‘Power of Notes’ and FREE ‘social media strategy’ certification from HubSpot Academy | Content Pie

I recently earned my ‘Social Media Strategy’ certificate from HubSpot Academy. The course is quite engaging and helps you to learn through videos, quizzes, case studies and expert insights. It is a FREE course and covers topics like content strategy, social monitoring, social engagement, Social ROI among others.

https://academy.hubspot.com/courses/social-media

However, when it comes to learning, I am a little old school. I love to take notes to recollect information as well as pick important points of a topic or course. Same happened with above-mentioned course wherein I noted down the points and data that looked interesting. Voila! I was able to use these notes to answer confidently and quickly during the exam.

Even in professional life, I personally believe in the ‘Power of Notes’. Whether it is a client meeting, agency brief, brainstorming session or copy ideation, I believe more in my notes than minutes of meeting and emails. I know that I have to present my content, copy or strategy in digital formats, but that initial personalization of thoughts on note pad/diary gives me a different kind of confident and adrenaline rush.

“Khud se likhe gaye notes ki taqat hi kuch aur hoti hai … PPTs, Google Doc aur Drive links ki tarah yeh sab logon mein nahi bat te … sirf mera haq hai ispe….sirf mera.”

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©️ ContentPie

A love story: She tricked me again….and again | Content Pie

When I saw her first time, I was spellbound by her beauty. I could not believe my eyes. While all this happened from a distance, I felt a strong connection with her.

However, I finally gained the courage and talked to her. That moment, that feeling was pure and authentic. I bared my soul in front of her. Whatever was happening was totally unbelievable. And as we were about to fall in love, destiny played its own game and set us apart.

I moved on, I had to. Life is journey, not a destination. But I missed her a lot for – days, weeks, and months. It was hard to believe that things did not work out between us. I decided to live with the fact that I might not see her again.

But they say that your destiny follow you and I did not believe it at all until one day, when I saw her again. She looked ravishing and I got mesmerized again with her – same job description, same email id and same intention to take my heart (or let’s say data).

She did not change a bit in the last 8 months. And I realized that she was always there- in my ‘Jobs” section. And all she cared about her data collection, website traffic, and HR’s salary.

Dear job on LinkedIn,
Why don’t you just move on? Why?

I just want to warn you that you might trick a job seeker but you should never hurt a true lover. 😛

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©️ ContentPie

Folic Acid, the most important baby-making nutrients for mothers | Content Pie

Folic acid is a form of a Vitamin B called folate, which helps your baby’s neural tube develop into brain and spinal cord. Therefore, it is very important for soon-to-be mothers to include folic acid in daily diet. Fortified cereals are the one of the best food sources of folic acid and Folate is found naturally in dark green vegetables and citrus fruits. However, you can also take supplements that contain folic acid to build up your body to a level that gives the most protection to your baby.

Pregnancy and Folic Acid

Your body works overtime when you are pregnant and it needs support to produce a healthy baby. You are required to add lots of nutrients in your daily food and folic acid is one the most recommended of all. It is a source of DNA creation and helps in the formation of red blood cells. During initial stage of pregnancy, folic acid helps the embryonic neural tube to properly close, which is the precursor to baby’s brain and spinal cord development. Folic acid is water-soluble and your body can not store it for long time as it gets passed through your urine. Therefore, it is recommended that you add enough folic acid to your diet to avoid a deficiency. Since most birth defects develop in the first few weeks of pregnancy, it is best that you include folic acid in your routine as early on as possible.

When To Start Taking Folic Acid?

First 3-4 weeks of pregnancy are very crucial for a baby’s development as most birth defects occur during this period. Therefore, it is important that your body has enough folate during early stages to ensure that baby grows a healthy brain and spinal cord. All prenatal vitamins are not the same and the quantity of vitamins and minerals may vary. You need to consult with your doctor on the intake of folic acid however here’s how much folic acid is recommended during and after pregnancy:
When trying to conceive – 400 mcg

First trimester- 400 mcg
Second and third trimester- 600 mcg
While breastfeeding – 500 mcg

Sources of Folic Acid

There are many options available to complete the intake of your folic acid. Among food options, you have fortified cereals, lentils, spinach, egg noodles, beans etc. But sometimes, you might not have time or strength to prepare these meals. In that case, you can take a supplement that is designed keeping in mind the nutritional needs of expecting mothers. It will provide the right nutrition for the your health as well as baby’s growth.

Produced this article for Babychakra,  India's Largest Pregnancy Parenting App

©ContentPie

Thailand, A Destination On Everyone’s Bucket List | Content Pie

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)

People have almost 200 countries to choose from but why first-time international travelers decide on Thailand as their go-to destination? Because the country is the travel hub of Southeast Asia and welcomes everyone with its white sandy beaches, terrific hotels, amazing nightlife, historic temples, and mouthwatering food. Known as the ‘Land of Smiles’, Thailand offers everything that a traveler wishes to enjoy on a trip.

Thailand is one of the most preferred international tourist destinations for Indian travelers. This interest has been boosted by the availability of frequent and low-cost flights from Indian metro cities.

Food and Culture

Thailand is popular for its friendly and warm nature of local people. It may be because of their traditional Thai greeting, the Wai (much like Indian namaste) or their tradition of having meals with the family. Whatever it is, the country certainly seems to have acquired friendly and chilled vibes for every tourist.

Tom Yam Noodle

Whether you are in Thailand for one day or a month, you can never have enough of Thai food. It is so delicious and diverse that you will never have to eat the same dish again. Moreover, as you hop from one location to another, cuisines keep changing, making your food options more interesting. Top must-try traditional foods of Thailand are Tom Yum Goong – spicy soup, Laap – seasoned minced meat, Khao Soi – noodle soup, Gaeng Keow Wan Gai – Thai green curry with chicken, and Massaman curry – rich Thai sauce among others.

The country is also popular for its reggae and jazz bars in addition to its one of the best nightlife in the world, especially in Bangkok – the capital city. Thailand has more than 40,000 Buddhist temples known for their exquisite structures date back to different dynasties, reflecting their era-specific architectural and construction style.

Bangkok, The Capital City

Bangkok city is one of the main attractions of the country. They say once you visit the city and stay long enough, you will never want to leave. It is often the first stop for most of the tourists before they head to Southeast Asia. If you are an experimental traveler and love the chaos, you will find Bangkok a city full of surprises to see and do many things. From temples, red-light districts and sky bars to museums, art galleries, and parks; you will find anything and everything.

Indian Connection

As per the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) statistics, Indians are ranked 6th among nationalities visiting Thailand and over 1.6 million Indians traveled to Thailand in 2018. Out of the total, 58% visitors have been in the country before and stayed at least for a week. The main factors of this growth are free visas on arrival, cheaper hotels, and varied entertainment and shopping options to enjoy a trip.

Indian leisure travellers mostly go for shopping and sightseeing in Bangkok and Pattaya. However, in recent years, many travellers have also started exploring Phuket, Chiang Mai, Ko Samui, Chiang Rai, Krabi, Ayutthaya and Ko Chang (Trat). Additionally, the numbers of MICE delegates, destination weddings, and honeymoon bookings have increased significantly.

This tourism growth has also increased the bilateral airline capacity with 307 weekly flights between Thailand and India served by 13 international and Indian airlines including GoAir.

India to Bangkok via GoAir

GoAir announced its Bangkok-Delhi and Bangkok-Mumbai inaugural flights in July this year. All four flights offer convenient timings to the business and leisure travelers visiting Thailand and India. Daily schedule of GoAir flights to and from Bangkok effective 25th July 2019 is mentioned below:

http://www.goair.in

Last year in October, GoAir made its international debut with a maiden flight from Phuket to Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. The newly introduced flights – Bangkok to Delhi and Mumbai – offer Thai tourists an opportunity to explore ‘Incredible India’ while Indian travellers can discover the ‘Land of Smiles’. Currently, GoAir flies to six international destinations including Phuket, Malé, Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Bangkok.

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©Contentpie

Branded email address: A hallmark of professionalism and business credibility | Content Pie

Business is constantly evolving and building credibility has become an essential component of keeping customers hooked to your brand. Where there is trust, the scope for better growth and sustainable relationship is inevitable. Getting people to spend their money on your product or service is not easy and it is even more difficult when you present yourself more like a person rather than a reliable entity.

“Credibility is a business leader’s currency; with it, he or she is solvent; without it, he or she is bankrupt.” – John Maxwell

One mistake that small businesses or start-up owners commit is to send business emails from personal email address like gmail.com or outlook.com. This can cost everything that you are trying to build in the market. Such mistakes can increase doubts among your potential customers that you are not a legitimate business and can not provide quality services. Perception is everything when you are trying to build trust and credibility with your customers and hold on to them for life.

The email address that you use to send your emails has a major effect on your business’ credibility and reputation. Would you trust a business with an email address that ends with @gmail.com? Even if you are not dealing with classified information, it is always best to avoid using a personal email address for business purposes.

Why to avoid using a personal email address:

It is unprofessional: Your customers or clients expect your business to look professional online—and same applies to your email addresses too. When you send pitch or company profile via an email address that you created in your 10th grade, it looks so unprofessional.

It doesn’t show growth: What will happen when you are ready to hire an employee? Because if you use a personal email address, it means you are not growing as a business and people will not show trust in your organisation.

It lacks credibility: When you use a personal email address, it demonstrates that you do not want to be associated with your business. Therefore, a personal email addresses disconnect you from the important parts of your company branding.

Initially, having a branded email may seem insignificant but there is a bigger takeaway here than just the email address. A branded email address will inspire more customer trust than one that is from a free service provider. It is all about establishing credibility and branding; the first impression of your business for the outside world. And needless to say that in today’s competitive market, branding is how one business stands out from another.

Make sure you seriously consider these reasons to have a branded email address for your business:

It promotes your brand

When you send an email, your brand name is seen by the recipient. So here, you are promoting your business, not a free email service. It is a valuable and cost-effective way to create brand awareness without creating a hole in your pocket.

It helps to build trust

Scams are bad for businesses as well as customers. A potential client will not be comfortable sharing personal information to @gmail.com or hotmail.com. By offering a branded email address, you are providing a sense of security and reassurance to people that you are running an authentic business.

It boosts email marketing efforts

If you send emails from your company’s email domain, your target audience will immediately
know about the authenticity and be more likely to open and act. Your business will be taken
more seriously as it will appear more established and professional.

It is to note that credibility is a hard-won outcome and it will take some time – months or years to come into shape. All businesses should actively instill trustworthiness in all phases of their business operations. Most clients will engage in long-term business relationships with a
business that is mindful of its market reputation and commercial standing. Therefore, you must invest substantial efforts to win the confidence of your clients, customers, and investors and a branded email can be the first step in that direction.

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©ContentPie

Financial planning for people with irregular income

It is hard to manage your finances when the income is irregular. There is an uncertainty for people like entrepreneurs, freelancers and self-employed professionals about their inflow of funds. Sometimes, you get lump-sum amount as the payments and you are not able to plan your income correctly. And it becomes a hurdle in your long term financial goals. Therefore, you need to choose the financial plans that offer future stability as well as a systematic way of saving and receiving money on regular basis.

Here are some tips to turn your irregular income into regular one for a stress-free future:

Make a budget

For a financially secured future, you need to plan your present well. By planning your daily or monthly expenditure and making a budget for irregular income can save a lot of extra outlays. It is very simple; you can start by making a list of your daily expenditure and then segregate the important and inevitable expenses like travel fares and bill payments from the list. In the end, try while spending thriftily on the less important ones such as clothes, outside food and others.

Create emergency fund

Once you have saved enough, make sure that you have enough funds to last at least 6-8 months for any emergency situation. According to experts, due to lack of emergency funds or contingency funds, people end up liquidating their assets for financial aid. Hence, it is recommended that you allocate a small sum of money from your monthly income towards emergency funds.

Invest to earn

Sometimes spending in the right places can benefit you more than savings. Investing in sources like debt funds, equity funds, and liquid funds not only boosts your monthly income but can also help in the daily expenses. Before investing in these schemes, it is important that you have basic knowledge about the stock market and how these investment sources work.

Get an insurance

Financial planning is incomplete without insurance. An insurance offers you financial coverage for a specific period of time. From an investment planning perspective, insurance can be like a contingency plan for people with irregular income. The best part about availing insurance as an investment option is that it offers coverage in case of an accident or emergency.

Repay your debts

Debts, no matter how small, keep consuming your finances. People with irregular income often fall short of funds, hence they choose loans or debts as quick solution. Debts from banks and finance companies come with interest rates that increase the repayment amount by a certain percentage. This interest rate can be avoided if you pay the debt as soon as possible.

If you have an irregular income, it is recommended that you look for sources that provide you with regular income. You can also invest in sources, which provide favorable returns and keep giving you regular income. Aegon Life offers a range of savings plans that come with the added benefits of insurance, as well as options like money back at regular intervals, boost in savings, and bonus payouts.

PS: I produced this blog for Aegon Life, an Indian life insurance provider founded in 2008 with headquarters in Mumbai.

Financial Independence: Investment Options For Women

The women in our country are a force to reckon with. Women in old times had the tendency to manage the funds of an entire household by themselves. They had their own system of keeping accounts on the expenses and the income that their breadwinners brought home. Today, they occupy key positions in various corporate and government organizations. The need to manage finances however, remains the same. Our growing economy understands this need and provides various means to accomplish them. Investing for women requires special planning as they play many different roles in today’s walk of life. A single parent, for example, may not invest in the same way as an unmarried woman due to various social and economic constraints. Let’s look at various investment options for women in various stages of life:

The Bachelorette

Early 20s are a magical time in a person’s life. You are either working or studying, or maybe you are doing both part-time. There is so much to explore, new things to try, and bold risks to take. There is no pressure to plan for your kids, financially speaking or even think about anything other than becoming independent financially. This is the perfect time to start planning your investments to build up a comfortable corpus for the future. Short-term financial goals include planning for your higher education. Traditionally low-risk investment vehicles like Fixed Deposits, Liquid Mutual Funds or Fixed Maturity Plans work in your favor as compared to volatile markets like Stocks, Equities or regular Mutual Fund plans. In the long run, when you intend to buy a car or a house, different mutual fund schemes like Debt based mutual funds or Equity based mutual funds work up to build a substantial amount of funds for the same.

The Married Professional

This implies that you are already juggling between the herculean task of managing a household and the pressure of professional work. Time becomes an essential commodity in your life and you might not be in a position to make informed financial decisions. Minimum to limited risk investments that manage themselves are a good choice given your situation. Taking the help of a financial adviser will also help save some time at a limited cost. As a breadwinner yourself, you need to plan for your kids, liquidity for emergencies and other goals such as Real Estate or a vehicle. Investment options such as PPFs and NPFs, Gold, Fixed Deposits and investments through a financial adviser such as balanced mutual funds (Equity + Debt) should help you remain independent financially.

The Homemaker

You may not have a fixed source of income in this case, but you have time in your favor. Managing your family’s budget could easily accomplish your savings goals, while at the same time you can study the stock market to find the right market for your money to make more money. For homemakers, simple and mid-to-low risk investments include gold mutual funds, actual gold in the form of jewelry, recurring deposits of the Indian Post and hybrid bank accounts that provide impressive interest rates.

Among the most important investments that you make no matter which role you play, be it of a mother, a daughter or a wife, is a life insurance. The thumb-rule with life insurance is that you start as early as possible to insure your financial future along with your child and family.

Note: I produced this article for Prabhudas Lilladher Private Limited, a leading Stock Broking Firm.

Mobile Learning: Key Benefits For Employee Training

Mobile-based training programs are helping  employees to learn in a more personalized way.  To achieve the desired business growth, organisations are constantly adopting ‘mobile-first’ approach for workplace learning. By leveraging the BYOD culture, they are offering an on-the-go learning experience for better engagement and high knowledge retention. This  ‘anytime’ learning on mobile devices has become a go-to strategy for boosting employees’ productivity and performance.   

Factors driving the growth of mobile learning

The ability to learn virtually anywhere, anytime is the main characteristic of m-learning. This flexibility motivates employees to get adjusted to mobile-based training more quickly. Also, new-age learners prefer short and engaging content to stay focused on their learning goals. They want to learn things through interactive methods like audio-video, gamification as well as bite-sized content or microlearning. A training program having all these elements helps organisations to deliver a personalized and adaptive learning experience on a mobile platform.

Key benefits of mobile learning

Flexibility of learning

Many times, it is quite challenging to gather all your employees in the same place at the same time. Mobile learning offers the utmost flexibility by eradicating the need for learners to be present at a particular time and place. They can access the learning content anywhere, anytime on the device of their choice. Also, mobile devices improve this learning flexibility further by offering the training content in multimedia formats such as videos, podcasts, PDFs, presentations, and game-based learning etc.

High knowledge retention

M Learning enables you to deliver the training in a bite-sized, concise, and interactive content. It allows you to highlight one aspect at a time so that employees can learn more efficiently with a specific goal in mind for better knowledge retention. Also, as the attention span of mobile users is short, bite-sized learning nuggets help to engage learners via a small burst of relevant information. M-learning works in sync with the device usage habits and learning patterns of employees,which results in higher rates of retention.

High engagement rate

A mobile learning app lets learners perform various customization like creating a personal user profile, uploading photos & videos, and personalizing their profile photo for leaderboards or games. This personalized approach motivates the learners to interact with the training program more frequently, which ensures a high engagement rate. Therefore, by including personalization into your mobile training strategy, you can cater to the specific needs of your learners and motivate them to be more self-driven in their learning.

