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It is hard for marketers to look beyond the marketing mix on most days, but when it is the Premier League in question, the mix of great football, intense competition and the stature of players is a strong distraction. Considering the growing popularity in India of this most-followed football league in the world, we decided to bring to its viewers a Premier League special feature. Through this seven-part series where we will reach out to PL fans within the marketing community and official fanclubs spread across the country, we hope to identify why the nine months of great footballing action can be a wonderful platform for building brands, and why the passionate followers of the PL cant wait to see the power-packed league kicking off on August 14.

In this edition, we spoke to one self-confessed PL fan, Nitin Khanna, Senior Director, Marketing, ACKOwho has been rooting for Liverpool for well over a decade. Khanna says, I normally get my jersey on for every Liverpool match that I'm watching. I get both the jerseys from the season--the home jersey and the away jersey, and make sure that I get the feeling of watching the match in the stadium with the other fans.

Talking about what sets the Premier League apart from most other leagues, he says that in the others there are just two or three teams that are top-notch. In LaLiga, you have Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid but there is a big gulf in terms of quality between them and the others which makes viewing really attractive for only select matches, they are largely one-sided so you lose interest as a football fan. That is definitely not the case with the Premier League. Over the years there's a really nice competitive set of six eight teams which makes every match well contested and thus a delight to watch. The last season is a testament to that fact. Till about a week or two before the Premier League ended, you had no idea who was going to be fifth in the league and who was going to be second. There was a difference of just a couple of points between the two spots.

The onset of Premier League is almost like a declaration of war for Khannas circle of friends each of who has his loyalties etched on a stone for a particular club, be it Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool etc, starting from WhatsApp battle of wits, to memes on social media to sharing articles which rub the other teams followers the wrong way and finally celebrating the defeat of a rival club ostentatiously, Premier League in those nine months is always a buzzing topic for them. Khanna elaborates, In the past 8-10 years, each club has had a period where they've not been doing so well. So, we've all had our chances for really making sure that we are giving the supporters of those teams a hard time. Arsenal, for example, has had a rough patch in the past six years and we have all ensured that my friend who is a true blue Arsenal supporter definitely realizes that every step of the way. We have not missed even one opportunity to mock her and tell her just how badly the club is performing.

Talking about pre-Covid times he says, My friends and I would organize a house party to watch the game together or hit a sports bar especially when Liverpool was locking horns with Manchester United, those were big draws. In fact, a permutation or combination of matches between Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea was always a ready excuse to catch up and watch the match together.

So high is the Premier League mania for Khanna that he has conditioned his five-year-old son to watch the Premier League with him. Khanna jokes, Right from the time when he was three years old, I've made sure that he sits beside me and watches the matches. I've tried my best to coax him into being a Liverpool supporter as well. But his loyalties seem a bit divided at the moment because my brother is a Manchester United fan. He's doing his best as well, to make sure that the youngest male member in the family is pulled to the Manchester United side. But me being the father, has had the strongest influence so far and I see our little one tilting towards Liverpool now.

He also has quite a collection of the Liverpool merchandise, he emotionally blackmails his friends into getting something for him every time they are visiting the UK, be it scarves, or a giant poster of Anfield stadium in Liverpool which is pasted right next to his bed and one he happily wakes up to every morning.

The passion associated with the game is what according to him makes the Premier League such a great marketing property. The banter on PL was alive even during the Covid times, that is why I feel it is way ahead of other football leagues. From an advertising point of view, we get a sharp, affluent male audience watching the Premier League. There is a certain age and income demographic that's more clued in with the Premier League. It is not like IPL, which has a mass following. The Premier League is still in a niche of its own. So, if a product is aimed at that target audience then it's probably one of the highest impact properties to advertise your brand on. Hence you see a lot of auto-related companies, like car manufacturers or bike manufacturers advertising on it, says Khanna.

Premier League is most certainly growing its fanbase and viewership in India in addition to being one of the richest sporting leagues in the world. Signing off Khanna says his dream is to be able to visit the Anfield stadium one day. I want to walk through the players tunnel, watch a game and be able to sing the anthem, You Never Walk Alone with all the fans in the stadium- that's a bucket list item, the Liverpool fan adds proudly.

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It was just about a year ago when Kartik Sharma took on the Group CEO mandate at Omnicom Media Group (OMG), at a time when the economy and the industry was reeling from the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the timing was challenging and the experience extraordinary, Sharma tells us that the time he had between his previous role at Wavemaker and the new one allowed him to observe changes in the industry before being thrown right into the action. I realised then, that we are amidst a sea of both challenges and opportunities, he says, adding that it wasnt easy to adapt to a remote working arrangement immediately. Sharma takes us through the events of the past year at OMG, which also saw the agency bag business worth Rs 400 crore.

