ITV

Category: Brands

  • PEPSI® DEBUTS ITS SWAG ON THE FASHION RUNWAY

    PEPSI® DEBUTS ITS SWAG ON THE FASHION RUNWAY

    Mumbai, October 8, 2019: The SWAG LEVEL of fashionistas across the country is all set to rise as beverage brand PEPSI® readies for its runway debut.

    The iconic brand will mark its foray into the world of fashion through a collaboration with homegrown Ready To Wear (RTW) label HUEMN. The collection, which will be launched at FDCI’s upcoming LOTUS INDIA FASHION WEEK celebrates the SWAG of the new generation.

    The PEPSI® x HUEMN fashion collection builds on the beverage brand’s philosophy that INTERESTING IS THE NEW COOL. Each piece, created by designer duo Pranav Misra and Shyma Shetty, will reimagine and personify the brand’s philosophy of SWAG. It comprises of statement ath-leisure in classic HUEMN style incorporating the soul of Pepsi®.

    The iconic PEPSI-COLA® logo will find its way across the collection’s distinctive, vibrant pieces evoking a sense of nostalgia, while at the same time being rooted in popular culture. All denim fabric used in the collection is made using recycled plastic, in line with PepsiCo’s ‘Winning with Purpose’ vision which aims to build a world where plastics never become waste.

    Speaking about the collection, Tarun Bhagat, Director-Marketing, Hydration and Cola, PepsiCo India, “PEPSI® is a brand which has always resonated with the voice of today’s generation. This new generation is armed with SWAG or an inherent confidence in their own abilities. They are not afraid to express themselves and are constantly on the lookout for ‘Interesting’ new ways of self-expression. Fashion has always been an important way of self-expression for Indian youth and our foray into the world of fashion is a step to celebrate this self-expression.

    The Pepsi® x HUEMN COLLECTION reflects the cool attitude and SWAG of the youth. We are very excited to launch the collection at the upcoming India Fashion Week and are confident that it will find its way into the hearts and closets of India’s youth very soon.”

    HUEMN’s co-founder Shyma Shetty said, “We are thrilled to be playing with the iconography of a legacy brand such as Pepsi®. The collection is an amalgamation of the ethos of both brands and an effort to bring both our audiences together, with an inclusive and fresh product line driven by both- popular culture and cutting edge fashion,”

    HUEMN’s co-founder Pranav Misra said, ““The collection has a strong youthful appeal to a conscious customer as all denims in the line are made from recycled ocean plastics. There are handcrafted details and fun handcut applique but also lots of basics for every palate.”

    He describes the collection as progressive and relevant and a line that will pave the way for more artistic collaborations between powerhouses to drive a fresh new aesthetic.

    FDCI Chairman Sunil Sethi said, “Pepsi as a brand has always had a focus on pop culture and this reflects in their new campaign ‘Har Ghoont Mein Swag’. It finds harmony with HUEMN, which as a brand boosts self-confidence using diversity in fashion as a vehicle of communication. This proverbial swag is evident in both Pepsi and HUEMN, as they embark on creating a line which embodies the spirit of living life to the fullest, the omnipresent mantra for GenZ,”

    The collection is an extension of part of Pepsi’s 2019 ‘Har Ghoont Mein Swag’ campaign and will be unveiled at the Pepsi® x HUEMN runway show at FDCI’s Lotus India Fashion Week on 9th October.

    Pepsi®’s ‘Har Ghoont Mein Swag’ campaign was launched earlier this summer and aims to celebrate the confidence and self-belief of the Indian youth. The campaign is all about living in the moment, seizing new, interesting opportunities and doing it all with SWAG. It is based on the idea that when the self-belief of India’s youth leads to self-confident action, every drop rises to the occasion, creating an ocean of youthful SWAG.

  • Volkswagen Group India consolidates into new entity ŠKODA AUTO Volkswagen India

    Volkswagen Group India consolidates into new entity ŠKODA AUTO Volkswagen India

    MUMBAI: The ŠKODA AUTO led Volkswagen Group India, having secured the prerequisite regulatory and statutory approvals, announced the transformative merger of its three passenger car subsidiaries – Volkswagen India Pvt Ltd (VWIPL), Volkswagen Group Sales India Pvt Ltd (NSC) and ŠKODA AUTO India Pvt Ltd (SAIPL). The merger of three former Volkswagen Group entities is an important milestone in the ‘INDIA 2.0’ project. 

