Think of 5G as revolutionary foundational tech: Nikhil Rungta, Verizon Media

Nikhil Rungta, Country Manager, India Verizon Media, says 5G will unlock new creative realities led by immersive experiences to redefine brand relationships with consumers

e4m by Nafisa Shaheen
Published: Sep 21, 2020 9:15 AM  | 6 min read
Nikhil Rungta

The recent news of Jio announcing a homegrown 5G solution in India got advertisers and brands drawn to the growing interest in the potential of 5G and what it would lead to. With AR, VR and AI technologies gaining importance by the day, 5G is said to prove to be hugely disruptive for brands and digital advertisers.

In this context, exchange4media spoke to Nikhil Rungta, Country Manager, India Verizon Media, on the revolutionary applications of 5G tech for brands & marketers, and why brands have to start thinking about 5G now.

5G - a game-changer for advertisers & brands

Rungta says a new wireless generation has pushed the boundaries of what is possible in digital advertising. With 4G we got video ads and programmatic but 5G will go far beyond incremental change — it will be a giant leap. “Think of 5G as revolutionary foundational tech, and what it will allow or enable by scaling technologies like Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and AI for mass consumption,” said Rungta. 5G connectivity will supercharge video and immersive experiences, he said. “In the future when you want to compare cars before buying one, it may not require frequent visits to a car dealership or scrolling through flat photos online. Walk into your driveway or garage, digitally place a car and then use your phone to explore the car and its features. You could virtually test drive a car through VR or see how it looks at scale parked in your driveway with AR. With almost no lag time, the user experience will be phenomenal — 5G speeds mainstreaming such data-heavy digital experiences.”

5G will unlock new creative realities led by immersive experiences - the kind that has the power to redefine brand relationships with consumers, Rungta added. “In this increasingly virtual world we live in, marketers will have an endless canvas with 5G to innovative with ad experiences that are exciting and relevant to customers, to offer more opportunities for streamlined, connected advertising messages that are delivered when and where it is most useful to consumers.”

Innovations & Possibilities
The Verizon Media Country Head also put the spotlight on the possibilities and innovations that will be open for marketers with the influx of 5G services in India by next year. “With 5G, advertisers will be able to bring alive truly next-gen digital experiences. While 5G is still around the corner in India, in other markets, advertisers are already harnessing the possibilities. We recently launched ‘Verizon Media Immersive’, the largest online XR platform for advertising and content powered by 5G globally. From AR to VR and Mixed Reality (MR), this platform is allowing advertisers to create and scale one-of-a-kind experiences by seamlessly connecting the physical and digital world, allowing for 3D visualization of products and customer interaction with ads. Creators are utilizing cutting-edge formats ranging from volumetric capture, consumer MEC, motion capture and more.”

He further said that 5G will bring innovation possibilities across the board for marketers. “Next-gen native ads will become more immersive with interactive 360-degree experiences or take streaming as an opportunity. Besides improved viewing, advertisers will also be able to run more seamlessly alongside streaming content. 5G will also accelerate emerging channels such as DOOH and CTV that will benefit from the power, potential for elevated creativity and low latency of 5G.”

Storytelling with 5G
Storytelling is currently a 2D proposition, Rungta said. What 5G will do is allow brands and consumers to shift from a 2D digital world to a 3D digital world — a trend consumers are clearly going to love. According to Rungta millennials and Gen Z users in India, driven by social media apps, are already using XR in photo-enhancing filters and face-distorting lenses and cannot get enough of it. He says another shift will come from the interactivity and how brands can draw consumers into an experience. “Today we ‘watch’ videos. But with 5G, audiences will transition from ‘watching’ to ‘interacting’ — think about all the interactive experiences possible during a major launch or campaign. Advertisers will be able to rethink how to grow a customer’s involvement and engagement through greater interactivity with 5G.”

5G for more personalized solutions?
Rungta believes that with connected devices marketers will be able to understand consumers better and tailor personalized solutions more effectively. “5G will bring 100x more connected devices that will lead to a stronger data proposition. This will be a powerful guide for marketers to understand what consumers want, when they need it delivered, and serve genuine consumer needs through personalized experiences at scale, in real-time. In a 5G future, brands would be able to customize millions of interactive experiences, based on every individual consumer’s unique preferences,” he added.

