MAM
ITW Consulting appoints Deep Drona as chief business officer
MUMBAI: ITW Consulting, an affiliate of Global Sports Commerce specialising in crafting and executing multi-faceted brand management solutions across sports, entertainment and media, has appointed Deep Drona as chief business officer w.e.f. from October 2019.
Drona will be responsible to streamlining and creating synergy amongst all verticals of ITW to provide 360 degree solutions to our clientele. Additionally, he will be developing and implementing new IP’s in the global market across sports and other business lines and assist ITW consulting management in achieving its next level milestones in National and International Markets .
“As we further scale up our business in the market with new networks and offerings, we see great potential in bringing more synergy across different revenue functions of ITW. Deep’s incredible knowledge and experience will help us further streamline and provide 360 degree solutions to our clients. We have our expertise in sales, consulting, talent, events, content, sports media planning and buying, all under one entity. Further we would like ITW establish its credentials as a complete sports, media & entertainment organisation. We see Deep with his rich experience in sports & entertainment to add to our vision & meet our aggressive plan to establish ITW as a leader & forefront player in the market,” says Bhairav Shanth, co-founder & managing director, ITW Consulting Pvt Ltd.
Drona said, “I am excited to take up this role and explore newer possibilities. I look forward to working with the team to build and execute impactful strategies as I embark on this exciting journey. ITW is unique in terms of the services they offer, they are in an end-to-end company with solutions for clients offering sales and marketing opportunities across sports media and entertainment along with being the largest sellers and consultants on cricket rights. Besides this ITW group companies ITW Global, DOOH, Playworx Entertainment, MediaWorx, Catalyst also offer a world of opportunities for collaboration to pitch 360 to clients.”
With over two and half decades of experience, Drona joins ITW post a long and very successful stint at SPN India Pvt ltd. Earlier he was cluster head Sales of all Sony Sports channels and Movie channels MAX, MAX-2, FTA- Sony WAH. He has led the sales launch initiatives of the sports cluster before the buyout of Ten Sports and the music channel MIX and the movie channels Max 2 and WAH. Drona has under his leadership successfully delivered the first 10 seasons of IPL , ICC Events and other marquee Indian cricket bilateral tours of South Africa, England, Australia and others. FIFA, WORLD CUP’s, WWE, La Liga ,Champions League and SeriaA were some more properties that were helmed during his stint at SPN.
Prior to SPN, he was with SABTNL where he set up sales operations and also launched successfully SAB TV. Nimbus Communication Pvt Ltd is where he began his TV career.
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.
