Category: Digital Marketing

Actor Liam Neeson recently confessed in a podcast that he had absolutely no idea what a Labubu was — despite the tiny monster dolls having become a global cultural phenomenon worth billions. His puzzlement must be mirrored by brand strategists who probably cannot wrap their heads around the way brand ecosystems have emerged championed by Gen Z and Alpha consumers around products they’ve barely encountered.

This disconnect becomes particularly stark when examining India’s rapidly evolving toys and games market, where established international players like Hamleys, Mattel, and Hasbro dominate shelves even as a new generation of consumers develops intense, if fleeting, emotional connections with brands that seem to emerge from nowhere and disappear just as quickly. 

Untapped potential

India’s toys and games market, projected to generate $1.8 billion in 2025 with 4.69 per cent annual growth, significantly outpaces the global 2.42 per cent average. Yet per capita spending is just $1.24 versus the global $17.01, revealing massive untapped potential as India’s growing middle-class drives demand for educational toys and board games.

Reliance’s 2019 buyout of British toy retailer Hamleys for $88.5 million marked India’s first overseas retail brand purchase, and demonstrated the potential for international toy brands in the country through local partnerships.

India’s fragmented industry of 800 manufacturers and 4,000 MSMEs features traditional players like Funskool alongside global giants. Government initiatives — including 60 per cent import duties, quality certification requirements, and the Prime Minister’s call for start-ups to create toys reflecting Indian values — signal strong policy support for indigenous innovation.

The challenge lies not in market potential, but in understanding how to capture the imagination of consumers who have fundamentally different relationships with brands than previous generations.

Just can’t ‘LEGO’

LEGO from Denmark has achieved something remarkable in creating what psychologists call “nostalgic brand attachment” — users don’t just buy LEGO sets, they’re purchasing pieces of their childhood while creating new memories. This taps into the endowment effect, a tendency to overvalue things we already own.

Over the past two decades, LEGO’s revenue has grown ten-fold, reaching $9.7 billion dollars in 2023, making it the world’s largest toymaker. The secret lies in their approach to adult fans of LEGO (AFOLs), who now account for one-fifth of sales. The company produces more than 140 elaborate sets specifically for adults, some containing thousands of pieces, while maintaining appeal for children through digital partnerships like their collaboration with video-game maker Epic Games for experiences in the game Fortnite.

For Indian toy manufacturers, LEGO’s success demonstrates that lasting brand love requires both stability and surprise — familiar enough to feel secure, novel enough to remain engaging across life stages.

Plushie phenomenon

Global trends reveal fascinating insights about contemporary toy consumption. The soft toy category has witnessed explosive growth, with videos tagged #Plushies accumulating over 8 billion views on TikTok. What’s remarkable is that “kidults” aged 12 and above now account for over a quarter of toy sales, surpassing pre-schoolers for the first time. This trend, which began during the pandemic as young adults sought comfort in cute playthings, has created a new consumer category that brands are scrambling to understand.

The phenomenon extends beyond simple nostalgia. Adults now spend significantly more on toys for themselves than for pre-schoolers, sometimes thousands of dollars within months. The appeal stems from anticipation rewards — the mystery and surprise elements of blind box toys (where the consumer does not know which toy is inside) that generate dopamine-driven excitement and collection satisfaction.

Psychologists note that plushie collecting represents a form of comfort consumption and nostalgia-driven purchasing, while public figures across entertainment and sports have normalised adult toy collecting through social media visibility. This adult adoption of traditionally child-focused products reflects deeper cultural shifts that Indian toy brands must navigate carefully.

Understanding the Labubu generation

The emergence of phenomena like Labubu dolls — those grinning, elfin creatures with fuzzy outfits — reveals crucial insights about contemporary brand relationships. These consumers don’t simply purchase products; they curate identities through carefully selected brand assemblages. Each purchase signals values, aesthetics, and group identity. 

In India, this manifests in the rise of anime and manga-influenced fashion and lifestyle products. Brands like Uniqlo have collaborated with manga series like Dragon Ball Z, while luxury houses like Gucci have featured characters like Doraemon in collections. The prominence of anime culture in fashion landscapes reflects GenZ’s comfort with global-local hybrid identities.

The performative aspect cannot be ignored. Social media has created consumers who thoughtfully design their aesthetic choices to reflect personal values and social connections. This involves strategic selection across categories — from accessories and beverages to entertainment and collectibles — building cohesive identity narratives. The key insight for brands is that consumption has become a form of identity performance, not just utility satisfaction. 

Loyalty rewards

Brand love in the toy sector operates differently from other categories. It transforms brand-loyal customers into advocates and influencers, forging emotional connections that inspire what marketers call “loyalty beyond reason”. Research suggests brand love can precede or follow loyalty — sometimes right before a purchase. 

For toy brands targeting Indian consumers, this emotional connection must navigate cultural nuances carefully. Young Indians exist at the intersection of global digital culture and deeply rooted local traditions. They might collect international character merchandise while celebrating traditional festivals, or embrace global gaming culture while maintaining strong family connections. 

There are clues to the evolution of this cultural phenomenon. In the 1990s, the Japanese animated adaptation of Ramayana became a beloved television staple, broadcast annually on Doordarshan during Diwali and later on Cartoon Network, creating a generation comfortable with cross-cultural mythological storytelling. The recent success of ‘Mahavatar Narsimha’, which became India’s highest-grossing animated film, demonstrates how this cultural openness has now fully matured into a sophisticated market dynamic.

Effective engagement requires glocalisation — adapting global phenomena to local contexts that feel familiar yet aspirational. This cultural dexterity becomes particularly important in a market where nine out of ten GenZ consumers express pride in buying Indian brands, according to surveys.

Experience economy

Young consumers have elevated activities into hyper-personalised experiences. In the toy context, this translates to elaborate unboxing videos, themed collection displays, and community-building around shared interests. The excitement lies not just in ownership but in the ritual of discovery and the social sharing of that moment. Indian toy brands can leverage this by creating products that generate shareable moments. This might involve innovative packaging that becomes part of the play experience, limited edition releases or toys that evolve over time (remember Tamagotchi’s digital pets?) providing ongoing content opportunities.

Strategic implications 

Toy brands seeking to capture Indian consumers’ imagination and spending power need to embrace cultural code-switching. Successful brands must adapt messaging for festivals, regional preferences, and local contexts while maintaining global appeal. This requires vernacular fluency that recognises English-first doesn’t mean English-only, and community building that honours both global trends and local traditions.

Second, a consumer’s relationship with a toy evolves from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Brands must layer engagement — trends for newcomers, deeper experiences for loyalists — while building communities that accommodate changing interests and life stages.

Third, leverage the exposure effect as people develop preferences for things they encounter frequently. However, familiarity must be balanced with novelty to avoid staleness. Successful brands maintain consistent core identities while continuously refreshing their offerings. Also, embrace consumer fickleness as the norm — brand love today is like a playlist, constantly updated and refreshed, and smart brands adapt to that rhythm instead of resisting it.

The future of toy brands in India isn’t just about predicting the next Labubu or creating the next LEGO. It’s about building a brand context that can sustain connections with consumers who see consumption as both entertainment and identity expression. This requires investment in real-time cultural listening and rapid response capabilities, creating brand experiences that reward both discovery and loyalty. 

(Manoshij Banerjee is an independent consultant on digital culture and behaviour; Mohammed Shahid Abdulla is a faculty member, IIM Kozhikode)

Published on September 8, 2025

Mahabali reimagined in Deconstruct’s Onam 2025 campaign titled “Kuda Mathram Mathiyavilla” 

The festive beats continued as brands marked their presence at Ganesha Chaturthi pandals and Onam celebrations and started whipping up early Durga Pujo fervour. Meanwhile, purposeful messaging by some brands caught the eye.

Mahabali’s sun protector

Skincare brand Deconstruct’s Onam 2025 campaign titled “Kuda Mathram Mathiyavilla” (Umbrella alone is not enough) introduces sunscreens as a festival essential accessory. In the brand film, Mahabali reimagined for today’s Kerala accepts sunscreen alongside his umbrella, embracing it as a thoughtful gesture of modern care while staying rooted in culture. The 25-second digital brand film is accompanied by GIFs on Meta and other digital platforms, influencer collaborations with Malayalee lifestyle and entertainment creators,and meme marketing through popular Kerala meme pages. 

Grains and Ganesha

ITC’s Aashirvaad Atta’s festive initiative at one of Mumbai’s most iconic Ganesh pandals – Andheri Cha Raja – grabbed attention. Accompanied by the slogan “Gehu, gehu hai vishesh, har gehu mein hai Ganesh” (Every grain has a Ganesha), the campaign unveiled the image of Lord Ganesha engraved on a single grain of pure wheat. The centrepiece of the campaign was the Ganesha Creation Zone – where devotees were invited to create their own vision of Lord Ganesha, with each artwork magnified onto a majestic golden wheat grain installation and personalised with their name.

A time for self-expression

Tata CLiQ Fashion has launched its Durga Puja campaign, ‘Amar Pujo, Amar CLiQ’ (My Pujo, My CLiQ), highlighting festive collections available on the platform, and playing up the House of Utsav. The campaign frames Pujo as a time for self-expression. It highlights the different ways people participate in the festival — from Mahalaya morning and planning outfits with friends to visiting pandals, dancing on Nabami night, and taking part in Sindoor Khela. In an instagram collaboration, Bengali television and film actor Trina Shah presents a variety of looks for different days of the festival, sourced from the Durga Pujo curation at the House of Utsav.

Dreams, big and small

Urban Company’s fifth film under its Dignity of Labour series, titled Chhote Sapne created by Talented and Superfly Films, takes on cultural perceptions. The film highlights the entrepreneurial spirit of Urban Company Service Professionals, who are micro-entrepreneurs building their own businesses with skill and hustle, yet rarely recognised as such. It shows a customer subconsciously looking down upon an Urban Company beauty professional’s work – chiding her on how long she will lug this small box around. The response – comparing the UC Pro’s small box, carrying skills, survival, and her big dreams with the white-collar laptop bag of her customer, opens up the biases and urges audiences to reconsider how they view those whose unseen work sustains their lives. A moving film.

Modern man’s jewellery

Male jewellery seems to be the next big trend. We saw Mohanlal winning the internet in the campaign for Vinsmera Jewels. Now it is the turn of Jim Sarbh to wow as he models necklaces for Tyanni Jewellery by Karan Johar with great panache. The campaign Forces of Tyaani, spotlights the fast-growing men’s jewellery segment and also reflects a cultural shift towards inclusivity, authenticity, and personal storytelling. In the film, Jim Sarbh breaks away from the expected style codes such as belts, watches, cufflinks and adorns himself with glorious long necklaces and rings.

Powering Mumbai

It’s not often that you see utility providers do big brand campaigns. Which is why Mahanagar Gas Ltd. (MGL)’s first-ever brand campaign ‘Mumbai chalta hai MGL par!’ catches the eye. The campaign brings alive real Mumbai moments but anchors them in numbers that show how the MGL fuels the city’s rhythm – be it the way it powers more than 28 lakh households with Piped Natural Gas (PNG) and fuels over 11 lakh vehicles with Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). Taking the message to the streets, this multimedia campaign runs across print, outdoor, radio and digital platforms. The print-cum-outdoor campaign is also MX’s first AI-generated campaign.

Published on September 8, 2025

India’s recent ban on money-based online gaming has set off a storm in a teacup – a very large teacup worth ₹20,000 crore, as claimed.

The government argues it is protecting the poor and gullible. The industry warns of lost jobs, capital flight, and a missed digital opportunity. Both claims carry weight, depending on which side of the bed you got off.

From bustling cyber cafés in the early 2000s to mobile-first gaming empires in the 2020s, India’s online gaming history is the story of technology meeting greed – and colliding with poverty, regulation, and politics.

Around 2023, online gaming in India had crossed ₹16,000 crore in revenues. Fantasy sports attracted 180 million users; e-sports was building a new youth culture, and start-ups like MPL and Dream11 became household names. Cheap smartphones and cheap Jio data turned gaming into a mass phenomenon.

But beneath the glossy numbers came darker stories. For a ponytailed professional in Bengaluru, losing ₹1,000 on an app might be an irritation. For a rickshaw driver in Begusarai, it could mean a week without groceries.

Mental health experts at Lucknow’s King George’s Medical University warned that fantasy gaming apps could hijack the brain’s reward circuits – fuelling addiction even in users from impoverished backgrounds, who lose small amounts like ₹10.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw underscored some tragedies, saying online gaming had become a “bigger issue than drugs”.

These games, designed with dopamine-triggering mechanics – daily rewards, loot boxes, near-miss spins – were engineered to hook, and the poor were doubly vulnerable because their stakes were not leisure but survival.

With social safety nets already fragile, the government argued it had a paternal duty to shield the weakest.

The pushback

The counter-argument was equally sharp as reports of job losses (MPL) came in and cricket lost its sponsorship (Dream11). 

Courts have previously upheld that fantasy sports and rummy are games of skill, not gambling – nuances the ban sweeps aside. And critics rightly warn that prohibition rarely works: it drives activity underground, into offshore apps that are even more predatory.

For millions of young Indians, gaming is more than play. It is identity, streaming, e-sports, and even a path to income. Cutting it off entirely, they argue, is to signal mistrust in youth agency.

Global lessons

India is not alone. Other countries with poorer populations faced the same dilemma, and here’s how they dealt with it.

China imposed some of the world’s harshest restrictions: minors may game only three hours a week, enforced by real-name IDs. The State cast gaming as a moral hazard.

Brazil regulated instead: loot boxes had to disclose odds, games were age-rated, and consumer rights were enforced. At the same time, e-sports was encouraged as a youth industry.

Kenya revoked licenses of giants like SportPesa in 2019, citing tax evasion and addiction. Betting ads were banned for targeting the young, though illegal apps mushroomed.

Indonesia banned online gambling outright on moral grounds, but syndicates flourished underground.

The US left it to the States: New Jersey and Nevada turned online casinos into revenue generators under strict licensing, while Utah and Hawaii maintained blanket bans.

The deeper question

For the affluent, gaming is entertainment; for the poor, it can be a financial quicksand. Does the digital economy extract most from those who can afford it the least? For the State, then, the dilemma is sharp: should it shield the vulnerable at the cost of stifling opportunity, or trust citizens and risk exploitation?

This debate echoes older struggles – alcohol prohibition in the US, lotteries in India, even early resistance to stock markets. In each case, what looked like moral panic was also about who bore the risks and who reaped the rewards.

A smarter balance

I spoke to some gamers from different backgrounds (a corporate and a rickshaw driver were included) and this is what they suggested:

1. Enforce age and spending caps through Aadhaar verification.

2. Mandate algorithmic transparency and fair prize pools.

3. Demand industry self-regulation of advertising and responsible play.

4. Promote e-sports and educational gaming as safe avenues for youth.

5. Target offshore predators, not domestic innovators.

Gaming is not really about games. It is about power, capital, and protection in a society still scarred by poverty.

I think the State is right to worry about the gullible. The industry is right to demand room to grow. The real test is whether India can build a digital economy that does not extract from the weakest to entertain the strongest.

That, more than any app or ban, will decide India’s digital destiny.

(Shubho Sengupta is a digital marketer with an analogue past)

Published on September 8, 2025

Is Japan’s Dentsu group contemplating selling its international business? Media reports suggested a sale, describing how the group had signed up M&A partners to find potential buyers. But then a few days ago Hiroshi Igarashi, president and global CEO of the group issued a statement that no decisions have been made. However, he did say that Dentsu is rebuilding the foundation of its international business and re-evaluating underperforming businesses. It may be recalled that Dentsu had earlier announced a layoff of 8 per cent of its international workforce (about 3,400 employees).

The struggles that every network is facing is real, and consolidation is happening – witness the Omnicom group buyout of IPG as well as dramatic changes at WPP, with Mark Read stepping down and a rank outsider Cindy Rose taking over, ostensibly to step up on AI adoption. On September 1, Rose took over and her first messages have been one of transformation. Since her takeover, there was also a significant global leadership rejig announcement with Ogilvy chief Devika Bulchandani appointed as WPP global COO and Laurent Ezekiel as Ogilvy global CEO. Everyone is shaking up things. 

Published on September 8, 2025

From skincare to infant formula, parents want the best 
| Photo Credit:
iStock

Indian parents are willing to shell out big bucks when it comes to their babies, going out of their way to shop for products with no harmful substances – or “no nasties” as it is called. According to the latest data released by Worldpanel by Numerator (formerly known as Kantar), parents in the country are on an average spending ₹6,800 annually on baby care products in urban regions. There has been a 12 per cent rise in spends in the category over the last year despite inflationary pressures.

Noting that nearly 62 per cent of consumers in urban regions are opting for top quality products, the research and insights firm said that the premium segment in infant formula, baby soaps and skincare products has seen a growth in strong double digits.

Conscious parenting

K Ramakrishnan, MD – South Asia, Worldpanel by Numerator told businessline, “The baby care market has seen quite a lot of themes of growth over the last few years. For instance, in 2017 and 2018 the theme was personal care categories. In 2019, just before the pandemic hit, it was the adoption of convenience; in 2020, the baby care market saw a boom as families stocked up on necessities for the most vulnerable. In 2025, if we have to put a theme, it would be ‘beyond the ordinary’.

“Mothers are preferring products that have ‘no nasties’ for their babies,” he says. About two-thirds (67 per cent) stick with products marketed as no nasties until the baby turns two years old. Close to 62 per cent of the mothers also stick to premium products till their babies turn two. “This first two-year period is a closely watched age, and a majority of mothers seem to see this as a tipping point to introduce more broad-based products such as adult soaps, or adult foods for their toddlers,” he explained. This means products that are free from pesticides, GMO, preservatives, gluten or artificial colours are finding their way to parents’’ shopping lists.

Moving online

Quick commerce and e-commerce segments are benefitting from the premiumisation wave. In the 12 months period that ended June 2021, only about 9 per cent of urban households were shopping online. It has now grown to 25 per cent in the 12 months period that ended June 2025.

“Nearly 25 per cent of baby FMCG shoppers now shop online, and this channel generates 18 per cent of the total baby FMCG volume. Online shopping helps parents with peer recommendations of products and experiment with various products,” Ramakrishnan added.

What kind of products are parents buying online for their babies? About 19-20 per cent of baby FMCG shoppers are buying diapers and baby wipes. Nearly 8-10 per cent of urban households are turning online to buy skincare, hairwash, soaps, body wash and powder for their babies depending on the categories. The baby panel data looked at purchases done for 75,000 babies of 0-36 months across 11 FMCG categories (NCCS ABC All India Urban).

Cashing in

Brands are gearing up to cash in on the boom in baby care, especially in the online channel. Take Honasa Consumer, which has identified the baby care segment as one of its “focus categories” and said that its brand Mamaearth aims to establish itself among the top three players nationally. In its FY25 annual report, the company noted, “Baby care, a ₹1,200-1,500 crore category (covering creams, lotions, and other liquid-based products) is expected to grow over 7 per cent (based on industry GMV estimates), and remains a key focus area for Honasa through Mamaearth.”

Branded baby care is no longer content with baby steps but taking giant leaps. 

Published on September 8, 2025

Kerala Tourism UK F-35B advertisement; memes on popular shows and films

When a British F-35B stealth fighter jet made an emergency landing at Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram International Airport and then found itself unable to take off, it instantly got internet’s humorists going. Meme after meme flowed. But the moment marketing honours belonged to Kerala Tourism, it posted an AI image of the grounded warplane and showed it giving a five-star rating on its stay in Kerala. The text read: “UK F-35B – Kerala is such an amazing place. I don’t want to leave. Definitely recommend.” Followed by five golden stars. 

It had the internet in whoops, and got global media coverage. Astonishing isn’t it that a State government handle could be so irreverent and witty?

“We give our social media agency a free hand,” a smiling Sikha Surendran, Director, Kerala Tourism, said describing how the tourism body won the Gold Award for ‘Most Engaging Social Media Campaign’ at the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) meet for its meme-led makeover series.

Riffing away

The entire series was a case study in perfect moment marketing riding on global entertainment trends. For instance, when the new Squid Game series released, Kerala Tourism dropped a pink soldier into the serene chaos of Munnar’s misty hills. To ride the wave of Superman’s latest release, the handle posted the superhero taking a break in the tranquil backwaters of Kerala. “The idea was that even heroes need a houseboat holiday,” quips Shelton Pinheiro, Executive Creative Director at Stark Communications – the ad agency which has handled the Kerala brand for over 20 years, and has been doing the social media duties.

As an April Fools’ Day twist, Kerala Tourism claimed that the Black Panther statue from Wakanda Forever was inspired by Simhapara at Kolukkumalai. 

Totally au courant and on top of anything trending, the social media handle would come up with witty riffs that would spark a lot of discussion and lead traffic on to Kerala Tourism’s pages. For instance, inspired by Maurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped banana that rocked the art world as it sold for millions of dollars, Kerala Tourism came up with its own arty banana post, playing up all the offerings in the State.

Changing the discourse

So, how did this communication style evolve? Pinheiro says it all started post Covid. Till then they had been very nuanced and careful, keeping brand sensitivities in mind. “But Post Covid we were forced to communicate through digital platforms a lot. Perhaps the first lighthearted take was with the ‘Change of Air’ campaign that Kerala Tourism did, which was initially a take on Covid but later also on the Delhi air pollution issue.

 “The client was fine with that, We thought that humorous takes on current events were working for us. So we started working on witty takes and developed memes as a tool,” says Pinheiro.

Crossover element

Pinheiro points out how there is always a “crossover” element in the Kerala Tourism campaigns, which is deliberate. “Our markets were international. And Malayalis were present globally. So we responded to entertainment events around the world.” The overall reach of the meme makeover series was 1.2 million while engagement was 89.7k. 

Last year, for its Onam Fest State of Harmony campaigns, it blended global fandoms with festive flair, launching a meme-driven series riding on Breaking Bad, Homelander and Thor. For instance, there was a picture of an Onam sadya with pappadams atop with the title ‘Breaking Pappadam’. 

Beyond memes, Pinheiro says, the agency also used music in a big way. For instance, Kerala Tourism collaborated with the band When Chai Met Toast for a music video campaign for its Honeymoon Holidays promotion. The song ‘Yellow Paper Daisy’ was filmed in picturesque locations like Munroe Island, and highlighted the State’s unique romantic attractions.

There was also a memorable football rap and a hip hop “Kerala saar” that rode on the internet trend “100 per cent literacy Sir”.

And, now that Kerala is positioning itself as a big destination for weddings, Stark is keeping the crossover element going in its communication. It collaborated with Indian-American singer Vidya Vox for a romantic video song “Shubha Mangalyam” featuring lyrics in English, Hindi and Malayalam, and showcasing the natural beauty of Kerala. The video was a viral hit. 

What has been the impact in terms of tourist arrivals? Says Pinheiro, “The purpose was audience engagement, crossover engagement and to talk to the next set of travelers through these memes and culture. Somehow, it has resonated and youngsters now feel that Kerala is their kind of place.”

Published on August 25, 2025

This year’s campaign stressed: true freedom is only realised when no child goes to bed hungry. 

This Independence Day, KRBL Limited, which owns the India Gate Basmati Rice, launched the latest edition of its annual Grains of Hope campaign, a movement dedicated to raising awareness and action against childhood hunger. This year’s campaign stressed: true freedom is only realised when no child goes to bed hungry. The centrepiece of this year’s initiative was an experiential fine-dining event in a high-end restaurant, where invited guests, including renowned food critics, influencers, CEOs, and industry leaders, were served “Hungerware Collection Plates” designed with missing portions that reflected real hunger statistics in India. Each plate featured a scannable QR code that unlocked a video message, moving guests from awareness to action. The campaign was amplified across social media by celebrities like Gautam Gambhir, Remo D’Souza, Mandira Bedi, PR Sreejesh, Amrita Raichand, and Jasleen Royal . 

Published on August 25, 2025

Actors Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra in a still from ‘Sholay’

Exactly fifty years ago, in 1975, I watched Sholay for the first time. I was a young school boy in Kollam in Kerala, where Hindi movies generally played second fiddle to Malayalam cinema. But the movie hall showing Sholay was packed to the brim for weeks together. At school, its dialogues became common currency. I fell under the spell of Gabbar Singh, Veeru, Jai and Basanti.

College days and ads

A few years later, I watched the movie again during my college days, at BITS Pilani. The story and the dialogues were as fresh and appealing as ever. Students banged chairs in the auditorium at the end of the show, to signal their great appreciation of this cult movie.

Then, again, when I joined Tata Tea as a young marketing manager, I discovered with pleasure that the launch advertising film for Tata Tea starred none other than Amjad Khan, who had played the role of the villain Gabbar Singh in Sholay. It was already the mid-1980s by now, but Gabbar Singh was as popular as ever. That advertisement was an amazing success.

Over the years, so many other brands have leveraged scenes, conversations and characters from Sholay for their television commercials, print advertisements, radio jingles and billboards. I distinctly recall Britannia using Gabbar Singh to promote its Glucose-D biscuits. Other brands that have hopped onto the Sholay bandwagon include ‘Amul’, ‘Mirinda’, ‘Tetley Tea’, ‘Whirlpool’, ‘McDonalds’, ‘Red Bull’, ‘Reliance’, ‘Orbit’ chewing gum and Swift pesticides.

Deep in our collective memory

In addition, the music from this movie keeps surfacing year after year, without fail. I have never seen a single Holi function where the song Holi ke din dil khil jaate hain, is not played. Mehbooba, Mehbooba was quite the anthem of my college days. Yeh Dosti, both the happy and the sad version, has kept cropping up quite regularly in my life, including at farewell events.

Somehow, Sholay has never really gone away from our collective memory. It has morphed from being just an iconic movie to becoming part of our lives. It has been described as a cultural milestone and a national allegory. How and why did this happen?

Storyline or characters?

Is it because of the powerful storyline, the battle between the greater good and pure evil, that lies at the core of this film? Is it because of multiple elements – revenge and violence, morality and criminality, humanity and emotion – that weave their way so seamlessly through the story?

Or is it because of the strong and diverse set of characters that walk through Sholay? The characters of Thakur Baldev Singh, Gabbar Singh, Veeru, Jai and Basanti are developed so well and so sharply that each of them gets embedded forever in our minds. Even Sambha, Gabbar Singh’s sidekick, is so memorable in his ever-so-brief appearances. Very few movies or works of literature bring to the fore so many appealing and likeable characters, so well fleshed out.

Star studded cast or dialogues?

Or could it be because the movie brought together a star-studded cast which included some of the best known names of Bollywood, including Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan and Amjad Khan?

Or, perhaps, was it the many, many memorable dialogues that made this film a cultural sensation? How can we forget lines such as – Tera kya hoga, Kaaliya? or Kitne aadmi the? or Tumhara naam kya hai, Basanti? or Arre oh Sambhaa! Kitna inaam rakha hai sarkar ne hum par?, all of which continue to live on in our hearts? So many of these lines continue to be used until today, which is truly amazing.

Or could it be the fact that this was the first Indian film to have a stereophonic soundtrack and to use the 70mm widescreen format, which made the movie so much larger than life? The title of the film itself was written so big and bold using cinemascope typography, making this point.

Impossible to say. Happy birthday!

As a marketer, I often take great pride in being able to pinpoint why a brand has succeeded or failed. But when I try to analyse the success of Sholay, I must admit defeat. There are so many elements that have gone into making this film successful, that it is virtually impossible to isolate one or two factors which have made this film such a roaring and lasting success. All I can say is that the combination of all these factors made magic happen, and it is impossible to analyse magic.

Sometimes, this is also true of the greatest of brands. They contain many thoughtfully designed and some accidental ingredients. But it is in the overall combination that the magic happens. Happy 50th birthday, Sholay !

Harish Bhat is an avid marketer and bestselling author. He was previously the Brand Custodian at Tata Sons.

Published on August 25, 2025

The crisps are laced with natural ingredients like turmeric, ginger, black pepper and green tea antioxidants found in hangover-prevention supplements.

Morning after mixes and drinks are common enough to combat hangovers. But now snacking brand Too Yumm! has just dropped something called – Party Harder Chips, which it claims is the world’s first-ever anti-hangover chips inspired by Livitup, the trusted anti-hangover supplement from Dr. Vaidya’s. The crisps are laced with natural ingredients like turmeric, ginger, black pepper and green tea antioxidants found in hangover-prevention supplements. To announce the product, the brand has put together a high energy video starring Varun Dhawan who delivers iconic blockbuster dialogues in a playful manner, even as he drives home the message of saying goodbye to hangovers.

Published on August 25, 2025

Four packets of Maggi noodles were ordered every minute throughout the year.
| Photo Credit:
iStockphoto

Flipkart Minutes which launched just a year ago and is now in 19 cities, has put out its annual report ‘Minutes that Move India’. The report decodes what, when and why India orders in the moment. Among the snapshots are that consumers ordered enough milk via Flipkart Minutes to fill six Olympic-sized swimming pools and sold bananas, enough to power an army of minions. Notably, indulgences weren’t forgotten consumers also ordered a staggering 12 million scoops of ice cream, while Maggi noodles continued to comfort Indian consumers with a steady average of four packets ordered every minute throughout the year. There were several strange combinations of orders but the most bizarre belonged to a customer who shopped for aloo bhujia, two gold coins and a mouth freshener.

Personalisation emerged as a key trend, with categories like greeting cards growing by over 60X, wallet-and-belt combos by more than 7.5X, and wall photo frames by nearly 28X across topical occasions such as Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, and so on.

Published on August 25, 2025

Actor Kalyani Priyadarshan in the ad.

When your eyes smile, the whole face smiles, declares actor Kalyani Priyadarshan, as she lines her eyes with Himalaya Wellness’s Kajal. A quick montage of shots of eyes – from a Kathakali artist’s eye movement to Kalyani’s own sparkling ones then shows how eyes become a canvas of emotions. The clever Onam television campaign is clutter breaking as it spotlights the Kajal which is an integral part of a woman’s festive attire Through this campaign, Himalaya invites you to give your eyes a reason to ‘Sm-eye-le’.

Published on August 25, 2025

South Indian Bank’s Onam film makes a heartfelt call to every Malayali, wherever they are, to come home for Onam. The joyous film, which shows a girl somehow making it to her family home in Kerala in the nick of time for the festival, in the wee hours of night, and then the fun preparations for the sadya with cousins, aunts, uncles all chipping in has a simple premise: “Best returns come from the relationships we invest in”.  “When it comes to relationships, Onam is Malayali’s biggest fixed deposit. We looked into our own lives and families and thus was born this endearing musical punctuated by real conversations as ambient sounds, “ explains Paul Philip, Business Head, Human Stories. The film was written and produced by Aiswarya Suresh and directed by Brijith Bkv of First Picture Show Company.

Published on August 25, 2025

Sujata Appliances Onam campaign is also about homecoming. But it’s completely different – it’s about people in an old age home awaiting their loved ones, living abroad, to visit them on the festive day. The shelter is full of bustle, readying an Onam feast and collecting guest lists from its residents. One lady has no visitor – her children have not visited her in two years and this year too they are not coming. But, instead of moping she invites kids from a local orphanage as her guests. The film ends on the hopeful note that you can create a family.

Published on August 25, 2025

It’s 25 years of Škoda Auto in India and the auto brand’s new campaign pays homage to the affection and loyalty it has earned from its fans. At the heart of this integrated campaign is a film that celebrates the pure, irrational love a young fan has for her Škoda, which she pronounces as ‘Doda’. The campaign created in partnership with Team Drive from Publicis Groupe India spotlights Škoda owners, who are fans of the brand, and encourages countless admirers, currently non-owners, to take the leap to buy one. Creatively led by BBH India, ‘Team Drive’ is Publicis Groupe India’s bespoke ‘Power of One’ unit created especially for Škoda Auto India.

Published on August 25, 2025

(from left) Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, DS Group, and Prasanth Kumar, CEO, WPP Media, South Asia

FMCG conglomerate Dharampal Satyapal Group (DS Group) in collaboration with WPP Media, has launched DCODE – The Guide to Digital Marketing, a comprehensive playbook for new age marketers.

The playbook blends academic frameworks with practical application, delivering actionable systems, processes, and templates. It outlines best practices across all critical facets of digital marketing, including paid media, social media, influencer marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO), online reputation management (ORM), and more.

The playbook assumes importance as India’s media and advertising landscape is experiencing rapid growth, poised to expand by 7 per cent in 2025 to reach ₹1,64,137 crore. Within this, digital is expected to grow at 11.5 per cent, capturing 60 per cent of the market share.

Published on August 25, 2025

A few months back, I wrote about AI adoption in Indian advertising, close on the heels of the WPP CEO stepping down — allegedly for not making WPP agencies AI-friendly.

The s***’s hit the ceiling now. Brands have cottoned on to nifty GenAI tools that can write strategy, create media plans and content, including videos at almost zero cost, and give regular reports on what’s working and what’s not.

ChatGPT is passé — even 21-year-old interns with milk teeth are talking about AI agents. Sounds James Bond-ish? It is.

But let’s rewind. When I joined advertising in the mid-1990s, an ad agency was a cool, pony-tailed, smoke-filled affair with writers, designers, media planners, account managers and even a couple of sinister-looking, hard-drinking gents who looked straight out of Mad Men.

There were multiple touchpoints between the client’s business need and the final product — the ad that the consumer saw on TV or in a newspaper or billboard.

A simple ad could take weeks, if not months, in being researched, re-re-re-written, scores of media plans evaluated, and so on.

Fast-forward to 2025. No second sentence can roll past without an AI inserted somewhere. AI is being hyped as the ultimate game changer, promising to reinvent everything from healthcare to content creation.

Already, AI is replicating or replacing core agency functions.

Copywriting and content generation are handled by platforms like ChatGPT, Jasper and Copy.ai — these AI tools can write headlines, social posts, SEO content and even long-form articles.

Videos can be created on Veo 3, InVideo or Synthesia in the blink of an eye.

For visual design, tools like Midjourney, DALL·E and Adobe Firefly are generating high-quality images in minutes.

On the media side, planning and optimisation tools that can segment audiences, optimise bidding strategies and iterate creatives at scale haven’t really taken off. It’s still Excel mostly.

Even influencer discovery, previously a labour-intensive task, is being automated by platforms like Influencity and Affable,which use AI to match brand goals with relevant creators across demographics and geographies.

While industry veterans are cautiously optimistic, snarky young marketers are embracing the shift with boldness. As one marketing consultant recently posted on LinkedIn: “The marketing agencies you’re paying thousands to will be replaced by AI before your own job will be replaced.”

The sentiment is provocative but not entirely off the mark. With the right tool stack, a dude can now run a mid-sized agency — handling content, design, performance marketing and reporting.

Solo operators and boutique agencies are already leveraging tools to reduce manpower costs, deliver faster turnaround and test multiple iterations of creatives. Generative AI also democratises access — smaller clients now have access to visual and copy quality that was once only available at premium pricing.

Productivity gains are staggering: PwC reports that 70 per cent of Indian CEOs expect GenAI to transform marketing within three years, and EY data show a 41-45 per cent increase in output across marketing functions using AI automation.

But hang on. Operational scalability is not the same as strategic depth. AI is not going to hide mediocre thinking. Especially when everyone has the same AI models. AI often regurgitates clichés, fails at tonal nuance and lacks the cultural sensitivity required for Indian audiences. Algorithms cannot yet replace lived experience.

What does the agency of the future look like then? It is not necessarily smaller — it is reconfigured, more fluid, with a core of creative strategists and AI specialists, supported by plug-and-play experts.

New roles will emerge. Traditional account managers may give way to customer experience leads who oversee AI and human interactions. Subscription-based micro-agencies may proliferate, offering fixed monthly retainers to execute a full range of services using automation.

My last word: AI will make smart marketers smarter, dumb marketers dumber.

(Shubho Sengupta is a digital marketer with an analogue past)

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Published on August 11, 2025

In an audacious move, Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey opened for ticket sales a full year before its scheduled release on July 17, 2026. And yet, there was mad fan hysteria reported in early bookings, from Sydney to Seattle. It’s not implausible that they may have a billion dollars in ticket sales even before the first show is screened. A movie that is still under production is being sold like a concert of a long-returning singer.

If the sole purpose of movie marketing is selling tickets, then Nolan has surely nailed it.

Movies of this decade have what those in the past never had — an audience of millions of global digital natives who crave excitement, authenticity, and connection. Their short attention spans seek constant dopamine, and any event that can catch their imagination, like The Odyssey’s advance ticket sales, is sure to create a box office impact.

The new key

If Marketing 1.0 was the use of traditional media to find audiences, 2.0 was the added experiential route with meet-and-greets, and event and media integrations. Post the pandemic, in the age of infinite content and clutter, it’s getting tougher to draw the disengaged generation to the theatre. It requires the curation of sharply targeted messages with virality — a new Marketing 3.0 playbook.

As video and voice overtake text and print as the primary forms of content consumption, the daily diet for the time-starved GenZ comprises infinite wake-up scrolls and bedtime reels, making it possible to reach them digitally with a good bait. Creating exciting, shareable content to get the film into conversations is the new key to box office glory.