    The merged entity will be referred to as ‘ŠKODA AUTO Volkswagen India Private Limited’ (SAVWIPL). The entity will be led by Gurpratap Boparai, who will assume the role of its Managing Director. The company will be headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, operate two production facilities in Pune and Aurangabad, and have regional offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, and other locations across the country. The integration will make more efficient use of the existing synergies in this important growth market.

    ŠKODA AUTO CEO Bernhard Maier explains, “The operational launch of ŠKODA AUTO Volkswagen India Pvt Ltd marks an important milestone in the INDIA 2.0 project. This merger creates one of the key prerequisites for working together more efficiently at all levels and achieving our long-term goal: to gain significant market shares for Volkswagen and ŠKODA by 2025. We will now proceed in a series of quick steps: As early as next year, we will be presenting a specific outlook for our INDIA 2.0 model portfolio at the Auto Expo in Delhi.”

    ŠKODA AUTO Volkswagen India Pvt Ltd managing director Gurpratap Boparai adds, “With this merger, we plan to combine the technology and management expertise of our team in India and realise our true potential in a challenging, competitive environment. We want to further strengthen our presence in India, ensure the professional development of our employees and safeguard sustainable profitability for our dealers.”

    The emergence of the merged entity with a strong brand portfolio – ŠKODA AUTO, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and Lamborghini is envisioned to serve across market segments and budgets. These brands shall retain their distinctive identities, dealer network as well as implementing their own customer experience initiatives. However, they will be pursuing a shared vision and strategy for the Indian subcontinent.

    In July 2018, the Volkswagen Group announced investments of around one billion euros as part of the ‘INDIA 2.0’ project. In January 2019, a new technology centre was opened in Pune, India, where vehicles will be developed based on the localized MQB-A0-IN subcompact platform, tailored to the wishes and requirements of local customers. The first step in the model campaign will involve ŠKODA AUTO Volkswagen India Private Limited launching a mid-size SUV model that will be available from both ŠKODA and Volkswagen. The company will be presenting the studies at the Auto Expo 2020, which is held in New Delhi from 6 to 9 February 2020.

  • Myntra’s ‘Big Fashion Days’ records 56% sales from tier 2 and 3 cities; witnesses 60% growth over last edition

    Myntra’s ‘Big Fashion Days’ records 56% sales from tier 2 and 3 cities; witnesses 60% growth over last edition

    Bengaluru: Myntra’s ‘Big fashion Days’, held between 29th September and 4th October, concluded with 1.9 million people shopping for 6.43 million items across categories, from over 3000 brands and 7 lakh+ styles. The ongoing festive season sale witnessed maximum enthusiasm from tier 2 and 3 cities and towns across the country contributing over 56% to the overall sale.

    • 2.7 million orders placed • 35 pairs of footwear sold per minute during the sale • 50 women’s kurtas and kurta sets sold per minute • Men’s Tshirt sold every 2 seconds and a pair of jeans sold every 4 seconds • 500 lipsticks and kajals sold every hour

    Men’s apparel registered a 50% growth over last edition with men’s tshirt being sold every 2 seconds and a pair of jeans sold every 4 seconds. Ahead of the festive season, women shopped for ethnic kurtas with 50 kurtas and kurta sets being sold per minute. In western wear dresses and jumpsuits were extremely popular. Beauty and Personal care registered a 95% growth over the last edition with over 3 lakh make up and beauty products sold across men and women. Kids wear witnessed the sale of 2.2 lakh units with kids footwear scaling well. Myntra Fashion Brands, with brands such as, Roadster, House of Pataudi, HRX, Anouk, Mast & Harbour and Taavi, contributed about 28% to the sale. Among accessories, watches and handbags were a favorite among shoppers, selling 35,000 and 77,000 units respectively. Bedsheets was the most popular item in home category.

