MAM

Same potato, new jacket: Will Lay’s new packaging give it an edge?

Published

5 years ago

November 16, 2020

NEW DELHI: Lay’s, the potato chip brand has been at the helm of influencer marketing through its campaigns for some time now. Last year, it was the Smile Dekho campaign which garnered a massive response and this year, the brand has unveiled #LaysKhol campaign.

However, a common thread in these marketing strategies is how the company is innovatively leveraging the power of packaging design in its brand communication. PepsiCo’s product customised the Lay’s smile packs #SmileWithLays, where nearly 750 influencers were brought on board to carry the campaign through. The influencers were provided with customised Lay's packs with their own smiles printed on the packaging.

This was then boosted by a TVC that featured Bollywood stars Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. Titled Train Pe Tussle, the ad film showcased brief bickering between the two characters in a train, which is eventually diffused by a smile.

The first phase of the #LaysKhol campaign featured popular cricketers including Virender Sehwag donning his special Baba Sehwag Avatar, Shikhar Dhawan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Brett Lee, Harbhajan Singh, and Rahul Tewatia. In the four-part video series, cricketers dabbled in some fun and cheeky banter that not only engaged cricket fans but also drove conversations.

Now, during the festive season this year, the brand has unveiled 18 limited-edition #LaysKhol packs, each of which poses an intriguing question with a quirky answer given inside the packet. It’s an interesting way to get those extra few seconds of face time with the buyer at the crucial time of purchase decision. These special packs have been shared with celebrities, influencers, and friends of Lay’s.

The activity has so far received an overwhelming response, garnering significant mileage for the brand with more than 1,600 organic posts and stories leading to over 3.58 million engagement on social media.

Lay’s decision to capitalise on the same trend back-to-back signifies that newness in packaging leads to good recall and consumers stay with the brand for a little longer. The packaging design reflects the brand identity and brings the brand to life – from the visual appearance and feel of the packaging to its function and sustainability.

Through the multi-channel campaign, the brand objective is to target brand fans, drive engagement, and deepen regional penetration.

However, after running many successful campaigns over the years, why is product packaging gaining prominence in Lay’s marketing plan now? And does this whole exercise give Lay’s an edge over its competitors?

Brand expert N Chandramouli states that the packaged snacks segment has been completely altered due to the lockdown. “Since Lay’s products are largely standard, other than a flavour change once in a while, they have few options to engage the consumer, and one of them is the packaging design or social media campaigns aimed at engaging the youth. India has a wide variety in packaged snacks for consumers, unlike the Western markets, and Lays has been facing tough competition over the years, with the pandemic only beating them further down.”

Influencer marketing has become a core part in any brand’s strategy, and the lockdown has dialled this up further. Businesses have cut spends on ATL mediums, and more and more, they’re reaching out to the big movers and shakers on social media, which has led to influencers getting a bigger slice of the ad-ex pie. Established brands are slowly moving towards digital campaigns, which are specifically designed keeping the influencer community in mind.

Agreeing that traditional advertising on TV and print has come down substantially for all brands, and they are moving digital because the spends can be controlled, Chandramouli adds: “In digital campaigns, the best engagement is perhaps with influencers who have an engaged audience and create content specifically to suit their audiences. This makes influencers a very important channel for brands, especially considering the after-effects of Covid2019.”

As a consumer, one is more likely to pay attention to content that comes from a trusted source. Network Advertising chief strategy officer Sunit Khot is of the view that influencers are usually a sure-fire way for brands to gain traction in digital marketing. They help in getting more interested and engaged audiences. “Having said all that, I personally feel that influencer marketing cannot be the be-all and end-all of digital marketing. It has its virtues but by no means can it replace other marketing activities that work towards building brand affinity and loyalty.”

Makani Creatives co-founder and MD Sameer Makani believes it is imperative for brands to keep the audience aware and recall at large. “Knowing the fact that we all are under the clout of pandemic and people spend more time digitally, brands have taken social media as a revolutionary tool to promote and connect. Influencer marketing plays a huge role in keeping the audience intact and reaching the masses. In fact, playing with a product package can be a good move only if it resonates well with the audience,” he said.

Lay’s has always touted itself as a cool, youth-centric brand: a fun, ubiquitous snack that can be consumed at any place, any time. But in a competitive market like India where it faces challenge from the strongholds of namkeen and traditional snacks, Lay’s is repositioning itself through meaningful digital campaigns and revamped packaging that thrust its hip quotient – as something consumers can not only eat, but also enjoy. It will be interesting to see if the brand can keep this momentum going in the long run, or drop it like a hot potato.

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MAM

Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement

Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted

Published

3 days ago

February 4, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

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

Published

7 days ago

January 31, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

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

Published

7 days ago

January 31, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

SINGAPORE: Anuvrat Rao has taken charge as APAC head of commerce and signals partnerships at Meta, steering monetisation deals across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from Singapore. The former Google executive, known for launching Google Assistant, PWAs, AMP and Firebase across Asia-Pacific, steps into the role after a high-growth stint as chief business officer at Locofy.ai.

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.