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Leo Burnett and Niva Bupa

Health insurance company Niva Bupa has roped in advertising agency Leo Burnett as its partner. The win, which comes after a multi-agency pitch, will see Leo Burnett aid the brand in fulfilling its vision of creating ground-breaking work in order to give people more control over their health and well-being.

Grapes and Maharishi Ayurveda

Maharishi Ayurveda has appointed digital marketing agency Grapes as its agency on record (AOR). The agency, which won the mandate following a multi-agency pitch for the German market, will service the account from New Delhi. According to the mandate, Grapes will be responsible for handling the marcom activities for Maharishi Ayurveda. Further, the agency will also look after services such as content planning, digital marketing strategy, social media management and media planning and buying. 

FCB Interface and Max Life Insurance

Insurance company Max Life Insurance has given its integrated creative mandate to FCB Interface after a multi-agency pitch. The account will see the agency responsible for creative strategy, execution, and social media management for the brand across all channels. 

 L&K Saatchi & Saatchi and Act Fibernet

L&K Saatchi & Saatchi won the creative mandate for Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT) Fibernet, a telecommunications company. The responsibility of the agency would include managing the full-service responsibilities for the brand including advertising, brand activation, digital and public relations (PR). Few weeks ago, newly launched airline Akasa Air gave its creative mandate to L&K Saatchi & Saatchi. The agency will manage strategic and creative initiatives for the airline. This would include developing the brand and tactical communication for above-the-line and below-the-line elements. Last month, the agency announced Shitu Patil as the head of art and executive creative director. In April, the agency had announced Avinash Jakhalekar as the group creative director. 

Digital Tribe and WorkStore

The digital arm of communications agency PROSE Integrated – Digital Tribe has won the digital mandate for WorkStore, an office products company. The responsibility of the agency would include the end-to-end digital duties which include positioning, brand awareness via social and digital media platforms to target B2B enterprise clients, and further leverage business-building conversations to generate leads. The account, which was won following a multi-agency pitch, will see the agency manage the brand from its Mumbai office.

Compiled by Kashmeera Sambamurthy

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Interactive Avenues and Kohler India

Interactive Avenues bagged the Kohler India account after a multi agency pitch. The account will be managed out of the agency’s Gurugram office. As the digital agency for the brand, its overall mandate is to enhance the brand’s digital footprint across the country. Two weeks ago, full-service marketing agency Efficacy Worldwide became the Agency of Record (AOR) for the brand.

Verve Media and True North

Verve Media has won the video creation mandate for private equity firm True North. The responsibility of the agency would be to create strategy driven films for the firm’s social media channels. In June, the agency retained the social media mandate which included social media management, digital creative designing, content marketing and online reputation management (ORM) for Pragati, a brand offering customized warehousing solutions and services, and its sister company PISL, earlier known as Pragati Infra. In May, Verve Media had also bagged the social media mandate of Spring Bio Solution.

Grapes and JBL

Integrated marketing agency Grapes has been named the social media agency of record for JBL, an American electronics company owned by HARMAN. The account that was won after a multi-agency pitch will be handled out of the agency’s Delhi office. The mandate includes social media strategy, planning and execution, content creation and online reputation management (ORM). A few weeks ago, Grapes bagged the integrated creative media account for Zee Media which was won following a pitch. Grapes will focus on developing integrated communication strategy, and creatives across offline and digital media. The mandate of Zee Media includes Zee News, ZEE Business, ZEE 24 Ghanta, ZEE 24 Taas and Zee Digital.

FoxyMoron and aha Tamil

FoxyMoron, part of Zoo media, added the south content OTT platform aha Tamil to its client roster. The mandate will be handled by the agency’s Bengaluru office. Regional content in the country is growing and more advertisers are sharpening and regionalising their strategies. The Zoo Media network has defined a regional content focus as Naya Bharat.

