Nielsen announced that streaming usage surpassed cable in July to claim the largest share of television viewing for the first time, according to The Gauge, Nielsen's monthly total TV and streaming snapshot.

Streaming represented a record 34.8% share of total television consumption, while cable and broadcast came in at 34.4% and 21.6%, respectively. Streaming usage has surpassed that of broadcast before, but this is the first time it has also exceeded cable viewing.

Total time spent watching TV in July closely resembled that of both June 2022 and July 2021, but despite these similarities, the change in the distribution of viewing formats on a year-over-year basis further demonstrates how viewing behaviors continue to shift.

As the biggest mover this month, streaming usage increased +3.2% compared to June and gained +1.1 share points. Time spent streaming in July averaged nearly 191 billion minutes per week, and each of the five measurement weeks in July 2022 now account for five of the six highest-volume streaming weeks on record according to Nielsen.

Among streaming distributors, Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu and YouTube each captured record-high shares again in July after previously doing so in June. Netflix represented the largest share of overall TV viewing for a streaming platform with 8%, boosted by the nearly 18 billion viewing minutes of Stranger Things alone.

Cable viewing in July dropped -2% and -0.7 share points compared to June, and year-over-year, cable usage was down -8.9% and -3.3 share points. Sports viewing posted the biggest decline for the category, dropping -15.4% from June and -34% from a year ago when the 2020 Summer Olympics began.

Viewing in the broadcast category, which is experiencing a typical lull in new content until the upcoming broadcast season begins in September, was down -3.7% in July versus June and represented a loss of -0.8 share points. On a monthly basis, broadcast sports viewing declined -41% in July compared to June, and the year-over-year comparison showed a decline of -43%.

The NHL and NBA playoffs in June 2022 and July 2021 contributed considerably to the similarities in monthly and yearly decreases in broadcast sports viewing, in addition to the start of the Summer Olympics in July 2021.

Everyone wants the next big franchise. Marvel Studios has generated close to $25 billion at the global box office alone since 2008’s Iron Man — and that doesn’t include ancillary revenue, Disney+ subscriptions activated, theme park visits, or games licensing opportunities. Joker, a darker take on DC Comics’ most infamous villain, saw more than $1 billion at the box office and spurred a sequel, with director Todd Phillips in talks to potentially help architect the future of the DC Cinematic Universe.

Star Wars, The Witcher, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokémon, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones — even NCIS and Ru Paul’s Drag Race. All of these are franchises that are core to a network or studio’s development plans, core to their expansion efforts and, for many companies that now operate alongside or within a streaming service, the catnip to bring in and retain subscribers.

The term franchise gets thrown around a lot these days, but like any term that gets tossed around, it loses some of its meaning with every new use iteration. What is a franchise? A franchise is a shared universe that features characters, occupations, or settings that overlap and maintain connective tissue via multi-platform and multi-delivery content. For the purpose of this issue, let's focus on television franchise building for streaming platforms: how that can help larger cinematic universes, how it can lead to full blown universes built out on the small screen, and more.

That means The Vampire Diaries and its Originals and Legacies spinoffs, on top of the books, make it a franchise. The same goes for the Dick Wolf universe, which acknowledges that several shows operate within the same fictional world, building in crossovers and distinct character arcs that allow it to flourish as a franchise under his banner. These exist alongside more traditional franchises, those ones dominated by superheroes and droids, but in effect exist to accomplish the same feat, even at vastly different scales.

This issue of Parrot Perspective is all about franchises, answering a few key questions that have arisen over the last few years.

How important are franchises to onboarding new customers for OTT platforms?

How important are franchises to retaining those customers?

How to avoid making franchise pitfall mistakes?

Franchises are important, but they’ve also become terms thrown around to satiate Wall Street without really understanding how to properly use them for customer acquisition, for growth, for retention, and for distribution decision making. The below piece will explore how to recognize signs of a potential franchise, how to best grow across mediums based on early franchise recognition, and traps to avoid when trying to find the next franchise.

Establishing Franchises by Understanding Franchises

Netflix is developing a Stranger Things stage play and a new live-action Stranger Things spinoff with the Duffer Brothers at the helm. Part of this is an attempt to ensure the brand’s longevity is secured beyond the show’s final season set to air in 2023, but it’s also one of Netflix’s strongest attempts into building a franchise.

Netflix has the second highest demand for licensed series, exclusive and non-exclusive, according to new analysis conducted by Parrot Analytics. Nearly 40% of demand for all Netflix series in May 2022 was for franchise shows, with 11.6% of that demand coming from exclusive series (like Stranger Things) and 24.3% of the demand coming from non-exclusive franchise series, like Pokémon or Supernatural. This is second only to Disney+, which sees about 50% of total demand for its platform come from franchises. Nearly 28% of that demand is for original franchises, while 21.9% is for non-exclusive franchises.

Disney builds itself around franchises. Its studio divisions practically operate to build out franchises from the get-go. There are plans for sequels if demand is met, and box office sales are high. This coincides with consumer products and theme park divisions working those titles into their lineups, with characters being licensed out to video game developers to continue capitalizing on attention. As Parrot Analytics’ Director of Strategy, Julia Alexander, told Reuters about Netflix and Disney’s franchise approaches, “Do we have the same confidence in the Netflix machine as we do the Disney machine? No, but in part that comes from Disney spending years determining what that machine looks like.

“For all of Netflix's dominance in the streaming space, they're still relatively new to building out these types of worlds."

The word franchise often goes hand-in-hand with the vast majority of Disney’s output. That includes streaming. Comparing the average demand of franchise series to the average demand of non-franchise series nearly doubles in favor of original franchises on Disney+. This is far greater than any other competitor. Before going any further, however, we must determine what equals a franchise and what doesn’t. The chart below goes into more details.

Breaking Down Franchise Standing and Opportunities

Key to Disney+’s expansion plans is expanding beyond franchise to find new, general entertainment programming that appeals to a wider audience. While CEO Bob Chapek and his team still see room for growth within the company’s main franchise pillars, including Marvel and Star Wars, eventually that audience will hit its capacity and the streaming platform will have to scale beyond it.

That means the supply side of the equation has to shift in order to create a new wave of demand for non-franchise series. Although 73.4% of series on Disney+ are non-franchise series, Disney+ still relies on the highest number of franchise titles both on the original and licensed front. Nearly 91% of titles on Netflix are non-franchise series, while 90.5% of titles on Amazon Prime Video are non-franchise titles.

Just as important a data point: the average demand of a Disney’s original franchise shows are nearly 3x the average demand for non-franchise shows available on Disney+. This is one of the largest gaps in favor of franchise shows across the major platforms. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, for example, show major favoring for non-franchise series. This makes sense when considering that Disney’s main concern with Disney+ programming is expanding the scope of its offering to broaden the overall total addressable market for its subscriber base, and one of Netflix’s biggest issues is finding new franchises outside of Stranger Things.

