacement in a luxury marketing firm. She works as a Marketing Executive but is heavily focused on social media. As a GenZ employee, she is never afraid to voice her opinions, even though it contradicts with people in authority. She calls out its agency for perpetuating misogyny and stereotypes in advertising on the shoot day of Maison Lavaux's De L'Heure perfume. Credit: Netflix 2. Last-minute arrangements When you work in advertising, there’s always one important person that you would miss to call before your final day of shoot and have to scroll through your contacts, beg a few people to make arrangements at the eleventh hour. In Emily in Paris, they forget to call for a DJ and Emily’s friend Mindy comes to her rescue. Credit: Netflix 3. Connections are everything! The series portrays advertising and marketing as a job where you don’t have control over what your day is going to look like -- it highly depends on external factors and everyday events. Social media trends can influence your idea and overall work. While advertising is not just for extroverts, it is definitely easier for extroverts such as Emily to quickly find the right people for the job and execute her idea without missing the trend. Credit: Netflix Few things we didn’t like: 1. You don’t become an influencer in a day Emily turns to Instagram to cure her boredom and randomly posts a selfie with the hashtag ‘room with a view’ -- a hashtag that no one follows but her Instagram just cannot stop buzzing. She rises to fame on Instagram after sharing a few stories, not even posts or reels. She starts with 50 followers and rises to thousands in a week. With this, Emily in Paris trivializes influencer marketing and content creation. You don’t become an influencer with a single croissant photo, only if it were that easy. 2. There’s no formula to go viral Unless you are a Kardashian, a picture of your dress won’t attract 177k likes in a few hours and especially not with a hashtag that no one looks up. Credit: Netflix 3. No human can churn out ideas every minute Credit: Netflix In real life, every creative faces self-doubt and within all of the chaos, they find one ‘aha’ moment. These moments of genius are scarce. However, Emily is brimming with ideas, even when it is not her account.

Emily in Paris: Things that the series got right and wrong about working in advertising

<ul><li>Varun Duggirala, Content Chief &amp; Co-founder, The Glitch, Apaksh Gupta, Founder &amp; CEO, One Impression; <keyword id="3288876" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sejal-Kumar">Sejal Kumar</keyword>, YouTuber, Actor and Singer; Be YouNick, YouTuber and Content Creator; and Viraj Sheth, Co-founder and CEO, Monk Entertainment share the new trends that have emerged during the <keyword id="91743" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="lockdown">lockdown</keyword> in <keyword id="2540701" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Influencer-marketing">influencer marketing</keyword> and how they continue to stay motivated and creative. </li><li>They further shared with us how this lockdown will impact influencer marketing landscape in the long-run and things that brands need to take cognizance of -- while coming up with campaigns during a crisis. </li></ul>With the Covid-19 lockdown in its 14th day already, we thought it would be a good time to shine the spotlight on the influencer marketing landscape. Considering people have been stuck at their homes, and will be, for a few more days to come at least, people have been increasingly consuming content online, which has given influencer marketing a boost. In a riveting conversation around how the influencer marketing ecosystem is shaping up moderated by Varun Duggirala, Content Chief &amp; Co-founder, The Glitch with Apaksh Gupta, Founder &amp; CEO, One Impression; Sejal Kumar, YouTuber, Actor and Singer; Be YouNick, YouTuber and Content Creator; and Viraj Sheth, Co-founder and CEO, Monk Entertainment spoke about their individual experiences and their views on what lies in the future, for the creators as well as the industry in general. <div type="twitter" handle="BiIndia" handlename="Business Insider India🇮🇳" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1232926719016718336/sfffJHNV_normal.jpg" favoritecount="33" retweetcount="10" status=".@varunduggi, @followtheglitch, @apaksh537, One Impression, @viraj_sheth, @MonkEtweets in conversation along with Y… https://t.co/35bOkJBauy" createdat="1586171138000" id="1247118262497726464"></div> Speaking about how the industry is shaping up right now, what are the kinds of brands that are investing on influencers, Sheth said, “Currently, a lot of people feel that marketing spends will move to Digital and influencers because there’s not going to be any outdoor productions. Nobody is outdoors so there’s no point spending on billboards and hoardings. The other thing is, even with Digital, when brands create content, they have a big team around it, where they get a production agency and a talent team. But right now, even that’s not going to happen. The only thing is to engage with a lot of content creators and influencers through their own native content pieces. I have been seeing a lot of opportunities but in general since the market is down, its players in e-sports, e-learning or these apps that don’t have any manufacturing liabilities that are spending right now.” Seconding Sheth, Gupta said, “The net impact is negative as many brands from the FMCG sector who are not spending because of logistics issues and e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart and Amazon are a huge part of their spend. However, a lot of companies from the gaming sector, education and finance have increased their budgets tremendously because they have no barriers. Secondly, it is an opportunity for them to become an integral part of user behaviour. So we have seen certain categories go really crazy on their spends right now.” The lockdown comes with its limitations. As a content creator, it can be challenging to stay motivated and be creative. However, for Sejal Kumar, who started her journey as a content creator with a tiny tripod and her parents as her camera crew, house arrest hasn’t really impacted her content. It has, in fact, pushed her to come up with newer ideas, make do with limited resources and reflect on her long-term strategy. Kumar said, “It is nice to go back to the way I started. It has been annoying for my parents to keep helping me but I like it because it is relaxing and less stressful. This is helping me think a little bit differently. However, it is overbearing when people tell me to make more content because people are at home and consuming it more than ever, I’m not taking too much stress about that. I do what I want to, I take more time out for myself.” Nick went live on Instagram a year ago and now, that is his primary medium to connect with his followers. He has put YouTube on hold. He said, “I work with a team and our creation process isn’t exactly raw. We work with good equipment and a proper setup. So currently, I am making all the content that I can create from home. It is all really short and crisp content that you can post on your Instagram rather than on YouTube.” Brands have turned to digital influencers as consumption and engagement on social media platforms continue to see a significant rise. Pinterest has added 40 million users in the last month. Giants like WHO and Dettol have also recognised the potential in TikTok's reach. With TV production on hold, Gupta said the influencer marketing industry is only going to grow from here and lead the way. He said, "People and brands who were not thinking of influencer marketing as a channel, who were spending between 1% to 4%, are looking at it in a major way. While the net impact might be negative at the moment, when things go back to normal, influencer marketing is going to blow up. It is going to be four to five years ahead in the industry." On what lies ahead for him in the next few weeks, Nick said that he had been waiting to work on a bigger piece of content that he has finally found the time to work on. “While I have not yet decided what platform to put it out on, I am very happy to be finally able to work on a bigger piece of content.” Kumar thinks that once we resume normalcy, there is going to be a big change in the working environment. Organisations will continue using digital mediums. She said, “They will try to remove activities that do not require people to be in the same room. The process will become obsolete; it is going to be the same with creators as well. For collabs, we may not need to meet people physically.” On what lies ahead for Monk Entertainment, Sheth explained, “As an organization, our next plan is to figure out how to re-initiate lot of the new wings we had created because after this ends, brands will go all out in terms of spending. Over the last 2-3 months, brands, especially FMCG players, haven’t had enough exposure to the audiences. So the goal is to be able to capitalize on that opportunity.”

