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Category: MAM

  • Peter England raps up Onam with Imbachi’s festive hip hop anthem

    Peter England raps up Onam with Imbachi’s festive hip hop anthem

    MUMBAI: Move over mundu monotony, this Onam has a hip hop twist. Peter England, the brand that’s long stitched confidence into Indian wardrobes, is remixing tradition with Gen Z swagger through a fresh campaign featuring Kerala’s own rapper, The Imbachi.

    At the heart of the drop is an anthem that feels more like a vibe than an ad, a mashup where the pulse of the Chendamelam meets the bounce of hip hop, turning Onam’s rhythms into something modern, vibrant, and impossible to scroll past.

    “This isn’t about scripted ads anymore; it’s about co-creating with the voices youth resonate with,” said Peter England chief business officer Anil S Kumar. He revealed that Imbachi not only performed but also wrote and composed the track, while the brand’s garments played backup as visual cues for festive style.

    For Imbachi, the collab was personal: “Onam is more than a festival, it’s a wave of memories. Waiting for new outfits was always the highlight, and fashion is still central to how we celebrate. This anthem captures that energy festive, stylish, and totally in tune with Kerala’s youth. Ee Onam, Scene Onam!”

    The track part celebration, part style statement marks Peter England’s first big step into Gen Z culture. By weaving in the authenticity of homegrown talent with fashion that goes beyond just festive rules, the campaign positions Onam as an occasion to own the moment rather than follow tradition blindly.

    “Less brand message, more cultural expression” was how Ogilvy Bangalore CCO Puneet Kapoor described the creative approach. With its beats, style, and swagger, the film doesn’t just sell clothes, it sets the stage for a new wave of brand–youth collaborations.

    And while the anthem plays loud, the message is even louder: when culture meets cool, tradition doesn’t just survive, it thrives, remixed and reimagined for a new generation.

  • PR story comes full circle as veteran pens India’s five-decade journey

    PR story comes full circle as veteran pens India’s five-decade journey

    MUMBAI: From press releases to power moves, Public Relations in India has been on quite the rollercoaster and now its story has been bound between covers. Communication veteran Ganapathy Viswanathan, who has spent over 30 years shaping brands at Ogilvy, Lintas, Mudra and Publicis, has launched a new book chronicling PR’s dramatic transformation across five decades.

    What began in the 1970s as a little-understood function has now grown into a strategic juggernaut that drives reputation, navigates crises, and even influences elections and sport. Viswanathan’s book captures this arc with real-world anecdotes and practical insights that make it both a guide for the young and a mirror for industry stalwarts.

    “PR today is about building trust, telling authentic stories, and engaging meaningfully with audiences across platforms. This book is my tribute to a profession that has the power to shape perceptions, influence decisions, and create lasting impact,” said Viswanathan at the launch.

    The chapters don’t shy away from today’s burning questions either: the talent crunch, the shifting roles of influencers and journalists, and how empathy has become as critical as strategy.

    For students, it’s a crash course in a craft that’s moved beyond “spin.” For professionals, it’s a reminder that PR is now central to boardrooms, not just newsrooms. And for India’s communication industry at large, it’s a milestone marker charting how far PR has come, and how much further it could go.

  • Mastercard clinches naming rights to McLaren Formula 1 team from 2026

    Mastercard clinches naming rights to McLaren Formula 1 team from 2026

    AMSTERDAM: Mastercard has signed a landmark naming-rights deal with McLaren Racing, under which the team will compete from 2026 as the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 team. The partnership is valued by industry observers at more than $100 million over several years, putting it among the top tier of F1 sponsorship agreements.

    The announcement was made in Amsterdam by Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s chief marketing and communications officer and founding president of its healthcare business, alongside McLaren chief executive Zak Brown and drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

    Rajamannar said the tie-up rested on shared values of innovation, performance and fan engagement. “McLaren is the number one team, and this partnership allows us to connect fans to the sport in ways never seen before,” he said.

