"While there are areas in technology where India may not be as advanced as their western counterparts but when it comes to digital marketing as a whole India is keeping pace with other countries especially in the usage of new platforms and new technologies." Said Ranjit Nair, CEO of Germin8

In an interaction with MediAvataar India, Ranjit gives us an in-depth knowledge of growing digital trends in India and what customers really want.

Here is the complete Q&A....

What does Germin8 stand for?

Germin8 is a Social Media Intelligence company headquartered in Mumbai. Germin8 is focused on building products for analysing social media data and textual data available within organizations to help them make better decisions based on insights drawn from that data.

Germin8 stands for helping companies/ brands become more customer centric. Every brand’s customers are constantly interacting and expressing their likes, dislikes, preferences etc. across social media platforms.  Germin8 captures brands stakeholder conversations which are taken from public sources like social media and news and analyses these through a tool. They then present this in the form of live interactive dashboards which generates actionable insights for various departments within an organization like Marketing, Customer Care, Corporate Communications, Sales, etc. This process helps brands become more relevant to its target audience.

How important is the Online Brand Identity in today’s day and age?

A brand identity is the most effective way any organization (startups, small businesses, big enterprises, agencies, nonprofits, or others) can gain a competitive edge in an increasingly crowded marketplace. It is very important for big and small brands to engage directly with their customers and create a unique identity for themselves. This identity must convert in trust and reliability. The main aim for any brand is to be seen as customer centric brand. Larger, successful companies pay careful attention to their corporate identity or corporate image. In fact, many larger companies have corporate communications departments that focus on maintaining and building the identity of the business and making sure that corporate identity facilitates the corporate business objectives. Although I think we have reached a time where smaller brands also need to invest to build and maintain a consistent “online brand identity”.

We at Germin8 offer an online reputation management services which is an effective practice and strategy that shapes a brand’s reputation online, bringing the positives to light and eliminating the negatives that can pose as a threat to a brand.  In today’s highly competitive digital world, each brand is out there trying to create a good impression. But sometimes a brand faces severe backlash when their products and services fail to meet the needs of the consumers. This is where online reputation management services come into play. Having a bad reputation online now can have adverse effects on your business, leading to distrust amongst existing and potential customers resulting in loss of revenue.

 What’s your idea of enhancing it for clients?

The most important factor would be for us to be able to continue protecting a brands existing identity, it is also mandatory to measure what the brand stands for and to identify threats (on a reputational basis) well in advance. We at Germin8 help brands understand who their brand advocates are and help build positive engagement for the brand via these brand advocates. Identifying and engaging with the correct brand advocates not only creates new customers but they also contribute useful insights to your user personas.

Does one shoe really fit all when it comes to digital marketing?

One shoe never fits all; each brand has its unique brand identity and a unique audience base. Every brands audience will be present across different social media platforms – we use a social media listening tool which helps brands engage with their customers the way they want to engage. Social listening allows brands to monitor, analyze, and even respond to conversations about a brand and business online. It’s an integral component of audience research. If one doesn’t have a social listening strategy in place, then the brand is missing out on precious insights. What does a brand’s customers think about their brand? What are they saying about their competitors? Conversations gathered from various social media and user generated content sites are analysed using industry specific algorithms for topic and sentiment and presented on helpful dashboards for deriving insights.

How do you look at your competition?

We look at our competition as a company from whom we will try and learn. We will always try and be one step forward but there will be times they would have done something better than us and we will learn from them and their mistakes.

In your career journey, what has been one of your most a) gratifying and b) bizarre experiences so far?

What is truly gratifying for us as a brand is when customers not only renew with us but also recommend us to other customers (even to their competition, being fully aware that we will be able to add value to their competition) it’s all about the relationship.

A bizarre experience I would like to share is when our competition sneakily pretends to be a potential customer, try and understand what we offer, ask for a demo of all our products and then ghost us. While this is a little unethical we see it as an encouragement that they consider us as a solid competition.

What’s the secret to attracting the best talent and keeping clients happy while balancing the books?

I truly believe the real secret is to invest in your existing/ current talent, make sure that they are happy and customer centricity is part of their DNA and they in turn will help keep clients happy and also bring in more of their friends as potential future employees.

Where do you place India on the global digital marketing backdrop?

While there are areas in technology where India may not be as advanced as their western counterparts but when it comes to digital marketing as a whole India is keeping pace with other countries especially in the usage of new platforms and new technologies.

