AccorHotels to expand its premium brands in India

NEW DELHI: Hotel chain Accor-Hotels which owns brands like Ibis, Novotel and Pullman in India said its primary focus is to expand the luxury segment in emerging markets like India. 

Accor-Hotels acquired luxury brands Fairmont and Raffles in a $2.7 billion deal last year and luxury is over one-third of Accor’s hotel revenues globally. 

“One of our big focus is to expand our luxury platform. We see a significant scope for expansion in the luxury space. The next big wave of growth for us is going to come from luxury and emerging markets. Luxury is an important component in these markets,” said Gaurav Bhushan, global chief development officer, AccorHotels. Bhushan also said Accor is looking at expanding the Fairmont brand in India. India currently has one Fairmont Hotel in Jaipur. 

“We have got eight new brands in our portfolio in the past twelve months. We are looking at expanding the Fairmont brand in India. We are seeing good interest from the Indian market for our new luxury brands. We have active enquiries for Fairmont and Raffles. We hope to make some announcements soon,” Bhushan added. 

Resource: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

Resource: http://grandiose.org.in/

So, Pulse Needs a TVC After All, Here's Why

Giving a candy to the consumers instead of change is a widespread tradition that Indian shopkeepers have been following since ages. At times customers even get the privilege of picking the candy of their choice. And it was back in 2015, when maximum number of consumers started to prefer Pulse Candy over any other brand, making the brand clock Rs. 100 crore sales within 8 months of the launch.

What surprised the industry was the fact that DS Group, the parent company of Pulse Candy, achieved the mark without any advertising. However, the brand has now launched its first campaign for television. ‘Pran jaaye par Pulse na jaaye’, the campaign is crafted by J. Walter Thompson.

The less than a minute video opens with a protagonist sleeping in the house. Suddenly, his house mates wake him up, screaming that the house if on fire. The protagonist, in a blurred sleepy state on seeing smoke and sparks, actually assumes that the house is on fire, as he sees his friends running to collect their precious belongings. This is when our guy springs to action, rushing to save his hidden Pulse Candies; from inside a remote, the one hidden in a DVD drive, to some, hidden in a trumpet.

Once he has managed to get his hand on the stash, he rushes out. That’s when the plot unravels, a well-crafted ploy that has his friends creating the fire and smoke, amongst others. At the end, the plot succeeds and he has to give up his hidden stash of candies, but not until he manages to keep one for himself. The commercial ends with the tag line that says - ‘Pran jaaye par Pulse na jaaye’.

The brand plans to take a 360 degree approach for the campaign by releasing the advertisement in popular national as well as regional media with supporting the same on digital, BTL, events and other promotional platforms. Pulse enjoys a market share of close to 13-14% in the hard boiled candy segment.

Why now?

Television is one of the biggest platforms for mass communication. Brands also spend heftily on television in order to reach out to the maximum number of consumers. Pulse Candy, which is over two years old now, took a while to come onto the platform. Anyone would wonder why?

“We believe this was the right time to launch the TVC as now we are at a situation when we are catering to the demand of the markets across India. The TVC now will help us in reaching out to more consumers,” narrates Shashank Surana, VP, New Product Development, DS Group.

Surana states, “When the product was launched, there was a supply and demand gap. The product was an instant hit and consumers loved it. It took us some time to meet the demand of the markets. We did not do aggressive ATL marketing then however, the launch was supported by BTL activities like, In-shop display, exclusive merchandise promotion and focussed sampling through various consumer contact activities to gather visibility and reach. While in-brand building process, we used digital media effectively not only to promote the brand but also to connect with consumers.”

Not only Pulse, but in the recent times, we came across several brands that took a while to launch their first television campaign. Leading fashion brands like BIBA, Max Fashion and Firstcry are some of those brands who strategically figured out a ‘right time’ for their debut TVC. All of these brands reached a milestone before they rolled out their first campaign on Television. And Pulse Candy is no exception here.

What Next?

DS Group, the parent company of Pulse Candy had a turnover of Rs. 7,700 crore in FY 2015-16 and Pulse Candy’s turnover in FY 2016-17 was over Rs. 300 crore. Pulse plans to spend close to 6-7% of its annual turnover on advertising this year.