As demand for influencer marketing goes up, creators and experts share where the industry will go from here

<ul><li>PWC’s recently released report states that Indian monthly podcast listeners reached 40 million at the end of 2018, which was a 57.6% increase over 2017’s 25.4 million</li><li>Marketers are slowly experimenting with the medium, with the aim of presenting consumers with targeted content</li><li>The coming in of Spotify has helped increase the buzz around podcasts in India</li></ul>Over the past few years, the kind of content consumers are seeking out and accepting has seen a vast change. Today, it is all about engaging content that they can relate to. Content that can be consumed on-the-go has also seen a huge gain in popularity. It is perhaps this evolution that is making podcasts an increasingly favored content medium for consumers. While podcasts enjoy a huge popularity in markets like the US, India is also slowly waking up to it. Now almost all news publications have their own podcasts. Moreover, music streaming platforms that are witnessing a good growth in the country are also increasing their podcast offerings. Even the numbers are encouraging. Research by IAB and PwC stated that US advertisers spent an all-time high of $479 million on podcast ads in 2018, up 53% from $314 million the year prior. While the Indian market is still at a nascent stage in terms of its uptake of podcasts, PWC’s recently released report titled ‘Global Entertainment &amp; Media Outlook 2019-2023 India’, stated that Indian monthly listeners (defined as people who listened to at least one podcast in the last one month) reached a total of 40 million at the end of 2018, which was a 57.6% increase over 2017’s 25.4 million. In terms of consumption of podcasts, India ranks number three, following the US and China. Owing to the growing increase in audio-streaming services in the country, podcasts offer a massive opportunity for brands to reach out to its consumers, where they can target listeners with personalized content. The Story So Far It was in 2016 that Audioboom, a leading audio platform for hosting, distributing and monetizing content was launched in India. That was also the time when Jio had launched in the country and everybody got access to cheap, affordable data. However, that was when video content was seeing an explosion. “There was a lot of focus on video at that point in time and when we went to talk to people about focusing on audio as an on-demand platform, we were scoffed upon. People couldn’t see the opportunity that we could see in the model back then. However, things have become better since the second half of last year. Today, there is a lot more acceptance, people know what we are talking about and they want to hear us out,” says Aman Goklani, Head of India operations, AudioBoom. From 2016, when it received about 200,000 listens a month, the platform has seen a substantial increase in its monthly run rate. “From 200,000 listens in a month in 2016, we today stand at around 1.7 million listens each month. We ended June of this year with about 2.5 million listens. So, we have seen more than 10x growth since we launched,” adds Goklani. While in the larger scheme of things, Goklani maintains that 2.5 million listens is not a very big number, he adds, “A video can get these numbers in probably a few days. However, in our scheme of things, we are the largest, in terms of numbers, in India.” To put things in perspective, globally the UK-based audioBoom gets around 70 million listens in a month, with the US accounting for 60% of its listens. If one were to delve deeper into the reasons for this sudden increase in enthusiasm around podcasts, <keyword id="2904495" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sreeraman-Thiagarajan">Sreeraman Thiagarajan</keyword>, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), <keyword id="5557033" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Agrahyah-Technologies">Agrahyah Technologies</keyword> that owns and operates Hindi podcast platform, aawaz.com says that there are several. “India has been an audio-first country for a long time. The term podcast is new in India. However, all our radio stations have been coming up with audio content on their platforms for the longest time. Even in the past, shows like Purani Jeans have always been around. However, the sudden excitement around podcasts is because of multiple reasons. Firstly, global podcast companies are now looking at India. BBC, NPR, Audible, Google podcasts and Spotify have been operating in India for the past 6-7 months and have brought in some excitement,” he says. He also points to the fact that non-music content is picking up pretty well in India. “Imagine you’re in the mood to listen to some devotional content, or want to listen to a horror or romantic story. People consume a lot of content on video but if they are busy and don’t have the time to watch something, they could still listen to content. So that is what is giving us a lot of traction,” he adds. The increasing demand for smart speakers in the recent past has also been an important reason for the growing enthusiasm around audio content. The opportunities ahead Globally, Spotify has been talking a lot about the opportunities around podcasts. It has also been investing a lot on acquiring podcast companies. Closer home, music streaming platforms like Gaana and Saavn are also trying to promote the podcasts that they have to offer. So, what are the opportunities for brands here? Prashan Agarwal, CEO, Gaana says, “Podcasts are a great channel for brands to tap into a highly engaged niche audience. Most savvy marketers understand the difference between top-of-the-funnel and bottom-of-the-funnel campaigns, and appreciate the role for the top-of-mind recall. This is where this genre can serve as a great platform for brand building, with streaming players and publishers helping marketers navigate ways to seamlessly integrate their brands into the narrative.” Gaana runs some popular podcasts on its platform including Mirchi Murga by Naved, Kahanibaaz by Ashish Vidyarthi, Ek Rang Ishq Ka and others. Apart from this, they also source aggregated content from podcast platforms like IVM and Audioboom. Speaking about the opportunities he sees in the medium, Amarjit Batra, Managing Director India, Spotify says, “In India, podcasting is very young, but we see immense potential given the immersive and intimate nature of the medium. Factors such as increase in commute time, higher awareness around streaming, and India’s position as a knowledge economy establish that there is enough scope for podcasts to become mainstream in India. We believe that the future of audio is limitless and the potential growth of podcasts as a new form of audio storytelling is garnering steady popularity amongst the urban audio streamers in India. Our goal is to work with the ecosystem of creators, brands, and partners to address these challenges so that there is a wider understanding and acceptance