Mediaboss Marketing

The Innovation Lab will work with brands and agencies to create innovative solutions in print

by NATIVE CONTENT Published - Mar 28, 2023 1:48 PM | 2 min read

Times of India is known for its pioneering spirit and has been the torchbearer for print innovations in the country. From a French window to a talking or 3D newspaper to unique use of content, the innovation team at TOI has always managed to create exciting options for brands to create impact and get talked about.

All this happens in what is now branded as Times Innovation Lab, a collaborative space where diverse minds come together to create the next big innovation idea.

The Innovation Lab will work with brands and agencies to create innovative solutions in print, designed to meet specific brand objectives and enhance the effectiveness of a campaign.

"We are thrilled to formally launch Times Innovation Lab and continue our commitment to driving innovation in the print industry," said Malcolm Raphael, Senior Vice President, Times Response. "As one of India's leading media companies, we understand the importance of staying ahead of the curve and providing our clients with ideas that not just use the latest printing technologies, but also integrate available technologies to enhance a consumers engagement with an ad and bring alive a brands promise in the best way possible.

Lets have a look at some recent innovations in The Times Group publications:

Rocket Boys 2 Archival Jacket: Recreating history with this iconic innovation, Sony Liv launched the second season of the hit series Rocket Boys using a jacket ad that replicated the front page from The Times of India marking an important milestone in Indias journey of progress. This was the second time that the OTT platform used this innovation, following the launch of the first season of the show.

OnePlus 3D Vantage: OnePlus decided to make the unboxing experience for its new OnePlus 11 truly out-of-the-box with a unique Front Vantage innovation with 3D effect that immediately grabbed reader attention and made for a more immersive introduction to the latest phone as they turned the page and revealed the contents of the sleek red box.

Hyundai Augmented Reality Innovation: A futuristic innovation for a futuristic brand, Hyundais ad came alive upon scanning the QR code, allowing the readers to view and interact with Spot, the cutting-edge robot right on top of their newspaper.

If you have a brand brief requiring customised solutions or if you are a technology/gadget provider looking to collaborate with us, then please write to timesresponse@timesgroup.com.

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Times Innovation Lab: Its where all the magic happens - Exchange4Media

CORAL SPRINGS, FL / ACCESSWIRE / March 25, 2023 / Tommy Smith, president of All Year Cooling and Heating, was featured in IdeaMensch Magazine. IdeaMensch is an interview platform for entrepreneurs, makers, and doers. Its purpose is to inspire action through the curation of daily interviews and content. It has conducted over 6,000 interviews with entrepreneurs, visionaries, and nonprofit leaders. Tommy Smith is a notable entrepreneur and business owner who is known for his insights on leadership, business ownership, and the HVAC industry. In the interview, Mr. Smith offered his thoughts on a wide range of topics on entrepreneurism, the HVAC industry, and how to lead a successful business.

In his interview, Tommy Smith covered a wide range of topics, including where the idea from All Year Cooling and Heating came from, what his typical day looks like and how he makes it productive, and how he brings ideas to life. In response to a question about what trend excites him, Mr. Smith replied, "From a product standpoint, I am seeing more people take an interest in energy-efficient products. Everyone wants to save money on their utility bills, especially in Weston, Florida, or any part of South Florida, where it can be pretty brutal for half of the year. I am most excited about the smaller, more energy efficient cooling options that we offer, such as our compact size wall unit or even a blower style that is small enough to install in your closet!"

Tommy Smith commented on a habit of his that makes him more productive as an entrepreneur: "I constantly try to improve my craft. I think the ability to be the best at something is very important and constantly learning how you can do that better will always help you as an entrepreneur. Learning about lean startup, SCRUM master, or any other management system has helped me improve as a manager of people and processes."

Mr. Smith went on to discuss what advice he would give his younger self, something that is true that no one else would agree with him on, and something he recommends that everyone does as an entrepreneur. He also explained a strategy that has helped to grow his business: "We have tried a variety of successful marketing ideas including print advertising, event sponsorships, internet marketing efforts on Google Adwords, Facebook ads, etc For us though the best return on investment has been our website with its online store front management system. So much work goes into every single sale that comes through our site. Our team works tirelessly to ensure each product meets our clients' needs."

Tommy Smith also opened up about what a failure he had in his early days of entrepreneurship and how he overcame it: "My early years as owner were pretty tough. I had a terrible time hiring the right people and bringing in good customer service. I found that everyone acted like they were doing me a favor by working for my company and taking advantage of every situation to make extra money. That played out through decreased work ethic, lack of attention to detail, and increased theft. After much trial and error we finally came up with processes and systems that would be effective at making sure everyone gave us their best effort as well as ensuring that our customers got the quality services they deserved!"