Solve post-Covid challenges
Explaining about the shift to online, Rungta spoke about the three major trends escalated amidst this shift. “The first is a hunger for unique experiences. With streaming and mobile video products getting a huge lift in India through the pandemic, new audiences are seeking out new and enhanced experiences. The second trend is the rising demand for differentiated content. Content creators now need to stand out, and XR can offer a way to do so. Finally, we are seeing brands adopting new strategies to better connect with consumers in a socially distanced world. In categories such as home decor that previously depended on in-person contact and in-store experience, investing in AR experiences can provide an effective alternative, so a customer goes from browsing to buying even in a lockdown. When mobility is restricted, you can stand in your living room and — through an AR ad experience — digitally place a sofa in the room, seeing how it looks at scale.”

“Normally, the wedding season would be a busy time in India. But now, brides may not want to risk stepping into a store or mall. With AR experiences, they can still try on clothes, make up, and accessories like jewellery, to see the product 3D from every angle and get a fairly close idea of how it looks on them. There’s immense utility and convenience there. 5G has the potential to change shopping as we know it in the post-COVID world,” concluded Rungta.

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YouTube takes down over 22L videos in India

As per Google's transparency report, 9,012,232 videos and 20,592,341 channels were removed between October 2023 and December 2023 for violation of its guidelines

e4m by e4m Staff
Published: Mar 27, 2024 11:40 AM  | 1 min read
Youtube

YouTube has removed 2,254,902 videos in India for violation of its community guidelines, according to Google's transparency report.

In all, the platform has removed 9,012,232 videos and 20,592,341 channels in the October 2023-December 2023 period.

India leads in the number of videos removed on YouTube.

According to the transparency report, a YouTube channel is terminated if it has violated three Community Guidelines in 90 days, has a single case of severe abuse (such as predatory behavior), or is determined to be wholly dedicated to violating the platform's guidelines.

Last week, YouTube announced that it has launched a new tool that will require content creators to disclose to viewers when realistic content is made with generative AI and other altered or synthetic media.

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IBM's Sandip Patel, Vizzhy’s Vishnu Vardhan to headline BW Businessworld Gen AI Summit ’24

Rakuten's Sunil Gopinath will also be speaking today at BW Businessworld Gen AI Summit 2024, to be held at The Imperial, New Delhi

e4m by e4m Staff
Published: Mar 27, 2024 8:44 AM  | 2 min read
IBM Sandip Patel Vizzhy Vishnu Vardhan BW Businessworld Gen AI Summit
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BW Businessworld is thrilled to announce the headline speakers for the upcoming BW Businessworld Gen AI Summit 2024. The summit, themed "Building Generative AI for Bharat: Can India Become the Gen AI Capital of the World?", is poised to delve into India's potential to lead the global conversation on generative artificial intelligence (AI).

The esteemed headline speakers for the summit include:
1.Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India & South Asia
2.Vishnu Vardhan, CEO & Founder, VIZZHY INC
3.Sunil Gopinath, CEO Rakuten India

These distinguished personalities bring a wealth of experience and insights to the summit, promising to enrich discussions and shape the future of AI in India and beyond.

The summit, scheduled for Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at The Imperial, New Delhi, anticipates a diverse delegate profile. Professionals from various fields including generative AI, Machine Learning (ML), information technology, computer sciences, ethics, regulatory affairs, compliance, risk management, marketing, creatives, philanthropy through technology, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, governing bodies, academicians, and users of Gen AI in creatives & arts are welcomed to participate in this transformative dialogue.

In addition to the headline speakers, the summit will feature esteemed speakers such as:
1.Tilakraj Parmar, Co-Founder & CEO, QX Lab AI
2.Tathagat Prakash, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, QX Lab AI
3.Arjun Prasad, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), QX Lab AI
4.Santanu Bhattacharya, Scientist, MIT Media Lab
5.Madhav Bissa, Program Director, NASSCOM AI
6.Deepak Thomas, Founder & CEO, SVAYO
7.Ayush Singhal, Founder & CEO, CodeMate.ai

The BW Businessworld Gen AI Summit 2024 promises to be a pivotal event in shaping the trajectory of AI development in India and fostering collaboration among industry leaders, innovators, and stakeholders.

