Google Cleared to Scrap Cookie Rules as UK Watchdog Ends Oversight

In a landmark decision, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has officially released Google from its binding commitments tied to the Privacy Sandbox initiative, ending four years of regulatory oversight over the tech giant’s efforts to reshape online advertising.

What Is the Privacy Sandbox?

The Privacy Sandbox is Google’s long-running project to phase out third-party cookies in its Chrome browser and replace them with privacy-preserving alternatives. These new technologies — including Topics API and Protected Audience — aim to balance user privacy with advertisers’ need for targeting and measurement.

Since its announcement in 2019, the initiative has faced scrutiny from regulators and industry stakeholders concerned that Google’s changes could entrench its dominance in digital advertising.

Why the CMA Got Involved

In 2021, the CMA launched a formal investigation into the Privacy Sandbox, fearing that Google’s proposed changes could:

• Limit competition in digital advertising
• Give Google an unfair advantage over rivals
• Reduce publisher revenues

To address these concerns, Google voluntarily offered a set of legally binding commitments. These included:

• Regular updates to the CMA and industry stakeholders
• Independent monitoring of Sandbox development
• Restrictions on self-preferencing and data misuse

These commitments were enforced under the CMA’s competition law powers and remained in place for nearly four years.

What Changed in 2025

Following a public consultation in June 2025 and ongoing monitoring, the CMA concluded that:

• Google’s implementation of Privacy Sandbox technologies no longer poses a threat to competition
• The company has acted transparently and in good faith
• The market has had time to adapt to the new advertising model

As a result, the CMA formally revoked the commitments on October 17, 2025, stating that continued oversight was no longer necessary.

Industry Reaction

The decision has sparked mixed reactions across the digital ecosystem:

• Advertisers and publishers remain cautious, with some worried about reduced visibility and control.
• Privacy advocates have welcomed the shift away from invasive tracking.
• Competitors are watching closely to see how Google’s ad tech evolves without regulatory constraints.

What’s Next for Google?

With the CMA’s oversight lifted, Google now has greater freedom to roll out Privacy Sandbox technologies across Chrome and Android. The company has signaled plans to fully deprecate third-party cookies by early 2026, a move that could reshape the global advertising landscape.

Global Implications

The UK’s decision may influence other regulators, including:

• The European Commission, which has its own investigations into Google’s ad tech stack
• The U.S. Department of Justice, which is pursuing antitrust cases against Google
• India’s Competition Commission, which is monitoring digital advertising practices under its evolving competition framework

As privacy and competition continue to collide in the digital age, the CMA’s ruling

Zee Spotlight Debuts with Hyundai: A Game-Changer in Omnichannel Brand Engagement

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), India’s leading Content and Technology powerhouse, has unveiled its latest high-visibility advertising innovation – Zee Spotlight under the ‘Z’ RISE Initiative. Designed to deliver unmatched brand salience across the network, Zee Spotlight offers advertisers a clutter-breaking mix of premium brand touchpoints across both General Entertainment Channels (GECs) and Movie channels.

As part of this new offering, Zee Spotlight brings together a powerful combination of Stings, Branded Windows, In-show Funnel Placements, QR-code Astons, and Tags on GECs, along with Branded Carousels, L-bands, Astons, Stings, and Tags on Movie channels. True to its name, each of these element puts a spotlight on every stage of the AIDA Model (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action). This holistic suite which will also activate multiple impact elements on OTT platform ZEE5, will enable brands to maximize impact, strengthen recall, and seamlessly integrate into viewers’ content journey through an omnichannel approach.

Hyundai Motor India Limited, a brand synonymous with innovation and leadership in the Indian automotive industry, has come onboard as the exclusive inaugural partner for Zee Spotlight. With this association, Hyundai will leverage the network’s unparalleled reach and visibility to further connect with millions of consumers across the country.

Speaking on this initiative, Laxmi Shetty, Head- Advertisement Revenue, Broadcast & Digital, Zee Entertainment Enterprises said: “With Zee Spotlight, we are reimagining how brands engage with audiences in a highly fragmented media ecosystem through an omnichannel approach. This offering provides advertisers with high-frequency, high-visibility brand presence across our most watched entertainment destinations. We are delighted to have Hyundai, a brand that resonates strongly with innovation and excellence, as our very first partner for this journey.”

Mr. Virat Khullar, AVP & Vertical Head - Marketing, Hyundai Motor India Limited added: “At Hyundai, we are constantly seeking innovative avenues to connect with our customers. Zee Spotlight initiative is a cutting-edge platform that redefines brand story telling through an omni-channel lens. The partnership will allow Hyundai to seamlessly integrate with Zee Entertainment’s diverse ecosystem across general entertainment channels (GECs) and movie channels, offering an unique opportunity to engage with viewers in a more dynamic and immersive way. As a brand driven by innovation, we see this partnership as a powerful step forward in building deeper connection with consumers across India’s vibrant landscape.”

With this collaboration, ‘Z’ continues to set new benchmarks in advertiser-led innovations, ensuring brands receive maximum resonance while enhancing the viewing experience for millions of households. 

Moloco SDK Joins Google AdMob and Ad Manager Bidding, Expanding Self-Serve Monetization for App Publishers

Moloco, the AI performance advertising company, today announced that Moloco SDK is now available through Google AdMob bidding and Ad Manager’s SDK bidding platforms. In addition, Moloco SDK is fully self-serve for publishers.

This integration validates that Moloco meets Google’s rigorous standards for performance, reliability, and integration. App developers will be able to monetize their inventory through Moloco’s global direct advertiser demand while maintaining a high-quality user experience. This availability enables publishers already connected with Google through AdMob and Ad Manager to access Moloco’s advertiser ecosystem.

