The mobile internet ban in Gujarat last month resulted in many a businesses taking a hit. One case specific to the Gujarat event industry is that of the 2nd edition of ACE 2015, organized by Event Management Federation, which was rescheduled due to this development. ACE that stands for Awards, Convention and Exhibit was eventually held across 10 and 11 October at YMCA Convention Centre in Ahmedabad. ACE 2015 was inaugurated by film Director Ramesh Sippy, Event & Entertainment Management Association President Sabbas Joseph and Prince Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar of HRH Group Udaipur. Smile&Soul was the title sponsor of the event. Day 1 featured speakers like Mohammed Morani, MD, Cineyug, Vijay Subramaniam, Director, CAA Kwan, Jaideep Singh of Live Viacom18, Shaju Ignatius from The Times Group and Pratap Bose, Co-founder, The Social Street. Singer Neha Kakkar entertained the audience right into the afterhours. Day 2 kicked off with a compelling motivational speech by PujyaBrahmavihari Swami targeted specifically at the event fraternity and on the topic ‘Performing under Pressure’. Weddings and Social events was the focus of the subsequent two panel discussions that featured Hemant Kale of Swaha WMC, Keyur Patel of Prasang Events, Swati Pandya Sood of Ferns and Petals and Nitin Arora of Katalyst Entertainment. Tarsamme Mittal of TM Talent Management and Vijay Subramaniam of CAA Kwan were part of the concluding panel focused atthinking global when managing talent, after which the house was set on fire with electrifying performances byLauren Gotlieb, Raftaar, Manj Music and NindyKaur. The two-day event ended with an awards ceremony hosted by Emcee Gitikka Ganju and Nitin Arora recognizing the best work by the event’s community in Gujarat. [caption id="attachment_21174" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Raftaar, Music Manj, Nindy Kaur[/caption] The list of winners across 13 categories is as follows: Best use of Technology Gold- Zion Unlimited Gold- RSP Events Silver- Go Bananas Bronze- Invasion Best BTL Activation Gold- Awoke Events Silver- All About Ads Bronze- Mascot Events Best Corporate Event Gold- Markcom Silver- Perfect Planners Bronze- Go Bananas Best CSR Event Gold- Seven Inks Gold- U&I Resources Silver- All About Ads Bronze- All About Ads Best Exhibition & Trade Fair Gold- RC Events Silver- Mudra Events Bronze- Brahmani Events Best Festival Event Gold- Go Bananas Silver- Krish Events Bronze- Shilpagaya Events Best Government Event Gold- Go Bananas Silver- Markcom Bronze- Prowess Productions Best Innovation at an Event Gold- Go Bananas Silver- Main Hoon Na Bronze- U&I Resources Best Religious Social Event Gold- Laksh Events Silver- Innovative Events Bronze- Prasol Events Bronze- Shilpagaya Events Best Special Event Gold- Gypsy Events Silver- Prayog Silver- A3 Cube Events Bronze- Blue Events Bronze- Shilpagaya Events
Read More
PK Online the provider of digital media solutions has recently developed a one stop destination for all entertainment needs providing LiveTV streaming as well as large library of videos ranging from news, viral, movies, music, comedy and Bollywood etc. HelloTV updates the video library everyday with fresh and trending videos to deliver daily dose of entertainment to its loyal set of users. HelloTV was launched with the intent of making entertainment accessible to Indians browsing the internet on Mobile. Its vision is to provide curated, wholesome and relevant content to the Indian audience. It has over 100 live TV channels, 1000 blockbuster movies and over 10000 entertaining videos across popular languages and multiple genres. With over 1 million Android App installs, it has a significant active user base. To make sure that its users always get the best library of entertainment, PK Online works with over 150 content partners -broadcasters, movie studios and digital video partners alike. To increase audience participation, HelloTV has enabled its user to contribute videos by simply sharing their clips on 8822288222 through WhatsApp. This option was promoted through HelloTV videos and social media. HelloTV team has received a very encouraging and overwhelming response with over 1 Lakh users contributing to around 3 lakh videos till date! The editorial team of HelloTV thoroughly surfs through the submitted videos and curates them based on quality and relevance. To acknowledge users’ contribution, HelloTV has created a separate section on the portal called “Viewer’s Choice” where all the user submitted videos are showcased. In addition to the above, HelloTV has many digital content producers who reach out to them to showcase their content. In the near future, HelloTV will soon be creating specific sections to publish professional contributions and help producers distribute and monetize their content. Roadmap includes multi-lingual support for 7 plus native Indian languages. Unlimited entertainment is what HelloTV strives for and hence there are no limitations on users’ browsing and accessing of content. Although most of the content on HelloTV is absolutely free, one can also subscribe to the premium content at a very affordable price. Commenting on this development, Cauvery Adiga, COO, PK Online said,” In the age where digital audience is keen to participate and voice their opinions, HelloTV strives to become the destination of choice. We want to cater to diverse content needs of Indian audience and also avoid clutter. We are the only video destination which caters to service both the needs of a typical user during the day- daily curated videos, as well as a more leisurely LiveTV experience anytime during the day. With cheaper smart phones and higher data penetration, HelloTV aspires to become the preferred destination for the emerging digital audience in India.
