India’s leading mobile ad tech platform Tyroo Technologies recently introduced its revolutionary Product Listing ads (PLA). Tyroo’s PLA is the world’s first native ad platform, by an independent ad network, open to all app publishers and competes directly with Google and Facebook’s PLA.

The PLA platform allows app publishers to deliver ads without compromising on a user’s app experience, by embedding these ads natively, similar to the Facebook and Google ads. The platform was first globally launched at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona in March this year, which is now being adopted by the ecosystem.

Siddharth Puri, CEO, Tyroo Technologies, said, “Our partnerships with leading Indian and global publishers are a clear endorsement of the tremendous value that Tyroo’s Product Listing Ads holds for app publishers. Our research indicates that consumers look at native ads 52% more frequently than banner ads and with PLA app developers need not look any further for better returns. We are confident that PLA will help our clients drive sustained revenue growth on one hand and user engagement on other, without compromising on the app’s user experience in any manner.”

Product Linked Ads by Tyroo Technologies mark a major innovation in global mobile ad tech industry. This is for the first time that ads have been developed keeping consumers at the epicenter of the mobile advertising ecosystem. While other e-commerce ads overwhelm and confuse a consumer by showing different products to choose from, Product Linked Ads only show relevant products as per consumer interest, reducing their efforts of buying products online.

The PLA integration enables these apps to engage with their users with more relevant e-commerce product ads, which are consistent and superior in user experience. Users today are subjected to number of app download and other irrelevant ads but e-commerce ads driven by Tyroo’s proprietary data engine will not only help in driving higher engagement but also recommend products to users as per their interest.

The native format of Product Linked Ads enables consumers to accept it as an integral part of the app experience and is the ideal solution for app developers and publishers who had to deal with problems of limited advertisements, less traffic, non-engaging content and worst of all, low fill-rates. To overcome these challenges, PLA is enriched with features and benefits like curated product feeds, programmatic solution, strategic placements of ads, 100 % fill rate, upto 25 % increase in user engagement and 2X lift in eCPM (Effective Cost per Million Impressions).

Through this technology product ads will appear natively in an application with product recommendations powered by Tyroo Technologies’ proprietary Big Data recommendation engine. The engine generates Recommended Ads based on competition between display ads, product ads, app install ads and video ads. The ads enriched with native design will enable the consumer to experience shopping within their favorite applications; leading to high yield and increase in time spent for app developers.

PLA technology allows different formats for app developers based on their mobile app design, font and layout and drive purchase via Product Discovery. It also enables advertisers to monitor native product ad performance through an in-built dashboard and accordingly use product analytics to create more engaging content for the audiences.

Continuing with its efforts to promote breastfeeding, Nestlé India has launched a series of initiatives coinciding with the ‘World Breastfeeding Week’. These initiatives will provide impetus and will drive further awareness and create a supportive environment that enables mothers to breastfeed for longer.

Binu Jacob, General Manager, Nutrition, Nestlé India, said, “Continuing to breastfeed for optimal period is not easy for new mothers as she is expected to take care of household responsibilities as well as the babies’ needs. Some mothers also have the additional pressure to get back to employment. It has been found that by the time the baby is 6 months old, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding drops to less than 30%. New mothers need support so that they can continue breastfeeding and give the child a healthy start to life. Nestlé believes that breastfeeding is not just a mother's responsibility.”

Nestlé is focusing on the theme ‘Breastfeeding isn’t just a mother's responsibility’ to trigger and facilitate change in the mother’s support, environment. There is a need to create behavioural change within immediate family members and the community to provide support system for new mothers. The four key areas where the initiatives focus are:

Drive Awareness: It has launched an awareness campaign reaching out to fathers, grandmothers and employers on how their support such as sharing household responsibilities, taking care of the baby and creating a conducive work environment can help the mother to sustain breastfeeding for longer.

