Nikhil Gandhi, who stepped down as the Chief Operating Officer of MX Player on Wednesday, has the credit of leading the OTT platform for two years with a specialised business strategy.

Gandhi made a mark with his team leadership, brand management, and strategies for generating revenue through digital content.

When Gandhi joined MX Player from TikTok, he was clear on three key areas for growth. The first was to grow users in India and internationally and expand MX Player’s markets by increasing the watch time on the app. Secondly, he spoke of deploying data in creating strategies for content and the third area was to identify new business areas. Gandhi had spoken about these key focus points in an interview with e4m in May 2022.

With Gandhi at the helm, MX Player emerged as the fastest-growing OTT platform in India. As per Data.ai’s “State of Mobile Report”, released in January this year, MX Player was India’s most-downloaded OTT app and the third most-downloaded worldwide in 2022.

Industry observers shared that Gandhi had bigger plans. “He has been striving to take the AVOD model to the next level and crack the Bharat market, which largely relies on cost-free entertainment options,” an industry expert said.

He was also instrumental in acquiring the Lionsgate library for international content, industry sources said.

MX Player has over 650 advertisers on its platform, Gandhi had said last December, explaining how his “team goes into smaller markets and gets new advertisers”.

Under his leadership, the platform was able to launch several new initiatives in the last one and a half years. Among them was MX Advantage, the self-serve ad platform targeted at Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It allows new advertisers to log in and place ads on the platform. MX Player also helps brands design their ads.

Another feature, launched in October 2022, was MX Live. It helped creators monetise content. MX Live works on a D2C model that allows content creators to interact with fans through live sessions. Users can even buy MX coins and MX tokens.

Marketing agency Sociapa will now be taking care of the digital mandate of Pansari Epicure which comes from the house of Pansari Foods. The mandate will include services like the brand’s social media management, product launches, and campaign and strategy planning.  

Founder of Sociapa, Dheeraj Raj, says, “As an expert in the realm of brand communication and image building, we are delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with Pansari Epicure, a brand that effectively captures the burgeoning hospitality industry through their customer-centric solutions.”

“We are well-versed in addressing the communication objectives and image-building expectations of such brands and are thrilled to extend our specialized knowledge to a trusted Indian entity like Pansari Foods. Our enthusiasm for this partnership is further fueled by the prospect of enhancing our proficiency in this segment.”

Rakhee Yadav, Senior Marketing Manager - Pansari Group says, “With Sociapa we are sure we will take our new launches to a great height on our social media to our end consumers. The team is dedicated and clear in their thoughts and approach towards work. We look forward to achieving new milestones with them.”

WPP today announces the acquisition of Goat, an influencer marketing agency.   

Goat specialises in data-led end-to-end influencer marketing campaigns grounded in performance and measurement and was founded by Arron Shepherd, Nick Cooke, and Harry Hugo in 2015. Goat drives authentic brand engagement while integrating targeted paid media to reach the right audience and achieve industry-leading results. The company’s 150+ staff across three global offices have helped to grow some of the biggest brands in the world, including Dell, Beiersdorf, Meta, Tesco, Uber, EA, Natura and Augustinus Bader, delivering best-in-class social and influencer campaigns. Since its founding, Goat has tracked the performance of over 50,000 influencer channels and over 250,000 pieces of content. 

In recent years, Adweek recognised Goat as Europe’s fastest-growing agency while The Drum awarded it Social Media Agency of the Year and LinkedIn named it one of its top companies.  

Goat will join GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, and merge with its influencer marketing solution INCA to create the industry’s first truly global influencer marketing agency with more than 300 employees in over 30 markets around the world. The combined entity – which will go to market as Goat – will operate as part of GroupM Nexus, the world’s leading media performance organisation with more than 9,000 expert practitioners.   

As part of GroupM Nexus, Goat will support GroupM’s strategy to help clients drive growth through performance with the scale and expertise to help global brands activate campaigns anywhere in the world. Enhanced by GroupM’s partnerships with the world’s largest social and commerce platforms, proprietary technology, and deep global expertise, Goat will provide GroupM and WPP clients with industry-leading global, cross-channel, and data-driven influencer marketing capabilities.      

Christian Juhl, Global CEO, GroupM, said: “Influencer marketing is an exciting growth area for our business and one in which our clients are looking for globally scaled and outcomes-driven capabilities. The addition of Goat to GroupM as part of GroupM Nexus gives us the ability to deliver accountable, cross-channel, and data-driven influencer solutions for clients anywhere in the world. Combined with the exceptional talent at INCA, we expect Goat to play a critical role in helping us define the next era of media at GroupM.”  