“Moloco has consistently been recognized as a top-performing platform for ad monetization, optimized to drive real business outcomes,” said Yoni Markovizky, Head of Supply, Moloco. “Moloco SDK, which was already a certified bidding partner for AppLovin's MAX and Unity's LevelPlay, is now also available through Google AdMob and Ad Manager. With these direct integrations, we can continue to operate as an engine of growth for an even greater pool of publishers with no margin fees, applying the cost savings directly to our partners in the ecosystem.”

To date, Moloco has nearly 500 publishers utilizing the Moloco SDK including Voodoo, Crazy Maple, and Audiomack. For publishers, the SDK provides automatic access to Moloco’s global direct advertiser demand and leverages advanced AI to serve the right ad to the right user, maximizing revenue. Additionally, publishers maintain creative rendering control across various ad formats, ensuring ads monetization aligns with an optimal user experience. For advertisers, who will also benefit, this integration supports enhanced targeting capabilities and greater control, ultimately driving greater return on investment (ROI).
To learn more about Moloco SDK, please visit: https://www.moloco.com/solutions/sdk.

Moloco is the AI engine for growth helping businesses across the digital economy. Built with AI from day one, Moloco’s planet-scale machine learning platform powers a suite of solutions for advertising growth and monetization. Moloco Ads is an AI-powered platform that delivers real business outcomes for mobile app marketers through performance-based user acquisition.
Moloco’s Commerce Media and Streaming Monetization solutions enable retailers, marketplaces, and streaming platforms to build revenue-generating ad businesses that balance user experience and advertiser performance. Founded in 2013 by a team of machine learning engineers, Moloco has offices across the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Korea, China, India, Japan, and Singapore. Learn more at www.moloco.com.

Google AdSense To Update Restriction Policy for Online Gambling Content Outside Allowed Countries

Starting in March 2025, Google will update its Publisher Restrictions for online gambling content. This update will ensure that the restrictions apply not only to users within the allowed countries but also to users located outside of these countries. This means that online gambling content will be restricted from being shown to users in regions where it is not permitted, regardless of where the content originates.

In an email to AdSense publishers, Google said that it will update the Google Publisher Restriction for Online gambling such that the restriction will apply when online gambling content is shown to users located outside of the allowed countries. The allowed countries are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Philippines, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States.

The updated Google AdSense policy on online gambling content, effective March 2025, will have several potential impacts on advertisers that fall under online gambling, discussing some most possible ones below:

Advertisers promoting online gambling will face a reduced audience, as their ads will be restricted from being shown to users in regions where gambling is not permitted.

Further, Advertisers will need to invest more in ensuring compliance with the new regulations, including obtaining necessary certifications and adhering to stricter targeting guidelines.

Furthermore, Advertisers will need to focus more on targeting their ads to regions where online gambling is legal, which may require more sophisticated targeting strategies and potentially higher costs.

Besides, online gambling-related advertisers will need to be more vigilant about their brand reputation, as non-compliance with the new policy could lead to penalties and damage to their brand image.

Overall, while the policy aims to promote responsible advertising and compliance with local laws, it will require advertisers to adapt their strategies and potentially incur additional costs to ensure compliance.

TCS in Talks to Acquire World's Prominent Advertising Agency R/GA

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is currently in negotiation talks to acquire R/GA, a New York-based digital design and advertising agency and a subsidiary of Interpublic Group of Companies reported the WSJ. R/GA, dubbed as the world's prominent & creative advertising agency, has global offices in cities like Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Berlin, and Tokyo.

While the deal's terms remain undisclosed, R/GA is estimated to be valued at around $300 million.

Additionally, Interpublic Group (IPG) and TCS are exploring a broader strategic partnership, potentially collaborating on AI and data projects for mutual clients.

Interpublic Group (IPG) is currently exploring the possibility of selling R/GA. The front-runner to acquire R/GA is Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). R/GA joined IPG in 2001 through the acquisition of its parent company, True North Communications.

The potential acquisition by TCS would place R/GA alongside other consulting giants like Accenture and Deloitte, which have expanded into the marketing sector by building and acquiring agencies that offer digital transformation, experiential marketing, creative services, and web and mobile development.

Founded in 1977, by two brothers, Richard and Robert Greenberg, R/GA is known for its innovative work in digital design, advertising, and marketing. The agency combine creativity, technology, and data to create impactful campaigns, user experiences, and brand strategies for clients worldwide.

In onw of the creative works by R/GA, it created the opening title sequence for superhero movie 'Superman' (1978) by visually enhancing each name so it appears to be flying into the screen.

Between 2012-2016, R/GA partnered with "Beats by Dre" to create their music platform and advertising. This partnership led to key campaigns coinciding with the 2012 Olympics and 2014 World Cup. This work won numerous awards, and the brand was later sold to Apple Inc. for a reported $3 billion, after which Beats Music became Apple Music.

However, of late R/GA is facing few challenges, including executive turnover, client losses and a decline in ad spend, particularly from tech clients, which led to a 20% revenue drop last year to about $200 million, according to The Journal.

The proposed sale of R/GA by IPG is said to be part of the group's efforts to streamline its operations and adapt to the rapidly evolving advertising landscape, increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence and digital transformation.

The Rise of Sports Advertising: From Grassroots to Global Reach in India

This article is authored by Ms. Shubhangi Gupta, Co-founder, SportVot

In recent years, sports sponsorships and advertising in India have witnessed a remarkable transformation, emerging as a crucial avenue for brands to connect with audiences. The immense popularity of sports, coupled with the rise of digital platforms, has revolutionized how brands approach marketing strategies. Moreover, sports advertising has extended its reach beyond elite sporting events, penetrating the grassroots-level sports ecosystem. Local tournaments now attract international or national brands as sponsors and critical partners, creating a win-win situation for all stakeholders.