Your message to the budding digital marketing professionals in India.

A digital marketing manager resembles a multitasking automated system that has the needed expertise and artificial intelligence to run, track and measure the performances of different components of digital marketing, and manage respective digital marketing professionals as well. One piece of advice I would like to share is that never slack in and think that you know everything, the field is changing rapidly and the only way to be ahead of the competition is to keep learning. They have chosen a line where they can never rest.

· Momspresso records 70 million+ monthly page views for Regional content

· Momspresso.com records growth of regional content creators by 228%; regional language page views grew by 180% over the last 12 months

· The contribution of regional language-based content has grown from 38% to 62%.

· 43% of content creators on its platform is creating content in Hindi

· Contribution of vernacular content created through its mobile app grew from 70% in 2018 to 94% in 2019.

· The platform also found that 60% of its regional content is consumed by Millennial audiences between the age group of 22-35.

As internet penetration grows deeper across the country, regional content is gaining a massive scale. Momspresso.com, India’s largest user-generated content platform for women that enables them to express themselves through text, audio, and video content across ten languages recently revealed insights into the explosive growth of regional content in the country. The platform revealed that currently, 65% of the content created is in regional languages, and accounts for 85% of page views.

According to the Google KPMG report, Indian language internet users are expected to grow at a CAGR of 18% to reach 536 million by 2021, while English users are expected to grow at only 3% reaching 199 million within the same period. The growth potential of industry players leveraging regional content, therefore, is massive. As far as content consumption is concerned, the numbers tell an interesting story.

Rounded Rectangle: MOMSPRESSO.COM

--18,000 bloggers

--190,000 blogs and vlogs to-date in 10 languages

-- 30 million monthly visits

--85 million monthly page views

--10 Languages (English, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi and Kannada)

Speaking on the findings, Mr. Vishal Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO– Momspresso.com, said, “At Momspresso.com, we were amongst the earliest to leverage this trend by launching Hindi as far back as January 2017. Since then we have launched 8 more Indian languages and have witnessed the massive impact of regional languages on our user growth. Over 85% of the 85 million monthly page views that we receive are on account of the 9 regional languages that we have. Considering that Indian language users are expected to make up 75% of India’s internet user base by 2021, the future potential of vernacular is undeniably huge.”

Regional Language Content Creators’ Growth Pattern

Momspresso.com’s study revealed that 43% of content creators on its platform are creating content in Hindi – and garnering 60% of overall page views. There has been a phenomenal growth of regional language content creators. More specifically, the data suggests that in the last 12 months content creators in Marathi grew by 7X, Hindi by 3X, Bangla by 3.3X and Tamil by 5X. Within the same period, the contribution of regional language-based content has grown from 38% to 62%. While these bloggers are creating content across several topics, ‘Mom’s Life’ which deals with day-to-day issues that mums face such as relationships, parenting, career choices are the most popular.

In a noteworthy development the contribution of regional V-loggers to the overall content has grown from 0-50% in the last year, reinforcing the potential of video content.

Increasing smartphone and internet penetration is enabling more women across geographies to create regional language content. This can be corroborated with Momspresso.com’s data which revealed that the contribution of vernacular content created through its mobile app grew from 70% in 2018 to 94% in 2019.

Which Language are Indian Women Consuming the Most?

Momspresso.com revealed that regional language page views on its platforms grew by 180 %. This growth was led by Hindi which contributed to 65% of page views, followed by Marathi (10%), Bangla (8%), Tamil (7%) and Malayalam (6%).

The top cities consuming regional language content include cities such as Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna, and Agra, implying that consumption of content is happening beyond the metros in tier-2 & tier- 3 cities. The top states in terms of regional language content include Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Delhi among others.

As part of its detailed study, the platform also found that 60% of its regional content is consumed by Millennial audiences between the age group of 22-35.

Monetization via Regional Language 

More than 60% of purchases are made or influenced by women, making this a highly valuable audience.

This is illustrated by the fact that the most expensive channels other than sports are general entertainment channels in regional languages that cater to this audience. The growth in regional language content has brought about scale in the number of women interest users, resulting in brands transitioning from traditional media to online media.

The contribution of regional languages to overall monetization at Momspresso has grown from 13% to 30% in the last one year. The popular solutions being used by brands include content creation in regional languages (both text & video), influencer marketing and geography-specific digital activation.