Movies that use Instagram to create excitement by sharing stunning shoot visuals, Facebook for advertising, YouTube for trailers, and TikTok for behind-the-scenes clips have seen it translate to ticket sales.

Here are some breakthrough marketing ideas movies have used to get audiences to the theatres. 

Influence, not influencers

The producer of Saiyaara, YRF Films, got some not-so-trained actors to shed elephant tears and act out emotional outbursts after seeing the film. These unfiltered, amateur videos of girls crying in lifts, car parks, and on footpaths after watching the movie spread word on social media like wildfire and created a rush at the ticket office. No hired influencer could have matched the power of #saiyaaracrying, which propelled the movie past the ₹300-crore mark in collections — a first for a movie with newcomers.

In 2012, the makers of the horror film series Paranormal Activity had done something similar — recording jump-scare reactions of terrified audience members using night vision cameras at special previews of the film. That film, made with just $200,000 (₹1.7 crore) grossed over $200 million (₹1,700 crore) at the box office and became a cult classic.

Mystery, surprise

The poster for the film Jawaan raised tremendous curiosity about the new look of SRK, re-positioning him as an action hero. There was no pre-release marketing other than this poster, adding to the suspense. Using the same playbook, YRF didn’t have any pre-release marketing for Saiyaara. No one knew anything about the lead pair, Ahaan Panday and Aneet Panda, so when they first appeared on the screen, they were fresh and exceeded audience expectations.

The horror comedy Munjya put an ugly, unexplained graphic on billboards, fuelling curiosity among fans of the genre. This created so much social virality that it had every teenager wanting to catch the film, eventually helping it cross ₹125 crore in revenue. 

Barbie used blank, pink outdoor hoardings with only the release date on it — there was neither the name of the film, nor even an image of the lead, Margot Robbie, or a doll. The thematic colour of the marketing campaign reminded the target group, which had grown up since its Barbie days, that this movie was for them, and the word spread rapidly within and beyond the fan base. Enough for them to flock in with nostalgia, piling up $1.5 billion (₹13,500 crore) in box office collections for this Greta Gerwig wonder.

Building curiosity 

Aamir Khan’s rugged, bald-headed with a scar look for the movie Ghajini became the hook for the film’s marketing. The promotion focused not on the film’s content but the haircut and scar. Aamir went into salons and gave haircuts to volunteers and theatre staff, creating a virality not heard before and making India’s first ₹100 crore film at the box office.

Given that the movie came after Taare Zameen Par, where he plays a simple teacher in a school for differently abled people, his muscular, gritty look sparked tremendous curiosity and the marketing leveraged on that brilliantly.

Marathi film Bai Pan Bhari Deva (Women can be tough too!) not only had a cool title but also intriguing posters of the cast — relatively unknown female actors wearing shiny, bright traditional Nauvari sarees and Ray-Ban aviator glasses. No one knew what the film was about, but the poster and special women-only screenings before release gave it a stupendous start and over ₹100 crore at the Marathi box office — a great return on a shoestring budget.

Know your core

Gully Boy, a film about street rappers in Mumbai, used grassroots marketing to get to the hip-hop community. A mix of live rap battles and street performances created awareness of this underground music movement and drove a string of new audiences to the box office. The love story with a beat inspired people to begin writing rap as a form of expression and participate in open mike sessions, as the film attained cult status.

The first instalment of the Telugu film Pushpa had stormed the box office with an unprecedented ₹100 crore in collections for its Hindi version, pushing the producers to target the northern market actively when they returned with Pushpa2. Allu Arjun launched the trailer in Patna, at stadiums filled with people eager to watch him in flesh and blood. The Hindi version of the sequel raked in over ₹700 crore at the box office, opening a completely new market for Telugu feature films.

Manjummel Boys, with a dozen young boys and no heroine, pitched the film as a tragic survival story and went on to become the first Malayalam film to collect over 50 per cent of its box office earnings from markets outside Kerala.

Stunts and shows

Mission Impossible is a movie franchise built on a strong reputation for realistic stunts performed by Tom Cruise himself. This commitment to authenticity is an important selling point, and the movie used the photograph and video of him seated atop the spire of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, generating for the film a lot of buzz online and nearly half a billion dollars (₹4,300 crore) at the box office.

The James Bond film Skyfall had Daniel Craig parachuting down with the Queen from a helicopter for the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. Though they used body doubles for the stunt, the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony was forever shaken, if not stirred. That widely televised marketing gimmick perhaps made Skyfall the only Bond movie to gross a billion dollars (₹8,500 crore) at the box office.

For Barbie, Warner Bros created a TV show called Dreamhouse Challenge on its channel HGTV, where the actual Barbie house from the movie was recreated and audiences would participate and live the Barbie Life.

The big question

Kattapa ne Bahubali ko kyon maara? (Why did Katappa kill Bahubali?) remains one of Indian cinema’s most iconic questions, driving people to seek the answer by watching the sequel of the wildly popular Telugu film Bahubali. While part 1 clocked nearly ₹650 crore earnings, the sequel raked in a cool ₹2,000 crore. The series captured the nation’s imagination with incredible storytelling and performances.

Collaboration pays

In a remarkable departure from convention, Warner Bros and Universal Pictures, the producers of the widely different but simultaneously releasing films Barbie (by Greta Gerwig) and Oppenheimer (by Christopher Nolan), respectively, marketed them as a double bill of sorts with the tagline #Barbenheimer. The ploy worked as audiences took the bait and watched both films, which exceeded box-office expectations to gross over $2.5 billion and wing eight Academy awards between them.

Can we imagine War from Yash Raj and Coolie starring Rajinikanth, both of which release on August 15, be jointly promoted as #CoolieWar? 

 Now, that could be a blockbuster marketing hack!

(Naveen Chandra runs 91 Film Studios, which produces and distributes regional language feature films)

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Published on August 11, 2025

Friendship Day gets a fresh twist this year with Bingo!’s new campaign, ‘From BFF to FF — Forgotten Friend’, conceptualised and executed by Tonic Worldwide. What happens when your best friend starts seeing someone — you get badly sidelined. Through a series of digital films, social media activations and influencer collabs, the campaign hilariously captures the experience of forgotten friends. When Cupid strikes your bestie — plans get rescheduled, replies are slow and you no longer seem to exist.

Sisters take legal action

Rakshabandhan campaigns are sure getting creative. Salty, a young fashion accessories brand, pulled off a wild activation that was absurd, dramatic and fun. It created a microsite where sisters could send printed legal notices to their brothers for forgetting their Rakhi gift. Within 48 hours, 1,500+ legal notices were sent. From Arunachal Pradesh to Ahmedabad, brothers were legally reminded to send a Rakhi gift to their salty sisters. The campaign ‘Salty’s Got a Legal Notice’ attracted nearly 0.2 million visits to the brand’s page in less than 30 hours and raked up half a million impressions on LinkedIn. And most importantly, says the brand, many of the brothers actually bought gifts out of guilt.

Furry siblings

Rakshabandhan is not just about human siblings. Tech-enabled pet care start-up Supertails spotlighted pets in its Rakshabandhan campaign ‘Ghar ke Rakshak’, which championed the idea that our furry companions need to be part of every ritual and tradition as they are as much family. The video shows a Rakshabandhan box specially curated for pet parents as a gift to their furry babies. It was sold on the Supertails website and app, with ₹50 from each sale directed toward the vaccination of street dogs.

A lifelong bond

Tanishq’s heart-warming Rakshabandhan campaign ‘Brothers Written by Sisters’ builds on its Father’s Day film ‘Fathers Written by Daughters’, which captured how daughters influence and reshape fathers’ beliefs. In this film, Tanishq spotlights the sibling relationship, showing how empathy, emotional growth and values are exchanged in the lifelong bond between a brother and sister. It cleverly begins with the same scene as in the Father’s Day film — a nameplate outside the house — and the ending ties in beautifully. Clever script, executed well.

Rainy prompts

Fortune Soyabean Oil is tickling taste buds this monsoon with a unique outdoor campaign that transforms a regular spell of rain into a celebration of pakoda cravings. At the heart of this initiative is a rain-sensing billboard, designed and executed by Laqshya Media Group, which integrates a live weather ticker displaying real-time rainfall updates. The minute it starts raining, the billboard brings up visuals of clouds parting to reveal a freshly plated serving of hot, crispy pakodas, accompanied by chutney and chai, instantly evoking the joy of “baarish ke saath pakode”. Installed at strategic high-traffic zones in Delhi, Jaipur and Lucknow, the innovation bridges technology and tradition in a deeply relatable way.

From reel action to real stunts

Bajaj Auto’s latest campaign for Pulsar has a bold message for youth — ‘Duniya Dekhti Hai. Tu Dikha’. The commercial shows young people in a canteen immersed in their mobile phones, watching reels . Until two young men take out their bikes and perform startling stunts. The campaign urges viewers to break out of the spectator mindset, get out of unreal reels and bring back the real rush. The lines may be good but the campaign has a tired trope feeling — why do bike ads need to rely on dangerous stunts?

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Published on August 11, 2025

F1 is a 2025 American sports drama film directed by Joseph Kosinski and stars Brad Pitt as Formula One racing driver Sonny Hayes
| Photo Credit:
Ritaja Roy _12104@Delhi

Marketing investments into “F1”, the hollywood movie starring Brad Pitt, has provided strong brand visibility to Tommy Hilfiger, a designer lifestyle brand under Arvind Fashions Ltd, said company officials. The brand’s association has led to a spurt in brand search and walk-ins

“We felt that this is the right time to invest very aggressively behind marketing. We saw an opening in the market to fuel growth of marquee brands like US Polo Association and Tommy Hilfiger etc to gain market share and grow aggressively,” Shailesh Chaturvedi, MD and CEO of the Ahmedabad-based company said recently. US Polo Association, Tommy Hilfiger, Arrow, Calvin Klein, Flying Machine are the five core brands of Arvind Fashions Ltd and cater to the urban, upwardly mobile consumers seeking global fashion.

“A lot of this marketing investments have gone into online visibility for recruiting new consumers, including younger consumers and consumers in small towns through our wide online reach. Our brands are market leaders across channels and this marketing investment will further strengthen our leadership position. One very happy example of this marketing investment has been the investment of Tommy Hilfiger into F1 movie that got released recently. You can see very strong brand visibility and brand association with Tommy Hilfiger in this movie. We saw an immediate spurt in brand search and increase in walk-ins with the association with the film. the special F1 capsule of garments with Tommy Hilfiger also got sold super quickly,” Chaturvedi added while addressing his last investors’ call a few days ago. Amisha Jain will be taking over as the new MD & CEO of the company for a five-year term from August 13. 

On September 7, 2011, the company had entered into a License Agreement with Tommy Hilfiger Europe BV and obtained an exclusive and assignable license to use the Trademark Tommy Hilfiger, in connection with the manufacture, import, distribution, promotion, advertising and sale of Tommy Hilfiger products in India for a consideration of ₹37.80 crore, according to the company’s annual report. Under the aforesaid agreement, company must achieve a certain minimum sales level with respect to the licensed products and pay royalty on higher of the actual and minimum sales value of license products.

“We have taken a stance to very aggressively invest behind advertising. Last year also we steadily increased our advertising spends as our big brands are becoming bigger. It is a conscious strategy to increase the advertising (spends) and remain top of the mind and gain market share. This strategy will continue on FY 26,” he added. The company has targeted to open 150 new retail stores in FY 2026 and in the first quarter of the current fiscal it has opened 40000 square feet of additional retail space. Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein business have grown double digits, delivering exceptional margin profile,” Chaturvedi said, adding that the company aspires to achieve a 12-15 percent growth in revenues during the year.
 

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Published on August 5, 2025

If there is one thing in the kitchen that Indians are very particular about, it’s the spices they use. And the choice of spice brand is most often dictated by regional preferences, with each State having its entrenched local leader.

There are only a handful of national brands, and it has taken decades for an Everest or MDH or Catch to become one. The nearly ₹87,000 crore spices market has over 1,460 registered companies (Traxcn data) and thousands of unorganised players.

Video Credit: Businessline

Most consumers are fiercely loyal to the spice brand they use. The category has seen 54 acquisitions, 17 IPOs, and attracted venture capital and private equity funding of over $6.4 billion.

And yet, here comes a young D2C player from the steel belt of Raipur, set up by two brothers, Akash and Ashish Agrawalla, with a burning ambition of becoming a big national spice brand. “In five years’ time, our goal is that at least one of our products should be in every Indian kitchen,” declares Akash, co-founder, ZOFF. The name ZOFF is an acronym for Zone of Fresh Foods.

Already the brothers have discovered the sweet spot in the spice segment. That is in ‘khada masala’ or whole spices. Most brands, they say, play in the powders and blended spices space, where the margins are higher.

“We saw the big gap in the market in whole spices. We don’t want to compete with Everest or MDH in their niche, instead we want to be identified as the best brand for whole spices,” Akash says.

To strengthen that positioning, ZOFF has launched a series of rib-tickling campaigns, starring Shilpa Shetty, that end with the tag line “Khadey masala matlab ZOFF”.

Aroma of opportunity

Ashish says that once ZOFF gets its foot in the door of an Indian home through whole spices, the bet is the customer will try out their other products too. And with that eventuality in mind, ZOFF has spread itself wide through the category. Spices are of four types — powders (turmeric, coriander, cumin, chilli being the most essential), blended (garam masala, pav bhaji masala, sabzi masala, et al), whole spices and seasoning (oregano, parsley, among others), explains Akash. “We are in all four.”

Within blends, the brothers say, there is no limit, and this is where regional brands score — you might choose a northern brand for rajma masala, a southern one for sambar masala, and region-specific ones like vangi bhaat masala, rasam powder, and so on.

A tour of ZOFF’s sprawling factory shows the use of modern technology such as cool grinding processes to retain more oils in the spices, fascinating product extensions, and packaging innovation. For instance, there is ‘haldamrit’, a turmeric powder with spices to be mixed with warm milk — a traditional remedy for cold and cough.

Disruptive ziplock pouches have been introduced, so there is no need to transfer the spices to bottles. But most interesting of all are the tiny sachets for some products. The brothers have also ventured into the dry fruits, nuts, seeds, marinades and ready-to-cook mix segments.

Set up in 2018, and gathering pace around 2021, ZOFF is already touching a revenue of ₹200 crore and eyeing a turnover of ₹300 crore by next year — the robust 100 per cent growth coming through more products, big distribution ramp-up and marketing.

Calculated entry

The Agrawalla brothers’ entry into the spices segment was well-calculated. Hailing from a well-off family that was in a steel-related business and agri trading, the brothers did their MBA in Australia and were clear they wanted to do something else. According to Ashish, what tempted them into spices was the margins, the gap they spotted, and the fact that there were very few big national brands.

Born online — Flipkart Grocery was their first distribution channel — today over 80 per cent of ZOFF’s turnover is from digital platforms. “While we got huge learnings from Flipkart Grocery, it was CRED store that helped us achieve entry into 5 lakh homes,” says Ashish. The brand is present on all six quick commerce platforms. But now, it is ramping up its offline play. Partnerships with D-Mart and Reliance Smart Bazaar have been sewn.

Why operate from Raipur, which has no connection with spices? The brothers insist that Raipur actually works wonderfully to their advantage. The cost of setting up the office and factory (with a lot of space and capacity to expand) was much lower. Moreover, being in central India, in a well-connected industrial town, the transportation — both for sourcing and despatch — was much cheaper and more efficient. Their dad, incidentally, does all the sourcing of spices, having experience in agri trading.

The brothers, who came into the limelight after a Shark Tank appearance that won them some funding from boAt’s Aman Gupta, are very marketing savvy. So far the major spends have been on performance marketing, with the brand-building journey beginning only now. It has got Series A funding from JM Financials and is using that to scale up.

Since spice was a completely new business for them, did they have any mentors? “Time has been the biggest mentor,” responds Akash, describing how the Covid years were spent in learning and strategising.

(The writer was in Raipur at the invitation of ZOFF)

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Published on July 28, 2025

DOS AND DON’TS: Sahil Chopra, Chairman, Indian Influencer Governing Council

For many brands, influencers have become a core pillar of marketing. For consumers, an influencer’s endorsement now carries more weight than traditional advertising. The creators themselves are facing challenges — what with the AI wave, on one hand, and a rising call for authenticity and accountability on the other.

So it’s pretty timely that a self-regulatory body — the Indian Influencer Governing Council — has been set up by industry stakeholders.

Launched in February, the council has been busy. It opened three chapters — Gurugram, Mumbai and Bengaluru. It also released a ‘code of standards’ for influencers and brands to ensure authenticity in collaborations and responsible content creation. But here is the interesting twist — the IIGC has also launched standards for consumers. “As digital influence shapes purchasing decisions, it is essential for consumers to differentiate between genuine recommendations and paid promotions, recognise manipulative marketing tactics, and engage ethically in online interactions,” the standards document states.

A supportive voice

Interestingly, IIGC is more focused on protecting the rights of influencers — the idea being to bring back trust in the overall influencer marketing ecosystem.

Sahil Chopra, IIGC Chairman, who is the Co-founder and CEO of adtech platform iCubesWire, says the council comes at a time when trust in influencer marketing is getting eroded, brands are getting away scot-free with questionable partnerships, and influencers are left unprotected while consumers are sometimes misled. “Our intent is to work with stakeholders across four key pillars — creators, platforms, brands and consumers — to moderate, add value to the ecosystem and standardise practices,” he adds

He stresses that the body does not aim to police the creator ecosystem.

“We have millions of creators in the country. Many influencers do not even know the dos and don’ts. We have creators taken to task for swearwords and facing legal action. Look at the level of mental strain they undergo. In fact, that is why we have launched IIGC Protect. We have collaborated with partners — Trilegal and United We Care — to offer legal and mental health support to creators,” Chopra adds.

IIGC is also focusing on contractual relationships between brands and creators. It offers templates and best practices to ensure all partnerships are governed by clear, fair, and transparent contracts. “This aims to address one of the most common sources of disputes in the space — informal, undocumented agreements that leave both parties vulnerable,” says the standards document.

Dispute resolution

An IIGC taskforce has also been set up to help brands navigate online reputation risks proactively through real-time digital listening, sentiment analysis, and crisis mitigation. Its mediation service offers a neutral and confidential space to resolve disputes related to content, reputational concerns, and contractual issues.

The priority for IIGC now is to ensure that the codes of standards are widely implemented, and to roll out memberships to get more stakeholders on board. Also on the cards is a training and certification initiative. “It will be like an academy, not just for creators but also brands. Influencers can become IIGC certified. They will be trained on what’s wrong and right, how to sign contracts with brands to protect their rights. It will also give brands great exposure to understand which influencers they should partner with, among other aspects,” Chopra explains.

In recent times, creators as well as celebrities are under scrutiny for non-disclosure of paid partnerships. “That’s just 1 per cent of the challenges in the influencer marketing ecosystem. There has been too much bashing and negativity around this issue. The more we keep diving into the non-disclosure part, the more we are missing the bigger challenges. Let’s not overplay and exaggerate the non-disclosure issue,” Chopra insists.

IIGC has also declared December 2 as ‘World Influencer Day’. “Creators are not just content generators, but also powerful voices shaping culture, commerce, and community. We need to acknowledge the role they are playing,” sums up Chopra.

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Published on July 28, 2025

Vinsmera Jewels’ sparkling ad campaign, which is breaking the internet, opens on a film set where the crew is arranging props for a jewellery shoot, even as Malayalam superstar Mohanlal hangs around. He looks covetously at the jewellery and then quietly vanishes. The scene changes. Everyone is frantically searching for the jewellery. Meanwhile, Mohanlal in his vanity van is seen trying them on, smiling at his reflection. As the director catches him in the act, the actor laughs with pure joy, breaking an uncomfortable moment. Mohanlal aces this tender, nuanced ad, directed by Prakash Varma of Nirvana films, that recasts masculinity.

Peeling the layers

Prime Video’s new campaign charmingly brings into focus the diversity of its catalogue, spanning themes, genres, languages, and storytelling formats. In the Hindi campaign, Manoj Bajpayee addresses the ‘what to watch’ dilemma humorously, cleverly weaving in the names of shows. Samantha’s Tamil version is even better. Meanwhile, an emotion sensing layer, developed by WPP OpenDoor and Wootag, allows viewers to interact with ads and instantly get a curated list of series or movies to suit the mood.

Grains of unity

On Instagram, a fascinating ‘passing the dabba’ relay is playing out. First we saw actor Soha Ali Khan, who comes from a multicultural background, unveiling the diversity of traditions and dishes in India as she rustles up a biryani made with India Gate basmati rice. Then we see chef Kunal Kapur make a fragrant chana pulao that reminds him of his mother, and which he packs off in dabbas. The dabbas are opened by other food influencers who, in turn, make their favourite rice dish flavoured with a memory. A delicious campaign served with a fun competition and prizes.

Sweet or sour?

The new campaign of confectionary brand Chupa Chups, from the house of Perfetti Van Melle, builds on the idea of how the fusion of sweet and sour can flip the ordinary into a chaos of pure fun. The TVC opens in a casual setting with a group of friends playing carrom with a packet of the tasting jellies beside them. The moment they bite into Chupa Chups Belts, the familiar game spirals into hilarious unpredictability with new rules, and tools. As the tagline goes, “Samajh Ke Bahar Hai, Jaise Chupa Chups Sweet Hai ya Sour Hai.” The campaign is crafted by Ogilvy.

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Published on July 28, 2025

GREAT UNIFIER: Commuters of all hues ride the metro
| Photo Credit:
SUDHAKARA JAIN

When I visit Mumbai, I often take the local train from Churchgate station to Borivali. The main objective is to observe the people on the train. In my home-town of Bengaluru, as well, I have begun travelling by metro quite often, but mostly because the metro takes me to my destination far quicker than an Uber cab can — particularly given the many choked roads of this otherwise lovely garden city. But having got onto the metro, here too I keep looking at people.

In the past two months, these occasional travels by local train and metro have thrown up several interesting insights. I have jotted down over 25 observations during this period. Here are five of them.

90 per cent of the people are on their mobiles constantly — a vast majority are watching videos on social media.

60 per cent of the people wear wrist watches, primarily metal analogue watches. I see far fewer wearables on wrists now, compared with two years ago.

Many more young and middle-aged men are wearing colourful shirts, compared to earlier years (including me).

On my last local train ride in Mumbai, virtually no one was smiling, perhaps after a long and tiring day at work. On the metro in Bengaluru, on the other hand, I inevitably see many more smiles.

Lots of people in Mumbai local trains were carrying lunchboxes, but very few did in Bengaluru.

Each of these ‘public transport’ observations can potentially lead to good marketing insights. For instance, probing why fewer people are wearing wearables now, and what this tells us about changing attitudes to digital health and wellness. Or why middle-aged men are suddenly wearing floral shirts, and what this tells us about ageing and urban masculinity.

Living laboratory

This leads me to an interesting point. Public transport — whether local train, metro or bus — is one of the best platforms for observing consumers and their real-time, in-situ behaviour. Yet, many marketers who choose to travel exclusively by private vehicles or Uber cabs or auto-rickshaws miss out on this living laboratory that pulses with consumer trends every single day.

If you are a marketer or a student of the consumer universe, here are a few reasons why you should ditch your private vehicle and consider travelling by public transport at least occasionally.

Local trains, metros and buses bring together many different segments of society. Affluent office-goers, young students, retail employees, working women, middle-class families — people from virtually every large consumer segment use local transport, particularly in large cities. This helps you break away from the ivory tower of your office or apartment complex, where you are likely to interact primarily with people from your own demographic segment.

With little effort, you can observe what people are wearing or viewing, and often also overhear snatches of conversation. You can see which shopping bags they are carrying, what snacks they are munching on, and what hairstyle or jewellery they are sporting. Sometimes, just the expression on their face speaks volumes. These and other observations can create trend lines in your mind, or stoke your curiosity to find out more.

If you are a little more adventurous, you can strike up engaging and relevant conversations with co-travellers. I do this quite often, and I find that many people (though not all) are happy to chat. For instance, during one metro ride in Bengaluru, I overheard two young people speaking about garments they recently bought at Zudio and Max stores. I spoke to them about why they shopped at each of these stores and the comparative benefits. I came away with a couple of nice insights.

While it is important not to generalise or reach firm conclusions from these assorted observations or conversations, what I have realised is that they can spark new thoughts, questions or hypotheses, which can, in turn, lead to meaningful and actionable ideas.

For all these reasons, I would urge marketers to hop onto metros or buses every now and then. This is one of the best and easiest ways of keeping consumers in your sight.

(Harish Bhat is an avid marketer and bestselling author. He was earlier the Brand Custodian at Tata Sons)

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Published on July 28, 2025

Processed foods typically mention saturated and transfat per serving. But how will you know whether, say, 20 gram of saturated fat per 100 gram serving is too much? You could face a similar situation with investment products. In this article, we discuss whether asset management companies (AMCs) can disclose risk associated with their mutual funds as a relatable metric.

Relatable risk

What if we are informed that burning fat from consuming ice cream would require us to walk, say, five kilometers at a speed of six kilometers per hour? That way, we can relate to the effort needed to keep good health and yet enjoy such food.

Can we apply a similar argument to investment products?

There are several issues to consider. For one, individuals have different life goals and different time horizons for the same goal. For another, the impact of a shortfall in a portfolio at the end of the time horizon may be different for everyone. Therefore, presenting a standardised set of information could be challenging when you are investing to achieve a life goal.

Consider large-cap active funds. The riskometer categorises such funds as high risk. But what does that mean when you are investing to finance your child’s college education or making down payment for a house? Note that being conservative and not taking risk could also lead to failure of life goals, unless you significantly increase your savings. It will be easier if AMCs disclose a standardised metric in relation to your goal. Suppose you assume that a fund must give 12 per cent annual return (referred to as minimum acceptable return or MAR) to help you achieve your goal. The riskometer could show the frequency during the last 5, 7, 10 years and since inception when the fund gave a return lower than 12 per cent.

That could give a perspective of how risky the fund is in relation to the goal you want to achieve. Note risk is defined as the possibility of earning returns lower than MAR in any year, as that may lead to goal failure. A fund can assume a standardised return regardless of your goals; for MAR is the expected return on equity as an asset class.

Conclusion

AMCs should disclose risk metric in a way we can relate to the information provided. The metric must be standardised for comparison among peer funds. The above argument applies to equity funds with track record, not to new fund offers.

(The author offers training programmes for individuals to manage their personal investments)

Published on July 28, 2025

A likely drop to a record low in July is prompting calls for at least one more rate cut this year
| Photo Credit:
John Kevin

Indian government bond yields may rise in early deals on Wednesday, tracking a spike in U.S. Treasury yields as elevated inflation suggests that the Federal Reserve will remain cautious towards monetary policy easing.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond is expected to trade between 6.29% and 6.33%, a trader at a private bank said, after closing at 6.3090% on Tuesday. The five-year 6.75% 2029 bond ended at 5.9980%.

“There could be some upward move in the opening trades, but again we are not forecasting any large swings and overall trend will continue to be sideways for today and tomorrow,” the trader said.

U.S. yields jumped, with the 10-year yield nearly hitting the crucial 4.50% mark, while the 30-year yield rose above 5.00%.

Data showed the retail inflation increased 0.3% last month after edging up 0.1% in May, the largest monthly rise since January. In the 12 months through June, the inflation climbed 2.7% after rising 2.4% in May.

A Reuters poll had forecast retail inflation would climb 0.3% and 2.6% on monthly and annual basis, respectively.

The odds of a rate cut from the Fed are nearly zero for July and have reduced to 55%, down from 65% a week ago.

“Higher tariffs (are) still in the pipeline from here… markets could be rightly pricing out the near-term chance of Fed Funds rate cuts,” MUFG said in a note.

Back home, India’s retail inflation slowed to a more than six-year low of 2.10% in June, down from 2.82% in May.

A likely drop to a record low in July is prompting calls for at least one more rate cut this year. RATES India’s overnight index swap rates (OIS) are expected to see paying pressure tracking elevated Treasury yields.

The one-year OIS rate ended at 5.53% and the two-year OIS rate at 5.50%. The liquid five-year finished at 5.73%. KEY INDICATORS: ** Benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.2% to $68.90 per barrel after easing 0.7% in the previous session ** Ten-year U.S. Treasury yield was at 4.4753%; two-year yield at 3.9440% ** The RBI will auction treasury bills worth 200 billion rupees ($2.33 billion) ($1 = 85.9560 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia; Editing by Rashmi Aich)

Published on July 16, 2025

Luggage brand Safari and wearable tech company boAt have come together to help you keep your bags safe. With the campaign ‘Your Safari Got Safer’, launched on Amazon during Prime Day, Safari and boAt unveil a trackable luggage solution that starts at ₹4,499. The campaign introduces Safari Trackr, a Bluetooth-enabled luggage collection that can be tracked in real time, whether in transit, at baggage claim, or halfway across the world. Told through two digital films, the campaign balances relatable humour with tech-driven confidence.

Look good, feel good

Raymond has joined hands with Goonj to launch the 2025 edition of its annual garment exchange initiative ‘Look Good Feel Good’. Actor and philanthropist Sonu Sood has been onboarded to amplify the core message: Clothing, when thoughtfully passed on, can restore dignity to someone else’s life. While the clothes are routed through Goonj’s Circularity Centres, the video creates awareness about the programme, wherein each customer can receive up to 15 stitching vouchers for exchanged garments.

A snack anthem

Bingo! Tedhe Medhe’s latest campaign, #SabkaJawaabTedhe- Medhe, transformed a viral reel into a catchy snack anthem, showing how brands can engage with internet culture. It all started with a spontaneous reel by creator Deepankar Koshta, where he uttered the now-iconic phrase “Tedhe Medhe bhi acche lagte hain”. Bingo! Tedhe Medhe sent Deepankar a Tedhe Medhe hamper and letter. It then partnered with music producer Anshuman Sharma to turn Deepankar’s line into a quirky, upbeat, hummable anthem.

Woktastic party

Chinese Wok, India’s largest home-grown Desi Chinese fast food company is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a rocking wok party. To mark the occasion, the company has launched a special 10-year emblem, which will be seen across stores, packaging, and digital platforms throughout the anniversary campaign. And to celebrate its 10-year milestone, Chinese Wok has launched a series of 10 high energy, consumer-driven activations from limited-edition offers and exclusive food films to social media contests and lively in-store celebrations all united under the bold and playful theme, “Celebrating 10 Woktastic Years”.

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Published on July 14, 2025

FURRY RELATIVE: India’s pet population is set to touch 40 million
| Photo Credit:
Dimple Bhati

Think ‘family’ and what comes to mind? A small cosy unit with a husband, wife and two kids? Or a larger unit made up of grandparents, parents and children? Think again. Families are no longer forged by blood ties alone. The family of today could comprise a single woman, her pet dogs and/or cats, a live-in house help who has motherly opinions, and Siri and Alexa!

Drawing on its NeedScope research framework, which leverages consumer emotions, Kantar’s report ‘The Urban Indian Family 2025’ has delved deep into how modern Indian households are evolving. Old classifications are passé. No longer can households be structured as joint or nuclear units. “It is not a monarchy. It is not even a democracy. It is a coalition government with no clear majority, where policies are made on the fly, alliances shift overnight, and everyone claims to be in charge,” the report quips.

The report has deep implications for brands, which need to understand the nuances of the blurring lines between blood ties and bonds forged on friendships and emotional needs. Between ordering on Blinkit to recreate grandma’s recipes and seeking help from ChatGpt to craft weight-loss plans and embracing festivals with fervour, urban Indian households are juggling modern lifestyles with long-standing traditions. WhatsApp groups are the new living rooms and rituals are up for a reboot.

Full house again

There has been a nearly 50 per cent jump in the proportion of unmarried 15- to 34-year-olds living with parents over the last five years, indicating a shift towards interdependence — “the return to full house”.

This also means that the definition of ‘family’ has expanded. “Families are no longer defined by bloodlines but by those who show up. There are both visible and invisible entrants in the Indian families. So the emotional anchors in the families are changing,” says Macneil Chowdhury, Director-Qualitative (West) Insights Division, Kantar.

With India’s pet population expected to increase to 40 million by 2026, this means golden retrievers, Labradors and Persian cats are not just featuring in Insta Reels but are also emotional mainstays. Household help, drivers and nannies are increasingly playing the role of “the third parent”. Alexa, smartwatches and WhatsApp groups are playing a critical role in families, not just for logistics but also emotional support.

“Brands will need to start recognising and celebrating chosen families and bonds based on empathy and reliability, not just lineage… they should not attempt to portray the ideal Indian family as typically consisting of one girl child, one boy child, mom, dad and grandmom. This inauthentic portrayal will not help the brand make an emotional entry point in the lives of consumers,” he adds.

Democratic decisions

At the same time, parents are increasingly operating as start-up founders, as children have more voice, making it a collaborative unit rather than authoritarian. Brands also need to stop trying to reach out to only one key stakeholder or decision maker. “Decisions are now being made by members across generations in a family. Brand messaging must reflect this collaboration, not a top-down hierarchy. If you are a brand that wants to be embraced by a family, you need to construct the brand language in a manner that you can reach multiple stakeholders of the modern Indian urban household,” Chowdhury says.

While brands are increasingly trying to shape the gender narrative by urging the Indian man to share the load, the study reveals that domestic participation from men still remains a symbolic gesture rather than a full sharing of responsibilities.

“Technology sustains emotional closeness in physically dispersed families. WhatsApp groups, Zoom pujas, and digital rituals have become the new glue. Brands must find ways to enter these spaces with relevance and respect,” the study points out.

Mental health issues are a new reality in Indian homes, as stress levels soar across generations. Loneliness and emotional distance are rising, especially among the elderly and the middle-aged. Therefore, campaigns must show emotional texture and not just idealised harmony, and not ignore the imperfections, the report recommends.

At a time when wearable tech and AI are the talk of the town, what can brands in these spaces do to find loyal consumers? “Functionality must come with emotional resonance. Products that tap into nostalgia and memory gain deeper household presence. Comfort, whether emotional or sensory, is key. Brands that can provide relief and reassurance will build long-term affinity,” advises Chowdhury.

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Published on July 14, 2025

Fifteen years ago, the Great Indian Influencer was a perfectly coiffured, English-medium-type blogger (WordPress, usually) from south Delhi, coyly promoting a fashion or skincare product on Twitter or Facebook, in low-res lighting.

The word ‘influencer’ was relatively unknown, of course.

Fast-forward to 2025, and India has become one of the largest and most dynamic influencer economies in the world, outpacing traditional media in engagement and trust.

A recent news report says Hindustan Unilever (HUL) is significantly expanding its influencer marketing efforts, partnering with over 12,000 creators across 50-plus brands.

The explosion

The catalyst, around 2015, was a unique cocktail of Jio’s data revolution, rising vernacular content creators, and the explosive growth of direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands hungry for ROI aka return on investment.

Mamaearth, boAt, Sugar, and The Man Company were all launched around that time, and started using influencers.

Then came the pandemic-era screen-time spikes — and a nation that checks out, shops and trolls, based on what influencers/creators said. Well, somewhat.

Influencers are no longer just brand amplifiers; they are product designers, community builders, data mines, and, often, entrepreneurs. From YouTube teachers in Patna to farmers on Instagram Reels, influence now comes in every language, price range, and pin code.

Who is an ‘influencer’?

Anyone who takes money from a brand to promote a product is an ‘influencer’. And a ‘creator’ is someone who produces original content (such as short videos, known as Reels, on Instagram — the most popular platform among influencers) for brands. There isn’t much of a difference these days — it’s so easy to create a Reel. Of course, there are apples and there are oranges.

How do they make money? So, in India, influencers earn through flat fees, performance-based deals, affiliate commissions, or monthly retainers. Early-stage D2C brands often offer barter collaborations, while some creators now even take equity in startups. A 2025 trend is platform-led creator subscriptions, letting influencers monetise directly from fans.

Also, creator payouts vary by follower count and platform — nano creators may earn a few thousand, while top-tier influencers rake in lakhs per post or video. YouTube pays more than Instagram, and affiliate income can scale up fast, especially in finance. Sectors matter: fin-fluencers often out-earn lifestyle creators, due to higher conversions.

Here are a few trends.

The age of the infotainer

In 2025, the most impactful creators aren’t just promoting — they’re explaining, storytelling, provoking a sale. Brands chasing relevance and retention now value content that educates while it engages, and then sells — edutainment has officially become ROI’s favourite acronym.

The nano revolution

When it comes to return on ad spend (ROAS) and/or ROI, nano and micro-influencers (1,000 to 100,000 followers) are outperforming celebrities. Mamaearth famously scaled up its brand using everyday mom bloggers in Tier 2 cities — achieving deeper engagement than IPL prime-time slots. Nano means narrow, but also deeply trusted — and that trust converts faster than fame.

Influencing gets quantified

Brands today want more than reach — they want retention, installs, and purchases. Many, especially in e-commerce, now structure influencer deals tied to metrics like downloads, orders, lifetime value (LTV), customer acquisition cost (CAC), and so on. Influencing has entered the Excel spreadsheet era — perform or perish.

