Leadership battle in Zee-Sony merger: Will it be Goenka or Singh, given governance & regulatory concerns

ASCI urges brands and influencers to be transparent after Orry's post with CRED violated social media influencer rules

IPG Mediabrands India CEO Shashi Sinha is considered a pillar of the ad industry. Here’s why

Mercedes-Benz India promotes Amrit Baid to head of marketing and Customer Experience; Pradeep Srinivas moves into global

Is McCann Worldgroup's Amitesh Rao joining Leo Burnett India as its new chief?: Storyboard18 Exclusive

OTT regulation in Broadcasting Services Bill is light touch and not same as others: MIB secretary Apurva Chandra

Nobody’s Perfect Retro Porsche Ad

In Conversation With Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard

Shahid Kapoor And Varun Ganjoo Speaks On PokerBaazi's Campaign

In conversation with IHCL’s Puneet Chhatwal & GroupM’s Kate Scott-Dawkins

Why are brands including e-sports in their sports marketing itinerary?

Storyboard18 x The English Nut: How to pronounce these 10 brand names

Experts' Take On Reinvention Of Ad Campaigns Through Technology

Experts Speak On Key Emerging Trends In Cannes Lions Entries

Leaders of the future have to be outstanding human beings: Nestle MD

In conversation with VMLY&R’s Hari Ramanathan

In 2019, the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group acquired Nature's Basket from Godrej Industries for ₹300 crore. Nature's Basket currently runs 32 stores as a high-end food retailer. The Artisan Pantry, however, will take things up a notch, offering imported wines, a variety of cheeses, a dedicated section for artisan chocolates, gourmet fruits like Yuzu lemon, multi-coloured corn, Japanese Apple Fuji, and more.

The fancy food store called Artisan Pantry is at Phoenix Palladium Mall in Mumbai. This marks their entry into luxury food retailing, featuring a spacious 12,500-square-foot store.

The store will also include a restaurant and live kitchens. Shashwat Goenka, Chairman at Spencer’s Retail, shared during the launch that this concept store is the first of several planned under Nature's Basket Artisan Pantry.

Watch here. 

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Converting gourmet grocery to luxury grocery: Nature’s Basket unveils experiential concept store

The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) presented the AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award for 2023 to advertising veteran Shashi Sinha. This is the highest honour given to an individual in India for contributions to the advertising industry. Sinha, who has spent nearly four decades in the advertising industry, is a seasoned professional much loved in the ad fraternity. But back when he joined the industry, he never imagined he would spend such a long time in it. “I thought I'll probably quit in a year's time,” said Shashi Sinha, in an exclusive chat with Storyboard18.

<div data-youtube="true" data-youtube-id="ylHoAvi2doA" data-youtube-title="Indian Advertising Industry’s Go-To Man Shashi Sinha Revists His Four-Decade Long Career | CNBC TV18" class="youTubeVideoPlayer" data-youtube-category="News & Politics"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ylHoAvi2doA" width="100%" height="360"></iframe></div>

Indian advertising industry’s go-to man Shashi Sinha revisits his four-decade long career

IAMAI organised the 19th edition of MarCon on the 22nd November in Mumbai. This year the focus was on understanding technology’s evolving role in marketing and the emergence of new domains and exciting opportunities for growth and innovation. 

The conference included several stimulating panel discussion, fireside chats and keynote speeches from industry stalwarts on intriguing topics ranging from tech-powered Bharat, regulatory insights and industry collaboration for sustainable growth in digital advertising and marketing, the future of digital platforms, Artificial Intelligence, CTV, content marketing and more. 

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All the highlights from the 19th edition of IAMAI's marketing conclave

When Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) launched its own in-house ad agency, Lightbox, on April 1 this year, it was responding to a realisation that its internally designed branding had become quite iconic and successful.

Sudhir Sitapati, Managing Director and CEO of Godrej Consumer Products Limited says of LightBox. “It wasn’t a eureka moment. Before I joined GCPL, I was always very impressed with the design and packaging of GCPL products. I found Cinthol packaging quite iconic. When I joined GCPL, I realised that it has in-housed packaging, something that most companies outsource. I was very curious to know the advantages of it."

The design and packaging team had continuity. They had enormous consumer connectivity and they were very close to the people who were running the brand. "That’s why GCPL was able to come up with iconic packaging, and so I thought about how an in-house agency would be for GCPL," adds Sitapati, in a conversation with Storyboard18's editor Delshad Irani.

Ashwin Moorthy, chief marketing officer, GCPL, says there has been a shift in thinking. The level of collaboration is higher. The level of challenge is also quite high. When you have an in-house advertising or creative team, their ability to challenge is a lot more. They are not worried about you as a business, they are worried about the brand as an objective.

Watch here. 

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Bombay is the global Mecca of advertising: GCPL's Sudhir Sitapati

As broadcasters and stakeholders continue to debate over the Ministry's role in content regulation and the new Content Evaluation Committee in the Broadcasting Services Bill, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) clarified its stance. They have no prescriptive intent, said MIB secretary Apurva Chandra, in an exclusive interview with Storyboard18. The committee supports the industry's existing self-regulation model.

“The program code and the advertising code themselves are guidelines on what the proper programming should be and going beyond that will be actually prescriptive, and we should not be doing that,” Chandra told Storyboard18 during the interview. 

“We issue advisories occasionally and only when necessary. For instance when violence happened in Manipur. It's essential to refrain from displaying explicit content such as dead bodies or acts of violence that could incite further harm,” he said.

Crime and such explicit content is good for TRP but it is not ideal for TV channels to show them. However, it's for the channels to decide what they want to show. That is why we feel that these content evaluation committees will be more useful. They can act as a self check,” Chandra added.

Watch here.

