Dentsu Promotes Madhura Ranade to EVP – Business & Branded Content
Madhura Ranade was promoted to Executive Vice-President – Business and Branded Content at dentsu Creative Isobar after two years. Her tenure in Dentsu’s Isobar vertical has spanned approximately ten years, having joined the company in April 2016 as an Associate Director of Client Servicing, where she was responsible for managing the Maruti Suzuki Account.
Dentsu Isobar elevates Madhura Ranade to EVP – Business and Branded Content
She started working for the company in April 2018 as a Director of Client Servicing. In July 2019, she was promoted to Head of Branded Content and Partnerships, and in April 2021, she was made an AVP and Head of Branded Content and Partnerships. She took on the position of Vice President of Business and Branded Content at Dentsu when the company redesigned its creative business in June 2022 and Isobar joined Dentsu Creative India.
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She worked as an Account Executive for DraftFCB from April 2012 to October 2013. She previously spent a year each working for Epic Media Group and The Cloud Nine Agency. After completing her studies in commerce at Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce, she graduated with a BBA from Pune’s MIT School of Management. Later on, she enrolled in the University of Birmingham in the UK to pursue an M.Sc. in marketing.
Following her relocation to Delhi, Ranade took a job as a Google Account Manager at Dentsu Webchutney. Her next position was Senior Client Servicing Manager at Indigo Consulting, where she was able to work with Max Life Insurance, the agency’s most valuable client.
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Mohit Jagtiani, Ex Google Senior Executive introduces “Next Narrative” with Simran Hoon as Partner
Maintaining a fresh narrative is crucial for brands, creators, and platforms amidst the clutter of digital media. Expanding upon this, Mohit Jagtiani, a former Google Senior Executive, has introduced “Next Narrative,” in partnership with Simran Hoon, a former QYOU Media and Viacom18 employee. The modern media company Next Narrative is dedicated to assisting creators in expanding their audience and earning more money while achieving business objectives for brands.
Next Narrative – a new branded content company
Next Narrative is a media company that helps creators achieve business goals for brands while increasing their reach and revenue. The company’s goals are to create intellectual properties and branded content in both short and long form. Its main objectives are to comprehend consumer preferences, help brands connect with their audience, and assist creators in developing their narratives.
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ABC’s of digital storytelling
Next Story discusses the fundamentals of digital storytelling.
● Audience: Next Narrative is aware of the preferences and driving forces of consumers and works to facilitate meaningful connections between brands and creators.
● Brands: It benefits brands looking to engage consumers with meaningful narratives.
● Creators: It seeks to assist sincere creators who have a love for telling moving stories.
Next Narrative wants to concentrate on creating brand loyalty regardless of the medium—podcasts, creator collaboration campaigns, or episodic television shows. The company, led by Mohit and Simran, creates engaging content with the goal of helping brands achieve their objectives. Creators are now major media figures with devoted followings. The goal of Next Narrative is to collaborate with these small and large influencers and creators who can authentically bring brand stories to life.
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Here’s what they said
Jagtiani, Founder and CEO, Next Narrative, said,
“There are too many brands vying for the same audience. This has inadvertently led to an obsession with performance marketing and immediate outcomes. A very few are focussing on building brand loyalty. Next Narrative believes that in today’s cluttered environment, a compelling attraction to a brand, brand loyalty and consistent business outcomes has to be created with the right story, the right content and the right creator(s). With the 3Cs of creator, content and commerce converging, I could not have asked for a better time to take the entrepreneurial leap and add the 4th C of connection with Next Narrative.”
Hoon, Partner, Next Narrative, added,
“Storytelling has always been in my DNA. While working at Viacom18 together, Mohit and I experienced first-hand impact of the right story, in the right hands, told to the right audience. With our industry knowledge and the right partnerships, we always knew we wanted to create something creative and drive impact. I have had a rewarding career spanning 30+ years working with the broadcast media in its golden age and with the digital media which is today a tour de force. What remains unchanged across the years and types of media is the ability of tell great stories to solve brand challenges. ”
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Goafest 2024 | Abby Awards | Leo Burnett Bags the Creative Agency of the Year!