WhatsApp and Telegram: The quiet influence engine

In small-town and rural India, influence flows not through Instagram, but WhatsApp and Telegram. Yes, Telegram groups are HOT! Brands are waking up to the power of private groups, broadcast lists, and vernacular reels.

Content as remix culture

In 2025, brands don’t just want posts — they want participation. Netflix India’s influencer collabs are often re-cut, meme-ified, and remixed into entirely new formats. What was once called UGC (user-generated content) has evolved into UGR or user-generated remix. Meme-ability is the new metric.

Strategic influencer intelligence

Creators are now being used as informal R&D labs. One major beauty brand shelved a product after Tier 2 influencers flagged that the shades didn’t suit brown skin. Insights from influencers are helping brands course-correct before launch day. Their value isn’t just in amplifying — but also in alerting.

Purpose-driven creators

The Good Glamm Group’s campaign on menstruation taboos (May 2024) used regional influencers to blend content with commerce — social impact as a storytelling vehicle. Brands are realising that creators can unlock cause-based engagement far more effectively than vanilla CSR reports. The influencer isn’t just a megaphone, but also a mission carrier.

Rise of synthetic influencers

Virtual influencers have entered Indian marketing, led by AI-generated Kyra, who’s bagged collabs with boAt and Amazon, among others. In India, brands are testing synthetic influencers — but consumers still prefer emotional over artificial authenticity.

The rawfluencer rises

Over-filtered, over-curated perfection is out. After global backlash against scripted “day-in-the-life” videos, creators are leaning into imperfection. In India, creators like Kusha Kapila and Dolly Singh are openly discussing burnout, rejection, and reality. The future belongs to the rawfluencer — unfiltered, vulnerable, and real.

Finally. The influencer/ creator economy has disrupted traditional marketing, turned it on its head. It’s also been a boon to young people, and that’s a good thing. However, you — as a brand owner or manager — need to get your priorities right and tick the boxes, starting with quality. And keep an eye on the bean counter. Good luck.

(Shubho Sengupta is a digital marketer with an analogue past)

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Published on July 14, 2025

For the last few months, Swiggy, India’s hyperlocal food delivery platform, had been involved in the beta testing of Google’s advertising-focused AI solutions to boost its reach to audiences. One of these solutions was an improved version of Performance Max, which allows e-commerce users to re-engage with existing customers who are inactive.

“We’ve seen Performance Max help new user growth, creating an additional impact within the range of 15 per cent to 25 per cent. The bigger part is bringing down our costs. For different hyperlocals, we’ve seen the costs vary anywhere between 25 per cent and 40 per cent,” said Arjun Choudhary, Vice President of Revenue and Growth at Swiggy, during the launch event of Google’s new tools in July.

Incidentally, Swiggy reported an improvement in EBIT margins and attributed this to momentum in food delivery and the expansion of its quick commerce vertical last month.

At the Google event, not only did the tech major launch several tools such as AI Max Research Campaigns and Demand Chat but it also said it would soon roll out agentic AI capabilities across Google Ads and Google Analytics globally. With these AI assistants, advertisers could set up campaigns that drive higher performance, from onboarding and campaign creation to reporting and troubleshooting.

It’s not just Google. Meta has been rolling out solutions to automate ad creation as well as buy and deploy ads. Traditional advertising agencies that play a huge role in the $963 billion ad market have a reason to be nervous. The new AI solutions being rolled out by the tech majors are so disruptive they could well kill the agency model.

Industry observers are already commenting on how big a change is happening. Take BoFA Securities, the corporate and investment banking division of Bank of America, which noted that Meta’s AI assistant is an “underappreciated opportunity” with the potential to become a central interface for content discovery, commerce, and productivity.

Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO and Chief Analyst at Greyhound Research, said Meta’s end-to-end advertising vision marks a “structural rupture” in how advertising is executed.

“This shift erodes the agency’s historical domain of media planning and creative scale. However, this is a forced reinvention moment for agencies. The long-term value of creative strategy, brand stewardship, and ethical guardrails remains beyond the reach of today’s AI,” said Gogia, advising agencies to deliver value where AI falls short. These areas include cultural intelligence, creative originality, and campaign governance.

What’s changing

With big tech doubling down on the advertising market, analysts have been debating the future of the creative and marketing agencies.

According to Jay Pattisall, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester, agencies will bifurcate into enterprise and SMB (small and medium-sized business) providers. Large agency networks have built AI technologies that are comparable to Meta and Google’s tools in some respects and superior in others, he said, giving the example of agency tools that are better at brand governance and cross-platform optimisation. “SMB providers will be more focused on executing for clients using Meta, Google and Amazon’s tools. Since big ad tech’s AI tools will likely produce creatives that lack differentiation, SMB agencies will be charged with building the brand into the campaigns that run on social platforms and through their DSPs (demand-side platforms),” said Pattisall.

Similarly, Manish Solanki, COO and Co-founder, TheSmallBigIdea, said the world is moving in a direction where media buying becomes faster and more automated. This means that resources handling performance marketing might evolve into a more analytical role where the real win will be in creativity and cultural relevance.

“We have to ensure that we move up the value chain — we double down on what AI or platforms can’t do, strong brand thinking and smart creatives. Be the advisor, don’t just execute. Be the brand’s unbiased partner, help them pick the right mix, not just one platform. Work with AI, not against it. If you know how to tell a story, you will stay relevant,” said Solanki, pointing out that AI learns from what’s available in the market while an agency will always be relevant when it comes to originality.

Solanki also estimated that running ads will get cheaper, but breaking through the noise will be tougher. Regional content will grow finally, and there will be scale for Indian languages; but data privacy will be a big issue. Most people here aren’t ready for what’s coming, he opines.

The human touch

Kartik Mehta, Head of Asia and CBO at Channel Factory ad-tech platform, said the maximisation of ad exposure is still in the hands of humans. “It’s just going to enhance and expedite the time that it takes for campaigns to launch or campaigns to be optimised or produce the results that they need on these larger platforms. I would say [AI integration] would be a catalyst to expedite certain areas of work,” said Mehta.

In fact, even Dan Taylor, Vice President, Global Ads, Google, said that advertising agencies will continue to have a huge role to play, despite the advent of AI, due to their understanding of clients. He said agencies will also play a significant part in the data that points AI in the right direction towards achieving a marketer’s outcome.

“AI can generate options based on patterns, but the ‘why’ behind a campaign, the core strategic insight, the emotional resonance that truly connects with an audience, the ethical considerations, the final curatorial judgment, that remains fundamentally human,” said Taylor.

So, for the moment at least, ad agencies are not dying. But they do need to re-invent fast.

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Published on July 11, 2025

SHOT AT FAME: Apple’s award-winning ‘shot on iPhone’ campaign has driven brand affinity for nearly a decade

Many a powerful marketing trend came to the fore at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 2025. The topic of artificial intelligence and how best it can be used by marketers cropped up virtually everywhere. The rise of influencer-creators as an unstoppable force came across loud and clear. The use and misuse of purpose by brands was hotly discussed.

But the one overarching theme I carried away from the event is that consistency in backing a big brand idea always scores over doing many little things. David Lubars, who won this year’s Lion of St Mark award for his lifetime of achievements in advertising, was asked whether big ideas matter more than little ones in today’s world. His answer: Big ideas build brands. What we need is lots of little executions of a big idea, to carry across all touchpoints.

Time and repetition

In another insightful session, Marc Pritchard, the Chief Brand Officer at Procter & Gamble, put forward five lessons in brand building. One of these was the need to build memory with advertising. “It takes time and repetition to build memory,” he said. “Have the discipline and courage to be consistent with your advertising.”

This is wise advice, particularly in today’s world of fragmented media and AI, with a perennial temptation to engage in “performance marketing” through short-term tactical campaigns that target consumers with a wide range of offers, deals and clever creatives. WARC, a global authority on marketing effectiveness, has re-emphasised this by highlighting how consistency delivers more brand profits.

Sticking to a strong creative platform, and refreshing it over time with multiple creative approaches, embeds the brand deeply in the minds and hearts of consumers.

Two benchmark examples from Cannes Lions 2025 illustrate the benefits of such consistency in marketing. The brilliant “shot on iPhone” campaign from Apple and the endearing ‘Real Beauty’ platform created by Dove. Both these long-running campaigns received the coveted Grand Prix awards this year.

The “shot on iPhone” idea was launched way back in 2015, primarily as an out-of-home (OOH) campaign. It was remarkably simple — billboards featuring real photographs shot on iPhones by real users. The photographs, techniques and iPhone models used have since changed many times, but the campaign has remained consistent in showcasing the powerful iPhone camera.

In sharp contrast to competitors who focused on megapixels and lenses, this campaign showed us what iPhone cameras could actually do. It has driven over 20 billion OOH impressions. In 2025 alone, it drove over 40 million visits to the iPhone product page. This single campaign, with all its local adaptations, has contributed significantly to building affinity and purchase consideration for the iPhone, leading to its spectacular growth over the past decade.

Enduring theme

Similarly, the ‘Real Beauty’ platform from Dove was launched in 2004, based on a finding that only 2 per cent of all women described themselves as beautiful. The brand, therefore, developed its creative objective — to help more women feel more beautiful every day. To do this, the brand developed a platform that showcased radically different depictions of beauty, and spoke about what real beauty meant.

The campaign decided to never use models in its advertising. Instead, women are shown as their true selves.

‘Real Beauty’ has seen many different creative executions over the past 20 years, but the core theme remains the same.

Dove, which had been an ageing brand before the launch of this campaign, is today purchased by 37 per cent of the world’s population, according to Kantar. The brand estimates that the ‘Real Beauty’ campaign has driven an incremental revenue of $28 billion. Truly amazing.

In India, too, we have seen some iconic brands develop consistent marketing and advertising platforms, though these have been few and far between. Tata Tea’s iconic ‘Jaago Re’ campaign was launched 15 years ago, and the brand has since remained consistent with this unique platform.

This powerful campaign, which has seen multiple executions, urges us to develop our sense of civic responsibilities, even as we enjoy our favourite cup of tea.

Amul’s topical advertising, which presents the brand’s interesting take on current events, is yet another example of consistency in advertising. Other Indian brands that have exhibited such consistency include Asian Paints and Fevicol.

Consistency is not easy to pursue in today’s world of fragmented media and short-term pressures. But these examples show us that the ongoing power of a strong creative idea, refreshed imaginatively over time, is perhaps the best bet for building a strong brand.

(Harish Bhat is an avid marketer and bestselling author. He was previously the Brand Custodian at Tata Sons)

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Published on June 29, 2025

PUNJABI PATTY: Burger Singh is high on desi flavours

Yashveer Yadav is enjoying his new role as a retail entrepreneur. A few years ago, Yadav, who is in his 40s, quit his banking job to become a franchisee of fast food chain Burger Singh. He started with a food court model at Ambience Mall in Gurugram in 2022, and then a dining-plus-takeaway model in Rajouri Garden in West Delhi last year. He is currently scouting locations for a third outlet. But this time, there is a difference. He needs to invest only about 50 per cent in setting up the new store, with Burger Singh investing the rest.

After 11 years in the business of selling burgers, and several pivots, Burger Singh, founded by Kabir Singh, is now experimenting with a new co-investment model of franchise development; Yadav is a thrilled beneficiary. The new model, says Singh, has been inspired by insights gleaned from the performance of its stores.

But first, a bit of background. When Singh, who had been with The Pint Room, a pioneering beer cafe, started the quaintly named Burger Singh in 2014, which offered very desi flavoured burgers, he went in for a company-owned, company-operated structure with small-format stores focused on delivery — a la Domino’s. But the growth of delivery platforms like Zomato and Swiggy necessitated a change in the model.

In 2019 or so, the retail-focused pivot happened with a franchise model, but Singh describes how it was strongly differentiated from the big American burger brands, which required large store formats (over 3,000 sq ft) and imported equipment, leading to a steep cost of setting up (₹2.5-4 crore).

Burger Singh opted for smaller, 800 sq ft store formats, and used locally manufactured equipment, which meant a franchisee only needed to invest around ₹50 lakh. This economical model allowed Burger Singh to rapidly expand into tier-2, -3 and -4 cities. The chain also pivoted from a premium pricing strategy to mass pricing.

And now comes the interesting new refinement in the franchisee model. Singh describes how they found that some franchisees were more profitable than others. “From our side we were providing the same fit-outs, training, skills, help with marketing, and support, as well as help with finding the right location… so this was curious.”

When they looked deeper, Singh says, “The key difference was that in stores where the owners spent a few hours, the customer experience was better, and there were repeat footfalls. So we started profiling the owners.”

Singh says they discovered that there were two types of franchises. One an investor owner, who delegated everything, and another an owner-manager. “In the latter, the outcomes were better, the hygiene was better, the experience was better.”

So, this led to the new initiative last month, targeting owner-managers, where Burger Singh invests ₹20 lakh and the franchisee invests ₹24 lakh, with the pre-condition that he or she would be present at the store for 90 hours a month. The initiative will start with 50 stores at first.

According to Singh, the chain receives around 800 franchisee requests monthly, but only 7-10 are onboarded. Burger Singh currently has around 185 live stores and another 75 in the fit-out stage. A royalty fee of 4 per cent is collected from franchisees, which are also required to spend 4 per cent on local marketing.

As a category, Singh says, burgers may be growing faster than pizzas. A 2023 report does show that burgers and sandwiches enjoy a growth rate of 19-22 per cent while pizzas clocked 13-18 per cent. Singh feels that the new 10-minute services like Swiggy’s Bolt could be well suited for chains like his. “Our internal target for burger preparation is four minutes,” he says.

For now, though, he is banking on his new entrepreneur class of 2025 to help the chain take a bigger bite of the burger business.

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Published on June 29, 2025

Casual footwear company Crocs served us a playful K-drama-Bollywood crossover that totally stole our heart. Tapping into pop culture from both countries and sprinkling loads of monsoon magic into it, the Croc ad features South Korean and Indian heartthrobs Chae Soobin and Siddhant Chaturvedi, with a cute ‘enemies to lovers’ storyline that fuses elements from both cultures wonderfully — the rain-drenched sequences with an umbrella, stolen glances and exchange of charms — with the Crocs a common point of connection. Yann Le Bozec, Head of Crocs International Marketing, said: “This campaign is a bold step in cultural storytelling, blending the rising influence of K-dramas with the timeless appeal of Bollywood through a pairing that’s unexpected yet perfectly in sync.” Conceptualised and produced by Kulfi Collective, the campaign is live across digital and social platforms in seven Asian markets. In India, Crocs introduces the monsoon-specific Jibbitz charms that are featured in the ad.

Calculating dreams

2025 marks a significant milestone for Casio as it celebrates 60 years since the debut of its first electronic desktop calculator. To commemorate the 60-year milestone, Casio India has rolled out a multi-touchpoint campaign, ‘The calculator India trusts’, across YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, as well as promotional collaterals in retail stores, especially across tier-2 and tier-3 towns, where brand trust plays a critical role in purchase decisions. Rooted in the belief that every calculation shapes the future, the campaign pays tribute to the countless moments that Casio calculators have supported Indians across classrooms, businesses and homes. In the emotionally charged film, created by Backlot Films and featuring a retailer, a student and a working woman using the calculator, the Casio device is portrayed as a symbol of perseverance, ambition and everyday triumphs.

Not straight

To mark Pride month, Bengaluru-based D2C home décor brand Sleepyhead has done a few unusual things. For starters, the brand, which is declaring ‘Straight isn’t the default’, has tilted its entire website experience — literally. Every element, from product images to navigation, will appear slightly askew, embracing the idea that life (and comfort) isn’t meant to be lived in straight lines. It has also launched a limited edition Sleepyhead Pride Sofa — a piece of furniture built for those who live unapologetically, love loudly and express without filter — even as it is celebrating the curved, the cozy, the colourful and the gloriously non-linear.

Extending the campaign beyond digital, Sleepyhead is also making a bold statement on the streets with a striking out-of-home (OOH) campaign. The Pride Sofa will be showcased through immersive bus shelter installations across key locations in Bengaluru — Koramangala, Marathahalli and Banaswadi.

Getting inclusive

Biscuit companies Britannia and Parle decided to showcase their inclusivity this Pride Month. Britannia’s Good Day brand set the ball rolling with a print ad titled Flavours of Equality — featuring a Good Day pack flaunting all the colours of the rainbow — and with one empty slot. It invited rival Parle Monaco to co-create a multi-biscuit ‘Pride’ pack. Parle did not crumble but made a crunchy comeback on Instagram with a similar biscuit pack arrangement featuring not just Monaco but also Hide&Seek, Krackjack and so on, with the message “Happy to help you with this initiative. We at Parle have been proudly serving India’s diversity not just for one month, but every month, every day.”

In-a-jiffy delivery

Myntra’s latest campaign for M-Now, its expedited delivery offering for fashion and beauty fixes, rides on humour. Conceptualised by DDB Mudra, the two ad films feature actor Vihaan Samat, actor and comedian Sumukhi Suresh, and influencers Sakshi Shivdasani and Ayesha Kanga. Set against everyday, yet extraordinary backdrops, the campaign unfolds through a sharply humorous narrative where chaos, urgency and style collide. Set in a courtroom, Vihaan and Sumukhi are called in as key witnesses, but the situation takes a comic turn when they show up in pyjamas and furry slippers. With moments to spare before stepping into the spotlight, they quickly turn to M-Now to pull off a stylish transformation. The second film sees Sakshi and Ayesha facing a beauty emergency before their mugshots at a police station. Panicking, they urgently turn to M-Now for beauty essentials like lipstick, mascara and eyeliner.

Live the footloose life

Mobile phone brand Oppo’s latest campaign stars Ranbir Kapoor and cleverly uses his star legacy by getting him to imagine the iconic “Aawara Hoon” spirit of his grandfather. The film opens in a black-and-white setting, evoking an old-world charm. Ranbir steps into the frame in a classic Aawara-inspired look, as the scene shifts from monochrome to colour. Shifting into an interview format, Ranbir gives his take on the ‘Aawara Life’ and how the Reno14 Series brings those experiences to life.

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Published on June 29, 2025

Adieu, Cannes! India returned from the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with 32 medals, including a Grand Prix, nine gold, nine silver and 13 bronze. This is not India’s best showing, though — it got 42 medals in 2022. Among the agencies, FCB India had a good outing, securing nine Lions, including a Grand Prix. Havas, Leo Burnett and Ogilvy each picked up a Gold Lion, and BBDO a silver.

Omnicom’s DDB Worldwide was named Cannes Lions Network of the year. Last year’s winner Ogilvy placed second in the special award category.

What was noteworthy this year was that the awards showed more global reach and diversity, with Brazil stealing the show.

The US secured the highest number of medals — 203 Lions, followed by Brazil with 99. Brazil was also honoured with the Creative Country of the Year award. The UK got 80, France 63 and India 32, rounding out the top five. While Japan (13) and Singapore (12) did well among Asian nations, there were first-time grand prix wins for Puerto Rico and the Czech Republic, and a first-time Lion for Uruguay.

The $1 trillion digital opportunity

E-commerce, content play and consumer discernment will continue to fuel the rise of a $1 trillion digital opportunity, says a new report by the India practice of Bessemer Venture Partners, titled ‘Click, Watch, Shop: The consumer opportunity in India’.

Commerce will become quicker, better and more aspirational across channels, it says, pointing out how, starting from a base of $30 billion in 2020, it is expected to get to $300 billion by the end of the decade in 2030, contributing to a $1 trillion digital opportunity.

Not only is quick commerce growing fast, but now there is also a trend of verticalised q-commerce emerging, with startups like Snabbit, Swish and Slikk catering to niche needs.

Content is growing with equal velocity. Over the past five years, short-form video platforms in India have witnessed a 3.6x growth in daily active users, competing with mainstream digital platforms.

Thanks to UPI-enabled micro-transactions, companies are able to experiment with diverse monetisation models beyond ads. Virtual tipping, UPI autopay and other micro-transactions are expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2029.

Indians are also spending heavily on categories that till some years ago were considered non-essential, such as physical and mental health, financial wellness and pet care.

There is now also increased spending on organic food, protein, fitness gadgets, preventive healthcare and wellness services.

Samsung’s bespoke AI appliance line-up

Korean chaebol Samsung has unveiled its 2025 Bespoke AI home appliance line-up, which includes air-conditioners that talk to fans, a laundry combo (washing machine-plus-dryer), and refrigerators that can recognise 37 types of fresh food and 50 types of packaged food and do a host of other smart things.

A consumer can onboard the devices and control them through the SmartThings app on their phone. Showcasing a connected living scenario in a smart home, the Samsung spokesperson said the four key values of the bespoke AI line-up are that they are easy (you could literally give voice commands through Bixby or use your phone as remote to control them), save energy, handle care (the AI in the appliance recognises maintenance issues and sends alerts) and are secure.

Interestingly, among the four values, the ones that appeal to Indians the most are the ‘saving energy’ and ‘care’ functionalities. The fact that SmartThings notifies users of any motion, smoke, or leaks, and that there is no need to search for warranty cards and so on, as alerts are sent to the care centre as well.

While the AI appliances are here, and the smart home ecosystem is getting into place, market research surveys have shown that cost and compatibility issues are inhibiting larger adoption. A question asked at the launch event, for instance, on how the AC could talk to the fan if the fan was an old model, elicited the answer that you would need a smart plug to make the fan connected.

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Published on June 29, 2025

ORGANIC APPEAL: Greenery at Bengaluru airport
| Photo Credit:
Shivendu Jauhari

Is it possible that the humble fruit in Apple’s logo is part of what makes its customers among the most loyal in the world? Could the lush gardens and open green spaces at the new Bengaluru airport be doing more than beautifying the terminal — perhaps easing stress and making flyers feel relaxed long before takeoff? Could Jaguar’s new identity with nature-inspired forms, to signal an all-electric brand, instead of the controversial minimalist design have led to more positive online buzz? As surprising as it may sound, the answers lie in the human instinct to connect with nature — an instinct brands are increasingly tapping, knowingly or otherwise. As sustainability gains centre stage and consumers seek deeper, more meaningful experiences, a larger question for marketers and CMOs alike is: Can connecting with nature be a strategic advantage for brands?

Why nature works

Our research over the years, spanning service environments (servicescapes) and visual brand identities, finds that nature-based design elements enhance brand experiences and positive customer perceptions.

Brands are no longer built only through products or advertising. They are sculpted through immersive experiences and visual cues. In our work published in the Journal of Services Marketing and Journal of Brand Management, we have explored how servicescapes and visual identities can infuse biophilic principles to elevate consumer engagement and brand image. Our arguments are grounded in attention recovery and mood restoration theories, supported by empirical evidence in a series of experiments. This body of work suggests that biophilic designs function as a cognitive and emotional catalyst that can elevate brand image and experience.

Biophilia in action

Take Amazon, for example. Its Seattle headquarters, the Spheres, is filled with over 40,000 plants that serve as more than just an architectural marvel. It creates a work environment that reduces employee burnout and fosters creativity. Google, too, has embraced biophilic design across its global offices with natural lighting, green walls, and water features, contributing to employee satisfaction and productivity.

Retail brands like IKEA and hospitality brands have long invested in natural textures, indoor greenery, and organic layout flows that feel intuitive and calming. Such choices are strategic tools that build customer pull and stickiness.

Airports around the world have begun to understand this. Singapore’s Changi airport — consistently ranked among the world’s best — offers verdant indoor gardens, waterfalls, and butterfly sanctuaries. The new Terminal 2 at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport follows suit with expansive indoor gardens, natural lighting and open spaces.

These environments do more than entertain; they calm, delight, and imprint a positive brand association with the airport, and even the country it represents. For service marketers, the implication is clear: biophilic servicescapes are no longer a luxury but a lever for customer preference.

Biomorphism

Visual identity is another domain where biophilic design plays a subtle but powerful role. Apple’s logo — a minimalist, organic shape of a bitten apple — stands in contrast to the more geometric or abstract logos of Samsung or Google. Our research suggests that such biomorphic forms — mimicking shapes and patterns of nature — can evoke familiarity and warmth, aiding memorability and emotional connection. Indian brands are beginning to recognise this. Companies like Fabindia, Forest Essentials, and Nicobar incorporate natural motifs and plant-based narratives into their branding, aligning tradition with modern sustainability.

Biomorphism — not the same as biophilia — draws on the subconscious preference for curved lines, natural symmetry, and forms reminiscent of leaves, waves, or living beings. Even when actual nature is absent, mimicking its essence can shape a powerful brand experience.

Biophilic design

In a world saturated with screens and stress, nature is quietly making a comeback. As we immerse ourselves in the convenience and experiential benefits of the digital world, technostress and anxiety have emerged as significant concerns. Ironically, as people become increasingly disconnected from nature, companies like Amazon, Apple, and Facebook — which partially fuelled this disconnect — are adopting more natural elements in their brand marketing.

For CMOs, brand managers, and experience designers, the implication is clear: biophilia is not merely an architectural or design choice — it is a branding imperative. Our research indicates that brands that root themselves in nature can grow stronger emotional bonds, enhance memorability, and deliver more humane experiences.

(The writers are faculty members at The Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode)

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Published on June 15, 2025

RAPT FACTOR: Krafton India’s 24-minute ‘DoomTroopers’ campaign

Seen the Sleepy Cat “slap facial” ad that is trending and has attracted rapturous posts by marketers? It’s outlandish, hilarious, quirky… and quite long. At two minutes and 34 seconds, it breaks the norms of 30- or 60-second commercials and yet engages you fully in this “attention-deficit economy”. It also delivers the key message the brand wants to convey.

The Sleepy Cat ad is not alone. A host of recent campaigns have broken the unspoken time barrier in advertising, and yet managed to make the viewer stay till the end.

Take the Mother’s Day campaign for Ashok Leyland that The Small Big Idea did. Harikrishnan Pillai, CEO and co-founder of the agency, says, “Attention isn’t dead. Long-format ads work if they have a gravitas to capture peoples’ attention. If it is just a boring, long ad masquerading as a piece of work, you will be disappointed. Long ads build the story, the environment, and the context.”

Dheeraj Sinha, who leads FCB India, agrees. “People only lack attention when content is poor quality. In my view, people have patience for good content, otherwise how do they binge-watch 10 episodes of an OTT series? Length does not matter. The debate is not over duration — it is over how interesting or relevant an ad is,” he says.

Tushar Khakhar, First Executive, Agency09, which made an emotionally charged, over three-minute-long ad film for Siyaram’s last month, says that today’s audiences are endlessly scrolling. “This has led to users developing a ‘goldfish memory’. Here, short ads help with top-of-mind recall. However, if brands are seeking to convey a core message, they must engage audiences with long-form content. Longer ads make space for emotional connections and help leave a stronger brand recall,” he says, stressing that storytelling needs room to breathe.

What has been the response to their long-form ads? “We have seen all generations respond well to long-form content, particularly millennials and Gen X. Having grown up with YouTube, Gen Z, too, has a great appetite for long-form content, when done right,” says Khakhar.

Beyond 20 minutes

Okay, agreed, a two-minute ad, even a five-minute ad may hold attention. But what about an ad that is over 20 minutes long?

Meet Krafton India, whose ‘DoomTroopers’ campaign for Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) last Diwali was about 24 minutes long and did thunderously well. It told the story of a squad and the concern when one among them went missing, and the frantic search that ensued.

Says Srinjoy Das, Associate Director-marketing at Krafton, “It went ballistically viral. The peak moment for us came when a YouTuber who plays a lot of BGMI was watching this with friends — a watch party — and began crying as it reminded him of his days of forming a squad.”

“If you want to tell your story well, you need to build your characters very well. You can’t just do a character introduction and straight jump into it. So we’ve given tremendous amounts of freedom to our agencies,” says Das.

Das says Krafton has been doing long-form since 2023. “We really started this revolution almost three years back, not sticking to 15, 30 or 60 seconds; and for us it was born out of data and insights. We also do a tremendous amount of testing before putting out an ad,” he says.

He adds that when they tracked the average viewing duration of their long-form campaign films, it was close to 75 per cent. “That gave us real confidence,” he says.

Several advertisers point out that they got shackled into the 15-, 30-seconders either because of prohibitive media costs on television or reasons like YouTube’s ‘skip ad’ options after a few seconds. The brand message had to come in the first three seconds. But now they are breaking out of those shackles.

Filmmaker Ram Madhvani argues that long-form ads can actually break through clutter. “Remember the Mere Dad ki Maruti Yash Raj film, with the brand at the centre of it. That’s where advertising needs to go. Maybe the time has come to make a 22-minute or even a 45-minute film,” he says.

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Published on June 16, 2025

Recently, Mark Read stepped down as advertising behemoth WPP’s global CEO, and a not-so-secret reason murmured in industry circles was the network’s inability to truly embrace AI in its marketing and creative DNA.

And if the world’s largest agency network is feeling the AI heat, where does that leave Indian marketers and agencies?

Well, if you go by the noise at advertising conferences, everyone and his aunt is using AI to revolutionise the way we work — dig a little deeper, and you will see it’s mostly to do what low-paid or unpaid interns did anyway. Look for synonyms of ‘immersive’, for example, on ChatGPT. Or get 50 logo options.

There is part-excitement, part-denial, and a whole lot of “work in progress”.

Here’s my take on what’s happening in advertising in the last year — the AI hype, the hope and the real work.

Hesitation at the top

Indian advertising has wasted no time putting (free) AI to work where it’s easiest: writing basic code, routine data analysis, crafting ad copy, editing short videos, generating basic visuals, segmenting audiences, and running performance campaigns.

But when it comes to fundamentally rethinking strategy, brand-building, or CX through AI, the enthusiasm thins out. Many leaders love to showcase their team’s AI experiments at conferences, but few have embedded AI deep into their brand vision or marketing playbook.

Maybe it’s an age thing — there is major FOMO, but the leaders are not ready yet — until someone else demonstrates revenue first.

Playing catch-up

The big legacy networks — WPP India, Publicis, Dentsu, and McCann — are setting up AI labs and partnerships. Yet, much of this feels reactive, designed to tick the box rather than drive innovation.

In contrast, smaller, nimbler, digital-first agencies like Schbang, Influns, CyberMedia and Interactive Avenues are already using AI for dynamic creative optimisation, video personalisation, and rapid content production. Setting up longer-term supply chains, that is.

Legacy agencies have the client rosters and scale, but lack the agility and AI-native mindset these younger players bring.

Resistance

In many agencies, AI adoption is happening in silos. Media and tech teams embrace it, while traditional creative leadership remains suspicious or disengaged — the Piyushes and the Prasoons and the Balkis, that is. I’ve read so many funny articles mocking AI on LinkedIn — all by 50-plus creative directors… it’s not funny.

Many creative directors still view AI as a threat to craftsmanship — or, worse, job security. This resistance ensures that AI is often used tactically, but not strategically. Until agency leadership bridges this cultural gap, expect more fragmented progress.

Success story

One bright spot is AI-driven language marketing. Indian brands are using AI for voice cloning, dynamic translation, and synthetic video generation in multiple languages, enabling scale that was unimaginable just a few years ago.

For once, Indian marketers aren’t just copying Western trends — they’re solving a uniquely Indian problem with AI, and doing it well. (Though only 80 per cent accurate for now.)

Roadblocks

It’s also about how much data brands want to share with the agency. There is a trust deficit.

AI thrives on clean, structured data — and that’s precisely where many Indian marketers struggle. CRM systems are often riddled with inconsistencies, and customer data sits in disconnected silos. Add growing privacy concerns under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, and brands are understandably cautious about going all-in on AI-driven personalisation. This is not a technology issue; it’s a data governance and readiness issue.

Leadership gap

In most Indian agencies and marketing teams, AI ownership is scattered across tech, data, media, and digital functions. Very few organisations have an AI-first leader driving vision and integration. Without this clarity, AI risks becoming a string of isolated pilots rather than a transformative force.

Obviously the CEO should drive this, but it is missing. Maybe ad agencies should get an AI Officer? Brands like Mondelez India (‘Not Just a Cadbury Ad’ with SRK), HUL (precision marketing at scale), Titan, and Airtel are showing what’s possible. Some progressive digital agencies like Schbang and Interactive Avenues are also leading the charge.

Legacy creative agencies are still on the edge of the AI pool, with one toe dipped in. Banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) brands excel at backend AI but rarely apply it to customer experience. And government/ public sector unit marketers have yet to leverage AI for localisation and citizen engagement in any meaningful way — though Bhashini (the multilingual translation engine) is one of the big successes.

‘Active Experiment’ mode

To be fair, Indian marketers aren’t ignoring AI. But many are stuck in an “actively experimenting” mode while global players build AI-first marketing engines.

The opportunity is huge — India’s mobile-first, multilingual market is perfectly suited for AI-driven creativity and personalisation.

What’s needed is vision, leadership, and the courage to go beyond the safety of pilots and labs. As the WPP shake-up reminds us, the real risk today isn’t in using AI. It’s in failing to use it boldly enough.

Hurry up, please — it’s time.

(Shubho Sengupta is a digital marketer with an analogue past)

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Published on June 15, 2025

BREAKING THE CLUTTER: Yourri Guerassimov, CEO and CCO , Marcel

“Creativity in agencies should really be linked to the business gain of our clients. Our main job is to make the brand succeed. It’s a matter of responsibility for the talent of the agency to bring the creative idea to exactly the place where it’s supposed to work for clients,” declares Yourri Guerassimov, CEO and CCO of French agency Marcel, when asked about the trend of ad agencies making campaigns with an eye on awards.

Guerassimov, incidentally, is one of the most awarded creative directors in the business, with several Cannes Lions, D&AD Black Pencils and a host of other coveted ‘metals’. But his awarded campaigns have not only been unique and disruptive but also on point. Take the 2023 ‘WoMen’s Football’ campaign for French mobile network Orange, which not only wowed juries but also drove audiences to appreciate the women’s game.

Ideas that sell

Relaxed, after a stirring presentation at the Goafest stage on the need for creativity to be bold, courageous and take a stand, Guerassimov is happy to share his thoughts on the concerns plaguing the industry, prime among them the low-funnel work that agencies are getting. “Let’s be honest, our industry is struggling. Why? Because our clients are struggling. Because of the inflation, because of what is happening in the US — all of these things create an uncomfortable situation for everyone,” he says. “But we are advertisers. We are strategists. We know how to come up with ideas that help products sell more, so we should just do that.”

On clients pushing performance marketing over brand-building work, he says, “I’m totally comfortable with clients saying what they want. But we can’t do just that, because then people will probably be less interested in the brand and we need to think in the long term.”

Fire-and-water team

Queried about creative people in agencies now having a new challenger — no, not AI, but influencers — Guerassimov thinks they are cool. “Influencers, for me, now are part of the industry, because they are also doing kind of advertising, but the best way to deal is to collaborate together. It’s a cool way to be in contact with people and show a product — all those unboxing videos. But there’s no consistency. This is why it’s very important for us to be really involved,” he says.

Asked about his long-standing creative partnership with Gaëtan du Peloux, president and CCO at Marcel, a smile springs to Guerassimov’s lips. He describes how he started working with Gaetan over two decades ago, when both were very junior, and how they evolved and progressed together. “I love working with him as a team because together, I think, it’s not 1 + 1 equal 2, but three,” he says. “We are really, really different — he’s the fire and I’m the water. We are both passionate, we love creativity, we love advertising, we love great ideas, and we respectfully listen to each other.”

Exiting comfort zones

Earlier, in his session on stage, Guerassimov made a strong case for creative teams to be bold in order to cut through the noise. “There are over 6,000 ads a day,” he pointed out. He also mentioned an Accenture study that found that 66 per cent of consumers would switch brands if a company remained silent on core values.

To illustrate bold ads, Guerassimov pulled out Nike’s Colin Kaepernick campaign, which fearlessly chose the highly polarising NFL player as the face of the brand. Another daring ad, made by Burger King, showed mould and fungus in the burger — just to tell the consumer that the brand used no preservatives.

Guerassimov’s own WoMen’s Football campaign for Orange challenged the norm as it tricked fans to overcome prejudice. The film showed a compilation of top plays by French football heroes like Mbappe, Giroud and then revealed that the video was actually a compilation of women’s technical moves. Using VFX, it faked the first part — the second part shows the same actions with the correct faces.

But his favourite is the ‘Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables’ work for supermarket Intermarché. The brief was to take action against food waste and change consumer perception about imperfect looking fruit and vegetables. The supermarket bought from growers the products they usually throw away, and sold them at 30 per cent discount, even as lovely creatives celebrate the beauty of the “Ridiculous Potato”, the “Hideous Orange” and the “Failed Lemon”. Intermarché’s store traffic increased by 24 per cent and its sale of fruits and vegetables by 10 per cent.

“It was an extremely effective campaign. The supermarket got complimentary letters and the director came to us and said, ‘normally we only get complaints here’,” says Guerassimov, with a grin.

He also speaks fondly of the work Marcel has done for Oasis, a popular soft drink in France. The campaign ‘Be Fruit’ using playful, animated fruity characters that party and have fun was a super-hit. “We do some crazy things for the brand, because it’s an entertaining brand and we always have to write funny jokes with these little fruits. It’s funny for the kids. It’s funny for the adults,” he says, describing how they have used Mangas, hip-hop, and a whole lot of topics to appeal to different generations. The creative juices have been overflowing on that one!