Arron Shepherd, Founder and CEO, Goat, said: “We couldn't be happier to be joining WPP and GroupM to bring our leading global influencer marketing and digital solutions to some of the best brands in the world. We are delighted to combine forces with the amazing talent at INCA to deliver even better value for our clients all over the world.”  

Mark Read, CEO, WPP, said: “Influencer marketing is a key growth priority for the industry and for WPP. Our clients are increasingly planning budgets at a global scale and require partners that have the global reach to help deliver, whilst driving engagement and impact at a local level. Goat’s proven track record in the influencer marketing space paired with GroupM’s record of excellence will continue to build on our unparalleled expertise in this area.”  

Goat becomes the latest in a series of acquisitions that form part of WPP’s accelerated growth strategy and focused M&A approach. These include 3K Communications, Fēnom Digital, Diff, Passport, JeffreyGroup and Newcraft in the last six months alone, in addition to the acquisition of influencer marketing agency Village Marketing in February 2022.

Planetcast Media Services has announced that it has strategically invested in Desynova, a cloud-native content life cycle platform.

Desynova’s solutions and services enable Planetcast to strengthen and expand its cloud-based content management capabilities for the global marketplace. Planetcast International will showcase Desynova’s Contido Platform as part of its portfolio of solutions and services on its 2023 NAB Show booth (W1467- West Hall) in Las Vegas, April 15-19.

“Desynova is a perfect addition for Planetcast through providing us with an agile, collaborative, cloud-native technology married to an intuitive UI that makes managing post-production and playout workflows smooth and seamless. While the Contido platform from Desynova broadens our solutions and services portfolio, it also brings marquee new customers and adds a significant boost to our global expansion plans,” says Sanjay Duda, CEO of Planetcast Media Services.

“We welcome all of Desynova’s 120 employees to the Planetcast family and look forward to collaborating with them to provide the most powerful and flexible portfolio of Content Management solutions on the global market today.”

“The Desynova addition enables us to provide solutions and services that perfectly meet customer needs, both now and moving forward,” says Sanjay Duda. “Clearly, almost every media and entertainment company on the planet is moving to a cloud or hybrid-cloud architecture for their media distribution and management infrastructure. Media Asset Management is the pumping heart of media infrastructure; Desynova enables us to meet this evolution by integrating the Contido cloud-based content life cycle platform with other Planetcast solutions, such as playout and OTT delivery, to provide the best ‘full-stack’ solution for all our customers – while also furthering the continued development of AI-driven post-production capabilities, such as AI-assisted editing.”

“It’s been a fabulous journey from incorporation in the year 2017 to developing and providing a next-generation cloud content life cycle platform for customers, including Asia’s largest broadcast network and the world’s largest OTT platform,” says Balu Ramamurthy, CEO & Founder of Desynova. “Our ultimate goal has always been to see as many as possible of the world’s leading media and entertainment brands deploying our solutions and services. Desynova’s Contido enables its customers to reach any screen, at any time, with any content from any location in the world — and to maximise consumer value and return on their valuable video assets.

“Our new Planetcast relationship will help position Contido as a high-value addition to Planetcast’s existing suite of products and services, thus opening new markets and customers for us and helping accelerate our development roadmap. Through working with Planetcast on a joint customer, our Contido platform is already integrated with Planetcast’s broader solutions portfolio — and most importantly, this experience has convinced us that in Planetcast we have found the perfect partner.”

Utsav Baijal, Partner & Head of India Private Equity at Planetcast Media Services’ owner Apollo Global Management notes: “We support the exciting strategic investment in Desynova, which broadens Planetcast’s already extensive services and solutions portfolio to further accelerate the company’s global expansion plans.”

Integral Ad Science has launched Viewability and Invalid Traffic verification for Netflix. It will benefit those who have subscribed to the streaming platform's ad-supported plan.

The tool will ensure that ad campaigns on Netflix will be free of fraud, and are seen by actual viewers.  

The verification programme has gone live in 12 countries and across connected TV, computer and mobile platforms. 

This is part of Netflix’s agreement with IAS, which was announced in 2022.

Ever since Disney+ Hotstar decided not to renew its licencing agreement with Warner Bros Discovery, the latter has been looking for a home for HBO content. According to sources in the industry, HBO has been in talks with several OTT platforms in India. However, Jio Cinema and Amazon Prime Video are believed to be the front runners in the race.

"Initially, the content team of HBO was in talks with several OTT platforms, including Netflix, SonyLiv, Amazon Prime Video and Jio Cinema. But it is believed that Jio Cinema and Amazon Prime Video are ahead in the race. Whoever offers the best price, will seal the deal,” said a source close to the development. 

exchange4media reached out to HBO, Amazon Prime Video and Jio Cinema for an official comment, but is yet to receive a response.