of this new and relevant medium.” He further adds that while the podcast segment is still at a nascent stage in India, marketers have shown interest in experimenting with the medium. “We've had brands and advertisers show interest because they believe in the audio format for user engagement, and have seen how well podcast advertising works in our other markets.” Meanwhile, podcast network IVM, which is working on popularizing the medium among consumers and marketers, has already worked with brands like PayTM Money, Aditya Birla Mutual Fund, Motilal Oswal. Speaking about why brands are seeing value in podcasts, Amit Doshi, Founder &amp; CEO, IVM Podcasts says, “There are two primary opportunities for brands to work with podcasts - promotions on content that is being created and distributed by us and creating their own branded content. We have seen forward thinking brands like PayTM Money, Aditya Birla Mutual Fund, Motilal Oswal, Accenture, Storytel, Savaari etc. are already working with us. Increasingly, we are seeing interest from other brands as well in using this space to achieve their objectives.” <keyword id="3054169" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Varun-Duggirala">Varun Duggirala</keyword>, Content Chief and Co-founder, <keyword id="2951846" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Glitch">The Glitch</keyword> hosts an IVM Show called ‘Advertising is Dead’ where he speaks to leaders, creators and experts from all ends of the media, entertainment and advertising space to understand the new media world order. On how brands can make the most out of the medium, he says, “Podcasts present a unique opportunity for brands to seamlessly integrate themselves into very focussed content pieces which can be developed and distributed at scale with a much lower cost barrier. Also, advertising within episodes themselves can very easily be blended into the storyline/narrative of the episodes themselves so the value chain of the content imbibes the value chain of the brand. Unlike video content, podcasts allow consumers to blend content into their daily schedule in a way that doesn’t demand 100% focus but still blends into your content consumption habit cycle especially during commutes, mornings/late nights as well as mid-day breaks.” According to industry estimates, currently the cost of podcasts could lie between Rs 4,000-6,000 per minute. So for a lot of marketers looking at reaching out to an engaged audience, podcasts could be a comparatively cost effective option, too. Storytel India has worked on multiple host read campaigns both on IVM and audioBoom. Speaking about the kind of value the brand saw from the partnership, Sukirti Sharma, Marketing Manager, Storytel India, says, “Podcasts hook the listening audience, people who are already in the habit of listening and are familiar with the format. Also, it is somewhat about personalised choices and therefore brings in different kinds of audience. With each genre or discussion type, you attract a different kind of audience ie those interested in history or those who want to listen to the topical issues of the changing culture among the urban Indian. With myriad topics, it attracts diverse listening communities. Podcasts have their own unique space. We are in the business of telling stories and we believe that audio is the future. Podcast is a part of that audio world and has its own unique space so we would certainly use podcasts again in the future.” For the longest time, lack of awareness was a big challenge for the podcast industry. However, with more and more people talking about it, both globally and in India, brands finally seem to be warming up to the medium.

Are Marketers Warming Up to Podcasts in India?

<ul><li>It’s been more than a week since India was locked down due to the outbreak of novel <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">Coronavirus</keyword>. </li><li>In these testing times, to spread more awareness and keep the nation fit, influencers are taking to social media. Brands are also rethinking their strategies, opening up their budgets for digital media and leveraging the rising demand for <keyword id="2540701" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Influencer-marketing">influencer marketing</keyword>. </li><li>We are organising a live twitter panel discussion on April 6 at 4:30 pm to find out why brands are taking the influencer marketing route and how the industry is adjusting in times of <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword>. </li><li>The panel that will be moderated by <keyword id="3054169" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Varun-Duggirala">Varun Duggirala</keyword>, Content Chief &amp; Co-founder, The Glitch will also have Apaksh Gupta, Founder &amp; CEO, One Impression; Sejal Kumar, YouTuber, Actor and Singer; Be YouNick, YouTuber and Content Creator; and Viraj Sheth, Co-founder and CEO, Monk Entertainment. </li></ul>In testing times, brands are constantly experimenting with digital solutions to find newer ways to engage with their audience. Concerts are now virtual on BookMyShow, Birthday Parties are being held on Zoom, and Gym time is on digital fitness platforms. Brands have also postponed or cancelled their campaigns and are rethinking their marketing strategy for the rest of the year. With advertisements production and shoots on hold, brands have turned to content creators and digital influencers as consumption and engagement on social media platforms have seen a significant rise. From WHO’s collaboration with ‘Dude with a Sign’ to Dettol’s #HandWashingChallenge on TikTok, brands are using social media’s power in every possible way to spread awareness around COVID-19 and the precautions that can be taken during this crisis. Influencers are further helping them to amplify the campaign and create a momentum. According to BARC’s latest report, people have increased their time spent on chatting by 23% and on social networking apps by 25%. Brands have therefore realised that the influencer marketing model is well-suited in a time in which the audience is looking for some inspiration, DIY videos, cooking tutorials or is curious to learn more about fitness and self care. Advertising and Media Insider is organising a live Twitter Panel Discussion on April 6 at 4:30 pm to find out from influencers how they are altering their content plans to continue making a living amid a global pandemic and influencer marketing experts will discuss how the landscape is evolving with the situation every day. The panel will be moderated by Varun Duggirala, Content Chief &amp; Co-founder, The Glitch and include Apaksh Gupta, Founder &amp; CEO, One Impression; Sejal Kumar, YouTuber, Actor and Singer; Be You Nick, YouTuber and Content Creator; and Viraj Sheth, Co-founder and CEO, Monk Entertainment. Join us for an informative evening on Twitter at 4:30 pm where a panel of industry experts will share their analysis of how the nationwide lockdown has impacted the influencer marketing industry.