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Published on June 1, 2025

Rohit Ohri, Founder, Ohriginal
| Photo Credit:

Advertising veteran Rohit Ohri, who retired from FCB last September, has launched a culture consultancy, cleverly named Ohriginal. The 62-year-old adman says he wanted to do something he was passionate about and make a difference to an organisation in a new way. “When I looked back at what had contributed to the success in the organisations that I had been part of, whether it was JWT, Dentsu or FCB, it was the culture of the organisation,” he says.

His new venture will help organisations codify the culture and embed it in themselves. “Often times you postulate a culture but you do not live it within an organisation,” he says. Drawing on his own lived leadership and creative experiences, Ohriginal will help organisations decode , define and live their culture. And, yes, he says, he will draw upon his theatre experience. “I want to build this as a storytelling piece. Theatre is a very vivid way of bringing alive what an organisation’s culture can be,” he says.

What’s in a brand name

In these times of heightened sentiments, the choice of a brand name can spark outrage and even force a company to change it. Liquor major Radico Khaitan landed in a storm when it launched a premium whiskey brand called Trikal. The label graphic on the whiskey bottle featured a meditative face with a circular mark on the forehead, sparking outrage among religious groups that took umbrage at the naming of an alcohol product after a divine concept . Radico Khaitan then issued a statement saying, “The name ‘Trikal’ comes from Sanskrit and means ‘three times’, referring to the past, present, and future. It reflects our deep-rooted belief in honouring India’s rich heritage while embracing progress and innovation.” But the company said it understood the concerns raised and, “as a responsible and sensitive organization, post internal review we have decided to withdraw the brand”. Brand experts said the lesson here is the need for pre-launch tests among focus groups on cultural sensitivity.

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Published on June 1, 2025

PUMA India’s new Instagram campaign, ‘RCB Shotline’, which features Virat Kohli, Usain Bolt, PV Sindhu, Jack Grealish, Rajat Patidar, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, and Krunal Pandya, is fun, quirky and hooks you with its playful banter between the sporting stars. RCB players Kohli, Patidar, and Pandya operate the PUMA “Shotline”, fielding calls from fans — who, in fact, turn out to be legends from other sports. Smashing questions and cheeky repartees mark the conversation between Kohli and Bolt, Sindhu and Grealish. The campaign’s aim is to highlight PUMA’s mix of sports and lifestyle, and it does that engagingly.

Ice cream in a ball

Havmor Ice Cream’s new campaign tries to cash in on the thrill of cricket and Gujarat Titans with the launch of a limited-edition Choco Vanilla Cricket Ball Ice Cream. The cricket ball-shaped packaging doubles as a toy ball. In the ‘Enjoy it, Play it’ digital film, a precocious young fan challenges Gujarat Titan players Shubman Gill, Sai Sudarshan and Washington Sundar to play bat tapping. There follows a cheeky exchange between the kid and the players. Though the script is good, and the idea great, sadly it all looks a bit contrived.

Period piece

The big bold campaign of the fortnight is Tata Trust’s attempt to reframe how India understands menstruation. Using a catchy jingle, “Maheena Aa Gaya” , it encourages people to see menstruation simply as a natural, biological process — not a cause for shame or secrecy. The campaign is anchored in a combination of social and behaviour change communication across seven states, a series of films and development interventions on the ground among communities. The cleverly worded jingle — maheena (month) refers to periods in popular vocabulary — tries to shift the narrative from menstruation being a symbol of fertility to one of health and nothing more, and which can be talked about openly.

A joyous air

Air India’s new campaign, ‘There is an Air About India’ is a breezy tribute to new India. The campaign, which includes an out-of-home segment, print ads and a stunning digital film, captures the essence of a nation on the rise that Air India is proud to carry around the world. Created by McCann, the digital film’s centrepiece is the rap-style soundtrack composed by Sneha Khanwalkar, with vocals by emerging rap artist Aarya Jadhao. The film blends rhythmic storytelling, sharp transitions and stunning visuals — capturing the soul of India, from bustling metros to remote heartlands.

Feed a streetie

Pet-care startup Supertails is celebrating its fourth birthday on the streets. It has launched a street-wide birthday party to feed stray dogs, collaborating with community feeders — the result is an endearing video. Capturing real moments from the streets, a fun gully rap, ‘Cake katega, sabme batega’ , the pooches and the acts of kindness by the feeders, the film wins your heart.

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Published on June 1, 2025

IT’S A STRETCH! Luxury sleeping pod for business-class nomads
| Photo Credit:
Chesky_W

Last month, I undertook a long journey from India to the US and back. The flying time from Bengaluru to Chicago was around 15 hours, and there was a brief transit at Frankfurt airport. On one of these flight sectors, I watched a superb movie, Conclave, which I had long been waiting to see. On another sector, I read a lovely book — A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson — in one sitting. On a third sector, I slept for over eight hours at a stretch.

In short, I did many things on these flights that I could never have done in such a short period at home. This was possible because my mobile phone was shut and silent during the flights, and there was none of the interruptions and distractions that constantly punctuate our day-to-day lives.

This led me to reflect on the delights of flying. While flying comes with its own set of potential problems — such as frustratingly long waits at airports, lost baggage and jet lag — what I also discovered is that long flights cater to many of our needs and desires high up in the sky. Here are some of these expected and unexpected needs that lengthy flights fulfil.

Cocoon for the mind

Once you step on a long flight, you are entering a cocoon of your own. You don’t receive phone calls or messages that interrupt your flow of thought. This may, of course, change if flights begin offering free Wi-Fi. There are no visitors dropping in to meet you or discuss urgent issues, and no Zoom calls to attend. You have your own beautiful space for several hours at a stretch, which helps you disconnect from the cacophony of the world, relax, reflect, read or work. This helps rejuvenate the mind greatly.

Palaces in the sky

Many airlines today offer very good food, wine and other beverages on long international flights. While passengers travelling in first class or business class cabins are pampered with haute cuisine, those in economy class, too, are offered a fairly good choice by some airlines. In addition, you can generally eat at leisure, without feeling guilty about taking a long time out for lunch. Most airlines also offer excellent entertainment options, including new movies as well as award-winning classics that you couldn’t catch before.

Serendipitous trysts

Sometimes, long flights can present opportunities to meet and engage in great conversations with interesting people. On my recent flight to Chicago, I ran into the famous Indian flautist Pandit Rakesh Chaurasia, who was travelling to the US for concerts. He shared lovely insights about flutes and music concerts, as also beautiful stories about his uncle Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia.

On the flight, I also met a long-standing business associate whom I knew from my time at Titan 15 years ago. We had a wonderful, long conversation. Serendipitous encounters are an integral part of long journeys, particularly if we look out for them!

Sleeping pods

Sometimes, caught in the hectic pace of modern life, all we want is several hours of deep sleep. Long flights are the perfect places to catch up on sleep. Particularly when I am privileged to travel business class on international flights to Europe or the US, I target at least eight hours or more of uninterrupted sleep on a seat that turns into a flat bed.

When very tired, I have slept equally well on economy cabin seats too — what helps me here is a firm neck pillow. Sophisticated looking sleeping pods have become fashionable in many places, but long flights are perhaps the default sleeping pods for business nomads who have to fly around the world on work.

It is important to note that not all passengers have all the four needs described above. There may also be other needs that I have not covered. It would be useful for airline marketers to segment their consumers based on their primary needs, and then target these segments with the right set of product benefits. Such a consumer study can lead to many interesting innovations.

(Harish Bhat is an avid marketer and bestselling author. He was previously the Brand Custodian at Tata Sons)

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Published on June 1, 2025

MESSAGING MATTERS: Col Sofiya Qureshi (left), Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh at a media briefing on ‘Operation Sindoor’
| Photo Credit:
SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

I woke up on the morning of May 7 to see X on fire. Claims were flying — India had lost the war, all our drones and jets had been shot down, air bases bombed into the ground, and, apparently, Pakistan had won.

Such dry humour before breakfast was a blast — pun intended — and it didn’t take long to realise this was the handiwork of low-effort troll farms, possibly paid, probably from across the border.

Ever since the Indian armed forces launched ‘Operation Sindoor’, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK — launchpads for anti-India operations — social media has been the second battlefield.

Pakistani trolls got a head start but their Defence Minister Khawaja Asif stole the show when, in a CNN interview, he claimed five Indian jets were downed — “proof all over social media,” he added. Cue laughter and meme mayhem. Let’s not forget, this is the same gentleman who earlier admitted Pakistan’s support for terrorism on behalf of the West.

Fuelled by his bold confidence, Pakistani netizens went into overdrive, recycling video game footage — especially from ArmA 3 — and slapping on dramatic captions with spelling and grammar that defied all known rules.

Meanwhile, Indians on X launched their counteroffensive. Hashtags like #IndiaStrikesBack, #OperationSindoor, #KashmirIsOurs and #NoSafeHaven were trending within hours. Influencers, ex-servicemen (of every stripe) and political figures from across the spectrum pitched in. Liberals criticised the government, yes — but the armed forces got near-universal backing. Among Opposition leaders, Shashi Tharoor and Asaduddin Owaisi both posted in support.

Bollywood and cricket stars weren’t far behind. Some joined in with patriotic posts, others were blasted for saying nothing. Ranveer Allahabadia once again pulled his ‘Now Live, Now Delete’ act.

Desi media, not to be outdone, went into hyperdrive. From the night of May 8, channels aired sirens, CGI explosions and breaking news tickers claiming India had bombed Karachi, captured Lahore, surrounded Islamabad and sparked a coup against PM Shehbaz Sharif.

The metrics

X post volume: Indian users fired 3.5 million posts. Pakistanis managed around 2.1 million.

Engagement: Indian posts saw much higher interaction — many crossed 1 million likes/reposts. Few Pakistani posts got past 200K.

My top-three trends

AI-powered fakes: Deep-fakes and doctored clips flew fast and furious, mostly on WhatsApp and X, misleading both sides.

Cyber-offensive: Hacktivists and media arms alike went hard on narrative control, spurring nationalism.

Celebrity pressure: Stars and influencers were scrutinised. Lara Raj, a K-pop artist, faced backlash for being silent.

So, who won?

Tricky to say for sure. But by most indicators — reach, coordination and engagement — India came on top. The mix of meme warfare, emotional storytelling, official updates and grassroots solidarity worked.

Pakistan’s digital offensive, while noisy, faltered on credibility. Game footage, overblown claims and a lack of cohesion hurt their case. Even friendly media outlets couldn’t patch the credibility gap.

Crucially, both diasporas went full throttle, influencing global chatter around the conflict.

And then came the image that united nearly everyone in India: two uniformed women officers — one Hindu, one Muslim, side by side. A quiet, but powerful reminder of what secular India stands for. That was the real viral win.

This was more than a battle of missiles — it was a modern war of memes, misinformation and morale. And India held the digital high ground.

(Shubho Sengupta is a digital marketer with an analogue past)

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Published on May 18, 2025

Mayo Murasaki, a Hindi-speaking Japanese YouTuber

At the inaugural World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (Waves), cine stars Shah Rukh Khan, Rajinikanth, Mohanlal, et al, created a buzz, as expected. But the non-glamorous show stealers at the summit, which saw rousing words on the orange economy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were creators such as Akash Jadhav and Mayo Murasaki, who demonstrated how platforms like YouTube have made it possible for anybody to become a star.

Indeed, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, who dubbed India as the ‘Creator Nation’ of the world, stated that Indian content racked up 45 billion hours of watch-time outside the country, and the platform had paid ₹21,000 crore to Indian creators, artists and media companies in the last three years. He announced an over ₹850 crore investment towards building the orange economy further, much to the excitement of content creators.

At the event, businessline caught up with Akash Jadhav, who, along with his brother Santosh, runs Indian Farmer, an agricultural channel with a huge following, and Murasaki, a Hindi-speaking Japanese who posts videos on India and Japan, to gauge the impact of the content economy, brand play, monetisation and the advent of AI.

Reaping a rich harvest

Indian Farmer’s YouTube channel, which tackles real-world farming problems, has nearly 5 million subscribers. Jadhav describes how the two brothers from rural Maharashtra started out in 2018 with a vision to “make farming more sustainable, profitable and residue-free”. “My primary motivation is to get clean food on my table,” he says.

Today, across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, Indian Farmer has a following of about 10 million farmers globally; only 15-20 per cent are from India, even though the content is in Hindi. As Jadhav says, “Food is something everyone is interested in. It resonates with everyone the world over.”

The huge following has allowed the brothers to monetise their passion project. However, this did not come about easily, says Jadhav, as the two had no one to guide them in their attempt. Over time, they realised that brand collaborations gave the best returns, despite their lack of affiliation with any agency. Jadhav estimates that about 80 per cent of their revenue comes from collaborations with agricultural brands, manufacturing brands, companies working on digital farming, irrigation and, at times, even the government.

“At Indian Farmer, we created a proper commercial deck with fixed pricing, clear deliverables and workflows. This helped us build structure and credibility with brands,” he says.

The rest of the revenue comes from ads like YouTube AdSense and Facebook monetisation. Jadhav, however, foresees a dip in this form of revenue since Facebook has paused its monetisation option.

“Our Facebook page was ‘demonetised’ over two years ago and, despite multiple attempts, we’ve received no resolution from Meta. The bulk of our ad revenue now comes from YouTube, and that has not been much. Structured agri courses were a turning point. A reel may go viral, but a paid course builds depth and predictable revenue,” says Jadhav, adding that the use of AI by platforms like Meta has done little to help his business.

For Murasaki — who came to India as a student and majored in Hindi because her father, a Himalayan climber, loved the country — pushing content on YouTube started as a passion. “I started the channel about India and Japan so that I wouldn’t forget Hindi. I never thought of becoming a big YouTuber. I just followed my passion,” she says.

She is anxious over the advent of AI. “My strength has always been me speaking English and Hindi. Now, with AI, the language barrier will be very low… my advantage may be weakened. I have to be more creative and unique when it comes to content creation. I guess AI could be an advantage and disadvantage at the same time for me,” she says.

Asked whether content creation will offer a viable means of earning in the AI era, both creators are cautiously optimistic. Murasaki says, “Yes, I think it can be a viable job. Of course, a YouTuber is usually not considered a stable job. But I’m learning language and marketing while making content. So I plan to do this as long as I can, maybe not just in YouTube video format.”

Jadhav warns that content creation is a risky business. “You can lose your business overnight, as happened with our Facebook platform. Also, monetisation doesn’t begin with followers but with clarity on value. The real shift for content creators will happen when they think like entrepreneurs, building systems around their content.”

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Published on May 18, 2025

HERITAGE INC: Godrej Enterprises Archives records the nation’s history through the evolution of the company’s product portfolio

For marketers, old can be the proverbial gold if leveraged well. Recently, IIM-Ahmedabad started an unusual executive education programme called ‘Strategic Legacy Management’. The course teaches participants to use history to create business value, employ it for impactful storytelling, branding and communication, as well as navigate the present and future.

“Your history is the best proof point for the promises you keep today,” declares Anders Sjöman, EVP Client Projects at the Centre for Business History, Stockholm, and author of History Marketing, a book that talks about using history as a corporate strategic asset.

Sjöman and Vrunda Pathare, head, Godrej Enterprises Archives, are teaching this corporate heritage course at IIM-A, along with the B-school’s faculty member Dr Chinmay Tumbe

If Godrej has one of the most remarkable business archives in the country, which gives you a sweeping view of the nation’s history through its product evolution story, then the Swedish Centre for Business History is a one-of-a-kind repository of corporate heritage. Stored here are the business archives of thousands of Swedish companies, both living and dead, with information, trivia and pictures lovingly collated by talking to the “squirrels” in the organisation.

“We were founded in 1974 as a non-profit to document the history of dead companies in Stockholm — there were shipyards, ad agencies, mechanical workshops that had gone defunct through bankruptcies or had stopped existing for some other reason, but had been important to the city,” says Sjöman. The oldest document at the centre is from the 1400s, from a sawmill in north Sweden. “After some time, living companies started contacting us to archive their history — so we had paying customers,” he says.

Stories from the past

From Ericsson to Electrolux, IKEA, H&M, Swedish companies have used their history in compelling ways to engage with customers or redefine their products, Sjöman says.

Different companies have different strategies for using their history. For instance, he describes how IKEA has a fantastic museum open to all (for a fee) that is centred around living rooms down the decades. “So there is IKEA furniture from the 1950s and 1960s, and if you walk through the living rooms you get a picture of how your grandmother lived or what it looked like when you were growing up. So it becomes a larger storytelling exercise.”

Volvo has a similar set-up in Sweden for its cars, adds Sjöman.

While IKEA and Volvo have used their history beautifully to engage with their customers, he describes how H&M, which is 78 years old, draws on its archives while crafting new products. “All the H&M annual special collections are archived at the centre and, often, their designers come here to see what has been done before… and look for inspiration,” he says.

Sjöman recalls how Australian film director Baz Luhrmann, who was shooting an ad for H&M, popped into the archives as he wanted to understand the company better.

War and warts

“There’s also a big HR perspective to building your heritage. People love to know the history of the place they come to work in,” says Sjöman.

Apart from Sweden, is there any other country where companies have invested in preserving their heritage? “I think German companies do it well, and they have had to do it for a very tragic reason,” responds Sjöman. “Today’s German companies had to own up to what they did during the Second World War and the Holocaust. And the driver for that was the fall of the (Berlin) Wall in 1989, when East Germany’s archives opened up. So the side effect was that Germany has a very active set of business historians. German companies have a good grasp of their history — the good and the bad,” he says.

He says there’s always the risk that companies may just want to talk about the good stuff. But companies need to talk about the good and the bad, he urges.

Pathare says in India, too, business archiving is picking up. “At least 15 companies are considering archives,” she says.

Start early

How old should a company be to begin history marketing?

“There’s the wish from us. And then there’s the reality,” exclaims Sjöman. “The wish is that they start from day one. In reality, somewhere around the time a company turns 20, the founding people will probably start leaving the company. So there’s some sort of generational shift that normally prompts people to start thinking about their history,” he says.

But in the digital age, he says, that’s changing and a lot of young companies are capturing moments and preserving stuff from day one.

Asked why, if history marketing can boost brand value, companies like Coca-Cola and Mercedes-Benz are being edged out of the top 10 brand valuation rankings by tech firms like Apple, Google and Microsoft, he responds that anecdotally one can note that all these firms have built interesting stories around their creation and founders. “Look at how well Apple has built the Steve Jobs creation story.”

“One way of using heritage is to tie it to a person — the founder figure.”

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Published on May 18, 2025

Actor Neena Gupta and her daughter Masaba bring a smile to your lips in Myntra’s Mother’s Day campaign. Neena asks Masaba what she will gift her for Mother’s Day and there follows some hilarious scenes as Masaba’s wild suggestions meet with scathing takedowns from her mom, until an exasperated Neena says all she wants is an outfit. The mom-daughter duo happily scroll through Myntra’s pages and, of course, there are witty last words when Neena flaunts her outfit.

Spotless action

A test of popularity of campaigns these days is how viral they go on WhatsApp. By that yardstick, Safed Detergent scores a big hit with its Mother’s Day campaign, which shows a mother rushing to a school and into the principal’s office with a girl student. She complains to the principal about a boy who is harassing the girl, urging him to take action. The twist in the tale is that she turns out to be the mother of the boy! A well-crafted film.

Zara’s fashionable fifty

Fast-fashion brand Zara turned 50 and celebrated the milestone with a spectacular short film created by fashion photographer Steven Meisel, featuring 50 supermodels — including iconic names like Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington. Styled by Karl Templer, the models wear pieces from Zara centred around monochrome classicism of tuxedo dressing. The models sing and dance to the tune of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love — coming together at the end in a beautiful group photo. It’s a lovely tribute to a brand that has created an undeniable impact in the fashion world.

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Published on May 18, 2025

In yet another structural shift, WPP has moved creative agency Grey from the AKQA group to Ogilvy. Grey’s global chief Laura Maness will now report directly to Devika Bulchandani, the global CEO of Ogilvy. An internal memo circulating in the media quotes Bulchandani as saying, “This is not a consolidation, but rather a realignment to better reflect how our agencies operate in practice.”

Although the memo says Grey will remain a standalone agency brand, observers expressed concern at the shifting of yet another storied agency brand, and wondered if it would go the J Walter Thompson route. Also, veterans wondered if bloated creative companies could really compete against nimble boutique agencies. Grey Global Group was founded in 1917 by Lawrence Valenstein and Arthur C Feinn, and the name reflected the colour of its walls. It was acquired by WPP in 2005.

Apple is most valuable brand, TCS shines: Kantar BrandZ

For the fourth year, Apple took top position with a brand value of $1.3 trillion, up 28 per cent on the previous year, in the 20th edition of Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands rankings. Google, Microsoft, Amazon and NVIDIA took the next four spots — notably the latter had a huge 152 per cent year-on-year growth. Among Indian brands, TCS shone, grabbing 45th spot at a brand value of $57.3 billion and an accelerated 28 per cent year-on-year growth.

Significantly, US brands now comprise 82 per cent of the total value of the global top 100, up from 63 per cent in 2006; however, a rise among Chinese brands and the volatility caused by escalating tariffs could threaten this order, the Kantar report noted. Chinese brands now account for 6 per cent of the overall value of the global top 100 and these shifts have come at the expense of European brands. ChatGPT premiers in 60th place, the highest newcomer since NVIDIA in 2021.

Outside the US, significant gains have been seen for Sweden’s Spotify, re-entering the global top 100 at 76; India’s Airtel, the fastest growing telecom brand in the world; Argentinian retailer Mercado Libre, the only Latin American brand in the global top 100; Spanish retailer Zara, which rose five places to 65th; and Canada’s RBC, which saw the biggest y-o-y brand value growth (43 per cent) among financial services brand outside the US.

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Published on May 18, 2025

PIE CHART: A delivery platform sent out 5.84 crore pizzas in 2024
| Photo Credit:
jimkruger

Last month, I visited the US for six days. Within this brief period, I ate pizza three times. In Chicago, I feasted on Sicilian pizza for dinner. The toppings included anchovies and shrimp, and it was exquisite. The very next day, I ate a slice of the city’s famous deep-dish pizza, which was delicious. Two days later, in Rochester, Minnesota, my sister and brother-in-law took me out to their local pizza place, where I indulged on a wood-fired cauliflower crust pizza.

I could see pizza everywhere during my visit. And this is equally true of India, too — with a wide range of popular pizza brands such as Dominos, Pizza Hut and Smokin’ Joe’s. On food delivery platform Zomato, pizza featured second only to biryani last year, with more than 5.84 crore deliveries.

What has led to the overwhelming popularity of this food, which took birth way back in the 16th century in the Italian town of Naples as a food for poor people? Here are nine underlying factors:

1. Incredible taste: There is science behind this — specifically, something called the Maillard reaction. When pizza is baked, its components — the sugars in the crust, the cheese and the toppings — react chemically with amino acids, creating hundreds of lovely flavours that fire up our tastebuds. In addition, the soft dough, molten cheese and crispy crust create a beautiful contrast of textures.

2. High on convenience: Pizzas can be eaten easily virtually everywhere, particularly since they are a dry food. They can be devoured hot or cold, by hand or by fork, in a fine dining restaurant or in front of your home television.

3. Instant comfort: The high fat content of a pizza, as well as its umami flavour make it a lovely comfort food. The cheese and the meat toppings provide the fat. Tomatoes, which are used on most pizzas, are high on umami, a flavour that activates specific regions of our brain that are associated with pleasurable comfort. No wonder we feel so comfortably happy after eating pizza.

4. Reasonably affordable: Pizzas make for a fine meal, but are relatively affordable. In India, for instance, Dominos offers pizzas starting at ₹99 each, and there are several options available at price points below ₹200. This is quite reasonable, in comparison to other foods. For instance, a rava masala dosa at a good hotel in Mumbai now costs upwards of ₹150.

5. High on nutrition: Unlike many other fast foods, pizzas are quite high on nutritional content. A single slice of chicken pizza contains 15-18 grams of protein. This is not to say that pizza is the healthiest food. But it has a good balance between nutrition and taste.

6. Portion control: Because pizzas come in slices and are even measured in inches, you can control your intake of portions quite easily — though this requires some self-control, for sure. I normally eat two slices of a 14-inch pizza, and then do my best to stop. It is difficult for me to exercise similar portion control with equal ease for other foods such as biryani or paneer makhani.

7. High on customisation: With such a wide range of toppings, pizzas are amongst the most customisable foods on earth. From grilled panneer to Sicilian seafood to Chettinad chicken to banana curry, you can have the toppings of your choice. I asked Perplexity.AI this question, and it promptly told me that over 500 types of pizza toppings have been documented across the world. Such extensive customisation may be difficult to achieve with idli, pancake or poha.

8. Food to share: Friends can gather around a large pizza and share it from a single plate. Sharing is always an emotionally appealing and uplifting way to eat with people whom you know well. On the other hand, burgers or dosas are typically eaten in individual portions.

9. Party food: Over the years, pizza has become linked to social events and parties. Often, kids’ birthday parties are viewed as incomplete if pizza is not served. This mental association of pizzas with exciting parties has added to its appeal. If foods can have EQ (excitement quotient), then the EQ of pizzas would be very high!

Would you like to add a tenth factor, to round off this list? With so many fundamental drivers of consumption, it is now quite easy to see why pizzas are today amongst the most popular foods on earth.

(Harish Bhat is an avid marketer and a bestselling author. He was previously the Brand Custodian at Tata Sons)

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Published on May 4, 2025

As clients today seek more reels than ads, how is the strategy function at agencies shifting?

The overall advertising market in India is around ₹1.6 lakh crore, of which about 50 per cent is digital. For many of our clients, anywhere between 25 per cent and 70 per cent of ad spend is now digital. For D2C clients it may be more. So certainly the media has changed. Hence the client expectation from agencies has also significantly changed.

From the good old days of one piece of content we are now moving to 50 to 100 pieces of content of all kinds — content that brands put out, influencers put out, and so on. Yet the brand still needs to speak as one voice. How will that occur? What I hear more and more from our clients is: ‘Can you guys at least, from a strategy level, bring all of this content together, so that we speak as one brand and it doesn’t look like disparate pieces of work done by different people’. So the strategic role of the agency has increased to hold the brand voice and brand narrative together. It has also become a lot more complex, so clients need somebody to simplify stuff. And who better than us to do that.

Somebody has called the role of agencies today as imaginative repetitiveness — spinning one idea through different stories to a multitude of people. So that has necessitated a change in how agencies think.

A lot of advertising work now seems related to customer experience and other stuff where the consulting firms are edging in. How do you deal with that?

There are two parts to that. I am bucketing advertising and content as one stream, and this will be led by either one agency or a combination of many agencies, depending on how the client chooses to play it. And there, I think, we have a strong role.

What’s also happening is that a lot of clients are using an idea to engage with consumers interactively. And that also leads to generation of a lot of first-party data. For example, the birthday song campaign we did for Cadbury, which created unique songs for each user. We cracked the idea, we enabled it on the packaging — people were able to scan it, input details, and create their unique video. Of course, there is tech involved, but the idea is still at the centre of it. Similarly, the ‘joke in a bottle’ campaign, which we did for Sprite.

But the other parts are also becoming significant. Performance marketing has become very big because it’s like the sales door today. There are the Accentures and the Deloittes who are doing it, and then there are performance marketing specialist agencies — we ourselves have an agency called Verticurl, which has now become part of Ogilvy One, specialising in that territory.

A lot of that work drives the bottom funnel or the click-to-sale part of the game.

But you can feed the bottom of the funnel only if you get the customer hooked to the brand. As the saying goes, a customer does not buy an Audi at 30… he actually “buys” it at age six. You have to create desire and intent on the brand to win. The job of brands and advertising is to get more people into the funnel — only then will the performance marketing work at the bottom of the funnel.

As the Unilever chairman recently said, the job of brands is to create desire at scale. That’s a phrase you will hear more, and will be the new mantra for agencies.

What are the new market opportunities for ad agencies?

Content will be a big play, and tailoring content specific to platforms like Meta and Google is becoming quite important. Ad agencies have to understand how people behave on platforms and then deliver to those behaviours. Our revenue will shift towards a more ‘advertising-plus-content’ kind of world.

Also, strategy will become important to guide clients on developing structures and briefs, so that influencers talk in a way that’s in congruence with the brand. So those are territories where, I think, a lot of our focus will lie.

Also creating experiences and engagement on ground is becoming a big thing with clients. I see a very strong role for agencies in activation. You will see a lot of stuff we did at the Maha Kumbh this year, with clients like Amazon and Fevicol, gaining ground. Those are opportunities for future revenue streams that would unlock as we move forward, because today nothing is siloed — so activation-meets-technology-meets-creativity.

I think we will move to a world where there will be lots of IPs (intellectual properties) like Coke Studio, because you want to build something consistent year on year. Agencies can partner brands in creating those IPs and in executing them. We are already there on the execution in some, but that’s something we will have to strengthen.

I also think there is a role for agencies in consulting, because only when you work with the client, understand them, define the brand, and look at how the whole funnel works, can you seed the idea and take it to execution.

So how far has Ogilvy reached in unlocking these opportunities?

On both tech and content, we have a strong force. We have over a 100-strong content team and 10 to 12 technologists working internally at Ogilvy.

One of the revenue streams that is really opening up is our tech team sitting here and working for clients globally — both with Coke and Mondelez, we have been able to do that.

We are now building Ogilvy One in India. Ogilvy One is a global entity that basically focuses on customer experience and engagement. And we have Verticurl, based in Coimbatore, catering largely to international clients.

Ogilvy One is something that we hope to build quite strongly in the next two to three years. Consulting is also something we want to start and, hopefully, we should do that in 2026.

Will the Trump tariffs impact Indian advertising?

It’s going to be a tough year. There is no running away from it. Though tariffs may not affect all our clients directly, there is an impact overall at a macroeconomic level. When that happens, and the overall climate is tough, how do clients still grow? Should they focus more on rural markets? Are there more opportunities at the really top end, premium end of the market? Do we need to pivot in some categories? All of those conversations are on with many of our clients. We all have to double down this year and work harder, which is where I think the long-term relationships that we have with our clients matter. We have had clients who have been with us for 20, 30 and even 50 years.

BUY WORD: E-commerce drives 21 per cent of India’s digital ad market
| Photo Credit:
filadendron

With digital advertising, marketers gained amazing reach. Now, with AI tools, we are at a stage where businesses can be marketed across geographies, age groups, cultures and regional languages within seconds.

AI is fundamentally transforming digital advertising with smart tools that aid sharper targeting, real-time optimisation and measurable outcomes at scale. Global platforms like Google and Meta are using AI to enhance ad relevance, reduce wastage and improve campaign performance. Digital adtech tools have accelerated pace, as hyperlocalisation and unique-to-target ad solutions help businesses unleash potential and expand customer reach. AI-powered programmatic advertising has led to 20 per cent increase in conversion rates and 30 per cent boost in return on ad spend.

In CY24, digital advertising formed 77.7 per cent of total ad expenditure (more than $300 billion) in the US and 80 per cent in China. While India’s digital ad penetration was only 50 per cent, it is fast growing.

Key drivers

The strong shift towards digital is driven by two key megatrends: the rapid adoption of 4G data services post 2016 and the accelerated digital migration during the Covid-19 period. This transition is now further supported by evolving consumption patterns, including a surge in 4G users to 640 million at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.2 per cent from CY17 to CY24, a healthy 21.6 per cent CAGR in online shoppers to 248 million (CY19-24), and 20 per cent CAGR in social media users at 462 million.

In CY24, digital media surpassed television, capturing 32 per cent of India’s media revenues at ₹80,200 crore (16 per cent in CY19), mainly catalysed by digital advertising (₹70,000 crore). Key growth engines included e-commerce advertising (plus-65 per cent year-on-year to ₹14,700 crore) and rising viewership for regional OTT content.

Social and search media

In India’s digital advertising landscape, the combined share of social and search media (Meta and Google) has declined from 75 per cent in CY19 to 68 per cent in CY24. This is mainly due to the fragmentation of the video advertising space with the rise of OTT platforms and a pivot to e-commerce-led advertising. Going forward, social and search may continue to underperform as newer segments outpace them. A meaningful revival in search advertising is likely only through AI-led innovations that enhance conversion outcomes.

E-commerce ads

E-commerce currently accounts for 21 per cent of India’s digital advertising market, with a robust CAGR of 44.9 per cent over the past two years. This growth is expected to accelerate with the proliferation of quick-commerce platforms. India’s quick-commerce advertising market is estimated over ₹2,500 crore, accounting for 20–23 per cent of e-commerce advertising, and poised for exponential growth with the rising spread to non-metro markets.

Amazon and Flipkart currently dominate with 75 per cent share of e-commerce advertising. But this could be challenged as quick-commerce platforms capture a bigger share — particularly in categories such as grocery, beauty and personal care, as also accessories. Our estimates suggest quick commerce’s total addressable market (TAM) could be 45–50 per cent of India’s e-commerce market.

Video ads

The video advertising market has surged over the past five years, thanks to OTT fragmentation and a growing appetite for online content. The growth was further accelerated by free streaming of IPL on JioCinema. YouTube dominates the video ad space with 70 per cent share, followed by JioCinema at 15 per cent. The ecosystem includes broadcasters, global platforms and regional apps. With giants like Amazon entering the space and Netflix exploring ad-supported models, competition is set to intensify, potentially squeezing smaller platforms.

Programmatic ads

India’s programmatic advertising is 42 per cent of digital advertising and continues to outperform with a CAGR of 27 per cent (CY21-24), fuelled by e-commerce growth, mobile-first consumption and AI-led targeting. Rising OTT viewership, regional content adoption and local adtech players like InMobi and Affle are expanding reach. As brands chase return on investment and scale, programmatic is emerging as the core of digital strategy.

(The writer is Senior Vice-President, Elara Capital)

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Published on May 4, 2025

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan speaks during a session titled ‘The Journey: From Outsider to Ruler’ at the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025, in Mumbai
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The first edition of the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025 in Mumbai pulled in top politicians, businessmen, cine stars and content creators. But chaos marked the opening day with long lines at the entrance as the organisers made a mess of entry passes. However, the event, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who gave a clarion call for ‘create in India’, attracted a wave of announcements, notably an Indian Institute of Creative Technology to be set up by the Ministry of I&B, along with FICCI and CII. Adobe announced it was setting up an AI-powered Creative Experience Studio with TCS. On Friday, the government said Waves Bazaar had clocked deals worth ₹250 crore, and it expected to close the event with transactions of over ₹400 crore.

The protein push

Amul’s recent ad for its protein kulfi set off not just a meme fest but also a debate on whether brands are pushing the biomolecules too much. All sorts of protein products are now in the market, and marketers and nutritionists are weighing in on whether it is excessive and out of hand. Meanwhile, it was a whey protein product that sparked an important judgment in the Delhi High Court, which ruled that social media influencers can make public statements against consumer brands, including naming the brand, provided they are backed by scientific evidence. The case in question was the one between San Nutrition and influencer Arpit Mangal.

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Published on May 4, 2025

GRT Jewellers has launched a special sales campaign Akshaya Tritiya, titled ‘Akshaya Tritiya Celebration’. In Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, the campaign will be called ‘Akshaya Tritiyai Kondattam’. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the campaign would be called ‘Akshaya Tritiya Vedukalu’ and ‘Akshaya Tritiya Sambrama’ in Karnataka.

As part of the campaign, GRT is offering ₹250 off per gram on gold jewellery purchases, ₹75 extra per gram on old gold jewellery exchange and ₹12,500 off per carat on diamond value.

Additionally, GRT offers 10 per cent off on uncut diamond value, 25 per cent off on making charges for silver articles and anklets, and 10 per cent off on silver jewellery.

Founded in 1964, GRT Jewellers sells jewels made of gold, diamonds, platinum, silver, and gemstones. GRT has 63 branches, of which 62 are in South India and one in Singapore. 

Published on April 29, 2025

Recently, Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha publicly offered to intern — without pay — at Aravind Srinivas’s company Perplexity, to learn about the AI industry. Kamath had interviewed Srinivas on his YouTube channel, which has about 1.5 million subscribers.

Several Indian startup founders maintain active social media profiles. Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola, Aman Gupta of Boat, Ashneer Grover (formerly of BharatPe), Vineeta Singh of Sugar Cosmetics, and Namita Thapar of Emcure Pharmaceuticals have substantial social media following. Platforms like business reality TV series Shark Tank India have made many founders household names — their personalities often overshadowing their companies or products in public discourse.

Among other effects, building a personal brand helps founders cultivate a loyal following across ventures, product stages, and platforms — creating a ready base for future launches and initiatives.

Interplay of factors

The personality-brand interplay, however, begs a relook. Tesla’s shares have plummeted in recent months owing to Elon Musk’s politically loaded, provocative, and in-your-face mannerisms on X. In April 2024, the Bombay Shaving Company (and Shantanu Deshpande, its owner) suffered backlash due to the poor landing of an advertisement, prompting calls for “better brand advisors”.