Momspresso.com’s recent campaign ‘Kahan Gaya Mummy Ka Sunday’ is a great example of how regional content is getting monetized. An insightful Hindi blog about the Sunday Paradox (mothers not having any holidays, not even Sundays) gained such massive traction on the back of its relatability that Momspresso.com turned it into a digital film for Voltas Beko. Momspresso.com then engaged with over 300 Mega, Micro, and Nano influencers to build conversations around the campaign. The film struck a chord with moms and went viral with more than a million views and ten thousand shares. The massive success of this campaign is evidence of the potential of regional language content for brands.

There are expected to be 300 MN women internet users by the year 2021, with the vast majority of them being regional language users. As a result, this growth in regional language consumption and monetization will continue to grow strongly in the foreseeable future.

Put on your running gear, Zee Business BSE Bull Run 2020 is here - Registration, top attendees and all you need to know

The stock market resembles our lives a lot. At times it is on a bull run, and sometimes it shows a bearish attitude. Nevertheless, no matter what life comes across as, we should always stay bullish towards our commitments towards health and happiness. Now, leading business news channel and the top choice of share bazaar experts and business fraternity, Zee Business has come up once again with 'Zee Business BSE Bull Run 2020' to rejuvenate and revamp your commitment towards life and health. Always remember, the stock market is all about making money, and this dream can only come true if you are armed with a fit mind...and, undoubtedly that stays in a healthy body. So, pull up your socks and gear up with your running gear for the much-awaited Zee Business BSE Bull Run 2020.

The 5th edition of Zee Business BSE Bull Run - an annual run with the goal of making Mumbaikars Healthy as well as Wealthy - is set to be held on January 12, 2020. The 6 km Fun Run is happening on Sunday at 6 am from Ground No. 1 next to PNB Building, BKC, Mumbai.

This unique initiative promotes being Healthy and Wealthy.

“For those individuals following the markets who are also in the rat race, need to also prioritise their Health. And those who are maintaining good health, can benefit by getting guidance on wealth creation. So, this initiative, Zee Business Bull Run, is a perfect combination for both - Health and Wealth making," Anil Singhvi, Managing Editor, Zee Business said.

While fitness is often considered a thing for the youth to focus on, however, in this instance it should make all members of the family get super-excited! Simply put, physical activity and exercise is important for everyone - Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, Grandparents and more. The goal, reason and amount of exercise can differ depending on age, of course. It is a fact that physical activity helps you to stay fit and maintain good health and that is where Zee Business BSE Bull Run comes in.

Health and fitness enthusiasts must know that the event will be a star-studded affair with eminent personalities and celebrities from the government, corporate houses, entertainment and other important walks of life in attendance. Zee Business with its legacy & expertise in Finance, Markets & Wealth creation partners BSE to bring together leading names from Stock Market, Personal Finance, Government Ministers, Celebrities from Bollywood & Media industry to give the masses a taste of Health and Wealth creation from the experts.

Top leaders and politicians from the Central and State Government of India will grace the event. Also, corporate leader Gautam Hari Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director, Raymond Limited will also be there. Moreover, celebrities like Sunny Singh Nijjar Sonnalli Seygall will also attend Zee Business BSE Bull Run 2020. Additionally, some key attendees will be VK Sharma, HDFC Securities; Vijai Mantri, Co-Founder & Chief Investment Strategist, JRL Money, Deena Mehta, MD, Asit C Mehta Investment Intermediates Ltd, Vikas Khemani, Founder, Carnelian Capital Advisors, Ajay Bagga, Market Expert, Navneet Munot, CIO, SBI MF, Amisha Vora, Jt. MD, Prabhudas Lilladher Group and many others.

So, what are you waiting for? Gear up for a healthy life is just a click away with enrolment happening on https://www.zeebiz.com/bullrun.

Today’s Media, Marketing and Advertising professionals are a stark contrast of what they were even just a decade ago. Instead of just doing what their mandate is they have their hands in many pots in order to focus on connecting with customers to build an incredible experience as nothing less than phenomenal will work today. With ever altering demands their role is constantly expanding to all areas of a brand. Truth be told, all these professionals are donning multiple robes of responsibility at various occasions.