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Adobe India is in hyper-growth era: Prativa Mohapatra

Prativa Mohapatra, VP & MD, Adobe India, spoke to e4m on the sidelines of the Adobe Annual Summit in Las Vegas that saw Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen launching a Gen AI app for marketers

e4m by Naziya Alvi Rahman
Published: Mar 27, 2024 8:17 AM  | 3 min read
Prativa Mohapatra Adobe India Las Vegas

The past few years have been a period of 'hyper-growth' for Adobe's digital media and digital experience business, said Prativa Mohapatra, Vice President & Managing Director of Adobe India, during an interaction with e4m on the sidelines of the annual Adobe Summit being held in Las Vegas, on March 26 and 27.

Although specific figures were not disclosed, Mohapatra mentioned that Adobe witnessed double-digit growth in India in 2023. "We are observing fantastic adoption of our creative suite of products. We have seen notable usage among top banks such as HDFC, ICICI and Axis Bank, as well as airlines like Air India, Indigo and Vistara," she added.

Mohapatra also noted some sectors are yet to fully leverage Adobe products, namely heavy industries, the healthcare sector and B2B businesses, which are still hesitant to experiment with MarTech. "While B2C companies have largely been early adopters, B2B adoption remains in progress. Although hospitals and healthcare in a few mature markets have embraced our products, there is room for growth in India," she remarked.

The automotive sector, according to Mohapatra, is now showing increased interest in MarTech. "After banking and airlines, we anticipate our third wave of collaboration with auto companies. We are currently in the process of finalizing several deals, which we will announce soon. With FMCG, our operations are predominantly global," she stated.

“World over, businesses are prioritizing their digital investments to improve marketing agility and customer engagement, while driving growth and profitability. Adobe products are playing an essential role in driving the digital economy. We’re excited to be joined by our customers and partners from India, as we showcase our next in line innovations that will pave the way for customer experiences of the future,” Mohapatra added.

The Adobe Summit commenced on Tuesday morning with a keynote session by Adobe Global CEO Shantanu Narayen, who made several key announcements and spoke of Adobe's collaboration with other companies, particularly those working with generative artificial intelligence and about establishing broad industry standards.

"Responsible innovation cannot be an afterthought. We are actively combatting misinformation by advocating for content credentials as an industry standard to establish trust in digital content," Narayen, also Chairman and President of the company, affirmed.

He further explained how GenStudio, which builds upon Adobe’s generative artificial intelligence model released the previous year, is enabling planning, creation, management, and measurement of campaigns.

Anil Chakravarthy, President of Digital Experience Business at Adobe, highlighted the transformative potential of generative AI in reshaping brand-customer relationships and driving profitable growth while delivering new digital experiences.

Last year, Adobe launched Firefly, its image generation model, with plans to expand it to video, audio, and 3D model generation. Speaking of the reception of Firefly in India, Mohapatra noted that there was significant initial interest followed by gradual adoption. "India is an experimental market. While Firefly initially received maximum attention in India, purchasing decisions take time here. Many digital marketing organisations have licensed Firefly in the past year, positioning themselves as early adopters. Additionally, some tech companies have also embraced it. As we move towards Firefly Image Model 2, we anticipate even higher quality images and pictures for our clients," Mohapatra concluded.

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Admatazz bags social media and SEO mandate for Boss Appliances

The account was won following a multi-agency pitch

e4m by e4m Staff
Published: Mar 26, 2024 2:49 PM  | 1 min read
admatazz

Admatazz, a Mumbai-based digital agency, has bagged the integrated social media and SEO marketing mandate of Boss Appliances.

As part of the mandate, Admatazz will handle the creative communications of the brand across social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to elevate social presence along with boosting organic traffic.

Speaking on the account win, Yash Chandiramani, Founder and Chief Strategist at Admatazz, said, “We are glad to add Boss Appliances to our roster. As we grow as a company, we look to partner with brands who believe in our methods and approach, and we are glad Boss Appliances entrusted their digital presence duties to us. Our key aim is to strengthen the brand's digital presence by curating interesting content that can be made in this category and increasing the brand's reach and audience engagement.”

Vidhi Gala, Director of Marketing at Boss Appliances added, "As a brand that has been present for over four decades, we have always moved forward with the times, and as we see the digital and social media space grow rapidly and consumers become more active, we realise the need to strengthen our online presence. With Admatazz, we are glad to find like-minded agency partners who are enthusiastic and excited to build our brand as we do. We look forward to our association with them.”

