Brands
Brand Integration grows in Indian Cinema
MUMBAI: As the new Rs 200 crore club emerges in Bollywood, it’s also been a strong year for brand integrations in films. Krrish 3 has revolutionised Bollywood content with the most number of brands ever having been integrated in a film. Mates India, a well-known brand integration, film marketing and celebrity management firm, was behind weaving in five brands – Cadbury Bournvita, Flair pens, Tata Manza, Fortis Hospital and Forever Jewelry into the film. And the jobs of Sooraj and Darshana Bhalla don’t end there as post the integration; merchandising has also become an equally important marketing tool in today’s day and age.
Cadbury Bournvita for example was not only the drink consumed by Rohit in the film while he works in his science lab but as consumers we soon saw special Krrish Bournvita packs on the shelves in our grocery stores. A fly with Krrish contest was implemented which would create a direct connect with the consumer and also allow for the winners to meet Hrithik Roshan one on one if they happen to be one of the lucky winners. Such activities not only benefit the brands but also help the film maintain its shelf life beyond the first weekend. Promotions and ads around the integrated products (ex: Krrish Flair pens) keep the buzz around the film alive and hence it becomes a mutually symbiotic relationship.
Bridging the gap in this relationship is a firm like Mates, which finds the right synergies and creates opportunities for both the films as well as the brands. Talking about the changing trends, CEO Sooraj Bhalla says, “It has been amazing to see how over the years content and advertsing are seeping seamlessly into each other and providing for a great viewer experience. Krrish 3 has been a very ambitious project for brands too. The belief and the vision has paid off.” Besides Krrish, Mates has worked on integrating content in many other films such as Race 2 (Audi), Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (MakeMyTrip.com and Jabong.com), Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (Birla Sun Life Insurance), etc.
By Dolly Bhatter, publicist by profession (PR and CEO of a PR firm)
Brands
Ahmad Muneeb elevated to VP – HR centre of excellence at Zepto
MUMBAI: Zepto has elevated Ahmad Muneeb to vice president – HR centre of excellence, placing him at the helm of the company’s total rewards, executive compensation and organisational effectiveness as the quick-commerce firm powers through a high-growth phase.
The move follows his stint as senior director of the HR COE, where he played a central role in preparing the company for IPO readiness while scaling its people analytics capabilities. During this period, Muneeb helped align complex performance management structures with more streamlined and scalable employee experience frameworks.
In his new role, he will steer the design of total rewards strategies, executive compensation planning and organisational design, while also overseeing performance management, employee experience initiatives and people analytics programmes.
Before joining Zepto, Muneeb spent nearly three years at Meesho, where he held multiple rewards and HR business partner roles. Earlier in his career, he worked as a senior rewards consultant at Mercer, advising high-tech clients on compensation benchmarking, pay structures and talent-focused reward frameworks.
He began his hr journey at Cognizant, where he supported compensation programmes for nearly two lakh employees across India and worked on m&a compensation alignment and skill-based pay initiatives. Prior to moving into HR, Muneeb started his career as a software engineer at Netcracker, bringing a technical grounding to his people strategy work.
With a mix of consulting rigour, start-up agility and enterprise-scale experience, Muneeb’s elevation signals Zepto’s continued focus on building robust people systems as it races towards its next phase of growth.
Brands
Dell names Aishwarya Sudhakar director of marketing intelligence
INDIA: Dell Technologies is doubling down on artificial intelligence in marketing. The company has elevated Aishwarya Sudhakar to director of marketing measures and intelligence engineering, tasking her with building an enterprise-wide framework for AI-led measurement and customer intelligence.
In the role, Sudhakar will oversee unified data strategy, advanced modelling and context engineering: areas increasingly central to how large technology firms link marketing performance to business outcomes. Her remit includes shaping scalable systems that support Dell’s next phase of AI deployment across marketing functions.
Sudhakar steps into the position after holding a series of senior roles at Dell, including AI lead for marketing orchestration, senior manager, and senior data scientist in customer insights. Across these roles, she led global teams working on large-scale machine learning models, data pipelines and customer analytics.
Before joining Dell, she began her career at Tata Consultancy Services as a systems engineer and later founded Oclor, a shopping discovery start-up, where she built end-to-end technology platforms. The combination of enterprise-scale data work and entrepreneurial experience has shaped her focus on product-led, engineering-first innovation.
As technology companies seek sharper attribution and intelligence in an AI-saturated market, Dell’s move underscores the growing importance of marketing measurement as an engineering discipline rather than a reporting function.
Brands
Gaurav Pathak returns to Adidas in key accounts leadership role
GURUGRAM: Adidas has appointed Gaurav Pathak as director of key and field accounts, bringing back an executive who began his leadership career at the company.
In the role, Pathak will be responsible for deepening strategic partnerships and expanding key, field and export accounts, with a mandate to accelerate growth across the Indian market. The appointment marks a return to Adidas after nearly a decade across premium retail and footwear brands.
Pathak most recently served as head of retail and business development at Ecco, where he focused on partner-led growth, market risk mitigation and operational scale. Before that, he spent eight years at House of Anita Dongre Limited, rising to general manager and leading regional operations across western and southern India.
His earlier career includes a stint as regional sales manager for Karnataka at United Colors of Benetton India and a six-year run at Adidas, where he held sales leadership roles.
With competition intensifying in India’s lifestyle and footwear market, Pathak’s brief will centre on strengthening field execution while aligning large accounts with Adidas’s broader commercial priorities.
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