The relationship between a founder’s public persona and his or her company’s brand is a complex dynamic with three distinct outcomes — mutual benefit, mutual harm, or negligible effect. They depend on how the founder’s personal communications, values, and actions align with, contradict, or remain independent of his or her business’s core brand promise.

Conflicting factors

When founders’ views and/or behaviours contradict their businesses’ core values, market positioning, or customer expectations, the dissonance can significantly damage brand equity. For instance, while Tesla’s positioning is that of an environmentally conscious, forward-thinking automotive and energy company, Musk’s social media activity has periodically created a dissonance with this brand identity.

His unpredictable posts on X, including politically divisive statements and personal feuds, have at times alienated Tesla’s core environmentally conscious customer base. Even before Donald Trump’s second term, a 2023 survey showed that 32 per cent of potential electric vehicle buyers cited Musk’s public persona for not considering Tesla.

In late 2022, Tesla’s stock dropped about 65 per cent from its peak, with analysts largely blaming “Musk risk” for it — namely the volatility generated by his conduct at a time when he wasn’t publicly supporting Trump’s 2024 campaign for US presidency. The ensuing polarising stance further intensified scrutiny.

More recently, in March, Tesla’s stock fell by over 5 per cent amid broader tech sell-offs and renewed concerns over Musk’s leadership.

Brand reinforcement

When founders authentically embody the values, mission, and ethos of their businesses, their personal brands can amplify their company’s market position. The founder’s visibility and the company’s brand equity mutually reinforce each other, creating a compounding effect that drives customer loyalty and sharpens market differentiation.

An example of this is the Swedish entrepreneur Matilda Djerf and her company Djerf Avenue. Starting off as a social media influencer known for her distinctive style and values of authenticity and sustainability, Djerf leveraged her personal following to launch the fashion brand in 2019. Her personal brand — characterised by transparency, body positivity, and sustainable fashion choices — reinforces her company’s core values. In less than five years, she turned it into a $35-million brand with a marketing budget below 5 per cent of revenue.

By maintaining consistent messaging across personal and corporate channels, Djerf has shown how personal brand can powerfully amplify business success when values align.

But the brand suffered when, in December 2024, an investigation by Swedish news outlet Aftonbladet led to allegations by 11 current and former employees of a “toxic work culture” at Djerf Avenue, including instances of belittlement and body-shaming. The public backlash saw customers expressing disappointment and some vowing to withdraw their support. Djerf responded by expressing deep regret and committing to improving the workplace environment.

Brand independence

Sometimes a founder’s public persona neither significantly enhances nor detracts from the company’s brand equity, as typically happens in industries where product functionality substantially outweighs brand considerations or when founders deliberately maintain a low profile despite business success. This neutral equilibrium can provide stability in certain market contexts.

This dynamic is more common in business-to-business (B2B) firms, where the founder’s persona often has limited public-facing impact. For instance, Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, suggested that young Indians should work 70 hours a week to boost the nation’s productivity. While this remark sparked widespread debate and criticism, Infosys’s brand remained largely unaffected. This resilience can be attributed to Infosys’s focus on delivering consistent services to its corporate clients, where the emphasis is on functionality and reliability rather than the personal opinions of its leadership.

Similarly, in other countries, founders of B2B companies have made controversial statements without significantly impacting their company’s brand. For example, in the US, Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corporation, has been known for his outspoken and sometimes contentious remarks. Despite this, Oracle’s reputation as a leading provider of database software and technology has remained intact.

Strategic implications

Understanding the personality-brand game offers valuable guidance for entrepreneurs navigating public visibility. Research indicates that UK unicorns with founders who have the largest number of LinkedIn followers raised over 20 per cent more funding — nearly £763 million — on average, compared to other unicorns in the country. Additionally, a Forbes article notes that 77 per cent of consumers are more likely to buy from a company when its CEO uses social media, and 82 per cent trust companies more when their senior executives are active online.

However, this advantage comes with significant responsibility. For Indian entrepreneurs building their social media presence, several principles emerge:

First, strategic alignment between personal and corporate messaging is crucial — inconsistencies are quickly spotted and penalised in today’s transparent media environment.

Second, authenticity remains paramount, as audiences are increasingly sophisticated at detecting manufactured personas.

Finally, recognising when to separate personal opinions from corporate messaging strategically can prevent unnecessary brand damage.

Playing the game

As more Indian founders leverage social media, mastering the personality-brand dynamic becomes essential. The challenge isn’t in choosing between visibility and anonymity, but in strategically managing how personal brand amplifies — rather than undermines — business objectives.

Successful founders recognise that while personality and brand are distinct, they exist in continuous dialogue. Regular brand alignment audits, establishing clear boundaries on public commentary, developing crisis management protocols, practising strategic authenticity in communications, and distributing visibility by elevating multiple team members as brand ambassadors are some ways to manage this.

As the Indian startup ecosystem matures and global competition intensifies, founders who master this balance between personal visibility and brand alignment will separate market leaders from competitors. The most valuable founder brands aren’t the loudest but the ones that convert personal influence into enduring business advantage.

(Manoshij Banerjee is an independent consultant on digital culture and behaviour, and Mohammed Shahid Abdulla is a faculty member at IIM-Kozhikode)

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Published on April 20, 2025

The sheen is wearing off traditional ecommerce. For all their size and scale, platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, and Swiggy are grappling with user fatigue, seller disillusionment, and a workforce walking a tightrope.

Customers now routinely question whether “guaranteed delivery” means “next day” or “next neighbour”. Sellers feel increasingly like contestants in a game show where rules change without warning — navigating shifting commission structures, opaque algorithms, and arbitrary suspensions. And platform workers? They’re often treated like code — easily replaced, endlessly scalable, yet largely invisible.

Even ultra-fast delivery — once a novelty — is starting to feel unsustainable. Blinkit, the 10-minute grocery darling now backed by Zomato, is shifting expectations for speed across the sector. But with that acceleration comes questions: Who bears the cost? What happens to small stores when the demand for instant gratification overrides considerations of locality, price transparency, and worker welfare?

This is the tension at the heart of today’s ecommerce: Convenience versus control, speed versus sustainability, and platform power versus participatory access.

Experiments galore

Enter the idea of open networks. Around the world, experiments are quietly taking place that challenge the platform monopoly model. In Nairobi, Wasoko (short for “people of the market”) connects over 50,000 informal retailers with manufacturers across six African countries, offering real-time order fulfilment and credit access to small vendors traditionally left out of digital systems.

In Europe, PrestaShop — an open-source ecommerce builder — powers over 300,000 shops. Merchants own their storefronts and data, while a thriving developer ecosystem helps businesses customise everything from UX to inventory flow. It’s a modular toolkit.

In Indonesia, platforms like Warung Pintar digitise mom-and-pop stores, equipping them with point-of-sale tech and helping them join larger distribution networks without being absorbed by them.

In Latin America, Tiendanube (Nuvemshop) enables more than 100,000 small businesses to set up customised online shops. It connects them with local logistics and payment providers in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina — without locking them into a single app or interface.

Opening the pipes

The most influential open network model, though, may be UPI (Unified Payments Interface) from India. With over 13 billion monthly transactions, UPI has redefined payments — not by centralising them, but by opening the pipes. Any bank, any app, any user — plug and play. UPI proved that when infrastructure is open, innovation blooms. You need a system that lets everyone build.

That’s the promise of the next wave of digital commerce: interoperability, data portability, and network fairness.

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has launched Solid — a project that lets users store their personal data in decentralised “pods”. Apps must request access; users decide what to share. Your Amazon cart, Flipkart returns, and Myntra wishlists could all live with you, not inside a server farm owned by a trillion-dollar firm. Sellers can control their inventory and pricing without fear of deplatforming. And buyers can shop across apps.

Built to decentralise

India’s ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) is a digital public infrastructure, built to decentralise. It aims to ensure that anyone can build an ecommerce platform.

DigiHaat is a buyer app built on ONDC rails. A handloom artisan in Varanasi, for instance, can use DigiHaat to list products, store their catalogue in a shareable format, and reach buyers using any ONDC-compatible app.

Rahul Vij, COO of DigiHaat, says, “This is about giving every seller a digital voice, without asking them to speak someone else’s language.”

In a world of walls, open networks are offering bridges — one interoperable connection at a time.

(The writer is an independent consultant at Nirmit Bharat, ONDC)

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Published on April 20, 2025

Satinder Singh, GM India, Royal Canin

“The entire market has transformed from when we first arrived in India,” declares Satinder Singh, GM India of pet nutrition company Royal Canin, which has just launched a global campaign to tackle pet obesity. Misinformation and lack of awareness are at the heart of this weighty issue among pets, says the French brand, owned by American multinational Mars Petcare. The brand arrived in India in 2007.

Despite its acquisition by Mars in 2002, Royal Canin has always remained a separate entity, says Singh, because it has a different philosophy and model. While Mars operates like an FMCG company, Royal Canin has a specialised approach and portfolio, driven by veterinary recommendations. As Singh explains, Royal Canin was started by a vet to treat a pet suffering from a specific condition, using specialised food. “There are so many vulnerable moments in the life of a pet, and our portfolio is available to support the nutrition required in every critical health moment.”

The big changes

Singh describes how, when Royal Canin first arrived in India, it was predominantly a dogs market, but now cats too have a huge share. “Overall, the pet food market is about $550 million in India,” he says, adding that from 5 per cent earlier, the share of cat food is 25-30 per cent today.

Another trend he flags is the shift in preference from large to smaller breeds, and, in terms of pet food, from cheap economy brands to premium brands. And yet, when it comes to what and how much to feed a pet, lack of awareness is rampant, as also overfeeding and constant treats of human food, the company’s survey on obesity shows.

The veterinary business in India has its share of unique challenges. For starters, there is a huge shortage of vets. “We produce about 3,500 veterinarians every year. But only 5 per cent join small animal practice,” he says. The rest opt for either large animal practice, higher studies, corporate jobs, academia, or move out of India, he adds.

“Even among those who specialise in small animals, the focus on nutrition is very limited,” he says. Royal Canin is investing in further developing the veterinary industry in India, he says. “We invite highly qualified vets from developed countries to interact with the vet community here. Second, we are providing 500 veterinarians with an AI-powered tool, which they can use to obtain a second opinion. This is through a collaboration with vet-tech firm Gekkovet. Third, we take hand-picked vets from India to France to interact with the academia and practitioners there,” he says.

“Our biggest investment is in education, and this forms the foundation of our strategy. Building social capital is key for us,” says Singh, pointing to how parent company Mars recently invested in Crown Veterinary Services, a vet clinic chain in India.

Growing presence

While Royal Canin does not manufacture in India — unlike Mars, which has a factory in Hyderabad — last year it invested close to ₹100 crore to set up a packing centre at Bhiwandi in Maharashtra. “Indian consumers don’t buy in bulk — 94 per cent of the bags sold in the Indian market in the pet food industry are less than 1-2 kg each. So the global portfolio, which we were importing, was not able to address local needs. This packing centre has helped us solve that,” he explains.

Globally, Royal Canin has about 500 recipes, translating into about 1,250 stock-keeping units (SKUs). “In India we have, as of now, about 250 SKUs,” says Singh.

But India is a fast growing market, he says, pointing to how, post Covid, there has been a huge spike in pet ownership. The pet food market is seeing 15 per cent compound annual growth rate. “We are growing marginally higher than the category,” he says.

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Published on April 20, 2025

Cricket is a passion for most Indians. So is food. Imagine marrying the two — the brand engagement can go up 10X. This IPL season has seen two such combos from brands that are captivating fans. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has started Knight Bite, an exciting new long-term initiative that brings fans closer to their favourite players through food. KKR has partnered with kitchen appliances brand TTK Prestige for a five-episode digital series #Let’sGetCooking with Knight Bite. Hosted by celebrity chef Kunal Kapur, the show offers fans a behind-the-scenes look at KKR players as they cook, chat, and take on fun kitchen challenges. The first episode offers us tantalising flavours of Kolkata Biryani and Rinku Singh’s journey, even as Gurbaz and Moeen Ali spice things up.

Meanwhile, AWL Agri Business’ brand Fortune Soya Chunks has hit upon the same recipe. The 45-minute video sees cricket icon Sourav Ganguly pick up a pan under the direction of chef Sanjyot Keer and answer his queries on which IPL team would do well.

Fan moment

Speaking of cooking videos, Farah Khan’s food show and her banter with her cook Dilip have been charming the internet. Polycab India has used the duo to great effect in a fun and quirky digital campaign that introduces its all-new Super ROI fan. Dilip surprises Farah by saying “his fans have arrived”, only to reveal the real stars — the high-performance Polycab Super ROI fans.

Life’s great investments

Publicis India’s new film for HDFC Asset Management, ‘Hum Sab Investors Hain’, draws parallels between financial investments and the everyday risks and choices we face in life. The story follows the journey of a baby girl, from the day her parents bring her home from the hospital. As she grows up, her family invests in her future — nurturing her, guiding her, and supporting her dreams. Over time, their timely investments and consistent steps lead to significant rewards. The film, with its emotional story, simplifies the idea of financial concepts.

A hard case

First there was an intriguing tweet exchange between cricketer Jaspreet Bumrah and wife Sanjana Ganesan, leaving fans guessing. Turned out it was setting the stage for luggage brand Uppercase’s brand film, which features a skirmish between the couple. She throws his suitcase from a high floor and nothing happens to it, as Bumrah gloats. So who has the last punchline? Worth a watch.

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Published on April 20, 2025

IPL season is hotting up and the ad breaks are as interesting as the match play. But guess which ads are scoring? Men seem to recall auto ads while women seem to have higher recall of food and snack brands. The ongoing eDART-IPL25 study by CrispInsight and Kadence International reveals a striking demographic divide in brand recall, based on insights from over 20,000 viewers across 60+ cities. Nearly, 17 per cent of women recalled food and snack brands. Among men, 21 per cent recalled automobile brands, and 48 per cent fantasy sports. Younger audiences (15–19 years) are more responsive to fantasy sports and beverage brands, while older viewers (45-plus) show stronger recall for banking, liquor, and e-commerce.

Gearing up for Goafest

At the heart of Goafest (May 21-23 this year), the Indian ad industry’s biggest event, is the ABBY awards powered by OneShow. Björn Ståhl, Chief Creative Officer, Uncommon Creative Studio, Stockholm, and Youri Guerassimov,CCO, Marcel Paris, will be the international jury chairs. There are three new categories under the Media ABBYs — small budget, big impact; sports marketing; and micro marketing. The Creative ABBYs will feature 23 categories. Ashwini Deshpande, co-founder-Director, Elephant; Ashish Chakravarty, Executive Director and India Head of Creative, McCann Worldgroup; Raj Kamble, founder and CCO, Famous Innovations; and Ashish Khazanchi, Managing Partner and CCO, Enormous Brands will be jury chairs.

Ghadi gets on track 

Brands always aspire to be where the crowds are. Well, Ghadi Detergent is managing to do just that, having secured exclusive naming rights for platforms 1, 6, 7, 8, 9 at New Delhi Railway Station, one of India’s busiest rail transport hubs. The tenure of the rights is for one year. The platforms will be branded as ‘Ghadi Platform 1, 6, 7, 8, 9. As part of the partnership, Ghadi Detergent will have its branding prominently displayed across these platforms, including panels, billboards, vinyl wrapping, and more.

With the station getting a daily footfall of over 10 lakh passengers, Ghadi gets to be a key consumer touchpoint.

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Published on April 20, 2025

A lot of tech companies are suddenly facing challenges with the advent of AI. New products are emerging just too fast. As a tech company’s marketer, your take?

Well, the fact that we market marketing and have teams that are the best bar none in the world ensures that not only our bottom-of-the-funnel is fine-tuned, but so is our growth marketing, our performance marketing, our mid-funnel marketing and our top-of-the-funnel marketing. Then, we’re doing the PLG (product-driven motions) and GTM (marketing-driven motions) and using all of the signals. And we have all the tools, so any shift we see — say, for instance, changes in search (Gen AI is taking over the search process) — we’re able to react to that, and then we can share it with our clients too. Also we partner with so many tech companies worldwide — Microsoft, Google… the list goes on — that they’ll come to us to test some new things. We will do the same with them.

For a customer who’s just bought some product from you, and then there’s a shift in tech, it would necessitate a reinvestment. How do you sell that?

Well, one of the beauties of being in the cloud, and the great thing about SaaS business is our customers have been able to make that shift in real time.

And we’ve helped them make that shift as we can make real-time optimisation happen. We also have our partners that work directly with the clients, so they’re able to adapt. We’re good at making sure that, as things shift, we ourselves are innovating and then pushing code to update.

But what about the costs? There is a feeling that Adobe products are expensive.

We’re really importantly looking at value. I think we spend a lot of time to make sure that any pricing is equated to the value that we’re offering.

Adobe has so many different kinds of clouds — the experience cloud for digital marketing, the creative cloud, the document cloud. Which is the fastest growing for you?

So, we’re making sure that, where appropriate, all of our cloud products can be used together. As an example, you have Adobe Express (part of the creative cloud) and Acrobat (part of document cloud) that increasingly can be used together. So the clouds are coming together because the customer, at the end of the day, ranges from individuals, students, educators, consumers, creators… So when you have that breadth of customer range, you realise these things actually support, in one way or another, all of the customer audiences, and you can market these things as one.

And you know, now it’s creativity-plus-marketing-plus-AI, so all of this is more easily connected because AI is driving all of it.

A few years ago, there was this big debate about CTOs versus CMOs. At the summit, we heard something about befriending the CFO. Is there a battle at the table?

I’ve been doing marketing for a long time and one of the things that I have seen is, no matter the industry you are in, you want to make your chief technology officer your best friend. You also want to make your chief financial officer your best friend. And when you do that, you work collectively to do what’s best for the company, costs savings wise, and what’s best for the company to drive the top line. We call it the triumvirate actually — chief technology officer, chief financial officer, chief marketing officer. You have got to be tied at the hip. As for me, I also have the chief executive officer, who is in this, as well. And Shantanu was the CMO for some years, so he has great understanding and admiration for the craft because, as I said, we market marketing.

With AI, is there more complexity now in the marketing function? Or do you see your tasks easing?

I think everywhere you have change management when any big sea-change technology happens. What we’re seeing, though, is that, as people adopt it and get used to it, there is an incredible respect for how it makes their jobs better; and what comes with it is productivity and efficiency, because the time to do a task has dropped now with Gen AI. We’re, again, really lucky because we have Adobe Firefly, which is this AI-generated generative AI. The creatives it generates are beautiful and breakthrough. And when you see that, you say, gosh, this will make our job easy and fun.

Adobe itself is a Customer Zero for its own products, so that must help?

Customer Zero is also called Adobe on Adobe and also, what I like to call, dog fooding your products. Or sipping your own champagne. But we are able to give real-time feedback to our engineers and product partners on what’s working and what’s not, and it is a great advantage. We can go through Gen Studio (a generative AI app to streamline content), which allows you to create creative assets, and activate them. You have the digital assets and then you see how they perform and then you optimise. And that entire process has steps and engineering behind it. We make it seamless for the customer, but anything that we do to go to market, we use our own tools, so whether it’s our Adobe journey optimiser or whether it is CDP, we have used them all.

What do you feel about Coca-Cola chief James Quincey’s “two sides of the spectrum” view on technology that allows targeted push by marketers, but can anger customers?

We have to be really thoughtful as marketers. I like to say we need to be customer-obsessed and put ourselves in our customers’ shoes — whether it’s our B2B clients or our consumers. And we need to know what it’s like when you are online and an ad follows you. We are respectful that we need to show up in the best way possible. Part of the reason we are very smart about applying data-driven optimisation is that we want to make sure we’re not doing anything in your personal space that you might see as creepy… and we’re lucky we have the tools.

LAYERS OF MEANING: ‘Marilyn Diptych’ by Andy Warhol

Whenever I am in London, I make it a point to visit the Tate Modern because its collection of art is amazing. During my recent visit, I did one more thing that this lovely museum now encourages visitors to do — slow looking.

Art of slow looking

What is slow looking? It is all about spending at least 10 minutes at a stretch, in front of an artwork or painting. In a world where the average human attention span is estimated at eight seconds, 10 minutes is eternity. But this extended time provides you an uninterrupted opportunity to appreciate the painting in its rich detail — you can take in its texture, observe how light and colour create drama, look at how the juxtaposition of figures has created emotion, and revel in the story behind the painting. All this is stimulating, leads to a better appreciation of the artwork, and helps elevate our minds.

I engaged in some slow looking, standing opposite the silkscreen painting called ‘Marilyn Diptych’, created by the iconic American pop artist Andy Warhol. The painting depicts the famous actress Marilyn Monroe. Interestingly, it has fifty images of the actress — half of them in vibrant colour, and the other half in black and white.

Much in a painting

In the first few seconds, I saw Marilyn Monroe as we all know her — a glamorous sex goddess. But as the seconds ticked away, I observed the small details of her face and blonde hair, as well as the sultriness of her pout and smile. I enjoyed the aesthetics and moods. I read the interesting story of how this painting was created.

Thereafter, the stark difference between the clean coloured images and the smudged black-and-white pictures struck me. As I kept looking, it struck me that this contrast evokes the uncomfortable relationship between Marilyn’s glamorous public self and her sad, even tragic private life. And then, towards the end of my 15 long minutes in front of the painting, I concluded that it is not only about Marilyn Monroe, but also about so many of us who have our happy public images on social media, alongside the darkness we often face in our private lives.

Thus, the painting revealed itself to me because I “slow looked” it. I will never forget this beautiful experience.

And I also came away with a much better appreciation of Andy Warhol’s art.

Marketers, look slow

This set me thinking. Should marketers not encourage their consumers to engage in slow looking at their products? We buy so many different products that are designed and crafted with great care. Yet we often do not take the time to observe them closely in all their glory.

Just like Tate Modern encourages its visitors to do slow looking at paintings, a lifestyle brand can also encourage consumers to slow look at its product — be it a handbag, wristwatch, shirt or car. This will enhance the consumer’s appreciation of the design and artistry that has gone into the product, the materials used, and the functional features too. This appreciation will, in turn, make the consumer value the product even more.

In many cases, slow looking can help the consumer make the right purchase decision — for instance, slow looking at a beautifully crafted shirt, taking in its lovely patterns, stitching, collar and buttons can make the consumer fall in love with the garment and buy it. Slow looking can also lead to far greater consumer engagement with the brand, as consumers learn more about the product and its story. And this inevitably leads to more brand loyalty.

How can marketers encourage consumers to engage in slow looking at their products? Here are a few thought starters on this subject.

Advertisements can romance the product using stunning images, and also use simple technology such as QR codes to draw consumers deeper into engaging stories. Sales staff in stores can be trained to tell the story of the products evocatively, while highlighting product features, including the finer design-related points, to consumers. In-store visuals or digital kiosks can highlight interesting features that are often missed at first glance. Brands can consider fun incentives for customers for slow looking at their shelves closely for 15 minutes or more. Stores can organise special exhibitions of their hero products, calling in their existing and potential customers.

Slow looking provides a much needed respite from the hectic pace of our lives and, therefore, I think many consumers will be happy to engage if marketers find interesting ways to draw them in.

(Harish Bhat is an avid marketer and bestselling author. He was previously the Brand Custodian at Tata Sons)

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Published on April 6, 2025

KP Bhavadasan, Managing Director of KP Namboodiri’s

KP Namboodiri’s — the toothpowder company in Kerala famous for offering its flagship Dantadhavanachoornam product to Lord Krishna in Guruvayoor — turned 100 this year. But the company, established by Kolathappally Pothayan Namboodiri in 1925, is certainly not long in the tooth — rather, with the new branding and design adopted a few years ago, it is looking rather youthful. And it is chewing on more things increasingly.

KP Bhavadasan, the third-generation Managing Director of KP Namboodiri’s, who was instrumental in diversifying the company’s product range into haircare and skincare when he took over the reins in 2000, says that in its centenary year, the company is focusing on further expanding its footprint in the personal care segment.

He says the entry into the personal care segment has helped the company achieve double-digit growth amidst stiff competition from MNCs.

“The growth has been possible thanks to rising consumer acceptance for herbal care products, which has necessitated us to go for new production lines. We are in the process of setting up a new ₹40-crore manufacturing facility in Thrissur, which will be operational this year,” says Bhavadasan. This adds to the four production units the company already has — three in Thrissur and one in Palakkad.

“Higher consumer acceptance for herbal care products, especially after Covid, augurs well for regional players like us to remain competitive in the market,” stresses Bhavadasan. The brand’s ‘back to nature’ positioning and its rejigged visual identity, with dashes of green added at the base of the red name logo and a leaf-shaped apostrophe emphasising natural ingredients, seem to be working.

Bhavadasan expects the growth trend to continue as the brand is now combining its strength in traditional markets, where it commands loyal consumers, with a big push into modern trade and online sales platforms to attract newer consumers. It has its own online store and is also venturing deeper into rural markets.

Today, the company has in its kitty 27 products across various segments of haircare, skincare and oral care. The entry into the soaps category has also received encouraging market response, he says.

Besides Kerala, the company has a presence in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Maharashtra, and also caters to buyers in the GCC, Singapore, the US, Russia and Europe.

Quoting an AC Nielsen study, Bhavadasan says KP Namboodiri’s is the leader in Kerala in herbal ayurvedic toothpaste sales, clocking the highest share of an estimated ₹460-crore market. The usage of its own R&D for manufacturing also helped create a brand, he says.

Legacy associations

Meanwhile, Bhavadasan continues the tradition, started by his grandfather, of visiting Guruvayoor on the first Wednesday and Thursday of each Malayalam month to offer the deity Lord Krishna one pack of toothpowder for every 10 kg produced daily. “The monthly offer has gone up manifold in the current production scenario,” he says, adding that the offerings on these two days of each Malayalam month is associated with the story of Sri Krishna and Sudama, and considered auspicious for creating wealth for future generations.

Such legacy associations form the strength that regional brands like KP Namboodiri’s can leverage. As brand consultant Giraj Sharma says, “Earlier, regional brands built themselves up purely on delivery and credibility. Now, in an era of individualism, and where one’s roots are viewed with more respect — regional brands have added their legacy, and with it a sense of pride, to their brand identity. KP Namboodiri’s is a shining example of this phenomenon.”

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Published on April 6, 2025

If you look at your living room, the TV has evolved from the old cathode-ray tube model to LED and a smart TV with a voice remote. But if you look at your kitchen, not much has changed, says Eshwar K Vikas, co-founder of Mukunda Foods, the company that had, 10 years ago, engineered the automated Dosamatic machine used by many restaurants today to roll out dosas.

That thought led him to start another company, Beyond Appliances, in 2024, together with Rakesh Patil, a former Hindustan Aeronautics engineer and colleague at Mukunda Foods. “We are trying to remagine Indian kitchens,” declares Vikas, who is himself an avowed foodie. While Mukunda Foods continues to build automated machines for the restaurant industry — it also manufactures the Wokie for cooking Chinese food, and a sandwich maker — Vikas wants to focus on products for the Indian home.

The kitchen tech company received $2 million in November last year in a seed funding round led by Fireside Venture Investment III, with participation from Dharana Capital and angel investors like Chandru Kalro, former CEO, TTK Prestige; Shezan Bhojani, founder, Design Cafe; and Saurabh Jain and Ramakant Sharma, co-founders, Livspace.

Its products include stoves with whistle counters and chimneys with display screens to play videos and livestream OTT shows.

Cook in AV mode

Vikas says they discovered that a lot of people now follow video recipes on social media, cooking while watching them on their phones. “But the experience is broken as you keep pausing the video,” he says. The Orion Android chimney comes with a 7-inch touchscreen and thousands of video recipes loaded into it. The best part, says Vikas, is that the video pauses and restarts on its own after each step in the cooking process, thanks to an inbuilt timer.

The Elara smart chimney, launched this March, comes with AI capabilities. With Bluetooth connectivity and built-in FM radio, cooking can be livened up by playing one’s favourite music.

Safety features

Beyond Appliances has also tinkered with cooking hobs to solve another common pain point in Indian kitchens — failure to switch off pressure cookers on time. The company now offers a hob with a whistle counter and digital timer that turns off the pressure cooker at the stipulated time. “The microwave and airfryer come with timers, so why not the stove — a commonly used kitchen appli ance,” Vikas says.

Additionally, all the burners come with a flame failure detection feature. “Often milk boils over and extinguishes the burner, but the gas continues to get consumed,” he points out. With the flame failure detection feature, the stove will automatically turn off if such a mishap occurs. A timer-controlled cooking feature also prevents overcooking.

The chimney and hobs with these added features are priced marginally higher than other existing products. The company uses digital-first retailing on Amazon, Flipkart, and its own website. For installation, Beyond Appliances has tied up with Urban Company. The company is certainly cooking up change in the kitchen.

It was AI that dominated conversations at the just concluded Adobe Summit in Las Vegas, which saw over 12,000 attendees, largely from the marketing community. The 23rd edition of the glitzy conference, which is all about digital experiences, saw Adobe talking about its vision and approach to agentic AI, and launching a whole new bunch of product offerings for an AI-first world. These included 10 purpose-built AI agents to cater to business needs ranging from content production to product discovery, and a ‘brand concierge’ to manage AI agents that engage with consumers, leading to purchase decisions. Adobe also announced expansions to its generative AI model Firefly and its Adobe GenStudio to help marketers tackle the skyrocketing content demand.

This time around, Adobe’s pitch was ‘Creativity + marketing + AI’. As Shantanu Narayen, Adobe’s CEO, said in his opening keynote, “With all this explosive growth of content, there is a greater focus on bringing creativity and marketing closer together. Our goal is to help you create personalised content at scale across channels for mobile apps, social media, e-mail, as well as advertising.”

He said every student, professional, and big and small businesses are looking for quick and easy AI-first applications. “Adobe’s differentiated approach to AI,” he said, “is rooted in the belief that creativity is a uniquely human trait. That AI has the power to assist and amplify human creativity and get ready to enhance productivity.”

Exploding use cases

We also got to hear a whole bunch of high-profile Adobe customers and partners, including the likes of Coca-Cola, JP Morgan Chase, Marriott Hotels, ServiceNow and Air India, revealing their AI strategy.

Jamie Dimon, the charismatic CEO of JP Morgan Chase, described how the company already has over 2,000 AI specialists and data scientists working on applications in the areas of risk, fraud detection, customer engagement and marketing. And the number of use cases of AI is growing day by day at the firm. “I would say it is nearly 700. Some are huge — how we do ads, how we run programmes… we have an LLM (large language model) inside the company now.”

Dimon stressed that AI now has to be a part of everyone’s DNA. “It is hard. A lot of people don’t want to do it. They think it is the job of tech. It’s not the job of tech, it’s the job of management,” he said.

Air India takes wing

One of the most stirring sessions was by Air India, which saw its chief digital and technology officer Satya Ramaswamy describing how the airline developed a generative AI chatbot called AI.g, which is transforming customer experiences as it helps the airline understand its passengers better. From not having any martech (marketing tech), to deploying an AI chatbot is huge progress. “We are the original AI,” he joked, tongue firmly in cheek, even as he said it was the first airline in the world to craft a generative AI chatbot.

The 18-month-long digital transformation exercise undertaken by the airline, with the help of Adobe tools, as also the AI chatbot introduction have resulted in a sizeable increase in orders for Air India, said Ramaswamy. Website visits have increased to 11 million per month. “Seventy per cent of our customers are coming through mobile, generating data for targeted marketing,” he said. Air India now makes 40 per cent more revenue per seat, post its takeover by Tata. “The goal is to take this to 50 per cent,” he said, describing an easy booking feature enabled by AI that allows passengers to key in a specific requirement (say, a window seat on a Delhi-New York flight) and get the best purchase option within seconds. “Booking a flight is now easier than a quick search,” he said.

Similarly, Hillary Cook, VP-global marketing operations, Marriott International, in her keynote address took attendees through the hotel chain’s AI-driven customer journey. Using data insights, AI identified business travellers with a high likelihood of extending their stay and then nudged them to do so with incentives like loyalty points and discounts. Cook described how this led to increased customer engagement and higher booking extensions.

B2B is not boring

At this year’s summit, a noticeable change was the increased focus on business-to-business (B2B) marketing, with Adobe putting its B2B customers up on the stage.

ServiceNow’s global CMO Colin Fleming strode up on stage and declared that B2B is not boring. He said 70 per cent of America’s GDP is powered by B2B. He described how ServiceNow has moved from being AI-curious to being AI-powered by AI agents, and how that has improved engagement.

Amit Ahuja, SVP of product management, product marketing and strategy for digital experience business at Adobe, described how B2B capabilities have been ramped up. “B2B is an area we have continued to invest very heavily in,” he said.

What the Adobe Summit showcased was how martech is speeding along. As ServiceNow’s Fleming put it, driving a race car at 230 miles an hour and marketing an organisation are not too different today. But as Marriot’s Cook queried, “Are we as marketers ready to take advantage of the tech available?”

(The writer was in Las Vegas at the invitation of Adobe)

Steve Jobs famously said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”

The same is true with technology — you never really know what’s happening; you only get to know in hindsight, in retrospect.

I think that’s what’s happening with digital technology and the IPL — the Super Bowl of India — with only a two-month runtime and a fan base that dwarfs most other global sporting leagues. But 2025 isn’t just another season; it’s the year where AI, personalisation and performance marketing have truly taken over, redefining how the IPL is consumed, marketed and monetised.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have truly turned the corner, and digital history is being made.

So what’s new, pussycat?

Frankly not everything is new — in 2024, we saw influencer marketing hit new peaks, regional content surge and gamification deepen fan engagement.

Here’s what’s making the big splash this year:

AI-powered personalised viewing

Gone are the days when everyone watched the same match feed. JioCinema and Star Sports have rolled out AI-driven interactive features, offering personalised commentary, real-time match predictions and immersive 3D replays. The AI dynamically adjusts content based on your watching habits — whether you’re a hardcore stats nerd, a casual fan or just there for the post-match memes.

Shoppable livestreaming — buy as you watch

E-commerce meets cricket, and it’s beautiful. JioCinema’s integration with Flipkart and Reliance Retail allows fans to purchase jerseys, snacks, and even limited-edition merchandise straight from the livestream. Brands are offering time-sensitive discounts triggered by in-game moments — miss a six by Kohli, and you’ve got 10 minutes to grab his jersey at 30 per cent off.

AI-powered meme marketing in real time

Social media and IPL go together like butter chicken and naan. But now, brands aren’t just reacting to big moments — they’re predicting them. AI-powered content generators are churning out memes, GIFs and short clips within seconds of match-changing moments. The result? Social feeds flooded with IPL content at lightning speed, making it almost impossible to escape the cricket frenzy.

Second-screen engagement: The fans call the shots

Fans are no longer just watching — they’re influencing the action. This year, IPL has introduced real-time voting for in-stadium experiences — like choosing which song plays after a six or deciding a team’s post-match celebration. It’s participation marketing on steroids, turning IPL into a truly interactive, community-driven event.

AI-powered fantasy cricket and betting insights

Fantasy leagues and betting apps are now using AI to provide real-time insights on player form, weather impact and probability-based predictions. Chatbots on WhatsApp and Telegram deliver personalised recommendations. I’m not sure how legal the betting is, though.

The rise of IPL metaverse and AR fan experiences

Forget boring team apps. Franchises like Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings have launched metaverse stadiums, where fans can create avatars, interact and experience exclusive digital content. Augmented reality (AR) is also bringing virtual player holograms into retail stores and stadiums, letting fans pose with their favourite cricketers in real time.

Performance marketing dominates ad spends

Brands are done playing the reach game. IPL 2025 is seeing a huge shift towards performance marketing, with AI-driven ad placements for better conversion rates. Connected TV (CTV) ads, dynamic creative optimisation and real-time bidding are making advertising less about visibility and more about measurable impact.

Go regional or die

With a 92 per cent spike in vernacular content consumption, IPL marketing is deeply personalised at the linguistic level. We’re seeing more Bhojpuri-, Punjabi-, Malayalam-, and Tamil-first campaigns than ever before. Add to that dark social marketing (WhatsApp, Telegram groups) and, suddenly, the IPL experience isn’t just mass-market — it’s hyper-niche, yet scalable.

Mano ya na mano, microinfluencers are now building brands

Brands are investing heavily — an estimated ₹550 crore — on influencer partnerships during IPL 2025. This approach leverages influencers’ authenticity and reach to engage with fans effectively.

Last year, we saw 3.15 lakh influencer posts, generating over 320 crore engagements in just three months. I think, Reliance Campa Cola will be a big influencer-driven exercise this year.

It’s not (just) cricket

IPL 2025 is a case study in AI-led engagement, interactive marketing, and digital commerce at scale. It’s not just about watching the game, it’s about living it, interacting with it and even profiting from it in real time.

Welcome to the future of marketing — IPL 2025 is the perfect blueprint.