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Adobe unveils suite of AI-first applications for brands

The company has announced major updates in Adobe Experience Cloud and Adobe Creative Cloud that help brands activate generative AI to deliver customer value

e4m by e4m Staff
Published: Mar 26, 2024 9:35 PM  | 6 min read
Adobe Summit

The Adobe Summit unveiled a suite of innovations for the enterprise that will empower brands to activate generative AI in how they create, deliver and measure customer experiences.

The products expand the Customer Experience Management (CXM) solutions that enterprises have relied on to bring data, content, and customer journeys together to delight customers and build loyalty over time.

“Generative AI enables a fundamental shift in the relationship between brands and their customers, creating a transformative moment for business leaders to drive profitable growth while delivering new digital experiences,” said Anil Chakravarthy, president, Digital Experience Business at Adobe. “The ability to personalize every interaction has become the key growth driver in Customer Experience Management for enterprises around the world, and Adobe is leading the way in making this a reality with powerful generative AI deeply integrated into existing workflows.”

GenStudio

With Adobe GenStudio, Adobe is unveiling a new generative AI-first application that empowers brands (and users of various skill levels) to create content, access brand-approved assets, measure performance of campaigns, and more. With connections across Adobe Experience Cloud and Adobe Creative Cloud applications, it provides everything a team needs to address their organization’s Content Supply Chain, which is an end-to-end business process that every company needs to deliver the content required for marketing campaigns and personalized customer experiences.

For most organizations, however, their content supply chain is a web of disconnected workflows, teams and systems that often break down. At the same time, the demand for content that is personalized and engaging is exploding.

GenStudio capabilities span:

⦁ Workflow & Planning: Allows users to track and view campaigns, manage campaign briefs, see tasks assigned to them, and more. GenStudio also connects directly to applications such as Adobe Workfront, Adobe’s project management software.

⦁ Creation & Production: Brands can find images and generate variations through Adobe Firefly, along with Custom Models that fine tune Adobe Firefly with a brand’s own assets, to ensure that content is on-brand. This unlocks personalization at scale for content creation and production, eliminating manual tasks.

⦁ Asset Management: A content hub allows users to easily find assets across their organization. It connects GenStudio with Adobe Experience Manager Assets—a leading digital asset management system used by brands to manage their library of images, videos and other content—where any user can search for an asset and also create personalized variations with Firefly in Adobe Express, the all-in-one content creation application.

⦁ Delivery and Activation: Brands can create different variations of marketing assets for different distribution channels, with copy that is both audience-centric and on-brand. Users will be alerted if content is not on-brand, with suggestions on how to remedy it.

⦁ Insights & Reporting: GenStudio provides a feedback loop for brands to understand which generated assets and campaigns are performing best, down to the attribute level. These attributes can then be used to inform generative AI prompts. GenStudio is also connected to Adobe Customer Journey Analytics, to drive a holistic measurement of customer experiences across channels such as web and mobile.

In addition to GenStudio, Adobe is also unveiling generative AI capabilities in specific applications such as Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Sites, a content management system that enables brands to create high-performance pages across any digital property (from web to mobile to apps). With the new AEM Sites variant generation, brands can take a single marketing asset and create numerous variations of copy that speak to different audiences. Teams can take a web page for instance and generate variants where the copy is personalized for target personas across different industries, job roles, age groups, and more.

And with the new Adobe Content Analytics, brands can understand the performance of AI-generated content, down to the attribute level. The system can analyze and pinpoint elements (colors, objects, styles) that resonate with target audiences, providing a necessary feedback loop to ensure that AI-generated content also aligns with business goals.

Adobe unveils Adobe Experience Platform AI Assistant

The Adobe Experience Platform AI Assistant enables brands to boost the productivity of teams involved with delivering a great customer experience. It democratizes access to a broader set of users, while also helping individuals spur new ideas. This is made possible through a simple conversational interface that can answer technical questions and will automate tasks, simulate outcomes and generate new audiences and journeys within Adobe Experience Cloud applications.

Users can ask questions to uncover high-performing customer segments for instance—or ask the AI Assistant to create a segment that is more likely to embrace a certain promotional offer. This can then be leveraged to drive widescale personalization campaigns. The AI Assistant can also help users leverage Adobe’s enterprise applications more effectively, through querying support materials in Adobe Experience League.