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India's ad spending soars by 15.5 percent! Exclusive with MIB’s Apurva Chandra

Storyboard18 kicked off the first edition of The Visionaries recognition program in Gurgaon recently which saw the largest gathering of marketing and business leaders. There was a strong sense of camaraderie as the crowd of industry stalwarts gathered to enjoy each others' company, watch their peers get felicitated and learn more about the bright future of advertising and marketing.

The first chapter of Visionaries opened with a powerful and inspiring speech by Suresh Narayanan, chairman and managing director of Nestle India, who addressed the large gathering of CEOs and CMOs on the importance of purposeful leadership. 

The speech and felicitations were followed by panel discussions on key topics. One of them, moderated by Storyboard18’s editor Delshad Irani included Kulmeet Bawa, president and MD, SAP India; Aseem Kaushik, MD, L’Oreal India; Prativa Mohapatra, VP and MD, Adobe India; Sukhleen Aneja, CEO, Good Glamm Group; Madhav Sheth, CEO, HTECH; and Devendra Chawla, CEO, GreenCell Mobility. The panel shared insights on forging a true partnership between CEOs and CMOs. 

<strong>Catch all our special coverage of The Visionaries <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/the-visionaries">here</a></strong>

The event also included discussions on the state of media quality in India by Saurabh Khattar, country manager, India, Integral Ad Science, and the promising future of generative AI in marketing by Gan.ai’s founder and CEO, Suvrat Bhooshan, both conducted by Storyboard18’s Shibani Gharat.

Storyboard18’s Visionaries was an occasion to celebrate CMOs who have made a deep impact through their work that has catapulted the growth of their respective companies and brands.

<strong><strong>Watch the biggest celebration of marketing leaders here.  </strong></strong>


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WATCH: The Visionaries - The biggest celebration of the brightest marketing minds in the country

In 2021, the Indian unit of Dentsu Group was rocked by a series of senior-level exits and a lot of rumours and confusion around the fate of agencies and talent within the group. Following this, Dentsu in India made significant changes and rejigged its leadership to script a turnaround. 

But then Narayan Devanathan, who had taken charge at Dentsu after all the old and familiar names had left, also departed. Now, after many months of restructuring and getting new leaders, things seem to be finally falling back into place for the agency group. Devanathan is also back, having taken up a consulting role as group chief strategic advisor.

The agency also appointed Harsha Razdan as chief executive for its South Asia office. This post had been lying vacant since the sudden exit of former CEO Anand Bhadkamkar, who quit in September 2021. Storyboard18 caught up with Razdan, who said his first priority is to bring things back on an even keel.


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Dentsu trying to shape the future and not doing what was done in the past: Harsha Razdan

Over the past decade, the dynamics between advertising agencies and their clients have undergone significant transformations, primarily driven by the rapid changes in the media and consumer landscape.

While the traditional agency-on-record model still exists, it has had to evolve to meet the demands of an increasingly fast-paced, always-on, and crowded consumer environment. As a result, new partnership structures have emerged.

Today, many large clients work with multiple agency partners, encompassing both established agencies and newer firms. These collaborations aim to enhance marketers' ability to seize opportunities and navigate the complexities of brand-building in an uncertain landscape.

To gain insights into the evolving nature of agency-client relationships in this new era, CNBC-TV18 interviewed three industry experts: Amit Doshi, Chief Marketing Officer at Britannia Industries; Subramanyeswar, Group CEO at MullenLowe Lintas Group; and Harshil Karia, founder of Schbang.

Listen in. 

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Can’t stop at one: Emerging models of agency-client partnerships

Every morning Kainaz Karmakar, Harshad Rajadhyaksha and Sukesh Nayak, the three chief creative officers (CCOs) of Ogilvy India, call up Piyush Pandey to discuss work and life. Pandey, who was Ogilvy’s chairman global creative and executive chairman India, has this week transitioned to an advisory position at the legendary creative network, handing over the reins of Ogilvy to the next line of leadership.

Pandey told Storyboard18, “In the last couple of years, all of us understood the need to collaborate. We need each other. Honestly, we look great as a team.”

Under the transition, Ogilvy veteran Hephzibah Pathak will take on the role of executive chairperson of Ogilvy India, and VR Rajesh will move from his current role as Group President of Ogilvy India to chief executive officer (CEO) of the agency. Meanwhile, the three CCOs – Rajadhyaksha, Karmakar and Nayak – and chief strategy officer Prem Narayan will join the Ogilvy Board.

Piyush Pandey and Ogilvy’s Global CEO Devika Bulchandani, discuss the new structure for Ogilvy India and business prospects. 

Listen in.

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Piyush Pandey and Devika Bulchandani on all things new at Ogilvy India

In a conversation with Storyboard18’s Delshad Irani, Santosh Iyer, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, said that the marquee German automaker is moving away from discount-led sales and towards experience-led marketing. 

"In the past, festive campaigns used to be a lot about discounts. Now, even if Diwali is on November 11th, customers are already booking the cars in advance as they know it takes around two months to get a car from the time of booking," Iyer explained.

Iyer said that the company wanted to make the festive season more memorable for its customers, hence it is coming up with an experience with MS Dhoni, where 50-100 customers who buy a car during the festive period will get a chance to experience an exclusive evening in the Himalayas with the cricketer, and converse with him on cars, cricket, et al.

Iyer believes that more Indians will shift towards luxury cars because of low EMIs. Also, the company is planning to reduce the minimum down payment to Rs 10 lakh. “Customers can just pay Rs 60,000 a month and can get into the luxury segment,” he says.

Watch here. 