In Q2, Netflix’s global demand share for streaming originals plummeted from 45.2% in Q1 2022 to 41.2%, another all time low. The last time Netflix’s global share dropped more than this was in Q4 2019, when both Disney+ and Apple TV+ entered the market. The only thing that helped Netflix in Q2 was Stranger Things’ return with its fourth season, which saw 229.6x more demand than the average show worldwide in the days following its May 27th debut. Or, put another way, without Stranger Things, demand share for Netflix originals would be 2.1% lower. Only the final season of Game of Thrones hit a higher peak demand.

In fact, from May 27th, when part one dropped, to June 30th, Stranger Things averaged 193.2x with US audiences — making it 279% more in-demand than the next closest digital original, Amazon’s The Boys (51x). Globally it averaged 200x, 124% ahead of second place The Boys (89.2x). It’s a reminder that building out more franchises like Stranger Things is paramount to Netflix’s continued growth.

Building out the Stranger Things franchise is a must do for Netflix as they aim to stem subscriber bleeding in the quarters to come, yes, but it’s not the only franchise play. Currently, Netflix has a limited track record in creating sustainable franchises. Their attempt at building out La Casa De Papel (Money Heist) has not been successful, with the Korean adaptation failing to replicate the original’s audience, or piggy back off the steady rise in global and US demand for Korean content.

For Disney, it’s a matter of determining what general entertainment programming makes the most sense for the Disney+ platform — instead of Hulu, for example — and can achieve growth goals that may not come from the main franchise series in the next 2-3 years.

Franchises are key — but the question is whether relying on them too much can lead to hindered growth because of the total audience base and the potential for that audience base to grow. Disney+ maintains the largest demand share for franchise originals in the action genre. This genre tends to lean young and male; while there are attempts to bring in more women (see: Ms Marvel), the best way to grow at scale while not just trying whatever works for the sake of whatever works is to find new general entertainment programming that feels specific to a platform’s identity and can possibly turn into a new franchise that isn’t based around the original audience base.

Building the Base

One of the biggest questions is whether franchises are strong acquisition drivers, strong retention drivers, or a little bit of both? Most high calibre, IP-focused series — especially those based around an in-demand and heavily established film world — are assumed to be high acquisition drivers.

Franchises are necessary to establish the core acquisition base, especially as platforms continue to launch in new territories. Having series that appeal to different audiences within those franchises are also key, like Ms Marvel or The Clone Wars. They are base builders. Understanding the importance of franchises to streaming services comes in three tiers. The first is base builders: a core franchise that acts as a main attraction for a large base of primary subscribers. It is the selling point for a platform, or is the type of show designed to generate a strong surge in subscribers based on pre-awareness, strong affinity, and strong longevity for a title based on IP a company owns.

By looking at the demand for new entries in this type of universe, set against the percentage of demand those titles made up during a particular period (like a quarter), and comparing those to subscriber additions or reductions for the quarter as publicly reported by the company, we can get a better sense of just how integral those titles are to the platform. Similarly, by examining off-peak seasons when there is no new entry in a franchise and comparing that to overall churn the company faced per quarter, we can determine the retention rate of those titles as well.

Each new installment in the Marvel, Star Wars, and DC Universe bring in new customers, but each new season sees a smaller number of subscribers joining in established regions. For example, in UCAN (United States and Canada) where Disney+ has existed for 2.5 years and HBO Max has existed for 2 years, the audience that’s signed up for those services to access their favorite franchises aren’t going to cancel. This leads to smaller groups of acquisitions based on new installments in those franchises.

Therefore, to see scalable growth on those specific platforms, demand share has to come from non-franchise or non-established franchises that reach a group of subscribers in established regions who previously didn’t sign up to Disney+ or HBO Max because the value proposition wasn’t there. Growth stagnates if action isn’t taken otherwise.

Of Disney+’s 10 most in-demands series between January 1st 2022 and July 13th 2022 in the United States, 60% of the titles belong to the Star Wars and Marvel universes. Comparatively, only 30% of HBO Max’s top 10 series in the United States during the same period belonged to well-known action/adventure and fantasy franchises.

While Disney+ and HBO Max saw relatively the same amount of subscriber growth in the UCAN region during the quarter, HBO Max’s base is much more diverse. Therefore, the value proposition of HBO Max to a wider audience as a four-quadrant service is more apparent than Disney+, which is much more heavily reliant on specific franchise installments.

HBO Max and Disney+ see similar skewing in gender demographics for their films, with HBO Max leaning more male and Disney+ leaning more female. They also see similar gender demographics for their television series. But while HBO Max has more consistent offering for people of all age demographics, including Above 40, Disney+ has relatively low demand from Above 40 demographics when it comes to series.

This wouldn’t particularly matter if Disney wasn’t trying to grow its crown jewel streaming platform into a platform that attracted the widest group of subscribers instead of focusing on the primary franchises and core Disney audience — young. To reach the goals set by the executive team for the street, the generational demographic for Disney+ series has to improve, and that’s done by looking for white space opportunities that appeal to a totally different demographic than what’s currently being satiated.

We’ve established that franchises are base builders – a core franchise that acts as a main attraction for a large base of primary subscribers. Disney+ launched with The Mandalorian, HBO Max saw its big rush of subscribers with Wonder Woman and further DC installments alongside the HBO library, and Netflix’s most in-demand series of all time is also its first big franchise — Stranger Things. We’ve also established, however, that base builders can only build so large of a base before the building blocks have to start being added to build beyond the core.

Land and Expand

Think of it like Lego. Once the various pieces start to come together, the potential for those blocks to create something the original designer didn’t even imagine starts to happen much more quickly and at a larger scale. If the first step is base building — laying down the foundation for the Legos to sit on — then base expanders are the various blocks that are used to create something new, tear it down, and do it again.

So, what is a base expander? An expansion of a core franchise that’s designed to widen the TAM not captured by the first base builder. It could be a change in genre, in style, or in medium, but the goal is to double down on the core IP growth while also broadening the perception of what the core product is. If successful, the franchise takes on slightly different identities to different taste clusters, but is all regarded within one main universe.

Let’s use The Vampire Diaries as an example. The original series focused on a female character (Elena) and was effectively an action-romance set within a small town. The show went back-and-forth on her love triangle with the Salvatore brothers. The Vampire Diaries ran for eight seasons. The Originals, a spinoff of the main series, focuses on Klaus Mikaelson. The show is a fantasy drama set within New Orleans pitting vampires against werewolves in a much more politically-heavy show. Klaus was the connecting tissue between both series, but the CW was able to broaden the audience with a new show that acted as a gateway in. It was another building block. Then, they added Legacies, which brought a younger generation to the aging franchise and carried on the overarching story by focusing on Klaus’ child.

