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These brands faltered in their communication

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NEW DELHI: There have been ample researches by Kantar stating how important it is for the brands to have a voice amidst this lockdown and keep advertising. It has been insisted that brands stay creative, empathetic, and understand consumer needs as they work on their campaigns. 

Dwelling at length on how brands should be planning their communication to Indiantelevision.com in an earlier interaction, Dentsu One president Harjot Singh Narang said that brands will have to go deeply humane and adapt to the new paradigm exactly like how human relationships adapt to and grow in uncertain times. Wunderman Thompson South Asia chairman and group CEO Tarun Rai had also mentioned that brands need to be empathetic in their approach. 

However, despite so much discussion about what and how a brand should be promoting itself during this period, there were some brands that faltered in their planning. The biggest example of this came in the form of KENT RO’s distasteful, classist, and misogynistic ad for its atta maker. 

The social media ad was called out by netizens and brand experts alike and the brand quickly took it down with an apology, stating that it was ‘unintentional’. 

There were two other campaigns that caught the attention of communication consultant Karthik Srinivasan, which he talked about in his blog and LinkedIn page. 

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The first one was cooking oil brand Gold Winner, which did a ‘shabby’ job out of its influencer campaign on social media. 

The brand used images from other popular cooking channels and websites without taking creators’ permission or giving credits and used them for a mass copy-paste campaign on Twitter. The worst part was that they misused the sentiment of “we cooked for our mom” to earn some brand points. 

Srinivasan wrote in his blog, “I have no clue why brands and agencies still indulge in such monumentally stupid and shallow online promotions. It’s not as if they know all these things. The only explanation is that they know it and couldn’t care less. All they want is a LOT of people talking about their product with stock statements and stock photos. It doesn’t need to be real for them and even questions and mockery of the campaign don’t really matter to them at all. You could call it anything – confidence, bravado, chutzpah… or idiocy.”

Next was not as much a brand going wrong with communication but the unfortunate placement of its ad next to a piece of negative news. Amul and Indigo found their ads placed quite close to the news of Indigo fliers testing positive for Covid2019 on the first day of them resuming flight operations. 

Most recently, Diet Sabya, an anonymous social media account calling out designers and celebrities for copying designs, voiced its opinions on a far graver issue by calling out jewellery brand Dhora for creating a Covid-themed necklace. 

The brand clarified that it sees the design as a lesson that all have learnt from the crisis. It wrote in an Instagram story, “I guess, it’s the lessons we learn from all the crisis, wars, struggle for independence, etc. and yet remember that day as a lesson to empower our present. You can shut your eyes with disgust to a crisis or you can take the learnings and implement it to make a better future.”
Dhora further added, “I am glad that we all can co-exist happily with different opinions yet support each other. We are all game for criticism. Thanks to our supporters and customers. However, it’s probably the worst time to pull each other down @dietsabya. All we have right now is each other.”

Diet Sabya was quick to respond stating, “Trying to leverage Covid-19 by making over-priced necklaces is anything but privilege… Do you really think that any more would want to remember a crisis that has so far uprooted the lives of millions? Do you really think people want to remember the worst recession in history? Do you really think ANYONE would want to wear this ‘ART’ to remember the 362,124 lives lost?”

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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

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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.

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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.

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Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board

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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.

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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.

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MAM

Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships

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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.

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