When asked about the brand’s plan further, Surana says, “The new Pulse Pineapple has already hit the market, and we will launch 2-3 new variants of Pulse candies in the current year.”

While commenting on the brand’s plans into beverage segment, he says, “We now plan to extend our presence in the beverage category with our mango drink, Pulse Mango, Masala Maar Ke. We have test marketed the drink and the response has been encouraging. We are now launching it in Delhi and some parts of Punjab in the first phase and slowly go pan India.”

Pulse has been playing around the tangy flavour of the candy. The brand added two new variants – Orange and Guava – into its portfolio lately but Kachha Aam remains the most loved flavour among all three.

Resource: http://www.adageindia.in/

Resource: http://grandiose.org.in/

Indus OS, regional language operating system looks to raise market share in India

NEW DELHI: Indus OS, which claims to be the world’s first regional language operating system, is planning to step on the gas to grab a larger market share in the country. On the anvil is a next version of the operating system which will have more local features and advanced offerings on the translation and transliteration aspects. 

The company is also planning to open an office in China by May end, Co-founder & CEO Rakesh Deshmukh told ET in an interview. 

The aim behind setting up an office in China is to explore tie-ups with leading Chinese phone makers such as Xiaomi. Currently, Indus OS has partnerships with brands such as Micromax, Intex and Karbonn and the company is looking at expanding its footprint further by bundling with Chinese players which dominate a significant market in India. “It’s going to be a small operations for mostly sales and business development with around 30-40 people,” said Deshmukh, adding that since most of such brands are headquartered out of China, it makes sense for the company to have operations there. “We currently have partnership with six brands in the country. Our target is to have tieups with the top 10 phone companies and effort is going on, on that front,” said Deshmukh. 

In October, the company raised a round A funding from VenturEast and JSW Ventures which came on board as new investors, while its investor from the Series A round — Omidyar Network — also took part in the round. The funding round was officially closed in March. The company had then said that it would invest some part of the proceeds towards setting up an office in China. 

The OS, which claims the number two spot in terms of marketshare in the Android dominated Indian market ahead of  Apple iOS and Microsoft Windows, is working towards the 3.0 version of its operating system. “We are just few months away from launching it,” said Deshmukh. He added that the next version will be more “Indian” in its features, with sharper ability for translation and transliteration available at the swipe of a finger. It will also have unique features for showing pre-paid balance consumed with each call apart from options such as details of data consumed etc. 

Atul Nigam, CIO at Micromax, which was the first brand to launch Indus OS, said the Indus OS was the first product for the mass market which enables people to access the content in their native languages. “They are working on the new version with advanced translation and transliteration features and there is a lot of opportunity to do more in this space,” added Nigam 

Indus OS has been angel funded by the likes of Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal from Snapdeal, Amit Gupta and Naveen Tiwari from Inmobi and Pranay Chulet from Quikr, according to the company. Though in the initial stage, Indus OS is also looking an expansion in international markets — after a launch in Bangladesh — such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia and South Africa which have the same local language issues such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia and South Africa which have the same local language issues such as India. “Just like here, English is not the first language in those countries and we think we can take the same solutions there.” 

Resource: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

Resource: http://grandiose.org.in/

Singer-actor Gurdas Maan to launch restaurant brand

New Delhi: Punjabi singer-actor Gurdas Maan has partnered with Delhi-based Now Capital firm to launch a restaurant brand The Studio - by Gurdas Maan.

It will highlight both culinary and performing arts, providing a fine-dining experience combined with especially produced and curated live musical performances.

The menu will highlight Punjabi cooking through a 'farm to fork' approach. The music will range from live improvised collaborations between established artistes promoting the organic and natural feel of live music, to planned musical-theatre productions that will feature new and upcoming talent.

"Through my years of recording, performing and travelling, I have been blessed to meet talent from various cultures and backgrounds. I have always wanted to provide a platform to groom, mentor and promote those dedicated to arts," Gurdas said in a statement.

"And throughout my journey, I have always wanted to share with the world -- my cherished childhood memories of the fresh food of the farms in Punjab and the wonderful experiences of newer takes on Indian food I've enjoyed around the globe."

He believes that to create a complete dining experience all senses must be engaged -- "and music helps achieve this. The Studio is the perfect coalescence of my two dreams -- creating a perfect place to celebrate food and music".

