Healthy democracies need an honest, robust media: Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington has brought her latest venture, Thrive Global, to India in partnership with Times Bridge. Huffington speaks to us about why the corporate world needs to seriously address the issue of burnout, her learnings from HuffPost and shares a few words of wisdom for marketers
It was back in 2007 when Arianna Huffington, the founder of Huffington Post passed out while checking emails. She fell down, only to wake up in a pool of blood later. It did not take doctors long to determine the reason for her sudden collapse - exhaustion.
It was this experience that sowed the seeds of an idea that has now turned into a health and wellness start-up, Thrive Global. Since resigning from her post at HuffPost last year, Huffington has been working extensively on spreading awareness about work-related exhaustion and burnout and how it is affecting different workforces.
Huffington, in association with Times Bridge, a division of Times Group, launched Thrive Global in India recently, which is its first partnership outside the US. The mission of the start-up is to put an end to global stress and epidemic burnout by offering businesses and individuals sustainable, science-based solutions to enhance well-being and performance.
BUILDING A STRESS-FREE BUSINESS
Elaborating on how the idea of Thrive Global came about, Huffington says that her collapse led her on a journey to make a connection between well-being and productivity. “This passion led me to write my two books, Thrive and The Sleep Revolution. As I went around the world speaking about the books and the issues of stress, burnout and sleep deprivation, I saw how deeply people wanted to change their lives and redefine success beyond money and power. So I wanted to go beyond just speaking out and raising awareness – I felt the need to turn this passion into something real and tangible that would begin to help people change their daily lives. It was a call to action I just couldn’t ignore, and so I founded Thrive Global.”
Thrive works as a platform that offers corporate programs that help bring latest strategies and tools around health and well-being to organizations, content that drives conversations around health and well-being and also acts as an e-commerce platform that offers a curated selection of some of the latest technology and products around well-being.
However, since the Indian work culture is very different from that in the West, will Thrive be as relevant here? “We’ve been living under a collective delusion that burnout is a necessary price for success. All of the latest science is validating that in fact, individuals and organizations do better when they prioritize well-being. Employee output and employee well-being are actually directly connected. It’s true that much of the global business world, including in India, doesn’t fully realize this yet, even though the science is clear and conclusive. In our experience, once businesses begin to recognize this, they’re eager to put it into practice. When it comes to India, we’re looking at accelerating the culture shift by featuring leading Indian voices in business, film, music, sports and culture who demonstrate that you can be successful without burning out.”
Which brings us to the question, how does the media, marketing and advertising industry, one of the most stressed-out sectors, deal with the pressure? Huffington says that there is an increasing need for the industry to prioritize health and wellness. “It’s absolutely essential that they bring clear-eyed decision-making and judgment to their job, and respond to crises or problems with calm instead of with emotion. And the science is clear that prioritizing our well-being – getting enough sleep, making time to disconnect and recharge – helps us do all those. The news cycle goes 24/7, but that’s not how humans were designed.”
THE THIRD WOMEN'S REVOLUTION
Huffington also explains that stress is a major factor for the lack of enough women leaders on the top, across industries. She feels that as women are more susceptible to stress than men, it has resulted in a lot of them quitting their jobs. “Given that even when women are working outside the home, they’re still usually doing the lion’s share of the work of keeping up the household, maintaining a system in which long hours are required to advance becomes a backdoor way of excluding women. That’s one more reason why it’s so important to change this culture of burnout. Changing the workplace to be more inclusive, prioritizing the well-being of everybody, and understanding that we bring our whole selves to work will be the Third Women's Revolution. Our current work culture, fuelled by macho notions of burnout and sleep deprivation, doesn't work for anybody, women or men. But it’s women who pay the highest price, and we need more women leaders to help us change it.”
And it is this realization that has ensured that things happen a little differently at Thrive. She elaborates, “One thing I learned from burning out while at HuffPost and collapsing in 2007 is that we’re much more effective at our jobs when we prioritize our well-being. So at Thrive Global, we’re trying to be a sustainable start-up. We encourage people to take time off and let others know when they’re feeling overwhelmed. We’ve instituted a practice called Thrive Days, where anyone in the company can ask to take time off to recharge before they burn out. We’re living our message – not just as a marketing tool, but because that makes us more effective.”