Each block is a new Lego square that when added together creates a new portrait. Even more important, those various Lego parts allow for proper franchise development rules to be met: not keeping too much time between installments, reinventing the series for each new generation to make it “theirs,” and following a similar tone and setting to ensure it feels like one cohesive universe. These are just some of the rules that must be followed to ensure successful franchise development, but on a streaming service, they’re also central to expanding and retaining a customer base.

In the case of The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, and Legacies, which also spawned comic book lines and games, we can see the Lego building block idea in action. Although the characters are not necessarily reliant on one another, the shared history and lore can help lend to developing shows around secondary and third-tier characters.

Klaus isn’t a main character in The Vampire Diaries, but his relationship to the show allows him to become the vessel for a different series that targets a slightly different audience while also giving the core audience something to chew on. The Originals may be a reason that someone enters the universe — including signing up for a streaming service — but then it connects back to The Vampire Diaries. Since the settings interlope, this allows for interaction between shows without relying on actors. Similar to the Wizarding World, there is a through line even if the main characters aren’t present.

The result is that as demand for one series grows, so does demand for the others. The chart below shows demand for The Vampire Diaries’ eighth season, The Originals’ fourth season, and Legacies’ first season. We can see demand spike for all three, which is the end goal for franchise development, and is a strong signal point for potential streaming growth and retention. Each new series brings in a slightly different audience, and can work to retain the core audience built in from the base series.

The Vampire Diaries may not come across as much of a franchise as the Marvel Cinematic Studio, but the end goal is the same. Finding new ways in for various audiences, especially on streaming services where new content is key and building recognizable universes is more important than ever, having a world like The Vampire Diaries can help with the bottom line.

So what does that look like at other platforms? Take Netflix as an example. Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead uses the same methodology. It started as a film — Army of the Dead — and was quickly followed by a prequel, Army of Thieves. When Army of Thieves was released just six months after Army of the Dead was released, the original film saw a spike in demand. We can make an estimated guess that Army of the Dead subscribers either returned for Army of Thieves or were consistent Netflix subscribers. We can also imagine these were relatively the same group of subscribers. The demographics are very similar, even if one is more comedic and the other is much more of a typical action film.

The next installment is an anime series spinoff. For Netflix, where anime is a large investment, having an original series that continues to build on the franchise but potentially brings in a slightly different audience expands the total addressable market and creates a new favorite franchise home for a specific taste cluster. This increases the value of those titles because they manage to bring in subscribers, but can keep retention high. As the world expands, so does the necessity to have Netflix in order to experience new installments in the universe.

An essential aspect of franchise building is crossing different mediums to build out gateways. Army of the Dead is a movie. Same with Army of Thieves. The anime series is a TV show. There’s a good chance that Netflix explores a game based on the series for a new batch of audiences to enter the franchise through. Then there are live experiences and other ancillary paths. The idea is to have the franchise remain top of mind via any platform and medium necessary while the Lego blocks continue to build.

Lego blocks also help with the last part of franchise building within the television universe: base expanders. These are titles like CSI: Miami or Law and Order: Organized Crime. They’re defined as a new installment that plays upon a familiar, recognized formula but creates a feeling of freshness that brings a sense of new to the franchise to keep fans engaged.

The attention economy requires consistency on behalf of the content provider and adoration, affinity, and demand from the consumer. To keep a franchise top of mind, this includes finding ways to keep the audience’s attention and demand. This isn’t an expander play to broaden the audience, but a play to keep a franchise top of mind. These are integral to television; there’s a reason that NBC, ABC, and CBS have employed this tactic for years. As streaming starts to build out its own catalog and library, finding shows to expand in without having to worry about attracting a whole new audience — these are retention and brand admiration plays — will also become important.

Now, building franchises? Easier said than done. Building franchises is exceptionally difficult — just ask Netflix. Just as important to trying to get the process right is actively recognizing mistakes and pitfalls to avoid.

Don’t Repeat the Same Mistakes

One of the most important films Disney released in its recent tenure is John Carter. The 2012 film is most remembered for being a colossal box office failure. The film. which cost $300 million to make, amassed less than $250 million domestically, with $less than $75 million at the domestic box office. It was also, however, a perfect example of how approaching a franchise starter the wrong way can have catastrophic results.

John Carter’s failure felt like it came from, in part, Disney executives believing that they could manufacture a franchise simply because it was a) some form of IP and b) Disney needed franchises, as our director of strategy previously pointed out. The Disney franchise machine wasn’t as well-oiled in the early 2010s as it is today. Many of the franchise attempts were blockbuster failures. Disney, a company known best today for its ability to generate strong adoration for its collection of big franchise titles, couldn’t figure out how to get audiences to love their live-action products.

John Carter was created as a film that might work because it kind-of-sort-of looked like one that should work, and if it kind-of-sort-of looked like the type of film that led to major successes (X-Men, Batman, Pirates of the Caribbean), then maybe it could work as a franchise for Disney. A $200 million loss later, and that plan was no longer the case. Disney’s fix was one of acquisitions. The company bought Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm and, through producers like Kevin Feige, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Kathleen Kennedy, created the most successful franchises to date.

So what are the pitfalls?

Over-indulging, under-planning

Assuming, not watching

Overestimating structure, undervaluing writing

Let’s break this down further. The first point is in line with the aforementioned budgets. Netflix spent $200 million on Jupiter’s Legacy believing it could be the company’s answer to Marvel and DC. Netflix wanted a superhero franchise. Other, non-Marvel or non-DC owning companies like Amazon found success with The Boys. Netflix spent $50 million on acquiring acclaimed comic book writer Mark Millar’s production company, MillarWorld, to place that bet.

Now, this isn’t to say Netflix went in without any creative development strategy. Of course the teams did. No one sets out to make a project people aren’t interested in. But Netflix over-indulged on a concept instead of letting the first season play out for a fraction of the cost and planning out different case scenarios to move the franchise forward.

Millar is moving forward with other projects that he has at Netflix, but Jupiter’s Legacy was supposed to be the big kickstarter. Instead, it became an overpriced example of what not to do. The show peaked at 24.5x the average demand of all series globally, which is decent, but within a month was hovering around 7x the average demand of all series globally, putting it in the average category. It’s an expensive bet for an entire franchise, without much wiggle room to pivot out of successfully to keep the franchise attempt going.

Sometimes a show lands. Sometimes it doesn’t. But franchise development is contingent on having a plan ready. The MCU was already set in motion with Iron Man when Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury appeared. It was continued in The Incredible Hulk and Captain America: The First Avenger, but if Iron Man failed spectacularly into The Incredible Hulk, the team could have pivoted to trying a new way in without having wasted hundreds of millions of dollars. Planning is essential, but don’t bet everything on the first go.