Facilitate Public Breastfeeding: New mothers frequently visit paediatrician’s clinics and often have to wait for long durations without a proper place to breastfeed. This inadvertently becomes a barrier to sustain breastfeeding. In an effort to overcome this barrier, Nestlé has pledged to install 500 lactation booths across the country.

Build Community Support: Nestlé India together with MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child, a Delhi based NGO have rolled out the Swasth Jananee, Swasth Shishu program to educate and encourage communities to support breastfeeding. The program is being run in West Delhi and will reach out to over 100,000 people living in an urban slum.

Ensure Favourable Work Environment: Nestlé has announced a new Maternity Protection Policy last month. It gives a choice to extend maternity leave upto half a year and includes employment protection, flexible working arrangements and access to breastfeeding rooms during working. Nestlé currently has more than 190 breastfeeding rooms across its global working facilities.

Start Healthy Stay Healthy is a science-based educational initiative by Nestlé which, in partnership with doctors, focuses on the lifelong impact of breastfeeding and the first 1,000 days of life.

Innovation matters. In the consumer product realm, it can drive profitability and growth, and it can help companies succeed—even during tough economic times. On the opposite side of the sales counter, consumers have a strong appetite for innovation, but they’re increasingly demanding and expect more choice than ever before.

Around the world, more than six-in-10 respondents (63%) say they like when manufacturers offer new products, and more than half (57%) say they purchased a new product during their last grocery shopping trip. But success can be hard to come by. Brand competition is intense and shelves are crowded.

The Nielsen Global New Product Innovation Survey polled 30,000 online respondents in 60 countries to understand consumer attitudes and sentiments about the drivers behind new product purchase intent. It’s important to note that in the eyes of the consumer, not every product that’s new to them is new to the market. As such, for the purposes of this study, we defined a new product as any item a consumer has never purchased before.

Economists may have declared the end of the Great Recession nearly six years ago, but times are still tough for consumers around the world. In fact, more than three-quarters in Latin America (78%), two-thirds in Europe and Africa/Middle East (68%) and half in North America (50%) still believe they are in a recession. And these pervading recessionary sentiments may create a barrier to new product trial, as more than four-in-10 global respondents (42%) say economic conditions and recent world events make them less likely to try new products.

As a result, affordability tops global consumers’ list of reasons for purchasing a new product, but there are regional differences in the order of importance placed on this attribute. In Asia-Pacific, affordability is the third-most important reason for purchasing a new product, behind value and convenience. North Americans place affordability second on their list, behind novelty and tied with brand recognition. In Latin America, affordability is just slightly behind brand recognition as the reason for making a new product purchase.

When it comes to the new products consumers wish were available right now, products at affordable prices was the most commonly cited attribute across all regions—by a wide margin. Forty-three percent of global respondents say they wish more affordable products were available, 14 percentage points above the next-highest attribute. North America showed the biggest differential between the top two desired product attributes—20 percentage points between wanting products at affordable prices (44%) and wanting new food products (24%). Similarly, Latin America showed a 19-point difference between affordable products (60%) and the second- and third-most-desired product types, environmentally friendly and those made with natural ingredients (41% each).

“Consumers need to stretch their money as far as possible, and they’re looking for products that stay within a budget,” said Rob Wengel, senior vice president and managing director of Nielsen Innovation in the U.S. “Savvy manufacturers are those who don’t just sell their products at lower prices or on promotion, rather they build cost-cutting into the product development and design process. Cost-driven innovation requires letting go of traditional assumptions, and it starts with understanding what tradeoffs consumers will make when they can’t afford a product.”

The AME Awards® competition is now accepting entries. Since 1994, the AME Awards has honored campaigns world-wide that successfully demonstrate groundbreaking solutions to challenging marketing problems.

The International AME Awards responsiveness to global creative technological advancements prompted Alisun Armstrong, executive director, AME Awards to add Technology to the Products & Services category group to showcase digital advertising and marketing applications utilized within the advertising industry to drive consumer engagement.

