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“It happens everywhere,” he said. “In Pictou County, we see a lot of groups trying to do things and they are similar, but this is about people trying to do similar things and getting together rather than being a whole bunch of individual silos. If we can get all minds together and thinking the same way, we can get together and tell council what we really want.”
For almost two years now, the question ‘Why did Kattappa kill Baahubali?’ became a household topic of conversation and flooded social media with mimes and fan theories. Interestingly, two years before the release of the first part, a digital marketing team worked tirelessly to build its online presence and generate interest around the film since 2013. It went on to create the first Telugu hashtag on Twitter. Today, Baahubali has over 36 lakh likes on the Facebook page, 2.54 lakh followers on Twitter, 4.52 lakh subscribers on Youtube and still increasing day by day. It has become a classic case study that highlights how innovative digital marketing campaigns can enhance a product’s market success.
“Baahubali is a great example of the power of digital marketing. In the last two years since the release of the first part, the film was in the collective memory of people. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter played a big part in this. Startups and business enterprises can take a leaf out of Baahubali’s marketing strategy to tap into the immense potential of digital marketing space,” says Sangeetha Abhishek, co-founder of Chennai-based digital marketing firm CGD Creative.

In a chat with The Hindu, Ms Sangeetha spoke about the latest trends in the digital marketing space. “Videos are increasingly emerging as one of the most effective digital strategies to create brand awareness. The trend of live video feature started by Facebook followed by Twitter’s Periscope and Instagram’s Stories has become the hottest thing in social media marketing,” she says. Facebook’s growth trajectory went on an upward graph, thanks to the live video feature, particularly on New Year’s eve when the live streaming reached a record-breaking number.
Statistics point out that 14% of marketers experimented with the live video feature in 2016 itself.
According to industry estimates, social media sphere enjoyed more than 2.3 billion active users and more than 1.9 billion active mobile social users in 2016. Over 80% of marketers have already utilized social media marketing to boost their sales and gain better brand identity. There is no doubt in business circles that digital marketing has taken centre-stage. Business enterprises have widened their focus from YouTube, Facebook, and also tapped into newer platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp. “For software and tech startups, showcasing their product through innovative visual strategy on digital space can be a great tool. Videos are easily digestible as the message can be delivered in a few seconds,” she says.
Referring to recent digital advertising strategies from brands like Vicks, Ms. Sangeetha adds: “The recent ad which talks about the bond between a transgender mother and her daughter has been a huge hit. It first creates an emotional connect with the viewer and only later the brand comes in.” Startups like Zoho have risen to stupendous levels of success by adopting the story-telling route through video content, she adds.

For the first time in what seems like a long time Twitter answered its own question: « What’s happening? »
« Saucy is happening, » a Twitter-made marketing montage flashed across the screen at the platform’s NewFronts event on Monday. Also happening, according to Twitter: « Gorgeous, » « oops, » « slam » and « creation. »
Twitter has been using the phrase « it’s what’s happening » in its marketing to attract fresh attention to itself as a cultural touchstone. As a business, though, the question of what’s happening hasn’t always had a clear answer.
On Monday, the company sought to change that by highlighting its offerings around sports, news, culture, entertainment, finance and other content from 16 streaming video partnerships, led by BuzzFeed, Vox Media, Viacom, the WNBA, and the PGA.
Twitter’s video package will be anchored by a live 24-hour Bloomberg News stream and will include its first wholly-owned digital show, called « #What’sHappening. »
A room full of advertisers and media partners were at the NewFronts to hear the platform pitch shows, like BuzzFeed’s « MorningFeed » and The Player Tribune’s « Verified. » Twitter is adding the new sports content after losing a bidding war to Amazon last month to stream the NFL’s Thursday night games.