Compiled by Kashmeera Sambamurthy

<a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/storyboard18/quantum-brief/biz-moves-bbh-rediffusion-schbang-publicis-wavemaker-social-panga-dentsu-win-big-accounts-1285.htm">Biz Moves: BBH, Rediffusion, Schbang, Publicis, Wavemaker, Social Panga &amp; Dentsu win big accounts</a>

Biz Moves: Interactive Avenues, Verve Media, Foxymoron and Grapes

For a long time collecting trading cards was a thing. Exchanging your Rahul Dravid card for a Sachin Tendulkar one or throwing in a Sourav Ganguly card for an Anil Kumble number was the ultimate high point of sports craze among fans. But that was the '80s, '90s and perhaps the first decade of the 2000s. New-age sports fans have found their fandom mojo in the metaverse and NFTs. While gamification of their preferred sports has increased their engagement in the space, digital collectibles have made fan engagement more immersive. Brands are making the most of this modern avatar of sports fandom.

A recent report by Ormax Media says India’s sports viewing fan base is 136.3 million while 317.8 million Indians are active players of at least one outdoor sport. Add to that the access to technology and the possibilities are limitless for the stakeholders. Technology is now a key driver in the sports space. From fantasy sports platforms to NFTs, brands are using these new found tools to engage fans and accelerate their reach across audience demographics.

But what is leading to the growth of this technology backed boom in this space? ‘Digital fans,’ says experts.

“Stakeholders in the space have understood that the digital fan today plays as much of an importance as the tangible family comes to the stadium and because of that, they have started adopting a lot of these technologies,” says Chiraag Paul, Co-Founder, CEO, Proem Sports, a sports software-technology company.

Paul explains how his company uses data as the primary tool to leverage fan engagements.

Case Study - FC Goa

FC Goa, for instance, one of Proem’s clients that is an Indian professional football franchise based in Goa and competes in the Indian Super League, is committed to engaging their fan base to help them strengthen their relationship with the club.

“With the help of our customer data platform, they wanted to leverage data to understand their fans better and engage different segments of their fan base with highly personalized campaigns leading to better outcomes.

The company mapped out FC Goa’s Data landscape and with their pre-built connectors, started ingesting data from social, website and transactional systems into their CDP (customer data platform).

The result? FC Goa finally had an accurate understanding of their fan base and the opportunity to expand their marketable universe. With time they saw 44X lift in email open rates and 34 per cent increase in merchandise sales alongside growth in other fan engagement metrics.

Lifting game and fan spirit and building communities

Aayushman Sinha, co-founder and director at creative agency BlackCab explains the possibilities in the space. The three popular formats used by brands to leverage overall game spirit and engagement using technology according to him are - social that is used for hygiene, updates and campaigns; AR, VR and gamification that is used for engagement and NFT’s that is used for building communities.

“A mix of three formats can provide strong fan affinity and engagement to teams, players, their sponsors and more. We’re seeing a lot of these being implemented across the board and as access to technology becomes more widespread - the TV screen will be replaced with more engaging experiences simply through a smartphone,” he says.

Elaborating on how engagements can be created, Sinha says, “Imagine wearing a headset at an experience zone that takes you through the dressing room of your favourite team, your favourite player walks up and gives you a high five and you get to see them prepping for their big game or standing courtside reliving your favourite moments from an iconic game. This is what technology is doing these days.”

Leveraging tech to create experiences

Shradha Agarwal, CEO &amp; Co-founder at digital marketing agency Grapes talks about the benefits of using AI in fan engagement.

”AI allows fans to browse through players and team statistics, interact with the clubs or teams without disrupting the video stream, and enable tickets and merchandise purchased with the help of real-time, on-screen player recognition solutions. Edisn is one such SportsTech startup that enables contextual content delivery while facilitating merchandise monetization,” she said.

Gamification is another example that can help brands personalize their content and offerings depending on data. It can even come up with play and earn events during the off-season to maintain the brand engagement with the fans.

The Sachin Saga VR from JetSynthesys Gaming, for instance, is a virtual reality cricket game that lets users play cricket as the Tendulkar. But this is just one example. There are a hundred other examples of simulated reality backed games that are enhancing fan engagements and giving brands the opportunity to track and reach out to their TG.