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Mercedes-Benz’s Santosh Iyer on how the Indian luxury consumer has evolved

Storyboard18's Brand Blitz Quiz decided to have some fun with brand nerds from the Indian advertising and marketing community. We got Sai Ganesh, founder, India Wants to Know, and Varun Duggirala, founder, Plot Device Entertainment, to join us for the North Regional Final round on September 3



Ganesh asked the quizzers a question related to a Netflix film. In the 2019 movie Chopsticks, Mithila Palkar plays an independent woman working in Mumbai who loses her car. Throughout the film, people make fun of the name of her character because it’s the same as a popular brand name in India. Coincidentally, the brand too is named after a girl who died in a car crash. Ganesh asked the participants to guess which brand the question is referring to. 





Palkar’s name in the movie is Nirma. And yes, she is named after Nirma, the washing powder brand.



Karsanbhai Patel, named the washing powder brand – Nirma, inspired from his daughter’s name Nirupama who was the girl who died in the aforementioned car crash.


<strong>Read More:</strong><a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/watch-listen/brand-blitz-quiz-and-the-winners-are-14580.htm" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Brand Blitz Quiz: And the winners are...</a>


Ganesh showed an illustration of Palkar as the Nirma girl and also shared that her character in the movie was made fun of and she was asked about discounts. “Madam, if we help you, we will get a discount on detergents, right?” flashed on the screen!



Varun Duggirala shared an anecdote about his childhood connection with Nirma. "As a kid whenever this ad played, I was made to close my eyes." It was his mother who made him do so, so that her son would watch less television! Quite appropriate, no?


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What’s the connection between Washing Powder Nirma, Chopsticks and Mithila Palkar?

After five weeks of intense quizzing, Brand Blitz Quiz, India's First Panel Business Quiz Show by Storyboard18 has come to an end. Rabi Sankar Saha and Raktim Nag (Team No Brainer) from Kolkata won the first edition of our quiz. Aniruddha Dutta and Francis Rodrigues (Team: Born Losers) from Mumbai came second. Aditya Morarka and Purvabh Surana (Team Bangy Bae-kens) from Bengaluru stood at third place.


We had one and only Piyush Pandey, chairman global creative and executive chairman India of Ogilvy, as the chief panellist of our grand finale. Pandey shared unheard stories and fun-facts of India's most loved ad campaigns, creative minds, and brands. 


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It&#39;s quiz time!<br><br>You have 60 seconds to answer...<br><br>This one is an interesting one.<br><br>Watch our live stream now with Piyush Pandey and <a href="https://twitter.com/sai_ganesh?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sai_ganesh</a>.<a href="https://t.co/apLU3nTvTl">https://t.co/apLU3nTvTl</a><a href="https://twitter.com/CNBCTV18News?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNBCTV18News</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/DairyMilkIn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DairyMilkIn</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/AJIOLife?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AJIOLife</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/IWTKQuiz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IWTKQuiz</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/brandblitzquiz?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#brandblitzquiz</a> <a href="https://t.co/XH6CuXVpjC">pic.twitter.com/XH6CuXVpjC</a></p>&mdash; Storyboard18 (@BrandStoryboard) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrandStoryboard/status/1705208675114381823?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 22, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



Watch the full episode here. 


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Brand Blitz Quiz attracted over 600 participants from 80 plus cities. The participants were from different parts of India including Shillong, Bokaro, Thrissur, Tezpur, Surat, Trichy, among top metros. Sai Ganesh, founder of India Wants To Know, our quiz master was joined by marquee panellists for all our rounds.  


Mithila Saraf, CEO, Famous Innovation, was a panellist for the National Prelims.


Devaiah Bopanna, co-founder, Moonshot and Saksham Jadon, founder, Youngun were the co-panelists for the South Regional Final round.


Roshan Abbas, co-founder, Kommune India and Varun Duggirala, founder, Plot Device Entertainment joined for the West and North Regional Final rounds respectively.


Sumanto Chattopadhyay (aka The English Nut), former chairman and CCO, 82.5 Communications and Tista Sen, CEO and CCO, Ladyfinger were the co-panelists for the East Regional Final round.


Brand Blitz Quiz was presented by Cadbury Dairy Milk, and our style partner is Ajio.


<strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/watch-listen/watch-what-happened-when-we-quizzed-lloyd-mathias-karthik-srinivasan-and-sanket-audhi-brand-blitz-quiz-12236.htm">Watch what happened when we quizzed Lloyd Mathias, Karthik Srinivasan and Sanket Audhi: Brand Blitz Quiz</a> 


Brand Blitz Quiz: And the winners are...

Piyush Pandey, chairman global creative and executive chairman India of Ogilvy, will be joining Storyboard18’s Brand Blitz Quiz’s grand finale on 22 September 2023. The episode will be live streamed on CNBC-TV18’s YouTube channel from 6:30 pm.

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Brand Blitz Quiz, India's First Panel Business Quiz Show, attracted over 600 participants from 80 plus cities. The participants were from different parts of India including Shillong, Bokaro, Thrissur, Tezpur, Surat, Trichy, among top metros.

Here are the teams who have made it to the final round.

<strong>Bangy Bae-kens</strong>: Aditya Morarka & Purvabh Surana

<strong>Brandits</strong>: Shivram Vedula

<strong>The Sad Raccoon Company</strong>: Asmit Kumar & Anaamika S

<strong>Kanpur Kwiz Klub</strong>: Aditya Narayan Padhi & Arqam Patel

<strong>No Brainer</strong>: Rabi Sankar Saha & Raktim Nag

<strong>Quizzer Sans Buzzer</strong>: Shubham Lahoti & Sagar Agarwal

<strong>What's in a name???</strong>: Rajarshi Chanda & Meghashyam Shirodkar

<strong>Born Losers</strong>: Aniruddha Dutta & Francis Rodrigues

Sai Ganesh, founder of India Wants To Know, our quiz master were joined by marquee panellists for all our rounds.

Mithila Saraf, CEO, Famous Innovation, was a panellist for the National Prelims.