LEARNINGS FROM HUFFPOST
Huffington also stresses that as a business, Thrive is very different from HuffPost and that quite a few learnings from her previous experience have gone into setting up the start-up. “The primary take-away from the success of HuffPost that we are importing into Thrive Global is the idea that you shouldn’t be afraid to question the status quo, and that just because something’s been done a certain way for a long time doesn’t make it right. With The Huffington Post, we took on the idea that online only outlets couldn't do serious journalism – and we ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize. With Thrive, we’re taking on the collective delusion that burnout is the price we have to pay for success.”
Huffington adds that their marketing strategy around Thrive will not just be about raising awareness, but also about providing solutions. The plan is to focus on bringing solutions to both companies and individuals, with the use of new technology to help people implement sustainable behaviour change in their lives and manage their relationship with technology.
While Huffington Post, founded in 2005 became a global success, Huffington reveals that the biggest challenge for her then had been getting past the idea that something like The Huffington Post wasn’t possible. “In staffing up for a new kind of start-up, you have to convince people to take risks – but, of course, risk takers are who you want on board. When we launched one critic that said the site was "the movie equivalent of Gigli, Ishtar and Heaven's Gate rolled into one,” which wasn’t meant as a compliment. But about year later that same reviewer emailed me to ask about blogging for HuffPost.”
However, in a world that is fast seen losing confidence on traditional news media, she feels the trick to being relevant is simple. “It’s all about truth. Yes, confidence in the media is down, and the media is under assault from many directions, but the only answer is to keep telling people the truth. It’s not about balance, but accuracy. Healthy democracies need an honest, robust media and I have faith that if the media sticks to their core principles they'll always maintain their central role.”
Asked about maintaining a fine balance between editorial and monetization she says, “The most important thing for us in everything we do is staying true to our core DNA and furthering our mission, which is to end the global stress and burnout epidemic. That’s what drives our editorial strategy and what drives our monetization. Our launch sponsor on our media platform, Quaker Oats, is a great example of taking a theme that is true to our mission—bringing more joy to the mornings—and partnering around an editorial section with branded content and dedicated events. We look forward to bringing similar partnerships to life in India.”
Having handled the marketing side of HuffPost with quite some success, Huffington also has some tips for marketers. She says, “Marketing in today’s world is all about authenticity. You have to know your core DNA and believe in it. When you do that, customers will feel the authentic connection – and they’ll also feel if it’s not there. But good marketers also understand where the world is going before it gets there. As we’re finding out from the response to Thrive, we’ve tapped into the zeitgeist, which is the growing recognition that the old way of doing business, of living and working, is no longer sustainable.”
Rishi Jaitly, CEO, Times Bridge talks about the partnership with Thrive and leveraging Times Internet’s strength to strategically help partners launch and navigate Indian markets.
On Partnership with Thrive Global
Times Bridge is a mission-driven business and, as such we spend a lot of time creating a culture employees are drawn to - not just for work, but for personal impact. Data suggests that there’s a big opportunity for Indian businesses to lead the world in how they support the end-to-end well-being of their employees. Leadership, productivity and creativity across India depend on this. I’m so delighted many Indian businesses have begun to sign up for Thrive Global’s products and services. It’s no surprise to me that India is Thrive’s first market outside the United States; we at Times Bridge look forward to meeting demand across the market.
Bringing The best of the World to India
We believe that the Indian market presents extraordinary mission, business and learning potential for the world’s most creative, purposeful leaders. Our mission statement, to bring the world’s best ideas in India and share India’s best insights with the world, is anchored in this idea of co-creation: that to lean into India is to create outsized long-term business, organizational and human value for oneself. As such, we invest in and partner with a wide range of businesses, across industries, but all of whom share a passion for India.
Leveraging strength of Times Group
We help our strategic investment partners assess, launch and operationally navigate India’s markets, while also deploying the unmatched assets of the Times Group and Times Internet as needed. Importantly, we connect the dots in the opposite direction, ensuring our network of global leaders is able to keep pace with insights and creators from India as well.
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Social Beat wins SEO mandate of Tata CLiQ tag rss
The account was won after a multi-agency pitch
e4m e4m Social Beat has won the SEO mandate for Tata CLiQ, one of the fastest-growing omnichannel marketplace in India. Social Beat has been entrusted with optimizing existing content, as well as launching new, optimized category pages systematically on Tata CLiQ’s platform to scale monthly organic traffic by 2x over the next year. The account was won after a multi-agency pitch and will be serviced by Social Beat’s offices in Mumbai.