Join us on Twitter to find out how the influencer marketing industry is adjusting in times of COVID-19

<ul><li>As the year draws to a close, it is important to pause and reflect.</li><li>We speak to industry leaders about the year gone by and a few lessons they learnt from 2021.</li></ul>It was during the peak of the pandemic in 2020 when doctors across the world were still trying to figure out what the novel Coronavirus is, I lost my grandmother. Shortly after, my father tested positive for the virus. His oxygen dropped to 78 mm. We struggled to find a bed for him and found a hospital 50 kms away. He was still mourning the loss of his mother, fighting a deadly virus, struggling to form sentences but he had a huge smile on his face when I taught him how to video call on WhatsApp. He was there for two weeks but those weeks definitely felt like a decade to me. I had the nurse's number on my speed dial, I called her first thing in the morning to ask, "How is my father breathing today? Has his oxygen picked up?" She would respond patiently, "Yes, we are doing our best." To escape from this, I buried myself in work, binge-watched violent movies to numb the pain I was actually feeling. After we heard the news that he is coming back, we decorated the house. I put up some fairy lights, made a rangoli, bought his favourite sweets -- Kaju Katli. After all, we were welcoming Ram back into his home right before Diwali. It took me a while to process the horrendous month that I had spent. Thankfully, I had a very supportive team at work. I remember texting my editor a week later, "I will be submitting my story late today, I am too anxious and panicked." She responded, "Sure, take your time, Karuna." So, if 2020 was about self-isolation, making sure our older family members stay safe and prioritizing their physical health, 2021 taught me the importance of mental health. After months of working from home -- away from our loved ones, seeing the country battle a deadly virus and our medical industry getting crippled, 2021 was all about healing from the storm. It was about finding comfort in little wins and reminding ourselves that we are all in this together. Change can be scary, sure, and not knowing what the future holds is scarier, but resilience is stronger. As we enter a new year with a lot of uncertainty yet again because no one knows what variants COVID-19 will throw at us, it is important to remember that we have survived the worst. By now, we know what works and what doesn’t. The impact of 2020 and 2021 will be felt next year too but remember to take care of yourself first if you want to be able to show up for other people too. And most importantly, double mask up, people! Here's what our industry experts learnt from the rollercoaster year that 2021 turned out to be: <keyword id="1193084" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rana-barua" source="Orion">Rana Barua</keyword>, Group CEO, <keyword id="7001513" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="havas-group-india" source="Orion">Havas Group India</keyword>: <div type="image" title="Rana Barua, Group CEO, Havas Group India" msid="88587279" hostid="261"></div> The pandemic has completely altered our perspective of what the future should be. CEOs across the world have redefined their leadership skills based on this reality. If the pre-pandemic stage was all about merging the technology trends and diversity with an added edge of GenY disrupting the way of working; the post-pandemic world is now ushering in the dynamic social age. The upcoming era will be a lot about meaningful relationships within the gamut of the collective human experience, and the bedrock of this will be the trust factor. So, the one leadership lesson that I will cherish from 2021 is the greater meaning of ‘trust’. It has taken a new meaning in my life. And if we were able to sail through the last two years, it is only because I 'trusted' my teams to display unprecedented resilience and commitment. And that trust converged into amazing results. As the leader of this organization, I knew my teams 'trusted' me that I will do everything in my power to navigate them through this storm. And I must say we have a lot to be proud of as it has yielded positive and encouraging results. Dr. <keyword id="248570" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sandeep-goyal" source="Orion">Sandeep Goyal</keyword>, Managing Director, Rediffusion: The pandemic has taught me the power of resilience more than anything else. So many of us personally, and so many businesses have suffered such severe setbacks in the past few months - yet we have been patient, we have persevered, we have buffeted challenges, we have overcome. My belief is that true adversity brings out hidden reservoirs of grit, determination and ability to confront even insurmountable challenges. It is when you discover your real friends. It is when you discover your inner strengths. You also discover the power of love; power of caring; power of sharing; power of prayer. The pandemic has helped each one of us to emerge stronger. It has helped us to realise how finite life is and how we must value all that we have: our health, our happiness, our family, our friends, our relationships … even our work and livelihoods. I hope the pandemic goes away soonest. But the learnings it has bestowed stay. Challenges are a part of life and standing up to them is the true test of every human. Anil Nair- CEO, VMLY&amp;R India: For most of us, the pandemic was a bolt from the blue. It forced us indoors, changed a lot of our behaviour and also made us introspect about the fragility of our existence. For me, personally, the biggest learnings were about empathy , patience and celebrating small wins. Genuine empathy for the other, be it your spouse, neighbour, co-worker or stranger. The need to put oneself in their shoes and feel for what they might be going through in these trying times. And the patience to be able to slow down and deal with situations calmly rather than the ‘runaway’, ‘winner-takes-all’ attitude and pace that we were used to in pre-pandemic times. Lastly, to be able to celebrate ‘small wins’ and to live in the moment given the overall uncertainty that the pandemic continues to cast over us. <keyword id="3609466" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="aditya-kanthy" source="Orion">Aditya Kanthy</keyword>, CEO and MD, DDB Mudra Group: The one thing I have missed most and will try not to take for granted ever again is the simple pure joy of meeting people. Like really meeting them. Not on a call, not on a computer, not as a block on the calendar. So much of the fun at work came from being together in the same space. The banter. The unplanned conversations. The energy. So much of the learning and inspiration as well. We lost something elemental and beautiful. I want that back. I miss it. Equally, I learnt how much more we need to do to listen to each other more deeply. The stuff we read off each other, the non-verbal cues. The comfort of a safe environment where one can be heard without judgement. That was gone. There’s also the realization that, perhaps, the old ways were inadequate. When we’re back together, we need to design ways without assuming that everyone is comfortable expressing themselves in the same way. We need to do more to create that space. This is what I have missed and what I have learnt. My hope is to enjoy coming back together again in 2022 and doing so in a way where each of us can be heard. Ashish Khazanchi, Managing Partner, Enormous: The pandemic was a true test of character of people, teams and organisations. While there certainly was a big drop in businesses and toplines, what was at stake was organisations' humanity. People in organisations everywhere dealt with the kind of uncertainty they never were faced before. Uncertainty of livelihoods, careers and sanity amidst surmounting work pressures. The better organisations, in my opinion, made sure that their people were taken care of at least as much as their businesses. When the specter of lockdowns was a little bit behind us, we saw a simple trend both in terms of people and companies. The ones with initiative thrived even in the midst of a terrible external situation. Anyone who did not take easy ways out, like the typical bottomline managers do, by cutting costs rather than working on newer avenues of organisational growth, are going to be the true hero companies of tomorrow. They've tasted success and now when the tides are turning, they're going to be unputdownable. 2022 will see business return to near normal, I would predict the number of pitches to go through the roof from about March. The ones with the best people and processes and creative products, will win 2022 by a mile. Ramanuj Shastry- Director and Co-founder, Infectious Advertising: <div type="image" title="Ramanuj" msid="88597292" hostid="261"></div> 1. Compassion is everything- Never forget we are a people’s business. Always remember that everyone today is under a lot of stress. A kind word and a patient ear will take you far. 2. Treat everyone as adults - Remote working is only possible when all team members behave like mature adults - fully aware of their roles and responsibilities. Treat everyone as adults - delegate, do not micro-manage and don’t breathe down their necks. They will surprise you pleasantly. 3. Hire Talent from everywhere - We are no longer slaves to geography. Celebrate this new-found freedom by hiring talent from literally anywhere. It will add new voices and new perspectives to your narrative. 4. Be nimble and effective - Clients value these two qualities in tough times. Don’t waste their time and their money. They will stick by you through thick and thin. 5. Spend most of your energy on culture - The culture is the unquantifiable ‘Everything’ - the life force of an organisation. Culture is the ethos - the unsaid but universally accepted codes of what’s ‘done’ and what’s ‘not done.' The culture of your company should take most of your time. And it’s more than worth it. 5 things I learnt as a person: 1. Reinvest in relationships- It took a pandemic for me to take a long, hard look at my relationship. And I realised that I have taken a lot for granted. Money won’t buy you your loved ones. Spend time with them. 2. Take care of yourself - Eat well, exercise and sleep for eight hours. You will enjoy life a lot more if you are fit. 3. Be kind to yourself- I am less critical of myself today than I was in 2019. I am comfortable in my skin and happy where I am. Could I have done better? I don’t know. And I don’t care. 4. Invest in yourself - Learn a new skill. Learn a new language. Take up new hobbies. Add new facets to your personality. Reinvent yourself. Be interesting. 5. Practice Gratitude - You are on a piece of rock whipping around a burning star at nearly 40 times the speed of a bullet. Appreciate the miracle . Be thankful for just being alive. Varun Duggirala - Content Creator, Podcaster, an Entrepreneur and the Co-Founder - The Glitch: If 2020 was about survival, 2021 was about reflection and revival. We've all reflected on the time that has passed and moved towards the time that will come. Because there cannot be a return to business as usual, but rather a move towards understanding how we need to change how we operate as professionals, businesses, leaders and human beings as we work towards a world that understands its new reality. We're all on a path of accelerated change in every aspect of our work and life. This rapid pace requires us all to understand the status quo with total clarity before we take each step (even though each step seems to bring with it a whole new set of changes). 2021 has given us many a moment to take a pause and reflect (something we should all do more often) and drive towards a better future.

