MUMBAI : Group M and Optimystix Entertainment promoted, O4 Digital Media announced a strategic alliance to create India’s first digital video-led Brand Solutions Company – MashUp. MashUp is a content led Brand solutions company with a key focus on ‘video led sustained engagement’ for brands – a first of its kind in the Indian digital industry. Mash Up Brand Solutions will work with brands to connect with consumers on digital & social media platforms using customized and differentiated content to create rich engagement.

With Mash Up, Optimystix Entertainment, India’s leading TV Production Company is now turning its focus to the rapidly growing online video space. Group M, India’s leading media agency network is extending its online offering to include strategic content solutions backed with metric and measurement. With its digital expertise and understanding of online consumers, the launch of MashUp is set to revolutionize the online brand promotion and engagement space.

The Internet video consumption market in India is growing at a tremendous pace, with nearly 80% more video views in 2012 than 2011. The current market size in India is equal to 43 million + monthly unique viewers; 3.3 billion + monthly total video streams and approximately19 billion minutes are spent watching videos online every month*.To harness the potential of this untapped market, MashUp, with its expertise in understanding and engaging viewers will create “rich media video packages” and provide brands with additional effective touch points for sustained consumer engagement on social media platforms.

Commenting on this development, CVL Srinivas, South Asia CEO at Group M, said, “Internet video consumption is expected to further increase 6 fold by 2016*.The Internet audience size is crossing the English-speaking audience size in our country and video has a larger role to play considering the formatcomprises a universal appeal. We see an untapped as well as cost-effective opportunity in this market for leading brands to engage with their consumers on a more personal level. Optimystix Entertainment is the leading premiumcontent creator and we are happy to combine our strengths to form MashUp.”

Speaking about the venture, Sanjiv Sharma, CEO and Executive Chairman at Optimystix Entertainment India Pvt. Ltd. said, “India is the 2nd largest consumer of Online Videos. Having produced TV Commercials for every leading brand in the country and producing highly successful Primetime TV Programming for all leading broadcasters, our DNA as company allows us to understand and service brand needs and create high quality video content at an industrial level. Realizing this opportunity, OptimystixEntertainment started this journey of "Video Led Sustained Engagement" with AIRTEL to create and produce video content for engagement across their social media communities. Our partnering with Group M is a step further in creating a leadership position in this space.”

The key focus for Mash Up will be to understand the brand needs in the social media space and to create a compelling digital engagement strategy using “rich video packages” to create and nourish this relationship with consumers. Mash Up shall also provide other digital services including evaluation of the brand and its competition in the social media space, social media management& Marketing, online media planning and buying, analytics and measurement of brand progress and more. Mash Up shall work with Group M clients as well as other players, and currently some of its clients include established brands such as Airtel, Ford, Mercedez Benz, Shoppers Stop, Streax,Citi Bank, Skoda, Gillette, etc.