The Power of Sports Advertising:

Sports have a unique ability to captivate people's attention, evoke emotions, and forge deep connections. Recognizing this, brands are tapping into the immense potential of sports advertising to build brand loyalty, increase visibility, and reach a diverse audience. According to the recent GroupM ESP report for sports sponsorships 2023, more than 14000 crores were invested in sports sponsorships. With many avenues to engage with their target consumers, sports sponsorships from a brand's perspective exceed on-ground branding or event sponsorships. Social media has enhanced the culture of influencer marketing, and with famous athletes as the brand ambassadors or faces of the brands, the reach for the brands is increasing exponentially. Today, brands are keen on signing athletes as their promoters or ambassadors. Apart from that, in the minds of the audience, an event-specific partnership or advertising is restricted to the duration of the event or the tournament, but getting an athlete directly to represent the brand gives a long-term cushioning for brands to present themselves in the market.

While in India, cricket has always been a sport that garnered massive viewership and allowed brands to leverage the popularity of star athletes and teams. Other sports such as Kabaddi, Football, Volleyball, and Hockey also have an impressive viewership and a dedicated fan base, and the advent of IPL, like successive league-based tournaments in these sports have created opportunities for brands and athletes alike to monetize the game and reach out to the niche community.

But apart from this changing pattern within branding and advertising in sports, what is interesting is to notice that these trends have penetrated to the local, grassroots-level sports ecosystem. The shift has occurred in how brands look at local, community-level sports. With the diversification of the sporting landscape, brands acknowledge the potential of lesser-known sports events, tournaments, and more over local sporting heroes with a fan base in the locality. This is helping ma’am brands to target niche markets. This shift has brought local-level tournaments and local talent into the spotlight, where brands could connect with passionate fans more intimately.

Brands investing in local sports events and the local sports ecosystem showcases the democratization of sports advertising in India. Small towns and communities organize sporting events that attract substantial attention and participation. Brands recognize these events' potential and are eager to align themselves with the passion and energy generated by grassroots sports. By becoming sponsors or critical partners, brands are not only gaining exposure but are also getting to contribute to the development of sports at the grassroots level. The involvement of brands as sponsors or partners in local tournaments profoundly impacts the growth and empowerment of local sports. By investing in local sports, brands also contribute to nurturing talent, promoting a healthy sporting culture, and inspiring the next generation of athletes.

Apart from developing a sporting culture in the country, a key advantage of sports advertising from the brand's perspective has been its ability to reach diverse target audiences. Sports events attract people from different demographics, making them an ideal platform for brands to communicate their messages effectively. The amalgamation of sports and advertising has allowed brands to create memorable experiences that resonate with fans long after the event concludes. The advent of digital platforms has revolutionized sports advertising in India. Digital advancements have expanded the reach of sports advertising and enhanced fan experiences and brand engagement.

Sports advertising in India is shifting from focusing on elite sporting events to encompassing grassroots-level sports tournaments. This transformation has created an exciting landscape for brands to connect with audiences, increase brand visibility, and support the growth of local sports. The power of sports in uniting people and generating passion has enabled brands to leverage sports advertising as a potent.

OTT Advertising: The Future of Streaming Ad Campaigns

As consumer preferences shift towards streaming services, over-the-top (OTT) platforms have emerged as a powerful force in advertising. OTT advertising is transforming how marketers reach their target audiences, offering unparalleled personalization and flexibility.

As you read on, we delved deeper into the intricacies of OTT advertising, discussing its challenges and opportunities, and explored how this advertising medium is shaping the future of streaming ad campaigns.

What is OTT Advertising

OTT advertising is a modern approach to reaching audiences through streaming platforms like Roku, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video. It's like traditional TV commercials but with a digital twist.

OTT video ads are the commercials you see while watching shows or movies on these streaming services. They come in different flavors – some play before your show starts (pre-roll), some during (mid-roll), and others after it ends (post-roll).

TV viewership data is the secret sauce that makes OTT advertising even more powerful. It's all about collecting information on what people watch, how long they watch, and who they are. This data allows advertisers to create ads that speak to viewers' interests and habits.

So, picture this: When an ad appears, you're cozy on the couch, binge-watching your favorite series on a streaming platform. But instead of being annoyed, you're interested because it's about something you love.

That's the magic of OTT advertising – using OTT video ads and viewership data to create a tailored advertising experience that keeps viewers engaged and entertained.

The Rise of OTT Advertising: A Game Changer for Marketers

OTT platforms have disrupted traditional advertising by offering marketers new ways to engage audiences. The key advantages of OTT advertising include the following:

Advanced Targeting

With OTT advertising, marketers can leverage user data to deliver highly targeted ads based on demographics, interests, and viewing habits. This precision targeting ensures that ads are relevant and engaging to the viewer, resulting in higher conversion rates.

Cross-Device Reach

OTT ads can be displayed across various devices, including smart TVs, tablets, and smartphones. This cross-device reach enables advertisers to engage audiences wherever they consume content, providing a seamless and consistent brand experience.

Measurable Results

Unlike traditional TV advertising, OTT advertising offers robust measurement and analytics capabilities, allowing marketers to track ad performance and make data-driven decisions to optimize their campaigns.

Navigating the Complexities of OTT Advertising

Despite its numerous benefits, OTT advertising presents unique challenges for marketers due to its complexities.

Complexity in OTT advertising refers to the intricacies of creating effective ad campaigns on streaming platforms. Key factors contributing to these complexities include:

Diverse Ad Formats

OTT advertising offers various formats, such as pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll, interactive, and native ads. Marketers must carefully select the most effective campaign format, considering factors like viewer engagement and platform compatibility.

Fragmented Landscape

The OTT ecosystem is highly fragmented, with numerous platforms offering distinct content and advertising options. This fragmentation requires marketers to develop tailored strategies for each platform, increasing the complexity of their campaigns.

Agile Ad Budgets

The nature of OTT advertising requires advertisers to maintain flexible ad budgets to capitalize on emerging opportunities or scale back when necessary.

Real-Time Optimization

Advertisers must continuously monitor and adjust their campaigns based on viewer engagement and platform performance to maximize the return on their ad spend.