To learn more about Tommy Smith and All Year Cooling and Heating, please visithttps://allyearcooling.com/

About Tommy Smith, president of All Year Cooling and Heating

All Year Cooling and Heating is owned by Tommy Smith, who currently resides in Weston, Florida. Tommy possesses the professional knowledge and years of experience required to deliver best-in-class service to his customers, having grown up around the business. He has put in the time and effort to ensure that everyone of his employees is well-trained in order to provide the finest possible service to the families of South Florida. During his time at All Year Cooling and Heating, Tommy has transformed the company from a small business with a few employees to a well-known, thriving enterprise. The company installs and services a variety of York, Goodman, Trane, and Ruud air conditioning units, as well as other brands.

All Year Cooling and Heating, based in Coral Springs, and Tommy Smith, based in Weston, Florida ensure that their customers throughout South Florida-from Homestead to St. Lucie County-get prompt and efficient service. They provide free quotations and typically deliver same-day installs since they value their customers' time. All Year Cooling and Heating performs duct cleaning in addition to installing and servicing air conditioning units to ensure that their systems function more efficiently and that their clients' homes have clean air.

Tommy Smith resides in Weston, Florida, with his wife, Erin, and their four children, where they are active in community outreach and charitable activities. Tommy and his company have donated funds to help children attend the JT Reading Room, which helps pupils improve their literacy abilities and increase their school success rates. They often donate to Broward County Schools and Cancer.org, and his family and business are both participating in Project We Care, which gives food, clothing, and other necessities to veterans of the military services. When he's not working or helping, Tommy Smith enjoys spending time with his family, whether it's traveling to new locations or simply establishing new memories at home in Weston, Florida.

Media Contact:Jessica Smith | Market News[emailprotected]phone: 1-415-837-8371

SOURCE: All Year Cooling and Heating

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Tommy Smith, President of All Year Cooling and Heating ... - AccessWire

Udit Agarwal, VP and global head of marketing, Exotel, talks about the companys role in helping manage customer engagement, key trends to look for and more

by Ruchika Jha Published - Mar 28, 2023 1:16 PM | 8 min read

The marketing industry has been witnessing novel trends, especially with the advent of artificial intelligence and now ChatGPT; the industry is priming to adapt to these new changes. With AI taking centre stage, chatbots will become an important tool in the customer engagement space, says Udit Agarwal, VP and global head of marketing, Exotel.

In a conversation with exchange4media, heshares his views on the companys role in helping manage its clients customer engagement, key customer engagement trends to look for and more.

Excerpts:

What are the key customer engagement trends to look out for?

In the midst of one of the worst economic downturns in the last ten years, businesses must create engaging (or connected customer journeys) customer journeys that provide seamless and individualised experiences across all touchpoints if they are to stay one step ahead of their customers.

There are trends that can help in improving customer experience and business outcomes. One such trend is demolishing data silos of customer information.Though relatively new, this helps enterprises to be context-rich so that customer engagement by any department in the organisation is more empathetic and personalised, even as customers scale rapidly. This will help enterprises gain a more complete understanding of their customers, personalise interactions, improve efficiency, enhance data accuracy, improve collaboration and ensure better data security and compliance.

The other trend is omnichannel presence, which requires businesses to have a strong presence in multiple spaces, including physical and virtual. With advancements in telephony, AI-enabled chatbots can supplement voice-only calls in sales and marketing practices. This helps offer seamless customer interactions, and bots will become an essential part of the customer journey going forward.

Exotel believes that chatbots will become an important tool in the customer engagement space. However, we do not consider them to be a replacement for human interaction. Bots will work alongside human agents to improve customer service. The future of customer engagement is in multichannel communication, including SMS, messaging apps, voice and video. The first customer contact will be a bot, and if required, the customer can transition to human agents. This will guarantee seamless cross-channel communication between the client and the business. With the help of these trends, businesses can remain relevant and satisfy changing customer demands.

With fears of an economic recession, how are brands rechanneling their marketing strategy to stay competitive?

As the global economy braces for an impending recession, marketers are looking for ways to rethink their marketing strategies, pivot their efforts, and focus on building lasting customer connections. Given the weaker-than-expected performance in H1 FY 2022-23, Deloitte's recent report on India's economic outlook revised its growth projections for the Indian economy. According to the report, India will grow at a rate of 5.8 per cent 6.3 per cent in fiscal year 2023-24.