The second point — assuming, not watching — is what’s happening with franchises in general. At the beginning of this piece, I noted that everyone wants a franchise, but they’ve also become terms thrown around to satiate Wall Street without really understanding how to properly use them. When Netflix or Amazon want a franchise, it’s a Marvel or a Star Wars or a Harry Potter. It’s precisely what executives at Netflix told Reuters just before the company announced its second quarter earnings.

There’s an assumption, therefore, that because one thing worked, another will also work. A great example is the Fantastic Beasts films. Since the original Harry Potter films worked, the theory was that something set within the Wizarding World would as well. A clunky story matched with trying to make five films out of a two-film story arc meant that demand decreased with each new installment and box office return also diminished. While the demand peak for The Secrets of Dumbledore is higher, demand tapers off faster than it did for The Crime of Grindelwald. More importantly, it didn’t do anything to move the franchise forward in any meaningful way.

Diminished financial gains are one key component of the story, and are necessary to understanding expansion or contraction efforts, but franchises are dependent on adoration, which is harder to quantify. Demand and sentiment, which Parrot Analytics tracks, is one way of doing so. If sentiment is high through multiple different expansions, the chance of a more successful franchise development strategy is also higher.

By watching what’s working well for other franchises across different mediums and in non-theatrical expansions, instead of just assuming that something will work because it belongs to an established IP or because it has ties to an established IP genre’s, will help understand what audiences want. How does demand for certain shows, and sentiment for certain trends, help with developing a franchise strategy plan? This is essential to ignoring missteps that others have taken — mainly assuming that just because the audience is there once means they’ll always show up if there’s a brand attached.

Franchises are interlocking stories that create enough widespread adoration and demand that ancillary paths become viable gateways and continuations to create a meaningful flywheel model. None of this works if the storytelling is bad.

That’s the last point — overestimating structure, undervaluing writing. A franchise only works because there’s consistent investment in the next story from the fanbase, and that comes from trust that the stories will continue to bring them joy. It’s why concerns over sentiment regarding Marvel Studios’ recent CinemaScore ratings bring up questions about quality potentially diminishing as supply of content ramps up.

Data and structure is a lighthouse. It can shine a light on opportunistic paths that were maybe invisible before, and it can direct away from treacherous paths. But the lighthouse exists to give the ship’s captain a clear runway to do what they do best — steer the ship safely into the harbor to deliver the goods to people in town. That’s so important to keep in mind when developing franchise strategy. Planning, data, and structure are key to building out the world in a lucrative manner, but the creative teams are what drive continued investment.

Singapore Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani lead distinguished speaker line-up

Forbes Media today announced that it will hold its 20th Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore from September 26 to 27, 2022.

The theme of this year’s conference is “The Way Forward”. The world is looking for a way back to normal. Recovery from the pandemic is underway for much of the globe. Yet markets gyrate on every economic, geopolitical and Covid update, while investors keep a wary eye on inflation and rate hikes. Global tensions escalate between major economic powers, with ripples felt worldwide. Amid all these uncertainties, some 400 leading CEOs, entrepreneurs and investors will convene at the 20th Forbes Global CEO Conference to share insights, spotlight opportunities and stake out the way forward.

William Adamopoulos, CEO/Asia, Forbes Media, said: “We are delighted to host the 20th Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore, where our conference first started. This is an important milestone for Forbes in Asia and we look forward to bring back together, for the first time in three years, our community of some of the world’s most economically powerful and influential business leaders.”

One of the highlights on the opening day of the conference is a one-on-one dialogue between Lawrence Wong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Singapore and Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media. On the second day, Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group, will be making a keynote speech.

To date, some 40 speakers have confirmed their participation at the conference. Speakers will gather from around the world to share insights on topics such as the global economy, technology, innovation, and investment opportunities in sectors such as finance and venture capital, real estate and sports. Panels will also discuss best strategies for leadership, entrepreneurship, family business, ESG and sustainability.

Speakers who have confirmed their attendance include Jenny Johnson, President and CEO of Franklin Templeton; Eduardo Saverin, Cofounder and Managing Partner at B Capital; Jenny Lee, Managing Partner at GGV Capital; Ajay Banga, Vice Chairman of General Atlantic; Ferran Soriano, CEO of City Football Group and Manchester City Football Club; Miwako Date, President and CEO of Mori Trust Co., Ltd; Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO of Byju’s; Nisa Leung, Managing Partner at Qiming Venture Partners; Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India; Ho Kwon Ping, Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings; Janet Henry, Global Chief Economist at HSBC; Mohammed Dewji, President of MeTL Group; Russell Coutts, CEO of SailGP; Goodwin Gaw, Managing Principal and Chairman of Gaw Capital Partners; John Studzinski, Vice Chairman and Managing Director at PIMCO; William E. Heinecke, Founder and Chairman of Minor International and Arif P. Rachmat, Cofounder and Executive Chairman of TAP Group.

Other speakers include Anderson Tanoto, Managing Director at RGE; Sudarshan Venu, Managing Director at TVS Motor Company; Kevin L. Tan, CEO of Alliance Global Group Inc.; Nancy Pangestu Tabardel, CEO of ANB Investment; Kishin RK, Founder and CEO of RB Capital Group; Meng Kuok, Group CEO and Founder of Caldecott Music Group; Aaron Tan, Cofounder and CEO of Carro; Katrina Razon, CEO of KSR Ventures; Kyungsun Chung, Managing Partner at The Sylvan Group; Simon Loong, Founder and Group CEO of WeLab; Laurent Junique, Founder and CEO of TDCX; Lee Yeow Chor, Group Managing Director and CEO of IOI Corporation Bhd; Randall S. Kroszner, Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business; Binod K. Chaudhary, Chairman of CG Corp Global; Wendy Yap, Founder, President Director and CEO of Nippon Indosari Corpindo; Harald Link, Chairman of B.Grimm; Joe Ravitch, Cofounder and Partner at The Raine Group and V Shankar, CEO and Cofounder of Gateway Partners among others.

The Principal Sponsors of this year’s Forbes Global CEO Conference are Royal Golden Eagle, HSBC Global Private Banking and Star Energy Geothermal. The Corporate Sponsors are Wuthelam, Singapore Economic Development Board, International Container Terminal Services, Inc, MQDC (Magnolia Quality Development Corporation Limited) and Mayapada Group. Supporting Sponsors are Sari Roti, OUE Limited and Hill & Associates.

The festival was inaugurated by H.E. Sunjay Sudhir, Indian ambassador to the UAE

ZEE5 Global, the world’s largest streaming platform for South Asian content, has partnered with the LuLu Group for their India Utsav celebrations.

The announcement was made in a press conference at LuLu Regional Headquarters in Dubai.

