Author: Kashmeera Sambamurthy

Weekly Shorts: Three most interesting things in influencer marketing this week

While personal care has always been among the top ten violating categories, in the past two years, it has risen to the top three on account of high volumes of ads violating ASCI’s guidelines. The launch of influencer guidelines in May 2021 along with ASCI’s proactive monitoring using AI-based tools has added to the increased number of ads under scrutiny. (Representative image 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.

Myntra ropes in Sunder Balasubramanian from Coupang as CMO

Sunder Balasubramanian, chief marketing officer, Myntra, says, "Social commerce started from what GenZ look for in terms of the kind of influencers that they trust and find authenticity in. What we've seen is the adoption of social commerce strongly over the last few months and quarters itself, over 20 percent of our users interact with our social commerce property. We have done more than 10,000 live shopping sessions. And over time as we build the property, we've seen a 3X increase in traffic for each of the live sessions."

In July this year, Achint Setia, who had served as head of marketing at Myntra, joined Zalora Group (Singapore) as chief revenue and marketing officer.

Machine-made biryani is here! How startup food brands are adding robotics to menus

In the next few years, these kinds of machines would possibly be seen in households as well. For instance, Up, stylised as Up⤴, a consumer hardware startup founded by Mahek Mody and Mohit Sharma, has piloted a machine that can help prepare food with minimal fuss and in double-quick time. The device, called delishUp and comes with an app, and it can chop, stir and generally prepare food faster.(Representative image via Unsplash)

Restaurants, cloud kitchens and corporate offices are increasingly relying on machines to prepare food so that it’s faster, cheaper and removes human dependency, among other benefits. A few Indian startups like Mukunda Foods, Xook and On2Cook are trying to build the so-called food-as-a-service (FaaS) business by adding robotics to the kitchen menu. These machines guarantee to prepare food faster with consistency without or minimal human labour.

YouTube unveils 2022 list of India’s top creators, breakout creators and women breakout creators

Shorts Break, a YouTube channel that offers short comedy videos, topped the list, with about 16.8 million subscribers. This was followed by creators Akshay Nagwadiya (14.7 million) and Gulshan Kalra (17.9 million subscribers). YouTube has not disclosed specific numbers on the subscriber growth these creators have witnessed during this year. (Representative image via Unsplash)

About half of the top 20 creators have made only short videos in the past year, a Moneycontrol analysis of the list provided by YouTube shows. Several other creators have been prolific with minute-long videos while also making a few long-form videos in the past year. Only a single creator in the list solely focused on long-form content.

Gaming studios focus on Indian characters in games as brands eye growth through collaborations

The backdrops to the game’s environment are drawn in the Pahari art style and combine hand-painted textures rendered in 3D.Some are keeping it more realistic. Inspired by films like Satya, Gangs of Wasseypur and KGF, Bengaluru-based gaming studio Hypernova Interactive is coming up with a game called Mayanagari. (Image source: Hypernova Interactive)

Both national and international gaming studios are adding Indian themes and characters to their games to tap the country’s huge gaming population in the country.

Spotify India is a premium Gen Z urban platform: Arjun Ravi Kolady

As per Arjun Ravi Kolady, Spotify’s audience is highly attuned to streaming services. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, who are in the streaming business have done some fantastic work too. Such brands have three objectives. Either they want to show the breadth of their library or they want to help people find more of what they love. The other objective is around the launches of new shows. (Stills from ads)

Arjun Ravi Kolady, head of sales, Spotify India speaks on audio advertising, programmatic ads, creativity and more.