Better performance

At the workplace, employees prefer learning methods that do not disrupt their daily routine. They like to search and retrieve just-in-time information that can help them to perform their job better. Mobile learning makes information available easily on their personal mobile devices, thus elevating their overall learning experience. This results in adopting and practicing a learning habit that yields higher quality of job performance.

Mobile learning is gaining traction as a results-driven corporate strategy that allows employees to enjoy learning with the desired flexibility. It is helping organisations to add new capabilities in their learning architecture to improve productivity and performance in the workplace. Therefore, if implemented correctly with all the right tools and processes, mobile learning can increase the ROI of an employee training program and boost your business growth.

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Web app development: Advantages of progressive web apps (PWAs)

Mobile and web apps are helping businesses to create a successful and engaging online presence. They are using native apps to provide personalized user experience and developing web apps to offer universal online availability.

However, the one issue businesses face with native apps is that these apps are expensive to develop and often use a significant amount of data and storage. Similarly, web apps are not delivering the experience desired by today’s on-the-go users. Therefore, to deal with such challenges, a large number of companies have started adopting progressive web applications (PWAs)  to retain their mobile customers.

Progressive web apps (PWAs)

PWAs are mobile-friendly websites that can do almost everything a native app can. They are install-able and accessible from the home screen, and you do not need to download them in your phone storage.

Difference between PWAs and regular web apps?

The main difference is that a PWA has the characteristics of a native application such as offline availability, push notifications, and device hardware access for offering a superb user experience.

Advantages of PWAs have over regular web apps:

Native-like Experience

PWAs run on web technologies just like a regular web app, but they provide better user experience and functionality. They load in a web browser like web pages but offer rich interactivity via their native-like look and feel. They create such a seamless and integrated user experience that sometimes it is tough to differentiate whether you are using a PWA or a native mobile app. For example, social networking sites like Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook have blurred the lines between native and web experience by creating highly responsive PWAs for their users.

Ease of Access

PWAs do not demand longer download time and can be installed by a link. This process cuts down the number of steps to install and use the application, helping the business to increase the acceptance among users. The app comes in the form of an interactive website and is available to everyone with internet access and a browser. Unlike regular web apps, you can start using a PWA immediately as it provides the option of adding the app icon on your home screen.

Offline Availability

PWAs can works offline, allowing the users to keep on browsing even without an internet connection. They can access any content they have previously visited at least once on their app. On the other hand, regular web apps have all data saved on a remote server, which means your phone needs to be connected with a network to browse the content. PWAs save the website’s cache to make it possible for the users to access all the content in case of poor or no connectivity.

Push Notifications

Push notifications are one of the key reasons why many businesses are choosing PWAs over regular web apps. When you notify the customers about services and offers on their mobile app, it attracts significantly more engagement than traditional methods like email. Also, these apps can take advantage of different device features like camera, data storage, GPS to deliver targeted push notifications. In simpler words, PWAs let you maintain high user engagement to ensure that your business enjoys a high retention rate.

Automatic Updation

One of the key advantages of PWAs is that these apps get updated on their own. They make it easier for businesses to provide the automatic updation of all functionalities quickly and more conveniently. The new updates and features can be added remotely by the development team. Users do not need to update a PWA manually because when they relaunch the app; all the updates are downloaded and updated automatically.

PWAs are arguably the next step in the web app interaction and functionality. These apps make the process of accessing app functions more convenient for users. This technology is quickly becoming a dominant force in mobile app development, and you can offer a seamless user experience to your customers by creating a progressive web app for your business.

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Travelogue: Mumbai to Varsoli Beach, Alibaug (via Mandwa) | Content Pie

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Varsoli beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in Alibaug, a popular weekend destination in Maharashtra, West India. It is a less explored beach and therefore remains less crowded during all seasons. Varsoli has the longest beach stretch (3 km) and offers various water sports activities like Jet Skiing, Banana Ride, and Biking.

I have shared my ferry ride experience on my writography blog – desperatewords. The ride starts from Gateway of India, Mumbai and ends at Mandwa jetty. From Mandwa, bus and auto-rickshaws take you to Varsoli and other nearby beach destinations. It was an exciting trip as first time I explored a new place outside Mumbai.

Read my detailed travelogue: A Ferry Tale: Mumbai to Alibaug

Also, check out my short vlog . Click here.

© contentpie

6 Steps To Ensure Effective Web Application Development | Content Pie

Web applications have become a necessary tool for businesses today. A web application not only increases the cost efficiency but also boosts the profitability of a business. A web application development team typically includes designer, front end developer, back end developer, and testers. An effective web app development process includes various designing, coding, scripting, and programming steps, which are performed based on the final strategy and planning.

Here are six essential steps to ensure a successful web application development:

Envision a Roadmap

This is the most important step as it establishes the goals and purposes of the web application. It gives a proper direction to the project and helps you focus on setting and achieving your goals. The roadmap should aim to solve a specific problem or perform a particular set of functions for users.

Define the Characteristics of the Application

This step involves identifying the characteristics of your web application. A proper analytics report has to be prepared to cover your target audience, data, and security levels. Consider the following points to create your report:

Type of audience: Statistics about the percentage of elementary, average, and advanced users along with their age and gender.

Web access capabilities: An access report that specifies the targeted audience’s access to the internet, intranet, and single & multi-level extranet.

Level of security: A report that specifies the security level to be integrated into the application based on the data, its vulnerability, and risk levels.

Choose the Right Technology Stack

The technology stack includes a set of frameworks, languages, and database management system to power your web app. The stack should be ideally based on the availability of developers, suitability of the language and the requirements of the application itself.

Here are some common languages and frameworks that help in design and development:

• Front-end: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, AngularJS, VBScript, Ajax
• Back-end: Django(Python), Codeigniter(PHP), React.js (JavaScript), Ruby on Rails (Ruby), JSP,C++, ASP.NET
• Server: Apache, Nginx
• Database: SQL, MySQL, MongoDB(NoSQL Database), PostgreSQL, Oracle

Once you decide what you need to build, the architecture can be selected according to the requisites.

Create a Basic Design and Wireframing

A successful web application is all about ensuring good interactivity, interface, and user-friendliness and providing the best user experience. To achieve that, start the planning process by creating the visual guide, wireframing or simply sketching out the user interface and interactions. This basic layout plan gives an idea of how the application would appear.

Initiate Web Application Development

Once you chalk out the complete web app plan, it is time to transform it into an actionable plan. It is time to put the developer team together and create the web application architecture, framework, design its database structure, develop or customize the module, classes, and libraries, and finally implement all the functionalities.

User-acceptance Testing

The final step in the web app development process is QA testing and bug fixing. The application is put through the paces and all suitable testing techniques including load testing, performance testing, and usability testing.  Testers use various tools like WebLoad, Apache JMeter, Wapt, Qtest, and Selenium to test the final version of the app.

Web application development is becoming more popular among businesses to enhance user experience and bring efficiency to their processes. The procedure may look complex initially, but if the above steps are followed diligently, the process can be made simple and effective. Moreover, it requires an adept understanding of the evolving tools and applications to reach your desired goals easily.

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A Letter To Marketing Budget

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Dear marketing budget,

I really don’t understand what went wrong between us. I thought I was an integral part of your life, but then you ignored me in every discussion. It hurts a lot when you don’t even look at me. I never raised a question about your fling with digital marketing and your obsession with analytics.

You spent millions on your affair with TV, and Outdoor while I kept longing for some thousands. Remember the time when a crooked campaign pushed you into depression; I saved your life and your job. Your family members – jargon, big data, and app let you down when you needed them the most. Who saved your a** then?

All I want to say is that your ignorance is my only bliss. When you hate me the most, I try to help you more. But I wish that you could understand my value and share some part of you with me. Even your 1% affection will be enough to motivate me to do better and push harder.

PS: I miss you a lot when a writer yells on me and hits me in the face.

Only yours,

Content

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©ContentPie

A Musical Story

I liked Saavn a lot. We used to spend a lot of time together. We would discuss playlist, artists, and genres. I was having a good time and then JioSaavn came into my life.

I started skipping my outings with Saavn. My bonding became stronger with JioSaavn – a more energetic and refreshing version – totally my type. It became quite a personalized and intuitive relationship.

Things were going really fine and then I saw Spotify in my neighborhood. Our first conversation went on and on as there was so much to talk – favorite bands, big Indian music library, mood boards, curated playlist, and simplicity.

Sometimes, I think about JioSaavn but then Spotify has already created a spot. I am still in touch with Saavn and we meet occasionally. JioSaavn has become that companion who will always be there. Between all this, my family made me meet Amazon Music and now we are very good friends.

These days, you can spot me & Spotify walking together on the streets, making faces in the metro, and enjoying our favorite playlist on the beach. I am glad I spotted you, Dear Spotify. ❤

PS- I have already friend zoned YouTube Music because of uncanny resemblance to Spotify.

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©ContentPie

5 Easy Hacks To Personalize Your Training Program

In today’s time, all aspects of your daily life are getting more personalized than ever. Your social media feed shows the content that you would most likely to engage. Entertainment has become on-demand as online streaming apps automatically suggest the content based on your personal preferences. Personalization is impacting the way we learn, interact with our employers, and develop work expectations.

This trend is also impacting corporate learning as personalized training programs are getting better traction than the traditional approach. Today, employees have become accustomed to personalization in everything; be it learning, shopping, and entertainment. So, when your learners are consuming information in a personalized way; then why not create a training program that connects with them personally?

You can use these five simple hacks to personalize your training program:

Perform Learners’ Analytics

Use the learning analytics to understand your employee’s learning behavior and categorize them to deliver the content that is personalized and relevant to their needs. Following are the methods to perform learners’ analytics:

• Surveys: It can make a significant impact on the direction of your training program. By using surveys, you can find out their opinions and determine what they expect from your training program.
• Age group/qualification analysis: Different employees have different levels of learning ability and proficiency. Analyse their personas and identify their demographics like their age, qualification, and learning history to design your training with a more personalized approach.    
• Work function analysis: A sales manager will have different learning needs than a product manager. Outline your training by focusing on job-specific goals and success metrics for better personalization. 
• Feedback: A regular feedback helps you to understand your learners’ needs and assists you define the effectiveness of your training. Instant feedback is the best way to continuously improve your training and create a personalized learning environment in your company.

Give Freedom To Choose Learning Path

Personalized learning is all about giving your learners an option to pick what works best for them, thus allowing them to learn at their own pace. Give your employees the freedom to decide their learning path and let them choose their preference for a course and its completion time. When you give them control over such training aspects, they learn faster, retain new knowledge longer, and perform better. In result, freedom of choice reduces their apathy and motivates them to engage with the training more frequently and personally.

Connect Learning Outcomes with Work Performance

The primary objective of any training program is creating a learning environment and helping your employees to improve their performance. Therefore, you need to align learning outcomes with the on-job performance of your learners. When you create a link between their performance and training outcomes, it makes them aware of their strong and weak points. This personalized approach helps them to improve regularly and establishes the relevance of your training concerning their job responsibilities and work performance.

Apply Mentor-Mentee Approach

Whatever your training goals are, creating a structured mentoring program is an effective way to reap better results and improve employee performance. You can assign a mentor to every employee to ensure their individual learning difficulties are handled at a personal level. By considering the training goals, you can match the mentor and mentee based upon the desired outcomes. For example, if the goal is management training, then assign a mentor who is the department head. The relationship between mentors and mentees takes place gradually, but the result is truly beneficial for your organization.

Leverage Technology

An effective training helps your employees to grow and remain competitive. Therefore, you need to adapt to their needs and provide them with a personalized learning experience by leveraging the right technology. Using technologies like LMS, gamification, and mobile learning app, you can drive the training in the right direction with the more personalized approach:

• Adaptive learning path: You can create individual learning paths in LMS using the content based on individual characteristics of a learner. It allows the learners to follow their own route within that pre-defined learning path. It is like adapting the learning path to their personal learning needs.
• Gamification: Game-based learning allows learners to control their own learning experience. It makes learning more fun, increases retention, and boosts competitiveness spirit among employees. With gamification elements like Leaderboard, badges, and game challenges, you can make your training more personalized and successful.
• Mobile apps for microlearning: A training with small learning nuggets typically witnesses double completion rates. As smartphones have become omnipresent, a mobile learning app can add many advantages to your training. You can push notifications for new courses, enable cloud distribution, and deliver microlearning content directly to their pockets.      

The world is moving from traditional whole day training sessions to using technologies that deliver learning material to the individuals in a personalized way. For each job role, you need to map out all skills that an employee should possess and personalized learning helps you to do that more practically.

Produced this blog for Shezartech, a technology solutions and digital marketing company headquartered in Mumbai, India. 

How to get the most of your LMS data | Content Pie

Lynda.com

It is very important to analyze the LMS data at every step of your training program. You have to keep an eye on all the processes to know what data you should put to good use. Simultaneously, you need to analyze the way your learners are receiving the information you are conveying. It might all look technical to you initially but with right methods, you can surely get the most out of the LMS program. To achieve that, you should know how to read your LMS data and utilize it effectively.

Here are some data points that you need to check on a regular basis:

Assessment Report

The objective of the assessment is to identify their skills gaps and then get a clear picture of how your training is actually helping them to improve. It can be done at many levels including trainer, manager, and peers to gather the data effectively and boost learners’ performance. Today, most LMS comes with built-in assessment reports to compile data for individuals and groups and spot the problems that need your attention. For example, some learners score low on their communication skill exam at the beginning but then they score high by the end of the training. It means they have bridged their knowledge gap and your training has achieved the desired outcomes.

Training Completion Time

The completion rate allows you to monitor the performance of learners and helps you to take a targeted approach when necessary. Sometimes an employee can take longer than expected to complete a task. There can be multiple reasons i.e. lack of user-friendliness and crisp content, no multimedia support, non-compatibility with their devices etc. You can analyze the training completion time report weekly, fortnightly or monthly. For example, you have set the target that 90% of employees pass a specific course in 30 days. But after one month, only 50% of them complete the task. It indicates that you need to redesign your strategy to achieve the targeted timeline. Also, by tracking the training completion time in LMS, you can identify your top performers and use them as mentors for slow performing learners. 

User Feedback

LMS offers you an opportunity to tap into virtual interaction with your learners by online forums. Tools like an online forum, survey, questionnaires, and polls offer deep insights into your targeted audience. Forums offer an interactive method to measure the satisfaction level of learners while identifying the impact and flaws of your training. For example, in your forum, you get to know that your learners would like to see more interactivity in the training or they want micro learning nuggets to be a part of the program. By considering these inputs, you can personalize their training experience, making it relevant and relatable.

Analytical Report

For the success of the training, your learners must actively participate in your online training course. And to ensure that, you need to determine their engagement level by analyzing the activity report that LMS generates. The report provides data on how your learners are interacting with the training content and how often. It also tells you what kind of content is a hit among the learners so that you can customize your course material accordingly. The participation rate can also help you to gauge the effectiveness of your training and its targeted objectives. For example, you have implemented a new change in your training program. By running the analytical report and tracking test scores, you can measure if the change created the desired impact or not.

You can also use this data to compare the progress of your training quarter basis and apply the positive outcomes in the next quarter. Needless to say that your LMS data puts useful and actionable insights at your fingertips to help your training become more productive.

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I wrote this blog for Shezartech, Mumbai-based eLearning and technology solutions company. 

Plastic Ban: An opportunity to encourage ecological and economic growth| Content Pie

The need for eco-friendly products has never been so important than today when plastic has already choked our cities, oceans, and mountains. This year on World Environment Day, the entire world took a pledge to ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ to combat one of the great environmental challenges that our generation is facing. Continuing the resolution, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh states banned the use of plastics in July while Odisha government has planned to implement the rule from October month. This comprehensive plastic ban also includes disposable cups and plates, cutlery, and packaging. Hence, the products made of natural resources like a leaf, coconut, and wood have caught the attention of everyone these days.

Plastic waste has become a major concern in urban areas and people now are looking for options to replace the plastic cutlery with recyclable products. This rising demand for eco-friendly products has created entrepreneurship opportunities for people in rural and semi-urban areas. To boost small enterprises, many corporates and NGOs are also providing technology and skill development programs that help people in their entrepreneurial journey and build a community of rural entrepreneurs. New Delhi based NGO, ‘Dhriiti – The Courage Within’ is working towards its mission of transforming communities by developing entrepreneurial skills in people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds.

Dhriiti works with entrepreneurs who identify and convert opportunity into sustainable enterprises to enhance the quality of livelihood. The organization nurtures, incubates, and support potential entrepreneurs through its innovative and professional approach. It endeavors to promote entrepreneurship in different forms and build a spirit of entrepreneurship amongst the communities. With its ‘Financial, Social, Ecological (FSE)’ concept, Dhriiti works with aspiring entrepreneurs who can build transformative enterprises to protect the environment and bring a positive change in the society.

The organization understands that rural areas have great potential but people face challenges like limited access to finance, gaps in skills, unfavorable business environment; low financial sustainability, and lack of planning. Dhriiti team aims to meet such challenges and promote small industries by applying modern management and technology tools. The organization is running various skill development and entrepreneurship projects with support from corporates and state governments. As a part of its endeavor for North East India, it has been working on ‘Arecanut Leaf Plate Manufacturing Cluster Development Project’ in Assam.