However, brands should be careful about choosing platforms and technologies to ensure seamless experience and prevent fans from getting overwhelmed.

Sunny Bhanot, co-founder and chief technology officer at digital collectibles marketplace for cricket NFT says, “Technology enables fans to engage with the sport beyond the stadiums and big screens (TV) and extends it to the small screen (mobile phones) and even off-screen but Ffr brands to deliver on the exciting possibilities of emerging technologies, it is critical not to expose the users to the rough edges and create a stable and secure experience.”

For example, Rario makes officially licensed digital cricket collectables accessible to fans at affordable prices on a certified-secure platform, leveraging blockchain as proof of provenance. Fans can not only own the collectibles of their favourite player or team, but also engage with the sport with their friends through Rario.

This is an exciting time to be a sports fan and even more exciting for marketers looking to leverage sports to engage and build deeper relationships with fans.

How brands are making the most of the modern avatar of sports fans

A young graphic designer switched to freelancing for a digital marketing agency in Mumbai. The designer, who requested anonymity, had previously worked as a full-time employee in the same company. She recalls how, as the workload increased, she would stay up for days till 3 AM and in ‘urgent’ scenarios till 6 AM, working on projects. It took a serious toll on her mental and physical well-being. When she raised a complaint at the agency, the general response was “Arey! Client hai. Paise de rahe hain.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
When I say ad agency life is toxic in Mumbai, I truly mean it.
Here's a response of a so called reputed ad agency on Glassdoor to an ex-employee who described his bad experience with the company. The sheer arrogance! <a href="https://t.co/tAovXNXmMh">pic.twitter.com/tAovXNXmMh</a>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">When I say ad agency life is toxic in Mumbai, I truly mean it. Here&#39;s a response of a so called reputed ad agency on Glassdoor to an ex-employee who described his bad experience with the company. The sheer arrogance! <a href="https://t.co/tAovXNXmMh">pic.twitter.com/tAovXNXmMh</a>&mdash; Moon (@mysticmoon__) <a href="https://twitter.com/mysticmoon__/status/1537863549048872960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

On June 17, a digital marketer who goes by the handle @mysticmoon_ tweeted screenshots of responses of a digital marketing agency on Glassdoor, a platform where current and former employees anonymously review companies. The agency had responded to complaints raised by the agency’s ex-employees about grueling work schedules, office culture and compensation. The company’s response raised a storm for its lack of empathy.

Sample these lines from the response.

‘No time for your personal life. 24x7 work - This is how the Digital industry works. Please go through our careers section. We have already disclosed the life you will be leading when you get into Digital Marketing. No one said it would be easy.’

‘Working on weekends - If you deny, your salary will be deducted.’

‘If you as an executive cannot handle the brand, then ideally you were never meant to be in Digital and you are incapable of taking the responsibilities.’

‘No fixed leaving time - Yes, indeed. This is not a 9 to 5 government job…We seek creative candidates who love working on brands. When one is building brands, time is secondary…’

‘…Another alternate scenario when you would be working late is when you are correcting your own mistakes. If you cannot understand the client and the brief you are bound to get frustrated. But this is your own fault.’

These responses on Glassdoor were later deleted. But not before users like @mysticmoon took screenshots and shared it on social media.

She shared, “I'm just numb reading such response. Is there any humanity left? Especially in ad agencies?! Are your employees not humans? Is it just about the money at the cost of someone's mental health &amp; life? Wonder what measures are being taken to prevent this!”

She goes on to share that she too has had such an experience and had to leave the firm within a month of joining. The trauma she experienced in that short time had stayed with her for a while. But she, like many others, has bills to pay, she said, ruing the fact that there’s no other choice for many but to “tolerate and live a toxic work-life.”