    As part of the deal, Mastercard unveiled Team Priceless, a global fan programme aimed at bringing supporters closer to the action through behind-the-scenes access, immersive digital activations and exclusive experiences with the drivers.

    The timing is strategic. Formula 1’s popularity has surged since Liberty Media acquired the sport in 2017 for $8 billion. Global TV audiences now exceed 500 million per year, with more than 45 per cent of viewers under 35 — a demographic highly prized by brands. Social media engagement grew 23 per cent year-on-year in 2024, making F1 the fastest-growing sports property online.

    McLaren, meanwhile, has staged a revival, finishing fourth in the constructors’ championship last season and securing eight podiums. New technical regulations in 2026, including hybrid power units with 50 per cent electrical output, are expected to level the playing field — an opportunity McLaren intends to seize with fresh investment.

    For Mastercard, the move reinforces a sponsorship strategy that already spans the UEFA Champions League, the Rugby World Cup and the Australian Open. Sports partnerships account for a significant portion of its global marketing spend, estimated at over $1.7 billion annually. By attaching its name directly to an F1 team, the company is betting that the sport’s glamour and youthful audience will deliver long-term brand dividends.

  • Saumya Mittal takes charge as McDonald’s chief people officer for Asia

    Saumya Mittal takes charge as McDonald’s chief people officer for Asia

    MUMBAI: McDonald’s Corp has appointed Saumya Mittal as chief people officer for Asia, handing her the keys to one of its most critical growth markets. Mittal, who took charge this month, will oversee the end-to-end people agenda across Asia, partnering with regional leaders to sharpen talent strategy, culture and organisational design.

    She joins from Google, where she spent nearly eight years in senior HR roles, most recently as APAC commercial HR lead, steering transformational programmes across the region. Earlier, she led diversity, equity and inclusion for Google APAC and served as people partner for the region.

    Mittal cut her teeth at PepsiCo, spending a decade across plant HR, IR, talent acquisition, diversity and change management, before rising to head culture, engagement and change. Her early years as management trainee and plant HR manager gave her hands-on grounding in industrial relations and large workforce management.

    Winner of People Matters’ Are You in the List award in 2015, Mittal has also bagged multiple national and international honours during her career at PepsiCo and Google. With 15 years of experience straddling consumer goods and technology, she is expected to play a pivotal role as McDonald’s deepens its bets on Asia’s high-growth markets.

  • Festive fever goes long haul as India’s holiday season stretches nine weeks

    Festive fever goes long haul as India’s holiday season stretches nine weeks

    MUMBAI: Turns out Diwali isn’t the full stop anymore, it’s just the comma. Appsflyer’s India Festive Report 2025, based on a hefty 20.5 million installs and over 576 million dollars in ad spend, reveals that the country’s high-stakes festive season has stretched from a week-long Diwali blitz into a nine-week marathon of consumer intent.

    The numbers tell the story. Gaming apps saw post-Diwali install growth of 29 per cent, while Food and Drink apps climbed 16 per cent as celebratory cravings lingered. Travel on Android skyrocketed with a 40 per cent jump in remarketing spend, showing that the festive bug bit long after the firecrackers faded. Meanwhile, Ios Shopping apps logged a 20 per cent rise in session volumes post-Diwali, fuelled by extended discounts and gift redemptions.

    But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Fraud rates ballooned: Food and Drink apps on Ios hit 60 per cent, a 176 per cent increase while Android Entertainment fraud climbed 74 per cent, exposing how loosened controls around gifting windows can make campaigns vulnerable.

    Appsflyer GM for INSEA and ANZ Sanjay Trisal put it bluntly: “India’s festive season is no longer a one-week race to Diwali. It’s a sustained momentum period. To win, brands must pace budgets, double down on post-Diwali remarketing, and adapt strategies by platform.”

    The report also flagged missed opportunities: gaming led install growth but saw little remarketing activity, limiting retention and monetisation. Shopping apps fared better, with the top ten increasing Share of Paying Users by 32 per cent year-on-year, powered by smoother checkouts and brand trust.