In the Group’s first ever simultaneous region-wide launch of its celebration of the 75th Indian Independence Day - Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the “India Utsav” was launched at the same time across the GCC countries on 15th August 2022, Monday at Al Wahda Mall, Abu Dhabi.

The festival was inaugurated by H.E. Sunjay Sudhir Indian Ambassador to the UAE, alongside Mr. Yusuff Ali, Chairman and Managing Director of LuLu Group International, Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer of ZEE5 Global, the official partners of this promotion, and other top officials and government authorities at LuLu Hypermarket Al Wahda Mall, Abu Dhabi.

“India Utsav” is a retail festival that brings alive the 3 Cs of the Indian experience at LuLu: Culture, Commerce and Cuisine. It showcases the close commercial ties UAE enjoys with India.

In celebration of 75 Years of Indian Independence, the "India Utsav" will present a unique immersive shopping experience at LuLu with regional food trails, celebrity visits organised by ZEE5 Global and amazing promotions & Offers on every category from fresh food to grocery to lifestyle and fashion wear in time for the festive season to follow.

ZEE5 GLOBAL PARTNERHSIP

This year, LuLu has partnered with ZEE5 Global, the world’s largest platform for South Asian entertainment. As part of the initiative, ZEE5 will be flying in popular actor Sonali Bendre to meet and greet with fans in the UAE. Shoppers at LuLu Hypermarkets across the GCC will also win a free annual subscription to ZEE5’s for every purchase of AED 1,000 and above; and a free one-month subscription or a 50% discount on yearly subscription for every purchase of AED 100 and above. 

Speaking on the occasion H.E. Sunjay Sudhir said, “We are delighted to note that LuLu Group is celebrating the India Utsav across all their stores on the historic occasion of Azadi Ka Amritmahotsav and I thank LuLu Group for always promoting India and Indian products through their hypermarkets. No doubt initiatives such as this will go a long way further promoting the trade ties between India and UAE.”

Mr. Yusuff Ali said, “Needless to say, India is very close to my heart and mind emotionally. On the occasion of the 75th Independence Day, I would say that the country is an emerging economic superpower, and the visionary foreign policy of PM Modi has led to stronger India-GCC ties and the UAE is emerging as one of India’s staunch business partners. I believe strongly that the LuLu Group can be a key player in this vision of the future for India.”

“Apart from product promotion, India Utsav will also showcase rich cultural diversity of India through many shows, competitions and celebrity visits during the campaign period,” added V. Nandakumar, Director of Marketing & Communications, LuLu Group.

Speaking on the occasion, Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 Global said, “It’s a highly exciting time for ZEE5 Global as we have galloped ahead to become the No.1 streaming platform for South Asian content across multiple global markets, including the Middle East. We now look forward to continuing to build on this success through multiple local initiatives and on the back of our compelling content, further deepening our connection with South-Asian audiences here, we are thrilled to partner with LuLu for their India Utsav celebrations. This marks the continuation of a wonderful and deep relationship with them, and with the region.”

Key highlights:

Special stalls to promote Indian handicrafts, khadi products, Kashmir products, etc.

Indian Food Festival to showcase different state cuisines and snacks.

Daily cultural shows and competitions.

Free subscriptions of ZEE5.

KICKING OFF INDIAN FESTIVALS 

 “India Utsav” will herald LuLu’s celebration also of India’s busy festival months with a series of celebrations, LuLu India Utsav Deals for Indian Independence Day (from Aug 11th – Aug 17th), Janmashtami Specials (Aug 17th – Aug 18th), Ganesh Chaturthi (Aug 25th – Aug 30th), Onam (Aug 30th to Sept 8th), Navratri – (Sept & Oct), and culminating with Diwali (End of Oct).

Egypt has a long and illustrious legacy of storytelling. It also has a wealth of untapped potential that can bring fresh & nuanced perspectives to global content but has so far remained underrepresented on the global stage. There is a subset of voices within this community — those of women, that need better acknowledgment.

On September 12th, Netflix is launching the ‘Because She Created’ writing program in partnership with Sard, a dedicated hub for scriptwriters in the Arab world, to train women in writing and develop their storytelling and creative expression skills. This program is part of the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity which aims to help create new opportunities for underrepresented communities within the entertainment industry.

Mariam Naoum, CEO & Founder of Sard said, “Sard believes that expressing oneself through writing is the first step to self-discovery, and we're proud to have discovered talent through this program that we feel will one day become scriptwriters of the future. The Arab world, including Egypt, is ripe with talent. What they need is concerted effort and professional support to nurture their growth. Women in the region in particular, need this kind of incubation and technical support to gain access to opportunities that advance their professional growth in an industry where their presence is still limited. Sard is trying to achieve this through the work we do, and through partnerships with organizations like Netflix that help steer talent in the right direction."

Ahmed Sharkawi, Director, Arabic Series, Netflix said: “At Netflix, we recognize that being part of the creative communities comes with responsibilities and that includes the need to develop the talent pipeline and give new voices a chance to be heard. Through our partnership with Sard, we are mining a wealth of untapped potential from Egypt, an integral component of the MENA creative community, and introducing storytelling as a viable career option for the next generation of Egyptian women. We want to create more diverse content to ensure that women are represented both on screen and behind the camera, and partnerships like this allow us to equip them with the skills they need to tell the best version of their stories.”

The ‘Because She Created’ writing program will recruit 20 women from outside Cairo, particularly, and equip them with the creative tools and industry insight needed to advance their professional development. The five-day program will be hosted in Cairo and will include storytelling classes, creative expression sessions, as well as daily artistic activities like trips to the theater and the cinema. 

The program helps mine for talent in historically underrepresented regions of Egypt and introduces storytelling as a viable career option for the next generation of Egyptian women. By providing talent with a chance at a professional writing career, the program aims to inspire people to break through in the industry and create a network of women who can support each other well after the program.

Over the last two years, we’ve sparked important discussions aimed at filling the pipeline of women in entertainment, partnered with the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture to provide financial assistance to women producers and directors in the Arab world, and recently launched the Because She Created collection to highlight the importance of equitable representation in storytelling.  

beIN MEDIA GROUP and its flagship channel beIN SPORTS, the official broadcaster of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), has partnered with Twitter to share bespoke content throughout the world’s biggest football event, which kicks off in Qatar on 20 November 2022.

beIN SPORTS will be sharing content for regional audiences across Twitter, highlighting the biggest moments throughout the tournament and providing brands and marketers with association opportunities via Twitter Amplify sponsorship. Each match will be highlighted through content clips, one match recap and an in-studio analysis, aired through the beIN SPORTS official handle, @beINSPORTS for a total of 320 videos.

“Football is one of the biggest conversations in this region. We’ve witnessed a 74% spike in average monthly football conversations in comparison to the previous 12 months. From Saudi Arabia alone, we’ve seen more than 53 million Tweets about football so far this year,” said Kinda Ibrahim, Director – Global Partnerships, MEA and Turkey, Twitter.

