DineDesk named “Hot100 Technology Company of 2014”

Ahmed Sharief, Dine Desk Director receiving the Hot100 Technology award

DineDesk named “Hot100 Technology Company of 2014”

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India DineDesk has been named a Hot100 technology company by CIO-Choice in their annual awards ceremony held in December.  The prestigious 2014 award is presented in association with KPMG, Microsoft Ventures, Amazon Ventures and Netmagic.

  “We are proud to win this honoured title of Hot100,” said Clyde Vassou, Marketing Manager of DineDesk. “It showcases our excellence in innovation in restaurant technology and it recognizes our hard work in building a scalable company.”

DineDesk offers an Online Reservations, Marketing, Guest and Table Management solution for restaurants. Using DineDesk, a restaurant can receive reservations from Facebook, its own Website, and partner websites. The built-in CRM, Table Management and Guest Management systems assist in seating guests, managing wait lists, and tracking guest preferences and other information, such as allergies.

“Our team has put a tremendous amount of work into creating the DineDesk suite of tools,” said Bob Lawson, CEO of Dine Desk. “It is an honour to have an outside authority validate the quality of this work.” 

DineDesk also offers restaurants online marketing tools that can be used to promote a restaurant, including special offers and seasonal menus. Marketing options include social media, email marketing and SMS marketing. Restaurants can use DineDesk on a tablet, mobile phone, laptop, desktop, or any other Internet enabled device. No special hardware or software is required to use the cloud-based system.

DineDesk received the award at an event that showcased leading technology companies developing solutions for the “Internet of things,” such as wearable technologies, and software as a service solutions that leverage cloud computing for various business verticals.

Anoop Mathur, President of CORE, said: “I congratulate DineDesk on winning the elite tag of being Hot100. We had 60 days of campaigning with 26 Jury members to select the winners, who truly deserve the badge of honour. Selection was made based on a company’s technological innovation, team strength, opportunity size, and product value proposition. The Hot100 Awards measures business achievement across the board, championing innovation, enterprise and the people behind the company.” 
 

Read the rest of this entry

Real Estate Giant One Avighna Park ropes in White Rivers Digital to Handle Digital Marketing Duties

Real Estate Giant One Avighna Park ropes in White Rivers Digital to Handle Digital Marketing Duties

Mumbai :The luxury real estate boom is upon us and properties such as One Avighna Park have set the precedent for such firms to take their digital media presence seriously. The Lower Parel based high end apartment complex has roped in Mumbai's fast growing White Rivers Digital to handle this key portfolio

White Rivers Digital will help One Avighna Park curate it's digital identity on social media platforms. The key challenge for the agency will be creating relatable campaigns that helps breaks the monotony of everyday real estate talk.

Shrenik Gandhi, co-founder of WRD believes that this move marks the increasing importance of creating social stories for luxury real estate brands

"Real estate is about people. It's about those who build it, it's about the people for whom they build it. In that sense, One Avighna Park is not just prime property, it is a place where life happens. We are very excited to be handling Digital Marketing for market leaders in this space & look forward to some great digital stories!"

Shalini Dixit, General Manager – Marketing & Sales from One Avighna Park agrees with Gandhi and shares her enthusiasm for digital media promotion

Digital Media today is connecting well with the fastest growing segment of buyers aged between 30-45 years. Besides being cost efficient , this platform is an enabler to reach the right target audience and is also measurable. One Avighna Park being a Premium residential “By Invitation” project has entrusted White Rivers Digital to devise and implement a strategy to identify the right digital channels to enhance our brands web presence and gradually result in select web conversions.

Read the rest of this entry

Advertising is not little truth?

Advertising is not little truth?

Advertising is not about little truth, in fact is a innovative way to reach customers. Without advertising the selling a product would not be possible, in this digital age, where there is huge competition.

Companies spend money on advertising with aim to boost sales and reach customers. Of late, the scope of advertising is wide spread.

