MAM
Exim Bank agrees to lend Crest $7 million
MUMBAI: Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) is for the first time funding an animation film project. It has agreed to lend $7 million to Crest Animation Studios Ltd.
While $5 million will be to fund Crest Animation’s Indian outfit, Exim Bank is willing to sanction another $2 million in the US subsidiary company, RichCrest Animation.
In August 2005, Crest Animation, through its US arm RichCrest Animation, and the independent studio, Lions Gate Entertainment, had signed a deal worth around $70m for the co-production of three animated feature films. It was decided that both companies will have a 50:50 equity in the project, expected to pan out over five years.
“This will be our first financing for an animation movie project. We have agreed to fund Crest Animation Studios as well as its wholly owned subsidiary company in the US. Crest has tied up with Lions Gate Entertainment which is a leading distributor in the world. Besides, the company has a completion bond in place,” Exim Bank general manager Mathew John tells Indiantelevision.com.
Of the three movie projects with Lions Gate Entertainment, the first to kick off is Sylvester and the Magic Pebble which is based on the Caldecott medal-winning story by William Steig, the creator of the blockbuster Shrek. The pre-production work on the movie is near completion, and the production plan is as per schedule for 2008 release.
“Our funding to Crest will be for the first movie,” says John.
Crest is looking at a mix of debt and equity to fund the film projects. Crest’s contribution for these three projects would be around $30 million.
Exim Bank has been funding Hindi movie projects which have a potential to earn foreign currency revenues in the overseas market. It has financed nine movies so far to the tune of Rs 580 million. This includes Rs 400 million to noted filmmaker Yash Chopra for movies like Veer Zaara, Hum Tum, Bunty Aur Babli and Dum.
“We have also lent Rs 100 million for Don and Rs 80 million for Mangal Pandey – The Rising,” says John.
Brands
Creative Intelligence: Using AI to Predict Which Ads Will Actually Convert
Priyanka Aeron, Director & Co-founder of Thrive Global AI
MUMBAI: In a heavily populated digital landscape, simply being creative with your advertising will not guarantee that your ad will be successful. In fact, brands today are producing more content than ever. However, very little of that results in actual engagement or sales. However, Creative Intelligence, powered by AI, is fundamentally transforming the advertising industry.
Creative Intelligence utilizes data, machine learning, and statistical behavioral insights to analyze and predict how well a creative asset will perform prior to it being published. Therefore, marketers no longer have to rely on either their gut instincts or post-campaign analytics for making informed decisions before production. That said, AI-powered creative intelligence greatly improves results and decreases wasted dollars spent.
Moving Beyond Guesswork
In the past, making ads was a mix of gut feeling, experience, and A/B testing. These methods were useful, but reactive by nature. People have already spent their budgets by the time the results are looked at. AI models can find patterns that are linked to higher engagement and conversion rates by looking at huge datasets. These datasets can include things like past campaign performance, audience behavior, and visual elements like color, composition, and facial expressions. This helps marketers guess which ads will do well even before they go live.
Decoding What Truly Drives Conversions
AI-powered creative intelligence allows for an evaluation of advertisements that is not limited to the basic data but also explores the elements of an effective advertisement through subtle reactions; clarity and directness of the ad message and how well the ad captures audience’s attention in the first three seconds. AI can also provide insights into the successful use of advertisements directed to human faces, which connect through eye contact based on media channels, and how advertisements that utilize shorter but clear calls to action may produce more clicks from certain populations. The insights, provided through AI, provide marketers with the ability to think beyond creating more advertising material and additionally create more effective ad campaigns that actually convert.
Personalization at Scale
Consumers expect relevance more than ever. Irrelevant mass messaging is not going to work in a society inundated with information. Hyper-personalization, using AI, allows companies to create content that suits individual segments within their target markets based on their demographics, interests, and behaviors. Rather than having one single message that aims to reach everyone, brands can have many versions of their messages tailored to each segment within the market. Such flexibility is what makes campaigns successful nowadays.
Faster Iteration, Better Results
Another advantage to using AI in creative decision-making is speed. Companies must improvise because their campaign cycles are shorter than ever before, and having the ability to iterate rapidly is more important than it has ever been. There is no greater way to do this work than through AI, as new technologies give brands the ability to test multiple creative avenues and figure out which ones are working well. This reduces a lot of the testing that companies would otherwise have to do and makes the process faster.
With AI, brands can also make creative changes in real-time during a campaign, allowing the, to make vital decisions and adjust their creatives, rather than waiting out. This allows for faster adaptability, well-tested campaigns and reduced lost ad spend.
The Human-AI Collaboration
Even though AI is capable of performing certain tasks, its purpose is not to eliminate human creativity. Successful campaigns require human collaboration with computer intellect since both complement each other. While computers are capable of dealing with massive amounts of information, discovering patterns, and providing predictions, humans are the one to inject stories and emotions into campaigns.
The Future of Advertising
As the complexity of advertising becomes harder with the passage of time, Creative Intelligence will play a significant role in helping marketers formulate a strategic approach. The yardstick that will set standards for determining whether a marketing firm has fulfilled its responsibilities will be the forecasting of future outcomes, as well as personalized content and optimization of creative elements in real-time. In contrast to the existing scenario where the campaigns remain fixed, these campaigns will be capable of adjusting themselves according to the customer interacting with the brand, as well as other trends on social media channels. This will enable brands to offer customers an engaging experience that will exceed expectations. The biggest hurdle marketers will face will be finding ways to utilize these capabilities without compromising branding and enhancing the creativity of the team involved.