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Devaiah Bopanna, co-founder, Moonshot and Saksham Jadon, founder, Youngun were the co-panelists for the South Regional Final round.

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Roshan Abbas, co-founder, Kommune India and Varun Duggirala, founder, Plot Device Entertainment joined for the West and North Regional Final rounds respectively.  

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Sumanto Chattopadhyay (aka The English Nut), former chairman and CCO, 82.5 Communications and Tista Sen, CEO and CCO, Ladyfinger were the co-panelists for East Regional Final round.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p_vdFQM68zk?si=5oyrRJLnk3jkG6E7" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Brand Blitz Quiz is presented by Cadbury Dairy Milk, and our style partner is Ajio.

Read More: <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/watch-listen/watch-what-happened-when-we-quizzed-lloyd-mathias-karthik-srinivasan-and-sanket-audhi-brand-blitz-quiz-12236.htm">Watch what happened when we quizzed Lloyd Mathias, Karthik Srinivasan and Sanket Audhi: Brand Blitz Quiz</a>


 

Piyush Pandey to join Brand Blitz Quiz’s finale as chief panellist

Storyboard18's Brand Blitz Quiz, India's First Panel Business Quiz, decided to have some fun with brand nerds from the Indian advertising and marketing community. We got Sai Ganesh, founder, India Wants to Know, and Varun Duggirala, founder, Plot Device Entertainment, to join us for the North Regional Final round on September 3.


During the North Regional final round, Duggirala picked the theme “Kissa Kauntroversy Ka” and Ganesh asked the first question on one of the print ads of Tuff Shoes featuring former Miss India Madhu Sapre. Sapre, who was a national level discus thrower, was seen in beachwear aiming a discus in the picture. Like Sapre, Milind Soman was an athlete as well – he was a national-level swimmer. Both Soman and Sapre were chosen by Tuff Shoes for the print campaign because of their athletic and tough figures.

Apart from featuring individually in the ad campaign, Soman and Sapre were featured together for a print ad too. In the shot, the duo were wrapped in a firm clinch, showing off only Tuff's shoes with a python, around Soman’s neck. The ad is considered to be one of the most controversial ads in the history of Indian advertising because it faced backlash for being obscene. However, the controversy made consumers gravitate more towards the shoes.

Another case was slapped by the animal rights group against Ambience Advertising, the agency behind the campaign, under the Wildlife Protection Act. They were accused of using a python illegally and for being cruel towards animals. The matter dragged on in court for 14 years.


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Things you may not know about Madhu Sapre, Milind Soman and their controversial Tuff Shoes ad

During one of the thrill-packed rounds of the regional final of the south zone of Storyboard18’s Brand Blitz Quiz, quizmaster Sai Ganesh put up a question to the participants that spiked nostalgia for all 90s and early 2000s kids. It was about a 2021 ad campaign inspired by popular music groups Vengaboys and Boyzone. The famous CRED ads that sparked a buzz during the 2021 IPL season. 

This ad by CRED, called Venkaboys, featuring OG cricket legends Venkatesh Prasad, Javagal Srinath and Maninder Singh was an inspired take on the two famous music bands from the early days. The ad had these cricketers performing a music number in classic Vengaboys style. This really was a nostalgic and out of the box idea, executed very well.

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One of the guest panelists Devaiah Bopanna, who worked on the campaign, shared two fun facts about the ad. He mentioned that Venkatesh Prasad is the coolest guy around. During the shoot, he was over-enthusiastic to dance. Secondly, Javagal Srinath is a connoisseur of rap music. Yes, you read that right. Classic rap music is what Srinath loves to listen to. Who would’ve thought!

Watch the full episode here.

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Fun-facts about Venkatesh Prasad, Javagal Srinath and ‘The OG’ CRED ad

Storyboard18’s first edition of Brand Blitz Quiz is truly national. Brand Blitz Quiz, which is India's first panel business quiz show, received over 600 registrations from different corners of India. From Shillong, Bokaro, Thrissur to Tezpur, Surat and Trichy, and from top metros cites in the country, Brand Blitz Quiz got madvertising geniuses from across India together for the National Prelims.

Our quiz master Sai Ganesh, founder of India Wants To Know, was joined by Devaiah Bopanna, co-founder, Moonshot and Saksham Jadon, founder and CEO, Youngun. The duo shared lesser known brand stories and fun-facts on some of India's most viral ad campaigns. 

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Brand Blitz Quiz: Watch the regional finals (South) ft. Devaiah Bopanna & Saksham Jadon

What does it take to build and sustain a 150-year-old company and brand in these complex times? How do you build businesses that endure? Storyboard18's editor Delshad Irani speaks to David Kohler, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Kohler Company, which is one of America’s oldest and largest privately held companies, to find out how he thinks of sustainably growing the global business and brand. He also shared the key trends in India and globally at the high-end of the livingspaces market, the luxury industry, smart solutions, and the trends shaping design, product and services strategies.

In the interview, Kohler said about the India market, "We are pleased with our performance around the world and the star of the show is right here in India... This is prime time for India in the global marketplace." 

Read More: <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/this-is-the-prime-time-for-india-in-the-global-marketplace-david-kohler-13383.htm">This is prime time for India in the global marketplace: David Kohler</a>

The Kohler company has the rare distinction of being a brand that is built to last. It has come a long way in its 150 year journey to where it is today - a global, diverse juggernaut focused on products and services for living spaces. Very few companies achieve such a feat. Kohler, shared his view of the path to sustainability and keeping the new bottom-line in mind - People, Planet, Profits. 

Watch the full interview where David Kohler talks about India's decade, the luxury market, role of marketing and more, on Media Dialogues with Storyboard18. 

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What's driving growth for the $9 billion Kohler company?

Viacom18 has secured exclusive media rights for the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) international and domestic matches for the next five years starting September 2023. The network has won both the Indian subcontinental and global television and digital rights for this period for a cumulative figure of Rs 5,963 crore. 