 If you believe that the companies have been hiding any truth about their product, no not at all. They have been highlighting qualities of their product.

Just consider, in a few seconds of ads, how product description could be given. Yes, in the complete review, you may come to know about some the feature that the advertisements don't show or highlight.  

And it is also fact that, we don't take all the assurance given in advertisement for granted. Customers do use products, after the advertisement appeal to them.

But the continuation of choice depend on the product and the quality. Once customers like the quality in a product, they would like to go for it, gain and again.

Quality is the best thing to retain customers in business and advertising helps to educate customers about the products.

And advertisement is not the way to judge the truth about any product. For that one need to use the product, before reaching any conclusion.

Read the rest of this entry

Networkplay Unveils VideoPlay

Networkplay (networkplay.in) , Indian subsidiary of Gruner+Jahr takes video advertising to a whole new level with the launch of VideoPlay, a revolutionary byproduct of its recent acquisition – Vxchange. Further enhanced with multiple features, added benefits, VideoPlay is a digital video ecosystem that offers an open marketplace platform for video content and ad inventory to content providers, publishers and advertisers.

An easy-to-use marketplace platform, VideoPlay enables trading of video content and advertisements. The platform provides syndication opportunities to content providers while enabling publishers to add value to their existing content by picking videos from the platform and hosting it on their websites. Advertisers will also be able to leverage this scheme by delivering ads on various genres of video content. The platform offers both custom flash-based video players as well as HTML5 compatible video player to deliver video through embed codes, thus ensuring that it supports all devices including mobiles and tablets.

Advertisers will get to choose from ad formats such as pre-roll, post-roll, mid-roll and overlay image ads. Depending on the type of user (content provider, publisher, advertiser) VideoPlay provides customised user interfaces and functionality features.

 
Commenting on this launch, Mr. Kuldip Singh, CEO Gruner + Jahr, India says, “G+J’s strategy for Networkplay focuses on further growth of the existing business and expansion of the product portfolio. With India as Asia’s 3rd largest online video market after China and Japan, and online video consumption has grown to more than 3.7 bn videos as against 1.8 bn in 2011, the market is witnessing shifts in ad budgets inclined heavily towards video advertising. The launch of VideoPlay brings to fore, Networkplay’s focus on building strong technological competence in the video space, thus differentiating itself from other players and helping it pave the way for a long-term position in this segment.”

According to Ampreet Singh, CEO Networkplay, “The company is taking myriad initiatives to establish itself as a large media firm. The core continues to remain digital and due diligence by our team in the market with several content providers, publishers and advertisers, further reinforces our product offering as of immense value to all. Our successful campaigns delivered in a couple of months for clients like Visa, KFC, Mitsubishi Electric & Virgin Atlantic have made us very visible in the market. The performance on these campaigns has been above industry standards and we expect it to be even better in the coming months."

The launch of VideoPlay, marks the beginning of a series of exciting novel schemes. Networkplay has already tied up with various content providers and publishers for this proposal and is expecting more traction in the coming months.

Read the rest of this entry

Second Mobile Marketing Association Forum in India Goes Beyond Basics to Deconstructing Mobile for Brands

New Delhi: Speakers to include brands, digital and advertising solution providers from Coca Cola, GroupM, HUL, United Breweries, Marico, Puma, Starcom MediaVest Group India, AdMarvel , Mobilewalla, MakeMyTrip.com and Vserv.mobi among others

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) announced the second iteration of the Mobile Marketing Association Forum India(MMAF India), which will bring together senior marketing executives from brands, mobile and digital agencies, operators, technology enablers and other stakeholders of the mobile marketing industry. The MMA Forum, an annual event, will run from September 4th - 5th 2013 at the Leela Kempinski, Gurgaon. This year's event themed 'Deconstructing Mobile' will focus on how marketers can harness the power of mobile to disrupt traditional approaches to marketing.