Businesses are facing greater pressure to maintain cost- and competitive consciousness as long as the recession threat exists. Despite these challenges, AI is emerging as a key driver of transformation in customer interactions, assisting businesses in retail, healthcare, and hospitality to improve customer experience and build stronger connections with customers. Investing in customer experience improvements can ultimately yield a positive return on investment in a digital market where customers have too many choices.

To differentiate themselves from competitors and provide more value to customers, brands need a unified approach for conducting and tracking customer engagement and gaining valuable insights into customer behaviour and preferences. Investing in enhancing the customer experience can result in a favorable return on investment in the digital marketplace. Exotel's full-stack engagement platform can help organisations build valuable customer relationships, which is the most valuable currency in today's business world.

The larger role that the customer experience is playing in marketing strategy for companies across sectors.

In recent years, the customer experience has become a critical element of marketing strategy for companies across a range of sectors. Customers now have more choices than ever before, and they are increasingly demanding high-quality experiences from the companies they interact with.

One reason for this shift is the rise of digital technologies, which have made it easier for customers to interact with companies in a variety of ways, including through websites, mobile apps and social media platforms. This has created new opportunities for companies to engage with customers and provide personalised experiences.

In today's competitive market, customers are becoming more selective in their purchasing decisions and expect brands to go beyond just delivering quality products or services. To drive growth and remain competitive, companies need to offer exceptional customer experiences that exceed customer expectations.

AI-powered tools such as chatbots, virtual assistants, and voice assistants can automate customer interactions and personalise communication at scale, allowing companies to interact with customers quickly and efficiently while providing a personalised touch. Additionally, AI-powered analytics tools can help companies collect, analyse, and utilise customer data to enhance the customer experience by tailoring their offerings, predicting customer needs, and personalising communication.

Customer engagement is an essential marketing tool. What are the pitfalls that brands should therefore avoid?

When it comes to customer engagement, 'notification fatigue' is a major issue. Customers who are already pressed for time and attention due to information overload are irritated by too many messages, emails, and pop-up notifications. However, the old adage "out of sight, out of mind" also applies here. It is critical to strike the right balance between being visible and not being intrusive.

Additionally, privacy concerns must be taken into consideration, not only in light of data protection laws but also in light of rising customer awareness and demand for open and honest business practices.

To navigate these challenges, professional expertise and guidance on how to use the latest technology and tools are essential. With the right approach, businesses can effectively engage customers while maintaining their privacy and avoiding notification fatigue.

Please share some interesting cases of brands such as Ola, Swiggy and the role that Exotel has played in helping manage their customer engagement.

Exotel is a platform that specialises in customer engagement and offers various tools to help businesses of different sizes achieve their goals. The primary objective behind the creation of Exotel was to ensure that companies don't lose customers due to ineffective communication strategies or unanswered calls/messages. By using Exotel's cloud-telephony solutions, businesses such as Swiggy, Ola and BluSmart have been able to customise their engagement with their customers, improving response times and customer satisfaction.

For instance, Exotel provided Swiggy with automated calls to restaurants, number masking to protect the privacy of customers and restaurants/delivery agents, and verification of Cash on Delivery orders to minimise the risk of fraudulent orders. Exotel also offered Ola a smart IVR solution that enabled the tracking of drivers' awareness about new features and training videos.

With BluSmart, our partnership has been instrumental in supporting the company with reliable 80 per cent - 90 per cent call connectivity rates to its riders and drivers, giving way to a significant increase in customer satisfaction. Our custom cloud-based architecture has also been able to scale BluSmarts customer engagement activities while they were experiencing a period of 25 per cent MoM growth.

Exotel aims to help businesses throughout the entire customer engagement cycle, from lead generation to sales conversion and customer retention. Its tools help companies build high brand equity and interact with their customers effectively. Overall, Exotel offers a valuable platform for businesses seeking to enhance their customer engagement efforts.

ChatGPT is the new buzzword. How do you feel it will benefit the CX solutions? How is Exotel leveraging it?

With ChatGPTs open source model and advanced language processing, it has significant potential to disrupt the customer engagement space, strengthening companies conversational AI products. The opportunities GPT and further iterations present will work towards boosting the self-service capabilities of chatbots, resulting in decreased costs for businesses over time.

However, this does not signify a complete automation of the customer engagement process. As part of the customer journey, we envision chatbots being the first point of contact between a customer and a brand, addressing common queries and raising more complex matters with human agents. The goal of these advanced improvements in AI is meant to enhance human agents workflow rather than replace them altogether. The self-service functions can be explored across a variety of use cases like ordering food from a restaurant via WhatsApp, monitoring customer sentiment, translating customer queries into the appropriate language, and giving more tailored responses to customers.