Read More
Over the last decade, the world is observed to be more aware about charitable causes and issues that affect society as a whole. As a result, one can see a large number of charitable events and fundraising galas being organized on a regular basis. However, most charities, especially the ones that are just starting out, don’t have the budget to hire a party planning expert or have really smaller budgets even if they do. As a result, a charitable event which should ideally inspire and motivate people to help others ends up becoming a dud which over a period of time people start avoiding with the fear of it being too boring. But, there are always some interesting and innovative ways how you can turn things around. This time at EE, we share with you 5 innovative ideas to add color to a charity event. 1-Give it a theme Just because it is charity does not mean it has to be sad. One can do so much to spice up boring events even with smaller budgets but one needs to start that process by giving a proper theme to the event overall. With a theme in place an invitee is stimulated to put some effort into preparing himself before the event which is so much better than non-excitement to show up. As far as ideas for themes are concerned, through the theme of the charitable event one can give its attendees an idea of the cause that they are supporting. As an example- Belfast ByteNight which raises money for homeless kids in UK provides to its guests warm food, a cardboard box and plastic sheet to lie on to give them an idea of what homeless kids feel as a result, their annual event raises a bundle every year for the cause. 2-Add adventure Everyone loves adventure and in fact people sometimes are also willing to pay extravagant sums of money to just get that adrenaline rush. So why not do an adventurous event for your next fund raiser rather than just organizing a simple dinner gala. One can take all its invitee on an outdoor adventure experience and charge for high on action activities rather than asking people to actually donate the money in the name of charity. This is a charity event which can double up as a holiday for everyone and also raise money for a good cause. 3-Incorporate music and dance into it isn’t it the most fun filled way to raise money for the needy? Music and Dance are two elements that are of everyone’s interest and helps people unwind from their routine schedules. The same can be used to liven up a charity event as well. Ever imagined hosting a dance marathon for charity? It is an interesting twist to the usual marathons that one sees or participates in. Organizing a dance marathon is easy and its success is almost guaranteed. And if done correctly, this kickass idea is a sure shot to be a crowd pleaser. 4-Ask people to sell their skills One of the main reasons why people eschew charity events is that if they want to do charity they can also support a cause online or by mailing a cheque. They feel it is unnecessary to go out for an event that talks about the same thing that they already know. However you can make a charity event interesting by asking invitees to sell their services or skills on a particular day for free of cost and not pay a single penny. An organizer can get in touch with reputed doctors, serviceman, bakeries etc for a day. Give them stalls and organize a soiree where people can come in avail the services of specialists and the payments that they make against it goes to charity. Through this the money for a cause is rather earned in an engaging manner and not just given away out of petty. 5- Reverse Raffle The concept of a reverse raffle is swiftly spreading across the globe but is yet to make its mark in India yet. In a reverse raffle all potential invitees and guests get a raffle ticket and sell it back for an amount of money to avoid getting their name drawn to do something embarrassing such as dancing to an old bollywood song, or doing a chicken dance etc. This concept of a reverse raffle is a simpler and easier way to add unintentional humor and entertainment to a serious charity event. Always remember, the happier people are the more they will be willing to donate.