You took on the CEO mandate during a year that turned out to be truly extraordinary and challenging. Tell us a bit about the transition into the CEO role at such a tumultuous time.

It has been an extraordinary year indeed. While I did have some time between my previous role and the new one, most of it was spent observing the changes in the industry and thinking about how agencies need to evolve. I realised then, that we are amidst a sea of both challenges and opportunities.

Ill admit that its not easy to sink into the remote working scenario immediately. Weve all inevitably become used to working in a certain way over time - meeting people and clients, being in an office space, making decisions together. Everyone has had to evolve rapidly, adapt to the newness, and actively learn new ways of working remotely. Most important, it was a lesson in managing teams remotely. One of the best things, however, has been the team, that welcomed me and been extremely supportive and energised about the vision for the future across OMG.

Its true that now, meetings are shorter but its also true that we continue to collaborate and get things going. The pandemic has surely turned us into more nimble and agile beings - continuously learning to be more innovative, curiosity-driven and solution-oriented. I do miss the quick, spontaneous brainstorming sessions and, am sure all of us do. But greater good precedes and our teams, their well-being and the health of the organisation are paramount right now. With that in context, we are all learning to communicate differently, with a lot more transparency in the way we operate.

Almost a year into this role, what have some of the big moments been for you at OMG? What were some of the big takeaways and learnings for you in this first year?

Even through the pandemic, we have been actively pitching to clients to enable business growth, and have started seeing efforts bear fruit in the last quarter of the year, and that was definitely a big moment. Multitasking was a big challenge through it all, but the team did a fabulous job! We also launched Transact, our e-commerce unit, seizing a new opportunity to innovate rather than waiting for COVID-19 to be completely at bay. Additionally, we brought on board a set of diverse and versatile talent. Some top-notch new leaders have joined the group - something that has truly worked in favour of team morale and strength, alongside business output.

We have also stepped up our efforts to be innovative in learning and development initiatives through regular podcasts. Weve ensured that data and insights have led to better decisions whether its for our people or our clients. Regular and consistent communication was important and so we made sure we organised regular town halls within OMG, OMD and PHD. Weve been actively emphasising the need for resilience, offering support through mini-sessions, regular check-ins, offering breaks and other measures. One learning that has stuck to me personally, is one that I took from the team. It was the sheer ability to view circumstances through a positive lens. We saw getting things done collaboratively, leading to building both stellar teams and organisational resilience.

How challenging has it been to pitch and win new businesses in this past year? What are some of the key account wins youve had so far?

The major challenge has definitely been to communicate everything through the screen. Considering that attention spans continue to diminish, its important to practice and embrace the art of crisp storytelling. As for new wins, across agencies, we have brought home some amazing brands like Philips, AU Bank, Cuemath, Tread One, Country Delight, The Pink Foundry (ConfiraLab), Parrys, Bel Group and Lead School, cumulatively adding to over Rs 400 crore to business. This to me is an indication of the trust our clients have placed in OMG and we are confident about building for the future.

After the initial setback from the pandemic last year, how tough was it to get billings and business back to normal? How would you evaluate the Groups performance from last year in terms of growth and revenue?

Last year, after the pandemic began, AdEx declined for the industry in general, and so a dip in billings was understandable. However, we saw an exceptional surge in digital, e-commerce, and trading. So, Id say specific verticals have definitely seen growth and continue to do so.

OMG has consistently seen a good representation of women at the leadership level. What is your vision for the organisation when it comes to ensuring inclusivity and equal opportunities for all?

OMG India is probably the only agency in the country where women make up 80% of the C-suite / leadership team. We're merit-driven and so its possible that what the world considers a bias, we think of as a competency. If you are competent, you make the cut. Having been in the industry for 25 years I have witnessed some great strides when it comes to inclusion, across the board. The media industry has definitely been quite progressive in this realm. I am proud of the leadership team across OMG.

What are the differentiators for both PHD and OMD as well as Omnicom Media Group in a very competitive industry? What are the capabilities you are building in this volatile pandemic scenario?