More than 500 microenterprise units have been set up under this project to make disposable plates and bowls from the sheath of arecanut trees. Till date, the project has trained more than 5000 people and has engaged 7000 families in North East India. The enterprise has created a positive impact on the region’s employability percentage as each unit provides employment to more than 20 rural youths. ‘Tamul Plate Marketing Pvt. Ltd.(TPMPL)’, an institution created under this initiative manages the whole operations in a commercially sustainable manner.

Today, TPMPL markets the high-quality products at the national and international level under the brand name, Arecana. The project has been the most successful program wherein Dhriiti nurtured the entire project for 10 years and handed over operations to the producers’ institution. Going forward, the program has the vision to build a microenterprise value chain worth INR 100 crores in North East by 2020.

Additionally, to further push the growth of eco-friendly industries, Dhriiti is working on its ‘Sal and Siali Leaf Plate Cluster Development’ project supported by Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project (OFSDP), Government of Odisha. The project is aimed towards the development of innovative product designs for high-end urban areas as well as the international market. The project aims to become a people’s institution in next five years boosting the Sal and Siali leaf plate manufacturing in the state. Dhriiti team will be working with Sal leaf plate producers in two blocks of Keonjhar and Rourkela. The project will be amplified further as a full cluster development program in partnership with various public and private bodies.

Needless to say that making an eco-friendly product from leaf and other natural sources not only supports the underprivileged community but also helps in saving the environment and reducing wastage. As the plastic is badly affecting our health and surroundings, the use of eco-friendly products has become more like a necessity than a choice. By adopting sustainable habits and promoting eco-entrepreneurship, we can surely give a gift of health and happiness to our next generation.

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I wrote this article for a New Delhi based NGO, Dhriiti – The Courage Within.

 

 

5 reasons why you should add social learning to your training program | Content Pie

Social media has become an essential part of our life as we are constantly connected with friends, peers, and the world for various purposes. We can gather knowledge in the form of blogs, videos, podcasts while can engage with people via games, discussions, and experiences. Also, this interaction is not limited to just chatting or sharing information; it has also become a learning tool for personal and professional growth. Therefore, many organizations are opting for a learning management system (LMS) that can integrate the social media to make eLearning more engaging for their employees.

An LMS with social media integration not only supports online training goals but also helps in increasing the participation and engagement of the users. Also, the effectiveness of including social media in your eLearning or eTraining program will depend on the fact that how positively your organization supports the use of social media in your work culture. As more people are logging on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, it becomes imperative to customize your LMS and align your training program with social media and analytics.

Your LMS can be more measurable by adding social learning features and analytics to your training and learning program. Here are five reasons that explain how social media integration of an LMS can provide a good eLearning engagement:

Interactive Learning

Social media when connected with LMS allows the admin to create interest-based polls, surveys and discussions to engage learners as well as trainers. As people are constantly connected to their mobile or laptop, they tend to interact more by sharing their common interests. This not only helps to spread the objectives of the eLearning program but also enables close communication among all the learners. This not only enhances the interaction but also helps all stakeholders to share their perspectives.

Measurable Analytics

With the internet and mobile devices, the learning has gone beyond time, demographics, and physical appearance. When your LMS has social media integration, it offers 24×7 accessibility to your employees and encourages self-learning to help them achieve in their daily goals. Also, if the learning program is using an LRS, you can store data about your learner’s experience by analyzing their social media habits. Using these analytics, you can customize your training program and engage your learners to improve their skill sets and boost the productivity.

Content Outreach

As your LMS users are connected online, they share information in real time using various social media channels. They share what they have learned using your LMS and what best practices you are using to deliver an impactful eLearning. This not only boosts the outreach of your content but also increases online visibility, which can potentially enhance your LMS sales. Social network integration also provides you an opportunity to connect with your target audience swiftly and build credibility among them in the most natural way.

Compound Learning

With the integration of social learning, you can the employees to learn things in multiple styles. You can create the variety by using audio, video, infographics formats and distribute the same using social media. By practicing this, learning becomes more interactive and sharable; therefore everyone enjoys the process to learn things quickly. You can also opt for third-party integration like YouTube, podcasts, and mobile app, which can act as a medium to deliver your training via LMS.

User-generated Content

We all love to share our achievements and success with the world, especially on social media. Learners who have got benefitted from your training can share their experience with their peers. This provides an opportunity to use your learner’s feedback as original content and reach out to the potential target audience by posting it on various eLearning industry forums. Additionally, this user-generated content also helps you to organically promote your business, training program, and eLearning courses.

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I wrote this blog for Shezartech, an eLearning and technology solutions company. Link: https://shezartech.com/2018/08/13/5-reasons-why-you-need-an-lms-with-social-media-integration/

 

‘Say it with wit’ – one slogan, many brands | Content Pie

“The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power” – Francis Bacon

Only if I could be funny enough to make this blog humorous, I’d be a happier writer. But it’s true, isn’t it? We are living in the time where no language is louder than wit or sarcasm. Today, comic timing is delivering more results than office timing (bad try :P). The branding has taken a whole new form as many brands are using witty, sarcastic, and clever communication for marketing and promotion.

There is content and then there is wacky content. And dear friends, I’m pretty sure you remember the remarks dripping with sarcasm more than anything. So, in this cosmic world of eternal drools and immortal existence of wit; let’s talk about how brands are using the ‘witgasm’ for their best.

Amul butter never disappoints when it comes to entertaining us with its witty take on cricket, movies, politics, sports, and current events.  The brand says it loud, clear, and witty. This strategy has given the brand a unique identity among marketing folks as well as its target audience. Its witty communication not only engages the audience but also works as a magic wand to sell the product.

When Amul took a dig at Donald Trump’s viral ‘covfefe’ tweet

Let’s talk about Zomato. The brand surely has got a quirky writing and marketing team. Though the brand is controversy’ favorite child, yet it has managed to grab the attention with its social media content and campaigns. It perfectly blends the sarcasm with wit. With its catchy communication, the brand has created huge buzz on all channels – social media, print, and outdoor.

Zomato’s clever take on PNB scam

It’s good to have brands like Durex :P. Though its ads might not find a spot on TV but its content is always spot on. Its communication always have a touch of humor that brings a smile on your face for sure. To tell things with a bit of satire and wit, that too without hurting sentiments is what the brand has mastered on social media.

Durex being Durex

We always love something that brings a smile to our face. Don’t we? Using wit and humor is a smart move as people especially the youth audience like such kind of brand communication. Therefore, more brands are playing the song of sarcasm to strike the right chord with their target audience. Being witty is the new cool and brands are using this tool to sell products and entertain their audience. So what are you waiting for? #Sayitwithwit

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A review of reviews – Sanju movie | Content Pie

My review of reviews by some film critics (and media) who reviewed Sanju.

Fox Star Studios

1. I think Sanjay Dutt should do a press conference and apologize to the media for not being a perfect person and also for existing in this world.

2. He should also file a case against Supreme Court/Bombay Court judges and question their sense and sensibilities that why didn’t they send him for ‘Kaala Paani’ when media and film critics wanted it so badly.

3. He should also call his father using Mahabharat WiFi (as told by BJP minister) and ask that why he acted like a father and tried to save him. No father should do that. Fathers should not help when their sons and daughters are in problem.

4. Sanjay Dutt should also have a one – to – one session with some film critics and say sorry individually. He should also collect scripts from them that perfectly portray his biography.

5. A case should be filed against Raju Hirani as he didn’t satisfy some pseudo-intellects and film critics. When we already knew everything about Sanjay Dutt’s life – his mistakes, drug addiction, affairs, jail term, court decision, then how could Hirani commit this crime of making a normal entertaining movie. It should have been dark and gritty so that we could send it for Oscars. We love ‘Darkest Hour’ though. What a film it was.

5. Sanjay Dutt went to jail, had troubled life but Hirani made this movie humorous. This is not acceptable in a country like India where rape convicts get bail within hours. This movie might erase his history, delete all facts, burn case files, and make him a saint now. Damn! he might win election and become PM. Like current one has an IT cell, he will have a Hirani Cell.

6. Hirani has no rights of freedom of creativity to make a film the way he wants. He should apologize to all the people who watched the movie and clean his image by burning 100000 kg mango wood. He should have sent the script to film critics and get it approved. He deserves life imprisonment, if we consider all these facts.

7.This movie will affect people for so long. Because they don’t have anything important to do or think other than Sanju. Like when they will go to bed, they would think why Hirani showed Sanjay Dutt in good light. He should have killed him or proved him a terrorist in climax, so that we could sleep in peace while ignoring things like rape, lynching, and unemployment.

8. Each individual who watched Sanju should write a review (at least 700 words) and sign a petition saying that from now on, I will watch all movies with critics and media’s perspective. I won’t watch a movie for entertainment, escapism or anything.

9. Ranbir Kapoor should be banned from acting for doing such a fantastic job. How could he play a person who admitted that he was wrong, went to jail, and now he is trying to get back to life.

PS – They are lying that movie is doing good, earning money and appreciation. People are totally hating it. The box office success you are hearing about is a scam.

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Is your website boredom-proof? | Content Pie

“When you pay attention to boredom, it gets unbelievably interesting.” Now, this is an interesting theory. But this is not the case with your website. If your website is not boredom- proof, your audience is going to break up with you soon. Today, a good online image is everything and a website is your new business card. Do you want your card to be dull and boring? No, you want it to be catchy, interesting, and innovative. Your website shall be able to mirror your vision wherein your visitors can see the reflection of your spirit.

An engaging web presence is the first step to conquer the world of online brand building. It is also the most cost effective way to present your game to your audience. It demands no rocket science; all you need is a mix of simple tactics to master the ‘Game of Websites’.

Here are few things that can make your website boredom proof:

Outlook of website:  When a café does not appeal to you, you will skip its coffee. The main page of your website creates the first impression on your audience. The font used in your titles, tag lines, headings, and intro content –all elements together give an eye-pleasing experience to the visitors. Be serious about your business but do not be too serious about your website. Make it fun, appealing, and informative; keeping in mind the needs of your visitors. Choose the layout for your website precisely and apply the same in your content, design, and its adaptability with smartphones and computers.

Up-to-date content: Do you know, what is the most boring WhatsApp status ever? One that says – Hey there! I am using WhatsApp. It does not tell anything besides that a person’s existence. Same way, if your website does not have a fresh and updated content, it drifts away your target audience. A real time content mixed with industry-specific SEO keywords can attract lots of traffic to your website. Keeping your audio, video, and text content updated can help the audience to understand the information better and take action.

Content and design sync: Can you imagine Jai without Veeru? Together they create magic and add lots of fun. Same way, a strong connection between the design and content paves the way for a perfect website. There should be a proper syncing between the layout and the content of the website. If your content and design do not get along well, it will confuse the audiences and they will move to the next tab on their browser. Therefore, easy to locate visual and written communication can add spark to your website.

Language and errors: How do influential people create the large fan following and keep increasing their fan base? They do it by using an effective language. The language on your website should be relevant according to your audience’s need and curiosity. If the language is off the track and does not engage; it will create distrust among your audience. Also, errors must be avoided as grammatical mistakes are a huge turn-off for anyone. Before publishing the content, give it a second look and keep proofreading and editing until your keyboard is on fire.

Detailing: A suit with finest details and polished stitching can turn all heads in your way. It adds class to your style, offering a treat to the eyes of your on-lookers. Same way, the tiniest details on your website matter a lot for the overall styling of your website. Do not forget or ignore small things – whether it is the font of your content or the corner line of the alignment, nothing should be left out. Detailing should be distinctive and perfect as a good looking website speaks a lot about your business and brand.

So dear patrons, write a content that motivates action and create a design that influences behavior. Make you website interesting and let your brand do the talking, dancing, and romancing (may be).

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©ContentPie

5 Destinations In India For A Road Trip This Monsoon | Content Pie

The pleasure of traveling cannot be expressed in words. You can only experience it. Living amazing moments and capturing all the fun bring a special joy to everyone’s life. When it comes to traveling, a road trip is special as it takes your adrenaline rush to next level. So are you the one who watches travel videos and imagines yourself on a road trip with your friends? Well my friend, feelings are mutual. Here are 5 road trip destinations that you can include in your travel list this monsoon:

Bengaluru to Alleppey (via Munnar)

@Discovertours

The adventure begins with this captivating and beautiful road enveloped by lush greenery. A clear sky with huge mountains around you might just be the getaway you need. Connect yourself via Coimbatore to find yourself at the appealing hill station of Munnar. The houseboat experience in the backwaters of Alleppey is an absolute must to complete the trip.

Road trips are a gateway to freedom and unlimited fun. Enjoying the road side view with your favorite people is nothing less than bliss.  

Puri to Konark on NH 203

@life_out_of_a_suitcase

This captivating road in Odisha has the beauty and experience that can put some international locations to shame. This 36 km highway will give birth to the photographer in you and get your camera battery drained as you will not be able to stop. The canopy formed by the trees on both sides of the road, the soft misty breeze, and the obvious idyllic beauty will leave you mesmerized forever.

Bengaluru to Bandipur Forest

@AsimPatel

Take a road trip with your buddies, singing all the way to some refreshing music. There is no better manner of paying your respects to this charming highway. You might spot deer nonchalantly crossing the road. The teak-brown forest is a woody heaven filled with dense green branches to drive in and out of shady glades. The peace of the woods will be soul soothing for the adventurer in you.

Goa to Udupi

How can you talk about road trips and not include Goa and its endless beaches? Long beaches, sea food, and soul-pleasing breeze make the right blend to make your trip worth cherishing. Let the wind whisper in your ears while you bestow your gaze to the far off horizon and watch flaring hues of the sun melting into the sky and coloring the ocean into a divine painting.  Drive along NH66 and explore the historic artifacts of Udupi and capture the awesomeness.

Dudhsagar Falls (60 km from Panaji)

@lifeistheanswer

Were you awestruck too when you saw this magnificent beauty in the movie – Chennai Express? This paradise is called Dudhsagar Falls located on the Mandovi River in the Indian state of Goa. It lies in the southern part of Goa at Mollem National Park and forms the border with Karnataka state. Tumbling down the mountains and drizzling on the rocks; this stupendous waterfall looks like a wall of green satin threaded with silver.

Produced this article for Droom, India’s first and largest online marketplace to buy & sell used cars, bikes, scooters, bicycles, airplanes.

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How to become an Instagram influencer | Content Pie

Thanks to social media (or not), people nowadays have become more comfortable in sharing their thoughts, lifestyle and interests with the online world. Everyone loves to be considered as a pro, an influencer or an expert in their interest areas. The communication, opinion and expressions have taken the shape of words, pictures and videos on social media platforms.

Instagram is one such platform that offers great opportunity for engagement via photos, texts, videos and live stories It has become one of the most engaging social apps for building connections and communities. A well curated Instagram profile can be a great tool to become an influencer and increase your online reach.

 Here are some tips to start with:

1. Make your interest a passion: Your interests play a vital role in highlighting your overall personality. Therefore, create content around something that defines your passion and truly resonates with you. This will help you gain more followers because they always look for interesting and desirable content.
2. Right content speaks volume: Instagram being the popular visual medium, because of its aesthetical aspects like photo, video, and text can play a vital role in boosting your profile as an influencer. There is no fixed rule but always make sure that your posts should be engaging, entertaining and unique in terms of presentation.
3. Quality is the key: As an instagramer and aspiring influencer, it is imperative to maintain a constant flow of quality content. You should always focus on posting valuable content for your viewers. Your content will only trend/influence amongst readers when it is consistent and engaging. Right hashtags, catchy captions, and subtle humour are always appreciated.
4. Mix online with offline: Do not restrict your ideas or posts to the digital  Evolve your profile as a brand and connect with industry people and target audience via offline routes. Attending events, creating engaging activities and meeting fans provide a great leverage in long terms.
5. Engage with your audience: A constant engagement is one of most important aspect to be taken care of as an influencer. Followers are always interested to connect and curious to know more about their favourite Instagram personalities. Replying to their comments and using interactive Instagram features like stories and live streaming takes you closer to your audience.

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Steam away garment wrinkles in seconds | Content Pie

In winters, you feel lazy to get out of your cosy blanket. Needless to say that getting ready and ironing your clothes feels like a big task in chilled mornings. Therefore, a steamer comes so handy as it requires very little setup, effort and garments can be de-wrinkled right on the hanger. INALSA, the leading brand in home appliances category is all set to make the season warm with its newly introduced Handy Steam Garment Steamer.

Handy Steam Garment Steamer heats up in few minutes and unwrinkles your clothes instantly. Just simply hold the garment on an ordinary hanger and you are ready to roll. The steamer also has a water tank and a detachable fabric brush for thicker garments like coats. The brush ensures better steam penetration and a smoother finish.

The easy handling makes the steamer a must have appliances for ‘always-in-hurry’ people. It is safe to use on all fabrics and offers a great solution for delicate fabrics like silk. Priced at Rs. 1995, it comes with 2 years warranty.

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VuROll – India’s 1st influencer online marketplace | Content Pie

In this ever-growing digital world, engaging with influencers and content makers has never been more appealing. Advertisers are engaging buzzing online personalities to create strong brand awareness and reach out to their audience via unique and authentic content.

Indian online influencer community is growing rapidly

However, the influencer marketing industry has its own challenges like discovery, authenticity, effectiveness and metrics that help to establish a successful campaign.