exchange4media is the India partner for MMA. They are India's leading special interest publishing company and leaders in the media, advertising & marketing space. They host multiple event platforms to bring together leading industry players to share their learning, experiences and insights to move forward in the industry. Exchange4media co-hosts MMAF India, which is the Indian edition of the MMA's renowned Forums held around the world, bringing together the best and brightest in the mobile marketing and advertising industry including Coca Cola, GroupM, HUL, United Breweries, Starcom MediaVest Group India, AdMarvel , Mobilewalla, Marico, makemytrip.com, Puma India, Vserv.mobi and many others. The event will draw to a close with the awards ceremony - THE SMARTIEST INDIA Awards recognizing the most innovative work in the mobile marketing field.

According to the first mobile ad spend report for India, released last year by the MMA in partnership with exchange4media, the estimated size of the spend was Rs 180 crore (US$33 million) in 2012, expected to increase by 40 per cent by the end of 2013. According to the report, industry leaders, including brands and agencies, indicated that mobile advertising was 10 per cent of the overall digital advertising spends in India. The MMA believes that there are more than 12 crore (120 million) mobile internet users in India. Many advertisers are still to explore mobile as a channel, with overall digital spends in India at five to seven per cent of the overall advertising pie in India, pegged at Rs 27,000 crore to Rs 28,000 crore (US$5 billion to US$5.1 billion), according to industry estimates.

Over the past few years the MMA Forum has established itself as the premier event for marketers in Asia who want to fully embrace, utilize and execute mobile marketing as an effective medium for consumer engagement. The delegates expected at the Forum will have the opportunity to understand best practices in mobile marketing, connect and learn from experts and peers in the industry, and hear first-hand future opportunities for marketing using the mobile media channel.

The forum will include a great mix of seasoned speakers like:

-- Tomi T Ahonen, Author, Consultant and Motivational Speaker

-- Wasim Basir, Director - Integrated Marketing Communications; Coca-Cola India

-- CVL Srinivas, Chief Executive Officer, GroupM

-- Rajiv Mehta, Managing Director, PUMA India

-- Anindya Datta, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman; Mobilewalla

-- Atit Mehta, Senior Media Services Manager; Hindustan Unilever Limited

-- Samar Singh Sheikhawat, Senior Vice President Marketing; United Breweries Limited

-- Mallika Shankarnarayan, Human Experience Strategy Director P&G Asia & SMG India; Starcom MediaVest Group India

-- Manoj Malhotra, CEO; AdMarvel, an Opera Mediaworks company

-- Manish Kalra, Marketing Head; MakeMyTrip

-- Aditya Save, Head, Digital Marketing and Media; Marico

-- Dippak Khurana, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vserv.mobi

-- Phalgun Raju, Regional Director and General Manager; InMobi

-- Raghu Venkatraman, Head of Big Data and Digital; Nielsen India

-- Annurag Batra, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, exchange4media

-- Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific Limited

For more information about the MMA Forum India 2013, including the updated agenda and speaker bios, please visit mmaglobal.com/events/forums/india2013/agenda.

About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is the premier global non-profit trade association representing all players in the mobile marketing value chain. With more than 700 member companies, the MMA is an action-oriented organization with global focus, regional actions and local relevance. The MMA's primary focus is to establish mobile as an indispensable part of the marketing mix. The MMA works to promote, educate, measure, guide and protect the mobile marketing industry worldwide. The MMA's global headquarters are located in the United States and it has regional chapters including North America (NA), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America (LATAM) and Asia Pacific (APAC) branches.

For more information, please visit  mmaglobal.com.
Source: (Business Wire India)

Read the rest of this entry

Is advertising helping business and economy?

The core objective of advertising is the sale or earns major profit for company. When it comes to the interest of the economy, the advertising has indirect impact on the economy. Obviously, it has been helping the economy in form of multiple taxes, the company pay, customers pay, and traders pay as excise tax.