How do you envision Exotel's marketing strategies in the coming years?

Within the coming years, we are looking to further expand our full-stack suite of offerings into markets within Southeast Asia and the Middle East. So far, the full-stack platform has been rolled out in Indonesia and the UAE, and we are currently increasing local operations within those countries.

Regarding our customer base, it has been a trend that internet-first tech startups are more recipient towards incorporating cloud-based software solutions into their practices, as they tend to be early adopters of emerging technologies. However, we have noticed that more traditional sectors in emerging markets like banking, real estate and manufacturing are increasingly migrating their operations to the cloud. Our approach will be to draw more focus towards reaching out to these segments, acting as reliable partners in their journeys towards digital transformation.

The content in this section is curated by the PR and Communications team. For any feedback kindly write to karan.bhatia@exchange4media.com.

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AI is emerging as a key driver of transformation in customer ... - Exchange4Media

The summit will be held on Friday, 24th March, 2023, in Mumbai

by exchange4media Staff Published - Mar 22, 2023 8:38 AM | 3 min read

exchange4media Group is back with the on-ground Mumbai edition of its flagship property - Pitch CMO Summit after three years. The upcoming edition of the conference will be held on Friday, 24th of March, 2023, from 10am onwards. Fancode WebEngage and ABP News are the Co-Powered by Partners for the summit while the Co-Gold Partners are DoubleVerify, Pepper Content and Torc ai.

Pitch CMO Summit Mumbai 2023 brings India's most reputed brands and top management to interact and share insights on their game-changing success stories under one roof.

The theme of this edition of the conference is The Agile Marketer.

Apart from the keynote sessions and two panel discussions, many spotlight sessions are also part of the summit agenda.

In todays world led by the likes of ChatGPT and Google Bard, brands that are shying away from using AI for advertising are at a continuous competitive disadvantage. Most advertisers are already using AI to identify and segment audiences, build ad creatives, test ads, improve ad performance, and optimize spend all automatically, in real-time, at scale. To take us through the enormous opportunities that can emerge by marrying Human creativity and AI, Pawan Rochwani, Head of Brand & Partnerships, Pepper Content will speak about Content ROI With & Beyond Generative AI.

AI has revolutionized the advertising industry by enabling marketers to deliver personalized, targeted, and relevant ads to consumers. AI-powered advertising solutions use machine learning algorithms to analyze vast amounts of data on consumer behaviour, preferences, and demographics to predict and target ads to the right audience at the right time and place. To share some case studies of Many Industry Firsts With VI Ads, ROHIT VERMA, Chief Executive Officer, TorcAI will speak at the summit.

Conversational commerce is transforming the way consumers interact with businesses, allowing them to shop, order, and pay for products and services through messaging and chatbot technologies. No more clunky websites, no more frustrating phone calls - just natural language conversations with brands they love. Sharing more on End of Broadcasting, Beginning of Conversations will be Tamanna Dhamija, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Convosight.

Gone are the days of Mad Men-style marketing, where creative ideas were enough to win over customers. Today, marketing is as much about technology as it is about creativity. The rise of MarTech (Marketing Technology) has given birth to a new generation of marketers who are just as comfortable with code as they are with the copy. To share more insights on Rise of the MarTech EXPLORERS & Insights From the State of MarTech In India joining the summit will be Mihir Karkare, EVP, Mirum India.

The conference will be followed by the award felicitation ceremony of The Pitch Best CMO Awards 2023.

For more details, please check out the microsite:

https://e4mevents.com/pitch-cmo-summit-2023/

To attend the summit and awards, get in touch with

Chandrakant@exchange4media.com or kapil.ramudamu@exchange4media.com

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Explore the era of agility at Pitch CMO Summit Mumbai 2023 - Exchange4Media

(Reuters) - (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)

Class action and mass tort critics have been griping for years about television advertising by plaintiffs' lawyers who spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on TV ads exhorting purported victims to sign up and file lawsuits.

I havent seen similarly intense criticism from groups like the American Tort Reform Association and the U.S. Chambers Institute for Legal Reform to a newer and, arguably, more sophisticated form of trial lawyer advertising: internet sites that aggregate information about class actions and mass torts, allowing plaintiffs' lawyers to reach out to prospective plaintiffs via webpages describing investigations of potential claims.