    Speaking on the occasion, Amar Nagaram, Head, Myntra Jabong, said, “The current edition of Myntra’s Big Fashion Days, welcomed the festive season with the choicest styles across categories and has by far been the biggest ever, witnessing 33% increase in orders over last year and registering 4.3 lakh new customers on the platform. We have recorded a 60% growth over last edition with 56% of the sales coming from Tier 2 and 3 cities.  We saw a 32% increase in traffic over last edition with 1.9 million people shopping for 6.43 million items, making it their best festive season shopping experience to date.”

    Myntra also registered 4.9 lakh new Myntra Insiders (members of loyalty program) during the course of the sale. 

  • LinkedIn Adds Enhanced Targeting Tools to Help Marketers Reach More of the Right Audiences

    LinkedIn Adds Enhanced Targeting Tools to Help Marketers Reach More of the Right Audiences

    India, October 3, 2019: Marketers shared that one of their biggest priorities is to reach more of the right audiences at scale. LinkedIn recently invested a lot in bringing that to life with the introduction of new tools to expand the audience reach for marketers, including lookalike audiences, interest targeting with Bing search insights, and audience templates.

    Today, LinkedIn is taking that up a notch by bringing more sophisticated audience, targeting, and reporting features to Campaign Manager. These tools are designed to help marketers who are looking for more powerful reach and insights for their LinkedIn campaigns.

    More powerful audience forecasting and intelligence

    Planning and forecasting is crucial to the success of any campaign. After all, the more marketers know about the types of audiences they are trying to reach and what resonates with them, the better the brand campaign will perform.

    LinkedIn has improved the campaign forecasting panel in Campaign Manager, so marketers can now see the make-up of their target audience right from the dashboard. Marketers can also customize the panel to surface specific professional characteristics, like top industries, years of experience, or company sizes for your audience. When combined with contacts marketers uploaded to Matched Audiences, can be sure that they are not only serving ads to the specific prospects they are trying to reach, but that they have the demographic insights to deliver the content and creative mix that will resonate with their audiences.

    “Since we gained access to this feature, we have been able to assess the makeup of our targeting and ensure our ads would get in front of decision-makers,” says Tanner Stolte, account executive and media buyer at Elite Digital Group, an early user of the new audience forecasting tool. “This level of insight to improve your targeting in a B2B campaign really doesn’t exist elsewhere. By putting our ads in front of these high-end targets we’ve increased our MQLs 11.3% month-over-month with a comparable ad spend and seen our close rate improve near 5% from our LinkedIn leads, with more deals still in the pipeline that are expected to close.”

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    New Boolean logic to target with precision:

    As we ‘worked with’ OR ‘surveyed’ customers to prioritize targeting capabilities to build, many of them placed Boolean targeting logic, i.e. using “And/Or” in your queries, at the top of the list. That’s because “And/Or” targeting enable marketers to reach more of the right audiences through more sophisticated combinations of profile facets like job function, seniority, and titles – all in a single campaign.

    For example, let’s say a marketer wanted to target people using Director job seniority and the Finance job function. Previously, within a campaign marketers could only do so by targeting Directors in Finance roles. Now, with Boolean targeting, marketers can use a single campaign to reach people who are Directors at any job function, as well as people in Finance roles of any seniority. This gives marketers greater flexibility to determine the kinds of professionals who see their ads.

    To learn how boolean targeting can work for your next campaign, check out the how-to video or visit our Help Center.

    Understand even more about the professional audiences engaging with your campaigns

    Demographic reporting has been one of LinkedIn’s most popular features because it helps marketers see the types of audiences clicking and converting on their ads, based on professional characteristics like company name and job seniority. Today, LinkedIn is making this reporting feature even better by allowing marketers to understand which audiences are watching their video ads, filling out your Lead Gen Forms, and opening the Sponsored InMail messages.

    With this data, marketers can demonstrate to their exec team or partners in the Sales org exactly what kinds of professionals are becoming quality leads for their business or engaging with their content.

