Category: How it Works

Getting the right media mix for marketing is a blend of art and science

The report also said that there was a 2 percent drop in advertising FCT (free commercial time)in 2023 over 2022. A drop was witnessed for 9 out of 12 months with only a marginal increase of 2percent in April to June quarter. (Representational image by Nabil Saleh via Unsplash)

For media planners, the profusion of options makes it challenging to find the optimal mix of touchpoints for any given media task.

Why does Tanmay Bhat think CMOs don’t know where to spend money?

Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha recently hosted a group of successful content creators on his podcast - WTF. The panel included Tanmay Bhat, Nuseir Yassin, Ranveer Allahbadia and Prajakta Koli. (Images sourced via YouTube and Instagram)

Tanmay Bhat, renowned comic and ad maker said a rather interesting thing on Nikhil Kamath’s podcast. “If I was hiring for marketing and there’s a kid who has grown an Instagram page from 0 to 10k followers, that kid is a killer. Most CMO’s would not know where to spend money to make this happen.” 

Fire-Boltt emerged as the market leader, at 28 percent share, followed by Noise and boAt

In terms of smartwatch growth in India in 2024, Noise maintained its market leadership, while Titan demonstrated the fastest growth among the top five.

New players like Fastrack and beatXP shipped high volumes and took away market share from the top three players. The share of domestic manufacturing reached the highest ever at 82 percent compared to 4 percent a year ago.

Indian adlanders have mixed feelings about in-house ad agencies. Here’s why

Success stories of in-house ad agencies of brands keep floating around every now and then. Last year, when ed-tech company Byjus' in-house creative agency won a Silver Entertainment Lion at Cannes for its ‘Master’ Ji campaign, it created a lot of positive chatter mainly because it delivered quality work. Restaurant aggregator and food delivery app Zomato, that's known for its moment marketing campaigns, produces most of its work in-house. Its competitor Swiggy has a similar model. (Representational Image: No Revisions via Unsplash)

While one school of thought thinks such agencies help in creative stimulus, others believe it’s just a fancy wrapper to make marketing teams look uber-cool.

The unchanging power of a human problem

"In a world gunning for work that works, a critical step – and one that’s evident in nearly every piece of effective creativity – is to look past the obvious to find an unseen challenge or opportunity that needs to be resolved," writes DDB Mudra's Sanjana Chetan. (Representative Image: Markus Spiske via Unsplash)

Effective creativity is all about looking past the obvious to find an unseen challenge or opportunity that needs to be resolved.

New rules on deepfakes would not only regulate the offender but also intermediaries: Experts

During the COVID-19 pandemic, companies like Airbnb showed how it should be done; they managed layoffs with open letters, clear communication, and ongoing support for affected employees, retaining brand goodwill despite harsh realities. In contrast, WeWork’s disastrous IPO attempt stands as a warning: defensive, inconsistent communication only magnified stakeholder distrust.

MeitY is working out a specialised policy guideline for deepfakes based on the four elements of detection, prevention, enhancement of reporting mechanisms and increasing awareness.

Explained: Oreo and ‘Shrinkflation’

In 1921, the Oreo Biscuit was renamed the Oreo Sandwich and then it was rebranded Oreo Creme Sandwich in 1948. The original packaging of the biscuit, which was in gold, became known as Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie in 1974. (Representative Image: No Revisions via Unsplash)

Storyboard18 explains the meaning of ‘shrinkflation’ using the example of Oreo cookies.

Marketing Mocktail: Lessons in building a D2C brand explained

While most D2C brands tend to over index on performance marketing at the cost of brand building, the smart ones strike the right balance.(Representative Image: Igor Miske via Unsplash)

D2C brands should avoid blindly aping the brand building model of legacy brands. Instead, they should focus on the 3-Cs: Cocreation, Content and Community.

MeitY mulls new regulations to combat deep-fakes menace: Breaking

The rule-drafting process, set to commence immediately, aims to establish clear guidelines and penalties for both platforms hosting AI-generated synthetic content and individuals uploading videos featuring deepfakes.

Deepfakes have emerged as a new threat to democracy, said IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. MeitY to take action against deepfake menace and has rules in the works.