My colleagues have created a great list of the top seven tips for digital advertising which will be discussed in this upcoming webinar. The list is important because it addresses the single biggest factor in digital ad effectiveness: the creative. You can have the best targeting in the world, the best ad format and placement, but if people do not respond well to your advertising you might as well have not spent the money.

The first item on the list is “Make people feel something”. The commentary states,

“Ads that evoke emotion are more likely to create positive brand associations that help drive preference,

and choice at the time of purchase. And this is more pronounced for digital.”

Let’s explore this statement a bit further.

Let’s see what Kantar Millward Brown’s Brand Lift Insights can tell us. Brand Lift Insights compares a sample of people exposed to an ad or campaign to a statistically matched sample who did not see it. Since the samples are matched at a very granular level we can assume that the difference in response between the two is only due to the ad exposure.

In the survey we ask, “Overall, how much do you like this ad?” and when we cross tab the responses to that question against brand metrics for 2,125 campaigns we find big differences in response. The increase in ad awareness is almost double for campaigns in the top 20 percent by likeability to what it is among the bottom 20 percent. Brand awareness, favorability and purchase intent are all higher with the difference statistically significant at the 99 percent level.

Now it might be that you don’t care about building positive associations to drive future brand choice. What you want to do is drive buying decisions now. The same comparison finds that if the campaign is perceived to deliver points relevant to the individual, that will improve the influence on purchase intent but not by a lot. A separate analysis comparing programmatic campaigns to the total database finds that the only measure that moves more strongly in response to programmatic is purchase intent, which is good for ‘call to action’ ads and not so much if you also want to build your brand.

Ultimately, if you want to drive sales now and into the future the best way to do so is to ensure that your brand is both likeable and relevant to the target audience and one easy way to do that is to test your ads ahead of time. Rather than trusting to luck (the probability of success and failure are not stacked in your favor) why not start a program of digital testing to improve your odds of success?

Written by Nigel Hollis, Executive Vice President and Chief Global Analyst at Kantar Millward Brown.

Calcium and Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness will join forces this year to support New York Festivals Global Awards® Young Globals competition & internship program.

Both agencies will partner as official corporate sponsors as well as mentors for the next generation of young creatives by providing internship opportunities to the 2017 competition’s winning team.

"The Global Award is one of the most relevant awards because, simply stated, we are a global industry. And the Young Globals are our future. It is where the next generation of talent gets to thrive and present itself. Of course, we’re committed to that,” said Steven Michaelson, Founder / Chief Executive Officer, Calcium.

“What an honor to support the next generation of creative thinkers stepping up to the next level of creative excellence,” said Kathy Delaney, Global Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Health/Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness.

The Young Globals, now in their 4th year of championing young creatives, is the only college/portfolio school competition for healthcare advertising that offers students an opportunity to submit their creative work based on a challenge brief provided by the sponsoring agencies. The competition provides students with a chance to take on a truly topical issue in an attempt to earn a prestigious Global Award, as well as the experience to test drive their career in healthcare advertising. Launched to identify and recognize emerging creative talent from around the world, Young Globals introduces students to the rewards of working in the healthcare and wellness advertising industry.

“The Young Globals provides a program for young creatives to discover the world of healthcare & wellness advertising via a test drive in the real world of healthcare agencies. No other competition provides an internship experience of this magnitude,” said Fran Pollaro, Executive Director of the Global Awards. “We’re extremely grateful for Calcium and Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness for partnering with us this year and offering this wonderful opportunity.”

The Young Globals competition is open to all college and university students, including portfolio centers, who are exploring advertising, marketing, art, design, creative writing, technology, or similar areas of creative focus.

To enter the Young Globals, students must create a speculative campaign based on a challenge brief provided by the sponsoring agencies. Students interested in exploring healthcare advertising as a career may enter either individually or as a two or three-person team.

This year’s creative challenge brief for the (fictional) National Opioid Addiction Prevention Council and invites student entrants to develop a unique and compelling multi-channel experience (print, social media, digital, etc.) for their project Push Back on Opioid Abuse. The challenge is to raise awareness about opioid addiction and target the audience that feels personally immune to the possibility of becoming addicted to opioids, and underestimates how quickly an addiction to prescribed opioid medications can happen.

The Young Globals award winners will receive a Global Award, have their work showcased at the 2018 award ceremony, and be given the opportunity to experience a paid internship in the summer of 2018 (minimum of one month based on their availability), at the sponsoring healthcare advertising agencies.

All entries submitted to the Young Globals will be judged by the sponsoring agencies’ international award-winning healthcare advertising chief creatives and their team.

The deadline to enter the Young Globals is January 31st, 2018. The entry fee is $40.00.

‘Gaana Originals’, a platform to promote non-film music, which was launched last month seems to have hit the high notes with Gaana consumers as the first 6 songs have crossed 20 million streams on the Gaana platform in just 5 weeks.

With the success of Gaana Originals, Gaana has crossed another milestone of 40 million monthly active customers in Sep’17.

Out of the first 6 songs, ‘Tum hardafa ho’ by Ankit Tiwari and ‘Aaja Meri bike Pe’ by Tony Kakkar have crossed more than 4.5 million streams each. Promptly followed by Millind Gaba ‘Main teri ho gayi’ with 3.5 million & ‘The Ankahee Project’ by Sona Mohpatra that has witnessed 3 million playouts. The latest songs ‘Camrye Waleya’ by Neha Kakkar with 2 million & ‘Bas Ek Baar’ by Sachin Gupta with 1 million streams are gradually gaining popularity on the platform.