« The rest of the world uses our content and we’re excited to actually be doing this ourselves, » said Joel Lunenfeld, Twitter’s vp of global brand strategy, after the NewFronts reveal. « It ties in literally to our brand. »
« #What’sHappening » will start streaming in primetime later this year, and as of yet it doesn’t have a sponsor. « That’s what this week is about, » Lunenfeld said. The show will be a cultural daily dive into what’s happening on Twitter, be it a Fyre Festival fiasco or a Golden Globes red carpet moment.
Twitter is trying to create a live streaming network to sell ads against. In creating « #What’sHappening, » it will own the content outright, meaning Twitter won’t be splitting ad revenue with a media partner.
« Younger affluent males is our main audience, and Twitter obviously has a young audience, » said Ben Collier, brand director at Remy Martin, following the presentation. « This wide variety of content through partnerships, brought to life in a younger, more dynamic, unfiltered way, will help our brand further expand our conversation. »
Brands are looking for more places to bring digital video ads, and Twitter picked an interesting time to get noticed, as other digital natives like AOL-Yahoo, BuzzFeed and others pulled back from NewFronts main events this year in order to have more private conversations with clients.
Lou Paskalis, Bank of America’s svp of media planning, investment and measurement, expressed interest in the new Bloomberg partnership, where the channel said it would stream all day every day. The bank was not a sponsor yet, however.
« I can’t make myself relevant every moment of every day, but I can be relevant on Twitter, » Paskalis said. « And Twitter is relevant everyday. So, I’m looking for that. »
B2B video marketing is officially a Big Deal, because in every stage of the funnel videos educate, entertain, and inspire in ways other marketing techniques can’t touch. Find out how you can connect, engage and convert customers with video in our latest VB Live event!
Social integration, investments by internet giants like Google and Facebook, and vanishing-to-a-point attention spans has made video marketing one of those trends that is actually never going anywhere — so you need to get good at it, fast.
But you’re going to want to make it the star of your strategy. Conversational video marketing has a powerful impact on viewers at every stage of the customer funnel, and can be used in every facet of your marketing mix, from social marketing to email to push notifications. They drive traffic, boost engagement, and break it down for customers better than almost any other type of content you put out there. And your customers really want you to put it out there.
By the end of 2017, 74 percent of all Internet traffic will be video. And if you go ahead and drop the word “video” in the subject line of your marketing email, you’ll see open rates increase by 19 percent, 65 percent higher click-throughs, and unsubscribes cut short by 26 percent.
Videos are all over your customers’ social media feeds, too, and users love them. According to Twitter, videos and photos get the most retweets. Videos from YouTube, the Google-owned video search engine, tend to get bumped up to the top of search results by search algorithms that favor rich media.
And Facebook is devoting its resources toward expanding its video infrastructure, in the wake of the boom in video popularity. Last year, video viewership on Facebook doubled from 4 billion views per day to 8 billion views in just seven months. The company launched picture-in-picture viewing last year, and is testing dedicated video feed stream so users get the content they want, when they want to see it.
This staggering growth of video viewership highlights the immense potential of conversational video marketing to change your customer relationships and turn views into conversions.
But you can’t forget that users are in control, and they’ve got ad blockers to back up their lack of interest. You need to create fresh, innovative experiences that matter, are meaningful, and are worth their time and earn their attention.
How do you delight, excite, and make potential customers think you’re more than all right? Join our latest interactive VB Live event where we’ll break down the A to Zs of B2B video content marketing to drive leads and close the sale.
Don’t miss out!
In this VB Live event, you’ll:
Speakers:
More speakers to be announced soon.
(CNN)A ballistic missile launched early Saturday by North Korea in defiance of international pressure and at a time of heightened regional tensions appears to have failed.
North Korea disrespected the wishes of China its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2017
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Lawmakers reached an agreement late Sunday on a broad spending package to fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year in September, ending weeks of uncertainty. The House and Senate are expected to vote on the package early this week. The bipartisan agreement includes $12.5 billion in new military spending and $1.5 billion more for border security, a major priority for Republican leaders in Congress.