Thus, addressing these challenges, India’s first self-serve online marketplace, VuRoll has been launched to connect advertisers with influencers and content creators via a user-friendly platform.

VuRoll meets these challenges by offering a single platform that unifies all influencer marketing functions and capabilities while offering smart live analytics and social value tools. It has more than 5000+ registered influencers including India’s top & upcoming influencers and creators across categories like education, fashion, food, home decor, health, lifestyle, music, sport, travel and technology to name a few.

VuRoll caters to influencers and content creators across various social media platforms including Blogs, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. The platform’s innovative algorithm offers brands the ability to target the digital influencers relevant to their specific needs and create data points to develop scalable influencer marketing campaigns. Also, advertisers can identify, track, measure campaign metrics and can access the insights in real time to efficiently manage the campaign and achieve their ROI targets.

Headquartered in Gurugram, VuRoll allows the brands to target its audience by their age, demographic, and gender for executing market-specific campaigns. By using its unique interface, brands can target the right set of influencers and content creators in those specific markets by leveraging VuRoll’s Search, Discover, Engage and Analytical tools. The platform enables brands and influencers to efficiently engage the audience while they focus on important measures like metrics, payments and campaign performance.

The end-to-end marketplace not only benefits the influencers and creators community but also brings transparency for brands. Influencers can grab relevant promotion and sponsorship offers from brands and can mutually collaborate for brand promotion, product launch, market buzz and other marketing projects. In addition to its unmatched features,VuRoll has successfully run campaigns for brand like VIVO, Avon, Cosphere and Stylpal among its users.

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©ContentPie

Winter care for your baby | Content Pie

As the mercury drops, parents have to be extra careful about their little ones. Cold and flu are the most common health issues with babies apart from chapped skin and upset tummy. These can be prevented with little preparation in advance and by using the right kind of products. Here are some must have skin and well-being products to keep your baby healthy and happy during winters:

Body Lotion: The winter season might ruin the tender skin of your baby. Body lotion with Parabens free formula and richness of almond or milk are ideal for tender moments of protection and moisturization for baby’s delicate skin. Always make sure that the lotion is non-greasy and quickly absorbed to make baby’s skin wonderfully smooth and soft with every use.

Massage Oil: Newborn has some tender skin properties which needs special care everyday with every massage we give to them. Special massages with good quality parabens free massage oil enriched with high nourishing and moisturising properties of rice bran oil is very beneficial for baby’s delicate skin. Moreover, the massage oil with rice bran formula is non-sticky which leaves the baby’s skin smooth and velvety soft.

Steriliser: Your baby’s immune defences are weak at the time of birth and all that comes into contact with mouth must be clean and sanitised. Teats, soothers, teethers and even small toys that your baby may put into the mouth can cause infection. Therefore, sterilising is advisable for the well-being of the baby. Steriliser is a high convenience product used during winters. Some steriliser uses the properties of steam to rapidly and naturally disinfect and avoid the hassle of boiling cold water again and again in vessel for sterilisation.

Bottle Warmers:  Whether you are breast-feeding or using bottled formula, a certain temperature is required to feed the baby. While breast milk is always ready at the right temperature, the formula milk must be around 37°C. Digital Bottle Warmer warms and defrosts milk and baby food in just a few minutes. It helps to preserve the quality of the milk because as it heats gradually.

Humidifier: Use of ultrasound technology and high frequency vibration system to nebulize tiny water particles in the room to increase humidity level. Humidifier adds much-needed moisture to the air and creates favourable breathing conditions for the baby to sleep comfortably in winters. It produces hot steam, specially designed to use in case of cough and cold to loosen mucus and help your baby to breath comfortably.

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Sparx launches high octane 360-degree marketing campaign – ‘AW 2017’

The brand has launched its new TVC with Bollywood action star, Akshay Kumar

Sparx, the stylish and sporty footwear brand has announced the launch of its brand new marketing campaign ‘AW 2017’ showcasing the power packed TV commercial ‘Add Sparx To Your Life’ starring Akshay Kumar. The TVC is supported with 360-degree marketing campaign, which will sprint across outdoor, digital, print and retail promotions.

TVC Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPheRuR6KWs\

Touching upon the TVC, which starts with visuals wherein few boys confront Akshay and his team on a Futsal ground. As he takes on the challenge, the camera follows some of the most amazing sports skills with a catchy and energetic music in the background. As Akshay takes winning shot and signs off with ‘Add Sparx To Your Life’, the climax captures the expressions of audience as well as the defeated team. Bringing together a high-octane action, the TVC perfectly highlights Sparx’s brand ethos that include attitude, challenge, crossing the limits, energy, youth, sporty and stylishness.

The TV commercial is on air across popular entertainment, youth and news. It focuses on attitude and sportsmanship while innovatively captures the energy, moves and attitude of a super active sportsperson. The high octane marketing campaign has been designed to reinforce last mile connectivity with the end customers.

The ‘AW 2017’ campaign is also running in regional channels like Telugu, Marathi and Kannada for a stronger consumer connect in every corner of the country. Other important touch points like print and digital are being used aggressively to amplify the campaign and generate maximum offline and online buzz in the market.

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Make your baby’s room winter ready with Chicco Humidifier | Content Pie

Dry air is the major cause for so many health problems in babies. From nasal infection to sore throat, dry skin and cracked lips to breathing issues in some cases. Babies stay well in right humidified environment as it maintains the natural functions that protects the mucosa in their nose and offers the best health conditions. To get rid of such issues and balance the right moisture, Chicco has introduced its range of Humidifiers to relieve your baby from winter problems.

A humidifier adds much-needed moisture to the air and creates favorable breathing conditions, allowing your baby to sleep comfortably. In winters, the humidity level can drop and having the right amount of humidity in your home will nurture your baby’s skin and overall health.

INR 4490

Humi Hot Humidifier: The Humi Hot Humidifier creates the correct level of humidity, diffusing healthy bacteria-free steam. It is simple and safe to use. The flow of steam starts within few minutes as soon as the device is switched on. It has a practical essence container to nebulize aromatic and balsamic oils with the steam. Equipped with automatic switch off, it has approximate battery life of 7 hours.

 

INR 4900

 

Humi Fresh Cold Humidifier: The Cold Humidifier Humi Fresh uses ultrasound technology and high frequency vibration system to nebulize tiny water particles in the room to increase humidity level. It is very quiet, does not disturb sleeping baby. Moreover, it’s safe for baby’s room as there is no risk of getting burnt from hot steam. It’s an excellent solution for both hot and dry climate.It comes with practical essence container that can nebulize aromatic and balsamic oils along with water.

Humi Ambient Lukewarm Steam Humidifier: Humi Ambient is the new lukewarm

INR 4490

steam humidifier with a compact harmonious design that ensures daily well-being and a healthy environment for the whole family. The bacteria-free steam helps re-establish the correct level of humidity in heated environment or in rooms with air conditioning, preventing dry air from forming. It has a practical essence container to nebulize aromatic and balsamic oils with the steam.

 

 

Visit – http://www.chicco.in/chicco-products/wellbeing-and-protection/humidifiers.html

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Make your honeymoon a lavish affair at The Parisian Macao

Honeymoon is the most romantic time. It sets the scene for your first romantic getaway as newlywed couple. It is the time when you make the most of your relationship by taking time to unwind and just enjoy each other’s company.

While destinations are many, the purpose remains the same – to create memories that will last a lifetime. Macao is such a destination that provides the perfect backdrop for a honeymoon escape. Set against UNESCO World Heritage historical sites, along with a wide array of international and local cuisine, spectacular entertainment and duty-free shopping, Macao is an ideal choice for those lovely moments.

Macau is located on the western side of the Pearl River Delta and with a mix of Portuguese and Chinese culture and offers easy access with an international airport or a quick ferry ride from Hong Kong. The region is famous for its casinos, nightlife, shopping and local cuisine. Macau has  plenty of historical, romantic, and exciting places to delight couples and one of the most attractive destinations is The Parisian Macao. The newly opened integrated resort is home to luxury guestrooms and suites, attractions, international dining, activities that are ideal for honeymooners.

Inspired by the magic and wonder of the romantic city of Paris, the hotel features a stunning half-size replica of the Eiffel tower. So if you have missed the opportunity to go to Paris for your honeymoon, you can experience everything Paris has to offer at The Parisian Macao. The hotels’ spectacular architecture and decor are meticulously reminiscent of many of Paris’s famous landscapes.

Be prepared for lavishness, as the resort offers a fully integrated luxury spa facility to give you a perfect mind and body relaxation for your honeymoon adventure. Shoppes at Parisian is a shopper’s paradise with over 150 duty-free shops to indulge in some retail therapy, all linked to another 700 shops across Sands Resorts Macao.

All the luxury brands that you have come to know plus many lifestyle and leading fashion names are there to enjoy.   When it comes time to relax the French-style sidewalk bistros and cafes give the feel of a traditional Parisian lifestyle. Sit, relax and relish the flavor of the authentic local cuisine along with fine French delicacies.

The Parisian Macao hotel has 1,200-seat, purpose-built state-of-the-art theatre which offers the very best in international entertainment from around the world. Honeymooners can take in one of the many  live music concerts or  Broadway Theatre and Vegas-style shows that are playing at the time.

With all this on offer, why would you want to leave the resort!

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Lladró Presents Its New Limited Edition Lord Ganesha

Lladró, the world famous Spanish brand known for its high quality porcelain products, has introduced its meticulously crafted Lord Ganesha sculpture for art collectors in India. The limited edition Lord Ganesha includes only 1800 units and is part of the brand’s festive collection for Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali.

Fascinated by the extent of His iconography, Lladró expert artist, Rosa Belenguer gave life to the most beloved Hindu God in Live Painting events held in Gurugram, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai.

The Lord Ganesha idol captures Lladró’s unmistakable smooth and stylish approach to achieving perfection. At the same time, it is decorated with those particular colors which are distinctive, traditional symbols of the millenary Hindu philosophy. Ganesha’s attributes are finely captured and defined with infinite details.The abundance of decoration embraces everything from the crown to the bracelets as well as the borders and the 250 handmade flowers which have been shaped petal by petal to decorate the garland.

In front of a live audience, Rosa instilled life in the exquisite Lord Ganesha sculpture through a mixture of colours and meticulous artisan-ship by decorating it with those particular colours, which are distinctive, traditional symbols of the millenary Hindu philosophy. At the end of demonstration, she finely captured Ganesha’s attributes with infinite details.

Artist at work

Symbolism and craftsmanship are masterfully combined in the piece to present the divinity of wisdom, prosperity, knowledge and new beginnings. Only a few collectors, with a passion for art or an investment perspective will own one of these porcelain treasures.

Each sculpture is priced at INR 4.50 lakhs.

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A World of Excitement and Opportunity at Sands Resorts Macao

Sands Resorts Macao recently hosted an event themed “A Night to Shine” in New Delhi to introduce the integrated resort’s newest 2017 offerings to travel industry partners, meeting organisers and the media.

 

 

 

 

With the opening of The Parisian Macao last year, the company’s vision for Sands Resorts Macao was completed. Inspired by the famed ‘City of Light’, The Parisian Macao offers a full array of integrated facilities including approximately 3,000 guestrooms and suites, many with spectacular views of the Eiffel Tower.

The integrated resorts offer seven world-class hotel brands, 150 dining options, international entertainment, stunning meeting space and dynamic new offerings.

Diwali package at Sands Resorts Macao

Sands Resorts Macao has launched a Diwali package allowing guests to tailor-make a dream break at one of four award-winning hotels, including The Venetian Macao; The Parisian Macao; Conrad Macao, Cotai Central; or Holiday Inn Macao Cotai Central.

The offer includes an array of great entertainment including the spectacular China Show – Monkey King and THRILLER LIVE, alongside wonderful dining and retail opportunities. The Diwali package is available for stays between Sept. 15 and Nov. 30, 2017.

Exciting, newly introduced entertainment includes:

China Show – Monkey King 

The spectacular China Show – Monkey King by Beijing Hua Yan Group has arrived at the new 1,700-seat Sands Cotai Theatre at Sands Cotai Central. The large-scale fantasy stage play is based on the epic Tang Dynasty story of the famous monk Xuan Zang, better known as “A Journey to the West”, and regarded as one of the great Chinese legends. The show combines dance, acrobatics, drama, martial arts, magic, 3D effects, LED projections, video mapping and full surround sound, together with creative lighting, choreography, music and spectacular costumes.

Planet J

The latest addition to Sands Resorts Macao’s wide variety of family-friendly offerings is the exciting Planet J, Macao’s first ever live-action, role playing theme park. With eight exquisitely designed zones and more than 200 game installations across 100,000 square feet, Planet J provides an endless series of magical rescue missions for children of all ages.

THRILLER LIVE

Back to The Parisian Macao by popular demand from now until Sept. 3, 2017 is the sensational stage show THRILLER LIVE, a huge success when launched as the debut act at The Parisian Theatre. Coming directly from London’s West End, THRILLER LIVE features the global hits and dance moves of music legend Michael Jackson.

The Golden Peacock

Guests can savour the finest selection of authentic Indian cuisine at Michelin starred The Golden Peacock at The Venetian Macao. All dishes are made from scratch using ingredients imported directly from India. The cuisine covers a comprehensive range of regional specialities and is prepared by a team of chefs from throughout India, led by Kerala-native Chef Justin Paul.

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Bangalore Open Air 2017: The best of heavy metal music in India

The metal music culture in India is growing rapidly with top international bands making their way to the country. Adding to this culture, ‘Bangalore Open Air’ has earned a stature of one of the biggest and most innovative metal festivals in Indian subcontinent.

Conceptualized by Salman U. Syed who previously worked on popular ‘Wacken Open Air Festival’, today,  BOA is THE metal festival that Indian metal lovers can proudly call their own.

The festival has managed to forge a collaboration with most legendary and cutting edge metal acts like German thrash titans KREATOR, Destruction, legendary heavy metal stalwarts, Iced Earth and extreme metal luminaries like Napalm Death and Vader.

KREATOR

Iced Earth

 

 

 

 

 

BOA 2017 is literally kicking things into overdrive with tech-thrash legends, Coroner and the inimitable death metal masters, Nile all making their way to India for the first time ever. The local talent is also represented in the form of Kryptos and Speedtrip along with the upcoming sci-fi death metal act, Galaxy Crusher from Bangalore.

Nile

With G-Shock powering the festival, metalheads all over the country are going to enjoy an unforgettable metal music experience.

 

 

 

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DRM: A Prerequisite for OTT Platforms

In the present time, when we all are running for time, we still expect entertainment and information to follow us wherever we go. This has increased business opportunities for the digital biggies but at the same time it has increased their problems. Platforms like OTT (Over-the-top) are independently supporting broadcasting and technology business for providing standalone products to the consumers including audio, video and other media that can be transmitted through internet.

Since the OTT platforms are supported by internet to reach their audience on any device and at any place, it makes them equally prone to digital piracy and copyright infringement. Many of the OTT platforms, instead of curating their content, believes in having created their content as it helps them for increased popularity and engagement of the viewers. More the interesting content and compatibility is available on device, more are the chances of achieving the large users. All this accumulates to have bigger problems for the platform owners as they are constantly under pressure for protecting the content from piracy. Now DRM or Digital Rights Management is that one thing that serves these platform owners as the savior.

With the advancements in DRM, the OTT platform owners are little relieved. As the DRM helps them to have complete control over technologies that are used by device manufacturers, publishers, internet browsers, copyright holders and individuals to have the use of digital content limited. If we are getting smarter with technologies, the DRM are getting much smarter with their hands-on the growth of digital media and analog/digital conversion technologies.

So now, when we have enough knowledge of what exactly DRM is, let us understand how it works. With the OTT platforms that are moving progressively towards the fragmented and complex offerings, DRM solutions are evolving every moment towards custom-tailored systems for different devices and browsers. The DRM Platforms are used for uploading, only after you have created or requested encryption key from the DRM providers. It is vital enough for the operators to first decide, which solution is right and profitable for their business.

Since, the DRM changes for web browsers, it is important for the OTT providers to know that their content will not run, if it is protected by DRM technology. Hence, it is imperative for them to know that their content is designed in a way to support all the important DRM formats. This will give an optimally good viewing experience to their consumers and will also protect their content from being copied or pirated.

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Percept One to manage Asian Athletics Championship (AAC) 2017

Percept One has won the event management mandate of the 22^nd Asian Athletics Championships (AAC) 2017. The agency has alongside won the mandate for creative, activation and PR for the AAC. Organised by Asian Athletics Association (AAA), Asia’s flagship sports event is scheduled to be held between July 6 – 9, 2017 at Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

Nearly 1000 participants from 45 countries are expected to take part in the tournament. Percept One will be in-charge of creating and overseeing the complete branding, radio and television advertising, 30-city road show, press conferences and media management,  and then, the complete on-ground execution of the AAC.

“To have the opportunity of curating and creating an international sporting event in one of the most historically endowed cities of the country is a privilege, “ said CEO, Percept One, Nupur Mahajan. “Working for the nation is an honour, brings as it does that sense of purpose we are all, always seeking.”

For Percept One, AAC will add another feather in its portfolio of large format sporting events including Common Wealth Games, Champions Tennis League, Lusofonia Games Goa, National Games Kerala, WWE, FC Goa Launch and Sahara Pune Warriors Launch, among others.