Lessons 2021 taught our advertising leaders

<ul><li>The <keyword id="12257603" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="whole-truth" source="Orion">Whole Truth</keyword>, a health food brand, has dedicated its marketing efforts to telling the world the truth about its food and busting common food marketing myths to help consumers lead healthier lifestyles.</li><li>The Whole Truth’s latest campaign addresses the issue of misleading influencer marketing.</li><li>Its campaign ‘The Whole Truth Sayers’ is a clarion call to all Honest Influencers who only endorse what they actually use and love. And whose opinions can’t be bought with money.</li><li>As consumers moved to influencers, so did marketing dollars. And for the right price, experts started selling their influence, rather than telling the truth.</li><li>To fix this broken system, TWT has launched The Whole Truth Academy Project where they want ‘real’ influencers to tell the truth about their products. 25 honest influencers will be shortlisted by a jury who will narrate The Whole Truth later in their own ways.</li></ul>Over the last two decades, social media has become a huge part of our lives. After the recent Facebook outage, the world realised how dependent we are on social media platforms. While the six-hour outage only highlighted the tip of the iceberg, it is becoming more and more clear now that social media platforms have become an extended part of our body and existence. Due to this heavy reliance of consumers on digital media, influencer marketing has seen a huge boost and has become an integral marketing tool for advertisers to connect with their audiences on a daily basis. According to GroupM INCA, the <keyword id="11333696" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="influencer-marketing-industry" source="Orion">influencer marketing industry</keyword> will be a Rs 900 crore market in India by the end of 2021. So, there’s no doubt that influencers are heavily embedded in consumers’ day-to-day lives and gaining more attention from advertisers by the hour. However, influencer marketing started out with a revolutionary idea. It aimed to alter the celebrity-dominated advertising and marketing industry, create more space for honesty and do away with false, exaggerated claims made in traditional ads. The digital stars wanted to fade out fake reviews, connect with consumers on a personal level and eradicate the ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude in the industry. It was more about a few creative consumers talking to other consumers about brands they love and make marketing a tad accessible. In a short span of time, influencers forgot their mission statement and capitalism took over. The most earnest, honest reviews on the internet can be bought today and only brands with bigger money bags can afford to be portrayed as the most honest brand in the ad world. To debunk this system that has gotten a ‘bit corrupt,’ The Whole Truth’s Co-founder and CEO <keyword id="274057" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shashank-mehta" source="Orion">Shashank Mehta</keyword> has launched a new campaign titled ‘The Whole Truth Sayers.’ He is on the lookout for an honest batch of influencers who could represent his brand, help change the influencer marketing and revert it to its original form. <div type="Youtube" id="4Y_bXd03gpM" title="The Whole Truth of Influencer Marketing" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4Y_bXd03gpM/mqdefault.jpg"></div> In a 5-minute long film, Mehta and The Whole Truth team audition a bunch of influencers. Mehta asks, “Will these people promote our brand? Who are these people and why are they famous” And then, sitting across the table, Mehta watches influencers showcase their talent and pitch their ideas. They put more effort into their content for more marketing dollars. In a monologue, he later goes on to talk about how influencer marketing came into play as the answer to inauthentic celebrity marketing but has turned into a marketing gimmick in recent times. For the right price, experts started selling their influence, rather than telling the truth and influencer marketing thus became the problem it was meant to solve. The video is conceptualised by The Whole Truth and Gursimran Khamba’s Lights@27. It is being launched in collaboration with Big Bang Social, an influencer marketing agency, who also resonated with campaign’s problem statement. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Behind The Whole Truth and its latest campaign" text="Behind The Whole Truth and its latest campaign">Behind The Whole Truth and its latest campaign</cmsannotation> <div type="Video" msid="86830239" hostid="261" title="Behind The Whole Truth’s latest campaign that aims to reveal the truth behind misleading influencer marketing" dataSource="BUSINESSINSIDER" thumbUrl="https://denmark.timesinternet.in/cmslite/api/app/images.jpg?msid=86830239"></div> It all started when The Whole Truth raised $6 million in a series A round led by Sequoio Capital. After acquiring enough capital to take their marketing to the next level, Mehta realised that there’s a problem with how influencer marketing functions today. “The honest truth behind this campaign is that we wanted to do influencer marketing. We recently raised a round of funding, we had some money in the bank now and we thought we'll do influencer marketing but the more we dived into it, we realised there doesn't seem to be an honest way of doing it. And the current way it was being done, in most places not all, didn't sit well with the brand. So we were caught in a dilemma of either we just walk away from it saying that hey, this is not for us, or we do something about it. And we realised that usually whenever we've taken people behind the scene and shown them the whole truth of anything, they resonate with what we are saying. So, we thought that hey, maybe the way to do influencer marketing for us is first bring out what's going on which it seems like a lot of people resonate with and then mount our own attempt at doing this in an honest, truthful manner on top of this video,” shared Mehta. So, the video is a clarion call to all Honest Influencers who only endorse what they actually use and love. And whose opinions can’t be bought with money or as Mehta calls them, ‘TWT’s Truthsayers.’ With this, The Whole Truth aims to not only highlight the problem, but it is giving out a solution. It has launched a contest, wherein it is inviting influencers to make a fun reel, giving the jury an insider view of the problem. 