It's important to note that Warner Bros. Discovery collaborated with Amazon Prime Video last year to offer a slate of 11 popular HBO Max Original series and 10 HBO Max original features exclusively for Prime members in India.

Disney+ Hotstar announced the end of its association with HBO through a tweet last week. “Starting 31st March, HBO content will be unavailable on Disney+Hotstar. You can continue enjoying Disney+ Hotstar’s vast library of content spanning over 100,000 hours of TV shows and movies in 10 languages and coverage of major global sporting events,” it stated.

As previously reported by exchange4media, the agreement between Disney+ Hotstar and Warner Bros Discovery got over after HBO demanded a fee of Rs 80 crore per year for its shows, say sources.

In a market and media-sphere where so many people so often talk about nothing, Nothing aims to start a whole new conversation. The London-based consumer technology company, backed by heavy hitters like GV (Google Ventures) and EQT Ventures, has created a tremendous amount of buzz in the industry, despite being barely two years old and having launched a soupcon of products.

With its striking minimalist visuals, unique imagery featuring exquisitely shot insects interacting with its devices, and reportedly superior performance and ergonomic capabilities, Nothing has become a focus brand for tech nerds and aesthetes alike.

With its Ear (2) set to be launched today (March 22), e4m spoke to Ryan Latham, Global Director, Brand and Creative, Nothing, during his India visit, about the brand’s design and marketing philosophy, the importance of the Indian market, and its brick-and-mortar plans in a digital future.

“It's great to be in the market to come and visit. We have this set-up where the teams from India travel to London, and we come here as well because you have to be in the market to experience it and to make sure you're tailoring your products to that consumer base,” says Latham, about his maiden India tour with Nothing.

“Besides expanding the market in Saudi Arabia, we are focusing on the Indian market. Also, we're European headquartered, so we've got key partnerships with the network operators and retailers across the UK, Germany, Spain and some of the core European markets. And we've also opened our very first store right in the heart of London's cultural scene,” he says.

Speaking about the Soho store, the company’s first brick-and-mortar store, Latham says that, somewhat paradoxically, the minimalist tech company has always wanted a physical storefront. “We also thought, as a new brand, with a technology product and a design-led product, opting for the more personalized experience helped us in standing out in the clutter of the tech market. We really believe in the community around ‘Nothing’.  Unlike other brands, we chose a small format store instead of investing on to the big Oxford Street.”

This has led the company to assume a design which is quite compact, where it can experiment and learn about how to interact with its customer base and figure out the permutations of creating a fun retail experience. It plans to open more stores in key markets. Is India one of them?

“Nothing is confirmed, nothing is fixed right now in the calendar. But in terms of our thought process, we believe that India would be a great place for an offline experience,” answers Latham, perhaps inadvertently confirming Nothing is fixed in the calendar.

Puns aside, Latham asserts that Nothing is really well positioned because it has that design aesthetic, but it's also a really excellent kind of value product as well. “You're getting a lot for your needs and for your money, from a design point of view. Also, we have a high investment in our OS. We've just launched our Android 13 and we continue to update the product on a really regular basis, having done eight updates since launch. Also, we’ve had feedback from the market and from our customers in India that they've actually found that the phone one is getting better the more they use it.”

Speaking about figuring out the bugs of the system, this conversation would mean nothing (yes, the puns write themselves) without going into the idea of using animal imagery, especially the insect kind, in its visual advertising.

Latham says, “What we're trying is to bring the product to life with some warmth and some personality. Our design ethos is about joyful interactions and designing with our instincts, not just following kind of rulebooks and lots of data. We want to design products that make us feel something. The founding idea of the insects and the animals was bringing technical warmth to the products, bringing them alive. And these insects use instincts to explore. So when you see a beetle interacting with our Ear (2) products, you see it exploring it and trying to find out what it is using its very basic instinct.”

“And we use different characters for different products because they have different, maybe different meanings. With the current product that we're launching, the animal in the creative is an ox beetle. And this ox beetle is a very small, very powerful, and very technical creature; if you look at it, it looks very engineered, very purposeful,” he says.

“And with the Ear (2), the engineering teams have spent a lot of time making the product more compact, but also increasing the performance massively. So, we've got this very small, very strong, very powerful product. And the animal that's interacting with it in some ways mirrors it,” he adds, concluding, “Also, let's not be too pretentious about it, it's also just super fun: a very fun way to demonstrate, to show off the product.”

It’s nothing, really.