(Shubho Sengupta is a digital marketer with an analogue past)

It’s the season of Holi, and IPL is not far behind. While the premier T20 tournament kicked off on March 22, brands are scrambling to use cricketers in their campaigns to leverage the two-month-long cricket extravaganza. Brands have used cricketers in multifarious ways.

The second Dream 11 ad takes off from the first, which saw a confrontation between Aamir Khan and Ranbir Kapoor, after the former mistakenly calls the latter Ranbir Singh. The ad featured several top cricketers, from Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant and R Ashwin, apart from another actor Jackie Shroff. It definitely made for a blockbuster ad with so many stars in it. The sequel has Aamir putting Ranbir through a rapid-fire question round, where all the answers have a ‘Singh’ in them: Dara Singh, Milkha Singh, et al; when Aamir pops the trick question, Ranbir muffs up and gives out his own name as ‘Ranbir Singh’! Of course, he’s a Kapoor, and whines about how he’s been tricked. The Khan-Singh capers will spice up the cricket season for sure.

Electric ad: Dhoni returns

Here’s another ad for a brand in which a cricketer has invested and also models for it. EMotorad, an electric bicycle brand in which former captain MS Dhoni is an investor, has unveiled a new ad film featuring the cricket icon and film-maker Sandeep Reddy Vanga in his first-ever on-screen appearance. Written and produced by creative agency One Hand Clap, the campaign builds on last year’s viral success, where Dhoni captivated audiences with his rendition of the song ‘Bole jo koyal’. Combining Dhoni’s star power with Vanga’s intensity, EMotorad’s witty ad blends action and light humour. The duo’s dynamic chemistry keeps viewers engaged while subtly showcasing the brand’s electric bicycles. Will the ad sizzle for the electric bicycle too?

Twists and turns

It’s Dhoni yet again! This time in Eurogrip Tyres’ new campaign ahead of the IPL, bringing together Dhoni’s passion for riding and Eurogrip’s tyre technology. The campaign theme — ‘enjoy every turn’ — is derived from the insight that, in the journey of life, every turn is full of possibilities, so take them on with confidence. The brand film is woven around a question that’s on top of every cricket lover’s mind: “What’s next for Dhoni?” The narrative takes viewers along on a scenic journey, showing Dhoni enjoying all the turns that the road… and life… throws at him. Dhoni is shown astride a powerful bike, riding through sylvan Goa, taking unexpected turns, going where he wills, waving to kids, giving lifts to people, passing through a parade, enjoying his biking. And, an endorsement of Eurogrip’s superbike tyres as well.

Tangy colours of Holi

PepsiCo’s Mirinda rolled out a vibrant new campaign film for Holi. The ad sought to highlight how Mirinda transforms everyday moments, infusing them with laughter, and a refreshing twist of fun. The film captures a light-hearted exchange between a son and his mother, where Mirinda sparks an unexpected shift in mood. What starts as a seemingly serious moment quickly transforms into one filled with laughter. Situations where spiteful things are said with a ‘black tongue’ can easily become sweet with a swig of Mirinda — that’s the essence of the film. Orange tongue moments, anyone?

Hitting a sweet spot between Hindi and Tamil

At a time when the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre have been locking horns over “language imposition”, Cadbury Dairy Milk has come up with a ‘sweet’ ad campaign that takes the sting out of the slugfest. A Mrs Iyer from Chennai is introduced to a group of women chattering away in Hindi on charpoys on a cold winter day somewhere in north India. She admits she knows only a bit of Hindi. Another lady makes an attempt to talk in English so Mrs Iyer can understand, saying her English is ‘thoda thoda’ while handing her a slab of Dairy Milk. Mrs Iyer, in turn, breaks off a piece and gives it to her with the words, ‘thoda thoda, but very sweet’… The ice is broken and all the women collapse in a giggling heap! Now, if only real-life situations can be defused so easily.

Reshma Budhia, CEO of Toss the Coin (TTC), joked with co-founder and Managing Director Jayan Narayanan that their 12-year-old marketing consultancy should work so well that it should make money even as they sleep. In the event, that’s what happened!

From December 10 to 12, 2024, when Reshma was in the US for client meetings, TTC’s ₹9.17-crore IPO opened with a bang, was oversubscribed 1,025 times, and made history as the third most subscribed IPO on the BSE SME platform. On December 17 it was listed on the BSE at ₹345 against the issue price of ₹182, and quotes at around ₹380 at present. “It was surreal,” says Reshma.

Going to market

There aren’t many full-suite marketing consultancies that have chosen the IPO route to raise funds. Founded in 2012 as a partnership between Jayan and Reshma, primarily as a B2B tech consultancy for marketing strategy, TTC’s services grew to include strategy and consulting, branding, content development, and digital campaigns. “Led by design thinking, our approach to strategy starts from deconstructing the buyer persona and building content relevant to their sales cycle,” says Reshma.

Clocking ₹4.8 crore revenue in FY 23-24, the company looks to scale up its business with the IPO proceeds. It anticipates FY25 revenue of around $1 million (around ₹8.74 crore). As Jayan explains, the company needs to hire talented people from the IT industry and they are expensive. Also, as TTC expands, it’s looking to set up offices outside Chennai; it already has small teams operating in Bengaluru and Gurugram. “That’s a huge capex we would need. And the third plan is to scale up operations in the US, as that’s our largest market. We also plan to develop our own apps,” he says.

From a partnership it became a private limited company, and now a public company with marquee clients.

How it began

Jayan and Reshma were colleagues in IT firm CSS Corp in the early part of last decade. Jayan quit as he became bored with his corporate marketing job while Reshma, who was into content writing, quit a few months later to have a baby. Jayan connected with some of his old bosses to take up work ranging from client pitches to corporate overviews and graphic design. The early focus was on a B2B business model involving tech. In early 2013, Reshma teamed up with him.

As for the company name, Jayan insists the proverbial penny didn’t drop when he was tossing a coin, but rather he was looking for something with good recall. “The name has been one of the best decisions he made, for the recall it has, besides calling me into the business,” says Reshma with a laugh.

TTC’s business initially grew purely through references.

One of the bigger corporate gigs for the fledgling company was with the Murugappa group, involving internal branding for its HR. “It was a great exposure to corporate life and we realised that marketers who understand technology as well as users’ journey is a rare combination. And we always valued what we brought to the table. We said we will not negotiate because it is our intellectual property. And that really created our brand, with people saying, ‘Toss the Coin doesn’t negotiate but then they deliver beyond expectations’,” says Reshma.

Artisanal approach

Ram Sellaratnam, Group CEO and MD, iBUS Networks, says his company found TTC through reference. “Ironically, TTC is itself a marketing and branding company and should have been visible through media. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that TTC’s growth is mainly through endorsements of customers. Its approach to executing projects is almost artisan-like. No pre-conceived templates or models. iBUS is a beneficiary of this curatory approach. Jayan and Reshma were incredibly patient even as we struggled to verbalise our vision and positioning of iBUS. TTC combines hard work, a humble approach and astute creativity,” Sellaratnam elaborates.

From 2018-19, TTC became more ‘corporatised’, hiring more people and moving offices while its varied client list expanded. It got its first funding from venture capitalist Gunavanth Kumar Vaid.

Its clients include iBUS Global (rebranding and serving as CMO office for marketing strategy and content); 3i Infotech (crafting brand and visual language for sub-brand NuRe); overseas start-ups like Gigasolv, Medyaan, Oasis Global (working on brand narrative, positioning, and go-to-market); Brakes India and L&T Valves (strategic presentation enhancement); Aspire Systems (as an extended CMO office for five years now, creating campaigns, events strategy, videos, and new product strategy); and Anko, GCC of Kmart (for hiring, employee engagement and culture integration services).

Mervous apps

TTC is working on a bunch of apps, which it has dubbed as Mervous, as Jayan explains, to service the ‘nervous’ system of marketing. “These apps will come together to accelerate marketing in any organisation,” he adds.

TTC, Reshma says, has beaten some top marketers overseas to contracts. “Some of them tell me they can’t believe that an Indian marketing company could have actually won the contract. Our style has been not to show off and be humble. I’m hoping that with this confidence and the IPO platform, we can go all out and tell people that if you’re looking at B2B tech marketing, you must consider us eventually,” says an upbeat Reshma.

It has become de rigeur for brands to put out some strong positive messaging around women’s empowerment in the first week of March, and this year too there is the usual outpouring. A couple of companies have tried interesting social experiments to break through the clutter.

Jewellery retail brand Tanishq, which was one of the early players to spark meaningful conversations around women’s aspirations, has launched ‘Her Choice’ — a film that challenges conventional notions of empowerment. At a time when phrases like ‘independent’, ‘strong’ are becoming clichéd, trust Tanishq to invert the expectations of a woman! Conceptualised by Autumn Grey, the film opens with shots of a woman dressing with intent. It looks as though she is getting ready for work. Yet, in a twist, it is her husband who steps out for work, while she stays behind, embracing the role of a homemaker. The campaign shifts the perspective on empowerment, honouring individuality and her right to choose.

Park the bias

Ahead of Women’s Day, CARS24 launched a social experiment to check trust levels when women handle cars. At a busy parking area, two valet attendants — a man and a woman — were assigned the job of parking vehicles. Shockingly, 97 per cent of car owners chose the male valet. When the researchers tried to shake things up by assigning a lazy, inattentive male valet or a bent, elderly male, the car owners still preferred to hand over the keys to the male valet. The film powerfully exposes the bias against women drivers.

Role models

Shemaroo Entertainment’s women’s day campaign, #HarRoleIsHerRole, exposes the preconceived notions we have about job profiles. In a social experiment, it invited 10 artists and asked them to paint portraits of professionals — a chef, cricketer, scientist, army officer, wrestler, tailor, doctor, pilot, and firefighter. The result? Every artist unconsciously painted only men, revealing how gender biases are deeply rooted in our minds. Deciding that action is needed to change this, Shemaroo is distributing new occupation charts across schools and NGOs, which feature women as soldiers, pilots, engineers, et al.

She for she

Godrej Industries Group IWD campaign focuses on shared experiences across generations, identities, and professions. It features women exchanging letters, sharing their challenges, experiences, and achievements while recognising each other’s journeys. Beautifully filmed, the deeply poetic lines are a call to see, hear, and champion each other.

Journey of dreams

Adani Group’s narrative-driven film, created by Ogilvy India, which shows how its port helps small business owners dream big, is heartwarming. The film opens with a man and his daughter watching a ship sail into the horizon, with the daughter asking her dad, “Ships carry big things, right?” The father responds, “Ships also transport big dreams.” As the plot unfolds we see how the father, a craftsman, gets a big order from international shores for his handcrafted Namda toys, a traditional wool-felting craft product from the Kutch region of Gujarat.

Fashionable self-expression

Myntra’s Women’s Day campaign ‘Fashion ki Adalat’ is lighthearted, while packing a powerful message woven around self-expression through fashion. The ad featuring actor Archana Puran Singh as a sassy judge in a face-off with digital creators Sakshi Sindwani, Ruhee Dosani and Meghna Kaur, humorously highlights the unfair scrutiny women face for their fashion and beauty choices.

Every day, women face unsolicited judgements on what they wear — too bold, too plain, too much, too little. Society’s expectations often dictate how they dress. Myntra’s ad film, executed as a courtroom spoof, shows each influencer facing trial for a ‘fashion crime’ — from flaunting curves to bold make-up, and wearing oversized gender-neutral clothes. After hearing their rebuttals, the judge delivers her verdict. “Tumhe kya pehnna hai, yeh sirf TUM decide karogi!” (You will decide what you wear).

Fairs offer a fun way to gauge what’s trending. A walkthrough at Aahar 2025 in Delhi’s Bharat Mandapam gave one a whiff of what’s cooking and brewing in food and beverage companies around the world. With 80 participants from 22 countries, there was lots to absorb — there were the Australians pushing their macadamia nuts and lamb hard, the Italians their olive oil and fruit, while in the Indian pavilions it was interesting to see a sea of exotic syrups aimed at cocktail mixes. This time, the beverages were more interesting than the foods. At the Tata Consumer Products stall, for instance, the Tetley Kombucha in multiple flavours caught the eye. Unlike at Gulfoods held in Dubai recently, from where one saw posts on “Unbread” and lab-grown foods and an Indian startup, Cup-ji, winning a packaging innovation award, at Aahar there was nothing startlingly new, except for an interesting Australian product for those with difficulty swallowing. Some trends:

1) Private labels taking off: A huge number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were showcasing condiments, sauces, marinades, honey, oils — and scouting for retailers or brands to act as private labels. Take Ludhiana-based Beehive farms, which had everything from honey to nuts to fox nuts and displayed up front its appetite to be a private labeller. On the other hand, one saw several retailers approaching the SMEs with enquiries. According to a recent Deloitte-FICCI report, private labels represent just 4 per cent of total retail sales in India, and, of this, 70 per cent are food categories. Retail experts feel we are going to see an explosion in private labels.

2) Fusion pops: Yes, tandoori mayo and peri peri nuts are old hat, but at Aahar 2025, one saw fusion taken to extremes, especially by small businesses. If you can have heeng peanuts, why not heeng badam or blueberry-flavoured cashews? Ditto candied fruit in every conceivable flavour. Some worked, some did not. Fruit Treat, by Karanth’s foods from Sringeri, Karnataka, is going to be a player to watch — with its crispy bhindi treats, and sweet potato and carrot chips.

3) Rise of plant-based foods: At each new edition of Aahar, the number of plant-based food offerings seems to be growing, and it was no different this time too. Australia brought its OMG (Oat Milk Goodness) brand here. According to Sonal, founder of White Cub, a D2C Vegan brand that makes dairy-free butter, ice-cream and curd, already “many coffee chains in India make 22-32 per cent of their beverages with vegan milks these days”. She says the growth in plant-based food in India is interestingly coming from the “flexitarians”.

4) Frozen foods heat up: The frozen corner, which was static for ages, is warming up. The Amul stall had quite a few frozen snacks and sweets. According to a few manufacturers, two factors have put the zing in this category — more air-fryers entering homes and quick commerce.

5) New niches: At the Australian pavilion, an unusual offering was Wholesome Blends founded by Sarah Thomas, mother to a tube-fed child, whose own need led her to create a convenient healthy packaged product for enteral feeding, as an alternative to commercial formulas. She said, after Australia and New Zealand, India was the third market she was looking at for her product, meant for those who cannot swallow due to medical conditions. “India is going to be the start of our exports. I am learning about the landscape here. I am aware it is a premium product but there is definitely a need. Perhaps we could get some of it made here as well. Success for me is getting to as many needy people as possible,” she said.

Does gender play a role in entrepreneurship? Women have faced challenges of gender bias — both conscious and unconscious — for centuries. And they continue to build, facing these challenges. And that’s where I see the difference between men and women entrepreneurs.

Among start-ups, women-led are at a low 4 per cent! Another 20 per cent have a mix of male and female co-founders. This leaves a huge chunk of 76 per cent to male founders, according to a report by Kalaari Capital.

Rising against odds

But before I delve further, I would like to clarify that not all entrepreneurs are start-up founders. Many run small businesses or trade, and women are in larger numbers here, especially home-preneurs — running a business from home. The challenges here are different too.

Recently, chatting with women entrepreneurs for a retail pop-up hosted by us at the Bhartiya Mall of Bengaluru, in the run-up to Women’s Day, I got a first-hand view of the challenges they face.

Take Rashi from Kashi (as she likes to call herself), who has been running a Banarasi saree business for over 20 years. Her initial hurdle was responding to family members who questioned, “Are you a banjaran (gypsy) that you run from one city to another with a suitcase of clothes?”

Or Bhoomika, an introvert, who was conditioned to believe she could not run a business. But one retail pop-up, where she earned a net profit of ₹10,000, left her with oodles of confidence to continue with her candle-making business.

The start-up world isn’t any different.

Full of purpose

In my conversations with entrepreneurs, men and women, I notice a distinct trend — men are looking for gaps in the market that remain unfulfilled. Perfora is one such brand, which saw that the oral care industry had not innovated for decades and legacy brands ruled the market. Same with Bombay Shaving Company, which entered an almost monopolistic category as a challenger brand.

On the other hand, many women-led start-ups arise from a need to solve their own problems and, in the process, cater to more women like them. That’s when a brand takes seed.

In the personal care category, a majority of the new-age D2C brands are founded by women — Mama Earth, Deconstruct, Foxtale, Moxie, Fix my Curls, and more. They set out to find answers to a personal challenge — whether skin, hair or other problems that no big FMCG brand was able to address.

The curly-hair care category is a great example. Men with curly hair manage by keeping it short. But curly-haired women like me struggle with unruly, unmanageable hair, which the world tells us isn’t fit to crown our heads. From Asha Barak, who started AshBa, to Ashrita Mehrotra, who spun her need to “Fix My Curls” into a brand, there are at least half a dozen brands today — including Moxie, Manetain, and Curl Co — launched by curly-haired women. Today data shows that, surprisingly, more than 50 per cent of women need these products. (I could think of only one male-founded brand in this category, Arata, which again seemingly set out to fill a market gap rather than meet a personal need.)

Look at the kids’ categories. Young mothers looking for healthier or traditional food options for their children have ended up launching brands like Slurrp Farm. Founders Shauravi Malik and Meghana Narayan have co-created a range of millet-based pancakes, food mixes and more, as these were not readily available in cities.

In baby care, Riddhi Sharma looked for chemical-free traditional products beyond soaps and shampoos, leading her to launch Baby Organo, an ayurveda-anchored baby-care brand with products such as a hing-based roll-on to ease colic.

Making a better world

What do these examples prove? Women, as caregivers, use this conditioned gene to improve the world. For themselves. For other women like them.

In the coming decade we will see many more such purpose-driven brands from women entrepreneurs. Homepreneurs, too, will continue to thrive as they build their identity within their micro-communities. Some even spread beyond the micro-community with family support. Much like Rashi, who is no longer looked down upon as a travelling “gypsy”, but an entrepreneur with sought-after products.

(Jermina Menon is Brand & Marketing Strategist, Bhartiya Urban Pvt Ltd)

It’s the opening day of Bharat Tex — the mega textile trade fair at Bharat Mandapam, in New Delhi. The attractively designed Trident pavilion is buzzing with visitors. The ₹6,808 crore home textile, yarn, paper and chemicals company’s founder Rajinder Gupta, his son Abhishek, and daughter Neha Gupta Bector are busy in meetings with buyers. Amidst the range of bed linen and towels, the upscale LuxeHome section by myTrident, the domestic arm of the Ludhiana-headquartered textile exporter, catches the eye. myTrident is weaving an ambitious growth strategy around the new super-luxury line that was launched at the fair.

NextGen is clearly making its presence felt. While Abhishek is entrenched in the export-focused Trident group, myTrident, which is a separate entity, is Neha Bector’s responsibility. 

The 34-year-old is married into the Bector family, known for its Cremica and English Oven brands, and has spent several years working in the FMCG set-up. “I learnt a lot about the differences in outlets, how a customer is being serviced, the dynamism of the product, competitive pricing, brand building, the narrative of the brand,” she says.

“After Bombay Dyeing, there’s been no other home textile brand that is as big a household name.” She aims to fill that space. 

Segmented strategy

Bector says the Indian consumer is becoming more aware about aspects such as thread counts and so on. myTrident is taking heed. “We have an opening price point brand called Everyday, where we do a 400 GSM (grams per square metre) towel and a 144 thread count bedsheet; and we have another brand called Home Essential, where we do a 450 GSM towel.” At a more premium level is the Classic brand, which has 550 GSM towels and 210 thread count bedsheets. “The Classic bath towel is, I think, the best selling in the country today.” 

The brand has two luxury ranges — Indulgence and NectarSoft — which offer 300-400 thread count bedsheets and towels of 600-700 GSM. “Now we’ve launched a super-luxury range called LuxeHome, because some retailers told us that Indian consumers are ready for any price point product, as long as it is the best in the world.” 

This includes Turkish towels, bamboo cotton towels, Egyptian lyocell bedsheets and 600-plus thread count bedsheets.

The designer range

Prominently displayed at the Trident pavilion are designer duo Shivan-Narresh’s creations. The designers, famous for their holiday and resort wear, are explaining the inspiration to visitors. “The idea is to push the boundary in home textiles,” says Narresh, pointing to a cheery holiday print inspired from a trip to Finland. “If we can transport people on a holiday right in their bedrooms, then, as a holiday wear brand, we have been successful.”

Bector says the company has its own team of over 40 talented designers but decided to attempt something radically different. “To break the clutter, we experimented with Shivan-Narresh last year,” she explains. “They were bright, vibrant bedsheets and they flew. So much so, there was nothing left to put in my house,” she rues.

The brand aims to onboard one new big name this year, she says, with myTrident also looking at ethnic craft traditions and freelance designers to break “our design mould and get a fresh perspective”.

Luxe and ecomm push

On the brand’s bet on luxury, Bector says, “Luxury for us, the year before last, was about 12 per cent of the portfolio. Last year it went up to 16-17 per cent. I hope this year we touch about 20 per cent.” She says the company is seeing more growth in the premium segment rather than the mass segment. 

“The consumption, overall, has been a little low and, after Diwali, there was a significant lull, but premium has retained its share. The end of quarter three and quarter four had been quiet. But what compensated was ecommerce and quick commerce,” says Bector.

“We are selling about 15,000 bedsheets and towels overall on quick commerce platforms. We are among the top ten sellers of bedsheets on Amazon, Myntra and Ajio,” she says. Ecommerce contributes 15 per cent of myTrident’s turnover. 

Amping up brand presence

“We are large spenders on digital. We have a great D2C website, so a lot of the call-to-action takes the consumer directly to the product on the website,” says Bector. myTrident also invests in massive outdoor campaigns. “We were in (reality TV show) Big Boss last year. The main bed on the show was done by us.”

“It takes years to create a brand,” admits Bector, “and every year we are doing a bit more.”

India’s formidable array of craft traditions got full play at the just concluded Bharat Tex 2025, the mega textile trade show in New Delhi that showcased the best of Indian weaves to the world. But if there was one theme that dominated this year’s textile extravaganza, aimed at generating more exports, it was the focus on zero-waste fashions and upcycling. Everywhere the eye could see were standees and gigantic posters pushing the message of conscious consumption and sustainability — be it regenerative cotton, innovative models of textile waste collection, or eco-friendly fibres.

Taking centre stage at one of the halls at Bharat Mandapam, the venue, was a section that showcased age-old traditional arts like rafugari (creative darning or artistic mending), patchwork quilts and toys, and chindi durries (the art of weaving rugs and carpets with waste).

Juxtaposed against these ethnic ways of upcycling waste were the modern works of startups that rose to the textile ministry’s grand innovation challenge to work with discarded materials. From microbial dyes that are non-polluting to flowing fashionable lehengas created out of textile waste, the startups showed that a lot can be done in this area. The ministry had challenges in three more segments — jute, silk and wool.

Some takeaways from a walk-through of the textile trade show:

Closing the loop

The fashion and textile industry generates enormous waste. How to cut down on this was a subject of much deliberation and showcases. There were a lot of good ideas on display, showing that a fair amount of work has been done with fibres (bamboo, banana, flax), as well as creativity and ingenuity in weaves and finished garments. 

As Devangshu Dutta, Chief Executive of the consultancy Third Eyesight, points out, due credit must be given for the good work going into generating solutions that will reduce waste, be it textiles that are reprocessed and reused as yarn, or refashioned garments or reloved apparel. But, as he adds, on the other hand we have brands that are constantly looking to grow their business and there is a race to the bottom in terms of price. The relaunch of fast fashion retailer Shein in India is sending conflicting signals. “The basic engine is pumping out more and more products, and that has to be tackled,” he says, pointing to the competing forces at work.

The source of hope, he says, is the fact that the young are a bit more conservative about how they consume and what they consume.

Sandip Ghose, CEO of MP Birla Group, which has one of the oldest jute companies in India, was among the visitors at Bharat Tex. “As an industry insider, what I found good at Bharat Tex was that quite a bit of research seems to be on, both for finished fabric and for weaving. There was a lot of work on making jute look aesthetic. There were some vanity projects like tea leaves packed in jute bags. But the challenge is in two areas — commercialisation, and scaling up of these ideas,” he says.

He rues that the jute sector has not taken advantage of the production-linked incentive scheme at a time when the world is looking for eco-friendly and biodegradable textiles. “A tripartite partnership between the Centre (Niti Aayog and textile ministry), State government, and industry would address the issue of industry’s dependence on subsidies, labour issues and exports,” he says, adding that if India is looking at textiles as a major export area, jute is an option that has been missed.

Spinning into luxury

A clear trend evident from a tour of some of the apparel and home textile pavilions is the move towards premiumisation, similar to what is visible in other sectors, noticeably FMCG. 

Talking to the manufacturers, especially those focused on the domestic market, the story one heard was that consumption had slowed in the mass segment, but was reassuringly strong in the premium segment. 

Several players were also moving into the luxury and uber luxury segments. Both myTrident and Welspun had striking luxury collections. 

Another trend visible in the home textiles section was the use of celebrity designers — myTrident’s eye-catching collection by resort-wear designers Shivan-Narresh; and Welspun’s beautiful sets from Kate Shand and Payal Singhal.

“When the economy suffers, it is the poor and middle class who cut down. There is no pressure to reduce consumption at the upper levels, and companies will try to tap into demand that is recession-proof,” says Dutta, explaining the push towards luxury by textile manufacturers.

New trade routes?

Export houses seemed reasonably happy with the buyer interest. Some mentioned that it was interesting to see buyers from Russia at the fair. However, for those supplying to US entities and Western Europe, the buyer interest from Russia may not translate into deals, given the risk of sanctions they could face.

To sum up, it was a fairly good showcase of India’s textile prowess to the world, but whether it will ring in more export orders is debatable as many of the problems and challenges the sector faces were swept under the carpet.

Charles Dickens sums up the Ranbeer Allahabadia episode quite well: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Both go hand in hand these days. Free speech and hate speech are the co-founders of the latest digital content startup, and it’s doing rather well. Frankly, worse has been said online — head over to X, or watch clips of any political debate on national TV.

My intention is not to sit in judgement — of course, the social media influencer known as Beer Biceps crossed the line — but to map the fallout of the episode on brands, and on marketing.

In the digital era, content creators and influencers are brands in themselves. Every podcast, video, or post they share contributes to their brand image and perception.

The Allahabadia episode is a case study in reputation management, brand crisis response, and the fine balance between free speech and responsible branding.

To expand, how do brands navigate the freedom of online speech while protecting their credibility?

Not safe for work

Here’s Abhijit Astana, aka Gabbar Singh, the original Twitter influencer, on the episode: Influencer marketing is still nascent, where the ROI is still debated in “marketing boardrooms. Considering this, a brand can be blindsided when one of their endorsers changes genres, and suddenly becomes nsfw (not safe for work). Ranveer was supposed to be a clean, spiritual, motivational guru kind of a figure, and suddenly flipped in a show. Brands will be wary now, and tread cautiously”.

I remember American podcaster Joe Rogan also faced heat during Covid for promoting vax doubters — there were celebrities who pulled out of Spotify in protest.

From a branding and marketing standpoint, the impact can be analysed in three areas:

Brand trust and credibility — Influencers rely on audience goodwill. When a public figure engages in behaviour perceived as abusive, it creates a trust deficit… negative media coverage, viral backlash erode an influencer’s brand authority.

Sponsorships and business partnerships — Influencers and podcasters monetise their content through brand collaborations, sponsorships, and partnerships with premium advertisers. Controversies make brands hesitant to associate with an influencer.

Audience and market positioning — Brand positioning should be intentional, not accidental. A content creator must be clear about their audience and brand voice.

According to Hari Krishnan, adman and founding member of India Influencer Governing Council, “The issue here is not ‘what’ was said but ‘who’ said it — Ranveer had transcended the line from digital influencer to youth celebrity. And with that comes a great deal of responsibility, since more stakeholders (parents, government, institutions) in society are now getting to watch his content amplified through mass media.

“Advertisers will tread with caution and stay away, citing risk to brand safety.”

Infamous by design

But wait. Decades ago, Mick Jagger, the legendary frontman of the Rolling Stones, said, “I don’t care what they write about me on Page 37, as long as my picture is on the cover.”

So, is negative publicity good? Actually yes, in some rare cases. Kanye West has repeatedly made provocative statements, sometimes leading to backlash, but also keeping him in the media cycle, boosting streaming numbers and product sales — though major brands like Adidas cut ties, costing him billions.

Former kickboxer and influencer Andrew Tate was deplatformed for misogynistic comments, but this only increased his visibility, with his followers spreading his content across social media.

Seriously, I don’t think Indian brands will touch West or Tate with a bargepole.

I’ll let Samriddhi Katiyal of INFLUNS, an AI-driven influencer marketing platform, have the last word: “This controversy is a wake-up call for brands investing in influencer marketing… brands must prioritise authenticity, values alignment, and risk mitigation. The future of influencer marketing lies in transparency, data-driven credibility, and ensuring that partnerships reflect the ethical expectations of modern consumers. The right voices can build trust — while the wrong ones can erode it overnight.”

(Shubho Sengupta is a digital marketer with an analogue past)

This must be the busiest February for brands, who have been showering Valentine’s Day love, pulling out new activations at Mahakumbh, celebrating Shivaji’s birthday and then padded up for the Super Sunday India-Pak cricket clash unveiling contests galore.

A lot has been said about Amazon cartons — from cute posts by cat parents who share how their fur babies enjoy the boxes to irate posts by eco- conscious consumers who crib about the wasteful packaging. But at the Maha Kumbh, Amazon has earned grateful thanks from tired pilgrims. The ecommerce giant has upcycled its cardboard packaging boxes into comfortable beds, which have been placed in key areas across the festival grounds. The video campaign that shows how the Amazon carton became so much more than just a box at the Maha Kumbh is endearing.

Check-in vibe

Travel booking app Cleartrip’s latest campaign takes a fresh approach to hotel booking — matching vibes. To do the vibe check, it brings together two unexpected personalities — cricket’s Captain Cool MS Dhoni and YouTuber and rapper CarryMinati. In the film, CarryMinati, known for his unfiltered persona, attempts to match Dhoni’s legendary composure — only to realise that not every setting is meant for him. He walks off in a huff. Whether or not #DhoniMinati vibe together, Cleartrip “ensures that every traveller finds a stay that fits their mood effortlessly”, goes the closing tag line.

‘Assal Marathi’ tribute

Pickle brand Nilon’s created a culturally resonant campaign on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s birthday that not only paid tribute to the legendary king but also showcased the brand’s bold ethos in a unique and memorable way. The campaign centred around creating a monumental 10,000 sq ft portrait of Chhatrapati Shivaji using 51,000 bottles of Nilon’s Assal Marathi Pickles. The project was completed in just five days, with the bottles meticulously placed. The campaign video garnered 1.5 million views, reports the brand.

Dancing eyebrows

After the lungi dance, will eyebrow dance be a thing? SW Network’s innovative eyebrow dance challenge for Samsung F06 5G launch on Flipkart has gone pretty viral. The film features Bollywood star Ayushmann Khurrana, whose eyebrow dance challenge kicks off a social media movement with influencers, dance communities and everyday users embracing it. The agency also conceptualised attention-grabbing digital billboard campaigns across cities. “Our goal was to create something beyond traditional advertising. Something people would genuinely want to participate in,” says Raghav Bagai, co-founder of SW Network. Well, it certainly had people raising their eyebrows funnily!

The greatest rivalry

We had our own Superbowl moment this Sunday with the India–Pakistan match, when brands padded out in full strength, unleashing one bouncy ad after another. But Star Sports’ promo film for cricket’s ‘Greatest Rivalry’ scored! It had none other than MS Dhoni teaching a bunch of fans how to cheerlead India. Sitting in a yoga studio, he turns the serene atmosphere into a raucous, passion-filled setting with crazy chants. “Apna number agla hai, 2017 ka lena badla hai,” shout the fans in training. A pleased Dhoni turns to the camera, saying, “Ab aayi na feel India-Pak waali.”

Ketan Mody, the COO of Reliance Consumer Products Ltd, the FMCG arm and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, was in Chennai recently to announce the acquisition of the Velvette brand, which had kicked off the shampoo sachet revolution. In a conversation, Mody, a CA, talks about the plans for RCPL and how the ₹8,000 crore company in the span of 18 months has scaled up rapidly.

Plans are afoot to expand into various categories of consumer goods and offer a whole portfolio of brands. Mody has over two decades of experience spanning various industries such as FMCG, retail & telecom, fashion & lifestyle and in treasure, finance and strategy roles. Excerpts:

Brands and political parties are about right positioning. Brand position is what you stand for and political position is the ideology you espouse. It is important to understand what defines localness and what defines nationalness. Brands and parties are not spending enough time doing this right now.

1. Local brands must outperform and out serve their consumer base before thinking of going regional or national. Local brands make the mistake of spreading themselves too thin by geography expansion. This stretches resources and managerial capability is stretched to breaking point. A strong local brand has a role to play. It is in many cases better to be the king of a pond rather than a pauper of a sea. Ego doesn’t let the brand manager come to a rational conclusion. A good example is a ride sharing brand that went to a few countries and closed, the same is true for a watch brand that went global, failed and rightly came back to focus on India.
2. Local context matters. You must play to your strengths. Imitating a national brand and going head on rarely wins you the day. Staying local for local is the only strategy for a strong local brand. A national brand will play a national game when it matters and a regional game when needed. As an example, Campbell soup was the first brand in the world to have a national brand with regional blends. The Tea brands in India – Red Label, Taaza – had similar strategies. National parties will play the blends game, local parties can play only one game – Focus. Focus is not a bad game to play, since you cannot be all things to all people. When a local brand loses focus, it becomes diffused, since it thinks it’s a national brand and must talk a national game.
3. Performance and perception matter equally for brands and political parties. Longevity doesn’t matter if perception is dented despite decent performance. Perception works as an added layer when performance is of an acceptable level. Today, we see negative perception, where you throw mud hoping something will stick. Brands constantly upgrade themselves in packaging, in product etc. every two years. Political parties should do the same and have a 2.0 version, a 3.0 version of message, capabilities and execution needed. Living on past glory does not help when citizens want to know how the future will shape up. Brands and political parties go through the ‘incumbency effect’ when they don’t change with the times.
4. Choosing whom you will target and whom you will partner with is important. When you open the fight on too many fronts/brands, you dissipate energy and come across as confused. Staying focused on one brand is more important, else you will be a bits and pieces brand, and the national market leader will eat you for breakfast. This is a mistake made by all brands in the No 2 to 6 positions in every category. They hope to nibble a little from each other to make some share. Finally, they end up fighting with each other, losing credibility and using up scarce resources.
5. A local brand must play ‘guerilla’. But a guerilla game needs speed and being merciless on the leader’s weakness. A guerilla game is not about trading blows for blows, a trading blows strategy always helps the market leader brand, since the market leader has more ammunition and resources. A great brand example is the deodorant from Gujarat – Fogg.
6. What happens to brands that fall below a threshold on appeal? They must embrace technology, ride the next wave of innovation, appeal to a newer set of incoming consumers and be a step ahead of everyone else in their appeal. Appealing to the same consumers who are targeted by the market leader and the local brand does not help. An insignificant brand has no chance if it ends up doing what the others are doing and imagining that it matters.

All the brand managers of the various political brands need to regroup with their teams and rethink their brand strategy. Attack is not the best form of defense now, retreat to rethink is the wiser option.

(Shiv Shivakumar is Operating Partner, Advent International and former chief of Pepsico India and Nokia India)

Bad Nauheim is a small town in Germany, with a population of just 33,000. It is a health resort noted for its salt springs. I visited this town recently, and was intrigued to see that health is not the only reason why tens of thousands of tourists visit Bad Nauheim. Another segment of people come here looking for a close encounter with the king of rock-and-roll, Elvis Presley!

Slice of history

How did this little rural town become such a magnet for Elvis fans? The answer is a fascinating story of how a town has marketed a small slice of its history so well.

Elvis Presley was not just a famous American singer and actor, he was also a cultural icon. His energetic performances, rockabilly pompadour hairstyle, sparkly glamorous jumpsuits and sexually provocative singing set the music and fashion world on fire during the 1950s and ’60s. Little wonder then that even today, nearly 50 years after his passing in 1977, he has a cult following across the world.

This is the Elvis mania that Bad Nauheim has leveraged brilliantly. In 1958, Elvis arrived in this town to do his mandatory military service. Thereafter, he lived here for two years before returning home to the US. This made Bad Nauheim the only place outside America Elvis ever lived in.

Showcasing touchpoints

Bad Nauheim has converted this brief historical sojourn into a tourist gold mine by meticulously showcasing every spot in the town that Elvis touched. His fans rush in to see, touch and feel these places.

There is the Hotel Villa Grunewald, where he stayed soon after arriving in town. The room he occupied (No. 10) has been kept in its original state. Tourists can book to stay in this room. I had the unique experience of sitting in the very same chair that Elvis had once used.

There is the house at Goethestrasse 14 where Elvis lived from 1959 to 1960. This is the home where he met Priscilla and fell in love with her.

