Weekly Shorts: Three most interesting things in influencer marketing this week

While personal care has always been among the top ten violating categories, in the past two years, it has risen to the top three on account of high volumes of ads violating ASCI’s guidelines. The launch of influencer guidelines in May 2021 along with ASCI’s proactive monitoring using AI-based tools has added to the increased number of ads under scrutiny. (Representative image via Unsplash)

What’s buzzing in influencer marketing and the creator ecosystem? What’s the next big thing coming down the line? Catch the big trends and hot topics in our weekly shorts.

Digital Advertising in the age of Insta Reels and YouTube Shorts: Make short-form video a strategic tool in marketing arsenals in 2023

Considering the fast-paced lives that people live these days and their declining attention span, they prefer swift, fun content that takes the thought out of choosing what to watch. Short-form video apps in India are looking to capitalise on revenue prospects between $12–19 billion by 2030. (Representative image via Unsplash)

Short-form video sector is expected to reach an MAU of 550-600 million, about 67 percent of all smartphone users, by 2025.

ONDC and impact on Marketers: E-commerce sector in India is about to be revolutionised

On the back of this extensive Network, the brand aims to cater to several pin codes across 20+ states in India in the coming months. (Representational image via Unsplash)

ONDC is an autonomous open network ecosystem that will act as a catalyst that connects buyers and sellers across categories, giving the access to e-commerce facilities.

Machine-made biryani is here! How startup food brands are adding robotics to menus

In the next few years, these kinds of machines would possibly be seen in households as well. For instance, Up, stylised as Up⤴, a consumer hardware startup founded by Mahek Mody and Mohit Sharma, has piloted a machine that can help prepare food with minimal fuss and in double-quick time. The device, called delishUp and comes with an app, and it can chop, stir and generally prepare food faster.(Representative image via Unsplash)

Restaurants, cloud kitchens and corporate offices are increasingly relying on machines to prepare food so that it’s faster, cheaper and removes human dependency, among other benefits. A few Indian startups like Mukunda Foods, Xook and On2Cook are trying to build the so-called food-as-a-service (FaaS) business by adding robotics to the kitchen menu. These machines guarantee to prepare food faster with consistency without or minimal human labour.

Google Year In Search 2022: IPL, Brahmastra and KGF 2, Droupadi Murmu, Rishi Sunak, NFT, Metaverse among top searches in India

India dominated sports trends worldwide, securing all top 5 slots in the global trending matches list. Football saw similar excitement, with searches for the ongoing FIFA World Cup peaking this year and making it to the trending searches of the year, along with the Indian Super League.

Women’s sports moments also found a place in the top search trends.

Rana Daggubati slams Indigo: How impactful are celebrities’ negative reviews of brands?

Actor Rana Daggubati recently took to Twitter to post about his sour experience with Indigo airlines. The actor reportedly had a tough time at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad after the airline misplaced his luggage. He said it was ‘India’s worst airline experience'. (Image source: via Twitter - @Thyview)

Decoding the impact of criticism from a much-loved celebrity versus a common man’s review, on a brand’s reputation.

Brain Matters: Marketing, decision making and the psychology of smell

The psychology of smell reveals a lot about the way we interpret our environments and make decisions. Why is smell so primal? Maybe because it is the only sense that is more or less in a ‘developed’ state during our time in the womb. Our abilities of touch, taste, hearing are at the bare minimum. As for sight, we are yet to open our eyes at this stage. (Representational image via Unsplash)

From the sweet, sweet smell of success to the stink of a failure, we’ve always used our sense of smell to convey, in rich visual imagery, what’s going on in our mind. It begs to ask. To what extent does our sense of smell affect our decision making?

The rise of South Indian Cinema: How Southern movies are going national

An important factor contributing to the rise in its viewership is the way films are being marketed. For instance, KGF’s lead actor Yash travelled to different parts of India to promote the film. To further build the hype, he also engaged with bloggers and YouTubers. This was something the northern belt saw only happening for Bollywood films. Similarly, item numbers from these films also reached out to a much wider audience than ever before. Oo Antava Mawa from Pushpa, for instance enjoyed equal popularity among fans who loved and praised Arijit Singh’s Kesariya number from Brahmastra.

South Indian films now contribute more to overall box office collections than Bollywood offerings.

Bharat Jodo Yatra and Brand RaGa: Will India see a Rahul 2.0 before 2024?

For Rahul Gandhi, in many ways, the Bharat Jodo Yatra is a discovery of India. For some reason the Gandhi scion has always had an elitist, touch-me-not image. The Yatra will surely give him more mass appeal and make him more familiar. Image source: bharatjodoyatra.in

With the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi is trying to shed his past image, says experts

Advertising revenue growth for 2022 is likely to be 15.8% in India, GroupM

Growth in global OOH this year will amount to 2.2 percent globally (excluding U.S. political spending), or 18.1 per cent on an excluding-China basis. Audio is projected to grow 3.8 per cent globally in 2022 (excluding U.S. political advertising) and decelerate to 1.3 percent growth in 2023. (Representative image via Unsplash)

In its “This Year Next Year 2022” global end of year forecast, the agency states that retail media in India is forecast at $551 million in 2022 and is expected to nearly double by 2027.