    This type of demographic information also helps marketers better understand the value they are getting from campaigns, and can give them the insight they need to make strategic adjustments to the ad creative so they get better results from the audiences they care about most.

    LinkedIn India’s audience forecasting and Boolean targeting updates are available globally, while the updates to demographic reporting will be available to all advertisers over the next two weeks.

  • Parle Products brings back consumer favourite Rol.a.Cola

    Parle Products brings back consumer favourite Rol.a.Cola

    MUMBAI: Parle Products, India’s leading biscuits and confectionery manufacturer, today announced the relaunch of its most popular confectionery product Rol.a.Cola on the back of popular demand led by the social media buzz earlier this year. Priced at Rs 5 and Rs 20, Rol.a.Cola will not only make its way back into Parle's other iconic product line-up but also mark one of the biggest brands moves in Indian FMCG in the recent past.

    Rol.a.Cola, the hard-boiled candy with the Cola flavour is a rolled format which was discontinued by Parle in 2006. 13 years hence in February 2019, after a social media user tweeted requesting Parle to bring back his favourite cola candy, Parle Products sought 10,000 retweets to bring back Rol.a.Cola. In response, consumer driven #BringRolaColaBack campaign went viral and secured more than 711k impressions on Twitter. Soon, Parle Products initiated the #RolaColaIsComingBack campaign to assure the consumers that their wish was granted. This is the first time in India that a product was making a comeback because of a digital movement run completely organically by users. The entire campaign on social media garnered a whopping 5M digital footprints.

    Speaking on the launch, Krishnarao S Buddha, Sr. Category Head – Marketing at Parle Products commented, “While a tweet created a disruption in the market for a comeback of the iconic Rol.a.Cola candy, we connected with the emotions to honour consumers demand. Earlier, consumers had no platform in which they could voice their opinions and concerns. Now, they can simply reach out to a brand they like and let them know what they think. Today, each user is an influencer who played an essential role in our marketing efforts. The love received by people led us to accelerate the manufacturing of the candy and we are extremely thrilled to give back the Rol.a.Cola to our consumers.”

    He further added that, “Our classic Rol.a.Cola candies were made to be shared with others. By maintaining its rolled candy format, we hope that adults as well as kids are inspired to share a candy and make new connections with people.”

    Parle is changing how it does business, thereby transforming the way brands interact with consumers, making it personalized and adopting a pro-consumer approach. As a pioneer in the FMCG space, the company has begun its robust distribution for the confectionary and is expected to be available in every market within this month. With a modernised packaging and fresh approach to connect with consumers, the company has assured consumers that the candy will retain its original taste and will be priced at Rs 5 for same roll candy format. For the modern trade channel, Parle is looking to launch a bigger multiple pack offering priced at Rs 20 a unit.

  • Amazon India’s tweet on the Great Indian Festival sees brands join in with quirky banter

    Amazon India’s tweet on the Great Indian Festival sees brands join in with quirky banter

    MUMBAI:Come sale time in India, e-commerce companies go all guns-blazing to announce the brands and the offers that are coming to their sale. Amidst all this fan-fare, Amazon just put up one tweet – asking people who’s coming to the #AmazonGreatIndianFestival. One question that went out at 10 am on a lazy Friday morning. A tweet that triggered a WHOLE bunch of brands to respond and announce their arrival at #AmazonGreatIndianFestival.

    Who all announced their arrival? Well, let’s take a look.

    While 35+ brands announced their arrival, Amazon India also had some other special people arriving.

    And with that, not only did Amazon announce their brand partnerships, they also managed to get fun chatter going on a Friday morning.

  • Interactive Avenues’ digital mandate for Too Yumm! cements a strong agency-brand partnership

    Interactive Avenues’ digital mandate for Too Yumm! cements a strong agency-brand partnership

    MUMBAI: Interactive Avenues – a Reprise Network Company has been appointed as the digital agency of India’s fastest growing snack brand, Too Yumm! earlier this year.

    IA’s mandate includes driving brand awareness, facilitating trials, and creating brand loyalists and advocates who will help evangelise Too Yumm! over other fried snacks. A 2-year old brand, Too Yumm! has already been a disruptor in product offering and brand-led campaigns in a highly competitive snack category.