Gurdas and the restaurant brand's media partners will do a nationwide talent hunt.

The final selected few will be guided by him and his team. The artistes will be given a chance to perform on the stage at the flagship restaurant and will receive help in recording and launching their album.

Tushar Gulati, partner, Now Capital, said: "Along with the music, we are spending a lot of time and resources on developing a rare high quality food menu featuring freshly ground flour, in-house churned butter and farm fresh produce. Each dish has its own origin story -- be it the chilli chicken from the hinterlands of Punjab, the famous Amritsari chhole or the fusion rice pudding from London -- giving each dish heart and depth."

Sahil Baweja, founder and partner, Now Capital, added that they plan to open the flagship restaurant in the first quarter of 2017 and establish the brand across Delhi, Chandigarh, Punjab and Mumbai before entering international markets.

Resource: http://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Resource: http://grandiose.org.in/

Scatter Solutions will soon tell brands what they should talk about: Rajan Srinivasan

Scatter Solutions, a growing content marketplace, is all set to launch a new content marketing tool for brands this year. 

Scatter is at the forefront of shaping the conversations brands have with the audience. The company was founded by former IBNLive CEO Rajan Srinivasan along with Mahip Singh (Srinivasan’s colleague from Network18). The core team at Scatter comprises Martha d’Souza (Operations), Indraja Punna (Director-Technology), Garima Sharma (VP - Product and Content), and Abishek Sharma (VP - Customer Success).

The company, which is in its third year, is preparing to add a new dimension to content marketing in India - a talking tool that will tell brands what conversations to have with their audience based on the data gathered by listening tools.

Exchange4media caught up with CEO and Founder Rajan Srinivasan for the complete lowdown on Scatter’s journey from 2014 and what is in store for 2017. Excerpts

Where did the idea for Scatter come from?

Scatter in its initial days grew out of the idea “why are brands not using relevant third-party content”. Brands were worried about sharing that content because of the concern about sharing third-party content where a competing brand’s ad might be playing on the page. We wanted to enrich the conversation and take it beyond sale and product launch.

Can Scatter be classified as native advertising?

Content marketing puts the consumer at the centre of the conversation whereas native advertising put the brand at the centre of the conversation. What Scatter does is not advertising at all. Content marketing is about making sure that you have a continuous conversation in an area where your brand/service and where the consumer’s interest overlap.

How is Scatter different from Taboola, Outbrain and the likes?

We actually partner with Taboola, Outbrain etc. There are two sides to content marketing: content creation and content distribution. The relationship between a company like Taboola and us is like a car and a road, we can’t do without each other. Companies like ours help brands make content that is engaging and useful enough to make sure that the distribution platforms are able to take that message forward and complete the whole marketing task.

What kind of content do you create and procure?

Currently we create 90 per cent of the content and syndicate/procure the remaining 10 per cent. And the syndication part is growing. Scatter is format agnostic. We create all kinds of content: text, video, infographic, white papers, reports, how to guides, podcasts… The syndicated content from neutral third party websites helps with more time spent, stickiness, faster refreshing, etc.

What does Scatter have in store for its clients this year?

The talking tool - Scatter Recommends a paid subscription service. We have listening tools that tap into consumer sentiment, with the talking tool we will use the conversations that are taking place to generate meaningful content and initiate relevant conversations to plug into ongoing conversations. We are going to make sure brands never fall short of thing to say. This service will be launched in a 3-4 categories in initial stages. We will be launching this tool before October 2017.

Where does India stand in the content marketing space right now?

Brands in India are already in the field of content marketing and in comparison to global markets India stands fair and square in the centre. Indian brands are very much open to adopting content marketing. Content marketing is where social was in its early days. Today brands are hiring content marketers just like they hire people for the Search and Social teams. In two years we may see a rearrangement in teams, maybe content will be the pivot.

What is your vision for content marketing?

Eventually as content marketers, we want brands to own the audience and be a publisher. Today people are willing to listen to brands sharing meaningful content. A classic example of this is Johnson & Johnson’s babycenter.com.

Tell us about Scatter’s growth over the last three years.

We have gone from a full platform service to a completely human service and now we are at a place where we are both human and platform - which is where we should ideally be. We started out with doing only third-party content and now we are at a stage where maybe only 10 per cent of our content is third party.

