Author: Kashmeera Sambamurthy

Lost wonder? Will Wunderman Thompson regain the glory of its JWT days?

Stalwarts who shaped JWT India include Morris Mathias, Subhas Ghoshal, Mike Khanna, Colvyn Harris, Gerson da Cunha, Subroto Sengupta, Syeda Imam, Ivan Arthur, Ram Ray and Sumantra Ghosal. Creative minds that came out of the agency include Swati Bhattacharya (currently at FCB), Bobby Pawar (now group creative chief at Havas), Agnello Dias (former founder and chief creative officer of Taproot Dentsu) and Anuja Chauhan (author). (Representative Image: Tormius via Unsplash)

In chasing its digital-first ambitions, industry executives say Wunderman Thompson is stumbling, even as it eyes winning new business and acquisitions. While WT is transforming, the question is into what and at what cost?

#TBH: Churn, course correction marks OTT industry version 2.0

OTT is tuned into for specific programming, so ads are more likely to be consumed because they are fewer and unskippable at the start and middle of programming.(Representative Image: Bastian Riccardi via Unsplash)

The industry is expected to touch $ 11-13 billion by 2030 and the primary driver for growth will be paid subscriptions or SVoD (subscription video-on-demand) segment slated to jump from 85-90 million to 160-165 million by 2027.

Everyone from HR to R&D should do sales, says Adobe India MD Prativa Mohapatra. Find out why

Adobe India's MD, Prativa Mohapatra says, "I will take the liberty and say, everyone right from HR to R&D, should do a sales job. It’s important for everyone to understand what a brand stands for, what they sell. It gives you a lot of clarity and changes your perception about the realities of the business when you meet real consumers."

Adobe India MD Mohapatra shares her thoughts on the India advantage, role of sales and marketing, CEO-CMO partnerships.

Adobe to pay creators using its AI tools; CEO Shantanu Narayen says generative AI is a co-pilot to human ingenuity

Digital Media segment revenue was $3.82 billion, which represents 12 percent year-over-year growth or 13 percent in constant currency. Creative revenue grew to $3.07 billion, representing 11 percent year-over-year growth or 12 percent in constant currency. Document Cloud revenue was $750 million, representing 18 percent year-over-year growth as reported and in constant currency.

Chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Adobe, Shantanu Narayen, on the company’s vision to engage experience-led growth for brands, enrich creativity through its AI tools.

MX Player’s Nikhil Gandhi quits the Times-owned streamer

If the deal does go through, Amazon Prime Video's customer base could increase fourfold as MX Player has an estimated 78 million users, while Amazon has around 28 million users in India.

Nikhil Gandhi’s departure from MX Player coincides with the company’s acquisition talks with Amazon.

Adobe bets big on generative AI; announces new services and partnerships with Accenture, NVIDIA

In a recent Adobe study 88 percent of brands said content demand at least doubled over the last year and two-thirds expect it to grow 5X over the next two years. Adobe is leveraging generative AI to ease this burden with solutions for smarter solutions.

At Adobe Summit 2023, the company debuted new Adobe Sensei GenAI services, including Adobe Firefly – a new family of creative generative AI models. We bring you the highlights.

Quick Take: Is JioCinema’s free streaming of IPL attracting advertisers to concentrate on one platform?

This year's IPL is expected to not only increase digital audience bandwidth but also overall ad revenues. According to a KPMG-CII report, the digital revenue for sports is projected to grow from Rs 1540 crore in FY21 to Rs 4360 crore in FY26, with a CAGR of 22 per cent. (Still from the ad)

The availability of free IPL streaming on JioCinema is proving irresistible to advertisers this year, leading to a shift in focus towards the platform and the potential for some marketers to exclusively choose JioCinema for their IPL ad spends.

Dalveer Singh quits WPP-owned GroupM’s Dialogue Factory

Prior to joining WPP, Dalveer Singh was the senior vice president at Reliance ADAG. In 2006, he set out to help Reliance ADAG in setting up a specialized Experiential Marketing Force dedicated to market and category expansion for individual businesses.

Dalveer Singh has been associated with the group for 14 years. He was responsible for shaping GroupM’s experiential marketing agency Dialogue Factory.

Media Mavens: ‘Media planning is about capitalising consumer trends and unearthing unique opportunities,’ says Alliance’s V Narayanan

As per Alliance’s V Narayanan, some of the key challenges are: Consumers reach getting more f-r-a-g-m-e-n-ted, building top of mind awareness for a brand in a fiercely contested market place is a huge challenge to procure in a digital world. Further, consumer trust is declining and it is getting more and more difficult to sustain loyalty.

V Narayanan, CEO of Delhi-based Alliance, believes the new formula – C (Creative) x D (data) = CE (Consumer Experience), will change how media planning works.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz steps down, Laxman Narasimhan assumes leadership ahead of schedule

“We're going to have, early this year here in India, the Starbucks Reserve Monsooned Malabar. This is going to be in all US stores in the middle of the year.”(Image source: CNBC-TV18)

The announcement of his official appointment has come as a surprise, as Starbucks had previously indicated that the transition would not be complete until the end of March, with Narasimhan assuming full duties in April.