Leo Burnett India has been crowned the most coveted ‘Creative Agency of the Year’ at the ABBY Awards, powered by One Show at Goafest 2024. The agency won 1 Grand Prix, 4 Gold, 11 Silver, 8 Bronze, and 15 Merits, winning with a total tally 24 metals that night. The Grand Prix came for Spotify India’s ‘Feel the Music with Shankar – Ehsaan – Loy in the Audio, Visual, TV, Cinema, Digital, OTT Below 1 minute category. The four gold wins came for Oreo India’s ‘Say it with Oreo’, Lay’s ‘The Smart Farm’, Lay’s India’s ‘The Biochar Project’ and P&G Shiksha’s ‘Bridging The Invisible Gap’ campaigns. The agency raced to victory with a total of 157 points.
VML finished the night with 20 metals, including 2 Gold, 3 Silver, 15 Bronze and 11 Merits to their name. Both the golds came for The Times of India’s ‘#UNPLASTICINDIA TURTLE OUTDOOR ALARM.’
FCB Group India came in third with 13 metals including 2 Gold, 3 Silver, 8 Bronze, and 6 Merits in the bag. Crayons Advertising finished fourth with 2 Gold, 1 Silver, and 2 Bronze metals, making the total tally to 5 metals. The two golds came for Crayons Advertising’s ‘Creatively Independent’ campaign under the Still Digital category.
Mullenlowe Lintas Group completed the top 5 list, with 4 Silvers, 1 Bronze, and 1 Merit to its name.
famous innovations was the other agency that bagged the second Grand Prix for Mumbai Police’s “Blockbuster Excuses.’ The agency also won 1 Gold, 1 Bronze and 1 Merit. The gold came for Roche’s ‘Stickers that turned SMA patients into criminals’
The third Grand Prix was awarded to Maitri Advertising Works for Netflix’s ‘Sex Education Shakeela’s Driving School.’ The agency also won 1 Bronze under the Branded Content & Entertainment category.
Video Craft of the Year
Good Morning Films won the Video Craft of the Year title with 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 4 Bronze and 4 Merits in their bag making the total tally of 8 metals. Both the Gold wins came for Pulsar’s ‘Riderless’ campaign.
Vanilla Films (2 Silver, 4 Bronze, and 1 Merit), Chrome Pictures (2 Silver, 4 Bronze and 1 Merit), Kulfi Collective (2 Silver, and 2 Bronze) and Kali Collective India (1 Silver, 1 Bronze, and 1 Merit) completed the top 5 list.
Health Specialist of the Year
The ABBYs introduced a new category of awards, called the Health Specialist category. Havas Worldwide India took home the novelle category with 2 Silver, 1 Bronze and 4 Merits to its name. Mullenlowe Lintas Group (1 Silver and 1 Bronze) came in second with a total of 2 metals.
L&K Saatchi & Saatchi won 1 Gold in the category for Vicks Cough Drops’ ‘Vicks Khol India Bol Anthem.’ McCann Worldgroup India took home the second Gold of the night for the Specialist Health category for the Britannia Good Day’s ‘The Cleft Cookie.’ The final gold for the category was won by tghtr for Harpic India’s ‘Harpic Loocator #BeFreeToPee.’
Brand Activation and Promotion Specialist of the Year
Leo Burnett India was on a winning spree this evening, taking home the Brand Activation and Promotion Specialist, with 1 Silver, 3 Bronze and 4 Merits to its name, coming to a total tally of 4 Metals.
ABP Pvt Ltd. (1 Silver), FCB Group India (1 Silver and 1 Merit), famous innovations, Social Panga – Higa Digital pvt ltd., and tgthr (1 Merit each) were the other nominations in the category.
Branded Content & Entertainment Specialist of the Year
Ending on a high note, Leo Burnett India took home the Branded Content & Entertainment Specialist of the Year, with 1 Gold, and 3 Bronze to its name. The 1 Gold came for Gatorade’s ‘Gatorade Turf Finder powered by Google Maps.’
Digitas finished second with 1 Silver, 1 Bronze, and 1 Merit. MTCH India Services Private Limited bagged the second gold in the category for Tinder’s ‘Kho Gaye Hum Kaha x Tinder’ campaign. Schbang scored the third gold for Happydent India’s ‘Sign to Smile Campaign.’ Social Panga – Higa Digital Pvt Ltd. finished the top 5 list for the category.
