Author: Kashmeera Sambamurthy

Weekly Shorts: Tips on influencer marketing for services-based businesses

Influencer marketing for the service sector is more complex than product-based promotions. Service-based businesses have intangible products in most cases, which puts the customers at a buying risk because they don't know what they're getting before actually getting the service. (Representative Image: Roberto Nickson via Unsplash)

What’s buzzing in influencer marketing and the creator ecosystem? What’s the next big thing coming down the line? Catch the big trends and hot topics in our weekly shorts.

Throwback: When Captain Cook challenged the undisputed leadership of Tata Salt

Towards the end of the film, the shot of the brand’s pack appears, and the voice of dubbing and voiceover artist Brij Bhushan is heard where he says, ‘Extra free flow Captain Cook namak’. “Since we had already said everything, I was of the opinion that we do the voiceover and packshot of the ordinary salt. That is when Nitish interjected, ‘That would be taking too much of a risk. We are already making a commercial that does not have a precedent. So, don’t go that far,’” filmmaker Prasoon Pandey says.

Tata Salt commanded 80 percent market share till Captain Cook entered the scene in 1992 and began to threaten its dominance. Lintas was roped in by DCW Homes Products, the brand’s parent company, to come up with a commercial that would make the brand memorable and improve awareness in the market. Storyboard18 got in touch with the creative folks who played a key role in making the advertisement iconic.

Influencers have to do due diligence for any claim they make: Manisha Kapoor of ASCI

Following the SC's directive, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting introduced a new feature on the Broadcast Seva Portal of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) for TV and Radio Advertisements and on Press Council of India’s portal for Print and Digital/Internet Advertisements.

Manisha Kapoor, chief executive officer and secretary general of The Advertising Standards Council of India discusses with Storyboard18 the recently unveiled ‘Wielding Influence, Nurturing Trust’ report, challenges ASCI is working upon, its focus areas moving ahead and much more.

GroupM-owned Mindshare wins Rs 400 crore PhonePe media account

Recently, PhonePe has raised $100 million as part of an ongoing round, which has now helped it pull $450 million in recent weeks despite the market downturn. This helps the digital payment firm to compete in the market after its recent separation from the parent firm Flipkart. (Representative Image: Piotr Makowski via Unsplash)

The incumbent agency on the PhonePe account is Lodestar UM. The size of the account is estimated to be around Rs 400 crore.

Kotak Mahindra Bank appoints ex-Unilever VP Rohit Bhasin as president and CMO

Rohit Bhasin, who is armed with an experience of more than two decades, started his career at Unilever and took up the role of the area sales manager. Over the years, he held roles in various capacities at the company. His last role was as the global vice president - Ponds. He led the brand’s global business which is Unilever’s flagship beauty brand, and operates in 52 countries. He drove brand strategy, positioning, innovation (NPD), advertising, digital marketing and commerce. He also delivered the brand’s global P&L. (Image source: LinkedIn)

Rohit Bhasin replaces Karthi Marshan and will manage the bank’s marketing, corporate communication and media initiatives.

Four-Day Week: Can the Indian ad industry adopt a 4-day work week?

The country's Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, has expressed concern about the potential negative impact on prosperity, particularly in context with the fears of a recession and hiring issues until 2024. (Representative Image: Tungsten Rising via Unsplash)

With a larger shift in view, the four-day work week starts making a lot of sense. But agencies and clients, it seems, are not ready to go from 5-6 to 4 days.

Indian brands to bet big on content creation and workflow improvements in 2023: Adobe

As per Adobe’s 2023 Digital Trends Report, investments in content and creative workflows reflect how leaders are prioritising improving processes and technologies to enable success in the current economic climate. Almost half (45 percent) of APAC leaders plan to invest in new marketing and data technologies. For India, 44 percent of leaders are looking to maximise the value of existing technologies. (Representative Image: NordWood Themes via Unsplash)

As per Adobe’s 2023 Digital Trends Report, 79 percent of senior Asia Pacific (APAC) executives including 92 percent in India say customer demand for content has significantly increased.

Digital agencies focus on building personal brands of startup founders, corporate leaders

To tap into a new opportunity, digital and integrated marketing agencies are gearing up to launch new verticals to cater to the growing demand of creating personal brands of leaders, online. (Representative Image: Giulia May via Unsplash)

From profile building and content creation to crisis management, agencies launch specialist services to cater to growing demand for personal branding for leaders, founders, CXOs.