This includes international men’s, women’s and domestic first-class competitions like the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, among others. The partnership kicks off with Viacom18 streaming its first tournament, the upcoming India-Australia one-day international (ODI) series, on JioCinema for free. To know more about this, Storyboard18 caught up with Viacom18 Sports’ chief executive officer Anil Jayaraj. 

<strong>Tell us more about winning the exclusive media rights to BCCI’s international and domestic matches for both TV and digital. You are kicking off this partnership with the upcoming India versus Australia series starting in September, what should we expect?</strong> 

In a span of a year and half is a short time to become the largest sports network in the country and is an absolute privilege and honour. We are thankful to all the partners we work with, whether it is BCCI, NBA (the National Basketball Association of the US), MotoGP (the body that conducts motorcycle Grands Prix) and more. We have all the major rights and we have a play across all sports. We also announced our partnership with ISL (Indian Super League, the football league) and we also do a lot of athletics that our champion athletes participate in. So it is also a portfolio that is looking diverse and strong and it gives is immense confidence. 

<strong>In the past you have spoken about the network’s digital push. It surprised a few to see Viacom18 bid for the TV rights as well. But now that you have won, what will it mean for the audience and what will it mean for advertisers?</strong> 

Digital is certainly the future and also the present. What we saw around the IPL (Indian Premier League, the Twenty20 cricket league) was a defining moment. We saw how digital was bigger than television. And our intent is to continue building on that. You have to see that a lot of features that we are building will continue to excite and engage the digital viewer. Features such as multi-cam that we had around IPL are uniquely digital features and that will continue. Having said that, although a large number of consumers have moved to digital, there is still a set of people who are in the process of moving on to digital. They are still watching linear, offline TV, we want them to also move. We will do everything that we can to aid this migration. What we figured is that having this fractured mandate of having one network doing TV, the other doing digital was not helping with that agenda. We are also acutely aware that viewers were not getting as good an experience in terms of viewing if they were watching across multiple screens, etc. So our aim continues to be that we will give accessible and affordable content in a manner which is engaging for our consumer. That is our objective. 

<strong>And what will it mean for advertisers since now you have both the TV and digital rights unlike the IPL, where same pool of advertisers were divided?</strong> 

The market is significantly moving towards digital and we continue to believe that digital will be a big play for advertisers. Having said that, for BCCI rights including the India-Australia one which starts on September 22, what we intend to do is to offer the advertisers the option of going for whatever they choose—a combination of TV plus digital, digital exclusive, etc. But it is our belief that a significantly large number of advertisers will very much be on digital and that we will continue to serve them well, but advertisers will have the choice. 

<strong>Will the upcoming tournaments just like IPL be free to watch or behind a paywall?</strong>

We spoke about this and we are going to remove the barriers of accessibility and affordability of content and there will be no change to that. Every single viewer on JioCinema will be able to watch matches for free, there will be able to watch high-quality content for free. We will continue to do 11 languages, multi-cam, 4K, ‘play-along’ and things like that on our digital screens. As far as TV goes, we are intending to expand the number of people who haven’t had the accessibility. While it will certainly be on Sports18, we are also going to put it on our entertainment channels including Colors Tamil, Cineplex SuperHits amongst others, so that the regional audience also gets access to the matches. So it will play on all three spectra—on FTA (free-to-air), on pay TV as well as free on digital. 

<strong>Rather than a closed bidding process, there was an e-auction process that took place this time. What was it like?</strong>

BCCI has stood up to the whole point of transparency. E-auction is a great way to ensure transparency, it is comfortable for all bidders because it is governed by the fact that people can’t actually manipulate. BCCI has actually stepped up and done that unlike the ICC (International Cricket Council) bid which was closed. And this is also important because this is the second time that the BCCI bid is in e-auction mode. IPL was an e-auction and it brought in a lot of transparency. It is a good process because you are focused on your affordability and your strategy. The only twist this time was that you had TV and digital bids going simultaneously. 

<strong>Tell us about the larger picture. How is the Indian audience consuming sports today?</strong> 

The Indian audience is the largest that you have for any cricketing event. And what we have seen is that there has been a significant shift over the past few years towards CTV (connected TV, where content is accessed over the internet). And CTV is growing very fast. Of course, there is the traditional TV audience. But the consumption pattern is what happened around IPL, which is a large number of people coming on to digital, people consuming on the go and watching for a long period of time. I think it is long-form content which continues to grow. 

<strong>Sporting tournaments have fuelled the consumption of CTVs in a big way globally. We saw the same around IPL, in fact many experts pointed out how free streaming of IPL increased the penetration of CTV in India. How will you continue with your digital and CTV push?</strong>

CTV is a critical part of our strategy going forward, even on IPL we had 125 million consumers watching on CTV. That is a massive number. It is significantly bigger than any high-definition television through linear TV and it is growing really fast. That in combination with the AirFiber that Jio is launching or the penetration of broadband which is growing at a dramatic pace, I think the ecosystem is building towards that inflection point which will make it huge. And over the next few years CTV will be larger than linear offline TV. Also, content providers like us will be focusing on providing high-quality content there. 4K, for example, is not possible on linear TV. There are a number of streaming organisations looking at CTV in a big way and creating content which is differentiated on CTV. 

<strong>Startup troubles have still not eased out—in this scenario, which new client group or advertiser group is showing a lot of interest around cricket considering it is an action-packed season for the next few months?</strong>

BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) is in the hyper-growth mode, which means that lot of them are willing to advertise on premium properties like cricket. Auto is on the comeback path. Beverages are also showing interest at a category level. 

Watch the full interview here.

