MAM
Aegis Media launches CCS in India
MUMBAI: Aegis Media has launched its proprietary research based tools Consumer Connections System (CCS) in India.
CCS was originally launched 12 years ago in the UK. It has now expanded globally and is available in 40+ countries covering over 250,000 respondents accounting for over 90 per cent of global advertising expenditure, the company said.
In APAC, CCS is currently active in China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and now India.
CCS is an “in-depth” single source of media, marketing and consumer targeting data in the world and will provide India and Aegis Media clients, actionable insight into communication usage and engagement across bought, owned and earned digital, experiential and media channels.
The investment in the tool stems from a belief that digital is changing everything, and, crucially, contributes to the way advertisers put an understanding of how consumers think and behave at the heart of everything they do, the company said.
According to the company, with a focus on digital, this is the first study to have a significant focus on the digital touchpoints and e-commerce which is on a growth spurt in India. In-depth information is available for the through CCS which is capable of evaluating the comfort of the consumer with e-commerce.
In the new era of media, CCS helps to create powerful connections between client‘s brands and their most valuable consumers.
Aegis Group chairman India and CEO South East Asia Ashish Bhasin said, “CCS is based on a communications, lifestyle and product survey conducted across 18 towns and cities across SEC A, B, C and D thus making it the most in-depth tool available in the country. It facilitates the consumer-centric philosophy that we apply to strategy and communications. This is combined with insight into our clients‘ brands and categories making bespoke consumer segmentations truly actionable through communication. This is India‘s largest research of this nature, with a global footprint.”
“We will be introducing all of our clients to this tool which will become an integral part of our Integrated Communication Planning (ICP) process for all of them. Our investment is not a one off and we will be repeating the research whenever required, from now on. We will also make available to our clients an opportunity to go back to each of the consumers who have been interviewed as the part of the benchmark study and run a deep dive analysis specific to their categories. This would further enable our clients to understand the way the consumers interface with media and how they respond to their brands,” Bhasin added
The research was conducted across 18 cities and across 9000 respondents to measures the Consumer‘s relationship with communications generically and by category. It measures aspects like Generic Channel Involvement across 39 touch points (Bought, Owned and Earned) addressing questions on consumption, level of interest/enjoyment, level of attention paid to the Touch-point, level of engagement with the Touch-point. It goes further into understanding the Category Specific Channel Involvement across 61 touch-points (Bought, Owned and Earned) answering queries like Action as a result of noticeability and What channel facilitated post engagement.
On the digital space and e-commerce, the research shows a growing role for e-commerce in the market and early studies suggest.
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.