So, what’s in the agreement? We’ve sifted through the legislation, consulted supporting documents from Democratic and Republican aides, and called out some of the more notable and controversial elements below.
Please note: This is a fluid report that will be updated to add more detail or correct errors. What notable changes did we miss? What notable changes did you spot? Here’s a link to the 1,600-page bill that you can see for yourself. Contact us or share details in the comments section:
The Transportation Security Administration would get $331 million in additional money to hire new officers and canine teams to speed up the screening process at airports and seaports.
And air travelers rejoice: Congress decided against enacting a plan that would require $880 million in passenger fee increases.
The nation’s passenger rail service, a quasi-government organization, gets $1.5 billion, a $105 million increase from the last budget year.
Democrats are claiming a huge victory for the arts. They successfully blocked Trump’s request to cut funding to the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. Instead both agencies would see a funding increase of $2 million under this spending bill, bringing each budget to $150 million for fiscal 2017.
Trump didn’t get the wall money he wanted but Republicans did get $1.5 billion to spend on repairs to existing border fencing and new technology, such as drones and sensors to help agents keep an eye on parts of the border not protected by barriers.
Gone are requests for fee increases for ranchers grazing on federal land and plans for increased oil and gas inspection fees. The BLM got $1.2 billion in the spending bill, an increase of $15 million over last year, including $9 million for the hotly-debated sage grouse conservation project and federal land preservation.
Democrats say they used the spending bill to stave off attempts to end federal reporting of political contributions.
But there’s a ban on requiring government contracting firms to disclose political campaign contributions as a requirement for bidding for government work — ending an Obama-era push to do so.
And the bill bars the Securities and Exchange Commission from requiring the disclosure of political contributions, contributions to tax-exempt organizations or dues paid to trade associations — a loss for groups pushing for more disclosures of campaign contributions.
The spending bill includes a modest $22 million increase for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and fully funds the Public Health Preparedness and Response programs, which are in charge of preparing for a bioterrorism attack or pandemic outbreak.
One of the rare bipartisan wins in this bill is a permanent extension of health-care coverage for coal miners. The measure was a major priority for coal-state lawmakers, including Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Pell Grants for college tuition would get a boost to help cover a student’s full year of college. The maximum award would be increased to $5,935, up from $5,775.
Headed to the island nation? Bring back as many cigars you’d like. Negotiators declined to include language barring Americans from bringing back merchandise from Cuba — an attempt to roll back the Obama administration’s renewal of diplomatic and trade relations with the communist country.
The bill also doesn’t include language barring air travel to Cuba, certain educational trips or barring American businesses from doing work with entities owned by Cuban officials or their families.
Several agencies related to border security would get a boost for the remainder of fiscal 2017. CBP is slated to see a $137 million increase over last year’s funding level, bringing them to $11.4 billion. The money includes the full $772 million Trump requested for technology and repairs to existing infrastructure at the Southern border with Mexico.
The EPA program that helps communities clean up the water quality in their drinking supply is slated to remain fully funded at the previous year’s level. The agency was responsible for sending $100 million to help Flint, Mich., restore its drinking supply last year.
The Pentagon also gets $57 million for water quality testing projects at military bases.
The nation’s capital gets $756 million from the federal government — a $26 million increase from last year, but $7 million less than what the Obama administration had requested. The bill includes more money for security operations; $45 million for District school improvements; and the bill reauthorizes a scholarship program that helps low-income students attend private schools in the city.
The bill also bars federal funding from being used for abortion services or “to further marijuana legislation.” It also bars federal money from being used to fund a citywide needle exchange program.
This is one of the few departments to see their budget trimmed under the new spending bill. The $68 billion budget is $1.2 billion lower than the spending level enacted in 2016 and $2.3 billion lower than President Barack Obama proposed for this year. However, student academic support and special education both got modest boosts under the spending bill.
There’s no change in spending to secure U.S. diplomatic outposts. Overall embassy security programs will cost $2.357 billion.