Shishir Kataria, Director - Marketing, Tata CLiQ, “Shoppers, e-commerce or otherwise, continue to heavily rely on search and discovery throughout their shopping journey, be it engaging with the latest fashion trends or hunting for the best buys. No wonder a platform's ability to be a part of this journey organically drives significant consideration for it amongst potential shoppers. We, at Tata Cliq, are confident that Social Beat will help us develop and optimise content that is highly discoverable to grow our engagement and revenue. Our goal continues to be to drive more and more shoppers to our platform with optimised and curated products and relevant content.”
Vikas Chawla, Co-Founder, Social Beat said, “We are thrilled to partner with Tata CLiQ in their growth journey. We aim to scale traffic to the Tata CLiQ platform manyfold over the next year. Our team of specialised SEO and Content strategists will be working closely to achieve this”
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ShareWill OOH dazzle this festive season?
As the celebrations begin, experts tell us the trends and challenges for the OOH sector this season
Be it the flower-clad taxis in Mumbai for Made in Heaven Season 2 promotion or Zomato’s ‘kheer mangoge kheer denge’ billboards, India's OOH advertising sector has undergone substantial transformation and expansion in the recent years. Even though the medium was severely hit during the pandemic years, it has now managed to rebuild its status. Now, with the onset of the festive season, elections and the cricket world cup, OOH is expected to see more and more advertisers come on board.
Amarjeet Hudda, Chief Operating Officer, Laqshya Media Group, believes most of the clients spend a lot of money during the festive season, especially for Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali, targeting their customers in a festive mood. The categories that spend heavily during these months are Auto, Consumer Durables, Real Estate, Organised retail, and E-commerce.
According to Dipankar Sanyal of Platinum Outdoor, there was a huge surge in the festive season last year, and he expects the same this year too. “Last four to five years have turbulent for outdoor. It was picking up in 2019, but then Covid came and everything went flat for two years,” he mentioned.
According to EY-FICCI’s M&E Report 2023, OOH media grew 86 percent in 2022 to Rs 37 billion. The value includes traditional, transit and digital media, but excludes untracked unorganised OOH media such as wall paintings, billboards, ambient media, storefronts, proxy advertising.
Sharing the brand’s perspective, Shivam Ranjan, Head of Marketing, Motorola-APAC, said, “We are going into this festive season with a strong mix of media, including OOH. Within OOH, we are focusing on digital OOH, due to its capability of programmatic serving, measurability, and near real-time insights that allow us to be agile with the communication and optimisation of our campaigns.”
With urbanisation, improved infrastructure, rising consumerism and an increased spending power, clients' expectations from OOH advertising too have evolved. “The clients expect better ROI on every investment, best in class innovations, tech-led planning and execution. Today, technology plays an important role starting from planning the campaign, to measuring metrics to ROI,” Singh explained.
Another trend that Sanyal has observed is that traditionally advertisers looked at spending on OOH nearly two weeks prior to the festivities, but now, most advertisers have now started advertising a week earlier so that they can get maximum eyeballs. Additionally, the digital OOH advertising (DOOH) has also emerged big. The digital OOH screens increased to around 100,000 and contributed eight percent of total segment revenues.
“Now with digital, there is more space for advertisers to come in one frame. Because of this, you can see it is getting more attractive. The innovations too are coming in at a much lower cost and creating a greater impact,” shared Sanyal.
The only challenge with the medium, according to Ranjan, is OOH being a fragmented industry with lack of measurability and agility. This becomes a serious issue for ROI-centric brands. However, the growth of DOOH, which is dynamic, agile and measurable, is giving marketers the confidence to invest in the medium backed by relevant data and outcomes.
Adding to this, Hudda highlighted that availability of good media spots is the biggest challenge in this season as media assets are limited and demand is very high. Due to the gap in the festive season, many clients are not able to fully optimise their campaigns. Rather sometimes, clients are even compelled to divert their budget which adversely impacts the industry, he shared.
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Banking on positive consumer sentiment: BFSI optimistic on doubling festive AdEx : Cache
Some categories within the sector, however, may spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season
The BFSI sector is expecting a surge in demand for loan during the festive season and is looking at increasing its ad spends to cash in on the celebration spirit. Industry leaders say they are hopeful of witnessing a good growth in the number of applications for auto loan, home loan, credit card and health insurance during October, November and December due to positive consumer sentiment this year. However, though most of the BFSI players are planning to double their advertising budget this time compared to the previous year, there are some who are not investing too heavily on marketing during the festivals as they plan to save the money for the fourth quarter.
According to Shailendra Singh, MD & CEO, BOB Financial, they witness incremental growth every year during the October-December quarter, and they anticipate an increase in consumer spending as well as new enrolments for cards this year too. “There remains a surge in customer demand for credit during the festive season,” said Singh.