2020 is going to be a challenging year for all of them and they must transform into changing agents to drive their company’s transformation in the new era.
MediAvataar India would like to give ode to these professionals who have strategically put customers in the centre of their decision making, gaining the necessary influence and shifting the trajectory of their company by changing the tone of their campaigns to suit the modern times. They are not afraid of change and have continually steered the industry in the right direction.

In no particular order or preference, we have got them together here for you to take notice of all the disruptive game changers of the past decade and who surely will take the game forward in so many ways, making India a force to be reckoned with.

According to Google official, ‘90% New Internet Users in India Consume Content in Regional Languages’ With increasing internet penetration and India being the most internet consumption heavy country with over 530 million users, it is giving content platforms to bag this opportunity and follow the ‘vernacular’ fashion as the most trending topic in the industry.

From writing to video/audio content, here are the fastest growing regional content startups of 2019.

Tiktok

TikTok is a social media video app for creating and sharing short lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos. It is arguably India’s fastest-growing and most-downloaded app today, with 200 million users in Tier I, II, and III and even the deepest pockets of India to share their passion and creative expression. Available in 10 Indian languages, Tiktok added 88.6 million users in the country early this year. By connecting and empowering digital Indians through content, Tiktok looks forward to making a positive contribution to the country’s thriving creative economy.

Momspresso.com

Momspresso.com is the largest user-generated content sharing platform that offers support to women across the country, not just in their journeys as parents but also in their lives. Launched in 2010, based out of Gurgaon, Haryana, it is a platform that attracts 12000 bloggers and 4000 video creators, and sees 83Mn monthly page views for its blogs whereas 163Mn monthly video views in 10 different languages including English, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi, and Kannada. Momspresso eyes 35 crores of revenue for the year 2019-2020; and closed the year 2018-2019 at 16 crores. Over 100 brands (Dettol, Dove, Nestle, etc.) have engaged with Momspresso.com in the last 12 months to connect with women and are actively spending on regional content to tap vernacular users. Earlier this year, it also launched India’s first digital vernacular agency, Mompresso Bharat.

Hubhopper

Launched in the year 2015, Hubhopper is India's largest podcast and audio-on-demand platform at present. With over 1 million hours of content spread across 12 vernacular languages, Hubhopper is present across 15 million touchpoints. It has managed to change the way people consume audio content in India. Hubhopper has launched ‘Hubhopper Studio’ an online studio that enables the potential content creators to launch their very own podcast in 3 simple steps: Record, Launch, and Distribute. It provides independent and small-town podcasters with all the assistance and their podcasts get featured on Hubhopper under ‘Hubhopper Original Program’, which has been a hit amongst both urban and rural listeners and aims to on-board 5000 podcasters in the next 1 year. Hubhopper envisions to grow parallel with the audio streaming industry and keep making the process of content consumption and creation simpler and more beneficial while emerging as one of the best content-disseminating platforms.

Vokal

Vokal, a knowledge-sharing platform for Hindi users recently added 10 regional languages (Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Oriya, and Assamese) on its platform allowing sharing of information and get answers to queries. Trying to bridge the information and knowledge gap among the non-English internet users by enabling peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, the platform sees a huge scope for such a service in regional languages. Vokal has more than 2 million monthly active users and it is aiming to take the same to 15-20 million by the end of 2019.

Sharechat

Similar to Facebook and Twitter, ShareChat enables users to post and share videos, songs, images, and other content, as well as discover content that is topical and trending. Launched in January 2015, it offers the content consumption and sharing platform only in Indian vernacular languages. ShareChat now boasts of 60 million monthly active users and aims to double its MAU by December 2020, it is home to 15 Indic languages. It aims to strengthen its presence in Tier-II cities.

Trell

Fondly referred to as the Video Pinterest for India powered by user-generated original content, Trell is a community-based platform enabling lifestyle discovery through meaningful content in various Indian languages. Trell bridges the gap between users looking for meaningful content around lifestyle inspirations and content creators or aspiring influencers who wish to create vlogs of their interests and lifestyle stories via videos and photos.

Trell has a highly engaging community of 1 Million Monthly Active Users on the mobile app who did 80 Million Content Views last month [Cumulative: 190 Million Views]. Trell App has been downloaded more than 3 Million times historically with 1.6 Million original and meaningful content pieces around lifestyle to date. All content creators are acquired organically by virtue of various viral loops and growing community on the platform. Trell aims to be the biggest lifestyle community-content-commerce platform of India by 2020.