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Brands tap into kindness & empathy, as Covid takes a toll

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Mumbai: Nothing about our lives or the world we dwell in today is like what we knew it to be, till a little more than a year ago. This is perhaps a good enough incentive for brands and advertisers to adapt to the present world – Not ignore the elephant in the room and accept the irrevocable, undeniable truth of our reality today. After all, how long can the advertising world remain oblivious to the devastating changes brought by Covid-19 all around us.

Here are some brand campaigns which have chosen to take a different route as we endure a global pandemic. They have chosen to embark on the route of empathy, kindness, and most important of all, humanity:

Facebook India | More Together Hum Aaj Ek-duusre ka saath denge, toh ek behtar kal zaroor hoga. #MoreTogether

The campaign captures the grief and sense of loss many of us have gone through because of the devastation caused by Covid. However, it does not dwell on the grief for long, portraying brilliantly how a personal tragedy can transform an ordinary person into a do-gooder. While all of us watch out for the wellbeing of our loved ones, it’s only a few special ones who look out for others- not their own. It is this extraordinary message that Facebook’s latest ‘More together’ campaign brings out poignantly while also driving in the need to vaccinate oneself and the community we live in to make a safer world. The film succeeds in conveying a sense of hope and a sense of being in this together during these bleak times.

SBI Life Insurance: SBI Life #MummyKahanHain 

The creative portrays a day in the life of a family in the new normal during the pandemic. It shows through the eyes of a child how she is initially upset to not have her working mom cater to her needs while at home, as the mother is busy working from home. For children, their mother is their sanctuary, and “#Mummy Kahan Hain” is the constant query thrown at the other members of the household if she’s missing for a moment. The heart-warming ad wonderfully depicts how during this pandemic, kids learned to adapt to ways of the new normal, and for every time that they asked #MummyKahanHain, they also realized the many hats a mother dons working from and for home. By the end, the child learns to truly understand and appreciate how a mother has an identity separate from motherhood.

Ariel’s ad of a transgender doctor Priya #MakeItPossible

Tough times never last, tough people do. Ariel’s new ad narrates the inspiring true story of Kerala’s first Transgender Doctor, V.S. Priya. Growing up in a conventional household and having lived all her life as a male, Dr. Priya took the bold and life-altering decision of embracing her feminine identity. Challenged by societal norms and stereotyped gender roles in families, she lived as a man for almost 30 years. Now, as Kerala’s first transgender doctor, she wants to be known for her work and is a beacon of hope not only for all transgendered people who want to be known for what they do but for everyone who continues to battle the odds and face impossible challenges. @Ariel India has been championing the cause of gender equality and celebrates these heroes who overcome the odds to #MakeItPossible.

TATA Steel Apno Ke Liye Aage Badho

It’s been just over a year since the pandemic changed our lives forever. While every festival that comes around brings a semblance of warmth and cheer, we need to remember the people who have lost their loved ones to this deadly nemesis. This film by TATA Steel celebrates and pays homage to the Covid warriors- those doctors and health workers who sacrificed their lives in the larger need of humanity. It reminds their loved ones to not stop living in their absence and celebrate the indomitable human spirit that fights against all odds and keeps moving ahead. 

Ashok Leyland  #AapkiJeetHamariJeet

One of the lessons the pandemic has taught us is the power and value of kindness of strangers. Ashok Leyland made a touching ad dripping with warmth, that shows how every celebration begins with caring and sharing. The film shows two people stuck up on a deserted road, with one of the person’s car breaks down. The video beautifully shows how sometimes it is important to rise to the occasion and go beyond one’s calling- purely in the name of humanity, empathy, and compassion. The underlying message being ‘Let us together spread positivity and goodwill.’ 

Colgate – Smiles always find a way

To sign off, here is a brilliant but simple concept by a brand that sells its product by displaying models with gorgeous smiles with the perfect set of teeth. However, in this International print ad, the brand chooses to demonstrate how truly warm smiles do not always need a perfect set of teeth. That, in fact, one can smile most warmly even by having a mask cover one’s face – the smile will find it through one’s eyes. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, face masks have become a part and parcel of our everyday lives. Gradually, we have got used to living with our smiles hidden behind a piece of cloth. But this Colgate print campaign, conceptualized by French agency VMLY&R, brilliantly conveys how you don’t need to see a smile to feel it. That a smile is more than just a curve- it’s a way of standing up and dealing with the adversities life throws at you. “Smiles always find a way”

Brands have an opportunity to shape a better, more accepting, and humane world and ads such as these hit us at a deeper level to be so. They go beyond mere advertising. And every effort accelerates a change, one step at a time. 

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.

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.

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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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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