There are a number of other Elvis spots too, including Café Bienenkorb, which had baked a cake for his 24th birthday and still sells “Elvis” cakes with the same flavour; and, interestingly, Hairdresser Hemer, who gave Elvis his haircuts.

Memorial and a photo-op

If you wish to pay a tribute to Elvis, there is the Elvis Presley Plaza, where a small memorial has been created. Fans can lay flowers here or light candles or even leave gifts for their God of music. 

Not far from this memorial stands a very interesting monument. A life-sized bronze statue of Elvis in army uniform, leaning casually against the railings of the USA bridge. 

This is a recreation of a famous historical photograph that every serious Elvis fan would be aware of. It also presents a wonderful photo opportunity, which no fan would like to miss. 

European Elvis festival

Every August, around the death anniversary of the singer, Bad Nauheim organises the European Elvis Festival. Elvis fans from across the world descend on this small town to celebrate their idol. There’s an Elvis party, fan market, classic car parade, live concerts, a music contest, even meetings with Elvis’ musical companions and other celebrities. 

What more can die-hard pilgrims wish for? 

‘Elvis’ traffic lights

One of the most interesting sights I saw in Bad Nauheim was the traffic lights dedicated to Elvis Presley. 

Elvis appears in the red light, singing at a microphone. He appears in the green light, swinging his hips and dancing. In either pose, he is unmissable, and this adds a unique element to the charm of this Elvis town.

Elvis Presley may have stayed in Bad Nauheim only for two years, but because of the brilliant marketing programme the town has created, he continues to live on here forever, attracting a continuous stream of tourists, which hugely benefits the local economy. 

Think about it, there is a marketing lesson here for all of us.

(Harish Bhat is an avid marketer and bestselling author. He was previously the Brand Custodian at Tata Sons)

Meghana Sundaresan, 24, a microbiology researcher, is extremely conscious of what she puts on her face, hair and body. Aware that she is acne prone, she peruses labels and looks at pH values and active ingredients before choosing soaps, shampoos, face creams and sunscreens. 

Meghana is not alone. More and more consumers — especially the young — are gravitating towards science-backed skincare products, with many actually visiting skin specialists and investing in dermatology-based products, expensive though they may be. 

In this light, HUL’s acquisition of D2C beauty brand Minimalist, at a whopping ₹2,995 crore valuation, makes sense. 

Minimalist products use science-backed formulas to address specific skin concerns, and the brand’s ‘Hide Nothing’ tag, along with the strategy of playing up the role of active ingredients like silymarin and hyaluronic acid, has struck a chord with consumers, who google everything before using.

Growing portfolio

HUL is actually late to the party. Arch rival L’Oréal launched its L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty division in India in August 2023 and introduced CeraVe, its first dermatological brand, in the Indian market. Says Rami Itany, Director, L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty, “Today, dermatological skincare is one of the fastest growing categories in Indian beauty, with consumers seeking health, wellness, and science-backed products.”

ITC had arrived even earlier on the scene, launching its Dermafique brand in 2018 with products developed in association with skin specialists and cellular biologists.

Another player to spot the trend early was Honasa Consumer Ltd, the parent company of Mama Earth, which launched The Derma Co as far back as 2020. 

Anuja Mishra, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Honasa Consumer Ltd, says, “The demand for science-backed, dermatologist-designed skincare is rising rapidly, driven by growing consumer awareness. At The Derma Co, we recognised this trend early on and focused on product innovation and building a strong product portfolio with active ingredients.

In just over four years, says Mishra, “we surpassed an annual revenue run rate of ₹500 crore. We expect to attain ₹1,000 crore revenue within three to five years. Categories like face wash, sunscreen, serum, and moisturiser have emerged as consumer favourites in dermatologist formulations.”

New formulations

As Itany says, “Consumers are much more aware of the ingredients and are demanding formulations that are developed and recommended by dermatologists. One in three consumers claims to have sensitive skin and consumers are becoming discerning, seeking transparency in the products they purchase.”

“Of particular interest,” says Itany, “we see a surge in online searches for ‘ceramides’. When given in the right dosage and formulation, ceramides repair the skin’s natural barrier and provide long-lasting hydration.”

Nitin Passi, chairman and managing director, Lotus Herbals, which acquired 32 per cent stake in dermaceuticals maker FixDerma, besides launching its own DermaBotanics range with scientifically optimised actives, says, “Our decision to include power-packed actives like hyaluronic acid, peptides and ceramides reflects the ‘skin-intellect fusion’ ethos trending globally. These ingredients dominate the beauty playbook because they combine targeted efficacy with results.”

He adds, “The modern beauty consumer is no longer satisfied with generic skincare — they demand ‘efficacy-engineered beauty’, where every ingredient is clinically validated, and the results are measurable. This has given rise to ‘performative skincare’, a category defined by targeted dermaceutical formulations that deliver quantifiable improvements in skin health.”

Finding validation

As for the investment in FixDerma, Passi says, “We are witnessing a strong double-digit growth trajectory, reinforcing the market’s confidence in scientifically advanced formulations. 

“As this category continues to expand, we are scaling up our R&D investments, product innovation, and dermatological collaborations to shape the future of performance skincare — where efficacy is not just promised but clinically validated.”

Honasa’s Mishra says the company is doubling down on building an omnichannel presence for The Derma Co and is also opening exclusive brand outlets to provide a more immersive and personalised experience.

A gungho Mishra concludes, “The active ingredient skincare market is only set to grow further, and we are positioned to lead that growth in India and build products that align with the evolving skincare needs of Indian consumers.”

As you enter the India Art Fair grounds, a monstrous cement truck that has been repurposed into a piece of outdoor art, with bits and pieces of metal scrap, catches your eye. Inside, the hall is a visual feast and explosion of colours and creativity, with 78 art galleries from around the world showing a selection of amazing contemporary works. You could call the event the Maha Kumbh of art in Delhi — one that art lovers treat as a pilgrimage.

For the ninth year in a row, luxury car maker BMW is partnering with the India Art Fair, and it’s no mere sponsor. Thomas Girst, Global Head-Cultural Engagement of the BMW Group, is almost offended by the term. “We don’t consider ourselves a sponsor, which is just a monetary transfer. We’re looking at interactions and long-term commitment, which means a partnership,” he says.

A cultured brand

“The BMW Group has been active in the arts for over 50 years, with hundreds of engagements worldwide. We consider ourselves a cultured brand,” stresses Girst, pointing out that the art market globally is valued at around $60 billion. “Of course, we want to be there, supporting the arts. We’re luxury, after all,” he says. Girst says association with art enhances the brand’s visibility and reputation.

Certainly, the brand is a highly visible partner at the Art Fair, with the who’s who of Delhi milling around the BMW collector’s lounge, sipping champagne and nibbling canapés. This year the BMW pavilion at the fair features an exciting work by Dennis Peter and Yash Chandak, who won ‘The Future is Born of Art’ commission, designed to platform a young Indian artist on a global stage. The competition theme was ‘Ecocentrism’ and the brief was to put forward a worldview in which ecological and technological thinking coexist. It’s a future that the automaker is also driving towards with its vehicles.

Peter and Chandak’s winning work — a surreal multimedia experience called Biolume — is hard to describe. As you move inside the darkened hall, which appears like an abstracted glowing oceanic world, sensors pick up your foot movement and that is interpreted on interactive screens in electrifying lights that change shapes. 

The young artists tell you that the experience is inspired by bioluminescent organisms and integrates generative design and biomimicry. This is nature’s sci-fi that the two artists, who are well versed in digital design, bring to you. Of course, two BMW cars are part of the scenery too. 

Serious patronage

Girst describes how, in the earlier years, the brand brought to India the fabled BMW art cars painted by Andy Warhol. Incidentally, it is 50 years of the BMW art cars — it was in 1975 that the first BMW art car was designed by artist Alexander Calder for French racing driver and art lover Hervé Poulain. Since then, many artists have designed BMW art cars, fondly called “rolling sculptures”.

“The art cars get people who are into arts and design and technology really excited. But we thought that it’s actually better to support artists in India,” says Girst. Thus was born ‘The Future is Born of Art’ commission, now in its fourth year. 

Girst says the India Art Fair is not the only cultural engagement the brand has in the country. It is a patron and partner of the Kochi Muziris Biennale as well. 

For brand BMW, its outing with art began in 1971 when it commissioned artist Gerhard Richter to create three large paintings. Since then the group has taken its patronage of arts as a serious social responsibility. As Girst says, “People look at companies from the outside and wonder what do we return to the society that we do successful business in. Of course, clients and customers are important, but the corporate citizenship approach is just as important.”

Come February and brands begin smelling of roses and romance. Even as Valentine’s Day fever is peaking with brands playing Cupid, Cadbury as usual gets the eyeball for taking a very different tack. Globally, all eyes are on the Superbowl which brings out ad land’s creative best.

The mush can sometimes get too much. For several years now, Cadbury 5 Star, with the tagline “Eat 5 Star, Do Nothing” has been showing support to people who dread Valentine’s Day. This year, the brand is back with an audacious plan to subvert Valentine’s Day with a secret weapon: Uncles. Conceived by Ogilvy, the hilarious campaign features a data scientist who explains that several youth trends in the recent past — from skinny jeans to social media platforms — have died when older audiences adopt them. Cadbury 5 Star proposes that if uncles ambush Valentine’s Day, youth will quickly lose interest. To test this theory, the brand is paying older couples to go on dates and will also promote mushy Valentine’s Day videos made by older couples on social media platforms. Full marks to the brand for its counter-culture play!

Penguin love

While 5 Star may oppose Valentine’s Day, Cadbury pays homage to the day of love with its Dairy Milk Silk in a beautiful way — an animated film featuring penguins. Conceptualised again by Ogilvy, the film captures the essence of love and perseverance as it follows a penguin on a quest to express its feelings to its mate. The penguin needs a nudge to take the first step. Even a die-hard cynic will be moved by the sweet film set in the penguin world.

Shoulder before wicket

Moonshot’s new campaign for Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospital is not only a casting coup but also a laugh riot. The ad starts with a face-off between Aussie legend Glenn McGrath and Sachin Tendulkar, who are arguing over the old controversial dismissal of the master blaster. The way the argument is settled neatly, weaving in the need for an eye check-up, is a master stroke. The campaign is complete ’90s nostalgia for cricket lovers. Well played, Moonshot!

Intriguing teaser

Zepto’s recent ad showing a delivery boy striding into a Skoda showroom and saying he is there to pick up an order sparked a lot of buzz. Was the quick commerce platform now going to deliver cars? The campaign does show a Zepto delivery boy driving out in a big vehicle loaded with a Skoda car. The brand later clarified that a car delivery is not on the cards — instead the teaser was about the opportunity to book a test drive of the Skoda Kylaq through Zepto!

Superbowl Sunday

Artificial Intelligence has dominated headlines as the calendar turned to 2025. Not surprising that Superbowl ads too are AI flavoured . Meta’s ad plugs AI-powered glasses while Booking.com pushes its AI tools. Humour and celebrity cameos are the other big devices used by brands during their Superbowl outing. For instance, the Stella Artois ad, directed by Ben Affleck, has David Beckham bonding with Matt Damon.

India’s advertising industry grew by 6.3 per cent in 2024 despite macroeconomic headwinds; and, within that, digital advertising surged by a whopping 21.1 per cent, says the 9th edition of Dentsu India’s digital advertising report. Themed ‘Looking Through the Kaleidoscope’, the ‘dentsu Digital Advertising Report 2025’ looks at the forces shaping India’s digital-first revolution. It says the three critical forces reshaping the advertising landscape are:

Retail media’s meteoric rise: E-commerce is no longer just transactional; it’s a full-funnel marketing ecosystem.

The hybrid marketing revolution: The traditional online-offline divide is vanishing. Integrated, omnichannel strategies are redefining consumer interactions, blending digital precision with physical-world impact.

AI-driven personalisation at scale: Brands that master AI-powered, real-time consumer engagement will dominate the next era of advertising.

The New Year seems to have put new energy into the ad world, which has given us lots of lovely work this past fortnight — from Absolut’s unlabel campaign, which encourages people to look beyond labels and stereotypes, to Naukri’s tongue-in-cheek billboard campaign during the Coldplay concert in Mumbai, addressing employees who may be reporting sick with a cold. Add to that the Republic Day fever, when several brands — especially retail — went into ‘tiranga’ mode, with patriotic promotions. But there were two campaigns that really stormed the internet — the FWD by Myntra ad featuring Vishwanathan Anand and D Gukesh, crafted by Braindad, which had the chess stars ad libbing playfully on generational gaps; and a Puma campaign introducing its new celebrity brand ambassador.

For a week Puma sported a new name — Pvma — changing many of its store signages, putting out ads with an altered logo, leading to conjectures about a rebranding or even typos. What was the brand up to? The suspense ended when Puma announced that PV Sindhu was being onboarded as a brand ambassador. In fact, when a post on X shared an image of a Puma store signage with the “wrong” spelling and wondered, “who did this”, the badminton star replied with a cheeky “I did”, ratcheting up the views and likes.

It turned out the brand was paying homage to Sindhu by adopting her initials in its name temporarily. It also signalled the brand’s entry into badminton gear.

What was brilliant about the activation was that it created curiosity, noise, amplification, and buzz without the brand having to spend too much on media. Typically new brand ambassador sign-ups are greeted with a yawn as it is a fairly routine affair. But Puma managed to memorably etch the association in the consumer mind.

Interestingly, the whole thing was conceptualised in-house by the Puma marketing team. We reached out to Puma India Managing Director Karthik Balagopalan to find out how the bold idea came about.

“One of Puma’s strengths is untamed creativity,” said Balagopalan, adding, “The activation was totally the Puma way. It’s a tone of voice that authentically belongs to us — it is very bold. It was conceptualised and ideated by our in-house marketing team, who are very well-rounded and high on energy.”

While celebrity endorsements can be a double-edged sword, Puma has been acing this consistently, cleverly using Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma. For instance, the video where Anushka challenges Virat to a game of cricket with unconventional rules won hearts. Does the brand have a specific strategy?

“It is very important for us to have a marriage of minds when it comes to celebrity endorsements. There’s a commitment to shared values. We call it the Puma personality. The relevant elements of the asset, the ambassador, along with the cultural fitment for the brand is very critical for us to engage in a long-term, multi-year association,” says Balagopalan.

Does Puma choose the ambassador based on the sport, or the personality? “I think many athletes transcend their sport. They inspire people across categories. We look at people who are either in sport or at the intersection of sports and culture, because sport is today’s lifestyle. We work with people who are engaging and relatable to the local audience,” he says.

The athleisure category is growing — Puma was a late entrant but has had a surprisingly strong showing in India. How is the brand looking at the growing competition though? “We like to say that we were the last to enter India, but were the first to lead,” says Balagopalan. “Overall, I think we are still scratching the surface of the sports market in India. Though sneakerisation is growing. And premiumisation is increasing — both of which bode well for the industry. There’s space for everyone to play.”

Although Puma has a play in other product categories too, Balagopalan says footwear is pretty much where the brand anchors itself.

Any trends for 2025? “We see the low-profile silhouette in sneakers making a huge comeback. We have the Puma Speedcat, which is one of the hottest sneakers at the moment (also ranked by Lyst as top 3). It’s seen across the global fashion capitals and is touted to be the next ‘It’ sneaker,” says the Puma MD. The brand is on the prowl.

A golden rule in marketing, says brand consultant Giraj Sharma, is to go where the people are, and the numbers will follow. With 400 million people attending the once-in-144-year spectacle of the Poorna Maha Kumbh, brands that have rushed to Prayagraj are reaping rich dividends.

Captive audience

As Sharma points out, the fact that no vehicular traffic is allowed after a certain point and people have to walk a good 2-3 km to the spot where one can take a holy dip means there are opportunities galore for brands to be visible. “The sentiment of people attending the Maha Kumbh is very receptive, which is humbling. They are in a benign frame of mind and, at that point, if a brand message is relayed, the chances of capturing their attention is high,” he says.

Mohit Malhotra, CEO, Dabur India, echoes this sentiment, “This year’s Kumbh Mela has provided us a unique platform to connect with a diverse audience. The vibrant atmosphere and the sheer scale of the Maha Kumbh Mela have allowed us to create memorable experiences for pilgrims and also a chance for them to touch, feel and experience our products, thereby building a deeper connect.”

Gaurav Tayal, divisional CEO of the agarbatti and matches division at ITC, is optimistic that the company’s initiatives will lead to a successful season for brand Mangaldeep at the Maha Kumbh. The initiatives include the distribution of 10,000 units of alum batti, which can immerse in water, and larger-than-life sambrani cups during the maha hawan.

“Additionally, our AR-immersive experience went live on January 23, enabling devotees to participate in rituals like shahi snaan, deep daan, and aarti virtually,” he says.

Creativity on display

People may be in a receptive mood, but the plethora of brands arriving at the mela need to be creative or really different to be noticeable. For brands that have high relevancy, like ITC Mangaldeep, which can immerse itself into the pujas with its agarbattis, or for soap and hair care brands from Dabur and HUL, which can dive into the bath rituals, it is relatively easy. But several brands have shown that relevancy does not matter.

Take DSP Mutual Fund, which has made an impact with its Garuda Rakshak initiative. Conceptualised by Dentsu Creative Webchutney and executed in association with Falco Robotics, the offline, drone-based search-and-rescue solution is aimed at reuniting lost children with their families. It uses low-frequency radio bands for long-range communication and precision satellite tracking.

Quick commerce brand Blinkit has also shown great responsiveness by creating a temporary store at the Maha Kumbh Mela to deliver a curated assortment of products like pooja samagri items, fruits and vegetables, chargers, power banks, towels, and so on to pilgrims who are camping at the venue — especially at the luxury tents.

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has also entered the fray, making it possible for devotees across the country to receive prasad from the Maha Kumbh Mela without travelling to the holy sites. Through Waayu, a seller network participant, devotees can order prasad from Bade Hanuman Ji temple in Prayagraj.

Consumption driver

At a time of rising debate on consumption slowdown, there are easy pickings at the Maha Kumbh for smart brands that have augmented their supply chain and distribution channels at the venue. Industry chamber ASSOCHAM has said as much, pointing out that the world’s largest congregation would be a major driver of consumption demand, especially in sectors of specific interest to micro, small and medium enterprises. 

“While clear data is expected to be shared by State and central organisations at the conclusion of the grand spectacle, a visible impact is seen in sectors including transportation, hotels, restaurants, roadside eateries, and construction and maintenance of civic infrastructure, among others, in terms of brisk demand,’’ ASSOCHAM Secretary General Manish Singhal said.

Replication

With religious tourism growing at an immense pace, brands can replicate their Maha Kumbh strategy at other holy spots as well. A Kantar study showed that one in four Indians has travelled to religious destinations in the past year. ONDC’s prasad distribution service has been extended to Ayodhya temple as well. 

Brands just need to follow the Indian pilgrim’s progress and show up there.

If Shehzad (the man accused of stabbing Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan) had tried his stunt at the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, he’d have been identified, located, and apprehended faster than you can say 22436 Vande Bharat Express.

The AI engines would have predicted his next move, sending a drone to deliver a complimentary paratha before he could even think about using his UPI app. He wouldn’t have made it past the Blinkit stall before being caught, tagged, and probably turned into a cautionary hologram for other would-be troublemakers.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s happening at the Maha Kumbh. As crores of devotees gather for the grandest spiritual extravaganza on earth, they’re also being treated to digital innovations that would leave James Bond both shaken and stirred.

Here’s an overview of what’s happening.

AI army on patrol

It all starts with the super-smart cameras. There are 2,750 CCTV cameras across the mela, of which 328 are AI-enabled. These aren’t your typical “just recording” types. They’re constantly analysing crowd behaviour, spotting security issues, and helping manage the insane flow of 40 crore pilgrims. It’s like having a digital dadi who knows everything happening in every corner of the mela!

Flying chhatri: Drones

While devotees are taking dips and attending poojas, a whole asmaan bhar of drones are making sure everything is safe. Some drones are tethered to hover over the crowd, giving a bird’s-eye view, while others dive underwater at the Triveni Sangam, scanning the riverbed. Not to forget the anti-drone systems that are keeping out unwanted flying visitors.

Kumbh sah’AI’yak

Lost in the madness? Need to find a shortcut to the Ganga ghat, or figure out the timing for the next aarti? Just ask Kumbh Sah’AI’yak, the chatbot that’s fluent in 11 languages. It’s like having a super-smart local guide in your pocket. Honestly, this bot is so efficient it might even explain the ending of Inception without making your head spin.

QR Codes ‘FTW’

Gone are the days of long queues and paper passes. Everything’s digital now — QR codes are your ticket to the Kumbh. Whether it’s entry passes for you or vehicle permits, this system makes the entire experience smooth like butter. Think of it as a spiritual FastPass — your darshan just got a lot faster and fancier.

Smart lost-and-found

Siblings getting separated at the Kumbh Mela is a familiar plot in Indian movies. But worry not, because this time the AI-powered computerised centres are here to save the day. Whether it’s kids, grandparents, or even your wallet, these digital detectives work faster than you can finish an episode of C.I.D. They’ll match descriptions and reunite families in no time.

Maps ka jadoo

Thanks to geographic information systems (GIS), combined with Google Maps, the entire mela ground has been mapped into zones and sectors. Navigation is now as easy as finding your neighbourhood chaiwala. Whether it’s a laddoo stall or the exact spot for your holy dip, this digital mapping ensures you’ll never be lost — or hungry.

Virtual reality magic

Can’t physically make it to the Kumbh? No worries, bhaiyya. Step into one of the 360-degree VR booths and experience the rituals and events as if you’re right there — minus the bheed and the soggy clothes from the Ganges dip. It’s a true darshan experience for those stuck at home.

Tokenise your faith

Haan haan, you read that right. This year, the Kumbh is diving into the blockchain wave by offering non-fungible tokens (NFTs). These digital collectibles are for the crypto-savvy crowd who want a piece of their spiritual journey preserved in the metaverse. Imagine owning a digital prasad! Tradition meets technology, right?

Health-tech bliss

At the Kumbh, even your health is taken care of. AI-driven health systems are monitoring sanitation, keeping inventory in check, and offering quick medical assessments. Whether it’s a small ailment or just routine checks, pilgrims’ physical health is looked after as carefully as their spiritual journey.

The Maha Kumbh 2025 is more than just a religious event — it’s a showcase of India’s ability to blend the ancient with the ultra-modern. From drones keeping an eye on devotion to AI ensuring your safety, this Kumbh is taking us straight into the future, desi-style! It’s a place where technology and tradition are working hand in hand, proving that faith can move mountains — and maybe even gigabytes.

(Shubho Sengupta is a digital marketer with an analogue past)

The year 2025 could well be one of contradictions, going by the 11th edition of VML’s ‘The Future 100’ report, which pinpoints business and cultural trends based on a survey across 14 markets globally. The study found conflicting desires of digital innovation versus analogue pursuits, fear for the future versus hope for society, and simpler living versus out-of-this-world experiences.

“‘The Future 100’ ushers in a year of possibilities, where new realities are in the making, human potential is being redefined, lifespans are extended, and a new creative economy is emerging thanks to technological advances,” says the report, authored by Emma Chiu and Marie Stafford, global intelligence directors at VML.

The report picks 100 trends across sectors. Here are a few that caught our eye:

New realities

Don’t like the world we live in? Then escape to an alternative one. The report says 67 per cent of Gen Z said they liked the idea of escaping to a different reality using technology, reflecting desire for optimism in a chaotic world. At the same time, more and more people are leaning into dark stories. Horror movies, as a genre, are getting bigger. That’s because recreational fear is a coping mechanism, says the report. 

Otherhood

Motherhood has long been seen central to female identity, but now a growing number of women and nonbinary people are redefining what it means to build a fulfilling life. By choosing “otherhood” — being childfree or opting out of the traditional nuclear family — they are signalling evolving priorities, societal changes, and a conscious rejection of outdated expectations.

Augmented humans

Solitude is now a purposeful form of leisure. Hospitality brands and travel providers are designing with solitude and aloneness in mind, crafting experiences that offer tranquility and space for reflection. But, contrarily enough, there is also a rise in social saunas and agrihood, which offer community experiences.

Shrinking agencies

If 2024 closed with the announcement of Omnicom and IPG merger, then 2025 has opened with the news of Leo Burnett and Publicis Worldwide becoming a single entity, which will be known only as Leo. Gone is the Burnett name, ending another chapter in advertising. Remember how WPP erased the legacy names of J Walter Thompson, Young & Rubicam and Wunderman when it created VML? At least the leonine part of iconic adman Leo Burnett, who created memorable ads and characters like the Marlboro Man and Pillsbury’s Doughboy, still remains in this fresh wave of consolidation. 

At Davos, the executive chairman of S4 Capital, Sir Martin Sorrell, spoke about the shake-up in advertising, forecasting that the Big Six could end up becoming the Big Three. Asset sales and consolidation are rampant across all segments of the industry — from creative to media to measurement. Witness how, just last week, Kantar Group (owned by Bain Capital and WPP, which have 60 and 40 per cent stake, respectively) announced the sale of its Kantar media unit to private equity firm HIG Capital for an estimated $1 billion. The field of marketing communications, too, saw some buyouts recently, including Stagwell acquiring ADK Global. Add to the consolidations the ongoing simplification efforts within networks, and it looks like the agency world is shrinking. 

Election ads fail to connect

As voting day nears, it’s raining election promises in Delhi. Outdoor campaigns seem to be the favourite media for political parties, but Instagram is also emerging as a big battleground, with both Aam Aadmi Party and BJP putting out reels. AAP is relying on a lot of AI generated reels using Bollywood content and pop culture, while BJP has launched a satirical animated series titled ‘Delhi’s got Latent’, poking fun at AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal.

But do these political ads have any impact on the electorate? In a survey by ad-tech platform iCubeWires, 87 per cent of respondents said the ads did not influence their opinions about any political party.

Apart from ineffectiveness, the political ads were not regarded as credible by a majority of the audience, the survey across a range of demographic groups showed.

In terms of reach, 88 per cent respondents had seen the political ads on social media, while posters were next with 10 per cent visibility.

As to whose campaign was most visible, there was a clear winner — the survey showed BJP ads had the highest visibility (45 per cent), followed by Congress (35 per cent) and AAP (24 per cent).

The Pantone Color Institute has declared its colour of the new year 2025 — ‘mocha mousse’, an evocative soft-brown. When I first saw this lovely colour, it suggested cocoa, coffee and chocolate, and it also made me feel nice and cosy. The colour brown was already trending in some product categories for the past few months and now, with this announcement, it is likely to rock in the year ahead.

Pantone’s ‘colour of the year’ pick is based on its study of cultural trends, the prevailing mood and the desires bubbling up across the world. Here is what Laurie Pressman, Vice-President of Pantone Color Institute, says about mocha mousse: “For Pantone colour of the year 2025, we look to a mellow brown hue whose inherent richness and sensorial and comforting warmth extends further into our desire for comfort, and the indulgence of simple pleasures that we can gift and share with others.”

In essence, this colour taps into the collective human need for comfort and stability, which is a reaction and counterpoint to the chaos and conflict we see all around us — including two major wars and rising geopolitical conflicts day after day. Brown is, after all, the colour of the earth, which stands for solidity and stability. 

Not a brand favourite

Given all these positive connotations, it is surprising that not many brands in India actively use brown. How many major Indian brands of cars or household durables or foods or lifestyle accessories have you come across that use a brown logo or packaging or a signature shade of brown? There are a few exceptions but most appear to have shunned brown because they may have viewed it as non-aspirational — neither bright nor impactful. Now, with brown deemed colour of the year, marketers have yet another opportunity to use it across product, retail and online touchpoints.

You may ask why use brown just because it has been declared colour of the year? Here are a few good reasons.

First, brown conveys warmth and comfort, stability and solidity — highly desirable emotive states for most consumers, particularly in today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world.

Second, brown is the colour of the earth. It stands for sustainability and something that is natural. With the rising focus on the environment, this attribute will appeal to a large segment. However, it will work only if the underlying product is environment-friendly.

Third, brown is an unpretentious colour, unlike purple or red or silver or gold. This will resonate with people who wish to get back to simple, happy living after the hectic pace and deceptive charms of modern digital-powered life, which is alluring but exhausting.

Fourth, brown subliminally cues small affordable pleasures, perhaps because of its association with delicious daily products such as chocolate and coffee. Therefore, it may be a perfect choice if a marketer wishes to position his or her product in the “everyday indulgences” zone.

Fifth, brown is a hugely under-utilised colour; therefore, the arena is wide open. Beautiful brown products, brand logos or online interfaces — whether for refrigerators or motorcycles or garments or packaged goods or e-commerce sites — are likely to cut the clutter.

I began the new year determined to cut down on sugar, whether white or brown. But even as I have been writing this article, I have been wondering: Why not make an occasional exception for dark brown chocolate or delicious mocha mousse?

(Harish Bhat is an avid marketer and bestselling author. He was previously the Brand Custodian at Tata Sons)

In a world filled with heavily funded start-ups that create noise by throwing money, how a small, cash-strapped jewellery and watch brand grew through frugal marketing makes for an interesting study. 

Joker & Witch, founded by the husband-wife team of Satish Singh and Maya Varma in 2015, has managed to carve out for itself a unique brand identity and persona. So has their second brand, Teejh. Both brands have found gaps in the market and quickly filled them.

As for the Joker & Witch brand name, Singh explains that he sees himself as the joker in the pack — a fun, problem-solving alter ego — while Maya is akin to “a mystical, powerful being — a witch to his joker persona”. J&W also stands for jewellery and watches — though they now also make accessories like sunglasses and clutches.

Initially targeting Gen Z and millennials, they spotted a gap in affordable well-designed watches that brands like Titan and Fossil could not fill, and began offering those as well as modern daily-wear jewellery. Starting out with aspirationally designed watches priced ₹800-₹1,500, they have now expanded the range to ₹700-₹3,000.

Teejh was set up in 2019 when Varma saw a white space in affordable jewellery for daily wear. The name Teejh was inspired by childhood memories of Indian festivals, and its identity and persona is quite a contrast to that of Joker & Witch. From oxidised jewellery, it has expanded into sarees — both focus on wearable, non-ostentatious pieces. 

Brand strategy

Singh, a MICA alumnus, believes that a brand is an extension of how founders think. Since both he and his wife are old-school and driven by conventional values, they decided their brand would not be measured by how much money it raised. “Hence we kept it bootstrapped,” he says. The other thinking that shaped their product offering was their refusal to chase trends. At the time they launched, smart watches were getting to be popular but they contrarily chose to go with analogue watches, positioning them as fashionable.

They launched their website in 2016, focusing on content creation. Singh says three Cs — content, community and commerce — have shaped their brand strategy. “Simple communication done consistently can reap dividends over a long period of time,” he says.

In addition, three Is have helped growth — Instagram, innovation and influencers. “Instagram has been one large, strong canvas for lifestyle and fashion brands. In fact, I would say, don’t do heavy investments on Facebook and YouTube,” he advises. 

Innovating smartly has also propelled the brand. For instance, Joker & Witch began pairing watches with bracelets and that worked. Then they started a triad with rings added. “Also the presentation of the product did wonders for us,” says Singh.

Coping with competition

So far so good. But the branded affordable artificial jewellery space is suddenly getting crowded. How do they plan to navigate that? 

“By staying true to our core,” responds Varma. “Even today, 50 per cent of our sales on Teejh come from our oxidised jewellery. So we will stay focused on that,” she says.

“In the lifecycle of a brand, if your products are good, your after-sales service is top-notch, a customer tends to like you. Over time, likeability becomes lovable, and then becomes an obsession,” says Singh. 

“I think we are in the ‘likeability’ stage. We will do our best to get to the place where customers are obsessed with us,” he says.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the influential tech event in Las Vegas that opens every calendar year and gives us a glimpse of trends to come, there was a flying car, a solar- and AI-powered helmet, an AI-powered radio, a robotic vacuum cleaner with arms, unusual wellness gadgets, and plenty of other exciting stuff. 

Products and news centred on artificial intelligence (AI) dominated the show but robotic tech enthralled too, as did futuristic mobility. There was much focus on wellness and sustainability, and age-tech made big strides. Nvidia was the company that created the maximum buzz but the Asian tigers Samsung, LG and Panasonic pulled in the crowds too. Interestingly, small brands had some of the most interesting tech.

For marketers and brands there was plenty to chew over. Here are some trends we spotted after attending the event virtually. All the highlights are on CES.tech.

Agentic AI

Till now we had been hearing a lot of noise about AI without really getting a grip on how it would change our lives. CES 2025 showed how it will change businesses and individuals substantively. Agentic AI is going to be big. Literally, every brand will have an AI agent. And it is quite possible that the AI agent will interact not with a consumer but the consumer’s AI agent. Individuals can create their own agents too.

Many brands showed off their AI agents, which had a personality. LG, with its promise of ‘Affectionate Intelligence’, had a lovable agent, Furon. Panasonic introduced us to an AI-powered digital wellness assistant, Umi (with powers of reasoning and ability to converse), that would be a help to caregivers. Delta showcased Delta Concierge.

Gadgets get smarter

We already have smart gadgets. But CES 2025 showed us gadgets with an unimaginable level of intelligence. For instance, Samsung’s AI-powered fridge knows your consumption pattern and gives shopping recommendations. LG showcased an AI radio that resembles a speaker and can switch programmes to suit your taste and mood.

AI was prevalent in every category. From healthcare to cars to aircraft to refrigerators and TVs, to even helmets.

A solar-powered helmet offered by Exeger (a Swedish deep-tech company) and Cosonic had audio and safety enhancements aided by AI. Equipped with navigation tools, the helmet alerts riders to obstacles and traffic situations. Certainly a boon to the thousands of delivery agents out on the roads these days.

It was also evident that televisions are certainly not going out of our lives as CES 2025 showed an extraordinary line-up of smart screens with AI integration.

Chinese firm Xpeng Aeroht’s flying car created quite a stir. It’s not really a flying car, of course. Rather, the large car is an aircraft carrier, holding a drone-like flying vehicle inside. The flying vehicle can be detached. You get into the cockpit and take off using a joystick to manoeuvre. The cost: $3,00,000. And you would need a flying licence.

Age-tech comes of age

A heart-warming aspect of CES 2025 was the focus on inclusive tech, especially assistive technology for seniors. There was a dedicated arena for age-tech, showcasing gadgets like a robotic puppy to soothe dementia patients. Japanese firm Asahi Kasei displayed a detection system that can send alerts to caregivers if a senior under their watch has a fall.

Many of the home gadgets on display had useful features for seniors. Even beauty-tech players had solutions, such as applying lipstick and eyeliner without smudging, for seniors with shaking hands.

Wellness in focus

Healthcare and wellness features were integrated into offerings from nearly all consumer electronics firms. From sleep and fitness monitoring wearables, the product range has expanded to include glucose monitors and mental health and nutrition trackers.

As for sustainability, the focus intensified with many gadgets using renewable energy — especially solar power. There was a huge focus on battery and energy storage technologies. Some exciting developments were showcased, like a charging hub where your mobile could be fully charged in two seconds (through a change of battery).

Riding on partnerships

A noticeable trend at CES 2025 was the many companies collaborating together. We saw Sony pairing up with Honda for its EV Afeela, Nvidia announcing it was helping Toyota with its autonomous vehicle development, and Microsoft talking about its partnership with Volkswagen, GM and Ford to speed innovation, among many others.

The future lies in big brands collaborating.

Three guys in a convertible, off on a holiday. Reminds you of Dil Chahta Hai, perhaps? Or Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara? Phone maker Oppo’s new ad for its Reno13 smartphone series is more than a passing ode to the two films. With three upcoming actors — Vedang Raina, Ishaan Khatter and Siddhant Chaturvedi — playing the holidaying trio, the ad made by Famous Innovations captures the fun of friendship, with a trusted phone by the side.

Heart-touching inner beauty

Soap brand Godrej No.1’s latest television commercial carries forth the idea of Dil Se Khoobsurat (inner beauty). Conceptualised by Lightbox, GCPL’s in-house creative studio, the ad shows a few school kids hopping onto a bus. Among them is a visually challenged girl. A woman offers her the window seat, and the girl asks poignantly, “What can I really see from the window?” But as the woman begins describing each scene, the girl tells the woman she is truly beautiful — as she has a beautiful heart.

Wising up to digital frauds 

HDFC Bank’s latest campaign, ‘Yeh Aapke Sath Bhi Ho Sakta Hai’, created by FCB Kinnect shows Vigil Aunty (a recurring character who keeps track of digital scams) working to shatter the optimistic belief many have that they’re immune to scams. The campaign includes four films that show the tactics fraudsters use to manipulate their victims. One of these shows fraudsters posing as cops and swindling a customer out of his bank savings. The films end with the warning that it could happen to you too. A much-needed cautionary film.

Aspirational Bharat

Protean eGov Technologies Limited, which creates digital public infrastructure (DPI), has unveiled a powerful brand campaign — ‘Apni Kahaani ka Hero!’ Narrated by Pankaj Tripathi, the film — in three minutes and 50 seconds — takes the viewer through pivotal moments in the life of a common Indian, all enabled through Protean products. Some of the transformative products showcased are Protean Vidyasaarathi (scholarships), Protean PAN, eKYC, NPS, ONDC and ProteanLife. The film could have ended up being heavy but, thanks to Tripathi’s masterful storytelling, it holds your attention.