In a capitalist economy, the scope of advertising would be vast, where are in a mixed economy it could be less than that. But the word ‘globalization’ has somehow changed the meaning of the classifications of the economies.

Many countries in the world have free trade and protection – foreign trade policy, keeping the interest of their companies and industries. However, in the peak age of globalization, no economy could survive without entering into foreign trade tie-ups.

Coming back to the industries and companies, the advertising cost is the input for a cause that educates consumers and sales brand. In India, the television advertising is pegged at Rs.13,000 crore and its it’s huge amount if the whole GDP is taken into consideration.

A government welfare scheme is incurred around as much as amount to reach the people or bring them under the cover the policy. Companies do spend more and more on adversiting to reach vast customers, the input later could be turned into sales.

No doubt that a economy is being boosted by the companies and their advertisement. The arena of advertising is also helping in job creation, which is one the path of the sustainable development for economy.

The correlation of advertising industry is with many multiple industries like – entertainment industry, television industry, media and moreover it could a umbrella shape of service that provides to all and cover all.

Advertising agencies have been delivering the best services to their clients through their creativity, which the customers do like always. Just imagine, a television show without ads would be just boring and new advertisements do add glamour into the programme.

In order to make the companies more successful, consumers need to give their support to the advertisements, which would ultimately help the business and economy.

Read the rest of this entry

Top 10 Popular Indian Ad Campaign Slogans

Image Credit: Indian TV Today

Indian advertising agencies have made some of the coolest and innovative ads in 2012 and telecommunication & online retail industry still dominate the advertising industry with new range of ads. Biggies like Reliance, Tata, Airtel, Nokia and Cococola have brought some of the innovative ads for the audience. These ads don’t just come alone rather they’re accompanied by some of the coolest and memorable slogans. We’ve listed top 10 slogans from the popular ones, after reviewing each ad and their impact on the viewers.

Airtel - Har Friend Zaroori Hai, Yaar

Airtel came up with a new ad with a slogan “Har Friend Zaroori Hai, Yaar” and with a range of video ads showing how every friend is important. The slogan was written and composed into a nice song by the combined efforts of following singer and composers: Amitabh Bhattacharya, Mohit Beotra, Ram Sampath and Agnello Dias. The song got immediate popularity among TV and internet audience as well.

Sprite - Rasta Clear Hai

Sprite came up some of the funny yet innovative ads in 2012, where it promoted the cold drink as a way to clear your way among the overly talented. The ads were broadcasted in a serial session and Sprite made around 10 ads on the same concept and we should say each ad has some uniqueness.

Cadbury - Subh Aarambh

We will not hesitate to say that the Cadbury 2012 Subh Aarambh ads are the most lovable yet innovative range of ads of 2012. These Cadbury featured some of the common issues like hostel ragging, flirting & marriage and created some of the great ads you will surely enjoy.

Flipkart – The New Address for your online shopping

Flipkart, the fast growing online retail start-up has brought up some of the amazing yet funny ads for the online shoppers. All of these new ranges of ads from Flipkart are focused on how Flipkart helps you get the right thing at right time.

Havells – Shock Laga Kya

The ‘Shock Laga Kya’ ads were released during 2011 and these ads were still the funniest for every kind of generation. In 2012 Havells also co-sponsored the ICC T20 World Cup and the last India-England series and its ads got much of hype as required. In 2012 Havells released two new ads: one on Havells Standard wires and other one on Havells Geysers.

Idea – What an Idea Sirji!

When Idea (the Indian telecom giant) came into existence it took Abhisekh Bachan as its brand ambassador and coined a new slogan for its ads, the unique “What an Idea Sirji!”. This slogan got most popular among the Indian audience and even Abhisekh Bachan is sometimes mentioned as Sirji in TV shows or movies.

Surf Excel - Daag Acche hain

Nobody likes to get dirty, but when you see a Surf Excel ad, you’ll think otherwise. If getting dirty is doing something good, then ‘Daag Acche Hain’. In 2012 the new Surf Excel of Daag Acche hain featured on kids fighting to play in the ground is lovable and does contain a message to all of us.