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Every viewer on JioCinema will be able to watch matches for free: Anil Jayaraj

George Koshy Plammoottil, chief executive officer and co-founder, LetsSolv and Glocal Konsult, spoke to Storyboard18 about the future of India's creative industry and his message to Storyboard's YoungGuns and others. Edited excerpts:

 

<strong>Are you bullish about India’s creative industry?</strong>

This is the time when the Indian creative industry is at the cusp of becoming a large international force in itself, especially with how Indian brands are going international. Right from food choices, technology to lifestyle to fashion, India is in vogue. The creative agencies are taking us global too.

 

<strong>What is your message for Storyboard18 YoungGuns and young guns across the world?</strong>

This is the time for India, this is the time to outshine. The way we have done things has only brought us on the global radar more and more. Creativity is changing because of technology; technology is bringing products that are making work a lot easier and that is giving us a lot of opportunities for India. Most of the animation work is being done in India. Large global brands are eyeing a piece of the Indian share.

 

<strong>Tell us about your understanding of how to get the best of human creativity and artificial intelligence or AI together.</strong>

I run a technology company and I also run a creative agency. We are trying to marry the opportunity that technology brings to the field through AI and ML (machine learning) to understand what the customer insight is going to be. All of these insights like what colour will go well in an ad have become much easier. You are running an entire curve through an AI and ML engine which tells you what works even before taking it to the market and that gives us a lot more things to work on.

Watch the full interview.
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Large global brands are eyeing a piece of the Indian pie: George Plammoottil

Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. (Network18) and TV18 Broadcast Limited (TV18) announced a Scheme of Arrangement in terms of which TV18 and e-Eighteen.com Limited (“E18”, which owns and  operates moneycontrol website and app) will merge with Network18.

The proposed Scheme will consolidate TV and Digital news businesses of the Network18 group in one company and will help create India’s largest platform-agnostic news media powerhouse with the widest footprint across languages, straddling both TV and Digital. It will enable Network18 to consolidate and further grow its business from a position of strength. This will present a unique opportunity to all shareholders to participate in the media business of the group through one listed entity.

The merged entity will comprise of the TV portfolio of TV18 (20 news channels in 16 languages and CNBCTV18.com), Digital assets of Network18 (News18.com platform across 13 languages and Firstpost) as also moneycontrol website and app. Viacom18 with its portfolio of JioCinema  and 40 TV channels will be a direct subsidiary of Network18. Network18 will continue to hold its investment in BookMyShow.

As consumers and advertisers increasingly gravitate towards omni-channel experiences across  different aspects of their lives, having a deep and integrated presence across both TV and Digital  media will enable the merged entity to serve them better. Further, as Network18 group has been working towards convergence, an integrated entity for news gathering and dissemination is expected to result in cost and content synergies.

The Board of Directors of the respective companies have approved the Scheme of Arrangement at their meetings held today

Network18 and TV18 announce 'Scheme of Arrangement'

<strong>By Pritha Pahari</strong>

Bikaji Foods International, renowned for its diverse range of ethnic Indian snacks, is experiencing a notable surge in demand for its western snacks category. This includes products such as pasta snacks, corn puffs, and French fries. While the company initially did not anticipate the western snacks segment to become a core category, Chief Operating Officer Manoj Verma has revealed that the segment has demonstrated growth rates comparable to the ethnic segment.

“We thought that there was no point in leaving that category vacant, but as things stand, Western snacks are also growing on par with ethnic snacks and even more,” said Verma.

In terms of volume, the segment notched up growth of 14-15 percent, while in terms of value, it was around 10 percent, he told Moneycontrol in a recent interview. “We are not competing with the leading brands right now, but we want to have a substantial share in the segment,” he added.

As per the report titled 'Indian Cuisine at a Crossroad' published by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), the organised snack sector, which includes well-packed, labelled, and branded products, contributes approximately Rs 42,300 crore to the total snack market. Within the organised sector, western savoury snacks hold a substantial share, valued at Rs 24,200 crore, making up around 57 percent of the overall organised savoury snacks market.

The companies dominating the Western snack segment are PepsiCo (Lay’s and Kurkure) and ITC (Bingo).

Despite the early success, Verma said that there are no plans to expand the western snack category, where competition is intense. “The primary thrust of our expansion strategy lies in extending our reach and strengthening the company’s presence across regions,” said Verma.

Bikaji has been targeting India's growing middle class. It has a significant presence in Rajasthan, Bihar, and Assam and is extending its focus to Karnataka, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.

In the latest quarterly results, Bikaji reported a 47 percent surge in quarterly profit driven by the increased distribution of its popular ethnic snacks and easing ingredient prices. The companies in the packaged foods segment, such as Britannia and Bikaji, witnessed a moderation in prices of raw materials, such as palm oil, which helped them report good numbers for the second quarter of the financial year 2023–24 (Q2 FY24).

The company reported revenue from operations of Rs 608.69 crore, reflecting a 5.5 percent increase compared to the same period last year. In Q2 FY23, the recorded revenue was Rs 576.97 crore. The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) reached Rs 89 crore, marking a significant rise of 39 percent compared to the corresponding period previous year.

On December 5, the stock of Bikaji Foods closed at Rs 541.35 on the NSE, up 0.67 percent from the previous day’s close.

From Aloo Bhujia to French Fries, Bikaji's surprise success in Western snacks

The lure of seeing top cricketing nations on the field during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup proved to be a powerful motivator, triggering a travel boom in India. The impact of major sporting and cultural events on travel demand is a global phenomenon, witnessed earlier this year in the record turnout for the UEFA Final in Istanbul, or the remarkable surge in room rates for Taylor Swift tours. The return of the World Cup Cricket event to India after 12 years saw a similar surge as international travelers flocked to the country during the 46-day period.