Thats why I was so intrigued by a filing from the plaintiffs' firm Berger Montague on Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan. Berger Montague is trying to quash Robinhood Financial LLCs subpoena demanding information from the parent company of the website ClassAction.org.

The website, as the quash brief makes clear, facilitated Berger Montagues selection of lead plaintiffs for a Seattle federal court class action accusing Robinhood of breaching Washington state consumer law by sending unsolicited text messages to contacts of the trading platforms customers.

Both of the lead plaintiffs in the class action have said in declarations that they heard about the case from a webpage announcement at ClassAction.org. The online notice, which said that Robinhood text recipients in Washington state could be eligible for $500 or more, invited consumers to fill out an online form.

The information they supplied, the ad said, would be forwarded to Berger Montague, who has sponsored this investigation. Both lead plaintiffs said they signed retainer agreements with the firm after making contact through the ClassAction.org ad.

Robinhood is now demanding to know, via a subpoena to ClassAction.org parent Season 4 LLC, who else responded to the online ad. The subpoena also calls for Season 4 to disclose its communications about the ad with Berger Montague.

Robinhood lawyers Kenneth Payson and Lauren Rainwater of Davis Wright Tremaine did not respond to my email query on the subpoena but they are presumably looking for information related to class certification in the spam text case. U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein of Seattle denied the companys dismissal motion last August. Berger Montagues class certification brief is due in September.

Berger Montagues Michelle Drake also didnt respond to my query. The firm argues in its motion to quash that Robinhoods subpoena demands information shielded by attorney-client or work-product privilege, citing a promise on the ClassAction.org page that consumers responses would remain confidential.

The two lead plaintiffs filed a separate motion to quash, also asserting that Robinhoods subpoena seeks privileged information. Berger Montague, which is handling both quash bids, has asked for the cases to be consolidated before U.S. District Judge John Cronan of Manhattan, who called for Robinhood to respond to the law firms motion by April 7.

If Robinhood prevails, I suspect lots of other defendants will try to squeeze information from the website. (Im assuming, because I havent seen quash motions from other plaintiffs' firms, that Robinhood is blazing this particular trail.)

ClassAction.org, after all, has webpages promoting dozens of class actions and mass tort cases, some already settled, some in litigation and some in preliminary investigative stages, like the Robinhood text case when Berger Montague ran its ad.

Berger Montague described the site as providing technical expertise and infrastructure that connects law firms with potential plaintiffs who have "experienced potential corporate misconduct and are seeking legal advice. Berger Montague has sponsored at least 10 ClassAction.org webpages calling on prospective plaintiffs to send contact information to the firm, based on my search of the sites pages for different cases.

But it's not the only firm making use of the site to connect with prospective clients. Among the other shops listed as sponsors of ClassAction.org webpages describing various ongoing and prospective cases are Simmons Hanly Conroy; Cohen, Placitella & Roth; and Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman.

The main ClassAction.org website says that the site's professionals, who are not themselves lawyers, have relationships with plaintiffs' lawyers across the country. Parent company Season 4 said on its separate website that the companys founders spun off their marketing and tech business from plaintiffs megafirm Morgan & Morgan in 2015.

Season 4 founders Tara Voss and Patrick Hanan, who are also listed as ClassAction.org leaders, did not respond to my email.

I did notice one other recent hint that defendants are beginning to realize the important role of sites like ClassAction.org. It came in last months report from the U.S. Chambers Institute for Legal Reform on the rise of mass arbitration.

The report described how plaintiffs firms now use websites, including ClassAction.org, to come up with long rosters of clients, in addition to the traditional methods of television and radio advertising. As you might expect, the report expresses concerns about whether prospective clients actually know that law firms are sponsoring these recruitment webpages. (For what its worth, I didnt have any trouble finding sponsorship information on the ClassAction.org pages I checked but I was specifically looking for it.)

Ill be interested to see how Robinhood justifies its demand for information from the site when it responds next month to Berger Montagues quash motion.

Read more:

U.S. Chamber blames judges, arbitrators and lawyers for mass arbitration 'abuses'

Mass tort TV ads fell in 2020 amid drop in Roundup advertising

Reporting By Alison Frankel; editing by Leigh Jones

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Thomson Reuters

Alison Frankel has covered high-stakes commercial litigation as a columnist for Reuters since 2011. A Dartmouth college graduate, she has worked as a journalist in New York covering the legal industry and the law for more than three decades. Before joining Reuters, she was a writer and editor at The American Lawyer. Frankel is the author of Double Eagle: The Epic Story of the Worlds Most Valuable Coin.

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Robinhood hits class-action marketing firm with subpoena in spam ... - Reuters