The spending agreement requires FDA review of “e-cigarettes, little cigars, cigarillos, hookah” and all cigar products. Lawmakers from tobacco-producing states had been pushing to exempt thousands of e-cigarette flavors from federal review, according to congressional aides.
So much for Trump’s pledge to make deep cuts to the EPA: The spending bill would maintain nearly 99 percent of the agency’s total budget. Still, Republicans are celebrating that the $8.06 billion EPA budget will force the agency to maintain low staffing levels. The spending bill also bans the EPA from cutting agricultural exemptions under the Clean Water Act and requires an update on plans to address the backlog of mining permits that have yet to be approved.
There’s language in the bill requiring the Office of Management and Budget to detail “the expected costs of Executive Orders and Presidential Memorandums.” President Trump has signed 30 executive orders in the first 100 days of his presidency.
The bill continues to bar federal funding for abortions as part of the federal Employee Health Benefits Program. The bill also authorizes a pay freeze for the vice president and other senior political appointees.
Officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the bill slashes funding by $2.4 billion compared with last year “reflecting declining enrollment,” according to Republicans. Overall, there’s $78.5 billion in required mandatory spending for the program and another $3 billion for the SNAP reserve fund that covers unexpected increases in enrollment.
There’s $13.5 million in spending increases for the Government Accountability Office to continue its investigative and oversight work across the three branches of government.
As with previous spending agreements, the new legislation bars funding to “house, transfer, or release any Guantanamo Bay detainee.”
Trump won only a small boost in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the main agency in charge of deportations and immigration monitoring. Republicans had hoped to fund a hiring spree for new ICE agents and the addition of tens of thousands of detention beds. Instead the spending bill includes money for 100 new officers and approximately 5,000 more beds.
But a $1.5 billion spending increase for the Justice Department will help pay for “short-term detention space” that Republicans say will help house undocumented immigrants and other federal offenders.
A $20 million increase for the Executive Office of Immigration Review will help pay for 10 more federal immigration judges. But the new funding also requires monthly reports to Congress on “immigration judge performance.”
The nation’s tax enforcement agency gets $11.2 billion — freezing its funding in place. Money has been moved around so that there’s now an additional $290 million to improve customer service programs, including phone call wait times.
One of the most embattled agencies in recent years, the spending bill also includes language barring the use of money to pay bonuses or to rehire former employees unless their conduct and tax compliance is considered. The IRS also cannot use any money to produce “inappropriate videos or conferences” — a response to employee conferences and training videos that earned scrutiny for their cost and content. The IRS cannot audit an organization “based on their ideological beliefs,” but the White House is also barred from ordering the agency to determine an organization’s tax exempt status.
Overall, the department sees a $143 million spending cut, but its key agencies, the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms — all see eight-figure increases. There’s also more money for several of the department’s grant programs, including the Violence Against Women grants, the Byrne Justice Assistance Grants, and $22.5 million more to pay for police armored vests.
Its massive archive would get a $32 million funding boost, primarily to help pay for upgrades to data and computer support and updates to the copyright office.
The spending bill bars the Justice Department from using any money to prevent local governments from “implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.” This applies to states and the District of Columbia (see above).
The Washington area’s bus and subway system gets $150 million — equal to the amount it’s already receiving.
The National Park Service would be fully funded, including a modest bump of $81 million for park maintenance and projects related to the agency’s centennial celebration.
Here’s what the Pentagon will be able to spend: $21.2 billion to procure 13 Navy ships, including three DDG-51 guided missile destroyers and three Littoral Combat Ship. There’s also $8.2 billion for 74 F-35 aircraft; $1.1 billion for 14 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft; $1.2 billion for 62 UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters; $774 million for 52 remanufactured AH-64 Apache helicopters; $262 million for seven new Apaches; $72 million to spend on 10 more helicopters; $702 million for 145 Patriot MSE missiles; $275 million for 20 MQ-1 Gray Eagle unmanned aerial vehicles; $187 million for 28 Lakota light utility helicopters; $1.8 billion for 11 P-8A Poseidon aircraft; $2.6 billion for 15 KC-46 air tankers; and $1.3 billion for 17 C/HC/KC/MC-130J aircraft.