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Snapchat and Instagram roll out new updates | Content Pie

Snapchat and Instagram today rolled out new updates for their respective users. While Snapchat introduced Custom Stories, a new form of Group Story for selective friends, Instagram has added new Archive feature to allow users archive their posts.

Snapchat: Users can create a Custom Story and can decide who can add to it and who can view. Tap the ‘Creat Story’ icon in the top right corner of the main Story page.

The new Snapchat design makes big events, trips, occassions more easier to share. Users will now be able to create global and geofenced stories with the friends of their choice. Users can contribute to as many custom Stories as they like, but they can only create three Custom Stories at a time.

Instagram: Only users can see their Archive posts. The option can be accessed by tappingon the : button in the top right corner of a post.

The new Instagram update lets users hide any of their posts from everyone else, but keeps them safe for them to look at in private or restore to visibility. It refrains them from deleting the posts that didn’t perform well but are close to their heart and memories.

Continuing its copy-paste nature, Instagram is also launching its Snapchat-like location and hashtag based Stories. For example, if a user in Delhi tags a photo or video with the “Delhi” location, it would appear in a series of location stories from other users who used the same tag.

Since all Instagram stories are Facebook stories and all Snapchat Stories are Messenger stories and – vice versa, social media now has become a pie of same ingredients with different tastes.

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One Tree, Many Generations | Content Pie

LG Electronics India recently celebrated its 20th anniversary by rolling out a massive plantation drive across the country. In Gurugram, the brand  planted trees in association with GEMS Modern Academy school. The unique initiative was launched in 42 cities wherein 20,000+ trees were planted in collaboration with various NGO’S, organisations, government associations, schools and colleges.

On this ocassion, Mrs. Punam Singhal, Principal, GEMS Modern Academy, Gurugram said, “The school is committed towards making Gurugram a greener city. For this, we have made many endeavours like putting tree guards, distributing Tulsi plants and planting trees across the city.”

Commenting on this initiative, Ashutosh pant – Regional Business head-Haryana & Rajasthan, said. “LG has been working closely on the vision of energy conservation and has been taking proactive steps for the same. This tree-plantation drive is an initiative towards keeping the environment clean and green for next generations.”

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Rejuvenate your summer style with Casio SHEEN Rose Gold watches

Rose Gold is the talk of the town in women’s style world. The trend has now taken over almost every style category including watches, shades, bags, smartphones and jewelry.

Adding an oomph to this sparkling trend, Casio has introduced its SHEEN collection of Rosanne watches for fashionable and dynamic women.

SHEEN Rosanne collection is for women who are looking for a timepiece that is stylish and elegant and goes with casual and formal attires.  The stunning watches come with Swarovski Elements on bezel and Rose gold ion plated bezel, which gives a niche shimmery look. Inside the dial are the Sparkling Swarovski crystals as the hour-markers, which give more authentic appearance. 3 Dials are there to indicates Date, Day and 24hour, making it the perfect timepiece for a go-getter woman.

Price- Rs 10,995/-

Rosanne timepieces compliment your chic look with 50 meters water resistant feature to make it ideal to wear at anywhere and anytime. The series is inspired by ‘Mother of pearl’ dial, which is made of sea shells giving it a classic niche look. It is ideal for those lively women who work and believe in maintaining their persona with elegance. So, wait no longer and rejuvenate your summer style with the new Rosanne watches.

The new SHEEN collection is available at your nearest exclusive Casio showrooms, leading modern retail stores, and on official leading online partners.

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‘Flite’ takes off with Shahid Kapoor and Shruti Haasan | Content Pie

Relaxo Footwears Ltd., India’s leading footwear company has signed Bollywood actors Shahid Kapoor and Shruti Haasan as brand ambassadors for its colourful and trendy brand, ‘Flite’.

Flite has recently nominated as the ‘Most Attractive Footwear Brand’ in India. Signifying a modern footwear brand with mass appeal, Flite is leveraging its brand equity and market understanding to expand its offerings. Consumers can choose different designs and colours to carry a trendy look for semi-formal occasions like shopping spree or hangout.

Gaurav Dua, Director, Relaxo Footwear Ltd. says” We are excited to have Shahid and Shruti on board as our new brand ambassadors for Flite. Both stars stand for modernity, freshness, self-confidence, elegance and spontaneity; everything that Flite conveys as a new-age footwear brand.”

Image Source: Facebook- Shahid Kapoor and Shruti Haasan

Shahid Kapoor says“Flite is comfortable, stylish and trendy. It has everything that today’s youth seek.​ ​For me, Flite is a great brand to be associated with. I am happy to be on​ ​board”.

Shruti Haasan says, “Fashion is a form of personal expression for everyone and that is what guides our style choices. I am happy to be the face of a brand that has such a vibrant yet real youth connect.”

The new partnership will be supported by a high-octane, multi-media campaign beginning from May 2017. Besides that, the new brand ambassadors will be actively involved in a host of innovative marketing and customer experience initiatives to be rolled out by Flite.

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G-Shock adds rugged look to G-STEEL with classy leather band

Toughness is indefinable; it can be anything from rugged and robust to unparalleled physical strength. For people who are classy with their choice and tough with their persona, toughness is being completely comfortable in their own skin. Therefore, mixing the classiness of leather with toughness of metal, G-shock has launched its new G-STEEL watches with refined leather band for a rugged and mature look.

GST-S120L-1BDR……………………….. GST-S120L-1ADR……………………………….GST-S130L-1ADR

Price:
GST-S120L-1ADR – Rs. 15,995
GST-S120L-1BDR – Rs. 15,995
GST-S130L-1ADR – Rs. 14,995

Keeping in mind the need of today’s self-aware men, G-Shock brings trendy G-Steel watches including GST-S120L-1ADR, GST-S120L-1BDR and GST-S130L-1ADR watches for a refined demeanor and an elevated sense of style.The new G-STEEL wacthes are available in three different color variants including Black & Blue, Grey & Brown and Golden & Black, allowing customers to choose the one according to their persona.

With exquisite features like Tough Solar, Double LED light and World Time for 48 cities, the G-STEEL comes with 200-meter water resistance capacity and 1/100-second stopwatch with different measuring mode including elapsed time, split time, 1^st-2^ndplace times. Also, it supports five daily alarms, full auto calendar along with the Hourly Signals.

The new G-STEEL watches are available at your nearest exclusive Casio showrooms, leading modern retail stores, and also on official leading online partners.

Visit:

http://www.casio-intl.com/asia/en/wat/g_shock/g-steel/

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Lladró’s special figurines for every emotion of your Mom

Mothers, we love them. As a support, they are with us our whole lives, act as our biggest fans; see our greatness before we even know how to confidently move one foot before the other. Throughout our lives, our mothers shower us with gifts of love, attention, and care.

The emotions that all moms go through are precious and cannot be expressed in words. So to capture these moments and emotions as art, Lladró is offering a special Mother’s Day collection to put a smile on your Mom’s face and re-live some precious moments of your childhood.

Mommy’s Little Girl

Show your lovely mom how awesome she is and get her some special and charming presents on this special day. Lladró has put together a variety of beautiful figurines of mother portraying different emotions and expressions. Visit Lladró’s nearest store and make this day special for the special person of your life.

Stores:

Delhi – G-8, Ground floor, Select City Mall, Saket
Gurgaon – G-72/73, Ground Floor, Ambience Mall, Gurgaon
Mumbai – 42, Ground floor, Atria Millennium Mall, Worli
Bangalore – 215, 2nd floor, UB City, 24 Vittal Mallaya Road
Chennai – 101, 1st floor, Bergamo Mall, KNK Road, Nungamkkam
Kolkata – S-011, ground floor, city Mall, Prince Anwar Shah Road

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Witlinger is #NowRolling at Delhi Food Truck Festival

Witlinger, one of the fastest growing and most authentic craft beer brands is rapidly catching the attention of beer lovers in India. After the successful launch of its unique initiative #NowRolling and #Witparty, the brand has taken another step by engaging with Delhi Food Truck Festival. The two-day event will be taking place at JLN Stadium, New Delhi starting from 14^th-15^th April 2017.

Witlinger, the Official Pouring Partner of the festival endeavours to create a larger-than-life experience for its customers through youth-centric initiatives. Brand will be a part of various experiential activities like Beer Pong game, rain dance concert and many more.

Reaching out to beer loving audience, Witlinger has created this partnership with ‘Delhi Food Truck Festival’ to create awareness on craft beer taste and enhance the beer drinking experience.

Delhi Food Truck Festival would be an extravaganza of a two days event for visitors to relish and indulge in the local, national and international cuisines served by the Top Food Trucks in Delhi-NCR.

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Roll & Rock with Witlinger’s #NowRolling Campaign | Content Pie

India’s first craft beer brand also introduces its ‘Witparty’ concept for beer lovers in India

Creating awareness about craft beer and educating the beer community on international drinking trends, India’s first craft beer brand, Witlinger has unveiled its new innovative campaign- #NowRolling. The brand has also introduced ‘Witparty’, a fresh concept wherein end users get a chance to organize their own party sponsored by the brand.

#NowRolling campaign is first-of-its-kind concept in India conceptualized around educating and generating awareness on beer drinking habits to create an authentic experience of crafted beers.  The campaign aims to target the beer lovers with interesting awareness drive around craft beer drinking experience. The trained staff and beer experts of Witlinger will take the consumers’ experience to whole new level with tips on pouring, drinking, and enjoying the best of craft beer.

‘Witparty’ is conceptualized to target the beer lovers as brand advocates and offer them the zesty flavor of Witlinger. The Wheat Ale beer is created with a sole idea of providing the Indian consumers with varied and premium quality craft beer. It is cloudy and partially filtered and has fruity flavors making it easy to drink beer any time of the day. It is brewed with mix of wheat & malt and also contains yeast, which should be evenly distributed throughout the beer by gently rolling the bottle back and forth before opening to pour.

For more info, visit Witlinger’s  Facebook page.

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G-Shock introduces new ‘VandeMataram’ limited watch collection

The brand celebrates Indianness with new G-Shock GA-110GB this Republic Day.

India is composed of languages and cultures of different types but there are some common sentiments that tie all of us together. Slogans like ‘VandeMataram’ are strong sentiments that have played a significant role in keeping the love for our country alive. Honoring such unconditional love for the nation with its philosophy of ‘Creativity and Contribution’, Casio India has introduced new G-Shock Republic Day limited watch collection for young India this. The watch signifies bold and rebellious attitude of today’s Indian youth who wants to conquer the world while staying connected to their roots.

The new G-Shock GA-110GB comes with ‘VandeMataram’ slogan imprinted in Hindi on Resin band, which symbolizes the true essence of Republic Day and ignites the sense of independence in every youth of the nation. Complementing the slogan, there is a Fighter Jet symbol that represents G-Shock’s attitude towards reaching every height and conquering every challenge. It also features the finest printing of letters ‘IND’ on end side of band to bring an Indian feel and appeal.

While the sturdy timepiece salutes the absolute toughness and futuristic outlook of Indian youth, it comes with amazing features to take care of your daily lifestyle needs. Protected with the Mineral Glass dial, it is water resistance up to 200-meter, featuring a bright LED light to use it at anytime and anywhere. Additionally, the watch is capable of showing the world time, countdown timer, and 5 daily alarms with Full auto-calendar (up to year 2099).

The limited-edition watch is available at an attractive price of Rs. 9795/-.

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Dual-Country Programme: the new B-School trend | Content Pie

Dual-Country Programme: Grooming Local Talent to Create Global Business Leaders

In a growing inter-connected world, business processes have become synchronised to bring out focused results and sustainable business values. Today, the greater need is to groom global business leaders who can lead international businesses towards their true potential. Leaders who can transcend the precincts of cultures, nationality and traditions are considered valuable entities by global businesses and their value is equated in the proverbial scales of gold.

Today, international businesses demand managers with a global outlook who can take the reins of constantly changing business environments. However, unfortunately, the traditional pedagogy practices are still not realigned to highly dynamic business needs of today. From conventional teaching methods to rigid training modules, the young business minds are still being developed one dimensionally that leads to a middling crop of business administrators who fail to get traction in global put-cases.

Herein, looking at the growing demands for international business leaders with an aptitude to handle global challenges, IMT Ghaziabad – India’s premier B-School has devised its international grade Dual-Country Programme (DCP). This programme is attuned to the emergent global management needs and provides an essential skill-set to future managers to make them adept at applying the imbibed skills in a real-time global work environment.

Keeping true to the motto of “Local Depth, Global Breadth”, the Dual-Country Programme makes the students adaptable to different work cultures and equips them to perform under diverse challenging work environments. Practiced at the Dubai Campus of IMT, the Dual-Country Programme offers students  an inimitable opportunity to immerse in the international market and gain experience. Building up a global mindset, the IMT-Dubai campus lays a stable foundation that is strengthened by fusing together eminent faculty, steadfast students and a competitive learning environment that results in academic excellence.

The exposure that students get in the programme helps them gain critical insights into the working of multi-national organizations, while making them understand the global work culture better. It develops a global mindset that promises them much confident and smartness to live a good life. That goes to show that the best of the management students choose the Dual-Country Programme to carve out a niche for themselves and cast their names in the hallmarks of international business.

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Relaxo announces new future ready brand identity for young India

the leading footwear brand introduces new logo that reflects its aspirations to look young, contemporary and stylish

Welcoming 2017 with rejuvenated energy and styles, Relaxo Footwears Ltd., India’s leading footwear brand has announced its new brand identity by imbibing the wave of positive transformation within its dynamic core. Taking a futuristic step towards progress, the brand new logo reflects the trust and legacy of Relaxo along with the changing needs of the young Indian consumers.

The logo reflects optimism on how Relaxo wants to be perceived in the future. The fresh look carries the hint of existing logo as well as highlights the future ready approach of the brand. The refreshed palette of Berry Blue and Sunny Yellow symbolizes transformation, optimism and positive growth of brand. With its new look, Relaxo is all geared up to meet the quality and choice expectations of the trendsetting young India.

The new brand identity represents brand’s commitment of building successful business relationships and delivering quality products to the ever evolving customers. It signifies young, contemporary and stylish approach that reflects brand’s personality and incorporates its rich heritage.

Relaxo brings a fine combination of comfort, style, and workmanship under its popular brands including Sparx, Bahamas, Flite and Schoolmate, which are endorsed by top Bollywood stars like Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Shahid Kapoor and Shruti Hasaan.

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Top 5 Trendsetting Watches by G-Shock in 2016 | Content Pie

Styles keep changing with the time and each year we see new trends influencing the taste and choice of high-on-trend consumers. Watch is one category that sets new trends every year and keeps the market abuzz with new designs, style and innovations. The name G-Shock comes in mind at first when we talk about the trendsetter in every culture including the glamorous runway look to the everyday street style.

G-Shock represents a youthful culture and the core philosophy of product innovation is toughness and attitude. The high-on-style watches are unique in design features and colors and can be paired with a variety of attires as a fashion accessory. G-Shock is one such brand which has reinvented your closet over the years with its variety of stylish and tough watches.

G-Shock GWG-1000

The grand G-Shock collection has always been a treat for watch lovers who devotedly follow brand’s unique designs, pattern and concepts. This is the reason that G-Shock culture finds its presence in varied lifestyles and personas including professionals, geeks, travelers, fashion aficionado, tech lovers, adventurers, students, and celebrities.

As we bid adieu to this year, here is the list of top 5 trendsetting watches by G-Shock, which set new trends in 2016:

GWG-1000 and GG-1000 Mudmaster

Continuing its trend of designing tough and stylish watches, Casio introduced G-Shock Mudmaster GWG-1000 and GG-1000 in its Mudmaster series. The watches are engineered for people who seek to challenge the ordinary and perform under the harshest of conditions. Featuring Triple Sensor and mud resist construction, the magnificent timepieces offers a precise measurement of direction, barometric pressure, and temperature information. While the Mud-Resist construction ensures the ruggedness of the time piece, the in-built Wave Ceptor technology automatically adjusts the time based on time signal reception in the region.

G-Steel Series

G-Shock set a new standard for sturdiness and dynamic design with its G-Steel series of watches. The exceptionally crafted timepieces offer outstanding design flexibility with its ‘layer guard structure’ that boasts a double-layer bezel combining resin and metal. The watches feature an exquisite bezel made of metal in the upper layer, and resin in the lower layer delivering the hard beauty of metal, creating a bold style statement. With a combination of analogue and digital displays, the brilliant-looking watches come with sturdy offers excellent functionality and readability.

Camouflage Series

Camouflage has always been a unique style statement and very few brands have experimented with this trend in watch segments. Casio’s stunning camouflage series became an instant hit among wearers because of its perfect casual and sporty look. The GA-100CM and GA-100MM watches offers a refined looks and clean aesthetic, which highlight different patterns. The series sports a new case design and features variety of camouflage patterns, making these watches perfectly suited to today’s street fashion scene.

GA-400GB

From super-tough G-SHOCK comes a new collection of GA-400 with a large rotary switch for intuitive operation. The stunning looking watch is accented in bronze to create a hip-hop artist or b-boy fashion motif. Available in black & gold and rose gold combinations on case, band and face, the GA-400GB comes with a boldly cool design for a perfect street style.

G’Mix GBA-400

For music lovers, Casio’s G’Mix GBA – 400 offers a new world of excitement with latest technologies and features. It comes with Bluetooth® SMART for smartphone linkage which enables the watch and a phone to link. Once linked, the watch takes you a musical ride as it works as a remote control to change and manage your favorite tracks. The new G’MIX music app provides a new level of personalization to music playback with song display, volume controls and adjusts sound attributes as per your choice.