“When Twitter talks sports, the world listens. From firing up fan excitement to meeting fans on their home turf, Twitter is the best place to connect to the moments that get the world talking — right where it’s happening. By working with the region’s biggest sports broadcaster, we are excited to provide near real time match highlights to die hard fans who drive the intensity and build community around one of the most watched global sporting events,” continued Kinda Ibrahim.

Commentating on the partnership with Twitter, Faisal Mahmoud Al-Raisi, Director of Digital, beIN MENA, said: “As one of the leading official broadcasters of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM in the 24-country MENA region, our talented teams will be working night-and-day to deliver the best content and insight – using the latest cutting-edge technology, so that every fan’s experience is incredible. We are delighted to partner with Twitter for this historic event to do everything we can for our millions of followers across MENA to make memories for a lifetime.”

Created by Zerotrillion and Moderated by Chantelle Brinkley.

In a new series, New York Festivals and Chantelle Brinkley, Managing Director of award-winning creative agency Zerotrillion, invite four exceptional women leaders to discuss hot button topics about leadership.

New York Festivals partners with their “Best New Agency of the Year'' winner, Zerotrillion, to create a new content series titled Carving Stairs into Stone, which will be moderated by Zerotrillion’s NYC Managing Director, Chantelle Brinkley. The Collaboration was inspired by a recent wave of interest in the New York Festivals’ other new content series’, including Black Madison Avenue and Immigrant Madison Avenue where various industry experts gather to discuss underrepresented groups and themes in the advertising world.

Carving Stairs into Stone delves into the career journeys of women in brand and marketing leadership positions. The executive interview series explores each leader's trajectory to the top, revealing how they defied unspoken rules and outdated traditions. Rather than clinging to the notion that "we all go through it," the series advocates for industry change and serves as a road map for newcomers to follow as they navigate the industry and seek to move it, and their own careers, forward.

The panel is composed of women from some of the world’s most exclusive brands. Tennille Kopiasz (Global CMO of Fresh at LVMH), Angelique Bellmer Krembs (author and former Global Head of Brand at BlackRock), joins Ashley Stallings (Chief Customer Officer at Salsify), and Marina Sukhova (AVP, Head of Search, Insight & Measurement, Luxe Division at L'Oréal USA) to share the valuable lessons that will benefit up and coming leaders in the industry.

When recruiting for the interview series, Brinkley was surprised by how many women in leadership positions felt there were not enough platforms for them to share their valuable stories of overcoming adversity in business. “I'm honored to help build a bridge between the industry's experienced leaders, and those charting a path, as well as helping to define a roadmap for bettering the industry through effective, empathetic leadership. Now more than ever, women’s voices and experiences need to be amplified so we can continue crafting a legacy of strong women carving out new paths to success in the global brand and marketing industry."

New York Festivals Executive Director, Scott Rose added, “Zerotrillion has been making waves and collecting towers in NYFA for the last few years and we're thrilled to be partnering with them. The goal with our content is to elevate the people behind the work and help them get important ideas out to the community. Chantelle and the ZT team have certainly delivered, organizing an inspiring group of top executives to share stories, lessons, and actionable takeaways. Carving Stairs from Stone is not to be missed.”

The first 45-minute Carving Stairs into Stone episode launches on August 18, 2022 and can be viewed on New York Festivals YouTube channel. The next interview series will include new leaders and fresh topics. Confirmed guests include Felita Harris (Chief Strategy and Revenue Officer & RAISEfashion Founding Board Member) Julien McCluney (GM VP Global Brands Hasbro Gaming at Hasbro), Rebecca Kovalcik (Senior Creative Director, Happy Family Organics - Danone), and Lee Piper (Global Creative Director, Yahoo!). Filming will begin in New York in September and a new episode is planned to be released in October.

Commerce media is revolutionizing how ads are bought and optimized. Companies need the right strategy to share in its potential trillion-dollar-plus value.

Key takeaways-

Advertising is being transformed by commerce media, a new form of advertising that closes the loop between media impressions and commerce transactions to improve targeting, provide new audience insights, and deliver more relevant and valuable experiences for consumers.

It has the potential to generate over $1.3 trillion of enterprise value in the United States and create a paradigm shift in digital advertising not seen since the rise of programmatic.

Retail media is the first domino to fall, and is a harbinger of the commerce media trend, with retailers creating high-margin, rapid growth media businesses.

For decades, advertisers have faced challenges connecting their ad spending to actual customer purchases. Figuring out whether they were delivering impressions for the right price in the correct channel was an imperfect science, with many assumptions, data extrapolations, and a cottage industry of measurement solutions. Commerce media changes this by directly connecting audience impressions with omnichannel transactions and business results. By linking content and commerce, brands can better serve their customers through more relevant offers and incentives, all in a privacy-protected way. While building brand relevance and favorability will always be an essential part of the marketing mix, today’s opportunity is to connect impressions to actual sales and feed these results back into true full-funnel marketing models.

Commerce media has its roots in affiliate advertising—partnerships in which publishers link their content to commerce opportunities to provide an enhanced experience for consumers. The category is now rapidly expanding to include retail media networks (RMNs), third-party ad platforms that retailers set up on their websites. It also includes “shoppable ads” that enable people to purchase products through online or mobile ads, and “live commerce” or “shoppable TV,” where viewers can interact with video content and buy products directly from their TV or device screens. In China, where shopping on the live streams of popular influencers has become mainstream, live-commerce media purchases reached $170 billion in 2020, driven by the apparel/fashion and beauty categories. In the future, new forms of this media could include contextual purchasing in the metaverse, which would enable consumers to purchase any product they see whenever and wherever they want.

How did the industry get here? The growth of e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst that raised the bar on consumer expectations and produced new signals on customer behavior that advertisers could learn from. Next year, the planned removal of cookies from web browsers is expected to be another tailwind for commerce media. In an increasingly data-driven future, first-party data will become a powerful competitive differentiator.

Retail media networks: A $1.3 trillion domino effect

Over the past two years, retailers have taken significant steps to embrace the commerce-media trend by launching RMNs aided by their large and stable user bases, new real estate for ad placements, and the proliferation of privileged first-party data. What used to be considered a side business generating supplemental revenue from “sponsored products” is now a strategic way for retailers to drive consumer loyalty. In the United States, the growth of RMNs could represent as much as $100 billion in ad spending by 2026. With the overall operating margins of RMNs in the 50 to 70 percent range, companies across the retail spectrum are fully awake to the economic potential. For instance, Amazon has led the way in using its repository of e-commerce data to create an advertising and advertising technology business that now goes well beyond sponsored ads on its own shopping site. Retailers with single-digit margins and those newer to e-commerce may also consider selling off- and on-site sponsored ads a potential strategy.