Pepsi – Change the Game

Well Pepsi’s ‘Taste the Thunder’ slogan has been modified so many times and the current slogan utters ‘Change the Game’ where Pepsi conveyed a message that Indian sport is not limited to Cricket only. Pepsi modifies its slogan as per the current sporting activities. As during ICC T20 World Cup, the slogan was ‘Yeh T20 hai Boss. Na Tameez se Khela jaata Hai, Na Tameez se Dekha Jata hai’. Yet all of these new slogans do sound great.

Coco-cola – Thanda Matlab Coco-cola

In India when someone says ‘Thanda Matlab’ then you’ve to say ‘Coco-cola’ and the trend is still going on. But currently Indian Coco-cola ads contain a new slogan which says ‘Open Happiness’ with innovative and socialistic ads. This new slogan is getting popular but still the later one does have craze.

Big Bazaar - Isse sasta aur acha kahin nahi

Even the retail industry in India is booming with variety of retail stores from Reliance, Tata and others, yet Big Baazar is still counted as the cheap (Sasta) among all competitors in every items category. This slogan gave Big Bazaar a new identity before the commoners of India and most of them prefer Big Bazaar than anything else.

Read the rest of this entry

Advertising is all Glitter and Little Truth

Companies invest lot of money in the advertising, they want their products to reach the people and want them to be remembered by the people.

The main idea behind advertising is to convey the features of the product, and its uses. We cannot deny the fact that, there are people and there are companies who use advertising as a medium to cheat people and to sell their products. But how long people will believe the advertisement.

Until people choose the particular product. Advertising helps to make the people purchase the product for the first time, but not every time.

The second time people think of buying a product, it will only be the quality of the product that will make them come back to you. So, all companies are not alike and not all people are alike.

So, keeping in mind those few people who cheat and use advertising as a medium, to convey wrong information to the people about a product.

It is not right to say that all people are so, and all advertisements convey false messages, you may find one or two that are so, but to say that every advertisement is so, will be wrong.

When companies or people go for advertising a particular product. Their reputation and companies reputation is at stake.

If after spending so much of money for advertising, no one would want, their company to earn bad name.

Definitely not a company that is looking for a long term business. So, some times may be you can find those kinds of advertisements that are aimed at generating temporary benefits, but this is not definitely the route, that will be chosen by people or companies.

That plan to do a long term business and want to have good reputation in the market, advertising will help to reach the customers..

Read the rest of this entry

Advertising is a Waste of Resources

Definitely not, now a day’s hardly can anyone imagine taking or launching a new product into the market without advertising. Advertising is a medium that bridges the gap between the consumer and the company’s product. It is because of advertising that people come to know about a particular product, its features uses, etc. Hardly does any person has a time to esquire about a new product, its features etc, nor would any one bother to do so. Even in case of purchasing the products for which they pay very huge amounts, take for example, Gold, Electronics, and Appliances, people depend on ads.

Now a days each and every company is struggling hard to make its own mark in the market, and for that they are constantly concentrating on improving and inventing new kinds of products. So, every day there are various kinds of qualitative and quantitative products launched in the market. If you are the one among those who believe that if the quality of the product is good, and you have been there in the market since how long. You are wrong to some extent.

Every day people watch and come across so many ads through seeing hearing etc. This definitely has an effect on them. People who spend crores on ads, hire professionals and stars or sports person, are not fools when they are doing so. They know that, what is there repeatedly in the view of the consumer, is there in his mind also, and influences his purchasing or choosing, decision while purchasing a particular product. Even if you are there in the market for a long time and are well established, you still need to advertise. Because there are new kinds of more qualitative and quantitative products flooding the market every day.

So, definitely advertising is not a waste of resources but the need of the hour.

Read the rest of this entry