There’s a 2.1 percent pay raise for the troops. The new agreement does not make the cuts in troop strength proposed by the Obama administration.
The Defense Health Program gets $312 million to continue its cancer research, $125 million for traumatic brain injury and psychological health research and $296 million for sexual assault prevention and response programs — all above the Trump administration’s budget requests for the programs.
The budget for the agency that funds basic research in science and engineering is almost dollar for dollar the same as last year. The NSF is allocated $7.47 billion — $6 billion of it for research and related activities.
The Office of Science and Technology Policy gets $5.6 million even though no one has been appointed to run the office and most senior positions remain unfilled.
The space agency’s $19.7 billion is $368 million more than last year. That new money helps increase funding for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and the Space Launch System and the Europa and Mars missions.
No cuts here. The bill would provide a $2 billion increase for NIH, bringing the agency’s budget to $34 billion this year. The funding is to be used, in part, for research into Alzheimer’s disease, antibiotic resistance, brain studies and the development of new treatments and cures.
The bill once again bans federal money from being used to paint the official portrait of any federal government official, including the president, vice president, lawmakers, Cabinet secretaries and other top agency officials.
In recent years, the official portraits of top government officials have been paid for with money raised privately.
A big spending increase here is seen as one of the biggest bipartisan victories in the bill. There’s $103 million specifically for opioid addiction reduction in addition to a $130.5 million increase for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. It includes $30 million more for the Mental Health Block Grant, which helps states fund mental health programs for low income people.
Democrats successfully blocked a GOP request to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funding. The women’s health group will continue to have access to that money through the end of the fiscal year in September. Federal money accounts for about 40 percent of Planned Parenthood’s overall budget, with most of that money reimbursing the organization for the treatment of patients on Medicaid.
The bill prohibits the nation’s mail delivery system from consolidating or closing “small rural and other small post offices.”
The island commonwealth is expected to fall short this year on reimbursements to Medicaid. The spending bill includes $295 million to help fill the gap.
Elmo and Peter Sagal, breathe easy: Congress didn’t make any cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the agency that helps fund programming on NPR and PBS.
The new spending agreement ends a program championed by the former first lady to combat childhood obesity that forced changes in school lunches served to about 31 million children. Republicans say the legislation “stops an Obama-era school meal regulation” and that doing so provides “flexibility for whole grains and milk and preventing changes to sodium standards that have not been fully scientifically vetted.”
The changes caused schools to begin serving more milk, whole grain-rich foods, and a variety of fruits and vegetables, plus limit the amounts of calories, trans-fats and salt that kids get in cafeterias. But a powerful school lunch industry group withdrew its support for the program, saying the new standards were expensive and unpopular with students.
Democrats noted that the bill allows school districts to continue the Obama-era regulations if they choose to do so. The bill also bars the use of poultry from China in USDA-backed school lunch programs.
The spending bill includes $61 million in money to help pay back local law enforcement agencies for protecting Trump in the six months since he was elected. Any agency that provided protection to the president can apply for the reimbursement, but the majority of the funds are expected to be used by officials that protect Trump Tower in New York and the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.
Lawmakers also added $131 million for the U.S. Secret Service, to help keep up with increased deployments to help protect the president’s extended family.
The quasi-government agency that runs the museums along the Mall in Washington would get a small $23 million increase.
The bill includes at least two more years of funding to dole out 2,500 special immigrant visas for Afghans who were employed by ISAF or the U.S. government in Afghanistan since military operations began there in 2001.
Lawmakers from Western states secured $407 million in emergency funding to help fight wildfires this year.
Karoun Demirjian and Sarah Kaplan contributed to this report.
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At least 13 people were killed in weekend storms that brought tornadoes and flooding to the South and Midwest and also dumped a rare late-season blizzard in western Kansas.
