MAM
13% upsurge in advertising FCT during Covid-19: BARC-Nielsen report
NEW DELHI: The global Covid-19 pandemic has been hitting businesses across the globe hard. It was being estimated that the trickledown effect will eventually find its way in the advertising industry as well. But if the latest BARC Nielsen report is to be believed, that might really not be the case.
Despite many channels being unable to air new episodes because of canned shootings, advertisers haven’t withdrawn their FCTs back. As per the report, there has been a 13 per cent spike in advertising FCT in the corona period, week starting 14 March as compared to the time period between 11 and 31 January (termed as the pre-corona period).
The highest spike of 147 per cent, as expected, was recorded by social advertisements. Following categories were banking and finance sector (47 per cent rise), food and beverages (36 per cent rise), and services (22 per cent rise)
However, several categories witnessed a dip in the advertising FCT. Surprisingly, personal healthcare went down by 29 per cent. Auto and hair care went down by 17 per cent and seven per cent respectively.
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IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