The Road Ahead: Trends Shaping the Future of Streaming Ad Campaigns

As OTT advertising continues to gain momentum, several trends will redefine the future of streaming ad campaigns:

Enhanced Personalization

Data-driven targeting will enable advertisers to create increasingly personalized and relevant ads, leading to a more engaging viewer experience.

Unified Cross-Platform Strategies

Advertisers will increasingly integrate their OTT campaigns with other digital channels, such as social media and programmatic advertising, to deliver a cohesive brand experience across multiple touchpoints.

AI-Powered Campaign Optimization

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies will be pivotal in optimizing OTT ad campaigns, enabling marketers to make data-driven decisions and improve overall performance.

Immersive and Interactive Ads

Advancements in technology will lead to the development of more interactive and immersive ad formats on OTT platforms, providing advertisers with innovative ways to engage viewers and create memorable brand experiences.

Expansion of Addressable TV

Addressable TV allows advertisers to deliver targeted ads to specific households and will likely grow with OTT advertising. This will give marketers even more opportunities to reach their desired audiences with accuracy and relevance.

The Emergence of New Business Models

Advertisers must explore alternative methods to reach viewers as more OTT platforms adopt subscription-based models with limited or no ads. These may include sponsored content, product placements, and strategic partnerships with content creators or platforms.

Focus on Privacy and Compliance

As privacy regulations evolve, OTT advertisers must prioritize user data privacy and comply with regulatory requirements. This will necessitate the development of innovative targeting and measurement solutions that respect user privacy while delivering effective ad campaigns.

Rise of Connected TV (CTV) Advertising

With the growing popularity of smart TVs and the convergence of traditional TV and digital video, CTV advertising will become an essential component of marketers' OTT strategies. CTV advertising will offer enhanced targeting and personalization opportunities and the ability to bridge the gap between linear TV and OTT ad campaigns.

Wrapping Up

The entertainment world is changing like never before, with streaming services stealing the show. And guess what? OTT advertising is totally flipping the script for marketers trying to reach their audience.

It's all about custom-made experiences, super smart targeting, and getting actual results. No wonder everyone's raving about it.

But hold on, it gets even better! Imagine even more personalized ads, AI handling all the nitty-gritty, insanely immersive experiences, and making sure privacy stays a top priority.

It's mind-blowing how OTT advertising is transforming the whole streaming ad scene, opening up a whole new world of opportunities for advertisers to make a splash with viewers.

Teenage Career Accelerator Clever Harvey Launches Marketing and Advertising Course with an Industry Project From Domino's

The 15-day program aims to give students practical exposure to how marketing and advertising teams at startups work as they learn to solve an industry project provided by Domino's

With an aim to give teenagers an early preview into future careers, Clever Harvey has launched a new industry-certified course ‘JuniorMBA Advertising’ designed specifically for high school students (Class VIII to XII). The 15-day program gives students practical exposure to what advertising professionals do as they learn to solve an industry project given by Domino’s.

Working in groups of 2 or 3, and guided by a Clever Harvey facilitator, students take a “behind-the-scenes” tour of one of the most creative functions in the world of business – marketing and advertising. As they learn to develop research & communication strategies with step-by-step guidance, students develop a strong foundation in strategic communication skills.

Speaking on the launch of the new program, Sriram Subramanian, Co-Founder, Clever Harvey said, “The JuniorMBA series of programs is designed to solve one of the most pressing concerns of parents today – career discovery for their teenagers. The current system does not give high school students – especially the creative ones – opportunities for the real-world experience or practical exposure. Through this program, students will get a “behind-the-scenes” glimpse of what it’s like to work in marketing. Learning concepts such as market segmentation, audience targeting, brand positioning & strategy helps teenagers build strategic communication skills as well as get a glimpse into what is required to succeed in a career in marketing and advertising. We enjoyed collaborating with the team at Domino’s and we welcome them as an industry partner in building up this category of career exploration programs."

Commenting on the launch, Sandeep Anand, Chief Marketing Officer at Dominos India, said, “Marketing and advertising are natural homes for creative people. Being a strong marketer means understanding people and their social contexts, understanding data and developing business acumen. We hope teenagers will benefit from this insight into how we at Domino’s think about marketing. We're excited to see the ideas the students come up with for Domino’s!”

About Clever Harvey -

Founded by Sriram Subramanian and Madhu Agrawal in 2020 as a D2C division of Callido Learning, the Mumbai-based company is building India’s largest career accelerator for teenagers. It currently offers programs for high school students in marketing, technology, entrepreneurship, data analytics, UX design, digital marketing and finance in collaboration with leading companies like Puma, Samsonite, Cult.Fit, Domino's and more. 

The JuniorMBA Entrepreneurship program is the most popular option amongst parents looking to give their children a firm grounding in the business world. 10,000+ students from 15 countries have graduated from these programs. Driving the next phase of expansion, Clever Harvey is now partnering with leading universities to build fast-track college admission pathways for high school students with a portfolio of industry projects.

AdTech Startup Wrap2Earn Lights Up Mumbai’s Streets with LytAds

Mumbai-based Out-of-home (OOH) Cab Branding AdTech startup Wrap2Earn Technologies has announced the launch of LytAds; Their smart screen taxi-top Digital OOH advertising solution in the country's financial capital, Mumbai.

A first-of-its-kind streel-level media platform; LytAds uses internet-connected high-res LED displays mounted on rideshare vehicles to deliver contextual messaging for advertisers. Starting off with what is arguably India's most impactful advertising market, Wrap2Earn has installed best in class dual sided digital screens that offer close to 35% more advertising space than their nearest competitors in the Country.

Talking about LytAds, Elmer Dsilva, Founder & CEO quipped, "We have already built a functional ecosystem within the cab branding space & are leveraging Wrap2Earn's 3.5+ years of experience to launch LytAds.We aspire to be the 'Google Ads' for taxi-top digital screen advertising, giving brands the flexibility to advertise across the City or to deliver tactical advertising messaging based on real-time triggers like location, time of day, weather and other event based data points.

