Author: Kashmeera Sambamurthy

Trends to shape business to consumer conversations in 2024

As conversations become platforms for both marketing and commerce, the trends that will most influence brand-consumer dialogues center around customization and interactivity. (Image source: Unsplash)

To deepen engagement, brands must harness emerging technologies like generative AI for delivering truly customized recommendations and experiences. Adopting these tools to power conversational commerce allows brands to mirror the human relationships consumers seek even at scale, writes Gupshup’s Vartika Verma.

MAdtech Point: Data Clean Rooms as the curator in the digital advertising supply chain

With curation, publishers will be able to collaborate with data providers, brands, and retailers in a privacy compliant manner to build PMPs, package their first-party data with inventory from third-party publishers to sell to buyers. (Representative Image: PAN XIAOZHEN via Unsplash)

Curation shifts the power to leverage, back to the publisher from the DSPs and SSPs and rightfully help the publishers take control over not only their data, but also their partners data, including the advertiser. Clean Rooms as the Curator offers five significant commercial advantages, writes Gowthaman Ragothaman.

RK Swamy’s core is in the space of marketing, which will never change: Shekar Swamy

Shekar Swamy, chief executive officer, RK Swamy Hansa told Storyboard18, “We have expectations from ourselves that we will be more efficient, service our clients better, and have more initiatives in the works that we have already outlined. In a nutshell, the expectation is that the company will be able to meet the demands of our clients in this professional services space.” (Image source: YouTube)

In a press conference that was held today, RK Swamy launched its price band for its upcoming IPO, and outlined plans for the future.

51 percent retailers prioritizing investment in the retail media space: Criteo

The study revealed that 83 percent of publishers globally are open to tap into retail media ad spend by embedding products on their web pages, opening up more inventory opportunities for offsite campaigns. (Image source: Unsplash)

As per Criteo’s “The Great Defrag: how commerce media will unite advertising in 2024” report, 43 percent are also working to meet demands for retail media in-store, such as digital screens and point of sale displays in physical stores

TikTok’s global marketing head Jessica Wong departs

Jessica Wong began her career at University of California, and went on to work across Sony Pictures Television International, PromaxBDA and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Jessica Wong, who took up the position of global head of marketing in May 2021, looked after category and community marketing across entertainment, music, sports and gaming, grew non-traditional marketing initiatives and led branded marketing campaigns with organisations and influencers.

DailyHunt in talks to acquire homegrown app Koo

In 2o23, Koo had integrated OpenAI’s ChatGPT to help users in creation of posts. (Image source: News18)

Mayank Bidawatka, founder, Koo, had announced in September 2023, that Koo was looking for fundraising opportunities or tie-up with a strategic partner, in order to help scale its operations.

Kellogg’s Gary Pilnick’s ‘cereals for dinner’ statement sparks controversy

Carl Quintanilla, the host of CNBC, asked Gary Pilnick if encouragement to consider cereal for dinner could ‘land the wrong way’. He was quick to add that ‘In fact, it’s landing really well right now’, stated a media report.

Gary Pilnick added to CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla that the price of a bowl of cereal with milk and fruit costs less than a dollar, in response to the rising food prices that have left consumers concerned.

Layoffs: Bumble to cut 350 roles

Bumble competes with Match Group, whose target audience are young users. In a post earnings call, Jones highlighted that Bumble would relaunch its eponymous app. The company would also revamp its premium plus offering, stated an ET report. (Image source: Bumble)

It is expected that the company will incur about $20 million to $25 million in one-time charges through the layoff process.

RK Swamy’s price band for IPO set between Rs 270 – Rs 288 a share

The funds will be used to continue deepening SingleInterface's portfolio of hyperlocal marketing, engagement, and commerce products, particularly around advanced audience segmentation and personalized re-engagement. It also plans to use the capital to build its portfolio of AI-driven products. (Representative Image: markus Winkler via Unsplash)

On the upper band price, the total size of the issue will be at Rs 423 crore and the total market capitalisation of RK Swamy Limited is at Rs 1,450 crore.

RK Swamy Limited to announce price band for upcoming IPO

Ahead of the IPO, the company raised Rs 187.22 crore through its anchor book on March 1. Nippon Life India was the largest institutional investor in the anchor book, picking Rs 50.03 crore worth of shares followed by Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Company, which bought Rs 20 crore worth of shares.

The company is the first integrated marketing service group to go public in India.