A digital world never sleeps

WPP-owned media investment company GroupM’s ‘This Year, Next Year’ report for 2022 highlighted that Digital would grow by 33 percent, and would have an estimated share of 45 percent in total expenditure of advertising. Brands are allocating more marketing money in digital, sending the volume of work skyrocketing as the media pie gets bigger.

The relentless pace of work and hectic and high-pressure environment have been a subject of debates and discussions on social media and offline. Unrealistic client expectations and demands contribute to the woes of people working in digital marketing agencies which are facing high employee attrition rates, as high as 30 percent as per industry estimates.

Afraid to lose business or upset a client in a tough economic climate, agencies typically accept even the most unreasonable demands from clients. A creative director working with a Bengaluru-based digital advertising agency tells us that work culture in many agencies actually became worse with the onset of the pandemic.

“I rate toxicity by two things. First, by the people, and second by the leaders who fuel it wherever they go,” she tells us.

A group creative partner at the same agency spoke about calls that would come at any time, stressing that such unhealthy work cultures also stem from the behaviour of the clients.

@mysticmoon_ agrees with him and states that the fast paced nature of the digital world has increased brands’ requirement to go viral, upscale their sales, make profits, be more creative, relate to their audience, and stay relevant in the market. “To achieve all that - they want everybody associated with them to work 24x7,” often at the cost of their health and wellbeing, the digital marketer highlights.

She shares the agency’s expectation from employees is to be accommodating of a marketing brief that could come even at midnight.

These bad practices are not restricted to digital marketing shops alone. Full-service mainline agencies have been hauled up in the past for the same issues including toxic work cultures, overworking employees, keeping inadequate compensation and reward systems, and creating a high-pressure environment that puts people’s wellbeing last.

Adding to a toxic culture

An ad agency’s former employees highlights that working late into the night at the office has become a regular practice in most agencies. “You would usually get something at 6 PM from the client, and would be asked to show the result by the next morning. Despite all the complaints, no action was taken by HR or seniors. If anything is required after office hours, it should be an exception and not a norm,” he tells Storyboard18.

Another employee of a mainline agency shares how senior executives would boast about working at all hours, competing with each other and showing “the juniors” what is required of them in advertising.

It gets particularly worse for female employees at agencies. These bad practices exacerbate the challenges for women in the industry who have also been fighting years of institutionalised sexism and sexual harassment in the workplace.

Agency employees Storyboard18 spoke to are quick to highlight that in advertising and media industries, there is also an obvious lack of empathy. Nobody says ‘Oh! You have worked for over 8 hours straight. Take a break.’

Another young creative says that there is no credit or additional compensation given for extra hours of work, adding that most small and mid-level companies do not have budgets to hire more hands which leads to more work being managed by fewer people and intense pressure on these people to still deliver despite the time, bandwidth and resource crunch. Eventually leading to issues like employee burnout.

For instance, when seemingly countless revisions are required on a campaign, some companies charge extra for revisions. At least five to six revisions are allowed. Then one begins to charge. But sometimes agencies are apprehensive and don’t want to charge the client, giving employees the short end of the stick in the bargain.

Hustle culture transcends

In the startup world, hustle culture has been celebrated widely by entrepreneurs, self-made gurus and influencers from the ecosystem. But the past three years we have witnessed a certain degree of backlash against the glorification of hustle culture which requires an extremely disproportionate amount of attention, time and energy directed into work, even at the cost of one’s physical and mental health. Hustle culture is also known as burnout or grind culture and is defined by workaholism and toxic productivity.

Despite the shift to a more balanced view on work and productivity, most organizations in the digital marketing space work with many startup brands, and several digital marketing agencies are startups themselves, and it seems there is a clear rub-off of cultures as the employees Storyboard18 spoke to suggest.

There’s also the matter of playing one against the other. A disturbing trend is brands engaging two agencies at the same time to pit them against each other, putting additional pressure on agencies which are already fearful of losing business in difficult market conditions and when there are many others who will do the work at competitive rates and quicker timelines.