White Rivers Media won the last gold metal for this category for Astral Foundation’s ‘Daughters of Piplantri’, concluding the awards for the night.
Day 3 of Goafest saw a total of 3 Grand Prix, 35 Gold, 52 Silver, 123 Bronze Metals and 5 Specialists were awarded. Additionally 143 Merits were also acknowledged on Day 3 of the ABBY Awards at Goafest 2024.
Influencer Marketing Comes Back Strong Amidst Pandemic Crisis
The pandemic had disrupted every industry forcing marketers to shift their plans and thrust into an uncertain and swiftly changing landscape. Brands are looking for independent creators than productions due to pandemic restrictions such as sheltering in place.
The industry was in troubled waters as pandemic had put a pause on all the plans, took many industries out of the market, and affected many influencers’ content. Some marketers even continued with Facebook boycotts or social media pauses.
It has been quite a challenging period for influencers. However, the influencer industry is recovering and bouncing back, showing incredible resilience and creativity. Consumers are spending more time on social media interacting with content creators after being cooped up at home. With budgeting constraints and large scale, ad production is difficult, brands are turning to independent creators for a quick, less-expensive, and easy-to-produce creative content. This is providing the much-required boost to the influencer marketing industry.
Numbers Says It All
Social Bakers released the State of Influencer Marketing Report and found out that there is a fall in sponsored content from March to May and a pivot towards micro-influencers. Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO, Socialbakers said,
“Nano and micro-influencers are now seen as high-value resources, bringing high impact without the big price tag of macro and mega influencers. As budgets remain tight, savvy brands will likely continue to expand partnerships with these smaller influencers as part of a smarter social media strategy in the wake of the continuing worldwide pandemic.”
Another finding by Shareablee, an audience-based social media measurement company states that branded content from influencers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter was up 21% in July from March despite a decline in sponsored influencers post- 87% on Instagram and 57% on Facebook in April compared to last year.
Influencer marketing has changed in several ways during the outbreak. There is a shift in consumer behavior more towards digital in this pandemic due to the lockdown. The engagement with branded influencers posts grew 5 times faster to 57.2 million total actions in July compared with March, according to Shareablee.
A rise in sponsored posts is seen since July after the volume fell almost 17 percent in March and another 6 percent in April reveals Data from CreatorIQ.
This proves that the industry is still very strong and influencers are quick to adapt with conversion rates increased across platforms in the pandemic. As quoted in Adage, Melissa Rosenthal, co-founder at Circle said,
“Brands took a few weeks to figure out how to position themselves for a new world. Now I’m seeing probably 5 times the outreach I was seeing pre-pandemic. Small brands, large brands, new brands, everyone.”
The pandemic is benefitting the influencers with the increase in viewership as alternate media or sports events have declined drastically. Presently, influencers are the only production houses that are open and can make new, creative, and custom content for brands amidst pandemic restrictions. According to the eMarketer report, followers are looking for more DIY activities and short videos.
Clorox Followed The Influencer Way!
Clorox.Co is getting back to sponsored influencer work after a pandemic pause. Through the Reach Agency, Clorox recently teamed up with YouTube comedians The Try Guys to market its latest scent of Fresh Step cat litter. In the video, the creators open the world’s smelliest foods to demonstrate the ability of new Fresh Step cat litter with Febreze Freshness and Gain Scent covers the odors. The video garnered nearly a million organic views on its first day on August 15. The partnership with Try Guys who have 7.3 million subscribers is Clorox’s third venture into influencer-led demo-tainment.
Clorox shifted the plan of conventional ads to influencer content while planning the campaign in March as the pandemic situation would make it hard to produce ads. Another major decision taken by the brand was to boycott Facebook and Instagram advertising for the remaining year while the project was ongoing.
As reported in Adage, Deb Crandall, director of marketing and studio lead said,
“We have had to ask our partners not to post this on their Facebook or Instagram channels, and we’re not putting any paid support behind it. It definitely takes a channel out of the mix to reach our audience, but that’s why we’re excited about the results we’re seeing. To reach almost a million views without Facebook or Instagram makes us think we’re onto something.”
Finally, brands and creators are learning to operate in the ‘ new normal ’. In the time of crisis, savvy social media influencers are engaging with their followers in a fairly two-way communication that even brands could never have on their own.