Competing with cricket

Often informally referred to as the fifth quarter in media and advertising circles, the festive season typically sees tremendous ad spending across categories. Most advertisers spend over 40% of their annual budgets during the festive months, which is why general entertainment channels (GECs) are eyeing a good 12-14% increase in ad revenues over last year’s festive season. However, the ongoing ICC men’s World Cup might just play spoilsport this year, impacting both viewership and ad revenues.

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Crossed connections: Gaming CTV to play for advantage, no deuce with ad fraud

In a world of chaos, precision targeting is often a miss. While television provided advertisers with reach, print has been all about building trust and loyalty, while digital over the years has largely been driving conversions. In all this, Connected TV has found its ground due to its ability to target viewers precisely, besides elevating engagement.

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More Gold signups leading to margin dilution: Zomato

Food delivery platform Zomato said its margins are getting negatively impacted as more users sign up for its loyalty programme Zomato Gold, mainly because of the discounts and benefits it entails.

In its shareholder letter on Q2 earnings, the company’s management spelled out the unit economics of a food order placed by a Gold member, compared to a non-Gold member. “As of now, a Gold order is less profitable than a non-Gold order due to the impact of program benefits,” said CFO Akshant Goyal.

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How Hasbro has a ‘Monopoly’ in India despite a decline in global revenue

Do toys sell? is something that you would wonder about in this digital era. Interestingly, it does, if one is to go by Hasbro India’s growth. And now the company seems to be cashing on this during the on-going ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. The toy company with brands including Play-Doh, NERF, Transformers and Monopoly, introduced its new offering ‘Monopoly Cricket’. “Monopoly Cricket is one of the biggest launches which we have done in this year and in the past one or two years. It’s an opportunity to get two key fan led properties together, one is monopoly and the second one is cricket as cricket is a religion in India,” Lalit Parmar, country manager, Hasbro India, told BrandWagon Online.

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Swiggy Mall head Karthik Gurumurthy latest to exit platform

Leadership churn at Swiggy seems to be continuing, with senior vice president Karthik Gurumurthy joining a growing list of top-level exits in recent months.

He is said to have quit with plans to start his own venture.

Gurumurthy, who led the team that built quick commerce arm Swiggy Instamart, had gone on a sabbatical in March. He returned in May to head hyperlocal online shopping marketplace Swiggy Mall (earlier Swiggy Maxx).

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Campaign Decoded: NIVEA India’s launch of soft fresh batch

Advertisements are more than what we merely see on our screens, it takes a robust amount of time, energy and resources to bring it alive. Advertising campaigns not only help brands reach its target audience, but also make consumers aware of the product or services. In fact, it sometimes plays a crucial role in evolving consumer habits, trends and traditions. In our weekly Campaign Decoded series, industry experts highlight the unseen behind a campaign. Sunil Gadgil, marketing director, NIVEA India, talks to BrandWagon Online about the conceptualisation, thought and more about the campaign. (Edited Excerpts)

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Will continue to choose volume-led growth over price hikes: CEO Alagh

Honasa Consumer, the parent entity which owns beauty and personal care brand Mamaearth, on Wednesday said it will be cautious on increasing prices of its products and continue to drive growth through volume. The company, which started as a digital-first brand, is among the first D2C brands to enter bourses.

“We took about a 1.5% price increase last year. We will again be very selective in terms of price-led growth, so a large part of it will continue to be volume-led,” Varun Alagh, co-founder and CEO, told Fe in an interaction.

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GroupM’s Goat and Forbes India partners to unveil top 100 digital stars list

GroupM, the media investment group under WPP, has announced the top 100 digital stars list for 2023 curated by The Goat Agency, GroupM’s influencer and content marketing solution, in partnership with Forbes India.

As per the agency, the list showcases India’s most influential digital personalities, celebrating their contributions across various domains including comedy, beauty and fashion, business and finance, fitness, food, tech, travel, and social work.

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Sephora partners with Reliance for prestige beauty retail in India

Sephora, a global omni-channel beauty retailer, announces its partnership with Reliance Beauty and Personal Care Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) to advance their shared ambition to develop and define the future of prestige beauty retail in India. The partnership gives RRVL exclusive rights to build Sephora’s presence in India across channels.

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ONDC appoints Anupama Priyadarshini as senior vice president

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, has announced the appointment of Anupama Priyadarshini to its team as senior vice president – corporate governance, risk and compliance, and investor relations.

According to the company, Priyadarshini will play a crucial role in elevating the governance, risk management, compliance and investor relations within the ONDC network.

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