Month: February 2023

Cleartrip CEO Ayyappan R: No one expected this kind of resurgence in travel demand

On February 20, Storyboard18 reported that the former CEO of Cleartrip was expected to leave the firm. During his tenure, Ayyappan was also responsible for overseeing and driving the travel players' brand initiatives.

Ayyappan R, CEO, Cleartrip talks to Storyboard18’s Delshad Irani about revenge travel, key consumer trends, expectations, Flipkart and more.

The Kartik Aaryan brand needs serious disruption for it to remain relevant

The Kartik Aaryan brand needs serious disruption for it to remain relevant. Thinking at the level of creative storytelling and making him a part of a cinematic universe rather than creating universes for him is, perhaps, a clever starting point. (Image source - still from Doritos commercial featuring Kartik Aaryan)

A good place to start might be to look at films that make Kartik Aaryan a part of their cinematic universe rather than building the universe of the film around a star.

Piramal Finance’s marketing chief Arvind Iyer: Building a brand has become democratic, which wasn’t the case 15 years ago

"There's a whole new wave of careers that juxtaposes tech and marketing. We are looking for people who can apply their minds to being a well-rounded growth marketer when it comes to building both organic and paid channels. And within that, there are a lot of sub-skill sets by way of content, design, and things like that. Brands that have been doing a lot of interesting work bootstrapping some of these roles," says Arvind Iyer, head-marketing, Piramal Capital & Housing Finance.

Arvind Iyer, head-marketing, Piramal Capital & Housing Finance talks about his learnings, taking inspiration from D2C brands and why hiring candidates with tech and marketing background has become a new trend.

Wavemaker India introduces a new unit to provide solutions for D2C brands

Wavemaker’s modular approach will also allow brands to only pick specific solutions that they wish to optimise for. Additionally, Wavemaker will also launch a separate program that will work with D2C start-ups to help scale demand and operations. (Representative Image: Jonathan Kemper via Unsplash)

As a part of the mandate, Wavemaker will consult and implement its end-to-end solution toolkit for brands to simplify strategy and deployment for the many moving parts of a D2C channel.

Indian B2B buyers wish for more ‘compressed commerce’: Wunderman Thompson Report

Indian B2B buyers are more likely to buy from a supplier that inspires them. The most commonly used source of inspiration was suppliers’ websites and mobile sites (39% and 40% respectively), followed by suppliers’ apps (35% for both categories of purchase). When it comes to starting the B2B buying process, the report revealed that 67% of all B2B buyers start their purchase journeys online with Indian B2B buyers ranking the highest. (Representative image by Taylor Simpson via Unsplash)

According to Wunderman Thompson, Indian B2B buyers are most frustrated after switching their suppliers in the last 12 months. They are more likely to buy from a supplier that inspired them.

Gaming industry lawyer appeals to PMO to retain 18 percent GST on platform fees for online gaming

Imposing a 28 per cent tax liability on the companies for provisioning of such services would be tantamount to equating luxury goods with that of products of daily use and will invariably make this otherwise affordable commodity to increase in its value and cost, that is passed on to the end users. (Representative image by Jon Tyson via Unsplash)

The appeal says increased tax burden will be detrimental to the industry’s growth, leading to job losses and investment decrease in sector.

WPP and BigCommerce ink partnership to offer brands omnichannel solutions

The Man Company's Jatin Luthra, brand marketing head stated, "By teaming up with Megalodon, we are confident that we can take our creative strategies to the next level and continue to provide our customers with exceptional experiences." (Image via Unsplash)

As BigCommerce’s inaugural data partner, WPP will receive priority access to alpha and beta products as well as platform integrations including Amazon, Meta, Google and TikTok.

IEC has improved advertising standards for companies: Divya Gokulnath, co-founder, Byju’s

“We wanted to learn from our mistakes and I am happy to share that right from advertising standards to the way in which we communicate our offerings to students to the way in which we service them, on all these parameters, we have improved as a collective body.” - Divya Gokulnath, co-founder, Byju's (Representative Image via LinkedIn)

Divya Gokulnath’s comments on the IEC improving advertising standards come at a time when her company, Byju’s, has come under fire for alleged mis-selling of courses from parents and students.

Civil services, tech most desired professions among men during matchmaking: Shaadi.com

Contrary to popular narratives, age hits men harder in matchmaking and men after the age of 34-35 yrs find it hard to find matches. There are over 6,500 active members on Shaadi.com, who are aged over 60 years and are keen to give love a second chance. In fact, the oldest members on Shaadi.com are 79 years (male) and 72 years (female). (Representative Image: Rinck Content Studio via Unsplash)

Jobs in civil services and tech are most desired among men, while aviation professionals and architects are most desired among women.