    Meta’s Rishad Chindamada added that mobile is where the action is: “Full-funnel marketing, AI-driven optimisation, and channels like reels and business messaging can take brands from awareness to loyalty in this extended season.”

    For marketers, the playbook is clear:

    ●   Reallocate remarketing to the post-Diwali window, when intent is high but competition thins.

    ●   Time strategies by platform Android for long-tail gains, Ios for sharp, front-loaded pushes.

    ●   Retain beyond Day 7 with reactivation flows between Days 10–14.

    ●   Harden fraud protection during peak gifting surges.

    In short, the festive season is now less of a sprint, more of a Test match and those who play the long game stand to win big.

  • Mondelez elevates Nikhil Nicholas to global brand director of Cadbury Dairy Milk

    Mondelez elevates Nikhil Nicholas to global brand director of Cadbury Dairy Milk

    ZURICH: Mondelez International has promoted Nikhil Nicholas to global brand director of Cadbury Dairy Milk, placing him in charge of one of the confectionery giant’s most prized assets. He will be based in Zurich.

    Nicholas, who has spent more than 16 years at Mondelez, was most recently global marketing manager for Cadbury. His career has taken him across Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur and Zurich, spanning sales, innovation and category leadership. He has been closely associated with Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk and chocolate innovation in Asia-Pacific, as well as leading marketing for South East Asia.

    Starting out in customer development and sales roles in India, he steadily climbed through the ranks, moving into brand management in 2013. By 2019, he was senior marketing manager for equity and innovation in South East Asia, before taking on the region’s chocolate marketing lead. In 2023, he shifted to Zurich to handle global duties.

    The promotion cements his role as the custodian of a brand that has defined affordable indulgence for generations and remains central to Mondelez’s global chocolate portfolio.

  • RedFM names Sushant Singh Rathure deputy general manager–sales

    RedFM names Sushant Singh Rathure deputy general manager–sales

    MUMBAI: RedFM has appointed Sushant Singh Rathure as deputy general manager–sales. Based in Delhi, he will lead special projects in the north, oversee government and PSU accounts, and head the UP cluster.

    Rathure, a business growth specialist with nearly two decades in advertising sales and brand partnerships, moves from Music Broadcast Ltd, where he was associate vice-president, running RC Digital Labs and Radicity. He previously held senior roles at Bharat Media Group, Sony Pictures Networks India, Star India, and The Times of India, with a track record in driving revenues, scaling media businesses and launching new formats.

    This is Rathure’s second stint at RedFM, where he earlier led sales for the Mumbai station between 2019 and 2022. He credited RedFM’s chief operating officer, Nisha Narayanan, for the opportunity, saying her “faith and leadership” would inspire him to deliver “with greater dedication and passion.”

    A seasoned strategist with regional and national exposure, Rathure is known for building alliances, managing P&Ls, and blending creative solutions with sharp media planning. At RedFM, he returns to familiar turf, this time with a wider remit and higher stakes.

  • Diageo appoints Aanandita Datta as vp marketing and category head

    Diageo appoints Aanandita Datta as vp marketing and category head

    MUMBAI: Diageo India has named Aanandita Datta as its new vice president, marketing and category head. She moves from Pizza Hut, where she was chief marketing officer for India and the subcontinent, and before that spent nearly a decade at Unilever.

    A marketing veteran with 19 years of experience, Datta has worked across categories from oral care and foods to beverages. She launched and scaled brands such as Sensodyne and Lipton, built new categories like green tea and sensitive oral care, and led Horlicks’ major relaunch in 2010. At Pizza Hut, she drove campaigns to court young consumers and make the brand part of “young India’s daily life”.

    Datta described herself as a “storyteller with a curious mind”, saying her purpose lay in “exploring the unknown and inspiring others to do the same”. She has previously managed portfolios worth over €1.3bn, partnered with the UN and Indian government on sustainability projects, and steered both disruptive innovation and mature-brand growth.

    At Diageo, she takes charge of marketing strategy and category development in one of India’s most competitive consumer markets.