Read More
WPP CEO Martin Sorrell yesterday announced that Geometry Global and Encompass would operate as a single entity in India by the name of Geometry Global Encompass Network (GGEN).The Network’s management will comprise executives from J Walter Thompson, Ogilvy, Encompass and Geometry Global and the business will be aligned with J Walter Thompson South Asia. Encompass was acquired in 2008 by WPP and aligned with J Walter Thompson. It is best known for planning and executing events and activations for clients such as Hyundai, Asian Paints, Fiat and Microsoft.Geometry Global (earlier known as OgilvyAction, a division of O&M) is well known for its shopper and rural marketing (Outreach) practices and works with clients such as Hindustan Unilever, Mondelez, Vodafone, Tata Sky, DuPont and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Geometry Global | Encompass network will continue to work closely with Ogilvy to benefit clients with the width of services. With over 400 employees in Mumbai and Delhi, the Geometry Global | Encompass Network will specialize in shopper marketing, rural marketing, large-scale events and exhibitions, urban consumer marketing, digital activation and field marketing. The Geometry Global | Encompass Network will be WPPs horizontal network working across the group. Speaking of the announcement, Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP plc said “When WPP decided to set up a horizontal activation platform we combined OgilvyAction, G2 and JWT Action (North America) to form Geometry Global. Today, Geometry Global is working for some of the world’s best brands in almost 60 markets around the world. Through this collaboration in India, we’re following up on one of our key global objectives of offering best-in-class full-service experiential marketing services that can help our clients sell more.” The Network will also work closely with Group M through a partnership called Geometry@GroupM. This joint team will use GGE’s proprietary tools and category and channel understanding to deliver shopper-marketing solutions to Group M’s clients. Over the last year, Encompass and Group M have operated Team1, a partnership delivering a combination of media and on-ground solutions to a couple of common clients through a single team. Geometry Global and Encompass will also continue to operate independently for purposes of retaining their areas of expertise and managing client conflict. The Geometry Global | Encompass Network will further extend their reach by collaborations with Go Bananas in Ahmedabad and Showspacein Chennai.
Read More
According to a research conducted by the Content Marketing Institute, 83% of marketers across the globe have agreed to be having a content marketing strategy to promote its brand and products. Meanwhile, 29.6% of respondents to Communication Advertising Marketing Foundation survey said that the most commercially important digital marketing trend for 2015 was content marketing. It is indeed a truth that as the scale, nature and formats of events around the world is diversifying; there has also emerged a massive need to promote your events through various means and mediums. Digital marketing today through copious social media website serves this purpose. However, with abundance of information already present on these platforms it is integral for an event planner to add an edge towards marketing their event today. This edge can be forming a content marketing strategy to promote your event so that it doesn’t get lost in the big, bad, disorganized and chaotic world of information on the internet. For those of you who do not know, content marketing describes the process of developing a themed exhibit, display, or presentation to promote a product, service, cause, or organization leveraging in-person engagement. Events can happen online or offline today and even though you can host only a fixed number of people at your next event however a bigger impact can be created through it by marketing it appropriately. But marketing an event today is no longer limited to floating a status update with a few photographs on the social media platforms. By forming a content marketing strategy, an event planner ensures how will an event be promoted, creates the content for it, deep dives into making it more attractive and user friendly and consistently adds on innovative touched to achieve the same impact from an event online that it would make in person to its attendees. When a brand manager organizes an event, his aim is to help, engage and inform his consumers and also build a striking relationship to ensure loyalty towards his products down the years. He uses content marketing to promote the event but what most marketers do not understand is that without a strategy in place content marketing too adds to an act of hard sell for the brand. It merely gives the consumer an idea of an event was organized as at a specific location at a specific time. The information is static and does not stimulate the curiosity of a prospective consumer to know more about the brand and the event. However, with a pre-decided, effective content marketing strategy in place, a marketer can in each time frame before and after the event track the kind of attention his experiential initiative is gaining and this can help him in making the last minute changes to his overall event, if needed any. Carefully created content on social media helps businesses spread their brand message and enables them to increase company authority in the industry. This is when content marketing has more of an effect than unsolicited sales messages. With an effective strategy in place, content marketing also enables content to be shared at the most relevant time and it needs to be written well-enough to get shared and read, this in itself can be quite a challenge though effective when it works. Updating the social media space with frequent, relevant and strategic content gives a marketers event and the brand name overall a positive impact on search rankings. Additionally, if the SEO and keyword research is done correctly then each update made about the event has a higher chance of appearing in results and being shared by people. To conclude, it can be said that formulating a strategy for content marketing has been an indispensable part of many digital marketers marketing strategy. From better SEO benefits, to brand awareness and traffic to the site, developing a strategy before you start content marketing for your event should not be avoided.