Our online self-serve platform allows for very granular level campaign planning - brands can upload their creatives, select key campaign parameters & watch their campaigns go live on all our screens within minutes. Bigger brands can choose to display their campaign across the city while smaller businesses can activate hyperlocal, 'pay-as-you-go' campaigns focused on their key demographics."

Adding a degree of flexibility like never seen before, LytAds allows brands to update their campaign parameters and/or creatives at no additional cost throughout the duration of their media campaign. Speaking about their product design, Manuel Fernandes, Co-Founder & CTO elaborated, "Our custom made dual sided taxi-top display has an attention-grabbing sleek design that demands the attention from those exposed to it. Our P2.5 outdoor LED modules are best in class providing utmost clarity even at a very close range. We have followed a very rigorous R&D protocol to ensure the entire LED cabinet is both dust and water-proof while ensuring compliance with all road-safety guidelines."

One of the defining features of the LytAds offering is its ability for brands to tailor their messaging based on location, time of day& other event triggers. Elaborating on this capability, Jyotiba Patil, Partner & Director - Sales Strategy added," LytAds is leveraging technology to ensure that brands will be able to use our 'moving digital billboards' to deliver content that is always relevant. Not only that, advertisers also gain access to an online dashboard to track their campaign performance in real-time - they are able to see a live representation of all our screens on a map, track number of ad plays, total display hours by location & time of day. Through our amazon cloud watch integration, brands will be able to download ad play logs as 'proof of play' ensuring that efficacy in our reporting."

In the business of providing complete marketing solutions for in & on cab branding, Wrap2Earn's latest DOOH offering promises a cost-effective and high impact media platform for advertisers that marries the best aspects of both, Digital and OOH advertising. Replete with features & technology that breaks the clutter of the current advertising space, LytAds is slated to redefine how brands promote themselves & deliver relevant advertising messaging in the physical world.

A Media Planning Guide for your Advertising Campaign

Creating a solid online presence in today’s era is the key to any business’ success. Sharing and advertising content on online platforms is the prime way to increase brand awareness, attract potential customers and in turn increase revenue.

However, attracting customers via media requires detailed planning. Learning media planning can be very lucrative in today’s digital era!

This blog tells you everything you need to know about media planning. Let’s first understand what media planning is.

What is Media Planning?

Media Planning refers to selecting the appropriate media outlets to advertise your business to the target audience at the right time and place. In simple words, it is a strategy designed to achieve media objectives and yield optimum results.

Media planning aims to find a combination of media channels that help the marketer to advertise to a large audience at the lowest possible cost. Hence, it controls wasteful advertising, ensuring optimum utilisation of resources.

What does Media Planning Comprise?

Media planning comprises a brief media plan. It helps the advertising in understanding the budget, the goal of the advertising campaign, the market scenarios along the suitable media channels.

Let's now look at the 5Ws of media planning

1. Which: Which is/are the most suitable media channel(s) for the advertising campaign to be able to communicate effectively with the target audience
2. When: When will the advertising campaign be launched? The date, time, month are answered in this question.
3. What: What kind of message is to be communicated to the target audience via the advertising campaign? Is it an informative announcement, a demonstration etc?
4. Whom: Who is the target audience of the advertising campaign? How many people will be targeted? Age and gender are points to be considered while answering this question.
5. Where: Where is the target audience located? Identifying the geographical location of your audience is important while creating a media plan.

Media Planning Vs Media Buying

Media planning and Media Buying are both closely related to one another. Media Buying starts where Media Planning ends.

The basic difference between both terms is that media planning is the developing stage of the advertising campaign and media buying is the execution of the advertising campaign.

While media planning is the strategy of creating and publishing content on media platforms, media buying is the process of buying ad space on the various media channels to target your audience by negotiating with media vendors.

Hence, Media Buying is a sequel to Media Planning. Purchasing ad space and negotiating with distributors, requires a strategy to reach out to your target audience.

Also Check Out: Amazing Tools & Tips for Startups

Keep reading to know how you can develop your media plan.

Image ~ DVIO Digital

How to Write a Media Plan?

1. Identify Your Goals

Identifying and setting goals is the first step to implementing any business strategy. Building brand awareness, generating new leads, increasing conversion rates, retargeting are a few probable goals that a media planner can have.

Using the SMART goals criteria is the simplest way to develop any strategy that you want to implement. The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound.

Refer to the 5 questions that you can ask yourself while framing your strategy.

Specific: What needs to be accomplished? How can it be accomplished?
Measurable: Is the goal quantifiable?
Achievable: Is the goal feasible and achievable by the team?
Relevant: How is the goal beneficial to the organization?
Time-Bound: Set a realistic deadline for your plan.

2. Conduct Market Research and Determine the Target Audience

Once you are clear of what you want to achieve through your goals, conduct market research. Conducting market research will help you to create content and formulate a plan according to your target audience.

Creating buyer personas is an effective way to determine your target audience. A Buyer Persona is a detailed description of the people representing your target market. It is created by surveying a predetermined target group.

While determining your target audience, you can consider the following points.

• Determine the Campaign Type - Business to Customer (B2C) or Business to Business (B2B).
• Demographics - Age, Gender. Location, Occupation, Educational Background
• Will they use your product?
• Which media does your target turn to for information?
• How does your product help the target?

Determining target audiences will help you decide the suitable media platforms to launch your ads and share the content on.

3. Implement Your Media Plan

Determining the target audience will easily help you in determining the perfect media mix for your advertising campaign.

Once the combination of the media platforms has been chosen, you can choose your media planning templates. There is a wide range of free downloadable templates available for you. These templates will help you in working efficiently and effectively on your media content. Hubspot, Sprout Social and Google Sheets are simple templates you can use.