Visit http://www.casio-intl.com/in/en/ for more information on products and price.

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10 Reasons Why a Mentor at Work is Important | Content Pie

Master Yoda from Star Wars

Life Experience: To make you understand the life goals, a mentor gives you the benefit of his perspective and experience that can create diverse opportunities for you to grow in your career journey.

Support and Advice: A mentor helps you to gain confidence from your success and hold you up in your failures by providing support and advice and developing a leadership quality.

Problem Solving: Sometimes you may put off answering some questions because you are just avoiding the short-term pain. Your mentor has no problem asking those hard questions and actually prompting you to start doing something about those questions.

Accomplish Life Goals: A mentor can help you look at situations in new ways. He helps to set your life goals and ensure that you do not lose focus and achieve your them.

Learn To Reflect: Everyone needs positive energy to move forward in his or her career especially when you are expected to learn from your mistakes. A mentor will let you open up and reflect on things at a level that you have never seen before.

Networking: A mentor can help expand your network of contacts and business acquaintances. A mentor can open doors within your company, in other companies or onto a board.

Accountability: A mentor brings accountability and makes you fall into the habit of holding yourself accountable for completing your action items. The excitement of completing tasks and seeing the results motivates you even more to strive for achievements you previously thought were impossible.

Career Analyst: A mentor can be a great sounding board for all issues – whether you are having difficulty with your immediate supervisor, an ethical dilemma, or need advice on how to tackle a new project or ask for a raise.

Inspiration: A mentor whose work you admire can be a strong inspiration. You are responsible for your own learning and by seeking a mentor, you are creating an opportunity to grow and be successful.

Work Life Balance: Being in business and corporate world, chances are that you may be neglecting several other parts of your life. Your mentor helps you to assure a good way of living a more balanced life.

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How To Write Press Release For An Internal Workshop | Content Pie

AUTOLOCO WORKSHOP: DRIVING THE POWER OF ONE

Percept One successfully completed the first of the many – an interactive workshop on the Automobile industry across Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and lastly, New Delhi. It was moderated by Aritreyee Chaudhuri, Sr. Manager Strategy, Percept/H, Bangalore. Participants from all corridors of Percept One came together to learn whilst indulging in a Percept One mandate, fun.

This initiative needs to be recognised as a first step towards realising the vision of Percept One. Workshops help bring teams together in an environment that is more encouraging. In addition to helping attendees learn further on a particular domain, workshops enable collaboration minus hierarchical limitations. Limited as all work spaces get by the client universe and the focus on the immediate and dare one say, numbers – workshops provide an outlet to channelise, or even, reignite creative thinking. By encouraging participation, these sessions often bring new talent to the fore. Even as they do much to get teams to recognise each other’s strengths.

Nupur Mahajan, Chief Executive Officer, Percept One, said, “Such initiatives have been envisioned to accelerate our learning abilities and ensure Percept One is rooted in growth. Learning must never stop, and at Percept One, we are always looking for new ways to expand our horizons as also bring teams closer in the process. There is an entire calendar of workshops planned and we will all keep learning and keep growing. Thank you all for your participation and enthusiasm.”

AutoLoco presented a creative showcase of most popular national and international commercials and their case studies. The session concluded with a brainstorming exercise where participants were divided as teams and had to crack a big campaign idea for a car brand. Fun ensued, as did learning.

Aritreyee Chaudhuri said, “Formulating and running AutoLoco helped me look beyond the usual work that we do for Toyota in Bangalore. It brought out interesting ideas that were a result of cross-discipline collaboration. Today, I stand empowered as I know much talent exists right at my work place.”

Credits:

Moderator : Aritreyee Chaudhuri

Coordinators : Manjari Gupta and Shampa Maitra

Organiser : Sejal Shah and team HR

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How to write problem specific content – Samples| Content Pie

Sky’s the limit but when it comes to digital content, you need to play around limits only. While Twitter gives the liberty of 140 characters, the app designing makes it more complicated for a content person. App content is all about – express more, write less. So how to win the game when you have to play around limited characters?

Here are some examples:

Scenario: No search result page 
Characters: 30
Solution: 
- Well, it happens. Let’s try again
- Oops! No results for this query
- Try again with right keyword

Scenario: Page taking longer to load 
Characters: 30
Solution: 
- Hang on! We are just reaching there
- Sleepy server is waking up slowly
- High five for your patience!

Scenario: Payment failed 
Characters: 30
Solution: 
- Hold on! We are working on it
- Sorry Patron. Let’s try again
- We can make it work. Try again

Scenario: You received credits from a friend 
Characters: 20
Solution: 
- Sam gives you $5 credit
- Enjoy your $10 credits
- $5 credits. Lucky you!

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Numero Uno becomes style partner of ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’

Bringing life to the season style, India’ most fashionable denim brand, Numero Uno Jeanswear has become the style partner of upcoming movie ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ starring Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The brand has launched its new AW’16 collection inspired by the film directed by Karan Johar.

Promoting its exclusive collection, the brand is running a festive campaign wherein 10 winners will get a chance to meet Ranbir Kapoor. Customers can check out Numero Uno’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/numerounojeanswear) to participate in the contest.

Image Credit: Numero Uno Jeanswear, Facebook Page

To highlight this campaign, the brand has also introduced a 30 sec co-branded TVC with Ranbir Kapoor and Dharma Productions. The TVC brings alive the spirit of festivity while celebrating love, friendship and life in line up to the film’s music, lively characters and stylish outlook.

Offering a great mix of emotions like love, romance and friendship, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is high on style and serves a higher purpose of creating a unique style statement for individuals. Numero Uno’s collection comprises Ranbir’s must-have cool outfits like colorful t-shirts, stylish denim shirts, comfortable yet classy denims and trendy casual wear. Giving an autumn winter feel to the styles, the collection is dominated by bright solids, stripes and a mix of glamorous prints.

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India’s first craft beer ‘Witlinger’ now comes to Goa

Kaama Impex Pvt. Ltd. has launched India’s first craft beer ‘Witlinger’ in Goa to offer a real and honest craft-beer experience to beer lovers. The New Delhi-based alco-beverage venture, Witlinger Beer brings United Kingdom’s 130-year old brewing legacy to India with its unique category of wheat beer. The brand has also introduced its first-of-its-kind Beer Culture Outlet ‘Wit Bar by Witlinger’ in Goa to offer premium quality beer served with the yummiest pub food.

The company is aggressively expanding its market reach and plans to capture 80% of the premium beer market in Goa in next 3 months. As the peak season has already been started, the brand targets to do total 30,000 cases by March 2017 in Goa. Witlinger is the most sold Wheat Beer in Delhi and the company aims to repeat the same success in Goa market. To enhance the celebration and create a culture of quality beers and amazing food, the ‘Wit Bar by Witlinger’ will offer a place and ambience where beer lovers could hang out socially without getting bombarded with loud music. Additionally, the company has also planned several events and marketing campaigns to focus on domestic consumers.

Witlinger Beer is the refreshing wheat beer with a lingering taste of orange zest and spices. It is cloudy and partially filtered and has fruity flavors making it easy to drink beer any time of the day. The crisp beer is brewed with mix of wheat & malt and using traditional Ale yeast. The beer is being launched in two variant namely Witlinger Wheat Ale and Witlinger Lager and will be sold at Rs 150 and Rs 160 per bottle respectively.

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Add a zesty flavor to this festivity with Witlinger craft beer

This festive season wrap your hands around the new curvy bottles of India’s first authentic craft beer Witlinger and wet your throats with a zesty flavor of honestly crafted Wheat Ale beer. Adding a festivity spirit to this season, the brand is offering free merchandise on the purchase of 4-bottle case as a perfect gift option for your beer buddies.

The brand has also introduced its unique English Beer Café, ‘Wit Bar by Witlinger’ in Goa and will launch the same in Delhi and Mumbai by the end of this fiscal year. The White Ale beer is the refreshing Belgium style wheat beer with a lingering taste of orange zest and spices. It is cloudy and partially filtered and has fruity flavors making it easy to drink beer any time of the day. The crisp beer is brewed with wheat malt and using traditional Ale yeast.

Available in two variants, Witlinger Wheat Ale and Witlinger Lager, the bottle is priced at Rs 150 and Rs 160 per bottle in Delhi and Mumbai market respectively. The packaging and designing take cues from a traditional Belgium bottle profile, thus bringing a signature look of finest, premium and adventurous beer brand. The ‘Any Time’ beer is already is big hit in major bars, retail outlets, restaurants, clubs, 5 star hotels and cafes including Beer café, Warehouse, Townhouse, Open House and Lord of Drinks among others.

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How to write festive and special day content – Samples

Creating targeted content during the festivity  is a good strategy if you are aiming to gain an impressive online and offline traffic. Consumers are constantly reading or searching for products and services during festival season and serving the fresh and hot content on their plate can create a magic for your overall marketing and PR strategies. With interesting and impactful stories and features, brands can reach out to their audience in most strategic manner and can leverage the ongoing  buzz on all traditional as well as digital channels.

Festive content should always be relevant to what do consumers want and what can you offer. While the product features remain fixed, creativity does not. You can always tweak the content as per the occasion and connect it with your promotional strategies.

So how to write festive content that can sell or at least hold the attention of your audience?

Here are some examples:

Videocon Krypton3 – The Best Gift for Dads This Father’s Day

No matter what taste your father has in tech, there is no better time to introduce him with something new on his special day. Father’s Day is around and it is the right time is to make a choice on the best tech gift for the person, who bought you all the gadgets in your childhood. On this Father’s Day, appreciate him for his efforts and revive the precious memories with the latest Videocon Krypton3 V50JG smartphone. The smart device comes handy when your father is in need of a value-for-money and tech led possession.

Celebrate the eternal bond this mother’s day with Casio SHEEN watches

Make this Mother’s Day memorable for your everything by not only making her feel special but also letting her know how much she means to you. Casio brings a perfect gift option with its Sheen timepieces to create a special bond with your mother on this occasion. Casio bestows the best of its elegantly designed Sheen watches characterized by femininity and elegance. SHEEN is a series of unique, versatile, and purely analogue timepieces characterized by the feminine features. The new collection unveils a new era of round-the-clock masterful, feminine, and modest design that brings utmost elegance to your mom’s fashion collection.

Casio’s exclusive Women’s day watch collection celebrates Womanhood

The world looks more beautiful with our favourite women around as a mom, sister, girlfriend and wife. They give a shape to our life with their affection and constant support. They make us feel strong when we are most vulnerable. As Women’s day is just around the corner, make this day surprising by not only making her feel special but also letting her know how much you love her as a beautiful and inspiring woman. Casio creates a perfect gift option for this occasion with its new collection of elegantly designed SHEEN watches. Choose a gift today that will lay the ground for an ever-lasting and strong relationship tomorrow.

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©ContentPie

 

Save

Extracarbon to close $1mn funding via Enablers

Gurgaon-based  start-up to raise funding from Enablers’ parent company, ValPro Capital and other HNIs

Gurgaon-based online start-up, ExtraCarbon backed by waste management company Greentooth Technologies Pvt. Ltd is all set to raise $1mn funding via Enablersinvestment.com in the next few months. Enablers’ parent company ValPro Capital along with other HNIs will be investing money in the startup, which uses connected devices to manage waste disposal and management.

Founded in 2013 by Gaurav Joshi, an MBA from the University of Wales and Anant Avinash, the company collects recyclable waste from homes and commercial places, and sends the material to recyclers. It gives customers either cash or reward points on extracarbon.com dashboard to encourage more and more people to pass on their garbage. The customers can redeem these points on jhoomley.com, a separate reward platform to buy appliances, groceries, personal care, and beauty products. The company is present in Delhi-NCR, Lucknow, Ludhiana, and Patiala. It does more than 100 daily pick-ups in the four cities.

Extracarbon has been working with Enablersinvestment.com for fund raising process and looking to close the $1mn round in the next few months. Enablers, the deal-enabling platform is engaged in executing funding process and implementing growth plans for Extracarbon through raising capital.

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How To Write A Travel Article | A Short Guide To Travel Writing

Sharing ideas, stories and lifestyle has become a trend today. People are doing everything to be in attention and let others know what they are up to. Travelling is the most discussed topic online as more and more people are coming up with awe-inspiring travel stories and conversations. Blogging has become a strong medium for personal branding and experiential content is bringing like-minded audience closer than ever.

An appealing and interesting content can attract travel start-ups, travel companies and media publications for their blogs or travel columns. Remember, the world is hungry for good content and brands are always on the look out for travel writers who can create impactful articles and stories.

But here comes the first hurdle: how to write a travel article or story? While professionals can write while exploring, newbies keep wondering how to express their wonderful experience. For the latter, here is a SIMPLE tip: just pick a pen and paper or laptop or smartphone and start drafting your first travel story. Take one step a time and make your way to tell your travel experiences to the world.

There is no fixed rule and format but here are some useful tips to write an effective article:

• Interesting intro/heading

An interesting introduction gives your readers a strong reason to read your 800-1000 words article. Persuade them with phrases, humour, dialogues and hold their attention.

• Story flow

Traveling is a series of events. Some events might not be relevant to include. So follow your intro and expain it in the most engaging way possible.

• Objective

Always have an objective in mind while explaining things. Bring your readers to same page and then let them experience everything through your words.

• Visual Appeal

Once you have a story flow and objective, gather the pictures that fit it. Keep poking your readers’ imagination until they join you in your story.

• Authenticity

There is no scope for fiction here. Refrain from mentioning imaginary events, people and places. Provide your audience the actual story and motivate them to pack their backpack.

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How to write content for a media invite – Samples | Content Pie

An event has come up and you are busy with things like press release, creatives, giveaways and media list. What is left now? Approvals from client on last minute additions. May be. But there is something more important that needs your attention. An INVITE. A simple, interesting and informative invite comes handy when you want to create a buzz and highlight the USPs of an event, product launch or press conference.

The content of an invite should always be in sync with your PR or marketing communication. It should never be boring and cluttered. Always keep it crispy, exclusive and grammatically correct. Never forget to include these things:

• A catchy/funny/unique intro or Headline
• Name of the event/ocassion and relevant information
• Name of Chief Guest or Showstopper (if any)
• Major Highlights/USPs
• Venue, Date and Timing

Example 1:

Event: New Business Launch || Brand: Royzez.com

“A Befikar Shopping Experience is Knocking at Your Doors”

We
cordially invite you
to

grace the launch of our online shopping portal and raise the curtains

in the presence of Bollywood actress

Ileana D'cruz

and our esteemed mentors

Mr. Nitish Roy, CVO, Royzez.com
Mr. Rahul Sethi, COO, Royzez.com

and enjoy the evening with 
the king of wicked sense-of-humor, Angad Singh Ranyal

at
The Lalit, Barakhamba, New Delhi
Date: XX July XXXX
Time: 12 noon followed by lunch

| Looking forward for your courteous presence |

RSVP

Example 2:

Event: Brand Launch || Brand: Witlinger Beer

RICH BEER. RICH TASTE. RICH EXPERIENCE

We
joyfully invite you to the

Brand Launch
of
India’s First Crafted Beer

WITLINGER
by Kaama Impex Pvt. Ltd.

and get a taste of Britain’s premium crafted beer in India
at
British High Commission
Chankyapuri, New Delhi

on
Friday, XX April XXXX
X PM onwards

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How to write a company profile | Content Pie

Tips:

1. Always keep it crisp and relevant with all the important information
2. Never insert unnecessary heavy words. Simplicity  is the key here.
3. Use industry specific words and keep the sentences short.
4. Important things to include:

• Year & place of establishment
• Name of founder(s)
• Product and services
• Market presence
• USPs and vision
• Website/email address

Example:

Royzez.com, an eCommerce start-up in Gurgaon

Royzez.com is one-stop online shopping destination offering a wide range of women’s category, men’s category, gadgets, home décor, and kitchen products.  The company provides its customers the premium shopping experience, which is simple, user friendly and trustworthy. Founded in 2014 by Mr. Nitish Roy, Royzez.com is a self-funded venture and is the sister concern of KAKA Group, one of the world’s largest exporters of carpets.

The company has introduced  multiple USPs such as personal manager, same day dispatch, quality check to offer hassle-free shopping experiences to its valued customers.Headquartered in Gurgaon, Royzez.com has a wide portfolio of fashion, electronic and lifestyle brands including Targus, Baggit, Wildcraft, Samsung, Karbonn, Panasonic, Whirlpool, Lenovo, HP, VIP, Skybags, Alpha, Footloose, Levis, UCB, Spykar, Numero Uno, Puma, Nike and Zodiac to name a few. Today, the e-tailer has a wide reach in all major cities with almost 15000+ pin codes, covering more than 80% of the country.

With a team of 50 professionals, Royzez.com aims to be the first self-funded company to achieve breakeven and be recognized as the best customer service provider in Indian e-commerce domain. The best customer support services, premium brands and finest rates characterize the Royzez experience. Going forward, the company aims to enter into a new dynamic and unique portfolio of products and services that will not only redefine the e-shopping experience but also promote new trends in Indian e-commerce market.