25 influencers will be shortlisted later by a marketing expert jury consisting of Gursimran Khamba, Varun Duggirala of The Glitch, Vani Gupta Dandia of CherryPeachPlum, to name a few. Later, The Whole Truth will pay for the influencer’s art, hard work and talent - not their opinion. Any equipment fees, production fees, location costs etc, (within a pre-agreed budget) will be taken care of. TWT will not influence the influencer’s opinion or interfere with their art. Neither will they give a brief or push pre-set scripts. Whether the Truth-Sayers choose to make a video or write a blog or make a podcast to introduce The Whole Truth to their followers - the brand will offer complete support. And zero intervention. The process of finding TWT Truthsayers is quite simple. “So we have a two step process, one is we're asking them to apply. The application is a fun thing where we're asking them to make a story or a reel and show us the whole truth of influencer marketing as they see it. And that becomes their participation. Which gets shortlisted to the top 50 people by our panel of judges and we have a very, very respected panel of judges. They will shortlist it down from 50 people to 20-25 eventually we're just going to send them our products and ask them to write us a note about what they liked, what they didn't like right and and whoever falls in love and says that you know I love this brand and these are the 10 reasons why I loved what you did or the only people you work with,” explained Mehta. However, the film is 5-minute long and we all know how infamous millennials and GenZ are for their short attention span, who are all the target group for this campaign. Marketing gurus advise brands to place their product in the first 30 seconds of the advertisement and The Whole Truth’s latest campaign doesn’t follow that thumbrule either. Mehta said that it was a conscious decision to make a long ad. Sharing the reason why, Mehta said, “When we wrote the script, we didn't write it as an ad. That's why you will see that there is very little of the brand. But yeah, it's a it's a long video, given attention spans nowadays. We took that conscious call because we didn't want to make a superficial half-hearted point. We wanted to be do justice to both the problem and at the end, our take on the solution and why we believe things are not the way they should be, etc. And again, the hope is that, when a AIB or TVF come out with a 10-20 minute videos, because the content is so good people do watch through it. So let's see, whether we are thinking too much of our content and people will drop off or will it be engaging and relevant enough for them to watch through -- that's the punt we've taken, but we were very clear that we don't want to do a half-hearted superficial ad-ey job of it was for us, it's not an ad, we're not like promoting a product in this.” Considering that The Whole Truth is calling out an industry for its divergence from an ethical path, there’s a good chance that this campaign will cause a controversy. In today’s time, it doesn’t take much to boycott a brand. Influencers also have a cult following now and there are always some fans who wouldn't watch 'The Whole Truth' and just jump to conclusions by reading a video’s caption or watching an ad for a few seconds with context. Mehta candidly told us that he is worried about this. He said, “It's something that worries us, but we don't know what to do about it. If someone doesn't listen to our whole point of view, and reacts to half baked information, then it does become difficult.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The Whole Truth in the making" text="The Whole Truth in the making">The Whole Truth in the making</cmsannotation> Before launching The Whole Truth, Mehta was working with FMCG giant HUL. He told us that he wanted to launch his own food brand because he has fallen for the lies told by foodbev brands and his body has suffered through enough ups and downs due to the false claims made on food packaging and dishonest FMCG advertisements. So, in The Whole Truth’s maiden campaign, it started by dropping a giant truth bomb about the FMCG industry and its marketing techniques. Titled ‘Our Food is Screwed’ was inspired from The Dollar Shave Club ad and aimed to bust food myths and inconvenient food labelings. <div type="Youtube" id="cT-rTkvhLNo" title="Our Food is Screwed | What Food Companies Don't Want You to Know | #TheWholeTruth" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cT-rTkvhLNo/mqdefault.jpg"></div> The Whole Truth was only 9-months-old and everyone was talking about its campaign. It takes a start-up at least a few years of investment rounds to use the right marketing tools to gain popularity and some media coverage. The Whole Truth was quick to rise to fame, thanks to Mehta’s marketing background. So, we asked Mehta, if he were to give a TedTalk on what helped the start-up gain media attention and become a popular consumer brand in a short time, he said, “TedTalk, I’m not sure of, but the one big learning is do something which is purpose driven. I think it speaks to people, when you're doing something for a fundamental reason, which is beyond just money, profit and fame. Like for us, the mission is to bring honesty back to foods. And that mission comes from a very personal plce because I've suffered at the hands of incorrect and dishonest food marketing, I had to go through multiple weight gain and loss cycles when I used to think that switch from that unhealthy cola to this healthy juice or switch from that unhealthy paratha or that my mom makes in the morning to breakfast cereals. And then I realized that actually, the breakfast cereal is much worse than my mom's parathas and, and the juice has the same amount of sugar as that coke does. So, that's betrayal, that feeling of being lied to, no one likes. Hence, the mission comes from deeply personal space. And I think consumers resonate with that -- they can see that these guys are out not to make a quick buck that they're out to change the world in small but meaningful ways. So that would be my big learning. When you do that, consumer love, fame and revenues -- all of that starts falling in place.” Going forward, The Whole Truth will be on the lookout for expansion opportunities. It started as a protein bar and aims to expand into different food and health sub-categories. Mehta has an interesting approach to decide company’s next foray. “Our focus areas are very clear. We intend to go on getting into different food categories where we see that consumers today are being lied to and create a product that lives up to the whole truth philosophy, so for example, till eight, nine months ago, we were only making protein bars, then we launched a range of muesli, peanut butters in another two, three months. We're gonna launch another food category in five months from then we launch another food category. So our mission is simple. We just take different food categories, we check whether currently, most of the brands there are offering 100% clean label food, or are they lying to consumers? And unfortunately, the answer in most turns out to be the latter. And then we start trying to formulate a product that lives up to The Whole Truth philosophy because we don't have any option, we have to declare each and every ingredient on the front of it, so that takes a little while. So that remains the focus not just the next half, but the foreseeable future, too,” told he. Mehta told us that the brand will keep on unearthing the 100% honest truth of anything that touches food or food marketing in the future as well.