We currently have two offices in Delhi and Mumbai. By the end of 2017 we will have another office in Bangalore. The team has grown from 8-20 over the years to currently being a team size of 30. We will be a profitable company this year. At last count we worked with 89 brands across category verticals. Scatter also has a very high incidence of re-purchase - almost 60 per cent. 

Resource: http://www.exchange4media.com

Resource: http://grandiose.org.in/

JNU advises students against organising events violating HC rules

New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has issued a notice advising all stakeholders to refrain from organising any event that is in violation of the rules, regulations and relevant court orders.

"Disciplinary action will be taken as per the university rules against the violators," the notice said.

The notice has come in the wake of an upcoming public meeting that was to be addressed by a Member of Parliament at the Administrative block of the university on Tuesday at 5:30 pm.

The university has also expressed doubt over the possibility of the MP being aware of the interim court orders related to holding such events in the JNU campus.

The notice further said that the invited speaker of Tuesday's event was informed and apprised of the situation.

"The president of the JNU Students Union has also been advised to discourage students from organising such events at prohibited areas in the campus," the notice added.

The JNU has seen unabated turbulent months with several crackdowns resulting in arrests of students and media chaos which led to a state of a crisis in the campus.

Resource: http://www.asianage.com

Resource: http://grandiose.org.in/

IPL 2017: Parineeti Chopra, Tiger Shroff & Shraddha Kapoor to Perform at Opening Ceremonies

New Delhi: Bollywood A-listers like Shah Rukh Khan (also owner of Kolkata Knight Riders), Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone have over the last nine years mesmerized fans across the world during the opening ceremonies of the Indian Premier League. And this year, it is the turn of the upcoming crop of stars like Parineeti Chopra, Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor to set the stage on fire during the 8 separate opening ceremonies across the eight host cities.

IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla had already told Cricketnext on Monday that there would be eight separate opening ceremonies and now it has been learnt that the latest crop of Bollywood stars will perform across Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Gujarat, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Indore.

Apart from Parineeti, Tiger and Shraddha, the likes of Amy Jackson and Riteish Deshmukh are also expected to perform. While Amy is set to perform at the den of the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad, Riteish is expected to perform for the fans of Pune Rising Supergiant.

Speaking to Cricketnext, Ravinder Manchanda, IPL head of events committee of the Delhi and District Cricket Association, confirmed that none other than Ambala girl Parineeti will set the stage ablaze at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium ahead of Delhi Daredevils’ opening game of the tournament on April 15 against Kings XI Punjab.

A Cricket Association of Bengal official said that both Shraddha and Monali Thakur would be wooing the Kolkata Knight Riders fans.

“With Shah Rukh Khan, you never know if he will be part of an impromptu jig if he is present at the Eden Gardens. But as of now, Shraddha and Monali have confirmed their participation. We are very excited and hope to put on a great show,” he said.

Gujarat Lions are set to have the acrobatic Tiger perform stunts as well as Bollywood numbers for the fans in Rajkot.

“We will have the super talented Tiger performing at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium. Apart from him, we will also have Sachin-Jigar and the Ram-Leela fame singer Bhoomi Trivedi. It should be a fascinating night and one that all will remember,” an SCA official said.

A Hyderabad Cricket Association official who is in the know of things said that Amy is set to perform at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal on the opening night of the 10th edition of the cash-rich league.

Interestingly, the Mumbai Cricket Association and the Karnataka State Cricket Association are yet to get the blueprint of the opening ceremonies. While Mumbai Indians play their first home game against KKR on April 9, Royal Challengers Bangalore play their first game at home against Delhi Daredevils on April 8.

Speaking to Cricketnext, a senior KSCA official said: “We have just been told that the event shall be hosted between 6pm and 6:50 pm and that is all that we are aware of. We have not been told anything about the performers and what all can be expected in the show. But we are confident that it will be nothing but the best.”

An MCA official echoed the same sentiments. “We have not been told anything by the organising committee as yet,” is all he said.

With KXIP playing their opening game at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore, the Punjab Cricket Association said they weren’t concerned with the opening ceremony details. On being contacted, the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association said they hadn’t been briefed yet.

Resource: http://www.news18.com

Resourec: http://grandiose.org.in/