Come, click and enjoy the simplistic shopping experience at: http://www.royzez.com

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New flavoursome culture of craft beer in India | Content Pie

The trend of meeting and greeting on beer is rapidly growing. Today, more and more people are getting hooked to the concept of freshly brewed crafted beer. Drinking beer is the new way of opening a conversation because you open a bottle or two and then starts never-ending talks, fun, and nostalgic experiences.

Craft beer is swiftly grabbing the taste of millennials who want to enjoy the taste of healthy, light and freshly brewed drinks. This trend is not only changing the concept of consuming drinks but also creating new business avenues for entrepreneurs in fast emerging F&B industry.

The idea of drinking beer is changing as people are going for beer taste rather than having a kick after drinking any alcoholic drink. With fresh craft beer scene in India, beer cafes are now delighting their guests with new taste and flavors, which were unexplored by Indian beer lovers before. Craft beer brings a collection of experiences from around the world.

Some craft beers have created a niche as ‘Any Time’ beer because of their perfect and balanced blend of zesty flavors and spiciness. Going apt with this trend, a number of microbreweries have been set up in major Indian cities to offer the Indian beer lovers with varied and premium quality craft beer.

India per capita beer consumption is close to 1.4 litre annually, which is very low when compared to world’s average of 65 litre annually. There is no doubt that India will be one of biggest beer markets in the coming years. Catering to this huge demand, Craft Beer will take the beer lovers on a flavoursome adventure of rich taste and authentic experience.

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Casio SHEEN watches: Gift that creates bonding for lifetime

Raksha Bandhan, one of India’s most popular festivals is a celebration of love and bonding that a brother and sister shares. It is a bond of protection in the form of a thread tied on a brother’s wrist.  This festive season, go beyond the tradition, surprise your sister and gift her Casio SHEEN watch – a symbol of timeless love. An affection tied on her wrist to create a bonding that goes for lifetime and even after.

A flagship women watch brand from Casio, SHEEN is a series of unique, versatile and purely analogue timepieces tailored to match with the choice of today’s self-confident women. The series features exquisite materials such as ceramic, sapphire glass, leather and SWAROVSKI® ELEMENTS, worked flawlessly into each timepiece with the utmost care. The stylish designs, fashionable accents and craftsman’s precision bring a new era in timepieces; an era of round-the-clock masterful, feminine and understated design.

SHE- 3806

Encased in vibrant color tones like pink, gold, brown, and black, SHE- 3806 is a sophisticated model with utmost elegance and exemplifies the vivaciousness of modern woman. It also comes in two tones with SWAROVSKI® ELEMENTS on select numerals, flaunting a chic persona. This timepiece displays a sumptuous elegance with its Stainless Steel band and blue color strap designed with opulent genuine leather along with an array of fashion-forward features including a day & date function.

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How to Write a Speech for a Launch Event – Sample| Content Pie

Public speaking is an art. An art of words, expressions and persuasion. A well planned speech can really create a big impact on your audience. A new brand has an added advantage of creating a fresh and enduring impact on audience if uses the right channel and communication.

As communication is the key here, use of product launch event as a platform can be a great buzz creator to deliver the message. To make it impactful and interesting for media and audience, a well-planned, concise and relevant speech plays an important role.

Example:

Event: Royzez.com launch || Spokesperson: Chief Visionary Officer

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentleman! Thanks for stopping by.

I am delighted to be here today to officially launch my dream venture, Royzez.com. I would just like to highlight what is Royzez.com, the idea behind this venture, our mission and what you can expect from us in terms of products and services.

The growth story of Indian eCommerce market is driven by robust investment activity in the sector, backed by the demand of industry expansion on year on year basis. At the same time, growth has been driven further by a rapid adoption of technology like smartphone, tablet and internet. Another reason for the huge success of e-commerce companies in India has been the introduction of the ‘cash on delivery’ option, which has helped e-commerce companies in gaining the consumer trust.

The idea of starting Royzez.com comes from the commitment of targeting, the right customers at the right time to give an edge to my entrepreneurial journey. Mr. Yadvendra Roy, my father and the founder of Kaka Group has been a great inspiration for me during this wonderful journey and going forward I see Royzez.com to achieve a great success in terms of business growth and consumer engagement under his mentor-ship.

Royzez.com is one-stop online shopping destination offering a wide range of women’s category, men’s category, gadgets, home decor, and kitchen products. A dynamic brand, Royzez.com provides its customers a simple, user friendly and trustworthy shopping experience. The company makes online shopping a consumer-friendly process with its multiple USPs like personal manager, same day dispatch, and quality check.

If we talk about our brand associations, we are representing a complete range of exciting brands including Targus, Baggit, Wildcraft, Samsung, Karbonn, Panasonic, Whirlpool, Lenovo, HP, VIP, Skybags, Alpha Footloose, Levis, UCB, Spykar, Numero uno, Puma, Nike and Zodiac to name a few. As a testimony to a rich customer experience, we are offering our own range of innovative, trendy and cost-friendly products to our consumers.

Royzez.com aims to be the first self-funded company to achieve breakeven and be recognized as the best customer service provider in Indian e-commerce domain. We as a new brand do not believe in making big claims but we assure that our consumers get a superior buying experience, timely delivery and quick resolution. Trust is our driving force and we want to standout in the market by keeping our focus on consumer satisfaction and providing the best services to our customers.

That’s all for the moment.
Thank you all for celebrating the occasion with us today.

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G-Shock: A shock-resistance brand success | Content Pie

Casio India Co. Pvt. Ltd. has been operating in India since 1996 and has established the distribution channel as well as the brand for most of its products. Casio Computer Co., Ltd, Japan, the parent company of CIC is engaged into manufacturing and marketing of various consumer products throughout the world.

Casio India’s range of products include sales & marketing of Handheld Calculators, Desktop Calculators, Scientific Calculators, Printing Calculators, Label Printers, Laser-LED based green Projectors, Wrist Watches, Clocks, ECR (Electronic Cash register) and EMI (Electronic Musical Instrument). The company has also established service centers across the country to provide after-sales-service at the doorstep of the customer. Today, Casio is known for its reliable product quality and exemplary innovations and is one of the world’s most recognized brands due to its vast product range.

The article appeared in Exhibit Magazine, June 2016 edition

Here, we are going to know more about the success story of Casio Wristwatches- G-Shock to be precise.

Casio G-Shock

What makes a brand irresistible? When, its products trigger a wide spreading cultural change all over the world and push the technological boundaries of quality and innovation. G-Shock by Casio can easily be placed in this category as the brand uniquely differentiates itself from its competitors.

The unique and innovative marketing strategy of the brand with the focus on both offline and online public mediums, the brand G-Shock has created a niche image among the personas including professionals, geeks, travelers, fashion aficionado, tech lovers, adventurers, students, and celebrities in the country.

What makes the brand more exciting is that the brand has no celebrity association but with its appealing product line, it has been able to create a strong connection with film stars and music artists worldwide. Film celebrities like Vin Diesel, Tom Cruise, Akshay Kumar, Bradley Cooper, Ranveer Singh and Arnold Schwarzenegger and popular artists like Justin Bieber, Eminem, Rihana can be seen flaunting their G-Shock watches at various occasions. From street style to worldwide celebrities, the G-Shock shares a humongous loyal fan following as the most preferred brand to flaunt the attitude and style.

So, what is the reason that G-Shock is religiously being followed across the globe and in our country? The enormous success of the brand can be traced to its interesting history, inspiring product success stories and huge fan following worldwide.

In 1983, an engineer working for Casio named Kikuo Ibe also known as the Father of the G-Shock designed the first G-Shock watch, the Casio DW-5000C. Once he dropped his only watch and it shattered into a million pieces. Heartbroken by this incident, he decided to design a shock-resistant and tough watch. The Casio DW-5000C was tested on 200 prototypes by dropping it from rooftops of third story building. Soon, the first G-Shock models became a big hit around the world especially among the youth who appreciated its toughness and rebellious spirit.

The G-Shock trends continued to widespread across the world in early 90s and the brand started foraying into different business verticals including the introduction of female-centric brand of tough and technologically advanced Baby-G watches. Today, Casio watches have become a style statement and people from different lifestyles can be spotted in mountains, seas, skies, and streets wearing their favorite G-Shock watch on their wrists. By pairing functionality, technology, and durability, the brand has established itself as the creator of today’s youth culture and fashion.

Today, G-Shock touches the pulse of a much wider range of consumers including athletes, soldiers, adventure junkies, outdoor activity lovers and travel freaks. The loyal consumer base appreciates the brand for its toughness and latest features that is rare to find in other brands.

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How to write an effective press release | Content Pie

A press release is a written communication mostly used in PR and media industry. It is generally written in inverted pyramid order: most important info at first, then important info and then general or less important info in the last. Companies, brands, artists and celebrities use this media tool to make announcement, introduce a new product or service, promote their creative work  and deliver their message to the audience via different online and offline media.

Main elements of a Press Release:

• For Immediate Release/Hold for Release Until (Date) – If the release is ready to go or gets delayed (sometimes called, Embargo)
• Headline – title of the release/announcement (always keep it to-the-point)
• Sub-head – explains the headline or offers additonal relevant information
• Dateline – city, state and date of the release
• Intro – a strong and attention-grabbing introductory paragraph (try to cover all Ws” of journalism—Who, What, When, Where, and Why)
• Body Copy- more details with quote from spokesperson or representative of the company
• Boilerplate – a brief of about the company or person featured in the release

Example:

(Headline) Eminent artist, Dr. Archana Srivastava launches her art exhibition ‘Divinity’ at Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi

(Sub-Head) ~The paintings depict different aspects of Lord Krishna’s life journey and His divine acts~

(Dateline) New Delhi, August XX, 20XX:

(Intro) Dr. Archana Srivastava, a contemporary artist exploring Indian history and culture while experimenting with different genres like figures, abstracts, landscapes and portraits today announced the launch of her thought-provoking exhibition titled ‘Divinity’ in the capital at Lalit Kala Akademi. Starting  from October 4, the exhibition, ‘Divinity’ is a series of sixteen paintings depicting artist’s offering to Lord Krishna, where she portrays various facets of the His personality and divine acts.

(Body Copy)The art exhibition was launched in the presence of eminent leaders including Honorable Union Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh and Shri Suresh Prabhu, Honorable Minister of Railways, Govt. of India. Bollywood celebrities like Sunil Shetty, Zayed Khan, Armaan Kohli, Paresh Rawal, Jackky Bhagnani, Rohan Kapoor graced the occasion along with former Indian cricket captain Kapil Dev and ace playback singer Suresh Wadekar.

(Body Copy) Lord Krishna’s numerous leelas; ordivine acts and Radha’s intense love for Him have been celebrated extensively in both literature and miniature painting in ‘Divinity’. In addition to conventions, Archana has added her own visual vocabulary particularly to paint the transcendental aspect of the lord, Vaishnava philosophy being her lodestar. She has commenced her series with an invocation to the Dashavataras – the ten avatars of Vishnu, arrayed in a circle, Krishna on the top affirming his supreme status.

(Quote) Speaking on the launch, the eminent artist Dr. Archana Srivastava said, “I am an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna. Mere mention of this word conjures up myriad images of His numerous mesmerizing ‘leelas’ in my devout mind. The artist in me has always been yearning to portray this vivid mental imagery on canvas and present the same before the viewers. ‘Divinity’ is my latest collection of paintings based on my musings on Lord Krishna. An eternal guide to the faithful, He is the sole inspiration behind this exhibition.”

‘Divinity’, an amazing portrayal of philosophy and spirituality speaks out to everyone from confused lost souls to enlightened minds. The art exhibition on Krishna and Bhagvadgita’s transcendental messages will be on display at “Lalit Kala Akademi” in Delhi from 4th – 18th October 2015 (11am – 7pm).

(Boilerplate) About Artist:

Dr. Archana Srivastava is a contemporary artist with a background of Indian history and culture. In last two decades, she has experimented with different genres like figures, abstracts, landscapes and portraits. While oil on canvas remains her favourite medium, she has adopted various themes for her solo exhibitions in the past. In her solo exhibition titled “MONTAGE” in November 1999 at “Nehru Centre Art Gallery”, Mumbai, her seven-part narrative series on Budhha was devoted to Gautam Buddha, his life and his philosophy. This won her “Nirdhar Woman 2002” award presented by Dragon Palace Temple Trust, Kamptee in collaboration with Mother Noriko Ogawa Society, Japan. With her exhibition titled “REFLEXIONS” in “Jehangir Art Gallery”, Mumbai in October 2001, she paid tribute to various Indian classical poets and also portrayed urdu verses by famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib.

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‘In Conversation’ – A blockbuster series at IFFI 2015 | Content Pie

The 46th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) has offered a memorable and learning experience for cinema lovers and aspiring filmmakers. This year, the festival introduced a special series titled “In Conversation” to bring the audience and filmmakers closer and create a platform for discussion on films and filmmaking. The series offered film lovers a unique opportunity to travel down the memory lane with path-breaking Indian directors like Rajkumar Hirani, Madhur Bhandarkar, Shyam Benegal, Vettrimaran, Kaushik Ganguli, Priyadarshan, Anand L Rai and Singeetham Srinivasa Rao among others.

The following are excerpts from the series:

Speaking to an aspiring filmmaker, Rajkumar Hirani, the director of popular films like PK, 3 Idiots and Munna Bhai MBBS said, “A film is made on a writing and editing table. An editor is an unsung hero because his work is not visible to a general audience. A good editing creates an emotional impact in the audience’s mind and sometimes an editor creates such emotions out of random shots. Needless to say that a good script is the soul of a film. Therefore, one should collect all the right information and do a deep research on the film’s subject and theme.” He also expressed his interest to make an animated film in near future.

Sharing his journey of becoming a filmmaker, the promoter of realistic cinema and National Award winning director Madhur Bhandarkar said, “I come from a middle-class family in Khar. Though I have not studied much, I was always an avid reader. Before stepping into filmmaking, I worked as a video cassette delivery boy for 4 years. I would watch films on DVD at one of my friend’s house.” He added that success ratio in the film industry is 99% failure.

Talking about his next project, the director of cult films like ‘Raanjhanaa’ and ‘Tanu Weds Manu’, Anand L. Rai said, “My new film is about a boy from Meerut and a girl from Delhi who is a dentist. I find stories in small cities and create characters that can connect well with the audience. Both the actors in my films will play vertically challenged characters. This film is going to be a real excitement for me as to make the story look real, I am technicality challenging myself and going beyond my comfort zone.” He added that filmmakers should keep challenging themselves with each film.

Read the full article on IMDb 

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Adoption of Big Data Platform and Monetization by SMEs in India

Internet has revolutionized the business and society functions and has totally changed how businesses operate, governments perform their duty, and people live in a technological environment. A plethora of information is floating around on the internet, in the computers and organizations. Big data analysis has become an essential tool for companies in the recent times. The analysis helps to obtain new information about relevant trends in their respective spheres, and assists the companies to churn out the vital information. Managing big database has becomes crucial for big organizations so they always look to filter out essential data, which can be utilized by the company.

What is “Big Data”? It is an accumulation of data, which is huge and complex to be processed by traditional database management tools. The Human Resource department is one area where in the Big Data plays an important role because as the company gets bigger, the need of proper management of employees arises and traditional HR methodologies seem less effective in this situation. It tracks the applicants applied for a particular job post and also helps in narrow down the rank of each individual to fulfil the multiple job demands while saving time of the HR and providing 95 percent accuracy across different parameters.

Not limited to traditional usage, Big Data is helping the brands and TV channels to collect data on consumer behavior and get to know what their audience is talking about in terms of content and quality of a TV program or product. Termed as textual data, this data helps the companies to place their products accurately in the market. This is why companies working in the fields of marketing analysis, sales analysis corporate communication analysis are using ‘Big Data’ as their first hand tool for getting feedback about the products and reaching out the people.

With big data, the companies can collect and analyze immense quantities of data and information about the functions and operations of their business that further help in predicting future prospects. Using big data analysis allows the companies to create a system that helps them determine which overfilling complaints required urgent attention.

With increasing in quantity of data, organizations have more database than ever before. Tracking of potential customers through website click and understanding the behaviour of current customers are some of the tasks being accomplished by Big Data. It fabulously categorize and manage a variety of unstructured data like audio-visual files, plethora of social networking texts, emails, and huge database of customer support calls and much more.

It helps in joining various tools and hiring the people and transforms how the company’s operation works fundamentally. Big Data is helping the companies largely in advancing their service delivery and generating more personalized services and perceiving observance issues. Big data is implemented not only in medicine and in consumer goods industries; it changes how governments functions and alters the nature of politics. Here is to note that big data initiatives are taking a leap in government agencies and producing effective results mainly for emergency services.

Big data is reform the concept of the way we live, work, and think in different conditions.  Talking about its future prospects in favor of human, it will help to trace the climate change and analyze pollution data to detect the areas where efforts need to be made to diminish problems. The sensors embedded in smartphones will help in generating a database of data that will allow climatologists to measure and create the model of global warming more accurately. It will enable the society to experiment faster and explore more data and information and will help in producing more innovation.

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IFFI 2015 brings a stellar lineup of national and international films

The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) today announced a stellar lineup of International Competition, Indian Panorama films and Juries for its 46^th edition to be held in Goa from November 20 to 30 2015. The film festival will showcase 187 films from 89 countries in World Cinema section along with 26 Feature and 21 Non-Feature films in Indian Panorama section.

