Miscellaneous

The world has almost ceased to be offline and with every passing year the online space is adding more and more user base. This has been well understood by advertisers as well and a robust momentum in the scope and diversity of online advertising is at place. With increasing digital penetration, one of the newest ways of reaching consumers is through 'Native Advertorial'. Now what exactly is Native Advertorial? In simple words, it is a paid form of online material that resembles editorial content but is intended to promote and advertise a product by the advertiser. Native advertising is heavily relied upon now days for maximum and effective reach to the audience. Why go native? Going native allows brands to reach their consumers more effectively by surpassing barriers like ad-blocks. Viewing ads as a part of content doesn't cause any disruption to the audience and thus is a more acceptable kind of advertisement. blended with content. A native ad is basically categorised into three broad categories, namely: • In-feed ads: Social media platforms like, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Yahoo, these ads appear on your feed as you scroll through. The digital space dwellers are not aloof to the feeds preceded by 'sponsored'. These are the in-feed ads that direct you to some other page or link or product. • Recommendation Widgets: A common experience for an internet user is that of coming across widgets of contextually similar content that you are browsing through at the moment but from a different source or author. These are recommendation widgets as you must be familiar with, "You may also like" and "Recommended for you". • Promoted listings: Remember how a product you once thought of buying online but decided otherwise, but the product kept popping up every now and then on your browser? This is called promoted listings. A little different from editorial content, this type of native advertisement is used by e-commerce websites. Native advertorial is the new revolution of the digital space and the publishing arena at large. Multiple factors have contributed to its wide acceptance as the new face of advertising. • Better engagement with potential customers: Of late, Native Advertorial is increasingly become a dear tool to content marketers as it has outplayed traditional display ads at better engagement with potential customers. According to experts, the average brand recall for native ads is 2X times more than the traditional advertisements. With the information overload now a days, compelling, engaging, authentic storytelling and meaningful content is what audiences are looking forward to. Thus through native ads, advertisers can promote their brands in meaningful ways and deliver effective content to their audiences. Unlike newspaper advertorials or hoardings that to the point sell only the product, native ads are more engaging. In India several publications like, NDTV, Rediff, Flipkart, Amazon etc have adopted this format to reach a wider audience. • Better reach: The most important aspect of this kind of advertisement is that if you don't reach it, it certainly reaches you. And once a user engages with native ad experience, you can retarget them creating more impact. According to a report by Forbes, users are 25 percent more likely to engage with a native ad in comparison to a banner ad. And 53 percent of native ad engagement is positive. It also helps reach the audience instantly. The confluence of social media + editorial content + advertisement does the trick here. With receding user base of Print and visual media, the online space is gaining momentum. Thus online advertisements guarantee better audience reach than any other medium. And Native ads further help these ads stand out in the competitive online space. • Native vs Banner advertisements: Native content ads increase brand lift by 82% Consumers look at native ads 52% more than banner ads Native generates 85% to 93% more clicks than banner ads Purchase intent is 53% higher for native ads Consumers look at native ads 2% more than editorial content and spend the same number of seconds viewing native ads (Statistics from: Sharethrough) With the pace that native advertorial is being adopted by content makers and advertisers, it certainly marks the beginning of an advertorial revolution.

Agency Brandwire Single Image Article The world has almost ceased to be offline and with every passing year the online space is adding more and more user base. This has been well understood by advertisers as well and a robust momentum in the scope and diversity of online advertising is at place. With increasing digital penetration, one of the newest ways of reaching consumers is through 'Native Advertorial'. Now what exactly is Native Advertorial? In simple words, it is a paid form of online material that resembles editorial content but is intended to promote and advertise a product by the advertiser. Native advertising is heavily relied upon now days for maximum and effective reach to the audience. Why go native? Going native allows brands to reach their consumers more effectively by surpassing barriers like ad-blocks. Viewing ads as a part of content doesn't cause any disruption to the audience and thus is a more acceptable kind of advertisement.