Templates provide clarity and enable you to coordinate your content across your media platforms, improve productivity and reach your goals faster.

Source ~ Six Degree SLA

4. Measure Your Performance

After launching the advertising campaign, measure the performance of your plan. Identify glitches and act on them.

Understand which media platform is driving the most engagement and revenue. You can optimize your budget for your existing and future campaigns and track your progress by understanding the following points.

• Which platform is generating the highest revenue?
• Which platform is generating the lowest revenue?
• How can you increase your engagement on the non-performance platform?

Learning Google Analytics and Google Search Console are essential skills for marketers or planners!

To Summarise

Media Planning is an integral part of any business’s success. It is essential for reaching out to the audience by creating appropriate content and collaborating with media vendors to launch advertising campaigns at the right time.

To strategically build a media plan, do not forget to use a suitable media planning template. Follow the above steps and start planning today! And a bonus would be to train in digital marketing professionally to upscale your business ROI even further.

We hope you enjoyed reading the blog! If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments section below.

Wrap2Earn, A Technology-first Cab Branding Startup, Receives Investor Backing Despite Covid-19 Blues

With over 100% YOY growth, Mumbai-based Out of home AdTech start-up gears to become a global player in the cab branding industry.

Mumbai, 29th July 2021: Mumbai-based AdTech startup Wrap2Earn Technologies has announced the conclusion of its recent funding round to support its ambitious expansion plans.

Founded in 2017 by Elmer Dsilva & Manuel Fernandes, Wrap2Earn is a street-level “moving billboard” media platform which connects advertisers with cab drivers to create cost-effective and high-impact, on-vehicle advertising campaigns. Since its inception, the company has worked with over 55 advertisers to brand over 10,000 cabs across 16 Tier 1 & 2 cities Pan India.

Pitched as a tech-first innovative media platform, Wrap2Earn provides advertisers more bang for their buck in comparison to traditional OOH media. For the cost of a single static billboard in key metro cities, advertisers can brand up to 200 cabs for an entire month. The ingenuity lies in how it delivers unparalleled exposure and reach by using branded cabs that drive over 150 kms per day. Not only that, Wrap2Earn also works closely with their clients to execute internal car activation / sampling campaigns thereby taking advantage of the undivided attention of cab passengers during their transit.

A one of its kind offering in the space, Wrap2Earn provides clients access to an online dashboard to track their campaign performance in real-time with complete transparency. By providing its advertiser partners with key performance metrics such as number of kilometres driven, impressions gained and tamper-proof audits throughout the duration of the campaign, Wrap2Earn has been able to successfully bridge the gap between OOH and digital advertising media.

This promising Indian start-up prides itself in being able to create a win-win situation for both advertisers and cab drivers alike. With Wrap2Earn, they have fostered a gig economy for their driver partners who can supplement their income with advertising revenue by simply driving the way they already do.

Leveraging their expertise in the cab branding space and with technology at the heart of everything they do, Wrap2Earn is set to launch their debut into the Digital OOH (DOOH) space by October this year, ahead of the festive season.

Speaking on the occasion, Founder & CEO- Elmer Dsilva added, “What began as a bootstrapped operation 36 months ago has today grown to a team of over 20 passionate individuals coming together to deliver innovative and contextual advertising solutions to our branding partners. With a YOY revenue & client growth of over 100% since commencing operations in 2017, we used the brief inactive phase during Lockdown 1.0 to further strengthen the analytics we offer with our current offering and build advanced proprietary technology for a DOOH offering that we plan to announce shortly.

We have managed to position ourselves as one of the strongest players in the cab branding space in India and are ready to take advantage of this position. As testament to the immense potential and growing confidence in our venture, we have received funding from investors based out of India as well as the US. We will be using the proceeds to grow our current offering more aggressively and launch a new offering in the DOOH space, which will provide our customers with unparalleled value, flexibility, and speed of execution. We believe that we are only just scratching the surface in terms of innovative cab branding solutions, and we want to re-imagine a world where cabs are not just a mode of transport but also engaging and cost-effective canvases for advertisers to tell their brand stories.”

In addition to growing and building this unique market share in India, the company is also actively exploring strategic partnerships to launch their offering abroad. With its sight set on becoming a global player over the next decade, Wrap2Earn Technologies is well-poised to redefine the (D)OOH space and blossom into one of the leading AdTech start-ups globally.

About Wrap2Earn

Wrap2Earn is a technology-first disruptive out-of-home (OOH) media platform that connects advertisers with cab drivers to allow for cost effective and high impact on-vehicle advertising campaigns. Founded in 2017, the company has burgeoned into an enterprise catering to over 55 advertisers and have branded over 10,000 cabs across 16 tier 1 & 2 cities Pan India.

Advertisers get access to a full suite of planning and measuring tools to harness the power of real-time data to get access to meaningful insights for every campaign that is executed with Wrap2Earn.

The company have recently received investor backing to grow their current business more aggressively. They will also be using these funds to enter the DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home) advertising space with new branding solutions before the festive season.

10 Best Advertising Network for Publishers

Advertising network for publishers is a modern tool, which is applied for selling and buying the ad inventory. The advertisers can select among a great number of publishers’ websites and applications in order to place their adverts and display them to the target audience.

What is an advert network for advertisers and publishers?

The first networks appeared when a problem with the leftover of inventory aroused. It was required to increase the demand for the inventory as well as to make the revenues from the adverts higher. Besides, the advertisers also needed support scaling their online advert purchases and dealing with the publishers because they had to work with multiple sites. At the beginning of the networks development, tracking and reporting solutions were created to make the buying process easier. The platforms kept growing and developing. Today there are special networks for mobile and desktop adverts as well as the combined ones. The process of buying is automated, so there’s no necessity to have sales forces, organize negotiations, and spend too much time on bureaucracy.