OMG embodies the principle of being limitless to strive for bigger, better and bolder accomplishments every day. The cohesiveness of the group lies in creating a resilient workforce across agencies. All our agencies are defined by the same ethos in their niche. OMD and PHD, as world-class agencies, are unified under our commitment to remain agile and futuristic. OMD India is the leader in benchmarking deep data-driven solutions, resulting in better and faster decisions for clients. This is essentially achieved because OMD focuses on being adaptable, collaborative and open to learning every step of the way. PHD Media is a challenger brand / a disruptor, an idea hub that is constantly going above and beyond today to focus on constant creative disruptions for tomorrow. All of this, by challenging the status quo and making the leap, with smart, strategic, innovative business outcomes.

Being limitless in our efforts to deal with any challenges has been the key to creating a resilient, empathetic and collaborative workforce. We have adjusted ourselves to new ways of working and new methods of interacting with our clients. And through it all, we have been ensuring that our people have the time and opportunity to keep their physical and mental energies up. We are largely focussing on enabling seamless systems, processes and practices by leveraging digital transitions for agile decision making. Improving trading, financial policies and practices, HR processes, as well as opening and exploring new lines of business are at the crux of our long-term strategy. OMG India aims to become not just a market leader in precision marketing with its tool Omni, but also the frontrunner in being a responsible corporate citizen.

Going forward, what will your key focus areas be? What is the organisations new vision given the current landscape?

The key focus is definitely to enhance offerings through our people-based precision marketing tool and insights platform Omni. It is a forward-looking platform that can manoeuvre in a cookie-less environment, having ingested over 500 million device IDs, all from India. It is divided into five utilities insight, planning, activation, optimisation and workflow. Providing data clean rooms with strict privacy controls in alignment with Ad Data Hub, the platform has evolved a great deal since inception. At the core of Omni is our robust people-based identity graph, which monitors consumer behaviours in real-time to reveal how people connect, engage and transact with brands. It connects people, data assets, and analytics into a common framework, providing our teams with deep insights for making better decisions, faster, and outcomes that drive business results. We want to interlink everything to optimised business metrics.Our vision is to scale more capabilities in content and e-commerce, in a holistic manner for sure, but also in order to meet the needs of the data-rich digitally-powered world we live in, today.

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Across agencies, we have cumulatively added over Rs 400 crore to business: Kartik Sharma - Exchange4Media

THE WOODLANDS, Texas, July 13, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Actual SEO Media Inc. is a fast-growing PPC provider in the Greater Houston Area. Knowingly, they are announcing the opening of a new business location in The Woodlands, Tx. This new location will help aid businesses in need of help with effective strategies that help foster growth.

With everything now being virtual, businesses need new and unique ways to help boost success within the industry. Effective pay-per-click (PPC) strategies can help with the presence of personal business so that strategies can begin to be adjusted with how popular search engines are being ranked. With Actual SEO Media at your side, businesses can blossom into the company they want to be and so much more!

Actual SEO Media is an in-house team of strategists who work closely with businesses that want to explore and reach new horizons. Their team has years of experience on their hands. So much so that they've been able to expand their services all over the Houston area. This company isn't a typical PPC company because instead, they operate under non-binding contacts. A non-binding contract means businesses can start or stop the services paid for at any time they see fit.

All businesses can trust that they're going to receive services that work. PPC is an internet marketing strategy used to help invite more traffic to their website. With competitive service industries, the most successful PPC industries leave businesses ranking high on the most popular search engines like Google. Advertising is one of the most popular forms of PPC. Usually, it is even more successful than other strategies like content writing and SEO.

When combined with many already-in-place white-hat strategies, meaning they stay within the boundaries Google sets in place, any business can find themselves ranking high. Notably, Actual SEO Media strays away from the fray and finds methods that aren't oversaturated. ASM will always utilize strategies that fit best for individual companies alone.

Actual SEO Media Clients like David say, "This product rocks, and it is definitely something I am going to fit into our monthly budget." ASM takes pride in providing services that speak for themself, and all businesses can and will attest to this. They do a fantastic job of keeping clients organized in order to maintain the ideals that the customer always comes first.

This organization prides itself on providing excellent services to communities that need them the most. If outstanding services are what a business is looking for, then Actual SEO Media, Inc will put all of the work into maintaining and helping businesses flourish. They work with their clients and maintain a "client-first" mentality.

About Actual SEO Media, Inc

Simply put, there is no job too much for the ASM team. Any company looking for expert strategies and methods needs to visit the new location in The Woodlands, Tx. Businesses will be met with fresh ideas, strategies, and methods never seen before.