Pune based IT Company Destek Infosolutions Pvt Ltd has raised an amount of $2 Million in seed funding round for one of its platforms, LegalNextt - An Extensive Communication, Collaboration and Practice Management platform for lawyers and law firms. The round was led by Mr. Gurmeet Singh, Mr. Kapil Jhaveri and Mr. Chandrakant Bhojepatil - Angel investors from Mumbai. The raised funds would be used in product development, strengthening the team, marketing and collaborations and conducting events and conferences across India. Destek Infosolutions Pvt Ltd is founded by Mandar Lande (Graduate (BE Computers) from MIT College Pune in 2007 and Post Graduate (EPGBM) from IIM Calcutta in 2012) and Anirudha Kotgire (Graduate (BE Computers) from MIT College Pune in 2007 and Post Graduate (MBA) from IMT Nagpur in 2011). Initially started as a Digital Transformation Agency, Destek now has over 100+ clients across India. The Destek founding team came up with an innovative idea of LegalNextt, one of its kind platform, which will transform the legal domain and drive the lawyers and law firms to communicate and collaborate over a single platform. The platform will comprise of city wise and state wise forums of lawyers and law firms across the country enabling the entire law community to come forth and collaborate on their ideas, problems, opportunities, legal expertise, global know-how, etc. The platform also offers a tech platform for lawyers and law firms to help them digitize their current office work and ensure smooth running of their daily chores. "LegalNextt platform will create an immense value for the estimated 25 lakh lawyers in India and with 3.73 lakh lawyers adding to the count every year. We do not have a direct competition as such as this is a white space with the offerings that we are planning with LegalNextt. We have planned to capture 10% of the market share which is 250,000 lawyers at the end of 1st year." says Destek Co-Founder, CEO Mandar Lande. From Left to Right: Mandar Lande (CEO - Destek), Anirudha Kotgire (MD - Destek), Chandrakant Bhojepatil (Angel Investor), Gurmeet Singh (Angel Investor) and Kapil Jhaveri(Angel Investor) On the seed investment, Mandar Lande further added "To have received the backing of these notable investors is a real validation of LegalNextt platform and the service that we plan to offer to our customers, as well as the huge market opportunity we see. We feel privileged to have their support and expertise as we expand our team, service and customer base, and feel confident that we are well positioned to meet our goals over the coming 18 months." Destek Co-Founder and MD Anirudha Kotgire commented "We have done extensive research in the legal domain before we started with the mission of LegalNextt. We have interviewed more than 100 lawyers and pitched our idea and got an overwhelming response from each one of them. That gave us the confidence of pitching the idea with the angel investors and VC's. Finally, we tasted success in our second pitch to the investors. We are really happy and excited to be associated with our Angel Investors who have shown immense faith in the concept of LegalNextt and us as the founding team." From Left to Right: Mandar Lande (CEO - Destek), Anirudha Kotgire (MD - Destek) Mr. Gurmeet Singh, an Angel Investor from Mumbai said, "We have been really impressed with the Destek Team for their innovative idea of LegalNextt as the platform for lawyers and law firms and are delighted to announce Seed Investment in Destek. We see a real demand in the market for their platform and product as evidenced by their thorough research to date across a number of Lawyers and law firms. We are excited to see the team take the business forward and are confident in their ability to execute on their vision." Mr. Kapil Jhaveri, another notable Angel Investor from Mumbai commented, "We are delighted to be supporting Destek Team as they move forward into the next phase of their growth. We believe in the team's strong strategic vision and are excited for the opportunities ahead. As our first major investment, Destek Team's LegalNextt platform is a key moment in our journey. They are a standout example for us, as we look to invest into the most promising start-ups driving game changing ideas, identifying and fostering new digital business models with the potential to revolutionize traditional professions and industries." Mr. Chandrakant Bhojepatil also said "We are glad to backup Destek Team for the revolutionary platform LegalNextt which will be the next big thing in the legal space. We believe in the founding team, Mandar and Anirudha for their vision and strategy to make LegalNextt successful in terms of value for the legal fraternity." For more information on LegalNextt go to: www.legalnextt.com Press Contact: Mandar Lande, CEO @ Destek, Spokesperson for LegalNextt. +91-9028611660 mandar@desteksolutions.com

UN environment chief Erik Solheim resigned on Tuesday after an audit questioning his huge travel expenses triggered an outcry, UN officials said. The former environment minister of Norway had been at the helm of the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (UNEP) since June 2016. A UN audit found that Solheim had spent nearly $500,000 on travel and that he claimed unjustified expenses at a time when the world body is struggling with shrinking budgets. His globe-trotting raised accusations that he showed little regard for the environment and efforts to reduce carbon emissions generated by air travel. Solheim said in a statement that he had received the final report of the audit of his travel expenses on Saturday and that "after deep reflection" had decided to step down. "As I have maintained throughout this process - I have been and remain - committed to doing what I believe to be in the best interest of UN Environment and the mission we are here to achieve," he said. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had accepted his resignation. Solheim's last day in the job will be Thursday.