Singh shared that the company is fully geared up for the launch of #FestiveShoppingRewards on all Bank of Baroda credit card variants under the theme ‘Reimagine Festivities’. They would kickstart festive offerings with the start of Navratri.
The festive season does not just see the demand for credit go up, but there is an increase in applications for health and motor insurance too during this time of the year.
Aabhinna Suresh Khare, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer, BajajCapital Ltd, shared that among insurance products, health insurance and motor insurance reign supreme during festivals. According to Khare, the demand for mutual funds and SIPs too sees a hike.
“Overall, the festive season presents an opportune moment to secure insurance coverage. A plethora of attractive products and services are on offer, with financial institutions extending special discounts and promotions to entice new customers,” said Khare.
The company launched #BlessMeGanesha campaign during Ganesh Chaturthi. “Our goal for this festive season is not only to provide financial solutions but also to create memorable experiences and deepen the connection with our customers,” said Khare.
Though all major sectors spend heavily on advertising during the festive season, within the BFSI sector, some categories spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season.
Explaining the trend, Samir Sethi, Head of Brand Marketing, Policybazaar.com, said that the festive season has varying impacts on the BFSI sector. In the banking sector, for instance, the demand for loans surges as many individuals purchase items and undertake home renovations. Conversely, in the insurance category, the festive season doesn't result in significant changes. Instead, the insurance industry experiences its peak season after the festive period, particularly during the fourth quarter of the financial year.
“As the festive season approaches, there is a noticeable increase in car sales though, leading to a surge in the demand for motor insurance. Consequently, we see a significant uptick in the requests for motor insurance policies. During the festive period, there is an upswing in demand for various categories, such as electronics. However, in the insurance sector, this period doesn't significantly affect us, so we don't run specific campaigns targeting festivals. Nevertheless, we do roll out multiple campaigns throughout the year, and some of them may coincide with the festive season,” said Sethi.
According to the TAM AdEx report on BFSI sector across media for H1, the advertising volume of the sector grew on TV, radio and digital, but declined in the print medium. The report indicated that ad impressions on digital saw 91% rise during Jan-Jun '23 over Jan-Jun’22. The increase was 32% for radio and 4% for TV. The ad space of the BFSI sector decreased by 7% in print.
Speaking on media mix, Singh shared that BOB Financial has a good mix of customer segments belonging to Tier I, II and III. So, understanding their needs and preferred form of media channels, the company will reach out to them through relevant media promotions. “For the easy discovery of our offers, we shall have a dedicated offers page with regular promotion of top offers on our social media and other digital channels,” said Singh. Without disclosing the figure, Singh shared that the company’s promotion budget has surely increased from last year and it will be visible through their multi-channel promotional activities.
According to the TAM report, in the BFSI sector, life insurance is the leading category on TV and radio whereas mutual funds is the top category on digital.
Khare highlighted that in recent times, Bajaj Capital has observed a significant growth in audiences on online platforms and the changing preferences of their clientele. “This observation led us to recalibrate our marketing approach, placing a heightened emphasis on digital avenues,” said Khare.
He further added, “Our promotional efforts are primarily digital-focused, accentuating areas like social media engagement, search engine outreach, content-driven marketing, and targeted online advertising. As we approach the festive season, we've fine-tuned our online approach. By harnessing the insights from data analytics, we aim to grasp our clients' needs and inclinations better, ensuring our content is both tailored and pertinent.”
Khare also mentioned that Baja Capital has doubled its advertising budget compared to the previous year.
“This increase in our ad spend signifies our confidence in the opportunities this festive season presents. This impressive surge in our budget allocation underscores our dedication to maximizing the potential of this festive season and driving significant expansion within our business. We firmly believe that this increased investment in advertising will not only elevate our brand presence but also lead to an exceptional uptick in customer engagement and sales.”
For Policybazaar.com, the media strategy primarily involves a blend of television and digital platforms, an approach that has remained consistent in recent years and is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.
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OMD appoints Dileep Raj Singh as Head of Digital for APAC
Singh will report to Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC
OMD has added a Head of Digital (HOD) to its Asia Pacific (APAC) regional leadership team with the hiring of Dileep Raj Singh.
Singh is a digital native and brings with him a wealth of experience across product, media agency and client side in APAC, North America and the United Kingdom. His last 10 years have been spent building diverse digital marketing teams covering areas like performance marketing, digital media planning, ad/martech, product marketing, branding and measurement.