The best publisher ad networks

Speaking about ad buying, it is vital to select a responsible resource with plenty of beneficial offers. Let’s consider the best ad publisher networks used today:

1. Google Adsense - It’s a famous network, which is free of charge. It is characterized by good performance & eCPMs, which make the platform advantageous for both marketers and publishers. It works mostly with CPC & CPM adverts. Note that the network has strict guidelines.


2. Revcontent - It’s the widest content recommendation resource, which is used by the leading companies, such as Forbes, NBC, and others. There are nice features for customization and a transparent system of reports, which are quite useful for the publishers. The performance and services’ quality are at the highest level.


3. Infolinks - This network provides good options for monetization with In-Text CPM adverts. There’re no minimum requirements for traffic. It’s a perfect choice for bloggers.


4. Media.net - With the help of this platform, the publishers are able to increase their revenue. Here you’ll find the largest number of marketers. Many well-known marketers work with the resource including Reuters, Forbes, etc.


5. Polus.media advertising network - This network is beneficial for the publishers offering wide opportunities for money conversion with the support of CPI, CPM, CPC, CPL, and other models. It cooperates with the most reliable advertisers worldwide. There’s a special tool, which shows your stats. Additionally, the resource offers the creation of quality adverts for any sites owned by the publishers. The plus.media ad network has best resources to provide quality services for advertiser and publisher – Real Time Bidding and programmatic Advertising   


6. AdPushup - The resource is supported by Microsoft. It provides profit optimization on the publishers’ websites, which includes A/B tests, optimization of layouts, AdBlock recovery, etc. The publishers also get access to the top-paying campaigns thanks to the partnership with Google, AppNexus, and other companies.


7. RevenueHits - The resource provides maximization of the revenue from the websites for minimal effort. Here you’ll find the relevant adverts for your audience. There are also in-house online marketers, who would like to purchase traffic without fees. The platform supports CPI, CPM, and CPL pricing models.


8. Bidvertiser - The resource opens impressive opportunities for monetization. A PPC pricing model is a basic one. Besides, the publishers also get money for the clicks, which lead to conversion/sales. It’s the most efficient alternative for Google Adsense. The greatest attention is given to mobile traffic.


9. MGID - This is a good choice for native money conversion. The platform provides the integration of the sponsored content/recommended goods into the natural activity system of the users. As a result, there’re low risks of disruptive adverts.


10. PopAds - It’s created for money conversion of publishers’ traffic via pop-under adverts. The network provides appropriate rates, which are influenced by content & traffic of the resource. PPV and PPI models are applied by this advertising platform.

OOH Service Startup Litcabs Launches Taxi-Top Advertising on 8000 'Kali-Peeli' Taxis

Mumbai-based startup Litcabs is a first-of-its-kind mobile OOH service provider offering advertising solutions for brands on iconic Kaali-peeli taxis in Mumbai. They provide intelligent, unique and effective OOH advertising solutions by mounting back-lit panels atop taxi carriers while supplementing the income of taxi drivers. Over 8,000 kaali-peeli taxis in the city will be outfitted with taxi top advertising displays with the first 350 hitting the streets of Mumbai in the first week of March.

Litcabs has been founded by a team of four passionate entrepreneurs. Jyotiba Patil, the founding partner along with Arjun Meghe, Siddhartha Shekhar and Aditya Thorat. The four partners started Litcabs with an objective to bring on unconventional options to make new-age communication innovative and mobile to target masses on the go. Mumbai’s black-yellow cabs are an iconic, essential part of the transport system and a big part of city life. Advertising on cabs in Mumbai will allow brands to reach their target group within the city; markets, at malls, cinemas, railway stations, airports, etc. essentially capturing an entire city audience.

Litcabs keeps a track of the total kilometers run by the taxis on a daily basis, route taken by taxis, as well as the hours the advertisement was lit up, through their GPS system. Each taxi makes an average of 5,00,000 impressions per day according to MRSS, a market research firm. This database is combined regularly and shared with the client as an ad effectiveness report. This is an added advantage that other OOH advertising solution providers typically cannot provide.

Majority of their fleet consists of shared cabs. These cabs follow a definite route through the day that starts from an office complex / market place and ends up at a railway station. They spend most of their day in a specific area ensuring repeated exposer and hyperlocal advertising which helps in the brand recall value.

Commenting on the launch, Jyotiba Patil, Founding partner, Litcabs said, “We are happy to announce the launch of our new service for advertisers in Mumbai. Our goal is to provide OOH advertising solutions that are mobile, cost effective and impactful compared with that of billboards, bus stands and other transit media. Kaali peeli is the popular medium of transport. With the ability to schedule advertising by location, coupled with superior reporting tools, we are looking to provide advertisers with a highly targeted, flexible and reliable medium to manage campaigns for their clients.”

The team has been investing continually in R&D to enhance the aesthetic appeal of their design & production and also towards studies to understand consumer behaviour further. They also want to begin engagement with OOH fixed screens. Based on the response generated, they aim to expand to other cities over the next few years.

Litcabs was conceived by Jyotiba Patil in January 2018. The first LitCab was on the street on 15th January 2019. Litcabs aims to have over 1000 cabs on the streets by the end of the year.

Lit Cabs is in the business of providing advertising solutions for taxis in Mumbai. Back-lit panels atop taxi carriers provide companies with a unique and effective OOH advertising solution while supplementing the income of taxi drivers. Lit cabs puts your brand and advertising right in front of prospective customers – our bold, backlit design will reach the widest cross-section of the public who will recognise and remember the advertising, giving you the edge in today’s highly competitive consumer marketplace.

Mumbai’s black-yellow cabs are an iconic and essential part of the transport system and part of city life. Advertising on cabs in Mumbai will allow advertisers to reach out to their target group within a city; markets, malls, cinemas, railway stations, airports, etc, reaching a concentrated and varied audience including but not limited to shoppers, residents, tourists, visitors, professionals from diverse fields and age groups essentially capturing an entire city audience.