For more information about Actual SEO Media, Inc, call (713) 201-7666, or email the team at info@actualseomedia.com

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Benjamin Thompson, Actual SEO Media Inc., 832-834-0661, info@actualseomedia.com

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Nutrition company Herbalife Nutrition is the Official Nutrition Partner of Team India for Tokyo 2021.

Commenting on the partnership, Ajay Khanna, Vice President & India Country Head, Herbalife Nutrition, said, As a company at the forefront of developing sports nutrition and working successfully with teams and athletes around the world, we are proud to be the nutrition partner in support of Team India. We look forward to bringing our knowledge and expertise in sports nutrition to the team and are confident they will achieve huge success in Tokyo 2021.

Commenting on this association, Rajeev Mehta, Secretary General, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) said, Herbalife Nutrition is an ideal partner for Team India as they have a key understanding of the specific nutritional needs of high-performance athletes. The synergy between Herbalife Nutrition and Indian Olympic Association creates a sporting platform that leverages science-based nutrition and expertise to optimise performance and well-being.

Over 100 Indian athletes and sportspersons including Mary Kom and Manika Batra are scheduled to represent India in Tokyo 2021 in an array of competitive sports including boxing, table tennis, badminton, track and field athletics, wrestling, hockey, tennis, fencing, archery and shooting. Fans and athletes around the world are waiting for the mega sporting event to kick off on July 23.

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BOSTON, July 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- OneScreen.ai, a startup that is solving the biggest problem in out-of-home (OOH) advertising, has closed $1 million in pre-seed funding. The investment is led by TechFarms Capital, a Florida-based fund investing in tech and tech-enabled ventures, with participation from HubSpot co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, Wayfair's alumni fund (Wayfund), Lola.com CEO Mike Volpe, BuySellAds.com CEO Todd Garland, HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar, HappyNest CRO Jeanne Hopkins and several OneScreen.ai customers who have become investors. OOH advertising, which encompasses everything from billboards and buses to event sponsorships and connected TV, is a growing $30 billion industry - but half of all OOH inventory goes unsold each month because the selling/buying process is so labor-intensive and archaic.

Founded by former HubSpot, Google and Wayfair executives and alumni, OneScreen.ai is building tools to correct the inefficiencies plaguing OOH advertising, such as an inventory search engine, a platform for media companies to operate efficiently, and a marketplace to manage ad campaigns. The result is the first streamlined, connected OOH market network - a centralized space where marketers can locate, buy, deploy and measure OOH advertising campaigns.

"I wasn't surprised to find out-of-home advertising was broken; I was surprised to discover that it's still growing anyways. In fact, it's the only offline ad medium that's still growing," said OneScreen.ai CEO Sam Mallikarjunan. "While TV, radio and print advertising have all been dying, OOH has doubled in the past 20 years. Imagine what the industry could become if it were operating efficiently."

With the proliferation of marketing technology companies, online advertising has long had the tools needed to quickly and easily buy, activate and measure internet ad campaigns; however, as online advertising has become overly optimized and increasingly costly, many marketers are in need of new ways to drive traffic profitably and at scale. Combining the best parts of internet marketing with the omnipresence and scale of the real world, OneScreen.ai is building an OOH Market Network to compete offline with what Google and Facebook offer online -positioning OOH advertising to become the most powerful marketing medium on earth.

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"OneScreen.ai has all of the elements we look for in a startup, not the least of which is an experienced team with domain expertise addressing a large market opportunity," said Steve Millaway, Managing Director of TechFarms Capital. "Sam and his team have identified a huge dilemma plaguing out-of-home advertising, and they are uniquely qualified to solve the problem in an industry ripe for innovation."

Today, 94 percent of OOH inventory is bought and sold manually. The industry still relies heavily on manual spreadsheets, phones, human beings and fax machines -yes, fax machines.

"In more than 40 years in the out-of-home advertising space, I've seen and been involved in tremendous change," said Bobby Switzer, OOH advertising industry veteran and former VP of Operations of Lamar Advertising. "Any limitations to reaching out-of-home's full potential can be traced to market fragmentation and overly manual processes. Innovators like OneScreen.ai who are creating a much-needed, all-in-one platform hold great promise for the out-of-home advertising industry to reach its full potential."

To learn more about investing in Onescreen.ai, click here.

Media Contact: Jenna CasonOneScreen.ai PRjenna [at] hi-oak [dot] com

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HubSpot Alums Close on $1M Pre-Seed Round to Fix the Broken Out-of-Home (OOH) Advertising Industry - Yahoo Finance