Adobe Experience Platform AI Assistant brings all this to life with generative AI and a powerful conversational interface, as well as Adobe’s Generative Experience Models that bring together Large Language Models and Adobe’s product knowledge with unique insights based on customer data, campaigns, audiences and business goals—all in a brand-safe way and with a privacy-first mindset.

New capabilities in customer journey orchestration

Adobe also announced Adobe Experience Cloud innovations that empower brands to enhance customer engagement by orchestrating impactful cross-channel journeys. A new unified experimentation capability enables brands to increase the volume of tests to pinpoint customer paths that maximize conversion and drive reuse of offers across channels. Brands can support experimentation across content, channels and audiences, with machine learning models, and centralized administration to push winners and resolve conflicts.

New capabilities in Adobe Journey Optimizer bring together brand-initiated and customer-initiated interactions within a journey. This ensures that as brands interact with consumers on channels such as the web, social media and mobile, any real-time changes in user behavior or preferences are captured, triggering new experiences.

Adobe also unveiled Adobe Journey Optimizer B2B Edition, a new enterprise application built on Adobe Experience Platform. This enables sales and marketing teams to target specific buying groups within customer accounts, a departure from broad based marketing. It leverages unified data in Adobe Experience Platform and generative AI to personalize the journey, through a web chat bot for instance.

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Mirum India bags digital mandate for ibis Hotels

Mirum India will amplify ibis Hotels' digital presence

e4m by e4m Staff
Published: Mar 26, 2024 12:08 PM  | 2 min read
Mirum India ibis Hotels

Mirum India has won the digital mandate for ibis Hotels.

Under this mandate, Mirum India will be the digital and social media agency of record (AOR) for ibis Hotels.

Commenting on the partnership, Animesh Kumar, Commercial head - ibis & ibis Styles India, shared, “The partnership with Mirum India, marks a strategic move for ibis Hotels in our journey to reinforce our digital presence and connect more deeply with our audience. As we embark on this journey, we're committed to leveraging innovative digital strategies not only to amplify our presence but also to cultivate a vibrant digital community. Together with Mirum India, we aim to create immersive experiences that resonate with our guests, fostering lasting connections, and enhancing the essence of ibis Hotels.”

Mirum India will play an important role in amplifying ibis Hotels' digital presence through strategic planning, media, production, and execution of comprehensive digital marketing campaigns.

Mihir Karkare, Managing Director, Mirum India, expressed his excitement about the new partnership, "If we look at the recent stats, domestic tourism is expected to bounce back to the pre-pandemic levels by 2024–25, with foreign tourist arrivals increasing by 435% over the next three years. With the opportunity that it presents for the Indian tourism sector, I believe this partnership couldn't have happened at a better time. The team is fueled with determination to elevate ibis Hotels' digital presence to even greater heights. Together, we're set to create a captivating digital landscape that will enable ibis Hotels to foster deeper connections with its audience and build brand loyalty."

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MIB tells social media influencers to refrain from showing ads of gambling platforms

The failure to do so will invite action under the provisions of Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which could be removal of social media posts/accounts and penal action under the applicable statutes

e4m by e4m Staff
Published: Mar 21, 2024 4:37 PM  | 2 min read
social media

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued an advisory to all endorsers and influencers on social media instructing them to refrain from showing promotional content/advertisements, including surrogate advertisements, of offshore online betting and gambling platforms in any form.

“While the online advertisement intermediaries are advised not to target such content towards Indian audience, the social media intermediaries are advised to conduct sensitization efforts among their users to refrain from publishing such content,” read a directive from the government.

The notice informed that the failure to do so will invite action under the provisions of Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which could be removal/disabling of social media posts/accounts where such promotional content/advertisements/endorsements are being published, and penal action under the applicable statutes.

The ministry mentioned that the move is being taken in view of the significant financial and socio-economic implications of online betting and gambling on consumers, particularly the youth.

“The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), vide Advisory dated 06.03.2024 (copy enclosed), while referring to the predominant illegality of offshore online betting and gambling platforms in most regions across the country and provisions of the Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements 2022, has expressed concerns regarding endorsements of such betting/gambling platforms by celebrities and influencers to endorse and promote their betting activities, and cautioned that any advertisement or endorsement, whether directly or indirectly, of activities which are otherwise prohibited by law, including but not limited to betting or gambling, through advertisements or promotions, shall be subject to rigorous scrutiny,” the directive mentioned.

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