The Whole Truth’s latest campaign aims to reveal the truth behind misleading influencer marketing

<ul><li>Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for 2022-23 in Parliament on Tuesday.</li><li>This year's budget is indexed towards startups, MSMEs, infrastructure projects, rural revival, digital payment apps, telecom growth and affordable housing.</li><li>We reached out to digital, media and creative agencies to understand how the increased focus on digitalisation, sustainability, blockchain and push to MSME can impact the ad and marketing industry.</li></ul>Be it the introduction of a Digital University to make education accessible across the country or the proposed launch of a Digital currency by the Reserve Bank of India to the government’s focus on promoting digital payments and fintech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made it is clear that digital is the way forward. The Union Budget 2022-23 aims to boost the country's digital infrastructure and enable a cashless economy. The government also announced that it will set up an Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) promotion task force to give a push to the animation and gaming industry. To facilitate the roll-out of 5G mobile services in India, FM Sitharaman said that Spectrum auctions will be conducted in 2022. This, in turn, will give impetus to Voice, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality and pave the way for the Metaverse. The Digital Rupee using blockchain will help Indians accept virtual currency and accelerate cryptocurrency exchange in India. Overall, the budget also shows a promise for Electric Vehicle brands, digital payment apps, MSMEs, gaming industry and start-ups. We reached out to digital, media and creative agencies to understand how the increased focus on digitalisation, sustainability and blockchain can impact the advertising and marketing industry. Here’s what they said: Anupriya Acharya, South Asia CEO, Publicis Groupe: The Budget is positive, growth-oriented and with reforms in the right direction. The advent of 5G is sure to transform communications – for our industry it will help creation of better AV, voice and AR/VR experiences. It will also fuel digital payments, streaming entertainment, gaming, e-commerce, tele-medicine etc which in turn will aid more Unicorns! It is also heartening to note that a special Task Force is being set up for AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic) as this will help us build the much needed capacity both for domestic as well as global markets. And then there have been no changes in income-tax slabs for people, which many consumer segments were worried about. This in turn boosts consumer sentiment. From e-passports, to battery swapping for electric vehicles, setting up of optic fiber in the remotest of villages, setting up of a digital university and skilling through an e-portal, the big push is for technology, digital infrastructure and empowerment. Narayan Devanathan, Chief Client Officer, dentsu India: Having gone through the 38-page document of the Finance Minister’s budget speech, I decided to do a search for a couple of words that I thought kept repeating throughout her speech. The words “will be” occurred 110 times in the entire speech. When I narrowed my search to the single word “will,” the number rose to 362. To me, those two words sum up the essence of what this year’s budget is and is not. What it is, is a future-focused budget, aiming at the distant vision of India@100, with a 25-year Amrit Kaal lead-up. What it is not, and what I felt was sorely needed this year of all years, is a present-focused budget. A punishing 2021 for the aam aadmi with more-than-usual expenditure on health and sustenance meant the general populace was looking for immediate relief that would place more cash in their household budgets. That did not happen. Nor was there any extraordinary investment in relieving the healthcare expenditure burden. For all the importance of farmers in upcoming poll-bound states, there was neither major sop nor stimulus given to back the importance of agriculture as a spine if not engine of the economy. Even the MSME sectors were only handed a slightly longer lease of life with the extension of the ECLGS, but there was no real move to stimulate consumption by placing more cash at consumers’ disposal, for example, extending LTA claims to restaurants (and not just accommodation). There is perhaps plenty for the industry to cheer about since it can afford to think about the future and a slightly longer term than just the here and now of survival. The stock market did cheer up even before the FM’s speech, but that only served to underscore the dichotomy between the real health of the population and the Minority of Haves. When the general population probably can’t afford to wait for the benefits of trickle-down economics to reach them in yet another trying year, the dreams and wheels of a consumer-driven economy might move slower than the industry might like, despite the many future-facing and progressive policies announced. Virat Tandon, Group CEO, MullenLowe Lintas Group: The union budget can be termed as consistent with the government's vision to reach the 5 trillion GDP mark by 2025-26. Hence, the strong focus on capex to boost infrastructure that connects and streamlines middle India and provides the engines of entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of the country. It also shows India's commitment to bring a digital first economy with the 5G rollout planned for next financial year, clarity on India's policy for cryptocurrency, data centres, EVs and our very own digital Rupee. Start-up culture will continue to flourish with the right policy framework. These investments and policies will generate jobs and go a long way in inclusive and sustainable growth for Bharat. Anurag Bansal, COO &amp; CFO, DDB Mudra Group: This Union Budget looks neutral, with no major changes in taxation. The launch of digital Rupee based on blockchain technology is a big move to bring in official cryptocurrency in India. New e-passports with embedded chips would definitely ease overseas travel. Managing the Fiscal deficit while pushing for growth and investments is a great balancing act taken on by the government. It will give a boost to capital investments and infrastructure development. Kartik Sharma - Group Chief Executive Officer – India, Omnicom Media Group: With an impetus on holistic growth, developing infrastructure and job creation across sectors, the 2022 union budget shows promise with a focus on the big picture. Reviving economic growth in the post-pandemic environment has been a focus for this government and this progressive, digital-first, and development-oriented budget reflects that. Not only does it provide a boost to the MSME, agriculture and healthcare verticals, but also signals that investing in infrastructure today will connect India better tomorrow. With an increased focus on digitization, some of the standouts for me were that the budget recognized the current gaps and opportunities within the education sector, and is advancing towards uplifting India with the creation of a digital ecosystem - one that is focused on upskilling and creating more employment; aligned with the dynamic needs of today. It also aims to further strengthen communications in the rural sector and build upon the overall financialization of India. Furthermore, while the rollout of a 5G ecosystem will improve the quality of services, the launch of digital money, supported by blockchain, signals an increasing focus on transparency. With consistency in strategic direction and focus on propelling the MSME and start-up ecosystem, this is a welcoming budget for new-age businesses and a hopeful one that will ultimately lead to a boost in the A&amp;M industry as well. We're at the cusp of the next stage of India's digital revolution and although certain factors like data privacy still remain an area to be delved deeper into, as infrastructure and banking penetrate further into rural India, we’re looking hopeful and strong to transform into a forward-leaning digital economy of tomorrow.” Deepak Mittal, CEO and Co-Founder, TO THE NEW: The government's unprecedented commitment to technology innovation and adoption in this union budget is highly encouraging. Breakthrough developments and futuristic technology such as the introduction of digital currency, the rollout of 5G within FY22-23, and e-passports using embedded chips are exciting for the country's future. Among the measures announced, the budget highlights special incentives to startups and the launch of a progressive, new portal encouraging a digital ecosystem for skilling and upskilling. These initiatives will serve as a successful catalyst for the country's economic growth. Atul Shrivastava, Group CEO &amp; Executive Director at Laqshya Media Group: The union Budget underlined the government’s focus on long-term growth. As India’s economic growth is estimated to be 9.2% in the upcoming financial year so it would be good for all the industry and with overall growth, we are sure advertising &amp; media will also show remarkable growth which was low due to the pandemic in the last couple of years. As