“For over 22 years, the AME Awards has rigorously monitored the advertising industry and rewarded creative inspiring work that utilizes effective solutions to achieve measurable results for brands,” said Ms. Armstrong.

This new addition to the AME category roster complements categories unveiled last year including Augmented Reality, Technology, and Social TV.  2015’s AME Awards saw a robust number of entries gain recognition in those categories for work that utilized the convergence of creativity and technology to recruit partners, reposition brands, and increase brand identity.

“As brands and consumer engagement continue to embrace technological and social trends, the AME Awards is eager to honor the evolution of brand recognition by including categories that stimulate content activation across multiple platforms and industry trends,” said Ms. Armstrong.

The AME Awards® Grand Jury is responsible for awarding Gold, Silver, and Bronze to the highest scoring entries through two rounds of regional judging to ensure scoring accounts for cultural and economic relevance. This round also selects the AME Green Award winner—the highest scoring, Gold-winning entry for a company whose emphasis is on resource conservation and negative environmental impact. Gold-winning work from all regions is judged by the full international Grand Jury to determine a Platinum Award for each of the five regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East & Africa and Asia Pacific) and the International Grand AME Award.

The 2016 AME Grand Jury of interactive and multidisciplinary marketers, media planners, strategy directors, social media experts, and creatives will evaluate entries based on four specific criteria, each weighted by importance: Challenge/Strategy/Objectives - 20%; Creativity - 25%; Execution - 25%; and Results/Effectiveness - 30%.

In 2015, the AME Grand Jury presented the AME Grand Award to Jung von Matt AG Germany and the AME Regional Platinum Award/Europe for their campaign “Trojan Mailing” for client DHL. Spark44 USA earned the 2015 AME Regional Platinum Award/North America for “British Villains” for Jaguar and Leo Burnett Manila earned both the AME Regional Platinum Award/Asia-Pacific and the 2015 Green Award for “Aid Couture.”

The deadline to enter the 2016 AME Awards is October 31, 2015. Entries completed by September 1st will save 15% with the code PRA2016. Entry details and competition rules and regulations can be found on the AME website, www.ameawards.com.

Lonely Planet and Spiral Content have agreed to make Lonely Planet India's content available on content marketplace Scatter. Brands, marketers and social agencies subscribing to Scatter for their social content needs will now be able to access expert travel content from Lonely Planet.

Sesh Seshadri, Director and General Manager, Lonely Planet India, said, "We believe our partnership with Scatter will add value to marketers who are on the lookout for travel-related content. With over 40 years of experience, Lonely Planet is well placed to offer content on social platforms. I welcome the coming together of Lonely Planet, a successful content creator, and the emergence of new technologies like Scatter.”.

Mahip Singh, COO, Spiral Content Solutions, spoke about this latest partnership, saying, "We are delighted that Lonely Planet India has decided to be a part of Scatter. We are sure this association will allow marketers to rub shoulders with the best travel content from Lonely Planet India. The Lonely Planet team has been very supportive of our content marketplace and we are tremendously proud of this association.

“Partnerships with premium publishers like Lonely Planet and others have greatly helped Scatter strengthen its offering to enable brands to engage more meaningfully with their customers. Scatter also has plans to launch this platform globally and hence address a much larger market.”

Spiral Content Solutions is a new start-up straddling the world of content and brands. We create opportunities for publishers and marketers to come together to service the needs of brands seeking to engage better with their customers.

Our first product, launched in January 2015 is Scatter. In its first six months of operation, Scatter has partnered with over 10 brands in a variety of categories and industries and is curating content and stimulating brand engagement for names like Gionee, Samsung, Club Mahindra, GSK, Bharti Axa General Insurance, eBay and many more.

Scatter is a platform that brings with it a fresh stream of world class content and makes it easy for brands to use that content on their own community assets. Scatter works closely with leading publishers, bloggers and other content generators to bring fresh and relevant content to brands. We continuously work towards making a vast amount of interesting content available to a wider marketing community. This in turn helps brands connect better with their customers and ‘engage unfoolishly ’with them.