The victims included four people killed when tornadoes hit several small towns in East Texas, and three killed by flooding and winds in Arkansas, where officials said two more people were missing.
Flooding closed part of Interstate 44 near Hazelgreen, Mo., and officials expected it would be at least a day before the highway reopened.
Interstate 70 in western Kansas was closed because crews were waiting for snow falling at 3 to 4 inches an hour and being blown by 35 mph winds to subside.
A 2-year-old girl in Tennessee died after being struck by a heavy metal soccer goal post blown over by high winds, the Metro Nashville Police Department posted on its Twitter page Sunday evening.
Melanie Espinoza Rodriguez was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, according to a second post from the department.
Middle Tennessee was hit by a strong line of storms that knocked down trees and power lines earlier Sunday.
A volunteer fire department chief was killed shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday while working during the storms in north-central Arkansas, state police said.
Cove Creek/Pearson Fire Chief Doug Decker was struck by a vehicle while checking water levels on Highway 25 near Quitman, about 40 miles north of Little Rock, Trooper Liz Chapman said. His death is considered storm-related, she said.
Rescuers in northwest Arkansas continued Sunday to look for an 18-month-old girl and a 4-year-old boy who were in a vehicle that was swept off a bridge by floodwaters in Hindsville, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office said.
Also in northwest Arkansas, a 10-year-old girl drowned in Springdale and the body of a woman who disappeared riding an inner tube Saturday was found in a creek in Eureka Springs.
In the eastern part of the state, a 65-year-old woman was struck and killed in her DeWitt home by a falling tree, officials said.
In Texas, search teams were going door to door Sunday after the tornadoes the day before flattened homes, uprooted trees and flipped several pickup trucks at a Dodge dealership in Canton.
“It is heartbreaking and upsetting to say the least,” Canton Mayor Lou Ann Everett told reporters at a news conference Sunday morning.
The storms cut a path of destruction 35 miles long and 15 miles wide in Van Zandt County, Everett said. The largely rural area is about 50 miles east of Dallas.
The National Weather Service found evidence of four tornadoes with one twister possibly on the ground for 50 miles.
The first reports of tornadoes came about 4:45 p.m. Saturday, but emergency crews were hampered by continuing severe weather, said Judge Don Kirkpatrick, the chief executive for Van Zandt County.
“We’d be out there working and get a report of another tornado on the ground,” he said.
The storms rolled through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Sunday, with strong winds causing isolated pockets of damage.
In Durant, in central Mississippi, on person died in the storms. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency didn’t give details.
Later Sunday, the agency reported the death of a child from Rankin County, 20 miles east of Jackson, who died from electric shock in flood waters. It did not release more details.
Alexa Haik went to bed Saturday night expecting just rain, but heard the sirens Sunday morning and turned on the television to see the tornado warning. She rounded up her pets and hid in a hallway with her family, then was stunned to emerge to trees down in her neighborhood in Clinton, Miss., about 20 miles west of Jackson.
A trip up the road showed how isolated the worst of the storms were.
“I really thought when we got out of our neighborhood, there would be damage everywhere. But our little subdivision was the only one hit,” Haik said.
Near Clever, in southwestern Missouri, a man tried to save his 72-year-old wife from floodwaters that swept away their vehicle Saturday. Her body was found when the water receded, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.
A second death from the weekend flooding was announced Sunday by Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens. But he did not release any details about the victim or the circumstances of the death.
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UPDATES:
7:30 p.m.: This article has been updated with the volunteer fire department chief’s death being added to the storm’s toll.
6:25 p.m.: This article has been updated with the death toll rising to at least 12.
1:35 p.m.: This article has been updated with authorities saying at least seven people have been killed in the storms.
8:14 a.m.: This article has been updated with authorities saying as many as five people are dead.
1:50 a.m.: Updated with severe weather in Missouri and Oklahoma.
This article was first published at 1:05 a.m.