The ripple effect from this growth is already significant. The ability to match unique customer IDs and ad impressions to stock-keeping-unit (SKU) sales in a privacy-protected way is compressing the marketing funnel and disrupting the entire advertising ecosystem. With $100 billion in ad spend expected to go to RMNs by 2026, the effects are likely to scale, creating potentially far-reaching implications for advertisers, ad agencies, traditional publishers, ad-technology providers, and retailers. Over time, a substantial number of impressions could be tied to SKU-level sales, ultimately changing the way advertising is optimized.

It’s not just retailers who can build “retail” media networks. The first-party data and customer touchpoints owned by hospitality brands, travel and hotel providers, telecommunications companies, banks, and automakers, for instance, may also lend themselves to contextual advertising that consumers opt into in return for more relevant, tailored experiences.

Our research indicates that over $1.3 trillion of enterprise value (EV) is at stake in the United States by 2026. This has potential revenue implications across the advertising value chain-

$820 billion for retailers who develop new, margin-rich media businesses

$280 billion for advertisers in the form of higher returns on ad spending (ROAS)

$50 billion for publishers from new ways of capturing additional ad dollars

$5 billion for ad agencies that deliver high-efficiency performance marketing for clients or help firms set up media planning and buying capabilities

$160 billion for ad-tech providers who offer martech solutions to firms that have no experience as media companies

Disruption and imperatives across the ecosystem

Based on engagements with over twenty retail media networks globally and our survey of more than 180 advertisers across various categories, including CPG, beauty, apparel, and consumer electronics, here is a deep dive into the commerce-media disruption and its impact across the value chain.

Retailers

Even though several retail and e-commerce giants have multibillion-dollar ad businesses, it’s not too late for newer entrants to get into the game by leveraging their first-party customer data. RMN campaigns can reach, for instance, personal-care-product users who haven’t made a purchase in the past six months or millennial moms who make purchases of both organic and keto products. Advertisers are then given feedback (with customer data anonymized) on who bought what in response to which ad. In our survey, nearly 70 percent of advertisers say their performance in retail media is significantly or somewhat better than in other channels

Our survey also indicates that 82 percent of advertisers will continue increasing their RMN spending over the next 12 months, and approximately 20 percent plan to increase it by more than 10 percent. This increased RMN spending will not cannibalize what advertisers already spend on marketing directly to in-store or co-op shoppers, as many retailers fear. More than 80 percent of advertisers say that their spending on RMNs will be funded from new budgetary sources (Exhibit 5). Thus any impact on retailers’ in-store shopper or co-op marketing revenue can be managed.

RMNs offers retailers—including those who feel they’ve missed the boat on shifting digital-ad spending—a significant opportunity to differentiate themselves as media partners. Our survey indicates key pain points still exist for advertisers working with RMNs. Advertisers value several key factors, among them, transparent reporting of an ad campaign’s performance, unique shopper insights, reasonable media costs, and ease of use. Retailers today don’t always fulfill these expectations. Additionally, 71 percent of consumers expect companies to deliver interactions personalized to their needs and interests, yet only 23 percent think retailers are doing a good job at it.

Building an RMN with a compelling value proposition can help retailers to better meet the expectations of both ad buyers and customers. Any of the following actions could be a good place to start:

Relentlessly protect the customer experience. For some consumers, seeing advertising or sponsored product recommendations on a retailer’s website will be a new experience. Retailers will need to regularly assess the impact of the advertising on the customer experience. RMN and e-commerce teams could collaboratively employ test-and-learn processes (such as A/B testing) and fine-tune ad load, format, and content.

Clearly demonstrate campaign performance. Advertiser expectations for RMNs are higher than for other media channels. They want to see that shoppers have interacted with their ads and made actual purchases. Showing a high level of steady growth in return on ad spend (ROAS) is key for building advertiser confidence in a retailer as a trusted media partner. This applies to placements on a retailers’ own sites and also those on platforms owned by their media partners or other marketplaces.

Deliver unique brand and shopper insights. RMNs aren’t just about providing inventory. Advertisers want to work hand-in-hand with retailers to find consumer insights that can inspire product innovation or new market positioning or messaging. Retailers may benefit from investing in the capabilities and martech infrastructure that will upgrade their ability to identify these audience insights—for example, a customer-data platform that builds a single, complete view of each customer.

Strategically segment with different service models. Not all advertisers are created equal. A relatively small number of high-value ad buyers will require elevated levels of service and thought leadership. To form a true partnership with these advertisers, retailers will need to provide rigorous performance reporting; unique shopper insights; distinctive creative services; sales and operational support; access to privileged ad inventories; and highly customized or curated audiences. At the same time, retailers will want to build easy-to-use, self-service capabilities for most advertisers, who will form the backbone of the RMN’s financial performance.

Build a curated partner ecosystem. Building a media business is an entirely new skill for retailers. Advertisers may expect managed-service capabilities, and retailers will likely benefit from partners that help deliver them, such as technology partners, content partners, sales partners, campaign-planning/buying partners, and reporting and measurement partners. To adhere to consumer-privacy laws, some RMNs are exploring partnerships with media companies that use cleanroom solutions. In addition, retailers may want help with accounting, billing, and the assessment of any related legal or privacy ramifications. Having a clear plan for what to in-source versus what should be provided by a partner may help deliver a seamless experience for advertisers.

Advertisers

Given the pace of growth of RMNs and other forms of commerce media, advertisers may need to move quickly to develop a strategy that keeps them ahead of peers. More than 80 percent of advertisers expect to increase their spending on RMNs significantly in the next twelve months. A similar number of advertisers rate retail media as a key strategic priority.

Marketing organizations could consider four actions to develop impact with commerce media, especially RMNs:

Create partners internally and externally. Working with RMNs is a marketing-led effort for most of our surveyed companies. But because retail media has direct implications for both product inventory and innovation, the participation of sales teams is key. In our survey, only 30 percent of respondents said they make sure to have joint visibility and accountability between marketing and sales.

It is also essential to bring retailers along as partners. The first step in achieving strategic goals—whether boosting sales among a particular segment, re-engaging with lapsed customers, or meeting sales targets for a new product—is to articulate the goals clearly. Demonstrating a willingness to pilot new product offerings with retail media networks could be a valuable way for advertisers to elevate their importance within an RMN.

Don’t lose sight of the big picture. Although RMNs present opportunities to drive growth, it’s essential to evaluate ad spending holistically. Marketing should be assessed and optimized across brand, trade, shopper marketing, and traditional media. Benchmarking tools could help identify how an advertiser’s marketing spend allocation compares with its peers’.

When engaging with RMNs, advertisers may want to broaden their aperture beyond a retailer’s owned and operated sites and mobile apps. Our surveyed companies allocate 30 percent of their spend with retailers to onsite ads, 45 percent to offsite, third-party sites and apps, and the remaining 25 percent to direct marketing and in-store marketing.

