iWorld
Arre and Sony Liv to co-produce a web series
MUMBAI: After announcing a distribution alliance, Sony Liv and Arré, have now come together to co-produce a digital series. Set against the backdrop of a big fat Indian wedding, the show is a comedy of errors. The show will go into production soon and is planned for launch in early 2017 on both the digital platforms.
Rithvik Dhanjani has been signed as the lead of the series.
“The new-age Indian viewers want engaging and original entertainment solutions which they can relate to and enjoy. We, at Sony Liv, have been developing fresh and youthful content which caters to the evolved entertainment sensibilities of the millennial viewership. Given its theme, we are confident that the show will be hugely popular with our target audiences, as they will be able to relate to the characters and the situations on the show,” said SonyLiv EVP and head digital business Uday Sodhi.
The show promises to be a visual treat and centres around a wild bachelor trip gone horribly wrong.
A pack of three best friends-a groom to be and his two quirky friends -take off on a bachelor trip just before the wedding. With a bullying bride-to-be back home, some comical misadventures on a foreign sojourn and an unexpected encounter with a beautiful stranger, the protagonist comes to understand the meaning of love and friendship.
“At Arré, we believe in bringing a new lens to traditional formats and genres of content, be it commentary on the news or a comedy fiction show. After our distribution alliance, we’re delighted to partner with a leading and established digital entertainment platform Sony Liv,for original content and look forward to many more such shows together,” added Arre co-founder and CEO Ajay Chacko.
The show is produced for Arré and Sony Liv by Dhanjani and Srman Jain.
Dhanjani, said, “I am super excited about the show and look forward to working with SonyLiv and Arré again on yet another interesting project. With digital entertainment destinations like these, there is scope to tell stories that have a new-age sensibility and which resonate with the young audiences. The story and the characters in the show are reflective of this mindset and I feel the audiences will be able to relate to it.”
iWorld
Meta introduces new AI tools to boost discovery-to-purchase journey
From shoppable Reels to generative video, platforms get smarter at turning attention into sales.
MUMBAI: Meta is turning “scroll and stop” into “scroll, stop, and shop” and it’s using AI to make the whole journey feel almost effortless. The company has announced several new tools and enhancements designed to help brands guide people from discovery to purchase more effectively, while delivering more relevant and personalised experiences across its platforms.
Creators can now add product links more broadly on Instagram Reels, turning their content into shoppable moments. Businesses in 22 countries, including India, will soon be able to share their product catalogues with creators, opening up a new sales channel for brands and fresh monetisation opportunities for creators.
The Creator Marketplace has also been upgraded with enhanced target audience filtering, integrated with Ads Manager. This helps businesses quickly find creators who are a strong match for their goals. Campaigns using Partnership Ads deliver, on average, 19 per cent lower CPAs, 13 per cent higher click-through rates, and 71 per cent higher median brand lift.
Meta is expanding Reels Trending Ads inventory with new content categories including TV & Movies, Travel, Business, Finance & Investments. According to Meta’s analysis of 59 studies, Reels Trending Ads delivered an incremental 6.6 percentage point Ad Recall lift compared to control groups.
AI-Powered Shopping Enhancements
- Product Set Optimisation is now in testing, allowing retail media networks to promote specific products with detailed reporting. Early results show 17 per cent lower median seller cost per purchase.
- Product Showcase is being expanded so marketers can upload one image or video and let Meta’s AI automatically add relevant products as a carousel when it improves performance.
Meta is expanding its generative AI capabilities with:
- UGC-style videos featuring avatars and voiceovers
- Easier voiceover translation and text overlay translation in a single streamlined flow
- New tools to automatically turn product catalogues into dynamic video ads for Reels
Early testing of the Advantage+ creative video generation tool showed a 10 per cent increase in CTR and 8 per cent increase in CVR on average. Campaigns using catalog product video saw 20 per cent more conversions per dollar, while Reels placements with catalog product video delivered 33 per cent higher incremental conversions.
Industry voices welcomed the updates. Vikas Chawla of Social Beat called Partnership Ads a “flywheel” for authentic content that converts. Niti Kumar of Spark Foundry and Sadhvi Dhawan of Blink Digital highlighted the power of Reels Trending Ads for cultural relevance and guaranteed share of voice. Ramasish Bhowmik of Adbuffs noted that Meta’s GenAI tools are giving teams a clear competitive edge.
In a world where attention is fleeting but shopping intent can spark in seconds, Meta is betting that smarter AI will help brands turn discovery into decisions faster than ever. The message is clear: the future of advertising isn’t just about reaching people, it’s about reaching them at exactly the right moment, with exactly the right product.