As HOD, he will accelerate OMD’s digital leadership agenda, rooted in helping clients address their business challenges and digital ambitions. He will be supporting OMD’s local teams in APAC on operational excellence, and digital transformation frameworks and roadmaps; and the development and implementation of our digital leadership agenda. He will also be working hand in hand with both our regional and global networks to initiate complementary workstreams for our clients in APAC.
“We will continue to invest and win in digital as part of our wider goal to be our clients’ most trusted business transformation partner,” said Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC.
“It is our global ambition to continue our leadership position in digital, data and technology. In line with this ambition, we are excited to have Singh come on board the OMD APAC leadership team. His background of agency, in-house and start-up experience position him perfectly to understand and address our clients’ business needs,” added Lee.
“Digital media and access to our audience, as we know it, is changing quite rapidly around us. This puts most of us in a delicate but remarkable position, a position from which we can shape and contribute to conversations about the next evolution of digital media. As we embark on this journey, I want to leverage the strength of the OMD network – people, technology, data, tools and platforms – to help our clients pivot and navigate through all the new and evolved possibilities in digital media. With this, I aim to position OMD as an unrivaled partner for our current and future clients; to dominate and succeed in this incredibly competitive and multifarious digital realm,” said Singh.
Singh will report to Lee, and work closely with the team including Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), David McCallen, and Chief Client Officer (CCO), Sadhan Mishra, to drive and support APAC local markets as well as regional clients on digital, data and technology needs.
Mishra was promoted to CCO of OMD APAC recently in June 2023. He will continue to be CEO of OMD Singapore, a position he was promoted into last August. Mishra has been with OMD for over 13 years and in his concurrent new role as CCO, he will focus on key client relationships, understanding their business needs and ensuring we remain a critical partner on their transformation journeys.
McCallen was elevated to the role of CSO of OMD APAC in April 2022, and was previously the CSO of OMD New Zealand for five years where he helped the agency to attain the top place in the market for new business, overall billings and award wins. Since starting in the APAC role, his focus has been on connecting and elevating strategic best practices across the region, building capabilities across a range of strategic outputs, and supporting new business growth both regionally and locally.
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Chandrayaan 3: Brands over the Moon
Some of the best moment marketing posts on India's crucial lunar mission
The nation is in a celebratory mood with its moon mission Chandrayaan 3 making its smooth landing on the lunar surface on the evening of August 23, 2023. The Pragyan rover is in pursuit of discovering water on the moon and is a vital feat for India's ambitious space research.
To celebrate this momentous episode in Indian space research history, netizens have taken to the internet to express their excitement, hopes and fears for the nation's lunar mission. Joining them are brands who have crafted creatives to mark the historic occasion and capture the emotions of the nation who have their eyes set on the moon. Here is our pick of some of the best Chandrayaan 3-moment marketing posts.
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BCCI rakes in Rs 4670 cr in Women's Premier League team auction: Jay Shah 26 Jan
WPL has broken the inaugural auction record of Men's IPL in 2008, tweeted Shah
As expected, Wednesday turned out to be another historic day in Indian women's cricket with BCCI having a windfall gain of Rs 4,600 crores by auctioning five team franchises for the first season, a higher sum compared to what men’s IPL franchises offered to the cricket body during the launch in 2008.
Adani, IndiaWin Sports, Royal Challengers, GSW- GMR cricket and Capri Global have won the bid, BCCI secretary Jay Shah tweeted.
Shah shared in a series of tweets, “Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of inaugural #WPL broke the records of the inaugural Men's IPL in 2008! Congratulations to the winners as we garnered Rs.4669.99 Cr in total bid.”
“This marks the beginning of a revolution in women's cricket and paves the way for a transformative journey ahead not only for our women cricketers but for the entire sports fraternity. The #WPL would bring necessary reforms in women's cricket and would ensure an all-encompassing ecosystem that benefits each and every stakeholder.”
“The @BCCI has named the league - Women's Premier League (WPL). Let the journey begin…”
The country's top corporates had bid aggressively for the league. Over 16 groups including IPL franchise owners, Adani group, Torrent and Haldiram were believed to be in the fray.
Given the popularity of IPL in India, the event is touted to be a big draw for all stakeholders involved.
The BCCI was reportedly expecting ₹4,000 crore gain through team auction.
It’s noteworthy that Viacom18 has won the Women's IPL media rights for Rs 951 crore for the next five years creating euphoria around the league whose first season will be held in March.
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