MAM
Initiative launches ad campaign to help children
MUMBAI: Interpublic Group‘s (IPG) performance-led media communications company, Initiative, has launched a free advertising campaign to help promote a better world for children.
The agency is seeking to set a world record and help raise $1 million in the process.
Initiative is bringing together its network strength and expertise to produce a global campaign, from conception to media placement, to drive awareness of the important work being undertaken by international charity and education partner Free The Children.
The campaign has been produced by Puerto Rican creative agency Sajo Garcia Alcazar, a part of the Initiative network and will run till 31 January 2012.
The campaign‘s creative, which is focused on changing the status of young people living in developing communities, drives people to Free the Children‘s “We Day” Facebook page, encouraging them to ‘like‘ it. For every ‘like‘, Free The Children‘s partners are donating $1.
Initiative has also partnered with sister IPG network McCann Erickson, which has offered its services for free. It will be managing translations, adaptations and trafficking in all markets where the campaign is running.
Initiative president, world markets Mauricio Sabogal said, “It is really important that global companies, such as Initiative, play their part in charitable activities, and we are delighted to be supporting the important work being done by Free The Children.
“This campaign is a testament to the power of the Initiative network – our creativity and the relationships we have around the world with our media partners. We could not have produced this ambitious campaign without the generosity of both our media partners and McCann Erickson, who are working so hard without payment.”
Free The Children co-founder Craig Kielburger said, “We are very grateful for the incredible generosity of Initiative and its media partners, helping us to form connections with people around the world that traditionally we would not be able to reach. Whether through fundraising or online engagement, social media plays a key role for us, and we are always looking for ways it can support and enhance the work we do with youth domestically and in our developing communities.”
Lintas Media Group chairman and CEO Lynn De Souza added, “We are happy to be a part of this initiative. It is a good cause, and we are thankful to all our media partners like – Big FM, Radio City, My FM, Hello FM, Radio Mirchi, Colors, Times Network, and many other media partners who have provided free space for this initiative. We have secured media space in excess of Rs 5 million for this cause, and it will go a long way in garnering support for the charity.”
The campaign will be run in over 70 markets around the world, without spending any money on media or creative. In order to do this, Initiative has partnered with media owners around the world to run the campaign on TV, radio, online, email, outdoor and in newspapers and magazines.
Last year, Initiative managed to increase average donations to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation by 300 per cent, through its first ever free advertising campaign for a charity.
Brands
Google completes $32 billion Wiz deal to boost AI and cloud security
Wiz joins Google Cloud but keeps multi-cloud support across rival platforms
NEW YORK: Google has completed its $32 billion acquisition of cloud security company Wiz, marking the biggest deal in the tech giant’s history and signalling a major push to strengthen security in the era of artificial intelligence and multi-cloud computing.
The New York-headquartered cybersecurity firm will join Google Cloud while continuing to operate under the Wiz brand. Crucially, the company will maintain support for multiple cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud, reflecting the reality that most large organisations run their systems across several cloud providers.
Google said the acquisition is designed to help organisations build and scale applications more securely as businesses and governments increasingly move critical systems and data to the cloud. At the same time, the rapid adoption of generative AI has introduced new cybersecurity risks, with attackers also using AI to launch faster and more sophisticated attacks.
Wiz has built a reputation for simplifying cloud security. Its platform maps entire cloud environments, identifying vulnerabilities, potential attack paths and misconfigurations before they can be exploited. By connecting insights from code, cloud infrastructure and runtime environments, it allows security and engineering teams to detect and fix risks early in the development cycle.
Bringing Wiz into Google Cloud will create what the company describes as a unified security platform capable of detecting, preventing and responding to threats across cloud and AI environments. The combined offering will also integrate Google’s own security capabilities, including threat intelligence tools, security operations platforms and the cybersecurity expertise of Mandiant.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the move reflects the growing importance of security as more organisations rely on AI and cloud technologies. “Keeping people safe online has always been part of Google’s mission,” he said, adding that the partnership will help organisations innovate with greater confidence.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, said the goal is to make security an enabler rather than a roadblock for businesses building modern applications. He noted that the combined technologies will simplify the complex task of protecting hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
For Wiz, the acquisition opens the door to global scale while keeping its core philosophy intact. Co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport said the company remains committed to an open, multi-cloud approach and will continue supporting customers regardless of where their workloads run.
Over the past year, Wiz has expanded its platform to address emerging risks tied to AI applications, including tools that help organisations monitor AI usage, detect AI-specific vulnerabilities and secure AI workloads during runtime.
With Google’s infrastructure, artificial intelligence capabilities and security ecosystem now behind it, Wiz plans to accelerate development of its platform while continuing to serve enterprises, governments and start-ups operating across different cloud environments.
For Google Cloud, the acquisition adds a powerful piece to its security puzzle as competition intensifies among global cloud providers. For customers, it promises a future where building fast in the cloud does not have to come at the expense of staying secure.