Spanning more than a month in India, the World Cup period saw a substantial surge in international travelers from both participating and non-participating nations, with airfares to top venues like Ahmedabad (50-60 percent), Mumbai (40-50 percent), and Kolkata (30-40 percent) witnessing a major surge in prices. Per Skyscanner’s Travel in Focus Report, 75 percent of respondents were willing to increase their travel budget to experience live cricket matches.

With the timeline of the World Cup falling close to Diwali, one of India’s most celebrated festivals which also witnesses high interest from foreign tourists, data from Visa finds that international visitors didn't limit their journey to just match venues, extending their travel plans to include destinations like Jaipur, Agra, Goa, Varanasi, and Udaipur. Among the participating nations in the World Cup, England, Australia, South Africa, and Bangladesh contributed most to the spends during WC matches in India. Clothing and accessories, restaurants, and retail goods stood out as leading merchant categories experiencing significant increases in cross-border expenditures.

Visa, a trusted leader in digital payments, has unwrapped an overview of payment trends observed during this ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023. As per Visa’s data, there has been a 12.5 percent growth in contactless cross border transactions during the World Cup as compared to July 2023, before the festive season began. 36 percent of the cross-border transactions in India were contactless, 2X of the total domestic contactless transactions.  Further, according to Visa, the average stay of the international audience during the world cup was 11 days whereas visitors from New Zealand stayed longer.

Sushmit Nath, head of visa consulting & analytics - India and South Asia said "The high voltage Men’s Cricket World Cup, an ongoing festive season and Diwali have led to a spike in international travel to India, consequently having a positive effect on international as well as domestic consumer spends. This impact is clearly demonstrated through Visa's insightful data analysis and payment trends seen in this period. The World Cup reaffirms cricket as a defining cultural moment for the country and for international visitors and tourists. Our data has helped observe this phenomenon at close quarters and we intend to continue offering such insights into the dynamic consumer and payments landscape."




12.5 percent surge in contactless cross border transactions due to World Cup: Visa Study

Amazon Alexa customers in India are ever curious to know more about trending topics and personalities. Questions about celebrities and public figures often lead them to turn to Alexa for a factual, and sometimes even entertaining, response. Most recently, netizens are curious about Orry, a.k.a Orhan Awatramani, the enigmatic socialite capturing the spotlight alongside Bollywood elites. Alexa adds a dash of entertainment to the intrigue by answering the question, ‘Who is Orry’ - that’s been on everyone’s minds lately. 

If you’re still unable to figure out who Orry is or what he does – just ask Alexa! Just say, “Alexa, who is Orry?” or “Alexa, what does Orry do?” to satiate your curiosity about the identity of Orry but in his style! 

In the past, Alexa has fielded several questions from customers about celebrities and trending personalities. For example, questions like “Alexa, what is Alia Bhatt’s age?”, “Alexa, what is Anushka Sharma's baby's name?”, “Alexa, tell me about Rashmika Mandanna” and “Alexa, Salman Khan की girlfriend कौन है?” emerged as popular requests.






Who is Orry? Amazon's Alexa has the answer

<strong>By Bhavya Dilipkumar</strong>


IPO-bound Ola Electric has reported consolidated revenue of Rs 2,782 crore up nearly 510 percent in the financial year ended March 2023 (FY23) even as its net loss widened to Rs 1,472 crore on the back of an increase in its expenses, showed the company’s auditor signed financial statements shared with bankers and investors.

Moneycontrol has seen the copy of the financial statements.

The firm had reported an Ebitda loss of Rs 1,318 crore in FY23. Its total expenses flared up to Rs 3,383 crore in FY23 as against expenditure of Rs 1,240 crore in FY22.

The company, in a note to investors and the bankers, said that it is targeting an Ebitda profitability of Rs 803 crore in FY25. The firm has also said that its Ebitda loss will come down to Rs 950 crore in FY24.  The company has projected a revenue of Rs 4,655 crores in FY 24.

Ola is also estimating its sales to touch 0.3 million in FY 24 and 0.9 million by FY 25; in FY 23 Ola sold 0.15 million units of EVs.

“The company plans to achieve EBITDA profitability by FY 25 of 6.6% -Ola will be one of the fastest EV companies to reach profitability,” the note said.

This comes at a crucial time for the EV maker as it is charting plans to go public by early January of 2024.

Ola Electric has transformed itself into a public company as an important step in preparation for its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Moneycontrol was the first to report that Ola Electric had roped in Kotak Mahindra Capital and Goldman Sachs for an initial public offering (IPO).

In a media interaction, the company’s chief executive officer, Bhavish Aggarwal said that the FY23 financials will be a positive surprise.

"FY22 was an investment year for us, we started our sales only in January 2022 and FY23 has been a very strong revenue year for us and the bottom line has improved significantly. This year we may not be able to share a forecast, but it will be positively surprising to see the numbers," he said.

Ola Electric saw its losses widen around 293 percent to Rs 784 crore in FY22 as against a loss of Rs 199 crore last year as its expenses zoomed to Rs 1,240 crore. The company’s expenses have skyrocketed by around 306 percent year-on-year (YoY).

The firm reported consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 373 crore in FY22, up nearly 400 times year-on-year (YoY) against the revenue reported last financial year at Rs 0.86 crore as it began selling its two-wheeler during December 2021.

Ola Electric announced on October 26 that it has closed a Rs 3,200 crore (approximately $380 million) funding round with a mix of debt and equity from Temasek-led prominent investors and debt from the State Bank of India (SBI).

Ola Electric reports Rs 2,782 cr revenue in FY23, targets Ebitda profitability by FY25

By Chandra R Srikanth 

Byju Raveendran, the founder of the embattled edtech unicorn Byju's, rallied close to 50 of the firm's top leaders, assuring them that this was a war on multiple fronts that they would ultimately win.

The meeting came amid a precarious liquidity crisis for the once-feted edtech, as it tries to raise money via multiple channels to keep operations going.