    The journey began in October-November 2018 with a completely revamped website experience for the brand. 2019 kicked off with a big bang, immediately after winning the account. Too Yumm! soon moved on to a highly successful campaign during this year’s Ardh Kumbh Mela. With a seamless transition from activities on-ground to the experience online, the campaign’s tremendous response has set new benchmarks for the activities lined up for the year which started off with creating a Guinness World Record.

    The brand has also won awards for having the Best Corporate / Brand Website, Screenxx Awards, Best use of Technology, and Best use of Social Media for Brand Awareness this year, from various advertising councils.

    Talking about the association, Guiltfree Industries Ltd CMO Anupam Bokey said, “In this short span, we’ve already achieved the set benchmarks in our partnership with Interactive Avenues. With the ongoing campaigns, we’re sure that this will only grow exponentially. Both the brand and agency teams recognise the potential of the brand and our vision for it. That’s what will work in developing a very healthy and fruitful relationship in the long run.”

    Next came the Indian Premier League (IPL), our biggest sports and marketing event of the season, along with the Too Yumm! – IA partnership. Taking over all social media conversations, the agency established a strong brand-sport association while establishing a stronghold over the category. Karare Strikers, the online game, was also been developed by IA to give cricket fans a new way to engage with the brand during ongoing matches. Not just this, Indian social media witnessed a complete takeover of pre-baked snacks conversations and game-time snack partnership.

     “IA has always been a disruptor and we standout for our path-breaking, strategic innovative work that we do for our clients. With Too Yumm! We are excited and confident about taking this journey forward in delivering path-breaking results”, said Interactive Avenues – a Reprise Network Company. Reprise is the digital arm of media agency network IPG Mediabrands CEO Amardeep Singh.

    The media and OOH mandate of Too Yumm! are managed by Initiative and Rapport respectively, which are also part of IPG Mediabrands.        

    Founded in 2017, Guiltfree Industries Limited (GIL), is a part of the RP Sanjiv Goenka group’s foray into the FMCG business. RP-SG FMCG’s strategic intent is to innovate disruptively and create brands and products that are genuine and desirable to the consumers. That’s how the brand Too Yumm! Came into being. Since its inception, GIL has been growing at a break-neck pace, beating industry records. Within just two years, ‘Too Yumm!’ achieved an annual Sales Rate of INR 200 Cr – one of the fastest in the country to do so. 

  • Technology adoption makes banks lead ‘BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands’

    Technology adoption makes banks lead ‘BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands’

    MUMBAI: The slashing of corporate tax, from an effective 35 per cent to an effective 25.17 per cent, by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will translate into value increase for the brands working in the service sector, Kantar Insights Division chief client officer Vishikh Talwar told Indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of the “BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands 2019” report launch in Mumbai on Wednesday.

    He said that there is a great growth potential for the top brands in the list and he is positive that by the next year, they will come up with even better performance.

    Introducing the key findings of the report, Talwar also noted that since 2014, not many brands have been able to earn consumer trust, which is one of the key driving factors that drive the brand in the list of most valuable ones.

    He indicated that it is necessary for brands to stick to their brand purpose to gain this consumer trust. “Brand purpose is more than just advertising. It goes farther. A brand will have to be very clear about what role it is going to play in a consumer’s life. It is not just about marketing people to be working on. The entire ecosystem within the organisation should be working towards serving that purpose. Cases in point are Swiggy and Zomato. It is the whole ecosystem which has to ensure, right from all the process, each of the process, each of the people in between, all their intermediaries, will have to ensure that they are providing the convenience of service and lifting the quality of life of consumers,” he added.

    Out of 75, 12 brands in the most valuable brands list are from banking, insurance, and payment sector, including the topmost HDFC Bank. Other names include LIC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Paytm, and ICICI Prudential, among others.

    On being asked about why the category is dominating the list, Talwar said that that very simple reason for this is that all the names are great brands. “If you look at financial services in India, I think it is ahead of its counterparts in many other countries. The way they have adopted technology to serve the needs of the consumers, innovated their packages not just in terms of saving but equally in terms of loans, and how they have reached out to the end consumer, all of this comes together to make them the top brands.”