Set clear expectations. With 70 percent of advertisers reporting enhanced returns from their RMN ad spend compared with returns from other channels, advertisers should hold their retail media partners to a high standard. A pet-food company, for instance, achieved a 437 percent ROAS during a three-month keyword search campaign. If an advertiser doesn’t see significant results, it may be a sign to re-evaluate expectations and approaches.

Gain new business insights. Insights derived from retail-media data could be a source of new inspiration for advertisers. After several rounds of testing on different creative iterations, for example, a beauty company discovered a customer segment it didn’t realize it had: consumers interested in Korean skincare routines. Using this information, the company launched a new line of products to match this audience’s interests.

Robust reporting and measurement capabilities, therefore, are assets for retailers seeking to deliver higher performance and new insights. Before committing or increasing their investment with retailers, advertisers will want to know these capabilities are in place. This will allow them to audit their spending and do real-time reporting on how campaigns perform. Such a test-and-learn approach could result in midstream improvements and potentially help inform future campaigns and investments.

Publishers

Traditional media companies face a double dose of disruption. The planned disappearance of cookies will make it harder for them to track the performance of campaigns, potentially weakening their value proposition to advertisers. They also risk losing ad dollars to RMNs, which are better able to measure ROAS.

However, media properties can reach consumers at the point of purchase and compete with RMNs. Just as retailers or other companies that facilitate transactions are becoming more like media companies, publishers and media providers can move toward commerce. To do so, they may want to innovate in several ways:

Become more like a retailer. Build e-commerce capabilities or create a marketplace to understand consumers’ shopping behavior, and optimize it as a platform for targeted advertising opportunities.

Engage with audiences in the lower funnel. Incorporate live-commerce elements, such as hosted livestream shopping, to create innovative engagement experiences and bring audiences with specific purchase intent onto publisher properties.

Partner with RMNs on data sharing and cocreation of content. Instead of reinventing the wheel, publishers can partner with RMNs to utilize their ad inventory. They can also supply RMNs with innovative marketing content to boost engagement and drive purchases. For instance, several publishing companies have partnered with e-commerce providers to create “shoppable” recipes and meal-planning tools.

The era of commerce media is just beginning. Retailers are blazing the trail with high-quality, high-visibility, and highly matchable audiences that can benefit from more targeted and relevant advertising. Many leading companies have meaningful data on unique, hard-to-reach audiences, which could be used to create such advertising. Although the buying landscape is shifting quickly, there is still ample room to build a high-margin business of significant size. Retailers could assess their customer base and find ways to help advertisers enhance their consumers’ experience.

As companies approach the commerce-media opportunity, they must keep the customer as their North Star. Consumers already want personalized experiences and advertising that’s truly useful. Very soon, they will also expect to be able to complete purchases within the context of a TV show, online content, or virtual reality. Companies that find suitable customer use cases and forge strategic partnerships to deliver these experiences could reap substantial rewards. They will also help shift advertising’s mission from audience delivery to the acceleration of business growth.

Source:McKinsey

The function was inaugurated by Harivansh, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha

Mathrubhumi paid tribute to the great architects who helped to bring together one of the greatest publishing houses in Kerala. The commemoration of the first meeting of the Board of Directors of Mathrubhumi and remembrance of M P Veerendra Kumar was held at Uday Palace Convention Centre, Kowdiar in Thiruvananthapuram.

The first-ever meeting of the directors was held exactly 100 years back, on May 28. It was in this meeting that was presided over by K P Kesava Menon that the first Managing Director K Madhavan Nair was appointed and the first shares of the company were transferred to publisher Kuroor Neelakandan Namboothiripaad. 

M P Veerendra Kumar, who was the chairman and managing director of Mathrubhumi, passed away on May 28, 2020.

The function was inaugurated by Harivansh, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Harivansh, who was a friend of M P Veerendra Kumar,said that Mathrubhumi is the ray of hope for true journalism as it paces forward, imbibing the values of Gandhi’s words. Malayalam poet V Madhusoodanan Nair who delivered the commemorative speech on M P Veerendra Kumar recalled his greatness as an individual. He referred to him as a complete human who loved other people, living beings and nature selflessly.

The presidential address was delivered by the Chairman and Managing Editor of Mathrubhumi P V Chandran. He said that it is deeply saddening that M P Veerendra Kumar is no more. He said that Mathrubhumi, a company that has always upheld its values and preserved democracy, will continue to move forward paving a path for the society to follow.

K N Balagopal spoke on ‘Developmental issues of Kerala and Environment’, Dr Vandana Shiva on ‘Development and Environment’and M V Shreyams Kumar on ‘Mathrubhumi and Environment’.

The welcome speech was delivered by Mayura M S, Director of Digital Business and Devika M S delivered the Vote of Thanks.

Estee Lauder has announced intentions to acquire luxury fashion house Tom Ford for $3bn, in its largest reported acquisition deal to date.

The proposed acquisition makes sense for Estee Lauder given it already works closely with Tom Ford via its brand license for the Tom Ford Beauty line. Our latest study suggests that the Brand Value of Tom Ford Beauty alone is approximately $1bn, driven by growth outlook and brand awareness. In its third-quarter earnings call three months ago, Estee Lauder said that Tom Ford Beauty was one of a few brands with double-digit sales growth. Tom Ford is a well-established brand, achieving 62% awareness among US consumers in our latest global survey. The brand value of Tom Ford as a whole is not known, but could be worth in the region of $2bn.

Historically, Estee Lauder has focused on cosmetics and wellness brand acquisitions. During the pandemic, home-working and reduced socialisation led to a dip in colour cosmetics, and an upsurge in wellness products. Continuing supply chain disruptions and rising material costs are posing a threat to cosmetics players like Estee Lauder. Analysts claim that this move to acquire Tom Ford signals a potential wider venture to become a diversified luxury house like LVMH. Unlike LVMH, which has a well-known record of acquiring and transforming various small and large luxury players from all over the world, Estee Lauder’s record is more conservative and focused on the US. 2/3 of Estee Lauder acquisitions in the past 30 years were purchases of US companies, versus 1/5 for LVMH.

A notable past US acquisition by Estee Lauder was its acquisition of Jo Malone in 1999. Similarly to Tom Ford, the brand is eponymous. Jo Malone remained as Creative Director of the brand under Estee Lauder’s ownership until 2006 when she left. Her exit deal meant that she lost control of her brand, her own name. Her regret over this decision is well-documented and in 2011, she launched a new perfume brand, Jo Loves. Although details are not yet confirmed, it is likely Estee Lauder will adopt a similar strategy for the integration of Tom Ford and therefore the ex-Gucci designer is likely to remain onboard for the foreseeable future.