In the ever-booming buzzword of entrepreneurship in India, IIM grads forsaking the cushy MNC or Bank jobs for their own startups and even business school dropouts following the footsteps of Bill Gates, one must not forget the very intrinsic business sense that is so much inbuilt in the DNA of this country - the one thing that earns our country the name of a shopkeeper's nations. Entrepreneurship has been a major driving force for economic growth in India. Starting from the local grocery stores to the roadside tikkiwalas to the myriads of other small businesses that are booming in different parts of the country, are enough to prove the indomitable entrepreneurial spirit and resources in this country. However, there are still many businesses that are yet to maximize their business potential optimally. As we always say that there are two India - one that is modern and tech-smart; and then the other that is yet to rise to this level - we call it Bharat. The real business potential lies in this other India or Bharat. All that it needs is a little technological and digital up gradation. And this is where Dial4Trade comes into play. Dial4Trade is a digital platform for small and medium businesses to support business owners who are not yet well versed with the internet or even emails. Dial4Trade aims to help entrepreneurs to maximize the potential of their businesses digitally. The Humble Beginning The founder of Dial4Trade Arun Pratap Singh hails from a farmer's family, where his father had to leave his ancestral occupation of farming and take up a job in a private firm in pursuit of a better city life. Arun happened to witness many such families who had to compromise on small things only because they could not upgrade their ancestral occupation to meet the modern criteria. This inspired him to do something for the small businesses to bring them up to be at par with the modern business world. Arun wanted to start a B2B business where businessmen from small cities and towns can do online business. He hired the some of the best marketing, sales, and tech professionals to form a winning team. Thus, was founded Dial4trade - a very humble attempt to help businesses to digitally maximize their potentials. Business Services Dial4Trade has a number of services that provide a platform to operate your business digitally. One of their services is called BuyerConnect where they have created dedicated teams who have in-depth knowledge of various industries. Through this service, potential buyers and sellers can connect with each other. Here, even if the seller cannot operate an email account, the Dial4Trade team helps them to operate their business online. They provide every small service and know how to digitally equip the small businesses. Dial4Trade facilitates businesses to create buyers and sellers' list for doing businesses through the internet. They also facilitate free product listing on the website in the order generated business for them. In this way, small and medium businesses can connect with potential buyers from all over the world. Some of their special services include: Buyer and seller can chat online The seller can create and run his e-commerce website and extend his reach to the global customers. Business Listing & Catalog on the Dial4Trade website to ensure optimum visibility and business opportunity Continuous monitoring of the traffic of each listed company by the Dial4Trade team and immediate updating about any business inquiry Dial4Trade has created the simplest online technological framework that can be availed businessmen from every corner of this country. Every time you open this platform on a computer, you gain more confidence in growing your online business. How Dial4Trade Works Dial4Trade aims at taking a small business to a global level. Buyer Search - a tool introduced at Dial4Trade from where you can connect with the right buyers. Business owners can post their products and even create a catalog. Dial4Trade optimizes the content in order to increase traffic towards the seller's profile and product listing. Sellers can chat with the potential buyers There are some very easy yet distinct ways for the buyers to reach out to the seller: Post a buy requirement Post a direct inquiry on the catalog or website Call the sellers on their mobile Contact to the allocated BuyerConnect Agent In all this Dial4Trade acts just like a mediator between the selling and the buying parties Dial4Trade aims at addressing the major challenges in e-commerce business: The very first concern is to find the right product to sell. Every product do not have buyer online. In some products, it is very difficult to source buyer. In order to minimize this issue, Dial4Trade has created a buyer's list and products list online which is further boosted through messages and calls. The next step is to analyze the buyer's shopping patterns and what influences his/ her purchasing decisions. Social media & online reviews play a very significant role in this regards. Dial4Trade facilitates buyer's recommendation for suppliers on their social media & own website which helps them to attract more online buyers. Dial4Trade also helps to convert potentials into paying customers through their online chatting service where the buyer and seller can converse and negotiate with each other. All these services are very common and much used in everyday terms for the contemporary business world. However, what makes the same services worth a special mention in the case of Dial4Trade is that they are working at a very grass root level with the smallest and the remotest of the entrepreneurs to bring them together on this digital platform and optimize their businesses through the modern internet services. In the words of Arun Pratap Singh, Founder, Director, Dial4Trade and Webprofits, "We are up on the mission to bring the buyer and sellers together under one roof and assist them with a well versed and motivated team so that no business owner falls behind just because of the lack of technological know-how."