Read More
Who says it is only brands with products to sell who use experiential as a means to engage their target audiences? In the dynamic marketing environment today even service providers and restaurants can be easily spotted constantly using varied and immersive experiences to establish connection with their target customers. Case in point, the multinational food giants like Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Hard Rock Café and Burger King. All of these food outlets are somewhere down the line competing for the same set of target audience and hence in order to race ahead each other have time n again come up thoroughly engaging experiential campaigns. So if you are wondering which food giant has an upper head in terms of experiential campaigns? Well, you are in luck as we at EE this time, deep dive into the experiential campaigns of these giants to provide you with an exclusive insight on who does experiential better? To start off McDonalds has been one of the most pro-active food brands when it comes to experiential. The fast food giant has come up with multiple experience driven campaigns across the globe. From enabling customers to play games on public billboards to promoting a no littering ideology through ‘kick the trash’ campaign and from launching an outdoor breakfast campaign in UAE to launching a Piccadilly circus campaign in London, McDonalds has constantly and consistently used experiential as an important aspect of its overall marketing strategy. Interestingly, even though the food giant invests a lot of money into the execution of these experiential campaigns, however most of them are based on similar lines of using digital as the only interactive element for most of its campaigns. Additionally, McDonalds is not widely known to tell a story with its experiential campaigns as a majority of them feature the target customers having fun with the brand rather than establishing an emotional or sentimental connection. Have a look at some of its most applauded experiential campaigns Burger King on the other hand, which stands as a direct competitor to McDonalds can be said to be weaving the aspect of storytelling into all of its experiential campaigns. Be it creating a Statue of Liberty Time Lapse moment for its customers or the Burger King Motel case where it asked foodies to cheat on its famous whooper burger and try on the newly launched chicken burger, Burger King always has a message embedded in all its experiential efforts. It recently was also awarded the coveted Cannes Lions for its ‘We are all the same inside’ campaign, where the food giant supported and advocated the agenda of LGBT rights. Clearly between Mcdonalds and Burger King the experiential efforts of the latter are more thought provoking and are likely to stay in a consumers mind for a more prolonged period of time. Moving on to the food giant which is famous for introducing the word, foodgasm in the universe, i.e. Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut as a multinational food giant has though invested in experiential but experience driven campaigns have not been a key contributor to its overall marketing agenda across the world. The brand has often come up with campaigns like engaging gamers in a retro arcade, in store activities during its ‘taste freedom’ campaign which was executed in 28 locations in the UK and others. However, the food giant mainly uses ATL as a primary technique to connect with its consumers and is yet to make a substantial effort in the experiential space. The last remembered globally successful experiential initiative run by the brand was in 2010, where Pizza Hut made its staff ‘the star of its brand’. The campaign was centered around a beautiful message and used mediums of ATL and BTL to promote itself heavily. But Pizza Hut has not been successful in coming up with a hugely successful experiential initiative anytime after that. Clearly, the brand believes that ATL is still the way to go as far as promoting the sales of the brand is concerned. Hard Rock Café on the other hand is one of the most evolving, attracting and engaging fast food giants which thrive on experiences. From organizing Comedy nights in countries to music fiestas in others and from establishing a successful souvenir line for its customers to having a special Hard Rock Café outlet in every country that the giant operates in, Hard Rock Café has been constantly involved in coming up with initiatives one after the other to make sure it has new experiences to share every time a customer walks in. Though India as a country sees less of experiential by these fast food multinationals however the Hard Rock Café outlets in the country are always on the verge of curating different experiences. Be it celebrating EMD festivals to the season of cricket, or bringing Puddle of Mud to India to coming up with India’s first ever Mojito festival, Hard Rock Café has done it all. Though there is less of innovation involved and no storytelling present. However, Hard Rock Café manages to charm its audiences better than other food giants simply on the basis of something new being served in terms of experiences to its target customers. Undoubtedly, experiential sits high for the Hard Rock Café as far as their marketing initiatives across the globe are concerned. And why wouldn’t it? Isn’t it a good experience that truly matters at the end of the day?
