MAM
Cadbury’s iconic cricket ad gets a contemporary twist
MUMBAI: Confectionary giant Cadbury surprised its consumers on Friday, as it released its iconic 90’s ad – ‘Asli swaad zindagi ka’, albeit with a contemporary twist.
Decades later, the heartfelt ad remains true to its original idea almost frame-to-frame. There is a nail-biting cricket match in progress, the scoreboard reads ’99 not out’, and the batter is gearing up to face another ball. A young spectator sitting among the crowd of well-dressed audience watches anxiously while biting into a Cadbury’s Dairy milk chocolate bar, muttering a silent prayer as the player goes for a big hit.
The stadium erupts in joy. Only this time, the cricketer batting at the crease is a woman. The ad released on Friday, showed a young woman cricketer scoring the winning run as her male friend makes a dash towards the field, dodging the security guard. He dances with the unabashed glee reminiscent of the original film, celebrating his friend’s smashing performance, as she watches him in delight and the crowd cheers on.
The refreshed version of the brand’s iconic campaign, conceptualised by Ogilvy India wishes good luck to the Indian women’s cricket team, with a rousing message of #GoodLuckGirls.
“It needed a brave client back in 1993 to go ahead with the original Cadbury Cricket film that became so popular. It needed an even braver client to attempt something with an iconic film and make magic out of it. I am delighted that the team at Mondelez and at Ogilvy has made this magic, made it relevant, exciting and so did Cadbury, in its bold and front foot fashion,” said Ogilvy, chairman global creative & executive chairman India, Piyush Pandey.
The 1994-released Cadbury Dairy Milk campaign directed by Mahesh Mathai, featuring model Shimona Rashi with the memorable jingle ‘Asli Swad Zindagi ka’ is fondly remembered till date. It not only changed the perception that chocolates were only for children but it also broke away from the stereotypical ‘prim and proper’ image towards adulting- appealing to the child in all of us, giving way to an unbridled expression of pure joy. The brand once again succeeds in breaking notions- this time associated with the game once referred to as a ‘gentleman’s game’- while bringing back nostalgia, with a present-day take.
“The excitement and the stress in our heads were competing with each other. To recreate such a big hit is like setting yourself up for a million opinions. The only reason we went ahead was it felt right and it felt awesome. We loved the idea from our gut. Luckily, so did the client. Hats off to the all-girls team who thought of it and hats off to Bob from Good Morning Films for making it so well,” said Ogilvy India chief creative officers Sukesh, Harshad, and Kainaz, while talking about the latest campaign.
The film couldn’t have come at a better time with the ‘girls in blue’ all set to compete with the Aussies in the upcoming series against Australia, Down under. Indian women’s cricket is growing in popularity and attracting great interest from viewers and advertisers alike.
“From acing in the corporate world to winning Olympic medals, women are at the forefront of creating new milestones, every single day, and our film is an ode to each one of them. As a brand that has always promoted gender inclusivity, contemporising an iconic campaign is our way of recognising the changing times and extending support to all the women trailblazers,” said Mondelez India senior director – marketing, Anil Viswanathan. “We hope this film brings back a gush of nostalgia and are confident that this refreshed version will find as much love as the original one.”
Well-played Cadburys and Ogilvy!
MAM
Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement
Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted
MUMBAI: Nielsen is taking a fresh stab at one of television’s oldest blind spots: how many people are actually watching the same screen. The audience-measurement giant on February 4 unveiled a co-viewing pilot that uses wearable devices to better capture shared viewing, starting with America’s biggest broadcast stage.
The trial begins with Super Bowl LX on NBC on February 8, 2026, before extending to other high-profile live sports and entertainment events in the first half of the year. The goal is simple but commercially potent: count viewers more accurately, especially during live spectacles that pull families and friends to one screen.
The new approach leans on Nielsen’s proprietary wearable meters, wrist-worn devices that resemble smartwatches. These passively capture audio signatures from TV content, logging exposure to shows, films and live events without requiring viewers to sign in or self-report. In theory, fewer clicks, fewer lapses, better data.
Karthik Rao, Nielsen’s ceo, cast the move as part of a broader measurement push. He said the company’s task is to keep pushing accuracy as clients invest heavily in live programming that draws mass audiences. The co-viewing pilot, he added, builds on upgrades such as Big Data + Panel measurement, out-of-home expansion, live-streaming metrics and wearable-based tracking.
Co-viewing is not new territory for Nielsen, which has long tried to estimate how many people sit before a single set. What is new is the heavier integration of wearables and passive detection to reduce reliance on active inputs from panel homes.
For now, the pilot comes with caveats. Co-viewing estimates from the trial will not be folded into Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings, which remain the industry’s trading currency. Instead, pilot findings will be shared with clients a few weeks after final Big Data + Panel ratings are delivered. Clients may disclose those findings publicly.
More impact data will follow later this year. Full integration into Nielsen’s marketing-intelligence suite is slated as a longer-term play, with a target of bringing co-viewing into currency measurement for the 2026–2027 season. This is only phase one, with further co-viewing enhancements planned beyond 2026 and additional timelines to be announced.
The push fits a wider pattern. Nielsen has in recent years expanded big-data integration, adopted first-party data for live-streaming measurement and broadened out-of-home tracking. It also positions itself as the reference point for streaming metrics through products such as The Gauge and the Nielsen Streaming Top 10.
In a market where billions of ad dollars hinge on decimal points, counting who is in the room matters. If Nielsen can pin down shared viewing, the humble sofa could become prime measurement real estate. The race to count every eyeball just found a new wrist to watch.
Brands
Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board
Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.
Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.
“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.
The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.
Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.
The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.
MAM
Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships
At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.
Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.
Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.
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