Addressing the curtain raiser press conference, Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Minister, I&B, Finance & Corporate Affairs said, “The Kingdom of Spain is the focus country of IFFI 2015.The films of master Spanish filmmakers Carlos Saura and Pedro Almadovar along with contemporary filmmakers like Alejandro Amenabar will be screened at the festival. The section will also feature Spanish actress Leticia Dolera’s directorial debut ‘Requirements to Be a Normal Person.’ ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ written and directed by Matthew Brown would be the opening film of IFFI 2015. Mr. Anil Kapoor will be the Chief Guest at the opening ceremony. The International Competition will have 15 films including two films from Indian Panorama section. The jury for International Competition includes Chairperson Mr. Shekhar Kapur along with Mr. Michael Radford, Ms. Julia Jentsch, Suha Arraf and Mr. Jeon Kyu-Hwan.”

Announcing the Indian Panorama, the Honorable Minister stated that the section will have a confluence of remarkable films from different languages and states. The 13-member Feature Jury was headed by Chairperson, Aribam Syam Sharma while the 7-member Non-Feature jury was led by Chairperson, Rajendra Janglay.

The section Focus on North East Cinema has emerged as a great platform to showcase the best of films and filmmakers from the region to the world. This year, the section will have a Special Retrospective on Aribam Syam Sharma, the eminent filmmaker, actor and music composer from Manipur along with a unique segment featuring next generation filmmakers from North East.

Commencing a special feature this year, the festival in association with the Oscar Academy will organise master classes with eminent Academy members Mark Mangini, Milt Shefter and Humphrey Dixon on varied topics like sound designing, film archive and film editing.

The film festival will also screen some of the outstanding directorial debuts of 2015 in a newly introduced segment- ‘First Cut’. The section would feature emerging filmmakers including Brian Perkins (Film – Golden Kingdom, USA), Michael Klette (Film – Solness, Germany) and Piotr Chrzan (Film – Moskvich-My Love, Poland) among others.

In a special series titled ‘In Conversation’, the Indian filmmakers Shyam Benegal, Vettrimaran, Kaushik Ganguli and Anand L Rai will be present to discuss films and the art of film-making with the audience. Additionally, IFFI 2015 will feature a special section ‘World Cinema Restored Classics’ to highlight the idea of film restoration. The Film festival will also feature a package of classics to put spotlight on National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM).

Concluding the press conference, Shri Arun Jaitley said, “The International Film Festival of India has become a common platform to celebrate the excellence of film-making and appreciate the film cultures of different nations. Today, the festival has grown as one of the biggest film festivals in Asia and with each edition; it is creating new benchmarks of success all over the world. The festival has gained huge popularity amongst the global cinema lovers and the world is eagerly waiting for the IFFI 2015.”

Among other government officials and delegates present at press conference were Shri. Laxmikant Parsekar, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Goa, Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Minister of State, Information & Broadcasting, Shri Sunil Arora, Secretary I&B, Shri. J.S. Mathur, Special Secretary, I&B, Shri Senthil C. Rajan, Director DFF, and Shri Frank Noronha, DG PIB.

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Note: I worked with International Film Festival of India 2015 as Content Head- PR and handled all on-ground content and communication work while working closely with Ministry of I&B, organising committee and filmmakers.

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How to review a social media campaign – Sample | Content Pie

India is the new EDM destination for international artists and to leverage this opportunity, Karbonn, India’s leading Smartphone Company sponsored the much-awaited ‘David Guetta India Tour 2014’ as the Title Sponsor of the event. The Grammy award winning DJ David Guetta performed in Delhi on 19th and in Bangalore on 21st Dec 2014.

Offering a lifetime experience to David Guetta fans, Karbonn introduced exciting online contests on Facebook and Twitter to engage its target audience and create a buzz around the show. The participants were asked to follow Karbonn’s page on Twitter and like the Facebook page to stand a chance to win couple passes to the concert. Additionally, a lucky winner each from Delhi and Bangalore was selected to get a once-a-lifetime opportunity to catch up with the world-renowned DJ.

Contest:

Facebook

The updates were made on Karbonn’s official Facebook Account wherein the event details and ticket links were posted to create hype around the concert. A contest was announced for audience to offer a chance to win free entry passes from Karbonn Smart. Some common questions related to David Guetta and his music was asked on the wall every day. During the contest, one lucky winner was selected on daily basis to intensify the engagement on the official page of the Karbonn.

Twitter

On 17th December, Karbonn Smart started a Twitter contest on its official twitter handle- KarbonnSmart. Using the #DavidGuettaIndiaTour hashtag, the tweeples were asked to answer ‘why they wanted to see David Guetta live’ to win a chance to get an invite to the David Guetta Live show. With the huge engagement on Karbonn Smart timeline, the hashtag started trending on Twitter at #5 and at #1 in promoted trends. Soon after with an immense response to the contest, the trend crossed #LoveBhiGiftsBhi and trended at #3 in India for hours.

Taking Twitter by storm, the #DavidGuettaIndiaTour trended at #1 in India with 10,000+ tweets mentioning the hashtag. During the contest, the brand’s official Twitter handle garnered 130 new followers. Going forward, with over 5.9 Mn impressions on Twitter, #DavidGuettaIndiaTour trended PAN India and received an amazing response from the participants.

The night of nerve-wracking EDM show entertained the audience in Delhi and Bangalore and helped Karbonn to reach out to the large consumer segment. Thrilled by the Grammy winning DJ David Guetta’s rumbling performance, audience appreciated the brand for its youth-centric initiative and unbiased consumer engagement activities.

Result:

 Facebook

Karbonn Smart launched the campaign on 11^th Dec, and by 19^th Dec, the contest generated 84583 interactions and 1126664 Post reach. The Facebook page gained 3627 new fans and garnered 83701 total likes along with 655 Total Comments and 227 Total Shares during the activity.

Twitter

Thanks to the exceptional response of tweeples, #DavidGuettaIndiaTour received huge response with 10,546 tweets and 5000+ Mentions and trended #5, #3 and then #1 position in India.  Karbonn Smart’s Twitter handle garnered 225 new followers and the trend received over 5.9 Mn impressions on Twitter.

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Switch-on opulence in your dream home | Content Pie

There are numerous ideas riding in your mind and you have a kitty full of brochures to decide the wall’s color, type of cushions and furniture’s theme. But, are you missing something significant here? Yes. One thing you tend to miss out is the color combination of switches to adorn your walls, interior decor and house theme.

Along with your family, walls are the foundation of your home. They complete the journey of making a beautiful and prosperous home. Hence, the decoration and feel of the walls should not be ignored to ensure that a comfortable and pleased-to-eye environment always surrounds you. To make sure that, you should replace the ordinary switches with the elegantly crafted designer colorful switches for a remarkable accent to your décor.

You can choose from the premium range of classy light switches that are available in market in variety of finishes and styles to bring an aesthetic change to your home settings. Simon, Europe’s finest switch making brand is a leading player in craft and legacy of switch making, offering a class-leading design along with unmatched quality and reliability. The finest technology makes Simon’s switches a product of quality, safety and durability and most importantly an epitome of a magic touch. Energy consumption, shock and high resistance quality are the factors that make these designer switches a must have adornment that matches with your taste and lifestyle.

Nowadays, colorful switch plates have now become a key part of interior design for the connoisseurs who look for perfect combination of technology and design to adorn their home décor. Simon’s designer switches comes in many variants and can be customized based on individuals choice. Electrical lighting is the most important part of the home designing, then why forget the switches which are the key of brightness. The designs and the shades should be picked up considering the theme of the interior design for a magnificent look.

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Start-ups Creating New Wave of Jobs | Content Pie

Entrepreneurship has become an important factor to push the economic development and create new employment opportunities in the country. The countries where entrepreneurs can operate flexibly, develop their ideas, and reap the rewards are going to be greater economies in the coming time. A flourishing economy with new businesses means more jobs and more investment. The new trend of start-ups in India is creating a huge impact on jobs and economic growth and thus driving the next big business growth that will set an example to the world.

India boasts of a young demographic with a median age of 27 years and 65% of the population is below the age of 35. The playing field is wide open for ideas to be cultivated and find talent in a multitude of the youth population. Over the years, India has become the breeding ground for new startups and innovations. According to a report by NASSCOM, the Indian start-up ecosystem has witnessed tremendous growth and created 80000 jobs in the country. By the end of 2015, the number of startups had crossed 4200 with a 40 percent growth.

The maturing Indian start-up ecosystem is now contributing to the Indian economy in many ways and has become the third nation with the fastest growing base of startups across the world. In last 5 years, small businesses and start-ups remain significant sources of new jobs in India. Additionally, the changes in lifestyle, disposable income, culture, and preferences are some of the factors that are fulfilling the evolving needs of the economy as the country moves towards to become a developed economy.

One of the factors that contributed the most in start-up growth is the change in mindset of potential talent to moving away from traditional job profiles. With a zest to learn on every single step and create something on their own is what that driving the talent to go for start-up job or create their own business. Also, the attribution of the bulk of net job creation to start-ups arises largely from relatively large job losses at big companies. As Indian economy is creating new benchmarks each year, the reverse brain drain has begun given the increase in opportunities and a global focus on India a global business superpower. Apart from positively impacting the business scenario of the country, start-ups are now creating innovative technology solutions to address the key social problems that country is facing and creating significant growth opportunities for every stakeholder.

To continue this growth, the need of the hour is to build solid business ideas with a strong management team, which knows how to attract and train talent. The government should provide essential vocational training for blue-collared workers to be gainfully employed without educational degrees. Additionally, the organizations such as NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation) can play a very active role in brushing up the talent. Another important aspect is to strengthen the quality of educational institutes and research to give rise to leaders who envision and create businesses.

In another step, the opening up of commerce by government initiatives and giving startups a level playing field as other companies to perform can be a booster to pump up the start-up culture in India. Furthermore, the incentives targeted to help such startups sustain in their formative years can be a great mechanism.

However, the creation of jobs is not enough unless such jobs can also be sustained. Therefore, continual training and a growth trajectory is essential for employees to maintain the sustainability. Hiring is a pain point even for larger companies today. Thus, finding the right talent needs to be facilitated by building the administrative backbone of consultants, online recruitment startups etc. Further, the rise of startups also employs indirectly via engaging more consultants for taxation, accounting, business structuring, marketing, PR etc. And the last but not the least, the funding either externally or via internal accruals is critical so it becomes essential to develop a sound ecosystem for funding bodies such as VCs, Seed funds, HNIs, Angel networks and fundraising platforms to exist.

The entrepreneurs can strengthen the economy by introducing innovative technologies, products, and services. With the increased competition from start-ups, the established firms face challenges to become more competitive, which is raises the productivity of companies and economies. The start-up culture is significantly flourishing and is helping to expand infrastructure and develop or recruit a highly skilled and educated workforce. Today, majority of top start-ups in India are the brainchild of alumni from top institutes in the country. This trend is motivating the current generation to go beyond the traditional jobs and build a career of their choice. In result, the start-up ecosystem is flourishing faster than ever in India and the country is looking forward to write a great success story of business and economy growth.

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Numero Uno’s Spring Summer collection with summary shades

Welcoming the season in a stylish way, Numero Uno’s – India’ most fashionable denim brand brings its Spring Summer collection to life with a fusion of summary shades and springy florals. The brand has introduced two new themes – ‘Blue Planet’ of trendy denims and ‘Go Bush’ of chic outdoor apparels designed to add a refreshing feel to your style and get a perfect look this season.

Inspired by the palette of a quintessentially Indian summer, the new collection has an appealing mix of ‘Summery’ colours encased in distressed prints, embossed florals, rust amber, ebony bronze, pastel shades, portraying a feel of the dynamic colour Blue and lively colour Bronze. Numero Uno Jeanswear understands the pulse of today’s go-getter consumers and hence introduces its new collection of Spring Summer denims and apparels that come in a variety of fits and patterns to suit all your style needs.

The theme ‘Blue Planet’ is all about the intricately designed denims carrying a crumpled, rugged and distressed look. The new denims highlight the dynamism of the colour blue- the colour of life, the colour of ocean and the colour of sky. Blue is a constant in our lives as it is dramatic, engaging and communicative and portraying the same, the new collection brings life to your style with embossed florals with modern romantic shades. The denim collection is designed using special Laser techniques that helps achieve the authentic lived-in and used look. The result of acid washes is quite impressive as the engraved pattern looks like naturally faded jeans. Natural fading effect by sun along with abrasions brings a delicately aged feel to the surface of the denims.

Designed for fashion conscious men and women, the blue planet denim collection is ideal for to flaunt your summer style. The new range features cosy fitting and offers a clean look with subtle detailing, refined destruction and delicate damage and repair. The range comes with the fray play work that unravels the yarn to establish the rough luxe look and enhance the summer look.

The theme ‘Go Bush’ is inspired practicality to work in a muddier environment. Florals are renewed in new forms combining quintessential and classy fashion to create functional outdoor garments for surviving extreme sports. Portraying the bronze as the new metal of the season, the collection gives an edge to your style quotient, plays with the levels of color, and sways from rust amber to ebony bronze with earthy depths.

The collection also has a Bohemian touch to it that adds a fresh take on this element of fashion. This soft, delicate yet sophisticated interpretation of boho styling modernises the crossover of contemporary design and local skills by crosshatching traditional crafts with modern silhouettes and materials. The florals are placed in unlikely settings to disrupt and dislodge their sweet reputation thus representing Numero Uno’s timeless craft combined with a modern muse, skilfully.

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Utmost Lavishness – Luminous Luxury Ceiling Fans | Content Pie

Fans that accentuate the magnificence of your home

Luxury in India has always been associated with flashy cars, elite paintings, eclectic collectables, and invaluable jewellery. With the country being known as ‘The Golden Bird’, luxury is something, which has been afforded to the compatriots in huge numbers.

The definition of luxury, which has today taken an grander definitions to include ‘pièce de résistance’ like Italian marble flooring, Persian carpets, Crystal light fittings in Gold plating and world-class furniture and artefacts etc, has truly revolutionized the Indian luxury market.

Thus in an effort to create a niche in the never-targeted before home accessories market, Luminous – one of ‘India’s most Trusted Brand’, has entered the luxury home decor category with its exquisite ceiling fan range that is designed to uplift the luxury profile of opulent homes. Matchless features are well integrated into the technologically advanced ceiling fan that is designed to assure noise-free smooth breeze apart from enhanced indoor décors.

Class and comfort come together with Luminous’ world-class Decorative fans that come with bright electroplated components, functional LED lights and fully functional RF Touch pad remote regulator. The intricately designed fans have simple installations and are meant to give noise free smooth breeze apart from enhancing the décor settings. The designs, profiles and color shades of the fans give a visual appeal to the surroundings and redefine the luxurious décor settings.

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How to write an Advertorial – Sample| Content Pie

What is an advertorial ?

'An advertisement disguised as a regular editorial content.'

Advertorial is a subtle method of reaching out to your target audience by strategically placing ad or sales content in online and offline media. Brands pay to have their content published and leverage the popularity of a newspaper, magazine or online portal.

It is an information led advertising and carries editorial and promotional copy. Though, there is no fixed rule and format for it, we can always follow 70-30 rule wherein 70% of the article talks about the features of the product or service and remaining 30%  covers the actual deal or offer. Industry-specific jargons and buzzwords bring an interesting value to your advertorial content.

Example:

There are times when you want to escape from a stretched lifestyle and relax to rejuvenate your body as well as your inner-self. Nothing is more exciting and rejuvenating than going for a drive away destination and enjoy the luxury of your precious free time. You can go far and wide and you can keep moving on and on through places but there are some destinations that will leave you awestruck and The Deltin Daman is one of them.

Just three hours drive from Mumbai and Surat, The Deltin, Daman the newest luxury destination in town offers a perfect escapism with its luxurious 400 Square feet rooms, a lavish spa with seven treatment rooms, the finest restaurants and the largest open pool with expansive party area within its 10 acre complex.

The Deltin brand promises an ideal mix of entertainment and hospitality, reflecting luxury and innovative lifestyles that match some of the best in the world. What more lavishing is the mind-blowing offer that it has got in its basket.

The Deltin Daman is offering a unique chance to all its patrons to make their road journey much more interesting and fun. Offering a luxurious treatment and never seen before hospitality, The Deltin Daman is offering its guest 25 liters of fuel and a buy one + one complimentary drink on their visit to its lavish property.

If you enjoy hitting the road, drive to The Deltin and enjoy the sunset by the luxurious poolside with a drink while your tank is filled up for the return. So, if you do not have any travel plans yet, make is quickly to enjoy an unforgettable outdoor trip.

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Bring out your super heroism in style | Content Pie

This summer, excitement will be all time high when Avengers will be back in the town. As the new instalment of Captain America series, ‘Civil War’ is ready to release , the superhero fans will leave no stone upturned to impress their favourite superheroes.

To add more excitement to this extravaganza, Numero Uno Jeanswear, India’s leading lifestyle brand is offering an exclusive superhero t-shirt range for Avengers enthusiasts in the country.

Now reveal your super-heroism and let your style do the talk with Numero Uno ’s exclusive collection of superhero t-shirts. With an exclusive tie up with Marvel, the brand is offering the printed t-shirts of Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America and other characters from Marvel Universe.

Numero Uno is the only brand in India offering these exclusive superhero t-shirts.  These macho and stylish t-shirts are available at all Numero Uno Jeanswear outlets across the country and also at http://www.numerounostore.com.

Price – Rs. 899/-

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