In A First, Flipkart & Hotstar Collaboratively Launches New Ad Platform

n a first of its kind partnership in the industry, Flipkart, India’s leading e-commerce platform, and Hotstar, India’s leading streaming platform, have collaborated to launch a Shopper Audience Network, Flipkart’s new ads platform that allows brands to connect with customers through personalised TrueIntent video ads on Hotstar.

Developed by Flipkart, Shopper Audience Network uses deterministic audience-based insights to help brands connect with users by leveraging Flipkart’s understanding of users’ purchase journey and the massive scale of TrueIntent video ads. It will help serve personalised advertising to over 150 million users across hundreds of categories.

In addition to providing brands a holistic view of their consumers, the platform will also provide them with the right tools to better attribute and measure the impact of their digital ad spends. This partnership ties in with Flipkart’s ambition to be a leading digital ads platform in India and the partnership leverages Hotstar’s huge momentum in the video ads market.

Besides Shopper Audience Network, Flipkart already has Flipkart Shopper Audience (FSA) Network which provides marketers to target the audience for their brand ads or products listing by Flipkart Ads.

Speaking about this partnership, Flipkart Senior Director Prakash Sikaria said, “Understanding our customers better than anyone else has always been one of Flipkart’s core strengths, and these insights help marketers in their ad journey, on our platform. This partnership further leverages the intent-based understanding and couples it with Hotstar’s platform to create an unparalleled offering in the ads industry in India.”

Commenting on the development, Hotstar EVP Prabh Singh said, “In Hotstar, marketers today have access to a large scale audience that is deeply engaged and paying attention. Brands that advertise on Hotstar are seeing the power of that engagement. The partnership with Flipkart will build on this proposition and provide marketers an opportunity to connect the dots to hundreds of product categories on Flipkart.”

Flipkart’s attempt at building an advertisement business is similar to Alibaba. The company started its advertisement unit in 2015, first with product listings to help sellers promote their products when customers search for them in the marketplace. In the same year, it also bought mobile ad network AdIQuity to kick-start the business.


[Top Image - MarketingLand.com]

Make your videos viral using Vidooly

Vidooly is a self-serve YouTube videos marketing advertising and analytics platform to promote videos across various networks.  Videos are being considered as the next big content marketing weapon. According to Salesforce.com, 2014 is the year of video in the B2B Marketing.

Vidooly helps people from all walks of life to earn more money by promoting their existing content on YouTube. It helps artists promote their song videos, brands promote their television campaigns and moviemakers promote their movie trailers. The video contents are distributed through the help of a series of publishers who are mobile app owners, website owners, bloggers and social media users etc.

Founded on May 20, 2013 by Ajay Mishra and Subrat Kar, Vidooly has its headquarters in Gurgaon. Vidooly was previously known as Vidoofy. But due the existence of a mobile app named Videofy.me, they preferred to change their brand name to avoid any conflict in future.

An established digital marketing agency takes around 15-20 days to initiate a campaign as they are not self served as Vidooly. These established companies also prefer working with big brands who can give them a minimum amount of money spending commitment on advertising during the course of the campaign. So, it becomes difficult for smaller establishments and startups to work with them. Here is when Vidooly comes in picture. Vidooly doesn’t require a minimum budget commitment. Anyone can start a campaign at Vidooly with any budget. This feature makes Vidooly different from other advertising networks working in the market.

The procedure involved is very simple. Advertisers can start their campaigns by logging on to Vidooly. They will next be asked to put their YouTube video URL. The next step involves selecting the target audience and platforms which are relevant for their business. Then an auto CPM/CPV rate is suggested by the system. Once that is paid, the ad is launched live in 24 hours. The advertisers are even provided with the feature of tracking and analyzing the campaign using Vidooly analytics.

The grass is not all green for Vidooly; they still have to face a lot of challenges in their working. They are still a very small company with an even smaller team. They want to further expand their wings. Secondly, Vidooly hasn’t been able to get even a single external funding for their firm. To evolve into a bigger firm, they require funding.

Make your videos viral using Vidooly

Vidooly is a self-serve YouTube videos marketing advertising and analytics platform to promote videos across various networks.  Videos are being considered as the next big content marketing weapon. According to Salesforce.com, 2014 is the year of video in the B2B Marketing.

Vidooly helps people from all walks of life to earn more money by promoting their existing content on YouTube. It helps artists promote their song videos, brands promote their television campaigns and moviemakers promote their movie trailers. The video contents are distributed through the help of a series of publishers who are mobile app owners, website owners, bloggers and social media users etc.

Founded on May 20, 2013 by Ajay Mishra and Subrat Kar, Vidooly has its headquarters in Gurgaon. Vidooly was previously known as Vidoofy. But due the existence of a mobile app named Videofy.me, they preferred to change their brand name to avoid any conflict in future.

An established digital marketing agency takes around 15-20 days to initiate a campaign as they are not self served as Vidooly. These established companies also prefer working with big brands who can give them a minimum amount of money spending commitment on advertising during the course of the campaign. So, it becomes difficult for smaller establishments and startups to work with them. Here is when Vidooly comes in picture. Vidooly doesn’t require a minimum budget commitment. Anyone can start a campaign at Vidooly with any budget. This feature makes Vidooly different from other advertising networks working in the market.

The procedure involved is very simple. Advertisers can start their campaigns by logging on to Vidooly. They will next be asked to put their YouTube video URL. The next step involves selecting the target audience and platforms which are relevant for their business. Then an auto CPM/CPV rate is suggested by the system. Once that is paid, the ad is launched live in 24 hours. The advertisers are even provided with the feature of tracking and analyzing the campaign using Vidooly analytics.

The grass is not all green for Vidooly; they still have to face a lot of challenges in their working. They are still a very small company with an even smaller team. They want to further expand their wings. Secondly, Vidooly hasn’t been able to get even a single external funding for their firm. To evolve into a bigger firm, they require funding.