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Changing the branding game

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MUMBAI: Britain based brand consultancy Wolff Olins has released a report titled ‘Game Changers’ that talks about the five behaviours that are changing the future of the business.

Conducted across 500 people and 14 countries, the study examines today’s high-growth businesses and tries to understand what sets them apart. It also explores how some companies like Tata, Unilever, Hero, Adani, Ashok Leyland, Google, Skype, General Electronics, Microsoft and Tata Docomo are changing the way the game is played and thereby shaping the future of business.

The Game Changers report talk about how five laws of branding have been morphed to cater to the contemporary paradigm based on five new realities based on the consumer-brand relationship.

While according to the old methods of branding ‘the mission of branding is to defend a positioning’, the new law states that a brand needs to ‘define its purpose beyond profit.’ This new definition is based on the reality that there is a shift in attidues from businesses being ‘corporate citadels’ to becoming ‘corporate citizens’. The Edelman Good Purpose study conducted in 2010 also revealed that 86 per cent global citizens gave equal importance to the business interests of a company and it contribution to the society.

Similarly, the role of branding in persuasion is also changing. While earlier branding was meant to persuade people to buy the product/service, the present day TG has transformed into a creator from his role as a consumer. According to the Game Changers study, 25 per cent of leaders believe that the the company’s usefulness is more important than the growth factor while 40 per cent believe in offering consumers flexibility and personalization options in order to be more useful to them.

In other words, the thrust has shifted from making people want things to making things people want. Thus, from a persuasion tool, the focus is now on making the brand a useful platform where people can come and do things and interact.

The third guideline of branding that is now seen as obsolete is ‘the essence of branding Is consistency.’ The new reality is that brands are now changing from steady state to constant revolution. The study also states that the developing markets are more adventurous when it comes to experimentation. Thirty four per cent Asian market leaders are confident that experimenting with the brand will result in growth.

Take for example Google. The search engine’s homepage is in a state of flux as the ‘Google doodle’ changes from time to time to commemorate events, remember people and celebrate occasions. A similar thing is observed in case of retail as a tweak in the store design or the brand communication is sure to grab eyeballs and initiate conversations about the brand. The new law, thus, states, ‘use your brand to constantly innovate.’

The fourth postulate of branding that has evolved through time deals with ownership. The old concept of ownership of brand stated that branding is about asserting ownership. The new age branding mantra, however, reads, ‘share your brand and be boundayless.’

This shift can be attributed to the fact that brands are increasingly adopting the constellation model of organization from the corporate model. Be it Amazon or the Android technology, these companies are made of clusters of small to medium sized entrepreneurs who are also users and the combined efforts of these entities make the brand strong. The survey states that highly networked enterprises have 50 per cent more chances of gaining market share as opposed to their less networked competitors and also report higher profit margins.

Lastly, the idea of controlling the brand is becoming disregarded with speed. The evolved notion with regards to control of the brand is that creativity is more important than strategy. Fifty four per cent of CEOs said that creating new business models is a priority in their company’s innovation portfolios. This model is already followed by the likes of microblogging site Twitter and Lego. In case of the former, many features on the site have been developed by users. Hence, the new law with regards to controlling the brand is to use it to inspire new ways to be value creative.

In summary, the old concept of using a brand for positioning, persuasion, consistency, ownership and control is now being replaced by making it purposeful, useful, experimental, boundaryless and value-creative. In other words, many terms related to branding will see a sea change. For example has been has become could be, differentiation is being replaced by relevance, positioning has taken a back seat and the role a brand plays in the society has take center stage and cost is secondary and value is important.

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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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