The Digital Personal Data Protection (DRDP) rules have been put out by the Indian government for public consultation until February 18, 2025. They can impact the digital and influencer marketing strategies of brands since they call for consent before obtaining personal data and also stress upon deletion of customer data after three years of inactivity. Social media platforms relying on algorithms that use customer data to push content could find themselves hamstrung. For brands that rely on platforms, this is one more push towards attempting direct audience engagement.

Erasing net neutrality

Meanwhile, in the US, a federal appeals court has struck down net neutrality rules. These rules restrict telecom companies from speeding up access to certain websites while slowing down others. Why this is a big deal is that local startups could struggle to get users while big corporations have an advantage.

Whether it’s the inside story on Zepto’s work culture, or a British tourist’s take on India’s infrastructure, or the latest ‘tea’ on Bollywood celebrities, many of these viral discussions on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) are increasingly spillovers from someplace else. That’s Reddit, which is slowly but steadily becoming the social media platform of choice for Indian users.

According to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, the Reddit app averaged 3.8 million monthly active users (MAUs) and 1.3 million daily active users (DAUs) in India in 2024 (till December 17). This was an almost 20 per cent growth from 2023, when the app saw 3.2 million MAUs and 1.1 million DAUs. In comparison, X had roughly 25 million MAUs, as of April 2024. Reddit saw over 3.5 million downloads in India in 2024 and averaged top 3 ranking on the Apple App Store under the ‘news’ category.

Long popular with Americans, it is now catching the attention of Indians as a forum for in-depth discussions on various topics within dedicated communities (called subreddits). Internal data from January 1 to November 30, 2024, shared by Reddit with businessline, shows the platform’s usage in India was dominated by two favourite topics — Bollywood and cricket. 

So, alongside r/bollyblindsngossip and r/cricket, among the top subreddits in India during this period (based on screen views) was r/india (a community for all things uniquely India). The platform is also drawing more techies and the programming community with r/developersindia growing 53 per cent year-on-year. Reddit management noted in its recent earnings report that international DAUs grew 44 per cent year-on-year, led by 53 per cent growth in the “focus markets, most notably in France, India, and the Philippines”.

The backstory

Founded by Steve Huffman, Alexis Ohanian and Aaron Swartz in 2005, the social network’s feed consists of user-generated posts, photos, and videos in the form of discussion groups, and it is available as an app and on a website. Reddit was first acquired by Condé Nast Publications in 2006. In 2011, it became an independent subsidiary of Condé Nast’s parent company. Private funding from the likes of Sam Altman, Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, and Fidelity Investments followed. The platform stormed into global spotlight in 2021 when a community of small-time retail traders called r/WallStreetBets sent the stock price of gaming company GameStop soaring. Gaming enthusiasts had set out to take on the institutional investors and hedge funds that had shorted the stock. Reddit went public in Marchat $34 per share. As of December, it was trading at $168.6 per share. 

Community interaction is a key attraction for Indians, who typically love to get together and chat. Reddit also keeps user identity anonymous, which lowers the threat of trolling. Moreover, unlike in other networks that populate the feed with irrelevant information due to algorithms, here the discussion is focused.

Ramit Mehrotra, a media student in Pune, says Reddit is an escape from the “madness” of X and Instagram. “I wanted no unnecessary spat and noise on my feed. I wanted access to more memes and entertaining stuff, as these often go viral on, and from Reddit,” he says. “It’s as if Quora, Tumblr and Pinterest were mixed together.”

“You choose what you want to consume. There are no suggested posts,” he adds.

Brand presence

However, despite a similarity with Quora, Reddit has not been able to catch the eye of businesses yet, say experts. Unlike Instagram and X, it does not have a definite positioning among Indian users, they add.

“Instagram is more travel/food, X for news and venting, Quora for knowledge, YouTube for infotainment. Reddit needs to position itself more starkly if it wants its user base to explode in India,” says Nimesh Shah, head maven, Windchimes Communications. “Having said that, any brand that has a fan base and talk points (cars, bikes, photography, electronics like gaming laptops, and so on) should initiate presence on Reddit,” he adds.

Vikas Chawla, co-founder of digital marketing agency Social Beat, says his firm is testing the waters on Reddit for a few brands and that it has potential for lead generation, on the lines of Quora. “For now, brands can run ads or do marketing by integrating content, like how one would use Quora. But Reddit’s creator/influencer ecosystem is not very robust yet in India,” he adds.

The coming year will see Reddit hone its localisation strategy. The platform announced recently that it is rolling out machine-learning translation to 35 new countries. This is already live in France and will soon go live in Brazil and Spain.

Redditors are considered to be the most tech-savvy, curious and creative bunch among social media users. Also the most argumentative. Will their tribe grow in 2025? Stay tuned.

I don’t know if it’s in 10 years, five, or sooner, but change is coming. And it won’t trickle in gently; it will sweep through like a wave, leaving behind an advertising industry stripped of everything it once held sacred.

We are heading towards a future where consumers, empowered by technology, will no longer need to be persuaded, influenced, or lured. 

Advertising, as we know it, will cease to exist. Because the consumer will finally have their own gatekeeper: an app, an AI tool, a personal algorithm. Call it whatever you want, but this intelligent, autonomous system will rewrite the rules of consumption.

The app takeover

Think of a day when you don’t have to browse, scroll, and certainly not sit through ads. You input your preferences — organic for groceries, linen for clothes, a price bracket for everything you buy — and the app does the rest. It curates, compares, verifies, and even orders. 

Your decisions are driven not by billboards, influencers, or celebrity endorsements, but by authenticated data and pure utility.

Brand loyalty will still exist, but it will be earned, not crafted. 

Advertising can no longer spin a mediocre product into a bestseller. Performance, value, and trust will decide who survives.

What does this mean for brands?

The role of creativity in advertising will shrink. Not disappear, but transform. Brands will no longer compete for attention — they will compete for algorithms. 

The consumer’s AI will sift through options, discarding fluff and retaining only the best. To make the cut, brands must get three things right:

* Quality — A product that lives up to every claim it makes.

* Trust — Authentic reviews, verified ratings, and zero tolerance for gimmicks.

* Relevance — A sharp understanding of consumer preferences, needs, and timing.

No amount of celebrity sparkle or influencer charm will make a difference if the product itself doesn’t deliver. So, is it the death of influence, or its reinvention?

An influencer won’t just promote a product — they’ll have to test it, and prove its worth. Reviews will become the hammer of influence.

Brand building

The smart algorithms of the future won’t take celebrities at face value. They’ll fact-check. A thousand likes won’t matter; a thousand verified purchases will.

For celebrities, no more scripted love for shampoos and watches; endorsements will need to be credible to count. A celebrity’s name will appear on the shortlist because the algorithm deemed it worthy — not because of brand budgets.

What about brand building?

You won’t build brands on emotion alone any more. You’ll build on experience — how they perform, how they serve, and how they’re remembered after the sale.

A brand’s story will matter, but it will have to be true. The flash, the jingles, the clever campaigns will take a backseat to something far more fundamental: reliability.

Brand building will become less about grabbing attention and more about earning trust — a return to basics in a way. 

A strong product, delivered well, will outlast the noisiest campaigns.

What will it mean for agencies?

The shift is seismic. The work we do — crafting messages, building campaigns, pushing creativity — will face a reckoning.

New role of agencies

The window for storytelling will shrink. Brands will no longer shout at consumers; they’ll whisper to algorithms. And the algorithms will whisper back to the consumer. 

But creativity won’t die — it will adapt. Agencies will perhaps need to focus on building deeper, experiential campaigns, and help brands cut through clutter with truth instead of persuasion.

We will be forced to strip away the excess, the gimmicks, the smoke and mirrors. 

The future is not bleak. It’s different. If this sounds like the death of advertising, it’s not. 

It’s the death of bad advertising — of wasteful, mindless noise.

The future belongs to brands that are worthy. To agencies that embrace simplicity, honesty, and relevance. To influencers who deliver proof, not platitudes. To consumers, who finally have the tools to take control.

This isn’t a loss. It’s a reset. And if we’re ready, it might just be the best thing that happens to advertising. Because, when the dust settles, one truth will remain: great ideas will always matter. Great products will always win.

And the consumer will finally, truly, be king.

(Prathap Suthan is Managing Partner and chief creative officer at Bang in the Middle)

Newly launched uber luxury fashion brand Riccaro Corduso has unveiled a bold, stylish campaign called ‘Rise Above’, shot in Ladakh. Featuring international models, the brand film promotes the cashmere fabric with the mighty Himalayas as the backdrop. It’s a visually stunning campaign and the narration in the form of a few questions is also out of the ordinary. The central message is to let go and rise above.

Path to a happier tomorrow

Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s corporate campaign ‘Happier Paths Together’ is a creatively shot, beautifully crafted ad that reflects the company’s goal of a greener, more inclusive tomorrow. What is especially eye-catching in the ad is how very traditional cultural scenes are juxtaposed with cars on the move. For instance, a piece of folk art in which a line is being painted, kohl applied on eyes, a rangoli drawn… all seamlessly transition into a path on which futuristic vehicles traverse. The campaign has been released just ahead of the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025 scheduled to take place in Delhi from January 17, where the company will showcase its journey.

Bearding the corporate lions

Marico’s grooming brand Beardo has unveiled a provocative new campaign featuring Hrithik Roshan, which has a quirky take on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and pokes fun at corporate slaves. The campaign, titled ‘Evolution Ends with the Bearded Boss’, shows Hrithik striding through an art gallery that showcases a series of evolutionary images, beginning with apes. He stops at the last frame, depicting a hunched, lifeless corporate worker chained to his briefcase, and declares: “Peak of evolution? Wrong.” The last frame then shows a free-spirited bearded Hrithik.

Concrete game changer

Cement maker JK Super Cement’s new ad featuring its brand ambassador cricketer Jasprit Bumrah is compelling. Titled ‘Game Badal De’, it draws inspiration from Bumrah’s journey and shares an incident from his childhood, showing how he practised against a cement wall on which the three wickets were painted. The ad has also been launched to show JK Super Cement’s rebranded avatar, including its updated packaging and logo.

Luigi Mangione — a name that has sparked debates across the globe. The young man, hailing from a prominent real estate family in Baltimore, US, shocked the world when he was arrested for a tragic act of violence — the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

But beneath the sensational headlines lies a story that resonates with the times — a tale of alienation, disillusionment, and the overwhelming impact of technology.

Mangione, once an Ivy League student destined for a high-flying corporate career, began to withdraw from his social circles six months before his arrest. His journey took him to Hawaii and Japan, where his fascination with a peculiar term — NPC — took centre stage.

NPC, or non-playable characters, refers to those predictable extras in video games that follow pre-programmed routines.

But Mangione’s usage of NPC wasn’t limited to gaming — he applied it to describe real-life behaviour. In Japan, he reportedly criticised what he saw as an “NPC culture”, where people’s actions felt robotic, conformist, and devoid of individual thought.

The NPC factory

My moot point. Think about your last scroll through Instagram or Twitter or LinkedIn. How many posts were just rehashed trends, the same dance challenge, or identical opinions dressed up as “fresh takes”?

Social media thrives on conformity.

Algorithms reward sameness — they push what’s already popular, creating echo chambers where original thought goes to die. It’s easy, it’s efficient, and it’s mind-numbing. Welcome to the digital assembly line.

Here’s the kicker: this isn’t just about online behaviour. The more we conform digitally, the more this spills over into our real, offline lives. We become trapped in routines, seeking validation through ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ instead of meaningful interactions.

The result? We feel more disconnected than ever — alienated from others, and even from ourselves.

Examples abound. Young girls, for instance, often feel pressured to adhere to unrealistic beauty standards promoted by influencers and filters, leading to issues like body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and depression.

Young boys and men frequently get drawn into toxic trolling cultures or extremist online groups, lured by a sense of belonging that masks deeper insecurities.

Alienation on steroids

Enter AI, the super-steroid of the digital age. While AI can boost efficiency, it also reduces people to numbers on a spreadsheet. Many of us are now part of a gig economy that’s unstable and impersonal, with algorithms deciding our worth.

It’s the same old story of alienation, but on steroids — alienated kids glued to screens and ruled by algorithms that measure productivity in clicks, swipes, and sales.

Don’t be doomed to be NPCs. Take action. 

So, how do we break free? Here are five ways to reclaim your individuality and stop being an NPC:

* Limit social media use: Set boundaries on your screen time. Engage mindfully instead of passively scrolling through endless feeds.

* Cultivate critical thinking: Challenge popular opinions and trends. Seek diverse perspectives and question the status quo to develop your unique viewpoint.

* Pursue offline activities: Take up hobbies or other activities that inspire creativity and allow for genuine human connections, free from the influence of algorithms.

* Focus on self-expression: Embrace your quirks and interests. Share your thoughts and ideas without worrying about likes, shares, or validation from others.

* Disconnect to reconnect: Spend time in nature, practise mindfulness, or simply enjoy moments of solitude to reconnect with your authentic self.

Alienation isn’t new, but the way technology amplifies it is unprecedented. The good news? Awareness is the first step to change. Let’s make sure we’re the players in our own lives, not just NPCs in someone else’s game.

All the best!

(Shubho Sengupta is a digital marketer with an analogue past)

As 2024 nears its end, many of you may be planning year-end parties to ring out the old and ring in the new. Or you may not have begun planning yet, because you like doing these things closer to the hour. It does not matter really, because you can now get virtually everything you need for a party in 10 minutes flat.

Quick commerce

Indeed, 10-minute delivery is the first big trend of 2024 that I would like to call out. This is the year when Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and Big Basket Now became household names in India. They were collectively labelled ‘quick commerce’ (QC), and their progress has been remarkable. A recent study indicates a clear and dramatic shift towards these platforms, with 46 per cent of all urban consumers surveyed reporting they have reduced spending at traditional kirana stores and begun experimenting with QC.

And it’s not just groceries. My editor (who generally does not act on impulse) tells me that, just last month, she ordered a large air purifier through a QC platform — because the price there was on par with other outlets, and she needed one as quickly as possible. And she could breathe easy, because it did arrive in exactly 10 minutes. There is a flywheel at work here — the easy availability and affordability of QC is making us more unplanned in our purchase habits, and this shift in behaviour will lead us towards even more 10-minute purchases.

Cautious consumption

Even as urban Indian consumers enjoy faster deliveries at home, they have also begun slowing down on their discretionary purchases — from soaps to biscuits to cars — particularly during the second half of 2024. Middle-class consumers are said to be spending less because of falling real wages and subdued income growth, as well as the pinch of inflation. 

Inflation, in turn, has been driven primarily by food prices (food comprises around half the consumer price basket in India).

In contrast, rural consumer demand has remained relatively robust. Also, affluent households across the country continue to spend on categories as diverse as durable goods, healthcare, out-of-home food and travel. Popular restaurants in my home town, Bengaluru, continue to be packed, and some consumer brands continue to report robust double-digit growth.

In this scenario, smart and thoughtful marketing needs to trigger consumer demand in the right segments. India is a large market, with immense opportunities for growth. Marketers have to leverage this to create demand, rather than whining about urban slowdown.

Premiumisation

One such area that marketers can focus on is the continued rise in Indian consumers’ aspirations — 2024 saw the continuation of this secular trend towards premiumisation, notwithstanding the urban slowdown. Just to be clear, premiumisation does not mean that millions of consumers are moving towards luxury products. On the other hand, they are seeking aspirational products and services in every price segment.

Whether it is garments or electronics or vehicles, Indians are buying products that are unique and expressive, and services that make them feel special. Catering to this slice of consumer demand may require marketers to focus on areas such as desirable product features, refined packaging, beautiful shopping experience, and the irresistible blend of aspiration and value.

Ubiquitous AI

The year 2024 is when artificial intelligence (AI) became the new normal for marketers for a range of use-cases — generating custom content at scale, automation of direct marketing, choice of media, and analysis of huge amounts of consumer and market data.

In particular, AI has begun revolutionising personalisation, by recognising patterns missed by human eye. Generative AI has also enabled marketers to test such content on a real-time basis, to give consumers the most appealing recommendations and offers.

On that note, I would like to wish all readers a very happy new year, made even happier by 10-minute deliveries we now have access to.

(Harish Bhat is an avid marketer and bestselling author. He was previously the Brand Custodian at Tata Sons)

If you follow food vloggers on Instagram, you cannot help noticing the Wonderchef brand in their cooking videos — be it the cookware, the gas lighter, the Nutri-Blend mixer, or the coffee maker. The brand’s influencer marketing seems on point. Tell that to Wonderchef CEO Ravi Saxena, and he laughs in a pleased way. He says that food lends itself to influencer marketing, but not so for appliances. And yet, Wonderchef has over 525,000 followers on Instagram, rivalling any cosmetic or beauty D2C brand — categories that do really well on social media.

But then, as Saxena points out, Wonderchef’s positioning is youthful — its products will appeal to the young at heart, who are fond of experimenting. 

It also helps that Saxena — who launched Sodexo in India, setting up its office cafeteria business, as well as the Gloria Jean’s coffee retail business and is invested in the Food Food channel — has a deep understanding of the consumer when it comes to cooking. He also understands hospitality, having roped in celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor to launch The Yellow Chili restaurants during his innings with the Landmark group. 

He has used all these insights to spot the gaps in the Indian kitchen and launch disruptive products.

Take the Wonderchef Nutri-Blend mixer, a sleek, compact product with tight fitted lids that was launched after talking to consumers. Saxena says he got three insights — kitchen spaces were getting crowded with more and more appliances, so a smaller mixer gadget would appeal; consumers didn’t want to stand with their hands on the mixer lid to keep it from flying off, as usually happens with the conventional mixer; and they wanted to see what was going on inside the mixer, which is why the product is transparent.

The Nutri-Blend is a hero product for Wonderchef, says Saxena. It is an over ₹100-crore brand on its own, and contributes almost 20 per cent to the company’s turnover. Not surprisingly, it has seen many innovations. “Last year we launched a smart version of the Nutri-Blend by incorporating three settings — for chutney, dry grinding, and smoothies. You just press the button and, when the job is done, the appliance will switch off by itself,” he says.

The on-the-go version of Nutri-Blend, targeted at gym- and office-goers, comes with a USB charger — fill it with fruit and make fresh smoothie wherever you are. The portable blender has been a big hit, says Saxena.

Cuppa inspiration

The coffee machines, which Saxena says are doing well, came about through his observations during the pandemic. “I was driving around Bandra and saw that many outlets, from fashion to lifestyle, had converted into coffee chains. It struck me that coffee drinking was becoming a big habit. At that time, only a few coffee machine brands were available for home use in India.” 

Wonderchef developed 12 kinds of coffee machines — from the simple French press (priced ₹700) to a fully automatic machine costing ₹89,000, which gives a choice of cappuccino, latte, Americano, macchiato. You just have to put in the coffee beans. In between is a ₹10,000 capsule maker for espresso shots. “It’s our highest seller because people love the idea that they can put in the powder, press the button and get a shot. We teach customers though YouTube videos and also do sessions for them,” says Saxena

With the coffee machines doing well, the next step was to sell beans too, for which Wonderchef has tied up with two plantations in Coorg. “What we have done very uniquely is that we have married each powder to a machine,” says Saxena, who knows the ins and outs of coffee thanks to his Gloria Jean’s days.

Saxena says Wonderchef was the first kitchen appliances firm to hop aboard quick commerce. “We now have about 50 products on quick commerce — blenders, pressure cookers, knives, gas lighter, brew machines, a whole lot of categories. We will do ₹50 crore this year just on quick commerce,” he says.

Overall, from ₹700 crore currently, Wonderchef targets the ₹1,000-crore mark in 2026. “What you call the GMV [gross merchandise value] and not net sales,” he clarifies.

Strategic innovation

What’s the next innovative product? “We still have a lot of work to do on our Chef Magic (robotic appliance priced ₹49,999 that chops, mixes, cooks on its own). We have barely scratched the surface,” he responds.

Last month, Chef Magic was introduced in the US market. “We are selling about three to four units a day… It’s a $1,000 product there… so not bad, to begin with. We are going to add about 300 international recipes, so that the product becomes relevant not only to Indian-Americans but Americans also.”

This year, Wonderchef turned 10, and there is a sense of stability. “We are expanding well, the daily hustle is not required, and we can focus on strategic steps,” says Saxena.

And, finally, how has the Sanjeev Kapoor association helped the Wonderchef brand? “People use celebrities quite often and they don’t always derive the right kind of value. So I was very clear we are going to sell equipment and Sanjeev would not just be an endorser but his recipes would be married to our equipment. With the Nutri-Blend we give out a thick book full of his recipes.”

“I would say that we are the hardware and Sanjeev’s recipes are the software,” concludes Saxena.

A seven-city roadshow, several high-decibel brand collaborations, scintillating trailers… Pushpa 2: The Ruleaced it not just at the box office but also on the marketing front. From Tata Tea to Uber to Beardo, brands rode on the Pushpa wave. iTel released a co-branded video with Pushpa 2 for its flagship A80 smartphone release, which went viral. Kalyan Jewellers launched a ‘Pushpa collection’, unveiled by Rashmika Mandanna. “Pushpa — naam chhota hai par sound bada hai,” goes a dialogue in the film. Indeed, the Allu Arjun starrer made a lot of noise with its brand partnerships.

Bhidu vs bae

Spotify’s year-end wrap ads tickled our funny bone. Conceptualised by Kulfi Collective, the teaser ads were witty, while the actual wrap ads had perfect comic timing. The entertaining film featuring Jackie Shroff and Ananya Pandey pitched them in two opposite camps — Team Bhidu and Team Bandhruh. The two actors mimicked each other to perfection with Ananya mouthing Jackie’s Bhidu dialogues, while he countered with Ananya’s viral soundbite — ‘I can touch my tongue to my nose’. The film closes with Jackie revealing his most streamed track of the year, which surprises Ananya totally.

Nostalgic spoof

YouTube India’s year-end ad film unleashes nostalgia — with a twist. The film brings together two iconic characters, Komolika and Prerna from the hit television series Kasautii zindagii ki. Urvashi Dholakia, who played Komolika, and Shweta Tiwari, who played Prerna, reprise their roles but minus their famous rivalry. Just when you expect a huge confrontation, Komolika turns to Prerna for styling advice, much to her surprise. The spoofy ad has slayed the Internet not just for its witty dialogues but also its sly commentary on television tropes.

Run, Khali, run

To mark the launch of CookieRun India, a specially crafted version of the game for Indians, Krafton India has launched a hilarious campaign created by agency tgthr. The ad film features wrestling legend The Great Khali, who announces that he is about to start running. The entire town goes into a frenzy hearing this news and people line up to watch him take off. But he just sits down and stares at his mobile phone. “Why are you not running,” he is asked. “But I am,” says Khali, pointing to Cookie Run.

Back in 2013, ad networks Omnicom and Publicis tried to merge citing technological threats. The feeling was that by combining their armoury, they could manage the digital wave sweeping the world better. That merger did not happen, and British holding agency WPP, the lead ad network at that time, no doubt heaved a sigh of relief.

But a decade later, the ad world threatens to be shaken up as Omnicom has announced it is acquiring Interpublic Group (IPG). If the deal goes through, the all-stock takeover will create a global advertising behemoth with more than 100,000 people, annual revenues of $30 billion and a glittering array of high profile clients.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2025, and the merged entity would bear the Omnicom name. Omnicom shareholders would get about 60 per cent of the combined company and Interpublic shareholders 40 per cent.

Significantly the impetus for the merger this time around is cost savings – to the tune of $750 million annually. It’s a pointer to how everybody is feeling the pinch as the global economy faces headwinds.

But at the same time, there is no denying that by combining strengths, the two networks can take on the increasing threats posed by big tech firms like Google, Meta and consulting companies like Accenture better. In a joint statement, Omnicom and IPG had indicated as much when it said that the new entity could be a powerful marketing and sales partner to clients in a rapidly changing world and especially talked about data-driven outcomes.

The blockbuster merger will rattle the other players who make up the Big Six – WPP, Publicis, Dentsu and Havas – for sure. Though there could be some client conflicts, spelling opportunities for them. It all depends on how Omnicom and IPG manage the client relationships.

So how will it impact the ad landscape in India?

Watch out for job cuts

Sandeep Goyal, MD, Rediffusion, does not mince words. “The merger’s main stated purpose is $750 million in savings … which is really a euphemism for reducing headcount and therefore cost. So, in 2025 adland may be faced with a lot of job exits in India. And cuts will be across levels,” he says bluntly.

How will it impact independents like Rediffusion? “To independents like us it really makes no difference. Client shake-outs will get managed for sure. And the employees that get shed will most likely be unemployable. Global networks are smart – they will manage the integration well from their point of view,” he responds.

Says Naresh Gupta, COO and Managing Partner of Bang in the Middle, another independent agency, “The muscle that the new entity may carry in India may prove to be a game changer. Both the creative might and media might will be massive and the other three major holding companies will face enhanced competition. The clients will now have to deal with changing equations and changes in account handling. I do expect brands across the globe to review their relationship and that will impact India.”

 Gupta says that reduced agency choices will mean that independent agencies will have a slightly greater headroom. “However, I do not see the independents gain significantly as most changes will be driven from global markets,” he adds. 

Feeling the competition

 There is an overwhelming feeling among ad industry insiders that at last WPP, which is the dominant leader here, could be shaken out of its complacency — at least on the media side. Omnicom and IPG have within their fold creative houses such as McCann, Lowe Lintas, FCB, DDB Mudra, and media brands Omnicom Media Group (OMG) and IPG Mediabrands. “Together Omnicom and IPG’s media businesses could take on GroupM,” says the insider.

He also points to how IPG Mediabrands had recently opened a global delivery centre in Pune. India could get more such centres, he opines.

Within the Omnicom and IPG fold, we could see some smaller mergers happening between agencies. 2025 has already gotten interesting.

Cosmetics brand Swiss Beauty’s campaign #SajDhajKe celebrates the new-age bride who confidently takes charge of her big day — from directing decorators, helping her friends with makeup and juggling professional calls, even as she steals moments of laughter with her family. But that ‘shaadi wali feeling’ is missing until the Swiss Beauty makeup is applied and she sees herself in the mirror as a glowing bride.

The India edit

Beauty brand The Body Shop’s new campaign celebrates its first-ever India-inspired collection. Anchored by the tagline ‘Only in India, for You’, the campaign is a visually captivating video that uses a lateral sliding frame structure to artfully bring ‘The India Edit’s’ four curated collections. The brand’s commitment to inclusivity shines through the cast, which features models from diverse backgrounds and identities.

Unlocking a new world

Godrej Enterprises Group has unveiled a refreshed brand identity aimed at unlocking new worlds for customers. The new brand film features children playing and starts with a call out to the first product of the group — the iconic springless lock. The refreshed brand identity introduces a striking purple while retaining the cursive logo, reminiscent of founder Pirojsha Godrej’s signature. The campaign celebrates the spirit of curiosity, creative problem solving, and a never-say-die attitude best demonstrated by children.

Be someone’s ‘we’

Telecom network Vi’s latest ‘Be Someone’s We’ campaign highlights the telco’s promise to deliver robust, high-speed connectivity from anywhere, bolstered by the addition of 100 towers every hour. The campaign shows how, in a bustling underground metro, a young girl orchestrates an impromptu birthday celebration for her sister over a video call. As fellow passengers join in to wish, the birthday girl feels cherished.

Artificial magic

Coca-Cola’s holiday season ad, which shows AI-generated Christmas scenes, has faced ridicule and backlash. Where’s the real magic, queried customers, frowning at the AI-simulated scenes.

Colgate-Palmolive MD and CEO Prabha Narasimhan had put in place a four-pillar strategy that has been successfully driving growth for the company in the last few quarters. The first pillar is growing category consumption and the share of core brands within that; the second is to drive science-led premiumisation; third is building competitiveness of its toothbrushes and devices; and the last one is diversification. “It’s quite a simple strategy and one that we have executed quite well too,” she had said in an earlier interview. 

She had articulated the view that in urban areas the challenge was to get people to brush twice a day (only 20 per cent do), while in rural areas the challenge was to get people to brush daily — only 45 per cent do! After much planning, Colgate has rolled out an activity which, it hopes, will eventually push forward the first pillar of its strategy of growing category consumption. 

Colgate has rolled out an AI-powered app to put dental awareness and dental scanning in the hands of consumers. Users have to take a picture of their teeth and mouth through this app and they get an AI-generated report for cavities, gum diseases, staining. Colgate has gone a step further to ensure that once users get a report they can do something about it. The app will connect them to dentists in their area, based on their PIN code, for a first checkup paid for by Colgate. “Access to dentists is still limited as there are only around 1.4 lakh dentists in the country. Through our partnership with the Indian Dental Association, we’ve tied up with 50,000 dentists, with whom people can assess their oral health,” says Narasimhan. “As we get more awareness, we expect that the category will grow,” she adds. 

The oral health movement (OHM), as Colgate has called it, is its single biggest campaign in a while. Earlier in November, it put QR codes on 800 million Colgate toothpaste packs (it produces over two billion packs a year), which users can scan for the oral checkup. Information on OHM will also be available across 500 stores, so Colgate expects to get good traction for its programme. 

Tiered strategy

But, as Colgate’s CEO points out, it’s a long-term objective to move the needle on growing consumption. “What we’re learning is that you can’t do one thing and expect to move. So, we have a kind of tiered strategy with multiple programmes, like our school contact, which this year will reach 10 million more children and touch 180 million children in total. Then there is ‘above the line’ communication, and we have also been working with governments to participate in the education curriculum. Now, we have tied up with the UP and Goa governments to add to what we already had with the AP government,” she explains. 

Meanwhile, Colgate-Palmolive has been among the fastest growing FMCG companies this past year with its core brands doing well. “Almost our entire portfolio now has new product formulations, and it has been revamped as far as packaging is concerned. So, in the second part of that first pillar of our strategy, which is about building our core brands and driving superiority, we’ve done a very good job,” says Narasimhan. 

Colgate, says its MD, has done a good job on advertising, as “90 per cent of our advertising tracks above FMCG norms. Our assortment continues to increase, by about 15 per cent this year. So, all the pillars of driving our core brands look reasonably healthy. The second pillar of premiumisation, while I’m happy, we can do better. “ 

The premium brands, she says, have grown three times as fast as Colgate’s overall business this year. “So, it’s a start, but the headroom opportunity is really good,” she adds. In super-premium toothbrushes, where Colgate was not on top, it has achieved leadership. “Now we are leaders in pretty much every sub-segment of toothbrushes,” says Narasimhan. And, as for the second part of the company name, Palmolive, its hand and body washes, she says, are growing at about 3X of overall business, albeit on a smaller base. In the months to come, Colgate will chant OHM to drive core category consumption.

Published on November 29, 2024

Published on November 30, 2024

I have been in three big cities over the past month — Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Madrid. In all three, I have observed the resurgence of a timeless fashion trend — women attired in leopard and other animal prints. Then I saw a data point highlighted by Alexandra Van Houtte, founder of the fashion search engine Tagwalk — leopard prints in the fall collection is up by an astounding 944 per cent from a year ago.

Bollywood styles 

In my memory, animal prints are eternally conjoined with the 1990s’ Bollywood song Churake dil mera, with Shilpa Shetty draped in these patterns in a dance number with Akshay Kumar that went wildly viral. In the past few years, I have seen other Hindi film actors sporting these prints, including Janhvi Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Priyanka Chopra and Malaika Arora. And now, suddenly, the trend is back on the prowl.

The designer I most associate with animal prints is, however, not from Bollywood. From the fashion ramps of Paris and Milan, Roberto Cavalli, who passed away earlier this year, made these prints hot, desirable and glamorous. His flashy python prints and black-white-tan leopard print dresses were seen on some of the most beautiful women worldwide. On his obsession with animal prints, he famously said: “I started to understand that God is the best designer, so I started to copy God.”

Origins of animal prints

This brings me to the central point of this discussion: Why do human beings love wearing animal prints?

Perhaps there is a primal element at play here. Our early ancestors, who lived in caves in jungles, used to hunt animals for food. Having eaten these animals, they would turn their skins into clothing. This was, therefore, one of the original dress codes of human beings, and it has stayed in our sub-consciousness for millennia.

But we must go deeper beyond this mere historical fact. The cavemen hunters were in awe of the mighty beasts of the jungle and their specific traits — for instance, the power of the lion or the speed of the cheetah. It is likely they believed that wearing these skins would transfer to them some of the power of these animals. Hence, the wearing of animal skins took on a new meaning for them.

Thereafter, for a long period of time, animal skins were reserved for use by royalty, as a symbolic display of the power they wielded over their dominions. For instance, in ancient Egypt, the leopard skin marked out the king and his progeny as the legitimate rulers. It was usually worn by the eldest son of the king as the successor to the throne.

Over time, animal prints and power have become closely interlinked.

Sexy, playful, decadent

In modern times, animal prints (in particular, leopard prints) have become associated with sultry feline, powerful looks. 

Joe Weldon, who has authored the excellent book Fierce, which chronicles the history of the leopard print, talks about how animal designs are viewed as “sexy, playful, decadent and vibrant”. Since these are all desirable attributes for social events or a night on the town, the prints have become a mainstay of fashion.

Most importantly, fashionable garments with animal prints make the wearer stand out. There is a large segment of people who want to be seen and admired, and do not wish to merge into the anonymous crowd.

Here, animal prints are amongst the best designs at our command, because they make many other designs look somewhat tame and ordinary. Wearing these prints also signals confidence, the chutzpah to carry off the wild look, and the adventurous side of your personality.

With so many ingrained positives, no wonder animal prints are back in fashion every few years. This is a treasure trove for marketers, who can consider taking this trend into a number of products that spell out the consumer’s individuality — not just shirts, handbags and shoes, but also watches, jewellery, cars, motorcycles and electronic gadgets. Particularly in some categories not usually associated with fashion, this requires some of the courage we associate with the big cats.

(Harish Bhat is an avid marketer and bestselling author. He was previously brand custodian at Tata Sons)

Quick commerce is highly disruptive and, with multiple triggers for strong growth over the medium to long term, it’s all set to impact India’s FMCG and retail ecosystem in a big way.

In FY24, India’s quick commerce market was pegged at $5 billion with a potential total addressable market (TAM) of $59 billion (50 per cent of India’s e-commerce market). It is expected to grow at 60 per cent, nearly three times the growth in the e-commerce segment (18 per cent). 

QC growth will be led by greater adoption in non-metro markets and store additions.

Quick commerce is currently about 0.5 per cent of India’s retail industry ($1,021 billion) and 4.1 per cent of its e-commerce market. 

Here are the ways in which it will impact retail trends:

Speedier deliveries by e-comm companies: Quick commerce puts e-commerce companies under pressure as the latter take two to three days for delivery. Quick commerce has added appeal in select verticals such as food and grocery, non-apparel categories, personal care and wellness; this, in turn, may force e-commerce platforms to invest more in fulfilment to reduce delivery time, which could hit profitability

FMCG companies will feel the pinch: The FMCG/staples vertical accounts for 70 per cent of India’s quick commerce market; this dominance will continue as these are high-frequency purchases. The advent of quick commerce has led to the emergence of many direct-to-consumer (D2C) players and higher offtake of newer brands, which, in turn, has had a mildly negative impact on the growth of select verticals within larger FMCG companies. The adoption of quick commerce could also dilute the margins for FMCG companies over the long term as they may charge higher take rates (transaction fee).

Heavy discounting: Quick commerce companies will face intense competition over the near term as many e-commerce companies like Amazon, Flipkart, and JioMart are jumping on the bandwagon. This may lead to heavy discounting in various categories like beauty, personal care, and FMCG, which will hurt profitability for vertical-based e-commerce platforms.

Modern trade and kiranas will be hit: Quick commerce is currently limited to metro cities; modern trade companies like DMart, Star Baazar, and Reliance Retail drive only 45-50 per cent of revenue from urban markets. However, quick commerce adoption in non-metros could pose a bigger risk for the modern trade and kirana segments. Quick commerce currently commands a tiny share of the consumer wallet in terms of staples and grocery shopping. As per our assessment in urban markets, only 10-12 per cent of groceries today are purchased via quick commerce, which may double to 25-30 per cent, due to the convenience factor. When quick commerce players scale up beyond metro cities, there could be a sharper negative impact on the growth rates of modern trade companies.

Further, the kirana store proposition is about impulse and top-up buying in certain cases; however, quick commerce platforms are offering the same products at a lower price and delivering within 20 minutes, threatening to hurt the growth prospects of the kirana outlets.

Scale-led higher bargaining power of platforms: With a potential adoption in non-metro markets, quick commerce may achieve a large scale on a pan-India basis. This will lead to higher negotiating power with a wide range of brands and premium take rates, resulting in higher margins and overall profitability of quick commerce players.

(Karan Taurani is SVP–Research Analyst — media, internet and consumer discretionary, Elara Capital)

Published on November 16, 2024

Published on November 16, 2024