announced the National Highways to be expanded by 25,000 km under PM Gati Shakti mission. Highways are adding a new dimension to the growth of the OOH Industry as advertising on the Highways is emerging as very strong choice for brand building for many categories. Prasad Shejale, Founder and CEO, Logicserve Digital: The FM has announced a very progressive budget with an intention to widen India's horizons and outlook in the next five years, leveraging emerging technologies. The Government has addressed some urgent priorities underpinning the digital sector, including the launch of digital currency, API-based skill credentials, digital learning channels, digitization of manual processes, etc. On the digital connectivity front, the 5G spectrum auctions will finally make the dream of a tech-savvy India a reality, further boosting the country's digital infrastructure. Additionally, the launch of a design-led manufacturing scheme for the 5G ecosystem as part of the PLI scheme will ensure affordable broadband and mobile communication even in far-flung areas. The availability of high-speed internet connectivity in urban as well as rural areas will encourage marketers to experiment with blockchain, AR, VR. On the skilling front, initiatives like establishing a digital university will provide an opportunity for youth to learn new skills from the comfort of their homes. The creation of a new task force to build domestic capacity in the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic (AVGC) sector is commendable. The overall budget is future tech-enabled and balanced. Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, Global CEO &amp; Co-founder, GOZOOP Group: While there will always be hope for more and better, the continued push towards digital, fintech and the boost for start-up ecosystem with the extension of tax benefits till March 2023 along with capping the surcharge at 15% irrespective of the amount of long term capital gains, will fuel the fire of entrepreneurship in our nation. Varun Duggirala, Entrepreneur, Co-founder of The Glitch, Author, Content Creator and a Podcaster: The twin announcements of the digital rupee and the taxation on ‘virtual digital assets’ is clearly a focused drive from the government to regulate the crypto space. What needs to be seen is how this plays out because regulating a decentralized space is a paradox in itself. Another point that stood out for me was the national mental health program. More than anything else it signifies the normalizing of mental health as a legitimate area of focus for us as a nation. Shrenik Gandhi, CEO and Co-founder, White Rivers Media: In my opinion, it is a fairly balanced budget. There is sufficient emphasis being laid on up-skilling, and making right investments in tech which is the need of the hour. The previous budget was more inclined towards setting up a strong foundation in the digital space, and this one is essentially focused on making further advancements. Besides, Digital Rupee being introduced is indeed, a great news across sectors and it will be exciting to finally watch it become a reality. It can prove to be a game-changer in India's future as transactions will become even more instantaneous. Speaking of the expected benefits, let’s not forget that this is India’s #Budget and not a Big Bazaar scheme announcement. So, the immediate benefit may not be seen right now but considering the long-term narrative, it is a fairly established budget. Sahil Chopra, Founder &amp; CEO- iCubesWire: While the general trend of the <keyword id="12134566" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="union-budget-2022" source="Orion">union budget 2022</keyword> has its emphasis on ease of doing business, I strongly believe, data and digital occupied the centerpiece of the budget. The plans to focus and promote the fintech and digital economy are a very strong positive move. New age technologies, keeping data and digital at heart of it will allow the tech enablers to transform multiple industries. For MSMEs, the government has plans to outlay Rs 2 trillion which is again a welcoming move that will help in enhancing startups as well as entrepreneurial opportunities for all. Besides, extension on tax exemption to startups and promotion of startups to facilitate ‘Drone Shakti’ through varied applications and drones as a service is also encouraging. The ambitious optical fibre to the villages under PPP in 2022-23 shall get the next 100M in the Digital Universe soon. To sum up, it’s a positive budget for the digital sector which has always vouched for a strong digital infrastructure in the country." Chetan Asher, Founder and CEO, Tonic Worldwide: The budget clearly will help the country march towards digital adoption and transformation in many sectors. With 5G rollout on the cards we will see an acceleration across the board. The digital rupee will put India right up on the map of advanced digital economies. Clarity on Digital assets and crypto will give it new impetus. All of these initiatives will help us emerge as leaders in adoption and growth of blockchain technology Ambika Sharma, Founder &amp; MD, Pulp Strategy: The Budget is interesting as the Government has focused on all sectors. The financial support for the digital payments ecosystem is a welcome move and further reaffirms the Government of India's digital banking push. This push on digitization will make way for more inclusion in the ecosystem. The focus on 'Ease of doing business is a great step, as it will further promote entrepreneurship in the economy” . The 2022-23 budget finely balanced fiscal retreat with supporting economic recovery. The budget focused on a familiar strategy of driving capital expenditure to drive growth, to crowd in private investment through higher public spending. Although markets could be disappointed with a higher fiscal deficit of 6.4% of GDP for FY23 than expected, it is perhaps prudent to not undertake aggressive fiscal consolidation at this nascent stage of recovery. While elevated market borrowings are likely to pressurize bond yields, the inclusion of green bonds in the borrowing plan is an interesting innovation. In terms of specific policy announcements, the move towards self-reliance through protection for domestic manufacturers (change in custom and import duties) aligns with the long-term goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat. The government has extended the startup tax holiday and concessional tax for manufacturing startups by a year. While that was on the cards, it doesn’t address the core need of startups to be given a longer tax holiday of 5 years as required. One of the most encouraging aspects of the budget has been the announcement to set up an AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics) promotion task force to plan and build domestic capacity for serving domestic as well as global markets. Loss from the transfer of virtual digital assets cannot be set off against any other income. The creation of a unified logistics platform and the developments of 100 new cargo terminals in the next three years are significant steps in improving the supply chain ecosystem in the country. Infrastructure status given to Data Centers will provide a huge boost to the fast-evolving digital environment of the country. The fiscal outcome is broadly in line with our expectations with the government having continued its focus on infrastructure and rural demand. Himanshu Arya, Founder and CEO, Grapes: The Union Budget for the financial year 2022-23 has set the stage with an invigorated focus on ramping up the process of the digital revolution. The government’s focus on the digital ecosystem is a progressive move to render an inclusive landscape for job openings and entrepreneurial opportunities. The extension of tax incentives for startups for one more year will give a slight relief to the industry. I hope that the cash flow improves in the market. The Union Budget has various encouraging initiatives and is directed towards a more viable and flexible business ecosystem that completely aligns with the ideologies of Make in India. Siddharth Devnani, Co-Founder &amp; Director, SoCheers: Digital and digitization stood out as a strong overall trend in the Union Budget 2022. The budget put a great focus on long-term growth and given how intricately ‘digital’ was integrated into several measures, it can be seen as an integral part of that growth. Implementation of the Central Bank digital currency will definitively aid the growth of digital economy and finance in the country, opening doors for digital acceleration across sectors. The announcement about the new digital university and the renewed focus on digital learning, further presents an opportunity, especially to the fast-evolving Educational Technology sector. However, a definite plan on how this will pan out for all corners of India remains to be seen. Moreover, digital will also be leveraged in the set-up and operation of tele-mental health centres, providing the necessary focus and access to mental health services to the Indian masses. This comes as one of the most welcome move as it’ll contribute infinitely to the nation’s long-term growth.

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