  • Bajaj Auto to use digital, on-ground activities to promote new KTM 790 Duke

    Bajaj Auto to use digital, on-ground activities to promote new KTM 790 Duke

    MUMBAI: The economic slowdown will not impact the performance of KTM 790 Duke, Bajaj Auto Ltd senior manager (probiking) Vikas Iyer told Indiantelevision.com just after the launch of the superbike in nine cities-Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Guwahati.

    He said that there are only around 2 lakh superbikes in the country right now, and the riders of those are actively willing to level up. However, the brand is providing easy ownership options to the buyers through the tie-up with Bajaj Auto Finance Ltd, keeping in mind the impact the current economy might be having on the budgets of enthusiasts. “Going ahead, we are going to have a lot of our dealerships tying up with local financial service providers as well,” Iyer revealed.

    Iyer shared that the brand will be focusing highly on digital and on-ground activation activities for the select consumer base they are planning to target. He mentioned that the brand doesn’t spend much on marketing, but the budgets are equally divided between digital and on-ground activities.

    “In three months, we will be starting off with super rides and super track dates, which are to give the customers first-hand great riding experience on roads, highways, and on tracks. We are planning to give the riders an in-depth track race sort of experience to make them understand what the 790 Duke is capable of doing. It is going to be a sort of mentoring session,” Iyer said.

    Iyer also shared that that brand has just started off with its influencer marketing activities as well to target the biking enthusiasts on social media.

    “We are interacting with influencers who are helping us create a lot of content. In fact, it (superbiking) is a space where they also are trying to venture (in a bigger, better way), and we are trying to figure out what we could do together; how we can make fans out there, better bikers,” he quipped.

    The KTM 790 Duke was launched in Mumbai on Monday. Also present at the launch was Bajaj Auto Ltd president (probiking) Sumeet Narang who indicated that the brand will soon be launching a few more products in the 200-390 cc section in the coming months.

    He also hinted towards the development of select products for the biking enthusiasts in the adventure tourism space, which might be launched in the coming 12 months in India.

  • Sony Pictures, Dentsu Webchutney bring alive Angry Birds’ islands

    Sony Pictures, Dentsu Webchutney bring alive Angry Birds’ islands

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Entertainment India has joined hands with Dentsu Webchutney to turn the virtual islands from the movie ‘Angry Birds 2’ into real ones on the most used location app in the world, Google Maps.

    In an effort to label these islands Bird, Piggy and Eagle, the agency found a set of 3 islands adjacent to each other in the same geographic formation as the islands in the movie. With over 500,000 islands estimated to be present in the oceans of the world, it took thorough research to ultimately find the perfect match. By hacking a powerful yet unexplored feature of Google maps of customizing a location by adding pictures and text-based information to a location pin, the team created a one-of-its-kind and first ever experience for the audience. A story was hidden in each of these places about the inhabitants of each island. It revealed itself in the form of highly engaging comic strip as the viewer clicked on the location along with secret coupon codes which changed daily. These codes would lead the audience to free tickets. There was also a Souvenir Store on each island that had its own opening and closing hours, from where the audience could collect free movie merchandise. 

    So, while people have played the game and watched the movie before, this time they got to live the story just like the characters in the movie.

    Sony Pictures Entertainment India director & head of marketing Shony Panjikaran said, "The challenge with Angry Birds 2 was that the game did not have the same recall as when the first instalment of the film had released. We had to find interesting ways of connecting with our target group. And the best way was to reconnect with the original gamers through such unique promotions.”

    Dentsu Webchutney executive creative director Pravin Sutar said, “In today’s world, we need to find new, different and better ways of engaging the audience with the story to market a movie. The focal point of the movie is Birds and Pigs coming together to fend off attacks from the Eagles who want to take over their island. So, we thought what if we could bring this story alive on digital and create a real experience for our users. After some research we found 3 such identical islands that were unlabeled and we turned them into Angry Birds islands.”

    Angry Birds 2 is an adventure animation comedy released in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on 23 August.