Covid-impact on work and the industry

The homegrown, independent marketing solutions network Schbang’s head of culture and communication, Pranav Krishnan admits that the digital space has more to do with keeping up with trends that require execution on drastically shortened timelines and in high-pressure environments. This in turn translates to clients expecting agencies to remain on stand-by after hours and even on weekends.

For Krishnan, “It is of extreme importance to manage client expectations and only agree to reasonable timelines.”

He also shares that the agency was one of the early ones to adopt employee-friendly policies, adding that the company has also restructured HR policies to suit the needs of employees including the introduction of flexible work hours.

One of the first digital marketing companies in the country, BC Web Wise’s founder and MD Chaaya Baradhwaaj thinks that the isolation and disruption of a regular life, the economic pressures on clients, agencies and the ecosystems have probably led to things getting out of hand.

Baradhwaaj says, “To combat some of these issues, we have an ecosystem of vendors we work with to handle unplanned volume, negotiate and buy time when needed, and say no to what is not viable. There have been employees who are mandated to not clock more than 80 percent of their total time, and taking the time off becomes a must.”

Shradha Agarwal, CEO and co-founder of Grapes, also shares another view of the issues facing the industry today and a possible fix. As the jobs are many and there’s fewer good people to do them, there’s less ownership of the work. Agarwal adds some work-arounds to keep employees happy, promote collaborative cultures and give people opportunities to grow, while keeping the organization’s growth a priority.

“Now organizations are coming up with a comprehensive distribution of brands. This is dependent on the type of work-life balance a person is seeking. Those aspiring for aggressive growth are given agile brands. Those looking for a gradual growth are given passive brands,” she says.

How to fix a broken system and other solutions

We have seen instances of agencies turning away business or putting their foot down in the face of unreasonable client demands, placing their employees’ well-being first. But those are few and far between.

But some agencies are and have been taking the lead to make workplaces and work cultures healthier and productive.

In BC Web Wise’s recent survey with employees, at least 30 percent want to continue work from home (WFH), 40 percent prefer hybrid, and another 30 percent want to be at the workplace every day. Today, they have a hybrid model in place. Late schedules and working weekends are worked out in advance with clients and cleared with employees. They also have a system to ensure rotation of team members and employees are given days off.

Krishnan highlights simple measures that can help. For instance, shifting from WhatsApp to Slack to ensure that people logged off and paused notifications after working hours, and during the weekends.

He adds, “We have a strict no-weekend work policy wherein client briefs are not picked up past 5 PM on the last working day of the week. Even if team members have to work on the weekend, compensatory leaves are given which can be availed anytime over the month. Mental health leaves

Over the last two years, employees have also been given access to an in-house therapist. To create an atmosphere of ease and less stress for employees, Schbang also hosts in-office activities like open mic nights, games night, and numerous workshops.

Agarwal highlights that there is a three-pronged approach in place at Grapes to reduce the attrition rate. First is the hybrid or WFH model. Second is conducting internal training to help employees learn new skills. Third is making space for fun activities, and sessions to enable team bonding.

Digital marketing agency Sociowash’s co-founder Pranav Agarwal encourages collaboration among different teams in the organization to ensure that work between all teams is evenly distributed to meet tight deadlines.

He says, “Something all agencies should learn from traditional organizations is their process of streamlining, and clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of each team member.”

Sociowash came up with a measure called SuperBeings Survey, which was put in place to understand the perspective of teams on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. The feedback from people is taken anonymously so employees can freely share their views and woes.

Schbang’s Krishnan highlights that the need for work-life balance was never a focus for companies till a few years ago. But that has changed now. The pandemic has reset employees’ needs, priorities and expectations, with people who are seeking healthy growth and more balance in work and life quitting in droves for better prospects in freelance work, at other firms or on the client's side; in some cases willing even to compromise on salaries in the process.
<blockquote>Krishnan says that the bottom line is “If the people in the industry are not cared for, we won’t see growth, creativity and innovation."</blockquote>

Cultures lacking empathy & work-life imbalance leaving employees burnt out and broken in digital marketing

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