Ankit Tiwari’s Tum Hardafa Ho has already made it to Mirchi Top 20 and various other industry top charts across radio stations and TV music channels. In the next 6 weeks, 6 more songs will be released under Gaana Originals including songs from legendary singing sensations like Sonu Nigam and Shaan.

Prashan Agarwal, COO, Gaana said, “this is an initiative to empower artists who can showcase and exercise their freedom & creativity without having to worry about the boundaries defined by limited film releases. 20 million streams in just 5 weeks is the biggest appreciation of this initiative from our customers, as most of these songs have grown better than few of the top Bollywood hits.

Starting, 10th October at 8PM, celebrity designers Muninder and Vishakha are all set for yet another season of home makeovers

Owning a house of your own is everyone’s dream, but the dream further extends to making the house into a lovely home. Celebrated interior designers Muninder and Vishakha Chowdhry have helped a lot of families turn their dream into a reality in season 1 of FYI TV18’s Small Budget Big Makeover. After the tremendous success of their first season the channel is back with Season 2 of their most loved show premiering on Tuesday, 10th October at 8PM. The new season is sponsored by Apollo Paints, powered by Gyproc and has Kurl-On as comfort partners.

Small Budget Big Makeover Season 2 brings bigger, better and unique stories of different families across India. Each makeover unravels the story behind the change. The essence of the show is combination of a makeover in a shoe string budget of Rs. 20,000 per room and an effort to bring families together by making their mundane living space into their dream homes.

Muninder Singh Chowdhry the ‘Transformer’ and Vishakha Dholakia Chowdhry the ‘Imaginator’ are going to show you how, with little money and a lot of creativity, you can give your rooms a magical makeover. The twist lies in the fact that the team of experts are faced with constraints not only monetarily but also with time. Along with the limited time and budget, the designers also have to keep in mind the aesthetics of the home.

Talking about Season 2, celebrity interior designers Muninder and Vishakha said, “When we had started with the first season of Small Budget Big Makeover, our whole idea was to help regular people with a home makeover as they are perplexed by multitude of options. The response to the first season has been tremendous. Each house has story attached to it and we try to reflect the emotions through these makeover. With the new season we got lakhs of makeover requests and we chose the most unique ones where we helped the families to create their dream home”.

The show that talks about home makeover and family emotions, will also showcase some cool DIY tips by Muninder and Vishakha that will help the audience to revamp their houses by recycling old stuff.

Tune into FYI TV18 and watch some incredible home makeover only on New Season of Small Budget Big Makeover every Tuesday at 8PM

The BBC 100 Women Challenge 2017 arrives in India next week as a team of female experts comes together to find ways to help women overcome illiteracy in a unique celebration of female talent.

‘BBC 100 Women Challenge: Change is Coming’ draws on the experience of women across all spheres of modern life – from engineering to the creative industries, from sport to business – as teams based around the world tackle everyday problems currently blighting female lives.

Starting on Monday (9th October) the Delhi based team will have a working week to invent, develop and deliver a prototype that tackles the issue of female illiteracy, whether a tech solution, product or campaign. The group, which will be based at Innov8, in Delhi’s Connaught Place, includes educationalists, activists, writers, tech experts and entrepreneurs plus women who have experienced the challenges poor literacy can bring.
They will then share their solution with an invited audience at the Katha Lab School, in Govindpuri, New Delhi and with the BBC’s global audience via BBC World Service Radio’s Outside Source programme on Friday 13th October from 2030IST. Outside Source will also be checking in on the team’s progress on Tuesday 10th October and coverage will run on BBC World News TV. Plus the team will be followed by a BBC World News TV documentary team as they work on their solution (to be broadcast in November).

The team will include: Dr. Urvashi Sahni social entrepreneur, women's rights activist and educationist; Nitya Thummalachetty currently a business analyst at US firm CareCentra writer; yoga teacher and activist Ira Trivedi; Aditi Avasthi founder and CEO of edtech platform Embibe; and former journalist Tulika Kiran who now teaches young people in prison.

They will be joined by inspirational women and girls who will be sharing their experiences to help inspire the solution; including Mehroonisa Siddiqui mother of Indian actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who was not able to attend school and married at 14.

The team’s progress during the week will be shared on the BBC’s digital platforms including www.bbc.com/100women which will also play host to a wealth of video and written content exploring female literacy.

Audience participation will be a cornerstone of the BBC 100 Women Challenge. The team will want to hear directly from the BBC’s audiences around the world, particularly women affected by the issues they are tackling and anyone who is already seeking solutions. People will be able to get involved in the challenge via social media with @BBC100Women and #100Women, online at www.bbc.com/100women and through the live shows.

The Delhi 100 Women Challenge follows the announcement of part one of the 100 Women List 2017. Ten Indian women including the Delhi team and others such as cricketer Mithali Raj, were named in the first 60 - see here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-41380265. The remaining 40 places will then be decided as the challenge progresses, drawn from those who have supported, inspired and helped the teams on the ground over the course of the four weeks.

The first BBC 100 Women Challenge launched in Silicon Valley, California this week (Oct 2 -6th) with a team looking at ways to smash the glass ceiling. After Delhi the focus will be on London and Nairobi as a group try to improve safety for female travellers using public transport (October 16th-21st); and finally for the fourth week women based in Rio de Janeiro will take on sexism in sport (October 23rd – 28th).