"A true entrepreneur is a war leader. What Byju’s is going through can only be seen as a war on multiple fronts against all odds,” he is said to have mentioned during the meeting.

Further, he apologised for not being able to give much face time to the team lately.

“My regret is that I am letting down a wonderful team by not providing adequate capital,” he said.

He concluded by assuring that in a few months, Byju’s would begin the journey back to “the heights where it belongs."

He also gave updates on all the key issues that Byju's has been embroiled in, from the term loan B issue to the ED notice, asset sales, and the current liquidity position.

<strong>Byju's 3.0</strong>

While Byju's has faced flak in the last few years for aggressively pushing its learning products to parents, its CEO Arjun Mohan emphasised the need to sell the right products to the right people without maximising sales, an approach that he described as Byju's 3.0

"Byju's 1.0 was offline, while 2.0 was about tech-delivered context. Byju’s 3.0 will be about deep tech-driven personalisations with the right approach and accountability to sales",  he said.

<strong>Byju's challenges</strong>

Byju discussed five challenges that the company faced in 2023.

The first challenge is the litigation surrounding Term Loan B (TLB). He said this challenge should be resolved after the sale of Epic, which is a subsidiary of Byju’s in the US. That sale will also help manage the liquidity crunch the company faces now.

The second challenge is an ED notice received from the Enforcement Directorate. Byju clarified that the notice is related to procedural deficiencies under FEMA and that most of these issues have already been addressed.

The third challenge, according to Byju, is the closure of the ongoing FY23 statutory audit, which is on track to be completed soon.

The fourth challenge was the litigation surrounding the Davidson Kempner (DK) loan raised against Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), which has now been resolved with Ranjan Pai taking over the loan. He also said that Aakash is now set for a promising admissions season.

Finally, he spoke about the importance of finding ways to mitigate the impact of these cuts on the business and called on each team member to play a vital role in maintaining business momentum.

Byju's needs Rs 500-600 crore in cash by March to settle outstanding employee dues, vendor payments, tax department obligations, and BCCI dues. The company is confident in raising this amount through asset sales or by pledging its holdings in Aakash or Think and Learn, a person familiar with the development said.

A second person added that Byju's has been borrowing from family, friends, and other entrepreneurs in recent months to pay salaries and vendors. The company is falling short of Rs 60-70 crore every month, even as it has brought its costs down. For instance, its wage bill was higher than Rs 300 crore a year ago, and is currently Rs 130 crore now.

At the height of the funding and pandemic-led edtech boom in 2020-2021, Byju's aggressively raised funds and acquired companies. It made a record 22 acquisitions both in India and overseas, as it sought to expand from K-12 (kg to class 12) to categories such as test prep, higher learning, and coding. Byju is now counting on selling some of these assets to raise money and keep operations going at its core India edtech business.

While Raveendran has been keeping investors informed about the company's financial situation, Moneycontrol has learned that he is confident in weathering the liquidity crisis without their help. "There is no term sheet at this point and no question of Byju stepping aside. He has been putting in money in the last 8-9 months for the company to stay afloat," a third person said.

<strong>Beginning of the trouble</strong>

Byju's, which is India's most-valued startup, has been under fire since the start of 2022 for a range of issues, including accounting irregularities, alleged mis-selling of courses, and mass layoffs.

The company has laid off thousands of employees in the last 12 months as it was hit by a double whammy of drying venture capital funding and slowing demand for online learning services. Since then, its investor board members have left too, citing differences with founder Byju Raveendran.

It has tried to recoup since then. Its early investor Ranjan Pai plowed in capital, set up an advisory council with veterans such as Mohandas Pai and Rajnish Kumar and elevated Arjun Mohan as CEO. It is also in talks to divest assets such as Great Learning and Epic.

Byju Raveendran likens current crisis to war on multiple fronts, says true entrepreneur is a war leader

The age of electric vehicles is here and there is only one question on everyone’s minds. When is Tesla coming to India? Union Minister Piyush Goyal was recently part of a discussion with Network18’s MD and Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi at CNBC-TV18's India Business Leadership Awards (IBLA) where the latter asked Goyal about his recent trip to the US, where he toured the Tesla factory, and when Tesla would be coming to India. 

Goyal playfully replied, “I think Elon Musk is so active on X, that he will be the person who will let us know when Tesla is setting up in India.” However, he did add that the era of electric vehicles has already arrived. In another two or three years, he sees almost 100 percent of new two-wheeler sales being electric. In three-wheelers, Goyal shared that we are already close to being 100% electric, some of them may be CNG-driven. In the four-wheeler space, we are less than 2% about 50,000 cars out of four million cars which are sold are currently electric

Many manufactures in India are making solid efforts to produce more electric vehicles as quickly as possible because the demand already exists and is continuously increasing. 

“Maruti doesn't have a model as yet, they are planning to come out with something soon. Tata is already active in the electric vehicle space, Mahindra has come out with some fantastic offerings. So we will have Tata, we will have Mahindra, I do believe Maruti Suzuki after their merger with Toyota already has hybrids, but they're now coming out with an electric version in the next 6-8 months. So we'll see a lot of action on four-wheelers,” said added Goyal. 

Thus, Tesla can’t afford to miss the bus. They will want a piece of the large domestic Indian market. 

In 2016, the Union Minister made a prediction where he said that by 2030, all cars being sold in India will be electric vehicles. And, witnessing the growth since, his belief has only been made stronger. He has once confirmed that in the next seven years, every new vehicle sold in India will be an electric vehicle. 

“Can you imagine the game-changing dimension to the national economy when we reduce our crude oil imports, when our petrol-diesel consumption comes down, imagine the strength the Indian economy will have, imagine the reduction in carbon or the fuel smoke that we see all over the country. So I do believe we are well on track,” said Goyal. 

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