  • Nike takes a walk with Yu-Gi-Oh! for Joey Wheeler-inspired Air Max 95

    Nike takes a walk with Yu-Gi-Oh! for Joey Wheeler-inspired Air Max 95

    MUMBAI: Konami Cross Media NY and Nike have cut a deal that pulls one of anime’s most beloved universes straight into sneaker culture. The new Nike Air Max 95 QS YGO, inspired by Kazuki Takahashi’s Yu-Gi-Oh!, lands this September alongside a capsule of apparel. At its heart: Joey Wheeler—Yugi’s brash, loyal sidekick—recast as a global athlete.

    The tie-up is more than a simple branding exercise. It comes with a full-blown campaign fronted by the original English and Japanese voice actors from the anime series, blurring the line between nostalgia and contemporary fashion. For fans who grew up duelling with trading cards or glued to Toonami, the sneaker is both a collector’s item and a wearable badge of fandom.

    Konami Cross Media senior vice-president of licensing and marketing Jennifer Coleman said Nike’s handling of the project had been “extraordinary”. She credited the brand with bringing “passion, care and attention to detail” and praised its “unique vision of Yu-Gi-Oh! characters and fans as athletes”, a framing she said would “redefine how audiences connect with their favourite characters, especially Joey Wheeler.”

    Nike, never shy of myth-making, pitched the collaboration as part of its broader belief that sport is a limitless canvas. Dave Vericker, the company’s senior director of neighbourhood merchandise, said: “We didn’t invent this lore: it was born organically from the community. Through our partnership with Konami, we wanted to show love to longtime fans and inspire the next generation by bringing a beloved, mythical story to life through design.”

    The collection is built around two centrepieces: a global release of the “Joey” colourway and apparel on 12 September via Nike’s Snkrs app and select partners, and a Japan-exclusive “Jonouchi” version—named for the character’s original manga identity—dropping on the same day in local stores.

    The timing is apt. Yu-Gi-Oh! has spent more than 25 years as a fixture in global pop culture, with over 1,000 anime episodes, countless manga volumes and one of the world’s most enduring trading card games. For Nike, the collaboration is both a courtship of older millennial collectors and a way to seed loyalty among Gen Z and Gen Alpha, for whom anime has become as much a cultural touchstone as sport.

    Nike’s mission statement has long been: “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” This partnership stretches that definition further—suggesting that even duelists, strategists and manga heroes can lace up and join the ranks.

  • Parrot Analytics launches Sports Demand to put rigour into soaring media rights market

    Parrot Analytics launches Sports Demand to put rigour into soaring media rights market

    LOS ANGELES: : Parrot Analytics, the media analytics firm known for pioneering streaming valuation, has launched Sports Demand, billed as the most advanced global sports analytics system. The tool is designed to arm leagues, teams, broadcasters, streamers and sponsors with data-driven insights to navigate the fast-inflating sports rights market.

    Sports rights fees have surged in recent years, with Paramount’s $7.7 billion deal for UFC events, WWE’s $1.6 billion tie-up with ESPN, and the NFL’s equity-for-content swap with Disney underscoring the scale. Parrot says its system will allow buyers and sellers to measure fan engagement market by market, justify valuations, and extract stronger returns on investment.

    “For the first time, decision-makers can weigh the impact of acquiring a sports league against investing in scripted series or films, within a single framework,” said Parrot Analytics chief executive Wared Seger. By integrating with the firm’s Demand360 platform, Sports Demand lets clients benchmark sports against TV shows, films and on-screen talent.

    Capabilities include global fan mapping across 100 markets, integrated sports-entertainment benchmarking, empirical valuation models, content optimisation, and sponsor alignment analysis. Early adopters include leagues negotiating landmark streaming deals and operators launching direct-to-consumer sports services.

    Seger argued that in an attention economy where sports compete directly with films and television for time and spend, “rigorous, standardised data is essential.” 

    Sports Demand is now available worldwide to Parrot Analytics’ enterprise clients, with dashboard and API access for seamless integration into rights, content and sponsorship strategies.