MAM
Xaxis and Mindshare create first programmatic outdoor airport campaign for Grofers
MUMBAI: GroupM’s advanced programmatic arm, Xaxis, and global media agency network, Mindshare, have worked with digital out-of-home (DOOH) platform Lemma to launch an industry-first programmatic DOOH campaign at India’s busiest airport, CSI Mumbai for online grocery delivery service Grofers.
The project combined Xaxis' audience targeting capabilities, Mindshare's strategic media planning, and Lemma’s programmatic DOOH platform to increase visibility of Grofers' Grand Orange Bag Day sale, just as a competing retailer launched its own promotion.
Starting with CSI Mumbai Airport, the campaign successfully introduced DOOH screens as a new environment for digital display advertising. In addition to the airport, Xaxis activated the campaign announcing the Grand Orange Bag Day sale across Mumbai railway and metro screens to target suburban commuters. The company's data-driven approach to DOOH enabled rich online and offline behavioural insights to be applied to the audiences reached at the Mumbai airport and across the city.
Along with Lemma’s platform, and Mindshare’s media buying, the TimesOOH screens were made available for bidding in real-time. Xaxis activated the programmatic direct campaign via Google’s DV360 demand-side platform.
The Grofers initiative was scheduled for the same time that a competing retailer was running a promotion, so the online grocer needed Grand Orange Bag Day to stand out during this period of high media noise.
Grofers director of marketing Ankur Ogra said, “Since Grofers is an online retail store, we try in all our communications to bring our consumers a unique experience that they can relate to better. With this campaign, we wanted to surprise our existing, highly-valued consumers and create brand awareness among our potential consumers. We believe in pushing the boundaries with every campaign and that this activity did just that.”
Xaxis India country lead Bharat Khatri commented, “Time and again it has been proven that out-of-home media has a strong influence on consumer action. Our partnership with Mindshare and Lemma on this campaign is an exciting step forward in digital-out-of-home. Xaxis is committed to bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds by offering advertisers a frictionless integration of strategies in a single platform allowing them to control their audience targeting across channels.”
Mindshare India chief digital officer Vinod Thadani said, “In this campaign, Grofers' data provided the insights to craft the right message and Xaxis’ targeting capabilities allowed the message to be delivered to the right place at the right time. The expansion of digital channels and unified platforms to manage omnichannel ad campaigns help brands reach their customers – both online and offline – more effectively. ”
Lemma founder and CEO of Gulab Patil added, “This Grofers campaign has established digital out-of-home as a new display environment for digital ads. In time, more integrated campaigns like these will pave the way for programmatic DOOH strategies to transition from a ‘test and learn’ activity to a media plan ‘must-have’.”
Brands
Apple bites back: the $599 MacBook Neo is the cheapest Mac ever made
The tech giant unveils a budget laptop that packs a punch — and a lot of cheek
CALIFORNIA: Apple has never been shy about charging a premium. So when Cupertino rolls out a MacBook at $599 (approx. Rs 55,000) , it’s worth sitting up straight.
The MacBook Neo, unveiled Tuesday, is Apple’s most affordable laptop to date — undercutting its own MacBook Air and taking a sharp swipe at the budget PC market in one fell swoop. It starts at $499 for students, which, for a machine with Apple silicon inside, is frankly a steal.
At the heart of the Neo is the A18 Pro chip — the same muscle that powers the latest iPhones. Apple claims it is up to 50 per cent faster for everyday tasks than a rival PC running Intel’s Core Ultra 5, and three times quicker on on-device AI workloads. Fanless and featherweight at 2.7 pounds, it runs silently and promises up to 16 hours of battery life. Try doing that on a Chromebook.
The 13-inch liquid retina display clocks in at 2408-by-1506 resolution with 500 nits of brightness and support for billion colours — sharper and brighter, Apple says, than most rivals in this price band. It comes dressed in four colours: blush, indigo, silver, and a zesty new citrus, with matching keyboard shades to boot.
Connectivity is modest — two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 6 — but this is a budget machine, not a pro workstation. The 1080p FaceTime camera, dual mics with directional beamforming, and Spatial Audio speakers round out a package that punches well above its weight class.
Apple senior vice-president of hardware engineering John Ternus alled it “a laptop only Apple could create.” That’s the kind of line that makes rivals wince — because, annoyingly, he might be right.
The Neo runs macOS Tahoe, with Apple Intelligence baked in for AI writing tools, live translation, and the sort of on-device smarts that keep user data away from the cloud. It also boasts 60 per cent recycled content — the highest of any Apple product — for those who like their bargains with a side of conscience.
For $599, Apple isn’t just selling a laptop. It’s selling an argument — that good design and real performance needn’t cost the earth. The PC industry had better have a decent comeback ready.