Read More
To boost leisure, adventure tourism and aviation based entertainment in the state, Department of Tourism, Government of Uttar Pradesh in association with E-Factor & Sky Waltz will be hosting TAJ Balloon Festival in Agra from November 14 – 16, 2015. This was announced to the media and press on the World Tourism Day recently. The Festival will feature more than 15 balloons from across 12 countries like the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Spain, Belgium, Taiwan, Australia, UAE and Germany, amongst others. Expert balloonists will be displaying their skills as the skyline of the ‘Taj’ city Agra will be dotted with colourful balloons. Regarded as one of the safest form of aviation sport, Hot Air Ballooning has been gaining prominence in India as well. Speaking about TAJ Balloon Festival, Shri. Amrit Abhijad, DG & Secretary Tourim of Uttar Pradesh, said, “Uttar Pradesh is the unique state that provides various adventure sport related activities to tourists. While white water rafting, trekking, mountaineering are popular, we are now introducing Hot Air Ballooning as the latest aviation & adventure sport for the discerning tourists. This Festival is the first step towards creating a world class ballooning centre in the state of Uttar Pradesh.” Samit Garg - Founder/Director of E-Factor SkyWaltz added that "it has taken more than 2 years to procure all the required permissions across departments like ASI, MOD, DGCA, City Administration etc and we are grateful to all the office bearers for their continued support in helping us reach until here”. The Taj Balloon Festival will see about 15 hot air balloons rise up and grace the skies of Agra every morning during the event and will also feature special “Evening Tethered Flights”, wherein balloons will rise to a certain height from the ground. This will enable enthusiasts to take a closer look at the balloons. During the TAJ Balloon Festival, a Night Glow Concert will take place where hot air balloons will light up in sync with live music. Talking about the Taj Festival, Shri. Pankaj Kumar, District Magistrate – Agra, said, “Taj Balloon Festival is going to be an important event in the history of modern Agra. We look forward to the international balloonists flying over Agra. The District administration will extend its full support to make the festival a success.” The Festival is being held by Department of Tourism, Government of Uttar Pradesh in association with E-Factor SkyWaltz.
Read More
UltraTech Cement has recently announced its association with Mumbai City FC, Mumbai’s franchise in the Indian Super League, as Strength Partner. The brand now aims to extend its support towards building the beautiful game in India with this tie-up. Football is fast gaining popularity in the country, and the success of the first edition of the Indian Super League is a testimony to it. Indian Super League achieved the rare milestone of having registered the highest average stadium attendance for any football league in Asia, and the fourth highest in the world in its first edition. Indian National team captain, Sunil Chhetri and Goalkeeper, Subrata Paul among others are the core players of Mumbai City FC. Nicolas Anelka, the marquee player-manager for Mumbai City FC, is a globally renowned footballer having plied his trade with top clubs in Europe including Real Madrid, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal, among others. Bollywood actor and football enthusiast Ranbir Kapoor is the co-owner of the team. The team’s logo is a reflection of a resilient fortress that depicts the strong and determined spirit of the city. It also depicts a train that is the lifeline of the city. The seven stars symbolize the seven islands that form Mumbai. “UltraTech has always been strongly connected with sports in India; be it cricket and now football. UltraTech, as a brand, signifies strength and beauty, which is what football as a sport stands for. Mumbai City FC has a strong mix of top national and international players and has a promising season ahead. Our association with Mumbai City FC is a step towards connecting with the youth of India through football, while also leveraging the rising popularity of the game as a brand,” said Mr. O P Puranmalka, Managing Director, UltraTech Cement Ltd. Commenting on this association with UltraTech Cement, Team owner, Mumbai City FC, Ranbir Kapoor, said, “UltraTech Cement have been associated with sports teams in India for awhile now and it gives us a major confidence boost that they have ventured into football in India with Mumbai City FC. I am very glad to welcome them on board as our strength partner for this season.”
Read More
